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He would need another haircut soon. Ojiro ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the ends that reached just past his ears. He hated when his hair got this long.
It had started when he was younger. There had always been more to his quirk than just his tail, but the Quirk Registration office had never really been that good at determining anything other than the obvious when it came to mutant quirks. He had friends whose quirks were registered as nothing more than their obvious mutant attributes. He guessed his quirk could be lumped into that category as well.
On paper, his quirk was Tail, meaning that just as it said in the registry, he had a tail. Most people took one look at his quirk description and wrote him off immediately as someone with a useless, boring quirk. He never bothered to correct them because if they wanted to immediately assume he was useless, he didn’t want to bother talking to them at all.
If they bothered to look at him for more than a second, they would know that there was so much more to his quirk than his tail. Because of the strength he gained from it, he was able to fight tooth and nail to master as many forms of martial arts as he could. And because of his determination, he earned himself a spot in UA’s hero course. So it always bugged him that he was reduced down to the guy with a tail who made a fool of himself at the Sports Festival thanks to the sleepy kid with the brainwashing quirk.
Even with all he had accomplished due to the work he had put into his quirk, there were still parts of it that he didn’t like. The combined quirks of his parents gave him some mutant traits that he wasn’t ashamed of, not really, but they weren’t really ones he wanted his peers to see.
The problem wasn’t his tail. It was… everything else that came along with it. His dad’s quirk just gave him a tail, and combined with his mom’s quirk, Macaque, Ojiro was left looking a little more… animal-like than he wanted to. But it wasn’t like he had a problem with it. He thought his mom and his little sisters, who also had a tendency to look a little shaggy, were beautiful. He loved how he looked. He loved every part of his quirk. But other people didn’t.
As much as he wanted to pretend that people weren’t treated as lesser because of mutant quirks, he knew it wasn’t true. He had experienced their hatred and disgust firsthand.
The first time he was called ugly was when he was 8 years old. He hadn’t cut his hair in a while and his fangs had finally started to grow in. He was so happy that he had teeth like his mom that he went around smiling all day long so he could show them off. It wasn’t until he was halfway through the school day that he realized the buzzing whispers he had heard in his class the entire day weren’t just his schoolmates being excited, they were talking about him. They kept calling him an animal and talking about how scary his teeth were, how they made him look like a wild animal rather than a person.
He still remembers how he ran home crying, begging his mom to cut his hair and do something about his teeth. The haircut was easy, if not a little tedious with how thick and wild his hair grew in. The fangs were a little more difficult. His mom had made him sit on the decision for weeks before she finally gave up and took him to a special dentist that helped quirked people with dental issues. So every month or so, he went and got his teeth filed down to a normal, acceptable length.
The procedure always left him with an aching jaw and a sour stomach. He would go home and look in the mirror, barely recognizing himself as a part of his family. It made him sick, how he had no choice but to change his appearance so drastically to fit in with his peers.
He had hoped that maybe when he went to High School, he could go back to normal, his normal. But after getting into UA, his dream school, he quickly realized that his dream would never happen. After all, he was the most normal person in his class, according to the other students. He had boring hair, a boring face, and a boring quirk. If he changed that up now… well he didn’t really feel like getting called ugly again.
He never said it, mainly because it was embarrassing and he wasn’t sure Tokoyami could handle it, but he really admired how his fellow student didn’t give a shit about his animalistic traits. Sure, there wasn’t really anything he could do to change the feathers and the beak, but still. He had never acted ashamed, had never risen to any jabs from his classmates or other students in the school. Ojiro wished he could be that brave.
Which brought him back to where he was now, standing in the communal bathrooms and glaring at his reflection. His hair had grown out and his sideburns were coming in thicker than usual. He guessed it was because winter was almost here. The air was turning brittle and the skies swirled with promises of snow.
He scratched along the side of his face and tugged at the hair there. He bared his teeth and nearly growled at his reflection. His fangs were coming back in too. The top and bottom sets of his canines were starting to jut out. It wasn’t like his mouth wasn’t prepared for it. His teeth easily made room for the way his fangs grew out. It was honestly more comfortable when he let them grow in all the way. But he couldn’t do that.
