Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

There is something wrong with Shinsou Hitoshi.

While most people who know him would not disagree with this statement, they would probably all think about the same thing, which is that his quirk is a villain’s quirk. But they are mistaken: Hitoshi is not a villain, Hitoshi is going to be a hero, and therefore his quirk is a hero’s quirk.

But there is something wrong with Shinsou Hitoshi.

It started when he was ten.

One day, in the middle of night, Hitoshi had woken up screaming. He had not stopped when his parents had come running, nor when they tried to shake him awake, nor when they tried hugging him. He had kept screaming like the world was ending, alternating “no no no NO NO” and “What did he do?!” between sobs and inarticulate yelling. It hadn’t ended until two hours later, when he had finally passed out.

From what he was told, he spent the following three days delirious, calling names that his parents didn’t recognize. He can’t remember a single thing about that time. When he had eventually calmed down, he hadn’t been able to say what had freaked him out so badly.

He’d seen a therapist for a while, who had tentatively diagnosed a psychotic break, but since he hadn’t hurt anyone, himself included, and nothing similar ever happened since, they all decided to forget about it.

It didn’t stop the dreams, though.

He has them often, several times a month at least. Sometimes he goes two weeks without one, sometimes he has them daily – well, nightly – for a whole week. He never remembers anything specific about them, only a deep feeling of loss and despair. But what did he lose? He has no idea.

So there is definitely something wrong with Shinsou Hitoshi, however empty his medical file is.

But today is not about that. It's a good day, because today is his first day at UA as a student of the department of heroics.

Though he could have done with some less noisy classmates.

When he enters the classroom, after spending an uncomfortably long amount of time convincing himself that class 1-A is really where he needs to be, a dark-haired tall guy is arguing with another student, an ash-blond boy who is sprawled on his chair with a foot planted on his table.

Hitoshi tries to ignore them, sighing when he realizes that he is supposed to sit right behind the rude blond guy. Hopefully that one knows how to behave in class. At least nobody seems to mind his entrance too much; he doesn’t want to draw attention to himself right away.

He sits down, glancing around. He doesn’t recognize most people, but he does remember the sparkly guy who used his navel laser in the entrance exam, and the one arguing with Hitoshi's neighbor asked questions during the presentation of the test. As for the other students’ quirks, he can see a few mutation types – the one with a bird head and the one with several pairs of arms stand out the most – but the majority look normal enough. He hopes that they will be more open-minded regarding his own quirk than his previous classmates.

Open-minded. Hah.

The sound of someone else opening the door pulls him out of his musings.

“Hi! You’re the purple-haired kid!”

He jumps. The girl who has just addressed him comes to stand in front of his desk, her hands behind her back and a wide smile on her face.

“I couldn’t find you after the exam to thank you, but you’re the one who pulled me away from the falling debris when the zero pointer came in, right?”

“Oh, right,” he says, a bit flustered, “I remember you too.” He had thought that she looked friendly and had regretted not finding her after the end. “So you got in, uh?”

“Yes! And so did you! I’m Uraraka Ochako, by the way.”

“Shinsou Hitoshi. You’re the one who got third place? That’s impressive.”

She blushes. “Well obviously I still needed someone to save me!”

They are interrupted by a drawling voice. “If you’re here to make friends, you should leave now.”

Uraraka jumps in surprise, and Hitoshi has to fight to keep his usual composure. Who…?

Then he lowers his eyes, and a strange yellow creature stares back.

Shamefully, it takes him several seconds to understand what he is seeing. On the other hand, he did not expect an adult human without any kind of mutant quirk to look so much like a huge yellow caterpillar…

The man’s hand creeps out of the… sleeping bag?… with a juice box, which he empties in one weirdly terrifying inhale (seriously, how can he look so threatening drinking juice of all things?) before slowly getting up. Upright, he looks a little bit more like a teacher and less like some sort of demented giant bug.

“This is the department of heroics,” he continues, and Hitoshi adverts his eyes because he cannot help thinking no shit and he doesn’t want to look cheeky on the very first day  —  he has been told that his unimpressed face is very expressive  —  “and it took all of you eight seconds to quiet down. Life is short, kids.”

But then Hitoshi’s eyes fall on the teacher’s scarf, and his disdain evaporates. He can’t be… But yes, though he is missing his usual goggles, Hitoshi would recognize Eraserhead’s signature capture weapon anywhere.

Breathe, he thinks, don’t freak out. It’s not as if his favorite hero, whose fighting style he has tried to emulate for years by copying the few videos of him available on the internet, is standing right in front of him, right?

He barely hears what is happening, and blindly follows the class as they go out to the P.E. grounds. He expected to go to the opening ceremony, but apparently that’s not on the agenda for today… And then Aizawa (he knows Eraserhead’s civilian name and that’s because Eraserhead is his homeroom teacher oh god he will never survive UA) explains that he is going to expel the student with the worst score.

Oh hell no. Hitoshi is not losing his chance at becoming a hero on the first day.

But his quirk is useless for this kind of exercise, and most students around him look like they are going to excel in at least one of them… Hitoshi is reasonably fit, he has been training for years, but he is not going to do better at the ball throw than Mr. Feet-on-the-table (Bakugou?) did.

This is stupid, and he can feel himself becoming angry. Worse, he feels betrayed: he likes Eraserhead because he is a great hand-to-hand fighter despite the fact that his quirk is basically useless for that kind of thing, so he of all people should know that you don’t need a physical quirk to be good!

Uraraka, who is standing next to him, must notice something on his face, because she looks at him worriedly.

“You don’t have an athletic quirk?” she asks.

It’s hard, because despite having spoken to her only twice, he likes her, and when he tells her about his quirk she will stop talking to him, like everyone else. But it’s better to bite the bullet fast, because the whole class will learn about it sooner or later.

“I have a brainwashing quirk,” he admits. “I can use it to give simple orders to people, but I can’t exactly use it to run faster.”

To his surprise, she doesn’t recoil. “A brainwashing quirk? That’s so cool! But you’re right, it’s not very useful for today. Mmmh… Wait, I just thought of something. How does it work? Is there a trigger?”

“It’s… people answering to me.”

“Okay, I have an idea,” she smiles, and he wonders if the sweeping feeling that is making him feel lightheaded is relief. She is still talking to him! He may actually find friends this year!

“So,” she says, “I don’t actually think that Aizawa-sensei is going to expel anyone. I think it’s a logical ruse to motivate us. It wouldn’t make sense to throw someone out on the first day like that…”

“Really?” he asks, because the man’s demeanor doesn’t exactly radiate benevolence.

“But anyway, I can help you. You see, my quirk is Zero Gravity: I can negate the effect of gravity on physical objects by touching them. Well, on light physical objects right now, because if I push myself too much I throw up. But it’s enough to help you with the ball throw at least, and I can probably make you lighter for the long jump.”

“Isn’t that cheating?” he asks.

“Not if you brainwash me for it! That way you’re actually using your quirk.”

It’s so simple, and yet. “You think it would work.”

She shrugs. “I don’t know, it seems like something that someone who likes logical ruses would enjoy?”

She is not wrong, and Hitoshi can’t help but think that Aizawa does look like someone who would appreciate this kind of technical truth.

“What are you two talking about?”

They both jump and turn to see the tall boy who was arguing with Bakugou earlier. He seems surprised by their reaction.

“Did I startle you? Sorry. I’m Iida Tenya,” he introduces himself. “You were talking about the test?”

They give their names and Uraraka answers, “Yes, we were thinking of ways that Shinsou here could use his quirk in it.”

“It’s brainwashing,” Hitoshi explains once again, “so it’s useless by itself, but Uraraka was suggesting that I could use it on her to make her help me.”

“A bit unconventional but clever!” Iida smiles. “She is right: you have a powerful quirk, you just have to find how to use it. I can help you for the 50-meter dash and the distance run if you want; just have me carry you.”

He gestures to his legs; they have exhaust ports coming out of his calves.

“You don’t mind?” he asks, passing a hand through his hair. It’s certainly a bigger favor than the one Uraraka offered, and he wasn’t expecting even that.

“Not at all! It’s important to work on cooperation if we want to become great heroes,” Iida answers earnestly. “And I don’t think that Aizawa-sensei is actually going to expel the worst scoring student. It’s probably just a logical ruse to motivate us.”

“See! I thought that too!” Uraraka giggles.

“I guess if you both think that…” Hitoshi says, not completely convinced. But he’s no longer despairing: with both their help, he won’t place first but he probably won’t be last either. Now that he looks a little bit more closely around him, some of the other students seem as lost as he was before his discussion with Iida and Uraraka. The one who is invisible for example, if that is the extent of her power, will have to think of something else…

His turn at the dash comes both too slow and too fast. As he is preparing on the starting line, he calls, “Iida?”

“Yes?” the boy answers, and his eyes glaze over.

The following few seconds, as he directs his classmate to take him on his back, are surreal, but the teacher doesn’t intervene. If anything, he looks curious. The other students around start whispering, but he ignores them as best as he can. Uraraka was cool about it, Iida was cool about it  —  well, he was before actually going through with it at least  —  and he has dealt with a decade of whispers behind his back. He can do three more years, especially if he has actual friends.

When the starting signal goes off, Iida is off like a shot. Even with Hitoshi on his back, he clears the distance in less than four seconds, which is far better than anything Hitoshi could have done by himself. Once they have come to a stop, he drops down and releases his quirk.

“Wow, that felt weird,” Iida says, but he still smiles. “How did I do?”

“You did great,” Hitoshi says. “Thank you for helping me.”

He means it, too, and not just about the dash. The people who were watching them have scattered and none of them are looking at him weirdly, probably because Iida reacted so well. And Hitoshi… doesn’t feel bad? He usually hates using his quirk, but nothing went wrong, nobody hates him now, and Aizawa is looking at him with something like interest.

The next tests go reasonably well: he doesn’t really stand out for anything except the two where Uraraka helps and the distance run with Iida, but he does end with a bang by being the second person – after Uraraka herself of course – to score infinity on the ball throw.

Once the anxiety of feeling inadequate and the fear of rejection have passed, he actually has a good time watching his new classmates demonstrate their quirks. Some of them are pretty straightforward (the guy who has a tail or the girl who is invisible do not seem to have anything else going on), some are surprising (the one with tentacles that can sprout eyes and mouths is definitely weird, even if he sounds nice), and some are… insanely overpowered.

Bakugou is loud and brash, and his personality is awful, but he has a surprising amount of control on his explosions, which allows him to use them in a very versatile way. Hitoshi has to give it to him: the guy is insufferable and aggressive, but he does have the skills to back it up.

It does not mean that Hitoshi doesn’t have fun seeing him take third place behind Todoroki and Yaoyorozu.

Todoroki is… strange, and not just in the way one would expect from a hero student. He is cold and reserved, which does seem fitting with his ice quirk and ice prince aesthetic, but Hitoshi feels like there is something more to it. Like the other boy is hiding something. Anger, maybe? At least he is more polite about it than Bakugou.

Yaoyorozu is easier to read. She seems nice and level-headed enough, just terrifyingly competent. Hitoshi hopes that she will stay on top of the class, because Bakugou and Todoroki both look emotionally incompetent in completely different ways, so if the class could have a better adjusted role-model, that would be great. But he has to admit that after seeing her extract a hand-crank press from her abdomen to use in the grip strength test  —  and that is also an amazing quirk, for sure  —  he understands why Aizawa didn’t bat an eye at his own unorthodox method.

