Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kaminari looked around the gray and silver room and hated all of it. It reminded him of his childhood, the very thing he was trying to prevent others from going through. It was an interrogation room with Kaminari in the center, sitting in front of a silver metal table.. Being tied to a chair with quirk preventing cuffs. He was waiting and oh how he hated waiting. ‘When the hell are they going to show up?’ Kaminari asked himself in his own head. ‘This is so annoying!’ Kaminari tapped his feet. He'd been in there for what felt like forever.

“Stay in here until I say we need you.” Aiwaza had his hands on Shinsou’s shoulder. Saying it with as much warmth as he could muster, but it still wasn’t enough for his standards.

“Understood.” Shinsou did his best to appear normal but between the little twitches and the fact he had more eyebags than before. Aiwaza could tell he was a wreck. And who can blame, he certainly couldn’t imagine what it would be like if 1 of his closest friends was a villain. Feeding information to the enemies who did their best to kill you and innocents that stood in their way.

“Good.” Aiwaza walked away, hands in his pockets. He opened the door and there stood Detective Tsukauchi who gave a friendly nod.

“You ready?” Aiwaza nodded yes. Tsukauchi opened the blinders and behind it was a glass case where you could see Kaminari, tapping one of his feet.

“Finally, and for a second I thought I’d die of boredom.”

“Hello to you too Kaminari.” Aiwaza said dryly. Kaminari was still tapping his right foot. While glaring at Tsukauchi.

“You have a problem with Detective Tsukauchi?”

“No, nothingl.”

Kaminari did in fact. He didn’t plan on him being here. And he knew his sister had a truth detecting quirk. Kaminari needed to put this to the test.

“What seems to be the problem?”

Kaminari's foot stopped tapping.

“Again I don’t have a problem. I mean I’m being interrogated, right? I’m not going to bed in the best mood. ” Aizawa looks at Tsukauchi.

“I can’t tell if I'm being honest.” Aizawa turned back to Kaminari. Kaminari wanted to sigh in relief but that would be too obvious.

“Now Kaminari, how long have you worked with the League of Villains?”

“Ever since I was 14.”

“Did they make you a offer or were you forced?”

“Yes I was offered a spot in the league. And joined of my own free will.”

Aizaa turned to the good detective again.

“I can’t tell if he’s lying or not.” Aizawa turned back. This was frustrating because he knew he couldn't trust a word he says. But he’s so skilled at lying that not even Tsukauchi could tell and he might as well have a lie detector quirk. So he would have to go off his own gut. He sees no reason why he would be lying right now.

“Why did you accept?”

“Because we need to start over. This society is fundamentally flawed.”

“In what ways?”

“Hey I already know you don’t want to know. So don’t lie to me.”

“Yes I do-”

“Don’t give me that crap. Can I really get past decades of dedication and justification with a small rant? Don’t think so.” Aizawa is actually impressed.

“You’re certainly much more clever than back in class.”

“It was a part of the role. A pretty shitty one as well.” Aizawa assumed he was faking his stupidity the moment he was found out. But he couldn’t help but be curious exactly how far the lies went. And more importantly what his true beliefs even were.

“You seem to have strong beliefs. Now every villain I’ve met has gone on and on about their convictions and ugh how important they were. So usually I’d be happy with a villain who’d want to skip that part of the script. But here, right now I want nothing more to hear exactly why you did what you did. Maybe you won’t convince us but maybe you can convince others. This interrogation will go public, maybe your beliefs will leave an impression on others. And you’ll give others your conviction. Like with Stain. "

Kaminari wanted to resist to make sure everything went to plan. But Aiwaza was right. His beliefs were too strong to keep contained in his head. He sighed.

“Fine, you’re right I’ll give in. I look around and everything is heroes, heroes, heroes, heroes! No respect or time given to any other profession or passion! So what happens when someone doesn’t go into adult life? More than likely they’ll be miserable as they don’t see the meaning in anything besides heroes. Making themselves into disappointments by society’s own twisted standards! But that’s the thing, that is not standard to live up to! There's plenty of other work that deserves respect and people can create meaning in more than hero shit. But we aren't, taught that. It’s hero or bust. And we can’t all be heroes so we can’t all live lifes like that! We need to be taught the importance of everything and what it can mean to us. Not this single minded approach all because it’s the most important and makes the most money. Because something is the most important to everyone doesn’t mean it’s most important to yourself nor does it have to be. I hate feeling caged.” Kaminari was kicking himself for saying that last part. That was far too much. Both Aiwaza and Tsukauchi sit there stunned. Staring on for a little bit. Aiwaza puts his hand on the desk.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard any villain say anything like that.” Aiwaza said with amusement.

“Really, huh that’s very disappointing.”

“Tsukauchi.”

“Yes?”

“You can go. I want to continue this alone with him” Tsukauchi nods and leaves.

“Uh, why did he leave? That doesn’t seem beneficial.”

“Because you’re my student.”

“Hmph, all right.”

Chapter Text

“Kaminari?”

“Yes?”

“So what exactly made you come to that conclusion?” Kaminari glares at Aizawa.

“My own observations, believe it or not.” Aizawa smirks.

“So not one for explaining? I suppose that’s fair. Then I’ll ask you something else I find odd.”

“Spit it out!” Aizawa turns on his quirk.

"Don't forget who is interrogating who here." Aizawa's calm authority makes Kaminari shrink in his seat.

“Right… I apologize.”

“Okay, so your real name is Kaminari Denki, correct?”

“Yes that is correct.”

“We did almost full 24 hours a day searches. But we couldn’t find any public records of you beyond a potential student in Konohana Junior High School in Osaka. How is that possible?”

“Well… I was put in a rather shady orphanage so they never asked for papers. Thus I never signed any. Simple no?”

“Well then why did you need to be in an orphanage in the first place?” Aizawa said dryly.

“Huh, what does that have to do with the interrogation? That has nothing to do with my villainous actions now, nor how I got into UA.”

“Well Kaminari, it’s incredibly mysterious how someone like you went under the radar for so long. Only to appear like this. Not to mention there’s more than one reason for this interrogation” Kaminari reels back in shock. Then looks at him in disgust.

“Well sorry to spoil but you will never know! I told you the why and you don’t need to know the how!

“Settle down. I didn't mean to get you emotional.As a matter of fact I or anyone else doesn't want to hurt you in anyway. I merely want to talk to you and get some information on you.” Kaminari scoffed as Aizawa looks on. Kaminari is very sensitive towards his past which will prove to be tricky naturally. He’ll start by going into his recent past and chipping at him from there.

“When did you last talk to Shigaraki?” Kaminari groans.

“Two days before my arrest.”

“That lines up with what we know. Now what are your opinions of him?”

“Hmph, he’s a complete arrogant fool. Talking to a brick wall would be a better use of your time.” Aizawa chucked.

“So not the biggest fan of his I see.”

“I never was.”

“Fascinating, now was your famous weakness faked as well?”

“Why yes it was.”

“Hmmm, as I suspected. You must be much stronger than you appear.” Kaminari widens his eyes and lowers his eyebrows. How dare he question that, was it not natural to assume?

“Hpmh well of course I am, none of you have any clue as to how strong I truly am!” Aizawa's look turns from neutral into one of amusement.

“Very proud of yourself are you? Interesting you would take on such a humiliating role then.” Kaminri shrinks a little in his seat again.

“Well it was needed to accomplish my goals. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t uh… annoying.” Aizawa noted that. Kaminari has been prideful throughout most of the interrogation but there it dissipated. This is potential evidence for the theory he had.

“Now Kaminari, what are your opinions on your classmates?”

“Excuse me? What does that have to do with anything, exactly?”

“Nothing but I am your sensei. You seemed at the very least that you genuinely cared about your classmates. So I can’t help but be curious about your true feelings for your classmates?”

“Well my problems are not with them. It’s with this stupid society as a whole!”

“You’re avoiding the question.” Kaminari narrows his eyes. He sighs.

“They’re fun to be around. Now, next question.” Aizawa was intrigued. His frustration showed he felt strongly about the topic. But the answer is too vague to go off anything. And Kaminari wasn't in the mood to give out more. And Kaminari was now worried since Aizawa must've picked up on something. Otherwise he wouldn't have asked that question in the first place.

"Hmmm, really that’s all you feel?"

"Well of course. I mean, I'm a villain after all. It'd be incredibly counterproductive to feel close to them. Surely you’d understand"

"I see. It’s practical of course plus it makes how close you seemingly were to them that much more impressive."

"Yes, quite the performance wasn’t it?" And like that Kaminari was back to the prideful brat he'd been before. Aizawa wasn't going to give in to emotion. He was looking upon the person who had caused his class so much pain. All the villain attacks, all injuries, the damage to hero society are directly linked to his actions. On the more rational side however. He was still a kid, no kid who had a chance at a normal life would've chosen this path. He knew this better than anyone with his line of work. He'll give Kaminari a chance but his leash is getting shorter.

"So back to how you went under the radar for so long. So we know that you 1st appeared in the school system at 13 years old. Where were you for the 1st 12 years of your life?”

"Well obviously keeping a low profile and doing a great job of it obviously… But really I was outside Japan."

"Where?"

"One of the islands outside Japan." Okay now Kaminari's vagueness was slightly frustrating. But Aizawa knew it was best to not show that, but to speak it.

"If you want a chance at life out of prison then I recommend you answer clearly." Kaminari is annoyed that it was even brought up.

"What I want is to be done with this."

"If you really wanted that you would've answered clearly."

"Like that would’ve made a difference!"

" If you want freedom-"

"Stop pretending, it won’t work! I know I won't get freedom. I know after I've seen glimpses of the news inbetween lunch breaks here! I know for a fact I’m public enemy number 1. I mean all the news does is rag on and on about how evil I am. Everyone in the world hates me and if no 1 wants me free why would anyone, especially the system I betrayed, give me a chance?" Aizawa takes a deep breath. He'd need for what he'll say next.

"Because I want to see you free Kaminari." Aizawa said lacking the passion you’d expect from that statement. Kaminari stared blankly as he didn't know what to say.

"Well I don’t know if you noticed but it's you against Japan sensei."

"So you respect me enough to still call me sensei.”

“Uh, uh.” Kaminari was clearly blushing.

Chapter Text

“So will you tell me about your past now.” Aizawa a emotionless but stern tone in his words. Kaminari sat there and looked at the table in front of him. He hated this, he hated having to make this choice. And he hated every decision he made to get here. But if he wants to be as strong as he pretends to be, he’ll stick to the plan.

“No, I refuse.” Kaminari stared at Aizawa with conviction. Aizawa sighed. He hasn’t given up yet but it was getting far too frustrating for him anyway. He stays still for awhile a blank stare while he thinks he goes to last resort. Aizawa gets up from his chair.

“Then you left me no choice. I’m getting Shinsou.” Kaminari’s eyes widen as he turns his whole body as much as he can towards Aizawa.

“No don’t!” Aizawa turns towards Kaminari. Aizawa feels like he should’ve seen this coming, but that doesn’t change the fact he didn’t.

“How come?”

“I never want to see him again.”

“And why is that?”

“...Because I hate him, simple.”

“Oh he’d find that extremely disappointing. “ Kaminari looks away.

“Well I’m extremely disappointed in him. So there!” Kaminari takes a deep breath. Aizawa stares at him. Throughout this whole conversation he hasn't been sure if Kaminari was lying or telling the truth. But this time he was sure he was lying.

"I'll go get him now."

"DON'T!" Kaminari leaps up from his chair only to be yanked down by his handcuffs. Aizawa opens the door.

“You’re awfully demanding.”

“I’m used to getting what I want.” Kaminari stops looking at Aizawa and looks at the ground.

“You’re lying.” Kaminari tense up in his chair. He was getting emotional and letting his mask slip. This was a grave mistake. The whole point was to confirm biases so he has to confirm them.

“You’re seeing what you want to see, old man. I’m not the class clown who was your student, I’m someone you’ve fought against your life. I’ve hurt all your other students, the ones you also have a sworn loyalty to as well. And you don’t know if I wouldn’t hurt them again. There’s no point to any of this, so stop deluding yourself and be honest with yourself. I’m a traitor, I’m a villain and I’m far from any hero!” Kaminari yelled so much he immediately started coughing at the end of his speech. Aizawa narrows his eyes.

“You seem awfully honest about that. But you don’t seem particularly proud either, odd.” Kaminari sighs and glares straight at Aizawa.

“Because I respect you, your intelligence specifically and it’s disappointing to see you give that up all for loyalty to a student who never had loyalty to you in the first place.” Kaminari looks back down to the ground after he was done, still glaring.

“You remember the culture festival?” Aizawa’s dry tone only made this out of nowhere question that much harder to read.

“Well I’m not stupid, of course I do!” Kaminari's emotional response only put more confidence in Aizawa.

“You remember what you said to Jirou about her ability to play instruments?” Kaminari sighs.

“Yes, yes I do.” Kaminari exasperation obvious in his voice and expression

“You made her her so happy when you praised her ability to praise instruments-”

“And that’s a part of the problem! She didn’t value her own talent because this stupid society doesn’t value anything outside of hero work. It tore my heart apart when she said that. Of course a hero hopeful doesn’t see the value of her passion. Because you can’t be passionate about anything else but heroes.”

“So it did make you happy then?”

“Yeah but for ideological reasons.”

“Not personal?” Kaminari now narrowed his eyes.

“Hmph, like I said it wouldn’t benefit me whatsoever to be personally invested in them.” Kaminari's smug expression even got a slight rise out of Aizawa for a brief moment. But he calmed down and focused back on his goal.

“Okay so then why not bring out Shinou?”

“Hatred isn’t a personal attachment, or it doesn’t have to be. It’s but a feeling.” Aizawa raised his eyebrow.

“I thought you were disappointed in him. You said nothing about hatred.”

“It’s disappointment to the point of hatred.”

“So how did you spend so much time and develop a friendship with someone you hated?” Kaminari stares right at Aizawa for a moment.

“Are you going to answer?”

“Of course… Look at first I actually did kinda like him. I sympathize with his struggle but overtime I started to hate him because… I realized that he had a chance to realize how stupid and pointless this entire society is. He saw how pointless and petty people’s judgements can be when it’s entirely based on heroes. Plus he had the option to fight against this stupid system after seeing it’s flaws with bullies and the dumbass entrance exam but instead choose to give into it.” Aizawa narrows his eyes and ignores that sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Sounds like a genuine frustration.” Aizawa’s dry voice leaves Kaminari with nothing to read.

“I promise you it is. I know you shouldn’t trust anything I say, I’m a traitor after all but I promise you what I said is true.” Aizawa nods.

“Okay I believe you. But still I can’t help but hear a waver in your voice.” Kaminari's eyebrow rise straight in the air.

“What are you trying to say Aizawa?”

“A sign of regret perhaps?” Kaminari rolls his eyes.

“We’ve been over this haven’t we? Give it up!” Kaminari’s glare could kill someone if looks could kill. But Aizawa was completely and utterly unphased.

“I suppose we have yet to return to it because despite every effort what you say isn’t convincing.”

“No it’s because of your denial. I lied to all of you and not once did you even question it and yet you think I’m being convincing here. No, you simply are seeing what you want to see!” Kaminari's voice echoed afterwards with Kaminari also rising out of his seat as he said that.

“Are you frustrated because you know you’re right or are you frustrated because you know you’re wrong?”

“I’ve already said.”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“Because I know I’m right, all right? Shut up, shut up please fuck!”

“You don’t sound convinced of that answer.” Kaminari glares at Aizawa and then nods.

“Whatever it doesn’t matter.”

“Well if it doesn’t then I’m going to get Shinsou.” Aizawa gets out of his seat with Kaminari perking up in his seat.

“NO DON’T I DEMAND YOU DON’T!” Aizawa opens the door and walks inside.

Chapter Text

"Did he seem like he cared about at least?" Shinsou asked more reluctantly than he'd like. Tsukauchi stops looking at Shinsou and looks at the floor.

"I couldn't tell you for sure kid." Tsukauchi said wishing he could tell him more. Aizawa appears in the room and holds the door open.

"Shinsou it's time." Shinsou sits frozen in place while his breathing gets heavier. Almost shaking from the rage he's experiencing. Tsukauchi puts his hand on his shoulder.

"It'll be alright kid. No moment lasts a lifetime." Shinsou looked at him confused but thankful.

"Shinsou." Shinsou’s attention turns back to Aizawa, curious.

“From what I’ve seen he’s not as bad as we feared.”

“Really?” Shisou for the first time in awhile has hope in his eyes. He almost can't look Aizawa in the eyes. He doesn't want people to see nor acknowledge in himself that he still values the friendship he and Kaminari had. Considering the weight of his betrayal.

“Yes, he’s hiding something but I sense no ill intentions.” Shinsou gets up with his hope replaced with determination. He can't tell if it's because he wants to prove him wrong or because he wants him to be right.

“You ready?” Aizawa asks with a small smile.

“Yes Sensei.” Shinsou states with conviction.

“Let’s go.” Aizawa walks back to the interrogation room with Shinsou behind.

Shinsou walks out having to shield himself from the blinding light of the room. That’s when he meets Kaminari eye to eye. It still comes as a shock to him to see Kaminari so disheveled and so angry looking. Shinsou, as naive as it may be to admit, could never see Kaminari looking like this.

But he met his look with the same anger. Ever since this bastard has turned to be the one stabbing everyone in the back. All he's seen is people crying while looking back on old memories. Classmates withdrawing themselves because they no longer trust their own judgment and new friends hating themselves because they didn't see the signs. And Shinsou going through a mixture of all 3.

“You bastard. I told you not to bring him!” Kaminari said with a venom.

“I’m the one interrogating you. And this doesn’t commit any ethical wrongs.” Aizawa said why sitting back down while staring at him. Kaminari’s eyes narrow as he glares back at Aizawa. Shinsou sits down next to Aizawa.

“So Kaminari, do you have anything to say to Shinsou?” Kaminari looks at the floor, saying nothing, tapping his foot.

“Quite a lot has happened since you two last say each other. So I find it hard to believe that you have nothing to say.” Kaminari still said nothing. Shinsou looks at Aizawa, worried. He takes a deep breath. He really should’ve seen this coming. Kaminari showed himself as clever and this defense wasn’t clever to come up with. The only thing now is how hard it is to get Kaminari talking again.

Kaminari was struggling. Because whether it was his real life or his fake persona he was going to have to do something he’s always struggled with. Shutting the fuck up. But all he had to do was to remind himself why he was doing it and it made that much easier. Exactly like his childhood.

“So Shinsou, you have anything to say to Kaminari?” Shinsou tenses up. And narrows his eyes.

“I have nothing to say to this bastard. There’s no one I hate more than those who can easily cross the golden gates and instead choose to hurt others who are trying to get where they refused.” Shinsou words grew angrier with each word he said. Kaminari in response started tapping his feet faster. Aizawa was almost impressed. He knew Kaminari was still very emotional but he had enough strength to resist those very emotions. Aizawa wondered what he was thinking?

Kaminari wanted to yell. He wanted to so badly to tell him how much worse he had. How his life was heaven to Kaminari’s hell. How he could’ve and should’ve been like him and turned away from the stupid hero cult. But for various reasons he kept it inside. He’s trying to calm himself down. And was doing much better than he thought he’d be.

“Kaminari, you have a response to that?” Don’t that’s what he wants and that’s how you blow it.

“He’s too much of a coward to say anything. He’s comfortable playing in the shadows but he’s too ashamed of him to show his true colors. He knows he’s trash.” Now he wants to berate him, tear him apart. Hell even punch him straight in the face. But he had to stay strong and there was no other choice. As there is in all of life the only choice is to remain strong.

“Looks like you’re right. It’s extremely odd we’re having quite the lively chat before. But we must’ve found his limit that he’s not brave enough to cross.” Kaminari knew he was braver than he ever was. But he had to say that the fact he knew was enough. Besides he’ll most likely be the only one for awhile at least or he hoped.

“Looks like you’re correct.” Shinsou says while putting his arm behind his head. They both look on but Kaminari still glares at the floor. Aizawa knew he was making progress but it was going much slower than expected. He knew being patient was the smartest move but he looks at Shinsou and sees how much anger he was feeling at that moment. This is the reason he wanted to avoid this. It was still hard for Shisou to open old wounds and this quite the wound to open, so fresh as well.

“Now Shinsou, is that all you feel?” But temporary pain was worth a permanent fix.

“Huh?” He didn’t want to do this with either but he’d have to push Shinsou's limits to push Kaminari’s. He’d find a way to make work the best of both of them.

“Now Shinsou I’m not one who should talk about opening up. But if you don’t do it when we can, you’ll keep putting it off until you can’t and regret it for the rest of your life. And considering the position Kaminari is in, you may not get this chance again. So I suggest you do it now.” Shinsou was beyond stunned. He wanted this to confirm his surface level emotions of resentment and anger but this caused these deeper emotions to come up to the surface.

He remembered his earliest memories in class 1-A how Kaminari was 1 of the 1st people to come up to him and made him feel welcome. How he helped in building his confidence with his sunshine smile. And his honey sweet words. Only to make him question if any of that was real. But he cannot deny it’s because he wanted it to be real. It helped him start to feel happier than he ever has in his whole life. And maybe if what he said was true he could be happy once again. But Shinsou has one giant problem. He is Shinsou.

He didn’t have a clue how to express this. He wasn’t used to having friends. He was used to the world treating any show of vulnerability with disgust and anger, so why would he practice hurting himself? But of course that comes with the sacrifice of not being able to articulate it when it matters most. He takes a deep breath.

“Was everything you said a lie?” Shinsou decided to go simple, since he didn’t know what else to do. Kaminari’s foot starts to tap incredibly fast. He had so much to say and Kaminari loved to hear himself talk. But he can take this pain. He suffered through so much worse than this so not breaking would be a disrespect to his being. A disrespect to all the experiences he had and the few people who believed in him. But unlike in the past, which he used to bolster his positions and make him stronger. Here he could see nothing but pain. Going against all of his beliefs he built up.

"So based on this evidence, I'd say it is real." Aizawa said in a monotone.

"Really?" Shinsou responded badly, hiding the fact that he was surprised.

“I wouldn’t see any other reason to stay silent. I mean the denial should be the easiest path to go down if it was true. But here he is staying suspiciously silent.” Aizawa narrows his eyes and looks straight at Kaminari, side eyeing them. Kaminari knows it’s a lie. It’s a bad lie but he also knows he could’ve easily done better. And he knows why he didn’t. Because Kaminari wants to yell anyway. He wants to angrily tell them off. It’s a shame. It's such a simple thing Kaminari has to do for most people but not for someone like him.

“Shinsou.” Aizawa turns towards him. Shinsou's eyes widened a little, taken aback.

“Yes?”

“Is there a memory of Kaminari that stands out?” Shinsou’s mind immediately went to when Kaminari and him met for the first time. Kaminari still had on his gimmicky sunglasses but with a smile that shined as bright as a summer day said to him.

“I know you said you weren't interested in making friends and all that but I like you dude. You're a proper hero hopeful like the rest of us!" Shinsou had zoned out entirely.

"Shinsou?"

"Yes Sensei?"

"You still with us?'

"Yes of course."

"Good, now can you answer the question?"

"Uh, yeeeah."

"Good now what's the answer?"

"Well our first training exercise together. Before then I had already rejected the possibility of becoming friends with anyone in the hero course. But then he and Midoriya both made me feel welcomed. And… if it wasn't for that experience I-I wouldn't have even tried to make friends. Let alone have the ones I do."

Even after all the bullying and all the self-hatred. That was 1 of the most painful experiences he put himself through. There was something about Kaminari as well. By looking at him you can see that he was feeling something strongly. But Shinsou who has always been bad at reading emotions. So he couldn't tell what.

“And how would it make you feel if those moments were… fake.” It hurts Aizawa to say that. Not that was a excuse but if this goes poorly he’s likely to give in to his temptation to end this interrogation now. Shinsou no longer looks at Aizawa and looks at the floor.

“It’d.” Shinsou takes a few deep breaths.

“It’d be devastating.”

“Sorry.” It was a small whisper but Shinsou picked up on it immediately and bam like that. Kaminari was under his control.

“Excellent job keeping focused under pressure.” Shinsou gets a smile, a wobbly smile on his face.

“Thank you sensei.”

“Now ask him a few basic questions to make sure nothing’s gone wrong.”

“Ok. What’s your name?”

“Kaminari.”

“Why are you here?”

“Because I’m the traitor.” Shinsou breathes a sigh of relief.

Chapter Text

“Why were you the traitor?” Shinsou brow arches down preparing for either anger or confusion.

“I was asked to by the League.”

“Why did the league ask you to be a part of the league?” Shinsou clenches his fist and teeth all while telling himself he’s holding back his emotion.

“I was the only other person other than Shigaraki young enough to go and I’m much lower on the totem pole so.” The mention of Shigaraki creeps out Shinsou. It’s even creepier to think that someone he spent so much time with and one of the few people he actually trusted was hanging around the most powerful sociopath in the world. Well fear was his first reaction, anger is his next. But he kept his concreation but that rising emotion is always were going to drive him a little.

“Do you regret betraying your friends?” The venom in his voice would be obvious to anyone. Aizawa glazes his eyes to Shinsou, slightly concerned. He couldn’t blame him too much since he’s young but he still needed him to keep calm to keep focused.

“Very much so.” Kaminari's blank and emotionless voice completely contrasts the shock Shinsou has, causing him to pause.

“Shinsou?” Shinsou, startled, turns back to Aizawa.

“Yes?” Aizawa raises a eyebrow.

“Right, sorry.” Shinsou looks at the floor and takes a deep breath. Kaminari wriggles in his seat for a very little bit.

“So why did you choose to betray us?” Shinsou says trying to push out all of the memories that phrase implies to keep focus.

“I didn’t want people living under a cult.” Shinsou and Aizawa look at each other.

“A cult?”

“Yes.”

“How come?”

“My childhood experience?” Aizawa tenses up, he was expecting a peachy childhood. Since villains, especially 1s that fight as children, usually don’t have a good childhood experience. But for a reason he couldn’t put his finger on it he had a particularly bad feeling about Kaminari’s.

“How was your childhood?”

“Absolutely horrible.”

“Where were you born?”

“Kami Island.” Aizawa’s demeanor changes. Shinsou picks up on this.

“What’s Kami Island?”

“It’s a island right outside Japan and therefore has no jurisdiction within Japan. It’s owned by the former number 3 hero from all the way back in Gran Torino days.” Shinsou turns to Aizawa

“What’s the former number 3 hero doing with a island?”

“No one knows anything for sure. Kaminari in fact would be the first person from Kami Island to even set foot in Japan.”

“What really, how is that even possible?”

“It’s created a lot of nasty rumors about what happens on that island. Only based on brief looks of passer-bys. No one knows how that's even possible. But this is the 1st chance anyone has to hear about what really goes on there.” Shinsou immediately turns to Kaminari.

“Tell us about some significant part of your childhood.”

“When I was six years old I was 1st sent to detention.”

Chapter Text

A six year old black haired Kaminari runs up to a group of other little kids. They’re all dressed in all white clothes.

“Hey guys watch this!” Kaminari’s body is covered in lightning and shoots all of that from his hand. He hits the can right in the center. Kaminari beamed with pride finally he had something to impress people with, something that made him his own person.

“Wow, that's so cool!”

“You’re the best Kaminari!” Kaminari laughed, he put his hand behind his head.

“I mean I wouldn’t-”

“KAMINARI DENKI!” Kaminari and all the kids turned around fearfully. A women in all white robe

"I was in trouble for showing off my quirk past my enforced limits." Kaminari in the present says, completely neutral.

"Kaminari this Sunday you will join the others in detention. Missing the sacred celebration. " Kaminari looked down while everyone backed away.

"Yes Ma'am."

"No one was allowed to speak about what happened in detention. So all I knew were a lot of rumors. Turns out they were all true."

Kaminari and the others walk in a room where they are forced to stand. Kaminari fear was contrasted by the apathetic faces on most faces. Kaminari felt a anger bubbling below the surface but it was supressed by the fear.

It's the early morning where Kaminari was marching along with others. Who were of all ages, genders. It didn't matter they were all here. They march past the idyllic yellow houses. A few of which there were people glaring daggers at them. Kaminari half between wanting to shock them or try and run and beg for forgiveness from his mother. On all the houses are images or paintings of a old women in a white long dress with the sun behind her head. They even passed a store filled with merch of only her. They marched towards a dark gray building with dirty gray brick towers and barbed wire around it. Plus it smelled like someone died recently.

"We were took to this horrible place. It smelled like death and looked the part too." They enter a gray tunnel with no windows and has one light. “We stood in that cursed place for 5 minutes until finally someone came. It was the Haris, they worked under Taiyo herself and tell us what to do.”

“So Taiyo rules the island?” Aizawa asks body language neutral but tone vaguely interested.

“Yes.”

The Haris walked in with a glare and started to take off everyone’s white clothes.

“No wait, stop it! Stop, please! Kaminari yells while starting to cry. Out of the guilt because he had to have done something awful to deserve this.

“Stop yelling!” The Hari screams at him. Kaminari stared at the floor. Kaminari and the rest now have on all black jumpsuits. A Hari gives him a plate with: “A26798” on it.

“Huh?” Kaminari raises a eyebrow.

“Here you are now A26798.”

“But I’m Kami-” The Hari punched Kaminari in the face and he fell on the ground.

“Be quiet A26798!” Kaminari lies there and cries. The Hari forced him to stand again, grabbing and putting him into position himself. Kaminari stood there while others got handed their plates. Tears streamed down his face. Barely any of the other prisoners even looked at him, most of their expressions deadpan. A couple looked at him with slight pity but nothing more.

Kaminari is in chains marched with the others who stop in front of a damaged house.

“We marched to this damaged house and they asked us to repair it. Quickly as well.”

“You will all repair this. You have 3 hours.” Kaminari hurts to face the Hari. Afraid of whatever other bullshit they could get away with. And what they would do when they saw the anger in his eyes that he was desperately tried to get rid of.

“I don’t know AAAAAAAAAAAAH!” The grass grew around someone who stood right next to Kaminari and wrapped around him.

“You only speak when I ask. And if you refuse you’ll be punished extremely harshly. Get to work, your tools are here.” The Hari uses the grass to point to a table with a set of old rusty tools that had been laid out. Everyone walks to grab it.

“We worked for hours and we weren’t allowed breaks either.” Kaminari tries to nail a board with sweat dripped on it like heavy rain. All ten of his fingers bleed out which made Kaminari slow down. A grass blade knocks him back to the ground.

“Keep working A26798!” Kaminari gets up and goes back to nailing, holding back tears. He clinched one of his fists but the grass Hari looked back and Kaminari unclinched his fists and looked back at his work.

“After the 3 hours they didn’t say anything, we were all incredibly nervous about if we did good or not. Looking back at the house it was obvious we didn’t.” Kaminari starts to cry on the board. It only got worse once he realized this made him weak.

Everyone marches back into the crammed tunnel and they all stand and then electricity shoots up from that ground and shocks everyone. Making some people's mouths bubble and even hurting Kaminari. Once again Kaminari was confronted with his weakness. A Hari dressed in all white walks out like all the rest.

“That was 5,000 volts of electricity that flowed through all of you.” The Hari stated calmly.

“As punishment for the inadequate job you did today.” Kaminari slowly got but his chain got pulled down. Next to Kaminari lays a very old man who isn’t moving. Kaminari stared at the old man while 2 Hari ran over to inspect the old man. The 2 Hari unchain the old man and carry him.

“I never saw him again, and most of the people there I saw again on my repeated trips back to the detention center.”

Chapter Text

Kaminari is in all white clothes again with other children. Kaminari walks around with a glare years of experience had make that fear go away, only leaving the anger and bitterness of betrayal.

“When I came back I was angry of course. I was told my entire life that we were the most virtuous and kind people on the planet. And that belief was betrayed. So to say I was upset would be accurate.” A kid runs up next time.

“Hey, Kaminari!”

“Yes?”

“Are you doing well?”

“Doing excellent in fact.” Kaminari smirks

“So I choose to rebel.”

“Wanna see something cool?”

“Okay sure!”

Kaminari charges himself up and blasts a spot in the woods, leaving them burned.

“KAMINARI?!”

“What, that wasn’t cool? A Hari stomps over towards Kaminari who has back on the glare from before. Getting thought of short-term satisfaction or a short life to focus on the spite in front of him.

Kaminari is in the tunnel with his shirt off. An expectant look on his face. He saw a kid crying and shaking. He put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile.

“I made a decision to rebel against all of their stupid bullshit rules, no matter the consequence.”

Water pours over everyone, with everyone reacting in great pain and smoke rising from their backs. Kaminari's face was as if he got a papercut.

Kaminari, noticeably older, shocked some plants and wrote something down in a book.

“I decided to work hard to improve my quirk in secret, while also researching taboo topics.”

Kaminari types on his phone and reads news about All Might. Nodding his head in disapproval. A student looked at him and ran to a Hari, she grabbed his robe and pointed straight at Kaminari. A Hari stomps up towards him. Kaminari put his phone in his pocket and put his hands up. The Hari grabbed one of his hands and dragged him behind her.

“And I was so angry at the world and at everyone. Because of course I was.”

Other kids laugh and yell at him as he got dragged. Kaminari’s glare was full of pride, he’d lionized himself.

Kaminari and others in the same black jumpsuits build a statue of a dignified elderly lady with the sun behind her head. Kaminari started to tire when a fireball appeared and struck Kaminari.

"Work faster!" The Hari shoots a fireball at another boy, similar in age with purple hair.

"Hurry up!" The Purple haired boy laughed.

"Quit yelling and will, kay?!" He goes back to doing work with a smile on his face. Kaminari raises his left eyebrow. To Kaminari this was akin to seeing a mythical figure standing in front of him. Bewilderment didn’t begin to describe it.

“But then I met this weirdo.”

All the Hair's unchain the chains in the middle of the night. They eventually get to Kaminari.

"All of you have earned the right to have your names back! You should feel proud you helped your fellow man in many ways! And should carry this helpful attitude into your lives so that you may never return here! Nor end up in 1 of the many afterlifes even worse than this experience! Dismissed!"

Kaminari ran towards the purple haired boy.

"Hey you!” The boy named Gekko turned around to face him. Within a second he put a giant smile, his eyes looked like they were glowing

“Yeah?”

“Why the hell did you look so happy there?” Kaminari now walked alongside Gekko. His confusion mixed with a curiosity in his voice. And a hope in his eyes.

“Where?”

“Making the statue, you looked enthused? How is that possible?!” Now his look went to annoyed

“I asked myself how do I wanna feel?”

“And?!”

“I wanted to feel happy.” Kaminari stopped, going through his entire life in his mind as quickly as possible.

“And that’s it?!”

Gekko stopped. And Kaminari did the same after.

“Well it’s more like what would be best for me?”

“You really think being happy is what’s best for you?! When they’re forced to do all the hard work and making you feel like shit?! You fucking moron! That doesn’t make you angry in the slightest?!”

“It did but that didn’t work.”

“Uh what do you mean, it didn’t work, work for what?” That hopeful curiosity was peaking through his anger.

“Well I was mad but it didn’t change anything and I was miserable. I’m still pissed at them but I changed it up. Tried to find happiness in it and I did. Still simple but there you go.” Kaminari stands there baffled. Happiness at this point was a point of moral contention or rather the lack of it. And Kaminari’s stubborn disposition was fired and ready to go.

“Excuse me, how could you possibly find happiness in that terrible place?! Everyday someone loses their life for bullshit, or even no reason! It’s purposefully designed to make you as miserable as possible! So what kind of happiness can be found in a place where none was designed?!”

“That makes it a challenge doesn’t it?” Gakko walked once again. Kaminari grabbed his hair while putting his head back.

“Huh, what the hell do you mean?!”

“Well if someone’s making you miserable, being happy is a great way to spite em. Makes it a challenge and challenges make you happy. Because it's the feeling of trying to overcome something that you weren’t supposed to or defy the circumstances you were put in. Reminded you’re unique.” Kaminari's stunned look comes from this absolute bombshell dropped on him. In all of his spite and jadedness this possibility had escaped him. But he thought through his experiences as well and he wasn’t ready to give up the beliefs he bulit by himself.

“I’m still confused. You make it sound too easy so why should I believe you?” Gekko sighs. But he smiled again, sensing opportunity.

“Walk with me.” Gekko motioned to follow him. Kaminari followed him.

“There’s nothing to explain. If you challenge yourself to be happy, you will be .” Kaminari reached peak annoyance and glared at Gekko.

“Yeah but-”

‘Look at the sky.” Kaminari stopped and looked up. He hadn’t taken in the night sky in awhile but it was beautiful. The sea of stars in the night sky lights up everything on the island, including their faces. Kaminari was in awe of shapes made by the stars he never brothered to look at before.

“Beautiful isn’t it?”

“Absolutely.”

“Detention can’t take away this.” Kaminari turned away from him while he crossed his arms.

“Hmph… That’s correct I guess.” Gekko laughed, a laugh that’s so full of life.

“Wanna hang?” Kaminari was almost as taken aback as before. He raised his left eyebrow.

“Huh?”

“Like tomorrow, wanna hang?” Kaminari blinked while looking in disbelief at Gekko.

“Oh sure of course, It’d be…I-It’d nice to have a friend.” Kaminari looked to the side and to the floor. Gekko gave a big smile.

“All right, we’re friends then.” Gekko held out a fist. Kaminari bumped it back.

“Over the next view days we bonded quickly over our experiences in detention and how much we hated that stupid place! That’s when he showed me something incredible.”
Kaminari and Gekko stand out outside a yellow building with a wooden board that says school on it.

“So I gave my everything to this quiz, right? I studied all their approved books and even looked at advanced stuff so I can get a leg up on the students.” Kaminari was doing a terrible job hiding his annoyance with how this ended.

“What happened?” Gekko said while eating.

“Well I got second to this smarty-pants kid, highest position and you want to know what I got?” Kaminari voice increased in anger as he talked.

“Nothing good?”

“I got a stupid hat!” Kaminari clinched both his fists. Gekko laughed.

“And what did smarty-pants get?”

“To meet the fucking Taiyo and had a whole ass gourmet dinner!”

“What?!” Even Gekko was in disbelief. Something Kaminari was too angry to notice.

“Yeah I know how one-sided!” Gekko sighed and put a hand on Kaminari’s shoulder.

“Don’t blame yourself too hard. It’s what it’s designed to do.”

“Of course, all this, all it’s done is given me more motivation. So one day I’ll look Taiyo in the eyes and shock her right where she stands!” The determined grin on Kaminari’s face was almost as full of life as Gekko’s usual smiles were. Speaking of Gekko smile grew big. Kaminari picked up on this.

“Oh interesting.” Kaminari raises his left eyebrow.

“What’s so interesting? Oh is it me wanting to attempt murder?” Gekko laughed.

“Nope.” Kaminari raised his left eyebrow because he was 100% sure that was it in fact.

“So you can choose how to react, right?.” Kaminari clenched back up his fist and rolled his eyes. Of course he underestimated his intellect due to his positivity.

“Oh really, you had to bring this back to yesterday?”

“Not had, wanted to.” Kaminari crossed his arms.

“Hmph all right, fine, I’m starting to get your point now! There you happy?!”

“Yep oh, right, oh that reminds me. I wanna show you something.”

“Oh what?”

“Follow me.” Gekko motions to him again. Kaminari does follow him. Gekko’s big smile helped distract Kaminari from the bad gut feeling he had. Well even if it was something he shouldn’t be doing, so what? Whatever they didn’t want had to be good after all the ruling authority was so evil everything that opposed must be good. Kaminari marched behind Gekko with pride in his step.

Gekko moved a giant leaf out of the way and Kaminari ducked under it. Kaminari's look turned into awe. Everything he’s seen has been so artificial and constantly upgraded and he started to hate it. This was the first time he’s seen something so ancient looking face to face in his life.

“This place that looked like it hadn’t been touched in centuries. What the hell is this? Secret library? What?! Please tell me!”

“You know only Hari’s are supposed to come here, but I know how to break in.” Gekko picks at the lock.

“Ummmmm… Why aren’t you using your quirk?!”

“It’s Moonlight energy, can only use it at night.”

“Hmph inconvenient.” Kaminari crossed his arms and nodded his head. Gekko shrugged.

“Great at the right times.” The door opened. Kaminari paused to look on. Gekko moved out of Kaminari’s way. He motioned Kaminari to move forward.

“Ladies first.” Gekko winked while Kaminari clinched his fist

“Fuck you.” Kaminari flipped Gekko off while he laughed. He walked and slowed down as he looked at all the books. Kaminari stopped and looked at all of them with a excited awe he’d hadn’t ever had to that point. He’d always dreamt of a place like this and in this moment it was reality.

