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Hitoshi tries not to scowl as he sits in the plush chair in Principal Nedzu’s office.
“So, Mr. Shinso. You requested a personal meeting. Unfortunately, if you’re asking for special accommodations in the hero exam, the school board-” Nedzu begins.
“I’m not.” He interrupts tiredly.
“Oh? Then why are you here?” Nedzu asks cheerfully. Or at least Hitoshi assumes it’s cheer and not a threat. It’s hard to tell with the animalistic face.
He sighs, but he needs to do this. “All for One is my father.”
Nedzu goes still. Like a predator, Hitoshi thinks irrelevantly.
“And he wants me to spy on the school, to find All Might’s successor. Even though he’s a total deadbeat as a dad. I want to be a hero, though, so fuck him. I’m letting you know that I have to cooperate with him, I have no choice, but knowing who I am should be enough for you to thwart him.” Hitoshi continues. “Also, I don’t have his quirk, but I can see quirk lights and tell what different quirks are just from looking at those. So I, in theory, should be able to easily suss out All Might’s successor and that’s one thing I can’t get away with misleading him on.”
“I see. Understandable. Now tell me, why I should let you into my school in the first place?” Nedzu asks neutrally.
“Because you’re a hero and if I don’t get in at all, he’ll kill my mom and force me to work directly for him. I think you know how much damage a quirk like Hypnosis could do in the hands of even an unwilling villain.” Hitoshi says bluntly.
Nedzu looks thoughtful. “And if you don’t get in on your own merits? Hypnosis will hardly help you in the hero exam.”
Great. Good to know he’ll be up against something that’s not human. “I have faith enough in my grades to confidently say I’m a shoo-in for Gen Ed, even if I don’t make it into the Hero course.”
“Great!” Nedzu startles him by clapping his hands together. “How much have you trained with your quirk?”
Hitoshi grimaces. “Mostly to get bullies to go away. It’s not hard. But my father insisted on some training, so I know I can hold up to six people at the same time for over an hour before it strains my quirk. I still have to snag them one at a time and I can’t give them orders that require higher brain activity, but he claims it’s only a limitation because I think it is. He’s usually not wrong about quirks.”
“How did he determine that?” Nedzu queries.
He shrugs. “Analysis. Or maybe his quirk tells him these things. I don’t really know. He can’t actually take my quirk, so it’s not from using it.”
Nedzu abruptly looks more cheerful. “I see. Excellent. Do turn up to the recommendation exam tomorrow. I’ll personally recommend you.”
Hitoshi stares. “What?”
“I do expect you not to sabotage your competitors, of course. And I don’t expect that you’ll do very well in the physical portion, looking at your lack of muscle, but All for One doesn’t need to know that, does he?” Nedzu asks brightly.
“I- Uh. Okay.” Hitoshi stutters out an agreement. This is entirely out of the scope of his planning. He doesn’t really understand what Nedzu is planning here. “What time should I show up?”
“10:15. The exam begins at 11:00, but there is some paperwork you’ll need to do before the exam.” Nedzu tells him.
Oh, he is totally showing up at 10:00 sharp if there’s paperwork.
~
He doesn’t feel ready for the written exam and all the pro heroes he spots with their recommendations doesn’t help his nerves at all.
His deadbeat dad was thrilled to hear his lie of Nedzu buying his sob story about having a ‘villainous quirk’ and entering him in the recommendation exam. He’s never been so glad of his father’s inflated ego in his life. AFO is actually proud of him for ‘tricking Nedzu’ into accepting a villain’s son. In fact, he treated it as if Hitoshi is as good as having earned a recommendation spot in the Hero course already.
Hopefully Nedzu is as well, because he doesn’t know, doesn’t want to know, what will happen if he doesn’t get a spot. Nothing good. That’s for sure. Disappointing AFO never has pleasant consequences.
By the end of the exam, his mind is mush. Hitoshi is certain that the test is a magnitude harder than the written for non-recommended students.
Now he’ll just have to do his best on the physical part. Here’s hoping he does better than Nedzu expects him to. He’d rather actually win the spot and not be simply given someone else’s spot. It’s possible, depending on what it involves. One side-effect of his father having so many quirks is that Hitoshi was born with some minor physical augmentation traits. His lungs are more efficient, he can run faster than average, his reflexes are excellent and his muscles are stronger than they should be. They’re inherited mutant traits rather than actual quirk based, though. Sure, he’s an unathletic string bean, but that should be easy enough to change once he starts physical training.
In the end, he uses his quirk, not to sabotage but to get a free ride over the entire obstacle course. The wind user isn’t even mad about it, since they end up a full five seconds ahead of the runner up, Endeavor’s kid. Who incidentally, the wind user seems to have a beef with, if his attitude towards him is any gauge. Hitoshi doesn’t remember the wind user’s name, because he’d basically shouted it in his face and Hitoshi had been too busy wincing to pay attention.
