The muffled shouting behind the door grew louder. More insistent. Izuku caught fragments of words that sounded like warnings, followed by what was definitely a countdown.
Three.
Two.
One.
The blast door exploded outward.
Izuku's body moved before his brain caught up. Ten years of Hano's training had turned survival instincts into something closer to prophecy. He grabbed Toru around the waist, twisted his body, and threw both of them sideways as the reinforced steel flew past the spot where they'd been standing half a second earlier.
The world became smoke and noise and chaos.
Izuku hit the floor hard, his shoulder taking most of the impact. Something heavy landed on top of him, driving the air from his lungs. His vision swam with gray smoke and dancing spots. His ears rang like someone had stuffed church bells inside his skull and started swinging.
For a moment, he couldn't see anything.
Then the smoke began to clear.
Pink hair.
That was the first thing his brain registered. Wild pink hair that stuck out at impossible angles, held back by thick goggles pushed up onto a forehead. The hair cascaded around a face that was entirely too close to his own. Golden eyes with crosshair-shaped pupils stared down at him, and those eyes were approximately three inches from his nose.
Their lips were close enough that he could feel warm breath against his mouth.
Oh.
The girl on top of him wore what had probably been a support department uniform before being subjected to significant abuse. The tank top hung open at the front. Soot covered her face in artistic streaks. She smelled like gunpowder, machine oil, and something vaguely citrus.
"Ohhh!" The girl's voice came out as a delighted squeal. "A test subject! And such a sturdy one!"
Her hands pressed against his chest as she pushed herself up slightly, which had the unfortunate effect of making her ruined tank top gape further. Izuku's view suddenly included far more than he'd been prepared for.
Pale skin and a black bra barely containing what it was meant to contain.
"Your structural integrity is excellent!" She poked his abs through his blazer. "Very minimal give! What kind of reinforcement do you use?"
"Huh?"
"Your body! It's so solid! Most people would have cracked ribs from that impact. I should know, I've tested it!" Her crosshair pupils seemed to zoom in on him like camera lenses.
"Wait. Wait wait wait. You're from the Hero Course, aren't you? I can tell by the uniform! Are you here for equipment modifications? Do you want babies?"
Izuku's brain was still trying to process several different things at once. The explosion. The girl. The bra. The word 'babies' in a context that made absolutely no sense. The fact that her thighs were pressed against his hips.
"Could you maybe—"
A gloved hand appeared from nowhere and grabbed the pink-haired girl's shoulder.
"Get OFF him!"
Toru yanked the pink-haired girl upward. The motion was probably meant to remove her from Izuku's chest. What it actually did was pull her tank top the rest of the way open as the girl's body rose while her ruined clothing did not.
Izuku watched it happen like a car crash in slow motion. The fabric separated. The bra, which had been fighting a losing battle against gravity, shifted.
The pink-haired girl didn't seem to notice. She was too busy examining Toru's floating gloves with the same manic intensity she'd shown Izuku's abs.
"Oh! OH! An invisibility Quirk! The applications are ENDLESS! Wait, is your entire body invisible or just the external layer? Can you make objects invisible inside you? I need to run tests! SO MANY TESTS!"
"Your shirt," Izuku said.
"Hm?" The pink-haired girl glanced down at herself. "Oh! That happens sometimes. Explosions are very hard on fabric. I really should switch to reinforced materials, but they reduce flexibility and flexibility is CRUCIAL for proper baby making!"
She said this while making absolutely no move to cover herself.
"Could someone PLEASE explain what just happened?" Toru's voice had gone high and strained. "Also, WHY IS SHE NAKED?"
"Naked implies zero coverage, and my pants are completely intact!"
"YOUR BOOBS ARE OUT!"
Izuku reached up and rubbed his temples. The ringing in his ears had faded, replaced by a headache that felt suspiciously like the universe punishing him for something.
"Do you have a spare shirt?" he asked.