Speaking of the devil, the teacher reveals that he lied about expelling anyone right before revealing the results. Hitoshi places a comfortable 11th, right behind Uraraka, but he cannot ignore the nagging feeling that something is strange.

Okay, maybe his two new friends were really good at understanding their teacher. That’s not unbelievable, and Yaoyorozu seemed pretty unsurprised too. But… something about the wording… Why did they both use the term “logical ruse”, which is a weird way to put “lying to your students to motivate them”, but also the exact same expression that Aizawa used himself?

Probably just a weird coincidence, but he feels unsettled. It doesn’t help that despite his honorable results in today’s test, he keeps feeling like he is not in his place in class 1-A. At least that one is understandable: after so many people telling him that he couldn’t be anything but a villain, being in a hero school feels great, but strange. There must be someone, somewhere, who deserves the place more than he does…

He shakes his head. He shouldn’t let his insecurities get to him that much.

Aizawa actually asks him to stay behind at the end of the class. Hitoshi tries to keep his fanboy tendencies under control.

"Good thinking with your quirk today," the teacher opens with, and the student has to fight to keep his composure.

"Thank you, sir," he answers. "Uraraka and Iida offered to help.”

“Yes, I guessed from their reactions. I saw you on the entrance exam,” he adds. “You did very well for someone with a psychological quirk. The test is not well adapted to people like us.”

“To be honest, I expected to go to the general education department, and my plan was to transfer from there,” Hitoshi admits. “But I can’t say that I’m not happy to be here, and I’ll do my best to deserve it.”

“You have… potential, don’t worry too much about that. But I wanted to ask you about that move you did with the cables at the end, to get other students out of the way when the biggest robot appeared.”

Hitoshi's face reddens violently. “That, uh, was actually inspired by your fighting style," he admits. "I didn’t know you taught at UA though, I just looked at videos online…”

Aizawa pauses. “I did think that it looked familiar. So you recognized me, huh?”

“Your capture weapon is pretty distinctive,” Hitoshi explains. “I’ve always liked underground heroes, because my quirk is well suited for that kind of work but not so great if I get too well-known, and I liked the fact that your fighting style didn’t directly use a quirk, so I’ve been… inspired by anything I could find about you.”

“How many times did you get tangled?”

“... Too many.”

“I can imagine,” the man smirks. “You’re interesting. I might give you some pointers, and I’ll talk to the support department to get you your own capture weapon so that you don’t have to make do with scarves and cables. Have you thought about support items for your quirk specifically?”

His own capture weapon? It sounds almost too good to be true. But now is not the time to swoon.

“It would be great if I could find a way to disguise my voice, because I need people to answer me to use my quirk, but it can’t be electronic because my voice loses its effect if it goes through a microphone. I should probably talk directly to someone from support, they would know what is possible.”

“Hm, I’ll ask around.”

The teacher dismisses Hitoshi, who feels he did rather well in a conversation where his hero role-model confronted him about copying his style.

The morning of the second day passes almost too normally; it’s weird seeing well-known heroes like Present Mic teach normal subjects, but at least that’s the kind of weird that Hitoshi was expecting.

“Hey, Shinsou, will you eat with us?” Uraraka calls at noon as they are getting out of class. Iida is at her side.

“Sure,” he shrugs, and stops walking to wait for them. “What did you think of this morning?”

“It was weird, but also reassuring, I guess?” the girl says. “I can deal with English lessons even with a really enthusiastic teacher. I’m more worried about foundational hero studies this afternoon. Can you believe that All Might will teach us?! We’re so lucky!”

“Lucky indeed”, Iida nods. “I wonder if we will get to do a practical exercise.”

“You think they would do that on our second day?” Shinsou asks. “That seems a bit dangerous.”

“I’m sure there are failsafes to avoid accidents,” Iida dismisses with a sharp arm gesture. “It is important to put us in concrete situations as soon as possible!”

“Still, the second day feels a bit soon,” Hitoshi grumbles. “I hope we start with sparring or something simple like that. Have you seen some of the others yesterday? I don’t want to go against Bakugou before he learns some restraint.”

“You’re not wrong,” Uraraka winces. “We’ll see, I guess. Actually, that’s not what I wanted to ask you about. I was wondering, since you were worried about the physical test yesterday… How did you do in the entrance exam? I only saw you at the end and I’m sure that you got some rescue points for that trick with the cables, but did you take down any robots?”

“Yes, actually,” he says proudly. “I came prepared… Since we knew in advance that there would be robots, I studied the weak points of the ones usually used by UA, and I used that to my advantage. It wasn't very elegant, I mostly used rocks and a metal bar once I found one. Honestly, without the rescue points, I wouldn’t have had a chance, and even with them I was pretty far from the top ten. But I got in fairly.” He has to remind himself of that.

“What do you mean, “we knew in advance”? You knew about the robots?!” someone exclaims behind them.

They startle and turn to see a boy with spiky red hair standing behind them. Hitoshi knows that he is in their class but he can’t remember his name.

“It wasn’t a secret,” Uraraka defends him, “I knew too. I thought it was common knowledge?”

“It must have been written somewhere,” Iida adds, “I was aware of it too.”

“What? No, the exam changes every year and it’s always a secret until just before,” their classmate frowns. “Last year it was an obstacle course, and before some sort of scavenger hunt. Where did you guys hear about the robots? Did you cheat? Did you know each other before? That’s unfair!”

“What the fuck are you talking about, shitty hair?” Bakugou growls from behind him. Is everyone in the hallway listening to them? “I knew about the robots too and I’m not with this bunch of losers. Some of us just did their homework before the exam.”

Well, he’s still as pleasant as ever even when defending them, but at least it stops this line of questioning. Though now Hitoshi is doubting himself: where did he learn about the robots?

“Maybe it was on a forum or something?” Uraraka suggests tentatively. “We didn’t speak before the first day of class and we clearly all heard about it separately.”

This seems to mollify the red-haired boy. “Okay, sorry for yelling,” he says sheepishly. “That wasn’t very manly of me. You’re all from my class, right? I’m Kirishima Eijirou.”

Now that he has calmed down, he looks pretty friendly, despite his surprisingly pointy teeth. A bit too boisterous for Hitoshi’s taste, but likeable enough; he doubts they will be close friends but he doesn’t mind being his classmate.

Anyway, Kirishima seems more interested in Bakugou, though why anyone would willingly subject themself to his moods is anyone’s guess. Hitoshi takes advantage of him trying to engage their explosive classmate to start off again towards the school restaurant, Iida and Uraraka behind him.

“That was weird, right?” Uraraka asks once they are out of earshot. “I don’t remember where I read about the robots, but it was definitely out there somewhere.”

Hitoshi shrugs. “The three of us and Bakugou, who I have never talked to in my life, knew about it, and I don’t think that I have spontaneously developed a precognition quirk recently, so I’m pretty sure it was just Kirishima being weird. Though maybe the two of you are prophets: you guessed about Aizawa-sensei lying yesterday, but I had no idea…”

“Yaoyorozu agreed with us,” Uraraka blushes, “it just made sense. Oh, that reminds me! What did Aizawa-sensei want to speak about yesterday? If it’s not anything sensitive, of course…”

“He… noticed something about my fighting style during the entrance exam,” he answers. At the naked curiosity in their eyes, he sighs. “It’s a little embarrassing. The thing I did with the cable was inspired by videos of him I found online. He said that he could help me get better at it.”

“That’s so cool!” she gasps.

“She is right, it is impressive that you caught our teacher’s eye so early in the year!” Iida concurs enthusiastically.

“Wait,” Uraraka adds, “so you know Aizawa-sensei’s hero identity? What is his quirk? We haven’t seen him use it yet!”

“Yes, his hero name is Eraserhead. You’ve heard of him?”

“It does ring a bell,” Iida frowns. “He is the underground hero who can erase people’s quirk by looking at them, right? It must be useful for teaching hero students!”

As if on cue, an explosion rings out somewhere behind them. Hitoshi sighs. “I have a feeling that he’ll need it this year…”

When he arrives at UA on the morning of his fourth day, Hitoshi is well aware that he might die in a few hours.

Okay, so maybe he is being a little bit dramatic. But still: this afternoon, they have a new practical session.

The first one since All Might’s first lesson.

It’s not that he did badly last time: on the contrary, he is quite proud of his and Uraraka’s perfect victory. They managed to get both Bakugou and Iida  —  who played villains to their heroes  —  to answer to Shinsou; Bakugou was easy (a barbed comment about his taking third place the day before and he was swearing at them), and Iida would have been harder to trap if he hadn’t tried so hard to put himself into a villain’s mindset. They just had to give him a little push before he started monologuing. After that, they only had to bind them in capture tape for All Might to declare them the winners. Even Todoroki icing the whole building during his round didn’t overshadow them.

It’s just that ever since that time, Hitoshi has felt a little bit threatened by his most explosive classmate.

Oh, Bakugou didn’t say anything to him. He didn’t need to. He just keeps staring at Hitoshi, and that is quite enough to make him feel like an accident might happen to him at the next practical session.

Which is today.

Hitoshi may have bidden goodbye to his parents a little more intensely than usual.

The morning passes too quickly, but he feels slightly relieved when Aizawa reveals that the day’s exercise is about rescue. It will certainly make Bakugou’s murder attempts more obvious if he tries anything than if they had to fight against each other.

Still, as they board the bus toward the mysterious training grounds, he can’t help but notice that some of his classmates look a bit too uncomfortable for the circumstances.

“Are you alright?” he asks Uraraka, who keeps fidgeting with her costume.

“Of course!” she beams. Hitoshi only has only known her for less than a week but he can still see that she is lying. He stares at her with a judgemental face and she deflates. “Am I that obvious?”

“Kinda,” he answers flatly. “What is wrong?”

“Nothing, that’s the problem,” she sighs. “I just have a really bad feeling about today and I don’t know why. I mean, nothing today can be as frightening as going against Bakugou on Monday was… It’s probably just nerves, though.”

“Probably,” Hitoshi acquiesces. “You’re not the only one, too, just look at Iida.”

Their new class president  —  and the less said about the class president election, the better…  —  is twitching nervously in his seat. He doesn’t even scold Bakugou and Kaminari for their language as they banter about the former’s character.

Kirishima leans toward them. “Maybe something is going to happen and your premonition power is trying to warn you?”

“My what?!” Uraraka squeaks.

“The thing that told you about the entrance exam robots,” Kirishima grins, and Hitoshi realizes with a start that they are being teased. He finds out that he doesn’t mind. “Since Iida also knew about them, he has the same abilities, and he feels the same!”

“Well, Shinsou knew about the robots and he feels fine,” Uraraka protests, but she is smiling too.

“I don’t feel fine, but that’s because someone clearly has it out for me,” Hitoshi answers lightly, shaking his head in Bakugou’s direction. “My feelings are perfectly logical.”

“Hey, Bakugou,” Kirishima calls out suddenly, “do you think something bad is going to happen today?”

“To you maybe, if you keep yelling, shitty hair,” Bakugou predictably growls. “Why, you’re scared of a little rescue?”

“Just wondering, man!” Kirishima waits until the blond is back to snarling at Kaminari to turn to them. “He’s also feeling it, I think.”

“... How can you say that?” Hitoshi asks, morbidly curious.

