Mortem ad Wrens

Chapter 8: The Found and the Lost

Summary:

tw: therapy, ED behavior, graphic depictions of abuse, foster care, starvation, restraint, enclosed spaces, being experimented on, muzzle, ed thoughts, body checking, body shaming, fatphobia

Notes:

'text' is JSL

Text is thoughts

'I've got the mandated therapy this block,' Akira signed as they picked up their bag before Computer Tech. 'I'll meet you at our tree for lunch.'

Mad Banquet waved Akira on, Shinso promising to take notes for them. Akira strode down the halls, weaving between students and occasionally checking their campus map as they navigated U.A.'s maze of buildings. With two minutes to spare, they found themself at the doors to Inui's office. Taking a deep breath, Akira knocked and was let in a moment later.

The office was sparsely furnished with a few comfortable chairs, various art and tinkering supplies, and a few squishy-looking balls and cubes with buttons.

"Please, sit wherever you like," Inui said, gesturing to the room. Akira sat in the furthest chair, eyeing the thick blanket draped over the back. He smiled, "Feel free to pick up or use anything you'd like. You're in charge of what we talk about this session; I can help guide the conversation but, in my experience, it's usually better to let the student drive it."

Akira hesitated, fiddling with the edge of the blanket. 'You're not gonna make me talk about Friday?'

"If you want to talk about it, you can, but I can understand that experiences like that sometimes need working up to. You can start with telling me about yourself, your classmates, your hobbies, your home life, or you can sit there and draw or fiddle for the hour. Like I said, you're driving the session," Inui softly offered.

Akira finally pulled the blanket onto their lap, startled at its sheer weight, and had to resist the urge to rub their face against the wonderful texture. They settled for pulling it up to their chest, aching legs tucked onto the cushion as they considered their options. 'I'm not sure where to start...' Akira signed, trying to put their thoughts in order.

"How about what are you hoping to get out of the session?"

'I don't know,' Akira frowned. 'Nurse mentioned you after I was in her office the first day, but it didn't seem important. She and Eraser didn't even say why they were scheduling therapy for everyone after Friday.'

"I see... Shuzenji did bring up a concern about how little you were eating. We can start there if you'd like, or we can start exploring why talking about what happened can be helpful."

Akira rolled the blanket between their palms for a moment before responding, 'The eating part's under control now. I just didn't have many options before coming here, so having to use my quirk so much got rid of the buffer I'd been building back up after the entrance exam.'

"So would you say you have a hard time getting enough to eat at home for your quirk?"

'I'm getting by fine with the current plan. What were you saying about talking being helpful?' Akira noticed a subtle twitch of Inui's mouth and tensed to defend themself.

"Alright, when we go through a traumatic event, it can be difficult for our brains to fully process what happened. Some signs of this are nightmares, paranoia, panic attacks, tension or flashbacks at reminders of the event, and even thoughts of harming oneself or others," Inui explained.

Akira cocked their head, 'Those aren't normal?'

"Which ones?"

'...all of them?' Remembering their persona, Akira froze. That... probably didn't help against the Detective.