Chapter 2

The one thing I enjoy about my morning routine is a good shower. Unlike a bathtub where I'm soaking in my own filth, a shower washes it out and helps me cool off, keeping my mind in peace. The enclosed space helps for my thoughts to run a mile a minute and give me a clear idea on what to do next.

"Ko-chan hurry up or you'll be late for school!!" shouted my mother from downstairs. Currently I'm 8 years old and attending Jiima elementary as a 1st grade student. Though I should be in 2nd grade, I took a whole year with just recovery and learning some basic stuff from the beginning.

Even after making a full recovery from the accident my mother didn't let me to go to school. Since she was convinced with me having "Amnesia" she's been helping me with stuff like reintroducing some of the stuff that happened in Kosuke's life and teaching me to read, write and speak Japanese.

Though it's interesting to learn a different language, Japanese made me want to quit learning. I was introduced to Kanji(ideographic writing) first which was fine and then came in Kana or Hiragana and Katakana which only confused me the more I learned about it.

But I bit my lip and sat through it for only two reasons. First, I wanted to watch anime without needing subtitles and second, I wanted to have a proper conversation with my little sister. My parents can talk in English but she can only speak Japanese and I can't understand Japanese so there's that.

Finishing up with my bath I put on some clothes and went down for breakfast. In the dining table was the familiar scene of my dad reading the news from his tablet, my sister arguing with my mom about why vegetables are not good for her and my little brother watching some kids tv show.

"Kosuke, quickly come and have your breakfast. You only have 45 minutes till school starts. And could you wipe Koutaro's mouth please." my father said without looking up from his tablet.

Koutaro Kurogane is my little brother who's 2 months old. Me and him have an 8 year age gap so he feels REALLY young to me. My mom has taken a sabbatical, of sorts from work to take care of him. We could have hired a nanny but my parents believe that children should spend time with their parents and not some stranger.

I looked at the food and today's breakfast, a Japanese meal with rice, a bowl of miso soup, fried mackerel and green salad. I sat down and smelled the delicious aroma, looked at my parents and asked,"So...about our talk yesterday, what do you think?"

"About your decision to take up self defense classes?" questioned my mom.

"Yeah."

"Kosuke why do you want to learn self defense?" asked my father

" So I can defend myself from anything." I said with a smirk

With a sigh my mother said, "But Ko-chan you don't need to learn these things. Even if you get into any trouble the heroes can take care of it . And you can get hurt while training."

"True. But mom I can also get hurt when someone picks a fight me. So I might as well be ready for it. Right?" She only gave me a disapproving look from the kitchen counter while I gave her the puppy dog eyes. This went on for a whole minute until Daisuke, my dad decided to intervene."Well... cut him some slack Shiori. He just wants to learn. It's not like he's going to be fighting VILLIANS. Right Kosuke?"

"YEAH! I mean, why would I fight villians? We have the heroes for that. Sooo mom.."

Sighing heavily she looked at me again and said,

"Fine. You can take up self defense classes. But if you get hurt I'm calling it off. Deal?" I replied with a frantic nod and continued eating.

"So..how's school these days Kosuke? " that was my dad.

"Umm. It's fine...a LITTLE boring but fine."

"Hmmm...Did you make any friends?" I can see that he's trying to force a conversation with me but it was getting a little awkward so I just gave him a smile while dodging the question. "I'm driving Kaori to her kindergarten so how about you ride with us. I can drop you at your school as well."

"Nah.I can see some heroes on the way so I'll just walk to school." My dad didn't question me further as I left for school. It's not that I didn't like my father or anything but right now in Naruhata, you can see licensed heroes and self proclaimed heroes or vigilantes for short.

Pop step can be seen at this time of the day conducting her street performances. I also get to see some local heroes in their day to day activities so that's a plus. Koichi Haimawari or Crawler or Hauler or Cruller hasn't come here yet but I've been hearing about a masked dude punching the living daylights out of street thugs. 'Must be Knuckle Duster.' I mused.

I reached my school by 8:15 and proceeded to walk into that Hell hole of a place filled with devils. Kids, they are stupid but merciless. And kids with QUIRKS are basically a trigger happy psychopath with a loaded gun and someone telling them not to pull the trigger.

They just use their quirks on anything and anyone without a care for the world. Just last week during gym class a kid got a black eye and was missing two teeth in the front by playing dodgeball. I mean it's DODGEBALL not fucking UFC. With all these thoughts I sit in my desk and pretend to listen to classes and waste the day.

Jiima Elementary, After School:

Right now I'm sitting outside the principal's office for my 'bad' behavior. My parents were called and my dad came because mom has to take care of Koutaro. The class teacher and principal are discussing with my father about why I hit a fellow student. Well, Kosuke Kurogane is a victim of bullying and there was an incident this afternoon when a kid came to extort cash form me.

And I didn't want to take shit from some brat so I may or may not have slapped him so hard that you can see my hand print on his face. So the kid went crying to the teacher and here I am. Waiting for my dad to finish his talk with the principal.

"Yes sir. We'll see to that he doesn't do something like this again. Have a good day." I could hear my father finishing up and opened the door to look at me with a neutral face signalling me to follow him, and I did. We went to the car and after 2 minutes into the drive he asks me,"Why did you hit him?"

"You must have heard it from the teachers."

"I did. But I want to know what the reason was from YOU."

I contemplated about lying but decided to tell him anyway. "He wanted to give me all the cash I had and came to pick a fight with me so I slapped him."

My father kept drumming on the steering wheel while looking like he was thinking about something. Then as we pulled up in the drive way he turned to me with a serious expression and asked," Kosuke. Do you really need self defense classes?"