“He would definitely have reacted way worse if he wasn’t at least a bit nervous,” Kirishima says confidently.

“I can’t decide if you’re delusional or some sort of asshole whisperer,” Hitoshi snorts.

“Well now I sure hope that nothing bad happens or I’m going to freak out,” Uraraka says cheerfully. “I am so not ready to be a prophet.”

“Um, it was supposed to be a joke,” Kirishima says sheepishly, “but sorry for scaring you, that was dumb! I’m sure everything will be fine today.”

Hitoshi is going to rip Kirishima’s stupid hair out and feed them to him spike by spike.

Everything is not fine. Maybe the redhead is right and Uraraka and Iida have some stupid prophetic gift; Hitoshi sure isn’t ignoring their “bad feelings” next time, if he even survive today. Though right now he would take even surviving the next minute, because submerged in the flood zone with a villain who looks like a shark charging at him, he doesn’t like his odds.

But then a green and purple blur dive into said villain and something wraps around him to pull him out of the water.

It’s Asui, his classmate with a frog mutation, and the thing she is carrying under her arm is another student whose name he can’t remember  —  he had noticed his weird round hair but hasn’t talked to him yet. She dumps the both of them on some solid grounds; after a few seconds, he identifies his surroundings as the shipwreck zone of the USJ. At least they weren’t sent too far.

Though the local concentration of villains is not great.

“We… We got warped here, right?” he asks.

“I think so,” Asui answers. Her demeanor is fairly calm, but Hitoshi can see that her hands are shaking. “I don’t think we were supposed to get out of the water.”

“Yes, we’re very fortunate that you were with us,” he shivers. Alone, or with just grape-head  —  or almost any other fellow student  —  he would have died right away. “You think everyone else got sent to other zones?”

“Aizawa-sensei is still fighting on the central plaza, I think, and I believe that Thirteen-sensei and the students who were in the back managed to avoid being warped.”

“Lucky them,” Hitoshi mutters. “Okay, what do we know about the villains?”

“That they want to kill us!” Purple Boy yells. “But All Might is going to come, and once he arrives, he will beat them all!”

“Mineta…” Asui sighs. “They must have found a way to kill him. Otherwise, why waste so much effort to come here if they are just going to be flattened?”

“You’re right,” Hitoshi winces, “it wouldn’t make sense. They must have some sort of secret weapon. That means that we can’t just wait for him to come and save us. For that matter, we don’t know if anyone knows that we need help…”

“COME BACK DOWN, WE’LL KILL YOU!” one of the villains yells from his place in the water below. Despite this remarkably convincing argument, the students make no move to obey.

“Ugh, and we need to survive those guys first. What can you guys do?”

While Asui’s quirk is interesting, especially in this context, Hitoshi is at a loss regarding how to use Mineta’s. Or even his own, for that matter. He can’t control more than one villain at a time…

“Asui, do you think that you could identify the strongest of the villains below us? Or at least one that is especially strong?” Hitoshi asks. “Since they sent you in this zone, which is the one where you have the best advantage, I don’t think that they know about our quirks, so I should have at least one chance to use mine.”

“Give me a minute,” she answers, “and call me Tsuyu. I think one of them is making the water move.”

That is good. What is less good is that someone is apparently tired of waiting, and has sent an attack that has almost broken their ship in two.

While Mineta is panicking and throwing as many balls as possible in the water, Asui points to the left. “It was him, the one with the black armor,” she indicates.

Hitoshi surveys the situation. There are quite a few balls in the water now, maybe with a whirlpool… He yells toward the villain Asui pointed out: “What do you even want with us anyway?!”

“To kill you-" the guy answers, and immediately falls under his control. Fortunately, Iida wasn’t wrong: villains do have a strong tendency to monologue.

“Make a whirlpool!” Hitoshi screams, and miraculously it works.

Once their enemies are all glued together, Asui loses no time bringing them to the shore.

“Wow, we just cleared the first hurdle,” she smiles. “You guys were great, too. What do we do next?”

They look ahead. In the distance, in the middle of the plaza, their teacher is still fighting against a dwindling number of opponents. For now, things seem to be going his way: he dominates the battlefield. But Hitoshi doesn’t like the way three figures are standing aside, idly surveilling his progress.

They are still pretty far and he doesn’t want to go closer, but from there he can see that one of them is a hulking black monster that seems to have his brain exposed, another is a man with light blue hair who is covered in things that look like… hands? (and the boy hopes that he is wrong about that but for some reason he doesn’t feel lucky), and the third is smaller, the lower half of his face covered by a black mask, his only distinctive feature his bushy green hair. He is calling out time intervals regularly.

Looking at them makes Hitoshi’s guts twist in an emotion that he can’t identify. The black thing exudes violence and clearly shouldn’t exist; the blue-haired man costume is repulsive; but the third one? He doesn’t even look that much like a villain, but he makes Hitoshi’s brain stutter. Is that an effect of his quirk?

Then Hands Guy starts moving toward Aizawa and things take a very bad turn.

Turns out that the blue-haired villain can break things by touching them (or maybe disintegrate them, it’s hard to tell from afar), as their teacher discovers at his elbow’s expense. And that the black monster is super fucking strong. He crouches on the hero with his broken arm in one big hand, keeping him still, and the smaller villain, the one that hasn’t fought yet, strolls closer.

“Careful with the goods, Noumu,” he calls out, “that one is interesting. Do you think we can take him back with us once we’re done?”

“We don’t have time for that,” the blue-haired one retorts. “Let’s just kill him.”

“Come on, Tomura, of course we have time! Nobody even knows we’re here!”

Behind them, the black mist of the warper appears.

“Shigaraki Tomura,” its deep voice calls.

“Kurogiri. Is Thirteen dead?” hands guy (Shigaraki?) asks.

“I incapacited him,” the warper answers. “However, one of the students was able to escape with his life…”

“What? No no no, this is not good,” Shigaraki grunts. “We can take All Might, but not dozens of pros. It’s game over… for now.”

“You’re right, this is bad news,” the green-haired one frowns. “You want to retreat now?”

“We’re saved!” Mineta cries beside Hitoshi, making him jump.

Then he realizes that the guy is trying to grope Asui, and he moves to put himself between them.

“This is unnerving,” Asui says flatly. “Are they really going to go just like that?”

As much as he’d like for the villains to simply go away, it is true that it seems like an extraordinary waste of resource; plus now they have alerted UA that they are a threat. It doesn’t make sense.

As if thinking the same thing, Shigaraki glances around. “What if we actually used this opportunity to send a message?”

Hitoshi’s gut feeling is validated when the villain moves too fast for them to follow, and then he is right in front of them, his hand extended toward Hitoshi’s face.

“Why?!” Hitoshi cries out, his hands coming up to try and intercept him.

And, miraculously, right before he makes contact, the villain takes the bait. “Because I want to-!”

He never has an occasion to continue, and his fingers stop centimeters from Hitoshi’s forehead. Hitoshi is holding his wrist. Hitoshi is touching one of the severed hands and now that he can see them up close they look very much authentic. Oh god. He’s going to throw up.

There is a few seconds of stillness, and then something appears at the corner of his eyes. He turns his head.

It’s the green-haired villain.

He is crouching with a hand on Asui’s throat.

“Fascinating!” he says brightly, and his voice doesn’t sound much older than they are, his demeanor is relaxed, but his green eyes are cold and calculating. From up close, the wrongness that he exudes is overpowering. “How did you do that? I love hero students, you guys always have the best quirks!”

Hitoshi opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. Asui is frozen, from fear or because of a quirk he doesn’t know.

“Oh, this is your first brush with death, hm?” the villain says in a friendly tone. “You’ll get used to it. Or you’ll die, who knows. I can see we’re not going to have a deep conversation today, so since I’m a nice person, I’ll ask an easier question. How do I make it stop? You have ten seconds before I kill your little classmate,” he adds flatly.

“A- a shock!” Hitoshi stammers, terrified. “Any shock!”

“Thank you,” the boy smiles, his voice back to its fake pleasantness. He lets go of Asui, pats Hitoshi on the head, and stands up. The purple-haired student throws himself backward into the water they are still standing in just in time for the villain to shake his colleague out of his dazed state.

“You got caught like an idiot, Tomura,” he mocks.

Fortunately, Hitoshi never learns how Shigaraki would have retaliated, because that’s when All Might arrives.

The next few minutes are a blur. He realizes that All Might somehow managed to sweep him, Asui, Mineta and Eraserhead to safety, but the fact that he almost died several times has apparently caught up with him and he is unable to process anything else. He is vaguely aware that Mineta is pulling him back, that All Might is fighting the thing that the villains called a Noumu, that some of his classmates intervene, and that the other teachers finally arrive at some point and drive the villains away… and then he does the most cliché thing that he has ever done.

He passes out.

He must not stay down too long, since they are still at the USJ when he comes to. He is lying on the ground; on his right, one of his classmates  —  a blond boy with a black streak in his hair, who has an electricity quirk if Hitoshi remembers correctly  —  is sitting with the stupidest expression Hitoshi has ever seen (is he high?); on his left, Aizawa is cradling his left arm carefully. Up close, the wound is grotesque: the muscle is visible on a large area, and so is the shattered bone.

Hitoshi rises and bends to the side, retching.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Aizawa notes flatly. “How do you feel?”

“Nauseous and scared, but I don’t think I actually got hurt,” he answers. “Is everyone… Did anyone die?”

“No teacher or students,” the hero reassures him. “Thirteen and I got the worst injuries and we’ll both recover. Your classmate here just went further with his quirk than he should have, but he’ll be perfectly fine with a little rest. You all did great, it could have gone much worse.”

Hitoshi sighs in relief. He was pretty sure from his hazy memories of what happened in the end that Asui and Mineta had been fine, but if most of the others had been scattered to various zones where villains were waiting for them, any of them could have been badly hurt or worse.

“The villains left, right?” he asks.

“Actually, almost all of them were arrested. Including the “noumu”, whatever that means. But the warper got away with the two that threatened you. They were probably the leaders.”

Hitoshi nods. “Yes, I guessed so. Do you think that we’ll see them again?”

Aizawa winces. “I’d like to say no, but this was too well organized to be a fluke. We will reinforce security, but… I don’t think they will give up just like that. You are the one they got the closest to, so the police will probably want to talk to you tomorrow; are you okay with that?”

“Sure,” Hitoshi says, rising up slowly to his feet. His dizziness is receding, and he can now see that they are surrounded by heroes from the UA staff. A little bit further away, his classmates  —  minus Electric Boy of course  —  are all standing, none of them looking worse for wear, which is a relief. A good number of policemen are milling around, escorting various restrained villains.

“Eraserhead,” a detective dressed in a tan overcoat and matching hat calls, “your ride is here. Are your students coming?”

“Yes,” the teacher answers. “They are probably fine but I’d still like Recovery Girl to have a look at them. Thirteen and All Might are already gone, right?”

“They took the first ambulance,” the policeman confirms. “The other kids will be right behind you in the bus.”

“Right.” Aizawa looks at Hitoshi and gestures at his dazed classmate. “Can you follow me and guide Kaminari?”

“Of course,” Hitoshi answers, and he takes the boy’s elbow to make him stand. “What happened to All Might?”

“He fought the Noumu,” Aizawa sighs. “He won, and he didn’t get hurt too bad, but it was still intense and it’s normal to see a doctor after that kind of battle. Now come, I really need to sit down soon.”

