Chapter Text
The smoke was annoying. It was all little Nakahara Hisoka could think about as he played with his toy car on the carpet. The smoke was in his eyes. It burned, but Hisoka knew better than to cry. It would only get the smoke in his throat, too.
Hisoka sniffled, and regretted it as he inhaled some of the smoke, choking out a small cough as his lungs protested the foreign substance. The three year old glared upwards, where the origin of the smoke was located.
Nakahara Takeshi took a rather long drag from his cigarette and breathed in the toxins that served to relax his body. Without a single glance at his son on the carpet, Takeshi breathed out, allowing the smoke to spread across the room.
With the windows in the house shut, the smoke was only able to gather in the small room, strangling the child on the floor with its poison.
Hisoka covered his mouth, and waved his hand in an attempt to swipe the smoke away from his person, and was surprised when, instead, the smoke bolted away from him as if a particularly strong wind had swept through the room.
Takeshi paused before he took another drag, and glanced towards the doorway to the kitchen in confusion. “Kiyumi, did you do that?”
Takeshi watched his wife duck her head through the doorway with a puzzled expression, “Do what?”
The dark-headed man gestured to the room, particularly to the smoke now gathered in the corner of the room. Kiyumi glanced at where her husband had gestured, and tilted her head while narrowing her eyes.
“What did I tell you about smoking in the house, Takeshi.” She scolded the man, as he breathed out slowly, sending another puff of smoke into the room. She scowled and walked over to the man, snatching the cigarette out of his hand against his protests. "You know it's bad for Hisoka."
Takeshi lowered his head in shame as he looked down at his only child.
Kiyumi sighed after a moment of silence, and continued, "No, Takeshi, to answer your question, I didn't use my quirk."
Takeshi furrowed his eyebrows. "Then how did-"
In sync, both parents looked down at their child who was playing with his car as he made crashing sounds after hitting the car against the floor.
"It couldn't be…" Takeshi mumbled, "They're not supposed to get their quirks until they're at least four..."
Kiyumi walked over to the carpet, and kneeled down next to her son slowly. "Hisoka, honey?"
Hisoka looked up, and gave a toothy smile, "Mommy!"
Kiyumi smiled, then pointed at the smoke still in the corner of the room, "Did you do that, sweetie?"
Hisoka looked back and forth between his mom and the smoke, tilting his head, "Do wha?" He asked, eyes wide.
"Did you tell the smoke to go away?" Kiyumi tried again.
Hisoka shrugged his small shoulders.
A week later, Hisoka was in the kitchen with his mom when the stove caught on fire. The smoke alarm was loud, the child knew from experience, so when he saw the smoke rising to the ceiling he swatted at the air in an attempt to keep the smoke from reaching the ceiling.
To his astonishment, the smoke obeyed and darted away from the ceiling.
Kiyumi's eyes were wide as she witnessed the event, but she knew she had definitely not used her quirk to direct the air so that the smoke wouldn't set off the alarm (though, she realized, she probably should have).
The next day, after her husband returned from work, a series of tests by a doctor revealed that Hisoka had indeed gotten his quirk earlier than most of his peers.
The name gifted to his quirk was "Vapor Manipulation". Since the majority of smoke is made of water vapor, Hisoka was able to direct the smoke through manipulating the vapor within it. His quirk was a mixture of his parents: his father's ability to control water and his mother's ability to direct wind currents. The quirks combined made it possible for him to control water vapor and change it back and forth from a liquid to a gas.
Overall, the quirk, if used right, could prove to be useful in rescue situations especially.
His peers, however, were less impressed by his quirk than the adults.
As the first of the class to get their quirk, most had expected it to be amazing and flashy and cool. Instead, upon showcasing his quirk at the insistence of the teacher, they found the quirk to be boring. Some of the kids had even taken to calling Hisoka “Smoke boy” because of the smell that came with his father smoking in the house.
No matter how many times Hisoka tried getting the smell out of his clothes, the smell stayed. New clothes quickly gained the smell and joined the rest of his clothes in smelling like cigarettes and smoke.
Hisoka learned to start ignoring his classmates after a time, the insults quickly becoming boring and overused to the boy who had heard it all. He was a rule follower, most of the time, and refused to use his quirk when the taunts and insults became physical.
As the bullying progressed, Hisoka found himself reluctant to tell any adult what was happening between his peers. However, Hisoka had always been one to quickly become irritated with things that bothered him and coming home everyday with aching bruises was getting on the boy’s nerves.
So, after a particularly violent fight, Hisoka took his problem to the teachers. One by one, the teachers told him to toughen up because he should expect the rough play and the other kids didn’t mean to hurt him. Day after day, they all said the same thing before Hisoka decided he was wasting his breath.
Hisoka had never been one to waste his time with pointless things, even as a six year old.
The years passed uneventfully for Hisoka, his bullies giving up on getting anything out of the quiet boy, and completely stopping when Hisoka showed he would start fighting back after breaking a kid’s nose (which didn't end up on anyone’s record because the other kids had started the fight. The incident was brushed off as an accident).
