With this chapter, we've reached another milestone and that means a writer's interview at the end, so look forward to that.
Chapter cover- Cortney staring out a window with Kim alongside her.
Ch.30- To take a step
July 15
A few days have passed since All Might beat All For One, and his true form has been revealed. After the fight was over, I was sent to the police and they took care of things, before being sent home. Dad went to Kamino Ward to help with the rescue efforts, and won't be coming back for some time, Chibi is also helping after he was rescued.
Pony gave me the biggest hug, and due to our size difference she shoved her face into my breasts when I came home and told me what happened after I was kidnapped. The next morning after we wake up, Mom looks like she is about to go off to a business meeting as she's wearing a suit.
"Girls now that you are awake, I have some news. U.A is becoming a dorm school, I'll be gone all day trying to convince the other parents. Pony, since your under my custody, I'm leaving the decision in your hands, you too Cortney. Tell me what you want to do when I come back." Mom tells us, before opening the door, "And your sister is coming back today."
When the door closes, I stare at Pony wondering what she's going to do and I go back to my room and stare out the window to think over my decision.
"Hey." I hear Kim say, I look around until I lock eyes with the mirror on my dresser. My reflection changes to Kim holding a book in her hands, a power she shown before.
"Kim, how are you doing that?" I ask, seeing as she never had that power before.
"I don't know either, I was just reading what was in the book. Mom gave me this, and it has some interesting things written in this." Kim says.
"Hold up, I'm coming in. I want to see." I tell Kim before entering her land. She's waiting for me and she's holding the book she was talking about. The book looks just like the diary Pony gave me when we're kids. As we read through the book, we keep getting more questions than answers, the book seems to change styles and handwriting as if other people were writing in this.
The book has details on fighting styles, training excises, and even advice for a bunch of things, including cooking, I bookmark a few recipes that strike my fancy for later, we go on for what seems like hours until the doorbell rings.
Seeing that might be my sister, I walk away from Kim and wake up. I open the door to see Lisa in a white t-shirt and gray shorts, she has a bandage over her nose and a duffle bag around her side. She has more defined muscle than me, but I'm the taller one.
"Hey sis, where's your fiancė?" I ask, seeing as it's just her.
"He wanted to look around, he'll be here later. But Mom told me about what's been happening, put your gauntlets on, and come outside." Sis drops her bag at the door and tells me to follow her, and I do as ask.
I walk up to see Lisa standing in front of the house with her arms crossed, "Remember when I asked you why you wanted to become a hero?"
I rub my head, it was such a long time ago that I don't remember everything but I do remember my response, "I want to be someone who gives hope to people, I want to the fire that ignites hope in everybody's heart and give everybody the power to fight on! That's the reason I want to be a hero!" I recall to Sis, what I said that day with a smile on my face.
Sis isn't impressed, and shifts into a combat stance, "If I win, give on being a hero." Sis says in a serious tone.
"WHAT!?" I say. One, because that was completely out of nowhere, and two, I have never won a fight against sis before.
"Think of this as a trial, I want to see what U.A. has taught you. If you can't beat me now then you are just dead weight, and a risk. Come on!" Sis gives me the reasons for her crazy proposition.
I rush at Sis, going low to sweep sis' legs from under her. She's dodged out of the way, of course, light on her feet as always. Can't catch her that way, I guess.
"You always start the fight with that," she says, ducking under the crescent kick aimed for her head.
Me and sis exchange a few kicks, but she spins under one of my kicks before grabbing my arm and flipping me to the ground before ending it with a foot to my face. Pony comes outside just in time to see Sis kicking my butt.
"You still hit like a truck Sis," I remark as I lay on the ground. I don't why but sis can lay me out, while it's a challenge to most.
Pony rushes to my side and helps me up.
"I'm fine Pony, I need to fight alone." I tell her, before Sis cuts in.
"Actually Pony, she felt weak when she couldn't save you." Sis infers.
"Yeah. I couldn't protect Cortney when she was in danger, and I'm wondering if I should still be a hero anymore." Pony comments.
"How about you put it all against the line? If you and Cortney lose then you two have to give up being heroes." Sis tells Pony the stakes of our fight. I get back up and Pony switches to a fighting stance.
