When Hitoshi agreed to help Midoriya with his… Bakugou issues, he hadn't expected anything like this. Nothing could have prepared him for this.
Normally, whenever he caught someone in his quirk the minds felt like water, warm puddles or baths that he trapped in a mental container of sorts with his quirk.
But this.. This was something else. Something he could never have thought to experience, something he never wanted to experience again.
Bakugou's mind… it was like a freezing ocean of sludge, thick and heavy and it would've been impossible to trap it if they hadn't surprised him. It wasn't right. His mind shouldn't feel like this. But he had ignored it. He had asked his first question.
And he started to fear.
A lie while under his quirk wasn't possible, and the answer they received, the name, that single answer led to so many terrifying possibilities, ones that Hitoshi would explore later, but now, now they needed to go. He could feel the thick waters of the mind moving, sharp pricks brushing against the edges of his control and he knew. He knew they couldn't do this right now. It wasn't safe.
They were poking a sleeping leviathan that could destroy them.
"Forget we were ever here. You were getting ready to go home like usual!"
Hitoshi could hear Midoriya's spluttering, the demands to know what Shinsou was doing; that they couldn't leave just yet ! They needed answers!
All those questions went ignored, he dragged Midoriya out of there as fast as he could, fingers digging into the other's arm hard enough to leave finger shaped bruises. He kept them moving, faster and faster until they were out of the school, away from that terrifying impossible mind.
He didn't stop running until they were both out of breath and pressed deep into an alleyway, hidden away from unwanted eyes and ears.
Hitoshi's throat felt tight as he slid down the brick wall, head between his knees as he gasped for air, and recalled the overwhelming pressure of the other mind pressed against his own. He had felt like he was going to drown, that whatever it was, was going to grab a hold of him and drag him down into darkness until he forgot what light even was. And that had only been from brushing against it. Fuck.. he couldn't imagine how bad off Bakugou was, he dealt with that for over a year.
The thought that the blond dealt with something so horrific all alone, for such a long time… it cemented the determination within Hitoshi to save him.
He would do whatever he could to save Bakugou Katsuki.
"Shinsou… what was that about?"
Hitoshi could hear the rage in Midoriya's voice. They had a plan and he changed it without explanation, so he could understand him being upset. But things were different now. They couldn't rush in like that again, something bad would happen and they wouldn't be able to deal with the consequences of it.
He just hoped Midoriya could understand that too.
"That wasn't Bakugou. That.. whoever that Zankoku person is.. They're in charge. Not Bakugou."
Purple stared into green and he told him, told him about the overwhelming ocean of a mind, how it moved against his quirk in ways that shouldn't be possible.
Shouldn't have been possible unless... the person had a quirk like his, a quirk that worked with the mind and not the body.
As he spoke the rage in the other calmed, turning instead to quiet contemplation and consideration over how this could be. It was obviously a quirk at work. A quirk connected to the name Zankoku Juno.
A quirk that could take over a body.
The time to act was over, now… now they needed to do research. To gather and learn and plan. Information on the enemy was always half the battle, if they ran in half assed again… someone might not make it out alive, whether it would be them or Bakugou would remain to be seen.
At least they've already obtained some information from this, a name, a vague idea of a quirk, and…
"Bakugou is still in there. Buried in that mind, I felt it. It was small and buried deep, but I felt Bakugou in there."
There was still hope.
They could save him.
They would save him.
There was a small factor that neither had taken into consideration though, and that was how busy they were. Between training and studying for end of term exams they hadn't been able to get the chance to meet up and talk.
Sure they exchanged texts every now and then but it wasn't the same as being able to discuss things in person, to share with each other what they learned.
Despite everything, Hitoshi still finds time to research, his insomnia might suck but at least he's able to put it to good use when the time called for it.
He spent hours scouring through the public quirk registry, through articles, through random blogs, he searched for any hint, any mention of "Zankoku Juno." He knows Midoriya tried his best to look as well, but being a heroics student ate up more time than being a general education student did, Hitoshi told him as much, told him to just keep his eye on not-Bakugou instead and leave the research to him.
He'd have more time at the start of their summer break anyways, Aizawa had told them they wouldn't be able to meet much over the break, that Hitoshi would have to spend it training on his own instead. He assumed it either had something to do with Aizawa's class or hero work. Either way he'd put the extra free time to good use.
And put it to good use he did.
He found something a little less than a month after the locker room confrontation. It was a website, a small one that almost seemed like a conspiracy blog, he would have rejected it outright but, then he saw it, that name. Zankoku Juno. That was the only reason he needed to search the website for any bit of information, and to his surprise he found it contained a decent amount.
It even had a reason on why he hadn't had much luck when he searched the name outright. Apparently most places referred to them only by their many aliases; The Puppeteer, Parasite, Body Snatcher, and several others. A list of different aliases that spanned decades. And if the author was to be believed, the presence of the Body Snatcher could be traced back to the beginning of quirks, back to the first generation.
The more he read the more Hitoshi could feel dread coiling in his stomach. The author theorized that Zankoku was a first generation quirk user, that because his quirk, Possession, let him take over the minds and bodies of others, it wouldn't be unrealistic for him to survive for over a hundred years by transferring to different bodies.
It was of course just a theory. It was said that Zankoku had been killed in a fight between heroes fifty years ago during his so-called 'Golden Age'.
Hitoshi knew otherwise. The Puppeteer, Parasite, Zankoku Juno, was still alive. They were still alive and currently inhabited the body of Bakugou Katsuki.
But, one issue still remained.
How could they save Bakugou from a villain that not even pros could stop?
