"Like I said, you have two weeks to train your bodies and your minds to their peaks for the Sports Festival. Those two weeks started three days ago. That means that you have ten days to get ready for the event that will possibly have the most impact on your Hero career than any other. So stop dragging your feet and get into the proper mindset to succeed. Go beyond, Plus Ultra style," Aizawa said, glaring at each of his students from the podium.
It had been three days since the announcement of the Sports Festival, and it was not going well. Some weren't excited for the Festival, some were too eager and overworked themselves immediately, and some were simply not pushing themselves the way that the school wanted, so the class as a whole had just received a talking to from Aizawa. Izuku fell into the second category, and had pulled a muscle in his arm as he had been training to use Super Strength and Blackwhip at the same time. He had seen Recovery Girl, but was still wearing a compression glove to help with the healing. He was allowed to take the glove off tomorrow, but for now he had to keep it on, no matter what.
"You're dismissed. Don't let me catch you slacking off like this again," Aizawa said, shooing the kids out of his classroom.
As the students started to pack up, Aizawa made eye contact with Izuku and Hagakure, and the two knew to stay back after everyone left. Once the classroom had cleared out, Aizawa sighed and cleared his throat.
"Power Loader requested your presence in the Development Studio as soon as possible. He sounded urgent. What did you two do?" Aizawa asked.
Izuku and Hagakure looked at each other and began radiating excitement. The two stood up, but turned to Aizawa with nervous chuckles.
"Uh, we talked to Power Loader about a potential costume for me that can become invisible and let me become visible," Hagakure explained.
"Really? That's a worthy endeavour. Go," Aizawa said, already unpacking his sleeping bag.
Izuku and Hagakure ran out of the classroom, collecting their backpacks and sprinting toward the Development Studio. The two made it there in record time, Izuku letting himself use two percent of One for All to get him there that much faster. Izuku almost slid past the door as he slowed to a stop, allowing Hagakure to be the one to open the door, but the two entered together.
"Power Loader?" Izuku called out.
"Power Loader isn't here right now, but what can I do for you?" the girl with pink hair that had blown up the studio when the two first visited, Hatsume, said.
"Um, no thanks. We're just here for Power Loader," Hagakure said.
"Hatsume, are you trying to poach business?" Power Loader asked from another, secluded section of the Studio.
"How am I gonna get noticed at the Sports Festival if I don't practise my bit?" Hatsume asked, continuing to work on a small contraption she had been tinkering with when the two had walked in.
"Calm down. You'll do great, no matter what. Midoriya, Hagakure, how are you two?" Power Loader said, walking out of his section of the Studio.
"We've been training hard for the Sports Festival," Hagakure said, and Izuku nodded along with her.
"That's good. I've heard that there's Gen Ed and Support Course students wanting to transfer to the Hero Course, and they're using the Festival to show that they have the stuff. You'd better watch out, or your positions in your classes may be in jeopardy," Power Loader said, a knowing smirk on his face under his helmet.
"Yeah. I'm afraid that some of the people in our class might be the ones on the chopping block," Izuku admitted.
"Let's hope not. You're all fine students. Now, let's get to why I called you both here," Power Loader said, making Izuku and Hagakure look at each other with wide grins. Izuku could see that Hagakure's hands were shaking, so he knew she was excited.
"I called a friend that works with some higher-ups in the Hero Commission, asking about the tech you wanted. He told me it would be difficult, but that he could probably get me one of the devices they use on the more dangerous Mutant Class Quirk wielders. Two days ago, I got this in the mail," Power Loader said, ushering the two into his section of the Studio.
Power Loader held up a collar, large and bulky. Hagakure leaned back, and Izuku could tell she was grimacing. Izuku scanned over it, trying to understand how it could be implemented into Hagakure's Hero costume. He tilted his head, but Power Loader pulled the collar away, dropping it on his desk haphazardly.
"Don't worry, that abomination is empty. I separated the specific parts that cancel Quirks, and used those to construct this," Power Loader continued, pulling a smaller, sleeker gauntlet from under the desk.
The gauntlet had no shielding or coverings, being a prototype. It was all open, wires and gears and switches exposed for all to see. It had two buttons on what was supposed to become the top part, Izuku guessed, labeled 'VISIBLE' and 'INVISIBLE'. Power Loader pushed the gauntlet toward Hagakure, urging her to slip it on.
