Despite his confident exterior, Hizashi had always dealt with anxiety.
Mainly it was anxiety about his Quirk and about hurting people. Heck, before he was even a minute old, he made both his parents and the doctor in the room bleed from the ears!
While he himself had a slight resistance to his Voice, he had still completely deafened himself by the age of five.
It made him hesitant to speak, worried that he'd give someone else irreparable damage to their hearing.
That was a huge weight on such a small child's shoulders.
It wasn't until he was a few years older that Hizashi encountered his first muzzle.
His parents had to leave for a week for work, but Hizashi was too young to stay at home alone.
So they'd hired a babysitter.
Her name was Marikio, and Hizashi's first impression of her was that she seemed nice. She was quiet, but witty, always on the verge of laughing. He loved her sense of humor.
At first, Marikio spent more time with Hizashi's parents. They'd wanted to get to know her, to see if they trusted her, but with such an easygoing personality and glowing recommendations, they easily welcomed her.
She got along well with everyone, Hizashi included.
Hizashi had known for a while about the week his parents had to leave. They would leave early Sunday morning so that they could fly to wherever they were going, spend a week there doing whatever they did for work, and be back Saturday evening. While they were gone, Marikio would live in their house, sleeping in the guest bedroom.
The incident occurred on Tuesday.
Hizashi remembered because he'd been trying to watch something on TV. It was a nature show, but the commentator was really funny.
So funny, that Hizashi couldn't stop laughing.
He didn't even notice that his volume had risen above the level he so carefully kept it at.
He did notice when Marikio, sweet Marikio, snapped at him for being too loud.
He didn't think anything of it at the time. His hearing aids were not as sensitive as they would be later on in his life, so he thought he sounded fine.
It only took fifteen more minutes for Hizashi to lose control of his volume again.
That was the last straw.
Marikio reached into her bag, roughly grabbed Hizashi's hair with her free hand, and brought the other hand towards his face. She shoved a bulky metal mask onto his face; the edges of the metal cutting into his soft skin.
He felt his mouth wrenched open as a heavy rubber protrusion depressed his tongue, keeping it from moving. Attached to both sides of the weight were square blocks, also made of rubber. These wedged between both sets of Hizashi's molars, forcing his jaw to stay propped open.
The bottom of the mask reached his neck, the entire outside made of firm metal, so he was completely unable to open his mouth any wider. The top of the mask cut into the bridge of his nose, just under where his glasses rested.
The mask was complete with a strap that fastened behind his head, an intricate set of buckles and pins that was designed to be extremely difficult to unlock if one wasn't looking at it.
Hizashi hadn't noticed his tears until Marikio swiped them away with a thumb. She'd tried to console him, bringing him into a hug once she was done and explaining that she had sensitive ears.
