Post-Stain
"Hello, Shouto. How was your internship with your father?"
"Mm, I guess it was okay. I got the opportunity to learn more about how to use my fire properly since I'm still inexperienced with it. There are a lot of people with fire quirks at the agency, so I got some good advice from them." Rei notices that he is trying to avoid saying that he got help from Enji. 'His father's probably still a sensitive topic for both of us.'
He looks away as he's speaking with her and Rei can't help but think that he's thinking about something. "What is it?"
"There was an attack on the city while we were patrolling. There were lots of Noumu."
"Noumu?"
"How do I explain this… The explanation we were given is that Noumu are genetically modified beings that are capable of holding multiple quirks. They have a similar structure to humans but definitely do not look human. No one seems to know more than that. The ones that attacked the city were no big deal. They were nothing compared to the one that attacked the school with some villains. That one was immensely powerful, it managed to trade multiple hits with All Might."
"Your… school got attacked?" Rei frowns and feels her heart rate go up.
"Yeah. Sorry, the school sent out notices to be careful to all the parents, but you had no way of knowing. I'll tell you about it now. A small army of villains and that powerful Noumu attacked us while we were in a training facility. There were some injuries, Aizawa-sensei got the worst of it from protecting us. Thankfully, everyone made it out alive. That was all we could ask for in that situation. Since I had some experience with them already, I wasn't a liability out there in the internship."
"Shouto... that's not what I'm worried about."
"It's not?" He frowns. A light bulb seemingly goes off in his head. "Oh, I've also managed to become friends with the Midoriya and Iida that I told you about."
"That's great!" She breathes a sigh of relief from not having to talk more about him being in dangerous situations.
"We were actually all in the same city for our internships. We bonded while fighting the Hero Killer and also later when we got placed in a hospital room."
"You… faced a murderer?" She's not sure what to say in response. Word travels fast even in this psychiatric hospital. She's heard some words and rumors from the other patients about the Hero Killer, how his charisma in his last moments before arrest managed to capture many people's hearts (she hasn't been allowed to see it directly since the one that he said it to was apparently Enji). And how he's ended many a hero's careers, either through incapacitating them from serious wounds or just killing them. 'He got hurt while fighting?' Her motherly instincts kick in and she scans his body from head to toe. 'He seems okay now, but let's make sure.' She clears her throat. "You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
"Don't worry, I'm fine. I was mainly sent there for precautionary reasons. All I had was some scratches. Iida and Midoriya got it worse than me."
'That doesn't really inspire confidence in me…' She wonders if her son knows what he's doing to her heart. "Are your friends alright?"
"Iida has some damage in his left arm, but he says it's a good reminder of how reckless he was since he was actively looking for the Hero Killer out of revenge. Plus, his quirk uses his legs exclusively so he'll have no trouble continuing to use it. Midoriya's fine, too. He's suffered from worse injuries in the past. Thanks for asking, though. The entire class was also worried since they heard we fought him on the news."
She notices that his posture remains tense and he lightly taps his foot. If he's still the same as he was when he was a child, that means that he's hiding something. She is almost too afraid to ask, knowing how much the previous conversation just stressed her out. "...There's something else, isn't there? Something that you're hiding?"
"...You know me well, Mom. I want to tell you, I really do, but… Unfortunately, I'm really not sure if I can talk about this with other people. I was told not to say anything or there could be trouble." Shouto looks down and his feet shuffle, displaying his uncomfortableness.
"Don't worry, Shouto, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I don't want you to get into trouble. And if you ever want to talk about it, your Mom will always be here for you and keep it a secret if you want."
"Thanks, that really does mean a lot. I promise to tell you one day. What else is there to talk about… Ah, Yaoyorozu also asked me if I was alright multiple times. She's the only one that asked me, but I think she's asking for the others that still may feel uncomfortable about approaching me. That's very responsible of her. I knew I made the right choice when I voted for her."
'Again, her name comes up.' Rei notes. "Does that mean she did the same thing to your other friends?"
"I'm not actually sure about that. Well, when she asked me it was in private, so maybe she did speak to them privately as well? If they did then it's natural that I wouldn't know."
Based on what Rei is hearing, she's also not sure but leans toward this Momo only speaking to Shouto, if only for optimism's sake. "So the others are still tense around you?"
"Oh, my relationship with them is getting better. Kaminari's started to play jokes with me, though I don't understand the majority of them. I wasn't the only one that gained something from the internships, though. There was an obstacle course race where the class was randomly selected against each other. Midoriya surprised everyone with his newfound mobility by strengthening his legs, even if he faltered at the last moment. Uraraka learned some hand-to-hand skills from hers. Bakugou… I'm not sure if he actually learned anything. I tried asking him about it, but he just shouted some profanity at me that I'd rather not repeat to you. When I first arrived to class, I almost didn't recognize him because his spiky hair had been completely combed down. It was very surprising and honestly didn't suit him at all…"
…
He goes through his classmates one by one, but there is one notable exception. Someone that he already mentioned previously, so Rei doubts that the reason is that he forgot. "What about Momo?"
He sighs. "I actually don't know. Normally, she is incredibly outgoing about everything, especially when it comes to learning, but she hasn't spoken much about her internship. I'm a little concerned, but it's possible that it's nothing."
Rei only knows her from Shouto's point of view, so she can only take his word for it. "Hopefully, you're right, Shouto."
A/N: I was going to combine the Stain and pre-Final exams into one chapter, but then I reread these chapters in the manga and they're weeks apart? I decided to space them out here, too. Rereading something always makes me catch something new~