Silent Suffering

Chapter 9 - Imposter Syndrome

"Alright, I'm going to call out this class' pairings. Go with your partner to your assigned fields after you get called, you know the drill" Aizawa sighed as he glanced down at his paper.
"First pair, Bakugou and Kirishima, field A. Jirou and Aoyama, field B, Midoriya and Ojiro, field C-"
Izuku tuned out after that, his eyes darting over to his classmates in search of Ojiro.

It wasn't the first time they got paired together and Izuku liked fighting him in class. His martial art skills were something to be amazed by and not nearly everyone in their class was as good at close combat as he was. Izuku had quite the extensive entry about it in his hero analysis notebook.
"Hey Midoriya, let's have a good match, okay?" Ojiro smiled as they arrived at their assigned training field.

[Stretch first] Izuku signed, making Ojiro frown for a moment. Aizawa had given everyone a crash course in sign, teaching the class some basic words that could be used in hero training. Stretch was one of those words, but it took a moment for Ojiro to process.
"Oh, of course, stretching is important!" he exclaimed once he realized what Izuku was saying. And so they started stretching, getting into fighting positions when both of them were ready.

Izuku had an unfair advantage in their hero classes now that he was under the influence of the muted mind quirk. He could tell what his opponent was thinking of doing before they even made the movements. He was able to anticipate much quicker and even though he tried to ignore the voices, it was hard not to get influenced when you could literally hear your opponent think.

Damnit, he's reading all my movements! I haven't gotten a single hit on this guy! Even quirkless Midoriya is way better than me... Heck, everyone here is way better than me. They've all got amazing quirks and are super powerful and here I am with a tail! I don't belong in the hero course, not really, and they all know it too! How did I even get in? How was I in the top percentage at the entrance exam? UA must've made some kind of mistake...

Imposter syndrome. Izuku had read up about it after he found out about Ashido's trauma. About how she didn't see hers as valid enough because others had gone through much worse. It wasn't exactly imposter syndrome, but the term popped up during his research so now Izuku knew what that entailed, too. He didn't expect one of his classmates to feel that way though. But then again, there were a lot of things he didn't expect to find out...

Izuku signed for a time-out and Ojiro took him up on it, both of them tired and gulping down water now that they were finally taking a break.
[G-G] Izuku spelled out, knowing the class has also learned the sign alphabet so Izuku could talk in abbreviations that his friends would understand.
"Ha, thanks, I was pretty useless though" Ojiro chuckled, laughing off his poor performance.

Izuku had noticed he did that a lot. Ojiro needed to learn to take credit when credit was due. It wasn't easy fighting a mind reader, after all. They'll have to work on his confidence once his voice is back, that's for sure.

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"So Tails has confidence issues huh?" Kacchan hummed as he read through Izuku's notes. Seems like a lot of these extras have them... Can't say I blame them.
[Kacchan, you're not supposed to read that] Izuku frowned, trying to grab the notebook, only to have Katsuki lift it up so the nerd couldn't reach it. They were supposed to be doing homework right now! And instead, Kacchan was nosing around in his personal notes!

"What was that nerd? Couldn't quite catch it" the blonde grinned, purposely looking away so he couldn't see Izuku signing. Imposter syndrome huh? Feeling like you don't belong, like you faked and lied your way up the ladder... It's not the exact same, but it's similar to me, right? Like feeling like a villain in a hero school..? Izuku frowned, whacking Kacchan over the head.