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“I’m… I’m what?” Shouta stares at Hizashi, mouth hanging open. If he said with Shouta thought he said…
“In the top 10 heroes! Number 9, to be exact!” Dammit. Fuck! No!
“What?! Why?!” Shouta exclaims, putting his face in his hands. This sucks. Being in the top ten is horrible for any hero, but for Shouta, the Voice hero: Siren, someone who is well known for how much he wants to be underground but can't due to his quirk? This is a literal fucking nightmare.
“Do you need me to explain how the rankings work?” Hizashi teases, the asshole. He’s been 11th for three years now, something that doesn’t seem like it’s changing any time soon. Shouta swears he does it on purpose, but he has no proof.
“You’re quite literally more accomplished than me at every front of heroics,” Shouta groans, letting his forehead fall to the desk in front of him. God, Hizashi makes him want to strangle someone!
“Every public front! Also, I manipulated them.” Ah. There’s the proof to the tampering, then. Dammit, stupid Hizashi and his stupid mind-reading quirk.
“How?!” Shouta whines because, unfortunately, he doesn’t have a mind reading quirk. Hizashi laughs in his face.
“Like hell I’m telling you! Then you’d do it too and I’d risk losing 11th!” He exclaims. Shouta scowls. He would not go to 11th. He’d get the fuck out of the top 100. The agency and radio station make enough money so that he never has to work again, so the pay cut wouldn’t fucking matter.
“Is there any way out of this?! I don’t want to go to the ranking ceremony! Best Jeanist still hates me!” He complains. And that was an interesting story, too. Apparently, the number 4 hero takes offense to being called a media whore. Who knew?
“You could just not show up,” Hizashi points out, smiling smugly. Uh oh. He has some sort of plan. Fuck.
“What would my reasoning be?” Shouta asks cautiously. Hizashi’s grin widens.
“Well, it is on the night of one of my radio segments…” Motherfucker! Shouta glares at Hizashi.
“You did this on purpose,” he states. Hizashi smirks.
“You can’t prove anything!”
————
“Siren! Siren! I have some questions!” Fuck. Shouta turns around from where he was very obviously sneaking from a crime scene he just handed over to the police to see some media dick running over to him. This sucks.
“Who says I have answers?” Shouta grumbles, waiting up regardless. If he just ran, he’d probably end up viral. Again. He still doesn’t know how that happens literally every single time he runs from the media. He’d bet on Hizashi.
“You were just announced as the number 9 hero. How does it feel?” The… reporter? Gossiper? Asshole? Whatever he is, Shouta just gives him a dead eyed stare.
“Terrible. I don’t want it,” he states before turning to walk away again. Unfortunately, the guy keeps talking.
“Huh? But it’s an amazing accomplishment!” The man exclaims. Shouta sighs and turns around. How many fucking times does he have to say this?
“Look, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: the only reason I’m not an underground hero is because my quirk’s too flashy. I hate rankings and all limelight heroics. Now if you’ll excuse me-“
“Wait! I’m not done!” Shouta rolls his eyes. That’s not his problem.
“Look, I have an interview about it tomorrow. Just watch that,” he tells the guy, this time actually walking away.
“But-“
“Goodbye.”
————
“So, Siren, what’s it like to be the number 9 hero?” The interviewer, some lady with a butterfly quirk that Shouta has spent the better part of the last half hour glaring at, asks, looking way too eager for someone interviewing someone famous for hating interviews. Fucker.
“I want to manipulate the rankings into making me get out of the top ten but I can’t because someone already did it to put me at 9,” Shouta tells her, relishing in the blink of shock she gives him. Thankfully, Hizashi got rid of both of their PR teams years ago, so no one’s going to say jackshit. Well, except online, but Siren is trending more often than not, so it’s not really something that bothers Shouta anymore.
“I’m… I’m sorry?” The interviewer asks, trying to recover from her shock. Shouta sighs.
“Do I really have to spell it out for you?” He asks impatiently. Media people always hate being treated as if they’re stupid. Funny, because they do that to everyone else.
“I… yes?” The interviewer squeaks out. Shouta grins, something he knows his… does he call them fans? He doesn’t want them and they all know that and like him out of spite. Whatever, they call this grin a baby eating smile and say it’s unsettling. And boy, does the interviewer look unsettled.
“Radio Star. He refuses to tell me how he did it to make sure I'm still in top 10 heroes. Him being 11 for three years straight isn’t an accident,” Shouta tells her and her face pales even more. Whatever. It is very well known that Hizashi is… Hizashi. His hero name should be the Intimidation Hero: Radio Star. Bastard.
