superpierce: Good chapter was, Expecting to see Machio showing off but I guess he would've just stolen the show by making what was left of the chapter into a muscle training video.

Re: Yeah… You'll just have to settle for a cameo. Also, his ability to go from "Jumpsuit Hottie" to "Macho Gorilla" being so eerily-similar to All Might's own [Muscle] Quirk before he got [One for All], made me want to have them side-by-side even more. Sure, Danberu Nan-Kiro Moteru? aka "How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?" lit "How Many Kilograms of Dumbbell Can You Lift?" is a little more comedy and fanservice-based of the sports manga/anime, but its pretty funny, though the manga has more erotic posing.
Where was I going with this?

LoamyCoffee: *Blinks* Praise be to you! As you continue reel me in with the madness.
At first glance, it looks like Kaminari got a good internship while the other three got the short end and will have a bit of a grudge towards Genki. Not like he didn't give warning but I also feel that this will be good for them and it will make them even better. Cause if I'm honest, out of the four in canon, Kaminari and Ashido are the only ones that have changed. Only in fanfics, have I seen actual improvement in Sero and Sato.
Thus I'm eager to see how they will change.

Re: Yeah, there's a bit of a disparity between Kaminari and some of the other internships. Sero probably has it as-easy as him, though Alice's teaching style might be equally brain-melting. As for any potential grudges, given Genki trained with all of them, well… At the very least they can try~ But yes, giving some of 1-A a chance to get better, even if the "training from hell" does wear down the mileage, it's not like they aren't in a dangerous occupation to begin with. Tsuyu's for example had a good amount of danger to it, and made for some great character development that I wanted to spread around. Plus it gave me the chance to work in some really fun crossovers.
MHA, at least manga-wise, is definitely rife with references.

OmniUIShaggy: Boy! The internships Genki recommended to his classmates are no jokes. They're absolute business, example being Kabutomushi for Rikido Sato.

Re: Thankfully, Caterpillar gave me plenty of material to work with in that regard. Her dialogue was almost word-for-word from a flashback, even down to the military cosplay; no seriously, in Arachnid, Caterpillar, and I assume Blattodea all, Kabutomushi is a major cosplayer.

Zeromk7: I have read the whole story in 2 days and i have to say its very well writed. I had some doubts at the start cause It looked like you wanted put a Op character that can defeat every enemy but After ready some of the latest chapters, where he explain he was trained at home, i have to say im starting to like this story a lot. Yes, i would like to see Goki lose against someone for story sakes so he can raise from his defeat, stronger and not being invincible, but im liking where the story Is going. Keep going, man. (P.S. Sorry for my bad english. Im still learning It)

Re: Always glad to hear when people binge-read, because it lets me know it's good-enough not to be "put down". As for Genki seeming "OP", that was only because his Quirk was uniquely-suited for the rigors of the Sports Festival; in context of the Entrance Exam, and he didn't have the "same amount of" "stopping power". The concept of Quirk Reinforcement was a big part of Genki's character design because by DEFAULT, the Mutant-Type Quirk [Gokiburi] isn't all that strong, but by TRAINING it, he could "hyper exaggerate" the cockroach's secretion of oil through pores and air through spiracles into something truly powerful. As for Genki losing a fight so he doesn't seem "invincible", I have something like that in the works for later on, it's just a matter of the appropriate SETTING so it doesn't seem "shoehorned" in as a hand-wave.

skinnydude911: It's nice to see the touch up on how everyone else is doing with their internships. I feel bad about Mina taking a beating like that, but maybe this would be good for her skills. She should be lucky it wasn't a Kamen Rider's Rider Kick she got hit by, their kicking powers range from (from what I could find) around 5 tons to 120 tons of force... according to their stats.
It was good to see Genki give a warning to Sero and see Rikido's agency be sponsored and work with a gym. Am I crazy or did I see a How Heavy Are Those Dumbbells You Lift reference and cameo?
Either way, this is great world building.

Re: Most of the class were lucky to get a screenshot, but since Genki pulled strings to get 4 of his peers better Internships with Agencies that are normally closed, it creates interesting opportunities for crossovers and changing up the Canon, even if only a little bit. Mina's beating was a little harsh, but she did try to strip Hibiki-san otouto on national television.
I think Sero's transformation will be the most-drastic, possibly. As for Rikido's agency, it was one part "Danberu", another "Arachnid" where Kabutomushi-sama has her own Agency.
It gave me a great opportunity for worldbuilding.

