Using the Mark V exo-suit, Mei was shot forwards at a high speed. There was a determination in her movements propelling her towards the life signs that Deku had detected, and she could tell that adrenaline was guiding her more than her own thoughts.
Bursting through the doors of Gym Gamma, a minor piece of property damage she was sure she would hear more about later, there was a feeling of something latching on to the back of her armour, like metal cables wrapping around the torso. It was joined by the reassuring sound of the robot Deku yelling "Hooowee!" Mei wasn't sure how much help the little bot would be in this instance, but she was more than glad for them to attend.
In short time, thanks to Mark V's impressive speed, Mei stood at the entrance to the hero tryouts training ground, her path blocked by an imposing steel gate. Bending her knees a few times to test the hydraulics and after mentally calculating the necessary distance, she shot upwards and over the gate, landing square in the middle of a simulated urban environment. The scene was one of utter chaos and destruction.
Heart racing, unsure of what dangers lay ahead, she took a mental stock of what was around her. Buildings were crumbling, and damaged cars were littering the streets. It was difficult to ascertain what was set dressing or not, this damage could easily have been caused by some of the hero students. A loud sound like metal scraping against metal shook her out of her thoughts, pulling her focus toward the enormous spherical robot clambering its way down a street. Odds are, that was the culprit.
With her goal set, she took a starting line position and prepared to make a pursuit, when she started to hear Izuku's voice.
"-ei! Mei can y- fzzt- hear me?! Can you hear me?!"
Surprised by the sudden communication, she paused and answered. "Izuku?! I can hear you, but how?! I didn't think the suit had Comms?"
"Deku was designed to act as a transceiver, to help trapped injured make contact!" He explained, before his voice became a mixture of frustration and concern in equal measure, "What the hell were you thinking, Mei?!"
"You can be mad at me later!" She brushed aside the concern and got back to business, "Do you have visuals?!"
Slight panic surged through him as Izuku grasped how serious the situation must be for Mei to be so short with him, so he figured it would be best to dive into the role of guy-in-the-chair. "Yeah, I'm tapped into Deku's optics." Remotely navigating the robots cameras, he facepalmed at his next realisation. "Please don't tell me you're going toward the giant robot."
"Izuku, I'm going toward the giant robot," Mei deadpanned. After taking a corner at high-speed, Mei was almost attacked by a hero student with a strong muscular tail, who to his credit looked very apologetic. Izuku suggested asking him to assist, but before she could ask the boy had ducked away, presumably toward the clustered fighting that could be heard nearby.
"It looks like the lifesign is about 80 metres due west, you're almost there." Izuku informed, before his voice took on a decidedly dour tone, "I think you need to hurry, it's not looking great."
That was all the encouragement Mei needed. Running towards the street she assumed the tail boy had taken, she had to abruptly stop due to the sheer amount of action taking place down this road. This wasn't good, she had to get past all of this and she didn't have time. Looking around for clues on how to proceed, she did a few more mental calculations. "Alright, this should work."
"What should work?! Mei?! What should work?!"
Heading toward a building in the corner, she slid beneath the flailing arm of one robot, leapfrogged over another and sent it backwards into its brother, causing them to fall to the ground in a heap. Using the momentum, she tucked her legs in and smashed through a window.
"Stairs, I need stairs…" she said under her breath, managing to find some slightly dilapidated staircases that took her higher into the building. They led her to what she hoped was the top floor. Crouching, she relayed another message to Izuku. "If this roof ends up being made of steel, I'm going to end up looking like a slinky. Please don't make fun of my mangled body, okay Izuku?"
"Mei think about this for a second!"
"Already have." As Deku instinctively clambered down away from the blast zone, Mei rocketed skyward blasting through the concrete roof of the building. Now on the high rooftops, it was just a matter of running across them.
