The Rocky of UA.
Chapter 1: Hit the Ground Running!
There's nothing better than to wake up with your Mom darting around you trying to get you up for the day, her hair bright and flaming even in this heat. She grabs me and hoists me up, my overly tan skin still warm from the covers.
"Mom…" I groan, "Gimme a few more minutes…"
"No, we're on a schedule today, baby. It's fight night!" she exclaims, "And the payout is absolutely enormous if I get to the end!" she grins and plops me into the bathroom.
"Awwwhg…" I yawn, my red orange eyes staring at myself in the mirror. My body is slim, not very well muscled but still kinda muscled. I drag a fireproof brush through my red and orange hair, embers flaking off in the dragging.
It fluffs out, then settles into a wavy rain of long hair. I pull some of it back to be made in a small ponytail. Of course I brush my teeth, floss, and smile in the cracked mirror despite my shaky hands and slower pace.
She's waiting and she's swirling her keys on her fingers, shoving a pork bun into my mouth and getting me out the door without my bands and shoes, until I notice them bundled in the crook of her arms.
"Why're you so quick getting me to school, huh?" I ask, "Is your trainer wanting you in earlier?"
"Baby, this is a HUGE deal. I don't mind what you do tonight, just stay home and hang tight." she swings her muscular self into the car and tosses my shoes and bands my way as I slide them on. They're loose and threadbare, barely able to stay together. Sometimes my girlfriend brings me some extra material.
Mom can't pay for my new bands, so I just bind them tighter. All I do is just grit my teeth and bear it… like today. Mom pulls into traffic, the neighborhood whisking by with the house of my girlfriend and adjoining chapel moving by too.
"I dunno why you're so gung-ho. What if you lose?"
"I still get paid, you know that." she sighs with a smile, "As long as none of them are fixed I'm a happy gal." we get cut off and she brakes suddenly.
"OH FUCK YOU!" she flips them off with a burning hiss of her flames shooting out of the sunroof. Mom's just being mom. That's all she is but at the same time I worry about her. Because she gets hurt for a living. She gets the shit beat out of her and I have to see the bruises and the black eyes and the fractures. She uses most of the money to get treatment for those but at the same time most of it also goes to all the expenses we gotta pay to keep living in our house.
Mom notices how quiet I am, "Renaru, sweetie, this is a big deal. I know you don't like it-"
"Yeah, I don't! What kind of son wants their mother to get beat up?! It's already bad enough I have this!" I raise my hands and they quiver and quake with my legs. My hair sputters and my heat barely stays constant.
"Renaru, you're not a burden to me. You're literally the only thing keeping me from the loony bin." Mom winks at me and turns her attention back to the road. If only I could tell her what it's really like for me.
In this world, there's eighty percent with quirks, special superpowers that popped up in China with some glowing baby. They can be anything really. Twenty percent don't have one and they're treated better than us. Way better.
To the world at large, Quirk Palsy doesn't exist. It's some crackpot pseudoscience thing even though it could impact anyone. I'm one of the ten percent that DO have it. Mom pulls up to the school and she pulls me into her strong, warm arms.
"Don't ever let anyone tell you that you're anything other than yourself." she says, "You're my son, I shoved you out of me, and if I hear one goddamn thing about how someone treated you unfairly, they're gonna be a punching bag!"
Mom kisses me on the forehead and hands me my backpack. I pull out the handle and roll it behind me, all I can think about is the hell I'm entering into. My school never got people like me before. So it was a big hullabaloo that I was even enrolled even if it was as close to the house as we could get, and Mr. Shiozaki vouched for me. Being an 'Upstanding pillar of the local community, to which we all should strive to be' (That makes me wanna hurl even now.)
"Look at him, he can barely stand!" they said, "What makes you think he'd be successful in a setting like this?"
Mom looked up at them like she was gonna rage any minute, "What're you saying? You're saying my boy can't get his education?"
"Miss-"
"Missus. I'm married, get it right."
