31

Chapter 31: Internships – Part IINotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Mashirao saw the flock of birds storm out of the forest and start to hover it, drawing circles that grew bigger with each iteration. Judging by the tremors and the sounds that he'd come to connect to Koda's Quirk, he imagined that his classmate's training was starting to get interesting. 

Somewhat like his was. 

He hit the ground once again, having been completely unsuccessful in finding any way to get a grip on his adversary's body. Tiger was a slippery guy. 

"Not bad, but you're still putting too much of your weight on that tail of yours," the man chided, his chuckle low as he offered him a hand to get back on his feet. "I know it's got a lot of muscle, but you can't focus your entire fighting style around it." 

"Easier said than done," he breathed out. "I've been using it for fifteen years." 

"You've been using it wrong for fifteen years," the man sighed, then corrected himself as the boy frowned. "Sorry, that came out harsher that I meant to. What I mean is, you're right in incorporating your extra limb into your martial art, but you're also limiting yourself. How can I make you understand..." 

Tiger looked thoughtful for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Ah, yes. Look, if I asked you to climb that three, how would you do it?" 

Mashirao raised an eyebrow, looking at the wooden giant and its myriad of thick branches. "I'd run, jump over, and try to grab one of those branches with my tail, probably." 

"Yeah," the man nodded, "because your tail is prehensile. You've can't just use it to hit or defend." 

The teen stared for a couple of seconds, his mouth slowly opening as the realization hit. 

"Let's go again, let's see if you've understood." 

Tiger was upon him in an instant, giving him only the time to barely evade and deflect his punches. Mashirao concentrated, his eyes darting around to look for a weak point. When he thought he'd found one, the teen let his tail strike diagonally, the tip trying to curl around the man's leg to take away his balance. 

"Good," Tiger smiled, "but not enough." 

The man's leg slid out of the grab, his body completing a twist. For the first time, Mashirao saw the Hero use his Quirk differently: his arm wasn't turning into a whip to escape his hands, but to attack. The blow hit him from his left elbow to his right shoulder, circling around his back and filling his senses with a sharp pain. With his focus in pieces and being unable to put up a better resistance, two more direct punches were enough to put him down again. 

The boy emptied his breakfast on the ground, as the man spoke up. 

"Let's take five," Tiger moved around a bit before he kneeled down, passing him a water bottle. "Did you get what I did there?" 

"Your whip transformation is exactly like my tail." Mashirao drank eagerly and cleaned his mouth with his sleeve, looking up with newfound understanding. "You don't use it only as a killing blow, but as a starting point. Is that it?" 

Tiger's grin became wider. "Precisely. A blow strong or painful enough to distract my foe gives me the opening I need to build more attacks in my flurry of blows." 

"But I'm not at that point," he shook his head. "It's hard enough to keep my defense up."

"You're not that good yet," the Hero pointed out. "Training and practice, that's the only way to go." 

Tiger stood back up, relaxing his joints. The [Pilabody] user was flexible beyond compare, so it wasn't strange to find him talking with his torso turned the wrong way. 

"A one-trick pony gets downed easily. If you want to be a Fighting Hero, it's better if you start to grow your arsenal of moves to face whatever comes at you. And speaking of which..." 

Mashirao turned to the side, following the Hero's gaze, where Pixie-Bob had just appeared with something that resembled a dog as much as a dragon resembles a lizard. 

"You'll get stale if you keep fighting only against me," the man explained. "And it's due time I got to pay a visit to your classmate, after all." 

He subtly prayed for Koda's health, wondering what the definitely less combat-oriented guy was supposed to do. 

"Come on kitten!" the blonde woman cheered. "You aren't too tired, I hope?" 

Mashirao got up, patting his costume to get rid of the dust, hatching the roughest estimate of a plan. Steps one through three consisted on not getting crushed and making it lunch time. 

"It's Whiplash, Miss," the Martial Arts Hero tried to sound confident. "And I'm not even halfway done."

Denki was uncertain if he should smile or panic. He'd probably keep his face in the middle involuntarily until he got one right. 

