"So let me ask you again one more time... You fellas' busted me out of prison; because you 'need' me to kill some kid in Musutafu?" El Bombardo asked wildly in a confused tone. He was currently sitting, cross-legged in front of a radio, talking to someone on the other side.
"Yes, a man of your skills should prove most useful for the task at hand. You could even kill him in a public setting, along with hundreds of people should you so desire." A man offered, sounding slightly baiting through the radio's static.
El Bombardo grinned as he looked at the explosives he was provided with. "And when I'm done, I'm a free man?" He asked with a hint of hesitation, not liking to trust another villain so easily.
"We shall personally send you a private jet off the country should you wish to leave."
"Well then, it is a pleasure doing business with you." He said grimly, his grin being able to be felt from his voice through the radio. With that, the connection was cut off abruptly.
Two men were seen standing in an office. One sitting down on a chair behind a desk, the other standing by a large window that oversaw a city as it was being covered in the orange light from the setting sun.
The room took such pigment of orange as well.
"Is it done, doctor?" Came the brooding voice of the one sitting in the chair.
"The pawn has been briefed. He's a Class-A criminal, he'll get the job done." The one by the window stated with confidence, "Should he fail, the supposed location of origin for the kill order will be all but real to him."
The one at the chair hummed in thought. "Omura Rei... a most interesting child." He commented as he looked at the screen that displayed the smiling face of the boy he was referring to.
This elaborate setup of hiring one of Japan's most infamous terrorists and making the boy his target was not necessarily to kill him, but rather to see what he was capable of, what his background was, what his nature was like. He had no idea how he had acquired such knowledge about his existence.
He wanted to know more about the boy.
"And what of my brother's little Legacy?" All for One turned to the doctor with a sickening smile.
"He's... he's making progress. Speaking of which, you might have to confront him sooner or later." The doctor turned towards his employer, slightly worried evident by his stiffy steps.
"Let him come, I shall deal with him like all the others that came before." He said with a grin and kicked back to sink in his chair, and relaxed.
"Hello, Little brother," Takashi said cheerfully with a bright smile.
Rei just looked on, shocked. There stood his older brother by the doorway. His entire right arm, reduced to a stump wrapped inside a black cloth made from a polymer fabric.
"Does it-"
"Hurt? No..." Takashi grinned, taking small pleasure in being able to predict his brother's words. He brought his left hand around and patted the empty space on his right,
"I literally can't feel it." He snickered a bit after that.
"Oh..." Rei both felt relieved and sad at his brother's statement. The appendage that was missing was a sight that brought a very uneasy sense of sorrow to Rei.
"Oh, don't give me that look," He tried to cheer up, pulling his brother into a hug, "It's not your fault." Takashi had known that Rei slightly blamed himself for their accident.
"Isn't it though?" Rei asked with slight defiance, awkwardly returning the embrace.
"Nope! In fact, without my right arm, I would have to learn to use my left more. Which is exciting to me!" He said, still with his cheerful air everpresent, even without an arm, Takashi could make light of the situation.
Rei laughed lightly while he rests his head on his brother's shoulder, "Only you could make losing a limb look like a good thing." He stated, smiling a small bit.
"Oh, and did you hear? They caught him!" Takashi announced, pushing his brother away from his shoulders, he held him at arm's length.
"Who-? Oh, the villain?" Rei asked confusingly, to which he received a nod.
"Yeah, he surrendered. The police found him pretty beat up too. He claimed his employers lied to him, and that he was paid to bomb the train. But when he went to receive his reward, they tried to..." Takashi cleared his throat and looked unsure for a moment. "Kill him." He finished with a grimace.
"They tried to... kill him?" Rei asked confused and tilted his head to the left.
'Why would anyone pay a villain to bomb a public transport? That seems-!' Rei then widened his eyes, looking up with a realization of a grim possibility.
'Wait, don't tell me...'
The news channel caught both their attention.
"This Just In The villain known as El Bombardo has been apprehended by the Police. His trial is currently taking place in the Supreme Court in Musutafu."
"Well, speak of the devil," Takashi said with a not so surprising look.
"I was backstabbed!" The man on trial yelled behind a booth. "They told me to kill a little kid that was on the train!"
"So, you don't deny that you're a terrorist?" The judge asked dryly.
"I don't care who I am, I want those idiots dead! Here look, I even got the location of their base of operations!" He said as he held up a piece of paper that looked to be a map.
"He's telling the truth," Detective Tsukauchi chimed in from his seat beside the criminal, "He has agreed to go on record saying that a group of villains approached him to kill this particular boy."
"And what was his name?" The Judge asked.
"I... I don't know, I only got a picture of what he looked like," He answered after a pause, stumbling through a few of his words, "Look, You can put me in Tartarus again. I just want those idiots dead!" He announced.
