32

Abandoned: Humanity's Drift - Chapter 32 - shansome - 

Chapter 32

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Five years ago, all three members of the prestigious Yaoyorozu family were suddenly sent to a planet called Industri. 

Momo remembered being fifteen and thrust into so much confusion, with every human around her just as disoriented as she was.

But then the reality of the 'Drift' was kindly explained to them and soon enough, all of them were starting a new life in an alien world that was both startlingly different and surprisingly similar to her own. It was absolutely surreal.

Industri was made up of huge, highly advanced cities that were filled with a diverse population of alien life. The global government was entirely focused on granting jobs to the new arrivals, facilitating trade, and growing its booming economy.

The planet was vastly technologically superior to Earth, with resources and inventions that were simply astonishing. The fact that they didn't have quirks to focus on likely helped with that- excluding support gear, Earth's development had been limited to quirk research ever since quirks appeared, leaving them centuries behind.

Interestingly enough, a select few Industri residents still possessed abilities- actual, real magic that could be taught to other people. Unlike quirks, which were based on the inherent Quirk Factors present in every human's body and functioned similarly to a special muscle, magic seemed to operate off mana circuits- odd currents of power that could awaken in any human with a quirk and essentially gave them an additional emitter ability.

Momo decided that she still wanted to become a hero on Earth when the Drift ended and with her parent's support, increased her training. She honed her weapon techniques, learned how to create some of the new materials and metals she found on Industri, and even found a mage to teach her reinforcement magic.

She returned to Japan at twenty, ready to work as hard as she could to pursue her dreams, won third in the Sports Festival, and-

"You ready, Creati?" 

Momo snapped out of her thoughts. "Hmm? Yes, I am."

Atlas nodded, a light smile playing across his face. He didn't seem to be bothered that she'd briefly zoned out, thankfully.

-earned an internship with her Heroics teacher, an absurdly powerful hero named Atlas.

"Great. Your quirk lets you create anything as long as you know its atomic makeup, right? What kind of staff do you usually make?"

"Well, I usually stick to simple, steel variants," Momo answered thoughtfully. She usually didn't have much time to use her quirk in close combat, since being actively attacked made it very hard to concentrate. "But when I have time, I tend to go for more durable designs."

"What's the best staff you can make right now, then?" 

She closed her eyes, letting the chemical composition she wanted flash through her mind. The makeup of this particular metal was similar to the rigid, molecular structure of a diamond yet somehow completely different. It was a bit tricky to form it all together, and it'd taken Momo quite a few tries to achieve consistent success.

Momo opened her eyes to see a long quarterstaff in her calloused hands, perfectly balanced and colored a beautiful silver that glinted off the overhead gym lights.

Atlas stepped forward for a closer look, curious. "Interesting. That's not made out of anything from Earth, is it?"

Momo nodded, surprised that he could tell. "I created it out of mithril, an ore I encountered on my Drift. It's both lightweight and extremely durable."

"It took you over a minute to create a staff out of it, though," Atlas noted. "Not exactly convenient- must be why I haven't seen you use this metal yet."

Momo held back a wince. "...That's correct." 

In a real battle, a minute was a ridiculously long time. No villain was going to just sit and wait for Momo to make weapons, and that delay was currently a glaring weakness of hers.

"We'll work on your creation time later." Atlas decided. "But first, I wanted to test your overall abilities with a spar- this time actually against me instead of an air clone. Use only that mithril staff you just created and reinforce it as much as you can."

Momo did so, letting her silver weapon glow bright pink with her mana. She gripped it tight and lowered herself into a stance.

This time, Atlas didn't draw the old metal staff on his back. Instead, he simply held out his hand and air swirled into a small column in his palm, tinting violet as it was molded into a familiar shape. Just like her, Atlas had created a weapon out of nothing- though he had done it within a second while she had taken over a minute.

"This air staff will have around the same amount of durability as your staff," Atlas told her casually as if he hadn't just forced air itself into a handhold construct. "So come at me as hard as you can, Creati."

Momo decided that she liked being called by her new codename- she wanted to live up to it. She shoved down a familiar spark of anxiety and charged.

She didn't go for anything flashy, sticking to the textbook techniques drilled into her body- grip tight and thrust with both arms at his jaw, spin her staff into an overhead swing at his head, twist to strike at his ribs. She focused on making her movements concise and as advised, didn't hold back in the slightest.

