Suzume doesn't ask where they dug up the money Chiasa was sure they didn't have enough of to start these classes. She doesn't want to know.

All she needs to know is that a week later, before he goes to work, Sanjiro leads them to a dojo crammed between two sprawling, tall buildings that can't be more than three years old. The dojo itself is clearly old, small, and traditional.

Sanjiro let's them in and they leave their shoes next to six pairs already lined up.

She can hear synchronized grunting through the walls even before they enter the next room. A line of four boys and two girls go through simultaneous kicks and punches in the middle of the room. A tall man with greying hair stands at the front of the room, in front of a full length mirror, watching the children with cold blue eyes. Beside him is a younger man with blond hair and light purple eyes.

The class ends a few minutes after they walk in. The entire time Suzume and her brother watch them go through motions. None of the kids can be older than Kaname, but they've definitely been doing this longer.

She wonders who they are. Children like her, who's parents do shady things at night? Or just kids who found a cheap place to learn to throw punches?

Sanjiro ushers his two youngest children away from the kids while they fetch their bags and put on their shoes to leave.

It's just the Kono's and the two teachers now.

And a little boy, with red hair and dull blue eyes, peaking out at them from behind a stack of plastic boards that fit together and can be kicked apart. She'd seen them before, during a case where a karate teacher was murdered in his own studio. Grisly, that one.

"So, you did bring your kids around," the old man grunts. He scowls down at the pair of them. Kaname takes a step back, but Suzume meets his gaze squarely. Or as squarely as she can, when she realizes that he's blind.

Oh.

"I said I would. You said you have room in your class for two more, didn't you?"

"Just as long as you've got time in your schedule to fix the roof."

Was that how they were paying for lessons? Fixing the roof? What kind of criminal fixes roofs?

Suzume just blinked slowly at the old man, then the younger one.

"Of course I do, Tsushima," he assured the old man. He nudged his children forwards with a warm hand on the back of either of their heads, and they both bowed politely. Suzume mumbled a 'hello sir'.

"Kids, this is Tsushima Yuzo, he owns this school, and this is his son Ryuhei. They've agreed to teach you to fight, so I expect you to listen to them and work hard. Got it?"

"Yes!" Kaname smiled brightly at their father, all sharp teeth and bright eyes. Suzume nodded quickly in agreement.

"Good. Now bow to the floor mat, go to the middle, and then bow to your new teachers."

Kaname rushed to do as he was told, with Suzume on his heels. The two men spoke quietly with their father for a couple more minutes, and when she looked the little boy from before was gone.

The two Tsushima's came to a halt in front of them. It was the son who spoke to them.

"My esteemed father is a very busy man. He will over look any tests that you take. You'll address him as Shihan, and I am, of course, sensei. Got it?"

They nodded together.

"Ryuhei will show you the first forms," the elder said firmly. "I will check in on you at the end of class."

He turned and walked away, bowing to the mats once he stepped off of them, and disappeared into an office. Through the open door she saw the little boy again.

"Okay," Ryuhei clapped his hands together. "Let's begin."

Ryuhei turns out to be a vicious taskmaster. He works them into the ground, until they leave aching and sweating and Kaname is close to tears.

Suzume is grinning when they slide into the back seat of the car. Her dark hair is plastered to her skull, and she aches down to her bones, but it's a step in the right direction.

"How was it?" Sanjiro asks, looking at them in the rearview mirror.

Kaname mumbles something and slumps against the window. Suzume smiles at him, even exhausted, even sweaty and disgusting.

"Can we come back tomorrow?"

She tries not to read into the sadness in his eyes or the wavering curve of his smile.

"Sure we can. But I don't think your brother will be up for it."

He's right, of course. Sanjiro is a smart man, and Kaname may be older and stronger than her, but Suzume is stubborn.

Sanjiro takes her to the dojo after school again, and the little boy keeps watching her from the shadows while Ryuhei works her to her very bones, going through the same series of kicks and punches. They're all basic, but Suzume knows the old saying.

Do not fear the man that practices 1000 punches 1 time, but the man who practiced 1 punch 1000 times.

She thinks it came from Bruce Lee.

By the time Sanjiro comes to collect her she feels hollowed out and bleary, but when it's just the two of them he lets her sit in the front seat, and she sinks into the leath with a small groan. Her muscles ache, and her lungs feel cold.

Sanjiro presses something plastic into her hands.

"Here you go, Suzy Q."

She looks down to find a little hostess cake in her hands, chocolate cake with white filling. Suzy Q. She grins at him and tears it open gladly. She tears it messily in half and gives one half to Sanjiro, who she keeps thinking of as 'Dad' more and more often.

It becomes their thing. Kaname only attends half the amount of classes as she does, and Suzume throws herself into them with a frenzy that borders on rabid. Ryuhei responds to her enthusiasm by making her run and kick and punch until she can barely hold a pencil the next day. Her class work doesn't suffer, if only because she already knows almost all of this. Math, science, language. The only thing that really suffers is her handwriting.

