OmniUIShaggyOverexaggerated: Well, that's what makes Genki Gokiburi a great OC. His motivations are not specifically clear, so we readers have to guess or assume what his motivations for being a hero are. He does not have the desire to become Number 1 or surpass All Might like Izuku or Katsuki. He does however wish to live up to his father's legacy, and Devil Bug was the previous Number 2 Hero before his retirement kicked up Endeavor's ranking from Number 3 to Number 2.
Re: "not specifically clear" because I didn't lay everything flat-out in a "Summary Inside" summary, yes. Other than that, I've gotten better at writing OCs with nuance because I grew tired of seeing stories with OCs only having 2 dimensions, or just being re-skins of popular characters. Or just Naruto re-skins over other character, but that's neither here nor there… Or is it?
Moving on, yeah, Genki's motivation in the context of MHA is different because he isn't specifically aiming for All Might's slot, but living up to a legacy where his father plateaued. Endeavor wanted to surpass No.1 vicariously through his Eugenics Experiment children, and Todoroki wants to surpass Endeavor but largely out of spite. Genki "aiming high" but not "too high" gives him a great deal of nuance because he's aiming for the No.2 slot in particular.
LoamyCoffee: This was just so fun. I honestly think Kana is my favorite among the ninjas. This is an understandable reaction, it reminds a bit of Mirio's reaction to realising he should've taken Eri and Midoriya and ran instead of worrying about Nighteye's reaction. True words coming from Genki's mom.
I just feel energized reading this and we learn a little more of his motivations.
And Twitter is blowing up with reactions Baka-gou's Official hero name, most are negative or laughing at it.
When the raws came out, people thought it was God Explosion Murder: DynaMight, but Official translation has revealed it as Great Explosion Murder God: Dynamite. Many I've heard, were wanting Ground Zero, Knitro, or simply Kacchan.
So yeah, I look forward to the next update and the fun brought.
Re: Yeah, she's growing on me as my favorite character too. Shame the Seijin Academy students didn't get more screen time, I feel like the differing schools of thought on what it meant to be a Hero would be really interesting to explore.
That, and it makes more sense for Toru to get into Seijin than Yuuei; unless the robots in the Entrance Exam all had "Off Switches" like in Xiaolin Showdown.
As for the advice of Genki's mom, I think the major downfall with Heroes in MHA and other IP, is that they feel they have to respond for every call for help no matter how-much it ruins their lives; especially in the case of Spider-Man who can't let anything "go". It's not like he can fight crime in the hours he's sleeping, hence the approach I took with Peter Parker in Young Justice: The Hunter.
As for Bakugou's Hero Name… Yeah, I'm kinda in the "Ground Zero" camp, but it's not like I can't have Bakugou change it later once he comes up with something better, even if part of it is to spite Genki for coming up with his first draft.
King0fP0wers: Man, this is awesome! It's like reading a cockroach version of Spider-Man in My Hero Academia! I didn't know that cockroaches could do so much stuff. Those slippery little b***.
I'll admit, I do think that his abilities to create air blasts and cause literal floods of oil look a bit far-fetched, even compared to other animal-type Mutant Quirks, but it's still very enjoyable! Seriously, I'd say 'Cockroach' is right up there with other Mutants like 'Chimera' and 'Fierce Wings' in terms of versality.
Hope to see more of this!
Re: Well, Genki does have the "proportional" powers of a cockroach, though his inspiration came more from the manga Arachnid by Murata Shinya (illustrated by Ifuji Shinsen) than from Marvel. The alliteration and honoring of Stan Lee came from Marvel, so really it's a blend of Eastern & Western inspiration on that front. And yeah, Cockroaches do have a lot of adaptations; that's why they've survived millions of years without evolving too-radically; they never had to.
The [Air Blast]s and [Oilpiration] are a result of "Quirk Reinforcement", which gives one Tangible results if you keep at it long enough; i.e. "grinding", and remember, he has the proportional power on top of it, so with a larger body mass, more air discharge and more oil is a given. And he's been training his whole life to get into Yuuei, the only hiccup was he lacked the "stopping power" necessary to fight the robots; him only being able to control his "berserker mode" for 60 seconds before completely losing it doesn't exactly help things, since if he attacked ANYONE in the interim, he would've flunked, even if it was largely by accident.
Also, Momo's Quirk has certain mass-amplifying characteristics, otherwise there's no WAY she could make the sheer volume she does in random crap.
