Chapter 104. Kota

We both left the bath before the others went in themselves. I pulled Deku away for a second. “Keep an eye on Mineta, that pervert will no doubt try to find where the girls are bathing.” His face reddened up, but he nodded nevertheless. I ruffled his hair and went to bed early. I knew we would have to wake up early tomorrow, and I made sure to tell Shoto this as well. He understood and went to bed early as well. In bed I was still thinking of what I could use magnetism for.

I woke up to pots and pans hitting each other. The ‘Pussy Cats’ woke us up at 5 and told us to make it outside in half an hour. I was better rested than most, but I still felt tired regardless. We were all outside by 5:30 am. Aizawa was outside waiting with a ball in his hands. He tossed it over to Bakugo. “You remember this? Try throwing it again.” Bakugo looked at the ball for a second before smiling. He threw it at full power and screamed as he did so. “Go to Hell!!” I sighed at the display.

Aizawa then showed the distance the ball traveled at, 712m. Everyone talked about how little change there was, as Aizawa began to talk. “That's right, you all have grown. But that was only your techniques and your minds that have matured. Your quirks have fallen behind, so today you will be training your quirks. Try not to die.” He finished his ‘pep talk’ with his signature smile. I sighed at the training they would have for me.

I was put on top of a hill away from everyone else. Aizawa was the one who brought me here. There was a generator here, but Aizawa was just staring at me. “What exactly is my training again?” I asked, staring at the leads. “You use electricity too fast, so we are going to have you use all of it, then forcefully charge you back up to increase the speed of you making it yourself.” I just stared at the generator, almost shaking in my boots. “Dang it… Ok, I have an idea of using my electricity fast, but I need you to leave or have an insulated blanket.” He brought one out that he had prepared. “Go on then.”

I sighed and started charging up my electricity. I had it set to 70% of my total battery, no way I was gonna be see-through around Aizawa. “EMP!!” I screamed as I released a large electromagnetic pulse from myself. I had to charge electricity and circulate it throughout my body in a very specific way. I moved it in a circular fashion then quickly discharged it, and with 70% of my power the range was very far. I could destroy electronics half a mile away from my calculations.

This was the first time I tested it though so I was anxious if I was gonna be like Denki and just throw electricity around. Luckily I had it work out correctly, but using power that fast really took a lot out of me mentally. ‘No wonder Denki just turned off for an hour. This is taxing to say the least.’ I sighed as Aizawa looked at me with a frown. ‘Does he think I didn’t do anything? I know the effect isn’t really noticeable unless I’m in a radio shack or some sort of civilization, but he knows that I can’t lie.’ I sighed as I pulled the line to get the gas generator to start.

I then took one lead and gulped. I took a deep breath and took the other lead. I immediately felt the power being forced into me. It was actually too fast, I was at 100% in under a minute. I quickly let go of the leads, and Aizawa spoke up. “Don’t let go, this will make your body used to this voltage.” I looked at him incredulously. “You want the rest of me to look like this!?” I pointed to my left arm glowing.

He shook his head. “No you did that by putting in way too much at once. You got lucky, that you didn’t lose your arm, or your eye for pulling that. We will be having you use your power to as low as you can get it, and charge it back up to full as fast as we can. Your body should adapt more naturally.” He finished his plan and I just sighed again. “Alright, but no talking to me when I’m doing this.” He nodded “Works fine for me, I hate talking.” I nodded with a smile and got back to work.

I used ‘EMP’ again at 70% to drain myself again, and grabbed both of the leads again. I felt the energy flow into me all at once. I got up to just above 100% and then released that extra in my ‘EMP’ again. Making it more of a 75% ‘EMP’. I kept doing this, and I could feel the effects of the change. My body was becoming better at taking this electricity in. I couldn't tell if I could produce electricity better, or not because I was being charged the whole time, but my body was getting better at handling charges though.

By the end of the day I was mentally exhausted, but the results were showing. I felt my body producing electricity better, and my capacity had increased by about another 10%. With this the only thing holding me back now would be my overheating problem. I had enough charging power to hold ‘2nd Gear’ almost indefinitely now. Not really, but what battle would be for 2 hours that I couldn’t just finish with a ‘Overdrive’ or something. We all walked back to the tables outside, and I helped my group with the food on auto pilot.

After eating a plate or two I just rested on the grass, I couldn’t eat too much. I had to be ready. I went to my room while everyone else was busy and grabbed my bag. “Mom, dad, please help me do the right thing.” I said as I checked things in my bag. I turned around to see Kota looking at me from my doorway.

