Hero Internships were slated to begin the day after tomorrow for a week-long period. A major turning point in any aspirant Hero's young lives.
However, before the students of 1-A were to be loosed upon Japan, it was decided that, with the recent addition to the class, 1-A would undergo one additional exercise for Hero Basic Training before the internships began.
Nothing too intensive that anyone would be injured pre-internship, but loosened-up enough after the break that the rust would be shaken off.
While Genki was getting over all the weirdness that was his first lunch period as part of the Hero Course, his [Vibration Sensing] sub-Quirk picked up hasty footsteps coming from the hallway. There wasn't any sort of attempt to hide their coming, and the footsteps themselves were ostentatious, almost violent, as they made a beeline for the door, which swung open a moment later.
"I have… COME THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" All Might announced boldly as he thrust himself into the room, clad in his Silver-Age costume.
'I don't think it counts as 'normal' if you have to announce it,' Genki hummed to himself quietly, whereas everyone went ga-ga over the No.1 Hero like they'd never seen him before.
"Gokiburi-kun, since this is your first time here-"
"I know how this works. My mom was an alumnus, so you don't need to set time aside to explain it to me," Genki waved off. "Since your time is valuable, I assume you'd appreciate the fact that I'm already up-to-speed on the subject. Anything else I need to know, Iida-senpai can fill me in on."
"Ah… well… Yes, that is true…" All Might admitted, unused to being left flat-footed like this. "Moving on! Today's activity will be… THIS!"
CAPTURE THE FLAG
"Uooooh!"
"Capture the flag?"
"That's a new one!"
"What's the twist?" the students of 1-A asked.
"To put it simply, it'll be like the games of Capture the Flag you played in middle school, but with the added caveat of being able to use your Quirks, but additional rules will be explained on site," All Might replied. "For this exercise, we'll be using Training Ground Beta, so all of you get your costumes together and LET'S GO!"
With a press of his remote, four glass-lined shelves suddenly slid out of the walls, each one containing five numbered metal briefcases.
As everyone scrambled to get their briefcases, Genki decided to hang back. His briefcase would still be there after a minute or two, and it'd be a lot less of a hassle to get to it if he didn't have to fight a crowd.
"Ah, Yaoyarozu-senpai, you're waiting too?" Genki asked.
"Yes. Our costumes will still be there, even if we wait for them," the ravenette admitted.
"Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing," he nodded.
"So… How are you acclimating to Class 1-A?" Momo asked.
"Well, I'm still getting used to the fact that 'I am here', but all in all, everyone's been very nice; barring a few exceptions," he sighed glancing Bakugou's way before turning his gaze back to Momo. "I know I'm a little behind, and that I'm late to the races, but I promise to do my very best all day every day, so please take care of me, Yaoyarozu-senpai," he said bowing at the waist.
"H-Hai, I'll be sure to help you out any way I can," Momo replied, unused to the deferential tone she was receiving. "Though to be fair, I don't at all miss whom you have replaced."
"Once again, my apologies for taking him into the second round," Genki apologized, hands clapped together.
"It's alright. Watching you kick him that way… was more satisfying than I'd normally be willing to admit," Momo returned, the two stepping forward to collect their costumes a moment later.
"Oh trust me, Mineta is far from the first pervert I've kicked into next week," Genki chuckled jovially.
*MHA*
By the time Genki got to the locker room, the others who had been changing in and out of their costumes for longer had already come and gone, leaving him largely alone as he got changed into his own costume. Since there was still time before the exercise, he gave the User's Manual a good once-over, years of introverted study -as well as the nature of his own Quirk's secondary biological factors- making him a quick fast-reader. Mei's manuals were less formalized, but nonetheless helpful, and you could almost feel the eccentric girl's zeal in the thrown-together manual for her own Support Items.
Satisfied that he had a firm understanding of how his new costume worked, the teen stripped down to the speedo-style trunks he wore in lieu of underwear, before getting into costume.
A few minutes later and Genki rushed toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Coming out into the afternoon sun, he was greeted to the sight of all his peers in their costumes, each one tailor-made by a support company whose expertise lied in the unique and varied needs of their clients'.
Genki's own was no different.
Accommodating for his wings and elytra, his upper body was clad in a backless skin-tight turtleneck-style tank top that left his midriff exposed and synched snugly across the small of his back, the coloring dark brown with splotches of black and lighter brown spread across it. In contrast to the skin-tight nature of his shirt, the shorts he wore, synched tightly around the waist with a matching utility belt, were wide-legged that stopped at the knees, featuring the same "splotchy" color scheme as the upper half of his costume. His elbows, knees, forearms, and shins were clad in stylized protective gear like those worn by motorcyclists, shiny dark-brown with black trim, the lack of armor anywhere else sacrificing durability for speed and maneuverability while still giving him some form of protection in the event he had to tuck-and-roll. On his hands he wore tight fingerless gloves with nozzles on his palms and reinforced knuckles, while around his ankles he had black "ninja sandals" that wrapped around his feet and ankles, his toes and heels left exposed with perforations in the soles that would allow him to release his Goki Oil Flow from the bottoms of his feet.
