Controlee

15. A Quirk or a Human

Rule 15: Don't forget to re-centre yourself.

"Otsuka Emiko, it's nice to meet you."

She paused, smile faltering, feeling the sudden onslaught of pressure on her chest she used to feel when somebody was smashing on the walls of her mind powerfully enough. She hadn't felt this in years and never so strongly. The telepathic teacher they'd had at the control school had told her she was feeling it less and less over the years because her mental barriers were strengthening, it was a good sign, even though it had been terrifying to feel nothing during the mental attack section of her clearance exam. But this kid's power was overwhelming, she almost couldn't breathe. His psychic quirk had to be incredibly strong.

He was frowning at her, probably confused as to why she wasn't immediately succumbing to his quirk.

"Why would you do that?" She took a step back from him, trained to be defensive at the moment anybody attempted to any kind of psychic attack against her.

His eyes widened before his head dropped and he looked away, seeming almost bitter at his failure. "I just wanted you on my team," he said, even though that was a stupid way to get people to team up with him. "I'll go now." He turned his back, wandering away.

"You could've just asked, you know?" she returned, hopeful he still might since, well, she still didn't have any kind of team, and nobody else had come to her.

He turned back around, meeting her eye. She had to swallow heavily at the amount of suspicion directed at her. Geez. He was the one who'd tried to mess with her head. "Most people prefer not to be on a team with someone with a villainous quirk."

Huh. Yeah, Otsuka had seen a lot about 'villainous quirks' and what people thought of them. "Well that makes no sense." She'd learned to think of quirks differently (it was that or think herself a monst-) and she hated to think that that wasn't what the world thought. Except she knew firsthand it was. "A quirk doesn't decide who you are, you decide what the quirk is. Wait, no that's- I mean-" She sputtered to a quick stop. "That made way more sense in my head. Basically 'villainous' is a stupid descriptor for a quirk."

Shinsou's lips turned up into a faint smile at Otsuka's sudden embarrassed inability to speak properly.

"B-but I, um, I could team-" Her face twisted, well aware the words were twisted worse- "join you with- This is just getting worse."

Putting her out of her misery, Shinsou simply asked, "You'd want to?" like she'd been speaking actual Japanese like a normal human being rather than a confused Yoda.

Otsuka turned a pointed glance to the empty space around her. "Please."

Shinsou smirked, or maybe that was just what smiles looked like on his face, and led her to the other team members he'd annexed. Ojirou— the boy with the tail from Otsuka's class— as well as a face she barely recognised (presumably from seeing class 1-B empty out their classroom before she went in for catch up classes) stood around, their eyes pale. At a guess, she'd assume they were under Shinsou's influence. Some kind of mental control, she'd guess, a powerful one too. Interesting. It was exactly the kind of quirk she'd been taught to defend herself against because of everything that could be done should someone with death on the mind use it on her. Luckily Shinsou didn't have death on the mind, just winning a tournament.

Otsuka shot Shinsou a reprimanding look. He showed no shame or regret for forcing his teammates to work with him and Otsuka supposed he was used to having no choice but to do this. How else did a boy with a 'villainous quirk' ever get a team? It was such bullshit.

"Well then, I guess we follow you," Otsuka spoke, joining her temporarily enslaved team.

"You're good with this?" Shinsou's rumbly voice muttered as he received their headband and got ready. The only person he could possibly be asking was Otsuka considering the rest of his team really didn't have a choice in the matter.