67

Chapter 67: New Wave

A/N: What do we all have this time? Some Mt. Lady and internships, that's what!

Though the start of the new year meant many different things to the people of the world, to the students of UA it only meant one thing: the next wave of internships were right around the corner.

But to Izuku, all it meant was more time to conduct his work. Kentaro's challenge was a constant strain on his mind, a memory that constantly gnawed at his thoughts. The fact that he hadn't even made a dent into his investigation regarding the elusive individual named "Nine" didn't help ease his worries whatsoever.

The reshuffling of the students to heroes higher up in the rankings didn't help either, as that meant a new influx of people to join Edgeshot and his recently founded Lurkers. Such people were of those of whom who had yet to be exposed to the horrors of the Nine — people with a much more innocent outlook on hero work.

Hence, the boy beside Izuku nudging him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Midoriya," Kaminari whispered, leaning in towards Izuku. His little nudge was harder than usual, something that Izuku attributed to the newly added support gear that rested on the shoulders of Kaminari's Chargebolt costume.

At a first glance they appeared to be mere shoulder pads and arm bracers, though — similar to his flightpack, as well as many of the other inventions of Mei's repertoire — they weren't as simple as they seemed.

When prompted, the pads unfurled to reveal lightning rods, one on each shoulder, that acted in accordance to Kaminari's quirk. And although they were hidden away at the current moment, that didn't mean that the extra weight wasn't noticeable.

"Yes, Kaminari?" Izuku asked, rubbing his arm. There was a slight static spark upon contact with Kaminari, something that Izuku felt despite wearing his own costume.

Kaminari moved his head from side to side in search of some unknown thing. Izuku didn't really see the need for it — it wasn't like they were waiting alone outside of the gates of UA.

There were other groups loitering around too, and the rest of their group which was present — Sero and Mineta still being back at the dorms doing who knows what — consisted of Shiozaki and Setsuna talking between themselves a little ways away.

Kaminari coughed into his hands. "Well… you see… I— Well—"

"Spit it out already Kaminari," Izuku interrupted.

"Right right! Okay okay. So, um… You know how you're friends with Tokage?"

Izuku blinked, drawing out the action into a length much longer than normal. "Of course I know that. I don't just forget being friends with someone. Your point being?"

Kaminari didn't immediately answer, something of which Izuku ended up using. The lull in the conversation allowed him to fully consider the personality of the blond boy he was talking to, and in turn what his question probably meant.

"This isn't some convoluted way of asking if Setsuna is 'available' is it?" Izuku asked in accordance with using finger quotes.

"Wha— No! Besides, I'm not even sure if she'd be— Agh!" Kaminari took a deep breath. "No. That's not what's happening. And besides, I know better than getting caught up in any sort of relationship with any of your closer friends."

Now Izuku was confused. "Meaning…"

"Meaning…" Kaminari rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you see— Ow!" Kaminiari raised and clutched at his arm. He glared at the purple-haired boy who had suddenly appeared beside him.

"Why is everybody always taking hits at me?" Kaminari whined.

"Not going to answer that," Mineta said, stepping out and around Kaminari. "And," he faced Izuku this time, "Kaminari means how, despite being friends with you now, he's still a bit scared of what you can do to him if you got mad enough."

"Am not!" retorted Kaminari. "Besides, we've gone off topic. I was just trying to ask about Shiozaki."

"You mean how likely it was that you could get Shiozaki to notice you, right?" Mineta corrected with a knowing smirk. "But honestly. Kaminari. We're about to go on our internships. With the Lurkers of all people! You need to learn when to set your priorities straight. It's not like you want to make things weird with a teammate that you're going to be spending the foreseeable future with, do you?"

Kaminari threw up his hands into the air. "Oh, come on man! We used to be kindred souls! Bros on the path to finding willing and wonderful women to woo! What happened to you?"

"I've come to a couple epiphanies recently," Mineta sagely answered. "Two realizations, in fact. The first circles around how, if I truly wish to find a girl, I need to be less perverted. I scare girls off otherwise."

"Pe— perverted!?" Kaminari sputtered, gathering the looks of a couple nearby onlookers. He lowered his voice as a result. "We aren't perverted! You— you must just be talking about our unique way of appreciating women! And that's something that I can't give up!"

Mineta gave him a flat look. "Sure, if that's what you want to call it. And it isn't like it's that hard. Notice how I said 'less' and not 'completely void of.' There's a difference, and it's called self awareness."

