Ch.11

"Hey Akihiko," Shota says to me as we meet up and walk to school, though he sees I'm slightly sad from being grounded.

"Hey Shota," I say with a sigh.

"Ok, what happened? You seem your not usual overly confident and happy self," Shota says and gives me a worried look.

"Remember when we were helping Yui with her quirk, how everyone said how hot her flames were? Well to me it seemed no different in temperature to any other time, so I was gonna test if I'm heat resistant or temperature resistant in general. But couldn't because my parents were always around. Yesterday they said they were gonna be home later, so I tested it with the stove and turns out I'm at least heat resistant. But my mom came home right as I was testing it and grounded me for doing something like that without their permission," I explain to him as we walk to school and give an annoyed sigh at the end. Shota just stares at me for a few seconds, then breaks out laughing.

"Shut up Shota! It's not funny!" I say annoyed with him laughing at my mistake. Shota just keeps laughing much to my aggravation.

"Hey guys! What's so funny Shota?" Hizashi says as we arrive where he lives and joins us on our way to school.

"Hi Hizashi and nothing, Shota is just being an idiot!" I say as Shota finally stops laughing so he can answer Hizashi.

"Akihiko got grounded for playing with fire!" Shota says before laughing again at me. Hizashi seems confused, but seeing my annoyed face, starts laughing with Shota. I ignore them while grumbling the rest of the way to school. Shota then better explains what I did the rest of the way to school.

"Nemuri! Guess what happened to Akihiko?" Hizashi says as we enter the homeroom classroom.

She turns to us and smiles at us, but looks at me with concern hearing Hizashi. However, seeing Shota and Hizashi's smirking faces and my annoyed one, she can tell that nothing too bad happened. Taking my seat, I just sigh and place my head on the desk ignoring them as they explain what happened to Nemuri. She starts laughing too hearing the story, but before they can mess with me more Sensei Haga enters the room and starts the school day. Once the day ends we enter the club classroom.

"Now that everyone is here, does anyone have any new thoughts or suggestions for Sara's quirk?" Yui asks everyone once all the club members enter the room. Then I see the looks on my friends' faces, they are gonna tell everyone here what I did. Rolling my eyes I just let them.

"This isn't related to Sara's quirk, but Akihiko found something new about his quirk. Though the way he did it got him in trouble with his mom," Hizashi says while holding back a laugh, I just sigh. Everyone become curious hearing about this, even Sensei Haga who now supervises our club became curious.

"He thought he might be resistant to heat, so when his parents weren't home he used the stove to test that. He stuck his hand into the flame, turns out he is heat resistant but his mom caught him....red handed...…then he got grounded," Hizashi continues saying and laughs hard even at his own crappy pun, though everyone else laughs too hearing it.

"Ok, ok, everyone. Akihiko, you should be more careful when testing your quirk though. Now back onto the topic of Sara's quirk, does anyone have any new ideas?" Yui says after everyone laughs for a few seconds at me. I just grumble as they all laugh at me.

"I have an idea," I say.

"Hope it's not like your stove one," Nemuri says before I can continue, laughing and everyone chuckles, as I give my friends a deadpan look.

"No, it's not, I was going to say Sara should force herself to use her quirk as much as she can. Some heroes said that quirks are like muscles, the more we use them the stronger they become," I say to everyone and they all become quiet thinking about what I said.

"That might actually be true, for my case. I don't really use my quirk that much since it causes me a headache after use. Though I can try to push through it, especially if I want to become a hero one day," Sara says after hearing what I said.

"Maybe to make the headaches not as bad, you could try meditating. I hear that can help with mental fortitude," Kenji says and everyone agrees with that statement as well.

"Earlier before the club started, I was able to get permission for our club to test our quirks on each other. Though we need to get a permission form signed by our parents first, if they don't sign it and we don't return it by the end of the week, then those students can't participate in the testing," Yui says after some silence having remembered her meeting with the principal earlier. Then hands out the permission slip form, which we need to get our parents to sign.

The rest of the club meeting discussed more ideas for Sara's quirk and her using it for as much as she could at that meeting. Walking home, I arrived and hear my mom in the kitchen like she usually is. Once I change and walk downstairs with my homework in my hands and the permission slip.

