Akira smiled as she entered her favorite bookstore, a small hole-in-the-wall that had a surprising variety despite how humble it looked. It was a mix of new and old; a lot of older books, some used even, to draw in the bookworms looking to add to their collection, but also enough of the most recent and popular books to keep the store itself relevant. At the very least, it had enough regulars to keep itself afloat despite the prices there not being much better than most of the bigger, more mainstream bookstores. Plus, the staff knew her well there and didn't judge her based on her appearance, so bonus points there. Akira wasn't a super-heavy reader, but it was still nice to go there once in a while just to relax.

That said, she was there for one purpose, and one purpose only. The latest volume of her father's long-running novel series was out, and there was no way she was missing out on getting a copy. It was a fairly popular action series written by her father; retired Pro Hero, Heatwave. The series, "The Unwavering Hero's Path" (often shortened to just just "Hero's Path") was a collection of episodic stories loosely based on his career as a hero, and he doesn't make this a secret. For the most part, names are changed and many of the events are either exaggerated or downplayed as needed for the sake of making it an interesting read, but one with enough history knowledge would be able to find the parallels to actual people and/or events.

It wasn't as though he was legally obligated to do this; he'd be perfectly fine if he were to actually make this a story about the former Pro Hero Heatwave. It was just a stylistic choice on his part. Either way, it had a simple and easy-to-follow style of storytelling that made it popular with younger readers, but her father never went out of his way to dumb anything down, nor was he afraid to occasionally explore darker and more mature subjects while still keeping it mostly kid-friendly. Thus, it was equally popular among teenagers and young adults. It probably wasn't going to win any major literature awards anytime soon, but many of its fans agreed that it was a simple-but-fun series, and it was written just well enough to keep them hooked.

Akira was no exception. Since he wrote it under a pseudonym, she didn't even know her father was the author for a good few months after she got hooked on it, but regardless, it was a big part of what inspired her to be a Hero; some day, she wanted to be able to have experiences on par with the stories her father so lovingly wrote about. Of course, he often insisted that she didn't have to actually buy them; he could just as easily make a copy of the finished manuscript and let her read that. But where was the fun in that? Either way, after grabbing a copy, she scanned the back and was surprised when she saw an unexpected announcement; a manga adaptation of "The Unwavering Hero's Path" had been greenlit.

"No kidding..." She said quietly to herself "...he was always so resistant to that idea...wonder what convinced him to go through with it...I'll have to ask when I get home."