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Monoma Neito was so glad to be back in Japan after four years. Sure, France was fine, his cousin and family were fine, the food was even good and the french language just sounded really nice.
But there was nothing like home.
Nabu, in Kanagawa, was still just as it had been when he was eight, and he was officially enrolled back in school, Nabu Middle School to be more specific. He was confident that it would still be terrible and also the worst, but he knew more than they did anyway, and if he really wanted to he could just make fun of them in french.
Yuuga would probably be upset at him, but whatever.
Also if anyone made fun of his cousin he might kill them, actually.
Yuuga had been very supportive of him, his quirk, and even his borrowed quirk. Brainwashing people, even if it was only for a short period of time, was both powerful and frowned upon. Coupled with the fact that he was dependent on other people for all his power, most bullies said he might as well be quirkless, and everyone knew that was a death sentence, soulmate or no, but he wasn’t about to let anyone make fun of him. He was powerful, unique, and versatile. If no one else could see that, then fuck them.
“Class,” the teacher smiled warmly, “this is Monoma Neito, recently back from living in France! Please make him feel welcome.”
He cast his gaze over the class, exceptionally bored, and noticed no one interesting. Yuuga was in a different class, probably also getting the same introduction to his class, and he took the empty seat.
The person in front of him whirled around with a grin. “What’s your quirk?”
Neito raised an eyebrow on instinct and sneered. “Shouldn’t you be more worried about class?”
The kid startled and turned back to focus on the math as the teacher cleared her throat, and Neito let out a small breath. It would no doubt come out eventually, but if he could establish himself beforehand, maybe it would just be like France, and perfectly fine.
He really didn’t want to have to see Yuuga looking shocked and sad when he inevitably got sent to detention for beating up a bully. God, he looked like a kicked puppy when he did that, and it made Neito feel way worse than the bullies ever could, since Yuuga actually sort of mattered to him.
Ridiculous.
He managed to make it to lunch without incident and found his cousin, sitting next to him.
He eyed Yuuga’s spread of clearly french food, complete with a cheese board and grape juice in a wine glass since this was Japan and not, in fact, France, where everyone drank wine pretty much since they were six.
“Meet anyone interesting ,” Yuuga crooned in french, “since I know you always look for interesting people to sink your teeth into.”
Neito rolled his eyes. “You make it sound so nefarious,” he retorted in the same language, “but no, I didn’t. Managed to avoid quirk questions, though. You?”
Yuuga inclined his head, smirking, and there was a devious glint in his eyes like he had a juicy piece of gossip. So, normal, then. “I did! There was quite a peculiar boy in my class-”
“Oh look, the fruit has a friend!”
Yuuga tensed and Neito glared up at the two bigger boys who loomed over his cousin.
“Glad you found someone to speak gay with, flower boy. God, learn to speak the language if you’re going to live here!”
“Can we help you,” Neito said in cool japanese, “or are you just here to make yourselves look stupid?”
The main boy bristled. “What did you say to me?! You wanna die, punk?!”
Neito sighed and rolled his eyes, standing up. “You’re explaining to Auntie if I land in detention,” he said to his cousin, “because this is not my fault.”
“Speak japanese, blondie!”
“I clearly just did,” he smirked, “but I guess with a brain that tiny your memory must be fleeting.”
“The fuck?! How-”
“I mean,” he continued, inspecting his nail beds, “if you’re homophobic in this day and age, your brain must be smaller than a walnut. I mean, I was going to say the size of a walnut, given the t-rex vibes you’re giving off, but that would be an insult to the king of the lizards, so.”
He looked up to see both boys’ faces going bright red, and he stepped around the table to stand in front of them. He hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet, so they were taller than him, but he stood his ground in front of them.
“Well? Something to say?”
The main boy seemed to contain himself and grinned, putting a hand on Neito’s shoulder. It started to heat up and Neito narrowed his eyes. Too much more and it would burn him, leaving physical marks. Surely they weren’t that stupid?
“You’ve made an enemy, today, blondie. Maybe you’ll even last long enough to regret it.”
Neito smacked the hand off of him, brushing the skin as he did. Hot Hands, hmm, that made sense. Not particularly useful, but certainly good for intimidation techniques. It’s like this kid was built to be a bully.
“And what’s the name of the quote unquote “enemy” I’ve made? Bigoted Moron?”
The boy barked out a laugh. “Don’t worry,” he muttered, “you’ll know. I run this school, and I won’t let you forget it. Enjoy your last meal on earth, fruit.”
The boys stalked away and Neito ignored the stares from the rest of the cafeteria. He was used to whispers, and this was no different.
He sat back down to finish his lunch and chose not to hear the quiet “merci” from across the table.
