Chapter 27: Unruly Bunch

Recap:

He half expected a negative answer but his dad confirmed his positive results.

"You'll need to train. Like your glutes, you already have a foundation in moving it but now you need to start with exercises to consolidate your current control before trying to increase it."

'That..makes sense.'

"Every day in the morning, start off by twitching the nozzle. Then as your control increases you can instinctively try to fully compress it until it only requires your thoughts."

Enkai turned to leave the thinking Suijin but turned around on the last steps of the stairs.

"This basement has been proven behind the walls to withstand impact so practice to your heart's content."

With that, he left the budding Suijin and walked into his room finding his wife on the bed holding onto a family portrait.

A young Suijin about 6 or 7 was grabbing onto Enkai who sat the small child on his shoulder while Erena was holding onto his arm.

"I'm scared."

Enkai said nothing, letting her finish and sat next to her on the bed.

"Being a hero is dangerous, fighting villains all day. It's his second week and he's already been injured. What if…when he fights one day…he-"

Enkai grabbed onto her, holding her in a hug and rubbing her back letting tears fall down her face.

"I know it's hard. I can't say he won't face any danger-"

He faced her so that they were making eye contact before going into his home and opening the basement camera live feed.

Suijin, practicing tirelessly, could be seen through the night vision.

"But can we really afford to take that smile away?"

Erena said nothing, grabbing the phone and letting the video play while crawling under her blankets and into bed.

Enkai also did so after shutting the lights off.

'Suijin, I need you to get stronger, much stronger than where you are at now.'

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Suijin checked his phone, and saw that the time was 10:30 am already. Still in their meet-up location near a palm tree in the center of the mall, which, surprisingly despite the early time, was already bustling with people.

Suijin had been standing here for about 15 minutes, his being the main informer of the others decided to show up early,

After all, 'Early is on time, and on time is late.'

Suijin chucked to himself, it seems like the last time he heard that was so long ago, yet it was not even two months ago.

He was simply a middle school graduate before, some kid trying his luck, yet now he was a student at one of the most prestigious high schools in the world.

He felt pride swell up in him whenever he donned the blazer, the statement 'I earned this', felt like it was etched onto his being.

The respect others showed, something he wasn't all too used to receiving, and the envious gaze, different from the pitying or contempt ones.

Suijin desperately wanted to wear the garments all the time, but incidents like the unexpected sludge villain told him that he didn't always end up in the best situations to be wearing them.

So today Suijin donned a red button-up short sleeve, plaid flannel, along with gray slacks to show a more professional appearance.

"Thanks, see you later."

Looking ahead Suijin saw Momo shut her chauffeur's door. She was dressed in an all-white dress with black flowered patterns, along with Heels enunciating her legs.

"S-Sorry for being late."

"No…"

Looking around Suijin said, "-You're earlier than most."

So the two talked about the game plan, or the lack of one while waiting. Suijin proposed they set off into groups since he didn't want to overwhelm the stores with a group as large as theirs.

But Momo shot that idea and any rebuttals down, stating that from the evidence she gathered (Movies, Books, Media) friends often walk along in the mall together, closing their bonds.

She further countered by saying that any form of separation may hurt people's feelings and Suijin not having anything, simply prayed for the store owners and left it at that.

All of that took place within a few minutes, and Tenya in a car driven by his older brother also came.

The pro hero Suijin saw yesterday was nowhere to be seen. Cool slicked-back hair, expensive glasses, and a luxury car making people think a big shot came were all he saw.

"Nice to meet you, you must be Suijin my little brother's friend. Thanks for taking care of him, I know he can be rather stubborn at times."

Suijin was going to give a common it's fine but he noticed the shock on his classmate's faces, seemingly, Tenya prided himself on his image of a well-mannered leader.

Before Suijin could say anything though a beeper was heard from the car.

"Ah-Sorry to cut it short I have to go."

"But brother, it's your day off…"

"Tenya, you know crime never sleeps, besides, in the future when you're a pro hero we can complain about it together"

With that he left in a flash, worthy of the name speed hero Ingenium his vehicle was also fast. So Momo continued conversations as more and more showed up.

Uraraka walked in. Apparently, she lived on the other half of Musutfu, but a few sneakily placed weights and her quirk and she could bounce through the ground getting here fast.

