Chapter Forty-Six
The second day of my time with Hawks was much like the first, half flight practice, half sporadic rambling discussions on anything and everything. He'd put me through my paces, using my upgraded gauntlets to try to fly in a straight line, and figuring out how to make the most out of them, even as I careened across the sky, trying not to run into anything. In the moment, in the middle of combat, throwing everything I had into what I did in pursuit of a goal, I'd managed it, but protracted flight, just trying to make it work while using as little electricity as possible?
Way harder.
And, for better or worse, none of my Talents were working to make it easier. It wasn't fighting, or wasn't close enough, for Martial Talent to kick in, wasn't scientific enough for Science Talent to do the heavy lifting, and was so removed from how my Quirks normally worked that even Psychic Talent was either not doing squat, or was doing so little I couldn't tell the difference. And Hawks' mode of flight was so radically different than my own, that, if having him around helped, again, I couldn't tell.
"Nah man, you're still trying to go up. You need to go forward, and let your wings handle the lift," he chided, flying backwards a couple dozen feet in front of me, wings occasionally 'flapping' in complete defiance of aerodynamics.
"I'm trying," I practically growled, "but I'm trying not to run out of juice mid-air!"
He nodded, in a thinking pose, hand to his chin. "Okay. I want you to stop using your electricity."
"What?" I asked, wobbling a little, trying to keep myself steady.
"You heard me. Think of it this way: you're outta gas. What do you do?" I hesitated, thinking about it. "Nah man, stop using it now," he ordered, and I pulled back on my main Quirk, gliding as best I could. "And the wings," he added.
I looked up at him incredulously. "But even if I've hit my limit, I can still change shape!" The two were completely different sourced powers, after all.
However, the number three just smiled enigmatically. "Trust me. Drop 'em and figure out what to do without it in three, two, one, now!" he commanded, and I did so, going from gliding to dropping in a parabolic arc, only a few hundred feet up, with barely any time to think.
Okay, what do I do? One for All, obviously, but what else? I turned All Might's power up to full, as the world below me grew ever closer, and I tried to figure out my landing spot. Side of a building, lovely, I realized, but I'd hit near the edge, and, while I didn't have access to my wings, I did have superstrength.
Throwing myself to the side, I spun around like Bakugo, changing my path to miss the structure, arrowing down towards an alley instead, and I could work with that. I had to yank my arms in tight, almost clipping the edge of the building and, in an instant, I hit the far wall of the alley at an angle, so I'd skip instead of crash, but I was prepared, and tried to jump upwards to negate my momentum to make it work.
I didn't quite do it, but I pulled my path up a bit, pinballing back and forth down the alley as I bled downwards momentum with each leap, before I missed the fifth one and slammed into the brick wall sideways, pain shooting down my ribs as I tumbled. Unable to touch anything to stop myself, I was headed right for a pile of garbage and pulled myself up into a ball to try to roll with it, before my armor was yanked back, stopping me a few inches from some moldy orange peels.
"Not bad, not bad," Hawks said, right above me, with a slow clap that seemed to straddle the line between sarcastic and sincere. "You'd live, if you'd be a bit smelly. How's the side?"
As my mentor's feathers lifted me up, depositing me on top of the building I'd almost plowed into, I felt my ribs, but, while a little tender, I didn't get the shooting pain of broken bones. "I'm good," I shrugged, my low-level Regen already on it, the bruise that was surely there probably gone in an hour. "So, what's the lesson here?" I asked.
"Doesn't have to be one," he shrugged, breaking out into a jog before lazily lifting up into the air, expecting me to join him.
I followed suit, shifting my legs to lightning to pick up speed and launch myself off the edge, before shifting my arms to take flight fully, feeding my gauntlets lightning to get more thrust, catching up to him as we rose above the city once more.
First day of my internship he'd asked why I took off by using a blast of electricity when, if it was limited, I could just jump. Having no answer, other than 'it felt cool', I'd finally realized I was aping Bakugo's style of mid-air movement, when he had far more thrust capabilities than I had, while simultaneously I had a wider range of options than he possessed.
