Everyone is not born equal, that was a fact of the world. This was especially true when you lived in a world where almost everybody has superpowers, Quirks.
Before quirks, almost anybody could become anything, if you worked hard enough, your dreams could come true. This is not really the case any more.
Children commonly receive their quirk from the age of around 4 to 5. The tender age of 4, is when a child's future potential is decided. This event will decide what sort of life the child will live and how they are treated by the society that surrounds them.
When a quirk unlocks, the child's guardian takes them to the quirk doctor to take tests, and to register it in the quirk registry. But, it is not always so obvious when a quirk awakens. Sometimes, children with more discreet quirks could unlock them without drawing any attention. One such child is Teruhashi Kaito.
Today was the 29th of august, 3 weeks after his 4th birthday, and today would be the first time he experienced his already awakened quirk. He was assumed to not have awakened his quirk yet, despite his twin having done so already.
His older twin sister Kokomi had awakened her quirk the day after their birthday. Her power, "Angelic" had been awakened during a tantrum over not getting ice cream. Her quirk came to her aid, making her whining suddenly sound more convincing. She got her ice cream cone before being shipped off to the quirk doctor.
Kaito was currently sitting in the living room beside his mother, Teruhashi Haruka, on the couch. Haruka was a young woman in her mid 20s. She had long blue hair which was currently put up in a ponytail with her blue eyes shining at her son playfully, a bright grin stretching out her face "That's 5 to me, zero to you" she said teasingly.
They were playing Mario Kart on the TV, and he finished another race, in 9th place, much to his dissatisfaction as he ruffled his blue hair. He pouted at the screen, before glaring cutely at his mother. His blue eyes, which he had inherited from her, looked at her accusingly, "you're being mean mummy" he declared before looking back at the screen, silently demanding her to continue to the next race.
Smirking back at her son, she started a new race. She didn't intend to let him win. She was way too competitive for that, after all.
Kaito
My car slid sideways across the track, avoiding a cow which walked slowly across the road. Picking up a power-up and getting a coin, I groaned, I was in second place behind my mother and it was already the last lap. I was so close, but of course, coin. As I used a boost pad, landing diagonally behind mom while we approached the finish line.
As we crossed the finish line, I let out a muffled scream as I pushed my face into a pillow, I came so close to first.
Putting the pillow down, I suddenly felt a strange sensation, it was as if a switch was flipped in my brain, an unnatural stillness overtook me. And suddenly the world froze, gaining a slight tint of blue as glowing text appeared mid-air in front of my eyes.
Pick one out of two perks (2,5 weeks. Energy enough for low (grade 3), perk)
1. ########## boost(level1): Makes you smarter by improving ######### function. Better memory, reasoning, ######### speed, and wisdom.
2. Beauty boost (level 1): Makes you more beautiful and ########. Improves the and beauty of a person.
I read the sentences, not being able to read some of it, due to the words warping as if trying to find shape. Trying to move my arm to touch the text, I find that it was static in its place, trying to look down I find that I can't even move my head. I can't move any part of my body, I realise, even my lips were stuck. I panicked briefly before trying to calm down, maybe this was my quirk?
Calming myself slightly at the thought, I decide to go along with this. 'Do I want to be smart or pretty?'. Snorting, or at least trying to, I remembered that I can't move even a fraction of my body. 'Being pretty is for girls, I'm a boy, I want to be smart!'
'one' I think towards the text.
At my mental prompting, ######## boost(level1) was highlighted. Without warning, the text vanished, and the world returned to its original colour, unfreezing as the sound of the video game reached my ears. I hadn't noticed how quiet it was when the world was frozen until it wasn't any more.
Looking around in befuddlement, I felt the strange sensation of something being emptied briefly. I noticed that nothing looked different, so I turned my attention back to the game, ignoring the stupid grin on my mother's face as she made a jiggly little victory dance.
As we played the next race, I once again came second, but it was closer this time.
