Chapter 7: New Things
BAM BAM BAM
"Good. Keep it up." said Yamamoto who was overseeing Yuuichi's training at the moment.
Yamamoto had come back two months after Rumi left and was a little sad to have not seen Rumi off, but had no choice in the matter. A villain had attacked the temple looking for secret martial arts and treasure but all he found were fists. Still, Yamamoto was asked to return to safeguard the monastery just in case the villain had friends but nothing happened. Then he returned to train Yuuichi and even trained Kunio on the very rare occasion he went over to Yuuichi's house.
But at the moment, Yamamoto was not overseeing Yuuichi's usual training but was helping him out with his quirk training. After he made that promise with Rumi, Yuuichi started to train his quirk even harder. One way he did that was to incorporate his constructs with his martial arts, which he was eventually going to do, but decided to start earlier.
He would fight an imaginary foe and would use his constructs while fighting to make himself able to keep the constructed image focused under any circumstance while also being able to focus on other things.
This is one way he would train his focus, the other was to have Yamamoto play blaring rock music while Yuuichi ran an obstacle course while also being hit by balls that Yamamoto threw at him all while keeping an intricate yet small Buddha constructed. All in all, it was a good way to train himself to keep the focus. Yuuichi felt like eventually, he would develop parallel processing that would allow him to focus on one thing while also being able to hold a construct without a problem.
CRACK
"Damn." said Yuuichi as his construct dissipated after losing his focus for a nanosecond.
"Slow progress is still progress, Young Master." said Yamamoto.
"I know, thanks, Yamamoto. It's just a little frustrating is all." he said as he picked up a towel and wiped his sweat off.
"It's normal to be frustrated when there is nothing to compare yourself to. But if you were to compare your progress to that of your peers, you would be miles ahead. They spend their time playing while you spend much of your free time training. But you also must remember slow success builds character, fast success builds ego." said Yamamoto.
"Too late on the ego part." joked Yuuichi with a smile.
"Haha, indeed." laughed Yamamoto.
"I think that's enough for today."
"Good. Remember to free your mind of its burdens. A clear mind and clear space allow you to think and act with purpose."
"You mean lay down and stare at the sky? Not a problem." said Yuuichi with a grin.
"I suppose not. I'll see you in a few days, Young Master." said Yamamoto before leaving while Yuuichi lay down on the floor after opening up the roof.
'Now to train my container.' thought Yuuichi.
After training to keep his focus, Yuuichi would then train his container's capacity, his energy-gathering speed, and his construct building speed. For the capacity, each day he would carefully add more energy until he felt bloated before stopping. Every day he would do the same which caused his capacity to slowly grow.
He would train the speed at which he gathered energy by bringing it to his container but not letting it enter and doing that over and over. As for training the speed at which he created his constructs, he would train by creating constructs over and over again. Not the most complicated training methods by any means, but they got the job done.
'Now that I think about it, why haven't I tried to compress the energy in my container? That would create denser energy that in turn allows for more room and higher-quality energy. If it works, that is. What the hell, let me give it a go.' thought Yuuichi.
Feeling the energy within the container, he began to make it compress. Naturally, there was some resistance, but Yuuichi kept at it. And slowly it felt like the energy was becoming more compact until eventually, it stopped compressing further. Taking a minute to make sure it wouldn't go back to the way it was, Yuuichi was very happy with the results.
'Compressing the energy gave me a whole another 1/5 of space. Let me try to make a construct to feel the difference.' thought Yuuichi before creating a palm.
'That took less energy. If my container was digitized with 100 being full, a palm would take 2.5. The bigger, stronger, and more intricate I make it or the longer I keep it around, the more it takes. But the baseline is 2.5. If I had to compare the two, it felt like it took 2. A 20% quality increase. That's very good. Now I have another path to train. Man am I glad I read those cultivation novels.' thought Yuuichi before starting to fill up the rest of the container.
As Yuuichi was filling up his container with Lunar and Stellar energy, the doors to the training hall were slammed open.
"Hmm? Dad? What's up?" asked Yuuichi seeing his dad at the door with a big smile on his face.
"Your mother has some news, come! Hurry!" he said, running off leaving Yuuichi confused before following him at a slightly slower pace.
"Ah, Yuuichi, you're here." said his mom with his dad standing next to her smiling with excitement.
"What's going on?" asked Yuuichi.
"Tell him! Come on tell him!" said his dad.
"I'm pregnant." she said with a big smile.
