Then came the next test: long-distance running.
Ren had already placed first without even breaking a sweat. Watching the rest of the class begin to run, he wandered closer to one of the girls—tall, elegant, with long black hair that swayed slightly as she moved. She carried herself with a poised grace, her uniform immaculate, and there was a calm intelligence in her eyes.
Ren approached her, and the moment she noticed him, her cheeks flamed bright red. She instinctively tried to step aside, to go somewhere else, but Ren gently placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.
"Momo, it's been quite a long time, hasn't it?" Ren said, his voice warm, smiling genuinely.
"Y-Yes…" she stammered, her embarrassment growing by the second.
Ren and the girl had been childhood friends. Both had attended the same private elementary school. And… the reason her face burned so fiercely now wasn't just nostalgia—Ren had been the boy who stole her first kiss, the one she had confessed to countless times in her childhood, her first and only chidlhood boyfriend. After he changed schools, they had never met again, and she had spent many lonely days missing him.
Ren's hand lingered lightly on her shoulder, gentle but grounding. He leaned slightly closer, eyes soft. "Hey… you're a little red, Momo. Are you feeling alright?"
"Y-Yeah…" she murmured, unable to look away, feeling his warmth through that simple touch.
"You've really grown, Momo," Ren said, meeting her gaze. His eyes studied her carefully, with the fondness and admiration of someone who had known her intimately since childhood. "You're even more beautiful than before."
Her heart skipped a beat. That voice… that look… it was the same as when they were kids, when he had whispered to her, "You're the most beautiful girl in the world."
"Thanks, Ren…" she finally said, a small smile spreading across her face, the tension in her cheeks easing. "I'm… happy to see you again."
"Me too," Ren replied, his own smile warm and genuine.
For a moment, it felt like no time had passed at all, like the years melted away and she was just the little girl who had first held his hand—and felt something extraordinary for the first time.
...
The tests finally came to an end.
Ren and Momo had talked quite a lot during the exercises. She was pleasantly surprised to see how mature he had become... well, it was obvious with what happened to him, but still. Back when they were children, Ren's mischievous streak paired with that relentless Grip Quirk had him constantly challenging older kids—only to get beaten up every single time. She smiled at the memory, feeling a little nostalgic.
"By the way…" Momo hesitated, thinking back. "Wasn't your Quirk… Grip? What was that lightning before?"
Ren opened his mouth to respond, but the words caught in his throat when Aizawa's voice cut through the air.
"Here is the ranking."
A hologram shot up from his device, hovering in the center of the field:
[1st Place: Takeda Ren]
[2nd Place: Yaoyorozu Momo]
[3rd Place: Todoroki Shoto]
[4th Place: Bakugo Katsuki]
[5th Place: Iida Tenya]
[6th Place: Tokoyami Fumikage]
[7th Place: Mezo Shoji]
[8th Place: Oshiro Mashirao]
[9th Place: Kirishima Eijiro]
[10th Place: Ashido Mina]
[11th Place: Uraraka Ochaco]
[12th Place: Kouda Koji]
[13th Place: Satou Rikidou]
[14th Place: Asui Tsuyu]
[15th Place: Aoyama Yuuga]
[16th Place: Sero Hanta]
[17th Place: Kaminari Denki]
[18th Place: Jirou Kyoka]
[19th Place: Hagakure Tooru]
[20th Place: Midoriya Izuku]
Ren exhaled audibly. "Midoriya…"
Even after he had healed Midoriya's finger following the throwing test, he still came last? He turned to the boy, whose face was grim. 'Am I… about to be expelled?' Midoriya thought anxiously.
"Anyway…" Aizawa said casually, flicking a switch on his device. The hologram vanished. "The expulsion threat? Just a bluff."
"Eh?" The entire class froze.
"It's a rational trick to get the best out of your Quirks!" Aizawa explained.
Some students were startled—Midoriya the most.
