It was convenient that Izuku's and Ochako's apartment was on the U.A. campus. As such, stopping by for Izuku to change took very little time. While Izuku changed, Tsu sent a text to Tokoyami and Bakugo. Informing them that she and Izuku would meet them at the restaurant. When Izuku emerged from his apartment, he dressed in smart black and greens, his hair marginally more tidy. They made their way to her car, and before long, were cruising along the roads of Mufustafu.
"So, I've been meaning to ask for a while now." Tsu started to say during the drive. "What do you plan on using that suit for?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Izuku stiffen, one fist clench, and his eye narrow as he gazed out the window.
"The development of a treatment for Ochako's disease... it's not gone anywhere." Izuku said eventually.
"They haven't told me, but I can tell... they think the only chance at saving her lies in finding Aria Lin. She has complete control over her blood, and since it is a blood-based quirk disease from her, they think she could cure Ochako." Izuku said quietly, the anger and pain of the situation bleeding through in his voice.
"So that's why you've been pouring yourself into that suit..." Tsu said, more to herself, things falling into place.
"Originally, I wanted to fix it so that I could be more useful, I... I never want to be that helpless ever again." Izuku said.
"Even with that suit, it wouldn't be enough to take on Aria alone," Tsu warned.
"I know; when we find her I'll be there though. I'm not giving up on Ochako." Izuku said.
"I know you won't," Tsu said, and they fell silent for the rest of the drive.
When they arrived at the restaurant the sunset was in full swing, the summer day ensuring the light would persist for a bit longer. They would need to walk a little bit to get to the restaurant, but Izuku supposed the walk and fresh air would do him good.
When they got to the restaurant, Izuku looked up at the sign, Sugita Sushi—well known for being a higher-class sushi establishment, and allowing for private rooms. The sight made Izuku hesitate for a moment.
"Hm? What's wrong?" Tsu asked, as she got to the door and realized he was lagging.
"This place is pretty expensive isn't it?" Izuku said but quickly joined her regardless.
Tsu just smiled at him.
"Don't worry about it Izuku. Tokoyami and I don't go out often, I grew up being a cook helping my mom with my younger siblings so we save a lot of money. That aside though, we are both paid a fair amount of money. Between both of those, we can occasionally afford things like this." Tsuyu said, guiding Izuku into the establishment and waiting for a brief moment as a waiter came over to them.
Tsu explained they were with Bakugo and Tokoyami who had arrived earlier, and he promptly guided them to the private room. Inside, Bakugo and Tokoyami were sitting on opposite ends of the table, a bowl of ochazuke in front of both of them, along with menus. The waiter ensured they would receive theirs momentarily, then left.
Izuku took his place beside Bakugo, and Tsu here's by Tokoyami.
"Sorry I kept you both waiting," Izuku said, apologizing to Bakugo and Tokoyami.
Bakugo merely waved his apology aside.
"It's quite all right. We know how immersed you can get in your work," Tokoyami said.
"I would have been on time, but we worked out the final problem I was having with the suit and lost track of time," Izuku explained
"You've completed your work?" Tokoyami asked, leaning forward, interested.
Bakugo also looked interested, putting down his chopsticks and looking at Izuku as well.
Izuku spent the next few minutes explaining everything to them, going into slightly more technical detail than he did in the car, feeling a bit more comfortable.
"At this point, the only thing holding us back is the shipment of Gallium. David put a rush order on it, so hopefully we will have it in a week or so. Ordering that much gallium isn't common. Once we have it, we can pump it into the suit and hopefully, it'll all work." Izuku said, partaking of his ochazuke.
"When you get it, what do you say to putting it through a couple of exercises with me?" Bakugo asked, eyes briming with excitement.
"Only if you agree to not use your quirk, I don't want it damaged at all until I have a better idea of its limits. Its combat capabilities may be severely diminished, we don't know how much of its power came from its construction versus the quirk paired with it. It will be a great stress test either way." Izuku said.
"All right, I'll limit my quirk to enhancement then," Bakugo said, nodding.
With that topic settled for the time being, they chatted about a couple of mundane topics until the waiter returned to take their orders. When they gave him their orders Tokoyami turned to Bakugo.
"How have things been in your city?" He asked.
"Problematic." He said with a growl. "With the economy looking good, crime has been on the decline however slight it might be. At the very least, violent crime is going down more noticeably." leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table.
