Heroes of Tomorrow

Part 6~Costumes

Naka walked down the corridor, feeling almost lost as he tried to find the right room.

"Oh, Naka. Hi." Akiko grinned, spotting Naka. Naka smiled, waving to her. "Are you going to change your costume too?"

"Yeah." Naka paused. "Are you?"

Akiko nodded. "Yep. I need tons changed."

"Tons?"

"Yep. My priority is getting shoes that will cut my roots off at my command and finding an efficient method so that it won't matter what situation I'm in. I also want to develop something to cover my ears that will regulate the sound levels so I can hear everything the people are saying, but I won't become overwhelmed. It was Dante's idea."

Naka blinked. He vaguely remembered a Dante from the rescue. That was one of the pirates. "You're using your roots?" He settled on that question as he didn't fancy opening the door to a full rant about Akiko's new friends.

"Yep. Ava pointed out I had a habit of not using parts of my Quirk, so I've been exploring the parts I previously dismissed. My roots are actually incredible. While they're not as defensive as my vines and easily cut through, the pure strength in them is amazing. They can hold up entire buildings." Akiko grinned before she stopped. "You don't actually want to hear about this, do you?"

Naka smiled sheepishly. "No, continue."

"No, it's fine. I'm meeting Have later. We'll talk about it then. Why are you changing your outfit?"

Naka smiled. "It was Ectoplasm's idea. I'm creating small clones right now, but getting the right amount of smoke out for a small clone is tricky, so we're going to see if there is a mask I could wear that will contain the smoke. I could hit a button or make a voice control or something else to realise a specific amount of my choosing."

"Oh, interesting." Akiko grinned. "I saw your smaller clones. They seem really useful, and you've been finding it easier to hold back their explosions."

Naka nodded. "Yeah, but they're weak. Only larger clones can have an explosion that does anything."

Akiko hummed, tapping her chin. "Your clones are smoke, right? Why don't you add smoke afterwards to increase their size and thus explosions? If you create small gas vials, your clones could carry them around and release them when they need to grow."

Naka blinked. "Would that work?"

"No clue, but it's worth a try." Akiko stopped as she knocked on the support hero lab. Slowly, the door was pulled open as Power Loader looked at them.

"You here for the costume improvements, too?"

Akiko nodded as Naka tilted his head. "Too?"

Power Loader led them in, showing them Uzu sitting at the side. Hatsume rushed about, showing him various devices. "No, I told you, I just need the costume changed. No more devices."

Power Loader walked in, shooing Hatsume off. "I thought I already told you to stop harassing the students."

Hatsume huffed, sulking away.

"Now," Power Loader turned to the two new students, holding out his hand. "Hand over your instructions, please. They should've been with the case your costume was delivered in. I have a license to make costumes, so I'm allowed to do some mild tinkering with those that were made out-of-house. For small changes and repairs, I can simply report what I altered to the design company. They'll do the paperwork for me. But for major changes, we'll have to fill out an application and ask the design professionals to make the adjustments for us. After that's completed, the government will make sure the new costume meets certain standards. When approved, it'll be sent back here. And we work with the best design agencies available. So there's usually just a three-day turnaround.