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Chapter 3 Training and Charity.
🕑 Added 2023-10-06 16:13:30 +0000 UTC“At once, Kenmikoto-sensei.” Midoriya looked at the water, before he took a slow breath, through the nose and out the mouth, repeating this a couple of times as he centered himself. He could rush it, but this was his evaluation, he couldn't afford to mess up, and he refused to mess up. Closing his eyes, he felt it, his tenet in his body, felt as it flowed and shifted in his like his blood. Much like before when he made himself vanish from the 5 senses of Bakugo, the villain and then All Might, that last one bringing up some feelings of irritation, he took control of it again but instead of merely closing off its flow out of his body to conceal himself, he was now manipulating some of its flow to the soles of his feet and shoes.
Once he felt that the flow of tenet to his feet was stable and strong, he took his first step onto the water, then another, and then another. With each one he took, his feet touched the water, but they didn't sink as he couldn't hide his excitement at that, jumping up into the air with a fist pump. He had practiced for weeks to get this down, running up trees, walls and the many ponds that dotted the compound, more the few times he flew but now? Now he barely needed to think about it. Kenmikoto didn't rush him even if he was taking his time, smiling as she allowed him a moment to feel accomplished in what he had managed.
Lucky for her, Midoriya didn't waste too much time as he quickly made his way over to her, leaving the two standing in the middle of the large body of water, with nothing but the star-filled sky and the many charcoals burning torches to give them light. When he met her in the centre of the pond, all amusement fled from her eye, her narrow ember eyes gazed into his soul, trapping him in place as she walked around him, inspecting him like one would a prize racehorse before a big competition. She didn't say anything, merely hummed and grunted when she saw something, though if that was something she liked or not, he couldn’t say.
She went on for a couple of minutes before she spoke, with no warning. "Begin!"
He didn't question or hesitate, sliding into position as he shifted his stance, crouching lower to the ground, lifting his front foot and slamming it into the water, producing a splash, but again, he remained on its surface. His arm was held at his side, with his other first outstretched, closed tight. From that stance, he began his kata, like thunderclaps, he performed swift, powerful and fast kicks, jabs, punches, elbows and knees against an imaginary foe.
“More ferocity!”
“Faster!”
“Stronger!”
“Be flexible!”
With each order she gave, he followed her commands to the letter, increasing the intensity, speed, the strength, shifting his stance and balance to ensure he couldn't be tripped up. Listening to her roar out commands, it was less a woman and more hearing a tiger's roar reverberate through your very being. Sparing a glance at the actual tigers, he could see that they felt this as well as they were cowed by her mere voice, submissive to her will as their dominant caretaker. But he didn't dare linger on them too long, shifting his focus back to his movements.
"Be creative, boy! There is no such thing as a tiger, lion or jaguar that hunts by the book! You need to be faster than lightning, as nimble as a leaf in the wind, strike with the force of a raging inferno, and process the devil's cunning." She instructed him, which he followed, not just increasing his speed and power yet again, but also shifting his stance from the more traditional martial arts position to a strange hybrid of styles from across the world as well as gymnastics and acrobatics as he started not just moving about, but jumping, rolling, backflipping, cartwheeling and any other ways to move, twisting his body as he did so as if evaded his imaginary foes counters and retaliatory strikes.
This was a style that his master had created, a style that had few set forms, that encouraged on-the-fly attacks, blocks, counters and joint holds. A style of pure freedom. This is what she had taught him over the years, and he hoped to one day master it.
Heavenly Tiger style
This went on for a few minutes, but despite the rapid, high pace energy intensive strikes, kicks, jumps, flips and feints, he didn’t feel the least bit tired, if anything, he felt better than he had all day. Under the star-filled sky, on a still body of shallow water under the watchful, piercing eyes of his master, he felt alive.
Kenmikoto hummed as she watched him, picking up on this growing feeling of exhilaration in the boy, as it showed in his movements as with time, they started losing more of that human element to them, a piece that existed in all human martial arts, instead, he started to resemble any cat worth its salt, constantly shifting his balance and focus, as capable of striking whatever he envisioned was in front of him as he was at striking something that snuck up on him. He was also maintaining fine control over his Mizohyōjutsu as it didn’t matter what part of him was touching the water, he was able to shift that little piece of focus needed to manipulate the tenet in that portion of his body to ensure he so much as sink a couple centimeters into the water.