Carlmike94: You know, give Kana some lightweight taser gloves and she'll be a lot more dangerous
Re: Just had a brilliant idea from that line!
Wont' say what it is. Wouldn't wanna spoil the surprise.
skinnydude911: This was a very unique chapter as we got to deal with the classic crime of Hit and Run, and Genki covering his a** with that prayer as ANYTHING could've caused it, not just him hoping for some action.
No matter how heroic you wanna be, Ninja Green's stock probably took a hit with the criminal's hand glued to his crotch like that... gonna be difficult coming back from that.
Love the loophole in the bell test with both Genki tricking Edgeshot into saying Go, and him just giving Kana the bell.
Classic.
Two of the things I think that shined the most in this chapter, Genki's resolve and determination to take his father's role as a Hero and how he reacted to the Stain incident. I would love to see how he reacts to seeing Izuku when they get back to school about the whole thing.
It's cool to see someone who isn't aiming for the number 1 spot and aiming for his dad's old spot.
Re: Yeah, the hit-and-run was fun too, as was that one line.
Oof, yeah…
That, was super-fun to write, I admit.
I'd like to think that Genki's motivations are more-original than most OCs, since anyone can aim for "Number One", but Genki's goals are very specific. As for the Stain incident, yeah, obviously he would feel bad about not showing up the day after, but it's not like he could've arrived in time, even if he did drop everything; remember, he can only run 200mph on open ground, and in order not to "bug on a windshield" himself, unless he has a straightaway he can't really use all that speed.
And yeah, like I said, ANYONE, and EVERYONE, aims for "Number One", so Genki's a bit different in that regard. As for why, well, you'll just have to wait and see.
King0fP0wers: I did wonder if you'd include Genkiburi into the Stain battle. Looks like some parts of canon remained unchanged. Nice ninja lessons with Edgeshot-sensei though. Between the Top 5 heroes, Endeavour would be ironically be the best teacher out of All Might, himself, Hawks, Best Jeanist and Edgeshot.
Could Genki use his throwing skills to throw oil bombs or something like that? Or just cockroaches for female oppenents, lol. That would neutralize them immediately. Not good for puplic image though.
And with all those new bug heroes you introduced, have you thought about adding some to the League of Villains? Like Sasori, with an actual scorpion tail quirk? Or Dinoponera? Toga could always use a female friend!
Re: Given how far away from Hosu Genki was, I saw no reason to shoehorn it in. It gave me the opportunity to point out that he knows he can't "be everywhere, save everyone", as I made abundantly clear. Izuku's SOS was very short notice, and only Todoroki was in any sort of position to act on it.
Depending on what the Oil is in, like maybe Water Balloons, sure. However, it's a matter of A) having them on-hand beforehand, and B) not having them go off in his utility belt and making a giant mess. He could possibly load it into a shotgun-style water gun, there's that too. As for public image… it all depends on how he or his PR person spins it.
Now that you mention her… I'll probably still have her be Quirkless, just with a high-end prosthetic like in Arachnid. You don't need a Quirk to be in the League of Villains, as many fancomics of Villain!Izuku show. Plus, her mechanical scorpion tail allows her to alternate between loadouts. Dinoponera (aka Setsuna, after the Sailor Moon character of the same name; that's Canon by the way!) isn't so much "evil" as she is… the kind of person who values strength above all else and the ultimate benchmark for "friend". In the end all she desperately wanted was a "friend", but didn't know how to go about getting one in mormal society. I'm glad she gets her redemption arc in Blattodea, btw.
In regards to Toga-chan… were Dinoponera a part of the LoV (glad to find another reader), she wouldn't give a "weakling" like that the time of day. "Strength" is what she acknowledges, particularly, strength one earns after hard work, not subterfuge.
Guest: I call b***. You're telling me that cockroach boy with all his unique abilities beat less robots than Mr. Tail, Animal Planet and the invisible flasher?! He must have spent a LONG time before he found those off-buttons!
Re: If the Off Switches weren't "modular", as in not all in the same place, everyone and their obaa-san would know in advance, and too-many people would be getting passing grades for the Practical. Ojiro could deliver a manual smackdown, and Toru wouldn't set off their vision-based sensors.
