Chapter Text
Hitoshi is tired. He is more tired than he has ever been in his life. Everyone is tired now, so its not like he even has the time for it.
The HPSC, or what's left of it, will give a Provisional Hero License to anyone who has the barest amount of training and the will to fight.
Hitoshi was lucky enough to get personal training from a hero and blessed with the ability to keep getting up no matter how shit his life gets.
He doesn't feel lucky now, though. He's sick and he's tired of breaking up these riots that occur periodically in the U.A. shelter. He is grateful that they are able to house so many civilians and keep them from the dangers across Japan, truly. Unfortunately, the civilians are all still very afraid, it makes Hitoshi's job...difficult. The fear they feel is understandable, which makes everything worse.
Three weeks ago, Pro-Hero Hawks was executed by the PLF. Everyone has been on edge, even more than they were, which says something. It doesn't help that the PLF also exposed some of the HPSC's less than heroic actions. It destroyed the already fraught faith that civilians had in the hero system. Riots have been happening even more frequently in shelters and vigilantes have been popping up more across Japan. People who have been failed by the system, taking justice into their own hands. Regardless of how much Hitoshi agrees or disagrees with their actions, it's his job to deescalate riots and keep people safe.
Hitoshi has a staggeringly small amount of experience and training in hero work, even compared to the first (and now second) year hero students that have volunteered to help with the war effort. His inexperience has caused Hitoshi to mostly be assigned to keeping the peace within U.A.'s shelter. There are some... gaps in what is recently Class 2-A and 2-B. He occasionally gets sent on patrols with their members, to even out patrol squads, but they feel more comfortable with the members of their respective classes. He can't blame them, especially considering the circumstances around the gaps.
A specific alarm sequence starts, signaling the presence of another riot. Hitoshi sighs heavily and pulls his pager out to examine the details and location.
<Code R, 40-50 Civs, Cafe>
Hitoshi stands up, shaking his head vigorously to try to shake some of the exhaustion away. He makes his way out of the control room and heads to the Cafeteria. The page was not very forthcoming on details, so he travels at a brisk, but calm pace. Civilians don't respond well to heroes blazing in thoughtlessly when they are already riled up. He can see the crowd even as far away as he is now. Uraraka is standing on a neighboring rooftop above the crowd and speaking into a megaphone.
"Please, calm down," Uraraka says wearily, her back is hunched and she's resting most of her weight on her left leg. "We can't kick any U.A. students out of the shelter. It goes against our code to leave children to die."
Uraraka looks even more exhausted than Hitoshi feels. Her costume has tears in it, it's coated with mud, and one of her wrists is missing an arm gauntlet. She most likely just returned from a patrol. She must've come across the riot while walking to the dorms. Hitoshi is slightly worried she's going to pass out, right on that rooftop.
"He has the quirk that Shigaraki wants!" a feminine voice in the crowd argues loudly. "If we give it to him, he'll leave us alone."
Hitoshi squeezes his eyes shut and rubs at his temples, trying to keep his headache at bay. He briefly works up the will to save the civilians who are advocating that they sacrifice a seventeen year old needlessly from Uraraka's justified wrath.
Uraraka sucks in a sharp breath of air, looking so horribly enraged. The look on her face is bitter and dark and hollow.
Something in Uraraka was lost when Deku died. It's like she lost her exuberance for hero work, and for life itself. She's a good hero, she'd never let Deku's dream die, but she's lost the radiance that used to cling to her.
Hitoshi waves his arms above his head, looking up at Uraraka, trying desperately to get her attention. She spots him and lets the air out of her lungs, all at once, her chest deflating rapidly. The look on her face shifts to something almost devoid of life.
Uraraka jumps off the rooftop, canceling her gravity at the very last moment. She limps over to Hitoshi and hands the megaphone over, while avoiding eye contact.
"Good luck, Shinsou," Uraraka hesitated, before sighing. "I'm gonna go nap, I'll send someone down to help with this." All the tension has left her body, but that empty look stayed firmly in place as she walked towards the 2-A dorms.
Hitoshi turns toward the crowd, which had somehow grown while he was distracted, they had begun splitting into two groups who were arguing with each other. He saw some odd-looking figures standing slightly behind the crowd, in between the two groups. The yelling was mostly between two people who were at the front of each respective group.