After a brief exchange between all parties. The judge settled on a decision.
"Very well, the police shall look into it. For now, Lewis Jose Scaletta. You have confirmed all allegations against your name including Terrorism, Damages to Public Property, Treason, and Murder. Thus, the Supreme Court of Japan has sentenced you to life in Tartarus." The judge announced as he struck his hammer, signifying the end of the trial.
"Wow, that seems a bit harsh," Takashi commented. "Oh, and did you see Aunt Maggie sitting in the Prosecution seat?" He asked enthusiastically as he turned to his brother. But when he saw him, Takashi was left confused.
Rei was staring wide-eyed at the T.V. before he then shook his head and turned to Takashi with a sorrowful expression.
"Is something wrong?" He asked him. Rei shook his head and looked at him with an expression that held grief. "Wow, you look like you just accidentally stepped on a dog's paw." He commented, looking up and down him with a thoughtful look. "Something is definitely wrong,"
"I- I'm sorry." Rei apologized with his hands held together in front of him.
"Sorry for what. I told you, it wasn't your fault." Takashi reassured with a confused look, wondering why he was being sentimental so suddenly. "If we were to be on time, I could have carried you on my back and run the whole-"
"No, it is my fault." Rei insisted and looked down and stayed silent for a while, "If I had just, just kept my mouth shut, you'd still have-"
"Well, I'll forgive you then." Takashi interrupted, suddenly bringing his left to hold Rei on the back of his neck.
"Huh?" Rei looked back up, taken by surprise with Takashi's abrupt reply, too shook to be able to resist Takashi who rocked him back and forth.
"If you really, really believe it's your fault. Then, I think I'll let you off the hook for it," Takashi said while patting him on the back, laughing at the end. "Think of this as an abstract gesture to get your mood up,"
He then got up. "So chin up you," He said cheerfully. Then without anything more to say, he made his way into the kitchen leaving Rei alone, sitting lowly on the couch.
As Rei sat there with his shoulders slumped. "No you wouldn't," He shook his head as he said that.
"Pack your things, were going to I-Island!" Hitoshi announced as he burst into the kitchen, sliding sideways across the floor on his feet.
Saki, Rei, and Takashi were sitting at the dinner table, enjoying a light evening snack when their father came home.
"I-Island?" Takashi asked first.
"Yup. And Rei, I am not taking a no for an answer from you." He said as he made his way over to his son's chair.
"I- Why?"
"Because you're the one that improved the design of my machine, of course!" He announced, ruffling Rei's blond locks with his right hand.
Rei immediately dropped his spoon into his cereal bowl. "You knew?" He asked in alarm, whipping his head back to look at his father.
"No, but I just confirmed it." Hitoshi began laughing triumphantly, with a finger held pointed to Rei. "I had a hunch that you were the one who stole it; and the one who improved upon it, but it was just that; a hunch." He explained as he approached Rei's seat from behind,
"Now it's not," He said with a smug smile, tugging Rei's chair a small bit to look down on him from behind.
Rei smacked himself mentally for playing right into his Father's hands. After a moment of consideration, he released a breath, and said;
"Okay, I'll go." He conceded as he sat straight on his chair, looking onward with a firmness.
Hitoshi smiled gleefully, then shifted his gaze to Takashi.
"I'll go as well," He said with a smile.
With a firm nod, Hitoshi made his way around the table and joined in their meal as well.
"Great! Oh and Rei, I have a friend that really wants to meet you." Hitoshi said as he began digging in.
"Uh... they want to meet me?" Rei squinted his eyes and turned to his father with a puzzled look. "Why?"
"That's a surprise." His father said in an amused voice. Rei began to wonder who this person could be.
"Wow..." Takashi said as he looked through a window on the side of their bright red Jet, "It's a lot bigger than I expected!"
They took a nighttime flight to I-Island. The artificial city stood out from the moon-lit ocean with its lights shining like a Christmas tree.
Rei sat there, looking at his brother with eyes filled with distress and fustration.
Their plane landed, and as it touched down, it suddenly shook, jolting Hotishi out of his power nap on the comfortable chair.
Hitoshi flailed his arms about rapidly before he stopped short, and calmed down.
"Huh-! We're here?" He turned to Takashi as he rubbed his right eye with a drowsy yawn.
"Yes, yes we are."
He yawned once more, "How long... was I asleep for?" He asked as he stretched his limbs about, his joints making popping sounds before he brought them down, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"About two or three hours," Rei answered, giving his father a look before resuming his work on his laptop.
His father then got up, hands holding his back as he stretched backwards. "Gwahh..." He grunted as his spine made weird popping sounds.
"Oh- That's the stuff..." He said with a satisfied smile before he walked to get their suitcases. Takashi helping along in any way he could with his one arm.
