"Your internships are coming to a close."

Kamui Woods stood before both Ashido and Hitoshi in the lobby of his agency. "At times like this, it's good to look back and reconsider things." He paced back and forth. "What you may have learned here. What you've experienced with us. What may have brought you here in the first place." He chuckled, "Though, I admit, I didn't expect you both to experience as much as you have."

"I'm thankful for it," said Hitoshi.

"In hindsight, it was kinda neat." Ashido smiled, "Especially, learning about all your patrol stuff."

"A good thing to take from this journey." He joked, "It will be half of your job." He cleared his throat. "If you'll allow me, I'd like to ask you both a question." He asked, "What brought you here? Not to me, this agency, but to this career. What made you want to become a Hero?"

Hitoshi thought about it, but the answer came to him simply. "It's all I ever wanted to be - in spite of whatever people said I could do."

"Kinda the same." Ashido fiddled with her hands. "I just wanted to help people, and some people thought I could."

"What made you realize it was possible?" asked Woods.

"Getting accepted into Shiketsu, really," said Hitoshi. "I tried U.A. first, but it kinda made me think it was all impossible."

Ashido turned, "What? You did? You never mentioned that."

Embarrassment clutched his heart for a moment. "Well…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's… It's because I flunked it." He sighed, putting his hands on his hips. "There was a practical exam that was worth half the score of the entire entrance exam." He shook his head. "Set us against giant robots, and I… I couldn't do anything…" His gaze fell, "I practically just sat on my hands and watched everyone else fight them." He frowned, letting out a breath. "Felt like a waste of time…

I had put in that application for Shiketsu as a back-up plan… on a whim." He shrugged, "These are prestigious schools, you know?" His head teetered, "If they didn't accept me… I don't know… Probably would've just ended up in General Studies or some other school entirely."

"It's a bit of a shock for UA to ignore someone with a Quirk like yours," said Woods.

Ashido's cheeks puffed as she huffed, "Sounds like a bunch of idiots to me."

Hitoshi chuckled, "Thanks." He cleared his throat before offering to Ashido. "You?"

"Ah, well…" She shrugged, "Some people saw me and my Quirk as a good fit for Hero stuff, and I was always interested." She thought for a moment. "But… I guess what made me think I really was, well…" She fidgeted with her hands. "When I was in middle school, this huge… thing, or man, was standing over my friends, asking where he could find some place. It was a Hero's agency…

He was wearing this cloak and all you could see were his eyes and his bottom jaw jutting out from his hood. He had these spiky teeth and this voice like… gravel." Her jaw shifted, "His giant hand was digging into the brick wall over their heads, cracking it like nothing." Her arms crossed. "They were so scared that they couldn't answer him and he either didn't care or understand that he was why they weren't answering his stupid question."

"What happened?" asked Hitoshi.

She rubbed her bicep. "At first, I… was standing on the other side of a crosswalk… I didn't know what to do. My knees were shaking and it was like I had this fire under my skin… but…" Her face contorted before she shook her head and shrugged, "I don't know… My body just… moved on its own."

"I jumped in front of them, and… told him what he wanted to know." She let out a disbelieving chuckle. "He thanked me… and walked off. We were all so scared. We cried, and I couldn't stand up for a while."

Woods stepped forward. "That sounds… haunting. Was that reported?"

"They didn't want to." She corrected, "We didn't. If he found out someone did, he might've come back." She shrugged, "The Hero Agency he wanted to go to never said that anything happened - Springer, I think?"

"I understand," said Woods. "That was very brave of you."

Ashido smiled, "Thanks… I didn't really feel that brave at the time, but…" She took a breath. "It made me realize that… I had it in me. For real."

"It's a swelling feeling, isn't it?" asked Woods. "Rising from your gut."

"Like a burp?" said Ashido with a confused look.

"Sure." chuckled Woods. "That feeling of not knowing what you're capable of, but knowing that you're capable of more."

Hitoshi and Ashido shared a considerate look before looking forward, nodding, and agreeing.

Woods chuckled at their reaction. "If you leave this agency with anything, leave holding that feeling close."

Confident smiles rose across both of their faces before Hitoshi said, "Yes, sir."

Ashido saluted, "Aye, aye!"

Woods nodded, "Good." He turned, "Come, today will be our last patrol."

"Aw…" pouted Ashido.

Hitoshi offered, "There's always next semester."

Woods held the front doors open for them. "Well, I wasn't going to assume, but we'd be happy to have you both."

