Chapter 24: Omega-Level Alert! The Trust Equation and the Most Awkward Video Call of My Life!

"Yu, wait, think about your shampoo contract!" Izuku shouted, circling the broken table for the third time.

"To hell with the shampoo! Get over here!" she roared, vaulting over the back of the couch with the sheet flying behind her. "I'm gonna slam you into that wall so hard they'll have to paint over you!"

"Th-that sounds like a crime, and besides, I'm your assistant. Firing me would be cheaper than burying me, THINK ABOUT THE MONEY, YU!"

"The money won't do you any good when you're part of the decor!"

Yu caught up to him in the hallway, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and lifted him off the floor with insulting ease. Izuku dangled in front of her face, the tips of his toes barely brushing the floor and a calm smile that had no right to exist given his situation.

"Any last words, you creep?"

"Just that your sheet's slipping, and from down here the view's spectacular."

Yu looked down. The fabric had slid almost to her navel, and the shameless jerk, hanging at the perfect height, wasn't even pretending to look away.

"Ten out of ten, by the way," he added. "You should work them into a special move... No, better not, 'cause I'm a little bit jealous."

Yu froze for a second. A vein popped out on her forehead before she blew up.

"WHAAAT?! YOU PIECE OF SHIT PERVERT!"

She let go of him to grab the sheet with both hands, and he dropped to his knees on the floor. He got up, dusted off his pants, and gave her a bow worthy of a butler.

"Thanks for the session, boss. I'll note it in the report."

He ducked into the bathroom and shut the door just before the cushion she threw hit the wood.

Behind him, in the silent apartment, the last leg of the couch gave out and the whole thing finally collapsed to the floor.

Yu looked at the mess, then at the bathroom door, and sighed.

"...Not a single word of this leaves this room."

******

The next morning the apartment was still under a truce. They'd cleaned up together in a strange silence, picking up broken glass and straightening the table without saying more than they had to. The dead couch was shoved against the wall with a blanket over it, and neither of them had the guts to look at it head-on.

Izuku had been staring at his cup for a while without touching it.

"Hellooo?" Yu snapped her fingers in front of his face. "You still in there, or did I knock a neuron loose from shaking you around so much last night?"

He blinked and lifted his head.

"Oh... Sorry, I was thinking."

"Yeah, I noticed. Looked like you were trying to bend the spoon with your mind." Yu broke the bread on her plate and, without thinking, handed him the bigger half before leaning against the counter with her own coffee. "So? Did all that misunderstood-genius concentration actually get you somewhere, or were you just going over your greatest hits?"

"A little of both, if I'm being honest, though the useful part took me almost the whole night."

"Then spit it out before I regret asking."

"I've been turning over what happened last night."

Yu choked and had to set the cup down before she dropped it. That was the moment she realized she'd just handed Izuku the bigger half.

What the hell is wrong with me?

She frowned, staring at her own hand.

Last night this idiot was pawing all over me, tricked me to my face, and on top of that used me to live out some weird fantasy... and now it turns out I'm babying him? How embarrassing, Yu...

She clicked her tongue and looked away, unable to stand the silence any longer.

"Ahem... H-hey..." She scratched her cheek with obvious discomfort. "About last night..."

"It was a total success," he interrupted, setting his cup on the table.

Yu was left with her mouth open mid-sentence.

"A success? Izuku, I wrecked my couch, my dignity, and probably the ceiling of the guy downstairs! Which part of that whole apocalypse counts as a success, according to that little brain of yours?"

"The part where I was right," he answered with a shrug.

"Your theory was a cheap excuse to kiss me!"

"Yeah, and it still worked, which is exactly the interesting part," he said, and his eyes lit up. "I've been up all night over this, Yu. Something important happened last night at the exact moment of the kiss, when you started shrinking, and I can't get it out of my head."

Yu leaned forward a little, pulled in by how much the idiot's eyes were shining.

"Okay, okay, fire away. Surprise me."

"When I touched you before, during training with Mirko or that first time in the alley, my Quirk was clumsy," he explained, waving his hands all over the place. "It didn't decide anything. I didn't get to choose how much power to give you or what effect came out. It just happened, and I found out at the same time you did."

