Chapter Text
Chapter 1
He was starting to rethink his decision of getting out of bed this morning and coming in to work. Having been comfortable wrapped up as a blanket burrito in his bed, after all, he was pretty sure that even if he didn’t get up, he would have gotten to work on time. Hizashi would have carried him to school anyway, even if he didn’t want to, and forced him to stay awake during the staff meeting.
Although the meeting was for his future students and the teaching plan for the year, he was still reluctant to come in so early just for a three-hour meeting at most. Maybe it was the small amount of potential in this year’s class or a gut feeling that the next couple of years would be hard or (the most realistic one) he was just too tired to get up.
Shouta over the years had started to notice that UA acceptance percentages were one of the lowest in all of Japan. This wasn’t because the written test was hard or because they only accepted the first few students or the limited amount of spaces. Nope. It was because the requirements are determined by the teachers and what they believe to be the definition of a hero. Which at the end of the day are actually chosen by the principal as most of the teachers working are handpicked.
He didn’t see much potential spanning all throughout the exam last half a month. Sure, there were times where he would be genially impressed by an odd 1 or 2 examines but those were rare exceptions. This batch of participants however despite consisting of a larger number of participants with so-called “hero quirks” —that society deems fit for the job— is absolutely the worst he has ever seen in all of his years since he started teaching.
If he is to describe them in as few words as possible without being too bluntly; all of them are selfish, naive kids and fame-seeking insects. They probably have been told every day since they got their quirk that they would be a perfect hero, not carrying about their personality. As if fate was on their side, not giving a shit about what they did, after all, they have the perfect “hero quirk”.
The ultimate goal of the last part of the test, the physical part of the entrance exam, was divided into three main ideas. The first one would test students' moral compass and where they stood if they would help those in need even if it meant sacrificing their own chances of getting in and in extreme cases their own lives for someone else's. The second idea was made to determine the student's mentality, are able to follow the rules and instructions that were given to them. The last part, which was one that most would fail, was to conclude if the student was only aiming to help themselves, purposely tripping others or taking others’ points, basically anything that would let them get ahead.
They used these three categories as a way to grade them, decide if they were worth accepting, and see if they would work with them to become better beings than when they first entered the academy. The majority of the time the students would fit in two or one of the categories; having a good heart but not weren’t to kin in listing to their head, listing too much to their head, and inter desire to pass the test. These ideas were the easiest to help better over the three years of high school and change the student for the greater of his or her career.
Although they were picky about who was accepted, they wanted to always produce the best possible hero that would last long in their career, wouldn’t break or give in to the brides that at times were given to some questionable heroes. It would also benefit in the long run, not only the public but as well as those that worked in the same area. Having to be able to trust someone to cover their back without the fear of being backstabbed for being slightly better than the other.
The meaning of the test was mostly hidden, only wanting the best students and wanting to give the most opportunities to aspiring students that wanted to be heroes that actually helped out. Honestly, at the moment he doesn’t have much hope for this year's students. Last year participants were far better than the current one, they wanted to ACTUALLY help others, even if their quirks weren’t offensive or much help in real-life villain battles.
In the end, he left it up to Nezu to choose his students that would be his homeroom class. If he had to select them himself he thought there would not even be a class to be with. He guessed that probably about half of the class would end up getting expelled by the end of the first month or less. He would prefer to get complaints from parents about why their child was expelled or moved out of the course than to see them end up hurt, killed for not acting and thinking responsible or hurting others because of it.
He was an underground hero, he had seen the worst that the job had to offer. From civilians, heroes, friends, and even villains dying when battles got too extreme, families grieving for lost ones. It was a slap to his face when every he saw wannabe heroes trying to take actual heroes spots for themselves. He wants the meeting to end soon. He had to get home and manage to squeeze a small power nap with his furry pets before heading off to do his night patrol.
“That concludes today’s meeting for the new school year,” Nezu said before dismissing the staff out of the meeting room with his usually sweet tone.
“Hey, Shoutaa!!!, wait up. I need to collect my school files.” Mic said in a hurry, as clumsily collected his papers before joining his grumpy husband. “Soooo, what did you think about you students this time around? Any stick out to you ?“
“ Not really “ he murmurs in his usual tired voice. Collecting his sleeping bag and teaching materials that he needs to go over through the weekend.