"Missus Kaenshita, your son's condition poses a risk to the student body and the property itself. One wrong move on one wrong day and Fwoom! Fire everywhere!" one of them yelled. I didn't care what they looked like.
Then one of them spat out the words that put the fear of God into all of them. In a voice even I fear, Mom spoke.
"Maybe he likes setting things on fire?" one of them says, and my Mom starts laughing. It unsettles the rest of the space, waves of heat billowing the area around us. Mr. Shiozaki's eyes widen as my mom calms down a bit to talk.
"Oh yeah?" she starts, "All I hear is fucking ableism. My son needs this school, this is the only shot we got and I'm not driving halfway across town." That's when Mr. Shiozaki took over.
He's massive, long blond hair and wild green eyes, long gray coat and a priest's cassock underneath it, he's got a beard and heavy work boots. He's easily taller than Mom and he looms above the mic, his resonant voice trembling the room.
"Excuse me, my friend has her grievances. But it's best to just leave it here. Do not let her character speak to how her son would act, y'don't know what he's had to endure." His voice is resonant, accented lightly in a Scottish Brogue, a lot of people respect him so they keep quiet.
But I hate it.
Sometimes he pisses me off. Just the idea that I couldn't defend myself. I'll show him, I'll show them, I'll show my mom and everyone I can take care of myself! The schoolyard is spacious and I amble my way through it, my backpack rolling behind me. All they do is stare at my ambling, shambling body. Embers swirling from my hair and my uniform sleeves and pant legs charred and threadbare. Pocked with burned-through holes. I had no one. No friends, no one to hide behind since my Girlfriend is part of the gardening club and comes in early every day.
Some people just have all the luck in the world. Then my leg catches, my shoe bends, everything goes sideways and the control of my body is wrenched from me as I build momentum, slowly seeing everything rush up to meet me.
Dammit.
Hitting the ground isn't what hurts, it's the aftermath. The students around me all laugh and carry on, jeering and calling out…
"Oops!"
"Clean up on aisle one!"
"Another one bites the dust!"
I curl into a little ball and try to stop myself from crying. But no. That's the coward's way out. I get up, dust myself off, and hold back the urge to cry. It hurts but I have to keep going. Getting inside takes me a little bit to take off my outside shoes. Putting on the inside shoes is easy.
"Come on…" I mumble, fumbling with the double knots my Mom put in my laces, "Mom, seriously? You're trying to make me track mud through the-" someone bumps into me.
"Oof! Hey!" I snap, "You tryin' to get me-" then it happens. The fear rises up, grabs me, lovingly kisses me on the lips and tells me.
'You're not done yet.' because standing above me is the one guy nobody wants to mess with. Hayao Kuroda, the student council president and the one sonuvabitch that makes my school life and my girlfriend's school life a living hell.
Six foot one, a noble face twisted into one of righteous anger, he looms above me. Leering down with golden eyes. He's always been a thorn in my side ever since we came to Ilimicho. Ten or so years of sheer torment and he looms over me like I'm the one who bumped into him.
He's bigger, stronger, better at everything than I am. All he wants is for me to get out of his way about my girlfriend. Like I'll ever let him.
"Kaenshita…"
"Kuroda."
"You think you could just sit there like a lazy bump on a log and not greet your superior?" he barks, "STAND AT ATTENTION!" a golden aura appears around me and my muscles scream and bones pop at the motions of me standing ramrod straight with my hand in a salute.
Straining, tears falling down my cheeks. It's not right. It's not fair. Kuroda and his friends laugh.
"Aww! Look at him! Such a respectful lil' soldier!" he says, "Well then Private! At- EASE!" he throws a mean jab right into my face, sending me hurtling to the floor. I can't move. I can't even look him in the eyes.
"Outside, death by a thousand blows." he says.
Sweat pours down my face, my hair burning bright and everything coming into focus. Pain rockets through my body, my head aching, my hands holding my stomach. My quirk wreaks havoc and everyone stares down at me. That's all they do. Stare, whisper, all while I amble by.
