Slowly, the flames settled and the temperature regressed. The small clearing in which the child trained was charred and dry from the heat, no doubt uncomfortable to a human. Despite that, the human child remained there, his expression one of twisted focus as he observed his surroundings.
"...that was stronger than last time."
The child's voice was quiet, and his voice broke at the end of the sentence. Despite that, a small smile bloomed on his face, as though proud in what he had achieved.
Then, he froze.
"H-Huhh?"
Stumbling backwards, the child's expression changed to shock as he met eyes with the old man standing on a branch.
"Whoah, you scared me old man!"
A forced smile spread on his expression, but his fingers twitched at the mutated figure of the Elder. The single eye, the volcano like head and most importantly, the empty expression were disconcerting to him.
"Hmph. Brat."
Jogo jumped off his branch and landed in front of the branch. He was a bit curious about the fire, its temperature fluctuated wildly, not like fire usually did. Uncontrolled was the best description of those flames.
The child stepped back a few steps at the Elderly mutant's feat of agility. But the forced smile remained plastered on his face as spoke.
"T-this is private property old man. Did you perhaps get lost? I can show you the way out."
His fingers twitched uncomfortably, the heat clearly putting a toll on the kid. Jogo stared for a moment, unsure on how to proceed before deciding to take the most direct way.
"Brat. Your flames. How do they work."
"Huh?"
Surprise bloomed on the child's face as he remained silent for a moment.
"Thats... Wait, i don't know you! And didn't you listen? You're on private property! You can't just waltz into places and ask details about their Quirks!"
'This kid...'
Despite Jogo's rising impatience, he noticed very well that the child spoke out of mix between fear and outrage. Still, he wanted his answer. He had learned about the system from the woman in the Alley, this here was now an opportunity to learn about how these Quirks really worked.
'A deal...?'
Hn. A dry grunt escaped Jogo as he dismissed the idea. He had nothing to give and frankly, the idea of negotiating with a child did not appeal to him.
'Mhm. Mahito mentioned playing with the Itadori brat by manipulating a friend of his... I should have listened to that story.'
But if a young curse like Mahito could do it, so could he.
"I am Jogo. Whats your name, brat?"
The kid answered but the look in his eyes did not change. Large dilated pupils similar to the look of fear and panic humans had before dying.
"...i am Toya."
Jogo nodded in acknowledgment, then turned to the side where the fire had been moment before.
"Your fire was not normal. Temperature of fire usually either rises or sinks, it doesn't wildly fluctuate like those flames of yours."
Toya's expression relaxed a bit as he turned towards the scorched ground, seemingly trying to understand what the elderly mutant was talking about.
Jogo just waited for a moment before adding a bit to his statement.
"Its like your temperature rises and sinks without any control."
Control. Toya's small hands balled up to fists as his pupil started shaking. He faced the ground as his entire body seemed to tremble at Jogo's sentence.
His next sentence was more akin to a cry.
"I...i don't know! It just... keeps happening! I just haven't learned to control it yet!"
'Vulnerability.'
Jogo's eye immediately spotted the tears.
"Hmpf. That is obvious. Doesn't look like that is going to change anytime soon either."
The curse's voice dripped with mockery and indignity, as though personally insulted by the statement. And as expected, the emotional child bit back.
"What?! What the hell is that supposed to mean old man!!"
Any trace of fear and hesitation disappeared as the child stomped forwards a few steps, his eyes filled with anger and sheer desperation.
And on the ground, hidden beneath the pile of ash, a single ember regained its light.
Jogo noticed it nearly immediately. A small trail of smoke of smoke spreading around the ground as the child's emotions grew more volatile.
"I am going to control my Quirk! I am going to become a Hero! Father WILL recognize ME!"
The ember grew and a flame flickered to live, spurned by something. Jogo understood what this meant. But he remained silent, his expression unchanging while the child got more and more worked up.
"He said it himself! He did! He said my Flames were more powerful than his!"
'Desperation. Anger. Disappointment.'