Hagakure took the gauntlet hesitantly, and slowly slid it onto her wrist, pushing her blazer's sleeve up with it. It fit perfectly, Power Loader having searched Hagakure's costume blueprints to get the correct size. She fastened it onto her wrist, and moved her arm around to get used to the added weight. Hagakure gasped.
"How does it feel?" Izuku asked.
"It feels good. It weighs almost nothing. The weird thing is, I felt something in my brain when I put it on. Like I'm connected to it," Hagakure said, chuckling under her breath.
"It's bonded to you. I designed it to recognize your Quirk Factor in your DNA, a sample of which it takes harmlessly upon contact. If it works, I'll be adding some armor plating to make sure none of the internal sections are damaged in battle. It'll be a bit heavier than it is now, but it'll be virtually the same, so get used to it," Power Loader said.
Izuku had to admire the intelligence of Power Loader. Power Loader has single handedly conceived of, designed and built about half of the Hero costumes of those in the field at the moment. Power Loader had been one of Izuku's idols when he was younger, the younger Izuku striving to be as smart as his current teacher one day.
"If it works," Hagakure breathed to herself.
"It's time," Izuku said.
Hagakure's other hand moved toward the 'invisible' button, but hesitated. With a reassuring look from Izuku, Hagakure reached forward and pushed down on the button. The gauntlet vanished, earning a gasp from everyone in the room. Hagakure's arm started shaking, and she started giggling to herself.
"It's gone! It works!" Hagakure cheered.
"Now we just have to see if it'll work the other way," Power Loader said, staring intently at the place where he knew the gauntlet was, but couldn't see it.
"Right," Hagakure said, regaining her seriousness.
The sound of scratching on the plastic and metal pieces could be heard, and Izuku knew it was because Hagakure was trying to find the button. He chuckled under his breath, and he heard Hagakure do the same, making an air of humor in the room. Power Loader watched the two with an amused smile.
"Okay, I think I got it," Hagakure said.
A whirring sound filled the room, and a spark flew from the gauntlet, still invisible. A bright flash came from the gauntlet, and it reappeared, along with Hagakure's arm. Izuku gasped, as well as Hagakure and Power Loader, and looked up at Hagakure's face, catching a flash of hazel eyes and wild, blown back brown hair, before the gauntlet caught fire, shutting off and rendering her invisible once again.
Power Loader pointed to a fire extinguisher behind Izuku, and he yanked it toward him with a strand of Blackwhip. He fired off the fire extinguisher at Hagakure's arm, and the fire died down, reducing to a stray spark here and there until Power Loader pulled the gauntlet off Hagakure's arm. Hagakure yanked her arm away from it, shaking.
"Are you alright? Did you get burned?" Izuku asked, reaching a hand out to Hagakure hesitantly.
"I think so. I can't tell if the metal was just hot, or if I actually got burned. I can't see it," Hagakure said, her voice getting smaller until she was whispering at the end.
"Hey, it's okay. It worked for a second, didn't it? We made eye contact. That's something," Izuku said, rolling up Hagakure's sleeve until she wasn't whimpering in pain.
"He has a point. Even though it caught on fire immediately afterward, it worked. We both saw you. That's a success," Power Loader said, examining the gauntlet closely.
"Yeah. It worked," Hagakure whispered to herself, before hissing at the pain of Izuku touching the skin on her arm.
"I think you've definitely been burned. Your skin gets more irritated and tender the closer to the point the fire was over. We should go to Recovery Girl," Izuku said, standing up and setting aside the fire extinguisher.
"Alright,' Hagakure said, standing as well.
The two left after that, making their way to the infirmary. As the two walked, Hagakure was strangely silent. It was like the energy had been taken from her, and it bothered Izuku. With an advancement like this, he couldn't grasp why Hagakure wasn't overwhelmingly happy, like she had been the first few times they made a breakthrough.
"Are you okay?" Izuku asked.
"What do I look like?" Hagakure asked back immediately.
It clicked for Izuku. He had mentioned how the two had made eye contact, and it had been all she could think about. Izuku thought it was reasonable; he was probably the first person to ever be able to do that with her, so it was probably consuming her mind.