"Come on Cortney." Pony tells me. I rush Sis and try to sweep her legs again, but this time Pony dropkicks Sis in the chest.
Sis rolls back up to her feet, I jab at her and she catches my fist, twisting it behind my back, Pony goes for another kick, but Sis uses me as a human shield. I get kicked in the head and a punches to the side, before Sis flings me at Pony. We crash into each other, Sis grabs our heads and slam them together.
"Two versus one, and I'm still winning, don't tell that's the best you can do." Sis states and the problem is, that she's right if we can't beat someone who's quirkless, then what can we do against an actual villain. As heroes, we'll be constantly pushed to our limits, and beyond them. It's time for something drastic.
"Pony, you trust me right?" I ask.
"Yeah." She replies.
"Good, follow my lead." I grab Pony by her arm and jump in the air before throwing Pony at Sis. Pony slams her hooves into sis' chest and bounces off, I grab Pony in midair before bringing us back down on Sis.
"Satan's Axe!" I yell out as Pony brings her leg down on Sis's head, putting her down.
"I fold." Sis submits, we won. Me and Pony hug because we get to stay in U.A.
"Hey Lisa, you done with that thing your mom wanted you to do?" A man with a husky voice and wolf ears, asks in English.
"I guess Mom and Dad told you to do this, huh Sis?" I ask, after hearing what the wolfman said.
"Yeah, they were worried about you," Sis tells me. It at least tells me they care about me.
"I'm not blaming anyone. You Silver Nightly?" I ask the man, he looks like the guy from our video call. Looks like a pretty normal guy except for wolf ears on his head, he has an average build, nothing to strike him out from a group.
"Yeah, it finally nice to meet Lisa's little sister, she has told me so much about you." Silver says in English before shaking my hand.
"Still not confident with your Japanese yet?" I point out.
Silver ears flop down, "Japanese is complicated." Silver sadly retorts.
I laugh knowing that Lisa must have him on a leash.
Meanwhile
Ms. Tan and Mr. Kan are on the road to convince the parents to let their students come back to U.A. The first up on the list is Tetsutetsu.
"He can go."
Mr. Kan and Ms. Tan are in shock at how Tetsu's parents are letting him come back to U.A even though he was shot with no convincing on their part.
"Why did I even worry?" Ms. Tan questions, seeing as Tetsu got his look from his parents. Both had spiky silver hair, eyebrows that circled their eyes, sharp teeth, and seemingly endless energy. Seeing what was essentially a female Tetsutetsu freaked Mr. Kan out, but their casual attitude to what had happened made it worse. It felt almost like they'd drop the act and scream at him any second now.
"Thanks for your cooperation, this will make our day feel a lot less like hell." Ms. Tan remarks as she prepares to leave.
"I hope your daughter comes back too." Ms. Tetsu replies.
"If that's all, can I ask how you came up with your son's name?" Mr. Kan asks.
"Oh, that's a fun story," Mrs. Tetsutetsu began. Mr. Kan was a little relieved to finally hear one of them speak without the other. "We wanted to combine our names when we named our child."
"Y' see, my name's Kotetsu," Mr. Tetsutetsu explained, "And her name is Tetsuko. So, we decided to name our child Koko if it was a girl and Tetsutetsu if it was a boy."
"That explains a lot." Mr. Kan notes before leaving.
Most of the other student's families are stop and go, some need a little more convincing than others but all agree, one of the first roadblocks finally comes in the way, Kinoko Komori parents.
"…For these reasons, we believe a boarding system would be in the best interest of our students," Mr. Kan explained. "I know U.A. has had its problems, but we hope you can put your trust in us once more." Mr. Kan and Ms. Tan waited while Kinoko's father, Takeshi Komori, mulled over the proposal. Kinoko was sat next to him, not saying anything. On Kinoko's other side was her mother, Enoki Komori, who had also not said much.
"You keep talking about how safe it'll be," Takeshi finally said, "but you've always said that U.A. is safe. I don't see how this will change things. Sure, you'll have pro heroes always with them, but there were pro heroes present at both attacks, am I correct?"
"You are," Ms. Tan answers. "By staying close to our students and increasing our security, we hope to stop any attack before they happen, and if they do happen for some reason, a pro will be close by."
