Bab 22: Chapter 22: Defiled
Recap:
"And did you think of how we were gonna beat up those monsters?"
Suijin knew who he was talking about, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Bakugo, Midoriya. The people he designated as the 4 kings of the class in terms of abilities currently. Though Shoji's the fifth, Suijin muttered inwardly.
Unbeknownst to Shoji, Suijin looked up with a face that said 'Isn't it obvious'.
"We go PLUS ULTRA!"
*Chuckle*
"Suijin…go home." Shoji almost couldn't help himself from laughing out loud.
Suijin looked up to find his house to the right with Shojis on the left. Walking up to the door, he heard the rustle from inside. Suijin looked around to find Shoji still in the same spot.
"Are you serious about that Sports festival?'
"Of course," Suijin said with a determined look.
"Tomorrow at 6, meet me here." Then, not waiting for a response, Shoji turned around and headed to his house.
____________________________________________________________________________
Suijin looked up seeing Shoji along with the seemingly endless sand behind. The crashing of waves was incessantly piercing through his ears.
The dim hue of yellow slowly creeping up through the morning sky barely illuminated their surroundings.
A beautiful picture painted….if it wasn't barely 6 AM!
'I'm gonna become sleep deprived if this continues.'
Suijin has been waking up at this hour for the past week. What first started with his early breakfast with Mina and Kirishima has turned into a daily thing.
After that day he thought he would catch some Z's until 7 before getting ready and enjoying a relaxing walk to school.
But noooo…his father decided that since he was going to UA he needs more training and that the morning was when the body was most productive.
Suijin grumbled looking aggrieved.
Though he said all this he was particularly angry with his father, on one hand, he was correct, and that wasn't even the whole truth.
Waking up to get a snack late last night revealed, that crime has become more rampant these days, and so all heroes are taking on extra shifts to compensate.
Getting rid of the father and sons after-school training session and pushing it to the morning.
Inwards Suijin knew this wasn't his father's fault….but the sleep-deprived him who'd just woken up less than 10 minutes ago didn't care.
That's not mentioning this guy!
Meeting stares Shoji registered hostility for some reason.
Suijin became even more annoyed looking at the confusion on that guy's face.
'What's there to be confused about?! You say meet me in the morning a couple of days ago but ghost me just to tell me in school that you had to delay due to injuries from weightlifting!
There I was just standing for 15 minutes looking like a fool. Then Dad comes out, finds me doing nothing, and thinking I created an excuse to skip training for a day makes that session even more grueling than the last.'
Suijin shivered remembering the purple bruises that littered his chest. Not noticeable enough for others to see easily but that sure as hell was felt by Suijin.
No matter how satisfying it was to see his mother beat up his father, the "punishment" his father labeled as 'Extra' training wasn't.
'And then! On top of all that, you listened to my grievances with my father yesterday and had a talk with him about another 6 AM meeting.
I thought you were being a pal, saving my sanity by using the excuse so we could chill, rest or just sleep.
BUT YOU MEANT IT!'
*Sigh*
" Look Shoji-"
"There's no time." Anticipating his next move, Shoji, a man of few words, cut him off.
A tick mark appeared on Suijin's "head".
"Between my personal training time and your Training, plus school, plus unexpected chances there's just no other suitable times."
"This is because we're behind right?"
"Correct. We lack the training, environments, and quirks our classmates have to become top of the class. So we can only make do with hard work-"
"-Yeah, Yeah I remember. We need to train in actual combat situations since as heroes we'll encounter them sooner or later."
"Good. I won't hold back now, so prepare."
Suijin nodded before getting into a combat-ready position with his hands spread wide like he was going to grapple Shoji.
The two locked eyes before they dashed toward each other.
Once an arm's length away Shoji threw a punch-packing strength that made the wind howl at its behest. Suijin turned his body leaning on his right leg to dodge.
While in this unstable position, others would find it difficult to counterattack. Suijin raised his right hand towards his trigger hoping to land a direct shot on Shoji.
Unfortunately, he had to stop his previous actions jumping off his right leg into a role to escape from Shoji's knee, which was as bulky as his forearms combined.
From then a game of cat and mouse ensued. Shoji rushed to Suijin trying to get close to using his overwhelming strength to end this. While Suijin, with his long-distance quirk, tried to create space.
Tilting his head to the left barely missed an upper hand. Jumping Suijin used the rotation already created to spin his body so that his legs ended up in Shoji's face…if it wasn't for an arm seemingly coming from nowhere.
