Chapter Text
Hitoshi had always known in his heart that his destiny was to be a hero. It was a fact, like the sky was blue, and the grass green, like his mother would never come back but his father was the only one he needed growing up.
But just as the sky sometimes turned cloudy and his father occasionally simply couldn’t understand his son, Hitoshi's supposed unbreakable conviction faltered from time to time. Of course, having being transferred to the heroes’ course had put most of his insecurities at ease, those that only the ones who had gained his absolutely trust could see…
However, being there, face to face to the League of Villains, and more relevant, to Monoma Neito, Hitoshi had no idea why someone would think of him as a hero.
A true hero would have acted without thinking twice. A true hero would have done something, anything.
Hitoshi couldn’t be a hero. Not when he had frozen in place, while the League escaped right in front of his eyes.
The danger zone was still a disaster. The dust got into his eyes, making him blinking frenetically, and he couldn’t even open his mouth without feeling that he was suffocating. Beside him, unconscious on the floor, laid Sato, Ojiro, and Hagakure. They had been his teammates when The League broke into the middle of the rescue.
Exactly three hours earlier a building collapse in the city, not so far from UA, and the school allowed second-year students to help in case of incidents of such category since they didn’t represent a high degree of danger and they were also preparing them for more complicated rescue missions in the future.
After arriving to the zone, Aizawa told them that they would separate in groups of four, create a perimeter and look for possible injured civilians ...
Simple, right?
But then Dabi showed up out of nowhere, and soon other members of the League decided to join him.
The target? Nobody knew exactly, but when Hitoshi saw that disturbing blonde girl, drawing of blood from his classmates, he knew that without a doubt the League was planning something macabre.
And the truth was, seeing his team on the floor Hitoshi couldn’t help but blame himself. He was the one who heard the fake cry for help. He was the one who ran to rescue that “civilian in danger”, and he was the one who led them into the trap. Why wasn’t he also unconscious on the floor? Why was he different? Did it have something to do with fact that a certain blond boy appeared before someone could laid a hand on him?
Deep inside, he was ashamed of wanting to be unconscious; since at the end of the day Hitoshi couldn’t even think how he would live with the guilt of not having done anything to stop them. Sure, he could lie and say that the reason was the fact that he had never faced real villains before ... But the simple truth was that as soon as he saw Monoma's blond hair everything came to a halt.
“What's stopping you, young man? We must go.”
Kurogiri was behind the class B boy, politely asking him to follow them, but Monoma, like Hitoshi, seemed unable to move a muscle.
“Why?” Was the only think he could ask without taking his eyes off Monoma's, trying desperately to look for an answer in them.
Neito looked at him blankly and opened his mouth, as if he was willing to answer that stupid question for real, but Dabi prevented the blonde from producing any type of sound, taking him by the arm and dragging him towards the portal.
“Enough.”
Hitoshi could hear his others classmates approaching at full speed behind him, but it was too late. Monoma disappeared before his eyes and he still couldn’t move a muscle.
Him? A hero?
Hitoshi had never had more doubts of that statement like at that moment.
5 Months before the attack.
“Excuse me for interrupting, sir, but I have the report I owed you.”
“Leave it on the desk, Shinsou.”
Hitoshi entered the classroom warily. He had been expecting to find Aizawa alone, as always, however, Monoma Neito from class 2B was also there. Both boys exchanged glances and the blond gave him a smile that Hitoshi didn’t know how to take.
“That's all for today. Thanks for the help, Monoma.”
The boy bowed and started walking slowly towards the exit… maybe a little too slow.
Without saying a word, and trying to ignore the other boy peculiar attitude, Hitoshi deposited his report on the desk in front of his teacher and imitated Monoma, making a quick bow before leaving.
As soon as he passed through the door, he found Monoma in the corridor. When he saw him, the blonde immediately imitated his speed, to walk beside him. Hitoshi couldn’t say that he was particularly surprised that Monoma had waited for him. For some reason every time they crossed paths the boy from class B seemed to feel the need to talk to him. In fact, all his classmates said to be ware of Monoma, since “he had rabies” and could easily infect him. Hitoshi didn’t find those comments remotely funny, so he simply ignored them.
“Turning your homework late? That’s strange coming from someone who fought so hard to be in the hero course.”
“I was sick. Aizawa gave me a few extra days.”
“Of course he did.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Monoma shrugged and smirked. Hitoshi respected him, but he had to admit that it was hard for him to read Monoma. Each smile seemed to mean something different and he hated that he couldn’t tell them apart. Maybe that’s why he chose to think that Monoma was just being an annoying jerk most of the time.
“You're his favorite.” Said the blond as if it was crystal clear.
“That's ridiculous.”
This time Monoma laughed and Hitoshi wanted to believe that it really was because he found the situation amusing. At least that was better than think that Monoma was making fun of him.
“But it's true!” Assured him Monoma still laughing, putting a hand on Hitoshi's shoulder, giving a little squeeze and then returning to a safe distance.
“Whatever.” Hitoshi shrugged. It wasn’t the first time he heard something like that. According to Kaminari, he was a teenage version of Aizawa, so it wasn’t weird for anyone that he was his favorite. The truth was that talking about it made him uncomfortable, so Hitoshi, as he always did when someone decided to compare him with his teacher, changed the topic of conversation. “What were you doing talking to Aizawa? Are you planning to transfer to class 2A?”
“And to become a pretentious airhead? No thanks.” Monoma seemed to be comfortable with his answer, but when he saw the face of the boy who was walking beside him, he realized his mistake. “Of course that doesn’t include you. It's not your fault that they put you in that class.”
“I like my class.”
