"Mr. Shigaraki, good day. Shall we begin the test?" the assistant said. Shigaraki nodded, sitting down in the psychiatrist lounge chair. "Miss Shiretoko is busy today, so I will be asking you some questions, ok? The hero Wave Motion will assist, as a person you can trust, though she is running a bit late." Shigaraki felt nervous, today wasn't one of the days Nejire visited! He wasn't mentally prepared… "No need to worry, Mr. Shigaraki, she´s probably just caught in traffic, the city is quite busy today, lots of schools start new terms. So, let me know how I do, ok? I´ve only performed this test twenty times."
The assistant was a short, unremarkable young man with black hair. Shigaraki didn't know the assistant´s Quirk, but he guessed it may have to do with intelligence or mind powers, seeing his career in psychiatry. "Alright, the first thing I do is ask you about your week. Was there anything in particular that affected you this week, anything you are expecting, or something interested happened to you?" Shigaraki thought back to his week, there had only been one thing unusual; a very vivid nightmare that had woken him up in a cold sweat, and he remembered it all. And he was very much looking forward to Nejire visiting on Friday. "There was something I didn't like, I had a nasty nightmare on Tuesday, while I was taking a nap." "Do you remember the dream? Maybe telling about it could help" "Maybe when Miss Hadou gets here…Oh, yes, I was looking forward to seeing her this Friday too." Shigaraki smiled involuntarily, the hero´s presence was rather welcome.
The door to the doctor´s office opened and Shigaraki looked back to see who was there. He was met with a smiling Nejire Hadou looking at him. Shigaraki looked down, he felt his face burning in embarrassment "He-hey Miss Hadou…" he said weekly, staring intently at his shoes. "Nice to see you! And I told you to call me Nejire, silly!"
Shigaraki managed to look up from the ground as Nejire joined the assistant on one of the normal chairs. "We were just discussing how Mr. Shigaraki was looking forward to his meeting with you, Miss Hadou." Shigaraki didn't know if his weird pale skin was actually blushing, but if he did, he was sure he looked like a tomato as the assistant said that. "Ohh, you were excited to see me, Tenko-kun? I missed you too!" Shigaraki felt his heart beat faster as she said that and replied "Y-yes, I w-was excited to see you."
"Ok then, relax and tell us about the dream, then." "Alright." Shigaraki settled down, closed his eyes, and started to remember. The dream had been very lifelike, and he had remembered everything when he woke up. "It started like the other nightmares about One for All, the ones where we are fighting him. This time, Midoriya and Bakugou weren't there to help me. I felt I would lose, but I think I made some good decision in the dream because I got the jump on All for One and managed to touch him, on the back of the head. Just like in real life, he said nothing, it was like a Nomu getting punched, nothing. Then I saw another person approach. They were covered in darkness, I couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman, but the person was very tall and sort of…blurry. They said "All for One didn't make you his successor for a reason. You are weak. Would you like to know just how weak?" Then the person turned into a version of myself as I was with the League of Villains, covered in hands. This clone attacked me, while saying all the lies All for One put in my head. He was too fast for me, and he grabbed my face. I felt myself die, decay to the point where my brain turned to dust. I woke up with a nurse beside me; I had been shouting in my sleep, non-stop, for twenty minutes. It felt very real, I was scared, very scared."
Shigaraki opened his eyes when he felt a small hand placed on his shoulder, its presence reassuring. It was Nejire, and her face was full of concern. "Its alright, Tenko-kun, it was just a dream, you are safe." She smiled at him with kindness. This time Shigaraki didn't look away. He felt strange around her recently. Was this what friendship felt like? He wasn't sure friends were supposed to feel their heart beat faster when the other was around, but then again, he didn't really have experience with friendships. Kurogiri had been more of a father figure, and the rest of the League had been some sort of bizarre, extremely dysfunctional family; Toga was the "baby", Twice and Spinner were like some sort of deranged cousins, Magne was the Big Sis, Mr. Compress was kind of an uncle, Dabi felt like a brother he didn't particularly get along with. Ujiko had been like a very distant family member that didn't really count. So, actual friend-friends were still rather new. Did Midoriya consider him a friend? He visited often and treated him with a lot of respect…Maybe it was something else with Nejire? Was he…attracted to her? He certainly didn't know.
