[Miroru]

Rokuhane Miroru

Department of Heroes Freshman

Prism, the Spectrum Hero

Kei Hada | ### | notes

"Aw, you gotta be kidding. Air intake is the problem?"

Miroru sat parked at a worktable in the support labs with a pair of boots beside her, clearly in the development stages. She had one on its side, and there was apparently a set of tiny nozzles on the underside, with what was intended to be a high-powered jet turbine behind them.

The issue was that aesthetics were not playing nice with the amount of air the turbine needed to pull IN to produce the thrust she wanted. 

"So what now. if it's exposed, it looks like I'm wearing the goldfish version of disco meets Saw," she muttered, referencing the way the blades would look if left visible, and the ancient fad of having fish inside clear aquariums at the bottom of platform shoes. "But how am I supposed to get enough airflow to move properly otherwise?"

I can pay no price too great for justice.

Template by: Monkey

[Kei Hada]

It's come a long way. A project Kei had been spending time on for the latter half of his freshman year into his second year in UAU, when he had the chance to amidst all the assignments and requests he received from future heroes for their gear. Which seemed to be little time with how simple his creation was.

It was four arms. No, really. Four metal arms that would deploy from a pack to be worn on his back, used to multi-task and reach for things that he himself could not. And... well. He wasn't exactly the tallest guy around. So there were many things out of his reach that would make the extended arms very useful.

Kei was currently testing their finesse by having each pair solve a Rubik's cube when he heard someone not far from him. Tilting his head, he eyed the boots curiously. "I dunno, it doesn't look that bad..."

Realizing what he just said, he raised his arms in panic. "Oh- I didn't mean to overhear sorry!"

Miroru

[Miroru]

Rokuhane Miroru

Department of Heroes Freshman

Prism, the Spectrum Hero

Kei Hada | ### | notes

"Huh? It's fine, it's fine, don't worry. It's not a secret project or anything. I'd have to be pretty dumb to work on a secret project in the school labs..." Miroru reassured, waving her hands to try to dispel Kei's awkward response.

"And... yeah, this doesn't look bad, but it doesn't have proper airflow. I can get the turbines moving at proper speeds, but if they can't get air to shove, they don't give me enough propulsion to make them worth the time to put them on." She demonstrated, the room darkening slightly as she ate the light to create a magnetic current to get the turbines moving.

"I don't suppose you have any experience with nonconventional jet intake design, do you? I've been trying to look up ideas, but everything I've read on ramjet tech relies on essentially having the turbine pull the jet forwards, which requires a ton of air intake."

I can pay no price too great for justice.

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[Kei Hada]

Kei's surprised expression relaxed when he saw that he didn't offend the person after all. "Yeah, it'd be impossible to hide what you're workin' on here. Usually people work in their dorms or outside of campus if they want their projects to be a secret.

"But ooh, ramjet." Kei looked up at the flickering lights before his eyes focused on the boots' spinning turbines again. "I'm guessin' your Quirk's not speed-related so you can't get the thrust you want from runnin' alone. But technically, runnin' would be pushin' the engine forward."

He squinted at the boots as thoughts churned in his head. "Beyond that, you could try coolin' the air as it gets taken in. Ramjets operate better the lower the air's temperature is before it compresses it, so you could get away with a smaller fan if you can figure out how to get the air as cold as possible before it gets inside. Add some intercoolers maybe.

"Or you could only use these while it's snowin' outside." He thought with a snort.

Miroru

[Miroru]

Rokuhane Miroru

Department of Heroes Freshman

Prism, the Spectrum Hero

Kei Hada | ### | notes

"I don't even know how I could try to do that. I haven't got tools of my own, much less a quirk useful for this kinda work. At least, if it is, I sure don't know how to apply it to fine mechanical assembly and machining," Miroru muttered. "More power to the sneaksters, though."

A faint grimace. "No, my quirk's not good for augmenting anything I do physically. I can mess with EM phenomena that's already existing around me."

