Chapter Text
He'd had a feeling since the Sports Festival that Shinsou had it out for him. Ojirou wasn't sure; hopefully he was overreacting, but Shinsou was being really suspicious around him.
Ojirou had even put together a conspiracy board that he hid in his closet about it. Every time a new piece of evidence showed, he would add it to the board. He'd take a picture of the place it happened, write a very simple synopsis of what happened, and stick it on the board, wrapping a red string around the magnetic tack and guiding it down to the center, where a picture of Shinsou was. Underneath the picture was his name, and underneath that was; THREATENING ME.
Now maybe he was very paranoid about mere coincidences, but he seriously doubted that. There were more 'coincidences' than would be believable. Which meant Shinsou was doing these things on purpose.
Hence, Shinsou was plotting something against him. And yet Ojirou needed to be absolutely certain. And he wasn't sure if he was making excuses to himself because he really wanted to be sure, or if he was just scared.
He'd seen what he could do during the Sports Festival. His quirk made people under his control if they responded to a question. And after a little spying observing, Shinsou appeared to be working with Aizawa. Which would make him even more of a threat than he already was.
That evening was a normal one in the dorms. He was laying on his bed, listening to Hagakure complain about some girl who'd said that she was probably invisible because her body's natural response when she looked in the mirror was to disappear, and offering simple advice.
"She said one thing that bothered you." Ojirou pointed out. "I can't believe someone would go out of their way to say that, but you should just forget her. She shouldn't have an effect on your life. She's trying to, so you shouldn't let her."
"Ojirou, you say that as if it's easy." Hagakure whined. "It's not easy to forget something like that! I mean, it's a well put together insult- how can I not think about it? I'm like, a quarter impressed, and three-quarters infuriated! It's like she had it prepared specifically for me!"
"It was only one time. If it was repeatedly, then it'd become a problem, but it's not." Ojirou sighed, looking over at her. "Don't get me wrong; I'm angry she said that to you as well, but there's no point giving her the attention she wants."
"Yeah... I guess you're right." Hagakure's figure slumped. "I'm still mad, though."
"Well, that's only natural. An insult like that is crossing a line." Ojirou nodded. "But she just isn't worth it."
"Okay, fine. What I need is a distraction." She said, sitting up. "Don't you have one of those white boards on wheels or something? I remember watching you trying to push it up the stairs."
"O-oh, well, I don't know what good that'll do you-"
"Are you kidding? Those things are so fun to doodle on. Besides, I'm sure at least one of the sides is blank." Hagakure shrugged, already standing and walking over to his closet.
"Wait, don't-!" He cried, sitting up quickly.
Too late. She opened the closet doors to reveal the front of the board, covered in pictures, scribbled notes, magnetic tacks, and red string. Ojirou covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. "What in the-" She breathed before bursting out laughing. "What- Ojirou, what?!"
"I, uh, can explain." Ojirou said, scratching the back of his neck and looking down at his lap."It's, um, you see, it's just, uh,-"
"Why is there a picture of Shinsou in the middle?" She cut him off, reading underneath. "Threatening you? Woah, what?" She immediately stopped laughing and looked over at him. "He's been threatening you, and you haven't told anyone?"
"Well, I'm only mostly sure he's threatening me." Ojirou explained. "That's why it's a conspiracy board. I'm usually pretty good at picking up on hints, but I don't want to say it without knowing it."
"Ojirou..." Hagakure sat down next to him. "If you're feeling threatened or scared, you should tell us, okay? We're your friends. Maybe I can help you. Can you tell me exactly what happened?"
Ojirou heaved a sigh and got up, walking over to the board. "Let's see... it started... here." He pointed to the top right corner of the board, which was a picture of the break room of the Sports Festival.
It was a little after he'd talked to Midoriya, and Shinsou had shown up almost right after he'd left. Ojirou left the room and bumped into him there. So he'd tried walking past him, but Shinsou stepped in front of him.
"Leaving so soon?" He asked in a strange tone. "I have to say, I'm a little disappointed you withdrew. I was looking forward to seeing what you could do." Ojirou knew better than to reply. Who knew what he'd try to pull? He tried to walk past him, but Shinsou blocked him again. "You're giving up a lot. Just because of a little trick I pulled? You can't say I cheated; there was no rule against it."
