Chapter Text
Shouta caught himself nodding off, the principal’s voice drawling into a monotone slur. He made an effort keep his heavy head up. It was his big transition into middle school with a big opening ceremony that all students, new or returning, must attend. Shouta didn’t see what was so special. In his mind, he was only a year older.
The principal mentioned such and such about considering prospects for the future, choosing your own path, whatever lies and tricks adults like spilling to motivate children to do their bidding. The sparkling words feebly filtered a weak light into Shouta’s heart, and the image of the proud hero glowing in the sun flickered and spread through Shouta’s memory.
He choked that flame as best he could. He couldn’t dream of being a hero, a beacon of hope, when all he could do was take things away from people.
Shouta decided he could try and move his focus onto something else than vocation planning to keep himself from falling into either sleep or a pit of terrible memories. Bright decorations hung around the school gymnasium for the ceremony. The third-years began to take their places on the gymnasium stage to sing their welcomes. The surrounding new first-years sat on folding chairs that had been arranged in neat rows, students who would soon be his new classmates.
One of those students sitting directly in front of him was a boy with short but tamed brown locks, sitting attentively. With nothing better to think about, Shouta studied how the tufts of hair crisscrossed each other, like hatches, and gently curled off the boy’s head in defiant but gentle wisps.
Inspecting a little lower, he noticed a black little thing with small legs had begun crawling up the student’s back, slowly creeping through the dark fabric of the boy’s gakuran.
The speck began to tickle at the hairs that started on the back of his neck, spindling along the hairs at the back of his scalp. It was starting to bother Shouta, to the point where he felt an itch, but he decided it was out of his control. He wasn’t going to go through the trouble over just a tiny spider. The guy will figure it out right? Shouta quietly snorted to himself at the image of the brunette squirm knowing there was a spider on him. He tried to suppress a small laugh when he saw the boy twitch his head.
He wouldn’t be amused for long.
Shouta’s body tightened as a piercing cry erupted over the chorus. Students reflexively protected their ears, faces contorting in recoil. Chairs screeched as students stumbled over each other to flee from the source of the terrible noise. Shouta cringed in pain, covering his ears. The unbearable shrieking did not cease. He barely could hear himself think.
“Oh god, she’s falling!”
“What happened!?”
“Maybe it was the work of a villain? How cruel and disgusting do you have to be, to kill child like that!”
Just like on that very day, he couldn’t even move out of terror. The horrified screaming only brought him back to that day. The screaming of that girl.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please make it stop .
I didn’t mean it.
He needed it to stop.
Shouta wrenched his eyes open, and pointed his stare at the boy until he felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his very eye sockets.
The terrible cacophony devolved into a frantic cry of an adolescent. Shouta slowly removed his hands from his bleeding ears, and ran over to the brunette and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Stop! Shut up!” The crying did not relent. Shouta, eyes wet with tears, impulsively struck the boy in the face.
The boy’s voice choked. He reeled back to say something as a knee-jerk reaction, but was met with Shouta’s glistening stare. He could barely meet Shouta’s red eyes with his green ones, and stared at the floor, covering his mouth. The boy was still shaking.
Until that moment, Shouta hadn’t erased anybody for 3 years.
Word spread afterwards that first-year Yamada Hizashi was reprimanded for severe disruption of the opening ceremony and risk of injury to other students with his quirk, and thus given the task of cleaning the whole gymnasium for two weeks to start off the year.
Despite staff praising him for taking ‘heroic’ action, Shouta couldn’t help but feel like part of the problem.
***
Shouta made his way down the concrete steps past other students, the topics of gossip and school clubs floating around. He and Yamada were in the same class, and noticed the boy stealing glances at him during the class period, and even during lunch as if he’d wanted to say something. Shouta hadn’t been in contact with him since they were dismissed from the principal’s office where Yamada had to formally apologize to him in front of the principal and staff a few days ago.
He found himself pushing open the gymnasium door, where he found a brown-headed speck silently wiping the glossy wood floor. He was working rather diligently. Shouta felt conscious about the two outdoor shoes on his feet all of the sudden.
“Hey,” He caught the brunette’s attention, who quickly got up upon seeing him. Getting his attention, Shouta pushes the words out of his mouth. “So uh, back then I didn’t get a chance to do this.” He made a formal bow. “Sorry for hitting you back then, I was acting out more than was necessary.”
