Tears Hidden Beneath The Mask (IzuJirou ONE-SHOT)

Primitive... DRAGON!!!

Is it clear I'm a tokusatsu fan yet? Like outside of the Rider crossover fics I mean.

One of the upsides, as well as the downsides, of having a quirk based around one of the five senses is that it really boosts that sense. Sight based quirks usually need glasses once they reach adulthood, because their eyes are so changed from years of use. Smell based quirks need constant taming, so that the user doesn't constantly cringe at foul smells, taste users experience similar things. Touch... Those fellows have a whole heap of problems.

Hearing though? Outside of increased chances of hearing damage or even loss, sometimes you'll hear things you don't want to. Whether it be the sentences you shouldn't hear... Or the emotions laced behind those words.

Kyoka Jirou, especially, can't stand listening to people sometimes. It's always one thing or another. It's why she often listens to music instead, because at least then she can actually hear the intent behind lyrics. Yeah, she stops her tunes every once in a while to listen to the world around her, but even then she wishes she didn't have to.

Though these days, she's finding herself listening more and more to the people around her, particularly one person in speciality... Izuku Midoriya.

The two never really were close, and honestly when she first saw the guy he was... Kind of plain. He stuttered like a broken record constantly, made sudden high pitch sounds, and seemed sort of meek. Yet, at the same, he was also one of the boldest persons she knew. Constantly throwing himself into dangerous situations for the sake of others, standing in the face of villains and adversity time and time again, and providing himself as a sort of figure head for the class to reach. Constantly pushing himself to be better.

Yet, after the culture festival, after study sessions on writing better notes, she found herself getting closer with the greenette. He was... There was something that drew her to him. The way he mumbled was less of an annoyance, and more of a fascination, how he could analyze something and or someone so quickly. His high pitches were now endeared, as she found she could make him let out these squeaks with a bit of teasing. His laugh was soft and infectious... Honestly, Kyoka had fallen a bit for Izuku. He was just... This missing set of lyrics she needed in the song of her life that's still playing.

Yet, part of her quirk makes it hard to speak with him, despite the infatuation.

For you see, when Izuku speaks, he's always genuine in his emotions. He's always true in happiness, justified in anger, and flushed in embarrassment. Yet, always laced underneath, is a tinge of sadness, longing, and... A sense of having been betrayed in the past. And when he's sad, openly? Kyoka can hear his want to break down into tears every time. And sure, he's a notorious crier, but these aren't the sudden gushes he's known for, these cries hidden underneath this mask of smiles is... They're echoing sobs, waiting to be let out.

And Kyoka hears them. She can even hear them outside of his sad moments sometimes. Like his life is a series of sobbed moments, and tears, and pain, and he wants to break down at any moment.

Yet, once more, the greenette proves an interesting subject to her. Because when it's just the two of them, she's noticed that the sobs have been getting quieter and quieter, and Izuku's current emotion is getting clearer and clearer. She likes to think, loves to hope, that it's just because it's the two of them.

But life can never be that simple, can it?

No, because she's certain it's because she's one of the only people who doesn't believe in the current set of rumours some general education students started about Izuku a couple weeks after the culture festival. She doesn't like thinking about them, because they're so obviously untrue. Rumours of how he's some secret villain, or that he has always been holding back his true power, or that he's not as nice as he lets on. It sickens Kyoka hearing them, because she always knows that they're lies.