~~~
The week was long and hard. Kira felt her body break repeatedly in every attempt to be better and stronger than her mother. Kira had the impression that her mother secretly wanted more than that - for her daughter to be better than everyone. Even so, Kira should be striving for the top to begin with. All this talk about wanting to be the next Light Bringer when her abilities are far more evolved than that.
"When do we start?" Kira says, dropping her school bag with Light Bringer's assistant.
"Right away," Light Bringer replies, leading Kira towards the back of the house, where their acres surround the building.
"Can't I get changed first?"
"No," she says simply. "This will be a good opportunity to train you in any outfit you may be wearing. You could encounter a villain on your way back from school one day. I doubt they'll stop and let you change into your outfit before you fight."
"Was that a joke?" Kira scoffs as she ties her hair back.
Her mother stays silent as she too ties her hair back off her face.
"What first?" Kira questions, stretching out her limbs.
"Same as always." Light Bringer stands in front of Kira, not even bothering to stretch out. "Close combat. Then we'll see."
They fought for hours. Instead of pushing onwards, Light Bringer allowed Kira to rest. It was odd... a nicer side to her mother. What happened to the one that lectured her on her first day back?
"Will I be heading out with you on your patrols?" Kira wonders, sipping some water.
"Do you have your provisional license?" She counters.
"Not yet."
"Then no."
Kira frowns, not meaning to pout. It would have been fun to test her powers out in the real world.
"Besides," Light Bringer shrugs, tossing her own water to the ground. "You still need to gain control over your Quirk."
Light Bringer teases with two fingers, gesturing for Kira to come at her, so she does. Kicking and punching, dodging and countering - Kira gives her all against her mother, but she doesn't even seem to need to use her powers against her.
Is she really that weak?
After what seems like another two hours, the sun starts to creep over their heads and Light Bringer glances at her watch on her wrist.
"Patrol." She sighs. "I'll be back soon and then we can focus on starting to use your Quirk."
Kira nods in silence, watching her mother enter the house, wiping sweat off her forehead. Whatever mood she's in, she's starting to feel like a mother again.
Throughout the second half of the week, Light Bringer helped Kira with her Quirk more than her physical front.
"I've seen what you can do already, Kira," she says, prepping a set of dummies and obstacles to fight against. "I had my sidekicks prep these for you to focus your powers."
"Why can't I just fight against you?" Kira frowns at the weird shaped objects.
"I can't always be here," she answers lightly punching one of the dummies, its head rattling side to side. "When I'm away, you can keep practicing."
Kira takes a step forwards. "You're not going anywhere, are you?"
"Not right now." Light Bringer actually smiles, something Kira hasn't seen for a very long time.
Kira stares at her mother for a moment, noticing how pretty she is when she's happy. Mostly, she has a permanent scowl on her face, like she's tasted something foul. But now, she just seems open and free.
"Now then," Light Bringer sighs. "Let's start from the beginning."
Kira trained with Light Bringer on the powers that they already were aware of - her light that can come from her feet and her elbows. They decided that the power that she performed at the Sports Festival was the very last thing they were going to practice.
"It would be best to work our way up to that one to avoid burning everyone to a crisp now, wouldn't it?" Light Bringer had said during their training and it made Kira frown.
Kira had run out of dummies once Light Bringer had gone back out on patrol - she was heading out a lot more regularly now. Maybe she was planning on leaving again. Kira booted the already charred dummy, shooting her leg forward by projecting light from her calf. Much like Iida's able to do with his engine Quirk, Kira has been able to aim light from different parts of her body to help her fighting style.
Another half an hour had passed, when Light Bringer returned, carrying a white plastic bag.
"Akira!" She yells over the distance of the field.
"What's in the bag?" Kira asks once she had gotten closer.
Light Bringer looked down at her hand, as if she had forgotten she was holding it. She then went pink under the eyes, and disappeared into the house before Kira could even blink.
"Mother?" Kira frowns, as she enters the house after her.
She calls her name again, finding the house dark and cold. Suddenly, Light Bringer appears in front of her, pushing her back out the door.
"It's a surprise," she says then, slamming the door behind her.
"A surprise?" Kira repeats, her frown increasing.
Kira's noticed her mother acting weirder and weirder for the past few days now. She was weird at the beginning of the week even.
"I hate surprises, or did you forget?" Kira crosses her arms over her chest, peeking over her mother's shoulder and in through the door.
"Let's continue your training." Light Bringer changes the subject as she guides Kira back to the burnt dummies.
Kira huffs deeply, turning her head back to her house. Who cares if her mother is acting weirdly? Is Kira really mad that her mother is happy right now? Does she want the strict, moody Light Bringer back?
Even so, it does feel uncomfortable... like it's not really her.
On the final day of her internship, Kira and Light Bringer spent the entire day training. They continued all the way in through the night, only stopping when the horizon started to turn pink.
"I have an idea," Light Bringer says, her hand on her chin thoughtfully. "You've already surpassed me on the level of power your Quirk has," she explains. "But when it comes to control..."
"What are you saying?" Kira says, dabbing her neck with a cold towel.
"There may be more to your Quirk than you know, Kira."
Kira frowns - All Might said something similar to that after her fight with Bakugou at the Sports Festival: "It seems that there's more to your power than you know."
