8 The reason to strive

[A couple of days later] [Saturday — 8:00 a.m.]

"Have a nice day at work Okā-chan" Doryoku said saying goodbye to his mother while he drank some coffee.

"See you Dory-chan, don't stay all day staring at the ceiling" said Doryoku's mother smiling mockingly as she said goodbye to her son with her work clothes.

"I don't look at the ceiling, I get lost in my thoughts" Doryoku said with blank eyes as he said goodbye to his mother.

Doryoku's mother's job is as a waitress at a somewhat remote restaurant, so she had to take the train to the place.

Her work uniform was basically black pants along with a light purple T-shirt with white lettering on the left part of the chest.

And after a few minutes, Doryoku's mother got off the train as she walked towards her destination.

Upon arriving at the place, the restaurant was quite small but also cozy and the smell of the food would make anyone want to come and eat on the spot.

The restaurant of the Chrysanthemum, was a little known restaurant but with very good food and in which both customers and workers knew each other and the atmosphere was always quite pleasant.

"Good morning Nintai-senpai, how have you been?" asked the cashier of the place, a woman in her 20s with cherry eyes and black hair.

"Aoi-chan, I told you that you don't need to put the senpai on my name" said Doryoku's mother known as Nintai Suzuki at the restaurant.

Aoi was a girl who joined the restaurant a year ago to pay for her university studies, so Nintai helped her a lot by seeing the determination and innocence of the girl.

"You taught me everything since I arrived, it's the least I can do Nintai-senpai" Young Aoi said as she smiled happily and Nintai could only let out a tired sigh.

Nintai, saved her bag in the employee room and began to clean and arrange everything in a rigorous and elegant way.

Although she may not seem like it, Nintai had a specific ability to arrange things and make everything shine in its own light with just a few changes.

"I will never understand how she manages to do that" Aoi said quite surprised as always by Nintai's ability.

The restaurant opened at 12:00 p.m. but it was common to see a lot of people arriving due to the good food in the restaurant, so preparing everything early was always the best.

"Aoi-chan~, did you do all your work left before opening?" said an overly muscular man coming out of the kitchen in his cook clothes.

The man was almost 7 feet tall and had blond hair, but even with all that, his long eyelashes and adorable demeanor made it very strange to talk to him.

"You're right Hiro-senpai! I should stop wasting time!" Aoi said reacting and remembering everything she had pending as she left the restaurant to arrange the poster and the external decorations.

"Hiro, you should let her rest a bit, remember that she had an exam recently" Nintai said with a warning tone as she adjusted the chairs and looked at Hiro in disappointment.

"I had forgotten I am a monster!" Hiro said quite exalted and then went to help Aoi to make up for it.

At their attitude, Nintai could only shake her head as she smiled at the very strange co-workers she had.

After 3 hours of preparing everything, everyone was ready to start work but there was still half an hour left before opening, so everyone was sitting at a table to rest.

"Nintai, your son started the academy recently right?" Hiro asked curiously as he waited for the opening time.

"That's right, in the UA general studies department, as smart as his mother" Nintai said as she smiled quite proudly at her son.

"In the UA! The entrance test has a ridiculously low percentage! He must be very clever indeed!" Aoi said quite surprised by the news.

"Do not exaggerate it, although it is true that he is very intelligent, he is still very distrustful of himself, but I hope he can improve his confidence by being in such a prestigious place" said Nintai with a nervous smile as she remembered her son trembling with nervousness the day before receiving the letter.

"I still remember when you told me about him and he came to visit you to help when he was a child, time passes too quickly" Hiro said, smiling wistfully at the passage of time in that child.

"Yes, although he is still the same, only with the aspect of his father" said Nintai also with nostalgia for the past.

After this, the opening time came and the work began.

Regulars began to arrive quickly, and the small restaurant filled up in less time than expected.

Something that should be noted is that Nintai's quirk allowed her to make almost any shape with the energy that came out of her body, so attending had already become easy for her with a little imagination.

All kinds of people came to the restaurant, from families to lonely men and women who quite enjoyed lunch.

From 12:00 until 2:00 p.m. it was what everyone called the first wave, which basically consisted of the largest number of people of the day and therefore the most complicated and tiring.

After this, the restaurant calmed down quite a bit and only the occasional customer would arrive who, or could be late for lunch for personal reasons, or a new customer who enjoyed the atmosphere quite a bit.

"I'm tired" Aoi said as she lay down on the table next to the cashier quite tiredly.

"You're still a rookie Aoi-chan, in a couple of months more you'll get used to it" Nintai said with a comforting smile causing Aoi to have a gloomy aura around her.

As Nintai cleaned the tables, the door opened, announcing the arrival of a new customer.

"Welcome customer, what do you want?" Aoi said quickly appearing in her place to take the order.

'She doesn't lack a lot of practice neither' Nintai thought with a nervous smile when she saw Aoi's quick reaction.

