Running on Empty

Anger beyond words, fury beyond comprehension

To say Hizashi was furious would be the understatement of the century.

He was livid.

The moment he pushed through the door and saw who he assumed must be the headmaster looming over Hitoshi, all the fury he had been holding back rushed to the surface.

He marched forward and shoved the guy away from his kid, turning to make sure Hitoshi was okay.

He heard Shouta's capture weapon whiz through the air beside him, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from their son who was slumped bloody and bruised on the chair.

He knelt down, and it was then that he saw the tape.

His heart broke and he had to consciously restrain himself from screaming at the guy. Yelling at him so angry and so loud that his ears bled and his eyes watered. Until he could hear nothing else but the pure rage of a devastated parent.

He pushed that thought back for the moment focussing on assessing the kid who was at least somewhat more alert than he had been when they'd entered, but they'd need to take him back to Recovery Girl as soon as possible.

After removing the tape from his mouth, he realised that he couldn't get it out of his hair easily, so he scrunched it up to prevent more getting stuck and left it for now. They'd sort it out later, at that moment he couldn't stop himself from pulling Hitoshi in close. All he wanted was to wrap his arms around him and never let go, keep the kid safe in his grip and protect him until the end of time.

But once his wave of relief that Hitoshi wasn't more gravely injured passed, the fury retook its place at the centre of his mind and he gently moved back from the kid, keeping a hand on his shoulder to steady him just in case, before whirling around to face the monster across from him.

"What. The fuck," he snarled, "is going on here."

"Shinsou was called to my office because he was involved in a fight, we were just discussing his punishment." He was so blasé about the situation, Hizashi saw Shouta grit his teeth.

"I fail to see how you could have discussed anything when he had tape over his mouth." Hizashi spat and the man bristled.

"He forced my hand by trying to use his quirk on me, he would have brainwashed me into letting him go without consequences but I will not tolerate violence in my school!"

"Where are the other students involved?" Shouta questioned.

"I haven't spoken to them yet."

"Well who was involved?"

"I can't just give that sort of information away, that's a breach of confidentiality, you're strangers!"

"We're both pro heroes and this concerns our son, there is every reason for us to know who was involved."

"Well, I— uh, I don't know yet. They're probably in the infirmary."

"I'm glad you brought that up," Hizashi stepped forward. "Because I'd like to know why the hell Hitoshi isn't with the nurse right now."

"I couldn't just let him wander the halls, he's a danger to the other students — I was about to suspend him indefinitely."

"Really? Because it looks to me like he took the brunt of the attacks here. You just confirmed our suspicions that there were multiple other students involved, there's no way he could have caused this much damage to them."

"Shinsou has only just been moved to your care, it's admirable that you can be so defensive of the boy despite having just met him, but has it occurred to you that you don't know him at all yet?"

Shouta growled at that, "That's enough. On our walk here I noticed multiple security cameras, pull up the footage."

"I don't have access to that kind of thing."

"Don't bullshit us, we're not just pro heroes, we teach at UA, we know exactly what sort of thing you can access and security footage is without question. So find it. Now."

The man swallowed and stumbled slightly as Shouta released him from the capture weapon, which he then wrapped around Hitoshi to hold him secure, even though the kid was sitting up on his own, wide purple eyes watching the exchange.

The guy made his way back round the desk and collapsed in his seat. He glanced nervously at the two pros who followed him, Shouta stopping to pick Hitoshi up on the way, before logging into his computer and pulling up the footage from the security cameras.

Shouta gestured for the teacher to vacate his chair and then placed Hitoshi in it, reaching over to search through the earlier footage himself. The man, who Hizashi now saw was called Takahashi, or at least, that was the name on the computer, looked like he wanted to say something, but just fidgeted instead.

"Here." Shouta pointed at the screen and the three men watched as Hitoshi left his classroom and walked quickly along the hall, ducking into a nearby boys toilet. Barely a minute later a group of six other students followed him in, laughing amongst themselves.

"There's no cameras in the toilets, it's not appropriate." The teacher said sounding triumphant, despite his words, "I'm sorry this is of no use, but we can't verify what happened in there."

"We don't need to," Shouta said icily as he reached forward and sped up the tape until the students exited the room, pausing the footage and zooming in. "Look at them, there's not a mark on any one of them."

"It was six against one," Hizashi spat. "Bullying. And you can't deny it."

"You can't verify what happened in there," Takahashi repeated. "He probably used his quirk on them."

That was the most absurd fucking excuse Hizashi had ever heard in his life, and somehow he'd heard it twice in the past few days.

And the look on the guy's face as he said it was so infuriatingly smug, Hizashi just wanted to punch it off of him.

So he did.