Anger Management

A week has since passed without any attacks happening, and without any extra information from Pride. A constant watch has kept him in check without any escape, meanwhile our training with Gaia has finally finished.
"Good job you two! That's good steady progr-"
"QUIET!"
Suddenly, a hero who had also been using the training grounds shouts at Gaia.
"EVERY DAMN DAY! No peace! No quie-"
Just as sudden as the shout came, it went, as he goes quiet when he makes eye contact with Gaia. I look at her and a chill goes down my spine. Her eyes were cold, and seemed almost deadly.
Before long he runs out of the room, leaving us alone again which is when Tarou asks.
"What was that about?"
Gaia turns to us, her face now normal, bearing a nice smile.
"Just a bunch of guys that have been getting jumpy. This is what I mean when I say to get some rest, you don't want to end up like that guy right?"
"YES COACH!"
'A bunch of guys...?'
"There's more?"
Gaia sighs before replying.
"Yeah, more and more of them are starting to get on my nerves. It's not like they're getting overworked, so I'm not sure why they'd be so frustrated..."

Suddenly Gaia gets a message and checks her phone.
"Huh? Can't be right..."
She types out a reply and puts it back in her pocket.
"Anything wrong coach?"
"No. Probably some jokester pranking the phone line. We get them sometimes, so I told them to double check the request."
Tarou hears that and gets fired up.
"Pranking us?! Who would do that?!"
Gaia smiles at him and says.
"Just because we help people doesn't mean we're immune to pranks. At least it means someone's life out there is so devoid of problems that they do something like this. So in a way, it means we're succeeding."
'Succeeding, yeah, Gaia did turn this place around like she said.
Wait...'
"Gaia, does that mean you'll eventually go?"
The moment he hears that Tarou spins around to look at me, eyes widen as he realizes. Gaia can already feel the complain coming from him and immediately answers.
"Relax, relax. I'm not going any time soon, don't worry."
Tarou immediately sighs with relief at Gaia's answer.
"It's true I came here to shape this up but... I might make a formal request to stay here, I like the area."
Then she smiles widely at me before continuing.
"...Aaaand, I do love my sweet nephew! Come here!"
She pulls me in for a hug, which, after a moment of embarrassment making me blush, I give in and hug her back.
"Can I join in too?"
Tarou looked at us with glistening eyes, to which Gaia nods before bringing him in too.
"Yay! I love you guys!"
"Yeah, you're a good one too leader boy. Make sure you keep staying as nice throughout everything."
"I will!"
"You too little Kazu."
I look up at her, confused.
"What? Call it advice from a young beauty, life will undoubtedly try and break you, don't let it."
'Young beauty...'
I blush slightly, and give her a nod.

"SCREW YOU!"
Ruining this sweet moment are sudden noises and shouts from outside the room, grabbing our attention as Gaia ends the hug and, with annoyed look, starts walking towards the door, with us following close behind.
"The hell..."
Before I realize it, Gaia slams the door open and continues talking.
"...IS GOING ON HERE?!"

The scene in front of us was of two heroes going at each others throats, shouting and fighting, with a third hero shouting back at them, clearly about to join in the fight as others around attempted to stop it.
"YOU TWO ARE ALWAYS AT IT, ARE YOU EVEN HEROES, I SHOULD PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE RIGHT NOW."
Just as the third guy shouts and is about run to fight them, Gaia immediately kicks him from behind, launching him straight against a wall, knocking him out.
Slowly she walks forward, with her overwhelming presence causing the two to stop fighting as they look towards her.
"I said. The hell. Is going on. OVER HERE?!"
The two of them shiver in place before finally coming to their senses and dropping to the floor, bowing deeply with their foreheads on the floor as they both shouted an apology.
"P-PLEASE! WE'RE SORRY."

Gaia then turns to us and urges us to leave as our training is finished for the day.
"Go on and rest, I'll take care of these guys."
We start heading for the exit when I pause and turn back, watching to see what will happen.

"I don't know what came over me! I'm sorry."
"WHEN I COME BACK TOMORROW I EXPECT TO SEE THIS PLACE SPOTLESS! We'll see what else you both will have to do after that."

'I think that's a bigger punishment than what Thunder got...'
A moment later I turn back and continue to the exit, catching up with Tarou.
'I got practice to do at home.'

...

A day goes by and we're in the middle of training when suddenly some different person from yesterday bursts through the door, with an angry walk, marching towards a bookcase.
Gaia turns to him slightly annoyed but with a confused look.
"Are you alright?"
He turns to her with an angry look.
"Am I Alright? WHAT DO YOU THINK?"
"Hey, no need for shouting-"
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! MATTER OF FACT, I'LL SHOW YOU HOW ALRIGHT I AM!"
A sudden glow comes over him as he's about to cast some sort of magic, but in an instant Gaia rushes to him and uppercuts straight into the ceiling, knocking him out on the spot.
"Tsk, now why would you do that?"
Gaia quickly calls someone to come grab him and send him to nurse Ruby, and then walks over back to a shocked Tarou and I.
"Anyway, shall we continue?"
"Y- Yes coach..."
"Yeah..."

