บท 2008: 27
Chapter 27: Vital Weapons
Summary:
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Chapter Text
Izuku glared at the calendar like it had personally offended him. It wasn't really fair, since the calendar obviously didn't decide that time should keep marching forward, but the fact was that the sports festival was in three days and Izuku had been too busy helping Shinso and analyzing the first years to plan what he wanted to do.
He glanced out the window of his workroom and watched Mei, who appeared to be in her own little world, putting the final finishing touches on Shinso's support item, while her own were teetering in a steadily growing pile on the floor beside her. It seemed like everyone else had a goal for the festival. Katsuki wanted to prove he was the best, Mei wanted to impress investors, and Shinso wanted to get into the hero course. Heck, even his classmates were looking forward to showing off their inventions in the first round!
So where did that leave Izuku?
He'd found his perfect place in the support course, so he didn't want to transfer like Shinso did. He didn't actually build support items, so he didn't have any to show off like Mei and his classmates did. He was just...little old quirkless him, just like he'd always been. Like he'd always be.
Despite the fact that he'd technically been staring out the window and should have seen her coming, Izuku still jumped a foot in the air when Mei slammed the door open and strode in, trying to wipe soot off her nose, but only successfully smearing it all over her cheeks instead.
"It's ready!" She announced proudly. "Where's Extra-Credit-Kun?"
"Probably in class." Izuku sighed, turning back to his current analysis. "Like he always is at this time."
There was a beat of silence and Izuku finally turned to see Mei looking at him suspiciously, "Ok, what's got you down?"
"N-nothing?" Izuku stuttored.
The crosshairs in Mei's eyes narrowed slightly, "Not buying it, Izu-kun. You're normally super excited, so…?"
Izuku shrugged and forced a smile onto his face, "It's nothing. You and Shinso are gonna do great in the sports festival!"
Mei sighed, "Oh, so that's what's wrong." She forcefully spun his chair around so they were face to face and leaned down so Izuku had to lean back to avoid being nose to nose with her. "You realize you're gonna do great in the sports festival too, right?"
"I don't need to." Izuku protested. "Not like you and Shinso do."
"But you want to." Mei countered.
Izuku stopped, "What?"
"You want to do well!" Mei said it like it was obvious. "You want to prove what you can do! You want to show all those stupid bullies that your notebooks weren't a waste of time!"
"I guess it would piss Katsuki off if I were to make it past the first round." Izuku chuckled. "And the farther I get, the more I can help you and Shinso!"
"Exactly!" Mei punched him playfully on his arm. "So don't let me catch you saying that you don't need to do your best just because you don't need the publicity or whatever. Right Cheat Code?"
Izuku scowled, "I still can't believe that you made me make a logo. I'm not popular!"
"Not now you're not." Mei grinned. "But after UA, when you're not some helpless student anymore, your brand's gonna be the biggest in the entire hero analysis industry."
"It's not like it's a very large industry to begin with." Izuku muttered. "So, was there any reason you came in here besides to apparently scream some sense into me?"
Mei's face lit up, "Oh yeah! Extra-Credit-Kun's weapon is done! I just need him to do the final tests and make sure everything fits so he can get used to it before the festival! Can you go get him please? "
"Ok…." Izuku looked back at the video he was supposed to be analyzing. If he wanted to keep up with Shinso and Mei in the festival without a quirk or fancy support items, he would need to memorize the weaknesses of every single hero student and come up with ways to counter each of their quirks. In three days. Fun.
Maybe he could make Mei wait until after school? But then Shinso wouldn't have as much time to get used to his new equipment. If only she could go get him herself, but then she'd probably make a scene and embarrass Shinso…which would be brilliant payback for ganging up on him with Mei about the logo and for taking those pictures that Izuku had had to steal back after the USJ.
Izuku smiled slowly, "Mei, I'm kinda busy right now, but I can give you a map to his classroom!"
Hitoshi was bored.
Or maybe he wasn't bored. Maybe he was using his boredom to mask his nervousness? What if his training hadn't been enough? What if Midoriya's strategies for hiding his quirk's activation requirements weren't enough and everyone could counter him perfectly after the first round? What if…
The entire class flinched as the door to the classroom hit the wall with a loud bang and Mei strode in, grease and soot smeared across her face as she gave her best mad scientist grin. Oh, who was he kidding, that was her default expression. They made eye contact across the room and Mei's grin got even wider as she made a beeline toward him.
