ShuraZero
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Chapter 40: Manual, Moans, and a Human Dressing Room
🕑 Added 2025-09-28 18:25:18 +0000 UTCToru's question floated in the silent hallway, heavy with the weight of the deepest and most absurd existential crisis.
“Alright, Coach. What’s the first step to keep me from getting arrested for indecent exposure in the halls of Japan’s top hero school?”
Izuku, who had been on the verge of succumbing to his own panic attack, felt his Coach mode override his embarrassment. He scratched the back of his neck, a furious blush still painting his cheeks, but his expression was serious, analytical.
“Okay…” he croaked, trying to make his voice sound professional and not like the shriek of a terrified teenager. “To guide you in activating your Quirk, I need to understand it properly. The information I received was a flood, and I need to sort it out. There are two ways to do this. The first is the basic manual.”
He held a trembling hand out to her.
“You just have to take my hand. But…” he paused, the difficulty of what he was about to say evident on his face, “the connection will be weak. The information, scarce. It might work, but it could take us hours, and it’s not certain we’d manage it today. The hallway isn’t a safe place.”
He looked at her, and if it were possible, his face turned an even deeper shade of red.
“The other way… is the advanced manual. It’s… repeating what happened during the fall. Direct contact. On your… chest. The connection would be perfect, instantaneous. I’d have all the information to help you in minutes. To understand the fastest and safest path for you to regain control.”
Toru stared at him, incredulous. Her sky-blue eyes, which moments before had been filled with panic, now reflected a cosmic exasperation. She let out a groan of frustration that was half sob, half complaint.
“Are you kidding me?” she said, her voice an octave higher than usual. “Are you telling me that to fix the problem you caused by touching my boobs… you have to touch my boobs again? This is the worst tech support in history! It’s like calling a plumber because your house is flooded and having him tell you that to fix it, he needs to flood it a little more!”
But then, her pragmatic side, the same part of her that saw nudity as a tactical advantage, won the internal battle. She looked around at the empty but potentially dangerous hallway. Every second she remained visible was a risk.
“I hate… I hate with all my soul that the most perverted option is also the smartest one,” she muttered, letting her head fall with a dramatic sigh. She looked up, a nervous, trembling smile on her lips. “Alright. Let’s go with the… ‘premium download.’ But…” she looked at him with pleading eyes, “be gentle, will you? It’s my first time… being scientifically analyzed.”
Izuku nodded with the solemnity of a surgeon about to perform open-heart surgery. Her dark humor had, somehow, centered him.
“I’ll be professional,” he promised, his voice now firm.
He approached her. Toru squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her fists at her sides, bracing for impact. With a hand that trembled like a leaf, Izuku pushed aside one flap of her uniform jacket, revealing the soft skin of her torso. He took a deep breath and, with a deliberate movement, placed his palm directly on her left breast.
The instant his skin touched hers, a small, involuntary moan escaped Toru’s lips, a choked exhale.
“Mmh…!”
It wasn't a sound of pleasure, but of pure surprise. The cold of his hand against her warm skin, the strange intimacy of the gesture, the sensory overload… it all combined into that tiny, revealing vocalization.
They both froze, their faces burning in the dim light of the hallway. Izuku was about to pull his hand back, to apologize and run for it. But her eyes, now wide open, gave him trembling permission. He saw the fear and the shame in them, but also a determination that matched his own.
Izuku’s eyes went blank for a second. The information flowed.
“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed, as if he had just solved an impossible equation.
He pulled his hand away abruptly, took his notebook and a pen from his pocket, and, using the wall for support, began to write frantically, his hand flying across the paper.
But when he removed his hand, the “signal” was cut. The stream of data vanished from his mind as quickly as it had arrived, leaving only confusing fragments.
“Oh, no,” he muttered, looking at the half-empty page. He looked at Toru with an expression of infinite apology. “Hagakure-san… I’m so, so sorry, but… I need to maintain contact to be able to write. The connection… it’s lost if I’m not touching you.”
Toru’s expression shifted from embarrassment to horror and back to a comical resignation.
“Is this a joke?”
And so began the strangest, most humiliating dance in the history of U.A.
