For the next two weeks, we barely did anything but train. Of course we had to attend regular classes as well, but they were an afterthought compared to the amount of sweat we poured into training for the Sports Festival. And when the school day was over we'd simply press on. At first, I feared the looming competition might poison the atmosphere. After all, there could only be one winner, and I remembered Ryuko's stories of the eve of the Sports Festival, with everyone looking over their shoulders for the slightest advantage in the upcoming trials.
But to my surprise, that didn't happen. Most of it I could attribute to Kendo, organizing after-hours group training and gluing the class together. But the more surprising contribution came from Monoma. The blonde-haired boy moved amongst the class, offering encouragement and kind words to anyone who would have them.
Nevertheless, Foundational Heroics classes were always the highlights of each day, and today Vlad King had directed us to one of UA's indoor training areas, a large room with a soft mat covering the floor.
"Today, we will be taking a step back and going over one of the more basic aspects of combat." He announced as we gathered around him in a loose semi-circle. "For some of you this will seem self-evident, but you would be surprised to learn how many Pro-Heroes fail to grasp it."
"Sir!" Yoarashi's hand shot up, straight like a plank. "What is this aspect?"
"An excellent question. Allow me to demonstrate it in action." Vlad King stated, turning towards the younger man. "Attack me. Use any means within your disposal."
Yoarashi hesitated for a moment, before grinning and raising his hand, a massive column of spiralling air gathering above him.
Before he could release it, however, Vlad King simply moved. One moment he was standing there, and the next Yoarashi crashed face-down onto the mat, his arms bent behind his back Vlad King's knee pressing against his spine.
"Now, can any of you identify the mistake he made there?" He asked as he got off of Yoarashi.
"He didn't try to increase the distance between himself and you?" I suggested.
"Not incorrect, but not the answer I'm looking for here." Vlad King said. "Why didn't he create more distance?"
"I thought you would use your Quirk." Yoarashi admitted as he pulled himself to his feet, looking properly chastised.
"Precisely." Vlad King nodded. "For many people, when allowed to freely use their Quirks for the first time in their lives, it quickly grows akin to a second pair of limbs. They become reliant upon it, forgetting that they have a perfectly serviceable pair of flesh and blood ones, and leaving themselves open to a more conventional attack."
"Not all of us." Tetsutetsu scoffed, pointing a thumb at his chest. "A long-range type like Yoarashi is one thing, but anybody trying to pull that on me would be in for a surprise."
"Would iron skin help you get out of a hold, like the one I used on Yoarashi there?" Vlad King replied evenly. "Or take Kendo for another example of a physical Quirk, would her strength prevent me from picking her up and throwing her?"
"Well, no-" Tetsutetsu admitted, before folding his arms in defiance. "-but only if you managed toaaah!"
His face met the mat the same way Yoarashi's had, Vlad King's boot on his back.
"Like that?"
"I- You caught me by surprise!"
"I did." Vlad King confirmed, nonplussed. "What of it?"
Tetsutetsu spluttered as Vlad King rose off of him.
"Catching your enemy by surprise is a great way to win a fight. Villains will certainly make use of it, and I hope that you will learn to appreciate its value as well." He offered a hand to pull Tetsutetsu up. "Do you at least accept that there is a possibility in which you could end up in a hold on the ground?"
The gray-haired boy glared at the taller man as he was pulled up, but nodded sullenly.
"Then you'll want to learn how to counter that kind of move." Vlad King said with an air of finality, before returning his attention to the wider class. "Never underestimate what a skilled fighter can do in the right circumstances, even without using a Quirk. Today, we will be covering Quirkless self-defence. In later lessons, once you all have the basics down, we will be moving into more advanced techniques."
That all made sense. However, I was starting to see a certain problem with all of this.
"Kendo, Rin, Yoarashi, Tokage, Honenuki. All of you already possess a certain level of proficiency in martial arts or self-defence. You will not benefit as much from this training session, but you will take this opportunity to refine your skills and reinforce your foundation. The rest of you, do not be afraid to approach any of them for guidance."
Namely, the fact that I was permanently a quadrupedal walking tank. I just didn't really see what I was supposed to gain from a self-defence class.
"Kendo!" Vlad King barked. "You will lead the class in warm up and stretches until I return. You have ten minutes. Tatsuma, you're with me."
"Sir! Class, follow me!"
As Kendo led the others to start doing laps around the classroom, Vlad King turned towards me.
"I assume I won't be participating in today's lesson?" I asked.
"Correct. You will rejoin the class in the future once we start covering more advanced topics, particularly fighting larger opponents, which will double as your training for fighting smaller ones. But forcing you to participate in a Quirkless self defence lesson would be pointless, considering your situation and physiology. Here at UA we do not mold students to fit the training, we mold the training to fit the students."
"So what will I be doing, then?" I didn't think for a second that he would actually let me sit idle.
"Follow me." Vlad King beckoned me with a hand gesture, starting to walk towards the doors.
"What would you say is the single greatest advantage of your Quirk in a battle?" He asked me after a while, as he lead me down a path through the building.
I was silent for a few moments. I'd say my Quirk is very well-rounded, but…
"My size." I answered finally. "The advantage of reach and mass is very hard to counter. Engaging me in Quirkless combat would be futile."
"Unless they had access to special equipment, or there were external factors to consider." Vlad King reminded me sternly. "Never convince yourself of your own invulnerability, no matter how weak your opponent. But it is not a bad answer, though not the correct one."
I shrugged.
"Flight." He gestured towards my wings. "Three-dimensional mobility. That is your true strength. Many Quirks can be used to boost mobility, in a variety of ways, but true flight is surprisingly rare."
I nodded in understanding. "If you can fly you can dictate the pace of the fight."
"Unless the enemy has a ranged option." Vlad King corrected. "On the ground, you can afford to take hits, but in aerial combat avoidance must be your first choice. No matter how strong your scales are, a good hit in the wing membrane will bring you down. Have you been trained in crash landing and impact mitigation?"
"Yes." I replied. "It was covered in flight instruction."
