The list of nearly a hundred hero agencies who wanted to work with Naoko had slowly and painfully been cut down to a far more manageable list of ten agencies that focused on helping the people over getting publicity. Hasame was a major help when it came to researching all the locations, despite her reservations with this whole system.

The only draft that received any special attention was the one from a certain flame-headed hero, whose draft ended up pinned to the living room wall as soon as Naoko showed it to Hasame. Already it had one knife stabbed through it, courtesy of Hasame, and Naoko wasn't far behind. In fact, while they were discussing each of the agencies they were having a casual target practice to pass the time.

Now that Naoko had a much more condensed list, she was ready to just close her eyes and chose randomly. Hasame would probably kill her if that's what she ended up doing, but it really was so tempting.

Instead, Naoko actually looked into each agency's reputation and what they commonly dealt with. She didn't care all that much about helping with things like robberies, but anything that would directly help the people she was willing to jump into. In the end, she actually made a thoughtful decision, writing it down and handing it into Aizawa the next day directly after class.

It was one of the few moments where he wasn't swamped with people, so he was actually able to talk when she handed him the fully filled out sheet.

"Not Endeavor's?" He asked quietly, pushing down his scarf that, as always, was hiding his mouth slightly. He guessed that she didn't like the fiery pro-hero, and the sports festival confirmed that fact for him; however, it was odd that she was ignoring the amazing opportunity of training with the best of the best.

The moment he asked that Naoko's face twisted into a snarl and she looked away from Aizawa to glare viciously at the chalkboard, "Obviously not, I wouldn't train under that self-important idiot if you paid me." Without another word, Naoko walked out, leaving a trail of sass behind her.

Aizawa watched her go with a slightly raised eyebrow, "Why do I get the feeling she was holding back?" He muttered as he looked down at the paper in his hands, "Hosu City Hero Agency over the number two hero, huh? You certainly will be an interesting hero."

***

Hosu City was nothing special, there were buildings, traffic, and more people than Naoko would like. It looked just like every other city out there, perhaps even a bit less interesting as it was meant to be more of a business center.

It's not like Naoko wasn't happy to finally be there though, she nearly had a claustrophobia-induced panic attack on the crowded train ride to Hosu. She was thanking her lucky stars that she had gotten a place to stand next to one of the windows, otherwise, the train would have had one less car by the time it got to the Hosu Station.

Two heroes were waiting for Naoko and Iida at the station and before long they found themselves walking through a small office in downtown Hosu being given a tour that Naoko completely missed out on.

She knew that Aizawa had sent them an email about her handicap, but she made sure he also added in not to treat her differently, so she hoped that this was just them conforming to this request. Really, there was enough for Naoko to pay attention to without adding in literally everything else...

The longer Naoko spent walking through the building, the happier she was that she chose to intern there, no she didn't get a single thing their tour guide was telling them, but she saw the looks on the heroes faces, something about the aura of the place was so professional yet friendly... It was amazing.

Though, it wasn't until they entered the main cafeteria of the building that Naoko really got a shock. Standing in the center of the room were two men who were literally butting heads as they glared daggers at each other.

She could feel Iida squirm slightly from beside her, up until now he had been oddly quiet, which Naoko really didn't care to look into, the local stiff man wasn't bothering her, which was enough for Naoko at the moment.

No, her attention was completely held by the two men in the middle of the room; not only were they very obviously arguing about what they were going to eat that day while literally butting heads, but they were also doing all this in sign language... Very, very vulgar sign language. Hasame would have murdered Naoko if she tried to use as many explicative as she had already seen these two men use in just a few seconds of conversation.

Judging by how the rest of the room was reacting to these men, this was a common occurrence, though Naoko would eat her non-existent hat if any of them knew completely what was being said.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Shit for tastebuds? It's obvious that Onigiri would only give you indigestion like it has for the last two fucking nights! If we get that damned meal again than I'll have to deal with you're pissy attitude again, and I don't fucking want to do that!" The taller male with long, rust-colored hair signed with a vicious edge to his fingers that clearly showed just how done he was with the other man.

The other man, who was far shorter with a slight bowl cut and black hair glared back just as viciously as he tried to stop his fingers from going into overdrive. A pair of welding goggles were hung loosely around his neck which sharply contrasted the picture perfect suit he was wearing that had a cravat tucked neatly into his shirt. "Oh, go suck a dick. Onigiri does not give me indigestion, you just don't like how I eat it!"