Not for the first time is she glad that she'd been such a nerd that she had consumed as many language classes as she could the first time around.

History is interesting enough that it holds her attention, and she starts reading history books in what little spare time she has. She doesn't pick fight on school grounds, but she waits until her bullies are off campus to fight back. She doubts that Ryuhei will mind her using her lessons. It's self defense, right?

She goes from 'quirkless, easy target' to 'spooky, angry reading girl' in two years.

Shisui graduates with flying colors and moves away as soon as he can, going into business school on the other side of the country.

Suzume knows that it's because he's afraid of what their parents will think about his boyfriend. She also knows that the fear is unfounded, but Shisui will come out in his own time. The twins move into his bedroom the summer before they start their first year of high school.

Taka and Rio's wedding is the last time that all of them are together for years.

It's… interesting.

The venue is beautiful, outdoors and away from the city that Suzume has grown up in. they'd had to drive high into the mountains to reach the small resort where Taka and Rio were waiting to wed at last.

The ceremony itself will take place in a pavilion that overlooks steep waterfalls that glitter across ancient, well worn stones, where bursts of colorful flowers bloom along the sheer sides. It's a lovely mix of traditional and western, an homage to the time Rio had spent studying abroad when she was young.

Which was how Suzume ends up in a little red dress, a tiny copy of the three that the regular bridesmaids wore. All of her brothers were in western styled suits with deep red bow ties. They all matched Rio's red eyes.

Her brothers were all paired off with Rio's girlfriends, and her baby cousin was the flower girl at only three.

Rio had one bridesman to match Taka's groomsmaid (being his baby sister, of course) and Suzume is lucky enough to walk in on a hushed argument between her and him shortly before the ceremony starts. He'd been busy with work during the rehearsal, so she'd walked down the aisle alone then, but he was going to be who she was paired with today.

She'd had her suspicions, but walking in on Rio sitting beside a very young, but still very recognizable Kai Chisaki was a shock.

Well. Guess that cements just about everything.

"All you have to do is walk beside her. You don't even have to touch her, or anyone here. Just. Walk. For me?"

"I don't like kids," he argues. "They're dirty, rude, they eat bugs-"

"I do not!" Suzume snaps. They both twist around to see her standing in the door way, her right cheek puffed out with annoyance. "I take a shower every night, and I wash my hands plenty, and we're all wearing gloves anyways," Suzume flaps her white gloved hands at him like a particularly irritated bird. "It's not like I run around London with a bunch of sixteenth century rats, thank you!"

Rio tries (and fails) to smother her laughter behind her hand. She can't imagine what she looks like, eight years old, in a puffy red gown, dressing down one of the most dangerous men in the country.

It is, apparently, funny enough the Rio snaps a picture with her phone before Kai can stop her.

"Quirks come from rats, so-"

"She doesn't have a quirk."

"She what?"

"Hey!"

Suzume doesn't miss the way his shoulders relax at that. Just a little bit, and the tight furrow in his brow eases enough that she remembers what she'd mostly forgotten.

Rampant germaphobia. Hatred of quirks. Right.

"So what if I don't have a quirk?" Suzume crosses her arms over her chest and levels them with her best glare. "I still know how to kick someone in the balls!"

Rio cracks up, her laughter so high and hysterical it comes out in breathy wheezes.

Even Kai's cheek twitches under the black mask he wears across his mouth.

"Fine," he stands up, brushing his dark suit free of imaginary dust. "If it's her, I'll walk with someone."

Rio finally catches her breath. Her smile is bright, her cheeks rosy. "I thought you'd feel that way. Your place at the table is on the corner, and she's sitting next to you, too."

Kai narrowed his eyes at Suzume. "You better not make a mess eating."

"I won't get anything on your fancy suit, pretty boy."

Rio dissolves into desperate laughter once more while Kai shakes his head at her, looking irritated. He keeps his temper though, probably for Rio's sake.

Suzume is getting more and more abrasive as time goes on, and she's not about to change that for one dude with issues.

"You should really get a therapist."

Rio nearly falls on the ground and ruins her pretty white dress she's laughing so hard. Suzume thinks maybe she should be insulted, but it's become pretty clear that therapy here is vastly underrated. This is a world full of trauma-baskets.

Maybe if they really won't let her be a pro hero, she'll try that out. God knows there's plenty of people who need it.

Suzume had never had to attend the quirk counseling that her brothers endured, but everything she knew about was… not great.

Especially not for people with 'villainous' quirks like her family's. It put too much emphasis on conforming and fitting into society and what was acceptable, and not enough of loving oneself even when they were born outside of the pale. At least the counseling that her brother's had gotten, and her brother's hadn't even gotten the worst she'd heard of.

There is a girl a year above her in school, with blonde hair and sharp teeth, who can no longer recognize herself in a mirror, and no one but Suzume seems to see a problem with it.

On top of that, most therapists wouldn't even look at a quirkless case. Chiasa had considered getting Suzume someone to talk to when the bullying got bad, but apparently no one was interested in someone without a quirk.

