CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The drive home was silent. Rio had nothing to say, especially not when his mother looked so gloomy. Takeru, throughout the night, had opted to make his presence as invisible as possible, cleverly avoiding implicating himself.
Rio would have much preferred his mother screaming at him in anger—the silence she had shown so far was unnerving.
Upon arriving at the house, Izumi sifted through her bags for the key and unlocked the door without saying a word to either of her children.
Takeru and Rio followed quietly behind her, doing their best not to provoke her anger.
"There are some leftovers in the fridge. I'll go warm them up first," Izumi said as she headed to the kitchen.
Stretching his neck to check if the coast was clear, Rio sighed in relief when he noted his mom was no longer in earshot.
"I'm in big trouble, aren't I?" Rio groaned. Whatever his mom had in store for him wouldn't be anything good.
To that, Takeru just gave a mirthless laugh. "It seems we're both in trouble. She looks really angry."
Izumi walked into the dining hall, interrupting their conversation. She balanced the dishes on a tray while she promptly served them up.
Giving their thanks, they immediately started on their meal. Rio devoured his food as quickly as possible—if he ate fast enough, he could have a valid excuse to exit the room.
Upon finishing his food, Rio got up to leave, but his mom's sharp "Sit." stopped him in his tracks. He sat back down immediately.
"I didn't want to overwhelm you both because, frankly, a lot has happened tonight, and I needed time to process it myself. I got a call from the police, Rio. Do you know how worried that made me?"
Rio could only bow his head in guilt. The fact that he had made his mother so worried pained him, but thinking of those girls crying in relief after being saved, he raised his head to meet his mom's gaze.
"I'd like to know everything that happened tonight."
At that, Takeru wanted to interject, but a glare from their mom shut him up.
"You will tell me only the truth, and if I find out you were lying about anything, so help me God, you will not like what I'll do to you both."
Rio started recounting the night's events—from the program they were working on to the news broadcast, the fierce debate, and the rescue efforts.
Izumi listened patiently, resting her head on her palms. Once Rio was done, the whole room fell silent.
"So you mean to tell me you two have been working on a device to spy on the entire neighborhood and that you had the location of those kidnappers but refused to call the police?" As she continued speaking, her tone remained level, but Rio could see from her eyes that she was very sad.
"I understand that I've been very absent lately. Work has been weighing down on me—with the mortgage and all the bills at hand. I understand your desire to help out, but why did it have to be an illegal venture? That's an invasion of privacy. I expected better of you both."
Now, Rio wouldn't say it was exactly an invasion. He was going to ask for permission—he just hadn't gotten to that part yet.
"Seriously, you two are usually so mature that I trusted you to stay safe, but it seems I was mistaken. You're grounded. Both of you."
"But what did I do?" Takeru asked in confusion. "I even called the police! Why am I getting punished too?"
"Your brother is only seven. You're older, so I'll naturally hold you accountable for his actions."
Rio cut in immediately—he didn't like that his brother, who had been unwillingly involved in all this, would be taking the fall with him.
"Mum, I was the one who—"
"I understand, Mum. Sorry for making you worry."
Takeru, without waiting for Rio to finish, silently accepted the verdict.
This development was very frustrating for Rio. His brother was clearly uninvolved but was insisting on getting punished alongside him.
"I've been pushing back this decision because I personally believe it's too hasty, but we'll all be moving to my mom's house in Tokyo," their mum said as she packed the dishes on the table.
Rio and Takeru were both surprised by this sudden declaration. It was totally a bolt out of the blue.
"YOU HAVE A MOM?" Takeru and Rio shouted in unison.
To that, Izumi raised an eyebrow. "Is that really what you should be worried about right now?"
"It'll only be for a while—until we regain our bearings. The supervision from an older figure will be needed since I can't trust you guys with that much autonomy. We leave in a month."
With that, their mother, Izumi, retired to her room.
Rio looked at his brother in doubt, but Takeru just shrugged nonchalantly at the news.
As Rio headed to his room, Takeru intercepted him, excitedly asking for details on how the fight went.
That quickly got Rio reminiscing about the events of today. In retrospect, he was surprised by how the fight had gone. At the time, he hadn't thought too deeply about it, but he had been relatively calm throughout the ordeal.
His lack of practical combat experience or training hadn't hindered him in the least from taking down four grown men with superpowers. It was as if his thoughts were immediately transformed into action, his body seamlessly following his will.
Rio tried to find the words to describe the scene, but the sound of a pebble striking their glass window snapped him out of his musings and put Takeru on immediate alert.
Rio wondered what kind of person would try to access his room this late at night as he slowly made his way to the window.
Takeru had procured a metal baseball bat from seemingly nowhere. A quick glance at the shelf dispelled that notion—it was missing from its display.
