Lightning Serenade

Chapter 47: Waterpark Date I

A/N: I'm currently at a resort, and will be for about a week, all expenses paid by the company I work for because of some training I'm attending. I have already gotten a good feel for the INDOOR WATERPARK in which I TOTALLY DEMOLISHED the Flow Rider thing. I was seriously very competent, and very surprised about that. What are some things that you were really good at for your first try that you expected to totally fail at?

"So, I'm chasing this guy, right? And I have him cornered. He knows from experience in the short chase we just had that even if he were to magically develop a second quirk and scale the wall, I'd still be right behind him because of my skill with my capture weapon—"

"And what skill that is!" Neito interrupted.

"—Shut up! Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted..." Hitoshi continued.

Neito shrugged in a very relaxed way, knowing that Hitoshi basked in compliments about his improvements. Even if someone passing by weren't an intimate part of the group, they would still know that Hitoshi wasn't actually upset because of the huge smile he sent in Neito's direction, unable to hide his amusement at his soulmate's easy compliments that he started to seem to throw around more and more as time went on.

"... he turns around, right? Then, get this! He takes a step forward, quirk activated, ready to send porcupine quills right through me. He takes one look at me, sighs like the world is turning against him, and surrenders! Just like that! He lowers his quills that would have definitely done a lot of damage, maybe even enough for him to escape, and he just gives up! I thought that maybe my reputation might have gotten him to cooperate, but when I asked questions, he answered them!" Hitoshi raved, hands moving wildly to express his absolute confoundment.

"Did you use your quirk on him?" Midoriya asked, pen posed over paper, ready to take notes to further his understanding of Hitoshi's quirk.

"No," Hitoshi admitted with a shrug, a calmness taking over quickly from his rapid-fire storytelling. "He surrendered. No quirk needed."

His constant changes in volume, speed, and tone didn't phase his close friends; everyone figured that Neito's dramatics were rubbing off on his soulmate, but a select few had figured out that this is how Hitoshi had always been, and everyone would have seen that if people hadn't cowered in fear whenever he spoke. Neito often wondered if he would have guessed they were soulmates before it was confirmed if he knew how similar they were if Hitoshi's traumatic upbringing hadn't stifled his personality to keep him flying as low under the radar as possible.

"Interesting," Midoriya muttered, taking notes.

"What the hell are you even writing if he didn't use his quirk?" Neito demanded, trying to peek over to see.

Midoriya snapped the notebook closed and held it against his chest. "None of your business!"

"If you have notes on me in there, I think it is my business!" And, after a hesitant pause, Neito asked, "do you have notes on me in there?" No one was cruel enough to mention the hopeful tone in Neito's voice.

"Of course, I do," Midoriya reassured him. "Nothing that would be helpful, yet, though. I'm still working on the basic information before I can start to play around with it to see if I can think of anything you haven't already."

"You'll let me know if you come up with anything?" Neito asked.

"Definitely!" Midoriya chirped.

Neito had seen how Midoriya had narrowed in on what Hitoshi should work on, so much so that he had helped his soulmate to choose who to intern with to improve most, and even to get from three people under his quirk to five in such a short amount of time when going from two to three was painstakingly slow.