Midoriya doesn't leave him alone.
Their seats are assigned by where they sat their first day instead of by last name, which would actually make sense, so he's stuck next to Midoriya in every single class. The mumbling isn't even a problem; the constant attempts at conversation are. He never brings up Hitoshi's quirk again, but after English with Mr. Yamada, it's-
"Did you see the Mount Lady debut? I think she'll be great once she gets some more experience…"
-and then after Math with Ectoplasm-
"There's some great exclusives after the HeroCon announcement, I've been needing to pick up some posters for my room. Have you been to HeroCon? I go every year…"
-and now, as Hitoshi's packing up his bag for lunch-
"I heard 1-A's teacher is Eraserhead? Well, Mr. Aizawa, but I'm pretty sure he's EraserheadsincehecarriesaroundacapturescarfandI'mprettysurehecanceledsomeone'squirk-"
"Wait, what?" Oh shit. Did he say that out loud? If he actually engages, Midoriya's never going to give up.
His face lights up, immediately stopping his tangent. Damn it. "Oh! Do you know him? That's pretty surprising; since he's an underground hero, not many people do." He smiles innocently, but there's a look in his eye that says he's not very surprised at all.
Hitoshi considers just leaving for a moment. "Yeah. I've been following him for a while," he says, against his will. It's like Midoriya has the brainwashing quirk.
He actually is hungry, though, and would like to eat lunch. But Midoriya looks so hopeful, even if there's a bit of smug satisfaction in his eyes, and Hitoshi really does like Eraserhead.
He zips his bag and stands up, but doesn't beeline for the door. "You're sure he teaches 1-A?"
Midoriya smiles even brighter-if that's possible-and packs up his own bag, walking beside Hitoshi as they make their way to the cafeteria. "Well, I can't be 100% sure, I mean, he wouldn't advertise his identity like that, but I've done a lot of research on him and Ilookedthroughmynotesandhisbuildandhair-"
"Slow down." Hitoshi takes his place in the lunch line, Midoriya behind him.
"S-sorry!" Midoriya looks a little more panicked than he probably should at the correction. "Anyway, he looks a lot like some security cam stills I saw on the hero forums a while back, and with what Uraraka said, I really do think it's him."
"Uraraka?" If Midoriya already has friends, why is he so desperate to be around Hitoshi? Does he just want something from him after all?
Midoriya deflects, blushing a bit and looking away. Lunch Rush places some mackerel on his tray. "She's in 1-A, so he's her homeroom teacher, um-we met at the entrance exam." Wait.
"The...hero course entrance exam." Hitoshi pauses in the middle of a row of lunch tables, staring at Midoriya. Each department was tested separately-he didn't have to take the Gen Ed-specific exam because he essentially flunked into it, but if Midoriya met a hero course student at the exam...was this tiny Quirkless kid running around, trying to take down giant robots? What the hell was he thinking?
Midoriya gives a nervous laugh, eyes darting left and right, but then-
"Deku!" a bubbly voice chimes out, and in the time it takes Hitoshi to turn his head and see the brown-haired girl, Midoriya has already fled to her side. He's immediately surrounded by a couple of other hero course students, and there's no way Hitoshi's going to worm his way in there, physically or emotionally.
Well, they did sit together in all of their classes. He could grill him on it later.
He could not grill him on it later. In a frustrating role reversal, Midoriya remains tight-lipped for the rest of the day, refusing to respond to any of Hitoshi's prompting. For a moment, he considers Brainwashing it out of him, but 1) he'd just be giving away all his cards, and 2) he may be acting a little nosy, but he wasn't going to force the answer out of the other kid. Well, not through quirked methods, anyway.
As it is, Hitoshi still hasn't gotten any details by the next morning. He's biking to U.A, and he's been thinking about this Quirkless kid taking the hero entrance exam for half a day now, and he can't tell why he's obsessing so much over it. It bothers him. Because Midoriya's Quirkless? Because Hitoshi failed too? How many points did he get? Did he get any at all?
Because Hitoshi didn't. Did Midoriya?
