Chapter 5: Courage comes in the...Oddest of ways.

Recap

‘Adaptation, what a beautiful sounding and seeming quirk. You could adapt to become immune to many things, get skin as hard as iron. Maybe develop another organ. The only downside that the government and others would see is its slow adaptation period.’

But Enaki being with the wielder of that quirk for so long didn’t think so. Although it was an emitter quirk it was always active with the user only able to slightly alter what its going to ‘adapt’ to next.

His wife is sporadic, wild, and never lost her energy even throughout the years. But with taking care of a child, and with life weighing down on her stress built up. Normal people go to the gym, play a game, or spend time with a hobby to get rid of stress.

‘But she wasn’t normal. Her quirk decided and reacted to the negative emotions that were weighing on her mind to find an outlet. The solution that was found was to put it on a trusted person, Enkai!

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Over the past years, her quirk made it so that her eyes slowly widened her tear ducts and tear glands. Crying is a way for some people, including Erena, to release their troubles, frustrations, and stress. So her quirk modified her body to do so in a bigger amount, so as to allow her to release more.

Whenever she’s in a tear-jerking situation and he’s around, she cries, sometimes buckets full, and her emotions, mainly negatives like sadness, anger, regret, etc. Work on overdrive to get rid of all her stress.

They overwork themselves so that she can cry her grievances away and so the emotions won’t become a problem.

Now, this can only happen with a trusted individual around, and who’s more trustworthy than her husband.

And so Enkai knew that this wasn’t his wife talking, but her quirk making her much more emotional than normal.

So Enkai calmly responded. 

"Our son is out of harm's way. Although there is discrimination in our society, I was once a fellow classmate of  Higari Maijima’s (Power Loader), I know that he will keep my son safe."

Although Enkai said that, in his mind, he himself was worrying over his son. Not for his physical safety, but for his mental safety.

Many in his bloodline have the quirk Spray Bottle, yet few are even able to "awaken" it. It requires a strong enough mind and desire, something that he can’t force onto his son.

He’s worried whether this event will stunt his growth and ultimately shun him from the path of heroes like so many.

Enkai didn’t have to work hard and only awakened the quirk through a coincidence where he was on the toilet and "pushed" a little too hard.

He didn’t have much talent, so throughout the years he made up for this lack of talent with hard work and grit. Yet time is taking its toll on his body.

He knows he can’t keep up this hero's life for long, and these past few months with Akrai, they both came to the consensus that their sons will inherit their hero's name if they want and surpass it.

‘Suijin…’

*Sludge Inciden, 3rd Pov*

Suijin, after failing to use his quirk was pushed out of the crowd. He was downcast, depressed, and saw no reason to try and push through the masses to reach the front again.

So he turned around and climbed a firepole on a nearby building onto the top of the roof. It was tall enough to provide sight of the incident while far away enough so that he wouldn’t have to hear the crowd badmouth him.

‘I guess this is my fate.’

He leaned against the door that connected the inside of the building to the roof as he heard his phone ring.

"You're a true blue Mutant, Oh~You, You're the best, ~Because powerful quirks are for the weak~."

Hearing the ringtone made him a bit nostalgic. He's gotten beaten up more times than he can count, and so as a form of revenge and to bring awareness, he created this ringtone. Of course, this merley incurred their wrath and cost him more bruises. 

One day after he had again gotten beat up Shoji suggested that if he’s going to spout nonsense about unjust fairness and such, he should take some steps towards actually spreading the word about it. So he came up with a theme son--Future National Anthem.

‘Let's answer it before I have whoever’s calling comes and scolds me.’

Suijin gathered the most "normal" sounding voice he could muster and said,

"Hello, it's the world's most handso-"

"SHUT UP SUIJIN-"

Suijin was surprised by the voice on the other end. Not just because of the loud tone that required him to move the phone away from him, but because it was Shoji.

He was the calm, smart, and mature person who he believed would make it into U.A. He already has plans underway for him to support Shoji in the shadows and use him to bring awareness about the discrimination against those with mutant quirks.

He didn’t really bet on himself attending since he had quite a negative opinion of himself, so hearing him yell really was a shock. 

The number of times this happened could be counted on one's fingers, and so he immediately thought about what he did.

‘Did I accidentally chop one of his arms off? Or did I dump some questionable liquid in his 'mouth’ again?

Back to reality however, "YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST SIT DOWN AND PITY YOURSELF YOU BASTARD! YOU THINK YOU'RE ALLOWED TO JUST WALLOW IN DESPAIR OVER HOW USELESS YOUR QUIRK IS FOR THE 100TH OF TIME!

PEOPLE ARE GETTING HURT, ALMOST DYING AND HERE YOUR ARE WALLOWING IN SELF PITY!"

Suijin himself would say that he was mature normally. Over the years, although he used to be energetic, seeing people constantly shun him and others do nothing about it closed himself off.

He saw how people flocked towards Shoji and once tried to imitate him. Unfortunately, the mask and silent, brooding personality didn’t suit him.

But after being at one of the lowest points in his life, he couldn't help but get angry at being called selfish after what he had just experienced.

