A Mutant's Hero Academia [BNHA & X-men Crossover]

FOURTEEN

Empathy; it is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position.

~

'In the spring of my third year of elementary school, something happened.'

The wails and grieving cries of little children was all that echoed from the classroom. Some of the small clattered desks and chairs were flipped over as an after-effect of the rushed sprints of the third graders as they huddled abruptly towards the end of their classroom.

"Sensei! She's dead!" One of the eight year old girls sobbed, her choking, trembling voice punctuating her words.

The elementary school teacher huffed sympathetically as she comfortingly patted on the children's shaking forms. They were all gathered around the covered dead body of Usa-chan, the rabbit. "Yes, but Usa-chan had a happy life since she had so many friends like you around her." The older woman's voice was loving and kind as she gave the children a benevolent grin, but it quickly faded once she saw another kid separated from the pack.

"What's wrong, Akano?" She asked with worry, seeing that the young redhead was neatly packing her bag before she put the straps on her shoulders, intending to leave.

The teacher's question drew the attention of the other kids to the red haired girl, and they all turned to inspect her rigid form with curious eyes.

'Unlike the rest of them, I was no stranger to the concept of death. So naturally, I wasn't as fazed like them by the perishing of a class pet.'

The eight year old Yumi inhaled sharply. She was fully aware of the confused glances her teacher and classmates sent her. However, all she cared about at that moment was the need to get out. She needed to leave that classroom because it was getting all too stuffy for her. She felt as though the air was turning and forming into chips of broken glass as it traveled down to her lungs. Clutching the straps of her bag in a vice-like grip, she gritted her teeth.

"I have homework to do, can I go home now?" She managed to ask with a steady voice, and a stoic expression to mask her raging discomfort.

"Y-yeah.."

Yumi then quickly retreated, her small feet taking surprisingly long strides as she ignored the gasps of surprise from her teacher and fellow classmates.

'Ever since then, I was ostracized by the rest of my classmates for the rest of my elementary school days.'

Over the next few weeks, the young Akano couldn't walk two steps inside of her school without hearing the whispers of people around her.

"Isn't Akano Yumi in class 2 really weird?"

As she walked past a few girls and boys of the neighboring classroom, she pretended as if she didn't hear them. Her green eyes were half-lidded in disinterest, books she had intended to return to the library were tightly pressed against her chest.

"You think so, too? I heard her classmates call her Ice Queen."

'You're wrong..'

Yumi's lips pressed together tightly as she remembered the sudden shift inside her classroom once they found out their class pet died. The turbulent storm of emotions that belonged to those kids was untamed as it oozed out of them and found their way to the unwilling recipient that was...her.