“Why… why would you want to know that?” The interviewer asks hesitantly. Good, she should hesitate. The world would be a much better place of the media vultures hesitated more.
“Because I don’t want to be in the top 10 heroes but unfortunately, I’m good at my job and somehow have fans. Which, if you’re my fan, stop. Just… stop,” Shouta says, glaring at the camera. The camera guy is biting his lip, holding back a laugh. Shouta raises his eyebrows at him and he looks away, still biting his lip. Ass.
“Radio Star. Huh. So I guess that answers my next question,” the interviewer tries, gaining some of her composure. Oh no, Shouta will have to do something about that.
“Which is?” He asks impatiently, crossing his arms. He would feel bad, but media workers aren’t people. Hizashi is living proof of that.
“How does it feel to finally be ranked above your partner, the Telepathic Hero: Radio Star?” Shouta groans. He has spent his years as a hero listening to the goddamn vultures ask him over and over again if he was jealous that his partner ranked higher than him. He's had to bite his tongue so many times to not give away Hizashi’s underground hero name, the persona he’s actually jealous of.
“Horrible. Put me back at 15 please,” Shouta states, once again glaring at the camera. This time, the cameraman isn’t looking at him, which he’s thankful for.
“Well, your agency is doing well, so-“
“Going to stop you right there. Radio Star runs the agency,” Shouta interrupts. Well, and Oboro, but no one really knows about him. Perks of being disabled and barred from hero work during his first internship?
“He… what doesn’t he do?” The interviewer asks with a sigh. Shouta understands. He’s convinced that Hizashi has more hours in the day than anyone else. Well, since he’s a mental quirk user, he does need less sleep than the average person, and since he’s constantly hearing people’s thoughts, sleep's an uphill battle. Once, he had gotten a bunch of recording devices and set them all around Shouta’s apartment and played them right as he was trying to sleep to simulate what it was like as he tried to sleep, which was fucking stupid because Shouta literally has sensitive hearing and has had to try to sleep through that bullshit before he got noise cancelling walls. Needless to say, the next day there was one more video of Siren trying to beat up an evading Radio Star on the internet.
“I mean… he isn’t that great at rescue work?” Shouta offers before wincing. Literally last week, Hizashi had responded to a landslide across the country, where he was called to track down survivors with his quirk. There was so much coverage on that.
“Didn’t he just-“
“Yeah, no, I heard it when I said it. I tend to work with the police more and do the paperwork for the arrests,” Shouta hurriedly changes the subject. Trying to think of some part of hero work Hizashi can’t do well is infuriating. Sure, he sucks ass at video games, but that’s a small comfort when the man is constantly running circles around Shouta in their chosen profession. Fucking bastard.
“Don’t most heroes use sidekicks for that?” The interviewer asks, tilting her head. Shouta looks at her incredulously. The Siren Star Agency was literally number 1 in arrests this year, beating out Endeavour’s agency. Does she not realize the sheer amount of arrests that is?
“Do you realize how many people we arrest on a weekly basis? We have our own holding cell in the agency and radio station,” Shouta tells her incredulously. Seriously, he thought media did research before interviews. And it was literally front page news; Shouta didn’t even realize what had happened until it was suddenly shoved in his face from every direction.
“Wait, really? Is that legal?” Wait, fuck, was he not supposed to tell her about the holding cells? Whatever, it’s not like it matters. Hizashi is very good security no matter where he goes.
“Was the cell thing unknown? God, Star tells me nothing,” Shouta grumbles, slumping back into his chair and ignoring the legality comment. He’s pretty sure Hizashi forgets that other people can’t read minds, the fucker. Suddenly, the interviewer’s phone rings. In a very familiar ringtone. Motherfucker.
“Wha- oh, I’m so sorry, I promise I put this on silent!” She assures him, checking her phone, frowning. Shouta sighs and turns to the camera. There’s only one person who’d use that ringtone.
“Star, stop,” he demands. The interviewer freezes and stares at him.
“Wha… what?” She asks hesitantly. Shouta shrugs.
“Star’s watching,” he tells her. Her eyes widen and she visibly recoils. Ha, nice one. It’s so much fun to watch Hizashi unsettle people.
“He… he what?” She whispers, as if whispering will help against a mind reader. Shouta shrugs again.
“He’s watching,” he repeats, smiling slightly in a grin his “fans” call shit eating. The names are annoying, but Hizashi always makes sure Shouta knows every single one of them, the asshole. Shouta's pretty sure he runs a Siren server or something so he'd know them all.
“What’s that have to do with anything?” The interviewer asks, looking slightly scared. Good. Hopefully this will discourage people from wanting to interview him.
