Chapter 13: Mistakes and the True Genius 

*First Person POV*

I dazedly stared at the woman giving a presentation as I sat among the meeting attendees.

"… Results of the evaluation test for the new integrated circuit (IC) design showed a seventy percent pass rate. Failure analysis is ongoing…"

The words she said entered my ears and rang like a melody.

My focus was purely on her and my mind blocked out everything else.

Various thoughts and memories echoed in my head, and slowly, the regret started to rear its ugly head again.

"Psst. Hey, senpai." (Only used senpai to indicate relationship here.)

I was interrupted from my thoughts by the recently hired intern sitting next to me.

"Do you know the lady that's presenting right now? I didn't know that such a hottie worked in this company." He said with a lustful look on his face.

My eyebrows creased together and for a while, I did not know what to say.

Thankfully, my other coworker heard our conversation and replied for me.

"That's ***** from the failure analysis group. Oh and for your information, she's your senpai's ex-girlfriend."

… Aaaand there goes my thanks, spiked into the ground.

"EEEHHH-mmph"

I hurriedly clamped the intern's mouth shut.

Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough and the noise attracted some attention.

***** looked over and we made eye contact. I noticed her lips twitch a bit.

Still, after a slight pause she continued on with her presentation.

With a slight blush due to the attention we got, I released the intern's mouth.

He immediately started questioning me.

"She was your ex?! How?!... Oh, uh. I mean- why would you ever break up with such a ho- err beautiful woman? If I was her boyfriend, I would never let her go."

"Haaa…" I sighed, ignoring the offense this guy gave me.

'Why, indeed…'

"I… had other priorities at the time…"

At this point, my eyebrows were creasing so much, they were on the verge of merging and becoming a unibrow.

Noticing my discomfort, my coworker spoke up once again.

"Uh, hey! I heard that there was a problem on a testing machine again. Production equipment group is pushing the work on us again since we were the last ones to use it…"

He said, trying to change the subject.

"I'll do it after the meeting..." I said offhandedly, choosing to ignore the two guys and instead watch as ***** finished her presentation.

A different guy went up to present and the boring meeting continued.

I got drowsy and couldn't help but fall asleep midway.

(Scene Break)

*Kirari POV*

I woke up after my hour of sleep.

'Weird. I don't usually dream of my past life, especially not of my previous job. Too many bad memories… Maybe it was because of the talk during dinner?'

I used to work as a technician in a semiconductor manufacturing company.

I only worked there because I needed money to continue my gaming hobby.

I could have just lived off of the inheritance I got from my parents but that idea just did not sit right with me.

They wouldn't have wanted me to become a NEET after graduating.

'At least my work experience helped me recreate those designs… speaking of which.'

I took my flip phone from my desk. It was one of my mom's old ones and instead of throwing it away, I asked her if I could have it to which she agreed.

There was a notification of a new message from my friend. I quickly opened it.

[

From: Mei

You finally told them?! How did they react?!

Are they willing to help out and make babies with me???

I'm still not satisfied with the ones we made!

]

My eye twitched at the wordings she used.

'As expected of a true genius. She's even eccentric at a young age just like in the anime; calling her inventions "babies".'

I informed her of what had happened before I went to sleep.

[

Sending to: Mei

My dad was ecstatic! He still has to set up a few things but he should be meeting with us within the next few weeks to discuss the designs.

So keep your schedule open!

]

I sent a reply and went over to the shrine.

Once again, I took out my suitcase and opened it.

Looking at the equipment that Mei and I created with our limited combined allowance, a proud grin stretched across my face.

(Flashback no jutsu)

I was in a hardware store looking to buy a tool to replace one that I broke while trying to make my Amos bow.

I had two tools that looked similar but were from different brands in my hand.

One was the same as the one that I broke and the other was slightly cheaper.

"Hmmm. What to choose…?"

"Don't buy either! Get this one instead. It's slightly more expensive but more durable, so it's better in the long run."

"Eep!"