“Aww, come on there had to be at least one that you mildly saw potential in” Hizashi persisted as he nudges his partner.
“nope,” Aizawa said in a deadpan voice. Yamada deflates, he wanted Shouta to be more excited about it. He knows that his husband is only like that because he wants the best for his students, but at times it didn’t come off like that.
Aizawa took notice that his over-excited husband’s personality dims after his comment, even though Hizashi is familiar with his close-off personality at times he is affected by his wording. Feeling guilty he sigh and added “then again not every hero was perfect at the being of their journey”
“Yeah! That's the spirit, I am sure that you will find one that will catch your attention” Yamada brightens up as he pumps his fist up towards the air excitedly. Shouta hopes he is right, he doesn’t know how much longer he could tolerate his students, that he only sees for about an hour or two, let alone a year.
Both heroes soon left the school building and head towards their car. Beginning to drive back home. Shouta is definitely not looking forward to the upcoming school year in all honestly. Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind to worry about it later.
For now, that would be future Shouta’s problem
- -
He just wanted a quiet night was that too much to ask for apparently no, he couldn’t even get that simple request, could he? Look at him now, he just had to stumble across four clearly injured and possibly runaway children before he could call it a night.
—earlier on—
As he patrolled through his regular route, that he would occasionally mix up. Never really sticking to a proper route, changing it to make sure no one would follow him or create a pattern with it. No matter how underground he was and how unknown he was to most villains, the real scary and powerful ones knew at least a small detail about almost every hero around their area. Going around parts of the city that are often overlooked by most heroes or don’t get patrol enough because there is always something happening that most cannot keep up with the constant activity. He must have been halfway through his shift when it started to go wrong. His usual patrol starts around 9:30 pm and ends at about 2:30 am, a certain time it ends up as late as 3:30 am depending on the day.
Luckily it was Friday so he could spare time to stay out later than normal and sleep in tomorrow. Not to mention that more people are out late at night socializing, be it with friends or co-workers. As for him, well as far as his plans go staying up late at night looking over the student files for the school year isn't the most exciting thing. Deciding to go over the shadier parts of the city, he knew that vigilantes often patrolled them but he just wants to double-check on it himself just in case.
He normally comes across robberies, gunpoints, kidnapping, drug deals, raids, and more during his patrol. Today was no different, he had already stopped 2 potential kidnappings, 4 robberies, 2 gunpoints, and 1 drug deal. It was unusually calm today despite it being Friday and past 1 am. Criminals would feel safer doing their ‘night activities’ after midnight knowing that there was a lower chance of getting caught, but fewer civilians out and about.
The underground hero continued to do his patrol when he caught sight of clouds gathering at the distance. ‘That's weird I don’t remember the forecast saying that it had a chance of rain, never mind that by the looks of it could be a thunderstorm’ pondered to himself.
If Shouta didn’t want to deal with a pouting husband tomorrow he either needs to find a place to stay dry and wait it out which could take a while or start to head back home to call it a night. The chances of people being out during a rainstorm are so low that crime rates are almost nonexistent during extreme weather. Not even criminals wanted to get wet and muddy for a couple of bucks
Finding cover on top of a roof, he stopped to observe the pouring rain. ’It’s really starting to come down, I guess I have to hurry up with patrol or cut it short’, just as he was about to leave the small waterless shelter, a flash of light catches his attention. Turning to see if he could see a glimpse of it again, blueish and yellowish lighting hit an alleyway post just a few blocks away.
Debating whether to go check it out or let someone else deal with it, he didn’t want to get wet but knew that it was highly unlikely someone else would go. Reluctantly he left the safety of his temporary shelter. ‘Ugh, now I am going to get all wet. The last time I got home from a rainstorm Hizashi got mad at me for getting the floor and carpet wet. Patches and snow couldn’t even come near me.’