"That also happens to be the problem, however. There is a lot of social discontent that the powers that be are slowly marginalizing the middle class. Any of you hear about the downsizing happening in a lot of companies?" He asked them in return.
Tsu and Tokoyami both nodded. "It's not happened at U.A. but I heard that a few of the support gear companies we work with have downsized," Tsu said.
"It stems from the lowered restrictions of hiring and using quirks for work." Tokoyami said, speaking more to Tsu than Bakugo.
"I heard about that, they wanted to get the clean-up and restoration efforts moving faster, alongside the economy," Izuku said nodding slightly.
Tokoyami nodded in affirmation. "It worked well, however, the problems that are arising are the same kind of problems that led to the regulations being put in place to begin with," Tokoyami said ominously.
"Destro..." Izuku said quietly, clenching a fist in his lap, remembering the conflict at Deika City.
Tokoyami nodded gravely.
"It's exactly the sort of thing he pushed for. We're seeing people with superior quirks, taking jobs and causing downsizing. It's been a slow process, but the longer it goes on, the worse it will get." Tokoyami said.
Izuku's mind went to those like him. Those without quirks, or quirks so weak that the difference between the two was marginal. He was lucky, while most were poor or faced discrimination which he was intimately familiar with. With the current changes, their position would become more tenues.
"And if the government rolls it back, then the recovery will slow down," Bakugo says nodding with an annoyed look.
"The only reason why clean-up has progressed as quickly as it has is because companies have hired people with quirks that can speed it up considerably without the use of heavy machinery. With the low numbers of heroes, most are occupied with crime control and assisting the police and can't help often." Tokoyami continued to explain.
"From the government's perspective, it's a lose-lose situation," Izuku said bitterly.
"Sadly so," Tokoyami said with a sigh.
With that, the conversation died down as their entrees arrived. The next while was occupied with them all enjoying the sushi, the mood lightening considerably. Dark Shadow even showed up, yawning and promptly taking one of Tokoyami's pieces of sushi.
"So Bakugo," Tsu started to say mid-way through their dinner. "How are you feeling about your appearance at U.A.? You'll be there in two more days, yes?"
Bakugo nodded, swallowing his sushi before speaking. "Yeah, I'll be doing something similar to what All Might did way back when we were students." He said.
"That's a wonderful idea!" Tsu said happily.
"What was your first lesson with All Might like?" Izuku asked.
"It was a practical combat lesson, All Might wasn't much for classrooms." Bakugo started to say.
"He divided into teams of two and pitted us against each other as heroes vs villains within an indoor urban setting. Heroes had to reach a bomb and 'disarm it', with subduing the villain team as secondary." Bakugo explained.
"So you plan on doing the same?" Izuku asked.
"Pretty much, but I plan on altering it to match the current climate," Bakugo said.
"I'm sure the students will enjoy it," Tsu said.
"Whatever," Bakugo grumbled.
At that, they went back to their food, and before long it was all gone. The dinner came to a close and well-satisfied with the time they spent, the four walked to Tsu's car. Tsu dropped Izuku off at the gates to U.A. and then drove back home.
.
.
For Izuku, the next couple of days were occupied with various tests. Before they pumped gallium into the suit, various tests and simulations needed to be run, depending on the results, they would need to make minor alterations and adjustments to the suit. The last thing they wanted was for the Gallium to corrode something, or start leaking. Once they had the gallium, they would need to combine it with hyper-fine copper and iron powder to ensure supercooling and increased conductivity. Then they would have to pressurize and vacuum seal the suit's internals.
It was on the second day, Izuku still knee-deep in simulations when David approached him in the afternoon.
"Izuku you got a moment?" he asked.
"Yes?" Izuku replied, looking up from the computer.
"Bakugo's "class" is about to begin, you wanted to observe it didn't you?" David asked, pointing at the clock.
"Ah! Yes, I did, thank you!" Izuku said, standing up.
He took a minute to automate his current simulation then made his way out of the lab. He jogged to the area Bakugo had reserved for his "class", an urban environment just like the lesson Bakugo had had with All Might when he had been a student. Izuku must have arrived a few minutes late, however, because when he arrived the students of 1A were already divided up into two teams, one with seven and another with 5. Then Bakugo lifted one hand and released a series of explosions toward the clump of buildings he was facing. The explosions ripped through the buildings, blowing chunks or holes into most, and collapsing a handful entirely. Then he turned around, facing the students.
"Team 1, you have three minutes to make your way to your objective, then another five to prepare yourselves. MOVE!" He said, then shouted the last word so suddenly they all jumped and dashed into the maze of concrete.
