Chapter 8

After a near-full two days of not talking, on Monday night Ojiro finally let up on the silent treatment long enough for Hitoshi to explain some more of the context surrounding Midoriya during dinner.

"I seriously haven't told him anything about it," he said as they sat at the table. "It sounds like Bakugou was his only friend, and he was just trying to understand what the hell happened, same as us. Pretty much all I did was confirm that yeah, he was in our class, and no, we have no idea what the hell's going on either."

"You still shouldn't talk to outsiders about it," Ojiro said with a scowl. "How do you know he's actually telling the truth about being friends with him and isn't just looking for information because heʼs one of those true crime weirdos?"

"Ojiro, you saw the kid," Hitoshi countered flatly. "He's a nervous, stuttering mess. And he calls Bakugou by a nickname out of habit. Do you really think he's just a random stranger?"

"He could be faking," Ojiro muttered, but his voice lacked some of its earlier edge. Hitoshi felt a bit of relief, recognizing he was less defensive than before.

"The way he talks about the Bakugous feels too genuine to me to be faked," he said with a shrug. "From what he's said, they knew each other even before they started elementary school. Honestly, that meeting at the convenience store was only the third time we've met, but he always sounds so lost when he talks about it. Like I said, I think he's just trying to make sense of it too."

Ojiro frowned, though thankfully he looked markedly less critical now. "Why does he hang around UA at all though?" he muttered. "Why not talk to someone else? I'm sure Bakugou has plenty of other friends who want answers."

"Probably, but they're not his friends. I asked, and he's not in touch with any of Bakugou's friends or even any of their old classmates. Bakugou was all he had."

"Isn't that just suspicious too?" Ojiro pressed.

Now Hitoshi frowned, poking at his ramen as he recalled their brief encounters. "I get the feeling he's had it pretty rough," he finally said. "Just... I don't know what his Quirk is, but it seems like it didn't make him too popular."

"Sure, but how bad could it be? I mean, we didn't talk much, but Bakugou seemed like a pretty friendly guy. If Midoriya was really that close with Bakugou like he claims, wouldn't Bakugou want to help him make more friends?"

Hitoshi's grip briefly tightened on his chopsticks. "You know how my Quirk works, right?" he asked, and the question took Ojiro by surprise.

"Well, you can brainwash people when they respond, right?" he replied uncertainly. "But what does that—"

Hitoshi didn't let him finish. "And how many people do you think would want to be friends with a kid who could brainwash them if they said hi?" Ojiro stilled, eyes widening with realization, and Hitoshi pushed on. "I wasn't actively bullied for it, but I could still tell a lot of kids were wary of me. I still grew up hearing people say it was perfect for a villain, and it felt like half of them were nice to me just so I wouldn't use it on them. And from the way Midoriya talks about it, I'm guessing his Quirk is a whole lot worse."

The room fell silent then, Hitoshi eating his ramen without looking at Ojiro. He didn't want to see his expression, try to guess what he was thinking. The topic of his childhood, even with how briefly he'd touched on it, was still a massive sore spot. Hitoshi didn't hate his Quirk, but he did hate the occasional caution in people's gazes and the overly friendly smiles that accompanied them.

And he also didn't like how similar Midoriya was to him. How he might've ended up with that same air of resignation and defeat if his own classmates had been a bit harsher, his teachers a bit crueler and parents a little less supportive.

"...I really have no idea what to say," Ojiro finally admitted, and Hitoshi snorted.

"You don't have to say anything. I'm just saying, the way Midoriya talks and acts, it's pretty obvious he had things way worse off than I did. He's definitely not faking that."

"I'll take your word for it," Ojiro sighed, which was good enough for him. "Anyways, so you said that time at the convenience store was only the third time you met?"

"Yeah. First time was the Monday after Fukidashi was, you know." He brushed over the mugging, finding it just as taboo to mention as everything else. "Second time was that Friday. The one right before we found out about Kirishima and Kuroiro."

Ojiro relaxed a bit at that. "You could've mentioned that earlier," he said. "I thought he was stalking the gates every day or something."

Hitoshi snorted at the thought. "No, I don't think he'd do it that often. Kid seems like he'd die of shame if any teachers confronted him. But he might also just be stalking other schools now," he added thoughtfully. "Looking for Bakugou's other friends, I mean. Not like a creep."

"So he still wants to talk to them despite everything you just said?" Ojiro asked curiously, and Hitoshi hummed as he slurped some more ramen noodles.