Even if this job was mostly fighting villains and saving civilians. As an underground hero, he had a duty to check on any damaged property that he came across during his shift. Daytime heroes didn't need to do that since it was public it became faster and easier to deal with. He on the other hand had to call it in, lighting strike he just saw could have left some serious damage on property public or private either one was a pain to deal with. After al someone would need to be called in to come to fix anything that might have gotten damaged. Lighting could cause a fire, power outage, or something far worst, at times if it got out of hand it became a how bigger issue and a permanent mark in his hero file for not intervening.
Heading off to check on the amount of damage that was caused and to see if anyone could have gotten caught in the crossfire. Running and leaping across the building rooftops at a slower pace as to not end up crashing. Arriving at the scene he looks out into the alleyway, he doesn’t find anything out of the ordinary, the ground surrounding the area still feels warm from the impact, some trash is knocked over probably from the impact of the lighting.
The post that got hit looks okay, they are some burn marks on it, the wood looks a bit fragile. The city would probably replace it as a safety measure for the city. Inspect the burn mark, he spots something odd about them, they look to have taken a form. Normal lighting strike marks just hit the tallest, closest, and easier object to pass through leaving only some scotch imprint. This was odd the mark look to have spread out more the ground also burned. That wasn’t the thing that shocked him (no pun intended), what surprised him and scared him half to death was the fact that he could make our four silhouettes in the dark spot on the ground left in the aftermath.
‘Shit, people got hit by lighting’ The closer he got to inspect the marks for any noticeable features. He felt his heart drop, the sizes of the marks were too small. Three of them looked smaller than the student in the entrance exam earlier that morning, while the last one looked about the size of his students. Children, younger than those he teaches got hit.
Frantically he started to look around to where they could be, he didn’t see or hear anyone come before him. So the possibility of someone helping was low. ‘Fuck, fuck, where are they?! They couldn’t have gotten that far, right?’. Searching around the area looking for any sign of them, suddenly getting the feeling as if he was being watched.
If it wasn’t for his years as an underground hero and the small amount of paranoia he possessed he would have ignored it and continued to search, That, however, would still have nor stopped him from worrying about it, that of course was until he heard the whispering coming from behind him. Quickly he stops like a deer on headlights, going for his weapon and tightening his grip on it, as he searches for the origin of the sound or any presents nearby.
He stops and spots it. Five individual eyes stare back at him from a pile of trash cans further into the alleyway. If he were to quint his eyes he can make out four silhouettes, probably the victims of the lightning hit. Even with the poor lighting of the moon, he can see they are extremely short. Getting hit with the smell of iron coming from them. ‘Blood, shit they're either bleeding or near a dead body. Neither opinions are good’ The four shadows realize they have been spotted prepare to flee.
“Wait!” Shouta calls out
They stop and stare back at him, obviously surprised by the action. “Are you okay? Do you need to go to a hospital? I can smell blood coming off you and I don’t know if it was you guys who just got hit by lightning. I don’t think it would be a good idea to go running off after something like that.“ He can tell they don’t look concerned about the fact they reck of blood.
That worries him a bit, ‘ are they used to it? ‘ He notes the distance between him and the shadows. Wanting to get closer and see any unique features in case they run away from him. “ I am a hero. My hero's name is Eraserhead. I can help you. “ Making a surrender motion so that they could see his hands, they reminded him of a sacred animal. Similar to those stray cats he would come across in patrol—occasionally feeding them— they would bite him or try to run away if he got too close too soon.
He starts to slowly walk towards them, trying not to scare them. They immediately noticing him trying to get closer, and slowly start walking backward further into the alleyway to avoid him. Shouta could see that the taller one is at the front—their height looks to be about of a middle school kid with only one eye was visibly open—they were protecting the three smaller shadows by placing their body as a shield.
“It’s okay, I am not going to hurt you,” he says calmly. The taller shadow—clearly not likely or mostly trusting the comment—took on a fighting stance ready to defend or attack if needed, the smaller shadows also took a similar stance. This was starting to get concerning, they were far too calm for the situation, and the way they position themselves showed experience in fights. “I can see that you guys are injured or not completely okay. I can take you to a hospital to patch you up and help you find your guardians”
The smaller three shadows turn to look at each other. He sees them making hand motions, one would mistake that they were communicating with JSL, Shouta knew better. It wasn’t any sign language he recognizes, he did, however, see some similarities in the hand motions yet, unfortunately, could still not make out. It’s probably something they came up with on their own, that was another red flag for him. ‘What makes it necessary for them to communicate just with themselves in the first place?’
