Age 7
"-it's okay to feel overwhelmed on your first day of school. Just remember that everyone else will be on the same boat."
"I'll be fine." I rolled my eyes at Dad. He'd actually arranged to go to work later just so that he could hover over my shoulder for the entire morning.
It was insufferable.
"Don't forget to make some friends!" Ryuko called out from the doorway. "I'm going now! Bye!"
"Bye!" My sister had also been worried sick, apparently out of fear that I'd have trouble fitting in with my classmates. Well, she didn't say it aloud, but I could read her true intentions pretty well.
"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you to school?"
"Daaad."
Even if I wasn't ever planning on telling anyone about it, I had actually graduated high school before, or at least the local equivalent of it. I was pretty sure I could handle Elementary School.
-------
So, it turned out that I could not, in fact, handle Elementary School.
"Oh look, it's Tatsuma, eating alone again. What a surprise."
The source of my current predicament? Two girls my age, the first a short girl with webbed fingers and wavy black hair pulled into a ponytail, her face kind of stuck in this permanent resting bitch face. The second, the one who had spoken out, was a bit taller though still quite a bit shorter than I was, with a stocky build and sandy blond, short-cut hair. She had a constant aura of frustration about her, like everything displeased her.
I didn't know their names. I'm sure they'd been introduced like we all had been when school had begun, two months ago, but my name memory was terrible and they hadn't especially given me reason to ask and find out. So, I'd taken to mentally referring to them as Obstacle 1 and 2, respectively.
I suppose I had forgotten how annoying school could be. Or maybe I had just gotten lucky in the past? No, I remembered it now, just how incredibly, mind-bogglingly petty grade schoolers could be.
"Anything to say, weirdo?" Obstacle 2 continued. "Or are you too embarrassed, 'cause you can't even talk properly?"
Case in point, these girls had decided to focus on the fact that I "spoke weird". I mean, it was true. I spoke japanese with a bit of an odd accent, the byproduct of it not actually being my first language. It was something that was very easy for me to forget, especially as I spent my time almost exclusively with my family who were, of course, used to it. I could only be thankful of the fact that my accent was obscure enough to be almost impossible to place, here in Japan, or I might have some explaining to do. It would probably disappear entirely eventually.
Unfortunately in the meantime it made me stand out, and in elementary school, standing out is Death.
I was in the school cafeteria, sitting by myself as had been so helpfully pointed out to me. I had tried to follow Ryuko's advice, but it was just… hard. It's not that nobody wanted to be my friend, or anything like that.
I just couldn't do it. The thing about seven-year olds is that they're like energizer bunnies. Constantly moving, playing, talking, just always doing things. That kind of constant social contact... it's exhausting. I simply couldn't muster the energy to keep up. I'd always been socially awkward and shy. Dealing with other people was… exhausting.
But if you skip out, if you reject the playground in favour of spending the recess in silence, resting, you're automatically "weird". Refuse too many times, and eventually they'll stop inviting you.
And then once you're out of the social group, you're an outsider, an easy target for those insecure about their own place, looking to boost it by pushing those on the bottom of the social ladder even lower. They isolate you even more, until nobody will want to associate with you for fear of becoming another target. Then they start poking at you, try to see what gets a reaction. That's pretty much how it had gone all those years ago, and it was where we were at right now.
Back then, I'd dealt with it by giving as bad as I got. You punch me, I punch you, we both get detention. Eventually most figured out I wasn't worth the trouble and moved. But that was then, and this was now. The form the bullying took was different. I couldn't just clock someone over verbal harassment and the occasional push and shove. Or I could, but then I'd be the one getting in trouble. I was a big kid, by far the tallest student of my year. It'd be easy to put the blame on me.
And while I didn't care much on a personal level, I didn't want to do that to my parents. They deserved better than that. They deserved better than me.
Of course, I could've gone to the teachers, but what would that have accomplished? It would have been my word against theirs, and as long as it was just harassment, they wouldn't care to investigate any deeper than that.
And so, despite literally bullying a dragon, they would get away with it. I knew it. They knew it. The other kids knew it. The teachers knew it. The system would always err on the side of not punishing anyone without a preponderance of evidence.
