Shigure stepped back into position. His grip on the staff was precise, but not relaxed. Too tight.
He lunged.
Horizontal swing—intercepted by the scarf, wrapped mid-strike. A yank sent the staff veering sideways, and Aizawa stepped in with a sharp knee to the gut.
"You telegraph your attacks. No setup. You are relying too much on your quirk to overcome these mistakes."
Shigure backed off, spun the staff for momentum, and came in low. A feint—then brought the other end up.
Aizawa ducked, slid beneath, and swept his legs out.
Shigure hit the ground again.
"No footwork. No balance. Weapon's just noise without control."
Another attempt. He twirled the staff upward, a clean upward arc aiming for Aizawa's shoulder. Aizawa stepped in instead of backing, using the staff's momentum to redirect the force—and countered with a palm to Shigure's neck.
He stumbled. Coughing.
The scarf snapped again.
Wrapped around the staff's centre.
A twist, a pull—disarmed.
Shigure fell to one knee.
"Even with your staff, your flow is broken. Transitions are jagged. You're reactive. Not fluid."
Shigure didn't respond. His breathing was uneven, chest rising and falling.
Aizawa stood over him.
"You have speed. Creativity. You can think in frames others can't even see."
He crouched slightly, meeting Shigure's gaze.
"But without form, all of that collapses. Your quirk might ignore these limitations, but overcoming these will improve your efficiency by a lot."
"Well, I was planning to invest a bit in combat. Do you think I should learn some martial arts or something?" Shigure got up, dusting his pants.
"No need. Just start working on one thing at a time while having spars. After a while, you would create your own style." Aizawa said while taking out a remote.
A few seconds later, a robot came up.
"One minute break. You are going to have a few spars with this. After that, we are going to analyse."
---
Training with Aizawa had been productive.
They met twice a week.
Roughly 16 hours a month.
In just one month, he went from a rookie to holding his own against Aizawa—no quirks involved.
The cycle: Aizawa beat him up, robots followed, mistakes were pointed out, and Shigure trained alone.
His fast growth was all thanks to Shigure's quirk—Temporal Remote.
And he wasn't even going all out. During this month, Shigure didn't have combat as a focus. If he pushed himself, he could've crammed it all into three or four days.
However, that would mess up Aizawa's schedule, so he adapted to Aizawa's pace instead.
The next two months were basically Aizawa making him do a lot of drills while having some occasional sparring matches.
Most drills simulated real-world villain scenarios.
Each was tailored to teach something specific.
Aizawa had said that it was mainly to give him some experience.
Then July came. That month was mainly Shigure learning to use a knife in combat and Eraser's binding style.
Shigure was honestly surprised Aizawa agreed to teach him that.
---
Date- 25th July, Time- 19:29
'Sensei was too rough today. Despite using a staff and a binding cloth, I still lost.' Shigure sighed as he took out the key for the house.
Aizawa had mentioned that there is too much friction between his staff and the capturing weapon.
'Need to work on incorporating that in my combat syst—'
Slow Down
Everything slowed down for Shigure.
Something was rushing at him.
Before he could jump back, he heard the sound.
B E E P
"H a " Realizing it was just Momo and Keigo—and colored paper—he dropped the quirk.
"ppy Birthday!"
Shigure blinked. Silence.
"Oh."
"What's up with that lame lukewarm reaction? You should be more enthusiastic."
"Is that so? I will remember to do that next time."
"Haha, I told you that he would react like that. It's a shame that you didn't make a bet."
"Hmph. I've avoided gambling since I was a kid."
Shigure, who was closing the door, paused. He gave a look at Momo, who ignored him.
"Wait, aren't you like rich? Super rich. So, isn't it common for rich people to gamble?"
"I could see where your logic comes from. But, I could make a counterargument that for the same reason, rich people should refrain from gambling as they have so much to lose." Momo crossed her hands.
