"I don't know," Kei said despairingly. "I thought they'd be something more important than stuffed animals!" Seriously, all this effort expended just to bring some plushies out? Come on now. But you know, it's fine. He found a forklift to carry the bin of them with. It's fine. They're fine. But not really as there were still more faceless creatures running at them why weren't they heading to the exit yet-

Kei flinched as one of the "employees" were slammed into the pillar, cross eyes frantically looking at the titan responsible for the action. "Dude I can't just leave you here." But he eventually turned to the mother and child riding with him, the former gripping their vehicle with white knuckles while the latter was deposited in the shark pile. He groaned.

He was going to have to leave Zenkai behind if they want to get the civilians out.

Another frustrated sound escaped the support student as he lifted the e-brake. "You better know what you're doing!" where his last words to his roommate before he drove on in search of the exit. Unfortunately, while their transportation was fast, it came with headlights and brake lights which no doubt would attract whatever else laid in the dark. He ducked instinctively as another scream tore through the department.

Kei wasn't sure what he'd do if the monsters came after him and the others instead of the titan.

Zenkai Hatake

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

God, why did he even ask that? Of course she would want a demonstration. Everyone who stopped as his station asked for one as soon as he explained what the device he was looking after could do. It took all his willpower not to just shrink at her stare, surely judging him for asking such a stupid question. Which prompted an equally stupid answer. "Yeah okay." He sure was on a roll today.

Delving back into his usual motions as that's all he can rely on right now, Kei woke his laptop out of sleep mode, typing something on it before turning the screen towards the woman. "This is the schematic for a hand. Usually you can only use one material but-" Honeycomb-shaped compartments would appear on top of the device, prompting the student load it with several different plastics. "With multi-material printin', you can use the sturdiness of PETG, the grip and flexibility of TPU and the affordability of PLA, all at once, in the same print."

Kei pressed the enter key and the compartments sunk into the device before the nozzle began to move, expelling the loaded materials in a pattern below. As they waited, he gestured towards projects from past demonstrations, ranging from a small camera to a desktop fan. "It's not just plastics of course. It can also print usin' glass and metals." One of his favourites was the Venus box, which he actually picked up and opened and closed for Kioko, his earlier anxiety squashed by his excitement. "Even wood if you want to use up some branches."

The machine eventually beeped, which signalled Kei to place the box close to the woman so she can toy with it while he grabbed the finished hand. Wiping off the excess stringy bits, he bent each finger and smiled. "Somethin' this complex, made in minutes. It won't be long now before high-quality prosthetics become that much more accessible."

Kushiki Kioko

Kei may not have said anything while the hero student was making her move, but the worry in his eyes couldn't have been more evident if he tried. She was definitely in pain that didn't originate from just the exercise and she was pushing through it anyway. And it only got worse when she reeled herself too fast and her body slammed directly on the wall.

Jesus Christ he felt that impact all the way from the ground where he stood. It took everything in him to not immediately call out to the girl again.

So he waited for Jun to catch her breath, mentally counting down to when he felt it necessary to call for a medic. Only when she spoke did he finally let out a sigh of relief- only to hold it again once he processed her words and his eyes went wide. Electrical burns? Dying from them?

Kei really wanted to comment but her relenting was more important than continuing the testing. Especially since she survived death at one point? "Yeah that works for me," was the response he eked out, voice squeaking with barely contained panic. "We can give this another go next week."

Next month more like it but he wasn't going to mention it.

junsuina

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

Kei didn't need to be told twice; he and the mother and child already had a head start through the building, leaving Zenkai to do what he was trained to do. Well, that was a lie, they did stop eventually so the hero student wasn't left behind. It was only when the monster screamed and the titan rejoined them that they really started running, with the titan even picking up the woman's daughter despite what happened to his arm moments ago - yes Kei witnessed him ram his own arm into a pillar and it was as terrifying as one would expect.

His eyes only widened once they landed on the so-called Blahajs the titan was raving over. "They're sharks?!" How the guy could think of shark plushies at a time like this absolutely baffled Kei. Surely all that was gonna do was slow them down. The bin they were all in didn't even have wheels. They would lose too much time transporting them all.

But Zenkai did so much already, even bashing the first creature's head in with his own so it stopped chasing them. And he still had their cart despite everything. So sure, okay, maybe saving some stuffed animals was the least Kei could do for the titan. He saw a decent set of wheels they could use while they were running anyway.

Kei held his hands up at the woman they were trying to save. "Stay here okay? I'll be right back!" He veered left and disappeared in the shadows, and for a tense few seconds there was nothing but the distant noise of monsters closing in on their location. No support student in sight.

That is, until a pair of headlights shone in the darkness and it moved forward.

It was a forklift. Kei was driving a forklift so he could pick up the whole bin of Blahajs with its prongs. "Hop on! This thing can move faster than us!" he yelled at the woman, which he will definitely apologize for once he stopped panicking and they were no longer at risk of dying.

As soon as she jumped on the back of the vehicle, he steered it so it was next to Zenkai. "Just put the kid on my lap- you need your hands free dude!" He couldn't exactly punch another terror in the face while carrying a child. There was probably a rule against that somewhere in Heroism 101.

Zenkai Hatake