The next day, Katsuki walked up to Aizawa before he left for lunch.
"Sir, what's the procedure for requesting changes to our hero costumes?"
Aizawa gave Katsuki a raised eyebrow.
"If you can get the head of the support course to approve the changes, then you can add it to your costume."
Katsuki nodded then walked over to the 1st year support studio.
Heading in, Katsuki looked around, spotting the person he was looking for a few moments later, near a massive pile of failed gadgets.
After a second, Katsuki knocked on the workbench of Mei Hatsume to get her attention.
The inventor looked over to him, puzzled at who would interrupt her work.
"I want one of your inventions added to my hero costume."
Mei froze for a second, then a massive grin grew on her face.
"You want one of my babies! Of course you do! I have so many good ones! Here!"
She tossed her net launcher into his hands.
"This is my-"
Katsuki cut her off, putting the net launcher on her workbench.
"I want one of them in particular. The Electromagnetic Soles you showed off during the festival."
Katsuki raised a hand to cut off her questions.
"BUT! My request is conditional. They need to not limit my movements, and they need to be able to withstand being used for kicks."
Mei scoffed.
"My babies can take anything you can dish out."
Katsuki raised an eyebrow.
"You got a testing range?"
Mei met his gaze with a challenging smirk.
Powerl Loader had seemed fairly concerned when the two of them had walked over to the testing range, Katsuki carrying the current version of the Electromagnetic Soles.
Ignoring that, Katsuki had put them on after entering the range.
Walking around for a second, Katsuki yelled back to Mei who was in the observation area.
"They lock up my ankles. That messes with my mobility. I'm a melee fighter. If I'm gonna use these, I need that fixed."
Mei wrote down notes on the notepad she'd brought with her, responding over the intercom.
"That was implemented to keep users from breaking their ankles."
Katsuki called back.
"I don't care about regular users. If I'm going to use these things, they need to be adapted for my use."
Mei let out a hum at that, writing down more notes. Then called out again.
"To activate the boots, fist your toes. It'll take them a second to spin up, then release to launch."
Katsuki did as she asked, bracing for the launch and hearing the boots spin up for a moment. Releasing his toes, Katsuki found himself fired into the air, struggling to remain balanced with the force from the boots applied.
Curling to control his rotation, Katsuki managed to land on his feet, windmilling his arms to remain balanced.
"Force is good, but it's gonna take me a bit to get used to using these to launch with. Have you tested these with more horizontal or 3d movement?"
Mei hummed back, still writing notes.
"Not extensively, but no issues came up."
Katsuki nodded.
"Add that to the list of things we're gonna test. Next up are kicks. I need them to survive when I use them to hit things."
"One dummy coming right up."
Soon after, a standard human dummy rose from the floor. Katsuki shook his head.
"Not good enough. I need this thing to survive an impact when I use them to kick someone with a durability quirk or something metallic."
With a hum, Mei replaced the dummy with a metallic target.
"This is designed to measure force applied. Give it a kick."
Katsuki wound up for a roundhouse kick.
About 20 minutes later, they'd run the boots through all the testing they had.
Moving back to the main area, Katsuki removed the now non-functional boots.
"So, now that you know the design requirements, can you have these done by the end of the week? I want them for my internships."
Mei kept reading her notes.
"Of course I can. But if you want them optimized, you'll need to come in and test the prototypes out."
Katsuki nodded and extended a hand. Mei shook it, a grin on her face.
----------------------------------------
The next few days were fairly simple.
Katsuki went to the design studio after classes to test out the current iteration of the boots, then would head down to the gym and work out with Nejire and Ochaco.
There was one interruption mid-week however.
----------------------------------------
Katsuki met Shinso's eyes. The general ed student had met Katsuki while he was heading to the gym and was now staring at him.
After a few seconds of this, Katsuki spoke up.
"Am I gonna have to ask you to move again?"
Shinso stayed silent. Deciding it wasn't worth it, Katsuki went around him and started heading for the gym when Shinso finally spoke up.
"…How did you do it? When I first saw you during the entrance exam, I figured you just had a good quirk for it. How did you do any of it?"
Katsuki turned around.
"I worked for it. Every day, every time I trained, I knew exactly what the plan was for reaching my dreams."