"There's also the matter of the students getting their provisional licenses," Mr. Kan says. "If they pass the exam, they'll be able to defend themselves without the law being a problem—"
"Neither of you are addressing my concern," Takeshi interrupts. "I don't want Kinoko to have to defend herself. She shouldn't be facing villains at all. She's just a student."
"We wholeheartedly agree," Mr. Kan continues. "We don't want our students facing villains yet either. We want them to defend themselves should the need arise." Takeshi stayed stone-faced as he silently thought over what had been said.
"I'm sorry, but… I simply cannot allow Kinoko to return to U.A."
"But dad—"
"That's final, Kinoko." Takeshi immediately shut Kinoko down and stood up. "I appreciate all you've done for Kinoko so far, but we're done here. Enoki, please show these two out." Before Mr. Kan or Ms. Tan could speak up again, Takeshi was already walking away. Mr. Kan looked to Kinoko disappointedly, expecting her to be sad, but instead, she clenched her hands and shot up from her seat.
"Dad," she began, trying her best to sound determined through a shaky voice, "I'm going back to U.A."
"You are not. This discussion is over—"
"No, it isn't," Kinoko declared. Mr. Kan thought back to how timid and shy Kinoko had been all year and smiled.
She's grown quite the backbone. Kinoko followed her father further back in their house, leaving Mr. Kan and Ms. Tan with Enoki. "I'm sorry for my husbands' rudeness," she said quietly. "He's always been protective of Kinoko, so he's been worked up like this since the incident."
"That's understandable," Mr. Kan said. "I hope she can convince him to change his mind. Kinoko is a very bright and caring girl. Excellent hero material."
"That's very nice of you to say," Enoki replied. "I'm actually grateful to U.A. Kinoko's grown so much in these past few months. I'd love for her to continue to study there, and I'm sure my husband feels the same way deep down. I'm confident Kinoko can convince him with a little time."
"That's great to hear," Mr. Kan said.
"That's my daughter for you." Ms. Tan replies.
"Now Mr. Kan all that leaves is…" Ms. Tan's face hardens when she sees the name on the list, "Itsuka Kendo."
"Before you ask I've met her mother before and she's nothing like Itsuka." Ms. Tan explains.
Before they're able to knock on the door a woman is heard screaming, "Over my dead body you're going back to that goddamn deathtrap of a school!"
Mr. Kan looks over to Ms. Tan, and see she's not happy either, "You're taking the lead." Ms. Tan tells Kan.
Itsuka opens the door, "Hey," she greeted embarrassedly. "I guess you heard all that?"
"Just the end," Mr. Kan answered awkwardly. "May we come in?"
"Please do." Mr. Kan and Ms. Tan entered the apartment and looked around warily for the person who shouted earlier.
"Mom, dad, they're here!" Itsuka announced, prompting a man to come out from the kitchen. He was tall and muscular with cropped black hair and a friendly smile, wearing dark jeans and a black button-up shirt.
"Hello, gentleman," the man greeted. "I'm Gon Kendo. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Sekijiro Kan. Thank you for having us."
"Cortney Kamryn Tan Sr."
"Honey, the U.A. representatives are here," Gon called back into the kitchen. "Come say hello." Almost instantly, a metal ladle came flying out at Gon's head. He caught it without a hassle, almost like he was used to it, and walked back into the kitchen. "Honey, don't be like this," Kan heard him say.
"Your mother seems… feisty," Mr. Kan commented.
"That's a nice way of putting it," Itsuka said while rubbing her neck sheepishly. After a moment, Gon returned while dragging a woman out of the kitchen with him. She looked like an older, slightly taller Itsuka, and seemed just as angry as her voice had been. She was dressed in a yellow shirt and blue jeans with a white apron and a white bandana over her short ginger hair.
"Sorry about that," Gon said with a laugh.
"This little firecracker is my wife, Natsuka Kendo." Natsuka breaks free from her husband's grasp and stands in front of Ms. Tan.
"Cortney." Natsuka almost barks out.
"Mom, please don't be rude," Itsuka requested.
"I'll be as rude as I want to the shitheads who almost got my daughter killed." Natsuka didn't raise her voice a single time, but the venom dripping from her words instantly put Mr. Kan on edge.
