The Villain's Daughter

39 - Work Studies

(Akaine's POV)

"I tried to make it so you didn't see my willy," Togata says once we're all able to stand. "Sorry if you got a peek." If I did, I didn't notice. I was too focused on trying to beat you. "But anyway, that's a taste of what it's like to fight me."

"We all just got punched in the stomach without ever knowing what was going on," Midoriya complains.

"Clever way of fighting, but very mean," I remark.

"Right, so what do you think?" He asks. "Isn't my quirk strong?"

"Yeah, it's too strong!" Sero yells. How is he able to do that?

"How can you slip through things and warp? Do you have two powers like Todoroki does?" Mina asks.

"Nope, just the one," Togata responds.

"Ooh, I know, I'll tell you what is quirk is!" Hado squeals, excitedly. "Hey, hey, can I say it? Permeation! Cool, right?"

"Yup!" Togata says. "I've got a sweet quirk that's called Permeation. What you guys thought of as a warp was, you guessed it, simply an alternative application of that power. Oh, sorry, Hado."

"Like how I can turn stuff invisible with my quirk?" I say. "Interesting..."

"So, how exactly do you warp, huh?" Midorya asks.

"I activate my quirk in my entire body. Then, I can pass through anything I want, no sweat! Everthing! That includes solid ground," Togata explains.

"So, that was you falling through the floor of the gym?" Uraraka asks.

"That's right, I went deep underground. And then, whenever I release my quirk while I'm falling, something super strange happens," he continues. "Apparently, things with mass can't overlap. That's called physics! So, I get repelled upward! Think of it this way: the ground spits me out and I fly up into the air. That's how my warp works. By adjusting the direction I'm facing or the pose I'm holding, I can adjust the angle I come out at, so I can aim at different spots."

"That sounds like a buggy video game," Mina says. Togata bursts out in laughter, even though it's not that funny.

"You're able to avoid any attacks," Tsu says, "and you can move where you want in an instant. Awe, you were born with a really strong quirk!"

"Not true," Togata says. "my power's only strong because I made it that way. While my quirk is activated, my lungs can't take in oxygen. Even if I breathe in, the air'll just pass through. In the same way, my eardrums don't work. And light can't go through my retinas. I can pass through everything, but that means I can't feel anything when I'm in that state. Even though I have a body, I can't stop falling. I could probably keep going down forever. Does that make sense? That's why if I wanna go through something, like, say, a wall, I have to concentrate really hard. I'll activate everything except one leg. Then I release the other leg and land on it. And then the first leg is the last one to go through. Even for a simple action like that, there are a bunch of little steps involved. In no time, I'd dropped to dead last. I dropped my pants a lot, too. In order to get to the top with this quirk, I couldn't just hope that things would get better. I had to think! I learned to make combat decisions and picked up a few new tricks. But above all, I learned to predict what would happen next. And what made those predictions possible in the first place was experience! I based my predictions on what'd I'd learned. This was kind of a roundabout way to get the point across, but that's why I wanted to fight. To show you through experience, rather than words. In our work studies, we aren't treated as guests like in our internships. We're regarded as one of the sidekicks, or even as a pro! That can be super scary. Pros can get hurt. And sometimes, they end up watching people die. But every scary and painful thing you go through is an important experience that you can't get inside a classroom, even at UA. I transformed the experience I got at my work study into power. That's how I got to the top spot! And, that's why I think they're worth it, even if you're scared. You with me, first years?"