Now hold on, I know what you're thinking!

(Still outta Hot Chocolate btw)

"Wow Zack, you promised this would be a super cool chapter, and now you're late!"

But I'll have you know that A) I didn't put a next chapter date at the bottom of the last chapter, so technically I'm not late, because I never set a date to be late to, and B)... yea, I'm totally late, two week cycle and all.

But I knew my life was gonna spiral out of control with a few events coming up, which is why I didn't put any date at the end of last chapter, but oh boy did I underestimate just how much BS I can wind up walking face first into like an idiot.

-ahem- Computer, coronavirus, computer again (false alarm this time), WiFi being shitty, family, work, my Dad was stupid, Issues with driver's license, coronavirus complicating said issues with driver's license, cat knocking an entire toiletpaper role into the toilet and clogging it (which wasn't really that big of a deal, but damn was it annoying), and now riots not two blocks away… yay.

It's like an odd mix of annoying distractions/apocalypse bingo over here.

Ya, know, if I got a few more I could probably sing 'em to the nations of the world song. (You know the one from Animaniacs, that's kinda annoying, and way to catchy for its own good - so catchy in fact that I haven't heard the darn thing in years but could probably still recite it from memory)

*Pauses to think, starts muttering under breath* "United States, Canada, mexico~Panama, Haiti, Jamaka, Per~U. The Republic Dominican, Cuba, Caribbean, Greenland & El Savador too" SHIT! I can, fudge, that- I don't know how to feel about that

But enough about my pointless struggles.

Here's a mini-chapter to set up the big one I've been working on between everything as an apology for not posting in literally forever.

-Rain of Sins-

-A Slippery Slope: Ch 6-

There were three types of days that took place in the world. There were good days, there were bad days, and then there was a third, special type of day -the type of day Yuyara had the wonderful fortune to be having at the moment- the 'meh' day.

Not good, not bad, just a solid meh.

She had arrived at work at 10am yesterday and had been working nonstop since then on wrapping up the project her team had been working on for the better part of the season, as well as trying to straighten out an entirely different project that had fallen on her head when another lab fell through on it.

It was hours of nonstop, tedious work that seemed to grind out forever, and made her want to rip out her hair. But it was done, it was done, and she'd never have to deal with it again.

Now she could just go home and fall asleep. Bed, couch, it didn't really matter, the sweet serenade of blissful sleep called to her like a siren's lullaby and any cushioned piece of furniture was fair game.

…

Unfortunately the world didn't seem to agree with her plans.

"So wait" Yuyara pinched the bridge of her nose as she processed the deluge of information that had just been dumped on her weary mind "you want me to… do what exactly?"

"P-Please help me make something good enough to impress Dr Ujiko!" Izuku practically begged the lab head, his face stricken with panic - though it could be argued that the amount was overblown considering the good doctor hadn't mentioned any penalties or punishments for failing his little quest.

"Miss Yuyara please, I need help!"

"No, Green, see, I get that. You need help, very easily understood, but…like..." Yuyara paused, and waved her gloved hand about a bit, as if to summon the word she was trying to find from the hazy fumes her mind was running on. "...Why?"

Seeing Izuku about to go on another tangent, she held up her hand and clarified "I mean c'mon Green, keeping you from blowing yourself up is a given, but actively helping you build stuff from the ground up? And on a privately assigned project at that? Ujiko would kill you for pushing your work onto other people" She blinked "or laugh and give you a raise… one of the two. Besides, you're smart and all, shouldn't you give it a go by yourself? Hell, knowing you, you'd probably pull something out of nowhere and outdo yourself"

Yuyara said this with a straight face, unbetraying what she was really thinking. On one hand, helping Izuku would get her major brownie points with her future boss. On the other hand, she had just pulled an all-nighter so A) she was more-than-probably too tired to give any decent ideas without a dozen or so holes in them, and B) her natural aversion to work was being magnified by her lack of sleep. On the other, other hand, she actually liked the kid, and having him at least try on his own at first before stepping in, would probably be better for him in the long run. And on the other, other, other (most-important-by-far) hand, Ujiko was unpredictable at the best of times, and getting involved when he was playing puppetmaster of all things just screamed 'bad idea'.

"So. Why?"

"W-Well" Izuku shifted in place and scratched the back of his neck, as if approaching a topic he really didn't want to touch.

*mumble mumble*

"Huh?"

"The *mumble mumble*-ing up"

"Green, it's hard to have a conversation if you can't understand the person you're talking to"

Izuku started to mumble again, only to be cut off by a glare from Yuyara, steeling himself and taking a deep breath, he began again.