Looking through the window, he found no one outside and was about to dismiss the occurrence as a passing bird or something else—until he saw the person standing directly under the streetlights, their shadow stretching far into the distance.
O'clock.
The hero made a signal with his hands, meaning for Rio to come down.
Rio wondered if sneaking out mere minutes after being punished to stay home was a wise course of action—but his curiosity about what the hero wanted from him this late won out.
Turning to Takeru and apologizing for the interruption, Rio saw him wave dismissively, clearly paying no mind to the disturbance as he returned the bat to the display.
Rio laughed, thinking the kid was just playing at being nonchalant. That was a signed baseball bat from before the Dark Ages—a rare collector's item that neither of them had ever understood how their father had acquired. It would have been painful to waste something so precious just to bash someone's skull in.
Rio carefully made his way down from the window. It wouldn't be funny if he fell and broke something—or, even worse, alerted his mother to what he was doing. Yeah, that would be a really fun conversation to have.
With a soft thud, Rio landed on the ground and immediately made his way toward the hero, who was leisurely puffing smoke rings into the air.
"You know that's bad for you, right? Also, can you stop? The smell irritates me," Rio said, annoyed.
"Sorry, sorry. It was really cold out," O'clock apologized as he snuffed out the cigarette.
"It's rare—almost unheard of—to see quirks so similar. I investigated, and it turns out we're not related. Who would've thought?"
"Wait, hold up. What do you mean, 'investigate'? How do you even know where I live?"
O'clock scoffed. "Please. I scanned through all those documents your mum signed before anyone even realized I was there." Clearly, he was proud of himself.
To that, Rio just facepalmed.
"Seriously though, quirks like ours are very rare. Ones with powerful functions like that are one in a million—or the result of a quirk marriage."
That bit confused Rio. He couldn't recall much, but he remembered that in the series, people with overpowered quirks were showing up left and right.
"What are your parents' quirks, Rio?" O'clock asked seriously.
Rio thought about it and remembered something his mum had told him—how he got the "eating a lot" part from his dad. His dad's quirk burned body fat to improve stamina, which was why a complete couch potato like him could stay so fit. His mum's quirk, however, was completely unrelated. Large Memory—it granted her an almost perfect recall of every sensation she had ever felt.
Rio relayed this to O'clock, and the hero squinted as he thought deeply.
"Well, it does happen that a completely unrelated quirk is born, but still… it's not as common anymore."
Rio knew that his original quirk might have been something different. Clearly, this had to be the work of that being responsible for his rebirth.
"Is that why you called me here, sir?" Rio asked. He doubted the hero would be so jobless as to bother him just to satisfy his curiosity.
"No, that was just a side note. I've been meaning to talk to you for a while now, but there wasn't any time left with the interrogation and whatnot."
O'clock's gaze sharpened.
"You don't want to be a hero, do you?"
"Huh."
Rio wondered why he would be asking that.
"You know, most kids your age tend to think about heroics all the time. Understandably—it's a great profession. The fame, the acclaim, the notion of saving the world from the forces of evil. A lifestyle straight out of a battle manga." O'clock paused. "But you, kid… your way of thinking is very dangerous. You went in for the kill back there. I don't know enough about your upbringing to determine why you think that way, but your state of mind is dangerous. You're thinking like a villain—and trust me, you do not want to be labeled a villain."
"So why did you help me then, since I'm 'acting like a villain'?"
"I used to have a friend once. Smart guy, very resourceful. The thing is, he had one little problem—he really loved experimenting with his quirk, Telekinesis. He got into a lot of trouble for it. Whenever he had a problem, the first thing that came to mind was how to solve it using telekinesis."
Rio was already absorbed in the story. He thought he knew where this was heading, but he still listened anyway.
"A massive apartment fire broke out where he lived. He could have gotten to safety, but he thought he could snuff out the flames somehow. Said something about stopping the oxygen from feeding the fire."
O'clock exhaled.
"Guess how that turned out."
Rio's heart sank. He could already see the ending—how that man died from the intense heat and smoke. It would be a massive hurdle to control something so intangible.
"Don't look at me like that. He survived," O'clock said. "The fire scarred him all over, but he did stop the flames—along with everyone else in the apartment from leaving."
Now that Rio didn't see coming.
"He was immediately tried as a villain. The courts don't give a damn about intent or reason. All they know is—you used your quirk, and people died. You'll only suffer for it."
O'Clock fixed his gaze on Rio, his tone serious. "So, kid, I'll only offer this one time. I know having a quirk—a strong one at that—is pretty exciting, but without understanding what you can and can't do, you'll only end up hurting yourself and others."
"So, what do you say? Be my disciple, Rio!"
It was an offer Rio saw no reason to refuse.