“That's because you don’t know Class B; and being honest it's probably my fault. I still feel like I failed you in that battle. If we hadn’t lost they wouldn’t have sent you to class A.” At that moment Hitoshi started thinking that maybe the reason why Monoma was so obsessed with talking with him at any given chance was because he felt some weird type guilt; but before he could actually verbalize how idiotic was that, Monoma kept talking. “Although you must admit, the situation with Midoryia was horribly sketchy ... and of course he got away with it, as always. Him and all his stupid class always geting special treatment! But one day! One day the tables will change!” Monoma finished his speech by raising a fist in the air, as if preparing for a fight. It wasn’t weird seeing him overreacting in that way. His classmates - Friends? - called him crazy. But Hitoshi thought he was just eccentric ... After all, Monoma hadn’t been wrong when he had pointed out that the two of them shared many things in common…Even when Hitoshi didn’t know how to feel about it.
"Have you finished?" He asked nonchalantly, used to the fact that everyone in the course of heroes was very passionate, and tend to do monologues out of nowhere.
“Anyway….” Monoma resumed, clearing his throat and regaining his composure. “Your teacher asked me for help a few months ago. He said a little girl named Eri was struggling to control her quirk.”
“I know Eri.”
Hitoshi knew the little girl with huge, bright red eyes, eager to learn more about the world, but at the same time always scared of hurting someone... yes, the boy couldn’t help but to see himself on Eri every time she refused to use her powers.
“No wonder, you're close to Aizawa.”
Hitoshi rolled his eyes, unable to give a real answer. Yes, it was true, he knew the girl. But it was mere chance. In the months he had trained with Aizawa to be transferred to the heroes' course, he and the little kid had crossed paths from time to time. But that was all.
“Why he asked for your help?”
“It isn’t obvious? I am the best option to help someone understand their quirk. The little girl was terrified of using it at first, but seeing someone share her power made her feel better. Nobody likes to have a scary quirk.”
Hitoshi couldn’t deny that Monoma's words had echoed in him. Like Eri, he understood what it was like to be small and be scared of your own power, especially considering everyone´s reaction after seeing what he was capable of doing. They used to make him feel like a ...
““I feel like a villain" was what she told me in secret a while ago.” Hitoshi looked at Monoma's face and noticed that the blond had his gaze lost somewhere over the corridor. A smile still adorned his lips, but his eyes denoted a deep melancholy. "It's normal, I suppose. But I'm glad she doesn’t feel so lonely anymore.”
Hitoshi nodded but remained silent. He wasn’t oblivious to Eri's problem. The boy still recalled a conversation he had had with the girl when Aizawa had asked him to look after her for a couple of hours while he was taking care of a few things. It wasn’t as if he had been particularly happy with that request, but it also wasn’t like he had another choice, or anything better to do for the matter.
"What's your quirk?" It was the girl's first question once they were alone. As if knowing that gave her some kind of idea of what type person Hitoshi was.
"I can control people's minds and make them do what I want."
"That sounds ..." Terrifying? The boy thought. "Like a very powerful quirk!"
"Oh, thank you." Powerful wasn’t bad, but not exactly good either. To be honest, he didn’t know how to take the girl's comment. "Aizawa Sensei told me about your quirk. It is very powerful too."
Eri's shy, insecure smile faded in an instant and Hitoshi silently cursed himself. He wasn’t good with children, but he was hoping not to screw thing up so quickly ... oh god, Aizawa would kill him if the girl started crying.
"My quirk can be bad, very bad."
Hitoshi knew Eri’s story and would lie if he said he didn’t feel terrible sad for the child. Probably that was what led him to kneel beside her to be at eye level with the girl.
"That is not true. A quirk is not bad or good. It's just another part of us; and everything depends on how you decide to use it."
"Midoryia told me the same thing!" The girl answered with tears on her eyes and Hitoshi appreciated the effort she was making to keep it together. "But his quirk is amazing."
True, he thought. Midoryia was a lucky bastard even when all his broken bones.
"But it can also hurt people if he doesn’t control it." A chill ran through his body at the thought of what Midoryia's quirk was capable of.
"Yes but ... What about you? Have you ever wanted to have another quirk? Have you ever been afraid of hurting another person? "
Almost a month later those questions still haunted Hitoshi's mind.
The boy had been lucky that Kaminari, Kirishima and Mina appeared out of nowhere to distract the girl because otherwise Eri would have had to witness a sixteen years old boy having an existential crisis right in front of her young impressionable eyes.
It was ridiculous. Hitoshi had worked all his life to get into the hero course. He had sacrificed his time, his social life, everything, so that his name was associated with the word "hero" instead of “villain”, and yet, upon hearing those questions, all his hard effort dissolved in seconds.
Pathetic.
Monoma and Hitoshi finally passed through the entrance gates of the school and walked silently towards the path that led to the dormitories. For some reason Hitoshi couldn’t stop thinking about Eri, and how he himself felt like the girl. His quirk was perfect for a villain, that's what he had always heard from... well everyone. Sure, he knew it wasn’t true, he was on the path of becoming a hero! But it wasn’t easy to erase all those words after having spent years and years listening to them, and until he himself couldn't accept once and for all that he hadn’t one evil bone on his body, becoming a real hero still seemed an unreachable goal.
Both come to a halt when they reached the fork that separated the 2A and 2B buildings. Monoma turned to him with the biggest smile on his porcelain face.
“Well, here we part ways, my friend. A pleasure, like alwa-”
“Monoma.” Hitoshi cut him off before even being able to process what he was about to say. “I hope this dosent sound too weird... but I would like to ask you a favor.”