The festival coming up reminds Hitoshi just how close it is until his 'entrance exam'. It's only in a few weeks, and he has little time left . He would be more annoyed at the festival, if it wasn't for the fact that his class chose his idea. Sure, it was a spur of the moment idea, but it was something he could actually look forward to so he doesn't complain. They rename it 'Spirit maze', but the concept is the same.

Haku quickly sorts out roles and planning. Hitoshi will be a dead body, working alongside Daguchi and Hada. Hada will use his echolocation quirk to detect people coming down the corridor, and the two will take turns to scare them by swinging down from the ceiling.

Other classmates with use their quirks to either detect, scare or help their peers.

They only have a few weeks to get everything prepared, so once roles are sorted out the class rep starts splitting people into teams for construction. The teachers allow them to use an old building for their house, and they all have to work together to make it perfect.

Hitoshi is stuck with Hada, Fujisaki, Mori, Oshiro, and Hamasaki, working on a corridor near the exit. The aethstetic of the Sprit maze is supposed to be old and abandoned, so they can do anything with the corridor if it fits with the theme.

Oshiro decides to string up the fake cobwebs that he brought along -although they look a bit too realistic- and Mori uses her quirk. Weeds begin to grow through the floor, cracking and bending the wooden floorboards, and she stops once the hallway looks long abandoned.

Hitoshi crosses his arms watching, unsure what to do. He didn't know he had to bring something today (as he skipped all of yesterday), but Hada has him covered.

"Hey, Shinsou. You can help me with these posters" He smiles kindly at him, and Hitoshi hesitantly agrees. They sit down and start to age the posters.

"Are you feeling ok today?" Hada finally asks, glancing over at his classmate who just shrugs as he carelessly tears All Might's face.

"I guess"

"Can I ask why you had an attack?"

Hitoshi pauses and stares. Why is that important? "Is that any of your business?"

His classmate frowns, "I don't mean to intrude. I'm just curious, and I want to make sure it doesn't happen again..."

Oh...he's being nice. It almost makes him feel bad. Hada doesn't know he's trying to transfer, and this is likely his last few weeks in general studies. Them trying to get close will be meaningless after he's transferred, so what's the point?

"I'm not sure...I guess I don't like being touched by people I don't know" He mumbles, crumpling the poster slightly so All Might's smile becomes distorted.

"Not really helpful if you're trying to be a hero" The other jokes, quickly adding onto his statement when Hitoshi gives him a look, "No I know what you mean. I saw how Aka grabbed you out of nowhere. You don't like being touched out of the blue, but it's different in battle"

"I was having a bad morning, that's all" Hitoshi mumbles looking away. Hada thankfully seems to get the message, and changes the subject.

"We're on the same team. We should meet up with Daguchi and come up with a strategy. I already have one, so I'd like to run it by you two and see if anything should change or if you have a better idea"

"All right"

Hada's gaze lingers on the scar through his eyebrow, then notices the burn scar on his wrist as he grabs another poster and frowns, "is everything ok? You're not being hurt, or hurting yourself a-"

"Please stop trying to get to know me" Hitoshi snaps, shoving his sleeve down. His classmate's frown grows.

"You don't like talking to people. Is it because they make you uncomfortable or because you prefer to be alone?"

He looks away, "I'm moving to the hero course. Stop trying to be friends, it's pointless"

A brief silence falls over them, before Hada responds softly, "We can still be friends if you move class, Shinsou. And even if we're not, I want you to feel welcome for the remaining time you have in 1C..."

Hitoshi goes quiet. Before he would avoid his peers out of fear of judgement, bullying, or the chance that they would use him. Now, it seems pointless to form bonds, but he feels bad for Hada trying even though he knows it won't mean anything soon.

___

Hitoshi arrives home around 5, and immediately looks through his things for some old clothes he can mess up for his role. He finds a long sleeved, light grey shirt, and a pair of ripped black jeans. Perfect. He walks them over to the table, then grabs the kitchen scissors and starts to cut random parts of the shirt. Then, he takes out the fake blood and splatters it all over, before hanging it upside down to dry. He decides to keep the jeans in tact, figuring that they're still good to wear.

Once done, he curls up in his blanket and sits on the couch, allowing the three cats to jump all over him.

