The Hellfire Child

Chapter 5

// 1 Year later \\

Ever since Enji developed his quirk he's also developed a bit of a temper and has become more curious. You've had a harder time telling him that you couldn't afford this product, he's too young to be thinking about life after death, or "I'd love to spend the day with you but I have work". You've been told by fellow mothers that this behavior is normal for 4-5 year olds but... something just didn't seem...natural.

You walked through the door sighing after another day of hard work. Your neighbor had contacted you saying that Enji wanted you home now. You couldn't exactly rush what you were doing, regenerating damaged cells takes time. Different injuries take different amounts of time depending on how large the wound it, how deep, and what bacteria needs to be removed from it before you begin the regenerative process. Of course a child couldn't fully understand that.

You rushed the process you were in the middle of and due to increasing your quirk's out put the palms of your hands are only slightly burned.

You walk through the door and smell...smoke. You sigh and rub your forehead, you take off your shoes, walk into the living/dining room and see a child pouting on the floor. You look around the child and sure enough, of the pillows on the floor, very few will go in the washer with extra laundry detergent.
"It might just be better to get new pillows."

Your neighbor apologized for not taking better care of Enji but you held up your hand and shook your head, then bowed, "I should be the one apologizing, I need to teach him better. Thank you for watching him to the best of your abilities."

You sent your neighbor out your apartment door with a wave and a smile, you closed the door and rest your head on the door. You felt a presence behind you and heard a small sniffle.

"Ma-mama, are you angry at m-me?"

You turned your head and saw the pain and sorrow in your little boy's eyes. You turned around completely and kneeled down, you gently held his hands (you made sure he felt the barely burned skin).

"I'm not mad, I'm just a little disappointed. You know better Enji." You knew you shouldn't be talking as softly as you were and should have raised your voice just a little but you didn't want him thinking that what he did was completely wrong.

Enji's face lightened up and he wipes away is tears. You sighed for the millionth time in the past 3 years and look directly into his eyes.

"You need to control your anger. I don't know how much more I can take of this." You let go of his hand and showed him your palms, "You wanted me home and here I am..." you looked down at your palms, "...Enji, if the person was in worse condition I would have had to go to the hospital myself. I'm not going to speed up the repairing process ever again because you want me home, I could loose my job as a Hero, I wouldn't be able to fix up my best friend when he's injured; I wouldn't be able to help the people that need it most."

Enji looked at your hands and started to tear up again, "I'm sorry Mama, I'll try not to ask for you to come home sooner."

You wanted to laugh, he demanded more than asked.

"Patience," you told him, "it's the one thing you need to learn. It took me years to learn patience but I eventually learned it, so if I can learn it you can too."

Enji nodded and you smiled. You stood up, "Now I'm going to go take care of my hands, while I'm gone can you make a pile of the badly burned pillows?" Enji nodded again, you were worried you said something wrong, he wasn't saying anything; but you began to think that he's probably reflecting over what you said.

//2 hour later\\

You were sitting on your bed reading when your little Enji came hesitantly into your room and crawled onto your bed. You put your book down and pulled him into your lap and hugged him.

You were both silent until Enji spoke, "Mama?"

"Yes, Enji?"

"You always talk about your friend...who are they?"

You smiled, "They're someone I've known since I was a child, although he's two years younger than me. He'd always scrape his hands and knees when he fell, he always watched me from a distance and thought my quirk was cool."

"What was his quirk?"

"...um...well...he didn't have one growing up, one day he recei-- he finally manifested his quirk, I congratulated him, happy he could finally make his dream come true." You began to brush you fingers through Enji's hair. "When he was in his last year of Junior High he began to train like a crazy maniac," you laughed a little, "whenever I wasn't busy after school or over weekends I'd go to where he was training his body and watched. We both liked American pop culture so I often wore red, white, and blue to encourage him to keep moving forward."

Enji looked up at you as you talked about your old friend, "After he...manifested his quirk, he began injuring himself left and right so I began to patch him up a lot. I couldn't patch him all the time though, he made it into UA."

You looked down at Enji as his face lit up, "UA?!"

You nodded and put on a closed eyed smile, "Yeah, UA, I was a second year at a newer school, Shiketsu."

"Why did you go to Shiketsu?"

"I was just one point away from getting into UA but ran out of time and then I was sent an offer to go to Shiketsu for free, and with an offer like that from a just built Hero School I couldn't turn it down. The school after my first year turned into the fourth best Hero Academy, after my second year it turned into the second best and being second best was fine with me."

"Why?"

"Because it's better to be Second best then bottom last." You watched as Enji nodded but you looked deep into his turquoise eyes; he seemed confused.

"What's wrong Enji, you seem confused."

"I thought being number one meant you're the best?"

You nodded, "It does mean that, but being number one isn't always the greatest. When you're number one you get more attention, more fame, you leave the people you care about in the dirt and you don't realize how much they're suffering because of you until it's too late. It's better to be Second best then number One cause very few can actually be successful in the number One position, these people hold the one's they care about on a higher pedestal then what they are on. Being bottom last is never good, very few will realize the good you've done; when you're bottom last someone else could do something wrong and everyone else will look at you as if you do the same things." You smiled at Enji, "I don't care if you're not number One, just so long as your not bottom last I'll be proud of you."

You never finished talking about your friend, whose climbing to the very top as we speak. He's one of the few who can actually with stand the position of number One. The one's he loves most is the whole world, he'd sacrifice his own life if it meant saving everyone...you just hope the next holder would do the same.

Enji and you eventually made it to his room. You tucked him in after he changed into pajamas. Enji smiled up at you while holding his blankets up too his chin, "I'm going to try to be a great Hero Mama will be proud of."

You smiled down at him and brushed your hand over his hair before leaning down and kissing his forehead, "I'll be watching."

You stand up and leave the room turning off the light and leaving the door open just a crack.

You lean again the wall right outside Enji's room (away from his view through the door opening) and clench your hands together and put them on your chest...a sudden pain goes through your heart for only a split second.