He’d have to call the dentist soon. And check with Aizawa to make sure he could make the trip off-campus. He sighed and grabbed his toothbrush before taking one last look in the mirror. If he hadn’t been so careless and broken his clippers, he wouldn’t be having this issue. Maybe one of the guys had some clippers he could borrow so he wouldn’t have to go home so his mom could cut his hair.
Back in his room, he stared at the photo of his family that he kept on his bedside table. His sisters were smiling along with his mom, fangs bared proudly and his dad’s tail was curled around them all. His mom was beautiful and her wild, curly hair made her stand out even more. They all looked so happy. He was the only one who looked like he didn’t belong there.
As stupid as it was, he kind of felt like he didn’t.
“Dude, what is with those sideburns?” Mineta asked. Ojiro looked up from his breakfast and glared at the shorter boy.
“My clippers broke. Can’t afford to get another set,” he grumbled, shoveling more cereal in his mouth so he wouldn’t have to talk anymore. He scrubbed at his face when milk dribbled down his chin. His fangs had grown in even more, almost to the point that they pushed past his lips. He had almost forgotten what it was like to eat when they were fully grown in. It got a little messy. He almost smiled, remembering how messy his sisters would eat when he was able to go home to see them. As gross as it was, it was always cute when they managed to get more food on their faces than in their mouths.
“You look like a wild animal, you should just go get a haircut or something,” Mineta said. A few of the other students milling around the kitchen and common room laughed and Ojiro felt his hackles raise. Slowly, he stood, letting his spoon fall onto the counter. The room grew silent as it clattered against the marble.
“What did you just say to me?” he asked, slowly raising his head to glare at Mineta. He seemed unaware of the anger Ojiro was directing towards him.
“I said you look like a wild animal. Like a disgusting monkey or something. It isn’t a good look, especially if you wanna get a girlfriend anytime soon. No girl wants to date a monkey,” he said, waving his hand as if he was making some obvious point.
Ojiro saw red.
He was moving before he knew what he was doing, baring his fangs as his fist connected with Mineta’s face, sending him flying off of his chair and into the wall.
“Ojiro! What is the meaning of all this?” Iida shouted, making a grab for Ojiro’s arm.
“Don’t you fucking touch me,” Ojiro spat, shoving Iida away as hard as he could. Only the strength of his classmates’ legs kept Iida from crashing to the ground.
Ojiro turned to Mineta who was still on the ground, staring up at him with a shocked expression.
“If you ever say that shit to me again, I’ll kill you,” he said, pointing his finger directly at the other boy. With that, he turned and stalked out of the kitchen, tail swinging wildly in anger as he walked. He was pretty sure he hit someone, but he didn’t bother to stop and apologize.
He scrubbed at his eyes angrily as he made his way back to his room. He shouldn’t have to apologize for the way he looked. He couldn’t fucking help it. It was genetics for crying out loud. This was just who he was. But his interaction with Mineta and the way his classmates reacted only further proved his original point. He would never be able to look the way he wanted to. He was just some freak that everyone else would point and laugh at.
He slammed his door shut, tail thumping against the ground as he paced his room. The adrenaline was still coursing through his veins. He felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin if he didn’t do something to get it out.
He had just decided on going to the gym to beat the shit out of some punching bags when there was a knock at his door. He ground his teeth together in frustration, but slung the door open, letting it slam against the wall. He wasn’t surprised to see Aizawa standing there, looking like he wanted nothing more than to be asleep at this exact moment.
“Look, I get that I’m in trouble but can we save this for later? I’m really pissed off and it isn’t going to magically go away just because you’re here to yell at me. I need to blow off some steam,” Ojiro said, tail thumping against the floor. Aizawa raised an eyebrow at him.
