I didn't even have to say a word when I went into the Oba household for them all to know exactly what happened. Kaito's dad quickly pulled out an old air mattress and pulled it into Kaito's room while his mom warmed up some extra curry for me to eat. While I wasn't in the mood to eat, my friend reminded me that I had to. It wasn't because he wanted me to be healthy as much as he knew my Quirk relied on it.

Every Quirk had its downside. For some, people could see it plain as day. One of my classmates, Sakura Sakai, had really bad allergies the longer she used her Quirk while Tami had to have a cool down period and her clothes couldn't grow or shrink alongside her. These were things people could figure out right away. My Quirk, Ultra Strength, was a bit different. Most people just thought I had to work out every single day because my Quirk allowed me to double my original strength. There was just more to it than that.

In order for Ultra Strength to be effective, I had to eat a lot of protein. If not that, at least a lot of food because the longer I use my Quirk, the more energy I'd use. Food was just a way to get past that, so I wouldn't pass out while using it. Since we had our final exam tomorrow, Kaito knew the last thing I needed was to fail.

If I failed that exam, then I couldn't become a Pro Hero.

Still, my mind wasn't stuck on that. All I could think about was what happened. I gave both Hatsuko and Tami a call when I got inside. My sister was happy that I found a place and promised to drop off the rest of my stuff tomorrow after school. Tami, on the other hand, was just relieved that I was okay and told me her and her little brother were just starting to bake some cookies to get her mind off of things. It was a relief she had a little brother who was willing to do that, though, I wouldn't be surprised if he agreed just to eat the cookie dough.

With the exception of Hatsuko, all my older siblings left home as soon as they could.

In the end, Kaito tried pulling my mind off of things by turning on some video game. He explained the rules and let me pick out my character first. While it got my mind off of it for a while, all I could hear in the back of my mind was what my dad said to Tami.

"You sure you're cool staying here?" Kaito's voice asked as his character on the screen dodged an attack.

"Why wouldn't I be? We've done this plenty of times" I told him as I tried moving my character towards his.

The basis of the game was that there were four characters on the screen and you tried racking as many points by not dying, damaging, and killing other players in a given time limit. Each character had so many lives. While Kaito told me how to do all the controls, I just pushed random buttons in hopes to win.

My dad never let my siblings and I play video games. The only time I could play was when I was at Kaito's, which was fine by me. I leaned forward towards the t.v. screen, not taking my eyes off of it. If I scooted any closer to it, I would have been standing off of Kaito's bed.

"I don't know," Kaito admitted. "Just something my sister said to me once."

"Probably just trying to get in your head or—hey!" I screamed as his character knocked me off the screen, taking my last life. "That's unfair!"

Kaito chuckled. "Payback when you knocked me off a few rounds ago," he explained as the timer went off, declaring Kaito as the winner. "But thanks. I appreciate it."

I shrugged. "You're letting me crash here, so why would I care?" I asked before picking up my controller. "Let's just play another round. I'm not letting you win this time."

"Yeah right! If you hadn't gotten soft, you wouldn't have lost in the first place," Kaito retorted.

Soft.

You've gotten worse ever since you started talking about that girl, my dad's words rung inside my head.

Was that what my dad meant? That I was getting soft? I didn't get it. What was so wrong with going soft? Was it because I was going to be a Pro Hero, I couldn't be anything but tough? Did it have to do with my Quirk? Either way, I was done with it.

I placed the controller on Kaito's bright colored bed sheets as I stood up. It was getting far too late for me to be thinking stuff like this right now.

When I stood up, Kaito must have caught on.

"Hey, dude, what's wrong? Was it something I said?"

"No," I honestly told him. "I just got tired all of a sudden. Think it's time for me to go to bed."

I turned to look back at Kaito, who pulled his legs up on his bed and placed his hands on his knees. His head tilted to the side, causing his orange hair to swoop to one side. Kaito didn't have long hair like his little sister did, but it was long enough to flop around.

He was about ready to open his mouth to say something when my phone rang. I didn't even check the number when I pulled it out of my pocket and brought it up to my ear. Kaito frowned when I did this, but he didn't say a word about it. Honestly, I knew Kaito was just going to be nosey about the whole thing and try to do everything to make me feel better. There was nothing that could do that.

Turning around, I walked out of the room, grabbing my pajamas on the way out as I answered the phone.

"Hello," I answered.

"Hi!" an unfamiliar voice chirped. Her voice was a bit nasally, and it clung into each letter a bit differently, which was strange to say the least. Her Japanese was still clear as she seemed to be careful with every word she said. "Is this Raiden Yamamoto from U.A?"

"Uh, yeah, who the hell are you?" I questioned as I shut the bathroom door behind me.

Unlike Kaito's room, the bathroom wasn't bright. Nothing against my friend, but he could use a lot less yellow wallpaper and bedding

"Oh! I guess I should have started with that. Sorry! My bad. Name's Sicarius, of the Bravura Agency in Fairfield, Rhode Island."

