Meeting Mother Again

Sitting in a waiting room which seemed so sturdy I doubted even I with maximum [Reinforcement] could put a dent in the walls around me, I nervously bounced my leg up and down, an action mirrored almost identically by my uncle.

...It seems I was picking up habits.

Ayako didn't seem as nervous as either of us but I'm pretty sure that's because she's a child and despite being rather intelligent for a 10-year-old, she didn't have the understanding to go along with it.

For all she knew, our mother was here on holiday - neither our aunt or uncle could bring themselves to explain our mother's mental state to Ayako. She'd already lost her father, so what would it do to her if she knew she'd possibly fully lost her mother as well? It was a tricky situation and no matter what they or I did, something less than favorable would happen.

I didn't envy them one bit.

Of course, you could ask why I didn't tell her what was happening, which would be very understandable. My answer? I don't have one, really. I guess you could call me a coward, huh?

Stopping my self-deprecating thoughts, I started doing some Quirk control exercises to calm myself.

Enacting [Reinforcement] onto my index finger, I let my Quirk enhance the finger before I quickly stopped the activation. Before even a second had passed, I moved the reinforcement over to my middle finger before doing the same thing and canceling my Quirk.

I carried on doing this, doing it quicker and quicker with each finger before eventually, I was constantly flickering between each of my fingers. This obviously trained how quickly I could summon my Quirk and because I said it without words, it took even more concentration to do; which made it the perfect exercise for control and increasing my familiarity with my Quirk.

Just as I was about to move onto activating the Quirk in two different places at once, the door slowly opened and a tall, lanky woman walked in dressed in a long white lab coat.

She had incredibly round and thick glasses on and her deathly pale face was framed by dark green hair. I could see that her eyes were the same color as her hair.

If she took some care of herself and her appearance, I was sure she'd look quite attractive.

Before I could do a further assessment on this 'mad doctor'-like woman, the person we were waiting for walked in after her.

My mother trudged into the room, her feet barely even leaving the ground as she walked but it wasn't because she was tired - quite the opposite, in fact, she looked awake and extremely alert. I'm pretty sure she was only moving with the most minimal amount of energy so she didn't waste anything unnecessarily.

It was quite a weird site as I'd never seen my mother like this. Sure she used to walk with grace and confidence - as one would expect from the head of one of the biggest businesses in Japan - but she never went out of her way to waste as little energy as possible.

'What's happened in here that's changed her? Or more specifically, why has she changed herself so?' squinting my eyes at her, these thoughts went through my head so quickly I felt like the world was spinning. Something was wrong and that notion was only amplified when I looked up and saw her face.

Cold. Gaunt. Apathetic.

Those are the words that describe my once beautiful and warm mother's face. Seeing her face look gaunt, I looked to the rest of her body and saw that she'd lost quite a bit of weight, 'Were they even trying to feed her?!' my anger at this hospitals treatment was short-lived as I realized this was probably my own mother's fault. The hospital would have to feed her but it didn't mean she had to eat.

By the time she sat down, all these thoughts and more had gone through my head and my stomach felt hollow and empty, though I still had the weirdest urge to throw up whatever was in my stomach.

Her once lively and loving eyes were now looking at us with indifference. Before I could mentally start giving up, my little sister got up and rushed to our mother. I went to stop her but couldn't bring myself to.

Ayako jumped and wrapped her small and slender arms around our mom before burying her head into her chest, "Mommy, I missed you so much!" Ayako's voice was filled with such joy, innocence, and happiness that I wasn't as surprised as I should've been when I saw mother's eyes soften a bit before she returned the hug.

'...It seems my worries were a bit unfounded, huh?' despite thinking this, I continued to observe her, looking for any sign that she was forcing this motherly interaction but I soon stopped myself. This was my mother and she'd been hurting just as much, maybe even more, than me, I needed to be there for her instead of being suspicious over her every move.

Though I told myself this, I still kept a little cautious as being cautious never hurt anyone.

But my cautiousness evaporated at what I saw next.

