Chapter Text
“I should’ve known you were Eraserhead’s kid,” Vlad King sighed at Hitoshi, who blinked up at him and threw his mentor a questioning look. Aizawa kept his face blank and Nezu’s smile grew a little wider.
It was the day after the festival and while the rest of the students had the day off, Hitoshi had to meet with the teachers about his transfer. It was a given that he would be put into 1-A, but the principal had decided to at least inform 1-B’s homeroom teacher Vlad King about Hitoshi’s rather unique circumstances. The other hero had been disapproving of the deceit, but ultimately agreed that it had been a good idea and would keep the details about it to himself. (Not that Principal Nezu would have allowed otherwise.)
“I’m not actually related to him,” Hitoshi pointed out politely. Vlad King snorted in amusement.
“Trust me, it doesn’t look that way,” Vlad King dryly said. “In any case, it eases my ego a little bit to know that my class didn’t lose to just any Gen Ed student. Tetsutetsu is still sulking about their loss in the cavalry battle.”
“They shouldn’t have let their guard down regardless,” Aizawa commented. “I know I’ve prepared a lecture for my class already.”
“Those poor souls,” Hitoshi blandly said.
“Well with that out of the way, let’s continue on,” Principal Nezu cheerfully clapped his paws. “We have lots to discuss still! Now, about those profiles you have, Shinsou-kun…”
“How’s the fit?” Yamada asked as Hitoshi rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms out. “Too tight?”
“It’s perfect,” Hitoshi said, unable to keep the grin off his face. After the meeting with the heroics homeroom teachers and Principal Nezu, Aizawa had dragged him to their usual gym, where Yamada was waiting with his hero costume . He hadn’t actually expected to get it so soon, and he almost felt like crying when he put it on. And then there was his new support item, the Artificial Vocal Chords.
Yamada sniffled loudly as Hitoshi stood in front of his two mentors in his full hero gear - hooded jacket and pants with reinforced boots and a utility belt, all in a dark gray and purple color scheme, capture weapon around his shoulders and voice changer hanging around his neck. “He looks like the two of us combined, Shouta!” Yamada exclaimed, teary eyed as he brought up his phone to snap pictures.
“We literally helped him design his costume,” Aizawa dryly said, but still smirked at him. “It looks good on you, kid.”
“No one is ever going to believe we’re not related,” Hitoshi couldn’t help but say, grinning. “Anyway, let’s start training - I want to try the voice changer.”
Yamada had told him not to underestimate the Support Department, and he was right. The Artificial Vocal Chords was an impressive invention, its shifting mechanical plates able to transform his voice without needing to convert it to electrical signals. It widened his already vast possibilities, making Hitoshi giddy to use it against his new classmates soon.
“He gets that scary grin from you,” Yamada whispered loudly to Aizawa. “He is right, literally no one is going to believe you’re not related.”
“Then I hope everyone is ready to fight Touma in the pit,” Aizawa deadpanned.
“First, let’s talk about the Sports Festival,” Aizawa carefully stared at each student in his class, the day they returned from the short break. Some of them ducked their heads in shame and some looked upset. “I’m not disappointed in your performances, as I was able to see that everyone gave it their all. But I do want to hear everyone’s thoughts.”
At first, no one said anything, some of them glancing at each other hesitantly. Then Yaoyorozu quietly raised her hand and at Aizawa’s nod, said, “I think a lot of us underestimated our opponents. We may have given it our all, but…”
“We didn’t expect Shinsou!” Kirishima sighed, pouting. He was one of the quickest to lose against the other boy after all. “Like, he even straight up challenged us to our face two weeks ago!”
“And none of us took him seriously, I think,” Yaoyorozu hesitantly finished.
“Tch,” Bakugou scowled, “that bitch wouldn’t have lasted in a real fight against me.”
“Language, Bakugou,” Aizawa blandly reprimanded. “And that was a real fight - you don’t think in a real fight that anyone is going to hold back on using their quirks, do you? You may not be happy about it, but Shinsou won your match fair and square.”
“I mean, he was able to dodge your punches, Bakugou,” Ashido pointed out. Bakugou clicked his tongue and sank further into his seat. “And he took that kick like a champ.”
“He knew all our quirks,” Ojiro added, looking thoughtful. “1-B’s too. He was prepared for any of us, I think.”
