Chapter 2 - The Vagabonds.

TEN YEARS LATER. INAKA, JAPAN. 10:45pm.

BANG! BANG!

"Faster! Harder! Remember, swing through your opponent, don't stop just because you made contact!" Arnold commanded through heavy breaths, using his palms to deflect and receive blows from his son, Arthur.

The one in question kept serious, focused eyes locked only on his father. Utilizing his peripheral to aim and predict where his fathers hands will be.

"Kick!" Arnold ordered, Arthur following along seamlessly to the new change as he spun on his planted foot and kicked at his fathers thigh.

"Stop. Stop!" Arnold demanded, slapping Arthur in the face to avoid a hit to the sternum. The one in question grunted as his head lurched the opposite way, his left ear ringing.

Arthur sent a confused glare at his father, in response his father clicked his tongue with a frown.

"Why aren't you using your quirk!? You think you'll hurt me or something? Try! Put effort into this fucking training so you'll be of some damn use to me!" He berated, taking a deep breath and dropping back into stance.

Arthur didn't respond, his eyes stay steady as his mind battled with his conflicted emotions of anger, annoyance and hurt. He and his father had been sparring for the past three years routinely, and every time, he manages to be labeled useless.

'Pick up the pace. He can handle it.' Arthur told himself, sucking in a deep breath, dropping into a similar stance to his father, ignoring the sweat that stung his eyes.

"You ready?" His father questions, in response, a noticeable glow elicits from Arthurs body as an energy surge runs all throughout his body, forming a pink X at the bridge of his nose while clear, white lightning crackles from his body every now and then.

'Use ten percent. I can manage this much, push towards twelve after five hits.' He tells himself, throwing a deadly sweep kick at his dad's shins.

Unlike before, Arthur's body moved with such speed his father had to actually be on guard for it, moving like a whip and cracking like one too as he made contact with Arnold's leg.

CRACK! FWOOSH!

The air pressure from the kick caused their clothes to dance, but the pressure behind the kick caused the stone floor beneath them to crack a bit.

Their modern day mansion experienced beatings like this for a while now. It's a surprise it's still standing. The basement the two used to spar and train in was littered from cracks due to Arthurs quirk and his fathers as well.

Since bother specialized in physical enhancement.

"Good! Faster this time. Put some heat on it too, if you can, increase the amount of strength you put into your attack just before you hit me." Arnold instructed, switching his lead foot.

Arthur threw a lazy left hook, attempting to feint with it and then lead with his right, but his father read him like a book. Following his dad's instruction, just before Arnold blocked his punch, he pushed the original 10% he was using, to a mighty 15%.

CRACK! BOOM!

A similar result like before, Arnold brushed off Arthurs superpowered punch.

Arthur's bones wracked with pain from the repercussion of utilizing too much strength than his body could handle. His muscles began to seize and cramp while his bones rattled like a brittle stick.

"B-Break.. I need a break." Arthur spoke through painted breaths. Arnold sucked his tooth but let his son take his break knowing just how hard his quirk was on his body.

Going to a nearby counter to grab a bottle of water, Arnold thought about how weird he found his son's quirk. Manifesting at a young age, he figured his control over the quirk would be the best in the world, or at least have the potential of it, but instead, his body can only handle a certain percentage of it.

Any more than what he can handle and his body will face terrible repercussions, like exploding it from the inside out, breaking all the bones, tearing all the muscle and destroying the nerves.

"What's your progress with One For All? How much can you manage?" He inquired, tossing a bottle towards Arthur while the other hand texted his daughter to come to the basement.

Arthur shrugged, opening the bottle and taking a swig of water.

"About 10%, pushing fifteen with the last moment hits, but the rebound is still there." Arnold nodded. "That's not that good. You can't even push me around with ten percent of your power, you need to get stronger, son." He chided, gulping down the last of his water.

Arthur sighed, knowing that his father was doing this more so out of necessity rather than love and affection. 'Not like anyone else can take over his business.' He reasoned with himself, finding that his dad's constant need for him to be perfect, justified.

"I know. I'm trying. My limit went up by two percent since last week. That's pretty good progress." Arthur argued, but Arnold disagreed.

"You've had access to your quirk since your birth. I started training you with it when you were three. Just cycling the energy throughout your body. I figured you'd be accustomed to it by now." Arthur rolled his eyes.

"True, but I haven't been putting that energy to use till a year later. Which means I've been at this for about six years and my progress has been pretty smooth sailing." Arnold slammed his fist against the stone counter top, startling Arthur.

"Stop coming up with shitty ways to make yourself feel better. Your growth is slow. At this rate you won't be shit by the time you're old enough to even shadow me on jobs.

Stop talking about the past and talk about the future. Plan to strengthen your training. If you must, go blow some holes into the mountains in the backyard, they're technically ours anyway.

If you blow your limbs to bits, crawl your way back and get healing from your mother or sister, and then take your lousy ass back to them damn mountains and break yourself some more-" Arnold was cut off from his self-destructive speech as a young girl, no older than Arthur entered through the door.

"Wow, you look like shit." She jabbed playfully towards her twin brother. The one in question ignored her and continued to drink his water. Wiping his face with his towel every now and then.

Turning towards her father after getting ignored, she spoke- "So, what do you need, daddy?" Arnold gestures towards Arthur, "Heal him. His quirk got the better of him." Arthur felt his chest get heavier with every word he heard from his father, but he never let it show.

Lily just nodded solemnly. She might tease her brother, but she cared about him deeply. And she knew he cared about her too.

