Chapter 43

"This is our last session"

Thank God.

"Is there anything you want to talk about ?"

Lying on the couch, my eyes glued to the yellow stain, I shrugged.

"I'd like to apologize for last time. It was indelicate of me, and unseemly"

I wondered how many people would read my psych file and think they knew me, how many would imagine they were close to me because they'd had a glimpse of my life.

Poor kid, he's been through so many tragic things, that explains why he's so suspicious, malicious, evil' and blah blah blah.

"I'd like us to play a little game today. Would you like it ?"

The shrink got my attention.

Whatever she wants if it means I don't have to answer her stupid questions.

"What kind of game ?"

I sat down again, facing her from the other side of the coffee table.

I didn't miss the way the corners of her mouth turned up, asymmetrically.

"A little game with pictures. I'll show you and you tell me what you see"

She pulled photographs printed on A5 sheets out of her briefcase.

The Roscharch test.

I considered refusing and returning to my silence, but I still had an hour to kill with her and I didn't want to waste it by hearing her grumble.

"Ludicrous, isn't it ?"

I avoided looking at her grotesquely distorted face. I pointed at the pictures with one hand.

"Go on"

She showed me the first one.

Colored ink stains had been made on the page.

"A child's painting"

She showed me a new picture, this time with grayish stains.

"New legs"

Turn.

"Lungs. And a stomach"

I got caught up in the game.

"Statues"

New picture.

"A boy in an anorak"

Turn

"Hands full of blood"

Turn

"Two crowns"

Turn.

"Nothing"

Turn.

"A trampled insect's spin"

"Flesh"

She laid the last card flat on top of all the others.

She clapped her hands and smiled.

"That concludes our last session! You can leave early if you want-"

I was already up.

"But first I'd like to give you something"

She fumbled in her handbag, pulling out two lipsticks and a poorly closed case as she grumbled, her eyebrows furrowed.

Does her inclination to chaos say something about her psychological state, or does such things mean nothing for people like her ?

"Here ! Here you go !"

She handed me a folded, coffee-stained card with her name and number on it.

"Our sessions weren't therapeutic - not really, since I was just a listening ear and didn't give you advice - and they were very close in time. I'd like to follow you in the future, but I need your consent to do so"

And to keep her quiet, I replied:

"Of course"

She smiled and I said goodbye.

Once I was out the door, I turned her card to ashes.

*

Teka walked into my room without knocking.

I looked up from my chakra encyclopedia, deactivating my sharingan.

The bluish light surrounding the book evaporated, the words and letters on the pages whirling back to their original form.

I closed Italy, War and Peace and turned in my chair to face him.

"I heard you're leaving tomorrow"

With her hands clasped behind her back, Grandmother Teka towered over me from her six-foot height, enhanced by a pair of stiletto heels.

"Not too soon, if you ask me"

Chin up, Teka paced the room like a police inspector.

With the tip of her heel, she nudged the pile of fuinjutsu-filled sheets I'd left at the foot of my bed.

"What are they ?"

"Drawings. I have an interest in cubism"

She scanned them for a few more seconds, as if trying to decipher them, before turning her attention back to me.

"You haven't done much since you've been here"

"Meaning ?"

Her heels clicked like a whip on the tiled floor.

Her eyes swept across my desk, barely stopping at the book I'd taken from the bookshelf.

"Your father tells me you haven't missed a day of training in six years. But you haven't done anything like this since you've been here"

Her fiery eyes swept the room. The glimmer of interest she had when she entered faded.

"I've been training. With group three"

She brushed my comment aside with her hand.

"Because I made you do it"

I didn't answer because there was nothing to answer.

Teka had come here with a specific goal in mind and I couldn't get her to confess anything by wasting my breath.

"You are a special boy, Shoto. As wild and vengeful as Enji was at your age, but more grounded. More violent"

And from the knowing look she gave me, I knew she knew. My chakra bubbled in my stomach.

"Is it something bad ?"

She stared at me for a few seconds, unfathomable. Then she looked away.

"No. Not necessarily"

She walked slowly across the room. Her fingers brushed the top of a painting: she rubbed her thumb against her forefinger, the dust falling like salt on the floor.

"There's a reason we're the only family to have survived the Dark Ages, despite our active participation in the fragmentation of our country"

She spun around and eyed me with the intensity of a bird of prey.

"No matter the why, no matter the how, the Todoroki have always stuck together.

That's what makes us strong, and what will always prevail"

She continued:

"I want you to know that the family will always use all its resources and power for you. Likewise, you must use all your powers to ensure our salvation"

My face remained as smooth as a statue.

"You mean my Quirks ?"

"Yes. Your Quirks"

But we both knew what this was really about.

"What's next ?"

"Come with me, I want to show you something"

*

The moon was full, its brilliant surface reflected in the ocean.

The silver waves gently licked the pearly sand. The air was crisp, the wind nonexistent.

"Why did we leave them so far behind?"

My Sharingan activated for a split second, sharpening my vision and coloring the world red.

More than three hundred meters away was the car and the two bodyguards we'd left behind.

They stood on either side of the vehicle, sweeping the darkness as if expecting someone to emerge at any moment.

"One thing you'll learn is that if you can act without needlessly putting your subordinates in danger, then you have do it"

Teka, standing on the sand, pulled back her heels.

She tossed her fur jacket aside and began to unbutton her blouse.

I looked up at the sky, scanning the stars, wondering what was happening.

"Remind me why you're taking your clothes off again ?"

"My clothes wouldn't stand the heat"

I risked a glance down, then back up, my face burning.

What's that crazy old witch doing naked ?