-3 months later-
I'm sitting beside my twin as we worked on a sandcastle inside the sandpit of a nearby playground. It was glorious, we even made a moat.
"There you are, my little angel!"
A loud voice grated on my ears as I looked back to see my annoying older brother running towards us. As he neared the sandpit, he stretched out his arms towards my sister, intending to pick her up.
Kokomi glared at him, dodging away from his arms, before hiding behind me.
Makoto's eyes darkened slightly as they landed on me. "Give me, my dear Kokomi, Kaito." he demanded imperiously, as if I had the ability to just give her to him.
My brother had always been obsessed with my sister, quite the opposite of his feelings for me, as he seemed to have always disliked me for some reason. The feeling was mutual, he was annoying, and his voice was annoying, and he bothered my sister. I didn't like him.
Looking back at my twin, she scowled as she looked me in the eyes. Understanding, I turned back to him and answered in a blank voice. "No."
His face went slightly red with anger, and he shoved me out of the way, trying to grab at her either way. And as he grabbed after Kokomi, my anger spiked. 'Why won't he leave us alone!'. And like quirks are usually wont to do, mine, although unknown to me, was activated by my strong emotion.
As the world froze, I felt a feeling in my mind, and then the text appeared before my eyes once again. I was startled out of my anger.
I read the text in front of my eyes.
Pick one out of two perks (3 months. Energy enough for medium (grade 2), perk)
1. Weak Telekinetic field(level1): Gives you a psychic field which reaches a certain distance in all directions, inside this field, User can move objects within their weight limit.
2. Web generation (level 1): Gives you the ability to generate and expel spider silk out of the wrists.
Unlike what happened a couple of months ago, these actually sounded like quirks, and all the words were intelligible. 'I get an awesome superpower? Yes!' I cheered in my mind.
Looking at the alternatives, I made my choice. Although shooting spider webs would be cool, the telekinesis sounded more like my mom's quirk.
'Number one'.
Instantly, the world unfroze, and I felt a strange sensation flooding my brain.
Seeing Makato going to grab my sister, I reacted instinctively, my mind reaching out, trying to pull at him. When that didn't work, I went for the next best thing, picking up a heap of sand off the ground, and then flinging it at his face.
As he spluttered and stumbled back, rubbing at his face, trying to clean away the sand that had got in his mouth, I plucked Kokomi's hand from her side. I then dragged her towards our mother, who was chatting with some other mothers on a bench.
My twin excitedly grinned at me as we ran. "You got your quirk!" she shouted ecstatically, completely forgetting about our brother for the moment.
As we came to a stop in front of our mother, we talked excitedly at her in unison, making it completely impossible to discern what we were saying.
After a few moments, mom managed to calm us down, and we took turns describing what happened. My mother grinned at me proudly, I had a power like hers. She congratulated me happily and promised to take me to the quirk doctor the following day.
As It turns out, quirk testing wasn't all that complicated. We arrived and checked into the hospital, met with a doctor who asked me to demonstrate my power. After a few hours of testing, we understood how it worked.
To summarize, I could move things within a distance from me with my mind. I had a limit to how heavy things I could lift. I could feel the locations of things around me in this area, although it felt very faint. After testing the limits of my quirk, the doctor gave us some advice about practice, and then sent us on our way after putting in telekinesis under my name in the quirk registry.
I was looking forwards to showing it of when we returned for prescool , a lot of the other children already had their quirks, and though mine was cool, its power was not all that impressive, so I was also a little wary.
I spent a little over a week practising with my new quirk, and even in this short period, the range and lifting capacity improved noticeably. Admittedly, it wasn't all that impressive, but it was an improvement nonetheless.
Lifting a couple of rocks which lied on the ground with effort, I felt myself approaching the limit as I picked up more weight. As far as the doctor could tell, I could lift around 1 kg in total with my telekinesis when I visited the hospital. Now it was more like 2 kg.
I toyed with my new power for about an hour before mom called me in for dinner.
