Interlude 2

|Arata's apartment, a few hours later…|

…

"Phew… You've got quite the place, huh? -Nom-" Suzaku said as he bit onto his burger, looking around the place and raising an eyebrow at the huge amount of tools and technological stuff he couldn't quite understand.

Arata scratched the back of his head as he averted his eyes embarrassedly. "Well, I may have let my creativity a little bit too loose during the past month or so… You know, with my failure in entering the hero department and all that…"

Suzaku shot his friend a bewildered gaze.

"You sure cope with failure in strange ways, huh?"

Arata simply smiled wryly. "I already got over it, though"

"Yeah, I guess love is a wonderful thing" Suzaku nodded sagely at his friend's comment, taking another bite of his burger as he ignored Arata's annoyed gaze.

In the end, Arata simply rolled his eyes and walked away towards a table with tons of devices and tools, leaving Suzaku behind, who shrugged at the camera with a smile on his face before following behind his friend.

As to why both of them were at Arata's apartment right now, the reason goes back to a few hours ago.

After their small talk on Quirksapp, the pair met at the closest mall around and went to grab something to eat. 

The redhead, as mentioned earlier, decided to make a burger his meal for the day and was eating it right now, while Arata had gone for something more healthy… a burrito. 

After picking up their food, they decided to crash out at Arata's place to talk more about their "alliance" in the upcoming sports festival while they ate. Arata wanted to show some of his newer inventions to Suzaku, who gladly obliged seeing how good the gloves that Arata had given him during the practical exam were.

Thus, after a quick travel through the subway, they got to Arata's apartment.

Which, by the way, the little freak was paying by himself… Imagine the surprise Suzaku had when he discovered it.

Sure, he was paying for his apartment too, but the only reason he was capable of doing it in the first place was because the old man had introduced him to the lucrative yet illegal business of underground fighting.

Had it not been for that, his parents most likely would have been the ones to pay for it.

Arata, on the other hand, was making some money by selling technological stuff online. Though, nothing weaponish like the stun batons he showed Suzaku the last time, just cool stuff that collectors out there were interested in buying. Like replicas of technologies from movies or series, or simply nerdy stuff like fake swords with hologram projectors installed on them to give them cool effects like fire or electricity around their dull blades.

With it, he was making enough money to pay for his apartment, and for sustaining his business as well.

Of course, if you added the fact that the guy also had to go to school during most days of the week, it became even more surprising he was managing to make money while dealing with his duties as a student.

Suzaku couldn't help but wonder where the hell was his friend finding time for doing all that.

Nevertheless, he had already accepted that the kid was a bit of a freak long ago, so he didn't question it for much.

With that big brain of his, it was likely that even UA wasn't that hard for him.

"Here"

"Hmm?" 

Suddenly, as Suzaku was lost in his thoughts, Arata approached him and handed him a strange metallic orb. Snapping the redhead from his daze, and making him look strangely at the device in his hands.

"What's this?" He asked, shooting his slimy-haired friend an odd look.

As if he had been waiting for that, Arata smiled, before he cleared his throat. "That, my friend, is the incredible never-seen-before Stun-Net-Grenade Prototype 10.5. Basically, you throw it at someone or something, and after the implemented IA recognizes the target, it explodes and shoots a wide net to capture the objective, releasing a powerful stunning charge of electricity upon contact"

After explaining, he grabbed the orb and threw it at a nearby chair. Less than a second later, a large net emerged from the orb and tightened around the chair, only to then release a powerful charge of electricity that caused a bit of smoke to come up.

However, it didn't catch fire, as Arata suddenly grabbed a fire extinguisher from under the table, and filled the chair with its contents before things got out of hand.

Suzaku did look at him weirdly when he saw him getting a fire extinguisher out of nowhere. However, the slimy-haired kid simply shrugged it off with a, "It has happened before" only to then put the extinguisher away and look at Suzaku with an expectant look in his eyes. "So, what do you think?" 

"Aren't you too young to be making stuff the police would actually make use of?" Suzaku sweatdropped a bit as he looked at the entangled, slightly burned, and now covered in fire extinguishing chemicals, chair lying some meters away from him.

Nevertheless, Arata ignored his weird gaze and nodded with a proud look on his face, "Yes, yes I am" before he then grabbed another object from the table and handed it to him.

Suzaku gave the new device a look. "And this, what is it?"

From what his eyes were able to discern, it looked like a small backpack... But maybe he was mistaken.

As Suzaku pondered over the device on his hands, Arata smiled cleverly as he got to explain. "That's the incredible Spider Harness 3.0. It possesses four robotic arms stored inside that are controlled by an advanced IA, which, depending on what activity you are performing—in this case, I have only programmed it to function during combat, and during my work hours—it will deploy its four arms and help you in holding or using stuff depending on what commands you give it … Ahem, also, its fingers are coated in a conductive metal that has stun capabilities in case of entering into close combat"

"Why are you so obsessed with stunning others?" Suzaku asked with confusion. At this point, he was wondering if his friend had a fetish for tasers or something.

Arata laughed shyly at that. "The truth is that I've always wanted a Quirk related to electricity… So maybe that got passed onto my creations unknowingly"

"No wonder…" Suzaku nodded before he turned to look at the devices Arata had shown him and raised an eyebrow all of a sudden as if he had noticed something strange.

'Hold on…' He then gave the harness in his hands a strange look. 'This thing gives him four extra arms, and his Quirk already allowed him to move the strands of his hair as if they were extra limbs… doesn't that give him, like, a dozen extra limbs in total?'

