Chapter Ninety-One

So. . . apparently I looked a lot worse than I felt, covered in bruises, with thin trails of blood coming from my ears, nose, and the corners of my eyes, and only Mandalay giving me a checkup, the woman a trained paramedic, got Mina to calm down. My regeneration was, at the very least, getting a hefty workout from all of the problems I'd encountered fighting underwater, and, after my girlfriend cleaned me off with a bit of acid, I felt perfectly fine, if a little tired.

"So, not bad, huh?" I asked my class as a whole, smiling, after I was cleared and cleaned.

Shoto looked at me, his normal deadpan self, and remarked, "You blew up the buildings."

"I collapsed the flooded civilian-less buildings," I corrected. "Besides, I'm sure they had pre-existing frost-related stress and stuff like that. And, really, it was more the 'Villain' than me. Didn't expect to fight a small kaiju, though," I commented to myself. "Something I need to work on."

"God, Sparky!" Mina laughed, on a bit of an emotional high after being worried about me, not that she really needed to be. "You're so extra sometimes."

"Extra awesome?" I quipped, shooting her a smile.

"Extra something, all right," she shot back, leaning up to kiss the tip of my nose.

Elsewhere on the beach, 1-B had gathered around their two classmates, Pony exclaiming, "That was so cool! Were you scared?"

"Nah, we had it," Kaibara bragged, the same time as Bondo nodded, exclaiming, "T-terrified!"

The tiny American looked at the metal-headed teen with awe, "And even then you did so well! Go you!"

"I, uh, I might've been a little worried," Kaibara hedged, Kendo chuckling and shaking her head at the boy's about face.

The Pussycats called us all together, and we got a debriefing, the Pro Rescue heroes going over each team's performance in turn, using the footage taken both inside and out to highlight impactful decisions, both good and bad, and how they could try and make sure they did better next time. And, yes, I wasn't the only one they tried to lock in the freezer, only Ida couldn't break out like Tetsutetsu and Kirishima could. Mina preened a little under their praise, while Momo accepted their very positive assessments with a nod, blushing a little as both Midoriya and Shiozaki complimented her as well, Monoma grudgingly admitting her skill with her Quirk, which he couldn't figure out how to use even having copied it, and how, were he on a team composed entirely of students from class 1-B, she'd be nearly as good as he was.

Kendo promptly smacked the blond power copier upside the head, and translated for Yaoyorozu, "He means you did really well, and he's glad you were on his team."

"I said no such thing!" Monoma objected. "Only that she, perhaps, would not be out of place in the vastly superior 1-B."

"Sorry, YaoMomo's already taken!" Mina replied with a grin, throwing an arm around the girl, who blushed once more, though slightly darker.

The debriefs continued, until all that was left was our team, and Mandalay, who'd been running the debriefs, hesitated. "As for the team of Kaibara, Bakugo, Bondo, and Kaminari. . . you did fine," she stated.

There was a moment of silence.

"And?" I prompted.

"And. . ." the brunette echoed, glancing over to Pixie-Bob, who looked anywhere but at her teammate. "And, good job adapting to. . . unforeseen and unexpected levels of resistance. It wasn't what any of us expected."

"But ya kittens rose to the occasion!" Pixie-Bob offered, looking guilty. "You were, uh, pawsome?"

It didn't take a genius, from the way Mandalay and Tiger shot her annoyed looks, to tell that the blonde had gone too far. Ragdoll, however, just laughed, "Good thing you got everyone out, though, or that'd be a cat-astrophe! . . . Or did you?"

"Ya told us the maximum, and we found 'em, Chuckles," Bakugo sneered at the green-haired bint, before I could say something myself. "I'd like to see your tiny ass do any better!"

"Ah, it's cute that the little puppy thinks he's got a bite," the green-haired 'pro' smiled mockingly.

Bakugo surged to his feet, but Tiger cleared his throat, intoning with a deep rumble, "Let's focus on the after-action review, shall we?"

The explosive teen glanced at the larger man, and saw something in his expression. He nodded and sat back down, while the Ragdoll just grinned unrepentantly.

"Right," Mandalay said, obviously thinking furiously. "Bondo! Good job creating the boat. It was a novel use of your powers."

