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Chapter 39: A Manual for a Visible Girl
🕑 Added 2025-09-28 18:24:30 +0000 UTCToru’s question, “Am I a dog?” hit Izuku like a gut punch. He froze, processing the terrible and perfectly logical implication of his Quirk’s name. The horror on his face was so absolute that, for a moment, he forgot his own shame.
“No, no, of course not!” he exclaimed, his voice a frantic squeak as he waved his hands wildly, as if trying to bat the idea out of the air. “I swear, Hagakure-san! The name is stupid, I know, they gave it to me as a kid because the only thing I could do was make the neighbor’s dog sit! It works on people! It analyzes human potential, it doesn’t treat you like a pet! Please, please, don’t think that!”
His denial was so sincere, so abjectly desperate, that it broke through Toru’s hysteria. She was still on the verge of tears, her body trembling inside his jacket, but a shaky laugh—a little broken and completely out of place—escaped her lips. It was the sound of the situation’s sheer absurdity winning out over panic.
“So…” she said, between a sob and a laugh, “I don’t have to sit and give you my paw to get my invisibility back?”
It was a dark joke, born from the deepest humiliation, but it was the first step of her cheerful, optimistic personality re-emerging. Izuku, immensely relieved that she wasn’t screaming or trying to hit him, allowed himself a nervous laugh that sounded more like a squawk.
“No… unless you want to. I won’t judge.”
For an instant, the tension broke. They looked at each other, she wrapped in his oversized jacket, he with his face still the color of a stop sign. They were just two teenagers trapped in the most ridiculously impossible situation they could have ever imagined.
And just as a strange calm seemed about to settle, a sound froze the blood in their veins.
The sound of footsteps. They weren't the hurried steps of a student. They were rhythmic, heavy, deliberate. Regulation boots walking down the main corridor that connected to theirs. A teacher on patrol. Or worse, Aizawa, whose expert hearing could detect the slightest anomaly.
The panic returned, but this time it was a shared panic, a unified terror that connected them instantly.
“Someone’s coming!” Toru whispered, her voice a terrified thread. Her blue eyes flew wide. “They’re going to see me! They’ll think you and I… that we were…! I’m going to get expelled!”
Izuku’s leadership instinct overrode his own shame. His eyes scanned the hallway, searching for an escape, a solution. And he saw it: a dark, deep niche in the wall, designed to hold a fire extinguisher.
“Quick, in here! Now!” he hissed, gently grabbing her arm.
He pushed her unceremoniously into the small, dark space. It was tiny. To fit inside without being seen from the hall, he had to press himself in right behind her. His chest against her bare back, their legs tangled in a panicked knot, the jacket the only precarious barrier between them.
The footsteps grew louder, closer. Toru’s heart was hammering so fast Izuku could feel it against his own chest. She began to breathe in short, sharp hisses of air, the sound dangerously loud in the silent hallway.
Izuku reacted on pure instinct. To silence her, he clapped a hand over her mouth and wrapped his other arm around her waist, holding her steady against the wall.
They were trapped in the most compromising position imaginable. The footsteps passed slowly in front of their hiding spot. Every second was torture. Finally, the sound began to fade down the hall until silence returned.
They waited in the tense darkness, unmoving. When he was sure, Izuku slowly removed his hand. The damp heat of her breath lingered on his palm, a tangible reminder of their forced proximity.
“That… that was close,” Toru whispered, her body still trembling against his. “Thank you… But I’m… I’m still visible. Why? What did you do, exactly?”
It was the perfect moment for a confession.
“I think my Quirk, when it ‘read’ yours, it interrupted something,” Izuku explained, his own voice a hoarse whisper. “Like it forced a system reboot, and now… now your brain doesn’t know how to turn it back on. Like you’ve forgotten the ‘how.’”
He hesitated for a moment.
“My Quirk has… two ways of ‘reading’ people.”
Toru remained silent, her panic replaced by intense curiosity.
“Normally,” he continued, his voice dropping even lower, as if confessing a sin, “if I had just taken your hand, or touched your shoulder, I would’ve gotten a basic reading. Pure theory. The instruction manual, but with no pictures. It wouldn’t have been enough to cause this.”
He swallowed, the difficulty of the confession palpable.
“But… the contact during the fall,” his voice was barely a breath, “it was… complete. On… direct areas. My Quirk is more efficient that way. It’s a terrible design flaw, I know. The more intimate the contact, the more detailed the information. It was a maximum-level analysis. That’s why I saw everything… your true potential… and that’s why I think your Quirk collapsed. It was too much information at once. A short circuit.”
Toru processed this in the silence of the niche. The revelation hit her in a completely unexpected way. It wasn’t that he’d touched her on purpose; it was a humiliating accident that had given him the key to her power. He wasn’t a pervert with a plan; he was a scientist with a terrible method.
A choked, nervous laugh escaped her.
“So… basically,” she whispered, and he could feel the vibration of her laugh through her back, “you’re like a computer that needs a… special plug for the premium updates? And I was your first ‘premium’ download.”
The analogy was simple, a little silly, and perfectly her. It was her way of taking back control.
Izuku smiled in the darkness, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders.
“Yes! Exactly! That’s a great way to put it!”
The pact was sealed in that tiny space. She was no longer a victim, but a girl with a problem. And the boy holding the user manual was the one who’d caused it.
“So, ‘Coach’…” she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. “If you know how my power works better than I do, can you help me become invisible again?”
“Yeah,” he replied, a new, steely determination in his voice. “I’ll teach you how to use your own manual.”
They cautiously stepped out into the now-empty hallway. She looked down at herself—at her visible hands, arms, and legs. A mix of panic and fascination washed over her. It was terrifying, but also… strangely real. She turned to Izuku, her blue eyes shining in the dim light.
“Alright, Coach. What’s the first step to keeping me from getting arrested for indecent exposure in the halls of Japan’s top hero school?”
