Mei Hatsume

Mei Hatsume (発目明) is a student of U.A. High School's Department of Support from Class 1-H.

Appearance
Mei is a reasonably short girl with quite a mature build. She has salmon pink hair, which is generally shoulder-length, although it does vary, which is styled into thick dreadlocks and sideswept to her right. Her eyes are wide and sloped upwards with some notably long upper eyelashes, their irises yellow with a cross in the centre, making them look somewhat like scope lenses.

In her first appearance, she wears the regular U.A. gym uniform (a dark blue tracksuit decorated with the letters “U” and “A”), but she also adds some of her own gadgets onto it, including red and gold steampunk goggles, a utility belt to hold the various tools she carries around, heavily oversized speed-assisting boots, and something what could possibly be a jet pack strung over her shoulders.

She’s later seen wearing a plain black tank top and baggy cargo pants, a jacket tied casually around her waist, with the same goggles on her head.

Personality
Mei is a smart, off-setting, and assertive girl, often making those around her uncomfortable. She loves creating gadgets, which she refers to as her "super cute babies". Mei has a habit of "going straight to the point" and is very shameless and opportunistic when it comes to advertising her inventions. While talking to people, she has a habit of getting awkwardly close to them, which usually causes them to back away from her but she still moves up to them.

Mei shows no fear when it comes to failing, seeing it as an opportunity to learn and do better next time, which is why she does not mind when her inventions fail. Mei can be seen as self-centered due to putting her love of inventions and gadgets above others, but this selfishness is not a negative as it is out of motivation to improve herself. She does seem to be a little bit absent-minded as she is easily distracted and can sometimes be completely unaware of her surroundings, as shown by her inability to sense one of her inventions catch on fire as she was speaking with Midoriya. Furthermore, she seems inept a reading body language and social cues, apparently being oblivious to Midoriya's discomfort with her proximity to him on several occasions.

U.A. Sports Festival Arc
Mei takes to the field with her classmates from the Department of Support. After the opening ceremony, Mei competes in the Obstacle Race.

When Ochaco Uraraka and Mina Ashido reach The Fall section of the course, Mei makes herself and all of her gadgets known. Mina questions why Mei is allowed to wear special gear, to which Mei replies she developed them herself and it allows for a more fair competition at the Festival because Hero Course students receive training. Mei uses her Wire Arrow and Hover Soles to cross tightrope-laced abyss with ease, laughing gleefully as she does it. She eventually finishes the race and places forty-first, qualifying her to compete in the Cavalry Battle.

While choosing teams for the Cavalry Battle, Mei spots Izuku Midoriya, the first place contestant, and confronts him. She pitches to join his team because all eyes are on him and if she joins him, then all eyes will be on her and her "babies" as well. Izuku is startled by Mei's assertive personality, but he is won over after she shows off several of her gadgets. Izuku even recognizes one from the Pro-Hero Air Jet, and the two have a friendly discussion about it.

Once the Cavalry Battle begins, Izuku is forced to use the Jet Pack to escape pursuing teams. Mei asks how her gadgets perform and is joyous when Izuku replies her "babies" are amazing. After getting trapped by one of Minoru Mineta's spheres, Izuku is forced to break one of the hover soles, much to Mei's dismay. After finally getting away, Mei and her team are confronted by Team Todoroki.

Denki Kaminari attacks using his electricity, which short-circuits Team Midoriya's jetpack. When it fails to work and Team Midoriya are unable to flee from Team Todoroki, Mei comments that her baby needs some upgrades. Thanks to Izuku's strategy, Team Midoriya are able to evade Team Todoroki for the back half of the round. However, their luck runs out when Tenyas Iida uses his special Recipro Burst technique to steal Mei's team's points in an instant. Mei agrees with Fumikage Tokoyami that they should try for other points, but Izuku refuses and they engage Team Todoroki again.

Izuku is able to steal one of their headbands, but Mei notices it is the wrong one. They try one more time to recover their points but run out of time as the Cavalry Battle ends. When Izuku tries to apologize for losing, Mei and Ochaco point him towards Fumikage, who reveals he was able to steal a headband worth enough points to advance. Team Midoriya takes fourth place, and Mei qualifies for the finals.

After a short break following the completion of the second round event,  it is announced the sixteen qualifiying students will duel in a one on one fighting tournament. Once the matchups are announced, she approaches "legs" to ask him if he's Tenya Iida, to which he confirms.