*MHA*

The following morning at Quirk Reinforcement Training, as Genki was meditating in his reverse dunk tank, nose plugged and training the spiracles on his lower extremities, he consciously fought the reflex compelling the human part of his DNA to pull its face-holes above the water so he wouldn't drown. As long as he had a sufficient amount of exposed skin above the water he couldn't drown, so in actuality he was fighting off the principle of the thing.

And as an added bonus, waterboarding wouldn't work on him by the time the week was out.

'Oh shit, I should've warned Mina and Rikido about that…!' he thought idly to himself, since waterboarding was one of the most-common ways low-end Villains used to break low-end Heroes, and was one of the means the hardcore Hero Agencies trained their Interns. 'Oh well. They'll find out in due time.'

*Tap*Tap*

*Tap*Tap*Tap*

*Tap*Tap*Tap*Tap*Tap*Tap*Tap!*

'Hm?'

Genki blinking his eyes open in the water, the familiar manic grin and crosshair-shaped pupils that greeted him through the eye-level window caused him to let out a startled- "BWAAAH!" -like a certain Chinese martial artist with his own cartoon series.

The deadman switch falling from his hand, he was swiftly hauled out of the water by his training apparatus, the teen coughing and sputtering as Mei greeted him with an enthusiastic wave.

"Hi there, Genki-sama!" she said bombastically, drawing eyes from around the clearing.

"M-Mei-chan?! What're you doing here?" Genki asked as he unhooked himself and leapt to the ground.

"Visiting my golden goose. Loved the advertisement you did by the way! My brand is totally trending on FaceBook!" she said with a beaming smile.

"Well… I'm glad I could be of such service…" Genki hummed in turn.

"Also!" she said reaching into the large burlap sack slung across her shoulders. "I come bearing gifts! Ta-da!" she crooned, presenting what looked like a stylized hydration pack with a leaf blower-style nozzle on the end. And for some reason the hydration pack had a skinny robot arm attached.

"What… is that?" Genki asked since the nozzle looked awkward as hell to put his lips around.

"It's my brand-new Mochi Gun! Did some tweaking to my Riot Foam Gun after the Sports Festival after reviewing how-effective Grape-Midget's Quirk was!" she said unashamedly forgetting Mineta's name.

"Huh… Neat…" Genki hummed aloud, glad he wasn't expected to drink from the thing. "I know that Capture Weapons are always good, but you do remember me saying I preferred the Leg Parts, right?"

"Yeah, but that was just a choice between the Leg Parts or the Auto-Balancer, and I hit a breakthrough with the Mochi Gun, so here you go!" she said shoving the device and a manual into his arms.

"Oh, well… Thank you," Genki nodded. "So what're you going to do now? Aren't you a little far off the reservation?"

"Don't worry about me, I did say I came bearing gifts, didn't I?" she asked before splaying the burlap sack wide into a tarp. "COME ONE, COME ALL! HATSUME MEI OF THE YUUEI SPORTS FESTIVAL HAS GOT A DEAL FOR YOU!"

"Hold on, how'd you even find me? Did you sneak a tracker into my Costume?!"

"No, of course not, don't be ridiculous."

"Oh thank Kami."

"Your mother asked me to, so I installed it while no-one was looking in a completely-official capacity!"

"Yeah, I should've expected as much…" Genki admitted. "Well… have fun, I guess," he said as Mei began soliciting the attention of the other interns.

*MHA*

While Genki read through the Mochi Gun's manual, a test-firing revealing it did-in-fact fire spherical globules of riot foam with extremely-adhesive properties, Hatsume did her Used Car Salesman/Mad Scientist bit and hocked her wares at the color-coded ninjas in the training ground around them.

For Ninja Violet aka Kana, Hatsume offered a "Spymaster" wristwatch with knockout gas, a garotte, and apparently a laser; the perfect multi-purpose tool for someone whose Support Items had to be incredibly light without losing out on functionality.

For Ninja Cobalt, she offered a personal airbag system, front and back, that would stop him from busting his head open on a concrete curbside whenever he "jumped ship" to possess another body; that way he wouldn't have to take the time to sit down before using his Quirk and could just point-and-shoot.

For Ninja Red, a high-powered slingshot made with space-age polymers, equipped with a laser sight that could launch detritus faster than the un-Quirk-augmented human arm could ever hope to throw. Since there was a delay on when his [Object Gigantification] occurred, the weapon was perfect for him because he only had to maintain brief skin contact with the item in question before firing and it "gigantified" mid-flight.