The night after the USJ incident, Hitoshi has one of his occasional mysterious dreams.

As usual, he cannot remember what it is about, but this time he wakes up thinking about a pair of wide scared green eyes.

Hitoshi’s police interview takes place the next morning in an empty conference room at UA.

“Do you want your teacher to sit with you?” the detective from yesterday, who introduced himself as Tsukauchi, asks.

The boy turns to said teacher, uncertain. Aizawa, whose arm is now wrapped in a thick cast and strapped to his chest, tilts his head. “I don’t mind and I might be able to clarify some things.”

“Then yes, please,” Hitoshi requests. Though he knows that he is there as a witness and a victim, not a suspect, the prospect of being interrogated is still intimidating.

The three of them sit around a table, Hitoshi and his teacher on one side and Tsukauchi on the other. The latter puts an electronic recorder and turns it on, before reciting the date, time, and circumstances of their talk.

“So, Shinsou, can you tell me what happened in chronological order? I will tell you if I need more details about something.”

Hitoshi starts talking, at first slow and halting. He talks about their arrival at the USJ, Thirteen’s speech, and the portal that opened then. He recounts the ramblings of the villain with hands all over his body, how he declared his intention to kill All Might, and how the warper scattered the students all over the disaster zones, with the explicit goal of having them killed. He relates how Asui saved him and Mineta, and their desperate plan to get out of the flood zone, and how they managed to trap all the aquatic villains together.

“I was wondering about how you managed to stick all of them into a heap,” Tsukauchi smiles at that part. “You did very well. I’m guessing they didn’t know about your quirk, though, if they were so easy to trap?”

“I don’t think they knew much about any of us at all,” Hitoshi says. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent Asui into the flood zone, and we would have died without her.”

“That’s my guess too,” Aizawa intervenes. “They had clearly done their research about Thirteen and I, but I don’t think that they expected the students to give them much trouble at all. Or at least they thought that sheer number would be enough to give them the advantage.”

“So, after that, that was the point where you reached the plaza, right?” Tsukauchi prompts.

“Right. So we saw Aizawa-sensei fighting the villains, and three of them were just watching. The big black one, the one with all the hands, and the one with the black mask.”

“So the Noumu and both Shigaraki brothers, then,” the policeman says.

“Brothers? I heard the warper call the taller one Shigaraki something, but I didn’t know the other one was his brother,” Hitoshi says.

“Yes,” Aizawa confirms, “the tall one was adressed as Shigaraki Tomura several times by the warper, and I and All Might heard them call each other brothers, but we don’t know the other one’s full name yet.”

“So what happened then?” Tsukauchi gently pushes them back on track.

“The tall brother  —  Tomura  —  attacked Aizawa-sensei. I didn’t see the smaller one move, but I think he was talking.”

“Yes, he was observing my quirk, apparently,” Aizawa adds. “He had noticed that I wasn’t using it continuously. I think he was trying to destabilize me.”

“I didn’t see things very clearly, but I think Tomura grabbed your arm and broke it with his quirk?” At Aizawa’s nod, he keeps going. “Then the Noumu attacked and got the upper hand.”

“It was much faster and stronger than me,” Aizawa admits. “We are lucky: he could have broken me like a twig, but apart from my arm and the ribs it sat on, it didn’t hurt me much. It was just holding me still.”

“Then the small brother said something about taking sensei with them, I think?” Aizawa doesn’t comment, his face closed off. “And that’s when the warper came back. He warned them that Iida had managed to escape, and since they didn’t want to fight all the teachers, they decided to leave, but then Tomura said something about sending a message and attacked us.”

Hitoshi breathes in and lets it out slowly. It’s over and nobody died. Actually, neither Asui, Mineta or him were hurt at all. He should be able to talk about it without panicking.

He doesn’t feel much like a hero right now. Should he really be in class 1-A? Surely someone with a more powerful quirk would have been able to do more…

“I don’t know if he was warped or if he is just really fast, but he just… appeared, right in front of me, with his hand in my face,” he recounts shakily. “I asked him why he was doing this, and he answered just before actually touching me, so I was able to take control. His hand was, uh, really really close.”

“That’s some amazing quick thinking you did, kid,” Aizawa praises. “I was trying to erase his quirk so he wouldn’t have disintegrated you immediately, but I couldn’t have held it for too long. Taking control like that definitely saved your life.”

“Yes, you have guts and good instincts,” Tsukauchi smiles encouragingly. “We are nearing the end, you will be able to go home soon. What happened next?”

“The small brother got there. He asked me how to break the mind-control, and he was threatening Asui so I told him. Then he shook Tomura to wake him up, and… I think he would have killed us right then, but All Might arrived and saved us. I don’t remember much past this point.”

“Don’t worry, we already have your classmates’ and All Might’s testimonies for those parts,” the detective says. “I mostly wanted to hear about the moment where you were in close contact with the Shigaraki brothers. Your teacher was too far to hear, and we need every available information about them to ensure that something like that does not happen again. Can you describe them in as much detail as possible? Especially their behaviors.”

“Hm, Tomura was… well, there wasn’t much time where he was both close to me and not brainwashed, but so I mostly noticed that he really really wanted to kill us. He felt… angry. Hateful. Also, the hands on his costume were… very convincing.” He shudders at the memory. “The other one wasn’t like that; he could have easily killed Asui and me  —  he even touched my head at some point  —  but he didn’t. He just… didn’t really seem to care that much about the whole thing, I guess? He wasn’t serious. Except when I brainwashed his brother, and even then he was all fake-pleasant. Oh, and he sounded really young, like he could be our age.”

“And physically? I know that he was masked, but any detail would help the investigation.”

“Well, he had green hair, but I think you already knew that, and green eyes. I couldn’t see much in general. I didn’t think to try and remember his appearance, sorry…”

“No, no! You already helped a lot!” Tsukauchi says. “You did great, both yesterday and today. You survived and that’s all we could ask of you. Any information you can tell us is just a bonus. And it’s not like you had nothing to say. I’m leaving you my card in case you remember anything else later, but you already did a lot for us. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“Thank you…” Hitoshi mumbles, surprised by the praise. He gets up and follows Aizawa out of the conference room.

Once outside, his teacher speaks: “Do you have your afternoons free during the week?”

“Uh, yes?” Hitoshi answers uncertainly.

“Then from now on I’ll be training you three times a week. We’ll meet at gym Gamma next Monday.” At Hitoshi’s stunned expression, he goes on: “I don’t think that we’ve seen the last of these villains… And as much as I’d like to think that next time they will attack pro heroes and not children under my responsibility, I don’t like my odds. And they have seen your quirk in action, so next time you might not be able to rely on it. Plus, they talked to you, which means that they singled you out. I don’t want to make you more anxious than necessary, but I’d like you to have some training to fall back on if you ever have to face them again.”

“... Thank you, Aizawa-sensei,” Hitoshi answers. As much as he’d like to forget about the whole incident, what his teacher is saying makes sense, and at least that way he will be doing something concrete to make himself more prepared in case of a repeat performance.

And maybe it is just anxiety caused by the trauma, or maybe it is the same prophetic gift that Iida and Uraraka have displayed, but he knows that there will be a repeat performance.

The day after the interrogation, UA opens again. Aizawa-sensei, his arm still in its almost comically big cast, warns them about the upcoming sports festival.

“I can’t wait!” Uraraka grins  ferociously once they are out of class. “I’m going to crush it!!”

“Wow, you’re… very intense,” Hitoshi remarks. “I mean, it’s a big event, but I didn’t expect that from you… What has you so fired up?”

She blushes slightly, deflating. “I just… I want to get stronger, you know? What happened the other day was super scary, so I want to be prepared for the next time something happens, and the best way to do that soon is to get a good internship. That means that I need to make a great impression at the festival!”

“You’re right!” Iida exclaims. “I am eager to measure myself against other students! Though in all likelihood I will intern with my brother’s agency. But still, it is my duty to honor my family at the festival! After all, Japan will be watching us!”

“What do you think, Shinsou?” Uraraka asks. “You haven’t said much since Aizawa-sensei made his announcement…”

Hitoshi sighs. “I don’t really know what I am going to do,” he admits. “It’s weird, because I was so convinced for months that I would fail the practical part of the entrance exam and only get in Gen Ed, that I had a whole plan about how I would distinguish myself at the sports festival and transfer to the heroic department afterward… But now I don’t need to do that, and to be honest, I don’t really want my quirk to be plastered on the TV all across Japan. It loses most of its usefulness if my opponents know how it works. But I also want to become stronger, and you are not wrong that the best way to do that in the short term is to get a good internship… I’ll ask Aizawa-sensei when I meet him on Monday, he will probably have good advice.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Uraraka says, pensive. “It’s true that you rely a lot on the element of surprise to use your quirk… Wait, you’re meeting sensei on Monday? Is everything alright?”

“Oh, right, I didn’t tell you guys… He’s worried that I might have attracted the attention of those villains at the USJ, and since they saw me use my quirk, I might not be able to use it next time, so he offered to train me after school a few times a week. Well, offered… I don’t think I have a choice, but it’s a great idea anyway so I wasn’t going to try and turn him down. That’s actually why I feel so hesitant about the festival; I hadn’t really thought about how I need to avoid publicity before, apart from knowing that I’d do better as an underground hero.”

“Right, and since you have already trained in his style before, he is the perfect person to help you right now,” Uraraka completes. “I’m sure he’ll also have pointers for you about how to choose your internship.”

“I hope you will take full advantage of this opportunity,” Iida smiles. “I can attest how useful it is to progress to have someone more experienced and with a similar quirk give you pointers. I wouldn’t be half as good as I am today if I didn’t have older pro heroes in my family.”

Hitoshi just nods back. He only needs to get over his slight hero worship at getting private lessons from Eraserhead…

“Do you think I should actually participate seriously in the Sport Festival?”

Aizawa stares at Hitoshi. “Do you think that you shouldn’t?”

Hitoshi shrugs. “I mean, I’m going to do my best in the preliminary and team rounds, but the final fighting tournament seems like a bad idea if I want to retain some anonymity. But on the other hand, I don’t want to jeopardize my chances to get a good internship.”

Aizawa tilts his head, impassive. “Maybe you should start by trying to get to the last round before asking that kind of question.”

“... You’re right,” Hitoshi sighs. “Still, I feel like I should be careful with how much I show.”

The teacher stays still for a few beats before saying, “Don’t worry too much about the first round. Unless you’re in the top five, the camera won’t show any close-ups of you. The second round might be more of an issue since there are so much less students, so if you want to stay discrete you’ll have to be smart about it. You have two weeks to think about strategy, I guess… As for the tournament, I don’t have much advice; honestly, I can’t think of a way you can both participate seriously and keep the details of your quirk a secret. But you’ll have to get to that point before it becomes a problem, so it might be a moot point anyway. Now, stop thinking about the festival and start thinking about your training. ”

“Yes, sir!”

The festival comes faster than any of them expected.

The days leading to it are hard: people from other classes, and not just 1-B, seem to be watching them every time they have to use the hallways. It makes Hitoshi feel itchy.