The other fellow kept talking, and Miroru stared back, vaguely irritated. "Thrust from running? What are you talking about, I can't get that kinda-"

She stopped dead, and frantically grabbed her phone, switching back to the page she'd been looking at and groaning actively as she plunked her phone down onto her bookbag and sagged back into the chair. "I thought ramjet was just the term for general jet engines. It's totally reliant on existing thrust to feed the engine. No WONDER this is all garbage!" She panned through a few more pages before stopping. "... turbofan. That's what I'm trying to build." Which should immediately make sense to Kei- her DESIGN was a turbofan, but the theories she was trying to use to fix her problems were specific to an entirely different engine model.

I can pay no price too great for justice.

Template by: Monkey

[Kei Hada]

Okay, so the offence he thought he wasn't doing? He was starting to get second thoughts, judging from the expression the freshman was making. "Uh," Kei said helplessly, unsure of what else he could even add that wouldn't upset the person further. He hadn't said anything wrong had he? Ramjets weren't something he specialized in, sure, but he knew the gist of how they worked and what was required of it.

His worries were settled once again, replaced with confusion as the fox picked up her phone, scrolled through it and put it back down. "Oh," was another word of eloquence to leave Kei's lips at the display. He looked at the boots once more before turning back to her and letting out a surprised laugh. "Yeah, that would do it. They're two different things. There's jet designs where they start off with a turbojet - basically a fan-less version of this - propelling the aircraft forward before the ramjet kicks in at a high enough speed, but that would mean addin' both to a pair of boots. Probably not somethin' you want if you wanna keep 'em light."

With his hands on his hips, he squinted at the footwear as his mechanical arms placed their finished cubes on the table and retracted themselves back into his pack. "That bein' said though, you don't need a lot of air intake at all! Since you're not fittin' a ramjet in here, you'll have space for smaller fans in the boots instead- to better circulate the air you do take in for the engines to compress and burn up. Combine that with a cooler exhaust and the ability to adjust the pitches of the fans mid-flight and you should be able to get away with shrinking them a bit."

With that round of rambling done, Kei did turn back to Miroru as something piqued his interest before his near meltdown, "Your EM manipulation- what does that involve exactly?"

Miroru

[Miroru]

Rokuhane Miroru

Department of Heroes Freshman

Prism, the Spectrum Hero

Kei Hada | ### | notes

Miroru hopped up and got to work collecting the parts she'd need to retrofit the boot soles with the turbofan design instead of the ramjet model she'd started with. "Yeah, I realize that now. Even the name shoulda tipped me off. Ramjets RAM the air into the front of the JET. And yeah, too much weight. I'm not super strong, but I'm fast, and I kinda need to hold that edge, so my loadout can't be all that heavy."

Miroru went to work dismantling the existing soles and spoke without looking up. "Actually, I'm not gonna be igniting anything. I don't want anything that can be hijacked or controlled, so I don't want ANY mechanisms that can do their work without my quirk. The fans are gonna be essentially unpowered electric turbines- I can leech energy from the environment to feed the turbines, and without my quirk doing so, no amount of external control is gonna be able to make them do something. No power source, no circuits, no controls. Just my quirk."

She did pause at the question about specifics. "Well, it does what it sounds like. Electricity, magnetic fields, and their interactions- you know, like light- are all stuff I can manipulate. I can bend light to make stuff disappear, block it to black out areas, create illusions, holographic signs to organize evac efforts, or, uh. Y'know. Create the world's biggest fresnel lens and orbital strike stuff. That last bit's pretty much useless for crime fighting, though. Can't really arrest a cloud of vapor. Nor would I wanna hit a person with that."

She leaned back a moment as she mostly finished the retrofit from ramjet to turbofan. "What does yours do?"

I can pay no price too great for justice.

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[Kei Hada]

Kei nodded as he watched her work, glad he was able to give her the guidance she needed. "I see. Yeah, it's gettin' easier for people to hijack stuff, it's why I build a lot of gear that's reliant on Quirks too. One I made was a launcher that wouldn't even fire anythin' without the right one."

His face lit up as she explained her Quirk, awestruck by the sheer versatility of it. "Oh wow, that's so cool! Do you just pull from the waves around you? Because that's crazy powerful, everythin' uses EM these days. You can even use your own phone for your Quirk."

