章 2020: 39
Izuku and Mei were starting to get frustrated. Izuku was sitting crosslegged on the floor of the hallway, laptop open in front of him with every blueprint of UA he could possibly hack into, but so far there hadn't been any mention of tunnels or how to get in. He'd tried texting Nedzu for any sort of a hint, but all he'd gotten back was a winky face and he'd had to hide his phone to prevent Mei from stealing it and throwing it against the wall in frustration.
"Are you sure Nedzu isn't just pulling on your leg or something?" Mei groaned. "I swear, we've walked around the entire school three times! I swear, if that rat is just sitting in his office and laughing as we run around in circles..."
"He wouldn't do that." Izuku said. "Well, actually, the laughing as we run around in circles part, yes, definitely, he's probably doing that right now, but if there weren't actually tunnels, he wouldn't be having any fun. Nedzu likes knowing something that other people don't and enjoys watching them struggle to figure it out. It's part of why he went into education."
"So if there weren't actually tunnels, he wouldn't be able to feel superior?" Mei complained, falling back onto the floor and staring at the ceiling. "Ugh, where are we even supposed to start looking? There's nothing in the blueprints, right?"
"Nope." Izuku snapped his laptop shut and stretched. "But you know that would be too easy. The entrance or, more likely entrances, are probably well hidden and most likely require some sort of code, otherwise anyone would be able to access them. But UA is built like a maze, so…"
Mei sat up, "So maybe there's a false dead end!"
Izuku grinned and opened his laptop again, "Of course! For Nedzu, it would probably be hilarious to see students reach a deadend hallway and turn around, completely unaware that there was a secret waiting for them. Great idea, Mei!"
Mei grinned wildly, "So which wall do I need to blow up?"
Izuku rolled his eyes, "You're not blowing up any walls, that's cheating. Remember, this is supposed to be fun!"
"Blowing up walls is fun." Mei complained. "But sure, we'll try it your way and I can just blow up the wall of Nedzu's office later!"
"You realize he's probably listening, right?" Izuku pointed out.
"Just let him try and stop me!" Mei punched at the air. "It'll just be even more fun to break past all his defenses!"
Izuku shook his head and turned back to his computer, "Alright, so according to the blueprints, there are at least a dozen end hallways hidden around UA, but the closest one is...oh, there's one between prep rooms four and five!"
Mei jumped up, "Race you there? Whoever's last has to clean up the testing room next class."
Izuku grinned as he put his laptop away and let her pull him to his feet, "You're on!"
Mei instantly shot down the hallway like a bullet, and Izuku was forced to catch up, laptop case bouncing against his side as he followed her laughter. Even if they didn't end up finding the tunnels, this was a great way to spend the evening.
No one came to pick Hitoshi up from the sports festival, but then again, he didn't expect them to. Yeah, taking the train with the last remnants of a migraine wasn't fun, but it wasn't like he hadn't done it before, so he just waited in Recovery Girl's office until after the evening rush and then headed home once there wouldn't be so many people. He got a couple weird looks and a few thumbs up as people recognized his gym uniform or caught sight of the medal stuffed into his pocket, but thankfully most people didn't give him a second glance and it wasn't long before he was walking up the steps of his foster home, ready to make a bee line for his room and pass out.
He wasn't that lucky.
When he opened the door, some of the kids were huddled around the tv and Hitoshi froze when he realized the news was showing highlights from the sports festival. He didn't know why it hadn't occurred to him that his foster family might see it, probably because school felt safe. When he was around Izuku and Mei, he felt like he could take on the word, and honestly with the amount of chaos those two caused, he probably could, but at home things were different. Mei and Izuku looked at his quirk and they saw him, a person with potential to be a future hero, so to them, him winning the sports festival was the ultimate goal and an amazing accomplishment that he should be proud of, but something told Hitoshi that his foster parents might not see it that way. He passed the kitchen as silently as he could as he hurried toward the stairs, but all the stealth practice in the world wouldn't help when someone was already waiting to pounce.
"You lied to them."