After seeing him run through dozens of different combinations of varying lengths of the kata she had taught him, she decided it was time to move to the next part of the exam. After all, if all she needed to see from him was that he could fight on water, she wouldn't have bothered with this and just passed it up to someone else to supervise.
“Nezumito." Her instruction was short, blunt and unyielding. Ceasing his movements right as he brought his foot down onto the water in an axe kick, he closed his eyes. Relying on the skills that he had honed in these halls under her tutelage for the last 9 years to guide him, he shut off his sight and instead relied on his 6th sense, that prick feeling he got in the back of his head that alerted him to both Bakugo’s attempt to intimidate him, and to the villain.
Only now, it wasn't just that, it felt more detailed, more expansive. The best thing he could compare it to would be a kind of echolocation mixed in with a scent as he could 'feel' the different objects and animals around him, he could 'feel' his master, even in the very edges of it, he could detect the many people still in the dojo, walking, sparring, training-it all came him.
Digging deeper, he could pick up the scent of their emotions, of how intrigued yet on guard the tigers were, he would have never realized that if not for knowing how they never let their guard down when their mistress was in play, these emotions, they all came off them like colored smoke he could see in his mind’s eye, that he could track as they moved.
Turning his mind’s eye to his master, he wasn’t even surprised by the fact she wasn’t as cut and dry as the tigers, as he struggled to make any sense of what she was truly feeling, but he could detect just a sliver of pride-pride in his skills, in how far he had come. Knowing that, knowing that he had someone like her feeling such things for his efforts sent a shot of joy into his heart which only made him wish to work all the harder.
His eyes still closed; he started moving about the water as if he hadn't just given himself a sensory handicap. He threw a couple of punches and jabs, performed a kick and knee, and felt that he was still in tip-top shape to continue. She agreed with him, so they moved on.
“Húxū” Having tested his 6th sense to ensure it worked fine, he was prepared for her command as he took that stretched field of ‘sight’ and added layers to it, increasing its sensitivity, increasing how much detail he could detect. At the same time, he shrunk it, he reduced it from 20m where he couldn't make out anything more than shapes past 10m, to a far smaller 6m, but within that space, he could detect everything, from the shifting air to the stray leaves passing by, even the rustling of their clothes and texture of the water they stood on. It would have been a sensory overload, and it still kinda was but he kept himself calm and centered, allowing it to wash over him, but not overwhelm him.
Through this, he detected something coming towards him and coming towards him fast, 'seeing' it as it passed through the many layers of his bubble, he could pick up the relatively small size of the object, how it seemed to have 4 triangular points, and how it was spinning towards him. Quickly he was able to surmise that this was a shuriken, which he reacted to by shifting his body to the side, letting it pass harmlessly by where his left shoulder would have been. He wasn't given time to rest as another 2 were sent flying towards him, their trajectory would mean they would hit different parts of him. Crouching, both passed over her.
Then he ‘saw’ a third, coming on right for his chest which he reacted to by thrusting his palm into the water and throwing the water at the shuriken, which was enough to knock the thing off course and send it to the side where he heard it plump as it sunk into the water.
His master didn't give him time to rest, she didn't give him a warning as she continued the barrage, throwing an assortment of shuriken, knives, rocks and even her smoking pipe his way, forcing him to either dodge. Some came close, those that came in groups where she planned out how he'd dodge some and throw them to catch him off guard, but he somehow managed. She didn't remain stationary either, moving around him, throwing at different angles for different targets, her speed making it seem like he was being attacked by 3 even though he could only track her.
Soon, the bottom of the water was littered with projectiles and weapons, where she was storing them, he didn’t know but he felt that his bubble was starting to strain. Mercifully, his performance seemed to have been enough for her.
“Enough, you may open your eyes.” Opening them, he saw that she was impressed by him, even if she was pouting at the loss of her pipe which she’ll have to fish out of the water and dry out later.
"It did well in dodging my attacks, but you must remember you can't just remain still, it would have been easy for me to simply overwhelm you if I so choose." She advised him, as she had been able to run circles around him before he seemed determined to barely move from that spot. If she so wished, she could have just rushed him and attacked him directly.