Ren smirked and 'lightly' tapped Midoriya on the head. "You idiot… you actually thought he'd expel you?"
"Ahi!" Midoriya winced, clutching the small bump forming on his forehead.
Ren's hand glowed softly as a white light passed over Midoriya. "Sorry... hit too hard."
Aizawa began to walk away. "We are finished here. In the classroom, you'll find papers and study materials. Give them a look." With that, he disappeared, leaving the students to process everything.
...
Ren leapt from rooftop to rooftop, moving through the city like a streak of white lightning. His heart was lighter than it had been in years. Today had been… special. That'a why his mood had been so up.
Earlier in the morning, he had received the news he'd been waiting for: his mother had showm signs of waking up.
A first faint smile had appeared on her face, the same expression that had remained frozen on her face for years. It wasn't much—but it was proof she was slowly returning, fighting back from the darkness. That smile… was everything.
Ren arrived at the hospital, landing silently on the roof before slipping inside. In his hands were flowers—picked personally from the nearby forest. He always did this. To him, they were the purest gift he could offer. Nothing else was more precious than his mother.
He entered her room, placing the flowers carefully on the bedside table. Then he reached for her hand…
Whoooosh!
A strange sound whipped through the air. Ren's instincts screamed danger. He spun around.
A portal had appeared, made of black, shifting fog. He recognized it instantly—the same fog that had allowed the criminals who attacked his mother all those years ago to vanish without a trace. All Might had described it as a "dark, twisting fog" used by the villains to escape. And now, it was here again.
Anger flared inside Ren, his eyebrows twitching.
From the portal stepped two figures.
The first, a young man with a hand perpetually covering his face, scratching at his neck in an unsettling, jerky way.
Beside him, a taller figure, entirely shrouded in black fog from head to chest. He moved with silent, eerie fluidity, fog trailing off his form like smoke from a fire—his presence unnerving and unnatural.
"Kurogiri… wasn't there supposed to be anyone here?" the hand-faced man asked, his voice unnervingly casual as his fingers traced the contours of his mask-like hand.
"Yes," the fog-shrouded man replied, voice deep and hollow. "Just kill him, Shigaraki."
"Kill me?" Ren's voice cut through the tension, sharp and unyielding. The air around the room began to crackle as his energy surged.
Lightning arced along his hair, illuminating the room with blinding white light.
"I think… it's you who should prepare to die!" he shouted, rushing forward.
The hand-faced man's lips curled into a smirk. "Little brat…" he hissed, extending a hand toward Ren, as though victory was already his.
Ren's reflexes were instantaneous. He caught the attacker's wrist mid-strike. The attack was simple—just touch him and use some sort of Quirk—but Ren wasn't about to allow it.
With a swift, flawless movement, he used the man's momentum against him, sending him crashing to the floor with a perfect Judo projection.
"1 Million Volt!" Ren shouted. White electricity exploded outward from his body, his hair glowing like a living lamp.
This was his newest evolution: Livewire. A fusion of Volt Hair and one of his classmates' Quirk, Kaminari Denki's Electrification. His entire body had become a living conduit of electrical energy, capable of generating, absorbing, storing, and releasing immense power. Combined with Surge, he could convert electrical energy into kinetic or from kinetic into electrical as well.
For now, he limited himself to only one million volts—he didn't wanna hurt his mother laying nearby.
Then… a wave of darkness engulfed him.
The black fog surged around Ren, extinguishing his lightning in an instant. The discharge dissipated, redirected far from his control.
"Interesting Quirk… electric ones are very rare…" the fog-man said, voice echoing through the blackness.
The hand-faced man, still sprawled on the ground, chuckled darkly. "Indeed… I think Master would find a Quirk like this… very interesting."
Ren's jaw tightened. His mother was here, and these were the same villains who had stolen years from her.
He clenched his fists. The fight was only beginning.
To be continued...
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Sorry if I didn't post those days, I was in hospital, I broke a leg.