Two years on.
The smile on Aiko's face was beaming. The car's indicators flashed left and the vehicle turned into an elementary school building complex, "Are you excited honey?"
Takeru unbuckled his seat belt. He turned to Aiko, "I am. But I think you're more excited than me."
Aiko laughed happily. She reached up and tied her hair into a ponytail, "It's a school trip honey! To the ocean! Isn't that amazing! And I'm coming too! Double amazing!"
The unrelenting enthusiasm was inevitably infectious. Takeru couldn't help but smile. The badge around Aiko's neck signified her as a school approved chaperone.
The elementary school was enormous. The clock had only just struck eight, but the noise was already deafening. Takeru held Aiko's hand and lead her through the maze of corridors to his classroom.
The classroom was decorated with bright colours and fresh flowers from the school's vegetable garden. Takeru's teacher, miss Hana, was just as bright and cheery as the colourful walls, "Miss Tanaka! It's so good to see you again! Are you and Takeru feeling excited?"
Takeru let go of Aiko's hand and walked over to his seat. He sat down and took out his lunchbox. He inspected its contents with a focused intensity.
Hana raised her hand to her mouth to cover her laughter. Aiko's expression was equal parts helplessness and affection.
Aiko cleared her throat. She looked away from Takeru and towards the whiteboard at the fron ot the classroom. The day's date, as well as a photo of a beautiful white-sand beach were displayed prominently in the centre.
"We're both very excited." Aiko said with a smile.
Hana smiled and leaned closer to Aiko. She lowered her voice, "In a few hours you're going to be very, very, very tired. Ration that excitement! Treasure it."
Aiko burst into laughter. The noise caused Takeru to look up from his lunchbox. He stared curiously at the two adults.
The rest of the class began to arrive. There were thirty children in total, and three chaperones. The three parents were all women. They chatted happily with each other and miss Hana.
"Hi Takeru!"
"Hi Takeru!"
Takeru's deskmates greeted him happily. The majority of the class were ten years old. They were at the age where their identities were starting to develop more deeply.
"Good morning." Takeru replied with a smile.
The social dynamics amongst children were rarely simple. The forming of cliques was inevitable. The innocent nature of children could sometimes make them far meaner than adults. They hadn't yet learned superficial politeness.
After five or so minutes of loud chatter, miss Hana took her seat at the front of the room. Her eyes scanned the room. Everyone was present, no one missing.
The register began. Hana called out the children's names and they responded eagerly. The children had been discussing the upcoming trip to the beach for weeks. The excitement in the air was tremendous.
"Everybody line up please!" Miss Hana shouted.
The children leaped out of their seats. Most of them hadn't taken off their coats, and they rushed to get in line. Takeru happily took the last position.
Hana counted the children one by one. They were all assigned numbers and given bracelets with an emergency telephone number. She wasn't surprised to see that Takeru was at the back of the line.
Takeru had transferred to Omiya elementary school in the third grade. At the time he'd been eight years old. The school were told in advance that he had been adopted.
Takeru wasn't the only child at the school not being looked after by biological parents. His teacher at the time had expected an understandably nervous child. Takeru had proven to be anything but that.
The Tanaka's had embraced their new son. The two years since he'd moved into their house had flown by. He cared for them both deeply. After a year he'd started calling them mom and dad.
"The bus is waiting! Let's get going please!" Miss Hana called out. The children's coats rustled as they walked. The parent-chaperones repeatedly had to tell them to slow down. The excitement for the beach gave the children seemingly endless energy.
The bus driver was an older man with a well-maintained moustache. He smiled at the children as they loudly filed on board. The noisiness didn't bother him.
The bus prepared to set off. Miss Hana stood next to the driver's seat and addressed the children, "No fighting, no eating till snacktime and no paper airplanes!"
The sound of children laughing filled the bus. The driver smiled contently. The parent chaperones were all sat at the front and they chatted happily to one another. Aiko recieved multiple compliments on her dolphin shaped earrings.
The engine erupted into life. The children shouted excitedly at the noise, and the slight trembling sensation they could feel in their seats.
Takeru was sat next to one of his deskmates. The two boys played top trumps and sneakily ate the sweets they'd hidden in their pockets. The noise on the bus was loud but peaceful.
"It's the ocean!" Someone called out.
The various games and discussions that were taking place on the bus all stopped simultaneously. The bus was suddenly silent as the children all craned their heads out the window. The waves in the distance were blue and dazzling.
After a few seconds of silence, the bus erupted into cheers. The parent-chaperones couldn't help but wince at the deafening volume of the children's voices. Hana gave them all a look that said get used to it.
"We're here! Everybody off, no pushing!" Hana called out.
The instruction was poorly obeyed. The children jostled excitedly to leave. Takeru, as usual, waited unhurriedly for the other children to finish fighting for their place in line before standing up.
The smell of saltwater was immediate. The sun was shining and a few seagulls circled over the water. The children watched wide-eyed as a bird swooped down and snatched a fish from the water.