"She's pregnant! Hahaha!" shouted his dad before picking her up and twirling her around.
"Really?!" said Yuuichi, excited at the prospect of being an older brother.
"Yes. I went to the hospital to confirm. You're going to be an older brother." she said hugging him.
"I'm going to be an older brother. Sweet." said Yuuichi with a smile.
"But just because we're going to have another child, doesn't mean we're going to love you any less. Even if you're not our biological child, you are our child, no matter what." said his mom seriously as she grabbed his face to look him in the eyes.
"She's right. You are our child, and our heir." said his dad, just as seriously.
"I know. But if my younger sibling wants to be the heir, I won't stop them." he said.
"Leave all that talk for when they're born and old enough to know what they want. Right now you are our heir, whether you like it or not. We don't force it on you because it's counterproductive but we would like it if you at least tried to learn the business." said his mom.
"Sigh, fine. Once a week." said Yuuichi.
"Good. Now let's come up with names for the baby, whether boy or girl." said his mom, releasing his face.
"How about Momo if they're a girl?" said Yuuichi.
"Momo, I like that. What do you think dear?"
"I like it. And if they're a boy, Akihiko."
"I like it, too. Good. It's decided then. Momo if they're a girl, Akihiko if they're a boy." said his mom as she rubbed her stomach.
"Are you going to find out as soon as possible or are you going to wait until they're born?" asked Yuuichi.
"I want it to be a surprise. And no going behind my back to find out." she said to her husband.
"No promises. I can't go that long not knowing."
"If I'm going to carry a child in my body for 9 months, I think you can hold out on finding out whether it's a boy or a girl."
"Sigh, yes dear." said his dad causing Yuuichi to laugh.
"You think that's funny, eh? Come on, let's start your business lessons." said his dad before dragging away Yuuichi.
"Hehe, I can't wait for you to meet everyone." whispered Yuuichi's mom as she rubbed her stomach.
Over the next nine months, life got a little busier for the entire Yaoyorozu family. As they were expecting a new baby soon, Yuuichi's parents had to leave the company in a perfect state so they would be able to take the time off to take care of the new baby.
As for Yuuichi, his training continued with the added one-day-a-week training in business courtesy of his dad. At first, Yuuichi hated it and now nine months later, he still did. Not because he wasn't good at it, no rather he was good at it, he just found it boring.
He couldn't see himself running a company for the rest of his life when instead he could spend it being a hero. But his dad convinced him to take it seriously because pro heroes have agencies that are essentially companies. To which Yuuichi retorted by saying that there are people to take care of all that. Still, he was a little convinced so he started to take it a bit more seriously.
On the baby front, his mother was re-reading all the parenting books she had bought when they adopted Yuuichi, just to get a refresher. She also started baby-proofing the house, even though it wouldn't be necessary to do so until a year or two after the baby is born. Still, she insisted on doing so because she didn't want to take any chances.
As for Yuucihi's mom physically, she started going through the typical pregnancy changes any mother goes through. Nausea, swollen feet, weird cravings, mood swings, etc. The most notable moment of this is when one minute she was crying while watching a commercial about a lost pencil that ends up making its way back to its owner and the next she threw the remote at the TV. Then she started crying again because she broke the TV before getting up to eat an entire tub of ice cream. All the while, Yuuichi, and his dad just stared at her in disbelief.
That was only one of many moments where her pregnancy changes made both boys stare at her in disbelief. But of course, neither of them said anything because how could they say something to the woman who was carrying life? Also because they had been yelled at after telling her something once, and they never wanted to experience that again.
Today was the expected due date so the entire family was nervous and making sure they had everything they needed before they made their way to the hospital.
"Do you have the overnight bag?" asked Yuuichi's mom who looked like a balloon ready to pop.
"Check." said his dad showing her two bags.
"Camera?"
"Check." said Yuuichi who was recording everything with a prototype camera that the company had developed for hero work. The camera could fly around and be controlled via a small control pad like a drone, but much more advanced.
"Is that the camera our R&D division has been working on?" she asked.
"Yeah, I borrowed it." said Yuuichi.
"Good. Make sure to record everything, but close your eyes and ears during the birth."
"Way ahead of you, Mom. I'm not taking any chances so I'm using these bad boys." said Yuuichi before taking out sound nullifiers and vision blockers that were used for villain transport.
"Do you have another pair?" asked his dad.
"What?! You want to block out the sight and sound of your wife giving birth?!"
"What?! No, no, of course not! I'm just worried that those might be faulty. I'm worried for him." said his dad.