Mei offers Tenya Iida some of her equipment and tells him it is to keep the fight fair between them. Moved by her sportsmanship, Tenya agrees. However, when their fight begins Mei manipulates Tenya into showing off her gear while evading his pursuit. She uses her Quirk to keep an eye on the support company representatives as she transforms the battle into a commercial for her support items.

For the next ten minutes, Mei continues her fight while explaining the features of her items to the audience using a mic attached to her headgear. Satisfied with her exposure, Mei steps out of bounds and eliminates herself from the tournament, allowing Tenya to advance to the next round. Mei thanks Tenya for allowing her to use him and apologizes for it, much to Tenya's annoyance.

Final Exams Arc
Mei is mentioned by All Might; according to All Might, Mei's High-Density Weights won a competition, so they were used as the handicaps for the teachers to wear in the exams.

Provisional Hero License Exam Arc
Mei appears again as Izuku visits the workshop to improve his hero costume. An explosion catapults her through the door and lands on Izuku as he tries to enter. She recalls Izuku only to turn away and tell him that she's busy in the workshop. However, upon hearing that Izuku wants to upgrade, she turns all her attention to him. While Power Loader and Izuku discuss how they can upgrade his costume, Mei grabs onto Izuku to feel his muscles. Mei equips Izuku with her 49th invention, a Power Suit. However, the armor moves independent from Izuku and hurts him, causing her to apologize for programming the range of motion incorrectly.

Upon hearing Tenya's request for a gadget that lets him cool his legs, Mei equips him with her 36th gadget, an arm brace with rocket motors, which promptly sends Tenya into the ceiling. When Tenya complains, since his quirk is located in his legs, she reasoned that he could run with his arms, to cool his legs. It is this suggestion that leads Izuku to develop his new set of moves, Shoot Style, which utilize his legs more than his arms. Power Loader scolds Mei for her carelessness and she returns to her work, though he remarks that Mei is an outstanding student with a remarkable ability to invent. Shortly after, Mei tries to improve Ochaco's costume with some gadgets, much to Ochaco's dismay. In the end, Izuku settled for an arm brace that reduces the strain on his arm and boots with a coil-mechanism, that absorb some of the impact force of his kicks.

U.A. Cultural Festival Arc
Mei was out following one of her gadgets and comes across Izuku and All Might who caught her device. All Might (while disguising his voice) hands her invention back to her, as she states it was just acting up. Mei then notices Izuku and tells him the item thay he requested is similar to one of her inventions and is customizing it for his use, to which he thanks her. Mei leaves while following her device.

Later on, she finds Izuku training and tells him his new gloves are complete and gives them to him. She hands him the instruction manual for them before running off.

Quirk and Abilities
Overall Abilities: Outside of her intellect, Mei mostly acts as a support rather than facing battles directly. However, she proves to be a capable combatant as seen in her match against Iida, where it lasted for ten minutes with Iida unable to do anything to her despite his speed advantage and only winning when she forfeited.

Expert Inventor: Mei is very smart and innovative, creating many different pieces of equipment on her own that can help her in many situations. She relies mostly on her inventions to traverse obstacles and tasks. Power Loader acknowledges Mei's talent in the field of inventing, calling her one of a kind.

Quirk
Zoom (ズーム): Mei's Quirk allows her eyes to zoom in on something at a distance. If she really focuses, Mei can see things as far as five kilometers.

Equipment
Wire Arrow (ワイヤーアロウ): A creation of Mei's, this device is a combination of a wire with an arrow-like grappling hook attached to the end, which can be used to reach distant surfaces.

Hover Soles (ホバーソール): A creation of Mei's, the Hover Soles are two big metallic boots that have turbines implanted inside them, which allows the wearer to hover above the ground.

Jet Pack: A creation of Mei's, this device is a metal backpack with two turbines on the bottom part of the backpack that will activate when the wearer presses the activation switch.

Hydraulic Attachment Bar (油圧式アタッチメントバー): Created by Mei.

High Density Weights (超圧縮おもり): A creation of Mei's, this device inhibits and drains speed and stamina of a user. This allows the user to match with the opponents' level.

Power Suit: A mechanical suit that senses muscle contraction and aids in movement. Mei's 49th invention.

Electric Booster: A speed booster that generates minimum heat. Mei's 36th invention.

My Adorable Baby: A robot suit with iron soles. Unintentionally explosive. Mei's 202nd invention.

