Dormient Potential - 8.

 

8.

“Are you sure she is asleep and we can go?” Aizawa asked the nurse monitoring Eri’s state.

“Yes, one hundred percent sure,” the short-haired woman smiled.

The pro hero looked one last time at the small figure sleeping in the hospital bed.

“You need to rest, too, sensei,” Mirio said quietly and both men left the building, walking down the long corridor to reach the staircase.

They got into a maroon car with a spacious boot. Mirio took the driver seat and Shota sat in the front passenger seat. The third year student started the vehicle and pulled to the road, driving smoothly.

“Do you think they will find any of her relatives who will actually take care of Eri?” Mirio asked after a few minutes, breaking the silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but Mirio was a really talkative person.

“I bet they won’t,” Aizawa replied, laying his cheek on his hand.

“So, what happens after that?”

“The UA will take care of her, I am sure. We will keep an eye on her and maybe train her in the future. We have to find out how exactly her Quirk works, but who knows, maybe she will help you get yours back.”

“That would be amazing,” Mirio said, slowly nodding his head, a hint of hope in his expression.

The young man gazed at his teacher from time to time.

“If you want to say something, say it,” he sighed, being aware of the student’s behavior.

“It’s just… Just a random thought that you have quite a lot of experience raising students with complicated quirks, right? The problem child for example. And the most recent UA’s accession.”

“Okaido? She didn’t show any progress since she got here,” he said, lifting his eyelids a little, just to gaze at Mirio. “Quirk progress, that is,” he clarified after a few seconds.

“She told me about the grapple and your suggestion with bo shurikens during the beauty contest. She seems very motivated and she admires you a lot.”

Aizawa looked intensely at his student and Mirio met his gaze for a second, before looking at the road again.

“She told about all of this as if it happened only thanks to you,” Mirio informed. “No offense, of course. Don’t get me wrong, just the way she…”

“I get the point, Mirio. I’m not mad,” Aizawa assured.

Mirio nodded and focused on the road.

“Admires me, huh?” he thought to himself and pulled out the phone out of his pocket. He scrolled through the contact list to find the one labelled “Joke”.

“Excuse me, Mirio. I have to call someone.”

“Sure thing, I will cover my ears,” he replied jokingly.

Shota pressed the green receiver icon and brought the phone to his ear. After a few buzzes, he heard a familiar voice:

“Eraser! Changed your mind on going out with me?” she asked immediately.

“No. I actually wanted to ask you something.”

“Like a favor? OK, in exchange let’s go on a date.”

“Joke! I am not asking you on a date, stop being under those delusions,” he snapped and she laughed.

“I love teasing you. What’s up?”

“Do you know Okaido Mariko?” he asked.

“Yea, she was in my class, why?”

“Tell me something about her, how was she like in your school?”

“What, did she hit on you?”

Shota rolled his eyes and was considering hanging up for a second.

“OK, OK, grumpy guy. So what do you want to know and why?”

“Why did the school dismiss her?”

“Wait, is she in the UA?”

“Joke, please, answer my question first.”

“She was stopping other students’ progress that was the reason.”

“Can you be more precise?”

There was a few seconds of silence on the other side.

“From what we were able to find out, her Quirk is highly dependent on her emotions. We were in contact with her previous school, they basically advised us not to accept her at all, but we wanted to give her a chance as her general knowledge and non-Quirk abilities were all fine.”

“Did they say why?”

“They dropped her after the provisional hero license. They said that because of her no one passed the exam. She debuffed her whole class, slowing them down and their exam was exactly the same as first part of this year’s exam, so that was the end for them. May I know why you are asking about that?”

“Yes. She is in the UA.”

“Oh, seriously? Why?”

“She pleaded Nezu to help her with her Quirk as she cannot control it.”

“So you can get to the UA, the best hero school in Japan just by pleading?” Ms. Joke asked.

“Not just by pleading,” Aizawa replied, pursing his eyebrows, annoyed. “Tell me more.”

“Ehh, so when she was in our school and another hero license exam was about to start, we said that we are not going to let her participate in it, unless she shows that she is able not to get in the way of other students.”

“Is that what you told her?”

“More or less,” Ms. Joke replied.

“Are you kidding me? And you are a teacher?”

“You didn’t even want to become one!” she replied, nervously chuckling.

“Correct and I wouldn’t say something so ridiculous,” he ran his rhymes.

Ms. Joke paused and stirred the glass of water with her hand movement, nodding without saying anything.

“Maybe he’s right,” she thought to herself.

“Anyway, we wanted to duel her. We let her create two teams and choose on which one she would prefer to be and then we switched her to the other, because we thought that those will be the people she doesn’t get along with. It was kind of a stress test,” she continued as Aizawa listened with his eyes closed, marking every detail in his mind. “So it turned out horrible. We basically hit her sensitive spot and she lost control over her emotions. I’ve never seen anything like that. Not only in school, but like… in general. I’ve never seen such Quirk. There was some kind of energy field around her, that made you lose your confidence and you were feeling… drained. Like out of energy as if you were working out all day and all you wanted to do was to lay down in your bed and sleep. I had to fight her myself, but I couldn’t. I needed backup. And nearly all of the students couldn’t do anything. They were attacking her, but they were pissing her off even more. We saw that she was trying to fight it.”

“How did it look like, the struggle?”

“As if she had two personalities or more like an inner demon.”