Naoko's eyes were about as wide as saucers as she looked between the two men, wondering just what in the world was happening.

"That's because you're a heathen who eats it with hot sauce! Of course I'm going to insult your eating habits when they are completely inappropriate!"

"Like you're one to talk you disgusting moron, at least I'm not the one who adds sugar to my soba, if you are looking for inappropriate habits, then you've found it right there!"

They continued to bicker back and forth, but Naoko was pulled away from it by a hand being clapped heavily onto her shoulder, "I take it you can understand them?" The man who had done their tour was standing over her with a happy smile on his face.

Naoko nodded mutely as she looked back in time to see the short one signing something that had her eyes widening even more... Perhaps she had just read that completely out of context, but anytime someone was talking about them doing a better job... Sucking something... It was hard to see that in an innocent light.

Her attention was brought back to the man standing over her shoulder as he patted her again, "Don't worry too much about them, I know they look mean, but they're both good heroes. You should probably go introduce yourself since you'll be working with them closely for the next few days."

Wait, what? Naoko would be partnered with these two? She certainly wasn't intimidated by them, but it felt like a bad moment to approach them at all and admit that she could read exactly what they were talking about.

"Do you know what they're saying?" She asked hesitantly, almost hoping for a positive answer.

Sadly, her hopes were dashed as he shook his head with a slight smile quirking at his lips, "No, most of us in the office can sign at least a little bit so we can talk to Sonar directly, but for the most part we just go through Gangrene, they certainly do fight like this all the time though!"

He sounded so happy about it, but Naoko couldn't help but wonder if he'd be as happy knowing just what they were talking about. At that moment they seemed to be stuck on the idea of who was the better lover, though Naoko was trying to ignore quite a bit of their conversation...

She smiled back at the man as convincingly as she could and he reciprocated, "Why don't you go over there and introduce yourself, I heard that Sonar specifically asked to work with you." With that, he left to go get Iida settled in... Oh yeah, that wasn't intimidating at all...

Naoko took a deep steadying breath as she took a step forward as she tried to ignore some of the more... Crude signs that they were using. She coughed quietly, hoping to get one or both of their attention, and the tall, long-haired one looked over with an almost irritated look.

"I'm sorry, can I help you?" He asked brusquely as he crossed his arms, the short one looked over as well, sending her a vicious glare.

Well, this was off to a great start... It took most of the courage Naoko had to raise her hands and sign a greeting (She decided that that was the better idea, seeing as how they were both fluent in it), "I was told I'd be working with the two of you," Her fingers seemed to be extra sharp today as her nervousness kicked in, making her signing look much more curt, "I honestly think that both of you are disgusting, sugar in soba and hot sauce in onigiri both sound terrible."

Their faces as she signed that out fluently would have been a lot funnier if she wasn't a nervous wreck, though the smaller one did have a bit of a grin on his face as he looked her over, "I suppose you're Fujimura Naoko then?" He asked, leaning back slightly as he signed. "You took longer than I thought you would to get here. What were you doing? Taking a long shit?"

Naoko had need around Bakugou long enough to not really care about all the swearing, but she couldn't help but cringe internally as she contemplated Hasame meeting this little man, she would absolutely hate him...

Unfortunately for him, Naoko had been spending far to much time around Aizawa lately, so she simply cocked her eyebrow and responded, "More like trying not to kill a whole train full of people, though if I had a choice, I definitely would have been going for your option."

The tall man simply looked between the two, neither of them would be able to hear him if he tried to intervene, it seemed he wasn't needed for a few moments. His quirk tingled for a moment and he smiled, it looked like the young girl had already managed to impress Sonar, which was not easy to do.

If he walked away now, he might just be able to get his soba without being mocked by his partner the whole time. He would let them talk and get to know each other for a bit, Sonar could be a tough pill to swallow on the best of days so she would need all the time she could get.

As he thought, the two didn't notice as he stepped away towards the line for food, they were to busy staring each other down, though Naoko was simply participating in this contest because she didn't have the nerves to look away. She got the feeling that this was important somehow so she continued to maintain eye contact with the incredibly intimidating short man.

