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Some people were good with crowds. You could put them in the middle of a busy street and they'd be able to keep their composure.
Some other people, however, weren't as good. Whether because of stress, fear, or just a general difficulty with social interaction, putting these people in large crowds would cause them to fall awkwardly silent at best, go through a breakdown at worst.
Hikage Midoriya was the second kind of person, and no matter how hard he tried to fix this issue, it still persisted.
He was currently peeking behind a corner as a group of second years were heard chatting as they walked along the hallways.
It was kinda sad, honestly: he was already on his third year, and he still had trouble with crowds. And even if he was getting better at it, the progress was far slower than he'd like.
Eventually, though, the first years nearly reached his spot, and Midoriya hid in the darkness, activating his Quirk by accident and disappearing from view.
The boy fell face-first into a pitch black floor, quickly getting back up as he scanned the area.
He was in the middle of a pitch black house-like environment, white outlines making the place slightly more visible.
"Dang it, I did it again," Midoriya said as he stood up and dusted himself. "Now I need to find a way out of here."
The boy walked through a door labeled "Shadow room", and entered a room that had person-shaped outlines of everybody currently in U.A.: teachers, students, even the little horned girl that got saved from the yakuza some odd years ago.
She didn't like him very much for some reason.
As he inspected the outlines, however, he spotted a new one simply titled "???" and with a bird head, right before nineteen other outlines appeared.
Right, today was the day that the new first years would arrive. The outlines updated only just now probably because-
"Geronimo!"
Midoriya screamed and jumped back as a shadow avian creature hopped out of the bird-headed outline, hovering in place as he scanned the area.
"Whoa, nice place! I bet Tokoyami-kun would love being here!"
Midoriya raised an eyebrow. "Toko... Yami-kun?"
"Right, where are my manners? I'm Dark Shadow, a sentient Quirk!" the creature chirped. "Are you the owner of this place?"
"Uh... R-Right, I'm Hikage Midoriya. This place is actually my Quirk, "Shadow House."
It was at that point Midoriya realized he was talking to a shadow bird like it was nothing.
"That's really cool! Now I'm certain Tokoyami-kun would like you!" Dark Shadow chirped. "Anyway, you're probably wondering how I got here: I saw Tokoyami-kun's shadow glowing weirdly, so I decided to investigate!"
"Glowing?" Midoriya scratched his chin. "A person's shadow glows when I'm here?"
"I'm not sure myself, but there's one thing I'm certain: you should meet with Tokoyami-kun!" Dark Shadow flashed a thumbs up. "I'll get everything set up so you two can visit this place and become friends! Sounds good?"
"Only I can enter this place, though."
"Have you ever tried taking other people inside with you?"
"..."
"I'll take that as a no. So, you in?"
Midoriya looked at the creature's extended hand, and promptly shook it, smiling nervously as he replied:
"S-Sure."
"Great, I'll let Tokoyami-kun know! Thanks and nice to meet you, Midoriya-senpai!"
"Y-Yeah, no problem."
Midoriya waved goodbye as the shadowy bird creature left through the outline, and once he was gone, Midoriya panicked:
"What did I get myself into?!"
Hikage Midoriya! Quirk: Shadow House! By entering a body of darkness, most commonly shadows, he enters a house-like pocket dimension that only he can access!
