AN: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I wish you all a blessed day!
A thought struck me before we started our morning training session where I initially had planned to show off my newly developed basic flame control.
Was my progress going to be seen as too fast?
I didn't fear any potential reaction from Enji - I was his daughter after all, and his self proclaimed heir. I was confident he wanted nothing but the best for me, because his dream was to raise a Pro-Hero able to surpass All Might.
However, what I did fear was raising his expectations too far and too fast. If I demonstrated that I could master basic flame control within a day, Enji would come to expect a similar rate of progress across every discipline. Such expectations were unsustainable to meet constantly.
I was willing to risk life and limb in Enji's own words, but that didn't mean I was willing to risk my neck for nothing. For there to be incentive, there had to be a reward. In this case, the reward was Enji's continued favor and my status as the main heir. My ultimate goal was to live a stable and peaceful life, so maintaining my status as the Todoroki heiress was absolutely vital.
If I suddenly showed off my genius to him and was unable to repeat the circumstances the next time, Enji would surely develop a bad impression of me. I couldn't let that happen.
So, what was the solution?
Obviously, to stagger my progress. I wouldn't show Enji everything today - I would instead demonstrate a rapidly developing competence, and follow my original plan of mastering basic flame control by the end of the week. Mastering basic control within a week was amazing, but it wasn't entirely unreasonable.
In this way, I could slowly raise Enji's expectations in a controllable manner. Furthermore, I would be making more progress in secret, which would allow me to stay ahead of the curve. No matter what Enji threw at me, I would be able to maintain the image of a hard working genius, since I would be able to continually meet his expectations and faintly surpass them each time.
Even if Enji threw a surprise test at me, I would be prepared for it due to the extra training I was doing in secret. However, if I showed him my full capabilities from the get go, his expectations might rise too fast for me to keep up, and that would cost me his favor and possibly my status as heiress. I couldn't let that happen.
For the sake of my peaceful life, I'd need to game the system, and expose my capabilities in a controlled and rational manner to maximize my benefits.
Training this morning passed by as usual. I demonstrated greatly enhanced control - enough to surprise Enji at my rate of progress, but not enough to raise his expectations of me too far. I still 'needed' his help to a degree to burn the string, but this time, I started showing how I could reign in my flames and stop more of it from spilling out.
Enji congratulated me on my hard work, giving me a friendly pat on the back and a smile.
"You're doing good work Tanya," Enji told me seriously. "The training you're doing today is meaningful - never forget that. Remember to hammer these words in - quirks are physical abilities. The more you train them and nurture them, the stronger you will be for it. For someone hardworking like you who starts training this young, you'll have the advantage of years, maybe even a decade on other Pro-Hero aspirants and eventually actual Pros."
Enji cut the training session there and took me outside, driving me to a glass building near his Hero Agency run by a company called Neutron. They specialized in meal prep and supplements, and were considered a first rate company for hero aspirants and Pro Heroes invested in training their bodies. The receptionist clearly knew Enji was coming - he'd probably set an appointment up, and she guided us to an office where a nurse was already waiting.
"This is going to hurt just a little bit," the nurse said gently, swabbing my arm with an alcohol soaked piece of cotton and prepping a needle to draw some blood. I let her take my arm and relaxed, allowing her to pierce the needle in and start drawing. I was already familiar with the procedures from my last life, so I didn't panic unlike what a lot of other children might have done.
Enji nodded approvingly from the side, seeing how I was unfazed. I'm clearly winning brownie points with him.
The nice nurse had my height scanned and measured, my temperature taken, a few skin samples taken, and put me through a scanning machine which would track my physical traits and create a 3D model. When I was done, she offered me a piece of candy which I eagerly accepted. It was a little childish, but it was free food, and not accepting it would be a horrible waste of resources. At least, that was how I tried to justify my excesses.
In this new life, I'd developed a little bit of a sweet tooth after years of spartan, almost ascetic living in my previous one. As a soldier, I'd rarely been privy to sugar, and having desserts was a privilege even for officers. Living in the modern world - or a postmodern one - meant that I could eat however much and whatever I wanted… even if that had made me develop a bit of a sugar addiction.
The nurse came back out of the office and discussed something with a doctor for a bit before printing out an itemized list which she handed over to Endeavor.
