Time marched on, Jun and his friends trained together some days but mostly kept their own training schedules.
Except for Toga. Toga always trained with Jun.
She was trying her best to keep up, but the years of training that Jun had kept the gap wide.
So today was a recovery day, something Jun had to force on Toga. Keeping her home with his mother as he continued light training.
So here he was on his daily neighborhood cleanup run. He had slowed down to a walk, mostly lost in thought about the Perfect Duplicates.
He didn't even notice that he missed his usual turn because after a while he ran into a familiar pink girl.
Mina was coming out of a convenience store, ice cream already open as she stopped him.
"Jun!"
"Yo, Mina, thought it was an off day, what you hanging around here for?"
Mina showed her ice cream like a trophy. "I was walking back from a friend's house and wanted ice cream."
"And I think the better question is why you're out here, Jun~"
Jun let his head tilt as he smiled. "I live nearby. That's my excuse~"
Mina giggled as she bit into her ice cream. "Never an opening to get you, huh, Jun?"
He kept his smile as he shrugged. "Not that easy, but you come close."
"Walk with me? I'll give you a bite of ice cream?"
"Well lucky for you, I'm easily bought with sweets. So let's get to stepping, Dancer."
Mina hid her ice cream. "You're supposed to say you'd do it for free!"
Jun made grabby hands, reaching for the ice cream. "Well you offered, too late now~"
"Eek!" Mina put the ice cream in her mouth and started running.
Jun gave chase. "Give me the ice cream, Mina!~"
"Never! It's my ice cream!" She yelled as she turned a corner.
Jun ran a little harder, using his hand to grip the brick corner, keeping momentum. "Not for long!"
Jun sprinted as he skidded in front of her, hand out for the ice cream.
Mina stumbled into his arms despite trying to stop. "Oof!"
With a quick snatch, Jun ate what was left of the ice cream in one bite. "Payment achieved~"
Mina went more pink, as she watched it all happen, hitting his chest. "Jerk! That was mine!"
"Was just getting my rightfully owed wages, Dancer."
Mina finally stepped away from Jun, her fluster still there. "Well you owe me an ice cream now."
Jun raised a brow, his smile hadn't left his face. "Sure, but you gotta walk with me next time."
Mina nodded. "It's only fair."
Jun let out a laugh, gesturing to her to lead. "Well, I'm supposed to walk with you now. Lead on."
Mina smiled, cheeks still flushed as she hopped along.
***
Jun clashed wooden escrima sticks against #1's own pair.
To his left, #3 launched over a crate, connecting a foot to his back.
As he lurched forward into #1, #3 stepped out from behind #1 to hook his arm into a spin that left him on his back.
"Gah!"
As he went to get up, he felt a cold press of wood to his neck.
"And you lost," said the impassive voice of #1.
Jun let himself hit the floor, his own escrima sticks clattering to the floor as he took in deep breaths.
#3 snickered "And Prime is down! Should I make a star wars joke or transformers?"
#2 rolled his eyes. "He's fighting 3 copies of himself. Even if he knew what we were doing, he doesn't have the hands to deal with it."
#1 offered a hand to Jun. "We should consolidate the progress with a merger. The stronger Prime is, the stronger we are as a group."
Jun took a second before he grabbed #1's hand. "Right, I almost forgot. #1, we need to text if you guys can carry over my bonds."
#2 raised a brow. "Testing that finally? What's the point, we don't have any good quirks to use."
#3 tilted his head, tapping his cheek. "We have Mina's? Though Acid is tricky."
Jun nodded to #3. "Acid is tricky, it's why I haven't touched it. Plus… I'm not sure if I go public with my quirk."
#1 thought for a moment looking down. "Going public with an efficient copying quirk could paint a target on our backs."
#3 added. "Or make people think we're only getting close to them for their quirks."
Jun grimaced. He had the thought too, if he went public there is potential for implosion of his current relationships or a new barrier for forming new ones.
#2 shrugged. "So we don't go public. We choose a quirk to be our face. Empath isn't going to cut it on our official report."
Jun sighed, already agreeing with #2. "Right, then we analyze what we have. We can't use straight up copies of quirks. So it'll have to be a fusion."
"Perfect Duplicate." #1 and #3 said at the same time.
#2 took a second, looking up. "Yeah, perfect duplicate works."
Jun moved on. "So what does it look like?"
#1 sat down on a box replying, "We publicly say one clone, that leaves the other two as secret weapons or agents of chaos."
#2 and #3 looked to each other then to #1. "No."
Jun rubbed his chin. "Wait, he has a point. If we can give bonds out to clones to let them have their own quirks, that basically makes this fusion quirk a nomu generator."
All the clones looked to each other then back to Jun, #3 laughing a little. "Except we're better looking."
#2 rolled his eyes but had a smirk. "Nomu is a little much, we won't have the super quirk loadouts even if we can carry Prime's bonds."
Jun nodded. "Right, #1, want to try seeing if the bonds can even transfer?"
#1 held out his hand. "Go ahead and give me one of the minor quirks you have if you can."
As Jun clasped hands with #1, #1 merged into him with a rush of memories.
A wave of nausea made him wobble as hours of weapon training that #1 experienced hit him all at once.
Alright, minor quirk… Here, quirk for warming your hands. Weirdly useful on cold nights, but still mainly useless.
Jun concentrated on Warm Hands as he created #1. The feeling of the bond got muted as if he was feeling it through a heavy liquid.
#1 flexed his hand and an ever so slight glow appeared there. "Test confirmed. Copies can take Bonds. How's it feel, Prime?"
"I can tell it's there, but it feels like it's covered in thick mud. I can't seem to grasp it anymore."
The clones looked at each other, with #2 nodding. "Now merge again."
Jun and #1 merged with another handshake.
No wobble as Jun felt the bond become less muted. "Bonds return on merge."
#3 clapped. "So Nomu comparison has weight now."
Jun rubbed his eyes. "And honestly, it's late. Training and this… brainstorming session has me wiped."
#2 came over patting Jun's shoulder. "Then let's call it. We have months before U.A's entrance exam."
#3 jumped off the box he was using. "And honestly, we're ready basically. We might not hit hard, but we know what's coming."
The clones slapped his palms as he held out his hands.
A massive wave of nausea hit Jun as he felt his stomach lurch. #2's martial arts training paired with #3's free running tests hit harder then #1's weapon testing.
"Ugh… damn…" Jun laid back on the crate. "Give me 5…"