6 Years Old

CLACK CLACK CLACK

The sound of wood being hit over and over resounded from the training hall as two figures clashed repeatedly with bo-staffs.

The smaller of the two figures lunged forward, attempting to catch the other figure off-guard, who used their superior strength to deflect the staff before using the end to hit the smaller figure in the stomach.

"Oof." said the smaller figure as he got down on one knee to catch his breath.

"That's enough for now, Yuuichi-kun."

Yes, the smaller figure of the two repeatedly clashing was Yuuichi while the other was his instructor, Yamamoto, one of the few true Shaolin Monks left. It seems that since the beginning of the Quirk era, fewer and fewer people wanted to be Shaolin Monks, who stayed true to their original practices.

Still, there were those who wished to become Shaolin Monks and Yamamoto was one of them, mostly in part to his Quirkless nature. But he found true fulfillment in becoming a Shaolin Monk and left the monastery to travel the world and spread his wisdom. In a random twist of fate, Yuuichi's dad ended up Yamamoto's benefactor and cashed in the favor he had been offered to ask him to teach Yuuichi.

~~

A few days after Yuuchi's fifth birthday, he decided it was time to cash in the reward he had won from betting with his dad during his fourth birthday.

"Dad, I know what I want to use my bet reward on." said Yuuichi as he walked into his dad's office.

"I thought you had forgotten about that after so long. So, what do you want?" said his dad looking up at him from reading some documents.

"I want to learn martial arts, especially how to use different weapons."

"Smart considering your quirk. Mmm, I'll have to ask your mom about it first, but I do have a favor I can cash in with someone. A real Shaolin Monk." said his dad as he thought about it.

"A Shaolin Monk?!" said Yuuichi.

"Don't worry about it. I'll talk to your mother."

"Thanks, dad." said Yuuichi before leaving the office.

~

"Absolutely not!" said his mother.

"But..."

"No. I don't want my baby fighting and hurting himself. Not this young. Wait a few more years, and then he can do it." said his mom, with some finality in her tone.

"Honey, it'll be too late by then. He won't have enough time to really learn." said his dad.

"Please, mom." said Yuuichi.

"No."

"What if he has talent in it and we're letting it go to waste? I know you hate wasted talent." said his dad.

"Neither of you is going to let up on this, are you?" she said, after a few moments of silence.

"No." x2

"Fine. I want to talk to the instructor and I want to see if he has talent. If he has no talent in it, then it won't matter if he waits a few years. But if he does, he can start now. But, if you start now, you are not stopping until your instructor says he can teach you no more. Is that understood?" she said with a fierce look in her eyes.

"Yes, ma'am." said Yuuichi with a smile.

"Good. Go laze around."

"Whoo!" he said before going outside to stare at the clouds in peace.

~

"I'm sorry, Yaoyorozu-san, but I do not wish to stay shackled to one place for so long. That is not why I left the temple." said Yamamoto as he bowed his head in forgiveness.

"Why don't you meet the kid and teach him a few things for a month? It's all I ask of you." said Yuuichi's dad.

"I can do a month, but how much he learns during that time is up to him." said Yamamoto.

"Sounds good. Follow me, he should be in the training hall." said his dad as they both started walking toward the training hall.

"Training hall? I thought you said he hadn't trained before." said Yamamoto.

"We built the training hall in preparation for his eventual Quirk Manifestation, and since he manifested it last year he spends at least an hour there every day, training his quirk." explained Yuuichi's dad.

"That's quite dedicated for a child." said Yamamoto, surprise on his face.

"He's not like normal children. Well, that's not true. Actually, he's a lot like normal children personality-wise. He's very easygoing and doesn't take anything seriously except for his training, he's unabashed and extroverted, and he talks comfortably with anyone, no matter who it is. But that also means he's very open about showing his distaste for someone.

There was a kid at his school that tried to talk to him because he knows Yuuichi is the sole heir of the Yaoyorozu family, and he just told him to shut up in front of the whole class. That was an interesting conversation with his teacher. I still remember laughing so hard." said his dad with a smile.

"He sounds spoiled." said Yamamoto.

"Quite the opposite. He never asks for anything he didn't earn himself. Whenever he wants something he asks what he has to do to earn it. At first, we refused to make him do anything but after the first time, he said he would never ask for something if he didn't earn it. And he stuck to his words, so my wife yielded and started giving him things to do so he could earn what he wanted."

"A kid who can have anything he wants in the world and parents glad to accommodate, asked to earn it? I retract my early statement, he sounds interesting."

As the two reached the training hall, they could feel that the temperature was rising.

"Ah, I hate when he trains with the doors closed. It gets all hot in there." said his dad as he opened the doors to the training hall and a heat wave rushed out.

Right as the doors opened the first thing they saw was a child who was facing them with a tiny, glowing Buddha that was one of the most intricate and beautiful things they had ever seen.

"Amituofo." said Yamamoto, entranced by both the Buddha and Yuuichi before he fell to his knees and bowed to Yuuichi.

"Eh?" said Yuuichi as his concentration lapsed only to see his dad standing there with a monk bowing in his direction.

"Uh, Yamamoto, why are you bowing?" said his dad.

"Amituofo, amituofo, amitufo." said Yamamoto as he started reciting a mantra.

"Dad, who is that?" said Yuuichi as he walked up to his dad.