He was kinda hoping for some action back when they started talking about internships, but seeing the mess they had gotten into was another thing. He could deal with fighting Villains, yeah, and the U.S.J. had already been a baptism by fire (or water, for him, Mineta and Asui). But seeing civilians injured and bleeding out on the ground was a completely different experience. 

The Villain, a muscly man with a rhino mutation and a horn that resembled a drill, had a hand clutching the bag of jewelry he'd just stolen, while the other was busy breaking apart and grabbing a big piece of the road's asphalt. 

"Chargebolt! Stay back and help Cactus provide help to those civilians," Snatch said, his every word clear and heavy. Part of his body was already turning into sand and snaking towards the enemy, intercepting the thrown boulder to prevent further damage. 

The blonde teen wasted a moment looking between the Hero and the Villain before turning back. He had permission to use his Quirk to defend himself, but he had orders to follow now. 

Denki ran with the Hero's sidekick, sliding onto his knees and stopping by the victim's side. One of the shop's employees had been thrown through the window as a warning before the Villain himself charged out, and he'd taken quite the hit. The poor man's torso and limbs showed many small cuts, his nice vest torn apart by the glass fragments. His face didn't get much luckier than that. 

Cactus began administering emergency treatment, taking out the necessary items form his satchel and handing them to Denki. 

"Chargebolt, assess the situation. More prominent cuts? Bleeding?" the sidekick asked as he opened the civilian's mouth, squeezing his own hand to administer some drops of his Quirk-produced water, which apparently could ease pain. 

Denki's eyes shot up and down as his mouth moved, explaining what he could see. He only noticed the worst and most important thing when he felt his knee get wet. "He's bleeding on his back!" 

"Good eye, make way," the sidekick said, taking his place. 

"Look out!" Someone yelled, the act immediately followed by a loud crash a few meters to their left. 

The Villain took himself out of the building's wall, his face molded into a mask of pure anger. It was apparent from the way he was breathing that he wasn't winning. The criminal's gaze went to their little group, his frown growing deeper. 

"You. I told you to keep your hands off the alarm. IT'S YOUR FAULT!" 

Rhino-man charged, but Cactus and the civilians couldn't move: the guy had lost too much blood to be moved around like a ragdoll. Snatch was coming, but he might not make it in time. 

Denki reacted, putting one foot in front of the other out of instinct. He was scared, yes, but in that moment he could only hear Midoriya's voice telling him how to maximize his efficiency: "Air is a terrible conductor. Touch your opponent." It didn't have to be a punch or a full-on tackle to work. A finger was enough. 

He jumped to the side, thanking any gods listening for his reflexes. Denki had only brushed the Villain's side with his index, but the contact sufficed to release enough current to paralyze an elephant through the man's body. A few, eternal seconds later, Snatch was on the stunned man, bringing him down and enveloping him completely. 

Later, as the criminal laid bounded in his one-way ticket to a cell and the employee was already halfway to the hospital, Snatch approached him. 

"That was damn risky, boy," the Hero said, his light-blue eyes sending him a glare that made Denki swallow hard, "but you kept the civilian from more harm. You followed your orders, and acted when it was due. Good job, Chargebolt." The man smiled approvingly under his moustache. 

"T-Thanks, sir," he tried to respond with as much confidence as he could muster. 

The man nodded, patting his back. "Now let's end this patrol. I've got a thing or two to teach you about keeping that output of yours under control. Next time you might not fry half a dozen streetlights," he chuckled. 

"Yes sir!" Chargebolt moved to keep up.

Silence. 

Silence. 

A step, then two, then more. 

- At least four enemies, coming from three and twelve o'clock. - 

A step was followed by another movement. Crouching, maybe? She heard a click. 

Kyoka jumped and rolled, detaching her jack from the ground as a gooey substance filled the spot she had just occupied. She had been found, so she started to run to put distance between her and her pursuers. 

She heard another splashing sound, this time further to her right, at least two meters away. Going around that wall had disoriented them. Something passed over her head, trying to cut off her escape route. If the substance was sticky, getting hit would mean being really screwed. 