After a delicious dinner, I thanked my mother for the food before excusing myself to me and my sister's room.
Sitting on my bed, I thought about the day when I got my telekinesis. I had got to choose my quirk, and after asking mom about it, I've found out that people usually don't get to pick.
As I thought back on the last two times it happened, I remembered the sensation that went through me the split second before the world froze.
And as I remembered it, the world once more came to a stop, all of my bodily functions seizing as I stopped along with it.
Text once again appeared in front of my eyes.
Pick one out of two perks (1.5 weeks. Energy enough for low (grade 2), perk)
1. Cooking talent (level 1) Gives you a natural talent for cooking and learning new recipes. Learning speed related to cooking has increased.
2. Singing voice (level 1) Gives your voice the potential to be a beautiful singing voice.
I look at the two options incredulously for a moment before feeling a strange sensation at the back of my mind. As I pull on the feeling, more lines of text appear, slightly above the previous ones.
Perks:
(Passive):
Cognitive boost ((level 5) 5 wisdom 5 processing 5 reasoning 5 memory) Makes you smarter by improving cognitive function. Better memory, reasoning, processing speed, and wisdom.
(Active):
(Active/passive):
Telekinesis field (level 7) an area around him which allows him to move things with his mind. The field is passive, and the psychic grip is active. Current Capacity: 7 kg.
I looked over the new text, words that were previously unreadable were now the opposite. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't known these words the first time. Maybe they were just words I hadn't known and since I didn't know, the text wouldn't know?
So I could pick more of the "perks", and if I waited longer, they would be stronger? When I thought about it, I actually noticed that remembering and understanding things was easier than a couple of months ago, though it seems that cognitive boost levelled so slowly that I didn't notice anything immediately.
Pulling my attention back towards my choices, I frowned, or at least, I tried to frown, but again, the world was frozen.
Neither of them sounded as cool as my telekinesis, but maybe they could be useful. Considering for a moment, I eventually chose 'number 1'.
As the world flickered back to reality, I used my newly regained freedom of movement to bounce out of bed, running a lap around my room before jumping and landing face first in my pillow.
Settling down, I went to do my nightly rituals, feeling for 'my quirk?' but felt nothing.
'Should I tell mom about this?'
Thinking on it awhile, I decided against it, 'I'll keep it a secret for now, It'll be nice to have something that's only mine for once.'. I had two siblings, one of which was my twin, so we shared almost everything. It was very rare to have something they didn't so I would take this chance, but I would probably tell mom, sooner or later.
With my mind made up, I shrugged. I went about finishing brushing my teeth, before heading to bed.
After waking up the next day, I felt the sensation again, but resisted the urge to grasp it.
Later that night, I asked my mom if I could help her cook. She agreed to let me help out easily enough, but she was later rather stunned as I learned what she taught me easily.
Although stunned, she was proud nonetheless. After we finished, she patted my head with a gleam in her eye. I felt nervous as the gleam reappeared every time her eyes landed on me during dinner.
-9 months later-
Time passed, and soon, about nine months after I had gained my Telekinesis. Today was my fifth birthday, August 8th, and I'd decided to once again use my… perk power? The feeling of it had been increasingly hard to ignore as it gathered energy. Growing increasingly restless over the passing months, I eventually decided to wait until my birthday to pull on it once again.
After a birthday breakfast with lots of options, there was even Nutella! We were allowed to do what we wanted until lunch, if we didn't wander off too far. The summer holiday was awesome like that.
Running out into the green backyard, with the sun shining beautifully above me, I took a moment to bask in my excitement.
'Today is the day!'
I arrive at the spot in our yard where my parents allowed me to practice my telekinesis. I pulled on the energy at the back of my head for the first time in 9 months.
Lo and behold, the world froze. I didn't miss this particular feeling.
