It had been two years since Zen fully developed Elemental Force. Most of his scars had fully faded, but a couple remained. Despite the pain he went through, Zen remained a happy and playful child, often helping his mother in any way he could. He would even use his Quirk to help her. Yuko noticed, however, that he seemed to shy away from his fire and lightning. She understood his fear, but she knew he needed to overcome them. Little by little, she would get Zen to use either of the two elements, slowly making him more comfortable with them. Yuko would continue to help Zen train with his Quirk, while Hijiku taught him how to fight at his family dojo.
A year later, Yuko and Hijiku began packing up their home. Zen helped the best he could, using his ice and wind to make moving boxes easier. After a week of packing, the Sokuda family moved to the Shizuoka prefecture. Shortly after their move, Yuko became pregnant. Zen also became enrolled in the local school, where he met a girl with earphone jacks hanging from her earlobes, whose name was Kyoka Jiro. They became best friends, despite the fact that Zen was a year ahead of her. Occasionally, Zen would have to protect Jiro from some school bullies, who were even older than him.
After some time, Yuko finally gave birth to two boys. One boy was named Itsaru, while the other was named Kanzaki. Zen was ecstatic to meet his baby brothers, and did his absolute best to help his mom raise them. As they grew, Zen helped his brothers with their developing Quirks, although they weren't nearly as violent as Elemental Force. Itsaru developed a water based Quirk, called Torrent. Kanzaki developed a variant of his father's Quirk called Ice. Zen would often train his younger brothers how to use their Quirks.
When Zen went into junior high school, his mother gave birth to a baby girl, who she named Jina. At school, Jiro was still being bullied. Often times, other students would make fun of her earphone jacks.
One day after getting picked on, Jiro confided in Zen, telling him that the teasing was getting to her, and that she was beginning to hate her earphone jacks. That same night, Zen made a pair of ear piercings that resembled Jiro's earphone jacks. He numbed his earlobes with his ice while making the needle on the ear piercing extremely hot with his fire. Earlier, he had grabbed a stick from a tree outside their house, which he would use to hite down on. Zen then pierced his own ears, the stick in his mouth muffling his scream of pain. The stick cracked from the pressure Zen was putting on it. The next day at school, Zen wore the homemade ear piercings. Some of the bullies that had targeted Jiro began their daily routine. Zen then intervined, telling them that if they were to target anyone, it should be him. He also told them that if they did target him, he would fight back, but if they targeted Jiro, he would also fight back. They bullies attacked Zen, who fulfilled his promise. One of the bullies ended up in to hospital for a broken nose and arm, while the others only had many bruises. Zen found himself suspended for a while.
As the years passed on, nobody bullied Jiro anymore, having become scared of Zen. In his last year of junior high, Zen applied for U.A., the prestigious hero academy.