"Nice save." said Yuuichi with a grin.
"That's what you better have meant. Okay, let's go. It's almost time to meet our new family member." she said with a big smile.
'Wonder if it's over.' thought Yuuichi as he was currently sitting down with the sound nullifiers and vision blockers on.
They had been in the hospital for a few hours when his mother's water broke. After that, they had to wait until she was dilated enough for the baby to be birthed which took a few more hours. During that time his mother had been screaming and had almost crushed both his and his father's hands. Of course, they had been recording the whole thing at her insistence.
When the time finally came that she was ready, Yuuichi handed over the controls of the camera to his father before sitting on a chair and putting on the sight and sound-blocking apparatuses.
Since then, it had been about an hour, and Yuuichi was wondering if everything was going okay. Thankfully, he didn't have to worry for much longer.
'Oh, Dad's shaking me.' thought Yuuichi as he took off his blindfolds and headphones to see his tired-looking dad with a big smile on his face.
"She's okay?" asked Yuuichi, worried about his mother.
"Your mom? She's fine. Come meet your sibling." said his dad as they made their way to the bed where Yuuichi saw his tired mom holding a baby.
"Yuuichi, this is Momo, your little sister." she said with a smile.
"Can I hold her?"
"Of course. Here. Careful. Hold her head." she said as she handed her over to him.
As Yuuichi looked down to see his younger sister, he saw her open her big black eyes and look up at him. Touching her cheeks gently with his finger, she lightly grabbed it with her tiny hand and smiled. At this, Yuuichi started tearing up with tears of joy.
"I'm your big brother, Yuuichi. And I promise that I'll protect you no matter what. Even if it means going against the world." he said before kissing her forehead.
"Hey, I'm supposed to say that to her." said his dad with a teasing grin.
"Seems like he's going to be an overprotective big brother." said his mom with a teasing grin as well.
"I guess I am." he said as he continued to stare at his sister.
Chapter 8: Entrance Exam
"You nervous?" asked Yuuichi as he unwrapped a new lollipop before placing it in his mouth.
"Of course I am. We're about to take the entrance exam for the best hero school in the country." said Kunio grabbing his head.
"Haha, calm down. We'll be fine. Here, to calm your nerves." said Yuuichi before offering him a lollipop.
"Why are you offering me a lollipop like it's a cure?" he asked.
"Fine, then. More for me." said Yuuichi
"No! Give it to me." he said, snatching it away from him before eating it.
"So?"
"It kinda worked."
"Told you. Sweets calm the soul. Hey, that's not a bad slogan for a business. Anyway, let's go." said Yuuichi patting Kunio on the back before the pair continued walking.
Currently, the pair were about to enter the grounds of the best hero school in the country, UA, because today was none other than the day of the entrance exam.
Clearly, Kunio was nervous while Yuuichi was as carefree as always.
"By the way, why are you taking the exam? Can't you get in through a special recommendation? I mean your parents are nothing to scoff at, I'm sure you could get one." asked Kunio while they followed the signs for the entrance exam.
"Nah, too boring."
"Eh?" said Kunio, a look of confusion on his face.
"What?"
"Is that the only reason?"
"What do you mean? Is that not a good enough reason?"
"I thought you would say something like "I want to get here through my own hard work" or something like that."
"While that is partially the reason as well, I've heard the U.A. entrance exam is notoriously difficult. I want to see that for myself." he said with a smile.
"Ah, I always forget that Rumi's battle-junkie personality rubbed off on you a bit. It always slips my mind since you're usually so laid back." said Kunio.
"That's what being friends is all about, isn't it? They influence each other."
"To be better, not to be battle junkies."
"Tomato, tomato." he retorted.
"You know, that saying doesn't really work in Japanese." pointed out Kunio as they continued to make their way to the classroom where they would take their written exam.
"You look worse for wear." said Yuuichi as he saw Kunio come out of the classroom as if he had just had the soul sucked out of him.
"I hate you." he said seeing that Yuuichi still looked as carefree as ever.
"What? Don't tell me it was hard for you?" asked Yuuichi since he had breezed through it.
"No, it wasn't. Just long. Why was a written exam for a hero school 4 hours?" he asked.
"Too many people want to be heroes." said Yuuichi, popping a lollipop in Kunio's mouth.
"Bleh, why do you have a lollipop that tastes like umeboshi?" said Kunio after he spat the lollipop out.
"To wake me up. You never know when you need that extra pick-me-up." he said with a smile as he unwrapped an umeboshi lollipop before puckering his lips.
