Suffice to say, relations with my half siblings deteriorated noticeably the moment Enji announced that I would be taking over Shoto's position as his heir. Well, with Natsuo and Fuyumi at least. Shoto seemed awkwardly grateful, and almost pitying at the same time.

I was understandably confused. I'd literally taken Shoto's position as the main heir right out from under him, and yet, he didn't seem to be angry in the slightest. Although Shoto still avoided me like Natsuo and Fuyumi, he at least started to make eye contact with me. We still didn't talk, but things seemed to have thawed between us somewhat.

My days changed from lazing around and browsing the internet on the household desktop to training continuously with Enji from that day on.

Enji seemed almost possessed with how fanatical he acted with regards to my training. It was also the only time of the day I'd ever see Enji smile. Outside of training, Enji was sullen and moody, and it was all Natsuo and Fuyumi ever saw. However, I got to see a different, perhaps nicer side of Enji. Maybe that's why the others don't like him. They've never had the privilege of training with him before.

"Sit down Tanya."

I knelt into seiza at a table with Enji, and he poured us some tea. I took the cup from his hands gratefully, sipping it and savouring a taste which surely cost a fortune. Enji was very specific about his tea. Although some of the brands had changed from my first life, I could still recognise famous names like Gold Tips Imperial.

"Your flames are too lethal," he told me bluntly, stating the obvious. "You lack the control necessary to stop yourself from accidentally killing villains, and I won't let you use your quirk in real combat until you develop that control. A hero is many things, but a killer is not one of them."

He conjured up a ball of flame in his hand casually, and held it out to me. "What do you see Tanya? Be honest with your observations."

I pushed my hand into the flame fearlessly, before regretting it slightly as my hand stung in pain. Still, it wasn't bad pain by any means. I waved my hand around a bit before pulling it out. The skin on my hand was inflamed and looked slightly sunburned.

Enji noted that but didn't say anything.

Studying the air around the flame, I didn't notice any visible distortions, and nothing nearby seemed to be on the verge of igniting. The last observation was moot though, because Enji had reinforced most of the house against burning, replacing most everything with non flammable materials. Apparently, the cloth which I charred accidentally last time was flammable because Enji hadn't anticipated taking me in, so he'd just bought me a regular bedsheet on short notice. That was going to get replaced soon.

Turning my attention back to the flame, I studied it some more before voicing my thoughts. "It shouldn't be a very hot flame. Heat distortion is caused when light refracts through air of different densities. Hot air is less dense than cold air. The lack of a distortion suggests that the flame you created is not a significantly hot one."

I paused. "However, that doesn't make sense because my hand was sunburned when I shoved it in. My heat resistance should be too high for that. Which implies… that the flame is actually really hot - your control is just impeccable enough that you can prevent the air from distorting around your fire."

"Did I get that right?"

Enji was smiling. "I was afraid you would be tricked for a second. The ability to judge temperature for people with flame quirks like us becomes significantly impaired due to our increased resistance. But yes, to answer your question, the flame I made was extremely hot. This has also given me more information about you. Care to guess what that is?"

I racked my brain but couldn't think of anything this time.

"The temperature of the flame I made was about a thousand degrees celsius, if that helps," Enji offered. "Use that information as you will."

A thousand degrees… my own flames are much hotter than that aren't they? But I don't get burned by my own flames.

"My apparent immunity to heat only extends to the flames I personally create," I voiced confidently, having come to a realization. "Although I do have an extreme heat tolerance like you, it isn't to the point of total immunity."

"Astute observation. This does introduce a problem to our training though."

"The first step of my own training was learning how to differentiate the temperatures of flames that I produced," Enji explained to me. "By learning how different temperatures felt, I could feel those subtle changes and gradually become more precise with how hot or cold I wanted to make my fire. I was going to have you do the same, but since you struggle with feeling the temperature of your own fire at all, this is going to pose a problem."

"We will revisit the matter of heat control at a later date. For now, we shall focus on flame control - the control of movement and how fire spreads."

"Before we begin though, I must caution you away from thinking that you truly are immune to your own heat," Enji warned me seriously, without an ounce of mirth in his voice. "Quirks are physical abilities too. Far too often, people think of quirks as a magic black box that creates supernatural phenomena - this is far from the case. In some way or other, all quirks are tied to our bodies, and overuse will inevitably lead to harm."

"That begs the question: how is your quirk tied to your body?"

Enji pointed to himself. "Quirks dealing with strength enhancement have the most obvious side effects. You get tired or sore. With emitter quirks like ours, the side effects are more subtle, but still noticeable. When I use my quirk to create fire, my own body gradually begins to heat up as well. When your brother Shoto uses his quirk, he also heats up, but unlike me, he's able to actively regulate his temperature by generating ice. As of now, I still cannot figure out how your quirk impacts your body."

"So you want me to go find that out," I guessed.

"Yes. And until you discover how your quirk impacts your body, it will remain a hidden weakness, like a ticking time bomb ready to go off." Enji paused for a moment to catch his breath. "A villain who discovers your weakness will punish it, unlike me. Outside of practicing flame control, we will attempt to explore what your weakness is. Once we learn that, we can work around it and mitigate it. I'll show you some examples."

Enji picked up the TV remote on the table and flicked the TV on, switching channels until he got to a news report of a hero called Eraserhead. "See him? His quirk lets him nullify the quirks of other people as long as he sees them. Tell me. What is his weakness?"

As long as he sees them… eye based quirk, must maintain direct line of sight.