"Like what?" Kaminari crossed his arms.

Mineta winked and used his thumb to point over to Shiozaki and Setsuna. "Like how I can still admit that those two are complete hotties. Plus, to sustain my control, I can admire them at a distance."

"Ha! There's the Mineta I know!" Kaminari exclaimed, patting Mineta on the back. Izuku, on the other hand, let out a displeasured sigh.

"Oh!" Kaminari exclaimed once more. "You said that you came to realize two things." He rested his gaze on Mineta. "What was the second thing?"

Mineta winked, formed a bright smile, and made a thumbs up. "To avoid Mt. Lady at all costs."

Right at that moment, the group was interrupted by a familiar flash of light that was followed by a popping sound.

Izuku groaned, slapping a hand over his face. "Please. Not him again."

"Who?" Kaminari asked. "That guy over there?"

Izuku chanced a peek towards Traveler's direction. As it turned out, the teleporter had ended up meeting with Setsuna and Shiozaki first. Already, he was gushing over the duo with pictures of his wife and daughter; Setsuna going with the flow and Shiozaki looking on in glee.

However, a second glance revealed another hero to Izuku, one who turned her glance in his direction and ended up heading right towards him.

"Ah!" Mineta screeched. "Epiphany #2! Epiphany #2! Evasive action! Retreat!" Mineta ducked behind Izuku's legs in a stir. "Hide me Midoriya!"

Mt. Lady approached with a quirked eyebrow directed straight at the peeking Mineta. Said boy let out a startled yelp and hid entirely behind Izuku.

Mt. Lady guffawed, her attention straying away from Mineta and towards Izuku. "Midoriya, right?" she asked.

Izuku nodded. "Yup."

"Wonderful!" Mt. Lady exclaimed. "You're in charge."

Izuku blinked. "What?"

"Don't get me wrong, though. It's a joint leadership with your friend over there too," Mt. Lady gestured back to Setsuna.

"Right," Izuku trailed off. "And… Why aren't you the one in charge? You're the pro, aren't you?"

Mt. Lady shrugged her shoulders. "Meh. Usually that's Edgeshot's job, so…"

"And Edgeshot is...?"

"Busy back at base," Mt. Lady admitted. "So he sent me along with that teleporter guy. His pictures were a bit… erm. Well, you know."

"I do," Izuku chuckled. Though, he shook his head after a few seconds, remembering the situation he had been thrusted into.

"But really?" Izuku asked. "Setsuna and I are in charge? Then what are you going to do?"

Mt. Lady cocked both her eyebrows and smiled. "Watch."

"Uh huh… And my duties are…"

"I don't know," Mt. Lady waved him off. "Guide them around, teach them the basics and stuff. You know, what Edgeshot would expect of you when you're at his agency."

Mt. Lady cleared her throat. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be heading back to Mr. Teleporter over there. If I'm not mistaken, we're still missing one of you. We'll be waiting for you all when you're ready. Ta-ta."

As Mt. Lady grew further away, Mineta slowly backed away from Izuku's legs.

"Same as she was last time," Mineta scoffed. "Delegating her responsibilities to other people. Sheesh. Makes you wonder how she goes around being a hero all the time."

Izuku sighed. "Yeah. Not much we can do about it though. We should be happy that at the very least she's at bearable. We could have it worse."

"What could be worse than that!" Mineta exclaimed.

"My old principal, for one," Izuku admitted.

"There's a story there," Kaminari spoke up.

Izuku averted his gaze. "I'd rather not talk about it. Ahem. On the other hand…"

Izuku set his sight through some of his bugs back near the dorms. In turn, he faced back towards Mineta.

"So what's Sero doing, exactly? I'm not sure how much longer Traveler is going to be pestering the girls over there, and I'd rather we be ready to leave before he comes over here."

Kaminari scratched his head, surveying the scene between Shiozaki and Setsuna and Traveler. "He can't be that bad, can he? He just seems enthusiastic."

"But he does this every single time he picks me up," revealed Izuku. "And believe me, that's more often than you think." Izuku looked back towards Mineta.

"Ah," Mineta interrupted. "He said he was still packing some of his things. Woke up late, apparently. He said he'd be out in a couple minutes, but that was ten minutes ago."

