Endeavour didn't say it, but the absence of disparaging comments as we returned to the Agency indicated that he was at least somewhat satisfied with my performance.
Hopefully.
"Strikethrough." He rumbled. "Take Tatsuma in for the debriefing, show her how to file a report."
Strikethrough jolted, still looking a little shaken, but nodded and gestured for me to follow. He took me to one of the elevators and, moments later, to one of the ancillary wings.
"This is the Sidekicks Office. One of them anyway." He told me as we stepped inside.
It was, well, a fairly typical office space, packed with work stations. A couple of other sidekicks were there, raising a hand in greeting as we made our way to Strikethrough's desk.
"Okay, so, you won't need to make these until you get your Provisional License and start doing solo work, but it's better to start early." He sat down on his chair, booting up the computer. I sat down awkwardly beside him, trying my best not to block anyone's path. "I'm… not really sure how that would work for you but-"
"I can write with a touchscreen. A really large touchscreen."
"Oh, good." After a few clicks, he pulled up the blank form on the screen. "Basically, every time you make an arrest you gotta write a report on the incident for the Public Safety Commission, who then forward it to the Police Department and the Prosecutor's Office. Um, I don't know how much they've taught you about this stuff already, so I'll just start from the basics..."
"Vlad King mentioned it, but didn't go into detail." I tapped my claws on the floor. "Did you go to UA?"
"Hm? Oh, no, no, not even close." He rubbed the back of his head. "They only take in the 40 best of each year. I'm just an average guy. I went to Jedha Academy- a very minor Hero School, you probably won't have heard of it."
I shook my head.
"I got scouted by- well, Ryuhachi, actually." He suddenly looked uncomfortable, glancing up at me.
"You knew my uncle?" I asked warily.
"Well, yeah. He got me this job, taught me some tricks about sensory Quirks. Endeavour put him in charge of me when I interned here. Kind of like, uh, I'm supposed to be doing for you."
"Did he ever… say something about me or my sister?"
"I know you didn't, um, get along. If that's what you meant." He rubbed the back of his head again. "You don't have to dance around it."
"How?" I asked.
"Oh, he wouldn't shut up about it. It was around the time Ryukyu first started making waves, you'd think it was the greatest injustice ever known to man listening to him." He drummed his fingers on the desk. "Don't, uh, worry about it. It's none of my business really. He was nice enough, and handy in a fight, but you'd just kinda get the sense that he thought he was too good for the rest of us sidekicks."
"I see." I mused. "Is that why he left?"
"Well… you didn't hear it from me, but… no. It was actually because of you."
"Me? What did I do?"
"Okay, so, way back, Endeavour was considering offering to mentor your sister. You know, take her in for some training, show her a few pointers, and if she meets expectations offer her a recommendation."
I nodded along. Most Recommendations were done between family members, but it wasn't unheard of for Pro-Heroes to sponsor young kids who they thought had potential. But I couldn't help but think of Ryuko's bitter comment when she'd explained the Entrance Exams to me.
"Who would've recommended me?"
I was going to tell her, when I had the chance.
"So what happened?"
"Well, Ryuhachi advised against it. He told Endeavour the, um, "Branch Family Tatsumas", as he called you, weren't worth consideration." He answered, and I felt my anger rising. "Then of course Ryukyu went on to become the youngest Hero to reach the Top Ten, at least until Hawks usurped her. That was a big blow to Endeavour, losing out on that opportunity. And then when you passed UA's Recommendation Exams with a higher score than Shoto, well, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was obvious Ryuhachi was giving biased advice. There was a big argument, he said that if you were invited to the Agency he'd leave, and Endeavour told him to go ahead. And… that's how it went down. Ryuhachi poached a couple of other sidekicks and started his own business."
I nodded, slowly trying to process the new information. "You weren't interested in joining him?"
"Nah. Sure, in a smaller office I'd probably get a bigger share of the publicity, but I'm just not that kind of guy. I'd be doing the same stuff with less pay and less support. I just want to save some lives and do my job, you know?"
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." I mumbled. "I suppose we probably should return to that."
"Oh, yeah, definitely." He said, returning his eyes to the computer screen. "Okay, so, the thing about reports is that you gotta write them every time. Yeah, it's a chore, but what can you do? Rule of Law and all that stuff. So the trick is to find a way to get all the major stuff down concisely, without getting bogged down with the trivia. And it's important to only write down what you're sure about. You misremember some little thing in the heat of the moment and then the Public Safety Commission comes knocking and it'll be a huge mess..."
