Chapter Text
Meeeooowww
When Hitoshi Shinsou comes to, he is welcomed by a soft purring that seems to be located on his abdomen. He opens his eyes, wincing a little as the harsh light hits his sensitive pupils.
‘It’s gotta be a concussion… again…’
He evaluates his surroundings, not surprised by the black cat on his stomach, and also seemingly unsurprised by the fact that he has awoken in an alleyway. Hitoshi studies the cat, noting the fine scar that trails the boundaries under its left eye, along with a subtle white spot of fur located on the front right paw. He slowly lifts his right hand to go to pet it, so as not to scare it away, but grimaces as he both feels and sees the large, forming bruise along his forearm.
‘Do those assholes not know how to hold back?’
He decides he can no longer ignore his situation and attempts to confront his memories. He was able to recall the morning and sitting through the classes at his middle school. Vaguely, he recollects getting their ranks today after the most recent test. It’s then that he remembers how Kaji Yakeru reacted to his rank. It would be an understatement to say he was pissed; after all, Shinsou did rank higher than him.
‘Fuck… what time is it?’
He glances down in an attempt to locate his phone, only to be met with wide green eyes staring up at him. Apparently, while he was thinking, the cat had noticed his enlivenment and decided to observe. Hitoshi took his chance, this time lifting up his left hand to allow the cat to give him passage. When the cat seemed to be comfortable enough to allow his hand to continue, he began to lightly stroke its back, raking his fingers through its fur. It was nice, a moment of peace in a dark setting, giving him a sense of tranquility. He wished he could just sit there at that moment and forget about all the things awaiting him.
BANG
The sound of a broom hitting a metal garbage can caused him to jump, and in return, the cat did too. In the blink of an eye, the black feline disappeared down the darker end of the alley, turning down another path. He decided to take this as a sign that it was time to get his bearings straight. He examined his body, taking into account the large bruise on his forearm, the even larger bruise on the left side of his torso, and the multiple burn marks along his skin. The burn marks littered his skin, from the bottom of his ankles up to his collarbone.
Now, this was nothing new to him. He had dealt with these burn marks before, nothing that a first aid kit and some medical knowledge couldn’t fix. Didn’t mean he had to like it, though.
“Shit… Fuck… goddammit”
Hitoshi spoke many colorful words as he pulled himself up with the help of another broken broom. He lets out a small chuckle as he comforts himself with a small joke, “One man's trash is another man's treasure.” The Good News is that he is now standing and can easily gather his things. The Bad News is that sitting down didn’t force him to put pressure on certain parts of his body, alleviating some of his pain, but he no longer had the luxury of sitting down. He hisses as his school bag hits his left side, but he pushes through, grabbing his phone and wiping off his pants.
‘Bite your tongue, lower your head, push it all down’
Hitoshi likes to call it his “Life Motto”. He never said it was a good one, but it’s all he's got to keep himself patient. His patience with his foster home, his patience with his teachers, his patience with his classmates, and most of all his patience with the fucked up Society he has been forced to live in. It doesn’t just come out of thin air; he has endured this treatment since he was 4 years old, so he’s learned to adapt.
Hitoshi ignores the pain and starts walking toward the noise on the street. He has had a lot of practice on how to hide a limp. Even if he didn’t, the people who know who he is wouldn’t care enough to ask. That’s how you're treated when you have a villain's quirk in this society. Even though he wanted to be a hero, people just spat it back in his face, saying it's impossible for someone like him.
He reaches the main street and finally remembers a forgotten task when he sees the sky. Hitoshi turns on his phone to see the time, 5:38. Shit. Fuck. He’s cursed a lot since he woke up; nothing wrong with cursing a little bit more. Most kids would go home, but he knows if he does, it won't end well. They’ll berate him with questions , Where were you? What were you doing? Why are you home so late? If we found out you did something… It doesn’t matter what he does, they’ll hit him with question after question. Then they won’t even let him answer or explain himself. If he does, then they’ll just… Hitoshi stops his thoughts right then and there. No point in thinking about something he can’t stop, so instead he thinks of places where he can loiter. If he’s gonna go home late, he might as well go home when everyone is asleep, or tomorrow. If he disappears for a day, they won’t say anything, but they’ll stare at him disappointingly. He can handle that much.
He begins his trek to a local park, one he’s more likely to call home than his actual “home”. He quickly ducks into a store called Moonlight Magic, a spiritual shop that sells an assortment of items, everything from crystals to incense. He waves at the worker behind the counter. He comes in here quite often as it's one of the few places he can loiter, especially if he strikes up a conversation with the workers. None of them know what his quirk is, so they aren’t afraid of him. His looks don’t scare them off either because they think it "matches the vibe of the shop". He walks into one of their dressing rooms and changes into the casual clothes that he keeps in his school bag for emergencies.
Looking in the mirror of the Dressing room, he scowls as he sees the damage the most recent beatdown caused. He uses his on-hand first aid kit to patch up the worst of it and decides that the rest of it is gonna have to do it the natural way. He walks out and up to the worker, recognizing her as Mizuki.
“Hey Hot Topic, are you here to finally buy something or check yourself out in the dressing rooms?” She smiles at him. She’s a couple of years older than him, in her 3rd year at high school. She tolerates him more than others, and Hitoshi thinks she’s pretty chill.
“Not much to check out, and what money do you see that I could be spending?” he quips back. He’s never told her about… well… his classmates . He thinks of this place as a Safe Haven, one of the only ones he’s got.
“Hey, do you mind if I leave my school bag here?”.
“Again? Listen, Shindig, I don’t mind, but make sure you're getting your schoolwork done. Take it from somebody about to graduate, you never know how much you could have had until it’s passed you by”.