Ojirou bit his tongue, wanting to yell at him and tell him how wrong it was to use a person like a puppet, or some kind of tool. A hero would never do such a thing. He didn't deserve to continue either.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" He teased. Still, Ojirou stayed silent. "Ouch. I can see you don't trust me. But you spoiled the surprise for that green-haired kid. So what say we call it even?"
He finally looked up to glare at him. Shinsou smirked.
"Come on, don't give me that look. Didn't realize I scared you so bad." Ojirou opened his mouth to retort, but closed it again. It was then that the loud speaker turned on, calling for Midoriya and Shinsou. "That's my cue. See you later, monkey."
"Yes, he called me a monkey." Ojirou grumbled. "You can stop laughing now, Hagakure."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She giggled. "It's just funny to imagine Shinsou saying a silly word like monkey-pfft!" She burst out laughing again. Ojirou crossed his arms and frowned.
"Clearly I've shown you enough." He started to slide the board back into his closet.
"No! No, no, no, no, I'm done!" She immediately stopped laughing and sat up straight, giving him her full attention. Still, Ojirou hesitated.
"Fine, I suppose." He sighed, pointing to the next picture, which was of the gym. "Promise me you won't laugh about this one."
She nodded fiercely enough for him to notice before he continued.
It was after school, and Ojirou was training in the gym. There were about a handful of other students there as well, but he knew none of them, so he trained alone. After all, everyone else looked too focused to talk to.
Now, some of the exercises he was doing with weights usually required a spotter, but he felt too awkward to ask anyone else. He usually felt pretty awkward when he was surrounded by people he didn't know. That's why the first day of school was always the hardest for him.
He was seeing how much weight his tail could handle, and so far, he was at around two hundred and twenty pounds. He wasn't only testing his tail, but his whole body.
Balancing on one hand, switching hands occasionally when one got tired, he was almost as still as a tree. His tail was through his legs, and straight forward, pointing in the direction he would be staring, had he been looking not at the ground below him. It benefited the same as a regular handstand, except for the weighted tail. That added a lot more gravity to his body.
He'd been doing this for about an hour or so before he started doing a sort of push up. With his entire body above him, it was a little difficult, but considering all the practice he'd had before, he didn't think much of it.
After about another hour, he was starting to get tired, and his head was beginning to spin a little from being upside down for so long. He could keep it up for a little longer, so he continued.
"Need a spotter?" Someone asked. Ojirou hadn't expected someone to come over and ask. It was kind of them, but he was finishing up, so he needed to reply and say no.
"That's very nice of you, but I'm almost done any-" He looked up and cut off the moment he saw Shinsou. In the shock of the moment, his balance failed him and his hand slipped. Instinctively, his tail darted to stop his fall, but ended up flinging the weights held on the end of his tail across the room and into the wall with a loud crash.
The remaining weights on his tail pulled his tired body to the ground faster, making him land painfully on his leg. The weights crushed his tail when it slammed to the ground, forcing out a cry in pain.
Ojirou rolled onto his side, curling into a ball and clutching his leg in agony. He grit his teeth to prevent himself from cursing. He tried glaring up at Shinsou, but his agony mostly prevented it.
"Wow." Shinsou said after a minute. "I didn't even touch you. Is seeing me really that scary?"
"I'm not not afraid of you, you just surprised m- dammit!" He exclaimed shutting his mouth immediately. Shinsou rolled his eyes.
"Relax, I've no reason to use my quirk on you this time." He sighed. He then grinned teasingly. "But I guess you never know, do you?" Ojirou flinched as he extended a hand. "Calm down, I'm just offering you a hand."
Ojirou hesitated before speaking. "I don't need your help." He hissed, standing wobbily. Instinctively, he grabbed onto Shinsou's shoulders when he almost fell over. He quickly pulled his hands back to himself, and began limping past Shinsou. They'd drawn the attention of the other students from the moment he chucked those weights on accident. But they'd begun looking away once they noticed how pissed Ojirou seemed.
In reality, he was more embarrassed than pissed. It'd be more accurate to say that he was flustered. Especially when Shinsou spoke up. "Don't need my help? You certainly seem like it."
"I don't need your help." Ojirou repeated firmly.
Shinsou scoffed, a bit irritated. "Honestly. That pride of yours. You're going to get killed one day if you refuse peoples' help all the time." Ojirou did his best to ignore him.
"First you come here and cause this mess," He muttered. "And then you torment me about it." He froze. His body wouldn't move all of a sudden. Fear and panic began to bubble within him.
