Weak [BNHA Fanfiction]

Chapter 30

Charlie stared, wide eyed at Edgeshot, feeling slightly betrayed.

"I could just practice on a villain we find on our patrol. I'm sure we'll come across a robbery or something in the next few days." Charlie tried to reason.

"Using the scene of a crime to practice your quirk is an irresponsible action that could result in the situation becoming violent." Edgeshot responded smoothly.

Charlie stuttered, trying to find another excuse, before being interrupted by the third person in the room.

"Don't worry about me, Charlotte. I bounce back easy. And you've used your quirk on your classmates during the sports festival, no?"

"Y-yeah, I did." Her words tumbled from her mouth in a rushed and nervous squeak. "But that was only for seconds at a time and only once or twice—not repeatedly for practice." Charlie's mind flashed back to the test she had conducted on her first opponent, Ibara Shiozaki, and her gut twisted painfully with guilt. "What if I give you PTSD or a phobia by accident?"

Charlie knew from experience that feeling the affects her quirk too much was pretty traumatizing.

"Edgeshot told me that you are able to control how strongly you use your quirk on someone as well as are able to calm them down afterwards. Try just making me wary of something rather than downright terrified." Despite the calm in her voice, Charlie could feel Hina's apprehension about what was to come. "I wasn't coerced into this, Charlotte. Firstly, I trust Mr Kamihara's judgement. He'd never put me in a situation of harm. And I trust you to control your quirk for me. Secondly, I volunteered to help you learn in anyway I can. I guess I'm just a fantastic teacher, eh?" Her prodding joke fell flat with Charlie's increasing anxiety.

Charlie's hands were numb and shaking and she had to resist the urge to scratch at her neck where she felt some sort of bug crawling but she gave Edgeshot a steely gaze and nodded. "What should I make her afraid of?"

"Why not start with yourself? That may be the most useful in combat."

Charlie imagined herself physically shoving her guilt out of her stomach and onto the floor and pressed her nails into the palm of her hands—the crescent indents they made grounding her. She stood there, pondering for a few moments. Edgeshot and Hina patiently waited for her to begin.

How would she go about making Hina afraid of her? She tried to remember how she had done it with Todoroki but gave up when she found her memories fogged up from all the other events of that day.

Simply tugging on a string in Hina's head wouldn't do the trick. What if she tugged the string specifically towards herself? Charlie reached out experimentally and grimaced when Hina stiffened.

Edgeshot turned to Hina. "Did it work?"

"Nope," Hina gasped out, hand over her chest. "Just panic—wow my heart is beating super fast right now."

Obviously her string metaphor was not working, so she would have to come up with a new one. What would it be? Perhaps a web?

Charlie imagined a spiderweb inside Hina's head and flicked it gently, inciting a small gasp from Hina. She imagined a spider crawling across the web, spinning an image of herself on it. As she did so, she saw Hina turn to her with wide eyes. The web trembled as the spider crawled across it—each step it took only increasing the panicked look on Hina's face.

As soon as the image was complete, Hina fell backwards. Tears pooled in her panic-stricken eyes and she panted uneasily as she tried to put as much distance between her and Charlie as possible.

Seeing this, Charlie immediately swapped the web metaphor for the string and grabbed a hold of it, stilling Hina's panic. As her breathing slowed, Charlie's quickened.