[Chapter Two: Training Montage]

Daiki Hayashi felt nervous as he stood on the agreed upon waiting spot, a sparsely inhabited park with an aged fountain at the middle of the lake. He honestly didn't think it through when Kiyoshi Shichirobei, the Class Superstar himself, offered to train him to become a hero. The same person who won most of the school's sport competition, the ace who was nearly perfect at almost everything from education, Quirk test, physical activity and a list of few others. Frankly, it was a bit intimidating now that he thought about it. The teen didn't seem like kind of guy who talked a lot, save for a few moments when others struck up the conversation first.

Daiki opened up his phone and checked on the news again, yesterday's debacle already forgotten in place of yet another incident on Hosu reporting the sudden spike of criminal activity, and another article about Endeavor's exploit near the eastern bay. Something about illegal smuggling the boy didn't bother to look up, and another controversy related to Captain Celebrity. When Kiyoshi finally graced him with his presence, Daiki took note of how the boy's impassive expression was a constant even outside of school. He reckoned if it wasn't for the slick black hair, bright golden eyes and unblemished face, Kiyoshi wouldn't have been as popular in school. The girls of Hoth, for some reason unknown to Daiki, liked the idea of a tall, dark and handsome boy with a sprinkle of both money and power. Then again, what did he know about girls anyway?

"Yo," the black haired teen greeted. His calm eyes wandered the park before it settled on Daiki. "You ready?"

"Where is this place exactly?" Daiki questioned.

"It's near Yavin. Come, follow me," with that said, Kiyoshi turned his heel and Daiki trailed behind him.

The gym was a medium-sized hall that stretched over most of the second floor of the building, just above a seafood restaurant and an electronic store. It was one of many places where it was given an official license for authorized public Quirk usage. Of course, there were still restrictions, and some Quirks were not applicable for the gym, but those aspects were none of their concern now. Kiyoshi took note of what seems to be regulars as they continued on with their daily activities, some were seen practicing with strange apparatus he was sure doesn't exist in his previous life. Probably because Quirks didn't exist in his previous life, but also because this world was supposed to be set two hundred years after the early 21st century, and despite it not being obvious on the surface, the technology here were far more advanced than what Kiyoshi was used to.

"Hello?" Kiyoshi greeted at the counter, the woman who managed it was tall, his head reaching just below her abdomen. There were a pair of curved horns growing on the scalp between her scarlet hair, and a toothy jaw that resembled that of a shark. She also had a slightly tanned skin that which she proudly displayed with her tight outfit. The lady's green eyes looked up from her work, studying him for a moment before her gaze darted towards the flinching Daiki.

She grinned, showing off her impress rows of sharp teeth. "You must be Akame's boy. Hah, you really do like your father."

Kiyoshi was taken slightly aback at that comment before he responded, "you know my mom?"

"Yep, she's been helping out the gym since two years. Those super materials your mom make is really amazing, no wonder the company loved her so much," the woman explained. "The name's Suzuko Kiyabu, kid."

"Kiyoshi Shichirobei," he introduced himself with a polite bow.

Daiki nervously repeated his action with his own bow, "I- I'm Daiki Hayashi, Ma'am."

The woman, Suzuko, gave a toothy grin. "Don't call me that, makes me feel old. Just Miss Kiyabu, or only Kiyabu is fine. So, I heard you boys need the sparring hall yeah?"

"Yes, if possible, we would like to use it for every evening after... let's say four o'clock."

"Well, you're free to use this gym whenever you like. Though, a fair warning, this place is pretty packed during the first day of the weekend. Especially in the morning and afternoon," Suzuko informed.

"Thank you, concern is appreciated, Miss Kiyabu, but don't worry we're only occupying your gym for the evening hours. Now, shall we?" Kiyashi replied with a smile as he urged the other teen to follow him.

The hard sound of something solid struck against a wooden surface echoed the matted hall. A brown haired boy whose once ago long mane had been cut to a shorter length, his green eyes narrowed to a focus, sweat gleamed off his forehead. The teen took a step back as his fingers twitched, through a mysterious force, several eagle-shaped origami rose to the air, their thin wings flapped in a rapid motion imitating a real avian. The creatures' sleek grey sheen were a contrast to the ordinary white paper texture one expected from an origami construct. In an instant, these eagles propelled themselves forward, their wings folded at the last second, reconfiguring their structure to resemble that of an arrowhead. The constructs all pierced through the thick log, lodging itself deep into the wooden hide.

