Well, welcome back to Dragon Emperor Hero!

It's certainly been a while but I'm glad to be writing again. Between work, parent life, and other such things, I honestly haven't had much time to write. But you're not here to listen to my ramblings about my IRL life, you're here to see what's going on with Izuku and Ddraig!

Shame that this chapter isn't about our beloved broccoli boy.

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Katsuki sat in the room of the therapist his parents had helped him find, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees with his fingers twitching slightly.

The doctor in front of him was a woman of average height, her blue hair cut into a pixie cut. Her eyes sat behind a pair of glasses, matching her hair color. She wore a surprising casual outfit for what he expected. He honestly expected a suit of some kind. Her top was a plain yellow shirt while her pants were a pair of denim capris. Her feet were covered in a pair of sneakers, the main fabric of the shoes matching her yellow top. Her name was Pikushī Aoi.

Sighing and deciding to just bite the bullet, Katsuki leaned back into his own seat. "You're not quite what I expected of a therapist. I expected some old bald guy, to be honest."

Pikushi smiled and adjusted her glasses slightly. "I know what you mean, that stereotype usually ends up being true, doesn't it? But let's get into why you're here today. All I know from your parents is that you wanted to visit a therapist, and they believed that I might be able to help. Why don't you tell me why you wanted to see a therapist and we can move on from there."

Katsuki took a breath before letting it out slowly. Steeling his nerves, Katsuki began explaining everything. Beginning when he and Izuku were kids and played together, to his quirk coming in while Izuku's didnt, and up to the encounter with the slime villain. Pikushi nodded and made notes on her pad of paper, recording her observations on Katsuki's current and past behavior and the causes of both. She also made notes about the body language she noticed from Katsuki when talking about certain events. Most common was flexing his hands before clenching them whenever he spoke of this Izuku person from his past.

Once Katsuki finished his story, he was surprised by how light he felt, like a heavy weight that was on his shoulders was lightened significantly, even if it was still there. Blinking in surprise, he looked back towards the blue haired woman sitting across from him. "How did you do that? I even told you things that I hadn't told my parents."

Pikushi smiled before lightly tapping the side of her head. "It's my quirk, it's called Therapist. It allows me greater empathy, observation skills, and allows my patients to feel like they can trust me and be more honest with themselves. Quite fitting, isn't it?"

The ashy blonde couldn't stop himself from chuckling, a small smirk spreading across his face. "You could say that, Doc."

The bluenette smiled back before moving on with the session, already planning out the first steps her young patient would need to help himself.

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Katsuki would go on to visit Doctor Aoi for the rest of his time at Aldera and during the summer before the entrance exam for U.A. There were a lot of breakthroughs, along with some backsliding, but Katsuki would definitely say that he was feeling much better after visiting the doctor for the past year and change. When he was serious about something, he would still have the same determined look on his face that most people would call a scowl if they didn't know him. He smiled and laughed more, something his parents were more than happy to see. Katsuki even began thinking of ways of using his quirk outside of combat, causing the sweat from his hands to cause more heat and no concussive blasts to try and have a way to cauterize wounds if needed.

Overall, Doctor Pikuchi Aoi couldn't have been more proud of her patient. True, her quirk made a lot of things easier for being a therapist but it still required her to use her own education and observations to figure out how to best help her patients.

Katsuki sat in Doctor Ali's office the weekend before U.A.'s entrance exam, clenching his hands and flexing them as he was want to do. Doctor Aoi noticed his movements before offering him a smile. "I'm guessing you're a bit nervous for the exam, Katsuki?"

Letting out a sigh, Katsuki nodded. "Yeah, just a bit, Doc. I know my skills are the best I can make them with the training I have now, and I know I've studied enough that the paper test should be no problem. But I'm still nervous. I'd be a fool if I wasn't."

Pikushi nodded at Katsuki's statement. "You're right. What you're experiencing is perfectly normal, especially so for an entrance exam that has such a low acceptance rate." The doctor gave the ash haired teen a smile as she reached over and put a hand on his shoulder, causing Katsuki to look up toward her. "But from where I'm standing, you are practically guaranteed to get in. You've come far, Katsuki, from who you used to be and I can tell that you are much happier than you used to be."

Pikushi leaned back into her seat with a melancholic smile. "I'll admit that I will miss our talks while you're at U.A. Hound Dog is a great hero and just as great therapist and guidance counselor. I'm sure you will continue to do well under him during your time at U.A."

Katsuki blinked in confusion at that, tilting his head slightly and not helping the description some people have for him as a Pomeranian. "What do you mean, Doc? I thought I'd still be coming to you."