"You have hazel colored eyes and brown hair. I didn't see much else, it was literally a 'blink and you'll miss it' situation. You have really pale skin, though," Izuku said, doing his best to smile.
"Oh, okay," Hagakure muttered.
"Uh, have you ever actually bothered with your hair? It was really blown back and untamed when I saw it. I only caught it out of the corner of my eye, but it was really wild. You'll have to start caring about that soon," Izuku said.
"Yeah. I guess I will," Hagakure, a smile in her voice.
The two arrived at Recovery Girl's infirmary, and Izuku knocked on the door with three little knocks. Recovery Girl immediately ripped the door open, and seeing it was Izuku, scowled.
"What happened now?" Recovery Girl asked, eyeing Izuku up and down.
"It isn't me this time! It's my friend, Hagakure. She got burned on her arm, but …" Izuku trailed off, stepping to the side to reveal the fact that Hagakure was invisible.
"Oh, dear. Come in, come in. You too, Broken Boy," Recovery Girl said, pushing Izuku into the room and slamming the door.
Izuku sat on a visitor seat and watched as Recovery Girl examined Hagakure's arm. She hummed to herself after a moment, and walked up a small step-ladder to climb onto the bed. Recovery Girl stood on the bed next to Hagakure and kissed her on the forehead. Hagakure giggled, a green aura surrounding her as Recovery Girl's Quirk, Heal, did its work.
Hagakure rolled down her sleeve after a moment, not reacting in pain at all, letting Izuku and Recovery Girl know that she had been completely healed. Recovery Girl went to her desk and retrieved her box of gummy bears, giving it to Hagakure and telling her to take as many as she liked. Hagakure refused the candies, citing her diet for Hero training as a reason to not eat many candies, as she had already eaten her self-imposed quota for the day.
Izuku and Hagakure left after that, making their way back to the locker area to collect their things. As the two gathered their belongings, Izuku hesitated. How did he explain to Hagakure that he wasn't leaving? How was he going to explain to other people that he never left the school? He supposed he'd have to reveal his living situation to them eventually, but he wasn't ready. He decided on just leaving.
"Oh, shoot! I've gotta talk to Aizawa about something. Bye, Hagakure! Let's hope that Power Loader can get the gauntlet working soon!" Izuku said, before running away down the hall.
Izuku did have to talk to Aizawa, they'd talked about it in the teachers' lounge in the morning. He still felt bad about deceiving Hagakure, someone he considered to be a good friend. He ran down the halls, making it to his Homeroom in a few minutes. He knew that Aizawa was trying to get a small nap in before their session, so Izuku hesitated. He waited a few more minutes before knocking on the door, and it opened immediately with a slamming sound against the wall.
Aizawa walked out of the room, grumbling something about following him. Izuku walked alongside him, wondering if he wanted Izuku to talk before him, or if he wanted neither of them to talk at all. Izuku didn't mind silence, normally, but walking with Aizawa, who looked like a homeless person, no matter how much respect for the man Izuku had, was always unnerving. He had an air about him that said 'you're in trouble', even if nothing was wrong.
"So, what exactly do you want to waste our time with?" Aizawa asked.
"I wouldn't call it a waste of time. I want to be able to handle the mental and physical strain that comes with using my multiple powers at once. I've gotten okay at dividing my attention between two things at once, my enemy and my Quirk, but I want to increase the divisions. I want to be able to split my focus between the task ahead of me and two of my powers, preferably Super Strength and another. I also want to increase my upper limit of Super Strength. Right now, I've estimated that I'm using about five percent of my full power. I want to increase that, obviously, but I want to increase it by five percent by the time of the Sports Festival," Izuku explained.
"So, you want to increase your proficiency at parallel processing, as well as increase the limit of Super Strength your body can handle to ten percent in ten days? That's a hell of a goal, Midoriya. Are you sure you can do that?" Aizawa said, a small smirk spreading across his face.
"I am. I think that I could do it if I devote myself entirely to it. Since I'm spending all my time on campus, I have access to the most advanced facilities in the country for twenty four hours a day," Izuku said.
"Do you have access?" Aizawa asked.
