Author's note

Well welcome back, good to see you again. This chapter isn't too much longer than the first, but from here on out they will be getting much longer. I won't waste any more of your time with this author's note. See you at the end.


Chapter 2: Encouragement

3 years later (2nd grade)

Kyo happily bounced in his seat as the teacher called on him for first day introductions.

"Next, please tell us your name, favorite color, and quirk." The teacher said while turning to him. Kyo quickly got up from his seat, ready to address the class.

"My name is Kyo Kuro. My favorite color is yellow, and my quirk is called bioluminescence. It allows me to create light from any point on my body." He did a slight bow at the end of his introduction and politely sat back down.

"Right, well class here is our syllabus for this year. Please make sure to read it over with your parents and have them sign it by Friday." The teacher finished handing out the packets of paper right as the bell rang to start lunch. Kyo quickly got to his feet and started packing up his stuff.

"Hello?" Someone asked, the boy looked up to see a girl about his age. She had long white hair with beautiful crimson eyes, her face was too round for her elf-like features. As far as posture was concerned, hers seemed perfect with the way she was holding her books.

"Yes? Can I help you?" Kyo asked,

"Well umm…. I was just wondering… would…you… like to join me for lunch? I'm sorry, this is really sudden." Her cheeks immediately swarmed into a violent red. Kyo almost laughed, almost,

"Uh, I don't know. I usually eat lunch with my sisters. Though I suppose they wouldn't miss me too much if I ate with someone else." Her blush turned into a wide smile,

"Really? You'd eat with me?" She nodded, "thank you, thank you, thank you."

A few minutes later the two of them had decided to eat lunch outside on the playground underneath a large tree. The cool breeze was very welcome on this hot summer day. It carried a very nice scent of June flowers.

"So, is there any reason you wanted to eat out here with me?" Kyo asked through a mouthful of food. She looked at him cheerfully.

"Oh I just came to this school and it's my first day so I'm looking for friends." She explained. He nodded thoughtfully.

"I've been here since last year. My name is Kyo Kuro. All my friends from last year left the school, so I'm looking for a new friend too."

"Wow really? Can we be friends? My name is Yumiko Miki." She introduced herself.

"It's nice to meet you Miki, of course I'll be your friend." He smiled.

"I've never had a friend before." Miki exclaimed. "So… what do we do now that we're friends?"

"Uh, we get to know each other." Kyo explained through mouthfuls of food.

"Oh, ok. Uh, what do you wanna do when you grow up!" She tried.

"Oh, well, originally I wanted to be a hero like mommy and daddy, but…" He stopped mid sentence, recalling what his mom and dad thought of that. Miki tilted her head slightly.

"But what?" She asked.

"My quirk isn't strong enough for that." He explained, "so now I don't know what I want to do."

"Your quirk isn't strong enough?" She questioned. Kyo shook his head, his face all down trodden now. Suddenly, he felt a jab to his right side.

"Then train it silly." She giggled. Kyo looked at her curiously,

"What do you mean? Train my quirk?" He asked. "But, how would I even…"

"I'm sure there's a way." She interrupted cheerfully. "I'll help you if you want."

"Why though? What's the point if I'm just going to inevitably fail some entrance exam?" He asked.

"You can always try right?" She said, then smiled brightly at him. "Besides, you looked sad, so I want to cheer you up." Suddenly, a pair of familiar voices in the form of two sisters, broke the tranquility of the hill. Mao and Kumiko came running up the it towards the tree they'd been eating under.

"Kyo," Mao seemed out of breath. "Where have you been? We've been searching everywhere for you."

"Yeah don't run away from us baby bro." Kumiko added with full seriousness.

"Guys guys, I just wanted to eat lunch with someone else today." Kyo said while holding his hands up innocently. Beside him Miki went still, Kyo turned to her excitedly. "This is my new friend Miki." He introduced, Mao eyed her suspiciously, Miki looked petrified while being inspected. Once she finished Mao did not comment on Miki.

"Grab your stuff, we're going back to the cafeteria, don't leave our sight again, glowworm." Mao said before helping him pack up his stuff. Kyo knew better than to argue with her about this sort of thing. Besides he had a lot to think about so he wasn't very focused at the moment.

...

Throughout the years Miki and Kyo grew to become close friends. Miki always continued to encourage him to become a hero. Ever since they'd met, Kyo has started dieting and working out on his own. He and Miki had taken to sparring in the park on Sunday. As far as quirk practice went, Kyo used every opportunity he got to work on brightening his light output. Miki had even helped him craft a few daily routines to increase quirk health and power. Today was Sunday and Miki had agreed to do a sword fighting session with him. Mao had been forced to join them. That's what you get for losing a bet after all.