I yelped when someone behind me suddenly spoke while I was mumbling to myself.

Turning back, I saw a girl around the same height as me wearing overalls.

She had short pink hair styled in dreadlocks and greenish eyes with crosshairs in them.

In her hand was a tool, same as the ones in my hands.

She handed it to me and after some testing it seemed what she was saying was legit.

"Thanks! Didn't think another girl my age was interested in tools instead of dolls and teddy bears." I said trying to make conversation.

This girl looked familiar and I thought that maybe she was a character from MHA in the future.

"Pfft. Dolls have got nothing on my babies. What do you need this for anyway?"

"I'm trying to make a portable, collapsible bow that can handle firing my quirk-imbued arrows." I explained.

My parents already found out about it so there's no point trying to hide it.

They just told me to be responsible and that if anything happens, I will be grounded…

Maybe they didn't think that a child could make a very dangerous weapon?

*Clap*

After my explanation, the girl immediately clasped her hands on my shoulders and brought her face right in front of mine.

Her eyes looked like they were shining and an imposing aura similar to mom's appeared for a split second.

"Tell me more details…"

(Flashback no Jutsu end)

While recalling my first meeting with Mei Hatsume, I took out the Amos bow that we made together.

It was now made using spring steel instead of wood and it can be easily taken apart and re-assembled.

The parts were: the main grip/handle, the two limbs that can be folded back, and lastly, a simple spring and lock system similar to what Mei used during the sports festival in the anime except smaller.

It was used to wind up the string/wire for the bow.

When put all together, my new Amos bow looked more like the Compound Bow from Genshin Impact than the actual Amos bow…

This was the first project we finished together and since then, we continued to meet up, chat, and come up with more projects.

It did not take long for me to realize that unlike a faker like me, this girl was a true genius.

Just from my basic explanations of technology from my world, she was able to come up with different methods to recreate them.

Of course, a lot of them I had to rule out because based on my experience, they wouldn't work.

But that did not stop her from coming up with more ideas.

Good thing I studied advanced physics, circuits, and even chemistry during the boring elementary school lessons. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to keep up with Mei.

And she was only nine years old!

Sometimes her genius… it's almost frightening.

I can only imagine what she might come up with if she had an unlimited budget… Thank Dio she didn't.

Anyway, Mei and I quickly became best friends.

I was able to tolerate her craziness and help her out in developing her "babies", while she helped with my level up plans.

Sometimes though, she used me as a power generator for her various experiments.

She even made me explain in detail how the electricity flowed through the components she came up with.

I didn't mind. I'd say that she helped me max out Electromaster sooner.

My interactions with Mei lead to a drastic increase of my understanding of my quirk, Electromaster.

As a result, I was able to come up with designs for gadgets from my old world by vigorously studying and analyzing how electricity worked in electronic devices as well as Mei's input.

After a moment of reorganizing, I quickly got changed and put on all my equipment.

I holstered the collapsed Amos bow on my back and put on a long black jacket that was more like a trench coat on me.

I snuck out of my room while carrying my modified shoes and headed towards the entrance.

After putting on my shoes, I checked the time.

"10 PM. Alright! Time to grind!"

*Brrr*

Just then, my phone vibrated.

It was a reply message from Mei.

'She's still awake at this time?'

[

From: Mei

My schedule is always open for potential sponsors!

I can't wait to make cute babies with you and your dad!

]

"… One day, this girl will give me aneurysms. Haaa…"

Chapter End

A/N: This chapter was to make up for my nonsense in the last chapter, hence the chapter title. Some stuff might have been repeated. Hopefully it gives a more believable explanation on how MC has knowledge of his original world's tech. I'm not going to go any further down that rabbit hole.

Congrats to those who guessed that the friend was Mei! You got it right! To those that doubt her abilities, remember that she was able to build a jetpack by the time she was in high school.

Special thanks to @maskhara and especially @Kiradeux for pointing out my rubbish and giving me ideas on how to improve the story~!