"Really?! You think you can be a hero with those arms and legs?!" one of them yells. I smile and draw myself up, focusing my eyes on the person who said that. I'm so tired of that. So tired of it all.
My hands shake as I raise them, a shambling Peekaboo stance. Taking a breath my legs and arms tighten up like a fiery spring ready to launch. But then one of them takes a shot at me, I don't even see it coming. But I ride it out, another shot coming in and I do that too, shrugging off blow after blow. I'm used to it, used to taking way worse than this. Mom and I… we're built for it. I can't take much more of this but when they gang up on me like this…
Heat spreads through my body, my body temperature building. My sweat turning to steam and my arms sting. Pins and needles. They shake mightily and all I can think of is the fact that night was the most humiliating night. Just because I can't balance all that well. Just because I fire off my quirk when I need to, do they get all pearl clutchy? And then their kids decide I'm the most perfect punching bag in the world.
This wasn't the worst thing by a long while, but eventually they get bored because I'm rope-a-doping. They leave and I raise myself out of the Peekaboo stance.
I smile and rub my aching arms, "That's right! Get lost!" I yell, stretching my arms out and moving towards the gate. Sometimes they get to me at the end of the day, where teachers are less likely to get to anyone.
This day was just boring, so I guess I could thank them for the workout? I roll out of the yard and there's the thought of the fight night again. What am I gonna eat? What am I gonna do? I need to do my homework of course but after that then what?
A soft set of footsteps sounds out, "Wait, Renaru!" a soft, almost breezy voice sings through my ears. My girlfriend Ibara Shiozaki jogs up to me with her long skirt billowing around. She's wearing a pretty standard uniform but because Mr. Shiozaki's a bigwig in this neck of the woods she's got on her pretty handmade shawl.
Her hair is long, waist length vines, beautiful and vibrant. Her eyes are dark green and her lashes are downy and mossy green. She's taller than me, just by a bit and her skin has more of an olive tone to it. She smiles and wraps her arms around one of mine, walking alongside me with a bright smile on her face. She's always been here. Always been by my side through everything. It's a no-brainer we'd be together.
But there's always that one thing that keeps lovers apart, right? Romeo and Juliet, some kind of other star crossed thing that makes everything suck. But for now Ibara and I walk side by side towards the station.
"Did you have a good day, Renaru?" she asks.
"I guess. Tonight's a fight night." I sigh, "I'll be home alone. And well, Mom's gonna go get the teeth knocked out of her head again."
"You're being moody again, Renaru." she says, "Was it Kuroda too?"
"Yeah, he forced me to Salute and then did Death by a Thousand Blows outside today, I rope-a-doped him though." I see something change in her.
"Shall I do something about it?" she asks.
"No, no, I'll handle it." I say, "Nothing I haven't done before."
"Oh, right." she says with a slight wilt in her tone, "Well then, how about I come over? I made some pumpkin bread earlier this week, it's not that old."
"You're a saint, baby." I can't help but smile at her earnestness. But then I remember that the Special Exam is coming up, I can't really fool with her before that! I gotta focus! Dammit, even though I want her to come over!
"How about you drop some off tonight?"
"Why?" she tilts her head a little, "You're not sick are you? Hurt? Do you want to break up with me?!"
"What?! Ibby, baby, no." I sigh, "I'm just focused on something really important right now. Something that's in my future."
Ibara nods, "Well, if it is the way you do things, then that is the way you must do it." she and I get to the station and get on our train to go home, while on the way there, there's a soft prickling on my arm.
She's got vines around one of them, looking worriedly around at the other people. She's almost paranoid and I reach over and squeeze her hand. Ibara never leaves my side until we get to my house, a tiny thing compared to her father's cabin and chapel, with the massive garden. The sun shines amber, Mom's car is gone, and I stand with her. Ibara hesitates but looks down at me with a forced smile. She leans close, her lips softly brush against mine.