"No, no, no. I got this, I got this."
"Do you now?" Takashi raised his eyebrow. His father had about seven bags strapped to his body.
"... No..." He conceded and handed Takashi two bags to carry. Rei tagging along with a relatively tiny backpack of his own.
Since it was night. Their meet-up with the person would have to wait until the next day.
They were now sitting in a hotel room with three beds. Rei typing something on his laptop. Takashi doing some stretches and Hitoshi was on his phone.
"Hello?" Came the voice of their mother. Making Rei and Takashi look towards their father's phone.
"Hi, Angel," Hitoshi said cheerfully.
"Oh, you've arrived. And I assume everyone's safe?" She asked. Hitoshi nodded, then held out his phone and began surveying around the room.
"There's Takashi,"
"Hi, Mom!" Takashi waved at her. Angel waved back.
Hitoshi then shifted on his bed, "And here is Rei." He said with a pleasant tone.
Rei emptily waved along and nodded without saying anything. Something Angel immediately noticed as odd.
"Rei, is something the matter?" she said leaning a bit closer on the screen.
"Hmm? Oh no, no..."
"You know, a mother can always tell when their child is lying..." His mother interrupted, raising her eyebrows to look at Rei sceptically. "And you are lying."
Rei remained silent, he then contemplated for a moment before asking,
"Mom, is it really all good if you do something wrong; but the one you did it to chooses to forgive?"
Just one look at his posture, Angel could tell that he was deeply in conflict about something a little complicated.
"I-... well I, like to believe that we should always know that there will be consequences for our actions. And if we do something wrong, the least we could do is try to make up for it, in any way we can." She answered solemnly, knowing that her son was probably stuck in a slump of self-inflicted shame.
"But again, this is your mother speaking, and... you know how I can be at times..."
Rei looked up and saw that his mother was smiling at him through his father's phone.
"Now is this about you stealing the Blue Print?"
"Now is this about the train bombing again?"
Both Takashi and Hitoshi asked at the same time.
"... Both..." Rei answered them.
"We told you, it's okay," Hitoshi reassured.
"Yeah, why don't you go to bed for now. I'll wake you up early in the morning and well go for a run." Takashi told him while he brought his right arm up above his head, "Clear your thoughts and such..."
"... Yeah, I'll-... I'll do that," Rei said as he saved the project he was working on before turning off his laptop. He then set it aside and tugged himself to bed.
"Consequences..." He nodded. He decided at that moment that he will always think before he leaps in the future.
He won't make that mistake again.
He couldn't help but wonder though, what had made him consider even spilling in the first place?
Perhaps it had been Over-Confidence. A Hubris built through his early accomplishments.
He had just manifested his quirk, and that may have played a part in altering his rational way of thinking to that of a, 'Jump First, Think Later." kind of mindset when bestowed with newfound power.
The fact that, up until that moment, he was greeted with success after another, and praise to go along with it without him even trying much, insinuated the idea that he was Unstoppable. That he was on the path to be on top of the world. Failing to catch the notion that, he was not.
He is not Unstoppable, maybe he never will be. But that's beside the point,
This was the danger of success without real effort. One becomes accustomed to it, and when a situation out of their league is presented to them, they make the wrong choice, thinking it would always go their way...
"Can you feel it!" Takashi called out.
"Yup!" Rei said as he jogged from behind him.
"Just a couple more laps and were done!"
"Right!" Rei steeled himself, his brother had indeed woken him up early in the morning to go for a jog. Despite having only one arm, he didn't seem phased at all.
Rei's already high regard for his brother grew even more.
They went through the various empty districts they were preparing for the I-Expo of that year. Takashi taking the lead with Rei follow closely behind. He had managed to not collapse a single time on their run this time.
"Whew! That was fun." Takashi exclaimed as he got out of the shower. A single towel warped around his waist.
Rei had gone in first and was currently sitting on his bed, changing into his casual outfit. It was just a green T-shirt with brown pants and a greenshoe.
He agreed with his brother, it was fun for him as well because he had never gone here before, a totally new place. Looking outside the window. The movie did nothing to do justice to this city, he found out.
Speaking of the first movie, he had been left even more confused at just how advanced their tech here was compared to the rest of the world. Was I-Island hoarding all the cool inventions to themselves?
He even remembered a Pogo stick that could collapse into a box the size of your palm, that belonged to a certain Female Blond Inventor.
The only plausible explanation he could come up with was Nano-Machines, and that just sounded cheap.
"Are you ready?" Takashi called to him, Rei turned to see that his brother had already changed into his clothes. He wore a brown T-shirt under the Leather Jacket that was given to him by his uncle. Blue jeans and bright red boots topped off with a black and white cap. The jacket made it look like he still had two arms.