*MHA*
Elsewhile apart from Gokiburi Genki, with the Gold Striker: Stunvolt…
Telling GV what his Hero Name and Alias were was both the proudest, and most-mortifying experience he could recently recall. The similarities were there, who he was blatantly modelling himself after, and imitation was the greatest form of flattery. While GV didn't seem to take any offense to it, it didn't change the mortification he felt after his full intro came out like word vomit.
And that pose! He hadn't been a Chuuni since the eight grade! Fueeeh! So hammy!
That first hurdle cleared a few days back, Kaminari was happy and proud to say he was getting the hang of navigating Akihabara's twist and turns. The whole place was like an anime convention year-round, especially with the various Mutant-Type Quirk holders walking around openly, instead of trying to conform to a definition of "Human" that didn't really exist anymore. Sure, Humans could have Quirks and still look "normal", but it didn't mean those that looked different were any less.
He would've taken pictures of all the cuties in maid outfits advertising for cafes and stores, but he didn't want to give GV the wrong impression, so he stayed on task.
That said, Akihabara during the day was actually a very low-crime zone. Even before All Might rose to prominence, because so many people openly cosplayed as their favorite Heroes, fictional Heroes, or made their own "Hero costumes", it was next to impossible for a Villain to tell if they were walking into a store filled with tourists playing make-believe, or legitimate Heroes who would kick their asses. So, Kaminari found himself trailing along behind GV as they went on patrol, stopping the occasional purse-snatcher who was desperate-enough to run the gamut.
On more than one occasion, he and GV encountered a Gunvolt impersonator who was making money by posing for pictures and signing autographs. Some of their costumes were actually quite convincing, but impersonating a specific Hero for any sort of monetary gain was comparable to impersonating a police officer, only in the case of Heroes, they could directly sue those committing Criminal Impersonation.
It was entirely based on choice, some Heroes were more-lenient than others. However, because the actions of his impersonators reflected poorly on the agency that gave him an office and a chance to build the capital needed to get a building of his own, he opted for the more-direct approach.
Like right now.
"Hey."
"Eep!"
"That's a crime," GV said in an even tone as he pointed an accusing finger at his latest impersonator.
"I-I'll say! Don't you know that impersonating a Hero is a crime?" the impostor returned, trying to "die with the lie" as it were. "Run along before I get serious!" he said drawing a futuristic-looking pistol from his holster, people nearby backing away as he and the real GV squared off.
"Hm. A convincing fake. Let's see if you can back it up."
"H-Hold on now, no need to escal-"
Gunvolt's Dart Leader spitting out a nail-like projectile from a magnetic catapult, the criminal impostor squealed as the end of the pointed sliver of metal lodged itself into his kneecap. Before the impersonator could pull it out, Gunvolt leveled a "finger gun" at him, a tendril of blue lightning leaping through the air and into the nail, electrocuting the faker with the sort of control Kaminari could only dream of.
"Hey, um, Gunvolt-sensei."
"What is it?"
"Y-You think I could get one of those too?"
"Is your hair a natural conductor for your Quirk?" Gunvolt replied.
The way that Gunvolt's Dart Leader worked was it was loaded with special nails containing trimmings of his own electrically-charged hair. Because the nails contained the same electric charge as his [Azure Striker], when fired they created a bidirectional channel of ionized air known as a "leader", which in turn created a "path of least resistance" for his [Azure Striker] to follow, allowing for a level of precision that only those with high-end [Electrokinesis] Quirks could manage.
"I'm… not completely sure…" Kaminari admitted.
"Hm. We'll have to test that out."
*CRASH!*
"Eyaaaaah!" a civilian cried as a hulking Villain with rock-like skin suddenly burst out of a store, a large handful of now-ruined manga in his clenched fist as he let out a bellowing- "GRAARRRRRR!" -, his darkened tongue flailing through the air.
"Tch, a Trigger junkie," GV hissed, clicking his tongue. "Kaminari."
"H-Hai?!"
"Run crowd control, get everyone out of here," he said cocking his Dart Leader. "I'll handle 'Rock-Man'."
A loud *FWEEEEET!* piercing the panic-filled air as GV brought his fingers to his lips, the aforementioned "Rock-Man" locked eyes on Gunvolt as sparks of blue electricity danced across his eyes.