"Turn around and face me." Shinsou's voice ordered. Ojirou's body obeyed, his eyes wide in terror. Guilt flashed in Shinsou's eyes for a sliver of a second before he looked him directly in the eyes. "What was it you were saying about not being afraid of me?"
Shinsou then turned and left, releasing Ojirou, who stood there, his heart still thudding against his chest in fear. Snapping out of it, he continued to limp towards the wall the weights had been thrown into. To his dismay, he'd thrown them hard enough to really dent the wall.
"Hagakure, you promised you wouldn't laugh." Ojirou frowned.
"I'm sorry, I really am!" She toppled over giggling. "But you mean to say that you put those dents in the training gym? I thought some big, super muscular person had! Those walls are really tough!"
"I'm not sure if that was a compliment, or if you low-key insulted me." Ojirou said, making her laugh harder. "I've said enough, I really should put this away-"
"Aw, come on, Ojirou!" She laughed, sitting up. "Can't you take a little teasing? No wonder Shinsou-"
"What?"
"Nothing!" Hagakure squeaked. "Please continue."
Ojirou sighed. "Fine. Our timeline so far then leads us to... er, let's skip this one-"
"No! No skipping!" She interrupted. "They're all important!"
"I'm not sure..." He trailed off. He could just feel Hagakure's intense glare. "Alright, I'll tell you."
"Yay!" She chirped.
"So we begin in this hallway..."
"Kaminari!" Ojirou called, catching up to him in the halls. Kaminari turned and smiled at him.
"Yeah? What's up?" He replied.
"I know I haven't really said anything about it before, but you know how you keep petting my tail?" Ojirou fidgeted nervously. "Could you maybe, um, not? That part of me is particularly sensitive, and it kind of distracts me."
"Aw, that's kind of funny." Kaminari laughed. "But yeah, sure, I won't. If you don't mind me asking... what kind of sensitive?"
"What?" Ojirou blinked at him in surprise. "It just kinda tickles, is all."
"You sure it's not, like, arousing or som-"
"NO." Ojirou cut him off firmly.
"Okay! Okay, sorry for asking!" Kaminari threw up his hands in surrender.
"Relax, it's fine." Ojirou assured him. "Just don't-" He cut off with a high pitched squeak as he felt a finger gently brush against his tail. He covered his mouth too late and whipped around to see who'd just touched him. Kaminari had to duck to avoid getting smacked across the face.
Shinsou stood there, looking innocently surprised, his hand still hovering in place. A small smirk found it's way onto his face. "Sorry. You had some lint on you." Ojirou still stared at him in shock, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks.
"Don't-" He cut himself off, his voice a higher pitch than normal. Clearing his throat, he continued. "Don't touch me." He then glared over at Kaminari, who was snickering.
"My bad." Shinsou shrugged. "Didn't expect that kind of reaction though." Ojirou's blush deepened. "It's out of character for someone as prideful as you."
"Shut up." Ojirou grumbled.
"Come on, can't you take a little teasing, monkey?" Shinsou chuckled. "How cute."
"It's not funny." Ojirou said. "Go bother someone else."
Shinsou laughed a little. "I didn't think you the type. It's funny, really. Your delicate. Del-i-cate." He emphasized the last syllable by tapping Ojirou on the nose. While Ojirou was still in shock, he left.
"Bu- you- wha?" Ojirou stuttered. "I- I don't- what?" Kaminari burst out laughing behind him. Ojirou turned to him, a confused and flustered expression. "Did he just...? Why did he just...? I don't... understand why he just did that to make a point. Is he insulting me or teasing me? Which is it?"
Kaminari didn't answer. He couldn't answer, he was laughing so hard. Sero ended up having to Kaminari calm down and go to the dorms, while Ojirou stood there for the next few minutes wondering what had just happened.
Hagakure didn't say anything at first. Ojirou felt awkward after finishing that story, and his tail curled round him as if to hide himself. "Okay, so he's either really bad at teasing, or he's really bad at insulting. Or he doesn't know the difference between the two. But how is that threatening you?"
"Well, he's found my weak point." Ojirou said, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "Who knows what he could do with that knowledge? I don't know what he could do with that knowledge, but I bet it's something bad!"
"Oh, Ojirou." Hagakure sighed. "I knew guys were dense, but this..." She cleared her throat. "Okay, then what happened next?"
