The Next Step

The world is closed in around you. You can’t move, everything is cold. You try to stay calm, but what if nobody comes? You’ve been here before. Stuck in the avalanche. Alone. On the edge of ****. Your breathing becomes irregular. You’re worried about Akasuki. You’re worried about yourself. If only you had a quirk.

“Mwrarh.”

You shoot up in your bed. The familiar dark surroundings of your room, slightly illuminated by the street lights outside. You’re dripping in sweat, your blankets thrown about. Sitting in your lap is Heiwa, your kitten. Although at this point she might actually be considered a cat. “Mwrah,” she mews again, rubbing her head into your chest.

“Thank you Heiwa,” you say petting her head. Your hand smoothing her white fur. The avalanche was 2 years ago now. The nightmares started not long after that. A little over a year ago, you went pet shopping at the behest of your doctor. Dr. Hayashi thought that a pet might help relieve some of your stress. You were uncertain about the whole idea but you’re not one to argue with a doctor. So you were at the very least willing to go to a pet shop. You looked at a variety of puppies and kittens even a ferret or two but none of them had you convinced. Until the back corner where you found a litter of white kittens with gray markings on their faces. The sign read “Ragdoll Kittens” and everything fell into place.

Heiwa certainly helped with calming you, at least while you’re awake. And relieving the stress during the day has made the nightmares less frequent. Your alarm clock tells you that it’s too late to go back to sleep, although it’s a little earlier than you had planned on getting up. You slowly convince Heiwa to let you up and out of the bed. You walk to the kitchen, expertly walking around the cat trying to rub against your moving legs. She’s tripped you up more times than you can count. When the kitchen comes into sight down the hallway, she prances off ahead.

You turn on the kitchen light and see Heiwa circling her food bowl. “Yes, yes. I’ll feed you,” you reassure her as you fish a can out of the cupboard. Heiwa quickly starts scarfing down the cat food once you plop it into her bowl. You then go about preparing a couple eggs for yourself before taking a relaxing shower washing away the remnants of your nighttime sweats.

Heiwa perks up at the knocking on your door. The two of you go to open it, you take a quick peek through the peephole. It’s who you were expecting, and you open the door to greet your little sister Akasuki. “Hey, hey, Heiwa,” she laughs at her “brilliant” joke as she pets your cat. “You ready for the grand opening?” she asks, now talking to you despite still looking at Heiwa.

The grand opening. It’s hard to believe it’s finally come. After your sister graduated, she started a career making support items for heroes. But Akasuki being a strong willed young lady didn’t care for working under anybody. That’s when she came to her business savvy big brother with the idea to start her own support firm. It took some convincing but honestly it felt nice to be needed by your sister, who’s always been so self-sufficient. After months of saving and using your connections to find a handful of suitable investors, today was the day. The grand opening of Yamada Support Incorporated. “You know it,” you say excited to start this new adventure with your sister.

Despite her protests, you leave Heiwa at home while you and Akasuki make your way to the train. Next stop Kamino Ward. The commute wasn’t too bad, and before you knew it you were standing outside a building with a covered sign. You grab a dangling strand of rope and hand it to Akasuki, “The honor is all yours.” She takes a second gripping the rope tight, staring up at the covered sign before giving it a sharp tug. The cover falls away leaving a white sign with big black letters Yamada with Support Incorporated in smaller letters below it. Seeing the sign makes everything feel all the more real.

The first day in the office was mostly uneventful. You had a few business matters to finish off and some support contracts to put in a bid for. Akasuki fiddled in the shop working on a project for a client that followed her change in companies. The workshop started organized, but by the end of the day the shop was littered with tools that never found their way home. Part of you always wondered why a girl who could become any tool always needed so many other tools, but you figured your sister knew what she was doing.

You look up from your desk when you hear a knocking on your open office door. Even without looking you knew it was your sister, she was the only other person in the office after all. “Calling it a wrap. You got any plans? Want to scavenge up some grub?”

“Um, actually,” you start, “I kind of have a date.”

“Ren, you have a date? Look at you. Well, who is she? Who is this lovely lady that you’re blowing me off for?”

You hadn’t even considered that Akasuki might want to eat dinner to celebrate the first day. “She’s nobody. Just some girl I met on a dating app,” you tap your phone on the desk to make your point. “I can cancel though if you wanted to celebrate.”

“Cancel! No, I don’t even remember the last time you went out with a girl. We’ll have plenty of other nights in the office to get dinner. So let’s see this girl.” Akasuki reaches out her hand, motioning for you to give her your phone. You open the app and pull up the girl’s profile. “Holy cow! Ren, maybe you should cancel and I’ll go in your place. Mmmm, Niseki. You think she has a sister?” She hands your phone back to you, you can see the lilac skinned girl smiling in her profile picture before locking your phone. “So that’s settled. You’ll go out with Niseki, I’ll go find my own lady tonight, and we’ll just have to raincheck on celebrating our grand opening. Friday, perhaps?”

“Yea, Friday sounds great.” Akasuki was right. It had been a while since you’d gone out on a date. You can’t help but blame the avalanche. But the last time you had any sexual contact was with the hero who rescued you that day. And while part of you still hoped that Tomoko would cross your path once again, you knew it was time to move on, to move past the avalanche.