It took a few moments of Naoko feeling as though she was about to explode because of the nerves, but eventually the short man shook his head and began to sign again, "Well, it looks like your a bit higher quality than the usual shits that get sent here, if you can keep up with us you might even turn out to be a decent hero."

This shocked Naoko, but despite that, the smallest of smiles made it's way onto her face, "So it's okay with you if you take me under your wing for a week or two?"

He nodded which made Naoko just about faint with the amount of relief she was filled with at that moment, she hadn't realized how stressful this whole thing would be.

"I guess I should introduce myself then, shouldn't I?" His movements changed slightly as he relaxed a bit, "My hero name is Sonar and that big oaf who just left was Chris, he's my interpreter and partner."

Naoko had guessed that one of the two men were deaf, but still... She had so many questions. Her hands raised to respond, but Sonar cut her off.

"Now isn't the time to ask questions, let's go get some of the shit that passes for food around here and find out where that man whore went. Once we've got some food then you can ask questions till your fingers fall off. Chris likes talking more, so I imagine he'll be fucking ecstatic to talk to you."

Sonar turned to walk away, but caught himself at the last moment, "Oh, and get used to using sign language while you're here, I can't read lips like you apparently can and words are meaningless when they can't be understood."

With that he walked towards where the food was being served, Naoko trailing behind, if this Chris was anything like Sonar, she was in for an interesting internship... Heck, even if Chris was completely different from Sonar she was in for an interesting time if their earlier conversation was anything to go off of.

Naoko almost smiled when Sonar grabbed a plate of onigiri for lunch, she could practically see the vindictiveness in his eyes as he stared at the plate before grabbing a few extra's as well as a whole handful of hot sauce packets. Somehow she doubted that this was an uncommon occurrence, but it was hilarious either way, especially once they made it to the table that Chris had grabbed for them and she saw soba with empty packets of sugar next to it.

It seemed that both heroes delighted in vexing each other, and with the conversation she saw earlier, well, it wasn't hard to see that they were incredibly close.

A smile lit up Chris' face when the two moved to sit down, "Oh good! He didn't scare you away." He signed happily before looked at what Sonar was holding and cringed in disgust, "You and your heathen acts... Fujimura? It was Fujimura Naoko, right?" He looked directly at Naoko after tossing the casual insult at his partner.

Naoko nodded quickly before sitting down and pulling her stir fry towards her and taking a bite, "Well, I hope you don't mind if I call you Naoko, I'm not one for formalities and first names are just easier for me; anyway, I just wanted to apologize for our conversation earlier, it wasn't exactly age-friendly..." He paused and looked at Sonar awkwardly for a moment before shaking his head, "It's pretty rare that we find people who understand signing fluently, so we don't typically censor ourselves. I understand if that made you feel awkward."

The nice thing about communicating primarily in sign language was the fact that she didn't have to wait for her mouth to be empty. She quickly set her chopsticks down before responding to Chris, "Don't worry about it too much, I just wasn't expecting to see the topic of conversation." She paused hesitantly before looking between the two, "So you two are partners?" She broached hesitantly, "It was mentioned, but that's all I know... Also, what are your guys' quirks? I can tell you're deaf Sonar, but how has that affected your hero work? Oh, what would be your recommendation for-"

Every question that had been swirling around came out in a massive word vomit that was nearly intelligible with how quickly it was being signed. It wasn't until a hand was laid forcefully on her hands, stopping her mid-word, that she looked back up to see Sonar looking at her in exasperation, "One question at a time, we're good, but I'm not sure even we are that good."

Chris smiled merrily as he laid a hand on Sonar's shoulder, "To answer your first question, yes, we're partners in more than one way, I also work on his tech and back him up on missions. I also am his only connection with humanity since he's afraid of socializing."

A sharp look was Chris' reward for that, "Keep talking and you'll see how afraid I am tonight when we get home."

"You say that like a threat, but threats shouldn't make me want it."

It wasn't the first time, but at that point, Naoko got the very distinct feeling that she should not be watching this... Or even in the same room as this conversation, "So..." Naoko signed exuberantly, trying to pull their attention away from each other. "Quirks! What are your guys' quirks, also, I don't know you're hero name is Chris... Let's just talk about literally anything except your guys' relationship."

Her face was completely red as she signed, was this what her whole internship would be like?

