Chapter 3: Starting Line 1.2
"198... 199... 200."
Kenshi slowly let himself down from the handstand position he was in. Although it was more so he collapsed on the floor, heaps of sweat dripping down his exposed upper torso while his shorts clung tightly to his body because of it.
His visage seemed to be shaped like an ancient Greek philosopher, marble like pale skin with a visible six pack abs, arms that were teeming with definition, and a back that looked as if he had wings.
It was a true testament to his hard work and his indomitable will to be a hero, as he understood he needed to cover all his bases for the future. Kenshi's quirk carried no inherent physical boost, and he knew that if one simplified hero work down were a toddler could understand it, it was just a good old fashioned fight in most scenarios. Either way, he would need to be strong and quick enough on his feet to achieve the dream he had.
For a good minute or so he let himself rest, breathing calmly and staring at the open window of his room currently letting in the morning rays of the sun. They warmed his face, and the small breeze from the still lingering dregs of winter did nicely to help his body temperature drop.
After a few more minutes of rest, Kenshi got up and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. His bandages were already off as he did not want to reapply them constantly. He had long come to learn how tedious it was to do so.
Taking his time, he turned on the water, did his business, brushed his teeth, and then finally hopped in the shower. The water was freezing cold, just the way he liked it, and the chills on his skin were a splendid reprieve from his earlier intense workout.
He cleaned his body thoroughly, ran a comb through his long white hair, and washed his face to rub away the last remnants of his sleep.
Once out of the shower, he dried himself off and got dressed in his Aldera school uniform that his grandma had clearly left for him on the closed toilet seat. Under them were the familiar bandages he wore and his allowance for the week. He smiled at the gesture, quickly getting dressed and making his way to the living room.
As he entered, Kenshi noticed the back of a head with similar white hair, and as quietly as possible Kenshi snuck his way toward it. His usual stoic face was now replaced with a demon-like grin of mischief.
"Kenshi, stop it, you know I can hear you."
The aforementioned Kenshi clicked his tongue in annoyance at getting caught, calmly walking over and kissing the aging woman who was currently knitting a scarf on the cheek. His grandma smiled, not bothering to look up with her exotic blue eyes as she spoke to him, "Hurry or you will be late for school, and please eat something more filling besides carrots and a banana, you are a growing boy after all."
Kenshi chuckled softly, "Grandma, you know I eat light because I sometimes run to school."
"Yes yes, that hero training business or what not, all the good it will do when someone throws a fireball at your face."
The old woman gained a shit eating grin at those words, but Kenshi rolled his eyes (bandage indents?) As he grabbed the backpack he previously left next to the door. He also did not forget to snag a banana from a bowl on the counter, much to his grandma's annoyance.
"Can't throw a fireball if they can't see me grandma, we have been over this already."
His grandma chuckled, and Kenshi joined her as he stood at the door unmoving. Slowly though, their laughter died down, fading away to let a palpable tension settle inside the small home.
Kenshi's grandma finally turned to him, eyes narrowed along with thinned lips, her glare ever so obvious.
"You know as well as anyone how hard it is to use your quirk Kenshi, so why? Why do you want to be a hero so bad?" She had decided to break the heavy silence with a sledgehammer.
Kenshi stood still, facing the door and not daring to look back.
"I killed my parents."
His grandma inhaled sharply at those words.
"I killed your daughter." Kenshi's grip on his backpack tightened, knuckles turning white as snow as he seemingly glared holes through his bandages and into the red door before him. "I owe it to mom, for ending her career as a hero so short. I owe it to your daughter grandma, so I will be the best goddamn hero I can be no matter what."
There was no answer at first, but Kenshi could hear the footsteps of someone he would never forget. Her arms gently wrapped around him, bringing him into a tight hug while a chin rested on his shoulder.
"It is okay Ke-chan, I have forgiven you long ago."
Kenshi bitterly smiled, "I know, I just haven't forgiven myself yet."
"In time you will."
"Yeah." Kenshi nodded in confirmation as his grandma pulled away. "In time, but until then, I will brave whatever stands in my way and be a man of my word."
"Just please, be safe okay? You are all I have left Ke-chan."
Kenshi gave a small nod in response, not wanting to glance back as he opened the door and stepped out onto the lawn. The first breath he took was so different, which let his muscles relax as they had been tense before. The door closed behind him, and as he took a few more steps away from his house a wave of vigor washed over him. Kenshi continued to saunter forward, making his way down his usual route, and a focus like no other came to him as he traveled down his street.
However, a minute in and that focus was run over by hurried footsteps and a familiar voice.
