Well, well, well, what do we have here? Another chapter of this Hans fic? Probably.

Have fun reading!

-SpiritOfErebus

…

Shoji walked into the building as quietly as possible, his arms fanning out and slowly morphing into ears. He looked right and left for any signs of an ambush, preparing to turn the ears back into fists and fight any moment.

Todoroki clunked into the room and almost gave Shoji's ears an aneurism. His left half completely frozen, he waddled awkwardly into the room.

"Leave. It'll be dangerous."

Shoji made a mouth to discuss whatever ambush Todoroki had spotted on the horizon, but then he stepped back once he realized Todoroki was using his quirk.

It started as a tiny patch of frost. Then, it spread, pouring into every nook and cranny of the building's surface. Shoji could hear the whole building crackling from the frost. The very foundations wobbled with the added weight, before it settled once more.

The building was filled to the brim with ice.

"Let's just get this over with." Todoroki sighed, a trail of mist coming from his mouth. Alone, he walked into the building, where the fluorescent lights flickered and failed under the intense cold.

Shoji stepped out of the building, allowing Todoroki his moment to shine.

…

Hans felt the cold beginning to creep on his skin, thanks to his extremely frail constitution. "On the fridge. Now." Hans whispered, taking a handful of matches from the Little Match Girl and throwing it at the door, reinforcing the ring of matches he had made around them. The ice trickled in from underneath the door crack. Ojiro watched in horror, from atop the fridge, as the ice circled around the room and was about to frost over-

A blast of flames erupted from around them in the match. The ethereal little girl with the basket fell back into Hans's equally stubby arms, almost as if she was afraid of the ice and the cold. The fire slowly grew, finally killing the momentum of the ice before extinguishing itself, leaving behind pristine matches. Hans felt the drain on his mana, but it wasn't very significant.

Thankfully that was the case, because the Little Match Girl, with fear uncharacteristic of her usual cheeriness and childishness, began to pour a copious amount of matches into the already thick lines.

"Do we still need the matches?" Ojiro whispered. Hans almost facepalmed before stopping the hand a couple of centimeters from his forehead. Whipping out a sheet of paper from nowhere, he started to write.

Todoroki is going to reapply the ice once the alarm clocks go off. Also,be quiet! they have a sensory quirk person on their team.

"How could I forget that…" Ojiro sighed, putting his own palm on his face. Hans almost ripped the paper in frustration, but thankfully, Ojiro's blunder was saved by the bell. Or, in this case, the first alarm clock.

Hans closed his eyes and dived into the consciousness of the two ducklings in group one, suppressing their growth and waiting for the opportune moment.

"I'm going to have a terrible headache later." he thought.

…

Todoroki strode through the hallways of the frozen building, already mentally congratulating himself on his victory. Then, he almost slipped on a patch of ice when an alarm clock pierced the silence of the building.

Quickly, he created a bit of ice at his feet, freezing himself in place. Regaining his footing, he began to locate the ringing. Bringing the headpiece to his ear, he finally began to utilize his teammate.

"Shoji, do you hear where the alarm clock is?"

"This isn't a good idea, Todoroki. It could be a trap."

"The best they can do to me is ambush me with Andersen's foolish appliances or summons. Where are they."

"Can you make a noise?"

Todoroki dropped a ball of ice, which clattered along the hallway.

"Okay, relative to your position, it's up a floor and opposite the direction that you just rolled that ball."

Todoroki fell silent, but kept his radio on. His teammate was being useful for once. Walking past the frozen corridors and occasionally peeking in the dark classrooms, he did not spot any signs of Hans or Ojiro.

Finally, he arrived at the sight of a large metal plant pot with the alarm clock next to it. Circled around the pot and clock were a ring of matches, Todoroki sent a wave of ice at the still-ringing alarm clock, but the matches suddenly burst into flames. Todoroki subtly flinched and stared into the fire for a bit, before he walked forward, reached out with his left hand, and slowly went to shut off the alarm clock.

