Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first thing izuku was aware of when he woke up was how hard it was to wake up. He felt so heavy and it was an effort to even try to open his eyes.

From there important details slowly worked their way into his focus; he wasn’t comfortable. His neck was angled down and to the left. He wasn’t lying in his bed. He was in a chair. He was cold. He couldn’t move. There was something on his neck.

These thoughts all slowly worked their way in but didn’t seem as urgent as they should be. 

He slowly pried his eyes open and worked up the energy to lift his head.

The room was made of cool grey concrete and had a rounded ceiling. It was less of a room and more of a corridor. There was someone there talking to him; their voice deep, husky and vaguely comforting. He wanted to listen to them but it was such an effort to stay awake.

The person walked towards him and try as he might to fight it, eyes drifted closed before he could make out their face.

The next time he woke up it was for real. Again the effort to open his eyes was noticeable, but it was now punctuated by a throbbing headache and he was suddenly aware of how sore his body was. This time when he took stock of his situation it was accompanied by waves of adrenaline and anxiety. 

His body was bound to a metal chair by ropes, and try as he might he couldn’t break them. He couldn’t activate one for all.

The room was indeed a corridor, probably a part of a subway maintenance tunnel based on the architecture. 

He was still wearing his UA uniform, which made sense since the last thing he remembered was walking home from school. He had been more than halfway home, though exactly where was hard to pinpoint as his mind had been occupied by his recent internship and Iida permanent injuries. Given his distraction it wasn’t surprising he hadn’t noticed someone approaching him from behind. He vaguely remembered a voice behind him asking if he was Midoriya from the sports festival, and turning around to say yes and then-

And then nothing.

A pair of violet eyes and then sleep.

So what was going on? A villain kidnapping him? As a UA student he might be a target, but not anymore than his classmates, the world had seen him fighting toe to toe with todoroki with broken arms, so he obviously wasn’t an easy target. He also lacked the connections some of his classmates had, no-one in his family were rich or pro-heros like Iida, todoroki or yaoyorozu so there was no monetary gain or leverage against a pro-hero...not unless they knew his connection to All Might. But that was impossible, only Todoroki had even suspected a connection there was no way a stranger could know. If they did though that could only mean this was the League of Villains, and if so he was in a lot more trouble than he was ready for, even if he was finally starting to have control over one for all.

“Finally awake I see.”

Izuku jolted up and craned his head back to get a look at who had spoken.

The boy looked as though he couldn’t be more than a year younger or older than himself, and though he obviously had toned muscles was more on the thinner side and was significantly taller than izuku. His mop of messy violet hair matched his tired eyes. The same eyes he’d seen before he passed out.

At a glance he didn’t seem like a threat but he was certainly intimidating. On the other hand though the boy had managed to capture him somehow, and without knowing his quirk there was no real way of gauging if he was a threat.

“I was a little worried when you didn’t fully wake up earlier, but I suppose mixing my quirk and chloroform was just a bit more than your body needed. Couldn’t really take the risk not to though, not with that dangerous quirk of yours.”

The boy calmly walked towards him dragging a wheelie chair behind him. When he was a little less than a meter away he stopped and sat down, slouching forward so he could look izuku in the eye. Rubbing the back of he neck gave izuku an almost awkward smile.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Hitoshi Shinsou. I think the two of us are going to get to know each other very well.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Oh? Straight in to the questions? Now now, I just introduced myself; its only polite you do the same.”

His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes now and there was something very dangerous about the situation even if izuku couldn’t pinpoint what exactly. Something deep inside him told him not to answer.

“...my name is Izuku Midoriya. What do you want?”

“Midoriya...fitting name given your hair. I think I want something you won’t understand...not yet anyway; blessed as you are with that powerful quirk...you might have a hard time understanding…”

Shinsou’s eyes grew sad for just a moment and a wave of unwanted sympathy sparked inside Izuku, before the eyes turned determined and the smile vaguely amused.