"Mom, can you sign this for me please," I say handing it to her and giving her a hopeful look. She reads the form first and then looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Hmm.....I'm not sure if I should. Since you like to test quirks with dangerous ideas," Mom says to me with an unsure look.

"Please! This could really help me become a better hero one day!" I say begging her and she just stares at me with a raised eyebrow but sighs after a few seconds.

"Fine, but if you come home injured at all, then I'm not letting you continue. Understand?" Mom says to me with a serious look directed toward me.

"Yes, I promise nothing crazy!" I say immediately, she narrows her eyes at me but then signs the form handing it back to me.

"Thanks mom! Love you," I say taking the form and hugging her, which she returns smiling at me.

By the end of the week, everyone in the club got the permission slips signed, but we couldn't test anything until the following week. Since I was grounded for a week, I couldn't hang out with my friends like I normally do on Sunday, our one day off from school. So instead, I sat in my room and took out my wings from boredom. Looking at them they always fascinated me, since when I take them out it's like my body feels different.

Taking my shirt off I look in the mirror and see that my wings are attached to me physically. Then when I recall them my body gives off a slight glow from my back where they come out, and in their place is a set of symbols I don't recognize from anywhere. Though they quickly fade away in seconds after appearing, grabbing a piece of paper I copy the symbols that I saw, luckily I can memorize anything I see once.

Curious, I bring my wings back out, and in the split second, they reappear the symbols do too before fading just as quickly. Not sure what to do with the symbols, but for now, I place the paper that I copied them with away on my desk. I then decide to just relax in my bed with my wings out, as they are extremely flexible and can bend in any direction. Plus they are extremely soft and wrapping myself in my wings is the most comfortable experience in the world. This calmness makes me fall asleep and I wake up to the sound of my Uncle arriving at our home, looks like I napped for a few hours accidentally even though I wasn't that tired. Making my wings disappear, I put my shirt back on and go downstairs to see my Uncle.

"Young Akihiko! Your mother just told me you got grounded for testing your quirk dangerously. You really should be careful with how you test your quirk! What would you do should you've been injured?" my Uncle says to me once I come downstairs and my parents are behind him nodding their heads. I just sigh and nod my head.

"I know, I made a mistake," I say annoyed that everyone has been lecturing me these past few days.

"I know it is exciting to test your quirk and see what you can do, but if you do it without help you can find yourself in trouble quickly. Even I had a teacher to help me better understand my quirk, without her I wouldn't be the hero I am today," my Uncle says to me and this is the first time he willingly brought up his past or anything about his teacher.

"Who is your teacher and why do you never talk about them?" I ask since he brought it up first and whenever I would, he would change the topic or tell me 'one day I will tell you'. My parent seems to know something about this topic as they look at my Uncle with slightly saddened looks. He looks at me with a look I've never seen on his face before, one with sadness and regret.

"There is a villain who has gone into hiding for years now, going by the alias known as 'All for One'. This man is as strong and maybe stronger than me still. Shortly after becoming a pro hero, my master and I confronted him. It seemed he would win the fight and for me to live my master told Gran Torino to make an escape with me. She died so I could live and since her death, I've struggled to live up to her belief in me," my Uncle says as some tears start to form in his eyes as he thinks about the past. My dad puts a hand on my Uncle's shoulders reassuringly.

"I'm sorry Uncle Toshinori, I shouldn't have asked," I say with sadness at seeing my Uncle for the first time not smiling or having his usual confidence.

"It is fine young Akihiko, I wanted to tell you one day anyway. Because the importance of the story is to never forget your ideals even in the darkest moments. Also that once you find your master learn as much as you can from them, so for now please do not be careless in testing your quirk. I promise you that before you take your test to get into U.A. I will help teach you more," my Uncle says to me, now returning to his usual confident happy self, but I can see the pain in his eyes that seemed to have always been there, but I never noticed until now.

"I understand and I promise to not make any more mistakes," I say with the same determined confident smile he is giving me. My Uncle then gives me a thumbs up in response. As we all relax the rest of the day, after dinner comes and my Uncle prepares to leave he turns to me.

"Young Akihiko, please do not share what I told you today with anyone. Not many know the truth of my past and the world is not ready to learn about 'All for One'," my Uncle asks me as he makes his way out.

"I promise, your secret is safe with me," I say giving him a smile and thumbs up like he usually does. He laughs and smiles back at me, before leaving the house to return to his home.