Daiki breathed out for a moment, arms shaky, before he smiled, feeling quite giddy inside. It had been two months since his training started. Despite the hardship and strenuous exercise he was forced to endure, the result was more than worth it. It turned out Kiyoshi's theory was correct—his Quirk extends to any foldable flat material that was soft and flexible enough to be shaped by hands. While he still couldn't significantly increase the strength and durability of his origami, their mobility was one aspect Daiki abused most of. They had figured that while a paper airplane was the fastest of all aerial construct, it wasn't as maneuverable as most animal origami. Much like real aircrafts, the airplanes were great for basic motion that required little maneuverability but fall short with precise and rapid motility.

Yet despite all of his progress, Daiki couldn't helped himself but compare his achievements to Kiyoshi, who himself had found various ways to exploit the limits of his Quirk to its fullest extent. It was frankly insane how the teen could pull half the stunts he'd done. In theory, the prospect of summoning stars and planets already seemed like it was a strong Quirk, but it appeared that Kiyoshi was not satisfied with "adequate". A mindset Daiki honestly could get behind to. In addition to that, even with all of that Quirk training, the teen still found the time to build up his physical body—something Daiki still couldn't catch up even after all these months.

The last couple of weeks, especially the following days after their last incident, Hashimoto hadn't tried to approached him, or anyone else for that matter. Which was a relieving but worrying behavior. Daiki was just waiting for the moment for whence that menace come to haunt him again, yet that day seemed to never be in sight any time soon. Even Hashimoto's 'side kick', Izo, doesn't seemed to be hanging around that boy anymore. Maybe he was just busy with his own application to Shiketsu, who knows, and who cared. The prospect of his Quirk finally being useful for once was such a profound moment in his life, to finally found hope once more, school problems seemed so insignificant now.

That, and having made acquaintance with the Class Superstar himself was an incredible experience. Suddenly being surrounded by all the popular kids in school and approached by pretty girls, even if he didn't want to admit it, it felt amazing. He couldn't understand why Kiyoshi seemed so disinterested with all the attention. It was something, Daiki noted, most of his clique either didn't notice or didn't care, as if they were more interested in the idea of associating themselves to him rather than actually conversing with him. It wasn't like Kiyoshi was rude either, he responded appropriately to a related discussion, he gave a satisfactory reaction to a good joke, and he was also helpful when needed be—always there to assist those with academic problems, though Daiki did took notice that most of his tutee were largely females of the class population, and he was also certain at least a quarter of them didn't have any need for additional "study group".

Yet despite all that, Kiyoshi was never the boastful kind. He was quiet, a bit reclusive, now that Daiki thought about it, but he was never arrogant with his social standing. That aspect of him, despite his impassive nature, what made Kiyoshi so approachable in Daiki's opinion. While he wasn't a social person, he also wasn't a bad company. The perfect blend between the quiet but popular kid who everyone talked about but very few talked to.

Daiki sighed, breathing hard for a few more seconds as he pulled the origami eagles from their spots. He's used them instead of other birds due to their talons, which could easily pull themselves out of their log they were lodged into. The diamantine metamaterial was awesome, as expensive as they were, an incredibly durable material apparently designed by Kiyoshi's mother. The material was fabricated using the woman's ability to induce high gravitational pressure to somehow weave high density molecules into a stable allotrope. Whatever the hell that meant. The company Kiyoshi's mother worked for had manufactured a machine that could somewhat replicate the effect of her Quirk, to a lesser extent, and that woman got the patent for it as she wasn't only the source of inspiration but also the designer of the machine's fundamental mechanics. From what Daiki could tell, there were only eighty factories in the world that produced this metamaterial, where the rest made only a cheap copy with whatever technology available to them.

The Sunshine Weave, as it was apparently named, was immensely durable for such a thin material. Its flexibility, elasticity and tensile strength was dependent on the manufacturing process and its allotropic structure, but even the cheapest of them were viable for high-quality bullet vest, and the stuff in Daiki's possession was not the cheap ones. Their molecular composition were designed so that it shared the same basic property of a manila card but with a far smoother texture and vastly greater durability. He was essentially in possession of a foldable super steel in his pocket that he could control like flying knives.