And for those she didn't have the perfect gear to provide, Mei just tried to hock whatever she had on them regardless of whether or not it went with their Quirks…

So yeah, more of the same.

*MHA*

Ninja Violet, Cobalt, and Red had all left Hatsume's "garage sale" of Support Items feeling pretty good about themselves, since all they had to do was promote the HatsuMei brand whenever they used her gear to perform a takedown. The others… Well…

Genki knew that Mei-chan was "a bit much" at times, but he didn't think his peers would be so scared of her manic energy.

Eventually, Mei was chased off the premises because apparently she'd snuck past the agency's security net, and the time for patrol had arrived. Everyone drew straws once-again, and this time around, Genki found himself partnered with Ninja Green, who unlike Kana refused to divulge his name while they patrolled.

Genki for his part was taking the patrol seriously, and a few people out in the crowd even recognized him from the days prior since his costume gave off a loose "Kamen Rider" type vibe. However, something that was proving irksome was how Ninja Green was loudly smacking his lips as he stuffed his face, possibly out of spite, though Genki couldn't just call him out on it as a junior at the agency.

'Kami, if you're listening, give me a distraction from this slob stuffing his gaping hole,' Genki prayed.

*WHASH!*

"KYAAA! A HIT AND RUN!" someone wailed down the street as a speedy red number from overseas, all smooth lines and curved edges, pulled away from a crumpled body on the ground.

'NOT MY FAULT! ANYONE'S PRAYER COULD'VE TRIGGERED THAT!' Genki thought hastily before he broke off into a sprint. Tapping a set of buttons on the side of his helmet, he quickly used his helmet's camera to capture a high-res image of the offending license plate before keying into the communicator frequency to Edgeshot's support staff. "I'm responding to a hit-and-run and verified the plate information. Please advise."

"Edgeshot has been called over to another city and won't be back in a timely manner," the coordinator at Edgeshot's agency returned. "You've been given authorization to act as you see fit; provided doing so minimalizes collateral damage."

"I understand. Genkiburi, out," he answered, shutting off the line and refocusing his attention as the sports car tried to shake him. "Heh. Guess this [Mochi Gun] will be getting a live fire test sooner than expected."

Reaching around to his back, the mini manipulator arm attached to the fluid tank grabbed onto the nozzle before passing it into his hand, a safety strap locking around his wrist while the bottom half of the chemical pouch beginning to gurgle.

"Please don't explode while you're on my back…" Genki muttered before shooting off and passing the speeding car. "PULL OVER! THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!"

The driver in turn tried to run him over, only for Genki to pour it on, staying out of reach.

"Fine! You asked for it!"

Jinking to the right and slipping behind the car, Genki leveled his Mochi Gun and fired a round into each muffler, the sticky white globules of riot foam gumming up the exhaust. It took a couple of seconds, but jamming up the tailpipes deprived the engine block of fresh air, causing it to stall and bring the speeding car to a slow. The driver was clearly infuriated, slamming his foot on the gas, but overseas mechanical engineering proved no match for Hatsume's.

Quickly speeding back to the front of the car, he felt the air that the bullet displaced before his eyes took notice of the shattering glass, years of training and mastery of his own Quirk allowing him to jink to the side and avoid the bullet without losing stride.

"You're only making it worse for yourself!" Genki said as he leveled the Mochi Gun at the windshield, changing the viscosity with a flick of his thumb and spraying the window over, blinding the trigger-happy hit-and-runner. "The hit-and-runner has discharged a firearm in a populated area! I'm moving in to apprehend!"

Blitzing forward once again into a clear area, he quickly zig-zagged across the width of the street, spraying lines of sticky riot foam across the ground. On the first couple of lines, chunks of the speeding car's tires were torn away, sparks from the undercarriage flying before it slid across more riot foam, quickly screeching to a stop, thick smoke billowing out from under the hood.

A moment later and the door was kicked open, the driver, a gaudy blond American stereotype with an utterly ridiculous V-shaped build and chicken legs, coughed up smoke before he made a break for it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were-"

*Splat*

"-you…" Genki deadpanned as the hit-and-runner stepped right into a line of riot foam. The man wrenched his foot free, leaving his shoe behind as he continued to escape. He tried to level his gun at Genki as he ran, but the teeen launched another "Mochi", smothering the gun and adhering it to his hand.