"I already knew that, thanks a lot."

"Last night was different," he said, lowering his voice a little. "Last night you were a total mess, Quirk out of control, naked, scared out of your mind, and even with all that you trusted me. You swallowed a ridiculous theory without thinking and put yourself completely in my hands."

"Because I was scared to death, you jerk, not because I wanted to!"

"Exactly, that's the whole point!" he insisted. "The second I kissed you, I felt like I had more access to you, more... uh, what's the word? Hmm, more room to work with your Quirk. And that's when I got it, Yu. My power isn't measured by the energy I'm able to give. It's measured by the trust the other person puts in me."

The words hung between them. Yu set the cup down very slowly.

"It's a trust equation," Izuku finished. "The more you trust what I'm doing, the deeper I can go."

Wh-what the hell did he just say?

The blush she'd been holding back for half an hour won the battle and crept up her cheeks.

No, no, no! He can't say it with that innocent little face! "Trust"...? Him?! Am I supposed to just let him do whatever he wants because he says he knows what he's doing? The nerve...! ...Although... he hasn't been wrong so far.

Yu pressed her lips together hard.

No! Don't you dare start agreeing with him! That nerd's already way too sure of himself... ...But if it really works...

She felt her cheeks burn even hotter.

Dammit! Why does everything he says end up sounding so... suggestive?

Izuku, oblivious to the crisis he'd just set off in the kitchen, sprang to his feet.

"We've gotta tell Nemuri and Mirko!"

"W-wait."

"This changes everything!" He started pacing around the kitchen, completely thrilled. "If Nemuri trusts the process enough, maybe we can condense her gas into a solid state, and Mirko's speed could break the sound barrier without her fracturing a single bone, and that's not even counting the..."

"Don't you dare say chemistry," Yu warned, pointing the spoon at him.

"I was gonna say 'connection.'"

"Even worse."

"It's a huge discovery, Yu, they have a right to know!"

Yu stood up too, hands on her hips, her robe slipping off one shoulder without her caring.

"Oh yeah? And how the hell do you plan to explain that, brainiac?" she huffed, crossing her arms. "What are you gonna tell them? 'Hey, girls. I found out my Quirk works better because I ended up kissing Yu while we were trying to handle a crisis.' Just like that?"

She rolled her eyes and let out a disbelieving laugh.

"Sure! And while you're at it, you can tell them how I ended up half naked on my own couch making a fool of myself. I bet you'll throw in some charts and a report too, right, genius?"

Izuku tilted his head and considered the question with absurd seriousness.

"But why would we hide how I discovered it? That's the best part."

"Because it's a huge deal for my image, Izuku!" Yu shouted. "I'm on billboards, I've got a shampoo contract, people tape me up on their bedroom walls! And you wanna tell them I turned into a naked giant on top of a couch? You'd destroy me in one headline!"

"But that's where it worked best," he protested, not picking up on the danger. "You were at your limit and you still trusted me. That's the best part of the story, Yu, I can't just leave it out because it embarrasses you."

"Well, it embarrasses me a whole lot, and I'd rather lie a thousand times over than be the joke of the hero world for the next ten years!"

Izuku looked at her for a moment and nodded, sorting things out in his own way.

"Okay, you're right, if I humiliate you in public you'll get mad at me, and if you get mad at me you'll trust me less, and if you trust me less it stops working. So yeah, it makes sense for me to keep my mouth shut."

"Ugh... just understand that it's EMBARRASSING!" Yu rubbed her temples and took a deep breath, gathering the strength to spell it out for him. "Listen to me very carefully, Izuku Midoriya. Brag all you want. Where it came from, on the other hand, is classified information."

She pointed her finger at him and her look turned lethal.

"Top secret, Omega level. If a single syllable slips out about giants, nudity, kisses, or busted couches, I swear on All Might I'll use you as a punching bag for a whole month, no mercy. Are we clear?"

Yu held out her hand. Izuku looked at it, then looked at Yu's face, and let out a sigh before shaking it.

