Chương 30: Restrictions

Recovery Girl did not give Ren Akiyama restrictions. She gave him a perimeter. Restrictions sounded temporary. A list of things one could not do until enough time passed, enough boxes were checked, enough adults stopped looking. Restrictions were inconvenient, but they implied eventual release. A perimeter was different. A perimeter assumed the student inside it would test the fence. Ren discovered this at 8: 04 the next morning, when his phone received a message from U. A.

Medical Services with the subject line Sports Festival Conditional Participation Requirements and an attachment titled Akiyama Ren — Provisional Activity Restrictions He opened it. Hana took his phone six seconds later.

"That was fast" he said"You made the mistake of reading with your whole face""I do not do that" Daichi looked up from the kitchen table.

"You do" Ren turned toward him.

"You are supposed to be neutral""I am your father. Neutrality was never in the contract" Hana scrolled through the document. Her expression changed twice. The first change was parental alarm. The second was satisfaction. That was worse.

"What does it say?" Daichi asked Ren already knew what it said. He had read the first section before interception. No combat training. No unsupervised conditioning. No sprinting. No heavy lifting. No impact drills. No fall practice. No exposure testing. No heat or cold tolerance testing. No breath restriction drills. No pain tolerance exercises. No Quirk provocation. No Sports Festival simulation. No tactical physical rehearsal without faculty clearance. No independent use of support equipment.

No "mobility test" lasting longer than prescribed. The quotation marks around mobility test felt targeted. Hana read aloud anyway.

"Permitted activity: walking on flat surfaces for limited duration. Gentle mobility under supervision. Breathing exercises. Basic range of motion excluding pain spikes. Academic analysis not exceeding thirty minutes without break. Nutrition protocol. Sleep protocol. Medical symptom logging. Psychological support appointment" Daichi nodded.

"That sounds reasonable""It sounds like house arrest with vocabulary" Ren said Hana looked at him over the phone.

"Good" There it was. The word had become a weapon. Ren sat at the table with breakfast in front of him, rice, eggs, soup, fruit, and a protein portion measured with suspicious precision. The Sports Festival was confirmed. Transfer candidates would be briefed soon. Every student at U. A. was beginning to calculate angles, alliances, advantages, and possible performances. Ren had permission to walk on flat surfaces. Limited duration. He looked at his food.

"I need to prepare" Hana set the phone down between them.

"You need to heal""That is preparation""Then we agree""No. We agree on the noun and disagree on the method" Daichi placed a cup of tea beside Ren's plate.

"Good distinction. Still no" Ren looked at him.

"You have become more difficult since USJ" Daichi sat across from him.

"You became more frightening before that" The sentence landed too gently to be defended against. Ren looked down. Hana's hand paused near the phone. Daichi did not press. He simply took the printed copy he had made at some point because of course he had printed it and slid it across the table.

"I made a version for home" Ren stared at the paper. At the top, in Daichi's neat handwriting, was written: Ren Recovery and Sports Festival Preparation — Home Plan Under it were five sections. Sleep. Food. Breathing. Walking. No nonsense. Ren closed his eyes.

"No nonsense is not a formal category""It is the most important one" Hana sat beside him.

"Read it" He read. Sleep: minimum target, fixed lights-out window, no screen after set time, nightmares recorded only as sensory notes unless urgent. Food: increased meals, recovery snacks, hydration, no skipped meals during school, Shinso-level enforcement if needed. Ren paused.

"Shinso-level enforcement?" Hana's expression did not change.

"He responds to food threats""That does not mean I do""You respond worse. We adapt" He continued reading. Breathing: rib-safe exercises three times daily, stop if dizziness or pain spike. Walking: flat surface only, short intervals, parent or faculty aware, no route near training facilities without explicit permission.

No nonsense: no secret testing, no calling testing "observation", no calling observation "checking", no calling checking "walking", no arguing that mild pain is data, no using Sports Festival as justification for injury, no treating Recovery Girl's rules as a puzzle. Ren slowly lowered the paper. Daichi sipped tea. Hana waited. Ren said "The wording is hostile" Daichi nodded.

"It had to match the threat environment""I am the threat environment?" Hana touched his uninjured hand.

"You are one of them" That was difficult to refute. Which was infuriating. He ate breakfast because the alternative was a battle he would lose and because his body had begun to betray him by being hungry at regular intervals now that everyone monitored it. After USJ, hunger had stopped being private. Sleep had stopped being private. Pain had stopped being private. Even his notebook had acquired parental weather. The body, once classified as tool, had become a family jurisdiction. At 9: 30, Kurose called.