"Yup," Rei said as he got up.
They both walked up to the bathroom door and Takashi knocked on it. "Are you almost done?" He asked the person who was in there.
"Just give me another minute!" Hitoshi's reply was a bit muffled by the door.
Takashi and Rei both nodded and decided to wait. Both heading to their beds to sit down.
"Did you make anything new yet?" Takashi asked his younger brother.
"Uh, yes, unless someone's made it before, in which case, what a coincidence that would be." He joked.
"What is it?"
"It's still just a render I made on the laptop. But if it works, I believe it could change the world." He stated with utter confidence.
"That's a bold claim." Takashi looked on with one eyebrow raised. His face then morphed into a grin. "I like it!"
"David!" Hitoshi exclaimed as he embraced a man with short messy brown hair and a short goatee.
"Hitoshi." He acknowledged as he returned the gesture.
"Oh. Rei, this is David Shield, he's a friend of mine." Hitoshi introduced his son to him. "He's the man who wanted to see you." He explained.
'I knew it.' Rei looked up and down with fascination. He knew that his father was one of the higher-ups in the scientific community, and would probably be an acquaintance to someone like David Shield. But they seemed a lot more familiar than he would have ever thought.
"So this is the boy who improved the design for the particle accelerator. I've heard so much about you from your father." He smiled warmly while he bent down, ruffling Rei's hair to which he didn't really care to mind at the moment.
Then a little girl with a very puffy collection of blonde hair peeked out from behind David's side.
"Papa, Is this the one you told me about?" She asked hesitantly in English, pointing towards Rei inconspicuously. With her big blue eyes wide open, she was not wearing any glasses at the moment, but Rei knew exactly who it was.
"Yes, he is Melissa," He confirmed with a soft nod as he turned back towards her, "Go on, introduce yourself." He ushered, lightly pushing her forward with a hand placed on her back.
She then went out from behind her father as she stepped up to Rei, despite the supposed two-year age difference, they stood at the same height, Rei maybe even taller than her.
"Konichiwa." She began, trying to speak Japanese but it was obvious she was still not quite used to it. "Ore wa... Melissa Shield Desu." She gestured to herself. She then politely pointed at him and raised her eyebrows. Prompting him to introduce himself. "Kimi?"
"Call me Rei. Rei Omura." He answered in English.
His father turned back to look at him with a shocked look.
"Oh, you can speak English?" Melissa asked wide-eyed and her voice filled with surprise.
"Since when?" Hitoshi asked in surprise as well, lifting his sunglasses.
"Since a while, now." Was Rei's unsatisfying answer. Truth was that in his previous life, he was American himself. He had also taken the time to learn seven different computer programming languages just in case, but he found no reason to state it here.
"Wow, I've only just started learning Japanese this month and it's so hard!" Melissa said in frustration. "Was learning English hard for you?"
"Yeah... pretty hard. So many rules am I right?" He asked her instead. He was not really lying when he said it was hard to learn for him.
"Exactly! And Japanese, why does it have to have three entirely different alphabets." She exclaimed.
"Makes It pretty easy to read once you get it down." He shrugged.
"Yeah, if you could get it down in the first place." She mumbled. They then just looked at each other, smiles expanding wider and wider before they both started to laugh.
"So, Papa says you're a super genius." She said curiously. "Is that true?"
"Not really, I am prone to do some really stupid things from time to time." He answered honestly while he shifted his eyes to the side.
"Don't we all? There was one time I filled our entire bathtub with mayonnaise because I thought Papa would like it." She said with an embarrassed laugh, and she bent forward while cupping her mouth with her hands to Rei, "Papa loves mayonnaise, but not the whole bathtub thing..."
"No..." Rei looked shocked as he placed his hand on his chest, seeming to be taken quite aback, "What a waste!"
Melissa just laughed sheepishly as she intertwined her hands behind her back, lightly swaying from side to side.
"I just remembered... I wanted to show you something when you got here!" She exclaimed. She then began making her way to somewhere. Leaving Rei standing there, unsure of whether to follow her or stay with his father and brother.
He then looked towards his father and brother with a conflicted look.
"Go on," Hitoshi gestured with a supporting smile.
Rei nodded with a smile and ran after her.
"So... Is it rude for me to ask what happened?" David made a gesture to indicate that he was referring to Takashi's missing right arm.
"Not at all, it's a long story," Takashi shook his head while he took off his jacket as he was feeling a bit warm,
"I do like a good story..." David said with a smile.
"Papa told me that you can control technology." Melissa idly said as they walked together.
"Well... yes, that's essentially it. I could manipulate conductors down to the atomic level, as well as a few insulators such as Silicon Dioxide, through the manipulation of strong and precise electric or magnetic fields." He explained with slight pride.