"You can probably control your Quirk in many different ways," she suggests. "We've already seen you use it in defence, attack and flight." She counts on her fingers. "Perhaps you could use your power to manipulate your opponent."
"Manipulate?"
Light Bringer nods. "Your light could be used to attack the enemies psychologically."
"But, how would I even know how to start?" Kira glances down at her hands.
"Try it on me."
"What?" Kira's head snaps to her mother. "No! I could hurt you!"
"Just manipulate the light around you to make me see something," Light Bringer pushes. "This could be vital when you come across a villain, because you could distract them easily."
"This really isn't a good idea," Kira mumbles.
Kira doesn't even know how to start to perform this sort of power. She brings her arms up, reaching for any sort of sunlight, trying to feel it in her fingertips. She closes her eyes, feeling the sun on her face. If she could master this, then she could be unstoppable. Kira peeks one eye open, noticing how ridiculous she looks.
"This isn't working," she states plainly.
"Well, did you really expect it to work on your first try?" Light Bringer scoffs. "Besides, the sun's going down anyway. Maybe this type of skill can only be harnessed during the day."
"So what else?" Kira asks.
They fight hand-to-hand throughout the rest of the night, until it's early morning and Kira has her first day back at UA after a challenging week at her internship.
~
The ground was still wet from the rain during the week, but today it had decided to let up. Kira allowed her foot to get wet as she trudged through a puddle. She didn't get a lot of sleep over the entirety of the week and it was starting to show. Training with Light Bringer has been nothing but constant adrenaline pumping through her, but now that she has school work to deal with...
She probably won't be able to focus on anything during her lessons and if they have to do anything physical, Kira doubts she could even lift her arm.
She finally made it to her classroom, when she was halted by... a new student? Kira peered around their shoulder, noticing Sero and Kirishima in a fit of giggles, practically crying with laughter.
"Who's the pretty boy?" Kira's jibe slips out as she squeezes past and into the classroom.
"What did you call me!?" Bakugou screams at her as she places her bag on her desk.
His hair magically pops back to its original spiky way as he points at her. Normally, Kira would be slightly fazed by his foul language towards her - Bakugou can be pretty terrifying sometimes, but now she's just too tired to care.
"Pretty boy!" Kirishima laughs harder. "That's a good one! I have to use that sometime."
Sero tries to form words, but all he can do is point and laugh at Bakugou as he gets angrier and angrier. Kira didn't even really mean for her to insult Bakugou - being tired just brings out the not so subtle side of her.
"No way!" Mina says from beside Kira. "You got to fight actual villains!"
"Well, I didn't really fight as such-"
"It's still way cooler than anything I ever did!" Mina interrupts Kyoka, as she twirls her earphone jack around her finger bashfully.
"I came across a group of drug smugglers one time," Tsu adds, her finger on her chin.
"What about you, Kira?" Mina tilts her head in her direction slightly.
Kira sighs - she was already eavesdropping on their conversation to begin with. "I didn't do anything that fun," she tells them. "I just spent the week training with Light Bringer to try and gain control over my Quirk. The last thing I wanna do is have what happened at the Sports Festival happen again."
The girls blink at her quickly. "Still, you got to train with the number twelve hero: Light Bringer!" Mina gushes.
Kira looks up at her, after she places her bag under her desk. "It's not really all that special."
"Are you kidding?!" Mina leaps off her desk. "She's super cool! Her powers are amazing! I've seen her on the TV before," She grumbles suddenly, muttering to herself. "I can't believe I didn't notice that you're related! Your abilities are practically the same!"
Kira looks down at her fists on the desk, the past week of her intense training flooding through her memories. "I don't know about that," she says quietly.
"If anyone's changed, it's those three," Kaminari says from across the room, engaging in a different conversation, as he points at Midoriya, Iida and Todoroki.
"Right," Kirishima adds. "The Stain incident."
Kira heard about it on the news during the week. In Hosu, there was a villain attack: Nomu's had been released into the city, killing everyone in sight. Meanwhile, the hero-killer Stain had attacked Midoriya, Iida and Todoroki in an alley. Endeavor saved them. Before the attack commenced, Light Bringer had vanished claiming she had 'something important' to attend to. It just didn't sit right with Kira, but she had no idea how to confront her mother about her strange behaviour and her sudden reappearance.
"Kaminari!" Midoriya says suddenly, snapping Kira out of her daze.
"No, it's fine," Iida says. "It is true that he's quite a tenacious villain. I understand why people might think he was cool. But instead of helping the world, his beliefs led him to cold blooded murder. No matter his motives, killing cannot be condoned. To keep anyone else from suffering like me, well... I promise, I will strive to become the perfect hero!"
"Let's do it!" Midoriya adds.
~
After her spontaneous performance at the Sports Festival, he just had to meet her. As he followed her back to her house that day, he was surprised when she didn't sense his presence close behind her. She must be too confused and concerned to be aware of her surroundings.
But when the door opened and revealed Light Bringer, he couldn't bring himself to take another single step.
Instead, he watched her over the week, training and pushing herself harder and harder, forcing herself to master her Quirk. Light Bringer didn't once use her own power against Akira, as if she was a target too weak to waste her effort on. It made him sigh - she hasn't really changed all that much since when he was last with her.
He coughs suddenly, his chest wheezing, blood spilling out onto the concrete by his feet, before mixing with the rainwater.
He had to confront her without Light Bringer around, but when would be the perfect time?
~~~