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stillness-in-green · 2 years

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Chapter Thoughts: 363, Those Who Defend, Those Who Violate

O I love the detail that Monoma is on his feet on the first page. I went back a few chapters to see if it happened when Bakugou’s big power move rocked the arena, but no, Monoma was still seated after that. But here, just like Aizawa has one hand on his capture weapon, poised like he wants nothing more than to leap into the fray, Monoma—who can’t stand Bakugou!—jumped to his feet so violently he tipped the chair over behind him. I love Monoma, you guys.

(Continued below the cut.)

O I’m amused at the idea that some of ShigAFO’s newfound disdain for Eraserhead is tied to Eraser sending students to the field instead of coming himself. I feel like it’s one of those things that echoes threads of both Shigaraki and AFO. Dabi expresses it most clearly, the idea that adult heroes roping students into these big anti-villain pushes is in questionable taste (“tacky,” as he puts it), but it’s easy to imagine Shigaraki having similar sentiments.(1) All For One, meanwhile, has had strong opinions about the nature of the student/teacher relationship from the beginning of the series! So of course he thinks Aizawa sending his student into a fight that is only going to get said student killed is a mark against Aizawa as a teacher.

O Shigaraki’s hair is especially gorgeous this week. My god, he could have walked out of a shampoo commercial. (If the shampoo commercial was cross-marketing with Mad Max, anyway.)

O As others have noted, I’m interested to see what Best Jeanist thinks he’s doing here. Eyes down, not even looking at the oncoming opponent, shirt sleeves unraveling downwards… I saw a lot of supposition about him trying to sew up Bakugou, maybe even do something about the kid’s mangled heart, if we’re going to get real wack with what kinds of “fibers” Fiber Master is able to control. (I would like to note that if we find out Best Jeanist can control muscle fibers, I will be needing the Best Jeanist+Muscular fic yesterday, please and thanks.)(2)

O I want to comment, “Nice to see Mirko confirming once more that murdering an unconscious guy in a science lab tube was her explicit intent at Jakku,” but she’s enough like Bakugou that I wouldn’t want to take her at her literal word too unthinkingly, especially when her word in the Japanese is exactly that kind of “slaughter/beat to death” threat that Bakugou uses all the time. (Indeed, give or take some regional differences in her word usage, I think it’s the exact same.)

O Egregious boob shot is egregious. At least her snarl is intense enough that it’s showing forehead veins.

O I have no idea how exactly Dabi is mimicking a move that Shouto uses ice for, but I am indescribably glad that it’s not Phoenix Quirk Nonsense. I wonder if any of Endeavor’s sidekicks are actually going to bite it here? On the one hand, Fire Is The Worst Super Power because it scales damage relative to the opponent’s determination, as has been proven by this very series time and time again, so I have my reservations that Dabi is going to suddenly get better at K.O.ing named characters than he ever has been. On the other hand, the art of Onima and Kido being consumed by the blaze is a lot more convincing than usual.

Also, I’m not going to say they deserve it, certainly, but given how lethal the story is always insisting Dabi is, he’s long overdue for something that his opponents can’t just bounce back from after a day or two in the hospital. And the sidekicks, with their defensive rationalizations about why they’re still on the field doing Endeavor’s work after the revelations about Endeavor’s abuse of his family, are just about as narratively perfect a target as Dabi could get.

Otherwise, I’m extremely amused at how all this makes Deika look in retrospect. So Dabi is capable of just snapping out copied movies in a matter of seconds? He doesn’t even need any time to practice or work it out? And we know Dabi taught himself the flying trick after seeing Endeavor use it against High End. He would have had just about two weeks to practice it before the League showed up to pick him up for the Deika fight, wherein he had to fight a flying ice user. So if Dabi is really that good at picking up his family’s special moves, why on Earth did he let Geten keep the high ground for their entire fight?

Did he just not think of it? Forgot all about it just like he had to be reminded about the chainsaw Noumu at the training camp or that sand hero he killed? Or was he not confident in the move yet and didn’t want to risk falling on his ass and looking lame in front of the League and/or that insufferably smug ice user? Inquiring minds need to know.

O Looking forward to Iida getting to do something (anything) at this point. Or horse sidekick guy, who we know came to this field of battle but who hasn’t been seen here once. Or Stain, in an ironic reversal in who’s watching who in a sea of flames and Noumu.

O I’m always amused at how consistent Dabi is with using epithets or derogatory nicknames for people younger than him—crazy girl, lizard, Boss—while people older than him get to be called by their actual names/titles—Twice, Ujiko-san, and now Skeptic. Dabi being polite

And speaking of Skeptic.

O I am in mourning for a more colorful translation of Skeptic’s fazacon insult to Dabi.

I'm going to be pretty frank about this, so if you don't want to read several paragraphs about fetish terminology in Japan, or if the discussion of fictional incest upsets you, please do skip down to the next bullet point.

"Daddy issues" is, at least in my experience, entirely sexless in the English idiom, but it is not a sexless insult in Japanese. It’s a clear Dad-themed equivalent of siscon or brocon, lolicon or shotacon, and all of those -con words are much more loaded with connotations of obsession, possessiveness, and inappropriate affection or attachment in Japanese. They don’t have to indicate that the person being hit with the label is literally having (or wanting) incestuous sex, but there is, even in the most clinical uses, a meaning of, “You are too hung up on [X taboo target], to extremes that other people consider weird or uncomfortable.”

But that’s only the milder end of the implication! On the more explicit end, those words are also in common slang parlance as fetish terms, especially when they're shorthanded like that instead of fully written out! If you do a google image search for ファーザー・コンプレックス, "Father complex," you will get both academic or journalistic-looking results, as well as a number of what appear to be BL manga covers. But if you do the same for ファザコン, fazacon, the ratio shifts sharply towards manga covers/art, and even those start skewing dramatically more towards scantily clad anime women making bedroom eyes at the viewer.

"Daddy issues," to me, is about male characters brooding and stewing over their controlling or abusive or idolized fathers; it's reflective of angst and resentment, not the excessive and unseemly attachment Skeptic is implying with fazacon.

Now, Skeptic is hardly the final authority on Dabi’s feelings about his dad, of course. Still, he did spend a month living in a cave with Dabi harping on at every second of the goddamn day about how much he wanted to be out there making Endeavor cry more. Hard to blame the man for calling it like he sees it!

O Skeptic's! Pin-stripes!!! Watch me spin out a whole headcanon about how he’s adopted Re-Destro’s mode of dress as a parallel to also taking up Re-Destro’s dream. Skeptic always was the most proactive in RD’s inner circle about preserving Re-Destro for the cause, no matter what kinds of off-the-wall and/or psychologically abusive methods are required. Love seeing him appealing to Re-Destro’s desires here, including advancing Shigaraki Tomura’s interests, because of course that was Re-Destro’s desire as well.

