School was proceeding as usual. It was, in a word, boring. The only real interesting parts of school were the history classes, since math, science, writing, and English studies hadn't changed from my past life.

There were a lot of new books and poems, but we weren't covering anything interesting in English class or writing. Math and science were naturally fairly unchanged. Although there was lots of scientific progress and advancement, none of that really translated to a changed curriculum in elementary school.

I nearly yawned, but held it by gritting my teeth. I'm too sleepy for this, I thought absentmindedly.

While I wasn't quite slumped over my desk like Jiro was, I wasn't feeling sharp either. I didn't want to give the teacher a bad impression of me so I maintained my stiff seating posture and continued training my eyes on the board as the teacher talked, but inside, my mind was wandering.

Training the past week had been going well, and Enji was starting me on different variations of the burning string training we'd been doing.

One extremely advanced variation was looping the string back and forth into an interconnected web. With more ways for the fire to travel, I had to exert greater control over my heavenflame to force it to travel exactly down the path I wanted.

The string Enji used was just one very long string, woven and twisted into a dizzying web, and my job was to navigate the string from start to finish. I had to follow the string and avoid burning overlapping bits), which was extremely challenging and left me feeling dizzy again. I was genuinely unable to do it, needing help from Enji to stop my fire from leaping from one part of the string to another. The end result was that I mostly just torched the entire string-web, and I was only able to roughly follow the general direction the string had been looped and woven in.

That was okay though, because it was an extremely advanced variation - possibly even harder than using no string at all because trying to burn a string that was overlapped on top of itself like a web meant that my heat control needed to be so advanced that I could stop the heat from transferring outward and burning the overlapping parts. If I wanted to burn the string in order, I would need to refine my control much more.

Enji was surprised though I was even able to follow the general direction the string went. He'd initially intended to use it as a learning lesson, but seeing my competence, Enji decided to introduce some other basic variations for practice in my own time now that I had some semblance of control, like making my fire follow the string in a circle and up the string from the ground to the ceiling. He promised me that by next month, we'd try controlling my fire without a string as a guide.

During the group discussion about history, I started to feel more awake. It was the only interesting part of school in my opinion, and the only part that was relevant to me.

"Todoroki-san, can you remind me Haruka-san about the first known quirk user?"

"The first quirk user was the glowing baby," I answered confidently. Haruka seemed like she was trying not to fall asleep, much like Jiro, so the teacher snapped her fingers to wake her up. "We don't know his name any more, since it was lost, but he was born in China."

"That's a good answer," my teacher praised. "What do you think Jiro? Why don't we know his name anymore?"

"Wha?" Jiro mumbled sleepily.

"Jiro!"

The teacher rapped her hand sharply on Jiro's desk, causing her to snap awake. "What did I say just now?"

"Sorry Nakamura-san!" Jiro started apologizing, making desperate eye contact with me. I sighed, knowing that she hadn't been listening at all. Nakamura-san had her back turned to me, so I started mouthing the answer for Jiro to copy.

"He… was born during," Jiro started, faltering as she tried to read what I was saying. "A war? The war, it um, caused lots of history to be lost. Right?"

Nakamura-san sighed, but she let Jiro off. "You're partially right Jiro. Not long after he was born, lots of quirks started to appear in the world, and many wars broke out. That was the start of the Dark Age of Quirks, and much of what we know during that period has been lost to time."

"Now, class, let's talk more about…"

When school ended for the day, Jiro shook herself awake and grabbed my arm, dragging me to her car, a specced out antique porsche. It was antique because the company had gone bankrupt in the years of the Dark Age of Quirks, and having one now was extremely rare because no one produced them any longer.

Seeing yet another reminder of my original life brought on a bit of nostalgia.

I admired the grill of the car and its sleek silver finish, giving it a signature nod of approval at how well cared for it was. One of the car windows rolled down to reveal a handsome man in shades and silver piercings on his ear, the spitting image of a stereotypical rockstar. He waved and got out to unlock the car for us.

"Jiro Kyotoku," Jiro's father shook my hand warmly, introducing himself. "Thank you for being friends with my daughter, Tanya-chan! I'm glad she has a friend at school - I was quite worried about her!"

"Dad!"

He just laughed it off. "Oh, give your old man a break Kyoka. We're going to the record store today right?"

"Yeah!" Jiro pumped her fist in the air. "I've been talking about it with Tanya for a week now! She's so excited about it. Right Tanya?"

I shrugged.

"C'mon Tanya!"

"Oh fine," I relented. "I am excited about it."

Kyotoku-san started the car with a whirring noise and the Porsche roared to life, making Jiro shout in excitement. It got my blood pumping too to hear the engines of the car roar like that.

"Put on Take on Me!" Jiro shouted at her dad. "Please?"

Jiro started singing along almost immediately, but I didn't join in, which prompted her to start cajoling me into joining.

"We're talking away, I don't know what I'm to say I'll say it anyway," Jiro chanted, waving her arms wildly. "Join in Tanya!"

Even Kyotoku-san started singing as well, at which point I was forced to join in because I didn't want to make a bad impression on him.

"- Slowly learning that life is okay~ say it after me…"

By the time we got to the record store, my face was burning out of embarrassment. I didn't like singing, but I was forced into it anyway. Kyotoku-san saw how red I was and started laughing, which only made me redden more.

Jiro grabbed my hand and frog marched me into the record store excitedly, continuing to sing, which just made me feel more embarrassed.

I got her to stop eventually, and we started exploring the store alongside Kyotoku-san.

The inside was quite ridiculous.

