3 I got a quirk,Yay

"All Might should call himself superman"

The words are mumbled as I focus on the latest task my mother has assigned me for the morning. It has already been around three weeks, long enough for my father to construct something resembling an office in the corner of the living room. I have my own little desk with my name on it and everything. It makes me feel special, as childish as that is. The way my little space is positioned has me looking right at the TV whenever I glance up and away from my books. I do occasionally look up to see what's playing on the TV especially when I hear something I deem interesting. Today the topic of the news is the one and only All Might, hence the comment. He truly is the superman of mha, isn't he? This man is so popular he ends up on the news in an entirely different country. It's not the first time he's been on the news and not the first I've heard of his exploits in Japan. It won't be the last either. The latest story feed features him holding up a falling building just barely while the innocent get out. Truly superman.

I absentmindedly listen to all this talk about him and how great he is while I work on the math problems my mother had placed before me. We've been doing math for a while now, each time I complete an assigned problem I get another. Each new problem is more complicated than the last. My mother has been trying to see exactly what grade my intelligence stands on for the last three weeks. In doing so she has completely taken over my education while my father is left in charge of physical and creative activities. His way of training me involves the two of us playing random sports for two hours every day since I'm too young for physical workouts, despite him saying otherwise just the other day.

"Once again the symbol of peace saves the day with a smile on his face" I'm looking at the TV again, just in time to see the reporter try to question a laughing All Might. The man acts as if his muscles aren't aching from holding up that massive building.

The symbol of peace.

That sounds nice and all but is it really a good thing? Everyone in Japan relies on this man to save the day. No one is afraid because he is always there to protect them with this joyous smile on his face. A smile that brings with it comfort and reassurance. That's all well and nice, but sometimes I wonder if it won't backfire. Of course, it'll backfire. The anime shows us this when he retires and leaves everything to Endeavor and Izuku.

His ideology, while commendable, is terrible.

He claims himself the pillar of hope for man. Yes, that he is, but what happens when that pillar falls? 

All hope is shattered.

People will be afraid, in panic even, because he was the pillar holding up society. He was the number one hero, he was the symbol of peace, him and him alone. By becoming the symbol of peace he has created a society that would be left in fear and danger when he is no longer around. Because a building cannot be stable with only one pillar supporting it. 

That's why the crime rate went up exponentially when he retired.

What's the big deal with all Might anyway, next to him being such an amazing hero? I don't get it. I'm not his biggest fan, to say the least. From the very first episode I knew I would not like this man. He claims that anyone can be a hero yet he tells Izuku that he's practically nothing without a quirk. Talk about being hypocritical. Was he not quirkless himself? Oh yeah, he was nothing until Nana passed on One for All. It is only after Izuku risked his life for Katsuki that he believes he could be a hero so he takes him under his wing to "train and guide" him. He subjects Izuku to ten months of training, not once giving him any tips about his quirk or at least explaining it. On the day of the exams, he just passes it on to him, not even warning him of the dangers of his first use of the quirk.

I have so much to say about this idiot of a hero, but I need to focus on my work. I'm dedicated to my school work and reaching my desired stage of education.

Should I have the displeasure of running into Izuku before he meets All Might I might intervene, if only to prevent Izuku from needlessly breaking every bone in his arms.

Izuku was a wimp. Now he's badass, however, but I can't get over the fact that he let Katsuki bully him for ten years without even trying to fight back. He had ten years to invest himself, ten years to work towards his goal and all he did was jot down notes on people's quirk. While his notes are spot on, he should have at least taken the time to train. He wants to be a hero yet he doesn't try to learn to fight. He does realize that fighting is part of the job, doesn't he?

Izuku just used to frustrate me, almost as much as Katsuki.

I love him still, he's cool.

Katsuki's a big jackass, but he's cool too.