“Woah, this is incredible!”

“I know.” Kaminari ran over, stars in his eyes, grabbed a book, called: “Spark: The Life of Electricity and the Electricity of Life.” Gekko walked over to him.

“Here’s my favorite.” Gekko swiftly grabbed and handed Kaminari a book called: “The myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus. Now he has stars in his eyes. Kaminari raised his left eyebrow, examining it as if it was a alien object.

"What the hell is this? Never seen this kind of book before."

"Philosophy." Kaminari looked at it, left eyebrow raised.

"Huh, never heard of it." Kaminari put the book under his arm. And looked around. Curious eyes excitedly. Crunching can be heard outside. Kaminari stopped in place.

"Shit!"

Kaminari ducked behind 1 of the shelves.

"Don't!" Gekko yelled, echoing throughout the library. Gekko stood there proudly. Facing the door.

"Hey, get down. Don’t you want to explore this place a little more?" Kaminari whispered leg bounced up and down a face filled with anxiety.

"We're done, let's be honest about it." Kaminari stared at him confused. Gekko turned away a prideful look on his face while he looked at the door. The door swung open and there a Hari stood.

"Hey Gyūniku!"

"Gakko you bastard and who the hell do you have with you? Iiiiis that Kaminari?" Kaminari slowly got out of his hiding spot and looked straight at the Hari.

"Yes, that's indeed me."

"You too will spend Holyday in detention. I don't need to tell you what happens if you skip."

"We'll be there right, Kaminari?"

"Of course we wouldn't want to be anywhere else would we?" Kaminari looked at Gekko with confidence.

“Yep.” Gekko responded with the same amount of confidence.

“Right, well stay out of trouble, well not that you will. Now get out!” He motions them to go. Gekko walked towards the door and Kaminari followed.

“See you soon.” Gekko said with a smirk. Spite in his eyes.

“Hope not.” Gekko laughed. The Hari went his separate way. Kaminari raised his eyebrows and for the second time today Kaminari had saw something he’d never seen before.

“You know that guy?” Kaminari asked with extreme confusion pointing at him, other hand on his hip.

“He busts me all the time.” Kaminari guaffawed. He could never associate with those people let alone be friends with them.

“You are unbelievable, you know that?!” Gekko laughed

“I try.”

2 Hari’s watch over all the people in black jumpsuits which cleaned up the beach area. Kaminari crouches down. And grabbed as much trash as he could. He had a determined look in his face , clearly thinking intensely about picking up trash. ‘Okay so last time I grabbed 26 pieces of trash and this time… 28! Huh, I'm still continuing to progress.’ Kaminari thought.

“Hey.” Gekko waves high at him from right across from him. A proud smile on his face this time.

“Oh yo Gekko.” Kaminari’s faces morphs into a big happy smile, he waved at Gekko.

“You’re smiling.” Kaminari's face morphed from that smile to a look of shock. He was trying out what Gekko said but he didn’t want him to notice. But it worked too well.

“I am?” Kaminari’s sheepish tone was very unlike him. Gekko smirk grew more proud.

“I’m not a liar.” Kaminari narrowed his eyes and glared, annoyed that he dared noticed that he was proving him right.

“Hmph well whatever fine you were… kinda of right I suppose.”

“So I’m right, right?” Kaminari now scowled.

“Hmph again I suppose.” Gekko laughed while Kaminari went back to picking up the trash. Kaminari got a fireball shot at him. Kaminari groaned in pain.

“What the hell?!” Kaminari glared at the 2 Hari. Who ignored him. Kaminari looked back at the garbage and went back to picking it. Like nothing ever happened. One of the Hari glared at him.

Kaminari and Gekko read a book together in a field.

“For the next six months we grew close as each other’s only friend.”

“You want to train our quirks?” Kaminari looked at Gekko with a interested gaze.

“After this chapter.” Gekko said with massive enthusiasm. Kaminari began to pout, he’s leader around here, correct?.

“But this is getting boring. I want to stretch my legs a little, don’t you?!” Gekko rolled his eyes.

“Hmph all right.”

“Excellent now let’s go!” Kaminari excitedly ran to the center while Gekko followed. His smile picked up when he saw how excited Kaminari was.

“As we grew closer each detention became more and more bearable.”

Chapter Text

Kaminari dug a literally grave with Gekko, Kaminari smiled while hitting the dirt like it did something horrible to him and Gekko was in the middle of humming.

“What’s that?” Kaminari perked up. It was like nothing he had ever heard before. He was actually able to enjoy it as it sounded nothing like the bullshit the worshippers had made for Taiyo.

“A song.” Gekko said with a proud smirk. He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t fun annoying Kaminari a little. Kaminari face scrunched up and he balled his fist.

“Yeah I know that, what song is it?!” Kaminari annoyance came from a place of wanting to know more about the world outside. And how much potentially better it could be than here.

“One I made up.” Gekko’s pride is shown on his face. Kaminari shock turned into admiration.

"Oh cool, had no idea you wrote music." Kaminari’s impressed tone of voice made Gekko happiness grew.

"You really like it?" Gekko said with the confidence that told you he already knew the answer.

"Of course, anything to rebel against this stupid system, right?" Kaminari’s angry conviction was all over the words he said. Gekko chuckled.

"Of course." A plant grew rapidly and hit both of them. It knocked them back into the dirt.

"You don't have the right to chat like this! You're to dig so dig like your life depends on it!"

"All sheesh calm down!" Kaminari said with a smirk present on his lips. Kaminari was struck by another plant which knocking him to the ground.

"So you wanna make it a challenge eh?" Kaminari slowly got up while Gekko was smiling. Kaminari now glared at the Hari.

"Life's a challenge." Gekko said a smile full of fulfillment.

"And like all challenges you have to face them head on, correct?" Kaminari asked with determined glee.

"Right." Gekko laughed along with Kaminari.

"The memories today, despite everything are still pleasant."

--------------------------------

Aizawa has his arms crossed while looking at Kaminari with curiosity.

"Ok yes this is all fascinating, but now I'm wondering why you’re here. And where's Gekko?" Aizawa stated with caution. Kaminari’s hand twitched the moment after he said that. It wasn't that Shinsou lost focus. But Kaminari’s will almost broke him free of his former friends own mind control

"Six months after I met him. A crowd gathered around the city square."

------------------------------

Kaminari tapped his toes while looking at the clock nearby surrounded by tree and in front of a patch of grass.

'Where is that guy? He said he'd be here a half hour ago!" Kaminari thought to himself, his face getting more pouty. Kaminari's face then picked itself up and looked right. He started to walk in that direction.

"I noticed some commotion by where the city square was and went towards it. Hoping to find Gekko." Kaminari exited the park and entered the city square where a massive group of people surrounded one area. Kaminari stood behind them, peaking over the crowd's shoulders. Kaminari got a look of simultaneous shock and worry. He started shoving people out of the way with the kind of speed he’s never showed before.

"Move, move all of you!" Kaminari made his way up front where saw purple hair surrounded by blood, laying face down in the blood. Kaminari fell to his knees and started bawling.

"No, no, no this cannot be happening. No, no, no, no, no way you, out of all the stupid people on this island WHY YOU?!" Kaminari knelt next to him. Tears falling out like waterfalls. For minutes this agony persisted with no one even attempting to comfort him. A feeling he had gotten used now he felt how cold this really was. Then 2 Hari stomped towards Kaminari and Gekko's corpse. One stands to the left of Gekko and one to the right.

"We have looked over this terrible crime and have looked over the people he was last seen with and determined that Kaminari Denki is the culprit and he will-"

"Excuse me?!" Kaminari got up, eyes red and tears shining from his face. But he shouted with nothing but offense and disgust. Standing right in front of the Hari who was speaking before.

"I would never do anything like this! I know why you think I did. But do you have any actually evidence l for fucks sake?!" Kaminari clinched his own fist so hard you can see his fist turn red. The Hari took two steps back.

"The Haris looked over your detention record. You've done misdeeds such as graffiti a spiritual center, openly talk blasphemous about our great leader-"

"Where was I, how did I kill him, why would I kill him?! That's the shit I'm talking about! Not this petty crap!"

"We don't need any of that. Plus the fact you're even questioning our perfect methods is only further proof of your crime!" The Hari spat in Kaminari’s face and he wiped it off with a glare that if looks could kill would melt this Hari.

"Oh all right if I can't reason with you than I won't hold back!" Kaminari charged himself up with lightning sparking all across his body. That's when the Hari from across Gekko's body summoned chain from his fingers and wrapped Kaminari up. He wriggled around and lightning sparked but everyone including the Hari had backed away from a safe distance and everyone watched while Kaminari struggled and cried.

"Hey wait, this isn't fair-" The chains yanked making Kaminari groan in pain with a ton of blood pouring out of his body.

"Tonight he will be alone in the chamber. And tomorrow the purity ritual will be performed. Anyone who isn’t there will be found and burned as well." He glared at the crowd. He dragged Kaminari along the road who only glared back at his captor tears still in his eyes along with a white-hot anger.

Kaminari now with rusty chains and a keypad in a room that's nothing but metal and darkness. He coughed as he continued to hate his new surroundings. He felt cold and shunned before but now that’s all he was seeing.

"You might've thought I'd been hopeless. But I was far from it. Me and Gekko had talked about this moment a few times."

Gekko and Kaminari train their quirks in the middle of the night. Kaminari glared at the cans that were far away and attacked with vicious force. Gekko, after burning some grass, looked over at Kaminari with worry.

“You okay?” Gekko’s soft words immediately made Kaminari face come out of anger and into insecurity.

“Of course, is there a problem?” Kaminari put his hand behind his back. And had a sweat rolling down his face.

“You’re angier.” Gekko raised a eyebrow and Kaminari took a step back.

“Hmph… sooooooooooooo you noticed.” Kaminari chose to be honest. Gekko wasn’t going to hurt him with the truth of course. So what reason would have to hide it.

“Yeah so what gives?” While the softness remained Gekko added sterness to the mix which made Kaminari cock his head back a little. Kaminari crossed his arms.

“Hmph, well…” His eyes no longer stared at Gekko but at the grass to the right of him.

“Yeah?” Gekko doubt hurt Kaminari further.

“Look I don’t want you to get mad at me-” Kaminari’s guilt made him tense up in body and voice.

“Uh, why would I?” Gekko now crossed his arms. His confused tone also had a subtle hint of disappointment. Kaminari reacted with shock and horror on his face. He had fallen short of his ideal. He looked back at him nervously

“Uuuuuuh… B-B-B-Because you went on about the whole thing how IIIIIIIIIIII should find the happiness in the challenges of living in this shithole-" Kaminari nervousness made Gekko worry obvious.

"Never said you can't get mad." Gekko had two hands in front of his body physically telling him to stop Kaminari pouts he was far too nice, he didn’t deserve to be treated like this, he had failed.

"Hmph all right sooooooooooooorry then." Kaminari bitterness was to himself and Gekko knew that.

"So what is it?" Gekko lack of judgment made Kaminari perk-up in response.

"I've… I've been thinking a lot about leaving. But it's stupid since it's impossible to leave so-" Kaminari may have frustration in his voice but there was a hint of sadness as well. Gekko nodded his head. He thought at this point he’d have a better mindset than this.

"It's not impossible." Kaminari blinked in surprise while Gekko stoically started at him.

"What do you mean?" Kaminari confused looked at Gekko head sideways. Gekko smiled again.

"During the purity ritual everyone’s including the Hari’s. So we wait until no 1's looking and sneak out." Gekko put his finger in front of Kaminari’s face. Kaminari eyes winded as if his entire worldview had changed for the better.

"How the hell do we do that?" Kaminari brought his two clenched fists in front of his face. His eyes filled with hope. Gekko looked up the sky to think.

"Cause a distraction, fake a bathroom break? We can talk about it later." Kaminari put his arms to his hips and had a sour expression on his face. What’s the point of bringing up a question if we didn’t answer it

"But we don't even know when the hell the next purity ritual is." Kaminari anger here is filled with a lot of pride.

"Gives us more time to strategize.” Gekko shrugged while Kaminari nodded in agreement.

Kaminari is still chained but the door opened with 2 Hari’s standing over him, wearing sun masks 1 of the Hari put chains on top of his chains. Kaminari stares at him with a determined glare.

“So I had a plan in place.” Kaminari prideful smirk and glare didn’t show
someone who was affected by this form of torture.

They dragged Kaminari out to a crowd of thousands with masks on.

“Impurity will not reign over us, tonight purity will win.” Everyone chanted with some holding torches. Kaminari glared at the man who had wrapped him in his new chains.

Chapter Text

He kept on his prideful smirk, after everything he’s been through this moment was the perfect chance to show everyone how much stronger he is than them. His obvious arrogance made the crowd chant louder.

“My plan was simple. Even the Hari’s had limited quirk training and the walk to the shrine was long and drawn out. I suspect to really let the guilty dread set in but it only gave me more time for my plan. I was going to wait till the end, biting my time while his chain slipped. Then I’ll create a distraction and get out of there.” Kaminari’s chains slipped the more he marched and the louder the crowd’s chant got. Kaminari smirk got bigger while the chains slipped off.

The crowd’s chant kept getting louder while Kaminari grew angrier he understood better than ever why they hated him and it only confirmed every single decision he made throughout his life including now. Then he stopped himself, Gekko flashed across his mind. He changed his look of anger to determination. Kaminari then looked up despairing at what he knew he was going to see. There was a 30-foot statue made from dark brown wooden sticks, it was a statue of what looked to be a man but with a moon replacing his head. Kaminari turned his head to see a group of children participating in the chant. Kaminari turned his glare at a boy with a wombat mask.

“I knew exactly what distraction I’d do. I’d look for the worst tempered person at the end and…”

“Hey Onbatto, never style your hair. It gets uglier every time.” The Wombat boy stomps towards.

“Heeeeeeeeeey, shut up!” The Hari stopped and held his hand out.

“Calm down you’re-” Kaminari shocked himself out of his chains and immediately shocked the 2 Hari and the Wombat child. 1 of the Hari with a torch by the statue pointed at Kaminari while he ruan off a crazed prideful look on his face, he ran on nothing but adrenaline.

“After the disgraced!” Everyone descended on Kaminari. He jumped and shocked a great amount of them. He stepped on a few burned and knocked out bodies. And sprinted straight towards the woods. Everyone followed him but Kaminari turned around and shocked them all. Knocking out some while some still followed. Kaminari sprinted towards the long grass and ducked under it. Moving in an unpredictable pattern, barely disturbing the grass. All the remaining cult members run past with only a few staying behind to look for Kaminari. Kaminari grew a cocky smirk on his face.

1 of the Hari used the torch to burn the grass which forced Kaminari got up and sprinted. The Hari grew the grass but Kaminari burned the grass. Then someone with a Fox mask started getting closer to Kaminari. Kaminari crawled quicker and quicker but the man with a Fox mask kept getting closer and closer. Kaminari stopped and looked at a giant smooth rock, he grabbed it and threw it, making the grass noticeably shake. Everyone including Fox mask ran towards it and Kaminari crawled away with speed. Kaminari crawled out of the long grass and towards the beach. Kaminari had his proudest and most spiteful smirk he’d ever had. Everything he said about himself and them was right and everything they said about him and themselves was wrong. And know he had proof and they had it too and he’ll be forbidden to mention, something all the kids whisper to themselves about away from the adults and the Hari’s will grimace everytime they hear his name. Something that filled him with spiteful pride.

Kaminari ran towards 1 of the motorboats and turned it on and sailed away. Looking at the city skylines with stars in his eyes and pride in his heart.

-----------------------------------------------------

Aizawa and Shinsou sit there silently.

“And he never broke free of mind control once, right?” Aizawa looked over at Shinsou.

“Not once.” Shinsou nodded his head, eyes wide. Aizawa puts his hand to his chin.

“Well it does explain why he was outside the system for a long time and some aspects of why he doesn’t care for heroes but this isn't enough to explain everything. Now ask Kaminari what happened after he got to Japan? And why he ended up on the le"

"Okay, now Kaminari go into as much detail as you can about your time in Japan including how you met the League of Villains?"

"I washed up on the shore a day and a half later."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Kaminari’s boat slammed into the sand, Kaminari groaned, exasperated, his face looked like death or maybe that was what he felt. He was severely sunburned and his face showed that of pure exhaustion but there was still a slight bit of the angry determination that drove him here still there but it was faded behind layers of sweat and paling skin. Kaminari got out of the boat at an alarmingly long rate. He got on the ground on all fours taking deep breaths. He slowly got up, joints cracked as he did so his face wincing with every crack. Kaminari awkwardly walked across the beach walking towards the 1st water fountain he saw his face picked up a giant smile on his face. He then ran towards it with as much force as he possibly could and pressed that button as hard as he could. And he stood there and drank for minutes, his mood picking up with every drop. He then walked out of the beach looking at everything with curiosity and awe.

“Everything struck me as new. I was in shock at how different everything is. I was like I was in a truly new world at last.”

Kaminari limped across a bridge on top of a shining river. With large buildings close by which Kaminari started on at. This was a sci-fi novel to him and he loved it. After years of the same sites that stirred up the same feelings of self-hate and spite finally he had new sights that instead filled him with hope and accomplishment. His sunburn was noticeably worse with Kaminari making a pained expression on his face still mixed with a smile however. Someone with ginger hair walked up to him.

“Hey you okay?” Kaminari turned around shocked. He was too lost in his own discoveries to think about other people.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh… w-w-well to be honest some food would be nice.”

“Okay well let’s get you some!” Kaminari's eyes widen at the stranger's kindness.

Kaminari started to eat his burger extremely fast. It was certainly the most unique thing he’s ever tired and made with the most care too. The ginger man stopped in awe to watch.

"Been awhile since you ate huh buddy?" He said with really fucking obvious concern. Kaminari picked up on this.

“Oh, well it was a very long journey to get here. And all without food. So thank you again, uh mister." Kaminari gave a big smile and the ginger man gave a big smile back.

"Hey man it's nothing but I can't help but wonder, where's your parents?" Kaminari's hands briefly shook and then he looked at the ginger man.

"Oh, uuuuuh I left them behind." Kaminari said, looking at the floor, getting prepared for any judgments he might hear.

"Left them behind huh? So you ran away?" He raised his eyebrows and Kaminari got less defensive in his body language.

"Yes!" The man was completely taken aback by the pride Kaminari had in that statement. Kaminari was practically beaming.

“Hmmm… Well you don’t seem like you want to go back.” Kaminari was still taken aback by how casual the ginger man is being while he ate a burger.

“Oh trust me no.” Kaminari said with full confidence. The ginger man shrugged.

“Well I suppose the best thing to do is put you in an orphanage.” Kaminari raised his left eyebrow.

“Orphanage, what the hell is a orphanage?” The ginger man stops eating his burger and stares at him. Kaminari body language got defensive again.

“Uh, you’ve never heard of a orphanage?” Kaminari looked back at the floor.

“Can’t say I have.” He said lacking the confidence he had before. Ginger man shrugged.

“Uh, all right. Well I’m going to take you to the one down the street. That good with you?” Kaminari looked back at him while his body language got more confident again.

“What’s a orphanage do?” Kaminari curiosity had been mixed with confidence.

“Oh yeah, suppose I should explain that. It’s a place where kids without parents go to be sheltered. Most well, some are in fact pretty good places to stay.” Kaminari face looked like he was remembering something.

“Well I don’t exactly have the highest standards. And some shelter would be nice of course.” Kaminari finished his burger.

“All right let’s take you over there.” Kaminari had the biggest smile on his face.

Chapter Text

The man and Kaminari walked inside a dusty small building with a giant small stained rug leading to the brown desk. Kaminari looked around with fascination, he had never seen anything like this before. And the unfamilarnesses made him fall instantly in love with it. Though he didn’t trust the man he saw ahead. A old man with a visor cap sat there, he looked at his phone which he was glaring at for someone. He looked up and looked at Kaminari.

“Oh hey, what brings you here?” He took on a gruff but still friendly demeanor. Kaminari clinched his fist but looked at him with confusion. Yeah he didn’t give him a good feeling but he didn’t know him, for all he knew he could be wrong. It’s unlikely but he could be. But mostly he didn’t want to end up like those judgmental fucks back on the island.

“Well this child I found on the side of the road ran away from home and doesn’t seem keen on wanting to go back.”

“So you brought him here?” He didn’t sound phased at all, which make sense. It wouldn’t be the first of last time he’d see this. So he knows to play it cool for the sake of not worrying the kid. Even if this one looked older than usual.

“That’s correct.”

“Yeah that was a bit of a dumb question. Well you brought him to the right place. I’ve been dealing with rapscallions like this for decades. I can handle him, you can turn your butt the other way and be confident that I’ll keep him safe from anything.” He radiated confidence while the rest of his emotions were kept at bay. He was hard to read but it he felt like someone you could trust. Well for most people but it still wasn’t enough for Kaminari.

“All right awesome, any paperwork he’s gotta do though? I’ll help him with it.” The old man held out his hand with a stern look.

“Nope, I don't run that kinda business. It’d be unfair to certain kids.” This time there was a slight sadness in his tone as he looks off to the window.

“Right, well best of luck kid.” He taped both of Kaminari’s shoulders and walked off. Kaminari turned to the old man with his left eyebrow raised.

“Huh, why would I need papers?” Old man gave him a chuckled while rolling his eyes.

“Boring adult shit kid. Come with me, let's meet the others.” He walks to Kaminari and shoved him to a open door.

Kaminari talked with a few of the other kids. He tried his best to look confident in front of them, not wanting them to sense weakness. But if you looked closely you could he was nervous.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

“After a few weeks I knew most of the kids well. There weren't many so it wasn’t hard. After awhile everything was perfect and I fit in. But soon the cracks started to show.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaminari walked around the city with a few other kids. Being led by the old man in a visor cap. While one girl with strawberry and blonde hair kept trying to pass him.

"Leftwards guys, that's where we'll find the parade!" Her yelling enthusiasm and way exaggerated body language made it extrtemly hard to ignore her. But she doesn’t even acknowledge the onlookers stareing right at her.

"Yeah they already got that, now get back in line!" The old man grabbed her putting on his ‘sick on this shit face.” And put her right behind him. She crosses her arms and gave the most pouty face you’ve ever seen.

"Hmph, so rude!" She looks away from visor man instead glaring off in the distance. Her rage coming from her shock he didn’t appreciate her great help.

"Yeah, yeah. Look, stay behind me and we'll get there quicker!" He yelled at her frustrated that she felt such a bright girl feels such a need to impress everyone. The girl stomped like butthurt child while Kaminari quickly walked up to her with a look of concern on his face.

“Hey, what’s this parade for again?” The girl looked back at Kaminari with confidence of course.

“For heroes of course!” The girl beamed with life again as her mind wandered to heroes. While Kaminari face showed confusion. He had heroes tossed around here and there but still lacked a concreate idea of what they are.

“Heroes?” Kaminari titled his head exaggerating his confusion hoping to get a answer. He didn’t expect the look of true shock that crossed her face. Kaminari didn’t want to be hated again. So he held his finger to his face to make a point to clear things up.

“We aren’t allowed to go outside without a adult so this was my 1st time out since coming to Japan. So besides everyone in the orphanage talking about me I had how ug b-big a deal heroes actually." Kaminari slowed down as he took everything in a roll of sweat rolling across his face. He hoped that explanation was good enough for her to not think of him as weird.

“Hey Kaminari, we don't want to leave you behind!” The strawberry blonde girl yelled motioning Kaminari to follow her with a giant smile not wanting Kaminari to miss out since it would be the perfect introduction to heroes.

“O-Oh, right.” Kaminari slowly walked towards them looking around with a curious look. Everywhere he all he saw was caped crusaders on posters, in marketable plush form, mugs, trading cards, pickle jars and another stupid shit you can put someone’s face on a hero’s face was on there, if not multiple or even occasionally a sidekick. Kaminari couldn’t explain it but a sense of unease came over him looking at all this. Kaminari ran to catch up with the strawberry haired girl.

“Is everything here hero related?” Kaminari concern came out through his voice but the look on his face was still curious. She raised a eyebrow but her skepitical expression quickly changed to back to usual super optimistic expression. Surely he must’ve been confused.

"Of course, why is that surprising? Heroes are amazing it’s only natural they’d be everywhere. So of course they’d be everywhere? Why wouldn’t they be?”

"Well… I don’t think they should be." Kaminari looked at the ground with a bitter tone in his voice. She puts her hand to her chin, she was thinking.

"Hmmmm… You must be from outside Japan." A proud look in her eyes while she said that. Kaminari body language had confusion written all over it. After all his whole life he was never told what nations were and if they were a part of 1 or not. Ugh everything about this stupid cult was fucking annoying.

"Honestly I have no idea." Kaminari was exacerbated and it was obvious with his body language. He didn’t want to make things difficult or weird for her but he didn’t know what he could’ve said to make it better. He didn’t even know how to lie about this. A look of shock came across her face. Not only because she was positive she was right (like always) but this didn’t even come as a possibility to her.

"What the hell do you mean?! How can you not know such crucial information?!"

"Look, you should understand my childhood was… pretty weird all right?!" The strawberry blonde girl put her hand to her chin. With a sympthetic look in her eye.

"I see well I'd love to hear about someday. If you ever want to talk about it of course." Kaminari smiled but after a little bit of thinking that turned into more of a unsure expression.

"Hmph, well maybe. Don’t count on it though" Kaminari pouted and crossed his arms. She smirked and ran off while Kaminari walked behind. He started to glare at everything more and more due to more heroes coming up. A pain grew stronger, still he didn’t know why. Then the parade arrived with all the heroes passing them by and Kaminari looked very concerned.

--------------------------

“All of a sudden memories of my childhood came flooding back to me. Making me awful for the 1st time since leaving the island.”

---------------------------

Kaminari looked around and his eyes went wide as he saw heroes everywhere. On the floats from merchandise to food named after them. This was exact domanearing prescense Taiyo had on the island. And he hated it, he absoultly hated it.

Chapter Text

Kaminari sat in his seat at school and talked to some other kids. He was so happy not having to hide who he was or be afraid of judgment. Here they wouldn’t torture him for speaking or doing something that goes against the norm. So he was himself without shackles. “So that’s when I threw him in the trash.” Kaminari's graceful pride only impressed the other kids, like he wanted it to. Kaminari’s smirk matched his prideful tone. Yeah praise him, it’s the least he desevered after all he’s been through.

“Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude, how did you even have enough strength to do that?!”

“Yeah you don't have a strength quirk.”

“Eh he was a skinny kid plus at that point I was very determined.” Kaminari half-chuckled smugly. It was nice recalling one of the few memories he actually enjoyed from his time on the island. Since it was actually something he was proud of doing. Which no surprise came from a time where he rebelled. The teacher cleared his throat.

“Ok class everyone get in your seats.” Kids ran to their sits while Kaminari slumped back in his, grimacing as he did so. Even here he still has some kind of authority ruling over him, how annoying.

“Ok so today we’ll be doing a career exam to find out what path you want to take in life. And please if you think the class is going to pick one career, try and choose something different.” Kaminari put his hand on his chin. Kaminari pokes a kid in the back.

“Hey.” Kaminari whispered.

“What?”

“What are you going to do huh?

“I’m gonna become a hero.” Kaminari nodded. Yeah he could’ve predicted that.

“Hmmmm… Yeah of course, who isn’t going to be a hero of course!”

“Well what do you want to be?”

“Hmmm… I don’t know not a hero that’s for sure.” The other kids looked absolutely shocked at this.

“What, why wouldn’t you wanna be a hero?!” The kid shouted. Kaminari's annoyance was written all over his face. He knew from the moment he said it he knew he’d have to explain himself but that doesn’t mean he had to like it.

“Please calm down.” The teacher’s deadpan was enough to get that kid to shrink in his seat. Kaminari was pretty relived though. He could avoid that topic altogether plus actually think about what he wanted his career to be. Kaminari tapped his finger on the desk. He got his pencil and wrote down “musician.” Kaminari answered a bunch of other questions and walked up to the teacher to turn in before he went back to his desk. The guy sitting in front of him leaned over to face him.

“So you pick hero too?” Kaminari raised his eyebrow. Well yeah today it’d be inventable he’d have to explain this today. Best to get it over with now.

“Nope I didn’t know what to pick so I picked musician because it seemed like the coolest. And I’ve been discovering all sorts of new music recently anyway!” Now it was the guy’s turn to raise his eyebrows.

“Musician, you think being a musician cooler than being a hero?” Ugh this was so frustrating. Even though he just decided this right now but it was still frustrating having to jusify something he shouldn’t have to justify. It was like he was back on the island.

“Hey, music's cool!” Kamimari crossed his arms and did a little pout face.

“But being a hero is way cooler. You get to fight bad guys and save people! That’s awesome!”

“Ugh, of course that’s awesome but everyone else is going put hero aren’t they? Not everyone can be a hero so why not aim for something else?” Kaminari was quite proud of that reason. What argument could they possibly make after all they’ve barely noticed that fact. No doubt they haven’t thought it through that well.

“Hmph, anyone can be a hero you know?” The expected response.

“Well yeah but anyone isn’t everyone.” Kaminari's expression had reached peak smugness which only made the other kid more frustrated. Especially since he had no argument back.

“Hmph, whatever. Hey Takuma.” Another boy in a blue jacket sits at the desk next to Kaminari.

“Oh hello.” Kaminari raised his left eyebrow while he looked at the boy. Great a lackie to bolster his position. Not that it mattered Kaminari was smarter than both of them anyway.

“Yeah?” Takuma asks with Kaminari grimacing on.

“Kaminari doesn’t wanna be a hero!” Kaminari rolled his eyes, he called it. And was quite proud of doing so.

A couple of other students started to overhear the conversion.

“Oh c’mon it’s not that a big a deal is it?” Kaminari wanted this to be the reality and he wanted to let them know that was his reality. But he knows how they’ll respond.

“I dunno, it's kinda weird.” Takuma said blankly.

“I mean of course it’s weird but it’s wrong is it?” Kaminari crossed his arms and glared at them. Of course it isn’t wrong but he simply wants to see how they react.

“I mean yeah it’s not wrong but I mean why wouldn’t you want to be a hero?” Kaminari was annoyed, he was going to have to explain this for the rest of his life. Well that would be up to him.

“I already explained, okay?” Kaminari now closed his eyes only more annoyance coming across his face.

“Well Takuma didn’t hear it. And still, it's weird.” The first boy commented. Kaminari rolls his eyes again. It’s disappointing but not suprising that he hasn’t thought through what he said at all.

“Ok so yeah it’s weird, pretty weird even so what? There’s more important things in the world than one kid being weird, right? That’s why there’s heroes in the first place.” Kaminari’s body language only got more defensive. He was flashing back to how the other kids treated him on the island. The mocking ridicule and alienation it made his blood boil that he was even getting similar treatment here.

“Okay yeah but I don’t get it at all.” Takuma said making Kaminari more mad.

“Oh come one. Why don’t you get it? It’s obvious when you think about it!” He knew they didn't want to. He saw first hand that people adore sticking to a narrative about their life then looking at the fact. But he he hoped that here people would be a lot more open to seeing reality.

“I dunno, everyone I know wants to be a hero, even my parents used to wanna be a hero.” Kaminari raised his eyebrows.

“Really, your friends and their parents too?” Kaminari asked this question despite being afraid of the answer. The first boy put his finger on his chin to think.

“Yeah, mostly.” Kaminari smiled with bitter smugness. It confirmed everything he thought but it wasn’t what he wanted to here. Everyone here was as brainwashed as everyone else was back on the island. Incredibly disappointing he really thought here would be different. But instead people are as prone to delusion as on the island.

“Isn’t that stranger?” Kaminari's voice is full of venom. Both boys raise their eyebrow.

“Huh?” Both boys said. Kaminari cleared his throat. If he was going to get him closer to reality he was going to have to be as clear as possible. And he knew he could, he has the most experience after all.

“Well people are pretty different from one another so isn't it odd they all want to do the exact same thing? Especially when it’s such a difficult thing to be anyway?” Both boys look at each other confused as hell.

“No.”

“Yeah, of course everyone wants to be a hero. Heroes are the coolest!” Kaminari rolls his eyes.

“All right, whatever at least I tried.” Kaminari sigh had venom in it. He knew he wasn’t going to put them under some magic spell that’d get them to listen to him and believe him. But still he was disappointed that they didn’t hear him out. He wanted to at least get a convo going about heroes. Well they were kids and they haven’t experienced what he experienced after all. But the fact they were so tied to the narrtieve they were told scared him a little.

“Okay, so did anyone see the newest episode of Vampire X?” Kaminari perks up and smiles. Ah yes something else new to him he loved. Perfect thing to distract him.

“Oh I did!” Kaminari and the rest of the boys chatted enthusiastically about the show until the bell rang and all three of them ran out when one of the boys started texting his friends. Two students ran up to Kaminari and tapped him on the shoulder. Kaminari hated being bothered, as he didn’t want to waste time. So he turned around with a glare and his fists clenched.

“What?” Kaminari’s tone made the other two boys back away. Something that gave Kaminari satisfaction.

“We heard that you didn’t want to be a hero!” One of the boys said in a quick panic. Kaminrai nods frustrated. He thought he was done with this but no this is apparently notable.

“Yeah, how come?” One of the boys leans over to try and kinda face Kaminari. Kaminari deepend his glare.

“Well news travels fast after all. Why do you two want to be heroes, huh?” Kaminari crossed his arms. He knows that they won’t have a well developed reason. It’s either for selfish motives or because thats what everyone else wants to be one too. Part of it is because of course they’re kids but also because heroes have become more of a social contagation so they didn’t need to explain it. Thus eroding and losing the original purpose in the first place.

“Because it’s cool!”

“Yeah plus they save a bunch of people and thats great!”

“Y-Yeah.” Kaminari rolled his eyes and got a smug smirk on his face. Exactly like he though, it’s like he’s a mind reader.

“Hmmm, I don’t know that doesn’t sound like very strong reasoning.” Kaminari smugness reaches fever pitch. They wouldn’t expect this at all and it would expose how shallow their ambitions really are. Genius work again Kaminari.

“So what?” Kaminari couldn’t believe that question. This is what they were going to be doing for the rest of their life and their best reasoning was “so what?”

“So do you want to be heroes or not?”

“Yes!” They both yell which makes Kaminari take a step back. So ignorant but still enthusiastic. Kaminari wanted to admire it so bad since he knew how refreshing and happy that kind of enthusiasm can be and how it can save your life. But he couldn’t since this enthusiasm was being used to be exactly like everyone else and he can never sympthatize with that. It would go against all of his experiences. His anger showed by deeping his glare and his arms getting tighter around his waste.

“All right, well you have your future, I have mine! Why can’t you leave me alone and let me live with my choice and my life?” Kaminari's voice raised as he said that which made the two students take a step back. Kaminari felt their pressure and responded like he always did, what was most effective for him. Giving them 5 times the pressure right back. And Kaminari was smug it once again worked. It was a lot more effectieve here than on the island.

“Okay, I mean we just wanted to know why-” Kaminari eyes widen in shock, all this about being smarter and we failed to see such a obvious inquiry coming. Ugh he can be so dumb sometimes. It was like he was 2 different people!

“Hmmmm… Weeeeeeeeeeell when I was growing up I didn’t hear music I liked at all really. But I do now and I think it can be really cool. Plus I don’t know what I wanted to be, to be perfectly honest with you both. So I chose what I thought was the coolest.” Kaminari moved in between them to walk away from there but they followed.

“That’s why I chose hero!”

“Awesome.” Kaminari gave a sarcastic thumbs-up. He didn’t really care what others wanted to be after all only what they are now. Lots of people back on the island said they wanted to do all sorts of great and noble things when they grew up. But the people they wanted to be were all really horrible and abusive.

“So you really think being a musician is cooler than being a hero?” Kaminari nodded, he didn’t actually know if he did but that went against the grain so he knew that was cool.

“I suppose, I mean everything has it’s strengths and beside not everyone can be a hero, can they?” Kaminari looked away from the two and off to into space. He was frustrated having to justify his unpopular opinion like he was back on the island. He really wanted things to be different he also really didn’t want to believe this is what human nature is. After he’s seen it at his best and he knows he wouldn’t. But everyone’s different after all and he supposed respect that but even then it felt like they only acted this way because they believed a lie. This must be how everyone acts when they believe a lie.

“But doesn’t a musician just sing?” Kaminari put on a defensieve look. Oh come on now this is ridiculous. Don’t throw people under the bus because someone goes against your beliefs.

“Hmph, that’s not all they do!” Kaminari closed his eyes turning away in the opposite direction he did before.

“Then what?” Kaminari opened his eyes again with a shocked expression. Oh yeah he still had justify wanting be a musician.

“Uh…uh… l-look I’m not that invested in being a musician all I know is that I’m interested in being a hero. Now I’ve got to get to class so see you later.” Kaminari ran and he waved bye as he did.

“Okay, byeeeeeeee!”

“Yeah bye.” Kaminari walks to class.

Chapter Text

Kaminari's leg swung back and forth as he looked with one eye. He looked at the clock which was at three fifty-nine pm. The other eye smushed by his cheek laying on his hand. The bell rung and Kaminari immediately jolted out of his seat and ran towards the door. He ran out to the hall and a few of the many students looked at him and either gave him a weird look or started to talk about him to another student. Kaminari was about to get to the door when someone grabbed his arm.

“Ugh, what is it?”

“Is it true-”

“Yes, yes, I didn’t choose to be a hero. Why is that such a big deal?! Isn’t everyone supposed to be different?!” Kaminari couldn’t believe this made him a mini celebrity around the school. There’s so many better reasons for him to be and they choose this?!

“Well everyone else I knew wanted to be a hero!”The female student said.

“Yes I could already assume that, but isn’t that odd? I mean there’s hundreds of people here with different views and interests and yet they all want to be heroes. That should be unlikely but it isn't, isn’t it?” Kaminari had a glint of interest in his eye. His argument was full proof but it says a lot about someone if A) They try and counter it at all and B) What they try and counter with.

“What?” The girl said a face of pure confusion on her face. This said enough to Kaminari.

“Ugh nevermind I need to get to my bus let me go please.” Kaminari said with glazed, bored eyes.

“Ok.” Kamimari glared at the kid as they both ran off.

Kaminari is back at the old but clean orphanage; he tapped his finger while reading a book about quirks, glaring at the pages. The old man who ran the orphanage Marty Daniels with his visor cap and a bottle of beer in his right hand walks over.

“Hey something wrong?” He asks with genuine concern. He hates seeing kids like this after all.

“What?” Kaminari raised his right eyebrow. He didn’t want to brothered, especially now. The orphanage owner shrugged.

“I don’t know, you seem more angry than usual. Got something to talk about?” He knew Kaminari wasn’t much to talk. Well about himself specifically but still that’s a problem. Kaminari sighed.

“Do you really wanna know?” Kaminari knew that he didn’t really. Who would hearing about others problems were annoying and its not like anyone else would understand. People rarely even tried in the 1st place.

“Of course, I wanna help you out. Why else would you want to start a orphanage well other than the sex trafficing. But I don’t do that business.” Kaminari raised his eyebrow but dismissed it deciding it wasn’t important to understand. Thought it is a very strange name.

“Right, well today we took our career exam and I chose to be a musician.” Kaminari bitter tone incredibly obvious. Marty nodded, oh poor kid yeah he knew exactly what happened.

“And other people saw that as not a hero, right?” Kaminari nodded yes, the look on his face very tired.

“Yes exactly.” Kaminari said so disappointed with all the kids around him. Marty clears his throat.

“Let me tell you something kid, you are much smarter than everyone else in that school, all right? But you knew that, right?” Kaminari nodded in agreement. If there was a positive to take away from this, it was that he was now certain he was smarter than most people there.

“Of course but what made you say that?” Kaminari raised his right eyebrow again. He had no idea what his intentions could be now. He appreciated the praise though. Marty smiles well better excuse to talk about this then any.

“Well you see when I was kid I wanted to be a hero actually. Now that was only starting to be the cool and hip thing to be back then. The Golden age was starting and for the first time heroes were becoming beloved.” Marty had stars in his eyes while Kaminari looked on schocked. With how dogmatic everyone seemed to be when it came to heroes and his lack of knowledge of Japanese society this was flooring to him.

“Woah really, that’s not a joke?” Kaminari had a slight smile that started to appear at the possibility of a world where not everyone is taken in by all heroes all the time. Marty nods he thinks about this a lot now but what he’s about to say he really wishes he knew when he was younger.

“Yeah of course, the world's always changing kid.” Marty took a swig of his drink while Kaminari nodded to himself. He never thought of it that way and he’s never seen this. But there was something about it that felt true and something had to start all this and that must’ve come with a lot of change. But still he couldn’t say he was 100% certain.