To his side, the Hoth Wonderboy trained with his Quirk, summoning a polychromatic nebula as it weaved to the air like cloud dust, within the thick gas itself were a cluster of tiny stars. Daiki looked on, impressed as Kiyoshi conjured yet another object from his palm, a pale white moon before he extended that arm. The moon, just inches away from the base of his hand, wavered before the air around him buckled and light seemed to twist. An invisible force pushed all the nebulae away, stars included, and he watched as they enveloped half of the hall, shrouding the area in thick gas clouds that obscured the dozen little stars roaming around. With but a thought, Kiyoshi dispersed them all, bringing the fluorescent light back into view.

Previously, the boy could only summon up to a hundred constructs at once, which was still incredibly impressive, but not spectacular. Then again, Kiyoshi was not one to half ass his task. He trained hard to conjure more and more, while forcing himself to exact precise control over every little aspects of his conjured objects. For some reason, gravitational manipulation were easier with terrestrial bodies than those of more gaseous or plasmoid composition. Kiyoshi theorized it had something to do with density, because even if stars were realistically denser than planets due to their proportions, his miniaturized variants possessed roughly similar mass, thus a roughly similar scale where one was solid and the other was gas. Naturally, solid were denser than gas.

However, while planets, moons and asteroids were more susceptible to gravitational manipulation, the other gaseous elements like gas giants, stars and nebula were easier to alter their other aspects like heat generation, radioactivity and electromagnetic field. There were some aspects he couldn't truly drastically affect like the chemical composition and fundamental mass of summoned constructs. While he could permute them to a certain extent, it seemed that complex transmutation was beyond his Quirk's ability. It was a bit disappointing, he'd thought of abusing that aspect of his Quirk, presuming that he may someday found a method to materialize a planet made of rare minerals, or a gas giant with exotic gases. Alas, that was not meant to be.

As of now, Kiyoshi took in the effect of his Quirk. The matted gym was made to withstand great impact and abuse but they were not indestructible, so he couldn't really do much damage, but the little he did was something he prided himself in. He could consistently summoned up to a hundred and fifty, and if pushed to his limits, roughly about a hundred and eighty, constructs at once. It wasn't enough of course, if he wanted to truly survive the upcoming events, Kiyoshi needed to push himself harder. So, as he stood there tired of his accomplishment, the boy reasserted himself again, drawing the well of internal power as various small planets manifested around him. The familiar electrical crack could be heard as faint mist began to take shape, each one quickly coagulated to become solid, the electrical sparks increased in intensity before they calmed once more. In its place were over a hundred tiny asteroids the size of his thumbs.

Kiyoshi grinned, feeling the well of power responding as he drew more from it. Just eight more months left, he had to give it his all.

The soft pitter patter of raindrops made the evening air all the more oddly calming. Kiyoshi strolled the sparsely populated street as his feet carried him at a leisure walk. His eyes subtly darted to the side where a wide beach gave way to the Musufatu ocean. The crystal clear water slightly tainted by the presence of trash which burden now seemed lessened than it was months ago. He couldn't see them from here, but Kiyoshi could already picture the strenuous exercise that person had gone through, all to achieve his dreams.

It had been five months now since Kiyoshi started to train with Daiki. While the boy's self esteem was still as solid as wet paper, his work had been impressive thus far. The sheer versatility to what seemed like a rather simple Quirk on the surface was something even Kiyoshi couldn't predict. Daiki had now learned how to shift his origami between forms whilst still in active field, something he needed to do by hands before. Kiyoshi had seen how the Sunshine Weave contorted itself from a bird, to a beetle, then a stag, before turning into an airplane just as it finally shifted into a car—something the dark haired teen didn't even knew there was an origami of. He had urged Daiki to try and make other vehicular origami, from motorcycles, to buses, boats, trains, helicopters and tanks. Unfortunately, the tanks and fighter jets couldn't produce ammunitions, and the turrets were mostly for show, but it was worth the attempt.

Close quarter combat was also something Kiyoshi was working on himself with the help of Suzuko Kiyabu. Surprisingly, (or perhaps not) she was an expert martial artists herself and even participated in several championship fighting competition, though the woman claimed that she lost more than she won those tournaments. Something Kiyoshi doubted with the amount of gold trophies displayed at the cabinet behind the countertop. While he was far from being anything but a neophyte, Kiyoshi had learned enough of several basics close quarter combat. Daiki tried the same for a week before the boy lose all interest the following days of him constantly getting beaten by Suzuko.