How he could control certain insulators when his quirk relied on electricity, he didn't know, but it enabled him to build some pretty impressive processors so it was a welcome surprise.
"That sounds so versatile. Oh! You're trying to join the hero course right?" She received a nod of confirmation. "Why?" She asked again, seeming to be really curious as to the reason.
"What do you mean?"
"Why not become a support hero." She elaborated. "With a quirk like yours, I bet you could build some crazy amazing support gear."
"Well..." He placed his hand on his chin and tilted his head to the side slightly, "The hero course seems more exciting to me, I guess." He said with a shrug.
"Hmm, you have me there..." She laughed as she could not deny that the hero course seemed to be the most exciting to thrill-seekers.
Then they seemed to arrive at their destination, which Rei recognized as her room. She opened the lock before they both stepped inside.
As Rei looked around, he could see that a few trophies were already present on the trophy pile that she had. Several books and encyclopedias were also arranged neatly on the shelves.
Her workstation was relatively the same, minus the robot arm that was present in the movie.
"Tada!" She exclaimed. bringing up a hologram on the table.
Rei squinted and saw that it was a disc-shaped device. "This is...?"
"It's supposed to be an Anti-Gravitational Hover Disc. I've been working on it for quite some time." She said with a hint of pride in her voice.
"Ah, I'm guessing you haven't got it to work yet." He deduced as he began inspecting it, bringing his hand up to hold his chin in thought.
"... No, but I will." She stated with confidence and puffed out her chest.
"It exploits the properties of Gravitons I'm assuming?" He asked while walking around, inspecting the device from different angles.
"Eh? How did you know?" She stared at him wide-eyed and to be seemed surprised by the completely accurate deduction.
"So you have tried reversing their Polarity, right?"
"I- well yes. But I couldn't get them to stabilize. See?" She then played a simulation of the device hovering in the air for a brief second before it unceremoniously fell to the ground.
Rei hummed in thought. "Try to increase the amount of Flux and Density in the Stress-Energy Tensor by a factor of about... 42 times Ten, to the Twenty-Fifth Negative Power of G." He began and looked in thought for a moment again. "Also, change the Architectural Configuration for the Charge Displacers to work connectively in Inverse pairs so they can stimulate a Faux Quantum Entanglement trait."
"Maybe that'll yield enough overall gravitational repulsion. While being just enough stress to stabilize the Inverse Polarity Gravitons it's generating." He finished and looked up towards her to make the calls.
"I... wow, I never thought about that." She exclaimed. "I'll run the simulations right away!" She got over her state of apprehension and began typing down on the workstation's keyboard.
The projection began to spin, parts being removed and replaced. Melissa had a look that said she was totally engrossed in her work. After she was done, she pressed a button and a simulation began to play out.
The device started at the ground, sitting there like it was not going to move anywhere.
Then it started to rise, slowly in the air. And in the end, it was hovering in the air, unsupported by any form of propulsion.
'Sorry Uraraka, but I think your quirk has been rendered, obsolete.' He jokingly thought to himself with a giggle. He then looked to Melissa who had a wide smile on her face looking starry-eyed at the projection.
She then turned her gaze to Rei. "You are a genius." She exclaimed as she went over to him to hug him. Rei hadn't expected this and just awkwardly held his arms hovering to the sides.
"Ah, you're giving me too much credit. I'm sure you could have figured it out on your own." And he was not being generous when he said that. He remembered seeing spherical vehicles that could float around at the start of the movie. Indicating that she could have indeed, figured it out on her own.
She then separated from him. "We have to tell Papa right away!" She enthusiastically told him. She then went to the drawer on her workstation and reached inside. After rummaging around for a bit she fished out a USB drive.
Walking up to the large projector, she plugged it in and began transferring the files for the device in the drive.
After a while, the transfer was complete. "Come on!" She said as she began to jog to where ever David was. Rei following closely behind with a proud smile on his face.
"Watch it... Keep it steady." David instructed with a hand, held out to signal for his Colleagues to wait.
"Photon readings: Positive..." Hitoshi called out from his seat, surrounded by screens and small glowing buttons everywhere.
"This... looks very, very promising." A physicist commented from his own station across the observation room.
They had finished making alterations for Hitoshi's Particle Accelerator design, which took them around two days. They were currently conducting a test to see if it truly worked.
"Ready... and Fire!" David instructed. The man on the other station pressed the button. The powerful electromagnets in the Particle Accelerator that ran around the edge of the whole island hummed to life. And in an instant, two particles, both electrons were smashed together with each other and had been all but obliterated.
"Woah...! Boss you gotta see this!" The man at the observation station called to David. He went on over and his eyes widened.