Both Chris and Sonar looked at her for a moment before Chris burst out into laughter that Naoko could already see was drawing everyone's attention and Sonar smirked evilly... This was going to be her whole internship... Oh, joy...

Once Chris had calmed down to the point where he wasn't about to fall off his chair, he finally responded, "Sorry, sorry, we forget ourselves, Sonar's quirk is pretty obvious, he uses sonar and I can sense connections, my hero name is Gangrene."

Sonar sent yet another disgusted look towards Chris, "It's fucking disgusting and it makes no sense."

"True," Chris conceded, "But it serves a purpose, so I won't complain. Now, how about you? I watched your speech at the Sports festival- That was hilarious by the way, Sonar enjoyed it as well- but neither of us really care to keep up with that, so I'm afraid I don't know too much about you except the fact that you're deaf."

Normally, Naoko would have cringed when people brought up her handicap, but seeing as how she was in the presence of a fully functional deaf hero, she really couldn't bring herself to feel offended, "My quirk is officially known as Density control, though it's more accurate to describe it as controlling an object's state of matter. Um... My hero name is Hodoreo... It has nothing to do with my quirk either."

It seemed that Naoko had finally interested Sonar, who turned his attention away from his disgusting onigiri when she began to sign, "I heard about a scandal at the sports festival, apparently someone dropped the number two hero through the stadium floor, do you know anything about that?"

Technically, this could be really bad, this was a pro-hero asking about something that could technically be considered a crime, but Naoko really didn't care, "Yeah, that was me. He's lucky that I didn't melt his legs as well when I used my quirk against him."

Oddly enough, different from the response Naoko was expecting to get, both men simply nodded before digging back into their food... It was almost as if this was a completely normal response. Naoko froze in shock for a moment left blinking owlishly at them before she shrugged and picked her chopsticks back up again. Apparently, they were okay with her all but assaulting one of the most powerful men in Japan... Okay then.

A few minutes passed in silence as they finished up eating and threw away their trash. Now that lunch was over, Naoko's internship officially began and she trailed quietly behind the two, who were discussing something in as they began to walk through the halls, completely ignoring her presence for the most part as they became absorbed in what looked like work.

Naoko was able to catch a word here and there, but for the most part, she simply looked around at the walls as she had earlier during the tour she was given. For the most part, this would have been completely normal if it weren't for the fact that Naoko still had her luggage with her, which was inconvenient in the extreme.

It wasn't until she tapped Chris on the shoulder that he turned around and noticed her bulky bag that was initially left outside the cafeteria.

"Oh, that's right!" Once again his exuberance showed through in his signing, "I was going to ask you where you were staying while here."

Sonar tugged both of them to the side of the hallway so they weren't taking up any room as Naoko responded carefully, "Um, I thought I heard that there were accommodations here... Something about beds being provided?"

It seemed that that was a bit of a touchy subject for Sonar, who pulled a face the moment the in house dorms were mentioned, "You are absolutely not staying there," He scowled heavily, "Those are filthy."

Naoko blanched slightly, if she couldn't stay here, what would she do? "But... I need to stay somewhere."

As much as she wanted to just accept and go home every night on a two-hour train ride and come back in the morning, that was both miserable sounding and illogical to the extreme.

Chris shook his head at his partner's bluntness, "Sorry about him, he goes a bit... Overboard when it comes to cleanliness. And don't worry, we aren't telling you to go home every night. If you really want you can stay with us, I think our extra room is empty."

Now, Naoko was no security expert, but staying with two men for two weeks sounded like a lawsuit waiting to happen. For a few seconds, Naoko simply stood there with her mouth gaping like a fish.

"Just do it, brat." Sonar signed harshly before folding his arms and staring her down.

No! There was so much that could go wrong with that! Naoko continued to stare incredulously at them before she finally spoke up, "Sorry, but that sounds like a wildly bad idea, couldn't that reflect badly on you two if something bad were to happen?"

Once again, the two looked at Naoko as though she said something incredibly amusing, which sent her right back into a highly confused state, "What? Did I say something funny?"

They exchanged glances before Chris decided to enlighten Naoko, "Think about this carefully, Naoko, do you really think that we care about trouble? After everything you've heard us say over the course of an hour, do you really think that either of us would balk at a little bit of trouble?"

