Mob: Psychic Hero

Chapter 1: What do you want to do?

"Kageyama, are you listening? Can you do the question on the board?" Shigeo woke with a start. He nervously stood up from his chair with his textbook in his hands. Numbers and letters towered over him in a jumble. He didn't know where the questions started or ended. The book in his hand started to dampen with sweat as Shigeo felt lasers being stared through his head. They were looking. They were judging. They were laughing. His mouth hung slack-jawed, trying to form words as he tried to make sense of the question in his head, but it never seemed to click. Looking at his book was no help. The numbers kept on piling on until his brain was overfilling with equations and letters and who knows what else, tangling up like rope in his brain. It started to be a bit much for him and objects around the room started to float. Murmurs from the classroom snapped him back into reality and he quickly suppressed his quirk. With a heavy sigh, he lowered the book from his chest.
"I don't know how," he whispered.
"Then that would mean you only know how to do basic addiction," His teacher squeezed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Sit down and try to focus, or I'm going to have to tell your parents about your progress," Shigeo's cheeks burned as the titters from his classmates stung his ears.
He hoped lunch would come sooner.
20%
30 agonising minutes later, the lunch bell rung and the students pushed and shoved each other to get out the door first.
Shigeo waited by the door for Izuku. They silently walked through the hallways together in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the crowd of people rushing for lunch.
Eventually the crowd dispersed and the two were able to sit down and eat their food. Shigeo reached into his bag for his lunchbox and carefully placed it on the table, careful not to warp it out of shape again.
"You know," Izuku mumbled through his bites of food, "I could help tutor you with your maths. Reigen doesn't seem to be doing all that much, since all you do is just go to his office and do the questions without any explanations."
"That would be nice. But I don't do nothing, I also help him out with some exorcisms as part of my quirk training." Shigeo took a sip of his milk before he continued. "But it would be really nice of you to do. Thank you,"  He smiled slightly. To a complete stranger, it would look as if Shigeo still had that constant dead-pan, expressionless face. But to someone like Izuku, who had been friends with the boy for close to a decade, he knew that Shigeo was genuinely thankful for his offer.
"Say, Shicchan," Shigeo made a curious hum. "Do you think... I could be able to apply for UA?" Izuku picked at his nails in anticipation for his best friend's reply.
"I think..." slightly taken by surprise, Shigeo shook his spoon in contemplation. "You could. Quirks aren't what make us up entirely. And you're a smart person, so you could easily pass the entrance exams. Even without a quirk I know that you could get in,"
"I meant getting into UA as in, um, applying for the hero course." Izuku sheepishly fiddled with his hands.
Shigeo's eyebrows raised slightly behind his fringe. "Being a hero without a quirk?"
"Yeah."
"It would be difficult,"
You're right. I should probably forget it. Izuku thought to himself.
"But I think you'd be able to. Support items exist to enhance quirks, so why wouldn't they be able to help with a quirkless hero?"
Huh? Izuku gawked at his friend's surprisingly logical answer. He smiled, giggling slightly. "I don't know why I expected you to say no. You always know how to see things in a different light, Shicchan." Although, on the topic of heroics and quirks...
"You should apply for UA. With your quirk, it would be a no-brainer for them to let you in. Your quirk is fit for hero work to a tee!"
Shigeo choked on his milk. His quirk? Heroics? Where Izuku saw great potential, Shigeo could only see his quirk as something that could unleash unstoppable destruction if he stopped keeping his emotions in check. Ever since that fateful day he vowed never to use his powers. Reigen was the only person he'd use them for because of how much he helped Shigeo in harnessing his abilities to exorcise spirits. And occasionally the odd helping hand whenever Izuku needed something on a high shelf. But that was it. Never would he use them in public, in fear of reliving his trauma.
"I'm... not sure."
"What would you rather do?"
What do you want to do with your life?
What are your dreams and aspirations?
You're really unsure about your future, Mob. If you don't hurry up and decide, you'll be stuck as a janitor or something for the rest of your life.
The world around him seemed to wobble and spiral. 'What do I want to do?' Beads of sweat ran down his forehead as he wracked his brain trying to think of anything he wanted to do. Anything at all.
"I... Don't know," Unsure of his aspirations, Shigeo settled on that answer.
Izuku silently nodded in acceptance. Of course, he didn't need to know right away. Let him take his time to decide, he thought.
The ringing of the bell signalled the end of lunch. Time to go back to class.

