Chapter Text
Hitoshi gets up early that morning. Well he was never really asleep.
The muzzle kept him up.
You’d think after wearing it for years, he’d be used to it. It still stung like shit. Akuma had come in and put a lock on it. So he went to their bedroom and knocked softly in the morning.
“One minute.” Jigoku’s voice could be heard along with the sound of rummaging through drawers, presumably to find the key.
The door opened and Hitoshi turned around, eager to get it off. He still tensed up when her hands touched his hair but it wasn’t yanked. She just unlocked it and he pulled it off his face.
He wordlessly made it back to his room to deposit the muzzle on his bed for later and to put some eyeliner on and put in his earrings. He grabbed his bag. It had been a while since he hadn’t had to worry about hiding bruises.
For the second time the thought crossed his mind.
Maybe it won’t be that bad.
He still refuses to let his guard down until he’s safely on the train. He’s still banking on the hope that the school won’t call his fosters if he doesn’t show up. Fingers crossed.
The train ride is one of his favorite parts of the day. Everyone is staring at their phone, or asleep, so nobody pays any attention to him. The closest bus stop that goes to UA is the first one the bus stops at so he gets free reign on what seat he wants.
It’s the tiny luxuries that keep him going.
Like how one of the old siblings he had gifted him a pair of wired headphones and he had bought an adapter so he could plug it in to his phone. He listened solely to underground artists, as they often had the freshest music in his opinion.
He had training today.
Training with Aizawa-sensei was the other best part of his day. And now, he might be able to keep up with the meal plan. (kinda) One meal is better than none right? He also was excited to wear short sleeves, as almost all of his old bruises had healed, and any remaining traces of past abuse could be passed off as from training.
It was going to be a good day.
Also a plan had formulated in his mind. He was going to use his voice changer in his mask to pretend to be Jigoku and unenroll himself. Risky, maybe, but if it worked he wouldn’t have to bank on the school just forgetting about him.
He hopped off the train and took out his land yard as he walked to the front gate of UA. He scanned his ID at the kiosk positioned to keep the press out and walked in. He loved UA. More than he was ever willing to admit. It was his place of escape and refuge. He made his way into the big double doors and walked to Class 1-C. He was hoping to get transferred at the end of summer, which was just around the corner.
He walked into the room and some of his classmates were already there, chatting with each other. Hitoshi made his way to his seat against the wall in the middle of the rows. Homeroom didn’t start for a couple more minutes but Hitoshi doesn’t talk to people a lot.
He doesn’t talk a lot ever.
It’s really hard to talk after the days he slips up. Which don’t happen often anymore thankfully.
He’s learned to control himself.
Hitoshi puts his earbuds away just as the bell rings and Present Mic bursts in.
“EVERYBODY SAY HEY!!!” His quirk was on. It was too early for this.
All the students settled down into their seats and turned their attention to him.
Present Mic clapped his hands together. “So summer is coming up! I know everyone is supa excited to got on VACATION! I know I am! Me and my partner are going to be relaxing with our cats for as long as possible!”
Hitoshi glanced up in surprise. Present Mic had a wife? Since when?
“We are almost done with finals and I’m going to read off a list of homework’s and assignments I’m missing and then you can have free time sound good? Great.”
And…Hitoshi lost interest. He knew he’d turned in all his assignments. He thought about trying to call the school. He could probably find a phone number online somewhere for the main office or something.
After Mic-sensei finished reading off the list Hitoshi started drawing. It had been something he’d taken up on to try and distract himself from any bad thoughts that crossed his mind.
Ugh, he was starting to get a headache. He rummaged around in his bag, looking for the advil bottle he had somewhere. He finally found it and popped two in his mouth and swallowed them dry.
Back to his drawings. He loved to draw trees. Now you might be thinking that it’s really easy but Hitoshi draws every single leaf on a tree. He’s already drew all the trees at UA that are within a close enough range to the lunchroom.
When you aren’t eating lunch, you got to distract yourself somehow.
The one thing was, if his new fosters put lunch money into an account, it would be for the public school he’s totally at right now.
So no lunch again.
Just his luck.
————————————————
The day passed in a blur.
Not in a bad way, like he’s sick.
In a good way, with slight excitement. Which no matter how hard he tried to squash, didn’t work well.
He needed to be on guard. Just because they haven’t hit him doesn’t mean they won’t.
Keep you guard up Hitoshi.
He walked into the locker room after school and changed into his gym uniform. (Without long sleeves in underneath!)
Aizawa-sensei was already waiting. He squinted at Hitoshi, probably noticing something different.
“Do your stretches.”
They both dropped down and did their normal stretches. Straddle, reach left, reach right, pancake, etc.
Hitoshi was feeling brave. Like luck was on his side this once. So he took a risk.
“Summer is coming up.” He carefully avoided asking a question. He will never be that cocky.
If Aizawa was surprised by Hitoshi’s voice, he didn’t show it. He hummed in response.
“Yea my class will be going to a summer training facility and I was going to wait till after training to talk about this but it’s fine. I want you to come. I’ve cleared it with Nezu all we would need is parent permission.”
Hitoshi’s heart soared and then sunk. Parent permission? Guess he’s got to forge another form.
“Thank you so much sensei I’d be honored.”
Aizawa stood up and Hitoshi quickly did too.
“Great I’ll give you the papers with the details after training.”
Hitoshi felt so free. He didn’t feel weighted down by exhaustion or hunger or pain. He felt… normal.
So when training ended and he started walking to the bus stop, he had totally forgotten to unenroll himself. He hoped that he could pass off as Akuma without his voice changer.
He looked up the school’s website and found a phone number.
Welp here goes nothing.
“Westernburg high main office how may I help you?”
“Hello. I would like to unenroll my kid. It’s my first time fostering and we didn’t realize that he has a dangerous quirk. He can brainwash people so we decided it’s best if he’s homeschooled.”
He spoke, crossing his fingers.
“What’s the child’s name?” The lady on the other side was obnoxiously clicking the keys on her computer.
“Shinsou. Hitoshi Shinsou. He should be a sophomore.”
Click click click click.
“Hmm yes I do see a Shinsou.” Click click click click.
“And he’s being unenrolled why?”
Hitoshi sighed.
“Because his quirk is dangerous.”
His quirk is dangerous.
His quirk is dangerous
“Hmmm.”
Click click click click click click.
“Since he didn’t show up today and the records on him are fuzzy I’ll let you pull him out before the official unenrollment papers get processed due to his…circumstances.”
God I hate the whole system.
That was way too easy just because of the excuse of my quirk.
“Great thanks.” He hung up.
He sighs softly as the bus pulls up and he gets on, getting his headphones out. And despite this being one of the last stops, there’s an open seat.
It’s his lucky day.