Elecplant showed me around the office, introducing me to a bunch of American heroes. Having met everyone, I followed Elecplant up the stairwell leading to the roof.
He stepped toward the edge of the building, fluttered his cape, and then placed his hands on his hips, staring at me from behind his mask.
"Alright. See that line in front of you? You can't walk past that. Go ahead and hit me."
"Like... With my webs or...?"
Elecplant sighed and shook his head. "No, man. Hit me with your electricity. Blast it toward me. Like a beam."
"I've never done that before..."
"I bet," Elecplant sat cross-legged on the building's edge. "Just try and tell me what it feels like."
"Okay, I guess."
Pros can never make things simple, can they?
I took a deep breath and started generating electricity in a way that felt most natural to me. I could feel a tingly heat bouncing around inside my ribcage, starting from my center mass. I could imagine the electricity in my body flowing through my veins until it reached my fingertips. My hand shone as a thunderous storm of lightning crackled and flickered around my forearm. When I released that energy, my palm released a tiny shock like a stun gun.
Elecplant chuckled. "I see." He rubbed his chin for a second, snapping once he found the words he wanted to say. He scanned our surroundings, then pointed to a piece of trash behind me.
"See that empty bottle. Go ahead and pick it up."
As per his request, I took the empty bottle in my hands.
"Now, I want you to hold your arm out straight, aiming the bottle at me."
"Okay..." I followed his instructions, pointing the tip of the bottle at him.
"Now, I want you to throw that bottle at me without moving your arm or using your Quirk."
"That's impossible," I told him.
"Now, why's that?"
"Because an object needs a force to act upon it for it to move."
"So you do understand elementary school physics! If that's the case, then why do you collect all of your energy in your hand in the same way you're holding that bottle?"
When he put it that way, I felt like an idiot. Retrospectively, it was so simple. It's not like doing physics in my head was foreign to me; if I didn't calculate my web swings, I'd be roadkill.
"When you do it the right way, it should look something like this." Elecplant aimed his palm at me. I could see the electricity flow through the translucent bits of his costume, rushing through them like blood in the veins until they reached his fingertips. A bolt of lightning was then expelled from his hand and hit me in the chest. It stung a bit, but my body absorbed it.
"See? It's all one motion. Where does it feel like the electricity is generated in your body?"
"My chest."
"Good. It's the same for me. Don't build up the energy in your hands. Build it in your chest and then send it to your hands as quickly as possible. Give it a try."
Once more, I took in a deep breath.
"Picture it all in your head," he added.
I envisioned a ball of energy at the core of my body. That ball began to pulsate and swell as I raised my palm. That roaring tempest that once whirled around my forearms was instead swirling around my core. As I exhaled, that energy shot from my chest to my fingertips at light speed, and when I opened my eyes, I shotgun blast of electricity dispersed across the rooftop.
Elecplant nodded his head. "Good, that's progress. However, it's completely useless in a situation where you have teammates or civilians around you. If you want it to be practical, you need to be able to fire a concentrated, aimed blast at your target."
"And what's the trick for that?" I asked him.
"There is no trick. Just practice. Hundreds of hours worth of practice."
"But the internship is only for a week..."
"And you have a long life ahead of you to master it on your own. It took me three years to master it, and to be honest, my suit does most of the heavy lifting."
Elecplant could see that I was demoralized. Obviously, I knew these things required time, but I didn't want to return to UA empty-handed. Knowing Midoriya, I figured he'd have a new technique by the time we meet again.
"But I didn't win the UA Sports Festival like you did. Right now, you are the number one first-year prodigy in Japan. If anyone is going to master this in record time, it's you. I wish I had more time to train you, but this is an internship, not a training camp. There are other aspects of being a hero that you need to learn."
"I understand. I appreciate it nonetheless. Thank you, Elecplant." I bowed to the American hero. He rubbed the back of his head and averted his gaze.
"Geez, kid. You don't need to be so formal. But you're welcome. Anyway, it's about time we head out. Let's go."
