One More Step (Would It Make Me Free?)

Old Friends

"Mei?" He could hardly believe it. All this time he'd been hiding from his peers at the school when his childhood best friend was here?

Said friend threw her arms around him, nearly knocking him back over in the process. "Oh my god. You're alive?" Her voice was watery and his shirt was growing damp where her face was resting. Hitoshi pretended not to notice. He was pretty sure that if he so much as tried to move from where he was frozen in shock, he wouldn't be able to keep from crying any longer.

Too late. Water was already running down his face. He wrapped his arms around her in return, both of them squeezing the other as if they'd vanish if they loosened up any.

"What are you doing here?" Mei asked the moment her sobs died down to a silent stream of tears.

Hitoshi gave a watery laugh, wiping his eyes. "I could ask the same of you. You got into UA?"

"Yeah. I'm a support student. But seriously, what are you doing here? I mean, you've been gone for years, and all of a sudden you just show up here out of nowhere!" Her voice broke toward the end, interrupted by a sob.

"It's a really, really long story, and I promise I'll tell you all of it later. But I'm being tutored by Principal Nedzu so I can hopefully be an actual student here next year."

"Seriously? You're getting tutored by Principal Nedzu?" She laughed shakily. "Only you would be able to show up out of nowhere one day and get lessons from him, of all people."

She enveloped him in a hug again, burying her face in his shoulder. "I really missed you." He returned the gesture.

"Yeah. I missed you, too."

They exchanged numbers before Hitoshi went to wait on his foster parents in his usual spot. He practically bounced in place as he waited, excitement coursing through his body.

He couldn't remember ever feeling so light before. But seeing Mei again had taken a weight off his chest he hadn't even known was there. All of a sudden he could breathe again and things felt like they would somehow turn out okay.

She began dragging him to help work on her projects - or her "babies," as she preferred to call them - whenever she got the chance. Nedzu seemed pleased about it - "It'll give you a chance to see what the support course is like, to see if it's something you'd be interested in!" he'd explained, and so allowed Mei to drag him away from their lessons at times.

Hitoshi was not, in fact, interested in the support course, but he kept that to himself. He didn't care that the days he spent with her meant having to stay later to finish his lessons with Nedzu. It was worth it to spend time with her. He was determined to make up for all the lost time with his last remaining family member from before he was kidnapped - and despite sharing no blood, she was most definitely his family. Hitoshi had always seen her as an older sister of sorts, and he was glad to see a decade apart hadn't changed that.

Sooner or later he wanted to bring up to Nedzu what he was actually interested in - the hero course. It wasn't something he'd thought about becoming in a long time, not since he was very small, but the possibility was right within his reach. He knew without a shred of doubt that was what he wanted to do. Becoming a hero would allow Hitoshi to help others like him, just like Aizawa had for him and Eri. After spending almost his entire life waiting desperately to be rescued, how could he not want to be there for others like that?

The biggest problem was his quirk. He knew he'd be able to do a lot of good with it, even though most people had always seen him as a villain in the making because of it. But the very thought of having to train with it made him feel sick. He'd spent so much time honing it with Overhaul, was forced to do so many horrible things with it. There was no way he could handle training with it when it would remind him of all that. Therapy may have been helping him a lot, but he still had a long way to go.

His quirk was something they hadn't focused too much on in his sessions, focusing more on things he would have to be able to deal with regardless of what he chose to do, such as being alone with strange adults without panicking. He'd have to work on the quirk related trauma at some point if he wanted to become a hero, but right now, it seemed like an impossible task. Baby steps, he reminded himself. You'll get there. He'd have to start somewhere, though.

Well, where better to start than with his foster parents?

Aizawa agreed to train with him, though Yamada promised to help where he could - working three jobs left him with less time to help out than Aizawa had. That was okay, though. Aizawa seemed to be the best fit for training Hitoshi. He felt better using his quirk knowing Aizawa could erase it at any time if needed. He couldn't help but be afraid of hurting someone with it after the way Overhaul made him use it, so he figured Aizawa would be perfect if he started panicking again.

He was slowly getting better, both at using his quirk and not freaking out about using it. That's not to say he didn't still have bad days, though. On those days, he would practice with the capture weapon, Aizawa eventually giving him one of his own (and he did not cry when he was offered it, thank you. He just...had something in his eye, is all).

Aizawa eventually decided, once Hitoshi's quirk-related fear had dwindled to a mere ember, that he could train with his hero course students if he wanted so long as Nedzu allowed. Hitoshi had no doubt Nedzu would be fine with it. Actually working up the nerve to tell him about it was difficult, though. Logically, he knew Nedzu had no problems with his quirk, but it brought up memories of him as a young child who'd just gotten his quirk, jeered at and mocked for wanting to be a hero. "You? A hero?" the other kids - and sometimes adults - would scoff. "With a quirk like that, you'll only ever be a villain!"

So yeah, Hitoshi was nervous. He knew Nedzu wasn't like that - he wouldn't have agreed to teach him in the first place if he was - but actually talking to him about becoming a hero made him feel a little sick. Still, there was no choice if Hitoshi was actually going to become one one day. He'd just have to suck it up and talk to him anyway.

"Um...Principal Nedzu?" he began nervously, beginning to pack up after his lessons ended for that day. He looked at Hitoshi expectantly, gesturing with a paw as if to say "go ahead."

"I've made a decision. I want to join the hero course." Nedzu grinned impossibly wide, looking almost feral.

"Excellent!" he replied, clapping his paws together. "I assume something brought this up?"

Hitoshi nodded. "Aizawa-san said I could join training with his class now that I'm better with my quirk. That is, if it's okay with you...?"

"Well, of course!" he exclaimed. "Just remember I won't be going any easier on you just because you're adding in physical training now!"

Hitoshi didn't think Nedzu was capable of going easy on him, to be honest. "Of course not."

That took care of that. He was relieved that that was over with. They bid each other farewell and Hitoshi left to wait for his foster parents. He couldn't help but feel a little giddy. The hard part was over and he could begin training with actual hero students now. He was really on his way to becoming an actual hero.

He couldn't wait to get started.