Turning away, Katsuki continued his walk towards the gym, leaving Shinso behind.
----------------------------------------
After that, Shinso had started showing up to the school gym after classes.
At first he'd been overdoing it, but Katsuki managed to straighten him out. The two barely speaking to each other.
Finally, on the last day of school before internships, they were finished.
Katsuki took a closer look at the boots.
"They've definitely changed quite a bit."
Mei scoffed.
"It was the only way to keep your mobility maximized the way you wanted. I had to shift the flywheels upwards."
Katsuki nodded.
"And the bits towards the bottom?"
"Stabilizers to account for the new positioning."
Katsuki extended a hand to shake.
"Looks good. Last test went well, so time to add them to my costume. We just need to get power loader to sign off on them."
The support course teacher seemed relieved that there hadn't been any massive explosions during the testing process, so signed off after getting the relevant details on the boots.
Now all Katsuki had to do was integrate them into his combat style.
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It was the Friday before Internship week began, and Katsuki was heading home after getting his boots finished with Hatsume. Aside from the usual muttering and remarks, everything was fairly normal...Right up until he stepped out of the train station.
Katsuki had just started walking down the empty sidewalk, when he heard a voice from his right.
"Katsuki Bakugo. The first quirkless hero student in all of Japan. Truly a historic occurrence. I simply must interview you."
Looking over, Katsuki saw a blue-skinned woman with purple hair and an orange jacket smiling at him.
Following up her question the woman began walking over towards Katsuki.
Quickly realizing the woman was a reporter, Katsuki turned away and kept walking.
"I'm not doing interviews."
The woman ignored Katsuki's words, walking along with him and continuing her monologue.
"Katsuki Bakugo, only child of the Bakugo family, born on April 20th sixteen years ago. You were a normal child growing up, even if a bit abrasive. But then something changed for poor Katsuki.
"You were 5 right? The day that your parents took you to the doctor, to see why their 'cute baby boy' hadn't had his quirk come in yet. Why, you even saw Kyudai Garaki, an authority on the field of quirks themselves!
"Despite only 20% of the population being quirkless, that number is entirely skewed towards the elderly, with less than 1% of the current generation being quirkless! It must have been heartbreaking to be told that you were never going to be like the other kids in your class. "
Katsuki kept ignoring the reporter, gritting his teeth as she grew audibly more animated.
"How long did it take, before you started training? A week? A month? Either way, at some point, you began training fanatically. Pushing your body far beyond what any health professional would recommend.
"But rather then stop like a typical person would when experiencing tremendous strain undergoing a training schedule many would call inhuman, you continued training, and even intensified it.
"I have to wonder. Was it faith in yourself that drove you? Or a refusal to accept reality?"
Katsuki just kept walking as the woman continued.
"Either way, you drove yourself to the brink several times over the years. Occasional absences from school, but you managed to keep up good grades in spite of your training schedule. During this period you frequently got into fights with your fellow classmates, lashing out when they tried to 'tell you your place'.
"It was around this point where you started applying for quirk-equipped training gyms. Wanting to use their specialized equipment to push yourself even further. Only to be refused, due to the fact you lacked a quirk. I wonder how that must have felt. That no matter how strong you got, or how much you did, there were some places that would never accept you.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
"Still, you accepted it. Finding different ways and places to train. Several times you were even asked by the police and even pro heroes to leave a location where you had been training, due to 'disturbing the peace'. You persevered however. Surely, someday, it would all mean something.
In the meantime, the fights you were having with your classmates only escalated. Only stopped when Aldera Middle school threatened to add it to your permanent record in the middle of your second year. And since that would threaten your dream, the only thing that truly mattered to you, you learned to internalize your anger. Learning how to keep it all inside and never lash out when provoked."
Katsuki took a deep breath.
"But then, one needs to consider your parents."
Katsuki stopped in place.
"I mean, what kind of mother and father would ever allow their child to undergo the kind of training you pursued? Not even just allow, but pay for membership to the gym you used. Even allowing you to train entirely unsupervised by yourself at private locations. Who would they have had to blame but themselves if you injured yourself in a training accident, forever pursuing an impossible goal."
Katsuki whirled to face the woman, struggling to remain calm. She kept up her smile as she continued, recorder held up to record the 'interview'.
"I simply must know, what drove you to act this way, despite all the hardship it brought you and your family?"