"Kuraka!" Midoriya stopped running as he stood beside him, a smile adorning his freckled face as he continued to talk. "Good morning, how are you?"
"Good morning." Kenshi simply said as he did not turn to face the boy beside him.
This had been routine for an entire year now, Midoriya walking with him as he pleased, Kenshi not entirely disgusted with the idea of his company anymore, and a few pleasant conversations scattered amongst small talk. He was still curt as ever though, polite if needed, but also rude if his green haired walk-mate got a tad bit too friendly.
He could not help it, it was just who he was.
"Are you excited to be starting second year? We are already a week in and so much has changed?" Midoriya asked as he hummed a little too happily.
"I don't particularly feel anything for it, I guess you are from the way you are acting?" Kenshi said through a stifled yawn, noting that apparently a cold shower was not enough to wake him up completely.
"Not entirely, but we do get to sit next to each other."
That was true in a sense, as for second year of junior high the teacher had finally realized how volatile putting the two stars of the class so close to one another was. As a result, Midoirya was now seated in front of Kenshi, which he had come to slightly hate as it seemed there was an invisible chain only five feet long that was attached from Bakugou to Midoriya.
Kenshi could ignore it for the most part, but God, sometimes he wanted to put his foot so far up inside a particular place when Bakugou would not shut up. However, he knew the second he retaliated or interacted with the explosion boy his life would change for the worst. He quite enjoyed his current status of being treated as nothing more than air, the only redeeming quality about Bakugou that he was always hyper focused on those in front of him and nothing else.
Although Kenshi did notice how harsh the boy could be to Midoriya.
There was an itch for him to say something or do anything for the closest thing he had as a friend, but he long decided not to act.
Much of it was for the fact most of the beatings were after class, away from prying eyes and far enough away that Kenshi felt only some guilt. Though his sense of smell was leagues above a normal person's, so he could almost taste the sulfur and smoke scent attached to Midoriya's uniform, but he knew if the green haired boy wanted help he would ask for it.
Kenshi once brought it up, and it took almost an hour for Midoriya to stop saying "I refuse!" constantly. He dropped it after that, putting most of his focus on training since UA was only two years away.
He needed to become a hero, everything was secondary.
"Is your quirk the ability to see from other people's sight?" Midoriya's voice brought Kenshi out of his stupor.
He gave the short boy a side glance before shaking his head, "No, that is not my quirk."
Midoriya deflated, arms hanging loosely along with his head as a storm cloud formed above him, "I swore that was it, since it is almost uncanny how good your situational awareness is. Unless that is your quirk, is it a natural sixth sense?"
Kenshi gave the barest hint of a smirk, reminiscing about how for a year Midoriya had tried to guess what his Quirk is, the simple notion he could not figure it out on his own sparking determination in Midoriya.
"You only get one chance a day, I already answered."
"Gah! No fair…" Midoriya exhaled before he suddenly went into a mumbling mess, his hands mimicking writing in a notebook as they continued on their walk.
Kenshi had wanted to get his run over this morning, but with his current acquaintance attached to his hip, it was pointless. He would need to do it after school.
"I will be busy after school is over, so don't bother me."
Midoriya nodded as he stopped his roller coaster of words, a strained smile on his face, "I'm sure Kacchan has plans for me anyways…"
Kenshi said nothing, head forward as he let those words fester in his mind, the urge to say something growing as time went on.
On a mere whim, he gave in and spoke, "Why do you treat him as a friend Midoriya? You know he treats you like filth, beats you like a bully, and mentally harasses you right?"
The question seemed to come out of left field for the green haired boy, lips quivering and eyes distant as he fought hard to find the right words to respond.
It took a moment, but his face hardened with some resolve.
"Because I remember what we were like before. Mother always used to tell me how we were practically insufferable back then, two peas in a pod and so on. I know he has not forgotten, I know he still cares. Just…"
Kenshi was a little taken aback by the fact the words were concise and without the usual stutter or undertones of nervousness. It did a lot to cement the words in his mind, making Kenshi honestly weigh them realistically.
"I think you are wrong." Kenshi spoke with more conviction than he thought he had. "People change Midoriya, it's how life goes. You are treating Bakugou like you did all those years ago, but that's not him now and you know it. You are smart, but even then it doesn't take a genius to figure out he is using you as an outlet to deal with every mistake or frustration he has."
Kenshi frowned, "You are just an insignificant pebble to him…"
A tension settled on the two, the silence almost tangible as they stopped at a street crossing. Kenshi couldn't see Midoirya's face due to the bandages, but he could hear the sniffling and shaking of his body with his enhanced hearing.
He would have said something to mend the awkward air, but he was instead distracted by a sound he could never mistake for anything else.