Izuku would approach and place his hand on her chest. Toru would tense up, sometimes letting out another small, choked sound. Izuku’s eyes would go blank as he memorized a section of the manual. He’d pull his hand away to scribble furiously in his notebook propped against the wall. He’d lose the connection. He’d apologize profusely. And he’d start all over again.
The first time, Toru was mortified. She felt each of his fingers like they were white-hot iron on her skin. The second time, the moan was softer, more resigned. By the fifth repetition, the shame was a drowning tide, but she began to notice something else. A strange warmth spreading from the point of contact, a tingle that wasn't entirely unpleasant, that ran through her body each time his hand returned to its place.
Izuku, for his part, was in his own personal hell of concentration. His Coach brain was marveling at the elegance and potential of her Quirk. His teenage brain, however, was screaming. Don’t think about how soft she is. Don’t think about the perfect shape. Don’t think about her heartbeat under your palm. It’s science. Data. Photons. Refraction. Science. Very, very soft science… Focus, Midoriya!
As he wrote, the information filled the pages, clear and precise:
[QUIRK ANALYSIS - EVOLVED COACH MODE]
[QUIRK NAME: LIGHT REFRACTION] [USER: TORU HAGAKURE]
[LINKED PHYSIOLOGY:] The user's Quirk allows her to bend the trajectory of light around her body, rendering her completely invisible to the visible light spectrum. This process originates from specialized epidermal cells that can generate and modulate a photonic refraction field at a microscopic level, directly on the surface of her skin.
[DETAILED MECHANICS (SENSORY INPUT VIA DIRECT CONTACT):]
* Permanent Refraction Field: Unlike other Quirks, the user's is a passive and autonomic state, similar to breathing or blinking. It does not require conscious concentration to remain active; in fact, the interruption of this autonomic state is what causes her visibility. Her body has been doing this since birth.
* Dermal Limit: The refraction field is extremely efficient but has an effective range of only a few millimeters from her skin's surface. This explains why she cannot turn clothing or objects she is carrying invisible.
* Vulnerability to Short-Circuiting: Direct contact and the intrusion of an energy-analysis Quirk (like "Coach") can overload the delicate autonomic control. This forces the system into a "safety reboot," deactivating the invisibility and requiring the user to learn how to consciously reactivate the process for the first time in her life.
* Absence of Heat Emission: The process is highly energy-efficient and does not generate a discernible heat signature, which also makes her invisible to most thermal sensors.
* Base Physical Attributes: The user possesses remarkable natural agility and stealth, developed as a secondary consequence of living her entire life without relying on others' visual perception to determine her position in space.
[CURRENT LIMITS (OBSERVED):]
* Zero Control (Post-Reboot): Currently, the user is unable to voluntarily reactivate her invisibility. Her control over the Quirk has gone from 100% autonomic to 0% conscious.
* Dependence on Visible Spectrum: Her ability is limited solely to visible light.
* Psychological Impact: Her confidence and combat effectiveness depend entirely on her invisibility. Upon being made visible, she suffers from a severe crisis of confidence.
[LATENT POTENTIAL (ATTAINABLE):]
* BLINDING FLASH (FLASHBANG): Potential to reverse the process. Instead of bending light away, she could learn to absorb it and release it all at once, creating an intense, disorienting flash.
* MIRAGES AND DISTORTION: With finer control, she could learn to bend light imperfectly to create simple mirages (making it appear as though she is a meter to the left) or distort her silhouette to look like an unrecognizable blur.
* FOCUSING LENS: Potential to manipulate the refraction of light in front of her eyes to act as a biological telescope or microscope.
* SPECTRAL INVISIBILITY: Learning to extend her ability beyond the visible spectrum, including infrared and ultraviolet, turning her into a true ghost.
[SUGGESTED EVOLUTIONARY PATH:]
1. Phase 1 (Conscious Reactivation): Through guided meditation and concentration (with the help of "Coach"), she must learn to "feel" her skin cells and consciously command them to start bending light again. Begin with small parts of her body (a finger, a hand).
2. Phase 2 (Intensity Control - "Flash"): Practice accumulating light and releasing it in controlled bursts.
3. Phase 3 (Fine Control - "Distortion"): Precision exercises using mirrors for direct visual feedback.
4. Phase 4 (Study and Expansion): Study advanced optical physics. Theoretical knowledge will exponentially enhance her practical ability.
