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Hitoshi’s life changed the day he met Izuku Midoriya.
Not in big ways. He didn’t suddenly stop getting bullied, people didn’t stop calling him a villain, and his path to become a hero didn’t become any easier. But it changed in small, meaningful ways: he finally had someone who believed in him, in his dream. Someone to call a friend.
And it all started, like everything that involved him, because Izuku couldn’t manage to stay out of other people’s business.
“Leave him alone!” said a kid Hitoshi had never seen. He looked unremarkable, and certainly not strong, but still he stood up between Hitoshi and his usual bullies with the determination of a thousand men, despite the tears in his eyes giving his fear away.
One of the kids that had been attacking him smirked. “You should stay away from him, you know?” he said. “He’s a filthy villain .”
Hitoshi hung his head in shame. “From where I’m standing, you guys are the ones who look like villains,” the strange kid replied.
A snarl of disgust crossed his bully’s face. “Tch. Whatever. Don’t cry when he takes control of you like the freak he is.”
Surprisingly, the kids left. Hitoshi thought it had more to do with the fact that they had gotten bored than with the kid defending him, but he was grateful for it anyway.
“Are you okay?” the other kid said, turning to him and offering his hand to Hitoshi to help him get up, which he took. Now that he realized, the kid was even smaller than him. “They were being really mean to you.”
“Why did you do that?” he asked.
“It’s what a hero would do!” he replied, with his eyes sparkling. “And I want to be a hero, like All Might!”
As he said that, he made one of All Might’s poses, but Hitoshi thought he looked silly. It made him laugh.
“They were wrong anyway. How could you be a villain? We’re just kids!” the smaller boy said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“It’s because of my quirk,” Hitoshi replied. “Mind control isn’t very heroic.”
The other kid’s eyes sparkled even brighter. “That is so cool! ” he yelled. Hitoshi was taken aback by his enthusiasm. “Imagine all of the uses that would have as a hero! It would be so useful in hostage situations, of course you’d have to go underground but…”
Then the kid started talking at such speed Hitoshi was unable to catch most of it. But, even if he was talking at normal speed, he doubts he’d be listening anyway. He was too focused on the fact he had called his quirk cool.
“You really think that?” he asked. “About my quirk?”
“Yeah!” he replied. “Say, do you want to be my friend? I want to be a hero too! My name is Izuku, and my favorite hero is All Might!”
Hitoshi smiled softly. A friend. “I’m Hitoshi. Nice to meet you.”
It wasn’t long afterwards that Hitoshi found out why Izuku had been so sympathetic towards him and had stepped between him and his bullies. Natural goodness aside, Izuku was quirkless. And, if the small glimpse he had gotten at his so called “friends” was enough, he was being treated just as poorly, if not worse, than Hitoshi himself. That’s when he resolved himself to be the best friend Izuku had ever had.
“You might be quirkless, but heroes can’t rely on their quirks at all times on the job!” he said, trying to mimic Izuku’s enthusiasm when he had told him about the uses of his quirk. “Take me as an example, if a villain is aware of my quirk, I’m doomed. You just gotta think outside of the box!”
Hitoshi rummaged through his backpack. “You’re very good at quirk analysis, right?” he said, as he wrote something on the cover of one of his new notebooks. “You should start writing them down here.”
He handed him the notebook with Hero Analysis for the Future #1 written on the cover.
Izuku looked at him, then at the notebook, and then back at him. With tears in his eyes, he threw himself at Hitoshi as he started crying. “Hitoshiiiiii!”
Now, he had already acquainted himself with his friend’s crying habits, but it never stopped being impressive. He snorted in amusement. “There, there,” he said, as he returned the hug. “We’re going to be great heroes one day.”
And so the years went by. Things didn’t get easier for either of them, but it only brought them closer.
Until the day Izuku almost died at the hands of the Sludge villain.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked Izuku. “You did almost die yesterday.”