Midoriya was driven by his mother who thanked everyone profusely for hanging out with the boy, much to his own embarrassment, a few tears even threatened to leak out of her eyes if it wasn't for the hurried 'shooing' Midorya was doing..

Jirou was driven as was Kaminari. Hagakure sauntered in from who knows where, apparently, she got the last spot on the bike rack as Tsu, Sero, and Tokoyami all rode them here.

Yuga was driven by his parents who seemed very nervous, though it was odd since with his personality this shouldn't be his first outing.

Regardless, after everyone talked amongst themselves the last two arrived, Mina and Kirishima who both looked…exotic.

Mina's flannel and yellow crop top, along with her jean shorts really filled the image of a young high school girl. Whereas Kirishima's all-red suit was out of place.

Suijin saw the two bickering in a friendly manner and clenched his fist, he assumed it was due to the neatness of that suit.

Freshly ironed out wrinkles. No blemishes or signs of being worn, snug to a fit, and amazing color scheme.

He'd have to ask his mother if they could go shopping, Suijin would need to make a deal with the devil to obtain a better suit.

"Nice suit."

Suijin said, intrigued by the details of the suit, where, who, and when it was manufactured.

Unfortunately, that wasn't answered as an embarrassed Kirishima said, "I may have gone overboard, this was the manliest thing I could find in my closet."

"Huh…what are you talking about, your suit is amazing. The creases, blemished, everything screams perfection. I'm sure if my old man was here he'd compare my dressing ability to yours for the next decade."

An even more embarrassed Kirishima stood before him though a feeling of pride welled up inside the red-haired boy.

He was manly, someone had acknowledged him.

The moment didn't last long as a chuckle interrupted it.

"Pfft, of course, you would think so, Suijin."

"What."

Suijin looked at himself, unnoticeable frowning.

"You look like my middle school substitute teacher trying to fit in while adhering to the dress codes."

'How?"

"Is it the khakis, it's seen as a style of respect in formal yet informal events-"

"Yeah, Yeah, where's everyone else?"

Suijin pointed in their general direction and Mina walked past him. Before they passed each other completely she whispered "But I love the color scheme."

So a red "faced" Suijin was rooted in his original spot for quite some time.

Finally walking to the center of the others once Momo cleared her mouth three times they explained what would happen. They would travel in one big group to explore the mall.

.

.

.

'That quickly turned into chaos.'

15 Teenagers, excited, hormones rampaging, in a mall. What could possibly go wrong? If you said everything you'd be right.

From part of their group visiting stores and staying there for two long, people somehow getting lost, and went out of sight, and it wasn't even Hagakure!

Perhaps the biggest blunder was when three idiots (Sero, Kaminari, and Mineta) wandered into a store called 'Spencers' filled with 'certain' objects and bought 'something'.

That something, long in shape, was burned, melted, crushed, and turned into ashes by a myriad of attacks coming from Yuga, Momo, Mina, and Kirishima. Though the trio didn't face much better, looking worse than when they came here.

Suijin was tired, and having to apologize to workers left and right for some unruly behavior made him miss the Saturday he should be spending.

So when lunchtime hit they all spit up, agreeing to meet up at the food court at 1:30 pm to leave.

Suijin ended up going with Mina to get her sandwich, and Kirishima broke off from them waiting in a huge line to get the meat lovers 3000x, some new American deal.

As Mina got her food and was eating while walking, Suijin was slurping the concoctions he had combined into a container, they got to the topic of their rocky friend.

"Kirishima…cool?" Mina has a confused expression on her face.

"Yeah, his demeanor is frank and his hair and personality make him stand out."

"Oh right…I forgot…"

"Common, you're not just gonna leave me hanging there right?"

"It's nothing, just that he wasn't like that in the past. He was more reserved, but an event where he was forced to protect me and my friends changed him. From then on he preached about being manly."

"That's why you're working hard?"

"Yeah, to become strong enough to support myself on my own two feet."

Suijin noticed the brightening of her downcast expression and high fives himself. He was just about to direct the topic of conversation to hero names when he saw something.

Some people, dressed in all black turn into an empty store along with an unwilling participant.