“Uh, right oooooooof course.” Kaminari nodded with a unsure expression. Marty looked at him understanding. You’re not supposed to understand this young or at least most young people don’t have the capacity to yet. So let him try his best, hopefully he won’t let his personal grievances get in the way too much.

“Anyway, I wanted to be a hero. And so I applied to one of the very early like I’m talking one of the very first ever, hero academies. Uuuuuh…It’s shut down now I forgot the fucking stupid name. So I applied and I thought it’d be a sitch, everyone was bigging up my quirk and talking about how cool I was. Because I mean of course they were. So when the exam started I thought it’d be easy. It wasn’t, it was soul crushing, we went up a bunch of human sized bots and they were kicking my ass! And after all that I was completly and utterly humiliated but I wasn’t gonna let that crush me! So for next year didn’t go to school and kept my nose down and focused on nothing but the hard fucking work! Getting up at three am to work out, study different moves, study my own damn quirk, jacking off less, everything! And I came back stronger and ready! During that exam I was proving it this time I was kicking ass! But then, well it’d be hard to show you from the table so I'll tell ya. But then right near the end I was possessed by the idea of going from disqualified to finishing top of the exam I was trying to smash as many as these fucking stupid mini bots as possible! Then I saw the biggest fucking bot of them all. That fucker was towering over the other bots. So when I saw it immediately went and charged it, without thinking. So I went faced that weird ass thing and charged in head on. I destroyed it easy but then I felt a pain in my knee so sharp it got me crying like a bitch on the floor.

They stopped the exam while I was laying on a stretcher. Turns out I tore my ACL and I tore it fucking bad too. Like even pees with heaing quirks could only do so much. It took me a few weeks to even learn to walk again and during that time in the hospital I came to terms that my hero dream was fucking over and done, my body couldn’t handle it. For awhile I was lost, didn’t know what to do and then I opened this place and I’ve been stuck here ever since.” He took a swig of his drink. While Kaminari felt horrible. This guys’s dreamed was ripped out for underneath for one bad but understandable decision. He rembemered his time on the island and his dreams of leaving and proving everyone who considered him a useless pariah. For all that to be stripped away. It would be incredibly deppressing, enough to make him kill himself most likely. After all that was the whole reason he fought for his life anyway.

“... But opening this place made you happy right?” Kaminari asked full of hope. I mean after all this was a noble endovuor to partake. At least as far as Kaminari understood. So what he wanted must’ve been supplemented by doing this, well hopefully. Marty’s eyes went wide while he put the drink down. He coughs.

“Oh yeah, yeah, yeah of course but while I do love raising these lost kids still… can’t help but think ``what if you know?” Kaminari shared Marty’s sad glint in his eye but he then looked down at the floor. Kaminari felt those same emotions again. And could only imagine how Marty felt actually going through that and being unfilled.

“Yeah of course… that’s understandable.” He goes back to taking a swig of his drink at the exact same time Kaminari clinched both his fists together.

“But, but yeah I-I can understand where you coming from kid. Being a hero is a lot of skills, most people can’t handle it but most people want it. Worst part, they don’t wanna do all the work needed to get there. Not that I blame them since it’s a fuck ton of work. But still everyone’s different so everyone shouldn’t have the same dream. That’s fucking insane. And I mean I got the, the whole helping others in need plus some of the hard work. So heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell of a lot better than nothing I’ll tell you what.” Marty takes another swig of his drink while Kaminari nods along understanding. Thank goodness he wasn’t completely unhappy but it still sounded like he was somewhat unfuffled however. If he hadn’t pursued hero work he wouldn’t have to feel this way. If everyone didn’t go on and on about how amazing hero work was and the especially the benefits of the lifestyle, Marty wouldn’t have to feel this way. Kaminari thought about that for a long time.

Chapter Text

Kaminari was at his locker fiddling with his combination when the strawberry blonde girl from before ran up to him. Oh boy this’ll be fun.

“Hello Kaminari!” She sees her posing with both her hands on her hips and a confident smirk. Kaminari admired that spunk but that air of authority stunk around her like a skunk blast.

“Hello Chokusetsu, what do you want?” Kaminari was going to give her a chance since when she wasn’t being insufferably smug she was extremely fun to be around.

“Making sure you did the homework of course!” Kaminari opened his locker. Oh she will be quite authoritative today, lovely. Kaminari rolled his eyes.

“Ah of course, little Ms. Goody Two Shoes.” Kaminari looked at the ground grimacing at it. Instead of looking at Chokusetsu incredibly smug and cheerful expression. Chokesetasu responded with a incredibly loud and smug laugh.

“I’m I supposed to be insulted by that?!” This time she raised her right eyebrow while keeping her smug expression.

“Preferably.” Kaminari closed his locker and slammed it, walking away. He nodded his head. Who the hell is she to tell him what to do? She’s a stupid kid like everyone else here. Why is she so bossy, he really fucking hates bossy people.

“So did you?” Chokusetsu ran up next to Kaminari who rolled his eyes again. Chokusetsu shot back with a glare, what what his stupid problem she was only trying to help him. He should be grateful!

“Yes of course I did! Why do you even have to check, do you think I’m a idiot?!” Kaminari clenched his fist. This girl knows how smart he is so why the hell would she even need to check this? Unless she doesn’t, but she’s not a idiot either so why is she acting like 1?!

“Well because I was appointed to check on everyone’s school work of course! You aren’t implying that I should ignore my duties right?” Chokusetsu smug grin grew even smugger which only annoyed Kaminari further. But it made Chokusetsu feel great but then again she always feels great which of course is great!

“I would never suggest such a stupid thing! You know since responsibility like that is obviously important! But still don’t waste your time with me. Check on Kamui or Chika; they're notoriously lazy. I’m not I’m a fucking straight A student! So why would I start slacking now? Ridiculous.” Kaminari huffed. It seemed like no matter what he’s been through someone will always be there to underestimate him. Chokusetsu smug expression morphed into a expression of confusion. Her right eyebrow still raised but her head now titled. How ridiculous of him as a matter of fact. Like he deserved special treatment, as if people, even those doing great, can't suddenly lose motivation. Ha she was brilliant!

“Well that wouldn’t be exactly be fair would it? I mean how’s to say Chika doesn’t decide to start working hardly than everyone else in school?! And whose to say even a brilliant student such as yourself the oh so incredible Kaminari Denki won’t start to get arrogant and then laaaaazy, hmmm?” Chokusetsu crossed her arms and leaned in to Kaminari’s face, smuger than ever. She has him in checkmate already. Too logical, too precise, too great to counter usual work for Chokusetsu. Kaminari was even more annoyed since he’s learned that treating everyone the same gives someone the chance to treat everyone like the exact same piece of trash.

“Well they’re treating themselves unfairly by being so damn lazy all the time! So they should be called out more often than those who aren’t!” Kaminari was stern in his expression. Since everyone is different they all should be treated differently obviously, the logic is right there. Chokusetsu nodded no. Silly, silly boy now get amazed by Chokusetsu wisdom!

“You think it’s my duty to keep track of everyone various levels of work ethic or skill level? Ha ridiculous it’s much easier to treat everyone at the base as the same and then have them prove themselves to me. So that no 1 catches me off guard.” Chokusetsu poses proudly. She knew Kaminari with all his smarts was going to be in awe of her superior logic and brain. But when Chokusetsu looked at Kaminari she was shocked. Kaminari only looked at her more annoyed. Kaminari saw she like many people didn’t think through the implications. Luckily for them Kaminari did.

“You said yourself that you need to notice when people make progress. So wouldn’t it make sense to do your best to keep track of everyone’s progress as best you can? You don’t even have to spend that much time on it. All you gotta do is train intuition notice certain behaviors or attitude change to keep track of that.” Now it was Kaminari’s turn to have a smug look on his face. Of course at the end of the day everything came down the individual and those who forget were destined to fall at the hands of one. Does that make sense, ah whatever it was still a awesome point. Chokusetsu put her index finger to her chin. Oh she had to admit that was a excellent point but if anyone could find a flaw with a excellent point it’s Chokusetsu!

“Well even then I’d need to train it up first then plus the intuition route is a lot more risky. Since you’re lessing likely to think things through and more likely to miss it unless it fits with in the exact criteria of my intuition.” Chokusetsu smug tone was back. Yes it was a great challenge but Chokesetsu never backs down from any challenge. She revels in them and becomes stronger from them and Kaminari now knew that firsthand! Kaminari rolled his eyes. “Fine then but don’t be surprised when Kamui starts giving shit don't be surprised when he gets resentful because you're not noticing all the hard work he's put in." Kaminari nodded, he couldn't excuse such ignorance never not in a million years. Actions like that could have dangerous consequences in the future, something this girl didn't think about.
Chokusetsu pouts and puts her hand on her hips. Clearly she was wasting her valuable time on this argument. Kaminari was quite the bull when he wanted to be. Oh wait, speaking of Kamui, her duty! It was the whole stupid reason this stupid argument even started and now she almost forgot. How can she call herself great when she pulls off absolutely stupid shit like this?! “Hmph well speaking of Kamui I’m going to check on him right now.”

“I’ll follow you, we share the same 3rd period after all.” Kaminari and Chokusetsu walked together. There was a crowd forming at one of the locker lines with a lot of people watching something intently. They were loud but not louder than the quirks being used. Then a streak of flame came from the center of the crowd and it almost hit a bunch of people. Including Kaminari.

“What the hell?! Who the hell is being this stupid, huh?!” Kaminari yelled, glaring at everyone. What could possibly be such a massive deal to start a real fight over? Chokusetsu ran ahead to see what was happening. She completely and utterly hated this feeling that Kamui was at the center of it. She and everyone else knew he could be extremely emotional but she always expected the best from her friends.

“Hey excuse me, brilliant little girl coming through here!” She forced her way up front where she saw two boys fighting. And Chokusetsu looked on and could only say of course. She ran into the middle of the fight.

“KAMUI!” She yelled and the boy with fire powers stopped.

“Oh, Chokusetsu uh, hey!” Kamui shrunk in her presence since he knew that meant he was busted for sure. Dammit.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Kaminari stomped in. This was completely absurd to him after all. After all he endured on the island, all the beatings he’s taken. When to fight was a incredibly important matter to Kaminari and knowing Kamui his gut feeling was this was for a very stupid reason.

“Uh, uh.” Kamui doesn’t face the two. Oh my fucking God why is he so stupid? He shouldn’t have started the fucking fight in the first place ugh but now the two biggest and most annoying hardasses in the whole god damn school. He looks over oh of course things get worse. A teacher stomped in and the students parted for him. Kamui face looks like he sucked a lemon.

“ENOUGH, KAMUI AND HIDEO MY OFFICE NOW!” Both of the boys followed the teacher heads down. Kamui put his hands in his pocket as well. Chokusetsu ran back to Kaminari. She cannot believe it. Well she can but how majorly disappointing. She knew Kamui knew better and she’s sure Kamui knew that he should know better and done better. She stomped over to Kaminari. “What do you think Kamui got in a fight over?” Kaminari nodded in disapproval. Such reactionary thinking putting yourself in situations like that it’s more likely to get killed than anything good. God he wanted to slap him. Kaminari crossed his arms. “Hmph, hard to tell he’d get in a fight over anything.”

Chapter Text

The bell rang and students ran out including Kaminari who was running. He saw Chokusetsu and Kamui talking to each other and ran to them. His curiosity was burning, maybe he was wrong about Kamui. Maybe it was for a righteous reason after all and he could easily forgive Kamui for being impulsive.

“So that was it?! Are that daft, surely you don’t really believe that was worth a fight do you?!” Chokusetsu's anger only made Kamui shrink even more. He really believed in this boy, what a shame. She’s seen him be kind, dedicated and even clever. It blinded her to how impulsive he can be! Kaminari’s eyes narrowed, okay he can throwaway everything he just thought. If fucking Chokusetsu is mad at him, there’s no way what he did was in anyway good. This must’ve been incredibly stupid.

“Well hey All Might means everything man, I wasn’t gonna let the shit he was saying lying down.” Kamui would stay strong, he knew at the reason he got into the fight was completely stupid.

“Hey Chokusetsu, what the hell happened?” Kaminari stomped towards him, glaring. Because Kaminari was prepared for the worst aka the dumbest possible thing to hear. Chokusetsu nodded her head while Kamui shrank while Chokusetsu also glared at him.

“You won’t believe this! It turns out they were having a disagreement about Endeavour and All Might and that’s what led to the fight!” Kaminari stopped, oh he wasn’t prepared enough apparently.

“Huh, really?” Kaminari was in shock, he could believe it but he really didn’t want to. He was still creeped out by how everyone worshipped at heroes feet. But now in-fighting, what were they willing to do for their heroes?

“Yes!” Chokusetsu yelled, she was beyond disappointed she was super disappointed. She understood why someone would get angry over someone shit talking their favorite hero of course. But what she didn’t understand was the lack of control, this was acceptable in children not middle schoolers.

“Well it was bout more than that!” Kamui said looking at the floor. He knew that was a lie but only half a lie and he wanted anything to make him look better so.

“Really, then what was it also about?” Kaminari questioned because he did want to further understand this dilemma. It could give him insight into how this society worked and that it may not be as bad as it seemed.

“Well…you see All Might means a lot to me. Fair enough, right?” Chokusetsu shakes her head. Yes that was obvious but this was a unacceptable way to show it. If only he could control his passion, such passion meant he had high potential to do something great after all. Kamui now felt even worse, of course what he said was so dumb that it made everything worse. Like everything he says does.

“You see, disgraceful!” Kaminari disgust was written all over his face. Now this made everything worse, he saw so much meaning in these heroes he was willing to fight for them this young. Imagine would he would potentially do in service of them in the future. Kaminari’s mind thought back to the Hari’s.

“Hey!” Kamui was offended, he knew Kaminari was weird but even he could get that shit, right?

“I do find it odd that someone would be fighting over which hero is the best.” Chokusetsu flicks her hair with a stern stare. She was going to put this boy on the straight and narrow after all it was clear she was going to treat him better than he treated himself and that’s wrong. Kamui nodded and glared, c’mon this wasn’t that ununderstable.

“Well someone hasn’t gone online. It’s all everyone ever talks about.” Kaminari raised his left eyebrow. He wanted to find out more but was no longer shocked by this. It was still wrong though.

“Aren’t they public servants shouldn’t people be more focused on who runs society and crap?” Kamui and Chokusetsu turn around to face Kaminari both with dumbfounded expressions. Did he know what the hell was saying?

“Dude heroes run society!” Kamui exacerbation caught Kaminari off guard. That sounded wrong, extremely wrong, from a moral prespectieve Kaminari meant.

“Really?” Kaminari’s concern didn’t reach the other two kids. In fact Chokusetsu's face got even smuger. Oh this poor boy she knew he knew nothing for heroes but this was next level. Time for her to do some educating.

“Hmph well of course you know they’re not only public servants, they're celebrities, saviors, commercial stars, politicians, secret agents. They’re everything and worshiped all over for it!” Kaminari's look turned from concern to fear. This was evil and these kids had brainwashed into thinking this was fantastic for everyone.

“Worshiped huh?” Kaminari said head filled with memories of the past.

“Yep, I’ve never met a soul that doesn’t have a favorite hero! Well, expect you!” Chokusetsu proclaimed, saying that before she even gave it a thought. And something she didn’t regret either. Kaminari crossed his arms. This was unacceptable to him because he saw how this ended, he saw every possible negative implication and all he could feel was fear and hatred.

“Of course.” Kaminari said with pride, as he knew better than not only these 2 children but most of Japan evidently, as a matter of fact this is getting more evident by the day. Chokusetsu looked back at Kamui. That feeling of not doing enough being all she could really focus on.

“Well you’ve learned your lesson right Kamui?!” Chokesetsu’s anger was enough to make the rebellious and fierce Kaminari take a step back. She knew he didn’t respect authority at all so because she didn’t know any better she saw the only way to correct that as through making him afraid of her authority.

“I mean I don’t wanna get into fights over this of course. But it’s tough, you know?.” Kamui looked down, ashamed he didn’t know how to control his anger.

“You don’t sound so reassured.” Kaminari said with crossed arms but a softer tone. He saw what a repressive society can do to one’s mind and now that he was in a position to help, he’d have to be a monster not to.

“Well… ugh I just when he said all that shit I just got so mad cause I’d fucking watch All Might whenever I was feeling at my worst I’d watch All Might saying something or saving someone. That always picked me up and… and made me feel like you could do more, you know? So it hurts to hear all that bullshit he was spewing.” Chokusetsu ran to Kamui and gave him a hug. And Kaminari patted him in the shoulder. Chokusetsu still knew that feeling inadequate wouldn’t help you grow. So she needed him to feel better about himself asap. Kaminari knew this as well and wanted to see Kamui grow past this society but of course he could only do so much. But this is what he could do know.

“Oh don’t fret, we're here to make you feel stronger too!” Kamui hugged back while Kaminari looked at the two concerned. Looking at them being so kind and warm to each other only made him fear more that society will build them up only to take their desires away. Something that had the potential to destroy people.

Chapter Text

It’s a foggy day while Kaminari is in the orphanage reading a book on quirks something that had fascinating him since a young age. This made him happy as it reminded him of his days in the secret libary with Gekko. Kamui walked up to Kaminari bored out of his mind.

“Yoooooooo!” Kamui had a big smile on and Kaminari responded with his own big smile.

“Oh hello Kamui doing well?” Kaminari wasn’t that close with Kamui but they shared a lot of classes and of course shared the same orphanage so they talked a lot.

“Yep, how about reading that boring old book again?” Kaminari was immediately offended. These books were obviously important they went into detail over what now defined the world at large and what they are and most importantly how to best use them. Kaminari glared at him.

“Hey, it's not boring. It’s important to understand how to better utilize one’s quirk, right?” Kaminari righteous tone pisses off Kamui. Kaminari thought this was obvious to anyone that had thoughts but Kamui didn’t understand how anyone could read that without getting horribly bored. He couldn’t stand those things for a second he needed at least to move.

“Yeah, doesn’t stop the book from being boring though.” Kamui confused tone made Kaminari roll his eyes frustrated with Kamui. He couldn’t understand how this could be boring. He could picture himself improving as he read and couldn’t wait to put this stuff into practice. How could anyone not love that feeling?

“Hmph, whatever you’d never get it anyway.” Kaminari turned away from no longer looking at him, assuming superiority. I mean here he was making steps to improve himself and to understands himself while Kamui is standing there confused. Kamui picked up on this and this activated the chip on his shoulder.

“Hey what the hell does that mean?” Kamui put his hand on his hips and glared at him. While Kaminari went back to read. Chokusetsu walked up to both of them a big smug smile on her big smug face.

“Hello boys!” She gives a big wave and instantly the mood in the room is lighter. Kaminari smiles and waves back and so does Kamui.

“Chokusetsu, how you doing?” Kaminari said, she can be annoying but at least she can appreciate a great book.

“Excellent, hope you’re doing the same as well. What is happening here?” Chokusetsu puts her hands on her hips and looks around. She can tell by looking that there was some sort of conflict here and that means she had to solve it, life was that simple.

“Hmph, oh I was until this guy had to call my book boring.” Kaminari looks back at Kamui with a glare and Kamui crossed his arms, glaring back. Kaminari hoped she would be on her side since while she was pretty annoying she was as smart as she was annoying.

“Hey, what the hell man?!” Kamui didn’t want Chokusetsu on her ass, she always on everyone's ass. He wanted a break. What the hell was he even doing man? Nothing worth her invasive ass that’s for sure.

“Well that’s rude, that’s quite a fascinating read, I know I’ve read it myself!” Chokusetsu walked up to Kaminari and looked at the back. Kaminari got a shocked look on his face but his eyes showed how happy he was she said that. He knew it, another point to the genius, well geniuses.

“Oh you have?” Kaminari leaned towards her interest clear in his voice. Chokusetsu smiled even prouder. Yes give her attention for her brilliance, she earned it. Kamui was feeling pissed that they obviously though they were better than him. So he stood there with the desire to one-up both of them.

“Of course, that stuff is necessary for being a hero!” Chokusetsu look got even prouder, knowing she was closer to her goal than most. Kaminari rolled his eyes, even in the best of others he couldn’t escape the influence of heroes.

“Oh why am I even surprised?” Kaminari nodded his head in disappointment. Chokusetsu got a amused smirk on her face. Kamui looked even more pissed than before, looking right at Kaminari.

“Dude what the fuck do you have against heroes?” Kamui confused face only made Kaminari more annoyed and he was already plenty annoyed with that stupid question. But of course he knew he had the unpopular opinion so he thought hard to justify it. After all it was all he could do against the brainwashing.

“Nothing but… how did that other kid put it? IIIIt’s like a song you like that gets played way too much. Even though you like you start getting annoyed whenever you hear it on the radio, you know?” Kaminari proudly stated, thinking his metaphor was genius. Chokusetsu looks at the ceiling and nods. She checked, the logic certainly made sense according to her.

“Suppose that makes sense.” She did somewhat get how that could be annoying since she was a genius after all. I mean she understood better why they were in their faces all the time, well of course she understood that better. But it’s fair to be annoyed at that, at least somewhat. Kamui looked more confused. Heroes were everything good in the world, who the fuck could be annoyed with that? What a weirdo.

“It don’t to me.” Kamui's right eyebrow was raised high. Didn’t he understand all the awesome things heroes do, what reason is there to want them out of the way? This only annoyed Kaminari more. He hated people more stubborn than him which was not easy to come across. Especially when they were blind in the exact same way the people back on the island were. Something he could not allow.

“Whatever it’s not supposed to.” Kaminari turned his head, looking away from Kamui while his arms were crossed. Chokusetsu got a worried expression on her face. Kamui didn’t want to hurt Kaminari but using her expert deduction and psychology skills to see that, that comment clearly hurt Kaminari. This was obviously important to him for some reason. And as weird as it was it’s not like he was a villain, merely a boy with an edgy opinion. There's plenty for them she had already met, hell Kamui was one of them. But they both had that same desire for, especially for their core beliefs to understand them. But luckily for both of them, Kaminari now. She knew better.

“Aw you don’t have to pout like that, not everyone has to understand you.” Chokusetsu put her hand on Kaminari’s shoulder. Which shocked Kaminari. You see, Chokusetsu knew people thought they wanted to be understood but that’s only because they wanted to be empathized with. So she did, it made everything better and easier anyway. Kamui nodded his head. Okay enough of this, “we’re so much smarter than Kamui” dick sucking session. He knew he was right so if they were so smart at least Chokuesetsu would see that.

“I mean don’t he see how much good heroes do-” Kamui walked up towards them, fists clenched. He wasn’t surprised Kaminari looked so pissed as he was making a point his intellectual highness couldn’t refute. But that wasn’t what pissed Kaminari pff. No he felt insulted that he was pretending or even worse actually thought he didn’t know that. His angry eyes reminded of back when he was an outcast on the island and the contant stares or glares from the brainwashed adults. Kaminari yelled back.

“Of course I do, I certainly don’t want them gone!” Kaminari said, exasperated. He couldn’t believe he had to say that. Now Kaminari was beginning to believe Kamui was a complete idiot. Kamui knew he was not only smart but right. He has a ton of memories of heroes making feel better through their heroic actions and words. And he felt like those were being invalidated and he wouldn’t stand for it.

“Of course you don’t!” Kamui yelled back, it was the first thing he thought of saying. And to his credit it was correct. And it did emphasize his point but he could’ve said something. Kaminari’s temper kept rising of course he doubled down on his dumbass point. If he really thought he was that dumb then Kaminari knew he was the dumb one here. He wanted to be left alone. This was such a basic thing to ask. The fact so many people would be confused as to why he wanted it, it had to be proof everyone was brainwashed, right?

“I don’t want to hear about them all the time! That’s fair isn’t it?” Kaminari yelled even louder. Of course it was fair, they didn’t know but he saw firsthand what too much devotion can lead to. So if they want to they go devote as much time as they want to heroes. But Kaminari shouldn’t be judged if he doesn’t want to, right? Chokusetsu cleared her throat. This was getting ridiculous, she knew boys were stubborn but c’mon. Obviously it’d be up to her to reslove the issues between them and luckily she was a expert at that, like she was at most things.

“I can certainly understand, people get tired of hearing the same thing all the time. It bothers him more, that’s human nature, no? Like a song that you felt indifferent to before but gets played sooooooooooooooo often you get sick of it you know?” Chokusetsu looks prouder than she ever has before. She came up with the perfect metaphor and communicated in the clearest way possible, there was no way Kamui didn’t understand. Kamui grimaces, ok yeah that makes sense I guess. But still a hero wasn’t a song, what else there to get sick of?

“Yeah I guess.” Kamui looked away frustrated. Why was Kaminari so weird, I mean he guesses it’s not a big deal. But it gave him a bad feeling.

“Well of course someone would, I mean what other occupations or news do we even talk about? Tell me, I’d really love to know!” Kaminari’s seen that look before and he despised it. It reminded him on the kids of the island whenever he broke a stupid, pointless rule or told them about how horrible the Hari really were. It was a look he would not accept when he knew it was right and for the betterment of everyone. Kamui crossed his arms, what the hell is up with him? This didn’t feel like he didn’t wanna hear about heroes it feels like a mistrust of them. And who the hell would mistrust heroes?

“Oh, the other day I heard about how there's like way less crime or whatever.” Kamui raises his voice, clearly annoyed. He can’t believe he has to state something as obvious as that, but here he is. It’s weird Kaminari is cool but when it comes to heroes he gets all weird and dumb. He’s never seen anything like it. Kaminari rolled his eyes. Kaminari of course

“Well of course that decrease is due to modernization of hero work, right? Well that has nothing to do with what I’m talking about! That doesn’t justify such cultural dominance!” Kaminari had a harsh tone. Kaminari furious eyes backed the righteous in his voice. To Kaminari he now understood better why people think this way, which is appreciated but it also made it more frustrating to him. It didn’t take a genius to realize how someone can take advantage of such power regardless of what good they do they, the potential is there which is the problem. Kamui shook his head. I mean okay but he didn’t know what there was to worry about.

“Oh, yeah guess that’s the case. Still I don’t see the problem.” Kamui said looking off to the distance again. I mean it made sense to him. They give people more protection so people appreciate them more. That was simple to him but guess Kaminari was too cool for that he guessed. Kaminari glare grew, he was going to make clear exactly how important and damaging the dominance of heroes was.

“But we never talk about how mental illness has increased or there’s more divorce because those issues can’t be solved by someone in a cape!” Kaminari yelled. He was getting angry because he saw where this was going, images of people committing crimes in worship or heroes getting away with dubious beahvior with ease. Hell this stuff was probably already happening but it simply doesn’t get reported on. Because it’d go again the popular narrative and make hero society look less perfect, which like the island they can’t afford for it to look like anything less other people riot. And anything less than complete control will make it fall apart quick. Now the fear in Kaminari is rising quick.

“I mean crimes are more important shit to be fair.” Kamui shrugged. Yeah I mean either one sucks but one person hurting countless of innocents potentially killing them seemed like the more urgent since that does a lot more damage let’s be real. Chokusetsu looks at Kamui with a agreeing nod. While yes people’s mental health were important the immediate and wide spread destruction that villains can cause will always be more immediate and bigger issue. Unfortunate but true.

“That is true.” Chokusetsu usual plethora of confidence coming through clearly in her tone of voice. She would never say anything out loud unless she was 100% confident she was right it would be foolish to do anything else after all. Kaminari nodded in disapproval, this wasn’t a fucking contest after all.

“All issues are important though and they should all be discussed, no?” Kaminari sharp tone surprised Chokusetsu. This has how screwed up hero society made people huh? They ranked problems on a list and decide which 1s more legitimate based solely on their proximity heroes while telling them it was because of something else. Yeah he’s seen that game before and he can tell you it doesn’t work on the critically minded.

“Yeah, duh.” Chokesetsu gathered herself up and quickly thought about it. And yes it was pretty damn obvious that all issues should be discussed. But it still made sense to her that issues such as criminality and villain take top priority. Kamui had been thinking, one hand to his chin while he looked at the floor.

“Is it such a bad thing that heroes get the spotlight over all those issues though?” Kamui raised his right eyebrow. I mean he couldn’t see it, I mean life’s pretty fucking great and that’s largely due to heroes constantly kicking bad guy’s asses. So them getting the spotlight for keeping that up and keeping us safe, for sure deserved. Kaminari eyes widen. That did get him thinking that perhaps his focus should be more narrow. After all heroes were doing a valuable service to everyone that he cannot deny.

“Well it’s not that it’s how much that’s the problem.” Kaminari said with reluctance. Yeah that was it, of course heroes deserve praise and honor for all the work they do, unlike those assholes running the island. But it being so overwhelming is suffocating for thise pursuing different passions, those who fail at chasing the heroic passion and could allow heroes to get away with far more than what they’re worth because they’re worth so much, it’s easy to confuse. Chokesetsu looks on happy. Oh Kaminari was so brilliant, she truly appreciated having him as a acquaintance. Since he caught onto things quick.

“Right, of course. I shouldn’t have underestimated your reasonability!” Chokesetsu said proudly. How can she be so brillant that even the people she surrounded herself were almost as brilliant as her. Kaminari crossed his arms and looked away from them. She really pissed him did she really think he was being unreasonable before? Well that only shows how brainwashed they were by hero society.

“Hmph, of course!” Yeah Kaminari was always reasonable, espeically now. His intelligence and ability to objective were objects of pride to him. And he didn’t see how he contradicted that right now. Kamui shrinked a little bit, he felt ganged up on again. And he ain’t gonna allow that.

“I don’t know heroes are pretty inspiring and they do a lot of important things so I don’t see a problem with it.” Kamui said voice shaky. I mean Chokesetsu wouldn’t say he was wrong, she and him have had long talks about heroes before. So of course she’d fucking agree with him and he didn’t care what Mr.Crabby about heroes had to say either. But that in fact pissed back off Mr. Crabby about heroes.

“You don’t see a problem with it? How is someone supposed to solve a problem but no one raises it?!” Kaminari was in disbelief. It’s like he ignored the previous minute of conversation or it made it feel insecure somehow. At least he hopes he doesn’t believe what he implies here.

“Weeeeeeeell, I mean I see your point, don't get me wrong, someone should do something bout all that. But still heroes are pretty cool, it’s boring seeing something else on the news.” Kaminari raised his left eyebrow. Oh so the world should entirely based on what Kamui found entertaining, interesting.

“Ah yes because the news is for entertainment and not to deliver important information, of course.” Kamui clenched his fists while Chokusetsu laughed. Ok yes of course the great Chokusetsu saw that yes a terrible point. He seemed emotional so best guess he got insecure. And to his credit she got it, I mean yes of course heroes are much more exciting than hearing about she doesn’t fucking know mental health programs or something like that. And Kamui was someone who needed constant excitement so it at least makes sense for him to say that. But Chokusetsu was a kind soul so she’d make him feel better.

“Okay that’s a excellent point not going to lie. But I can understand both perspectives here.” Kaminari raised his left eyebrow again. How could she possible say that? She was intelligent, he gave her that much credit. But she agreed with that?

“What?! In what way is he right?” Kaminari was annoyed with her now. She better have the best explanation in the world otherwise it’ll be easy to prove her wrong. Chokusetsu had a incredibly proud look on her face. She knew she was about to make a argument that would impress any lawyer.

“Well you cannot deny the universalism of heroes, now can you? And it’s because of that the world has been united over one purpose again. People need a universal story and ideal to understand each others differences and to give us something to live up to. And with that a lot of lives have been improved!” Kaminari looked at the floor. Tapping his left toe. He sae the result of this before he came here. It certainly did make people more happy and gave their life a clear purpose and goal that’s for sure. But he also saw how it took advantages of people’s fears and insecurities and used to push people away who didn’t want said purpose and goal or doubted the cause. And he knew while they appeared happy secretly none of their personal issues were actually being addressed.

“Yeah IIIIIIIIIIII… I can’t deny that but still there’s more than one purpose out there correct? Shouldn’t they be acknowledged as well?” Chokusetsu puts her hand to her finger. Ok yes of course with their individuality and different point of view yes of course not everyone will not want to be a hero or do something with heroes. And if it made perfect sense to here, it made perfect sense until proven otherwise.

“That is also true, so I suppose I see your point. Yes everyone should be given the freedom not be discouraged to go into even odd pursuits. It’s what makes them happy after all.” Kaminari smiled proudly. Okay so her brain hasn’t deteriorated she still saw reason when presented. Okay that’s excellent and she even agreed with him on the different purposes point. People here obviously weren’t suppressed like back on the island, which is something that made him incredibly happy. Kamui though grimaced, they breezed right past his fucking point again. It made him feel left out again.

“B-But hero’s are the coolest!” Kamui got out nervously. I mean of course they are, it sound like they might but who could disagree with that and make sense. Chokusetsu smiles with genuine happiness. Oh but of course they are.

“Oh by far.” They began to talk amongst themselves while Kaminari tapped his finger on the table looking out the window.

‘But there’s better purposes out there too.’ Kaminari thought to himself he felt a fear in his stomach. How far would hero society go for their control, is this peak or the beginning of pushing things too far?

Chapter Text

Kaminari sits on the floor scrolling on a phone. Looking through the news. Heroes, heroes, heroes. It was so tiring and that familiar fear in his stomach came back. Ew time to look at something else. Maybe some funny videos or something. Kamui ran over to where Kaminari sat with a big smile on his face.

“Yo Kaminari.” Kamui waves to him, oh this was so cool even Kaminari would fucking love this. He was sure of it! Kaminari looked up surprised ah yes Kamui, ah this was a perfect time to talk to someone, why hey why not?

“Oh hey, Kamui.” Kaminari waved back, he also smiled back. Hopefully this would be the enjoyable Kamui was actual fun to talk to. He really needed that Kamui right now.

“Hey, join us in the main room.” Kamui happiness is peaked. With Kaminari narrowing his eyes. This gave him a awful feeling. So he raised his right eyebrow.

“Huh, why would I do that?” Kaminari was feeling extremely skepticial about all of this but still he was bored and wanted to connect with him. So he wanted to give him a chance

“Cause it’s fun? C’mon man let’s just go.” Kamui said raising his right eyebrow. Yeah what the hell, what other reason do you need man? Kaminari glared at him, what kind of idiot did he take him as?

“I’m not going somewhere without good reason.” Kaminari’s strict voice made Kamui cringe. He really was gonna be like that, huh? All right guess he had to play ball.

“Ugh, fine cause All Might’s on TV!” Kaminari perked up oh yes he knew All Might, he was the ring leader of this whole circus. Kaminari was actually interested in what All Might had to say. But what if it turned out worse than what I thought?

“All Might?” Kaminari tone was that of hesitance. Fear was rising in Kaminari’s stomach, he could easily picture all the horrible things All Might could say. Hell All Might might not even realize how horrible it was. But what it could do for the image of his new life, he didn’t want to imagine the consequences. Kamui got a annoyed look on his face, what the hell could he mean?

“Did I stutter?” Kaminari put his finger on his chin. Well if it was so destructive it was invenetiable that he would find out. So best to get over with it to see if it is or not. Kaminari looked back at Kamui, still not sure.

“Hmmm…” Kaminari still had his finger on his chin. Was he overthinking this? I mean it wasn’t the heroes themselves that we’re bad it’s the response people have that are bad. Kamui raised his right eyebrow and started tapping his foot. What the fuck was he even thinking about, it’s a fucking yes or no question.

“So you coming or what?” Kamui asked annoyed as shit. This all he wanted to know and he might out fucking miss it if Kaminari thinks about whatever the fuck he was thinking for any longer. Kaminari nodded to himself. Ok you know he was curiosity was absolutely peaked so he decided to go and watch.

“Okay, sure.” Kaminari said with a smile. He was ready to see exactly what this superhero shit was all about. Perhaps there was something he was missing. Kamui responded with a even bigger smile. Ok thank fuck he can see what the hell All Might has to say after all.

“Awesome!” Kamui ran off while Kaminari followed him walking. Kaminari had that worried feeling grow in his stomach but he knew it was irrational. He didn’t knew what All Might had to say for all he could it could prove him all wrong. And he really hoped it did.

He entered the room where a bunch of kids where sitting criss-crossed, glued to the TV. Which did not help Kaminari in managing his emotions. A older man smoked in the background. He waved to Kaminari and Kaminari waved back. Kaminari sat on a chair while Kamui sat on the floor with everyone else. Kaminari raised his right eyebrow.

“What is he talking about?” Kaminari looked at the screen with concern. From what he was hearing it was again not helping that feeling in his stomach.

“Shh.” Kamui put his finger up to his mouth. Kaminari in response rolled his eyes. Yes he wanted to be nice to Kamui and go through with this but that’s where his kindness would end. Kaminari lazily looked at the television. All Might was speaking as charismatically and exaggeratingly like he always did. Kaminari was bored at first in a attempt to give it a chance. But as he heard All Might talk Kaminari got more invested and more afraid. It was everything he didn’t want to hear.

“In the past people would use their quirks as a means of selfish gain and evil, and there are still those who do so today.

But I am the symbol of peace, and with this symbol I stand to defend all those who are weak against those who mean them harm! And by doing so I will always put a smile on my face and give it 120%! I stand before you today as a symbol of peace and justice, but more importantly, as a symbol of hope. A hope that all people can be saved, no matter the odds against them. As a hero, it is my duty to protect the innocent, to defeat the wicked, and to inspire those who have lost faith in themselves.

But I must tell you, my strength does not come from my power alone. It comes from my belief in the goodness of humanity, and in the power of hard work and determination. As heroes, we must never forget the importance of these values. We must always strive to be the best versions of ourselves, and to push beyond our limits to achieve our goals.

In times of crisis, we must come together and fight as one, to defend the weak and the helpless. We must always stand up for what is right, even in the face of adversity. We must remember that every life is precious, and that every soul deserves to be protected.

So, my dear friends, let us stand together as heroes, and fight for what is just and right. Let us never give up hope, and let us always remember that our strength comes from within. Together, we can make a difference in this world, and create a brighter future for all!”

Kaminari recongized those honey sweet words, that supposed love for humanity. His mind flashed back to the island he hated so much.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaminari was six and knew nothing of the evils he knew now. And was merely following the masses whi all started in awe at the woman standing over them. Her golden dress would catch anyone’s attention but the collar that forms the sun behind her head told you that she wanted to the center of your world.

“Children you have come here to bask in my light. This already makes you more holy than most humans. But obviously there are those who reject the light and want darkness to befall on them and then on us ALL! But I have complete and utter faith in all of your strength. I know each and every one of you can and will face this dark and shine past it! Proving yourselves worthy of my light! Everyone here is capable of more compassion, strength and discipline more than anyone in the outside world. I love you all, I believe in you all, because I know what you are all at your best and you know what I am and are the few that can handle my presence. THANK YOU ALL!”

The incredibly loud cheers, with every single person joining in. Reminds Kaminari of right now.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The kids look on in awe and some cheered even while Kaminari looked on the horrors of his past was all over his young face. Kaminari looked around and it made him feel even worse. Brainwashed, all of them as much as everyone back on the island. Of course Kaminari could sympathize with them, it was great having someone say you’re strong, that you’re loved. It makes you feel amazing, but then they make you seek that feeling and have to do or excuse more and more horrible things.

Kaminari got up and walked quickly toward the door. Kamui looked over and noticed Kaminari leaving.

“Yo, Kaminari where the hell are you going?” Kamui smile was big and that made Kaminari feel even worse. If he told him the truth it would only get him into a massive argument with him, something he wanted to avoid at all costs. So he’ll dismiss him, it’ll leave him happier anyway.

“Oh I need the bathroom, bad.” Kaminari lied with a convincing smile. Kamui believed him hook line and sinker. Which made Kaminari happy for him at least. “Ah, see ya then.” Kaminari nodded. “Yep byeeeeeeee.” Kaminari waved to Kamui then ran off. Kaminari burst open the door and quickly walked away a look of horror on his face. He desperately wanted a escape asap. He went looking for the first book he could find that intrigued him. He quickly scoured the shelf using the names of books push back the memories which flooded his mind. He found one called about famous mysteries throughout history. He begins to read but it’s only for a little bit before the thoughts he tried to keep at bay came flooding in again.

Everything made perfect sense now but in all of the ways he was afraid of. He saw how their worship of heroes affected their everyday life and all the ways they’re being set up for devastation. With so much influence they could easily abuse. Perhaps they already are, who knows what crimes they’re covering up. With the snap of a finger Kaminari was positive they could have any potential scandal swept under the rug. Kaaminari’s foot tapped faster and faster as these thoughts kept coming and flowing to him getting more under his skin with each word.