...

It was a tough, but great training as it ends with all of us smiling wide.
'I feel like I made huge progress!'
"Now that's what I call training, we were on fire today! Days like these don't come oft-"
Suddenly, almost like it's routine, the door gets slammed open as a person walks in, already grunting and shouting to herself, causing Gaia to let out an annoyed sigh.
"...Again with this?"
Gaia turns around, already annoyed, to see who just walked in.
The woman, spotting Gaia looking at her, then shouts.
"What? I CAN'T BE HERE? I'M SUPPOSED TO ONLY HEAL PEOPLE AND CAN'T GET STRONGER, IS THAT IT?! I WILL-"
Without hesitation Gaia rushes forward and immediately knocks her out with a punch.

Tarou and I glance at each other before looking at Gaia.
"Coach?"
"I had to do it. Something's wrong."
I walk over to her with Tarou following behind.
"What is it? Who's that."
"Strawberry, a hero that has good healing magic. She's usually quite sweet."
'Sweet? ...Really?'
She crouches down to check on her.
"I thought people were getting jumpy, but that's clearly not the case."
My eyes widen for a moment as I realize, making eye contact with Gaia as she turns to me and says.
"It might be happening again."

...

After ensuring Strawberry is taken to a room to rest and be healed, Gaia tells us to follow her, which we do to a familiar room.

'I haven't been here since I traced that bag...'

We sit down and she starts explaining.
"Clearly it's happening again. It might be someone from the same group.
At first I didn't even notice, but more and more there's been people shouting and fighting, with it now affecting you thanks to all the interruptions."
Tarou stays silent, trying to just pay attention and not wanting to interrupt, when I ask.
"Do you know why it's happening?"
Gaia shakes her head and then says.
"No. What I do know is it seems to only be heroes, and that they are quick to fight, which is why I immediately knocked Strawberry out back then, I didn't want to risk her potentially hurting you two."
Tarou looks at me then back at her before asking.
"So what do we do?"
"Honestly I don't know, if this keeps going, it will turn this whole HQ back into a mess. For now try to steer clear of everyone, as I said, I don't know how it spreads."
We both nod and stand up ready to leave, when a message comes in, which Gaia quickly checks.
"Oh! Some good news for once, well, for one of you."
We look at each other before Gaia continues.
"Snowball!"
"Yes coach!"
"We've got a request perfect for you. It's small enough that it can be assigned to Little Heroes, and lucky for me, there's one right here.
I'll send the details to the receptionist, so you can go grab it from her. Use this opportunity to get more experience."
"Understood!"
With that Tarou turns around and quickly leaves the room with a huge smile on his face.

'I guess I'll go practice at home now.'
Before I can leave however, Gaia grabs my shoulder and tells me to follow her.
"Maybe we can get some info now."
'...!'

...

Pride keeps staring down, just casually squirming like usual, not answering any of Gaia's questions.
"Well, so far it's the same. It takes a while but I had to try the usual questions first.
But say, Pride, do you want to know something interesting?"
"..."
"It's just been getting a bit crazy out there, you know?
People have just suddenly gotten a lot more angry."
The moment Pride hears that, he flinches, which Gaia immediately notices.
"You know anything about that?"
"..."
"Perhaps a teammate of yours?"
Another flinch, and with it, Gaia obtained the answers she wanted.
"Understood, thanks for cooperating."
"...Huh?"
Pride, hearing that, suddenly speaks.
"No... I'm... Silent..."
Gaia smiles and turns to leave, leaving him with a last message.
"Yes, you are."

...

I follow Gaia back, all the way to the lobby.
"So, it's a teammate?"
"Yes. Which means all the anger might be yet another illegal type of magic, like Pride's memory control."
I look at her, confused.
"What kind of magic makes people angry though?"
She looks at me with a serious look.
"Mind bending magic."
I look at her without saying anything.
'...I didn't know that existed.
I wonder if my necklace...
...Is that why?'

The serious moment doesn't last long however as she grabs my hand and leads me outside.
"Well no matter, want me to take you home? We haven't been able to see each other there often... I get here so early after all, and by the time I get home you're often already in your room."
"We see each other here all day..."
"That's not the same! Come on!"
I look at the wide smile she has on her face and can't help but accept.
"Great! Let's go then."
'Beats having to walk...'

We leave the HQ and head towards the nearby parking lot when we meet Tarou who was slowly heading back.
"Oh! Leader boy, how was it? Did you get that experience?"
He looks up and sees us holding hands.
"...Annoying."
"What was that?"
'He looks strange...'
Suddenly he shouts.
"Ugh, so annoying!"