"Not exactly. Actually, the second time he visited was to ask me if Bakugou ever mentioned some girl following him." Ojiro sat ramrod straight at that, obviously reaching the same conclusions Hitoshi had.

"Do you mean like a stalker?"

"Maybe? Midoriya wasn't sure either. He said he just overheard Bakugou and his other pals talking about seeing some girl a couple times. Seeing her a couple times, not talking about it a couple times," he clarified quickly. "He said they only talked about it once, and he wasn't part of that conversation."

"He should talk about that to the police then," Ojiro said, unknowingly echoing Hitoshi's own advice at the time.

"I told him that too, but he wasn't sure the police would believe him without more details. I uh, get the sense all that stuff about his Quirk made his confidence take a major hit in more ways than just the friends area." Ojiro frowned, not seeming impressed by the logic, so Hitoshi hastily continued, "Either way, he didn't seem to know much anyway since he only overheard the one conversation, so he said he'd look for Bakugou's friends so they could report it. Since, you know, theyʼd have more details."

That seemed to placate the other boy a bit. "Even if he knows barely anything, he should still talk to the police though," he reasoned. "They can probably find Bakugou's friends more easily than he could."

That... was a very good point that had not occurred to Hitoshi. "If he hasn't found them by the next time I see him, I'll tell him that," he said, and Ojiro shot him a strange look.

"Don't you have his phone number?"

"Surprisingly, I'm not in the habit of giving near-strangers my phone number," Hitoshi replied dryly, and the other boy paused.

"...Okay, maybe I should've heard you out earlier," he said sheepishly, and Hitoshi snorted and ate his ramen without comment.

By Wednesday, everyone was used to plucking out some hairs to drop in the container first thing in the morning. By Thursday everyone arrived early enough that the test had been finished midway through homeroom, so Aizawa took the time to make the usual announcements.

"Everyone, Thirteen has finally made a full recovery and been cleared to return," he told them, getting some excited and relieved murmurs. The rescue hero hadn't been seen since USJ, choosing to actually stay in the hospital and rest while she recovered, unlike Aizawa who still sported two casts even now. Hitoshi didn't know the full scope of her injuries, but it had sounded pretty bad. "Obviously we won't be doing rescue training anytime soon, but we thought you'd want to know."

Judging by the excited chatter around him, that was an understatement. Hitoshi could hear more than a few exclamations of "oh thank god" from his classmates, the room losing some of the ever-present tension that had haunted it for most of the year so far. It was genuinely the lightest it had felt since their first week.

Then Aizawa made another announcement that made the good mood plummet.

"Tsunotori Pony from Class 1-B has withdrawn from UA," he told them, blunt as always. "I doubt any of you would know her since your classes have not interacted, but she's an exchange student from America. Due to the recent events, her family has expressed concern for her safety and decided to withdraw her. She'll be returning to America this weekend."

Needless to say, the tension returned with a vengeance after that.

Luckily it didn't have time to linger and fester, classes soon distracting them like usual. Their first morning class was made a self-study period under Aizawa's supervision due to Ectoplasm being absent. Surprisingly, for once it had nothing to do with all the ongoing disasters. Ectoplasm had instead been called to help with some sort of raid totally unrelated to UA and all its horrors.

"At least we don't have math class," Sero said with a grin.

"Ugh, I don't even want to think about math," Ashido groaned, slumping in Mineta's chair. He had basically abandoned the seat to sit at Uraraka's now-empty desk instead since it was right behind Iida. Surprisingly none of the teachers scolded him, even during actual classes. "All these super-intense classes have been just melting my brain!"

"We still have to do the worksheets he prepared before tomorrow," Hitoshi reminded her, and she and Kaminari gave a high-pitched whine of distress. Even while absent, Ectoplasm still haunted them through the form of several pages of worksheets. At least they were allowed to work together.

Kaminari zeroed in on Shinsou, turning in his own chair to face him. "Shinsou, buddy, you seem smart," he said. "Can you please help me?" Ashido shot him an equally desperate look, even from two rows back.

"Ooh, me too!" she exclaimed, quickly popping out of Mineta's empty seat to sit in Hagakure's empty seat on his other side. She hadn't permanently moved desks, but she had relocated to Aoyama's empty chair to sit next to Ojiro today. "Help me, help me!"

"Sure, why not," Hitoshi sighed, resigned to his lack of power in the face of two hyper extroverts.