"Now that you're all third years, it's time to start thinking about your future careers." The teacher produced a sheet of papers from his desk. "Here are some application papers-" A smirk flashed on his face. "But, of course, you all want to be heroes!" He flung the papers into the air and (almost) the entire classroom exploded in a flurry of everyone unleashing their quirks all at once. "Now, now, I know you all have very good quirks, but we have rules against activating them in class!" Despite this, he had a smile on his face and playfully dismissed them.
Bakugo groaned in disbelief. "Sir, don't lump me in with these second rate losers!"
His classmates were in uproar and protesting against his words. "What do you mean by that, Bakugo?!" "Yeah, what makes you think you're sooo superior?!"
"Shut up, damn extras! You and your shitty quirks should know their place!" He haughtily placed his legs on his desk and leant back in his chair.
"Oh, yes, Bakugo, you're applying for UA, aren't you?" The teacher interrupted the class' yelling. They stopped to process that information- and then promptly resumed their uproar.
"UA?! It takes a score of 79 to enter there this year! And the examination is super tough!!"
Bakugo laughed maniacally and leaped onto his desk to look down on all his peers. "I'm not surprised extras like you are quacking! I got an A at the exams, I'm the only one getting in! Ya hear me?!"
"Oh, Midoriya, you're applying too?" The teacher looked at the sheet in poorly disguised surprise.
Bakugo paused suddenly, leering down at the curly mop that was hunched over in his seat in embarrassment. "You shitty loser!!! Did you swap your brains with shit or something?! You're not getting into UA, and it's a damn insult that you're even applying!!!" His quirk activated in anger as he grabbed Izuku by the collar and stared daggers through his eyes.
Izuku's mouth was glued shut, his throat too dry to say anything in response.
"Bakugo, you shouldn't bully Izuku like that. It's not right to use your powers on someone that didn't do anything." Shigeo piped up amongst the commotion.
Bakugo snapped his neck towards the other. "You should mind your damn business." He hissed. Regardless, he let go of Izuku and fumed all the way back to his desk. The teacher took the opportunity to continue rambling on about career opportunities until the end of school.

Almost everyone had cleared out of the classroom, save for the three boys and Bakugo's cronies.
"Gimme that." Bakugo snatched Izuku's notebook out of his hands, flipping through it as he scoffed in disbelief. "Fuckin' creep. He's got a whole page on my quirk." He grabbed the other by the collar and slammed him against the wall. "If you want a quirk so bad, why don't you take a swan dive out of the window and hope you get one in the next life?" Bakugo cackled as he dropped Izuku, leaving him hunched over on the floor in pain.
35%
"Bakugo, I told you to leave him alone." Shigeo darkened, noticeably frowning in a rare moment of emotion. "Give him back his book."
"I'm not using my quirk on him, Mob. And he can go and ask the fish for his shitty notebook." Bakugo snarled as he tossed it out of the window, after singeing the pages with his quirk.
Shigeo could only watch as the book fell down into the pond below. The desks started levitating as his fist clenched to mask his anger. He looked at Bakugo with an almost sad expression as he and his cronies walked away, laughing amongst themselves at Bakugo's antics.
"Are you alright, Izuku?"
"You don't need to stand up for me all the time, you know. It just makes them worse." Izuku mumbled as he got up, dejectedly gathering his things. His hair hung over his eyes as they stung with tears knowing his book was now ruined. He silently trudged out of the classroom.
Shigeo stood there for a second, processing what his friend said. The desks fell with a great thud when Izuku disappeared into the hallway. "Huh."

Fish gathered around the strange object, curiously nibbling at its charred edges. They fled when a hand reached into the water to lift the strange object out of the pool.
"Great... Completely wet." Izuku sniffed.
"It's salvageable." A voice hummed behind him as the notebook levitated out of his hands, water floating away from the pages.
"Shigeo?" Izuku stepped back in surprise. He looked back, and lo and behold, there stood his stony-faced friend. Whenever he used his quirk, Shigeo would glow shades of blue and purple, and his hair would ever so slightly float.
The notebook gently lowered itself back into Izuku's hands, almost good as new. The words were still legible, even with its new addition of singed edges.
"I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I really don't deserve you as a friend," Izuku smiled from ear to ear, wrapping his arms around the other. He had failed to keep the waterworks in, and they leaked out all over Shigeo's shoulder. He was used to this, so he didn't really mind.
"It's alright. We'll always be friends, no matter what." He reassured Izuku as he patted the sobbing boy's back as it shook with each breath. When his sobbing ceased, Izuku sighed. "No matter what." He smiled.