Apathy Syndrome [My Hero Academia × Persona Crossover]

0. The Fool Arcanum [The Arcana Arc]

He was about four when the door became solidified at all hours of the day. At first, he found it a tad suspicious, but as the days rolled by, his patience did as well. He was four and his curiosity could no longer be sated by simple toys and little shows of magic from his fathers. He always spoke about the door, as if a life long friend or an imaginary one. How it had become warmer, how the fog carried the smell of a forest, how he could hear birds chirping if he was far enough. The door still had the void behind it, the metal touch, and the singing, but over the year had become more lively. As if it was living, developing, alongside him.

His parents -being the way they are- simply accepted the oddity that many called their child. He began to daydream more often than not, losing himself to his thoughts, surrendering. He became mystical in a way, always speaking as if life had suddenly become a riddle, not caring if others his age understood. Of course, the riddles weren't that hard to adults considering he was four, but it always seemed unsettling to his teachers when talking to him and his peers when they tried to get along. His dad always waved it off, saying, 'It's who he is. You should accept him.' His pop always agreed, replying with things like, 'It isn't the plague.' or 'It's his quirk, nothing to be alarmed about.'

They were always met with concerned looks from other parents and authoritative figures when explaining that the riddles and clouded look in his eyes were fine, but the two didn't mind it all too much when they were always looked at the same way for being two males in a romantic relationship. Although, the 'acceptance' from adults didn't prevent his classmates from ignoring him when possible, the only exception being group projects where he excelled as a partner to work with or when they indirectly insulted his parents.

School hadn't ever been on his mind, well, in comparison to the door. It felt like a wave, a forced train of thought that he could never hop off of while school was a side mission he had to complete. Not willingly, but because education was merely a requirement. Talking to quirk counselors was about the most fun part of the day. Speaking to them always included trying to get the door to appear, in which he replied that it only ever showed up at home, or just chatting about his day.

Perhaps no one else did the small sessions where he was told to describe his home life, what thoughts were being piled in his brain by -supposedly- the door, where he was forced to go on about his classmates. 'Maturity is a side effect of that quirk of his,' they told his parents who were called in a few times a week after school, 'but it hasn't developed one hundred percent and we don't know how to press forward. Maturity at his age could do anything to his mental state.'

That small meeting followed with a form both his parents had to fill out, his pop's chicken scratch barely being legible while his dad's neat but quick writing was down to the point. He didn't know what the handouts were about, but it was about him, and he knew. He knew by the way his pop's eyebrows furrowed and the way he clicked his tongue in what seemed to be an annoyed manner. Knew because his dad's eyes narrowed and he clenched his left fist tight.

But he sat in his chair, fiddling with his shirt mindlessly, staring at them for merely seconds. Glancing to the counselor, who was working on her computer, he thought about the forms. His curiosity was peaked, he wanted to know what was getting his fathers so worked up. His curiosity clawed at his brain, but his polite tendencies didn't want to disturb the process that was filling out the printed handouts.

He figured he could ask when he arrived home if he still wanted to know. The clock nearby ticked by quite slowly, a new side effect from his quirk. His awareness of the time far surpassed that of any other four-year-old, whose perception of time seemed to be that it simply did not exist, supplied further by the fact that the door had begun appearing around midnight.