“Hey kid you all right, you look off.” Kaminari looked up eyes widen. It was Marty that’s what he liked to be called anyway. He looks genuinely concerned and Kaminari appreciate that immensely and smiles.

“I am fine, I assure you.” Kaminari said calmly, he had become a expert at lying during his time on the island, so Kaminari looked him eye to eye and said that white lie perfectly calm and normally. His eyes even softened greatly. Marty nodded his head.

“Really you don’t look it.” Martyi said pulling up a chair and sitting by Kaminari.

“Really, comes as a shock to me. I thought I looked as perfect as always.” Kaminari prideful tone made Mart laugh. Kaminari smiles at this, at least he made someone else happy.

“Well I meant you looked pretty worried about something, so what is it?” While Marty looks genuinely curious Kaminari’s expression shifted to something more sersious like a grimace. He takes a deep breath.

“Well Marty I have… Some, some doubts about hero society.” The fear in Kaminari eyes grew quickly in his eyes. He was terrified of what he would say next, what he’d do next. Would he laugh, would he insult him, maybe even attack him or hurt him? It was hard to tell and that only made Kaminari more scared. But instead Marty moved his head to the side with a sort of, interested look.

“Well I’d say a bit of healthy skeptcisim goes a long ass way. So tell me what is it?” He said genuinely interested and Kaminari looked him with shock. He forgets how free this society actually is, it was weird almost contradictory how they allowed so much freedom and yet let themselves be ruled and restricted. Perhaps it was human nature? “...Well there’s nothing else you know? All anyone talks about is heroes, everyone wants to be a hero and if you’re not, then you’re not important. That’s not fair is it?” Kaminari said still unable to look him in the eye. He once again looks like he half agrees.

“I mean yeah but since when has life been fair? Look I’ve been around this earth for way longer than you have so let me tell you something. All this hero worshiping crap is brand new when I was kid we thought heroes were crazy people who risked their lives for fun and wanted to look good. Theeeeeeeeen the golden age and started and all of a sudden heroes were this amazing thing but they still had skeptics. And yeah now after All Might and co suddenly everyones a dickrider for the caped crusaders but there’s only one thing that stays the same about this world and that everything changes. Especially people, watch a few of em or even when All Might hangs up the cape people will go back to doubting these guys and weaving out the pricks. It’s how shit’s always worked and how it will always work since there’s nothing wrong with it. So whatever worries you have they’ll fade but be replaced with different worries so it’s not even worth thinking about.” He smugly takes a sip of his drink. While Kaminari sits their and has a peculiar expression on his face. Looked like he sucked on a lemon. He nodded no. “I disagree.”

Marty raises his right eyebrow. “Well how come?” Kaminari thought for a moment, concentrating very hard on nothing but himself. “Well… What if things changed for worse?” Marty looked at Kaminari very thoughtfully until he cleared his throat. “Well that’s not up for for us to decide, is it?” Marty again takes a shot of his drink this time with a forelorn expression on his face. Kaminari looked like he had a heart torn through his soul. Those words…. Those words hurt him in ways he couldn’t imagine. He had nights where he stayed up dreaming while awake about freeing everyone back on the island, the cheers of what could’ve been. It’s 1 of the things that kept Kaminari going.

“Well we can try can’t we?” Kaminari eyes emphisized the desperation of those words. To hear a yes, to confirm that there’s some hope. It’s what he felt like he needed right now. Marty again looked up to the ceiling once again thinking very hard. “I mean yeah of course, anyone can try anything. But it’s gonna take aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa lot of luck to even get your foot in the door.” Marty chuckled after he said, he took another swig of his drink. While Kaminari looked at him extremely thoughtfully. “Well still that means it’s possible, yes?” Marty nods yes. “Yeah of course kid and what kinda shitty guardian would I be if I didn’t say, shoot for the stars?!” Kaminari had stars in his eyes, his heart lifted by hope and a sudden surge of confidence.

“Hey, Marty.” Marty puts down his drink and looks right at him. “What is it?” He asks with a force. Kaminari eyes went wide in a bit of shock. But composed himself immediately. “Can I take a walk outside? I know it’s late but-” “Hey I own a orphanage not a prison. Keeps tabs with a text every now and then and I’ll call ya. But hey do whatcha just don’t hurt anyone and if anyone tries to hurt you. Zap em in the balls or the vay-jay-jay, wherever the hell it hurts the most.” Kaminari laughed which gave Marty a prideful smile. “Understood thank you so much.” Kaminari said extremely happily. Marty gave him a salute and turned away from him, with another swig of whatever the hell he was drinking. With that Kaminari ran out of the orphanage and into the world.

He had his hand in his pockets but head held high as he walked towards the city lights. It was the very city he saw when he first landed here. Everytime he looked at that skyline the excitement and happiness he felt when he saw it for the first time came rushing back in waves. And even now it didn’t fail to make him feel better. He walks towards the city, dreaming while he’s awake. As he got closer to the city he imagined what the world he wanted would look like. How many of these billboards that had heroes on them and the variety of people that would be on them. There would be author’s, musicians and inventiors. Sure they occasional heroes here and there but no where near as many that dominate his vision now. The stores don’t all have to have hero imagery plastered on it. They could choose what imagery they want to advertise whatever the hell were selling. And find the audience that suits them. All this fantasy made Kaminari feel happy, but it was also shallow wasn’t it? He wasn’t doing anything to make this happen. He only gave his brain junk food to forget about his worries. Perhaps he should accept reality as it is, it certainly was easier especially since he couldn’t come up with what to do about those issues.

But then Kaminari realized a issue in Marty’s logic. If the only constant was that everything changes, then why can’t we influence how things change? I mean don’t humans do by nature in fact? Even when the first caveman like walked on land and made a house that impacted nature in a way that it hadn’t been done before. And humanity has gone on to do that a billionfold if not more since then. So it would be untrue to say humans don’t have some impact on the world and then of course humans have impact on other humans. From slapping someone in the face or conquering nations. Everyone’s lives is littered with stories of how someone affected their life directly or indirectly and even vice versa. Kaminari’s whole life was that in fact. So why couldn’t someone do that on a massive scale? All of these questions and the only answer he can come up with is the same fucking question which is why not?

Kaminari stopped at a bench and sat down to think some more. His mind drifted to Gekko so he saw the potential and what people could be. I mean Gekko could be special, he could be the only person like that. But if he is then he couldn't know how or why and even he gave a pretty great reason as to why anyone else could think the way he did. So yes everyone can think and be like him. But then why weren’t they? A fish knows it’s swimming in water? Usually unless it hurts them or they realize or see it hurts other people. Otherwise what reason do they have to even think about it then? Well this isn’t the island, it's unreasonable to assume that the millions or something people that live here realize that and do something about it.

But there has to be someone else like him, right? I mean he surely wasn't the only intelligent person in Japan, I mean that'd be incredibly depressing. So assuming that's true that means someone else out there who has come to the same realization. So didn’t they have a responsibility to do something about it? Well no well maybe ugh this was so hard to think about it. Maybe he shouldn't. I mean what the hell was he going to do about it?

Kaminari thought back to what Marty said. That was quite a defeatist attitude to have. Individuals made the systems so obviously yes people can make a difference. But how? Ah yes that was the problem, no 1 knew how. Especially Kaminari, he barely knew this world let alone how to fix what he saw as what was wrong with it? Actually since he knew so little about this world, did he even have a right to criticize it?

Kaminari turned his whole body around looking at what was behind him. All those lights and the constant advertising of heroes. You couldn't escape unless you didn't go outside ever. You didn't have to be here for forever and a day to see this and to think about what implications this could have. But no 1 else is. So someone else has to correct? And Kaminari doesn't know anyone else who will step up…

Oh what was he thinking? He was a stupid kid, what could he possibly do? What power did he even have? None that was the answer, especially to change anything major. But it would make him miserable to sit on the sidelines and can only watch as so many people get indoctrinated and imagine what that could possibly lead to. Well what small way could he start to change people’s minds little by little? Wait, that wouldn’t make him happy either.

Kaminari now looked at all the stars in the sky and thought back to Gekko. On paper he didn’t have any power either but he didn’t let that distract. He believed heavily in himself and the power he had over himself and that manifested into having power in the real world, because he didn’t let the world have power over him he had the power in each and every situation he was in. And when Kaminari took on a similar attitude I’ll be it with a lot more anger. It worked for him too it’s the whole reason he even escape that cursed place. Obviously it was harder to have that attitude in a world you’re getting to know and getting used to. But it’s almost like he forget about it. With how much bigger it is and all of these new things he’s now being introduced to his will to fight rapidly went down. It was also that his defenses went down once he saw how much better the city was. But as time go on those defenses kept on rising and rising.

So it made sense to get back that fighting attitude now. So it was decided then, for the betterment of himself and others around him. He will fight impossible odds again and crush the lopsided hierarchy of heroes. And make for a more fair and balanced society for each and every person under the flag of Japan! But where to start… Kaminari knew exactly how.

Chapter Text

Kaminari did not own many possessions. Which was convenient for this occassion. All the kids talked about how low the odds were of teens were to get adopted in the first place. So Kaminari knew that he wasn’t getting out of here through convential means. And he wanted to get out of here bad. There wasn’t any security here so at any moment any of the kids could escape. But as far as Kaminari knew he was the very 1st kid to try and escape.

Kaminari opened the door and felt the night chill on his skin. He shivered but still he smiled. The feeling of progress always filled Kaminari's heart. Plus leaving for some reason felt great too. Not that it was a horrible place or anything. But Kaminari never felt comfortable in one place for too long. He always wanted to move, move, move like he was right now towards downtown right now.

He had some money saved up but for now he was focused on sending his message to everyone. Well he had to be realistic as many people as possible. Kaminari looked around and quickly found a painting of All Might painted on the side of a building.

Kaminari clenched his fist and glared at it. He walked over to it, lightning in his hand. He began to etch his words onto the image of All Might. Kaminari smirk grew bigger and prouder as the writing went along, his words completely covering All Might’s image.The words he wrote were a simple. “False God.”

Kaminari looked at his work extremely proud. Simple and to the point, it was sure to turn heads. But then Kaminari looked all around the city and his expression turned from pride from foreloan. He once again saw all around him and saw nothing but of course heroes. But then he turned it into something that only strengthed his resolve.

This was a sick society and Kaminari knew the cure. He didn’t sleep that not. Laid on a park bench Kaminari started at the stars and city lights intensly. Ideas coming to mind but 1 after another they were dissimmised. He didn’t have the resources to do any of the ambitious plans he came up with. Kaminari couldn’t go to bed mind racing.

He was thinking about all the ways to get his message across. But each 1 only made Kaminari feel the odds even more and how much it went against him. But for now Kaminari, while not resting, was still tired so it’d wait till tomorrow. His rest would as well not going to sleep until the next morning.

He woke up to a bustling street full of people walking right by him. As he slowly opened his eyes to the sun Kaminari smiled as a sense of purpose surged through him. He got up and pulled his hoodie over his face, a smirk present.

Kaminari looked around with a glare of a predator animal. The impatience was eating him up and his mind was racing. Was this really such an amazing idea?

He could graffiti his beliefs on walls or write them down on paper
and staple them wherever he went. Yes those were more peaceful and easier ways to get his message across and no 1 would get hurt.

Kaminari grimaced. He constantly thought back to his old home. The horrible experiences that haunt him. All the violence he was made a victim of. Ugh it was so horrifying and disgusting. Was it tempting absolutely but still he couldn’t give the same pain that was inflicted onto others yes? Well it wasn't the violence that made it so horrible but rather how and why they chose to target them, right? Yes, it was the corrupted ideals that made the island so horrible, a fate that this could and if they kept going the way they're going they will end this way.

Plus he didn't have the means to prompt change anyway he wanted. So shouldn’t he therefore use every mean he has at his disopal. Mmmmm, no that was a decision with no morality invovled. Action for the sake of action and then justifying only leads down a path of further justifing worse and worse until you become worse than the monster you swore to defeat. But yet that does open the possibility that if there’s a moral reason to do so with clear limits then it does make it okay. So is there 1?

Kaminari walked around the city with his head in the clouds. Constant questions with no asking rack around in Kaminari’s mind. Further questinons only led to even further questions. Kaminari wondered why the hell he even left the orphnage in the 1st place. Acting on impluse, how could Kaminari be so stupid?! He prided himself on his intellgence but you can’t be intellgent while being this stupid! Okay calm down he shouldn’t write himself off so easily. He should begin to understand this impluse 1st. Wait no he already understood why.

So then it was worth it correct? Another question with no clear answer. Kaminari stompped around the city, now looking for anything that spoke him. Kaminari stopped on a park bench, groaning and his stomach was rumbling. Okay time for a break from all this thinking time to eat. Kaminari walked over to a local burger place counting up the money he had brought. He sat down and began to watch the news. After being becoming so accustomed to being able to watch TV it came as a bit of a shock to Kaminari that this was the 1st TV he watched today. It felt like a privilege again.

He saw they were talking about someone Stain, Kaminari had heard whisperings of Stain before from the other kids. Everyone seemed scared of him and appiled the label “villain” to him a lot. So Kaminari watched the news intently, leaning forward as he looked at the television.

The report went on to talk about how Stain or the Hero Killer claimed another victim. Kaminari raises his left eyebrow as the report went on about the hero. A reported gambling addict who cheated on his wife doesn’t sound like someone who’s very heroic. He’s heard of this hero before too but never heard anyone talked about this. He wondered if he was forced to mention all this for the 1st time only because the Hero Killer killed him.

The report went on to say that Stain only kills heroes he consideres false. An inevitable outcome of putting heroes on a pedestal impossible for any person to live up too. No 1 should be suprised when someone gets jaded by expectation. But there was something admirable about it, Kaminari couldn’t deny that. After all if people were going to worship these people as gods then someone should make sure harmful attitudes don’t spread. Because that can do a ton of damage to any given community. So it’s ultimately doing good no matter what way you put it.

Kaminari leaned in closer eyes full of stars. The report went into further detail about Stain’s previous ideals, what he looked for in a hero which only drew in Kaminari further. God if he thought hero society is corrupt imagine what he would’ve thought of the Hari on the island. Their very nature is hypocrtically by nature well he supposed that heroes are in their current form inherently hypocritical since humans cannot be Gods. But at least heroes aren’t allowed to get away with the same things as the Hari. Kaminari now thought about what it could’ve been like to have Stain on the island and how much better things could’ve been.

Once the report ended Kaminari got the burger place’s wifi and used it to search up Stain and saw his history and read up more on his ideals. As Kaminari red on his eyes went wider and he he read faster and faster. Eventually even the burger he ordered came without him even ever thinking about it. Something that shocked the impatient Kaminari. Kaminari kept reading barely even biting into his delicious burger. Eventually as he read more into his mehtods he started to slow down his eyes narrowing in disgust. He stopped reading and put his phone down his eyes stare directly at the ceiling as he eat.

While he didn’t agree with his methods still Kaminari definitely agreed with his ideals. But more importantly he got the message across. Without him the media would never talk about these heroes scandals or even acknowledge any legitimate reason to against the precious and infallible heroes. It’s certainly unfortunate that this makes them acknowledge such shortcomings and no doubt it will be used to delegitimize people sharing such view points. But that is still better than having them not acknowledge it at all.

Kaminari suddenly thought back to Gekko again. Something he often did but this time was definitely different. It was hmm… a feeling yes it was a feeling he hadn't felt since he met Gekko. Admiration, that's what it was called, yes. But it was more of a mixed feeling than before. Well still it was very refreshing and ugh something he'd hate to admit but something he actually needed.

Kaminari ate his burger slowly wondering about if everyone back at the orphanage was worried about him. Kaminari slowed down his chewing even more. Ugh, how could Kaminari that to them? They must’ve felt so confused, perhaps even a little guilty. But Kaminari didn’t belong there; it'd be best for everyone. Then Kaminari stopped eating again. His look turned to that of discontent. The whole restaurant started to blur while Kaminari felt his skin crawl. He checked there was nothing on him and he didn’t have a rash or anything. But he looked around the room and he thought about how everyone here was a stranger. He began to think about the potential differences between him and everyone in this room and gradually began to feel smaller.

His eyes turn to anger and he began to eat again. Quickly this time. Why was Kaminari let himself disparage over this. This was Kaminari’s biggest strength after all. It always had been but especially now. Here it wasn’t as corrupted as the island. Here his observations could actually make a difference before this society got to that point. He could even take a few points from Stain’s playbook in fact. But then Kaminari slowed down his chewing again. But what he valued human life, even corrupted lives too much to take them. He could understand but he didn’t have that soldier mentality.

Kaminari was done eating and left the restaurant. Determination still in his eyes but eyes on the clouds above him. How to do it if he still valued their life and did he want to risk his reputation over this? Hmph, well he never cared much about his reputation especially in the corrupt worlds he kept living in. Well if he doesn’t care about his reputation andand he knew these supposed heroes were hurting people then he knew what the perfect solution would be. It was 1 level below murder, beating the shit out of them, simple.

Well that made Kaminari stop in his tracks. Okay he was being ridiculous wasn't he? He thought of taking on people that have had years of training and were chosen in part due to how incredibly easy their quirks are to utilize in battle. This was pure delusion on his part to think he could take them in a fight right now. Kaminari found another bench to sit on and sighed. That feeling of the impossible washed over him.

Well that was his choice and it certainly did not feel like the right 1. Hmmmm… Weeeeeeeeeeell also he wasn't using his creativity either was he? Only he said that he had to knock them out or fight at all. Kaminari could invent the shock and run. He could even leave a message with his electricity like he did yesterday.

And in the meantime he could work on his skills for the invenetiable fights ahead. A pit in his stomach grew though. It was only less crazy but it was still incredibly dangerous wasn’t it? Kaminari smiled wide and proud. Yes it was but that was thrilling as well, not to mention if Kaminari could escape those Hari bastards surely he could land a couple of hits on some heroes.

Kaminari could go about this strategically as well. Yes he could go to the library and look up some low level scrubs and where they patrol. Yes, that would be perfect. Kaminari stood with pride and marched down the street with that same pride. The fire in his eyes was noticeable to even a stranger walking down the street.

Kaminari got to the library and immediately got on a computer and looked up heroes and sidekicks. He saw the perfect target nearby. A low level sidekick from a well known agency who was a rookie. Kaminari put his hand to his chin. This felt a bit cold didn’t it?

Stain targeted heroes who were corrupted, right? But Kaminari was aiming at the most convenient target possible. Stain would be ashamed of him. Well he barely knew him so he shouldn’t make that call. Still it did go against his ideals. But wait, what about his own ideals?

Well no he wasn't against individual heroes but the entire system. And unlike Stain he isn't taking lives so it'd be understable not to be as careful. It was about a message sent to hero society about the storm that was approaching them. Whether it was me or the disaster that awaits them.

Okay so now no more excuses. He now had his justification: it was time for his 1st mission. Kaminari marched down the street a clear and determined look in his eyes. He stalled, checked out a few books on topics like political idealogy, the role of heroes in society and a really cool action book that looked like a fun read. He read and read until the sun disappeared and darkness replaced it.

Kaminari closed his action novel and wrapped a cloth around his head. He marched forward and the look matches the darkness that surrounded him. He saw the sidekick and her distinct appearance in the distance. Kaminari ducked into the nearest alley. He grabbed his stomach and his breath got quicker.

Ack, right at the 11th hour. Of course he got like that now. Kaminari nodded his head and slapped both of his cheeks. This is nonsense I've gotten this far already, if I turn back now I will hate myself for the rest of my life. Kaminari summonded lightning in his hand and began to write his ideal. It was a subtle spark 1 that quietly burned to not draw attention to himself.

Kaminari was about to finish when the sidekick he went after spotted him. “Halt, citizen!” The sidekick marched towards him. Oh screw this guy he wasn't doing anything wrong well now he didn’t have to feel bad for what he was about to do. Kaminari filled his hand with electricity but somehow his eyes got darker.

The sidekick took a step back and prepared an attack but it was too late. A flash of bright yellow surrounded her body and filled her senses with nothing but pain. Kaminari stopped and jumped away, he grabbed on a ledge and hopped to the other side. He disappeared from plain sight.

The sidekick though had recovered quickly and was in hot pursuit. Sweat rolled down Kaminari’s forehead rapidly and his eyes darted to every house and apartment in sight.

Kaminari found a perfect place. The lights were off but a window was left open. It was a very hot summer night so Kaminari knew that someone would inevitably do something like that. Kaminari perched in front of the home and found the security devices and electrocuted them. However Kaminari heard the sidekick and quickly got inside and hid underneath the 1st place he could. Which was an empty kitchen cupboard.

Kaminari's breath got deeper and quicker as time went on. That is until the sidekick approached the house he was in. Kaminari went silent and his eyes went wide. She did a quick scan but after she found nothing she moved on. Kaminari waited for awhile with baited breath but nothing happened.

Kaminari climbed out exhaling in relief. He looked around and he climbed out. Luckily the inexperienced sidekick didn't stake the area. Kaminari was able to come back to the scene of the crime and finish the writing he started. And so began Kaminari’s life of crime.

Chapter Text

--------------------------------------------------
Shinsou stops grabbing his head. Aizawa immediately goes over to comfort him.

"Are you alright?" Shinsou nods yes which gets him to stop. But his eyes remain unconvinced.

"Oh fucking hell, what happened, huh?" Kaminari grabs his head and has 1 eye open. He slowly looks around the room. Aizawa clears his throat and glares right at him.

"I'm sorry." Aizawa looks at the ground immediately after he said that. Kaminari raises his left eyebrow in response.

"Huh what do you me-?" Kaminari cut himself off as his eyes went wide right as he l. ooks at Shinsou.

"Oh, no, no, no. You didn't, what the hell did I say huh?!" Chains rattle with Kaminari starting to sweat. Shinsou scratches his neck quickly while a bead of sweat rolls down his face.

"Everything until after your 1st villain attack." Kaminari looks on, pausing in place . He starts to look around as his teeth grit together.

"You fucking bastards, how dare you?! What the hell gives you the right, huh?!" Kaminari's face1 gets more red and blood vessels can be seen in his eyes, his voice echoes throughout the room as if it's a cave. He coughs immediately after he yells that.

Aizawa closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “It was a last resort for a reason Kaminari. You-”

“Don’t give me that bullshit! You had the option to do the right thing but you choose the unethicall! Great heroes you guys are, huh?!” Kaminari turns away from them with a pout, glaring at the wall instead of them, his fists are made into balls. Shinsou looks at Aizawa then Kaminari.

“Hey, don’t talk like I wanted to either.” Shinsou scrunches up his sleep deprived eyes, his frown grows.

“Oh so you’re going to pretend that you didn’t have a choice either?! Pfft, pathetic, heh like student like teacher of course.” Kaminari smirk is filled with venom and now Shinsou’s fists ball into fists.

“You-” Aizawa put his hand right in front of Shinsou’s face and stares right at him.

“Don’t.”

“You don’t want to make things worse. I know that st stop and think forward for a second.” Shinsou’s gruff demanor struck Shinsou yet again. Yes pissing off Kaminari serves no practical reason. And for as much as he hates to admit it. There is a small part of him that didn’t want to piss him off too.

“Fine, I’m sorry.” Shinsou puts his head down and his eyes get more narrow.

“No need. Now Kaminari you should be mad at us, I won’t deny that.” Aizawa is as unreadable as ever. But kaminari quickly turns his head eyes wide as he raises his left eyebrow.

“Huh?!” Kaminari is now looking right at Aizawa, which gets Aizawa to smirk a little bit.

“But you can’t deny that now we know a lot about you now. So it’s no use hiding information from us now. You’ve already said what you most wanted to hide, so now there’s nothing to hide from us.” After this statement a long silence befall the room. Kaminari looks like he’s about to blow. Oh the audacity, this is the worst possible thing. He tried to stay strong, to not give in to their demands. And like on the island it is met with violation and punishing you for resisting. But what this other lingering feeling… Betrayal?

How ridiculous, of course they were acting this way. It only made sense, Kaminari is their enemy and let’s not forget he betrayed them 1st. So they had no loyalty to uphold since he didn’t uphold his own loyalty anyway. So why the hell did he fell this way in the 1st place?... It was his own fault of course, he knew the plan and went through with it, even. But yet he grew attached anyway and now even expected some kind of loyalty in return. How foolish of him, he could hardly believe his own foolishness. All of his anger turns inwards.

“Oh shut up, yeah you shortcuted your way to a confession! So what, why should I give you a thing, huh?!” Kaminari tone of voice is higher than before his eye is now twitching and his vines in his forehead can be seen visably but his eyes go dull. Oh how immature he is being. He knows anyone who acted like this around him he’d dismiss them. So he’s enough of a hypocrite, why take it out on others? Kaminari sighs.

“We-”

“Sorry, that was inappropriate and well stupid really.” Kaminari now looks at the floor as well, the fire from before completely gone. The room goes completely silent again. Aizawa who was about speak puts his hand on his chin.

“You take responsibility very easily don’t you?” Shinsou looks on in surprise but quickly turns to Kaminari. Who slinks back in his chair.

“Hmph, well anything else would be impractical, wouldn’t it?” Kaminari brings back the pout and turns away again, closing his eyes. Aizawa crosses his arms and nods his head. His pride is so annoying, if there is 1 barrier Aizawa couldn’t knock down it’s that 1.

“Well 1 thing I was able to gather from your stories is that you have a treadmous inner strength, don’t you?” Kaminari open his eyes and stops his pout.

“Hmph, flattery isn’t going to get you anywhere Mr.Logicial.” Kaminari eyebrows arch downwards and his arm cross again. He didn’t think Aizawa was the type but he supposed that meant he’s making them desprate. A smirk appears on Kaminari face.

“I know Kaminari, it was a mere observation.” Aizawa’s matter of fact tone gets Kaminari to uncross his arms. Well Kaminari still isn’t impressed but he is proud that he observes how mentally strong he is. He works very hard on that after all.

“Great observation Sensei.” Kaminari eyes light up and the pride annoys Shinsou. He didn’t understand how Sensei can say things about a villain, regardless of what he preaches.

“So how does someone with such great mental strength end up surrounded by people so mentally weak?” The room goes silent with everyone expect Aizawa going stiff. Kaminari raises his left eyebrow.

“You’re talking about the league, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Nope, I’ve already told you too much. You’re not getting a single other world out of me!” Kaminari closes his eyes and faces the wall again, the pout returning as well.

“Kaminari there’s no point in hiding this, you’ve already told us everything else-”

“Yes because you forced it out of me without my consent. That alone will make it to where I won’t tell you anything else!: Kaminari fists ball up and you can see his eyes clenching even though they are still closed. The room is silent yet again this time Aizawa joins in with everyone’s guilty looks. The standout is Kaminari with his furious look.

“An apology isn’t enough, is it?” Aizawa directly looks at Kaminari who glares back.

“Of course.” Kaminari voice pierces the air, the anger present making everyone feel guilty at exactly the same time. Aizawa now stares at the table, his eyes narrowing. Shinsou grabs his shoulder as a bead of sweat rolls down his face. He shouldn’t be as nervous as his is. Still as much as he tries to not thing about it or even punish himself for thinking so, he still cares about him. When he 1st got into class 1-A Kaminari was the 1 who jumped at the chance to welcome him and to make him feel like a part of class 1-A. Well him and Deku but without both of them he knows he wouldn’t have fit into class 1-A nearly as quickly as he did.

Aizawa gets up from his seat. “Let’s regroup.” Aizawa puts his hand in his pockets and Shinsou plus Detective Tsukauchi follow. Leaving behind a glaring and offended Kaminari.

Chapter Text

A quiet mechanical click can be heard as the door closes and Aizawa leans on it. Shinsou looks at the floor, his eyes intensely staring while he rubs his forehead. Aizawa clears his throat loudly.

“So our desperation has made things complicated.” Aizawa sighs, shaking his head in disappointment. He knew it was a bad idea at the time but he couldn’t give himself the patience of doing something that wouldn’t piss off Kaminari. After all this would piss off anyone let alone someone as brash and independent as Kaminari. It’s a mystery why man doesn’t always listen to his better judgment when he knows it is his better judgment. But now is not the time to dwell on the mysteries of man. That’s for later.

Tsukauchi smiles. “We do have a good amount to go off already. If he’s not ready to give it, maybe we can find others who are?" Tsukauchi said with a resigned look on his face. Aizawa looks at him with eyes narrowing down and a raised eyebrow.

"And who will we ask?" Aizawa's crossed arms and his look gives the room a completely different and much more serious vibe than before.

"Well we can ask the person who ran the orphanage he was in." Aizawa side-eyes and nods.

"He didn’t know about his whereabouts, remember?" Tsukauchi backs away from where he was standing.

"Well he surely looked, right?"

"And how many people go missing who are never found?" Silence falls over the room and everyone stops looking at each other. Shinsou is lost in his own head. It's the same questions over and over again as well. Not answering any of them but only coming up with more questions. His head is pounding, getting worse and worse. Though most prominent was "why can’t you be honest?"

Curse his emotions, he knew part of the reason he's even in class 1-A now was to sniff out the traitor. So it's such a massive mistake to have ever chosen to be attached to anyone at all. Because no matter how unlikely this always could've happened and turns out it did.

But all this distracted him from the most important question of all, what to do next.

"Well he said he visited a burger place, right? We could figure out which 1s, get the security cameras and track him from there?" Tsukauchi shrugs, unsure but a smile remains lacking the confidence of before though, while Aizawa furrows his brow and glares.

"And with all the moving pieces and all the years that have gone by. What's the odds they don't have the footage or somewhere at some point we lose him and we go back to square 1?" Aizawa stays quiet but the harshness in his tone is still obvious. Even Shinsou shrinks a little in response.

"...Highly likely isn't-

"Yes. So that’s out of the question." Aizawa closes his eyes and Tsukauchi shrinks heavily.

"Y-Yeah." Tsukauchi looks at the floor but Shinsou balls his fist. It's 1 thing for him not to know what to do, he's a kid and he's only here as a tool anyway. But it makes him so much angrier when the adults who are the people who are supposed to know what the hell to do
know as much as he does. Or is he lying to himself, again?

"Can't I brainwash him again?" Why did he bring that up not only does he know it wouldn’t work since it barely worked the 1st time and now Kaminari's pissed off so he won't allow that to happen again. But also Shinsou knows that if he does it will hurt him. So why does he want to hurt himself?

Everything is still at a standstill still and the tension in the room grows the more the silence stays. "No, absolutely not." Aizawa says with his hand on his chin. Shinsou has an ashamed look on his face.

"Don't tell me why I know why it's completely idiotic to suggest that." Shinsou’s fists shake as he looks at the floor with a distressing look.
Aizawa's look softens.

"If you're going to be hard on yourself then it shouldn’t be because you said it. But because you didn't think it through before you said." Despite Aizawa’s monotone tone Shinsou immediately perks up and looks straight at him. How can a statement make him feel better and worse at the same time? A question that Shinsou will no doubt have on his mind for awhile but not now.

Aizawa starts to tap his finger on 1 of his arms, now crossed together. Shinsou closes his eyes and sighs. “I’ll do it.” Both men look at the only teenage boy in the room who looks someone ready to confess to a crime. “Do what?” Aizawa cocks his head to the side while raising a eyebrow.

"I'll talk to him." Shinsou's eyes tries to look at Aizawa but he looks away as soon as he did. Aizawa nods "no" his face curling into a grimace.

"Again you can't brain-"

"I'm not going to brainwash him."

"Oh, I see why do you think talking to him straight up will work?" Tsukauchi smirks proudly but Aizawa's look turns doubtful.

"Well… After everything I've heard from him and knowing it's true. I cannot call him evil…" Shinsou trails off and narrows his eyes, putting his hands behind his back. He looks like a school boy who got caught breaking a rule. Aizawa rolls his eyes.

“And after everything I’ve heard, he’s extremely stubborn in his beliefs. He’s not willing to hear out those he’s labelled those as enemies. There-”

“But he might not see us as enemies after all!” Shinsou closes his eyes and balls up his fist, he opens 1 of his eyes hesitantly and looks around slowly, body tensing up further. Aizawa perks up and an eyebrow raises up. Shinsou now feels challenged.

“What do you mean?” Aizawa asks, grabbing his forehead. Shinsou and Tsukauchi can feel the frustration, creating doubt in both of them.

“He does value close relationships doesn’t he?” Tsukauchi says with a matter of fact tone. But his expression does not match his confident and happy tone.

“Yes, the way he talks about Gekko… Reminds me of our friendship so perhaps I can talk him into giving more info, on his own.” Shinsou closes his eyes and turns away from the group. Shinsou's tone is shaky, keeping the quiet tone but never saying it the same way. The room falls under silence as everyone is deep in thought.

“No, he abandoned his friends at the orphange so there’s no reason to assume he highly values his relationships.” Aizawa leans on the wall again,closing his eyes and relaxing.

“But you said spefically that you friendship is reminiscent of Gekko, correct?” Tsukauchi smiles in Shinsou’s direction. But Shinsou grabs his right arm and keeps looking at the floor.

“Uuuuuuh, yes that’s right.” Shinsou says his shoulders are getting less broad and his eyes are starting to dart around the floor.

“Well I don’t see why that it would.” Aizawa says hand on his chin, eyes narrowing. Shinsou looks on, eyes wide and starting to dart again.

“I-I-I don’t want to explain but if I’m right it could get him to give us the information we need, with very little problem.” Shinsou starts to sweat a little bit while still not looking at anyone. Aizawa and Tsukauchi pause for a moment.

“Now Shinsou I don’t want to pressure you into giving up any experiences or into sharing any emotions you aren’t ready to share. However this is a extremly delicate matter and I cannot place bets on plans I don’t understand and I can’t fully grasp so sorry I’m going to have decline.” Aizawa matter of fact tone does have a tinge of sadness behind it.

“I’ll have to agree with Aizawa with this, I love where your head is at is however, so keep the ideas coming!” Tsukauchi points right at Shinsou with a big smile. But Shinsou in response frowns further now he crosses his arms before looking back at the floor.

“What do you mean you like where his head is at?” Shinsou balls up his fists. Now Shinsou looks at him directly, teeth gritting again while he cocks his head sideways taking a step back.

”Well he has a point, he isn’t the cruel monsters most villains are. Perhaps we can use to get something out of him, right?” Shinsou’s fists start to shake. And if anyone in the room looked at him in that moment they'd think he was about to cry.

“Hmm, well-”

“It’s because… It’s because I believe, well there’s at least a chance he looks at himself as Gekko and me as him, well back in the day at least.” Shinsou fists still tremble while Aizawa his eyes narrowing while he balls up his fist and puts it in front of his mouth. The room is silent again.

"Well I don’t know about you but it sounds like bulletproof logic to me." Tsukauchi shrugs and looks at Aizawa with a smirk.

"... Yes I can actually see the logic behind this." Aizawa nods but this time in agreement which gets Shinsou to smile a little.

"T-Thank you." Shinsou tries his best to look at him but still can't bring himself to do so. Aizawa walks over and grabs his shoulder with warmth, Shinsou looks directly at Aizawa, stars in his eyes.

“Now I know how hard stuff like this can be for me. But if you’re strong enough to do this now then you’ve grown better than I thought.” Aizawa look remains netural but his tone it’s that of pride. Shinsou has tears on the edge of his eyes but holds back the dam from overflowing.

“Thank you, I don’t think you know how much those words means to me.” Shinsou stands up straight, shoulders broad again but his smile is shaky.

“Anytime kid, now we still can’t go in there unprepared. We should prepare what he says and how he says it.” Aizawa gets up and his expression goes back to it’s usual netural look. Shinsou takes a deep breath and sniffles.

“Of course.” Shinsou says with a wide smile and eyes looking directly at Aizawa. Aizawa reciprocates with a smile of his own.

“Then let’s do it.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaminari taps his toes quickly and he glares at the room around him. Kaminari is furious, he’s been violated which has to be his least favorite feeling in the world. It’s what he felt on the island whenever he went to detention, he felt it when he saw those damn heroes everywhere and it’s what he hopes to stop others from feeling. And yet it’s those very heroes who forced him to feel that very same feeling again, how ironic and despicable, absolutely despicable. Oh, the horrible memories he balls up his fists with a strong grip as he tries to get his mind off of detention. Well he shouldn’t feel this betrayed, should he?

Kaminari looks down at the cold metal table, face turns into a frown. His toes stop tapping and he starts to frown, expression sour. He really did appreciate his time at U.A. unfortunately. He appreciated what it would’ve been like had he perhaps been a normal child and had the same e level of drive he haas he has now. And there were times where he wondered how much better his life would be if he grew up around kids like his classmates and how much better his life would be then. While he knows it's for the betterment of everyone else in Japan, it still hurts to have to do. Well why did he continue with something he didn't want to do anyway?
now. And there was moment where
Kaminari looks at the table, eyebrows arching downwards again. Yes there's some pride he takes in deceiving others and feeling smarter than them but there's something else too, but what? Hmmmmm… There’s a sickening self righteousness that drove him forward wasn’t there? But how much of that was genuinely righteous and how much was it lying to himself to make himself feel better? Well it seems since the very start he's been lying to himself. Kaminari grimaces as if someone he despises walks into the room.

Oh if Gekko could see him now. The disappointment Kaminari imagines on Gekko’s face is enough to hunch over in his seat like he's a knight telling his king about a failed mission. The worst part is their was no turning back. He failed his ideals for years and now he's going to be arrested for crimes. Yes it's for a greater good but he should've been the last person to do anything for some greater good. The detention and all the brainwashing was also for some greater good as well. But why did he get sucked into it, the greater good trap then?

The door opens and Kaminari looks wide-eyed like prey looking for the nearest predator. Immediately Aizawa, Shinsou and Tsukauchi sit down. Aizawa leans forward clearing his throat, looking at Kaminari directly. In a way that makes him nervous but Kaminari wouldn't dare let that show.

"Shinsou wants to talk to you." Aizawa's monotone contrasts Kaminari's surprise on his face. With Kaminari turning in his seat and raising his left eyebrow.

"Shinsou?"

Chapter Text

Shinsou baggy and narrowed eyes as well as him taking a long step back, with a footstep barely being audible in the room. Aizawa with arms crossed loosely and an eyebrow sharply raised looking at Shinsou like a laser eye to eye. Shinsou's language gets timid. But he quietly clears his throat and then stares right at Kaminari.

"Kaminari." Shinsou's voice is clear but emotionless but his right first is shaking slightly. Something that only Aizawa observes.

Kaminari turns away, head held high while pouting eyes slammed shut. Aizawa takes long deep breath while he slowly closes his eyes. Expected, annoying but definitely expected.

"I don't expect you to believe us but Shinsou doesn't want to brainwash you."

Aizawa's tone is as flat as a flat plain. With Aizawa’s direct stare at Kaminari matching the same lack of emotion. Kaminari stays as stoic as a rock. Ignoring the world around him entirely. Shinsou looks at Aizawa with a slight frown. But Aizawa glares at him back. Shinsou turns to face Kaminari. Clearing his throat and forcing himself to stand up straighter and to stiffen his shoulders.

"We've already seen how much of a failure brainwashing you to get information is. I don't know what you think of us. But I cannot believe you think we're dumb. So why would we make the same mistake again?" Shinsou’s has a small echo as his tone grows gruff and angry. But Kaminari stays strong much to their annoyance. Room falls silent as Shinsou and Aizawa get the exact same annoyed facial expression.

Shinsou knows he cannot use the same dirty tricks as last time. Kaminari was not stupid either so of course he wouldn't fall for the same tricks either. Shinsou narrows his eyes and stares at his dirty shoes, grabbing his stomach as though he's sick. Shinsou doesn’t understand why feels this way. It doesn’t make sense at all which is why he has to move on, no matter what. Shinsou swallows his pride and brings him to look at Kaminari.

“Look at me.”

Shinsou’s voice was stern and his grimace looked worn. Shinsou balls up his fist and this time his echo was reverbing throughout the room. Kaminari defiantly stays the same as he was, his prideful stance getting more annoying the longer it stands.

“LOOK AT ME!”

Shinsou's eyes narrow down as he grits his teeth as his grip on his hands grows tighter. His yell even gets Aizawa to look at him, losing his crossed arms even. Shinsou’s echo is now at ear shattering levels of reverb. Kaminari still ignores all the noise and stays stotic even now.Shinsou takes a long, tired and deep breath, he shouldn’t be suprised after all Kaminari has taken way worse. Shinsou goes back to crossing his arms in the exact same way as Aizawa does, eyes narrowing emphasizing the bags in his eyes. The room is in near perfect silence as everyone thinks. Shinsou starts to tap his foot slowly and quietly. Despite this Aizawa notices anyway, quickly shakes it off though and turns his attention to the subject of importance in front of him, Kaminari Denki.