“No no, it’s alright, really, it’s me-... I’m the one who should be apologizing again. Sorry. I just get like that.” The brunette fidgeted with the towel in his hand, twisting it as he silently scolded himself for the enth time. “I’m Yamada Hizashi, but you probably already knew that.” he said even quieter, barely audible in the large room. It was ironic, seeing as he nearly deafened all the new first-years.
“Aizawa Shouta, wasn’t it?” Shouta nodded back at him. He flashed a small smile. “Cool. Glad we can make up on a fresh note. It would be like some kinda bad omen to start off the year like that.”
Yamada was only slightly shorter than Aizawa was. His green eyes gave a calm, mellow energy, but because of his curiously curled eyebrows, he always had a somewhat worried look painted across his face.
He began scrubbing the floor again with the rag. “So, that back then was your quirk?”
“Huh?”
“You know, the one with all the glowy eyes and your hair going all,” He raised his hands around his head, wiggling his fingers. “My quirk stopped working.” Yamada chuckled. “You look pretty scary like that.”
Shouta’s heart dropped. “Oh, yeah. Erasure,” he responded. “I can temporarily erase people’s quirks by looking at them.” This was the topic Shouta dreaded.
Yamada nodded as he worked. “That’s pretty cool. You can do a lot with that kind of power.” He laughed a little more, grinning. “Kinda sounds like something a villain would have!”
“Maybe it was the work of a villain? How cruel and disgusting do you have to be, to kill a child like that!”
Shouta’s forehead creased for a brief moment.
“Yeah. I get that a lot.” He bit a small portion of his lip as he glanced to the window of the door, his faint reflection staring back at him with judging eyes through the filtering sunset outside. He decided to change the subject. “You must really hate bugs.”
Yamada snorted loudly. A little too loudly. Noticing Shouta flinch at the noise, he cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. Sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck, as if the insect were still there. “I just can’t handle places like the forest. I can’t deal with the bugs at all. Cities are more my style, you know? I grew up in them. And as you probably could deduce, that was my quirk, Voice. It’s pretty self explanatory. My voice can go crazy high and crazy low. Er, it’s still hard to control though… You just experienced that first hand. So, uh, sorry about that again.”
“It’s alright. I mean, I did hit you…”
“But rightfully so… sometimes I just get out of hand so easily. Sorry…”
“Mm. I heard your apology the first time. And the times after that. I can still hear thankfully.”
Yamada let out an awkward laugh. “Yeah…” He had been rubbing the same spot of floor since they had started talking.
Shouta had just been staring at his undulating hand as he began spacing out. The silence was filled by the drone of the air conditioning system overhead.
He had done pretty much all that he came to do, and he didn’t want to spend anymore extra time out here. Shouta was at the door, about to push the handle until he Yamada speak again from behind him.
“Huh? Aizawa wait! Uh, sorry. I’m just about finished here. Do you wanna walk?”
The dark haired boy stared at the ceiling as he was searching for his decision. “Alright. You sure say sorry a lot.”
“Sorry- Hey ....” Yamada caught himself and pouted at Shouta’s remark. “I’m gonna put this cleaning stuff back so just wait right there.”
A few minutes later Yamada was jogging back, grabbing his bag as Shouta held the door open for him.
Outside the sun was beginning to withdraw, allowing for the cool air to drift along the breeze. Sakura blossoms danced on its wisp, before tip toeing along the ankles of the two boys as they made their way down the street.
Yamada swung his book bag over his shoulder and exhaled. “Thanks for waiting. So, what route do you take?”
“I take the train from Ibaraki, so I’ll be going to the station down the street.”
“Is that so? Have you been around Osaka?”
“Only a few times.” Shouta said before pausing. “My family doesn’t let me go out much.”
“So that’s a no. I see...”
Eventually they found themselves at a crosswalk, where Shouta had made a turn along the CD shop and Lawson konbini. The interiors glowed a sterile white, where colorful signs, snacks, and pop idols were displayed from within the glass walls.
“Well Aizawa,” Yamada flashed another small smile at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”
“Likewise.” was all Aizawa could say back before turning and continuing down the road toward the station, the streetlights along the side flickering to life from above.