The King is Dead

Mysterious Feelings

The curry was disgusting. He wonders if it's just him though, since everyone else is going on and on about how well made it is. Midoriya is analyzing his food and the guy he calls 'Kachaan' is yelling over everyone.

"Shut up and eat!"

Shouto thinks it's ironic, and it reminds him a bit of father. If the man saw Shouto now he'd spit in his face. He'd made it into UA, that was something to be proud of. The circumstances weren't. He was constantly being watched, everyone was waiting for the moment he'd make another mistake so they could just kill him.

That too, is ironic. Solving violence with violence isn't morally correct, it's an indication of mental stunting. Shouto was hesitant to kill a Nomu back at Hosu, not only because of the law, but because who was he to go fight it? Who was anyone to go fight it? The Nomu had been hurting people, and the heroes knew it was bad. So copying the Nomu was okay? Hurting it was okay? All in the name of prioritization, right? That Nomu smelt of death, there's no doubt in Shouto's mind that it used to be a person, maybe still was. So who's to say Hosu's citizens were more important than it? Weren't there other ways of stopping mass destruction? Trapping it and trying to revert it back to its previous state, or giving it a quick ending, putting a stop to its clear suffering. It seems a lot of heroes like the easy way out. Fighting and death- just like villains. Just like father.

He pushes his bowl of food away. He's really not hungry. He wants to shower and change into a shirt that isn't burnt at his sleeve. At one point he'd gotten stuck on one of Mineta's quirk spheres, so when he pulled off of it there was a hole in his shirt. It was hardly holding up by a few threads. People have been staring at his scars all day.

"You've gotta eat before you shower." Aizawa-Sensei is getting good at reading Shouto. It's like he can't have a thought to himself anymore.

The teacher sits down across from Shouto, "Why don't you sit with them?" He nods lazily to the rest of the hero course. "You've gotta feel lonely all by yourself all the time."

Shouto shrugs, "I made Aoyama vomit. He was trying to help me."

"How'd you do that?"

Shouto points a hand to his scar, but he's pointing to his face in general. "My father said it was ugly, I forget sometimes."

"Kid, I doubt Aoyama gave a crap about your scar. He's overly dramatic and he was car sick, it was going to happen anyway." Aizawa scoots the bowl back towards Todoroki. "But it's nice he came to help you, even though he was in his own discomfort."

"I guess."

Aizawa sighs, "Eat at least half of this. I can't leave until thirty minutes after you do. You can shower after that, and then sleep early. In the morning you'll take your meds early and we'll start training."

Shouto picks up the wooden chopsticks and evens them out against the wrapper. "Why do I have to take those? Is it like the suppressants I used to take?"

Aizawa must've not known Shouto took quirk suppressants (Hizashi had told Shouto it was illegal for someone his age to take them without doctor's permission.) his face is confused and Shouto feels guilty.

"No, they're gonna even out any chemical imbalances in your brain."

So his brain is broken too, then. Great. Father would kick him for that.

"It's not bad, I used to take them too. It helps you feel less tired and it might help with your little spacing problem." Aizawa glares at Shouto. "Are you gonna eat or do I have to feed you like a baby?"

Shouto takes a bite instead of responding, the potato tastes like dirt in his mouth, the slimy curry sauce tastes bland and greasy. He can hear students talking about a creation quirk and how good the food is, he feels jealous.