"...I missed you too, Ayako-chan," as if life had been injected into my mother, her lifeless eyes lit up with happiness as a single tear fell down her face. I felt the room get a bit warmer but it soon went back to normal temperatures, "I missed you so, so much, sweetie...!" my mother's embrace around Ayako went so tight I thought Ayako was gonna get hurt but knowing my sister could hug with the best of them, I just sat back and watched.

Mom and Ayako hugged and cried while in each other's embraces. The temperature in the room was a bit wacky because of my mother's emotional state and with my enhanced hearing I could hear the people outside the room and on the other side of the one-way glass, discussing whether they should sedate my mother.

Hearing this caused me to clench my teeth, 'They could try to sedate her but I'd sedate them right back with a fist to their fucking faces...' sensing my mood, uncle put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring squeeze and as I turned back to him, he looked at me with a confused gaze.

Standing up, I whispered in his ear what I was hearing and his flames flared a little before he told me that he'd sort it out.

He stood up and marched out of the room with his flames slowly flaring out of his body. By the time he'd left the room, his upper body was covered in an intricate pattern of flames.

Obviously, my mom had noticed this by now and looked over at me with confused eyes. I just shrugged as if I didn't know what was happening.

I knew that them discussing the sedation was purely to keep us safe but couldn't they realize she was just emotional after meeting her daughter after so many years?!

'Some people...Oh well, uncle will sort it out...' snickering silently to myself, I just leaned into my chair and waited for mom to collect herself.

It didn't take long and mom looked over at me with barely veiled curiosity and excitement, "So, have you decided which high school you're going to be going to Ta-chan? Ah, wait, you probably don't want to be called that anymore, you're already 13 now--" I cut her off with my hand held up and a smile on my face.

"You can call me whatever you feel comfortable with, mom," her eyes started tearing up as I spoke and I felt mine were getting teary as well, "I've missed you calling my name, you know?" with one final wide smile, I got up and walked over to my teary and shaking mother before wrapping my arms around her.

This seemed to be the straw that broke the camels back as she started to wail like a child but I didn't stop her or look down on her, purely because I had silent tears falling from my eyes.

'It truly feels good to hug my mom again...guess she was putting up a strong front earlier, huh?' feeling relief flooding out from within myself, I continued to hug my mother before I reluctantly let her go and sat down opposite her again, only this time, I held her hand from across the table.

Seeing me do this, my mother realized something for the first time, "You've really grown big, Ta-chan...you're nearly as tall as me now," even though her disbelief was strong there was a weird pride in her eyes, "Looks like I'll have to fend off the women with a pointed stick as well!" she started laughing with a slightly hoarse throat, showing that she hadn't laughed in a long time.

At the 'women' comment, Ayako brought her head up from our mother's chest and they met eyes before Ayako nodded her head as a soldier does to her commander's orders.

'...Oi, don't go Yandere on me, Ayako, mother!' despite my inner thoughts, I couldn't deny the overwhelming flow of warmth inside of me.

Remembering something, I spoke up in an attempt to change the subject, "Anyway! Let me answer your earlier question," bringing both of them to my attention, I began answering her earlier question, "I'm going to be going to U.A with Shoto. We're joining the Hero Course."

As I said this, the air went cold around me and I looked to see that my mother was looking at me with cold, apathetic eyes. It seems she was using her Quirk as my breath was visible in the air, 'This is bad...' was a thought that went through my head and it was only amplified by what my mother said next.

"I forbid you from going to that school. I forbid you from making the same stupid mistakes 'that' man did. I forbid it, Tatsuya," her voice was solid and firm and I knew I had no way of persuading her otherwise. Before I could even think to say anything, she carried on, "Why do you want to become a Hero? To avenge 'that' man? To save others? I'll have you know that your life is worth more than thousands of people to me, so I will not let you become a Hero even if you could save countless lives. I won't let you, Tatsuya."

I was quite frankly stunned by her words, 'Why wouldn't she refer to my father with his name? Why was he 'that' man? Who gave her the right to stop me?! Where was she all these years, huh?!' my thoughts were overwhelmed by anger and indignation and even though I knew she was just scared of losing me like she did dad...I am my own person!

