Better than I
. . .
It had become quite a regular occurrence for Nurse Higurashi to observe their training sessions.
Mainly for Midoriya's sake, she would often talk to him about control. While she had never been informed about the origin of his quirk and his connection to All Might; he suspected she had some knowledge.
She often asked him to flex his powers, not necessarily use them but let it rise for a small amount of time. Then she would apply corrections and offer advice on better control. And of course her advice did wonders for him, so naturally he grew curious.
He wanted to know how she knew this stuff; and today was the day he would find out. Midoriya approached her, as she sat on the training bench, writing in her books.
"Higurashi-sensei, if I may ask… you seem to know a lot about quirk control can you tell me why?" He nervously asked, rubbing the back of his head and averting his eyes when she looked up from her note-taking. Kagome smiled shyly, she breathed out a short and shaky breathe as she laid the pen and books to her side. She looked hesitant, biting her lip as she drew in another shaky breath nonetheless she patted the bench inviting him to sit to which he did.
"I was like you."
Midoriya looked up sharply. Shock evident on his face.
"When I was 15 I had no control over my quirk." Kagome told him earnestly. "I was four when it manifested, but it was not nearly as powerful, it appeared as a weak healing quirk if anything." She shrugged, staring at the ground she clenched her fist.
"On my fifteenth birthday it was like a floodgate opened." Kagome gestured with her arms wide, taking a deep breath. "Like a tsunami I was flooded with raw power that I had no idea how to control." She rubbed the crease between her brows, smiling as she flushed.
"I would throw up barriers randomly, never on command. Healing was practically impossible to control." She chuckled at the fond memories of her barriers causing her friends to walk into them. Kagome grew somber as the memories of their battles overrode her fond ones.
"In the heat of a battle I was a liability." Kagome tutted herself, her eyes grew dark and Midoriya tensed. Unbeknownst to the pair the class and Aizawa were listening intently. A sad laugh bubbled out of the woman, as she turned fully to Midoriya.
"Can you imagine having a quirk that could turn the tides of a battle but all you can do was sit there and pray that your friends made it out okay only for you not to be able to heal them because you have no control over your quirk?" She sighed loudly, turning to stare at the sky, brushing her bangs out of her face. "Everyone around me had their quirks at age four and had mastered it by 15, while I was useless teenager because my quirk was unstable."
Kagome sighed again, exasperated by the thought of her teenaged self.
"You understand that… don't you?" She looked at him, with a sad sympathetic smile. Midoriya's heart hammered in his chest, this is where she knew him like no one else. The gears in his head turned as the advice she gave made sense.
"It's okay to not be as good as everyone else. One day you'll be the best, I know it!"
Aizawa grunted, following the conversation intently as he understood the nurse better.
"All I wanted to do was help but I couldn't because I had no control, you understand that better than anyone, Midoriya."
Midoriya teared up hearing the admission. It was a repeat of history. Kagome saw herself in him, and she knew exactly what he was going through. It made sense now.
"I'd rather die than let someone go through what I did." She knelt down brushing his curly green hair out of his face, a warm and gentle hand on his shoulder. "I can help you so why should't I?"
He stared at her, shocked that she was so willing.
"Because I-I lack so much! I am-"
"A child whose not in control of a very powerful quirk. I can help you, so I will."
He choked as tears came rolling down, in his time with All Might and U.A. No one had just looked at him for what he was.
A kid.
Never having trained in his life or have any battle experience. Sure he was bullied but that didn't make heroes, just toughened him up socially and bruised him emotionally.
He was simply a fifteen year old who got an extremely powerful quirk only a few months ago after living his whole life quirkless and believing he would never amount to much.
Aizawa could only stare at the pair, as Midoriya basically broke down and the nurse comforted him. Offering comforting hugs and a motherly warmth that it seemed only she could provide.
Maybe he had been too hard with the kid.
But his eyes sparkled as he stared at Kagome. The alluring nurse had only continued to pique his interest, now he was starting to become invested.
He knew she was sacrificing her afternoons of paperwork to be here for this kid that she barely knew.
He had heard her in the office staying til midnight completing paperwork and other things. He thought it was because she was lazy… but now it made sense.
She was working later because she was here.
Here for his problem child.
Maybe she was a true hero.
He once remarked a similar notion to Present Mic, about what he defined as true heroism.
As an underground hero, he always felt it was the little things. That to be a hero meant making a better place for everyone. It was a sort of motto he had going as a teacher at U.A., to raise the best heroes for the benefit of society.
End the dreams of those who didn't make the cut to save them. Cultivate those who did; teach and protect them as long as he could so they would have the best survival rate.
But as Kagome was surrounded by his students and questioned by the curious teens; gracefully answering them, while continuing to comfort Midoriya. He was reminded of that notion, of what he felt was real true heroism.
True heroism he believed tended to be remarkably somber, and a very undramatic life. Despite the world idealising people like All Might and Endeavour, it was not the urge to surpass others at whatever cost that made heroes nor being a pillar to deter and lower crime rates.
He stared at her, as she laughed and her eyes glowed a brilliant blue under the sun.
It was the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
Even if it was sacrificing her afternoons to help teach his problem child, or healing staff and students for hours without rest.
Kagome Higurashi continued to serve others at whatever cost and for that he secretly considered her a true hero. He pulled up his scarf, covering the small blush that adorned his cheeks.