“I’m curious about his quirk though,” Midoriya started to mumble. “I think it’s some kind of mind control quirk. At first I thought it was a touch based paralyzing quirk, but his matches with Kacchan and everyone after disproved the paralyzing part. Then his match with Todoroki-kun proved that he didn’t need to touch someone to use his quirk, and that he could control someone to the extent that he can make them use their own quirk. I’m still not sure about the trigger conditions, or the proximity, or--”
“Wouldn’t you know, Iida-kun?” Uraraka piped up, asking their class rep. Aizawa fought an amused smile when Tenya blinked at the sudden attention he received from the class, face flushing the way it always did when Hitoshi was brought up to him. He knew that Tenya was struggling with Tensei’s condition and this was the closest Aizawa has seen him to his usual self since the Sports Festival.
“I-- Why would you say that?” Tenya stammered. Uraraka tilted her head, looking both innocent and mischievous.
“Don’t you know each other? You did approach him and cheer him on before his match with Kirishima-kun!”
“We’re mere acquaintances!” Tenya insisted. “His father works for the family company, but I do not know him well enough to know his quirk!”
“Why are you so red?” Asui bluntly asked. Aizawa softly snorted to himself when Tenya only reddened further. Tensei hadn’t been kidding about this.
“My engines are merely overheating!”
“Back to the topic at hand,” Aizawa interrupted, saving the young Iida scion from further embarrassment. “I want you all to reflect further on the sports festival and learn from it. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you didn’t make it to the final round, and resolve to do better next year.”
“Yes, sensei!”
“Okay, but seriously Iida, why are you blushing--”
Hitoshi donned his new uniform - the one with one button on each shoulder instead of two, the Heroics one.
He was joining 1-A today.
His classmates at 1-C were all very sad to see him go, of course, but they were happy and proud for him and there had even been a class party the other day to commemorate the occasion. He had to promise Matsuda, Sakamoto, and Takashima that he’ll still be their friend, and that he wasn’t going to simply just forget his Gen Ed classmates despite the short time he’s spent with them. Hitoshi still wasn’t sure how he went from having zero friends and acquaintances his age to having a whole class patting him on the back in support for a job well done but… It’s nice. And good. He felt good.
Hitoshi took an earlier train than usual though, and also put on a medical mask, because winning the UA Sports Festival had gained him a lot of recognition that he wasn’t really completely prepared to deal with. Aizawa had warned him about the brief moment of fame, but it had only been a few days and he was already absolutely over it. He had to blacklist his own name, for god’s sake, because he didn’t want to see all those articles about him online. Principal Nezu had been pleased though, because true to his predictions the board had practically bent themselves backwards at possibly changing the entrance exam. There had been many, many questions - from media and pro-heroes alike - about how a kid with a powerful enough quirk to defeat Endeavor’s son had ended up in General Education.
Yokohara had also texted him last night about how now some of their old classmates were pretending they had been buddy-buddy with UA’s first year champion, when Hitoshi was pretty sure half of them didn’t even know his first name until the Sports Festival. Was it a little infuriating? Yes. But Hitoshi was good on keeping his anger and taking it out productively, like when he was running or sparring with Aizawa or Yamada. It was healthier that way, instead of letting it brew and stew inside him like the rest of his negative emotions.
Despite being early, he met some of his now-former classmates at the shoe lockers and he politely exchanged greetings with them. Some of them patted him in congratulations once again, and he’s glad that there didn’t seem to be any bitterness towards him for transfering. There was always next Sports Festival, Takashima had assured him, and with his success there seemed to be a growth in determination within the Gen Ed department.
Hitoshi knew he couldn’t afford to slack off now.
Aizawa always said that Yamada was the dramatic one, but Hitoshi couldn’t help but think that Aizawa couldn’t have been with Yamada for this long without the dramatics rubbing off on him. And he was right, because Aizawa was just as bad as Yamada at being dramatic.
His mentor didn’t want to introduce Hitoshi as 1-A’s new member the normal way, no. Aizawa wanted to take advantage of 1-A’s continuing ignorance of him as much as possible, and that meant that Hitoshi’s early morning had been spent sitting around in Ground Gamma, fully decked in his hero gear and waiting for Class 1-A’s training exercise to start.
(He’d been bored enough to take a selfie of him laying on one of the pipes, face bland as he made a peace sign. He sent it to the group chat that included Yokohara, Sakurai, and his 1-C friends, captioning it with ‘day 1 of hero course: already unsupervised.’ The spam of replies that followed, even if all of them were in class right now, warmed his heart.)
Finally, he heard the distant groaning of a gate opening, and with his hood up he quietly walked across the pipes and settled himself as close as possible to the assembled class while still being hidden in the shadows. No one noticed him as he listened in.