"Wasn't me. Kaminari came up with it," the teen deflected, the attention of others moving my way.

"I'm an inventor. I invent things. If you want someone who's really good at working with powers, talk to Midoriya," I deflected in turn, jerking a thumb to the boy, who was clearly not ready for it to be lobbed his way. "I'm sure he can come up with stuff I never would," I added, spiking the ball into his court.

Eyes wide, Mini-Might glanced around, as everyone looked his way, and he started to babble, "I, uh, I'm not that great, but if you can control your glue after you make it, Bondo, that opens up a lot of possibilities, and even if you can't control it like we saw Mina could you can harden it which opens up other possibilities, like if you can't create a static net with wet glue alone then you might be able to harden rods of glue and use those as a base to make a web which is covered with glue, and uses the fluid portion as joints. Actually, if you can control it like that you could make a kind of reactive armor that you could harden and then discard the dried portions if you can't un-harden them after they're hit, like Viscosity, but his stuff isn't sticky, so you could then use it as a capture tool too, kinda like Fat Gum, and if you can control it to assist yourself you could also use it like a power-suit, though you'd probably want a support item hero outfit attachment to help with the frame, and . . . uh, sorry, I'm rambling aren't I?"

Everyone stared.

"Like I said, way better than I am," I repeated with a smile, even as the metal-headed teen looked at his own hand consideringly, spewing up a little bit of glue and using it to cover one of his fingers, flexing it.

"Kaibara," Mandalay continued, looking at the next member of our team. "Your Quirk is more limited, but that means you can specialize more in power with it, and, like Tiger, you're benefitting a lot from general physical training. At least until you can use it to drill through a wall without a support item.

"Which is why we'll have a lot of fun together again tomorrow!" the large man grinned, and I could've sworn the Pro had some sort of transformational power that seemed to cast his features in intimidating shadows.

Spinny paled, meekly responding, "I, uh, yes sir."

Mandalay, meanwhile, smiled without her teammates sense of impending doom, "But you did a great job with what you had! Focusing on getting civilians to safety is very important, and, while it can feel like you're not helping if you're not fighting, what's most important is protecting people."

The boy blinked, then, slowly, smiled himself, not arrogantly, but with a bit of quiet pride. "I, uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess that's true, isn't it?"

"Bakugo," the brown-haired Pussycat stated, moving down the line, hesitating.

"Yeah?" the boy replied challengingly.

"Good job on managing your Quirk," she stated with honest admiration. "The mannequins also have pressure sensors in them, and while they were a bit beat up, they all would've survived. For using your Quirk in a new environment, that kind of control is not guaranteed, or even common."

"Rather have some bruises than be dead," he replied, though, from his tone, he wasn't taking offense, but instead agreeing with her. "Still need to work on it."

Tiger nodded, "Being a Pro is the work of a lifetime, but a worthy goal!"

"And. . . Kaminari," Mandalay stated, looking at me, and wincing. I raised an eyebrow, waiting for what she was going to say. "Your performance was. . . unexpected."

I waited for her to continue, and when she didn't, I shrugged, replying, "I'll take that as a compliment."

"It. . . is," the Pro agreed, surprising me. "But, if you couldn't heal yourself, you'd be going to the hospital right now."

"Good thing I can, then," I shrugged, matching her gaze.

"That's. . ." the woman started to respond, then fell silent.

Ragdoll opened her mouth, a glint in her too-wide eye, but Tiger spoke first. "You did well young tomcat. However, heroes have died overestimating their ability to heal. Did you expect that much damage?"

"On the higher end of my estimates, but in my tolerances," I answered honestly, ignoring the fact that, without Mina's Quirk, I would've been a lot more fucked up. Then again, without Mina's Quirk, I wouldn't've tried that, probably remaining trapped in that freezer, so it evened out in the end. "Overpressure's nasty, but I can push through, and my healing doesn't discriminate on tissue types. I've had to work with aquatic detonations for the testing of some of the Support Items my friend and I have worked on, so I knew what I was getting into."

The large man gave me an assessing stare, then nodded. "You fixed most of your problems as you discovered them, but half that much force was needed."

"Dangers of a hastily put together plan," I countered. "But it worked."

Tiger gave me another look over, declaring, "You'll be joining Mr. Kaibara with me tomorrow. I want to see how your healing works with physical training."

