CHAPTER 078(Glass Ceiling)
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CHAPTER START---
"You're already quite good at that, most impressive," Momo says.
Currently, she was walking down the sidewalk over to a large grassy area of UA where the trees were spread out. They couldn't see a few students scattered about on the grass studying, and eventually found a spot they liked.
All the while Horizon was flying about on his hoverboard as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"That's why I chose a hoverboard," he says.
"What do you mean?"
"I like surfing, skating, and longboarding, those skills transfer to this really well. And since I've been doing them all my life this is as natural as breathing."
"Oh, so you chose something you wouldn't have to learn from the ground up."
"Yup, Mei's originally countered my suggestion with a jetpack since she already had a prototype made, then she tried to get me to wear some rocket boots. But this way I have one less thing to constantly practice...plus...those other things look way too goofy. This is more elegant and graceful."
"Public image," Momo says as they arrive at a large tree with nobody nearby, a few groups of students scattered about in casual clothes studying for the upcoming mid-terms.
"Yup, now take a seat and we can start."
"Alright," Momo makes a blanket and sets it down on the grass, dropping down to her knees and looking up at him as he sits on the hoverboard.
It had now shifted into its expended form, larger, 30cm wide and 120cm long, becoming slightly thinner as the parts adjusted themselves to widen the surface area. Still in his white and blue with the blue accents glowing. And two glowing blue circles on the underside of it keeping him above the floor.
Horizon sat atop it with his sword laying across his lap and feet hanging over the edge. Casually looking down on her.
"Before we start, how come neither of you asked me about that whole Iida situation?" he asks.
"Oh, well. Everyone had been talking about it in the group chat the past few days and you never joined. We figured you wanted to grieve in your own way and not talk about it."
"Sure, good call. I don't wanna talk about it," Horizon says. That simply sounded much better than 'I couldn't care less that my classmate is dead.' so he just let them think what they want.
"Alright, now where do we begin?"
"Yeah, not sure with you exactly, normally I'd start with the first impression you give, but I mean," he gestures to her. "The bimbo suit works for what you want so I guess it's fine..."
"Excuse me?"
"What?"
"Bimbo suit?"
"Yeah, your Hero Costume, aren't you gonna be one of those heroes that just shows off her tits to get easy money?"
Momo jumps up to her feet to get in his face, "I'm trying to become a hero to help people! Not to show off my body for attention! How dare you assume such disgusting things without even asking me!"
"But you went to Uwabami? She's like in the top 3 bimbo heroes, why else would you go there?"
Momo freezes, then drops back down to the blanket, "she was the highest ranked Hero that requested I come intern with her. I didn't know we'd just be her personal assistant and model in some stupid commercial..."
"Oh, so you didn't do research and wasted your time...like a fucking retard."
Momo looks like a kicked puppy at that statement, "I'm already so far behind, and I wasted an entire week while others were getting ahead." Momo was almost to the point of tears just thinking about her wasted time.
"Is that why you were crying yesterday?"
She nods weakly.
"Huh, I assumed it was for Iida."
"Him too," Momo says.
Horizon sighs. "Alright, fine, well like I told Jiro, public perception is everything. And the first thing the public sees when you dress like that is just a pair of great tits and a pretty face, at that point they've already made up their mind about you. Because of that, you'll never get to the very top ranks."
"But Mirko is very attractive and she's up there."
"She also doesn't have her tits falling out of her top and is such a meathead that she never plays up the cute stuff. Her brain is just one veiny muscle that counters the usual public perception. You won't have that."
"But if I work hard and just do my job well would that matter?" Momo asks, and Horizon groans.
"Ok let me put it like this. Midnight is basically the queen of the bimbo heroes. She has a perfect and exemplary record, a crap ton of incidents resolved and big villains defeated. But she never gets into the top few thousand. No matter what she does she'll never get there, because other Pros know she's capable.
The Hero Commission knows she's capable. Even Nezu bringing her into UA isn't enough. It's no accident that she's the only hero at UA that can't get into the top 10k.
Japan is a conservative society. She perfectly crafted the image of some sex-crazed whore. She's never had a single scandal aside from the government asking her to put on more clothes, and because of her need to sexualize everything and show off her body they make sure that no little girl sees enough of her to think 'I wanna be just like Ms. Midnight when I grow up.' Get it?
And you're about to be in the exact same boat. I suggest you call Uwabami and cut yourself out of that commercial as a start."
Momo falls silent for an entire minute as she considers what to say, then looks up at him.
"But my Quirk requires exposed skin, what about that? What if I can't save someone because of it? Shouldn't people be able to look past my body and see me as a hero?"
"In a perfect world you can wear whatever you want, but this isn't a perfect world. In fact it's so far from perfect that being Hero is a job.
People look at you and see a pretty face and amazing body, and since so much of it is being shown they will make assumptions. You're 11/10 fuckable and they know it, so just avoid this entire problem by changing your brand.
Just wear a crop top and some shorts, same surface area. Or you can just use a zipper. Honestly, I assumed you just wore the bimbo suit because you liked it....didn't think you were dumb enough not to think of a zipper."
