We still somehow in the top 5🔥🔥 Let's goooo!!! Thank for your support.
As promised here is the Bonus chapter for 300 powerstones!!
The next milestone is 500 powerstones, can we hit it? Or too much?
Anyway enjoy the chapter, you have earned it.
Happy reading.
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The transition from dreamland to reality was becoming annoyingly familiar.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The sound drilled into Akira's skull.
He slowly peeled his eyes open. The harsh lights of the hospital ceiling bombarded his eyes, forcing him to squint.
Great, he thought. Hospital ceiling. Again. I should ask for a loyalty card at this point. Buy ten comas, get one resuscitation free.
He lay there for a moment, letting his senses calibrate. He expected pain. He expected the bone-deep ache of Phoenix Drive backlash, the stinging of burns, or the crushing weight of exhaustion.
He wiggled his toes. Nothing. He flexed his fingers. Smooth motion. He took a deep breath. His ribs didn't hurt.
He sat up, throwing the covers off. He looked at his arms. There were no bandages. No scars. His skin was perfect, perhaps even a little healthier than before.
100% healed, he realized.
Then the memory hit him.
The cliff. The fall. The promise.
And, the awakening.
He looked at his hands. He remembered the feeling of the Red Flame. It hadn't been like the Blue Flame — a pool of water to draw from. It had been a volcano.
The Red Side, he thought. The destructive side.
He clenched his fist. He could feel it now, lurking deep in his core beneath the calm blue lake. It was like a cool sleeping dragon, curled around his heart.
"Holy shit," Akira whispered, a grin spreading across his face despite the situation. "I can turn into a cool bird now. A giant, burning bird of death. That is... fucking awesome."
"No cursing."
The voice was tired and incredibly familiar.
Akira's head snapped to the left.
Sitting in a chair next to the bed was Honoka.
She looked rough. Her hero suit was gone, replaced by a hospital gown. Her left leg was encased in a heavy plaster cast, elevated on a pillow. Her right arm was in a sling, strapped tight to her chest. There were bandages on her face covering cuts and bruises.
But she was alive. She was breathing.
Akira's eyes widened. The grin vanished, replaced by a surge of overwhelming relief.
He scrambled out of bed. He wanted to rush to her, to tackle her in a hug, but he froze a foot away. He looked at the casts. He looked at the bruises.
I can't touch her, he thought. I might hurt her.
"Mom..." he breathed.
He hovered there, awkward and vibrating with emotion.
"Are you okay?" he fired off, the questions tumbling out of his mouth faster than he could process them. "Does it hurt? Is the arm going to heal properly? Did the doctors check for internal bleeding? You look pale. Do you need water? Are you—"
Honoka just looked at him. Her eyes were soft, filled with a mixture of sadness and immense pride.
"Come here, you idiot," she said gently.
She reached out with her good arm, hooking it around his neck and pulling him in. She buried her face in his stomach as he stood by the chair.
"I am fine, honey," she whispered into his shirt. "I'm a bit broken, but I'm fine. Thank you. Thank you for saving me."
Akira wrapped his arms around her shoulders, careful not to squeeze too hard. He rested his chin on her head.
"I'm glad," he choked out.
They stayed like that for a minute, just breathing, confirming that the other person was real and warm.
But reality has a way of intruding on relief.
Another memory surfaced. A darker one.
The boulder. The crater. The water titan falling apart.
Akira pulled back gently. He looked into his mother's eyes. They were sad.
"Mom," he said quietly. "Are Shino and Sasha really...?"
He didn't have to finish the sentence. The answer was written in the way Honoka's shoulders slumped.
Tears began to well up in her eyes, tracking through the faint dust still clinging to her skin.
"Yeah," she whispered. "Yeah, Akira. They died."
She looked at her lap, her good hand clenching the fabric of her gown.
"Their funeral will be held tomorrow," she added.
Akira went silent.
He walked over to the window and looked out. Musutafu was bustling below. Cars were honking. People were walking to work. The world hadn't stopped just because two heroes died in a mountain village.
He thought of the two days they had spent together. He thought of Sasha's bright, overwhelming energy — the way she had bench-pressed him emotionally within five minutes of meeting him. He thought of Shino's silent care,
They were good people. They were heroes. And they were gone.
Just like Dad, he thought bitterly. Another sacrifice for a world that doesn't care.
"Will their son be there?" Akira asked, not turning around.
Honoka blinked, wiping her eyes. "Kota? Yes. His aunt is bringing him. Why?"
"Nothing," Akira said. "I just... I would like to attend the funeral too. If that's okay."
Honoka didn't ask why. She just nodded.
"Of course, Akira."
Click.
The door to the hospital room slid open.
Two figures walked in. One was small, tapping a cane against the floor. The other was even smaller, covered in white fur.
"Look," a high-pitched voice chirped. "I told you he should be awake right now. My calculations on his metabolic recovery rate were precise to the minute."
Principal Nezu walked in, his paws clasped behind his back, looking entirely too cheerful for a hospital room.
Recovery Girl followed him, looking exhausted. She sighed when she saw Akira standing by the window.
"Finally, you are awake," she grumbled, though there was palpable relief in her voice. "The medical results said you would be fine thanks to that absurd quirk of yours, but I am glad to see you standing."
She walked over and poked his leg with her cane. "You gave your mother a heart attack, brat."
Akira forced a weak smile. "I'm too young to die, Grandma. I have too many video games to finish."
