Chapter Text
Reki remembered a day when he was very small that his world crumbled down around him. The other kids in his kindergarten class had screamed as the building shook and ceiling tiles began to rain down, crashing over the wooden desks they cowered beneath. Five year old Reki had clutched his knees to his chest and watched as a large crack formed along the wall, growing and growing until light began pushing its way through from the outside. He put his hands over his head, curling into a ball like they were trained to do, and closed his eyes…The building shook violently and then just as suddenly it all stopped. Confused, he opened his eyes and peered out from under his desk. He gasped and with wonderous eyes took in the sight of a tall woman standing over them, her arms outstretched and hands glowing as she emanated a forcefield to stop the walls from collapsing down.
“Zippy, hurry and get these kids out. I can’t hold this forever!” She shouted, sweat running down her face and around the contours of her mask.
A man appeared then, seemingly out of nowhere, and crouched down in front of the desk Reki had been sheltering under. “This is the last one, Veil. I’ll come back for you in a microsecond,” he said before giving Reki a reassuring smile. “Come on, kid, let’s get you to safety,” he hummed, offering his hand.
Reki looked around and realized that somehow he was the only one from his class left in the room. There was another loud crashing sound, and Reki practically leapt into the man’s arms. He was picked up and in the blink of an eye he was outside, surrounded by all his classmates. His teacher knelt in front of him, checking him for injuries, but Reki kept his sight on the school, his little eyes growing wide as he bore witness to a group of heros fighting off a large creature made of stone. He couldn’t recall if he was more scared or excited, but he had watched until the end. As the heroes triumph Reki felt something slot into place and suddenly his future was all so clear.
When he grew up, he was going to be a hero just like them.
Over a decade later and Reki was sitting at another desk, scribbling furiously in his sketchbook as he waited for class to start. He had been hit with inspiration for yet another superhero design based on the concept of a snow yeti. It might have been the result of a fever dream and staying up too late watching random youtube videos, but it wasn’t like anyone was going to ask. By now, most of his classmates knew had learned their lesson and tended to give him a wide berth. Reki couldn’t deny it made him feel a little lonely at times, but he figured once he made his hero debut he’d be able to share all his ideas with people who actually cared about that sort of stuff. Until then, he just had to keep working towards his dream.
“Did you hear? Gorilla Joe took down a gang of thieves yesterday! He stormed their secret base and bam! Defeated them all!” commented some girls sitting a few rows over.
“You say that like it’s a surprise! He’s so strong it was probably a walk in the park for him!”
God, he’s so cool and handsome. You know I’d throw myself off a building just to be caught in those arms of him,” one swooned, and Reki cringed a little. The girls in his class were always so bold when it came to talking about heroes.
“He didn’t do it by himself. Nekomiya was with him! He’s so little and cute, it’s hard to imagine him in a fight.”
“Don’t be fooled! I’ve seen videos. He’s adorable but he’s so brutal!”
“Oh Yeah! I saw a video of him fighting off that group of thugs last week! I almost felt sorry for them” one girl said, and the group fell into a fit of giggles.
Reki sighed, and tuned out the chatter to focus on his work. He was as up-to-date with super hero activities as everyone else, probably even more so, but lately every time he heard their names mentioned he felt a pang of jealousy. He wanted people to talk about him too one day, saying how cool he was and how heroic. He wanted to show the world he wasn’t just the weird kid doodling in the back of class, that he too had what it took to be extraordinary.
He looked down at his latest sketch, tilting his head this way and that to take it in. It had potential, but wasn’t quite right. Something was missing. Before he could try and think of what would improve it though, the teacher walked in and he had no choice but to cover it up with his regular lesson book. Hopefully once lessons started he could secretly keep working on it. The teacher didn’t usually pay that much attention to him anyway.
“Attention class, settle down,” the teacher announced, and Reki looked up and realized the teacher wasn’t standing up at front by himself. There was a student with him that Reki didn’t recognize.
“Class, we have a new student joining us,” he said, gesturing to the boy beside him. The kid was tall, with pale skin like snow and blue hair that reminded Reki of a frozen lake. “Please introduce yourself,” the teacher instructed patiently.
The new kid hesitated, as if he needed time to process the words before plainly introducing himself as Langa Hasegawa. The room fell silent, waiting for more, but Langa didn’t seem like he was going to say anything else. The teacher frowned. “Is that all? Perhaps tell us where you’re from?” he encouraged awkwardly.
Langa blinked at him, and Reki thought he saw a slight blush before he looked back to the class. “I moved here from Canada,” he added, just as blunt as his previous response but he didn’t give any indication that he was aware of how awkward his answers were.
“Is that all?” The teacher prompted, trying one more time to get the new student to say something interesting.
“Is that bad?” Langa asked, looking confused and Reki chuckled to himself. This new kid was certainly interesting.
The teacher seemed to give up at that and directed Langa to sit in the empty desk beside Reki before getting started with the lesson.
Relieved the teachers back was now turned, Reki lifted his lesson book up to sit open on his desk, blocking his sketchbook from most of the world, and continued to work on his design. He was so caught up in it that it took him a moment to realize he was being watched.
“What is that?” a quiet voice whispered and Reki nearly jumped out of the window in fright. He whipped his head to the right and found himself meeting the curious blue eyes of the new student who had been leaning over into his space to see what he was working on. Reki put a hand over his chest to calm his racing heart.