I was shocked to see him here. ‘He should have been by himself for Deku to give him a heart to heart. Why is he here?’ I moved my duffel bag to be more comfortable on my shoulder. “What are you doing here?” I asked, but he just stared at me. I really didn’t like seeing him, but it was good that he was here that way. Deku shouldn’t have to deal with the muscle killer on his own. He finally spoke. “What were you talking about your parents about?” I looked at him, squinting my eyes. “They are watching down on me. I need their help to know that I am doing what is right.” He just stared at me still scowling.

I guessed he already heard about my parents. I sighed and sat down on my bed. “Have a seat Kota, we need to talk.” I motioned for a seat in the room. He stared at me for a bit before sitting down. I started off. “I knew what happened to you the moment I looked into your eyes. I hate that look, you wanna know why?” He squinted but nodded anyway. “Because my eyes were just like that. That hatred for everything, the fact that the world isn’t fair. Hatred of everything and everyone. Looking at you reminds me of what I don’t want to be anymore.”

He looked at me while still staying quiet. “I know a little of what you're going through. I’ve been around where you were.” I stopped talking for a bit, but decided to say it. I had remembered a friend of mine spoiling Shigaraki's origin story, so I decided to let this kid hear it to change his mind. “I knew of a kid, he was abandoned by everything and everyone. His family was gone, and he was just walking the streets with bloodied clothing, and crying his heart out.” Kota, hearing this became wide eyed, stared at me almost in fright, but I continued on.

“Everyone he passed by just said that a hero will come to help him and left. Throughout the big city nobody would come to help this poor child crying in the middle of the street. He began to hate heroes and the society of superpowers that we live in.” Kota slowly nodded his head while staring at me. “But I don’t think that this society of superpowers was really at fault, least of all heroes.” Kota looked confused at what I was saying. “It wasn’t that we have heroes, or powers, it was just people and human psychology. People just don’t like getting involved. If heroes didn’t exist and it was just normal police like in the olden days, wouldn’t that just happen again, but saying ‘a policeman will help you’?” Hearing this made Kota’s jaw slightly open from the shock of what I was saying.

“So in the end, it was just people in general that let this boy down. People are bad most of the time, that is why we have police, and heroes to stop and deter that behavior. But people still do bad things that aren’t actually against any law, like leaving this poor boy to fend for himself. People are generally bad when they don’t know it. They may have really thought they were doing what's best, or didn’t want to make the situation worse. But they also just couldn’t care enough seeing this bloodied boy on the street to help.”

Kota was horrified at all I was saying. “So you have a choice… Do you want to make others as miserable as you because your life was hard, or do you want to be better than others and help to save them from the pain you’ve endured? I was somebody a lot like you and I may have gone for that first option simply because of the reason of ‘Why should others have what I don’t? That isn’t fair!’ but then I found somebody.” He looked up at me while I was standing up from my bed.

“The green haired boy you punched earlier.” He was really confused at what was so special about him. I just had a calm smile. “I learned as I watched him, that he had been through a lot of pain as well. Maybe not the exact same as mine, but pain nonetheless. But even through all of that he still had the compassion to not care about himself and care about me more. That is when I learned that, yes, most people are bad and will let you down, but the people that don’t will be my personal heroes. I will fight tooth and nail to protect them myself.”

I walked over and kneeled in front of Kota as he looked at me with tears in his eyes. “I think I chose the right answer following Deku. I think my parents would be proud of me, that is all I need to know. The path I was thinking of going down earlier would have made them sad. So in order to do what is right I vision them right above me, looking at what I’m doing. I don’t think they would like me being mean because my life was worse than others. What did your parents want from you? What did they want you to do?” He just sat and looked down, probably having a flashback of his parents. He started crying harder as he just whimpered the answer.

“They… Wanted… Me… To be… Happy…” I just patted him on the back. “Just like mine did for me. I will always be a little sad that I can’t see them anymore, but I want to make them happy, by living up to what they want from me. My mother taught me that living what my heart wanted would be good enough for her. I wanted to make her happy and proud of me.” I had a few tears in my eyes at this point. “If she could see me now, then I think she would be. That’s good enough for me to be happy for myself.” Kota then hugged me. After a little bit he suddenly let go and started for the door. I yelled at him. “If you have anything else you need to talk about, you can always come to me or Deku. He saved me, I think he can help you more than I can.” With that he stopped for a second, nodded without turning to me and ran off.