Nonetheless, Atlas batted her first three attacks away with ease, his own staff lazily spinning up to deflect every blow. She just barely blocked his counter and her limbs jolted with the impact.

Momo struck faster and faster in return, her arms and fingers warming up to familiar motions. The space between them became a blur of silver and violet as the spar continued, the sound of crashing weapons filling up the empty gym.

And within a minute, the gap between their skills was painfully visible. 

Even more so than his air clone, Cloudy, the staff seemed to be a part of Atlas and flowed with the rest of his body like an extra limb. His staff twirled between his fingers, lashed out from angles she couldn't predict, and easily parried away her attacks. Yet at the same time, he was guiding her movements, calmly giving her advice even as they tried to harm each other.

"You're a bit stiff," Atlas told her as he stepped just out of range of her swing, making her miss his cloak by mere centimeters. "Your posture's perfect, but you'd probably have more mobility if you loosened up a little."

"I've-" Momo jabbed at his chest, not even surprised when he leaned out of the way. "-gotten that before, yes. How do I fix that?"

"Lighten up your hold on your staff just a touch," Atlas said. She did so, careful not to make her grip too loose. "And-"

A streak of violet flashed by her block, slamming down on her left shoulder. Ouch! Momo lowered her arms slightly on reflex, reeling from the impact.

"-adjust your arms like so. When did you start practicing with a staff?"

Momo raised her staff up to block a downward strike, noticing that her new grip made the movement far smoother. "...Eight or nine years ago, I believe? Once I revealed my dream, my parents immediately hired instructors to assist me. And thenceforth, I have used their teachings in combat."

Atlas hummed. "That explains it. You have the basics down very well, but your movements feel too rigid and inflexible. It's like you think your body is shorter than it actually is- understandable since you are quite tall for your age."

He readjusted her faulty stance as he talked, landing light yet precise strikes to force her into a more suitable position. A hard tap on her knee here to widen her stance, a jab at her forearm there to push her elbows out.

Momo attacked him all the while, ignoring the accumulating exhaustion and aches all across her body. Yet not a single one of her blows landed on her teacher, each and every one deflected or dodged long before impact. His skill was simply astonishing, something that only became more apparent the longer they fought.

Atlas suddenly stepped back and paused a minute later, tilting his head to the side. 

"Okay, how does that feel, Creati?"

Momo blinked. What did he mean-oh, her stance! It felt just the slightest bit different from what she was used to now, with slight shifts in her placement all over. But when Momo stepped into a simple strike, she immediately noticed the difference. 

Fighting felt so much more natural than before, more mobile. Amazing.

Atlas nodded, satisfied with her reaction. "This should be the most efficient staff stance for you, right now. Do you think you can remember this?"

"I hope so," Momo hesitated. "However, I do have years of muscle memory to the contrary..."

"But of course!" Atlas grinned wide, his emerald eyes gleaming. "That's why we're going to spar until you have this down!"

Oh. 

Oh no.

Now 5000 yen richer, Akari happily stepped up to fight one of Endeavor's sidekicks- said sidekick now looking far warier than before now that'd won a decent amount of money off him. 

Ha.

"You wanna bet on this match, too?" Akari smiled.

Kido waved her off with a chuckle. "Nope. Not gonna let you get me again, kid."

They faced each other across the training room, waiting for his boss's signal. She could feel Todoroki watching from the sidelines. 

Akari had no clue what Kido's quirk was(something to do with all the bandages covering him, maybe?) but he'd seen her use her abilities at the Sports Festival. So just to be safe, she should be a little careful.

"Begin!" Endeavor called gruffly, his arms crossed over his chest. 

A white sphere of light formed in her palm and was promptly yeeted right at her opponent's face.

She held back, obviously, but the ball still streaked through the air at high speeds, enough to cause major damage. Just before it hit, however, Kido stretched out his bandages into a large circle in front of him.

The gleaming missile flew into the loop of bandages and then suddenly shot right back towards Akari, missing her arm and smashing into the wall behind her.

Huh.

"Is that some kind of attack reflection?" Akari asked. "Or actual vector manipulation? 'Cause, it didn't feel like magic."

Kido's eyes were a little wide behind his bandages. "Uh, that was my quirk. Not going to tell you how it works, though."

"Fair enough." Akari rolled her shoulders back.