"Field work, already!?" Elecplant must've sensed my excitement. He looked at me as if he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. Instead, he leaped from the building, landing on the sidewalk and prompting me to do the same.
Before long, he and I were walking the streets... And I mean walking.
"So this is patroling..." I mumbled as we leisurely strolled on the sidewalk.
"In Japan, yeah. It's pretty safe here, thanks to All Might. There's a bit more crime back home since we don't have our own symbol of peace."
"I more so mean the walking around part... Wouldn't it be faster to leap around from building to building? Plus, getting a bird's-eye view might make locating a crime easier."
"Being a hero isn't just about beating up bad guys, Miles. Look around you. What do you see?"
I scanned our surroundings for a moment, assuming that there must've been something between the lines. Alas, I found nothing but civilians.
"People?"
"People doing what?" he asked me.
"Walking..."
"And why do you think there are so many people out and about, walking the streets without a care in the world?"
"Because Tokyo has a big population," I half-joked.
Elecplant stopped, staring daggers at me beneath his mask. Without a word, he made me answer again.
"It's probably because they know they're safe." I corrected myself.
Elecplant nodded. "The world feels safer when the heroes are in plain sight, walking among you. Besides, we aren't gods. We're people just like them. Walking the streets with them is a symbol of that ideology. And if civilians believe that the heroes are just like them, maybe it'll inspire them to be heroes as well. I don't mean by fighting crime or jumping into burning buildings, but by being a better person. Have you ever watched a superhero movie, like one of the All Might ones, and felt inspired to do better?"
"All the time," I told him.
"Now look around you again. What do you see?" he asked me.
When I scanned my surroundings again, I finally saw it. There was a child, maybe around five years old, holding an All Might toy in his hand. He was looking at me, yanking his mom toward me while pointing to me excitedly, mouthing words that I couldn't hear from across the street. If he weren't so small, he probably would've dragged her across the street.
Elecplant nudged me from behind. I looked at him before looking back at the child. Without a second thought, I swung across the street and landed in front of the kid. His eyes lit up, as did his mother's.
"Hey, buddy. You looked like you wanted to tell me something."
The child's breathing trembled in excitement, looking into my eyes through my lenses. "Your costume is so cool! It's even cooler than All Might's!" he told me.
I laughed and shook my head. "Thanks, buddy, I won't tell him you said that. What's your name?"
"Ryu!" he told me.
"My name's Spider-Man. It's nice to me you, Ryu," I said, offering a high five to the child. He slapped my hand with his with everything he had.
His mother giggled and told me, "Thank you. We aren't from the city, so we don't see heroes walking about. He's always wanted to meet one. He wants to be a hero too, just like All Might, don't you, Ryu?"
"Yeah! And like Spider-Man!"
I was stunned for a moment. I was an unknown in the hero space with zero real accomplishments outside of winning a school festival. Yet my presence alone was enough for this child to include my name in the same space as All Might's.
"And you can be. You know, I used to be a big All Might fan when I was your size."
"Really?"
"Oh, yeah. There's something All Might said that I'll never forget."
"I am here!" the child shouted.
I laughed. "That too. But also, 'you can be a hero'."
I saw the light glimmer in the child's eyes as I spoke. I saw myself in this kid. Part of me wanted to tear up, and maybe I did. Luckily, I was wearing a mask
"Everyone can be a hero, regardless of where they're from, what they look like, or what kind of Quirk they have. None of that is what makes a hero; it's his actions. If you want to be a hero, start by being a good kid. Treat your classmates and friends with respect. Your mom, too. Alright?"
"I will!" he told me.
I looked up at his mother, who was still smiling down at me. I guess I did a decent job with my little All Might-inspired speech.
"I gotta go now, my teacher is waiting for me back there and he's a bit of a grumpy one. I'll see you again, Ryu. I know it."
"Bye-bye, Spider-Man!" he told me.
I returned to Elecplant across the street. I could hear his smile beneath his mask as he spoke. "So, what did you find?" he asked me. There was only a single word that came to mind, and it was all too fitting.
"Hope."