“For the moment at least lets say this...I want to talk to you, and I want you to listen. Just listen.”

“Why? Why me? What do you get out of this?” izuku asked, determined to get something useful out of his captor.

“Usually its me asking all the useless questions. Why you? Why not. You’re a UA student, and a powerful one at that on track to be a successful hero. You’re still just a teenager though and still not in control of your power or your situation. Right now anything could happen, your life could go anyway, you could become the number one hero or just some nobody with a normal life. There’s no guarantee for anything in your future right now, no more than anyone; but there's  an assumption that you’ll be great...that you’re going to rise above everyone else...sorry if I don’t buy it kid, when the cards are down the truth is you’re no more guaranteed greatness than anyone else. That may seem a bit cryptic now but I assure you; you’ll understand in time. And what do I get out of this? A captive audience...a lab rat...a test subject...a companion. Pick whatever label you want it works just the same. Because I’m going to talk. And you…”

Shinsou leaned in close and tilted izuku's chin up with his finger.

“You’re going to listen.”

Chapter Text

“Before we get started I should tell you that I have no plans on hurting you...honestly I don't want to hurt anyone. That being said if you make me i will. There are only two things you need to do here; listen and follow the rules. They’re simple rules so as log as you don’t do anything dumb you’ll be fine. Don’t try to escape, don’t try and attack me, don’t make a mess and don’t lie to me. Simple rules that you won't break unless you try. If you break the rules I’ll probably have to hurt you and neither of us want that so just don’t.” His finger slid away from Izuku's chin to brush over the thing at his throat. 

“If you try and take off this quirk canceler I’ll count it as an escape attempt so bear that in mind. The only other rule to consider is this; you only get what you deserve here...I'm more fair than the rest of the world in that regard. If you’re good you’ll get a reward, and if you’re bad you get punished. You only get what you deserve; nothing more and nothing less.”

The hand withdrew but his eye stayed locked onto izuku’s.

“I’m not cruel, I don’t do this because I get some sick pleasure out of it; I’m just doing what I have to. I don’t have a choice anymore...maybe I never did. This world is cruel and broken and it needs to change; and the only way to do that is to force complacency out of people's minds.”

He shifted a little in the chair, lounging back in it casually but never taking his eyes off Izuku's. It wasn’t because he felt threatened, clearly. Those were the eyes of a predator watching its prey.

“You must be curious about my quirk, you seem fascinated by them if the notebooks in your bag are anything to go off. Do you want to know mine?”

He didn’t wait for Izuku to answer before continuing.

“My quirk is called brainwashing. Essentially it means if I ask someone a question and they respond I have total control over them. Everyone always told me what a villainous quirk it was. Even my own parents couldn’t stand it. 

With a quirk like that; how could anyone trust me. Well obviously they couldn’t. So let me tell you the story of a lonely little kid with a villainous quirk;

Once upon a time there was a nice little family that lived in a simple house. They were like any normal family, a mother who baked, a father that work a little too much and their three kids who always got into just a bit of mischief. An eldest daughter, a youngest daughter and a son in the middle. An normal happy family until just after the son turned four.

His quirk activated at preschool and he had controlled the teacher into not making him take a nap. Such a simple action and the boys life started to fall apart. Children at school wouldn’t go near him, his teachers refused to speak to him and some even refused to look at him. Even at home things were different; the mother and father would hesitate for just a moment before answering him. Still it wasn’t so bad for a while; his sisters still played with him and his parents still loved him, even it they were wary of him. It didn’t last.

When the boy was almost six the tentative peace ended.

It was an accident, no harm meant just a momentary slip up that would ruin everything. All he did was ask his mother if he and his sisters could have ice cream.

A harmless mistake with devastating effects.

When the mother snapped out of it she was angry. Two years on edge around her own child had culminated into once massive breakdown. She yelled and screamed things the children couldn’t understand, and lashed out when the boy tried to approach.

