Chapter 154: Progress Report

"It's nice to see you again sir." Mai and Uchi said as they welcomed Izuku into the lab.

"It's nice to see you two making progress so soon." Izuku greeted them.

"Right. Let's talk about this somewhere more comfortable." Mai said, before bringing them deeper into the facility.

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All three of them settled into one of the lab's break rooms.

The room was designed to be as relaxing as possible. It was a white tile room, with various black chairs around the room, as well as two black couches that faced each other, with a coffee table in between.

Uchi and Mai were sat on one couch, while Izuku was on the other, with a large number of papers and files between them.

"How goes the Grimm Cyberization?" Izuku asked as he leaned back into the couch.

"Ah, well the facility should be done within the next week. After that, we can get the project started properly." Mai explained.

"Has any progress been made on Project Reaper?" Was Izuku's next question, as he looked over one of the files detailing the Grimm Cyberization.

Mai shook her head. "No. The Grimm are still proving to be rather difficult to work with. I can't make too many augmentations without compromising practicality."

"I see," Izuku said as he continued to read over the files. "Have you made any progress in researching the material of the Grimm themselves? How they manifest thought into physical matter?"

Mai shook her head again. "No. The process of converting thought to matter is still currently unknown."

"Hmmm…Have you two ever heard of the study of Cognitive Matter and the Cognitive World?" Izuku asked.

"Only in passing," Mai said getting a contemplative look. "Ever since quirks came into existence, quirks involving emotions have proved that thoughts and feelings are more tangible than we'd first thought. And so people have tried to figure out more about the power and tangibility of emotions, and how to access the cognitive world without the help of quirk."

"That's right. Due to how difficult it is to study things like this, and even more so Cognitive Matter Researchers are very, very rare." Izuku continued. "That said, I got a very interesting offer recently."

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"Wow, that's…are you sure a little girl did that?"

Less than a week ago, Izuku was talking to Ren about the whole Yonda and Bakugo situation.

"I ask myself that every time she does something like this." Izuku sighed in response. "But putting all that aside for now, do you think we'll be able to get past cognitive Bakugo now?"

"Do you think your opinion of Bakugo's strength has lowered?" Ren asked in response.

Now, if Bakugo had just lost to Ochaco, his opinion of his strength wouldn't have lowered all that much. But that wasn't the case. Bakugo didn't just lose, he got destroyed. He barely fought back during that whole encounter. In a way, Izuku would have never believed had he not seen it with his own eyes.

"A bit," Izuku admitted.

"Then we have a chance," Ren said. "We'll have to check it out during our next session and…no I'm talking to a patient right now…I'm sorry Midoriya could you give me a minute?"

"Of course. Take your time." Izuku said politely.

And so Izuku waited for a couple of minutes, and afterward, Ren came back on the phone.

"Sorry about that. My little sister is getting her P.H.D in Cognitive Matter Research." Ren explained. "And we were talking about how we're going to celebrate."

"Oh, congratulations! That's actually really impressive! I've heard Cognitive Matter research is a nightmare and you said your sister was like, 18!? That's amazing!" Izuku praised. "I thought I was doing impressive things at a young age."

"Heh, pretty sure you're achievements still outdo hers," Ren said in a joking tone, before suddenly changing into a more somber one. "In all honesty, I'm worried about what she's going to do after she graduates. Cognitive Matter and the Cognitive World aren't research topics people are dying to fund. I'm worried she'll be stuck looking for a job for years."

And just like that, the metaphorical light bulb over Izuku's head lit up.

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"I haven't discussed it with him yet, I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up yet," Izuku explained to the two scientists. "But from what I've seen Futaba Akira is a very promising talent, both in Cognitive Matter research and Computer Programing. Do you think you could use someone of her talents?"

"If we could understand the compassion of Grimm better, then perhaps we could improve them," Mai said. "I also think perhaps chaos energy could help with her studies. If our theories are correct it's technically what brought that subject into existence."

"So that's a yes?" Izuku asked, wanting to be sure he didn't misunderstand her.

"Of course! Given how vast the applications of Chaos Energy are, you could hire a scientist in any field and we'd be able to use them." Mai told him.

"I see. Then I'll give him a call and see if I can hire her." Izuku smiled as he made a mental note. "Putting that aside for now. What did you want to show me?"

"Well Sir, I'd like to show you this." Uchi opened one of the files and showed a picture of the multi-colored sakura tree, and a picture of the metal cactus. "These are the results, of Project Seed sir. Using chaos energy I've found out that quirks can not only gain quirks but something even more important. Plants get quirks differently from humans! Rather than each plant getting a unique quirk! The same type of plant will always get the same quirk! Meaning that if we can find a reliable way to gain chaos energy, resources from these plants can be renewable and even become a product we can sell!"

Izuku's eyes widened, as the implications of this hit him all at once. "That's…that's incredible! That's…wait. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. As interesting as that is, if we have no way of gaining chaos energy outside of Gin, then we can't do much with this. Mai, have your experiments with…extracting chaos energy bore any fruit?"

"Uh, yes and no." Mai winced as she realized she had to explain this now. "You see, I did find chaos energy in…the stuff. But I ran into two issues. One, the chaos energy one can gain from…the stuff, is very minute. And two, it's not as pure or potent as what comes from Gin. My theory on that is that when chaos energy is mixed with D.N.A. it changes. Hence why quirks are so different from each other. I'm currently working on a way to fix both of these issues, but that's gonna take some time. I've also contacted two more specialists to help this process along."