It would be torture, but it'd be torture that'd make me stronger immediately, so I was down for it. Finding myself smiling, I replied, "Same."

MHA

Surprisingly, we didn't get back in the busses to head back to the main compound, and instead we were left to relax on the beach, a volleyball net and ball broken out, along with other party paraphernalia. It was planned to have some of us go fishing, as the lake was somewhat stocked, but, while they'd cleared out during the testing, that last blast had been large enough to technically have already done so.

Crocodile Dundee style.

I volunteered to go pick some of the now dead fish up, as it was just a quick jog away, taking the glue boat, minus the 'civilians', back out to collect them in, along with Tokage and Manga, the pull-apart girl floating next to me as I dragged the craft behind me, the speech-bubble headed boy whispering, "Chill" and "Preserve", laying down the onomatopoeias to keep our catch fresh.

With the splitting girl our eyes in the sky, she was able to point us in the right direction, and I got practice re-manifesting my fingers at the ends of electric arms to dip into the lake to grab our catch.

"So, your class does shit like this often?" Tokage asked, conversationally.

I shrugged, "Like I said, Bakugo and Midoriya fought All Might. This was. . . a bit much."

"And you sure you're okay?" she checked.

"Yeah, already healed," I reassured her, a bit surprised at the question. "Besides, I've had worse."

The girl's head floated in front of me, pieces coming together to form a torso. "Uh, you do know that's not a good thing, right? And what were you, shot or something? Also, some more over there," she directed, pointing off to the side.

"It was during the Sports Festival, fighting Midoriya, not when I was shot by that sniper. That one was just kind of annoying," I dismissed absently, only realizing that, unlike half of 1-A, she didn't know about that, her statement hyperbolic instead of descriptive. "It was during the I-Island Incident, I was wearing a somewhat armored tuxedo, and it wasn't that bad."

Tokage slowly nodded. "Uh, yeah. That totally makes it okay." Her top-half moved to reconnect with her bottom half, which was sitting on the edge of the boat, which was the. . . bow? "You're kinda intense, ya know?" she questioned, a little pointedly.

"I, uh, sorry?" I apologized, a little unsure of how to respond, grabbing another fish and tossing it to Manga, who caught it and put it on his bed of words. "Intense how?"

The green-haired girl tilted her head to the side, only for it to detach from her neck, roll down her extended arm, before being thrown back in place. "Like, you and Bakugo saw that big thing, and you were both like 'Okay, we can do this'."

"Well. . . " I trailed off, dismissing my first response of 'We've faced worse', since I probably wasn't supposed to talk about the empowered metal-controller, grabbing another fish and tossing it, settling on, "We could."

Tokage, however, shook her head. "Yeah, but, like, that thing was. . . it was some serious 'nope', and you two were just like, 'yep'. You know?"

Thankfully, my time with Mina let me translate. "I mean, I knew it was a construct so it wouldn't really hurt us," I offered, glancing back to see the girl looking at me skeptically. "Hey, my injuries were self-inflicted, so technically I wasn't wrong!"

"Damn, is all 1-A like that?" she chuckled.

"Like, a third," I shrugged, commenting absently. "'Built different' I think is what you said? Though, really, anyone in either of our classes could probably get to that level with enough time, effort, and creativity."

"You really believe that," the girl commented, and while she was behind me and out of sight, I could still hear the frown in her voice.

"We're all UA students, so yeah," I replied, dragging the ship forward. "A third of my class is at the upper end, myself included in that, but we're also the third that does shit like pick fights with the Nomu who's there to kill All Might, or hunts down Stain, the Hero Killer."

". . . what."

Glancing back, I saw both 1-B students were staring. "Oh, yeah. Don't know the details, but Ida went after him for almost killing his brother during our internships, and Midoriya and Todoroki went after him to try and save the runner's dumb ass, that night the League of Villains decided to just randomly attack Hosu with more Nomus. Seriously, every time we go somewhere, either we get attacked, someone does something stupid, or both." I sighed, shaking my head, and tapping my necklace, "Which is why I'm wearing this. Though, honestly, I expected something to happen by now, so maybe they've finally got their heads out of their asses and took proper security measures."

