Tuesday~
"Aizawa Sensei, I had an idea for something we could possibly try out," Midoriya said.
"Yes?"
"Well, at the Sports Festival when Shinso was brainwashing me I was aware of my surroundings and I could remember what happened afterwards. But when Ojiro explained to me what it was like for him, he told me he couldn't remember anything. So I was wondering- is Shinso able to control whether or not we remember being brainwashed? Another thing is: is he able to alter memories? Can he make someone forget something or maybe even remember something that's not true."
"That's a very interesting thought. I guess we could pause what I had planned for today to try this out instead." Eraserhead said to Shinso, "Do you know whether or not you can make your target remember or forget being brainwashed?"
Hitoshi shrugged, "I don't really know. I've never asked anyone I've used my Quirk on before."
Aizawa nodded, "Okay. We'll try making Midoriya forget first. I don't know what it's like to have your Quirk so you're going to have to figure this out yourself."
Shinso nodded then said, "Midoriya?"
"Yeah-?" Izuku's eyes glazed over after he responded.
"Turn around."
Midoriya did as he commanded and then awoke. He shook his head at Hitoshi's expectant face, "I remember what I did; you told me to turn around."
"Damn it. I thought I'd made you forget," Shinso said, annoyed.
Eraserhead suggested, "Ojiro couldn't remember but Midoriya could. Can you think of anything you did differently for each person?"
Hitoshi thought. "Well, I was controlling multiple people alongside Ojiro but I only had Midoriya brainwashed. And I made Midoriya do a less complex task. But I don't think that affects whether or not they remember. And neither of them were prepared for my Quirk when I used it at the festival, so that's out."
"Maybe it depends on whether you subconsciously want them to remember or not," Deku suggested. "Think about it; you wanted Ojiro and the others to just simply obey your commands to get you all through the match. But with me, maybe you wanted me to be aware of what was happening because it would have been kinda cruel if I'd been ready to tackle you and then a second later the match was over and I'd lost."
"That- makes sense. But it wasn't a conscious decision so... I need to figure out how to make it conscious so I can control when it happens."
"Exactly!" Izuku chirped. "Try it again and see if you can make me forget."
Hitoshi activated his Quirk and said, "Pick up your bag."
Izuku walked over to the bench to pick up his bag. He blinked as he woke up and gasped at the bag in his hand, "Wha- I don't remember anything! It worked!"
"How did you do it?" Aizawa questioned out of curiosity.
Shinso frowned a little as he tried to think of a way to describe it, "I- When I'm brainwashing people it's like- I can feel a connnection to their mind and body functions in my own head. So, when I was controlling Midoriya, I didn't want him to remember and so my mind just forced him not to be aware of what he was doing? It's hard to explain."
"Interesting..." Aizawa said thoughtfully. "Let's move onto Midoriya's theory of altering memories and possibly creating false memories. Now- there are many ethical factors here. We have Midoriya's consent, he has the right to withdraw, he will be debriefed in just a moment and there will be no deception, but we also cannot inflict any psychological harm upon him so we must be careful as we are tampering with his memories here. Now Midoriya. Are you sure you want to go ahead with this?"
"Yes! I trust Shinso not to harm me," Izuku said confidently.
Hitoshi was surprised at how certain Midoriya was. He truely seemed to trust him and Shinso was grateful for that.
"Shinso, tell him something about yourself and then see if you can get him to forget it," Eraserhead said.
Hitoshi puckered his lips slightly as he thought, "My favourite food is katsudon."
Midoriya grinned at that, "Mine too!"
Hitoshi smiled before he activated his Quirk.
"Forget what my favourite food is," he instructed before releasing the boy. He then asked, "What's my favourite food?"
Izuku frowned, resting his thumb and finger on his chin, "Uh..." He blinked as he strained to recall what it was as he was sure Hitoshi had just told him mere seconds ago... "I-I can't remember."
"Holy crap, it worked!"
"What did I say about using blasphemy, Hitoshi?" Aizawa warned. "See if you can get him to remember."
Shinso rolled his eyes slightly at his dad before he reactivated his Quirk, "Remember what my favourite food is." He released him then asked again, "What's my favourite food?"
Izuku squinted down at the ground for a moment before he shook his head and looked up at his friend, "I don't know."
"What? But- I told you to remember."
"Hm, that's interesting." Aizawa said in contemplation.
Midoriya thought to himself, "I think there's a logical reasoning behind this. As Shinso told me to forget what his favourite food is, maybe that completely erased the information from my memory. When he told me to remember, he didn't say 'remember that my favourite food is such and such' so there was nothing to remember as the memory can't just come from nowhere. It's gone forever. That means that I would have to relearn what it was." His eyes widened when he realised he'd been mumbling out loud.