“You’ll be separated into groups for this exercise,” he heard All Might say, grinning widely as he held up a box of lots. “It’ll be five groups of four - do you know what that means?”
“We won’t be fighting each other?” Midoriya asked. “Since it’s an odd number of teams.”
“Very much right, Midoriya my boy!” All Might nodded. “You will be asked to take your turn one group at a time and your tasks are simple! You either make it to the center, where there are hostages are waiting for you, or you apprehend the acting opposition!”
“Opposition?” someone said, “Another teacher acting as a villain, I suppose?” All Might kept his grin wide. Hitoshi bit his lip to prevent a snicker from coming through.
“Perhaps so!”
“Each group will have 30 minutes to complete the exercise,” Aizawa continued from where the other hero left off. “And each member of your group will be worth 25 points. For every one of you taken out or captured by the ‘villain,’ those points will be deducted from your total.”
“Yikes, harsh,” another person said. Aizawa ignored them.
“You fail the exercise if your entire team is captured or time runs out,” Aizawa said. “There’s also a catch: you won’t be able to watch the other teams’ exercise until everyone has had their turn.”
“That makes sense,” Yaoyorozu hummed. “Since we’re all doing the same exercise, it would be unfair if the groups after the first one knew what to expect. So all of us will have to do it blind.”
Aizawa nodded at her. “All Might will stay down here with you all while I watch the feed in the observation room. After the exercise, we will go over everyone’s performances. Now let’s form the teams.”
With his phone, Hitoshi made a note of the team compositions. This was a test for him, too, he knew. Maybe just for Aizawa’s own evaluation, but what else was new? Still, his mentor had given him permission to go all out, to use as much as he wanted from what he’d learned so far, and Hitoshi was excited . Four on one may be an unfair matchup, but Hitoshi had the element of surprise on his side.
‘some groups are a little stacked, dont u think?’ Hitoshi couldn’t resist texting Aizawa as he made his way into position.
‘deal with it’ was the only reply.
Group one consisted of Kirishima, Aoyama, Hagakure, and Shoji. Hitoshi kept his distance. He didn’t know much of Shoji’s quirk, compared to the other three, but he knew it came with enhanced senses, including hearing and sight thanks to his extra appendages. Hitoshi couldn’t move as quietly as Aizawa and if he wasn’t careful, he’ll give his position away. Hagakure was also hard to keep track of, considering the girl’s hero costume was literally a pair of gloves and boots. How that worked, he didn’t know, and just hoped it involved some witchcraft from the Support Department rather than the embarrassing alternative.
“Anything yet, Shoji?” Hitoshi heard Kirishima ask his classmate, voice echoing amongst the pipes. Hitoshi kept still from where he was, above and ways behind them.
“There are many sounds around,” Shoji said as the group carefully walked forward, on guard. “I admit, it might be hard to distinguish someone moving around under all the pipes and machinery making noise.”
Interesting, but that might be a bluff. Hitoshi pursed his lips, then decided to carefully move onto another wide pipeline, glancing quickly at the group for any reactions when his boots softly hit the metal. Nothing, he noted.
“This place is horrendous,” Aoyama couldn’t help but comment, scrunching his face when a nearby pipe dripped water beside him. “We just have to go straight, yes?”
“I think so,” Hagakure piped. “The hostages are supposed to be in the center.”
“I kinda expected the ‘villain’ to attack us by now, honestly,” Kirishima scratched his cheek. Hitoshi checked his timer. It had only been five minutes since they started. He thought for a moment, and then shrugged.
“You just had to ask. What’s up?” he blandly said, dropping down behind them with one end of his binding cloth attached to a pipe. The four students whirled around to face him.
“What the hell--” Hagakure yelped right before Hitoshi put them all under his quirk. It was easy to lead them to the center and place them in the empty hostage cage after that.
Aizawa and All Might hadn’t specified to their class who the hostages were, after all.
“Group one is out,” Aizawa’s voice announced through the speakers. Hitoshi wondered how worried the rest of 1-A were now.
Group two had Ashido, Koda, Uraraka, and Mineta, and they had lasted even shorter than the first group had. Hitoshi supposed he should thank Mineta for that, though the brief look at the short boy’s personality had given him a sour taste in his mouth.
As he lead the four to the hostage cage, Hitoshi couldn’t help but think how much harder all this would’ve been had his quirk worked like it did before his middle school incident. Not needing a vocal response had been an incredible upgrade to his already, frankly, terrifying quirk, and he wondered how the other hero students were going to take it. His classmates at 1-C hadn’t minded for the most part, more focused on the fact that he was able to one-up the hero students with it, but Takashima had been a little upset to find out that he had lied to them about the trigger conditions. Would 1-A treat him with suspicion or mistrust? He really hoped not - Aizawa did actually seem to like this class, but he knew that his pseudo-Dad #2 had no tolerance for quirk discrimination.