When the father came home he calmed her down but the damage had already been done.

For days she refused to even look at the boy, no matter how much he apologised. 

The father who had always worked a little too much distanced himself from the boy even more.

His sisters still played with him but the youngest started to pick up on her mother's fears and was scared of him too.

After a few weeks the father came home late one day with a solution.

A muzzle for their child.

The boy spent the next year wearing a muzzle for all his waking moments except a few minutes for meals.

Strangers would stare and children would mock. ‘Is he a dog? Does he bite? Will he growl if I run past him?’ and when they learnt why he wore the muzzle they would fear him and throw rocks.

Even this didn’t soothe his parents' paranoia and he was soon made to wear the muzzle even during the nights. Every waking and sleeping moment he spent muzzled like a dog, except when he was allowed to eat. In those few precious minutes each day he could make any noise he wanted...but no one would hear them. His family would wear earplugs so as to not hear a sound.

It was almost too much for the boy to bear. Still he didn't blame them; it was his fault for being a bad child. He needed to be better so his family would forgive him.

He dreamed of becoming a hero someday, of being something his parents could finally be proud of. It never happened

When the boy was almost nine the mother gave him over to the foster system. She couldn’t bear living with a villain any longer. 

So he was put in a group home. His muzzled removed…

And replaced with a new fitted muzzle with a lock.

The foster system was no kinder to the boy than his parents; the muzzle was only removed twice a day for fifteen minutes and the boy was locked alone in his room the entire time. The new muzzle rubbed and chafed at his skin till it was bloody and raw.

It all came to a head when the boy was fourteen. Ten years of being feared. Eight years trapped in a muzzle. Still he wanted to be a hero, to prove he could be good, to show he could be trusted without a muzzle.

When a pro hero visited his class it was a moment of desperation that spurred him to write his question down and give it to the hero.

‘Can I be a hero even with my quirk?”

When the teacher explained the hero's face turned cold. ‘No one would ever trust a hero with a quirk like that. You’d cause more fear than good. I’m sorry; but you’ll never be a hero.’”

Shinsou finally looked away from izuku. His eyes which had been hard during his entire store had now finally misted over a little and he wiped the unshed tears away with his sleeve. He knew he should sympathise but it was so hard for izuku not to. Shinsou had it far worse than he had but still, it was uncomfortable how much he could relate with. It was wrong to want to comfort his captor.

“Deep down...deep down I knew the answer. I knew it but I still hoped for a different one. That night when the muzzle was off I didn’t put it back on. When the door was unlocked I ran. No plan where to go or what to do...I just ran. 

That night, for the first time I considered giving up. Ending it all and letting the world win. In the end I didn’t. Instead I made myself a promise; if this world has no place for someone like me, then I’ll make a new one for people like me. Where quirks don’t define a person's value.”

Shinsou's voice shook angrily in his last line and he gripped his jeans with white knuckles. After a moment to compose himself he continued, once again returning to his uncomfortably solid eye contact with izuku.

“I’ve had more than a year to make up my mind about what I need to do. To change society I have to start by changing a few individuals. Making them see what I see, and making them want to change it. In that year I’ve also had time to finally explore my quirk and its...hidden features. They’ll make what i'm planning all the easier in the end.”

Shinsou suddenly shifted the chair forward so they were now uncomfortably close eyes still locked together.

“Can you feel it yet? The way my words cling to your brain unshakably? The way my intentions seep into your veins and slowly corrupt your perspective?”

Was that what was happening? That slight warm pull izuku had felt during Shinsou’s story had been his quirk?

“Handy isn’t it? You don’t even need to answer a question for my power to affect you, I just need a little time and an audience. Of course this type of brainwashing is exactly as convenient as my usual method but with a bit of time and effort it’s far more effective. With my regular brainwashing I have total control over your every action, but it can be broken or fought, and it only lasts a little while...this? There's no fighting it. The changes are permanent once they take hold, instead you start to think the way I want you to. Start to believe the thing I tell you to. Start to WANT to obey me.”

