The 9 Millimeter Kiss

Chapter 57

School was bearable.

Yuki only had one place where he felt he could relax and that was Matsuda's office. He was kind and hardly ever raised his voice at the boy. He was patient and never really forced anything out of him. His fights with classmates didn't happen as often. But when they did he was usually sent to Matsuda for the remainder of the day. Teachers tried to get him to cooperate in class but no one wanted to befriend a walking target for paper spitballs.

It was bearable.

Even when he went to school with dirty clothes and visible bruises decorating his arms. Even when he went back to the house, the yelling and hitting didn't feel as bad as it had when he'd first gotten there. Yuki had long since gotten used to the smell of beer and tried his best to block out the smell of tobacco. He didn't flinch as hard when the belt came upon him. Or cry as much as he used to.

It was bearable.

Talking with Matsuda after school was nice. Prolonging his time with the counselor was worth it. Having someone to genuinely help him with homework was nice. Matsuda had even offered to let him stay during lunch times. With no money or lunch for him to eat, Matsuda was generous enough to offer him some of his lunch.

With Matsuda, he was safe...

Yuki was seemingly the only student in the small school to ever go to Matsuda's office as regularly as he did. He supposed the counselor would eventually get tired of being or seeing him so often he'd start sending him back to class as soon as possible. Quite the opposite happened. Matsuda-sensei took it upon himself to teach Yuki what materials it was he would be missing during class. It was as if he was a private tutor of sorts.

Though one of the few academic obstacles Yuki faced was trying to not get too far ahead, at least according to the teachers. Matsuda-sensei encouraged it. Someday's even just allowing Yuki to spend the entire day at the library reading what he liked. Other's, Yuki would entertain what silly games Matsuda-sensei would come up with.

"You have a quirk?" Matsuda asked. Yuki was in the middle of telling him more about his friend Mai and had just glossed over that small detail.

"Yeah." Yuki confirmed, returning to his math homework. "After that Mai kept doing these small experiments to see what I could do. We made a promise to go to U.A. someday."

Matsuda raised an eyebrow. "Your file says you're quirkless."

"The people who come to pick me up and take me somewhere else said it cost money to fix it. So they're leaving it like that." Yuki shrugged, looking over his finished assignment.

"So, what is your quirk?" Matsuda amusely asked.

"Healing." Yuki mumbled before handing the paper to Matsuda. "Did I do #5 right?"

Matsuda took the paper. "A healing quirk? That's quite a rare one."

"Mai said so too." Yuki nodded swingin his legs. "She told me I could help cure diseases and be a doctor!" he grinned.