Midoriya Inko watched her son as he went about making breakfast, and realized she should have expected this. Inko always woke up very early, she needed the time to prepare for her shift and to make food for herself and Izuku. So the fact that Izuku had woken up before she did could only mean one thing.
"Good morning sweetie." Inko announced herself softly. Izuku smiled and returned her greeting, but the smile was forced and his voice sounded hollow. It confirmed her suspicions.
She didn't bring it up right away. It was best not to have emotional conversations while the stove was in use, so she busied herself with getting the table ready. When the food was done Izuku served it up and the two of them sat down at the table, but neither ate. Izuku stared down at his food, rubbing his eyes, and Inko stared at Izuku.
"You had the dream again."
Izuku nodded, and Inko's heart went out to him. After his father died, Izuku started having these mornings where he would wake up before Inko and do some sort of housework. Inko noticed that it usually happened on or near important dates, like birthdays, holidays, or even the first day of the new school year. It took some coaxing, but she did convince Izuku to tell her what was going on.
Izuku told her that he had this recurring nightmare. The nightmare would start out innocently, with Izuku and Hisashi chatting at they walked to the park. Then something would happen, there would be a villain attack or someone walking by would try to grab Izuku, and he would grab at Hisashi's hand fearfully, only to find that the hand was cold and stiff and when Izuku looked up his father stared down at him with a slack face and glazed over eyes.
Izuku insisted that it wasn't a big deal. That the dream only stole a bit of sleep and didn't happen often enough to be a problem. Still, with a milestone as big as getting into UA, she should have known Izuku's nightmare would resurface. Inko wished he wouldn't be such a martyr. She always told Izuku that there was no shame in getting help, but maybe that was part of the problem. She told, but did not demonstrate. She never saw anyone about the times she would stare forlornly at the empty side of the bed at night, or the stress of relearning all the tasks Hisashi had once been responsible for. Maybe they were both too self sacrificing to ask for help, but the great thing about family was that you didn't always need to ask.
Which was why no prompting was required for Inko to take her son's hand.
"I miss him too. I wish he could be here to see you now; I know he'd be so proud of you."
While the Midoriya's cried over their food, a similar scene was happening across the street. It too involved a single mother with a high school aged son. This scene was not as soft as the first, there was no crying and a lot more yelling and petty insults. But the ending was basically the same.
"It sucks that Masaru never got to see you take your first big step. You know how proud he'd have been of you, ya little shit?"
"Whatever, I always knew I'd get in. He would of known that too."
"Oh of course he would. I remember how he showed it too, come here!"
"Get your hand out of my hair woman!"
Izuku was on his way to school now, and still rubbing at his eyes. Though at this point it was from tiredness rather than staving off tears.
Talking to his mom always helped him get through the emotional overload that the nightmare brought, even if she didn't know the whole story behind it. He had told her the main part, the stuff that was constant between each dream, but there were details that would come and go. Ones he couldn't tell her about without making her suspicious.
He couldn't tell her that the villain in the dream would sometimes ask Izuku to join him, because somehow he knew of the crime Izuku had already committed. It would be hard to explain that he sometimes grabbed his father's hand because Kacchan was coming after him demanding that Izuku 'Bring him back!'. It would be even harder to explain that same demand could come from strangers in the dream.
The fear that fueled that last detail was one he'd only developed in recent years. Once he got older, he would sometimes think about what might happen if his quirk was ever publicly revealed. If people knew what he could do, would they demand he use it? Would people beg him to bring loved ones back to life for one last word? One last 'I love you'? Doing that might not be so bad, but then he'd have to make the person go back to being dead, and the heartbreak would happen all over again. Or what if the loved one tried to stop him from touching the person again? What if they would force him to bring the person back for good and kill somebody else? And what if the person they wanted to bring back had been dead for a long time? He'd made a note that his quirk 'seemed to prevent previous injuries from effecting the subject', but that didn't mean the evidence of the injuries went away. The squashed bug he'd experimented with had remained...significantly flatter than the others, even though it managed to move around okay. His father's head injury hadn't just disappeared either. If he was forced to use his power on someone who died of violent injury, or had decomposed significantly...he didn't want to think about it. Even if he didn't have other reasons for hiding his quirk, then he probably would have ended up hiding it to keep any of that from happening.
No matter how you looked at it, things were better when no one knew he had a quirk.
Izuku shook his head, and tried to focus on the present. He thought about what was on his agenda, and suddenly smiled. That's right, Shinsou was coming over today!