Hitoshi reviewed the notes Midoriya had given him on Bakugou, took note on each difference in personality and actions, in the times Bakugou was able to act out as possibly himself.
The most obvious one was of course the Sports Festival, along with being the easiest option to review. Unfortunately Heroic Class footage wasn't available for non hero course students to review, so he couldn't see that first combat between Bakugou and Midoriya.
He reviewed the footage several times during his summer break, he watched the way Bakugou screamed and cried for help, watched as he pulled uselessly at the bonds holding him tight. He watched the same clip over and over, watched as hope filled Bakugou's face when All Might came, only for it to disappear as the hero ignored his pleas.
It made him feel sick. Made his stomach twist and turn with dark emotions he was too scared to name.
They should've noticed something, even Hitoshi could see the blond wasn't acting right, and at that point he'd only met him once previously. They had no excuse. They were his teachers. They saw him daily.
They should've noticed something was wrong.
He does pick up on a distinct change though, in the time between being knocked out by Midnight in his match against Todoroki and waking up chained to the podium something had changed. And he needed to figure out what.
Whatever it was could be the key to all of this.
That would be for Hitoshi to worry about later, because his father called for him, told him that his principal and teacher were on the television in an interview.
Any thoughts about Bakugou are pushed away as he sinks down onto the couch next to his father, he watches with wide eyes as they answer questions. He can barely process things when the scene changes to a live broadcast of a fight, of All Might fighting against a villain while a hero course student (Tokoyami he thinks his name was) tries to avoid the League of Villains.
Then there's Midoriya, flying through the air with some classmates and Tokoyami is with them and All Might is fighting the villain as the League is forced to escape and.. And..
All Might had won the fight but, his time as the Symbol of Peace was over.
In the coming week after what was now being called the Kamino Incident, Aizawa had come to visit his home, to personally talk to his parents to move him into the school dorms. It had been easy enough to convince them, they had always been supportive of Hitoshi's goal to be a hero and wouldn't hinder him.
He was just surprised that Aizawa had come personally. He would've thought it'd be his homeroom teacher. Later, when he brought it up with Snipe-sensei, the hero told him Aizawa had personally requested to talk to his family about his move to the dorm. Something to do with the fact he was Shinsou's mentor.
The actual move into the dorms had been simple, movers from the school had already placed his things in his room, he just had to set up, and ignore the curious glances he got when his classmates spied him setting up an extra coffee maker in his room. Coffee was delicious and the only thing that kept him going on nights his brain refused to let him rest.
It was one of those sleepless nights that he made the connection.
He once again replayed the scene of the awards ceremony, watched the sickeningly familiar scene over and over again. He'd watched the scene maybe seven times that night when he came to a sudden realization.
Bakugou hadn't used his quirk.
In the entire time he spent tied to the podium he hadn't used his quirk once. Or rather, he wasn't able to.
And Hitoshi made the connection, figured out another piece of the puzzle to save Bakugou.
Bakugou was wearing Quirk Suppression Gloves.
He couldn't use his quirk.
And neither could Zankoku.
Hitoshi somehow managed to get Midoriya to meet him after his training. They agreed to meet at Ground Beta to speak, the place was large and it was easy to make sure they were alone, that no one would accidentally overhear them. Things could easily go south with just the two of them, they didn't need to involve anyone else.
Hitoshi had considered in the beginning to clue the teachers in, they were pros afterall, they should be the ones to handle these kinds of things. But.. after he rewatched the Sports Festival, and spoke at length with Midoriya, he realized just how much those same heroes could fail them on an astronomical level.
They could do this. Just the two of them.
They'd save Bakugou.
And so Hitoshi filled the other in, told him about the gloves and his theory, that if they were able to acquire a pair and get them on Zankoku-Bakugou, it would theoretically suppress the villain's quirk and allow Bakugou's conscience to surface.
After that… well, they'd figure it out.
Once they got Bakugou the three of them could figure things out from there. Quirk suppressors were temporary solutions, but it'd give them something, it'd give them enough proof to get the heroes to see what they had missed, what was right in front of their eyes. What students had seen and they missed.
But first, they needed to obtain the gloves.
It had been a surprise at how easily Midoriya obtained information from other people. Apparently, people just seemed to want to tell him things. So it was easy enough for him to learn that Midnight kept the bulky suppression gloves in her office.
Once again the bulk of the work fell to Hitoshi. Not that he really minded, Midoriya was off at his Provisional License Exam, and he could easily consider this training, it was in a way.
It took him a few weeks of careful planning, to study the teacher's schedule and calculate the best time to approach her.
It came after the start of the new term, a week into October, he approached the teacher after her last class while she was busy cleaning up her things to leave.
None of the teacher's ever expected him to use his quirk on them.
It was ridiculous how easy it was to get Midnight under his control, he honestly felt a little bad. He would've felt worse if things hadn't gone off without a hitch but they had and now he was hiding the bulky gloves away in his dorm room and as he tried to get in touch with Midoriya.
It took days to communicate and meet up again, something big had happened to Midoriya again. He could tell by the way the other's vague and confusing texts. Honestly how much shit could the universe throw at a bunch of kids?
Regardless, they met up in Hitoshi's dorm, Midoriya jumpier than usual, his body tense and Hitoshi could tell something bothered him.
He'd already shown the other the gloves, that the plan was a success and they could move to the next part.
And then Midoriya told him that he had found a solution, a permanent one. Hitoshi watched with interest and more than a little confusion as the green haired teen opened his bag and showed him-
"Midoriya. Is that a fucking gun?"
What the fuck.