Bringing my hand away from hers, I leaned forward with my chin propped up by my hands, "With all due respect, mother, you can't stop me from joining U.A. You're not my legal guardian currently; Uncle is," my words were sharp and despite not trying to be hurtful, I still made sure they were firm and got across my point of view, "and Uncle will allow me to join U.A."

The temperature got even lower but a whimper from my sister instantly knocked me out of my argumentative state and seeing my mother not do anything, I did something myself.

[Reinforcement: Body Heat x 10]

[Reinforcement: Heat Resistance x 10]

A wave of heat blasted out from me and steam billowed off my skin*, though I didn't feel any different. The room instantly got hotter and Ayako let out a coo of thanks to whoever did that. Glaring at my mother, I snapped at her, "Keep your Quirk under control when Ayako is here!" my words snapped her out of it and she instantly cut off her Quirks activation and I did the same.

(*A/N - He's just multiplied his body heat by 10, so he's around 370 degrees Celsius on the inside which makes the area around him much warmer, and put that with the fact that the air around him is very cold, the 'steam' is actually just a reaction of cold air touching something hot. Anyhow, the temperature he's exuding would be enough to warm the room up to a more bearable temperature for Ayako.)

I discovered that I could raise my body temperature and heat/cold resistance after multiple fights with Shoto and uncle. It was a bit harder than reinforcing my skeleton or my muscles for plain ol' punching but with enough practice and research on how the body makes heat, I could easily do it. Reinforcing heat resistance was even easier.

Mom looked down at Ayako and with a shaky voice spoke to her, "I-I'm so s-sorry, Ayako-chan...I just got a l-little angry is all, okay?" the angel that she is, Ayako just nodded her head saying that it was alright. But it wasn't alright. Not by a long shot.

'This must be why she's been kept in the Hospital despite seeming to have mostly recovered...The trauma has impeded her ability to control her Quirk and that means she's a walking time bomb who could absolutely obliterate an area of 10 meters around her by either freezing it or heating it,' letting this though sink in, I looked over at my mother.

"It's not up for debate, mom. I'm becoming a Pro-Hero whether you like it or not," letting out a sigh, I looked at her cold but sad eyes, "I know you're scared I'll end up like dad but...all I can say is that I'll try not to. I can't make a promise I can't keep but I'll try my best to keep my word; I won't let myself get taken away from either you or Ayako if I can help it."

Her eyes which were cold slowly started to break away and what replaced them was a mother's endless worry, "But...but I can't lose you as well, Tatsuya!" the temperature was back on an up and down, one second it was warm, the next it was getting chilly, "I don't want to lose my baby boy!"

Knowing it was getting out of hand, I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug with Ayako squashed between us, though she didn't mind and just hugged the two of us back. Mom was bawling her eyes out and repeating how she didn't want to lose me and it was at that point that I resolved myself:

I couldn't afford to let this woman down. I couldn't afford to let this woman go through any more loss. I...I just couldn't let it happen.

I'd do anything to stop her tears is what I realized, and I realized I'd do the same for Ayako.

'Haah~ it seems I'm a siscon and mommy's boy...whatever...' I let thoughts like these go as I just hugged the two most precious people in the world to me.

Even though I knew my mother was far from recovered, I was happy to see her.

At this point, my uncle walked in and seemed shocked by the three of us hugging. Even more shocking to him was how mom called him over and hugged him as well before whispering something in his ear which must have been something serious as he turned away to wipe a tear from his eye.

But after he did that, my mother slapped him before ranting about passing on his hero obsession to me.

It was at that point that I felt so happy I couldn't stop the wide smile from spreading ear to ear, 'This is the happiest I've been in forever, huh?' as this thought popped up in my head, the image of my hugging a certain onyx-eyed girl popped into my head.

As if with her motherly six sense she snapped her head to my slightly red face before smiling happily with a teasing smile. Ayako did the same but with a pout and a glare.

'Oh boy, I'm really in for it now...' thinking this, I denied whatever feelings were coming along with that image of me hugging that girl.