The question his teacher asked him had taken him so off guard, all Shoji could do was stare and blink. He was not expecting a question like that after having explained such a sensitive topic to him. However, Aizawa took note of his student's confusion and began to elaborate.
"About nine years ago, there was a powerful villain by the name of Compact that the authorities finally got a hold of. Though he was originally from America, he was still a threat to us heroes in Japan because of his strong quirk. They tried to keep him out of the media as much as they possibly could, but only because he was one of those power crazy villains. He had similar motivations like that of Stain. He believed that all heroes were only famous for the purpose of getting rich and popular and thought that they were just a disgrace to humanity." The teacher's voice is cold and tired, as if he's explained this hundreds of times before. Shoji barely absorbed the information before he continued. "When the man was finally caught, he had apparently been a villain in secret for years. His wife and seven year old daughter had learned everything the hard way. I had heard her name a few times around the funeral, but it didn't occur to me until you just explained everything." His voice was low, eyes lowered to the ground as he tapped his index finger against his chin.
From in front of him, Shoji stands with his body stiff. "Why are you telling me all of this?" Something in the boy's voice caused Aizawa to look up, almost in shock.
"Honestly," he started, adjusting his footing to face the door, "I don't know. It just came to my mind and I decided to share what I know with you. If you insist on hanging out with that girl, so be it, but please be careful." His fatherly tone takes him by surprise.
"Are you sure?" Unsure of what to think, the teenager crosses his arms as he turns to his teacher. "I mean, that's a lot to take it all at once." He speaks softly from a mouth on his left, extending towards Aizawa with a serious expression.
"I'm positive. From what I've heard from the media after his capture, they ran all across America trying to find a better life. They were eventually out of places to go, so coming to Japan was just an option that seemed to work. That girl probably just needs someone or something to keep her grounded." His black hair waves slightly as he turns for the door. "Just please be careful and don't get yourself killed. You may know a lot right now, but that is nothing compared to the information she has stored in that mind of hers."
With that, he leaves the room without another word. The time right now had been about six o'clock, and the sun was just beginning to find its way to the horizon. In his mind, Shoji wanted to do so many things, but he knew that none of them would benefit anyone other than his own curiosities. Instead, he pulls out his phone and stares at the blank black screen for a moment, so many questions in his mind. "Now I have to be careful." The air suddenly feels tight, as though his breathing was being restricted. He didn't know how to feel about all that was told to him, nor what to do with the information.
Within a second, his phone was on and it was calling (F/n), the familiar tone playing as he pressed the device against his ear. For a second it felt as though she wouldn't answer, as if it was going to go straight to voicemail. Though, just as Shoji was about to lower the phone and put it away, a familiar voice came from the other end.
"What's up?" The girl asks, her voice distant in the room.
At that moment, Shoji hadn't thought of what he was going to say, or why he had even called to begin with. He took a pause before answering the question. "Nothing, I was just calling to make sure you got home okay." He says softly, standing in the center of his room with his eyes facing towards clean windows.
There was a slow laugh from the other end, as if she had struggled to get it out. "Well, I got home just fine, thank you for your concern." (F/n)'s words were brief, taking the boy by surprise. Normally on these phone calls she would talk his ear off.
Silence falls in the call, neither the girl nor the boy knowing what to say. Shoji began to wonder if it was right to ask her about her past. Ultimately, he decided against it. "Alright, well I'll let you go. You sound a little busy." It hadn't been a complete lie, she seemed to be doing something that kept her a little distracted from the phone call. He gave the girl a moment to respond, but when she was silent, he brought the phone from his ear and pressed the large red button that appeared on screen.
Once again, he falls quiet as he looks over at his door, then down at himself through his own eyes. Mr. Aizawa's voice filled his mind, thinking about how her father had been a villain, a huge one in the United States.
His curiosity grew unbearable, and he sat down on the blow up mattress that he had refilled this morning, his body weight causing him to sink a few inches. With his phone in his true pair of hands, he begins to do research on the supposed villain Aizawa had mentioned. He had been expecting to see a wild, mutated, crazy looking person. Though, when the page had completed loading, a normal looking man in handcuffs, mugshots, in a mask, and accounts on what he's been charged with was what appeared before him.