-----
The cafeteria was packed with people. Sidekicks, civilian employees, filling the large hall almost wall to wall in their hundreds. It had to be the peak of the lunch rush, which left me with something of a problem. Namely, that there was simply no place for me and my ungainly bulk to fit and sit down to eat.
Well, except for one. At the corner of the room I saw Shoto, and around him the crowd was much sparser. I wasn't sure whether it was because of his foul mood or that they were intimidated by his parentage, but everyone seemed to give him a wide berth. Which ironically made me unable to do the same, no matter that I wasn't keen on it either.
But I didn't exactly have any other options if I wanted to finish in time. So, awkwardly clutching the pot of meat in one talon I made my way towards Shoto, getting many dirty looks as I pushed through the crowd and set myself beside the split-haired boy.
"Why are you here?" He snapped.
"Where else am I supposed to go?" I nodded my head at the crowd. "Why are you here?"
"To eat." He said, looking at me like I was an idiot.
"No, I mean… in general. At this Agency."
"What do you care?"
I shrugged my broad shoulders. "You clearly don't want to be here… yet you are. Why do that to yourself?"
He looked taken aback for an instant, before composing himself. "You think my father gave me a choice in the matter?" He laughed bitterly. "And, after the Sports Festival… I thought maybe… well, it doesn't matter. You wouldn't understand." Abruptly, he grabbed his plate and stood up from his seat, stalking off.
I watched him go until he disappeared from sight, not sure whether to make heads or tails out of the encounter, before returning to my food.
-----
With my lessons under Burnin' complete, it seemed like Endeavour had deemed me worth his personal attention once more. We were in his personal training chambers again, the clang of the door closing behind me echoing through the cavernous room. As before, he waited for me at the center of the room, his arms folded.
"When you came here, you had plenty of power, but little in the way of control. I had intended to begin with this stage earlier, but I did not anticipate that you weren't familiar with even the basic breathing techniques." He stated coldly. "As it was, your fire breath was worthless in a real encounter out in the field. A haphazard attack like that would only be a liability."
I ground my teeth, but said nothing. My sister used lightning, not fire, and my mother never bothered to teach me anything about my Quirk other than how to activate it. I hadn't even known for sure that I could breathe fire until a month ago. Where exactly was I supposed to have learned breathing techniques?
"So it falls to us to remedy that. First, show me what Burnin' has taught you."
I closed my eyes, and drew out my anger. I felt the heat burst forth from my chest, up my throat and into the air. But to my surprise, when I fought to hold it back, it actually worked. I forced myself to inhale, and the flame guttered out. I pulled on the fire again, holding it ready, before exhaling it out.
Instead of vomiting forth a torrent of fire, I was breathing it.
"I see that those hours were not entirely wasted. Good. It means we don't need to waste any more time on that." Endeavour nodded once. "You can control the timing of the flame. But what of the shape?
"...What do you mean?"
"Reduced down to the essentials, you need to know how much clear space around your target you need for your attack. Material damage cannot always be avoided, but placing civilians in danger is not an option. That carefulness needs to be doubled when flames are involved, because even just a single spark can ignite a fire that will rapidly spread beyond your ability to contain. You cannot allow yourself to, in your carelessness, become an even greater danger than the villains you fight." He told me, pacing past me. "Your fire breath comes out of your mouth in a cone of about sixty degrees. That means that, say, fifty meters away, the blast is a little less than sixty meters wide. Imagine a scenario where there is a sixty-meter wide space around your opponent where there is nothing you want to avoid hitting. How common do you think those scenarios will be?" He asked, turning back to me.
"Not very." I mumbled. I understood his point, but not what he was getting at with this.
"As a Hero, you will rarely get to set the terms of engagement, and so they'll almost never be the ones you want. You must adapt yourself to the circumstances, rather than the other way around."
"I understand that." I said, a little impatient for him to get on with it. "But how?"
"You must shape the flame." He replied, like it was the simplest thing in the world. "Direct it."
"I cannot." I stammered. "I just breathe fire, I can't-"
"You can't, or you think you can't?" Endeavour interrupted pointedly. "It is your fire, born from your anger, or less poetically, your Quirk Factor. It is a part of you, as any of your limbs. Bend it to your will."