The foreigner letting out an expletive, before he could run any further a large green shadow careened into him with a meaty *THUD* and pinned him to a wall. The large green ball peeling away, Ninja Green laughed haughtily as he deflated.

"Ha! Looks like the newbie missed a spot! But don't worry, your senpai is more than capable of cleaning up your mess!"

"You uh… You might want to turn around."

Ninja Green blinking his eyes, looked down at himself to see that the man's gummed-up hand had stuck itself to his chest, the foreigner's dangling body angled so that his face had landed right in the HIT's crotch.

In short, a PR disaster; made doubly-worse by the fact that a bystander had gotten a picture of Ninja Green with his fists on his hips.

It took American Heroes decades to get their rep out of the gutter after multiple of their number had gotten caught extorting blowjobs from criminal suspects.

*MHA*

Since there wasn't any explicit obligation on Genki's part to run collateral damage for peers "extorting blow jobs" from criminals, after giving his testimony to the police regarding the incident as well as a formula for the solvent needed to dissolve his riot foam, he was quick to leave his obnoxious peer behind.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the fat bastard smacking his lips as-loudly-as-possible while they patrolled.

That would be immature and petty.

Shut up. Stop judging him.

Oh, Ninja Green made a valiant effort to catch up to him, and he was surprisingly-fit for a guy of his size, but when it came to traversing an urban environment, you couldn't really compete with a guy who could squeeze between buildings as long as he could fit his helmet.

Other than the occasional purse-snatching which was stopped by a handy neck-chop or a well-timed judo throw into a nearby trash receptacle, and Genki's third day on the job went relatively well.

The only thing that really stuck out about the evening was how, during his dinner break, he received a text message from Midoriya. For some reason however, it only included his then-present location; a back-alley in the middle of Hosu Ward in Tokyo.

On the one hand, it could've been a butt-dial, and thus there was no need to be concerned.

On the other, even if it was an SOS, it was a four-and-a-half hour train ride between Iga and Hosu. Thus even at top speed, assuming that nothing got in his way as he made a straight-shot across the Japanese countryside, whatever Izuku was calling about would've already transpired and been resolved well before he could arrive.

For the sake of his mental health, he chose to believe it was a butt dial until he was told otherwise.

*MHA*

The following morning he was told otherwise.

At breakfast, Kana pulled him aside and showed him a news feed from the events of the previous night. The reason this was important to him was because three of his classmates were involved; Tenya Iida, Izuku Midoriya, and Shoto Todoroki. Apparently, amidst an attack perpetrated by Artificial Humans aka "Noumu", Stain attempted to kill a low-ranking Hero by the name of Native, and his peers had gotten involved one after the other until Endeavor swooped in to save the day.

A quick text to Midoriya confirmed his classmates were in fact alive and kicking. After ascertaining that his neighbor was having a good time and learning from her mentor-for-the-week, he pulled up Kaminari, Ashido, Sero, and Sato, only to decide against it at the last minute.

If they wanted to converse with him, they'd have reached out to him prior, and hey! For all he knew they were all having a great time, not just Kaminari!

One could only hope…

Tsu-chan looked cute as always, but since Kana could've been hovering over his shoulder when she was out of eyeshot, he decided to appreciate his classmate for the socially-acceptable three-second burst before returning to his own obligations.

That being said, the flavor of his traditional Japanese breakfast (aka "breakfast" in Japan) was marred by the knowledge that his classmates had been going up against Hero Killer: Stain, and he hadn't even made the attempt to run off and help them.

Before he could delve too far into his "shame spiral" however, another quote of his mother's came to mind, almost like she were renting office space back there.

"The hardest thing for any Hero to accept is that you can't always 'be there'. Sometimes your Quirk might be perfect for subduing a certain Villain, but if they're on the opposite side of Japan from you, even if you break every traffic law in the attempt to get there, if the fighting is already over by the time you've arrived, all you'll have done is forsaken those you could've saved in the meantime, in the attempt to save someone you reasonably couldn't."

And she was right of course. All Might may've been the No.1 Hero, but even he couldn't 'be everywhere', and definitely couldn't 'save everyone'. It was only because of Survivor's Bias that he was treated as such a messianic figure, but he was sure that those who hadn't been saved wouldn't agree with the sentiment.

It was only by sheer dumb luck that the bullet he'd dodged during that hit-and-run hadn't hit someone else, but even if the last-millisecond dodge could've been accredited to muscle memory from similar exercise, rubber bullets or paintballs notwithstanding, Heroes still retained the right to see to their own safety too.