Katsuki gave the woman a second look, analyzing everything he could about her.
Given the lack of obvious physical outlets for a quirk, it was highly likely the woman had an emitter or transformation quirks. Her posture was obviously interested. But what really gave Katsuki pause were the woman's eyes.
They were manic, focused on him with an intensity Katsuki had rarely, if ever, seen from anyone else.
This woman was manic. More then that, she seemed dangerous.
But more then that, Katsuki could tell something else.
This was a woman desperate to know more.
Katsuki closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
It, was not, WORTH IT.
Katsuki leaned forward, the reporter matching him as he very clearly spoke into the mic.
"No. Comment."
The woman's face froze.
Katsuki turned around and continued his walk home, the woman still frozen with her recorder raised.
"Have a nice day Ma'am."
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Closing the front door, Katsuki walked up to his room, climbing the stairs at a fast rate.
Mitsuki looked up from where she was sitting on the couch.
"How was your-"
"Not right now."
Closing the door to his room, Katsuki dropped his bag and moved over the the heavy bag suspended to the side of his room he'd stopped using years ago.
Without pause, Katsuki started throwing punches, sending the bag swinging with each one.
"THAT. FUCKING. BITCH!"
The next minute or so was spent silently waling on the bag, trying to get his frustrations out.
He only stopped as soon as he did when the bag snapped off its mount and crashed to the floor.
Breathing heavily, Katsuki slumped onto his bed. A few seconds later, Masaru opened the door and stepped in.
Not saying anything, Masaru just sat down next to Katsuki on the bed.
After a few minutes, Masaru finally spoke up.
"You haven't been this angry in quite a while. Last time was around a year ago in middle school. Some of your classmates had cornered you after class and were just laughing at you."
Katsuki kept silent. Masaru waited for a few more minutes before asking.
"What was it this time Katsuki?"
Katsuki took a deep breath.
"A reporter followed me from the train station today. She started saying some stupid shit but I mostly ignored her. Then she brought up you and mom. Calling you…All sorts of stuff."
Masaru let out a deep sigh.
"Katsuki, your mother and I have always known that there would be people that judged us for all the things we let you do. But we let you do them anyway. Do you know why?"
Katsuki looked over at his dad, shaking his head. Despite all this time, it had never really come up. Katsuki had just assumed they were indulging him.
"There were two reasons. The first, was that both of us could tell making you stop would have destroyed you. There would have always been this part of you that wondered 'Could I have done it?', and we didn't want that for you. But the second reason was even more important."
Masaru continued, his voice a little wobbly.
"Because we knew, from the moment you looked up at us with those determined eyes, that if anyone was ever going to do it, it would be you."
"So there are going to be people that criticize our decisions, and us as parents. But that isn't important. It isn't your job to defend us Katsuki. It's our job as parents to support you."
Katsuki pulled his dad into a hug, squeezing him tightly and pressing his face into Masaru's chest. Masaru grunted slightly as he returned the hug. Moments later, another set of arms wrapped around the pair from behind, Mitsuki's voice watery.
"We both love you Katsuki. You're amazing."
The three of them stayed there for a long time, just hugging on Katsuki's bed.
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The weekend had passed before Katsuki knew it.
On the next day of classes, Aizawa had them all collect their hero costumes, and head down to the train station.
Aizawa stood in front of them all.
"You all have your costumes, right? Remember, you aren't allowed to wear them in public without the direct permission of a pro hero. Don't drop them or anything. And definitely don't lose them."
"Yes sir."
"Make sure to mind your manners with the heroes at your internships. Now, time for you lot to head off."
Everyone split off to head for their trains. Katsuki himself waited for the train to Tareese City, where the Musha hero agency was located.
Within half an hour, Katsuki was on his way.
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Arriving in Tareese, Katsuki quickly headed to the address he'd been given along with his paperwork. But even if he'd lost that, Musha hero agency was the biggest agency in the entire city.
Walking through the front doors as they slid open, Katsuki walked up to the front desk where a receptionist was doing paperwork.
The man looked up with a smile as Katsuki reached the desk.
"Katsuki Bakugo, here for my internship."
"Ah yes, just step into that elevator and head up to the 27th floor. Mr. Musha's office is at the end of the hall."