Hitoshi flinched and slowly turned to look at his foster dad. He towered beside the table as his wife sat down, shoulders hunched and eyes red like she'd been crying. Hitoshi didn't say anything, obviously. He wasn't stupid. He just kept his eyes down as his foster father stalked across the room toward him.
"You didn't even give them a chance to fight back." he growled. "You lied to them so they wouldn't be able to stop you from getting in their heads. If they'd known how your quirk works, there's no way you would have gotten first place. So no wonder you won, boy, since you were willing to act like a little villain!"
Hitoshi opened his mouth to defend himself, but thankfully caught himself before he could make that mistake. The bastard was right , afterall. If he hadn't hidden his quirk's activation requirements, he would never have been able to get first place. The hero course students may not have had the support course in their corner, but they weren't stupid. If Hitoshi had gone with his original plan and let his quirk stand on its own, he would only have been able to win one fight, maybe a few more if he was lucky, but eventually, he would have come up against someone with more self-control than he was able to handle.
So he'd lied. He'd followed Izuku's advice and kept people guessing so that no one knew they weren't supposed to talk to him and his classmates in general education were too scared to say anything. Hitoshi wasn't sure if they were more scared of him and his quirk or of Mei and Izuku, who somehow managed to say something concerning every single time they appeared in his classroom, but at the end of the day, his foster father was right. He had taken advantage of fear, confusion, and deception to claw his way to the top, just like a villain would. Anything he said to try to defend himself would only make it worse.
"I thought you were trying to be good." his foster mother sobbed quietly. "You were going to UA and everything, so why did you take advantage of those poor kids like that?"
Hitoshi balled his hands into fists at his sides and forced himself to stay silent. It was harder than it should have been. After so many homes like this one and so many teachers who had never heard his voice, it should have been easy to bite his tongue, but if anything, his kidnappers encouraged him to talk. They wanted to hear his jokes and opinions and never assumed he would control them, except for when they asked him to, and wasn't that a welcome change? They'd made him feel like it wasn't bad to be dangerous, because they were both dangerous too. They'd spoiled him by listening to his voice and now it hurt even more to be silent. He hated it.
"You're grounded." his foster dad informed him. "If and when you return to UA, I expect you to write apology letters to everyone you hurt and tell them how your quirk actually works. Do you understand?"
Hitoshi gave a curt nod and turned toward the stairs, knowing that was as much of a dismissal as he'd get. The mystery surrounding his quirk had been nice while it lasted, but he should have known better than to think it would always be that way. His quirk made him a future villain and that was all anyone would ever see. He finally reached his room and fell facedown on the mattress. Why did he even try?
The sun had set a little while ago and for once in his life, Shouto was actually grateful for his fire. At least he didn't have to worry about getting cold while wandering around the city when he could regulate his own body temperature. He'd already decided that he wasn't going to be sleeping tonight. He didn't know what places were even close to safe, and the idea of being defenseless like that made him shiver. He'd gone nights without sleep before for Endeavor's training, and this was basically the same thing. Same for food and water. It was one night. He'd survive.
He didn't know quite where he was, just that he'd never been there before, but he wasn't too concerned. If he wandered for long enough, he'd eventually have to find something he recognized and then he'd be able to find his way home. Shouto kept his head down and kicked a rock a little ways down the street. He really was embracing his role as the family screw-up at this point, wasn't he? He'd lost the sports festival to someone from gen-ed, he'd talked back to Endeavor, and he'd even gotten kicked out. This day just kept getting better, didn't it?
He heard a small clatter behind him and instantly whirled around, dropping into a battle stance as his eyes ficked around to look for the threat. He didn't relax when all he found was an empty street. He resisted the urge to call out and ask who was there like some horror movie protagonist. No, he was a hero student and he was more than capable of defending himself against whatever came at him.
Shouto jumped a foot in the air and coated the ground with ice as something brushed past his leg. He stayed tense, ready to battle whatever villain was stupid enough to attack him...until said villain started hissing at him and he realized that he'd gotten all worked up over a stray cat that was now very angry and had all four of it's paws frozen to the ground. So much for not being a horror movie protagonist.