They would harass me again, and again. Maybe they'd get bored and move on, or maybe they'd keep doing it for six more years. Then we move to Middle School and the whole cycle starts all over again.
"I didn't know you were a mute as well? Hmm?"
The two stooges seemed a little bit irritated by my continued lack of reaction.
Good.
Since I couldn't take action against them, the best idea I'd had was… not doing anything. No reaction, not even looking in their direction. I was pretty good at keeping my cool, and it gave them as little satisfaction as possible. Eventually they would either grow bored with me, or escalate until the system would have to do something.
In theory, at least. It wasn't the perfect plan, but it was the only one I had.
That was when the bell rang, signalling the beginning of the next class. With a last sneer of distaste, Obstacle 2 turned towards the exit of the school cafeteria, Obstacle 1 following in her wake.
I had managed to wait them out.
Sighing, I stood up from my seat and quickly emptied out what remained of my lunch from my tray, and then moved to follow them.
The next period was math. But the thing was, first-grade math was superbly boring. It's just additions and subtractions for now, which I could do in my sleep. It was like that for most other classes. My memories may not have been perfect, but it was still much easier getting a refresher than learning it anew.
So I spent most of the time in class being bored out of my skull. Occasionally the teachers would take note that I wasn't paying attention and ask what they thought were tough questions. The fact that I could almost always answer them had led to me developing a reputation for being a know-it-all, which in turn hadn't particularly helped with my social standing amongst the students.
The next period after math, however, was Japanese. And if there was one class where I had absolutely zero advantage over the others, it was there. I'd struggled to learn the spoken language, and now I was struggling twice as hard to get a handle on the written one.
Without the ability to dedicate a disproportionate amount of time to studying it thanks to almost every other class being a slam dunk, I probably would've been absolutely hopeless. As it was, I was merely terrible, something Obstacles 1 and 2 rarely failed to remind me of. And thanks to their efforts, I could forget about getting help from the other students for studying.
So that was fun.
This went on. Verbal insults. Spreading rumors. Laughing behind my back. The full arsenal of pettiness seven-year olds could muster.
But I was dealing with it. It wasn't fun, but I -could- deal with it. I had always been good at getting lost in my own thoughts and shutting out everything else.
The first real change to the status quo came a couple weeks after, as I was walking along the hallway outside the classroom. Obstacles 1 and 2 had been going out of their way to make things difficult, and even if I was dealing with it, the stress was taking a bit of a toll. Ryuko had started to notice, and commented that I was unusually sullen.
"Behind you."
I spun around, coming face to face with Obstacle 2, who had been about to snatch something from my backpack. Caught in the act, she scowled at me and walked past.
Turning back around, I saw that the source of the warning had been a short girl with shoulder-length black hair, standing by the side of the hallway. I wracked my memory: she was in my class, but I didn't remember her name. She always seemed to kind of blend into the background.
"Uh, thank you?"
"You looked like you needed it."
I tried to smile, but I couldn't deny it.
"You know they're going to come after you for that?"
"They already have been. They've been getting frustrated, and looking for new targets. But I think we could help each other."
"Safety in numbers?" I guess I could respect that.
"Yeah. If we go alone, they'll certainly come after us. If we stick together, they might rethink it. And if they don't… nothing lost."
"Alright." I could see the logic in that.
She leaned against the wall, and we fell into silence. I guess that was that. But the thing was, it wasn't an awkward silence.
Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. But it didn't feel like she was expecting me to speak up, to make some small talk. We just stood there, leaning against the wall and watching the bustling hallway, waiting out the recess. When we returned to class, she sat beside me. The classrooms usually had a couple more desks than they had students, and there was an empty spot for her to move into.
That was how the rest of the day went. We stuck by each other, not talking much. I spotted Obstacles 1 and 2 giving us dirty looks, but they didn't bother us, at least for the rest of the day.
As the school day began approaching its end, we found ourselves at the school gates.
"Until tomorrow, Tatsuma."
"..."
"...You don't remember my name, do you?"
Shit.
What do I say to that?
She let me squirm for a few more moments, before continuing.
"That's okay. I only remember yours because I saw your sister in the Sports Festival."
Ouch. But fair.