"I..." I'd never even thought-
"Fire is a potent tool, but ruinous if given free reign. It needs a firm hand to keep it in check. Do you have that strength? Or did I misjudge you?"
"I do." I said, before repeating with more conviction. "I do."
"Then show me. Summon the flame. Feel it. Control it."
I took a deep breath, and breathed fire. I closed my eyes and just focused on the fire streaming out of my mouth. At a loss for what to do, I tried to, for a lack of a better word, pull on it.
And, to my amazement, it worked. Only a tiny bit. But I could feel it. I opened my eyes, and saw that the cone of fire narrowed fractionally, the flames on the edge wobbling slightly as I struggled to control them.
"Yes. Good." Endeavour said, a slight smile forming on his lips. "Now, besides accuracy, there is another benefit to compressing an attack. Density. With the same amount of energy focused in a smaller area, penetrating obstacles and defenses becomes easier. A narrow attack only needs to pierce through a small portion of the target, and ensures that no energy is wasted."
There was a glint in his eyes as he talked, looking off into the distance. Even his tone was different.
"Focus on just shaving off a few angles at first. Even a small improvement will count for a lot. Eventually, you'll have the angle down to a zero, and the cone becomes a line, a beam. Then, the true task begins. Increase output without increasing volume. Compress. Focus. Intensify. When you can release your maximum output in an instant, compressed to a single point, you will have achieved Flashfire."
I took a step back in shock at Endeavour's words. That… was his own Super Move. "...Really?"
Endeavour blinked, taken aback for an instant. Almost as if he'd forgotten I was there. "Perhaps. In time."
But my attention wasn't on him.
Endeavour thought that I could learn Flashfire. The Number Two Hero thought that I had the potential to learn his signature Super Move.
Despite myself, it was hard not to feel elated.
"For now, focus on the present. Do not allow yourself to become distracted by possibilities far in the future."
"Right."
He unclipped a remote from his belt and pressed it, and several panels in the walls slid open to reveal holographic projectors. They whirred to life, projecting a series of red and blue targets across the training room.
"Now, we move on to the next phase. Hit the red targets with your fire, without touching the blue."
-----
Hours later, Endeavour called an end to the training session. And for the first time at the Agency, I could confidently say that it had felt productive. It wasn't much, but I'd managed to narrow the cone of my fire breath by a visibly noticeable degree.
"Your improvement has been… satisfactory. It is a shame that the time you spent with Burnin' was not equally productive."
By the standards I'd come to expect from him, that was practically glowing praise.
"What's next?"
"Come with me. It is time to put what you have learned to a more practical test."
He led me to the back door of the building. Behind the Endeavour Hero Agency, hidden from street view, was a large warehouse-like building, a sign with "Training Field" written on it over the doors. Strikethrough had mentioned it when he showed me around the place, it was where team training was typically conducted. Or if there were large-scale attacks being employed.
Inside was a massive open space with a floor of hard-packed dirt, not unlike the field Ryuko rented for training. And there, standing alone, was Shoto, regarding our approach with disdain.
"Father." He acknowledged Endeavour without looking at me.
"Shoto." Endeavour replied, looking at both of us. "Until now the two of you have trained separately, to improve upon your weaknesses, but training alone will not suffice. Both of you were able to apply your abilities in practice at the Bank, but only in a support role. That, too, will not suffice. Teamwork is a bonus, but a true Hero needs to be able to act on his own."
"Just get to the point."
Endeavour's eyebrow twitched. "To that end, the two of you will engage in a sparring match. Test your strength and skills against one another in combat."
Shoto simply snorted and nodded, walking off towards the open field.
"And the conditions?" I asked.
"The match ends when I say it ends. Don't kill each other." Endeavour replied simply.
I looked at him for a moment, but that seemed to be all I would get. I lumbered into position at the other end of the field, trying to concentrate.
Okay. Anticipate. What would I do in his boots?
...I'd lead with that big glacier attack he's used in the Sports Festival. It was a little risky but his ice was still much faster than my fire, and with him there to reinforce the glacier I didn't think I could break free like I had at the beginning of the Obstacle Course.
