(Kai POV.)
Not gonna lie, it kinda hurt to not have a quirk.
I look like a deer in the highway seconds before getting rammed by a car as I look at the doctor who looks at me with pity.
"Your child has two joints in the pinky toe. In early Quirk research, we found that most people who develop Quirks have only one joint there, while those with two usually don't develop a Quirk. It's a small structural difference, likely tied to how the body developed before birth. Because of that, we don't expect a Quirk to manifest later on." The doctor answered and took his glasses off to massage his temples, he definitely doesn't enjoy this part of the job.
"So, does this mean that our little Kai…" My mother started.
"Yes, he'll never develop a quirk, I'm sorry." The doctor apologized and left the room to allow my family some alone time.
Mom hugged me as she cried, she apologized for everything, dad looked...angry, but not angry at me…his eyes looked as if he was scared of something, or someone.
The world got muted as I looked at my mother's face, her eyes were filled with tears as she kept telling me reassuring words, her eyes looked saddened and filled with regret, she gives me the image that she's failed me for some reason.
Why would she think that? Why would dad be angry/scared? Was not having a quirk that bad? I never read any material of this book cept for the first volume cover that was forever in my room's shelf.
Is this a racist thing? The worst thing I experienced were negative comments for my capitalistic points of view, like I also want free healthcare but I understand the complications behind it, sad.
Where was I? oh, right, crying.
Seeing my parents cry made me teary so I decided to cry my lungs out as I hugged my mom, dad snapped out of his anger/fear induced trance and hugged both of us as well.
A little embarrassing but I can't remember well what happened next, all I remember was being carried by my mother as we went home and we all slept in the same room without wearing out PJ's.
Next day the house was filled with awkwardness, I don't know why but my eyes started to burn a little, like when you have some dirt on them and can't get it out, but I don't think it was important and also the tension was so high I didn't want to complicate things.
"Why did you both cried yesterday?" Of course my intrusive thoughts won over me and asked the awkward question.
My dad and mom looked at each other and I don't know if it was a quirk or something but they seemed to be communicating with just their gazes. I remember something similar in my last life when my dad lost his wallet.
"It's nothing Kai, just some...surprises that's all." My dad "reassured" me.
God this is saddening, they're trying to explain to me whatever's going to happen without worrying me much. They're really good parents.
"Oh, ok! I'll go play with my swords then." I smiled at them and decided to retreat before their masks fell off.
I don't get why Wexof didn't give me a quirk, but I guess it doesn't matter anymore, mom and dad have cool quirks though.
Daimon Masaru. Quirk: Metal Bending. When touching ANY type of metal he can freely control it at his will. He can change their shape and even alter its weight and density, so even 1 ton of pure steel can be as light as a bottlecap so long as he touches it.
Pros: The metal retains shape after touch. Extremely versatile in close/mid-range combat.
Cons: MUST maintain touch of the metal at ALL times. Doesn't retain density nor weight change. The more metal controlled the higher the stamina consumption.
Kobayashi Kaia. Quirk: My Dimension: A pocket dimension quirk that only Kaia can access, she can store several non-organic items inside with no clear limit. Kaia herself can enter this dimension for 1 hour a day before being forcefully expelled, experts theorized that it was due to her being a defense mechanism of her own quirk since organic materials decompose into nothingness after an hour inside Kaia's quirk. Something interesting about her quirk is that if Kaia KNOWS that the item she's going to store ISN'T hers she can't store it, she also can't "subconsciously" place stolen items inside of her space, reasons to that are still unknown.
Pros: Storage of inorganic items. Low energy consumption. Perfect for shopping.
Cons: Can't store items that don't belong to her. Prohibited of using it on populated areas. A mess when it comes to organizing all the things she stores inside.
Yeah, both of those quirks would've been a perfect utility for my swordsmanship, like I was slashing an enemy and he dodged but I'm like "Nu-hu" and my sword extends and I managed to slash him.
Or the enemy breaks my sword and thinks I'm defenseless and then I'm like "Surprise MOFO" and whip out another sword to cut him.
Heh...one can dream right? But now I don't need to focus on that, I have something more important called "training" to do. The first thing I noticed about the Breathing Techniques is that depending on which I'm using they can be either high or low stamina consuming.
If I had to put it into numbers I'd be something a little like this.
Water Breathing 10 STM.
Thunder Breathing 30 STM.
Flame Breathing 50 STM.
Stone Breathing 80 STM.
Sun Breathing 200 STM.
Just to give you a vague idea, it's not 100% confirmed this is just how taxing I assume they are since I can do Water Breathing for A LONG time but the moment I'm halfway through executing Dance I feel like a used mop and want to sleep.
So, yeah, better train those calisthenics to increase the resistance and all that. Seriously though, at the moment I'm just focusing on my Water Breathing and all its forms, something weird was that there were some techniques that didn't appeared in the entire series (movies included).
Like the missing Flame Breathing techniques and others like Water Breathing: Fourth Form: Striking Tide, Turbulent, I never heard of the "Turbulent" variation but it was ingrained in my memories.
Perhaps they're part of the Demon Slayer Hinokami Chronicles Game I heard so much about, but I'd rather wait for a final version of it since it would've been infested by OP DLC characters left and right.
Speaking of which, I should tell you how that works, I just focus on what technique I want to practice and I start seeing the movements from different angles. Then I have to imitate them and repeat them until my body remembers them without a fail.
Well, back to the grind I guess, Flame, Water, Wind, Thunder, Stone and Sun have breathing rhythms that are somewhat easy for me to replicate (In order from easiest to hardest as presented) but the issues are several.
Thunder, Stone and Sun are just too taxing for my child body to even perform the simplest technique.
Swords are not exactly the best for Stone Breathing so I have to replace the usage with a broom stick, the issue here is that all the Stone Breathing techniques in my mind are being shown using Gyomei Himejima's giant Morningstar chained to a hatchet.
I'm not sure if it's an error or Wexof just said "figure it out on your own" but it's putting some stops in my training.
I'm not flexible enough for Love, Mist, Serpent and Beast.
The rhythmic patterns for Flower and Insect are a tad too complex for me to maintain them constantly without fail.
Moon breathing is like Sun but less taxing but more complex with its moves, worse part is that I'd need a special sword to make use of the additional forms Michikatsu Tsugikuni created as a demon, nothing too big though, I have a small idea that maybe could work.
And sound? Well, I don't wanna talk about it but to make the story short it's kinda "useless" without any gunpowder on it.
Also I once accidentally cock-shotted myself while practicing so…yeah nope.
Which reminds me that I may have to do some research about poisons for Insect Breathing, it's going to be HAAAAAARD, nothing lethal though, can't have a body count as a hero.
I'll put a pin on that live or kill ideologies.
The rest of my day was me being pampered by my parents as they try to hide their sadness, and failed in doing so, we all slept together again, it was a daycare day so I went there.
At the entrance of the daycare stood my first friend in this new life, a so-cute-that-would-cause-diabetes girl with green hair, big round black eyes and a frog clip in her hair.
She's Tsuyu Asui.