The children happily followed miss Hana and the parent-chaperones to the changing area. Nearly every child's swimming costume was decorated with popular heroes. Takeru's plain orange shorts stood out amongst the crowd.
The children were all in the sixth grade. The risk assessments for a trip to the beach were much less strict compared to the younger years. The children, with parental permission, were all allowed to swim in the water. The handful of children who didn't want to played in the sand with shovels and buckets.
The children shouted excitedly as they entered the water. From a tall wooden tower on the beach, a lifeguard monitored the group. The lifeguard had a mutant type quirk and multiple tentacles wriggled beneath his chin. The sides of his neck prominently displayed two sets of gills.
Takeru's excitement wasn't as all-consuming as that of his classmates, but the smile on his face was geniune. He played happily in the water with his friends.
The sixth-graders' excitement was immense, but after a half hour in the water, they started to get tired. The number of children playing on the beach gradually increased as they headed back to shore.
Takeru didn't feel cold, or tired, like the rest of his classmates. The sensation of the water against his skin was refreshing. He could feel his quirk pulsing steadily with the rythmic push and pull of the waves.
"Takeru, come here for a second!" Miss Hana called. She had to shout to be heard over the noise of the waves.
Takeru turned. He spotted Hana standing next to a tall man dressed in a red uniform. Hana beckoned him towards her.
It's been nearly an hour. A normal ten year old would probably be exhausted by now.
Takeru waded back towards shore. His hair stuck closely to his head. His pockets were full of shells he'd collected while swimming. The sea water didn't obstruct his vision, he could see clearly underwater without any discomfort.
"Takeru, the lifeguard wants to speak to you." Miss Hana said.
The lifeguard crouched down. Even after doing so he was still a head taller than Takeru. The lifeguard put on a friendly smile. The tentacles beneath his chin squirmed.
"Young man, it's my job to make sure everyone in the water is safe. You've been swimming for quite a while now." The lifeguard looked at the child in front of him. The boy's eyes didn't contain any nervousness.
"My quirk makes me tough. I don't get cold." Takeru replied. The tentacles on the lifeguard's chin moved like snakes, as if they had life of their own.
The tall lifeguard looked the boy up and down. Takeru had been in the water for nearly an hour with just a pair of swimming trunks. He wasn't shivering in the slightest and his eyes were bright with alertness.
The lifeguard smiled, this time more geniunely, "My quirk makes me pretty tough too. Thanks for talking to me young man, you can keep playing in the water if you'd like."
Takeru nodded. The crashing of the waves was much more interesting to him than playing with his classmates. He turned and ran back into the waves. He called out behind him, "Thank you, I like your quirk!"
The lifeguard blinked. The compliment took him by surprise. Then, he started to smile even more brightly. He turned to miss Hana, "Nice kid."
Hana thanked the lifeguard. She noticed that Takeru's mother, Aiko, was stood not far away watching them both with a proud smile.
The lifeguard tucked the emergency red float he'd been carrying under his arm. The webbing between his toes spread his weight evenly on the sand. Hana listened to him whistling a popular song as he walked back to the lifeguard's tower.
The class played happily in the sand. The parent-chaperones started to feel their energy levels dropping as the children repeatedly showed them the special rocks they'd found. It was difficult to come up with a different way to compliment the rock each time.
The lifeguard tower was nearly twenty feet high. The tentacled lifeguard closely watched Takeru playing in the water through a bair of binoculars. The class of children were the only ones on the beach.
This is good. I can finally properly test out this underwater breathing. Still can't find any gills, I guess that means I'm absorbing oxygen through my skin?
Takeru knew that if he stayed underwater for longer than a few breaths, the lifeguard would definitely come rushing into the water to save him. There was another simple way to experiment with his underwater breathing powers. He just had to hold his breath.
With his head above the water, but not inhaling any air, oxygen automatically began making its way across his skin and into his blood. There was no delay to the process, and it didn't require any active thought, it just happened.
The sea water was a good cover. On the sandy ocean floor, Takeru picked up small stones and bit into them. The sight would've stunned anyone who happened to see it, but there was good reason for it.
The pebbles were too hard for Takeru to bite through them completely. The reactive adaptation of his quirk needed more time to alter the makeup of his teeth. He'd only begun strengthening them in the last few weeks.
That time hadn't been wasted. Although he couldn't bite all the way through the pebbles, his teeth left distinct gouges in the stones. The concern of catching a disease from the algea on the stones or ingesting some kind of harmful mineral didn't exist for Takeru.
He'd drunk from puddles of dirty water and snuck mouthfuls of raw meat from the fridge. It was no surprise to him that a quirk capable of overturning human biology could protect him against ordinary pathogens and disease.
Takeru was immensely grateful that the universe had given him a powerful quirk. For him, almost anything could be used for training.
Maybe this quirk can take on the whole world.