The roaring crowd and the flashing lights.
All attention was focused on her.
The thin panel slowly rose and everyone held their breath as the face of the famous singer was seconds away from being shown to the crowd of cheering fans.
Her heart pounde...
But getting struck by lightning ten times in a row is completely different. Her skin felt like it was on fire, burning from within. She was standing on top of the mountain jutting out of the forest.
Tokoyami and Dark shadow were screaming in a cave somewhere below her and Jirou was punching the base of it.
But Aiko was on top, repetitively striking HERSELF with lightning. The general theory was, A: she would be able to hold more energy if she got used to it. And B: maybe if she was overwhelmed with the electricity it would pass out of her body and form the ball lightning she had created earlier.
It wasn't working though.
Maybe this was just Aizawa getting back at her for cursing at him earlier. But in her defense, she was hangry. And he HAD thrown her and her friends off of a cliff earlier that day.
She groaned and looked up at the swirling storm over her head. Her head ached and she felt dizzy, also a little nauseous. The constant lightning bolts were still distracting the other students, dispite the distance between Aiko and them.
But that was the least of her concerns at the moment. She had so many things she needed to work on controlling, but since this is new and she had no idea if it would go off again or not it took priority. The sooner they figured it out the sooner she could learn to control it. It was obviously dangerous, seeing as they were hit enough to burn off human flesh. If it activated again on its own it would be dangerous.
Aiko tried to think back to that day. To what she was feeling in that moment. Her quirk was activated by emotions, so what made her do that? Was it fear? She had been scared. Was it because she was overwhelmed? She had felt so trapped and so useless but so... determined.
She wasn't often determined or confident... if that was it then maybe that's why it's never happened before. Maybe she had to believe in herself to make this work.
She scrunched up her face and thought hard. Getting into a fighting stance. Her legs set apart and her hands balled up into fists. 'I can do this! Come on! Why can't I do this? I'm sorry useless, can't even control my own quirk. Come on! Be confident!'
She wasn't very good at that. Her not being able to activate her quirk caused her to feel dejected. Which was the opposite of what she needed to feel right now. It was an odd dance, she had to feel determined to do this. But she couldn't make herself feel determined because she wasn't getting results.
"Why'd you stop?" A gruff male voice asked. Aizawa had hiked up the mountain.
"Sorry just... thinking. Why are you up here?" She asked, opening her eyes.
"I was making sure you hadn't died. I couldn't see from down there." The teacher said simply, he turned to leave.
"Wait!" Aiko said, she looked away nervously when he turned to her with a questioning look.
"I-I- I think I might know how to activate this but... I can't." She said, sitting down on a rock.
"Why not?" He asked, unmoving. His eyes watched her patiently, waiting.
"Because it's just..." She sighed. "I think the key is my emotions, like the rest of my quirk. But while most of the time negative emotions effect it I think this time it has to be different..."
"So you need to regulate your emotions? Think positively?" He questioned.
"It's just a theory but... when it happened when Vlad King was cornering me I had felt scared... but I had also felt mad, and determined to beat him. But when he hurt himself that feeling went away... and so did the lightning." She ran a hand through her impossibly tangled, frizzy hair. The roots soaked with sweat. "I wanted to prove everyone wrong about me, everyone who thought I couldn't do this. But when I saw I had hurt someone else the fear returned."
"I see." Aizawa said. "So you think the key is in being determined and confident in yourself."
"Yes."
"But you can't feel confident because you're not seeing results. So you're stuck." He guessed.
"Exactly!" Aiko said with a bunch of nods. "And I've been trying to think like that... but when nothing happens it upsets me and I start to think about everything that I'm doing wrong." She explained with a frown.
"Alright, I can't make you feel anything. That's something only you can do for yourself. But I can help guide you, I think you should start with boosting your confidence more. It's no secret that you've always needed that, but now with this ability in the mix it should be a priority." Aizawa said, thinking to himself. "This process probably would take longer than just this week, plus you have other things related to your quirk to work on as well. So this is something you'll have to pick up at school after summer."
Aiko nodded. "How long do you think this will take?"
He shrugged. "That depends entirely on you, Zhu. You're going to have to shift your mindset, the way you think and view yourself. It could take a few weeks or years. It depends on if you take this seriously or not."
"I'll take it seriously!" She said standing up with a smile. "I promise!"
"Alright, here." He took something from the bag he had and handed it over to her. "This was the other reason I can up here." It was just a bottle of water.
She stood up to take it, and when he reached his hand forward Aiko noticed his sleeve pull up his arm, revealing his wrist and the tattoo that was on it.
The outline of a simple sun, drawn in black ink into his skin. Permanently.
Aiko tilted her head at it, hesitating to take the bottle. That looked a lot like another tattoo she'd seen before.
"You want it or not?" Aizawa asked, slightly annoyed.
"Your tattoo..." Aiko said, taking the bottle. Aiko saw the man pull his hand back and tug down his sleeve insecurely.
"What about it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I uh... I like it." She said with a shrug. "So is there anything else you want me to work on?" She asked him. The man thought for a moment before giving her a few tasks and leaving the top of the mountain.
Had it been a coincidence? That her two teachers had parallel tattoos? Or Were they really THAT close of friends? Or...
Were they something more than that?
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