Probably the reason why Heroes didn't lose face for not rushing headlong into a burning shopping district to go after a kid having a Quirk-augmented temper tantrum…

That and Heroes had more-important things on their minds during life-or-death battles than looking out for selfie-seeking civilians with little to no self-preservation instinct.

Basically, the sort of thing that cleaned the useless shit out of the gene pool.

*MHA*

"Alright, as I'm sure you've all heard, Hosu was attacked by the same 'Artificial Villains' as the one that helped attack the USJ a while back," Edgeshot began, his interns standing at attention. "Since it's obvious the Noumu wasn't a one-off, we're going to ramp up your training a little bit while you're here, promote three-dimensional thinking that'll be useful against creatures with more than one Quirk," he stated, the others shifting at the rumors being validated, by the No.5 Hero no less. "To that end, we'll be bringing back an oldie but a goodie," he said drawing a collection of silver bells from his pocket numbering eleven in total, six in his right hand, five in the left. "The object of the exercise is to seize one of these bells from my person before the time limit is out," he continued patting a digital clock on a nearby training post, a three-hour limit instigated and counting down. "When I say 'go', you're free to use any method outside lethal force to acquire these bells from my person. Any questions?"

"What was the word again?" Genki asked.

"Go-"

The next moment Genki burst forward at his maximum speed, bowling his peers over with the air pressure and leaving them in the dust as he shot forward like a chitinous bullet, his GIs giving him the dexterity required to clamp his hand down around a bell before Edgeshot could pull away. His ranking as the No.5 Hero notwithstanding, while the man may've been able to break the sound barrier with his Quirk [Foldabody], without it he was still Human and could be out-performed by Mutant Quirks whose proportional abilities could eclipse Humans.

Oh, Edgeshot put up a good fight, drawing his hand back as Genki dove for his left side, but it was the classic "Flash v Sinestro" scenario. Sinestro might've been able to attack at the speed of light, but his processing speed couldn't keep pace with the Flash whose mind could.

Once he was sure he'd secured a bell, Genki thrust his feet out and hit the brakes, digging a trench in the ground as he slowed himself to a crawl. Stopping just short at the edge of the clearing, Genki's spiracles drew in air while he held up the silver bell between his fingertips.

"This means I win, right?"

" . . . Technically yes," Edgeshot acquiesced, since he did say 'go' after the initial stipulation that aforementioned word was the starting signal. "You really are your mother's son."

"It's the face, isn't it?"

" . . . Also yes," he admitted. "Seeing as how you embraced the shinobi way to win an uphill battle in an unconventional manner, we're going to be mixing things up."

With a flick of his wrist, half of the remaining bells in his left hand were tossed Genki's way, giving him a total of three.

"Genkiburi will now act as custodian for three of the silver bells. The remaining eight will remain on my person," he said affixing them to various points of his costume. "Same rules apply, neither Genki nor I will take the bells beyond the perimeter of the Ninja Mansion's grounds. You're free to use whatever method you deem fit to use to acquire one and preserve your standing at the Edgeshot Agency."

At this the recovering ninja straightened, thoughts of clapping the dust from their clothes swiftly forgotten.

"Now then… Let the games begin."

With a flick of his wrist, a bright flash of light momentarily blinded the ninja-clad HITs. It was only thanks to Genki's auto-polarizing helmet, the same tech used by metalworkers, that he was able to see Edgeshot tiptoe right past them and into the tree line like a cartoon character.

Which of course, left him all alone against eleven HITs versed in the way of the ninja; some of which still had a bone to pick with him.

"Now guys, let's not do anything rash-"

"GET HIM!" Ninja green shouted in a rallying cry.

Half of the ninjas rushed him while the others held back to observe. Amazingly enough, it was the Yellow Twins who reached him first, bulking up and readying powerful blows for his head from each side.

Unfortunately for them, Genki was faster.

Slipping under the legs of the one charging him from the right, Genki delivered a reverse elbow strike to the back of his head sending him into the fist of his brother, before a reverse bicycle kick to the nuts lifted him from the ground. In nearly that same instance, Genki 'Shunshin'ed around the two and behind the other brother, delivering a powerful spinning elbow strike to the back of his head as well that sent him crashing face-first into the chin of his brother, the two laid out in a heap.

All of this took around a second.