"I must say, your skills in the art of fencing have improved greatly since our last duel. Has Mao been making swords for you to train with?" Miki asked.

"Yeah, she makes them in order to practice with her quirk, and Kumiko and I like to fight with them." Kyo explained while blocking one of Miki's attacks with his light sword. Mao's swords were strong, but nothing compared to Miki's sword. Her sword was purely black and it was so huge that Kyo couldn't imagine how she was wielding it. The sword had a long thin blade and the hilt was a crimson red. There seemed to be vapers of an unidentified gas emanating off of it. Kyo attempted to attack Miki's left shoulder with a downward strike. To counter this Miki turned her sword upside down and used her forearm as a brace to block the blade. This caused Kyo to lose his balance for a moment and Miki, quick to exploit it, rushed in with a sideswipe. Oh shit, I need to block this or I lose! Kyo thought to himself as he tried to block her sword. Unfortunately he was left completely open to her left hand. She pulled her hand around towards his chest and delivered a devastating punch. To follow up Miki immediately placed her sword between his cross guard and blade and launched it into the air. As the light sword flew up Miki pivoted around to meet it with her own sword, breaking it in half. Once the sword was broken, all the light that had made it up released in an instant, blinding Kyo. When he could finally see again Miki's blade was positioned perfectly under his chin.

"I win." After Miki declared her victory, Kyo heard Mao clapping slowly.

"Very impressive, your swordsmanship skills are fantastic, Miki. Where did you learn that technique?" She asked. "Also the fact that you were able to break my beautiful creation shows just how amazing your quirk is." Miki slightly blushed at this compliment and scratched the back of her head nervously.

"Thanks a lot Mao, fighting with Kyo every week has really made me a lot stronger huh?" Miki asked humbly. Kyo walked up and put an arm around Miki.

"Nah, you're just used to fighting me." He said confidently.

"Well," Mao said, "it would seem that your training session has ended. So if you will excuse me I must go prepare myself for the UA entrance exams tomorrow." She said before leaving. After Mao turned to leave, Kyo looked at Miki for a moment. Her expression was completely unreadable and it unnerved him. Kyo lightly pulled his hair back feeling a little awkward.

"I hope I do well tomorrow," he said, hoping to break the silence. Miki didn't respond for a minute or two. I've been training for my whole life and tomorrow is finally the day I get to show my skills to the best of the best. I can't fail now… Kyo was pulled from his thoughts by the sensation of a fist on his chest.

"You won't fail that exam Kyo." Miki said softly, "I know that you have what it takes." Miki turned and stared directly into his eyes, which was almost cute since she had to look up an entire head to make eye contact. The fire in those eyes however, was truly inspiring. "You have everything you need. I just have one request for you, please, when you're a student in UA, don't forget about me, because…"

"Because what?" Kyo felt his words come out automatically without even thinking.

"Nevermind," She quickly responded. "Just don't forget about me ok?"

"Alright," He agreed. He gave her a dashing smile, "I'll remember you, after all you were my biggest trainer, so I have mostly you to thank for how strong I am today Miki." Miki felt so alive at that moment. Her face heated up in a violent blush.

"I'm uh…" she didn't know what to say, there were so many things to say. "I'm glad that my training proved effective for you. You helped me too, you know, because of you I'm going to get into Ketsubutsu." She stated. Suddenly, Kyo felt a vibration in his pocket. He opened his phone to find a text from his sister Kumiko. Get home ASAP, we need to pack for tomorrow and I'm not doing it for you. He looked up from his phone at Miki.

"I've gotta go Miki, sorry about that."

"It's fine, you can go. I enjoyed our training sessions. I wish you good luck tomorrow and for the rest of your life."

"Wow, we're gonna see eachother again, stop talking like it's the end times," Kyo chuckled.

"Whatever you say glowworm." She weakly punched him in the shoulder before waving goodbye, as the two went their separate way.


Author's Note

This chapter has been written and rewritten probably about 5 times over. But we finally got it to a place where we feel that it's ready. So I do hope you enjoyed. And we got to meet a new character, Miki. We won't be seeing her again for a while, but she will be coming back I can promise you that. Also, we get to see our first fight scene ;). Just a quick fyi, I'm not that good at fight scenes, but I'll try my best. Anyway, thanks for stopping by and reading this chapter. Have a great rest of your day :D.