Cubicity

Chapter 42: Girls Galore

Izuku walked into the Development Studio to see Mei working at her desk. Power Loader was nowhere to be seen. Once the boy approached his friend, he noticed the project she was working on, the Transpo-bot from last week's TAC meeting. The robot was laid on its side and looked to have been deactivated. He noticed that the bot no longer had a wheel on its lower half but was a large ball. Hatsume was currently reattaching its arm with a welder.

"Afternoon," Midoriya proclaimed with a bit of volume.

This caused the girl to glance at the boy and nod before going back to her work. Izuku then took a seat at a table behind Mei and put down his backpack. He only had to wait a few minutes before the welding ceased.

Hatsume raised her welding helmet before stating, "Hey, thanks for retrieving this for us. We've been swamped with work these last two weeks to bother putting effort into finding this."

"Why was it even there?"

"Some blunder that happened during hero training done by 3-B. It happened the weekend before your club's exercise." Mei's face and tone turned serious as she asked, "So are you going to ask about me working with your club at all, or do I have to pursue them myself?"

Izuku gulped hard upon hearing the question. He had put off asking his friends about the topic for too long. "Sorry, I guess it slipped my mind to ask as of late."

Hatsume groaned before saying, "I guess the time leading up to Valentine's Day has been keeping you pretty occupied. But would it hurt to keep your head out of Hagakure-chan's pants for a moment and think about how useful I could be for your club?"

Midoriya shook the "pants comment" out of his head to answer, "I was thinking maybe we wait on Tooru's hero suit revision to show it to everyone. That should convince them."

"But that Fixer lady is doing most of the work."

Power Loader's voice then came from the boy's right. "Not like we can include her involvement in this work. Besides, even if it's legal, she wouldn't want the credit."

A slightly startled Izuku asked, "Oh, um sensei, how long have you been there?"

"Since the 'pants comment.' I just needed a spare part from the backroom." He then turned to his student and stated, "Come up with better insult material, you're better than that."

"I'm not exactly literate enough in romance to make a good comeback about it!"

Maijima sighed but then tossed a small black object to his student. After she caught it, he stated, "I fixed its battery core. So you should be safe to activate it again."

"Oh goodie," Hatsume said as she began installing the battery.

Midoriya got up and walked over to Power Loader before asking, "So you both have been busy lately?"

"Yep. This is normal once we get far enough into the third term. All the third-year students are making last-minute suit upgrades or changes before they go pro. It's free here, so might as well take the opportunity before they have to pay for them out of their pocket."

Hatsume's voice then spoke up, "Well, that is unless they get sponsored or join a team that covers such things."

"Which isn't the norm for a fresh pro hero," Maijima argued.

"Still, a possibility."

The bot began to stir at this point, and once upright, proclaimed, "I awaken once more!" It then attempted to roll off the workbench but fell face-first onto the floor.

"I told you you need to get used to your new legs before trying stuff like that," Mei stated as she helped the bot up.

"What is progress without pain, Hatsume-sama?"