v.

He starts the year off like he does normally一 his homeroom course has him first. He grins a wicked grin; he thinks Nedzu-sama must know when he's from if he lets him do what he does.

"Hello class 1-N, I'll be your homeroom teacher, and your history teacher. My name is Furukawa Arakan. Now, first things first, everyone, take out your history textbooks."

The class takes them out, weary. "When I call your name satnd up and put them on my desk, you won't need them for this couse."

"Uh, Sensei?"

"Yes?" Shutsu says.

"Why do we need to throw these textbooks away?"

Shutsu smiles, it's more docile. Fond, even. "Tell me, what's your name."

"It's Kaso Himiko, sir."

"Kaso-san," Shutsu says. "I don't like the bullshit that the hero commision is trying to feed us, so I'm telling you the truth. And trust me, the truth is a lot worse than what you've heard."

Kaso looks at him like he's crazy. 

"Let's start off with the first fact! Most of you should know this, quirks were called meta-abilities for the first fifty years of their arrival, they were then called superpowers for about seventy years, give or take; then powers after the second war, about one-hundred and fifty years ago, at the start of the golden age, some random youtuber said that they were less powers because they were so common, and more quirky than not. Hence the term quirk. That is one of the five non-gruesome things you'll be learning in my class."

_

Hero couses split their classes (besides heroics) throughout the year; Shutsu does not get any hero course until the last two semesters. He teaches them Foundational Heriocs.

1-B is a good class. They're calm, if not a little excited. The class goes into a frenzy when All Might walks in―they listen to his lecture about the rules, and the class starts off their battles.

1-A is not as kind. They're loud. Rambunctious and wild and loud. He's pretty sure the only reason they even listen is because All Might is doing the talking, not Shutsu. All Might does not see the need to remind children about ground rules.

(He wonders if they'd even know he was here―he doesn't think about it much. The idea of him disappearing leaves a sour taste in his mouth.)

Then Bakugou tries to kill Midoriya and he steps in.

"If you continue, you'll fail the exam." He says through the speaker. "Bakugou if you continue you'll be expelled, and Aizawa-sensei may have thought you have potential, but the only thing I see right now is a middle schooler who can't grow out of his ego."

The people on the other side stop. "Everyone leave the building, we'll be drawing lots again."

Things go smoothly from there on in.

_

Shutsu cackles when Aizawa hits his head. They're on their traditional first-night-at school bar raid and Aizawa's already drinking hard liquor while Yamada laughs, holding him.

"You got lucky as shit Sekijiro."

"Oh my―it always gives me backlu―buckla―berk―it always surprises me that―that yer sooo professional at work Furukawa. You get so.. dazy!"

"That, Kayama, is 'cuz I'm drunk. It's nice to be swoopy without the whole of e'ryone tryin' to kill me, right?"

"Yeah, when'z the las'me you gotten druuunk, Furukewa? Huh? Without us, I mean."

"'S Furukawa an. An I hasn't gotten drunk since I was, nineteen? Yeah. Nineteen. Me'yan my nii-chan were on speaking terms an' I invited him oveeer, and I got hammered. Floored. Worst hungo―hangt―headache ever." Shutsu nurses a cup of sake. "Then he had to ruin everything by, by, by trapping people'n shit! Jerk."

"Why don't you drink, Yagi?" Kayama turns.

"Ah, I can't, my condition doesn't really leave me with much room."

"Oooh. What happened ta ya? Someone try to use there quirk on you in a panic an almost killed ya?" Sekijiro says. Softer than normal, like he's trying not to say it at all.

"Yeah. You were a late blummer―bloomer right?" Kayama drawls.

"Ah yes,"

"What wasit like bein' quirkless back then?"

"It sucksss." Shutsu groans. Because it does, from the flashes he gets. The first few years, the crying― people tried to burn him when they found out that he was missing something. They tried to turn him into soot on cigarette-stained floors to smudge on the bottom on their shoes. Only to laugh it off because he wouldn't stay. It's like some sort of come-and-go trend that never stuck. He's invisible and it makes him want to be seen and stay the same invisible creature in every way.

"It was―" But his words gargle. They burn away into cinder, like any other virtue.

"Oh, isolation? That'musta sucked." Yamada says. Because he's been alone, too, shouting for help that didn't come til too late.

Shutsu snorts. "Sure isolation sucks. You try and have people try and kill you because you're taking up air, 'cuz yer useless, because ya need to stop being such a waste of space. Man, ten years really makes all the difference."