“I know, how about I call my friend? He is a detective, he works at a police station nearby. I am sure he can you, somehow” he says. They look at him confused, not understanding what he was saying. Taking out his phone he calls Tsukauchi, from the corner of his eye he sees that they look at him weird when he took out his phone.
That's another mental note for now. “Hey, Eraserhead what do you need?” A tired disoriented voice answered from the other side of the phone.
“Hello detective Tsukauchi, I seem to have to stumble upon four lost children. They don’t look hurt but I can smell blood coming of them, I think they were already injured prior to me finding them after trying to investigate a lighting strike.” Eraserhead informs the detective, occasionally glancing back at them.
Sounds of something being knocked over to the ground and falling over, with papers being shuffled away in the background was heard. “Where are you?” A firm and a far more composed voice answered
“ I am at XXXXXX street, they seem conscious. They look to be about middle school or younger if I base it off their height.” He turns around to check on them to see if they were still there, he doesn’t see them. Quickly looking about he catches them running off and up the emergency exit stairs on the side of the building. “Shit”
“What happens? Are you okay ?”
“I am fine, they just started to make a run for it. I am going after them see if you can send someone to help”
“Wait what do you——”
Shouta immediately hangs up the phone and goes after them. He climbs up the building from where he saw them go up to the roof. Starting to race after them, he sees them running and jump across to the other rooftop. Surprised by the athletic display that many have trouble doing, almost forgetting how he didn’t even hear them leave in the first place. Although they seem to be used to it, Shouta can tell they aren’t familiar with the surroundings by the way they are on high alert looking for a way to escape and would occasionally stumble while running.
As he chases after them he can see that their clothes are a little too big for them. The smaller shadows are wearing matching clothes blue, green, and black with the taller ones wearing different clothing from them. They remind him of uniform-style clothes. Before he can get a closer look they start to gain speed probably noticing him on their tail.
‘How are they so fucking fast? Not even my students can run that fast and they aren’t even familiar with the terrain. Who are these kids? Is it a quirk of them?’ As he tries to catch up to them, he can tell that the four shadows are running in a diamond formation. Having the taller ones at the back for protection, while the smaller ones at the front. He starts to close on their distance, —thank god for his superior height— if not for that he wasn’t sure he could be able to catch up to them.
Getting his capture weapon out and ready, thinking of a plan to stop them. ‘If I can stop the taller one the rest will probably stop to help him or will be easier to catch later’. He throws it at the taller one, as the carbon fiber closes in on them. Just as it is about to grab him, they leap barely avoiding it, before they realize that its true aiming was at their feet. Instinctively they twist their body, throw a knife of sorts against the carbon fibers, slicing right through them and striking the concert rooftop leaving it stuck.
Dumbstruck by the sudden movement, he fails to see them take out a small round ball and throw it at the ground. BAM! Causing a huge explodes releasing a smokescreen with a loud noise and an afoul smell. Startled by the noise and smoke, he impulsively covers his mouth from inhaling the unknown substance and shuts his eyes. Making him come to a stop, trying to find a way out of the smoke cloud. Finally finding a way out the smokescreen starts to clear up, there is no trace of the persecuted anywhere in sight.
Taking out his phone, deciding to inform detective Tsukauchi about the situation. “Hey, Tsukauchi-san I lost them” Shouta murmurs to him, as he takes a seat at the edge of the building. “Don’t worry too much about it. Did you get a good look at them? We can probably but a description of them and see if we find anything in the system.” The detective tells him
“Yeah, yeah your right. I will head down to the station to give my report. We can discuss more of it when I get there.”
On the other side of the phone, a commotion could be heard. “Umm, yeah could you start to make your way over here and hurry up to the station. There seems to have been a villain escape”
“Sure, see you there,” he says before hanging up. Just as he was ready to take his leave he sees something sparkle in the night from the corner of his eye. Stopping in his tracks to look at the object closer. He picks it up, he remembers that it was what cut through his capture weapon. It looks like something that you would find at a history museum. What was the name?
...
A kunai...