And there it was. What does your Quirk do? The question fired back at him; what everyone gets asked these days.

And the one Kei always had to lie about.

Well, he supposed it was less a lie and more an omission of the majority of his power. As much as he wanted to justify it though, the knowledge he wouldn't tell her everything left a pit in his stomach, just as it did with anyone else he had to hide his ability from.

But it was for the best. No one should know what he could do with his.

Self-preservation alone was what made Kei able to pull a smile. "Oh, I can show ya." Rather than walk to the half-filled bottle of water he left back at his table - as that seemed rude - he simply launched one of his mechanical arms out without so much as looking back. Call it another test of its capability, this time on whether it can navigate an area based on its owner's recollection of it.

It eventually reeled itself back and placed the bottle in Kei's hands, now partially crushed due to its grip strength. He made a face at its sorry state. "Eugh, gonna need to calibrate that later." But that didn't matter, he could demonstrate now.

Holding the bottle by the top, he placed his hand on its base. "Anyways, I make water." Not even a second passed before it filled itself to the brim, the bottle clear so both of them could see it happen. He wiggled it a bit. "And that's it. Not nearly as impressive as you just conjurin' anythin' seemingly out of thin air."

Miroru

[Miroru]

Rokuhane Miroru

Department of Heroes Freshman

Prism, the Spectrum Hero

Kei Hada | ### | notes

"Yeah, exactly. You get i-" Miroru paused and snickered at herself. "Of course you get it. You're a Support Major." Shaking her head at trying to herosplain, Miroru just grinned and nodded. "Smart. I thought I was, like. Innovating when I thought of it, but I'm happy with "great minds think alike" too!"

The question made her wobble her hand. "I mean, that's usually not so useful. The ambient amount of stuff isn't... it's hardly even mathematically significant when it comes to being able to create impactful effects. Without a powerful source of sunlight, radiation, electricity, or magnetism, it's actually more useful for the ways you can manipulate or deny what's around, less than collect it. I feel like a jackass telling a Support Major that "it's complicated", but most of the day to day utility is... extremely complicated for things you could generally accomplish with mirrors, smoke grenades, or remote controls."

She blinked in faint surprise as the arm went rocketing off to the side and snagged- and crushed- the bottle, tilting her head curiosly as he demonstrated, widening her eyes drastically. The comment, though, left her immediately dour, her lips twisted in irritation.

"Anything I conjure "out of thin air" would just be smoke and mirrors. And you can say that your quirk's not impressive, but I can think of a lot of ways a quirk like that could be impressively potent, depending on the constraints of its use. You could give somebody real bruises that aren't trauma related if somebody needed to pretend to have been beaten up; pressurized water jets can do impressive work, and are great for a huge number of relief efforts in basically every disaster situation, not to mention their machining utility; plus power generation, mobility, medical applications of producing purified water on demand, that list goes on."

I can pay no price too great for justice.

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[Kei Hada]

Kei chuckled at her observation of his enrolment. "Yeah, guilty. I'm glad more people are thinkin' about how to to secure their own gear. I'm tryin' to figure out how to do that for this thing." He patted the casing on his back as the metal arm tucked itself in it.

"But oh, law of conservation. I get it." He hummed. "Still though, the fact you could do all that stuff means you don't have to carry as many tools with you. And people who do have those things would still be more limited in what they could do than you. Have you considered havin' just- carryin' a mini power generator that you could draw energy from?"

There was a flash of panic in his eyes at the mention of bruises, so uncomfortably close to what he had done to that monster his class encountered years ago. Which was to go several steps beyond bruising. "I don't use it on people," he blurted out, forgetting the part where he should've said can't instead.

Regardless, Kei wanted out of that part of the conversation. Blinking the panic away, he raised his hands in an attempt to placate the other student. "I'm sorry. I know mine has a lot of uses but somethin' that's not "just smoke and mirrors" - which isn't bad by the way - has its downsides too. I only generate the water, it doesn't go away after. Either somethin' has to use it up or I could flood places accidentally. It's why I usually only make it in small amounts like this." He wiggled the bottle again to emphasize his point.