"It... It works." Hitoshi exclaimed from his seat, disbelief evident in his voice while his hands were brought up to pull back his hair.
His arms were literally shaking with excitement and he grinned, and not in a creepy way.
There it was, the Quirk Singularity. Perhaps the most versatile particle in all of existence.
It was the Cog that made them exist and evolve as time goes on. This was perhaps a discovery of the same magnitude as when Humans discovered fire.
"Haha! It works!" He exclaimed as he began laughing triumphantly, getting up from his seat to celebrate.
David was also sharing his excitement, though he held himself back from laughing fanatically.
Everyone in the room began celebrating in their own ways. Some hugging each other. Some laughing. Some just simply clapping as they nodded.
"I must say, Congratulations!" One scientist said to Hitoshi as he patted him on the back.
Hitoshi looked back and saw that it was Sam, a fellow scientist and close friend of the Shields.
"So, you designed that?"
"Yea-" Hitoshi then stopped. In the Hotel room, Rei had requested that he should take credit for the machine's design and should not tell anyone about his involvement save for David and Melissa Shield who he had already told. Hitoshi didn't like it, saying that he should receive credit for his contribution to the Sciences. But Rei firmly insisted against it.
He had ultimately conceded and had told David to not tell anyone else. That doesn't necessarily mean he likes it. "Yes, I designed it." He said with a pang in his heart.
"You really are just as amazing as they say you are, Mr Omura." He complimented.
"Thank you, for your kind words." Hitoshi managed to grunt out, tripping through the words.
"Mr Omura, are you alright? You seem to be in pain-" Sam spoke with concern as he began inspecting his body.
"I'm fine." Hitoshi stopped him. "Just, a bit overwhelmed." He explained.
"Ah, yes, I understand." He said understandingly with a respectful nod and stepped back to give the man some space.
Hitoshi then slowly breathed in and out. He then looked up towards where David was, who was also looking at him with a pained expression. Sharing Hitoshi's view about Rei's decision.
"Do you know why he chose to remain like this?" David asked Hitoshi as they both sat on a small round table with an Umbrella in the centre.
"No... He only said that he didn't need the recognition right now. That he would display his genius on his debut as a hero."
"A hero?" David was taken by surprise by Rei's ultimate end goal. He knew how appealing the thought of becoming a hero was, but Rei's quirk would have been very useful if he joined here at I-Island Academy instead of somewhere like UA.
He also knew that the boy was smart enough to know this.
"He wants to be, a hero?" He asked again, confusion lased in his voice.
"I know right? I was surprised too when I first found out that becoming a hero was his dream." Hitoshi chuckled and laughed a small bit as he said that.
"Does he have a particular reason?" David pushed on as he took a sip from his drink.
"Not really. He said, that he wanted to become a hero because he just wanted to help people. But I don't think he really meant it when he said what he did." Hitoshi looked down in mild concern.
"What do you mean?"
"There was not a spark in his eyes when he said it to me." Hitoshi's tone became stout and firm, almost grim from the way he said it.
David looked up towards his friend. Hitoshi was looking on ahead with a serious expression.
"But he was just three years old at the time, so I really couldn't blame him." He shrugged and took in a mouth full of water.
"Papa!" Melissa called out with a wide smile as she rode on a small electric scooter. Rei hitching a ride in the back seat.
"They seem to be getting along," Hitoshi commented with a smile.
They drove up to them at a steady pace, Melissa's smile never leaving her face. When they arrived, she hurriedly dismounted and placed the scooter on a stand before Rei could even get off, and ran up to their Dads.
"Papa, you know that project I was working on?"
"The Hover Discs?" David asked as Melissa nodded enthusiastically. The amount of joy she was emitting right now could only mean that, "So you figured it out..." He said with a knowing smile.
"No, he did-" She tried gestured to Rei.
"- We did," But Rei interrupted her instead.
Melissa looked back at him with a glare. "We've been over this, I would have never figured it out on my own." She said with annoyance.
"And I would have never got the idea, had you not already design the piece." He insisted and before Melissa could take to argue, "Where's Takashi?"
Hitoshi raised briefly flicked eyebrows towards a direction behind Rei.
Rei turned back and saw that Takashi was running around a track of some sort. A wired contraption strapped to his legs.
"He's beta-testing some Support Running Gear for the Researchers." His father explained.
Rei smiled at the scene. The People and the Researchers who stood by the side with paper boards, almost couldn't believe how fast he was running even with just a single arm he could depend on for counterbalance.
Rei, however, had seen him go faster. It almost seemed like he had a quirk, he was not going to lie.
"So, Melissa, you and Rei were able to figure out how to get it to work?" David said as he straightened his back on his chair, causing both of them to turn back to him.