"Good. One less thing to worry about."
We arrived at one of UA's fake cities, a massive expanse of concrete jungle. Two people were standing there waiting for us.
The first was obviously a teacher, and I was pretty sure I'd seen him in the entrance ceremony. He was clad in a simple red cape with frayed edges, a cowboy hat and a gas-mask on his head, with a revolver holstered at his hip. The other was clearly a student, a short girl with long, light blue hair, some of it twisted into two horn-like spirals. She wore a form-fitting green jumpsuit, with spiralling patterns around her ankles and wrists.
"Tatsuma, this is Nejire Hadou from class 3-A, and Snipe, her Homeroom teacher."
"Nice to meet you!" The girl greeted us cheerfully, her voice seeming oddly familiar. She bounced forward, and without so much as a pause leaned down to admire my claws, running a finger along one's edge. "Do you sharpen your claws or do they stay sharp naturally?"
"Um. They grow inside out in layers, like a cat. The outermost layer periodically sheds away to keep them sharp." I glanced at the two teachers over her head, giving them what I hoped was a pleading look.
"Hadou, please remember to give Tatsuma some personal space." Snipe chided her gently.
"Tatsuma?" She blinked. "Wait, you're Ryukyu's sister?"
"Yes." You know, if I didn't love Ryuko as much as I did, I could see myself growing to resent her for this.
"We met once already!" Hadou said with a snap of her fingers. "We talked on the phone that one time! Remember me?"
Then it all clicked, where I'd heard her voice before. She was the one who had-
Oh wow.
I felt my head spin a little, struggling for something to say.
"You were Ryuko's intern, right? I never saw you at her office."
"Oh, she had some big family emergency soon after we talked, and had to cut back on heroics a little for a while." She gave me an odd look. "We agreed to go our separate ways, and I found a different internship."
And she didn't even know.
I felt a confused mess of feelings curling in my chest.
If she hadn't been there that day, maybe-
But she couldn't possibly have known-
If I couldn't hold it against my sister, then logically I couldn't blame her for what had happened as a completely unintended consequence of her actions. But even so, an irrational, emotional part of me whispered of what could have been, had she not distracted Ryuko that day.
Not for the last time I felt incredibly grateful for the fact that it's easy to maintain outward composure as a dragon.
"Oh, um. That's a shame."
"It's alright!"
"If you're done, we're on a schedule here." Vlad King reminded us sharply.
"Sorry!" The older girl said, without the slightest drop in her level of enthusiasm.
"The Third Years have been training just as hard as we have, if not harder- after all, this is their last chance to leave an impression." Vlad King went on. "Hadou here needs to practice her accuracy while you need to practice dodging, so we thought we'd combine the two lessons for efficiency."
"Um… how is that going to work?" I questioned, trying to think of the right way to put this. "I mean, I don't think I could provide much of a challenge for a Third Year."
"Simple." Snipe said, putting a hand on his holster. "You won't be fighting each other, you'll both be fighting me."
"Hadou's objective will be to hit Snipe while riding on your back, while you focus on avoiding his return fire. That way, he can adjust the level of challenge the two of you need individually."
"My Quirk allows me to control the bullets mid-air, making them safe."
"It'll be like a superhero team up!" Hadou cheered.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked. "What if she falls off?"
"I can fly!" She gave me a thumbs-up. "I'll just catch myself."
"Why do you need me at all, then?"
"To make it harder on her." Snipe replied, tapping his boots together, small fuel nuzzles extending from the sides. "Shooting from an unstable platform while both it and the target are moving and dodging in three dimensions, will be a good way of challenging her."
...Challenging, huh. I'd hate to see what kind of training they'd consider "hard".
"So, uh, Hadou-" I began, after Vlad King had left to rejoin 1-B.
"Call me Nejire!" She interrupted with a chirp.
"-Nejire. What is your Quirk, if I can ask?"
"Oh! It's called Wave Motion, I can convert my stamina into energy and fire it out!" She raised a hand, and a small, blast of swirling golden energy shot upwards, reaching towards the clouds. "They pack a punch, though they're a little slow."
"Right. Hop on then. You can hold onto the vest straps." I really wasn't sure how to speak to Hadou. She spoke and acted like somebody half her age, but by every right she was the senior here.
"We can start as soon as you're ready." Snipe called out, as I lowered my head and Hadou climbed on, settling up near my shoulder blades.
Well. I guess that was that.
"Um, hold on, then."
I bounded forward, gathering speed before taking off with a mighty leap, beating my wings furiously to gain some initial altitude. I had no expectations that Snipe would go easy on-
A gunshot rang out, echoing across the cityscape. For a moment, I felt my stomach drop out, my breath suddenly constricted.
There was a slight thud, and a dull thump against my chest. I opened my eyes just to catch the flattened bullet fall off my chest scales, dropping towards the ground.
Oh. When had I closed my eyes in the first place?
"Are you alright?" Nejire asked with concern in her voice, and even Snipe had come to a halt, though his mask was unreadable. Humiliation burned my ears.
"I'm fine!" I tried to sound reassuring. "I was just taken off guard."
I wasn't sure how convincing it actually was, but Snipe nodded and kicked his bootheels together, activating the rockets built into them and taking flight.
The next time embarrassment won out, and I managed to just flinch, pulling myself into a quick dive that sent the bullet hurtling overhead, the bright tracer leaving a trail across the sky.
Rather than fire again, the trajectory of the previous bullet curved, coming around for another pass as Snipe exerted his Quirk. I waited for it to close before spreading my wings and arresting my dive at the last moment, avoiding the attack.
Once he was sure I'd gotten my head back into the game the training began in earnest, a barrage of shots coming my way whilst Nejire started shooting back, lighting up the morning sky with flares of energy bolts. I wasn't sure if Snipe had realized what had happened, but I suspected he had. He conserved his ammunition, firing sparingly and reusing missed shots.
