This day, specifically this day… It's going… so weirdly well. It freaks Hitoshi out.
First Bakugou comes down with a fever (Hitoshi knows from Midoriya-kun who knows from Midoriya-san who knows from Bakugou-san the mother. When Hitoshi first realised the women kept in contact through all those years despite one's son bullying the other, he nearly had an aneurysm. Anyway,) then their worst teacher spends half the lesson on his phone instead of wasting the air in the classroom and they're let out of school early because he has to do something, and then it's time for their first day at fusion school.
The dojo they go to is pleasant looking, traditional on the outside but modern on the inside. The clean white walls look a little clinical, but not off-putting. Flowers placed in a vase add a pleasant touch to the place.
They're welcomed by Kimura Megumi, the owner of the fusion school.
"Shinsou-kun, Midoriya-kun, welcome!" she says brightly. She holds herself strong, like she could do serious harm to them if she wanted to but she wouldn't. "Let me show you where the changing rooms are, and then you can show me what you're made of!" she commands and turns around, intending for them to follow.
They quickly get changed into athletic clothing and go to the main hall. Around them multiple people dance, spar and, most importantly, fuse (or unfuse). Kimura-san clasps her hands loudly, directing their attention to her.
"I'm waiting! Show me what you can do," she smiles cheekily. "Your mother said a lot but I don't believe until I see." Well, they could understand that.
Hitoshi motions to Midoriya-kun to get distance between them. Kimura-san watches them, tilting her head. By the time they're on opposite sides of the gym, they've gathered the attention of quite a few people, now watching them intently. Well. No pressure, right?
'Ready?' Midoriya-kun asks, and Hitoshi nods, not quite trusting his inner voice to not just start screaming.
He forcefully relaxes and yanks a little, kickstarting the feeling of fusion, quickly they're light and made of light and meeting in the middle in front of bewildered Kimura-san, who gapes at them with open mouth.
"Ta-daa!" Diana emerges and smiles at her new teacher. "They can fuse from a little further away too!" She puts her four hands behind her back and peers down to meet Kimura-san's wide eyes.
"You're giant!" she exclaims, "And that range— It's unheard of in people as young as you!" Her face is full of wonder, and Diana feels pleasantly surprised by that. Sure, Hitoshi and Izuku trained a lot, but she thought anyone could achieve that.
"My name is Diana," she offers, "Hitoshi and Izuku trained a lot to create me."
"Okay Diana," Kimura-san sounds excited, "Let's see what we can work on."
Hours later they're both sore and desperately wanting to go to bed, but happy. Kimura-san checked how fast they can fuse and unfuse, made them run laps while fusing and unfusing, and had them exercise plainly on the gym equipment she owned to, quote "Build up some muscle mass you sticks of boys!".
The dojo will be closing soon, yet they stay, waiting until most people fill out of it. Kimura-san looks surprised. "Half of the folks I give this regimen to escape when I'm not looking!" she exclaims, then slaps Hitoshi on the shoulder. "Glad to see you two aren't quitters. I'll have your training regimen and meal plans ready by Saturday. For now, rest up."
Kimura-san is a good teacher, Hitoshi thinks. Or rather hopes he's right. They thank her for her time and return home to tell Midoriya-san all about their day.
Hitoshi is content. He could spend every day like this.
Hitoshi is pretty sure he's dying.
"Just ten more reps Shinsou! You can do it!" Kimura-san screams from across the room, where she's helping some other student with his form.
Hitoshi is doing squats. His legs burn, he's sweaty and his breath is coming in ragged. He hates just about everything about this.
Next to him Midoriya-kun is doing sit-ups, counting so loudly and desperately in his head that Hitoshi can faintly hear him every once in a while. He doesn't look better.
They're both out of shape and it shows. It also sucks.
The only person ecstatic about the new exercise regimen and meal plan is Midoriya-san, happy to test out her cooking abilities. Midoriya-kun is not looking forward to the lack of katsudons in his life, while Hitoshi is bemoaning his loss of coffee and energy drinks in a day.
Oh well.
Hopefully it will get easier as time progresses.
It does get easier. At least exercising. Exercising while fusing while maintaining a conversation with Kimura-sensei (sensei, not san, because somewhere along the line he started trusting her as a teacher and actually believing instead of hoping) does not. It's a hellish thing designed to push them to the limits. So is not-quite-fusing, aka staying in a fusing state without actually completing the fusion. It's so hard. They would rather be Diana than something in-between.
At least Kimura-sensei says they're progressing rather quickly. Apparently they're one in a million kinds of talent. Hitoshi doesn't believe in statistics like that, but he believes in pep-talks so he lets it slide.
Weeks pass like this. They get better at multitasking and somehow worse at staying unfused-but-fusing. Kimura-sensei assures them that progress is non-linear and that they'll get better. She is good at pep-talks.
