Now that our first semester is over. My classmates and I are out for summer vacation. But that doesn't mean we have time to relax. I spent most of my free time in Hosu, having asked if I could continue interning at Edgeshot's agency where I continue to improve my quirk, I'm starting to get to the point where I can use the. We've got a training camp in the woods soon, and I would much rather, be as prepared as possible. There are times when I wish my life didn't pan out this way, but if it hadn't, I doubt I'd be the same person I am. Even then, it won't stop me. Ever again.

Chapter 18: If It Means A Lot To You

Kyoreki Raijin yawns as he pulls open a door, he slouches as he leans on the receptionist's window. "Hey, Mrs. Toshiyuki."

"Bad dreams?"

"No sleep." Raijin says with a joking smile.

"You're here earlier than usual for your appointment, Mr. Raijin."

"Yeah, I was actually hoping to be done sooner, and given everything that's happened since I was last here, I figured I'd be here a while." Raijin says bluntly.

"Well, you're lucky. The person before you canceled last minute."

"Oof, any idea what happened?"

"Car crash."

"Yikes." Raijin cringes, wincing slightly at the reason given. "So... can I head straight in?"

"Oh yeah, sure go ahead."

Raijin chuckles at her as he walks to the back, he walks to the office door and reads the name on the door. "Dr. Ishikari." He takes a breath before he knocks on the door and taking a step back, he waits roughly two maybe three. He inhaled sharply as the door opened, the Doctor smiles seeing him. "Kyo. It's nice to see you, you're early."

"Yeah, I figured there was a lot I had to explain, considering I didn't see you after the Internship. Got new songs to show off too." Raijin shrugs.

"Well my patient before you canceled, lets you move you up."

"Aight." Raijin shrugs walking into the room, he grabs from a satchel his journal and places it down on the coffee table gently. He sits on the sofa and grabs his phone opening Spotify he presses the phone twice and Renaissance by Eminem starts playing.

Dr. Ishikari smiles softly as the album begins playing, she bobs her head to the music while reading Raijin's three pages on the last writing prompt he was given, by the time she's read through it all a few songs have passed and the song playing is Fuel by Eminem, featuring JID.

"You went into much more detail than you normally do with these prompts, tell me, what happened?"

"One of my classmates, his brother was attacked by The Hero Killer. The brother's alive, but he'll never be a hero again. My classmate... he had a look in his eyes, one I recognized. It was vengeance. That's all he had on his mind when we left for our internships." Raijin leans back his mind flashing back to the events leading up to the battle against Stain. "Honestly it didn't suit him. He still has his brother. His brother is still alive.  I get he was angry about what had happened, but, if I'm being honest, he should be grateful."

"Grateful?"

"He still has his brother, doesn't he?"

"You're comparing his situation to you and your mother?"

"Of course. If I hadn't, he'd probably be dead."

"That's right, you're one of the students who saw the Hero Killer up close. Were you scared?"

"Not really, most of the situation I didn't really feel anything but the need to save someone. Honestly, it felt like I was on an autopilot for most of the internship, just trying to help someone in pain. Is that what you feel when you're dealing with my shit?"

"No. I see someone in pain and my first instinct is to hug them. Then comfort them properly."

Raijin laughs slightly at her response. "Yeah, well after the internship we had our final exams, passed with flying colors by the way."

"That's good. You're still remembering to do well in your classes."

"Yeah, yeah. As boring as my classes are, they're not exactly the hardest out there. Honestly, I could sleep through most of my classes and still pass. I actually wanna be home before a certain time today, so unfortunately, I would like to request that be done here before..." Raijin looks at the clock behind her. "...roughly 8:45 this morning."

"Really? You even got here earlier, and you want to be out before your usual time?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, it's just I'm sort of expecting some visitors today, and was hoping to have enough time to clean up, maybe catch up on some missed sleep."

"I was going to ask, you look more tired than usual, which considering how you described your sleep schedule in the past wouldn't strike me as unusual, but it seems worse today."

"I sort of forgot about the writing prompt in all the madness of the last two weeks, barely did it last night, didn't get much sleep."