The girl visualized the possible paths. Up: gooey shit, bad idea. Left: water, bad idea. Right: foes incoming, terrible idea. Gritting her teeth, she took a chance, thanking whatever support guy had made her equipment water-resistant in just a few days. 

She could hear she'd screwed up the moment her jacks touched the water, as something, or someone, was moving inside. A figure lunged, trying to catch her with a net. 

Releasing a blast from her speakers to slow the enemy's approach, she moved hastily to get a hold of something solid. The net caught onto her leg, but planting her ears onto the ground outside she managed to haul herself out in one swift move. 

The steps from before had taken the long way around, but they were getting closer. Ripping off the damn obstacle from her foot, she started running again, letting her jacks pick up on sounds by keeping them down, sliding on the ground. It wasn't as effective or as focused, but it would have to suffice. 

She dodged another gooey blast as its whistling mass hit the ground, but for some reason the steps had stopped. Surprised by the sudden change she turned around, forgetting, for a moment, that keeping her eyes open wouldn't change a thing. 

There was a faint sound coming from... 

Something tackled her from above, and Kyoka hit the ground with a grunt and a whispered curse. 

The next thing she heard was a slow clap. Really, for all his commitment not to appear like a Villain, sometimes Gang Orca acted too much like one. 

"Great job, Heartbeat," the Killer Whale Hero exclaimed. "Kraken, you can let her go." 

Shoji, who seemed to weight twenty tons right now, let out a low "Sorry," releasing Kyoka and helping her get up. 

"Can I take this off?" she asked, sounding more exhausted than she'd whished for. 

"Sure," Orca chuckled, finally appearing in her view as she took off the blindfold and adapted to the dim light. She blinked a couple times and moved a hand through her hair to get off some of the water. 

"That was a big improvement!" the sidekick who had almost gotten her in the pond, in the same black skin-tight bodysuit they all wore, cried out happily. 

"It was," the Hero grinned, "but how're you feeling about it, Heartbeat?" 

"Not what I thought I'd be doing," she confessed, "but I admit it's kinda easier to concentrate on my hearing when I've got less... 'input' from other sources." 

Garg Orca visibly agreed with a scary grin. "For sure, it took me a while when I was your age to start using my echolocation without keeping my eyes closed. You'll get the hang of it, I'm sure, but this is a good way to prevent your focus from shifting to unimportant stuff." 

The Hero turned to the other student, who was listening in while keeping his usual silence. "Going at her from above was a good idea, and good job at finding her position first. Though you'll have to improve that 'flying' of yours." 

"It's only gliding," the teen added, impassive. 

"We'll see," the man chuckled before clapping his hands. "Anyway, that's all for today. Tomorrow we'll do some more specialized training, as I'm sure you'll do great in spatial awareness. You will still be required to help out." 

"Yes sir!" the sidekicks replied as one, startling the students a little despite it being the second day of internship. Gang Orca's "gang" was incredibly well synchronized. 

As they moved out of the training area of the aquarium, which looked like one of the many exhibits, but devoid of sea creatures, the Hero walked in the middle of the two students. 

"We'll do some patrolling tomorrow. Oh, and you don't have to worry about scaring people," Gang Orca said with a jovial tone that seemed to cover a hint of sadness. "Folks around these parts are used to big guys like me being the good guys. You'll fit in perfectly." 

They'd talked about mutant discrimination the night before. It wasn't an easy topic to discuss about, but it was clearly important to the Hero who kept a steady third place in the ranking of the "Heroes who look like Villains" poll.

Sakamata wanted to normalize complex mutants to the public and in remote locations, where they had it worse. Cities were 'kinder,' in a way, but even there mutations weren't the best Quirks to have, especially as children. Some could be unapologetically mean. 

The man had admitted that Kyoka probably wouldn't suffer terribly from that kind of discrimination, as she looked almost exactly like a baseline human. The same couldn't be said about her classmate. 

Kyoka had noticed something grateful in Shoji's eyes, and how his beat had been weird for a second. She hadn't known him for long, or that well, and he was mostly silent and aloof, but they shared some important traits, and some burdens of knowledge they could do without. 

She promised herself that she'd help him if any of those discriminatory bastards ever tried anything on him.