They weren't real bullets, of course. For one they were too slow, and I was reasonably sure the impact I'd felt was that of a rubber tip. Not even UA would go so far as to shoot real bullets at a student, no matter how accurate they were or how bulletproof I was, especially when I was carrying another, presumably squishy human on my back.
Or so I hoped.
Nonetheless I was kept busy, as Snipe weaved his projectiles to and fro, and I struggled to keep up, trying to keep track of the small bullets amidst the lightshow Nejire was creating with her return fire. This wasn't something I'd ever practiced before and it showed: I felt frustratingly sluggish, furiously maneuvering to avoid incoming fire. Newton worked against me, as I struggled with my own momentum when making tight turns.
But Snipe knew what he was doing, and never offered me a challenge I couldn't have overcome. When I was hit, it was because I made a mistake. Nonetheless at least a dozen bullets grazed my scales as the morning went on, until eventually the seemingly unending barrage abated for a moment.
It seemed like Snipe had elected to spare me a bit of breathing room.
I finally had a sliver of free attention to spare to watch what Nejire was doing, only to drop my proverbial jaw. I didn't know what I had been quite expecting from her, with her silly exterior and seeming childishness.
But this…
The sky was lit by a blinding constellation of lights, energy blasts slowly spiralling in patterns of dizzying complexity. It seemed that knowing her attacks lacked speed, Nejire had decided to compensate with quantity,
At first it appeared as a crude machine gun spray, an attempt to substitute precision with raw firepower. But now that I had time to focus on it I realized that wasn't the case at all.
No, the spread and timing of her fire was far too regular for that, and an expression of pure focus had replaced childlike curiosity on Nejire's features.
I didn't have even a fraction of the concentration required to unravel the pattern in full, but I could gleam glimpses of it: an egregiously off-target shot that almost caught Snipe as he was forced to dodge in it's direction here, a slow-moving cluster of projectiles that came to be relevant a full minute later as the fight progressed there.
To coordinate all of that, while hanging from my back, adjusting for my own movements and position at any given time..
It was humbling, to see what even a Third Year Hero student was capable of, let alone a full Pro-Hero. It also highlighted how far I still had to go.
-----
Another day, another Foundational Heroics class. This time a theoretical lesson, and the soft scraping of pencils in paper filled the 1-B homeroom as we worked on a set of problems Vlad King had assigned us. Being that I was unable to properly hold and write with a pen I instead tapped my answers via a computer mounted on my desk, my claws clicking against the large touchscreen.
Explain the difference between Provisional Hero License and the full Hero License.
Whilst the Provisional License permits Heroics without direct supervision, it only does so for emergencies. It does not entitle the holder to establish a Hero Agency, become or take on sidekicks, or make commercial deals. It is also contingent upon remaining a student in an officially recognized Hero Academy...
As I was writing I heard Pony's phone going off, and saw her glance down, before giving Vlad King her best puppy-eyes look. He gave her a single nod, and she flew out the door like a missile, and didn't return even as the lesson ended.
"Is it just me or has Pony been acting a little off, lately?" Kendo said, setting down her tray on the table. Pony still hadn't come back from where she'd gone off to, and after waiting on her for a while we had to go lest we miss lunch ourselves.
"Define "weird". We've only known each other for a couple of weeks, for all we know this could be normal for her." Monoma pointed out as he sat down as well. He didn't seem to have any particular group he hung out with, instead drifting between them seemingly on a whim.
"You know what I mean." Kendo chimed in. "She's been disappearing more and more recently."
"Maybe she's just having constipation." Tokage suggested with a grin. "Who knows?"
I knew.
I tried not to eavesdrop, but Pony underestimates how good my hearing is and I couldn't help but overhear a thing or two.
She had been making calls to her family, back in the US. Her birthday was coming up, but with the Sports Festival just a week away she couldn't afford to take the time off for a visit.
Pony missed her family and home.
And wasn't that just it. If it was something else, I don't know, but homesickness… how could I not feel for her?
I was mostly over it, I could never go home again. I'd accepted that it was impossible. And year by year, it got harder and harder to remember. But sometimes, a little innocuous detail could remind me of the life that I had lost. And what I felt then, I knew Pony felt now.
I wanted to help her, I really did. But I didn't know how. I didn't know what to tell her or to do to make her feel better.
And that, more than anything, was why I was considering telling the others. It felt like an intrusion of privacy, a secret that wasn't mine to share, but… they might know what to do. They might be able to help her where I couldn't.
I mulled the thought in my head over and over as I munched on my lunch, but found myself no closer to an answer.
Eavesdropping was a bad habit I needed to get rid of, and gossiping didn't sit right with me. But I couldn't help but go back to those words.
"You will lift each other up when you fall."
As the Vice-Class President, and even moreso as her friend, I felt a responsibility to help her.
Maybe… I didn't need to tell them the full story? Pony's birthday was a matter of public record, and it was perfectly reasonable deduction to make that she was homesick. I hope.
Latching onto that idea, I examined it from all angles. If I told them only what could have been learned without listening in, then it wasn't really a breach of her personal privacy, right?
Right?
"I think she's homesick." I finally relented, blurting out the words before I could regret the decision.
"What do you mean?"
"Her birthday's coming up, she's probably just missing the US." I elaborated as the others turned to look at me, trying to look as nonchalant as I could.
"Oh." Kendo said with a note of realization. "Oh yeah, this must be her first birthday in Japan."
That quieted even Tokage, who seemed to have been lining up another quip, as Kendo's words sunk in. Silence reigned, first becoming discomforting, then suffocating.
Then, finally, Honenuki broke the ice.
"Maybe we should do something for her?" He ventured, ever the reasonable one. "We can't help her with homesickness, but we can try to make sure she knows she's welcome here."
"A birthday party?" Kendo leaned forward with a thoughtful expression, looking at me. "When is her birthday again?"
"...Tomorrow." I told her.
"Yeah, I'm not sure we could get a party organized in time for that." She winced.
"Doesn't need to be anything big, just a small celebration with the class." Monoma pointed out. "I don't think Vlad King would begrudge us a moment before starting the day's lessons."
