Mysterious Tree

The five of them finally reached their planned destination, all girls were panting, all but Akane.

"What the heck! Why are we panting and you are perfectly fine? How is that possible!"

"Akane, what kind of insane training did you go through?"

"Nothing special, just a 40-kilometer walk, five reps of 200 push-ups, pull-ups, squats and back extensions and the half hour long plank, nothing special and that each day!"

"You do a marathon EACH day?!"

"And 1000 total of each training method you just called!?"

"You plank 30 minutes!"

"Isn't that extremely impressive."

The four of them nodded in rhythm, Akane had the shelf loose, hadn't she?

"Hey guys, I can't help but feel that you think something rude about me! I mean I know that my workout is insane, especially because of the reason that I don't give my body a rest day! But isn't that the minimum that a blind, quirkless person has to do, to survive in this world?"

The four girls looked at Akane in sadness, the looked at each other, before nodding. They knew what they had to do. They all approached Akane and hugged her.

"Girls? What are you doing?"

"You, poor, poor girl."

"Working so hard, just to be accepted in society."

"Akane, Aki knows that we just know each other since a short time, but the four of us will be there for you if you need it!"

"Hm, Hm, Aki is right, we are here for you if you need it."

"Guys it's really sweet and adorable from you to accept me in your friend circle, but you are hugging me uncomfortably! Let me reposition my arms! I want to hug back too!"

The four friends made a bit space for Akane, so she can stretch her arms a bit, before she opened her arms and hugged them all back. The friendship hug continued for a while before they separated.

"So, we are here, what exactly are we investigating, Yui?"

"Well, we are here at the luminous cherry tree, weeks ago it was still a normal cherry tree, but then suddenly one day, this particular specimen started to shine luminescent, we from the club suspect that this has to do something with a quirk."

"Well, the first thing would be taking samples, right? Who wants to climb up the tree?"

Nobody looked her in the face.

"Seriously? You guess should consider yourself lucky that I joined the club, you wouldn't have the muscle otherwise, heck you wouldn't even be here if I didn't carry you all here!"

Every one of them looked ashamed to the ground.

"Look, I climb up the tree and gather leaf samples, you down here get some bark and wood samples additionally you can theorize about reasons why the tree glows, I am now climbing up the tree, no teasing me during it!"

All of them agreed with her plan and started to follow the instructions.

Akane tried clawing into the tree, without hurting it, which proved difficult.

Yuiko and Touko gathered bark and wood from the tree and Akita and Kanna looked around the place, trying to find something special about this place.

After a while Akane managed to climb up the tree, she gathered some leaf and flower samples and jumped down again.

"Okay, we now have the samples, any theories why it glows?"

Yuiko pouted.

"I am the leader, you know Aka?"

"But you don't act like one, Yui. Now any theories?"

"What if the tree developed a quirk, you know this tree had a similar ability like KanKan!"

"Hmm, that's a good theory Aki, but we can't use that as the main reason why the tree is luminescent, after all what if it isn't a quirk, what if we don't find a quirk factor in the samples we took, then all this travel would have been worthless."

"Hmm, the tree only shines in the night, right?"

"Don't ask me KanKan, I am still blind remember? I don't even really know what you mean."

"I'm sorry!"

She bowed down.

"Yes KanKan, according to the rumors the tree only shines at night and now that I am looking at it doesn't look shining at all, and the lux measuring device I brought with me says, that this tree isn't shining any brighter than the environment."

"Wow, Yui, you really are always prepared for your expeditions!"

"That's right KanKan!"

"Could you please stop? So, apparently this thing only shines at night, do we want to wait for night and then continue, or do you..."

"Of course, we are going to stay the night here! Everything for my research!"

"Great, do you all have the permission to stay out late?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Then call your parents and ask, should I bring you girls a change of clothes or do you want to sleep in your uniforms in the tents?"

"Eh, where do you want to get the tents and the change of clothes?"

"I run home and bring some, duh. How else do you expect me to get these things, magically pull it out of my outfit? Sorry Aki, but I currently only have four water bottles on my body."

"You have water on your body?"

"Yeah."

Akane then proceeded with magically pulling water bottles out of her form fitting school uniform.

"Magic, here each of you take one, you still must be tired from me carrying you, I am now running to my house, I expect you four to have the permission to stay out at night by the time I come back, bye."

Saying these words Akane bolted to the direction her house, Akane was faster than a bike, she ran at ten meters per second.

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Akane was dead tired the moment she reached her house, sprinting all the way to her house might have been a mistake, it was pretty far away after all, the moment she entered her house, she almost wanted to puke, but only almost.

"Seriously? I might have to up my training again."

Akane said like that was absolutely normal. (Akane, I think you might be overdoing this. Don't you think so too? ~Author-san)

After she managed to catch her breath again decided to walk into her house.

"Mommy I am back home! But me and my new friend planned to camp tonight, you know, youth. I am going to go upstairs and take the bare necessities with me!"

But instead of the silhouette of her mother Akane was greeted by the silhouette of someone else.