"Well, you have me at a disadvantage, then." I tried to force a smile.
"Yui Kodai."
"Ryuuzaki Tatsuma."
When I was walking home, it struck me.
I'd made a friend.
I think.
Wasn't this how friendship worked?
-------
Age 8
"Are you sure you don't want to invite anybody else?" Mom looked at me with concern. "Not even that Kodai girl?"
"Dad, no. I want to be with you guys." I glanced aside at Ryuko, sitting at the back of the car. My sister at least had the decency to look guilty- in between her internship and preparing for graduation I'd barely seen her for the last half a year. At least Mom had finally decided I was old enough to be allowed to wander around the forest by myself, otherwise it would have been unbearable. It had gotten bad enough that we were holding my birthday celebration today, two weeks after the actual date, because Ryuko apparently couldn't find a free spot on her calendar until now. Sadly Mom hadn't been able to make it today, she had some sort of expo come up on the last minute.
I hadn't invited Yui because… well, there were a lot of reasons. I wanted to spend time with my family. I… didn't want her to think I'm a weirdo by just inviting her, and like hell was I going to invite any of my other classmates. And finally, I wasn't sure if it would've been... appropriate? I guess it's the right word? We stuck together at school, partnered for projects and spent the breaks with each other, but it began and ended at the school gates. We didn't talk about ourselves, or our lives outside of school. We didn't talk much in general. We had managed to strike a comfortable balance.
Was that wrong? Was I doing friendship wrong? I was treading new waters here. Should I have tried to get to know my friend better? Should I have invited her? I didn't know, but I didn't want to mess up with what we had, so I defaulted to inaction.
"Well, as long as you're sure." Dad said, starting up the car. They hadn't actually told me where we were going, which was something of a tradition of ours. Every year we'd go somewhere new, and a great deal of secrecy was involved in keeping me from knowing where it would be. I think it was a bit of a game for them by now, trying to keep me from guessing.
A while later, our car pulled up outside a large building near the seafront, and we piled out.
"Musutafu Aquarium?" I looked at Dad, who nodded. It wasn't quite the type of place we'd usually been to before, but...
"Don't worry, there will be a surprise waiting." Dad said as he locked the car. "But we've still got an hour and a half until then, so in the meanwhile, why don't we check out the tour first?"
"Okay." I guessed there was nothing to be done about it, so I walked over to my sister and held out my hands. "Ryuko, up."
I saw the apprehension on her face as she realized what I wanted.
"Does it have to be me?" She said, carefully not whining, glancing towards our Dad. "I'm sure Dad would be happy to do it, and better at it to boot."
Not this again.
"True. But I could get him to do it any day of the year."
"She's got you there, Ryuko." Dad laughed.
Sighing in resignation my sister kneeled down, letting me jump on her back before standing up again. She could suck it up, it was only one day of the year. Besides she'd probably hide and play on her phone otherwise. And if I wasn't allowed a phone yet, well, I wasn't going to let her use hers either. Not on my birthday.
With me securely hanging from Ryuko's back, piggyback style, we made our way to the main doors, having to duck a little on the doorway to account for my horns. Dad produced a trio of tickets from his pockets and we were admitted inside, steering us towards the main exhibition.
It was pretty standard for an aquarium, a long pathway winding through the building, with exhibits all along the way. Ryuko carted me from display to display, reading the descriptive signs aloud for my benefit.
We had a good time. Dad hung back a bit, letting the two of us have fun. I laughed at Ryuko for being disgusted by the hermit crabs. She got back at me when I hid behind her in the shark tunnel.
Spawn of Satan, those things.
But we had fun. I could relax a bit from the constant stress and anxiety of elementary school social drama, and I think Ryuko appreciated the opportunity just as much. She was graduating soon, and she'd put her usual worrying over her image into overdrive. She wanted to get a good sidekick offer, work that for a couple of years and then found her own Pro-Hero Agency. To do that you needed to climb up the popularity polls, and I could tell she'd been obsessing over it.
"And this is the Marine Iguana enclosure."
It was a large, open area where dozens of dark grey dog-sized lizards were chilling on rocks, basking in the warmth of the lamps mounted on the ceiling.
