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Chapter 10: An Awkward Plan and Tight Suits
🕑 Added 2025-09-22 01:04:26 +0000 UTCNormalcy was a luxury Izuku Midoriya could no longer afford. He tried, desperately, to act as if nothing had happened. He sat at his desk, took out his books, and pretended to listen to Present Mic's explanation of English grammar. But it was useless. His eyes, as if they had a will of their own, drifted every few seconds to the spiky, black ponytail of Momo Yaoyorozu, sitting two rows ahead.
Momo, for her part, had erected a fortress of indifference. Her back was perfectly straight, her attention fixed on the teacher, her posture a monument to decorum and concentration. But Izuku noticed the faint pinkish tint that still lingered at the top of her ears. She wasn't ignoring him. She was actively avoiding him, which was much worse.
Okay, act normal, Izuku told himself, forcing his eyes down to his notebook. You're cool. You're a discoverer. The Christopher Columbus of Quirks… and of comfortable chests. She'll understand in time. Her heart is huge, my theory supports it. She's a woman of science; she'll appreciate the methodology once she gets over the initial shock.
He looked up. Sensing his gaze, she turned her head slightly, and her gray eyes met his for a fraction of a second. The look she shot back promised anything but understanding.
Although, the way she's looking at me right now, it seems like she wants to launch a cannon at my face, his internal monologue continued. Details. Minor details we'll iron out over time.
Just then, the classroom door burst open.
“I AM WALKING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!”
All Might, in all his glorious, muscular splendor, stormed into the room, his smile a beacon of power. The class erupted in excited murmurs. Izuku's personal tension dissolved, replaced by the childlike awe the number-one hero always stirred in him.
“Welcome to combat training!” All Might roared. “The most important trial for any hero! And for that… you’ll need THESE!”
He pressed a button, and numbered suitcases emerged from the walls.
“Your hero costumes, designed according to your specifications! Suit up and meet me at Battle Ground Beta!”
The excitement in the room was electric. As everyone stood up, Izuku attempted one last gesture of peace. He gave Momo a small, hopeful nod. She ignored him completely, grabbed her suitcase, and walked out of the room with the dignity of a queen who had just been insulted by a jester.
“Okay,” Izuku muttered to himself. “The understanding process might take a little longer.”
In the locker room, the excitement was palpable. Izuku put on his own costume. It was a dark green one-piece jumpsuit with black accents and a utility belt full of compartments. It had reinforced elbow and knee pads. It was practical, no-frills, exactly as he had designed it with his mom. It felt good. It felt… real.
But as soon as he stepped into the hallway leading to the battleground, his appreciation for his own suit vanished, overshadowed by the others' creations. His eyes, as always, were selective.
He saw Ochako talking animatedly with Iida. Her suit was a form-fitting pink and black number, with thick, round boots and wrist guards that accentuated her zero-gravity theme. The material clung to her figure—a figure that their training had toned and strengthened.
Wow, Ochako! Izuku thought, feeling a surge of coach-like pride… and something else. That suit looks incredible on her. It fits in all the right places. It’s… motivating. Yes, that's the word. Very, very motivating!
His gaze continued to scan the group, and then he saw her. And he nearly choked on his own spit.
Momo Yaoyorozu had just walked out of the girls' locker room. Her costume was… revealing. A high-cut red leotard that left a large portion of her torso exposed, from her neck to her navel, and her legs completely bare. The design was bold, functional for her Quirk, and absolutely devastating.
Izuku bit his tongue to keep from saying anything out loud.
Holy mother of all heroes! was the silent scream in his brain. That’s…! That's not a costume, it's art! It's a masterpiece of textile engineering and an affront to my ability to concentrate! My theory is no longer a theory, it's a universal law! That girl's heart must be the size of a planet! It would need its own gravitational field!
“ALRIGHT, ROOKIES! YOU ALL LOOK GREAT!” All Might boomed, snapping him out of his trance. “Now, let’s gather ‘round for the team lottery! Team A: Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka. Team D: Katsuki Bakugo and Tenya Iida. The first to face off will be… Team A as the Heroes and Team D as the Villains!”
The look Bakugo shot Izuku from across the room promised a level of pain that bordered on unconstitutional. The icy terror Izuku had learned to suppress for years threatened to resurface.
“Deku…” Bakugo growled, a sadistic smile spreading across his face. “I’m gonna kill you.”
“Everyone else, to the observation room!” All Might commanded.
As the other teams headed out, Izuku grabbed Ochako’s arm and pulled her into a corner, away from All Might’s ears.
“What is it, Deku-kun?” she asked, her face pale but determined. “Do you have a plan? You seem more nervous than during Aizawa-sensei’s exam.”