Eventually reaching the end of the row of buildings she skidded to a stop, feeling a brick dislodge and plummet to the ground below. Even with the suit's ability to heighten her athletics skill, the exercise she was doing caused blood to thunder in her ears, almost drowning out Izuku's words. "You're right near them now, Mei, see if you can spot anything."
Utilising her quirk, she scanned the surrounding scenery, eventually managing to spot an arm jutting out from amidst an array of rubble and debris. "Izuku, I found them. It looks like whoever it is got hit by a wall coming down."
"Oof," Izuku cringed, "Can you get down there? Remember the suit isn't designed to handle falls of that dist- and you're already in the air."
Mei had performed a beautiful swan dive off of the building, or she at least assumed it must look beautiful, it wasn't like she had ever tried to do a swan dive before. With an awkward front flip just before landing, which was absolutely intentional, she heard a concerning crack from the exo-suit's legs. A warning siren blared, indicating a critical failure.
Sluggishly trying to move the suit, as though their roles had been reversed, Mei kept an eye out for the giant robot and made her way towards the victim. Thankful that the arms still seemed to be working fine, she began lifting a particularly large piece of wall. She would just have to ignore the warning sirens.
Izuku's voice was harder to ignore. "Mei, your power is running dangerously low!"
"Yeah Izuku! I noticed!" She replied sarcastically, but still trying to heft the enormous piece of debris. As one side lifted, a large chunk split from the middle and smashed down upon the pile of rubble under which the victim lay.
"Izuku…" she said with fear in her voice, "I don't know what to do. I can't, I can't move all of this…"
Also feeling the panic and direness of the situation, Izuku tried his best to help "can you… can you send Deku in?"
Hearing their master's voice, Deku slithered off of the exosuit and managed to wriggle through a small opening in the rubble. Spreading their arms and legs out far and clamping them down in all four directions, Deku lifted the rubble ever so slightly, just enough to lift the wreckage off the victim and give them more room to breathe.
Thanking the Mark V for its valiant efforts, Mei initiated the eject sequence and left the armour to the side. On her hands and knees, she started to scoop out dust and gravel, trying to clear a path to remove whoever this was from their fate. With aching hands and knees and the worry of the still roaming robots hanging over her head, she felt a reassuring arm on her shoulder.
Power Loader had finally managed to catch up to her, panting slightly, he said "Hatsume, don't worry, we've all got your back. Sorry we took so long." Mei looked behind him to see an array of UA faculty members ready to lend some support.
Present Mic had joined Power Loader, along with Cementoss and Thirteen. Eraserhead glumly stood nearby with a difficult to read expression, and Recovery Girl was ready to offer her healing powers to whoever needed it.
"The giant robot," Mei began, before Power Loader alleviated her concerns.
"It's been disabled, don't worry. That robot was a stupid idea to begin with…" he muttered.
With the combined teamwork of the UA faculty, the victim - a brown haired girl with rosy cheeks - was rescued. Most of the success was the result of the staff, dab hands at missions of this calibre. Mei had been forced to sit out, Recovery Girl being concerned for her wellbeing. Despite Mei's initial protests that she felt fine, she eventually agreed to travel to the infirmary for treatment. On the condition they picked Izuku up on the way there.
—
The walls of the infirmary shook as Shoto Aizawa argued, "She flagrantly violated the rules, expulsion is warranted for such reckless behaviour."
Maijima, his foe in this war of words, retorted angrily, "That reckless behaviour just saved a life! Expelled?! We should be thanking her for acting so quickly!"
"Quick thinking isn't enough if there's no thought behind it." Aizawa glibly responded, his expression barely changing. That was the most irritating part of this for Power Loader. "She rushed in without considering the consequences, it was nothing but an act of poor judgement that this time happened to have a happy ending."
"Poor judgement?!" Maijima shouted incredulously. "Her split-second decision saved a life! Hatsume demonstrated better judgement than all of the pro-heroes here! Why did none of us even recognise there was an issue to begin with?!"
