My fingers curled around the blue and red coats of the opened wires, holding them in place as I worked. Detailed wiring was never something I would look forward to, but I at least knew what I was doing. I had crafted the exoskeleton of the nero- transmitting headband for Class A's Hikaru Akiba. It wasn't often that Heroics students would request something this complicated, but the guy made his request very specific to his Quirk.

The headband would be able to receive electromagnetic pulses by the brain waves of him and anyone he can read the minds of. Then, the band would be programmed to convert those into energy the same way Rose uses her mind to control her bionics. The only difference would be Akiba could use his energy waves as attack emitters.

That was just his idea for the gadget. When he approached me at the beginning of the year to ask, I already had Remata claiming I couldn't handle it. After all, she was the skilled programmer of 1-H, fully prepared to take on something this complex. Even if I had no clue where to start, I at least couldn't give her the satisfaction of watching me give up.

I've managed to stay completely focused while working with the wires. The countless times I've witnessed Rose curse at her projects after a nasty shock were enough to make me cautious. The electro-magnets attached to the inside of his band were already powered up and ready to be connected to the emitters. I used my wire scissors to remove the protective plastic around them and carefully slid the wires near their opened socket.

The only way to avoid electric sparks was complete focus and precision. I had to clear my head of any distractions, leaving myself in silence with only the wires and my exposed fingers. The copper ends of the wires inched closer and closer to their socket, just millimeters away from being a disaster. I held my breath and began to finish until-

"You're doing it wrong."

Startled by this voice, my hand twitched and flicked the charged wires against the metal base of the band, sending a jolt of electricity through my hand. I acted fast to hold my wrist against my chest, feeling my arm begin to buzz and tingle with the electric energy.

"What now?" I asked the voice in my head, having a good idea of who barged in with his advice.

I turned my head up to watch Edison's ghost phase up through my work space as he preached on.

"You're using the wrong length wire. Sure, the 57 centimeter wire will fit the band fine, but it lacks the opportunity to extend the design further," he droned.

I rolled my eyes while he continued on and on about what I was doing wrong. I let him talk while I opened up my drawer and pulled out some first-aid wraps for my blistering hand. The wires only shocked my finger temporarily, but every few seconds, I'd be reminded of it through small shivers sent up my arm. It was just what my tics needed that day.

"Maybe I didn't want to extend my design," I told Edison. "This guy's idea is complicated enough. I don't need the extra work."

Edison scoffed, crossing his translucent arms. "Oh, don't be foolish, Mordecai. You can do it! I've seen you accomplish far more than this, so why hold yourself back?"

My temples began to ache and not from my electric injury. I had to remind myself that Edison's intentions were all in good nature. On the other hand, he was really starting to bug me.

"If I'm doing so great, then maybe I deserve something easy once in a while," I suggested, packing up my tools for the day. I knew no work could be done with this pushy spirit over my shoulder.

"Face it, boy, you're improving. Not only are you succeeding in your grades and projects, but Cleo tells me you're also making some friends here."

"I guess you could say that. . ."

I wasn't sure what he wanted to hear. Ever since I started at UA, Edison has been more out of touch with my social life. Cleo and Jack were always the ones to be curious and insist on meeting my friends. But after we lost Marie, Edison has been more focused on the house than what I was up to at school.

I expected Edison to continue his ramble about how I could improve, but instead I looked up to see him focused on the entrance at the front of the room.

"Is that one of them now?" He asked. I followed where he was looking to see the familiar pair of sky blue eyes in front of a head of curly ginger hair. Koto Yamada cautiously ducked her head inside to look around before finding me and waving.

I gently shook my head to Edison, but not enough that the girl ahead would notice.

"Sort of, but she's in Heroics," I told him, motioning Yamada inside and clearing Akiba's support gear off my desk.

"Really?" Edison's voice from behind my back asked in disbelief. "I wouldn't expect one of your little chums to come from that department. From what I've heard, you aren't exactly the friendliest with them." I could assume he got that idea from Cleo after she followed me to the 1-A movie night. Even though I ended up signing with Yamada and the other Hero students more than I thought, she still wouldn't let me hear the end of it.

I ignored Edison's comments throughout Yamada's visit, and I held up my uncooked hand to greet her.

"What's up?" I signed, trying to keep my phrases short and give my wrapped up hand a break.

Immediately, Koto fluently began to sign back. "I'm just here wondering if you need any help with my upgrades. I know you might have a lot to do, so if I can lend a hand, I don't mind."

"Would you look at that!" Edison laughed in amusement. He floated out from behind me and watched Yamada as she pulled her hands back and forth in sign. "I don't think I've ever met someone your age who knows sign language so well."

Knowing he would be talking my head off about this sooner or later, I went on to explain. "Edison, this is class 1-A's Koto Yamada. She's mute, so we both use sign language."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Yamada," Edison declared, floating forward and introducing himself while knowing full well she was oblivious to him.

I let Edison humor himself with Yamada while I dug through my desk to answer her question.

"I actually finished during lunch today," I signed to Yamada, grabbing my box with her hero name labeled across the front. I set the case on my work table and motioned for Yamada to stand on the same side to see.