Hitoshi brings the megaphone to his mouth, while mentally formulating his third little 'stopping a riot' speech of the week.
Hitoshi's train of thought is interrupted when he spots one of the odd figures near the back pull out what looks to be a gun. He throws his capture weapon towards him, while running forwards quickly, dodging between the two groups.
"Everyone, disperse now!" Hitoshi shouts into the megaphone, before throwing it aside. "Take cover behind anything you can get to!"
The man with the gun dodges Hitoshi's capture scarf and rolls away. He takes aim at one of the people at the front of the left group and he fires. Hitoshi quickly wraps the man in his scarf and knocks him out with a kick to his head before untangling his scarf and turning back to the women who got shot.
She's laying back on the lap of someone from her side of the argument and someone else is examining where she got hit. The man examining her pulls out the bullet, examining it quickly before paling dramatically. Hitoshi recognizes the shape and make of a trigger bullet, now emptied inside of the women on the ground.
"Everyone, move away from her," Hitoshi cautions, slowly approaching, with his hands raised in front of him. "She's been hit with a dose of trigger, we need to give her space in case she has a negative reaction."
Someone yells indistinctly behind Hitoshi, he quickly turns on his heel and examines the crowd. Another women is on the ground, surrounded by people of the opposite group. Another figure is crouched off to the side, holding a different gun. He thinks its safe to assume the second gun is also loaded with trigger bullets. He knocks the second gun-holder out quickly.
Hitoshi uselessly hopes that reinforcements will arrive soon. If he's very lucky, one of the women will have a mild reaction to trigger.
Hitoshi calmly approaches the second women, eyes examining her abdomen where he assumes the trigger bullet hit. One bullet did land on her abdomen, but his eyes are drawn to the second one that hit her arm.
Hitoshi wants to be surprised that things went downhill so quickly, but he's mostly just disappointed and a little resentful. Apparently, if something can go wrong for Hitoshi, it will. He takes a deep breath and continues calmly approaching the women before crouching right in front of her.
He makes eye contact with the small group that surrounds her. "Everyone please get back and find cover, I'll help her." Hitoshi assures, before turning back to the women on the floor. "How are you feeling, ma'am?" He tries to make eye contact with her, but she is looking through Hitoshi... or behind him.
"How dare you suggest we throw a teenager out to die?" the women hollers, her face twisted in anger. She's looking at the other women who got hit, who has finally found her way to her feet. Her glaring eyes are glowing a bright, toxic green and there are green stripes covering her visible skin. "He's seventeen! He's trying to be a hero, it's shouldn't be a death sentence to have the wrong quirk!"
Hitoshi thinks Bakugo would be... exasperated if he heard someone defending his honor so devoutly, but Hitoshi can appreciate this women's stance. Hitoshi thinks that Bakugo got the shit end of the deal, being stuck with One for All.
It doesn't change the fact that Hitoshi has to try to deescalate the situation.
The women he was trying to snare with his quirk hops to her feet, sprinting at the other women. Hitoshi scrambles to his feet and rushes past her, trying to get in between the two women who seem like they are trying to kill each other.
"Can you both please calm down?" Hitoshi pleads, getting in between the two women who both are both tensing up, clearly gearing up to continue their fight. "We can work this out peacefully."
In the distance, Hitoshi can see Mic-sensei and Kaminari sprinting to his location. He knows they'll be too late though, both women are trying to push past him, and neither of them will stop and answer him.
Hitoshi pushes one of the women back, which he hoped would give him enough room to restrain the other. When that woman hits the ground, her quirk goes off. He wraps the other women in his capture scarf, but it doesn't stop her from activating her quirk, too. The green fog of the first women's quirk and the bright yellow light of the second quirk hit him at the exact same time.
Hitoshi hits the ground before he can process what just happened. He feels his entire body get hotter and hotter before he feels like he burning from the inside. Tears fall from his eyes, cooling his face as they fall. Hitoshi can see the blurry shape of Kaminari falling to his knees in front of him, he loses consciousness before he can make out his face.
Hitoshi wakes up to something tight strapped to his face and the familiar surroundings of his last foster home.