The argument was halted abruptly when Recovery Girl's commanding authority joined the collection of voices, "This is a hospital! Take this outside!" She demanded. She may be small, but her tone didn't leave them any room to defy her wishes. Maijima threw his arms up in annoyance at Aizawa's attitude and he stormed out of the building. Aizawa took off in the opposite direction.
The volume of the argument has bled through the thin walls of the infirmary, into the room in which Mei and Izuku sat perched on the edge of the bed that had been assigned to Mei. She didn't have many injuries for Recovery Girl to mend, some abrasions on her hands and she'd injured her knees somewhat. All in all, not bad considering the fact she'd just leapt off a building.
Emotionally, however, she wasn't really sure how she felt. Without knowing how they ended up that way, Izuku had a comforting grip on her hand.
Mei had been silent while the teachers debated, not wanting to listen but not being able to ignore it either. Now they were gone she finally felt able to say what was on her mind. "I don't regret what I did, Izuku."
On hearing this, Izuku didn't respond straight away. Rather, he let the comment linger for nearly thirty seconds before finally posing the question he'd been wanting to ask for some time.
"But why did you do it?" He looked her close in her crosshaired eyes, flicking between the two of them. Izuku ordinarily kept deep eye contact like this to a minimum. "You didn't need to do it, run off like that. There were so many heroes here who could have saved her instead.'' After a pause, he continued. "It didn't have to be you."
"It's difficult for me to explain,"
Izuku couldn't help laughing at this answer, even amidst the tired frustration he felt towards his friend. "Really, Mei? You're having trouble explaining something? Do you remember when we were 9 years old, you explained to me how to take apart and reassemble a jet engine? You did it using LEGO!"
Mei threw up her hands "Machines are completely different! I can understand those because everything fits together as it's supposed to, there's order to it. I can't explain my own brain, it's… it's something else entirely!"
"Come on, please just try," Izuku gently pressed.
Mei sighed and began, "Well, it was like… I didn't think at all. I just… Ran."
This seemed to remind Izuku of something he'd read before in the past. With a slightly raised eyebrow, he asked her "Like your body moved on its own?"
"Yes, exactly!" Mei exclaimed. "I'd never been in a situation like this before, so I had no idea what I'd do or how I'd react!"
He thought about this answer for a moment, but something about it seemed off. He had to pry just a little further to really understand Mei's train of thought. "But you'd been with me lots of times when I was hunting heroes."
She quickly interjected with a little smile "Izuku, choice of words, we're in a hero school, remember."
"Ah r-right," Izuku corrected himself. "I meant when I was tracking heroes down to give them what they deserve. Anyway, you'd never rush in to help anyone those times."
"That's because every time we were near pro heroes, they were already helping people or fighting the bad guys." Mei explained. "But here, everyone was hesitating."
"They would have gotten to her."
Mei looked at him seriously, "But when would they have gotten to her? I don't know how much time we had to get there before something really bad happened. She wasn't moving when we pulled her out of that rubble. Recovery Girl wouldn't tell me anything, but she didn't look good. What if I'd been just a little slower? What if nobody had gone to find her?"
"Mei, no, I'm not letting you think that way." Izuku interjected firmly. "If you had been a little slower, do you know what would have happened? You'd just have been a little slower. That's all. The girl would still have been saved, and you would still have played a crucial role in their rescue."
Determined, Mei declared, "Next time, I'll be even faster. I've been brainstorming all these new babies I can incorporate into the Mark V's systems!" Her tone shifted to one of excitement as she saw herself working on the new tech. "Okay, picture this," she said, waving her arm in front of her face as if visualising the words written across a banner, "Rocket boots."
Izuku couldn't help laughing at the suggestion, "Rocket boots? Don't you think that's a bit… I don't know, cliche?"
"Cliche?!" She retorted in a mock outrage, dramatically covering her mouth with her hand before rolling her eyes. "Well… yeah, probably! Fine, what about… um, boost boots?"
