Chapter Text
As it turns out, three years was a hopeful assumption.
It took a whopping three weeks for the real downside to winning the sports festival to show itself. Turns out, the aggressive paparazzi and a strained tension at home weren’t enough to balance out his win, no, it had to get worse. in the form of some strangely dressed threats to his life and a whole lot of fire.
Hitoshi can only hope everyone else is okay as he comes to sitting up, cuffed to a chair in a decrepit bar.
“Hello Shinsou.” Shigaraki drawls, seated across from him in a ratty coat with the signature disembodied hand over his face.
Up close it looks like its real, and given the situation, it might be.
“I’m not going to join you, skip to the part where you beat me up and put me somewhere to think about it.” Hitoshi lays out immediately, zero fucks left to give for the pompous posturing of seemingly every villain leader in situations like this.
“Excuse me?” His tone is low and suggesting of violence to come if Hitoshi doesn’t change his tune, but the worst they can do is physically harm him and Hitoshi’s pain tolerance is through the roof at this point, so he welcomes them to try and beat him into submission.
“You stole me, and given you haven’t killed me or left me in a cell it’s not for ransom, which means this is recruitment.” Hitoshi explains his thought process in case Shigaraki doesn’t understand how he connected the dots, and he confirms,
“Yes,” Clearly intending to say more, but Hitoshi cuts in.
“And I have no intention of joining you, so let’s skip the orientation spiel, yeah?” He clarifies, wishing he had access to his hands but shy of breaking one he’s not getting out of these cuffs any time soon.
“You’re wasting your time at Yuuei,” Shigaraki claims, trying to recover his aura of superiority. “They won’t license you.”
“With all due respect, it’s my right to chase that pipe dream.” Hitoshi has found quite a few villains prefer to decide its hopeless for him and attempt to ‘show him the truth’ via keeping him in holding and waiting for him to ‘realize the heroes arent coming’ and ‘give up hope’ and then choose to join them.
Despite the physical pain Hitoshi still prefers the villains who skip straight to trying to make him do things for them against his morals instead of trying to change them, it’s less pathetic that way.
“Look, you may have been able to deny the truth throughout your cushy childhood but-.” he stops when Hitoshi barks out a laugh, quickly muffling it by pursing his lips and schooling his expression.
“No, go on, I want to see how unobservant you really are.” Is it a bad idea to anger the guy who turns anything he touches to dust? Yes. Hitoshi can recognize that and still do it, he never claimed to be intelligent.
“Excuse me?” Shigaraki says again, even angrier this time.
“In what world does a person with the ability to brainwash others have a cushy childhood?” Hitoshi prompts, giving up on trying to understand how they drew that conclusion and correcting it. “You seriously think I had it easy until now?” Hitoshi knew he was good at hiding things but this is ridiculous.
“You must have, otherwise you would’ve taken the hint by now.” Well, that does make sense, most villains who try to change his mind take him expecting Hitoshi to already be on board, having seen how he’s treated.
“What, that my only options are villainy or death?” Hitoshi guesses, explaining himself with, “Tough shit, I choose death.” Which in hindsight, makes even less sense.
“Why? What possible reason could you have not do whatever you want and punish everyone who tries to stop you?” Shigaraki just sounds lost now, a tinge of anger, prepared to be fully mad at Hitoshi again once he figures out if he’s being insulted.
That is the question, isn’t it?
The temptation of surrendering to villainy is ever present, yes. It would be so easy just to say fuck it and bail, carve out a place for himself in the criminal underworld and go out in style.
Hitoshis morals are rigid but not very strict. If someone deserves to be hurt Hitoshi won’t feel bad for hurting them, if he went villain he probably could pull off sticking to those morals, given how many bad people there are in the world that could serve as an outlet for Hitoshis built up rage.
But Hitoshi won’t do that, and they need an understandable reason why that will prompt them to let him go as opposed to just killing him.
“Spite, probably.” He settles on. “Everyone I’ve ever met has assumed I’d wind up a villain for the sole reason of my quirk. Why should I let their baseless assumptions be right?”
“Why not?” Shigaraki counters with an unfortunately childish tactic. “Who gives a fuck about anyone elses opinion, you deserve to be respected. Feared.”
“I’m already feared. I terrify people just by opening my mouth.” Hitoshi doesn't want to be feared, it sucks.
“You think if you make it to hero they’ll put you on the same pedestal?” Shigaraki guesses next, sneer audible in his tone even if his face is obscured by the worryingly realistic severed hand. “That you’ll get endless praise?”
“Of course not.” Only an idiot would think a hero license would magically make someone with brainwashing well liked. “I’m never going to be the kind of hero that shows up and civilians feel safer, I’m going to be the kind of hero that shows up and the villains feel less safe.” Hitoshi came to terms with that fact about a month after deciding to become a hero.
“You hold that much hatred for those not as strong willed as you?” The masked man in a top hat cuts in, what he has to say decided to be worth the risk of being brainwashed, which means someone else is capable of circumventing Hitoshis quirk or top hat guy is not a substantial threat.