"So…" Genki said keeping his voice completely level as he inhaled through his spiracles, giving off the illusion that no real effort had been expended. "Who's next?"

Contextually, there wasn't any way to really learn if that was 'the wrong thing to say' because eventually, the follow-up charge would've occurred anyway.

Ninja Red, with his new high-performance HatsuMei brand slingshot, was able to launch the ball bearing way faster than he could've thrown it, forcing Genki to dodge what was essentially an Indiana Jones-sized temple boulder on Trigger.

Ninja Blue and Black were quick to follow with their own elemental Quirks, putting Genki on the run into the treeline, causing Ninja Green to get wedged between two.

*MHA*

'Those guys do know Ninja Green can just turn his Quirk off, right?' Genki thought to himself from his hiding place ten minutes later as he beheld a platoon of Ninja Orange attempting to un-wedge Ninja Green from his landing spot like movers rallying against an obstinate couch.

Feeling the air shift behind him, instead of vacating his spot, Genki simply held out one of his bells toward the unseen adversary, who faded into view a moment later.

"You're giving this to me? Why?" Kana whispered extending her hand.

"Because I actually like you," Genki returned as he placed the bell in her waiting palm, closing her fingers around it so the thing wouldn't give their spot away. "That, and Edgeshot-sensei never said I couldn't give these out at my leisure if I felt like you'd earned it."

"There actually was a previous exercise we did when we had to take a pebble from his hand. Nothing the others did worked, and he said we should do something 'unexpected', so I walked up to him and asked for the pebble. After that he just… gave it to me."

"Gotta love those loopholes," Genki hummed, his matted camouflage pattern allowing him to hide in the foliage of the canopy. " . . . You wanna go on patrol together?"

"But what about the exercise?"

"Edgeshot only said we wouldn't take the bells 'beyond the perimeter of the Ninja Mansion's grounds'. He never said anything about us having to stay here. Explicitly," he stated.

"So you're just going to… leave those bells here?" she asked gesturing toward the bells in his closed fist.

Tying them to his belt would just create a noise hazard.

Especially at the speeds he moved.

"Yup."

" . . . Okay, I'm in," she nodded. Genki reaching up and tying the bells to a branch, the two slinked their way out of the tree and made for the perimeter, Genki's ability to scuttle low across the ground and Kana's own invisibility letting them slip past the other ninjas unnoticed. "Ne, Genkiburi."

"Hai?"

"Is it weird I'm upset I couldn't use the garotte wire in this watch?" she asked pointing at her wrist.

"Eh, the day's still young," Genki returned with a shrug, Kana letting out a cute giggle before a nail the size of a lamp post suddenly impaled a nearby tree. "Cheese it!"

"Yeah, I noticed!" Genki said back as they double-timed, Ninja Red's wide line of fire showing he knew what direction they were in, just not where.

*MHA*

"Ah, Genkiburi-kun, I see you caught the hidden meaning of the exercise. And I see you brought a friend~"

"Edgeshot-sensei?!" Genki and Kana gawped as they walked into the familiar ramen shop, only to encounter Edgeshot luxuriating in a bowl.

"Yo!" he greeted casually. "I assume you weren't followed?"

"Not on my worst day."

Genki had experience losing tails when his middle school peers pestered him for idols' phone numbers, many of which made liberrious use of their Quirks to try and find him.

"Excellent," Edgeshot returned. "Sit, sit, we'll have us a couple of bowls and wait to see if the others caught wise."

"Should we let them know we flaked on them?"

"As long as Kana-chan doesn't talk, they'll never know the difference," Edgeshot replied.

" . . . Okay, I won't say anything," the vanishing girl returned.

"Excellent! Now, what would you like to order?" he asked waving them toward him.

*MHA*

*HOOONK!*

"An airhorn? Really?" Genki asked several bowls of ramen and a short patrol later, the clearing they'd started out in sufficiently vacated upon their arrival.

"Well, what else would I use to get their attention?" Edgeshot asked.

"I don't know. Something more ninja aesthetic, like maybe smoke signals?" Genki groused.

"Unfortunately, we're still waiting for the renewal of our fire permit."

" . . . I can't tell if you're joking or not."

"The mask does that, yes," Edgeshot replied, a myriad of haggard, colorful ninjas walking into the clearing from the treeline. "Healthy rivalries?" he whispered over his shoulder as Ninja Red, Green, Yellow 1, and Yellow 2 shot Genki a dirty look.

"Not so much."