Melissa nodded intensely, while Rei looked at her with a smile of approval, finding content that she seemed to have dropped the whole thing about all the credit coming to him.
David looked at his friend and smiled.
"Do you see it?" He asked with a wide grin. David was referring to something in Rei and Melissa's eyes, something Hitoshi claimed was not there before.
"Yes..." Hitoshi looked back at him with a smile and a nod. Then both looked at the two in front of them with pride written all over their face.
"This is great!" Takashi exclaimed as he was greedily devouring everything that was in the vicinity of his seat.
"Ehe he... Your brother has quite the... apatite huh?" Melissa nervously said as she stared at Takashi from across the table.
"Yup, he sure does..." Rei answered from his seat beside her. His brother's eating was truly a sight to behold.
"Can I ask you a sort of... personal question?" Rei suddenly turned his attention to the girl sitting beside him. Curious about something from the series that had never been stated.
"Hmm? Oh yes, of course," She said as she nodded.
Rei then considered for a moment, and paused before he opened his mouth,
"What happened to your mom?" He asked with a little wince to his left eye.
Melissa's face suddenly shook with her shoulders tensing up a bit.
She averted her eyes from him and looked to the side, "She, um," Melissa cleared her throat, "she... died, giving birth to me." She tripped through her words a bit but afforded to get through them.
Rei then jerked his head back slightly and released a sigh, then he took to rally, bringing up a hand to shake Melissa slightly on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry to hear that. And... I'm sorry for bringing it up."
"It's okay, you were just curious. What about your's, is she...?" She gestured for Rei to continue.
"Oh, mom? She's fine. My mother can be... a bit too confrontational sometimes. And she's really... expressive with her way with words," He began with a small laugh, looking distantly.
"She's really loud and commanding. But that's because she doesn't really know how to hide what she thinks about others. She's really what you would call a person who is... what's the word... Cranky, yes," Rei turned up with a shine in his eyes as he found the word, "I lost the word there, she's a really cranky person," He finally finished with a hearty laugh,
"That's nice," She looked down at her hands, finding the thought of having a mother to have been fantastic.
"Okay, come on, chin up. Chin up- there you go," Rei placed a finger under her nose and lifted it gently enough for her to turn her head up again, replicating a gesture from his dear brother.
She looked up to Rei from her slightly slumpy posture, "You're staying until the Expo opens right?"
"Yeah?" Rei nodded and went back to finish his meal.
"Great! There are still so many things I want to show you!" She rejoiced as she began laughing.
Rei turned to her and said something with his mouth full.
But, since his words couldn't really be discerned that properly, and he didn't seem to be looking to want to elaborate further, Melissa just turned back to her meal as well.
"Now this one, I call the 'Stable Pogo'. There's a spinning gyroscope in the centre that detects which way it's tilting and automatically corrects itself." Melissa explained proudly, her voice frequenting in loudness as she bounced up and down on a Red Uni-pedal Pogo device.
"So, there's no way you could fall when you're riding it?" Rei analyzed the gadget with intent eyes, raising an eyebrow in complement to its design.
"Nope! Unless maybe if you're really unlucky." She shrugged through the forces of bouncing up and down.
"May I try?"
"Go ahead." She said as her bouncing became lower and lower until she halted. She got off with not much difficulty.
Rei then got on top. "So you just bounce?"
"Pretty much."
Rei began moving his body up and down, the machine moving along with his thrusts. "Oh, I get it." He said before he squatted placing tension on the springs. He then released, launching a fairly good distance up into the air.
"Woah!" Both Rei and Melissa cried at the same time, Melissa taking a few steps back. When Rei got reached the ground, he immediately launched back up, this time at about half of the initial jump.
"This thing is great!" Rei complemented from the air. Despite its straightforward nature, the machine had a certain charm and enjoyment to it.
"Thanks!" Melissa seemed genuinely happy from his comment.
After a while of bouncing around, Rei decided to get down.
"But... this still seems a bit chunky..." He hesitated a bit, looking the machine up and down.
Unlike its appearance in the series, the Pogo was thicker, and had a lot more industrial Red with grey steel accents. Not the sleek Matte Color finish it was supposed to be.
"I have a couple of plans for it. Oh! And there's this new, really cool technology that I want to try on it." She didn't seem to mind Rei's critique at all, finding drive and inspiration from it instead.
A good mindset to have as a Trail-Blazer in Rei's ledger.
"Can I know what it may be?" Rei slightly teased, following Melissa along when she began to walk away towards the entrance.
"Hmm... no." She denied him of the answer with a playful giggle, to which Rei huffed through his nose unamused.
There were many technologies in veils and red curtains looking around the hall, just away from their view.
Many of these things were maybe new support gears and things of the like for the new generation of Peace-Keepers. Some of them may have been actually revolutionary.