An hour or two later, Yamada and Eri come home to find him half asleep, Patch aggressively nuzzling against his side for attention. Eri sees the shirt, and bursts into tears running over to her older brother. "Toshi! Toshi are you ok? Don't die!"

The teen jumps awake and looks at her, "Eri? Eri I'm ok, it's ok"

She cries and he leans forward moving her onto his lap, pulling the blanket around them both as he hugs her close. Eri buries her face in his chest shaking, as he tries to reassure her that he's fine and that nothing happened. "Shhh...it's ok. I'm not going anywhere"

He smiles gently at her when she looks up, and wipes the tears away from her cheeks. "It's a costume for the festival. The blood isn't real, I'm sorry if I scared you" The tears don't stop, "Lets put a film on. Would you like that?"

"Mmhm" His sister nods sniffing, "Toto"

Yamada walks over and puts the film on to help Hitoshi, then walks to Eri's room to find her teddy. The girl cuddles up to Hitoshi as she watches the intro song for My neighbour Totoro, relaxing at the little characters on screen.

Hitoshi smiles. This was the first film that they put on for her, and she loves it. Though, sometimes he thinks that she puts on it for him. Which is cute. She relaxes after a while, cuddling close to him. He eventually starts to drift back into sleep.

__

It takes a few days for them to finally set up the 'spirit maze', thanks to the variety of helpful quirks in their class. By the end of the week, the building is entirely finished, and all they have to do is run through to make sure it works.

Hitoshi finds the pair he's grouped with, and follows them down to the corridor they're working in. The corridor looks worn, aged posters on the wall, spiderwebs strewn here and there, and mysterious stains on the walls. Two openings can be seen on the ceiling, large enough for them to fit through.

Using the hidden door, they crawl into the crawlspace in the ceiling. One opening has a metal bar on the floor, so Daguchi can hold onto it while scaring, or holding onto Hitoshi. Hada sits behind the opening closest to the door, Daguchi sits between the middle of them facing Hada, and Hitoshi sits with his back to them. He kneels beside the opening in the ceiling, waiting.

"Ok let's test this" Haku calls out, and two people walk towards them.

A black, tail like limb grows from Daguchi, and he wraps it around Hitoshi's ankles holding on. Hitoshi waits for a few more seconds, before swinging down through the hole limp and emotionless. His two classmates jump in surprise yelping, as he hangs there motionless. Then, Daguchi pulls him back up and smiles at him, before turning back to Hada, who giggles. "This will be fun"

"Next!"

He wraps his tail around the bar and waits for Hada to give a signal, before swinging down screaming as the two pass him. They scream louder than the previous pair, and Duguchi pulls himself back up laughing.

Haku calls up to them, "That's great. Hada, can you pick up on the people?"

"Yes"

"Great! You guys can help us test the others. Come down"

The three go back downstairs, and follow them into the next corridor.
___

"I'll have to stay with my class most of the day, but I'll try and see if I can leave to spend time with you" Hitoshi sighs, putting his hands in his hoodie pocket. He decided to wear it to school, as it would be weird to walk down the street with a bloody shirt. However, he still got stares from the blood marks trailing upwards from his mouth and eye.

Eri frowns, "Can I see you at your event?"

Hitoshi briefly thinks back to when she cried over the bloodied shirt, and decides that taking her into a scare house would be a bad idea. Not to mention the fact that she would likely react bad to seeing him play dead for real.

"No Eri...it will be too scary for you. I'm sorry" After hugging her, he ruffles her hair gently, "save me some sweets or something, okay?"

She nods, taking Mirio's hand, "Okay...we're going to watch Deku's class. He promised to dance with me"

"Nice. Hope you have fun"

Eri nods grinning, before walking off with the third year. Aizawa looks at him, "Make sure to have fun. I might drag Hizashi to your spirit maze"

He laughs, taking the hoodie off, "Please do. We'll all go deaf, but it'll be worth it"

His dad smiles, taking his hoodie from him, then heads in the direction that Eri went in. Hitoshi walks towards his event, and meets the class outside.

"Is everyone here?" Haku calls out, attempting to do a headcount. Once he manages to count everyone, he grins.

"Alright 1C! Let's do our best!"

"Plus ultra!" They all cheer, then run off to their places, and the trio gets in position inside the ceiling. Hada gives the two boys a thumbs up, before placing his hands on the floor concentrating. They know it takes about 5 minutes before a person gets to them from the entrance, but that time period might change depending on the reactions.

