It started with a red scribble.
At first, Hitoshi ignored it, thinking he had gotten marker on himself while coloring. However, when he looked back down at his arm and saw more red scribbles forming he knew that this was not his doing. Even as a four-year-old, he knew what this meant.
With a wide grin across his face, he tripped over his feet scrambling to grab a marker. He barely gave himself enough time to notice that he grabbed a purple marker before opening it and making scribbles of his own, right by the red ones.
A soulmate! He couldn't believe it! He practically vibrated as he waited for their response, his face starting to hurt from smiling too much. He didn't mind, though. The prospect of a soulmate… A best friend who wouldn't make fun of him for his quirk! It was exciting enough that he could ignore such a minor thing for a while.
He became even more excited when he saw letters begin to form. His soulmate could write! Whoever this was, they were smart! He couldn't write that well yet, so watching as an invisible had written the word on his skin made something in him swell in pride. True, it was just a simple "who are you?" It was easy for adults, but for someone (he assumed to be) of his age to be able to do it was simply mesmerizing.
Without a second thought, he told him his name, and after that the pair spent what felt like forever talking. He learned that his soulmate's name was Katsuki, and he had an explosion quirk. He wanted to be a hero in the future, which Hitoshi thought was amazing because that's what he wanted to be, too! Katsuki's favorite hero was All Might, which didn't surprise Hitoshi at all. Everyone's favorite was All Might. Well, except for Hitoshi's. His was Eraserhead. But he didn't know how to write that out, so he simply agreed with Katsuki and moved on with the conversation.
After an hour of talking, his father came in to tell him that lunch was ready. He seemed to understand what was happening, because he came over with a wide grin and pulled him into a hug, gushing over the fact that he had a soulmate. His mother's reaction when she came home and they told her the news was much the same, only more sluggish, and her grin was lopsided and tired-looking. It was normal for her though, so he was still happy.
The next few months were bliss for him. He and Katsuki talked back and forth whenever they could, mostly using pictures, short sentences, or single words. Katsuki favored cursing while Hitoshi would usually just say things he liked, or new words he learned. He ignored the glares and rumors that would go around, the conversations that would stop when they knew he was looking but would pick right back up when they think he's not paying attention anymore… He could let it all go as long as his soulmate was there.
Until he wasn't.
After two years, it wasn't hard to notice when Katsuki started drifting. Replies became few and far between, replies, as short as they were before, became shorter and noncommittal. Hitoshi tried to brush it off at first, deciding that he was just busy, but the facts shot through him after a month went by without the other boy's response.
Katsuki didn't care about him. He didn't care, and Hitoshi had to push him out of his mind and move on… Which was much harder than he let on. After explaining the situation to his parents, he tried to look convincing as he lied about how okay he was with the whole thing. It was written on their faces that he wasn't convincing at all, but they didn't want to push him too hard, so for the moment, they let it go. They did, however, stress the whole "we're here when you need us" shtick. Their support didn't go unappreciated, but it didn't make anything easier.
It didn't help when every other kids around him got to gush about their soulmates while he had to sit there and listen… Until, of course, the conversation halted the moment they noticed him looking in their general direction, whether he had meant to or not. He couldn't tell if this made him feel better or worse about himself, but for his own sake, he pretended it was better.
Hitoshi couldn't deny that his new hobby was forged from his pitiful sadness. At first the drawings were on his arms, a last-stitch effort to try and get his soulmate to come back to him, but over time his canvas became paper rather than skin. The drawings were terrible, and they were clearly the product of a sad individual, but they let him get his feelings out, and they felt like something he did for himself rather than some kid who stopped giving him the time of day. They made things better, but not by much.
The nights weren't much easier. His grandfather could stay awake for as long as he wanted because of his quirk, and unfortunately this was passed down to Hitoshi and his mother... Which meant plenty of time to think about how pathetically sad he was.