(“If anyone gives you shit for your quirk, I’ll fight them,” Aizawa had said so seriously on his first day at UA that Hitoshi wasn’t sure if he was joking, even just a little.
“Shouta, no,” Yamada had groaned.)
“Group two is out.”
Group three included Tokoyami, Bakugou, Iida, and Asui - two of which had been under his brainwashing before. Not a problem, as neither had been able to resist his control last time, but Bakugou was going to charge at him the moment he saw him. Despite having his hood up to hide his unique hair and his voice changer over his lower jaw, Hitoshi’s distinctly sleep-deprived eyes were still a dead giveaway.
(Maybe the face slap during their match had been uncalled for, but in his defense… Well, actually, Hitoshi had no excuses. His hand moved on its own, maybe?)
It was also the group to have the most mobile members. Iida had his engines, Bakugou did that thing where he flew across like some kind of rocket, Asui could leap a significant distance, and Tokoyami had Dark Shadow. The bird headed boy could probably fly. And that meant they were probably going to try to get to the center as fast as possible.
So, the first order of business was to disrupt their path. Hitoshi stayed grounded for what he was about to pull, capture weapon ready to go as soon as he heard the four’s approach. Not hard to anticipate, considering the amount of yelling Bakugou was already doing.
He shot the binding cloth up towards the large pipe above him just as the group became visible in his sight, and with a peace sign thrown at them, Hitoshi pulled hard and collapsed the large hunks of metal to the ground.
“Fuck!” He heard as Bakugou crashed into a pipe section last minute, as well as Iida. Asui and Tokoyami were nimble enough to dodge the rain of cylinders and Hitoshi recalled his capture weapon, pulling himself up to another pipe just in time to avoid Dark Shadow’s swipe.
“Die!” Hitoshi heard Bakugou yell at him and he jumped from his position and swung backwards, facing the attacking group. Bakugou snarled, ready to charge again, and to the side Hitoshi saw Tokoyami preparing another attack with Dark Shadow.
So he dropped straight down, and made the two crash at each other.
(Hitoshi was glad he’d been practicing here the past few weeks. It gave him the home advantage, plus he’s not sure he would’ve been able to catch himself from that fall last minute, otherwise.)
Then, before the group could collect themselves for a follow-up, Hitoshi pressed the first preset button on his voice changer and with Aizawa’s voice said, “Group three is out.”
“Wait a fucking minute--” “Sensei?” “Huh?” “What--”
Maybe it hadn’t been necessary, actually, but Hitoshi had been dying to use his new support item and it was funny when two minutes later, the real Aizawa’s voice echoed, “Group three is out.” He sounded totally unimpressed. That was probably aimed right at Hitoshi.
Group four was Ojiro, Sato, Jirou, and Kaminari .
Now, Hitoshi was sure Kaminari was an okay guy. He looked harmless, really, and Hitoshi of all people wasn’t going to judge someone based on their quirk. It’s just...
Getting electrocuted had been painful, and the circumstances surrounding it made it worse. Hitoshi thankfully didn’t come out of the incident with any physical scars, but the mental ones still itched, even almost a year later. He’d gotten a lot better, especially with his parents’ help, but he still couldn’t really help it sometimes. Certain things still got to him, and sometimes that included the thought of experiencing the jolting feeling over and over again--
And all the metal pipes surrounding him didn’t help either.
Suck it up, Hitoshi, he thought to himself. How was he going to be a hero if he couldn’t at least bear with this?
“His quirk can’t hurt me if I don’t give him the opportunity to use it in the first place,” he had told Aizawa during the Sports Festival. So that’s just what he had to do. Was it the easy way out? Probably. But every other thing in Hitoshi’s life had been hard, so he could afford this much. Though with Jirou on the same team, he’ll have to make it quick before she found him with her quirk. Thankfully, no one on their team had a plan beyond “run, fight the villain, and then save the hostages.”
Dealing with Kaminari’s quirk could wait another day.
“Group four is out.”
So far, none of the groups had deviated from the expected pattern of going straight for the center and fighting the villain if necessary. It made sense, and if they were aiming to pass it was the simplest strategy. Separating risked one of them getting cornered and captured before any of them knew it, and there was power in numbers. Too bad all of them were susceptible to his brainwashing.
