The 9 Millimeter Kiss - Chapter 59: Chapter 59

School was bearable.
Yuki only had one place where he felt he could relax and that was Matsuda's office. He was kind and hardly ever raised his voice at the boy. He was patient and never really forced anything out of him. His fights with classmates didn't happen as often. But when they did he was usually sent to Matsuda for the remainder of the day. Teachers tried to get him to cooperate in class but no one wanted to befriend a walking target for paper spitballs.
It was bearable.
Even when he went to school with dirty clothes and visible bruises decorating his arms. Even when he went back to the house, the yelling and hitting didn't feel as bad as it had when he'd first gotten there. Yuki had long since gotten used to the smell of beer and tried his best to block out the smell of tobacco. He didn't flinch as hard when the belt came upon him. Or cry as much as he used to.
It was bearable.
Talking with Matsuda after school was nice. Prolonging his time with the counselor was worth it. Having someone to genuinely help him with homework was nice. Matsuda had even offered to let him stay during lunch times. With no money or lunch for him to eat, Matsuda was generous enough to offer him some of his lunch.
With Matsuda, he was safe...
Yuki was seemingly the only student in the small school to ever go to Matsuda's office as regularly as he did. He supposed the counselor would eventually get tired of being or seeing him so often he'd start sending him back to class as soon as possible. Quite the opposite happened. Matsuda-sensei took it upon himself to teach Yuki what materials it was he would be missing during class. It was as if he was a private tutor of sorts.
Though one of the few academic obstacles Yuki faced was trying to not get too far ahead, at least according to the teachers. Matsuda-sensei encouraged it. Someday's even just allowing Yuki to spend the entire day at the library reading what he liked. Other's, Yuki would entertain what silly games Matsuda-sensei would come up with.
"You have a quirk?" Matsuda asked. Yuki was in the middle of telling him more about his friend Mai and had just glossed over that small detail.
"Yeah." Yuki confirmed, returning to his math homework. "After that Mai kept doing these small experiments to see what I could do. We made a promise to go to U.A. someday."
Matsuda raised an eyebrow. "Your file says you're quirkless."
"The people who come to pick me up and take me somewhere else said it cost money to fix it. So they're leaving it like that." Yuki shrugged, looking over his finished assignment.
"So, what is your quirk?" Matsuda amusely asked.
"Healing." Yuki mumbled before handing the paper to Matsuda. "Did I do #5 right?"
Matsuda took the paper. "A healing quirk? That's quite a rare one."
"Mai said so too." Yuki nodded swingin his legs. "She told me I could help cure diseases and be a doctor!" he grinned.
Matsuda chuckled, checking the homework. Yuki didn't often share let alone bring up events from his past. Handing back the paper to Yuki, Matsuda grinned. "Pick a color."
"Sensei, how long are you going to keep asking me to pick something!" Yuki whined, taking back his homework.
"It hasn't been that long--"
"It's about to be 3 months already." Yuki pouted.
Yuki looked at his homework with pride. There wasn't a single mistake on it and he was excited to show it to Matsuda-sensei. He wondered if that meant staying after hours at the library or maybe he'd even take him outside to the playground and just kick around a ball. At the sound of the bell he was one of the first to rush out the door, homework in hand. While the other students ran to the cafeteria, he ran right towards the counselors office. Too excited, he wiggled the door knob only to find it was locked. That was fine. Maybe Matsuda-sensei went down to the teachers lounge to warm up his lunch. So he ran down another set of stairs. Slowing his pace he cautiously peeked through the open door, scanning through the place.
"Are you looking for Matsuda-san?"
Yuki jumped back, keeping his eyes on the ground. "Yeah..."
The teacher chuckled, "I'm afraid he called in sick this morning."
Yuki's eyes widened, looking up. "He's sick?"
The teacher smiled down at him. "Yeah. I'm sure he'll be back soon, it's probably a summer cold at best."
"Oh." Yuki slouched slightly in disappointment.
"Matsuda-sensei!" Yuki cheered running in.
