Chapter Text
Shinsou Hitoshi from General Studies has finally done it, he's been able to transfer to the hero course. He stares up at the large door to class 1-A, his heart pounding in his chest. He can't believe Aizawa granted him some benevolence and gave him private lessons for the transfer. It was surreal almost, like a dream on a hazy mind. Shinsou never thought he'd be able to train muscle, use the capture scarf or ever actually become a hero with his brainwashing quirk. He stood outside the door, waiting for Aizawa's cue. Shinsou didn't know what he would say, what to do.
"We have a new student joining us today," Aizawa's voice boomed from the classroom. Shinsou could hear groans, gasps of surprise, and murmurs of confusion. However, those were mostly drowned out by shouts and questions of excitement. He could feel the nerves flutter in his stomach, his hold on his bag straps tightening. Shinsou could feel his throat clench and his neck grow hot. He let out shaky breaths as the feeling of entering that classroom become sort of dreadful, replacing his earlier feeling of excitement. Questions began to plague his mind. What if they thought his quirk wasn't suited for heroes? Not good enough? The doubts that had trailed him for years seemed to catch up to him in that very moment. Luckily, Aizawa's voice managed to snap him back from his thoughts. "You may come in now."
Shinsou let out a breath and shoved those doubts away. There was no turning back now. He put on one of his signature grins and opened the large door. As he walked towards Aizawa's desk, he could hear a clamor of responses. Most were of shock and surprise, but a few did catch Shinso's attention. There was Bakugou, the winner of the sports festival giving him a foul scowl. It made sense, they did have that tussle in the hallway that one time. Then he saw Midoriya, one of the only few faces he recognized. Midoriya had a wide smile of excitement and his eyes were wide with admiration. Shinsou did feel some comfort seeing Midoriya. After all, they had quite an emotional battle during the sports festival and Midoriya still stands as the only person to break from his quirk by themselves. He gave him a friendly smile hoping he can maintain a friendly stance with the green head. The last notable response was from the Mr. Normal himself, Ojiro. It wasn't so much Ojiro's reaction that caught Shinso's attention, it was Ojiro himself. Shinsou had been feeling guilty from the sports festival. He had denied that important opportunity from Ojiro, albeit he resigned himself, Shinsou still couldn't but help feel at fault as well. He tried to feel out if Ojiro had any negative feelings towards himself, but all Ojiro had on his face was a polite smile. A grunt from Aizawa brought him back to focus, it was his signal to introduce himself.
"Hello, I'm Shinsou Hitoshi transferring from General Studies. Lets get along." The class burst into a busy clamor of excitement at Shinsou's introduction.
"Nice to meet you Shinsou!"
"How exciting! Lets get along!"
"Are you popular with the ladies?"
Shinsou just plastered on a smirk at the response. To say the least, it was a bit overwhelming. Aizawa knew about Shinsou’s shyness so he turned to the teacher for help in trying to draw the attention down. To Shinshou’s surprise, Aizawa seemed to be enjoying the class’ response and reveling in it. Shinsou couldn’t but shyly stand there blushing with the positive response. However, the excitement was quickly cut short by a raised hand.
”Sensei, Shinsou may have an amazing quirk but is he ready to join the hero course so quickly?” Tsu had always been a bit blunt but her question seemed to garner some consideration from the class as silence quickly claimed the room. Shinsou could feel himself feeling smaller the longer the silence dragged on.
”I thought someone might say that,” Aizawa replied, the class awaiting his response. The man stared at the class and after a brief moment of silence, he put in a grin. “That’s why I’ve prepared some combat training. You knuckleheads like action better than my word, right?”
The class seemed to agree as most of them erupted into excited clamor. Shinsou however was less than excited as he stared daggers at the teacher, said man only shrugging his shoulders.
”It’ll be a two on two match on training ground c,” Aizawa started. “Shinsou here will get to choose his partner, I get to choose the other two. It’ll be a classic capture or subdue the other team scenario. We’ll start with Shinsou’s pick.”
Shinsou was annoyed to say the least but he did promise Aizawa he was ready to do anything to earn and maintain his spot. If he couldn’t do this, how would he expect himself to fight villains. As he scanned the room for a partner, he could feel himself being overwhelmed. Most of the class was begging to be picked, jumping in their chairs. Todoroki and Bakugou seemed to be the most disinterested, sitting silently. Shinsou contemplated the options as they were undeniably some of the strongest students but decided against it as he didn’t feel like they would mix well. The same can be said for the louder students like Kirishima and Kaminari. It was a bit much as they begged to be picked. Some of the quieter students like Yaoyorozu and Tsu were a bit off putting in the decision making department. His eyes then landed on Ojiro who mostly seemed…indifferent. He was just sitting there with that polite smile. Shinsou was tempted to choose the tail user. Mostly to make amends, but Shinsou felt the words caught in his throat. He quickly moved on to the only logical choice left.