“Apologies, it was a challenge maintaining Húxū, moving at the same time would have disrupted both," Midoriya replied, taking a breath to cool down as he was still learning how to multi-task with more than just two things. If he wasn't walking on water, perhaps he would have been more mobile, but as it stood, it would have stretched his concentration too thin and led to him either falling into the water or needing to see the doctor about multiple shuriken and knife wounds.
“You need to work on that, Izuku.” Kenmikoto nodded her head, being firm in her instruction, but not harsh.
“I will.”
"Then let us continue." Seemingly vanishing from where she just was, he was only able to see her again when she was right in front of him. Her speed was so great that those knives, stones and shuriken might as well have been snails. He couldn't even blink before she slammed her palm into his shoulder, a blow that sent him tumbling back a couple of steps and was accompanied by a throbbing pain from the impact. Midoriya was only barely able to maintain his mizohyōjutsu as he hissed from the pain of that one blow. Still, he was on the clock and rolling his shoulder, aside from the pain, he was pretty sure it wasn't broken or dislocated.
Observing him, Kenmikoto noted that he was still in fighting order, even if she suspected his shoulder would have a bruise later, it was a marked improvement over when he started as back then, a blow like that would have sent him down and in need of the doctor. "Ashi." She told him a moment before she rushed him again. He didn't wait, and quickly followed her instructions by controlling his tenet once more, not just to walk on water but bringing up to the surface, just above his skin on his arms and legs, boasting their strength and durability. Right in time for him to perform a cross block, her blow this time around still moved him back, but he took no damage.
She kept on him, striking him any way she knew how using the same style of combat he had just been practicing for her, but comparing the two would have been insulting as while he liked to think he was proficient, above average. She was in a whole other league, not so much moving as she flowed through every attack, block and counter. He found himself blocking and evading more than he did trying to fight back. Her speed forced him to reactivate Húxū in some capacity, using it to help him ‘see’ her attacks in the moments leading up to them, granting him the much-needed time to prepare to move out of the way or block.
This 6th sense boast didn't help him as much as he hoped as she managed to get through his defense, knocking his feet from under him, tripping him up, palm strikes to the face, chops to the side, punches to the gut. More than a couple of times, he lost his concentration and fell into the water, soaking his bruised body but she didn't give him a chance to so much as breathe. "Get up." She didn't yell, she didn't scream, but her voice, her orders still carried the same strength and uncompromising power of a tiger's roar.
And each time she said it, he got right back up for another round, the growing number of bruises and pain was something he ignored in favour of proving himself to her, of showing her just how serious he was about this. 10 minutes, and 4 other knock-downs later, she suddenly switched things up. “Toratsume!" She yelled, her fist reared back and no doubt having enough strength to kill a weaker person. Rather than try to block it, he copied her movement and pulled back his fist, sending as much of his tenet into his hand, specifically his knuckles, as he could. That excess tenet flowed out of his body and into his boxing gloves, increasing their durability right before their two fists collided.
Rather than sounding like flesh and bone crashing into flesh and bone, it sounded closer to an iron hammer striking another iron hammer, with a dull clang ringing through the air. Not even a moment later, she struck again, and he matched it once more. Now, he couldn't afford to take a blow, he had seen that those hands could do without the armament of tenet, with it, a single blow could very well kill him. but she was relentless, keeping the pressure on him, keeping him on the back foot as he struggled to try and counterattack. Landing on his back, he was caught completely open but he managed to spot something in the water which he plucked out and held in front of it.
His master fist stopped mere centimeters from contact with it, with a silence falling between the two, only broken by their breaths as she, at last, pulled her fist back and smiled at him and what he was holding as a means to protect himself.
Her pipe.
"Cheeky bastard, the evaluation is over. You did well." Looking up at her, she dusted off her clothes and took a step back, allowing him to get back to his feet.
"Does that mean I-" She smiled at him, her eyes that of a proud teacher watching their student cross another major milestone.
“Yes, you passed, Izuku. Congratulations.” She bowed to him, a gesture he quickly matched even as his face broke out into a huge smile, how could he not when he made another step towards his goal and got his red sash, after so much blood, sweat and tears, he had done what he had been told would take him another decade of training, he had reached the highest rank below 5 heavenly sashes.