Momo smacks herself on the forehead, "I can't believe I didn't think of that!"
"Wow, so you are that much of a dumbass...every time I think you people have a brain your prove me wrong...
Anyway, I recommend the first option, you still don't want your tits to be on tv. And as for saving people, you can always just make more clothes if needed, not to mention the higher your rank the more team-ups you get called in for so the more people you get access to. Endeavor got like three requests every day, because they know that since he's high rank he'll be able to cover their weaknesses if things go wrong."
"I see, and what do you suggest? Just a crop top and pair of shorts?"
"And a mask, you want to separate Momo and Creati...oh, we'll also have to change that horrific name."
"But I've always wanted that name, I thought of it when I was 8."
"It shows, and it's stupid. Creati only tells people that you can make shit, but it doesn't make them feel anything. Most Quirks can't deliver that sense of awe, but yours can."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"Go biblical, I named my Quirk Hand Of God to make a real statement, so why not reference the act of true creation."
"Oh...Genesis?"
"Exactly, sounds a lot more epic than Creati. And it's actually a full word."
"I'll do it!" Momo says, a broad smile on her face. "You really did put a lot of thought into what it means to be a Pro Hero. Meanwhile all anyone else is doing is training."
"Well, that's because you're all morons," Horizon shrugs. "Now let's talk about your Quirk and fighting style."
"Mhm," Momo's expression gets serious, knowing this is what she's been struggling with since joining UA. "As you know my Quirk lets me create non-living objects from the lipids in my body. As for my fighting style...I've been struggling with that lately."
"I noticed," Momo feels a jolt of shame and embarrassment at that. "The problem with your style is that you don't understand how to cheat."
"How to cheat?"
"Yup. Your Quirk is similar to mine in some regards. We have a deep bag of tricks that can counter many situations, because of that in some cases it's easier to react than act."
"Yes, if I can know what the enemy can do then fighting them is infinitely easier."
"Same for me, but unlike you, my attacks don't drain my body in the same way. You have a finite amount of ammo that can't be replenished without food. Because of that, you need to cheat.
Think of it like rock-paper-scissors. If you know the opponent has rock, you will throw paper. In this case, if the enemy is Kaminari, you make the insulation blanket you've used before, right?"
"Right. But what if I don't know?"
"Then you cheat, you either avoid the first hit or bait them into showing their move, then you figure out what you need to counter them, then you win. This works better with knowledge before the fight or if you have an ally that can take the first hit for you.
But you can use it solo if you're good enough at understanding a situation and thinking quickly, you're good at the former, but I can see on your face that you overthink during fights."
"Yes, that has been a problem. That cost me during the sports festival."
"Yup, all you had to do was be patient, and the moment he softened the stage you make a pole directly down to vault toward him, easy win, but you threw your hand at the same time as him when you made a sword and shield. It's not a bad start, but this time he had paper and you had rock."
"So I should focus on my ability to adapt to an ever-changing battlefield and think more quickly. So combat training?"
"Yes, and you also need to have standard responses. That way you don't have to actually think. Our Quirks require a lot of steps before we can actually use them, the more comfortable you are and familiar you are with an action the smoother and faster it becomes. Think of it like this...
Electric villain- insulation.
Fire villain- fire suppressant foam.
Power-type villain- either capture items or tase them.
Or stall until backup arrives. Currently, your big attack is making two canons, that's stupid.
I get that you can't make guns and some other weapons, so the government lets you make things that other people generally can't arm, but there are so many steps between staff and canons. The energy use is just too much in most cases for you to just use it on one big shot.
Your quirk is for combat support, like Jiro, don't forget that. Just like her, you should be very careful about getting close to them, even if you do have some combat training, it will eventually fail if you keep testing it."
Momo takes a moment to process everything he just said, then takes out her phone to make sure she doesn't forget anything.
"Alright, and what about my Quirk?"
"Well, you've got me for a while since I need to fly around to get used to this," Horizon takes out his phone and calls Momo. "Keep me on speaker."
Standing up he looks around and gets ready to fly around for a bit and familiarize himself with the hoverboard and new boots.
"We'll start small. In parallel processing, you need to be able to think about two actions at one at the same time. Focus on making marbles in the material I name. The first is for the left hand, and the second is for the right, at the same time. Then we'll move onto bigger more complex objects."
"OH!" Momo says. "I get it, you noticed I've only been making one object at a time until now. And when I make multiple it's always something simple and of the same material, you're very observant."
"Well I like looking at you, start with copper and nickel, tell me when it's done..." he flies off, staying low to the ground and weaving between the trees.
"Hmm, so he likes looking at me," she giggles quietly to herself. Feeling a bit of triumph over Mei.
"I can hear you," Horizon's voice comes through the speaker of her phone, causing her to blush up a storm. "Get to work."
"YES SIR!" Momo immediately raises her hands and begins focusing on the materials she wanted to create.
Intent on not wasting a single precious minute of her training time with Horizon...
END CHAPTER---