The Influence

Chapter Seventeen

Throughout the rest of the training session for the day, Hanae sat in and watched Hitoshi train with the rest of the third year hero students. While she watched her brother and the others, her gaze kept shifting over towards Aizawa and he almost always was looking back at her. Both of them immediately looking away when they catch the other one staring and begin calling out words of affirmation towards the students. This behavior continued throughout the afternoon and the teachers were quick to notice it, especially Present Mic. When Aizawa had made his way over to Hanae and was standing close to her, observing Hitoshi, Present Mic made a beeline towards Vlad King. He immediately began gossiping in a corner with the Blood Hero.

"What should we do about this?" Hizashi asked his colleague.

"I don't know, I've never seen Shota act this way before! Have you?" Vlad questioned.

"No, but I think we should help move this along" Mic wiggled his eyebrows towards his fellow teacher and returned an evil grin.

"Let's make a plan" He smiled, motioning towards Eri.

Around five thirty, Aizawa and Vlad decided their students had enough with training and they could go back to their norms or to the rec centers.

"I really made good headway didn't I Hanae?" Hitoshi asked as they walked back towards the dormitories.

"I'm really impressed, with a little more meditation I think you'll be able to make someone use their quirk by tomorrow!" She reassured him.

"Tomorrow? Really?" He asked in an excited tone.

"Obviously, you've already created special moves using other facets of your quirk. You just need to develop a higher influence over who you're brainwashing, and that comes through proper meditation and cognitive strength."

"So as long as I keep doing those meditations you taught me, I should get the hang of it?" He asked again.

"I don't think you'll be able to do it at the level I can just yet, but you need to just practice" Hanae responded.

Hitoshi breathed a sigh of relief. Hanae looked at her brother, her little brother wasn't so little anymore. He was a few inches taller than she was and had gained a lot of definition in his arms and legs. His confidence and sense of self was also present were before he seemed so unsure of himself.

"Sooo" Hanae began, "I happened to notice some students seemed particularly interested in what we were doing today"

"Oh yeah?" Hitoshi asked.

"That Midoriya kid and Reiko kept watching us" Hanae informed him.

"Oh" Hitoshi blushed, "Yeah, Reiko has a really cool quirk and Midoriya was the first person I challenged at the sports festival"

"Do you think you'll try to use your quirk on them?" Hanae asked.

"Ha!" Hitoshi laughed, "I'd love to be able to control Midoriya's quirk. I got him to stop using his quirk once"

"Woah, really?!" Hanae excalimed.

"Yeah, it was back before I joined the hero course. The two hero courses faced off against each other and Aizawa-sensei arranged it for me to participate. It was actually my test to decide if I could join the hero course"

Hanae's stomach fluttered at Aizawa's name.

"Well, just try to remember what it was like to stop Midoriya's quirk and do the opposite whenever you want to make someone use theirs" Hanae stated.

The rest of their walk to the dormitories was silent. A few groups of students were walking ahead. Hanae was lost in thought, remembering the night prior. She blushed when she thought of Aizawa holding her when she told him about why she quit hero work. She imagined what would have happened if she kept talking to him in her front yard. Would anything have happened? Does he even like her?