Getting up from the bow, he handed the pipe back to its owner with a sheepish look to him. “Sorry about using the pipe against you like that, I know it’s your favorite.”
“Fighting fair is fighting stupid. You knew I had a weakness, and exploited it, as I taught you.” She waved him off as she placed it into the sleeve of her haori. “However, you should go take a shower and if the bruises persist come morning, speak with the doctor about them, understood?” She instructed him as the two walked off the water and back onto dry land, though she was the only one that was still dry.
“Yes, sensei.” Midoriya bowed to her once more as the woman hummed in response before turning to leave.
"Then you're dismissed." Midoriya took this ad turned and left as well, heading back inside to collect his stuff before he went to the men's bathroom to clean himself up. Kenmikoto on the other hand, took a moment to walk about the gardens, enjoying the peace as she thought about her student, one of her best students and how hard he seemed to work. ‘He’s certainly a diligent boy, perhaps…he could do it.’
Line Break
After a relaxing shower, Midoriya changed into a pair of clean clothes he had packed and headed for the mess hall to grab something to eat. Entering it, he saw that it was even larger than the main floor of the training dojo, with a large central area and 2 levels above them to the side, the place lit up with intricately made lights and plenty of windows to allow the cool night air into the massive space.
It was calming, and comforting even as he moved through, joining the line of other latecomers, making small talk with the person in front of him. They might not know each other's names, but the people here were different to the ones beyond the walls. They were so invested in their conversation on an upcoming festival that once he collected his tray of food, he joined the man at the same table of 40 people. He smiled the entire time, an honest smile as he could never tire of this place, of its people if he had been at home right now, he would be sitting by himself, with only whatever was on the TV to keep him company.
But here, within these walls, in this hall, he was never alone as no matter the time of day, rain or shine, there was someone present, someone he could just walk up to and start a conversation. Here no one cared that he was quirkless, after all, over 70% of the people that lived here were quirkless as well.
Shoving some grilled fish into his mouth, he giggled as the spiced fish melted on his tongue, giving him an explosion of rich, savory flavor. “You know, if you like this place so much, you could always just move here.” Looking up at the source of that statement, he saw another one of the residents, someone he was particularly close to.
The speaker was taller than him, but not by much despite being in his 20s. With bright blue and black hair but what stuck out most about them was their scars, his exposed arms and part of his face were badly burnt, with the scar tissue being far dryer and a light shade of purple. But he focused on the amused blue eyes of the man as he took the free spot next to him, a plate of him in his hands.
"Someone needs to care for the apartment, I don't have the cash to pay for a housekeeper to do it." He swallowed his fish before he answered, with the man humming a response. They've had this conversation more than once so he didn't bother pushing it.
So, he decided to focus on something else. “How was the exam with the old lady? Since you’re not stress eating, I’m guessing you passed.” Midoriya pouted at that statement, picking at his food.
“I don’t stress eat, I-” The man didn’t even let him finish making an excuse, waving it off.
“Pack on the nutrients, or whatever else you wanna call it, it is what it is.” He told as Midoriya opened his mouth to argue that, but decided it wasn’t worth it, not when he was pretty sure that Hanen was doing this partly to screw with him.
“It went well, I passed it, though I feel like I could have done better.” He replied, thinking back to the test and how he could have done better.
“What else is new with you?” He was met by a sarcastic remark from the man who took a bite out of his food. “You want me to spare with you again?” He looked at him out of the corner of his eye.
“I don’t think that will help; I think I need to work more with my tenet when my martial arts.” He was pretty sure that he could improve that aspect, but then again, the master was clear that there was always room for improvement, so he would have to prioritize stuff he wasn’t that good at.
"That sucks, but hey-all the power to you," Hanen replied as the two fell into a comfortable silence, not needing to carry on a conversation and merely enjoying their meals and each other's company before they finished, putting the empty trays into the table set aside for them, the two left the mess hall into the evening air. Walking towards the men's dorms, Hanen asked him a question.
"Hey, something came up and I won't be able to help out on Saturday." He started, with Midoriya catching on pretty quick.