Hitoshi felt his head rise a little higher as they stepped onto the sidekick. "A swelling feeling, huh…?"

-XXX-

"How's this?"

Yu was shown a drawing of herself on the pages of Midoriya's burnt notebook - no, he didn't tell her why it was burnt. The drawing itself was decent, but the image of her wasn't the important part. Instead, she was supposed to focus on the new costume drawn on her. "It doesn't look all that different," she said before tilting her head. "But, it kinda looks like a motorist's suit, too?"

He shrugged, "They're protective. Saved drivers and riders from falls, scraps, and even fires." He had an apron and tool belt atop his uniform.

"What's your solution for the material problem?" she asked as she recalled what she told him about her Quirk. "Gigantification… Basically: I get really tall… Caveat…? If I hold a person's hand, they don't grow big with me… If I held her phone, it wouldn't grow big with me either… What's the difference between those and my costume…?"

He raised his head. "The current material you use is amazing… And, that's in spite of it being completely organic. It's why you roll with the Support Company you do."

"Roll… with?" she echoed with a smirk.

"Shush." He pushed on his stool, rolling over to the textile printer with the newly loaded materials. "I don't know how, but apart from the color dye they use, there doesn't seem to be even a hint of a synthetic element." He shrugged, "Honestly, I don't know what this is made of. There's no material like it. A part of me thinks it's a Quirk."

"Could it be?"

"Anything's possible, but… in order to sell the material, they would have to obtain a patent. Is the patent in the person's name or the Company's name?" He pulled out his phone, showing the text-filled screens. "The file on your costume doesn't even name it…"

"But, it has to be in the person's right?"

"Yeah… Yeah, yeah, probably, uh… Anyway, um, the cons of your costume are that you can still get stabbed, shot, set on fire, and/or electrocuted."

Yu sarcastically remarked, "Wonderful image."

"I disagree," he said. "So, that's the problem; what's the solution?" He shrugged, "We add more protection."

"Okay… How?"

"To start, rubber and cotton are organic materials."

"Cotton?"

Midoriya clarified, "Cotton can be chemically treated to be fire resistant or retardant. I know there's a difference, but the articles I've read end up giving me a headache so I'm not gonna bother."

She nodded, "Rubber for the electrocution."

"As a secondary layer between two others. Doesn't mean you should start stomping on high tension wires, though."

Yu waved her hand. "Insurance would kill me before the electricity would."

"Lastly, the other two problems." His head teetered, "There's Kevlar. It's organic, but it's also a synthetic polymer. I'm not sure if it'll fly." He rolled back over to her. "Luckily, we have a substitute."

Yu leaned on her palm over her propped-up elbow. "Oh?"

"First, what makes Kevlar perfect for bulletproof and knife-proof vests?"

She was resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Okay… What?"

"It's high tensile strength-to-weight ratio."

Yu tilted her head.

He set his phone on the table, pushing it forward. "Your company boasts an extremely high tensile strength."

"It can substitute for Kevlar."

"From research, we'd need about twenty layers at minimum for that armor quality," said Midoriya. "Though, that could go up depending on the actual number for that tensile strength. Which this hundred-and-fifty-eight page file on your costume doesn't give me."

"It says it has high tensile strength, but it doesn't say how much."

"No, which is annoying, and makes what I'm saying completely theoretical."

"Can you find that out?" asked Yu.

He nodded, "I have to directly test the material, but I can get a number."

She waved her hand. "Have at it."

Midoriya's hands smacked on his knees akin to drum-roll before spinning off his stool. He practically skipped over to the textile printer to get a sample from one of their material spools. After using his measuring tape, he pulled a knife from his belt to cut a sample free. With a long strip of the fabric in hand, he made his way back over to the worktable.

Yu raised a brow, "Hey, you gonna fix up your costume while we're here?"

He froze for a second. "Oh, uh…" He shook his head, waving his hand. "We already loaded your material in the printer."

"You just need to fix up your helmet and chestplate." Her head tilted, "That's a different printer, right?"

Midoriya's jaw shifted, "I guess it is…" He stared at the fabric before slowly nodding. "Y-Yeah, I should…" He turned walking over to, indeed, a different printer. He tapped on the screen and the machine came to life. Though, at a certain point, Midoriya just froze there, seemingly just staring at the screen.

"Midoriya?" called Yu.