"Hey! Why do you smell like ramen!?" Negi demanded.

"You're hallucinating. Next question!" Genki insisted.

" . . . You two left the training grounds, didn't you?" Ninja Red asked poignantly.

"Ah, so you noticed that," Edgeshot hummed aloud.

"Only just now," he grumbled, rolling his wrist with the slingshot in his grip. "Still, Hatsume makes good equipment. Give her my compliments the next time you see her."

"Promote her brand on social media, and I think she'll get the message," Genki returned indicating the logo on the side. "You ever try chucking rotten fruit with that Quirk of yours?" he questioned semi-seriously.

"My Quirk won't work on anything organic. No foodstuffs, no wood. Only metal, mineral, plastic, and ceramics," Ninja Red returned.

"Well… Good to know I won't get buried in rotten fruit someday," Genki hummed idly.

"That's still debatable," Ninja Green grumbled.

"What, did you forget you could just turn your Quirk off to get out of tight spaces?"

"Heh, that's what she said~ Bow-chicka-bow-OW! SONUVA…!" Ninja Aqua cried as Ninja Cobalt smacked him across the back of the head.

" . . . No… Shut up!" Ninja Green protested heatedly.

"It's so nice to see you all getting along~" Edgeshot chimed. "Anyhow!" he said clapping his hands together garnering their attention. "Instead of doing patrols today, we're going to be refining your ninja skills. If you want to continue refining the Jutsu you're already training yourselves in, you know who among the staff can assist you, otherwise ask among the staff if you want to try something new. Genki, since you're new and caught onto the hidden meaning of the Bell Exam, I'll be training you personally."

'Gee, thanks. Don't do me any favors,' Genki thought as the others shot him a look, except for Kana who simply gave him an understanding smile.

*MHA*

In the end, Genki had chosen to learn Shurikenjutsu from Edgeshot.

Sure, he was more into Idol Culture by means of proximity than Ninja Culture, but there was something intrinsic to the Japanese spirit when it came to throwing metal darts and stars around.

Also using prisoners' extremities to test the sharpness of Japanese katanas (simply-known-in-Japan as "katanas"), but thankfully he never developed any Chuuni tendencies which would make him act upon those delusions. At least not like that lunatic who went around cutting people up with knives and swords who got stopped only-recently.

And other than the romance of being a Shinobi that appealed to most Japanese boys his age and even a great many foreigners, Shurikenjutsu was a life skill he could take with him to any Hero Agency; not just Edgeshot's.

Unlike what popular media would have you think, Shuriken of either type weren't explicitly used to kill, and in fact couldn't unless you were really aiming for the traditional Human weak spots; including but not limited to the spine, brain, and/or heart; which, thanks to certain Quirk-related morphologies, weren't always in the default positions. More often than not, Shuriken were used to pester people or open them up to follow-up attacks, and there was always a demand for a cheap, cost-effective method of drawing Villains' attention away from civilians who couldn't defend themselves.

And considering the Noumu weren't a one-off, and even the high-end ones could give the Symbol of Peace pause, given their brains were out for anyone to see if the shaky photos were anything to go by, even if it didn't kill them, throwing a spike or star of metal into exposed cerebral tissue would definitely be preferable to having a long drawn-out Shounen-style fight that would last for hours at a time and cost countless taxpayer yen.

Because even one Japanese citizen bitching about their ruined car could put a real damper on career elevation.

"You're strangely good at this," Edgeshot hummed as Genki used an overhand throw, getting closer to the bullseye than he had before.

"Alice-obasan gave me a little knife training when I was younger behind oka-san's back," Genki hummed. "Didn't completely get the hang of it, but then again, that Kumoito of hers moved like it was alive. Guess she'll have to pass it onto someone else."

"Kumoito… You mean from the Spider Thread Hero: Arachnid?" the man asked.

"Yeah, that's the one. She and my mom are friends from their Yuuei days," Genki answered as he let another shuriken fly. "If anything happens to my parents, she'll be the one to take me in. I could do worse as far as godparents are concerned."

"That's good to know, though given your parents are retired from the Hero world, I would think they'd be around for a good long while," Edgeshot hummed.

It didn't take much to find out who Genki's parents were, what their Hero careers had been like; especially when requesting an Intern. However, it was the suddenness of the former No.2 Hero's retirement that always vexed him. All he knew was the man had elevated himself to the rank of No.2 during the "Villain Factory" incident, held the silver medal for a month or so, and then just quit altogether at the height of his career.