"Well, the next encounter also took place in the gym." Ojirou said, pointing to the picture. "You see..."
Martial arts came easily to him by now. He'd been doing it since he learned to walk, because his mother was a martial arts master, and she wanted him to be as well. And he'd picked it up quickly, and mastered it quickly.
He liked learning new techniques and different styles of martial arts because it expanded his horizons and made him a better fighter. So he was training as usual, learning working on his Silat. His mother had been amazed at how fast he could perfect moves, that she had introduced him to Silat at the age of ten, which was incredible, since it was one of the most difficult martial arts to learn and be good at. Even masters have said they were only beginners of the art.
And yes, he was still a beginner himself. He had much to work on, but he had many techniques down pat. So here he was, training his butt off, minding his own business, completely focused.
When he hit the punching bag hard enough to make it burst. Sand immediately dumped onto the floor. He stared at it for a moment, realizing what had just happened. "Whoops."
He turned to go tell one of the teachers that he'd split one of the punching bags open, and was met with someone's face two inches from his own. He jumped back, his heart nearly stopping.
"Why would you do that?" He exasperated, trying to calm his heart. He then registered who it was. "Oh."
"That was impressive," Shinsou complimented, looking at the sand-covered floor. "considering you weren't using anything sharp, other than your skills." Ojirou blushed a little. Oh, that was smooth.
"I'm surprised I ripped it too. I guess I still need to work on controlling how much force I put into my attacks." Ojirou nodded. "I might seriously hurt someone otherwise."
"I'm not too great with offense." Shinsou replied. "How many different types of martial arts do you know?"
"Well, I'm good at tae kwon do, tatakai, karate, kung fu, and kendo. I'm currently working on improving my silat, and judo." Ojirou informed him. "And before you say anything like; 'oh wow, you're a master!' I'm not."
"That's... a lot. You're only sixteen, right?" Shinsou clarified. "Color me impressed. So you know how to use a sword?"
"Well, I'm better with a bo staff, in my opinion." Ojirou shrugged.
Shinsou glanced down at his hand. "I know a few tricks with a sword- eh?!" He then shot a glare over his shoulder, but Ojirou didn't see who at. "No, no, forget I said that."
"O...kay?" Ojirou took a step back. "Do you need something, by the way?"
Shinsou cleared his throat. "Can't I compliment you without wanting anything?"
"It's just a little odd that you'd come up to me specifically..." Ojirou said, taking another step back. What did he want?
"Is it real...ly?" Shinsou squinted at Ojirou. "What the-?"
"Wh-what?" Ojirou asked. "Do I have something on my face?" Shinsou took a step closer, glaring at Ojirou. "Whaaaat are you doing?" Shinsou didn't answer, leaning forward. Ojirou shrank back a bit and Shinsou towered over him. He moved from one foot to the other slowly, as though examining something. "Can you back up? Please?"
He still didn't move, too concentrated on something. What's he doing? Whatever it is, I'm scared. Shinsou finally backed off, frowning. "Best watch your back, monkey." Without another word, he turned and left.
"Wha-?" Ojirou blinked after him. What'd I do? Was that a threat? Am I in trouble? Uh-oh...
"Okay, of the stories so far, that one seems most likely to be a threat." Hagakure agreed. "I wonder what he was looking at..."
"I don't know, but I doubt it was good." Ojirou nodded. "Whatever it was, he left kind of suspiciously quick. But I'm mostly sure he's going to try something."
"Oh, he's going to try something alright." Hagakure giggled. Ojirou looked at her, confused. "I think you should let him."
"Let him what? Beat the crap out of me?" Ojirou clarified. "If I fall for his trap... if I'm under his quirk, then I won't be able to do anything about it anyway."
"Oh my gods, you really are dense." Hagakure muttered. "Just as you're mostly sure he's threatening you, I'm mostly sure it's something else. And believe me, that something else is a very good thing."
"I'm not sure I'm the dense one here..." Ojirou said, half-closing his eyes at her.
"Trust me, you are." Hagakure replied. "You'll get it when it happens." She then stretched and yawned. "Whelp, I'm tired. I'm heading to my room. See you in the morning!"
"Oh, okay." Ojirou nodded. He had to admit, he was tired too. As Hagakure left, he slid the board back into his closet, and closed it. Yawning, he settled into bed. He silently wondered what Hagakure was talking about.
Oh well. He'd find out when the time came.