“Hey, hey, Tomono! Can I ask you a question?” The teen in question blinked when the bubbly girl leaned right into his personal space, putting an easy smile on his face.

“You just did, Hado, but how can I help you?”

“It’s about your Quirk! You never told us what it is but I have a guess.” Hado smiled at him, blissfully unaware how the statement made cool sweat bead at the back of his neck. “Is it a sort of emotional Quirk? Like you can make people like you? Does it have something to do with your voice?”

Hideki froze for a moment, but only for a moment before he laughed, “Wow, Hado. That’s quite a theory but I’m sorry to say you’re wrong.” The lie was easy on his tongue, his relief with her shoulders slumping dejectedly short lived.

“Aww phooey. Izuku would have been so excited if he’d been right.”

“Izuku? Is he a friend of yours?”

“Oh yeah! Izuku is Yui’s little brother and he’s a whiz at Quirk analysis! He makes these notebooks and he’s making one for everyone in the class. The one he made me has been really helpful, so I was hoping he was right so it’d be more useful for you. Oh, I gotta go! I’ll see you tomorrow for class!” Hado chirped out happily before she left him to join Togata and Amajiki as they headed off.

What dumb luck that she didn’t say that in front of the rest of their class. Hado is such an airhead that even with her guessing the truth he was able to tug on the strings to get her to believe his lie. He couldn’t have the rest of the class know what his Quirk was, if they knew what it was, he’d never be able to keep up with them-

“Hideki? Are you paying attention?”

The teen jerked at his mother’s voice breaking him out of the spirals his thoughts had turned into, the food on his fork that he’d been automatically lifting to his mouth dropped onto his chest. The hushed giggling from his older sister made his face flame as he quickly dabbed at the stain. “Apologies, mother. What were you saying?”

Lilac eyes crinkled with worry, “I was just saying how proud we are of Hiroaki. He was promoted today after closing that really important contract that we spoke of last week.”

Is it really a promotion when your father is the owner of the company you work for? Hideki smiled at his older brother instead of voicing the thought, “That’s amazing, Hiro.”

“Do you have any accomplishments to share with us, Hideki?” His father asked, “You’ve been at U.A. for a few months now, haven’t you? Aren’t you the class representative?”

The teen kept his smile even if his eye threatened to twitch, “Actually, I was just elected the co-rep. Our representative is a boy named Mirio Togata.” I only lost by one vote too…

“Hmm, wasn’t your election based on presentations? I assume his was stronger?”

“Come on, father. It’s a hero school, they probably decided based on the best Quirk. Deki can’t help it.” Hatsuko laughed as she waved her hand.

“How is it going in your class otherwise? The physical part isn’t too much for you, is it?” Hiroaki scrunched his nose up, “Didn’t you say a girl broke your nose the first day of class? I couldn’t stand being apart of all that violence.”

“It was the second day. And I’m fine, Reini healed me.” He clarified.

“Oh, Hideki…I wish you’d just drop that class. U.A. has such a reputable business course, you could flourish there. I hate seeing you get hurt… I keep telling you Quirks like ours aren’t meant for Heroics.” His mother sighed, pressing a hand to her cheek as she turned those soft…pitying eyes on him.

Hideki pushed down the fire that tried to spark in his chest when his father spoke, “The business course would suit you better, son. Hiroaki and Hatsuko both graduated top of their classes there. And you can see how successful they are because of it.”

The teen just kept his polite smile in place, “I’ll think on your words, father. Mother, didn’t you see the new fashion line from the Parisian designer that’s visiting? Did anything catch your eye?”

The question sparked a heated conversation on fabric types, stitch work and other aspects Hideki toned out. You could only hear the same variation of a conversation before it chipped at your sanity. Seizing the chance, he excused himself with his father's permission. He couldn't keep himself from powerwalking, a habit that his mother would have scoffed at. 'Others wait for us. We do not hurry on their account.'

He could practically hear her voice echo in his head as he locked the door to his room, running his hands through his hair, half-tempted to start pulling it out. "Is it too much to ask for a little respect?!" He couldn't help growling.

Hideki blew a slow breath out. It wasn’t a good time to get worked up over them again, the only thing to change their minds would be to prove them wrong anyway. He had other concerns to worry about. Like the fact that some kid he’d never met had pegged his Quirk without ever meeting him. He had to get that nipped in the bud before anything started to float around school. His only advantage was his ability to influence his opponents to lower their guard so he could strike fast. If they started to put up their guards around him, he’d drop to the bottom of class, he’d get kicked out…

It was supposed to go smoothly! He’d always been top of his class, his classmates all liked him and agreed with him. When he knew he wanted to be a hero, he took self defense, martial arts and learned how to handle the knives he used. Years of honing himself for his dream. He made it into U.A.’s hero course, and the A class to boot! He passed the hurdle that the toughest teacher in U.A.’s history devised on the first day. It was all going according to plan and then all the steps he’d carefully laid out were getting stomped on.

That girl… no one had ever disagreed with him at school, never scoffed and rolled their eyes or looked at him with distaste. He’d even tried to up the strength of his Quirk to just get her under his influence after she brushed off the first suggestions, it only resulted in giving him a broken nose and a raging headache before Reini soothed it.

So he thought, if his usual methods didn’t work, he’d have to try something new. Playing with her trust wasn’t getting him anywhere. Not with the support network she seemed to have with Mirio, Amajiki and Hado. Changing tracks he tried to make her doubt herself. And that actually worked! Perhaps the strings he plucked, the resonance he could produced differed by who a person was? So, she wasn’t a very trusting person, but that didn’t make her completely immune.

It didn’t stop her smart mouth, or the way she glared at him. If anything, it just made her get worse with her contradictions. So, he had to get their classmates on his side. Except she had half of the class at her back. It’d never happened before, he’d never lost when it came to coaxing people to him!

And now her brother was digging at him, trying to expose his secrets and talking to others about it. He had to nip this in the bud before it got any worse. If hanging around Hayashi had gleaned him any insight into flora, he knew it was better to prune away the rotten before it affected the rest of the blooms. Yui wasn’t the only one who could use her family to dig up dirt on people.

Hideki’s lip almost curled in disgust at what he was going to do, but he pulled out his phone and pressed the contact. “Uncle Nobutoshi, how are you doing? … Of course. Say, I need a favor. Can you get me any information on Yui Yamazawa?”