Inside were her requested upgrades: a pair of soundless flats with enough support and static cling to keep her grounded as well as a set of soundproof headphones. The black and blue design was meant to coordinate with her hero costume while each set of gadgets were low profile.

"What do you think?" I signed, turning myself to face her with my good hand.

Yamada's expression stretched up into a wide smile while she clasped her hands together. She lifted up on her toes, so I guessed she was fairly happy with her upgrades. She faced me with her hands in flexed positions to convert her eager energy.

"I love this!" She silently exclaimed. "Now I wish I showed up sooner. It'd be nice to test these out with my Quirk."

As she mentioned this, a thought ran through my mind, but I debated. As if he could tell what I was thinking, Edison voiced his own opinion.

"Trial and error is a big step in the scientific method, Mordecai," he mentioned. I didn't always enjoy making him feel right, but he had a point. I'd never know if my inventions were successes unless I saw Yamada try them out herself.

I faced Yamada with my hands pulling apart from my left thumb, signing, "The gym is still unlocked, and I'm sure the teachers wouldn't mind if we tested these out for a bit."

Yamada considered my suggestion for a moment before she met my eyes with a determined smile. "That sounds like a great idea! I could probably go all out with my Quirk in Gym Hira."

With that, we had a plan. I packed up our gadgets and followed her lead to the gym for some test runs.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

I walked behind Koto with Edison trailing along. I told him he was more than welcome to go home, but he insisted on watching me help Yamada. I knew it was just another way for him to micromanage this, but it was a useless battle.

"Almost there," Koto signed, walking backwards for just a moment before finishing off her walk to Gym Hira. Unlike most of UA's gyms, this one was the second largest completed with reinforced walls but a glass ceiling. Teachers have mentioned that the use of a glass ceiling conserves energy with its natural lighting, and it's thick enough to withstand the power of the students' attacks.

While the architecture of Gym Hira was enough to get any Support student rambling, its biggest attraction had to be the use of UA's exam robots.

Yamada led me towards the control panel attached to the walls as she signed. "These should be the controls to the one-point bots. You could take care of those while I practice defending them."

I turned my head from her hands up to her eyes. She couldn't have been serious. UA's robots were designed with the intentions to give even Pros a hard time. Does this girl really think she could handle fighting one just for the sake of a test run?

I got ready to ask Yamada if she was sure about this, but before I could put the syllables together in signs, I noticed the fiery determination in her expression. She held her fists up and bounced up on her toes again, a habit I began to notice more in her. When she signed to me, "let's do it!" I knew there was no stopping.

I took the rectangular control board to the smallest robot I could find as Yamada strapped on her upgrades. My hand started to feel better after the shock, noticeable by the few tics beginning to twinge at my fingertips.

I faced up at Yamada, keeping a glance at my robot from across the gym. To test out the controls, I slid my fingers across the board where the digital lever was turned. In time with my command, the machine successfully mimicked the position. This might have been easier than I thought.

I turned to Yamada, pulling one hand up and rotating my fingers to ask, "ready?"

Yamada smiled, pulling her headphones up and giving me a sure thumbs up. After that, she took off running towards her opponent.

I noticed the way her feet moved against the ground weren't the intentions of her upgraded shoes. It was almost as if her feet were bouncing off some invisible energy.

"That's right," I thought, facing Edison as he watched from in front of me. "Her Quirk can generate sound, which in itself can produce vibrations."

Watching Yamada bounce from sound to sound with wide strides in perfect balance as she neared my robot almost made me wish I could hear whatever tune she was moving to. But I'd have to focus on that later. She was close to the robot, and as she neared, I used my controls to swing a metal arm down at her.

Yamada didn't try to dodge, and I worried about the impact of it crushing her. However, she instead threw her hand towards the ground as if she was holding on as a force I couldn't see or hear sent my bot flying back.

Fighting against her would end up being much more of a challenge than I anticipated. Her Quirk involved sounds, sounds I was blind to. That meant my only option would be fast attacks.

I used the robot to attack again, but Yamada was quicker. She planted her feet firmly on the ground as my robot was thrown back again, getting harder to control. Koto's attacks consisted of brute force against the robot. If I didn't do anything to counter it, she would be sending the robot back against the wall.

"Come on, Mordecai!" Edison cheered. "Don't let her beat you." I wasn't sure he understood the purpose of this exercise, but either way, I persevered through his helpful commentary. It proved to not be enough in the end though.

Before I knew it, Yamada had sent one last blow of noise to smash against the machine. This time, I sensed the sound as the vibrations made their way to gently flow through the air. I felt my hair float up off my face until, for a brief second, life felt weightless. I looked up to Yamada, beyond impressed with what a little sound could do, but I only saw her as her eyes began to slowly close.

Within the next instant, I began to feel the weight come back to me. I only felt lifted up about an inch, enough to where my toes still clung to the gym floor. The robot was different as when it came back down to the floor, the impact was enough for it to power down. I'd be concerned about damaging UA property if the attack hadn't caused Yamada to stumble warily.

"Everything alright?" Edison asked. I didn't bother answering and went ahead to find out for myself.