"Okay, okay. I'll take the fun part to my grave."

"You'd better."

"Just let me say it's a crime against human knowledge, okay? One day people are gonna ask how I discovered it and I'll have to lie with tears in my eyes."

"Cry all you want, handsome, but with your mouth shut." Yu squeezed his hand and let go. "Open that mouth and the only discovery you'll make is how much my foot weighs."

******

Ten minutes later the TV screen split in two.

On the left appeared Rumi Usagiyama, sweaty, her white hair pulled into a half undone ponytail and a towel around her neck, leaning against a machine in an industrial gym where the clink of weights carried in the background. On the right, Nemuri Kayama was reclining in a leather armchair with a cup of tea in her hand and her legs crossed without the slightest modesty.

"Well, well," Nemuri purred, drawing out each word. "An emergency meeting of the Izuku-kun fan club, and at this hour. What miracle brings me my favorite student before I've finished my tea?"

"Get to the point, kid," Mirko snapped, bouncing a ball against a wall out of frame. "I was about to hit my personal best on jump squats and I cut it short for you, so if this is nonsense I swear I'll cross the city in one leap and make you pay for it."

"It's not nonsense, I promise," Izuku said, sitting down in front of the screen. "Okay, maybe it sounds really bad, but what I found out is huge."

Yu was on the floor beside him, knees bent and arms crossed, not taking her eyes off him for a second.

"Okay, here goes!" he started, with an enthusiasm that came right through the camera. "I made a big discovery about how my Quirk works."

He explained the theory with passion, using the same words he'd used in the kitchen, talking about the connection, the control, and trust as the piece that decided everything. Yu listened tensely, counting down the seconds to the minefield.

"The breakthrough was last night, after a really... how do I put it, a really intense moment, emotionally and, well, physically, on the part of..."

"AHEM!" Yu coughed, driving her elbow into his ribs.

"...o-on the part of a person. Anonymous. Very anonymous, not relevant here."

Mirko and Nemuri exchanged a look across the split screen.

"And the breakthrough happened thanks to a very specific kind of contact, right in the middle of..."

Yu stomped on his foot with all her soul.

"...t-teamwork. Really intense. Both of us putting in a lot of effort," he finished, with a grimace of pain that didn't fool anyone.

There was an awkward silence. Mirko dropped the ball, leaned closer to the camera, and narrowed her red eyes.

"Alright, hold your horses, kid. Trust? And how the hell do you measure that?" Mirko crossed her arms. "Tell me straight: what did you do to her? Did you grab that girl's ass and pull the whole theory out of that? 'Cause if the experiment's headed that way, let me know and I'll bring popcorn."

"THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!" Yu burst out, cheeks red.

"Nobody said it was you, Takeyama," Mirko replied. "But look how fast you jumped."

Yu opened her mouth, closed it, and let herself fall flat on her back with a strangled groan.

Swallow me whole, earth. Swallow me right now, please.

"Aw, Yu-chan, don't throw yourself on the floor, you'll wrinkle the moment," Nemuri purred, resting her chin on her hand. "Rumi's right, you know. A good discovery isn't worth telling without the method. So be a good girl and give us all the details... you're always in such a hurry to be the center of attention, so make the most of it."

"Look who's talking about wanting attention," Yu shot back from the floor, propping herself up on one elbow. "You push your chest out half an hour before you go on camera."

"Sweetie, I've been doing this since before you knew how to pose," Nemuri replied, and for a second her smile went cold.

"Yeah, the 'since before' really shows."

"Excuse me...?"

"Girls," Izuku interrupted, raising his hands, "can we please get to the point? There's no reason to fight."

Yu's murderous glare shot straight into Izuku's back. He swallowed hard, caught between the heroines' curiosity and the very real threat of ending up hung from a hook in the closet.

"It was..." Izuku searched for the words, looking like he was walking on broken glass. "Let's say it came out of a moment of a lot of cooperation between both parties. We were both really... into it."

"'Into it'?" Mirko repeated, baring all her teeth. "Sounds like you owed her rent and she let it slide in exchange for something."