Fifteen minds under his hold, still. Not even a hint of a headache so far. Yamada was going to be excited to find that out - he’d been wanting to find out Hitoshi’s limit as far as the number of people went since the beginning.
Group five was another stacked composition consisting of Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, Sero, and Todoroki. Admittedly, he was most curious about Midoriya out of everyone in 1-A, for multiple reasons. Hitoshi knew that Midoriya was one of the three people that had gained a perfect score in the quirk theory and analysis part of the heroics written exam (Hitoshi being the second, and Monoma from 1-B being the third), and Yamada had told him that the boy was an enthusiast like them - Hitoshi had gotten a glimpse of that during the Sports Festival. Hitoshi also knew that Midoriya had a quirk that was just as destructive to his body as it was to everything it was aimed at, and he was itching to talk to him about it. Hitoshi had theories .
Still, he had an exercise to do, and they were the last group to go. And Hitoshi had to hand it to them - they were probably the most prepared out of everyone. Perhaps it was because of how they had to listen as the other four groups were taken out before even hitting the fifteen minute mark, feeding into their worry and anxiety about what was hidden in the shadows of Ground Gamma’s pipes. Surprise, it’s just their sadistic homeroom teacher’s protege.
He had to give it to Todoroki though - as he stumbled dodging the wave of ice aimed at him the moment his feet hit the edge of a building - the boy’s reflexes were insane .
“Damn, give a guy a warning, would you?” Hitoshi said as he rolled away from the shot of tape aimed his way. He met Todoroki’s eyes as they narrowed, and then widened in recognition. Hitoshi smiled, and took control.
“Todoroki, what--!” Yaoyorozu gasped as Hitoshi made Todoroki attack her. “Midoriya, Sero! He’s being controlled!”
Midoriya’s head snapped towards Hitoshi, “It can’t possibly be- No, it could only be Shinsou!”
“You guys are smarter than the others,” he commented and, when Sero made a questioning sound, brainwashed the tape boy too. Yaoyorozu was struggling against Todoroki, unable to create anything long enough to stop the controlled boy’s attacks - the same tactic Tokoyami used against her in the Sports Festival. Midoriya had been running towards Todoroki to help his teammate, but Sero’s tape wrapped around his ankle and brought him to the ground. “How did you guess?”
Midoriya took the bait, “I--”
Yaoyorozu looked over to see Midoriya fall under the brainwashing, faltering just as Todoroki knocked her down. “Sorry,” Hitoshi called out to her.
“Oh no--”
Hitoshi had barely started leading them towards the direction of the hostage cage when he felt a resisting tug in his mind. He frowned as it became insistent, and after a particularly harsh tug that almost broke his control, Hitoshi turned towards Midoriya. The other boy was still blank faced, nothing betraying the struggle inside, and Hitoshi dared to look deeper.
Only to be met with the feeling of multiple eyes looking right at him.
“What the--” Hitoshi muttered incredulously at Midoriya. Alarm bells rang as the pull against his control became harder, harsher, and he barely had time to command the other three as Midoriya broke his finger and out of his control.
Okay, what the fuck, he thought a little hysterically from behind the last minute wall of ice he made Todoroki do. What the fuck.
“Let them go!” Midoriya yelled, coming down with his fist raised right above him. Hitoshi quickly grabbed a pipe with his capture weapon and pulled himself up to dodge, mentally commanding the other three to do so as well and to prepare something to subdue their ridiculous classmate.
“What the hell was that?” He couldn’t help but shout at Midoriya, who went from charging at him to trying to snap his teammates out of his brainwashing. Hitoshi gritted his teeth, and clenched their minds with an iron clad hold. “Who were they, Ninth Holder ?”
That had gotten Midoriya’s attention like nothing else, eyes wide as saucers and face pale, looking completely shaken. “How do you know about that?” Midoriya gasped.
“Your tenants were literally screaming so loud I could hear it, and I’m not even a real telepath,” Hitoshi muttered, both to himself and the now brainwashed Midoriya. He kept Midoriya’s connection separate from the others, like he was holding it singularly with another hand and with more firmness than he’s ever had to use.
He practically made them run to the hostage cage, just to end the exercise as soon as possible. Before Midoriya broke out of his control again.
“...Group five is out.”
Seriously, what the actual fuck.
“Congratulations, you all failed,” Aizawa dryly told the entire caged class right after Hitoshi, who sat on top of the cage out of the other kids’ sights, released them all from his control. Twenty under his brainwash throughout an hour, a new record for the kid. Not to mention whatever that mess with Midoriya had been. Aizawa had been just as shocked as Hitoshi when Midoriya had broken out of his control, but then again it was the problem child. Midoriya continued to be an outlier in just about everything.