"Boost boots sounds good." Izuku agreed, smiling
"Izuku, can I tell you something?"
"Of course, what's up?"
"Your hand is absolutely freezing. It's like I'm holding an ice pack, it's super weird."
"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" Izuku loosened his grip on her hand and started flexing his fingers trying to get some blood into his fingertips, "My arm has been feeling really weird all day, I think my backpack might be cutting off the circulation."
"Huh, weird"
"Yeah it sort of feels like I've been holding it under cold water for a while."
"That doesn't sound good, Izuku. Do you want to ask Recovery Girl about it? I mean, we are in a hospital." Mei suggested.
He shook his hands frantically trying to get the idea out of her head, "No, no! I don't want to bother her with this! She's probably really busy!"
"Yeah you're probably right, I shouldn't press the call button on the bed or anythi- oops I pressed it."
"Mei!"
—
With a gentle and caring "Mmmmmmmwah!" Recovery Girl completed her examination of Izuku's arm. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't find any glaring issues that explain the problem he was having. She'd used her quirk as a last ditch effort to help him feel a little better, but it seemed to just make Izuku feel much sleepier than he was before.
Recovery Girl, with a hint of disappointment in her voice, admitted, "Well dear, I've tried my best. But I couldn't find anything specific causing your discomfort. What sort of an exercise routine do you have?" She asked, rummaging through her belongings to find a piece of chocolate to hand over to him.
"Oh, thank you." He said gratefully, holding the chocolate in his hand rather than eating it while talking to her. "Um, I guess most of my exercise is just heavy lifting? You know, lab work and all…" he was a little embarrassed about his lack of physical training, it always felt less important to him than building gadgets.
"You might want to think about it, we don't want you coming last at the sports festival!" She teased. "For starters try some stretching exercises in the mornings and evenings. And get that chocolate eaten!" She demanded, also handing a piece to Mei.
"Oh, right! Sorry!" He popped the chocolate in his mouth and ate it like she'd given it to him as a homework assignment. Izuku always aced his homework assignments.
"If you have any more issues I'm always somewhere on campus dearie, don't be afraid to come and see me."
At that very moment, there was a distinct ratatat-tat coming from the lowest part of the door. Swung open wide, the sight of the petite, rodent-like principal Nezu greeted them. Cheerfully, he said, "Am I a hamster? Am I a bear? Perhaps both, perhaps neither! All I can say is I'm your adorable principal!" and he flashed a peace sign with one of his cutesy paws.
"Ah, principal!" Recovery Girl said, "I wondered when you'd be coming around. Well kiddies, have fun" she said, chortling as she left.
Izuku, alarmed at the presence of this authority figure, leapt to his feet in a completely straight position looking dead ahead. "Good afternoon sir! I'm Izuku Midoriya!"
From her seat on the bed, Mei gave a little half wave, "What's up? I'm Mei!" She knew she could probably do with being a little more polite, but she figured what else could she really do today to make things worse on herself?
"M-Mei, you can't! I'm sorry principal Nezu, please don't expel her!"
The principal did a little giggle. "I can see the stories I heard about you too were quite accurate! There's no need to fret, however, nobody is getting expelled. Today, anyway!"
Mei looked Nezu in the eyes, perplexed . "You're not going to kick me out?"
He let out a hearty chuckle, "Hohoho! How could I possibly expel someone who hasn't even had the chance to truly begin? That would be utterly illogical! It would be so much extra paperwork!"
"But, Mr Aizawa..?"
With a sly grin, he explained, "Mr Aizawa is indeed a highly passionate educator! However, there are times when he can be a little too passionate." He whispered this last part from behind the cover of his paw, as if sharing a secret. "I'm sure once you get to know him you'll become fast friends!"