"Quack! Quack!"

Out of the plant pot emerged… two ducks. One was much more aggressive, while the other looked at its leader and followed its example. They pecked and bit at Todoroki's face, ineffectively scratching the ice on his left.

"Todoroki-san, are you okay?" Shoji said worriedly.

"Enough." Todoroki muttered to nobody in particular. An aura of cold emanated from his body, impacting the ducks, which promptly exploded into a shower of blue sparks that almost looked magical in nature.

Todoroki reached for the alarm clock again, this time with his right. Instantly, flames shot up from the matches once more. He subtly flinched once more, before reaching into the ring of flames and finally stopping the alarm clock.

Only to realize that a second one was now ringing in its place.

"...Shoji?"

"On it."

He was beginning to feel the cold.

…

It took about ten minutes to finally get rid of the third alarm clock and approach the fourth. From a passing glance, Todoroki knew that this was the last one. Hans only had four alarm clocks with him.

He was honestly used to the ducks at this point. Just blast the ducks with ice, and they'll dissolve. Then, he'll be able to get rid of the noise at last, leaving just Hans and Ojiro in the building somewhere, stalling for time.

The previous floors had been completely clear of activity save for the pots.

This meant that…

Todoroki narrowed his eyes.

They were on this floor.

"They're definitely on the fourth floor, Shoji." Todoroki whispered. "Everywhere else has been clear."

He approached the alarm clock, then reached for it, closing his eyes and sighing. Finally, the ringing would stop and he could finish this annoying exercise in peace.

The ducks flew out of the pot, and Todoroki looked at the beasts attempting to flank him from behind before sighing and freezing both of them. They dissolved into blue sparks just as something wooden wrapped around him. Todoroki tried to fight it, but his left side was inhibited by his own ice while his right was sluggish. It wasn't long before he was entirely trapped in thick, deceptively powerful roots.

"I'm sorry." The Elder Tree Mother whispered into Todoroki's ears. "But I'm afraid you lose."

"Todoroki Shoto has been captured!" a PA speaker boomed out.

"H-how did you-" Todoroki stuttered. He was shivering slightly.

"My summoner heard what you said through the ducks, you know? How he's weak and can't do anything with his summons." she whispered. "Well, it just so happens that you were beaten by a fairy tale."

Todoroki stiffened as the plant slithered around his body and anchored his wrists in an uncomfortable position that made sure he couldn't use his Quirk effectively.

"I'm normally a pretty passive plant… but if you ever insult or hurt my creator again…" the tree whispered, morphing itself until a cold, icy green glare emerged, one he knew would not hesitate to deliver pain. "You will regret ever stepping into the 1-A classroom."

Todoroki lay flat on the floor as the tree dissolved into blue sparks.

"Wow…" he muttered. "Hans' trees sure are intense about him."

…

Shoji's eyes were wide when he heard the announcement echo across the mock city. He was the only one that could finish this now.

But how did they take out Todoroki? Did they ambush him? Todoroki was probably the one with the strongest quirk in their class, and his ice was almost instantaneous.

How could Ojiro have gotten him? Was the tailed boy so fast as to surpass Todoroki's ice generation?

Shoji broke his way into the final floor, where Ojiro stood barefoot on the ice, clenching what looked like a blue, transparent sheet of paper.

He couldn't hesitate. There were only five minutes left, and Hans was still nowhere to be seen. Whatever Ojiro did, he had to overcome his speed or strength, and reach the weapon.

Shoji had to prove to the people in his past that his monstrous, bulky arms still would let him become a hero.

Clenching his fist, he ran forward. Ojiro spun up and met four fists at once with a tail.

"Give up." Shoji said calmly. "You have no possible chance of winning."

"I won't know if I don't try, right?" Ojiro muttered, trying to kick some footing into the ice that was freezing the ground. Shoji, on the other hand, had sunk one arm into the ground, providing him some leverage as the physically powerful duo continued to battle.

