Class 1-A, Aizawa, Monoma and Tetsutetsu felt like they had just walked into some very, very personal. Kendo, Tokage, Kodai and Shiozaki had come over to take a look, and they were currently staring at the lone General Studies student as he looked at Midoriya.
Uraraka bent down to try to help Midoriya up, and Shinsou yelped, "Don't touch him unless you're in his line of vision! He'll -"
It was too late. Midoriya jumped at the contact and bashed his head against the table with a loud bang, startling Aizawa and he dropped his pen as Midoriya clutched his head harder.
"You little fucker! What did you do to him!?" Bakugou roared, grabbing Shinsou's collar. Shinsou didn't even seem to care, still looking stunned as he gazed at Midoriya's crying, vulnerable form.
"What... what did they do to you, Izu?" Shinsou gasped.
Midoriya was always emotional. He cried at the smallest thing, even though he tried to reign his tears in. So to see Midoriya so sad, so guilty, all his negative emotions rolling off him like waves of a tsunami and crashing into Shinsou full force. He was a lot more sensitive to Midoriya's emotions, since he knew the boy since they were kids and he had to be able to pick up even the slightest signs of negativity. The boy could be surprisingly good at hiding his true emotions, making you think he was just slightly down when instead he was breaking down inside.
"Why!? Why do you even care about someone as useless and worthless as me!?" Shinsou's heart broke when he heard Midoriya's voice.
Bakugou's grip on Shinsou immediately loosened as he looked back at Midoriya with an angry expression of shock etched onto his face.
"Useless!? What do you mean useless?! You're not useless Izu! You never were and you'll never be useless!" Shinsou replied, clenching and unclenching his fists in frustration.
"You saw what I did! I...hurt you!" He hiccupped,"You're not even real! I'm just hallucinating right now! I can't even see properly now?!"
Everyone turned towards Midoriya.
He seems so hell bent on convincing himself that Shinsou was just an illusion of his own mind.... why?!
"Why do you still care so much!? I couldn't even die right! I'm just a quirkless, worthless Deku! Why didn't you forget about me like I told you to in that letter!?" Midoriya cried.
"I can't forget. I can never forget. How can I forget the first and only friend I ever made!? The only person who didn't judge me based on my quirk?! The only person who saw me for who I was instead of my quirk!?" Shinsou himself was close to crying, "You're the only one who treated me like a proper human instead of a tool to be used and throw away or some sort of future villain!"
"Why - " Midoriya was interrupted when Shinsou spoke.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry I left! I'm sorry I didn't notice things getting worse for you! I'm sorry I was too late to save you! I'm sorry I didn't come fast enough before they drove you to... that!"
Shinsou hastily wiped his eyes. Dammit, he wasn't even in the Hero Course yet and he was crying?
"Why!? Why... why are you so nice?! Why do you even care so much in the first place?"
Shinsou gulped when Midoriya looked at him with his remaining left eye, burning with sadness, guilt, insecurity and anger.
"Everyone is the same! Kids or adults! No one cares about me. The teachers hate me, my classmates treat me like I'm nothing! And they're right! I'm worthless! I hurt my best friend and I didn't even die from it! I should have died. I should have. Why -"
"Izu! Stop thinking like that! I care! Isn't .... " Shinsou's voice cracked, "Was I not good enough? Where did I go wrong... why can't you understand that some people just care about you?!"
"My best friend saw me die! I don't deserve anything!" Midoriya screeched. "I'm a failure! I tried so hard to ignore them all, but I couldn't even do that! People aren't nice for no reason! People are like that. They're only nice because they want something, and when they get it they'll throw you away!" Midoriya's voice just sounded so sad, so broken, that it took all of Aizawa's willpower to not give the smaller boy a hug, seeing how badly he reacted to Uraraka.
"You know what I want?!" Shinsou's voice cracked when he said that, and he looked away, hand unconsciously reaching up to rub his neck, "I just want my little brother back."
Everyone blinked.
Just what did Midoriya Izuku have to do with Akatani Mikumo?
Midoriya recognised the familiar gesture.
Toshi liked to do that...
He remembered that glint in Shinsou's eyes whenever he tried to protect and reassure the green haired boy. He recognised that sad, gloomy presence that Shinsou tried to hide so badly whenever he saw Midoriya being self deprecating. That odd twitch in his fingers right before Shinsou reached out to ruffle his hair gently.
His eyes trailed down to the notebook that had fallen out of Shinsou's pocket. It had opened up, on the page with a purple, grey and black messy scrawl, alongside another piece of paper that was neatly folded in half.
"You.... still kept the notebook.... I gave you!?"
".... yeah...."
He carefully looked at Midoriya, and stretched out his arms, "Come here."
Midoriya carefully stood up, and shakily walked towards Shinsou, before lunging, wrapping his arms around Shinsou tightly, both of them falling to the ground.
"You're... you're real.... you're alive....you're not dead..."
"Yeah. I'm real, Izu." Shinosu carefully moved so he was supporting himself with his arm without shifting Midoriya.
With that, Midoriya burst into tears.
"I'm so sorry, Toshi! I'm sorry you saw me jump off the building! I'm sorry I tried to kill myself!" He wailed, as he buried his face into Shinsou's chest and cried.
Aizawa felt his heart break. His problem child tried to what now?! And Shinsou saw it?! Gods, both of them were emotionally traumatised.
"Shh. It's fine. We're both here now." Shinsou rubbed Midoriya's back, inwardly seething when he could feel Midoriya's ribs.