“You know the unofficial rankings for intelligence based heroes?” Shouta asks, smirking slightly. He knows she doesn’t. It’s only really a thing in the hero community. Sure, it’s accessible to everyone, but no one besides heroes really cares.
“Um… no, not really,” she answers truthfully, a look of confusion mixing with her look of fear. Oh good, that’s how people should look when thinking about Hizashi.
“Well, it’s pretty well known in the hero community. Anyway, Radio Star is second,” he says casually. Instantly, her eyes widen.
“He’s… he’s an intelligence based hero?!” Well. That isn’t what he thought she’d ask, but screw it. The more he can unsettle her the better.
“He’s an everything based hero. He even does underground work. A lot of it, actually.” His underground persona is also super respected, the asshole. And he collects underground gossip like it’s going out of style. Shouta has heard a lot about underground heroes getting annoyed over how much he talks about how he wanted to go underground but couldn’t because he’s too loud. It only makes him talk about it more.
“I… don’t know what I’m supposed to say to that,” the interviewer admits. To be fair, most interviewers don’t know how to react when any hero talks about underground work. Something Shouta takes full advantage of constantly. Suddenly, there’s a long buzz in the air, originating from where Shouta knows the interviewer’s phone is. He groans.
“What’d he say?” He asks, pinching the bridge of his nose. The interviewer startles, looking at him with confusion.
“Huh?” Shouta sighs.
“You phone went off. What’d he say?” He repeats. The interviewer frowns and pulls out her phones, eyes widening slightly when she sees the message on it.
“It- oh, it did. How’d you hear that?” She asks cautiously. Shouta rolls his eyes. Literally every aspect of his quirk is common knowledge. Do people just think he can turn off his specialized hearing?
“Sensitive hearing. What’s it say?” He asks again, and finally, the interviewer opens the message.
“‘Stop talking about me and talk about yourself’.” Oh, boo. Asshole. It’s not like it’s Shouta’s fault that half of the shit people think about Hizashi is false and it’s much more fun to correct them on Radio Star trivia than talk about himself.
“Alright, I suppose I should. What’s your next question?” Shouta prompts, crossing his arms in a clear move of distaste. At this point, he knows his rude demeanor won’t discourage his “fans”, but a man can dream.
“Um… the official ceremony for the top ten heroes-“
“I’m not going,” he cuts in, rolling his eyes.
“Wha- why not?!” The interviewer looks shocked, as if it isn’t public knowledge that Shouta despises the top ten heroes. Not to mention, All Might will be there, meaning Hizashi isn’t allowed to go. This would normally be hilarious, but if Shouta has to deal with Best fucking Jeanist, Hizashi does too.
“I don’t like the top ten heroes. Or, well, the other top ten heroes. Also, Star asked me to help him at the radio that night.” That excuse, aka probably the whole reason that Hizashi even put Shouta in the top ten, makes the interviewer brighten. Dammit.
“That actually relates to my next question! Since you’re in the top ten heroes, does that mean-“
“I am not getting my own slot on Hands Up Radio. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I do that,” Shouta cuts in with a groan. When will people stop asking that?! A) he’d suck at it, B) he hates media, and C) he doesn’t fucking want to. All common knowledge.
“I- okay. Well, do you have any new merch coming out?” Shouta snorts and shrugs. He hasn’t handled merch a day in his life, thank god.
“No clue. Star handles that.” And Oboro, but he hates being talked about in interviews. Also, he finds it really funny that people think Hizashi does… all that. He says it adds to his intimidation factor, even though Hizashi really doesn’t need help in that department.
“How… how is he able to do so much?” The interviewer is back to looking afraid. Good. She should be afraid.
“Honestly, I’m pretty sure he’s lying about his quirk and it’s actually something that makes him work faster and he learned how to read people so well that he might as well be reading their mind in order to cover that up,” Shouta jokes, though he knows it isn’t true. The interviewer, however, doesn’t seem to get it’s a joke, and looks at him in confusion. Dammit.
“Can’t he also use telekinesis?” She asks. Shouta sighs. That barely counts. Literally all mental quirk users can use at least a little bit of telekinesis. Most commonly, it’s unconscious and only affects their hair, but unfortunately, Hizashi had learned how to do a bit more than that back in high school.
“Very minor telekinesis. And- wait, not talking about that. Can we discuss something besides Star’s quirk, please?” Shouta has no clue what is and isn’t a secret. Well, he knows that the quirk analysis part is more or less a secret, as is the fact that he can use said analysis to “erase” people’s quirks. Hizashi had a great quirk for underground hero work, the fucker.