Ojiro jumped into the air once again, spinning his tail straight at Shoji's face.

Four arms blocked the blow as four more punched him straight into the stomach. Ojiro flipped in midair and landed on his feet, only for the ice on the ground to make him fall down once again. His tail impacted the ground at an awkward angle, and he lay there, the wrinkled sheet of blue paper within his clenched fist.

Did Hans really think that his scribbled story could help Ojiro?

Either way, he really didn't have a choice.

He crushed the paper in his fist, then his eyes opened wide as somebody whispered something in his ear.

Märchen Meines Lebens.

A story just for you.

…

Ojiro opened his eyes in a void of black. Besides him, Hans was standing on an invisible ground he couldn't feel. Hans then began to look around the blank space, his gaze going right through Ojiro's body.

So Hans couldn't even see him in here?

"Seriously? No narrative potential at all?" Hans said, looking around the black void. "No backstory provided… no special character shorts… nothing? Just jokes about how ordinary he is?"

Ojiro wanted to protest. He opened his mouth and shouted, screamed at Hans about his life story. About his parents. About his old school. About his admissions test. About how he was going to be a hero, even if he was just slightly better than average.

Hans never heard. His mouth flapped endlessly in the void as suddenly, volume after volume of what looked like a manga flashed before his eyes, so quickly that he couldn't even see.

Title after title. Page after page. Midoriya flashed before his eyes, battling villains, talking with All-Might of all people. Bakugo made cool poses on the magazines, his fists alight with explosions. Todoroki looked like something out of a model photoshoot.

Midoriya. Bakugo. Todoroki. Midoriya. Bakugo. Todoroki. Midoriya. Bakugo. Todoroki.

Those three were the focus of the world. He was just…

A side character.

Everything went blank. There were only three words and a small, blue-haired boy wading through a pool of what looked like colorful ink, and one, singular character sheet.

It was a sketch. Ojiro recognized it as himself. There was one doodle of him in all this emptiness. It made him feel an emotion he couldn't identify, but he knew he didn't like it.

"It's sad, isn't it?" Hans muttered to himself. "That characters filled with life and potential are left blank. Unremembered. I was one of them, too, right? I know I was just a two star."

He paused, a blue star glowing in Hans's hands.

"I'm guilty of this too." Hans sighed. "My characters were too shallow. One dimensional. I never even gave them definite personalities other than selfish desires. Nor did I bother with their looks, for they were but a mouthpiece to throw my ideals and philosophies into the world."

Hans pulled himself out of the ink, and below him, a network of pages formed, supporting Hans as he walked towards the three big words emblazoned by the void.

By Kohei Horikoshi.

The blue star rose above Hans's outstretched hands, slowly glowing brighter and brighter as the void was finally filled. Hans's hands worked furiously, connecting broken branches and hints, scouring the pool of ink for any hints of a boy in a karate outfit.

"But at least now…" Hans said, grinning as the webs finally connected.

"We can make a start."

At last, the words shifted. The three words began to flicker and glitch, before finally disappearing.

And Ojiro felt free. He felt full. His fingers gained feeling once more. His tail flicked about anxiously, and foreign knowledge was poured into his mind.

He was no longer just a side character. He wasn't bound by the ink anymore.

He… was a human being. And the blue-haired child had given him hope.

…

Ojiro's eyes flickered open, before he blinked. The pain in his tailbone was still there, but it had dulled. His whole form was glowing blue as he stood up. He felt like he forgot something important.

Shoji continued his charge, his seven arms arcing through the air and attacking his four limbs.

Ojiro subtly panicked, and he was about to try and dodge, but-

-a young Ojiro strolled through a seafood market, wrinkling his nose at the fish and the clams that lined the ice. He held the hands of his mother and felt the little claws that threatened to poke out of his mother's fingertips reassuringly.