Yamada was pale, holding her uniform sleeve up to her bleeding nose and squinting her eyes shut. I stood at her side and began to sign, but she beat me to it, pulling her hands together to sign "fine" again and again. I still wasn't convinced.

I felt bad for putting her through that just for some data. If I had known her Quirk had such a stressful drawback, I would have backed off and let her train with her class who knew her better than I did.

But when I began to doubt this test run, Yamada put her hand against my shoulder. Her other hand faced me as she signed quickly. "That was awesome!"

I had to replay the moment a second time to be sure, and if her words didn't do the trick, her lit up smile was enough to say she wasn't sorry about using that special move.

"Who knew Support testing could be so intense! These gadgets worked perfectly, by the way. I could really go all out with my Quirk here."

Even if she seemed exhausted and a little worn down, proved by the small smear of blood above her mouth, Yamada seemed truly ecstatic about our training. I usually only saw that kind of spirited energy in my classmates, and it was nice to know this girl shared the same determined fire they did.

I let Yamada have a break. The gadgets were a success, and I told her she was free to use them as soon as she wanted. I later asked how exactly her Quirk functioned, and after her explanation, I began to mentally note the ideas for new inventions powered by vibrations.

Of course, Edison had a million ideas. He begged me to ask for Yamada's input on his invention plans, but I had to remind him I was already committed to other projects.

I got the chance to at least brainstorm ideas with Yamada. She knew a lot about her Quirk, and it really helped that she understood the basics of what I did. She was nice about waiting for me to work with a few of the Class A students before hers, and she even offered to lend me a hand when the time came. And if I was being honest, a part of me was looking forward to it.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

Yamada and I took a few seconds to rest before we started to clean up the gym. It wasn't a lot, considering she remained in good control with her Quirk. However, I noticed her power was strong enough to make a small crack in the glass ceiling above us. The crack was barely noticeable, only slightly thicker than a strand of hair, so I ignored it for the time being.

I glanced over the room to find Yamada, my hand up and ready to sign something to her, but her attention was fixed on the doorway. I turned around to see what she was looking at, seeing two more 1-H students walking in.

As soon as Double and Rose each noticed me walking over, they both greeted me individually, Rose with a subtle wave and Double with a bright smile.

"There you-you are," Double beamed. "Everything going-going alright here?"

To the side of him, I saw Rose nod along, gesturing around the room. "Yeah, we heard a lot of noise coming from here. But Double mentioned you were doing some test runs, so we didn't want to bother you."

If Yamada and I had been making that much noise with her fight against the exam bot, I couldn't tell. It would make sense though, as her Quirk dealt with sound. I put a closed fist to my chest and rotated my hand to tell Rose and Double we were sorry about the racket. Over the last school semester, I've been trying to teach my friends sign language as much as they wanted, but there was still a long way to go. For the time being, I could at least read their lips.

I let Double talk as he explained why they both tried to find me as I packed up my school bag.

"Semester projects are due- are due this week. Since most of-of us finished already, we were- we were thinking of going out to celebrate. Are you-you busy?"

With my whiteboard sitting in the 1-H classroom, I knew the only way I could communicate with my friends was with my phone. I held my hand up to Double to ask him to hang on while I typed. When I finished, I showed him my message written in my notes app.

"You know I'm not," the text read. "What did you have in mind?"

This time, Rose picked up the question to answer. "Snake told us that Musutafu just opened up their winter fair. It could be fun if we all went there."

Before I could type up a quick agreement, Double held his hand out to me. Unsure, I handed him my phone as he typed into the blank notes. He showed Rose what was written, and the girl shot me a small grin before nodding to Double.

When my phone was handed back, I read over Double's message to me.

"Want us to invite your new friend?" He had asked

Feeling Yamada close behind me, I rushed to shut my phone off and shove it deep into my pocket. I looked up to my friends and prayed they weren't about to make a huge deal out of this.

I had nothing against Yamada. Quite the opposite as I enjoyed hanging out with her. But I knew how this might come off to some of my friends, especially Snake and Double, and I didn't want to make things awkward. Besides, I was sure Yamada had plans already.

Though, Rose wasn't convinced. Without giving me the opportunity to say anything, Rose had waved a hand over to Yamada, and started talking.

"Hey, Koto! If you're not busy, want to come with us? A few of my classmates have been dying to meet you and pick your brain about gadget ideas."

I tried not to be obvious when looking at Yamada for an answer. When I did, I remembered that she used her Quirk to speak, and I would have no way of understanding what was said. I was completely in the dark with her reply.

Before I could use context clues to figure out if she declined or not, I felt an arm tugging me in the direction of the door. I looked up at Rose as she smiled and waved at Yamada, pulling me out with Double following behind. I couldn't tell if their hurried leave was because they were overly excited for the Hero student to join us, or because they felt guilty as she rejected the offer.

I barely had time to sign a goodbye to Yamada. When I did though, I caught her one quick gesture. When I saw her two fingers twist up to touch her cheek and point back at me, the fluttered feeling in my gut was back. Oddly enough, it didn't bother me as Yamada smiled.

"See you later!"

Chapter 3 is dedicated to -butterfly--effect-