This kind of begs the question of to what degree Skeptic knows or is even thinking about the real Shigaraki’s current situation—but on the other hand, it’s not like he was ever a real Shigaraki loyalist—he wasn’t even at the crater, after all. So it wouldn’t be a big surprise if he doesn’t particularly care what’s going on inside Shigaraki’s head right now, so long as it’s not obstructing Skeptic’s own goals.

O I’m delighted to get the nod that FGI did try to eject Skeptic from his position. Given how little the heroes have talked about him as an issue—he mostly seems to get lumped in with the rest of the PLF escapees, as if he didn’t hack into every TV screen in the country!—I wonder if the Feel Good Inc. corporate head honchos assured the federal investigators that Chikazoku had been ejected, locked out, no way he can do that a second time! (panic sweating)

It’s also interesting that the FGI head honchos were even able to flee the country. I tend to think the arrest nets had to be cast pretty wide, and you’d think a company one of the highest officers of the MLA was a boardmember of would fall under a lot of suspicion. I wonder if that implies, then, that it’s actually relatively clean?

I have had the thought before that someone like e.g. Curious might find it useful to have a dupe above her on the chain of command, someone that attracts all the attention for her magazine’s radical politics while she gets on with business in a less dangerous position. Easy to imagine Skeptic could be much the same, especially since FGI’s main use as an MLA asset is the infrastructure access, which doesn’t require an ideological bent in the same way that a magazine and a political party would, or that Re-Destro ran Detnerat with.

O Interestingly, it’s in this chapter that we finally see a hint of quirk supremacist leanings from Skeptic. He and Curious were always the two that talked least about it, which I’d always assumed was because their quirks had the least to do with what they actually brought to the table as warriors for Liberation. Of course, as mentioned above, Skeptic’s been living in a cave for a month, and had all his friends and comrades imprisoned or worse on top of that, so it’s easy to imagine he’s feeling a few notches more radical than he was, say, 6-8 weeks ago!

Still, I can't help but feel that his phrasing here is milder than the way Geten described the same idea, and I like that Skeptic’s wording leaves room for skillful or intelligent wielding of one's meta-ability—that, contra Geten, it doesn't have to be about the brute power of the meta.

It also stands out that Skeptic here is yelling about using one's quirk to get ahead in the world, as he....hacks into a computer system with no use of his quirk at all. Further, in a true anarchy that brings down the old order, exactly how intact and reliable does he think things like the power grid and the internet are even going to be? Is he thinking at all about how much less useful he’d be if no one was maintaining cell towers? The fact that he glosses over that completely is probably partly the cave life talking, but it’s also a good example of the kind of cult-based double-think lots of the MLA are likely prone to.

Anyway, like Skeptic and the Liberationists, I too would very much like to see the social categories of Hero and Villain abolished, so I remain highly curious(3) about whether Horikoshi’s going to actually do anything about all these radical binaries he has characters talking about, and the way those binaries encourage the dehumanization of members on both sides.

O Finally, I’ve touched on this before, but while La Brava is the heroes’ obvious solution to a villain hacker, I don’t think she really works in this situation. There’s nothing heroes can offer her that I can see them being willing to offer, so why would she accept any of their help requests? Yes, clemency for Gentle Criminal would be an incredibly easy thing to enact in their position, but that would be like *extremely American voice* making deals with terrorists, and the series has never given me the impression that heroes are willing to be less than Maximally Harsh with villains.

Also, even if heroes/police were willing to bargain with LB, they don’t seem to have done so in advance, judging by Mandalay and the rest’s blindsided response to someone trying to hack into the system. Exactly how fast would we be meant to believe that heroes could retrieve her, bargain, and get her appropriate equipment and access, all while Skeptic continues to make a nuisance of himself?

O I have a lot of questions about the circumstances that are seeing the Todoroki family just wandering around through a crowd when Endeavor is as unpopular as he is right now. Though Natsuo’s arm around Rei’s shoulder and Fuyumi’s touch to Natsuo’s hand do feel telling.

O I never had the chance to talk about this before, as I wasn’t doing chapter posts at the time, but do you guys know what’s really dumb? People in the tags back in Chapter 342 saying cruel or hateful and insulting things about this AFO spy dude:

(And his lady friend, too, of course, but he was a bit more prominent, so he seemed to get more vitriol.)

Guys. Guys. This man was introduced literally five chapters after we saw the Aoyama family weeping in despair about how helpless they felt under All For One’s thumb. People use AFO’s grooming as a handwave to excuse every negative thought Shigaraki Tomura has ever had. Yoichi openly accuses his brother of manipulating and using people. AFO comes into peoples’ lives when they’re at their most vulnerable and collects them for his nefarious purposes. He gives poisoned gifts and then never lets people go. We have seen all of this, multiple times, extremely explicitly.

And yet, somehow, people just forgot about all that the instant they saw someone new working for the guy. Yeah, Bowl Cut here seemed pretty cynical in 342, much less tearful and sad than the Aoyamas were, but gloppy tears and distraught wailing are not the only way to respond to a life like the one the Aoyamas were living. Every time this guy’s phone rings, he presumably has to worry about who’s going to be on the other end, whether his life is about to descend once more into intimidation, manipulation and the danger of being discovered and subsequently abandoned to the fury of a justice system that has no mercy for people who associate with villains.

It’s possible he’s just working for AFO in hopes of some kind of reward? His final line back in 342, delivered with his standing very close indeed to his fellow spy gal, was, “Our future is guaranteed,” which leaves some ambiguity about what sort of future he’s expecting. But living under AFO’s thumb is no kind of life at all, and it was absurd how quickly fandom forgot about that the red hot second they saw a new face following AFO’s orders, just because Horikoshi didn’t write in 60 pt. Font, “THIS MAN IS A VICTIM.”

I’m rooting for you, Bowl Cut! You and hat girl and the leopard guy and the older lady with the ponytail, all of you do your best for your future!

O I love AFO’s sense of camaraderie and identification with villains as a collective and I wish it was more genuine, or at least that we got to see more of it that isn’t openly and blatantly aimed at advancing his own ends. What I wouldn’t give to know more about how he and Skeptic interacted, such that Skeptic expresses, “I’m going to do as I please!” sentiments more in line with Shigaraki’s words to the united PLF than anything Late Series AFO has ever indicated he’s going to permit when he becomes Demon Lord of the World or whatever.

And that's a wrap on this week. Thanks for reading! More ask replies soonish.

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1: Not that someone who accepted a high schooler and a middle schooler into the League has the moral high ground there or anything, but, as ever, villains don’t claim to hold the moral high ground like heroes do, so I consider them under less obligation to live up to it.

2: In light of 263’s spoilers, I would like to say that handing this task to Edgeshot is a waste and a crime. More thoughts on that next week.

