Running on Empty

A banter-filled breakfast

Hitoshi could say, with absolute certainty, that this was the first time in his memory he'd been excited to get up before 11 o'clock. In any other circumstance rolling out of bed at five freaking thirty in the morning would be utter hell, but as it was, he practically jumped out. He'd already laid out his outfit (some sportswear that Shouta had grabbed whilst they were in town yesterday) and he threw the clothes on in a hurry. He picked up his backpack with everything he'd need for school plus a change of clothes, and made his way to the kitchen in record time.

Shouta sent him a warning look when he started wolfing his breakfast down and he winced.

"I know you're looking forward to this kid, but you're gonna make yourself sick at this rate. We won't be able to do anything if you're throwing up."

He nodded, slowing as much as he could physically bear to.

"Are you gonna leave your hair like that?"

He blinked and reached around to grab his hair, oh yeah, he hadn't taken it out of the braid yet. He'd be showering after the training, so he'd have to take it out before that, but he hadn't really thought about it. He looked at it and then up at Sho, pausing his breakfast to sign, "Should I not?"

Shouta hummed, "It's good to keep it out of your face, and for the type of training we'll be doing for now it'll be fine. But you'll have to do something about it in the future — long, braided hair is very grabbable, not great in close combat."

That made sense, and his hair was very long. Longer than both the heroes' hair because he hadn't had it cut in years. He just couldn't stomach the idea of someone with scissors right next to his head. He was gonna have to get it done at some point though, it was way past his shoulders now, and as Shouta pointed out, not great for battle.

"What about yours?" He asked and Shouta shrugged.

"I don't give villains the chance to grab it." Hitoshi narrowed his eyes, it was unlike Eraserhead to leave it a possibility. Shouta held his gaze for an age before caving. "...and it's not as intimidating when I use my quirk if it's short or tied back. Just doesn't have the same effect. It's— don't laugh at me, I'm serious! It's best if I just intimidate the villains into backing down."

"So it's all about the image huh."

"No— that, that's not it, did you even listen to what I just said? It's about avoiding combat."

"It's no fun stopping villains if you don't look good doing it."

"Hitoshi," Shouta was fighting a smile. "No."

"Is it a competition between you and 'Zashi? Who has the most fabulous crime-fighting hair?"

"Hitoshi!" He buried his head in his hands, but the shaking of his shoulders betrayed his amusement. "For the record, I would absolutely win, 'Zashi's is ridiculous."

Hitoshi laughed at that, he could only imagine how affronted his other guardian would be. "I'm gonna tell him you said that."

"Don't you dare."

He laughed harder, although it came out as more of a wheeze.

"And stop laughing so hard! You're gonna do your voice more damage. I dread to think what Recovery Girl would do to me and Hizashi if we brought you back in less than 24 hours!"

Hitoshi snorted at the memory of her scolding them, but managed to control his amusement all the same. He wanted his voice back more than anyone else.

It wasn't long after that that they were in the car and on their way. Shouta and Hizashi didn't have to be at school until eight o'clock, but Shouta was taking him there for around six so that they could have an hour and a half of training. After that, he'd go to the showers, and Sho would drive back home, pick 'Zashi up, and then get back to school just before eight.

He'd decided to do his online learning at UA. That way he could see either of his guardians if he needed anything, and he wouldn't be on his own all day. Well, on his own with the cats. Everyone agreed it was better this way; Sho and 'Zashi didn't seem too keen on the idea of leaving him alone for any extended period of time, although he was yet to figure out if that was because they'd miss him, or because he'd attempted suicide just over a week ago and they were worried he'd try again.

Either way, he was happy to spend the day at the hero school, getting to see what his guardians were like at work.

Shouta led him to a field and they put their bags down.

"Right," he started, facing Hitoshi. "The main purpose of today is for me to get a sense of where you're at so that I can put together a training plan accordingly. I'm going to record your score on a series of physical tests, and then we will work on improving them. Any questions?"

Hitoshi shook his head, it was fairly straightforward.

"In that case, we'll start with the 50-meter dash. But first, you need to warm up."

By seven thirty, Hitoshi was sweating buckets. Shouta had had him running all over the place, throwing stuff, jumping, and he was tired. This was way more exercise than he was used to, and his body was protesting.

All in all, he thought he'd done okay. He was a pretty fast runner considering all the escaping he'd had to do in his life, but he had very little upper body strength and was pretty clumsy with his movements.

Shouta didn't give him any sense that he was disappointed, but he didn't seem impressed either. In fact he gave nothing away at all, just wrote down Hitoshi's scores and made notes every now and then.

At the end he gave Hitoshi a nod, "Alright, from here on out, we can focus on building you up. Once we've improved your overall strength and stamina, we'll start combat training."

Hitoshi grinned, this was gonna be tough, but he couldn't wait for the challenge.