[Cue Azure Striker Gunvolt OST – 1st Sumeragi – Released Thunder]
The Villain stomping toward his enemy with all the subtlety of a runaway truck, as Gunvolt backpedaled, tendrils of electricity leapt from his fingertips. His Quirk latching onto a JIS Cover, with a flick of his wrist the 60cm diameter 40kg disc of cast iron leapt from its place in the ground, the Villain's leg falling right into the then-opened manhole. A loud yowl leaving his lips as he fell flat on his face with a *THUD* that made nearby cars leap and alarms blare, with another flick of GV's wrist, the manhole cover rebounded through the air and struck the Villain in the wrist of the hand he was trying to prop himself up with.
A loud series of expletives leaving Rock-Man's mouth as he shook out the injured limb, Gunvolt began to circle the him like a shark. Dart Leader leveled and firing at Rock-Man's hulking frame, to Kaminari's horror, the electrically-charged nails just bounced off his rocky hide, not even penetrating like they had the impostor before.
'Oh crap, not good! How's he going to stop this guy without a 'leader' to channel his Quirk through? I guess… I guess I could go in there, hit him with my 1.3 Million Volts,' he thought to himself.
"Stay where you are," GV said through the haze of his thoughts, almost as though he were reading his mind. "Let me show you what you do when your first volley fails."
Rock-Man freeing his leg and raising his boulder-covered arms above his head, with a powerful axe handle and a deafening *CRASH!*, concrete and asphalt were sent outward in every direction.
"Flashfield!" Gunvolt intoned, a spherical shell filled with blue electricity manifesting around him and vaporizing the smaller slivers of debris, the larger pieces slowed before falling to his feet around him.
"Hey! GV!" Kaminari cried as he shooed the last of the rubber-necking civies away. "It looks like we've got reinforcements!" he said pointing down the road past Rock-Man, a number of Heroes rounding the corner.
"Hm. Then I guess there's just enough time to show you one of my signature moves. My Super Move."
His body coming alight with [Azure Striker], the castoffs looking like white feathers before they dissipated, squaring his feet and raising up his right palm, lightning began to gather there, eyes shining.
"Sacred sword agleam / Barbarous and bathed in blue / Cleaving right from wrong!" he intoned proudly as he ran toward the Villain, the hair on Kaminari's body standing on end as the nearby light fixtures flickered."Lux… CALIBUR!"
With a thrust of his hand, all the electricity Gunvolt was generating coalesced into an enormous great sword the size of a truck, hewn from multiple solidified plates of energy in shades of white through dark blue. Though the villain was completely impaled, when it dissipated, no outward mark was left in its wake.
"But… rocks don't conduct… electricity…" Rock-Man gasped before falling on his back with a *THUD!* that shook the street.
[END OST]
"Maybe not in Pokémon, but in real life…" GV trailed off, holding his tongue as the villain passed out, not wanting to waste his breath one someone who couldn't even hear him.
"That… That was so cool, Gunvolt-sensei!" Kaminari gawped with wide, twinkling eyes. "How did you do that?!"
"Push-ups, sit-ups, and plenty of juice."
" . . . You're such a straight-laced person, I can't tell if you're joking or not…" Kaminari admitted after a couple seconds.
"Ugh, again?!" one of the approaching Heroes cried as he eyed the insensate Villain; no-one Kaminari recognized, but clearly a veteran. "Sometimes I think you're doing this on purpose!"
"Doing what on purpose?" Kaminari asked confusedly.
"Finishing the Villain off after we come out of our way to assist," the Hero spat, the police swooping in and readying restraints. "You should really respect your seniors."
"I'll respect you as soon as there's something worth respecting," Gunvolt waved off casually before turning on his heel to walk off, the Hero fuming angrily at the dismissal.
"You uh… You sure that was a good idea?" Kaminari asked as he made to follow.
"Not like he could do anything about it. I earn more than him, my fanbase is bigger, and my Quirk's stronger," Gunvolt told him as he approached the crowed at the edge of the police tape, reaching over to sign autographs or shake hands. "Something you need to understand is that in this business, and it is, a business… it's that influence, is everything. The higher up the ranks you are, the less those below you can bleat at you."
"Well that's a pretty dour way to look at it."
"I prefer 'realistic'," Gunvolt shrugged. "The way I see it, there's two kinds of Heroes in this biz. There are the Heroes actively trying to climb the ranks and make it to the top, like me," he said pointing a finger at himself. "And then… there are the ones that give up and tread in place, stagnating the rest of their careers and fading into obscurity until they retire, like him," he said jerking a thumb over his shoulder.