"It says here that they were native to the Galapagos islands, but are now extinct in the wild due to climate change killing off their food supply. and only exist in captivity. I wonder why they're in the aquarium, though…"
Ryuko began walking toward the next description sign, but I answered the question instead.
"They dive underwater to scrape algae off of the rocks. I think there's a water section at the back of the enclosure."
I pointed towards where the pathway led, looping around to go behind the Iguana enclosure. You could see that there was a hole in the wall there, where the lizards could pass through into the next room over.
"Ah. Where'd you learn that from? I thought you still had trouble with kanji?"
My train of thought came to a screeching halt. The real answer to the question was I learned it in a previous life and wasn't thinking when I said that.
"Uh, I..." Thinkthinkthink- "There was a documentary on the TV once."
I winced internally, already kicking myself. I was a terrible liar, and Ryuko could practically smell it after eight years.
"Oh, okay."
Good going, me. We were having a good time and now you've ruined it.
We fell into an awkward silence, and I continued to berate myself internally. It was stupid. TV was a perfectly reasonable explanation. But I hadn't been thinking.
And now Ryuko knew I'd just lied to her face. She didn't know what I'd lied about, but even so, this was going to-
"Ryuuzaki."
I snapped out of my thoughts and refocused my attention to my sister, who was making sidelong glances at another family who were looking in our direction, whispering to themselves while the teenage boy was rapidly tapping on his phone, glancing up and down between it and us.
Oh.
I locked my legs around her torso, preventing her from dropping me.
"Ryuuzaki."
"My birthday, my rules. One encounter won't ruin your career."
Ryuko hissed at me and would probably have forcibly dumped me on the ground if the family hadn't started heading our way. She straightened her back and tried to look as dignified and cool as she could, with an eight-year old hanging from her back like a monkey.
The teenager seemed to be the most eager, but shied away at the last moment, leaving the father with a baby tucked under his arm to come forward.
"Hello, and my apologies for disturbing you. Would you happen to be Ryuko Tatsuma?"
"That is correct. And this is my sister Ryuuzaki Tatsuma." She added after I kicked at her side.
"My son here has something he wanted to say. Daisuke?"
The teenager came forward, clearly nervous, before bowing low and offering a notebook toward Ryuko.
"Um… Could I… canIhaveyourautographplease?"
My eyes widened, and even if Ryuko was good at hiding it, she couldn't fully conceal her surprise and just a little bit of excitement.
Her first fan.
"Of course!"
Procuring a pen from her pocket, she rapidly signed her name on the notebook, and the boy clutched it to his chest, before running off, red-faced. His father turned to Ryuko with a smile before leaving to follow.
"My thanks, and again I apologize for the disruption. He's been talking about nothing else since he saw you fight that dinosaur villain two months ago. We had to get the Sport Festival DVDs for him, and he's been inseparable from the TV."
As they walked off, I grinned down at my sister.
"Someone's got a cruuuuuuush."
"Don't be ridiculous." She replied, letting out a breath as soon as the family was out of sight. "It's just a fan."
"A fan that got red as a tomato when he so much as got near you? I think you have an admirer. He shall treasure that notebook forever and keep it underneath his pillow as he sleeps and-"
"Oh my god shut up!"
"And then comes the fanaAAAA-"
Without warning, Ryuko leaned back and shook herself, dumping me ass-first onto the floor.
-------
The earlier incident forgotten, we returned touring the exhibits. As time passed, the hour and half Dad had given us was rapidly cut away, and the reveal of the surprise approached.
Dad herded the two of us away from the enclosures and back to the front desk. Leading me by hand, he took us down a different path from the entrance, traversing busy corridors until reaching our destination.
It was a huge swimming pool, about chest depth for an adult at the deepest end, floating devices and pool noodles laid around the place.
And then there were the people. Aquarium staff in yellow uniforms and dozens of children, all of them with at least one family member looking after them, standing waiting around the edges of the pool. I also noticed that the majority of the kids had some sort of physical Quirk. There was one boy with scissor arms, another with a thick, fur covered tail, a girl with absurdly long fingers, somebody of indeterminate gender with a quirk that made them look like an… Eel?
I was starting to get the picture. I turned to Dad, and he handed me a pamphlet from his pocket.