“Why don’t we kill two birds with one stone. We can go spar and you can tell me why you punched Mineta so hard you broke his jaw .” Ojiro winced. While he hadn’t meant to break the idiot’s jaw, it wasn’t like he had punched him without the intent to hurt him.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
They walked to Ground Beta in silence. Aizawa didn’t ask him any questions and he didn’t comment on the way Ojiro’s tail was still flicking angrily. He knew it made him look a bit catlike, but it was mostly instinctual. If he tried really hard he could control it, but he was way too angry to give a shit about it at this point.
When they reached Ground Beta, Aizawa finally turned to him. He had one palm curled around his capture weapon.
“How do you wanna do this? It’s not like I can cancel out a quirk like yours, so I was thinking hand to hand,” he said, slowly unraveling his scarf from where it always sat around his neck.
“Sounds good to me. Just a warning, I’m pretty angry, so I don’t plan on going easy on you,” he warned, stepping into his normal fighting stance. Aizawa looked at him for a moment before he smiled that creepy insane grin he wore when he got excited.
“Good to hear, because I wasn’t planning on it either.”
Without wasting any time, Aizawa was on him. He wasn’t relying on his capture weapon as much as Ojiro thought he might, choosing instead to go for an easy shot towards his face. He dodged easily, twisting around so he could aim a punch towards Aizawa’s stomach. Aizawa managed to bat his hand away at the last second, jumping backward to make some space between the two of them.
“So kid, wanna tell me why you punched Mineta?” he asked, slowly getting back into what Ojiro liked to call his combat zone. With a quirk like his, he was really only suited for close combat. But because he knew this was the fighting style he would have to go with, he had worked as hard as he could to master every type of close-range combat styles that he could.
He waited until Aizawa had edged just the slightest bit closer. Once he had him where he wanted him, he used his tail to push himself forward, grunting in satisfaction when he swung his leg around in a wide arc and felt it connect with Aizawa’s ribcage.
They traded blows for a few minutes. Aizawa managed to get a few solid hits on him that he knew would bruise pretty badly, but Ojiro wasn’t holding back either. He had gotten in his fair share of hits while he tried to work off the anger that was making his skin crawl.
He backed up a bit, giving his teacher the chance to catch his breath before he answered. He could still hear that snot-nosed idiots voice in his head, repeating that stupid insult over and over. Finally, Aizawa stared at him expectantly and Ojiro sighed before answering his question.
“He told me I looked like a wild animal. Specifically, that I looked like a disgusting monkey,” Ojiro said, clenching his hands by his side.
“He said what? ” Aizawa asked, moving forward slightly. Ojiro panicked and swung his tail at Aizawa. He winced when it hit him in the stomach, causing the older man to wheeze and fall to his knees.
“Sorry, sorry, I thought you were gonna attack again,” Ojiro apologized, moving to help his teacher off the ground.
Once Aizawa was back on his feet, he walked over to one of the benches and sat down, staring pointedly at it until Ojiro walked over. He didn’t sit on the bench since it didn’t have anywhere for his tail to go and instead leaned against his tail as a makeshift seat.
“Okay, I guess that works too,” Aizawa snorted. “Now, wanna repeat what you just told me? Maybe without the whole knocking the wind out of me with your tail bit.” Ojiro rolled his eyes, scratching at his head.
“He told me that with my sideburns like this and my hair as long as it is that I look like a disgusting monkey and that no girl would want to date anyone that looked like me,” Ojiro said, kicking at a rock as he spoke.
“It’s so fucking stupid. I get I shouldn’t have punched him, but does he not realize how messed up that is? I mean, I get I don’t normally look like this, but it’s part of my quirk. Just because I haven’t been able to cut my hair or shave and I haven’t been able to get my teeth filed down lately -”
“Okay, sorry to interrupt, but what the hell do you mean by getting your teeth filed down?” Aizawa asked. Ojiro just stared at him.
“I guess it wouldn’t be in my file since I never really said anything about it, but I go to the dentist once a month to get my teeth filed down,” he answered. He bared his teeth so his fangs would show. Aizawa was staring at him like he had grown another head.
“Why the hell would you do that? Doesn’t that hurt?” he asked. Ojiro shrugged and picked at a loose thread on the hem of his shirt.