"YOU TRY IT THEM MR PERFECT. YOU HAVE EVERYTHING ALL THE GIRLS FLOCKING TOWARDS YOU, THE LOOKS TO GO WITH IT, AND THE FREAKY  STRENGTH TO SOLVE EVERYTHING. I’M SORRY THAT UNLIKE YOU MR PERFECT THAT I AN ORDINARY PERSON CAN’T SOLVE EVERYTHING!"

Suijin was huffing and puffing after letting his emotions out. He regretted some of what he said, (Although the part about the girls was true.)

Anf was about to apologize before Shoji continued talking.

"What-No. Look, Suijin, I may appear to be this cool, unbeatable, have-it-all type of guy in your eyes, but even I have issues. My physical strength may be strong, but you saw how that guy's Power Loader and Death Arms were fairing. Me being there wouldn’t change anything."

Suijin grumbled, ‘I guess.’ 

"Besides your confidence to continue getting up despite being beat up, to continue challenging not only your classmates, and the teachers, but the rules of society itself to change is honesty ad-... I mean commendable. "

Shoji wanted to say admirable but avoided it for fear of inflating Suijin’s ego too much.

"Although I may seem to have it all, you have qualities about you that I lack, and so HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL SEEING SOMEONE WHO HAS OUTDONE ME IN COURAGE! 

SOMEONE WHO I WOULD CALL A BROTHER! WHO I WOULD DIE FOR! SOMEONE WHO I WOULD CALL A RIVAL TO BE SITTING ON THE ROOF PRACTICALLY WHINING!"

Suijin stood up, ready to exchange another round of arguments. But Shoji skipped that entirely and changed the topic.

"ARE YOU GOING TO LET THOSE WHO LOOK DOWN ON YOU WIN. LET THEM CONTINUE TO THINK THAT YOU AND BY EXTENSION ALL THOSE WHO WIELD ‘TRUE MUTANT’ QUIRKS ARE WEAK!"

Shoji knew just what to do to maneuver around his best friend. Any direct statement against him would have adverse effects. However, insult his dream and you are bringing on a "fierce’ beast. 

Similar to angering a Chihuahua, small in size yet ferocious in nature. 

"WHA-NEVER!"

‘Suijin had been baited successfully.’ Shoji thought .

In the household, Akrai heard everything Shoji was saying, and the only thought he had was, 

‘That boy must have gotten that personality from his mother. Sometimes I wonder how Enkai even deals with her.’ He, Aiya, his wife, Enkai and Erena were friends back in middle school and they kept in touch together. However, Erena's rowdy personality never changed. 

Of course, he would never say this aloud for fear of his own wife overhearing him with her devilish hearing.

*Back on the phone.*

"YOU'RE GOING TO LET THEM DISCREDIT YOU!"

"NEVER!"

"THEN GET OFF YOUR HIGH-HORSE AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT."

"SHUT UP!"

Suijin looked beyond the crowd and at the true targets that he had to take down since he deemed that was an action that would combat Shoji’s words.

Of course, he knew that he might be being manipulated, but his anger won out in the end. He used his emotions as a fuel, and with his mind solely focused on protecting his dream, his quirk awakened.

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(A/N: Did I get you? Hope I got some. Ah-well, back to the story.)

The awakening of those who have the Spray Bottle quirk in the Shimizu family isn’t when their quirk gets stronger than the original one.

It's simply a term that the members call it. In actuality, the "awakening" is merely unlocking the cap that has been placed on the members since birth.

Those born with this quirk have the defining feature of owning a spray bottle for a head, yet this isn’t the most important feature.

This ‘Spray Bottle’ is fully functional considering that it meets a condition. To protect their body, the Nozzle automatically "locks" itself so that the baby can’t accidentally hurt themselves. 

However, this causes a problem. After 4 years of locking, it's extremely difficult to get it unlocked, which is required to utilize this quirk. And forced pulling or pushing would have adverse effects on the reciprecent.

So Suijin just unlocked this hidden feature and broke the constraints that had been placed on him since birth.

A spray bottle sprays liquid inside of the body and, coupled with Suijin's desire to protect his dream, which is defeating the enemy his quirk automatically tries to spray a liquid out of the newly opened nozzle.

But due to the lack of water, the clear substance which would normally be expected to come out wasn’t seen. Instead, a yellow-looking liquid came out, since in the mind of the quirk, if one liquid isn’t available, then the next best option would be chosen.

So the people who were watching this incident on TV saw a jet stream of yellow liquid flash by from offscreen and hit the sludge monster dead center in the eye. 

In another household, a father, who was normally silent and calculated, burst out laughing after witnessing what happened. People who had some droplets fall on them were mortified after figuring out what happened.

Shoji and Akrai, who could figure out what happened, were speechless. Enkai had suffered a similar fate, but he was in a stall when it happened, so seeing his son also experience this misfortune called for him to let out a cackle nobody expected.

Of course, he was shortly thereafter squeezed by the neck by his wife for laughing at their son, who was suffering right then.

Enkai himself merely shut his eyes while holding his arms up in a wait position, to pacify her. 

(A/N: Here's the chapter. Since it was a "special" moment for Suijin, I had to delay the update since I wrote around 2000 words for this chapter. Expect more such moments in the future, and I hope you enjoy the book. Please remember to leave a comment, like, review, or add it to your collection if you do!.)