"I love you," she whispers.
"I love you too, Ibara. Have a good night."
"May the Lord bless you and keep you safe." she says back, I don't want to leave her. She's so alone, I don't ever want her to be alone again. I get up to the front door and unlock it, thinking of the UA exam next week.
I'm ready as I'll ever be.
UA, the big H-Shaped hero school, the one out in Mustafu. It's not a bad train ride, but on the lead up to that day, Mom's been drilling me. Apparently she got pretty far in that Fight Night, not even giving an inch, she won.
"All I thought about was you, baby!" she said, "The rest came easy."
So if I get through this, Mom's gonna treat us to a ton of things. She has a lot of ideas. The train to Mustafu rushes along underground. My eyes closed, focused on what I need to do. No matter what I have to do. Persevere.
In UA, there's five slots for those with Quirk Palsy in General Studies, three in the Support Course, and in the Hero Course…
Only two. Two slots with candidates determined from the highest scores among those who applied. So it was me and some other person who got through to be examined.
The train slows down breaking into day, jittering and jerking. I make my way up the steps and into the huge blast of urban noise, raging and roaming around where tons of people are going to and fro. Dancing in the lanes were cars milling along trying to obey traffic laws. Vendors and food trucks all hawking wares and everything. Being a small town boy, I gulp down my fear and pop the name UA into my map app.
My phone chugs out the directions as I follow them, taking me through a weird backway where some guy in a coat that smells like he burnt it gives me shifty eyes. I glare back and he goes back to what he was doing. 'That's what I thought.' When I finally get to the school, it's much bigger than in the pictures on TV. About a whole ARMY of kids were going through early applications but there off to the side is a little table with a hokey reused sign of All Might pointing at it.
QP Applicants, here! (It was once a This Tall to Ride Sign.) Walking over, there's nobody else except for the person at the desk. Well, the person I didn't even know. Mom never really liked heroes. So I walk up, the person's a lady and she's really pretty. Her eyes looking down at the paper, almost shocked at how short the list is for the hero course I'm sure. They're bright blue and she's got long and messy dark purple hair.
She's kinda dressed like she's… well, I dunno what she's dressed like! I can't fight the blush on my cheeks as she looks up at me and smiles.
"Uh… I'm here for the Special QP Exam? My name's…"
"Renaru Kaenshita, right?" her voice is soft, strong and well, her smile's making me lose my balance just looking at it! I nod.
"I like your mother, she's pretty cool," she says, "Good luck then, sweetie!" she winks at me and I turn away, taking a sheet with me with all my information on it. I hope I do well because this is going to be really hard.
Crossing into the big gym room, There's not much to this place. Just two heroes (I guess?) standing there waiting for me. Both of them are pretty different looking. One's a short little lady with a doctor's outfit on and the other is a tall guy who looks almost like a skeleton.
"Ah, hello dear!" the old lady greets and I bow.
"Hello, Ma'am! I'm Renaru Kaenshita!"
"Yes, we know." she laughs, "So eager!" she comes over and checks me out, turning my head this way and that, holding my wrist to time the shaking, holding my legs out straight to see how much they shake.
"Hmmm. He has a pretty bad case for an emitter…" she says, the skeletal man nodding.
"If you're gonna go easy, I'll just leave!" I bark, "There's no way I've come all the way from Ilimicho to have you cheap out on me!"
The skeletal man turns, his coat billowing slightly, "Then follow me, Kaenshita. It's time for your physical examination." he opens the door and I step out with him. Here we go!
I lash out my arms seeing Flames burst out of my fists, the clones bursting to goo. The goal of this part was to beat all of Mr. Ectoplasm's clones. He's a tall guy in a weird black and yellow ribbed suit with a big coat. He's like me, he wears prosthetics and he lands, the piles of goo I already took out reforming into copies of him. All of them spread out throughout the fake cityscape the school dropped us off into. Surrounding me with his voice echoing around me. All of it just being like that scene with the skeletons in that old anime my Mom never wants me to watch but I watched it anyway.