Another tap on the screen and the machine whirled to life. "All done." He fidgeted with his hands, waving them around and flicking his fingers. "Back to work…"

"Something's bothering him…" she thought. "He's helped… It'd be nice to return the favor…" Her head tilted, pondering, "How do I… do that…?" She looked back in her hall of memories for some example to follow. Her brow twitched when she thought, "Please don't tell me the only heart-to-hearts I've had are teenagers consoling me…"

"How do I get him to open up…?" she pondered. "Tell him about my favorite Hero…?" She gave a flat look at nothing in particular. "No… He was in the room when I told Pinky about it… Knowing him, he probably absorbed all of that without even paying attention… He already told me why he wanted to be a Hero… Just who he wanted to be…" She shook her head. "He's already freaking out in that brain of his… Should give him some space… For now…"

-XXX-

"Peanuts?"

"I'm good. Thanks," said Denki as the train made its way to Hosu City. Overwatch was his escort in this matter, and they both knew that Ingenium was waiting for them there. The train was hissing to a rickety stop and both of them stood up.

"What do you think is gonna be today's… assignment?" asked Denki as they made their way through the station.

"Standard patrol," Kitagawa replied. "It's unlikely that the Native case has resulted in something actionable with a Hero at this time."

"Unless there was a break in the case," he said with dramatic flair.

"Yes," she stated.

"Oh, cool," replied Denki. "Does this lady crack a smile ever…?" He cleared his throat. "Um, you know, I don't know much about this stuff, uh… What would actually be a break in the case?"

"For our involvement, it would be the discovery of a potentially occupied location." She elaborated, "Where a villain may hide or where they may hide something valuable."

"You don't think they found something by now?" he asked as they descended to street level.

"Investigations take time."

A man in uniform waved at them as they walked down the sidewalk. "Chargebolt, Overwatch."

"Whoa… He called me by my Hero name…! That's really cool…!"

Kitagawa nodded, "Officer."

"I'm here on behalf of Ingenium," he said. "He's assisting in an operation about the Native case. I'm here to escort you there." He coughed, "Chargebolt, in particular." He held out a folded piece of paper to Kitagawa. "Our radio frequency and location."

She took it, nodding, "Understood." She stepped away, pulling her wings into place. The turbines on them whirled to life as she began to hover in place. She paused, turning to say, "Oh, and I stand corrected, Chargebolt," before soaring into the sky above.

Denki turned to the officer. "Am I supposed to–I mean, am I helping here?"

"No, Ingenium made it strictly clear that you are solely an observer. You'll be with me and a few others in the Operation Center." He gestured with his arm. "Please, my car is this way."

"Okay…" he muttered, following the officer to a police car. "This may not be as cool as I thought…"

Denki entered the passenger seat as the officer slipped behind the wheel. "So… If I can know… What, uh… what's happening?"

"I'm sure you know of the Native case," said the officer. "We found where Native was initially attacked. Then followed up on a work van that was reported stolen in Kansai which was spotted at that location near a bar and Native's agency. From there, we were able to track the van heading to an abandoned QCC on the edge of the city the morning of discovery."

"Wow… We're close to catching whoever did this then."

"That's the plan."

"You guys found them fast."

"It's all because of an anonymous tip." The officer explained, "Someone called the workplace in Kansai about the van potentially being stolen. It was meant to be in the lot, but when someone looked, gone. Must've been missing for weeks. Police in Kansai followed the plate all over the place before it eventually landed in Hosu. Then they told us where it was spotted. Two and two together, and we're led to this QCC."

"Whoa…" He then hesitantly asked, "What's a QCC? It sounds really familiar."

"Quirk Containment Center."

"Oh! Right, those creepy abandoned buildings," said Denki.

"It's always difficult to imagine how many of them we have in Japan…"

"Hey, uh, is it okay to tell me all this stuff?"

The officer took a breath. "I understand you're still a student, Chargebolt. However, you're also Ingenium's sidekick. You may not get paid for this work, but you're here like the rest of us." He shrugged, "As far as I'm concerned, you're a Hero until Ingenium says otherwise."

"O-Oh…"

The officer smiled, "No pressure, of course!" He smacked the younger man's shoulder, joking, "After all, you're still on the bench with the rest of us, too!"