“Not again!” Kirishima wailed dramatically, probably recognizing the unique feeling being brainwashed gave. “We didn’t even last ten minutes!”
“That felt really weird,” Uraraka hesitantly said. “Like, I wanted to do what I was told? But it wasn’t me doing it.”
“That fucker is dead ,” Bakugou growled. Kaminari and Aoyama hurriedly backed away from him.
Yaoyorozu raised her hand, “That was Shinsou, wasn’t it, sensei?” Midoriya, who had been suspiciously quiet when he would’ve been mumbling by now otherwise, finally perked up.
“It was!” Midoriya enthusiastically nodded. “It’s definitely a mind control quirk! Such a powerful one too, to be able to make both Todoroki-kun and Sero-kun fight me and Yaoyorozu-san at the same time!”
“I’m more interested in his weapon, kero,” Asui piped up, finger on her chin. She blinked at Aizawa. “It looks just like yours, Aizawa-sensei.”
All Might, who stood beside Aizawa, thankfully kept his big mouth shut and only surreptitiously glanced up at where Hitoshi sat. He had met Hitoshi earlier this morning and had to be convinced that no, he was not Aizawa’s biological son. Hizashi and Nemuri had been laughing in the background, the traitors.
“Be more concerned on how you all lost four to one,” Aizawa dryly said. His students shifted uneasily, a little ashamed.
“That’s a little unfair, don’t you think, sensei?” Hitoshi drawled, and the caged teenagers comically looked around to find the source of the voice until Hitoshi hopped down from his position. He had his back turned to 1-A, but with his hood down, everyone could clearly tell who he was with his signature hair. Aizawa carefully kept his face blank as Mineta squeaked. “You knew I would have the upper hand regardless. Thanks for feeding my complex, by the way, making me play villain.”
“It helps with personal growth,” Aizawa blithely said. They were both clearly joking, though as expected, Hitoshi’s casual speech towards Aizawa was met with varying degrees of alarm from his students. He’d have to speak with the kid about that, now that he’s actually in his class now.
“Good job, young Shinsou!” All Might grinned, patting Hitoshi’s shoulder almost roughly. To the kid’s credit, he took it like a champ, barely huffing at the sudden force despite being nearly slammed to the floor. “I admit, I wasn’t expecting a complete clear out! But I suppose that’s why you’re in the Hero course now!”
“Meet your new classmate,” Aizawa grinned toothily at the surprised 1-A. Beside him, Hitoshi looked almost like a carbon copy of Aizawa, despite the different hair and costume. He could see the wheels in Todoroki’s mind already turning.
“Shinsou Hitoshi,” Hitoshi smiled blandly after a brief bow. “Nice to meet you.”
After being thoroughly chewed out by Aizawa and placated by All Might, 1-A went back to their classroom, exhausted. They had been graciously given the remaining hour they had before lunch as a study period, though not out of pity. Aizawa had just wanted to nap.
The extra desk at the back row, near the windows, threw off the symmetry of the classroom but drove home the point that they were a class of 21 now. It was a change they’ll have to quickly get used to. Hitoshi had been more or less prepared for his new classmates, but it was clear that almost all of them weren’t sure what to make of him. Midoriya looked both afraid and dying to approach him.
“Hey, man!” Kaminari beamed at him before Hitoshi even got a chance to settle into his new desk. Hitoshi blinked at the sudden brightness in front of him. “Welcome to 1-A! Can I just say that you were totally cool during the Sports Festival? And during today’s exercise too! You really had us all pinned down.”
“Thanks,” Hitoshi slowly said. “I just did my research. And trained.”
“Oooh, have you been spying on us?” Ironically said by Hagakure, the girl that was literally invisible. “Mashirao said you knew everyone in the hero course’s quirks!”
Those seemed to be the magic words to get Midoriya to perk up and suddenly join the conversation. “Is it true?” Midoriya asked excitedly. “Even 1-B’s? I haven’t been able to see their class in action at all, since we haven’t had joint training yet, and I wasn’t paying enough attention during the festival--”
“Like I said, research,” Hitoshi shrugged. “I saw some videos, took some notes--”
“Notes?” Midoriya almost yelled. Kaminari and Hagakure snickered when Hitoshi jumped back, eyebrows raised, at the sudden sound. Midoriya reddened but with a hasty ‘gimme a sec!’ he scrambled back to his desk to dig into his bag.
