Chapter 48 Realization

"Wait... what's this?!" She exclaimed in bewilderment. "Honey!"

Ever since they got married, Tatsuki has only ever heard his wife shout twice in her life. A soft-spoken and gentle girl— that's what Tatsuki fell in love with and since then, he'd already accepted every part of her throughout their marriage. Of course, there were times when she wasn't gentle but being soft-spoken was one of her incomparable traits. When Satoshi was born, that was the first time Tatsuki ever heard his wife shout and he was in all sense surprised by it— in a good way of course. After all, Ayumu still had that softspoken-ness even when she reaches that higher pitch, sort of like a whisper but louder. Ever since then, that shout was etched in Tatsuki's mind. 'If it would take such pain for my lovely wife to shout, then I guess I won't hear her scream that way anymore.' He thought to himself.

But now, just when he was preparing something for dinner, he heard that very same shout— that shout of surprise, this time with a hint of pride and admiration.

Without further ado, Tatsuki literally dropped everything and ran towards his wife, thinking that something unexplainable must've happened while she was scrolling through youtube. In those few seconds, as he rushed to his wife's side, he wondered what his wife could've seen on youtube that made her shout like that. Probably a weird video? Or a hilarious one? He could only wonder.

"What is it? What happened?!" Tatsuki almost slurred his own speech by how fast he talked. He immediately sat beside his wife, curious as to what she was watching.

"Here, look at this," Ayumu said, her voice was back to being as calm as a lake on a windless day and as cold as the wintry night. "Isn't this... "

"Yeah, that's the Concrete Arena, yes, specifically the Casual Division stage. Wait... what on— what is Elimine doing there? Isn't she just a kid? The last time I saw her she was even promising our Satoshi to marry her when they grow older. What happened to her?"

"Of course, she grew up. How many years has it been since you last saw her? Ever since she got admitted to the United Superheroes Academy, even Shiroi and the others didn't hear from her since. In any case, that's not what I'm talking about, honey. Look!"

Before Tatsuki could counter-argue that it hasn't been that long since they saw Elimine, Ayumu clicked on the play button and the fight began playing. Another fighter was present on the other side of the arena, and from the looks of it, he seemed rather familiar. Tatsuki focused on the other figure who managed to cleanly dodge Elimine's indestructible feathers and he immediately respected the opponent. The opponent then slowed down and stepped on two metallic slabs that shot out nails. BY that time, Tatsuki was still looking at the opponent's feet when he realized what he'd been missing.

"Ayumu, am I dreaming right now? What is our son doing in the Concrete Arena... and why is he in an official match? Is this even legal? Should we sue the Concrete Arena? We'll be able to take them on, right?" Tatsuki then pulled out his phone and was already dialing his most trusted lawyer when Ayumu stopped him.

"Why? We have to do this. This isn't allowed." Tatsuki hissed.

"No, there's probably a good explanation for this. Let's wait until our son gets home so he can explain everything. And look... isn't he holding himself well against Elimine? When they were young, I've always thought that no one would be able to best Elimine san in her generation. Never did I expect that it would be our son who'd be able to do that. Besides, if you look closely at the audience here... here, take a look, honey."

"Isn't that... our son's classmates? So they also attended the match? What are they doing? Honey, should we report them to their parents?" Tatsuki continued.

,m "No, look. That's their homeroom teacher right there. It's probably a school thing. Otherwise, why would their homeroom teacher do that if he'll definitely get fired?"

"Who knows, maybe he wants to be fired and he decided to drag our kids along. Honey, we should take it up to the authorities and tell our lawyers. I'm sure we'll be able to win the court case."

"Honey, let's wait for our son first. We shouldn't take action before hearing the entire story." Ayumu tried to calm down her husband by grabbing his hands and kissing him on the forehead. "Now, aren't you cooking dinner for the three of us? Satoshi is bound to get home in a few minutes."

"Ah, right right." Tatsuki managed to get back to his senses. "Okay, I'll listen to you, for now, honey, let's wait until Satoshi explains himself. Also... why did he have to forfeit the match? He was winning! That idiot."

"But... maybe she didn't want Elimine to lose her winning streak. He did well. In my eyes, he was the one who won that match, and I don't think Elimine accepts the final result. In everyone's eyes, our son clearly overpowered her, but he didn't want to totally wound her pride. He probably gave a lot of thought into it."

Tatsuki didn't speak any further. He didn't even notice it but he was smiling as he made his way to the kitchen. Just like his wife, he was actually quite proud of his son for reaching this far even when he just awakened his superpower. Of course, he may be proud but he didn't want his son to see it too much since that might negatively affect his growth. No matter what happens, Tatsuki told himself that he would strictly guide Satoshi until he becomes the best there is.

.....

"I can't believe you managed to defeat the one and only Plume. Are you some sort of a genius? But then again, you're the son of the famous Midoriyama Duo so I can't expect less from you. How does your superpower work by the way? I mean, those— what are those, familiars?— they're pretty strong as it is but you have a lot of them. And it doesn't seem like you expend energy when you summon them so they're probably from another dimension or something." Hiroshi went on and on, laying out his theories about how Satoshi's superpower works.

Just like any other normal day, no one listened to him.

"Here's our stop. Bye Midori, see you tomorrow." Satoshi patted him on the shoulders before the three of them— Shiroi, Hiroshi, and him— exited the bus to their stop. As usual, Hiroshi parted ways with them without another word and Shiroi and Satoshi both went to the same direction.

"Ah right, your parents and my dad are arriving today, right? Do you think they've already returned home? Hopefully, they're all right." Shiroi worriedly brought up while walking with her head down low.

"Yeah, they'll be fine. They're not top superheroes for nothing, you know. Right about now, my dad's probably cooking a sumptuous dinner for mom. Who knows, but they're certainly okay. As for your dad, he might still be in the airport, maybe."

Satoshi couldn't believe that he was spending yet another walk home with Shiroi. He didn't want to show how happy he was being in that situation so he decided to hide his expression while looking up at the sky. It was already nighttime, past the beautiful time of twilight where the skies turn a beautiful grey color. The earliest faintest lights of stars could already be seen, more so since the skies were clear and cloudless.

"Right! I just remembered something!" Shiroi stopped walking and stared right into Satoshi's eyes. He flinched, thinking that Shiroi must've caught on to his feelings. In his mind, he already prepared a lot of counters as soon as Shiroi brought it up. "That orb you were holding earlier... since when did you have that?"

"Oh, that? that was Orb Oboros, a new member of the family." Satoshi casually responded, relieved that Shiroi didn't ask him whether he likes her or not. He then reached into his pocket and grabbed an orb as big as the palm of her hand. "It's a familiar that can store all the other familiars, more like a storage ring of sorts in RPG games. To be more specific, do you know that old game about pocket monsters? Yeah, this one certainly looks like one of those, right?"

"Ahh, you mean p**eballs, right? Yeah, it certainly looks like one. That's quite a handy familiar though. At least your other familiars wouldn't be as conspicuous as before, especially that lion of yours. It shoots out lighting, right?"

"Yeah, and then there's Windfan, that familiar could balloon up in size as well."

A few minutes later, the two arrived by the Yukino's front door and Satoshi said his goodbye and headed back home. A thought suddenly flashed through his mind. "Wait a second... if Dex can tell me what kind of ability my next familiar could get and I could tell him what ability I want... wouldn't I be able to get every ability I need as a superhero? It wouldn't be random like before. I could actually choose what kind of ability I'd get when I obtain a familiar!"

"Isn't this... kind of insane?!"