"Alright. Then until progress on that is made, I don't want any products or plans to be made around this stuff." Izuku told them.

"Yes sir." The two of them nodded.

"With that said, I'd suggest you hire some more employees to take care of the menial work. Like paperwork and such. You'll find it significantly decreases your workload." Izuku told them. "And it'll give you more time to work on important assignments."

"Yeah, I've been putting that off," Mai admitted sheepishly.

Uchi sighed. "I'll take care of that sir. After all, I don't want my Mai to fall victim to overwork…again."

Izuku and Mai both looked away from her, knowing all too well they were guilty of this.

"And sir. I know you said not to make any products out of the plants, however, they may be something I can make that you may find useful." Uchi said as she handed Izuku another file.

The file contained a picture of a blueprint for a gas grenade.

"Do you recall the Sakura Tree you saw earlier?" Uchi told him. "Each different colored petal on that tree has a different ability when exposed to organic life. The white flowers pacify whomever they touch. Keeping them from harming anything or anyone else, without doing any harm to them. I know the children can be a little…much sometimes and are especially dangerous if they get out of control. So I thought this could be a harmless way to subdue them should the need arise."

"...And you're sure this has no negative effects on the targets?" Izuku asked skeptically.

"For the most part. We're still doing some testing but so far from what we can glean there shouldn't be any sort of short-term or long-term side effects. But rest assured we won't even begin production of a prototype until we can be sure this won't bring harm to any potential victims." Mai explained.

"I see. Then inform me when you've finished your testing." Izuku instructed them. "If this works, then it could save lives in a worst-case scenario."

"Understood sir." The two of them said.

"Well then, what else did you want to tell me?" Izuku asked.

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Meanwhile, Fu, Kiba, Shiruku, Yami, Amai, Fuku, and Ken were all gathered in Fu's room.

"Alright, how close are we getting to the game's completion?" Fu asked the room, getting right to the point as he was prone to do.

"I'm almost done with the story. But I've still got to do the post-game." Fuku explained. "And I'm over halfway done with the designs for everything. But it'll take me a lot more time to finish those."

"I finished all the designs for the character's clothes," Shiruku said with a troubled look. "But I don't think I can help Fuku that much. I'm still not as good at drawing as her."

"Do you think there's anyone new here that's good at drawing?" Ken asked.

"Well Gin won't help, even if he could draw so he's out," Kiba said.

"Shina can't seem to do anything, much less draw so she's out," Fu said.

"Nise can't remember anything, much less how to draw," Ken added.

"So that just leaves Alice and your Aunts." Amai surmised.

"We can ask them about it later," Fu said. "For now let's focus on the meeting. Yami did you finish designing the monsters?"

Yami shook his head. "Halfway."

"Ok, well Ken, Amai how is the gameplay?" Fu asked.

"It's mostly done, we're just working out some small points," Amai explained. "But we should be done and ready to finish the game by the time everyone else is."

"And the music?" Fu asked.

"Going pretty well. I've made some awesome stuff as Upgrade, but I'm gonna need the game to be finished before I can REALLY get to work on it." Ken said.

"I wish we had someone here who was good with music so I didn't just have to take your word on it." Fu sighed.

Someone good with music…Fuku contemplated that for a moment before she recalled something. "Wait! Shina's good with music!"

Everyone turned towards her with a confused look.

"Shina…are we talking about the same Shina?" Shiruku asked as she recalled her brief experience with the girl. "The one who pricked herself over a dozen times trying to sew?"

"The one who managed to burn cup ramen?" Fu added.

"The one who couldn't even manage to wash dishes?" Ken asked.

"The one who thinks the best way to build trust is to attack people?" Amai asked having heard about her from Yami.

"That Shina!?" They all asked Fuku at the same time, causing her to gulp from the pressure.

"W-Well one time I heard her singing and w-well it was the most beautiful singing I've ever heard…in person that is…which I guess doesn't mean very much because I've never been around people who sing…um…the point is that she was really good at singing!" Fuku explained frantically, blushing madly with embarrassment as she awkwardly tried to get her point across.

"Hmmm. That actually makes sense." Fu said after thinking for a second, causing attention to turn to him. "Yonda has spent so much time trying to figure out what Shina's talents are, and failed. Which is odd because you can't be bad at everything, if anyone could figure something like that it would Yonda…unless it involved music."

"Oh yeah, Yonda's deaf. She would have no way of knowing that." Kiba snicked. "That's actually kinda funny."

"Oh, it's about to get funnier just wait for a second," Fu smirked, before falling silent.

For a minute, there was silence, and then

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Suddenly a piercing cry of rage and sadness rang throughout the entire house.

"Why do you like messing with her so much?" Kiba asked her brother.

"Because it's one the most fun things to do for me," Fu answered. "Now back to the topic. Just because she can sing doesn't mean she can do other music stuff."

"I mean, but maybe she does?" Fuku shrugged nervously. "I know she's dangerous, and kinda not smart, and she kinda messes up everything she tries, but maybe this is the one thing she's good at? Maybe we just aren't giving her a chance?"

"I don't really know much about this girl, but I think we should also give her a chance." Amai agreed.

Fu sighed. "Well, the worst that can happen is that she doesn't know anything. So sure. Why not I guess?"