"What's so dangerous about coins?" Manga questioned, and I realized that they'd never seen me use them.

Holding up a hand, I transformed and lengthened my pointer and pinky fingers, sparking them as I filled them with electricity. "They're not coins, they're ammo. For my rail gun. You know, the one I shot Nomu in the brain with, and it wasn't enough?"

While Manga had no real face, the exclamation marks that appeared on his speech-bubble head conveyed his reaction, the boy asking, "Why didn't you use that during the sports festival?"

I paused pulling the boat, turning to shoot a skeptical look his way. "Because I didn't want to kill anyone?" I asked in turn.

Tokage was looking at me thoughtfully, eyes widening a little as she paled slightly, but then her brows furrowed. "Why didn't you use it on that thing then?" she questioned, pointing down.

"Being underwater screwed with my control of voltage," I replied, starting to move again, "and even if I could. . . how much do you know of how projectiles work underwater?"

"They go slower?" the girl shrugged.

Nodding, I explained, "Okay, so, here's the thing, water doesn't compress. Gas, like air, does, so bullets and stuff can go really fast through it, as the projectile compresses what's in front of it to the sides and decompresses what's behind it. There's the sound barrier with air, but that's more of a raw energy requirement, like phase shifting material states, instead of a real problem."

"Phase. . .?" Manga asked, confused.

Shaking my head, I replied, "Not important for this. The issue is that because of this the drag on any projectile sharply increases the faster it goes in water, to the point that most bullets will only go a few feet, and only be dangerous for half of that, because to calculate drag force part of the equation involves multiplying the other factors by the mass density of the fluid, and water's a lot denser then air, and, again, doesn't compress, so the projectile isn't just pushing aside the air in front of it enough to compress it and get it out of the way, it's trying to also push aside all the water behind it as well."

My description was oversimplifying things, to the extreme, but I thought hit the major points. "Then there's the pressure drop behind a sufficiently fast projectile, which causes a low-pressure system. That's no big in air, it just decompresses, but that's usually enough to drop below the vapor pressure of water, which instantly converts the liquid to vapor, kind of like a cold steam, but as soon as you get pressure back up an instant later it collapses back to water, releasing a shockwave strong enough to break metal, because explosions in water don't dissipate their kinetic force by compression like they do in air, because, again, water doesn't compress. Also why explosions get stupid deadly underwater. So, not the kind of thing I want going off between my fingers, and they'd be my real ones since I can't shift forms underwater, and my real fingers are a lot more breakable, even if I could shoot the damn thing," I finished, wiggling the appendages and snapping them back to reality.

". . . You study this stuff a while?" Tokage finally asked.

"Not really," I replied blandly, spotting another casualty of my blast, and tossing it to Manga, who messed up the catch, the dead fish smacking him in the face. "Momo knows more than I do in terms of pure academia, while Mei, my partner when it comes to Support tech, is leagues ahead of me for engineering understanding. I just've picked up some practical knowledge here and there," I offered, Science Talent absolutely worth its weight in gold, metaphorically speaking. "See anymore?"

Tokage detached her eye, that part of her head just popping out to fly up and look around, directing me onward, though she didn't say anything else. After a couple quiet minutes, I finally asked, "Everything okay?"

"Huh, uh, yeah," Tokage, replied, a little distracted. "Just thinking. Do you think I should study more?"

"Probably," I answered easily, and the girl looked dispirited, seeming to have expected a 'no, you're fine' type of answer. "But for things related to your Quirk. Not to the 'pretty much have a degree in it' level I'm shooting for, and probably not to the point you necessarily need to calculate values, but some physics instruction could help you maximize moving things with split-up parts, managing centers of gravity and leverage and stuff. Studying police and military tactics could help, given you're a one-woman squad in a way, with the added benefit of being able to fly. Not sure what else, but if you can find a Pro with a similar power, I'd give them a call, keeping in mind that what worked for them might not work for you, since Quirks are unique, but it's a direction at least. My power's simple on the surface, but I've made it complex, and the more I have, the more I've needed to learn. But then again, we've all got more to learn, and never enough time to learn it all in," I offered with a smile.

"And me?" Manga asked, both of us jumping a little, having temporarily forgotten the other boy existed.