"SO WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING, YOU DAMN OLD MAN!?"
Those emotions were all the flame on the ground needed in order to roar back to life.
"Huh? What... i didn't even..."
Toya had finally noticed, the fire behind him was growing at an impossible rate, not even requiring anything beyond air in order to burn.
"No, i didn't! I DIDN'T! GO OUT!"
His attention had shifted, having completely forgotten about the Mutant as the fire grew, threatening to affect the forest.
'Incompetent Child.'
Jogo watched, as impassive as ever as the kid stared at his own creation. However, his comment was directed towards the Childs control, not his potential.
Because the fire wouldn't go out, even as Jogo's Cursed Energy flowed into the flames, attempting to suppress it.
It wasn't a matter of danger, in fact he barely felt the fire. Yet, despite fire being his own specialty, the child kept unconsciously feeding the flames with his own emotion, somehow stopping Jogo from exercising his authority upon them.
'A tug of war?'
His eye widened as his Cursed Energy flow increased to unusually big proportions while trying to take over the flames, until the roaring fire finally stopped growing and simply disappeared, as if having been nothing but an illusion.
The child, Toya stood there, shaking and panting, before falling backwards, landing on his behind with an uncertain smile on his face.
"I-its gone? Its out! Did i do it?!"
"You did not. I stepped in."
Toya's smile dropped at the Curse's grating voice. His eyes eyes watered once more as he stared at his charred hands.
But the curse's next words snapped him out of it.
"Brat. You have potential with these flames. But your approach is completely wrong."
Toya however, heard something else. Because his approach to training had been created by his father and idol.
"You- NO! Its not wrong! The Number two Hero! He personally taught me how-"
"SHUT UUP! You're so irritating with all that crying and screaming!"
Jogo's grating voice shifted to a higher pitch as his patience finally broke. He could respect the kids potential, but that personality was nauseating.
"You don't know anything about your fire. You don't even know what fuels it! You just know how to make more and more, because you don't even try anything else! How do you expect to master your flames if you don't understand yourself, you stupid brat!!"
BOOM
The small eruption on Jogo's head raised the temperature and Toya found himself already sweating as the Mutant had grabbed him by the collar. Despite that, he struggled only lightly, more out of instinct than anything else.
"While you use your fire, you need to think! You need to feel! I know you humans. You just consider it as some sort of Chemical reaction!! NO! This power is an expression from the depths of your soul!!!"
The ground cracked as the burning liquid spilled upwards, surrounding the clearing and creating orange walls of pure fire.
The white haired child froze in Jogo's grip as the heat of the Mutant washed over him. His body broke out in sweat and tiny flames danced on his collar.
But they did not burn him.
The tiny flame on the collar radiated heat like one would expect, but did not grow beyond where it was.
'He's... controlling it?'
Toya felt the familiar prickling heat of fire, yet he did not feel the painful feeling which usually followed.
For a moment he remained there, staring at the flame and the large hand closed upon his color. Then, he raised his head and stared into the wide open eye of the Mutant, only millimeters away from his own face.
Behind the Mutant, everything was blurry as waves of heat distorted the surroundings. Cracks in the earth, with liquid flame steadily spilling up into the clearing.
The veritable show of fire lasted only for a few seconds, before the Lava suddenly turned stale, the flames suddenly extinguished and the light suddenly vanished.
The Human and Curse stared at each other for a moment, before the curse finally let go of the Human's collar. The lone eye followed the Human's movements, wanting to know if he had scared the child too much.
But unbeknownst to the Curse, the human had felt no such thing.
As if in a trance, Toya's fingers traced against his still warm collar. He slowly turned his head, before his gaze settled back onto Jogo.
In his mind flashed the image of the cracking earth and the rising flames. But the seen surroundings contradicted his memory. The only proof remaining of what had just transpired was the black stone which the Lava had become.
Seeing this, Toya knew.
"Please. Please can you please teach me?"
He knew that this was the control he had always yearned for.