A Slight Emotional Manipulation of Peers

Let the Record State That Hizashi Yamada Hates Old People

(FINALLY. It's shorter than the last chapters, about 15k? But honestly shorter is better than nothing. This chapter may possibly be incoherent, but i like to think of that as my unwanted trademark. Anyway, thanks to all your comments on the substitute chapter I posted last time, i appreciate all of them! And thanks to everyone still reading! Enjoy! Hopefully!)

As a kid who was missing the one thing that defined people in life, it's only natural that Izuku tried to fill that gap.

How did he (try to) do this? Simple: Friends. Since that's the only thing the kids in the cartoons he watched did, and at that point, he had no reason not to trust Twilight Sparkle and the giant castle the power of friendship gave her. But judging by the unanswered birthday party invitations and his permanent title as the last choice for P.E team picking, it did not work out.

However, he still feels as though the means of attempting to make these friends were even more embarrassing than his empty-handed results.

For example, the first thing he tried- and there's really no way to preserve his pride in this- was basically being everyone else's willing servant. Chips, chocolate bars, milk cartons, mechanical pencils were all in his inventory, and he was not above using them to bribe people into being his acquaintance. Picture the situation as a fishing rod with green hair, except the bait was 100% of his dignity and devotion and 50% of his weekly allowance. Not to mention the fish were jerks.

Nowadays he would look back and realize how dumb that was, especially since he would later go on to become their unwilling servant.

Then he tried to improve his physical looks. Once again to bait people into being his friend, only this time slightly more self-aware and dignified. Though as you can probably guess, he also did not succeed at this. According to other people, at least.

In his opinion, he'd say that the hours he spent obsessing over youtube tutorials paid off, but apparently his shoe and t-shirt choices weren't exactly the trendiest in modern fashion. Izuku still remembers his father holding back tears during one of their facetimes in 4th grade when he tried to convince his son to crack open a fashion catalog once in a while.

Both of his parents should have just been grateful he didn't know where to shop for neon shorts.

And finally, when faced with the pink-colored poster for some club called "Period!" that met up every Wednesday from 4 to 5, he tried clubs. It was literally a shared space for a group of people to engage in common interests, if that's not the epitome of friendship he doesn't know what is.

Then again, it's also the epitome of a cult, but who is he to judge.

And no, he didn't end up joining the club that talked about menstrual cycles. It was more symbolic of what lies beyond.

But time and time again, whether it was basketball or book clubs, he was denied entry. The club admissions leader's reasoning for not letting him in ranged from not having enough professional experience- as a 7th grader-, to his "suspiciously large green hair that's most likely full of secrets". Sometimes he just wished people would be upfront about their quirkless prejudice instead of giving him even more oddly specific insecurities.

Izuku tried asking that last girl if she actually thought that or if she just wanted to make a Mean Girls reference, but he was sent stumbling out the door before he could get an answer. That moment may have been what blacklisted him from any other club related to fandoms and pop culture. They couldn't risk being found out, he supposes.

Anyway, he gave up on middle school friends. That doesn't mean he stopped being kind to people from that point on since he wasn't that spiteful when it came to taking out his frustration, it just meant he'd stop expecting anything to come out of that kindness. And maybe that was for the better.