(Shutsu thinks of fluoride dipped teeth dyed red with the ink of his skin, thinks of rose-bleached fingertips and shoes to black they go through his eyes. He thinks of bodies that are not his, and boys and girls and the ones lost in between that don't want to hold broken glass, but are forced to walk over it.)

"I.. I wasn't aware it for so bad."

"Yeah, I almost killed myself―if Aizawa here hadn't dragged me to that hospital, I'm sure I would've been dead in a ditch via Harima'n his guys. Hate them." Shutsu takes another shot. "The worthlessnessess is terrible. Uhg. An'ud the amount of quirkless kids trying to throw themselves from rooftopses―didja know that I had to shut down Nabu Middle School and Aldera High for discrimination! And Sochi Elementary!"

"Yeah, worlds fucked." Aizawa says into the wooden barstool.

"Uhu."

_

When Monday comes around, they've all slept off their hangovers (except for Yagi, but he didn't drink from what Shutsu remembers).

After lunch 1-A is going to the USJ.

Shutsu was in the breakroom when Iida Tenya scrambles in, breathes ragged, talking about a villain attack, and Shutsu had never ran as fast as he did that day, he texts the Teachers Group Chat to hurry over, emergency with the facility. They don't question in, because last time Thirteen almost destroyed the building―almost destroyed the entirety of Yuuei.

(Shutsu may not have a quirk―but he does have the thruming under his skin, he does have the bones under his flesh and the teeth in his mouth. He will fight until he doesn't have anything left.)

Shutsu will crawl to victory if he has to.

He slams the door open―All Might is already there. He's trying to punch a villain into oblivion.

He goes headstrong into battle.

(Maybe his brother was right to call him a suicide waiting to happen―a martyr dressed in sick skin.)

_

(All of this is kind of reminiscent―he's flying back. Except this time he takes the threadbare knowledge he's earned and lands properly. Shutsu lateral drops a woman three times his height―he throat punches a man with big leathery wings that look familiar, despite never having seen them.. maybe in another life.

Then he turns. The leader, a man covered in hands from head to toe in leaning towards Asui―and some feral part of Shutsu rings out. He runs and kicks the ringleader sideways. Snipe shoots the bastard after, and a purple warp opens under the ringleader.

Panic swells until the police and paramedics arrive.

Shutsu can't breathe.

That man looks so much like him―and his eyes look too much like Hisashi's.)

_

"Oh little brother, you're a doll." His brother whispers―and it sounds younger, like something they'd say to each other when they were huddled inside a room, hiding from their mothers rage, like the day after Himura Fuyu-yume punched his molar-teeth out. "You're perfect."

_

Shutsu waked up with a gasp. Ever since the tingling at the entrance exam, he keeps dreaming of his brother. It's strange - but there are things that are stranger. Take the fact he's turning thirty―he wasn't supposed to live past twenty, and then this shit* happens.

(This shit*

A wild series of events that leads him approximately three hundred years in the future. His vigilante career; and the housing of one Toga Himiko and one unnamed dead-kid who now goes by Dabi.)

In any case, Shutsu is getting increasingly disturbed by how familiar the beeping of a heart monitor is―considering he's only ever been in a hospital a handful of times, it's a little bit concerning.

(Not counting when he was a child, rushing in any out of the emergency care unit. Or maybe he should count it.)

Yamada-san briefs him on what happened, and a detective who he doesn't remember the name of―Tsuchi Naosumo, or something―questioned him when he was off pain killers and lying about the fact he'd rather revive his brother than feel this pain.

Shutsu goes to school with a cast on his arm and a crutch for his foot, because as it turns out, he didn't stick that landing as well as he thought. He splintered the muscle in his sole, so it feels like someone is sticking a harpoon up is foot every time he puts pressure on it; except the harpoon is contracting electricity, and it shoots toward his brain.

He limps into his homeroom class―management is busy all the time. They have homework piling up again their ribs and spewing from their blood. They learn how not to procrastinate in the first week, they learn how time management works in the second. It's the most cutthroat course in the school, no matter what any class might say.

He has a lesson planned out for the sports festival―he doesn't want his class to burn out like his last one did.

(Seeing a bunch of teenagers burnt out like that. He―Shutsu doesn't like to think about it.)

Support students get their items, heroic students get training, gen-ed gets a minimal of both. Management though? Management gets two weeks planning in advance, and Shutsu uses them. They don't get any homework from their classes―they run around, muttering in a way that he's as fond of as he is terrified. 