Fortunately  —  or not  —  he doesn’t have much time for nerves, because Aizawa seems determined to kill him from exhaustion on each of their training sessions, both the ones for the whole class and the ones just for Hitoshi. Most days, he has barely enough energy to keep up with his schoolwork before falling into bed. But the private lessons are fascinating: while the student probably spends more time tangled in his brand new personal capture weapon than upright, he can already feel a difference in the way he moves and the way he looks at his surroundings. He is still very far from a level that would allow him to comfortably confront a villain without his quirk, even one of the dumb mooks that made up most of the invasion force at the USJ, but he can see himself changing, and he can hope that he’ll get there someday soon.

Still, he is almost taken by surprise when suddenly the Sport Festival is there.

After a short wait in their class’ waiting room, during which Todoroki very suddenly declares war on Bakugou (and Hitoshi is really happy that he is not seriously competing with those two for the top spot), they all go out in the stadium.

It is gigantic. Hitoshi doesn’t think that he has ever seen so many people in the same place. And that’s only those who came in person; the multitude of cameras will make sure everything today is broadcast to an audience several times the size of this one.

He fights to keep his composure even and uninterested. The other classes around them are still glaring daggers in their general direction.

It… doesn’t get better after Bakugou’s little speech. If the guy could try not to paint a giant target on the back of his classmates with his ego, that would be peachy.

The obstacle course passes in a daze. It feels almost weird to use other students as a human shield, but hey, he is supposed to use his quirk at full capacity, and today is a competition, people aren’t going to line up to help like Uraraka and Iida did on the first day. Still, apart from a bit of a struggle with the tightropes, he is quite proud of his performance: 26th place without any kind of physical quirk is honorable.

Anyway, he really didn’t want to be anywhere near the head of the race, where Bakugou and Todoroki were apparently trying to kill each other. Crazy bastards.

“Heyyy, congrats on passing the first round!” Uraraka yells at him when she sees him arrive.

“Thanks,” he grins. “How did you do?”

“I got 15th place and Iida got 5th!” she smiles.

Next to her, Iida is still catching his breath. “I must admit that with my quirk I hoped for better…”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Uraraka brushes away. “You have two other rounds to show your talents.”

Iida doesn’t answer, and Hitoshi can’t help but notice that he doesn’t seem to feel all that well.

“Are you alright?” he asks. “You look like you’re feeling sick.”

“... I’m fine,” Iida evades. “It’s nothing.”

Hitoshi frowns. “If you have an unexplained bad feeling that won’t go away, may I remind you that the last time it happened was right before the USJ? I’m telling the teachers if you think something is going to go wrong.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Iida laughs forcedly. “The festival is going to be fine.”

Hitoshi notices the weird formulation. “So it’s not about the festival? Seriously, we’re going to bug you until you answer, you know that?” he adds with a grin.

His classmate doesn’t seem amused. “It does not concern you, but if you must know, it is a family matter."

Uraraka perks up. "Is this about your brother?"

"My brother is fine," Iida grits his teeth. "Please leave me alone."

"You know that if you call him he will probably just be happy that you are thinking about him, right?" Hitoshi asks. "I'm serious about your bad feelings being right last time. You can just tell him to be careful; if you're wrong I doubt he will resent you, and if you're right you'll regret it if you don't say anything."

Iida's face twists into uncertainty, then settles on resolve.

"You… may be right," he allows. "But if everything goes fine  —  and I'm certain it will  —  you will stop talking about “prophetic gifts” or whatever other nonsense Kirishima has invented."

His classmate is frowning deeply now, but Hitoshi still feels like he has won, and looking at Uraraka's expression, so does she.

"You know, I kinda hope that he is right and this is all for nothing," she sighs once Iida is out of earshot. "I wasn't kidding when I said that I'm not ready to be a prophet."

"Why, do you feel wrong too?" Hitoshi asks, surprised.

"No, but I did feel weird about the USJ field trip, and look at what happened. But if something is going to happen to Iida’s brother, it would make sense that he’d be the only one to feel it. I mean, nobody else here has actually met Ingenium…”

“Hm, I guess it could work,” he answers thoughtfully, “Do you… actually believe in the prophet thing?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I mean, even if I didn’t, I’d have told Iida the same, because he really needs to calm down and I wasn’t lying about his brother not minding him calling. But… while I know that it’s not logical, it’s hard to ignore the fact that I wasn’t actually surprised when the villains appeared at the USJ, you know? I feel like today is the last test, in a way. If nothing happens, I’ll feel lighter, but if something does, it’s going to be hard to call it a coincidence.”

It is as sensible as anything so far-fetched can be. She isn’t wrong that making Iida call his brother was the right thing to do, whether or not his anxiety is really heralding something. And she isn’t wrong either that if he is right, once  —  the “logical ruse”  —  might be an accident, twice  —  the USJ  —  might be a coincidence, but a third time would be establishing a pattern.

If it does, then that will leave the question of what the hell kind of pattern that is, but hey. All in good time.

A few minutes later, as the last of the contestants are crossing the finish line, their friend comes back, looking embarrassed.

“Did it go well?” Uraraka asks.

“I caught him while he was on patrol,” Iida answers shortly. “… He wasn’t angry and he agreed to call a sidekick so that he wouldn’t be alone, but I could tell he was humoring me. This is embarrassing, and I would have preferred that you do not pester me about it. I have made a fool of myself.”

Despite his protest, Hitoshi can see that his shoulders look less tense. Iida may not appreciate their help, but it was help nonetheless.

They are pulled out of their discussion by Midnight calling for everyone’s attention. She announces the nature of the team event; this year, the organisers have settled on a cavalry battle.

Delightful.

The point system makes Hitoshi smirks in Todoroki general direction: it’s only fair that the best of them would be handicapped that way.

“We’re teaming up, right??” Uraraka asks Iida and Hitoshi with hopeful eyes.

“Sure, I guess,” Hitoshi answers. He could probably control a few people into carrying him, but honestly, why would he make the effort when he could have teammates able to use their own brains? And Uraraka’s quirk sounds like a great advantage in this kind of event, both for evasion and to attack from above.

Iida looks torn for a moment, but finally comes to a decision: “It is a good idea. Our quirks are quite compatible… We will have a lot of mobility, and Shinsou will be able to surprise anyone who has never seen him use his quirk. Who should we ask for the last spot in our team?”

They spend a full minute thinking. Around them, teams are forming quickly, and the lonely have become fewer.

“We need someone with good offensive power,” Shinsou eventually says, “but the heavy hitters are all taken…”

“Well…” Uraraka starts with a hesitancy that does not bode well, “there is one who is still alone…”

Hitoshi follows her gaze. “No fucking way,” he groans. “Are you crazy?”

“Come on! You can’t deny that he’s good!” she protests.

“Shinsou is right, this is a risky move,” Iida winces. “Are you sure about that? I don’t think that he is a great team player…”

“Well, he probably really wants to win, at least,” Hitoshi grumbles half-heartedly, as Uraraka ignores them and approaches the person she was looking at.

“Hello, Todoroki!” she calls out. “Would you like to join our team?”

Said classmate is isolated, potential allies clearly repelled by the enormous target his number of points will paint on his team. He watches Uraraka distrustfully, but seems to conclude that he doesn’t have much choice.

“I would be honored,” he finally says. Well, at least he is able to be polite, unlike some other people who did well in the race. “Did you have a strategy in mind?”

They spend the next few minutes planning. They decide that Todoroki should be on top. Iida is an obvious choice for one of the back horses, and so is Uraraka, as she will be ideally positioned to launch their rider in the air if there is a need. That leaves Hitoshi in the front, where he will have the best access to enemy horses or even riders, allowing him to destabilize other teams who would make the mistake of attempting trash talk.

“So, everyone is going to attack us right away. Todoroki, can you just… light yourself on fire so that nobody can get the headband?” Uraraka asks.

That’s not a bad idea, but Todoroki looks thoroughly uncomfortable.

“I do not use my fire in combat,” he answers stiffly. “But my ice should be enough to defend us; I can create a dome around us. If we can just stay inside, we’ll still be first.”

“No fire? That sounds kinda limiting,” Hitoshi frowns. “You’re refusing to use half of your power?”

“It’s… a long story,” Todoroki answers. “But I need to show my father that I can win without fire.”

“That, uh…” Uraraka hesitates. “Can I be frank? That sounds really dumb.”

Todoroki glares. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

Hitoshi purses his lips. It does sound dumb. At the same time, Todoroki is a powerful fighter even with only half of his quirk, and, well… His eyes, despite looking cold and emotionless at first glance, remind him of the way he himself sometimes looks in the mirror. There is a story behind this refusal. And combined with the large burn scar on his face, this paints a picture that he is not sure he wants to know the details of.

“Let’s start with the ice dome,” Hitoshi interrupts them before they can start arguing. “We can adapt if someone manages to breach it. Bakugou’s team is the most likely candidate.” With the blond’s explosive power and Mina’s acid, they look like the most dangerous threat.

“We need to keep a way out to escape,” Iida adds. “Can you leave an opening at the top?”

“Sure,” Todoroki agrees. “You’re right that the dome might only buy us time; we need a strategy to counter every other team. Do we have time for that?”

“Well, let’s try, at least,” Hitoshi sighs.

The dome actually buys them nearly fifteen minutes, which cuts in half the time they need to evade. Their strategy to escape once their shelter is breached (and it is indeed Bakugou’s team who manage it first) works perfectly: they launches Todoroki, made weightless by Uraraka, through the hole he had left at the very top of the structure, and the rest of the team gets out by the hole punched by their opponents. Since the headband they are protecting is now up high with their floating teammate, there is not much that anyone can do to stop them, especially once Uraraka makes parts of their horse easy to bowl over.

The rest of the event goes mostly as planned: thanks to Iida and Uraraka, their maneuverability is amazing, and Todoroki turning the floor around them into an ice rink is a great deterrent to most other teams. They do have a close call with Bakugou, who tries flying at them once, and Tokoyami, whose teaming with Yaoyorozu’s strategy, Kaminari’s raw power and some girl from support’s sheer insanity is more dangerous than they expected, but their most explosive classmate is soon distracted by some asshole from class 1-B stealing his headband, and Tokoyami has to deal with the fact that one part of his horse is working against him…

Apparently they forgot to tell their non-class 1-A teammate about Hitoshi’s quirk. Well, too bad for them.

There is only half a minute left when everyone seems to realize that the ten million points headband is still in their grasp and comes at them at once.

It is at that moment that Hitoshi understands why none of the small-time villains at the USJ managed to touch Todoroki.

“Are you sure this is enough ice?” Hitoshi asks sarcastically. “Maybe you should send a little bit more, just in case.”

“... It worked, didn’t it?” the boy answers with an expression that would probably be a pout on anyone less impassive.

And sure, it worked, since every single one of their opponents is now frozen up to the hips at least. There is also a sheet of ice several inches thick covering the entire arena.

“Are they okay?” Uraraka asks hesitantly in the ringing silence of the arena.

“I’ll get them out as soon as the battle is over,” Todoroki says.

As if on cue, Midnight starts counting down the last ten seconds. Bakugou looks ready to kill, but even he can’t get himself out before the countdown is over.

“Let’s, uh, let’s free them last, okay?” Uraraka laughs nervously.

Todoroki shrugs. “I’m pretty sure that him and Ashido can get themselves out all right and I’m not getting any closer to him than necessary. We’ll have our fight in the third round, he’ll have to wait for then.”

Indeed, their pink classmate is already dissolving the ice around her with her acid. While she is not the most studious or careful of their class, her quirk is quite useful and she knows how to use it, Hitoshi has to give that to her.