"Oh yeah, that's the stuff."
"You're so weird." said Kunio with a smile.
"Hey, what happened to that shy and polite kid that Rumi and I saved? I want him back." said Yuuichi.
"You're not the only one whose friends changed him, you know?" he said with a smile.
"Haha, boy am I glad you did. I liked the old you, but this you is so much better. More outgoing. The old you was too shy for my liking." said Yuuichi.
"I agree." he said with a reminiscing look on his face.
"Alright, alright. Let's go to the auditorium. Now it's time for the real fun part."
After sitting down next to each other, since they were from the same school, the pair talked while waiting for the exam to start.
"Why are you looking around so much?" asked Kunio after noticing that Yuuichi was looking around.
"Just looking around. I want to see if I can guess who'll be our future classmates." said Yuuichi.
"Our future classmates? You're that confident?" asked Kunio.
"Of course. I can't live my life being unconfident. It's not how I roll." said Yuuichi.
"I thought you were scoping out the competition." said Kunio.
"Nah, no competition here anyway." he said, putting his feet up on the small table and closing his eyes.
"Hey, quiet down. People will hear you." said Kunio looking around and noticing that some people were shooting them dirty looks.
"Oi, what'd you say?" said a student from a row above the two that looked like an ogre. And not in a mean way, he literally looked like an ogre. Or Oni would be the more apt description.
Opening one eye to see who was talking, Yuuichi then closed his eyes again.
"I said there was no competition here anyway."
"Don't repeat it!" said Kunio before turning to look at the student, "Sorry, about my friend there. He tends to talk out of his ass. Don't mind him."
"Heh, coward." said the student with a sneer before sitting back down.
Opening his mouth, Yuuichi was about to get up and retort but was stopped by Kunio.
"Calm down. The exam's about to start." he said, pointing to the front of the auditorium where a teacher was taking the stage.
"Lucky him." said Yuuichi with a smirk.
"Ehem. Welcome all to the U.A. practical exam. I'm sure you're all eager to show your stuff so I'll try to get through this as quickly as possible. The test will be a ten-minute practice run that will take place in our replica city district. There will be a large number of villains ranging from 1 point to 3 points.
Your task is to take out as many as possible, naturally the more you take out, the higher your score. Also, I should mention that attacking a fellow examinee grants you immediate disqualification. We are heroes, not villains. That is all. Now if you will, go to your designated meeting spots. The number should be on the card that was given to you after leaving the written exam. Good luck and Plus Ultra." said the teacher before walking off stage.
"I got 1, what about you?" asked Kunio.
"2. Probably so we won't help each other out." said Yuuichi.
"Makes sense. Okay. Let's do this. Good luck." said Kunio.
"You too. I believe in you." said Yuuichi patting him on the shoulder before going off to his meeting point.
As Yuuichi was waiting for the exam to start, he noticed he was being covered by a shadow. Tilting his head up he noticed it was the student from the auditorium, except this time he was carrying a club and was wrapped in animal fur.
"Yo, Oni. Looks like we're in the same testing site." said Yuuichi with a grin.
"Good. I'm going to take all the points and you won't be able to pass." he said with a grin.
"Oh? Why don't we have a little bet?" said Yuuichi.
"Bet?"
"Whoever gets the most points wins. The loser has to buy the winner candy." said Yuuichi.
"Candy? Are you too afraid to lose money?" said the Oni with a sneer.
"No. I'm just not interested in money. So, do we have a deal?"
"Humph, fine." said the student.
"Good. I'm Yuuichi by the way."
"Kentaro."
"Fitting. Good luck." said Yuuichi before Kentaro walked away and stopped to turn and look at him.
"What if you don't make it in?" he asked.
"We both know we're going to make it in." said Yuuichi with a smile that Kentaro reciprocated before continuing to walk.
'When's this thing gonna start? I have other plans.' thought Yuuichi as he was getting impatient for the exam to start.
"Start!" yelled the announcer over the speaker system.
"Finally." said Yuuichi as he leisurely made his way into the city.
"Eh?" said the other examinees.
"There's no countdown in real battle. Run." said the announcer before the examinees ran like bats out of hell.
"You'll never beat me like that!" said Kentaro as he ran past Yuuichi and slammed down on a 1-point robot with his club.
"I'm not too worried." said Yuuichi with a smile as he entered a tall building before starting to make his way up to the roof.
After two minutes, he reached the roof before making his way to the edge of the rooftop.
