Gathered Together [Kaito, Hyousuke, Tsubame]

Kaito walked right on in the front doors with no problems. His card guaranteed that he would be allowed into UA, no problem, without their defense systems activated. The four foot six kid was only a middle school student, but with his "mother" being the vice headmaster of UA, it certainly allowed him a lot of leeway. Not that he took advantage of it often. The silver haired, dark skinned guy soon found his adopted mother, Tsubame Takada. As he was approaching her, a student walked by, addressing her after realizing she was there. The blonde gave his mother an awkward smile. As bad as he was with people, Kaito could muster a better smile than that.

The teenager simply walked up and moved to the side and a little behind Tsubame, with a close eye on her own movements. He didn't know if this was a personal visit or just a coincidence. Either way, he was fully prepared to leave. As the short boy listened, it seemed the blonde had meant to message Tsubame earlier, but hadn't had the chance due to working with a Pro Hero, Lockon. He'd heard of the guy, of course, but Kaito hadn't been all that interested in hero work. So far anyways. Not that he was disillusioned or anything, he just didn't see the appeal. Particularly with how many stupid press conferences or media coverage they had to do. Even UA staff gets called up on occasion for certain missions.

The yellowed student took out his gaming device and started to play it, barely paying any attention, more just to walk and keep track of his ride home than anything.

Hyousuke raised his hand briefly, flashing a polite - and somehow more genuine - smile at Kaito. A look of surprise had briefly crossed his face when Tsubame had mentioned her relation to Kaito, but that was mostly just from having the knowledge sprung on him so suddenly. He'd only heard the rumours about her in passing, after all, and had forgotten them the moment that he'd started thinking about something else. That aside, she hadn't finished speaking, and even someone as distracted and as lacking in smarts as him could tell that it wasn't exactly polite to wear such a look for the entire conversation. Perhaps he could ask about it later, when he was in a state to figure out a way to bring up the topic more delicately than by just blurting out that he didn't know she had a kid.

"You know me." He answered, giving her a weak smile as he did so. Whether that was because he'd had to force it, or because those past few weeks genuinely had tired him out, was up for debate. "I can't ever stay out of it." He laughed a little, playing the whole thing off as a joke. He'd decided to leave out the part where he had not only walked right into trouble, but had gotten into a fistfight with it and came away more shaken than he wanted to admit.

If he knew Tsubame, however, that grin meant she wasn't just looking for a joking remark about what he'd been up to in the interim. Fortunately for her, he needed the distraction, and the chance to face off against someone leagues above him. If that fight at the Sports Festival had taught him anything, it was that he had a long way to go - and he'd only get there by learning from those stronger than he. The bag was dumped unceremoniously onto the ground, and he fished out a pair of gloves. "How about I show you what kind of hero Lockon's teaching me to be?" He asked slyly. He wasn't much for words when his fists could do the talking, after all.

One look at Hyousuke and Tsubame could tell that something was going on with the boy, but she decided to let his actions speak for themselves. Despite having finished her own training for the day, she figured that a sparring session with a student, especially since it was Hyousuke, and ate her protein bar quickly while chugging a bottle of water. Water dripped down her mouth as she pulled the bottle away to flash her student a wicked grin. With amber eyes flashing, she went back to her gear and started to wrap her hands with athletic tape to help protect them. While her quirk did help her take damage, she could still be cut or harmed on the skin. It was just a lot harder to break her bones. The feeling of sparring with Hyousuke again sent a surge of adrenaline through her body as she felt her quirk ripple. The vital gear at her neck started to beep steadily as her body started to eat away at the energy in her body once more. Her movements were precise and sly like a cats as she set her bottle of water down. It wasn't until she heard Kaito reply to Hyousuke that she frowned at her son. She had thought she had taught him by now, but it seems the boy wasn't quite getting it. 

"Kaito-kun, you don't need superpowers to be a hero, nor do you need to be the toughest in the room," Tsubame adopted her teacher voice to her motherly one and finished wrapping her hands to then stand in front of the two boys. She smiled and pointed at her chest with her pointer finger. "You just gotta have the heart for it and the will to do what is right when things are wrong. Even when I am at my weakest I still strive to do what is right and protect what is important to me. Understand, mon fils chéri?" The French words for 'my darling son' fell off her tongue like a small song. The former pro-hero stretched before she stood at the ready in front of Hyousuke. Her eyes were set on the boy and she showed that he had her full and undivided attention.

"Show me who you are going to be, Suzuki-kun," Her amber eyes flashed with excitement as she felt the animalistic part of herself want to spring into action already. However, she would let Hyousuke take the first step forward. "Don't hold back, okay?"  