"I'm sure your father already knows about our services since he was a big customer of ours, but I'll explain it again for you, little miss!" The nurse smiled at me kindly. She pulled up the model of my body they generated and spread it out, zooming in on certain parts for me to see.
"See the red words on the bottom of the diagram?" The nurse pointed out. "Those are deficiencies, things that your body is lacking in which the computer has listed out. For example, our model says that you're slightly deficient in Vitamin D, a common problem for many people in Japan due to spending too much time indoors. You can remedy this by eating more mushrooms and fish, foods rich in Vitamin D, and by getting more sunlight everyday."
"That's just one basic part of the model we've generated," she continued explaining as Enji nodded along, clearly having been through this before. "All of these things will be used to create a custom meal and supplement plan that you are expected to follow to promote your physical health and development. Neutron will send you a meal every day delivered to your doorstep, which you must consume in full. Does that make sense?"
I nodded. The nurse pulled out a thin wristband and slapped it on my arm, wriggling it a little before locking it and activating the scanner. Clearly a support device of some kind.
The wristband hummed to life and started beeping, before the sound cut off abruptly as the nurse unshackled it from my hand. "Make sure to twist before putting it on," she advised. "It's very easy to put on and off, but you have to be careful not to damage it."
"What's the purpose of the wristband?" I asked.
"It syncs to our Neutron Nutrition app," she replied with a big smile. "I expect that your father will get you a phone after this to download the app on. It's quite easy to use. He'll help you set it up. You were very brave today sweetie. Lots of people don't like drawing blood, but you were so calm!"
She pinched my cheeks, making me recoil, but the nurse just laughed when she saw my reaction. "How cute! Endeavor-san, you've got a great daughter!"
"She is," Enji agreed, which made me quite happy to hear. If I could keep Enji this way, my future life would undoubtedly be secured.
"Oh, by the way, make sure the food is hot," Enji added. "Same rules apply as with my own food deliveries."
The nurse's eyes widened knowingly. "Gotcha. I know exactly what you want. I'll add that onto our dear Tanya's file."
Once we'd departed from the Neutron building, I couldn't stop myself from asking, "Has Shoto been here too?"
Enji's face, previously a slight smile, now twisted into a bit of a grimace. "He has. But he's been rebellious lately, and he refuses to eat the meals prepared by Neutron. I've given up on trying to force him to eat. Fuyumi usually handles the cooking for him."
Enji didn't elaborate any more on the topic, and I got the hint not to ask. I need to reign in my curiosity a bit before it bites me.
I got the sense that this wasn't something Enji would typically talk about, but he was more willing to indulge me because I'd been such a model student. Still, there were limits, boundaries that I knew not to cross, or at least not too often. All Might was one of them, I'd long since surmised.
Any talk about All Might would set off Enji like no other, driving him to either go on a rant or head back to the training chamber to furiously train.
We stopped halfway back at a mobile phone store, and Enji casually grabbed one of the high end models and paid for it directly without consulting the store manager on the various different models. He swiped through the phone and skipped everything except the important setup stage and downloaded the Neutron Nutrition app.
"Here," Enji motioned, bringing my arm closer to the phone. "Take your wristband out and put it on."
I did as asked and twisted the wristband on, locking it shut by pressing the clasp down until it clicked. It beeped alive, and sensing the presence of the phone, guided the phone to stick to it through a magnet of some kind.
The app flicked to life and the same model I'd seen earlier which the nurse showed me appeared on the app, along with about a hundred different metrics and panels. Enji set it to the most basic setting possible and made a bunch of graphs and pie charts appear.
Once that was done, the phone detached from the wristband, but the data on the app stayed.
"Use this to track your health and your metrics," Enji told me. "I don't expect you to understand it. Just make sure to connect the phone to your wristband once every morning. It will record your daily physical stats."
I nodded solemnly in response. Getting access to a valuable resource like this was just further proof of the investment Enji was putting into me. Enji didn't say anything about the cost, but I could easily guess that this was an expensive service.
My value was continuing to grow, and so was Enji's investment. Slowly but surely, I was securing the peaceful and stable life I wanted.