Miroru

[Miroru]

Rokuhane Miroru

Department of Heroes Freshman

Prism, the Spectrum Hero

Kei Hada | ### | notes

"Yeah? Well, maybe I could help with the armpack, or whatever it's properly titled? I'm getting better by the minute at developing new pieces of equipment. Having someone with a better handle on the process would be super helpful for me, and maybe some fresh eyes would be of use to you?" Miroru asked, tilting her head.

"I mean, you're not wrong. It just stings a little to be thinking about the fact that I've basically just got a utility belt when you've got people like Farrin around who control- you know- *FUCKING TIME.*" Miroru pointed out, a touch bitter, but clearly not at her friend. "My friend Thea wins every fight she's in if she gets a hand on her opponent. She's amazing. I still have to beat the tar out of people to make them give up."

The idea of a generator made Miroru blanch a little. "No, I don't- I don't really use electricity. I've got a lot of bad memories tied to it. I... mmh... I mean, I could probably at least -process- it, but if I did, what would I do with it after? There's plenty of light, and cooking someone with lasers isn't reasonable, either."

The fox paused, recognizing a flash of what she had just felt in Kei's eyes. "Oh. I- I get it. No worries. I was more thinking of a disguise thing, but I can completely understand the distinction, so don't sweat it. You don't have to explain yourself."

The idea of oversaturating or pressurizing or drowning an area made sense with Miroru and she frowned faintly. "Ahhhh. I got you. Okay. That makes sense. Boo. Though I guess everything's got limits and downsides. I still think your Quirk's cooler'n you give it credit."

I can pay no price too great for justice.

Template by: Monkey

[Kei Hada]

Kei placed the bottle down and removed the pack from his back to hold that instead, a contemplating noise escaping him. "Sure, why not? I've been callin' 'em four arms as a placeholder, couldn't think of somethin' better." He placed the device on the table for her to examine before pointing at the circular sections on it. "Pressin' on those should open up an arm and you can pull it out as you see fit."

He couldn't help but let out an exasperated huff. Oh, he knew how the Quirk lottery worked all too well. "Yeah, I know Farrin. He speed-cleaned the lab once. Dunno Thea but bein' able to subdue people with just one touch is really good." A sigh fell through his lips. "The fact's clear: not all powers are made equal. The most we can do is find all the ways we can use what we got. Which does make me wonder..."

Kei pointed two index fingers at her. "You said you could make illusions, which implies you can at least contain the waves to one place, at least to some degree. Have you tried condensin' it further? Light's capable of applyin' pressure, so you could potentially solidify it to like- a shield or somethin', if you have enough energy with you. Which is a lot, so all the energy could go into that instead of zappin' someone with it."

Why was she still hung up on his own Quirk though? He already said he couldn't— no. Wait. He said he didn't use it on people, not that he couldn't. Crap. Now the fact he was able to was out in the open, he couldn't take it back by lying again. This person will take their precautions and stay as far away from him as possible.

Except that didn't happen. Instead she understood how he didn't want to apply his power that way, and assured that he didn't need to explain why. Which was rare when using his Quirk on others was the first thing they could think of.

He cracked a smile. "Thank you." He'd go on about how he didn't want to risk going beyond disguising someone even with his control, but he figured the junior could infer that fear already. "How about we say both our Quirks are cool and leave it at that." Then Kei did something he rarely started himself.

He offered a hand to shake. "Deal?"

Miroru

[Miroru]

Rokuhane Miroru

Department of Heroes Freshman

Prism, the Spectrum Hero

Kei Hada | ### | notes

"What about quarms? Quad-arms! The Quarmpack!" Miroru rattled through the ideas as she came closer to examine it, pressing in a segment to release the arm and extract it for examination. "Speed-cleaned. Yeah, sounds like Oberon, alright. He's a super nice guy, but man. Did he make out like a bandit with that quirk. Did you know he can use it to run on thin air? I helped him figure out how to use thin sheets to drastically amplify the volume of air his downward steps displace, turning it into thrust. He doesn't need boots or anything, he just does it!" Amazing, but she was firmly in the jealousy camp. Oh, to have that sort of constant access to amazing power.

