Of Flames And Quirks And Harmony

CHAPTER 1: Eggplant Rising

"Hey, isn't he the guy with the brainwash quirk?"
"Yeah. Do you think he can brainwash us at this distance?"
"Do you think he uses his quirk for himself?"

Hitoshi sighed. "You might want to lower your voices when talking about someone," he reprimanded the gossipers near him. Then he walked away to avoid any more conflict.

It's always been like that. Everyone is afraid of him because of his quirk. Maybe even his parents. Yeah. He woke up and grew up in an orphanage. His first memories were of the orphanage, alienating him from everyone. Not that they were treating him in an inhumanely way. No. They were kind enough to bring him food in his private room that had its own comfort room, give him clothing's and some things that he can use to pass his time. It's just that they locked him up in that very room, rerouted anyone who dared come close to his room, and gave him as much less as possible of interactions with other people.

Sad, isn't it?

But he persevered.

He wanted to shout, "I'm alive, bitches," to the whole world. And he did. How? He escaped his prison cell in the orphanage. And maybe the orphanage itself was just to happy he was gone. No one came after him. No one came looking for him. No one came to find him. So he turned his back to the opposite direction of the orphanage, took one step with his right foot, to be followed quickly by his left, pushed himself forward, and never looked back.

He's free.

That's what he thought.

He never knew life outside the orphanage. He never knew how gruesome it is. How a single moment of freedom would come back at him and bite him more fiercely than how it was at the orphanage. He was pushed right and left, right and left until he can't stand back up anymore. He relied too much on his quirk that he hated to live, deceiving his prey into giving him their day's earnings. But hey, at least he never hurt anyone. In the physical part, anyway. Who knew what side effects there were of his quirk to the victims whenever he used it. He never got to explore his quirk.

That was how he met a hero.

One night he was trying to gain control of the lady's mind. But he made one mistake, he accidentally bumped her below her back. The impact broke her from his hold on her mind and she started screaming.

A gruff man, dressed in a black jumpsuit with a scarf and goggles, came rushing in. His eyes went from dark to red as his long black hair stood up. The next thing Hitoshi knew, he was being pulled to some police. He was bundled up in the man's scarf.

(Little did they knew there was a viridian-haired, freckled kid who had seen the whole scene, how it all played out. how it all unfold, hidden beneath the deepest of shadows.)

The police interrogated him and he was forced to admit. They cannot jail him for long, though. Hitoshi was just 8years old at that time.

The next morning in jail, the same man that brought him to the police came and bailed him out. Hitoshi was confused as to why this man who captured him and sent him to jail would bail him out from the very same jail he brought him to.

"You don't have any parents, right? Not even foster ones?" he asked.
Hitoshi nodded, unable to use his voice for fear of his own quirk. Don't get him wrong. He can easily control this man if he wanted to. He just respected the man that's why he didn't want to use his quirk on him.
"You can speak. You won't be able to use your quirk on me. My quirk is Erasure. I can erase someone's quirk as long as I don't blink," the man assured him.
Why is this man being nice to me? Hitoshi found himself asking. Damn, he wanted to ask him that out loud. He wanted answers. He wanted to know. He didn't know this kind of reaction to his quirk. Hell, he isn't used to it!

He later on realized that he's been adopted by the very same man who apprehended and then bailed him out the next day. That he was Shouta Aizawa's new ward. After a few months of settling in his training began. The underground hero started training him in hand to hand combat, seeing how they are same in quirk aspects. Their quirks can't be used for physical combat, hence the rigorous training needed and perfected. He hates to admit but his training and being under a Hero's care lit a fire in him. A desire. A goal he never knew he had.

He wants to be a hero. All through his life he was treated like a villain because of his quirk. They said he can never become a hero like he wanted because of his quirk. Why did they have to look at the bad side of his quirk? Didn't they know how useful it can be? For a peaceful and less damage-contributing arrest, one answer to his question and the villain would be hand cuffed right away. Because that's how his quirk works. He needs a response from his supposed-to-be victim so that he can activate his mind-controlling quirk. What the fuck. But no. People looked at him as if he would brainwash them into doing bad things for him.

So he thought, you know what? To hell with it. I quit being a hero. Resume's and job application forms doesn't exactly require you to fill up the quirk section. I can always say I'm quirkless. Hitoshi is so done.

He drifted here and there. Not always at home, for he is afraid of the confines he called home, afraid of the thoughts both emptiness and loneliness gave him. He was not always at home. So much that he and Aizawa had too little to none interactions with each other.

Until they fell apart.

Don't get him wrong. It's not that Aizawa had abandoned him. He texts everyday, just to let Hitoshi know that he's there for him. That Nemuri-nee and Hizashi-jii and Tenya-nii were there for him.

It isn't also because Hitoshi just fell out of the family reels. He's just being the jerk, lost, jealous little puppy that he is. Probably had that trait since his orphan days. Or it rooted from that godforsaken place.

It's just as simple as that. They fell out.

He was afraid his own self was going crazy at just 13years old.

What more evidence does he need to prove himself he's not crazy when 2people say they're quirkless even if Hitoshi can see them brimming with power? He certainly did not need any more evidence that he was going crazy. Not after being chased down a madman, grinning with the promise of hostility. Not after seeing a man acting like nothing even if his forehead is literally on fire. All that when poor little Hitoshi Shinso has done nothing but walk back home.

Yes, he was on his way back to his - theirs, or Shota's. No, damn. It's Aizawa's - apartment from buying a new set of game consoles when he felt a strong presence following him. He blamed Aizawa for his heightened senses. Sensing something prickling his back like a thousand needles were being rammed into it, he looked up, and started running away as he saw a guy falling from above, lips morphed into a feral grin, destroying the rather innocent-looking freckled face. His emerald eyes glinted against the lamp post, the light giving it a somewhat crazy gleam to it.