"In the lab! Along with my spare goggles, spare tools, spare power cores, and approximately forty-seven babies in various stages of completion!" The girl's crosshair pupils locked onto him again. "You're very calm about this!"
"I've had a weird week."
"Tell me about it! Three explosions yesterday alone! Two of them were even intentional!"
Footsteps echoed from inside the ruined doorway. A teacher emerged from the smoke, coughing and waving their hand in front of their face. The man wore what looked like an excavator attachment on his arm, and his expression suggested this kind of chaos was entirely too common.
"HATSUME! What did I tell you about testing propulsion systems indoors?"
"That I should do it outside?"
"And what did you just do?"
"Tested a propulsion system indoors! But in my defense, Power Loader-sensei, the outdoor testing range was occupied! Also, I think I made a new friend!" She pointed at Izuku, still apparently unconcerned about her state of undress. "He survived direct impact! Very sturdy! Excellent test subject potential!"
Power Loader pinched the bridge of his nose. His metal excavator arm whirred as it moved, responding to his emotional state. "Put on a shirt, Hatsume. You're traumatizing the Hero Course students."
"Shirt! Right! Shirts are important for social situations! I always forget that part!" She bounced back toward the ruined doorway, pausing only to look back at Izuku with those unsettling crosshair eyes. "DON'T LEAVE! I need to examine you more thoroughly! For science!"
She vanished into the smoke.
Silence fell over the hallway.
Power Loader sighed. "You're Midoriya, right? The Quirkless kid who scored first in the exam?"
Izuku climbed to his feet, brushing debris off his blazer. "That's me."
"You're here about equipment modifications." It wasn't a question.
"My suit didn't survive first contact with explosions."
"Most things don't survive contact with explosions. That's kind of the point of explosions." Power Loader's excavator arm gestured toward the doorway. "Come on in. I'll show you around. Just... try not to touch anything without asking first."
Izuku started to follow, then stopped when he realized Toru hadn't moved.
The floating uniform stood frozen in the hallway. Her gloves hung at her sides, motionless.
Even without seeing her face, Izuku could feel the waves of... something radiating off her.
"Spotlight?"
"I am going to kill her."
"That's a strong reaction."
"She LANDED on you. With her CHEST out. And you SAW everything!"
"I also got blown up, but sure, let's focus on the chest thing."
Toru's uniform moved in a way that suggested she was vibrating with rage.
"This is not funny, Izuku!"
"I never said it was funny."
"Your face says it's funny! I can hear you smiling!"
She wasn't wrong.
"You realize you're the one who took her shirt off, right?"
"THAT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"
"Uh huh."
"I was trying to get her OFF you! How was I supposed to know her clothes were barely attached?"
"By looking?"
"I WAS LOOKING! At her riding you! Not at her clothes!"
Izuku held up his hands in surrender. "Okay. Fair point. I apologize for my face finding humor in this deeply serious situation."
Toru's uniform deflated slightly. The aggressive posture softened. "I... I know it wasn't your fault. You pushed me out of the way. You probably saved me from getting hit by that door."
"Probably?"
"Definitely. You definitely saved me." Her voice got smaller. "Thank you for that."
"No problem, Spotlight."
"But you ALSO saw her boobs! Which I did not want you to see! Because I haven't even..."
She trailed off, and Izuku could practically see the blush spreading across her invisible face based on how her collar shifted.
"Forget I said anything."
"Said what?"
"Exactly!"
Power Loader cleared his throat from the doorway. "You two lovebirds want to continue this inside? I have actual work to do, and the hallway isn't supposed to be a debris zone."
Toru made a strangled sound. "We're not lovebirds!"
"Sure you're not. Come on."
Izuku started walking, and after a moment, Toru fell into step beside him. Her invisible hand found his arm, gripping it with more force than strictly necessary.
"I'm coming with you," she said. "To make sure that pink-haired menace keeps her clothes on."
"Her name is apparently Hatsume."
"I don't care what her name is. She's the enemy now."
"The enemy of what?"