Eventually, he got bored wandering through the market. He broke free of his mother's grasp and wandered off to the tanks, his tail waving in the air excitedly. Eventually he approached the tank of an octopus.

Said octopus took one look at Ojiro rather intelligently, before leaping out of the tank. Its body glowed green as it began to bulk up. Its tentacles swelled and became vaguely fist like. Sharp teeth showed the orifice of the octopus, clearly showing that in the Octopus's mind, Ojiro was merely prey.

And they descended on Ojiro.

His mother tore him free from the quirked octopus, and the fisherman was given a fine.

Sniveling in his mother's arms, he vowed to never be a victim of… octopus attacks(?) ever again.

This backstory was written in about five minut-

-his body reacted differently. His gaze sharpened as his tail strengthened and he pushed off the ice into one, determined-

-Ojiro spent harsh winters and temperate springs training with his tail. Before him, a scarecrow with four more outstretched "arms" stood, battered and scratched with his chafed tail.

He remembered the buff octopus. The way it broke out of the tank. The way its tentacles waved ominously.

He pushed through the cold and the heat, the wind and the rain. He stood in front of the battered scarecrow and its reinforced arms, and whacked his tail on its limbs.

He would be prepared, when he was in a situation like this once mor-

-to spin his tail into the attacks, like how he had practiced for many, many years in his childhood. His gaze-

-Ojiro stood before a crushed scarecrow. His nine year old body ached and his tail was swollen.

But he had done it. He had broken the scarecrow. The octopus in his mind was split in half, his tail caving through its gelatinous head.

He was saf-

-hardened, and as he fully committed to the spin, he yelled one name that, for some reason, he had really, really hated.

"Damn you, Horikoshi!" Ojiro screamed from the depths of his soul. His eyes glowed blue as his mind sharpened from its sudden bouts of vertigo, and his spiraling tail sent Shoji skidding back.

"What?" Shoji said reflexively. "What did you just do?"

Ojiro gave Shoji no pause. The octopus was before him again, a bloody pulp smothering his clothes as his mother's claws ripped through the soft flesh.

He jumped into the air, spinning rapidly, his head feeling slightly faint from all the rotation. Still, his tail carried through the air and was about to descend on Shoji's head when he… paused.

In an instant, Shoji's fearfully wide eyes were staring back at his own. He shifted his tail to impact the ice right besides Shoji's face. Then, whipping out the capture tape from his belt, he swiftly entangled Shoji in it.

The P.A. system rang out across the building, declaring them the winners.

Ojiro panted, his mind somehow forgetting something about a blank void and a small, blue child delivering a blue spark to a void filled with nothing but a sketch.

What he did remember… was that he…

Was Mashirao Ojiro. He was more sure of it than ever.

That, and a weird octopus story that somehow implanted itself into his memory.

…

Hans peeked out of the room, before slowly looking at where he knew Ojiro was. Said student stood, breathing heavily and basking in his victory.

"This…is going to have consequences, I just know it." He sighed. "Min hovedpine bliver være og være."

"My headache is getting worse and worse."

That's another exercise done. I wrote this all in one sitting while taking a break from working on one of my slightly absurd OC fics. It's actually pretty easy to write this fic, considering the amount of bs that I can say about…well…everything.

BNHA has always had a side character problem, with the main 3 in the class kind of… too powerful? I get that it's a shounen, but some of them just have sad capabilities.

This is why I chose Ojiro, because he's so forgettable some people didn't even know his name in my discord server. Now, he has narrative potential too :D (Discord link : discord . gg / 9t9MK3jHmV) Hans was able to do the memory thing because we weren't given anything about Ojiro's backstory at all in MHA. If he tried doing that to an actual main character, things would be different because they have established backstories (unlike a lot of the side characters.)

(BTW, not meant to hate on Horikoshi. It's just fun to write like this.)

Also, you can't say that Ojiro is OOC because we don't get a character for Ojiro. :P

We somehow hit 1000 favorites too! Thank you all for your support!

-SpiritOfErebus