As she kneeled down next to him with her hand on his shoulder, he pulled away. "Don't bother. I'll be fine." Lily sighed as her hand hesitantly pulled away.

"Fine, suit yourself. If you break your limbs here and deny her help now, then don't bother getting it later." Arnold spoke up, coming closer to the duo.

Arthur nodded in understanding, standing up as his dad took his gloves off.

"Take off your gloves, you need to know what it feels like to get hit for real. Don't worry, I won't kill you." Arthur only nodded, his eyes an empty shell as he forced his emotions from controlling his thoughts.

"Well.. You two be careful. I'll be with mom in the living room." Lily says, exiting the room slowly after taking one last look at the back of her brother.

Soon enough, the father-son duo got right back to their destructive ways.

BANG! BOOM! CRACK!

"Guh!"

"Suck it up! These goons out here won't hit you any softer!"

BOOM! POW! WOOSH!

***

"Wow~ Rough day?" Arthur groans with a limp as he walks into the main room. Spanning 850 sq ft all around with nicely furnished and situated furniture. Sitting on the couch, Amelia feels a little bad for her sons appearance, but understands just how important he is to his fathers position.

So she shrugs it off with a harmless teasing session.

Arthur spares a singular glance and saves the banter for later.

"I'm going to soak in the bath… Jesus christ." He mutters, eliciting a chuckle from his mother. Lily gazes at his back, the sympathy she feels for him overwhelming her with the urge to support him up to his room, but she knows better than to do that.

Soon after Arthur leaves the room, Arnold waltzes in a little later. A soaked towel on his head while his black muscle shirt is glued to his body with a thin sheen of sweat.

"He'll be alright. Tomorrow will be rougher for him." Amelia nods while Lily sits back on the couch, feeling a little uncomfortable being in the same room as them as they talk about her brother.

It's not like she doesn't understand why Arnold is so hard on him, but at the same time, she could never see herself handling what he goes through. If she had a word in everything, she'd say they were abusing him. Mentally and physically, but once again.. She knew better than to speak against her father.

"You have something planned? Doesn't sound too conventional…" Amelia questions, putting her head right back into her phone as she scrolls through Instagram.

Arnold shrugs, "It's conventional for him. The bastard still can't handle the energy output of his quirk. Meaning he's still limited to a select percentage of it. That puts him behind greatly…" He trails off, frustration filling his chest.

"He has the potential to outdo me and he's only ten. AND that's with only a part of his power- Just imagine what he'd be capable of if he could fully control and handle his power? The things he could do to further Helios' expansion?" Amelia shuttered, imagining someone stronger than Arnold was hard to believe..

Especially now… With the Symbol of Peace dead, there is no one who could match him in terms of pure physical strength. His mentality and skill only makes him even more terrifying.

"How about this, honey.. Have him and Lily train together. Him using his full ability and her there to heal him whole. It'll be a way to train both of them and prepare Lily for school." Lily shot up from her seat, her eyes showing her betrayal.

Arnold tilted his head, "School? Why would she need training for school?" Shooting a curious glance at Lily and then back at Amelia who gazed at her daughter with an apologetic expression, Arnold grew concerned.

"Are you getting bullied or something? If so, speak up now. Me and your brother will handle it." Lily shook her head, sighing as she ignored her mother mouthing an apology.

"No Dad, I- I want to attend U.A."

"Oh. That's it?" Arnold questioned, tilting his head as he wondered what was so hard about her coming clean. Lily and Amelia on the other hand were flabbergasted at his reaction.

"W-Wait what? You don't care?" Lily beamed, shooting from her spot on the couch and appearing in front of her father within an instant. The one in question chuckled and patted her head.

"Nah, if going to U.A is what you want to do, then go ahead. I won't stop you.. Unless your mother has something to say about it…" He drags, turning towards Amelia. She quickly shakes her head,

"No, no problems here…" Her words told a different story while her eyes told another. Hearing her answer, Arnold shrugged.

"Then it's settled. I always wanted a hero in the family, you can be our first one." Lily didn't even care about what he just said, he was already in the process of jumping into his arms as she wrapped him up in a big hug.

"Ohmygod ohmygod, thank you! Thank you so much!" Not given a chance to reciprocate the hug, Arnold was left dumbfounded at how fast Lily had raced up the staircase to the next floor. Leaving the couple to themselves.

After a moment of silence, Amelia sighs.

"Are you sure that's wise? Letting her go to U.A?" Arnold frowned, raising an eyebrow, "Yeah, why wouldn't it be? If it's her dream then I say let her chase it. We should just be behind her incase it doesn't go the way she expects. You know, so she has someone to fall back on."

Amelia smiled softly hearing that, but she couldn't help but ask, "But what about Helios? The whole reason it took her so long to mention U.A was because of that." Arnold gave a knowing look and nodded-

"She doesn't need to worry about that. I have it on tight lock, and with her brother being available and willing to do the job, she can live her life freely. That's something Arthur needs to worry about."

Amelia just nodded, finding that this would be a good time to cut the conversation short. In truth, she also didn't like how Arthur was being treated by Arnold, but she also knew that Arnold was getting weaker as he got older.

And with a crime organization like Helios under his belt, a successor would surely be needed sooner or later.

Standing up, Arnold kissed Amelia's forehead and stalked over to their room on the first floor, waving over his shoulder at her.

"I'm going to shower… See you in bed?" He asked with a goofy smile.

Amelia chuckled, but stood and up followed him to the room.