Aizawa wishes he hadn’t thought so short term and stopped Shinsou before getting to where they inevitably would’ve gone. But no use thinking of the past now especially not when they’re an important fork in the road. Aizawa put his hand on his chin and rubbed his beard. It’s annoying how stubborn Kaminari is, it makes any type of information gathering tremendously difficult. Especially in this circumstance because it's hard to negotiate with someone or appeal to someone when they consider you a sworn enemy. Aizawa gives his attention back to Shinsou.

This gamble was entirely based on Shinsou’s analysis and again not the best decision to gamble on a child's analysis of another child. But again their reason was that there was no other better option presented at the time. But looking back they should've been patient and come up with a better option. But that made him start to think, where did Shinsou miscalculated? Shinsou takes a step forward taking a slow deep breath.

"I know you won't accept apologies and I'd agree that you shouldn't. But you understand how horrible the League of Villains are, right? From everything I've heard about you, you should know better than anyone exactly why their so harmful to everyone… Even themselves."

Shinsou’s words are stern but they're quiet. Something that gets Aizawa to smile slightly. But Kaminari still stayed strong, still as a greek sculpture. And like that Aizawa’s smile was replaced with frown, his eyes glaring at the ceiling while he yet again thought what to do next. The bags on Shinsou’s eyes grew more noticeable as he sulked, grabbing his head while hiding his eyes as best as he possibly could’ve. Aizawa now turns his scornful eyes to young Shinsou.

"Shinsou." Aizawa's voice is clear but quiet and easily caught the attention of a wide eyed and worried Shinsou.

"Don't forget you're a hero." Aizawa's tone was the same but Shinsou’s reaction was extremely different. His eyes narrow his eyes focused like a raven on a hunt looking right at Aizawa.

"Right." It was 1 word but that positive affirmation was all Aizawa needed to hear. The small smile comes back and Shinsou matches that with a determined grin of his own. Then Aizawa looks at the unmovable object that is Kaminari Denki. Even after he poured out his entire life story he was no closer to figuring out how to break his hardened shell, it was as admirable as it was frustrating.

Kaminari’s head is in the clouds, the place it's most familiar with. Kaminari’s love of the future is what’s pushing him through. He's picturing himself on a stage with people cheering after he speaks, people who have been positively influenced by his words and actions. And adore him for it.

It's why he has to stay strong to reach that future. If he fails here he fails thousands of people he doesn't even know. He can't know if this is true but he knows the pain of not doing it and it's pain you can't get through life with. And so like a flame through heavy winds he endures.

Aizawa's and Shinsou’s look at Kaminari with the same intense thousand yard stare, bodies still as a bat resting in a cave meanwhile Kaminari is still as stone pillar. Aizawa clears his throat.

“Kaminari, we want to help you. I know you think that this is much better than us and that we have another agenda. But regardless of any of that I still consider you a student Kaminari and everything I’ve heard about you only confirms to me that you can be a amazing hero even if you don’t want to be. And if nothing else that means you deserve a second chance, but no 1 can do that alone there has to be cooperation. We can't choose what actions you take, you know that. But I don't think you've thought through what's actually best for you in this scenario. So take your time, stay as silent as you want. Me and Shinsou are going to talk alone.”

Aizawa says matter of factly as he gets up from his chair. Shinsou eyes wide and head turns extremely quickly especially for sleep deprived Shinsou.

“We are?”

Aizawa slowly rolls his eyes to look directly at Shinsou, eyes completely unreadable.

“Yes let’s go.” Aizawa lazily motions to Shisou while walking ahead of him. Shinsou, eyes looking like a possum that’s have had a flashlight shined on it. He nods quickly and very repeatedly while slowly getting up from his seat.

“Y-Yes sensei.”

Aizawa looks at Shinsou, one eyebrow raised, eyes narrowing with intensity. Shinsou in response looks back down at his shoes, hunching himself over while clenching his fists.

“Stop, you know this response isn’t helpful for yourself or for your goals.” Aizawa has his back turned to Shinsou meaning he isn’t even seeing Shinsou rubbing the back over his neck over and over.

“... I know.” Shinsou walks at a snail’s pace behind Aizawa, dragging his feet as he does so. Aizawa takes a long time to open the loud metal door. And they both slowly walk in, Aizawa looking straight ahead eyes like a owl looking for prey. Meanwhile Shinsou still has that hunchback stance while his eyes are shut like metal doors, shoulders slumping. Tsukauchi swiftly turns his head, smiling forming on his face.

"How did it go?"

Tsukauchi's eyes are filled with stars as he faces Aizawa. Aizawa takes a very slow and very long deep sigh. And looks at him frowning.

"Horribly."

Aizawa's voice is deep and tired, something that causes Tsukauchi's smile to disappear entirely. Replaced with a finger on his chin as he still keeps eye contact with his man Aizawa.

"I see… Do you have any idea of how to get anything out of Kaminari?"

Aizawa's big frown gets even bigger while he nods slowly and disapprovingly nods no. Which makes Tsukauchi take a quick but deep breath.

"That’s… That’s pretty bad. Well, does Shinsou have any other ideas?" Tsukauchi's shoulders stiffen back up and a smile comes back.

"No one has any more ideas." Aizawa's tone and body language stay the exact same while Tsukauchi goes back to frowning and shoulders slump again.

"Damn."

Tsukauchi puts his hand on his back and looks at Shinsou who's rubbing his neck quicker than before, looking at the floor like it's an enemy and eyes extremely narrowed, which only emphasizes his bags. Tsukauchi nods his head, face scrunched, while he puts his hand on his heart. Aizawa looks at Shinsou as well.

"I'll talk him, you take time to think about what to say next."

Aizawa pats him on the shoulder while Tsukauchi looks right at him with a smile again. Aizawa walks over to Shinsou.

"For the record I bear much more responsibility than you." Shinsou's eyes go wide while his body language tenses up. Looking like a little boy who knows he’s in big trouble.

"It was illogical to go off the word of a kid anyway. All you did was try your best, like any hero should."

Aizawa grabs Shinsou’s shoulder with a soft touch and looks at him with a sincerity he shows only few.

"I was pretty confident about it however."

Shinsou body language loosens up but Shinsou cannot bear the emotional weight of looking at his mentor eye to eye.weight of looking into his mentor’s eyes. As he would rather look at himself rubbing his hands tougher roughly.

“Yes but it’s not the confidence that should be punished.”

Aizawa look is tern but tone is soft something that gets Shinsou to look straight at Aizawa eyes like lazers as he shoulders stiffen up and he sits back straight now.

“Yes Sensei.” Shinsou’s tone matches Aizawa’s exactly something that puts a small smile on the veteran sensei’s face.

“Okay now you’re ready to discuss what to do next, correct?”

Aizawa remains stotic and consistent while Shinsou eyes narrow like a raven on the hunt as he nods yes.

“Excellent now let’s join Tsukauchi.” Aizawa slowly lets go of Shinsou’s shoulder and slowly steps to the detective. Shinsou marches with much more confidence, footsteps echoing around the small room as he stops to the detective.

“Aizawa.” Tsukauchi stands up straight, his arms spread out and held high?

"So we're ready to talk?"

Aizawa slowly puts on a small smile and manages to nod 'yes.'

"Okay, so what's the issue?"

Tsukauchi's eyes narrow down as he keeps his intense gaze on Aizawa.

"Kaminari is keeping his mouth shut and we haven't even gotten a look out of him."

Aizawa flat tone perfectly matches his netural body language and Shinsou looks at him with a small frown and neutral body language of his own. Tsukauchi looks up at the ceiling, one eyebrow raised.

“I see that makes things extremely tricky. Did he respond to anything at all?”

Aizawa frown returns.

“No, absoutly nothing.”

Tsukauchi grits his teeth putting his hands together.

“Damn, that makes planning really tough. Well then let’s put together what we know about Kaminari and see if we can come up with anything based off of that.”

Tsukauchi puts on a big smile and even gets Aizawa to smile back and Shinsou stands up straight and eyes go wide, bags pushed up.

“Yes, that’s a great idea. Uh, uh let’s see so he was raised by a cult run by a former big shot hero and ran away to Japan and he was taken away from a orphange and then… and then…”

Aizawa looks at Shinsou then looks at Tsukauchi.

“Then he starts to draw parallels between heroes and the cult he was a part of. Which causes him to draw the conculsion that heroes are harmful to society. And now not wanting to be stuck in the same scenario and empowered by his past expereinces. Feels like he can and should do something about it.”

Aizawa matter of fact tone contrats with Shinsou who goes back to hunching over and rubs his neck slowly.

“Aren’t you forgetting something important?”

Tsukauchi keeps his right eyebrow raised while having a cocky smirk.

“What, oh you mean… Gekko correct?”

Aizawa strokes his beard slowly and quietly while Tsukauchi smirk grewer cockier.

“That’s correct Shouta.”

Shinsou looks back up at Tsukauschi while Aizawa now looks at the ceiling.”

“We’ve already determined that it’s important but we’ve already tried to attack that angle and it did nothing.”

“Yes but is it worth giving up on after only 1 attempt?”

Aizawa nods while scrunching up his nose.

“Fair point but now that we have all of our information in a row. What can we discuss?”

There’s silence now. Aizawa sits up straight with both hands in front of his eyes, fingers put together. While he looks at the ground. Tsukaushi looks straight at the ceiling as he rubs both his hands together, tongue sticking out as he bites it. Shinsou looks ahead of him, still rubbing his neck while he slowly blinks, mouth looking like he sucked on a lemon.

Aizawa quietly clears his throat.

“Kaminari did give us our opinion on Shigaraki when he brought it up. We should bring up more things about the LOV until his ego demands to give his opinion on everything.”

Shinsou’s smiles a little bit.

“I really like that idea.”

Shinsou looks at Aizawa, eyes sparkling as he does so. But Tsukaushi closes his eyes and puts his hand on his chin. Still sitting as straight as a brick.

“No, we can’t do that. He only brought that up as a diversion. We can't deny that it’s not a guarantee that he’ll do it again.”

“You’re correct but that doesn’t mean we should dismiss it.”

Tsukaushi cocky smirk returns.

“Right, but it does mean we should hear out other options.”

Aizawa rolls his eyes.

“And I assume that means you have your own amazing idea?”

Tsukaushi nods yes and Aizawa crosses his arms.

“Let’s hear it.”

Tsukaushi stands up.

“Well I was thinking since he thinks so much about the future he can use that to get him on our side.”

Aizawa and Shinsou look at each other confused.

“How so?”

“Well since he’s so committed to a better future. We can use that and talk about how much worse the League of Villains will make said future. We can all agree that, that should be easy to explain.”

Aizawa looks straight ahead and narrows his eyes like an owl on the hunt. He nods his head ‘no.’

“It’s easy to explain, yes. But it'd be much more difficult to break through whatever justification he has put up. It’s very clear to me that he’s extremely introspective and wouldn’t do anything without a plan or moral reason of sorts. So we’d still have to break through whatever he’s used to justify all of his actions for years.”

“Hmmm… That’s true of course but it’s a starting point. So it's only a step! 1 but we can come up with other steps as well.”

Shinsou stands and clears his throat now, clearly.

“About that, I might have something that’ll help.”

Tsukaushi and Aizawa both look doubtful.

"Shinsou-"

"How so?"

Tsukauchi cuts off Aizawa which prompts a glare from the sensei.

Shinsou has a bead of sweat rolling down while he's fidgeting with his hands.

"W-W-Well if we point out how the LOV contradicts his vision and weeeeeeeeee could wear him with how being aligned with the LOV will invenetiable let him down."

There's silence that falls over the room while Aizawa and Tsukauchi look intensely forward.

"Well I think-"

"No it's a great idea but unfortunately we don't have time to wear him down. His trial is very soon and we have to get as much evidence as we can gather especially if we want to make him good as possible in front of a jury."

Tsukauchi nods in agreement while Shinsou rubs the back of his neck while looking at the floor.

"Shinsou."

Shinsou's head perks up and looks right at Aizawa.

"Stop self loathing, you know that there's more important things to deal with."

Shinsou takes a step back and his eyes go wide. Aizawa is right he’s here to help a friend and he shouldn’t put himself 1st of course. His eyes narrow down and his balls his fist up.

“Right.”

Aizawa has a small smirk on his face looking at Shinsou with confidence.

“So what’s the plan to get something out of him, then?”

Tsukauchi asks with his curved index finger rest on his chin while he still looks at the floor with intensity.

“That’s the question isn’t it?”

Aizawa goes back to grabbing his chin and looking at the room with the exact same intensity.

“Can’t we hold off the trial for a few more weeks?”

Shinsou asks still rubbing the back of his neck but looking right at Aizawa eyes narrowing with bags surrounding them.

“That would be difficult and it would take a few days. So for today this is the best approach.”

Aizawa’s emotionless tone is clear and Shinsou takes a step back, puts his hand on his hip and stares at his shoes.

Aizawa hates being stuck, it's incredibly annoying how much thinking 1 can do without getting anywhere. And this is why the room has fallen silent again. So Aizawa grabs his chin and starts rubbing his beard. Looking straight ahead at the door, where you can see Kaminari glaring through the small rectangular window. Aizawa looking straight at him.

‘Hmmm… Perhaps Shinsou had a point.’ Aizawa thinks to himself.

‘Correct way of thinking but wrong execution. That's actually impressive for someone his age. But then where did he go wrong? He obviously values people and has the potential to value their relationships with them. So why didn’t Shinsou’s plan work then? He saw himself and Geeko as having a similar relationship due to them being peers in a harsh environment. But obviously something went wrong in that equation? Oh… That’s right despite being similar ages Kaminari did look up to Gekko as a mentor figure, the only true 1 he ever had in his life.”

Aizawa swiftly turns to face Shinsou and Tsukauchi, eyes going wide.

“I will face Kaminari alone.” Aizawa’s voice is raised his voice echoing throughout the room. Now Shinsou’s and Tsukauchi’s eyes go wide in response.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, why?”

Tsukauchi tone is incredibly surprised and confused and Shinsou’s look shares the same emotions. Tsukauchi right eyebrow raises while he brings himself to look at Aizawa with complete and utter confusion.

“Why else, because it’s the best course of action.” Aizawa tone was back to being calm and devoid of emotion. Which only further confused the other 2 guys in the room.

“Sensei I don’t mean to respect but I don’t understand how this would be the best course?”

Shinsou hand shakes slightly while taking deep breaths through his nose. Aizawa glares right at him.

“Trust me, it’ll work.” Aizawa’s tone is clear and precise and both Shinsou and Tsukauchi to take a step back.

“B-But if you don’t mind me asking, I’d love to know why?” Tsukauchi leans over finger turned over and pointing right at Aizawa with a very awkward expression on his face.

“... Kaminari saw Gekko as a mentor figure, even if he didn’t know.”

“... Hmmmmm, I see yeah that actually makes a lotta sense.” Shinsou walks up towards the 2 adults.

“I understand but what does that do for us?” Shinsou left eyebrows raises high in the air as he looks Aizawa eye to eye.

”Well we can’t say for certain if he looks at any of us similarly but if there’s anyone who it could be it would his sensei.” Both Shinsou’s and Tsukauchi’s mouth go agap for a brief moment and their eyes go wide.

“Oh that’s genius Shouta.” Tsukauchi’s big smile comes back eyes full of hope. While Shinsou looks at the floor still in shock.

“So am I allowed to go?” Aizawa asks balling up his fists while glaring at Tsukauchi and Tsukauchi nods yes.

So Aizawa marches fowards shoulders broad and glaring straight ahead at Kaminari.

Chapter Text

Aizawa opens the door with a swiftness making a very loud creaking noise which grabs Kaminari’s attention. Aizawa slowly walks to the chair while he looks over at Kaminari the whole time. Kaminari’s body language is defensive like a guard dog seeing a potential intruder. The chair also squeaks loudly as Aizawa slowly sits down still looking right at Kaminari.

“Hey you gonna keep staring at me or you actually going to talk to me?”

Kaminari’s glare narrows down, he grits his teeth while looking at Aizawa.

“We’ll talk.”

Aizawa's tone is loud, cutting through the atmosphere and making Kaminari sit back further in his seat. But still has his distinct lack of emotion regardless.

“O-Okay, well say something then!”

Kaminari yells with nervous energy. Aizawa clears his throat and goes back to looking at him.

“... I’m sorry.”

Aizawa says quietly but as clearly as before. Kaminari’s eyes go wide and his right eyebrow goes high in the air. Aizawa takes a long and deep breath

“Eh, for what exactly?!”

Kaminari’s confusion was clear for all to hear and to see. Aizawa though stays the exact same.

“For failing you as a sensei.”

Aizawa again tone stays emotionless as opposed to the words he says. As it feels like a rock drops into the stomach of Shouta Aizawa.

“You didn’t fail idiot, it-”

“It wasn’t inevitable, you’re human at every moment you can choose to change anything about yourself. That’s an assessment you agree with, correct?”

Aizawa raises an eyebrow while glaring directly at Kaminari. Kaminari cocking his head back and gritting his teeth in worry.

“Uh, y-yeah, yes I do.”

“Then as your sensei I had the opportunity to realize what was happening and set you on the right path and I failed. And I know you don’t think it’s the right path but that the path I'm on or the path I want you on is the right 1. But that is proof of my failure."

Aizawa closes his eyes as Kaminari looks at the table puckering his lips like he sucked on a lemon.

"Hmph, well if that's how you want to take it."

Kaminari turns away from Aizawa a very noticeable pout as he did so.

“You’re correct.”

Aizawa’s smirk was confident which further surprised Kaminari. His eyes not only open but went wide.

“So why the hell are you bothering with this then?”

Kaminari’s tone is now annoyed, with a hint of that confusion lingering in the air. , with a hint of that confusion lingering. He once again raises his right eyebrow high to the sky. While directing at Aizawa looking like how a hawk would look at its prey. Aizawa clears his throat looking at him like a laser eye to eye.

"Because we can fix our mistakes Kaminari."

Aizawa's smirks which gets Kaminari to move his head back. Almost blushing with shock.

"There… There’s no mistake whatsoever. I understand why but don't try and make your mistakes mine!"

Kaminari turns around, shutting his eyes extremely quickly, gritting his teeth. Aizawa narrows his eyes and locks his hands, putting them right in front of his face. The silence is so thick with tension a knife couldn't cut it. Kaminari opens his eyes and cockily smirks.

"HA, I knew you couldn't come up with anything! You know I'm correct and that people are being held back by heroes and that is now an undeniable fact!"

Kaminari’s smirk cannot be mistaken for anything else other than arrogance, his eyes narrow looking like a snake who's found its prey. But Aizawa's look remains stoic.

"What made you think I couldn't come up with anything?"

Now it's Aizawa's turn to raise an eyebrow looking at Kaminari directly which gets Kaminari to tense up.

"Hmmm, what kind of question is that?!"

Kaminari’s body language gets more defensive as he yells in clear annoyance. Aizawa remains unphased.

"Well that implies that you believed that for whatever reason you believed that I could see your worldview?"

Kaminari is frozen as he is caught completely off guard, and he sits as straight as he can be while blushing out of shock.

"Uuuuuuh, well hmmmmm… Well you do your work in the shadows and wanted to hide your work from the world. Sooooooooooooo you weren't in the weeds as much so to say. Well what I mean is that you aren't as entangled with citizens and therefore haven't had to tell so many lies to yourself, you know?"

Kaminari’s usual confidence was gone, replaced with confusion but Aizawa nodded with understanding.

"Yes, I understand what you mean because of my choice to stay away from the spotlight I have less cognitive dissonance, correct?”

Aizawa stays the exact same but Kaminari perks up confidence back in his eyes.

“Yes, yes, exactly! But still, I wasn’t expecting you to turn but you know there was slight chance.”

Kaminari closes his eyes with a pout turning away from Aizawa who has a amsused grin on his face.

“Well I’m honored you thought of me so highly.”

“Ha, ha, ha.”

Kaminari rolls his eyes while clenching his fists.

“So why the hell are you here, huh? Can’t be to waste my time can it?”

Aizawa nods no, his grin growing.

“Well you’re pretty smart I trust you can figure it out without my help.”

Aizawa raises one eyebrow and looks directly at Kaminari with a smug grin. Kaminari grits his teeth and eyes go wide looking directly at Aizawa.

“Hmph, well of course!”

Kaminari snorts his expression turning prideful.

“Well then prove it.”

Aizawa’s flat tone and expression pisses Kaminari off, he grits his teeth and he would’ve crossed his arms if only he wasn’t in cuffs.

”Hmph, well now you’re being annoying. I’ll do it, watch!”

“Then prove it.”

Kaminari takes a super deep breath though his nose, a dragon’s breath.

“Okay, well this is definitely a despration heave of sorts. And you’re trying to show mw a sort of empathy and relatability to get me to talk.”

Kaminari’s confident tone mixed with his annoyed expression gets Aizawa’s amused look to come back.

“Huh, what the hell you looking at me like that for?”

Kaminari’s right eyebrow raises in the air along with a glare.

“It’s always amusing to see someone so confident be wrong.”

Kaminari now looks offended.

“Oh yeah, hmph well I don’t believe you do there!”

Kaminari pouts again and turns away from Aizawa which gets an amused grin to return.

"Isn’t it closed to assume you're right and not even be open to the chance that you're wrong?"

Aizawa raises his right eyebrow with a smug grin and Kaminari blushes again looking straight at his shoes, starting to tap his left foot on the marble floor. Kaminari betrayed himself and Gekko in 1 sentence and the worst part is he didn't even understand why.

"No… No, you're right I should hear you out."

Kaminari still can't bring himself to look at Aizawa, his voice low and barely hearable. Aizawa nods briefly in agreement.

"Right, now you looked at Gekko as a true authority figure, correct?"

Kaminari looks surprised but that gets Aizawa’s smug look to grow even smuger.

"Well, yes he was certainly much better than the fucking Hari!"

Kaminari still couldn't look at Aizawa but his voice is now louder and much clearer, turning his head to glare at the floor.

"Kaminari."

Aizawa’s voice is still quiet but much clearer than even Kaminari was before. And with confidence.

"Why yes?"

Kaminari this time looked at Aizawa but this time his voice went back to quiet and unclear.

"Do you know why I became a hero?"

Aizawa's tone and look is flat. Kaminari goes back to looking at the floor putting his hand on his chin while gritting his teeth.

"Well I'm positive you've talked about it before but I tuned out. Not too interested in that crap. I'm sure not to your surprise."

Kaminari sounds confident again, voice clear now looking right at Aizawa who simply closes his eyes.

"As I suspected. Well I thought saving people was the highest good I could've possibly aimed for. It makes logical sense doesn’t it? From when I was kid I saw heroes do incredible feats of strength and skill for the sake of saving others. My childhood was horrible, nothing like yours but nothing like your average child either especially nowadays. It was proof there was something great out there to obtain and I didn't have to be shackled to that hellhole. So I took in as much as I could've, studying each hero and all their techniques and studying my own quirk and similar 1s throughout history. Eventually I did the UA entrance exam and while I did horrible in the inappropriately named practical exam because my quirk wasn't made for such a test. But I got a 100% in the written exam so I was accepted into class 1-A, you understand?"

Aizawa said everything as flat as everything else looking at Kaminari like a laser eye to eye but still emotionless. Kaminari stopped for a moment with stars in his eyes while he looks at Aizawa. Kaminari closes his eyes to snap himself out of it while Aizawa looks incredibly smug.

"Well… Yea certainly especially if you were surrounded by crap your whole life of course you latch on to the only ideal society showed you. You're not the 1st person to fall for such a trap and you certainly won't be the last!"

Kaminari closes his eyes and turns away with a prideful look. Aizawa now scowls, ever the prideful. But regardless he was in.

"Well if you understand there has to be some good it does then, no?"

Aizawa crosses his arms while Kaminari glares directly at Aizawa.

"Fucking duh, it was never about that! The determinants are too much to be outweighed by any benefits!"

Kaminari's eyes went wide, bringing back the dragon’s breath from before. Aizawa nods in agreement.

"I see, of course. The thing is Kaminari. I know talking to you is almost impossible to talk to you out of your beliefs. I'm not naive."

"Huh, then why the hell are you talking to me then?!"

Aizawa takes a deep breath.

"Because the more understanding you have about something the more solutions open up to you."

Kaminari froze for a second, his eyes going wide.

"I mean… Yeah you’re not wrong of course."

Kaminari struggles to get his words out a dumbfounded look on his face.

"What, impressed?"

Aizawa's smug tone is matched by his shit eating grin. In response Kaminari blushes and turns away from him.

"Well… Shut up okay?! I mean it's something that's true, yes. But that means everyone should know it so it's not that impressive okay?!"

Aizawa would've laughed but he didn’t want to risk angering Kaminari further.

"Really, hmph that's interesting."

Kaminari raises his right eyebrow high in the air while sucking in a lot of air through his nose.

"Oh, uh, how come?"

Kaminari looks at Aizawa now tapping his fingers on the table.

"Well I've never seen a villain even give a inch when they have such strong ideals. That's something I associate more with heroes."

While Aizawa said that with his deadpan and lazy look Kaminari gave him a deadly glare.

"Don't fucking play with me."

Kaminari stamps his right index finger right on the table. A noticeable metallic "bang" echoes throughout the very tiny room. Aizawa remains unphased.

"Did you choose to have that strong emotional reaction?"

"I wouldn't choose any other reaction."

Kaminari's words were harsh, feeling like his words cut through the air. Aizawa takes a deep breath, his eye slightly twitching.

"It's certainly interesting that you hate heroes so much when you don't act like you're a typical villain. That's for certain."

Kaminari rolls his eyes, nodding while keeping his glare.

"Uh huh so I don't fit into your mold of what a villain is to you? And that matters to me why?"

Kaminari's skeptical look mixed with his dragon breath made him look incredibly aggressive. Which gets Aizawa to shift in his seat but his expression stays the exact same as before.

"Well I can't imagine why someone like you would run around with the League of Villains."

Aizawa finds it hard to look at Kaminari as he knows how he will react. But it was needed.Kaminari eyes narrow and his fists clench.

"Oh, you're not even trying to be clever. You're cutting straight to the point, huh? Well I'm not telling you a single thing. And I've learned my lesson: bring Shinsou in here, go ahead! I've learned my lesson, I won't say a thing!"

Kaminari turns away from Aizawa with a very prideful look on his face.

"Curious why someone who wants to be so strong and takes pride in himself would hang around people so weak."

Aizawa looks directly at Kaminari, his eyes narrowing in return. Which gets Kaminari to grit his teeth.

"Oh, like you have the right to say that!"

Kaminari jerks back in his seat and narrows his eyes. Like a snake eyeing his prey. Aizawa has a small smirk on his face.

"So you think heroes are weak then?"

Kaminari body language got defensive as he narrows his eyes.

“You can’t get me to say something I don’t mean!”

Aizawa sighs.

“Then, what do you mean?”

Kaminari mouth scrunches up like he ate a sour lemon.

“Mmmmm… You can be strong and still be wrong or lacking empathy or whatever.”

Aizawa nods.

“I agree with that. So then where do I think I went wrong?”

Kaminari perks up in surprise.

“Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, what do you mean?”

Aizawa holds back a chuckle then gazes at a now confused Kaminari.

“Well if heroes are people who went down the wrong path, then any guesses as to why I might’ve?”

Kaminari begins to tap his one of his fingers on the table his face showing that he’s in deep thought.

“I… You can’t understand my ideals and get to me or whatever!”

Aizawa pauses looking very impressed, he gives a shit eating grin.

“So you figured me out, I’m impressed but I shouldn’t be suprised.”

Kaminari sticks his head up then swiftly turns away from looking at Aizawa.

“Well obviously, what more did I need to do to make you realize I’m a genius?!”

Aizawa laughs which only gets Kaminari’s glare to deepen.

“You make a fair point. Well then what the hell are we supposed to do now?”

Now Kaminari turns to look right at him with a sickeningly arrogant grin on his face.

“Well exactly, there’s nothing you can do! So give it up you cannot get a peep out of it! And I’m not going to let you play dirty again!”

Kaminari’s usual prideful and aggressive look didn’t bother Aizawa but he knows at this point that’s not what’s that’s for.

“Well we can’t just stare at each other all day of course.”

Kaminari smugly chuckles.

“Well then instead you can now officially skip this part and throw me in a cell for the rest of my life. You can even throwaway the key and everything!”

Kaminari again swiftly turns his head away from Aizawa now with a massive pout. Aizawa slowly narrows his eyes getting suspicious.

“Why are you so ready to throw your life away? You’re far too young to be thinking like this.”

Kaminari now looks at Aizawa exasperated.

“Huh, don’t you get it?! I mean of course you do you’re very smart! I’ve already accepted my fate, the public hates me because I’ve committed the ultimate sin so it doesn’t even matter!”

Kaminari tone of voice was sure and confident which disturbed Aizawa more.

“I wouldn’t give up so easily. And I’m surprised you have.”

Aizawa’s matter of factness only makes Kaminari more confused.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuh, what the hell do you mean?”

Kaminari’s left eyebrow goes high in the air heading cocking back. Aizawa glare deepens.

“Everything about you so far points to always trying to succeed even with incredibly low odds against it. It's completely unheard of for anyone for someone to even escape from that island. It's odd you choose here to finally quit.”

Now Aizawa raises his right eyebrow. Looking at him in an extremely skeptical manner. Kaminari now looks extremely offended and balls up both of his fists.

“Oh, fuck off! Like you have any right to judge!”

Kaminari turns away from Aizawa taking deep dragon’s breath as he pouts hardcore. Aizawa cocks his head back in his seat.

“Getting emotional I see.”

Kaminari now glares at him head still turned.

“Hmph, well back on the island I had a way to escape. Here I don’t have that.”

Now Aizawa glares at Kaminari.

“You do but you don’t want to take it.”

Kaminari looks back with shock and anxiety.

“Uh, I mean… well-”

Aizawa's chair squeaks very loudly as Aizawa gets out of his seat with haste. He turns towards the door.

“Huh, hey where the hell are you going?!”

Chapter Text

Like that Kaminari was all alone for the first time since the start of today which, God how long has it been since the day even? Hard to tell in a room with no clock or even any windows. He feels like it’s nighttime but what evidence does his feelings have? Other than feeling like he’s been here for months without rest. Yeah he’s fucking tired he didn’t even realize that until yeah but yeah he’s tired as hell. Ugh so stressful and annoying well he shouldn’t be complaining he did ask for this or knew it would end up like this.

Soon Kaminari begins tapping his feet on the ground the sound loudly echoing throughout the room. Oh they’re taking forever at least with the back and forth it kept his mind occupied on something! But now… ugh he needed something to drink and eat and well everything. His mind wanders back to the 2 days he had on the boat. Ugh that was a feeling he didn't want to be reminded of again.

There’s no clock in sight but Kaminari can hear it tick-tick-tick. Swatting back memories on the regular. Kaminari sighs his face now a giant frown that no one will ever see. Now he escapes the room he’s in and retreats into his head.

“Man, what the hell would Gekko even think about me being here?”

Was of course the 1st question to come to mind. Kaminari nods his head.

‘Oh who am I kidding? He’d probably something like, why the hell are you thinking about my opinion for? You don’t have a mind reading quirk so how the hell would you know? And if you did, why does it matter? You can’t control my opinion of you but you can control your opinion of yourself. I mean that’s true though so why the hell am I thinking of that?’

Kaminari glares intensely at the table in front of him, forehead in wrinkles as he is perfectly still for a few moments.

‘Probably because, well my opinion of myself right now is complete shit. So I’m turning to the one person who I know had a positive opinion of me. Well the real me not the fake UA bullshit me. You know maybe that’s why my opinion of myself gone to shit recently?’

Kaminari looks up at the ceiling intense lights blaring at his tired looking face. Looking at them in a daze.

‘Huh, it’s weird I wasn’t thinking anything technically but my brain obviously still active. But all it was doing was taking in stimuli looking at the room and shit. So that’s obviously enough for our brains so should that be considered thinking? Is this how idiots work, the thoughts and/or images disappear from their brain randomly and they take in everything in front of them with no added commentary? Ugh, what am I doing? I'm distracting myself with existential bullshit!”

Kaminari sighs and looks back at the floor.

‘Fuck sake I already know why my opinion of myself has gotten so fucking low! I wish I didn't have… no it was my choice. I was stupid for wanting to choose that because well obviously that’s below my standards. No, no, why because I fucking like them, bullshit that’s not how that works. Liking someone even if it's partly because they're a good person. Doesn't mean all they do is good or that their good intentions shouldn't be questioned. There were plenty of people back on the stupid cult island who had good intentions and didn't make their actions at all justified. Well that doesn't make tricking and hurting them justified either does it?’

Kaminari grimaces and grits his teeth, taking a deep dragon’s breath.

‘Well there you go I'm reiterating what I already know. So yeah I betrayed my own standards and that's worse than anything. But what can he do? Well other than what he's doing, right?’

Kaminari looks around at the room he's in and then at the handcuffs he's caught in. He puckers his mouth.

‘Is this really what I deserve? Well yeah duh I hurt them way more than they deserve, right sooo. Well does I over punishing myself really make up for what I did? It has nothing with them so how is this making it right to them in any way. Well it’s not about that is it? No it’s about what I deserve ugh I need to stop distracting myself with useless questions.’

Kaminari grits his teeth.

‘Right going by my own logic… no even then it still doesn't make sense. Ugggggh I let my emotions get to me! Fuck me I betrayed myself again!’

Kaminari sighs then pouts to himself. A sense of disappointment washes over him.

‘Well no wonder I'm here then. I've created my own stupid self defeating cycle. Exactly what I was trying to avoid, shit!”

Kaminari bitterly bursts laughing to an audience of no one but himself. He glares at the ceiling, eyes narrowing.

‘Well what the hell am I suppose to do now then… anything c’mon do you thing… ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh. It would be hard to reverse your own arrest. Especially under the circumstances I’m in, huh? Well at this point what extra pain does being honest would bring me at this point? Well that begs the question why wasn’t he in the first place, doesn’t it?’

Kaminari takes a long deep breath then closes his eyes.

‘I’m a coward, no I can’t be having more self deprecating thoughts. That’s not helping at all of course. Well if I want to lie to others that’s because there’s a truth I want to avoid so what is it? Well that is that I might not want to but might be wrong. Yeah suppose so, ugh of course it’s pride. Always my sin.’

Again that bitter laugh makes it’s not so grand return.

‘Well I’ve diagnosed my problem now what the hell can I about it? I mean why not admit I’m… admit I’m wrong. Damn it’s even hard to do now, shit, Well I did spend awhile believing this. And I still don’t think I’m wrong. Well I mean at that point what does that make me unreasonably arrogant or unreasonably stubborn? Well I say that like it can’t be both.’

Another frustrated sigh comes from the mouth of Kaminari.

‘And here I thought I was done doing frustrating bullshit, nope! That’s not helping is it? Alright if it’s frustrating obviously it’s a problem so gotta focus on how to solve it, right? Why don’t I want to admit that I’m wrong. Oh because I have reasons to still believe I’m right. Well why do I think I might be wrong.’

Immediately flashes of his ex classmates and all the great times he had together with them. All those smiling faces.

‘That’s right, yeah it’s more about the… fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck I miss them don’t I? Yeah I miss em bad. But I mean does really mean anything? Well that I lost some really great friends for one. But that doesn’t disprove any of my concerns about heroes though. Well, hmph it might mean that I took… far more drastic measures than needed.’

Kaminari’s expression looks like he got a massive whiff of a nearby onion.

‘I thought I was ready to face all these tough questions. But I wasn't ready to… wasn't ready toooooo well like them so fucking much. Why, why did I already have so much hatred against these people I've never meant? It's so irrational I…I can't even believe it!’

He grabs his face and grabs it tight.

‘Man Gekko would be so disappointed in me. Hell, I'm disappointed in me!’

Now he slams both of his fist on the metal table. He takes another deep dragon’s breath.

‘Well that emotional outburst didn't solve anything. Ok I keep doing this crap gotta calm down.’

Kaminari closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths. He opens his eyes again.

‘Okay so I connected far more with Class 1-A. Because… because they weren't the assholes I had built up all future heroes to be in my head I suppose! So that means while I should be cautious about it. And spread the word and used the opportunity as a hero to make some changes. Oh wait there’s a another problem isn’t there? I can’t fucking do that now can I? Hmph, the exact rabbit hole I didn’t want to go down. And yet that’s exactly what he did.’

Kaminari sighs while he leans back in his chair. Looking straight a the ceiling. Lights blaring in his face.

‘I don't even have to ask why I put myself here. It’s because I know I deserve it, duh. I hurt a ton of great people for bullshit reasons. Hmph, so what the hell am I supposed to do now? Can’t redeem myself when I’m stuck in a prison cell for the rest of my life… Well accept the punishment, I don’t know what else I can do. I’m in a fucking interrogation room I mean can’t back out now. ‘

Kaminari looks around the room face suddenly was turns into being full of regret. For what was the 1st time in his new life.

‘Yeah looks all those idiots we were right about me, I blew everything like a fucking idiot.’

Chapter Text

Aizawa grabs the phone and begins typing with a quickness that’s unusual to him. As the phone begins its usual dial tone Aizawa clears his throat.

“Hello, who is this?”

“Shota Aizawa, I’m here to talk to doctor Brozovic.”

“One second please.”

The classic hold music can be heard as Aizawa expression morphs into slight annoyance.

‘Remember it’s not a defeat when you go to others for help. It’s a necessary and logical backup plan because as much as you hate to admit. Some problems are too big for you. No matter what you do until you meet someone with the ability to clone others you’ll always be one man.’

Someone finally picks up.

“Hello Aizawa didn’t expect to hear from you, you must be in trouble.”

Aizawa sighs.

“You’re correct, you know Kaminari Denki, correct?”

There’s a moment of silence over the phone.

“Nooooooooooooooooooo, you’re asking me to help with the traitor? Aizawa I’m impressed you’ve really made progress.”

“When is the earliest you can come here and have a session with Denki?”

“Hmph, you’re a lucky man Aizawa, it was supposed to be my day off. But no way I’m I passing on this chance. I can be there in thirty!”

“Perfect, thank you.”

“Thank you for putting your pride aside and asking me for help.”

Aizawa hangs up with a annoyed sigh.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aizawa walks into the room where Shinsou and Tsukauchi are sitting in and get up the moment Aizawa walks in.

“How did it go?”

Tsukauchi says with a friendly smile. Aizawa looks back at him with a sharp glare.

“No but we have further help.”

Shinsou raises a eyebrow.

“Who, All Might?”

Aizawa nods a no.

“No, it's someone more proven in dealing with matters like these. All Might can’t punch this problem away.”

They both chuckle but Shinsou quickly returns to his senses, looking back at Aizawa with a stern look, fists balled up.

“Who did you get then?”

Aizawa looks straight at Tsukauchi.

“Doctor Brozovic.”

Shinsou goes back to looking confused while Tsukauchi gets a very sour expression on his face.

“Tsukauchi if there is a villain who is sympathetic. It would be Kaminari, correct?”

Shinsou looks at Tsukauchi now more confused. Tsukauchi looks at Aizawa, arms crossed and a hesitant expression on his face.

“Of course still that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“I know but please be as cooperative as you can.”

“Who is this doctor Brozovic, should I know who he or she is?”

Both Tsukauchi and Aizawa now look at the confused purple haired boy.

“Not necessarily she isn’t exactly a famous figure. But she is the most notable example of a psychologist who works almost exclusively works with villains.”

Tsukauchi leans his back on the wall in a uncomfortable position while Shinsou looks intrigued.

“I see, genius.”

Aizawa shurgs.

“Eh, it’s rather rudimentary and I wouldn’t have if even asked if we made a breakthrough earlier.”

Now Tsukauchi leans forward standing as tall as he can and looks back at Aizawa with a smile again.

“You did everything you could and certainly made progress. That’s certainly noticeable.”

Aizawa looks at him a small nod of acknowledgment then slowly turns to face Shinsou.

“Shinsou.”

Shinsou keeps his stern look as he looks directly at his mentor.

“Yes?”

“When she comes here she’ll want to know everything she can. So she knows what angle to go with. So remember everything you can and make the story clear to her.”

Shinsou nods determention in his eyes.

“Yes Sensei!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Into the police building goes doctor Brozovic with a confidence in her step and a mischievous smirk dancing on her lips. She sees the desk and swiftly walks over towards the guy at the desk. Leaning over him with no hesitation.

“A Mister Shota Aizawa has asked for me, please call him and tell him doctor Brozovic is here!”

The man gets his phone and starts dialing.

“A woman clams to have been sent here by you, her name is doctor Brozovic… He’ll be right down.”

Brozovic does a polite bow to himn.

“Thank you sir.”

Brozovic walks over and sits down and waits for a little bit. Aizawa walks in and immediately her eyebrows perk up and she gets out of her seat and stands tall.

