Portal Panic

It Was That Easy

This chapter was a mixed bag for me. The end was hard to write but the first couple scenes just flowed like water. I even had a new favorite scene! And on the opposite end I had a new least favorite scene! I edited that one like 15 times and I finally got it to where I didn't hate it, but I still didn't like it.

You'll have to excuse the translation things between characters being inconsistent for like words they know and stuff, because that would just be a nightmare. The screw ups also don't really reflect what a botched translation from Japanese to English would really sound like as I'm just trying to get a point across. Sorry! I already have to have like ten tabs open at any one time to write a scene, so I just couldn't do it.

All scenes with only MHA characters will be written in English, for ease of reading, but the characters are actually speaking Japanese to each other.

"This sentence is in English, but shhh." This is for when the scene is from a Japanese character's POV and they don't understand English, or, if they understand some words, those are not underlined.

"Tea wa dokodesu ka?" [Where is the tea?] For scenes from an English character's POV that does not understand Japanese except for any words shown in bold, which may be none. The bracketed translation is for the audience.

"This sentence is in Japanese but has English words mixed into it." This is for when the scene has Japanese being translated in real time, but there is a word that is in English because the English speaker does not know the word in Japanese.

Wednesday, September 5th

7:20 am

"Feelings of helplessness, headaches, irritability, fitful sleep and constantly pouring over an event to determine what you could have done differently. It sounds like what you're experiencing is a form of 'survivor's guilt'."

"Hagakure-chan may still be alive. I do not believe I have that." Shoji sat tense upon the edge of a common green UA recliner, all parallel hands clasped together in three pairs of two.

Across from the boy sat a brand new member of the school's faculty, daintily perched on the arm of an identical chair, clipboard in hand and business suit tucked perfectly into place. Once just a consultant on retainer, Hikari Aguni now held a full time position.

"Actually, that's a misnomer. Survivor's guilt is much more common than people realize, and also includes events in which loss of life is unknown," the petite lady explained. Then, after giving the stressed student a once-over and not liking what she saw, followed it up with "I am going to activate my quirk so you can think through this logically with me. Is that okay?"

The brooding male nodded in affirmation at the mental health expert, keeping an intense gaze locked on the grey linoleum floors. Almost instantly the dupli-hero's frown relaxed, and Shoji's clenched hands parted from each other, settling lightly onto dark blue slacks.

Although it was not Aguni's profession, the psychiatrist was known as the sunshine hero by her patients, quirk instilling a sense of calm and warmth similar to lounging poolside.

"A lot of people go missing in our society. Kidnappings, runaways, natural disasters, unstable quirks manifesting and collateral damage while subduing villains." A slender finger lifted with each new addition to the list. "There are many reasons people left behind may experience survivor's guilt. It is even more common in heroes because of the sheer number of these kinds of events they encounter on a daily basis. Not to mention that they are expected to keep people safe. Losing someone—even to things outside of anyone's control—can feel like a personal failure."