Chapter 1: An Ordinary Day Smelling of Steam
The morning sunlight filtered through the thin curtains of the bedroom, casting warm, golden rectangles across the wooden floor. Ryo was tangled in his blankets, his face pressed deeply into a soft pillow. He was fast asleep, snoring with a steady, rhythmic rhythm. His alarm clock, a clunky digital square sitting on his nightstand, had been ringing for a solid ten minutes. Ryo had completely ignored it, his mind lost in a deep, dreamless slumber.
It was only when a different kind of signal reached his senses that his eyes snapped open. A rich, savory aroma wafted up from the kitchen downstairs. The smell of sizzling eggs, toasted bread, and perfectly grilled beef sausages drifted under his bedroom door.
Ryo sat up instantly, the blankets falling away from his shoulders. His messy, uncombed dark hair stuck out in every possible direction. His stomach let out a loud, demanding growl that echoed in the quiet room. He did not think about the time, the alarm clock, or the fact that he had school. He only thought about breakfast.
"Food," Ryo muttered to himself, a bright, simplistic smile spreading across his face.
He practically rolled out of bed, his feet hitting the floor with a heavy thud. He quickly threw on his middle school uniform—the standard black trousers and the crisp white shirt, though he completely forgot to button the top two buttons and left his collar completely crooked. He did not bother looking in the mirror. He simply dashed out of his room and hurried down the stairs, following the scent like a hound tracking a scent trail.
"Good morning!" Ryo announced loudly as he burst into the kitchen.
His mother, a gentle woman with a warm smile, was standing by the stove, flipping a massive omelet in a frying pan. She glanced over her shoulder and chuckled at the sight of her son. "Good morning, Ryo. Your hair is a disaster again. Sit down, your food is almost ready."
His father was already seated at the dining table, quietly reading the morning newspaper and sipping a cup of hot tea. He lowered the paper slightly and raised an eyebrow at Ryo. "You slept through your alarm again, didn't you? If you don't start paying attention to the clock, you are going to be late for homeroom."
"I am completely on time," Ryo said confidently, pulling out a chair and sitting down with a heavy thud. He grabbed a fork and a knife, holding them upright in his fists as he waited eagerly. "I am very fast, Dad. You know that."
His mother placed a plate in front of him. It was not a normal breakfast portion. It was a mountain of scrambled eggs, four large beef sausages, a thick stack of toasted bread, and a massive bowl of steamed white rice. For anyone else, it would be enough food for three people. For Ryo, it was just the fuel he needed to start his day.
"Thanks for the food!" Ryo said happily.
He began to eat with incredible speed and zero elegance. He shoveled the rice into his mouth, took massive bites of the sausages, and swallowed the eggs almost without chewing. He was completely focused on the meal, his eyes shining with pure joy. He was a simple teenager. If there was good food in front of him, nothing else in the world mattered.
His parents watched him with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. They were used to his massive appetite. Ever since his Quirk had manifested years ago, his metabolism had skyrocketed. His body constantly burned energy, requiring him to consume ridiculous amounts of calories just to maintain his weight.
"Slow down, Ryo. Nobody is going to steal it from you," his father sighed, turning a page of his newspaper. "You are going to choke before you even make it out the front door."
"I dwon't chwoke," Ryo replied, his mouth completely full of toast. He swallowed hard, tapping his chest a couple of times. "See? Perfectly fine. Mom, this is delicious!"
Once the plate was completely spotless, not a single grain of rice left behind, Ryo wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He grabbed his yellow backpack from the floor, swung it over his shoulders, and rushed toward the front hallway. He slipped his feet into his worn-out sneakers, not even bothering to tie the laces properly, and threw the front door open.
"I'm off!" he shouted back into the house.
"Have a good day! Be careful on the crossing!" his mother called out.
Ryo stepped out into the crisp morning air. The streets of the city were already bustling with life. People were heading to work, students were walking in groups toward their respective schools, and cars hummed quietly along the main road. It was a perfectly normal morning.
Ryo walked with a relaxed, bouncing stride, his hands tucked behind his head. The morning breeze felt nice against his face. He hummed a tuneless melody, completely absorbed in his own little world. He was not thinking about mathematics, or history, or any of his upcoming classes. He was thinking about what might be on the menu for lunch in the school cafeteria.
As he walked past a small bakery on the corner of the street, he noticed a large, colorful poster plastered on the glass door, advertising a new type of melon bread. Ryo stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes widened. He loved melon bread.
He stepped toward the door, raised his hand, and pushed against the glass. The door did not move. Ryo frowned. He pushed harder, putting his shoulder into it. The door remained firmly shut, rattling slightly in its frame.
