Again, Neito does not sleep well. He could hardly sleep after that phone call so he stayed up late to write up his quirk analyses and got carried away thinking about Denki’s quirk. It’s not any secret that Electrification overloads Denki. Some moron even posted a derogatory “funny” video on Quirkblog a couple months ago of Denki in his “dumb mode” or whatever it’s called. Making fun of somebody on such a public media is cruel. Neito, being a hypocrite, bombed the post with a couple cutting comments against the poster. Under his fake account, of course, in case Itsuka or one of his classmates saw and got the wrong idea that he was secret buddies with Class A.
Neito made that account for his classmates, actually. Ibara has been cyberbullied viciously for being a Christian. So Neito intellectually massacred a few of her bullies. Because no matter how much it makes Ibara cry, she will not stoop to their level and Neito was fed up with seeing her hurt. Juzo and Tetsu have been plastered as “villainous-looking” before and those jerks also got mowed down.
Neito almost got discovered when an enraged Itsuka found a post about Tetsu and then found this crazy user called I’msuperiortoyoulollol that trolled the poster in defense of Tetsu. “That guy sounds kinda like you,” Setsuna had said in admiration. That was a scary moment and Neito had to act his way out of any suspicion. Thankfully, Neito has the brains to always write differently on that account—many abbreviations and emojis unlike his normal flowery proper style, so he’s pretty sure they aren’t convinced it’s him.
Anyway, Denki’s quirk is improperly utilized, Neito has concluded. Based on how Denki talked about it, he doesn’t control it enough. Sure, he can’t control its direction once he fires it and sometimes he really will need so much power he’ll overload, but he needs to raise the amperage and then he can lessen the volts and then he won’t go stupid so quickly. And most of all, Denki spams out waves of electricity instead of ever grabbing his opponent and tasering them. If he used hand-to-hand and punched or kicked, he would have more options. Neito doesn’t want to give his rivals advice, but it might earn him extra cookie-points with Mr. Aizawa, and in turn Teacher Vlad, so he might as well. And Neito hates wasted quirk potential. (And maybe Denki isn’t so terrible.)
Today’s heroics exercises is in Gym Gamma. Same as with his own classmates, Neito won’t stay in a fixed spot, but will run about tagging quirks. Ectoplasm creates clones and everyone takes up positions to fight. Neito dodges Ectoplasm’s clone and heads for Denki. Denki is sending out waves of electricity that are weakened in the cement ground. The idiot. Doesn’t he think of hand-to-hand combat in this situation?
“Hey you!” Neito hollers.
“Huh? Yipes!” The clone strikes and Denki scrambles. Neito taps Denki’s arm. “You brought a second one, Neito! That’s mean!”
Neito rolls his eyes and faces his own clone. He builds up electricity, easing up the level like controlling waterflow from a hose. He covers his body in electricity. He grabs the clone’s arm and raises the electricity output. The clone sinks and dissolves. “Hand-to-hand combat, Denki. Haven’t you used it with your quirk?”
Denki is staring wide-eyed. His clone has stopped. It says, “Hmm.”
“Not all villains can be safely taken down with physical contact, but many can, you know. You’re quite agile, so you can use martial arts tactics,” Neito says.
“Are…Are you giving me advice?” Denki says in amazement.
Neito flaps a hand. “Take it how you will. Anyway,” a new Ectoplasm clone stomps behind him, “I’m going.” He wipes out the new clone with an electrified sliding side kick and hops down the cement platform to his next person.
He copies every quirk except Katsuki’s, Momo’s, Yuga’s, Minoru’s, and Mashirao’s. And Izuku’s. He plans to borrow Momo’s when he’s prepared for it, with a knowledge of the molecular structure of something and stocked up on fat, and Katsuki’s if Katsuki stops snarling every time he gets within a fifty-foot radius.
