Muted Voices (A BNHA/MHA x OC Fanfic)

Chapter 56: Group Therapy

Kirishima's POV

"What was the idea you had?" I ask Uraraka after close to an hour of sitting and waiting.

She sniffles and pulls a leather bound notebook from her bag. "I found this when I was packing up her stuff from camp. I couldn't figure out what it was, but now I think it's some sort of journal." She flips through a couple pages. "It's weird though, she doesn't really write anything in it. Not like you would expect at least."

She turns the book around so Bakugo and I can see. On every page, there's a list of seemingly random words, a lot in English, but some in Japanese. On some pages, there are short paragraphs, but Uraraka flips by too quickly for me to read anything. Every now and then, I see my name as well as others.

"They're songs," she explains. "It's like she makes a playlist for every day. I guess based on how she's feeling. Or she has someone's name and a song she associates with them I guess."

She closes the book and clutches it to her chest. "I pulled up some of the ones that she associates with me. I didn't know if she could recognize me or not, so I thought maybe they could jog her memory. I guess it wouldn't have helped anyway."

I sit quietly, mulling over what she said. "Are the songs any good?" I ask quietly.

A tear falls from her eye and she quickly wipes it away, nodding. "I just wish I didn't know what she thinks of me now. How could it be that bad? I don't know what I did!"

I can see her breaking down, but I don't know how to stop it when the same thing is happening to me.

"Both of you are fuckin' idiots," Bakugo snaps. "She keeps all that hidden for a reason."

"What do you mean?" I ask, wiping my nose. He scowls and stands up, then walks away, leaving us with our thoughts.

Does she really hide that all the time? It must be exhausting. So why? Is it to spare our feelings? Is she...too scared to tell me any of this?

•°•°•°•

After a while, Bakugo had come back with a cup of tea and sat in the corner of the room, scrolling through his phone and ignoring us. But I didn't miss the way his face was still missing color and his hands barely shook. He was trying to pretend to be fine, but whatever he saw when he ran off must've shocked him.

Mr. Aizawa came back and said that everything was fixed and that we should go home. Of course, Uraraka and I protested, but it's understandable that after her reaction from seeing us, she wouldn't want us to be around for a while. Even if what we saw was blown out of the water, she was surely embarrassed.

And so, I walk back to the train station with Uraraka and Bakugo on either side of me. None of us speak, but we have a silent agreement that we're doing the right thing by leaving her alone.

Right?

•°•°•°•

I get the message from Aizawa a few days later that Class 1-A has to come to the school for a group therapy session. Of course the attack was traumatic, but I don't know how I feel about going through therapy with my classmates. Although, I might get to see Koto finally, which lifts my spirits.

I haven't had any contact with her, so I have no clue how she's been. I've actually been talking about it with Uraraka and she surprisingly hasn't heard anything either except that Koto hasn't been accepting visitors other than her uncle.

That's another thing I've had to think about since I found out. It's pretty hard to believe that she's related to one of our teachers. And with our English teacher as her uncle, in addition to her being from America, I bet she's been top of the class in that subject.