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It felt like he was living in a fantasy.
He’d spent too long staring at the comic books on his shelf, the heroes on his posters, and now the crisp clean uniform carefully folded on his desk chair. Yesterday he’d put it on maybe a hundred different times, 'checking' the fit of the taiored measurements and to surprise his brother after he came home from work, but the excitement of wearing it again hadn’t passed; He hoped it never did.
A sharp whack sound on the glass of his bedroom window startled Yoichi, pulling him back to reality. His hands fumbled, the opaque buttons of his white dress shirt slipped from his fingers and he hastily moved away from his mirror.
Yoichi shoved open his window before it could receive another score and stuck his head out to glare.
Kaiji sat crouched on the large branch of a tree, adjacent to the bedroom. White sneakers ground against the bark, black socks peeking under the leg of the uniform’s dark green pants. His gray blazer was, predictably, unbuttoned and his tie was secured with a loose knot far below the white collar. Stoney features, that Yoichi had spent half a lifetime deciphering, broke over Kaiji’s sunlit face into a small smirk as he tossed a second rock over his shoulder and moved his other hand as if drawing an upside down ‘L’ in the air with his fist; Deactivating his quirk for the time being.
“Good morning, Yoichi, “ He said, settling to lean more comfortably on the branch, “How did you sleep?”
“Fine.” Yoichi said flatly as he leaned against the window frame, “Though I’d sleep a lot better if I knew you wouldn’t try waking me up like this every morning.”
Especially if he kept using Transmission to power his throws. Kaiji had learned how to extend his time limit by dampening his quirks' effects- But Yoichi’s window was not up for beta testing.
He had very expensive hero figurines that he’d prefer not learning how to clean glass off of.
Kaiji waved away these very valid worries, “I wouldn’t do this if there was any other option- How am I supposed to know when you're actually sick or if your brother’s just being an asshole and keeping you indoors?”
“That was only one time!” Yoichi groaned, mentally reliving the memory of Dasuo giving him 37 mini-sanitizers to keep in his school bag. “Besides, he knows better than to try that again… I can deal with an overbearing brother myself, Kaiji. You don’t have to come rescue me every morning. ”
“I wouldn’t be a very good hero, if I didn’t.” Kaiji argued, the ends of his lips curling higher into a smug grin.
“You’re not a hero at all, you don’t have a license,” Yoichi blew a piece of hair out of his face, “And I shouldn’t have to remind you that I made it into UA too. ”
Kaiji grimaced, “By breaking your arm? No, I don’t think I can stomach hearing that story again.”
Yoichi had broken more than just his arm but thanks to his quirk, Vitality , most of his other injuries had reset before the nurse made it to the other exam participants. He’d moved without thinking, a boy trapped under rubble, frozen in fear of the 0 pointer headed right for them, and suddenly Yoichi’s forearm had snapped in three different places.
It was a painful, if morbidly fascinating, feeling, and he’d described the experience in great detail afterwards to Sanetomo and a rapidly paling Kaiji.
He shrugged, “ ‘Still got in.”
“Not before me , but I’ll admit…” Kaiji’s eyes slowly crawled upwards from the lower part of the window frame, beneath his rested arms, and lingered strangely somewhere below his face.
A small breeze passed by, loose leaves temporarily blocking their clear connection, and Yoichi shivered. He hadn’t realized the season’s had shifted and he’d expected the material from his uniform to be a bit warmer than this…
He looked down and realized he still hadn’t buttoned his shirt.
“... The formal wear suits you much better than Dasuo.”
“You-!” Yoichi stuttered, holding the fabric closed over his chest as he picked up a house slipper in his free hand. Indignation fighting to show on his face instead of the red hot embarrassment he was feeling, “Get out of here! Or my brother won't be the only one chasing you out of our yard!”
Kaiji cackled as he slipped from his post, rolling onto the grass and dirtying his uniform. “Meet you at the gate!” He called over his shoulder without a care as he hopped over the wooden fence.
Yoichi lowered his slipper and snorted.
“He’s such a dork…” He mumbled quietly, a small smile betraying his annoyance.
He dressed quickly, now that the threat to his hero merch was neutralized, and snatched the bookbag from on top of his desk after checking that his schedule was still in there from where he’d left it the night before, and hopped down the stairs for the door.
“I’m leaving!” He called out as he changed into his sneakers.
“Wait, wait, wait-!”
Yoichi’s brother emerged from the kitchen, sleeves of his perfectly-tailored suit rolled up to his elbows and drying his hands on a dishtowel. Dasuo passed Yoichi to grab a box near the entrance. He opened it, revealing swatches of simple colors and tasteful patterns of fabric folded inside.
“Flu season is coming up,” Dasuo explained, “Don’t forget to wear a mask, Yoichi.”
Yoichi huffed a laugh, “I haven’t had the flu since I was a child.”
Before his quirk came in, much later than everyone else’s in his class, Yoichi was constantly plagued by illness. Most of his childhood was spent in the hospital with his brother hovering over him while the doctors wracked their heads over repeatedly failed test results. Without their parents, Dasuo was the only one that could care for Yoichi. His brother poured so much money into physicians and specialists, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. At one point, they’d even suggested he was born quirkless without the extra toe joint.