"Hey, I can help too," Sero complained.

"Dude, I saw your last test," Kaminari said. "I'll take my chances with Shinsou, thanks." Sero frowned but didn't push it, though he seemed to sulk a bit.

That was how Hitoshi spent about twenty minutes helping Ashido and Kaminari. Turned out that teaching other people was way harder than working on your own though, especially when you weren't already a master of it. When they reached a part he himself struggled with, Yaoyorozu graciously took over. She and Hitoshi switched seats, leaving him in the back corner to work in peace.

He got through a few more questions before getting distracted by a nearby conversation at the Satou/Tokoyami Desk Cluster. After Ashido moved, they'd moved Mineta's chair over to sit with Tokoyami's desk, then pushed the desk against Satou's so there'd be more room for the chair to the side. Tokoyami had chosen to sit in the widened aisle between the columns of desks, giving the larger Shouji his own seat. Kouda meanwhile turned around his own desk to join the cluster. An odd arrangement that seemed to work for them, and made it easy for Hitoshi to pick up on the conversation since he now sat right next to Tokoyami's aisle seat.

"I'm telling you, that lady is awful," Satou groaned. "She just can't be reasoned with at all!"

"Truly a mad harbinger of darkness from what you describe," Tokoyami murmured with a nod, while Kouda whimpered.

"If you mean she's a bitch, then yes," Shouji huffed, making Hitoshi's eyebrows raise. Screw the worksheet, this was more interesting.

"Who's a bitch?" he asked, hoping they wouldn't mind the intrusion.

"Kouji's landlady," Satou replied huffily. "She said we can't stay there anymore because his lease only lets one person stay there!" Hitoshi sat up straighter at that, and he noticed Sero, Jirou, Mineta and Iida all similarly zero in on what was just said. Soon all of them were standing closer to the desk cluster to make for easier conversation rather than shout across the room.

"She's kicking you out?" Iida asked incredulously. "Doesn't she know what's going on?"

"We told her, but she wouldn't listen," Shouji replied briskly. "She just ranted and said we had to get out, or she'd kick out Kouda, too." The boy in question whimpered, looking absolutely miserable.

"Damn, that's bad," Sero hissed. "Can't you all move to someone else's place?"

"No, they can't," Jirou answered for them. "Kouda's got that pet rabbit."

"Right, you mentioned your leases don't allow pets," Hitoshi murmured with a frown, remembering the lunchtime conversation about that a while back.

"We still have the rooms technically rented out, so we're at least not homeless," Satou said. "But that lady was just vile. She wouldn't even let us pack last night!"

A sudden chill ran down Hitoshi's spine, picking up on the implications of that statement. "Wait, so you guys didn't stay together last night?" he asked, and Satou and Kouda both grimaced.

"Sh-she was just s-screaming so much," the usually quiet boy piped up, voice shaking. "I-I've never seen someone th-that mad before... E-even the villains weren't that scary."

"It was like she was possessed," Satou agreed with a nod. "I mean, the look in her eyes wasn't sane. She kept ranting about how she'd already been so nice letting Yuwai stay there, and how she thought Kouji was responsible and not a hooligan."

"At that point, we didn't feel safe staying there," Shouji added grimly. "Kouji stayed since he didn't feel safe leaving Yuwai alone, but Rikido and I went back to our places. We know she couldn't legally kick us out, but it wasn't worth it. It seemed like it was going to escalate too fast."

"We're still sorry about leaving you," Satou said to Kouda, who cringed but gave a feeble shrug.

Hitoshi didn't like where this was going, and he wasn't the only one to pick up on the biggest issue here. He could see the others exchange wide-eyed looks. "Did you at least go to the same apartment?" Mineta pressed, voice tinged with panic.

"No, we went to the ones we rented," Satou replied with a frown. "We didn't even have time to pack our stuff at Kouji's place, so we had to go back so we could get some clothes. At least I got to sleep on a proper futon," he added with a huff, before turning to Kouda to add, "We're still sorry about leaving you with her." The peach teen cringed but gave a feeble shrug.

"I-it's okay. Sh-she calmed down... I-it's okay, I'm just glad everyone's safe."

Hitoshi wasn't sure he agreed with that. "Do you guys know for a fact you're all... you?" he asked with wide eyes, and the trio went very still, finally seeming to clock onto what the others had already realized.

