"So you're saying that you and Nejire-chan want to… join a dojo?"
Kako and Shiori looked across the table at the two children after dinner. One wore a confident grin, while the other looked quietly resigned.
As usual, both mothers turned their attention to the more responsible child—Isshun.
"Yeah!" Nejire said brightly. "Do you need a reason? Shun-chan has a bunch!"
She turned toward him decisively, completely confident in her choice of spokesperson.
Both parents followed her gaze.
Isshun could only offer them a helpless glance. Beside him, Nejire was practically bouncing in her seat, thrilled at what she clearly considered another step on the path to becoming a hero.
--<>--
Rewinding a few hours earlier, Nejire and Isshun were walking home from school.
"Hey, hey, Shun-chan, what happened to our hero training?" After her stream of questions about her recent math homework finally stalled, the thought resurfaced.
So she finally realized.
With elementary school starting for both of them, their daily schedules no longer resembled the life of the unemployed. Somewhere along the way, Nejire had unconsciously forgotten about her and Shun-chan's "Hero Training."
"We don't really have time after school," Isshun said. "Didn't you say you needed help with your math homework?"
Isshun attempted to smoothly transition the conversation, but as if the outcome was inevitable, Nejire kept circling back to the conversation of Hero Training.
"Yeah, that too—but we should still train!" Nejire said, poking his shoulder.
"Soooo… I heard from a friend that they go to a martial arts dojo where they're learning how to be a hero!"
Who?
Who put this idea into this cotton ball's head?
That probably didn't even exist for elementary schoolers. Her friend had definitely been misinformed, or just wanted to brag!
This wasn't a world that trained child soldiers!
Isshun complained internally, but Nejire kept going, clearly trying to convince him.
"And we can definitely get stronger there!" she added, smiling brightly.
Shun-chan had told her before that becoming a hero required passing an exam. But when Nejire asked her classmates, she'd heard a dozen different explanations that each of them heard from their parents.
Still, Shun-chan wasn't the type to lie for no reason. And none of the answers actually contradicted each other.
So Nejire made an executive decision.
Just do everything!
It'll probably be fun anyways!
And honestly, didn't the idea of a dojo where you bowed before training and swung swords and shot bows around sound sooo cool?
"Some dojos are expensive," Isshun said plainly. "Do you even have the money?"
"Yeah! I've been saving my allowance, and I definitely have enough!" Nejire nodded.
She'd actually thought about it. Her piggy bank was pretty full, after all. It wasn't like her dad skimped on her allowance when she helped around the house.
'It's definitely not enough!' Isshun complained in his head. But at least she considered the pricing…
"What about time?" he tried again. "Don't you still have to study?"
"I'll just work harder!" Nejire said. "Don't I have you to help me?"
She smiled at him.
…While I don't mind, she's surprisingly actually put a decent amount of thought into this.
"You know that you probably can't give—"
"I'll never give up!" Nejire declared with confidence as she said that statement, her hands on her hips.
"...If you insist," Isshun sighed. "Sure."
Even if he didn't particularly enjoy exercising—or committing to things like this—it would probably be easier with a human-shaped motivator beside him.
The purpose of the questions were if Nejire had actually put any thought into what sounded like an impulsive move.
It was more of a habit than anything, seeing as if Nejire had put this much effort into trying to convince Isshun it meant she was correspondingly going to invest that much into that action.
Even if she'd sounded like she'd forgotten their promise to become heroes, asking her classmates for their perspectives meant she hadn't forgotten at all. She just wanted something more.
…Now that he thought about it, oversimplifying the entire process of becoming a Pro Hero into just passing an entrance exam probably reduced any pressure that Nejire might have had on becoming a Hero.
"Nice! Then you can convince Auntie Kako and Mom, right?" Nejire asked.
"...Was this your purpose this entire time?"
"Ehe!"
--<>--
So.
It led to this scenario where Nejire had smoothly passed the responsibility over to Isshun.
"...Well, since Nejire and I are going to be Pro Heroes in the future—" Isshun began.
"Yep, yep!" Nejire chimed in.
"...And the foundation—"
"What's—"
"Nejire," Isshun said flatly, "if you interrupt me one more time, I'm going to flick you on the forehead."
Ignoring the amused looks from both parents, Isshun continued.
"And the foundation of hero work is, at the very least, being physically fit." He finished.
Kako hummed thoughtfully. "So you're fully committed?"
Both Nejire and Isshun nodded.
Shiori added gently, "Even if it's for your dreams, we'll need more reasons than just wanting to work out. You don't have to necessarily join a dojo to do that."
"It's also about learning the basics in a supervised environment," Isshun replied. "While I'm confident in my ability to help Nejire train, knowledge without experience can lead to bad habits. And I'm still a child myself."