In terms of Support Items, his custom-tooled Custom Leg Parts, colored the same shiny dark-brown as the rest of his costume, were sleeker in design than the ones he and Iida used during the Sports Festival, custom-made to his own leg-length and kinesthetic needs in mind. He also had the five-shot Capture Gun hanging from his hip like a six-shooter, a little something extra Mei had slipped in while Power Loader was finalizing the delivery of his costume itself that afternoon.
Even at this very moment, Mei was working on miniaturizing the tech in her Auto-Balancer and re-working it to work in conjunction with his elytra in the event he needed to whip out his wings for anything; though apparently the soonest she'd have that complete, by her own estimates at least, was after the week-long Internships.
Hopefully things wouldn't get so-crazy that he'd need something like that. They were useful to be sure, but he learned to make due without them before.
"Uwa! Genki-san! Your costume's so loose and airy!" Ochako giggled as his shorts flapped in the wind.
"And yours has the exact opposite problem," Genki replied good-naturedly as he gave her a passive once-over.
All things considered, hers could be passed for a tight-fitting swimsuit.
"Ugh, don't remind me…" Ochako slumped.
"Well, if anything, as long as you're in great shape, a skintight costume will help cultivate that fanbase, and the bigger the fanbase…" he said raising her up, bringing that smile back to her face.
"The more money I can send back to my family," the brunette admitted. "That or a nicer vacation to Hawaii!" she said with a beaming smile.
"That's the ticket!" Genki said giving his neighbor a thumbs-up.
Back when they were eating dinner together, Ochako's own reason for being a Hero just… came up. Of course, Genki didn't disparage her motivations for becoming a Hero; not when so many people aimed to become Heroes for purely self-centered reasons.
Like accumulating as much material wealth as fiscally possible for no other reason than making themselves "filthy stinking rich"; an aspiration many of his peers from middle school were quite vocal and shameless about.
There were of course those that wanted to use the capital that came with being a Hero to form their own harems as a way of quote/unquote "fighting the declining birth rate", but people with that goal in mind kept it much closer to the vest than those in it purely for the money and fame.
"Oh! And it looks like you're wearing those things from the Cavalry Battle?" the brunette asked turning to the Support Items on his legs. "Wait, did they always look like that?" she hummed noticing the difference.
While the ones from before were straight-angled and utilitarian so anyone could use them, these had been modified to conform directly to the contours of his body, putting less stress on both his legs and the support equipment itself.
"Ah, well, Mei-chan custom-tooled these custom Custom Leg Parts out of carbon fiber and CNTs," Genki answered. There was also a bunch of techno-babble of Mei's he didn't understand, but he wouldn't bore her with the details. "Apparently one of her friends from the Support Course has a Quirk that lets him make them after eating Carbon, though I'm told the start and end of the process is… less than pleasant," he cringed.
Mei had given him way too much information on that front.
"However, because they're made of high-end materials unlike the prototype from the Sports Festival, not only are they lighter, but they can also cope with my max speed for extended periods, and my acceleration has been raised quite significantly," he said with a smile as he did some leg stretches. "I feel like a real Hero now."
"Well, you most-certainly look the part," Iida said striding towards them. "I am glad that you were able to get your costume together on such short notice. Though I have to ask, why is there that… splotchy pattern across your chest and pants?"
"You mean the camouflage?" Genki asked as he looked down at himself. "Apparently it's the trademark of my costume's designer. The instruction manual said it was made extra hydrophobic so my [Oilpiration]'s secretions wouldn't stick to it. It also breathes very well, so I can even use the spiracles my costume covers, which is pretty amazing when you think about it."
"Hey, I think the two of us might actually have the same designer!" Mina realized as she looked him over, pointing between the camouflage patterns of their respective costumes.
"Maybe, only in my case, mine actually works like camouflage. Yours looks like someone tossed a firecracker into a can of neon paint," Genki said with a chuckle.
"Well you don't have to be mean about it," Mina pouted, poking her fingers together.
"Sorry, I couldn't help myself," Genki chuckled nervously as he unclipped a mask from the back of his belt, juggling it in his hands. Like the rest of his costume, it was color-coordinated to match the rest of it, minus the camouflage trademark. It was sleek and aerodynamic, covering his face down to his chin and sweeping over his head to cover his hair, while set into the front were large green compound eyes not unlike those of the Kamen Riders of yore. Drilled into the top were holes he could poke his antennae through, and they were prehensile-enough that he could pull them back in if the need arose.
"Cool mask," Mina hummed. "Not sure about the bug-eyes though," she said giving the large lenses a tap, a set of black eyelids almost clamping down mechanically around her finger with a *snap*. "Eyah! What the-"
"The instruction manual said this mask came with closing eyelids that activate in response to stains on the primary lensing and function like windshield wipers. Real handy for speed-type Heroes who have to deal with bug strike, or god forbid bird strike," he hummed.