"Thank you for telling us about that dream, Mr. Shigaraki. We should continue onto the first test, word association. I will tell you a word, and you answer with the word that first comes to mind. Ready?" Shigaraki nodded, ready for the exercise. "Bed" "Pillow" "Chair" "Wooden" "Vehicle" "Bike" "Those were a bit simple, we´ll move onto more abstract ones. Self." "Tenko" "Justice" "Hero" "Destruction" "My old life" "Ok, now this one´s a biggie. Happiness." Seeing Nejire every week! "Uhhh…friendship?" The assistant noticed he had considered his answer for a second, but it seemed he let it go, giving him a knowing look. "That´s good progress, you are answering from the subconscious in some of these. We should do the next thing. Miss Hadou, if you would help me with the cards?" Nejire held some thick paper cards, hiding the image printed on the other side. The assistant explained "Tell me what the figure looks like to you." Nejire showed him the first card "It looks like Kurogiri´s smoke portals". The second "Looks like a bowl of spaghetti made of happy faces" "It kinda looks like a tree" "I-it is just some inkblots." "You were distracted looking at Miss Hadou, please look again." "It´s a face of some sort, I kinda see some eyes, but there´s three of them…"
"Ok, now I´ll just file these results and you are free to go." The assistant left the office, leaving Shigaraki alone with Nejire. "So, you were distracted looking at me, eh?" quipped the hero, a smug smile on her face. Shigaraki thought fast and said "Uhhh…yep. Sorry." Damn, I didn't say that cool response I was totally thinking about, she´ll think I´m dumb! "Oh, don't worry! I´m just teasing you!". "Huh?!" "Its really fun, you blush all over!" "Hey!" "I was doing it again, you didn't actually blush!" They both laughed. It was difficult getting used to laughing when having a good time, he couldn't remember a single time he had laughed in happiness with the League of Villains. "I like seeing you laugh, Tenko-kun!" "You made me laugh with that face, trying not to laugh yourself!" "I have a funny face? You are teasing me now!" They laughed again. After a while, Shigaraki asked "Are you trying to keep me from thinking again about the dream with laughing and jokes?" "Well, yes. I hate seeing you sad, upset or scared, and even more because in a nightmare I can´t just tell you its alright. But it is alright, you know? I am here for you and I´m not letting anyone hurt you again, because that's what heroes do, we protect." She smiled kindly at him.
Shigaraki didn't know what to say about that, so instead he changed the subject "So, I finished that book you recommended, the one about Cthulhu! It was so good! Did the author make more?" Nejire´s eyes gleamed a bit, she had taken a lot of interest in mysterious Elder Gods and Deep Ones after her friend Tamaki had recommended the book to her, she seemed eager to bring another fan into the fold. "Oh yes! There´s a few about this town, Innsmouth, and strange things happening there, there´s about lost cities, in one they even go to another dimension!" Shigaraki was no stranger to being passionate about a hobby. He could probably talk for hours about every videogame produced in the last fifty years, and even more about some of the classics. It was great to see someone talk about their interests with such a passion. Midoriya spoke about heroism this way when he visited, Toga used to speak like that of Midoriya, but Shigaraki wasn't exactly sure that was 100% healthy. "Which book next, then?" Shigaraki seemed to always feel awkward and flustered around Nejire in the first minutes, but she had a gift of making him feel at ease, to make him feel listened to, to make him feel important, so he ended up talking as much as she talked every time. "Am I still gonna see you tomorrow, N-n-Nejire?" asked Shigaraki, still having trouble saying her name, it was a very intimate thing for some people to be called by their first names, he knew. "Of course! Everyone can use a bit of routine, and for you that means you are stuck with me for a while! I think we should watch a movie in that nice tv in your room!" "What movie are we watching?" "It´ll be a surprise. So, you in?" "Yeah!" "Well, then it's a date" Shigaraki almost fainted, all he could hear was "date". Nejire said farewell. Date? The prison guards came in the office to bring him back. Date?! Date!