"Yuki!" the counselor smiled. "I heard you were looking for me. Sorry I wasn't here for a bit."
"Are you feeling better?" Yuki worryingly asked.
"Yes, it was just a small cold. Didn't want you to catch it." Matsuda teased reaching over to ruffle Yuki's hair.
"Sensei, I can heal you next time you feel sick!" Yuki's eyes gleamed looking up with determination.
Matsuda let out a hearty laugh, "I'll be sure to let you know next time, then. Doctor Yuki."
"I'm not a doctor, sensei. Oh! Look what I got yesterday." Yuki ecstatically reached into his worn out backpack. Following Matsuda back to his desk.
Matsuda watched as the boy rummaged through his backpack, pulling out his workbook, opening it and taking out a piece of paper folded in half.
"I got my first homework with no wrong answers!" Yuki proudly stated, jumping on the balls of his feet.
"That's amazing, Yuki! Good for you!" Matsuda congratulated him with the same energy.
"Does that mean we can stay at the library after hours today?" Yuki nervously asked, still excited.
Matsuda pondered. "I think this calls for a different kind of celebration."
Yuki stopped his excitement, feeling a bit confused. "Different? How?"
Matsuda grinned, "How about we stop by the convenient store before you go home. I'll buy you whichever ice cream you like."
Yuki felt a tug in his chest. "Ice...cream?"
"Yeah! Ice cream! You like ice cream, right?" Matsuda smiled tenderly at the boy.
The boy's bottom lip slightly quivering, "Yeah!"
"With summer break around the corner--"
"I'm sorry, Sakamoto-san! We've just received word of another kidnapping just outside of Kyoto."
"We have a description, a young woman with brown hair, brown eyes, around 5'9'' was seen being dragged into a van by one person wearing a face mask of sorts."
"Do you think this is related to the other disappearances?"
"Oto-san, it very well just be. Detective Fujimoto stressed that any disappearance should be reported immediately when we last interviewed him."
There was a pause, both news anchors holding a hand over their earpiece.
"Oh my--"
"There's been technical difficulties, we will be returning in just a moment--"
School was let out for summer break. With Yuki's good grades and lack of being in any sort of clubs, he really had nothing to do but stay in the house. He'd ask Matsuda if he would be going to school over the break and much to the boy's dismay, the man was going to be busy. Saying he had to go take care of his mother over in Hokkaido. Yuki didn't know where that was on a map but from the way it was stressed he could tell it was very far.
Despite the intense heat of summer, Yuki refused to be inside the house and spent his long days outside near a rundown park with a muddy lake. Or was it a pond?
He would walk around the neighborhood, running a stick over gates, sometimes poking up at trees that harbored fruit, other times just spending his time sitting on a tree trunk. There was one time a nice old lady gave him a homemade popsicle. And there were many times he'd been warned to be careful of strangers, especially with all the kidnappings and disappearances he's seen or heard in passing an electronics store. The radio always seemed to be playing the news instead of the 'noise' the old store owner once said.
"Do you know how lucky you are to even be alive!"
Yuki curled up as close to the corner as he could. "Yes, sir!" he meekly replied.
Yuki kept the promise he made with Mai fresh in his mind. Matsuda-sensei had told him it was quite difficult to get into U.A., hero course or not. It was afterall one of the most well known hero schools there were. It was one of the reasons Yuki pushed so hard to get ahead of the class. If he was good with his studies he would be able to get in.
There was a small clinic on the other side of the town. Yuki wondered if they would allow him to use his quirk. He wondered if they would allow a child like him to help heal people. Even if it was just small cuts or bruises, he could heal them. Maybe a broken bone or two.
Yuki didn't have time for doubt though. He promised Mai. If he wasn't able to get into U.A. along with Mai, surely she would rub it in his face of how much smarter she'd gotten than him. So he walked up to a reception desk and loudly proclaimed to her with such confidence he'd felt for a long time and said, "I have a healing quirk. Can I please help people feel better? I promise to do my best!"