“So you decided to stop teaching her, because she was dangerous?” he asked, unable to hide disbelief in his voice.

There was silence on the line.

“Dismissing the kid who probably has some traumas, who is unable to control the Quirk, instead of changing the teaching methods, huh? Great idea,” sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“We were worried, Aizawa. Especially after the Kamino incident, when hero society found out about All for One. Can you imagine him getting this kind of Quirk?”

“That is even more reasons not to dismiss her!” he exclaimed, eyes wide open, hint of red burning in his irises like hellfire.

“I am sorry, Eraser. I made a mistake, I admit that. I should have tried to convince the principal to keep her.”

“I am not the one you should be apologizing to,” he said, running his hand through the hair, trying to calm himself down. “Anyway, that’s all I needed. Thanks.”

“Sorry I didn’t do anything more,” Ms. Joke replied honestly.

Shota listened to dead silence for a few more seconds before hanging up.

 

In the same time Mariko was punishing herself with hard workout. She was alone in one of the school gyms that Hitoshi showed her, practicing strikes on a hanging punch bag, after strengthening her back, abs and leg muscles.

“Wow, how long have you been training today?” she heard Hitoshi's voice and turned around to see him in the gym entrance, close to a row of treadmills.

“I don't even know,” she replied honestly, reaching for a bottle of water that was already empty. “Ehh..”

“Here,” Hitoshi handed her his bottle and nodded slightly when she thanked him. “You have the same expression, as a few days ago.”

“What expression?” Mariko asked, returning the bottle to the boy.

“I don't know, you tell me. For me it looks a bit like concern.”

Okaido rubbed her face with her hands.

“It's just... There is something that I am holding and I was thinking about telling you, but...”

“If you don't feel like you can trust me, then keep it for yourself,” Hitoshi replied, his voice reassuring.

“Nah, I actually trust you, even though we don't know each other for so long,” Mariko replied. “It's just. I feel embarrassed even thinking about that myself.”

“I don't think that you did something a regular human is not capable of.”

Mariko ran her hand through her hair, looking at the bright ceiling.

“I... I think I am falling in love. Or maybe I already have.”

“And that's it? Why would you feel embarrassed because of it?”

“It's the person I fell for,” Mariko bit her bottom lip, looking uneasy at Hitoshi.

The boy looked around the room.

“Are we alone here?” he asked.

“Yea, you are the first one to come here in like an hour or something.”

“OK,” he replied and couldn't help but smirk. “It's Aizawa, isn't it?”

Mariko looked at him with blushed cheeks and fear in her eyes.

“How could you tell?!” she asked, panicking.

“Chill, chill. We spent quite a lot of time together. I mean all three of us. I just noticed some stuff,” he waved his hand, looking at the other side of the room.

“What do you mean 'some stuff'?”

“You look at him a lot but you run away when he makes eye contact. That's what I've noticed. Plus I think he also overawes you, so it just felt natural for me to come to this kind of conclusion,” Hitoshi grinned.

“So if you figured it out so quickly, he must be aware, too!” she grabbed her head and crouched, looking at the floor with eyes wide open.

“Not necessarily, but it's not impossible.”

“My God, what did I do?”

“C'mon, stop it. You cannot really control who you fall in love with, right? Plus, from what I've heard if you try to stop it, it might get out of control. Instead of ending it, you might actually increase the feelings. I myself was never in love, but let's say I am a good observer and listener.”

Mariko looked up at Hitoshi and thanked herself deep in her heart that she made all of these decisions that led her to meeting the young man. Even though he was nearly 17, his mentality was more mature. He didn't make fun of her, instead he was reassuring her.

“But you know, this kind of relationship is pretty forbidden,” he said.

“I am absolutely aware... But to be honest I don't even know who I am in this school. Like, look at me. I don't attend classes, I don't wear school uniforms. And the fact that I kind of failed the test which was supposed to decide if I stay here or not... It all doesn't make much sense to me.”

“What kind of test did you have?”

“Mr. Aizawa wanted me to fight him.”

“Oh,” Hitoshi said.

“Yea, but I was so pathetic. When I think about it now, I cannot help but be mad at myself.”

“Aren't you a bit too hard on yourself?”

“No. I don't deserve to think that I did well. Because I see myself as worthless at this point. Even a kiddo from kindergarten is most likely better than me.”

“Hey, hey. You are getting a bit too far with that,” Hitoshi placed a hand on her shoulder, lowering himself to her eye level.

“Am I? Do you know anyone else that failed their schools so many times? It's just... You don't know everything, Hitoshi. I might tell you once. But it is extremely painful for me to think and talk about it. But I have reasons to hate myself.”

“Hate yourself?” Hitoshi repeated in his mind, looking concerned at the girl that stood up and started punching the bag again. Her strikes were different than the ones he saw when he got to the gym. It looked as if she was trying to hurt herself. The hits were powerful and she wasn't using any protection on her hands – no gloves or bandages over her fists.

“You are correct. I don't know anyone, who failed so many times. But I also don't know anyone that wouldn't give up after all those attempts that you've made,” the young man said and observed as she stopped, with her fists halfway to the target. Neither did she say anything nor turned towards him. But he knew that she had to hear something like that. And he was glad all of this was true.

“I will go jogging. Just wanted to check in on you. See you later,” Hitoshi said and glanced one last time at the young woman.

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