Just as predicted, Shinsou and Izuku had ended up sitting by each other for the second half of their first day. They had both instantly recognized their English teacher as Present Mic, to Izuku's glee and Shinsou's dismay. Well, dismay may have been too strong a word, but Shinsou did go on about how Present Mic was too loud. At least Mr. Yamada had kept his speakers turned off after the first 'HELLO!'. When they got to History, Izuku had not recognized the scruffy man sitting behind the desk, but Shinsou had. Izuku put the pieces together when Shinsou called the teacher Eraserhead. Since he was an underground hero there weren't many videos of him, so it was pretty impressive that Shinsou had managed to recognize him so quickly.
After school had ended and the two new friends parted ways, Izuku had gone home and grabbed a bunch of pillows and a video camera. He spread the pillows out on the floor and set the video camera up so it would catch him trying, and failing, to do a hand stand. He'd been a bit sore after several attempts, but he would need a control to compare his brainwashed performance to.
It was good that he and Shinsou had exchanged numbers, because that made it easier to keep track of when Shinsou was available to come over. Apparently he worked part time at a small vet clinic, so he wasn't always available after school or over the weekends. Eventually they'd figured out they were both free Wednesday afternoon, which was today after school.
The second day had gone just about the same as the first. Seeing pro heroes was still awesome, though he'd managed to stop going into 'full fanboy mode', as Shinsou called it, by now. He and Shinsou chatted with Wakiya and Imari at the start of Literature class, and they sat with Uraraka and Iida during lunch. Though Shinsou had mentioned some Gen Ed students that had invited him to hang out at lunch time too, and he said Izuku was welcome to join.
Izuku wasn't used to so many people wanting him around, or that didn't mind him being around, at least. With that hopeful thought in his head, Izuku completed his walk to school in a much better mood.
"You're sure this is okay with your mom?" Shinsou asked as he walked beside Izuku. The school day had ended, and Izuku and Shinsou were now on their way to Izuku's apartment.
"Oh yeah, she was thrilled when I asked if a friend could come over. I haven't really had anyone over since...well, since I was a little kid. She's probably worried about my social growth or something." Izuku admitted sheepishly. Shinsou let out an amused huff, but didn't comment further.
"So, uh, anything new in the Gen Ed department?" Izuku asked. Shinsou shrugged.
"Nothing much. Naya and Obara are bugging me to eat with their group, and I was thinking of doing that tomorrow. You wanna come?"
"Sure! I'd love to meet more of your class."
"Gives you a chance to interrogate more people about their quirks right?" Shinsou asked with a smirk. Izuku laughed and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well, hopefully we'd do more than just that, but if they were up for it I wouldn't be opposed."
"Oh, I'm sure you could convince a couple of them. There's this one kid, Toujou I think, who likes to tell this story about using his quirk after a villain attack. It's only the first week and I've already heard it twice."
"Is it a good story?"
"It's not bad. How are things in Management?"
"Well, Ms. Kayama gave us this big group project to work on today. We're supposed to come up with ideas about how we could improve the way agencies are run, or how agencies could deploy their heroes more effectively. We need to write up a fully developed proposal by the end of the first semester, and then work on making it a reality during the second semester. We've already been assigned teams, but we've only just met so I don't know much about my group members yet. Kure definitely has a mutant type quirk, which I think is based off of a seal, or maybe an otter. Okabe looks younger than most of the class, so she might have skipped a grade in school, but I haven't asked her yet. I also saw her playing with these dark, sticky strings in class, but didn't see where she got them so she might produce them. And then there's Tahara..."
Despite having little information, Izuku went on about the project and his new teammates. Shinsou never tried to stop him, and instead just listened until the onslaught of words ran dry. The pair arrived at Izuku's door, and he blushed when he realized how long he'd been going on.
"Oh, we're here. Wow, sorry about talking your ear off."
"Don't worry about it. It's kind of nice having someone else carry the conversation." Shinsou replied, smiling lightly.
Izuku felt his blush deepen, and quickly turned away to open the door.
"What's up with the video camera?"
"It's part of the experiment." Izuku explianed.
Shinsou was helping arrange pillows and cushions in the living room while Izuku set up the same camera he'd used before.
"I've already filmed myself trying to handstand on my own. I tried ten times before stopping, then calculated the average amount of time it took me to fall over. So now I'm going to record myself again, and see if that average increases while I'm being brainwashed."
"And then you can do it again later to see if you've improved because of the brainwashing?"
"Right!" Izuku beamed. Shinsou shook his head.
"You know, I've never understood people who got excited about math."
"Well, I'm not really excited about the math. I'm excited about what the math will tell me."
"Ah, so the math is a necessary evil. That makes more sense."
Izuku laughed. Shinsou wasn't the kind of person to crack jokes, but his deadpan deliveries could be just as funny.
