the whisper of a feeling [Aizawa x Student]

a chance encounter

She'd been waiting outside Gym Gamma at 4:30, which was a pleasant shock. His first-years had the tendency to dick around a little and he hated waiting.

After their initial greeting, he let them both inside and was glad to see the arena was set up for him in a terrain style - courtesy of Cementos. 'I owe him one for that.'

"Today we'll be continuing with combat lessons. After your match with Masumi, I assume you'll be wanting to keep your quirk's use to a minimum, which is precisely what you need to avoid." Her mouth gaped opened like a fish. He'd hit the nail on the head with her intentions.

"I think learning control would be better than increasing the damage." Yoritoki said meekly, clearly fearful of the repercussions. 

He knew from the day before that she could easily exercise control. With the lightest touch imaginable, she was able to use her quirk efficiently, but she could do what everyone else did and use it to its limit to win. That's what he'd watched her do in her fight with Masumi - she'd won. And it was a good win, too. Masumi had no visible lasting damage and Yoritoki had only taken slight damage. Rare outcome for a fight between physical and psychological quirks. Yet, she seemed convinced that what she'd done was not of her own intentions. Perhaps she didn't mean to trigger Masumi to have a panic attack, but she sure meant to scare the shit out of her enough to get a few hits in.

"I think you know control quite well, you're just too complacent with using it to its full potential. It's like second nature to you." He paused, and the look in her eyes gave her away again. "Which is what I want you to do. Don't hold back now or you won't learn for the future. I would also advise you don't sabotage your body in favour of a strategy. If you have to do that, it's probably not the best strategy."

"You saw that?" It was a rhetorical question. Of course he saw it, he was there to judge the fight.

"How does your quirk work?" Shota changed the subject as she began warming up. With the hero name 'Psychiatrist' it was certainly piquing his curiosity. Explaining right before a fight, a mock one or not, would put her at a disadvantage. She clearly knew that, but he was here to teach her. She'd be more disadvantaged in the long run if she didn't tell him.

"I can sense, alter and tamper with feelings and emotions experienced by the human brain by looking at a person, but I can only influence them to feel one major emotion at a time." So she had to see to use her quirk too, he noted. "I largely deal with the psychological side of things as physical feelings are easy to sense but incredibly difficult to emulate. I'm working towards using the physical side, but I often find I get them... a little mixed up."

"Okay. Feelings and emotions." He nodded. Her quirk had grown quite a lot since he'd taught her. "Your strength is the psychological, your weakness is the physical. Impressive, nonetheless. Is there anything else?"

"Yes... one thing," She seemed nervous to admit it. "I'm sure you noticed how, despite me not using my quirk, the emotions I forced Kamato to feel did not immediately dissipate."

'Oh?' He didn't think she'd bring it up, but was interested to see what she had to say for it. 

"Well... the way my quirk works, with the emotional side of things at least, is that it brings up an emotion a person has felt before and brings it into whatever context I'm in, like how I made Kamato scared and then lead her to believe it was because I was beating her. I can't make a person feel something for anything unless they've felt it before, so the context is really key.

"I've just managed to extend my reach within the human psyche to more complex emotions, but despite my clear influence on a person's mood, the brain recognises this emotion as its own, so it has to go away by itself. Sometimes this is immediately after I stop influencing it, sometimes it is not. It really depends on the person." She looked away shyly, as if there was something immoral about her quirk.