"Rhode Island?" I repeated the strange, yet oddly familiar name.

"Yep! We're located on the east coast of America," the girl chirped. "Anyways, I hope I'm not too late making this phone call, I'm not really good at figuring out the time differences, but my boss heard about U.A. and all about you in particular and wanted to see if you wanted to join our agency. If you haven't accepted one to start out in...I don't know how it works over there in Japan, but we'd love to have you here."

My eyes widened. Another Pro Hero opportunity. Only, this time, it wasn't here in Japan, it was some place I had never been before. Sure, I've been outside the country before. I visited some distant relatives in Mexico and took a trip to the Philippines as my oldest brother moved there for a year the moment he could get out of the house. Thinking about it, I hadn't seen him since.

But America. That was on the other side of the world. Yeah, Mexico was too, but I had only visited there once for family reasons. This girl on the other end was talking about a job and actually living there.

Hearing her say that the night before I was supposed to choose which agency I wanted to work for seemed a bit strange.

If it wasn't strange enough, she kept talking. "I know it's kind of asking a lot, but we promise it'll be worth it. You get paid every week, so finding a good apartment shouldn't take you long. Even if you need to crash somewhere, one of us would be more than happy to have you over, I promise! Bravura usually works four to five days a week, so if it works out right, you could book a flight back home for a few days without taking off so much. You wouldn't be able to start until July, but that could give you some time to think things through, I'm sure!"

Come home for a few days. Part of me couldn't believe my luck when I was finally hearing all of this. It wasn't the being paid upfront to find a good apartment that caught my attention. That part didn't bother me. The part about me starting later didn't even phase me.

It was the part where I could get as far away from my dad as humanly possible. Hatsuko was the only sibling that didn't move out of the house when she graduated. I had siblings that were kicked out before they could even turn seventeen. Some of them stayed in the area, a few moved on the other side of the country or just a few cities over to avoid him. My oldest brother was the only one who decided to move out of the country because of him.

At least I would be so far away that I could avoid him at all costs.

My mouth opened for a moment to accept it when I remembered a particular offer I had gotten from someone else. It was the kind of offer that would've been ridiculous to pass up.

"I'd have to think about it," I honestly answered.

The girl on the other side didn't say anything for a moment. When she started talking again, it took me a moment to realize it was no longer her, but someone else.

Same American accent, but the voice was a bit lower as it belonged to someone else.

"I'll send you the paperwork by noon, just in case you want to work alongside us," the voice said lazily. "Do you have a Hero Name you go by, or are you one of those people that's over the Hero Name thing?"

"My Hero Name is Valiente," I replied. "Is there anything else you need?"

"Nah. It's late for you right? So if I were you, I'd just look at the paperwork once it's sent. Everything will be explained there," the second voice explained.

"Thank—" I started to say before I heard complete silence on the other side. I pulled the phone away from me, realizing the other person had already hung up.

I blinked a couple of times, staring down at the phone. Out of all the random phone calls I could have gotten, that was the last thing I had expected. The unexpected things that happened weren't ever good. Having my dad come home early from work when Tami was there was something unexpected, and that turned out horrible. There was nothing I could have done about it, but still.

No, I couldn't think about that. Overthinking things never did anyone any good. I'd just have to let Kaito, Ta—

Tami.

My eyes widened when I realized it. She was moving to America. Before, if I would have had time off, it would take a day to get there. Now, depending where she was at, she could only be a few hours away, whether that be a flight or drive. Who was I kidding? There was no way I could drive wherever she was at. They drove on the wrong side of the road! If anything, I'd just have to take the train to wherever she was at.

There were some quick knocks on the bathroom door, making me realize why I was in the bathroom in the first place. I still hadn't changed into my pajamas or even tried to brush my teeth.

"Kaito? Have you seen Carrots anywhere? I can't find him," a small voice called from the other side.

I sighed, looking around the bathroom for the Oba family's cat. That decision I'd have to make would just have to wait a bit longer.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the short break last week. Between other stories I'm working on, figuring out jobs, school, and other outside Wattpad stuff...I had so much going on that I totally forgotten to edit this chapter, find music, pictures, etc etc that I didn't want to rush it. Thank you all for your patience. The next chapter WILL be posted next week, I promise.

In the meantime, as y'all can tell, our favorite orange head of the series loves to play video games. If you play videos games, what is your favorite game? If not, what kind of game did/do you enjoy playing in school? As many of you can guess from my earlier works, my favorite games are the Pokémon games. I'm SO excited for the DP remakes (I KNOW that is a controversial statement, but DP was my first game, so I'm SO ready for the nostalgia), and of course, the Legends of Arceus game.

Character Spotlight: Kaito Oba
Quirk: Light
Likes: Video Games

Song: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Main Theme (E3 Version) (I pictured that this was the game Kaito and Raiden played, hence the song choice).