"Hi, Mic-Sensei! I'm stealing Shinso-kun for an hour!" Mei announced loudly. "I need to make his babies!"
Mic choked on his own breath and Hitoshi turned a brighter red than he had thought was possible without some sort of quirk involved. Before either of them could give any other reaction, Mei had grabbed Hitoshi's hand, yanked him to his feet and started pulling him toward the door like an overexcited puppy.
The class's exclamations were still audible even after the door slammed closed behind them.
Izuku tried to hold in his laughter as Mei physically dragged a cherry red Shinso into the lab, but he wasn't doing a very good job of it if the glare Shinso sent him was any indication.
"I hate you." Shinso said seriously.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Izuku tried to sound innocent, but the stubborn smile on his face kinda ruined the effect.
Shinso glared harder, as if just staring at him hard enough would activate his quirk, "You sicced Mei on me."
Izuku shrugged, "You deserved it."
"I…"
"Now that we're done embarrassing Extra-Credit-Kun, can I show him the baby I made?" Mei interrupted.
Shinso and Izuku both looked at her in shock.
"You did that on purpose?!" Shinso exclaimed.
Izuku doubled over in laughter as Mei huffed, "Like Izu-kun really didn't have time to go get you himself. He's hacked the USJ, he could have easily hacked the announcement system if he wanted to instead of sending me!"
Izuku laughed even harder, "I...I think I see why Present Mic calls us Powerloader's gremlins now!"
"I hate both of you." Shinso deadpanned. "First you kidnap me and now this. Why did I even agree to this."
"Because of this!" Mei grinned and dumped a large length of metal ribbon on the table. "Meet Hatsume Industry's Baby 367! Amplifying Apprehension Armor!"
Shinso eyed the ribbon suspiciously, "What does it do?"
Mei's eyes glinted with excitement, "Pick it up and find out!"
Shinso scoffed, "No thanks. I still haven't forgiven you for those taser marbles you handed me last week."
"Oh you're no fun." Mei pouted. "Fine. This baby has three functions. I can add more later, but this is what I could pull together while still giving you time to practice before the sports festival. The ribbons reflect sound, so you can configure them to applify your voice without having to transmit it and even change the way it sounds, so it can be used as a voice modifier, but it's gonna take some fine tuning. For now, it can get close, but it still sounds pretty tinny and it's obvious that it's an imitation if the listener is paying attention."
"Alright…" Shinso said slowly and hesitantly picked up the pile, almost throwing it as it was apparently lighter than he'd been expecting. "So it amplifies and modifies my voice. What about the other functions?"
"It almost looks like Eraserhead's capture weapon." Izuku pointed out.
"Good work, Izu-kun! I knew there was a reason I kept you around!" Mei grinned. "Hearing you two geek about about him made me curious, so I looked him up and his scarf baby is so cool! It doesn't seem high tech at first, but there's so much hidden in it and…"
"Mei!" Shinso interrupted her before she could start rambling. "I know what Eraserhead's scarf does. So...I can use this to grab opponents and stuff?"
Mei huffed, "Well, yeah, but Eraserhead's scarf takes a lot of practice to control and practice takes time you don't have and we can't make it out of fabric, since it has to reflect sound, so this version isn't gonna have the same flow as his. Think of those slap bracelets you had back in elementary school. If you slap the ribbon hard enough against something, it'll wrap around it automatically. We'll probably fine-tune it later, but this'll be good enough for now."
Shinso nodded slowly, "Ok...that makes sense….ish."
"That accounts for the amplification and the apprehension." Izuku said, running his hand over one of the ribbons. "What about the armor?"
Mei's eyes lit up with excitement and Shinso's darkened with fear in response as she grabbed the ribbon and slammed it against his arm.
"Mei! Wait!" Shinso tried to protest, but before the words were even out of his mouth, the ribbon had wrapped itself entirely down his arm, encasing it almost completely. He stared at it in amazement.
"You can use the apprehension function on yourself to make an armor!" Mei cackled. "Isn't it an amazing baby, Extra-Credit-Kun?"
"Wow…" Izuku breathed. "You've really outdone yourself Mei-chan"
Shinso took a deep breath and carefully reverted back to his default bored expression, "It's ok, I guess."
"I'll take it!" Mei shrugged. "Now, we've got a lot of work to do, so let's see you handle that baby!"
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