Pins and Needles | Todoroki Shoto | S/H

A Day Two Years in the Future

     She sighs shakily, pulling on her gym uniform.  She wasn't usually nervous about social interaction, but this was very different.  
     The day prior, during lunch, Nezu had summoned her to his office.  Togata was there, too.  
     It was still a bit blurry, the whole conversation.  Nezu had invited her to spend the entire day training with the third-years.  Supposedly, they were using the whole day to do a deep dive into hero training.  
     It was optional, but even she knew it was simply stupid to pass it.  They didn't want her sitting in their classes —they definitely weren't placing her above her level because of her intelligence; that was average— so it was this day or nothing.  
     She had exchanged numbers with Togata and gotten the other two of the Big Three.  That night, he'd given her a rough schedule of what would probably happen.  The entire class usually went to school an hour early.  They used this time to do individual training with what they thought they needed.  They would commonly help each other improve, so she'd probably have a lot of people giving her advice and constructive criticisms.  Mostly because she was a first-year invited to train with them, and also because her quirk was all about controlling other people.  
     After that, the school day would start normally.  They weren't going to be told what was going on, simply placed in a zone and expected to figure it out.  Unlike the first-year's training where they'd focus on one thing and it was announced what they'd be doing, this was going to be different.  Pros didn't get the luxury of instructions.  
     She hadn't told anyone, mainly because she was sure nobody cared.  The only person who knew was Shoto.  She knew he was going to be curious as to why she was going to school an hour early, and she didn't want him to worry about her when she was missing all day and probably came home later than usual.  They were still sleeping in the same room, unbeknownst to U.A. staff.  
     "When are you going to be back?"  Shoto asks softly.  She sits down next to him on the mat to warm her feet as she pulls her gym shirt on and stuffs her legs under the blanket.  Togata had said they were going to wear these during their personal training to lessen their dependence on their costumes.  "An hour after school's over?"  
     "I'm not sure.  I'll text you.  I think I'm gonna visit someone, so I don't know how long that'll take."  She stands up, tugging on her jacket.  "Love you, Sho.  Bye."
     "Love you, princess."  She smiles at him, then opens the door to slip out.  

     "If you don't mind me asking, what's the chant for?"  Nishida inquires.  She was another third-year in the class, the class rep.
     "It's the biggest part of my quirk."  (Y/N) tells her.  "Whenever I chant, there's this... aura around me.  While inside of it, any self-inflicted injury is reflected on whoever I'm latched to.  The wound heals immediately for me.  Sometimes it lingers after and sometimes it goes away quickly."  
     "I didn't see any aura.  Do you feel when you leave it or something?"  Togata inquires.
     "Um, kind of.  The aura has a smell, it's kind of like... I don't know really how to describe it, like old skin."  
     "Old... skin?"  Nishida mumbles.  "That's ominous."  For a moment, (Y/N) gazes off to the side.  She was trying to remember something.  
     "Actually, once, it smelled like a workshop.  Like my dad's workshop."  She pauses again.  "It was the one time I didn't use the chant, I...  Honestly, I don't know how I did it.  But it was different that time."  
     "It was probably a fluke or something nearby,"  Tamaki suggests.  
     "I'm sure.  It was in a back alley."  
     "So you have to use this chant, spawning an aura that smells like..."  Nishida cringes a bit.  "like 'old skin,' and whenever inside of this aura, any injury you give yourself appears on whoever you're attached to and you heal.  Yes?" 
     "Yeah."  (Y/N) confirms. 
     "That's a hefty quirk.  How self-inflicted do these need to be?  Like only if you use your body like teeth or nails?  Do you have to be touching whatever causes it?"  She shakes her head.
     "If I jump off a building and keep my aura on me, it still works."  
     "What constitutes self-inflicted?"  (Y/N) shrugs.
     "I'm honestly not sure.  If something comes at me, even if I see it and know it's coming, it only affects me and doesn't heal."  
     "Are there some specific conditions of your healing?  That seems a bit overpowered."  Hado asks.  (Y/N) had learned only that morning that "Periwinkle"'s name was Hado Nejire.
     "If I injure myself where there's already a wound, none of it will heal.  That's why I try to avoid hurting my hands because even papercuts will block it."  Togata nods his head.  As someone born with a quirk he'd always hated, he wondered if she saw it as powerful or frustrating.  
     "What are the drawbacks of using your quirk?"  He asks.  
     "Drawbacks?  Depends on what I'm doing.  I usually get really sore whenever I heal and the area is extremely sensitive.  If my injury kills me, I'll still live, but I'll stay unconscious for a while.  If I get any sort of head injury, I get migraines that'll send me into shock if I don't get medicine within a half hour.  When I don't go into my full aura but do pair with people, I feel heavy, and staying still for a while will make me feel stiff.  If I copy people for too long, I have slower reflexes and less control over my body.  Not by much, but everything counts."  
     "So intricate~."  Hado sings.  "It's like yours, Togata!  So many details."  