“Long time no see long man!”
“Don’t call me that.”

“Awwwwwwwwwwwwww, why not?”

Brozovic gives Aizawa a cheeky smile while Aizawa does a annoyed grunt. Crossing his arms and already looking extremly defensive.

“Please follow me.”

Aizawa motions to her and begins to walk away from her. She puts her hands behind her head and follows him feigning disappointment.

“No warm welcome I see.”

They both walk into the room.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tsukauchi and Shinsou both get out of their seats. Tsukauchi putting both his hands into the pockets of his trenchcoats and looks away from Brozovic. Shinsou walks up right to her and holds out his hand looking as serious as he usually does.

“Doctor Brozovic.”

Brozovic looks at Shinsou for a second with a eyebrow raised then shakes his hand back with a smile as warm as the sun.

“Hey you’re not one of my patients, call me Akiho instead.”

Shinsou looks at Aizawa for a second.

“Akiho it is then.”

Akiho then immediately turns her attention to Tsukauchi.

“Yo Tsukauchi, you doing good?”

Tsukauchi shifts uncomfortably and can’t bring himself to look at her.

“Uh, yeah doing good.”

She raises a eyebrow then immediately turns to face Shinsou again.

“So, what info do you have on Kaminari?”

“He’s from a island not too far off the coast of Japan. That’s housed by a cult made by a ex hero with a sun quirk. He was raised there for most of his life and eventually made a close friend in someone named uh…”

Brozovic raises a eyebrow while Shinsou grabs his chest and looks at the ground.

“Yes is something wrong?”

Shinsou eyes go wide and he takes a step back.

“No, I’m… having trouble remembering that’s all.”

She nods.

“Uh, huh, I see. Want help remembering?

Now Shinsou nods.

“No I have this his name was Gekko he was inspired by him to run away from the island after he was killed. He was washed ashore and eventually went to orphanage. Where he was introduced to the hero world and didn’t really understand I suppose.”

“You don’t sound confident about that.”

Shinsou looks back at the floor and starts to rub his neck.

“Well, I mean-”

“Remember you’re not here to council Shinsou. You don’t specialize in hero students after all.”

Aizawa cuts her off with a grimace. Brozovic laughs then looks at Aizawa with a smug smirk.

“Oh I see Aizawa. You’re correct though is that all I need to know?”

“It’s a perfect recap of the basics.”

Brozovic smile turns genuine.

“I see, well what I’m I waiting for then? Let’s go.”

Aizawa and Tsukauchi lead Brozovic to the interrogation room.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaminari taps his foot very quickly a look of anger and discontent on his face. That’s when Brozovic walks in smiling. Kaminari look turns in a blink of an eye to a completely surprised look.

“Huh, who the fuck is this?!”

Brozovic chuckles and looks at Kaminari in a very friendly and welcoming manner.

“Not the most polite way to introduce yourself. Eh, not the rudest way I’ve been introduced to a patient.”

Kaminari head quickly cocks back and one eyebrow goes high in the air.

“Patient, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait you haven’t have you? Ha, you’ve given up! Unbelievable I can’t believe I’m the person that made Shota Aizawa quit, unbelievable! Even if I’m impressed with myself!”

‘Hey, hey, hey, this shouldn’t be seen as quitting. One man can only do so much he ca only be a select number of placers, interact and understand a limited amount of people and can only have so much knowledge about the world at once, for now at least. So therefore it’s perfectly fine to reach out and ask people with a different experience and worldview in case they have a tool in their arsenal that they not have because of their differences.”

Kaminari rolls his eyes.

“Pfft, I know all that but Aizawa makes himself out to be. That’s why I was suprised.”

Kaminari's casual tone contrasts with Brozovic's extreme skepticism.

“Well sure you’d be more dismissive if you didn’t believe he could, correct?”

Now Kaminari narrows his eyes and looks extremly skeptical..

“What are you playing at, huh?!

Brozovcic looks impressed.

“Well I was thinking if you didn’t at least think he could at least get through to you in some, or in fact has but you’re not showing it. You’d be less surprised and more amused, y’know?”

Kaminari eye’s go wide and he again cocks back his head as a smug look once again.

“Uh, hmph no idea what you’re talking about.”

Brozovic leans forward and raises her left eyebrow.

“Sounds like you do.”

Kaminari turns away from her and pouts.

“What gives you that stupid idea?!”

Brozovic smiles.

“Well it certainly looked like I poked at something.”

She shrug’s which gets Kaminari to shift around uncomfortably in his seat.

“Confident aren’t you?”

The doctor flicks her hair back.

“Well I’m best in my field at this. So I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be. Can you respect that?”

Kaminari looks directly at her, sitting as straight as he possibly could.

“Hmph, why yes, yes I can.”

Brozovic smiles.

“I see, well back on topic. You did sorta… flinch when I initially brought it up. So that can't be nothing.”

Kaminari's eyes go wide and he frowns. He begins to bite his lip

“Huh, isn't it obvious?! You caught me off-guard! Some answers are simple, no?”

Brozovic smirks.

“That sounds a little too rehearsed, worried even?”

Kaminari grits his teeth and looks annoyed.

“Oooooooooooooooooooooooh, because you're job is to figure out what makes people tick. That you know each and every thing about somebody from a few ticks. Well you don’t no one does unless they’re omniscient even a mind reading quirk could only get you so far! So don’t play those games with me, I’ve had it played worse with more so don’t even try!”
Brozovic purses her lips and nods her head.

“Of course you’re very smart, my mistake to underestimate you.”

She puts her hand on her chest and looks at Kaminari with a ton of sympathy.

“Yeah, yeah, so is everyone else’s.”

Kaminari looks away from her with a glare.

“Well I didn’t mean-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, nobody does so they?”

Brozovic nods in agreement.

“Of course but I’m trying my best to accurately assess you, I really do want to understand you.”

Kaminari scoffs.

“Right so you can tell me what’s wrong with me.”

Brozovic gets a amused smirk on her face.

“Well I don’t know if anything’s wrong with you yet. That's why I want to understand you first Kaminari.”

They both laugh loudly.

“Ok, ok, you got there I won’t lie.”

“Well there you go now we’re getting somewhere. So what else about yourself do you want to tell me? It could be anything.”

Kaminari raises a eyebrow looking super intrigued.

“So I can sit here and tell you about how awesome I am?”

Brozovic shurgs.

“If that’s what you want.”

Kaminari smiles brightly.

“Oh well that’s way easier, I could go on all day. That was the biggest problem at UA I wanted to talk about my actually life, what I actually thought and felt about things. I had to bite my own tongue so many times I’m suprised I can still speak.”

Brozovic laughs.

“So you’re very passionate about your opinions on things?”

“Hmph, figure that out for yourself, that’s your job is it not?”

Kaminari turns away from her again which gets Brozovic to sigh.

“Well what did you want to tell them so badly?”

Kaminari smirks.

“How fucking stupid they are, duh. I wasn’t even trying that hard but they never suspected a thing.”

Brozovic nods, eyes observant.

“I see, bit cruel don't you think?”

Kaminari laughs.

“Yeah so is nature but how many animals use that exact tactic to lure out prey to eat?prey all the time. I don’t see why the hell I should anything. If they were smarter they wouldn’t have fallen for it and wouldn’t have believed we were friends. I don’t see how’s that my fault.”

Brozovic puts her hand to her chin.

“But you were the one who choose to deceive or accepted the opprunity to deceive them. Don’t you take responability for that?”

Kaminari thinks about it, eyes narrowing as he looks at the wall to the right.

“Well of course but that doesn’t hurt anyone, well not inherently. Like I said it takes them falling for it, that’s not me. That’s their fucking dumbass fault for falling for it.”

Kaminari chuckles which gets Brozovic to rise a eyebrow.

“You seem awfully proud of that.”

Kaminari smirk gets extremly cocky.
“Pfft, of course it was going perfectly and it only went wrong because I got arrogant. And that’s how you know you were doing something right! If you were only caught because you were caught assuming!”

Kaminari laughs proudly while Brozovic looks doubtful.

“Huh, thought you’d have higher standards.”

Kaminari laugh stop as he looks shocked

“Huh, what the hell do you mean?”

Brozovic shurgs.

“Well, seems contradictory to be so proud of fooling so many people but then be proud of getting caught.”

Now Kaminari looks fucking pissed.

“Well what the hell do you know?”

Now Brozovic smirks again.

“I’m a therapist remember, that’s my job in a nutshell.”

Kaminari grits his teeth.

“Okay and so what?

“Well that means I should be allowed to guess at least.”

Kaminari gets a sour expression on his face and sighs.

“Well I’m not a idiot so not going to bother to argue against that.”

Brozovic laughs.

“Excellent, you seem very self aware, you know?”

“Hmph, well I’m very aware of everything, that would include myself!”

Brozovic laughs even harder.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s fair enough, yeah, B-B-But the reason I ask is because surely there’s a part of you that resents being caught and… failing to be as clever as you know you can be?”

Kaminari for a second looks bothered but eventually collects himself.

“Well I did fail myself but only in underestimating myself. I didn’t think I’d succeed as easily as I did. So I’ve learned to be more confident in myself and to be more observant.”

Brozovic now holds back laughter and looks straight into Kaminari’s soul.

“Kaminari very serious question.”

Kaminari leans into his seat looking very interested.

“Yes?”

“I know you’ve fooled a entire classroom of high school students and more impressively some pro heroes. But I’ve worked with pathological liars for most of my career so did I fool into thinking I was falling for your complete bullshit?”

Kaminari’s eyes go ufo wide and mouth is a bit agape.

“Uh, what bullshit exactly?”

“Oh c’mon from the moment you started talking about how much you oh so enjoyed tricking your classmates. There was something off about your tone compared to when we were first started talking. I quickly realized it was the genuineness of your tone that was off. It’s subtle and might be subconscious but your tone gets a little higher pitch and you sound a little… higher pitched and… stupider or more air headed when you lie.”

Kaminari blushes.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, yeah, yeah that’s probably habit yeah.”

Brozovic laughs again but this time Kaminari looks at her with an extremely annoyed look on his face.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m very easily amused, you gotta understand.”

Kaminari rolls his eyes.

“Oh yeah, yeah, whatever.”

Kaminari pouts.

“Ok back on track so admit to lying why did you?”

Kaminari leans back in his seat, eyes going wide again.

“Hmph, never said that.”

Brozovic raises an eyebrow.

“Uh, you admitted that sounding like an airhead was a bad habit of yours. Then from what exactly was it from if not lying all the damn time?”

Kaminari looks at the wall for a second then back at her.

“Well from pretending to be a idiot for a full fucking obviously. Isn't that what it would most logically be?”

Brozovic rolls her eyes.

“You’re stubborn aren't you?”

Kaminari looks offended as hell.

“Yes when I'm right!”

Brozovic smirks and raises a eyebrow.

“Oh really?”

“Yes, yes of course! That's why I'm not backing down now!”

“Ok, then well if you do enjoy the suffering of your fellow students? From what I've heard you're a crusader of justice. Maybe not in an accepted way but in a way, right? So how the hell do you justify that with your whole mission?”

Kaminari glares at her.

“I shouldn’t enjoy taking down and embarrassing those who will oppress Japan? Eventually one of them or someone else will take advantage and use that power for… not heroic reasons let's say.”

Brozovic does nod in agreement after a little bit.

“Honestly that's a very reasonable worry to have. Power doesn't always corrupt but when it does it does hard, huh?”

Kaminari laughs.

“Well glad to see you can be reasonable when you're not being annoying.”

“Weeeeeeeeeeell, I try. But do you really think that your classmates, the ones who everyone says they're so brave and virtuous? Really are the type to take advantage of their power like that?”

Kaminari looks right at her and doesn't hesitate to answer.

“Well I can speak to who they are now. Not who they will be. I don't have that kind of quirk.”

Brozovic laughs.

“Wow, hard to believe you came up with that on the spot.”

Kaminari chuckles back with pride.

“Well I did.”

“If you're that smart surely you can hazard a guess, right? Not anything concrete tell me based on what you know, right now. It's simple so cmon please give me something.”

Kaminari glares at her then nods ‘no.’

“Oh c’mon I'm not that arrogant. If I can't predict the future what's the point of trying?”

“Well it’s a great way of testing how intelligent you are.”

Kaminari gives her a “you've got to be fucking kidding me” look.

“Uh, huh, is that the only way?”

Brozovic nods no.

“Of course not. I must be boring you, sorry.”

Kaminari gets a shocked look on his face.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, what do you mean?”

Brozovic shrugs.

“You’re obviously very introspective and so you know a lot about yourself. And I've heard about your past so you obviously know when people try to play you so what's the point?”

Kaminari looks at her with extreme skepticism.

“Because that's your job, right? I do have that correct.”

“Yes, yes, but as a therapist I can tell you that therapy isn't for everyone. I don't think anything is for everyone in fact. And I'm starting to see that maybe you're one of those people. Instead I'd like to tell you a story.”

Kaminari raised his left eyebrow.

“A story?”

Brozovic nods.

“That’s right. I mean I have to make it look like I went as long as possible, so thought this would be a fun way to pass some time.”

Kaminari looks at the table for a few moments then looks back at her.

“Eh, what the hell? Sure go ahead say what you want to.”

Brozovic looks back at Kaminari with a smile.

“Thank you. Now a few years ago, must be 5 years by now actually. I was sent to deal with this ideological driven villain that everyone else had given up on working with. He was a terrorist who immigrated from Moldova actually. He had extremely similar beliefs to you actually, he also believed that heroes had far too much power and came to hate the citizens of Japan for letting them accumulate that much power.”

“Oh yeah I get that, a lot of corruption in Moldova. Of course he'd have that worldview.”

“Oh, I didn’t think you'd know so much about geopolitics.”

“Well you know, you suddenly throw yourself into a brand new world. You want to know more about it! But enough about my stuff we were talking about a terrorist from Moldova?”

“Oh yes of course my apologies. Yes I remember he was incredibly aggressive but not obvious about it. His body was still as rock but his voice and oh man his fucking glare. He was fucking scary. But it’s my job to work with scary people so I was unphased. I began by asking about his life in Moldova. He was raised by a single father and was horribly impoverished. He grew up always fighting someone whether or not he started it or not. He was trying to get someone's money or they were trying to get his money, he was fucking with someone's pride or someone was fucking with his. It was a contest for who could drag more people to the bottom. It's why his father tried desperately and eventually moved out of there and to Japan. But still things didn't get better though. In fact now they got worse as at least when he was poor in Moldova he was among company, now in Japan that made him stand out. So he was bullied for it and he responded the way he was taught to. With heavy aggression which got him in trouble of course and so at 17 he was kicked out of school. Now with nowhere to go he quickly turned to expressing his hatred outwards.”

“Hmph.”

Brozovic perks up in her seat.

“What?”

“Well I can certainly do understand why he'd be angry. He has plenty of reasons to be. But I don't understand why he'd be angry at the people.”

“Well, why not I can certainly understand it. Why can't you?”

Kaminari quickly looks defensive again.

“Hey, don't want to get too off topic.”

Brozovic slaps her head.

“Oh, right apologies maaaaaaaaaan I can be so fucking unfocused! Right, back to the story. So I actually had the same question for him and he had a very uh, hmmm… esoteric answer. He blamed the people for letting themselves be ruled and accepting how much power they were giving them and instead beating up on those weaker than them.”

“Hmmm, I mean that's not good, duh. But that doesn’t justify violence!”

“Uh, huh, interesting.”

Kaminari briefly gets out of his seat.

“Huh, what's so interesting?!”

You didn't need to be a licensed therapist today to know that question rattled him.

“Where you draw the line.”

Kaminari narrows his eyes with a dangerous glare.

“You judging me?”

“That would be counter intuitive to my job Kaminari.”

Now Kaminari grits his teeth.

“Well what the hell else could that be then?!”

“Well obviously you're not against using violence but for some reason you're against using it for that purpose. Thought it was an interesting observation that's all.”

Kaminari takes a long deep dragon’s breath.

“Let’s move on, I want to hear the rest of your story.”

Brozovic smirks incredibly cockily.

“Right, apologies again. So then I started to ask questions that broke down his ideology. Why he blamed others and what he meant by letting themselves be ruled absolutely. Of course he meant that they all bought into the mythology of heroes and brainwashed themselves into giving up their freedom. I presume you agree?”

Kaminari glares directly at Brozovic, room falling silent.

“...Yes.”

“Awesome and now I asked him how does this make him feel and if he does this in part to pursue this feeling. Eventually he admitted that yes it is a part of his pursuit. That early in his life he felt powerless and the responsibility fell on those in power who he knew didn't want to use that power to help those like him.”

Kaminari crosses his arms.

“Hmph, big surprise there.”

Brozovic smiles subtly.

“Oh yeah, I know, trust me. I even told him that it was a perfectly legit feeling to have. Only to question why he was so insecure that he felt the only way to earn power was to hurt those who were as weak as him. Of course he got super pissed and after awhile it was hard to calm him the hell down. But once I convinced him that I wasn't trying to gotcha him or make him seem worse than he is. And that I was trying to be as accurate as possible so I could help him. He finally calmed himself down and man you don't want to deal with this fucker mad trust me. So yeah I then shared my thoughts with him. That his hunger for power was birthed from his rightfully resentment only to never question what's the best way to express this resentment because he never knew or wasn't worthy of the better ways of expressing your resentment. And to my complete shock he actually agreed with most of it and even was honest enough to admit that it wasn't insecurity or being so emotionally invested but impatient and fear. That he was so afraid of dying young that he wanted to rush to his grand ideal world.”

Silence falls over the 2.

“Kaminari?”

Kaminari jumps slightly in his seat. Expression turning to that of sudden shock.

“You hadn't made a comment in awhile, I was making sure paying attention. You weren't that invested in my story were you?”

Kaminari slumps in his seat.

“I have nothing to say, nothing wrong with that right?”

Brozovic shurgs.

“Yes, can’t say there is.”

“Well then.”

There’s a pause.

“I’ll continue then. I told him that’s a perfectly vaild reaction to have especially considering his background, most people from Moldova I imagine think similarly. At this point he started being way less aggressive and we really started clicking. And that’s when I started to talk about how I thought his pursuit of power and his intentions were admirable. But he sold himself short and that cost him. That even having these great ambitions and this grand want to help gave him so many opportunities to do so many great things and to become the amazing person you obviously wanted to become. But because you kept telling yourself that you didn’t deserve to be that person because it was impossible. People will follow the beats of the story they tell themselves and so you told yourself it was impossible so you made it impossible to accomplish.”

Another pause.

“How did he react?”

“Immediately broke down crying as again imagine a lot of people would. But I comforted the guy. I told him that it’s not the end of your life and that even you spend the rest of it in a jail cell. If you change for the better and you’re the only person who needs to know. So you can die happy. And… he… he thanked me for all I did for all I did for him. And then our hour was over.”

“Wow, you did all that in a hour?!”

She flicks her black hair while having a cocky smirk.

“Told you I was the best in my field didn’t I?”

Kaminari chuckles.

“You did, you did.”

“So want to talk now?”

Kaminari narrows his eyes and looks at her with skepticism.

“You weren’t fooling me I knew why you were telling me that story!”

“And yet you were sucked in anyway weren’t you?”

Kaminari immediately stops looking at her and to the wall clenching up his fists and expression now looking like he ate two handfuls of sour lemon candies.

“So what?”

“There has to be a reason for that, correct? You believe that behind every action a person does there’s a reason behind that, right?”

Brozovic raises a eyebrow while Kaminari now looks at the floor.

“Well duh.”

“So what is it?”

Kaminari takes a deep breath and sits there, not frozen but not saying anything either. Brozovic tilts her head.

“Yes?”

“Look I can’t…”

Kaminari trails off puckering his lips.

“Again you have better reason than most to suspect people especially people like me of having as secret agenda. But surely you know why it’s impractical to treat every authority figure with heavy distrust before you ever know them, right?”

Kaminari sighs.

“Yes, yes, I know, I know.”

“So do you want to give me a proper chance or keeping awkwardly pausing?”

Kaminari stiffens his shoulders, sighs again and looks right at Brozovic.

“Fine,let’s do it.”

Brozovic smiles.

Chapter Text

Aizawa paces back and forth the small gray room eyes looking ahead but head somewhere five thousand miles away. Both Shinsou and Tsukauchi look at him worried.

‘It’s been quite awhile and we’ve heard nothing. How do we know if this is going well at all? She does have a incredible track record. But that isn’t a guarantee anything, not that anything would. I’ve always struggled with patience but in this case it’s too important-”

Tsukauchi grabs Aizawa shoulder and looks right at him.

“Aizawa please it’ll be over soon. Have a coffee calm down and please sit down.”

Aizawa looks over at Shinsou and sees that he’s super worried. Aizawa takes deep breath and slowly walks over to him.

“You’re right if we can do nothing but wait then that’s the last thing that should be on my mind.”

“That’s right.”

Aizawa sits down and glares ahead of him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaminari sits there and looks ahead at Brozovic looking squmish.

“So why did you feel such a strong need to change how society works?”
Kaminari doesn’t hesitate at all to answer.

“It’s because I saw where this society was going. But since I have the freedom to actually change things unlike back on my home island. So I wanted to do as much as I could to stop it from getting to that point.”

Brozovic nods.

“Why such extreme means though?”

Kaminari eyes go wide as he sticks up further in his seat.

“Uh, I mean I don’t know. Well I couldn’t have changed it through normal means.”

“Why not?”

“Well, they’re in too deep they’re not going to recieve radicial change good, right?”

Brozovic tilts her head.

“Why, why can’t you at least try?”

Kaminari sighs.

“Well you’ve seen people, right? They’re full of hero fever! No way they’ll be convinced by pretty words and a great argument, right? So I could show them how much better would be they’d accept it eventually of course.”

Kaminari looks back at Brozovic smugly while Brozovic looks at him with skepticism, her right eyebrow raised high in the air.

“Oh, you think this showing people a better world?”

Kaminari in a blink of a eye goes from smug to offended.

“Huh, what right do you have to judge?!”

Brozovic now looks at him with a small smile dancing on her face.

“Well do you know anyone you’ve convinced?”

There’s a silence that falls over the room as Kaminari gives her the a thousand yard stare.

“Well, I wasn’t given a proper chance!”

Beads of sweat start appearing on Kaminari’s forehead.

“Look Kaminari, I’m not gonna pretend your logic isn’t sound that would be ridiculous. But I often find that the problems with the logic most people use isn’t they’re inconsistent but it’s all the variables they aren’t considering.”

Now Kaminari looks annoyed with his left eyebrow raised.

“Oh and what variables I’m I not considering then?”

Now her smile becomes bigger and more genuine.

“Well for one there’s already plenty of people who agree with you. I know they’re a minority but for a minority they’re pretty big. I mean I’m pretty deep into the whole intellectual counterculture. But I can’t go a single day without seeing some new book on my timeline that’s some new take on hero society is bad and will collapse inevitably. So there is a audience one I’m sure you’re very aware of. I mean surely you’re aware of a few these guys, right? Especially with how smart and ready to learn you are.”

There’s another pause.

“Have you heard of Ichiro Pagliarulo?”

Now it’s Brozovic’s turn to look extremly smug.

“Heard, I’ve talked to the guy.”

Now Kaminari has stars in his eyes.

“No way really?!”

Brozovic nods yes.

“That’s right, he’s much more energetic than he presents himself. But man he’s as dower that’s for sure.”

“Oh yeah I disagree with a lot of that stuff, yeah.”

They both laugh.

“So you’re a fan of his work?”

Now Kaminari very excitedly nods yes.

“Ooooooooooooooh, yeah, yeah, his stuff is great. I mean yeah like I said earlier he’s a bit dower but man his points are on point. Mmm, he’s brilliant I feel like he’s one of the few people who understand what’s going on.”

Brozovic now looks super interested.

“Oh, he made a deep emotional connection with you, huh?”

Kaminari cocks back his head.

“Uh, yes why do you ask?”

“Well how did you become acquainted with him?”

Kaminari begins to tap his left foot with the noise echoing around the room. Something Brozovic notes.

“Well, I read him I assume that's how most people I assume become acquainted with the guy. Most of us didn't have the honor of meeting the guy, you know?”

Brozovic laughs. I assmue that’s how most people become acquainted with him. Most people didn’t have the honor of meeting the guy like you did.``

Brozovic laughs.

“Well true but I meant did you seek him out, did you stumble across him?”

“I don’t see how this is relavant?”

Brozovic and Kaminari stare at each other for a moment.

“Well, I’m interested in what formed your opinions up to this point. You’re in a very unique position as someone who wasn’t a previous part of any popular society and then having these giant sweeping opinions about our society. You understand why that’d be interesting, right like c’mon?”

Kaminari looks at the celing and puckers his lips.

“Of course I’m not stupid.”

“I already know that Kaminari.”

Kaminari smiles proudly.
“Right.”

“... Sooooooooooooooooo.”

“Uh, well, I seeked out not him specifically but I was looking for stuff like that. Eventually stumbled across the guy.”

Kaminari shrugged.

“I’m guessing you don’t want to go more into specifics?”

Kaminari nods no.

“I mean it was awhile ago so I don’t remember everything of course, that’s reasonable yeah?”

“Well I can’t help but I agree. But still remembering some parts would also be reasonable to assume, right?”

“Yes I was fucking thirteen, I mean I don’t have a photogentic memory. Especially at thirteen, so I mean c’mon.”

Kaminari held out his arms with a raised eyebrow. Brozovic locks her fingers together and hides her eyes behind them.

“... Right of course. But is there any way to jog your memory? I think it’s a great shame to have such foggy memories since it’s hard to do any introspection about them or figure what they may say about you today. If you don’t remember them that deeply to begin with.”

Kamimari presses his fingers together and the beads of sweat return.

“Uuuuh, I-I mean.”

Brozovic leans in.

“Kaminari, you’re very clever I know this, so it’s extremly hard for me to believe that someone of your intellect to not have something to go off. Unless there’s some traumatic brain injury you’ve been hiding from us?”

Kaminari leans back in his chair, biting his lip while looking very uncomfortable.

“Definitely not doing that.”

“Then what are trying do then, hmm?”

Kaminari now looks at the floor while Brozovic keeps her stern look locked on the teenage boy.

“Uuuuuuuh, I, uh, I guess I don’t know, really.”

Brozovic raises her right eyebrow.

“Really? What do you mean by really?”

Kaminari suddenly straighten in his seat, his mouth going all wiggly in shock.

“Uh, well, ugh, fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine, it’s because I don’t want to admit it. Alright there, you happy now?!”

Brozovic does indeed smile.

“Well of course that’s good, you identify the problem that’s the 1st step to solving it. So why do not want to admit it?”

Kaminari looks down at the table whilp tapping his index finger quickly on the metal table. The sound echoing throughout the room.

“I’d… I’d rather deal with the problem myself then to give you what you want.”

“Or let a authority figure you don’t fully trust and you don’t want to maniplate to buy you into system you already know is shit, because of your traumatic past correct?”

Kaminari sighs while glaring at her.

“Right.”

Brozovic smiles.

“Ok excellent I’m very much against system though for the record. If my association with Ichiro Pagliarulo didn’t make that obvious. So you have no reason not to trust me Kaminari.”

Kaminari glares while still biting his lip.

“Yeah, yeah, but-”

“Kaminari I've made my career on going against the grain. Most people, and you know this. Most people want to write off all villains as pure evil irredeemable assholes. Because of course that’s way easier in general but especially in a hero dominated society. Meanwhile I’ve tried to expose the humanity of these people publicity that they are indeed people and started for the most part like you or me. Death threats are a regular part of my life now for it. So I’m and never will try and indoctrinate you in anything. Because I myself have seen past all the bullshit, trust me.”

Kaminari puckers his lips and looks back the table.

“Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, but-”

“But what, I’m on your side so there’s no need to distrust me. Look there’s a lot more freedom here than back on your old place. You know that but, can I be honest, Kaminari?”

Kaminari looks back at her confused.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, of course. I’d be pissed off if you lied to me.”

Brozovic laughs.

“Right, right, right. Okay I know that I said I understood your point but even then. I believe that you let this fear control you and color your view of hero society? Do you disagree?”

Kaminari gives her a thousand yard stare while not saying anything.

“Kaminari?”

Chapter Text

I’m a fucking idiot. That’s official I guess it always has been. She might have a point, oh it’s not a might. Yes that fear was probably a part of it.

“Uh, what?”

Well wait a minute. It’s not a fear that comes from nothing is it? No it’s very well founded, it’s extremely well. It’s because I’ve seen that kind of dedication before and I know how people could take advantage of it.

“I was making sure you were still alive.”

Wasn’t the chick at the head of the whole cult a former hero anyway? All it takes is 1 asshole to take advantage to ruin the whole thing. I pat my shoulder twice.

“Mmmm, unfortunately still alive yes.”

Brozovic laughs heartily.

“Well I’m happy you’re still with me. Now then what the hell were we talking about?”

I take a deep, deep, deep, breath.
“We were talking about my past and how it uh, might affect me today.”

Brozovic straightens up in her seat and looks right at me.

“Oh right, of course that comes a up a lot in my line of work. So yes you sure that your beliefs don’t come from fears your past?”

I glare right at her.

“It's not completely irrational nonsense that I invented though. It's that I've seen this kind of all z to have! I've… I've met some awesome people in Japan and I want to see them hurt the same way I was.”

I slump back in my seat after that whole rant. Why the hell did I have such a tough time saying that I met great people while in Japan?

“Of course and I never said it was unreasonable. As matter of fact pretty sure I said it totally was and I agree. I wanted to know if you think you… the reason behind your heavy emotional investment was linked to your past?”

I ball up both of my fists.

“Yes but it's far from an overreaction or anything like that. It's a logical assessment based on my past rather.”

Brozovic looks at me then nods, what stupid thing is she thinking now?

“You know logic and emotion aren't mutually exclusive. In fact they're always linked because emotions are how we react to things. And regardless how logical a thing or a view is we’ll always react we'll always react to it. So there's always a kind of logic even if it's extremely emotional kind that may only really make sense to you. And as I said I more than agree with some things even.”

I look at the table, well I agree with everything she said. Buuuuut seems like she may have missed the point.

“Well yes that is all true. But I'm not stretching the truth to convince myself of anything. I understand why you think like that but that's not true at all.”

Now she looks at me with one eyebrow raised.

“Why do I understand the way I think?”

I blink while staring at her.
“What do you mean?”

“Well if you understand why I think they way I think then please explain to me.”

Well shit I didn’t think that far through.

“Hmmmmm… Well okay I admit maybe I don’t exactly know how you’re thinking.”

“Oh?”

“But I got the general gist which is that you’ve worked with a lot of people like me over trhe years. And I’m sure a lot of them if not all of them to be honest. Used emotions to make connections where the was none so I’m sure you think I’m similar.”

“But you the 16 year old think you’re that special?”

Ok now I’m starting to narrow my eyes at her.

“Don’t bring my fucking age into this.”

“Ok I mean everyone, I mean everyone I talk thinks they’re the expectation, they’re the special one. And while they are in some ways it’s never as much as they think. So yeah I’m gonna be pretty fucking skeptical when I hear that.”

I take a deep breath, ok fair point I guess.

“Alright but why not me, why can’t I be the 1 guy who’s actually right about himself? That’s 1 of the things I strive for anyway.”

Brozovic does put her hand on her chin and pauses for a moment.

“Alright, well of course there’s no reason you can’t be. So go ahead make your case.”

I actually look shocked while she looks at me genuinely curious but also… hopeful?

“Uuuuh… well how do I do even begin to do that?”

“Explain, where did you get these ideas and why if you know.”

“Pfft, of course I know.”

Shit, I didn’t think this far through.

“Well prove it then.”
“Hmph, ok now you’re being annoying.”

I would cross my arms if I wasn’t in cuffs. She looks at me amused because of course she does.

“What, it’s a question. I mean you’ve already proven to me you have a fucking great intellect for a teen. So go ahead tell me and what you think. I’m sure you at least are onto something.”

Shit, gotta think, gotta think.

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell… Look I know that you’re very aware of how all this could go very wrong. But still you were still raised and influenced by this hero society, right? So I’m sure you’d agree especially as psychologist, right? I read some psychology stuff back on the island, they talked about this stuff.”

Oh, she’s actually nodding in agreement. Oh, I’m sure there’s some twist anyway.

“Yes I know a lot about that actually, as it’s common knowledge in our field. So this isn’t the first time someone’s told me this either. Trust me you meet a ton of geniuses with my specific demographic of people I work with.”

I pucker my lips as I go back to glaring at the intellectual smartass.

“Oh of course. Well, do you know in what ways you were influenced by her society, anyway?”

She pauses for a moment a look of befuddlement on her face.

“Oh, that’s a great question. Hmph, well yeah I'm a very introspective person. Hell, that helps me with me work!”

I raise my left eyebrow which accompanies a sly smirk.

“Oh, do you know in every single way then?”

She puts her finger on her chin and looks up to the corner of the ceiling.

“Eh, that isn’t possible well maybe unless you have a immortally quirk, which I don’t. So I can’t know.”

“What quirk do you have, actually?”

She immediately glares at me, oh God dammit.

“I’m asking the questions here.”

“Right, right, very sorry.”

I sigh then continue speaking.

“So mind hearing me out then?”

“Of course not, that’s why I steered the conversation in this direction. You know Kaminari this comes off an awful lot like stalling.”

I stiffen up in my seat as my eyes go dinner plate wide.

“Oh, c’mon be fair.”

“I think I am but if you believe I’m not, then again please go ahead and prove me wrong. And please give me your analysis.”

I pause for a moment. And stare straight at her for a moment. After a bit I finally come up with a answer. Not from nothing mind you, of course based on what I actually see from her.

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, it sounds like this entire conversation you’ve been very skeptical of me. I know that through constant uuuuuh, education that so called villains. Have to be wrong in some way, right? So you’re searching for that and that’s why you're trying so hard to press me and get that aha moment. You can stomp all over me for!”

I have a prideful look on my face. How could I not, I fucking nailed it.

“Hmmm, uh, how did I make you feel that way?”

I cock back my head in surprise.

“I-I, well as I said you’ve been skeptical of me this whole time. Constantly questioning me and my methods. Sooooooooooooo, what else should I come to, right?”

She leans back in her stupid chair for a moment and looks back to that same corner in the ceiling.

“Would you consider that I was trying to understand better how you think rather than trying to get a gotcha on you?”

I sigh again.

“It’d be hard to prove.”

“Yes but why not believe me, or at least give me the benefit of the doubt?”
“We’ve been over my problems with authority, correct?”

She does nod in agreement of course.

“Yeah, that’s on me you can’t move on from something like that so quickly.”

“Exactly.”

I admit I pouted afterwards, a little only a little.

“Okay well, then maybe instead we should instead have a more causal chat.”

I raise my left eyebrow looking back at her.

“You think I believe I can have a casual chat, in this environment?”

I look around the cold, sterile and metal room. She looks back at me with a very understanding look.

“Hmph, well not gonna pretend that I don’t understand that. But still I’m not the environment I’m a person, remember? I can choose how I want to be, you of all people would agree with that, right?”

I take a deep very annoyed breath.

“Well fuck, yeah, I guess can’t disagree with that.”

The fucking bitch even laugh too, the nerve.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”

“Well, I mean look you agree with me, right? So it’d make you a hypocrite not give you me a chance!”

I glare straight at her taking a even deeper, dragon like breath.

“What gives you the right to judge if I’m being a hypocrite or not?”

“Well you did, not implicitly. But you talked to me all about your beliefs and why you have them. So you gave me your measuring stick and I’m using it. What’s the problem?”

I sink in my seat.

“Well… none I suppose.”
“There you go. So let’s have a chat, yeah?”

I deeply sigh.

“Mhm, sure I guess. What do you want to talk about then?”

“You don’t have to be specific but how’s working with the League of Villains? They don’t seem like the nicest people to work with?”

I raise my left eyebrow but reply casually.

“Mhm, oh trust me you don’t know the half of it.”

She laughs.

“Oh, I bet. That’s the one thing that’s universal about my patient there’s always a shitty work expecience in there. At least one most of the time tho they have a fuck ton.”

“I know. I’ve heard a lot of those stories too.”

This gets her interested.

“So you hang around other villains outside the league then?”

“Eh, not really worth talking about right now. Wouldn’t want to bore myself to death.”

She looks at me confused.

“I don’t understand how the hell hanging out with some of the most dangerous people in the country could ever be boring?”

I look at her slightly annoyed, made sure it was only slightly.

“The world can surprise anyone at any time.”

She chuckles, but why what I said wasn’t funny!

“True, true, well still wouldn’t be a big deal telling me if you did or not.”

Now I look at her with a sharpness.

“Normally, no. In a fucking interrogation room, it’s a pretty big deal.”

She sighs and nods in agreement, ha.

“Okay fair enough I guess that wasn’t very casual, huh?”

I nod no back, probably looking very sassy.

“Not at all.”

“Well that’s on me isn’t it?”

I slowly nod yes.

“Hmph, let’s start then.”

“Agreed.”

“Look Kaminari I really respect you, you know that correct?”

I smirk cockily.

“It’s hard not to, yeah?”

“That’s true, so look it’s important to skeptical. And you should be to some extent-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t trust anyone. We’ve been over this. But give me a reason to yeah? Why do I always have to prove myself to you, shouldn’t it be a two way street?”

She looks impressed for a second, because of course she does. But to my surprise she quickly composes herself.

“You’re right so enough sneaky tactics then, yeah?”

“... That would help, yeah.”

“Excellent, so how do you feel about being here then?”

I blink quickly a couple times then look on at her.

“Huh?”

“How do you feel about being in this cold, gray room because of your beliefs?”

I look at her for a moment .

“Pretty shit.”

She laughs annoyingly again.

“I would imagine, but why is it you?”

“I mean… reminds me of the island, you know? It’s… very uncomfortable.”

She nods while looking back any me with honestly, with empathy.

“Well of course, the lack of freedom is what you hated the most. And of course being in hand cuffs in this environment so devoid of any life or expression. It’s gotta be a harsh reminder.”

I nod in agreement.

“Oh yeah, very.”

“Well how have you been dealing with it.”

“By being aware of my own power.”

She smiles at me.

“That’s extremely admirable. A lot of people could learn from that example.”

I smile cockily.

“Oh of course.”

She laughs which only gets my smirk to grow.

“Right, right, right, you know what I like about you?”

I look back at her curious.

“There’s a lot to like, so what?”

She smiles back amused.

“Your confidence, it’s refreshing to hear someone know their own value.”

“Well you can be flattering when you want to.”

“I try.”

We both laugh.

“Well then turns out you’re not all bad then.”

“Awwwwwwwwwwww thank you that’s the best compliment I’ve received all day.”

“Yeah, well doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.”

“Well of course that’s what it’s designed to be after all.”

I chuckle.

“Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.”

“But I never even once noticed you had a problem, that takes a lot of strength.”

“Thank you, soooooooooooooooooo we done here or?”

“I’m getting paid by the hour, Kaminari.”

“And how many hours has it been?”

“Not enough obviously.”

We laugh.

“Right.”

“So I know your ideology pretty well, other people have told a lot about it. And of course you’ve told me about it a lot here.”

I raise my left eyebrow.

“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeees?”

“But I don’t get why express it like this, you know working with such pricks and stuff. Why not write a book or become an activist or whatever?”

I glare at her, sticking up straight in my seat.

“Because I want fucking change now, because if we don’t change now. It’ll got a lot worse very soon. And a lot of people will be hurt, a lot of people who I don’t want to be hurt will be hurt.”

She nods in agreement.

“Which people?”
I look back at her with surprise.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if there was nobody here you gave a shit about you wouldn’t care if some asshole hero abused his power to abuse a bunch of other assholes. So of course there’s something about the people here or people in general, so I was wondering what that is.”

Oh wow, that’s actually a great question.

“Hmmm… Well what they’re capable of.”

“And what do you mean by what they’re capable of?”

Hey, she’s on a roll now.

“Well, you mentioned my friend Gekko, yeah?”

“Yeah, all the way back.”

“Well heeeeeeeeeee… he, was in a very extreme environment and he still turned out pretty awesome. Plus I’ve met some pretty awesome people here and less extreme situations. So I’d love to believe most people if anyone at a certain point could also be awesome, maybe even more awesome Gekko or me.”

“Like who some of your classmates.”

Oh, fuck me. I’m blushing aren’t I? Yep, of fucking course they are.

“W-What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“You know it’s okay to be vulnerable Kaminari, it doesn’t make you any less strong or objective. All it means is that you’re objectively emotional with this thing.”

I nod along.

“Right, right, well I mean how much does it have to do with vulnerability really?”