Kaito didn't even look up from his game. "Heart and will don't mean a thing if you aren't the toughest in the room, or the strongest, or the smartest, or the most skilled. You don't have to have all four, just one is enough. Otherwise, you'll lose." He did give the blonde a tiny nod in understanding. He certainly hoped so. Otherwise the guy would have a hard time against anyone with them. Plopping himself down, he watched with only a tiniest of interest. His mother was absolutely ready to get into it. Even wanting this guy to make the first move.

The blonde was smiling sharply. Was he a battle lunatic? Fights were hardly ever fun...he did like Aikido, and good enough at it. Luckily, he only ever had to use it maybe four times since he started learning. Hyousuke darted forward, fists up and stance down. If it was Kaito, he'd jump over the guy. Predictably, he did a punch to the face. Well, this might be over quicker than he thought. That would be nice...he did have a little bit of homework to get done.

Hyousuke hadn't expected her to take it head-on. He'd not been sure whether she'd block, dodge, or do something else entirely, but her action caught him by surprise, and that split second was all that was needed for her to latch onto his wrist and draw him in, her elbow striking straight towards his head. She wasn't the only one that had tried something similar on him, though. He wasn't as skilled as Lockon - and he wasn't even close to the level of his old teacher - but that week of training that the pro had given Hyousuke had helped hone his reflexes even further than before.

What was more, he hadn't just become quicker and more fluid in his movements. He'd gotten smarter. His free arm drew up and folded beside his head while he moved to one side, using the momentum of that to wrench his hand free while he moved away from the brunt of her attack. He wasn't quick or precise enough to evade it complete, even if she'd not been holding him. But moving had lessened the damage, and his arm took what remained. It was a small victory, but a far cry from the boy that would have thrown himself at a brick wall in an attempt at beating it in a brawl.

Though he didn't spare Kaito a glance, Hyousuke gave a response - a brief one, so as not to distract from the fight.
"And sparring isn't about winning either." He resolved to explain further, if Tsubame or his fists didn't say it for him - that it was as much a lesson as it was a test. With a spirit as competitive as his, it'd taken Hyousuke far too long to realise for himself that he wasn't there to win against people who outclassed him several times over. Hell, it'd taken Lockon quite literally beating some sense into him to have that revelation - that every fight was a lesson he could draw from, and become stronger through.

He'd not come to the training grounds to philosophise, though. He could lecture the boy later on - Tsubame was his priority. Leaping back into the fray with a grin, he kept himself limber, aggressively pushing forward with rapid, powerful blows. With his Quirk, he'd never needed to worry about wasting energy overexerting himself, but his technique had suffered for it, turning him into something of a flailing madman. His technique had been flawed, his footwork imprecise. But the time he'd spent learning from both those around him - Lockon especially - showed the potential that lay beneath.

His technique still needed work, but there was no denying that the potential was there. An unrelenting flurry of straights, hooks, and uppercuts, though none were delivered in haste. Every blow was deliberate, every strike aimed. And with a bottomless well of stamina to draw from, it wouldn't stop until Tsubame forced it to.

There was fire within the boy. It pleased her to see him have come so far from the last time she had seen him. It was like night and day. Tsubame made a mental note to visit the hero that seemed to change Hyousuke and thank them. He had blocked the strike from Tsubame. She had let go of his arm quickly to go on the defensive as the boy let lose a flurry of blows against her. A big grin lit her face as she blocked and ducked from each one. It wasn't a secret she could have done more in the spar, but she meant for this to be for him to show her what he learned and what path he wanted to go down. A few of the blows she caught and others she redirected past her. Her density quirk shut off when there was no threat of having harm to her body and instead the animalistic more athletic side of her came out. She moved like a cat does: precise, but smoothly from stance to stance. In the back of her mind, she knew that when Hyousuke reached his potential, he would be harder to spar with. Her weakness was time, the ever-present enemy of the headmaster and former pro-hero. Her quirk allowed her enhanced athletics and also allowed her a high defense. It was something she indeed did love having since she was ever the free spirit in her everyday life as well as when she fought. However, the downside of her quirk was what weighed heavily upon her life itself. Her body ate so many calories while using her quirk that she had to constantly replenish them. Stamina was never her forte, so she made up for it with being precise in her movements and strikes as well as trying to end fights early. The vital gear around her neck steadily beeped as it kept track of her vitals and caloric levels within her body. Once she hit a certain threshold for the lowest she can go before medical intervention, it would send out an SOS to her emergency contact and alert the nearby medics to come intervene. 

Tsubame wanted to mix this up a bit. If the boy was so precise now, she wondered what would happen if she just loosened up his footing a bit. With a mischievous grin upon her face, she dodged another blow towards her and immediately dropped to the ground in a crouch. Smoothly she shot her leg out to do a sweep towards his legs to try and trip him up.