He's still thinking about it when he locks his bike up, and when he sits down in his seat for homeroom. And when Midoriya sits down in his seat for homeroom. He thinks about it right up until Mr. Yamada kicks open the door, the same as the last three days. It looks like that's just his way. Maybe the enthusiasm will putter out in the coming weeks.
"Helloooooo my exclusive listeners! I have some very exciting news for you today! Any guesses?" He also really likes audience participation, as ineffective as it is. Just like the last two days, no one answers him, but he moves on without missing a beat. "It's Student Council Elections! Yeah!" Mr. Yamada does a very abstract air guitar, struggling around the thermos and manilla folder in his hands. He sets them down before pulling a hat full of slips of paper from his desk. Where he got the hat, Hitoshi isn't sure. It wouldn't exactly fit on his hair, though it can't be styled like that all the time. Probably.
"None of you are exactly fit for the House of Lords, but you might be fit for the Japanese Diet-and you'll be learning more about that today with Ms. Kayama, so look forward to it!" He calms down a bit, going from a solid 10 to maybe an 8. Mentioning actual coursework has brought him into Teacher Mode, where he's just as enthusiastic but more to-the-point. "Anyway, you'll be holding a vote. Feel free to give a little speech if you're interested-you can stand up here next to me-and then I'll pass out these paper slips for you to write your candidate on!" He sits down in his seat, sipping at his thermos. "Go ahead! You have until the end of the period." With that, Mr. Yamada leans back to look over the papers in his hand, tapping his foot to an unknown tune. Hopefully that means their initial English assessments aren't too bad.
A girl goes up-Handa Machiko, the one with no visible arms or legs-and gives a short speech, citing her involvement in her middle school student council, and Hitoshi is left staring blankly at the empty space she leaves. Does he go up? He should be focusing on proving himself as a hero, not as a student council member, but maybe that would factor in for a transfer? Does U.A. want a more well-rounded candidate, or someone dedicated to punching as many robots as possible? He kind of feels like it's the latter, but maybe-
The next candidate kind of surprises him, and Hitoshi realizes as he looks around at everyone else's nonplussed faces that he'd completely missed that one of his classmates is just a whole-ass cat. A white fluffy one, with some gray patches on his hips and a little uniform jacket. Is he a Quirked animal, or just a person with a weird mutation? He must've introduced himself after Midoriya. Hitoshi had completely checked out after that.
Despite being a cat, he gives a pretty nice speech. Apparently he wasn't on Student Council in middle school because he couldn't reliably speak Japanese, but with the Support Class's help and Principal Nezu's own interference, he's been kitted out (heh) with a tie that somehow speaks out his words in a robotic voice. They're pretty convincing words, though, and he even demonstrates his abilities as a possible secretary by writing his name-Suzuki Shiro-quickly and elegantly on the board. Hitoshi isn't quite sure how he does it, but he undeniably does, and the unsure murmurs around him die down after that.
He frets to himself as the next candidates come up for their speeches, and in the end Mr. Yamada starts passing out the paper slips before Hitoshi can convince himself to deliver a speech. He's frustrated with himself, and almost writes down his name anyway, but it's not like anyone would vote for him. He didn't express any interest at all. It's all on him, as usual.
He writes down Suzuki's name. It's kind of funny, if nothing else.
Surprisingly but also unsurprisingly, Suzuki wins by a landslide. Handa is slotted in as his VP, but she looks just as amused as everyone else, simply promising to do her best. Hitoshi figures she'll balance out Suzuki's lack of experience and it'll be fine. Student Council isn't all that important, anyway.
He didn't get any votes, as expected. Neither did Midoriya. Hitoshi sneaks a glance at him, curious, but Midoriya catches his eye, smiling a bit. It looks more genuine than it did after lunch yesterday, if still a little wan.
"I'm glad Suzuki won. I think he-I mean, he may not have as much experience, but he never...he deserves a chance to prove himself, you know?" Midoriya looks down at that, smile faltering, and he shrugs, playing it off. Hitoshi lets him.