Chapter 36: Aftermath & New Opportunities

Recap:

The result was that the torrent tore through the villain's hand, and Tsu got blasted by some water and blood, which luckily had reduced velocity and force.

Suijin was happy. Sure, he had been more violent than he intended, but he saved his classmate.

But the eyes of the monster on him cause Suijin's soul to freze in fear.His target said a word he didn't make out, then instantly that thing locked eyes with him.

'I need to ru-' A force to his chin area sent his head upwards and his body flying off the mountain.

'How?!'

It didn't matter as his consciousness got hazy; in less than a few seconds, he went from the pressure of his shot, to the glory of saving someone, to the humiliation of defeat.

His eyes grew hazy as Suijin's world turned white, and right when he was about to conck out, he heard the famous line,

"I AM HEAR!" The words felt less meaningful, more hollow, without the All Migthy feeling.

He was held in some arms, and that was the last sensation his brain registered as Suijin having been knocked out.

____________________________________________________________________________

"Don't you look peachy."

*Intense Stare*

Geez, calm down, Mr. Broddy; the kids are fine."

"As expected."

"Heh, that's not what the nurses say."

"Hizashi-"

"Ok-Ok, you're cold and don't care about the kids."

Aizawa's eyes twitched as he, who was wrapped up in tape to the point where he'd be called a mummy, watched his work friend put air quotations.

"So how's the injury."

*Sigh*

"Fine, a few lacerations here and a skull fracture there, plus injury to my already delicate eyes, but the frames protected them from huge harm."

The Pro Hero President, Mic, grimaced at what that implied.

"A further decrease in your abilities."

"That's to be expected. I signed up for it the day I got the license."

"Speaking of licenses, with the kid's performance yesterday, they're on their way to getting their license in record time."

"Heh–those kids have a long way to go."

"So what happened?"

.

"After All Might appeared, he dealt with the huge bird monster. Your classmates started helping by tying down the transporter and taking down any stray villains. After the other Pros arrived, their transporter got the Ringleader away, but not before he got shot by Snipe. At least that's what the police told me."

"So that's what happened."

"Indeed. So now, my foolish son, how did you end up in this state."

Suijin was lying in his bed with bandages over his stomach and an ice pack laying over it. Recovery girl had dealt with most of the wounds since this was a UA-related accident.

But the stamina drain meant that the "lighter" injuries, which caused Nausea and other terrible symptoms that kept him up all night, remained.

Not wanting to think up some witty response, Suijin dryly replied, "Big Bird Monster."

"Makes sense."

Then, pointing down to the wet bandages on his arm, Suijin asked, "Do you know how this ended up happeneing."

Enkai pointed to the body slumped right next to the two, and Suijin nodded slightly.

"Makes sense."

"Any plans."

"For?"

"Sports Festival, I've got a flyer that says it's coming up in a few weeks."

"EHHHH THAT SO-"

"Shut Up!"

*Shuffle*

The two looked over to see the body shuffle around in the bed but ultimately ended up maintaining the same breathing pattern.

"Guess I should've expected as such. Anyway, by your reaction, I'm guessing you didn't get told by your school. I figure the flyers were just given out today, so they probably meant to give the news after the field trip."

'The sports festival. It's finally here.' Suijin was pumped up, a chance to prove himself had arrived.

"You know what it entails, right?"

Suijin nodded his head.

"A chance to showcase my abilities to the world."

"Yes, but not just that."

"Right, I forgot the apprentice program."

"Indeed, heroes can offer to have you become their apprentice if your abilities line up with theirs or you have something to learn from them. Do you have someone in mind?"

'You don't have to make it that obvious, dad…'

"Obviously-"

"-And don't say me."

"-You…EH!"

"Shut Up!"

Again, the fist handed on the patient's head, bringing Suijin to collide with the fluffy pillow. A black tic appeared on the boy's head.

'Old Man!'

But he soon forgot that resentment in favor of his burning question.

"Why."

"First, don't flatter yourself Kid. I wouldn't take you just because you're my son."

Suijin's Tic appeared again.

"...But mainly because we don't match."

'The hell we don't! There's literally not a quirk in the world that's as similar as ours.'

"You want to be number 1 right."

*Nod*

"Your old man's a rescue hero. Someone who helps around the neighborhood and in situations of duress."

"But-"

Enkai gently pushes Suijin's head back down, "Just listen."

"You're going to need to decide what kind of hero you want to be. I'm not saying right now, but you should start thinking about it soon. Besides, If you want to be a combat hero, then look around, Snipe-"

The western cowboy-like hero appeared in Suijin's mind.

"I know him from back in the days when we went to the shooting range together. His combat style should be useful for you, should you choose to pursue it."

Enkai walked over and picked up his wife.

"I'm going to take your mother to our room."

Enkai walked over to the door before turning around.

"Just…think about it. I'll hear your answer after the sports festival."

*Shut*

"~Fine."

Walking over to their shared room, Enkai looked down at the "Sleeping" face below him.

"You're a terrible actor."

She opened her eyes, and a Cheshire-like grin appeared on her face.

"Really? I could've sworn you believed me in some instances. You even bragged about it for days…"

She got out of his arms and walked down the hall, purposefully swaying her hips, ignoring Enkai's messed-up face.

'This woman.'

…

'Tsk, my Nozzle still aches…should be residual pain, but still.'

Suijin walked effortlessly through the doors he used to gawk at and up the stairs. Freshmen busted about, the common topic of discussion being the upcoming sports festival.

'Haiz. I need to find Shoji; I want to train, especially in close combat. I only won against those villains due to their idiocy and surprise. We should also see if Kirishima and Mi-....Yuga wants to pair up together so we can train chemistry.'

"Suijin!"

A voice the boy didn't want to hear came from the other end of the hall.

He consequently sped up, acting as if he heard nothing, but from a classroom in front of him, a group of boys walked out and blocked his path momentarily.

Mina, using the chance, sped up and grabbed his shoulder.

"Sui–*Breath*–Jin."

'Damn.'

Look, can we pleas-"

*RING*

The blaring bells signaling the start of class sent the group hustling back into their classroom.

"Ah, that's the bell; we should head to class."

The boy then moved his shoulder, escaping her light grip, and escaped into their class, which was unsurprisingly lacking a leading figure, and had Tenya shouting at some of his troublesome classmates.

He cleared his bag from his desk and took out any books for the later classes today.

'That was dumb.'

'I know.'

'She must have been hurt.'

'I know.'

'Then why'd you do it.'

'You know.'

Suijin's mental battle raged as he split into two parts of himself: the half that wants everything to go back to normal and the half that feels too responsible to let it.

'We hurt her.'

'She was hurt back then as well; just add it to the pile. Just more drive to make the apology even better.'

'So you don't feel remorse.'

'It's not tha-'

Fed up another part of his brain screamed, 'Then tell me what you THINK SHOULD BE DONE.'

'We should distance ourselves…BUT we should tell her that we are. Give a time limit so and remind her it's not her fault.'

'How arrogant; our atonement is hurting her.'

'Atoning is the only way we can apologize.'

The part of him that felt it wasn't even his fault got the courage to speak, 'Who said we had to.'

'We Did!'

Only to be ruthlessly executed by the others who all were in agreement that they must've done something wrong.

"Morning."

In stepped their mummified teacher.

*Sigh*

'Sometimes I think I have a problem.'