Kiyoshi didn't plan to become a sudden expert in martial arts or anything, but combining the basics he'd learned with his Quirk could produce a devastating effects. The boy subtly shaped that nebulous feeling inside him, the invisible mass pulled from beyond the ether and materialized as a small blue star. He felt really proud of that. While it wasn't something he couldn't do before, the act of conjuring anything with either too much mass or energy, something like a highly potent gravity field, thick magnetosphere, intense heat or condensed proportion, required great effort out of him. Much like flames, stars with shortest light spectrum tends to be hotter, and thus demanded large energy consumption. While he couldn't exactly summon more than thirty of these super hot stars rapidly or consistently, it had become a lot more easier.

That, and his total summoning limits had also risen up to two hundred. It was a shame that his gravitational control became less stable and reliable once it hit that threshold no matter how much training he did. The problem with Emitter Quirk like this was the non-physiological aspect of its power. Where most Mutant-types could train their body using some manner of physical strain or exercise, Emitters like him had to find a roundabout way to fully realized that ability. There were very little reference one could make to facilitate in Quirk exercise when the Quirk in question had no real comparison to a human body.

His gaze returned to the beach only to catch a glimpse of green mop partially hidden behind a pile of trash. It was difficult to get a good look from this angle but Kiyoshi could easily imagined as that person dragged a large pile of garbage with another older individual encouraging him. The young teen smirked as his pace hastened. He wasn't sure if it was anticipation or excitement that powered his legs that day.

"Yaah!" Came out the strained voice of a sweating brown haired boy as his hand outstretched. A second later, a swarm of polygonal scarabs crawled and flew out the satchel on his side, the sheer wave of it made it seemed like a living tide. The carbosteel metamaterial swarm launched themselves like bullets before each and every one of them morphed into tiny paper daggers and rocketed through with even greater speed.

Yet his opponent was unrelenting as, in an instant, several miniature planets materialized into existence and generate a powerful field that disrupted most of the projectiles—and for the rest of them, the scarab-turned-knives were peppered by fiery meteorites. The dark haired teen did not wait as he immediately responded that with his own assault, a massive red star propelled at great speed that nearly hit his foe if not for the other boy's decision to create a hardened barrier made of scarabs.

Although his defensive wall was easily broken through, the delayed reaction gave him enough room to summon more of his puppets into the fight. The boy did not pause, even when exhausted, as he used his remaining ammunition to circle his opponent. That, however was all for naught when the other teen merely released an ethereal, prismatic mist, blinding the brown haired boy whilst giving the other one the advantage. With a quick thrust forward, the golden eyed boy manifested a gas giant in his palm, one could see the storm that gathered on the construct's surface before it released a sizable electrical spark which tendrils snakes its way to his foe.

"Ouch!" Daiki gasped, pulling his hand away. His eyes then widened when he saw a literal moon barreling its way towards him. "Oh goddamn– oof!"

Kiyoshi released a breath of relief as all of his manifestation immediately disappeared under his command. "That was intense."

"Urgh, I feel like you were at an advantage the entire time, Kiyo-san."

The boy in question smirked at that before he made his way and offered a hand. "So, what do you think?"

Daiki tilted his head at that as he grabbed the offer, pulling himself up. "What do you mean?"

"About going to U.A? You're still doing it?" Kiyoshi questioned.

"I... I don't know," murmured Daiki, still an inkling of doubt. "But I at least want to give it a try. What's the worse can happen, right?"

Kiyoshi's smirk turned to a genuine smile. "I suppose nothing."

It was a bit an odd sight for Daiki seeing the teen so expressive compared to his normally reserved temperament in school, and speaking of school, the boy could finally understand why Kiyoshi seemed to hate the attention so much. No wonder the boy seemed so lonely despite being surrounded by his 'loyal companions'. They were all so, inauthentic. It wasn't long ago where some of the students were Daiki's bullies, but now they acted as if nothing had happened before. In addition to that, for all of their cordiality to him, they were also rather dismissive of him. Every conversation Daiki tried to participate seemed nothing more than a subtle attempt to brag in front of the school's Ace or indirectly mock their peers in an ever constant game of pissing contest. It was sickeningly tiring.

