The doctor's name was Fujimoto Reina.
I saw it on her coat. She had a nameplate. Fujimoto Reina, M.D., Pediatric Quirk Medicine. I read it while she was talking to my parents because I didn't have anything else to do and I kept getting distracted by how tall the examination table was. My legs just hung off the edge. That was still weird to me.
She was explaining the hospital. One of the bigger quirk and pediatric places in Fukui. They had a whole floor for kids who just got their quirks, with specialists and nurses who did this every day. She said the testing was six things and none of it would hurt.
My mom was writing stuff down. My dad was listening. Hina was in the chair by the door pretending to look at her tablet but she kept glancing up every few seconds.
I swung my legs a little while I waited.
* * *
The training floor smelled like rubber and something kind of stale, like a gym that got cleaned but not enough. The walls had padding on them. The corners were all rounded. Everything was built a little bigger than it needed to be.
Two people were waiting when we got there.
The man was tall with dark hair going gray on the sides. He had a clipboard and a relaxed way of standing, like he had done this a hundred times. His nameplate said Tanaka Hiroshi, Quirk Development Specialist.
The woman was shorter with her hair pulled back. She looked at me the second I walked in and didn't really stop. Not in a scary way, just focused. Her nameplate said Mori Sayaka, Pediatric Quirk Assessment.
Tanaka-san crouched down when we got close. Adults always did that.
"Hey there. I'm Tanaka, this is Mori-san. We're doing your tests today." He talked easy, not too much energy. "Did the doctor already explain the six tests?"
"She said what they check for," I said. "Speed and strength and stuff like that."
He did a small blink. Mori-san wrote something down.
"Good. Yeah, exactly that. The main thing I want you to know is nothing here hurts. We're not trying to push you past anything. We just want to see what your quirk does on its own. You want to stop, you tell me and we stop. Sound good?"
"Yeah," I said.
[I should not talk to him right now. He is much younger now, in body and in the way he is moving through the world. He might react in a way that is hard to explain in front of these people. I will stay quiet and log everything.]
She went quiet in my head. Not gone. Just pulled back, watching. I could still feel her there the same way you could feel someone standing behind you without looking.
I followed Tanaka-san to the first station.
* * *
The first test was reaction time.
A panel on the wall with lights that lit up in order and I had to tap the matching spot as fast as I could. Mori-san explained it. I understood it the first time but I waited for her to finish because interrupting felt rude.
The lights started.
They were faster than I thought they would be. Not impossible, just actually fast. I kept up. My hands were small and I had to shift my whole body sometimes to reach the right panel, but I kept up. It felt easy in a way I couldn't really explain, like my body just knew where to go before I thought about it.
Tanaka-san looked at his screen. Then he looked at Mori-san.
Neither of them said anything for a second.
"Good," he said. "Really good. Okay, next one."
I looked at Hina. She gave me a thumbs up from behind my dad. I looked away before I smiled.
* * *
The second test was strength.
A big padded thing on a post that measured force. Tanaka-san showed me how to push it, slow and flat, so I understood they weren't asking me to go crazy with it.
I pushed it.
He looked at the number. Then he reset the sensor.
"Can you do that one more time for me?"
I did it again.
He wrote something down without saying what the number was. My mom had stopped writing. My dad had his arms still folded but he was leaning forward a little. For him that was a lot.
I looked at the sensor pad. It had a small dent in it now.
I didn't think I had pushed that hard.
* * *
The other four tests went pretty fast after that.
Durability was pushing against a resistance band and holding it. Stamina was doing a simple movement over and over and seeing how long I kept the same speed. Senses were quick response tests, lights and sounds and taps on my hand, seeing how fast I noticed them. Coordination was picking up small things and placing them carefully, like threading a ring onto a stick without knocking it over.
That last one was harder than the others. My hands kept wanting to move faster than the task needed. I slowed down and focused and got through it but I had to actually think about it.
By the end Mori-san wasn't talking to me like I was four. She was just talking to me. I didn't say anything about it.
* * *
They took us to a small room off the training floor after. Low table, chairs. My parents across from Tanaka-san and Mori-san. Me between my mom and dad. Hina next to my dad, sitting straight, which meant she was taking this seriously.
Tanaka-san put his clipboard down.
"I want to be upfront," he said. He was mostly looking at my parents but he kept glancing at me too, like he was including me. "Akira's numbers are really high. Across all six tests he's well above the normal range for a first assessment. Above average for his age group in general, honestly."
My mom's pen didn't move.
"What does that mean for him going forward?" my dad asked.
"His quirk is a physical enhancement type," Mori-san said. She was direct. I liked that. "Speed, strength, durability, reaction time, all of it boosted above baseline. And it looks like it affects his whole body at once instead of just one thing. That is less common."
"Is there anything we need to watch for?" my mom asked.
Tanaka-san and Mori-san did a quick look at each other.
"Enhancement quirks at this level can sometimes push harder than the body can actually handle," Tanaka-san said. "We're not seeing any signs of that right now, which is good. But as he gets older and the quirk grows, that's something to keep an eye on. We'd want to see him back every few months to track how it develops."
My mom wrote that down. My dad nodded.
Mori-san looked at me.
"Any questions, Akira?"
I thought about it. I had a lot of questions. Most of them were too complicated to ask without it being weird. I went with the simple one.
"Can I get stronger?"
She smiled a little.
"With time and training, yes."
I nodded. That was what I wanted to know.
* * *
We left after noon.
It was cold outside. The kind of cold January had where the sky was really blue and the light was sharp and it still somehow felt freezing. I had my coat zipped all the way up and my hands in my pockets.
Hina walked next to me. She lasted until the parking lot.
"So your quirk is just being really strong and fast."
"It does more than that," I said.
She looked at me.
"Like what."
I opened my mouth. Then I closed it. I didn't actually have a great answer yet. I just knew it felt like more.
"I don't know yet," I said. "But more."
Hina thought about that for a second. Then she shrugged.
"Still cool. Even if you talk weird sometimes."
My mom took my hand when we got to the car. She did that without thinking about it, just reached down and took it, and I let her. Her hand was warm.
With time and training.
[Enhancement type. Full body. High ceiling. The gap between output and structural tolerance is going to be the problem as he grows. I need to start thinking long term. Both sides of this matter equally.]
I thought about the dent in the sensor pad.
I hadn't even been trying.
I was four years old. I had a quirk that could be something real if I did the work.
Time and training.
Okay.