Requiem of Revolution

Chapter 18: Ingenuity

The sky was cloudy and grey, an unflattering and miserable opening to a new day. As had been the case for most of the week, rain was likely. Not that Izuku cared, every day for the past year had felt like this, it was just a more accurate representation than normal. Despite that, he couldn't help but feel a flutter of excitement. His project was going smoothly, the previous night he had figured out a key problem. Now the only task left was to devise a method of ensuring power reached the entire system simultaneously. Easier said than done, his attempts to install resistors and junction points had failed, the system rejecting the components. So in a fit of annoyance and curiosity, he hooked up several cables to every element, supplied power all at once, and to his shock it turned on. The problem with this solution was that it was immobile and thus useless. 

He sighed, sat down on a chair and just stared at it. He had no idea how he was going to solve this problem. He couldn't use an external generator hooked up to it, it would be too bulky and vulnerable to damage. He had to figure out a way to get its internal generator to supply power to the other parts without using cables. He knew it could do so, at least in theory, because when he and David first opened up the power suit there had been nothing inside to transmit the energy. Despite that though, Dr. Maeko had managed to not only operate but build it. As time went on, it became clear that Maeko had used her quirk of technomancy to operate all of her tech. The pod currently keeping Ochako alive had originally been made based on the incubator that Shigiraki had used to become so powerful, then Maeko had updated it with her quirk to be more efficient. If it hadn't been for that fusion of traditional and hyper-advanced quirk technology to give them critical insight, Izuku's efforts on the suit would have amounted to nothing. Even the QUEESS looked like a kid's toy in comparison to it.

A burst of frustration came over Izuku and slammed a fist into the wall with an angry roar. He stood there, shaking and panting. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against the wall. He screwed his eyes shut tight, gritting his teeth as several tears ran down his face. All the anger left him in a rush and he put his back to the wall and slid down it to the ground. He let out another breath, slumping a little.

"I'm trying Ochako... I'm trying..." He whispered to the empty air.

"I swear, I'll get this working. Then I'll drag Aria Lin back here, and fix you. I swear..." He continued.

He couldn't be sure how long he sat there, but when he opened the door it was the afternoon. David was sitting at his desk typing on his computer but looked up when Izuku entered.

"Ah, Izuku, excellent timing." David said, smiling.

Izuku looked at him questioningly.

"Our shipment of Polythioether just came in, I'll need help carrying the boxes down," David said, standing up.

"All right," Izuku said, following David out of the office space and into the general development room.

Several older students were sitting or standing, working on their projects in moderate silence. These were the fourth years of the support department, and their final assessment for graduation was to develop their piece of support gear. Shortly before graduation, they would be taken to I-Island to demonstrate the fruits of their labor at the annual support gear convention. It had been on hiatus due to the war in Japan and general unrest globally but had resumed the convention last year.

"You all keep working, Izuku, and I will be back shortly," David said to the students who all stopped to look over at them when they entered.

They nodded and went back to their projects, while Izuku and David left the room and entered into the hallway.