After school ended, Ranika and Suiiki headed for a nearby pond so that the boy could create ice barriers for her to practice against. The only problem is that instead of building her power up to break through, she now had to learn to tone it down, which she was having trouble with. Genso had generously offered his own help, interested to see the things she could do with her quirk and jot it down in his notes, and Daisuke had merely tagged along with Suiiki because he asked. At the moment, Ranika was focusing on trying to make the air blast weak enough to not destroy an ice wall through sheer air force alone.
Another barrier fell to pieces in the wake of her attack, followed with a groan from Ranika while Genso only shook his head.
"Less power." Genso said for about the fifth time in a row.
"Any smaller than that and it's not gonna be useful, dammit!"
"If you can shatter an ice wall with just that, then there's no way we can allow you to use it on humans."
"I've gotta have SOME power behind it! If it doesn't hurt, what's the point?"
Suiiki took a mass of water and turned it into another ice wall. "I'm actually with Ranika on this one. What if it's not so bad on someone else? Ice can't take much stress before it breaks. Maybe it'll be fine, you know?"
Genso contemplated this, turning his gaze on Daisuke. "Possibly. But still, I'd like to see something. Daisuke, could you take your metal form?"
"H-huh? Me? No no no, I was told I didn't have to do anything! I just came cause Suiiki asked, I'm not a guinea pig!" Daisuke tried to back away, but she'd already taken aim at him.
"Think fast!" She sent a blast his way, forcing him to turn completely into metal. The wind howled around his body, but left no visible marks or damage. He'd barely even moved, though he'd crouched to shield himself.
"Are you crazy!? You could've killed me!" Standing closer to Genso, he hid behind him in case she got any more ideas.
"Pfft, no way. You've taken way more than that, a little breeze shouldn't be a problem." She smiled, though she held her arm in pain. The number of times she'd done her technique was starting to take a toll, and the cuts weren't healing as quickly anymore.
Genso muttered to himself for a little bit, then waved his hand at her. "Yes, it doesn't seem to affect him at all besides natural wind pressure. I venture to guess this is acceptable. Before we finish, I wanted to experiment with a different method – basically a contingency plan in case it's lackluster in performance Friday. Do you feel any recoil when you use your quirk, by any chance?"
"Uhh, let's see." Ranika answered by angling another big blast airward. The wind slightly moved a couple low hanging clouds, blowing them into much smaller wisps. Although it was a quick attack, she'd moved a couple steps back from the spot she had originally started at. "A little bit. When I use it full power, I actually have trouble keeping my balance."
Genso's voice barely rose above a whisper, and the others struggled to hear what he was saying. "…considering the force she would need, it wouldn't be out of the question to say propulsion is a possibility as long-"
"AH! There's the pain! Holy…owww, it's like it was waiting for me to drop my guard." Ranika fell to the ground shaking her left arm, now dripping a somewhat alarming amount of blood.
"Hmph, and that's another variable I forgot about. Your body isn't able to take this much prolonged exposure to this new style yet." Genso stated. "Taking your well-being into account, I'd say we've done enough for one day."
Ranika opened her mouth to object, but the numbness from her left arm agreed with the boy. "Ugh, fine. I bet I'm good enough as is, anyways."
"Alright! I'm starving, let's get something to eat at the arcade! They've got a platter of tenders with my name on it!" Suiiki tossed the chunk of ice back into the water, splashing Genso and Daisuke, who shot him an identical look of anger.
"Suiiki…"
"My notes."
"Heheh, oops." He smiled sheepishly as he removed the water from their clothes. He also managed to remove any wetness from Genso's tablet and dumped it all into the pond, although Genso was still not exactly thrilled. "There, all dry!"
Daisuke also remained upset. "How many times do I have to tell you to be more careful? One day, your carelessness is going to get yourself or someone else hurt."
Suiiki waved his concern off. "Yeah, I know, but I'll have you there if something goes wrong anyway, so it's all good!"
"…hopefully."
While they had their back and forth, Ranika made her way to Genso, writing in his notepad again. "Whatcha puttin' down?" He suddenly wiped his hand across her arm, leaving a dripping fluid all over her.
"Hey, what the heAAAAECH! That burns, asshole!"
He paid no mind to her, still jotting down notes. "Rubbing alcohol. If it gets infected, you won't be in any shape to fight anyway. If it doesn't heal up by tonight, tell me. There's still some things I'm wondering about regarding your healing ability."
Her anger was fleeting as she begrudgingly agreed with his logic. "Alright, whatever you want, glasses. Did you learn anything new?" She tried to get a glance at his notepad, but he kept it out of her sight.