When they had all disappeared, Bakugo faced the second group.
"Team 2, you have five minutes to organize and get ready, then you're heading in," Bakugo said and walked to the sidelines where the observation booth was situated.
Izuku followed him, Bakugo looking up when he opened the door.
"Was wondering if you were going to show up. Take a seat then." He said then fell into one of the chairs in front of an array of monitors.
Izuku took a seat beside him and looked over the monitors briefly. Most were showing preset feeds of specific areas or rooms, while several others were from observation drones deployed to follow and observe the students as they moved.
"So what kind of exercise is it?" Izuku asked.
"Team 1 has a set of objectives they need to accomplish, they have the advantage of starting in the ruined urban environment. They need to secure and transport several objects from the marked locations and bring them either back here, or to one of three designated drop-off points. Team 2 has the same objective, but they are starting on the outside and with a quicker deployment." Bakugo explained, pointing to several camera feeds where partially buried red balls could be seen.
"I didn't tell Team 1 that Team 2 will deploy before their prep time is up. I expect Team 2 to crash their party right as or just before their prep time is up due to travel time. Being outnumbered is common for heroes and villains, conversely, villains and heroes both also have to deal with timetables never working out nicely. I want both sides to be unsure whether or not they are heroes or villains, I don't want to attach a tag to either group. It's also why the objective is so generic, both villains and heroes could find themselves doing something similar." Bakugo explained, observing the group's actions.
"You've put a lot of thought into this," Izuku said, a little impressed.
"I don't do things half-assed," Bakugo grunted.
A minute later, Bakugo signaled Team 2 and the exercise began. The group of five ran off into the urban maze. The leader's quirk came to life and he quickly outstripped the rest of his party disappearing into the maze. The result was that the leader burst into the clearing where Team 1 was located, far earlier than they expected. He didn't stick around though, he grabbed one of the two red balls right out of the hands of a shocked student and leaped over a pile of pile of debris and into the streets. The chosen leader of Team 1, had three give chase.
The remaining four secured their ball and ran into an alleyway, a couple of seconds later, the rest of Team 2 burst into the clearing. They caught sight of Team 1 as they disappeared around a corner and gave chase. For the next couple of minutes, it was a game of cat and mouse in the streets and alleyways. At one point, Team 1 did a feint, and passed their ball to another during the distraction. Team 2 missed the swap, the one with the ball kept running, while the others turned and fully engaged the rest in an attempt to buy time. It quickly became to Team 2 that the person who had the ball initially no longer had it. Bogged down by the confrontation however, it took them several second to get someone through there and give chase. They'd bought enough time, however, and Team 2 was unable to catch the runner before they reached the drop-off point.
Meanwhile, Team 2's leader continued his run through the streets, pursued by three members of Team 1. This game of cat and mouse, however, was far more one-sided, Team 2's leader easily outstripped his pursuers with his speed quirk, and delivered the ball to the drop-off point. He tried to double back and support his team members, but he only managed to get halfway there when the blaring sound of a buzzer went off, signaling the end of the exercise.
The teams trudged their way back to the starting area, where Bakugo was waiting for them. Izuku stayed behind in the observation booth, while Bakugo went over the exercise with the students. It was mostly Bakugo criticizing various aspects of both teams' strategies, though he did give a couple of points of praise to each team.
When he was done, he sent the students to their next class and returned to the booth.
"I think they did pretty well," Izuku said.
"They did fine, lots of room for improvement though," Bakugo said.
"True, but they demonstrated decent teamwork at the least. No arguing about who would lead each team." Izuku pointed out.
Bakugo merely grunted, and the two of them left the booth.
"Your train leaves tomorrow morning right?" Izuku asked while they walked.
"Yeah, Tsu's going to drop me off on the way to U.A. but Nezu wanted to, meet with me later today, just after classes wrap up," Bakugo said.
"Probably wants to talk about the lesson you gave," Izuku replied.
"Yeah, that's what I figured. He'll either compliment me and ask me to do it again in the future, or chew me out and not." Bakugo said with a shrug.
"Would you return for more lessons?" Izuku asked.
Bakugo didn't respond immediately, but his eyes narrowed as he mulled it over.
"Probably. I didn't dislike it, and I think it's important. All Might isn't around anymore, so it falls on us to pick up the slack." He said.
Sometimes, it surprised Izuku just how much Bakugo had changed.