A young woman with black, curly hair was bent down on one knee so she could speak at eye level with a little boy who wielded the same black hair.
"Shota, a quirk like yours can be extremely dangerous. If a bad guy finds out about it, they might take you and use you as a weapon against the good guys!"
"But, what if I used my quirk on the bad guys?"
"Listen to me, Shota. In order to keep you safe, you're going to have to keep your distance from others and stay that way."
"Keep my distance?"
"Don't talk, don't make eye contact, just stay away from socializing. You don't need friends anyway, you're plenty strong on your own."
"I'm strong?"
"Yeah. You can also easily handle managing your own emotions and keeping them in check, right? No crying or being giddy. You have to stay quiet and be the bigger man, it'll show maturity and strength by you never making a scene."
"Okay, I won't worry you!"
The woman tussled his hair and kissed his forehead.
All throughout Elementary school, Shota avoided social interaction with his classmates and never told a soul about his quirk. Everybody thought he was just some lame quirkless loser and thought nothing of him, aside from the occasional bully who would do their very best to get a rise out of him but to no avail.
Shota had locked away his emotions and threw away the key.
He had many mocking nicknames, like "ghost" or "soulless" since he was so pale due to the fact that he was given the very strict orders by his parents to get home as soon as school ended. He wasn't able or allowed to leave his house once he entered it, until his mother remarried and he got more,
"freedom".
His step-father cared for him, as did his mother. The atmosphere in the house started to change, though with his real father out of the picture, having been put in jail. His mother had changed a lot, too. Shota dreaded the inevitable return to his house.
The first day of Middle school,
Shota made his way through the halls and to his classroom without a word spoken to him, as he liked it. Upon entering the classroom, he was already greeted by his former bullies and the boy merely slouched, his dull countenance, unchanging. The bullies noticed him enter and smirked.
"Ah, nice to see you again, Aizawa!" One boy placed a hand on his hips. Shota didn't respond.
"Hey! We're talking to you!" Another boy said, grabbing Shota's arm when he tried to walk past them.
Sometimes his silence got him into a little trouble, though.
"Dammit, say something!" A third boy demanded.
Looks like someone's grumpy. Shota thought and yawned.
They all knew that Shota was basically mute.
The bullies tormented and mocked him, Shota simply giving them the continuous dull stare, until the teacher arrived with some blond boy behind him. All the kids went to their respective seats but one kid shoved Shota to the floor while the teacher was preparing his notes, but the blond boy saw the whole thing.
"What happened?" The teacher asked and the bully helped Shota to his feet with a fake smile while Shota continued his bored countenance.
"He tripped." The boy told him. The blond, who witnessed the whole thing knew that was a lie and expected the black-haired boy to call the other boy out on it.
"Is that true?" The teacher asked and, much to the blond boy's surprise, the black-haired boy nodded.
"Yes." Then they both just went to their seats, the other boy had gotten away with it and he smirked because of that.
"Alright now class, this is Yamada Hizashi, be nice to him. Is there anything you'd like to say to the class Yamada?" The teacher asked but Yamada had started zoning out, staring at the small black-haired boy with concern. He noticed the small boy start to rest his head on his desk.
Does that happen often?
Why is he so dismissive?
Who was that jerk?
Why didn't he call him out and tell the truth?
I wonder why he's so much smaller than everyone else.
What's his favorite food?
"Yamada? Yamada?!" The teacher snapped his fingers in front of the blond's face, startling him.
"Ah! Uh, yes?"
"Is there anything you'd like to say?" The teacher asked.
"Oh, right! Um, well, my quirk is Voice! I can break windows and make ears bleed! But I intend to use it for good so I'm going to go to U.A. To become a pro hero!" The blond noticed the black-haired boy's head perk up for a brief moment at the mentioning of his U.A. And pro hero dream, then quickly lowered back to the cushion that was his arms resting on his desk.
Does he share the same dream as me?
Luckily there was an empty seat beside him. The occupied desk on his left, though, was scooted as far from the black-haired boy as possible like he was some kind of plague.
