Phenomenon

Chapter 13: Therapy

Sorry, this will be the only chapter this week. I wrote Izuku's Birthday Oneshot (which you should read if you want to) which took a while so I didn't have the time or motivation to write. 

*Izuku's POV*

The day after we visited the graveyard, I had my first therapy session after the entire kidnapping experience. After the attack on the USJ, all of the students in my class had all been required to go to a minimum of 5 sessions of therapy. After those 5 sessions, we weren't obligated to keep attending, provided our therapist said that we were ok, but a majority of my class kept going. Ochako had told me it was nice to get everything off of her chest and not have to keep everything bottled up. Even if I had wanted to stop going to the therapy sessions, I wasn't allowed to. After what had happened to me in my early childhood and the fact that I still had to attend therapy and I had a psychiatrist. I had made a fuss about it at first, but after a while, I learned to accept the fact that I needed help. After the whole training camp incident, there was no question about it. Every student in the hero course in UA was required to go to therapy sessions at least once a month. Some people, such as myself, Kacchan, Shoto, Iida, Tokoyami and Shinso, had to go more frequently. Normally once a week. I wasn't 100% sure why the others had to go as frequently as me. 

I could guess why Kacchan had to. The boy somehow had both an inferiority complex and a superiority complex at the same time. Plus he had clear anger issues. Add on the trauma he ( and every member of the first year hero course) had faced and you get why he needed some extra counselling. 

Shoto obviously needed it for his childhood issues. I think he had nightmares as well, but I couldn't be sure since he never shared them with me and I rarely slept in the same room as him. I could always tell that he'd had a nightmare though. He was always a bit quieter after he'd had one. He had a vacant look in his eyes the next day and he appeared to be more tired. 

As I said, I can't be sure why some people needed extra therapy. With some people, I can only give my best guess, and Iida is one of those people. I think Iida needed extra therapy because he was traumatized by the Stain incident. Every time it was brought up, he would flinch away slightly, get a really guilty look on his face and close off for a few minutes. He blamed himself for getting Kacchan, Shoto and I hurt. Other than that and the obvious trauma that the entire class shared, I didn't know what else Iida needed extra therapy for. Though I wasn't going to question it or look too deeply into it, it wasn't really my business. 

I know for certain that Tokoyami required quirk therapy. The entire class knew and Tokoyami didn't seem to mind that we knew. On top of training Dark Shadow in school hours, Tokoyami got specialist help from a quirk therapist. Since Dark Shadow was sentient, it was harder to control them and UA thought it would be a good idea to get Tokoyami help so that he could be more in touch with his quirk and accept Dark Shadow as a part of himself. Of course, Tokoyami had also nearly been kidnapped, so he was bound to have a bit of trauma from that as well. 

Shinso was a complete mystery to me. I didn't know a lot about him. He was my friend even though he had explicitly stated he had no interest in making any. He had once told me when the subject of therapy had somehow been brought up, that he had been attending therapy for quite a few years. It intrigued me, but it was not my place to ask about it.

"Are you ready?" Dad asked me as he pushed me towards the opaque glass door of my therapist's office. (I was really conflicted on whether Izu should be seeing a therapist or a psychiatrist. So now he's seeing both but he's visiting his therapist in this chapter. Does that make sense? I don't know. It's a fictional piece of writing so I guess you'll just have to accept it.) I nodded my head and took a deep breath to prepare myself.