“So you need me to cover for you, right?” He asked the man, as this wasn’t the first time something like this happened and when it did, he normally asked him.
"That's the gist of it." Hanen nodded his head, not telling him what he was going to be busy with.
“I can do that, but you owe me.” Midoriya had planned to spend his weekend training, but he wouldn’t hurt if he lost a day helping out.
"I'll pay you back," Hanen promised him, which Midoriya had no reason to think he wouldn't, he had asked him to cover for him in the past, and always paid him back, even if at times he felt like he was screwing with him like when he paid him back by giving him some old playboy's magazine just to see him turn red and toss it into a fire.
Finally reaching the dorms, they stop at the first one as that was the one that Hanen lived in. The older man turned to walk inside, waving over his shoulder. “Cool, see you when I see you.”
"Have a good night," Midoriya called back to him before he went to the other one and entered, quickly finding the room that had been set aside for him whenever he had to stay the night. Unlike his apartment, the space had more life to it, even if he didn't sleep here all that often, he had put more hero posters, along with print-outs of different foods and their nutritional benefit, exercise regiments and a detailed calendar of events and achievements he had raked up. Moving to it, he crossed out the one that read 'get your red belt' with a happy sigh.
Shooting his mother a quick text saying he was staying with friends, he turned the lights off, removed his clothes till he was just in his boxers and collapsed onto his futon, falling asleep in just a few minutes as he knew he would need to get up earlier than normal to make it back home, shower and get a fresh uniform so that he could make it to school on time as he didn't want to give his teachers any more reasons to make his life hard.
Line Break
When the weekend came, Midoriya could have gotten out of bed faster, than he had thought, when he showed up for school the next day, Bakugo had been waiting for him and tried his darndest to make his day a living hell, with no help from the teachers no matter what he did. It seemed just ignoring him made him worse as just got louder, and bolder when he didn't give him any sort of reaction and left him looking stupid. It wasn't till the next day that he kept his distance and went back to the default of acting like he didn't exist, which Midoriya was more than happy with as the less he had to deal with him, the better.
Having chosen to spend his Friday after school at the sanctuary, he was able to soak up the atmosphere and go to bed far more content, because of that, he was up with the sun barely peeking out from the horizon. Stepping around, he took a deep breath of the clean, cool mountain air before rushing off to the farming area.
When he got there, he saw that there were few others, mainly farm workers as they set up the carts that were going to carry their precious cargo. That cargo was boxes upon boxes of freshly grown produce. Common fruit stuff like apples, oranges, bananas, peaches, and pears along with more rare fruits such as mangoes, avocadoes, lychees and guavas. There were also vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, onions and eggplant. All of which he knew was top of the line as this same produce was used to prepare the hundreds of meals that the mess hall cooked up daily. Walking up, he saw that most of them weren't on the carts yet, so he moved to correct that.
“Morning, Ōbi.” Midoriya walked up to the person managing things, a man in his early 30s with a large build and brown hair shaved more on the sides than the top of his head, like himself, the man was quirkless but was still one of the strongest people in the sanctuary.
Looking up from the form he was reading, the man smiled. “Morning, kid. Think you could help load them in, we were meant to do it yesterday but other issues need to be addressed." He pointed towards the dozens of boxes that needed to be loaded.
“Sure thing.” Midoriya nodded as he went and picked up the first one, walking towards the carriages and loading them up, giving the boxes to the person already on the cart who was moving them into position.
Continuing this for a while, others started to show up as well and helped to move things. Including a large foxlike woman who stood heads and shoulders over any of them. her size and strength making it easy for her to carry 4 boxes at once while she talked with one of the women. he couldn't hear what they were talking about, but going from her smile, it must have been pleasant. "Seems like it's a lot this time around," Midoriya noted as he walked up Ōbi for what felt like the 15th time with a box, heading towards the 3rd cart in the line.
"That's because it is, it's around 2 thirds of the remaining crop for the year which we're hoping to unload," Ōbi replied, surprising Midoriya as he knew they had their ways of boasting crop yields, because of that, even when he tried to do the math in his head, he figured that just the 9 out of the 12 carts they were loading up wouldn’t be enough to carry that much.
So, he asked. “Then why are only loading 9 of the carts?”