He tried to lighten the mood. It was his default defense mechanism. Humor deflected pain.
But as he looked at Nezu, the humor died in his throat.
A question burned in his mind. A question that had been gnawing at him since he woke up.
"Is he alive?" Akira asked.
His voice was different. It wasn't the voice of a thirteen-year-old boy. It was colder. Heavier.
Nezu stared back. His black bead eyes were unreadable. He didn't answer immediately.
Chiyo looked confused. "Who? What are you talking about?"
"He is talking about Muscular," Nezu said calmly.
"Nezu," Akira said, his tone bordering on disrespectful. "Tell me."
Nezu hopped onto the empty chair next to the bed, crossing his legs.
"Well," Nezu began, dodging the question with the grace of a politician. "I have to say, Akira-kun, I did suspect there would be a second half to your quirk. The 'Phoenix' implies a cycle. But I did not expect it to be so... potent."
He tapped his chin.
"The energy readings from the satellite thermal scans were off the charts. You generated heat comparable to a tactical bomb for approximately twelve seconds. It is fascinating."
"Nezu," Akira interrupted, his patience thinning. "I asked you something."
But Nezu continued, ignoring the interruption.
"And when I hypothesized you having a second half for your quirk, I suspected that when you awakened it, it might affect you in other ways too. Psychology is often tied to biology in quirk users."
He looked at Akira with clinical curiosity.
"Just like how a person with a flame-based quirk often has a higher body temperature and a certain... immunity to heat. Or perhaps, a more volatile temper."
"Answer the question, Nezu," Honoka said from her bed, her voice sharp.
She tried to sit up straighter, sensing the tension in the room. "What are you trying to pull here?"
Recovery Girl placed a hand on Honoka's shoulder to calm her, but she was glaring at the principal, too.
Nezu still went on.
"And I was kind of right," the principal mused. "The condition of the site... the glassed canyon floor... and from what your mother told me about the entity she saw... you didn't just fight him."
Nezu leaned forward.
"You genuinely tried to kill Muscular."
Something snapped in Akira.
It wasn't a conscious decision. It was a reflex.
"I SAID ANSWER THE DAMNED QUESTION!"
WOOSH.
Red flames burst from his hands.
It wasn't a flicker. It was an explosion of crimson fire that coated his arms up to the elbows. The heat was instantaneous and intense, scorching the air in the room.
Honoka gasped. Recovery Girl flinched back.
The only one who didn't react was Nezu. He just watched, his whiskers twitching slightly.
Akira stared at his hands. It felt different from the blue. It didn't feel like water. It felt like rage given form.
He quickly clenched his fists, extinguishing the flames. He looked at Nezu, breathing hard.
"What..." Akira whispered. "What is going on?"
Nezu finally sighed. He dropped the playful act.
"I will answer your question first," Nezu said solemnly. "When the police and the heroes reached the bottom of the ridge... Muscular's body was gone."
Akira froze. "Gone?"
"Gone," Nezu confirmed. "We found the crater. We found the vitrified rock. But we did not find his ashes, nor did we find a corpse. There were signs of... extraction."
"Extraction?" Honoka asked. "You mean someone saved him?"
"Either he lived and ran away — which is unlikely given the damage you inflicted — or he was rescued by a third party," Nezu said. "The investigation is still going on. But for now, he is officially listed as Missing in Action."
He's alive, Akira realized. I didn't finish it.
Nezu watched him closely.
"Now," the principal said, his voice soft but piercing. "Let me ask you a question, Akira. Since we know he might be out there."
"If you were to fight Muscular in the future... what will you do?"
The room went silent.
Akira looked at his hands. He thought about the blue flame. The shield. The protector.
Then he thought about the red flame. The sword. The avenger.
He thought about Shino's twisted limbs. He thought about Sasha's body torn in half. He thought about his mother begging for death.
He took a deep breath. He thought about the answer a hero should give. I will arrest him. I will stop him.
But that wasn't the answer. Not anymore.
He looked at his mother. He looked at his grandmother. Then he looked Nezu dead in the eye.
"I would kill that fucker," Akira said.
His mother jerked a bit, a gasp escaping her lips. Recovery Girl looked away, pained.
But Nezu remained calm. He nodded, as if expecting this.
"And what if you can't kill him legally?" Nezu pressed. "What if he is captured? What if the laws bind you?"
Akira didn't hesitate. The answer came from the Red Flame. It came from the part of him that had died on the cliff.
"Then I would burn him," Akira said coldly. "I would heal him. And I would burn him again. Then heal him again. Over and over again. Until his mind is broken. Until he begs for the death I gave him the first time."
Silence stretched in the room. It was a heavy and uncomfortable silence.
Akira realized what he had said. It was monstrous. It was villainous.
But he didn't take it back.
Nezu just smiled. It wasn't a happy smile. It was the smile of a teacher who had just confirmed a difficult diagnosis.
"Now you should know what happened with you," Nezu said quietly.
Akira nodded, letting out a long sigh. He rubbed his temples.
"Anger issues," Akira muttered. "And being more decisive. That's the side effect? I see this as a win, then."
To which Nezu went silent for a moment, then started laughing.
--<<>>--
Yup, SIDE-EFFECTS!!! It's not bad as it sounds though.
What do you think?
Plus if you want, you can read up to +10 chapters (It's 9 right now, becuase you guys are too fast with the powerstones ) and support me you can alway join my P@treaon. (Just search up Joe_Mama p@treon on google.)