Silence Destroyed (MHA)

Chapter 5-Permission

A timid knock drew Rei from her thoughts as she sat by her window and she turned around to face the door with a smile; true, it was earlier than normal, but Rei had no doubts as to who was at the door. She was smiling until she saw the face Naoko was making, it was one of desperation and sadness, one that Rei had seen several times before in the three years that the two knew each other.

If there was any doubt in Rei's mind about what had happened, it all disappeared when she held out her arms as a signal for Naoko to come to give her a hug. A sob ripped its way from Naoko, and she ran across the room, almost lunging into Rei's arms; it was heartbreaking for Rei to watch Naoko like this, especially since Naoko had been doing so well and was so excited for her first day of school.

The two sat there together for several minutes, while Rei rocked Naoko in her arms, humming gently while she brushed the girl's hair with her fingers. It was a moment both needed, so they just sat there, soaking in each other's presence.

A tap on Naoko's head signaled her to look up as Rei spoke gently, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Naoko whimpered slightly and nodded before burying her head back into Rei's lap, not wanting to see the look of disappointment on Rei's face. "Today was a bad one, Rei-sama... I-I got last place on our quirk test because... I was an idiot. If I had spent less time focusing on stuff that didn't matter and put more thought into what actually goes into being a hero, I might have been able to do better than last place.

"After I failed," Naoko had to pause here to take a deep breath, she was on the edge of losing it, but if she didn't get this out now, then she never would, "Some kid yelled at me, and while everything he said was harsh, it was also true, I just, I just... I just couldn't do it! I... I'm sorry."

At this, Naoko's voice gave out on her, and she simply lifted her wrists for Rei to inspect; this was all part of something akin to a ritual between these two. Rei grabbed Naoko's wrists and pulled her up, so she could sit in a chair across from Rei; gently, she slipped the sweatbands off and began unraveling them, so she could look at the damage that Naoko had done to herself.

The wounds had continued bleeding for a while after being bandaged, so the skin around the cuts was dyed the dark red of dried blood. "Six cuts," Rei said, almost to herself quietly, knowing that it didn't matter how loud she was as long as Naoko could see her, "What are they for this time?"

Naoko couldn't bring herself to speak, since she knew that someone could hear her with the difficulty she had controlling her volume, so she signed, "These four are for the parts of the exam I did worst at, this is for tripping over my teacher this morning and losing control of my quirk, and this is for the truth in that boy's words."

Her fingers were slightly sluggish as she signed, showcasing the impact the day had on her; Rei watched intently, she never became the most fluent in sign language, but she was able to keep up with Naoko, noticing the tiredness. Naoko was strong, but if she was put under too much strain, she would snap, just like anyone would.

"You are too harsh on yourself, but I understand why you want to get better." Rei grabbed some gauze and medical tape that she managed to pilfer from the nurse's station specifically for this purpose, and began to wrap Naoko's wrists back up while switching back to speech, "Are you going to tell Hasame about this?"

This was a sore topic between the two, and it had been for years, Rei was insistent that Naoko needed to tell her aunt about her cutting. Naoko didn't want to cause her aunt any more worry, she figured that knowing about her shortcoming was the last thing that Hasame needed on her mind right now. Rei knew better than to push too hard, but even she was reaching the end of her rope; Naoko's cutting had been going on since not too long after the initial accident. As far as Rei knew, Naoko had never told anyone else about this, the only reason that Rei knew was that she had walked in on Naoko bandaging her arm the first time.