章 2301: 43
And we're back to the main story, and the start of a new arc as well! I hope everyone's ready for Overhaul and the rest of his merry gang.
On another note, thanks to all of those who read and enjoyed the last chapter! It was a fun little detour that I thoroughly enjoyed writing.
Anyways, onwards! To Chapter 43: Foil!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"Our society needs to prepare for unparalleled hardship in the near future. This applies especially to those of you in the hero course. Including all of you second and third years in work study. Going forward, you must be more aware than ever of the threat that is out there."
"Such gloomy talk makes us heavyhearted, I know. However, that's why the staff is doing their best to keep things from getting too dreary. We hope to inspire an industrious ethic in young men and women alike, all so that you may go on to become capable members of soc—"
"Socket wrench, Izuku."
"Right on it." Izuku shuffled through the undignified mess that was Mei's workshop station, pushing aside blueprints and random junk until he found the specified tool. He took the wrench in his grip and handed it over to his Mei, taking caution to avoid the showering of sparks that were originating from her active use of a welding torch.
"Thank you very much!" Mei said, switching the torch in her hand for the wrench. She moved her newfound wrench onto a bolt and began tightening it, turning the shaped metal three times until she stopped and held it in place.
"Melissa, I want you to lower down the spark plug and the neural wiring until it hits points ZW and KT. That way we can start on section 243/A7 despite the fact that we don't have the internal processor yet."
A set of mechanical appendages lowered themselves down as Mei talked, already beginning their own sets of movements and wiring. "Didn't you say that without the titanium alloyed processor, the chance of explosion rose by fifteen percent?"
Izuku sighed. He looked up and over at the monitor that held the face of his friend. "Please don't remind me of that, Melissa. Explosions happen with Mei on a daily basis already. I don't want to have to worry about something that may or may not happen."
A third mechanical arm that wasn't in current use rose and pointed itself at Izuku, jabbing into his chest. "And why not? Laboratory precautions and the statistics of potential malfunctions are integral to the safety of those in the lab! Not taking part in knowing such things increases the risk of injury ten-fold!"
"You, obviously, are too used to the luxuries of a functioning state-of-the-art lab stock full of the latest gadgets and doohickeys," interrupted Mei. "Besides, I have all the warning I need right here with Izuku. Due to our process of his bugs hiding away in the machinery, Izuku here can give me a shout or something in the case that something is about to blow up."
Mei suddenly looked up, taking a glance at Izuku before going back to work."By the way — and not that I'm complaining about you being here or anything — but didn't the Bandage Man put you under house arrest or something?"
The mechanical arms twisted in their place, lowering off their course. Thankfully, the arms weren't near any of the unstable sections, so no explosion came. However, that wasn't to say that Melissa cared at the current moment.
"What do you mean house arrest? What happened?! And what Bandage Man?"
"It's nothing so dramatic," Izuku said, turning his gaze back upon the screen. "I just had a little scuffle with Bakugou. You remember him? He was the guy who could make explosions in his hands."
"Bakugou?" It took a few moments for Melissa to recall her memories. "Oh yeah! I remember him. He was a bit rough around the edges, if I recall correctly." Melissa placed a narrowed eye on Izuku. "And you're saying you got into a scuffle with him."
"Ha!" Mei suddenly laughed. "If by 'little scuffle' you mean an explosive deathmatch stock full of knives, bugs, and burns. Then yeah. A little scuffle."
Melissa's face nearly pressed against her side of the screen. "Izuku Midoriya! How could you be so reckless?!? You only have bugs! And you fought against somebody who not only creates explosions from his hands, but used knives to fight?!?"
"Oh, uh… I was actually the one to use the knives," Izuku explained. He then reached down to his ankle and pulled out the knife in question. "See? It's a nice and simple one. Completely legal, and nothing too ostatious."
"Only because you wouldn't let me make you that solar powered electroshock knife," Mei muttered, whacking away at her current invention..
"Wait. Wait wait," Melissa said. "You were the one using the knife, Izuku!?"
Izuku shrugged his shoulders. "What? He was asking for it." He placed his knife back in its sheath. "Besides, I had it handled. Nobody got hurt, and I even won in the end! I just ended up getting placed into cleaning duty as a result."
Melissa's eyes trailed down Izuku's arm, which was still wrapped up in bandages from the fight. "Nobody got hurt, huh? Then what's with your arm? I'm somewhat doubting your earlier explanation that a rabid badger attacked you in the woods."
Izuku rubbed at his arm. "I just didn't want to worry you. I mean, I only told Mei because I knew that she wouldn't say anything about it."
"Mei has no sense of safety," Melissa chided.