“Mizuki, please don't start spouting that deep and emotional bullshit. I understand that you're growing old and becoming nostalgic, but let's not turn into our parents now”.
This earns a laugh from her, “God, I hope I don’t,” she sighs, “Anyways, you can leave your bag here, just make sure to pick it up by 9:00 when we close or when we open in the morning at 7:00”.
“You’ve got it, thanks, Mitsuki”.
“Sure thing, but you owe me. I'm thinking… a Starbucks iced caramel Macchiato?”.
“Bye, Mitsuki.” Hitoshi drawled out as he held the door open for an entering customer.
“Seeya, Shindig,” she said before turning to the customer and exchanging pleasantries, before Hitoshi slipped out. He put in one earbud so he could listen to music while making his way to the park. This part of town isn’t the best place to be when it gets dark, but most people avoid him because of the aura he gives off. The idea of a tall, lanky figure with dark hair and dark eye bags dressed in all black doesn’t sound too friendly, so he doubts he’ll be bothered. He doesn’t have to worry about running into any of his classmates because he knows none of them would be caught dead on this side of town. Thinking of classmates, then thinking of school, he remembers he never ate lunch as he feels his stomach growl. He doesn’t have much money, so he starts to list out his options in his head.
‘So I have $16 cash and a couple of loose coins. I could stop by a diner and get myself a meal, but if I want to get breakfast in the morning, I'll have to manage my finances better. It would be smarter to stop at a convenience-'
“HELP!”
A blood-curdling scream jarred Hitoshi from his thoughts. He whips his head around so fast he’s surprised he didn’t get whiplash. He looks around, desperately trying to find the source of the voice. It sounded like an adult woman, so he was trying to find someone matching that description until he heard the next words.
“Stop hurting her! Please! Mommy!”
A little girl. He hears a little girl. He hears a little girl calling for help. No. He hears a little girl screaming for help. Any sense of rationality he had left broke at that moment. He ran towards the alley where he thought he heard the cries coming from. He sees a big man on top of a woman, who was attempting to remove her clothing, but she was a fighter. She was biting, hitting, clawing, pulling hair, kicking, and fighting as dirty as possible to try to get away. The whole time, the little girl was a few feet back, still calling for her mother.
‘The girl hasn’t engaged him yet, good. I need to get the little girl away from him.’
He should be scared. He should be terrified, but the only thing that's running through his mind is what he needs to do. Before his thoughts can stop him, he yells out something in an attempt to get the man to respond.
“Why attack her? I'm right here! Am I not pretty enough for you to assault?”
This definitely catches his attention, along with the woman's.
“PLEASE! Help me… HELP! PLEASE!”
“SHUT IT! BOTH OF YOU!”
Hitoshi watches as he slams her head back against the wall, and she goes limp. He should have run away, he should have gone to get help, but he had what he needed. He knew he shouldn't use his quirk. He knew it would get the wrong reactions, but he couldn't just leave them there; he had to help. He needed to make a decision, and he made one.
'I'd rather be seen as a villain for using my quirk to save someone than be a civilian for watching someone get hurt
Hitoshi smiled, “I win.”
He immediately took control of the man, watching as his eyes became dead, staring straight into his soul.
“Go down to the P-police stat-tion.” He was trembling, the adrenaline dissipating fast as the man walked out of the alley past him and towards the Police station located about ¾ of a mile away.
Hitoshi thought his knees would give out, and he was gonna collapse on the ground. But he couldn’t. Not yet. Hitoshi turned back to the little girl and the woman. The little girl had gotten close to her mother and was wailing as she called her name, willing her to wake up. He ran over to the woman, getting on his knees to check her pulse.
Letting out a sigh of relief when he felt her faint heartbeat against his fingers, he faced the child who was clearly traumatized.
‘I'm not trained for this. What do you say to a child after they’ve seen their mother get attacked? I’m probably gonna fuck this up.’
“Hey- uh… W-what's your name, kid?”
The child lifts her head away from her mother’s chest. Her face was tomato red, her eyes were swollen from crying hard, her voice raspy, and dying from screaming her mother’s name. “I-i’m… Mirai.”
“What was that?”
The girl who was slowly opening up willed her voice to carry the name that was her own.
“My name is Mirai. Wh-what's y-yours, Mister?”
“Call me Shinsou. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did the big, scary man harm you?”
The girl looked at him, eyes so innocent, so earnest, forever tainted by the sight of tragedy. “N-no, he didn’t touch me.” She looked solemn before speaking up again.
“But-but he hurt mommy!” she stated. “He hurt mommy, and I had to watch. I-I couldn’t do anything. He-He hurt her. She's not waking up. He hurt Mommy!”' Her sentence started off strong, but quickly became ramblings as she went over the edge. The little girl's eyes started to glow as she cried harder.
“Hey, your mom’s gonna be okay, she's alive, calm-'' He is unable to finish his sentence, and he feels a wave of nausea hit him like a train. The little willpower that he had was keeping him awake as his knees crumbled, and he fell to the pavement.
He then blacked out for the second time that day.
________
-shi
His head hurts. It's throbbing. Pounding. It hurts.
-toshi!
It sounds like he's underwater. Is someone calling his name? Why would they call his name?
Hitoshi!
He knows he heard it that time, but the pain, the throbbing, is too much. It's too much. He can’t take it. It hurts. Make it stop.
“Hitoshi!”
It's gone. It's still. It’s quiet. No. No, it’s not. Someone called his name.
“Hitoshi, please wake up!”
His eyelids fluttered, taking in the light. Not just the light, though. He very much noticed the shadow blocking most of the light. He also definitely didn’t miss what was making that shadow. Before his brain could catch up to his mouth, he stated something that was very obvious to him.
“You’re really hot.”