"Let's start with addressing the first issue. Seeing people as entertainment."
"Is that really an issue? Don't people want something from others one way or another?" Shigure folded his arms, staring Keigo right into his eyes.
Keigo paused. His face unreadable. He then lazily smiled. "Yup. If we break down human interactions to their bare form, then we will find that people interact with each other to get something out of them. Be it, friendship, some material thing or just some emotion."
"Didn't think that I would something like this from Japan's 6th ranked hero." Shigure teased.
"I am just speaking facts. No need to sugarcoat things. Anyway, back to the topic, your case is a bit of an issue." Keigo said, his gaze felting heavy on Shigure.
'I don't feel this normally. Guess, this is the commission's most prized agent. I can't even tell if he is lying to make me comfortable or if it's his real thoughts.'
"Is it? I have already told you. For a person who has lived as long as I have, this is natural. My emotions have numbed. You think I am very expressive, right? That's coz I have made that a habit from long ago, coz—"
"You are afraid of losing your emotions," Keigo said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"...Yes," Shigure muttered.
"Hmm, you always say that due to spending a lot of time with your quirk, you turned out like that. Coz you felt boredom... So, let me ask you, why did you do this? You clearly had a choice. The choice to live a normal life, yet you decided to abuse your quirk."
"I—I..." Shigure stopped. He took a deep breath.
Keigo internally frowned when he saw Shigure's hands trembling.
'Did I push him too much? Or is he acting to either gauge me or to make me stop this session?'
Like Shigure, Keigo himself was aware that Shigure had a pretty good poker face when he wanted to put one.
He didn't realise this initially, but after observing the boy for a few months, he realized that any emotion that comes up on Shigure's face is highly likely to be coz he wants to show that emotion.
As a master in deception, he is aware of the importance of such a skill.
'He is quite lucky that I found him before the association. If the latter found out his abilities, then I can't imagine...' Keigo suddenly paused.
A shiver ran across his whole spine.
'Wait...If the association found him... He came in contact with the association a few years back when he sold that training method. Why did he sell it to them when he could have made a profit? His emotionally unstable excuse was lousy... Did he do it to create an image? Nezu and Yaoyorozu were made aware along with multiple heavy powers. But, he could have just... No, let's look at it long-term.
When he becomes a hero, he could use the current image of being a kid who did a lot for the government. At least, use that as leverage coz this would be considered a kind of social service.' Keigo's mind was going overdrive with hypothesis after hypothesis.
The silence stretched in the room. Both individuals drowned in their thoughts.
'Isn't this a bit too convenient for my first meeting with Shigure? Like I did have tendencies to randomly visit places to hunt some vigilantes or villains, but my meeting with Shigure was due to a vague anonymous tip I got. I did tell Shigure, but he said it's probably some villain who he beat up... But what if, he was the one who sent it.'
Keigo gulped. 'Moreover, I shifted to this building a few months ago. It was one of the 7 choices I had, yet this was the building where I later found out that this was Hinami-san's occasional workstation. I think it was a coincidence... but was it really one?...
That assassination attempt on Shigure, that itself was suspicious. How did he not expect himself to not attacked when he dropped such a bomb on the world? His excuse was that he didn't expect to be attacked within 24 hours...'
Keigo started analyzing all the major events associated with Shigure and his impression of Shigure to be orchestrating everything started consolidating.
His gaze went back to Shigure.
Blank eyes stared back at him.
With all his experience and training in deception, he was barely able to stop himself from flinching.
"I did that coz I wanted to awaken my quirk. Mainly so that I could get enough strength to be a hero or a villain."
"Oh, why did you want such strength? When I met you, you had enough strength to become a pro. So, why continue?" Keigo gathered his wits together and casually asked.
"Coz, like money, my strength is not enough. Having more of it doesn't hurt. Moreover, I like training my quirk. Similar to how I used to like working on CMLA."
Hawks took a few moments to contemplate his next question. "Training your quirk does make sense coz you like it. But are you sure that it's not an obsession? You have spent a humongous amount of time on it. Also, how is it different from working on creating something new? You said "You used to like it", what changed?"
