Golden Touch (BnHA)

Chapter 2: Guess I Can't Stay Unemployed

Two years had passed since Kula ran away from home, and now she was running towards the train station so she wouldn't be late for work. In the years she had been gone, she had managed to find somebody that would hire her— it wasn't because she was too young that people wouldn't hire her, but it was because she had no prior job experience. It was at a Support Gear store, where Pro heroes who didn't want the news of them breaking their support gear getting out into the public. It was kind of an underground support repair shop. Though since she didn't have a support course education or lisence, Kula didn't do much at her job except keep the place tidy for the customers who would come in every now and again— and maybe tinker with some gear under her boss' watch.

In her rush to not be late, Kula accidentally bumped into someone and caused the two of them to fall onto the ground as she was taken away from her thoughts.

"Hey! Watch where you're going, extra!" The person shouted, and Kula looked up at him, her eyes meeting the scowling expression of a Jr. High boy.

"Why don't you take your own advice, hedgehog?" Kula retorted, standing up and walking away— she wasn't going to get into another fight before work again, it wasn't worth the effort.

"Hey, don't ignore me! I'll kill you!" The boy shouted, heat and smoke washing over Kula as a loud explosion was set off.

"I'll ignore whoever I damn well please!" Kula shouted as she shoved her hands into her pockets and continued to get to where she needed to be.

Apart form that run in with the Jr. High boy, Kula's walk was mostly peaceful, and by the time she arrived at the shop, she was ready to work. Opening the door to the familiar store, Kula listened as the familiar bells chimed overhead as they announced that she had entered.

"Kula! Good morning!" A middle aged woman exclaimed, stepping out of the back room with some grease and ash on her face.

"Morning Ms. Ito." Kula greeted.

"If you could be a dear and organize the display cases, that would be wonderful. I've got to fix this device before the afternoon, so just call back if you need something or if someone comes in." With that, the woman returned to the back room of the building muttering something about a certain hero screaming so loud he managed to break his own directional support device.

Kula nodded and started to work on the display case in the buildings windows, thinking back to when she had first met Ms. Ito.

She had stumbled upon the store around a year ago, half starving and needing money so she could by food for herself to survive. she had already tried to get jobs at restaurants, and even an amusement park— she even went as low as to try to get a job at a maid cafe. None of the places hired her because she had lacked the needed requirements and experience. It wasn't long after those few rejections that she found this place. Ms. Ito had her doubts at first, but once she watched Kula in action, the woman had hired her on the spot. Kula didn't know if it was because the woman was truly interested in her work, or if she was the only one who had applied. She had been working for Ms. Ito for a year and already the woman was closer to her than her actual mom ever was— which was probably the only reason that she wasn't rude to her. Of course, she didn't trust Ms. Ito enough to tell her everything, as far as the woman was aware, Kula was kicked out of her family's house for being quirkless and was living with a friend who wanted Kula to pay for some of the stuff around the house.

A chime at the door pulled Kula from her thoughts and she looked over towards the door, seeing a skeletal man standing in the doorway, wearing an oversized white tee-shirt and oversized green pants.

"If you need any repairs, Ms. Ito's in the back." Kula said simply as she stepped out from where she was behind the display shelf.

The man jumped in surprise, "O-oh! I didn't see you there, Kula. If you could get her, that would be great." He gave her a small smile and Kula nodded, her expression not changing from the neutral one she had been holding through the entire time. Walking through the back door, Kula knocked on the wall, watching as the purple haired woman jumped from the sudden noise.

"Kula, dear, what do you need?" Ms. Ito asked, turning from the device she was working on to look at the girl.

"Someone's out in the front that wants to see you." She said, pointing behind her.

"Ah, thank you! While I'm gone, could you figure out what I need to do to get this thing working again? I can't for the life of me figure it out. But remember, you're just looking. No actual tinkering—"

"Unless you're watching me. Yeah yeah, don't worry." Kula said, waving her hand dismissively. She knew that Ms. Ito was really just testing her knowledge, the older woman obviously knew what was wrong with the gear.

Ms. Ito just let out a small sigh before moving from her seat into the front of the store, a friendly greeting making it's way to Kula's ears.

They must know each other. Kula thought to herself, walking over to where the device was and sitting down, looking over it. She recognized it as Present Mic's directional support item. While Kula enjoyed his radio show she had heard him in action a few times before— from a few blocks away from where he was— and he was still too loud for her. As far as Kula was aware, Present Mic's quirk allowed him to amplify his voice into sound-based attacks that can blow away or deafen any enemies he defeats.

"It looks like he busted this device because it wasn't made to support how high his voice could go." Kula muttered, "So once he reached the limit of the device, it started to break due to the sound overload. So if I..." The girl had started to mutter to herself, it was something she did often to organize her thoughts when talking about support items but it sometimes— or most of the time— ended up annoying anyone around her.

By the time Ms. Ito had returned to the back room, the girl's muttering seemed to of filled up the room as she was sitting at the chair, moving the device in her hands.

"Am I correct to assume that you figured out what was wrong about it?" She asked, pulling Kula from her thoughts.

The girl turned to look at her with shining eyes, an unusual expression for the normally neutral faced girl. The older woman had noticed that whenever she had gotten a chance to talk about support items the girl lit up— quite literally.

"Well, I realized that the original design wasn't able to withstand the higher ranges of Present Mic's voice, so maybe if you just adjust the sound capacitors that would fix the issue." She rambled. "Am I Right?"

"That's exactly what it is." Ms. Ito said, a small smile on her face. "You really are smart. I don't  see why you don't want to try for U.A's support course."

"Ah, well. I don't know." Kula murmured, getting up from the seat and starting to move to the front of the room. "I don't know if I'm cut out for that."

"Oh nonsense! I bet you'd do excellent!" Ms. Ito said, "You always seem to know what's wrong with something or how to improve something just by looking at it. Just think about it, alright."

"Yes ma'am." Kula said before she moved to the front of the store.

***

That evening, Kula was walking back to where she had been staying for the past two years. An abandoned apartment building.

She had assumed it was abandoned due to the amount of criminal activity that happened around the area, mugging, murders, kidnappings. Those events would scare away anyone who even thought about living in the area. But there was a reason that Kula was able to live there— and that reason was leaning just outside the entrance to the building, wearing a black hoodie and holding a DS in his hands, middle fingers lifted as to not effect it with his quirk.

"What a pleasure to see you, Shigaraki."

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Hey hey everyone! So this is a note AFTER this has been posted for like,, a year?
I realized that part of this story has brought up some thoughts,  specifically the part with the maid cafe. I have absolutely nothing against maid cafes, I actually really like them personally! I think they're fun, and want to go to one myself!! This story is mainly in Kulas perspective, as most of my stories are. My OCs opinions are different than my own and I deeply apologize if I offended anyone with what I wrote!!