It was a fair point, anyone who would talk about highly charged stuff as casually as they did likely would be fine with getting in trouble for the right reasons.

"It's not like either of us are strangers to being on the wrong side of the law, it could be fun to go back to that." Sonar said in what Naoko guessed was a joking tone, but the looks the two continued to share made her think that perhaps they were serious...

The topic was brushed aside as quickly as it was introduced and Chris decided that enough time had been spent loitering in the halls, "Well, now that that's settled we should get going, we've set up a test of sorts to assess your abilities, for now we'll leave your stuff in the dorm rooms- stop glaring at me like that Sonar- and once you've gotten your hero costume on we'll get going."

Sonar was indeed glaring heavily at Chris merely at the mention of the dorm rooms, which had both Naoko and Chris chuckling at the short man's irritation. This would be an interesting few weeks, especially since...

Wait a minute...

She never agreed to stay with them! Those bastards!

Sonar:

Basically Levi Ackerman from AOT, he's short, has a shorter temper, and truly is the best at what he does. He is deaf and has been since birth likely because of his quirk, which developed early. His real name is Levi, but he's very selective about who he tells this. He spent a long time in his life stealing food to support himself and at one point was almost brought into the LOV, but he as about as disgusted by them as he is by sweets.

He only really started to consider a career as a hero when he met his interpreter and partner Christopher, a Swedish hero who was moved to Japan by his father. His ability to use his quirk as well as his physical prowess allowed him to get his hero license without going to a hero school first.

Sonar's quirk is the ability to use sonar, which helps in search and destroy missions as well as rescue missions. He uses the welding goggles around his neck to block his vision and allows himself to become blind as well while he is tracking something. If he tries to use his quirk for too long at once, he gets major headaches that can, if he really pushes it he can induce a stroke, though that has yet to happen.

He is incredible with hand to hand combat, and has used this to take down some of the best villains out there. In fact, the only reason he isn't high up on the list of heroes is the fact that he hates people and publicity much more than he hates villains. The only people he can tolerate are the heroes he works with to some extent and Chris... Though there is definitely a potential for him and Naoko to become very close family as well.

Gangrene

Yes, Chris' hero name is the gross infection that people got all the time in the trenches of WWI, he mainly did this just so that he would never be popular like his father really pushed him to be. Also, he just really enjoys how much it bugs Sonar, who is the epitome of a germaphobe. He truly is a serious hero and tends to work more in the technical end of things, helping Sonar out with missions and his equipment.

Chris was forced to go to Shiketsu High by his father, yet when he showed no interest in being a hero, he was disowned. He spent the next several years as a stripper to make money while being a vigilante on the side. It wasn't until he was in his late twenties that he returned to the idea of hero work when he decided he was sick of being pursued by the police.

He turned himself in, and because he had genuinely done a lot of good as a vigilante, he was given the opportunity to try for his hero certification after he had paid for his crimes, which he unsurprisingly passed after the first try.

He met Levi, who would become Sonar not long after this, when he was on one of his first official missions. They fought, and while Chris' fighting skills were far below Levi's, it was still a close fight as Chris' ability to strategize is off the map. Levi allowed Chris to live, but then tracked him down later to talk. They became fast friends with benefits and it was Chris who convinced Levi to become a hero. Not long after, they moved in together and have been Hosu City's enigmas since then.

Gangrene's quirk is called connectivity, it allows him to read the connections between things, whether it be between people or between electrical objects. This is a big reason why he made such a good stripper... It's also why he was so good at building certain types of tech. He has built all of Sonar's equipment and maintains them with an anal-ness that is only surpassed by his wittiness around Sonar.

Sonar refuses to call Chris by his hero name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welp, sorry that I missed a week guys... For some reason this chapter has given me the worst writers block ever, but I'm back and hopefully back in business... Hopefully.

I know that new OC's being added is usually a pain, but I legitimately already love these two, they really are what cured my block for this whole thing and I just love how they interacted! They came about because of someone over on Quotev who is working to understand deaf culture. This person pointed out that Naoko, as I've portrayed her, would be impossible, so I wanted to take a stab at what it would look like to have a hero who is more realistically deaf.

I don't know why Levi ended up being the one who took on that role, but they are so great and hilarious. Let me know what you guys think of them!

-klypso01