"Let's up the ante, shall we? You must fight me with all your resolve, Kaenshita!" they boom, "How will you be a hero if you give up now?"
"I won't, Mr. Ecto!" I exclaim, "So bring it all on! I'll burn you all to cinders!" I take my boxing stance, hopping on my feet, taking a deep breath and the heat pitches up around me, my heart blazing.
My bands shoot out intense jets of flame, closing in and a torrent of fire blasts out of my fist. Charring a whole lot of them, but a cannon blast annihilates a good chunk of them too. Standing nearby is a girl with her dark hair up in a ponytail, practically in a sports bra like my Mom wears sometimes.
She's wearing normal enough shorts too.
"Are you alright?" she asks me, dark eyes full of concern as she looks at my trembling body and limbs. I smile.
"Yeah, I'm doing just fine, partner!" I exclaim, "You take the ones on the left, I take the ones on the right, and we join halfway, yeah?"
The girl shakes her head, "Maybe it'll be better if we work together, Kaenshita."
"Right, right. Wait, I never got your name." she smiles and forms a shield on her arm. Her hand holding a sword.
"I'm Momo Yaoyorozu, Kaenshita."
"In that case, call me Renaru!" I pound my fist to my chest, flames bursting to life in my hair and I close my eyes, "And to all you clones, you won't stop me!" I yell, rushing them down and my fists flying like reckless tails of comets.
Yaoyorozu and I start to push the clones back more and more, but they keep reforming and rushing in. The more I use my flames, the worse my body shakes and my muscles have the burning pulling they always get, sending me into panting fits. In the distance, I see Momo barely holding back one of Ectoplasm's clones with another closing fast.
"YAOYOROZU! OUTTA THE WAY!" I scream, charging between them and getting hit hard with a double pincer kick to my back and stomach. The wind forced out of my lungs, flames bursting out and burning the two away, but I crumple to my knees.
Dammit… this isn't good. Not good at all. Pain thunders through my body, my eyes blur and a great big shadow chomps down on the two of us. Momo and I are stuck inside this guy's ultimate move.
"Haha! Hit him again!"
"Come on, Kaenshita! Is this all you got?"
My bullies kick and punch me around, my body screaming in pain. Hard, unforgiving concrete meets my face as I fly to the ground, skittering on it like a stone and laying there. The sun shining down on my raw new scrapes. The burning pain in them was nothing new at all, but who did it were the usual suspects.
The schoolyard bustles and moves around us. Everyone treated me like that Kitty Genovese lady in America years ago. No one sees the two kids being attacked by the three bigger ones. No one sees the clearly disabled kid shaking and hurt, or the girl surrounded by the other two with vine hair.
She's just standing there.
Why is she just standing there?
Crawling to one knee, there's the normal boot of my bully, Hayao, landing on my head. His crystal hair shines like a halo but he's no angel. I mean, when I'm eating dirt like- he forces my head down into the dust, my tongue tasting the grit and cringing.
God dammit.
"Sit down a bit, Kaenshita." he says, "We'll be gentle with your girlfriend."
Ibara stands there, immovable and calm as the now four guys surround her. She never once breaks eye contact with me. Gritting my teeth, one by one my limbs move. Pushing me up, trying to anyway. They shiver, my body forcing me back down to the dust as they grab her arms and her vines don't move. Hayao paces, a pair of pruning pliers in his hand. Closing my eyes, I try to get back up.
Why isn't anyone doing anything?! Why isn't anyone getting a teacher?! It's not… no, no, stop thinking like that, Renaru! Come on… come on! The one time you need to get up and you can't! Come on… One leg's got me up, the other's lagging behind. Everything comes down to this moment, the pliers snip and a clump of vines falls to the ground, Ibara's eyes close and there's tears falling.