Pick one out of two perks (9 months. Energy enough for high (grade 1), perk)
1. Insect master (level 1) you can communicate with and command insects, and they will follow your will.
2. Unbending Will (level max) You have an unstoppable willpower that cannot be subdued. Once you set your mind to something, you will not falter.
After reading the new perks, I first decide to have a look at my old ones.
Perks:
(Passive):
Cognitive boost ((level 10 (max level)) 10 wisdom 10 processing 10 reasoning 10 memory) Makes you smarter by improving cognitive function. Better memory, reasoning, processing speed, and wisdom.
Cooking talent (level 6) Gives you a natural talent for cooking and learning new recipes. Learning speed related to cooking has increased.
(Active):
(Active/passive):
Weak Telekinesis field (level 9) an area around you which allows you to move things with your mind. The field is passive, and the psychic grip is active. Current Capacity: 9 kg
They had levelled up, and I didn't doubt that the information it presented was correct. My current limit with telekinesis was about 9 kg. I didn't know the context of 10, but I did know that I was smarter. Although, I guess it reached its limit.
Cognitive boost has achieved its purpose, removing perk…
I panicked as the perk disappeared, but after a while I didn't feel any different.
'I guess I get to keep the improvements I get from… Growth perks? Even after they disappear.'
Concentrating back to the new perk options, I look at bug perk for a while. I hated bugs.
'I'll pick number 2'
The world went back to normal and the feeling in the back of my head, the feeling of my quirk, was depleted once more. This time I didn't feel any rush of energy, which I guessed was due to it not being an active perk.
Deciding that I may as well practice telekinesis while I'm here, I reach out my mind to pick up a weight on the ground. As I pick it up, I notice that it is noticeably easier to do so, usually, picking up my max weight puts a large strain on my mind.
Don't get me wrong, the strain was still there, dulled but still there. I didn't feel the need to put the weight down immediately, I had always needed to do so when lifting my max weight.
Exited with this new development, I continue practising for two hours. My max actually increased in this time, from 9 to almost 9 and a quarter; 9.25 kg. It typically took around a month to increase it by 1, so this was extremely fast. It seems my newest perk has paid off, although my old one was still a bit underwhelming.
Panting, I released the weights from my hold, tired from the continuous practice. The constant strain on my mind made me exhausted physically and mentally, although I felt as though I could have kept going, but pushing myself too far wouldn't do me any good.'
Walking towards my house, I think on what to do next. How long should I wait before using it again? I felt that a little experimentation wouldn't hurt.
I celebrated my birthday with my family for the rest of the day. My twin and I received our presents, we were especially excited about getting our own Nintendo, although once again we were supposed to share. We also got a new game and some new toys from the other presents.
As I settled down to sleep in the evening my twin in a bed on the opposite side of our admittedly large room, I decide upon a plan.
The next day, I wake up bright and early, and as I feel the energy has recovered slightly, I immediately pull on it.
The world freezes once again, and I am beginning to get used to the feeling of my mind working but my body not responding at all.
Pick one out of two perks (1 day. Energy enough for low (grade 1), perk)
Flawless skin (level max) Your skin has no flaws.
Symmetrical face (level max) Your face is symmetrical.
'What?' I thought incredulously, these weren't useful at all!
'Number 1'
The world once again returned to normal, and I huff irritatedly. It seems like it would be useless to activate my power before some time has passed.
Thinking back on the previous times I activated the power, I remembered the ratings different periods of time had. Two and a half weeks still had a low rating, but it was grade 3 which was a lot better than grade 1.
3 months was a medium grade 2 perk, and it was good but sort of weak. After around 9 months it gave me a high level power but tier 1, which was extremely useful.
I think on it for a moment before deciding to aim for somewhere in the middle.
"I'll wait for seven months."
I startle slightly as I see movement out of the corner of my eyes. I had forgotten about the room's other inhabitant, and as Kokomi stirs awake, I resolve to keep my thoughts where they belong, in my mind. Her groggy eyes glance at the clock beside the door before glaring at me for waking her. She returned to dreamland shortly after receiving an apology.
