Group

Chaper Three: Anger - 1

Anger

Bakugou Katsuki

Ashido Mina

Hadou Nejire

-

"Okay, to be perfectly clear with you all, I've never been the best at anger counseling, but Aizawa recommended that I include it as an option because he knew of a certain student he thinks needs it."

Bakugou fumes from the corner chair. Ashido laughs into her hand. Shirushi catches onto this, and looks over at Ashido. "That the dandelion?" They whisper from behind their hand, pointing with the other. Ashido nods furiously, not being able to suppress her grin. Hadou doesn't even bother to hide hers, grinning openly at the fuming Bakugou like a classic Totoro despite not even meeting him before.

"Okay, let's keep talking behind each other's backs to a minimum. Bakugou, your classmates warned me about you." The kid in question scrunches his face further.

"It was the round-face fucker, wasn't it?" He snarls to himself.

"Language." Shirushi quips, and Ashido chokes. "I don't know who you're referring to, but she does this," they touch their chin in a thoughtful gesture.

"H-holy shit, no one's ever- kh." Ashido struggles, practically vibrating where she's leaned against the couch's armrest. "Censored him."

Shirushi grins. "That makes it all the more fun for me!" Ignoring the furious click of Bakugou's teeth, they continue. "All M-righty, so there's a roll of toilet paper on that little table. Pinky?"

"Yeah?" Ashido grabs and holds it, either not sure what she should be doing with it or if Shirushi had really been addressing her. She glances at the two other students, neither as pink as her.

"Take like at least like three squares of it, doesn't really matter, and pass it on." They nod. Ashido does as asked and hands it to Hadou. Hadou looks rather perplexed, but does the same and gives it to the counselor, who in turn gives it to Bakugou in hopes that he won't blow it up. They needed it for the other groups. Bakugou takes five squares.

"Are we gonna go on a field trip to the bathroom, or-?" Ashido says.

"Nono, gods no, I wouldn't trust Dandelion in a room by himself." They're laying it on thick. Bakugou looks baffled.

-

"--I can breakdance!" Ashido announces with finality, spearing her last square of toilet paper with her horn. She looks ridiculous.

"Wait, for real?!" Shirushi asks, slackjawed.

"What, you want a demonstration?" She grins.

"Absolutely."

-

Shirushi tells Bakugou not to go back to class when they wrap up. He is immediately twice as uncomfortable as he'd been the whole session, other than the part when Ashido kicked over Shirushi's desktop computer while flailing around on her arms. The dreaded one-on-one with a therapist. Never went well for him.

"You shouldn't be too worried." Shirushi says. They can clearly see the tension in his dedicatedly slouched posture. Bakugou meets their gaze, making no move to change it. They raise an eyebrow.

"For one, I'm sorry for making fun of you throughout this session. Hope it was enough to temporarily snap yourself out of whatever superiority-haze you suspend yourself in, but I digress." Bakugou breaks their gaze and looks at the floor, mumbling. "You've got, like, constant anger, and it bothers me, not even as the UA therapist, but as a person who might get punched in the face. My advice is, get some friends that'll push you to improve yourself, and maybe use a punching bag."

"Hah?"

"What, don't you know what a punch-"

"Fuck you. I blow shit up enough in hero studies, I don't fuckin' need to punch a sack of sand." He crosses his arms and leans back.

Shirushi clasps their hands and leans forward, resting their elbows on their knees. They narrow their eyes at the blond, who looks like he's struggling not to squirm.

"What?" He says.

"I think you've got too much emotion to take out on classmates in sparring, and I'm pretty sure Thirteen hasn't been planning any demolition runs. Cementoss has more important things to tend to than making concrete blocks for you to blow up. And as a safety concern, if you took out all of your anger with your quirk as it came, you wouldn't have a single nerve left in your hands."

Bakugou harrumphs.

Shirushi hesitates half a moment in surprise that they're actually right, but continued talking. "It's best to beat up a sack of sand by punching with toxic feeling power. I would know. You chill out faster."

Bakugou squints. "You do it?"

"Well, yeah, every hero needs an outlet." Bakugou stares at them, then blinks a couple times.

Bakugou leaves without saying much more. He seethes the rest of the day trying to think of a sufficient nickname for them. He doesn't remember the fucker's quirk, and he doesn't want another Glasses on his hands, so he'll have to just use their name until he thinks of one.

(that frustrates him to no end.)