"Sorry about that." Shouto knelt down slowly and activated his left side to melt the ice. "I guess I really am a screw-up, huh? I bet Endeavor never accidentally attacked a cat thinking it was a villain."
The cat puffed up it's orange fur and hissed at him, but the moment the ice started to melt around its paws, it hesitantly relaxed. Slowly, keeping a close eye on Shouto in case he attacked again, the cat licked at the water left behind on the ground, then sat down and started cleaning it's paws. Shouto sighed and let himself slump down against the wall of the alley. At least he hadn't hurt the cat, at least not permanently, so he wasn't turning into his father yet. Small blessings.
The cat started to make its way toward him and Shouto moved to get up, only for the cat to bristle up again and start hissing until he stayed still again. Apparently, any movement on his part would be instantly seen as threatening, but he supposed he deserved that after trapping the poor thing in ice. He had enough scars from training, so Shouto wasn't really interested in adding more to that, just because he'd pissed off a cat. It wasn't as if he was planning on doing anything tonight anyway, so he settled down, content to spend the next however long catering to the whims of a frightened kitten. He was kind of clueless, though, considering he'd never had a pet. Endeavor wasn't the best person around humans, so their family had never really been interested in testing how he would treat animals.
He watched curiously as the cat continued drinking what remained of his ice, gradually getting closer and closer to him, but never making any move to attack him. He stayed as still as he could, which was extremely still, up until the moment the cat jumped on him. He tensed, ready to shove the cat away at the first sign it was going to scratch him, but it just hissed once and stared at him until he hesitantly started to relax again. The cat waited another long moment, ears twitching as it looked at him, and Shouto noticed that one of its ears had a bite torn out of it. Both the ear and the other wounds that Shouto could see were long since scarred over, but it was pretty obvious that this cat was used to fighting its way through the streets and one wrong move was going to get him matching scars. After what seemed like an eternity, the cat let out a satisfied yawn and curled up on his thigh. Shouto sighed. It looked like he was going to be here a while.
The concrete was cold, as was the brick behind him, so Shouto increased his body temperature slightly so he didn't start shivering and annoy the cat, but he wasn't quite sure what else he was supposed to do. He didn't have anything to feed it and wasn't sure it would let him pet it, so he was starting to get a little restless. What did people normally do when a stray cat just adopted their lap?
The cat had started purring at some point when Shouto heard a meow coming from another part of the alley. He looked up to see another cat, this one black and a little smaller, blinking at him from between two trash cans. It only hesitated a moment before leaving it's hiding place and padding across the alley toward him.
"No." Shouto said, tensing. "No, no, no, no! I don't even know how to deal with one cat. I'm not…"
His panic was cut off by the orange cat hissing at him again, very clearly communicating that he did not have a choice in the matter and was to remain still and not piss off the thing that had taken control of his lap. The black cat curled up against his side and Shouto let his head fall back and hit the brick behind him. He couldn't even stand up to an ornery cat. No wonder he'd lost the sports festival.
It kept going on like that for the rest of the night and after the fourth cat had crawled up onto his shoulder, Shouto just resigned himself to being a cat bed for the rest of his life. It seemed a little high of a price for accidentally freezing one cat, but if he moved now there were claws everywhere just waiting to scratch him, so he was trapped. When he reached six cats, he glared at the one responsible for this whole problem, but the orange cat just blinked up at him and twitched it's torn ear smugly. Asshole.
By the time he'd reached eight cats, Shouto was finally starting to feel a little more comfortable, so when the orange cat butted against his hand, he rubbed its head and started scratching behind its ears, which was the correct thing to do judging by the purr he got. Alright, so maybe he wasn't a total failure, just most of one.
He smiled softly and kept scratching the cat, "You're an asshole, you know that? Trapping me here? What are you trying to accomplish? I'm not a bunk bed for all your cat friends, you know."