"Huh. It's locked," Ryo muttered, scratching the side of his head. "Why is a bakery closed in the morning?"
An elderly woman standing nearby carrying a shopping bag watched him for a moment. She sighed, stepped forward, and gently grasped the brass handle of the door. She pulled it toward herself. The door opened smoothly, a small bell ringing cheerfully above it.
The woman looked at Ryo. "It is a pull door, young man. It says 'Pull' right there on the handle."
Ryo stared at the bold letters on the brass handle. He blinked once, then twice. A bright, unbothered smile broke out on his face. "Oh! That makes so much more sense! Thank you, ma'am!"
He did not feel embarrassed in the slightest. He simply turned around and continued his walk toward school, having completely forgotten about the melon bread the moment the door opened. His mind was like a sieve when it came to everyday details. Complex puzzles, reading the atmosphere, or noticing small signs were things that simply bounced off his brain.
He approached a busy intersection. The traffic light was red, so a small crowd of pedestrians had gathered on the sidewalk, waiting for the signal to change. Ryo stood near the back, humming to himself and watching a small bird hop along the edge of the road.
Standing a few feet ahead of him was a little girl holding the hand of her older brother. Tied to the girl's wrist by a very loose string was a bright, shiny red balloon. She was staring up at it happily, swinging her arms.
Suddenly, a tall man in a sharp business suit, rushing and looking down at his phone, bumped directly into the little girl's shoulder. The impact was not harsh, but it was sudden enough to startle her. The girl stumbled backward, and in her surprise, her fingers loosened. The string slipped completely away from her wrist.
The red balloon immediately caught an upward draft of wind. It bobbed away, rising quickly toward the traffic light above the street.
The little girl gasped, pointing a small finger at the sky. "My balloon!"
The businessman glanced back, looking flustered. "Oh, sorry. I was not looking," he muttered, quickly moving away into the crowd. The girl's brother reached up, but the balloon was already way out of his grasp, drifting higher and higher toward the power lines. Tears immediately welled up in the little girl's eyes, and her lower lip began to tremble.
Ryo stopped humming.
His relaxed, clueless expression vanished instantly. The moment he saw the girl's tears, something deep inside his mind switched gears. All the absentmindedness, the clumsiness, and the naive silliness faded away, replaced by a sharp, absolute focus. He did not overthink the situation. He did not weigh the pros and cons. His body simply reacted to a problem that required a physical solution.
Ryo widened his stance, his sneakers gripping the concrete pavement. He took a sharp, deep breath, pulling massive amounts of oxygen into his lungs. He focused his mind inward, picturing his heart, his veins, and the flow of blood coursing through his body.
He mentally squeezed his blood vessels, narrowing them while simultaneously forcing his heart to pump significantly harder.
Thump. Thump.
The sound of his own heartbeat roared in his ears, heavy and rhythmic. Immediately, his skin flushed a deep, bright pinkish-red. The sudden, intense friction of his rapidly accelerating blood flow generated immense internal heat. The thin layer of morning sweat on his skin instantly vaporized, turning into thick, hissing white steam that billowed out from his neck, shoulders, and arms.
He called his Quirk: Second Gear.
It did not hurt. It felt completely natural, like an engine roaring to life. The physical enhancement flooded his muscles with explosive power.
Without a single word, Ryo bent his knees and kicked off the ground.
Swoosh!
The concrete beneath his sneakers cracked slightly from the sheer kinetic force. Ryo launched himself straight up into the air, moving far faster than a normal human eye could comfortably track. He shot upward like a red, steaming bullet, completely ignoring gravity. He reached out his hand, his eyes locked precisely on the thin white string of the rising balloon.
He grabbed the string firmly, just inches before the balloon could get tangled in the overhead traffic light wires.
Gravity reclaimed him. Ryo flipped smoothly in the air, adjusting his posture with natural athletic grace, and landed back on the sidewalk. He bent his knees deeply to absorb the shock, his sneakers skidding slightly on the pavement.
He stood up, exhaled a long breath, and released the tension in his veins. The loud, heavy thumping of his heart slowed down to its normal rhythm. The bright red flush faded away from his skin, returning to his natural tone, and the thick white steam dissipated into the morning air.
He walked over to the little girl, his bright, goofy smile returning to his face as if nothing incredible had just happened. He held out his hand, offering the red balloon.
"Here you go!" Ryo said cheerfully. "Hold on tighter this time!"
The little girl blinked, staring at the tall boy who had just rocketed into the sky. Her tears completely stopped. She took the string, wrapping it tightly around her small hand. "Thank you, mister!"
