Ch.5

Our first year of school went by very fast, with Nemuri becoming one of our close friends in our friend circle. Even though I was popular amongst the other kids, I still preferred playing with Shota, Hizashi, and Nemuri instead. During the summer Hizashi was having a pool party for his birthday and each of the kids from our class was invited. After finishing getting ready we all headed over to Hizashi's house, arriving I can see some of the other parents and kids are already there. This year for his gift I got him a Karaoke set, as he started to like to sing.

"Happy Birthday Hizashi!" I say walking into the backyard of his house and seeing all the kids running around with water guns or swimming in the pool. Hizashi quickly gets out of the pool and runs over to me giving me a friendly hug.

"Thanks Akihiko, is Shota coming soon?" Hizashi asks me after getting me all wet already.

"Why would I know?" I say taking my shirt off now that it is half wet.

"Cause you guys live by each other, and one of you is always at the other one's house," Hizashi says to me with a roll of his eyes.

"Whatever, I don't know," I say with a sigh and push him into the pool, he yelps giving me a surprised face as he falls into the pool.

"Akihiko! YOU–" Hizashi says as he falls but gets cut off as he goes underwater and I start laughing.

Though he quickly comes out and begins to splash me in revenge. Running past him, I jump into the pool, resurfacing I can see Shota has shown up finally. As Hizashi is swimming over to me with a look of revenge in his eyes.

"Yo guys and Happy Birthday Hizashi," Shota says distracting Hizashi enough for me to swim behind him and push him underwater. The bubble from his angered scream comes out of the water as everyone laughs seeing it happen.

"You guys need to learn to not mess with each other all the time," Nemuri says as she comes outside in time to see me 'drown' Hizashi and leave the pool quickly to avoid his revenge.

"I'M GONNA GET YOU AKIHIKO!" Hizashi says scrambling out of the pool yells in anger. I run behind both Shota and Nemuri as Hizashi runs over with anger in his eyes.

"Hizashi catch!" I say pushing Shota into him and making them both fall into the pool while grabbing Nemuri's arm to drag her with me to get water guns.

"AKIHIKO!" I hear them both shout my name in anger as they fall into the pool, though I'm laughing with Nemuri as we run to get water guns.

The next few hours were of everyone playing a giant water gunfight, one side being 'heroes' and the other villains. With Hizashi being the leader of the hero group and me the leader of the villain group. The rest of the day was spent with everyone playing and ended as the sky started to darken. I was excited for tomorrow too, as my dad and mom were taking me to my Uncle's facility to see it and use my quirk under their supervision.

"Mom, Dad! What's taking so long!" I ask as I impatiently wait by the door for them.

"Calm down Akihiko, we are coming," dad says as I finally hear them coming downstairs to me.

Dad drove us there, and we headed to the city where my Uncle had the hero headquarters that he used for training and organizing with other heroes. I wanted to see this for a long time, but for some reason, they wouldn't let me until now though. Walking inside we can see several heroes going about their day, some I knew and others did not. Though we heard a voice of an older man behind us who seemed to recognize us.

"Hello you all must be Toshinori's family, I'm Sorahiko Torino–" the man begins to introduce himself, but I recognize him as Gran Torino. The hero that my Uncle told me taught him at high school and was a great hero.

"You're Gran Torino!" I say accidentally cutting him off and my mom gives me a look that says I'm in trouble later.

"Sorry for our son, he can be excitable at times," my dad says apologizing for me cutting off Gran Torino.

"No, it's fine and yes, that would be me. Though I thought the younger kids forgot about me today," Gran Torino says laughing at my excitement at meeting him.

"My friends and I learned a lot about the heroes that keep all the by guys away! Plus my Uncle told me a lot about you!" I say still excited about meeting a famous hero and one that my Uncle likes too.

"That's good your friends and you are learning about what we do, I bet you all want to become heroes one day too," Gran Torino says with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be the number one hero when I grow up!" I say with a determined look and my parents smile at my excitement.

"You all are here…..Oh Sensei Torino you are here too. It is nice seeing you again, but what brings you here?" we hear my Uncle say as he walks over to us.

"Good to see you too Toshinori. Though I'm just here to drop off some paperwork for the third-year students we believe will become good heroes after they graduate," Gran Torino says smiling at my Uncle who nods his head.

"I saw this family enter and could recognize your brother since you both share some similarities, though your nephew was telling me he is going to be the number one hero when he grows up," Gran Torino says giving my Uncle a smirk, which my Uncle laughs at and pats my dad on the shoulder while ruffling my hair with his other hand.