Lifting up to where we were before, the birdman spun around, asking, "So, how you feel 'bout falling?"
Looking down, I automatically started to figure out where, at my speed, I'd land, and what I'd need to do to minimize any damage when I hit. Startled, I looked back up at my mentor, who shot me a smug grin. "Picked up on it, did ya? Quick on the draw, like me. Trust me, I know: once you've fallen, it's not nearly as scary. Now come on. Ya don't need to flap, so make your wings like we talked. Then it's just thrust equals lift. A big brain like you should get that no prob."
Closing my eyes, I pictured the exact formation, equal parts bird and fighter wing. Implementing it was still difficult, anything more than an instinctual reaching or shaping still needing a good deal of effort. However, I could feel it start to work, my uneven flight smoothing out.
"That's it, now, let's kick this up a notch," my mentor instructed, my eyes opening as I focused on him, and he pulled away from me, going even faster, still backwards.
Reaching for my reserves, sitting at about three-fourths, I fed more through my gauntlets, the metal heating slightly as I was pushed forward, trying to keep my body parallel to the ground to cut down on drag as I caught up to him again. Hawks turned around and flew beside me, looking mildly bored as we soared across the city, some of his feathers darting down to the city below, others returning in a slow, constant stream.
"So," I asked, if only to fill the time, "What're we doing Friday?"
That got me a sideways look, before he smiled indulgently. "Field trip. To Hosu."
"To find Stain," I replied, suppressing my own smile, glad that, once again, the UA staff had come through.
The bird-man's gaze sharpened a little. "You want to find him?"
"Fuck no!" I replied, Hawks spinning around to look at me fully. "I want him taken down 'fore he kills anyone else. If someone else does it, good on them!"
"Heh, you're singin' my tune," the number three smiled. "And if we do end up fighting him? Or her?"
I thought about it, replying, "I'll keep my distance. Whoever they are, they've got something that can take down pros. That means rushing in would just be dumb."
"But rushing in is what I do best!" my mentor mock-complained.
"And if I had your speed, I could probably get away with it," I shot back. "Or your experience. I'm not that good. Yet." Hawks just shrugged, and I considered if I should share more. Screw it. "If I had to guess, he's got some kind of mind affecting Quirk, or maybe a paralyzation Quirk. Something that stops his opponent from attacking back."
The pro was silent for a long moment, before he chuckled, nodding. "Ya got good instincts, kid. Yeah, he can paralyze ya, but he needs to cut ya first." I looked up at him, confused. "You want to know why it's not getting shared around?" I nodded. "Simple," he shrugged, "we want people who can handle him huntin' him down. Ingenium gave us a report, so we know what he looks like, what he can do, and we're looking, but if everyone knew his Quirk, they'd think they can handle it. And then we'd get a lot of dead heroes."
That. . . made sense. It wasn't Stain's Quirk that made him dangerous, it was his swordsmanship and his aggressive fighting style combined with his Quirk. And, if it weren't for Ida's quest for revenge, and extreme luck, I wondered how much longer Stain would've been running around. Endeavor was hunting the man, that's why Todoroki was in the area, and it'd make sense if others were as well. "Taking down the Hero-killer would be a big boost to one's fame, wouldn't it?" I asked disparagingly, and Hawks nodded.
"I'm all for bein' fast, but takin' short-cuts like that? Never ends well," he agreed regretfully. "Nah, the basics is what's important, but always pushin' yourself. Speakin' of, let's go harder."
"I go any harder, and I'm gonna run outta charge in twenty minutes, or less," I warned, not disagreeing, just keeping him aware that while he could fly for hours, I couldn't.
He shook his head, turning back towards his agency, several dozen feathers shooting forward, and I had to wonder what the hell the man's range was. It only took a couple minutes to return, and, as we approached, several large ribbon hoops lifted up, held in place by small red feathers. Hawks flew through the largest one, twenty feet across, and I followed him, almost hitting the edge, not having anything close to the man's finesse.