"Should we go and chec— Ah," Izuku interrupted himself. "Nevermind. He's, well, he's rappelling down his balcony with his tape."

"Heh," Kaminari chuckled. "Is he now?"

"Yup," Izuku confirmed. "And now he's sprinting towards the gates. And now he's using his tape to pull himself around so he can move a bit faster. And… he's—"

"I'm here!" Sero yelled as he stumbled into the group from behind.

"Great!" Izuku exclaimed. "Let's go!" Izuku walked forward and made a gesture to follow. "If you really want to Mineta, you can continue hiding behind me. Though, I consider revising your rule of avoiding Mt. Lady."

"Right!" peeped Mineta. "I'll, erm, attempt to try!"

As the four boys approached their transport, Traveler immediately perked at the prospect of newcomers.

"Oh my!" Traveler cheered. "One familiar face and three unfamiliar ones! Who wants to see pictures!?"

Izuku sidestepped the incoming teleporter, leaving Sero, Mineta, and Kaminari to the man's eccentricities. In the meantime, Izuku oriented himself in the direction of Shiozaki and Setsuna.

"Hey you two," Izuku waved towards the two girls. "I hope that I didn't keep you hanging for too long?"

The first to respond was Setsuna, who stepped forward and gave Izuku a light punch in his shoulder. "You couldn't have interrupted earlier?"

"Whatever could you mean, you two?" Shiozaki asked before Izuku could counter. "Traveler-san is just delightful! Such an admirable quality he has with being a doting father and husband, do you not think?"

"No Ibara," Setsuna berated, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "There's such a thing as being too doting. And Traveler is one of those people who needs to learn to rein it in."

"I don't know," Shiozaki said. "I still think that it's quite a good quality."

"Give it a few times then," Izuku said. "Come back to us with your opinion then."

Mt. Lady interrupted then, walking towards Izuku and essentially cutting the conversation short. "I see that your friend finally arrived," she said.

"He did," Izuku said. "Does that mean that we should get going now?"

"You tell me. What do you think?"

"I say yes!" Setsuna remarked. She elbowed Izuku. "What'd ya think?"

"Might as well," Izuku said, turning towards the other half of his group. "Traveler? We're good to go!"

The teleporter turned back towards Izuku and nodded. "Righty-o then Bugsy! Gather all up then!"

Setsuna, Shiozaki, Izuku, and Mt. Lady all made their way over. Izuku ended up next to Kaminari, who sent an accusatory look at the green-headed boy.

"Dude."

Izuku smirked. "What'd I tell you?"

"You didn't tell us that it was gonna be that bad!" Kaminari whispered.

"I kind of did," Izuku rebuked.

"Kyoto, coming right up!" Traveler announced.

Izuku's eyes widened in remembrance. "Oh! Watch out for this next part, you four," he said to the newer interns to Edgeshot's agency. "First time's always a bit dizzying, apparently."

"Right!" Traveler exclaimed. "Thanks for telling them for me, Dragonfly!"

"Wait, how ba—"

"And here we go!"

A flash and a pop later, the group of eight found themselves before the Edgeshot hero agency.

Mt. Lady, Izuku, and Setsuna having all gone through the teleportation before, were relatively fine when they came through to the other side. Shiozaki, Kaminari, Mineta, and Sero, however, were a bit disoriented — something Traveler took advantage in by going along and showing the battered group some more pictures.

"Wonderful!" Mt. Lady said. "See you all later! I'm going to go take a nap."

"Wait!" Setsuna exclaimed. "Where are we supposed to go?!"

A sigh emanated from behind the duo. "I guess that that would be my job."

"Oh! Reverb!" Setsuna greeted as she turned towards the voice.

Reverb nodded in turn. "Tokage, Midoriya. Nice to see you two in good shape. The past few months haven't been... all too nice to us, after all."

"You could say that again," Izuku muttered under his breath.

"Anyways," Reverb continued, "it looks like Mt. Lady delegated responsibility over the others to you two, huh?"

"Right she did," Setsuna said. "Since she arrived at UA Izuku and I were 'in charge.'"

Reverb shook her head. "I'm honestly not all too surprised that she did, really. She's been, well, not a pain exactly. More of a nuisance, really, when it comes to work around the agency. Paperwork, specifically."

"I can imagine it," Izuku said. "I don't get how she can be such an effective hero and yet so lazy at the same time. It seems a bit paradoxical, don't you think?"