“It won’t work! Whatever it is you want me to do or think I’ll fight it!” izuku snapped, angrily leaning in to snap in Shinsou’s face.

The amused look only grew on Shinsou’s face, leaning back he let out a slight laugh in surprise.

“You can certainly try, and I won’t blame you for it. But eventually you won’t be able to fight it, because it’ll be you. That's the best part of all this, you never lose your ability to act and choose for yourself. Everything you do is going to be because you wanted to; and when you give in and come to my side it’ll be because you want it too.”

“It won’t work. I refuse to let it!” Izuku snarled, tugging at his bonds.

The amusement didn’t leave his face as shinsou stood and kicked the chair back towards the end of the tunnel.

“You’re free to believe that midoriya. And maybe you will be able to hold out. But even if you do no-ones going to find you down here. When you finally change...maybe I’ll let you go.”

He didn't spare izuku another glance as he sauntered out towards the door.

“You were a good listener so I’ll leave the light on. I’ll be back in a few hours with food. We can talk more about the future then.”

Chapter Text

Izuku wasn’t sure exactly how long Shinsou had been gone, but it was long enough for him to realise he couldn’t get loose from his ropes.

He had tried twisting, turning and pulling at the ropes for well over an hour but he hadn’t managed to even shift the knot, let alone loosen it. Now he had rubbed his skin raw all over his body, and his wrists had long since started bleeding.

For now at least his ropes weren’t coming off.

His next step was to try and find anything useful in the room, any sharp edge or object he could use to cut his bonds on. That was also fruitless.

The walls were all smooth concrete with no corners or rough edges, and Shinsou hadn’t left anything unnecessary in the room, just Izuku and the chair.
There was no point yelling out, even if the subway wasn’t abandoned (which it probably was) the concrete was too thick to let anyone outside hear.

Like it or not; it was just him in the cold room unable to move.

Was this part of it his plan? Wear him down with isolation to make him more susceptible to brainwashing?

Shinsou hadn’t lied; he had felt the compelling pull in Shinsou’s words.
It hadn’t been overly obvious at the time, just a barely noticeable warm pull as he spoke; a charismatic aura that made him seem just a bit more likeable than he should’ve been.

It was only after Shinsou had left that Izuku started to really feel the effects.

Within minutes of shinsou leaving the warm feeling had subsided to the point that he now seemed unbearably cold. Shinsou’s words crept through his brain repeatedly, and he could feel their poison with the way his subconscious warmed each time.

It was all a part of Shinsou’s trap; his power and story making him seem more vulnerable and harmless to Izuku’s subconscious. But he was far from harmless.

It wasn’t natural for him to be reacting with sympathy towards his captor after only one conversation, he knew about Stockholm syndrome of course but that wasn’t it. Stockholm took time, weeks or even months to set in. right now should be the part he was most determined to fight back, but instead…

Instead his subconscious was urging him to relax.

It was dangerous, if Shinsou’s powers were already making his subconscious averse to leaving, how long before it affected his more conscious thoughts? How long would it take before Izuku would believe whatever Shinsou told him?

It wasn’t hard to remind himself to fight back, at least for now anyway; but how long would that last? He needed to get out, the sooner the better.

The door creaked open and Shinsou entered the room carrying a tray with soup and a bottle of water. He hadn’t even heard footsteps approaching. The door was shut and locked behind him, the key attached to his hip. Izuku would need to get the key if he was to get out, unless he managed to get the collar off.

Again Shinsou dragged the chair a little too close and sat down, tray balanced on his lap. 