"Yeah. I definitely NEED self defense." He looked at me like he was trying to get a read on me. And then breathing through his nose heavily he continued,

"Well, if you're going to get into fights like this then we might as well sign you up." he concluded as we got out of the car and went home.

Kurogane Residence, Evening 6:30:

After some talk with my mother, me and my father convinced her again to let me take those classes. She still had a doubtful look but gave the OK half heartedly.

I was now looking for some classes in the area on the PC. There were many options to choose, from traditional martial arts to modern combat classes and weapons training (no guns obviously). But nothing seemed to click with me. I wanted train in all areas like power, speed, technique, dexterity etc. I could also take up mixed martial arts but there are no classes like that in Naruhata.

While scrolling through several pages of advertisements one peculiar ad caught my interest. The ad itself was nothing grand but the details were intriguing enough.

"Reyes Lowalker. Certified CQC specialist. Ex-militarian. Teaching individuals from ages 6 onwards. Fees details and class timings are negotiable. Opposite to Marukane Department Stores, Naruhata." I read the details of the ad and had to wonder.

'Learning CQC thats taught to soldiers must be pretty strong. Maybe I'll check this one after school tomorrow.' With that I looked at the time and had realized that I've spent 2 whole hours on this. My stomach was also growling so I went to have dinner and take this up again tomorrow.

Next Day Evening 4:30 Near The Ad's Location:

The location I went to had no dojo or studio or anything like that. It was just a normal individual house and the signboard said Reyes. I looked around the area again for signs of classes but there was nothing. So, reluctantly I rang the doorbell and after 10 seconds a masculine voice came from the intercom.

"Who is it?"

"Uh.. I came here after seeing your ad about CQC classes."

"Oh. One moment." The door then opened to reveal a man who looked to be in his early 40s, wearing a full handed red t-shirt and khakhi shorts. He had long blonde hair kept in a bun and bright orange eyes and was also sporting a French beard. He glared at me for a moment and then gestured to me to come inside.

The interior of the house was of a normal Japanese house with sliding doors and wooden floorboards.

I followed him to the living room and we sat as he offered me some tea and biscuits.

"So kid. What's your name and what do you want?" he asked as he took a sip from his cup.

"uh..my name is Kosuke Kurogane and I wanted to learn self defense."

Scratching his beard he looked at me as he was sizing me up and asked,"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you choose my class?"

"Oh. Well I just found your ad to be interesting and so I decided to learn from you." He took another sip and asked,"Why waste your time learning this when you can train your quirk."

'That kinda hurt.' I thought as I said,"Well... that's because I don't have a quirk and uh.. well you know."

He looked at me with raised eyebrows, finishing his cup and pointed towards the backyard. I was confused for a bit but then understood his gesture and went outside to see a completely different setting.

There was a square shaped fighting stage made of concrete with white lines on the border and a white circle in the centre. The two corners of the stage had flood lights and the wall corner of the stage had training gear, different kinds of blunt weapons and gym equipment.

"Front and center of the stage kid. Now." Reyes called out in a commanding tone. I can definitely see the soldier in him coming out with a patriotic attitude. I complied as I went inside the circle and stood facing him.

"So Mr. Lowalker when can we conduct our classes? Because I have school till 2:30 pm so I thought we can have them tomor-"

"Now." he said with a calm demeanor.

"Like right now?" he gave me an answer with a nod.

"But we haven't discussed the fees struc- OWW!!" Reyes punched me without warning breaking my nose in the process.

"WHAT THE!?" I looked down to see blood dripping on the floor. "WHAT THE FUCK!! YOU BROKE MY NOSE YOU ASSHO- OOF!!" And then he kneed me in the gut which made me hurl as I clutched my stomach. After a fit of violent coughs I looked up to see Reyes looking at me with a blank look while keeping his arms folded.

"Why did you hit me?" I asked in a hoarse voice, courtesy of all the coughing I did.

"I wanted to see how well you would react to danger."

"Huh! Don't break someone's nose for stuff like that!! Man what's wrong with you?" Reyes was scratching his beard with his eyes closed and opened one of them as he asked me,"Why are you here kid?" I deadpanned as he asked me that question. 'Why am I here? What kinda question is that? He should know why.'

"To learn how to fight. I mean, duh!! Why else would I be here?"

"No. You're not here to learn how to fight. You're here to learn how to WIN in a fight. Am I right?" I went silent as I was not able to give a retort to it. He was right. When all things considered I'm here to learn just that. I looked at him again as he took up a fighting pose.

"When I say classes start now then it starts NOW. There is no later or tomorrow. Got that?" came his stern voice like a drill sergeant. I gave him a slow nod as he continued.

"When you're here I will guide you on how to strengthen your body physically and your mind mentally. But I will NOT teach you to perform those techniques. If you want them, earn them or better yet steal them."

"Steal?"

"Yes. The type of combat you'll see here is meant to kill an individual, so therefore I will not teach you. We will be sparring for our lessons as I use these techniques on you. So It's up to you if you want to perform those techniques." Well I've never had this kind of a teaching before. So obviously I was a bit shaky to decide but then again it's either this or yelling HA! while wearing a white Gi. I must have looked like I was thinking too much about this so he continued.

"If you think you can't do this then get out of here and forget this conversation ever happened. But if you want to become strong which I can guarantee, then step in the ring and give me a fight!"

Again there was nothing to think about. Not anymore. I need to be strong and this man can lead me to it. He's a bit of a sadist but I won't be dying from this, so with wobbly legs and a fear stricken heart I stepped in as he gave me a smirk.

"Good. Classes start from now on and will end when I say so. You will be addressing me as Sir and nothing more. Understand?" I silently gave a nod.

"ANSWER ME!!" He shouted out with a stiff attitude.

"Uh.. Y-YES SIR!"

"Mm. Then we shall proceed."