She crossed the room in a second, passing through the bandage circle to punch his face-

And then she was speeding out to the left, striking nothing but air and way off target. 

Akari whirled around to see more bandages lashing out at her, extending out from behind Kido's flack jacket like white whips. They wrapped around her torso and pinned her arms to her sides in a tight hug.

A tight, flaming hug.

"Why are your bandages on fire?" Akari tilted her head, not even feeling a thing from the weird, burning trap. "And why aren't they like, burning?"

Did Endeavor only hire sidekicks who had fire-based abilities? Wait, actually, that totally sounded like something he'd do. Lame.

"You like my fire magic?" Kido asked, smug. "All I have to do now is slowly raise the heat on my special, fireproof bandages until you surrender. Checkmate, intern!"

Akari broke free, ripping away the flaming bandages and tossing them aside. They fizzled out on the training room floor.

"...I spoke way too soon, didn't I?"

"Yep," Akari agreed. "So you can redirect anything that passes through your bandages, huh? That's actually pretty cool."

Kido blinked. "Ah, thanks. How'd you figure it out?"

Akari stared at the bandages covering his body and littering the ground.

"Yeah, that was a dumb question," Kido let out a long sigh, his shoulders dropping. "And if you know that, I don't have a chance of beating you. I guess I surrender, then."

"Cool. Does this mean I win 5000 more yen?"

"Wh-no, it doesn't!" Kido flinched back. "I never agreed to that!"

Akari glanced over at the spectators. "This means he has to give me money now, right?"

Todoroki flashed her a thumbs up. He looked like he was barely conscious.

Endeavor huffed, and his beard flames flickered. "Just give the girl her winnings, Kido. You lost this battle fairly and through no fault but your own."

"But boss -"

Now 10,000 yen richer, Akari left behind a disheartened hero as she happily skipped over to Endeavor. He watched her approach him with a sort of condescending curiosity, while his son watched her approach with a mix of anticipation and fear. 

Or maybe Todoroki was simply about to pass out- he did just use his quirk at its absolute maximum to detonate a massive explosion, after all. She should check on him later.

"Hey, Endeavor," Akari greeted politely. "Can we fight?"

Todoroki coughed.

Endeavor scrutinized her. "You wish to fight me? Really?"

"Yeah."

"How ambitious!" Endeavor remarked, pleased. "An excellent trait for an aspiring hero. Unfortunately, we have already spent more time than expected sparring- now, it's time for my patrol."

Damn it.

Icy blue eyes glanced over to Todoroki. "Come along, both of you. You have proven your combat abilities, and now it is time to gain some field experience!"

Endeavor led them out into the street, striding forward with confident steps as the two of them trailed behind.

The man was a competent hero, Akari quickly realized. His patrol route was extremely efficient, taking them throughout Hosu while always keeping him close enough to respond to distress calls from the agency. He seemed quite happy that his son had used his flames earlier, and talked the entire time(mostly to Todoroki) about what exactly to do and not to do while patrolling the streets. 

People regularly came up to ask Endeavor for an autograph, and he always declined- even when they were kids. From the way all of his fans reacted, though, it seemed like this just was his hero persona and the behavior they expected. Even when he pretended like they didn't exist.

Strong silent types were cool, sure, but why would you want to idolize someone who acted like an asshole? Humans were so weird.

A few curious civillians approached Akari and Todoroki as well to ask them about their hero names and costumes, and that was interesting. A lot of people wanted to know how Akari was good at magic, and there was, unfortunately, no way to answer that without sounding arrogant or outing herself as an alien, so Akari just told them that she 'had a great teacher'. It was true, of course, but it felt super embarrassing to actually tell people that.

Endeavor solved all of the incidents he encountered with blazing speed, bursts of flame propelling him to where he needed to go as soon as a new call came in. Akari kept pace with a casual jog, and Todoroki followed closely behind on a growing slide of ice(was he planning on melting any of that later?)

So far they'd caught a purse snatcher, stopped a woman with blades for arms from robbing a grocery store, and captured a rampaging guy throwing fireballs everywhere. That last villain had surrendered instantly as soon as he saw Endeavor. 

It wasn't really much, but that was still three different crimes in a small area in the span of a couple of minutes- kinda weird to see when Heaven barely had any incidents like that. And the few that did happen were resolved by the Guard quick enough.