I can’t bring myself to look at her at this point.

“A lot, not exactly hiding well Kaminari.”

“Alright, alright, fine maybe. So what, you trying to make some sort of point or something?!”

“No I wanted to ask you how you handle hurting people you consider awesome?”

Oh, I sit there tapping my fingers on the metal table for a bit.

“Uh, Kaminari?”

“Like I said it’s necessary for a better future, yeah? So I can picture that and that’s what makes it worth it.”

“So is it enough to continue doing this?”

I take a few deep breaths after that while still tapping my fingers.

“Suppose we'll never get a chance to see yeah?”

Her smile disappears as I say that.

“You know a lot of people want to see you out of here?

I look straight back at her.

“I know but how many people want me out is irrelevant. A lot of people could but it's not a lot of people that will get me out it's the right people. And I know the right people won't change their minds so what's the point?”

Brozovic sighs and then looks me like a laser eye to eye.

“That's why I'm here Kaminari.”

“Oh?”

“But I know I don't have to explain that to you.”

I raise my left eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“It… feels like you don’t want to leave.”

“I have no choice, do I?”

“You have more of a chance then you did back on the sun cult island, that didn’t stop you there.”

“Uh, there I could outside that’s a huge difference? Gives me more room to work with at least.”
“Yes but everyone there wanted you off the island, here you have people how actually want you to leave! That’s a huge advantage, yeah?”

I look at her fucking weirded out.

“Uh, no?”

Now she gives me a ‘oh, come on look.’

“You know the advantages of that, yeah?”

“I also know why they don’t matter.”

“Why are you giving up?”

My eyes go wide as I look at her shocked.

“What?”

“Again based on everything I’ve seen you should be putting everything into fighting your way to get out of here! You did that last time and it worked so why not here?”

“Because I’d rather use my energy to fight people like you to prove you’re stupid!”

“So is that why you’re a villain?”

I raise my left eyebrow again.

“What?”

“Is that why you’re a villain, you want to prove people like me wrong, whatever people like me means to you?”

The whole world stands still as we spend a moment to stare at each other.

“Oh.”

She looks at me curious.

“What?”

“That’s you game, huh?”

“Now Kaminari please, we’ve talked about being overly skeptical.”
“Oh I know but I’m not being skeptical. It’s mere observation.”

Now she looks at me with skepticism.

“What do you mean?”

“You were prying at me to try and get me to confess something.”

“And why do you think it worked?”

God, I fucking hate her smug ass grin in moments like this. I sigh in response.

“Because I’m overly competitive and value my intellect too much.”

“Right.”

“So did you want to make me feel bad about myself or what?”

She laughs which actually does get me to feel better.

“No, no, no, but I admire how much you self reflect so I thought I’d help out. And besides I was trying to say that of course part of my job is to find out why you decided to be a villain. So of course I dug deep you can’t blame me for doing my job, no?”

“No, no I can’t”

Once again we come to a standstill.

“Okay soooooooo…”

“So what?”

“I know you took the wool off your eyes but-”

“No I’m not going to tell you anything else, no.”

She sighs super exasperated.

“Do you… Do you really enjoy this game of going round and round?”

I shrug.

“So what if I am a little?”

“Damn, you’re fucking sadistic.”

Both me and her laugh.

“Well yeah you learn from your environment, right?”

“True, true. But please all I want to do is make your life easier.”

“To make both our lives easier.”

I glare back at her while she looks back at me with discontent.

“Right of course.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You know that’s pretty admirable of you, keeping me honest like that. Especially since I know you don’t believe that’s a bad thing, right?”

I enthusiastically nod no.

“Oh no of course not.”

“Awesome, too many people would think the opposite.”

“Oh I know right?! I know other people are important of course but you’re as important! So fucking many people need to learn that, it’s frustrating!”

She nods in agreement.

“I know and that’s the most frustrating part of this job, honestly. I actually that might be why I’m not nearly as stressed as I am with other patients. Either they don’t value yourself at all or they value themselves waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too fucking much. You’re one of the few people I’ve worked with that has a healthy view of themselves.”

I must’ve looked super smug at that particular moment.

“Why thank you.”

“Of course.”

“So we done here or do you want to keep praising me?”

“You believe it’s been a hour?”
I stare at her for a moment blankly.

“What do you mean?”

“I told you this session lasts a hour and it hasn’t been a hour. You have no way to tell the time do you?”

I slowly nod no.

“Absolutely not.”

“How long do you think you’ve been in here?”

Fuck, that’s a great question.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuh… I-I-I don’t know.”

“That’s terrible isn’t it?”

“Uuuuuuh, well yeah of course!”

“You know if you go through with what you want. That’ll be the rest of your life, right?”

I narrow my eyes while glaring deeply at her.

“So you’re making a point?”

“It’s a great point, no?”

The world stands still for a moment again.

“... No.”

She looks super surprised.

“Oh c’mon don’t be this stubborn!”

“No, I mean it. I mean time is only as important as you perceive it.”

“You’re not arguring to me that perceving time isn’t important.”

“Well the important parts you can tell through aging anyway.”

“If I ask you what that means could you tell me a even adequate answer?”
I pause for a moment.

“Yes.”

“Ok, then what do you mean by that?”

“Well that’s a bit complicated, uh… Well the reason why time is important is because we die, right?”

Brozovic crosses her arms and looks straight at me.

“You are aware that time would exist, without us right? You’re intellegent I shouldn’t have to explain that at least.”

I look at her back sheepishly.

“Well I'm talking about what makes it important to us.”

“Ugh, ok fine, continue then.”

“So, so time is important because we die. Because without that there wouldn't a obvious indicator that time even exists?”

“What about the moon and the stars and the rising of the sun?”

“Huh?”

“Well we can tell what time it is from the sun rise alone hence why sundails and shit. Plus we even have the phases of the moon. Those are other natural ways to tell the time.”

I pause in my seat and probably pretty fucking awkwardly in my seat.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, well.”

She looks very bored and dismissively at me.

“Are we done?”

I sheepishy nod yes.

“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah… y-y-yeah we’re done definitely.”

I turn to look at the floor after that.

“Right, now why the hell did you even think that was needed? Because I know you know better so why let go of your better instincts now?”

I look back at her a bit ashamed of myself not gonna lie.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuh, wish… wish I could tell you.”

“But you can Kaminari, you’re better at introspection than most people, certainly than I’ve met. So is it that you can’t or you don’t want to?”

I go back in my seat and even cock my head back in suprise. God, what the fuck am I doing to myself?

“I guess I-I don’t wanna.”

“So why not?”

“Excellent question.”

There’s another awkward moment of silence between us, damn we’re great at this stuff, huh?

“Mm hm, thanks but do you have a answer?”

“Well that I don’t want to be wrong of course.”

“That’s the first layer you can go deeper.”

I’m shocked but at the same time she’s not wrong.

“Well…”

I trail off as a look back at the floor.

“Is that you don’t know or that you don’t want to say?”

I go back to looking at her my eyes going wide.

“Uuuuuuuuuuh, well a-”

“And if that’s the case, isn’t it hypocritical of you to believe something while not letting people know? Because that impiles you’re ashamed of the truth when you know that doesn’t matter. Because your shame won’t change that truth.”

Well damn she’s right.

“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.”

“So then what is it?”

I take a deep breath and then look straight at her.

“That I want to sabotage any chance of me getting out of prison.”

She looks back at me serious and seriously disappointed.

“Now again it doesn’t make sense with everything I know about you that you would do something like this is shocking. And doesn’t make any damn sense.”

I look at her uncomfortably.

“Sometimes people don’t.”

“Not making sense and having no reason are two different things however.”

I nod in agreement since once a fucking again she’s right.

“Right, right, of course.”

“Soooooooooooooooo, you got a reason.”

“Not one I’m telling someone I met less than a hour ago.”

Now I glare right at her. Confidence coming back now that I got this handy dandy excuse. She looks back at me awkwardly and with a little bit of surprise, ha.

“Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, but you already told me so much.”

I laugh which gets her to smile again, which is good.

“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, but enough is enough you know?”

“Why draw the line there?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“It’s my job.”

Another silence falls between us.
“Uh, fair enough.”

“Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.”

“So that it then?”

“Not quite.”

I roll my eyes.

“What the hell else are we even going to talk about?”

“Well if you want to open up further about how and why you want to re imprison yourself. Then we can talk about that probably for the rest of the day. To be honest with you.”

I look at the wall for a second then back at her.

“Hmph, well yeah of course.”

Silence.

“Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo?”

“Next time.”

She sighs while I smirk arrogantly.

“Right well that’s all the time I have, thank you very much for participating. But I’ll back.”

I raise my left eyebrow with a worried look on my face.

“You’ll be back?”

“I’ll be back.”

She leaves with a cocky grin on her stupid face while I glare back at her fucking pissed off.

Chapter Text

Brozovic walks out of the room, glare on her face.

‘Why did kids have to be stupid, why do villains have to be stupid? Why can kids be fucking villains?!”

She balls up her fists and stomps down the hall as loud echoes follow behind her. And swings open the metal door with aggression. Aizawa and Shinsou get up and look at her.

“How did it go?”

Aizawa says immediately as she walks in. Looking at her with a very serious gaze. She meets the gaze back in kind.

“Hmph… well, certainly made some progress can't deny that.”

Aizawa crosses his arms and raises his right eyebrow.

“Doesn't sound like you're happy about the session however.”

Brozovic takes a deep breath and then sighs heavily.

“Oh how the fuck could I be? Every time I get the kid to open 1 door he presents me 5 others. And then I have to do the same tedious bullshit to get 1 to open again!”

Shinsou walks up towards Brozovic with a worried expression on his face.

“Does he seem okay?”

Brozovic looks back at Shinsou solemnly.

“I mean, hmph… he definitely is doing worse than I initially thought. I'm very fucking sad to say.”

Now Aizawa leans in looking back at Brozovic with a intense concern.

“How come?”

She looks at the teacher and underground hero with discontent.

“Seems like Kaminari feels like he deserves to be in prison and so wants to be there.”

“What?”

Shinsou makes his shock obvious. While Aizawa grabs his chin and nods in agreement.

“I see, I did suspect that.”

“Observant as always I see.”

“And I'm guessing that's where the conversation broke down?”

Brozovic nods, keeping that same look of discontent on her face. Aizawa glares back, eyes cloudy and obviously his head was anywhere else but this room. Despite how he wanted things to look.

“Hmmm… do you think you could've cracked him you had more time?”

Brozovic then goes through four expression in the matter of seconds.

“Weeeeeeell, not today most likely.”

Aizawa nods looking strated. frustrated as hell.

“Right, I see.”

Now Shinsou looks at both of them with a perfect mix of frustration and dissapointment.

“Why is Kaminari so complicated anyway?”

Brozovic almost chuckles at that.

“Why is everyone so complicated?!”

Brozovic says with a lopsided grin. Shinsou looks back at her now with more disappointment.

“But why is Kaminari… making things so complicated then?”

Brozovic and Aizawa look directly at Shinsou now. With Brozovic the first to jump to action gently grabbing Shinsou’s shoulder and looking at him with a big smile.

“It’s hard to put into words isn’t it?”

“No, it-”

“Believe it or not it used to be for me too. Especially when I was your age, believe me.”

Brozovic pauses and sees that Shinsou now looks at her very interested.

“But one day I realized through my study of psychology actually. That really my thoughts and feelings matter to me first and foremost then. So it really as long as I communicate in a way that’s up to my standards. And what I say is honest and based on my beliefs. Than I’m doing what I’m suppose to be doing.”

Shinsou stares on at her for a bit then clears his throat.
“Well then I’m guess what I’m trying to say is…”

As Shinsou trails off Brozovic looks even more invested than Shinsou was before.

“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees?”

“I don’t see Kaminari as a villain. Or, uh, I-I mean a, uh traditional villain.”

Brozovic then speaks up with enthusiasm.

“No, no, no, everything’s fine, really! We won’t judge right Aizawa?!”

Brozovic then looks at Aizawa with happiness. Aizawa looks back at her in a neutral fashion then sighs and crosses his arms.

“Truth be told I don’t believe that Kaminari is a villain either. He’s certainly misguided and dangerous but I’ve always been against how recklessly a absolute and emotional driven label such as villain is used anyway. And cases like Kaminari are why.”

That alone gets Shinsou to smile. He then rubs the back of his neck.

“In that case then it’s safe to say. That I don’t believe Kaminari deserves such treatment and I’m… well shocked that he seems to think he deserves such punishment.”

“He did hold himself up to a incredibly high standard and while it’s unusual it’s to this extent. It’s uncommon people who hold themselves up to such standards to punish themselves very harshly.”

Now Shinsou falls back into disappointment after hearing Aizawa’s words. That's when Brozovic grabs her chin.

“Yes that's all true but what baffles me is that after he fought so hard to make some miraculous escape from that horrible island. That he wants to go back to life without freedom and condiment but somewhere else.”

Both Shinsou and Aizawa look at her now also befuddled.

“That didn't even come to mind for me.”

Shinsou says with a expression of complete and utter concern. Which Aizawa notices.

“Shinsou.”

Shinsou jumps back in surprise.
“Uh, what Sensei?”

Aizawa looks at Shinsou directly.

“Looks like you have some thoughts on the situation.”

Shinsou shrinks himself by craining his neck to look directly at the floor. Rubbing his neck slowly.

“Well… I’m not exactly confident in those thoughts.”

“Eh, share them with us. When you feel confident enough to then.”

Brozovic says while streching her arms, yawning after she said that. Aizawa narrows his eyes and glares at her.

“Isn’t this important enough to want to get the most out of him in this moment?”

“It’s important enough to where we want him to actually further develop his thoughts on the situation. Instead of rushing some half assed opinion.”

Brozovic glares right at Aizawa and they both stare each other down for a moment.

“Hey, settle down please. This isn't going to help anyone and you're both mature enough to know that.”

Tsukauchi speaks up voice quiet but stern. And that does in fact take the sharpness out of both of their eyes.

“You're right, you're right. It's been a long day we're all stressed the hell. Let's all go home and regroup tomorrow.”

Brozovic says looking tired as hell. Aizawa, who always looks tired as hell, nods in agreement. And gets out of his seat.

“Yes agreed. C'mon Shinsou let's go.”

Shinsou who a moment ago his head was complete in the clouds is forced back down to earth.

“O-Oh, yes sensei.”

Shinsou puts his hands in his pockets and looks at the floor on the way out. Head obviously somewhere else entirely. As he walks towards the door with Aizawa.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shinsou usually lays awake in the middle of the night most nights but this night was different. Shinsou often thinks at night about how he’s perceived by others or what are or if blew his chances of being a hero today. But that’s not what Shinsou was thinking about today.

Instead he was thinking about Kaminari and what he’s thinking. Shinsou has never understood people well or at all. Let alone someone as openly complex as Kaminari. But there never was a puzzle that Shinsou wante to solve so much. Because after all it was Kaminari who was one of the first students in UA to even bother to talk to him. Which got him eventually to open up to the rest of Class 1-A in the first place. And that same Kaminari he can tell is still there, it’s not a complete lie is it?

Well that’s the complicated part isn’t it? Kaminari is someone Shinsou can’t figure out at all. Which is especially frustrating since Kaminari used to be so simple. But obviously that was a facade purposely crafted to make you think that there was nothing below surface, nothing to worry about. And maybe Shinsou out of pride or even out of attachment he doesn’t want to admit that it wasn’t a complete facade.

Shinsou turns over in his bed eye bags worse than ever. Part of him even wonders why he’s bothering. Obviously he doesn’t want help and he wants to rot in a cell for the rest of his life. And he obviously wants it and deserves it. So fuck it let him rot, give him what you want!

No, no, no, he can feel himself becoming the villain that almost every kid told him he would become. And besides it’s much more than the facade Kaminari put on for them. He after hearing everything including everything he said about him. And it makes him think that maybe underneath all that is still someone who… can he say still be a hero? He's always had a hard time articulating his emotions.

Shinsou turns over in his bed again his face sinking into his pillow. Now he's doubting himself again this time thinking about what he could even do about it. He was a stupid high school kid. Dealing with a problem even a lot of adults, who have much more experience dealing with people like Kaminari and even they didn’t know what to do. So what the hell was a stupid kid like Shinsou even supposed to do?

Well Kaminari was a stupid kid and he managed to infiltrate the most powerful hero school in the entire fucking world, so he could do that. Deku has stopped powerful groups of villains several times now, so he could do that. And his friends even helped him along the way, how lucky. Oh, now I’m getting jealous again.

Something he used to do all the time back in school. Now his mind comes flooding back with painful memories he usually represses. Memories of seeing boys his age all hanging out with each other, laughing and having a great time. Then turning around and notcing him staring on jealous and lonely. A brief flicker of hope appears then dies down when he sees that again they turned around to once again laugh and mock him. Mock him for his quirk, mock him for having no friends because of his quirk, mock him for his tired appearance because he stayed up that night crying because he was born with this quick, for his awkwardness because of his lack of friends and lack of self belief because of his quirk. Only night time could bring someone down this kind of rabbit hole.

He turns over in his bed again this time looking at the ceiling. It’s always nighttime, it’s never anything else and all of sudden he’s thinking about bullshit he got over years ago. Maybe he should sleep more often. Well… he did suppose it was important because it does help him gather why he still feels so close to Denki even after all the bullshit. Denki or Kaminari even said it. He must’ve felt similar to him back on the island. Knowing the kind of pain the people he was suppose to trust were willing to inflict for little reason. Well now he was confusing his past experiences.

Shinsou turns over in his bed again. This time actually trying to get into a sleeping pose. Because was he going to spend all night remembering his shitty childhood memories inbetween thinking of Kaminari? Or was he going to go bed? He did have classes tomorrow after all. But if that easy he wouldn’t be here would he?

Ah whatever all this was a waste of time. Like everything he did today. Is that fair, was everything he did today didn’t make a difference. I mean yeah, in terms of changing the world around him absolutely not. But there was still the matter of himself I mean it did get him thinking about it.

Shinsou turns over in his bed again, the thought of sleep once again leaving his mind for now. Well he couldn't say that because no there all he got was hurt today really. Mentally of course not psychically so at least there’s that I guess. But still all he did was stand there and look on at the adults, even the ones he didn’t know. And hoped they solved all the problems that were constantly appearing. Shinsou did a long deep sigh his eyes narrowing down even further with now a glare behind them.

He faces the ceiling yet again. Should he even bother showing up tomorrow, he does have the excuse of no sleep. Oh, but Aizawa knew him too well and would know if that’s my excuse. Something else is up. But what the hell could he do about Kaminari? He already tried to relate to him, seeing some of himself in Kaminari’s story. But Kaminari had… honestly understandable rejections. Well for someone of his unique background.

And that’s another thing Shinsou could only understand so much and he wasn’t even sure if it was because he was a kid or because even the adults had a difficult time getting to him. Simply couldn’t because they couldn’t even picture something like what Kaminari threw at all. And if they couldn’t come up with anything, what hope did Shinsou have? There’s something about that he knows isn’t true but he what fucking was it.

Shinsou turns over again, now grabbing his forehead. Eyes narrowing even further down now, turning his head to face the wall. Well it's simple, that's the way he used to think about others. That no one will understand him because they didn’t have his hyper specific experiences and so they couldn’t understand why he feels the way he does about anything. But that’s wrong and always will be wrong because people can think abstractly of course. That’s how people are able to relate to each other in the first place. So, does that mean we're taking the wrong approach?

Shinsou shoots up in his bed an expression of pure shock on his face. Now Shinsou knows what to do next.

Shinsou couldn't wait to get out of school, he usually isn't excited for anything. Which is why he did things like tap his pencil on the desk and scratch multi parts of his neck until it turned red. Even Jirou and Deku asked him if he was doing okay? And of course he said he was doing fine. Shinsou couldn't tell them about Kaminari because it's a sensitive topic among Class 1-A.

The bell finally rings and Shinsou runs down towards Aizawa. Which surprises Aizawa. Shinsou’s stands straight in front of Aizawa. Looking at Aizawa confident but stern.

“Mister Aizawa.”

Aizawa gathers himself back up and looks back at Shinsou with the same sternness.

“What?”

“So about Kaminari-’

“You're not going to see Kaminari today.”

Shinsou freezes, eyes going wide.

“What do you mean?”

Aizawa's eyes narrow.

“What else could I mean? You were brought to brainwash Kaminari to force him to reveal things about himself that he wouldn't say himself. We both saw how well that went so there's no need to bring you back. It's the type of job a kid shouldn't be on anyway. And you know that.”

Aizawa looks at Shinsou with a sharpness. While Shinsou stands there stunned for a moment.

“Shinsou, are you okay?”

Now Shinsou gathers himself back and brings himself to look at Aizawa again.

“Yes, b-but I can reach Kaminari now without the use of any brainwashing, or so I think.”

Aizawa sighs.

“I appreciate your efforts, Shinsou, they prove that you're worthy of calling yourself a hero. But sometimes you can't do anything. It's a harsh truth but a very important one to learn especially if you'll be a hero.”

Aizawa turns away from Shinsou who balls up his fists and looks at Aizawa annoyed.

“At least hear out my idea before you dismiss it as ineffective.”

Aizawa stops looking thoughtful ahead of him. He turns back to face Shinsou.

“Fine, you have a point. But considering that you're still a kid and dealing with a very serious police matter, know that it's unlikely I'll be willing to bring you, understand?”

Shinsou gulps and slowly nods in agreement. Part of him definitely wanted to fight back on the whole kid comment. But he caught himself and calmed down because he knows the best fight is the argument he's about to make. He stands tall again and he looks at him like a laser eye to eye.

“It's useless trying to relate or understand Kaminari fully because none of us can even get close to how he grew up.”

Aizawa crosses his arms but does nod in agreement.

“That's natural but I assume that you have a grander point you want to make?”

Aizawa raises an eyebrow while Shinsou looks way more aggressively confident than he ever has.

“Yes, I believe I know how to break through to Kaminari.”

Now Aizawa looks intrigued.

“You do?”

“Yes, I believe I could use my own personal experience to get Kaminari to understand us better. Through focusing on what we do share.”

Aizawa grabs his chin and clearly thinks for a moment.

“Logically it checks out and it's not like we have any better ideas.”

Shinsou smiles.

“Thank you so-”

“I'll use it today for our interrogation.”

Shinsou stops smiling.

“Uh, excuse me?”

“When I go to interrogate Kaminari today I'll keep that in mind.”

Shinsou leans forward which doesn't affect Aizawa at all.

“I didn't make my point clear enough then.”

Aizawa looks at Shinsou much more sternly than before.

“Meaning?”

Shinsou takes a step back and gets scared for a second. But quickly gathers himself back up too looking confident again.

“While I'd never compare what he'd been through to my childhood.”

“Yes?”

“It's similar enough though to where I believe I could get him to open up on his own.”

Aizawa's gaze softens as he looks at Shinsou with sympathy now.

“Shinsou, I would never downplay what you went through as a child. That kind of unjust cruelty at all let alone at such a young age.”

Shinsou now looks worried.

“Yes?”

“But this type of job needs experience. And that's something you don't have at this age. It's completely out of your control but it's a fact. And this is too important to take such a risk, it was a mistake to bring you in the first place.”

Shinsou at first looks dissatisfied then looks at him with a resentful cockiness.

“I thought you were better than that, Mister Aizawa.”

Aizawa looks back at him with a “are fucking kidding me” look to him.

“Don't do this.”

“Why not, I'm being honest I thought you trusted me more th-”

“I do trust you. I trusted you over everyone else who was in the support class, that's why you're in 1-A. I trust that you would benefit the most from learning from my fighting style, that's why we do one on one lessons. I know the angle you're going for here, Shinsou but don't try it. It won't work, there's too much evidence to the contrary.”

Shinsou goes back to looking dejected.

“I'm sorry.”

“No need kids try things like that all the time.”

Now Shinsou looks pissed again.

“Don't dismiss you because I'm a kid!”

“There's plenty of logical reasons to dismiss someone because they're a kid. Especially for certain things you'd agree, right?”

Shinsou looks at the floor, closing his eyes, taking a deep breath. Then going back to looking at Aizawa pissed.

“Of course but I know what to do now! So give me a chance. You know being a kid could have an advantage in this situation! Obviously people relate better to people within their age group, right? So talking to someone his age would make opening up easier for him!”

Aizawa puts his hand on his chin but nods in disapproval.

“Shinsou you know that is much more complicated than that especially for Kaminari.”

Aizawa is about to leave when a lightbulb appears in the head of Shinsou.

“Then surely I can prove it.”

Aizawa turns around confused.

“What do you mean?”

“That, uh, if Kaminari does actually feel guilty about betraying UA then surely me talking to him would get him out of him, right?”

Aizawa now turns back and looks intrigued.

“Meaning?”

“Well if I tried to talk to him I'd be ae living reminder of his betrayal.”

“I would be too though, correct?”

Shinsou stands there stunned as Aizawa turns and finally walks out of the room. After a bit Shinsou runs to catch up to him desperately.

“I feel, uh, I feel…”

Aizawa turns around and faces him with a cold expression.

“Yes?”

“Uuuuuh, I feel guilty over what I did to Kaminari yesterday and I want to prove I don't need to do that to get him to open up.”

Aizawa looks at Shinsou with a blank expression for a moment. No one saying anything.

“Or prove that you care enough about him to get him to trust you enough to get him to open up on his own. To get him to want to return to class.”

Shinsou pauses for a moment puckering his mouth. Turns away from Aizawa and scratching his neck.

“Uuuuuh, maybe.”

Aizawa turns around and starts walking the other way.

“If you said that earlier it have been a question of if you were coming.”

Shinsou’s eyes go wide as he looks shocked.

“Does this mean I'm going?”

“Yes now follow me we're getting in my car.”

Shinsou runs back to catch up with his mentor excited at the chance for redemption.

Chapter Text

Kaminari used to always like being alone. He always found his own thinking more engaging and smarter than most people's anyway. But now trapped in here thinking about how recently he made the worst mistake of his life, letting himself and those he wanted to be and help down. It was his own special hell now. So when he heard the metal door squeak open it's a relief and not a annoyance for once.

Expecting to see Aizawa or Brozovic his neck crain back in suprise when he saw Shinsou walk through the door. But suprise very quickly gave way to a fucking furious glare. Which Shinsou noticed.

“I promise I'm not here to brainwash you.”

Kaminari closes his eyes and turns away from Shinsou anyway. Shinsou sighs in exasperation but looks on at his former classmate with understanding.

“I deserve that. And that's not me putting on a show like you did. I actually meant that.”

The undeniable bitterness which Shinsou said that with definitely caught Kaminari’s attention. Maybe because of how he feels like he deserves it, maybe because he wants to point out a hypocrisy. Probably a mix of both but regardless he turns back around to look at Shinsou. Who looks back with a smug smirk.

“I do want to give you credit. You did fool us all that does take much more brains than any of us thought you had.”

Kaminari wants so bad to say some smartass back. But used all of his immense willpower to not say anything. But hey he did it.

“And hey I'll admit I cannot lie what you did was certainly impressive. A lot of really intellgent people in that class and you fooled them all.”

Kaminari wanted to say something but this time he finds much easier to shut up this time.

“And I understand, why. Better than you know.”

Oh here we go. He knows what’s coming.

“I was ostracized when I was young, not nearly as bad as you of course. But it was similar in a sense.”

Kaminari raises his left eyebrow.
“Strange statement I know. But it’s both because we’re outsiders, correct? For different reasons of course but because of what the people around us were taught to value. We were harshly judged and of course that defined a lot of who we are, correct?”

Kaminari nods in agreement which gets Shinsou to smirk back.

“Right, so of course in some ways I do admire you.”

Now Kaminari smirks proudly at that statement. Which Shinsou notes.

“I was only slightly younger than you when my bullying really got bad. And even what you went through was admittedly worse, you responded to it much better than I did certainly.”

Shinsou wondered if it was because he wanted this so badly to work. But Shinsou could swear Kaminari looks back at him with sympathy. Still isn't changing the fact that he isn't talking. Which is even more annoying when he isn't trying to brainwash him actually.

“But I'm sure you know that it's difficult all the ostracization. Feeling like no one will ever understand you. And you had a better reaction than me. I was… much less proactive than you were. It took me years before I was able to motivate myself to do anything about it. You immediately sprang into action, never even moped around once. Instead you got mad and immediately searched and found a solution. That's admirable.”

Kaminari now looks both intrigued and confused. He appreciates the praise but what it's purpose. Shinsou looks at him with a amused smirk. But there's something else behind his eyes, a kinda vague sadness Kaminari didn't know how to put into words.

“I'm sure you're wondering why I've started this way exactly.”

Kaminari nods in agreement.

“Here's the thing Kaminari. Even though you're a villain most of us here still respect you enough to where we don't want to see you in prison actually.”

Now Kaminari looks back at Shinsou fucking pissed.

“Oh, what?”

Kaminari looks away from him.

“Is the strong and rebellious Kaminari really acting this immature?”

Kaminari now looks back at Shinsou with a angry glare.

“What?”

Kaminari sits there frozen in time and Shinsou sighs.

“You’re stubborn aren’t you? Not surprising considering everything you’ve been through. But do you think this is a good use of your time?”

Kaminari expression is as unreadable as a book found in the wreckage of a flood.

“Okay then, well I expected better then.”

Kaminari narrows his eyes and Shinsou in response smirks cockily.

“Does that bother you?”

To Kaminari’s credit he did nod yes which gets Shinsou to close his eyes while he looks like he’s in pain.

“Appreciate the honesty. Look Kaminari I earned your mistrust with what happened yesterday. If you won’t deny your flaws I won’t deny mine.”

Kaminari does look sort of intrigued but also looks like he doesn’t want admit that he is intrigued.

“It was dirty and it confrimed all the horrible things those assholes said back in my school days.”

Kaminari now looks at Shinsou dissapprovingly.

“What?”

Kaminari still doesn’t talk which frustrates Shinsou.

“But that’s why I’m here, to redeem myself. And to prove those assholes wrong, you can relate, right?”

Kaminari freezes for a moment but does eventually nod yes in agreement. Which Shinsou smiles at.

“Good, so please give me a chance to live… live up to the best of myself by choosing to open up and talk to me please.”

Kaminari looks at the floorn and Shinsou sighs again.

“Why the hell don’t you trust me?”

Kaminari still doesn’t look at Shinsou while looking down at the floor still. Shinsou crosses his arms.

“I get it.”

Kaminari looks back up at Shinsou.

“But you're clearly the type to give others second chances, correct?”

Shinsou looks right at him but Kaminari shifts in his seat. Shinsou sighs again.

“Is this really who you want to be, scared of even speaking?”

A small victory was that Kaminari looking annoyed as fuck. But still he wasn't talking.

“Please Kaminari, I really want to show you that I know to treat you with respect now. Maybe it's so unbelievable that someone could change that quickly. I wouldn't believe it either but still please give me a chance.”

Kaminari still looks back at Shinsou annoyed and still doesn't say anything. Something that Shinsou hates even if it was even for a second. He thought of quitting something that filled him with self imposed anger.

“Why not, didn't you want to be strong enough to do what you should do? Is this really what you should be doing?!”

Shinsou takes a deep breath and has a look of regret on his face.

“I'm sorry Kam-”

“Oh, fuck you.”

Shinsou almost wanted to laugh as Kaminari sits there crossing his wrists and tapping his fingers on the table. Not looking at Shinsou.

“So you finally spoke.”

“Ugh, yes finally.”

Shinsou does chuckle this time.

“So, sure you've noticed that nothing's changed.”

Kaminari shrugs.

“Well not yet.”

“Can't disagree with that. So I was wondering.”

Kaminari raises his right eyebrow.

“Yes?”

“You have to know that the league aren't exactly the greatest of people in terms of character, correct?”

Kaminari shifts in his seat again but this time looking much more uncomfortable.

“Uuuuuuh… you know sometimes you gotta play the odds.”

Now it's Shinsou's turn to raise his eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

Kaminari again looks even more uncomfortable than before.

“Well I mean the league does have more uh, resources than any other villain or revolutionary group. So if you want any kind of radical change they're the best bet.”

Shinsou looks back at a sheepish Kaminari with skepticism.

“That sounds like an excuse.”

Kaminari takes a deep breath and has a pained expression on his face.

“Ah, yeah.”

Shinsou smirks.

“So is that the real reason?”

Kaminari clearly thinks but nods ‘no.’

“Not really to be perfectly honest.”

Shinsou leans in.

“C'mon then you know if you lie it'll only hurt more later. So please get it over with get it over with now.”

Kaminari bites his lip.

“I mean…”

“Yes?”

“Look it’s hard to, okay?!”

Shinsou nods in agreement.

“I can understand. I mean what else could be harder than explaining why you’re part of a villain group.”

Kaminari laughs dryly.

“Yeah, yeah, exactly.”

Shinsou smirks but then looks back at Kaminari seriously.

“But you want to truthful, correct?”

Kaminari scoots back in his seat.

“Yes.”

“So all this can’t be making you feel good.”

Kaminari glups.

“No… no, it does not.”

Now Shinsou gazes at Kaminari.

“So, why avoid saying it?”

Kaminari looks at the floor for a little bit.

“It’s…”

Kaminari trails off still staring at the floor.

“Yes?”

“I, uh, I, are we going to to do this forever or?”

“Are you?”

Kaminari takes a deep breath and looks straight ahead at Shinsou.

“No, fiiiiiine go ahead. What was the question again?”

“Why did you join an organization of villains?”

“I was homeless.”

Shinsou is taken aback for a moment.

“Huh?”

“Well it wasn’t the most well thought idea. Probably because I wasn’t familar with how the normal world worked. Soooooooooooooooo, I was desprate and they took me in.”

Shinsou narrowed his eyes again.

“I doubt that’s the full story.”

“Hey, you asked for a reason, I gave you a reason!”

Shinsou sighs and grabs his face.

“Well technically yes but the spirit of the question was the full truth.”

Kaminari nods in agreement.

“I see well I gave you most of it.”

Shinsou takes another deep breath.

“You are frustrating, you know that?”

“It’s very much on purpose.”

Shinsou grits his teeth while rolling his eyes.

“Wonderful, now do you promise to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”
Kaminari looks away.

“I don’t make promises.”

“Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight so why did you choose to work for the League of Villains?”

“Well at first I didn’t know they were villains, I barely knew what that meant anyway.”

“Really, what kind of things they ask you to do?”

“It was intercepting radio waves and asking to steal stuff from other criminals. Look I had no reason to believe they weren’t anything more than average gang. They didn’t even introduce me to the anti-hero stuff to later on.”

Shinsou raises his right eyebrow.

“So they slowly dripped the whole villain thing to you?”

Kaminari nods in agreement.

“Yes, looking back they totally knew they were do-”

Kaminari stops mid sentence eyes going wide and expression going solemn. Shinsou now perks up in his seat and looks back at him, worried.

“Uh, Kaminari are you okay… Kaminari?”

Kaminari shakes his head and looks at Shinsou trying to look confident.

“Oh yeah, yeah, I, uh, I realized something I didn’t before. Y’know it’s nothing big?”

Shinsou looks doubtful.

“Do you want to continue?”

Kaminari takes a deep breath and looks at the metal table for a moment then back at Shinsou.

“I’d… I’d love a moment alone, if that’s allowed.”

“I’ll check with Aizawa-sensei.”

Kaminari nods and smiles.

“Okay excellent!”

Shinsou gets out of his seat while Kaminari’s expression becomes riddled with shock as he leans forward and grabs his head.

Chapter Text

Shinsou walks back into the room to a proud looking Aizawa and a confused looking Detective Tsukauchi. Aizawa looks directly at Shinsou.

“You did good.”

Shinsou is taken aback.

“T-Thank you Aizawa Sensei.”

Detective Tsukauchi perks up.

“Yes but that was… an abrupt end, right?”

Aizawa turns to face Detective Tsukauchi, now extremely serious again.

“Yes, but I believe I understand why?”

This immediately catches Shinsou’s attention.

“Really?”

Aizawa nods.

“Yes, well humans crave familiarity.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaminari grabs his head looking at the table in disbelief, why? Because he’s a fucking idiot, according to him. Kaminari always likes to think about himself and why he does the things he does. And because of that and the fact he’s a stupid arrogant kid, he thought he couldn’t surprise himself. But how wrong he is.

After spending so much of his life wanting to escape that fucking island and then manging to do so. All that time and he didn’t get the island out of him. The league also treated him like shit but that’s his default, right? But all that time seeking out something better then getting it and then throwing it away for something similar. That’s so fucking stupid.

Wait a minute it’s not like he was introduced to the league with their abuse. Well he was exposed to it and chose to stay so that can’t be a coincidence. Ugh, of fucking course it wasn’t how could he not see it?!

Kaminari sighs.

‘Ok so if I wanted, uggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh. I can’t even begin to do that right now! I’m so disappointed, how the hell did I not realize this?!’

Kaminari rests his head on the metal desk, incredibly disappointed expression on his face.

‘All that time wanting to be brilliant. I rushed past all the important parts. Whatever I know it now but, that’s not nearly enough. I gotta know where the hell this even began, well the island obviously. Ugh, every time I think about this I sound even fucking dumber!’

Kaminari goes back to grabbing his head with a stressed expression. Then he takes a deep breath.

‘This is a waste of time, gotta channel these emotions, channel this energy and focus on it purely on answering these questions. Nothing more, enough beating myself up. That never got me anywhere anyway.’

Kaminari sits up straight in his seat and closing his eyes. Confidence returns to his expression again as he takes deep breaths.

‘Okay so obviously I spent my whole life getting used to all the abuse from the Hari and it molded me, most of my personality was created in response to all that bullshit. But even then I choose to try and escape why the hell would I want to waltz back into the same fucking enviroment again?’

Kaminari looks at the floor contemplatively biting his lip. Images in his mind of children and adults all together in worship and Kaminari pretending to go along.

‘I hated all that though I remember having such a burning hatred for everything all around me in those moments… but I also remember a sort of longing too, can’t lie to myself. What was I longing for? Oh yeah, I did almost want to join in. Seeing all those people together all believing in something together and having the same goals. Meanwhile I was sitting there the sore thumb sticking out. It’s human nature that I would want to be a part of it, yeah? Right, that’s what they’re praying on anyway. And while it didn’t work on me, I guess… it did somewhat, huh?’

Kaminari sighs again, going back to looking disappointed again.

‘I know I shouldn’t beat myself and all that shit but holy shit that is so hard to do right now, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. I suck apparently, dammit!’

Kaminari sits there and looks up at the ceiling forlorn.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I see.” Shinsou nods his head while grabbing his chin.

“Soooooooooooooooooooooooo, we’re calling Brozovic back then?”

Tsukauchi says, arms crossed with a cheeky grin. Aizawa looks back at him with a glare.

“If we must.”

Shinsou stands there confused.

“Why do you dislike her so much anyway?”

Aizawa sighs, not even looking back at Shinsou.

“You don’t need to know. Now call her in.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaminari sits there hating himself and what decisions he’s made to get to this point when the familiar and annoying sound of the metal door creaking open. But this time Aizawa and Brozovic walk through to his shock.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.”

Brozovic waves to Kaminari, a big smile on her face.

“Hello Kaminari, ready to talk?”

Chapter Text

Kaminari looks at them in shock for a moment. But gathers himself back up again.

“Uuuuuuuuh, I mean I was in the middle of thinking a lot recently. So I don't know to be honest.”

Aizawa looks right at Kaminari who in response perks up in his seat and eyes go wide there.

“Excellent, we can help then.”

Brozovic looks at Aizawa with her right eyebrow raised.

“Well if you feel really ready for us to do so of course.”

Kaminari looks at the table extremely contemplative for a few moments.

“I… I mean, suppose it'd be better for me to accept help so.”

Aizawa and Brozovic smile at the same time, a rare sight. Brozovic claps her own hands together.

“Alright well then, what have you been thinking about then?”

Kaminari sighs and immediately looks guilty.

“That… That I chose to stay with the league because I was, uh, used to the environment I grew up in on the island.”

It's Aizawa turn to perk up in his seat while Brozovic leans forward.

“What do you mean?”

Kaminari bites his lip and breathes deeply through his nose.

“So you all know about my life on the island and so when I got off the island… I kept being ready for being hurt in the same way. Aaaaaaaaaand so when I found the league. I found aaaaaa sort of comfort and familiarity I was looking for, without realizing it.”

Kaminari doesn't look at them while Aizawa glares at Kaminari.

“What did they do to you?”

Brozovic looks right at Aizawa.

“Aizawa, your compassion for your students is extremely admirable but there's other stuff to focus on right now.”

Aizawa takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

“I hate to admit when you're right.”

“But I'm right a lot aren't I?”

“No.”

Brozovic laughs while Aizawa rolls his eyes.