"Hey!" Mei interjected. "If his arm works, his head's still on his shoulders, and his bugs remain under his control, and he can still help in the lab, and he says he's fine, then I say he's fine."
"Sure, sure. I guess that I'll have to be the one who has to make sure that he doesn't suddenly fall over dead, then."
Melissa maneuvered the robotical hands she was controlling into the next compartment of the metal, holding down the wiring for Mei to do the work. However, another stall of the arms halted the process yet again.
"But wait, why aren't you cleaning right now then?" Melissa asked. "Won't the, uh, 'bandage man' catch you?"
"Aizawa won't catch me," Izuku said, his voice even. "He's out at the entrance ceremony. And I'll know when he's on the move. And besides, I am cleaning! In fact, right at this very moment I'm dusting away at the common room's television."
Melissa blinked several times in quick succession. "With your bugs, you mean?"
"Mhm!"
Melissa paused, taking a moment to shake her head, She had to readjust her arms yet again, taking into account her delay to ensure there wasn't a catastrophic failure in the piece of metal.
"How's it doing over on I-Island, anyway?" Izuku asked. "Has everything been alright ever since, um… the expo?"
"Oh come on!" Mei wailed. The arms had jarred around yet again.
Melissa sighed, her features drooping. "I suppose it's been okay. A good majority of dad's confiscated work has been returned, so there's that. And I mostly have free reign over the lab now. It's quite a big responsibility." She shook her head. "But dad's still serving out his punishment."
"But he's still okay, right?" Izuku asked.
Melissa's expression changed upon hearing the question, a small smile forming on her lips. "Yeah. He's not even upset about it at all. He understands that what he did was wrong. It makes me feel selfish, you know? I just want him here, even though I know what he did requires a reparation to all those he hurt. Especially you, Izuku."
"I already told you that I don't blame him," Izuku said. "I wasn't hurt all too much at the time, so there's nothing to hold a grudge about."
"Not too hurt!" Melissa almost screamed. "I— wha— you… I give up."
The trio talked on afterwards, the topic shifting between much more innocent and light subjects of their daily lives. There were a few close calls in their current project exploding — twenty-seven, to be exact — but in the end everything went alright.
And finally, after a good two hours, it was done. Mei detached the various wires and cords from the device, taking her baby into her hands and lifting it up into the air. Even if the aesthetics weren't finished yet, the prosthetic limb looked like a thing of beauty. Metallic grey with gold overlays that took on a look of banded lines; the arm looked fit for a king. It was quite fitting, considering who they were planning to give it to.
"So, what do ya think?" Mei questioned. Her eyes zoomed in and out out of focus on her creation, eyeing the device for any imperfections. "Is it worthy of being worn by the Symbol of Peace himself?"
Izuku simply nodded. "Yeah. Definitely."
Melissa looked off to the side, eyeing something that wasn't visible on her screen. "I still can't believe that Uncle Might lost his arm. That villain was so cruel!"
"Yeah. And wasn't it crazy? That fight was all blam blam zap!" Mei waved the arm around, aiming it like a gun. "Aha! But at least with this, he won't ever be defenseless ever again!"
Melissa smiled. "Yeah. With all the upgrades that we added, he'll be able to hold himself up even in his unpowered state! I mean, the arm's got that tracking system, the automated enhanced grip and reflexes, its sturdy titanium alloy, the HUD overlay, the portable flashlight…"
"…the retractable claws, the electrical shock grips, the extendable wrist blades, the lines of Izuku's spider silk, and the nut compartment!"
Melissa and Izuku stopped and stared at their friend
"When the heck did you add those in?" Melissa asked. "I've been helping you every step of the way! I never saw you slip any of those things in!"
Mei cackled. "Every step of the way, you say? Oh? Have you really? Are you sure? "
"Nevermind the weapons," Izuku interjected. "Why is there a nut compartment?"
"Because nuts!"
Izuku's inquiry got him so caught up in Mei's intense explanations on nuts that he almost didn't notice when Aizawa began to move away from the spot he had claimed for himself at the ceremony.
Izuku immediately apologized to his friends and slipped away from the lab. He moved quickly, not taking any stops on the way so he could prevent anyone — or worse, Aizawa — from noticing his absence from the Heights Alliance.
In his haste, Izuku estimated that he had gotten back to the dorms within a minute or so before the first arrivals.
A quick check of the inside using his bugs revealed that Bakugou was still cleaning the bathrooms up on the fifth floor. Considering the state of the rest of the floor, it was likely that he was just on the urge of moving down to the next floor.