A lot more people broke the law here on Earth, apparently.

Endeavor handcuffed the fireball guy, and as soon as a sidekick arrived to take the villain away the three of them were speeding off once again in search of more crime.

Akari looked over at her fellow intern once they were a fair bit behind his flaming father. "Hey, Todoroki, are you okay?"

He didn't spare her a glance- probably too focused on not crashing his ice trail into any cars or people- but his eyebrows did furrow a little. "Why?"

"You went all-out against that lady with flaming hair not that long ago. Did you overuse your quirk with that giant blast?"

"No," Todoroki responded after a beat. "As it turns out, my body's limit is drastically higher when I use both sides of my quirk."

Akari hummed. "Wonder who could've figured that."

"You did," Todoroki admitted, just loud enough to be heard over the sound of cascading ice. A steady spark of flame burned bright in his palm.

Akari smiled.

It was night by the time she took the train back to Musutafu, Todoroki going back with Endeavor. There were only a couple of people in her little carriage section, a startling contrast to the busy morning rush she saw only a few hours ago. 

Akari watched Hosu's buildings slide by through the window at a painfully slow rate, completely bored out of her mind. She couldn't even take a nap, or something, because the stupid train would pass right by her stop if she wasn't careful.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the 'smartphone' her Dad had gotten her- an unwieldy, rectangular block of metal with a glass screen. It was so much less efficient than her communicator, could barely go hours before needing to be recharged, and generally didn't seem very smart at all. Sadly, this device was what humans commonly used to communicate.

Akari navigated to her contacts with a few clumsy taps and called the first person on the list. It rang twice.

"Hello?"

Akari held the phone to her ear. "Hey, Tooru."

"Oh, Akari!" Tooru's voice brightened. "How're you?"

"Pretty good. I'm coming back from Endeavor's agency now."

"He really kept you guys, huh? What was interning with the Number Two Hero like?"

"Simple so far. We each sparred against one of his sidekicks and won, and then he showed us how to patrol as a pro hero. There's a lot more talking to people and press involved than I would've thought. Endeavor lectured Todoroki for a while on Heroics and stuff, and I didn't really pay attention."

A pause. "Did you uh, you know..."

"I didn't get to beat him up, unfortunately. But there's always tomorrow."

"I know he's a like, a major asshole, but you still haven't told me what your grudge against The Number Two Hero is."

"Not my story to tell. If it's any consolation, I'm not going to kill him, or anything."

"That helps, but now I'm super worried that murder was on the table!"

Akari laughed, warm. "What about you, Tooru? How'd your first day go?"

"Amazing!" Tooru cheered. "Mister Blaster was loud but also really nice to us, and helped me out a bunch with my light blasts. He has this whole team of flashy heroes called the Buster Union, and they all ride into battle standing on these big, flying drones. It's so cool!"

"...They get around on drones?" 

"Yep! He said that if I graduated and joined his agency I'd get a drone, too, but I'd probably be too worried about falling off to actually use it. Also, my quirk helps me stay undetected and a huge circular drone isn't exactly uh, subtle."

"No, it probably isn't," Akari agreed.

"He's great at hand-to-hand combat too, 'cause he went to school with Aizawa-sensei, and knowing how to fight quirkless was basically a requirement to spar against him. Blaster didn't give up any embarrassing high school stories about Sensei when I asked, though," Tooru said, a little disappointed. 

"I mean, fair. Aizawa-sensei can be pretty scary."

"True. Have you seen him before he's gotten his morning coffee? Absolutely terrifying." Tooru snickered. "I think Kaminari almost died last time he had a question for him that early."

"Did anyone in our class choose to intern with him?" Akari wondered. "I heard him say that was an option."

"No clue. Not many people in our class are planning to go underground, anyway," Tooru said. "Your dad's offering internships too, right? Momo told me that she picked him."

"Yep."

"He's the one that trained you before U.A, right? What's training one on one with Atlas-sensei like?"

Akari thought back to the decades of painful physical training and exhausting effort she'd signed up for, along with all the time she spent learning to use mana. She shivered a little, an action that was thankfully invisible over a phone call. 

"...Hard."

Notes:

Tooru's briefly mentioned internship is with that one Blaster hero seen once in the Vigilantes manga. Really, there are so many cool pro heroes in this series and almost none of them are ever expanded on.

As always, feedback is welcome!

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