If he had said that he wasn't at least a little underwhelmed by the way his internship was going, Hanta would have been lying. 

It's not like Kamui Woods wasn't great, not at all! The man had already spent a whole day assessing their talents and suggesting a couple changes to their attacks to better suit their movements, since people with Quirks like theirs, who could easily get in the way of others, may pose a problem in specific circumstances. The man had even complimented them from their sudden growth after the Sports Festival, which had made both him and Shiozaki happy. 

Hanta didn't want to seem ungrateful... but he had really hoped for something a bit more exciting during their patrols. Swinging from building to building wasn't something many Heroes could do, but Woods was one of the lucky few, and he had always wanted to emulate the act. 

And it always looked so cool on television! He could just imagine it: the wind, the speed, the adrenaline... What they had tried at school was great, but not the same! 

So, now that they were just walking around the neighborhood while wearing their costumes, he felt like he was missing out. 

Shiozaki, walking to his right behind the Hero, didn't seem nearly as bothered as he was. But she usually looked calm and proper, so it wasn't like he had a good read on her emotions. 

Kamui Woods had explained to the two of them how they'd probably be able to have an easier week when compared to most of their classmates, as would any of them in an internship in Musutafu. Crime had been steadily going down lately, as the presence of All Might, now stationed stably at U.A., was a good enough deterrent for most Villains. 

The wooden Hero wasn't one to stay idle despite the fact, so they would be going on patrols every day before and after their training hours. 

Hanta wasn't really an attention-seeker, but he liked how people had started to recognize him after the Sports Festival, and how many locals seemed to welcome their presence at the man's side with smiles and waving arms. 

Only later–halfway through their walk into a public park and after some pretty uninteresting chatter–did the Hero speak up to question the students. 

"Tell me, Cellophane, how would you rate your perception? On a scale from one to ten." 

Hanta raised an eyebrow under his helmet. "My perception? Uh, probably a seven?" His answer wasn't that good, but he had learned not to rate himself too highly when in doubt. 

"Vine?" the Hero turned to the girl, questioning. 

"I would rate myself at an eight," Shiozaki calmly replied. 

"I see," Woods nodded, keeping his arms crossed. "Cellophane, how many schoolchildren were in the class that we helped cross the road ten minutes ago?" 

Sero hung his mouth open for a moment, trying to come up with an answer he most definitely didn't have. "Uh... twenty?" 

The Hero didn't reply, though it was pretty obvious he wasn't impressed. 

"Vine, how many adult men greeted us since we started our patrol?" 

Shiozaki shook her head. "I do not remember." 

Woods turned back towards him. "What color was the hat of the woman who walked by us ten minutes ago?" 

He knew that! "Red!" He replied in a hurry. 

"Anything else?" 

"Uh, it had a... yellow ribbon?" 

The Hero nodded, going back to look at Shiozaki. 

"A young man asked me for a photo just before I started asking questions. What was on his shirt?" 

"I believe I saw something related to the Hero Hawks, sir," the girl offered. 

Kamui Woods nodded again, only his eyes showing a hint of expressiveness. 

"There were thirty-two children in that class. Seventeen adult men greeted us. The lady indeed had a red hat, but the ribbon was orange, not yellow. The t-shirt was related to Hawks in image only, as it showed the animal and its name, but had no other connections to the Number Three." 

The two students looked a bit dejected at having been wrong on almost all fronts. 

"You both rate at a three, at most. You were able to recall a detail that easily caught your eye, but you disregarded what seemed too typical," the man explained, his tone even as he pointed out their errors. "Cellophane, you spent a good ten minutes looking up to the sky. Vine, you kept looking forward unless I did something to make you do otherwise." 

"Sorry," he said, his shoulder sagging a bit. 

"I have no excuses," the girl bowed his head. 

"Don't, I'm not doing this to receive those. I want you to learn." 

They raised their eyes on the man again as he moved his hand to show them their surroundings. 

"How many people are around us as of now? How many are in your immediate reach? How long would it take you to bring each of them to safety? How easy would it be for you to hide? Where is the closest protection you could use?" 

