Hello, my mission is to make you love Monoma, my new favorite MHA character!
Fic warnings of emotional abuse, self-esteem issues and negativity, angst, and bullying. Comfort, friendship, and fluff to balance it.
After Class B's crushing defeat in the joint combat training, Neito's day extends well beyond the end of the matches.
Neito must ensure Class A doesn't get too conceited about their scraped-by victory. Because dang it, they are not better than Class B, Midoriya just had a blank quirk and burst out with a freaking new power (which is actually interesting and something for future research) and Bakugo cared so much about winning he actually gave a flip about his own classmates for once.
And Neito has to assure his friends they don't need to wallow in their defeat (if someone should, it's Neito. He should've done more, fought smarter, encouraged them more) and they absolutely can best that detestable Class A next time. Because they're strong and capable, and deserve to recognized for it.
And he has to update his PC database of Class A's quirks and weaknesses, because he got everyone's quirks on full display. He's not sure how he feels that he has as much written on Class A as his own classmates, but it's because he spends extra paragraphs detailing ways his class can defeat them, and therefore, is actually more about his own classmates than them.
And last of all, worst of all, he'll have to explain his humiliating loss to Mom. Being the loudmouth he is, he talked up this joint combat training, saying he'd do his best and win, or at least lead his class to victory. And, he failed in the worst way possible. He didn't even help Shinso, who he planned on giving an edge to win the battle and show he's deserving of the hero course.
In the Class B dorm common room, Neito flops on the couch after having told Class A off and pep-talked his classmates. It's pointless to delay the phone call from Mom since he'll only feel worse about the loss as he thinks longer about it, but he's selfishly not ready at all to hear how much he's disappointed her. Again. (Just like always.)
Pony trots into the common room and munches a yellow apple. "Neito, ya look foot-dead."
"You mean dead on my feet," Neito corrects before he registers she was saying it to him. "Hey! I do not! I am more lively than I appear, I'll have you know." Pony tilts her head cutely, blinking uncomprehendingly, and Neito wonders how much is intentionally "so-sorry-I-can't-understand-English" with her at times.
"Well, yer sure talkin loud," Juzo says. He's on the couch opposite Neito and massaging Yosetsu's shoulders. "But that ain't meaning ya don't look awful tired, and oughtta be, considerin it all."
"I don't have time to be tired yet." Neito gestures with his arms and ignores the twinging in nearly every muscle from his fingertips to his back. Using quirks is often painful, and fatiguing at the least.
Juzo wrinkles his brow. "Ya don't? Ain't it over for tonight? Ya about gave us enough encouragement to make Shihai brave jumping through flame hoops, and ya trashed Class A til Teacher Vlad was bout to haul ya off by yer ear. Ya did a full day's work!" Juzo laughs, his protruding teeth clacking gleefully. Neito's tense smile eases a bit. Juzo's easygoing attitude can be problematic in combat when he ought to be more take-charge, like reigning in Tetsu, who should be far less pigheaded, but his attitude is undeniably pleasant in many stressful times. (If only Mom could be that easygoing sometimes.)
"It's not over. I have to compile all the data from this training," Neito says. Class A updates, improvements for Class B in light of that, and a new log for Hitoshi Shinso.
"Ooh! You're gonna have lots more for your quirk log!" Pony skips her feet and chucks her apple core into the wastebasket.
Shihai, looming at the corner of the common room, grins sheepishly. "Neito, please write…plenty about Fumikage and Dark Shadow. My fellow friends…of the abyss."
"Friends? They curb-stomp us like the arrogant jerks they are and we befriend them now?" Neito snaps more sharply than he means to. It's not Shihai he's upset at, not really.
Juzo sighs. "Chillax, man."
"Well, unlike some people, I don't have the leisure to chill," Neito says. Rude and he knows it.
Juzo stops massaging Yosetsu for a moment. "Don't take that attitude," Yosetsu grumbles. He'd more more snappish if Juzo's massage hadn't lulled him half-asleep. "Juzo didn't lose his match. Unlike you."
No matter how hard that stabs, Neito probably deserved that quip, but his anger and shame flares up hot anyway. "Unlike you too. You could've got one up on that Bakugo, but you didn't."
Yosetsu's eyes snap open. Juzo raises a hand. Itsuka gets up from another couch. "Hey now—"
"And you know what? I have to tell my mom I failed again, and she won't let me forget it for months, so I don't need anybody to remind me I failed one more freaking time. Good night." Neito jumps up, avoiding the stunned stares everyone's certainly giving him, and speed-walks to the bedrooms. He knows he'll regret his actions, and he'll deeply apologize tomorrow, but he's too upset to care this second.
(It's just so aggravating. When they all look at Class A, don't they feel pathetic and inadequate? Doesn't it burn them up inside to be acutely reminded of their losses? Don't they want to beat Class A to prove they have worth?)
(Or is that just Neito's problem? That he can't even be anything but a sore loser?)
Neito starts on today's data logging. Two hours later, he's unable to focus knowing Mom's waiting for a call. If only he had won, it would've been an easy few minutes, and he'd be able to hear the praising tone he's always trying to earn. But now, it'll be the last talk he'll get with her for a week or more. She'll be so disappointed she won't speak to him.
Neito grabs his phone, wincing at the missed call – Mom notification, and jabs the call button.
"You took your time," Mom says before he even says hi. "It's rather late now, isn't it? But that's all right! I've been so excited to hear how my genius boy fared! Well?"
Neito swallows, hating that he'll dampen her cheerful mood. Like the Sports Festival. Summer training camp. All those times in middle school. "Well, I. Class B, won two of five matches."
"So your class lost," Mom says, already disappointed. "But did you win?"
"N—No," Neito says. "The one Class A guy's quirk was a blank, and then it morphed and gained a new—"
"You lost," Mom says disbelievingly. And then with an undertone of lecturing for his ego, "Oh Neito. And you were so sure you'd win."
Neito winces. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry isn't good enough, you know," Mom says. (What she really means is, Neito isn't good enough.) "Neito, you must accomplish something that goes beyond being a mere one among forty other hero students. It's not enough to be mediocre. Well, I suppose there was a time when you showed off. You were the only one of your class to fail the midterm exams." She laughs.
Neito laughs too even though the thick smoke of her disappointment chokes him. She's only giving a humorous jab, and it's true. He almost mentions the two villains he took down during the patrol training the teachers took students on two weeks ago, but that's just an excuse. Class A took down villains since the fourth day of school.
"Neito, you're capable, aren't you?" Mom says. "If you're slacking because idiots are saying your quirk isn't enough, ignore them." Neito's constricted throat eases a bit. Mom's always been supportive of his quirk, unlike his middle school teachers and classmates. "You're capable of being better than this. And we both know it. So work hard, all right?"
"I will," Neito says. "And I won't…fail." Neito prays it'll be the truth.
"That's what I like to hear. Don't loose to inferior people now." The phone clicks off. Mom doesn't tell him good night or to do well in school tomorrow when she's mad.
Neito lets the phone droop to the ground. Yeah. She won't talk to him for at least a whole week. But it's not as if he has an excuse. Midoriya got a new power, Bakugo changed too much, Neito shouldn't have been stopped by that.
After a while Neito gets up and continues his data-logging until well past midnight. He's never late to appointments or school, but that doesn't mean he falls asleep when he should. Maybe he and Shinso can commiserate their insomnia sometime as well as their quirks, if Shinso's eyebags do mean he has insomnia, Neito muses as he finally crawls into bed past 3 AM.
keycarpenter87: definitely, Monoma has got quite a few troubles.