"That's Yamamoto, the Shaolin Monk I told you about. He was here to train you but he suddenly started bowing and saying a mantra after seeing you." he explained.

'Shaolin Monks are Buddhists, aren't they? Don't tell me it's a side-effect of looking like Buddha that the lady didn't tell me about. I don't doubt it, she didn't seem very careful about her job.' thought Yuuichi as he went up to the monk.

"Yamamoto, please stand up. I'm not someone you should bow to." said Yuuichi.

"No, you are. It's as if I am in the presence of the great Buddha himself." he said, still bowing.

"While I do have much respect and appreciation for Buddhism, I do not believe I am a Buddha. So, please stand up." said Yuuichi, as Yamamoto finally stood up.

"Forgive me, I do not know what came over me." said Yamamoto.

"It might be my fault. I did create that small Buddha construct after all." said Yuuichi.

"Construct?"

"Oh, my quirk lets me create constructs using Solar energy. I saw a picture of Buddha and I wanted to try to recreate it."

"It was very good." said his dad.

"Thanks. It's hard for me to make something so detailed which is why it was so small."

"Do you like Buddhism?" asked Yamamoto.

"I do, but I would not adhere to its way of life. It is much too restricting for my liking. I prefer to be free and find my own path. If Nirvana truly does exist, I do not think it would be found through meditation or restricting yourself from life. I believe the only true way to achieve Nirvana is to experience life for all it is and only then would you be able to find your path. So, perhaps I do believe in Buddhism, but my own understanding of it." said Yuuichi, stunning both Yamamoto and his dad.

"Incredible." said Yamamoto as he teared up before bowing to Yuuichi, "Amituofo. This has been very enlightening to me. I will gladly teach you for as long as you will have me."

~~

After that, Yamamoto began to teach Yuuichi the martial arts and weapon handling that he learned at the Shaolin Temple. And much to his mom's displeasure, Yuuichi turned out to be very talented in weapon handling. It didn't take him long to get the hang of any weapon he used. He would only need to be instructed once or twice before he would memorize the moves he had to do, and eventually, he would free himself from them and fight as one with the weapon.

Still, Yamamoto forced him to spend a lot of time with each weapon and fight with them, even if he had gotten the moves down. Yamamoto said that understanding a weapon takes more than freeing yourself from the restrictive moves, and by fighting with a weapon over and over, only then will one become one with a weapon.

So far he had learned the cudgel, spear, halberd, dagger, Bodhidharma staff, and the bo-staff. There were still many more to go, but Yuuichi enjoyed it and had a heavy preference for the bo-staff. He had even asked his parents for a very well-made bo-staff for his sixth birthday which they gladly gifted to him.

But other than training with Yamamoto and training his quirk, not much else had happened in Yuuichi's life, except for school and becoming better friends with Rumi, which coincided quite nicely seeing as they went to the same school.

~~

After Yuuichi's fourth birthday, he and Rumi became good friends and would go over to each other's house quite often. It was more Rumi going to Yuuichi's house because her mom worked a lot and her father was on business trips most of the time. Of course, Yuuichi's mom was more than happy to have Rumi over, who was also happy to do so because she loved to fight with Yuuichi in the training hall.

And when she found out that he was going to train with a Shaolin Monk that would teach him how to fight, suffice to say she was very jealous.

~

"What?!" said Rumi after Yuuichi told her he would be training with a combat instructor.

"I'm training with a combat instructor." he repeated as he ate some sweets the Ayako had left out for him and Rumi.

"That's not fair! I want to do that too!" she said.

"Join me then. Just ask your mom first. He's here twice a week, so you can come on one of those days."

"No, no, no." she said before her ears perked up as if she had an epiphany, "I can just come on one of the days he's here! I'm a genius!" she said.

"That's what I just said." said Yuuichi, with a smile.

"No, you didn't. You said something else."

"What did I say then?"

"Beats me, I wasn't listening." she said before eating one of the sweets.

"Hahahaha!"

~

A few days later, Rumi and Yuuichi were in the training hall in their athletic clothes with Yamamoto in front of both of them.

"So, you wish to learn martial arts from me?" said Yamamoto.

"Yup!" said Rumi shaking her head like a bobblehead.

"First, we will see if you have what it takes to learn martial arts. Why do you want to learn martial arts?" asked Yamamoto.

"To learn how to fight!" she said.

"Mm. Why do you want to learn how to fight?"

"Because I like to fight!"

"Why do you like to fight?"

"Because it's fun."

"Is that the only reason you want to learn how to fight?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?" he asked, staring right into her eyes.

"No."

"Why?"

"I want to learn how to fight so I can become a hero and save people." she said looking down while blushing.

"Good. Although violence is not always the answer, I realize in the times that we live in, it usually is. As much as I hate it, I know it's necessary. I will teach you so you can help the world and be a better hero." said Yamamoto, causing Rumi's eyes to sparkle.

~

After that, Rumi would always make sure to come over when Yamamoto was instructing Yuuichi so she could learn as well. But, she didn't care for the weapon handling portion of the instruction. She had a very heavy preference for martial arts that used her body as a weapon. Still, though, Yamamoto forced her to learn weapon handling as well because he said if you know how to handle a weapon, you know how to fight against a weapon. And that was all she needed to hear to learn.

All in all, an eventful two years.