Chapter Text
Aizawa stood on the rooftop of one of UA’s buildings. It wasn’t unusual for him to come up here from time to time. He liked high places after all. But he was here with a purpose this time.
God existed. Or at least, mother nature did. And he– She? They? It? Was awake. What they wanted with him; he wasn’t sure. Aizawa walked closer to the high fenced edge, eyes taking in the grand view from the multi-storied building. He didn’t hesitate as he got closer to the edge, just steadily walking closer and closer. The sun was dipping closer to the horizon, the students having left a few hours ago. Halfway through climbing the ten-foot fence, Aizawa paused.
He wasn’t actually 100% sure of the other beings' existence. There hadn’t ever been much evidence for their existence outside religious people’s insistences, and people could be wrong. He certainly wasn’t a religious person. But there were… things.
Three villains faced off against Eraserhead. Knocking two out by bashing their heads together, he spun on his heel, primed to throw his capture weapon at the third man only to see them already pointing a gun at him. His eyes widened. A wall behind him; only one foot on the ground; the villain's finger already twitching down on the trigger. Something gray flew into view from above, running straight into the face of the other man. A shot rang out, loud and quickly followed by an explosion of dust to Eraserheads right.
With his fresh jump of adrenaline Eraserhead leapt forward and tackled the remaining villain, binding him and strapping quirk erasing cuffs on him. As he had waited for the police to come, he scanned the street. A bird, twice as large as his hand with gray-brown feathers, perched on a trash bag. It blinked at him, twitching its head into a tilt before flying off.
This wasn’t the first time this had happened; far from it, but he had dismissed it for the longest time because it was just a coincidence. Until it wasn’t.
The ground shook; the Nomu rushed towards his students. There wasn’t time to get there; to save his students. He reached out with his arm, his quirk activating despite knowing it would be useless against the thing, his voice lodged in his throat with a barely contained scream.
A rock, kicked from a fight between two of his students and the hordes of villains, wedged itself in front of the hulking Nomu's foot just in time for the creature to trip. It lurched, quickly charging again. The student swayed; leg buckling just in time for the Nomu’s hand to miss their head.
The wall exploded as a voice boomed “I AM HERE!”
It wasn’t him; Aizawa had tried doing things sometimes. Just small ones like walking along a thin-ish beam while looking directly up; willing a softer landing when trying out new moves; and when he was alone, asking inanimate objects to cooperate. They didn’t work but he had a new theory. A dangerous theory.
He slipped off the edge of a building while trying to retreat from his attacker. Eraserhead twisted as he fell, throwing one end of his capture scarf. He watched as after only a few feet of it rolled out before another end flew away, the capture weapon having been cut to shreds by the woman's knives earlier. In a panic Eraserhead threw the other end, only to find that all of his scarf was cut to useless ribbons.
A gust of wind hit him, throwing him against the building. His rib cracked as he hit the railing of a fire escape. He rolled off, falling slower and righting himself as he reached an arm out. His shoulder was almost jarred out of its socket as he yanked himself to a stop. The squared railing was hard to hold on to but the strong wind pressed him against it until his other hand could join the first and pull him up.
Having let the villain escape; he hadn’t realized that the fire escape for that building was in a tight alleyway until he was at his front door.
Aizawa looped one arm over the top of the fence, using his now free hand to pull off his capture weapon and drop it into a pile of white cloth that sat innocently against the gravel roofing. He gave a satisfied nod before turning back to finish climbing over. Once on the other side, he turned around, took a deep breath and crouched. Pushing himself as far out into the treeline that ran next to this particular building.
Falling backwards; 1 second… 2 seconds… 3 seconds…
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In the teachers lounge :
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Present Mic, Midnight, Vlad, Snipe, and Power Loader were sitting around the room doing their various tasks; grading, planning lessons, organizing student-teacher meetings, and in Snipe’s case; scrolling twitter.
That is until a certain principle dropped in. Literally.
Panting, Nezu made a slight thumping sound as he hit one of the tables.
“Aizawa just jumped off the building!” he half shouted, half squeaked already out of breath. They only stared at him with slightly startled expressions. He drew another tiny breath in; “Without his capture weapon!” That got people to move.
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Somewhere mid-air :
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Aizawa felt air rushing past him. He breathed evenly, feeling weirdly calm. He, for some reason, felt very confident for someone plummeting to their death. They existed. The only way for him to survive this fall from a building over ten stories high, was for them to intervene. He had left his capture weapon behind, so he couldn’t catch himself by chickening out. He hadn’t told anyone he was doing this so no one was coming; and if someone was, they wouldn’t get here in time. So the only way for him to be saved was for mother nature to intervene.
A strong gust of wind suddenly hit his back.
Checkmate .
A flock of birds rushed past him, some hitting him, slowing his fall. Then he hit the trees. He could feel the branches reach up and cradle him down. By the time he was close to the ground it was more of a controlled tumble. Even the ground seemed to soften to cushion him. He stared up at the tree branches, barely even bruised.
Aizawa laid there for a moment, eyes just staring. Was this real? Maybe he was dreaming. Should he jump again to make– a branch fell, smacking him across the face.
Slowly, he raised his hand and brought the branch off his face, staring at it.
“Did… did I just…” He looked back up at the canopy. Just in time to jerk out of the way of another branch. Aizawa glanced between the branch and the trees above him. “So weird.” he muttered to himself as he got up, only to bump his head on a branch that he could have sworn wasn’t there before.
“What was that for?” He said, giving a half hearted glare at the tree. He paused. “I… am I really arguing with a tree?” he asked no one in particular. The wind shifted slightly and Aizawa felt the faint sensation of someone patting him on the head. He gave a very slow blink as he started laughing. “Maybe I am going crazy.” he muttered to himself. A leaf smacked him on the forehead on its way down.
Was… was that nature’s version of flicking someone on the forehead? A bird landed, twitched its head up then down, before flying off. Aizawa just stared after it, a weird bubbly feeling in his chest. “What… What the actual fuck?”
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Present Mic and the other teachers, plus recovery girl, rushed out one of the emergency exits. As they rounded the edge, Mic stumbled.
Was… Was Eraserhead laughing? It sounded like him, but Present Mic had almost never heard him laugh like this. It was loud and care free, almost hysterical. Mic only slowed down when he saw Aizawa curled on his side. Scanning him closely Mic didn’t see any blood, barely any injuries at all actually. There was a scratch on his cheek but not much else.
Aizawa seemed to calm down as they reached him, only giggling every once in a while as recovery girl checked him over. When recovery girl looked over at them with a smile and said;
“No major injuries as far as I can see.” Mic gave her a quizzical look.
“Not to doubt your expertees, but are you sure he doesn’t have a concussion?” he said, glancing over at the smiling Aizawa.
“I’m- I’m fine Mic.” Aizawa chuckled.
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Nezu said, hopping off Mic’s shoulder. “But what exactly is so funny, Aizawa-san?” Aizawa’s smile split wide, causing some of the other teachers to glance at each other.
“Nothing, just–” He giggled. “Just getting scolded by– by trees.” He wheezed the last part, dissolving into laughter.
“Trees?” Nezu inquired. Aizawa didn’t respond, too busy trying to breathe. Once he had caught his breath again he looked over before staring up at the roof of UA.
“I should climb up and get my capture weapon. I’d be good prac–” All the teachers jumped as something smacked into Aizawa’s face, eliciting a squawk from itself and Aizawa. After a couple seconds of flailing the bird flew off, leaving Aizawa's capture weapon on his face. Pulling his face free of the fabric, Aizawa stared at it. The other teachers watched with tense stares. To everyone's horror, he started cackling .