Hana put her on speaker. Ren did not protest because he had learned that protesting speakerphone only made adults more certain speakerphone was required.

"Good morning" Kurose said"Good morning, Kurose-sensei" Hana answered Ren said "Present" Kurose paused.

"That remains not a health report""Pain stable. Ribs four. Arm two. Shoulder two. Scar quiet. No dizziness. Ate breakfast. Slept five hours broken""Nightmares?" Ren looked at Hana. She looked back.

"Yes" he said"Content?"

"USJ sequence distortion. Black fog. Door impact. Aizawa injury. Sports Festival crowd overlay" Kurose was silent for one second.

"Crowd overlay?"

"Yes""New?"

"Yes""Report through protocol?"

"After breakfast" Hana's hand tightened. Kurose said "Why after breakfast?" Ren frowned.

"Because I was instructed to eat" There was a pause. Then Kurose said "Acceptable. Disturbing, but acceptable" Daichi made a small sound into his tea. Kurose continued "Sports Festival transfer candidate briefing is tomorrow. You are medically permitted to attend only if symptoms remain stable today. Participation eligibility remains pending Recovery Girl's review. Until then, your preparation is recovery-only""Define recovery-only""No" The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Ren blinked.

"I asked for clarification""You asked because you wanted to locate the edges. The edges are in the document""It is possible to misinterpret broad language""Yes. You are gifted at it. Do not" Hana looked almost serene. Traitor. Kurose's voice sharpened.

"Ren. Listen carefully. Your first test for Sports Festival is not the obstacle course. It is whether you can follow restrictions before anyone is watching" That sentence entered the room and found all the places it belonged. Ren looked at the printed plan. No nonsense. Kurose continued "If you cannot demonstrate judgment in recovery, I will not recommend you for participation" His head lifted. Hana went still. Daichi too. Ren said "You would block participation?"

"Yes""For recovery noncompliance?"

"Yes""That seems disproportionate""No. It is exactly proportionate" Kurose's voice remained even.

"You want Hero Course consideration. Hero Course requires judgment under constraint. Medical restriction is a constraint. If you treat it as an obstacle to bypass, you are demonstrating the opposite of readiness" Ren's jaw tightened. That was unfair. Worse. It was fair. Kurose continued "You do not need to prove pain tolerance to me. You have already done that. Repeatedly. It is not the skill I am currently evaluating" Ren said nothing. Hana's fingers loosened around his hand. Daichi looked down at his tea.

Kurose said "The skill is stopping" Ren hated that. He hated how small it sounded. He hated how impossible it felt. He hated that stopping had become a qualification test. Finally, he said "Understood""No. You heard. Understanding will be demonstrated" Harsh. Accurate. Kurose ended the call after confirming parent communication, medical check timing, and school transport expectations. The kitchen remained quiet. Ren looked at the home plan. Sleep. Food. Breathing. Walking. No nonsense.

Daichi said "She is right" Ren did not look up.

"Yes" Hana's hand touched his hair. He let it. For three seconds. Then five. Progress had become humiliatingly measurable. The first allowed walk took place at 10: 15. Flat surface. Limited duration. No bag. No notebook.

No route near a gym, park equipment, stairs, railings, construction, uneven ground, or anything Daichi classified as "tempting terrain" That left a quiet residential path near their apartment and a small square with benches, trees, and elderly people who had better recovery discipline than Ren apparently did. Hana walked on his left. Daichi on his right.

"Three-person escort is excessive" Ren said Daichi checked his watch.

"First walk after a villain attack and medical restriction document""Context acknowledged. Still excessive" Hana said "You once tested cold tolerance in winter behind our backs""I was eleven""And apparently consistent" Ren could not refute that. They walked slowly. Very slowly. Ren could feel every limitation because there was nothing to do except feel. The ribs restricted deep breathing. The forearm itched when his sleeve brushed the bandage. His left shoulder resisted full swing.

His legs, insultingly fine, wanted more pace than permitted. His mind kept mapping alternative routes, inclines, timing, heart rate, recovery cost, risk thresholds. No nonsense. He exhaled through his nose. Breathing exercise pattern. In for three. Hold for one. Out for four. Pain did not vanish. It organized. That counted. Maybe. Daichi watched him.

"You are doing the breathing""Yes""Without being asked""Yes" Hana looked pleased. Ren looked forward.

"This is strategically embarrassing" Daichi smiled.