It takes a while, but eventually Hada gives the signal to Daguchi. His tail grows out his body, then taps Hitoshi's shoulder before wrapping it around his ankles. He waits, then swings down, fighting back a laugh at the girl's expression when she screams.

The day goes by, with the two boys taking turns to scare people or going one after the other. Most of them scream, but there are the odd few who just jump or don't even react. Hitoshi finds it fun to scare his peers.

Eventually, Hitoshi swings down to scare another group, and four 1A students scream as loud as possible. The electric kid accidentally shocks him, and he falls head first onto the floor.

"Dude, sorry!" He walks forward, but Hitoshi decides to stay in character. He slowly pushes himself up with a blank expression, noticing Daguchi's tail slowly lowering itself down towards him. They both have the same idea.

"Beware lost explorers, more horrors fill your path ahead" He speaks in a low, monotone voice, keeping his head tilted down but raising his eyes to meet theirs. The tail curls itself around him, and slowly pulls him back up. "You won't make it out alive"

Daguchi helps him back onto the roof, before quickly swinging down the other opening and lets out a loud scream. The four scream even louder and run away, crashing through the door ahead.

"They were 1A students, but they were terrified!" Daguchi laughs.

Hitoshi laughs with them, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably. The shock makes him think back to Igarashi, but he shakes the thought away. He won't think about him here.

Eventually, he's allowed to leave and decides to try and find Aizawa. Wandering around the school grounds while wearing a blood stained shirt feels weird, so he searches quickly, ignoring the looks.

He finds Aizawa, Mirio, Eri and Midoriya at a food truck, with floating girl and frog girl.

"Hey!"

They turn, and Eri runs over, "Toshi!"

Hitoshi smiles and picks her up, "Have you had fun?"

She nods grinning wide, and his heart skips a beat. Eri's smiling. She's smiling! "Deku's class was loud, but it was cool! At first I was scared, but then there was dancing and it went woosh! And the girls singing was amazing! I wish you could've seen it!"

"It sounds amazing, Eri" he smiles, "And you're smiling!"

She nods giggling and wraps her arms around his neck, "did you have fun?"

"Yeah, it was great! Some people from Deku's class screamed really loud"

Eri laughs, then asks to be put down. Aizawa hands him his hoodie back, and the two girls approach Hitoshi as he puts it back on.

"Hey, you're Shinsou right?" Floating girl asks, "I'm Ochaco Uraraka"

"I'm Asui Tsuyu" Frog girl says.

"Hey..." Hitoshi replies, making sure to remember it. Once he gets into the hero course he might need to know.

"Shinsou!" Midoriya grabs his arm, eyes wide and enthusiastic, "Let's spend the rest of the day together!"

"Oh...no I don't really-"

"Come on, it'll be fun!" He grins. Hitoshi looks at Aizawa for help, but the teacher just shrugs. The green haired boy starts to drag him off towards another event, and the others follow.

The rest of the day is spent exploring the other events, buying some food and meeting other people. Hitoshi just allows Midoriya to drag him place to place, holding Eri's hand as she talks constantly. He's just happy that she's enjoying the festival, and that bright smile on his face is enough to make him go through with it all. Hitoshi even manages to win her a plushie on a dart stall. It's a big, black cat with white markings across its face and soft blue eyes. It's mouth sits neutral, but it's tongue sticks out.

As they walk to the gate, Midoriya stops them, "Eri, look up"

The little girl slowly looks up at him, and he grins pulling out a candy apple from nowhere. "Surprise!"

Eri gasps and takes it, staring at it in awe.

"I didn't think they sold them?" Hitoshi frowns.

"I didn't either, so I bought the ingredients. It wasn't too difficult aside from making it! The only thing I couldn't find was red food dye, so I borrowed some from Sato" He grins, watching as she takes a big bite.

"Its sweeter than an apple!" She giggles, taking another bite. The boys smile watching her, before Aizawa tells them it's time to go.

"You'll see them again soon. What do you say?"

"Thank you, Deku!"

She waves as they walk back towards the apartment, then takes Hitoshi's hand while eating the apple. He smiles down at her.

Today was good. And hopefully, next week will be too.