"Can I have access? You know that I won't misuse the equipment, and that I won't abuse the fact that I'll have it. I'll be good," Izuku said.
"Midoriya, I know that you'd cherish the opportunity. What I'm worried about is that if I give you the chance, I'll have to give everyone else the chance as well. We don't introduce students to Gym Gamma until their second semester, so doing that a whole semester early could upset the balance. It's made for higher tier Quirks, like those of your class, but just a little further along their timeline," Aizawa explained.
"Give it to them. I don't know why you're not lumping me in with them, but stop it. We're all the same. Quirks don't matter, what matters is how you use them. I've prided myself on my smarts, and that's how I've gone about developing my Quirk. I've taken a look at what I can do, and then thought things out in a sort of branch, coming to the conclusion of what I could do, if given the time and training it would take to do it. Please, let them show you what they can do. Let me show you what they can do," Izuku pleaded.
"Fine. I'll open up Gym Gamma to the class tomorrow, but that means you don't get acces tonight. Deal?" Aizawa said, groaning as he burst into the teachers' lounge.
"Thank you!" Izuku cheered.
"Oh, hey, Shota. Hey, Midoriya," Midnight said, sipping a cup of tea while sorting through test papers.
"Hello," Izuku said, always polite.
Izuku went to his room, closing the door as gently as possible so as to not disturb the teachers grading papers and whatnot in the lounge. He quickly changed out of his uniform and dressed himself in his usual casual clothes, cargo shorts and a t-shirt with the word 'shirt' on it. He had always loved the dry humor that the shirt gave off, and had a different shirt for a lot of different situations. His favorite one had the word 'tuxedo' printed across the chest, and it never failed to make him laugh, except for now. It was a reminder that he was without his mother, and he quickly put it on to avoid having to look at it, as well as a dark green jacket.
As he sat on his bed, which was a bit lumpy, Izuku's phone buzzed on the desk, and he got up to check it. It was a message from the '1A Group Chat', a project that Ashido and Hagakure had suggested a few days ago. Everyone in the class was in the group chat, even Todoroki, who he hadn't heard more than a sentence at a time from despite sitting very close to him in class. Bakugo, unsurprisingly, hadn't joined yet, though Izuku had invited him more than once. Izuku and Yaoyorozu were moderators, and had allowed everyone to make fun nicknames for themselves, like Ashido calling herself 'Alien Queen' in reference to her acidic powers, similar to the Aliens from the eponymous movie, a film from the era before Quirks. He was glad to see that Ashido was a cinephile, much like himself, and they had had a long discussion about whether or not the sequel to Alien was truly superior or not.
The message read 'Since Tokoyami likes it so much, how about a session of DnD?' from Metapod, Kirishima's nickname.
Izuku thought about it, and wouldn't be opposed to it. He knew how the game worked, had watched campaigns in his free time online, but had never played himself. He was curious, so he replied that he was available if the others wanted to. A few moments later, a message came through from Tokoyami, nicknamed 'Chicken Lord' by Kaminari.
'Fumi wants to! He's crying tears of joy!' the message read, which confused Izuku for a moment, before remembering that 'Fumi' was Dark Shadow's name for Tokoyami. Dark Shadow must have grabbed Tokoyami's phone and sent the message before its host could stop it, which made Izuku snicker to himself.
A few more people, namely Kaminari, Sero, Ashido, Jiro and Tokoyami, now in control of his phone, signed up for a session. As Kirishima sent his address, Izuku got excited at the prospect of playing DnD for real, with a bunch of real friends. He changed his shorts for a pair of longer sweatpants and put on a more formal shirt, as well as a heavier duty jacket for the cold. As Izuku grabbed his phone again, he checked the address, which was about ten blocks away from UA's campus, a perfectly reasonable distance for 'jogging', also known as practising his freerunning using his Quirks. At Izuku's level of fitness, it would be exercise, but he wouldn't work up enough sweat to stink himself up by the time he arrived at the location. As he walked out of the room, he saw that Aizawa was still there. Izuku checked the time, seeing that it had only been about an hour since school let out. In fact, all the teachers were still there, but many of them were finishing up their work.
"Uh, hi," Izuku said, freezing in place.
"Where are you going? Off to see your mother?" Aizawa asked.