There was also drone strike, but one of those hadn't happened in quite a while after the incapacitations and/or deaths of many young Heroes forced governments to take the threat of drone technology seriously.
Or rather, dust off the books and make serious changes in the legislation surrounding them since Quirks became a thing.
Back in the age of the Corporate Hero, a lot of money was made and lost in Hero-related lawsuits, and when drone strike got in the way of Hero TV, let's just say there was as much green spilling out as there was red.
"They're also designed to be super-emotive in response to contractions in my facial muscles, a big plus in any post-fight interview for a Hero whose face can be on the… plain side," he said scratching his armored cheek.
His Onee-samas only considered him "cute" on the merit that he was "small" and "baby-faced" when they first met him, and the hype built up around him by the older idols made the newer ones treat him similarly due to enforced bias and meme.
"Wow, you really thought of everything, didn't you?" Mina asked as his "eyes" went through varying expressions.
"In this line of work, you have to," Genki said with a nod. "Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?" he quoted in a deep voice.
"Oh! So cool!" Izuku awed as the mask's eyelids emoted into a narrow-eyed glare. "What else can they do?" he asked excitedly.
"According to the instruction manual, they have auto-polarizing lenses to respond to sudden changes in brightness, low-light visibility augmentation, and even infared," he said tapping a button on his mask, the world around him shifting to technicolor shades of blues and greens for cold, and reds and yellows for hot as he swept over his peers' outfits. The exposed parts of their bodies were warm, their costumes cooler, and- " . . . Holy crap she's NAAAKED!" he suddenly shrieked.
"Eyaah! Don't look!" Toru cried as she draped an arm across her chest and groin.
In context, it was only her groin that was hidden because of the glove.
"Sorry! Sorry! It's just… Why are you actually naked?! Couldn't you just wear a transparent costume!?" Genki asked frantically as his mask's eyelids clamped themselves shut, hands splayed over them for good measure.
"I-I wanted that, but when I got the costume you could still see me so…" the invisible girl explained frantically.
"And all of you! How can you guys be so nonchalant about this?!" Genki asked his new peers who weren't weirded out by this in the slightest.
"Well… In a weird way you kinda get used to it," Ojiro replied with a scratch to his cheek.
" . . . HOW?! HOW CAN YOU GET USED TO THAT!?" Genki cried.
He'd assumed the reason Toru went topless during the Cavalry Battle was explicitly because she didn't have her costume. But to realize that her actual costume was almost no costume AT ALL was…
"It's best not to think about it," Ojiro said with as straight a face as he could with a nearly-naked teenage girl standing next to him.
"Well at least I don't have to worry about Mineta looking at me anymore," the invisible girl said positively.
" . . . It's melting. I can literally feel my brain melting right now," Genki said with a completely flat expression, his mask's upper eyelids half-drooped and parallel to the ground.
"Like I said," Ojiro said placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's best not to think about it."
"Gokiburi-kun! You're looking very sleek and shiny!" All Might greeted as he swooped in. "You uh… You seem disturbed by something."
"Did you know that girl over there is stark naked?!"
"NANIIIIIII!?" the Symbol of Peace yelped in a rather undignified fashion, his face a rictus of shock and horror.
"I said don't look!" Toru cried with renewed embarrassment.
"I thought you were just wearing a really transparent costume!" All Might yelped as he whirled around in the opposite direction. "Does that mean during all our exercises, you've been streaking?!"
"Yes, sensei. From what I understand, she has been and will probably continue to be stark naked."
"Stop saying 'naked'!" Toru cried.
"Then wear a cape or something! Seriously, how are you not cold?!" Genki shrieked back.
*MHA*
"Ahem… Moving on…" All Might said awkwardly as he glanced away from the girl he now knew was-in-fact "streaking". "With interns coming up in a couple days, we decided to give you a light workout that would still be stimulating in nature, but minimize the risk of any injury that'd hamper your learning experience out of Yuuei. Hence, we decided on a rousing game of Capture the Flag!" he proclaimed as he gestured to a circular pedestal situated in the middle of the street behind him; mounted in the center of which was a six-foot-tall flagpole with a red triangle of cloth featuring the Yuuei emblem. "The rules are simple. Each team will comprise of ten members with one out of each serving as the captain. Your objective is to seize your enemy's flag while returning to your own camp, and you can only handle your own flag once it's been removed from the pedestal, so no hiding it. As with our previous exercises, you'll be using Capture Tape to 'incapacitate' your opponents. Your team loses when your flag has either been whisked away to the enemy camp three times over, all members of your team have been captured, or your own captain becomes a casualty. Any questions?"
"Yes! Who will be on each team?" Iida asked.
"Well that's what we're here to find out!" All Might announced as he drew a ballot box from… somewhere. "Teams will be divided between Reds and Blues, and the Captains will be decided by whoever has the gold star! Come now, we don't have all day!" he said jostling the contents of the box, the students lining up.
To Be Continued…