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There was something wrong with Shinsou.
Shouta had his concerns about Shinsou's home situation from the start. The kid was withdrawn, seriously lacked confidence, and kept details about her home life close to her chest. She reacted to any sort of positive reinforcement from the people around her like it was something alien. She flinched sometimes when they sparred, less so now, but it was worse when he first started training her.
And sometimes, she would look at Shouta with what he could only describe as fear.
There was only so much Shouta could do about it, though. He never saw bruises that couldn't be explained by their training, never had anything concrete enough to warrant a home visit or to open up an investigation. He did his best to position himself as someone Shinsou could trust, someone she could reach out to if she needed to. Without her reaching out to him, his hands were tied.
What eased Shouta's worries up until now was the fact that Shinsou was so resilient. She had this fire in her, a determination that was plain for anyone to see. Maybe things in her personal life weren't great, but she wasn't broken by it. She still showed up to training ready to give it her all, expressed her dry humor when she knew she could get away with it, and still cracked that grin of hers that looked so remarkably close to his own.
Then one day, something changed.
One day, Shinsou showed up for training and Shouta immediately knew something terrible must have happened.
Shinsou's eyes were just…dead. Vacant. There was none of her usual spirit, no hint of the fire she usually had in her. She went through the usual motions of training, but it was like her body was just moving on autopilot and she wasn't really there.
Shouta had tried to subtly press her on what was going on at first. Passing inquiries and quiet observations.
"You look tired."
"Are you eating well?"
"Everything okay at home?"
Shinsou stayed tightlipped as usual.
"I'm fine."
"I'm fine."
"I'm fine."
An endless sea of I'm fine's, but she never seemed anything close to fine. Time passed and Shinsou carried on being a shell of her former self and Shouta's worries only grew.
He finally sat Shinsou down one day before training started to have a proper talk about it. He wasn't good at heart to hearts, but something was seriously wrong here and he had to try.
"I'm worried about you," he said frankly, sitting across from her on the mats.
She blinked at him, caught off guard, "you…are?" she wondered, like the concept of someone worrying about her was brand new.
Shouta frowned, "of course I am," he was her mentor, and maybe he should have done more to express his care if she looked this bewildered that he might actually be concerned about her well-being. "Look kid, if something's going on- if you're being hurt or you're in danger, anything at all- you can tell me about it. Hell, you can tell any of the teachers here about it if you're more comfortable with them. We'd drop everything in a heartbeat and come help you out."
He meant it, too. Yes, Shinsou was important to him, personally, but he trusted his coworkers to do the right thing if Shinsou came to them. Not just Hizashi and Nemuri, which went without saying. If for whatever reason they didn't take action, they would at the very least pass the information on to Shouta and then he would do something about it.
He just needed Shinsou to reach out to someone. He just needed her to take that first step and then he could handle the rest.
Shouta watched for a moment as a mixture of emotions washed over Shinsou's face, more than she had expressed in a while. Then it all dimmed once again, and Shouta knew that she wouldn't be speaking up. Not today at least.
Shinsou shook her head, "everything's fine. Really."
Shouta's heart sank.
The rest of training passed in a tired blur. All Shouta could focus on was the increasing sinking feeling in his gut and the utter powerlessness he felt as a result of it. Did he dare cross the line and look into this more thoroughly than he was allowed to? Or did he trust that Shinsou would open up to him- someone, anyone- before things got worse?
Before Shinsou went home for the day, Shouta stopped her one last time.
"I mean it, Shinsou," he told her, "if you need anything at all, I'll handle it. I'll help you."
The smile she gave him was wobbly and strange. It left Shouta feeling like a block of ice had taken root in his stomach.
"I know, Sensei. Thank you."
Then she walked out of the gym without another word.
That night, Shouta dreamt of red spider lillies.