"... Have you met any Pro Heroes?" Rei suddenly asked idly, while they walked down the display hall. He was curious as to whether or not she had met All Might yet.
"Um... well, I've met a few heroes..." She answered, upon hearing of her tone, one could tell you that she was unsure about something.
"All Might?"
Melissa gasped before she turned around. "How did you guess?"
"Well, I heard that your father and him were great friends during his time in the States."
"Oh..." She then realized it might have been obvious. "Well, Uncle Might comes to visit from time to time." She explained.
"Uncle Might?"
"It's what I call him. He's like... family friend so to speak."
"What's he like?" Rei asked as he wanted to further the conversation.
"He's amazing! He's so kindhearted and cool. You'd think the Top Hero would have their head in the sky. But he's so down to earth and likable." She began to banter on.
"That sound's about right," Rei said with a smile. The admiration Melissa displayed was almost the same as Midoriya.
"Say, you ever tried becoming a hero?" Rei suddenly asked her.
"I... did, a while ago. Then I realized I could be much more useful to society if I stayed in a lab." She explained.
"Why?"
"I mean, what's Quirkless little me gonna do in a big fight between heroes and villains?"
"I wouldn't go there, no..." Rei suddenly spoke up in moderate opposition, and as a certain Anthony Edward came to his mind.
"Huh?" Melissa looked up in confusion.
"Well you see, my quirk is not even built for combat, but I am still planning to become a hero, purely through gear and engineering." Omura elaborated with a soft giggle.
"You think after a while, I'd know what I would do with my life..." Rei absently reached up and tapped the front of his head, "But no... not really. Though, I do know that I have to help people, to do better than my best."
"I- I suppose..." Melissa tilted her head, curious as to what Omura was getting at.
"I guess what I'm trying to... explain to you is that; maybe being a hero should be more than wearing a cape."
"So... when I become one of the greats. I expect you to shine just as bright." Rei spoke with a shine in his eyes. ""
"I'll... keep that in mind." Melissa said with a smile, and nodded "Okay."
Rei's seriousness died down abruptly, and his "How was it?" He referred to his little speech.
Melissa looked down and chuckled softly, "It was a little chalky..."
"Oh, we can all know that..." Rei said with a little drawl and a laugh.
"But it was good," she said with almost a whisper, but loud enough that the boy could hear her.
She looked up and saw that Rei was smiling proudly along with her.
"Bye, bye!" Melissa called out as she waved towards them. Standing beside her was her father, who was also waving as well.
Rei, Takashi, and their father waved back, several bags as briefcases in their possession.
"What a nice girl," Hitoshi commented with lips curved down while nodding and Takashi with Rei nodded their heads as well in agreement.
The Expo had come and gone in a blur, and Hitoshi received several awards for 'his new design' of the Particle Accelerator.
Rei having made friends with Melissa, was quite pleased with this trip.
Of course, Takashi was also content that he could help the researchers with their... well, research.
The group turned and entered the docking walk, up to their bright red jet home.
Seated in a small compartment reserved for their arrival, they made comfortable for their flight. And as Rei opened up his laptop, his older brother sat down across from him.
The boy hesitated before he looked up and saw that his brother was staring outside the plane window towards his left.
Rei looked out and saw that Melissa was still waving at them from inside the airport through the tall glass walls, garnering a couple of stairs from tourists and the people inside.
He was not even sure if she could see them or not, but decided to wave back out of decency.
Shifting his attention back to his brother, from his point of view, the stump where his arm should have been was displayed in full detail. Making his promise the other night even stronger.
Further shifting his gaze down towards his laptop, he oversaw a 3D render of a robotic arm, slowly spinning around on an invisible axis.
Jumping a bit suddenly, he smacked himself on the head as he remembered he was supposed to build it on their time here at I-Island.
Now his resource supply was nonexistent again.
His father and older brother slowly turned their heads to regard the small boy with mixed faces, and his expression became that of a forced smile.
He became so distracted, spending almost all day and night with Melissa that he forgot to build it.
But in his defence, he had not even designed the neural transmitter that could control the arm yet, so it would still essentially be useless even if he had built it.
"Someday, I'll give you back your arm." He said under his breath, covered by the collar of his jacket. "I promise..."
Double Surprise!
And to answer the question about Takashi's mature behaviour in the previous chapter. Rei and Takashi are about six, almost seven years apart.
Rei is Eight, bordering Nine right now, which would make Takashi Fourteen. He is also unusually very mature for his age; essentially, imagine a more calm and collected Iida should the situation demand it.
He looks older than he actually is too, often making people mistake him for a young adult; like the fireman did.
I have also recently re-watched the Two Heroes Movie and I realized just how BS the tech in MHA could be. It is a miracle it hasn't replaced quirks yet.