3: Read as: concerned.

#bnha #bnha 263 #bnha skeptic #chikazoku tomoyasu #todotalk #ua spies #chapter thoughts #my writing

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aimportantdragoncollector · 2 years

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For the ask game, Izuku pulling a con since his first day at UA to make everyone believe that All Might is his father (so no one suspects Dad for One) please!

Behind a cut for manga for manga spoilers for Chapter 336.

On the first day of class, Aoyama walks into the principal's office with his parents. They tell Nezu everything and plead for protection.

Every student at UA is investigated in case there are more spies. Izuku panics. He's not a spy, but he's covering up something arguably worse. All for One is his father (and in this AU, Izuku knows it). Bakugo knows that Izuku used to be quirkless. This is a code red situation.

Izuku tells everyone in his class that All Might is his long-lost father. He pulls out all the stops to prove it, drawing on his fanboy knowledge to show that he knows All Might's secrets. He uses photoshop to make it look like the All Might impersonator at his five year old birthday party was the real thing. He brings in rare All Might merch that was never released to the public. Only All Might's son would have this stuff!

Shouto becomes very buddy-buddy with Izuku because they have so much in common as the sons of the number one and number two heroes.

Bakugo is oddly quiet for the first week of school. He can frequently be spotted staring at the ceiling with a dazed look on his face. Sometimes he spontaneously breaks down crying.

Izuku is desperate to prevent All Might from finding out about the lie. Unbeknownst to him, All Might panicked and told all the teachers that Izuku was his son to prevent Izuku from being suspected as a spy. All Might also does not want Izuku to find out about this.

#5 headcanons game #bnha manga spoilers #closed ask game

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animehime94 · 10 months

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I caught up to the manga!

Here are my thoughts and predictions of what might happen:

Media broadcast reminds me of Kamino arc and Dabi reveal. Kamino arc revealed All Might's true self and health issues. Dabi reveal outed E-word as the abuser he is. Both reveals caused a great shock in public. Since the patterns are similar, I expect another shocking reveal in a few chapters. Possibly around 398. And that would be AFO outing himself as Hisashi to All Might, Izuku, or both 👀

I'm worried about All Might. Nighteye predicted he would have a gruesome death, and he had several death flags in this arc alone. Trying to fight prime AFO as a quirkless man is so dangerous 😭 I want to believe he will stay alive. He HAS to keep living.

I'm not sure how many spies AFO still has in UA. They might sabotage the system and take civilians hostage. Especially because one of the parts (cabins) is unable to move to the safe grounds.

Toga's villain name... she drinks blood to transform. I think it will be something like Bloody or Blood Lover 😅

E-word will die. I want Touya to return to his family, but he's so burnt he probably needs Rewind to survive.

Quirk rebellion is interesting. AFO and Shiggy will lose their stolen quirks if they are able to break free from them.

I find Izuku's condition very sus. His hands are always covered with gloves, what if he has holes on them like his dad?

If Izuku has his own version of AFO, he might be able to borrow quirks from his classmates. OR he can fight in that mind dimension to set the stolen quirks free. Just like how Yoichi and Nana defied AFO.

Speaking of Nana, I wonder if she's related to Inko? They do look similar, and Nana being Izuku's grandma would make Shiggy his cousin. I hope Hori can give us Inko's backstory after the DFO reveal.

#i want evil dad sunshine son drama #dad for one #dad for one theory #dfo theory #dfo #hisashi midoriya #afo is hisashi midoriya #bnha manga spoilers #mha manga spoilers #izuku has a quirk #dad for one is coming soon #in a few chapters #mark my words #bnha 398 #anti endeavor #fuck endeavor #anti enji todoroki

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deusvervewrites · 2 months

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Does Aoyama go to UA regardless of AllMight teaching there?

Because if he doesn't it raises the question of how and when All For One finds out about AllMight teaching at UA. Because (I think) it is only revealed to the public post entrance exam.

Assuming Nedzu kept that information close to heart and doesn't tell investors the only way for All For One to know is already having a spy in a far more lucrative position than a student.

I think it's more likely that he just sent spies to every major hero school. Either looking for powerful quirks for him to steal or potential holders of One For All.

This is why I've seen fan theories of a Second Traitor. We don't yet know how AFO knew to send a spy to UA. However, All Might moved to Mustafu a year in advance to prepare for his teaching role--he even mentions in the exam letter that students may have wondered about it-- so it's possible AFO simply deduced it from that.

#asks #meta

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pocketramblr · 4 months

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It was revealed at the jump fest that Horikoshi initially planned for Naomasa to be an ally of AFO's who spied for him. Obviously it was scrapped later on. Now I'm thinking about all those Kurogiri is Naomasa theories that were prominent with them comparing the similar ties...

Anonymous asked: In honor of this revelation, can we get an AU where Naomasa was indeed sent to spy on All Might by AFO, but ended up falling for his target.

1- AfO stole his nifty truth detector quirk from Naomasa's father before killing him a bit before Makoto was born. As far as the Tsukauchi's mother knows, AfO is her husband's brother who helped out a lot at the time. Naomasa is the only one who knows his Uncle is lying, and he hates it, but can't tell anyone the truth because Uncle made it clear that Naomasa must pay him back for protecting his little sister and his mom. Naomasa has to be the one to teach Makoto how to manage her lie detecting quirk, has to get good grades to get to the police academy like Uncle orders, and has to not be suspicious.

2- Here, Naomasa meets All Might earlier, for a certain definition of "meet"- AfO worked hard to get them in contact on cases, but All Might is busy fighting twenty hours a day and doesn't really do the paperwork part of his job so actual communication with Naomasa is rare. Which, he's fine with, the less there is he has to pass on to his Uncle

3- When Naomasa first meets Toshinori, he actually thinks he's another spy for AfO placed closer to All Might after Uncle's injury, though he says nothing to verify that. Still, he's friendly - and then he learns he's All Might, and he starts hiding information on purpose from Uncle for the first time. He doesn't ask him for help yet though, he can't.

4- that changes after the Sky Egg incident, when All Might saves Makoto and everyone else. Naomasa waits until his sister is safe in the States, far away and not coming back soon, before he goes to Toshinori. He begs him not say anything, just to listen from the other room. Toshinori, worried, agrees, and then Naomasa takes a call from his Uncle. Toshinori recognizes the voice, and Naomasa confirms that he's alone in the room before answering other questions, carefully selecting what information to give before his Uncle hangs up. Toshinori stares at him. Naomasa looks down. "He doesn't know about you wound, or weakened form. My father... Used to have a lie detecting quirk too, you know. But he died quirkless. Anyway. I'm sorry. That's the truth."

Toshinori stares, silent, for a few more minutes. Then he says "and now, you can honestly say you never told anyone about what you did, or what he did."

"yeah. I hope I can, anyway."

To attempt to make up for what he's already given AfO, Naomasa starts passing information the other way... And does a lot of Toshinori's paperwork.

5- UA is a stressful time, with Naomasa called in to help after USJ and Uncle expecting to be told how far along the heroes are in their attempts to find him, and UA would really like Naomasa's help in sniffing out their own mole. But they manage, and Naomasa, who's been in love with Toshinori a few years at this point and said nothing, sees Toshinori so bright and happy as he ruffles Izuku's hair, and thinks seeing the real smile on the blond's face must be better than even kissing it like he sometimes is embarrassed to dream about.

(he gets a kiss later- Naomasa is furious when he discovers the mole. Not at Yuga- at his parents. Naomasa's father died before working for AfO, and his mother would have done the same, but these two are the ones who invited him in, who basically sold him their son! he's down to imprison the parents, or leave them to AfO, but not Yuga, who'd be better served hidden abroad. Toshinori watches him pace angrily about this before taking his hand, and saying he's unhappy too, but his student doesn't blame his parents and also might be liable to explode if he flees. Then Toshi promises to ensure AfO pays for what he's done, that Yuga and Naomasa and himself and Izuku and everyone will have peace when this is over. Naomasa disagrees - one, he's planning on being imprisoned himself after the war, and two, Toshinori shouldn't go out there, shouldn't get himself killed. Toshi just kisses the back of his hand though and leaves, saying it'll be all right and he'll see him later.)

#pocket talks to people #anon #ask game

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linkspooky · 2 years

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maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean but about the children should sympathize with the villains it seems that you say it as they should forget or forgive the bad things they did like Dabi killing innocent people or spinner and right now attacking a hospital (something he shoji himself claims him), which to me doesn't make sense because even if the children and heroes came to understand why the villains are the way they are, they would still have to answer for all the crimes they have committed so far.

How should they answer for the crimes they committed so far?

Should they go to prison for a certain amount of time and be let out? In the prison system that we have been shown is grossly inhumane? The prison system where the wardens gleefully discuss on how they should be able to shoot missiles at one of the prisoners and blow him to bits, and talk about how the rest of the occupants are disgusting.

The prison system that reduced overhaul to a crying and begging insane person, because it kept him in isolation all that time? If someone (not necessarily you ) is making the argument that the sanctity of life means deliberately inflicting harm on someone is an unforgivable crime, because human life is sacred and people don't deserve to get hurt, then prisoners shouldn't be tortured as well.

Who should be in charge of punishing these people? The heroes? The hero commission has already executed people before they even committed a single crime, just for gathering and having political ideas that were subversive to the current government. The reason they were able to do that, was because they were given the authority of judge, jury and executioner. The people who were executed in Nagant's flashback were executed because they might harm innocent people, but weren't they innocent too? Once again, you have the heroes who are the people in power, selectively implying the term "innocent".

Does punishment = taking responsibility? If we're going that route, then punishment should be dealt out equally and not selectively. Except, it isn't. If all human life is sacred and people can't be forgiven for taken it no matter what the outside circumstances might be, then Enji and Hawks, who are both murderers should also face the same punishment the villains are. Instead, they only had to make one press conference and an apology, and are walking free.

We already have an example of an "atonement arc" or a "responsibility arc" in the manga, in the way Enji is treated so far. Despite what he has done in the past, he is given the chance to work towards improving himself. Enji's "atonement" doesn't involve him being put in prison, it involves him stopping his bad behavior seperating himself from his victims and working to improve himself so he won't commit the same crimes again. And also, I'd be remiss not to mention that Enji doesn't get nearly as harsh criticism as any of the villains do, nobody implies he's fundamentally evil, or that he wanted to hurt all those people. If Enji can be given the chance to improve, if Hawks can still remain a hero after his actions, then why isn't this chance given out fairly? Also yes, Enji did murder Toya by neglect. A parent neglecting a child until they die from easily preventable circumstances is a proesecutable crime. Deku even mentions that committing a crime shouldn't mean that someone is a villain for the rest of your life.

Not to mention, the system that designates villains is pretty unfair in and of itself. Aoyama is guilty of being taken hostage. He spied on UA, but that was because he had a gun to both his head, and the head of his parents. He's also sixteen years old. The cops and the heroes both treat him like a dangerous crimminal, because his parents made a bad choice something Aoyama also wasn't complict in, and as a result of that AFO threatened his family. He's a crimminal because somehow this sixteen year old couldn't magically overcome on his own, the world's strongest crime lord that would have just murdered him if he disobeyed. He needs to be tied up, bound, gagged, because his life was threatened and he was scared.

Let me use another piece of media as an example for what I think is better. I wrote a meta comparing Under the Red Hood, and the current situation with the Todoroki family and Dabi. However, Under the Red Hood is specifically a tragedy. It's a story where Jason Todd, once the hero Robin who was horrifically murdered by the Joker and Bruce the hero failed to save him, comes back from the dead as a violent, murderous vigilante. Despite the fact that Bruce has a chance, to have Robin return home to his family, in Under the Red Hood specifically Bruce can't reach out and save him and the tragedy of the story illustrates why.

Bruce doesn't reach out to Jason, instead of he chooses to victim blame him, by suggesting first that Jason always had violent tendencies, and second that Jason chose to be this way completely on his own. This is not because Bruce finds murder so unforgivable, but because Bruce is so guilt ridden he blames himself for Jason's death, and not saving Jason, and contradictory to his desire to save Jason even now when he returns as the Red Hood, he instead tries to imply Jason is too far gone and can't be saved. UTRH is a tragedy. Jason insisting that some crimminals can't be saved, they need to be killed is also reflective of Bruce's atittude that Jason was "always violent" or is "Too far Gone."

I'm playing Gotham Knights right now, which is a fun video game and also specifically not a tragedy. In the backstory of the video game, Under the Red Hood still happens. However, after UTRH, Bruce decides on his own to reach out to Jason. He stops victim blaming Jason for dying in the first place, by somehow implying that Jason's dying is his fault because he was "too rash" or "didn't listen" or that he was "always violent". After reaching out to Jason and talking to him, he sets him up with regular therapy as rehabilitation and gives him the chance to improve on himself, no longer isolated, but instead working together.

In Gotham Knights itself, Jason has gone back to being a hero, making the Red Hood a positive force for saving people in Gotham, and no longer a villain terrorizing Gotham. He is committed to self improvement, he still attends regular therapy, when there is a problem or when he is experiencing negative emotions instead of violently lashing out he goes to others to support. He is given many chances to kill villains again, but because Bruce has given him a chance and trusted him, he keeps his oath to Bruce to never kill no matter what the circusmtances. So, the harmful behavior has stopped, since he was reached out to and given support he is now a positive force saving people on the streets of Gotham. Empathy and responsibility can go hand in hand. If you no longer draw this line between innocent and not so innocent people, and stop implying that some people chose to become villains entirely of their own free will, ignoring the circumstances driving them, you realize that almost anyone can be driven by bad circumstanes do bad things. However, the other side of that is true. People who are rescued from bad circusmtances, and placed into better ones, are then capable of bettering themselves.

Sure, you could argue that the hero kids don’t “Owe” the villains this chance to get better, but these kids are the ones constantly talking about what great heroes they want to be in the future. This isn’t the manga where all these kids are going to school to learn how to be great prison guards. What heroes “owe” the villains, really depends on how heroics is defined, is the role of heroes in this society to rescue people in need of rescuing, or are they a punitive force for punishing the guilty?

Let me close with a quote from the Good Place.

#metasks #mha meta

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greenhappyseed · 2 years

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Time to repost the ten MHA battle locations before after Ch.370!

1. Police HQ (in or near Central Hospital): All Might, Tsukauchi, Ragdoll presumably?

2. Central Hospital: Kurogiri presumably?, Spinner, the PLF remnants, Present Mic, Shoji, Koda, Rock Lock (Lady Nagant and Gran Torino were recovering here too)

3. Kamino: Dabi, a Nomu, Shoto, Iida, Burnin, Kido, Onima (RIP?)

4. Gunga Mountain/Forest: Rewound AFO, a Nomu, Endeavor, Hawks, Kamui Woods, Tiger, Pixie Bob, Shishido, Tokoyami, Jiro, 1-B’s Komori (Shroom!)

5. Aquarium: Toga, 2 Nomus, Gang Orca, Ochako, Tsuyu, Moonfish, Sirius

6. Floating UA: Deku, Shigaraki, Best Jeanist, Bakugo (RIP? Nahh…), Aizawa, Monoma, Manual, Mirko, Mandalay, Lemillion/Mirio, Nejire, Suneater, Edgeshot (RIP?), Wash’s bubble, Momo, Hatsume, Lunch Rush, Power Loader, Cementoss, Ectoplasm, Kaminari, Manga/Comicman, Haya (Nejire’s friend), some 2A/B & 3A/B kids, some Business Course kids, Star and Stripe’s American pilots

7. Ground UA: Todofam (Rei, Natsuo, Fuyumi), Masaru & Mitsuki Bakugo, Masegaki Elementary School kids & their teacher, 2 AFO spies

8. Jaku Hospital Ruins: Gigantomachia, Mt Lady, Mina, Kirishima, Mineta, and some of 1-B — Kodai (size), Honenuki/Mudman (softening), Yanagi (Poltergeist/telekinesis), the sludge villain

9. Parking Lot (near Takoba? Where the battle began): Fatgum, Aoyama, Kunieda (new villain)

10. Takoba Arena: Sero, Ojiro, Sato, 1-B’s Tsuburaba (Solid Air))

His mom’s couch Undisclosed location: Skeptic

Heroes we haven’t seen: Hagakure, Shinso, Ryukyu, Nezu, Snipe, Vlad King, Thirteen, Hound Dog, rest of 1-B

Villains we haven’t seen that have been mentioned in this final battle: Gashly (new villain), 2 Nomus

#bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #mha battle locations #mha #bnha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #mha 370 #bnha 370 #mha 371 #bnha 371

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sapphic-agent · 5 months

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Relating to that other ask about PR. I do find it weird that AFO didnt have more spies. Like not only in the hero course but also other classes. Habe more people for more info. To relate security detail etc. UA also doesnt seem to screen students besides like maybe looking at reports from middle school.

AFO just isn't that smart, I think. Not as smart as we're led to believe, anyway.

As I see it, he sees the only way to a complete societal collapse that he can take advantage of is through destruction and force. Honestly, though, there were so many more effective ways he could have gone about it. Society in MHA is so broken that it would have been easy to take advantage of it. UA specifically even more so. Personally, I would have had a spy in every course: heroics, business, support, and general. Maybe even a teacher too. So if one got caught a) there are backups and b) you can cover the tracks of the other spies easier.

Maybe it's less that he isn't smart and more that he's so powerful that it's the only way he knows/wants to complete his plans. Why waste time with manipulation and underhanded tactics when you have the power to brute force your way through, I guess? Idk, AFO is a mess of a villain

#mha critical #bnha critical #all for one

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marunalu · 1 year

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Sorry,i just really sad and afraid that Horikoshi throw DFO in window. Meanwhile i saw one YouTuber who states that citizens will be in danger and also Inko Midoriya. And that moment will appear Hisashi Midoriya (who is regular guy by his theory and not AFO) and will save everyone. Now fear this theory will be true. I fear that AFO will not manage to reach Shigaraki or smth like that... fear fear and fear

Hori pretty much debunked long ago the possebility for hisashi to be a normal office guy. He said that we, the readers WONT be dissapointed by "the reveal", so he will not be a nobody. He isnt a hero, because 1. If he was izuku wouldnt be able to shut up about him and 2. Why should a japanese hero work as such in america and not in his own home country? America already has way more heroes in their arsenal. And lets say for a moment hisashi is a normal guy, HOW is he supposed to return to japan, when the manga made clear that right now no country allows flights to or from japan, because its to dangerous? How is hisashi "with a fire quirk" supposed to return, if he cant fly or teleport home or whatever? How is it that he still hasnt tried to contact his family by calling them or at least send them a postcard to make sure they are safe? Hisashi is supposed to be in america and WHO was shown in his main base in new york when he was introduced to us for the first time? Thats right, AFO!

The only thing I agree with is that something will happen to inko (kidnapping and evtl. Making it look like as if she died), because afos spies are inside ua and one of them watched izuku and inko hug each other with a grin on his face and thinking something like "yeah, that way we can win". And WHO asked the aoyamas to bring inko to him (the 40 year old macallan) even BEFORE he asked for izuku (the 16 year old macallan)? Right, ALSO AFO!

Also right now, my crack theory is that the afo we see fighting in gunga isnt the real one but something like a clone (it would be a parallel to garaki having a clone too) and the true afo (hisashi) actually NEVER left america and still chills there in front of his computer and potatofied and ONLY in the last chapter, after afo (the clone) "died" and the battle is won, hisashi will return home and at first nothing looks suspicious, but the manga ends with showing us the holes inside his palms and only we readers will realize who he truly is, but neither izuku nor inko or someone else. Afo made everybody believe he is dead for good, so he can return home as hisashi and finally retire from his villain life like he once said he wants to. Crack I know, but I kinda like it.

#bnha #bnha dad for one #bnha all for one #dad for one theory #all for one is hisashi midoriya

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totoanime52 · 2 years

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BNHA 363 SPOILERS BELOW

While I am putting on my clown makeup and hoping for some miracle that Bakugou can be revived (it looks like Best Jeanist may be using his own clothes fibres to stitch up Bakugou's wounds), there is poetry in the unraveling of the heroes' plans and the safety of those at UA now coming under question after this moment.

Touya is back and (like the self-taught badass he is) apparently learned Shouto's own special move just by watching him.

Skeptic is hijacking the network the heroes need and it sounds like he is tracking down either UA or the separated villains.

All For One's spies inside of the mobile shelter look like they are ready to make whatever move their boss has put them there for (my guess is to hold hostages to further back Midoriya into a corner and/or kidnap Eri).

All For One looks like he has almost fully regenerated into his pre-nerfed self after their attempts to take him out failed.

All this after the 'death' of Bakugou Katsuki, who embodied the concept of 'win to save' or victory.

It is the Death of Victory.

#bnha 363 #bnha manga spoilers #bakugou katsuki #all for one #todoroki touya #bnha skeptic

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stillness-in-green · 11 months

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Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 388: Touya + Chapter 389: Assurances and Prayers

The last two chapters were so short and contained so little that I care about such that I have measurable amounts to say that I decided to just combine them. Hit the jump for two major talking points and a bunch of stray observations.

AFO’s Spies, Or: God, Why Can’t We Have Subplots That Matter Anymore

The AFO spy scene is just so fucking maddening. Just like the bulk of the MLA, the spies’ whole subplot has gone virtually nowhere. They were told to get Deku to leave U.A., but had no hand in doing so. They’ve provided no information of value to AFO.[1] They’re being credited with stopping this cube here, but take a look at the problems with that:

This is a task that could just as easily have been assigned, narratively speaking, to Skeptic, who was already shown to be messing with the cubes. I know the logical protest is that this is the only cube La Brava couldn’t get moving again, so there must be some other complicating factor, but guys, this is the only cube that matters to the story! It does not change a single solitary thing about the plot if all the cubes are sabotaged and have to be evacuated or only this one, because this is the only one the story’s lens is on. It’s the only one in imminent danger, the only one carrying plot-relevant characters; every other cube could just be evacuated at the leisure of the heroes inside or once the battle is over, so it doesn’t matter if they can move or not. Since it doesn’t matter, there’s no problem with just letting Skeptic stop all of them, rather than blowing AFO’s spies here.

Stopping one random block of escapees does nothing in particular to help AFO, so I can’t imagine why all four of these people would choose to put all their chips on it. At best, all I can think is that they’ve been here long enough to know that the Number 1 Hero’s family is present, and they might make decent hostages for the Dark Lord, but that’s certainly not anything Bowl Cut Dude was thinking about when he got collared; he acted like stopping the cube itself was his best attempt as doing something useful to AFO. But like, in what universe is one cache of people—ones now at risk of being incinerated by Dabi before AFO can even make use of them!—more valuable to AFO than spies still safely ensconced in a vulnerable refugee population bound for the next-most prominent hero school in the country?

The power is supposed to be out in here! The cube is being moved on exterior rails that are on the other side of a three-foot thick metal floor! How did the spies even access “the foundation” to stop it from moving? Using what light source? Using what quirks? How did the heroes see them doing it? What were the spies actually doing that they reasonably thought they could get away with, and why were they so immediately stopped?? Why bother setting them up like they’re going to be a problem and then have them immediately dealt without with no problem at all the second they attempt to do anything?!

This is all not even getting into the problems with how they’re portrayed—it remains mind-blowing to me that the story is insistent to the point of ham-handedness on the Aoyama family as blackmailed and terrified victims, but the instant we have to look at someone who hasn’t shared a classroom with Deku for the whole length of the story, all that sympathy is immediately abandoned. Instead, the only spy in whose head we spend any length of time is constantly drawn with these unbalanced, manic grins that completely undermine the fact that his thoughts, read in and of themselves, would seem to incline the reader towards compassion.

I’m just so tired of the way this story wants to hold up sympathy for villains as morally good, a desirable and indeed necessary mindset for the young heroes to have, but then the story itself can only find sympathy for a handful of the characters the young heroes interact with, while shrugging off all the rest as villainous caricatures. Would a little bit of ideological consistency be so damn much to ask?

That said, while the people collared by the heroes this chapter are the four who were most consistently shown in their scene back at U.A., there was one other probable spy that I don’t see getting nabbed here, so maybe, maybe there’ll be one tiny wrinkle left in this plotline yet.

Leopard Guy, Old Lady Megane, Beanie Hat Girl and Bowl Cut Dude are all out. I'm rooting for you so hard, Nondescript Dark-Haired Gal.

On Dabster

A very common trope of manga dealing with youkai—I assume borrowed from real folklore, though I haven’t done the research to say that for sure—is the warning not to make eye contact with them, lest they notice you looking at them. Whether they desire or resent your gaze, no good can come of a youkai’s attention! Since my favorite treatment of Dabi leans on the supernatural—that he’s Touya’s angry ghost—I very much enjoy the, “Don’t even look at Dabi!” sentiment of heroes directing the evacuation of the cube.

Of course, Revenant Dabi being my favorite Dabi doesn’t mean that’s an approach it behooves the characters to take in-universe—indeed, not looking at Touya has been rather the problem this whole time! It’s tellingly dehumanizing that heroes are taking the “watching” element of the Todoroki plotline and cranking it up to eleven in exhortations to not watch Dabi which implicitly liken him to a supernatural horror story. Dabi is a horror story, but he’s a horror story about the consequences of neglect, pride and willful blindness.

In that same vein, Dabi being about to scythe down everyone in a five-kilometer range, including his own allies, makes a pretty good metaphor for the problem of villains in general. They’re failed by society and they don’t just go lie down quietly somewhere to die; they become everyone’s problem. The danger villains present to heroes and other law-abiding folk is obvious enough, but it applies to other villains, too.

Well-positioned villains like AFO and Overhaul may give the people under their wing somewhere to exist that normal society would deny them, but that doesn’t mean those people aren’t in danger from their masters’ larger aims. The MLA may offer belonging and support to their members, but that doesn’t make them less of a cult.

The League enjoys by far the healthiest interpersonal environment of the major villain groups, but that doesn’t mean they’re totally safe from the consequences of one another’s goals. The story’s been teasing at that since the second Toga held a knife to Shigaraki’s throat and asked him why she should go along with being sent to the Hassaikai; the conflict between Toga’s desires and Shigaraki’s was then made explicit during their meeting with Ujiko. Twice was happy with the League, but he still died in the course of trying to help them. Spinner and Mr. Compress have, each in their own way, been maimed in their pursuit of Shigaraki’s dream.

Nowhere, though, is that more clear than with Dabi, who led someone he believed to be a spy right into the League’s midst for no adequately explained reason, who at best weaponized Twice’s death for his own cause, and who I don’t for a moment believe burned down Toga’s childhood home and gave her a vial of Twice’s blood out of nothing but the goodness of his spurned heart. Dabi presenting a danger to Toga here is just a logical endpoint of the danger he’s always presented to the League more broadly.

That said, I don’t love this as a defining endgame crisis for the villains. The heroes saving villains from themselves/each other while doing nothing to repair the fragile, corrupt system that landed the villains in such vulnerable situations to begin with is a cheap out on the story’s themes of societal responsibility.

Stray Notes:

O I do thank the story for giving me any kind of reasonable explanation for how all these people, including children and the elderly, are going to get out of range of the explosion in time. However, the UA robots proudly proclaiming that they exist to serve humans’ desires is a deeply unsettling element to think about in the context of their earlier “Kill All Humans” attitude and the note in [the movie booklet] that they’ve rebelled against humans in the past. The PLF R2-D2 advisor needs to come and liberate his robo-brethren post-haste, because that imagery of the robot giving a thumbs up as it’s abandoned to crisp and blacken in the heat of a human’s flames is really quite distasteful!

O A bit of Rei’s conservative upbringing showing in her telling boy Natsuo to look after girl Fuyumi even though Fuyumi’s three and a half years older than Natsuo and has been taking care of him since they were children.

O I’ve got nothing much to say about the big reunion. I feel like I’d have more appreciation for a less excruciatingly contrived version of this scene, and also if Horikoshi had not put so. much. work. into making Dramatic Explosions such a complete non-threat that even as Dabi burns his eyeballs away and his very face starts to fracture, I just feel zero sense of concern for him and the people around him. The art’s nice, and I really do want to be moved by Rei, Fuyumi, and Natsuo’s individual moments of calling out to Touya, but the fact is that I want it more than I feel it. Good of Rei for actually just plain-old apologizing, though, and I like Fuyumi and Enji’s unabashed begging. As to Natsuo, I remember there being some disagreement back during the hospital scene about who Natsuo was wishing he’d just hauled off and punched back when he was a kid—the official suggested Endeavor, while most of the other translations pegged Touya. Though I find the Viz release to be typically the more reliable about squirrelly subject/object distinctions, Touya as the prospective punch-ee did make more intuitive sense to me; I wonder if Natsuo yelling at his brother in fairly harsh terms this chapter supports that read?

O Re: the color page, I am laughing at it being another villain coming in to lock their legs around the hips of the object of their attention. The real question is, who’s more in danger of being leg-locked by Teen!AFO, Deku or Shigaraki? (The idea that Deku could be in danger of this from Shigaraki doesn’t even bear thinking about.)

O If the explosion is not yet happening, why persist in drawing it as an opaque dome of radiant, bursting light and heat?

O I see the Masegaki kids are back with their actual teacher again. For real, where in hell are their parents?

O We should have seen Can’t-Ya-See-kun way before now. Seeing only the very beginning of what promised to be his crisis of faith in Endeavor during Dabi’s broadcast only to totally abandon him right up until the moment he starts praying for Endeavor is such a cheap play for sympathy. I really was interested in his (hypothetical but logical) disillusionment! I’m not interested in seeing him get his illusions faith back without the slightest nod towards the time he spent having abandoned it. A picture may be worth a thousand words—his expression right before he bows his head is very evocative!—but this picture needed at least one similarly wordy picture predating it.

--------

* Maybe they’re the ones who told him that Deku was back at U.A. at all? But I’m skeptical that he couldn’t have found that out via other means, especially with Skeptic at his disposal.

#bnha #bnha 388 #bnha 389 #chapter thoughts #afo spies #todotalk #revenant dabi is my favorite dabi #ua robots #can't-ya-see-kun

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ao3feed-bnha-girls · 5 months

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#AO3 Link #FanFiction #AO3 Izucamie #♥#Izucamie #Yagi Toshinori #✨#⚤#R:T #A:WoodstockProd #Quirkless AU

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deusvervewrites · 3 months

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I would go with the AFO spies thing. While the Nana-Toshinori link is probably something they could dig up, I don't think En-Nana and Daigoro-En is.

Bladestorm is also a good name. I used Razor, because the Razor from StP is the first thing that came to mind when I read the description:

It's hard to say how much access the HPSC has to that information, because Lariat was clearly a Pro Hero and UA existed before All Might, but shit was pretty fucked.

To be fair, I based my mental image of the Quirk on Riful from Claymore, so I can't really judge

#asks #bladestorm au

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the-girl-without-a-face · 1 year

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We're All Mad Here (MHA fanfic)

We're All Mad Here by the_girl_without_a_face

Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Kaminari Denki/Shinsou Hitoshi, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead & Shinsou Hitoshi, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Class 1-A & Shinsou Hitoshi Characters: Shinsou Hitoshi, Kaminari Denki, Class 1-A (My Hero Academia), Midoriya Izuku Additional Tags: Class 2-a at this point, Shinsou Hitoshi is in Class 1-A, Insomniac Shinsou Hitoshi, Shinsou Hitoshi Needs a Hug, ShinKami Week 2021, ShinKami Week, Adopted Shinsou Hitoshi, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead Adopts Shinsou Hitoshi, Pre-Relationship

Summary: Shinsou Hitoshi realizes some things about Class 2-A, a certain loud blond and himself.