He’s perceptive though, seeing Hitoshi as not naive, but stubborn.
“Hatred? No.” Hitoshi corrects. “I will admit I lack respect for those who chose the easy route, and take their anger out on undeserving unrelated parties.”
“Then clearly you don't know what it’s like to have everyone hate you for no reason.” The blond girl jumps in, tossing her knife away, and despite having promised himself not to trauma dump, that was when he was among class a, so this won’t count.
“I’ve been through over sixty different foster homes since my mom tried to drown me at three years old, I can count on one hand the amount I’d willingly step foot in again.” Hitoshi spits, gaze centered on the blonde girl. “I’m going to have these scars for the rest of my fucking life from the amount of times I got kicked in the face while locked in a muzzle to prevent me from using my quirk.”
“Then why try so hard to become a protector of the society that never wanted you a part of it?” Top hat man prompts once more, shifting Hitoshi’s attention.
“Because abusers aren’t the only kind of person that makes up that society.” Hitoshi fires back, only now able to look past the selfish explanation for why he put himself between horrible foster parents and the younger kids making innocent mistakes.
Hitoshi thought he was chasing the feeling from the look of thankfulness as the kid skitters away for his own pride, and while that might be a part of it, it’s not the entire reason. “Every day, literal children are burdened with villain coded quirks, destined to be mistreated and judged for no good reason.” Hitoshi reminds them, the visible expressions reacting in various ways. “Not giving in, obeying the law, becoming a hero, that's how I’m going to change things, that's who I'm protecting.” He explains, glad to be able to put this into words and get it out of his head. “They need positive role models, and right now all they have is you, a manchild so obsessed with killing all might you don't give a single fuck about anyone in your way, you reinforce the stereotypes bad quirks make bad people.” Angering this guy is still bad but Hitoshi is emboldened by the fact he could probably get away with killing them, if not physically pull it off.
The worst they can do is kill him and Hitoshi hasn’t cared about his own life in a long time.
“You’ll never succeed in becoming a hero.” Shigaraki hisses, shifting the conversation off of him and trying to push the right button to get Hitoshi to feel as bad as he does.
“I don't try because I know I can do it, I try because if I don't, who will?” Hitoshi declares,
“Someone who had a better childhood despite their quirk and is less likely to snap under the pressure?” The broad woman suggests, and Hitoshi doesn’t even think about what the response means in accordance to the potential battle that he could start, too busy rebooting.
“You've got a point,” Hitoshi admits, briefly caught off guard at a secret insecurity being clocked by a complete stranger. “and should my moral compass break I’ll be sure to call you because go big or go home, but not a moment sooner. Until then, I wont stop trying to get back onto the path to heroism, whether I have to get you all arrested or killed to do it.”
“How heroic.” The guy with intense burn scars drawls. “This one’s a lost cause, boss, I’m done listening to him.” Burn scars turns to leave, and Shigaraki looks convinced, which means its time for stage two of this shitshow.
“It’s real shame. You could’ve been a great villain.” that has been well fucking established . “I’m done with this, give him to the doctor.” The aloof facade from the very beginning of this returns, and Hitoshi drops into another room in a rush of smoke.
The bartender has a fast travel quirk, that was why no one had an issue speaking, he could just put them all in time out if Hitoshi tried anything.
Damn.
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The Doctor is much less chatty.
Well that's not true. He never shuts the fuck up, but he only talks to Hitoshi when Hitoshi is drugged to the gills and being operated on, and he is talking to Hitoshi, not with him.
Specifically about how great of a nomu Hitoshi will be, once they break him down to build him back up, which is horrifying in itself, but better than forced introspection.
By the time Hitoshi takes advantage of a mistake and turns it into an opportunity to bail, a good ten percent of his body is replaced with something else to make him more comptent in battle.
Jokes on them, the parrot mutation quirked person whos voice box he has does actually work, well enough to trick the lab assistant nomus into letting Hitoshi out.
He sets the lab on fire before he leaves, just to be petty, and makes his way back to yuuei to begin the -for once- more annoying than terrifying process of getting reintegrated to his own life.
Medical check, police statement, getting ditched by his current foster parents and almost sent to juvy because no other home will take him but aizawa stepped in to take custody but we arent talking about that until Hitoshi has time to spiral properly,
Eventually it’s just Hitoshi in the med bay, waiting for dark smoke to ripple over his skin and steal him again, when the window slides open.
Given he’s on the fourth floor, Hitoshi is understandably unnerved about this, and slides out of the bed, arming himself with the lighter than expected decorative vase.
The person that enters the room does not do so gracefully, heaving their weight over the windowsill and spilling out on the floor under it with a thud and a groan.
“Kaminari?” Hitoshi lowers the vase, remaining wary as shapeshifters exist and the league might have one.
“Oh, were you asleep?” He asks, genuinely apologetic.