Just like his brother.
Then, miraculously, Yoichi developed a quirk overnight; One specifically designed to fight such illnesses and, with time, give him the power of superhuman strength.
Yoichi had worried that his brother would be disappointed. It wasn’t a very grand quirk and certainly not one worthy of all the tears he’s caused and money spent. He couldn’t look his brother in the eye when the doctor haltingly explained his new ability, as if he couldn’t believe the words he was speaking.
The silence after was overwhelming. The doctor politely excused himself from the room and just as Yoichi opened his mouth to apologize, his brother wrapped him up in his arms.
“It’s a perfect fit,” Dasuo whispered in the quiet hospital room, assuaging each of his worries with a warm embrace, “I’m so relieved.”
Yoichi hadn’t returned the hug, too shocked to think of doing so, but he’d cried a lot that day.
That was eleven years ago and Yoichi hadn’t visited another hospital since then.
Dasuo sighed, bringing Yoichi out of the memory.
“Well, not everyone in this house has a super anti-virus quirk, Yoichi. If you don’t wear it for yourself then won’t you please wear it for your dear, weak, fragile older brother?” He brushed a stray out of Yoichi’s right eye. Then he pinched Yoichi’s nose. “I’m too pathetic and useless against those nasty germs.”
Yoichi chuckled nasally, playfully slapping his hand away, “Brother, you may be quirkless but I don’t think there’s a single person on earth that would call you weak.”
Despite his arguments, he took a mask out of the box and slipped it on.
“Satisfied?”
“Oh yes, I feel safer already.” Dasuo chuckled.
He set the box aside and surprised Yoichi by pulling him into a warm hug that he happily reciprocated.
“My brother, going to UA to become a Prohero…” Dasuo spoke quietly, “...They’re going to write history books about this.” He mused.
Yoichi pushed off of him with a laugh, “I haven’t even done anything yet.”
“I know, I know,” He pushed back, finally opening the door for Yoichi to take his leave. He ruffled his hair as he passed, a quiet “Go, make them proud.” reaching his ears just as the door closed behind him and Yoichi understood the words when he noticed two figures loitering outside the gate.
He waved and Kaiji greeted him with a grin. Sanetomo, on the other hand, looked at Yoichi for half a second and then rolled his eyes.
Yoichi’s hand slipped away, concern over his friend’s quick mood change taking priority over everything else in his mind.
He was about to ask what was wrong, but then Sanetomo disappeared.
…. And so did the bangs covering half of his vision.
Sanetomo clicked his tongue behind him, working much quicker than Yoichi could see and leaving residual sparks with each gentle pull of Yoichi’s hair into a high ponytail.
“I thought I told you to do something about this, Shigaraki?” Sanetomo, ever the formal one between them, griped as he meticulously moved pieces of his hair over the loops of his mask. “We need to be ready at any moment- You can’t have your hair flying in your face all the time! What if a villain shows up?!”
He finished quickly and Yoichi gently admired his work with a delicate pat over the smoothness of his new hairstyle. He also liked being able to see. “A villain? On our way to school? On the first day?”
Kaiji muttered, “You sound just as paranoid as Hikage…”
“It could happen!” Sanetomo argued and they all fell into step on the sidewalk towards the station.
Yoichi shook his head, stealing a glance at Kaiji but the other boy wasn’t looking at him. Not even in his or Sanetomo’s general direction, giving the trees on the opposite street more attention than Yoichi thought he usually would.
He’d also failed to comment on what Sanetomo had done, Yoichi realized, belatedly self conscious. He gently held the other boy's arm, “Does it look that weird?”
Kaiji snapped his head to Yoichi, “N-No, it’s…” He looked down at the hand connecting them and then away again, this time at the sky. “I’m… Just not used to you looking at me like that- with two eyes. It looks good.”
Yoichi let go of his arm, placing it on his own pounding heart. “Really?”
“Yeah…”
“You kind of look like Shimura.” Sanetomo commented, saving Yoichi from embarrassing himself further, “She’s in our class, by the way.”
Yoichi hummed, pleasantly surprised to hear the brave girl in the B-class girl in their shared middle school had managed to get in. Her quirk wouldn’t be very helpful against robots, but she had always found… creative solutions to problems. The point-robots were no different. “I bet she got a lot of points in the exam.” He said.
Kaiji’s face immediately soured, “Not more than me.”
“Reign it in, leader. ” Sanetomo mocked, “Don’t make enemies on the first day.”
“We can have villain attacks but not enemies?” Yoichi pressed and Sanetomo rolled his eyes again.
“She’s not my enemy, she’s my rival- ”
“-And she’s floating right above you!” Sanetomo gasped, pointing upwards, and Kaiji shrieked as he hid under his backpack.
She wasn’t, of course, but it might’ve been funnier to see how Shimura might’ve reacted to that than to watch Sanetomo collapse into side-splitting tear-filled laughter while Kaiji tried to suffocate him with his blazer.
They all nearly missed the train, but it was definitely worth it.
Going to UA, with his best friends and classmates, and finally becoming a hero.
It was almost like something out of a comic book story…