Chapter Text
Hitoshi Shinsou is not having a good day.
It starts off by him leaving his empty home, his parents already out for the morning. That was fine, normal even, but what's not normal? On the way to school he trips and falls into a puddle, soaking himself. And instead of doing something smart, like going back home to change, Hitoshi decides to just leave it, too tired to really care. It's fine. Just some water.
He's wet and miserable all day.
As he walks to his desk in his classroom, he's tripped by some random kid he honestly doesn't know the name of. He stumbles forward, and his backpack's strap tears. It goes tumbling off of his back and right into the feet of his main tormentor, Tanaka. He slowly gets to his feet as Tanaka grins sharply at him, teeth pointed from his bullhead shark quirk. Hitoshi can feel the bullies eyes stare him down as he leans over to grab his bag.
Crack!
Tanaka slams his foot onto Hitoshi's hand with an awful sound, but Hitoshi doesn't face the boy. Instead, he grabs his backpack and scrambles to his desk, hoping Tanaka won't follow. He doesn't, thank god, but murmurs of villain fill the room, no one looking at Hitoshi except to glare.
That's somehow worse.
And, since it wasn't already a shitty enough day, their teacher decides to start talking about student's future careers. Throughout the lesson, students jeer at Hitoshi, the whispers of villain growing, and he catches the teacher's glare multiple times.
Whatever. It's fine.
He doesn't even glance at the packet about how to avoid the path of a villain the teacher hands him.
Lunch is lonely, stuck in the bathroom like some sort of stereotypical nerd in a coming of age film.
After lunch, he gets two more bruises from bullies' glancing blows, both right in front of a teacher.
It's fine.
His hand still throbs.
When the school day does ends, Hitoshi bolts. He manages to outrun his bullies, thank god.
His parents are still at work.
Lonely and bored, Hitoshi decides to go to a cat cafe down the street that he likes.
It's closed because the cats got infected with fleas.
Shrugging it off, Hitoshi starts wandering around, not wanting to go anywhere but not wanting to go home either.
Suddenly, he's engulfed with dirty, smelly water. Because of course he is. A great way to end a great day. A villain attack.
He thinks about struggling. He really does.
He doesn't, though.
Suddenly, almost two full minutes after the attack started, a white scarf wraps around his stomach. He can recognize it, he thinks. Maybe if his head wasn't aching and his lungs weren't filled with stink he would.
He's jerked out quickly afterwards, a scruffy man in a black jumper with a long white scarf floating around his head and neck grabbing hold of him and pushing him roughly away from the villain. Eraserhead, his mind helpfully supplies.
"Bad matchup for you," Hitoshi, who doesn't know how he knows that, finds himself muttering from behind the erasure hero, who stills at the shock of being recognized before taking up a defensive position.
"What, are all pros just some one trick pony?" The man scoffs as he winds his scarf around the monster's eyes. The villain howls in pain.
"Most are," Hitoshi mumbles, watching in a slight daze. The man lets out a snort before dragging the villain by its eyes and mouth into what looks like tubberware? Whatever.
After he finishes with the... thing, he turns over to Hitoshi.
"You hurt?" His voice is gruff as Hitoshi takes in the man before him, trying to wonder why he should be excited about this. Some part of him even is excited about this. He can't really tell why, though.
"You're... Eraserhead?" He asks, voice wet. The sudden two-word speech has him coughing, and Eraserhead hurries over to him, rubbing his back. Hitoshi finally stops and looks at the man.
"Think I got something in my lungs," he grunts before the world starts blacking out on the edges, and Eraserhead has to support the teen's shoulders to keep him from falling over. Embarrassing.
"Do you need an ambulance?" The hero asks, trying to keep Hitoshi in an upright position. He shakes his head.
"'M fine," he whines, vision still dotted with black spots.
"You very clearly are not," the man in front of him says flatly, eyes full of concern. Suddenly, Hitoshi sees movement, coming from the tubberware from earlier. He struggles to think, to figure out why it's bad. Suddenly it clicks, and his head clears slightly. A+ to the adrenaline rush.
"Hey, ugly!" He shouts as Eraserhead whirls around, seeing the villain. His eyes widen as he clenches onto his scarf, getting into a clear fighting position. Hitoshi, thank god, falls back onto the wall behind him instead of the ground.
"WHO YOU CALLIN-" and there. Hitoshi looks at Eraserhead.
"Whatcha want him to do?" He drawls, ignoring the confused look on the hero's face.
"I'm sorry, what?" Eraserhead asks, head tilting slightly. He looks mildly alarmed.
"My quirk. What do you want him to do?" Is all Hitoshi says, trying, and failing, to ignore the distress building in his already full chest at the mention of his quirk. Ugh. Stupid villain quirk.
The erasure hero stares at him for a moment, contemplative. He doesn't look upset or put off, instead just looking mildly curious. It's a new reaction. Hitoshi tries not to flinch at the thought.
"...do you have any containers?" The man finally asks, right as Hitoshi is about to work himself up into a panic attack. A very wet and very breathless panic attack. God. He just wants to go home and sleep. That's what he should've done 15 minutes ago when he saw that the cat cafe was closed. Fuck.
"No. But I can get him to the police station," Hitoshi slurs as the clearness in his head drops significantly. Guess there's a reason it's called an adrenaline "rush" instead of... he can't think of the word right now. Eraserhead raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah, no, I think you need medical attention sooner rather than later. Hold on," the man looks along the ground for a moment before finally finding what he's looking for. A soda bottle.
"Can you get him in here?" He asks hesitantly, like Hitoshi would say no. His mind vaguely recognizes the fact that Eraserhead is his favorite hero. Oh, so that's why he should be excited.
"Yeah," he mutters before turning to the villain. "Get in the bottle."
And then, after a horrible squelching sound, the villain is once again trapped in cheap plastic. With the bottle secured in his utility belt, Eraserhead walks back over to Hitoshi and crouches in front of him. The hero looks Hitoshi up and down before grunting.
"I'm taking you to a hospital," is all he says. Hitoshi finds himself nodding in agreement. It's not like he can run away from a pro hero. Whatever.
Suddenly, he's watching as his vision blackens.
"Don't call my parents," is all he manages to get out before he's falling forward, unconscious, into the startled hero's chest. What a shitty day.