Shinsou was cornered in a dark alleyway, surrounded by bullies from his class and older classes.

They were beating him, and calling him names.

"Good for nothing villain"
"Freak"
"Zombie (courtesy of his pale skin and dark eye bags.)"
"Stupid"
"Creepy"
"Unloved"
"Emo fuck up"

And so on.

One of the hits landed on his gut, causing him to yell out in pain.

"Shut it, stupid villain! You're gonna get us in trouble!" Hissed one of the bullies.

Only a few seconds later, a dark figure jumped down into the alleyway.

The Emerald Phantom.

His voice rang out, sending shivers down their spines with how child-like he sounded, "hey. Leave the purple kid alone. Unless you want to loose your precious quirks, that is."

The bullies ran off in an instant, absolutely terrified. Shinsou backed up, away from the villain, hoping to escape his wrath.

Unfortunately, that wasn't about to happen.

Phantom turned to face him, and spoke again, this time his voice was laced with sympathy. "They didn't injure you too badly, did they? I know how rough people like them can be.. I have a first aid kit, if you need it?" He said as he reached for one of his hoodie pockets.

"N-no, I'm fine, just a few scrapes and bruises" Shinsou relaxed abit, seeing that the villain didn't want to hurt him.

Emerald Phantom almost seemed to smile behind his mask, "ah, that's good, then. If you don't mind me asking, what were they beating you up over?"

Shinsou hesitated. If this guy found out about his quirk, he'd try to take advantage of Shinsou.

Except Shinsou didn't want to lie to him, because lying was bad, and he didn't want to be bad.

Shinsou mumbled, "people don't exactly like my quirk..."

Phantom nodded, "quirk discrimination, huh? It really sucks, people judge eachother over some super power that you don't even get to choose. I get that alot aswell."

"A powerful villain like you? No way. Don't you have some sort of quirk thay helps you fight heroes so easily?" Shinsou asked, surprised.

Phantom sat down in front of him, shaking his head. "No, not at all. Actually, I don't have a quirk at all. I'm quirkless. What about you? What kind of quirk do you have?"

Shinsou drew a breath. He definitely didn't expect for a feared villain like Emerald Phantom be quirkless. Not that he had anything against quirkless people, he was just surprised.

"I.. my quirk is brainwashing. I can control anyone who responds to me. It's considered villainous.." Shinsou sighed.

Phantom seemed to fill up with a child-like excitement, "really? That's an amazing quirk!! Imagine all the things you could do with a quirk like that!"

Shinsou flinched. He knew what was coming. Emerald Phantom was going to list a bunch of evil things he could do with his quirk, and then ask him to become a villain and help Phantom.

"You could easily get out of a hostage situation without anyone getting hurt! Actually, you could probably stop pretty much any crime with little to no casualties! It could be used to calm a victim down easily, as well! You'd make an amazing hero with a quirk like that!" Phantom squealed, catching Shinsou off guard.

"Hold on, what? A... hero? With my quirk?" Shinsou asked.

Phantom chuckled, although it wasn't a laugh that would be expected from a villain. "I mean, you'd have to train yourself physically in case a villain doesn't fall for your quirk, but yeah! You could definitely become a hero! Plus, you seem like a genuinely good person. I wouldn't doubt it if you become a great hero one day."

"R-really?!"

"Mhm! Hey, do you wanna maybe, I dunno, maybe we could be friends? Oh! I never did catch your name! Of course, if you don't feel comfortable telling me, then that's fine. I am a villain, after all" Phantom said, still seeming to be full of that childish excitement.

Shinsou hesitated again. The villain seemed nice, but that could be acting. Then again, he seemed genuine. "Uhm, I'm Shinsou, and yeah, I guess we could be friends..."

They spent the rest of the night talking with each other, before Phantom said he had to leave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Izuku sat on his bed with a smile. Sure, he never got to remove of Volt's quirk, but he had just made a new friend!

He wasn't entirely sure why he had opened up to Shinsou. Usually, he was closed off. Maybe it was because Shinsou had saved him from Kacchan. Or maybe it was because if their similar situations.

It didn't matter why it had happened, he thought. Just that it happened

He didn't know much about friendship, though. Shinsou probably was new to the concept as well, though.

Izuku could figure it out. He was smart enough. He adapted to a situation, and learned from what other people did. Surely he could figure out something as common as friendship!

Besides, he couldn't remember the last time he was this happy! So Izuku figured that they would easily be good friends.

No hidden intentions on his side. He was lonely, and Shinsou seemed lonely. They could both understand eachother from what Izuku could tell.

He just wanted support from another person, nothing more.

And he definitely wasn't lying about Shinsou's quirk. He could hardly see a quirk like that as villainous.

Then again, Izuku liked to think about quirks, break them down to the core. He never categorized quirks as 'heroic', 'villainous', or 'useless'. Only based on similarities between functions and abilities.

That's just how he was.

Anyway, he and Shinsou had decided to meet up in the park at 10 pm. Everyone in the orphanage would be asleep by then, and Shinsou said that his parents wouldn't mind it.

For the first time since his parents died, Izuku was happy.