Chapter Text
Smoke filled the air behind the school. To most people it was noxious, stinging the eyes and choking them, but he'd gotten used to it. He had breathed so much of the stuff in over the years, lung cancer was probably just around the corner.
It was loud. They were above him, laughing and taking cheap jabs at him. It was hard to make out the exact words with his ears ringing, but he'd heard them all before. The few words that were audible gave away the ones he couldn't hear from the asphalt.
It hurt. They stood around him and his smoldering shirt, some going out of their way to give one last kick as they made their way to class. His school jacket and shirt were hot, painful to the touch, but any movement was beyond him right now. He could barely think right now.
The world seemed to shift every few seconds, a little darker than it should've been. His eyes were heavy, and his limbs felt like lead. It felt pretty good to stay down on the ground, other than the rock under his spine. That was pretty annoying.
He lay there five, maybe ten minutes before rolling over. He climbed on hands and knees, using the school wall to stand up. He leaned into it the wall like a crutch for a moment as he caught his breath, then hobbled away from the stability as he gathered his things. He picked up the books and papers that had been scattered around the koi pond, putting them back in his backpack, and slunk his way into the school proper and his class.
He sat in the back of the class, content to be ignored by his peers. The burning sensation across his body was dying out, and his aches were either gone or his nerves finally bit the dust. The desk was cool to the touch, and he slid his hands along it to enjoy the sensation. It felt nice, just to lay his head on something cold.
Barely a minute after he set his head down someone kicked his chair, jolting him up. The class erupted into snickers as he barely hung on to his chair before slipping back a bit too far and toppling, disheveled boy and chair both falling over. This turned the class's snickers into laughter. Nobody even tried to hide it, and Sensei didn't care. He only told everyone to be quiet and pay attention.
Put the chair back down, then sit back down. Follow along, listen to Sensei. His pen flicked across the page, taking notes as fast as a text-to-speech device and with twice the accuracy. Eyes flicked back over the notes, writing and underlining as Sensei spoke. Minutes passed like seconds, and school was over.
The books disappeared, shoveled quickly back into his bag in the blink of an eye before he took toward the hall, trying to get out as fast as possible. Students laughed as he ran as if chased, but at least they didn't stop him today. Stairs came and went in an instant, and he didn't stop running until the school was just a dot behind him. He didn't have the endurance to keep going, despite wanting to never stop.
Even tired as he was, the boy kept stumbling on while breathing heavily. People now walked around him, some giving curious looks to the extremely worn-out student. Most didn't care, and that was the best reaction. Everyone either hated him, found him fun to pick on, or didn't care either way. That third group didn't start anything, and at this point, that was the best thing he could imagine.
This wasn't the first time he'd taken an indirect route home. Otherwise, faster bullies would just wait for him along on the way. He kept his head down as the streets emptied and the shops degraded. Citizens turned to bums, and buildings became vacant as the road continued onward. He slipped through the underpass, leaving all niceties behind.
Ahead were the poor, the beaten, and the quirkless. Like him. They might give most people trouble, but they all seemed to know he'd be one of them before long. He knew a few of their names, nodding to them in an unspoken code. They weren't personally acquainted, but they seemed to get each other.
Finally, all the people ended and the final buildings came into sight. From here on out, it would only get more and more populated until he reached home. Glass broke under his foot, stopping him. He looked through the building and its new broken window. Shabby and large, the door was nailed shut but the shattered windows left any attempt at entry easy. He chuckled at the planks holding the door shut. "You're deku too, huh."
He chuckled sadly as he hit the road again, kicking a rusted pipe along his way until it went off the sidewalk. There was no point in running anymore, just a slow rambling walk home. It eased his injuries to enjoy the air and helped stretch his legs. Helped him come up with excuses when he finally got home to give. Stairs today, he fell down the stairs. The smoky smell was gone since he'd gotten hit so early in the day.
Sad weak excuses were exchanged as he slipped past his mother. Straight to his room, where notes were dumped out and sorted. First, his studies were sorted, checking up on his work and knocking out the homework. The easiest part of school was school. It didn't even take an hour.
A smile graced his face as he pulled out his phone, engaging the hero app. He pulled out his most important notes, adding it to his pre-existing collection. As the news gave him details he filled out new and old notebooks, adjusted information, spending hours lost in a glamorous world of gods. They saved everyone, quirkless or not. They helped everyone, who wouldn't want to meet one let alone be one?
His smile stayed as he went to dinner, but lost its sheen as it became forced. The atmosphere wasn't much to look at, a nearly silent room until they split again. He cleaned up for both of them and returned to his room.
Back on the phone, he pulled up his most viewed video from ten years ago. The first thing he downloaded with every phone he'd gotten. The smoky backdrop, the scared people, all cut through by a confident loud laugh. A small smile bloomed as the words came out of his phone.
"It's fine now."
"Why?"
"Because I AM HERE!"
He let it play out twice, smiling all the way. Then he returned to his hero notes with vigor, showing no sign of stopping until he had to rest for another day tomorrow. He was already counting the days till graduation until he never had to see any-most of his classmates ever again.
The sleep took away the aches in his body as his already dim vision faded to black.