Reverb shrugged her shoulders. "Right? But I'm happy with the fact that she pulls her weight where it's needed, at least. Working with her isn't so tiring that I'd want to rip my hair out, so there's that."

"Probably best that we get used to it, huh?" questioned Setsuna. "The Lurkers have been pretty effective ever since they came together, after all. Mt. Lady isn't leaving anytime soon, and we'll be having to work with her a lot."

"True." Reverb clapped her hands together. "Now, I suppose that it's time to get the new recruits adjusted, no? If any of them are hungry, you can go ahead and tell them that we'll be having lunch in an hour or so. However, before that there's something else that we've got to do."

"And that is?" Izuku questioned.

Reverb chuckled. "Remember your first visit here?"

"You mean when Edgeshot ambushed us in the dojo?" Setsuna asked.

Reverb nodded. "Exactly that."

Setsuna blinked, and before long she was rubbing her hands together as an excited expression formed on her face. "Oh yes! This I like!"

"I thought you would,"Reverb said. "Of course, you two are sitting out considering your past experience with the exercise. I'd be a bit unfair if the newbies had your help, don't you think?"

"We'd be robbing them of the authentic experience," Izuku said. "That'd be for sure."

"Great!" Reverb said. She split herself into two, her newly formed clone retreating back into the agency while the original continued to talk. "That one's going ahead to the dojo. Kamui and I are joining Edgeshot this time around."

"Ooh!" Setsuna cheered. "Even better!"

"And you yourself?" Izuku asked. "What's this version of you doing?"

"Paperwork, of course," Reverb replied. "Well, that's all for now. Ask Edgeshot for whatever's next. If you don't mind, I'll be going." Reverb took her turn entering the building, leaving the interns alone outside alongside a still doting Traveler.

"Should we get them out?" Izuku asked, watching the other four interns being overshadowed by Traveler.

"I don't know," Setsuna said. "Shiozaki still seems to be enjoying it. I kind of want her to get to the point where she admits defeat."

Izuku stifled a laugh. "We'd be here forever, probably. Come on, let's go rescue our wards."

Setsuna cackled at that, but followed Izuku as he moved. As they got closer, the expressions on their friends' faces became more clear.

Sero, Kaminari, and Mineta were all obviously trying to worm their way out of their situation. Shiozaki, on the other hand, still had the same serene expression on her face as she did when Traveler had begun.

"Traveler," Izuku tapped the teleporter's shoulder.

"Hmm?" Traveler turned around. "Oh! Lizardy! Dragonfly! You know, I was just—"

"We need to go inside now!" Setsuna quickly interjected. "So, um, if you don't mind. Edgeshot and the others are kind of waiting for us so…"

"Oh fooey," Traveler said with slumped shoulders. However, it didn't take long before he straightened himself out and adopted his ever present smile. "Well alrighty then! I'll just have to catch you two next time!"

"Of course," Setsuna said, straining her smile. "We'd just love that."

"Great! Well then, by you two!" He turned. "'Farewell Chargebolt, Cellophane, Grape Juice, and Vine. See you all next time!" And with a flash and a pop, he was gone.

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Such a doting fellow, don't you all think? Shizaki asked with a smile on her face.

Setsuna shook her head, Izuku merely blinked, while the others turned their heads towards the vine-haired girl.

"Okay," Izuku began. "Let's go." He began walking towards the building, Setsuna following not far behind.

"Yeah!" Setsuna added. "Come on! Hurry it up! There's some fun stuff planned for you all!"

The doors to the dojo slammed shut. The room was engulfed in near darkness, with Izuku and Setsuna standing guard at the doors, preventing escape.

"Uh, guys?" Kaminari called out. "What's up?"

"Welcome, you four," a voice rang through the air, startling the four newcomers into a jump.

"Wha— who was that?" Sero said.

"We welcome you, Hanta Sero," the voice said.

"And we welcome you, Minoru Mineta," a different voice said.

"And you, Ibara Shiozaki," another voice said.

"And you as well, Denki Kaminari," the original voice said.

"Right…" Sero said. "So, what exactly is this?"

"Think of this… as a test."

"A test?"

"A challenge for us, I presume?" Shiozaki asked.

"Of sorts. Let's see how you all fare, hmm?"

Kaminari, Mineta, and Sero all promptly screamed.

A/N: There goes the start of the new internships! It continues next time with a little more action...