A timid knock drew Rei from her thoughts as she sat by her window and she turned around to face the door with a smile; true, it was earlier than normal, but Rei had no doubts as to who was at the door. She was smiling until she saw the face Naoko was making, it was one of desperation and sadness, one that Rei had seen several times before in the three years that the two knew each other.

If there was any doubt in Rei's mind about what had happened, it all disappeared when she held out her arms as a signal for Naoko to come to give her a hug. A sob ripped its way from Naoko, and she ran across the room, almost lunging into Rei's arms; it was heartbreaking for Rei to watch Naoko like this, especially since Naoko had been doing so well and was so excited for her first day of school.

The two sat there together for several minutes, while Rei rocked Naoko in her arms, humming gently while she brushed the girl's hair with her fingers. It was a moment both needed, so they just sat there, soaking in each other's presence.

A tap on Naoko's head signaled her to look up as Rei spoke gently, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Naoko whimpered slightly and nodded before burying her head back into Rei's lap, not wanting to see the look of disappointment on Rei's face. "Today was a bad one, Rei-sama... I-I got last place on our quirk test because... I was an idiot. If I had spent less time focusing on stuff that didn't matter and put more thought into what actually goes into being a hero, I might have been able to do better than last place.

"After I failed," Naoko had to pause here to take a deep breath, she was on the edge of losing it, but if she didn't get this out now, then she never would, "Some kid yelled at me, and while everything he said was harsh, it was also true, I just, I just... I just couldn't do it! I... I'm sorry."

At this, Naoko's voice gave out on her, and she simply lifted her wrists for Rei to inspect; this was all part of something akin to a ritual between these two. Rei grabbed Naoko's wrists and pulled her up, so she could sit in a chair across from Rei; gently, she slipped the sweatbands off and began unraveling them, so she could look at the damage that Naoko had done to herself.

The wounds had continued bleeding for a while after being bandaged, so the skin around the cuts was dyed the dark red of dried blood. "Six cuts," Rei said, almost to herself quietly, knowing that it didn't matter how loud she was as long as Naoko could see her, "What are they for this time?"

Naoko couldn't bring herself to speak, since she knew that someone could hear her with the difficulty she had controlling her volume, so she signed, "These four are for the parts of the exam I did worst at, this is for tripping over my teacher this morning and losing control of my quirk, and this is for the truth in that boy's words."

Her fingers were slightly sluggish as she signed, showcasing the impact the day had on her; Rei watched intently, she never became the most fluent in sign language, but she was able to keep up with Naoko, noticing the tiredness. Naoko was strong, but if she was put under too much strain, she would snap, just like anyone would.

"You are too harsh on yourself, but I understand why you want to get better." Rei grabbed some gauze and medical tape that she managed to pilfer from the nurse's station specifically for this purpose, and began to wrap Naoko's wrists back up while switching back to speech, "Are you going to tell Hasame about this?"

This was a sore topic between the two, and it had been for years, Rei was insistent that Naoko needed to tell her aunt about her cutting. Naoko didn't want to cause her aunt any more worry, she figured that knowing about her shortcoming was the last thing that Hasame needed on her mind right now. Rei knew better than to push too hard, but even she was reaching the end of her rope; Naoko's cutting had been going on since not too long after the initial accident. As far as Rei knew, Naoko had never told anyone else about this, the only reason that Rei knew was that she had walked in on Naoko bandaging her arm the first time.

Naoko shrugged noncommittally but said nothing... Rei would have kept pressing her, but the particular sound (and feel) of Morse code saved Naoko. Long, long, short. Short. Long. Four shorts. Three longs. It continued for almost a minute before Naoko snorted and grabbed her phone from her pocket, "I'm sorry Rei-sama, but Hasame told me to come home... She's reminding me that she's my aunt, and apparently should have carte blanche over spending time with me after my first day of school."

Naoko stood and walked to the door before turning around, almost hesitantly, "I promise I'll tell her soon, right now is just a really bad time."

"She deserves to know." Rei was solemn as she said this, if one of her children were hurting themselves and hiding it from her, she would be devastated.

"I know."

***

As per the usual, not even a minute after Naoko entered the apartment she was assaulted by Hasame, who grabbed her niece by the wrist and pulled her to a small living room. Once they were there, Naoko was forced into a seat while Hasame stood across from her, arms crossed, toe-tapping, and an incredibly ticked off look in her eyes.