Hanta realized he didn't have a quick answer to any of those. There were ten, maybe twelve people he could see without turning, but there was chattering behind them. Where would safety be? Could he use those trees to hide? The pond wouldn't count, but the bridge? 

"Those are the type of questions you should be asking yourselves while you're in costume," Woods continued, not waiting for them to speak up. "Ours is a dangerous job. Heroes spend most of their time in public, surrounded by nothing and everything. It doesn't mean that anything could be a danger to you, but you have to be aware than danger could come at you from any direction. Fighting looks easy, but to subdue a Villain you must first be sure to stay alive long enough to use your skillset. The more you're aware of your surroundings, the easier it will be for you to react rapidly to any problem that might arise." 

"I had never given it that much thought," Shiozaki admitted. 

"Many don't, so they aren't ready when it counts," the Hero sighed. "But I want you two to be ready. So, starting now, we're training your space and situational awareness. Let's see if by the end of the week you can get a full mark from me." 

"Yes sir!" Hanta smiled as they both bowed. 

The added challenge might just make patrolling interesting.

Fumikage thanked the gods for not giving him vertigo. 

Standing on top of one of Tokyo's highest towers, he and Dark Shadow enjoyed the view of the city's night lights. Neither of them was one to particularly appreciate artificial lights (or just lights in general), but they had to admit that it was a spectacle. 

Although he wouldn't be letting go of his handhold without reason anytime soon. 

Hawks stood behind them, leaning on the metallic structure as he yawned. 

"Not bad, eh?" The young Hero grinned, pointing down with a finger. "I find it very relaxing. I can get a bird's eye view on everything, and the chaos below is mostly muffled by distance. The sky's a great place." 

"I see what you mean," Fumikage said, feeling the touch of the cold wind on his feathers. 

"You sure you want to do it now?" Hawks asked, curiosity seeping through his tone despite his chuckling. "I know I said I choose you as a fellow bird, but it's not like you'll automatically fly just for that." 

"I won't get any chance as good as this," he said, trying to sound certain of his choice. 

Midoriya had explained the entire process in detail two days ago, but with the rush of the internships they had yet to succeed. 

"If you're sure," the Hero shrugged, sending a couple of crimson feathers to settle on the teen as his smirk only grew. "I'm no Tinker Bell, so you're on your own for the flight. But I'll be sure to catch you before you crash. It would look bad otherwise." 

The more he stayed with Hawks, the more he was appalled at how much he joked around. The Wing Hero seemed like the ultimate exponent of the "work hard, play hard" doctrine. 

--Come on, Fumi. We got this. -- Dark Shadow stated, giving him the courage he needed for the attempt. The Quirk enveloped his form, changing its position ever so slightly from before. 

- We do, - he nodded and stepped forward, slowly letting go of his hold as he approached the edge of the platform. The wind felt icy, but nothing he couldn't handle. 

Without a word more, he jumped into the void. They fell for thirty feet, which felt eternal to him. The pavement of the bustling streets below was closing in quickly enough to worry him. 

Then Dark Shadow soared, and Fumikage's world changed. 

It was only his second time flying, the first being ten minutes before, held awkwardly by Hawks, but he discovered that he really liked the mess of sensations it gave him. They weren't as fast or as coordinated as the Hero, being barely able to change directions, but they were flying. 

"Look at you! Those are some wings!" The man's voice sounded incredibly pleased as he appeared before them, head upside down and showing a remarkable grin. "I knew you were holding back! Got a name for that stuff too?" 

He didn't understand if Hawks liked the names of his moves, or if they just amused him to the point of laughter. 

Fumikage thought for a moment. "Black Fallen Angel." 

The Hero just kept cackling as they flew back to the Nest.

"I see potential in you. Potential that won't be expressed if you're limited to hiding and sneaking around like you have. I have a week to introduce you to my art, and we don't have a moment to waste. Follow me." 

That's how the Ninja Hero, Edgeshot, had introduced Toru to his dojo. 

And why she was hitting the mat for the thirtieth time of the day after failing to respond quickly enough. 

"Good reflexes. You're improving," the Hero said. 

She didn't feel like she was improving. Her back hurt, her muscles were sore, and she was probably getting the start of a headache. 