"Nothing you need to see."
She began to reach for it forcefully. "Gimme. I want to know what you're writing about me."
He wrestled it away from her hand. "Whoa, absolutely not! Stop trying to steal my notebook!" After breaking free from her, he backed away. She closed the distance by quickly walking up to him with her hands in front of her, making him quicken his speed to keep the distance. Seeing that he had no intention of letting her get close naturally anymore, she bolted after him, and a short chase between the two of them began. Although he was faster than one would expect him to be, against the far more athletic girl, he didn't get far.
"I have a right to know what you're saying about me!" She tackled him, but he'd thought ahead and landed on the book she was aiming for. "If you don't let me read it, you'll regret it."
"My glasses fell! Wait! Get off, you…heavy beast!"
"You calling me fat? I only weigh 175 pounds!"
He scoffed as she tried to turn him over. "Pounds? The fact you use such an archaic system as imperial measurement is proof you have no right to read this! You wouldn't understand half the language in here!"
"Oh, fuck you buddy, you're getting it now. Prepare for the ultimate torture!" She stopped trying to turn him over and stuck her hands inside his shirt. Suiiki and Daisuke watched the spectacle unfolding before them, not making a sound so they wouldn't detract from the action. Suiiki pulled out a phone and started recording.
"Gah! Where do you think you're touching?" His face went flush as he felt her hands traveling across his bare skin. She laughed maniacally as her hands found their target. Right along his sides.
"No! Please! I take it back! Don't- Hahaheh no, stop!" Far too late to ask for forgiveness, he was subjected to Ranika's tickling mercilessly.
"You ass! Calling me dumb! Calling me fat! Most guys would kill to have me on top of them!"
Flipping him over – he was weakened enough to easily do so – she splayed her legs across his hips to keep him pinned down. She reached for his armpits and continued her assault. Suiiki saw the notebook on the ground being ignored and picked it up, skimming through some of the pages, holding his phone with one hand and the book in the other.
"Whoa, he's got an entry on Kisho. Quirk: Osmosis. Can move fluids from one organism to himself and effectively heal. He also takes on characteristics of what he consumes."
"Eww, sounds disgusting." Daisuke shivered. "Wait, if he takes on traits of what he consumes, couldn't he-"
"You weren't recording that, were you!?"
Ranika had finally noticed they were standing there, and Suiiki instantly put the phone in his pocket.
"No, of course not." He lied.
"Delete it or I'll delete you!" Ranika charged for his phone, but instead of getting him like she did Genso, she went right through his body as he turned into water. When he turned back, he chuckled as he waved the phone at her in a mocking manner.
"I'll think about it, if you beat me at Burning Red. I want to get to the arcade before they close, so let's go!"
Genso finally recovered from his fit of giggles, forcefully taking his book from Suiiki while he wasn't looking. "I have to meet with Tsubame today, she wants my help to prepare for the tournament. If you think you have a firm understanding now, then I probably won't be helping out tomorrow since I think I finally have a concise definition of your quirk now."
Ranika's eyes widened in alarm. "Wait, I never said I…you can't just walk off the job, I don't even know if it's safe to use yet…"
He stood there, puzzled. "You said earlier you felt it was good enough."
"Well, I think it is, but I mean…you understand it more-"
"Hurry up! They close in an hour! I want to play Mizucho at least three times!"
Ranika sighed at the interruption. "Just be here tomorrow as well, okay? I'm going off your judgement so I don't feel bad if I do hurt someone."
Genso furrowed his brow at the semi-terrible reason, but nonetheless, "I suppose I can spare a little time. But only for two hours at most."
"Sure thing. Later, nerd." She said, giving him a punch on the shoulder before joining Suiiki and Daisuke.
"Completely unnecessary." Genso rubbed the spot she hit, before chuckling.
"This is the worst. I get sent to some school for rejects, try to push through, then I finally get another chance to re-apply somewhere else. Now all of a sudden, they want to have a festival? This is outrageous. It's unfair."
Tamura spoke to himself in the alley near his house, where shouting could be heard from a distance. Glass could be heard shattering from inside as vulgarities were also being hurled about. "Why does she do this to herself? She knows once she opens up a bottle, she'll relapse. If dad doesn't start stepping up to her, she'll continue abusing him. And me."
I doubt she even cares if I'm alive. She blames everything on me. It's not like I told them to give birth to me.
A sheet of paper blew past him, into the street where cars picked it up and tossed it around, merciless to the surrounding vehicles with their own course taking precedent. A kid around his age ran past him, panicking when he saw the paper being blown about in traffic.