“The rest is for everything else,” It wasn’t Ōbi who answered, but the tall woman from before. Walking up to them, he could see that she was far taller up close, far taller than even All Might. He blushed a little as he noted her foxlike curved figure while her blonde hair was done up to just reach her shoulders with a single strand over the right side of her face. It looked good on her. Lucky for him, she didn't notice him staring.
She has large blue eyes with bushy eyelashes and pointed ears, along with green fur and a white furry underbelly.
Continuing to explain things, she gestured to the back where others were coming forward with even more boxes. “Teas, medicinal herbs, bandages, cast powder, books, clothing, toys-anything that we could make or afford to donate as they need all they can get.”
Trying, and failing if Ōbi's amused smile was anything to go by, to hide his reddened face from the taller woman, he looked up at her, focusing on her large blue eyes that seemed to sparkle even when she wasn’t doing much-dammit! “Morning, Kyūfune. I hope you slept well.” His voice rose a little in pinch.
Takasame Kyūfune looked a tad confused by his sudden pitch change but shrugged it off, thank the heavens. “I did, I knew we were leaving early.” She replied, having only seen him briefly the night before she was called off to help with something. but now that she was with him, she looked around for a certain someone. “Where’s Hanen?”
Part of him felt a bit jealous that he was asking about him, but he crushed that under the biggest mental rock he could find. She was merely curious as to why someone who said they'd be there wasn't, no need to add any weird connotations to it. “He said something came up, so I’m covering for him.”
“Odd, but I’ll speak with him when I see him.” Kyūfune brushed some hair behind her ear, like him, she was used to him doing stuff like this. He left for work and missions without much warning, showing up out of the blue like he had always been there. With that said, it took another 20 minutes for everyone to make it, and for loading to complete. With that done, they got on board with Midoriya riding in the cart behind Kyūfune’s along with Ōbi, the taller woman needed all the space they could spare for her to ride comfortably.
With no horses or donkeys, it fell to them to move the carts by sheer force of muscle which didn't prove to be an issue as 12 people got into position, took the reigns of the carts and started pulling. Slowly, but gaining in speed, the carts each must have weighed 1,200kgs began to move at a comfortable pace. Approaching the main gates, the guards opened the gates for them, allowing them to leave with waves and wishes for a safe journey.
Outside of the walls of the compound, the lead cart picked up the pace as they went from just 3km/h to 12km/h, then to 16, and finally, they were moving maybe 25km/h. They were far slower than any motorized vehicle, but that didn't stop the rare person who saw them doing a double take when they saw a convoy of carts being pulled by mere men and women. As they approached town, Midoriya was eager to see the faces of people who saw them and wondered if there wouldn't be any fresh ones that weren't already used to their eccentric group.
Still, it would be a while for they got to Raxus ward, and they'd need to swap out horses halfway there, so he took the time to sky gaze, watching the clouds.
Line Break
Raxus Ward was different to many other wards in Japan, it wasn’t one of nightclubs and bars like Kamino, nor was it one of schools and parks where you could let your kids play around with little parental supervision like Chandrila.
Raxus was a dump, in every sense of the word.
Located on the fringes of Shizuoka City, it had once been a thriving residential area with green parks, a clean river and plenty to offer for anyone who wished to start a family away from the stress and mess of the city, now it had long since been re-classified as industrial land with many companies moving in within weeks. Now, the landscape was one of refineries, factories, warehouses and all other manner of industrial enterprise.
All this growth of industry might have created hundreds of jobs and pumped billions into the local economy, but none of that was clear for the people that lived here as their once green and peaceful ward had been polluted and exploited till it was but an ugly shell of its former self. A heavily industrialized cesspit with junkyards and abandoned buildings. City officials liked to pretend that the issue could be solved if people moved if they just left the place and allowed it to be used for its purpose, but that ignored the fact that some people simply couldn't move.
Not necessarily because they couldn't afford to, but because this place, this hell hole, was the only place that didn't shun them, belittle them, and hurt them for the crime of merely existing. Cities might have had lower rates of discrimination when compared to the countryside, but that didn't mean it didn't exist-and Raxus was a prime example of that as its residents, those with mutant quirks, quirks seen as villainous or outright quirkless people. Stuck between the lynch mobs of the countryside, and the willful ignorance of the city.