Suzaku then imagined Arata going around with his harness, holding several stun batons with some of his extra arms, and then throwing a lot of stun-net-grenades around using his hair as additional limbs.

He shivered a bit at that thought. The guy would be like a super heavily-armed doctor octopus.

Eventually, though, a small chuckle emerged from Suzaku's mouth as this one shook his head. 'It seems like those classmates of mine are gonna have problems at the festival…'

After that thought passed through his mind, Suzaku put the harness on an empty spot in the room, before deciding to sit on a nearby chair to eat his burger more comfortably while they chatted. "Looks like you prepared quite a lot for the incoming festival"

"Yeah, well, when I heard that the school was going to allow everyone in our department to use their creations to participate in equal conditions with the hero department, I immediately put my head to work and started preparing a lot of stuff to show off as much as possible when the time comes…" Arata smiled sinisterly as he caressed his creations.

Suzaku chuckled again at that comment before he shrugged it off and turned to look at Arata with an interested smile "Anyway, tell me more about this alliance that you were proposing"

"Ah, that" Arata's eyebrows rose as he too sat on a nearby chair. "Our teacher told us that in this event, very important people would be watching us and our creations to scout us later on if we show potential. Was it similar in your case?"

Suzaku nodded with an absentminded look. "Yeah, hero agencies and all that"

Arata nodded, before continuing. "Well, since this is such an important event, I thought it would be good if we helped each other during it"

"Isn't it a competition? I don't know if teaming up is allowed…" Suzaku looked at Arata with a skeptical expression, to which the slimy-haired teenager answered with a shake of his head.

"It depends"

"How so?" Suzaku raised an eyebrow.

"Have you never watched a—no, never mind. I don't even know why I ask…" Arata let out an annoyed sigh before he proceeded to explain. "The sports festival is usually composed of three events that are chosen at random, and among the many types of events that can be chosen, some require the participants to team up with others… So…"

"I see" Suzaku nodded as he caressed his chin wisely. "So you want to team up during those events if they get chosen?"

Arata nodded with a grin. "Yeah, plus, according to my teacher, we are allowed to share our inventions with others in those types of events, so…" Arata then took out a notebook from a nearby table. "In the case that we were to team up, what kind of equipment would you like?"

Suzaku gave the notebook in his friend's hands a look for a few seconds before he turned to look at the ceiling as if in deep thought.

"Well, I'd love something that could boost my mobility… Although I'm fast, there are things I can't dodge by simply running in one direction"

Arata nodded as he wrote in the notebook. "I see, what do you think about… Uhm, I don't know… Rocket boots?"

Suzaku pondered for a bit, before eventually shaking his head. "I don't think so… Something more omnidirectional would be good… Like a grappling hook, for example"

"A grappling hook, huh?" Arata scratched what he had written before, and added the idea. "What else?"

"A long-ranged weapon… I was already given a staff along with my hero suit, but I don't think it's as long as I would have liked… Maybe something like an extensible staff?"

"With stun capabilities?" Arata added.

Suzaku just waved him off as he smiled amused. "Sure pal… Just make it optional in case that is not allowed by the school"

"Alrighty!" Arata giggled like a degenerate as he added in that idea as well. "Anything else?"

Suzaku pondered for a few seconds before he shook his head. "Nah. I'm fine with just that"

"Great, I'll ask my teacher to see how feasible these are, or if they break any rule" Arata nodded for a moment, and then showed his fist at Suzaku. "Anyway, so I take it that you are interested in this alliance?"

Suzaku chuckled as he fist-bumped his friend in return. "Sure why not? Let's help each other"

"Alright!" Arata pumped up his fist, before letting out a fake cough and continuing. "Ahem, well, since we are gonna be helping each other out, we also shouldn't target each other during the individual events"

Suzaku simply nodded as he took another bite of his burger.

Seeing that, Arata smiled satisfiedly, before he put the notebook away and leaned back on his chair as he looked dreamily at the ceiling. "Anyway, in case we somehow get to the top, what hero agency would you like to get noticed by?"

Suzaku stopped eating and frowned a bit. "I don't know… Is it really important? Since I plan to work alone when I get my hero license, I don't think there's anyone I wanna impress"

Arata looked strangely at Suzaku. "You do know that you'll still have to do internships before getting your license, right?"

"Eh?"

Arata shot Suzaku a deadpan. "Yeah, and you'll have to choose from one of the agencies interested in you or the ones with a partnership with UA"

"Damn," Suzaku clicked his tongue. "Then I guess I'll have to aim for third or second place…"

"Not first?" Arata asked confusedly.

Suzaku shook his head. "If what I want is to be noticed, simply getting 3rd or 2nd place will do the job. Plus, achieving first place is too much of a hassle"

Arata looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow. "I see that you're as carefree as always" 

"Don't worry, I'll still do my best to help you get noticed by those big companies" Suzaku said as he took a final bite from his burger. 

His eyes were directed at the still-untouched burrito that Arata had bought.

"By the way, are you going to eat that…?"

"..." 

Arata looked at Suzaku with a baffled expression after seeing how relaxed he seemed in front of the sports festival, and how simple he was making getting to 3rd or 2nd place sound.

Nevertheless, being his friend for almost an entire decade, he was already accustomed to it to a certain extent. So, in the end, he just shrugged it off and tossed the burrito at Suzaku, who caught it with ease and looked at it with a greedy look in his eyes once it was in his hands.

"Neat"

…

-To be Continued…-

(A/N: Slept fairly early today, let's hope this is the beginning of an era where I have a proper sleep schedule)

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