-7 months later-
The "Unbreakable Will" perk really was a blessing, although the energy in the back of my head had grown a lot, I had no trouble keeping the urge to use it at bay. Last time I had a lot more difficulty not using my power around this period, but now my willpower can easily restrain any irrational thoughts.
I was really excited as I returned home from Preschool. Today was the day I would use my power again. After putting my backpack in my room, I rush out of the house into the backyard. I had been spending a lot more time practising my telekinesis since my birthday, so my family was used to me spending hours outside.
Pulling at my power once again, the world returns to a familiar stillness.
Pick one out of two perks (7 months. Energy enough for medium (grade 3), perk)
1. Basic Inventory (level 1) You have your own pocket dimension where you can store inanimate objects. Current capacity is a total of 1 cubic decimetre.
2. Gigantification (level 1) You can increase your size on a whim. Increased size depends on proficiency.
I look excitedly at the perks for a while before opening my perk list.
Perks:
(Passive):
Flawless skin (level max) Your skin has no flaws.
Unbreakable Will ((level max)) The user has an unbreakable willpower, he will never falter and will never stray from outside pressure.
(Active):
(Active/passive):
Weak Telekinesis field (level 24) an area around you which allows you to move things with your mind. The field is passive, and the psychic grip is active. Current capacity: 24 kg.
I was glad to know that all of my additional practice with telekinesis has paid off. Level 24 is more than double what it was last time I saw my perks.
Making my decision wasn't all that hard, I felt that 'number 1' would compliment telekinesis better.
As the world returned to its regular pace, I felt a strange sensation, not in any discernible part of my body, but it was there.
Focusing on the feeling, I felt it out, and I got an impression of emptiness.
Deciding to test my new power I picked up a pillow, only to be disgruntled when it didn't work, I got a bizarre feeling of something not fitting.
Walking over to the wooden desk on my side of the room, I tried with a pencil instead. Once again, it didn't work. Frowning frustratedly I look for something even smaller, picking up a sock from my drawer, I was immediately knocked out of my annoyed state as it vanished; it was as if the sock hadn't been there in the first place. But even as I think that, I could feel something in my inventory.
As I thought about it, I once again got a strange sensation, but this time, I felt exactly where in my inventory the sock had appeared in. I could feel it, and it was completely static, like I was just a minute ago.
Getting accustomed to the sensation of my inventory, I will the sock to appear in my hand. And like before, without any fanfare, it rested in my grasp once more.
I laughed happily, once again sending the sock to my inventory before retrieving it. I repeated this action for a while; I could feel the space inside increasing by a minuscule amount, which only spurred on my actions. Having practised for some time, I was finally satisfied, and decided to test it further with other objects.
After experimenting in my room, I had an idea. I went down to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of tap water. The glass, along with its contents, instantly disappeared, and I could feel them in my inventory. My already happy grin grew wider; this was awesome.
-5 months later-
Today was my birthday once again, and I could acknowledge that using my quirk on my birthday was unnecessary, but it felt more meaningful this way, although I promised myself to wait longer the next time.
Four months ago, I had started at an elementary school that was close to our house. I was excited to start school at first, but, that excitement was slowly drained out of me. It was fun to find out about my classmate's quirks, I was no different from anyone else in this aspect.
Some people had powerful quirks, others had… not so powerful ones. I noticed quickly that those with powerful, and or flashy quirks quickly rose to popularity. I was somewhat of an odd case, mine wasn't all that powerful, though it was kind of flashy, so I landed somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, I was not very comfortable with the attention that I did receive.
My Preschool had been much less public; it was family run and more expensive, and thus had fewer children attending. Admittedly, some kids were very enthusiastic about heroes, but I mostly hung out with my sister and a smaller group of friends, which caused me to be caught off guard by the enthusiasm of my new classmates.