"Mmm, that just seems a little barren." She considered for a moment, before snapping her fingers. "Pony's a huge fan of anime and manga, right? We could see what's in the theaters, and take her to the movies. She'd probably like that."
"Yeah, that could work." Monoma nodded. "It's a little on the short notice, but we could ask around to see who's available."
"We'll also have to find out if Pony has any plans of her own that day." Honenuki said. "Don't want to organize an outing only to find out she can't attend."
"It'll work better as a surprise, though." Tokage replied.
"If you want to try to figure out Pony's schedule without her finding out, be my guest." Kendo told her.
"You know what? I will." Tokage bit back, folding her arms.
I followed the conversation I'd set in motion as it unfolded, feeling more than a little out of place amongst the back-and-forth as ideas were thrown back and forth. But this was what I'd wanted, right? To get the others to figure out how to help Pony, when I couldn't.
Of course, chances were it was always going to be something I wouldn't be able to take part in.
"What about the cake?" Yui chimed in quietly.
"That's right! We'll need to get something for her." Kendo said, turning towards me. "I wonder what kind of cake would she like?"
"I don't know."
"Well you're the one closest to her." Tokage pointed out. "You two are always hanging out when I see you."
"Like Monoma said, we've only known each other for a couple of weeks." I bristled. "So I don't exactly know her dietary preferences in intricate detail."
"Maybe instead of cake, how about apple pie?" Monoma suggested. "Pony would probably like that, right?"
"What, because she's a horse she must love apples?" I asked.
"What, no! Apple pie is an american thing." He paused. "I think."
"That's also a stereotype."
"We could just ask her what she likes." Honenuki pointed out, but Tokage protested.
"But then that would ruin the surprise."
"Guys, she'll probably just appreciate the thought and effort put into it either way." Kendo said with an air of authority, bringing the argument to a halt. "So. We'll organize a movie night and bake her a pie for a small celebration tomorrow. Any objections?"
"Just one." I raised a claw. "How exactly do we acquire that pie?"
"We could buy some from the store." Honenuki said.
"I don't know about that." Tokage argued. "Store bought would be kind of... impersonal, for something like this."
"Then how do we get some?" Monoma asked. "Do you know how to make some?"
"Well, no. But somebody here must, right?"
A moment of uncomfortable silence followed, as everyone looked around at each other.
"Seriously?" The question escaped my mouth unbidden. "None of you know how to bake a pie? It's the easiest thing in the world."
"Do you?" Tokage shot back.
"Or course I know how!" I raised my voice, eliciting a couple of looks from the nearby tables. "I just…"
I looked down at my enormous, scaled forelimbs, each longer and thicker than an adult man, and adorned with dagger-like, razor-sharp claws.
"...I can't make one." I said, morosely.
For a moment Tokage looked a little taken aback, an unknown emotion flickering across her face.
"Well, you have the knowledge while lacking the means, while we have the means but lack the knowledge. The solution is self-apparent." Kendo chirped, dispelling the sombre mood. "You can instruct us, and we'll do the baking."
"That…" Sounded like a terrible idea. But I didn't want to dismiss it out of hand. I didn't have to like it, but if it was for Pony…
That's what friends do, right?
"Well… I'd need to actually be there, to be of any real help. And I can't exactly fit into a normal kitchen. We'd need a place that's accessible me, and…"
And I knew of only one place that had that. Fuck.
"Well. We'd need to go to my home."
-----
"-just remember to clean up afterwards. Love you."
"We will. Love you too Mom."
I tapped the screen on my wrist-mounted communicator, ending the call with a sigh before trodding back into the cafeteria. I saw that Pony still hadn't returned, while Kendo and Tokage were standing a little way from the others, talking animatedly.
"-this isn't about you or her. This is about Pony."
I didn't quite catch Tokage's reply, over the background noise of the cafeteria, but Kendo's reply was clear.
"You don't have to like her, you just have to put aside your stupid rivalry for a little bit. Can you do that? For Pony's sake?"
I was starting to seriously wonder if I should make a public service announcement to everyone that hey guys, I have super-sensitive hearing so I physically can't help eavesdropping if you're talking in my general vicinity.
...Maybe some other day. Instead I made my way back to the group, my heavy footsteps interrupting the argument.
"Oh, Tatsuma! What did she say?"
"We're good to go on that front." If I didn't know better I could have sworn Mom had started tearing up when I mentioned I'd be bringing friends over. "Did you sort out who's coming?"
"Me, Yui and Tokage." The last of them gave Kendo a dirty look, but didn't contradict her. "Honenuki and Monoma have other commitments that can't be easily rescheduled. We also got Yoarashi onboard."
"It would be my honour to take part in such a passionate project!"
"Does he know how to bake a pie?"
"Um, no."
"Marvelous."
"I've been talking to the others and got them in on the plan." Monoma interjected. "But unfortunately there wasn't anyone else available on such short notice. I could try to persuade them, but..."
"No, it's fine. We'll be fine." I sighed. Past a certain point having more people would be more of a hindrance than a help, but it would have been nice to have at least somebody who knows how to bake.
I guess this was just going to be one of those days.
-----
"You know, it occurs to me that we never actually discussed how we were all going to get to my home."
Kendo, Tokage, Yoarashi, Yui and I stood outside UA's gates, which had thankfully been vacated by the media. Eventually even they must have gotten bored.
With the afternoon classes over, hundreds of students were leaving the campus, streaming towards the nearby train station.
"Why? Just take a train-" Kendo began, before her eyes widened with realization. "Oh."
"Exactly. I normally use the commute to go for a run." I scratched my side in thought. "I could tell you the right route, but you'd still have to wait for me to show up."
"That won't do." Kendo decided. "We'll all go together. We can turn it into endurance training."
"Are you sure? It's a fair amount of distance, I don't know-"
"Are you implying we wouldn't be able to handle it?" Tokage wheeled about, sudden edge of steel in her voice.
"No, I just-"
"Then it is decided."
