The Emperor's Dragon II

Learning to Share

Hitoshi knew he was in a somewhat precarious position. The underground Hero Eraserhead had offered him an apprenticeship, which meant that every moment he wasn't in class, he was shadowing the underground hero. He didn't go on missions with Eraserhead, it was far too early for that, but he was being given extensive training. At first, they'd just worked on his fitness. They were still working on his fitness and Hitoshi was thankful for the training Izuku had given him.

The... Hitoshi couldn't call Izuku a villain, even if that's what the world called him but Izuku's earlier physical fitness regime had helped a lot. Aizawa had then moved to incorporate some fighting moves, and had spoken to Hitoshi about the types of situation that would best suit him.

Eraserhead had been very clear. Patrol heroes just accepted the situation for what it was and waded into whatever issue presented itself. Underground heroes created situations that suited them. Since Hitoshi's quirk didn't give him a physical boost, he had to be clever enough to maneuver enemies into situations that put him at the advantage.

It was harder than it seemed but did make perfect sense. One thing Aizawa had said would be a great benefit for him was learning to be unobtrusive and in following Eraserhead, that's what Hitoshi had to focus on. It wasn't that people had to not see him, it was more complicated than that. People could see he was present, they just had to not care. In some situations it was easy. The assembly welcoming all the different hero students from the schools of Japan had enough going on that no one had really cared about taking notice of him. He'd also found another way of being unobtrusive, and that was when people were familiar with him. At the hospital where Ochaco was, the staff were used to seeing him, so no one stopped him any more. Aizawa had told him that wasn't the sort of unobtrusiveness he could use on missions but it still counted, because sometimes, if he'd been undercover for a mission, then that was the type of familiarity that was needed. Today, with the students being tested, that was harder to be unobtrusive in the traditional sense. People were curious as to why a student was following one of the teachers but Hitoshi thought he was doing rather well there. No one had really challenged him.

Except just as Tokoyami was going to say whatever it was, he didn't want to say in front of the Shiketsu student, Principal Nezu, who always noticed him, fixed one black eye on him and spoke. "You too, please, Hitoshi."

Hitoshi knew better than to sigh under his breath. Instead he nodded and opened the door to slip out. He was a bit surprised to see the Shiketsu student still there, before he realised no one had told the teen if he should return to testing.

Hitoshi looked up at the teen. He had dark brown hair and black eyes. "Did you know Izuku long?" he asked to break the ice.

That was the other thing Aizawa had him doing - just talking to people. Since his quirk relied on him getting a verbal reaction, being able to draw people into a conversation was important. In regular situations like this, an innocent question would be enough. In other situations, it might be an insult or something unexpected. He wasn't going to do anything to the Shiketsu student, but Aizawa had drilled him to practice at every opportunity.

"I don't think I knew him at all," came the response.

Hitoshi could understand that. Interrogator Jinsha had told him to think of the Izuku he knew as a different person. Hitoshi had determined that he would act like that but if he wasn't going to call Izuku a villain, then he wasn't really going to believe that. Izuku was his friend and that was really all there was to it.

"There were a lot of things he was hiding," Hitoshi agreed. That's how he was thinking of Izuku's current plans, even though he sort of knew the general desire, even if he knew nothing of the actuality. If the world couldn't handle being shaken up a little bit by the actions of one teenager, one well equipped teenager, then the world really did need to be shaken up. And everything Izuku was doing was just showing his prejudices were right.