Kaminari, taking a closer look at the guy from before, realized he was older than he'd initially looked at a second glance. He recognized Gunvolt because he'd made a splash at the Sports Festival while he was in middle school and because he was climbing the ranks even now, but this other guy…? He didn't have the slightest clue who he was.
"So… Which do you think I'll be?" Kaminari asked, both hopeful and worried at the answer he may receive.
"Best-case scenario, you don't 'plateau' 'til you've reached the Top 100, in which case it isn't so-much about fighting Villains as it is endorsing product and selling merchandise," Gunvolt shrugged. "Have you ever noticed that since six years ago, All Might has been appearing less and less, and yet, he's still the king of the hill?"
"Well… Not until you pointed it out like that," Kaminari admitted. "But I mean… Maybe he's working behind the scenes?"
"You go to school with him. Does anything about that guy come across as 'discrete'?"
"I am… COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"
"I guess not…" he said as he remembered. "I mean… it would be hard for anyone else to earn money if All Might were out there 24/7."
"Indeed," he hummed. "And don't forget, every empire comes to an end. All Might won't be No.1 forever, and when that changes… I'll be up there with the rest, vying for king of the hill."
"Hopefully that won't happen for a long time," Kaminari returned.
"Indeed. Now… go do something intern-y and… pick up all my Darts," he gestured over his shoulder.
"What?! Why do I have to do it!?" Kaminari cried.
"Because you're interning and I feel too lazy to," Gunvolt shrugged good-naturedly.
" . . . Yeah that's fair…" the younger blond admitted, stalking off.
"And you can't keep any of them!"
"Why would I want to?!"
"Because they sell big on the internet!"
"Ohhhhh!"
As far as Internships could've gone, he supposed he could've gotten worse.
Speaking of which…!
*MHA*
Elsewhile apart from Gokiburi Genki, with the Ridley Hero: Alien Queen…
Mina by and large had "gone native" when she went on patrol with the various Sidekicks of the Kamadouma Agency.
First, she adopted a collapsible baton that one of the more artsy Sidekicks painted the handle to match her costume as her weapon of choice since A) it was something anyone with a pulse could use without hurting themselves too badly, B) since fighting a knife-wielding Villain bare-handed was stupid unless you trained for that eventuality explicitly, and C) breaking the bones in your fingers really sucked unless you were into that sort of thing, and given Recovery Girl wasn't on speed dial…
Secondly, she allowed her costume to fall into only the slightest state of disrepair. Not enough that she'd look "ratty", but not so-little either that she'd be called a "Shiny"; a Sidekick whose costume was still shiny and new without any wear and tear because they hadn't seen any actual combat. The rest of the sidekicks put tears in their costumes strategically for style points, something she realized Kyoka-chan did as well to great effect, giving her a "rebellious" feel without looking too much like a slob.
Third, she didn't smile while going into battle, because amazingly-enough, a scowl got the point across that you weren't someone to mess with. Especially if you were waving a police baton around like a Sukeban. Oh, she still smiled when people on patrol asked for selfies, though it was also a little hard to escape the… reputation… she garnered after stripping a General Course student next-to-naked with her Quirk, and oil wrestling him, AND rubbing her face down his thusly-exposed body, all within the same fifteen-minute period.
One of her more reputation-savvy peers suggested she hang out with "Gokiburi-sama" in a public place so people learned there weren't any hard feelings between them since the Sports Festival. And all things considered, she could think of worse ways to try and fix the damage she accidentally did to her rep that were less-likely to work.
Sure, it sucked that he beat her in front of the entire country, but given how-hard he pushed himself to win, and the tears he let out after All Might-sensei told him he'd "made it" into the Hero Course, she couldn't really bring herself to hold a grudge.
And just because she wasn't romantically interested in him didn't mean she didn't think he was cute or that he wouldn't be fun to hang around. He was a Mutant-Type with Emitter-Type qualities like her, and it was kinda flattering to hear about how he liked exotic girls more than "normies" that, even in this day and age, were still held as the the benchmark for "beauty". And it wasn't just some pro-Mutant spiel just for the sake of opposing the anti-Mutant faction who thought those with Mutant-Type Quirks were "crimes against nature" and other such nonsense, it was a genuine preference of aesthetic, and given what his "Onee-samas" looked like, she could understand why that kind of view on beauty got cultivated.