"This should be good. Don't really feel like running all around the place. Might as well have some fun with it." said Yuuichi before holding his hand out and creating a construct out of Solar Energy.
"And so Hou Yi shot down the nine suns, leaving only one." said Yuuichi looking at the Bow Construct he had created while plucking the string.
The bow was not a weapon that the Shaolin Monks trained, so Yuuichi had to ask his parents to hire an archery instructor. Thankfully, he was a fast learner so the instructor only had to teach him a few times before he was sufficiently proficient to train on his own. As to why Yuuichi wanted to learn how to use the bow, well it's because of the legend of Hou Yi. That's the only reason.
Constructing a SE arrow, he notched it on the bow before looking down and spotting a few robots that no one had gotten yet. Drawing the bow, he aimed at the robot before releasing it.
BOOM
"One down." said Yuuichi before rapidly shooting the remaining robots.
Done with that group, Yuuichi moved around the rooftop, stopping to shoot any robots he saw, allowing him to quickly rack up points.
"Should've been counting. Oops. Oh well. That should be enough to win the bet and get admitted. I'll just relax for now." he said before dispelling the construct and sitting down on the edge of the building to watch the exam.
"Ooh, a spring quirk, that looks useful. Metal claws, simple but effective." said Yuuichi to himself as he looked at the various quirks of his fellow examinees.
"Oh shit." said Yuuichi before constructing wings and quickly flying down to help an examinee who hadn't noticed a piece of rubble about to fall on them.
Now close enough, Yuuichi constructed a dome around the examinee just in time for the rubble to be blocked. Creating a hand, he moved the rubble before dispelling the dome.
"You okay?" asked Yuuichi to the student.
"Y-yeah. T-thank you." said the guy who was a little shaken up.
"No problem. Just keep an eye out." said Yuuichi before flying back up to the building and dispelling the wings.
"Luckily I've practiced creating and using wings before." said Yuuichi before lazing around until the time was up.
BOOOM
Looking toward the sound, Yuuichi saw a giant robot lumbering around.
"Eh? I don't remember them talking about a big one. Wonder how many points it's worth. Guess I'll find out." said Yuuichi before constructing the bow again.
"Let me test it first." said Yuuichi before constructing an arrow and shooting it at the robot. As it hit the robot, Yuuich could see a tiny hole was made.
"Needs some more juice." said Yuuichi before constructing an arrow that began to heat up the surroundings and was almost bright enough to blind someone.
"This should be enough." said Yuuichi with a smile before notching the arrow, drawing the bow to a full moon, and shooting at the robot.
ZING
As the arrow left the bow, it left a ray of sunlight in its wake before hitting the robot and going straight through its head, continuing its path unabated. Yuuichi seeing this had to dispel the arrow for fear it would hit something or someone else.
BOOM
"Nice." said Yuuichi after seeing the robot explode.
"The test is over." said the announcer.
After going back to the meeting point, the announcer said they would get their results in the mail a few days later. Yuuichi hearing this was glad he could leave and made his way out of the campus where he waited for Kunio.
"Yo." said Yuuichi as he saw Kunio leave the campus.
"Yuuichi, how'd you do?" he asked.
"Good. What about you?"
"Sigh, I think it was barely enough for me to pass. I had to get tricky to destroy the robots."
"Yeah, guess robots are kind of your antithesis unless you use that. But I know you don't like to."
"Hurts my throat."
"That's what she said."
"Huh? Who said that?"
"Never mind. Anyway, I would invite you out to celebrate but I'll save that for when we both get in." said Yuuichi.
"I'm sure that's the reason." said Kunio with a smile.
"Hey, that is the reason. What other reason could there possibly be?"
"You told your sister you would do something and now you're anxious to go." said Kunio with a teasing smile.
"Uhh. No comment. Later." he said before running off.
"I'm home!" said Yuuichi as he entered his home.
"Nii-chan!" yelled a small figure as it ran at Yuuichi before jumping at him.
"Oh, there she is! There's my cute little sister." said Yuuichi catching his little sister in his arms before spinning her around while she laughed.
"Nii-chan, can we go to the park now?" she asked, impatiently.
"Eh? Were we going to the park? Why can't I remember that?" said Yuuichi, feigning he forgot.
"Eh? Nii-chan forgot?" she asked as tears threatened to appear in her eyes.
"Of course not! How could I forget about my promise to you?!" he said before spinning her around again.
"Yay! Let's go, Nii-chan!" she said.