"How long he can keep his eyes open for," I started off slowly, gaining confidence as I went. "If he keeps his eyes open too long, they'll start itching and hurting. Everyone needs to blink every now and again."

"How can he work around that?" Enji asked.

"He could train himself to open his eyes longer," I ventured, rapidly thinking over what I would do in his position. "Carry specialized eyedrops, the kind which last a long time, the same ones which vets put on the eyes of cats and dogs during surgery. Wear a protective lens or goggles to prevent light from damaging his retinas."

The last one was more statement of fact than speculation, because the news report of Eraserhead showed him with tinted goggles on.

"You're right on the first two, but wrong about the last," Enji informed me. "Eraserhead wears goggles so villains can't tell where he's looking. It's a tactical advantage. As for the second, well done. Not many people think of that. Eraserhead does apply an ointment which prevents his eyes from drying out, and that lets him drastically extend the time he's able to nullify quirks."

Enji flicked through a few more examples for me to see. "There are no truly invincible quirks," he proclaimed. "Every quirk comes with a weakness in some way or other, whether that be based on something more intangible, or a physical and biological weakness. Learning how to guard against that weakness or mitigate it is an important part of being a hero. Civilians with quirk permits don't need to think about that, because they don't have to fight against people who are scheming to take you down and exploit your weaknesses. Villains at the same time do think about their weaknesses, but they may lack the resources or training to mitigate them."

"This is the most important mark of a hero," Enji told me directly. "Well roundedness. A lack of easy to exploit weakness. Through systematic education, training, and technological support from inventors and support companies, we can eliminate the weaknesses which are normally present in our quirks. This is the true separation between a villain and a hero - lack of thorough and systematic training, and technological support."

"Enough on that for now though. Let us get to training your flame control."

Back in the heatproof training chamber, Enji laid down some cloth strings in a straight line on the floor.

"This is a basic routine you will go through every single day from now on until you can do this on your own without my help." Enji traced the strings from one end of the room to the other, and demonstrated for me. "Observe."

He lit one end of the string alight, and controlled his flames to carefully burn through the string, and the string alone, without letting them spread to the immediate floor nearby. Once he'd burned through the entire string, Enji demonstrated again, but this time, the string was placed on top of a highly flammable wooden board instead of the fireproof flooring.

I raised my eyebrow.

The exact same thing happened. Enji set one end of the string alight and let his flame progress forward, burning all the way to the other end of the string. What surprised me was that the wooden board beneath didn't catch on fire, nor was it charred in the slightest.

I saw the value of this training method in teaching control instantly. It was so simplistic, yet brilliant at the same time. My choice to go along with what Enji said was rapidly starting to pay off in my opinion. Having the guidance of a Pro-Hero in training is truly envious. It's just like what Enji said. Systematic training trumps all. Villains who train on their lonesome without skilled mentors to guide them can only stumble and grope around in the dark, while heroes have access to established techniques and training tricks and methodologies passed down from seniors.

It was much the same as I had done to my soldiers back in the Imperial 203rd. I combined the older training methodologies taught at the war campus with bits and pieces of my more modern knowledge to create a system which all soldiers under me could follow. What Enji was doing was much more luxurious though. He'd customized a training methodology just for me alone, which was treatment far better than what I suspected students at Hero Schools would get, due to the class sizes.

Come to think of it, that was probably why Hero Schools had to be restrictive. If the class sizes were too large, instructors wouldn't be able to provide one on one guidance for each student. Quirks were unique, as were the people using them, and a totally standardized training methodology couldn't possibly work for everyone. By limiting class size, instructors could adapt their training techniques and methodologies to perfectly compliment students.

"Impressive," I said, genuinely meaning it.

"You will do the same one day," Enji allowed, beckoning me forward. "The exercise including the wooden board is a very advanced variation which requires both impeccable heat control and flame control. Without perfect heat control, the wooden board would burn up instantly. For now, we are only focusing on flame control, so I will place the string on the floor which is heatproof, and cover the area to the sides of the string with my own flames, so your heavenflame doesn't consume this room. Your only job is to force your flames to burn the string from one end to another."

The moment I tried it myself, it became apparent how hard it was. My flames instinctively tried to spread outward in a circle towards the other parts of the room, and the moment they left the string too far, Enji's flames would crush and extinguish them. I marshalled my willpower and strained myself to force the flames to move straight ahead, carefully keeping them on track.

It was quite agonizing how resistant my fire was to control. It wanted to rage and rampage and devour everything, yet I was forcing it to thread the needle and move only in a single direction. The exercise left me feeling dizzy when I was done, and that was with Enji actively helping to corral my flames down the string.

"Now we're going to do it again," Enji announced blandly. He set down a new line of strings one after another, and covered the area to the side with his flames again. "Starting today, we will practice at least seven hours of flame control daily. I don't want to hear any complaints."

Rather than complain as I suspected Shoto might have done - how else could he have fallen so out of favor - I settled for giving Enji a thumbs up and a nod of approval.

After all, this was one on one personal instruction from the Number 2 Pro-Hero in all of Japan! Where else in the world could you get such elite training, and for free at that? If I didn't take advantage of it, I might as well be chopped liver! I'd be no better than the communists of the Russy Federation who lazed around all day. To truly cement my status as Enji's heir, I would need to train mercilessly. Just living up to his expectation wasn't enough. I would need to go beyond, and surpass them.

AN: I'm feeling inspired right now, so please enjoy chapter 2!

I also want to say a big thank you to the kind stranger who gilded chapter 1 and gifted me an account upgrade. Cheers!