"Yes, young Akihiko will become one of the best heroes in the future that I'm sure of. I look forward to the day I can pass on the number one spot to him," my Uncle says smiling down at me and giving me a thumbs up. Only increasing my determination to prove myself.

"Well it was nice meeting you all and seeing you again Toshinori," Gran Torino says waving us goodbye as he leaves the hero HQ in the city.

"Follow me everyone I will give you a tour of the facilities and what we heroes do here on a daily basis. Then at the end, we can let you use your quirk a bit in the training hall," my Uncle says as he shows us around the HQ and all the different places inside it. He introduces us to all the heroes we pass and meet along the way too.

"This is the training hall, where we heroes can train our bodies and quirks to better learn them to protect people and defeat the villains," my Uncle says as he shows us the biggest room yet, with all sorts of equipment and machines.

"So young Akihiko, did you want to play around with your quirk?" my Uncle asks me and I immediately nod my head excitedly.

"What did you want to do first?" my Uncle asks me as I look around the room curiously.

"I love flying, can I fly around?" I ask looking at the ceiling which is very high too, maybe fifty feet (fifteen meters).

"Sure," my Uncle says with a hearty laugh. I smile and my wings immediately appear behind me as I fly away and fly around the room laughing. The couple heroes in the room are watching me too and some waved at me, while others ignored me. After flying around for a bit I landed next to my family again. Even at much higher heights, I wasn't nervous at all, almost like I know I could never fall willingly, and even if I did I'd be fine.

"What do you do here to train?" I ask my uncle after landing since I'm not sure what to do next.

"Well you know how strong I am, so I have to wear extremely heavy weights and use a very durable machine that can handle a few of my hits," my Uncle says while flexing his muscles at me with a laugh. My dad rolls his eyes at my Uncle and my mom chuckles seeing this.

"Can I watch?" I ask excitedly since I've only ever seen my Uncle use his powers or fight on TV.

"Sure thing young Akihiko," my Uncle says smiling at me and motioning for me to follow him. As my parents sit down on benches nearby talking to each other as I follow my Uncle.

Walking over to this special rack I see my Uncle grab these bands that look very heavy, putting them on his wrists and ankles. Then he walks over to this metal machine that looks like a boxing bag but is firmly bolted to the ground.

"Hey All Might! Try not to break that machine again yeah! Or the boss is gonna be annoyed to have to replace it again!" one of the heroes says with a laugh, then everyone else laughs with them in the room.

"I'll try!" my Uncle says with his signature laugh, before turning to me giving me a thumbs up, and getting ready to show me his powers.

He then throws a few punches that I can't even see happen before I hear loud bangs that reverberate around the room. Then a few kicks too and it all happens within seconds, looking at the machine I can see it is all dented up now. From watching him on TV I know he is holding back as he never shouted one of his signature moves.

"WOW! You are so strong! I can't wait to be as strong as you too!" I say laughing in excitement seeing my Uncle in action, even against a machine.

"I'm sure you will be too one day!" my Uncle says to me laughing and then pats my head before removing the weights.

Shortly after leaving the hero HQ, we say goodbye to my Uncle and head home. Arriving home, I call Shota, Hizashi, and Nemuri about what I had done today and how strong my Uncle is, even though they already knew he was strong. Though seeing it in person was just more exciting in my opinion.

The next few weeks go by with summer coming to an end and the next school year approaching. Though Hizashi and Shota left town to visit their grandparents, I've asked my mom about her parents but she told me they died when she was younger, shortly after getting married to my dad. Though my Uncle or dad never talk about their parents.

"Hey dad, how come you or Uncle Toshinori never talk about your parents? Are they dead like mom's parents?" I ask him one day as he and I are playing catch outside with a baseball.

"Why are you asking all of a sudden?" dad asks me as he tosses the ball back to me.

"Well Shota and Hizashi are visiting their grandparents, and I just was wondering why we never visit your parents," I say tossing the ball back to him.

"Oh, I see. Well, my parents live in the USA, as they are originally from there. They came here when your Uncle and I were kids, then tried to move back to the USA when we were about to go to high school. Though we... your Uncle and I had a problem with our parents and that's why we moved back here together and haven't seen them since. I'll talk with your Uncle and maybe we can try reaching out to them again," my dad says as we continue to pass the ball back and forth a few more times.

"Ok, though if they are mean then we don't need to talk to them," I say with a shrug.

"You're right Akihiko, we don't need to talk with bad people," mom says as she comes outside having heard what dad said. Though my dad just gives us a blank expression, before sighing and nodding his head at my mom.