She'd only seen Hibiki fight low and mid-tier Villains a few times while she was patrolling, and at first she thought he was just imitating the Masked Riders of the past just for the sake of being hammy, or because he was a fanboy with Chuuni tendencies he'd never grown out of, but there was a definite method to his madness once she reviewed what she'd seen in retrospect.
The more time he held a Villain's undivided attention with his bombastic posing and speeches, the more time the civilians nearby had to get away. Hell, Hibiki had been so loud and obnoxious with his whole spiel, that a group of hostages that were literally at a Villain's feet were able to sneak away because the Kicking Hero: Kamadouma's presence demanded attention.
And amazingly-enough, even though Kamadouma was a little-known Hero, not even in the Top 100, he took the same pride in his work she saw every day in class from All Might-sensei, and the locals… they adored him to the same level. Men wanted to be him, women wanted to be with him, children wanted to become him.
Hibiki might've been a little rough around the edges, at least as far as she was concerned, but after he finished kicking her around for stripping his "Otouto" nearly naked on national television that first day, his teaching style didn't seem all that out-of-place compared to what she'd experienced at Yuuei. He was strict, but fair, he instructed her, but gave her room to grow all on her own. And because Genki-kun had pulled the strings to get her interned under him explicitly, he took the time to help her make an Ikken Hissatsu she could use to "annihilate" her peers "in one blow" once she got back to Yuuei at the start of next week.
And not just for the sake of stopping villains or kicking her classmates' butts before they kicked hers. Having an Ultimate Move gave marketing companies the material they needed to promote a Hero's individual brand. All Might as the highest example of this, had figurines portraying each of his many Super Moves, all of which were collectible.
And not just that, he also taught her the importance of "Variant" costumes in promoting her brand. Using himself as an example, beyond the default "Kamadouma (Green)", he also had a "Kamadouma (Red)" that gave him resistance to fire-type Quirks, "Kamadouma (Blue)" to resist liquid-type Quirks, "Kamadouma (Black)" for fighting Villains in the dead of night, a litany of Ultimate Moves, fully-articulated action figures, and even his Gakuran attire had merchandise, both from his younger days starting out from a low-tier Hero Academy, up into the modern day because somehow, even on a grown man a Gakuran worn by the right figure could inspire "discipline".
The fact that one of his figurines had him sitting on a crate and palming a sword planted in the ground while wearing a Gakuran with that stone-like expression on her face, had her wondering if he'd adopted that pose just to fuck with her.
It was one thing to have statuettes, but after seeing an entire wall of Kamadouma's merchandise, something the Sidekicks had actually erected as a point of pride, Mina knew, without a doubt, that someday she too wanted a fully-articulated action figure of herself.
With accessories! And modular body parts!
*MHA*
Elsewhile apart from Gokiburi Genki, with the Taping Hero: Cellophane…
"How… are you doing that…?" Sero asked as he watched his mentor drink a cup of coffee while hanging upside-down from her thematic Support Item, the Kumoito. At the moment, he and his teacher were staring down into the back alley that had become their ambush point.
"Very… carefully…" Alice replied between sips, now clad in her hero costume. It was a tight-fitting number that conformed to her teenage-looking frame, the bottom part of her costume black and topped by what looked like a bustier with two points, her upper body clad in white with black biceps featuring pink web patterns, the interior of her white hood with the same pattern, and covering her head a white mask with pink-lined eye lenses. "Did you lay down the tape strips I asked of you?"
"Y-Yeah, I did…" Sero responded, looking down at the haphazard grid-like pattern of nearly-transparent Double-Sided tape he'd laid down, courtesy of a few days' non-stop Quirk Reinforcement fueled by nothing but blood, sweat, tears, and lots of instant coffee to keep him going when he was about to pass out.
To put it frankly, the results were amazing. Never before did he think he could change what kind of tape his elbows put out; once his Quirk had manifested, he'd consigned himself to being a one-trick pony who had to get creative with his Quirk to be a good Hero. But this? This changed everything.
Electrical Tape, Filament Tape, Surgical Tape, Bondage Tape? The mere fact that he could go from One-Sided to Double-Sided meant none were completely beyond the realm of possibility.
And not just that, he could feel that the reel-in/reel-out speed of his [Tape] had increased during his time with her in the underground bunker/training area she'd inherited from her predecessor, even if only a little. If he wanted to do more, go "Plus Ultra", pull off the instant-trap-weaving his trainer had performed with barely a flick of her wrist, he'd have to put in the hours himself once the exam was over.