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]
Finally, with one last scribble, Izuku was done. He tore the pages from his notebook and handed them to a wide-eyed Toru.
“This is your manual,” he said, his voice a little hoarse.
She took it, fascinated. It was the first time anyone had seen her power as more than just a trick. But they had a new, much more immediate problem.
“Okay, so now we know how your power works. And it’s… incredible,” he said. “But… reactivating it consciously for the first time won’t be instant. You’ll need to practice in a safe place.”
Toru’s face fell again. The panic returned with a vengeance.
“What? But I can’t go home like this! I live half an hour away by train! I can’t walk down the street in just your jacket! I’ll be arrested! Or worse!”
Izuku’s mind raced. He needed help. Real help. Someone he could trust blindly, who wouldn’t ask too many questions, and who understood loyalty over logic. There was only one option.
He pulled out his phone, his fingers trembling slightly as he found the contact.
“Uraraka-san, it’s me,” he said when she answered. “Don’t ask questions, please. I need the biggest, weirdest favor of your life. Can you bring a change of girls’ clothes to the secondary hallway of the west wing, third floor? And come alone. It’s a level… ‘you’re-not-gonna-believe-this’ emergency.”
They heard Ochako’s hurried footsteps long before they saw her. Toru, in a reflex born of pure panic, hid completely behind Izuku, using him as a human shield, peeking just her head over his shoulder, her sky-blue eyes filled with terror.
Ochako arrived, running and out of breath, a cloth bag in her hand.
“Deku-kun! I came as fast as I could! What’s wrong? Are you okay? Who’s—?”
She stopped. She saw Izuku. And then… she saw a stunningly beautiful girl hiding shyly behind him. Her first reaction wasn’t jealousy, but pure, simple awe.
“Deku-kun… w-who… is she? She’s… she’s gorgeous!”
Izuku, in an act of social heroism, decided to protect Toru’s dignity above all else.
“Uraraka-san! Thanks for coming! This is Hagakure-san!” he said, his voice sounding much calmer than he felt. “There was a terrible accident… I tripped in the hall and grabbed onto her to keep from falling… but I accidentally… well… I touched her chest, and her invisibility Quirk, which is automatic, deactivated. And since she's never had to consciously activate it, she can't turn invisible now!”
He completely omitted the part about the prank. He made it sound like he was the only one at fault. Toru, from her hiding spot behind Izuku, heard the white lie and felt a wave of gratitude so intense it almost brought her to tears. He could have made her look like a fool, but he protected her.
She gave a shy nod.
“H-hello, Uraraka-san… Sorry for the trouble.”
Ochako, whose mind processed “accident” and “chest” and came to the correct conclusion about her friend, nodded with immediate understanding and held out the bag.
“Don’t worry about it! Here you go!”
But Toru was too embarrassed to change in front of her. She looked at Izuku with pleading eyes.
“Izuku-kun…” she whispered, “can you… cover me?”
Izuku sighed, accepting his fate as the world’s most embarrassed gentleman. He stood in front of her, his back to Ochako, spreading his arms out as if he were a wall.
“Don’t peek, Uraraka-san.”
“I wasn’t going to!” Ochako replied, turning around and covering her eyes just in case.
Behind the improvised human dressing room, Toru awkwardly changed into Ochako’s clothes.
When she emerged, dressed and a little more composed, the immediate crisis was over.
“So… is it true, Deku-kun?” Ochako asked, looking at the now-visible Toru. “You can help her control her Quirk?”
Izuku didn’t answer. He looked directly at Toru, giving all the power to her.
“I have her manual. I know the path. But I’m not going to force her. The decision is hers.”
He addressed her with a seriousness that contrasted with the madness of the last few minutes.
“Hagakure-san, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. You have the information now. You can try to practice on your own. Or… we can meet up tomorrow after class. At the beach. With the other girls. And we’ll start your training. It’s your call.”
It wasn't an obligation. It was an offer between equals.
Toru looked down at the notebook pages in her hand, filled with a potential she never knew she had. Then she looked up at Izuku’s sincere face and Ochako’s kind, understanding smile. A brilliant, genuine smile lit up her face, an expression of pure joy that eclipsed all the previous embarrassment.
“I’ll… text you,” she said, her voice regaining its cheerful tone. “Thank you both! Really.”