"I thought I told you that I wanted to be the first one to hear about your day," For as mad as she was, Hasame's words made her seem a bit like a petulant child, "I'm your aunt, Naoko. I know you love Rei like a mother, but why did you specifically go to her when I asked you to come to talk to me first?"

Oh gosh... Naoko could say so many things right now, none of them would end well and most of them originated from Rei, 'She deserves to know.'

"Well..." Naoko started, her thoughts were in chaos right now, even she hardly knew what was going to come out of her mouth, "I, um... Wanted to tell her about her son." Yup, she chickened out, "I wanted her to know how he was doing, so I went straight there after school, since visiting hours end not too long after that."

Naoko went on to tell her aunt everything, minus that one part, which caused Hasame start boiling with everything that Naoko told her, "That jerk!" She shot from her chair and began pacing, "Doesn't he have any common decency? Maybe that's a sign that you should go to a different school, Naoko, I mean, it's the first day and you already had someone be a total prat."

Despite missing most of what her aunt said, due to the volatile pacing, Naoko got the message. With a sigh, she stood up calmly and walked over to her aunt before pulling her into a hug, a common practice between the two.

"That's the thing, Aunt, he's right. I need to get better. Um," Once again, Naoko had to pause, her idea for getting better quickly was one that Hasame would not like, but she knew that she could do it; the only problem would be convincing Hasame that it was okay. "I actually had an idea that would help with all three things at once, but I need your permission to do it."

Hasame tapped Naoko gently on the head, "And I'm guessing that I'll hate this idea?" Naoko nodded, "Well then, out with it, there's no use keeping me in suspense."

Naoko took a deep breath and stared at her shoes, "I want to go camping in the woods for a week or so, so that I can train round the clock; it would be like boot camp." She said all this in one breath before cringing away from the inevitable explosion.

Nothing happened.

Cautiously, Naoko looked at her aunt only to see her gaping at Naoko in a state of shock. Using this to her advantage, Naoko continued, hoping to get a decent explanation in before Hasame could catch up, "I'd only go to the public forest that I usually train in, it's in a decent area, and it's a lot closer to the school. I would be there until my stamina is up enough to run all the way to school, which, according to my research, will be about two weeks if I push myself to the limit every day. I already have a schedule made, as well as a way to protect myself from wildlife and weirdos."

Naoko paused, but still, there was nothing from her aunt, "Um, Aunt Hasame? Please say something."

You could almost see the gears turning in Hasame's head as she digested what Naoko said, "Is that even legal?"

"What? The training?" Naoko was more than a little confused by her aunt's question, they had this conversation before, when she first found out that Naoko was training with her quirk there, "The government okayed the forest for that purpose years ago, remember? It was a part of the Sanction of Quirk Experimentation and Regulation Act that the government put out a few years ago, you and I went through that whole thing making sure it would be legal for me to practice my quirk somewhere."

Slowly, Hasame shook her head, "No, the camping part..." She pushed Naoko away and walked to a nearby sofa which she promptly collapsed in, "I suppose that's a stupid question, you wouldn't have even suggested it if that wasn't legal. I don't want you out there by yourself, I'm sorry Naoko, but I can't allow you to do that; there are too many things that could go wrong, and I don't want the stress of knowing that you're out there all alone. I understand that you want to get better quickly, but there are other ways you can do it besides isolating yourself for two weeks in the woods.

"How about a compromise?" Hasame stared at her niece, who looked like she could be pushed over with a feather; her aunt was suggesting a compromise instead of just straight out forbidding it? That's a new one. Naoko quickly nodded, and Hasame began speaking again, "You stay here for your boot camp training, and I'll extend your curfew until 10, 10:30 if needed. You would be able to go straight from school to training and then come home at night. Does that sound fair?"

It was more than fair, Hasame normally never compromised, so her conceding any ground, let alone to something as big as this, was something that Naoko couldn't ignore, "Yeah, I guess I can do that, I suppose I shouldn't push the horses; thanks, Hasame." She was about to turn and go to grab her training supplies when she was stopped by the highly confused look on Hasame's face, "What?"

"Shouldn't push the horses?" Hasame stared at Naoko, trying to hide her confusion, this wasn't the first time something like this happened, but it still caught Hasame off guard every time it did.

It took a second for Naoko to realize what her aunt was questioning, but when she did, a slight blush spread across her face, "Ah, that must have been a Russian one then..." Awkwardness reigned for a moment before Naoko nodded and walked away, leaving Hasame chuckling slightly behind her.

'That girl...'