Now instead of spending his days out under the intense heat, he would leave the house early, catch a bus if he could across town and volunteer at the small clinic. He'd sometimes even stay overnight. Nurses, Doctors and sometimes patients giving him hand-me-downs from their kids or grandkids who've outgrown them. He was allowed to use the showers where they had running hot water and even the people in the cafeteria would make him lunch.
"Where is he?!" a voice boomed through the emergency room.
Though it was cut a bit short.
"Sir, if you could plea--"
"I'm right here!" a brave voice escaped a small 7 year old.
The man let out a scoff before walking towards him. Yanking onto the back of the boy's new old shirt and beginning to drag him away.
"So this is where you've been hiding?" the man scowled down sickly at Yuki.
"I-I was j-just volunteering, s-sir." Yuki tried to explain
"Excuse me sir! If you could please release the child." a nurse approached them.
"Don't tell me what to do with him!" the man snapped.
"Your job is to look pretty and fix up everyone else whose bodies are shit!"
"Sir, I apologize if the Yuki-kun has been getting home late--"
Yuki's face went pale, his head began to shake telling her to stop.
"Oh so you've been sneaking out late at night too?" the man screamed at Yuki. Lowering his head. "He won't be coming along these hospitals anymore!" the man snapped back up at the nurses. "The boy's got school work to finish and chores to do!"
It was one of those times Yuki wished they could just take him somewhere else again. Maybe to people who didn't pay attention to him. It wasn't the best summer. Especially when he missed the first couple of days of school after break.
"Yuki! What happened to you?" Matsuda rushed over to the boy. His bandaged arms hardly covered the purples, blues, and light browns. Hands tightly clutching onto the straps of his backpack. It was long past school hours.
"Matsuda-sensei..." Yuki's voice trembled. His body shook lightly as he reached into his school bag and took out a stack of papers. Matsuda carefully kneeled in front of the boy. Worried he would collapse at any second.
With a smile, Yuki looked at Matsuda and handed him the packet. "I finished my summer homework."
"Oh, Yuki..."
"It doesn't have any mistakes."
"Yuki--"
"I even finished the book you gave me." Yuki reached back into his backpack. "It has a little bit of red dye on it." he lied.
Matsuda slowly took the packet along with the book, setting it to the side. Yuki's face contorted into confusion.
"You're not checking if it's wrong?" he asked.
Matsuda gently took the boy's backpack and also set that aside. Lowering himself more so that he was looking slightly upward to Yuki. "Yuki, you know you can tell me anything. If you ever need to talk, I'm right here. I'm here for you. You know that, right?"
Yuki stared into the counselor's eyes.
Oh how he wanted so badly to tell someone everything. How he wanted to tell someone he missed his Papa. And Uncle Shin. And Mai. How he wanted to go back home. Back to a place he could no longer remember. How he wanted to tell someone he'd long forgotten what they looked like after his one and only family picture was burned in front of him for not cleaning properly.
How badly he wanted to yell at the top of his lungs for all the hurt he's gotten.How badly he wanted to cry and not get yelled at for it. He wanted to cry to his Papa about how right he was in keeping his then quirkless label a secret. He wanted to say sorry to Uncle Shin so badly for not liking all the hero toys. He shouldn't have complained.
"Matsuda-sensei..." Yuki whispered.
"Yes, Yuki?"
He wanted to go home.
"Can I stay here for a little bit?"
He wanted to be home.
"You can stay until school closes, yes." Matsuda reassured him.
Where is 'home' anymore...
"Is it--" a small hiccup let the boy's lips.
"Is what?" Matsuda asked.
Yuki tried to focus on trying to remember what his Papa looked like.
"Is it okay if..."
He couldn't. Not his face. Not his voice. Not his laugh.
"Is it okay if I cry, sensei?" Yuki whimpered.
Matsuda carefully took the boy's hands into his own.
"Yes.
It's okay to cry..."
Grief engulfed the boy. Painful cries echoing the halls as he mourned all he'd lost.