"What? No. I'm not going to go see her. I set up a group chat log for the class, in case any of us got in trouble and couldn't contact a teacher or their parents. I thought it was a good idea after getting attacked by Villains," Izuku explained.
"That is a good idea, but why does that convince me that you aren't going home?" Aizawa asked.
"Kirishima and some others have organized a meetup at his house, and I said I would go. So, I'm going. I'll be back in a bit," Izuku said, beginning to make his way toward the exit to the lounge.
"How long will you be gone?" Midnight asked, a knowing smirk on her face.
"Are we really gonna do this? I think that I can leave campus without getting into trouble," Izuku said.
"C'mon, listener! Nemuri's messing with you. Shota isn't, though, he's being serious. He'll need to know when you're gonna be back," Present Mic said, returning from getting a cup of tea.
"Fine. I'll be back in a few hours. Nine or ten o'clock," Izuku said, feeling weird about this whole exchange.
"Go. I'll hold you to your word," Aizawa said.
Izuku turned toward the door and left, breaking out into a sprint as soon as he left the direct eyeline of his teachers. He grinned, knowing he could use his Quirks to move around the city now. He wouldn't cause enough of a ruckus to get himself noticed by Heroes or police or civilians, but would get enough practise with his Quirks in, specifically Float. He had decided to do this whenever he got the chance, but hadn't found an opportunity yet.
As Izuku left the campus, he looked around at the most even stretch of buildings, in terms of height. He pinpointed a line of about ten buildings, leading in the direction of Kirishima's address, that were about even height-wise, give or take a building or two. Izuku used Float to, without the help of One for All, leap up to the building he had marked as his starting point.
This was perfect. He could use this as an opportunity to train himself to subconsciously activate Float. Ever since the USJ, Izuku had had to work to turn on the Quirk, but he needed to be able to reflexively Float if he wanted to succeed in the Festival. Izuku got into a runner's stance, and took off, running as fast as he could without OFA's boost.
Izuku neared the ledge, and leapt off, getting about halfway across the gap between the buildings before he reached the peak of his jump, and turning on Float to glide across the rest of the gap, landing roughly on the concrete and wiping out due to his momentum. He slammed into an air conditioning unit, hearing a pop in his back. It actually felt nice, and Izuku wondered if he needed to go see a chiropractor for a moment before getting back on task and taking off again, sprinting toward the other side of the building.
As Izuku neared the middle of the stretch, he had developed a rhythm. He had gotten used to the run, jump, Float, release, run cycle that he needed to maintain in order to keep a steady pace. He had cleared seven buildings out of ten before he slipped up for the second time, and tripped over a pipe that ran along the ground.
Izuku fell to the ground and tumbled along the ground, landing on his shoulder and banging his head lightly against the pipe that tripped him up, and slid to the edge of the rooftop. He kept his momentum, sliding off the concrete rooftop and into the open air, feeling the wind on his face as he fell off the three story building. Izuku's head felt fuzzy, but he knew he was falling. He felt something break in his core, and he suddenly slowed to a stop, his momentum halting and his speed decreasing until he was hovering, still out of it, in the air.
It took Izuku a few minutes to come to his senses. He looked around, seeing that he had fallen about a story and a half from the roof, being exactly in the middle of the rooftop and the ground, hovering above the middle of the street. If he released Float, he'd fall to the ground and probably break his leg. If he tried to use One for All to flap his arms like wings and get the roof, he'd be seen. He settled for using Blackwhip to grapple back up to the roof.
As he cleared the lip of the rooftop, Izuku released Float and he landed on his back, trying to catch his breath from having the wind knocked out of him by the odd angle of his landing after he tripped. Izuku looked into the sky, knowing that he hadn't been the one to activate Float. It had turned on by itself, reacting to his instincts. He had done what he had wanted to do, Float as a reflex, but he had done it at far too great a cost; he realized that now.
Izuku walked along the street normally after that, catching his breath as he continued to make his way to Kirishima's house. He had felt his head for any injuries, and found that his face was scratched up and bruised. He decided it was fine, and that he didn't have a serious concussion. As he walked throughout the neighborhood, Izuku realized the houses were getting more and more high-end and expensive looking. The escalation stopped at what Izuku would guess was far out of even the Bakugo's wildest dreams, who themselves were well off financially due to Masaru, Bakugo's father's job as a fashion designer.