Quirk Swimming Lessons! Does your child have a Quirk that makes standard swimming techniques impossible? Or would you just like to offer them a chance to experiment with their Quirk in the water? Here at Musutafu Aquarium, they will have a chance of learning under the specialized tutelage of the Aquatic Hero, Gan-
"Gang Orca!"
The shout rippled across the room as the titular hero stepped out from a staff entrance. Kugo Sakamata cut quite an impressive figure, even in his swim shorts. Not quite as big as Dad, but where he was bulky the Number Eight Hero of Japan was ripped. As his name implied, he was a humanoid orca, complete with a dorsal fin extending from his back.
One of the staff members, a tall woman with a scaled fish-like tail and gills began shouting directions, gesturing for people to gather around. As the crowd gathered she hopped on top of a small pedestal by the pool, the kind that competitive swimmers use to dive in.
"First of all, I would like to welcome each and every last one of you to Musutafu Aquarium's annual quirk swimming course. I am Senior Instructor Izumi Himura, and it is our pleasure and privilege to organize this event in partnership with the Gang Orca Pro-Hero Agency."
Himura stepped down and gestured toward Gang Orca, who took her place overlooking the crowd. Like most Mutant Quirk users his expression was hard to read, but the way his face was structured gave off the impression of constant displeasure.
"It is good to see so many of you here. Swimming is one of the most important skills one can possess, one that can save your life. More than that, it is a skill that can save the life of others, in a crisis situation. Therefore it is a skill that I believe everyone should possess. It is a failure of our educational system that not everyone does, and it is why we hold these lessons."
As Gang Orca talked, I could see the rows of pearly-white triangular teeth lining his jaws, and took an involuntary step back. And I wasn't the only one.
"Most people learn to swim at school, during Physical Education. However, it is strictly forbidden to utilize Quirks in school premises, outside of special Quirk Education lessons held by Counsellors. While they do good and vital work, they cannot cover everything, and many children are left with no opportunity to learn how to use their Quirk to swim."
His eyes swept over the crowd.
"What is the best way for someone to use a tail while swimming? How should someone with wings use them? What is the correct method for kicking with digitigrade legs? These are the questions left unanswered, and they are why we are here."
The crowd was silent. That was some pretty heavy stuff. But it begged the obvious question… Why was I here? I could swim well enough, even if the horns made my head weigh more than it should.
Himura cleared her throat, and Gang Orca's expression softened slightly as he continued.
"At least, that is the primary purpose of today's class. Even for those whose Quirk doesn't directly interfere with their ability to swim, they are not allowed to experiment with using their Quirk in the water. Beaches and most swimming pools are public areas, where Quirk usage is similarly forbidden by law. However, that limitation does not extend to private institutions. Every child deserves the chance to explore their Quirk in a safe and controlled environment, which we offer."
Oh. That made sense.
There was actually quite a market for places where young children could experiment with their Quirks under supervision. Hide and seek, obstacle courses, tag, racing, football, exploration, everything between heaven and earth. We'd been to a couple of them, privately owned facilities with dedicated staff. Expensive, but you fundamentally cannot give children literal superpowers and expect them to never ever use them. It was far from something like a Hero School, but they functioned as a release valve, so that kids could have a bit of fun without burning down the house or risking injury to themselves and others.
There was even a dedicated open-air facility where those with flight-capable Quirks could learn to use them under instruction and supervision. Sadly, it was also age-restricted, but I'd extracted an ironclad promise from Dad we'd go there for my twelfth birthday.
So I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that there'd be a place where you could essentially play in the water with your Quirk. I guess by combining it with the public safety aspect of teaching kids to swim they'd gotten a partnership with Gang Orca.
The atmosphere began to relax a little, as Gang Orca stepped down and Himura took his place again.
"Thank you, Gang Orca. Now, we would like to ask that parents and family wait by the benches near the entrance while the lessons are in progress. For the rest of you, we will be splitting you into groups based on your current abilities. Those of you who cannot swim at all, you'll be with Instructor Takenaka. If you can swim but you have an ability you have trouble swimming with, like a Transformation Quirk, you'll be with me."