"Like turned into an obsession at some point... I think I was obsessed with my quirk even before it first awakened. I always liked the idea of having superpowers, especially unique powers. I had a tier 5 quirk, but it was still a superpower in the end. This along with I guess, wanting to have enough strength was the reason for continuing on that path.
About CMLA. The main reason I actually went down on delving into you know creating or training a model was first that I was interested in the field, which is similar to how I liked my quirk. Though, during that time, it was the only thing I was good at, so I did it whenever I used my quirk, so it was another skill that developed.
The main goal was to make money. Enough money to not worry about making money for a long time. My interest in it never became an obsession with this unlike my quirk, so I didn't find it needed to continue.
Moreover, I guess I prioritize strength over money. Though, that might have not been that important."
Shigure looked up to see Keigo writing in the notebook.
"Give me a minute or two to gather my thoughts," Keigo told him.
A few seconds later, he stopped writing and started pondering on what information he was able to gather.
'Maybe I was overthinking. There's no way somebody could create such a plan on a large scale. The only person I could think of who can do this is maybe Nezu.' Keigo dismissed his earlier ridiculous hypothesis.
"I see. So, your obsession over your quirk leads you to abuse your quirk. At least that's what you think. Are you sure that there are no other reasons?"
Shigure suddenly tensed before shaking his head. "This is the major reason."
Keigo noted that behaviour but didn't push it.
"Cool. So, now we need to talk about how the time spent in improving your quirk led to you know, 'People are entertainment' belief."
"Well, it's not that surprising. My quirk can be trained even while watching anime. Boredom would creep on you sooner or later when you need to go through an endless amount of time."
Keigo's poker face broke. "Jeez. I don't know if I should be jealous or not about your quirk. Though looking at you, maybe not."
"What do you mean looking at you? I have been told that I am handsome despite being a kid." Shigure tilted his head upwards as if looking down on Keigo.
"Be careful of whoever said that. In my opinion, stay away from them." Keigo cautioned him in a serious tone.
"Anyway, we need to find the root cause of this belief to find ways to curb it or modify it."
"I still don't see any problem with that." Shigure didn't take it seriously.
Keigo hummed, not replying immediately. "You know... I have seen you treat me differently than others." Shigure flinched.
"It's not just me. Momo is the same. You don't treat us just as entertainment, right?"
"W—What do you mean?"
"You tell me. From what I have seen, our presence itself is enough to keep you entertained or something." Keigo narrowed his eyes.
"I guess? Something like that." Shigure answered with uncertainty.
"Maybe answering that might give us more insight into that belief of yours."
"Maybe, but I think I am done for the day." Shigure got up from the couch.
Keigo glanced at the clock. "Yeah, this was a productive session. At least, I think my understanding of you has increased considerably."
"Whatever." Shigure walked away.
"What are you going to do now?" "Stream"
"Right. You started that, how was the experience?"
"It's fun I guess. Chat is funny. Especially the names." Shigure chuckled.
"Yeah? Maybe I will join you in one of the streams then. I have recently started playing that game."
Shigure paused. "That is definitely going to boost my popularity, but I think that is going to be harmful in the long run for my channel. Maybe after my channel has been properly established. Though, you can always come without revealing your identity."
"Bet."
***
A/n- I don't know if I did justice to this "therapy" session. I had fucking no idea how such sessions are done, but I am definitely sure that the therapist is not supposed to be as aggressive as how Hawks was in this chapter.
However, I could attribute it to his familiarity with Shigure and later himself having a good knowledge base in this subject.
What do you guys think? Any suggestions on how things could have been done better?
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A/n(now) - We reached 100 Powerstones this week (almost, currently at 95). So, here's a Bonus Chapter.
I want to be ambitious this week, so our goal is 150 Powerstones.
Here's a mini goal. Coz, why not?
If we reach 40 Power Stones within 24 Hours, then a Double Release tomorrow.
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