Then came the time for Hisoka to enter middle school. Having heard rumors from the other kids, Hisoka quickly gained the reputation of being a delinquent, even though he hadn’t actually done anything other than not bother to tie his tie correctly at ceremonies or tuck in his shirt or- okay, maybe his appearance helped the rumors, but Hisoka had never actually committed a crime.
Hisoka still refused to use his quirk, due to the Quirk Restriction Laws. Typically, his teachers didn’t care about the kids using their quirks, but Hisoka was smart enough to know better than to try his luck.
“What are you gonna do about it, Fujiwara?”
Hisoka sighed as he spotted a group of three surrounding a boy from his class in the courtyard. With five minutes before class would start, the grey-eyed boy sagged his shoulders and began walking over to the scene at a leisure pace.
“Gonna use that flashy quirk of yours?” The leader of the trio sneered, his hands curled into fists as smoke steamed from them. Hisoka noted this, and debated whether it was worth using. “Go on, Fujiwara, use it and run away like you always do.”
As Hisoka neared the group, the other two boys noticed him and began to back away cautiously. Having the reputation of a delinquent did have its perks at times.
“Araya.” One of the boys hissed, his snake eyes darting between the sneering boy and Hisoka’s slowly approaching figure. “Let’ssss get out of here.”
The sneering boy, or Araya, glanced back at his minion. “I’m not done with Fujiwara, though.” He stated, his eyes returning to meet the bored gaze of his victim.
Snake eyes grabbed Araya’s arm and tugged it, pointing at Hisoka’s closing in figure. “That’ssss Nakahara Hisoka.” He rolled his eyes at his leader’s puzzlement, and continued, “You know, the delinquent?”
Araya’s eyes just barely cleared with understanding as Hisoka stopped next to his classmate. The sneer never left the other’s face as he glared at Hisoka, his body betraying his nervousness as he wet his lips and swallowed.
“What d’ya want, Nakahara?”
Hisoka sighed deeply, startling the two minions behind Araya, “Honestly?” He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, and gazed unnervingly into the eyes of the trio. “I just want a nap.”
Hisoka knew, at this point, his choice of clothing only further spurred on the rumors of him being a delinquent. He was probably the sole reason his private school regretted their choice to not have a uniform. He wouldn't be surprised if they changed that particular rule after he graduated.
His style was created out of pure spite and chaotic energy, they would be unable to stop him if they tried to change the rule while he was still at the school and that might be the reason something finally made it on his permanent record.
Hisoka hummed, maybe he was a bit of a delinquent. He shook his head. Technically, to be a delinquent, he would have to break a law and that was entirely more trouble than it was worth.
Unbeknownst to the not-delinquent-but-delinquent, the other students were watching Hisoka with varying degrees of worry and concern as the boy seemed to be deep in conversation with himself in his head.
While Hisoka had been thinking about his non-status as a delinquent, his fellow classmate had slipped away from the scene and gone to class.
When Hisoka finally left his thoughts, he went to look at the boy next to him only to find that he was gone. The trio in front of him also seemed to notice the missing boy, and Araya huffed before stomping away with his two lackeys following after him.
Just another boring day.
“Why’d you do it?”
Hisoka cracked an eye open then closed it as the cafeteria continued to buzz with noise. “I do many things that I don’t have a reason for doing, so you might wanna clarify.” The other boy had no need to clarify, Hisoka knew he was most likely talking about the incident in the morning. However, it was never a bad thing for both parties to be on the same page when the other boy could be talking about a completely different thing than what Hisoka thinks.
“Stepping in like you did,” The boy muttered, “No one’s ever done that before.”
Hisoka shifted his feet on the seat in front of him and pulled his arms behind his head to rest on. “I don’t speak in Mutter, I’ve never learned the language.”
Hisoka knew he was being particularly difficult with his classmate, but people rarely interacted with the class delinquent so it wasn’t often he got to mess with anyone other than the typical bully.
His classmate huffed and shoved Hisoka’s feet off of the seat, and plopped himself down. Hisoka’s eyes opened slowly as he stared at the other boy in slight shock, not expecting the boy to have done that.
“I said,” His classmate snapped irritably, “Why did you step in to help? Nothing major was happening, they weren’t hurting me, so why did you step in?”
Hisoka whistled appreciatively and sat up. “If you acted like that with the rest of our classmates, no one would bother you, I hope you know.” He leaned his cheek on his hand and grinned, “Plus, who said I was helping you? I was just talking with my fellow classmates. You saying I was helping you inadvertently made it clear that you had needed help.”
A moment of silent lapsed between the two boys as the other tried to make sense of what he had just been told as Hisoka picked underneath his fingernails.
Finally, the other boy sighed in defeat and slumped back in his seat. “Are you always like this?” He asked Hisoka tiredly.
“Like what?”
“Nevermind.”
Hisoka hissed as he accidentally picked too far into his nail, making it bleed.
“Fujiwara Mitsuo.”
“Hmm?” Hisoka gave up on his nails and looked up at the boy, who was staring at him with curious eyes.
“My name.” He said, “My name is Fujiwara Mitsuo.”
Hisoka nodded his head, “Naka-”
“Nakahara Hisoka, I know.” Fujiwara finished, a smile crawling onto his face. “I’m pretty sure everyone in our grade knows who you are.”
“Well, isn’t that helpful.”