Rise up

~46~

I knocked on the dark-stained wooden door waiting for a response. Once I hear a quiet 'come in' I turn the knob stepping into the office. I glance around the office and notice a woman sitting at the desk in the center of the room. As she looks up and meets my gaze she stands up revealing how tall she really is.

I have to lean my head back just to keep eye contact with her. She seems to be pretty young, maybe late 20's, and over six feet tall. Jet black straight hair frames her face stopping right at her collar bones and her eyes are rare dark forest green.

"You must be Miss Takami. I'm Quinn Xander, call me Dr. Xander," She greeted sweetly as she walked around the desk to offer her hand.

I lazily shake her hand back and glance back at the clock on the wall. "So how long does this last?" I scratch the back of my neck already anxious to get out of here.

"Typically around 30 minutes," Dr. Xander speaks up, moving to take a seat at one of the chairs in the center of the room. She motions with her hand for me to seat myself in the other chair before continuing, "But judging by your body language and attitude alone that might not be your case. I have no problem keeping you here longer until you give me a little cooperation."

I plop down on the surprisingly comfy chair and scoff, "For a therapist shouldn't you be more rainbows and sunshine. Like 'think of your happy place' and 'it's okay to be down sometimes but I will help solve all your problems'."

"I may be your therapist, but I'm not here to baby you. I'm here to make progress and assist you when necessary. The whole rainbows and sunshine doesn't work well with everyone and judging from our brief interaction you are one of those people."

I chuckle a bit, "Okay Dr. Xander, where do we start?"

Dr. Xander flips through the file in her hand before looking back up at me. "I already know everything about you on paper so first I'll allow you to question me. You aren't the easily trusting type I presume. Next session we can cover more of what we are here for."

"Alright," I hum tapping my chin thinking of a question. "Quinn Xander, that's an American name. You're from America, so how'd you end up here?"

"Yep, I was born in America, but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was offered to me here."

I watch as she writes something down as she speaks. I tilt my head trying to figure it out but it's a bad angle. I mumble another question when she notices my gaze, "Do you have a quirk, or I'm guessing you would be a hero if you did right?"

"Not everyone with a quirk wants to be a hero," She sighs, shaking her head. "I do have a quirk and it's mental manipulation. I can mess with people's emotions, enhancing them or dulling them. Also, I can control pain receptors in the brain and make them feel pain or numb any pain. Lastly, I can manipulate memories, I can have them play on repeat as they were or tweak them for better or worse."

My eyes widened slightly in surprise, "That is a pretty powerful and useful quirk in my opinion. What are the conditions for using your quirk? You have to touch the person or what?"

Dr. Xander smiles softly, "Thank you for the compliment and yes just a simple touch will do. I underwent harsh training to advance from having to keep in contact for it to work to just the grace of a hand."

"Have you been digging through my brain the entire time we have been talking," I ask, Dr. Xander shakes her head no, "I'm shocked, honestly thought you would have done it already."

"I'm not a complete asshole Takami," She chuckles a bit, shaking her head. She holds my gaze, speaking sternly the next instant, "But in future sessions, it will be helpful for me to take a look at some memories. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't be resistant about it when the time comes."

"I won't, I won't," I scoff, waving off her comment. I think back to her mentioning training her quirk, but why, she said she didn't want to be a hero. "Why did you train your quirk if you didn't want to become a hero? It's just usually only wannabe heroes ever do quirk training."

"Ah that," She hums, looking down holding a sad smile on her face. Dr. Xander glances back up at me, her next words cause me to freeze. "We have something in common. We both grew up in the commission."

I abruptly stand from my chair more than ready to get out of there. I can feel my blood begin to boil under my skin. "Esther sent you, didn't she?" I grab the bag I had placed next to my seat and throw it over my shoulder. "Ha, and I was starting to like you."

"Sit down," Dr. Xander says sternly and a calm feeling rushes over me. I try my best to keep the anger coursing through me so I can leave, but I know she is messing with my emotions. "Allow me to explain."

I try to raise my voice but it comes out as almost a whisper, "You're just a spy for her."

"I know you're smarter than that, Takami. If I was a spy why would I tell you that I was previously under the commission." She chuckles a bit, but I can't bring myself to feel angry anymore. "I was raised there and trained like you in hopes of becoming a well-known hero, but I no longer have any affiliation with them. I understand the hatred you feel towards that woman, I have felt it too."

"How did you even get away?"

"Esther doesn't want kids who aren't powerful or fit her high standards. This beauty right here helped me find a way out," She pulls at her pants by her ankle revealing a prosthetic leg. "I was on a trial mission when I lost it. Honestly, I wasn't trying hard to move out of the villain's way, hoping that I would become useless to Esther. After she found out I would lose the leg she tossed me aside like a broken toy."

"Tch, sounds like her," I scoff, rolling my eyes and realizing my emotions are entirely controlled by me again.

"From then I considered still aiming to be a Pro, but my feelings changed and I wanted to be able to help out in a different way. I then trained to be a therapist who helps heroes specifically." Dr. Xander pats her pant leg back down concealing the prosthetic. "I've wanted to help other kids in my situation, but Esther keeps her trainees on a tight leash. I heard that a prodigy from the commission would be attending UA, which is unheard of. After the villain attacks on your class, the school searched for a counselor to help their students and now here I am."

I take in the information that Dr. Xander just gave me debating if I should trust her. She stands up and speaks, cutting me out of my train of thought, "I don't expect you to trust me easily and that's fine. You are free to go for today, the next appointment will be at the same time next week."

I walk towards the door but stop once I'm right in front of it. I mumble to Xander over my shoulder, "Were you there at the same time I was?"

"Yes, I happened to catch a glimpse of you as a kid here or there. I was in the same class as Hawks after all."

I hum in understanding and swiftly open the door stepping out. Later I plan on calling Keigo to see if Dr. Xander's story checks out and then maybe I'll consider eventually trusting her.

~*~

"So what she told me is true?" I question Keigo through the phone as I sit on my bed in my dorm room. I glance at the boxes piled up in the corner that I have yet to unpack. After explaining how I met Quinn Keigo informed me that they were in fact a part of the commission hero course together.

"Yeah, we were pretty close and still keep in touch nowadays," Keigo replies in a low tone and I hear the rustling of people in the background.

"Are you busy-"

"I gotta go, but I promise, trust Dr. Xander. She's a genuine person and you two will get along just fine." Keigo cuts me off and hurriedly ends the call. I stare down at my phone for a second before sighing and falling back onto my bed.

A/N: Next update can be expected around 11/26. Maybe a day or two off since it's gonna be thanksgiving.

I wasn't gonna write to much about the therapist but I wanted to see how writing an original character went.