"You need some time with an expert in Quirk discovery, Fukidashi, or whatever the field's called, because you've got the opposite problem Tokage has," I told the boy.

"Call me Setsuna," the girl corrected, and, when I lifted an eyebrow her way, she just smiled impishly.

"Opposite problem?" Manga echoed.

I nodded. "Her power's pretty straightforward, or at least the base is, though I'm sure there's still aspects of it you haven't figured out," I said, glancing her way, before turning back to the boy. "But your power is. . . odd, almost conceptual. If I were you, I'd compile lists of words you think would work with your Quirk, words you think might work, but also words you think won't, and then try them all."

"But, if they won't work, why try them?" Manga questioned.

"To see if you were right," Tok-Setsuna corrected, with a sharp-toothed grin. "Cause if you're right, nuthin' happens, but if you're wrong, then you've been limiting yourself."

"Pretty much," I agreed, glad we were on the same page when it came to Manga, then tried not to wince at my own terrible pun. "After you've got a solid handle on them, get someone, maybe from Support, to work with you on what, exactly, each word does, so you can figure out which ones to use and when. Your instincts are almost certainly a good place to start with, but being a UA student is all about going beyond that first step, and becoming something truly impressive."

"Plus Ultra, and all that!" his classmate agreed, and, this time, the silence that feel between us three was a much more comfortable one.

MHA

Returning with our catch, I'd told them both, "Thanks Fukidashi, Setsuna," as the boy went over to where Bondo was making a sandcastle, the girl heading off to splash around with the others in her class, while Mina had skated over to me.

"Setsuna, huh?" the pink-haired beauty had teased, leaping up, arms outstretched, and I'd caught her in a spinning hug.

"She said to use her first name, and she seems like a good person," I'd shrugged.

Mina had leered over my shoulder, checking out the girl in question. "Cute, too!"

"If you're that thirsty, there's an entire lake right there," I'd teased, causing my gold-eyed girlfriend to snort, before dragging me over to a volleyball game being set up.

From there, I'd taken her lead, having a great time doing the entire 'beach' thing, not even having to worry about getting a sunburn due to my regen. It was only when I'd pinged my mental Denki that I realized that, for this, no one needed sunscreen, the substance not a beach staple but instead thought of as a beauty product for people who regularly worked outside if they didn't want to tan, everyone's natural hardiness making true sunburns a rarity outside of harsh survival conditions.

As night fell, we gathered around one long campfire, fish grilling, and we relaxed, enjoying the atmosphere. While the classes had started off the day separate, as time had gone on, we'd intermixed more and more, Koda helping Bondo build a rather impressive sand fortress, a number of boys striking up a friendly rivalry over volleyball, footraces, and the like, the girls off gossiping, and some, like Kodai and Asui, just sunning themselves on the beach.

Now, sitting on the warm sands, the sun having set a little bit ago, both classes were scattered about with no real division between them, all of us having de-stressed after our day at the lake. Marshmallows were sitting off to the side, to be roasted, and everything was just. . . peaceful.

I had an arm around Mina, who was snuggled up against me, and I was just enjoying the simple pleasure of. . . being, when I glanced across the fire and spotted Midoriya, with Asui and Uraraka sitting on either side of him. The boy was smiling, then caught my eye, sending an inquisitive look my way. Not saying a word, I gave both girls a significant glance, then adjusted my grip around my girlfriend's shoulders.

Izuku went from relaxed to nervous in an instant, stiffening, something both girls noticed. He sent me a look that seemed to say, 'Are you sure?' to which I nodded. Sweating a little, and with a gulp that was almost audible, he nervously lifted his arms and hesitantly put them around both girl's shoulders, who both glanced at him, then each other, as Midoriya shut his eyes, clearly expecting everything to go wrong, but willing to try anyways.

I could see a silent conversation as it flashed between Asui and Uraraka, before Tsuyu shrugged, and, when Midoriya started to lift his hand away, taking her movement to be a rejection, she deftly caught his arm, pulled it back down, and leaned against the green-haired boy with her normal stoicism, as if this was just normal, while Uraraka, turning bright red, tried to do the same, but was clearly just as unsure about this as Deku was.