Pikushi blinked in surprise at Katsuki. "Well, since Hound Dog is such a respected hero, along with a therapist, I thought you would want to transfer to him. After all, he would be much more qualified for any problems and experiences you would have as a hero in training."

The blonde bomber crossed his arms as he looked up at the ceiling in thought. Nodding to himself, he spoke. "You're right, he would. But I don't want him as my therapist. I've been working with you for ten months, Doc, and I respect you and trust your judgement and advice. I'd have to learn how to deal with Hound Dog and how much I can trust him. If I have any hero questions, I might go to him, but for everything else? I'd rather keep visiting you."

Pikushi's eyes widened in surprise before they moved back to normal as a warm smile spread across her features. "I'd like that too, Katsuki. How about we schedule your next visit after you get your results from the exam?"

Katsuki smirked and nodded, getting up and moving to leave the room. "You got it, Doc. I'll see you as soon as I get the results."

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After dealing with the written exam and sepersting from Izuku, Katsuki stood in front of his own testing sight, stretching his limbs and rubbing his hands together to help them warm up sooner and letting more sweat gather on them.

Seeing the doors to the testing sight open along with the voice of the cockatoo telling them to start, Katsuki immediately ran towards the city in front of him, using small explosions to push him ahead of the other examinees once he was away from anyone he could accidentally hurt with them. A wide grin was spread across Katsuki's face as he came into range of the first robot, easily destroying it with an explosion to the head. "Two points!"

Katsuki flew off from the wreckage of the robot, looking for more points to score to help him pass the exam. With each explosion he set off and robot he destroyed, Katsuki's quirk was allowing him to go even further beyond his old limitations. His explosions were getting more powerful from the extra sweat the heat was generating from the previous explosion, allowing him to destroy the robots with even larger explosions.

The feeling of the adrenaline running through his system had his grin stretched as wide as it could, hurting his cheeks as he lost himself in the explosions.

Taking a quick breather to shake and stretch his arms to get some feeling back in them, Katsuki noticed the ground start shaking before the giant hand of what he now knew to be the zero pointer crushed a building as it came up from the ground, towering over many of the buildings and causing the other U.A. hopefuls to run back toward the starting point.

Katsuki grinned wide as he got ready to launch himself in the air, wanting nothing more than to use the move he came up with to destroy it and impress the exam proctors, when he heard a scream. Looking back down toward the road, he noticed a girl with pink skin, hair, and yellow horns trying to pull herself along the road to safety while her left foot was bent at an odd angle.

Knowing the girl's ankle was more than likely broken, Katsuki used some small and controlled explosions to get himself to the girls side. "Come on, I'll help you get out of here."

Getting the pink teen on his back with her arms around his neck, Katsuki was about to start running when he noticed the shadow now covering then both. Looking up, he took in the sight of the zero pointer. It's red lensed cameras staring down at them as it's hand started to lower down towards them. With a growl, Katsuki set off his explosions and started flying himself and his passenger back to the starting point. "Fuck that! Time to get out of here!"

The pink skinned girl let out a shriek of surprise that turned into one of joy as they flew through the air, speeding over the blacktop at breakneck speeds. "Woohoo! This is awesome!"

Katsuki grinned at the girl's yells as he let up on the explosions, slowing down until he came to a landing just in front of the starting area and jogging back in, setting the girl down carefully as he heard Present Mic announcing the exam was over. "Glad you liked the ride. Now let's get you to Recovery Girl, that ankle looks bad."

The pink teen grimaced as she looked at her ankle, nodding in agreement as Katsuki started helping her to the medical tent nearby. "Yeah, let's do that. What's your name, by the way? I want to thank you properly for saving me back there."

"My name's Katsuki Bakugo, and it's nothing to thank me for. I wouldn't be a good hero if I just left you there." Katsuki shook his head before he froze, feeling something soft on his cheek. Looking over to his left, he saw the pink haired teen move her head away from his before giving him a wink.

"Doesn't matter, you still saved me. So thank you, Bakugo. My name's Mina Ashido." Katsuki just looked at her in surprise as his cheeks started to match Mina's, moving his gaze away from her as he started moving towards the medical tent again. "Y-you're welcome."

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And there it is! Chapter 6! I hope you all like this chapter and I'm sorry for the big gap between updates. As Doctor Ian Malcolm said, life finds a way. The way life found for this particular story was to give me writers block on how the interactions with Pikushi were supposed to go.

Now, Katsuki seems to have done well in the exam, flying around and fighting the robots before saving someone, and even getting a kiss out of the deal!

Let me know your thoughts on this chapter, if you have any, and I'll see you next time! Izuku's about to wake up and discover what he gave up for Ddraig to give him the scale mail, along with the aftermath of such a thing (Inko).