Denki forced a chuckle. "R-Right…"

-XXX-

"This van…" thought Tensei. He was settled in an Armored Deployment Vehicle. He had its entire passenger compartment to himself. It was settled a ways away from their target location. In his hand, he held a picture of that van that potentially led them to the villain behind this murder. "Potentially other murders…"

That image was of the van's rear doors with its plate in perfect view on the bumper below. Though, that wasn't quite what he focused on, but instead, he stared at the date and time burned into its corner. "On that day… Before this picture was taken… The Hero Killer was seen breaking into and escaping from a police station near Shiketsu High…"

"A longshot…" he muttered to himself. He straightened in his seat as he heard the doors of the ADV hiss and clunk as its locks and handles shifted.

When the doors swung open, he saw a familiar face of Hashida Itaru. "Here you are, ya big idiot," he said.

Tensei stood up. "Hashida?"

The man climbed into the vehicle, shutting the door behind him. "It's just me - if ya worried."

"What're you doing here?"

Hashida laughed with a tinge of irritation on his tongue and the point of his finger. "I could ask you the same." He shook his head. "There's no 'jurisdiction' for Heroes, but it's mighty rude of you to step on Hosu City's Heroes' toes like this."

Tensei held up the photo. "Itaru, this could be–"

"I damn well know," spat Hashida. "Why do you think I'm here?" he questioned. "If the Ingenium is going off on a revenge hunt for a villain, it looks bad on all of Team Idaten." He pressed his finger against Tensei's chestplate. "Vengeance is good for books, film, and TV. We don't exercise it in real life!"

"I didn't want anyone else getting hurt," murmured Tensei as he sat back down.

"Part of the job. And I thought we had a good, clear conversation about what our job was. Our role."

"It was…"

"Then what changed?" asked Hashida as he took his own seat.

Tensei sighed, learning forward and propping his elbows on his knees. "I couldn't sleep…" He felt Hashida's attention focused on him, unwavering. He took in a breath, biting back a sigh before raking his hand through his hair. "Whenever it's dark and I close my eyes, I'm back in that alley…"

"Stain."

"Standing over me with that damn sword…" He sniffed as he sat up, shaking his head. "But there was no happy ending. I could never move. I was just stuck there in the muck. Stain dangled that sword over me, muttering about True Heroes and fake ones. Before he could kill me… It used to just be Midoriya saving me… Nowadays? Anyone… Everyone…" He could feel his throat grow hoarse. "I screamed… I begged… And he would just… laugh." His jaw shifted, "He whittled them down. Cutting them, slashing, stabbing them anywhere… everywhere. The walls would be covered in blood and it would… pooled around me." His vision began to blur. "He…"

Hashida's hand took his shoulder.

"If he was responsible for killing Native…"

Hashida took a deep breath. "I understand, Tensei. I do, but you're risking your life, going off on your own like this." He shook his head. "If you died doing this, fighting these battles on your own, how do you think we would feel? That the reason you went alone was because you didn't trust us to save ourselves."

Tensei met Hashida's eyes. "That isn't what I'm saying–" The shock and horror in his heart shifted to irritation and embarrassment when he saw a growing smirk.

"Unfortunately, guilt's a two-way street."

"Ass," spat Tensei as he knocked Hashida's hand off his shoulder.

A soft chuckle came from the man. "Guilty as charged." His knuckles rapped against Tensei's pauldron. "Hm? Hey? Hello? Anyone in there?"

Tensei smacked his hand away again. "Yes! Fine… Point taken…" He sighed, falling back in his seat. His hand wiped across his face. "I'd never want to do that to any of you. You know that right?"

"I know, Boss. You and your big dumb heart."

He let out a breath, staring at the ceiling above them. "Can't believe you yanked my legs out from under me like that."

Hashida performed a mock punch. "You strike when the defenses are down."

"I'm filing an HR complaint. Emotional abuse," grumbled Tensei. He slowly sat forward, shaking his head. He took in a breath. "You always gotta keep my head on straight, huh?"

"Someone's gotta." Hashida scratched his nose. "Now, is your head straight enough to actually focus up here? Or are you gonna keep staring at the picture of a car?"

"I'm focused," said Tensei. "Are you staying?"

"Course. I meant what I said." Hashida nodded, "Me and Overwatch here should elate any claim that Ingenium is trying to hog all of the Hero Killer's time."

"What about Team Idaten's reputation?"

"You're the one in the news. If Team Idaten's head isn't in the clouds, the view should stay crystal clear." Hashida let out a big breath as he smacked his knees and stood. "Now, they should be ready soon. Are you?"

Tensei took up his helmet from under his seat, standing up as well. "Yes." After pulling his helmet over his head, he put a hand on Bigshot's shoulder. "If he's here, let's bring him in."