While Midnight announces the results, Todoroki gets down from their shoulders and starts going around their trapped enemies, his left side alight. He is quick to thaw the ice restraining them, though the arena still needs a lot of work before it can be used again.

Since they managed to keep their headband, despite only playing defense, their team is at the top of the scoreboard. Which means that Hitoshi needs to decide whether he wants to participate in the last round. Great. Hopefully he’ll get the time to talk to Aizawa before making a decision.

Right behind them, Bakugou has apparently stolen headbands from a bunch of class 1-B teams, probably because the smug blond guy who sounds so jealous of their class has spent most of his time trying  —  and succeeding  —  to antagonize him. Yaoyorozu got third place: their team was less mobile than the first two, but their strong offense and clever strategy did wonders for them. And the fourth team, and the last one qualified for the last round, is a class 1-B one; Hitoshi doesn’t know them, but he has seen their quirk in action, and he feels like the girl with vine hair and the boy who can turn the ground liquid will make for very interesting fights in the one-on-one tournament.

“I can’t believe we got first place!” Uraraka jumps. She is smiling widely. “See, I was right to ask Todoroki!”

“That you were,” Hitoshi concedes. “But don’t sell yourself short, he didn’t win by himself and you did pretty great too. I’m a bit frustrated that I didn’t get to do more, actually… You guys did all the heavy lifting; I only used my quirk once.”

“It is true, but you were invaluable at the strategizing stage,” Iida says. “We made a great team and I wouldn’t have exchanged you for anyone else here.”

Hitoshi feels his face warm up and tries to cover it with a confident smirk. He is not having feelings at the sports festival! “Well, same to you, I guess. Maybe we can team up again next year... “ Now how to change the subject… “Have any of you seen Aizawa-sensei? I really need to speak to him before the next round.”

“I haven’t,” Uraraka frowns. “I thought I heard Present Mic say that he wanted him to be in the speaker box, to help with commenting, but that must have not worked out…”

“I’d have to be half dead before I’d let that overgrown cockatoo talk me into something so stupid,” a voice speaks out behind them, making the three of them jump.

“Aizawa-sensei!” Uraraka cries out. “How long have you been here?”

“Long enough to know that you kids need some more lessons in situational awareness,” the teacher sighs. “Shinsou, you wanted to talk. Come with me.”

Hitoshi follows him until they are far enough from everyone to be able to speak freely.

“I don’t think that I want to participate in the last round,” Hitoshi opens with.

Aizawa hums. “And I don’t think that you should. You’re right that for you, it’s a risk. And with your performance during the first two rounds? The reward is not that interesting. You didn’t want to intern in one of the top agencies, right?”

“Well, I don’t think that I’d be a good fit with most of them,” he admits. “Do underground heroes take interns?”

“Occasionally,” Aizawa says. “I’ve actually been thinking about your case, and I know someone whose experience would be relevant to yours. She is also a teacher, so you’d have to deal with nocturnal hours. Would that be a problem?”

“I don’t mind weird hours, but… a teacher?” Hitoshi looks around. Who could that be?

“She’s not teaching at UA,” Aizawa smirks, “and I doubt that you know her. I told her to keep an eye on the first-years at the festival this year, and with your performance now I’m pretty sure that she will send an internship nomination. So if you bow out now, it shouldn’t handicap you much. I’ll tell Midnight about your decision.”

It feels like cheating. He shouldn’t be able to just skip the last round. But if this is what his teacher recommend, he’ll push past his discomfort and do the smart thing.

Hitoshi goes back to his friends after that, and sees that all the participants in the cavalry battle have been defrosted. Uraraka and Iida are still talking, but he can't see Todoroki anywhere.

"Where did Ice Boy go?" he asks them.

"He went back to the changing room. I think he was cold?" Uraraka says. "His right hand was covered in frost, even after melting everyone out of the ice."

So Todoroki gets cold when he uses too much ice, uh? That makes the conversation that Hitoshi wants to have even more important.

He finds him sitting down in an out of the way hallway, eyes closed and his hands resting on his bent knees. His right side is free of frost, but the boy is still shivering a little, and there are small orange flames flickering on his left arm.

"So you can use your fire to warm yourself up when creating ice makes you too cold?"

Todoroki opens his eyes and sends him a weak glare.

"I came here to be alone," he intones monotonously.

"And I came here to speak to you," Hitoshi shrugs. "One of us is going to be disappointed."

Todoroki doesn't answer and turns his gaze to the blank wall that faces him. Hitoshi sighs.

"Listen, I stopped Uraraka from asking too much about your fire because I thought you were afraid of it, but clearly you don't mind using it out of a fight. So now I'm asking. What is the matter with that?"

"You thought I was afraid?" Todoroki asks. "Why?"

"I saw your scar, so I made an assumption. But apparently I was wrong, so now I'm asking you."

“Ah, my scar.” He smiles bitterly, and that's the most emotion Hitoshi has ever seen on him. “It’s related, but not in the way you are probably thinking. Are you familiar with the concept of a quirk marriage?”

Hitoshi listens to Todoroki talk about his family, and his horror grows with each word. He was not really expecting the other boy to unload his whole tragic backstory on him, a virtual stranger, but honestly, if he has never told anyone about it, maybe he just can’t stop himself.

Still, once he gets over the sheer disgust that this whole story inspires him, the reasoning behind the other boy’s decision to not use his fire feels… a bit thin.

“You know, I don’t have any experience with horrible parents, but I do have experience with quirks that have bad associations. You actually think that your fire is your father’s quirk?”

“Well it sure didn’t come from my mother,” Todoroki shoots back, “so yes, I am reasonably sure.”

“That’s not what I meant. You do realize that it is your quirk, not his, right?”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Todoroki grumbles.

“Maybe, it’s true that my parents have quirks that are different enough from mine that I can consider them separately. My mother can influence others’ emotions by singing and my father has a charisma boost. But have you ever heard about the Puppeteer?”

“He was… a villain from a few decades ago, wasn’t he?”

“Right. You know what his quirk was?”

“Some kind of mind cont- okay, I see your point but that’s not the same at all. He didn’t actually have the same quirk as you, the activation condition was different, for once. If he was who I’m thinking about, he didn’t even speak his orders, while your quirk goes completely through your voice.”

“Sure, technically they don’t have that much in common,” Hitoshi shrugs. “I’m sure that a quirk specialist could list all the differences. But do you think that it mattered to people in middle school?”

“I didn’t go to middle school so I wouldn’t know,” Todoroki deadpans.

“Well use your imagination, asshole. I can answer for you anyway: it didn’t matter at all. I’ve been called a villain for my quirk since basically the day it manifested. Does that mean that I am one? After all, I’m using a villain’s quirk.”

“I mean, I don’t know you that well,” Todoroki answers uncomfortably, “but I’ve never seen you use it out of exercises and the USJ, so I guess not?”

“But you agree that a villain with my quirk would be terrible?”

“Yes.”

“And yet I call myself a hero in training. Am I wrong?”

“No. But the Puppeteer was not in your family and you are not in danger to inherit his character. And you’ve heard what my mother did; while I do not resent her, I do not feel like her side of the family will help much curb bad tendencies.”

This time, Hitoshi takes a few moments to think. The question of being too much like a bad parent is much more complicated than the “this is a bad person’s quirk so it is bad” discussion they started with, or at least he feels less sure of himself when talking about it.

“I cannot say much about this problem,” he eventually says, “because I do not understand it as well. But I can say one thing: if you are a bad person who hurt people close to you, like your father is, it won’t matter much whether you use fire or only ice. If anything, you should have stayed away from a hero career, if you really fear becoming violent. But if you think that you can do better with ice, then you can probably do better with fire too.”

This time, the look on Todoroki’s face is thoughtful. Well, Hitoshi probably didn’t get rid of a decade of trauma with one conversation, but maybe it might help him change his mind in the long run? Who knows.

“... Thank you, I need to think about this,” Todoroki finally answers. “I still want to win the festival without using fire, because my father is watching and I’d like to show to him that I do not need his help. But maybe I should try to incorporate both sides of my quirk in later exercises.”

“I’ll take that,” Hitoshi smirks. “So, it's lunch break, do you want to eat with the rest of our team?”

Todoroki’s surprised expression is pretty funny. What, did he expect them to have a deep discussion about the innate morality of their respective quirks and then stay basically strangers?

“So, Iida, is your brother alright?” Uraraka asks brightly as they sit down with their meal.

“I have not heard about him since my call, but he was on patrol for the whole morning, so it is not especially worrisome,” Iida answers. “And I am not bothering him a second time today because of some unfounded fears.”

“Is there something wrong with your brother?” Todoroki frowns.

“No,” Iida sighs, “there is something wrong with me, and with them because they will not leave it alone.”

When he doesn’t explain any further despite Todoroki’s curious look, Histoshi intervenes: “Iida had a bad feeling about his brother this morning.”

“And… that’s it?” Todoroki asks, bemused.

“Thank you,” Iida mutters.

“Well, the last time he felt weird like that was before the USJ, so we thought it would be better safe than sorry, you know?” Uraraka says. “Plus I’m sure that his brother was happy to hear from him, and he was all broody before we convinced him to call.”

“You felt weird before the USJ?” Todoroki’s attention has been grabbed.

“I am not the only one,” Iida defends, “Uraraka did too.”

“And Bakugou, according to Kirishima,” Hitoshi adds. “I mean, it wasn’t obvious to the rest of us, but still. Why, did you feel it too?”

Todoroki hesitates. “I think I did. I didn’t tell anyone because, well, surely it was just a coincidence? But I almost expected something to go wrong.”

Hitoshi considers this information. “Just out of curiosity, what did you think of Aizawa-sensei’s little trick, on the first day? His threat of expulsion for the worst score?”

Todoroki shrugs. “It was obvious that it was a ruse. Anyway, I didn’t really care, since I was quite sure that I wouldn’t take last place.”

“See?” Hitoshi says to his two friends. “I think that it was the first time you guys all exhibited your seer powers, and Todoroki is just another one of you. I’d ask the same question to Bakugou, but I’m pretty sure that he has wanted to kill me since the second day.”

“You did shut him up quite well,” Todoroki says, and Hitoshi thinks that it is probably the first time he has seen the other boy truly smile. Figure that it would take remembering Bakugou’s crushing defeat on their first practical exercise.

“Speaking about that, do you think you’ll have to go against him today?” Uraraka asks.

“Ha, no,” Hitoshi chuckles, “while I’d love to show once again how easy he is to rile up into doing something stupid, I won’t participate in the tournament today.”

“Why?!” both his friends exclaim. Even Todoroki looks curious.

Hitoshi shrugs. “That’s what I was talking about with Aizawa-sensei. I don’t need more exposure to get a good internship, especially since I’m not aiming for any of the big agencies, and I depend a lot on surprise to use my quirk, so broadcasting how it works to all of Japan wouldn’t be a great idea. I could be discrete about it in the first two rounds, where a lot of things were happening at once, but for the one-on-one tournament I would have to demonstrate it clearly, and I don’t want to lose the advantage for the next time I have to fight someone who is not in our class.”

“That’s smart,” Todoroki approves.

Iida and Uraraka look torn. Of course, they are aiming to be spotlight heroes, with a ranking and a public image. They do not know that underground heroes have to be careful of staying out of the media, and that as such avoiding events like the last round of UA sport festival is pretty much a given.