“Uuuuuuuuh…”

Brozovic and Aizawa look back at Kaminari. And Brozovic is first to speak.

“Right, anyway what were you saying?”

Kaminari clears his throat.

“Soooooooo I guess I don't understand, well I do understand that actually. W-What I don't understand is. Why the hell after everything am I so weak? I even had this temptation and let it drive me while I wasn't even aware of it.”

Both Brozovic and Aizawa look contemplative. Aizawa goes to speak

“Well why do people crave familiarity in the 1st place?”

Kaminari raises his left eyebrow, obviously intrigued.

“Hmph, great question. Ummmmm, because we're afraid of the unknown?”

Aizawa nods.

“That's one reason.”

Brozovic looks at Aizawa with a eyebrow raised and a sly smirk.

“You're an extreme individualist, correct? So you already know that anyone could have tons of them. And you're smart enough to come up with those reasons so c'mon. Use that great brain of yours!”

Kaminari smiles and puts his finger to his chin.

“Well yeah, I mean it could be a self punishment thing as well. Oh and uh, also even if it was horrible we crave comfort and familiarity is always a form of comfort.”

Brozovic nods in agreement.

“That's all correct!”

“Hmph, well of course.”

Kaminari’s smug grin does get Brozovic and Aizawa to both smile.

“Glad to see it hasn't dampened your spirits too much.”

Kaminari is surprised by Brozovic’s words, eyes going wide for a moment.

“Oh, uh, t-thanks.”

Brozovic smiles but immediately goes back into serious mode. And leans forward to the mic.

“So, why do you believe it could be self punishment then?”

Kaminari puckers his mouth together and puts a finger on his cheek.

“Hmmmmmmm… well it's for my own self weakness then… Yeah, I guess that's gotta be it, yeah.”

Kaminari sinks in his seat and begins to stare at the floor. Which Aizawa and Brozovic notice. Aizawa clears his throat.

“We're not trying to shame you in any way.”

Kaminari goosebumps go up his back as Aizawa says that.

“Uh, yeah, yeah-”

“And you know why you shouldn't shame yourself, right?”

That stops Kaminari in his tracks. And he takes a deep breath.

Brozovic now looks concerned.

“Is everything alright?”

“I mean, yeah, yeah, of course.”

“Kaminari, we want you to be honest because we don't want to hurt you. And of course there's no pain you can't handle. Not after everything you went through, correct?”

Kaminari stands back up in the seat and looks back at them with confidence.

“Yeah, yeah, you're right. Phew, okay it's that, that… shit.”

Kaminari mutters that last word to himself and that confidence from before is gone already.

“Go on.”

Aizawa's piercing gaze gets Kaminari's confident stance back.

“Yes, sorry, it's that it's fucking with me that I did all that to escape only to want to go back. And guess that since I was always on the outside I was used to that, of course. But I thought the whole fucking reason I left was to get away from that. I thought I despised comfort because it got people to be okay with evil when it’s all around them. Like I don’t get why there’s this part of my head that’s a fucking hypocrite.”

Brozovic stares at Kaminari very intensely.

“Oh, so you hate those parts of yourself?”

Kaminari now looks back at her with a dirty glare.

“Hey, I said I don’t-”

“Not yourself, those parts specifically.”

Now Kaminari sits straighter in his chair and looks back at her with heavy confusion.

“Uh, duh I mean those are not good parts of me. Why the hell wouldn’t I, I don’t want to those to be parts of me!”

“So you believe that you can shed parts of yourself like a snake shedding it’s skin?”

There’s a silence with density everyone can feel, even Aizawa looks uncomfortable.

“Ummmm, I’m I- I’m I wrong?”

Kaminari slumps back in his seat, obviously trying to hide a fear he feels very intensely right now.

“Yes, extremely in fact.”

Kaminari looks around the room for a bit then looks back at Brozovic.

“Uuuuuuuuuh, no I mean really? I… I don’t know how that would work even.”

Aizawa now starting to look hurt, straightens back up and looks at Kaminari with heavy intent.

“It’s a difficult thing to really come to terms with. I imagine more so with your experience, but of course I can’t speak for that. But who were once will always be there in memory and you can use that to trace how you became who you are. And once you do that you really begin to realize who you are will never be separated from who you once were. And who you will become will always be an evolution or devolution of those versions of yourself, never a separate person.”

Kaminari looks back thoughtfully while Brozovic looks at Aizawa with a smirk.

“Oooooooooooooooo, look at you, maybe I should give you my job, huh?!”

“Shut up.”

Brozovic chuckles while Kaminari looks back up to look at both of them.

“Well… why is that?”

Brozovic and Aizawa both look at each other.

Chapter Text

“Well that'd be an incredibly complex thing to explain.”

Kaminari puckers his lips together.

“I would imagine, yeah.”

Brozovic chuckles while Aizawa looks at Brozovic then back at Kaminari, clearing his throat.

“Each experience says something about you, correct?”

Kaminari nods in agreement.

“That's right of course!”

Brozovic leans in and has a much more serious expression now.

“But it's not only a single part of you or even a few parts. Each word you say, each decision you make. Was built on thousands of decisions you made, that made your beliefs, that gave you your proudest moments and your most shameful as well.”

Kaminari looks on thoughtfully.

“Yeah I see I guess… I guess it was always ridiculous to believe that I was a totally different person from before then.”

Brozovic smiles at Kaminari.

“You'd be surprised how many people will believe ridiculous things to make themselves feel better about themselves and their place in the world.”

Kaminari rolls his eyes.

“OH believe me I know.”

Brozovic laughs and Aizawa for a split second until Kaminari joins in.

“She does make an excellent point after all. Most people do tell themselves lies so they avoid truths they don't want to face. All that to say this isn't something you should be ashamed of. But it is something to acknowledge and change.”

Now Kaminari takes a sharp breath through his nose. And looks up at Aizawa a little forlorn.

“I mean I suppose, sure.”

Brozovic looks back at Kaminari with empathy.

“What's wrong Kaminari?”

Now Kaminari looks back down at his lap and looks pretty insecure.

“Well I told myself I was above those things and those kinds of people. So it's pretty fucking upsetting that I'm not is all.”

“But that's a great thing isn't it?”

Kaminari perks up in his seat and quickly cocks his head back.

“Uuuuuh, I mean kinda but-”

“Why only kinda? What about it is good enough to be called kinda to begin with?”

Kaminari pauses his whole being for a second and Aizawa gazes at her with approval.

“Weeeeeeeeeell of course because I have this idea of who I want to be and understand now that's not who I am. And now I can work to figure out how to become that and stuff l. But still it sucks not being as awesome as you thought you were. And then there's the part where you start to think about why you thought you were so damn awesome to begin with.”

Aizawa and Brozovic look back at Kaminari, unsure whether to be impressed or worried. Aizawa is the first to speak up.

“Well you've got plenty of reasons to believe that about yourself. You're extremely intelligent and mature for your age. And that's because of your extreme awareness. There's plenty of reasons to be proud of yourself, Kaminari.”

Kaminari looks shaken up for a second but he gathers himself and looks at Aizawa with a mix of admiration and pride.

“I-I-I, thank you uh, very much Aizawa Sensei.”

Kaminari says the slight embarrassment is obvious. Aizawa looks back at Kaminari with a small smile.

“Only being honest.”

Brozovic clears her throat.

“I agree with all of that. As a matter of fact you're one of the most mature clients I've ever had. Not that, that's a huge compliment.”

Kaminari chuckles, which puts a proud smile on her face.

“Well certainly that must make your job easier.”

“Oh, trust me you have no idea!”

Brozovic and Kaminari both laugh while Aizawa sits there annoyed. Brozovic does a side glance at him.

“But getting back on topic, obviously youth is for learning and for becoming. So while sure being somewhat hard on yourself is a good thing. What me and Brozovic both fear I’m sure. Is that you’re far too harsh on yourself because of your background.”

Kaminari tilts his head and looks back at Aizawa, curious as hell.

“My background?”

Brozovic turns to Aizawa and points right at him.

“Oooooooooooooooooooh, you mean the whole all he knew his whole life was punishment so he defaults to punishing himself?!”

Kaminari looks on shocked while Aizawa sighs looking slightly annoyed.

“Yes that I was implying.”

“Wait, the hell you mean? I-I-I-I mean I think I know maybe what you mean.”

“You see people learn both implicitly and explicitly, especially early in childhood. And so it's extremely common for people who have been abused to punish themselves very harshly for every little thing. Because you know that's what you've been taught to do!”

Kaminari sits up straighter in his chair and looks at Brozovic with a lot of intrigue.

“Oooooooh I see, uuuuuh…”

“Yes?”

Brozovic asks with a lot of interest.

“I mean… do you… do you guys mind if we take another break. So I can uuuuuh so I can reflect on things again?”

Both Aizawa and Brozovic nod in agreement.

“Yes of course we'll take that time to gather what you've found out and figure out a better way to help you!

Kaminari takes a deep breath and then looks at them both with a smile.

“Thank you very much.”

Aizawa looks off to the right and looks like his mind is wandering somewhere else. While Brozovic smiles back.

“Anytime we'll see you around Kaminari.”

Brozovic and Kaminari wave bye to each other while Aizawa gets up while keeping that heavy look on his face. Aizawa opens the door Brozovic follows as Shinsou and Detective Tsukauchi get out of their seats.

“Mr.Aizawa!”

Shinsou’s voice brings Aizawa back to reality. And he looks right at him.

“Uuuuuh, yes?”

“How was Kaminari?”

Because Aizawa still looks a bit out of it. So Brozovic responds instead.

“Oh he's making a ton of progress. You know since we broke down that first he's been really opened up and has really wanted to figure out more about himself. And I'm really proud of him. I usually don't make progress with a patient this quickly. But he's definitely much more oriented towards self improvement than most of my patients, which makes my job way easier.”

Shinsou looks back at Aizawa with a small smile. While Detective Tsukauchi looks at Aizawa seriously.

“Aizawa, are you good?”

Aizawa clears his throat and looks focused yet again.

“Yes I'm perfect, merely reflecting on a few things that's all.”

Brozovic looks on at Aizawa with concern while Aizawa tries to look his normal look again.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Aizawa is outside and looking at the moon while leaning on the bridge railing. Right outside the police building. After doing that for a little while Brozovic walks over with two coffees.

“Yo, want one?”

Aizawa sighs and looks back at her.

“Sure.”

Aizawa takes one of the coffees while Brozovic smiles.

“What do you want?”

“Hmph, to talk to you of course. You look like you have a lot on your mind after all.”

Aizawa gives her the side eye.

“And why should I talk to you about it?”

“Weeeeeeeeeell I am professionally trained to talk to people about their problems. So I'm sure you'd agree that logically speaking I'm one of the best people you could talk to.”

Aizawa stops looking at her.

“Hmph, I certainly don't fit your usual clientele that's for sure.”

Brozovic laughs while Aizawa’s eyes narrow.

“True but not to sound like a hero but I did take this job to help as many people as possible. So please consider a public service.”

Aizawa rolls his eyes

“Please don't compare what you do to us.”

Brozovic raises an eyebrow while Aizawa looks away.

“You know I've always wondered why you've had such a grudge against what I do.”

“Don't call it a grudge. I don't care enough to justify that language.”

Brozovic chuckles again which gets Aizawa to narrow his eyes and glare at her.

“Okay fine whatever you want to call it. Still I don't understand how a man of logic goes against what I do.”

Now Aizawa looks back at a smug Brozovic with a hint of disgust.

“How could what you do be considered anything approaching logical?”

Brozovic playfully puts her index finger and her chin and looks up to the night sky looking thoughtful.

“Hmmmm… well I don't know I can’t see how it’s a bad thing to help bad people become better. The more good people the better the society, correct? That’s logical, correct?”

Brozovic smugness increases as Aizawa looks back at her, more tired than before.

“Hmph, it’s not as simple as that. If everyone can do anything and still can be considered good. Then doing horrible things matters. Yes, it’s important that some things be considered impossible to come back from because then the temptation to do horrible things will only become stronger as the consequences become less dire.”

Brozovic now looks thoughtful now looking down at the floor.

“I see I actually don’t disagree though I have a feeling what should be and shouldn’t be considered redeemable we’d heavily disagree on.”

Aizawa does nod in agreement while looking away from her.

“I see and Brozovic?”

This peaks her interest.

“Yes?”

“This was to get me to talk to you wasn’t it?”

Brozovic chuckles louder and smuger than she ever has before.

“Maaaaaaaaaaaybe.”

Aizawa groans.

“Credit where it’s due, I can’t believe I fell for something like this.”

Now Brozovic smiles cheekily at Aizawa.

“Well psychology is my job after all. And you’re obviously a man of very strong convictions, correct?”

“And I’m not telling you where they came from.”

Now Brozovic looks taken aback.

“Gah, hey I’m supposed to figure you out not vice versa!”

“Hmph.”

Aizawa goes back to sipping his coffee while Brozovic thinks while swishing around her coffee.

“You know holding in your thoughts and feelings are extremely illogical. We’re a social species even if some are less social than others. And holding in parts of yourself will be a determinant as either they’re not developing and you’re ignoring them which doesn’t mean they go away. Only that they’ll show themselves in ways that we don’t control. Or you control them well enough to where they rarely show but those thoughts pound at you dragging down your mood and opinion of yourself further and further down. That’s not very logical is it?”

Aizawa sighs.

“As a psychologist you know that people are much more complicated than that. People aren't inherently logical at all.”

Brozovic nods in agreement.

“Yeah can’t argue with that. Well got work tomorrow so I gotta get going but that offer will always be on the table. I do work with more than villains you know.”

“No thanks, I don't want to give you money.”

Brozovic genuinely laughs which puts a small smile on Aizawa’s face.

“Well hey I do volunteer work too but guessing you’re not a fan of that prospect?”

Aizawa nods no.

“No.”

“Alright well until next time.”

They both wave bye at each other as Brozovic takes her coffee and walks off leaving Aizawa alone once again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aizawa turns the key as he has thousands of times before and sighs before walking in the door. His usual prepared pre sigh before the always energetic (in the middle of night) Hizashi Yamada also known as Present Mic jumps towards the door and greets him.

“Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey, how’s my favorite listener tonight?!”

Aizawa looks at him annoyed but maintains a calm tone.

“Tired and got a lot on my mind quite frankly. And please keep it down. I assume Eri is resting, correct?”

Aizawa’s mention of Eri gets Present Mic’s attention and he exaggeratedly whispers. Because everything he does is either 1 or 100.

“Oooooooooooh gotcha but wassup? You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind. So c’mon let it out on the air waves!”

Sadly for Mic Aizawa has spent years getting used and resisting Mic’s usual infectious enthusiasm. So like a mountain he won’t budge even when Mic hug him.

“Not now Hizashi, we both have jobs to do don’t we? And how the hell am I supposed to further help Kaminari if I’m too tired to even properly listen to him tomorrow?”

Present Mic looks at Aizawa and nods in agreement.

“Hmph, yeah I definitely see your point. But please let’s talk about it first thing in the morning then. You know how you get when you hold things in too long.”

Aizawa takes a moment to think before responding.

“Right, I promise you then as you tell absolutely everything. As long as you promise back that you don’t tell a soul.”

Mic makes a “zipping his mouth shut” motion.

“Don’t worry not a peep of this will be known to any stations!”

Aizawa smiles. You’d assume that Hizashi, with all his never shutting up he would be the worst at keeping secrets possible. But surprisingly enough whatever he said to Aizawa was never heard by the ears of anyone else. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising with how long he’s known each other. But it’s in Aizawa’s nature to always have his reservations of course.

“Thank you very much Hizashi. I know I can trust you.”

Present Mic’s smile could light up a room like a Christmas tree.

“Thank you, now you ready to go to bed?”

Aizawa nods yes as he yawns. Present Mic puts his arm around Aizawa's shoulders as they walk together to bed.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Present Mic’s snoring is so loud and powerful it almost completely drowns out the noise of the pouring rain beating down on their house and the ground around them. Aizawa turns his head and looks at the clock. 2:37 AM, Aizawa sighs heavily. Present Mic's snoring or the rain loudly beating down aren't the reasons he's up right now. Present Mic extremely loud snoring is something he's very used to now and the addition of rain isn't enough to change that. In fact there's something strangely soothing about it to Aizawa that's currently taming his mood.

What's keeping him up is what people in ancient times would've blamed on ghosts or demons. And people today would be paranoid someone's using their quirk to fuck with them for whatever reason. Another factoid he uses to attempt to derail his current state of mind but it again fails.

For years Aizawa has spent running around catching villains and teaching students and fellow heroes alike all to run from the life that haunts him. No he always knew he couldn't run from it, he really wanted to but he knew that was impossible. Instead he did exactly what he was taught to do, he competed with it. He tried to beat it and win but this wasn't another person with different strengths and weaknesses and to different extents. Only even something like a training bot that was meant to simulate that. It was his own mind, he's spent most of his life doing glorified shadow boxing. There was no winning, only more and more useless fighting.

Whenever he gets like this his mind always goes back to when Hizashi got the call that he missed his father's funeral all because he got their phones confused again. Until that day he hadn't explained anything about his relationship with his father. Why would he after all, he was the man he made him feel so weak he dedicated his entire life to never feeling weak again and making sure others never feel weak again.

But weakness is a part of everyone, its strengths shadow after all and it has a way of rearing its ugly head and forcing you to confront it. And today was that day. He came out with everything and he hated the weight he felt was lifted off his chest, another moment to make him feel weak.

His father was a failed sidekick whose wife left him when he was only 3. Leaving him alone with him. He turned to alcohol as his escape from himself which only made his aggression worse. The beatings were the best part however especially when compared to the lack of any self belief he had in him. Of course since he failed at his dream of course Shouta didn’t possibly have a chance in the world of making it. Eventually he stopped talking about anything to do with his aspirations to save himself from some bruises and some useless berating. And then the moment he could’ve never talked to him again. And that was the end of that story, then he began fighting his shadow.

He always had to resist that temptation to contact him to ask him what he thought of his career. If he followed his work and if he was finally proud of him or not. He told himself that the fact that he never contacted him was proof that nothing’s changed and that he would never admit or never will have any affection for him. But the fact he told himself was the problem, the undeniable unknown. It’s why he didn’t show up to his funeral, well the main reason is because what was the point of reminding himself of questions he now can’t know the answer to? That’d be very illogical.

Well despite that here he is 2:48 AM thinking about those same questions he knows he’ll never have answers too. And that’s highly illogical isn’t it? But here he is. He looks outside at the rain. This is why he’s always had such a difficult time admitting his problems after all, something he's told himself is illogical for years but he always had a counter. It was always a different counter but it was always a different counter but it was always a counter.

As he sits there grabbing both his knees, kneecaps up to his face. He can’t help but think was the point of thinking about this now? As he looks at the leaves being forced down by the drops and drops and drops of water. Only for them to keep getting back up it didn’t only remind him of himself. But all the great people he’s met in his life and all the amazing students he’s had the honor of teaching over the years, including Kaminari. He sighs maybe his idea of victory and defeat is very illogical after all.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aizawa by some divine miracle did get some rest before having to go about his normal routine. Starting off by trudging through the hall to get to the kitchen to get his coffee. Only to be met with an extremely enthusiastic looking Hizashi. Sitting next to Eri and Shinsou.

“Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey, good morning Shoita!”

Aizawa cringes.

“Please not so loud this morning. I didn't sleep well last night.”

“Oh My apologies then, you got something on your mind?”

Present Mic takes a zip of his coffee right as Eri starts tugging at Aizawa’s wrist.

“Dad, dad!”

Aizawa leans down trying his best to her her a smile, still unconvincing however.

‘What is it?”

Eri then immediately points at Shinsou who is very slowly eating his breakfast with a solemn depression. Too busy being lost in his own head to pay attention to the world around him.

“Shinsou’s is being weird!”

The name drop catches Shinsou’s attention and Aizawa looks straight at him.

“Oh really, how so?”

“He hasn’t talked all morning! I was trying to get him to talk about my new Mr.Horsey but he wouldn’t even look at me.”

Aizawa looks at Shinsou very sternly. But that’s when Present Mic side eyes Aizawa back. Aizawa stands back up and pats Eri.

“I’ll talk to him later, I’ve got important things to do first. I won’t forget though I promise.”

Eri does look disappointed but she gets it.

“Okay.”

Shinsou looks away as Aizawa looks down at the floor contemplative. .

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After breakfast is over Aizawa and Present Mic walk together towards the hallway while Eri plays, observed by Shinsou. Present Mic leans on the wall and crosses his arms, a rare serious look on his face.

“You know since you’ve started this whole Kaminari case. I knew at some point your father would come back up at some point.”

Aizawa bitterly chuckles again looking at the floor.

“Well that wouldn’t take an expert to assume.”

Hizashi puts his hands in his pockets and gives a smile.

“You know since you’ve started taking care of Eri it’s the most definitive proof that your father was wrong. Since you’ve proven to be a much more understanding and mature parent that your father ever was. And that all of his attempts to hurt you failed because you’ve used all that pain to make sure that others don’t ever have to feel the same again.”

There’s a split second where Aizawa has a smile that disappears as soon as it arrives. And replaced with a very distressing look now.

“Yeah… well that may be true but it doesn’t help unfortunately.”

Aizawa sighs afterwards while Present Mic looks at the floor grimacing. Neither of them are looking at each other.

“Well how come, I mean how many more ways do you have to be better than your father before you accept that you don’t need his approval?”

“I’m not competing with him. Besides, if I did it would be pretty one sided. I’m more than aware that I’m much better than my father and that’s far from accomplishment.”

Present Mic chuckles which does get Aizawa to smile again. This one lasting much longer.

“Well then you gotta have some idea of what’ll help you get over him? I mean knowing your brilliance I’m surprised you haven’t already.”

Ah, Hizashi is always so charming even if he forces it a little at times like this. It shows a care that Shouta does really appreciate.

“Oh I have a crystal clear idea on how to do so.”

Aizawa now leans on the windowsill grabbing it extremely tightly with both hands. Present Mic looks back at him curious.

“So why haven’t you then?”

Aizawa nods.

“That’s an excellent question.”

There’s a moment of silence as they go back to not looking at each other . With Aizawa looking very bitter and Present Mic looks very contemplative. Present Mic goes back to looking straight at him.

“Shouta you already have the approval of everyone else around you? Why did you need the approval of a dead man?”

Aizawa’s eyes go wide. That strikes a chord with him actually. And no wonder it makes perfect sense, he has been lucky enough to surround himself with people who respect and care for him. Mostly because of the hard work and dedication to his mission to help and guide others.

“Hmph, never thought of it like that before.”

Now Present Mic looks at Aizawa with his cheerfulness now at 100% and his tone matching the same.

“Well now that you do, you have no reason ever to think about that miserable pos ever again, right?!”

Present Mic smiles and Aizawa doesn’t.

“If it was that simple I already wouldn't.”

Present Mic's smile disappears and he goes back to looking contemplative.

“Of course well all I know is you're too great to let that asshat drag you down all the time! Guess I could go on and on about all the great things you've accomplished and how awesome you are but if it's really something deeper than you know what you gotta do, right? Oh, you're smart of course you do!”

Present Mic puts his bright smile back on. It's a smile that's so infectious that even Aizawa smiles a little despite knowing what he said.

“Yes but I have so much to worry about, don't I? Do I really have time-”

“Even if it's one hour a week you trying to become better can only help both you and all of us! Because how could a better you hurt us after all?”

For once Aizawa had nothing to say back to Present Mic.

“I suppose you have a point.”

Mic looks back with a smile so bright that actually annoys him.

“Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo?”

Aizawa crosses his arms and rolls his eyes.

“I'll think about it, no promises.”

Now Present Mic over dramatically poses and smiles.

“That’s what I’m talking about!”

Present Mic goes to hug Aizawa but is stopped by him.

“Let's not get overly excited, it's still too early in the morning.”

Aizawa grimaced while Present Mic laughs heartily.

“Forgot you weren't a morning person.”

Aizawa nods with a small smile on his face.

“Let's join Shinsou and Eri for breakfast.”

Present Mic smiles then quickly runs back to the table and beats the slow walking Aizawa to the table sitting next to Eri. Aizawa eventually joins them sitting next to Shinsou who still looks like he has something weighing on his mind. Aizawa looks right at Shinsou though Shinsou doesn't notice.

“What's wrong?”

Now Shinsou notices and is completely caught off guard, hairs on his neck going straight. As milk goes everywhere across the table because of the sudden speed he gets his spoon out of his bowl of cereal.

“Oh, uuuuuuuuuh.”

Shinsou looks away and immediately begins rubbing his neck quickly.

“Yes?”

Aizawa says with a sternness which only gets Shinsou to feel pressure.

“IIIIIIIIIIII… it would be hard to describe.”

Shinsou looks away from Aizawa's gaze.

“Well, do your best because if you can't describe your problems, how can you even begin to solve them?”

Shinsou takes a deep breath and his eyes go wide.

“That's… that's a great point Sensei.”

Shinsou continues to eat his cereal with a stressed expression while an awkward silence falls over the table. Eri looks at Shinsou.

“Hey!”

Shinsou is caught off guard again but is a lot less reflexive this time.

“What's up Eri?”

Eri frowns with a pout upon Shinsou looking up.

“I don't like you being all weird!”

Now Shinsou eyes goes go wide then he looks away with a guilty expression.

“Well… sorry then.”

Eri smiles and goes back to eating her food and that does bring up Shinsou’s mood a little. And that combined brings up Aizawa's mood a little.

“Shinsou, the pressure is not your shoulders.”

Shinsou stops eating and slowly turns to look at Aizawa.

“What do you mean?”

Aizawa looks at him with a much more warm smile than usual.

“Your quirk is useful and your attempts to help your friends is very valent. But nobody's expecting you to get everything out of him single handedly. Bringing you on was a risk to begin with. You can continue helping but keep in mind there's a reason why there's many adults trying to do the same time.”

Shinsou's face morphs from initial confusion to that of an understanding smile.

“Right… thank you.”

“It's nothing.”

The table now shifts to Present Mic and Eri chatting among themselves while there's a peaceful silence amongst Shinsou and Aizawa. That is until Shinsou looks back at Aizawa.

“Sensei?”

Aizawa looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

“You finally ready to speak up?”

Shinsou gulps his eyes going wide. As he looks back at Aizawa a bit shaken up.

“Yes Sensei.”

“Well?”

Shinsou takes a moment to think still looking a little bit nervous.

“I just… I just feel like I'm being underestimated.”

Aizawa now looks very intrigued.

“How come?”

Shinsou's eyes dart away for a second but he brings himself to look at his Sensei.

“I know I can find a solution to help with the interrogation! I can brainwash him again and this time I'll do better! O-O-O-Or if that doesn't work then let me help I'm sure I can come up with a solution! If you let me help!”

Aizawa grabs his shoulder lightly and looks directly at Shinsou with an intense gaze.

“Shinsou we brought you there because we believed in your capabilities, we wouldn't have bothered otherwise. Since that would've been a waste of time and resources. Not only that you exceeded expectations. You were brought in as a last ditch attempt since Kaminari wasn't responding to any normal interrogation tactics. You significantly further and more in depth than certainly I expected. The reason we're keeping you on is because this'll be valuable to your future since you'll do this a lot. So while it's good you're thinking of ideas I do expect you to focus on taking notes first and foremost, understood?”

Shinsou who was smiling the whole time now gathers himself back up.

“Yes Sensei!”

Shinsou says, looking right at him with clear confidence, with a small smile appearing on Aizawa’s face.

“Excellent, we're going this morning.”

Shinsou smiles as he goes back to eating his breakfast. With Aizwa looking back at Present Mic who looks at him with a big happy smile. As Aizawa feels something he doesn’t feel all that often, pride.

Chapter Text

Kaminari sat alone again, thoughts bouncing between a confident version of himself and an insecure one. Jung once said that a person is made up of many people all representing a different trait and Kaminari was learning that the hard way. As he bounces in-between these two opposite positions, a mental tennis match between these 2 versions of himself.

That damn metal door opens again with a loud creak sound. As the usual gang walks in with Shinsou accompanying them. Kaminari greets them with a small smile.

“You're here early actually… is it early? I still have no idea what time it is.”

“It's November 25th, 8:46 AM!”

Aizawa says bluntly and with no emotion. Kaminari eyes go wide in pure shock. Then changes to a wary look of relief.

“Oh… it hasn't been that long then, damn. It's felt waaaaaaaaaaay longer than that, believe me!”

Brozovic looks back at him with a ton of sympathy which gets Kaminari’s attention.

“Uuuuuuuh, was it something I said?”

Brozovic nods but still looks concerned.

“No,but it's that…”

Brozovic puts her hand on her chin and looks at the table in front of her with a very thoughtful expression.

“Seems cruel to keep a kid in here like this?”

Aizawa's blunt statement feels like a stab in the heart to everyone else in the room including Kaminari. Who looks back at them all awkwardly.

“Suppose that's a yes.”

Brozovic chuckles and smirks.

“You're right, we can all give him that.”

Everyone nods in agreement.

“Indeed now let's move on.”

Aizawa glances at Kaminari with an heavy authority which gets Kaminari to move back in his chair as much as he can.

“Right… sooooooooo.”

Kaminari looks back down at the ground with a shy expression.

“So let's start back where we left off.”

Brozovic says bringing back the mood with a smile and a peppy tone in her voice.

“Right.”

Aizawa clears his throat.

“Your time with the League of Villains.”

Aizawa's blunt tone brings the mood down.

“Yes, what about it?”

Kaminari asks casually..

“So you choose to become a villain at only 14?”

Kaminari nods in agreement. Aizawa stares back at him blankly.

“So… how come, and I don’t mean internally. What were the external reasons for agreeing to join them?”

Kaminari narrows his eyes and looks off to the side of the room, deep in thought. He leans forward.

“It’s rather obvious, I saw many things wrong with Japan and wanted to fix it.”

Now it’s Aizawa’s turn to lean forward.

“But why was it villainy that you turned to? You could’ve written a book or became a political activist. How did you justify villainy to yourself?”

Kaminari looks back at Aizawa, interested, then goes back to being thoughtful.

“Hmmmmm… it’s a… it’s an interesting question. Suppose I saw the ways things worked and acted accordingly.”

Shinsou now leans to the side trying to get in Kaminari’s field of vision. Looking very confused but his eyes show a great interest.

“What do you mean?”

Kaminari chuckles, which catches Shinsou off guard.

“Yeah, could’ve worded that way better, it’s something I haven’t ever thought about, you know? Well, not for awhile at least.”

Shinsou now narrows his eyes in frustration.

“Hmph, well-”

Aizawa puts his arm out in front of Shinsou looking right at him.

“Shinsou, I appreciate what you’re trying to do. However, calm down.”

Shinsou shrinks in his seat a little but after he nods nervously in agreement he looks back at his sensei with confidence.
“Yes Sensei. Anyway Kaminari please continue.”

Shinsou looks back at a now smiling Kaminari.

“Thank you now suppose what I was trying to get at was that seeing the world around me all I saw was heroes or villains. I didn’t see anyone else having a major influence so if I wanted to get a message across. If I didn’t want to fall into 1 I had to fall into the other, you know?”

Aizawa and Shinsou both look caught off-guard while Brozovic looks at the hero and hero in training beside her.

“Oh my, that’s an excellent point Kaminari. If only someone would talk about it and its potential consequences, I’m sure you’d be very interested in that?”

Aizawa looks back at Brozovic very annoyed but now Kaminari looks back at the therapist fascinated.

“Really, what are they called?”

“Well-”

Aizawa puts out his arm in front of Brozovic, looking even more annoyed.

“Now’s not the time to sell your book. We’re doing something far more important.”

Brozovic nods in agreement.

“Right, very sorry.”

Aizawa turns back to glare at Kaminari.

“Continue.”

Kaminari composes himself and clears his throat.

“Of course. Now at first it was extremely minor and anonymous crimes. Because I knew I wanted to get a message across, that heroes are making people weaker through making them overly and artificial reliant on them but I had no idea how to get it across.”

Brozovic goes to speak next.

“So the graffiti wasn't enough for you then?”

Brozovic asks feigning curiosity while Kaminari rolls his eyes with a baffled look.

“Of course not. Anyone can make some graffiti and get someone to think for a little bit. That's not making a point! There had to be a way I can show people what I believe that's unique to me.”

Aizawa's right eyebrow raised in shock.

“Hmph, another grandiose villain.”

Shinsou turns to his sensei shocked.

“Sensei!”

Aizawa dismissed him as Brozovic looks at him annoyed then turns back to Kaminari to get back to the point.

“So what did you decide to do then?”

Kaminari sighs and closes his eyes before opening them and looks at Brozovic intensely.

“I painted with ash and not spray paint.”

Chapter Text

Aizawa sighs and looks very disgruntled while Shinsou expression is one of concern and Brozovic’s is one of intrigue.

“Could you please be a lot less vague and be a lot more specific please?”

Aizawa’s gritted tone definitely got Kaminari’s attention and he clears his throat again.

“Of course it should've been from the start. So anyway I remember I was in line for a food bank. At this point I was wanted so I cut my hair and got a hoodie that covered my face almost perfectly. So I was standing there and I was pretty frustrated because I knew that sure some people had seen the graffiti, yes and they were even some small reports of some new mysterious electric villain going around attacking small time sidekicks. But I saw the way people were talking about it and they weren't getting my message. I even felt ashamed I had done such a shit job of getting my message across-”

“You were proud of it.”

Brozovic cuts off Kaminari with a causal skepticism. Kaminari looks back, lips puckered then he sighs.

“Okay yeah I was proud of doing it but it wasn’t going to have the effects I wanted to have. So I had to change tact for people to notice.”
“And you did so successfully?”

Kaminari nods at Aizawa with a big smile.

“That’s right and I remember the day I finally came up with a sufficient way to make the news. I was at a food bank in line in one of those really cool hoodies that if you pull hard enough completely disguise your face! Man, I miss those.”

Kaminari stops talking and looks at the ceiling wistfully. Aizawa looks back at Kaminari thoughtfully.

“When you get out of here I’m more than happy to have you buy a hoodie of your choice.”

The casual and emotionless tone completely contrasts with the stars Kaminari has in eyes looking back right at him.

“Really?”

Aizawa nods yes.

“Of course.”

Kaminari looks at Aizawa now with an elated expression. Brozovic looks at Aizawa with a smirk.

“So you do have a heart after all.”

Aizawa rolls his eyes, only making Brozovic smirk grow.

“Shut up.”

Brozovic and Kaminari both chuckle. With Aizawa glaring back at Brozovic.

“Back to the interrogation now.”

Brozovic and Kaminari both straighten in their seats.

“Yes of course.”

Kaminari clears his throat.

“Okay so I was in the food line and I was forced to overhear some stupid speech by one of those stupid heroes, not you by the way professor Aizawa.”

“Not my concern but thank you.”

Kaminari gives a small smile then returns back to normal when he begins speaking again.

“So yeah was overhearing this stupid hero talking. I forgot what she was talking about but it pissed me off. I do remember that. Then I heard her talk about the scourge of sidekicks being attacked in the city. So I knew she was, well in part at least talking about me. So now I knew that, that caught people’s attention and then it was a matter of figuring out how to combine the two.”

Brozovic raises an eyebrow in intrigue.

“And how did you do that?”

Kaminari sighs deeply looking deeply ashamed.

“Well… if painted my message with the ashes I leave over. Then people would read it, yeah?”

Brozovic looks forlorn while Aizawa and Shinsou expression's are purely disappointed.

“Suppose… suppose that checks out, yeah?”

Brozovic looks right at Aizawa who looks thoughtfully then speaks.

“Naturally.”

Kaminari now squirms in his seat while looking at the floor.

“Let's move on.”

Aizawa states and Brozovic nods in agreement.

“Yes, Kaminari?”

Kaminari snaps back to reality check and looks right back at the trio.

“Yes?”

Brozovic gives Kaminari a very friendly smile.

“Please continue.”

Kaminari gathers himself up and smiles back at them.

“Ah yes, anyway. So that night I resolved to knockout the first sidekick I see. I knew a place in downtown that was full of them. I forgot which hero was there but anyway I knew where they liked to hang out so I did what I'll always do and got there but they did and really thought about what I'd write this time.”

Brozovic leans forward and stares right at Kaminari with serious intrigue.

“So you targeted a sidekick and wrote a message on the wall?”

Kaminari nods in agreement.

“That’s correct, nice to know you've been paying attention.”

Aizawa’s eyes go wide.

“You were the scorched messenger?”

Kaminari nods in agreement but this time has a very proud smirk on his face.

“Correct sensei!”

Aizawa perks up in his seat, eyes going slightly wide.

“Wow I can’t believe it, you gave us quite the run around. Most of us thought you were a career criminal.”

Kaminari gets even prouder.

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, if you think about it, it’s technically true.”

Brozovic chuckles.

“So what was your first message then?”

Brozovic asks out of genuine curiosity and Kaminari smiles big and looks right at her.

“Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, oh yeah! Heroes want to steal the power you’ll have but they never will only the idea of it. Very profound, no?”

Brozovic and Aizawa look at each other Brozovic looking amused while Aizawa looks very much not amused at all.

“For a kid.”

Aizawa says bluntly and coldly. Kaminari looks back at Aizawa shocked and Brozovic laughs her ass off.

“Oh, well… I suppose that makes sense, yeah.”

Kaminari responds slumping in his seat and with a bit of a wounded tone. Shinsou clears his throat and looks right at Kaminari.

“Kaminari.”

Kaminari turns to face Shinsou looking very curious.

“Yes Shinsou?”

“I can’t blame you too much for this but you do realize how much sidekicks struggle, right? Especially those not connected to giant hero agencies.”

Kaminari shrinks in his seat even further and looks away from Shinsou expression ashamed.

“Uuuuuuuh… well of course not. I thought of them as glorified hero helpers I didn't bother to think about who they were or what the fuck they were going through. I-I know that it's hypocritical of me since I want everyone to consider that kinda stuff when dealing with other people. B-B-But I was a fucking kid I mean I didn't-”

Aizawa straightens his arm and holds his up in Kaminari’s eyesight and Kaminari stops then looks at Aizawa.

“We know Kaminari, you're still a kid now. We've already been over this and we understand. You should know we don't hold you in a negative light.”

Aizawa's matter of fact tone but compassionate words do calm Kaminari down and even gives em all a small smile.

“Okay… you right.”

Aizawa speaks again.

“I remember the scorched messenger was only around for a few months and you seem pretty proud of this, what happened?”

Kaminari gulps and looks extremely nervous now.

“Hmph… well you know.”

Kaminari says sheepishly. Aizawa's right eyebrow goes right in the air at that statement.

“What do you mean?”

Kaminari looks away from everyone and towards the floor.

“It's why I'm here, a-after all.”

Aizawa's arms cross.

“You joined the League?”

Kaminari bites the right side of his bottom lip. With a look of regret clear on his face.

“That's… fuck that's right.”

Now Brozovic intensely looks at the guilty looking electric boy in front of her.

“If you really want to help us then please focus your mind and energy on telling us everything you know about the league to help us catch them and so when we stop them from hurting innocents you can take some responsibility.”

Brozovic says all that with a smile on her face. While Kaminari straightens up in his seat and looks at Brozovic with stars in his eyes. Then he smiles at them again.

“Yes you're correct let's continue then.”

Kaminari beams confidence now as Brozovic and Aizawa look at each other again both now on the same page. Nodding in agreement as they both turn back to look at Kaminari with Aizawa going to speak next.

“So where did the league 1st then?”

Kaminari puts his finger on his chin and looks up to the ceiling

“If you're looking for their hideout, no way I'll be able to tell you. They change hideouts all the time.”

Kaminari says matter of factly. Everyone else in the room looks disappointed then Brozovic goes to speak.

“We should start with how you guys met then and how you became a league member to begin with.”

Kaminari stares on needing a moment to gather himself.

“Yes I… I remember.”

Chapter Text

Brozovic looks at Kaminari with extreme sympathy. She’s an expert so she knows from years of work that the most painful part is always the acknowledgment. Something that Kaminari has been through time and again. Something that’s written all over his now guilty face. She speaks with a steady sympathy that successfully helps Kaminari feel much more comfortable again.

“You’ve clearly learned a lot from this conversation, so we have no reason to judge you, certainly not at this point, so go ahead and come out with the full truth and nothing but the truth. Because we're aware you’re no longer that kind of person and you should be too.”

Kaminari stops for a second processing what she said. She knows he’s right so he takes a deep breath telling himself all he’s learned from this convo alone then looking back at her with ferocity and confidence.

“You’re right it was when I was in the middle of another erm… display. When suddenly I accidentally bumped into a certain handyman.”

Aizawa, Shinsou and Brozovic eyes all go wide.