-XXX-

Denki kept his hands stuck in his pockets and his arms close to his torso. He wasn't sure where to put it or more worried about what he might smack with his elbows. There was so much equipment surrounding him that he wasn't sure what to do with himself. They had a plastic chair set up for him to sit in as all of these officers quietly moved about the room.

The Operation Center for this particular operation was set up in an apartment that loomed over the targeted QCC. The blinds were shut and the curtains were drawn, and so, with their view obstructed, they used an assortment of cameras to give them an even greater view than they could've. The screens set up across three tables showed multiple angles of the QCC. There were also all of these radios or scanners – Denki wasn't sure.

Though, somehow, amongst all of the chatter and movement, he heard something hard fall and hit the carpeted ground. So, Denki sat up in his chair, looking back and forth across the ground. Eventually, he spotted a bright blue marble-looking thing rolling across the carpet. He leaned forward, plucking it from the ground.

Denki raised it up to show and ask who it may belong to, but a gloved hand fell over his. "Ah, that's mine." When he looked up, he found a dark-haired officer with a face mask over the bottom half of his face. He lifted his cap. "Thank you so very much for catching that. Would've hated it if someone fell because of this little guy."

"Oh, uh, you're welcome." Denki looked between the reclaimed marble and the officer. "You just have marbles on you?"

"For luck," he chuckled. "I mean I'd love to catch these guys off-guard, you know?"

"Oh, yeah, that's probably for the best, right?"

"Most certainly…" The officer crouched so he was closer to Denki's sitting height. "You're rather young. Are you a rookie Hero or…?"

"Uh, student, um… on an internship."

The officer chuckled, "I see!" He nodded, "I see…" He sniffled, scratching his nose. "Well, word of advice?"

"Hm?"

"You should sit a little farther back," he said. "These windows?" He gestured with his other gloved hand. "If anything goes crazy? Off the rails?" He whistled softly. "Splash zone." He joked, "Of chaos."

"O-Oh!" Denki laughed. "Uh, yeah, yeah." He scooted his chair backwards.

The officer said, "Good kid…" He patted Denki's shoulder. "See you on the other side." He winked while pointing a finger-gun at the teen.

Denki awkwardly gave him two thumbs-up in turn. "R-Right!"

The officer chuckled before turning and walking over to the radios.

-\ XXX /-

AN: With their internships coming to a close: Ashido's inspirations are unveiled; Shinso is set on a path to learn a valuable lesson; Yu faces her most difficult obstacle - getting someone else to talk about their emotions; Midoriya endures his guilt in silence while trying to pretend he isn't; Kaminari takes a seat just before a splashzone of chaos, and Tensei speaks up and raises his head high to face his demon at last. If only he knew the extent of his demon's expanded company.

Now onto other matters: those whole paragraphs about the ship/romantic subplots of this story? Removed. I'm not gonna dedicate another Note to this because I'm almost certain that you guys are tired of hearing about it and I've realized I've been overthinking the whole thing. Ya-da, ya-da. For those who do want to know about it all, I will get into it with Season 2's retrospective.

Next: MHA has ended. Holy shit, unexpected. I'll be honest: kinda expected it to never end, or really just get stupidly long. Mind you, One Piece was the first anime I had ever fixated on. Either that or Rom-Com Mangas, so those might've skewed my perspective. (I think the ending was fine.)

With MHA being over, I've been considering trying to up how many chapters I upload a month. I'm hoping to shift towards bi-weekly. Though, I want to avoid rushing uploads and delivering worst chapters for it. At the moment, I'm still working on the 'how', so it's still a BIG maybe. I'll get back to y'all on that.

I think these Notes are gonna be more of rare thing. I'm sure I've admitted in previous Notes that I have a rough time figuring out what to put in these. There's so much I do want to talk about, but they're so intrinsically linked to potential spoilers that I just don't want to risk it.

If that's the case, what'll fill this space? For more light-hearted areas of the story or even to break-up some of the angsty bouts, we'll have jokey Omakes. Other times I might go for something along the lines of those post-credit scenes with Demon Slayer episodes. I.E., delve into some aspects of character redesigns, certain changes I've made to the overall world or characters, or explanations for things that won't be explored in the main plot - like certain Quirks or named historical events.

That's about everything I can think of at the moment.

So, with all that said, thank you for reading and criticize away!

Update Window: September 20th - July 31st

Intended Due Date: September 20th - 25th