"Everyone passed the test this morning, including these three." They all jumped when Aizawa's voice suddenly piped up, turning to find he'd approached at some point during the conversation. In fact, he realized most of the class had gone silent and turned to listen, all of them staring wide-eyed. "Barring unknown factors of the Quirk, we can assume that the impersonator is not here. However," his eyes narrowed, "you should have told the faculty about this immediately."

Kouda cringed and whimpered guiltily, and Satou and Shouji didn't look much better. "We're sorry, sir, it just happened so fast last night," Satou said.

"And we don't exactly have any of the teachers' phone numbers," Shouji added, and Aizawa frowned.

"Fine, that's on us," he allowed. "We'll establish an emergency contact method by the end of the day and distribute it to students. However, even then, you should have told someone this morning after arriving at school."

The trio had no defense for that, all of them slumping guiltily in their chairs. Aizawa turned to survey the rest of the class, gaze lingering on multiple students. "This goes for everyone," he announced loudly. "If your living accommodations change at all, for any reason, notify a teacher as soon as you can."

The room was deathly quiet as Aizawa returned to his desk. The rest of the period was spent working in silence.

"Why didn't the teachers give out phone numbers for emergencies?" Ojiro was the one to ask the incredulous question, which... was better than many of the other questions Hitoshi wanted to ask. Like was the Monoma-test truly infallible, or did one of them notget home safely last night?

Today, those three sat far removed from the rest of Class 1-A in the cafeteria, at Hitoshi's usual table. Hitoshiʼs new table now consisted of himself, Ojiro, Todoroki, Kaminari, Sero and Ashido. Once again their two class representatives had gone off to another emergency class rep meeting, and Mineta had joined Tokoyami, Asui, Jirou and Hagakure.

It... was kind of depressing to realize how everyone could be accounted for so easily at this point. They only needed three tables for all of Class 1-A.

He'd rather think about Ojiro's very sensible question. "It's... probably because they're worried about the impersonator getting it," Sero sighed, scratching his head. "I mean, with everything going on, I'd be kinda wary of giving out my phone number to a potential impersonator too. And they're Pro Heroes," he added with a frown. "That's, like, a major security risk!"

"So what, we're just left on our own and supposed to just hope for the best?" Kaminari asked with a frown. "Come on, that's totally insane!"

"Yeah!" Ashido whined. "This is getting really scary!"

Hitoshi let them all rant to each other. Sero's logic checked out. Hitoshi didn't like it, but it checked out, and made sense. Sharing a hero's phone number, personal or otherwise, with an infiltrator was just a disaster waiting to happen. Aizawa had already said the teachers would come up with some alternative contact method though, so he'd place his trust in them.

"Why's Mineta over there, anyway?" Hitoshi wondered idly, eying the other full table. He'd expected the boy to latch onto him and Ojiro in Iidaʼs absence since they were more familiar.

"Everyone over there's probably safe," Todoroki said. "Asui, Tokoyami and Jirou all live with their families from what I heard, so it's risky to go after them. And Hagakure's been staying with Jirou's family, so she's probably safe too."

Hitoshi stared at him blankly, unaware of this information. "I did not think you'd keep track of that," he admitted. Todoroki was the most standoffish one of all after all, hardly one to care about his classmatesʼ living arrangements.

"Endeavor is, not me," Todoroki said with a shrug. "He's been sending some of his sidekicks to patrol by their houses. They've had some trouble since Asui's house is outside their usual zone. She lives somewhere in Aichi prefecture, and from what I heard it takes almost an hour by train to get there."

Hitoshi's eyebrows rose. Aichi prefecture was right next to Shizuoka, which housed Musutafu and UA, but that was still a long ride. That helped explain why she went straight home every day. "I guess they would be the safest ones here," he mused. "Aside from you, of course."

Seriously. If the imposter tried to sneak into Endeavor's house, he'd almost pity the poor bastard.

"Still, do you think they've found a way around the hair test?" Todoroki asked with a frown, and Hitoshi's amused smirk quickly faded, gaze flicking briefly towards Monoma. The 1-B tables seemed just as dismal as the 1-A tables did, especially with the departure of the 1-B girl. Hitoshi didn't know who Tsunotori was, but losing a classmate for any reason was rough, as he'd unfortunately learned.

"I don't know," he said, quickly turning back to face Todoroki. "I hope not, just for our peace of mind, but..."