Nejire hadn't even considered that angle, but she nodded along anyway, full of faith in Shun-chan's ability to convince both Auntie Kako and her mom.
Hmm…
Shiori hummed to herself.
What she didn't say out loud was that she trusted Isshun with Nejire—more than Isshun himself would probably expect.
After all, watching him chase after Nejire during their 'Hero Training', making sure he was always positioned to catch her as she flew around without hesitation and glee, had steadily built that trust. It would've been strange if it hadn't.
What Shiori didn't want was to burden Isshun with even more responsibility, especially if he'd been dragged into it by her daughter's enthusiasm.
So, even if only to lessen the weight on Isshun's shoulders, she found herself agreeing with his proposal.
Money had never been the issue.
What kind of parents would Kako and Shiori be if they weren't willing to support their children's dreams?
Of course, even with precognition, Isshun couldn't read minds. So he waited quietly for an answer from either parent.
Kako, meanwhile, had arrived at a similar conclusion.
She'd nearly agreed from the start—if only because she wanted to see her son go outside for reasons other than school.
Whenever she asked Isshun whether he'd made friends, the conversation tended to derail awkwardly.
Even if I hope you and Nejire-chan get together someday, that doesn't mean she should be your only friend, she often thought.
It wasn't like she could force her son's decisions.
But that didn't mean she wanted to be a bad mother.
When Isshun was younger, she'd been deeply career-driven.
Confident in his intelligence and maturity, she'd maintained her workload, often leaving him home alone. It had been an unspoken agreement of sorts.
Then one day, Isshun had casually asked her if she wanted to have dinner at Nejire-chan's house the day they moved in.
That unfamiliar feeling of her son announcing something had been a wake-up call.
After that, she'd turned down several promotion offers and increased her remote work, just to spend more time with him. And in doing so, she'd realized how much she hadn't known before.
What he liked to eat.
How he spent his free time.
How considerate he was—to both her and Genzai and the Hado family.
She was proud of the person her son had grown into. But knowing that she'd missed so much of it weighed heavily on her.
After talking it over with Genzai, they'd both shifted to working remotely whenever possible, only leaving home when absolutely necessary.
Even so, given Isshun's preference for independence, simply being able to watch him and support him and his friend and see them grow into kind, thoughtful people felt like a blessing.
"Sooo…?"
After several seconds of silence, Nejire had clearly reached the limit of her patience.
The two mothers nodded at the same time.
Nejire immediately lit up with excitement, while Isshun allowed himself a small, satisfied smile.
--<>--
"We did it, Shun-chan!" Nejire exclaimed, shaking Isshun excitedly.
Isshun, meanwhile, could only deadpan internally.
We? You speaking French?
That was all me.
"So, any preferences?" Kako asked, already pulling out her phone to look up nearby places where the kids could exercise.
"Not really," Isshun replied.
"Oh, oh! I want to learn how to swing a sword! And maybe shoot a bow! And I also want to—"
"Only one thing, Nejire-chan," Shiori cut in gently.
"Awwww…" Nejire pouted in disappointment before turning to Isshun expectantly. After all, he was the smartest person she knew.
Why are you looking at me?
I didn't even know this was happening today.
Something that built coordination and endurance and wasn't especially dangerous would probably be best.
While most martial arts helped with coordination, Isshun placed extra emphasis on endurance, keeping Nejire's stamina-based Quirk firmly in mind.
With his phone out, Isshun quickly skimmed through various martial arts and their distances from both school and home. To an outside observer, it probably looked like he was rapidly switching tabs without really reading anything.
After narrowing it down to a few options, Isshun could smoothly remove any options that made no sense.
Sumo—out.
Boxing—out.
Kendo—out.
Aikido… in?
"What about Aikido?" Isshun proposed.
Without even knowing what Aikido even was, Nejire nodded along enthusiastically.
Both parents began looking it up themselves, comparing schedules, class lengths, and logistics as they quietly discussed it.
Once she grew bored of the "adult conversation," Nejire tugged Isshun by the hand and turned on the TV, flipping to the latest hero news and excitedly gushing over all the cool features and quirks.
"Someday," she said, completely certain, "that's gonna be me and you," habitually tugging on Isshun's sleeve.
Isshun glanced at her.
Someday.
--+--
A/N: I know some people might not like the martial art of choosing, but realistically, they're only in elementary school.
Any other martial art that sounds cool like jujitsu or karate wouldn't even be necessary for either of them in the future. Nejire is ranged, and Isshun can literally look into the future, and in close combat, at that point all you need is knowledge and the physical ability to back it up.
Not that he'd need it with teleportation.
While i intend to stray away from canon cause why else are you writing a fanfic, but i don't intend mc to be in general ed, cause thats a plethora of new ocs that I don't have the creativity to make up and remember.
Thanks for reading.