Chapter 63: Adolescence - 17
At Nejire’s house, after the U.A. Entrance Exam, Nejire excitedly opened the door to see Isshun greeting her.
"I’m home!"
"Welcome back. How was the Entrance Exam?"
"It was great! It was easier than I expected, but smashing all those robots was really fun!" Nejire excitedly recounted.
"Is that so?" Isshun hummed.
Quickly taking off her shoes, she opened the genkan’s sliding door and rushed up to him.
"Thanks so much, Shun-chan!"
Nejire ran in for a jumping hug before Isshun smoothly dodged.
Shooting past Isshun, Nejire activated her Quirk, smoothly hovering right before she hit the ground.
She turned to Isshun with a hurt expression, but only met his annoyed eyes, making her deflate a little.
"What are you doing?" he asked flatly, clearly expecting her to notice her condition first. Would it kill her to realize what state she was in right now?
"Uh... Trying to hug you?"
She tilted her head, inching ever closer to Isshun, her hands still outstretched, before he stopped her by holding her at arm’s length, his hand on her forehead.
"Look at what state you’re in." He frowned. "You’re dusty and sweaty. I don’t want Nejire sweat on me; I just took a bath earlier."
"Aww..."
Nejire quickly deflated, shoulders slumping as she trudged over to her room to get her clothes.
"The bathwater is already prepared, so just bathe quickly," Isshun called out. "I’m making dinner too—"
"I’ll wash myself as fast as possible!" Nejire yelled out.
Sounds of drawers and closets being opened rapidly could be heard in her room before Isshun watched, unimpressed, as Nejire zoomed out and maneuvered to the bathroom, quickly turning corners with her Quirk.
SLAM!
’...I didn’t train this girl for sharp turns so she could use it indoors.’ Isshun thought before calling out. "Don’t slam the door!"
(A/N: Just in case people forgot, Mitsuru is Nejire’s dad and Shiori is her mom.)
Hearing a muffled ’Sorry!,’ Isshun sighed and headed to the kitchen, where Shiori and Mitsuru were both looking at him with complicated expressions before glancing at each other, as if holding an entire conversation with their eyes.
Mitsuru glanced at his wife, visibly disturbed by how naturally Isshun had welcomed Nejire home. It sounded less like a conversation between childhood friends and more like something from the first month of a marriage.
Shiori gave him a resigned look and shook her head. He should’ve gotten used to this years ago. She turned to Isshun.
"So what’s for dinner, Shun-kun?"
"Omurice. It’s easy and fast to make while also being pretty tasty." Isshun said, teleporting the ingredients out of the refrigerator while washing his hands, before dismantling them into tiny cubes.
"Also, it’s in celebration of Nejire’s Entrance Exam, and she likes omurice."
The two adults watched in an awkward silence as Isshun whipped up the omurice at unreal speed, with the only time Isshun actually moved his hands being when making the fried rice and the omelet.
Even then, it was an unfathomable experience.
Mitsuru glanced from the teleporting ingredients to his wife.
Shiori answered his unspoken question with a small, helpless nod. Evidently, this was what she’d meant earlier when she called Isshun’s cooking "an experience" through text.
"So, how’s the work on Nejire-chan’s costume, Shun-kun? I walked in on you earlier, but you were looking at a visor with a lot of concentration, so I didn’t want to disturb you."
Mitsuru asked, remembering how, after work, he’d come home to find only his wife waiting, even though she had already texted that Isshun would be staying over all day.
Even then, she just put her fingers up to her lips in a shushing manner, taking his blazer.
While he was confused, he wasn’t going to question his wife before knowing the context, but when he passed Nejire’s room, he saw Isshun with an uncharacteristically serious expression, a light blue visor floating in his hands, which made the scene feel unusually tense.
Isshun unusually didn’t glance his way, his eyes fixed on the visor.
He wanted to greet him, but Shiori pulled him with a solemn expression, mouthing out a sentence.
{I interrupted his work earlier, but he seemed really startled, so best not to disrupt him.}
So in the end, both Shiori and Mitsuru moved around the house silently, with Isshun only leaving the room just a few minutes before Nejire arrived.
"I made a decent amount of progress...Though I do need more materials than I initially calculated."
Creating the visor’s circuitry required nearly all of Isshun’s concentration.
He’d compressed his Omniscient Domain into a space barely a centimeter wide, giving him the precision needed to carve microscopic patterns into the material, not unlike a lithography machine.
The tradeoff was that he became almost oblivious to everything outside that tiny area.
"Materials? What materials do you need? Maybe I can help?"
Knowing Isshun was making Nejire’s costume out of his own pocket, Mitsuru quickly asked what materials he needed now that the opportunity had come up.
"Just some fuel cells that went obsolete a long time ago. They aren’t that expensive, Uncle. No need." Isshun shook his head, putting two plates of omurice in front of the couple.
"No. I’m Nejire’s father, and this is her costume. I should at least cover the materials."
Mitsuru was firm, so much so that Isshun didn’t really have much room to refuse.
"Sorry for the trouble then, Uncle. I’ll need around 200,000 yen."
"..."
Mitsuru paused at the sudden high price.
"Um... what for, Shun-kun?" he asked, then quickly added, "I’m not doubting you; I’m just curious about why it’s so expensive."
"Hydrogen fuel cells are retro these days, and you barely find any." Isshun started, sighing as if remembering a bad memory.
"I barely found one in a retro tech shop in Naruhata, and I already contacted the owner, but I’ll still need to check the product. Retro things can go up to stupid prices."
"I... see? Should I accompany you?"
"It’s fine. Naruhata isn’t that far from my neighborhood. I’ll probably head there next week or maybe a bit later..."
--<>--
"Pop and Rock’s debut is just around the corner, eh?"
Number 6 mused as the Queen Bee slowly burrowed into Haneyama Kazuho’s eyes while she lay unconscious.
"And her compatibility with the Queen Bee is just out of this world, huh?"
"It’ll be a great show for the neighborhood’s friendly Naruhata Vigilante, The Crawler, right, Master?"
"Don’t celebrate the addition of a new pawn just yet, Number 6."
A phantom of O’Clock appeared behind him, leaning against the wall, a hand rubbing his chin in thought.
"When going through every action, don’t forget—"
"To check every possible variable, I know, master." Number 6 finished. "And I’ve definitely checked every variable. I’ve even planned out my perfect Pro Hero Debut!"
"However, in Tokyo, the biggest variable is—"
"All Might, yes."
"Not just All Might, but Blink."
"Blink? But that weirdo vigilante doesn’t do anything outside of Musutafu or their ward in Tokyo anyway. What are the chances?"
"That may be so, but expect the unexpected."
"Of course, Master. This will be a perfect debut!"
--<>--
A/N: Lil bit of a short chap, but a chap’s a chap and we might be getting some action, heh heh.
Its a new year’s miracle this time.
Still doing the Naruhata Lockdown arc, so dw.
Also, from now on, i’ll probably do like... 2-3 Chapters a week?
For fun, since week’s about to end, i’ll also do one powerstone goal for an extra chap next week on the weekend. This fic is washed so i dont have much hopes though.
2000PS?
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