Green Phoenix (A Deku Fic)

23: 'Ryū'

Midoriya found Shinso in the bathrooms.

He had split from Koda to find his new friend and see if he was alright, and decided to check in the bathrooms. Not that he expected him to actually be there, but here he was.

" Shinso?" Midoriya said, catching the attention of said boy as he splashed his face with water. Shinso quickly looked up, despite the water clinging onto his eyelashes and squeaked in surprise.

" Midoriya? What, um, what are you doing here?" he said, turning away to dry his face with the paper towels.

Midoriya tilted his head. " To check up on you. You left right as you saw me, but I was hoping we could maybe eat together...? I-If you don't like e-eating with us, that's okay, of course! But... You left and I couldn't help but think that something might be wrong...?"

Shinso stilled and stared at the paper in his hands. " No... No, I like eating with you. I just..."

He sighed and Midoriya waited patiently. " I just... I didn't know you were in the hero course... Didn't realise that you... Ah, I'll just get this over with, I guess."

Now Midoriya was nervous. Was Shinso angry? He sounded... sad, though. Scenarios raced through his head, and most turned out badly.

Meanwhile, Shinso turned around and pursed his lips, staring at the floor.

" I have a villainous quirk."

Midoriya was about to protest, but Shinso continued. " It's called Brainwash; pretty self explanatory. I get if you don't want to--"

" Shinso, no offense and please don't take this personally, but shut the fuck up," the green haired boy said, face deadly serious. " No quirk is villainous. No quirk defines who you are. I like you for you , not for your quirk... And... I understand how it feels... to be rejected by society. I, uhm, I literally found out I had a quirk, like, ten months ago. I had the extra toe joint, so, um, I was believed quirkless my whole life until then. So, when I say that I understand your pain... I honestly do mean it."

Shinso's eyes were wide and he just stared at Midoriya. " You were... Quirkless? Why- how- what--"

" Yes, yes, I've established that already," Midoriya nodded to himself. " However, with that in mind, how does your quirk work? How is it activated? How long can you brainwash someone - or can you do some things? Actually you probably can't do that, otherwise it would be something like telekinesis. In that case, can you brainwash animals and humans, or just one? To what extent can you make them do? Is there a drawback if you use it too much? Is it activated by some sort of eye contact or visual like Eraserhead, or some gas like Midnight? Does it only work on specific people-slash-animals, or anyone? Hmm, I'm gonna guess you can brainwash people. So, can it work on anyone? Or does it have to be a specific gender or blood type or something? Who have you brainwashed before? Wait no, that's probably a sensitive question. Do you know how it feels to be brainwashed, though? Oh, oh! Can you brainwash me so that I can experience it?! That would be so cool! Wait, wait, with a quirk like yours, you could do so much as a hero! You could control the villain so that no damage is made! You'd probably be a favorite with minimal damage like that. And everyone who's been told that they're 'useless' or that they can't be a hero, or that their quirk is 'villainous' would look up to you and you would bring them hope! Holy moly with cheese on top, you can be a hero with such a great quirk and heart! Woah, I really should convince Mr Aizawa to bring you into our class! There was this perv who he expelled - all the girls were so happy about that, the boys too since it was uncomfortable as hell - so there's an extra spot! You'd sit right behind me, too! Oh, and don't mind Kacchan, he's mean and all brute on the outside, but he's a real softy on the inside. Ah don't tell him I said that!"