Deciding not to ask about the one-sided tension, Hitoshi watches the other groups compete. There’s one girl who can create items, which she uses to great effect. Another girl can split her body in pieces and send them flying through the air. There are others, of course. Most of them have much more impressive quirks than Hitoshi’s.
Then comes the individual interviews.
He’s called into a small room with a desk and chairs. A tired looking black haired man with bandages wrapped loosely like a scarf, greets him with, “Aizawa Shouta. Normally Nedzu would be interviewing you, but because you’re his recommendation, I will be doing it instead.”
Hitoshi stares at him for a moment, then asks, “Eraserhead?” as he takes a seat.
The man raises an eyebrow. “So. Shinso Hitoshi. Tell me why you should be in the hero course.”
Okay, so this is going to be a farce, right? It’s obvious that Eraserhead already knows the answers.
“Because I’m a villain’s kid with a villain’s quirk, being used by said villain as a spy and if I fail my mom will be murdered and I’ll be forced to be a real villain. Plus, I want to prove everyone wrong about my quirk.” He says bluntly.
Surprise crosses the man’s face, followed by concern. Maybe Nedzu hadn’t told him everything after all? “Have you considered protective custody?”
Hitoshi laughs bitterly. “Considering my father is All for One, there’s no protective custody that could protect us. Plus, my mom would still insist on working and I know heroes can’t afford the resources to give her a guard for more than a couple weeks.”
“All for One.” Eraserhead repeats, eyes widening a little. “He’s a legend in the underground, but he hasn’t been heard of for years.”
He snorts. “Considering he’s missing half his face, that makes sense. Considering his hard-on for All Might and his successor, I’m guessing that it was All Might who did it.”
“All Might’s successor?” Eraserhead sounds confused.
“Oh. I guess that you should probably know because he’ll probably be in the hero course and all that jazz. All Might’s quirk is transferrable. Whoever his successor is has probably experienced a ‘quirk evolution’ recently.” He makes air quotes with his fingers. “You can probably spot them without trouble, but if you want, I can tell you for sure. Part of my quirk allows me to see quirk lights and someone with a copy of All Might’s should be pretty obvious.”
“I see. I assume that part is from your father and the rest of your quirk is from your mother.” Eraserhead states more than asks.
“Well, sort of? Mine’s like a really OP version of my mom’s Pleasant Suggestion. She’s a quirk therapist who specializes in difficult patients. I think the quirk lights are from my father, but he doesn’t talk about his quirk. I also got a little bit of physical enhancements passed down as mutations from him, but they aren’t quirks or part of my quirk.” Hitoshi explains.
“And what do you plan to do if you can’t use your quirk in a situation?” Eraserhead asks.
Hitoshi flushes. “Well, uh, actually, you’re my inspiration as a hero, so I was thinking something along the lines of your capture scarf.”
“Hmm. Interesting.”
Yay?
“Alright, that’s it for questions. I’m sure the rat made your test more thorough than the rest of them, including the ethics section, so that’s accounted for. We’re done here, so you can leave.” Eraserhead says in a no nonsense tone.
“Hai!” Hitoshi jumps to his feet and bows. “Thank you, Eraserhead, sir.”
Now, he just has to wait for the results to come in the mail.
~
He’s nervous for the first day of class in 1A. Taking a deep breath, he pushes open the ridiculously large door and enters.
Only two other students are there. Endeavor’s son, who glares at him hatefully before turning away. What crawled up his ass? And some blue haired kid in glasses.
“Welcome! I am Iida Tenya. And you are?” The blue haired kid asks, arms chopping like a robot for some incomprehensible reason. He’s loud.
“Indoor voice, buddy. I tend to tune out people who shout at me. I’m Shinso Hitoshi.”
Iida’s eyes widen and he lowers his voice comically. “Sorry, I forget I can be loud.”
“Just remember for future reference.” Hitoshi tells him casually. He glances at the seating chart on the board and sits in the back of the first row, done with the conversation.
Slowly, other kids show up. There’s a kid with a head like a rock that has some sort of voice activated command similar to Hitoshi’s quirk. A strength quirk that requires some catalyst. An invisible girl. A boy with six arms. A boy with a palm located explosive quirk.
Then the green boy walks in and Hitoshi has two thoughts. 1. That’s All Might’s successor. And 2. Oh no, he’s cute.
Yes, he is a gay disaster, thank you very much.
The green boy, Midoriya Izuku’s quirk looks slightly similar to AFO’s quirk in that it contains multiple quirk lights. And isn’t that a trip?
He’s so busy watching Midoriya that he almost misses the cute blond boy with the electric quirk. Two? In the same class? This is how he dies. Crushing on cute boys who don’t return the interest.