Gentleman - another Aoyama fic.

Modern Buffoon

Not everyone is born under the same circumstances. Life isn't exactly fair with everyone.

That's what Aoyama Yuuga learned at the time he manifested his quirk at the young age of four; Solar Energy, the ability to absorb sunlight to attack or temporally blind someone with explosions and beams of energy from his body. Due to birth defects, his body couldn't naturally handle the intense effects of his power, resulting in horrid migraines, dehydration, and dizziness the young boy couldn't control whenever he tested his Solar Energy. That, and sometimes, when he absorbs too much sunlight, those beams would leak out from his hands and navel in a more... liquid-like form, burning the boy's pale skin. A few months after ending up at the hospital due to the side effects of his quirk, he was given a special belt that would help him. Of course, the belt greatly limited the use of that power, but thankfully it prevented him from getting way too ill while using it. The only side effect of that belt was suffering from intestinal distress if he shoots his laser for more than one second. At the very least it was better that way, he supposed.

The other kids at the kindergarten he studied at, without the intelligence nor ability to understand Yuuga's issue, often laughed at him due to the fact he had to use a belt to make use of his quirk. They thought it looked foolish and made fun of it every time they had the chance. To their eyes, he was just a weak baby.

That resulted in Yuuga developing an inferiority complex as well as social anxiety that haunted him during his childhood and middle school years. At the start of Junior High, whilst the french boy felt overwhelmed with the feeling of being useless, different, and inferior compared to everybody else, he made a cocky, apparently overly confident and somewhat narcissistic persona to hide his own emotions along with those exaggerated hip movements in order to show off how "great" and sparkly his quirk was, faking his prideful actions to drown his own low self-esteem.

He really saw it coming by the time some of his male classmates beat him up one day at the end of school, from time to time stopping their fists to command him to do those hip movements while they laughed like the sadistic fools they were, treating him like a buffoon.

There is one specific occasion he still remembers.

It was in middle school. His class was on lunch break, and, of course, his usual bullies were taking advantage of the lack of attention from their teachers to have fun with the French boy.

Back then, when they were away from their classmates and the eyesight of the teachers, the small group of kids was hidden inside the Boy's bathrooms, submerging the blonde's head on a toilet and flushing it without any mercy. The young foreigner was coughing heavily, desperately trying to recover the air missing from his exhausted lungs. It was a complete hell for the young one. Suffocated was the most appropriate word to describe how he was currently feeling. School was an awful place where no one wants to talk to him, much less befriend him. Yes, he often felt small and worthless due to his lack of social interaction with his classmates, but it was bearable at some point. Being bullied and taunted nonstop by the cruel kids didn't help his situation at all.

Four kids were taunting Yuuga, throwing insults about him being a coward and weakling.

He always wondered what did he do to deserve such treatment from his classmates... Was it his personality? His looks? The fact that he was not a native? Perhaps they already knew what kind of sadistic actions he would do as he grew up and were giving a early punishment? Or was it because he was just a scaredy-cat who just wanted attention?

And perhaps a real friend or two.

Yuuga felt the air getting colder and colder after each time his "friends" took his head out of the water to then submerge it over and over again, knocking the air out of his lungs and filling them with water, having the least enough decency not to drown him completely.

"Do you think he needs another dive, guys?" Said the group leader, a boy with an electric quirk and a nasty snarl.


Once more, Yuuga closed his eyes and tried to hold his breath as he felt the cold liquid soak through his hair and face. The bully's hand did not let him get out of the water for a handful seconds until they turned in a full minute. Yuuga could feel the air running out quickly under the water and panicked, soon trashing harshly to get his head out of the water. It wasn't until he had spent 2 full minutes suffocating and swallowing mouthfuls of toilet water the bully gave him some mercy and let him go.

"I'm bored of bathing this fag. Wanna go eat something, ma'dudes?" Asked the electric quirk user to his followers, and was met with words of agreement from his friends, soon forgetting about the almost drowned French boy as they walked away as their laughter rumbled, again.

Lying so uselessly on the toilet's side, with his clothes and shiny blonde hair so drenched with water, Yuuga's eyes dripped. It wasn't water at all, wasn't it?

There was no one left on that bathroom stall asides himself, Yuuga sat on a floor as he silently sobbed waited for nothing in particular. He just wanted to be alone, to think about how the hell did this happen. Why was he letting them have their way with him every single time? Why couldn't he fit in just like the other kids? He pondered, weak, and weary.