"But you're still not using the form correctly," he continued as he lent her a hand. "The grab only comes after you've reached the crook of the arm, not a moment before. Otherwise, you'll slip." 

"Sorry," she muttered, dejected. 

"Don't be. Your training is going as I predicted it would," the man reassured her, his tone calm. "You may not see it, but you've come remarkably closer to a suitable reaction time. I doubt you'd be hit by a surprise attack if I were to try now." 

She could appreciate the thought. The ninja had welcomed her with a sudden ambush, having her jump and roll away just to collide against the closest wall, ending up with a blade too close to her neck for comfort. It was a strange way to break the ice and certainly not how she thought she'd be welcomed, but it had clearly set the standard the Hero aspired to. 

"If you say so." The girl shrugged, continuing before he could insist. "What are we going to do tomorrow?" 

"We'll start with some weapon training," the man responded, turning to put away his equipment. 

"Weapons?" Toru asked, frowning a bit. 

She had thought about trying to use weapons before, but they had always seemed more like a hindrance than anything else. She wanted to be able to protect herself, yes, but bringing anything along with herself had always meant that she'd give away her position. 

Furthermore, most Heroes relied on hand-to-hand combat and Quirks to incapacitate their enemies. Weapons were usually accepted only when their use was explainable with the wielder's Quirk, like Snipe's guns and Yoroi Musha's arsenal. 

Despite that, the Hero she was learning from was fifth in the national rankings, and his weapons weren't necessary for his Quirk. They fit with his image, and he used them sparingly, but he still did. 

Would it be a good idea for her to try? 

"Indeed. Though lethal force isn't something I'd teach to children, this is the way we have chosen, and you would be learning it anyway soon enough, with or without weapons." 

"So wouldn't it be better to wait?" She knew that U.A. students had training like that in their second or third year. 

"It would only stall your growth. I'd prefer to have my students as knowledgeable as possible, so that they have the chance to choose how to act." The man looked up, his tone somehow musical as he spoke. "An apprentice may use his blade for everything, but a master knows when it's time to sheath it."

A bit corny, but the meaning wasn't lost on her. Still, she wasn't completely convinced. 

"But wouldn't something like that make it harder for me to sneak around? I'm used to travel very light." 

Sensing her doubt, Edgeshot hummed. "It'll be fine, I already have made a short list of what might suit you. Nothing too big, only small things that won't hinder you or that you could carry easily inside your costume." 

Her costume! It had been delivered just a few days before their departure, but it was so much better than the thing she had (or didn't have) before! It would become completely invisible with her once worn. Though it couldn't hide objects between the fabric and her skin, as her Quirk's effect might not work when she wasn't directly connected to it, she could still bring some trinkets with herself and discard them temporarily as she did with her shoes and gloves. Oh, and having her feet covered by the durable fabric helped for sure. 

She did have to sacrifice a lot of her hair (and blood, for some reason) to make it, but she didn't really mind, as it wasn't like she was going to show it off anyway. The Support Course's third years (nobody else could handle the production) had shown and explained a lot about the finished product. The suit was light and durable, the fibers being interwoven to be reinforced: they wouldn't repel bullets or stabs, but she should be safer from most cuts and small debris. It was already a great improvement, so she had no reason to complain! 

Remembering how the idea had stemmed from Midori, and how he often pushed her to learn and try new things... she gathered that she had no reason not to add something more to her skillset. 

"Okay. That's fine with me," she replied, making her tone lighter. "It won't hurt to try." 

"Good attitude," the Hero nodded. "It's important for people like us, whose Quirks don't offer increases in strength, to have more ways to work around problems." 

She let out a frustrated sigh. "For sure. There wasn't much I could do during my match other than hide and wait for the right moment." 

"And yet that's exactly what caught my attention," Edgeshot spoke with a hint of a smile. "You'll keep improving, I'm sure. Now come, we've done enough for today as is. I'm famished." 

Skipping down the wooden corridor behind the Hero, Toru wondered what would suit her better, and what kind of surprise she could lay on her classmates later. She could think of at least a dozen people who would no doubt fall for the tricks she'd been thought.