Dr. Ishikari clicks her tongue, looking down at Raijin with minor disappointment. "Kyoreki, that's not good." She sighs. "You had an eventful week, but I heard you're going on a weeklong trip so, I'll try to make this prompt easier since you likely won't have as much time as usual to work on it."

"Aight. I'm happy to take a lighter prompt. Maybe this time I won't stay up all night." Raijin jokes. At this point, the album has reached Houdini.

"You find yourself in a situation where you and a friend are both at risk. How do you save your friend while not harming yourself in the process?"

Raijin takes a moment to write the prompt at the top of a page before he nods and extends a hand. "I don't think I've done this since we first met. Thank you." Raijin leaves his hand extended to Dr. Ishikari, for a moment she glances at the hand before offering a small smile and shaking his hand.

"It's always a pleasure to talk with you, Mr. Raijin."

Kyoreki sighs while standing up and walks out when he gets to the front he finds his uncle waiting at the window talking with the receptionist. The two are smiling and talking, having not noticed him enter the room. He shakes his head, and steps between the pair. "Yo."

"Oh, Mr. Raijin, didn't see you return." Toshiyuki looks down at her computer, her blush visible to everyone. She types away for a moment before reaching over for a small card. "S-So we'll see you again in two weeks, is that okay, Mr. Raijin?"

"Yeah, should be good." Kyoreki shrugs, accepting the card and turning to walk out of the office. As soon as he stepped outside he grabbed his phone and noticed a message from Midoriya. He raises an eyebrow and reads the message out loud for his uncle to hear. ""Kaminari & Mineta invited me to the pool for endurance training, so I figured I'd invite the rest of the class, including you, Raijin." Fuck it. Hey, Pa." Raijin says as he opens the door to his uncle's car. "Drop me off at the school, someone just got invited to the pool."

"You don't swim though?"

"I know."

"Why would you go to the pool."

"Teach some perverts a lesson."

Without a second thought, his uncle opens the door to the car. In a few minutes, Raijin was exiting the car, and heading to the pool himself. He quickly changes his pants to shorts and applies a small amount of sunscreen. He opens his locker and grabs something he didn't think he'd have to use just yet. He makes his way out to the pool, he looks up finding Iida and Bokasu to be the only two there before him.

"Yo."

"What are you wearing, Raijin?!" Iida asks.

"I don't swim." Raijin says bluntly. "Doesn't mix well with my quirk."

"You should still work on your endurance without your quirk." Iida suggests. "And why did you bring a cooler that doesn't belong to the school onto school property?!"

"It's drinks for the class. Well, technically it was supposed to be drinks for me, but, I figured I'd share since you'll all be in the sun for most of the day." Raijin answers honestly. "I'll have refilled it before we go on the camp trip anyway. Also, they're finally here." Raijin smirks walking away from Iida, to set up his small section of the area, he places down a car battery and connects a fan to it. With a small zap from his quirk, the fan turns on, giving him a gentle breeze flowing over him as he sits on a foldable chair and starts reading a book. Raijin smirks as Kaminari and Mineta are distraught by the school uniforms the girls are wearing. He watches as Iida approaches the pair.

"Kaminari, Mineta, nice work. I'm proud of you for suggesting more training. You're all assets to our class. Let me thank you." Raijin laughs internally, a deep cackle, at their suffering as Iida goes for a hug on the duo. Raijin tries not to smile as he notices that Kirishima and Bakugo aren't there yet. Raijin keeps reading his book to two songs, the first is the cheerful volleyball game the girls are having and the hard sweaty work the boys are doing. He doesn't look up until Iida calls for a 15-minute breather.

"Just an FYI for everyone, I've got sodas, energy drinks, water, and some juice in this thing, so if you want some come here."

"Thanks, class VP." Sero cheers. "This is just what I needed!"

"Hey, hey, don't call me VP. That's YaoMomo." Raijin scolds Tape Boy. Raijin resumes reading as his drinks are taken one by one and the guys of the class sit together talking with Raijin more or less acting like a supervisor. Raijin doesn't look up from his book again until a shadow stands over him.

"Hey, Raijin, can I have a word with you, alone?"

Raijin looks up confused. "Sure?" There's a brief pause, as the two simply stare at each other, Raijin dressed to relax, wearing shorts, a Green Day T-shirt, and sunglasses, in front of him Iida, wearing swim trunks. "So? What's up, Iida?"