“I never am.” Hitoshi points out, officially suspicious enough to brainwash him and demand, “Tell me if you’re really Kaminari.” But thankfully Hitoshi gets an affirmative answer and lets go, exhaling a sigh with the tension in his shoulders draining away. “How did you get on campus though?” He asks, setting the vase back down and moving toward the bed he’s supposed to be in.
It’s most likely still summer break, as well as nearly midnight by now, and Kaminari can’t teleport.
To Hitoshi’s knowledge.
“Uh, so while you were gone Yuuei built dorms and moved heroics in first because- so we wouldn’t get kidnapped as easily.” He explains, and Hitoshi nods slowly.
“And you’re just allowed to leave them whenever?” That sounds ideal yet also unsafe, defeating the point of the dorms, and sure enough,
“Well no, there’s a curfew, but Sero is covering for me, if anyone asks I’m incredibly sick.” Kaminari grins, snapping his fingers into finger guns, but Hitoshi isn’t out of questions yet.
“And you’re here, why?”
“We heard you were back and I wanted to see for myself.” He says, slumping into a chair, suggesting simply getting eyes on Hitoshi wasn’t the full reason
“How did you get up here anyway?” Kaminari relaxes into the chair and explains succinctly on the exhale with a gesture to the window.
“Sero’s tape.” And substantial effort, given how red in the face he still is, suggesting Sero didn’t reel him up, he climbed himself.
Kaminari can’t get to the top of the rope during training on a good day, he must’ve been especially motivated. “So are you okay?” He remembers to ask a few breathes into the silence, lifting his head once more to study Hitoshi more closely. “As okay as one can be after getting kidnapped by villains.”
“Oh, it’s fine, they just offered me a job, nothing serious.” A straight up lie, but Hitoshi doesn’t want a worse version of the hurt look that appeared when Hitoshi explained what the scars on his face came from a while back.
“As a villain?” He puzzles after a moment, and hitoshi bites back a smile that will come out fucked up and creepy looking if he lets it.
“No, to do their finances.” Hitoshi deadpans, and instead of taking it to heart Kaminari just laughs, and the urge to do so too rises in Hitoshi’s chest, instinctively fought down.
“I don't know, I guess I’ve never thought of villainy as a job.” Kaminari gesticulates wildly. “More like, a lifestyle. That the government takes issue with.”
“Either way, I turned them down, it just took a while to get out and get here.” Hitoshi adds, the odd urge to explain himself making itself known.
“You escaped?” Kaminari questions, and that is not the part Hitoshi thought he would focus on.
“Yeah, like two hours ago.”
“The heroes were looking for you, they just raided the league’s base in the Kamino ward.” he recites, brow furrowed. “I thought, they rescued you.” Whether that's the case or not it hardly matters now, and Hitoshi shrugs, running his fingers over the textured blanket edge in his lap.
“Whatever. I’m just glad I made it back before classes started again, making up work sucks.” Kaminari’s laugh is more forced this time, doing nothing for the tension in the room.
“You aren’t, going to join them are you?” Usually when people ask if he’s a villain, they’re terrified and visibly ready to bolt or angry at him, but while Kaminari does look scared, there’s a tinge of sadness that suggests he’d see this would be a somber betrayal.
He doesn’t want Hitoshi to join the league because that would mean forcing Kaminari to choose between Hitoshi and Yuuei, and is heavily implying that choice would be difficult.
No one has ever had that faith in him, no one that isn’t on his level has ever been so comfortable speaking with Hitoshi, let alone while being alone like this.
Initially Hitoshi assumed it was because Kaminari just didn’t know any better, but he was just forced to confirm his identity under brainwashing and didn’t miss a beat.
In light of this revelation Hitoshi’s already overloaded brain realizes a solid minute too late he has not responded out loud to anything, and he shakes himself a bit to reboot and find something to say.
“Of course not,” For the second time, Hitoshi needs an explanation why, and also for the second time in being asked that he discovers a new reason.
As a villain, every interaction Hitoshi has will have the same tension it does now, if not worse. The lack of trust, the inability for either party to be vulnerable will stunt any real emotional connection. He’ll have acquaintances sure, everyone will want to be on his good side, but never any real friends.
No one to call him out for being too much of an asshole while being an acceptable amount of a jerk otherwise, no one that will vent to him on the roof during lunch because neither of them felt like eating, no compliment or action involving him will ever be without an ulterior motive behind it.
With heroism he gets to have people like Kaminari, someone understanding, kind, stubborn enough to get past Hitoshi’s built up defensive walls riddled with barbed wire that they climb over anyway.
But Hitoshi can’t say it in those words, that would make it sound like he’s in love with Kaminari.
wait.
“If I go villain now I’ll miss out on all the embarrassing teenage shenanigans of future top pro hero Chargebolt.” Just like that the tension breaks, that uniquely breathless laugh filling the room once more. “I gotta gather my blackmail material now.” Under the veneer of comedy and teasing tone, Hitoshi’s chest is lighter than it’s been in years.
He could get used to this.