He was sure there was a cover-up behind it, much like with the current No.2 Hero, but given even now he was still behind the Devil Bug Hero's former rank, it wasn't like he could dredge up the past in any meaningful way.

Not if Endeavor's… questionable choice of vernacular during the Sports Festival said anything.

"So… You took your father's name?"

"Devil Bug? Yeah. It helps with brand recognition," Genki hummed as he stepped forward to retrieve his shuriken. "That, and using my mother's alias would send mixed messages."

"Well, a Hero Alias does stick with you, even the ones you make in high school, so you've picked as good a one as any, and hey, the name 'Genkiburi's actually kinda cute~"

"Yeah, that's what I was going for. Midnight-sensei certainly liked it," Genki chuckled.

"You aiming for your dad's old slot, I take it?" Edgeshot asked. "Your father might be retired, but the Devil Bug's shoes are still big shoes to fill. And not just because your father shops at Big & Tall"

"Hey, if you're going to aim, aim big," he hummed, hitting the bullseye with a satisfying *thunk*.

"Seems kinda specific, thought. Most your age aim for number one."

"And everyone else wants to be Prime Minister, but that's not going to happen either."

"That's fair," Edgeshot shrugged, correcting him on his footwork, which was more-important for Shurikenjutsu than one would think. "Take it from someone who's straddled both sides of the Top 5 line for years, that upward climb only gets harder."

"You mean instead of geometric, it's logarithmic?"

"If you want to get technical, that's one way of putting it," Edgeshot shrugged as Genki retrieved his shuriken. "Most Heroes plateau and hover two to three ranks above and below their average until they retire, or… the alternative," he trailed off. "You either need to be really strong, really ambitions, or have great brand recognition, though having more than one certainly helps, and all three is even better."

All Might immediately came to mind. His Quirk made him borderline unstoppable, he had the drive to pursue criminals relentlessly in the name of justice in a more altruistic form of ambition, and if it existed, the man's face had been plastered across it a dozen times over.

"Just so you know though… I'm not giving up my slot without a fight," he said coming back to the present.

"I wouldn't expect you to," Genki nodded. "All things considered though, I actually think Kana has the best shot at succeeding you."

"You really think so?"

"Trust me, there is a lot of utility for a Quirk like hers. And best part, she doesn't even have to be naked for it to work," he said as his helmet hid the dusting of pink on his face.

" . . . What kind of school has Yuuei turned into?" Edgeshot asked after a poignant pause. "You know what, never mind, I don't want to know," he hummed since back in his day someone like Midnight had never been on the faculty. "Look, all I'm saying about the Top 10 and Top 5 ranks is, it's a hard climb to get there, but the good you can do with the influence you have, it's deeply satisfying… And the money isn't too bad either," he admitted, since most of the period-accurate construction of his Ninja Mansion wouldn't have been possible without lots and lots of zeroes on his weekly paycheck.

"Money isn't what I'm aiming for. If it were about that, I'd have stuck to the General Course and gotten a job at the Idol Agency," Genki hummed confidently, lazily juggling his Bo Shuriken in his hand. "No, what I'm aiming for…" he said taking one up, eyes narrowing at the bullseye at the end of the training ground. "It's something you can't get with money."

*THUNK*

" . . . That would've sounded much cooler if you'd actually hit the bullseye."

" . . . I know…" Genki said as his shoulders slumped.

*MHA*

AN:
Ah, the classic Hit-and-Run scenario. Every hero handles it differently, but I'd like to think Genki put an interesting spin on it, with an excellent throwback to one of my favorite characters, Hatsume Mei!

As for the end there, it's a little vague what his motivations are, at least currently, but we now know that Genki's career choice isn't motivated purely by money. I mean, in an economy like that you kind of need to motivate people with money, otherwise no-one would sensibly want the job unless they were a sociopath. But at least unlike guys like Baka-gou who explicitly want to climb the ranks because the money's good and their entire self-worth is predicated on the praise of other people, Genki's aiming for something that can't be bought with money.

. . . Also I should point out that I know his motivations; I've known what they were since the early planning stages. His motivations are only "vague" for the readers because unlike most OC-centric stories I didn't lay everything out in a super-long super-boring "Summary Inside" summary.

Just thought I'd clear that up-ANYHOW!

I hope this 7K+ chapter is worth some interesting Reviews, and I'll see you next time. Until then,

GO BEYOND!

EXCELSIOR!