"Please send- or, rather, bring in my next patient, please."
Doctor Tsukawa Keiji cleared his throat as he gingerly removed his finger from the intercom. His steel gray eyes wandered over towards the single door to his office, which had been slammed shut a few moments earlier. Keiji ran a hand through his thick black hair and flinched slightly as he recalled the end of his previous conversation, but quickly banished the guilt that gnawed at his belly. I've only been doing this a short while. I'll get used to the challenges of dealing with... that sort of thing. He felt a small itch on his nose, but resisted the urge to scratch. He was young, by the standards of his profession, but at least he could pretend to have gravitas.
It was at that moment that the plain white door swung open once more; was it for the fifth or sixth time that day? Keiji dismissed the errant thought and turned his attention to his next patient as she was wheeled into the room, coming to rest over by the voluminous sofa that his patients would normally be seated on.
The girl was sixteen, of fair complexion and with a short scruff of violet hair that was regrowing from her scalp. Her left arm and the left side of her face were covered with bandages, and her equally bandaged left leg ended at the knee. She sat slumped in her black wheelchair; her one eye a dull lilac that seemed to look past anything it was aimed at, whilst her lips remained flat and lifeless. She had dressed, or been dressed, quite casually; a simple black t-shirt with the name of some band Keiji did not recognize emblazoned on the front, and blue jean shorts. Keiji also noted a small, silver cross on a steel chain around her neck.
The girl said nothing as the assistant smiled at her and retreated from the room, gently sealing the door behind her. Keiji took a deep breath, and then met her gaze with his own.
"Good afternoon, Shinsato-chan. It's a pleasure to meet you." Keiji let a small, kind grin onto his face. "My name is Dr. Tsukawa. If you'd prefer to be seated on the sofa instead, I can arrange that?"
Shinsato Hana did not reply, her eye seemingly focused on some point behind Keiji. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the slightly raspy breathing of the girl. Then, Hana blinked, and shook her head in the negative.
"Very well; whatever helps you to be comfortable, Shinsato-chan." Keiji turned his attention to his desk, pulling over a manila envelope and removing the contents. As he read over their contents once more, giving Hana a chance to adjust and settle in, he let out a small sigh. Fate hasn't been kind to her. "Now, do you know why you're here?"
Hana remained passive, her eye locked forward and without any of the fidgeting the doctor would have expected. Keiji was almost impressed, but even in his short time he'd seen similar cases.
"Hana-chan, I can't help you if you won't talk to me." Keiji pleaded, tilting his head slightly. He had noted that most patients would react to having their first name used, and even if it was negative it at least started a dialogue.
"I don't deserve help." Hana's tone was flat.
"Why do you say that?" Keiji pounced on his opening.
"He's dead." Hana responded dully. Keiji gave her a moment to continue, but when no elaboration was forthcoming he cleared his throat.
"And you blame yourself." Keiji surreptitiously bit his lower lip behind his paper shield.
"My curse killed him." Hana's eye finally looked away from the doctor, roaming across the room before stopping at a picture of Keiji's dog, a chocolate Labrador retriever, that hung on the wall.
"Your curse, Hana-chan?" Keiji inquired.
"My sins." Hana murmured, "You already know them." Her eye left the framed photo and fixated once more on the doctor, though this time Keiji could see a hint of light in the formerly dull iris.
"And what are your sins, Hana?" Keiji probed. Hana did not reply, but kept gazing past Keiji as if he weren't there. Sensing a failure of that line of questioning, Keiji elected to switch tracks. "Your file didn't make mention of any religious affiliation, but I see you have a cross. Forgive me if I overstep, but are you a Christian?"
"No." Hana looked down. "My dad was. He gave it to me before..." She trailed off.
"Before he left you." Keiji supplied "Before the first accident."
"It wasn't an accident." Hana kept her face staring down at the floor "I wanted to hurt him. I couldn't- I don't understand how he could..."