"Guys." Shigure caught their attention. "If you arranged this surprise celebration... then there have to be gifts, right?" He shamelessly asked.
"..."
"..."
Both of them stared at him in bafflement. Their looks as if asking, 'Are you even listening to yourself?'
Shigure grinned like a cat who'd found cream. "So?"
Momo sighed. "Let's first cut the cake. After that."
"Kay." Shigure put on a cheery grin as he followed them to the hall.
'Her birthday was in September, I think. May as well gift her that as a gift.'
He then looked at the cake, "That looks appetising at least."
"It should be filling, too. The calorie content should be around 500,000 calories." Keigo dropped onto a couch.
"People make this kind of stuff, too? Won't this make you guys unable to eat it?" Shigure furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Keigo.
"Also, why are you sitting th—" Shigure noticed the hands coming from behind a bit too late.
Momo slammed the whole cake into his face.
'He purposely sat there, so that the cake would be out of my sight.' Shigure had consciously fought against his quirk to activate it on instinct.
He was afraid that if Keigo also got serious and used his quirk, then it would not just end with him getting smeared in the cake.
"Now you have done it." Shigure took out some pieces of the cake and dashed towards the first target.
Target one: Momo—the easier prey.
After that, he chased after Keigo. It took him 5 minutes just to finally smear cake on the birdbrain.
For the first time in 13 years of his second life and countless years in his pov, for once, he actually celebrated his birthday.
---
Shigure got out of the bath.
"Why are you guys looking at me like this? I am not naked or something, right?" Shigure gazed down, making sure that he was wearing clothes.
"Seriously? You forgot the gifts?" Momo rolled her eyes. Both she and Keigo had already cleaned up.
"Ohh.. right GIFTS." Shigure instantly got excited.
"Why are you getting so worked up?" Keigo asked, already having his hands on his ears.
"It's the element of surprise that's exciting..." Shigure paused, trying to give an example or an analogy to explain. "Kind of like a gacha...I guess?"
"Right..." Keigo remembered that Shigure had a bad habit of spending a lot in the game he played.
"Who's going to go first?" Momo asked Keigo. The latter grinned. "My gift is going to be a different sight altogether. So, you go first."
Such Confidence.
Even Momo looked curious now about Keigo's mysterious gift.
"Kay. I will go first, then." Momo gave a box that was wrapped in a fancy cover and ribbons.
"I can open it now, right?" Shigure asked, just to be sure.
Before Momo could say anything, Keigo answered, "You should. We are going to know later. So, no point in stalling."
"What he said."
"Cool." Shigure unwrapped the box... only to have another box inside.
He unwrapped that too while suspiciously looking at Momo. 'Is it me only, or her smile seems off? Don't tell me, she is going to make me unwrap multiple boxes only to have nothing inside them?'
Contrary to what he thought, there were no more boxes inside.
He looked at the gift. "Fingerless gloves?"
"Yup. I figured these made the most sense based on how I know you."
Shigure put on the gloves. 'I didn't even tell her that I do some vigilante or combat training.'
Naturally, he punched the wall.
"OUCH." He shook his hand while groaning.
Momo stood there unimpressed. "Uhh... they are not for combat, but for gaming... they had some special features to keep your wrist in good health."
Meanwhile, Keigo was laughing on the couch uncontrollably. "I hope those functions didn't break. Pfft..."
...
"Let's wrap up what you hyped." Shigure opened Keigo's gift.
'A cloth?' Shigure frowned.
"A blindfold?" When Momo said that, Shigure finally recognised that he was holding a blindfold.
"These have a special function of allowing you to look normal while putting them on." Keigo laughed.
"..." Shigure expressionlessly looked at Keigo, whose grin was getting bigger by the second.
---
Date- 13th August.
"So, we are finally going to do some hero work?" Shigure asked, clearly excited.
"Me, not we. You are going to observe." Aizawa corrected him.
***
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