Students usually stay after school in the library, but this time a kid―not from his homeroom―walks in. The boy is thin and lanky, his hair is a trainwreck and a half, and he looks like he hasn't slept in three and a half days. He's lavender smoke, with crooked teeth and white pupils.

"Uh, Furukawa-sensei?"

He can't remember a name. "Yeah? How can I help you, kid?"

The kid rubs the back of his neck and looks at his shoes like they're the most interesting thing in the world.

"I-uh. You're―you―" The kid (Shino?) takes a deep breathe. "you're helping with strategies, right? Midnight-sensei―"

Shutsu snorts, the kids fumbles anxiously. "Yeah yeah. Kayama-san likes sending people my way so she can get to patrol. It was either me or Aizawa-san, and 'tween you and me? He needs the nap more. So, do you have a baseline, or are we starting from scratch?"

"Baseline? I think―I just planned on using my quirk across the finish line."

Shutsu winces. "I.. wouldn't do that. You're uh, damn, what's your name?"

"Uh, Shinsou Hitoshi, Sensei―"

"Okay, cool. So, Shinsou-kun, there's only one question. Why are you competing?"

"I want to be in the hero course, Sensei―" He grips the ends of his shirt. "―I want to be a hero more than anything."

Shutsu grins, because he's looking at warped glass, shattered on the ground. Scattered purple under the light of dusk as it flows through the windows. "Well, Shinsou, let's here it!"

_

There isn't really a set time for how long everyone can stay in school. It's open all day, technically, and Shutsu's never had the best sense of time on coffee―it's why he only drinks it in the morning. Shinsou seems to have the same problem because they end up spending the entire night working around strategies.

The only one who knows what exactly the events are is Nedzu―and Aizawa, but that's because he likes torturing his students. Sekijiro doesn't really know how to not baby people. He was treated too harshly to ever really push people.

It's six-AM when time finally comes back to Shutsu.

"Oh, shit." He whispers. "Uh, Shinsou? It's kind of six in the morning, uh, I'll get you a spare uniform―"

"Uh―thanks―I―"

"'S'alright. I've been bad with time since―" the vault. "―forever."

"Still, um, thanks, Furukawa-sensei. I'm definitely gonna win now."

"Understandable, have a nice day." Shutsu grins. "Though. Even if you don't I know you'll have tried your hardest. Remember, don't use your quirk―"

"Unless absolutely necessary. I know. I'm going underground, after all."

"I'm snatching you as my intern before Aizawa can," Shutsu grumbles. "I swear."

"Uh. But, you don't have an agency?" Shinsou fumbles, his fingers twist. "Isn't that, a, uh, thing?"

"No, not really. All you need is a patrol route, which I do, in fact, have. Also, all underground heroes technically have the same agency, they just have a bunch of different bases."

Something stops, it's calming really. Maybe time doesn't really hold still after an all nighter― maybe it's the faint glow of dawn through the shades of stained glass, panels of sun blocking on the walls. Maybe the stars are quiet and fast, but the sun sits lazy on the horizon like a sleepy cat. So they sit and stare, but Shutsu snaps out of it.

He gets up and looks behind his desk for a spare uniform.

"So, uh. No blazer. But! But! I got everything else, go take a shower, here. Go to gym gamma― it's usually empty until nine. The showers are great too."

So Shinsou leaves, and Shutsu goes back into his room, takes a shower, changes clothes, and proceeds to chug three's five hour energy drinks, like the mad lad he is.

And if he passes out in homeroom? Well, thats his secret to tell.

_

Shutsu is half-awake when he hears it. It's detective Tsuchi and Yagi―they're talking.

They're soft murmurs, and he almost doesn't catch it.

"The noumu.. they have multiple quirks and the only one―" Tsuchi whispers.

"It's him, then.. " Yagi says, and he sounds so tired. ".. All for One."

"Ah, fuck," Shutsu says. "I can't believe you've done this."

Really, he should have suspected that somewhere along the line his brother would find a quirk that stopped him from ageing.

Of course he would. He's Hisashi―Shigaraki Hisashi, and he takes and takes and gives and gives even though he doesn't quite know how to do it right.

_

There's grey-old snow on the ground, dusting on the edges of the road― nii-chan said not to go, but nii-chan wasn't here, so Shutsu put on his gloves and scarf and hat and boots and coat, and he went out.

Kaasan will yell at him if she finds out, and tousan will hit him for getting wet and cold if he's sober enough to land his target, and nii-chan will look at him sad. Shutsu doesn't really want that, but the snow looks so soft and he's never allowed outside when it's this cold. He'll make sure he goes back in really quick―he'll make chai tea and start preparing katsudon.