But would he go all-in right from the beginning? He'd only used it in his first match in the tournament, against a classmate, which suggested that it had to be pretty close to his limit. If he could just throw around attacks of that scale, he would've done so in the earlier parts, but instead he'd fought more conservatively.
That was my advantage. His ice was stronger than my fire, but it was his only option to use in a fight. I could wear him down with physical attacks.
I took my place at the other end of the field, turning around to face my opponent. His sullen expression hadn't subsided, but his eyes told me he was perfectly focused on the present. It would have been too much to ask for, for him to be distracted by his father.
For a few moments we stood there, eyes locked one another, neither moving a muscle.
"Begin."
Then the ice surged forth from his right foot, snaking towards me. I spun on my heel, smashing it apart with my tail and sending shards the size of a man's forearm flying right at him. The flow of ice parted into two, one raising to shield him while the other continued at me.
Of course he was skilled enough to attack and defend at the same time. But he couldn't do that and maintain visibility.
As the shards shattered against his shield I charged, beating my wings to propel myself forward and dodge the second attack. I shattered the ice barrier like so much glass with my horn, claws swiping for Shoto, but his reflexes were impeccable.
He slid back, propelled by ice as he had done in the Obstacle Course, but this time the excess ice also served as an attack, crashing into my chest. Offense and defence, rolled into one move. It enveloped me in a flash, far faster than earlier. He was committing to the attack. It was too soon. If I tried to match ice with flame I'd lose.
So instead I drew a deep breath and roared at Shoto with everything I had.
Right before we began I had activated the noise cancellers from my wrist computer, protecting my ears from the brunt of the sonic assault, while Shoto had no such protection. He might not need his hands to direct his Quirk like Yoarashi, but it's still hard to do while being blasted with a sheer wall of noise. I took advantage of the momentary lull to break the ice holding me in place, charging forward as Shoto stumbled and fell, his hands flying to his ears.
Yeah, wasn't so much fun on the receiving end, was it?
He answered by way of throwing an iceberg at me.
Not one of his typical streams of ice, meant to wrap around and envelop a target, but a chunk of frozen water almost as big as I was, hurled at me at speeds comparable to a freight train. It hit me like the sledgehammer of God himself, and I was treated to the peculiar sensation of being sent flying as the world spun around me. I bounced off the hard-packed dirt once, before rolling to a halt, my vision swimming.
Midoriya had told me he considered Shoto to be the most dangerous of the UA First Years. It wasn't just that his Quirk was monstrously strong, though that it certainly was. It was that he was damn skilled at using it.
I pushed to my feet to see Shoto doing the same, a hand on his temple and his mouth twisted in a pained grimace. Even while under sonic attack, he'd had the presence of mind to realize what was happening and counterattack. A simplistic application of brute force, perhaps, but it accomplished the goal of putting distance between us.
Keep moving. I sprang off the ground, Endeavour's advice ringing in my ears. Can't afford to pause to think. Using my wings as a third pair of limbs I threw myself at Shoto, swinging wildly and forcing him to create an ice shield to protect himself.
I continued to hammer at him, keeping the pressure on and driving him back. If you cannot respond to your enemy in time, be proactive instead. Go on the offense and force the enemy into scenarios that are favorable to you.
Any time the ice would start to form for an attack, I would smash it. I didn't give him room to attack, to even think. His attention was divided between backpedaling, defending himself and trying to counterattack.
And it was working. I could see flakes of frost forming on his skin and clothes, and the ice was coming slower and slower. The relentless assault was wearing him down. Something would have to give.
The next time I swung at him, he attacked between my strikes, the ice moving faster than I'd expected as it wrapped around my forelimb, travelling up towards my torso. He'd been holding back.
But not enough, it was still slower than it had been. I roared again, and though the effect wasn't as stark now that he was expecting it, the disruption was sufficient for me to break the ice and surge forward.
Except that too had been a distraction, a moment of reprieve he'd used to create a thin pillar of ice beneath him and launch himself back, putting distance between us once more. Too much distance for me to close in time for what was to come. This was it.
A veritable flood of ice burst from his feet, barreling towards me. It wasn't his full strength- less than half as much as he'd used in the Tournament Match, and slower as well. I'd blunted the worst of it, now I just had to survive the remainder.
I breathed in, closing my eyes for just a moment.
Fujiwara. Ryuhachi. I took in fresh umbrage from what I'd learned from Strikethrough, how he'd sabotaged Ryuko even from behind the scenes.
