Hiro Rising

Major Upgrade's and the nervous Genius Itano

"Everybody deserves a chance," Yu said quietly. "It just takes someone believing in them."

"Exactly!" Terra agreed as they approached the door. "You should've seen his face when we asked him to work on our gear. You could just feel the weight lifting off his shoulders!"

"I-I think I-I'm f-feeling that n-now!" Osen shouted as she stumbled around, losing her balance and falling into Hiroto. Not to be outdone, Shion latched on to Hiroto's arm, an action that had been for show until her feet lifted off the ground and she nearly floated to the ceiling.

Kage used his Quirk to bring everybody securely to the floor. "What was that?!"

Hiroto smiled as he reached for the door to the lab. "Good news, I hope!" As he opened the door, Power Loader was on his way out.

"Oh, great timing!" he said when he saw the guests. "I was just about to come get you. Itano's just putting the finishing touches on your gear now!"

"It seems like he's in a good mood!" Terra said happily.

"I haven't seen him this way in a while. Thanks again for giving him a chance." Power Loader turned to the back of the lab. "Itano, your 'clients' are here! And you might want to check to make sure your Quirk regulator is working!"

"Oh, right! Sorry about that!" Itano poked his head up, fiddling with his belt. The gravity changes suddenly became less pronounced, and Kage released his Quirk on the group, taking a deep breath in the process. "I'm glad you two are here!" Itano said, beaming as he brought two boxes over to the shop bench.

"I'm hoping that smile means good things," Hiroto said kindly.

Itano nodded. "It was actually a lot of fun working on stuff that people were actually going to use." He turned to Terra and opened one of the boxes. "You're ottogenerator was quite the engineering marvel. I tinkered with it a bit, and it should run much more efficiently now." He then opened Hiroto's box. "Your gauntlets and costume have been repaired as well. I did make a few upgrades to both of them. I hope you don't mind."

As Terra and Hiroto both examined their gear, their eyes widened in surprise. "This thing has to be 10 times lighter than when I handed it to you!" Terra exclaimed, weighing the device in her hand.

"And without testing these out," Hiroto said, stretching the grappling hooks in his hands, "I can already tell that these are more durable."

"Yeah," Itano said, face heating up a bit. "I replaced some of the materials on them. The ottogenerator now uses a much lighter core than the original lead one, and the tensile strength on your grapples is much greater while still maintaining the conductivity." Itano held up the repaired costume. "I also lined this with a similar material to give you better protection and help dissipate any more surprise electric discharges you might have." Hiroto held the uniform in his hands. It looked brand new. Even better than that. He looked at Itano who just smiled. "I-I had to look up the blueprints on that one. Saw who it came from. I know it must be special, so I was sure to take extra good care of it while I was working on it. I . . . hope I didn't overstep any boundaries with the changes."

"Itano," Hiroto said slowly, looking intently at him. A grin spread across his face. "You're the only person I ever want working on my gear from now on."

"R-really?"

Hiroto nodded firmly. "You went above and beyond my expectations."

"And so quickly, too!" Terra chimed in. "Seriously! You did all of this so fast, my head is spinning!"

"I-I don't know what to say . . ." Itano said, choking back tears.

"Well you'd better say you've got more openings for work," Shion said. "If my darling Hiro trusts you with his gear, then I want you working on mine too! I've already got a few upgrades I need to implement for a certain rematch coming up." She smiled smugly at Sachi.