"Now, hold on a minute, Momo. Your brother just got back from his exam. He'll take you to the park in a bit." said his mother as she appeared from the kitchen.
"Okay." she said.
"Go get ready, we'll leave in a bit." said Yuuichi as he put her down before she bolted.
"You spoil your sister too much." said his mom.
"Can't help it. She knows that I'd do anything for her."
"That's good, I guess. Just take it down a notch. Anyway, how'd the entrance exam go?" she asked.
"Good. It was easy. I'm pretty sure I passed." he said.
"That's good. We'll celebrate once you know for sure. And be careful when you go to the park. Don't take your eye off her." she said.
"Yes ma'am." said Yuuichi.
"Nii-chan, I'm ready!" said Momo as she came downstairs in her outfit with a shirt just like Yuuichi's Usagi shirt.
"Good, let's go!" he said picking her up and putting her on his shoulders.
Chapter 9: Park Day
"Can we fly there?" asked Momo atop Yuuichi's shoulders while swinging her legs.
"We could but we would get in trouble. Do you know why?" asked Yuuichi.
"Because you can't use your quirk in public." she said.
"That's right, good job." said Yuuichi, looking up to see Momo with a smile and her head raised in pride.
As Yuuichi continued to make his way to the park with Momo atop his shoulders, the two talked about anything that Momo wanted. From public quirk usage to why butterflies have pretty wings. Even though Momo was more intelligent than others her age, she was still a kid, so some questions were very childish while others were less so. And as a good brother, Yuuichi was more than happy to answer any of her questions.
"Why aren't there any more dinosaurs?" asked Momo as she ate a lollipop, courtesy of her older brother who rarely gave her one after being scolded by their mother since she could get cavities, unlike Yuuichi.
"A long, long time ago, a big rock from space hit the Earth and killed all the dinosaurs." explained Yuuichi.
"Why?"
"Because the rock hit the earth so hard that it covered the entire planet in dust which meant the dinosaurs couldn't breathe."
"Is that going to happen to us?" she asked.
With this question, Yuuichi looked up to see that Momo was looking down at him with a scared look on her face.
"No. And if it ever does, I promise that I'll stop it." said Yuuichi with a smile before pinching her cheeks to switch her train of thought to something not so grim.
"Nwii-chwan! Stwop!" she said.
"They're like mochi." teased Yuuichi, letting go of her cheeks.
"Hmph." she said, pouting.
"Okay, okay. Nii-chan's sorry. Will you forgive me, Hime-sama?"
"Only if we can get ice cream after the park." she said with a sly smile.
"Haha, okay." said Yuuichi, laughing at her antics.
"Yay!" she cheered.
With the thought of ice cream on her mind, Momo forgot about the terrifying thought of a giant asteroid coming down from space and wiping out all life.
'I should be able to stop an asteroid eventually, right?' thought Yuuichi as he daydreamed about a giant thousand-handed Buddha construct holding up an asteroid like Atlas.
"Okay, go play. Make some friends, but be careful. I'll be here watching you." said Yuuichi as he lifted Momo off of his shoulders and put her down on the ground.
"Okay." she said before speeding off to play in the jungle gym.
Seeing her tiny figure run off and almost trip in excitement made Yuuichi chuckle.
Knowing they might be there for a while, Yuuichi went to sit down at a bench that was close to Momo and had a good view of her.
Looking around the playground, Yuuichi could see that many of the other parents and/or guardians weren't paying attention to their kids but rather were on their phones.
'Sheesh, you'd think they would pay attention to their flesh and blood. Though I really can't blame them. Not everyone is like me. Being content just doing nothing.' thought Yuuichi before putting his attention back on Momo.
Watching his sister play in the jungle gym and get along with the other children made Yuuichi think back on his childhood. More specifically his friendship with Rumi.
'It's been about 6 years. Time sure does fly. I wonder how she's doing now.' thought Yuuichi as he reminisced on all the good times they had before being snapped out of it by Momo.
"Nii-chan." said Momo.
"What's wrong?" asked Yuuichi.
"I've been calling you. Are you okay?" she asked, concern on her face.
"Haha, sorry. I'm fine. I was just thinking about something." he said, rubbing her head.
"Okay. Come play with me." she said, dragging him towards the swings where she promptly sat down, waiting for him to push her.
"Okay, hang on tight." said Yuuichi before pushing her softly.
"Nii-chan, push me harder." she said.
"Roger." said Yuuichi before pushing her hard enough for her to actually gain some speed.
"Whee!" she said as she swung back and forth.