The others looked ready to charge out at once, but Yui reached out and tapped Kendo in the shoulder. When the taller girl turned around she poked her in the chest of her pristine UA uniform.
"Don't you think we should change clothes first?"
"Oh, right!" Kendo rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "Let's go for a change of clothes first."
A few moments later the others had gotten changed, and we set off. I lead the way, setting what I thought was a reasonable pace.
-----
Yoarashi collapsed with a groan, falling onto one knee on our front porch as he gasped for air. Yui looked little better, her typically stoic demeanour cracked by exhaustion, and even Kendo was struggling to control her breathing.
See, the law says that even if your Quirk is always on you're not supposed to be actively using it to perform superhuman feats. So no running around the streets at full tilt. But the thing is, while it's easy for law enforcement to spot somebody who's outrunning motorcycles on foot, how would you enforce restricting, say, superhuman endurance?
What I'd forgotten, after so long, was how fast regular humans tire. While it was only a light jog to me, the pace I'd set was absolutely punishing on the others.
I'd tried to correct it and slow down, but, well…
"Come on, get up, that was nothing!"
Some of them had taken it as a challenge.
Tokage had fared better than the others, or at least she was the best at concealing it. She'd egged the others on, pushing them beyond what was probably wise, refusing to slow down.
Even Kendo, usually the voice of reason, seemed to have gotten swept up in the spirit, with the Sports Festival looming so tantalizingly close.
"You think you can become a Hero if you drop from a bit of exercise? I thought you said you were hot-blooded or something?"
Yoarashi struggled onto his feet with obvious effort, swaying but remaining upright as he pumped his fist. "Right! I can still keep going!"
And now I had to deal with four tired, sweaty teenagers.
"Maybe leave that for another time? We do still need to actually bake the pie." I ventured in an attempt to curtail their enthusiasm, shrugging the direction of the doors. "You can go back to training once we're done with that."
"She's right." Kendo said, rubbing the back of her head, seeming a little embarrassed. "Maybe a quick break before we get started?"
I would have frowned if I could have. It wasn't as if I disliked the others, but my room was my space, where I could recharge and lay off stress. I had never considered that they would be sticking around for more than strictly necessary for the baking.
But I could see the logic in her words. This was going to be difficult enough as it was. And I'd already invited and brought them here. I might not be an expert by any stretch of imagination, but denying them would be very, very rude.
After a moment's consideration, I shrugged and lead the way. The doors swung open as I approached, the recently-installed security camera recognizing me.
"Well. Welcome, I guess."
How long had it actually been since I'd had friends over? Yui had been my only friend growing up, and we never spent time together outside of school. It would have had to have been… I was suddenly painfully aware that I had no idea how I was supposed to act in this situation.
Most of the house was fairly normal, other than the raised ceiling and somewhat unusual arrangement of furniture to give me enough room to move around.
Not so much for my room.
My room was in fact, by most standards, rather strange. It was in truth less a room and more of a large chamber, with a raised roof and thick, reinforced walls. What furniture I had retained was sturdily constructed and bolted into the floor at the corners of the room, with the exception of the chair, but even that was designed to slide along the floor rather than topple over.
It was the one place where I didn't have to worry about knocking something over and breaking it with a misstep or because I wasn't keeping track of my tail.
"Well, this is-" Kendo began, but Yoarashi interrupted her.
"Now this is a proper lair of a dragon!" He announced, stepping further into the room. "It is so hot-blooded!"
"Literally." Yui noted, tugging at the collar of her shirt.
"You know there are adjectives other than "hot-blooded", right?" I asked Yoarashi.
"What a hot-blooded statement!"
I squinted at him. He had to be fucking with me, right? I could never tell with him.
"You have a dragon-sized computer?!" Tokage exclaimed, excitement seemingly overriding her grumpiness for the moment. "And a chair?"
"Yeah." I said, thankful for the distraction. "Being a dragon… kind of limits one's hobbies. I spend a lot of time online."
"Is that why your english is so good?" Kendo asked. "You've been acing that class."
"...Yes."
I stood by the door, feeling vaguely uncomfortable and unsure what to do.
Was this normal? Should I tell them to stop? Would that be rude? A million unanswered questions swam around in my head, competing for attention.
"What's this? Kendo asked, looking at the large wooden bin in the corner. It was filled to capacity, a strip of metallic white material hanging over the edge.
"Oh. That's, um, that's where I put the waste after I shed my skin. I haven't gotten around to emptying it yet."
Kendo reached into the basket, lifting a large patch of shimmering white scales, about the size of a bedsheet. The edges were ragged, where I'd scratched the strip of dead skin off with my claws, but for the most part it was intact.
"There's loads of this stuff." She said, looking down into the bin.
"I renew most of my surface area every few months." I shrugged. "Of course there's going to be a lot of it."
"What do you do with all of it?"
"We send it away with the garbage disposal. It doesn't burn so it needs to be sent to a landfill."
Tokage made a strangled noise, like she'd been about to say something before stopping herself. I turned to look at her, tilting my head in the universal "What?" gesture.
"You just throw it all away?!" She gestured animatedly towards the waste bin.
"I mean, yeah?" I asked with a shake of my head, feeling a little defensive. "What else am I supposed to do with it?"
Tokage made a frustrated groan. "I thought you were supposed to be the expert on dragons?"
I just looked at her blankly.
"Armor! You make armor out of dragonscale!"
"...I mean, I guess you could?" I ventured. "I don't know if it would make for good armor, though."
"Of course it would!" Tokage threw her hands in the air. "It's dragonhide!"
"Alright, tone it down." Kendo said, stepping forward and looking up at me. "If you're not comfortable with it, just say the word and we won't speak of it any more."
"I mean, I don't necessarily have anything against it, I don't have a use for the stuff. But isn't it kind of… gross? You'd be wearing strips of my dead skin."
"But it's genuine dragonscale." Tokage emphasized, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Do you really think anyone would mind?"
"Well, if you say so." I sighed. "You can have it, I don't really care."