A sense of relief washed over the two of them, but Mei still felt like something was going unsaid. Despite her best interests, she admitted, "But I used unregistered support gear in public, I broke the law…"
Izuku couldn't understand why she would choose to incriminate herself, but he felt it was a brilliant display of honesty and integrity that the principal would likely admire.
Nezu responded with a smile, "On the contrary! Since your gear was employed during a UA sanctioned event, it was, in fact, entirely registered! Not to mention, the area where you utilised it had been designated as a teaching zone, so your usage of the gear was completely legal!" His smile loosened slightly as he continued, "This brings me to my next point quite well. You did, for lack of a better term, infiltrate the hero students' tryouts."
Appearing apologetic, Mei conceded, "Oh, yes, I did do that…"
"Indeed you did!" Nezu confirmed with a nod. "Regrettably, I must inform you of some unfortunate news."
"Whatever it is, I'll accept the punishment." Mei bravely asserted.
Nezu revealed, "During your trial, you only managed to defeat a mere two robots, although you did earn some rescue points. Nonetheless, your overall score was insufficient to secure a spot in the hero course."
Mei was stunned, "I…What? But I wasn't trying to-"
"You weren't trying to fail! Yes I'm well aware." Nezu interrupted. "But, my dear students, such is life." He paused for a moment, allowing his words to sink in. "Take pride in the fact you gave it everything you had, and remember that this experience does not define your future! You still have a promising path ahead of you in the support department!" He bounced over closer to Mei and Izuku and gave them both hearty handshakes, lingering slightly at Izuku's cold hand. "Well, that wraps up our discussion for today. Rest assured, I shall be observing both of you with tremendous interest!" With that, Nezu executed a graceful pivot on his heel and started to make his exit, before turning back at the last second. "Oh yes, I almost forgot! Your remarkable support gear is currently being kept in our workshop, a much better place for it than that beach, hm?"
Izuku's mouth began to open as if to say something. However, he was interrupted by Mei, who had a pressing question for the principal before he left.
"Sir, the injured student… Can we go see her, please?" she inquired with genuine concern.
"Perhaps soon! Though for the time being, I imagine your parents would be quite concerned for your whereabouts!"
"Huh?" Izuku said, glancing at the clock on the wall. "But it's only- Jumpin Best Jeanist! Mei it's nearly six!" He grabbed her by her wrist and began guiding her hurriedly out the door "Thank you so much, principal!"
"Yes, thank you so much!" Mei agreed, being pulled along.
—
On the chilly evening outside the infirmary, Mei found herself scrolling through the train timetables on her phone, trying to figure out if they'd be able to make it home soon. "It looks like the last train is in half an hour. If we hurry, we should be able to catch it."
Izuku hesitated before speaking, he seemed cautious, like this had been pressing on his mind for a while. "Mei, earlier on, what you said..."
But before he could finish, Mei interrupted him, her attention still on her phone. "Ah, crap! But if we get that one, I won't be able to get a bus from your place." She absentmindedly continued scrolling, looking for a better option.
"Mei, what you said earlier," Izuku tried again, his voice more insistent this time.
Mei looked up, her brow furrowed in confusion. "What did I say earlier? About the boost boots? We could definitely use those to get home faster, but I've barely even started work on those babies."
Izuku swallowed, and he decided to just say what was on his mind before he lost the opportunity. "No, not that... You said 'next time I'll be even faster.'"
"Oh, right," Mei replied quietly.
"What did you mean by 'next time'? Why would there be a NEXT time?" Izuku questioned, his eyes searching Mei's face for an answer.
"Obviously just a slip of the tongue!" She blurted out, trying to sweep the question under the rug.
"Mei..." Izuku pressed, but she cut him off.
"Izuku, can we, can we not right now? It's been a long day, and I'd really like to get home."
Before the atmosphere could get any more awkward, the two of them were approached by a figure emerging from the darkness. It was Power Loader, out of his hero costume, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "If you two need a lift, I'd be more than happy to drive you home."