Honestly, he should have avoided the festival altogether, but it did sound fun and if he can’t go in his first year, he will never be able to go at all. And he needs to start networking; maybe next time he can just use previous experiences and the people he’ll have met then to find internship offers, but for now, he does need a little bit of publicity.

“I’m fine with it,” he says when his friends still look like his decision is paining them. “I’d have a hard time winning more than one round anyway, because at some point people would know what to expect.”

“If you say so,” Uraraka says dubiously.

“I’ll be in the bleachers cheering for you,” he adds with a smirk, “so you’d better be good or I will make fun of you forever.”

She finally smiles. “You bet! We’re going to do our best! Right, Iida?”

“Of course! Though I am in no hurry to fight against you, as I know that you will make a formidable opponent. And the same goes to you, Todoroki.”

Todoroki tilts his head. “I look forward to measuring myself against the two of you.”

Hitoshi has to wince when he sees the results of the drawing. While he is confident that Iida will beat the girl from support, and he can probably deal with whoever wins between Ashido and Honenuki, thus giving him a good chance to reach the semi-final round, Uraraka will be fighting against Bakugou for her very first battle.

While Hitoshi genuinely likes Uraraka and knows her to be very capable, this is not a good match for her. It would not be a good match for anyone.

This is going to be painful.

He doesn’t pay much attention to the first match  —  Ojiro, who was qualified through Hitoshi’s withdrawal, doesn’t leave much of a chance to Awase from class 1-B to showcase his quirk before pinning him down with a few well-executed judo moves  —  and, well, the second match goes by quickly.

There is a bit of a break before the third match, since they need to remove the gigantic block of ice that is covering a third of the stadium. What the actual fuck, Todoroki.

Kaminari panics and loses to Shiozaki from class 1-B, Iida wins against Hatsume at the price of his pride, Ashido manages to get the drop on Honenuki before he can trap her, Tokoyami gets rid of Yaoyorozu before she can really use her quirk or any kind of strategy, and Kirishima and Tetsutetsu have a contest about which one of them has the hardest head.

They both lose.

Hitoshi would probably find that last one hilarious if he and Iida didn’t spend most of that match trying to cheer Uraraka up before her own battle.

They are not very successful. Seeing her leave for the arena feels almost like she is marching to the gallows. He knows, logically, that Bakugou will not kill her, or even maim her too badly, but he doesn’t like the way her last reassuring smile to them is obviously forced.

Still, she does… amazingly well, actually. While she does not manage to win, she clearly makes a great impression on everyone in the stadium. Her tenacity and ingenuity in the face of Bakugou’s implacable display of skill is admirable.

She still leaves the arena on a stretcher, though.

Hitoshi and Iida, and, surprisingly, Todoroki, all go to see her as soon as she is released by Recovery Girl. Though Hitoshi is not fooled by her smile, she does seem grateful that they took the time to come and see her. Todoroki doesn’t say much, but Hitoshi is thankful that he at least made a show of support, and his comment on her performance  —  “you did better than anyone expected, you lack technique but you have the determination to become great“ —  is delivered a bit flatly but sounds sincere enough.

After a few minutes, Todoroki is called to go to his next match, and Hitoshi takes Iida with him to go back to the bleachers. Uraraka looks slightly better, but she will probably cry and if she wants privacy, they have to respect that.

“I would not want to be in Ojiro’s place,” Iida remarks.

“Aren’t you going to have to fight Todoroki in the semi-final if you beat Mina, though?” Hitoshi asks.

“Yes, but my quirk gives me a chance to surprise him before he can take me out. Ojiro has no such advantage.”

“I’m actually impressed that he got so far. His quirk doesn’t look like much, but he sure knows how to use it.”

It’s not enough, of course; against Todoroki’s raw power, no martial art can compare. Ojiro gets frozen to the floor less than half a minute in (though this time the ice-wielding student did control his output to a reasonable level).

“Well, it is my turn,” Iida announces before going to the waiting room. He leaves just as Uraraka comes back with her eyes red and puffy.

Hitoshi is happy to see his friend win against Shiozaki, using a lightning fast move that none of them had seen before. He can see why Iida feels that he might be able to surprise even their most powerful classmates.

Tokoyami has to work a lot more against Mina’s agility than he did against Yaoyorozu, but he is still formidable at close-range combat, and ends up grabbing her with his shadow demon and throwing her out of the ring. Similarly, while Kirishima is incredibly persistent, he still has to bow out in front of Bakugou’s explosions.

“They are all so intense…” Uraraka wonders. “It does make me feel better about my loss. And I’m glad that Bakugou at least took me seriously.”

“I don’t know if it helps, but you certainly made an impression,” Hitoshi says. “There are not that many people here who would be able to last as long as you did against Bakugou. You can get better, sure, but you already have the right mindset, and that counts for a lot.”

“Thank you,” she squeaks, blushing.

They shut up as Iida and Todoroki enter for their semi-finale.

The fight is short, very short, but Iida comes much closer to defeating his opponent than anyone else before. It’s even the first time since the start of the festival that Hitoshi sees Todoroki use strategy instead of only blunt force, and also the first time anyone lands a solid hit on him, so Hitoshi feels like Iida lost very honorably; hopefully his anxiety about disappointing his family will calm down a little…

“Well, I still have a way to go,” Iida says bravely as he comes back to sit next to his classmates.

Uraraka smiles at him. “You did great! And if I don’t get to brood because I lost against Bakugou, you don’t get to brood because you lost to Todoroki:”

Iida grins ruefully. “That is fair, I guess.”

They are interrupted by a loud buzzing sound.

“Oh, that’s my mother,” Iida says, looking at his vibrating phone. “If you will excuse me…”

They watch him walk away to a calmer area.

“My parents also called after I lost,” Uraraka admits.

“It’s good that they support you,” Hitoshi says. “You know you could have cried in front of us, right?”

She blushes. “It’s not that I don’t trust you,” she assures. “But I feel like I have to be strong in front of people from UA, or they will never take me seriously. You heard what those heroes in the stands said when I was up against Bakugou, they just see me as a girl who needs protecting…”

“Well, Aizawa-sensei went to the speaker box just so he could publically tear them a new one, so you know that not everyone thinks this way.”

“I know, I know,” she sighs, “and I don’t think that you and Iida do. It’s just hard to convince myself when I’m already feeling emotional.”

Hitoshi frowns but does not insist. After all, they have known each other for less than a month, even if it feels longer… It does make sense that they are still building trust in each other. Still, he makes a note to keep an eye on this particular insecurity. Hopefully she will find mentors who can help her with that, but as a friend he can at least check that people around her treat her fairly.

The match between Tokoyami and Bakugou goes by  —  “Tokoyami told me that Dark Shadow is sensitive to light, Bakugou must be exploiting that”, Yaoyorozu says from her seat next to them  —  and then there is a small break before the finals. Hitoshi tries and fails to find Iida.

“Maybe he needed to cry in private too?” Uraraka shrugs. “I’ll text him, but if he doesn’t want to watch the last battle it’s his choice.”

“Yes, you’re probably right,” Hitoshi says, still worried. It’s not like their class president to disappear without informing anyone.

“So, do you think that the stadium will survive the match?” Kirishima asks from his seat close by.

They all wince. It’s a fair question, after all.

As soon as Midnight signals the start of the match, Todoroki opens with a mountain of ice similar to the one he used against Sero.

“It’s smaller,” Yaoyorozu remarks. “Do you think that he is more in control, or that he is getting tired?”

“I guess we’ll see,” Hitoshi murmurs.

The first attack doesn’t stop Bakugou, who manages to pull himself out from the ice structure and launches himself behind Todoroki. He is yelling something and looks even angrier than usual, but from this far, they cannot hear what he is saying.

Todoroki has to use an ice wall to stop himself from being bodily thrown out of bounds. They trade blows for a while, Todoroki creating spears of ice and Bakugou propelling himself to try and land an impact, but neither of them manages to gain the advantage. Both are talking now, and even the ever impassible Todoroki seems to be slowly losing his cool.

“I wonder what they are saying,” Uraraka mutters. “I’m used to Bakugou being angry, but I’ve never seen Todoroki so expressive.”

“Yeah, I wish I could read lips,” Kirishima agrees. “Holy shit, I understand why those two are in the finals, they are crazy strong! So manly!”

It’s true that their match has by far the most firepower they have seen yet, and they do not seem to be losing steam.

Suddenly, Bakugou plunges forward and manages to grab Todoroki by his left lapel, and just as he is about to throw him over his shoulder, the other boy... lights up.

Until now, Hitoshi has never seen Todoroki do more with his left side than melt some ice, which uses flames that extend a few centimeters out of his skin. But at that moment, he  —  and everyone else in the stadium, and a lot of people all over Japan, presumably  —  is reminded that this boy is the son of the number two hero, a man not particularly known for his subtlety.

The blaze is several meters high, and forces Bakugou to back up hastily. The explosive student is now sporting a feral grin.

“SHOUTOOOOO!” someone yells behind them.

All the teenagers sitting side by side startle. Marching down the stadium stairs, Endeavor is bellowing: “So you’ve finally accepted yourself, huh?! Excellent! Now-”

“WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?!!”

Okay, so apparently Bakugou is amply able to scream loud enough for everyone to hear.

“NOBODY WANTS TO LISTEN TO YOUR SHITTY PEP TALK, OLD MAN! THIS IS OUR FIGHT!”

In the arena, the fight has paused. Todoroki, left side still on fire, is staring at Bakugou with a small raise of his eyebrows that would probably be a flabbergasted expression on anyone else. His opponent has turned toward Endeavor, who is now opening and closing his mouth soundlessly like an especially stupid fish.

The pro hero doesn’t have time to recover before the two students start fighting again, this time less angrily but still as ferociously. Unsurprisingly for a battle involving someone on fire and someone whose skin produces nitroglycerin, it soon culminates in an impressive explosion that creates a cloud of smoke and dust, and only when the dust settles can everyone see that both boys are slumped on the ground, but only Todoroki is out of bounds.

The arena is in shambles.

“... Wow,” Kirishima says increduly. “I guess we all know who the most powerful students in our year are, now?”

“You know what, I’m happy that I bowed out before going against either of them,” Hitoshi shivers. “Those two are monsters.”

“Yes, I’m not feeling so bad about losing now,” Uraraka gulps. “They really deserve the top two places, huh.”

At least Endeavor is shutting up now. Small mercies.

That night, the green eyes are back. This time, they are angry and determined.

They are not accusing, though.

He still feels guilty.

The next day, which they have free to rest, Hitoshi sends a text to Iida.

Shinsou Hitoshi: Are you alright? You left kind of suddenly yesterday.

He hasn’t seen Iida at all during the closing ceremony, which was otherwise kinda boring. God, Bakugou looked so smug with his gold medal, they are never going to hear the end of it.

Now that he is thinking about it, though, Todoroki looked… thoughtful. Maybe Hitoshi could speak to him too.

Look at him: only in the heroic department for a month and already meddling in other people's business. What’s happening to him?

He asks Yaoyorozu if she can give him Todoroki’s phone number, since he knows that as the class vice-president she has everyone else’s. She answers quickly without asking questions, and her no-nonsense efficiency is why Hitoshi likes her instead of just tolerating her like most of their classmates.

Shinsou Hitoshi: Hey, this is Shinsou, I got your number from Yaoyorozu. How are you? Yesterday was kinda intense…

To his surprise, he gets an answer almost immediately.