Izuku was thankful for that. It looked as if Bakugou had honored the compromise they had made just a few hours ago. To list the terms of the compromise in short, Bakugou would get the top floors, and Izuku the bottom. As for the third, they'd meet up and finish from there.
While this acted as a way to equally split up the work, it also provided a reason for the two to never have to see each other before they met on the third floor.
As a result, Izuku had a working alibi as he went off to help Mei and Melissa on their work (not that Bakugou knew any of that). Plus, Izuku didn't even have to worry about his designated floors not being clean, all thanks to his bugs.
Of course, this plan only worked if nobody saw him leaving the dorms by viewing the security feeds. However, considering that the only person who could access the cameras was Nezu, Izuku thought that he was fine on that front.
Aizawa never explicitly said that quirk use wasn't allowed to aid in the cleaning process. As such, Izuku was almost certain that Nezu would rather praise — rather than punish — him for finding the loophole in Aizawa's rules.
And so, as Izuku neared the Heights Alliance, he ended up running out to the back of the building and towards the place where the trash was stored.
He immediately grabbed onto a couple trash bags and waited, using the eyes of his bugs to determine the start of his walk. When the returning mass of people were close enough, Izuku started off on his walk.
He made sure to pass his returning classmates — and in turn Aizawa — as he left the shadow of the building. It was then that he made his way to where the rest of the trash on campus was dumped for pickup.
"Garbage, right?"
Izuku stopped in his tracks, turning his gaze towards the face that had suddenly appeared in the wall.
"Don't worry," the face said, "you can put food trays and the like with the rest of the burnables."
Izuku blinked. "Right…"
The face nodded and disappeared.
"Where the heck did he come from?" Izuku mumbled.
"That's… a good question. It's like he appeared out of nowhere."
"Yeah. I was like— What the heck!" Izuku dropped the trash bags onto the face that had suddenly appeared at his feet.
The face simply moved over to the right, its smile not faltering in the slightest. "So, you're the one called Izuku Midoriya, eh? You're causing quite an impressive amount of waves around here, you know."
Izuku's eyes widened in slight recognition. "...Intangibility," he muttered, nodding to himself. "You're that guy who got naked at the Sports Festival last year, aren't you?"
"Hey! I've done way more than that since I've gotten here!" He didn't sound mad; rather, he sounded quite amused by the fact that he was recognized for such a unique event.
Izuku narrowed his eyes. "You aren't currently naked right now, are you?"
"Ha!" The face laughed. "Well, you seem like a smart kid. Tell me, what do you think?"
"Hmm… Mirio Togata of the Big Three, correct?"
"Hey, what did I say! You are a smart one!"
"Why exactly are you here?" Izuku asked, crossing his arms. "I can't imagine you just wanting to check up on a random first year."
"You're quite the skeptical one, aren't you?" Togata smiled.
Izuku's expression remained unchanged.
"Heh. Well, you got me," Togata admitted. "Truth is, I heard about the fight the other night. I just wanted to see what you were all about. Match up with the competition, if you will."
"Competition?"
"Yup!" Togata's face slowly began to sink back into the earth. "You'll find out about it soon. But in the meantime, keep your spirits high! It'll be important!"
And Togata, as far as Izuku could tell, was gone.
"Weird."
"...Yeah."
"I heard that you keep bugs in your hair! I want to see!"
Without warning, Nejire Hado began pulling on Izuku's hair, grasping at strands for a chance to spot his elusive bugs. Izuku feigned a struggle, using his hands to try to push away the energetic girl. However, he knew it to be a useless endeavor in the end, and let the girl be.
"Ooh! You have a whole bunch of fun little bugs in here! Fireflies, some spiders… Ooh! A centipede!"
"Nejire, the kid's about to fight Mirio. You'll doom him to an easy defeat if you keep riling him up like that."
Hado turned, swatting her hand at her friend. "Oh, he'll be fine, Tamaki!" She turned back towards Izuku and pinched his cheeks. "Won't you?"
Izuku attempted pushing her away again to no avail. "Sure, sure. Can you let me go now?"
Izuku nearly fell backwards when she suddenly let go.
Hado waved. "Sure! Good luck with Mirio now!"
Izuku made his way over to join the rest of his classmates. However, before he could get nearly half way there, he took a moment to consider what he was doing. He looked over to where Togata stood before his classmates and remembered the show that he saw from last year's Sports Festival.
He walked back to where Hado and Amajiki were standing.
"Oh! Hi bug boy! What are you doing back here?"
Izuku turned to Hado. "I—"
"Midoriya." Aizawa's voice rang out. "What are you doing?"
"Hold on for just a second," Izuku told Hado. He formed a swarm clone just beside where his teacher and Todoroki stood.