'Now!' Shoji thought this was a prime opportunity to catch the surprisingly nimble Suijin, so he reached out his other hand which didn't bear the weight of Suijins leg, and reached for his ankle.
Though his expectations didn't come fruit as Suijin who failed to kick Shoji had a glimmer of glee within his "eyes".
Suijin put power into his legs and using Shoji's body as a springboard kicked off of it and back into the air.
Then not letting the chance slip he put his hands on his trigger and fired multiple thin shots directly at Shoji.
Each was placed somewhere he would move to dodge, forcing Shoji to face the brunt of his attacks.
While Shoji dealt with the swift counter-attack Suijin, who hadn't used any means to propel himself back into the air, landed on the ground.
Suijin thought to himself 'This quirk isn't suitable for Close Quarters Combat. Though it can pack a punch, the speed of manually pulling the trigger and aiming takes too much time. That should be why Dad focused on agility, and accuracy training first'
He looked up only for sand to cover his sight.
Then he felt a kick at his ribs changing his sight as Suijin crashed into the sand a few meters away.
"Wha-"
His thoughts were disoriented though he wasn't given a chance as Shoji arrived rather quickly. Knowing he doesn't have time for any tricks to escape, Suijin reached for his nozzle.
But a kick from Shoji's legs caused his arm to go numb and a direct kick to the chest of the barley-standing Suijin changed the scenery once again.
Suijin now landed in the ocean quite a distance from Shoji who was walking slowly and calmly.
'Wha-How!'
Suijin looked and squirted his eyes to see Shoji, and the thin wounds that pierced his body and left trails of blood was now visible.
'That crazy bastard charged through!'
By the time his thoughts slowed enough to think clearly and for him to finish his speculations Shoji had already arrived.
He stood in front of Suijin who was still sitting on his but in the ocean, Shoji was immobile as if his wounds were fake.
"I believe I won."
No arrogance was heard in his voice. Serious as if he was talking to a teacher.
'Damnit! Want me to Surrender, if I don't you're gonna immobilize me for 10 or more seconds!'
Suijin grabbed a fistful of sand before a weird expression appeared on his face. Looking up Suijin said sarcastically,
"You've won?"
Shoji looked at his current opponent, whose left hand still shook slightly, the water which would remove his agility, along with himself.
Suijin couldn't help but twitch his eyes at Shoji's obvious looks of yeah.
"Shoji, I…don't surrender."
Shoji was on guard against Suijin, and although he felt he had the best chance of winning he never forgot about the unpredictable Suijin.
But as he was about to leap away Suijin had already got his hand on his trigger and sprayed a widespread mist on Shoji.
Normally this wouldn't injure anyone unless Suijin got his hands on dangerous materials its just be a mist of water getting on them.
But, when open wounds are still leaking blood, and seawater comes into contact…
Shoji let out a grunt of pain, though that was an accurate representation of the pain. He felt as if he were walking through thorns just to jump into the Dead Sea.
He became paralyzed by pain momentarily as it simply hurt too much to move. By the time he regained body functions a Nozzle threatening to pierce him was in his face.
Putting his hands up ever so slowly watching as Suijins eyes narrowed Shoji said, "I surrender."
Suijin relaxed his guard and backed up, then silence remained as both were waiting for their incessant panting to finish.
They both sprawled out like starfish in the sand and watched as the orange hue gradually turned yellow. Once it felt like they weren't going to die a light chuckle ensued.
"You won."
Suijin let out a grunt.
"Good Job."
"I only won because of the environment. Making use of the salt water, plus the coincidence of you charging through the torrent like a madman."
Shoji sat up facing Suijins who head towards him.
"I made use of the sand to obscure your wounds, otherwise how would I have been able to land any injuries on you."
Shoji "lightly" tapped Suijin, though the shaking from the touch suggested otherwise.
Suijin, through his injuries now settling in since the Adrenaline was gone, sat up and faced Shoji putting on a serious expression.
"No, if you hadn't run through and only dodged getting hit by 1 torrent, then the mist wouldn't have affected you so badly to the point of immobilization."
Shoji said with a glimmer of mischief in his eyes, "But would you have even come up with that plan if I wasn't as injured as I seemed."
Suijin had no rebuttal there. Lying down again Shoji put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.
"Regardless, that was a valuable experience."
Silence then prevailed as Suijin sat upwards still thinking. He walked away to grab both of their phones before asking in a weird tone, "Shoji, when does school start."