Speaking of, Mini-Might looked at me with a panicked expression and mouthed 'What Now!?' to which I lifted my free hand up, taking a breath, and then lowered it as I let it out, mouthing back, 'Relax'. To his credit, the boy did exactly what I suggested, calming down a little as he did so, and, while he was still clearly nervous, he was less so, as Ochaco, too, started to un-stiffen as she leant against him.

"Look at you," Mina whispered, grinning, "playing matchmaker!"

"Just helpin' a brother out," I replied, smiling myself.

That caused the pink haired girl to roll her eyes. "Dork."

"Your Dork," I reminded her, getting a chuckle and a slight nod, before a mischievous smile spread across her features. At my raised eyebrow, she pulled away a little, sitting up, pulling on me with the hand she'd wrapped around my back, her hand on my waist. Going with what she wanted, I sat a little closer, only for her to lean further away, wrap her other arm around Momo's waist, the creator sitting on my girlfriend's other side, and brought her close as Mina leaned slightly into me again, dragging Yaoyorozu over a little.

"What?" the black-haired girl asked, confused. "I, um, what?"

"Just relax, YaoMomo!" my girlfriend told her, and, seeing where my partner was going, I shifted my hand so it was gently resting on Yaoyorozu's shoulder instead, giving it a comforting squeeze. "It's summer, and summer's about hanging out with friends!" the pink-haired girl declared.

The creationist, slightly flustered, slowly nodded, leaning a bit more into Mina, who shot me a triumphant grin. Looking across the fire, Midoriya was looking my way, confused, so I just shrugged, mouthing 'Girls' as my explanation, which got me a slight commiserating nod from the other boy, who clearly thought I had no idea what Mina was after, since he clearly didn't either.

Soon enough, though, our time came to a close and we all piled into the busses, which took us back to the main camp area, and our beds, as tomorrow would be time for us to put our noses to the grindstone once more.

Mina was dozing, the bus quiet, the internal lights all turned down low, and I relaxed, feeling like something clicked into place, in a way I couldn't really describe, and I couldn't help but look at my lover and think that she was the best thing that'd happened to me, and more than I deserved.

My girlfriend cracked open one black and gold eye, and murmured, "You're pretty great too, Sparky, and we totes deserve each other."

Chuckling a little, I shook my head, as the girl knew me well enough she could practically read my mind.

Waking up a little more, Mina drawled quietly, "It's not exactly reading your mind when you say it out loud, honey."

"What?" I asked confused, as I hadn't said anything.

Blinking, Mina frowned, replying, "Yeah, you did."

"Did what?" I questioned, not sure what she was referring to.

"You did say something," she told me, frowning. "Or. . . did you?"

Had I spoken out loud? I wondered.

However, before I could say anything Mina replied, "I thought you did."

Wait, are you reading my mind? I thought, not saying a word.

Mina glanced down at my lips, before she nodded, whispering, "More like you're speaking in mine, Sparky. You think. . . Mandalay?"

I blinked, wondering what the brunette pussycat had to do with my sudden. . . telepathy. I'm an idiot.

My girlfriend, rolled her eyes, poking me, and murmured, "No you're not. Wish this went both ways."

Me too, I thought. Actually, gimme a sec.

Focusing inwards, I tried to feel my newly copied Quirk, idly wondering if Mandalay had been using her Quirk more than I thought, because it took observing it being used in order to get a copy, but she'd used it maybe a dozen times in the last few days, tops.

"She's been using it all the time. She's been giving people advice on how to train," Mina disagreed, still hearing my thoughts. All of them. Which promptly caused a Pink Elephant problem, as I tried to make sure not to think of anything embarrassing, which, of course, required me to figure out what something embarrassing would be, so. Despite my best attempts, my gaze slipped over to Momo, sitting in front of us, the girl dozing, and I wondered what she looked like naked.

My girlfriend giggled, leaning in, telling me, "She's really pretty. Even more than I am."

I frowned, as that was, quite frankly, impossible, since Mina was practically perfect, and Momo was her own person, with her own kind of beauty, so it'd like comparing a sapphire to a pink diamond.

"Oh Sparky," my girlfriend cooed, reaching over and hugging me tight. "You're the best."

Doubtful, I mentally shot back, which, for some reason, just made her hold me tighter.