It takes another few weeks and Bakugou overhearing them talking about the dojo, when something clicks for Hitoshi. Bakubitch jeers "Oh? They accepted quirkless fucks like you anywhere? What a disgrace." And Hitoshi realises that Diana never really used a quirk. He wasn't sure if she was even capable of it.
He waves Bakugou off, pointing out the lesson is starting and sits deep in thoughts for the next three periods.
When it's time to go to the dojo, Midoriya-kun tries to cheer him up, sensing his distress, but nothing quite works.
"Hey, Kimura-sensei," he asks the moment he's through the threshold. "Can a fusion be quirkless? And do they get a joint if they are?" he asks, aiming for casualty. It comes out a little strained.
"Oh I wouldn't worry about it. Chances of two quirked people joining into a quirkless fusion are so rare you shouldn't put such things in your head!" Well, he wasn't even aware a chance like that existed.
"I'm quirkless," Midoriya-kun confesses quietly, and Kimura-sensei's eyes go wide.
"Well… Glad you told me that because I wanted to talk to you about including quirk training into your regime next week, but there's not much to do if there's no quirk to train," she says matter-of-factly. "Answering your question though, Shinsou, yes, fusions do get a joint if they're quirkless, so you can check if you're worried about that."
"I'm more worried about not training a potentially mental quirk when it could manifest anytime," Hitoshi says, thinking about all the mental gymnastics his quirk puts him through on a regular basis. "Like, I have to reach out with my quirk like I'm gonna use it, then retract it, or I get migraines," he confesses. Made it hard to function when households expected him to be fully silent. But oh well, it's better now. "I actually never really… thought about trying to use a quirk while we're Diana? I think it's a mix of me not wanting to use my quirk and Midoriya-kun just not having one. It never occurred to us."
"It could be that. Why don't you try right now?" Kimura-sensei asks like it's that simple. Hitoshi cringes. He hasn't used his quirk in years. Doing so, even as a fusion, feels like a violation of something.
"Or we could wait until it naturally manifests one day," he replies, face sour.
"Kid, what's your quirk?" Kimura-sensei asks point-blank.
He shuffles under her gaze and pointedly stares at the ground. Kimura-sensei puts a hand on his shoulder and he flinches.
"Kid, whatever it is, quirks are tools. There are no bad or good quirks and you shouldn't be ashamed of yours."
Hitoshi cringes, he can feel Midoriya-kun's gaze on him.
"It's brainwashing," he breathes out almost soundlessly. "I can control people if they reply to me. I also passively compel them to answer."
There's silence for a moment, then Kimura-sensei squeezes his shoulder. "Well, sounds like one hell of a quirk. You said something about training it?"
"I… Do it all the time when people reply to me," he admits and awaits judgement.
"Cool…" Midoriya-kun whispers, and he turns sharply towards him.
"Cool?"
"Cool! You never talk about this!" he accuses and Hitoshi scoffs.
"Because it's not 'cool', it's bad."
"Shinsou," Kimura-sensei cuts in, tone dangerously sharp, "No quirk is a bad quirk, there are only good and bad people." She says it with such conviction that Hitoshi doesn't have it in himself to protest. Or rather can't find his voice because… no one has ever said that to him. They always said, taunted, laughed… that he would become a villain. Inevitably.
His earliest memory is his mother calling him a walking human rights violation. And wasn't he exactly that? His quirk passively altered everyone's speech patterns to cater to him, and now force-fusion…
Kimura-sensei would surely not look at him the same way if he told her about how he was force-fusing. Surely—
"I've been force-fusing people," he says, barely in control of himself anymore. "I've force-fused Midoriya-kun."
"To learn how to control it! I consented fully," Midoriya-kun says, sounding panicked.
"I accidentally almost force-fused another person without their consent," he confesses and it's like a weight has been lifted from his heart. He feels like he's floating. Kimura-sensei will surely ban him from the dojo now, he should feel sad, mad at himself, not so free.
He closes his eyes and just focuses on breathing. He doesn't want the blissful state to go away.
"I think the keywords here are 'accidentally' and 'almost', hm?" Kimura-sensei says, and he opens his eyes to see her tilting her head. "Have you ever done it fully on someone who didn't want it?"
"Um… No."
"Then I don't see an issue with this. If you have problems with accidental force-fusion attempts, we train that too here," she states matter-of-factly. "Wish you'd told me sooner to be perfectly honest."
Hitoshi looks at her with wide eyes and finds himself leaking tears, then full-on crying. He doesn't quite know what's happening to him, so he lets his knees buckle and sobs, collapsed on the floor. He hears Kimura-sensei kneel down next to him and feels her put a hand on his back.
"Kid, you're alright," she says, and he believes her.