Upon reaching home, Enji did another quick training session with me by having me burn through two more rolls of string. I made sure to 'improve' visibly again, earning another pat on the head from Enji. The improvement I showed was slight but noticeable, enough so that Enji would recognise it and acknowledge that I was a 'genius.'
Enji let me loose to do whatever I wanted after our two-hour training block ended, and the family desktop was open, so I immediately went over to hog it before Fuyumi could come to claim it for talking with her boyfriend.
The first thing I did was check the news.
"All Might defeats another villain, Blood Bat, Endeavor takes down building fire, All Might saves a girl from drowning, All Might…" As I continued reading, I noticed how a massive proportion of the news reports were based on All Might. No wonder Enji is so neurotic all the time. Even despite being Number 2 Hero, he doesn't have even a fraction of All Might's popularity.
I switched tabs and started going through Bloomberg - or whatever passed for it anyways since I still called it Bloomberg in my head and went through the latest in financial news.
There was an interesting report about a new development on I-Island about a superalloy which was considerably lighter than the publicly available alloy formulas, yet maintained the same tensile strength, which was driving investors crazy. However, the materials used in its creation were quite rare apparently, and people were already scrambling to figure out what it was so they could buy up shares in the appropriate companies.
I snorted. If the firm behind the development of the new alloy leaked their formula that easily, then it deserved to get butted out of the market.
Even though I couldn't actually invest in any stocks, being naught but an eight year old girl without access to a bank account, it was still interesting to read anyway. My days were otherwise filled with training and general boredom, so catching up on financial news was something stress relieving for me.
Jirou was bugging me again to go to a record store with her, claiming that her dad was going to drive us there, which I figured was an interesting proposition. Getting to meet her dad would let me ingratiate myself with him early - it was much easier to make a good impression on an adult as a child, since anything I did would automatically make me endearing so long as I didn't royally mess up with some social faux pas.
I had no way of contacting her though after school, because she didn't own a phone. Most eight year olds didn't. I supposed I would have to leave my phone behind at home, since I probably wouldn't be allowed to use it in school.
Thinking of the phone made me smile. I don't have to share the laptop with Fuyumi anymore.
Although I still preferred using the laptop to read the news since it was more convenient, I now had the phone to use in a pinch.
It also opened up the possibility of playing mobile games, but I disdained spending my time on those. It didn't add any value to me as a person, and it was just a waste of time. I'd much rather read the news or dive into a new book which would enrich my mind.
My wristband buzzed all of a sudden and a notification flashed on the top of the small screen attached. DELIVERY. FRONT DOOR. COMPLETE.
I rushed to the door of the estate, scrambling to see what had just arrived eagerly. I was able to barely catch a delivery man wearing the Neutron logo speeding away on his motorbike before he vanished. There was a sleek silver box which resembled an ice chest left in front of the door, and I dragged it in, heaving to barely pull it up the steps and through into the house.
Once I lugged it in to my personal room, I hit a cool sci fi-looking button on the side that made the container open with a hiss, releasing some steam and revealing a bubbling plate of sauteed mushrooms, a dozen or so fish sticks, roast beef, spinach and cheese, clam miso soup, and a about ten more different types of food. They were all separated into smaller, neatly arranged blocks, and there was a small metal casing which when popped open, revealed over ten different types of tablets and pills which I assumed were for me to eat.
Upon trying the food, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the food actually felt hot to my mouth - I nearly cried when that happened. It was so good that I just started chewing as fast as I could, greedily devouring all the menu options present.
Out of curiosity, I threw one of the beef pieces onto the floor to see if the floor would burn up, but nothing happened. Strange. Usually the temperature had to be almost boiling for me to register it as even warm, but what I'd just eaten had proven otherwise. After swallowing the pills and tablets and finishing up the rest of my food, I pulled the remainders of the box out and found a brochure tucked below.
"Please leave the sealed container outside for our employees to retrieve," I read aloud. "It will be cleaned and filled with food for you, morning, and evening. Please do not miss the delivery window and return window. The schedule has been attached below."
A massive red fire symbol sign caught my attention. "Designed for consumption for people with flame quirks and associated heat resistance. Special, safe to eat chemicals which simulate the sensation of heat have been applied to the food inside."
Huh. How thoughtful. It brought a smile to my face.
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