Just like in my past life, Japan failed to grasp the notion of 'restraint,' having chosen to go all out in designing a monstrosity of a record store by combining design elements from what looked like a bass pro shop and a Victorian library. Rows upon rows of giant shelves stored hundreds and thousands of vinyl records, each outfitted with a price tag that would have sent me reeling had I not gained access to Enji's vast funds.

Jiro's eyes were shining like stars. "Follow me Tanya! I'll show you the record I've been wanting to get."

"You've been here before?"

"Oh, many times," Jiro responded, sounding pleased that I'd asked. "This record store is actually quite close to our house, so I come here a lot to play. The owners know my dad and let me take out the records to play them as long as I'm careful. Takeha-san is very nice!"

Jiro grabbed one of the stools and got up on it to extend her reach, and used the earphone jacks connected to her ears to drag a vinyl record down. She brushed some of the dust off it and jumped off the stool, and then ran off again.

I was forced to follow her because the record store was huge and I didn't want to get lost. Imagine using my heavenflame in here. I don't think Enji would appreciate the damages he'd have to pay if I ever lost control. Not that I would, hopefully, but it was a morbid thought.

My friend stopped at the end of one of the 'hallways' of shelves, revealing what I recognised to be a record player. However, I did not recognise the brand name, because I hadn't been that much of a music fan in my first life. At least that was the case for more vintage forms of music.

I wasn't a complete philistine - I knew what a record player was, but I'd never actually used one. Most of my music came through the form of speakers or headphones, and record players were out of my area of expertise.

That was apparently not the case for Jiro, who expertly took the vinyl out of its case and placed it onto the player.

I recognised the song instantly as The Offspring's 'You're Gonna Go Far, Kid.'

Show me how to lie, you're getting better all the time~

And turning all against the one is an art that's hard to teach~

I was vibing and enjoying the song before the very explicit lines involving swear words came up and froze. Oh crap.

"Does your dad let you listen to this?" I asked nervously. I didn't want to get caught listening to songs with swear words in it by Kyotoku-san. What if he thought I was a morally corrupting influence on his daughter? That was not how I wanted to end my first friendship and network contact.

"Of course!" Jiro told me, ignoring my nervousness. "Dad doesn't mind at all."

We played a few more songs before Jiro carefully stored the vinyl back into the cases and returned them to the appropriate shelves. There was also a guitar section further towards the back featuring some famous guitars that had been recovered from the Pre-Quirk Age.

Jiro was over the moon about it even though she'd been here multiple times already by her own admission, and we spent another hour poring over the antique guitars even though they were locked behind a glass case.

Kyotoku-san invited me to dinner at his house but I was forced to refuse, both because I suspected I wouldn't be able to properly enjoy eating the food since it wouldn't feel hot, and also because I needed to get home to do my training session. And grab your Neutron Nutrition dinner, I thought afterward. That was another thing I couldn't miss.

Although Jiro was very regretful to see me go, I promised her I'd come back again to the record store with her next week.

Kyotoku-san nicely dropped me off directly at my house, saving me a lot of time.

The Neutron Nutrition meal was bound to arrive within the hour, but I got hungry again, so I decided to make a quick snack.

Then, a thought crossed my mind. Maybe I should give some food to Shoto.

It was only fair after all to reciprocate the action he'd shown me, even if we were competitors.

Plus, it would let me keep a closer eye on him - keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. I needed to familiarize myself with Shoto to learn his weaknesses, his excesses, and his tics, so that if Enji ever decided to make us fight to determine our status, I would be able to come out on top.

I sincerely doubted that Enji would actually do that, but it didn't hurt to be prepared anyways.

There was a fresh pack of soba noodles in the pantry which I spotted Enji stocking earlier, so I climbed up onto the counter and pulled it out. I filled up a pot with some tap water and brought it to a roaring boil, before dipping the soba in and letting it loosen up.

Once they were done cooking, I drained the water and rinsed it with some cold water to remove the starch and then drained it again.

I found a green onion in the fridge and diced it up into little pieces, sprinkling it over the soba, and did the same with a small ginger root. We had some store bought soba dipping sauce and wasabi as well, so I poured the dipping sauce into a bowl and added the wasabi and noodles.

Before doing anything though, I made sure to check that Natsuo and Fuyumi weren't anywhere near Shoto's room. Their rooms were opposite to one another, which made approaching it quite awkward.

Natsuo and Fuyumi didn't talk to me, although I suspected that they might have questions to ask Shoto if they saw me going into his room or talking with him. Plus, doing so might get Shoto into trouble, which was the last thing I wanted to do. He might be one of my competitors, but he was also the least antagonistic towards me, and the last thing I wanted was my direct competitor to despise and hate me.

Just like what Machiavelli said, one should always avoid being despised and hated, especially when it concerned people which might impact your life. I didn't particularly care about being hated by Natsuo or Fuyumi because by the very nature of their own quirks, they were eliminated from the line of inheritance and had no power over me. Shoto on the other hand, I wanted to keep our relationship as minimally antagonistic as possible, because he was a legitimate son and a possible heir.

I knew that Shoto should in theory despise me already to some degree for stripping his inheritance from him, but his actions the last time that he gave me food suggested the opposite. I was getting very mixed signals from him, so I decided the best course of action was just to make amends and give him some food in return to show my sincerity.

"Shoto!" I whispered, knocking on the door. It creaked open to reveal my brother, and I shoved the soba bowl into his hands. "I made you some food because you got me some last time!"

"Oh. Thank you!"

"You're welcome," I said, before my wristband started buzzing. I left Shoto with the soba and went to grab my prepackaged dinner. Shoto looked like he wanted to say something, but he held off in the end, and I had rounded the corner too fast to catch what he was about to say.

Maybe next time. We did live in the same house after all. I could just ask him later.