The cat meowed back at him, obviously pointing out that he was a bunk bed, just based on the number of cats he'd ended up with. Shouto glared at it, "This is your fault. You started this. You know what? Just for that, I'm going to call you EndevPurr, you deserve it."
He flinched as the cat flicked out its claws and dug them into his thigh. It wasn't enough pressure to hurt, but it was a clear enough warning to Shouto to roll his eyes and give in, "Fine. I'll shorten it to Epurr, but you and I both know what it stands for."
Epurr gave a satisfied chirp and Shouto shook his head as he scratched behind the cat's torn ear again. How had he ended up here again? Oh, right, he'd lost the sports festival and then made a weird enemy...friend...thing out of a stray cat. How was this his life?
"You must have a fire quirk."
Shouto jumped and Epurr hissed at the newcomer, who just scratched his neck and rolled his eyes as he sat down next to them. He wore a ratty black hoodie and jeans and looked like he was a few years older than Shouto was, probably in his early twenties, and badly needed a hairbrush and moisturizer. His father would never let him leave the house looking like that, too concerned with his successor looking perfect for the cameras, but this stranger seemed more at home in these back alleys than Shouto was.
That didn't mean he was any less suspicious of him, "How do you know that?"
"The cats." the guy gestured to his collection. "Even when it's just a little chilly out, they track down anything warm and fire users can either manipulate their own temperature or just naturally run a bit hotter. Hence your little fanclub. Be careful of the orange one, though. She's a bitch."
"Oh." Shouto scratched Epurr's chin and she purred. "Yeah, a little. She might let you pet her though. Do you have a fire quirk?"
"Nah, just can't sleep and other players will try to bully me into going to sleep if I try to game in the middle of the night." The guy shrugged, there was something familiar about his voice and the way he talked, but Shouto couldn't quite place it. "Plus, it isn't terrible out here when most of the NPCs are gone. And I don't pet things. Dangerous quirk, you know?"
He raised up his hand and Shouto froze. Epurr didn't hiss this time, but she did headbutt into Shouto's hand to get him to keep petting her. Shouto forced himself to calm down and act natural, which wasn't difficult considering how many times he'd had to do the same thing around his father. He took back what he'd thought about not being a total screw-up though, because it shouldn't have taken him so long to recognize Shigaraki, considering that he'd tried to kill them all.
He was hyper-aware of how close Shigaraki was sitting. All he had to do was reach out and Shouto would be dust. Thankfully he hadn't seemed to recognize Shouto though, so the beanie was doing its job, though the darkness and the fact that the USJ had been so chaotic probably didn't hurt. And he'd thought facing off with an ornery cat was bad.
"So...fire quirk?" Shigaraki asked.
Shouto shrugged and took a deep breath. He just had to act natural until Shigaraki left, he could do that. "I don't like it, but yeah."
Shigaraki huffed, "Yeah, I get that. My quirk's the same way. There's good things too though. My quirk lets me destroy the things I hate and yours apparently makes you a cat magnet."
"I'm not sure that's a positive." Shouto deadpanned. "I don't like cats."
Shigaraki laughed, "They like you."
"I guess." Shouto said helplessly.
"You're a noob in this game, aren't you?" Shigaraki asked. "Living on the streets."
Shouto shrugged, "More of a visitor. Just got kicked out for the night."
"Ah, you'll probably be back then." Shigaraki nodded. "Most people tend to avoid this alley, too many murders, but if you ever need a place to crash you should be fine as long as you don't piss off the wrong people. Or the cats."
Shouto swallowed at the threat, "Got it. Don't make the cats angry."
Shigaraki gave a raspy laugh, "Pretty much. You're not too bad for a noob, I guess."
They sat there in silence for a long time until the sky started getting lighter and Shouto's legs were starting to cramp from sitting in the same position for too long. He was busy silently panicking about how he was going to find a polite way to leave when Shigaraki's phone buzzed and he swore.
"Ugh, Sensei's looking for me." He stretched and stood looking down at Shouto. "See you around, noob."
"See you around." Shouto responded hesitantly. "Just look for the cats."
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