Kendo nodded. "We'll take a sample for the Support Department and see what they have to say about it. We might be all getting excited over something that would be totally impractical."
Yoarashi and Tokage deflated before Kendo's realism, but didn't raise any objections.
Looking around the room I saw Yui looking through the cabinet built into the opposite corner of the room. It was a small thing, a glass door display I used for… a few memoirs.
"You told me about these once." Yui said, noticing my eyes on her. "You made them yourself, didn't you?"
The small plastic figures looked out from the shelf, cast in dynamic poses and waving a variety of weaponry in the air.
"I did." Another thing that Fujiwara had taken from me.
"Do these guys have chainsaw swords?" Yoarashi asked, leaning in closer.
"Yeah. Yeah they do."
"That is awesome!"
"Well, I think everyone is sufficiently rested by now." Kendo said. "We should stop imposing upon Tatsuma and do what we came here to do."
"I can tell you about those some other day." I told Yoarashi, and he reluctantly tore himself away from the display as I lead the group out of my room.
The kitchen wasn't anything particularly fancy, but it had all the necessary equipment. The table used to be bigger, but we had to get a smaller one so that I could fit past. I sat myself down, my tail and back half still in the living room, and began wracking my memories.
"Right, so, first we'll need the ingredients. Um, Kendo, there's flour and sugar in the cabinet next to the fridge. Yui, Yoarashi, we'll need milk, cooking oil, eggs, butter and apples from the fridge. Tokage, if you could get the baking powder from over the cabinet? Just, uh, gather it all on the table, we need to make sure we have enough of everything."
A few moments later the requested ingredients were piled on the table, and I inspected their findings.
"Yui, those are citruses, not apples." I squinted at the yellow fruits she'd gotten. "How do you even mix those two up?"
"..." Yui mumbled something that even my hearing couldn't pick up on.
"Just, um, apples are smoother and green-coloured. Yoarashi, could you get us some? In the meanwhile, we'll need bowls from that cabinet, and the measures should be above the sink, just get all of them."
Eventually, we'd finally managed to measure the correct proportions of ingredients, laid out on the table in order.
"Right. Um, Yoarashi, why don't you crack the eggs into the bowl?" I turned around to look at Kendo. "Alright, you can mix the flour and baking powder. What you'll want to do is take a small amount of flour, add the powder, stir, and then add it to the-"
"Here I go!" There was a loud cracking sound, and I whipped my head around again. Yoarashi had smashed the eggs with such force that half the yolk was on the counter, and there were shell fragments in the bowl, mixed in with the dough.
No.
Don't set fire to the kitchen.
No, bad dragon.
I was thankfully distracted by the sound of the front door opening. Mom said she wouldn't be home until six and Dad didn't get off of work until seven on a tuesday, meaning it had to be…
Oh.
This was going to be good.
A few seconds later, Ryuko walked into the kitchen, out of costume. She must've gotten off of work early.
"Oh, hi 'Zaki. Are these your classmates?"
I savoured the look of mental short-circuiting on the others' faces as they came face to face with the Number Ten Hero of Japan, in a casual shirt and jeans.
"Yeah. Yui Kodai, Itsuka Kendo, and Setsuna Tokage, this is Ryuko, my big sister."
"Nice to meet you."
Whilst the other stuttered out a response, I moved on. "Can you help us? We're having some trouble here."
"Sure." She said, rolling up her sleeves. "What do you need?"
"Show Yoarashi how to crack eggs. He's using way too much force."
"Got it."
"Right." I turned back to Kendo, who was looking slack-jawed at Ryuko. "So, where was I?"
"Uhhhh… the baking powder mixed with a little flour?"
"That's right. Then you add the mix to the rest of the flour. That way it'll spread more evenly."
-----
With Ryuko's help the dough progressed quickly, and I talked Yui through peeling and cutting the apples. It was… odd. I could understand not being familiar with baking, sure, but Yui seemed, well, she seemed like she'd never even seen food being prepared before.
After fifteen minutes or so the pie was all but done, with Yoarashi sprinkling on the last of the topping.
That was when we were interrupted by a loud, high-pitched beep coming from Ryuko's direction. She quickly got out her phone and checked the screen, her face falling instantly.
"I need to go."
"Go." I said, concealing my disappointment. "We'll be fine."
"It's, well, I'm not allowed to tell you." She said over her shoulder, even as she was all but running towards the door. "But you might want to turn on the TV."
"Right. Be safe!"
"Always."
She ran out, and I could hear her transform and take off as soon as she was outdoors. The others looked shocked, probably unused to the suddenness with which a Pro-Hero might get called into work.
"What did she mean?" Tokage asked.
"If it's big enough to warrant them to call in the Number Ten Hero like that, it's probably big enough to be in the news." I sighed, trying to conceal my nervousness. "Get the pie in the oven, set the timer for 30 minutes, and get to the living room."
Part of what had made Ryuko so successful was her ability to rapidly respond to situations over a large area. There were few heroes who were better in a fight, or could respond quicker, but almost none who could exceed her in both categories.
It had also made it hard for her to stick to a schedule, as she could be called in at a moment's notice.
But she had genuinely made an effort to improve in the past two years, making it clear that when she was off work she should only be called in for when there were no other options. For her to run off like that…
"Television. On. Channel Nine." I called out as we piled into the living room. The voice command had been a necessary addition, so that I could make use of the TV without having to try to fiddle with a tiny remote and ruin it with my claws.
The screen flickered on, rapidly coalescing into the image of a city, probably being filmed from a helicopter. Fires dotted the urban landscape, thick columns of smoke rising towards the sky as firefighters and Pro-Heroes alike struggled to contain them.
A running script was scrolling on the bottom of the screen, showing the words "RAMPAGE ACROSS HOSU". The reporter was saying something, but I tuned her words out and focused on the feed.
There, amidst the fires, were two figures. Massive, muscular forms, humanoid in shape yet distinctly inhuman in nature. Exposed braincase, smooth, rubbery skin, it was the visage that had been plastered on every news outlet for the last two weeks.
Nomu.