"How long have we known each other? You and me."

"How long have we known each other?" Raijin asks confused. "Since I transferred to Somei Academy I think, so about five years now?"

"I didn't know this until recently, but now that I do, I wanted to apologize." Iida speaks quietly to Raijin, even though no one is watching them, not a single soul is listening, he still speaks quietly.

"For what?" Raijin raises his sunglasses resting them on the top of his head as he looks upwards.

"For always being so hard on you." Iida takes a moment to stare at his injured hand. "I understand now, at least a little how you must have felt when we first met. After all, we're both family to amazing heroes."

Raijin takes a deep breath. "You're referring to my attitude towards heroes back then?"

"Yes, I am. You, the son of LiveWire, and me the brother of Ingenium. We both have ties to many heroes. And while I was strict and never gave up, it was because I never experienced the pain you did. So I simply couldn't relate."

"But now that, Stain took your brother's career away, you wanted to apologize for all that?" Raijin says bluntly. What was once no one listening has become two. Bokasu and Midoriya.

"In a sense, Yes."

"Thanks, but... there was never a need to apologize." Raijin speaks honestly grabbing a grape soda from his cooler. "That's why I helped you in Hosu. I knew what was going through your mind that week." Raijin cracks open the can. "After all, it's what's been circling in mine for the last five years. But, you had people like Midoriya, and Todoroki, and somehow, even I was able to inspire you to be the hero you always should've been. However, I didn't have that." Raijin stops to take a sip of his soda, Todoroki has now joined the duo listening to the conversation. "I was told from the day she died, that I would be a hero... but I didn't want that... truth be told, I still don't know if I ever want to be a hero. So please, hold the apology, for just a bit longer. Once I have my answer to my question, then you can decide whether to apologize or not." Raijin sighs and stands with a small smile. "Besides, we don't need to be all grumpy today. Let's just enjoy one of our days off."

Iida nods. "Yeah."

Raijin sighs when not long after they make the training a contest. He eventually ends up trying not to laugh at how they go, ultimately choosing to not participate. He tries, again, not to laugh as both Bakugo and Todoroki don't even touch the water. The final three end up being Bakugo, Todoroki, and Midoriya. He finally laughs as just before they start the final race Aizawa arrives and ruins their fun.

When the day is over Raijin walks to the train station. He places his earbuds on waiting at the platform, he's about to grab his phone when he feels a hand on his shoulder, in a blink he sees something, but quickly takes a breath before turning to the person. Yui looks up at him with a soft smile.

"Hello, Kodai." Raijin says with his own smile. She nods, in recognition the pair turn their heads to the train itself as it arrives, he lets her on ahead of him, even offering her a seat, and standing next to her. The two remain comfortably in each other presence for several minutes, that is until Raijin feels a tug on his sleeve, he looks over to see a girl with short red hair and piercing blue eyes looking up at him starry-eyed. "Can I help you?" He asks taking off one of his earbuds.

"Um... You're Raijin Kyoreki, right?" The girl asks.

"I'm Kyoreki, yes?"

"I... I was wondering if you could sign this for me!" The girl nearly shouts as she tries to hand him an 8x10 of him at the sports festival, the picture is of him with his gym uniform torn and tattered just before the end of his fight with Bakugo.

"Uh, sure, but I don't have a marker or pen..." Raijin replies uncomfortably. Yui silently stands, handing him a marker, she stands close to him, as he leans back, she places a hand on his shoulder, she holds him gently as he takes the paper and signs it rather quickly. The girl thanks him once she receives the paper and worms her way through the train back to her friends. Raijin's breathing is rapid, as he watches her walk away and, for a moment sees his mother, he tries to look away but his eyes remain locked on her. Yui seeing this maintains her grip on him, she watches him closely and as gently as she can guides him to sit in her seat, he grips the pole next to the chair so tightly his knuckles are turning white, Yui stays with him the entire ride, once they reach their stop she helps him get home, holding him the entire time.

Chapter End.

Authors Note - So, I'm gonna be honest here. The therapy scene in this chapter is based on an actual session I had in therapy back when I was in High School. So while it's short and honestly not that great, it was based on an actual event.