"Two more months left, huh..." Daiki sighed, the weight of self-doubt, an ember compared to what it was, were still present. "It feels like everything is moving so fast. It felt like Hashimoto's confrontation happened yesterday..."

"You're doing well, Daiki," Kiyoshi assured his first genuine friend of this world. "Don't doubt that. Your training had bode great results, I will be very surprised if you're not accepted."

"You're putting a lot of pressure on me you know?" Daiki sighed but smiled nonetheless, his back rested against the matted floor. There was a moment of peaceful quiet before the Origami Quirk user spoke again, "thanks, Kiyo. You've helped me a lot, you know?"

Kiyoshi did not respond, merely sat there in silence as they both caught their breaths. Truth be told, there was an inkling of doubt poisoning his thoughts, which was enough to mildly affect the confidence of his action. He knew there bound to be eventual consequences for this particular decision. Daiki's presence would inevitably hold a sway to the future one way or another, perhaps even skewer the intended path into an unpredictable timeline. Did he cared much of that? A bit, but not really. He knew that his direct interference alone could probably affect the class placement of the Hero Courses, (hopefully not by much) so his original concern of butterflying all of it away was long in the past. However, Kiyoshi operated with the knowledge that his existence could potentially affect future events, both major and minor, Daiki was a whole new factor who knew nothing of My Hero Academia and ignorant to what his presence could bring.

The raven haired boy had to do mental gymnastics to recall if Daiki's existence was mentioned anywhere in any medium of his previous world and he could say that the boy did not exist in the original timeline, or at least as far as he could remember. Not that his memory was perfect in any way. He had lived in this world for nearly fifteen years, and the last My Hero Academia episode he watched was three years before his death. That was an obscenely long time for someone to recall a distant memory about a piece of media entertainment one hadn't watched for years. That tangential thought itself brought another layer of concern for Kiyoshi, he cannot remember his previously life perfectly. Sure, he could mentally recite the events, historical significance, environmental effects of his previous world, but there was a gap of his personal life. He knew his previous name, James Franklin, but not his exact age, family members, friends, birthplace, the date before his death...

Kiyoshi wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse. He surely wouldn't feel this ambivalent of his death if he still remembered all the ones he loved in the previous one. His time with his current mother was one well spent in his opinion. The life in his school—while annoying—was far better than the dull life fo his previous one, whatever it was he did before.

"Oi, brats. I bought some pizzas, come and get one before I devour 'em all!" A loud voice called from beyond the hall, earning a chuckle from Kiyoshi.

"Well that's our cue, Daiki," Kiyoshi rose to his feet and did a little stretch before he answered. "Coming, Kiyabu-nee san!"

"You'll be eating all of them anyway!" Daiki joined with his own chuckle.

The woman in question looked affronted at that accusations with her hands still carrying the pizza boxes. "Oi, I left some of them for you didn't I? Ya damn brats."

Kiyoshi took a glance at the pile of boxes with a deadpan expression, "you bought... eight boxes? Who's going to eat all of that?"

"Me, of course," Suzuko answered unashamedly.

""Of course,"" both boys replied simultaneously, one more exasperated than the other.

The massive fortress that stood before him was as impressive as he imagined it'd be. A wall of glass and steel that shaped a twin cuboid towers with a massive archway splitting at the middle. The entrance was grand in all of its splendor, with over two thousand hopefuls partaking the entrance exam. Despite his impassive expression, Kiyoshi was in awe at the sight before him. The sea of heads all around made it hard for the boy to discern any particular individual, especially with the presence of mutants everywhere, searching for one particular green head was pointless. So he didn't bother.

His walk forward felt heavy, with each sauntered footsteps made him realized the weight of his future. It still felt unreal even when he was so close to the building itself, like it was all a fever dream. The warm breeze which caressed his cheek, the radiant sunlight that cast from the sky, the vibrant chatter of nervous teenagers all around him reinforced Kiyoshi's mind that no, this wasn't a dream. It wasn't a trickery conjured by his delusioned mind. This was real as it could be, and he was here standing before the catalyst of his future. Kiyoshi took a deep breath and released them slowly. A smirk grew on his face as his confidence returned.

He was here to show them all his best, and he'd damned if he didn't give it all.