"Yeah, not all are equal. But it's fun finding the clever ways to use the restricted stuff. Sure, we can't fast forward time or fart fireballs, but we have a lot more fun!" Miroru said, half trying to convince even herself!

"Hm? Oh, well, yeah, but it's more complex. What you actually have to do is hold colored filter-images in the form of what you want, and released light from inside the films so the right colors hit the eyes." He spoke of condensing, and she twisted her face up a bit. "In my experience, every time I've compressed light enough to change its effects, there's been so much heat contained inside the beams that it's devastating. More so if it's gathered sunlight. I've seen it done, before. Junsuina-senpai can do that by binding it into matrices of crystal dust. I can't manipulate crystal dust, so that's where my experimentation with hardlight kinda ended."

She stood and shook his hand firmly. "Deal, indeed. Now- tell me about the Quarmpack's features!"

I can pay no price too great for justice.

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[Kei Hada]

"Run on thin air? How does that even work- I thought he could only make things fast and slow?" Kei held on both sides of his head, trying but failing to piece it together until she explained further. "So wait- he can slow down wind currents his feet make too?" Time control and he could fly with his Quirk alone. Man. "That's actually insane."

"But oh I see, you're still movin' the light in a way then." The support student nodded as she spoke, face twisting in understanding. "Yeah okay, solid light just gets too hot since it's still energy you're dealin' with." His brow furrowed in thought before he snapped his fingers. "Piezoelectricity. You could generate charges in crystals through impacts and then release them as a delayed burst. That way you don't start with all that energy but you'd be the only one to direct it if there's no wirin' in the final product. That should help with power control right?"

He smiled at Miroru's lack of hesitation on the handshake, wholly unafraid of what he could do once their hands were held even though she came to the conclusion herself. Maybe he'll tell her what his real Quirk is one day.

For now she seemed more interested in his "Quarmpack". Kei laughed. "Well- it's simple really. There's four arms in that pack that can reach and grab things that are far away. They're also strong enough to carry my weight and then some, so I can use 'em to climb."

Miroru

[Miroru]

Rokuhane Miroru

Department of Heroes Freshman

Prism, the Spectrum Hero

Kei Hada | ### | notes

"To my understanding, that's pretty much precisely how it works- but when he accelerates the air pushed downwards, that vacates the space of the field he creates while preventing air from flowing back in from below. So air rushes in from all sides, and rushes downwards all over again, and thanks to conservation of energy, all that rushing air moving downwards creates upwards thrust on his feet!"

She nodded to confirm his conclusion. "Yep. Still moving. I mean, I CAN stop it. But you wouldn't see it then. It'd just be blackness. Which- I mean, I do have an idea related to that but it's... a bit much. And very much a desperation tactic. So I hope I'll never need to use it."

The idea of piezoelectricity sparked- no pun intended- the fox's thought process, and she perked up, tail and ears flicking upright in a heartbeat. "Oh. OH. That's- that's a GREAT idea! And WIRING is fine as long as there's no CONTROL mechanisms besids my quirk. Like... Junsuina-senpai recommended I look for ways to shorten my TTS. Or, uh. Time to shutdown. Or subjugation, stun, subdual, pick your favorite S word. If we used some rudimentary force projectors powered by piezoelectric crystals wired into them, I'd hit them twice for every blow I landed. Heck, we could even build in capacitors to store charge for use in other ways! That's a GREAT idea." She started scrambling around, collecting parts from around the room while they talked.

"As for the Quarmpack, would it be at all helpful to have piping from your... hands? Through the pack? If you have tanks in the pack, you'll be able to offload some of your quirk's production, and then you can use apertured nozzles and pressure systems to direct and focus or spread the water as needed! With the proper internals, you could probably even manage a water jet cutter for getting through steel and debris in a disaster zone or for easy manufacturing."

I can pay no price too great for justice.

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