Deep Red

28

It was Tuesday when I first met up with Shinso for training. From what I had heard Shouta had been training with him for most of the day on Monday (that is whenever he had some free time) and I didn't really think that he went easy on the poor guy. I was waiting outside one of the gym halls for him.

He was running a little late, but I couldn't blame him. If I had to train with Shouta I'd probably be dead by now. Especially considering how hard Shinso studied for each and every thing, he was probably both physically and mentally dead by now. And still he was willing to subject himself to two more hours of exercise. What a fucking trooper. I wish I had his determination when I went to U.A.

"Sorry, Miss Takahashi, Ectoplasm has kept us overtime, because some dumbasses decided to play a prank on someone from the support course. I got here as fast as I could!" I heard someone shout. I turned in the direction the shouting was coming from and saw Shinsou jogging over to me, his backpack on his bag and in his gym clothes already. Jesus, the kid deserved a break.

"No problem. Chill out. Sit down for a bit." I said to him, when he had arrived. He gave me a nervous look, hesitating to actually sit down.

"Come on, sit down and give yourself a few minutes to breathe. Don't worry, I'll work you hard enough later on." I repeated and rolled my eyes. What a damn workaholic. He put down his backpack on one of the stairs and sat down next to me, taking a deep breath and finally, finally relaxing.

"Now. How are you feeling?" I asked him. He looked over to me, a slight smile on his face, probably grateful for getting a break.

"Do you want an honest answer, Miss?"

"By all means, Shinsou."

"I'm really, really tired and my whole body just hurts. I don't know how I managed to walk to different classrooms today, because I felt like I might collapse anytime." he replied and buried his face in his hands.

"Yeah, I kinda figured you'd be in pain today." I said with a smile on my lips. Even through all this he was still stubborn and determined enough to jog all the way over here, just so he wasn't too late.

"This whole hero thing is proving to be tougher than I anticipated." he admitted. I nodded solemnly.

"You giving up?" I wanted to know. He looked up and straightened his posture. The tiredness in his eyes seemed to be getting a hint of determination.

"Never. I know what I want and I know I have to work hard for it." he replied.

"Good. Just what I wanted to hear." I told him with a smile.

"So what are we going to do?"

"Good question. Aizawa hasn't really given me a heads up on what you were working on yesterday or anything, so I'm kind of playing it by ear at this point." I said with a sigh. I really wasn't sure how much physical exercise I could put this poor boy through at this point. He looked wrecked.

"We were mostly sparring. He said I should work on endurance with you today, maybe some more sparring if you feel up for it." Shinso replied.

"If I feel up for it?"

"That's what Mr. Aizawa said."

"I see. He's got some fucking nerve. Anyway, that's a story for another day. I gotta ask you to do something." I said. He gave me a surprised look.

"What is it?" he wanted to know. I grinned. This was really more for my own curiosity than anything else.

"I want you to use your Quirk on me."

"Wh-what?"

"Use your Quirk on me. I wanna know what it would be like for your opponent if you used your Brainwashing on them. It might help me to figure out a plan for the next time we train together so this whole thing is more adjusted to you individually. After you've built up some strength of course." I explained. Shinsou looked somewhat insecure about using his Quirk on me. Did he think he'd get in trouble?

"Are you... are you sure?" he asked.

"Of course. Did you have any qualms about using it on your teammates during the Sports Festival?"

"No, but this is different! You're a teacher."

"Yes, and I just gave you explicit permission to use your Quirk o-"

In that moment my head just went completely empty. I didn't remember a thing of what happened. I was just completely out of it. Like I just had no motivation. All I wanted was to be told what to do. Or maybe that wasn't right. It wasn't like I was aware of wanting to do anything at all. I wasn't aware of myself. It was the weirdest and most disturbing feeling I've had in a long time.

"Are you okay?" I heard Shinsou asking and all at once everything came back to me. I blinked and gave him a surprised look.

"Woah, that was... that was weird. Damn. Okay, it's definitely pretty terrifying and confusing if you use that on anyone. Your opponent is definitely going to be really confused if they even manage to snap out of the brainwashing. That means you can use surprise to your advantage. You'll need good reflexes, quick thinking and ways to quickly disable your opponent in one or two moves." I mused.

"So is that what you'll be training me in?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Nah. I'll do some endurance training with you today. But I can plan around that for next time. Now, let's get into the gym and run a few rounds." I said to him. He nodded and gulped audibly.

"Uh... how many rounds are a few?" he asked hesitatingly.

"Depends how many we can get done in the next hour." I replied with a big grin. He looked at me with big eyes, almost as if he was scared. I opened the door and held it open for him. He took a deep breath and walked inside.

I walked inside after him and closed the door. He looked at me, unsure what to do. To be honest, I hadn't been doing a lot of running in a while myself. I'd have a tough time getting back into it, but Shinso didn't know that.

"Okay, let's do a warm up and some stretching first. We'll focus on the legs. Do whatever works for you as a warm up and let me know when you're done." I said to him and started slowly jogging three rounds through the hall. Shinso followed me, looking like he was getting a little more comfortable around me now.

After we had run a few rounds we started stretching, focusing on the legs mostly. It seemed like Shinso had developed some sort of routine for this already. So he was working out at least a little at home. I wondered what exactly his home life might look like as we started our endurance run.