Flea

Chapter Twenty Two

"Brain damage?" Kaminari asked sceptically. If he was being honest, between him and the nurse, the lightning user wouldn't pick himself as the one with mental issues. She was currently sitting at her desk opposite the student, fiddling with various pieces of paper and humming something that sounded suspiciously like the pokemon theme song.

"Yes. As I said, every time you've overused your quirk, it's not only stunted your brain's development but actually caused permanent scarring. The evidence is in your academic performance since the age of 5. You were a bright young spark, Kaminari. Look here, you scored the best marks in your school for the first half of primary school."

Maeve offered him rumpled test papers with childish scribbles all over them. How'd she get those? Kaminari made a face as he replied,

"Yeah, and then the other kids caught up. Just because I fell behind doesn't automatically mean I have brain damage, sheesh."

"So it's not a coincidence that the degradation in performance began soon after your quirk developed? I've been in contact with your mothers and several teachers. They commented on how significant the change was after you started shooting off lightning."

Kaminari just shrugged. What she was saying made sense, logically. Why would she lie about it? He just knew it couldn't be true. Brain damage was something other people had, something you heard about but weren't actually exposed to yourself. Maybe she was getting back at him for the comment he made in the canteen.

"What I'm trying to tell you, and doing a piss poor attempt at it, is that the difficulty you have in school isn't because you're 'dumb,' or 'unmotivated.' It's because your perfectly intelligent brain is needing to spend more time on damage control than undergoing actual thought processes," Maeve said gently, peering at him intently. Kaminari rested his elbows on the desk and ran trembling hands through his spiky hair.

"It's a testament to your natural abilities, actually, that you've managed to do well enough academically to get into UA with half your frontal lobes singed. However, That isn't an excuse for why the healthcare and educational systems didn't notice. We failed you. I know that this won't make up for that mistake in the slightest, but I'd be eager to restore what I can of your brain during the rest of the classes' internships. It would also be my honour to give you private tutoring and help you gain a better grasp of schoolwork as well as safe usage of your quirk."

Kaminari sat quietly, processing. The silence was so thick Maeve could choke on it.

"So, all the times people gave me crap -sorry," he interrupted himself quickly with a glance at the nurse, who just held back laughter and waved her hand for him to continue.

"All the times people, including teachers, made fun of me for not understanding stuff... I was actually the smartest person in the room, but no one knew it?"

"Well, we'll have to see. I'm not sure how successful the operation would be; there's little data regarding how your brain would've developed under normal circumstances. However, I have some contacts who could help in the reconstructive process. Even if you decide you don't want me to operate, I've still asked Mr Aizawa for you to be removed from consideration for internships. There's a lot to sort out regardless. I'm sorry," Maeve said, with a sympathetic wince at his disappointed expression. Kaminari seemed more upset about missing out on internships than the fact he'd spent most of his life brain damaged and no one noticed.

"You could think of it as interning with me instead. I don't usually take on students so it'll look good on your resume."

Surprisingly, that didn't seem to cheer him up. Maeve searched for a different tack.