This was the world that Midoriya and the rest of them arrived in, a world where people kept to themselves and did their best to not get involved, or else they ended up beaten up or worse. As they rode on through, Midoriya couldn't help but wonder how things could have been allowed to get to this point, and why people and heroes would allow such a tragedy to happen and continue to happen. But then he recalled All Might, the hypocrite who hid his humanity to pretend to be more, and with that, he had his answer.
It’s easy to think that you’re living in a perfect era when you don’t need to do anything when you ignore the issues.
Approaching their destination, it was revealed to be an old community centre turned into a soup kitchen/shelter for people who couldn't find somewhere else to sleep without needing to keep an eye open. It was one of the poorest ones in the region, but it was also one of the few that didn't refuse quirkless people which meant it didn't have much in the way of support such as donations, which is why they were there.
Riding up to it, they met with an old lady in her late 70s, her once vibrant blonde hair nearly entirely grey as she leaned her weight on a cane. With her were a few of the shelter’s workers/residents. Stopping before them, she took out her phone and saw the time, 9 a.m.
“I’ll never get tired of people actually showing up when they say they will.” The elder joked as Ōbi jumped out of the cart he was riding on and approached her.
Finding her wit funny, the man chuckled as he pointed at himself. “Granny, being fashionable late is an idiot’s excuse for not getting there on time.”
“If only some could learn that.” She pocked the side of the man next to her, one wearing worn, second-hand clothing who just grumbled about it, but didn't try and retort, Granny Biscuit wasn't one you opposed on a whim. “Go on, help them unload stuff!" She smacked the other as the three rushed in to help them off-load some of their goods as one-third was meant for the shelter, giving without payment or any expectation of compensation other than the understanding they'll use it to care for the people under their care.
The rest was to be sold. “Get to, people. We open in an hour!” Ōbi yelled at the group as they all waved.
“Sure!” With that, they got to work, moving things off the carts, and setting up stalls and stands for their goods. Watching them move like a well-oiled machine, Ōbi turned to Granny Biscuit.
“We’ll see about getting you canned goods for winter.” It might have still been May, but he wasn't one to leave things till the last minute, especially as the issue around getting that much-canned foods would be a hassle as the shelter had hundreds of people living in it, hundreds more that came by for meals regularly. Just supplying them for a single week would be challenging, making that 3 months of winter, and potentially dozens of cases of people falling sick and needing to keep their strength up primarily through healthy nutrient-rich food and you had a logistics nightmare.
The old lady waved him off, that canned stuff might last but it always tasted like metal. "Ba! Never mind that. These people should eat a hot meal prepared with fresh ingredients. Taste a hell of a lot better, too."
“I can attest to that, granny.” Ōbi chuckled as he watched them set up shop.
Line Break
And that’s where we’ll end things. It’s a bit shorter than I wanted, as I planned for this chapter to show more of them doing charity work, but I saw that the word limit was approaching so I cut that out. Don't worry though, it'll be in the next chapter. However, one thing I was super happy about was that I was able to add Ordinary Woman to this as a character, who will have more screen time for herself down the lime, flushing out her past, goals and personality while we as a fanbase love her, she knows extremely little about her. We don't even know her name, hence why I created one for her. Much like the rest of the names of the characters, they tried my best to incorporate meaning into it, but I wouldn't be surprised if I made mistakes as I don't speak Japanese, nor do I know anyone who does who could have checked it.
The name Takasame is spelt with two kanji, the first one, 貴, means 'precious' or 'valued'. My nod to how we as the fanbase love her despite her extremely limited screen time, as Hirokoshi intended with her design. The second one, 鮫, means shark which was more as I thought she looked like a shark at first before I learned that she was more fox than anything. It remained since I'm a big Naruto fan and decided to take a page from Kisame for her naming convention.
Her last name, Kyūfune is also spelt with 2 kanji, the first being 九, which means nine, a nod to Naruto's Kurama, the nine-tailed fox as she also shares some resemblance to a fox. The second is 船, which means boat, as originally wanted to write a story with more Naruto stuff in it, and she was from a fishing family in the mist. I liked the name, so I stuck with it.