"Coffee break's over. It's time to work," Alice said setting down her coffee as their target, a seedy-looking middle-aged man in an unassuming gray suit made his way down the alley. Carried atop his back was a grade schooler, slumbering soundly.
At first glance, one would think he were a father carrying his daughter home through a shortcut.
That couldn't have been farther from the truth, and I'll leave what the truth is, up to your imagination.
"W-What the?!" the man gawped as his shoe stuck to a strip of [Tape] laid across the ground, incapable of lifting it away.
"Pervert! Release the girl!" Sero shouted as he swooped in, making a complete and total ass of himself earning the declaratively-announced pervert's undivided attention.
"Hero?! Shit!" the man swore as he chucked the girl into the air, Sero shooting a line of tape and putting himself on an intercept, the pervert untying his shoelace and freeing his foot from the stuck shoe, only to step into another line of tape. Untying that as well while Sero saw to the girl's safety, by the time the man had left the net of tape he'd already abandoned both his shoes and socks, as well as a fair bit of dead skin.
Before he could get too far however he suddenly froze in mid-stride, his struggling revealing the near-invisible threads entangling him, not unlike a spider web.
"Masumi Ogawa, you're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney at trial," the Spider Silk Hero: Arachnid said lowering herself to eye level with the man upside-down, slapping a cloth with chloroform into his face, the man powerless to fight back in his tangled mess of near-invisible threads.
"Wow, that's… I didn't even see you set that up…" Sero gawped as he beheld the now-visible web of lines holding the pervert-on-probation up, the threads criss-crossing from nearly a dozen angles.
"Really? I thought I'd made the setup painfully obvious," she said tugging on one of the lines, a familiar cup of coffee falling several stories before alighting in her hand, nary a drop spilled.
"I'll… be sure to pay attention next time…" Sero said trying to digest everything he'd seen of her so far.
As far as battle tactics went, Fuji Alice was a hardcore ambush-type Hero, like Eraserhead. The difference between them however, other than his current mentor being way hotter, was that more often than not, all she usually had to do was sit and wait, and the bad guys would literally catch themselves. Swooping in with a rag of chloroform, or a high-end stun gun for those with Heteromorphic Quirks, and the efficiency with which she descended upon her trapped prey was completely like her namesake.
Of course, the thing that floored him the most was that for all intents and purposes, Fuji Alice was functionally Quirkless.
Sure, her hyper-awareness could be ruled out as an Extrasensory class of Quirk, and her tunnel vision could be labeled a personality quirk, but her "Cognitive Excessive Concentration" as she called it… That mental disorder had been diagnosed and added to the DSM-5 ages ago. As in, before Paranormality.
Sero had never doubted growing up that a Quirkless person simply couldn't become a Hero, that they'd be consigned to a police officer at best, or a black company corporate slave at worse. But Alice and that impossible-to-ignore toe joint of hers that he caught sight of when he might have been ogling her one night as she sleepwalked into the bathroom in nothing but her panties and a tank top…
That flipped his entire worldview on his head.
And not just because he realized he might have a thing for older women.
*MHA*
Elsewhile apart from Gokiburi Genki, with the Sweets Hero: Sugarman…
"Come on, Fishlips! Put your back into it! You wanna beat those arrogant bastards with their flashy OP bullshit Quirks into the ground? You wanna make 'em bleed like the pussies they are?! Well you're gonna have to sweat for it!" Kabutomushi, ever the brutal taskmaster, shouted as she struck him in the abdomen with a fresh rebar-loaded shinai.
Normally the teen would've felt the burn and the bruising as he was forced to lift just slightly above his weight class in barbell weights.
Of course, normally he didn't use his Quirk for hours on end (He signed the waver, they all saw it!) thanks to the IV drip giving him a constant allowance of Dextrose Solution, aka sugar.
Initially it was a bit of a problem because his brain function dropped to near-unsafe levels after the first couple of tries, but eventually she rounded up one of her interns with a weak Electric Quirk and had them give the fish-lipped teen a good zap across his inert brain matter whenever his brainwaves got too low.
Was that accurate science?
There wasn't any evidence to say her methods weren't working.
Although suffice it to say… Rikido Sato wouldn't be experiencing any world-shaking revelations in his Internship…