"Oh come on, Shiozaki… you look way better like tha-"
Heat rips through me and I close the distance, flames meeting the cheek of this bastard and blasting him backward, the pliers clinking on the blacktop, boiling hot from my flames. Landing on my feet I weave in, jabbing fast with my flames blasting out, my bands lighting up with an orange light before fading. My arms have the dull, pulling ache I normally get and I rage down into Hayao's face.
"Don't you ever do that!" my throat rips out a yell, "Don't you dare cut her hair like that, bastard!" Grabbing him with one hand, I try to pull him up but no dice.
"Aww! Look at you, defending the poor saintly hafu! She's crying so hard right now!" I look over my shoulder and see her standing there, still not moving but she's- the other two, Han and Shou, fire off their quirks and they end up blasting me off Hayao and into the pavement again.
Grinding into it, my shoes leave trails of flame in their wake, the rubber melted down a little. A crowd of other kids all gather around and watch. Instead of countering, I fall back down, the concrete digging into me and I watch as Ibara gets her vines cut.
"They always do…"
Why was it always me?
"Kaenshita!"
The one kid with Quirk Palsy, one of the ten percent of the population.
"Kaenshita!" Momo's hands land on my shoulders, "Help me!"
"Help you?" The dark void of Ectoplasm's Detention sends shivers through me but Momo's hands tighten on my shoulders, focusing me.
"Renaru, can you try and blast through this?" she asks, pulling out something she created, a sword like the ones in one of those old samurai movies Mom used to watch with me, Yojimbo? I take it into my hands, the blade sheening in my hair's firelight.
Breathe deep, summon it from your chest, feel it spread through your arms, legs, and then the sword, let it seep into the metal, the hilt, the guard. The bullies that kept me down, the people who stared at me when I was younger.
Mom snapping at people who told her I couldn't be anything, "My son can be whoever he wants to be!"
All Might's muscular, comic book styled face, golden hair tufts, telling the interviewer, "Anyone can be a hero!" with that unbeatable smile.
Mom, beaten to hell in the ring, holding up her fists, "It's not about my money… it's not about my pride… it's about my boy! My son needs the money!"
Watching her take out so many guys, watching her taking on bigger and bigger weight classes, mutations, emitters, transformations, it didn't matter to her.
Anyone can be a hero…
Anyone can be a hero…
I… can be a hero.
I can be a hero.
I can be a hero!
I stand and open my eyes, grabbing Momo and feeling her taller frame and longer arms wrap around me, my legs blasting us into the air, flaming sword slashing into the head of the giant Ectoplasm he ambushed us with.
The sunlight and summer heat hit us and I take the brunt of the fall with all the pain in my back and skidding across the fake city pavement, making sure she isn't hurt. She holds onto me tightly.
"Hey, you can leggo now." I groan.
"Oh, sorry!" she sputters. She gets off me and her cheeks are beet red, Ectoplasm coming up to us with this big guy who looks like he's a living cinder block with a chilled-out smile on his face.
"Kaenshita, Yaoyorozu, time for the written exam. You did well with the physical." he rumbles, "But don't slack off, you two, you're far from done."
I adjust my bands and let them air out, the grayed out membrane smoking gently from all the flames shot out. Sweat pours out of them and I almost wanna dart into a bathroom to put out my hair because shit, it's a hot day.
Momo zipped up her track jacket, eating some peanut butter crackers she stuffed in the pockets. She looks at me and smiles.
"Here." she says, handing me one, "For a job well done,"
"Yeah." nodding, maybe red-faced, maybe shy, but that's not the point right now. I exercised my body, so now it's time for my noodle! Munching on the cracker, it kinda helps my concentration.
Once I sit down in another room from Momo, with another teacher, this one a little bit odd. It's a person in a spacesuit with big sneakers and white eyes on the big helmet.
"Hello, Kaenshita! I'm Thirteen! I'll be proctoring your exam so sit down and get your pencils out."