Speaking of my sister, she was immediately the most popular kid in class, people crowded around her, drawn by her captivating presence. Although she claimed differently, I could tell that she relished the attention she received, unlike me.
Breaking free from my reminiscence, I return to the task at hand. And with greater ease than ever before, I call upon my quirk.
As the world freezes before me once more, my options make themselves known to me.
Pick one out of two perks (5 months. Energy enough for medium (grade 2), perk)
1. Hypnosis (level 1) You can put someone in a trance by making eye contact.
2. Shatterpoint (level 1) You have the ability to instinctually perceive structural weak points.
These seemed to have great potential, although in different scenarios. Pondering for a while, I decided to take another look at my current perks.
Perks:
(Passive):
Flawless skin (level max) Your skin has no flaws.
Unbreakable Will ((level max)) The user has an unbreakable willpower, he will never falter and will never stray from outside pressure.
(Active):
(Active/passive):
Weak Telekinesis field (level 30) an area around you which allows you to move things with your mind. The field is passive, and the psychic grip is active. Current capacity: 30 kg.
Basic Inventory (level 10) You have your own pocket dimension where you can store inanimate objects. Current capacity is a total of 10 cubic decimeters.
Significant increases. Turning my mind back to choosing a new perk, I was a lot more uncertain this time around. Shatter point would be useful when destroying things with minimal effort. Maybe it could even find weak points in villains? Hypnosis on the other hand would be extremely effective in subduing people, It could really help out in hostage situations.
Upon having these thoughts, I realized that my classmate's incessant chattering about heroes had effected me somewhat. Okay, they had effected me a lot.
I, like my peers, dreamed of being a hero, and with my power, I felt that I could become a great one.
Looking back at my options once more, I ponder for a while before deciding on my answer.
'Number 2'
Although hypnosis would admittedly be great for hero work, I admitted to myself that the thought of smashing through walls of bricks appealed more to me. These thoughts were largely due to Japan's current number one hero, All Might. His strength easily captivated everybody who witnessed him in action, especially kids.
I might not have the strength right now, but with my newest quirk, along with any future ones, could feasibly allow me to do so.
As the world unfroze, a rush of some sort of energy went through my very being. Suddenly, I could feel new sensations all around me, not like any of the 5 senses, more like the 6th one I presumed.
'Maybe 7th?' I thought, as I was reminded of the by now standard sensing capacity of the telekinetic field, which granted me limited information on the surrounding area.
As I became accustomed to my new power, I looked around, and immediately noticed something different. As I looked all around me, I could feel weak points in everything, well not everything but most of them, which I guessed was due to the low level of the perk.
Looking to test Shatterpoint, I looked around for something that I wouldn't miss overly much if it was ruined.
Spotting the sorry form of an origami figure on my desk, sculpted by my not so skilled hands during school, I decided that it would be no big loss. It didn't look like a dragon at all.
Approaching the paper sculpture, I focused on my new sense. Concentrating on the figurine, I hesitated slightly before pressing its largest, among many, weak spots, which my senses told me about.
The origami figurine promptly collapsed in on itself, the attack on it's most prominent structural weakness causing it to fall apart.
Satisfied with my testing for now, I thought about how to continue.
"Maybe 2 years this time?"
As the words left my lips, I felt slightly uneasy. 2 Years was about a third of my entire life, so it felt daunting to be waiting this long. Though I had faith in myself and my "Unbreakable Will" perk to keep me steadfast and able to stand strong against the urge to use my quirk.
-2 years later-
Two years had passed, and today was once again. You guessed it, August 6th, my birthday.
As I had suspected on my 6th birthday, the task of keeping myself from using my quirk was indeed difficult, so I distracted myself by throwing myself into practising my current powers alongside my studies.
Telekinesis was coming along very nicely, and I had felt a significant increase in growth sometime during the end of the first year. I had reached about 50 kilograms, when it happened, after which it grew to about double that about 2 months later
My inventory had reached a much larger capacity, and it had slowed down in growth, almost completely plateauing in the latest months, with only small increases in size to speak of.