And then I breathed out.
The flame burst from my mouth just before the ice reached me, slamming into the incoming glacier. Frozen water turned into steam in an instant, clouds billowing in all directions as the flame carved through the ice. For a handful of heartbeats our Quirks continued to clash, the balance hanging on a razor's edge, until the stream of fire pierced through and the ice burst apart in an explosion of steam.
I couldn't help but feel a little awed as I cut off the flame, taking care to use no more force than was necessary. Even so, Shoto was thrown from his feet, landing roughly on his back.
At the Sports Festival I had assessed him as the one enemy I couldn't beat. Yet here I was.
A crackle of ice snapped me back to the present, where the match wasn't yet over. But it was little more than a token of defiance; Shoto's body was covered in frost, his limbs shivering. The ice was sluggish and feeble, what had once been a raging torrent now a mere trickle, and I shattered it with my horn as I charged.
Go for his left, it's the blindspot. Even if he was holding back something, he wouldn't be able to do anything with it.
For a moment I locked gazes with Shoto, and saw the anger and frustration in his mismatched eyes.
Then, I saw it. A spark of flames igniting on his left side. In a moment of instinct I put more force into the blow, to smash through whatever trick he had up his sleeve- and then the fire was gone, like it had never been there. But I was committed to the swing, and my paw slammed into Shoto with far more force than necessary. I was glad not to hear the distinctive snap of bones breaking as he was sent flying once again, bouncing off the ground.
Before he could get up I put my paw on his chest, just light enough to hold him down, and looked at Endeavour.
"Sufficient. Tatsuma wins." He said without looking at me, marching up to Shoto, his flames smoldering. "What was that?"
"A loss. That was your intent, wasn't it?" Shoto threw back as I stepped off of him, pulling himself to his feet.
"Do not play coy with me, boy." He snarled. "I saw the fire."
"An instinct. A mistake. Nothing more. I'll be sure to be more careful next time."
Endeavour drew in a breath and seemed like he wanted to say more, but moved his gaze to me. "Good work. You may return to your quarters, we are done for the day."
I felt unsure as to what exactly was happening, but Endeavour's withering glare brooked no arguments or questions, and so I turned on my heel.
Then, right after the door closed behind me, I heard Shoto's voice speak up. "So, when are you going to tell her?"
"Tell her what?"
"That you brought her here just to serve as my sparring partner?"
...I came to an abrupt halt, not daring to breathe.
"You thought you were being subtle, teaching her what you want me to learn and hoping that I would change my mind after seeing it in practice? Did you think that I would get jealous?"
"You leave me with no choice." Endeavour snapped, the crackle of flames rising over his voice. "I had hoped that after seeing the limitations of your mother's Quirk at the Sports Festival and accepting my Internship offer-"
"A decision I regret daily." Shoto interrupted dryly.
"-you had come to your senses, but still you defy me with your childishness!" I could hear his finger clenching into fists. "How can you not see that you are wasting your potential?! Your peers move past you while you remain stuck on this plateau of your own making!"
"I will make do." For the first time, I could hear an edge of uncertainty in his voice.
"You disgrace me, and your own destiny. Too much of your mother in you."
There was an intake of breath from Shoto before he replied, his tone acidic. "Is that so? Understand, that I will never use your Quirk. I reject your legacy. I will become a Hero using only my mother's Quirk."
Those final words were followed by the sound of brisk footsteps, approaching the door.
Jolting into action, I hastened to get out of sight before either of them saw that I had been listening, clearing the corner just in time.
The rest of the way to my room passed in a daze, my mind still trying to process what I'd just heard. There was, of course, the first glimpse of just how bad things were between the two of them. But I pushed those thoughts aside. There was only one thing ringing in my mind as I walked.
Endeavour brought me here just to teach a lesson to Shoto.
He hadn't even denied the accusation, and it… fit. It answered the questions that had been gnawing at me. I wasn't here because he actually thought I had potential. Of course not.
The advice, the training, the whole damned Internship… it was all just to make a point to his son. I was just leverage in their personal quarrel.
A small, pragmatic, cynical part of me reminded me it didn't erase what he had taught me, I had genuinely improved under his tutelage. But it was hard not to feel betrayed.
Just when I was starting to feel good about this.
After I reached my room, it took a long while for me to drift off to sleep.