Izuku took a deep breath, trying to find the words. His strategist brain was fighting his sense of social decorum. The strategist won.
“I have a plan,” he said, his voice tense. “And… a discovery. About my Quirk.”
“Another one?” Ochako’s eyes lit up. “What is it?”
“It’s… about Booster Mode. Ochako, I think I know how to push your Quirk not just to its limit, but beyond it. How to turn you into that ‘hurricane’ we talked about.”
“Really?!” she exclaimed, excited. “Awesome! That’s what we need against Bakugo! What do I have to do? A new stance? More contact?”
Izuku scratched the back of his neck, avoiding her gaze and staring intently at a crack in the pavement.
“Well… yeah. More contact. It’s just… my Quirk, the Booster… it seems to work much, much better if… if there’s contact with… with an area that has… well… a lot of… uhm…” He searched for the word. The scientific word. The right word. “…‘potential’ for energy conversion.”
Ochako tilted her head, confused.
“Potential? You mean like a focus point, like my back? Or my shoulders? That worked well last time.”
Izuku squeezed his eyes shut, knowing there was no way to soften this. He blurted it out, like ripping off a Band-Aid.
“Like your chest, Ochako! It seems to work best if I touch your chest!”
Silence. A silence so deep and absolute that Izuku could hear his own heart pounding. Ochako’s face went through roughly five stages of disbelief, confusion, and mortification in under three seconds.
“I… you…? What?” she stammered, her face turning the color of her hero costume.
To justify his incredible, horrifying statement, Izuku quickly told her what had happened with Momo in the hallway, omitting his comment about comfort and focusing on the “data.”
“…and it was an accident, I swear! But the activation was instantaneous! And the clarity of the data was… perfect! I connected the physiology of her Quirk to her… lipid fuel reserves! And I realized! The Booster works best when it’s in direct contact with a Quirk’s energy source or its most direct manifestation! With you, it’s the gravity you manipulate! With her, it’s her lipids! And the highest concentration of lipids is—!”
He stopped, vaguely gesturing toward her chest before dropping his hand, horrified at his own motion.
Ochako finally found her voice, which came out as a strangled, choked shriek.
“WHAAAAAAT?! DEKU-KUN! THAT’S…! THAT’S THE MOST INDECENT AND WEIRDEST THING I’VE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE! YOU CAN’T SAY THAT!”
“I know, I know, it sounds awful!” he defended himself, waving his hands frantically. “Believe me, I’m just as horrified as you are! But it’s what I discovered! It’s science! It’s not my fault! My Quirk is a pervert, not me!”
She stared at him, her eyes welling up with sheer humiliation. “And what do you expect me to do? Just let you…?! I can’t even say it!”
Izuku’s expression turned deadly serious. The bewildered scientist gave way to the desperate strategist.
“Listen to me. That’s Bakugo in there. He’s known me since we were kids. He knows I don’t have a combat Quirk. He’s going to come after me first, and he’ll try to incapacitate me. If he hits me with one of his explosions, it’s over. He’ll break me. I can’t fight him.” He looked at her, his gaze intense. “But you can. You’re the one who can fly. The one who can use the environment. The one who can immobilize him. You’re the one who can win this battle. But for you to do it at your full capacity, to be faster and stronger than he expects… I might need to… you know… give you a boost. In the most efficient spot.”
The conflict was visible on Ochako’s face. Humiliation fought a pitched battle against the unshakable trust she had in her friend. She saw the desperation in his eyes, the twisted but sincere logic behind his plan. And she thought of Bakugo’s sadistic smile.
She took a deep breath, her face burning.
“This is… the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me. More than tripping at the entrance exam. More than almost puking during the fitness test.” She paused, clenching her fists. “But… if it’s to win… I’ll do it!” She looked at Izuku, an expression of fierce determination eclipsing her shame. “But it has to be fast! A quick touch and that’s it! And don’t look! Swear it, Deku-kun! Swear it on all the heroes you admire!”
“I swear,” he said with absolute solemnity.
With the most awkward and probably most unorthodox plan in U.A. history established, they stood before the entrance of the building where the villains waited.
Izuku gave Ochako a thumbs-up, his face a mask of strategic concentration.
“The plan is simple: I’m the bait, you’re the nuclear weapon. I’ll draw him in, and you’ll be the force that takes him down. I’ll tell you exactly when and where to strike.”
Ochako nodded, her heart pounding with a mixture of terror, embarrassment, and a strange, electrifying thrill.
“Got it, partner.”
They were about to enter the battle of their lives, armed with a zero-gravity Quirk and a plan they could never, ever tell anyone.