"You got it… sir? Ma'am?"
"The second one's right!" she exclaims, happy and it puts me at ease. I mean, Mr. Ectoplasm and Mr. Cementoss looked pretty intimidating despite how Mr. Ectoplasm almost ended our exam by eating us. I think he's nicer than he looks.
Looking down at the exam, there's not much I don't know but there's a lot I coulda studied better for. If Mom… well… I do it. I went through the exam easy as pie and to the best of my ability. That's all I can do, yeah?
When I get out of there, Momo's there waiting. She smiles as I amble up to her, leaning against the wall a bit, she offers her shoulder.
"Come on, Kaenshita." she chides softly.
"Nah, I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
At that I glare at her, "Who saved you when he ate us?"
"I made the sword you cut through it with!" she counters, "Ha! Got you!" She smiles and wraps her arm around my shoulders and I just keep looking away. She has a better shot at getting a slot than I do.
She only has a type of Quirk Palsy that affects her quirk's drawback. I could tell from how much she was eating, she had more than just crackers. I could smell the eel sauce from the exam room next door to hers.
Ah well… at least I'll be home soon.
The hot steam of the pavement hits my skin as I lay on my back next to my Mom, hair spread out beneath us as the cold rain puts it out. Summer comes with this. Putting out our hair so we don't cook alive in the heat. The events of the exam fade away as I try to curl up close to my mom.
"Hahh… doesn't that feel good, Renaru?" Mom sighs, her eyes closed as her soaked once-lit hair snuffs out. She sits up, grinning and watching me with her red orange eyes burning bright. She's wearing exercise clothes, with the wet fabric clinging to her tanned skin. Mom also has a pretty elaborate tattoo on her shoulder that tapers to her wrist. She says she got it from someone she loved a lot, more than me and Dad. Sometimes it glows along with her quirk.
"Yeah." I answer, "It always does, Mom." she reaches over and pats my forehead. The rain lets up slow as ever and sizzles out my own hair. Normally, I'm shedding embers everywhere and causing a huge mess somewhere.
But Mom just smiles, talks it off as a little fun spice of mine that makes me even more special than the other kids. She gets to her feet and holds out her hand. One hand, one arm, I push myself off the pavement with my free hand shaking and grabbing hers. It trembles like a leaf, even when she holds it. Mom plucks me up to my feet and leads me inside our house. It's small, quiet, and kind of rustic. After all, she built it herself. At least that's what she says.
Two rooms, two bathrooms, not three. Of course it's not so bad. It's enough for me and my mom and that's all I need. Mom turns on the light over the stove, we save on electricity when we don't use the overhead kitchen light. My eyes linger on the family photo of me, Mom, and Dad when I was a baby. Bundled in my mom's arms, her scowling tired as all get out at the camera as dad posed like an idol leaning into the shot.
His red hair long and falling to his shoulders, lightly bearded, and with magenta eyes shining in the camera flash. He's tall, with two compression sleeves around his arms and hands, with two on his legs and tapering down to his feet. Meanwhile I'm all scrunched up with bright orange hair and red streaks, I probably just got woken up from my haze of sleep by my overly loud and cheery dad.
"How about some Tempura chicken tonight, kiddo? Your dad made it all the time for me when I was pregnant with you." she looks over her shoulder at me staring at the photo, wilting a bit at the sight of me looking at it.
"Look, I know you miss him." she sighs just a bit, "He did what he did and there's nothing we can do about it now."
"Mom? Where'd he go?" I walk into the kitchen and wash my hands, degloving my black and grayed-out bands reaching my shaking hands into the sudsy water. She tenses a little and before I could ask her more, she nudges me.
"Get the rice, baby." her tone's soft, "Remember to wash it." Her hair is drier now, fluffing out into nice red and black waves that fall to her waist. Rinsing my hands, I get out the bag of rice and start washing what we're going to use.