Screeching tires, a shout from an older female saying something about her daughter, small footsteps only a few feet in front of him, and the gasps of shock from the surrounding people.
"-NUMB NULL-" The words were spoken on instinct, Kenshi's body flashing forward at almost inhuman speeds.
With one hand he pulled on his bandages, taking in the scene before him as one of his crystal blue eyes were revealed. He could see the little girl and her startled face, the red sedan drifting out of control to his right, and how the vehicle was on a clear course to turn the girl into nothing more than a stain on the asphalt.
Kenshi gritted his teeth, blood drawn but he thankfully couldn't feel the pain as he took away his sense of touch, allowing himself to exceed human limits with his body as he blurred forward.
The next few moments almost happened in slow motion, his hand grabbing the girl's Hula Girl Hero themed backpack as he passed her, his arm bending as he yanked her along, and the back end of the sudan whipping forward.
The vehicle's rear passed mere inches from the little girl, Kenshi exhaling the breath he was holding as he tucked the little girl into his chest and rolled forward to kill his momentum. It kind of worked, his body still skidding on the street a few more feet before he finally stopped.
Success, he actually made it.
Kenshi looked down at the girl in his arms, her two eyes wide along with the third one that sat just above the other two, a mutation quirk it seemed.
"You okay?"
The little girl's three eyes blinked rapidly, her face shifting as if she finally realized where she was, "Ah, your eye is so pretty."
Kenshi sputtered, quickly pulling his bandage back down and standing up. He placed the little girl on her feet, and it was only then he heard the cheers erupt from around him.
"Holy shit did you see how fast he moved?!"
"Is he a hero? Look, he even has bandages on, is it his costume?"
"No, it has to be his quirk right, but he practically teleported from one side to the other?"
"He is wearing a student's uniform, is he gonna go to UA?"
Kenshi ignored the next wave of the offhanded comments, double checking the little girl's condition before turning to the mom who also had three eyes. She was currently bowing in a frenzy, thanking him profusely and even offering him money for saving his daughter.
Of course, he refused, and politely gave his reason why.
"I did it out of instinct so I can't take your money. Also, I need to get to school so I apologize."
Kenshi bowed back once in respect before turning and practically sprinting away as he hurried to school, he only stopped once he was out of sight, also noticing the hurried footsteps behind him.
"Kuraka! T-that was so cool!" Midoriya almost tackled him as he patted Kenshi's back in excitement. "You just reacted, not even saying anything, like… like-like a real hero."
Kenshi would not lie and say those words did not make goosebumps run up his spine, but he had bigger issues to deal with. He still had no sense of touch, his quirk still keeping it at bay as he found a bench and collapsed on it.
"Kuraka?" Midoriya raised a single brow as he hovered next to him.
"Just… " Kenshi never got to finish as he accidentally let go of his quirk and gave himself back his lost sense, the pain hitting him like a truck as he gnashed his teeth and gripped the bench in agony.
"Are you okay?!"
Although he was dealing with immense pain, he managed to calmly address the green haired boy.
"Shut up!"
"Ah, o-okay… "
Kenshi simply sat, toiling in misery for a good five minutes before he was able to make the boiling pain fall to a small simmer of soreness. He could hear the tapping foot of Midoriya, and he knew he had many questions which he wanted answers too.
"What?" Kenshi managed.
Midoriya weakly smiled, "How d-did you move that fast Kuraka? It was almost like you teleported, but from how you are acting and the visible contractions of your muscles I could see it was a physical feat no?"
Kenshi nodded.
"But why the bandages then, if your quirk allows you to do something like that it doesn't make much sense. Maybe if you see an objective or goal you want to achieve you can get a temporary boost in power?"
Midoriya looked at Kenshi with curious eyes, but only saw him sit silently for a few seconds.
"You wasted your chance for today." Kenshi ever so slightly smiled. "And we are definitely late for school."
"Oh, it seems so." Midoirya faintly replied as he knew Kenshi would not give him any more chances for the rest of the day.
Midoriya's mood tanked, but underneath his somber feeling was his gut twisting to the point it hurt. No one had noticed Midoriya had also ran forward to try and save the little girl, and he realized that if Kenshi was not present, the outcome would be drastically different.
She would be dead or fatally wounded, and he would have failed to save her.
Midoriya clenched his fist, truly realizing for the first time his mother was right.
He couldn't be a hero, not like Kenshi, nor like All Might.
He needed to change, he needed to take the time he had now seriously and not waste it, UA or not be damned.
In a whisper, Midoriya gave his thanks to Kenshi, wholeheartedly unaware that the boy heard him clear as day.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone