Content warning:

Self deprication, negative outlooks?
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As he was walking back home, Izuku crashed back into his bottomless pit of despair.

He hoped Wisp would be okay. He didn't know if he would take Wisp home, but he liked the kitten. For a moment, while he was carrying them, everything seemed alright. Now, the crushing feeling in his gut might kill him.

He desperately wanted to keep them.

He was being stupid. Wisp could have an owner and it's not like he knew how to take care of a kitten anyway.

Somehow, he found himself walking back to the old apartment building and crawling halfway up the fire escape. He didn't go any higher. He just wanted to think.

'Why does my life suck?' Izuku ponders the question, 'what did I do to deserve this?'

He already knew the answer to those questions. It had been beat into him by his classmates since childhood. He was quirkless. 'but I'm not...'

Right. He had a quirk now. It just didn't seem to change much about that answer. 'I'm just stupid and useless now.'

"Hey there!"

Izuku was shot out of thoughts as his head snapped up.

It was that kid again, Shinsou. "H-hi."

"Hello yourself." Shinsou crawled out of the window and onto the fire escape. "You came back."

"Y-yeah."

"You have a reason," Shinsou said it like a statement but the question was obvious.

"Yeah. Why d-do you do that?"

"I am doing-" Shinsou gestured, it was another implied question.

"The way y-you speak. You av-void asking questions." Shinsou gave him a look, and Izuku shrunk back. "Y-you don't have to t-tell me if you d-don't want to."

"I'm just trying to see if you'll judge me."

Izuku was surprised. Shinsou barely knew him, yet he was willing to trust him. "What if I s-share someth-thing in exchange?"

Shinso thought for a moment, then agreed. "Deal."

Izuku shifted into a more comfortable position on the metal grates so he was facing Shinsou. "What d-do you want to know?"

"....your reasons for coming here." Shinsou sat down across from him.

Izuku sighed. "A l-lot happened this week and I n-needed to think."

Shinsou hummed in response, "Its your turn."

"Why d-do you avoid questions?"

Shinsou paused for a moment before answering. "Its part of my quirk. You said stuff happened."

"Lets j-just say don't m-meet your heros...and your b-bullies....on the same d-day." It almost physically pained Izuku to admit that. Shinso let him have a moment.

In a moment of clear dumbfuckery, Izuku forgot to think before he spoke. "What's your quirk?" Shinso froze. Immediately, Izuku started panicking. 'You've gone and messed up again Izuku, you dumbass.'

"I'm s-sorry! If you don't w-want to talk about it I understand-!"

"Brainwashing." Shinso cut him off quickly.

"Huh?" 'Whadidhejustsay?'

As if he could sense the confusion Izuku was feeling, Shinso continued, "Brainwashing. When people respond to me, I can control them. I understand if you don't want to hang around after knowing I have a villainous-"

Izuku interjected, "That's stupid."

Shinso's head snapped to look Izuku in the face. "What."

Izuku lifted his hands. "I said that's stupid. Your quirk isn't villainous. Villainous quirks dont exist, only how people choose to use their power. Tell me Shinso, have you used your quirk purposefully on another person without having a good reason to do so?"

Shinso shifted his weight in consideration. "...no."

Izuku let his hands drop. "Then you aren't a villain. Simple."

"Alright, alright. Its my turn." Shinso's chest was warm for the first time in years. So much so that he, also, forgot to think before he spoke. "What's your quirk?" He slapped his hands over his mouth. He had gone and slipped.

Izuku laughed. "Its alright. I don't care if you use it accidentally. It would make this conversation easier to follow."

"You're avoiding my question." Shinsou lowered his hands and settled them on his lap.

"Well, since you asked nicely, I'm quirkless....legally." Izuku said, fidgeting with his hands.

A lightbulb went off in Shinso's head. 'Well that explains a lot. Wait-'

"And illegally?"

Izuku took a deep sigh and bundled the botrom of his hoodie in his hands. "This quirk I have showed up a few days ago, and I didn't even realize I had it until after shit went down." Okay. Wow. He did not expect that. He just thought Izuku had an undocumented quirk, not that he had got it a few days ago. 'Wait...A few days?'

"A few days? Was that the day that..."

"We met? Yeah." The silence was near deafening. Neither boy wanted to approach the uncomfortable topic that was their first encounter. Then, Izuku noticed how dark it was. "I've got to go. My mom is probably starting to get worried."

"Alright. Mind giving me your number?" Shinso was not about to let this boy disappear into thin air. He was too interesting.

"Sure! Just hand me your phone."

The boys pulled their phones from their pockets and exchanged info.

"Feel free to text me anytime. I'm always free," Shinsou said as he handed the phone back.

"Sure!" Izuku glanced down at the contact page. "Spooky bitch? Really?"

"You know it! See you later."

"Bye."

----

Aizawa had a headache. After getting permissions to use the databases, searching the kid came with interesting results. The kid had a choppy school record; inflictions for disrupting class, early cases of bullying, and sub par grades.

However, the standardized tests showed that they had perfect scores, and a talk with Mrs. Amaki showed that from her interactions with the kid, they were sweet, caring, kind, and smart. In other words, completely the opposite of the teacher reports.

Aizawa could feel a headache incoming. "This doesn't add up."

A look into the kid's personal profile raised some red flags. The picture was outdated and their medical records were sparse. But the most concerning thing Aizawa saw was the kid's quirk status.

"Shit. Quirkless. Of course."

If Aizawa didn't know what he was going to do now that he had no class to teach, he sure did now.

Everything made sense now; the kids demeanor, the records, the outdated information.

"Damn." Aizawa leaned back further into his chair.

Aizawa knew what it was like to be hated for a quirk, and he knew what this kid was going through is most likely no different, if not, then worse. The kid was probably facing discrimination where ever they went and treated like literal shit.

Aizawa knew the statistics for quirkless children, so this made him understandabley worried.

"I should call in Nedzu..., shouldn't I?"
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AN:

Thanks for reading chapter 9!

Things are starting to heat up, Aizawa can feel the future migraines, and Izuku is starting to talk about what happened (even if it is to a stranger, soon to be friend).