It was during these nights that the sadness began to turn to bitterness and spite. If the bastard wasn't going to bother with acknowledging his existence, Hitoshi realized, then Katsuki didn't deserve him anyway. Hitoshi didn't need him! If All Might could get where he was without a soulmate, then why couldn't Hitoshi?
The morning after these revelations, he went to work. He began working out after school, he began to study even harder. His art even stopped being so depressing and hopeless, much to his parents' relief.
As his first year of middle school went by, he began to forget about Katsuki, and with it his anger towards the faceless boy. He was still bitter over the other students and how they treated him, but he decided to bear with it; if they crossed him, he could always spread the right incriminating information he would pick up over conversations. It wasn't very heroic, but it certainly served them right. This didn't stop his growing resentment towards those who would get into heroics with ease, unfortunately, but at least his resentment drove him forward.
Things did get easier as his middle school years went on. His parents had to move to a new place for their jobs, which meant that Hitoshi had to go to a new school. It wasn't that hard for him since he didn't have any friends at the old school, but this new one came with uncertainty. Something in him had the feeling that these new kids would hate him as much as the old ones did. That feeling was, for the most part, wrong.
While there was the initial fear, some of the kids began to approach him, asking about his quirk and what he could do with it. Unfortunately, these came with questions that implied all the bad things he could do, and the oh-so-nice "just don't try to brainwash us!" It infuriated him to no end... Until three people changed that.
For some reason, they were hell-bent on becoming friends with him, which came as quite a shock. He was awkward and a little colder than he meant to be with them sometimes, but somehow he managed to worm his way into this new group. It was small, but warm and welcoming. For some reason, they trusted him enough to offer to let him use his quirk on them for practice. It puzzled him to no end, but it also touched his heart.
They were an endless source of positivity with his art, gushing over every drawing he showed them and giving him endless praise. They even convinced him to make an art blog, which got surprisingly popular after some time.
By the time testing for getting into U.A. came around, Hitoshi completely forgot about Katsuki and all the emotional baggage that came with him. He was too busy hanging out with real friends to spare him another thought. They replaced the empty space he left. Once Hitoshi was accepted into U.A. the faceless boy was further forgotten in favor of celebrating his acceptance. Uncle Shouta even came over for the small celebration!
Granted, the system was rigged to hell and back so Hitoshi couldn't get into the hero program, but a talk with his uncle confirmed that chances to get in would be given. He would get his chance to show them all what he was made of.
Unfortunately, his troubles from middle school would follow him to high school. Upon discovering his quirk, the other students would shy away from him and talk behind his back just like before. The bolder ones would ask the questions that implied that he was evil... Just like before.
It pissed him off, but he ignored it in favor of texting his middle school friends and drawing his anger away. All the while, he would look for opportunities to get into the heroics department.
That opportunity came with the sports festival. Everyone and their mother went to see it, or at least watch it on TV, every year. It overshadowed almost any other events, and it was where he could shine... With one problem: Class 1-A, one of the hero classes. After a group of villains attacked them, they had been getting plenty of attention, and he wouldn't be surprised if they were to hog it all again; after all, the incident was fresh in everyone's minds, and who knew what advantages they had over everyone else?
So along with the rest of his peers, he was outside of their classroom right after school... And his heart stopped.
Hitoshi couldn't say how he knew, but the moment he heard the condescending tone, he knew who was in that classroom, talking about the rest of their peers like they were nothing... Which is probably exactly what he thought of them.
All the anger he had towards the boy came back to him all at once, and if he had any less restraint, he would have tried to fight that boy right there in front of everyone. All of his emotional bullshit brought back to turn him into a raging monster... But he stopped himself, pausing to compose himself as the bastard in the classroom snapped at the students in the hallway.
Packing away all of his pent-up emotions to exert a different day, he chose to do what he wished he could have done years ago: calmly and kindly confronting Katsuki.
And by that, he means roasting his excuse of a soulmate before declaring war on his entire class.