Izuku shook his head. “Don’t worry! All Might saved me before I could get hurt.”
Despite the smile Izuku threw his way, Hitoshi couldn’t help but be worried. Izuku had been spacey and distracted all day, and he refused to tell him the reason.
“But, I’ve been thinking…” Izuku said. “I’m going to start training for the UA entrance exam. My brains won’t be enough to pass it, I need to at least be in shape.”
Hitoshi nodded. “You’re right. Do you want to train together?”
His friend avoided his gaze. “I was actually thinking of doing this alone. Haha . It’s just, you know, we probably won’t be able to team up at the exam… and stuff…”
It was, quite possibly, the worst excuse of a lie he had ever heard. However, thinking Izuku might just still be spooked from his near-death experience the day before, he let it go.
“Alright, just let me know if you change your mind.”
And so began the, quite possibly, most miserable months of Hitoshi’s life since he had met Izuku. He had assumed Izuku would change his mind eventually, once the fright from the Sludge villain incident had passed.
He could respect his friend’s need to train alone, however, he didn’t understand why that prevented him from hanging out with Hitoshi. Sure, they still hung out, but before they had seen each other at least three times a week. Now, Hitoshi was lucky if he saw him once.
“Sorry! I’m just so busy with training… and when I’m not, I’m too tired to do anything but rest.”
It made Hitoshi wonder what kind of hell training Izuku was putting himself through.
Still, he let it go too because Izuku was his best friend and didn’t have a single mean bone in his body. He was probably just working hard towards his goal, which in a way motivated Hitoshi to do the same.
Then, the fateful day of the exam finally arrived.
Hitoshi knew he had done well in the written exam, and he had no doubts Izuku had aced it, so now it all came down to the practical. His true worst enemy. Then, when Present Mic explained the test, he realized just how doomed he was. It was based on defeating robots, which put him and Izuku at a great disadvantage. No matter the amount of physical training, they were just no match for the quirked students.
They couldn’t even team up, as they had had the misfortune to end up in different arenas.
“Good luck!” said Izuku, a strained smile on his face.
“Yeah, same to you,” he replied.
In the end, he got next to no points.
He wasn’t dumb, he knew what that meant. And yet, instead of disappointment, all he felt was anger. This was how UA evaluated their student prospects? A test that relied solely on how strong your quirk is?
He messaged Izuku, but didn’t get any response. He decided to wait by the gates of the school, and it was almost sundown when he finally spotted a mop of green hair.
“I’m so sorry! I got hurt during the exam and Recovery Girl wouldn’t let me leave,” he explained.
Hitoshi’s eyes widened. “Are you okay?”
His friend nodded. “Recovery Girl took care of all of my injuries. It was so cool! I passed out right after, though. I guess her quirk must involve stamina in some way…”
Then he started muttering. Some things never change, he thought.
“I didn’t manage to get a single point though…” he said, once he finished his rant on Recovery Girl’s quirk.
Hitoshi sighed. “I didn’t do much better,” he replied. “But this doesn’t end here. We still have the sports festival to look forward to.”
Izuku nodded with enthusiasm. “You’re right!”
A few days later, he got his letter from UA. Rejected from the Hero Course, as expected, but admitted into General Education. He texted his friend about it.
I got my letter. Rejected lol.
He tried not to sound hurt, and did his best to ignore the small feeling of disappointment that was building up in his chest.
His phone lit up with Izuku’s replies.
I… got accepted
Apparently there was something called
rescue points, and I got enough of them
to get into the Hero Course.
The hurt felt impossible to ignore. He was happy for his friend. He was . But a part of him couldn’t stop thinking that he deserved that spot just as much as him.
Congratulations.
This doesn’t end here. Save a spot for
me in your class, Mr. Hero. I’ll be joining
you soon.
They met up the next day to celebrate Izuku’s acceptance into the Hero Course, and his own into Gen Ed. Izuku was even more fidgety than usual.