Shatterpoint had also had great improvements, and I was convinced that it had maxed out. Since it seemed to improve any time I studied the weak points, it provided. I didn't actually need to take advantage of the weak points to improve it, just to understand them.
Moving along to my studies. I had quickly become bored with the assignments and lessons which they taught to my class, finding them to be too easy, so I started studying books from the school library. Studying in my own time allowed me to surpass most of the others in my grade academically.
In the first parent teacher meeting of the second semester, I was questioned by them why I didn't pay attention in classes.
After explaining why, I was tested and determined to be allowed to move up a class. This wasn't all that uncommon, since intelligence enhancing quirks allowed exceptional performance from those specific children.
After moving to the grade above us, it became more difficult to make friends, and even my twin and I started drifting apart as a result, more than we already had been anyway.
Kokomi was a social girl who was extremely popular and liked by everyone, and I was her less social brother, who, although not actually disliked by anybody, didn't particularly attract a lot of attention and wouldn't socialize much.
Her popularity had somewhat got to her head, and although we didn't suddenly become on bad terms, it did cause me to keep some distance from her. The attention from everybody else caused her to not really take notice. I didn't want to be with her when she was being crowded by her admirers, she enjoyed it, after all.
This was actually somewhat rectified when, after I asked my mother to enrol me in some sort of combat classes, mom opted to make my twin join as well.
Kokomi didn't complain much, and soon we were enrolled in a martial arts dojo. Where we practised three times a week after school. This slightly cut time from my other training, but it was a sacrifice I was ready to make. This dojo, like a lot of others in this era, had licensed masters who were allowed to supervise quirk training and thus, people were allowed to develop fighting styles which were adapted to their quirk.
The relationship between my twin and I started improving as we practised and sparred with each other in the techniques that our sensei taught us. I am a little reluctant to admit that she learns faster than me, although I made up for my lesser talent with hard work, which kept us at about the same level.
Though I knew that I was actually more proficient in combat since I actually had a quirk which was of use. Admittedly, hers could also help, as she had learned to direct her quirk towards a specific person, making them to feel the full blast of her aura, which caused them to have an instinctual need to satisfy her wishes. Though this didn't help against me, since I had a natural resistance, and had also been subjected to it a lot since she unlocked it, causing it to have almost no effect on me. As a result of this, I won most of our bouts when involving quirks, and we shared an almost equal chance of winning when fighting without them.
After training in the dojo for quite some time, I finally noticed that my improving Shatter point ability was beginning to allow me to perceive openings in my opponent's stances. This, unlike stationary targets, was less easy to take advantage of, but it did allow me to learn slightly faster, and to fight more efficiently.
Today was another day dedicated to sparring matches, practice naturally continued during the summer holidays for those willing, and like usual, fewer people came. But it didn't really matter as right now, I was engaged in a fight with my most regular sparring partner.
As Kokomi swung her fist at my face in a right hook, I barely tilt my head to the left in time. Her right hand rushed past my face, brushing against my cheek briefly, before she brought her other arm up to block my swift counterattack in the shape of a left jab towards her torso.
Too distracted by my jab and, slightly unbalanced from her slight overextension from her previous attack, she is too slow to block the follow-up kick that I sent towards her. The heel of my left foot connected smoothly with her abdomen, her breath escaping her in a breathy gasp. She lost her balance briefly while standing on one leg after trying to block my kick, and I took advantage viciously.
Without giving her a chance to recover, I sweep her remaining leg, causing her to fall forwards. As she caught herself with her hands, she wasn't able to resist as I hooked my arms around her neck in a choke hold.
I rolled over to be on my back, with Kokomi jerking around, trying to escape my grasp. We were panting as we strained against each other for a while, this session had been going on for quite some time. After managing to keep her in the chokehold for slightly too long, she resignedly tapped my wrist three times, signifying her conceding the match.