"Hi, Aizawa-sensei." The swarm clone turned. "Hi, Todoroki."
"Midoriya, what are you doing?"Aizawa asked, his face as stoic as usual. "The fight's happening up over here."
"I know. But I know that I work better as a ranged fighter than a physical one, so I'll stay back here and send my swarm clone on the frontline."
Aizawa blinked. "You're not actually going to fight, are you?"
"... Maybe?"
Aizawa sighed. "Go ahead and do whatever it is you want to do. The fight is optional, anyways."
"It is, isn't it?" Todoroki muttered. His gaze faded off into the distance. He then nodded to himself. "I think I'll sit this one out as well, Aizawa-sensei."
Aizawa's eyes widened slightly. "You will?"
"Yeah," Todoroki said. "I messed up during the license exam. I know that part is that because I need to be a better team player. So I'll sit this one out and watch the fight rather than going right into the fray. I'll watch everybody else's methods in working together first before learning about them myself."
Aizawa nodded. "That's some good thinking, Todoroki. Shows that you're learning. Good for you."
"Aizawa-sensei!" Iida yelled. "Are Todoroki and Midoriya going to join us?"
"No," Aizawa responded. "Go on ahead."
Izuku dispersed his swarm and brought his main focus back onto his main body. He watched as the fight started and Togata activated his quirk, his clothes falling to the floor despite the horrified looks of some of his classmates.
"So why are you actually staying back?" Amajiki asked, his face still facing the wall. "I didn't take you as somebody who wouldn't want to fight."
He watched as a whole plethora of his classmate's quirks blasted harmlessly at Togata's position. Izuku smiled as the smoke cleared, revealing an empty crater.
"I remember all of you guys' performances from last year's Sports Festival," Izuku supplied. "Especially Togata's. His fights were pretty one-sided."
The first one down was Jirou. Next was Mineta. A little under half a minute into the true fight and the next one out for the count was Kaminari.
"In all honesty," Izuku said, "I'm not sure if I can handle him at my current level. His quirk and his technique make for quite a deadly combo."
"His quirk is nothing to admire," Amajiki mumbled. "It's not really his quirk that you need to worry about, but his technique."
"Hmm… Really? There must be some drawback to his quirk, then?"
"Mhm."
Twenty more seconds had passed, holding the defeats of Yaoyorozu, Aoyama, and Shoji.
"You know," Amajiki began, "you're the kid who survived being kidnapped by villains," Amajiki mumbled. "Out of everyone, I would've thought you to be somebody wanting to prove himself that he wasn't weak."
"Eh."
Amajiki turned, just slightly. "Just eh?"
Izuku stayed silent for moments, watching the fight in earnest.
"I mean, I suppose that I could probably float a bunch of my bugs into Togata's body and then wait for him to take a breath. Then, when he turns tangible again, I could try to hit him. However, that strategy has the problem of me needing to predict which way his body will shoot off to account for the space he was taking up."
They had reached a little over the one minute mark: Sero took a hit to the gut like the rest had and fell to the ground. Tsu fell not too long after.
"Whoa!" Hado shouted. "You already figured out Togata's breathing gimmick? And the way his body shoots out of any space he's occupying?"
The next moment had Ashido down on the ground. And up followed Tokoyami, despite his ever vigilant Dark Shadow having provided an ample dodging method and early warning system beforehand.
"I did. Just now, really. I'm watching him with some of my bugs. It's really subtle, but I can just make out his inflated cheeks as he's moving through the battlefield. Though, the space thing was more of a theory, if I'm to be honest. Thanks for confirming it, however."
Nearing two minutes, Togata only had one ranged opponent left. Izuku face adopted an all out grin after the twenty seconds it took for Bakugou to be defeated.
The rest of the physical fighters lost to Togata's combat prowess a whole lot faster than the previous group. Only ten seconds were needed for the downed forms of Hagakure, Koda, Ojiro, Sato, and Uraraka.
"Mirio's really gotten strong, huh?!" exclaimed Hado. She elbowed Izuku, who let out a cough and recoiled from the playful jab. "It seems that you know how to pick your fights!"
"Mirio's been strong ever since he was a kid," Amajiki mumbled.
Izuku looked back onto the battlefield. As he had expected, it didn't take long for the remaining forms of Iida and Kirishima to be beaten senseless and into submission.
"POWER!!!!!!"
Izuku nodded to himself. He was happy with his decision to have opted out of the fight. After all, if the faces of his classmates were anything to go by, Togata's punches really hurt.
Notes:
And that's the 43th chapter of this fic for you. Next up, we get some work study stuff!
But with a twist! Stay tuned...
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