The surrounding pedestrians were staring at him, murmuring softly about his sudden burst of speed and the strange steam. Ryo paid absolutely no attention to them. He glanced down at his wrist to check his watch, only to realize he was not wearing one. He looked up at a large digital clock on a nearby bank building.
"Oh, no," Ryo said, his eyes going completely blank. "I really am late."
Without another word, he spun around and sprinted down the street, his heavy backpack bouncing awkwardly against his spine.
By the time Ryo slid the classroom door open, the morning bell had already rung ten minutes ago. The classroom was quiet, and the homeroom teacher was writing equations on the chalkboard. Thirty pairs of eyes turned to look at the doorway as Ryo stood there, slightly out of breath, his hair still an absolute mess.
"You are late, Ryo," the teacher said, letting out a long, tired sigh. "What is the excuse this time?"
Ryo walked into the room, rubbing the back of his neck with an apologetic grin. "Sorry, sensei. The bakery door was a pull, not a push. It really threw off my schedule."
A wave of laughter erupted from his classmates. It was not mean-spirited laughter. Everyone in the class knew Ryo. They knew he was incredibly strong, incredibly fast, and incredibly dense when it came to everyday life.
"Did you fight the door, Ryo?" a boy sitting near the window called out playfully.
"I thought about it, Kenji, but a nice old lady saved me," Ryo replied completely seriously, taking his seat near the back of the room. He pulled out his notebooks, immediately dropping his pencil on the floor and bumping his head against the desk as he reached down to pick it up.
The teacher just shook his head and returned to the chalkboard. Ryo spent the rest of the morning classes staring out the window, drawing small, terrible doodles of food in the margins of his notebook, absorbing absolutely nothing from the lectures.
Hours passed, and finally, the lunch bell rang. The classroom instantly filled with energetic chatter as students pulled out their bento boxes or headed toward the cafeteria.
Ryo practically flew out of his chair. He was the first one in the cafeteria line, returning to a table with a massive tray carrying two bowls of ramen, three rice balls, and a carton of milk. His friend Kenji, a lean boy with glasses and a minor telekinesis Quirk, sat across from him with a simple sandwich.
"I don't understand where you put all of that," Kenji said, adjusting his glasses.
"My body needs it," Ryo mumbled, noodles hanging out of his mouth. "If I don't eat, I get sleepy."
Kenji took a slow bite of his sandwich, watching his friend. The classroom had recently started filling out career aspiration forms for high school. It was a serious topic for third-year middle schoolers.
"Hey, Ryo," Kenji started, his tone shifting to something a bit more genuine. "Are you still serious about your first choice on the career form? You wrote down U.A. High School. The hero course."
Ryo swallowed his food and wiped his mouth with a napkin. He looked at Kenji. The goofy, absentminded expression he usually wore vanished, replaced by a calm, quiet certainty. It was the same look he had right before he jumped for the balloon.
"Yeah," Ryo said simply. "I am going to U.A."
"It's the hardest hero school in the country," Kenji pointed out. "The acceptance rate is ridiculously low. And the written exam... you know you have to pass the written exam to even take the practical, right? You literally failed our last math quiz."
"I will study," Ryo said, grabbing a rice ball. "I have to get in. I want to use my Quirk to help people. It is that simple. I don't want to just sit behind a desk. I want to be out there."
He took a massive bite of the rice ball, chewing happily. Kenji smiled slightly, shaking his head. There was no point in arguing with Ryo when he made up his mind. He might have been terrible at pulling doors and solving equations, but when Ryo set his sights on a target, he never missed.
The rest of the day passed smoothly, filled with more boring lectures and quiet chatter. When the final bell rang, Ryo walked home under a sky painted with warm shades of orange and purple. The air was cooling down, signaling the end of the day.
When he finally pushed the front door of his house open—making sure to pull the handle properly this time—the smell of dinner was already waiting for him.
"I am back!" Ryo called out into the hallway.
"Welcome back! Wash your hands, dinner is almost ready," his mother's voice echoed from the kitchen.
Ryo dropped his bag by the stairs and walked into the living room. The television was on, quietly broadcasting a news report about a local hero stopping a traffic accident. Ryo sat down heavily on the soft couch, letting out a long, contented sigh. He stared at his hands, gently flexing his fingers.
He could feel the power resting quietly beneath his skin, waiting for the right moment. The journey ahead of him was going to be incredibly long. U.A. High School was a mountain he had to climb, and he knew it was not going to be easy. He knew he had to get smarter, stronger, and much better at taking written tests.
But as his mother called him to the dining table for another massive meal, Ryo smiled. He did not need to worry about the distant future just yet. Tonight was just a quiet, warm evening at home. Tomorrow, he would train. Tomorrow, he would study. But right now, he was just a boy who was incredibly excited to eat.