U.A. Sports Festival Arc

 * Team Midoriya vs. Team Todoroki
 * Mei Hatsume vs. Tenya Iida

Izuku Midoriya
Mei and Izuku first met during the U.A. Sports Festival. Mei took an interest in Izuku when he got first place in the Obstacle course and as a result, got the ten million point headband. She saw this as an opportunity to bring attention to her inventions by using Izuku and approached him before the Human Cavalry Battle. In return for joining his team, she offered him and the other teammates support equipment to aid in their battle.

After the U.A. Tournament, the two would not meet again until Izuku wanted Power Loader's help in improving and redesigning his costume. Mei recognized him during their second encounter, but does not remember his name and dismissed it in order to go back to her inventions only to return her attention back to him when he brought up his purpose for entering the workshop. She provided Izuku some options for improvements on his costume and created Izuku's Costume Gamma.

Overall, the two generally get along well as Izuku has no problem talking with Mei during their first encounter. They got acquainted over a jetpack Mei created that was similar to a hero Izuku was familiar with.

The two met again and Mei recognized Izuku but forgot his name though she remained kind to him even more so after he complimented one of her inventions. Izuku also appears to tolerate Mei more than some of his classmates like Tenya and Ochaco, since he shares some similarities to her as he creates ways to counter the quirks of others and rambles on as she does about gadgets.

Afterward, she has now gotten used to him and gave him some new gadgets for his training and used his last name, meaning she has gotten over her previous mistake. Izuku is still friendly to her though he is put off by her habit of getting in his personal space.

Mei later gives Izuku the new mechanical gloves that he asked for. She handed him the instruction manual for them, before running off after he thanks her.

Higari Maijima
Mei frequently invents a lot of inventions at U.A., even during her break. As a result, she spends a lot of time in Power Loader's workshop and in his company. Power Loader tolerates Mei's presence and values her importance to the students. However, when her behavior gets out of hand, he tries to keep her in line much to Mei's dismay. Despite that, the two are friendly with one another, with the occasional petty arguments that happen because of Mei.

Ochaco Uraraka
Ochaco has a somewhat rocky relationship with Mei, due to her direct nature. During her interactions with Mei, she Izuku was always present as well and Mei often went awfully close to Izuku, much to Ochaco's dismay. She was slightly jealous when Izuku praised Mei's "super cute babies". During their second encounter, Mei landed right on top of Izuku and shortly after, Mei felt Izuku's body and noted that it's surprisingly muscular. At the same time, she got a clear view of Mei's cleavage, shocking Ochaco after seeing the size of Mei's breasts. All of that made Ochaco visibly uncomfortable but she managed to remain polite and civil.

Tenya Iida
Mei approached Tenya before their match with Mei offering Tenya support equipment. Tenya naively accepted her supposed generous offer, only to realize too late that she was using him to promote her inventions. Despite her apology, Tenya dislikes Mei for taking advantage of his noble nature. This dislike still remained with Tenya as seen in their second encounter. His dislike for her escalated when she forgot and dismissed his name, and also made him unwillingly use one of her inventions that he rejected. He openly voiced his dislike of her to Power Loader.

Trivia

 * Mei's name comes "invention" (発明) and "eyes" (目), but the second and third kanji have switched positions.
 * Mei was originally going to be a male.
 * In the First Popularity Poll, Mei ranked 20th, which ties her with Toru Hagakure.
 * Mei's favorite food is chocolate.
 * Mei likes the steampunk style, as evidenced by her usual gadgetry.
 * Mei ranked in the Top 16 of the U.A. Sports Festival First-Year Stage.
 * Mei's Power Suit could be a reference to the prototype battle suit developed by Justin Hammer, shown near the beginning of the movie Iron Man 2. This suit accidentally twisted the torso section through 180 degrees, possibly killing the test pilot (although Hammer claims he was injured but recovered). Luckily for Midoriya, Mei disabled her suit before it twisted too far.
 * Mei bares a remarkably resemblance to Miu Iruma a character in Danganronpa killing harmony from the Danganronpa series.

Quotes

 * (To Power Loader) "Heh heh heh... Failure is the mother of invention, Power Loader sensei. Thomas Edison once said that. Just cuz a creation doesn't work as intended doesn't mean the effort is wasted..."
 * (To Tenya Iida about using his arms instead of his legs) "If you want to cool your legs, all you have to do is just run with your arms!"