Nothing was off-putting about the man from first glance; he had black hair that was freshly shaved on the sides, a small scar coming from his left ear forbidding hair to grow in that specific spot. He had on thin rimmed black glasses that did a poor job in covering up his icy blue eyes. In his mugshots, he seemed to have marks and bruises on his face and neck as if he was taken down with immense force. In his mind, Shoji was disturbed that such a normal looking man had been considered such a lethal villain.
Clicking on a dark blue link, it brought the boy to a news article from CNN. He read it aloud to himself quietly. "One of the most dangerous villains has finally been removed from the streets of the U.S. as of March 12, 2010." Astonished, he read the rest in his mind.
He had faltered while trying to kidnap a hero's young daughter from off the streets, saying that he hadn't calculated the speed of which the hero could get up to. From there on, he was brought into custody and revealed his motivations behind killing and harming heroes and innocent people. While being interrogated, he had said to the detective that, "[He is] sick of seeing heroes waving their egos around like toys. They have no common decency, and only put up a caring front so they look good in the media." He had then gone on to explain that he wasn't a villain, but was only misunderstood by the public.
In awe, Shoji placed his phone next to him and sighed. Out of all of the things the girl had been going through, this was one of the most horrific. To take it in perspective for himself, he tried to think of his own parents as evil doers, but was heartbroken at the thought. Once again, as if acting without thinking, he grabs his phone and goes straight to the girl's number. He looks at the name he had set for her, nothing special; It had just been her name. There was nothing really special about it, it was just the name of someone he knew. Though, he never knew why his heart would quicken its pace when he saw her name pop up through a notification. He wanted to think it was nothing, like he wanted to just push his feelings down and hope it was nothing. Now, he lay back on his bed and stared at the ceiling, remembering a conversation between her and him.
"So, I know this is kind of a silly question, but have you thought about what you want to do after UA?" She had asked him as he sat next to her on the couch.
With a quick pause, he shook his head and raised his first set of shoulders. "No, I'm not really sure. Probably just try to become someone's sidekick for a while before I can become a pro." His voice wasn't very confident.
She laughed, giving him a closed eye smile as he looked over to meet her eyes. "Well, whatever you do, I hope you don't forget about me when you're famous."
It had been that smile she gave him that caused his heartbeat to quicken. There was so much he wanted to say to her at that moment, but he refused to confess how he really felt. In his mind currently, he ponders things, wanting to ask someone for help on what to do in this situation. In the months that he knew you, he knew that these feelings were premature, and that they shouldn't be thought of that in depth.
Soon enough, however, curiosity took over him. He stood quickly, checking his phone to see what time it was. It was only 6:18, so he had enough time to go to someone. Normally, he wouldn't have been the type of guy to go out and talk about how he feels, though he knew there was one person who seemed to be a professional with these sorts of feelings. Plus, this person happened to be the closest one, besides the boy himself, to (F/n).
Shoji soon found himself knocking on Mina's door, having her quickly swing it open as if she was expecting his arrival. He had seen it earlier, though he is still surprised to see the amount of pink in her room. "Shoji?" She asked, as if confused.
"Hey," he starts, rubbing the back of his neck while speaking in his low, gravelly tone, "I was wondering if I could talk to you about something."
The girl moved out of the way and allowed him room to enter, having him nod a thank you. She closed the door and gestured for him to sit down in her pink desk chair. "Well, don't leave me waiting, what's going on? Is something wrong?" He bites his lip from underneath his mask.
Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, as the girl in front of him looks to him with a tilted head. "I don't know if it's wrong or not, that's the problem." He says, looking up to meet the girl's dark and amber eyes. Mina gasps at his face, the intensity and desperateness of his expression surprising her. "I need you to tell me if how I feel is wrong."
Her expression calmed, sitting on the fuzzy blanket that lay across her main quilt over her bed. "Well, it depends on how you feel, and about what." Her arms crossed over her blank yellow crop top. The plain shirt matched her comfortable joggers that were yellow and gray.
Silently, Shoji dropped his head and rested his forehead in his first set of palms. From behind him, a mouth formed on his right and gently rested itself on his right shoulder. "I think I'm in love with (F/n)." The words felt wrong coming out of his mouth, though he was serious and utterly desperate to get it out to someone. Mina's eyes lit up as she squealed with excitement.