"All set then?" Shinsou asked. Izuku nodded.
"Yep, just let me get into position." Izuku wound his way around the pillows and to the center of the room. "The camera's recording, right?"
"Looks like it." Shinsou stood beside the camera, which was propped up on an end table. "You ready?"
"Do it."
When Izuku had been trying to figure out how to manipulate replacement death, one of the things he'd experimented with were meditation techniques. Among those techniques was self hypnosis, which he still used to help himself fall asleep at night. Whenever Izuku had thought about what Shinsou's brainwashing might feel like, he'd thought about the feelings he got while hypnotized. He would feel heavy, sort of disconnected from his senses, and the world around him gradually became distant. He hypothesized that Shinsou's brainwashing would feel similar, since hypnosis was also supposed to make you open to suggestion, and he was right.
Partially.
The moment Izuku replied to Shinsou, the world around him suddenly felt distant. Like his conscious mind had sort of fallen back in on itself, but the effect was instantaneous and jarring rather than relaxing. It felt like there was fog filling his head, and everything he saw looked like it was on a TV with bad reception. Low pitched static filled his ears, but he could still hear Shinsou order him to do a handstand.
He felt both of his arms raise up, felt himself tilt back, and then start to throw himself forward as one of his legs stepped forward as well. He felt his hands plant themselves into the carpet, and the momentum stared to carry his legs upwards, and it all felt familiar. Despite the strange sensations a part of him recognized all of these movements as things he'd recently done. But then something new happened. His abdominal muscles and glutes tightened in a way he hadn't tried before, and suddenly he was balancing on his hands with both his legs straight up in the air.
'I'm actually doing a handstand!' Izuku thought with glee. 'Well, sort of, but it's still cool!'
It only last for a couple seconds before he felt himself pitching backwards. He landed among the cushions, so the fall didn't really hurt, but it still sent a physical jolt through him. When that happened, the static disappeared and he was back in control.
"Whoa." Was Izuku's eloquent reaction.
"Hey, you okay?" Shinsou asked, leaning over him nervously. His head blocked out the light above Izuku, and he was reminded of just how tall Shinsou was.
"Yeah, I feel fine."
"You sure?" Shinsou's persistance made Izuku frown.
"Positive." Izuku replied. He stood up and stretched his arms out to the sides. "See? I'm good. Did it look that painful?"
"Well, no. But you came out of the brainwashing before I released you."
"Really? Huh..." Izuku moved his limbs around experimentally, and only felt a lingering soreness from bruises he got days ago. "I really do feel fine. You suppose the impact from the fall somehow broke your control?"
"That might be it...you wanna do it again to find out?"
"Of course!"
Izuku's theory seemed to be correct, because Izuku broke out of the mind control after every fall except one. That was the one time Shinsou managed to kick one the long couch cushions right under Izuku as he fell, which negated more of the impact.
"So, I think what we've learned here is that you'll have to be careful when making villains step off the curb." Izuku said with mock seriousness.
"Well, that and the fact that I could make it as a gymnastics teacher if being a pro hero doesn't work out."
Izuku had been able to do a handstand every time Shinsou had told him too, and was pretty sure his time had increased by the end, so that was probably accurate.
"You wanna stay for supper?" Izuku asked while they cleaned up the living room. "Mom already said that it would be okay."
"I suppose...where is your Mom anyway?"
"She works as a nurse at Mustafa General, so she won't be home for a little while yet."
"What about your Dad?" Shinsou asked. He frowned at Izuku's obvious wince.
"He's dead."
"Oh...I'm s-"
"It happened a long time ago." Izuku plowed ahead. "I need to prep a few thing for supper. You wanna get a start on history while I do that?"
And that's how the two of them ended up in the kitchen. Izuku worked by the stove and Shinsou read aloud from their assigned reading. And this, in turn, lead to another test of Shinsou's quirk.
"Hey, Shinsou, all the chapters come with suggested questions at the end, right? You mind asking me one from a future chapter? With your quirk, I mean."
Shinsou raised an eyebrow at Izuku, but started flipping through the pages anyway.
"You ready?"
Izuku put his spatula down on the counter. "Yep."
The static filled Izuku's mind and he heard Shinsou say:
"Tell me what the Shadow Proclamation is."
Nothing happened. Izuku just stood there in his brainwashed state until, after several seconds, Shinsou released him.
"So what exactly was the point of that?" Shinsou asked.
"I wanted to know if your quirk had the ability to make me give information that I didn't have."
"What, you honestly though that my quirk could somehow plant information into your head?" Shinsou asked incredulously. Izuku shrugged.