"No! My homework! Oh no, I spent so long on it, please!"
Tamura stuck out his hands towards the helpless leaflet, and soon enough, it came elegantly blowing into his hands, almost drawn to his person. It's thanks to that same horrible excuse for a mother I got such a good quirk though. After he gave the troubled boy back his homework, he swore he thought he looked familiar, but with the dark night obscuring his view he couldn't get a proper look.
"Wow! Thank you so much! How'd you do that? Was that your quirk?" Stuffing the paper in his pocket, he looked towards Tamura, showing no interest in leaving.
Tamura laughed, feeling the praise was a bit much for the little he did. "Uh, yeah it was, but it's not much. I can suck things towards my hands, or if it's too big, my hands towards things." The boy got closer when he explained it, becoming more visible, and more recognizable as he approached.
"Sounds pretty useful. You have such a good power. Unlike me. I don't have too much on my own. You could easily beat me." Putting his hand on Tamura's arm, he closed the distance between them until they were practically touching at the hip.
"Yeah…you're a bit too close for comfort, man. Actually, you look really familiar, do I know you?"
"Hmmm, maybe not yet, but I think we can bridge that gap really quickly."
"...K-Kisho!"
He put his hands on Tamura's mouth as he flailed and kicked about, knocking Kisho in the face a few times and even drawing blood, though it was for naught. In an instant he began to struggle to breathe before the boy's blood drained from his face, seeping into the hands of his offender as he lost the strength to move. He felt his skin sag as all the liquid inside his body was absorbed into Kisho's hands, the wounds inflicted by Tamura healing as he confiscated all the water in his body.
"Apologies for the brutish way I did things, but you must understand. You're in a hole too deep for someone like you to ever escape. Any potential you had is wasted due to your circumstances. But don't worry, you'll get to shine now, as part of a cause greater than you can imagine."
"…what the…K…sho…? Why…can't think…"
Soon, even his mind was lost as it too was drained of any and all substance, leaving nothing but a hollow husk of skin and skeleton. After ensuring there was nothing left to be had, Kisho unceremoniously dropped his deflated body into the trash can. "No use for this. This couldn't have gone better, and clean up took care of itself."
"T-tam…what did…" Kisho turned to find a distraught woman standing at the opening of the street, horror etched across her face as she saw him dump the body in the trash.
Must be the mother. And it was almost a one-hit job too. Oh well, gives me a chance to test out my new tool. Exercising his newly gained quirk, he brought the lady stumbling over to him with the insane amount of wind generated by his hands. She tried to reverse course, but to no avail, ending up merely hurling empty threats towards the stone-faced boy.
"My son! What did you do to my Tamura!? You piece of shit, I'll kill you for this! I'll kill you!" She allowed herself to be taken by her late son's quirk to add momentum to her lunge attack. Kisho had suspected as much, and merely stepped aside, deactivating his quirk and letting the woman fly headlong into an unforgiving brick wall. She hit it hard and fell abruptly into the pile of trash nearby. Blood dripped down the tessellated brick as she fought to remain conscious.
"How…could you do…such an inhumane…"
"It's actually your fault this has come to pass. Your son had such a brilliant power, with so much potential. Yet you didn't permit him to go to U.A. He was forced to go to a dilapidated school in a run-down city with barely any future for itself. Perhaps if he'd been allowed to soar, he could've been alive today. But…oh, what was your reason for not sending him off? Oh yes, because the school was too far." He took the paper from his pocket and unfurled it for her to see - Tamura's acceptance letter into U.A. "This is what he'd accomplished, yet you denied him. So, I relieved him of his miserable existence. He'd reached the end of his journey, a firework never lit."
The sound of metal from behind broke his monologue. Kisho whipped his head around and ducked, barely processing the metal can as it narrowly missed his head and struck the wall where the woman sat, clanging innocently to the floor.
"As class president, I know most of the students', as well as their parents, quirks. And as I guessed, your Attraction is simply too weak and one-note to be of any use. But I can't have you saying anything about this, right?"
Taking her neck in his hand, he absorbed just enough liquid from her throat to destroy her vocal cords, reducing her to simple squeaks and coughs.
"A major improvement, I'm sure your son would've agreed. Now how about you run home before anything else gets taken from you? I'm sort of good at killing people, you know?"
Wide-eyed with fear, she hurried off to her home without objection. When she looked back, he was nowhere to be seen in the alleyway. All that remained was the acceptance letter, carried along by the wind of the passing cars.