"Sounds like something happened between you two..." Nemuri murmured, savoring the phrase.

Yu tried to salvage the unsalvageable and reached for the remote next to Izuku's chair. It was a miscalculation. The robe was still untied and her leg ended up draped over Izuku's thigh before she could stop the momentum.

Izuku grabbed her ankle to keep her from falling face first into the table.

On the other side of the screen, the two heroines went very quiet.

"Ooooh... What a cozy little morning you two are having."

"I was about to fall, it's not what it looks like!" Yu struggled to free herself without any luck. "And you, let go of my foot already, you're making it worse!"

"If I let go you fall, and a boss rolling around on the floor during a video call would be way worse for your image," Izuku said, not letting go and not looking away from the camera. "Think about it, deep down I'm saving you."

"Nobody asked you to save me like this!"

Izuku, oblivious to the fire he'd started, took advantage of the pause to keep going.

"The point is, if the theory works, I can go a lot further with both of you. Mirko-san, your legs already split concrete, but if you trust me enough during the session I think I could unlock the full range of your Quirk without the impact shredding your joints. We still don't have a complete understanding of what it can do... But I think this is something important for all of us."

Mirko stopped smiling and pressed so close to the camera that her right eye filled half the screen.

"And you're telling me this over a screen?" She jumped to her feet, foot already tapping the floor. "Listen up, kid. I don't sit around waiting for permission to smash things. I'm hanging up and I'll be at your door in twenty minutes."

"Rumi." Nemuri didn't raise her voice, but the word was enough to stop her.

The smile had left her face. She set the cup on the side table, settled into the armchair, and folded her hands over her knees, and in an instant the woman who'd spent ten minutes torturing Yu turned into a professional with years of experience behind her.

"Speaking of experiments and trust, I have news for you, Izuku-kun. Get out your notebook, because playtime with theories is over."

Izuku straightened up. Yu lifted her head off the floor. The comment had caught her attention.

"I've been talking with Principal Nezu," Nemuri said. "He's pleased with the progress reports I've given him. He said your way of working is a charming disaster and that the results are undeniable."

"Quit stalling and get to the point," Mirko snapped.

"I'm getting there, impatient." Nemuri tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Next week you'll get the list of every kid taking the entrance exam this year. Everything about them: their Quirk, their grades, even what kind of person they are. They're sending it to you."

Izuku's heart skipped.

"And that's where your real exam begins, Izuku-kun," she went on. "You'll have to read through piles of profiles, settle on just one, and train him yourself until he's ready to pass the toughest test in the country. One kid. Chosen by you."

"H-how much time do I have?"

"However much Nezu decides to give you, and I'll warn you now, it won't be generous."

On the other half of the screen, Mirko had crossed her arms and was listening without interrupting.

"So..." Nemuri continued. "The time has come to choose your champion. Choose carefully, because in that exam the two of you will both be under evaluation. Trust your judgment... and try not to regret it later. Important opportunities rarely knock twice."

The screen went dark and gave back the reflection of the two of them, sitting in a silent apartment with a wrecked couch under a blanket.

They stayed like that for a while, letting the words fully settle. The comedy, the accidents, the broken couch, all of it suddenly felt very far away. A real applicant, a real future, a clock ticking that started in a few days.

Izuku turned to her, and Yu saw on his face the thrill of discovering something new.

"Wow... so this stopped being a game, huh?" Yu murmured, crossing her arms.

Izuku nodded without looking away.

"Yeah. It's completely serious now."

Yu watched him a moment longer, got up off the floor, and adjusted her robe.

"Perfect. Then you're gonna need someone competent watching your back."

"Huh? What are you talking about? I'm the assistant here."

"Wrong, sweetheart." Her smile turned more mischievous. "As of today I'm also your second opinion... and if you pick the wrong brat, I'm gonna remind you of it until we're old and gray."

---

*******

Alright, my dear readers! With this chapter, I've officially hit the number of daily updates I'd planned out on my posting schedule. Going forward, the new schedule is going to be Saturday and Monday mornings. Thank you all so much for sticking with this story! See you soon.

******

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