Not Everybody Can Be A Protagonist

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Kirishima has nightmares. Nightmares about the night on the train. He knows that something is off. Something is not right. Bloodhound has them too, he's sure. In his dreams, he sees the train all over again. He sees the clouded figure of the first man, the original suspect. He can't see his face or his body, just the black outline of his suit and the glow of his phone. The story is the same each time. Kirishima gets up to go touch him, and a hot pain shoots through his arm. The pain makes him wince hard, and each time Kirishima tries to fight it, to keep his eyes open. But the pain is unbearable. When his eyes open, a green-haired, freckled face is eyeing him weirdly. Midori is his name, says something. A force inside him, a terrifying feeling. Kirishima believes that it's not him who's controlling his body, but something else. Midori feels wrong. Midori can't be who he's after. The face begs otherwise, Kirishima's nerves beg otherwise, but it's not him. He turns to look around and spots the black blur walking off the train and then into the abyss. He goes to walk after him, but Midori won't let go. He no longer looks human, his hand mutated into a beast that Kirishima doesn't recognize. The thing says something, but now Kirishima can't make out its shape either. Another hot pain erupts, and he awakes. 

He's dizzy when he wakes up, and the phantom pain takes a minute to fade. But then he gets up, brushes his hair to a song, and doesn't remember anything else until he goes into work. He's a hero, his quirk is hardening, and he protects the people with his friends from villains everywhere. He's here to serve the people. 

The people..?

Who?

Has he ever met them?

what?

w..h..a..t..?

"Kiri!! Shishi!! Mama!!"

Kirishima revives to Mina snapping her fingers in his face. 

"You've got to watch out!" She cries. "You got clobbed in the head badly by a villain. Which I didn't even think was possible considering quirk or not your head is cement dense." 

That's right. They were fighting a Class A villain. A mutated sludge villain that had gained access to toxic waste. 

"A part of the building must have melted and fallen on me," He laughed. "Sorry, Mina, I won't let it happen again!"

The red and pink hero walked through the wreckage and chatted peacefully. Kirishima talking about how epic the fight was, Mina chirping about some new fashion or dance trend, and they walked back to the agency.

I've been watching them.

Kirishima wouldn't remember what happened.

I've been oh, oh so carefully watching them. My perfect world, balanced. And now these ungrateful heathens want to break my society? The world I crafted just for them?

He'd only remember the fights they had today.

They won't get far. I know they won't. This world is too delicate, and due to that, it's the strongest one I've made. The background characters, oh, they're fantastic. So keen to stay out of the light, and so perfect in their roles. I love them almost more than I love the mentors I created. 

Midorya tapped his feet while the song on TV played. It was a newer movie that had come out, something about feminism and dolls. He found it weird that Americans had such unrealistic dolls, but then again, he had to put those English lessons he had to use. 

Tonight was Friday night. It called for staying up late with popcorn and movies. It was a weekend day, and most average people who worked 9-5 jobs enjoyed their weekend time by relaxing in some way. Midoriya's way was in the safety of his house with a quiet movie and some snacks. He'd watch about 2-4 more and then call it a night. He'd leave his food on the table to be cleaned in the morning to not seem too clean or orderly. He would also shower later in the morning, but that's a morning thing. Maybe he won't shower at all, as it's not too uncommon and would lead to a good excuse later in the day if a friend asked to hang out. Being always ready is not a good thing. Being always ready means you're always prepared and being always prepared means that you think too much. That's never welcome. Thinking too much about unimportant things would mean you have awareness about the things around you, awareness that belongs to heroes, not background characters. Background characters do not worry about being prepared to leave at a moment's notice, but instead, take their time. They have no normal rush, their lives are not important. Parties or late notices are excused, as they are regular people things. 

Midoriya does not think about what happened on the train. It was a normal train ride, though he does think about the post he saw. It was an ad for a new pet store opening uptown. Uptown is for background characters like him, downtown is for background characters that had to interact with protagonists. And frankly, he didn't care too much to do that. He did care about maybe getting a rodent. That's not odd. An old lady in the building three down owned ferrits. Maybe he'd get some mice. 

As for now, he sunk into the couch and enjoyed his movies, playing on his phone, and occasionally getting up for more snacks or to pee. His curtains and blinds were cracked slightly to let in light and to avoid suspicion. His upstairs neighbour had her curtains closed and so did four other people, he had to help average it out or their building might stand out. A building completely shut off leads to outside curiosity due to the fact that they're not placed far enough out of the city to have the details of their windows ignored. 

Midoriya paid no focus to the clamor a few streets away. He was a background character. All he had to do was follow the rules.