"Many useful things are" They reached the square and sat on a bench because the plan required rest before return. Ren hated that he needed it. Or maybe he did not need it and the rest was preventative. He hated that distinction too. A child across the square jumped from one low stone border to another while his father watched. The child almost slipped, recovered, laughed, and jumped again. Ren's body calculated distance, landing angle, ankle load, fall risk. Then stopped. No training analysis. He looked away.

Hana noticed. She did not comment. That was a kind of mercy. Daichi leaned back.

"When I was your age, I thought rest was what happened when nothing important was happening" Ren looked at him.

"You have never told me that""You rarely ask about my stupid years""Plural?" Hana said "Many" Daichi ignored her.

"I played amateur soccer badly. I sprained my ankle before a regional match and tried to train through it. Made it worse. Missed the match. Missed two months after. Learned nothing immediately" Ren tilted his head.

"Immediately?"

"I was young. Consequences need repetition when pride is involved" Hana looked pointedly at Ren. He pretended not to see. Daichi continued "The part I remember most is not the pain. It is watching other people play and thinking my body had betrayed me because it refused to obey the story I wanted" Ren looked at the child jumping stones.

"That is inefficient framing""Yes""Did you stop using it?" Daichi smiled faintly.

"Eventually""How?"

"Your mother yelled at me" Hana said "Accurate" Ren almost smiled. Carefully. Daichi's voice softened.

"Also, I learned that the body is not a servant. It is where you live" The sentence was simple. Too simple. Ren looked down at his bandaged arm. The body is not a servant. He disliked simple sentences with structural consequences. Hana said "Your body brought you home from USJ" Ren's throat tightened. He looked at her. She continued "Not because you forced it hard enough. Because it was still there to bring home" No. That was too much. He stood. Too fast. Pain snapped across his ribs. He stopped.

Hana did not say anything. Daichi did not say anything. The pain said enough. Ren sat back down slowly.

"Noted" he said Hana's eyes were bright. Daichi looked away. They waited three minutes before walking home. The rest of the day became an exercise in tolerated uselessness. Ren completed assigned academic reading for exactly thirty minutes before a timer rang. He stopped because Hana was in the room. He completed the breathing exercises. He ate snack one. He logged symptoms. He wrote a fragment report about the crowd overlay, using neutral categories and no tactical speculation.

He did not open his Sports Festival notebook. The notebook sat on the shelf. Visible. Closed. Hostile. At 14: 10, he received a message from Shinso. You alive or did Recovery Girl bury you in appointments? Ren typed: Alive. Restricted. Shinso: Same thing for you. Ren: Accurate but unhelpful. Shinso: Restrictions? Ren hesitated. Then took a photo of the No nonsense section and sent it. Shinso responded: Your father is terrifying. Ren: Hana contributed. Shinso: Of course she did. No nonsense is good.

Ren stared at the message. Traitor. He typed exactly that. Shinso: I contain multitudes. Ren: Did you eat lunch? Shinso: Don't deflect. Ren: Did you? Shinso: Yes. Ren: Good. Shinso: You're doing it too. The word. Ren looked at the screen. He was. Terrible. He typed: Social contagion confirmed. Shinso: You're making being annoying repeatable. Ren: That is mastery by Midoriya standards. Shinso: Cruel. Ren: Accurate. There was a pause. Then Shinso wrote: You participating if cleared? Ren answered: Yes.

Shinso: Even restricted? Ren: Especially restricted, if I can demonstrate judgment. Shinso: That sounds like Kurose. Ren: It was Kurose. Shinso: Horrifying that it worked. Ren looked at the closed Sports Festival notebook. Then at the home plan. Yes. Horrifying. He typed: Your preparation? Shinso: Not breaking ribs, for starters. Ren: Specific. Shinso: Voice work. Provocation control. Response baiting. Running, if allowed. People hate answering me when they know the trick, so I need better hooks.

Ren read that twice. Then typed: Do not practice on unwilling students. Shinso: Did Kurose steal your phone? Ren: No. Shinso: I know consent, context, control. She literally wrote it on the board. Ren: Good. Shinso: You're unbearable. Ren: Accepted. Another pause. Shinso: If you can't physically train, work on rules. The Festival has structure. You like structure. Ren looked at the message. Rules. Structure. Not physical simulation. Possibly allowed. He checked the medical document.