"I have the right to be rude," Natsuka replies never breaking her gaze from Ms. Tan.
"It was twenty years ago woman, don't let our past destroy your daughter's future." Ms. Tan barks out.
Gon nudged Natsuka and gave her a disappointed look, making Natsuka groan. "…Fine. I'll make the freakin' tea," she growled. She returned to the kitchen as Mr. Kan and Ms. Tan sat in their seats across from Itsuka and Gon.
"First of all, we wanted to thank you for meeting with us and working with our hectic schedule," Mr. Kan begins.
"Of course. I know things are pretty crazy right now and you have to meet with 19 other families."
"How have your other meetings gone?" Itsuka asked.
"Very well," Mr. Kan said. "It took some convincing for a few families, but it looks like everyone will be coming back."
"That's great," Itsuka replied. Out of the kitchen came Natsuka with a tray of five teacups that she placed on the coffee table.
"There. Tea," she hissed while taking a seat next to Gon. "Drink it and leave."
"Mom," Itsuka griped.
"Honey, let's just hear them out," Gon suggested. "This is Itsuka's future we're talking about." Natsuka stared daggers at her husband but relented and sighed.
"I read the letter you sent," Natsuka began, calmer than before. "I understand what U.A. is going through. I know that if Itsuka were to continue pursuing hero work, it would be safest for her there, surrounded by pro heroes 24/7… but then again, she was with at least six of them when she was nearly shot and killed." Mr. Kan and Ms. Tan knew they had no retort to her point, so they only had one option – bow their heads and apologize.
"You're completely right," Mr. Kan said. "U.A. is entirely to blame for the incident going as poorly as it did."
"All we can offer you is our word that we're trying to make the school the safest it can be," Ms. Tan added. "It's a lot to ask, but we'd like you to put your faith in us again and entrust is with Itsuka's future and safety one more time."
"I know Itsuka wants to go back," Gon said. "I'm willing to trust my daughter's judgment if she feels it's safe to return."
Well, that's one down, Mr. Kan noted. All eyes in the room went to Natsuka, who still seemed unyielding
"Kan, was it?" Natsuka began. "Do you have a family of your own? Children maybe?"
"I do not."
"Well, as Itsuka's mother, let me explain something. Ever since Itsuka was born, she's always been within my reach. I can protect her when she's close, so I feel confident that she's safe. Seeing your kid grow up and strike out on their own can be difficult, but if you trust them and the people around them, then you can still feel that they're safe. I trust Itsuka. I trust her friends. I don't trust you." Mr. Kan and Ms. Tan could sympathize with Natsuka's worries, but her words still cut them both deep.
"I know you don't want us here, ma'am," Mr. Kan said, "so I'll make this brief. Every concern you have and every criticism of U.A. you have is completely true. We do not deserve another chance with your child after what's happened." As Mr. Kan talked, he slowly slid off the couch into a kneeling position. Ms. Tan noticed and quickly did the same. "However, if you can find it in your heart to let Itsuka continue her studies at U.A., you have my word that no harm will befall her on our watch. I'd rather give my life than let my students be hurt again."
"You have my word as well," Ms. Tan added. "U.A. will not have another incident like this again and we deeply apologize for all that's happened." The pair bowed their heads to Natsuka, who thought over what they said. After a minute, she scoffed and stood up.
"Whatever. If Itsuka wants to go, then fine." Mr. Kan and Ms. Tan raised their heads and smiled, giving each other a subtle fist bump under the table.
"I'm glad you could put our differences aside Natsuka." Ms. Tan says, "But that call was fair game and you know it."
"Get out."
Thanatos- Um, Mr. Writer is gone and we have no idea where he is.
Delaila- If anyone knows where he is, please tell us.
T- But we still have a show do, Today's power of the week is Itsuka's quirk Big Fist.
D- As the name suggest this quirk allows Itsuka to enlarge her hands to enormous sizes.
T- This quirk may seem simple, but holds a ton of potential. Her hands enlarge instantly meaning she can hurt you by just activating her quirk.
D- And her hands are so massive that she move the wind. Giving her access to wind attacks.
T- That's all we have for now until next time.
D- Go Beyond Plus Ultra! See you souls.