"Here you go, Shimizu," Power Loader handed me the capture weapon, a near identical version to the one of Aizawa. "Now be careful, don't whip it around without knowing how to use it."
"Thank you very much, sir," I bowed and thanked him and ran outside where Aizawa was meeting me to teach me how to use it. I waved at him to which he just put his hand up as a greeting. I handed him the weapon and he unraveled it, inspecting it.
"This will work," he nodded. The capture weapon that we had designed together for me was much shorter than his, but still served the same purpose. It was split into two segments, one for each of my wrists. "Give me your arm." He attached the cuff to my wrist first and then the rest of the capture weapon followed around my forearm and wrist.
"Woah," I marveled at the new weapon that I acquired.
"Go on. Summon your blades," he sighed. I nodded, doing as I was told. The idea that I had come up with simple in theory, however more difficult in practice. It went like this: I was to attach my blades to the capture weapon and use the speed of the capture weapon as a sort of added momentum to the blades, turning a short range weapon into long range if necessary.
The two blades hovered mid-air, waiting for further instruction. Aizawa gripped his own capture weapon and tugged on it, causing it to shoot for one of the blades. Incredibly, he was able to maneuver the capture weapon to securely wrap around the blade. He whipped it around with extreme power and wrath, eventually letting it go to hover back with its twin.
"Try shooting your wrist forward as quick and strong as possible," he instructed. I nodded, trusting my arm forward with all of my strength. The capture weapon shot off of my arm at lightning speed in a straight line before falling limp as it had nothing to hold on to, causing the carbon fibers to cease being rigid.
"Not bad. Let's see if you can grip it onto something," he walked so he stood in the direct line of me. "Larger targets are easier to grip on to than small targets. Shoot at me as hard as possible." I followed his instruction, and shot my arm forward, just like last time. The capturing weapon shot forward again and gravitated itself around Aizawa, almost like a phantom was holding it and wrapping it around him.
My loose first attempt of capturing fell limp as the restraint fell to the ground. Aizawa clicked his tongue, but it not of a gesture of disappointment. He picked up the capture weapon and gave it a small shake, allowing it to snap back to its previous position on my arm.
"Again."
For hours I practiced trying to capture a dummy while Aizawa patiently watched; giving me tips and constructive criticism along the way. The sun had already begin to set when I fell down to the ground, defeated at my lack of progress. My blades clattered to the ground with me as I laid on my back in the dust and dirt, the capture weapon lay sprawled around me.
"We'll stop here for today," he sighed, lifting me up from the dust. "The Provisional License Exam is tomorrow. You should get some rest." I pouted at my lack of progress before de-summoning my blades and snapping the capture weapon to my arm. Aizawa began to walk away, me following after him like a lost puppy.
"Do you think I can pass?" I asked, unsure about my chances.
"Statistically, only half will pass," he grumbled. His answer didn't surprise me, he had always been more grounded in reality rather than blind encouragement. He ruffled my hair slightly, causing me to gasp in surprise. "But you got this, kiddo."
I felt my face beam up towards him at his sudden encouragement. If anything, I surely would have to pass now that Aizawa had such high hopes in me.
We stepped off the bus towards the massive concrete jungle in front of us that would be our grounds for the exam. Todoroki and I stepped off together, near the front. Immediately, we were approached by a rival school followed by the hero, Ms. Joke.
"Long time no see, Eraserhead!" she was certainly lively. "Let's get married." My mouth fell open at her comment. You can't just go up to someone and begin a conversation like that!
"Buzz off," Aizawa growled to my relief. Ms Joke replied only by foaming at the mouth with laughter. But their little conversation only held so much attention before it was taken away almost immediately.
"Wow, class A!" a boy with unkept black hair marveled at us. "Todoroki! You were amazing at the sports festival! And that's Bakugo, you were so cool on the news!" He paused to grasp Midoriya's hands. "And you stole the show at the sports festival! I'm so amazed. My name is Tendou, it's nice to meet you!"
"Ass kisser," I heard Bakugo mutter under his breath, causing me to giggle. Todoroki smiled at my antic. However, Tendou's attention had turned to me.
"Oh my gosh, you're Irina Shimizu! I'm a huge fan!" his eyes sparkled as he snatched my hands with his own. I tried to say something but the words just wouldn't come out. The physical contact certainly didn't help with the fact that I was already surprised that a: he knew me and b: he was a 'fan' of me.
"F-Fan?" I stammered. Tendou nodded excitedly while raging on about my sports festival performance and my match against my father. I was already uncomfortable in the situation and the mention of my father certainly didn't help either. Beside me, Todoroki could see that I was in trouble and how uncomfortable I was in this situation.
"Man, I feel like I can talk to you for hours! Oh, it was so cool when you just hopped out of the grasp of the stitches guy-"
"Hey," Todoroki grabbed Tendou's wrist, removing it from my hands. He put a hand on my shoulder nonchalantly. "Can't you tell you're making her uncomfortable? I would appreciate you keeping your hands off of my girlfriend."
"GIRLFRIEND?!"