"Alright, now take your seat, Yamada." The teacher order, pointing at the only vacant one, which he had no quell in taking, but everyone he passed gave him pitying gazes that left the boy dumbfounded.
He sat and smiled at the sleeping boy beside him, though he couldn't see it and probably didn't care.
"Roll call, everyone!" The teacher announced and picked up a list to read off of.
"Aizawa Shota." He called out and the black-haired boy beside Yamada raised his hand.
"Here." The boy said in his monotone voice.
Aizawa Shota. So that's his name. Yamada thought.
Class went by peacefully, nobody noticed Yamada passed a note to Aizawa, neither did Aizawa until he was woken up, opened the folded piece of paper and read it with confusion.
"Wanna eat lunch together?
From, Hizashi Yamada".
Who the hell is that? The black-haired boy thought, raising an eyebrow before being tapped on the shoulder as though his mind was read. Aizawa jolted and turned to see who poked him, finding out it was some blond guy, pointing at the paper, then himself.
"No." Was all he said, then took his food out of his desk to eat in the classroom, just to get it tipped over "accidentally" by those jerks from earlier, causing Aizawa's entire lunch to spill all over the floor.
"Oops." The boy who did it teased but Aizawa bared no reaction while Yamada scowled.
"Why did you do that?!" The blond yelled. Aizawa just sighed and went to get the cleaning supplies.
"Because he thinks he's better than us and needs to be taught a lesson!" Another boy declared.
"Yet he never learns!" The third boy folded his arms while the black-haired boy bent down to begin sweeping the dirty lunch into the trash bin, just to receive a kick to the gut.
"Stop it!" Yamada got in front of him defensively.
"He's just gonna manipulate you and hurt you, Yamada." The third boy placed his hands on his hips.
"I don't believe that! I think he's gonna be a hero!" Yamada protested as Aizawa started to stagger to his feet.
"Yeah right! He's nothing but a quirkless loser! Everyone knows that civilians are just obstacles! They get in the way of fighting villains!" The second boy yelled. Aizawa merely rolled his eyes at this.
"Heroes have two jobs, to protect civilians and fight villains! Hurting a civilian would make you just as bad as a villain!" Yamada told them.
The jerks started to yell something back but Yamada didn't care, he just grabbed Aizawa's arm and pulled him out of the classroom.
He practically dragged Aizawa all the way to the roof where there was peace and quiet, Aizawa's dull countenance remained the same though.
"Much nicer up here, don'tcha think?" Yamada asked and Aizawa nodded.
"So, you wanna be a pro hero but have no quirk?" Aizawa didn't respond in any way, no shake or nod.
"Do those guys pick on you often?" Aizawa nodded.
"Then don't worry, Aizawa, as an aspiring hero, I will protect you!" Aizawa hastily shook his head and Yamada's cheerful grin lowered.
"You don't want to be protected? But you need it! They so easily punched your gut and hurt you! I can't just stand by and watch you get hurt!" Yamada exclaimed.
"There're cameras, so as long as I don't fight back, I'll be the victim and they'll be the ones getting the punishments." Aizawa muttered, pocketing one hand, slouching his shoulders and playing with the lock of hair that laid between his eyes.
"You can talk?!" The blond exclaimed.
"Pretty much all of the human race is born with vocal chords, dumbass." Aizawa told him, harshly.
Yamada could tell what Aizawa was trying to do; he was technically proving those bullies right and just wanted to be alone and simply didn't want Yamada's assistance in his problem so this was probably his pride talking.
"Let me get one thing straight, I don't need your help or protection. Leave me alone, 'Voice-hero'." Aizawa stated and left the roof, leaving Yamada to admire the view alone.
"Voice-hero, huh? I like that." He muttered to himself.
"Man, he's so cool!" He added, blushing a bit.
He's so small and thin, though. Is he really okay? He thought, his smile dropping.
The rest of the day was fine. When the day ended, Aizawa left the classroom as quickly as possible and seemingly disappeared, according to the person who left the room right after him.
"Seriously, this is why we call him a ghost." The girl said.
"It's like he just vanishes."
"I've never seen him off school grounds before."
Yamada was extremely curious about Aizawa at this point but felt it was too late now to find him.