No one fucking made fun of his cousin except him.
~~~~~
Wakuchin Yute was indeed the top dog of the school, according to rumors. Neito was being ignored and avoided by his classmates and he hadn’t even told them his quirk yet! Arguably, the only person who knew it was whoever his soulmate was and the staff, but they weren’t legally allowed to just give out that information to students for no reason.
But Neito made it his personal mission to fuck with Yute’s day at every given opportunity. If the dumb oaf was focused on him, he wasn’t focused on anyone else.
Which is why when he heard his grating voice down the hallway, he just rolled his eyes and stepped up.
“Useless fucking villain!”
“Well which is it,” he drawled, ignoring how familiar the insult sounded, “useless or a villain?”
Yute looked back with a sneer. “Oh it’s you, the-”
Neito clicked his tongue. “Hook, line, and sinker. Go away.”
Yute stood to his full height and walked down the hallway, Neito following him with bored eyes.
He turned to the victim, a boy taller than him with purple, gravity defying hair, and lavender eyes.
“Well, he’s a dick. See you around.”
“Wait.”
He raised an eyebrow, turning back. “Yes?”
“How… how did you do that?”
Neito paused. “Do… what? Control him?”
He nodded.
“A borrowed power,” Neito shrugged.
“Do you think it’s… a villain quirk?”
Neito frowned in annoyance. That was his soulmate this ungrateful brat was talking about!
“No,” he hissed, “unless it’s used for something villainous. I don’t think saving you from being bullied is very villainous, though, so please refrain from referring to it as such, thank you. ”
The boy blinked, taken aback, but quickly shook his head. “That’s, that’s not what I meant. I… is your… ugh, you said it was a borrowed power, so from a soulmate. Your… your original quirk isn’t a copy quirk, by any chance, is it?”
Neito narrowed his eyes. “Now that’s strange. I’ve managed to avoid telling everyone…”
His mind flashed back to the familiar insults and he blinked.
“Ah. Well, yes, my quirk is Copy. Brainwashing, I assume?”
The boy looked at him in disbelief, opening and closing his mouth like he couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Well,” Neito extended a hand, feeling something like giddy joy welling up in him, “I’m Monoma Neito, in 2-C.”
“Shinsou Hitoshi, 2-D.”
Neito blinked. “Oh, you’re in my cousin’s class. I feel like he should have mentioned this before.”
“What, this whole… soulmate thing?”
“Well, yes, he knows both my quirk and yours, so. Seems like something he would have told me.”
Shinsou snorted. “Not like I go around telling people either. Our quirks come with a bit of a reputation.”
Neito rolled his eyes. “You can say that again. Come on, I’ll formally introduce you. Oh, there he is now. Yuuga!”
Yuuga’s eyes lit up. “Cousin! You found the interesting one!”
“Wait a minute, you knew?!”
“Oh, but I thought I told you? What did you think I meant by interesting?”
“You got cut off! Why didn’t you mention it again?!”
“Hmm, must have slipped my mind…”
~~~~~
Yuuga was in 1-A and Neito and Hitoshi were in 1-B. Neito grumbled a bit, but eventually, with only a little nudging from his boyfriend, congratulated his cousin. He had shared the third quirk with his cousin, knowing that Yuuga was good at spotting things, even if he wasn’t good at telling anyone what he had spotted, so that covered the entire heroics department.
Then the sports festival happened and they had a name.
A name of a kid in 1-A.
Hitoshi had to hold him back from immediately strangling his cousin, but Yuuga looked as surprised by the revelation as they were.
“I don’t understand,” he murmured, “he said he did not have a soulmate. He is skittish and his quirk is detrimental to him, like my own. I will watch him more closely from now on, but I do not think it is because he dislikes you or thinks you are bad simply due to your quirks.”
“We think it was from stress,” Hitoshi said in broken french. He knew Yuuga could speak flawless japanese, but Yuuga was also more likely to give him his favorite cheese if he made the effort, and he knew it delighted the french boy to have more people to talk to in his native tongue.
Yuuga’s eyes went wide. “Oh no, that is very bad. Our great aunt Charlotte, she manifested a quirk from stress in the plane crash that killed her siblings. I shudder to think what the sweet Midoriya must have gone through. I will watch him, yes.”
Final exams were suddenly postponed and changed, and Yuuga told them it was because it had been revealed, against his will, that Midoriya had two soulmates, and had been hiding that for so long out of fear.
Neito couldn’t bring himself to focus on the escape room, after that, but his team managed to do fine anyway.
Vlad King pulled them both aside once they arrived at the summer camp, telling them they’d have the chance to talk to Midoriya, and Neito took a deep breath.
He wasn’t letting anyone else hurt his soulmates, ever again.