This continued for a few minutes before Momo got bored.
"Nii-chan, I'm bored. Can we go get ice cream now?" she asked as she jumped down from the swing.
"Already? You sure you don't want to play some more?" he asked.
"No."
"Okay. Let's go get some ice cream then." he said, grabbing her hand before the pair started walking to an ice cream stand that was in the park.
"Welcome, what can I get you today?" asked the kind-looking old man manning the ice cream stand.
"Let me get a scoop of matcha on a cone. And what do you want, Momo?"
"I can't see the flavors, Nii-chan." she said.
"Oops." said Yuuichi before picking her up to look at the flavor menu.
"I want chocolate! Two scoops! With sprinkles!" she said.
"One scoop. Mom will get mad at me if she finds out I let you eat so much ice cream." said Yuuichi.
"Please, Nii-chan, can I get two scoops?" she said with puppy dog eyes.
"Sigh. Fine. But don't tell Mom." said Yuuichi caving to her cuteness.
"Yay! Thank you, Nii-chan! I love you!" she said before giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Haha. You have a good older brother." said the old man as he scooped the ice cream.
"He's the best."
"Here you go." said the old man, handing over the two cones.
"Thanks." said Yuuichi, putting down Momo before grabbing the two cones with one hand and handing the old man the money with the other.
"Thank you, Jii-san." said Momo.
"Haha, take care you two." said the old man waving goodbye as the pair left, ice cream in hand.
"Let's go sit down on a bench so you won't spill your ice cream." said Yuuichi before the pair sat down on a bench that had a view of a small pond with ducks.
"Ah." said Momo as she looked down at the gob of ice cream that fell on her shirt.
"Here, let me clean that up." said Yuuichi as he used a napkin to clean up the ice cream.
"Looks like there's going to be evidence that we ate some ice cream now." joked Yuuichi.
"Sorry, Nii-chan."
"It's okay. Mom would have figured it out anyways." he said, rubbing her head as the two continued to eat their ice cream and enjoy the view.
As the two watched the ducks, someone greeted them.
"Afternoon citizens. I too like watching the ducks." said a man dressed in a colorful costume with a black mask covering only the eyes who was clearly a hero.
"A hero." said Momo.
"Haha, that's right little girl. I am a hero." he said posing.
"Patrolling the neighborhood?" asked Yuuichi.
"On my way home, citizen. I like to stop by here and look at the ducks before going home. It calms me." he said.
"That's nice." said Yuuichi, not really interested in the hero.
"Indeed. Well, you two be careful now." he said before leaving.
"Nii-chan." said Momo as she stared at the hero's departing back.
"What's up?" asked Yuuichi.
"Are you going to be a hero?"
"I am."
"Why?"
"I don't like bullies. And I made a promise with someone."
"But isn't it dangerous?" she asked looking down at the ground.
"It is. But you don't have to worry because your big brother is strong. And if I'm a hero, I can protect you, Mom, Dad, and everyone else." he said, patting her head causing her to look up and see a big smile on his face with boundless confidence.
"I want to be a hero too. So I can protect you, mommy, and daddy." she said with determination on her face.
"Hahaha!" laughed Yuuichi, loud enough to attract the attention of other parkgoers.
"Nii-chan! Why are you laughing?!" she said with anger on her face.
"Sorry, sorry. I wasn't laughing at you wanting to be a hero. I promise. I was laughing because I was happy that my cute little sister wants to protect her family."
"Hmph, just wait and see. I'm going to be a good hero." she said pouting as she continued to eat her ice cream.
"I don't doubt it." said Yuuichi.
WOOSH
Hearing the sound of an object flying through the air, Yuuichi looked up to see a boulder flying toward the pair. And seeing the boulder on a collision course for the two of them, all of Yuuichi's senses went into overdrive to the point where it felt like time had slowed to a crawl.
And if he had a mirror, he would notice that his usually black pupils were replaced with blue lilies.
Drawing the Solar Energy from his reserve faster than he had ever done so before, he quickly conjured a giant buckler to redirect the boulder as well as a barrier around him and Momo as an added measure.
BANG
The boulder hit the buckler and was successfully diverted off course before crashing into the ground next to the pair.
"Ahh!" screamed Momo, dropping the ice cream and latching on to her brother after hearing the giant crash.
"Are you okay?" asked Yuuichi, picking Momo up while keeping the barrier conjured in case of another attack. At the same time, he stood up with her in his arms and started looking around the area to determine whether it was a random villain attack or targeted at them.