Katsudon is his favorite, so Shutsu's sure he won't forget.

_

The sports festival starts big and loud― most of the teachers are out watching the festival, but Shutsu has to catch up on.. ugh.. paperwork. He also has to figure out what the fuck is going on with his brother.

If the.. noumu having multiple quirks is a serious accusations, along with then being corpses, that means Hisashi found a doctor. A good one―someone like Garaki-san. Garaki-san who had a quirk that slowed his ageing so much that once he hit seventeen he'd only age a day everyone few years.

Garaki-san who dissected rats and bugs and―oh. Well, Garaki-san just wanted funding didn't he? Hisashi had that.

"Oh," He says, empathetically. "shit."

A giggle almost frills from his mouth, but he swallows it. Yagi―as Yagi, he isn't All Might, he isn't a man-god anymore―races in.

"Furukawa-san, Recovery Girl―there's a―young Midoriya got heavily injured please hel―please help."

"Okay." He fumble, running with Yagi in hand. "Okay let's go."

_

Midoriya Izuku goes into surgery―one where he helps, because Shutsu has the most experience with these things. Because of Dabi's not-quite-right body and Himiko's stabby habit―it also came in handy, knowing how to do his own stitches.

(And, well, his brother got involved with the yakuza when they were younger. It was a rough time―his mother was out more often than not, and their father lost his third job.)

He doesn't have a doctoral in medicine―and he doesn't do more than help out and provide suction (and thread the needle so Recovery Girl can stitch it easier).

So, well, it makes sense that Midoriya is out of it.

"Hey, hey," Midoriya grapples. "are you a hero? I don't know you― you look familiar though."

"Uh, yeah. I'm underground. I'm Someru―nice to meet you formally, Midoriya."

"Yer nice too. Nice. What's your quirk. Mines superpower! It's cool. All Might gave it to me, but you can't tell him I said that." Midoriya fumbles, and he looks so familiar it burns. "You look like the picture in the haaaallwaaay. That's a secret, too. Tousan said not to, so you can't. Okay?"

"Okay, Midoriya."

"Furukawa-sensei is really nice," Shutsu barely hears. "way nicer than Hibara-sensei."

Shutsu's brain halts.

"Hibara. Like, Suzuki Hibara?"

"Uhu! He's a meanie."

"Yeah. Midoriya? What middle school did you go to?"

"Aldera middle school. It's was weird. I'm sleepy, Furukatawa-sensei."

"It's Furukawa, kid."

"Okay Furukawa-sensei."

"Good night, kid."

"Nooo! I still don't know your quirk."

"That's alright. I don't have one."

"You, what..? But.. but.. wh―I'm in a dreaming, aren't I?"

"Go to sleep, Midoriya." Shutsu says, softly.

"Okay, Furukawa."

_

He and Aizawa fight over Shinsou in the staffroom for twenty-seven minutes and thirty seconds; then they realize that they work for the same agency's patrol.

Midoriya-san―not Midoriya-kun―wasn't informed of her sons surgery, which is illegal in so many ways, and it isn't right. Shutsu promised to personally take in Midoriya-kun after internships. The fact he was going to inform her goes unsaid, and she looked calmer, after that.

After that, Shutsu heads on a train to Shinsou's foster home―his foster mother is Rindou Manakai. The house is quiet and clean. Not clean enough that they kids are overworked, though―there are papers stacked awkwardly on a chair and the drying wrack is lopsided.

(Something about this place is still.. off.)

"Hitoshi, dear, can you open the door, your teacher is here."

There are two clicks.

"Oh, uhm, he-llo," Shinsou's voice cracks around the ends. "Furukawa-sensei."

"Wow, puberty's going to shoot you up like a beanstalk. And you'll get a nice voice. All things I never had, and much brother did."

"Your brothers better than you, then?"

Rindou-san twitches at end of his vision.

"I'm the sane one, so I think not."

"That's, uh, good. Furukawa-sensei."

"Great. Rindou-san, what's your opinion on Shinsou-kun having a joint internship between me and Eraserhead?"

Rindou-san flickers. "Uhm. I, uh, approve. It's next week, right?"

"Yep. Just sign on the dotted line."

Shigaraki Shutsu―now Furukawa Arakan (because Shigaraki Shutsu is nothing)―is sure that Shinsou Hitoshi will become a hero. 

(That's all he thinks he is, after all, and when you build your identity on something, you'd rather die than give it up. It's a shame, really; how despreate poeple are to be something.)