"...The U.A. entrance exam is coming up, and I don't have time to prepare for both."

The lab head didn't respond, staring blankly at Izuku with an equally blank face.

Luckily, she had prepared for this type of situation beforehand.

With a sigh, she ducked beneath her desk, and started to dig through the large cabinet beneath it.

The rustling sound of paper being pushed aside filled the air before swiftly being replaced with a swift click of a lock, a black door swinging open, a brief pause, and then the clinks of glass containers and aluminum cans jostling about.

And alas, just a few seconds later Yuyara emerged with her prize - a tall glass bottle with a light yellow drink inside, which she swiftly uncorked and took a long sip of.

"Homemade brew of lemonade, jacked up with a shit ton of caffeine, sugar, and just a dash of alcohol" She answered Izuku's unspoken question as she set the bottle down unceremoniously on top of a stack of papers.

Caffeine to fuel her brain, sugar for the energy to act upon whatever she thought up, and alcohol because it's the liquid courage the world runs on.

Unfortunately none of those things helped with frustration.

"Dammit Green, I thought you were past the whole hero thing!"

"It's been my dream my whole life, I can't give up on it now!"

Izuku's comeback was quick, and absolutely burning full of emotion, so it only fit that Yuyara's response would have just as much… of course there's an argument or two that deflating, dropping your head into your hands, and giving a huge sigh that screamed 'I give up' in everything but words, could hardly be considered 'burning' with emotion but I digress.

"Look Green" Yuyara mumbled through her hands "if you're really that hellbent on this, why don't you try taking some of Ujiko's advice to heart? He might be a bit off kilter, but he's a genius in his field. I'm sure you've been around him long enough to have heard his favorite saying by now" Yuyara straightened her back and coughed a few times before continuing in what was probably the worst impression of said doctor, she could manage "'Work smarter, not harder! Work harder and you'll get more done in the short term, but tire out and fall behind in the long term. Work smarter -more efficiently- and you'll get more done both in the short and the long term!'"

"Work smarter not harder?" Izuku echoed "H-How am I supposed to apply that in this situation?"

"Well… think about it, your problem is that you have two different goals, but only enough time to prepare for one, sooooo…" The lab head gestured for him to finish her sentence.

"Do something that will do both at the same time?"

"Bingo!" Yuyara confirmed with a finger gun blast, despite the fact she had been going for a 'Drop the hero thing, and focus on Ujiko's project because that's more important', but she'd take what she could get. "That way you can prepare for both, without having to split you're focus between two projects"

Izuku's eyebrows furrowed, before shooting up again as he realized the possibilities of what she was saying, ideas flying though his mind like rain in a storm.

Seeing that Ujiko's favorite employee was about to descend into one of his mumble tangents again, Yuyara coughed into her fist to catch his attention.

"You know, you were complaining about not having enough time to prepare for everything not two minutes ago, shouldn't you be getting started like, now?"

Yuyara watched with a twinge of guilt as Izuku bolted out of her office, frantically thanking her as he went.

What she had told him was solid advice, no doubt about it, there was just one tiny little detail that she had taken the liberty to not mention about the reasoning he had drawn from it.

This lab (and in turn every resource Izuku could get his hands on) was geared entirely towards biological and genetic research.

There was no mecha suit he could build, no miracle tool kit he could patch together, nothing he could make with the materials at his disposal would help him pass any form of hero exam, especially if he's also trying to impress Ujiko at the same time.

And since Ujiko had beaten the fact that jabbing himself with a quirk was a bad idea into his head at least once a day, the only things he could get that could possibly pass the exam were A): something nomu related and thus something that was extraordinary banned on every level from being taken in public, or B): either some sort of fast acting neurotoxin or a controlled virus of some kind. Neither of the latter being any form of "Hero-y" stature that would work well in a Hero test.

There was absolutely no way this could blow up in her face, and wind up with Ujiko's successor enrolled in U.A., the very place that Heroes trained to catch those like said doctor.

...she'd have to lock down the virology branch labs for the next few weeks just to be safe.

Yuyara could only sigh and take another swig from her drink, coming to the conclusion that if things kept going the way they were, she might wind up 'mysteriously' falling ill and staying home for a time frame that ever-so-coincidentally lined up exactly with the week during the UA exam and Izuku's presentation.

-Chapter End-

Short chapter is short.

Buuuut, my schedule is now back on schedule, which means that A) the mega chapter I have been promising (and failing miserably) to deliver, will finally be coming around, and B) I can start putting dates at the end of chapters again.

-Next chapter: July 4th-

(Because FREEDOM, and stuff… and flying explosives, those are really fun... too bad I have to work for most of it)