"Y-yes." she said, clearly shaken evident by the tears in her eyes and the trembling of her body.
"It's going to be okay. Just close your eyes. I'm going to protect you." said Yuuichi as he spotted a group of four villains making their way toward them.
'Shit. Seems like we're being targeted.' thought Yuuichi.
"N-nii-san?"
"I'm okay, Momo. Your big brother just needs to take care of some things really quickly, okay? I'm going to put you down on the bench for just a minute. I need you to close your eyes."
"No! Stay with me!" she said, holding on even tighter.
"Okay, okay. I'll stay with you. I won't let you go." he said before turning his attention back to the four villains who were already nearby.
'I wanted to beat them up myself, but I'll settle for letting my constructs do it.' thought Yuuichi.
"Hurry up and break this thing! The heroes should be here soon!" said one of the villains who had a sharp bone sticking out his forearm.
"Yeah, hurry up! We'll be rich once we kidnap these kids and get the ransom money!" said another who was dressed like a clown.
"Don't rush me! I can't perform under pressure!" said a short villain with drills for fingertips.
"Too long. Me smash." said the big one who looked like a big gorilla before he raised his hands and brought them down full force on the barrier.
BANG
"Ahh!" yelled Momo as she quickly covered her ears.
"Hey, kid, make this easier on yourselves and bring this thing down, would you?" said the one with the bone.
"Hahaha. No." said Yuuichi before conjuring two big palms, one on each side of the group of villains, and making them clap.
CLAP
"Ow! Hands hot!" said the gorilla villain who had used his arms to stop the hands.
"I was hoping to get this done with one move, but it seems you're fairly competent." said Yuuichi before the palms retreated before clapping once again.
"Ow! Drill, hurry!" said the gorilla after stopping the hands once more.
"I'm going! Keep holding him off!" he said as he used his drill fingers on the barrier that continued to hold steady.
Yuuichi then made the hands retreat once more before slamming them down but before they were stopped by the gorilla, they burst into a giant swarm of bees.
"Ah! Me hate bees!" said the gorilla villain as he swatted the swarm of bees that stung him with fiery pain.
"Damn it! Let's get out of here! The heroes will be here soon!" said the clown.
"Ahh! Whatever, let's go!" said the drill villain as he stopped trying to break the barrier.
"Who said you can go?" said Yuuichi, turning the swarm of bees into chains that wrapped up the four villains with the gorilla getting extra focus. But, since he didn't want to give them severe burns, he turned down the temperature of his constructs so it felt like no more than a hot summer day.
Still, he was angry so he also decided to cover the group in a barrier whose temperature was higher than the chains, so they can suffer for almost hurting his sister.
"Nii-chan?" asked Momo still with her eyes closed.
"It's okay, Momo. I took care of it. You can open your eyes now." said Yuuichi.
With her brother's assurance, Momo opened her eyes to see her smiling and unscathed older brother which instantly calmed her down. Turning around, she saw four very sweaty men covered in orange chains and surrounded by a barrier.
"You did that?" she asked.
"Yup. Aren't I awesome?"
"Nii-chan's the best!" she said.
"Haha, I'm just glad you're okay." he said.
Shortly after, the police showed up to take custody of the villains. They also asked Yuuichi to go to the station with them so he could recount the events that transpired, which he gladly did but not before calling his parents.
That led to his parents rushing to the police station where they made sure their children were okay before going to talk with the police chief, who reassured them he would find out what or who was behind the attempted kidnapping.
And after hearing Yuuichi's side of the story, along with video evidence and witness testimony, it was ruled self-defense and he was free to go.
"I'm so glad you're both okay." said Yuuichi's mom.
"Nii-chan was so cool!" said Momo.
"You didn't even see it, how would you know?" said his dad.
"I heard it." she said, pouting.
"Haha. I was cool, wasn't I?" said Yuuichi.
"Yup! And now I also want to be a hero! Just like Nii-chan!" said Momo.
"I'm sure you will be sweetie." said his mother, patting her head.
"Sigh, I wish one of you wanted to take over the company." said Yuuichi's dad.
"Just make another one." joked Yuuichi.
"Make another one? How are babies made?" asked Momo.
"Uhh." x 3
AN
Sorry for no chapter this past Sunday, finals week has been insane, to say the least. But I'm done with school for the semester, finally. ᓚᘏᗢ
This is the chapter for this past Sunday, so expect the regularly scheduled chapter as well. And maybe a bonus. We'll see.