Hawks slowed to a stop, and I tried to copy him, but there was no way to do so while conserving energy, and I massively overshot, having to do a large loop, bleeding off momentum again, before I slowed to a stop myself, hands down, outputting enough energy to float. It was still a drain, more than flying, actually, but I had more than enough to make this work, and now I had a plan in case I fell.
Glancing around, the ribbon loops arranged themselves into a long series of obstacles with ever-increasing difficult to match their ever decreasing size, and odd shapes, some thin or tall ovals instead of circles. I looked at them, trying to figure out how to make it work, and plot a path that'd let me do so. It wasn't going to be easy, and I was going to have to burn a lot of electricity just changing direction if I wanted to do it without completely overshooting a few and needing to loop back, but it was doable.
And then they started to move.
As they began to drift around randomly through the air, ruining all of my plans, I turned to look at my mentor. "You're kind of a dick; I hope you know," I remarked.
He just grinned. "That's your problem, you overthink things, Volt-aire. Then again, with a name like that, kinda expected. Nah, you need to just go for it. If you don't make it, you don't make it. Training's when you mess up and learn. So, give it a shot." I looked at them, trying to figure out how to start, and he added, "And if you don't in the next five seconds, I'll make 'em move faster."
I glared at him for a moment, and he just grinned cheekily, so I turned, figured out how to at least hit the first one, in a way I could probably hit the second, and sent a burst of energy through my gauntlets, the metal crackling as I was thrown forward, trying to make it work without planning.
I made it to the fourth hoop, ten feet across.
Wrapped up, the floating ribbon having looped around me thrice, I sighed as it floated over to my mentor with me in it, dropped me down on the roof, and unwound itself, returning back to where it originally was. "Not bad," Hawks remarked, grinning. "But this time, try missing the hazards."
Rolling my eyes, I pushed OfA, ran, leapt, and attempted to do it again.
Mineta was in heaven. Mineta was in hell.
He'd taken Kaminari's advice, and focused on sidekicks instead of heroes, choosing to go with the Combat Heroine: Naginata. The woman herself was old, not as much of a hag as Recovery Girl, but not his first pick by any means. However, she had a reputation for training up sidekicks with powers or builds that weren't really combat-ready and helping them get better at CQC, most of whom were chicks. Most of whom were hot chicks.
He wasn't the only guy there, but it was five to one, chicks to dicks, at least, most dudes going for more 'manly' trainers, like Gunhead, instead. Mineta's excuse of wanting to learn to fight better, despite his height, was taken with a smile and a nod by the others at the agency. Naginata, on the other hand, had looked skeptical and had one of the few dudes show him around the first day, which Mineta was fine with, as he was still surrounded by absolute beauties.
Walking around with all of them there, in tight, form-fitting costumes was an experience all its own, and it was taking every ounce of his willpower not to ogle them, with their perky tits, tight asses, luscious legs, and thick thighs. They were all in great shape without being muscle-heads and he was loving it.
However, he kept himself on task. He was going to be a professional, god-damnit, so they wouldn't notice his wandering eyes later on. And he'd been good, that first day, but now he was working with a supermodel-level chick with boobs that seemed to swing with every motion and an ass you could bounce a whole roll of quarters off of. He was keeping things together, he was keeping on task, but it was so hard and so was he!
Never before had he been so thankful of his stupid-ass costume, which let him pitch a god-damn carnival without anyone noticing.
And now, he was out with the aptly named Photina, because he was having trouble looking at her directly, on a patrol, out and about, showing the flag, while trying not to show his flag. They were coming back to the agency, and they couldn't get there fast enough, because now he was flagging. He'd lagged a bit behind, his legs literally half the size of hers, but his eyes had been drawn, like iron to a loadstone, to her bouncin' booty. That booty was a thing of beauty, and he'd wanted nothing more than to reach out and feel those glorious globes, but had held himself back, barely, and moved twice as fast to keep up, staying next to her.