“Uh, sure. Well, in the last rankings, one of the other heroes at your agency, Mindstorm, ended up with the rank of 43! Are they planning on making their own agency or are they staying with you guys?” The interviewer hurries on. It’s common knowledge that there’s more to Hizashi’s quirk than he tells anyone, but the only reason anyone suspects that is more for hilarity’s sake than anything else. Just being able to read minds is already overpowered, and the idea of Hizashi being able to do more has placed him near the top of a lot of “heroes with the strongest quirks” lists.
“Mindstorm? They aren’t sure if they want to run an agency. However, we’re planing on making them start helping Star with some of his tasks in order for them to see if it works for them,” Shouta answers, for once not being a total brat. Mindstorm is a good hero and deserves some good press.
“What do you expect to happen?” The interviewer keeps asking, clearly relaxing at the lack of hostility in Shouta’s response. Oh, boo.
“Them to get scared off by Star’s workload and then come try what I do for a bit. Then it depends on what Star sees in them, honestly,” Shouta admits, unfortunately having to play a good little hero. Mindstorm better be damn grateful.
“Why do you say that?” She asks, fully regaining her composure. Oh, boo!
“Well, we have a bunch of heroes helping us run things, but Star and I are supposedly on top. He might recruit Mindstorm to join us and help us with that, might make them his over glorified secretary, though that’s unlikely since Star likes doing his own stuff, or he might help them start their own agency that works almost as an extension of ours, like Ingenium’s agency is to the Idaten agency. The last option is what I think will happen, honestly.” Shouta can already hear Oboro’s jokes about them corporatizing hero agencies, as if hero agencies aren’t already corporations. If Shouta had it his way, they wouldn't even need an agency.
“So you don’t think Mindstorm will start their own independent agency?” The interview asks, frowning. Shouta resists the urge to sigh. Yes, it’s expected for top 50 heroes to start their own agency. But, and he's speaking from experience, starting an agency fucking sucks. Shouta even had two people helping him, or, well, he was helping them, and it still was awful.
“It’d be stupid of them to. Besides, if we goes with that last option, Mindstorm can go more and more independent until it is their own independent agency if they want,” he points out with a shrug. It’s so much easier. Not to mention, Hizashi would whine less about Mindstorm working somewhere else, which is always a plus.
“Huh. Okay. So what do you expect for this coming year as a top ten hero?” Oh, boo, more questions about Shouta. Fuck.
“Star to drag me onto more of his radio segments and more Siren merch,” he drones, glaring at the the interviewer once again. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem too bothered by this.
“That’s it?” She asks, raising her eyebrows. Fucker.
“Well, rankings have never changed how I operate. They better not start doing it now,” Shouta states with a shrug. If they do, he’s killing Hizashi immediately and without hesitation, years of friendship be damned.
“Alright, well… I suppose that’s it. Thanks for coming, Siren. Good luck… getting out of the top ten heroes?” Oh, thank fucking god.
“Thanks. I suspect Star will try and make me stay up here, so I’ll need it.” The comment makes the interviewer blink, but fortunately for Shouta, the segment is already over and he can get the fuck out of there. Finally.
————
“-and that’s how I came up with the idea for the scarf. Pretty cool, right?” Shouta looks over at Hizashi, raising an eyebrow. Yeah, no.
“It was a lot less cool than you made it out to be, Star,” he deadpans. Hizashi swats at him.
“Siren! Don’t be mean!” He complains. Shouta smirks.
“I’m the number 9 hero. I do what I want.” If he’s going to have to have that terrible, terrible position, he’s going to abuse it to get what he wants from Hizashi whenever he can.
“Except get out of the top ten, right?” Hizashi asks with a smirk. Shouta glares at him. So much for using his position for leverage.
“As soon as I figure out how to legally murder you, you’re dead,” he tells Hizashi, who laughs.
“Aw! You can’t kill me!” He exclaims. Shouta raises an eyebrow.
“Is that a challenge?” He asks. Hizashi grins.
“No, it’s a fact!” Eh, it is. Still, it doesn’t mean Shouta won’t try.
“I know where you sleep,” he fires back, eyebrows raised. Hizashi’s grin doesn’t falter.
“You’d have to know when I sleep for that threat to work, sweetheart!” He does know when Hizashi sleeps, actually. Any time he can’t be reached for longer than five minutes. Shouta sighs and stands up.
“Alright, I’m leaving,” he says. Hizashi reaches over and flicks him.
“Boo! Baby!” He calls. Shouta stops and turns to glare at him.
“There’s 15 minutes left of the segment. I suffered through almost 4 hours being around you. I’m leaving,” he repeats. Hizashi smiles sweetly. Motherfucker.