“Hey,” he said. “You know I’m nor mad, right? I’m happy for you. I’m not a jerk like Bakugo.”
“It’s not that,” Izuku replied. “I need to tell you something.”
Hitoshi cocked his head to the side, and waited for his friend to continue. He looked terrified .
“There’s really no good way of saying this,” he continued. “I have a quirk now.”
Hitoshi’s eyes opened wide like plates. “What? How’s that even possible?”
Izuku shrugged. “No one really knows. They think it might have been the stress of the situation, when I saw the zero pointers. It’s practically a medical miracle,” he explained.
He shook his head in disbelief. “Well, what is it?”
His friend fidgeted some more. “A strength enhancer. I can’t control it very well yet, though. It breaks my bones if I’m not careful. Looking back, that could be another reason it hadn’t manifested earlier.”
A strength enhancer. A flashy, heroic quirk. The irony felt bitter in Hitoshi’s mouth, but he tried to ignore it.
“Well, it looks like you’re going to be a big shot hero now,” he said, smirking. “Are you sure you still want to be friends with a lowly being such as me?”
“Hitoshi!” Izuku exclaimed. “Don’t say those things. Of course I still want to be your friend.”
“Calm down, calm down,” he replied. “I was just joking.
He didn’t want to think there might be some kind of truth in those words.
Their break passed, and soon it was time for their first day of classes. It was miserable for Hitoshi. Orientation was incredibly boring, his classmates started side-eyeing him as soon as they found out about his quirk, and to top it all he and Izuku didn’t share their lunch period.
The next few days weren’t much better.
Izuku had made tons of friends with the hero kids, as expected, which shouldn’t annoy Hitoshi as much as it did. He started talking about some Uraraka, and Iida, and Asui. And it only got worse after the USJ incident. Suddenly, Class A of the Hero Course was famous. Hitoshi had been worried by his friend after the attack, but the more time after it passed the more annoyed he was.
And it all came down to one single thing. He felt like he was being left behind by the one person who had always stood by his side.
Despite his determination to succeed in the Sports Festival and catch up to him, the stung of jealousy wouldn’t go away.
And it all culminated in their Sports Festival fight.
Hitoshi had opted for controlling some other students for his Cavalry Battle team, while Izuku’s team had been all hero kids. He made sure to stay clear of them: Izuku knew his quirk and wouldn’t easily fall for his tricks.
Besides, he would have to save any aces he might have under his sleeve for the final round.
He had always been proud of his ability to strike his opponents where it would most hurt them: unfortunately, he needed it for his quirk. So there was no shame in being proud of being good at it.
But, in the heat of battle, under the stares of the thousands of people that had come to watch the Sports Festival, he forgot the most important thing. Before a Hero Student, before his rival in the festival, Izuku was his best friend.
“You’re one of the big shots, huh?” Hitoshi said. “You don’t even have time for me anymore. I guess it was only a question of time before you left me behind too. You’re just like the rest of them, you only see me as a failure.”
He would like to say that he only said those things to rile Izuku up, that they were lies and he didn’t mean any of it, but the built up resentment inside of him said otherwise. He had always been quick to jump to conclusions.
It worked, of course. Izuku was too much of a softy to not say anything to that. But, the worst was, Hitoshi still lost. His friend somehow managed to break out of his mind control and throw him out of the arena.
He hurt his best friend over nothing.
He avoided him for days after that, unable to face him. But, stubborn as he is, Izuku managed to corner him eventually.
“You know none of that is true, right?” Izuku said. “You’re still my best friend. I’m never going to leave you behind.”
“Is it, though?” he replied. “You have much better friends, with much flashier quirks and a brighter future than I could ever hope to have.”
Izuku simply shook his head. “None of them know you like I do.”
And then he hugged him. “Don’t you remember what you told me? We’re going to be great heroes one day.”
Hitoshi hugged his friend tightly and burrowed his head on his soft curls.
“You are going to be a great hero one day, Hitoshi.”