“So here’s the dilemma Midoriya; you need to eat, and even with your powers cancelled I still don’t want to take the risk of untying you. I’ve seen you fight; I know you’re not someone who can just give up a fight even with the odds against you. If you were willing to fight with two broken arms when your pride was at stake...god knows what you’ll try with your freedom at stake. Don’t try and insult my intelligence by saying you won’t.”

He would’ve.

“So since I can’t trust you to feed yourself I’ll do it.” Shinsou added nonchalantly.

Izuku’s brain stopped functioning for a heart beat.

“No! No no no no! That’s not happening, thank you no!” Izuku snapped back quickly, shaking his head to emphasise how thoroughly against it he was.

Shinsou just looked amused at that point, smiling a little.

“Funnily enough I don’t remember asking permission. Can’t have you starving to death on my watch.” he finished the statement by presenting a spoonful of soup to him. 

“Say ‘aah~”

“No!” he snapped leaning back as far as he could.

Shinsou smiled and the room went black.

Shinsou had been fully aware long before he entered the room that Midoriya wasn’t going to let him feed him. To be fair in his position Shinsou probably wouldn’t have either, but that was besides the point. 

The point was that like it or not he was too softhearted to let someone starve. It was ridiculous really; he was capable of kidnapping and brainwashing a perfect stranger but he couldn’t let them go hungry.

Shinsou was a good person, no matter what the world thought about him.

With Midoriya under his control he was comfortable to remove the ropes and allow him to feed himself.

With the ropes no longer obscuring the boy's flesh he noticed how severe the rope burn was all over his body. He had expected Midoriya to put up some struggle, but he clearly underestimated his resolve. He hadn’t expected him to draw blood this soon.

Sighing Shinou left to retrieve a first aid kit. There was no point leaving them open to worsen; the kid hadn’t done anything to deserve that kind of punishment. Not yet anyway.

It was probably weird for Shinsou to keep thinking of him as a kid; they were the same age after all. Then again it was hard not to think of him as younger, with his baby face and childish view of the world. If nothing else Shinsou felt older after all he’d been through. Time served and all that.

Midoriya was still just a kid who’d never experienced how cruel the world could be; blessed as he was to be born with such a heroic quirk. Even if the kid couldn’t control it he’d won the lottery at birth.

It was hard not to be bitter but Shinsou refused to hold it against him. This wasn’t about someone else's quirk; it was about how society viewed and treated them. Midoriya wasn’t the cause of the problem, but with some pushing on Shinsou’s part he would be part of the solution.

He waited until Midoriya had finished eating before getting to work on his injuries, carefully wrapping each one to avoid further damage.

He couldn’t stop the kid from trying again but he could lessen the damage.

Satisfied with his work he went about once again binding him to the chair; mindful of where his injuries were.

Finally finished; he could end his control over the boy…

But he didn’t.

After this incident Midoriya wouldn’t be so willing to speak freely with him again, and it might take a long while before this type of opportunity arrived again.

What was there to lose in asking a few questions while he had the chance?

“...Who’s going to miss you while you’re gone kid?”

“My mom and All Might. Maybe Uraraka and Iida”

Of course. Someone with a powerful quirk like that would attract the number one heroes attention, wouldn’t he?

“So what's your relationship with All Might? What makes you so special to him”

“He’s my mentor, and I’m his successor. He wants me to take his place when he retires, that's why he gave me his quirk.”

Come again?

“What do you mean by that? What do you mean he gave you his quirk?”

The idea was ridiculous; there had to be something Shinsou had misunderstood, how could someone give someone their quirk?

“All Might gave me his quirk...One for All. It's a special quirk that can be passed on from person to person. It stores power and grows exponentially with each new user. I’m the ninth user of One for All.”

It sounded impossible, but Midoriya couldn’t lie; it had to be the truth...which would mean…

“Is that why using your quirk breaks your arms?”

“Yes. My body still hasn’t adjusted to my quirk and I have trouble controlling the output. 100% of my power puts too much strain on my body and breaks my bones. If I had received One for All without training for months beforehand the output likely would’ve killed me. After training with Gran Torino I now have better control of my quirk and don’t break my bones.”