Nodding, Katsuki followed her instructions and soon reached a door with a nameplate engraved in gold.
'Yoroi Musha'
Taking a breath, Katsuki knocked.
"Come in."
Katsuki stepped into the large office, seeing the old hero sitting behind his desk.
"Ah yes, Bakugo. I expected you to arrive around this time. Now, before we move onto the specifics of your internship here, why don't we talk about what your expectations are for the week you're here. What are you hoping to learn from your time here?"
Katsuki stood up straight.
"I hope to learn from your extensive experience as a pro hero. And to learn more about integrating support equipment into my combat style."
Musha nodded at that.
"About what I expected. Now, lets move to the specifics."
Musha held up a schedule which Katsuki took.
"Today, we will spend time going over the current support equipment integrated into your costume and how you use it. The next few days after that will be spent on sparring and review to understand your current combat style with my sidekick, Booster 5. If he deems your capabilities to be sufficient within that period, you will spend the remainder of your internship alternating patrols and more training. Do you have any questions?"
"No sir."
"Good. Now, first thing is for you to change into your costume. There is a changing room just down the hall, marked with a sign. Feel free to leave your belongings in one of the lockers. You will be guided to where you're staying at the end of the day. After you've changed, come back here."
Tightening up his boots, Katsuki stood up, looking himself in the mirror. He was rather glad that Mei had managed to style the Electromagnetic Boots to match his aesthetic. Now they just seemed like they fit with the rest of his costume.
Heading back to the office, Katsuki stepped in. Musha stood up from his desk and gave Katsuki a once over.
"Fairly minimalist, but recognizable. Bat is an interesting functional and stylistic choice, but one that should play well for PR purposes. What is the Hero Name you've chosen?"
"The Resolute Hero: Dauntless."
Musha nodded as he thought the name over, running a hand through his beard.
"Very well then. Now, lets talk practicality. What support equipment have you integrated into your costume?"
"The gauntlets of my costume are armored so I can use them to block. My bat is as durable as the support company could give me. My bat also has an integrated line attached so I can use it as a ranged weapon.
"Other then that, I've recently added the boots to allow me move movement options when needed. They can be used to launch me into the air, or to increase the power of my kicks."
Musha finishes his inspection.
"Rather minimalist on the support gear. Why not add more?"
"More support gear might increase my options in combat, but I only have so much time to spend mastering them. Better to have a few pieces of support gear I can use really well, then a bunch of gimmick gear that give me choice paralysis."
A smile grew on Musha's face at the answer.
"Good. I may be known as the equipped hero, but a large part of that, is that I limit my support gear to items that I can use perfectly and that I can trust the performance of. Too many heroes nowadays rely on their support gear to cover for proper training. This leaves them flat-footed when something goes wrong."
Musha led Katsuki to the elevator.
Once they were both inside, Musha hit the button for the basement level.
After a minute or so, the doors reopened.
Stepping out, Musha gestured to the door on there left.
Inside was a large empty room.
"This is the Musha Agency training room. It lets us test out new techniques and equipment. Now that we're here, I want to see you trying to use those boots of yours, then we'll have a spar."
Nodding, Katsuki moved to the center of the room.
Getting into position, Katsuki clenched his toes to start the boots spinning up.
Katsuki got into a jumping posture and relaxed the triggers just as his feet were about to leave the ground.
Instantly the boots launched him into the air.
With the practice he'd gotten on the prototypes, Katsuki managed to maintain his balance and land properly, though still a bit unsteady.
Musha called out from near the door.
"Those definitely give you some good height and improve your jumps. You need more practice with them, but they'll give you many more movement options for traversal. Do a couple more jumps then we'll move to a quick spar to get an idea of how you react in combat."
"Got it."
Getting into a different position, Katsuki tried for a horizontal boost this time.
Angling his boots and releasing the trigger early this time to throttle the power, Katsuki sent himself spinning through the air, having gotten the angle wrong for the boots.
Musha just waited by the side observing. Throwing out helpful tips as Katsuki got a handle on his new boots.
Finally, Musha called out.
"That's enough practice for the time being. Lets do a quick spar so I can get an idea of your general combat abilities."
Musha moved to the center of the training room, drawing his sword with one hand.