Academic analysis not exceeding thirty minutes without break. He typed: That may be permitted. Shinso: Obviously. I'm helpful. Ren: Occasionally. Shinso: Delete that. Ren did not. At 15: 00, Ren requested permission to review publicly available Sports Festival footage from previous years for thirty minutes. Hana looked suspicious. Daichi looked at the home plan.

"Which category?"

"Academic analysis" Hana's eyes narrowed.

"No tactical physical rehearsal""I will not rehearse physically""No training plans""I will identify event constraints""No pain notes""Unrelated""No secret second notebook" Ren paused. Hana's expression sharpened. He said "There is no secret second notebook""Was there going to be?"

"No" Daichi looked at him. Ren adjusted.

"Not today" Hana closed her eyes. Daichi wrote something under No nonsense Ren leaned over. He had added: No creating new notebooks to bypass old notebook restrictions. Ren said "This is becoming oppressive" Daichi said "Adaptive governance" Ren was outnumbered. He watched thirty minutes of old Sports Festival footage at the kitchen table with both parents nearby. It was torture. Not the footage. The supervision. He analyzed obstacle course layouts from prior years, noting that U. A.

reused principles rather than exact structures. First phase prioritized mobility, crowd navigation, adaptation, hazard recognition, and risk tolerance. Second phase often rewarded alliance formation, scoring strategy, and public visibility. Third phase was direct confrontation but never purely direct confrontation because opponent psychology, audience pressure, and referee thresholds mattered. He wrote only headings and constraints. No strategies. No physical plans. No predicted opponents.

No lists titled weaknesses. At minute twenty-eight, he noticed something. He paused the footage. Hana looked up.

"What?"

"Nothing dangerous" Daichi looked over.

"That sentence is now suspicious" Ren pointed to the screen.

"Students who try to win the first phase often overexpose themselves for the second. U. A. designs early success to become target load" Hana stared. Daichi said "That sounds like analysis""It is""Allowed?"

"Within thirty minutes" Hana looked at the timer.

"Two minutes" Ren wrote: Early victory increases second-phase target load. Then stopped. The timer rang. He closed the laptop. Immediately. Hana blinked. Daichi looked proud and concerned. Ren said "Stopping is the skill currently evaluated" Hana's expression softened.

"Yes" The word pleased her too much. He disliked that. The second walk happened in the late afternoon. This time only Daichi went with him. Hana stayed home to prepare dinner and possibly to give Ren the illusion that his autonomy was increasing. It was not. Daichi carried an umbrella because the sky looked undecided. Ren walked with his hands in his pockets, slowly enough to notice uneven pavement and resist stepping around it in patterns that could become footwork.

Daichi said "You seemed calmer after the footage""I identified permitted work""That helps?"

"Yes""Good" Ren glanced at him.

"You could vary vocabulary""I could""You choose not to?"

"Yes" They reached the square again. The child from earlier was gone. An elderly man fed pigeons despite a sign requesting otherwise. The pigeons had clearly classified the sign as nonbinding. Ren sat before being told. Daichi noticed. Of course.

"Progress""It is efficient to rest before pain spike""Also progress" Ren looked at the pigeons. They moved as a group when startled, scattered, regrouped, and returned to the same forbidden food source. Crowd flow. Obstacle course. No. He stopped. Daichi said "What did you not think?" Ren frowned.

"That question is impossible""You had the face""What face?"

"The face of a thought pretending to be innocent" Ren sighed.

"Crowd flow""Sports Festival?"

"Yes""Dangerous?"

"No""Can it wait?" Ren looked at the pigeons.

"Yes" Daichi nodded. They sat in silence. Then Daichi said "Your mother wants to invite Shinso to dinner eventually" Ren's body went still. Daichi looked at him.

"Not today. Not surprise. Not adoption paperwork" Ren closed his eyes.

"That joke damaged trust""Yes. I regret it""Good""I earned that" Ren opened his eyes. The pigeons moved again. Shinso with the umbrella. Shinso with the charger. Shinso at the cafeteria table, receiving badly worded praise like a bruise. Shinso saying if there was one seat, he would take it. Hana asking if it bothered Ren. Most people do not get full authority over whether others care. Ren said "He may refuse""Yes""He may interpret it as pity""Yes""He may accept only if framed as practical""Yes""Hana knows?"

Daichi smiled.

"Your mother knows more than both of us" Ren considered.

"Dinner could be framed as Sports Festival strategy session" Daichi looked at him.

"That is exactly the kind of thing that makes care look like homework" Ren closed his mouth. Correct. Unpleasant. Daichi continued "Maybe frame it as dinner" Ren looked away.