“You decided to start an agency with me! You did this to yourself!” He points out. Shouta raises an eyebrow.
“And I regret it every day,” he fires back. Hizashi scowls and sticks out his tongue, the baby.
“Ugh, alright. Listeners! Because Siren is bad at being a limelight hero-“
“Hey!”
“We’re going to be cutting the talk segment a little sort! Don’t worry, we’ll still be playing all sorts of music! Sweet dreams, and for those of you who were watching the rankings ceremony, I hope you didn’t miss Siren too much!” He continues sweetly, ignoring Shouta’s protests. Jackass.
“I hope you didn’t miss me at all,” Shouta grumbles. Hizashi frowns at him.
“Siren!” As he whines, Hizashi slowly turns the radio back to music, playing some up and coming artist Shouta doesn’t know. As soon as he knows that they aren’t being broadcasts, he turns to Shouta with a smirk. Uh oh. “You keep being a bitch to the listeners, I’ll make your rank higher next year.” Shouta gasps.
“So you DID influence my rank!” He exclaims. He already knew, of course, but hey, Hizashi saying something outright is always appreciated, damn mind reader.
“All I had to do was actually put your name on your arrest reports. And change your patrol to places with higher crime rates. And occasionally tell a few reporters where your patrol routes were. And talk about you more on the radio. And promote your merch more.” Shouta raises an eyebrow.
“Oh, is that it?” He teases. Hizashi smiles brightly.
“Well, no, but that’s all you can understand!” That motherfucker.
“Wow. Kick a man while he’s down,” Shouta grumbles, walking towards the door. Someone else can keep an eye on the radio. Hizashi holds up his phone.
“I have multiple videos of you kicking someone while they’re down,” he says, smirking. Shouta can’t remember ever doing that, but honestly? Hizashi probably still has video proof.
“I’d ask you to prove it if I weren’t certain you could.” Hizashi laughs, getting up and stretching before snapping, pointing at Shouta with a gleam in his eyes.
“Oh! Wanna come with me on patrol?” Oh. Ew. Disgusting.
“Why the fuck would I?” Shouta huffs. Hizashi smiles widely.
“No fans or reporters out and you can work on your hand-to-hand combat.” Dammit. He’s right.
“Stop making sense. It doesn’t suit you,” Shouta grumbles. Well, at least patrols with Hizashi are always fun. Draining, sure, but fun. And he needs a bit of time away from the media as the new number 9 hero. God.
“You coming or not?” Hizashi asks, smirking. He already knows Shouta will say yes, the bastard.
“Sure, just… which costume are you wearing?” Shouta asks. If it’s his underground one, he’s not wearing his Siren one. Actually, he probably won't wear the Siren one no matter what. He doesn’t want to be recognized.
“The Eraserhead one!” Right. Maybe Shouta should protest Hizashi going out with his alter ego’s hero partner on patrol, but Eraserhead is known to work at the Siren Star Hero Agency by almost every hero who knows him. They have a whole underground department at their agency, after all.
“Great. Your underground persona that no one has tied to you. Why, exactly, do you have that again?” Shouta grumbles. He’s not jealous. He’s not.
“Aww, you know why! For information gathering!” Hizashi answers, a teasing lithe to his voice. Ugh. Why Shouta had chosen to partner with a mind reading hero, he’ll never know.
“Right. Well, I’m not wearing my hero costume if you’re going out as Eraserhead,” he tells Hizashi who rolls his eyes. Yes, yes, he already knows, but Shouta’s saying it anyway so Hizashi won’t pretend that he didn’t get the memo later on.
“Aw, no one would recognize it in the dark!” Hizashi points out, more for teasing sake than anything. At least, it better be.
“I am the number 9 hero,” Shouta points out, rolling his eyes. Boo to being in the public spotlight.
“Who is well known to hate the spotlight and prefer underground work!” Hizashi does have a point and might have even convinced Shouta if it wasn’t for the fact that he just doesn’t want to wear his Siren outfit right now. Which Hizashi knows. Fucker.
“Right, do you need more connections between Radio Star and Eraserhead?” Shouta asks pointedly. Hizashi shrugs.
“Eh, Principal told me he’d make sure that those two are never connected. Not to mention, I have my own program running.” Ah. So they can scream that Radio Star and Eraserhead are one and the same from the rooftops and it’d still stay a secret. Nice.
“I’m not wearing my hero costume,” Shouta repeats. Hizashi grins.
“Wear your pink sweatpants!” That’s worse!
“No.”
“Boring!”
“Your Eraserhead outfit is entirely black.”