One alone had been enough to fight All-Might himself, and now two more were on the loose. The first, an eyeless, black-skinned giant, walked with a steady purpose as it emerged from a burning building into a park, smashing aside a tree trunk. The other was a slimmer creature, it's four eyes blinking rapidly as it scuttled about in the larger Nomu's wake.
Local Pro-Heroes were already on the scene, as a heavily-armored man used the vents in his elbows to propel himself forward, slamming a devastating haymaker into the white-skinned Nomu's face and sending it flying into a wall.
"That's Ingenium!" Tokage called out.
"You know him?" I asked.
"I used to live in Hosu." Tokage said, but didn't elaborate.
"His younger brother is in 1-A, I think." Kendo noted.
On the other side of the small park, a huge spectral bear was fighting the black-skinned Nomu, the vague outline of a man visible within. He raked the creature with his claws, but the wounds seemed to close as soon as they were being dealt, and a contemptuous backhand sent him to the ground with concrete-cracking force, before the Nomu raised a foot to stomp on his head.
We watched in frozen silence as another hero wrapped his tentacle-like arms around the monster's other leg, just as a goat-horned hero jumped on its back while a third one directed a pressurized stream of water at its face. The black-skinned giant staggered and fell with a crash, and the ghostly bear scrambled to his feet, but it was a small victory at best.
The Nomu was already getting back up, none worse for the wear. The camera suddenly swung around to focus on Ingenium, desperately evading the white-skinned Nomu's tongue which had grown to grotesque proportions, outsizing the creature itself.
It was clear that the heroes were outmatched. But even so…
"Is it just me, or do these Nomu seem kind of… weak?" The others turned to look at me. "I mean, not to put down the efforts of any of these Heroes, but the Nomu was supposedly able to fight All-Might. They should have been squashed flat, already."
"You're not wrong." Kendo admitted. "I hate to say it, but these Heroes are not on the level of All-Might."
More and more Heroes were arriving to fight the Nomu or help combat the spreading fires, many of them possessing flight or speed type Quirks.
"They must be calling in every rapid-response Hero available."
Suddenly a spiralling blast of flame lit up the sky in the distance, illuminating the evening sky. Once again the camera swung about, focusing on a pair of figures fighting on the rooftops.
One was unmistakable, the fire-wreathed form of the Number Two Hero, Endeavour. Opposite to him was another man, wrapped in long strips of cloth, wielding a shortsword as he dodged the Flame Hero's Hellfire.
He was more known to the general public by reputation, but I'd recently looked him up in more detail, and what I saw matched the blurry photos I'd seen in old news articles.
"Is that… Stain?"
"Yeah." I swallowed, my tongue suddenly feeling like lead in my mouth. "It is."
The Hero Killer was there, fighting alongside the League.
We watched in grim silence as the two disappeared into an alleyway, though the light of Endeavour's fires was still visible. Almost unbidden, my mind went back to that day two weeks ago.
"You're a follower of Stain, aren't you?"
That couldn't possibly be a coincidence. It just could not.
Back in the park, the battle was going poorly. Nothing the heroes could throw at the black-skinned Nomu seemed to do more than slow it down, but they had nowhere to retreat to, lest they allow it to attack the firemen struggling to pump water into a burning building at the edge of the plaza. Even the news reporter had fallen quiet, following the battle unfolding below.
The ghostly bear was thrown across the entire clearing as it sought to bar its path, the ethereal shape flickering out. The man within didn't get up.
Then, a familiar shadow passed overhead, and suddenly I knew that they would be alright.
Ryuko in her full dragon form landed on the black Nomu like a meteor, cracks snaking across the concrete as she slammed it into the ground with a mighty crash. A cloud of dust was kicked up, but by the time it cleared the Nomu was back on its feet, swinging wildly at its assailant.
Despite her size Ryuko dodged gracefully before biting down, fangs sinking into black flesh as she yanked back, pulling the Nomu forward. It's footing lost, she lifted it bodily into the air and hurled it across the street with a twist of her neck, away from the firefighters.
Yet still the creature was undaunted as it stood right back up again, the wounds left by Ryuko's teeth visibly healing until they disappeared entirely.
She yelled something at the other Pro-Heroes, though the news helicopter was far too distant to capture her words, but they took off to assist Ingenium with the other Nomu, while Ryuko faced the black-skinned one.
However, rather than attack her, it instead turned around and began plodding towards the firefighters again.
"It's just attacking indiscriminately?"
Wasting no time Ryuko sprang forward, and as soon she closed the distance the Nomu wheeled about, and met her scaled punch with one of its own, the street shaking from the shockwave of their clash.
"Yeah." Kendo nodded. "It seems to be just attacking whatever's nearest."
Out in the distance, the other Heroes had gone to help Ingenium, even as the speedster struggled with the white-skinned Nomu. It had grown vastly in size, huge muscles bulging underneath it's skin as it swung wildly at its opponent.
Ingenium dodged again and again, narrowly avoiding the massive fists that cratered concrete with every blow, even as the other heroes rained fire on it from afar. But every attack they threw at it, it could seemingly throw back, absorbed into it's skin and reflected towards the source.
"Why doesn't he put more distance between them?" Yui asked quietly. "He's so much faster, he should be leading it around."
"It's like Tokage said, it is simply attacking whoever's closest." Yoarashi said, gritting his teeth as he leaned closer to the screen. "He cannot risk losing its attention, or it'll go after the rescue workers."
Ingenium darted in close once more, but this time the Nomu extended it's huge, multi-branched tongue, swinging it towards the Turbo Hero. So close, there was no way he could dodge in time.
Suddenly, blue flames spat out of the exhaust pipes, and he rocketed forward far faster than before, grabbing a hold of the tongue as he went soaring over the Nomu's shoulder. The monster was yanked from its feet, dragged into the air behind Ingenium. Engines howling with exertion, he swung the Nomu by its tongue, smashing it against the street like he was wielding some grotesque flail. The impact sent shudders across the pavement, kicking up a cloud of dust. Ingenium's engines sputtered and died, smoke streaming out of the exhausts as he fell, only for one of the newly-arrived heroes to catch him. The others watched the white Nomu with apprehension, but it seemed like the Turbo Hero's final attack had been enough, and it stayed down.