Toru's grip tightened further. "Just... the enemy."
Izuku wisely chose not to push the issue.
The Support Department opened up before them like something out of a mad scientist's fever dream. Workbenches covered every available surface, each one buried under components, tools, and half-finished projects that sparked and whirred with apparent sentience. Robots in various stages of completion hung from ceiling racks. Power tools lined the walls in color-coded arrangements. A mechanical arm sat in the corner, gesturing rudely at anyone who walked past.
And everywhere, absolutely everywhere, there were inventions.
Jetpacks. Gauntlets. Boots with rocket attachments. Helmets with antennae. Suits of armor. Weapons that defied easy classification. Things that glowed. Things that hummed. Things that looked like they might explode if you sneezed too hard.
Mei Hatsume stood at a central workbench, now wearing a fresh tank top that was already acquiring grease stains. She had her goggles pulled down over her eyes, making her look like some kind of industrial insect. Her hands worked at something small and metallic, and her focus was absolute.
Until she noticed Izuku.
"TEST SUBJECT!"
She vaulted over her workbench with zero warning, landing in front of him with a spray of scattered components. Her crosshair pupils dilated as she examined him, circling around his body with the intensity of a predator sizing up prey.
"Take off your shirt!"
"No."
"But I need to see your musculature! It's essential for proper equipment calibration!"
"Still no."
"What about just lifting it slightly? Just a peek?"
Toru stepped between them. Her floating uniform blocked Hatsume's path, gloves planted firmly on invisible hips.
"Back. Off."
Hatsume's head tilted. Her goggles reflected Toru's uniform in their curved lenses. "Oh! The invisible girl! I haven't forgotten about you! Your potential for baby making is IMMENSE! Imagine! Clothing that can extend your invisibility field to objects you carry! Or amplifiers that can project your invisibility onto allies! Or specialized sensors that can let you see yourself!"
Despite her anger, Toru paused. "Wait. See myself?"
"Theoretically! The technology would be complex, but I've been working on light refraction manipulation and with the right calibration, I could—"
"Hatsume." Power Loader's voice cut through the workshop. "Let the students breathe. They're here for equipment, not to be recruited into your baby army."
"Everyone should be recruited into my baby making army! The more babies, the better!"
Izuku stepped around Toru, putting himself between the two girls in what he hoped was a neutral position. "I need my hero costume repaired. And upgraded. Can you do that?"
Hatsume's attention snapped to him like a targeting system. "Can I do that? CAN I DO THAT? Show me this costume! Show me its weaknesses! Show me its failures! I will make it PERFECT!"
Izuku reached into his school bag and pulled out the ruined suit.
Hatsume's expression when she saw it was somewhere between horror and ecstasy.
"What HAPPENED to this poor baby?"
"Explosions."
"Multiple explosions, clearly! The thermal damage pattern is extensive! The structural integrity is completely compromised! This is BEAUTIFUL! This is WONDERFUL! This gives me SO MUCH data to work with!"
She grabbed the costume from his hands and rushed to her workbench, laying it out flat. Her gloved fingers traced the burn marks, the tears, the places where fabric had melted into other fabric.
"The base material is good but insufficient! The gauntlets held up but need reinforcement at the wrist joint! The escrima holster melted because the polymer wasn't rated for sustained heat! The HUD cracked because the impact buffer was placed incorrectly!"
She spun around, pointing at Izuku with manic energy.
"I can fix all of this! I can make it BETTER! I can make it the GREATEST BABY IN THE SUPPORT DEPARTMENT!"
Toru's glove tugged at Izuku's sleeve. "She's insane," she whispered.
"Probably."
"She also might be a genius."
Izuku watched Hatsume work, her hands flying across the ruined costume as she took measurements and muttered calculations under her breath. Something in her crosshair pupils had shifted from chaos to focus. Whatever else Mei Hatsume might be, she clearly knew her craft.
"Yeah," Izuku said. "I think she might be exactly what I need."