scarred but not scared

All Shinsou wanted to do was sleep.

He'd just been walking home from school, with one sole thing on his mind: his bed. Oh, and his cats too. He would love to take a nap with his cats.

He just had to walk right past a villain attack.

Just keep walking.

The pros could handle this.

He chanced a glance at the scene and saw several people crowding there, shouting uselessly, as well as news reporters swarming the area. But no pros.

It was at that moment he wished he could brainwash his own dumb secretly heroic self.

"Hitoshi! Did you finish the tissue roll again?"

Shinsou clamped a hand over his mouth, trying to stop himself from snickering.

Unfortunately, his mother found him easily, hidden behind the couch with lengths of tissue around his neck. "Hitoshi, are you seriously pretending to be Eraserman again?"

"It's Eraserhead!"

"Yeah, he's just so unknown, you know? Why do you like him so much?"

"He's cool! And I like his unknown-ness. He's like a ninja or something!"

"His merch's so expensive because of that," his mother grumbles. "Don't you wanna be popular like All Might?"

"I don't really care if people like me, I just wanna be a hero no matter what. Besides, Eraserhead has super cool moves not related to his quirk! With a quirk like mine, being a hero is..."

Your quirk isn't for heroes.

"I just want to be a hero," Hitoshi sighs.

It was simple, really. In a world where nearly everyone had a power, the ones who shined were the ones who were super. The ones with strong, powerful, physical quirks, just like those straight out of a Marvel movie or Greek mythology.

This world was a narrow-minded and unfair one.

Shinsou was tired of it.

He turned on his heel and ran towards the mess. To his surprise, there seemed to have been a development. He watched as a wimpy, green haired boy chucked his notebook at the eye of the villain--a sludge villain who'd captured a blonde, spiky-haired teenage boy.

The green haired boy is crying as he claws at the sludge to no avail, as the blonde takes a deep breath, only to scream angrily at the boy who is helping him.

"STUPID DEKU!" He screams, sparks flying off his hands, and the sludge engulfs his mouth again.

All of a sudden, Shinsou feels very pissed off. Here, this green haired boy was trying to save the victim, but all blonde did was complain? And no one was even moving forward to protect them?

"What the hell?" Shinsou yells. It's directed at the blonde boy, but the sludge villain's attention is now on him.

"Another little boy trying to save the day like a hero? How amusing!"

Idiots.

Freeze and let go of your hostage.

The sludge villain shrinks, and the blonde boy drops to the ground. The green haired one sinks to his knees, shaking, but his mouth is wide open with shock.

Shinsou runs to them. He hears the spiky haired boy ranting at the green haired one, who's trying to walk away.

"Hey," Shinsou glares at the angry red eyes of the boy. "He just saved your life."

"As if that quirkless little nerd could!" he snaps. "Just leave, damn Deku!"

Shinsou freezes. He ran at the villain and he was quirkless?

The green haired boy shrinks. "Sorry, I'll go now--"

Shinsou grabs him by the arm and the boy flinches, much to Shinsou's dismay.

"That was a heroic thing you did," Shinsou says. "Thank you..."

The boy smiles weakly. "Midoriya. M-Midoriya Izuku."

"Shinsou Hitoshi," Shinsou nods, then lets go of his arm. His one-track mind has returned to his bed and his cats, and all of a sudden he feels sleepy again. "See you around." He begins to walk away when Midoriya suddenly calls out his name.

"Shinsou-kun!"

"Yeah?"

"Did you...have something to do with the villain suddenly dropping us?"

Shinsou pauses. He considers staying quiet, but it might be a little nice to get some recognition. "Yeah, I guess."

"That was so cool!" Midoriya gushes. "Do you have, like, telekenesis for people or something?"

Shinsou laughs. "Something like that."

"You'd make a great hero!" Midoriya grins, and Shinsou has never heard those words in his life, but it sure feels great.

He remembers this boy is quirkless.

Life is unfair, sure, but maybe not everyone has a narrow mind. Hopefully.

"You too."

Midoriya's smile when he hears that is brighter than the sun.

Shinsou had tried.

He knew better than to hope, so he'd applied for the General Studies as well, but he couldn't help the disappointment that weighed him down when he left the grounds of the UA Hero Course Entrance Exam with the knowledge that he'd scored zero points.

He trudged along, just hoping he'd get into General Studies because UA as a regular school was a great one. He'd go home and sleep because he was really tired and just wanted to forget about his inevitable failure.

Unfortunately, this was a bad day, because he tripped on some giant yellow caterpillar pillow. Except the pillow talked.

"That doesn't set a very good impression for a future hero course student," said the pillow.

It's a nice day in April when Shinsou takes his seat behind a familiar green-haired boy in Class 1-A of the UA Hero Course.

"Midoriya?"

Midoriya spins around. "Shinsou-kun! I'm so glad you made it! The report was worth it huh, I suppose UA saw potential in you..." He keeps muttering, but as Shinsou listens he comes the realization that Midoriya may have talked to the authorities to give him some consideration.

"Midoriya," Shinsou has never felt so amazed. "You really did that?"

Midoriya nods happily. "I told you you'd make a great hero."

"And you would too," Shinsou smiles. "Wait, aren't you--"

"Thank you!" Midoriya interrupts, and turns back towards the front.