章 17: New Life
Jugram jumped, dodging a low kick from the speeding form of Gran Torino. Pushing Blood Minpulaton to its limit, crimson tendrils burst from his fingers and rapidly whipped around his body. Simultaneously, he controlled the blood flow within his body to boost his physical abilities. He pushed everything to the limit and tried to track Torino's path through the air with enhanced eyes and reflexes.
"You're getting slower by the day, old man," Jugram taunted.
"Yet you still are incapable of stopping me after all these years," the Torino called, slipping through Jugram's perception, "Which is more pathetic?"
The old hero planted his foot squarely between Jugram's shoulder blades. Then he activated his quirk, Jet. The pressurized air streams from the sole of Torino's foot added extra force to the blow, sending Jugram sailing across the room until he smashed into the far wall.
He quickly recovered from his crash into the wall, extending a hand and slashing forward with the whipping blood tendrils. Jugram pushed his Awakened Threat Detection to the limit, transferring the awakening since he didn't need more raw power from Blood Manipulation. What I need is to perceive Torino in the first place, Jugram thought as the old man turned into a blur, bouncing from floor to wall to roof at a blindingly fast speed.
Threat Detection blared silent alarms in his mind, the awakened version even helping to predict precisely where and when the danger would come from, but it still wasn't enough. He was forced to whip the blood tendrils forward blindly. Jugram cursed but backed into a corner so that his back was to the walls, and he was covered on two sides.
This ensured that the old man could only come from the front, but this tactic had never worked before. Gran Torino was like a shark; he always seemed to know the correct time to strike, no matter the situation. He wasn't infallible. Jugram had occasionally won a few of their mock battles recently, but he was still won very inconsistently.
"Ahh yes," the old man taunted, his voice seeming to come from multiple directions at once as he blurred by, "Use the tactic that has never worked before. Smart."
"Maybe I'll surprise you," Jugram said, combining the numerous blood tentacles from his fingers into a larger one before swinging it in a large arc.
Using the opening, he rushed forward, splitting the tentacle once more and extending them from both hands. He spread the crimson vines from each hand like a net as his arms spread wide. Once the crimson net touched both walls, he brought his hands forward as if to clap. His goal was to corner and trap Gran Torino with this move and trap the old man, but it was never that simple.
The old man blurred forward and sailed along the ceiling, passing through the trap a moment before it could ensnare him. Torino took the opportunity of Jugram's open back to leap to the wall and quickly boost off, sending a kick toward the unguarded section.
However, as he approached, tendrils ripped from Jugram's elbows and reached toward the old man.
"Got you," Jugram muttered triumphantly.
Yet, Tornio pivoted at the last moment, his shrunken body allowing for easier aerial positioning with his quirk. The old man dodged the tendrils and landed a punch that threw Jugram forward, down onto his knees.
"You're still 1000 years too young to defeat me, greenhorn." Gran Torino said through his heaving breaths and dripping sweat, lessening the impact of his statement.
"Yeah, right," Jugram said, rolling his eyes.
"At least that time you almost didn't lose," a voice called from the doorway.
"Be quiet, Yuto. Not everyone has the godly spatial awareness and senses that you do." Jugram grumbled, standing up.
Whereas he had been shorter than Gran Torino when they were first adopted, both Jugram and Yuto towered over the old man now. He had shrunk gradually while the two of them grew rapidly. It also didn't help that Yuto and Jugram were tall for their age. Both boys were now 14 and starting their final year of Middle School.
While Jugram still required a long back and forth with Gran Torino before barely scraping out a win, Yuto could now defeat the old man consistently. His strength and senses had risen exponentially as Yuto grew, until reaching the point that even Gran Torino had been comparing him to many heavy hitters. While he didn't warrant the All Might comparison yet, given a few more years and maybe another Physical Enhancement quirk or two, the boy could rival USJ All Might.
Granted, USJ All Might was well past his prime, but it would still be a considerable feat to achieve.
I'll have to stay on the lookout for some Strength Enhancement quirks at work, Jugram thought idly, but before he could dwell on that thought, Yuto spoke.
"Well, it's time to get going," Yuto said with a sigh, taking a bite from an apple he swiped from the table. "Are you excited about school, Jugram?"
"Happy as a fish in a desert," Jugram said, cleaning himself up, "Maybe you'll even get to beat up some more bullies today. We should really start charging onlookers some fees."