"Rumi? What are you doing here and where is mommy?"

"Well, your mother is currently in an important trial, so she entrusted me with your wellbeing for the time being, heard you wanted to go camping? Want me to carry you back there?"

Akane beamed brightly, Rumi was faster than her by a huge margin, Akane was after all held back by herself, because she had no quirk, of course she might have broken the human limit a bit, but that didn't mean she could keep up with the top-, or even high middleclass heroes, they had an advantage after all.

If she wanted to compete, she needed to break her limits, not only push them and go over them.

"Yes! That would be really nice, aunty Rumi! Just wait a minute, I need to take four sets of clothes, the big tent, some more water and instant noodles with me!"

She walked around the house and gathered the times, after she changed clothes again. At the end her inventory looked like this:

Set of clothes

Set of clothes

Set of clothes

Set of clothes

Big tent

Pot

Big instant noodle package

Two-liter water bottle

"You know, I still can't get over the fact you are carrying all these items than you, in a way that it seems like you aren't carrying anything that all, how are you doing this, Akane?"

Akane just put her index finger before her mouth and made a soft hissing noise at the bunny hero.

"It's a trade secret, aunty Rumi."

She just chuckled and prepared to carry Akane to her friends, but apparently the girl still had a question for the rabbit hero.

"On a side note, Rumi, when are you going to propose to my mommy?"

The bunny hero coughed because of the question of the girl.

"Where did that come from? Akane me and your mother are just normal friends, there is nothing more."

"Oh, stop lying, did you two really think that I didn't see you two being lovey-dovey, I am pretty sure you two got really close to each other, after I retired from performing live on stage."

Rumi, started to blush intensely at the girl's words.

"Look, I am not ready for that level of commitment and your mother is an amazing woman, I don't want to bind her to me for live yet, what if this is just an experimental relationship and your mom falls in love with a man, after we married. I couldn't do that to her."

"Rumi, you and I know that your words just now were and excuse, you know that both of you love each other dearly, but you should know that my mother is a very busy woman, that really is passionate for her job. She won't have the time to fall for a man, and in court she won't fall for anybody, because the last time a womanizer lawyer tried the 'I am better than you, but I let you win' approach, he landed in hospital for one year straight, after that might have followed a trial, but you know how that ended. My mommy loves you, and I don't believe that she will ever find a partner as long as she has that job, and her job is her life and she would probably consider taking her life if she lost it, well with me she won't, but you know what I mean! So please Rumi, please take responsibility for my mother and make her happy, I don't want her to die as a single in life after all."

Rumi thought for a moment, seriously thinking about the girl's words, after she finally processed all the information she started to chuckle.

"You are right, Akane, but both of us aren't ready for that stage yet, we still need to meet each other's parents after all!"

Akane laughed, jumping on her back to get piggybacked.

"Just make mommy happy, mommy."

These words would be the source of many sleepless nights for the bunny hero.

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"You are finally back, Akane! You took your time."

Akane arrived at the place of the luminescent tree.

"Aka - Akane, is - is that re - really the person that I - I think it is?"

Surprising everyone as she arrived with Japans number five hero, Mirko.

"You know Mirko! What is your relationship with her, Aka!"

"Geez, Yui, calm down, you are screaming in my ear."

"Sorry, sorry, but could you please answer our question, we are all interested after all."

Yuiko pointed at Kanna, Akita and Toukou, all of them wanted the answer answered.

Akane thought for a moment, before she decided to tease Rumi.

"Hmm, I guess you can call Rumi my mother of some sorts?"

The girls wanted to scream more questions after that revelation, but the bunny heroes shout was louder.

"A - AKANE, DID - DIDN'T I ALREADY TELL YOU! ME AND YOUR MOTHER AREN'T AT THAT STAGE! yet."

Hearing the hero's words all of the girls immediately got the gist of the situation, who would have thought that Mirko was lesbian?

"Fine, fine, we won't ask any more questions, you deserve your private life after all, I am sure that it was already said between you and Akanes' family, but take responsibility in a relationship."

"I won't let me that from a prepubescent brat!"

Were the last words of her, before she jumped away.

"So, Mirko is going to be your second mother in the future, Akane?"

"Yes, probably, Yui."

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The moment Akane pulled the things out of her inventory from her back:

""""What!""""

"How does this big tent and four sets of clothing fit in your back?"

"Eh, this wasn't all yet?"

""""THIS ISN'T ALL!""""

Akane continued to pull out the big pack of instant noodles and the two-liter water bottle.

All of them looked at her with a shocked expression, she continued putting her hands to her back.

""""YOU STILL HAVE STUFF?!""""

"Calm down guys, it's the last thing left, does one of you want to pull it out?"

Akita volunteered, but Touku stopped her.

"Wait, it could be dangerous, let me pull it out."

Touko stepped to Akane, put her hands into her back and pulled out a pot.

"Well, guys that was it."

""""DEMONSTRATE IT TO US!""""

The evening started with Akane coaxing her new friends with her back, eight items and her inventory.