Considering how angry he was, Hitoshi thought that he handled the situation very well. He only showed his rage in the safety of his own home, where he punched, kicked and then screamed into a pillow for a good while. He was usually good at keeping his emotions in check anyway, but this was a different situation. This was him speaking to the soulmate who abandoned him for no reason when he needed him most. Katsuki-
No, he stopped with a start. Now that Hitoshi knew who his soulmate was, he wasn't going to attach any more sentiment to him. People who abandon their soulmates don't get first name privileges. It would either have to be Bakugou or whatever insult came to mind. It was petty, but Hitoshi really didn't give a shit, especially when Bakugou gave his absolutely riveting "speech." If anything, it just fueled his spite, and in his anger, he found that he didn't care if the way he used his quirk to get by was "unfair."
Not when he used other students to keep his feet from freezing by Todoroki's ice. Not when he commanded all of his teammates in the cavalry battle and basically won third place single-handedly. Especially when two of said teammates dropped out of the one-on-one battles.
Maybe if he wasn't running on spite and frustration he'd feel a little bad. He didn't care. At that moment, all Hitoshi cared about was getting to him.
After his observations in the past couple of weeks (and a few from before the sports festival was announced, but he didn't realize who Bakugou was at the time), he knew how much of a blow it would be to his pride if Hitoshi were to literally walk him out of the match. It wouldn't be hard at all to get him talking, and once he did... It was over. Just like with Midoriya. He'd relish it a little less, but he knew that the shorter boy had a strong quirk as well, so it'd still be a victory in his book. Anything to knock more of the gifted people down a peg would be satisfying. Todoroki would be a challenge, but he'd find something to make the cold boy tick when the time came.
But it wouldn't.
That time wouldn't come because by some bullshit anime protagonist logic, Midoriya was somehow able to break out of the spell Hitoshi had put him under and flip him right out of bounds. He was able to get a punch in, but the satisfaction of giving the small green fuck a bloody nose didn't last long. Not when he was on the ground before he could let out a sound. The bitterness over the loss couldn't go away. Some of it did for a while, the cheers from his classmates and the barely coherent mumbling of heroes in the stands reminding him of how close he was to victory. To beating him.
Being reminded of Bakugou brought a new wave of bitterness, one laced with spite and frustration. He stopped to compose himself in the hallways for a few minutes before sitting in the bleachers by his classmates, the praise brought back with more force. It considerably lifted his mood, but he still felt the ache of anger as the rest of the matches went on.
He noted any particularly hard hitters and watched the more spectacular moments in awe, but his focus stayed on Bakugou. The bastard was powerful, he had to admit. His opponents all fought valiantly, but he beat them all with his cocky attitude and his explosive quirk. The one he seemed to have the most trouble with was Todoroki, but he received a victory with him after the ice wielder ended up out of bounds.
For some reason, it didn't seem to sit well with Bakugou, because the next time he was seen was on the stage in chains. The bastard was going crazy about not accepting the victory. That wasn't what made Hitoshi so uncomfortable, though.
The more he watched the boy thrash about in chains, the sicker he felt. He supposed seeing anyone in chains in front of thousands would be sickening regardless, but something about this struck a far stronger cord with him. It was so strong that he had to leave the stadium, spending some time in the halls to get himself together. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to get the image out of his head.
To say he felt sorry for the boy would've been an understatement. To watch someone be humiliated in such a way front of so many people would be difficult enough, but the fact that it was someone he knew and still cared about? It was heartbreaking.
Hitoshi realized what he had just been thinking with a start, not expecting the statement to ring true after the bullshit that the other boy had put him through... But it was still true. He couldn't stand watching his soulmate be dehumanized before his very eyes.
So what if he was an asshole that wanted nothing to do with him? That didn't mean he deserved what he got. A punch to the face, sure, but being chained up like an animal because he was too angry to be consoled at the time?
At the end of the day, he was still a kid, just like Hitoshi. He deserved better.
With a deep breath, he exited the stadium, deciding that he needed some time at home. He needed to think about his own feelings... And maybe to say something to someone he hadn't spoken to in a very long time.
aaaaaa thanks for reading!