Chapter 4: Our Days

Ryu was walking down the empty street as the sun was starting to disappear into the horizon.

He was returning home from school, the first day of school went as smoothly as it could, not leaving a room for him to say anything.

'That was refreshing.'

He had met some of his classmates, and they had interesting characters. He was happy to have seen new people after such a long time.

Ryu didn't have many friends, finding friends as a quirkless person wasn't an easy thing to do, and he was home schooled, so he didn't have many opportunities to make friends in the first place.

And that didn't change much after awakening his quirk. Even so, Ryu didn't have any lingering feelings about it, he was happy with what he had, and that was enough for him.

Soon, he was at door step of his home, he opened the door using his keys and entered the home.

"Mom, I'm back" he said loudly as he stepped into the house, he took his shoes off and walked into the living room.

But suddenly a crash from kitchen startled him, Ryu quickly threw his backback on the couch and slided his way towards the kitchen thinking someone had broken into the house.

He quickly reached the kitchen, but the scene that greeted him wasn't a robbery.

Instead he found his mother in a cloud of flour and a bunch of broken bowls and cooking utensils.

"Oh, Ryu! You're home early," her usually composed behavior was replaced by a flustered expression.

Ryu couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. "I was scared for a second, I thought someone has broken in or something."

Ryu's mother grinned widely, "No one can break into my house Ryu, you know it

yourself."

Ryu strategically accepted his defeat, "I can't argue with that, but it seems to me that you need help preparing our royal cuisine, your highness."

"This is just a minor setback, but I won't mind some help, my dear son." she straightned her clothes.

Ryu let out a small chuckle and crouched on the ground and started picking up the large shards of the broken bowls.

After cleaning the shards up, they washed their hand and started working on the dinner.

The main dish was already mostly done, so Ryu helped with the dessert which his mother wanted to bake.

Half an hour passed quickly, as Ryu put the cupcakes in the fridge to be taken out for dinner, the doorbell rang.

"I will open it." Ryu said as he cleaned his hand with a towel and slided his way towards the door.

He opened the door, but the person behind it wasn't someone he was expecting to see.

"Grandpa! I thought you're aren't gonna visit until next week." Ryu was surprised to see him.

He stood in the doorway, tall and broad shouldered with a white beard and mustache, he made Ryu look small in comparison.

Ryu's grandfather, Takashi, ruffled Ryu's hair with his big hands. "I got some free time, so I decided to visit a bit earlier."

"Well, you choose a good time to visit grandpa, come in." Ryu said and guided him inside.

They soon reached the kitchen, Ryu's mother was still working on the dinner, she turned towards the sound of footsteps to be surprised, "Father! I thought you were coming next week."

"Early bird gets the early worm my little princess." he said with a grin.

Ryu's mother, Yome, rolled his eyes fondly. "I'm not little dad."

"What are you talking about? You have been and will always be little." Takashi simply denied what she said, causing Yome to shook his head.

"Just get out of the kitchen, last time you came into the kitchen we were forced to get food from outside." she said as he pushed him outside.

"That incident was all but a fluke!" Takashi tried to deny her words, but he was pushed out of the kitchen anyways.

Ryu was chuckling at the scene they were making.

His work in the kitchen was over, so he sat down with his grandfather to play some chess together.

Ryu's grandfather, Takashi, was a chess master, so Ryu challenged him every time he came to their house, but Ryu was afllways in the losing side.

Today's result was, Ryu won only once in the three games they played.

"It's hard to believe it's been only a few month's since you started learning chess, I'm proud of you." Takashi praised Ryu, and Ryu was happy to get his praise.

"Thanks Grandpa, but I still have a long way to go, this is nothing." Ryu said, but Takashi disagreed.

"Don't undermine your achievements Ryu." Takashi ruffled Ryu's hair once again.

"Reaching this level in chess is in a few months shows that you've worked hard."

Ryu nodded at his words. "Thanks grandpa, I will remember that."

"Dinner is ready!" Yome's voice came from kitchen.

Both Ryu and Takashi tidied up and went to the kitchen.

The night passed quickly, they ate dinner, laughed together and at end of the day, Ryu drifted into a deep sleep after reviewing the documents about his school curriculum.

Takashi and Yome sat in the living room, talking between themselves.

"Ryu has changed a lot, hasn't he?" Takashi asked Yome.

"He has, quite a lot." Yome looked at direction of Ryu's room. "Before, he locked himself inside his room, wasting his life as if it didn't matter. It was painful to see him like that."

Takashi looked at the same direction her daughter was looking at.

"We can only be happy that he has come this far."

He looked back towards his daughter.

"But Yome, it's because of you that Ryu could even decide to come this far, so be proud of yourself for being a good mother."

He caressed his daughter's hair.

Yome felt at comfort as his father caressed her hair, her stress and concern didn't go away, her heart was still feeling heavy, but she was at comfort even with those.

Minutes passed by slowly, and Yome finally felt calm.

His father retracted his hand and got up off the couch.

"It's my time to go."

Yome followed his father to the entrance door to see him off.

"Stay strong and healthy my dear." He waved his hand and sat at back of the car.

Yome waved back as the car was driven away in darkness of the night.

"I wish for you two to stay safe." Takashi mumbled as he looked back at the house that disappeared from his view.