"Well, I thought that was pretty unlikely, but now we know for sure. And I figured that was an important thing to know, probably more important than that first test actually."
Shinsou closed the history book and gave Izuku his full attention. "What makes you say that?"
"Well," Izuku picked the spatula back up and turned down the stove's heat. "have you ever thought about what kind of hero you wanted to be?"
"Plenty." Shinsou replied. "Thought about being a big time hero as a kid, but these days I see myself more as an underground hero, if I ever get there. I'm not really comfortable on camera, and it's always easier to use my quirk if people don't know about it."
"You'll get there." Izuku said, shooting Shinsou a warm smile. He turned back to the food before he could see the pink start to tint Shinsou's face. "And I was thinking that you might end up being more underground, like Eraserhead. I still need to look into it, but I figured underground heroes would work more closely with the police since they usually don't have sidekicks to fall back on. Now that its confirmed that you can't force someone to tell you something that they don't know, it'll really open up your options for working with the police. Just think about how easy it would be for you to interrogate someone! One word and you could get them to confess everything."
"What if someone tried to claim I used my quirk to force them to lie?" Shinsou challenged, though he sounded more curious than antagonistic.
"Hmmm...that could be a problem. You might need to tape all your interrogations so that lawyers can prove you didn't, but it could still work!" Izuku's enthusiasm was infectious, and Shinsou found himself smiling through his tiredness.
"Well, I guess I'll change my back up career from gymnastics teacher to police officer."
"Normally I'd say don't give up on your dream so easily, but All Might did tell me once that being a police officer was a noble profession." Izuku smirked, and Shinsou's jaw dropped.
"All Might told you- you've talked to All Might?!"
Izuku had just finished up the story of how All Might had saved him from a villain when Midoriya Inko arrived.
"You must be Izuku's new friend, Shinsou, right? It's wonderful to meet you!" Inko said, after giving her son a hug. Shinsou stood up to greet her properly.
"It's nice to meet you too Mrs. Midoriya."
"Oh, you're so polite, and so tall too! I've just barely gotten used to Izuku being taller than me you know. You kids are gonna make me start feeling like a little old lady!"
The three of them chatted as they set up the table. Well, most of the chatting was done by Izuku and his mom. Shinsou seemed to have become a bit more reserved ever since Inko came home, though you wouldn't have guessed it based off of how cheery she continued to be.
"Your quirk sounds like such an interesting one too, and that's saying something considering that Izuku's lectured me on just about every quirk under the sun."
"Mooooom." Izuku groaned.
"You know about my quirk?" Shinsou asked, eyes wide with surprise.
"Of course. Izuku told me about it after the first day of school, and I had to agree with him. It sounds like just the thing a hero could use to stop a fight quickly. Which would be a nice change of pace with all the smashed buildings we usually get."
"I...Thank you."
After that, Shinsou didn't seem quite so tense. He still wasn't nearly as talkative as the two Midoriyas, but he added in his own thoughts here and there. Before they knew it dinner was over and it was time for Shinsou to head home.
"You could stay over if you wanted."
"Mom, he didn't bring any overnight stuff."
"I know, but it's already getting dark out..."
"I'll be fine Mrs. Midoriya, the train station isn't far from here. Thank you both for having me over, and for supper."
"Oh, it was no trouble at all. Make sure to come back soon okay? It's so nice when Izuku has friends over."
"I think he gets the picture Mom."
When Shinsou finally did exit the Midoriya household, it was with a smile on his face, leftovers in his hands, and plans for the future.
A.N.
Not gonna lie, when I wrote the part about Izuku not wanting to bring long dead people back to life, I thought about the Genie from Disney's Alladin.
Zombie Genie: "I can't bring people back from the dead. It's not a pretty picture. I DON'T LIKE DOING IT!"
In case anyone is confused, no I'm not skipping over Uraraka and Iida mentioning the battle trial. I'm just inserting a few more days in here because I feel like these characters need time to breathe, you know? The majority of friendships don't develop overnight, and I want them to get a little chance to get to know each other before jumping into the thick of things. This chapter takes place on Wednesday, and the battle trial will be on Thursday, so it will be brought up in the next chapter. What are the 1-A kids doing in the mean time? Well, they did mention they have some normal high school classes, just like the other courses do. As for home room, let's say Aizawa is putting them through some battle and training exercises, just none quite as extreme as All Might's battle trial. Not every kid automatically knows how to study for a test, so I imagine a good number of UA students might not know the best ways to train a quirk, especially since legal use of them is limited before UA. Aizawa wants to make sure these kids have some good training habits to fall back on, so don't end up hurting themselves.