Eraserhead nodded his head in approval, "Good observation."
Shinso carried on, "So, what you're saying is... if say for example I told you to forget a person. All memories you had with that person would be gone. If I told you to remember them, it wouldn't work because your memories cannot be retrieved as they no longer exist and so you would have to get to know them again. Although... maybe it all depends on the wording of the question. I had a few psychology lessons before in General Studies and one of our topics was memory. We learned about different ways that memory can be lost. Forgetting due to decay is what we just witnessed now; that leads to permanent memory loss. But retrieval failure, for example, only hides the pathway to the memory so that it becomes lost and so makes it hard to remember the information. But if I told you to recall the memory, it would clear the pathway and the memory would be retrieved. Therefore the memories haven't been erased, only hidden."
Aizawa smiled a little.
"You're brilliant, Shinso!" Izuku remarked with glee. "Let's try it?"
Hitoshi actually blushed, but ever so slightly, at that and he nodded. "Ok. Katsudon is my favourite food."
Midoriya grinned like the first time he'd found out, "Mine t-"
"Forget what my favourite food is due to retrieval failure." He released him. "And?"
"No clue."
He activated his Quirk again and said, "Remember my favourite food," before relinquishing his control.
Midoriya gasped, "Katsudon!"
Shinso smiled, relieved that his theory had been correct.
"Well done, kid," Eraserhead commended.
"I wonder if it would work with people," Midoriya pondered. "Could we try it?"
"I don't think that's a good idea. It's too risky," Aizawa said.
"But Dad, we just tested it out on something unimportant so now we know how it works. It'll be fine, don't worry."
"Yeah!" Izuku agreed.
The teacher sighed in tired defeat, "Fine. Do whatever. Just be careful."
The boys nodded and Shinso activated his Quirk. He instructed carefully, "Forget All Might due to retrieval failure."
"Seriously." Eraserhead said blandly.
"What? I wanna see what happens when Midoriya doesn't remember his idol," he chuckled a little then looked back to his friend.
Izuku awoke from the brainwashing and blinked.
"Midoriya, what do you think about All Might?" Hitoshi asked.
Izuku frowned, "Who?"
"Holy shi-zzle sticks," Shinso exclaimed. "This is weird."
"This makes me rather uncomfortable," Eraser admitted.
"Wait, so I'm guessing it worked? That's so cool! I literally can't remember a thing about- A-All Might? Is it? Who are they anyways?"
"Oh he's a real mean piece of work, he is." Shinso said. "He's a teacher at U.A. and always gives our class piles of homework each lesson just because he hates us."
Aizawa glanced at his son, catching on. He murmured, "Indeed. He even forces the other staff members to mark his students' work when he is too lazy to do it himself. And he often doesn't bother to show up to teach his classes."
Midoriya frowned, "All Might sounds like a douchebag."
Shinso snorted and put his hand in his pocket, "Ah, I'm so gonna blackmail you with this."
"Wait- ARE YOU TWO TRICKING ME?" Izuku demanded. He really didn't have the faintest clue who this All Might teacher person was, but from what he'd gathered so far, he seemed to be an irresponsible dickhead. But apparently the Aizawas had been lying to him given the amused look on their faces. "Who is he really? Oh gosh, he's not like- my relative or something, is he?"
"He's the former number one Pro Hero."
"He's your idol."
Izuku's jaw dropped in disbelief, "Wh-WHAT?! YOU MADE ME INSULT A PRO HERO. THE NUMBER ONE PRO HERO?!"
Shinso laughed, "Midoriya, relax. It's not like anyone will ever know..."
"Wh- bu- still! I-" Izuku's stuttering was cut off by Shinso activating his Quirk.
"Remember All Might." He ordered before releasing him.
Midoriya's eyes widened as all his memories of Toshinori came flooding back to him.
"Ahhh! Oh my gosh! You guys made me call All Might a douchebag! I can never forgive you for this! I hate you!" Izuku clenched his hair in his fists, "Ahhh, I'm so sorry All Mightttt!"
Aizawa and Shinso laughed at Izuku's reaction, clutching their stomachs.
Hitoshi, still sniggering, took his phone out of his pocket and held it up, "I got a video as proof."
"What?! I thought you said no one would ever know?!"
"I did... But guess what?" Shinso smirked, "I lied." He pressed play on a video and Izuku's voice rang out, 'All Might sounds like a douchebag.'
This made the Aizawas laugh even harder and Izuku's face reddened with anger, but he couldn't help but join in on the laughter as it was pretty funny.