He came to a stop at the address detailed in the text, and walked through the fence toward the door. Izuku dusted himself off before knocking on the door, not wanting to be filthy when meeting Kirishima's family and being in his home for the first time. There was a silence for a few moments, before a woman with long, straight black hair and pointed teeth, just like Kirishima, opened the door.
"Hello! Are you a friend of Eijiro?" the woman, clearly Kirishima's mother, asked.
"Yes, ma'am. Izuku Midoriya. It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, maintaining his reputation of politeness.
"Hi, I'm Ten Kirishima, but you can just call me Ten to avoid confusion. He said you'd be coming. The others have already arrived. Come in," she said.
Ten escorted Izuku inside, and guided him to a staircase leading down into a basement. Izuku walked down and came to a room that was decorated with all sorts of paraphernalia based on martial artists, some movie heroes, a larger poster of Crimson Riot, the Chivalrous Hero, and a few other posters, as well as a punching bag, a treadmill and a bed. This was clearly Kirishima's bedroom, and he suddenly felt intrusive, but pressed on. He had already come this far.
"Hey, Midoriya's here!" Kaminari said.
Izuku looked over to the corner and saw a large table, probably usually used as a study space, but had been brought out from the wall to allow multiple people to sit around it. He saw that Kirishima, Kaminari, Jiro, Tokoyami, Ashido and Sero were sitting around the table, casually talking with each other. They all turned when Kaminari shouted out that he had arrived and waved him over, clearly eager to begin.
"Hey, man! Did it take you a bit to get here?" Kirishima asked, sliding his chair over to let Izuku sit next to him.
"No, I just used the opportunity to try a few things out," Izuku said, clearing his throat.
"Did you get beat up or something?" Ashido asked, taking advantage of her spot next to Izuku to poke his cheek.
"No! I just … tripped. Nothing to worry about," Izuku said, hissing in pain and flinching away from Ashido's hand.
"Hey, you can talk to us, dude. We won't judge you if you were beat up," Jiro said, at least trying to be sincere.
Izuku didn't want to tell them, but relented, knowing they wouldn't tell Aizawa that he had been using his Quirks outside of school grounds. He told them about how he had used the chance to train his ability to call on his Float power, and had tripped up and gotten hurt.
"Hold on. I've got something for this," Ashido said, reaching into her bum bag.
"No, that's fine. I'm okay, really," Izuku tried to argue.
"Nah, this is happening, sister," Ashido said, revealing that she had pulled out a roll of bandages and an antiseptic spray.
"You just … carry that stuff around with you? Or did you expect someone to get hurt tonight?" Kaminari asked.
"Nah, I just carry it around. I like to dance, and I don't always have a good floor to do it on, so I scratch up my knees a bunch. I always have the basic stuff to treat those kinds of scrapes on hand, even if I don't plan on getting hurt that way myself," Ashido said, spraying Izuku's scrapes with the spray, causing him to flinch back.
"Huh. Responsible Mina. That's new," Kirishima said with a laugh.
"You wish, dude. I'm still an Alien Queen, I just know that I'm gonna be a Hero someday, and people are gonna look up to me as a role model. A person that doesn't care about their own safety and constantly disregards others isn't a very good role model," Ashido explained, gently wrapping the bandages around Izuku's head.
"There. Better?" she asked Izuku.
"Yeah. Thank you," Izuku said, trying not to blush at the fact that Ashido had been touching his face.
"Now, let's get to playing!" Kirishima said, pulling a blanket off a board that had a few layers, clearly having been set up intricately for a long time.
The group had to keep their laughing quiet at the fact that Kirishima, despite his talk about manliness and fighting prowess being cool, was a huge nerd. When Kaminari told him this, he blinked and tilted his head, confused.
"'Manly' doesn't mean being good at fighting and acting like a cool guy all the time. 'Manly' just means that you're passionate about a subject you really like, and that you try your best, no matter what. That's manly. I'm just manly in the way of Heroics! Mina's dancing is super manly! Y'know?" Kirishima explained.
"Yeah, dude," Kaminari said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Alright, now, let's get to creating our characters …" Kirishima said, and the group began their session.