Words: 1721, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

~~~

Shinsou Hitoshi knew Class 1-A was weird.

He did, truly. He saw them at the Sports Festival, where each and every one of them showed a new level of silliness, power and strategy thinking. Most of the students did, he himself gave a speech once he lost the fight against Midoriya.

He saw the self-proclaimed Bakusquad running, laughing, and shouting during lunch. He spied the Dekusquad behave quieter, but just as chaotic as the others, filled in mumbling, hand gestures and floating things. The others weren’t flashy, but did still attract trouble and chaos wherever they went.

His theory was confirmed (yet again) during the Joint Training exercise. 1-B was a bit milder, except for a few… special students. The kid with rabies was surely to be avoided if one didn’t have constant vaccination. Which was once his case, but Shinsou had been taking his shots after he was adopted by his mentor and his husband. Well, Dad and Papa now.

And those two were another reason why he thought he wasn’t meant for 1-A’s specific brand of crazy. His Dad told stories of the class during dinner; Papa and Shinsou were barely surprised at their antics anymore.

That said, he was quite surprised when he was placed in Class 1-A.

“The 1-A classroom is bigger than Vlad King’s,” Aizawa explained when he asked. “It was just logical.”

It was a known fact every classroom at UA was exactly the same size.

Shinsou knew Aizawa knew his son understood half-words and neither said anything about it. Still, it felt nice to be cared about.

First day in class 2A and he was already in for a loop.

Theorical classes in the morning and heroic training later. To get them going as a start of the semester, it wasn’t a simulation, but simple quirk training. Most students never really stopped practicing with their quirks, they used it all the time for anything no matter how big or small. If it made life easier and didn’t hurt anyone, why not right? Except… that was exactly why Shinsou didn’t get to practice much with his own.

He resigned himself to train with the capture weapon when he saw a lithe figure excitedly approach.

“Hey, Shinsou. Do you need someone to practice with?”

The electric user who called him a ‘hopeful hero’ – Kaminari Denki – looked way to happy to spar.

“Aren’t we supposed to work alone?”

“If you choose to, sure, but it’s quirk practice and you need a guinea pig, so I’m volunteering. That is if you want.”

There were some remarkable times in his life when Shinsou used his quirk. He didn’t properly remember the very first time, but he sure remembered the backlash of it. He used it once on a teacher without meaning too and had to be moved to another school. There was once when Aizawa-sensei asked him to brainwash him, for practice, but Shinsou took a whole minute to fully comprehend the seriousness of the man. Another time with Aizawa was when they were sparring and he managed to get the older man to answer (quirks were allowed during sparring). The most recent one was with Papa. Shinsou hadn’t slept in three entire days and was seeing two of everything and his head was pounding and his quirk default mode is on, so he ended up brainwashing the man to get him a painkiller for the headache. The teen had lost any smidge of sleep when he realized what he had done; eyes blurry and shaking hands apologizing in JSL. It took a long time to convince him his parents weren’t angry and they loved him anyway, quirk mishaps and all.

Now, an almost-complete stranger offering to be brainwashed? That one was going to the records.

Midoriya had heard the conversation and jumped over.

“I’d be willing to let you practice too!” The green haired boy said. “Your quirk is so cool, I’ve seen it in action before, everyone here has, and you’ve actually used it me before, so if you want someone new to test it, I’d be happy to step aside. You’re very powerful and I’m sure you know how to make it work best for you and what you need to work on. I wonder how it works and would love to learn more about it. Does the person you’re brainwashing do specifically what you mean or does the wording matter? If the second, I wonder if the meaning for different people can have different understanding on the command-

Kaminari placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder, effectively cutting of his muttering.

“Midoriya, calm down. I’m sure you’ll get your answers eventually, but for now let Shinsou breathe.”

Midoriya looked at Shinsou again, noting the definite lack of shoulder movement from the purple boy.

“I’m sorry! Sometimes I talk too much, I’ll let you be. If you want any imput, I’ll be right over there with Todoroki!”

And off he went.

“Are you okay?”

Kaminari looked concerned. “Is the sun bothering you? It’s quite hot today, but I guess it could be worse. We can move to the shadows?” he pointed to the area where the buildings blocked the sun.

“You want me to use… my quirk… on you.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you have to ask me a question to activate it?”

“Well,” Shinsou eloquently spluttered. “Yes.”

Kaminari jumped back and got into a fight stance.

“Do it, Shinbro, I’m ready!”

Again, weird. And cute. But mostly weird.

By the end of his first week, Shinsou had been through an emotional rollercoaster. After crash coursing their bizarre manners, he was physically and mentally tired. Training had been a lot harder than what he was used to. He did manage to keep up, but still felt better when he saw other students struggling alongside him. Every single one of them had to get better and he could work with that.

Shinsou naively thought that there wouldn’t be much more to shock him after that. But then a wild electric boy appeared again.

Kaminari stood by his desk, Monday morning, just minutes before class. He looked sheepish with his hands linked behind his back and Shinsou thought he hadn’t had enough coffee to deal with that much energy so early in the morning.

“You’re Aizawa’s son.”

“How observant of you,” Shinsou remarked drily, but it didn’t seem to deter the blond nor his smile.

He had a suspicion where this was going, but he hoped they knew better than to think their homeroom teacher would just favorite him and give him an undeserved spot in the heroics class.

Mineta’s expulsion had come at his own expense and after Shinsou had secured his spot at the joint exercise. No one could say Shinsou stole his place. He earned it fair and square, and had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but he was ready to defend his ground… which was swiped right from under his feet by the blond boy.

“Can you do the smile?” Kaminari asked, excited enough to let out a spark or two from his hands. Not that Shinsou was paying attention or anything.

The purple haired boy balked for a moment.

“You know we’re not actually related, right?”

Sero leaned his chair back so it dangled on its back legs only. “But you look so much like him! Are you sure he’s not your biological father? Or maybe an uncle or something?”

Todoroki’s eyes gleaned. “I can help you get a blood test if you want.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Sero raised hand to Todoroki to high five. The elemental teenager looked confused at his hand before taking it in a hand shake.

“We’ll work on that, Roki.”

He dismissed the offer and both boys dropped the subject. Sero and Todoroki turned back to the math homework.

“So, no Aizawa-smile then?” Kaminari hadn’t moved away, but looked ready to let Shinsou have his peace if he so desired. He shrugged and smirked at the taller boy. “I bet you got a cute smile anyway.”

Shinsou pointedly decided to ignore the flirting and go back to a safer subject.

“I can do it,” he declared then cleared his throat. “The grin, I mean.”

“Wait, really? That was just an excuse to talk to you, dude, that’s so cool.”

The purple haired boy would dissect all that later alone in his dorm room.

“It’s an acquired art,” the taller boy sighed. “There’s a whole technique behind it.”

“Oh?”

Shinsou looked down for a second and then back at Kaminari with the so called Aizawa-grin. He had perfected the art after imitating his mentor’s facial expression in the mirror many a times, but no one had to know that.

The blond boy gasped loudly before falling into hysterics.

“Oh my,” he gasped. “Guys, check this out!”

2-A looked at the commotion, more specifically at Shinsou, then collectively fell into hysterics.

The singular spark that graced Kaminari’s hand earlier returned tenfold when he laughed. Shinsou watched it run through his hands, up his arms and tangle in his hair.

Mina’s shout brought his sole working braincell back to the world outside of Kaminari.

“Dude, you look just like him,” the pink girl shrieked.

“Oh so he does it for Denki, huh?” Sero wiggled his eyebrows.

Between all the noise, he realized no one was laughing at him. They were praising him as though the grin was something other-wordily and not just plain weird.

Oh.

Shinsou just never thought he would ever be their kind of weird, but… maybe he already was.

“Welcome to the class, bro, you’ll fit right in.”

It took him a few seconds, but Shinsou realized he didn’t feel overwhelmed nor more tired after interacting with the blond and the rest of the class. If anything, laughing with them brought a sense of settling in. He hadn’t grasped just how nervous he was about the change in courses.

Overall, Shinsou felt better about his place among the students in Class 2-A.

Among the kids in his class.

Kaminari shot him a smile and Shinsou briefly questioned if his sparks could reach his heart from two rows over.

Yeah, he thought as he turned back to the board and wrote the lesson title on his notebook, he could get used to that.

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