"You really don't get why?" she asked, and I just shook my head, confused, which made her sigh, and for a moment I wondered if I'd done something wrong. "No, not you," she told me, frowning slightly. "Don't worry about it, hun."

Which of course, made me worry about it, but I didn't even know what was wrong in the first place, which made that difficult, and so I tried to think about how to handle my new Quirk. However, Mina felt very nice against me, especially as she shifted, and then shifted again, and then- Are you doing that on purpose?

From her grin, the answer was yes, and I wanted to take her over my knee and spank her for that, but she would both enjoy that, making it not really any kind of rebuke, and I was pretty sure that, while the teachers were okay with our minor PDA's, foreplay would be a bit much.

"It really would," she agreed, still grinning unrepentantly.

God, you're gonna be the end of me, and I'm gonna love it, I thought fondly, shaking my head, before dragging my focus over on getting a handle on this, before I brushed up against Momo, thought she looked sexy, and she freaked out.

"She might not," Mina pointed out, which didn't help.

Yes, but the entire Quirk Copying thing is still something I'm trying to keep under wraps, I pointed out getting a nod from her, and turning my attention inwards. Mandalay didn't broadcast her every thought, so there was clearly some way to shut it off, as I copied her Quirk exactly.

My copied Quirks weren't really Quirks, more like multiple manifestations of Psychic Talent which worked like an emulator, giving me a level of separation for everything other than my 'natural' Quirk, as they'd been designed to, though. . . I had no idea how I knew that. Whatever. The user interface was as if I had those Quirks naturally, but there should be some kind of way to work it.

Okay, I'm gonna start counting while I fiddle around with this. Poke me when I stop, I thought at my girlfriend, so glad, not for the first time, that I'd come clean about who, and what, I was, in this case because I had no idea how I'd test it on my own.

"Yeah, sorry about, you know, freaking out," she murmured.

It's fine, you didn't, and don't worry, I thought in her direction. Okay let's get started. 1. 2. 3. 4.

And I continued doing that, trying to feel out my copy of Mandalay's Telepath Quirk, wishing I had some way to visualize or categorize my powers, but they didn't work that way, each like a part of my body instead, which I could no more see than I could see my own eyes. The ones I could manipulate, like Electrobody, felt like muscles, or even limbs, but the more passive ones, like my regen, I couldn't feel at all, functionally like, I don't know, a liver or something. It kept on working with zero input from me, and I had no way to control it consciously, or at least not yet.

25. 26. 27. 28.

Breathing deeply, I tried to meditate, trying to get in touch with myself, to detect a sensation I didn't have before, as this power would've been really fuckin' useful for coordinating with Bakugo against the dirt-leviathan, though I couldn't exactly explain how I'd been able to use it myself, so maybe it was better to not have the temptation.

41. 42. 43. 44.

Flexing my hands, they flickered to lightning for a second, then shifting focus there was the odd mental prompt that practically chirped 'What would you like to build today?' that was Momo's as it flashed across my mind, but then. . .

53. 54. 55. 56.

There, it was something, like the sensation of my throat tightening without talking one could get when speaking silently to oneself. It was hard to pin down as it was active, likely broadcasting my entire thought-process out to Mina, who was thankfully letting me work, another example of her being awesome, but there was a pulsing in time as I continued to mentally count, keeping the tally going. Focusing on it, I handled it carefully, not sure if stressing it would up my range, or volume, and neither wanted to blast the entire class nor scream in my beautiful girlfriend's mental ears.

67. 68. 69-nice. 70.

Concentrating, I felt it when, with a force of will, I started to relax it, still thinking, still counting, but only doing so with my internal-internal voice, though I wondered if I-

Mina poked me, and I looked over to her, as she grinned.

"I'm beautiful?" she asked, smiling.

Yes, I thought, but not at her, and when her expression was still expectant, answered, "Yes."

She lunged slightly, reaching me to give me a very enthusiastic kiss, though a quiet one, pulling away after a few seconds.

Trying to broadcast, I told her, I seriously can't wait until we're home. You better talk your parents into letting you stay at a friend's all weekend, because we aren't leaving the bedroom.

"Oh Sparky," she cooed, "You say the sweetest things."

Music

As night fell - Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia) - Lunch Break Song - Extended

AN: Next Four Chapters are up on , as usual!