"How he could break his promise." Keiji's eyes softened with sympathy. He'd read about this first incident, back when the girl had been only five years old. When her father had divorced her mother, and broken his promises to the girl and her siblings. A simple event; one that, depressingly, happened to many children. But not many of those children had the reaction she did; not many of them were capable of what she had done. It was a fortunate and life-saving coincidence that a Hero with hydrokinesis had been nearby that day, and that the Shinsato house had been near a small stream.
And that Hana's Quirk had been weak.
Hana remained silent for a few seconds before nodding her head. Keiji closed his eyes for a moment before sitting up in his armchair.
"It wasn't your fault, Hana." He reassured her "Many children struggle with their Quirks. You can't blame yourself for hurting them."
Keiji was expecting a denial, perhaps even an emphatic one, but Hana remained oddly silent. She simply sat there for a few moments as if processing his words, but made no reply. The doctor sighed and decided to speak again.
"Thankfully, your parents and siblings escaped that day with only minor burns; you yourself took the worst of it along your left side." Keiji hoped his words would get Hana to speak again, but also that they wouldn't cause her to become angry. She isn't wearing Quirk suppressants. I'm playing with fire, it seems.
"Yes." Hana blinked and turned her attention to the window. "They said the same thing you said. But you're all wrong." Her eye fixed on Keiji's face, sending a small shiver down his spine. "I wanted to do it. I'm a monster."
"You're not a monster, Hana-chan." Keiji shook his head "You're a good person who has been put in bad situations. It's not your fault or your Quirk's fault, for that matter."
Hana did not respond to that, but her good arm came up to grasp the small cross that sat atop her shirt.
Keiji sighed once more. He understood her reluctance to speak, but he had a job to do. This is necessary. For her own good.
"Hana-chan, can we talk about the second accident?" Keiji smiled as gently as he could, trying to convince Hana that he only wanted to help her.
The girl nodded her assent as her arm dropped back to rest alongside the chair lifelessly. She knew it couldn't be avoided any longer.
"From what I've read, you reacted in self-defense-" Keiji began.
"No." Hana interrupted "He wasn't trying to hurt me. I-I misunderstood."
"Hana-chan, that's not what the reports say." Keiji insisted gently.
"They're wrong. Shiro wasn't- he wouldn't hurt me." Hana shook her head with surprising vigor. "It was my fault- I should have listened to him."
"That's not true, Hana." Keiji nearly lost himself to anger for a moment; not at his patient, but at the boy named Shiro. The doctor regained his composure with a cough and locked eyes with Hana.
"Your boyfriend was abusing you, Hana. He hurt you and tried to force you into something you weren't ready for." Keiji kept his voice as calm as he could manage.
"N-no, Shiro was just... he was going to be a Hero." Hana's eye began to tear up. "I-I took that away from him. Forever."
"You protected yourself, Hana." Keiji stood up and walked over towards her, kneeling in front of his distressed patient.
"H-he loved me, he said so." Hana began to let the tears fall "I-I killed him! He didn't deserve that!" The sobs turned into wails as she raised her right hand up to her eye.
"Look at me, Hana." Keiji commanded gently. The girl sniffled a few times but then did as he asked.
"He didn't deserve to die." One last sob escaped Hana as she met Keiji's gaze. A small flicker of purple flames played across her lips as Keiji gulped.
"Maybe not. But you didn't deserve to be abused. You didn't deserve what he did to you." Keiji reached out and took Hana's hand in his own hand. "And you don't deserve to keep suffering because you defended yourself. You can't ever undo what happened, Hana, but you can move on. If not for your sake, for your family."
Hana gripped his hand tightly. "I-I can't. I don't want to go on. Not like this." She looked at the bandages on her arm, and then down at her missing leg. "Not with what I've done."
"You can." Keiji brought his other hand over atop hers. "You will. It won't be easy, but you can do it. I believe in you. Your family believes in you; it's why they brought you here today."
Hana broke down into tears once again as Keiji held her hand.