That was me, given that I couldn't actually swim in my dragon form. Well, I'd never tested it, like Gang Orca said, there just weren't many non-public places to swim in Japan, and even less that a dragon could use.
"And if you can swim but would just like to experiment with your Quirk in the water, Instructor Matsuoka will be helping you figure out how to do that safely." As she spoke she indicated two other instructors, who raised their hands. With a slight bow, Himura stepped off the pedestal, and people began to gravitate towards their assigned groups.
"Well, there you have it." Dad gave an encouraging pat on my shoulder. "We'll be watching from the sidelines, though we might go and have a coffee in the cafeteria at some point. The lesson is supposed to last two hours and thirty minutes, and when we're done we'll go grab a pizza. That sound good to you?"
"Yeah..." I glanced in the direction of Instructor Himura, who was talking to Gang Orca, and hesitated.
"Wait, are you… afraid of him?"
"No!"
"You are, aren't you?"
Well screw her, I was not afraid of Gang Orca. A little bit… awed, maybe, but not scared. I left the two of them and began marching over to the pool.
Taking in a deep breath, I activated my Quirk. In reverse of undoing the transformation, I pictured uncorking a bottle. I felt the flash of light over me, and in less than a second, I was standing there in my full dragon form.
It had grown alongside me, measuring full seven meters from snout to tail tip and weighing well over a metric ton. The smooth, shiny scales had started to become more shaded and rough, thickening as they grew. My horns, an exact replica of the ones in my human form except in size, had continued to grow, the foremost one being over a meter in length.
Claws clicked against the tiled floor as I walked over to the pool. Being a dragon was a great confidence booster. There's just something about… I guess that sense of strength and power, and the heat emanating from your chest, that helps you feel in control.
It was also something that was sorely needed, because here's the thing: every time I transform, I have no clothes. Yes, it's stupid. Yes, I know it's not quite the same as being naked as a human. But at the same time it's not quite the same as not being naked.
And the stares didn't help either. As it turns out, even in a world of Quirk an actual, winged dragon turns a lot of heads. One of the things I had to get used to was with my Quirk was just how incredibly sharp the eyesight of a dragon is, and combined with the wide field of view I could feel people's attention on me, and I couldn't help that brief moment of hesitation. I did what instinct told me to and froze.
But… they weren't necessarily hostile stares. Just surprise, curiosity, a little bit of awe in the younger kids. I shook myself, and moved to the edge of the pool before slipping into the water, careful not to cause a splash. The water was chilling, but the heat emanating from my body made it more bearable. It was shallow enough that I could drag myself along the bottom, and I managed to shuffle over to where Instructor Himura and the other kids in her group had already gathered while I was talking to Ryuko.
"Everyone is here?" Himura scanned around the pool, but it seemed like I had been the last one. "Good."
I looked around: there was a smattering of other kids, but it was the smallest group. It made sense: Transformation Quirks were the rarest type. There was one kid who could apparently turn into a huge praying mantis, and another who looked like a werewolf. Over in the other end of the pool the first group was doing the very basics, slowly getting acquainted with the water, while the third one... I wasn't really sure but they were making a lot of noise.
"Right, all of you doing good?" As each of us nodded, she went on. "So, our focus will be on figuring out the best way to swim with your Quirks on. Now, I'd like for you to try dog paddling, like you would in your human form. That will give us a good baseline from which to work forwards."
The immediate problem that presented itself was my wings. Everytime I started to paddle my wings would create a huge amount of drag in the water and get in the way. It was just awkward.
I glanced at Himura's direction, but she seemed to be busy instructing the Mantis kid, who could barely stay on the surface. Lifting my wings out of the water made it easier to move, but holding them up like that was awkward as all hell. It clearly wasn't a sustainable solution.
As I was pondering better ways to go about it, I heard somebody coming up behind me. Turning my head around, I became face to face with the stuff of my nightmares.
Rows of massive, triangular teeth. Smooth, jet-black skin. Huge white eyes, with several rings surrounding the tiny red pupils.
I did the only reasonable thing one possibly could do, when face to face with a killer whale in the water.
I panicked and headbutted it.
Then I realized who exactly that was.
Oh god.
I pulled back and went absolutely still, like a statue.
It can't see you if you don't move.