“Uh oh,” Kaminari jokingly said, “you unleashed the monster.”
“Midoriya-kun gets really intense when talking about quirks,” Yaoyorozu, who sat in front of him, sheepishly said. Hagakure giggled before being dragged into another conversation with Ashido and Jirou.
Midoriya came back, suddenly looking hesitant, clutching a notebook in hand. “Oh, sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed--” He babbled. “We don’t have to talk about quirks and stuff right now, I’m sure you want to talk to our other classmates - they’re all really nice but we didn’t want to overwhelm you, but that’s what I’m doing, isn’t it? Oh no-”
“It’s fine,” Hitoshi cut in. He bit his lip unsurely, tapping his finger against his desk. “It would be cool to compare notes with someone.”
“Oh, do you like doing that kind of stuff too, Shinsou-kun?” Uraraka appeared from behind Midoriya, smiling. Beside her was an uncertain looking Iida, who met Hitoshi’s eyes for barely a moment before immediately looking away. (Hitoshi really didn’t get him, but he figured Iida was busy thinking about his brother. Aizawa had tersely told him what had happened to Iida Tensei and Hitoshi knew the abrupt end to the hero’s career was going to be hard on a lot of people, his family especially.)
“Sure,” Hitoshi rubbed his neck awkwardly. “I only really have one other person to talk quirks with, so a different point of view is always interesting.”
“Not gonna lie, I wanna hear more about yours,” Kaminari piped up. “It felt really weird, but comforting. Like I was being hugged by a cloud!”
Midoriya had been furiously flipping through his notebook, and when he got to a certain page, laid it flat on Hitoshi’s desk. Hitoshi peered at it, and despite it being upside down, he could recognize his name on the top of the page. “Huh,” Hitoshi turned the notebook right side up, “mind if I read this?”
“Oh, I don’t mind!” Midoriya beamed. “I was hoping you’d tell me what I got right, actually!”
The profile was… impressive. There were a lot of slashed through words, clearly from during the earlier matches of the Sports Festival, but the rest were more or less accurate. Midoriya had gotten it spot on when he wrote “voice activated,” a safe assumption if one took account his support gear, but Midoriya hadn’t surmised the response requirement of his quirk yet.
“You’re right that my quirk is voice activated,” Hitoshi said, “but you’re missing something else. And I guess calling it Mind Control is close enough, but it’s actually Brainwashing.”
“ Brainwashing ,” Midoriya gasped gleefully. “Mental quirks are rare enough, much less ones that can influence the mind, and brainwashing is even rarer-- The potential for hero work is incredible, especially if your quirk is as versatile as it seems to be so far!”
“It’s a work in progress,” Hitoshi muttered, a little embarrassed at the blatant praise the other boy was giving. Already Midoriya was hastily correcting his notes and adding to it, just based on the name alone.
“Still, that’s pretty cool!” Kaminari cheerfully said. “I just electrocute stuff, including myself, haha!” Then he snapped, and a bit of electricity went off from his fingers.
Hitoshi, involuntarily, flinched.
Thankfully, most of them didn’t notice, Midoriya and Uraraka preoccupied with assuring Kaminari that his quirk was amazing too. Iida, however, had been looking at him. Hitoshi had almost forgotten he was there because of how solemnly quiet the usually exuberant Iida was.
“Are you okay?” Iida lowly asked. Hitoshi shrugged, trying to be nonchalant.
“Just got a little surprised,” he quietly said back. Then hesitantly ventured, “Are you?”
Hitoshi may not know Iida well, but even he can tell there was something wrong with the terse smile he got in return.
“Shinsou-kun,” Midoriya hesitantly approached him as everyone left the classroom for lunch, “can we talk for a second…?”
Hitoshi, knowing the other boy was going to bring up what happened during the exercise, nodded. It was fortunate that Aizawa had the foresight to remove the audio of their brief altercation when the class had gone back and watched the matches, as going from Midoriya’s expression, what Hitoshi had said wasn’t for everyone’s ears.
“I won’t tell anyone about what I saw,” Hitoshi assured him once they were alone. The relief on Midoriya’s sigh was palpable. “It’s not exactly my business, and I just said what I said to throw you off.”
Midoriya wrung his fingers, “Well, actually… I’m not sure why… they .. were there either.” Hitoshi frowned at him.
“...You have the presence of multiple entities in your mind, and you don’t know why?” He asked slowly. Midoriya grimaced, and Hitoshi risked another question. “Did you inherit your quirk or something?” The other boy looked at him with wide eyed shock.