Jesus Christ, no wonder the kid was so determined, with that kind of pressure and legacy to live up to anyone would be.

“So what was your original quirk? What impressed All Might so much that he would give such a power to you?”

“I didn’t have a quirk.”

He swore his heart skipped a beat.

“For the first fifteen years of my life I was quirkless. When I met All Might he rescued me from a villain and I asked him if I could still be a hero, even if I didn’t have a quirk. He said that it was impossible. Then afterwards he saw me risk my life to try and save Kacchan from a villain and he decided I was worthy of inheriting his quirk.”

A powerless nobody who wanted to be a hero despite what the world said. He almost wanted to laugh at the similarity.

“...Tell me about your life Midoriya. Tell me what it was like for you to grow up quirkless”

So he did. Midoriya told him everything about his life; being diagnosed as quirkless at four, having his father abandon him, his mother acting like he might break at any moment, the determination to one day become a hero despite what everyone told him. It was such a familiar story, even down to the ugly parts.

Midoriya told him about the bullying; the way his so called friend “Kacchan” had tormented him constantly from the moment he was diagnosed, and he didn’t spare a single detail; from the many burns and hits he’d inflicted to the burnt notebooks and suicide baiting. He told him how the constant torment affected his anxiety, and how hard it was to keep fighting off depression when every day he was told he would never amount to anything in life, that he was just a useless “deku.”

Shinsou asked over and over if he hated Kacchan for everything he’d done but each time he would deny it.

“Kacchan is my friend.”

And they called what Shinsou did brainwashing.

Who would’ve thought someone as powerful as Midoriya would have been through such a similar life as Shinsou. If he believed in such a thing he might’ve said it was fate that made him choose Midoriya as his first test subject, but as it was...maybe deep down he’d recognised the desperation in his actions.

Whether Midoriya accepted it or not, Shinsou now understood the truth in their situation; he hadn’t stolen Midoriya to change him…

He’d done it to save him.

Chapter Text

When Izuku woke up it wasn’t in the sluggish natural way he did of a morning, nor was it a sudden jolt of adrenaline like after a nightmare; he was just suddenly wide awake. And from there a dozen warning lights started flashing in his brain.

Prior to his lapse in consciousness Izuku had been refusing food, however now he felt comfortably full.
He also remembered his bindings had been rubbing insistently on his injuries, but now he didn’t feel even the slightest new irritation.
His injuries had been treated and his bindings readjusted.

The next and frankly most disconcerting realisation was that Shinsou was now sitting significantly closer than he had been before. 

Previously shinsou had sat close enough that their knees had been brushing, but now he had moved into the space between Izuku’s knees, apparently totally unfazed by the concept of personal space. If Izuku’s legs weren’t tied to the chair legs his knees would close half way down Shinsou’s thighs. Apparently even that uncomfortable proximity hadn’t been close enough for Shinsou because he was also leaning forward, elbows rested on his knees to stare directly into Izuku’s eyes. In any other situation this proximity would’ve flustered Izuku, however right it only made him more tense.

Shinsou was so close Izuku could feel his breath shifting the hair over his face, tired unreadable eyes burning intently into his own, never shifting away.
The tension in the air was almost unbearable as he waited for something to disturb their moment of...whatever this was.
After several long moments of waiting Shinsou let out a huff and shifted back to lounge in his chair, breaking eye contact to stare dispassionately at the wall before returning his hard eyes to Izuku.

“Gotta admit Midoriya; you are surprising,” Shinsou chuckled as he ran a hand through his hair in a way that might’ve conveyed awkwardness or anxiety if he weren’t the one in control.
“I mean seriously; I wasn’t even expecting to like you by the time we’re done, but here you are turning out to be just so interesting…”

He hunched forward again, well past invading Izuku’s personal space as a smug smirk spread across his face.