The moment seemed to stretch as I could feel my life playing before my eyes.
Oh god oh god oh god-
I'd just attacked the current Number Eight Pro-Hero of Japan. Granted the horn didn't seem to have done more than graze his skin, which was really weird because it had gone straight through the trunk of a pine tree before, but I guess that's what being a Pro-Hero means.
"I'm so sorry." I choked out. "I-"
Gang Orca pulled himself upright, shaking his head.
"That was my fault."
"But I-"
"Perhaps it is best we move to the side. Come."
The Pro-Hero began wading through the water towards the edge of the pool, and I paddled in his wake. As we reached it he pulled himself up and I followed, dragging myself up from the water.
Ryuko was on us immediately, checking me over.
"What happened? Are you alright?"
"We are both fine. No injuries were sustained." Gang Orca examined his shoulder, seemingly unharmed though it was too dark to see if it was bruised. I guess he must've rolled with the blow? Or was his skin just that tough?
"Ryuuzaki Tatsuma!" Dad stomped over, looking angry. I guess 'attacking a Pro-Hero' is what would finally get him to raise his voice. "What have I told you about using your horns?"
"I'm sorry, I just-" I felt like sinking beneath the ground and never reappearing. At least dragons lack mammalian facial expressions and tear ducts, because I was certain I wouldn't have managed to remain as composed, if I was in my human form.
"Please, Mr. Tatsuma, this is on me." Gang Orca seemed almost a little bit sad? "I failed to note her apprehension and surprised her. You have a fear of marine predators, do you not?"
"Yeah. Sharks and barracudas and octopus and-"
"And Orcas. Hardly an uncommon fear, and one that I have encountered enough times that I should have anticipated it. You cannot be blamed for your fear."
"But I can be blamed for how I acted on it."
"Not at the age of eight." Well, I wasn't quite eight, but I wasn't intending on saying it aloud. "It is my duty as a teacher to identify the best method of getting my point across, and while rougher methods have their uses, their place is not here. By bringing you into a situation in which you felt you had to defend yourself, I failed in that duty."
"However." He continued, holding up a hand to forestall any interruptions. "Your father is also correct. While you cannot be blamed for your actions, it is imperative that you learn to hold back that defensive instinct in the future. Against someone else, serious injuries could have been inflicted."
I bowed my head, feeling miserable, but he was absolutely correct.
"This is also my fault." Ryuko said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry 'Zaki, I shouldn't have egged you on."
"Now, do you feel up for continuing? If it is alright?" Gang Orca glanced at Dad, who nodded.
"Um…. I'd still like to learn to swim with my Quirk. If- if that's possible."
"I see. Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable with my presence?"
"...I think it'd be less scary if you weren't in the water with me."
"I can work with that. Now, I want you to show me what you were doing before."
I returned to the water, showing him my paddling technique as he stood by the edge of the pool.
"I can see your problem. Now, it isn't impossible to swim using wings; bats can do it. But you're not a bat. Your tail will serve as a better source of propulsion, at that point wings would just interfere with it. You're better off folding your wings and using your tail as propulsion. It is quite similar to a crocodile, so with sideways movement you should be able to reach quite a speed. Use your limbs to orient yourself, and then move forward with your tail. In time, you might learn to use your wings to slow down or rapidly change direction, but basics first."
The hours went by on a fly. After passing on the basics Gang Orca moved on to help the Mantis kid, leaving my instruction to Himura. I still had a lot to learn. I could swim in a straight line but turning was a much bigger hurdle, to say nothing of diving below the surface.
But it was better than what I could do before. Before I knew it, the two and half hours were at an end.
"Well, did you have fun?" Dad asked as we were walking across the parking lot.
Too tired to respond with words, I just leaned over and hugged him.
"Good, because I signed you up for a year's worth of lessons. Now, as for your other birthday gift, Ryuko?"
My sister procured a small object from her back pocket, and showed it to me.
"Well, it isn't quite the latest model, but we thought it was about time you got one of these. It's got everything necessary, and it's even got a panic button in case you ever get into trouble-"
It was a phone with internet access.
They'd gotten me a phone with internet access.
AhahahahahahahahAHAHAHAHA-