“Oh my god, don’t scare me like that,” he breathed, making sure the teacher was still ignoring them. Coast clear, he looked back to Langa who seemed to still be waiting patiently for an answer to his question. Reki hesitated, part of him eager to show off his work to anyone that would listen, but a smaller part of him reminding him what happened the last time. “I..it’s just some designs..I like drawing ideas for heroes when I’m bored,” he whispered, shifting the book over to show him. He waited for the look of disappointment, to be told he was ridiculous, but surprisingly it never came. In fact, Langa seemed to light up with interest when he saw it.
“Can you show me more? After class?” Langa asked and Reki gaped, completely unsure of what to do with this response. Langa actually looked excited to see more. Could he possibly be just as into heroes as he was? Reki thought of being cautious, but he couldn’t deny the pull he felt, the longing to find someone who might possibly support his ambitions without dismissing them as stupid and childish. It was almost pathetic how easily he gave in.
“I..yeah. Later” he said, giving a shy smile. Langa seemed pleased at that and turned back to pay attention to the lecture. Reki studied him for a moment longer before turning back to his book, a nervous thrill coursing through him. He spent the rest of the class fighting against the rising hope in his chest.
They ended up meeting up on the roof for lunch. Reki had properly introduced himself as they claimed a spot along the chain link fence. He pulled out a boxed lunch and his sketchbook, passing the latter over to Langa. “Here, you wanted to see the rest right?” he asked, heart pounding nervously. Were his palms always this sweaty?
The blue-haired teen snatched it up eagerly, turning through each of the pages. Reki was beginning to feel like he might throw up as he waited for Langa to say something, anything, but the other student stayed silent, his brows slowly furrowing as he studied page after page
“Did you really design these all on your own?” Langa asked, and his tone might have seemed accusatory if it wasn’t for the stars shining in his eyes.
“I..uh..yeah. Why? Do you think they’re weird?” Reki asked uncertainly.
“Weird? Reki these are the coolest!” Langa exclaimed, turning the book around and pointing to a sketch Reki made months ago. “There’s so much detail! These are amazing!” he beamed, and Reki felt his cheeks start to burn.
“You really think so?” Reki asked, unable to hold back the smile growing on his face.
Langa nodded, flipping to the last couple sketches. “I like this one best, but this one kind of looks like you” he observed, pointing to the full bodied model drawing Reki had created.
“Y-yeah..I thought..I mean it’s stupid..but growing up I always wanted to be a hero,” Reki confessed sheepishly, rubbing a hand on the back of his head. Langa stared at him blankly, then checked that the coast was clear before leaning in.
“Do you have super powers?” he asked, eyes shining with potential excitement. This guy really was something else and Reki felt himself floundering under all the eager attention. He wasn’t used to this at all.
“I..no..or not yet? I don’t know. But does it really matter? I know powers help, but only if you go up against the really big villains. If I’m just going after common crooks, what’s the harm if I’m normal myself? I just have to fight better than they do right?” he asked, expecting any second now for Langa to switch modes tell him he’s being too ambitious.
“That’s…that’s amazing!” Langa said in awe. He pulled away and looked back at the sketch, seemingly lost in thought. Reki saw how the other teen went back to the yeti themed outfit, tracing his fingers over the design. Could it be that Langa had the same dreams he did?
“Hey..do you maybe want to be a hero as well, Langa?” Reki asked curiously.
Langa hesitated, biting his lip, but nodded. “I do..at least I think I do. I never thought of just going for it before.”
Reki jumped up onto his feet, smiling ear to ear. He couldn’t believe this was real, that Langa was real. It was sudden, but there was no way Reki was letting this amazing human being slip away so quickly. “Langa my dude, let’s partner up then! We can be heroes together! A dynamic duo!” he shouted, possibly a little too loud as some of the other students on the roof started looking their way.
Langa didn’t seem to mind the volume though, his eyes focused solely on Reki and his hands clenched in determined fists. “I’m in!” he hummed, blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight. “How do we start?” he asked eagerly.
Reki grinned, putting his hands on his hip. “First things first, what do you know about fighting?”
“Nothing!” Langa replied, still smiling. Reki slapped a hand to his face. He should have seen that coming.
“Oh boy..ok then I suppose we start with training. We have to get you into fighting shape before we go after any villains. Wouldn’t be doing any good if we tried to be heroes only to have Gorilla Joe have to come to our rescue or something,” he chuckled.
“Gorilla Joe?” Langa asked, tilting his head to the side.
“Uh, yeah? Gorilla Joe? He’s only the greatest hero in Okinawa. You haven’t heard of him?”
Langa shook his head.
“Ok..what about Nekomiya? He’s been in the news a lot lately. Or The Matador? You had to have heard of The Matador, he’s a legend!” Reki said, growing more bewildered as Langa continued to shake his head, face blank.
“Seriously? Did you grow up under a rock?” Reki asked in a defeated tone.
“I grew up in Canada,” Langa answered and Reki had to resist the urge to smack his own forehead.
“Ok ok..tell you what, let’s meet up this weekend and I’ll teach you everything you need to know. I’ll text you the location if you give me your number,” Reki offered, determined to bring Langa up to speed. “I’m going to make you hero ready in no time, bro!”
Langa beamed and Reki couldn’t help but think that maybe, just maybe this was just the start of something amazing.