Chapter Text
Touma was skipping into the house, and Hizashi was already concerned. There was a big smile on his face, and he practically tripped up the stairs to go to his bedroom. Hizashi focused on whisking up the egg and dashi mixture for omelets, and before long, Touma emerged and grabbed a peach as he slammed his homework onto the table and took a seat.
“How was school?” Hizashi asked, and Touma hummed as he took a big bite of his peach.
“It was fine,” he replied, and Hizashi eyed.
“You got back late,” he commented, and Touma beamed at him.
“I went to a cat cafe with Midoriya!” he reported, and Hizashi nodded. So, that was what he was happy about. Nothing to worry about, then. “And I got into a fight.”
Hizashi nodded, and then those words processed.
“Wait, what?” he asked, because no one had called him, and Touma nodded.
“Yep! With Bakugou!” he said cheerfully, and Hizashi turned to him.
“Did you start it? ” he asked dangerously as he looked over him for injuries, but there were none. He was fine, his skin smooth and unblemished, and he wasn’t favoring any of his limbs. He looked perfectly healthy and whole, and of course he was fine. His quirk was a fucking nightmare, why wouldn’t he be fine?
“I wouldn’t need to start a fight with Bakugou. The boy’s a walking angry Pomeranian,” Touma said with a laugh. “Nah, he started it.”
“Why didn’t your school call me?” Hizashi demanded, and Touma shrugged.
“Probably because I didn’t get in any trouble. It’s not like I had to hit him or anything.”
That was sending up alarm bells in Hizashi’s mind. What did he mean by fight? Was it actually a fight, or did Touma just…
“What kind of fight was it, then?”
“I just pinned him to the ground and told him to ignore me and Midoriya,” Touma reported, and Hizashi felt a chill roll down his spine. “He didn’t agree, but I let him up when the teachers told me to. See? I can listen to authority figures.”
“I don’t understand why they didn’t call me,” Hizashi stated, flat, and Touma shrugged.
“Probably because I’m the new golden boy,” he said slyly. “I reckon you’re going to miss a lot of phone calls.”
“What do you mean, new golden boy?” Hizashi demanded, and Touma hummed and took another bite of the peach, the juice dribbling down his chin.
“You know, Midoriya told me his teachers like to lose his homework to keep Bakugou at the top of the class?” Touma asked, and Hizashi froze. That was… what?
“Why is it so important that he’s at the top of the class?” Hizashi asked, and Touma shrugged.
“They want him to look good on high school applications, not that anyone actually cares who’s on top at such a shit school.”
That was… beyond illegal, Hizashi realized. That was tampering with hero school entrance processes, and it was illegal.
“Does Midoriya get bullied a lot?” Hizashi asked, and Touma shrugged.
“That’s going to change now,” he said airily, and Hizashi made a mental note to call the Ministry of Education when he had a minute. Wait…
“What do you mean by that? ” Hizashi demanded, and Touma gave him a sly smile.
“I’m going to make him the most popular boy in school,” he said, and Hizashi stared at him.
“And how are you going to do that?” he asked and leaned on the counter, and Touma shrugged.
“It’s pretty easy. You just have to play your cards right. The first step is ridiculing the bullies, making it uncool to back them,” he said, like this was all some kind of game to him. “The next step is to make what Midoriya likes cool. Which is quirk analysis, which isn’t that hard. I just have to get to be the most popular boy in class and get into it. When Midoriya is established as the expert and everyone else is doing it and they realize he liked it before it was cool, well, they’ll all fall in line.”
His son was… terrifying, Hizashi realized. He didn’t really know how to react to that at all. He knew how to play people, and it was already bad enough that he had such an OP quirk. He was going to be an unholy terror on the heroic community when he grew up. His PR stunts were going to be legendary. He was going to be a menace to the whole of hero society, and Hizashi would be partially responsible for it for raising such a terrifying son. He knew how to manipulate to get what he wanted, and Hizashi couldn’t help but feel he was being manipulated right now, being used to clean up Aldera just by a few off-hand comments and observations.
He was just a kid right now, but what would he turn into when he reached adulthood? Would he use these powers of manipulation for good, or evil? He was going to break a lot of hearts, Hizashi realized. He was going to break a hell of a lot of hearts, and he was going to make a mess of things when he hit the top ten. Because he would hit the top ten. There was no doubt about it: he was going to be on top, if he didn’t work at UA, and Hizashi had a feeling him and Nedzu together would be a bad idea indeed.
He would have to introduce him to his coworkers at some point, but he didn’t think… He would have to be cautious for right now. Touma had stated everything so dispassionately, but there was glee shining in his eyes. Playing with Midoriya’s life was fun to him.
“And what if Midoriya doesn’t want to be popular?” Hizashi asked. “What if he just wants to be your friend?”
“Everyone wants to be popular,” Touma said dismissively. “He’ll be fine.”
Hizashi frowned at him, not sure how to express to him that toying with people like this was going to end in tragedy. He didn’t know how to express to him that this was a bad idea, because Midoriya probably just wanted a friend, not a fairy godmother here to fix all his problems for him. That, or, Midoriya was going to develop an unhealthy complex about him, and that was going to create more issues in the long run than it was going to fix.