I released her immediately, standing up as Kokomi regained her breath before pouting at me in annoyance.
Grinning down at her, still panting slightly, I offered my hand. She took it reluctantly, her annoyance clear, yet she accepted her loss either way. My sister was extremely competitive, not helped by the considerable ego that she had gained over the last few years.
Still grinning, I met her in the centre of the training room, and we bowed to each other in acknowledgement.
Walking over to our sensei after completing the formalities, he gave us advice on how to improve before ending the training session and sending us home. Walking with Kokomi towards our house, which wasn't all that far away from the dojo, my thoughts drifted towards my quirk.
I couldn't help the smile that appeared on my face at the thought of finally it.
My sister, noticing my joyful demeanour, looked at me weirdly as she questioned me. "What are you grinning about?".
Blinking myself out of my thoughts, I return her gaze.
'Ah she's still irritated about her loss, to be expected I suppose'
Deciding to respond before she gets more annoyed, I respond with a cheerful tone which matched my smile. "Well, it's our birthday today, and well, I won." I respond calmly at first, before grinning wider at her towards the end.
Glaring at me slightly, she huffed as she turned away. "Don't think you'll win next time, Kaito." She grumbled with annoyance, but I could tell that she wasn't angry, her pride was just slightly wounded, today had been a worse than usual performance from her. Maybe the fact that it was our birthday distracted her.
Now that I thought about it, perhaps she needed her ego to be damaged sometimes.
Arriving at our home, we were greeted by cheers as we were congratulated on our birthday.
As we engaged with some guests, I observed the people attending. Some of Kokomi's friends from school, though they acted more like her loyal followers.
There were some neighbours and some family relations. I didn't really have any friends in the sense that my sister, or any normal kid had, really.
I was acquainted with most of the people from my class at school yet being younger than all of them also caused the act of making friends to become lots more difficult.
After talking some with my grandparents, I felt a tinge of exhaustion set in. Excusing myself from the hustle of the festivities, I walk to my training space In the backyard.
As my introverted self got away from the party, I felt myself relax slightly.
Thinking about what I was about to do, I regained my enthusiasm that had slipped away after I entered the party. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated it, but I would have preferred it to be a more private affair with fewer people.
I sat down in a cross-legged position, my excitement bubbling in my stomach. Calming myself down, I concentrated inwards, quickly finding the presence of my quirk which I had been stubbornly ignoring for the past 2 years.
It was practically fizzing with energy, and as I reached out, it responded eagerly to my will.
The world froze. Oh, I had almost forgotten how that felt.
Finally, the long anticipated words appeared in front of my eyes.
Pick one out of two perks (24 months. Energy enough for Ultimate (grade 1), perk)
1. Adaptation (level 1) You will not be left behind. The power of adaptation forces you to become stronger to stand up to your adversaries. Your desperation pushes you and your powers to survive. The stronger the desperation, the faster you grow.
1. Mass manipulation (level 1) You can manipulate the mass of any object in a certain radius, whether making something weigh less or making a thrown rock 1000 kg.
As my eyes landed on the newest alternative, I felt utter disbelief. These were so incredibly powerful, I barely knew what to do with myself.
I immediately knew that this decision was more important than any other I've made in my short existence, but how could I really come to a decision when both options were so great.
Authors Note, 7K words.
Welp. The first chapter of my first published story. Hope you liked reading it, if you didn't, well please leave some criticism, or don't, I won't complain.
I don't have all that much planned out, and I haven't written more than a chapter ahead, so any advice would be used in real time.
You may have noticed Kokomi Teruhashi, yes that is the girl from Saiki k. I liked the series and thus, some aspects from that will appear in this story, although the characters will be a smaller part of the story.
There is a poll on my profile for which power Kaito should choose, check it out.
Sorry for the updated chapter! It's crazy how many issues I found after publishing this. I've corrected most of them now, sorry.
I don't own My Hero Academia, nor any of the characters you may recognice from elsewhere.