“I- It’s--” Midoriya stammered. “How--?”
“Midoriya, I called you ‘Ninth Holder’ because they did,” Hitoshi explained, and Midoriya’s face paled further. “And unless there’s another explanation for that…”
“I need to talk to somebody first!” Midoriya abruptly squeaked, “Thank you for keeping quiet about it, Shinsou-kun! I-I’ll see you later!” At that, he practically sprinted away and down the hall, leaving Hitoshi gaping at his back.
Aizawa was right - Midoriya was a strange anomaly. Hitoshi could barely keep up.
The moment he grabbed his tray of food, Hitoshi was practically accosted by Uraraka and Asui and forcibly dragged to their lunch table. Iida, and surprisingly Todoroki, were already sitting there.
“Okay,” Hitoshi deadpanned. “I guess I’m sitting here today.”
Uraraka grinned at him unrepentantly. “You’re welcome to sit here any day! Deku won’t mind either!”
“Where is he? I hope he’s not skipping lunch,” A less sombre looking Iida asked. Beside him, Todoroki quietly slurped his noodles while staring intently at Hitoshi. Asui was also staring.
“He said he had to talk to somebody…” Hitoshi said, eyebrows furrowing at the twin gazes at him. Uraraka hummed, saying something about Midoriya probably meeting with All Might, but that was drowned by Hitoshi directly saying, “Why are you two staring at me like that?”
“The more I look at you, the more I see Aizawa-sensei,” Asui bluntly said. Todoroki eyes narrowed further and nodded slightly in agreement.
“I’m not related to him,” Hitoshi truthfully said. He felt kind of like a broken record, with how many times he’s had to say it today.
Asui put a finger on her chin, “Is that so.”
“I have said I’ve met his parents,” Iida added firmly. “Neither of them look like Aizawa-sensei-- Ah, well...”
“My father is not related to Aizawa-sensei either,” he dryly said. Iida smiled sheepishly, and Hitoshi had a moment of realization.
Having spent almost a year around the company of Aizawa and Yamada had made him more comfortable in speaking his mind. Yamada thought his rare moments of sass were a riot, and Aizawa appreciated his honesty and occasional bluntness. And having friends for the first time since his quirk appeared also helped - Yokohara was natural at leading even the most introverted person into fluid conversation, and his friends from 1-C didn’t even falter talking to him even after finding out how his quirk actually worked. Hitoshi hadn’t realized how much of himself he had locked up until he was able to talk to other people again.
So he couldn’t help but vocalize, not even holding back, the thought he just had. “Huh, I don’t think I’ve seen you smile up close before. It’s nice.”
Iida’s jaw dropped minutely, his eyes widened, and the tips of his ears and his cheekbones turned bright red alarmingly fast. “I- What-”
Uraraka shrieked, slamming the table with a palm, and burst out a brief cackle. “Oh my god, Iida-kun, your face --”
“Sorry,” Hitoshi quickly backtracked, “if that was weird or something.”
“No, no, it’s alright,” Iida strangled out. He looked kind of constipated, so it was clearly not alright, but Hitoshi hoped that the other boy was just embarrassed by the comment. In hindsight, Hitoshi would have been too, had that been directed at him.
“Iida-kun blushes easily,” Asui commented casually, feeding into Uraraka’s hilarity. Hitoshi didn’t exactly get what was so funny, but 1-A was full of strange kids.
“Please pull yourself together,” Iida exasperatedly begged Uraraka.
Asui switched her gears, turning to Hitoshi with a small smile, “Welcome to 1-A, Shinsou-chan. You can call me Tsu-chan, since I think we’ll be hanging out a lot together from now on, kero.”
1-A was also full of friendly kids, so far. Hitoshi’s been in UA long enough to not be shocked at how different it was from middle school, but he still got surprised every now and then at people’s friendliness towards him .
“Shinsou-chan is a mouthful,” he told her, rubbing his neck nervously, “But some of my friends call me Shin-chan, so I don’t mind being called that. If you want.”
Asui looked absolutely delighted.
Then Todoroki quietly put his chopsticks down, and solemnly asked, “Does your hair stand up like that because of your quirk, like how Aizawa-sensei’s does?”
Everyone blinked at him. Hitoshi sighed, “My hair is styled .”
Todoroki nodded after a moment of thought, and Hitoshi almost thought the matter was dropped as quickly as it was brought up. But then, apparently the stoic boy wasn’t invulnerable to the Class 1-A weirdness. “Is it because you look too much like him if it’s down? Have you considered dyeing your hair black?”
“Oh my god , Todoroki--”