     They did plenty of time training.  The entire class of 17 let her spend the first 30 minutes doing some extreme building of her quirk.  While they did ban injuries (because they still had class that day), they encouraged her to use her aura.  She usually only relied on it in short bursts, so they were forcing her to hold it.  Once she'd gotten that down, they played around with dropping off the chant.  Only one time did it last for any helpful amount of time, but the many other attempts didn't even give her a second.  She rested after.
     About five minutes before school was set to start, Ectoplasm came to retrieve them.  
     The class was set in a forested area, which was not a great place for (Y/N).  She made sure to note this to them.  Since she had to focus on faces, she couldn't watch her footing.  
     "Togata-senpai."  She whispers.  "Does anyone in class have a chronic illness?"  He gives her a quick quizzical look before shaking his head.  
     "Not that I know of."  She nods to show she heard and they continue stalking forward.  
     They ended up being ambushed by Edgeshot.  He'd cut down lots of trees on "civilians" (read: dummies) that needed rescuing before they were crushed to death.  Each had a small heat pack inside of them since one of the girls could read heat signatures.  
     (Y/N) stayed with Hado.  Amajiki and Togata had quirks that could help greatly with rescue.  Togata could use his to carry people and bypass jumping over logs or the like.  Amajiki's quirk allowed him to assume the body parts of food he had eaten, so he could have some serious strength if he used the right animal.  That would help with getting falling logs off of people.  
     (Y/N)'s paralyzation worked pretty well with Edgeshot since his quirk required his body moving and shifting.  They were able to capture him and she walked him to a chamber they would set him in.  One boy used his quirk to weld closed all of the gaps between panels and the door.  They only let open one vent so he didn't suffocate.  Another boy with x-ray vision stayed and kept watch inside of the prison.  If Edgeshot made any motion that looked like he was trying to escape, (Y/N)'d use all of her power to imagine his face and paralyze him again.  Another girl with a quirk to create barriers stood guard.  
     The three of them stayed like that for four hours.  They weren't told why except for an explanation overheard near the beginning that police were facing a blockage.  
     They stopped 15 minutes into lunch.  The class sat down to eat, but Hado made sure to inform (Y/N) that she should eat quickly because they could be called out at any moment.  
     A similar situation repeated itself.  Go rescue a bunch of people.  Keep them away from a certain area because they would likely get hurt.  Help with evacuation efforts.  More standard things for students and sidekicks rather than top-ranking pros, but still good to learn.  They got graded on how calm and authoritative they were.  
     Overall, it was definitely tiring, but also extremely exciting.  Something to look forward to.  It felt real and helping people was... exhilarating.  She was finally understanding why people wanted to be a hero so badly.  
     They stayed for another 45 minutes after school for individual training again.  They had plenty of advice to give her and she was thankful for all of it.  Eventually, they began back towards the dorms, but (Y/N) walked out of the school grounds.