He didn’t know how to impress any of this on him. Touma was… so bullheaded and assured of himself. In his world, he was always going to be on top, and Hizashi knew that, but what happened when he wasn’t on top? What happened then? He knew he had been humbled, many times on the streets, especially when he was beating himself up. But…
Hizashi had a lot of concerns about his son. He wanted to raise him right, but he didn’t know enough about him to confront him just yet. Maybe he should let him learn on his own, with his own hard knocks, and worry about it later, when it all came crashing down around him. He didn’t want to, but…
But would Touma even listen if he told him…
A thought occurred to him, and he set the bowl of egg and dashi aside.
“Touma,” he said seriously, “why are you doing this?”
“Hm?” Touma hummed, and Hizashi slowly tilted his head.
“Do you possibly think that you have no value outside of what you can give to other people?” he asked, and Touma blinked at him.
“No…? I just think Midoriya should be on top of the food chain. It’s fun,” he said, and Hizashi pursed his lips. Fun, huh?
He knew Touma wasn’t really a sensitive boy, but he was a good kid. He’d been delivered some really hard knocks, and he had come out of it completely impervious. But, what he was doing… He didn’t really consider other people’s feelings beyond the obvious. He wanted to help people, and that was good, but he lived in a world where everyone was fine with everything he did, because he was powerful. He was strong. He had a fucking amazing quirk, and didn’t really consider consequences as a result. He hadn’t grown up with it, but it came in early enough that he didn’t have to worry about it.
He had crushed his mother’s bones and some of her organs. They came back okay, but he had made a mess of things, and for the first time, Hizashi considered that he might have some… No, he wouldn’t judge Touma for something that happened when he was four years old and had never been to quirk counseling. How they even got him back into school was beyond Hizashi. He thought it was required to go to quirk counseling to re enter preschool. Ah, fuck.
He would just let Touma learn the hard way, because Hizashi couldn’t entirely predict how this was going to go. In the meantime, he would contact the Ministry of Education and Nedzu and start an investigation at his school. Figure out what the hell was going on there and hopefully get some people fired and other people cleaning up their act, because Hizashi did not want to imagine what kind of monster would be created in Touma if he never faced consequences at school for anything. He knew the kid could and would act out, and he wasn’t about to deal with him becoming a nightmare at home just because the people at school couldn’t be bothered to do their damn jobs.
Even so…
“You’ve been at school for one week, ” he said warningly, and Touma blinked at him. “You shouldn’t be getting into fights.”
“Aw, it’s fine, Hizashi,” Touma said, and Hizashi rubbed his eyes.
“No, it’s really not,” he bit out, because it really, really wasn’t okay. How did he punish him for this? He needed his phone because of the alarm, and Hizashi was not about to wake him up every morning and get him used to someone rolling him out of bed instead of relying on himself to get up. What to do, what to do, what to do… “No TV for a week, and no hanging out with friends after class. You come straight home.”
There, that was an appropriate punishment, and Touma blinked at him.
“You’re grounding me?” he asked in dismay, and Hizashi shot him a nasty look.
“Yes, I’m grounding you. You got in a fight on your first week in school.”
Touma pulled a face, but Hizashi wasn’t going to bend.
“Fine,” Touma whined, and Hizashi let out a breath.
“I cannot believe you got in a fight in your first week of school.”
“I didn’t start it!”
“I already know you enough to know you instigated it,” Hizashi said, and Touma turned bright red.
“To be fair, it’s not hard to instigate with Bakugou,” he said, and Hizashi lifted an eyebrow.
“So, you did instigate.”
“Barely.”
“Touma… If a kid is as prickly as that, don’t poke the hornet’s nest,” Hizashi said in frustration and turned aside to pick up his phone and send off a text.
Present Mic: Hey can you get me in contact with the Ministry of Education?
The reply came in less than five seconds.
Nedzu: ?
Present Mic: There’s a problem at Touma’s school. Quirk discrimination and intentionally screwing with homework to guarantee better placement of one student in a hero course.
Nedzu: Ah. Aldera?
Present Mic: Yep.
Nedzu: I’ll set up a meeting for you. Come to my office at 10am.
Present Mic: Get someone to cover my classes?
Nedzu: Of course.
“Who are you texting?” Touma asked and leaned over the kitchen table to peek, and Hizashi waved an irritated hand.
“Mind your business,” he said and pushed his face away. “You gonna work on homework while I make dinner?”
“Yes, I want to get it done,” Touma replied, and Hizashi nodded.
“Alright, then,” he said and turned aside. “You’ll tell me if you get into any more fights, won’t you?”
“Well, I won’t tell you now, ” Touma said, and Hizashi rolled his eyes.
“It’s not a hardship to be banned from TV for a few days,” he said, and Touma huffed.
“But, my shows! One Piece is airing a new season!”
“You can miss one episode. It just means you’ll have two to watch next week,” Hizashi said, and Touma pouted at him.
“You could at least make it three days.”
“Keep trying to negotiate and it’ll be two weeks, short stuff,” Hizashi said, and Touma sunk down in his chair and groaned, letting his head drop back.
“Fiiiinnneee,” he said, and Hizashi turned aside to start working on their dinner.
“Now, finish your homework.”
He really did worry about the damn kid, though. He worried a lot. The kid was manipulative as hell, and Hizashi knew that, to some degree, when he got involved in this, but it was a whole other ball game when he was the one responsible for making sure he didn’t turn into a fucking monster. He would just have to do his best and pray it was enough.