She cooks the chicken and I focus on the rice. Kind of glad she isn't talking much about Dad. I mean… she's right, I do miss him but it's been just us for so long I've started to not really care? Mom glares at the chicken with her red eyebrows furrowed like they just threatened my life.
I don't think it's a bad thing. I mean… our neighbor, Mr. Shiozaki, he's been raising my best friend all by himself for years. But sometimes… Mom gets like this. Sad, cooking or punching the heavy bag, or cleaning, or writing that sports novel she says she's going to finish. She still misses Dad. On my Dad's birthday, the third of July, she leaves the house really early and spends the day somewhere. Then comes home, cries, and then goes to bed. Sometimes there's that little bit of worry with her.
The chicken's done, and the rice just got done too. When we sit down to eat I grab my special pair of chopsticks that are attached together so I can pick things up easier. It's normal. All of this is. I reach up to the end of my arms near my shoulders and peel down my band's ends. Mom smiles, and I smile back. It's been the two of us since I can remember. I almost don't want that to change. While we eat, there's a knock on our door.
"I'll get it, honey." she says as I jolt up to answer. It's gotta be my results from the Special Exam at UA. She stands and I still notice some of her bruising from the fight she had in the ring for the money to get me into UA's Special Exam Program in the first place.
Mom sacrificed so much for me. One of these days I might be able to return the favor. She comes back in with a happy grin, the official seal of UA on the envelope and the excitement I get thrums through my body. Almost electric, almost like the fire that runs through me with every beat of my heart. She bounces a little and stares at me. My hands tremble. What if I didn't get through? Even after all that?
"What? Aren'tcha gonna open it?" she asks, "Come on! Do it!" I pick it up and tear through the envelope, a small projector clatters to the table. It whirs to life, the projection floating in the air with the logo shining bright gold.
"Real flashy, huh?" Mom nudges me with a grin.
"Mom, shhh!" I hiss, the logo changes to… All Might. Comic booky and in a yellow pinstriped suit.
"I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION!" he laughs, and Mom falls back in her chair with flames sputtering in her hair.
"Jesus!"
"Pfft!" I start but then All Might continues.
"I am here to give you the results of the Quirk Palsy Special Exam! Out of five hundred applicants, you shone bright against the rest, Young Kaenshita!" Mom wraps her arm around my shoulders.
"Yer goddamn right!" Mom cheers, "My baby boy's the greatest in the world!" All Might continues after that.
"Well then! In the Special Exam you thwarted the dastardly deeds of Ectoplasm, thus securing enough points to pass the physical exam! The written exam, you passed as well! Now before you go running off celebrating, there're a few things we have to go over!"
"Your mother indicated that you and her live quite a ways away from the school, so we here at UA have it covered with a special dormitory at the Heights Alliance buildings! You just come in with your stuff and move right on in when the new semester starts!"
Mom looks at me, "Honey?"
I look down at my hands, "Mom… What am I gonna tell Ibara?"
Mom pauses the projection, "Renaru, you just go over there and tell her you're moving into UA's campus, it's not hard. She's a very sweet girl, she'll understand."
"It's not that!" I squeak, "It's Kuroda! What if when I'm gone he ends up doing something awful to her? Like the time he cut her vines? What if he does something worse?!"
That's when the door slams open, Mr. Shiozaki ran in with an absolutely terrified look on his face. He takes a heavy breath.
"Renaru, Tekka, have y'seen Ibara?! I cannae find her anywhere! An' I dunno where she is!" he yells, "She mighta run off t'settle somethin'!"
"Settle…?" I breathe, "No…"
"Mr. Shiozaki, follow me! I think I know where she's going! Mom, you stay here!" I yelp, getting to my feet and raging out the door, getting on my three wheeled bike but before I could take off, Mr. Shiozaki suddenly hoists me onto his back.
"Where to, lad?"
"Downtown! She probably took Kuroda up on the date offer!" I yell, he takes off running and I hang on for dear life.
Hang on, Ibara! We're coming!