The camera swung back to the other Nomu and Ryuko, on the other side of the plaza. She had pinned the Nomu down, her massive claws holding each of its arms in a firm grip. Yet, seemingly mindless determination drew the creature forward.
It began pushing itself up, twisting its own arm in the process. With a disgusting rip it came off entirely at the shoulder, revealing a mass of red flesh beneath the black, rubbery skin. Within seconds the stump began writhing, new muscles and bone pushing out to form a new arm.
The Nomu rammed it's barely-reformed fist into Ryuko's face with such force that the huge dragon staggered from the impact. It wrapped it's massive fingers around her throat, squeezing with both hands in an attempt to choke her.
She replied by simply raising on her hind legs, lifting the Nomu clean off the ground. It's footing broken, she slammed it down again, headbutting it into the concrete so hard that it formed a crater.
Before it could get back up again Ryuko sunk her jaws into the Nomu's shoulder and yanked to the side, swinging around to gather momentum before tossing it high into the air, sending it flying almost directly upwards, well away from the helicopter.
"What is she doing?"
"She's getting it into a position where she can use her most powerful attack without having to worry about collateral damage." I'd seen her use this move before on many occasions.
Ryuko followed the Nomu into the air, spinning around to slap it with her tail and sending it ever higher. She beat her wings, coming to a halt as she opened her jaws, revealing rows of dagger-like fangs.
"Is she going to-"
"Yes."
Just as the Nomu reached the apex of its flight and gravity began pulling it back down towards the ground, there was a clap of thunder. The sky was split by a gigantic arc of lighting flashing between Ryuko's throat and the Nomu, passing through it and into the clouds beyond. It persisted for several seconds, twisting and crackling as the Nomu howled.
A few moments later its charred hulk crashed into the pavement, streams of smoke rising from its surface.
It didn't get up again.
With both of the Nomu down, the tension slowly seemed to unwind as we leaned away from the screen, trying to process the events that had just taken place.
No matter which way I looked at it, I saw the connection. Fujiwara. Stain. The League of Villains. There had to be something there.
I just didn't know what it was, or what to do about it. But it kept eating at me, gnawing at the back of my mind.
"Your sister is awesome." Yoarashi finally said, breaking the silence and shaking me out of my thoughts.
"She is." I said, grateful for something else to think about. "Ryuko is the one who taught me all I know about being a Hero. I owe her everything, for being here."
"Don't put yourself down!" Yoarashi said, clapping a hand to my shoulder, as best as he could considering our size difference. "It was your own labour that brought you to this point! Others may stoke it, but only you can light the fire within you!"
"Even so, it was her recommendation that got me to UA." I told him. "She staked her reputation on me."
From the corner of my eye I saw Tokage giving me an odd look, but she said nothing.
"...Is this you?" Kendo asked, looking at a cabinet off to the side of the room. There were a couple pictures of me. You know, before. She was looking at one of them, a picture from when I'd graduated Grade School, standing side by side with Ryuko.
I nodded.
"You look… nothing like what I imagined, and yet exactly like yourself." She commented.
I shrugged my shoulders, unsure what to say.
"Do you ever miss it?"
…
"Kendo." Yui spoke up, a note of reproach in her voice.
I shrugged again, helplessly. I had accepted I wasn't getting my human body back, so what's the point of reminiscing about it? All it does is… make you feel sad.
The doctors had two theories as to the cause. The first was that it was physiological, that my body had died and there was nothing to shift back into. The other possibility was that the barrier was psychological in nature, created by my trauma at the hands of Fujiwara.
I preferred the former. At least that way, it was something that was out of my hands, something I couldn't affect. That way… it wasn't my own fault.
"Sorry." Kendo apologized, rubbing the back of her head with a bit of embarrassment. "That wasn't a fair question."
"Well, look on the bright side, it could have been worse." Tokage said. Yui gave her the most withering look I had ever seen on her face, but the green-haired girl was unfazed. "Look, imagine if you'd gotten stuck as a human?"
I felt a chill run through my body. Being rendered Quirkless, after having experienced it before… I couldn't think of a crueler fate.
I genuinely didn't know what I would have done then.
"This way, you can still become a Hero."
-----
Though the coverage of Hosu was still ongoing the others had to eventually leave, as tomorrow was a school night. We'd parted amicably after cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, going over the last arrangements for tomorrow, but a part of me was glad to be done with it all, my quota of socialization more than fulfilled for the day.
Ryuko returned late at night, tired but smiling as she gave me a quick hug before going to sleep. The Hero Killer had managed to escape Endeavour and even now a nationwide manhunt was being organized, but the Nomus had been stopped, and there were no deaths, though several pro-heroes and civilians had been severely injured. The League had lost, again.
The next day, we returned to school, but the attack was still the topic of the day and it seemed like everyone was talking about it as I made my way towards 1-B's homeroom. I also noticed an uptick in the amount of attention and looks I was getting from the other students, after my sister's performance last night.
"Today, we will be going over yesterday's results and analyzing what went right and what went wrong." Vlad King began, once everyone had finally arrived. "Before we begin, however, the Class Presidents have requested a moment. Kendo. Tatsuma."
Kendo and I stood up, and I retrieved the pie from where I'd hidden it under my desk, having arrived well before anyone else. She quickly lit the candles and I turned around, walking towards Pony's desk.
On cue, Yui, Tokage and Yoarashi started singing, in english.
<"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.">
One by one everyone joined in on the song, as I dropped the pie on Pony's desk.
<"Happy birthday to you dear Pony, happy birthday to youuu.">
All the effort that got put into baking it was instantly repaid in the massive smile that split across Pony's face, water glistening at the corner of her eyes. She pushed off her chair and wordlessly sprung forward to throw her hands around my neck in a hug, before moving onto do the same to everyone else.