"Shoto"

I continued to watch the stars with clenched teeth.

"What I have to show you is important. Look at me"

I lowered my eyes to her face, refusing to look below her shoulders. Her back was to me.

"Pay close attention to what I do next"

She was facing the sea.

My disgust was still deep in my throat, threatening to turn into vomit.

Teka raised her arms to the sky, like a priestess invoking the power of the stars.

For a second nothing happened. Then the sea began to heat.

Steam billowed from it, rising into the night sky like smoke from a bonfire. The water boiled, burning bubbles bursting like acid bubbles from the sea's surface.

There were no waves now. Teka's fiery hair burned on her shoulders like a river of lava. Her skin turned yellow, orange, and red, and the sea continued to boil.

The ground rumbled beneath my feet.

Cracks spread along the sand dunes from Teka.

I stepped back and covered my face with my forearm, the hot, dry air whipping across my skin as if someone had opened an oven on my face.

Lava erupted from the fissures, spreading across the surface of the sand like water released from a dam.

I stepped back, my eyes glued to Teka, whose molten skin had become translucent. I could see her fluorescent skeleton through it.

She looked like an underworld goddess about to set the whole world on fire. The sand stifled a sigh of steam.

The air had become unbreathable for me, and I backed away again. Teka threw her head back, her burning mane whipping through the air.

Suddenly, the intact piece of sand she was standing on was lifted into the air. A giant hand of lava lifted the rock and her through the darkness.

It took me a few seconds to realize that the molten hand was imitating Teka's, stretched out in front of her.

The sea was tinted with the colors of lava, as if it had been set on fire.

Teka's voice cut through the air.

"That's what we call God Mode, Shoto. Your grandfather knew it, your father knows it..."

An uncontrollable smile appeared on my lips.

I wiped away a drop of sweat with the back of my hand and continued to watch Teka's molten silhouette.

"Someday you'll have to take over our Familia. And to do that, you'll have to master God Mode"

*

BONUS: PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT REPORT

Date: Italy, May 21, 2107 Session 5

Identified: Patient Todoroki Shoto

Retired psychologist Haruka Maki

Origin of request :

Concerns reiterated by the patient's father about the emotional and psychological impact of significant events in the patient's life

Background :

The patient is nine years old at the time of writing. Has attended private schools and has a level of education far superior to his peers. Recently entered junior high school.

Non-existent relationship with mother, brother and sister. Very strong relationship with his father, himself his sole legal guardian. Conflicting relationship with his brother, who died when the patient was five (see below).

Patient behavior during consultations :

The patient is exceptionally quiet for his age. Distrustful and suspicious behavior. Takes more time to formulate answers than to speak. Expresses himself only in half-truths.

Defense mechanism: Mutism and indifference.

Test results :

 Roscharch test: The patient's responses do not correspond to the 'healthy' average. The patient seems slightly disturbed, with a strong tendency to ignore his own emotions. Patient meticulous, vigilant and prone to violence.

 Drawing test: Carried out during the very first session, five years ago. The patient drew the same man during all five sessions (see joined documents). Refused to talk about it. Test inconclusive.

 Note 1: These two tests are the only ones the patient has agreed to undergo.

 Note 2: It is important to note that the Roscharch and drawing tests are not unanimously accepted by the scientific community. It is strongly recommended to continue - if there is any continuation with the patient - starting with INTRIGUE-type tests.

Formulation:

Survived a terrorist attack.

Survived a drowning attempt by his now-deceased brother.

Survived an attempted strangulation and immolation by his now-deceased brother.

Survived a kidnapping by immolating his captors.

Survived an assassination attempt coupled with a kidnapping attempt that claimed the life of his bodyguard.

Diagnosis:

ICD10- F42 - Obsessional Dominant Neurotic Disorder - Has a tendency to rub his left middle finger with the tip of his thumb without realizing it. Left hand shakes occasionally.

CIM10- F43.1 and F43.2 - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - Discussing certain traumatic subjects with the patient tends to make him nervous and provoke reliving the memory of the traumatic event.

CIM10- F91.1 - Violence against peers - No socialization problems but has a violent personality. Able to talk quietly one minute, then find himself hitting one of his peers the next for no apparent reason (see school records from previous years).

Complementary :

ICD 10 - F93.0 - Separation anxiety disorder - The patient presented anxious tendencies to be separated from his father around the age of four, after the first intrafamilial traumatic episode. The disorder is thought to have subsided, but it's hard to say whether it has completely disappeared.

Paranoia: Mild paranoia suspected (delusions not included).

Healthcare professional recommendation:

In-depth patient follow-up is highly recommended. On the other hand, partial silence may be detrimental to any proposed treatment.The patient's situation is worrying, but most of these symptoms may disappear on their own over time.

Monthly follow-up over several years is recommended.

*

Author's note:

For the classification of diagnoses I based myself on 'La Classification Française des troubles mentaux de l'enfant et de l'adolescent' which roughly translates as 'The French Classifications of children and teenagers mentals problems'.

I also did some research to get an idea of how a psychological report should be done. I found (and read) a very long PDF on the subject, but there was no example of a concrete, ready-made form to fill in, so I did what I could.

If any psychologists/psychiatrists are passing by, I hope I've done you proud (or not too ashamed haha).

So yeah, Shoto is quite... peculiar. Mentally speaking, I mean.

You can take the Roscharch test too on the net, for free, and input Shoto's answers inside (in this order) to see what he got.

Remember : 150 power stones and we get a bonus chapter sunday.

Also if you want to read up to 50 chapters ahead/support me you can do so on my P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

See you in the next update everyone !