"That may be harder for him""Yes""Then why?"

"Because sometimes the thing that is harder is the thing being offered" Ren stared at the pigeons. Simple sentences. Again. This family was becoming structurally dangerous. When they returned home, Hana had made dinner that smelled too good to classify neutrally. Ren ate. Not because watched. Because hungry. That was progress he did not report. After dinner, Recovery Girl called. No greeting.

"Symptom report" Ren straightened in his chair.

"Ribs four earlier, five after first walk, returned to four after rest. Forearm two. Shoulder two. Scar quiet except brief itch after Sports Festival announcement and visual fragment yesterday, no heat today. No dizziness. Sleep five hours broken. Two walks completed within limits. Breathing exercises completed. No physical training. Thirty minutes footage analysis completed and stopped at timer" Recovery Girl was silent. Then "Who are you and what did they do with the menace?" Ren stared. Hana laughed.

Daichi looked triumphant. Ren said "Compliance was incentivized by participation eligibility""At least you are honest about your motives""Is eligibility improved?"

"Do not make me regret acknowledging compliance" He stopped. She continued "If you maintain this through tomorrow morning, you may attend the transfer candidate briefing. Participation remains undecided. No training""Understood""Do you?"

"Understanding will be demonstrated" Recovery Girl made a pleased sound.

"Kurose has infected you""Apparently""Good" The call ended. Ren looked at his parents. They looked far too satisfied.

"I complied for strategic reasons" he said Hana smiled.

"Of course" Daichi nodded.

"Entirely tactical healing""This mockery is unhelpful""No" Daichi said "It is family support" Ren decided not to ask which protocol governed that. He went to his room with the notebook after receiving permission for five minutes. Not Sports Festival notebook. General notebook. The distinction mattered. Maybe. He wrote: Restrictions are a perimeter. I tested no fence today. This is more difficult than expected. Kurose says stopping is the first test. Recovery Girl says compliance improves briefing eligibility.

Daichi says the body is where you live. Hana says being seen cannot mean being spent. Shinso says rules have structure. Everyone is becoming irritatingly correct. He paused. Then added: Permitted preparation: sleep food breathing walking rules analysis stopping when told asking before converting thought into action He stared at the list. It did not look like training. But maybe that was the point. His phone buzzed. Izuku. Trying repeatability. All Might gave me control exercises. They're hard.

Didn't break anything today. Ren looked at the message for a long moment. Then typed: That is better than dramatic success. Izuku replied: It feels less impressive. Ren: Good. Impressive is not the current goal. Izuku: That sounds like Recovery Girl. Ren: She is correct often enough to be dangerous. Izuku: I'll remember that. Are you okay? Ren considered. Then answered: Restricted. Annoyed. Healing. A pause. Izuku: That sounds almost healthy. Ren: Do not spread rumors. Izuku sent a small laughing sticker.

Ren stared at it, unsure what protocol governed sticker interpretation. He did not answer. Instead, he opened Shinso's thread. No nonsense compliance completed today. The reply came after thirty seconds. Proud of you. Disgusted, but proud. Ren stared at the word proud. Then typed: You are overusing emotional language. Shinso: You sent me a compliance report. Ren: Fair. Shinso: Transfer briefing tomorrow? Ren: Yes, if still cleared. Shinso: See you there. Ren: If there is one seat. Shinso: I'm taking it. Ren: Good.

This time, the word felt less like contagion and more like agreement. He set the phone down. The room was quiet. The Sports Festival notebook remained closed on the shelf. Ren looked at it. Then away. No nonsense. He turned off the light on time. That was possibly the most humiliating victory of the day. In the dark, fragments did not vanish. Stadium lights still waited. Ice still gleamed. Crowd noise still hovered at the edge of sleep. A body trapped under cold. Old scar heat. Recognition.

But tonight, there was also a table. Food. A printed plan. A slow walk. A father saying the body was where he lived. A mother building rules so being seen would not mean being spent. A teacher making stopping into a test. A nurse threatening him into survival. Friends who used mockery like scaffolding. A rival who said pride and disgust could share a sentence. Ren breathed in for three. Held for one. Out for four. Pain answered. Less sharply. Not gone. Repeatable. Maybe recovery was not the absence of progress.

Maybe recovery was progress that refused to perform. He hated that sentence. He would not write it down. Not yet. But he slept before midnight. And when he woke once from a dream of ice closing over his arms, he did not reach for the notebook first. He reached for the water bottle. Small route. Possible road.