“A compelling tragic backstory, easy to sympathise with, selfless as fuck; dare a say its probably a diagnosable disorder at this point. Growing up quirkless sounds about as fun as it was growing up with a villain quirk.”

Panic surged through Izuku and without a second thought he surged forward as far as his restraints would allow him, causing Shinsou to jolt back to avoid knocking their heads together. 

“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about! Quirkless?! Me?! Don’t be ridiculous, of course I have a quirk-you’ve seen it! At the sports festival! You know, super strong, bone breaking, that sort of thing! Where-uh where did you get the idea that I was quirkless?” the words rushed out loud and panicked, maybe too fast to be understood at first but he tried to calm down to a more believable tone by the end.

Shinsou pressed his hand against his ear for a moment, apparently less concerned with what Izuku had said, and more with how loud he had been

“...I kind of don’t blame you for lying, especially since it's only half your secret to begin with, but whether you’re protecting All Might or not lying is against the rules and you’re gonna get punished for it...which sucks since I really am starting to warm up to you. Kind of hard not to; considering how similar we are.”

“We aren’t similar.” Izuku snapped.

We are. We are.

“Sure we are; we were both punished by a society obsessed with power because either we had none or we had the WRONG one; we both have been failed by the people who should’ve protected us, and we both just want to make a difference.”

“It’s HOW you plan to make a difference! I would never do what you’re doing! Using your quirk to imprison a perfect stranger and then blaming it on society, I’m nothing like you!” Izuku retorted, continuing to strain away from the chair as he spoke, forcing Shinsou to lean back away from him.

Apparently he’d had enough of that; pressing a hand to Izuku’s chest he forced Izuku back against the chair, looming slightly over him even while sitting.
Whatever amusement had briefly coloured his features was gone, leaving a cold blank glare in its place.

“You’re an idiot if you really think that fancy new power made any difference. You think just because people suddenly started treating you like a person it’ll erase every that's already happened?  All that trauma and the scars? You really think you’re any better than you were last year? News flash Midoriya; you’re still fucking broken and so is society!” anger slipped through the blankness and towards the Shinsou was half yelling in his face before his shoulders slumped and he went quiet.

Guilty. He felt guilty.

After a moment he started speaking and in a slightly softer voice; “you’re not an idiot, we both know that. You’re just clinging to a false reality that you desperately wish was real. It’d almost be adorable if it wasn’t sad. Lying to me? Now that’s one thing, you think it’s your best defense; it isn’t but it’s understandable. Lying to yourself? Now that's just counterproductive. Its insulting to both our intelligence, and it's hypocritical.”

Shinsou pressed his face into his hands and let out a tired groan; “I hate hypocrites…”

“But that doesn’t mean I hate you.” he adds looking back up with a tired but sympathetic expression.

Wrong. That expression was wrong; he wasn’t soft or caring, Izuku was reacting WRONG.
He wanted to apologise, to tell Shinsou he was right, Izuku was still the same weak child he was before he met All Might.

Wrong, wrong, wrong! This was dangerous, everything Shinsou said was a poisonous lie worming its way into his head.

“I can’t hate you; you haven’t done anything to deserve my hate. You also haven’t done anything to earn my love, but if we’re ever going to break through those lies you’ve told yourself then that may just have to change. You deserve better than the way you were treated Midoriya; and even if it takes a while, even if you fight me every step of the way; I’m going to make you understand. There was never a place for people like us in a world obsessed with perfect quirks. We have to make a new one, and the only way that can happen is together.”

Finally returning izuku his personal space, Shinsou stood and started towards the exit chair in tow.

“If you behave we’ll see about moving you somewhere comfier tomorrow. After lying to me I don’t think you deserve to keep the light on.”

He opened the door to shove the chair into the hall, without looking back he called out to izuku; “in the meantime what don't you think about what I said.”

And then the room went dark.