But I want to beat the hell out of both of them.

~~~~~~

Five-year-olds are terrible.

I'm not saying I'm terrible, I'm saying the little boy throwing a fit in this cafe is terrible. He's full-on crying because there's no more chocolate ice cream. Meanwhile, I'm sitting on a booster enjoying my chocolate ice cream, the very last scoop there was. Am I a terrible person for laughing at his pain? Maybe. Do I care? No of course not, I was here first so I got my ice cream. The kid is just very unlucky, contrary to Zena Fox who's always lucky. The boy looks my way, sees my ice cream and cries even harder. All I can do is grin like some villain.

"I'm concerned" my mother sighs in front of me, her eyes displaying the disappointment she feels for her daughter.

"What?"

She says nothing and simply continues to enjoy her sandwich with her gaze cast off in the distance. Brown hair is struggling in that bun she somehow managed to pull off, a few curls already slipping free of their confines. I'm just waiting for it all to just pop free because it looks like it actually will. The thing I find most beautiful about my mother is her blue eyes. Blue eyes in an African American is super rare but a beautiful feature that gives my mother this exotic appearance. She tells me neither her mother nor father had blue eyes so she doesn't know how she ended up with them. I did not inherit her eyes, which is not too surprising. I don't mind, I mean, yes I think they're cool but I like my dark eyes. They're a russet brown that look lighter than they actually are in the sun.

"What do you want to do in the future, Zen?"

She's looking at me with a single brow raised. I take a moment to bite a piece off my cone, a look of thoughtfulness on my face just to add to things. Do I need to think about it? Yes, I kinda do. Do I take the time to think about it? Nope, because I have at least nine years to think about my future career. In all honesty, going to UA seems like a lot of fun. Not because it's a hero school, but because I'll get to meet the idiots of 1A, which means I can get to punch Izuku and Katsuki in the face, you know, to force them to see some sense. Izuku is suicidal and Katsuki has some major anger issues. A punch to the face should do them both some good.

"I don't know" it's best to be honest with the woman who most likely has a degree in phycology. The way she can just look at someone and decide what's bothering them is somewhat creepy on top of impressive. Lying is no good because she always knows when I'm being dishonest. "Might go to UA, might not"

"You wanna be a hero?" Her expression is caught between pride and concern but she manages a small smile.

"Not sure" I shrug and finish my ice cream. The little boy is still crying his eyes out while his mother tries to shush him.

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑛 𝑘𝑖𝑑 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔

True, but also very rude. Who said that?

𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑛, 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟

Well, you can't expect a five-year-old to be calm and collected, can you? Who in the hell said that? Why would you even say that loud enough for others to hear? Why you gotta be so judgy?

𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚

Well, chocolate is a delicacy so I don't blame the kid. While I wouldn't throw a fit over some ice cream I would still be pretty down about not having any.

𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑

Eh, maybe he is.

Someone says something particularly mean that has me looking around in search of the person. There are more comments being made left and right, some ridiculously random. I heard someone comment on how nice some woman's feet seem. I did not want to know that.

Can someone tell me why everyone's talking but I can't see anyone's mouth move?

This guy says something then this woman has some weird idea and then this kid won't stop yelling "ice cream", then this, then that. Why is everyone talking at the same time?

"Zena" I barely hear my mother over the voices. Does she not hear them? Am I the only one? I finally lost it didn't I? "Zena, baby"

Her voice is the loudest, soft with concern yet too loud for me to handle. Even with my hands pressed tightly to my ears the voices are too loud. Everyone's talking over each other and I can't focus on my mother at all. Words overlap, each with different emotions that make me feel sick. And now my head hurts and it feels like I'm falling.

Why couldn't I just have a normal outing with my mother?

~~~~~~~

"Soooo, basically what you're saying is that I can read minds?"

The doctor has been talking gibberish for the past two minutes in his efforts to explain what had happened to me. Basically, my quirk finally awakened and decided to fill my brain with the stray thoughts of everyone around me. I had a feeling my quirk would be cognitive so I'm not too surprised, however, I am worried about my lack of control of this quirk. I can still hear the thoughts of people around, only it's not overwhelming because I'm isolated and the only people nearby are my mother and the doctor. I can still hear the thoughts of those in the hospital building, which I find impressive. It seems the further they are the less intrusive their thoughts. It's less than a whisper while the thoughts of the doctor are practically screaming at me. I have to remind him to keep the inner dialogue to a minimum. My mother is surprisingly good at not thinking too much.

"Will she be able to control her quirk?"

A very good question dear mother, will I?

"I'm not sure Mrs Fox, for the moment I would have to recommend you find some way to dampen her ability or some sort of device that can control it for her"

The ability to read minds non stop is not very appealing. If every day is the same as today I will not make it to my next birthday, I'm not even exaggerating. On the other hand, I can read minds, that's cool. A complete invasion of privacy, but cool none the less.

"Thank you, doctor, is there anything else I should know?" There are suddenly a million thoughts running through my mother's head, a million thoughts that have me recoiling. I don't think I'll get used to the feeling of another's thoughts in my head.

"Yes, there is one more thing" the doctor is going through his notepad with a concentrated gaze until he finds what he was looking for. "You're daughter is showing signs of another quirk in her system"

"She is?"

I am?