Todoroki Shouto: Fine, thank you. I saw Recovery Girl before the ceremony, so I feel great.

Shinsou Hitoshi: That’s good, but I was not just talking about physically. You and Bakugou looked ready to kill each other at some point. He didn’t go too far, did he?

Todoroki Shouto: No, it’s alright. I actually somewhat needed to hear what he said.

Todoroki Shouto: And seeing him shut up my father was the best moment of my life. I’m thinking about sending him chocolates.

Hitoshi barks a laugh. The scene was hilarious, but he did not expect Todoroki to suddenly develop a sense of humor.

Shinsou Hitoshi: Glad to hear it. Does that mean that you are going to use your fire from now on?

Todoroki Shouto: Maybe. I also wanted to thank you for talking to me after the cavalry battle. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable, but I needed to tell someone. And you had some pretty good advice.

Now that’s flattering, Todoroki thanking him for his wisdom. Maybe he will actually be friendly in class now? Or at least friendlier. Hitoshi wouldn’t mind getting to hear more of this biting sarcasm.

Shinsou Hitoshi: You’re welcome. I’m more used to people refusing to talk to me, so that’s kind of a nice change, I guess? Anyway, if you need to bitch about your dad again, I’m here.

Todoroki Shouto: I’ll take it into consideration. I’m actually going to see my mother today, so either I’ll get to do that with her, or I will need another complaining session tomorrow.

Todoroki Shouto: See you then.

Well, look at that, Hitoshi is still making new friends. His parents are going to be ecstatic.

Iida doesn’t answer until late in the afternoon.

Iida Tenya: I am sorry for worrying you. My mother called to let me know that my brother was in the hospital, so I left in a hurry before the finals.

Damn. Yeah, that’s a good reason to not say goodbye.

Shinsou Hitoshi: Wow, sorry to hear that! Are you alright?

Shinsou Hitoshi: Wait, that’s kind of a stupid question. What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?

Iida Tenya: He got attacked during his patrol. Fortunately, one of his sidekicks got him to the hospital fast enough, and he woke up today. He is going to live.

Shinsou Hitoshi: Once again, I‘m sorry to hear that. Give him my best wishes, please? And do you need anything? I can take notes for you if you are not up for class tomorrow.

Iida Tenya: That is very nice of you, but it won’t be necessary. The doctor told us that he was out of danger. My family is with me, I have all the support that I need.

Shinsou Hitoshi: That’s good, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.

That last text sounded like a request for space, and he indeed does not get another answer that day.

He sighs. They had joked about Iida’s weird premonition, but this is starting to feel a bit too serious for his taste. If the event his classmate basically predicted resulted in his brother getting put in the hospital after being warned, who knows what would have happened otherwise? At this point, Hitoshi is going to take the next time one of his friends feels any kind of anxiety like a deadly omen…

The next day, Iida arrives to class early as usual. At first glance, his demeanor is fairly calm and collected; he exhibits none of the moodiness Hitoshi expected. But he can’t help thinking that it looks kind of fake.

Still, the class president evades his questions and they are soon both distracted by their classmates relating awkward encounters they had this morning. Apparently, some of them were even recognized in public transports.

Hitoshi shivers. He is very happy to have not gone beyond the second round, thank you very much.

They all quiet quickly when Aizawa enters  —  he is training them well  —  and announces that today, they will be thinking about hero names.

While most of the class erupts in enthusiasm, Hitoshi drops his head on his table. He has thought about the subject, of course, but he has yet to find a name that is both not too cheesy and not too villainous.

Maybe he needs a name that has nothing to do with his quirk, after all.

Before they actually start suggesting names, though, the teacher presents the list of agency nominations that were sent to the school. To no one's surprise, Todoroki and Bakugou are leagues above everyone else. Tokoyami and Iida both get above three hundreds, Yaoyorozu and Kirishima a few dozens, and Uraraka and Sero still have some choice.

And right at the bottom of the list, Hitoshi's name shows a single nomination.

"That's not fair," Ashido grumbles, "I thought I did pretty good…"

"They have no taste," Aoyama shrugs elegantly. "Ne te laisse pas abattre."

They all ignore the French sentence.

"Hey, how come Shinsou got a nomination when he didn't even go to the last round?" Mineta whines.

"Maybe I'm just that great," Hitoshi smirks in his direction. "I was on the winning team in the cavalry battle, wasn't I?"

"Ugh, people like you are so lucky," the grape boy groans. "You didn't even have to try to get noticed."

"Some agencies are looking for very specific profiles," Aizawa interrupts them before Hitoshi can answer that, probably unpleasantly (or do something stupid like use his quirk on his most annoying classmate). "The one that nominated Shinsou specializes in psychological quirks. They are quite rare in hero schools, so the agency calls any promising student that matches with that criterion. Anyway, those of you who didn't receive anything will be able to pick an agency amongst the forty who have an agreement with UA, so you will have occasions to get that work experience nevertheless."

Hitoshi looks around. Most of his classmates look relieved at this clarification. Todoroki and Bakugou clearly don't care, for very obvious reasons, and Uraraka just looks ecstatic to have been noticed at all, even though Hitoshi could have predicted it from how impressive her only match has been.

But Iida? Iida does not look happy or enthusiastic. He looks… thoughtful. Somehow, that makes Hitoshi much more worried. Hitoshi knows that after what happened to his brother he can’t expect him to feel very positive today, but he does not like the way his brows are pinched in an almost calculating manner.

His thoughts on the subject are cut short by Midnight's entrance, and he is soon preoccupied by finding a hero name that does not make him sound like an evil mastermind.

Since Midnight lets them move around the classroom to talk amongst themselves, he goes to Uraraka’s desk, right behind Iida’s.

"Do you know what name you want to take?” the girl smiles brightly.

“Not really,” Hitoshi sighs. “Anything I think about ends up sounding really ominous, and that’s not really the vibe I’m going for, you know? What about you?”

She blushes. “Actually, I’ve known what my hero name would be since third grade. And you, Iida?”

Iida’s answering smile is a bit too bright for the circumstances. “I do not know yet! Someone made a suggestion, but I am not sure that I want to take it.”

“What is it?” Hitoshi asks, curious.

“Someone in my family wants me to take their hero name, but I am not sure that I deserve it. And I am hoping that they will still use it later.”

Uraraka and Hitoshi exchange an uncertain look.

“Is this about what happened to your brother?” she asks carefully.

Iida’s expression turns stony. “He is talking about retiring, but the doctors say that he will make a full recovery, so I do not want to accept yet.”

“Oh, I’m glad to hear it!” she brightens. “Well, not the retiring part of course, but I saw in the newspaper that he has been hurt, so it’s a relief to know that he is not permanently disabled!”

“It is to me too,” Iida nods. “As for my hero name, I think that I will go with Tenya for now, if only to give him time to really think about it.”

“Hm, it is true that your family name is already famous, so you can’t really use it,” Hitoshi says. “If I don’t find anything better, I’ll go with Shinsou for the time being, I guess…”

“Mh, what about… something about minds, maybe?...” Uraraka suggests. “You’re right, this is hard. I think that the coolest thing about your quirk is how you can solve so many situations bloodlessly, so you could lean on that?”

“The Peacemaker,” Hitoshi says solemnly, before grinning. “That was so pompous. But you are right, this is a good angle. Or at least a better one than others I tried…”

“Mr Calm-Down, the inner peace hero. He will make you zen whether you like it or not,” Uraraka giggles.

“Not bad. Or Xanax, the hypnotic hero.”

“Everyone go back to their seat!” Midnight calls out, interrupting their incredibly productive discussion.

Ugh, he still needs to find something very soon.

The name presentations start badly, with Aoyama and Ashido making Hitoshi think that maybe he didn’t need to search for something non-cheesy, but Asui manages to get all of them back on track. Other students have ideas that range from really cool to serviceable (though someone needs to tell Kirishima that “the hero of hard virility” might not be the best title), and Uraraka’s new name is actually pretty amazing.

And then there is Bakugou. Well, at least Hitoshi knows that he won’t do worse than “King of Explodo-Kills”.

Like he had announced, Iida (like Todoroki, actually, and probably for similar reasons) just uses his given name.

That just leaves Hitoshi, who nervously raises his slate with “Serenity” written on it.

“Mysterious, I like it!” Midnight exclaims. “It doesn’t give your quirk away, yet it is adapted to your way of resolving conflicts. Excellent! You all did a good job today!”

And just like that, the most stressful part of the day is over. They still need to choose their agency for the temporary internship, but if what Aizawa said is true, then Hitoshi has a clear best choice.

Especially if his sole nomination comes from the person that his teacher talked about him to.

He looks at the paper that was given to him. The name Ms. Joke stares back.

“I am going with Gunhead!” Uraraka announces at the end of the class.

“Isn’t he specialized in battle? I thought you wanted to do rescues?” Hitoshi asks.

“Yes! But I also want to get better at fighting,” she explains. “After my fight with Bakugou, I realized that I really need to get stronger if I want to keep my options open. I can’t just stay in my comfort zone!”

“That’s brave,” Hitoshi says. “I’m going with my nomination. She’s a teacher at Ketsubutsu and an underground hero.” Or at least that’s what a quick internet search has revealed.

“Really? What is she like?” his friend asks.

“I don’t know much, but her quirk is based on making people laugh so I guess she’ll have advice on how to manipulate people into reacting,” he shrugs. “She is an underground hero like I want to be, and Aizawa-sensei said that he thought we would be a good fit, so I’m trusting him.”

“That’s very cool! And you, Iida, where will you go? At your brother's agency?”

Iida shakes his head. “No, given the… circumstances, I thought it would be awkward for me to go there. I am going to intern with the normal hero, Manual.”

That’s a name that doesn’t ring any bells, but Hitoshi is no specialist and Iida probably knows a lot better than any of them which mentor would be a good fit for him.

He goes to get out and his eyes fall on Todoroki, who seems still considering his choices.

“It must be hard to have so many choices. Where do you think you’ll go?” Hitoshi asks.

Todoroki looks up, faintly surprised. “Oh, most of those are only because of my father, I think,” he answers flatly. “I’m probably just going to intern with him, at his agency.”

“Really? I thought you didn’t like him.”

“I don’t, but I have to admit that he is the number two hero for a reason, and if I want to become the best, I have to learn with the best. I still have no intention of forgiving him, though.”

“That sounds a bit… unhealthy, don’t you think?” Hitoshi says. “Don’t you want to distance yourself from him? You probably have other great nominations, don’t you?”

Todoroki hesitates. “Well, I have an offer from Hawks, but he does not have quite the same… work ethics as my father. I do not know if it would benefit me quite as much.”

“I know that he looks like a slacker, but I don’t think anyone becomes number three at twenty-two by being lazy, you know?” Hitoshi muses. “I mean, it’s your choice in the end, but are you sure that you want to subject yourself to your father’s presence for a whole week?”

That seems to tip the scales for his classmate. “You’re right,” he decides, “I’ll go with Hawks. If anything, I know all too well how my father trains, so another opinion will certainly be helpful.”

Well, that’s a relief. Hitoshi still isn’t sure what he wants to do with Todoroki’s confidences about his family, and he is still wondering whether he should just tell everything to Aizawa, but at least his… classmate? friend? won’t be in prolonged contact with his abuser for the whole next week. That gives him some time to think.