But he didn't know much about how Monoma's Quirk functioned. He knew that it worked with physical contact, sure, but that was it. What if the effect differed based on what he touched? Would a few hairs provide the same effect as directly touching someone's skin?

"At the very least, I think Kouda, Hagakure and Mineta are all safe," he said with a shrug. "They have to get tested directly."

Apparently the others' conversation had died down a bit, because Kaminari turned to him. "Wait, do you know how they test it?" he asked, and Hitoshi grimaced. Shit. He might've said too much.

And to prove he had, Ashido suddenly sat straight with a gasp. "Wait! I remember now, the day Kiri left there were two of that one guy with yellow-green skin by the table!"

FUCK.

Looking back, Hitoshi now remembered that Ashido's seat that day had loosely faced their table's direction. She would've been the most likely to see them.

"Really?" Kaminari asked in surprise, and she bobbed her head.

"Yeah! And then after Kiri left, I looked back and one of them—mmf!"

Before she could finish Hitoshi and Ojiro both practically threw themselves across the table, slapping their hands over her mouth. They didn't really properly cover it at their angle, but it surprised her into silence so it still had the intended effect. "Don't say it," Hitoshi hissed in warning.

"What's going on?" Sero asked with a frown. "Why are you stopping her?"

"The teachers haven't mentioned that for a reason," Ojiro said bluntly. "Talking about it is a security—gh." He winced and shuddered as he pulled his hand back, and a second later Hitoshi felt Ashido's tongue brush his own palm, jerking back his own hand with a noise of disgust.

"Really?" he asked.

"Shouldn't have covered my mouth," she said, sticking out her tongue briefly before turning to Ojiro. "Anyways, what were you saying?"

"I was saying it's a security risk," he ground out, still looking a bit grossed out. "Just think for a second, Ashido. Why do you think no one has talked about that?

Sero jolted with a look of realization as he blurted, "Because it's connected to how they test us!" He then winced when Hitoshi and Ojiro both swiveled in their seats to glare at him, shrinking back with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, sorry!"

"Wait, so does that mean you guys know how the testing's done?" Kaminari asked, and then winced when he got to experience their glares firsthand.

After a moment Hitoshi scoffed and said, "Know what? I'm not answering that." He turned his attention back to his lunch, scowling as he used his fork to spear one of the vegetables. "Maybe we do, maybe we don't. Either way, no matter what we say they'll probably think we know and are just lying if we say we don't, so we're now targets. So thanks, Kaminari. Thank you so much."

The blond flinched at the sarcasm, shrinking in his seat. "Sorry," he said weakly.

"Guess we're not splitting up at all now," Ojiro sighed. "Wasn't planning on it anyway, but now we have to stay together so this fake can't try to nab one of us if they actually are here."

"Sorry," Kaminari repeated meekly.

"Do you want me to walk you two home?" Todoroki offered, and Hitoshi started to offer a snarky comment before pausing.

"Actually, yeah, that'd be good," he decided. "Because only an idiot would try to do something to Endeavor's kid." Todoroki's jaw clenched slightly at the reference, his eyes narrowing, but Hitoshi wasn't saying it for him. He was saying it in case the infiltrator overheard them, and actually was an idiot.

Admittedly unlikely if they had found a way to circumvent the hair tests, but better safe than sorry.

"What about me?" Ashido whined. "Aren't I maybe in danger too now?" Yeah, that might be a problem.

"Tell sensei," Todoroki told her bluntly. "He can probably figure something out to keep you safe. Just make sure you're alone with him."

"You can do it after class," Ojiro suggested. "He always hangs out in the classroom afterwards anyway, even on days we don't have therapy."

"Therapy?" Sero repeated curiously, and he shrugged.

"We've got meetings with Hound Dog every week. Because of, well, you know."

"The Bakugou murders?" Todoroki suggested, and frowned when Ojiro and Hitoshi both winced. "Sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned that, should I?"

No, he shouldn't have. "How did we choose the table with the least amount of tact?" Hitoshi groaned, pushing away his lunch. "Seriously, how?"

"Sorry," Kaminari said sheepishly, and Hitoshi took advantage of the now open table space to plant his face on it with another groan.

Yep, he had terrible taste in table-mates.

And the suspicions amplify. Also we now know that Thirteen is female in canon. We even got a face reveal in the manga! No idea why her gender was never confirmed for over 300 chapters, but better late than never? (Now give us an actual name for her, Ectoplasm and Snipe!)