”I choose Midoriya.”
The green haired boy lit up in excitement. “Thank you! I’ll gladly be your partner!” Shinsou sheepishly smiled back.
“Great,” Aizawa continued. “Now who wants to fight them?” Most of the class burst into excitement once again.
”Pick me!” Kirishima shouted joyfully. “I wanna give Shinsou a manly welcome to the class!” Aizawa contemplated the choice. Kirishima would be a difficult person for Shinsou to handle at his current level. His handling in the capture scarf isn’t experienced enough to move someone as sturdy as Kirishima but UA is all about plus ultra.
“Fine, Kirishima will be one,” Aizawa said earning a whoop from the red head. Aizawa contemplated the second choice amongst the students. That’s when he noticed Ojiro. Aizawa was well aware of the calvary battle and Ojiro and Kirishima did train together during the forest camping trip. Aizawa decided it couldn’t hurt to choose the most normal student. “The second partner will be Ojiro.” At that prospect, the blonde boy seemed to be perk up in surprise but for a quick second, Aizawa could see panic in the boy’s face. “Is that alright with you, Ojiro?”
”Yes! Yes, it’s fine,” Ojiro replied with a calm smile. Aizawa on raised his eyebrow before dismissing his concern.
”Perfect, those four can go ahead and gear up,” Aizawa instructed. “The rest of the class will follow me to Ground C. Be prepared to give me an analysis of the fight.”
At that, Midoriya and Kirishima rushed to Shinsou’s side as he was dragged out the room, Ojiro tailing behind.
“Let’s give them a good fight,” Kirishima said with a smile as the four boys walked to the locker room.
“Yea…” Shinsou sheepishly replied.
”It must be nerve racking,” Midoriya chimed in. “With a new class and all but don’t worry! Everyone in 1-A is very friendly.” Shinsou only nodded in response. He tuned out the two cheery boys as he looked back towards Ojiro. Said boy only gave him another polite smile as they walked and Shinsou bit his tongue, pausing the apology he was about to spew. Shinsou could feel his neck grow hot with embarrassment.
The group reached the locker room in a few moments time and adorned their hero costumes. Kirishima and Midoriya were a lot quicker as their costumes had less garments and difficulties. Shinsou was a bit new to the whole changing thing with his capture scarf and Ojiro always took a bit longer getting his tail assorted. Midoriya cheerily strided up to Shinsou after he was ready.
"I'll meet you on the training ground, Aizawa will probably let us strategize a few minutes before when we're there."
"Oh, okay," Shinsou nodded. He then felt a strong hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Kirishima with a large toothy grin.
"Lets have a good match out there, see ya!" he exclaimed with a thumbs up. A bit taken aback by the over excitement, Shinsou only nodded again as the red head and green head walked out first. The locker room was quickly settled with silence as Shinsou and Ojiro were left alone. Shinsou could feel his nerves growing being left in such an awkward situation, but Shinsou was determined to apologize. He silently approached Ojiro who was sitting on a bench getting his shoes on.
"Hey, Ojiro," Shinsou started, catching the blonde boy's attention. Ojiro looked up at Shinsou.
"Oh hey, did you need something?" Ojiro replied, shooting Shinsou with a polite smile again. Or so Shinsou thought as now that he was closer to Ojiro, he could tell it was an extremely forced smile. Shinsou would say he was well experienced in the realm of reading people due to his quirk and he was a bit surprised with how good Ojiro could fake indifference. Shinsou could see that Ojiro was a bit on guard and he then felt his stomach drop as he could feel the invisible wall between the two. It seemed like Shinsou was a bit too wishful in his thinking lately.
"I just wanted to apologize for the sports festival. I shouldn't have used my quirk on you like that. I was just so hungry for the opportunity that I ended up denying you of yours. I'm hoping we can start on a new foot." Shinsou could feel himself holding on his breath for Ojiro's response. To his surprise, Ojiro let out a small chuckle.
"Of course, apology accepted," Ojiro said with a slight laugh. Shinsou noted the way Ojiro avoided eye contact. "I hope you enjoy 1-A but we should hurry. We wouldn't want to anger Aizawa-sensei now do we."
Shinsou put on a smile as he nodded. With that, the conversation was done and he watched as Ojiro headed out. He was glad Ojiro had accepted his apology but Shinsou knew better. Ojiro's reply was dismissive, the blonde boy was weary of Shinsou and it was blatantly obvious. Shinsou couldn't blame him, maybe he was still mad about the sports festival. No, that didn't seem right. If that was the case, he would assume Ojiro would display more hostile contempt towards him. No matter how nice someone was, they always show some sort of negative reaction to something they disliked. Ojiro's reaction was different. Like the polite smile, everything seemed force from the tailed boy. Shinsou couldn't quite place it but it was obvious Ojiro had put him at an arm's length. With a defeated sigh, he headed towards the training ground.