Yuto sighed even louder while Gran Torino chuckled. It hadn't been as apparent as a child, but this world was undoubtedly full of prejudices. What you look like and what kind of quirk you have, on top of all the other usual stuff, made school an interesting place to be. The glaring societal problems the series tried to touch on towards its latter half became apparent from the moment they entered school.
Interestingly, Jugram found himself toward the Heteromorph outcast/discriminated against half of the spectrum thanks to Blood Manipulation and looking foreign. It seemed that Blood quirks aren't exactly revered. Really, anything that manipulated the body or body parts in a way that wasn't obviously powerful or 'cool' was seen as gross.
Yuto, however, had the opposite experience. He was practically considered a demi-god at school. With his powerful quirk, humble attitude, and dream of becoming a pro hero, Yuto had everything society praised. Jugram had initially wondered if it would go to his friend's head, but it hadn't. If anything, it had done the opposite.
With his strong sense of justice, seeing the mistreatment of other students with Heteromorph quirks confused Yuto. Despite what they had been through, he was always the optimistic soul, while Jugram was the cynic. He began to question societal norms and stick his neck out for those he felt were mistreated, even getting into regular brawls with bullies over their treatment of others.
It probably shaped his perspective to be around me all this time. Gran Torino, too, since the old man is technically a heteromorph. Jugram considered as the two went to school.
x-X-x
"Another uneventful day," Jugram said as the bell rang and the two brothers exited the classroom.
Many people swarmed around excitedly, but they tended to avoid Jugram. He was at an awkward place in the societal structure. His quirk wasn't bad enough to bully him for, but it didn't make him an idol. That, along with being foreign and an orphan, put him in a sort of limbo grey zone where people from both sides of the spectrum didn't go out of their way to befriend him.
Not that Jugram cared. As time passed, it became more bearable to deal with people his own age, but it still wasn't to the point that he would actually try to make good friends. He decided to wait until high school to start forming genuine relationships. Anything sooner than that would have seemed a bit strange to his mature mind.
Of course, Yuto was the exception to that rule. He didn't count since they were brothers now and had known each other since Jugram gained consciousness in this world.
"Are you off to that volunteer work?" Yuto asked as they stopped by their lockers to change their shoes.
"Yep," Jugram said, leaning closer and lowering his voice, "Quirks won't collect themselves for me."
Yuto laughed at the comment and agreed, "While you do that, I'm gonna head to the dojo and get some more training in before meeting Dad back at home."
"Alright, I may be home a bit late, so you should pick up some food," Jugram said.
"Late, huh?" Yuto said, wiggling his eyebrows, "You sure it's not about that girl where work. She's our age, isn't she? I can't believe you are leaving your poor brother for a girl, disgraceful."
"...Stop being so hormonal. She simply volunteers at the same place as me." Jugram said, exasperated.
Yet, his pause had given enough time for the misunderstanding to bloom further, resulting in much teasing and laughter as the brothers left the school, parting ways at the gate.
"Later, loverboy," Yuto said, walking away without turning back.
"Ugh, I liked you better when you were quiet. What happened to the brother I used to like?" Jugram called after Yuto.
In response, he simply received a blown kiss and wink from his dear brother. I outta throttle that kid. Tornino's has been rubbing off on him too much. Jugram thought indignantly.
He refused to acknowledge that it was most likely his fault that Yuto turned out this way. Over the long years spent together, Jugram's humor and mannerisms had rubbed off on his brother, while Gran Torino contributed his tendency to troll everyone he met to Yuto's personality and developing sense of humor.
That girl, though, Jugram thought. Yuto had been right to point out the special attention Jugram paid her, but he had attributed it to the wrong emotion. The reason that Jugram paid attention to her was the fact that he recognised her.
She is a future pro hero, after all.
With a sigh, Jugram walked away from the school gate until he reached Sunrise Homes Care Facility, where he volunteered every day. He looked at the old person's home and took a deep breath of clean air before he moved toward the entrance. However, a female voice calling out to him stopped him from entering.
"Hohenheim, wait for meee." the voice called.
"Hello, Takeyama," Jugram said evenly as a girl his age rushed down the street to catch up to him.
He took a moment to examine her as she bent over, breathing deeply. She had short, wavy, cream-colored blonde hair and purple eyes. While she was still young compared to her debut in the series, he recognized the name Yu Takeyama and her features.
This was undoubtedly a young version of Mt.Lady.
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