Shoji begrudgingly sat up and opened his eyes saying, "7:30 AM, Why?"
"Cause it's 6:58, and we're 20 minutes from the house and 10 from the school."
So the boys rushed their tired bodies to their houses, to take showers, and get ready for the day they would hopefully not be late to.
***
"Might as well since we're late."
The two boys despite their high difference both fit through the door and sauntered into the nurse's office.
Looking around the empty waiting room filled with the scent of medicine the two took a seat waiting for the person in charge to arrive.
They didn't wait long though as the Youthful Heroine: Recovery Girl walked in from behind a sliding door.
The two looked at the short elderly woman with gray hair styled into a netted bun, her notable large needle being used as a cain suiting her lab coat draped on her.
As she looked up and noticed the two she spoke in a harsh tone, "More patients, it's not even 9 yet. I'm betting you two haven't even gone to class yet huh."
Suijin started to explain their current circumstances but not wanting to hear any possible excuses she cut him off by her prodding his and Shoji's bodies.
Experienced hands poked where it hurt the most, for Suijin his chest where a heavy kick from his friend lightly stung, and for Shoji, it'd be everywhere. The purple bumps remained to cause him to feel more pain than Suijin.
*Clicking of Tounge*
"Look at you too, already so beat up before the day started."
Wacking him and Shoji on the head, she shook her head and ordered Suijin to wait while she took SHoji behind the sliding doors.
He analyzed the room, the plain look combined with the light candy scent scattered around in the medical-scented room made for the atmosphere to turn peaceful.
That combined with the warm rays of the sun caused his eyes to droop rather quickly. His willpower refused against the action of sleeping but the light mumbles from the other room were the final nail cementing his slumber.
The next time he woke up was with a *Thwack* from her cain. Suijin put his hands on his head and looked up with an aggrieved face plastered onto himself.
"Good since you're up we can begin."
That's when he remembered he fell asleep looking up at the clock reading 10:28 more than an hour and 30 from when he slept.
'What could they have talked about.'
"So Shimizu, how'd you end up in this situation? I heard the gist from your classmate but I want to fully understand the situation."
So the light conversation flowed as Suijin began telling a story of how they fought, mentioning his heroic moves, Shoji's use of the environment, and focusing on what happened for them to become Injured.
All the while Recovery Girl wrapped his body in bandages, applied various ointments to him, and "fixed" him up.
Pausing for a moment she looked up at him.
"So you fought because of your Friends/Rivals?"
"No, it's because we wanted the experience of actually fighting."
"But couldn't you ask your hero dad to do it? Maybe it's a 3 way of participation between you three but isn't there something that prompted you to fight so early."
Suijin was stumped there. Although he'd been making great progress for someone who only recently got his quirk and had quite the ability, an inexplicable sense of foreboding remained.
One which seemed to push him to get stronger to face whatever was coming. So while others would notice he seemed to rush Suijin felt like he had to.
Noticing his silence she refrained from asking any more questions until she was finished. The clock now read 10:53 close to lunch for his class.
"Put this on every 6 hours starting now on the spots where it hurts. It's a muscle relaxant as well as a Healer."
Accepting the bottle Suijin felt a tap on his cheek. Then she backed up Suijin, lightly tapping the wet spot on his face.
'I've been defiled!'
Suijins mind went into panic mode momentarily at the shock of his first kiss outside of his family not with a hot, young girl but with a…old-an experienced member of the UA staff.
"Youngsters these days not understanding the favor being given."
Paying attention to his condition, Suijin did feel less pain, though the wobbliness substituting it wasn't much better.
Giving him a candy she dragged Suijin to the front door and before he knew it he was in the hallway while she was inside the room.
"You should watch your friend at the gym. Most of the muscles in his arm were torn up, and would leave scarves if left unattended too."
Closing the door Suijin stood there for a moment before continuing on his path to the classroom wondering what he would say for his lateness.
Behind Recovery Girl, known by her colleagues as Chiyo Shuzenji threw out and put away the dirty and excess materials.
"These boys sure are like "them" albeit having a better relationship. I just hope they don't also have the penchant for disaster as the others. Though it's unlikely, there are still only heroes in training, so it's unlikely they face anything dangerous soon."
Unaware of the effects her words would have she continued with her activities as Suijin opened the door to his classmates, instantly facing 30+ eyes.
"Great of you to join us, Shimizu
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone