𝙵𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 - 𝙷. 𝚂𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚞 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

Chapter Twenty One

Shinsou's heart fluttered when Kazumi cuddled up against him after Mae fell asleep. She moved her chair as close to his as humanly possible and tugged his arm closer for her to rest her head against. Even after Kazumi had settled, she continued to clutch Shinsou's arm, an action that put a small smile on his face. She wanted to find a way to be even closer, she wanted to make up for the days she missed his touch.

"Hey, Toshi?"

"Hmm?"

"What's your quirk again? Mind control?" Her sleepy voice questioned.

Shinsou sighed, "Brainwashing is the official name of my quirk, but it's essentially mind-control. I can activate it whenever someone responds to something I say."

The melancholic tone of his voice caused Kazumi to glance up at him, "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry. I just don't know too much about it other than what I saw the day we met."

"You're not prying, I just... I don't really like talking about it I guess. I don't want you to think less of me." He turned his head away, not wanting Kazumi to see how much this affected him.

Even after becoming a hero, people still doubted Shinsou's alignment on a regular basis. Some heroes would go as far as to trail him to make sure he wasn't meeting with villains, but he didn't know that as Aizawa was the one who caught the two who had done so.

He was sensitive about the topic and even though Kazumi had once called it neat, he worried that maybe she would change her mind.

Kazumi straightened herself up and immediately Shinsou's mind went to the worst-case scenario - she's leaving or going to tell him to leave. Needless to say it was a surprise for him when she lifted her chair to be directly in front of him. She raised her hands to cradle his face, her fingertips gently making contact first before she spoke, "A quirk is a quirk is a quirk. Your quirk isn't what defines you, Hitoshi."

Kazumi had hit the nail right on the head, so much so that Shinsou felt as if her the pads of her fingertips were passing through small bits of information to her. "It's easy to say that, Zu."

"I won't force you to talk more about it, but when you're ready, I'd like to." She rubbed her thumbs across his stubbled cheeks, admiring the lines of his sharp jaw.

After everything that happened, Shinsou felt guilty about not talking about something like this. He searched Kazumi's softened brown eyes but he didn't know what he was looking for. "No, I promised I wouldn't keep important things from you and I guess because it affects me so much this is important."

Shinsou took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting only the sensation of Kazumi fingers on his cheeks give him the courage to speak. "I've always wanted to be a good person, and after the first time I saw All Might on TV I knew I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to be there for people who needed help and to fight against villains. I wanted to do the right thing, none of that has changed."

Kazumi caressed his skin in a soothing way, she knew he was a man of morals so this didn't surprise her. "Ever since my quirk manifested when I was five, all I have ever heard is that it's the perfect quirk for a villain." He winced as if saying it himself physically pained him.

The brunette couldn't help but lean forward and kiss his cheek, "I know you're not a villain, Toshi. You never could be."

Shinsou felt his eyes burn, while in UA his friends and teachers also knew that he hadn't a villainous bone in his body, no one else seemed to believe him...it's part of the reason he chose to stay out of the spotlight and refuse interviews.