“I mean it isn’t exactly the greatest feeling in the world, but I’ve gotten used to it. And I do it so I don’t look like such a freak,” he said. He rolled the thread between his forefinger and thumb and watched as it started to fray between his fingers.
“Kid, no, you’ve definitely earned this title after this morning. Problem Child, why do you think being a little hairy and having fangs makes you a freak?” he asked. Ojiro stared at Aizawa. It was stupidly obvious why he thought that, but if his teacher wanted him to say it out loud he would.
“Because people have said it does my whole life? My mom’s quirk is Macaque, she’s got the wild hair and the fangs and the tail. My dad’s quirk is similar to mine, so I got this weird amalgamation of both. Ever since my fangs first came in when I was eight, I’ve been told that this part of me makes me weird and ugly. So I get rid of it whenever I have to,” he explained, shrugging. The thread was nearly separated completely at this point, so he tugged at it until it ripped off his shirt completely. He shoved the extra bit of thread in his pocket so he could give it to Koda later. He knew his friend collected little things like that to put out for the birds making nests in the spring.
“Kid… the people who told you that are not only stupid, but they are prejudiced. They are making these unfair comments about your appearance based on what their limited idea of ‘normal’ is. There is no normal. And people who say there is are just using that as an excuse to be hateful,” Aizawa said, staring up at Ojiro from his half-hunched over position on the bench.
“I know that, believe me, I do. I mean, my mom and my little sisters look exactly like I do when I let my hair and fangs grow out. I don’t think they are ugly or weird. But… I don’t know. Hearing people say it constantly really bugged me. I didn’t want to hear it anymore, so I changed my appearance. It worked, so I guess I can’t complain.”
Ojiro met Aizawa’s gaze finally. He wasn’t surprised to see the sad look on his face. He felt the last bit of anger left in his chest fizzle for just a moment before he sighed.
“Look, I know I shouldn’t have hit Mineta. I’ll apologize to him and Iida and take whatever punishment you give me. But you really can’t help me with this. It’s something I’ve struggled with my whole life and I’m sure I’ll keep struggling with it,” Ojiro said. He looked down at his feet. He could hear Aizawa start to speak again so he quickly continued on.
“But maybe… maybe I’m okay with where I’m at now. I probably won’t go as wild as my sisters,” he showed his home screen to Aizawa, who smiled at the photo of his baby sisters baring their fangs and smiling wildly “but maybe this is something I can handle for now,” he said, gesturing at himself.
“I know I can’t understand how you must feel when those,” Aizawa paused for a moment, “ purists make hateful comments about your appearance or just quirks like yours in general. I don’t know what that’s like and I won't pretend that I do. All I can offer you is my support when other students say hateful things. I assure you that Mineta will also be punished for his comments. What he said to you is absolutely unacceptable. If he, or any other student or teacher, says anything like that to you, you come straight to me and I’ll handle it,” Aizawa stood, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“I’d love to let you off without punishment, but since you did break Mineta’s jaw, I’ll have to do something. You’ll have to apologize to both Mineta and Iida, but you’ll also go to Hound Dog for three weeks for ‘anger management counseling. But,” Aizawa tapped his finger to his nose once before continuing, “I’ll obviously have no way of knowing if you decide to talk about something else while you’re there.”
Ojiro nodded. That seemed fair to him. Maybe talking to Hound Dog would help. He wanted to be more comfortable in his own body - to be more comfortable with his own quirk. He bounced slightly on his tail.
“You wanna go another round?” Aizawa asked, stretching one arm over his head
He looked at the photo of his sisters smiling up at him from the screen of his phone. He wanted to be as carefree as his sisters and as brave as Tokoyami. He looked back up at Aizawa. Maybe one day he would be. But until then, he thought, this would be okay.
He jumped just to his feet and jogged over to join Aizawa. He watched, smiling a bit as Aizawa showed him some stretches he had shown a previous student of his that had a tail similar to his.
Yeah, for now, this would be okay.