Only, she'd started walking faster, not slowing down because of his smaller stature, and he'd been power-walking for the past two hours. He'd thought it was some kind of dominance move, but the girl honestly didn't seem to notice, talking about patrolling, and how she liked working under Naginata-sensei, and a bunch of things that Mineta had paid careful attention to, just to keep his mind of dat ass.
Thank you, merciful god, he thought, as they turned the corner, their destination in sight. Finally, walking inside, they got to the elevator, and he nearly collapsed, his entire lower half burning.
"Oh, are you okay?" Ms. Sex-on-legs asked, squatting down, which didn't help ohmygod she's hot and right there.
Looking down, he held up a shaky thumbs up. "I'm good, just not used to running that much."
"Running?" she asked, and he could practically hear the moment realization dawned. "Oh. Oh damn, I'm so sorry! I didn't realize. Why didn't you say anything?" the girl asked, not angry, as girls usually were with him for no good reason, but confused.
He couldn't exactly say he didn't want to get captivated by her keister, so he lied, he lied like his life depended on it. Because it might. "Didn't want to slow you down," he wheezed. "'Sides, if I go out with someone, I'll need to keep up with 'em."
The girl aww'd, she actually freaking aww'd, and she reached over, patting him on the head. On one hand, score, on the other, what the hell? That worked?
"You go have a seat in my office, I'll get you something to drink. Pocari okay?" she asked, and he glanced up to see her smiling down at him.
"Oh, uh. . ." he trailed off, stamping on his quip of 'I'd rather be drinking yours', which didn't even make sense, so he just nodded.
"Okay!" she said brightly, as the doors opened, practically prancing out, bouncing all the way.
Mineta slogged through the common area, nodding to some of the others as they looked up, and made his way inside, groaning to himself as he had to jump up and clamber onto the chair, plopping himself down, and letting out a soft growl as his stupid costume made it hard to stretch out, forcing him into a cross-legged position.
A minute later his partner for the day walked in, handing him a can of Pocari Sweat, the sports-drink exactly what he needed. Nodding in thanks, he cracked it open and took a deep swig of it, letting out an equally deep sigh. "Thanks, Photina," he smiled. "That hit the spot."
"Don't mention it," she smiled at him, in a way that girls never did, and he was instantly on guard, but forced himself to relax. "I gotta ask," she said, after taking a sip of her own drink, leaning over her desk in a way that did wonderful things to her costume, but, with a force of will, he looked her in the eye, "what's with the pants?"
He winced, taking another sip instead of answering. "You mean the diaper?" he asked back, and she nodded. "No freaking clue. You know how, in UA, you send in a drawing and they design a costume for ya?"
"Oh, they do?" she asked back, surprised. "At Shit-ketsu you get assigned one."
Mineta frowned, "Wait, don't you mean Shiketsu?" He'd applied there too, and probably would've gone if he hadn't gotten into UA.
"I know what I said," she replied, her smile getting a bit of an edge to it. "Place did not prepare me for heroing, but thankfully Naginata-sensei took me in under wing when I graduated last year. So, you asked for a, you know, for your costume?"
" No," the grape-headed boy emphatically disagreed. "They got the top pretty much like I wanted, but this," he tapped the upper edge of the hemispherical hip-armor, decorated with purple dots, "was supposed to be a belt and the rest was supposed to be kinda poofy. Like Arabian pants." Because Harem.
Photina cocked her head, "Then how did you get that?"
He shrugged. "No idea. If I had to guess, they saw I was short and thought baby. Because when you think hero, you think infant, or something. I can't do a redesign until Fall, but, I was thinkin' of maybe. . . owning it? Like, bein' a hero even while looking like that. You know?" he asked, looking down, lost in his thoughts.
"Oh, honey, no," the woman crooned, getting his attention. "I get it, I really do, but you're gonna have a hard enough time of it, you don't need to make it worse."
He winced, "Because I'm so short, right?" She just nodded. "But, wouldn't that make it more impressive?"
The other woman started to respond, but stopped, considering it. "If you can pull it off, yeah. But, are you sure you can? I'm not saying you can't," she quickly added, "I haven't seen what you can do, but if you could do better with a better costume, shouldn't you?"
"It wouldn't, it wouldn't be giving up?" he questioned, unsure.
In response, the woman looked away, tapping away on her keyboard, before turning the monitor of her desktop so he could see what was displayed. It was a picture of a younger Photina, wearing a formal dress that seemed to be made of mirrors. It was shiny, and pretty, but experience with his own costume meant he could tell that it looked really hard to move in. "Do mirrors enhance your Quirk?" he asked, looking at her current costume, carefully avoiding the bust, the entire thing was made of silver metallic thread, and had a sheen that just better outlined her features, which he really really appreciated, but wasn't really reflective.
"Not at all!" she replied, with a touch of irritation as she looked at the screen, before turning to him, and her annoyance faded, which was normally the opposite of what happened. "My Quirk's Photon. I can turn into light and-" she disappeared in a flash reappearing next to him in a completely different position, "move around. But they said light meant mirrors and I didn't need to be able to move when I could just jump, so I had to wear that."
Disappearing again, she moved back to the other side of the desk. "I tried to do the 'own it' thing, and I nearly bought it 'gainst a villain 'cause I couldn't freaking move. And my boss blamed me for it, saying if I was better, I would've been fine, when he wore a freakin' suit of armor!" she ranted, and Mineta leaned back, not sure what to say.
She noticed, and smiled. "Sorry, it still pisses me off. So no, Grape, don't wear something messed up just 'cause someone gave it to you. Do what works for you. If it was you wanting to make the diaper thing work, more power to you, but you don't want it, so why convince yourself you do?"
He considered that, nodding, "It does look dumb, doesn't it?" She nodded back, smiling consolingly. "Yeah, I'll ask for a redesign, and I'll be super specific. Probably won't look as good as you do in your costume, though," he added as an afterthought, freezing as soon as the words left his mouth.
Dammnit, I stopped trying to hold it back, and that slipped out! I freaking blew it on day two! he thought, panicked, but Photina didn't look offended, she just cocked her head and asked, almost teasingly, "And what part of me looks best?" Mineta tried to figure out the trap, but he had no idea what it was.
"It's your," he started to reply, even as he internally chanted don't say ass, don't say ass, "legs."
" Oh?" she asked, teleporting next to him again, said legs crossed enticingly.
Don't ask if you can touch, don't ask if you can touch. "Yeah," he agreed, as if it wasn't a big deal and oh god they're right there and she's practically taunting me with them. "I mean, think of how tall I am. I see a lot of legs, and yours are nice. Way better than in that dress thing." He faltered, trying to think of what to do next. What did Kaminari say? Right, be professional. "So, what are we doing next?" he asked, wrenching his eyes away from her amazing legs and up to her smiling face. Why is she smiling?
Photina paused, as if waiting for something, and he just waited right back. Her smile broadened, and she shook her head. "Naginata-sensei wanted me to see what you can do with your Quirk. Bassault's tough, but he's kind of a rockhead, and you seem more like a speed-type, like me. So, you ready to get hands on?"
Mineta stared at her. Is-Is she doing this on purpose? Is she teasing me? Oh god, is she flirting with me? What do I do? Do I say something like, 'I'd love to get hands on with you?' No, too pervy. Make a stamina joke? No, that's too much. Just say yes? Yeah, that, but professional, and stuff.
Nodding a little jerkily, he replied, "Sure! I'm happy for any help you can give me. Please take care of me."
She laughed, standing, and started to walk out, calling over her shoulder. "Don't worry, you're in good hands!"
Mineta stood, pinched himself, then nodded, slowly following, with one thought in his mind.
Heaven. He was definitely in heaven.
AN: Double post this week! Working on DR next. As always, the next three chapters are up on !