The client was a young man of about 15 years old with brown hair who seemed quite nervous about being there.

"G-good morning, c-could you sell me a dessert please" said the young brown quite nervous as he asked shyly.

"Don't be nervous, no one here can hurt you" Aoi said with a warm smile making the young man now blush and more nervous.

Right at that moment, Hiro came out of the kitchen to take a little break and looked at the young man curiously.

"Wow~, what a handsome young man, what do you want little one~" Hiro said with curiosity and his typical adorable and sociable demeanor.

The young man seemed much more nervous now, which was understandable, after all Hiro was giant and at the same time quite strange.

"Don't worry young man, I don't bite~" Hiro said playfully as he winked his right eye.

"Go back to the kitchen Hiro, you're making the customer uncomfortable!" Nintai said with blank eyes in annoyance as she formed a figure with her energy in her hand.

At this, Hiro became quite nervous and ran into the kitchen passing through the door quickly to escape.

But Nintai threw a ball of her own energy quite hard, which hit the half-open door, bounced and ...

"Ouch!!, Nice shot Nintai!!" Hiro said in a pained tone from the kitchen.

"I expected no less Nintai-senpai" Aoi said with quite admiration as Nintai smiled broadly and proudly.

The brown haired young man did not understand the situation very well, but he decided to order a dessert quickly to get back home as quickly as possible.

The day continued normally after 5:00 p.m. which was called the second wave, usually full of people looking for a dessert or having a date.

The restaurant closed at 6:30 p.m. and as always, everyone started cleaning and tidying everything up a bit for the next day.

"See you tomorrow Nintai-senpai, have a nice night" said Aoi saying goodbye with a smile and then leaving to go home.

"See you Nintai, Aoi-chan I will accompany you!" Hiro said saying goodbye to Nintai and running after Aoi to catch up with her.

Nintai said goodbye to both of them, smiling slightly, to then look for her bag and close the doors of the restaurant, since tomorrow it was her turn to open it.

Nintai walked through the evening-lit streets as the lights turned on waiting for nightfall until she remembered something.

"It's true, I have to do some shopping, although I'm sure there was enough food for Dory-chan's lunch" Nintai said a little worried at first but then remembering that there were still some ingredients in the cupboard.

Still there was shopping to be done, so Nintai took a short detour to the supermarket to buy whatever was needed.

After buying everything she needed and leaving the supermarket, Nintai took the train to get home.

'I'll have to make dinner too, but I'll finally be able to rest after that' Nintai thought wearily remembering that she still had something to do before her beautiful dream.

Nintai arrived at her house and left one of the shopping bags on the floor to find her keys and open the door, to later enter the house.

"Dory-chan I'm here!" Nintai said announcing her arrival until she could smell food.

"I'm going!" Doryoku said from the kitchen to then go out and help his mother with the bags.

Nintai entered the house quite confused to see that her son had prepared dinner without having ingredients.

"Dory-chan, where did you get the ingredients for dinner?" Nintai asked still confused as she sat in the dining room and searched for an answer from her son.

"I used the money you give me every month, why?" Doryoku asked bringing both dishes from the kitchen with genuine curiosity.

At this, Nintai had blank eyes and hit Doryoku's forehead with her index finger.

"Ouch, why was that?" Doryoku said as he rubbed his forehead to ease the pain.

"I told you that money was for you and something you want Dory-chan!" Nintai said in a warning tone as she pointed at Doryoku.

"There is nothing I want Okā-chan, so I decided to use it in case there is an emergency" Doryoku said trying to reason and being hit on the forehead again by his mother.

"You don't know how horrible it feels not to be able to scold you for your kindness Dory-chan" Nintai said as she ate in annoyance giving up with her son.

Doryoku's food was always good, although this time Nintai decided to ask.

"Dory-chan, what is your secret when cooking?" Nintai asked quite curious at the skill of her son.

"Well, when I cook I can tell if something is missing from the food just by the smell it gives off, doesn't that happen to you?" Doryoku said as he remembered every time he cooked making her mother have a nervous smile.

Even being his mother, Doryoku always had some way of surprising her with some new ability, but the worst part is that Doryoku himself was even more surprised by this.

But Doryoku always sought the best for her, even unconsciously, so Nintai could not ask for a better son in her life.

"I love you so much Dory-chan" Nintai said suddenly making Doryoku a bit confused.

"Me too Okā-chan, but where did that come from?" Doryoku said genuinely confused.

"It's nothing, I'm probably getting old by now" Nintai said smiling slightly as Doryoku smiled back.

"By the way, you didn't stare at the ceiling all day, did you?" Nintai asked in a quizzical and mocking tone.

"No, I also looked at the wall" Doryoku said proudly as he pointed at the wall causing his mother to have a bead of sweat on the back of her neck.

And so ends a normal day in the life of Nintai Suzuki.