What the heck!? Who the hell was starving him!?
He tried to remain calm as he continued to reassure Midoriya.
He could feel tears welling in his eyes.
Izu's alive.
That's all the cared about. Who the hell cares if the entire hero course saw him sitting on his butt crying? Heck, the world could see him crying and call him a villain for all he cared.
Midoriya continued clinging to Shinsou like a koala as he cried his eyes out.
Kan and Snipe had appeared in the door way for no reason, no doubt they heard the ruckus and came over to take a look. Aizawa couldn't see past Snipe's mask, but he was sure his face was exactly the same as Kan: Absolute shock that Midoriya was crying, initiated contact with someone, and actually spoke on his own accord.
"I'm sorry. I gave up."
"Stop apologising, Izu. It's my fault. I should have visited earlier. I promised I would kick everyone's butts for you but I didn't."
"NO! It's not you!" Midoriya cried, "You're the only person who ever cared about me. Ever! Everyone hates me except for you!"
Everyone's heart clenched. Whatever had the poor kid gone through!?
"What about your new classmates? Are they hurting you?" Shinsou glared at Bakugou, "I don't care if you're in the hero course. If you dare to even lay a finger on him - "
"I don't know." Midoriya's voice was scratchy, "They're not hurting me or anything.... but I don't know if they care about me or not."
Pretty much the entire class deflated. Midoriya had been so emotionally stunted that he couldn't even feel love when it was practically thrown in his face.
"You.... still care.... right?!" Midoriya croaked, his voice desperate as he physically and emotionally tried to cling to Shinsou. "I'm still..... you still want me as a brother...? Even though I'm a mistake and don't deserve to exist...Even though I'm a failure at everything - "
"You idiot. Stop saying that." Shinsou didn't hesitate to shift and sit up, ruffling Midoriya's hair with one hand as he wrapped the other around the green haired boy. Midoriya was still tucked into his chest and Shinsou placed his head on Midoriya's head, pulling him closer, "You silly little brother. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. You better not forget that."
Midoriya burst into tears again and cried his heart out.
---------------------
It finally clicked in Aizawa's mind.
Green hair. Green eyes. Freckles. Quirkless.
Little brother.
Akatani Mikumo was Midoriya Izuku.
Midoriya was quirkless. He was bullied. He found a friend in Shinsou, a brother who understood him. A person who tried to stand up for him.
Shinsou had left.
Aizawa wanted to blame Shinsou, blame him for leaving and leaving Midoriya to suffer on his own.
But he knew that was irrational.
According to what Bakugou had said, Shinsou was twelve when he visited. Midoriya was twelve when he attempted suicide. He was being fostered by people, and he had a quirk that people perceived as villainous. No doubt he was being transferred all over the place by the system when they decided that they were sick of Shinsou or didn't want to associate themselves with him. Shinsou was too young at that time to make a choice, to have a say in anything the system did.
The minimum age for taking the train on his own was twelve.
That meant that Shinsou had been forced to wait, who cared how long, that was still too long for Aizawa's liking, to be able to visit.
And when he was finally able to, it had been too late.
Midoriya had committed suicide.
And Shinsou had been there to witness it.
Midoriya had given up.
That was why there was a huge puddle of blood on the ground.
Shinsou had been broken.
The League of Villains had kidnapped him. Aizawa had no idea why Shinsou didn't know that. But that didn't matter.
They tried to break Midoriya further. They saw Midoriya's connection with Shinsou, and pulled the out the worst card.
Telling him Shinsou was dead. Reinforcing that thought, slowly convincing Midoriya that he was worthless and couldn't even protect his one and only friend.
They had completely shattered whatever was left unbroken in Midoriya, and smashed all the broken pieces to dust.
Aizawa thought it was so completely illogical for Midoriya and Shinsou to be so emotionally attached to each other. They treated each other like they were the entire world, and broke down completely and shut themselves out from the rest of the world when the other was gone.
He hadn't seen the extent of it.
According to Midoriya, Shinsou had been the only person who cared about him.
According to Shinsou, Midoriya was the only person who understood him.
In the fifteen years the two boys had lived, they were pushed away, kicked down by the rest of the world, trapped by the shackles of prejudice that had threatened to suffocate them completely.
They tried to free themselves when they met each other. Getting hopelessly attached to the only person who was willing to give them attention, love and care that they had been denied for their entire lives.
The world chained them up again when Shinsou had been forced to move away.
The shackles around them grew stronger, so strong that they eventually dragged Midoriya in to the deep, murky depths.
He tried to kill himself. Shinsou had been dragged down as well when he witnessed the loss of his friend.
He didn't know the whole story. But that was what he had deduced from the entire scenario and the limited context he had of everything. Both of them were emotionally stunted since young, and clutched at the only person that gave them comfort.
They were just kids. They didn't deserve to go through this.
Midoriya had stopped crying, and Aizawa had noticed that was because he had fallen asleep, still clinging tightly to Shinsou, who didn't even seem to want to move from that uncomfortable position on the floor. Both of them were tangled with each other, and Shinsou was crying as well as he hugged Midoriya for all he was worth, burying his face in Midoriya's hair, not caring that sixty percent of the hero course first years, as well as three teachers, were staring at them, looking completely dishevelled.
Aizawa was going to get ahold of that damn orphanage that was housing Shinsou, if that was the last thing he did.
No one was going to stop him.
Not Nezu, not Kayama, Snipe, or Kan.
Not even Yamada.