"Now, in case you don't know, my quirk's name is Overdrive. It lets me improve the performance of small support items and equipment that I touch. Observe."
Katsuki watched as a golden glow seemed to spread from Musha's skin to cover his sword.
"I am limited in the total size of the items I enhance, but my quirk brings their performance to another level. Overuse causes the items to start wearing out faster, but that takes a decent amount of time. Now, your goal is to hit me. You can use whatever tactics you wish, and I will stick to using my sword for the moment."
Musha got into a ready stance.
"Begin."
Katsuki instantly rushed in with a swing, attempting to catch the number 8 hero off-guard.
Musha caught the blow nonchalantly on his katana, deflecting it off to the side, then followed up with a swing to force Katsuki to back off.
"Decent speed and strength, but you're telegraphing too much. Your enemies will not simply allow you to hit them."
Spinning up and triggering his boots with a frown, Katsuki attempted to use them to rush Musha before he could get his katana back into the ready position.
In defiance of his expectations, Musha simply stepped to the side, dodging the attack and following with another slash.
"Good! You're using your boots properly now! If you want to keep using them, they need to become an integral part of your fighting style. You need to use them without a second thought."
Deciding to see how Musha would deal with this, Katsuki released some of the ribbon attached to his bat, spinning it up. Letting it loose, Katsuki launched the bat at Musha.
The hero took a step back and to the side, allowing the bat to harmlessly fly past. The hero looked thoughtful as Katsuki pulled the bat back and began spinning it up again.
"As far as ranged options go, your bat is definitely distinctive. However, it has its own issues."
Katsuki let the bat fly once again, having it travel in a circular motion this time. Musha, rather then retreat as Katsuki had expected, ducked under the heavy projectile with surprising grace and stepped towards Katsuki. The equipped hero raised his katana for another swing, obviously telegraphing the attack.
"If you use your primary melee weapon as a projectile, then you must be prepared for if someone attempts to assail you while it is in use."
Not prepared to respond, Katsuki quickly pulled the bat back to his body with barely enough time to block a slash.
The two of them spent a moment with their weapons locked, before Katsuki broke the stalemate by using one of his boots to strengthen a kick.
Instead of taking the attack, Musha retreated, letting Katsuki regain his stance.
Preparing for another attack, Katsuki charged forwards once more, preparing to swing.
Just before their weapons were about to clash, Katsuki had one of his boots launch him a couple feet to the side with a partial charge, then the other sent him speeding towards Musha's exposed flank.
Musha quickly deflected the attack with his pauldron, not taking the force of the swing head on, and following up with another slash to force Katsuki out of melee distance.
Musha acknowledged Katsuki's strike with a nod, sheathing his katana.
"Clever movement. That's enough sparring for the moment. I have a much better idea of your capabilities. Change out of your costume and meet me in my office."
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After changing back into his school uniform, Katsuki stepped back into Musha's office.
The elderly hero looked up as Katsuki stepped in.
"Ah, you're done. Please take a seat."
Musha gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk.
"Now then, lets discuss your combat style at the moment. The boots were certainly a good addition to your hero costume, as they allow you a wide variety of combat and traversal options you didn't have before. The ability to use your bat as a mid-range weapon also allows you far more options. However, these are not without issues."
Katsuki sat up straighter.
"You aren't used to using those boots of yours yet. And that is leading to some awkward motions when you use them. They also take a second to spin up, which means you need to start predicting when you will need them, rather then just starting to spin them up once you need them.
"You also tend to struggle when someone gets inside your range while you're using your bat as a ranged implement. It takes you time to respond, and to let go of your bat would be to lose it for the rest of the encounter in the worst case.
"On the whole, you have definite potential. Over the course of the next week, Booster 5 is going to help you hone that potential. Understood?"
Katsuki nodded, feeling a bit chafed that he likely wouldn't be seeing much more of the number 8 hero for the rest of the week.
Musha pressed a button on his desk.
A moment later, a blonde-haired gold-clad hero walked into the office.
"This is who you'll be working with for the majority of the next week. Booster 5, this is Dauntless."
Booster walked over the Katsuki and extended a hand to shake with a clearly practiced smile.
"I look forward to working with you Dauntless. Your performance during the festival was impressive."
Katsuki extended a hand and shook, unable to shake the feeling that the rest of his internship was going to be interesting.