"Love you, Kinji. Have a good day at school."
I turned back to look at my mom as I closed the car door and gave her a thumbs-up.
"I will, Ma, and I love you too. Make sure that you don't take any more smack from your co-worker, though. Put her in her place, or I will."
My mother sighed and also gave me a thumbs up. She knew full well that I wasn't kidding. I had barely been able to contain my anger after seeing that woman boss my mother around and have her do jobs that she wasn't supposed to do. My mother was kind enough that she didn't mind, which is exactly why she was being taken advantage of.
"Alright, Mom, I trust you. I'll swing by the restaurant sometime after school."
She gave me a short nod and blew a kiss, "Love you, son."
Once she drove off, I stood, looking at our old car. She used her hard-earned savings to buy the car two years ago. The person who sold her the car had told her it was reliable, but after nearly two weeks, numerous issues had appeared.
'If only I had been this age when she bought it...No, my age doesn't matter. It was my fault for not being better prepared.'
My mother was the one person whom I respected the most. She took care of me by herself and sacrificed her dream of being a hero to take care of me. That's why, from a young age, I made a promise to myself: I would become one of the most well-known heroes throughout the world. Then, I would ensure that everyone was aware of my mother's accomplishments.
That said, that's before I knew that, unlike 80% of the world's population who had superpower-like abilities called quirks, I did not. This made the whole process of becoming the most well-known hero nearly impossible unless it was to be known as the weakest or the most worthless hero.
'Still, I won't give up. Where there is a will, there is a how. I heard that UA removed the rule requiring quirks for the hero course students. If I could attend UA, even if I flunked out, it would still make my path to becoming a hero easier. Just getting into the academy gives you a higher starting point compared to others.'
After sitting at my desk, I put my head down and began sorting my thoughts.
'I really have to find a way to make money…..I can't keep making mom work. Thankfully, I'll be turning 15 soon, so I'll be able to find a part-time job. I will need to save up and get some support gear to help for the entrance exam.'
"Hey Kinji! You won't believe it! I just saw Kumai Woods and Mt Lady fighting against a villain! He seemed to have some gigantification quirk that allowed him to become huge!"
I raised my head and found Izuku Midoriya looking at me with a completely excited expression.
I met him in my first year of Junior High after my mother, and I moved to a more affordable place. Since both my mother and his mother were single moms, they hit it off when they met and became close friends. especially when they found out both their sons wanted to become heroes while lacking quirks.
Izuku was a nice guy, and I didn't hate hanging out with him, but he had nothing else in his mind other than heroes. He was also very timid, making him easy prey for our school bullies, especially the most troublesome one, Bakugo.
"Oh hey, Izuku. A gigantification quirk against Mt. Lady? Was he larger than her?"
He shook his head and sat down on the desk next to me.
"No, he was about three-fourths her size. Still, he was really strong. Luckily, Mt Lady surprised him while he was focused on Kami Woods and ended things qui…"
Before Izuku could finish, he was interrupted by a loud voice coming from behind
"Ey nerdy Deku, get your ass out of my seat!!! I don't want to catch any of your worthless germs."
While we already knew who it was, we turned around and found Bakugo walking towards us along with two of his friends.
'Here we go. Does this guy not get tired of always making trouble.'
Izuku realized that he had sat on Bakugo's desk and quickly jumped off, apologized, and stood to the side.
Bakugo purposely bumped into Izuku as he walked to his seat and sat down.
After seeing Izuku stay silent, I couldn't keep quiet. My mother had asked me to look after him since his mother had mentioned that he sometimes went home with bruises.
"Is that really necessary Bakugo?"
After hearing me, the blond teen smacked his desk and released small explosions from his palms.
He turned to look at me angrily, "Shut up, you quirkless goldie! This is between me and your little boyfriend."
I shook my head and sighed, "Quirkless this and quirkless that, get some new material already. As for my boyfriend? I think that my two previous relationships prove I'm straight; you, on the other hand? Have you ever even dated anyone? I don't think I've seen you with anyone other than your two henchmen there…. Don't tell me!"
The more I spoke, the angrier Bakugo became.
"What did you just say you bastard!!!"
He jumped up and grabbed my shoulder. I could feel his palm start to heat up, but I kept still. I had learned from Izuku's situation that any fear you showed Bakugo encouraged him even more.
I looked straight at his eyes and smiled, "Do it, I dare you. Do it so that I can sue; I need the money, after all. Not only will I get the money, but the fact that you purposely hurt a student with your quirk will follow you anywhere you go."
Bakugo's friends slowly dragged him away from me.
"Come on, man, cool down; he's not worth it."
"Yeah, Bakugo, just ignore him."
Seeing him sit back down, I massaged my temples and sighed.
"I made things worse, didn't I?"