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Chapter Summary:
Mei finds Izuku. He not ready.
“NOTEBOOK BOY!!” The yell made Izuku jump in alarm, and instinctively fall into a defensive stance as he turned to the owner of the voice. Who seemed entirely unbothered by the fist aimed at her.
A girl with bright pink hair styled back in thick dreadlocks grinned wildly at him.
“I finally found you, Notebook Boy! I’ve been scouring the school for ages trying to find you!” She was immediately in his face, using the arm he’d raised in defense to lean on. “I had to find the brain that made the amazing babies I’d seen!”
He stared back in bewilderment.
“Huh?”
The girl’s grin just got bigger. She was radiating delight and excitement, to the point where it was getting hard to think for himself.
“I thought that, with those amazing babies, you were sure to be in the support course with me. But you went for management instead, huh? No wonder you were so hard to find.” Her eyes roved over him, the golden cross-hairs that made up her pupils shifting as she did. (Did they have something to do with her quirk?) “Better for me, though! You must know lots about business then, which is just the kind of thing I need. I demand a partnership with you!”
“Wh-what?” He was completely confused. “I’m not sure I understand. Why do you… ?”
The girl shoved a hand into her bag, the other securely gripping his arm, and pulled out a notebook. A notebook that he recognized, especially since it was his own handwriting on the cover. It was his missing support idea book.
He’d actually forgotten about that.
Then this was the girl who’d run him over on exam day. He’d thought she was a support student; it was kind of nice to know that his guess was right back then. And she- wanted a partnership? With him? Because she’d seen the random ideas he’d doodled in the notebook? They weren’t really schematics, just random sketches and notes about what he thought could be done. Yet this girl…
“You-you like the ideas I had?”
“Yes!” She chirped, beaming at him. “You have some really great babies in here, and I wanna make them real!”
“Really? I mean, a lot of them are more about self-defense than hero gear…”
“Exactly! They have broad appeal, to the public and to heroes!” The girl started shaking his arm, but it was clearly in excitement more than anything else. “I would love, love, love to have these in my showcases, but they’re your designs. You need to get a cut from them!”
“Oh, uh, okay then? I don’t- I don’t mind if you use some of them.”
And… He really didn’t mind it. She was making equipment to help people, to help heroes and civilians. She wanted to make his design ideas because she thought they were good and would help people.
“Excellent! I shall get to work right away, Notebook Boy!”
She let go, and Nooroo jabbed at Izuku’s side through the bag with a muffled “Izu-bocchan!” that he instinctively knew meant the kwami wanted his chosen to stop the girl before she could leave.
“Ah! Wait!” His own hand shot out, barely catching the girl’s glove before she could sprint away. She spun back, still brightly smiling at him, even if there was now a curious tinge to her emotions. He scrambled to think of what Nooroo wanted him to do. “U-uh, my name’s Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku. You-you’ll need my name if you’re gonna credit me.”
“Oh! Right! Names!” She said with a grin, bouncing slightly. “I’m Hastume Mei! Hey, which one do you want?”
“Which- Oh, which of my ideas?” What did he have in the notebook again? It had been a while since he’d gotten to look at it. He’d had several ideas, but the last one he’d been working on was… “Uhm, one of the umbrellas, I guess? I’m quirkless and that would work with the self-defense lessons I’ve been taking.”
Hatsume’s eyes zeroed in on him again, suddenly narrowing and making him feel like he was under a microscope. Her emotions didn’t turn hostile, but there was a sudden, sharp focus that made him want to squirm. She was examining him, thinking about what he’d blurted without thinking.
“Hm… Longer than average? Like a short staff? And what colors?” Her questions were thoughtful, considering.
“No, uh, I’ve been researching Canne d’Arme, and that just needs walking stick length. And, um, shades of green? Maybe with yellow trims? I like those colors.” Sure, a Japanese kid learning a French fighting style was odd, but in the modern day, it was hardly unheard of. He’d almost wanted to say purple for colors, but something told him not to.
“Any patterns?”
“I… Like birds and butterflies?” She blinked at that, but nodded.
“Yeah… I can work with that.” She grinned at him again. “Give me a week, Notebook boy! And then I’ll have your baby ready and waiting!”
And then she was off.
He stared at her retreating back, then slowly looked down at the kwami peeking out of his bag.
“Well, that happened,” Izuku said in a baffled tone. Nooroo looked up at him, looking rather bewildered himself.
“She never gave back your notebook.”
Oh, right. Whoops.
Izuku didn’t hear from Hatsume again for a week. Not until she burst into his classroom during lunch, an umbrella colored in sweeping green patterns clutched in her hand, and a manic grin on her face. She’d then dragged him off to show off how effective it was, as well as how sturdy she’d managed to make it while still allowing it to act as an umbrella.
Knife-resistant cloth, sturdy metal for the length, and it was heavy enough to be an effective self-defense weapon. There was a tracker built into it that she’d made connectable to a phone, and had snatched his to make the connection as soon as she’d gotten him to the support studio. It also included an SOS signal that connected to emergency services. He could set it off with either his phone or a hidden button inside the umbrella itself. (Which, useful! Having a way to call for help was a good thing to keep on hand.)
Hatsume, who insisted that Izuku call her Mei, then opened his notebook and began asking about the other ideas and getting him to clarify some of his scattered, stream-of-thought rambles in the book.
Their “meeting” ended with Mei making photocopies of the creations that she found the most interesting, and Izuku finally reclaimed his support idea book.
Mei had entered her contact info into his phone, too. And started gleefully messaging him with ideas and updates over the next week. Including telling him about the latest experiment that had blown up on her, and what Power Loader-sensei had scolded her about last.
It was by far the strangest, wildest friendship Izuku had ever made.
But he wasn’t actually complaining about it.
Mei was bright, cheerful, and excited about her work. And only too happy to try something new. Her good moods were infectious once they started working together.
There was just something about how she presented her ideas, how she talked about what she could make, that made it feel like she could do anything. Like she could make anything, if given the chance. And she was ready to work with anyone.
(It was nice to meet another person who just… Didn’t care that he was quirkless. It was nice.)
Afterword:
Mei was shockingly hard to write. Like, she’s bright and enthusiastic and loves her work but it’s also really hard to keep her in place long enough to have a major conversation without her taking off to work on the project that she has in her head. In this, Izuku is a management student and not Hero Trainee, so she’s not trying to outfit him with equipment. She’s trying to make the ideas she’s seen in his notebook real. So when she first meets Izuku, her plan is more “I will show him how good I am at making ideas real so we can have a partnership!” than it is “I will show off my ideas by outfitting him with everything he needs.” Then it turned into the Extrovert adopting the Introvert once she finally MET him.
Learning that he was quirkless just re-contextualized his focus on Self-Defense ideas, and unintentionally opened an avenue that she hadn’t considered prior. It’s one thing to arm heroes, but she’d never really considered giving the Public ways to protect themselves, too.
Mei is very enthusiastic about her work, but I also think she’s the kind of friend who counts Vibing in the Same Space and hanging out. So sometimes she invites Izuku (and Toru) over to hang out in her workshop at home with a movie or show playing while she works. And that’s good enough for all of them.
Izuku introduces both Mei and Toru to his favorite Pre-Quirk Era shows/comics/movies that are all in GIANT internet archives. It gives all of them ideas.