Maybe it was just a regional thing. Hopefully it was just a regional thing.

Either way, her point still stood.

A knock comes from the door, breaking the trio of their conversation/minor roast.

"Rio? Everyone is ready."

"Yeah," Rio smoothed out her dress and tucked her hair back behind her crown of horns, which dripped with rubies and gold chains. Definitely not from Taka, it was way too expensive. But it was lovely, and that was what mattered. "We're ready in here."

"We're going to start in fifteen minutes. Everyone is in their seats," Yosano, the wedding planner says.

"You heard her," Rio shooed at the both of them. "Out, our. Suzume, keep an eye on my baby brother."

"I'm taller than you," Kai snapped irritably.

"Yeah, and you're still four years younger," Rio retorted. "Go, go."

Suzume and Kai exchanged a look. Taka was going to have a fun rest of his life.

They leave Rio alone to wait for her cue while they circled around the reception hall. Suzume stops by one of the massive windows to look outside. There is an older man standing out there in a nice three piece suit. Kai halts at her side and sucks in a startled breath through his mask.

"Pops."

"Your guys' dad?" Suzume peers up at Kai, who really does look like a boy of only eighteen. He's not someone who walked out of a horror movie yet. He's not a force of nature intent on twisting the world back the way it used to be.

He's just.

A boy.

A teenager.

"He and Rio had a fight over her marrying Taka, didn't they?" she waits until he nods, once. "Why?"

"Your brother… he doesn't like our family business."

"Mmmm, he wants to be a doctor."

"I'm aware. Rio is leaving the family business to marry him. Pops doesn't like it."

Suzume had figured it was something like that.

"But he still loves her," Suzume points out. "Or he wouldn't be here. Even though he hurt her when he wasn't happy about her and Taka, he still loves her, and she loves him. And you do too, or you wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't walk with me even if I don't have a quirk, cause you don't like people. It's just 'cause Rio asked, right?"

Kai glances towards her, his gold eyes eagle sharp.

But Suzume just looks up at him, guileless and open. He huffs, this boy who would become a monster.

"From the mouth of babes, huh?"

"I'm gonna tell him to come inside," Suzume decides, but Kai's hand comes down in front of her, stopping her without laying a finger on her person.

"I'll talk to him," he deflects. "You wait here."

Suzume shrugs and leans against the doorway, watching Kai go out to the man. He must not have a quirk, or Kai just trusts him to be clean that much, because Kai let's him pat him on the shoulder and doesn't have a complete breakdown.

Suzume is stuck standing there, watching them talk quietly, until they both come walking towards her.

'Pops' looks down at her.

"So you're Ryuhei's little hero?" he sounds amused.

Jeez, she really needs to figure out exactly how deep Sanjiro is in the yakuza.

"Mhmm. That's me and my brother Kaname too."

"It's not an easy life you're chasing," he warns. Suzume wonders if all yakuza talk to children like they're just tiny people. Not that she's complaining.

She crosses her arms over her chest, looks up at a yakuza boss, and says firmly, "I'm gonna do what I want and the rest of the world can go fuck itself."

Which is how she finds out that Rio and Kai, despite not being blood related, share the same breathless wheeze of a laugh when startled.

She should probably be offended, but the novelty of it is enough that she only pouts at him a little bit.

"Pops. You should come watch the wedding," Kai says when he finally gets himself back under control. "It'll make Rio happy."

'Pops' looks at him, something strange and soft in his expression. "You're right. I know I'm being stubborn, but I can't say I'm happy about her choices."

"Does it matter?"

They both look down at Suzume, who cocks her head. "If she's your daughter, does it matter if her choices make you happy, as long as they make her happy? 'Cause Taka loves her a lot. And he wants to work hard so she can live happy, even if he gets a different job than yours. Family's more important than pride, right?"

Pops let's out a sigh, but there's a smile tucked in the corner of his mouth.

"What's the world come to, where a man has to get lectured by an eight year old to go to his own daughter's wedding?" he asks. "Alright, let's go then. Is there still room for one stubborn old man?"

"Mhmm! Rio left a seat for you."

"Then let's get a move on, both of you."

Suzume nods quickly and leads the way through the reception hall out into the pavilion.

This is going to be a very weird day.

She's right, of course. It is a very weird day, but a beautiful one too. Rio and Taka are so in love it's disgusting, and when she sees Pops sitting in a previously empty seat the tears she had been fighting back break free.

It's a good thing the mascara is waterproof.

Suzume beams cheerfully for the camera's when the pictures start snapping, and makes herself a teeny tiny pick to keep other people away from Kai, so no one ends up blood splattered on the ground. Most people already know he doesn't like to be touched, so she doesn't have to try hard, but it's still fun.

Suzume isn't sure if her meddling has anything to do with Rio and her father talking long into the night, past the point when she, Kaname, and everyone else under 18 are herded out the door, but she likes to think she at least helps.

It's worth the teasing she gets for years to come about her 'little crush' on Kai.