Work Text:
Shinsou Hitoshi, Quirk: Brainwashing. Of course, since society so obviously quirkest, he did not have a great life. Other kids had things that Hitoshi would never have. Loving parents, nice teachers, lots of friends (or any at all). Even things like basic necessities.
This is why Hitoshi hated the Hero course kids so bad. They had probably had everything handed to them on a silver platter. All of them had flashy quirks, and so society probably doted on them. They were the golden child’s, while people like him were metaphorically and literally thrown away.
But for some reason, this was not how the most gossipy people treated them. Every single goddamned day he walked into the 1-C classroom, he would hear So. Many. Rumors.
To be fair, they were trying to keep it quiet, but to the guy who had basically lived in silence his entire life, any noise was louder than the silence. Most of the rumors he heard were pretty tame. Half of them could be barely even called rumors, and were just more or less bullying.
Things he heard usually went like, ‘Did you know the Hero course student who has that electrically quirk failed his quiz? What a dumbass’ and, ‘You know that the reason that Hero course kid with a bunch of arms for a quirk or something? Well, the reason he wears a mask is because apparently he has a really creepy mouth!’
The latter of the two gossips had been more or less true, although apparently if you went far enough into the gossiping corner, they had been talking about how he apparently ate children or some shit like that.
Now this is what he didn’t understand at all. All of them had physical or flashy, more or less a combination of both, and yet they were the ones getting picked on. It’s as if the world suddenly flipped on it’s side, swapping the two roles. The only reason he knew that the world hadn’t turned in upon itself was because people still hated him.
Some jerk had figured out his quirk somehow, and spread the information around. While it wasn’t as bad in middle school, they still jeered at him, and taunted him, things like that. But at the same time, this would happen to more than half the Hero course, although it wasn’t to their face.
When Class 1-A would walk through the halls so many things would happen. He could always hear so many people whispering little jaunts, saying things like they shouldn’t be in the Hero course. There was also almost always quite a few people would also say that they would be way better gone or dead.
While Hitoshi also hated the Hero course students because of their quirks, he didn’t understand why people would go this far. This shouldn’t be happening to them, no, it should be the other way around! It just doesn’t make any sense!
//
It was now the second year he had been at UA. All the first year was the same way, and it got progressively worse the longer the year went on. All because of the villain attacks, which is really nobody’s fault, yet the other students still blamed Class 1-A. Even Class 1-B, the other Hero course, started to slightly turn against Class 1-A, although most of it was some guy named Monoma.
In general, almost the entire school had turned against these 20, no 19 kids. The short purple guy had gotten expelled or some shit earlier.
But now it was a new school year, and at least the rumors had gotten a bit better. Probably because sometime during the very end of the last school year, the League of Villains had gotten taken care of, which Class 1-A had apparently helped with.
Even his life had gotten better. He had gotten adopted by Ersaerhead, or Aizawa-Sensei since his foster home was shit. He was married to Present Mic, or Yamada-Sensei, and so now he two parents who actually loved him. Another plus was that he was technically a big brother now, since Eri was under Aizawa’s guardianship. He could go on and on about how just getting adopted made his life so much better.
Now he was in his second year, soon to be transferred over to Class 1-A. Before he had started to transfer, he had heard one last rumor about Class 1-A. Or, more about just one person in particular. Midoriya Izuku.
‘Did you know that Midoriya Izuku guy was quirkless before UA?’
‘Midoriya Izuku is such a weird person, you know why? He was quirkless less than a year ago! Ha!’
‘He’s so pathetic, like seriously? Quirkless before UA!’
These rumors couldn’t be true, there’s no way. That would be basically impossible! He had read once about how many quirkless people had randomly gained quirks for a school project once. While there still is a chance, the chance of Midoriya gaining a quirk after being quirkless is one in 2 billion!
Now that he thinks about it, he could just ask him. But how do you bring up, ‘oh yeah, so I heard that you were quirkless before UA, now explain’ without seeming rude or even stalker like?
Fuck his dignity, he needed to know. He was getting transferred tomorrow, so he could ask then.
//
During lunch the next day, he had asked Midoriya to meet him at one of the outside eating areas. While they were available for any student to use, most if not all students still ate inside.
At that moment, Midoriya entered his field of view, and called out to him. “Hi Shinsou! You wanted to talk to me?”
Hitoshi sighed, if he was going to do this, he might as well go straight into it. “I heard some… concerning? Concerning rumors about you.”
“Um, what kind of rumors?”
“That you were quirkless before UA.” A hitch in Midoriya’s breath. “I wanted to know if it was true, and I figured that it would be better to go to the source.”
A pause. Midoriya didn’t say anything, so neither did Hitoshi.
After what felt like forever, Midoriya finally spoke. “Yeah, it's true. And I’m assuming you want the whole story…?”
Now Hitoshi was the one who paused. So he really had been quirkless before UA, and was willing to give him the whole story? He found it hard to speak, so he just nodded his head a couple of times.
Midoriya sighed, which he honestly wasn’t sure if he was able to sigh before now, and continued speaking. “I’m going to do the short version first, and then if you want, you can ask questions. And one other thing, I’ve already told the rest of my classmates this same story. But anyways, I was quirkless before UA. The extra pinky toe and everything”
“In middle school, 10 months before the entrance exams, I got attacked by a villain, and All Might saved me. I asked him if I could be a hero, and he said it would be dangerous for a quirkless person to be a hero.”
“Kinda broke my heart, although I would assume that any person who was told by the Symbol of Peace that they couldn’t be a hero would be the same. Later on, on the same day, Kacchan was attacked by the same villain I was attacked by.”
“A lot of Pro Heroes were there, but they weren’t doing anything because, and I quote, ‘We don’t have the right quirk’. Midoriya put up air quotes, while Hitoshi let out a little snort. Those ‘Pro Heroes’ sound extremely idiotic.
“I helped a bit, just to let Kacchan breathe a bit, and then All Might finished off the job by capturing the villain. Here’s where it gets a bit weird, but All Might decided that I was worthy to gain his quirk.”
What?
Hitoshi must have looked very confused because Midoriya continued on with, “All Might has a stockpile quirk, and it is able to be passed on. I had to get more muscles on my body before he could pass it onto me, which is why in the beginning of the year I had trouble controlling it. I only got it the day of the entrance exam.”
Another pause of silence. That was a lot to take in, but it also made a lot of sense. “Then I owe you an apology.”
Midoriya looked flustered, “What?! Why?”
Might as well go all out with his reasoning. “I hated all of Class 1-A because I thought that all of you guys had it easy in life. I thought that life had been handed to you on a silver platter, especially you.”
“I now see that I was wrong about your, well my, class now. And I was especially wrong about you.”
Shit, Midoriya was now crying. “Thank you, I accept your apology.”
The bell rang, signalling that lunch was over. “We should probably get back to class.” Hitoshi let out a small smile.
“Yeah.” Midoriya did the same. “Friends?”
Hitoshi chuckled, and replied with, “Yeah, sure.”
