Chapter Text
Toshinori sat down in his chair, sinking into it and wishing that he was anywhere but in the meeting room. As people begin to file in and sit down, Yagi looks across from him and makes eye contact with Eraserhead. His eyes were more sunken in than usual and would flutter shut periodically only for him to jump awake soon after. Yagi’s eyes knit together in confusion at this, unable to pinpoint why his coworker was behaving so oddly. Once everyone sat down Nezu spoke up, “As you all know due to the recent deaths of some of our children in our care,” both Yagi and Eraserhead flinched at Nezu’s comment. “We need to come up with ideas to pacify the parents–”
Furious voices projected from across the room as everyone tried to correct Nezu for being so insensitive and borderline rude in this situation. Nezu rolled his eyes, scoffing at how overly emotional his teachers are, when the situation calls for his approach of apathetic intelligence. While Nezu did value the emotional knowledge they had and that he sometimes lacked, all his employees were foolish for overreacting because of a simple blunt observation on the situation. He only grit his teeth as the teachers around him refused to continue on until he corrected his ‘mistake’. “I apologise I-,” Nezu was cut off as the rage that was directed at him turned towards each other, accusations were pointed towards everyone, as all the teachers tried to make themselves feel better by putting the blame on one person that they can punch. Nezu knows better though, how there is so rarely a situation where there is one person at fault, especially like the one at hand nearly everyone here was at fault for the children's death for some rhyme or reason. Curiously Nezu noticed only two of his employees refusing to join in the pathetic argument. That was until someone began pointing fingers at Toshinori, and he cracked under the pressure.
“It doesn't matter what happened, or who let the kids out, they are still dead and we can't change that!” Yagi was standing and red in the face by the time he finished his exclamation. The silence that echoed after, gave enough time for everyone to see right through Toshinori’s deflection of the blame. This caused everyone to hound Yagi for answers as Shouta Aizawa sat in dissbelief shaking in his seat, until the rage inside of him broke out. Aizawa lunged at Toshinori, making it an inch away from his face before others began to hold him back.
“It was your fault!” Eraserhead screamed, his arms stretched out, nails ready to scratch and rip, like a feral cat. “You let them out! You didn't even tell me, you led them to death, you murderer!” While everyone else came to the same conclusion as Eraserhead, everyone still tried their best to keep Shouta off of Yagi. Quirks were used left and right, while it did pry Aizawa away a bit, it did nothing to deter him.
After watching his best employee turn into a ravenous animal and causing harm to the rest, Nezu finally started to step in. “Aizawa sit down!” Everyone stopped in their tracks except for Aizawa. “Stop being so brash, this was not Yagi’s fault and you would be wise to sit down before I have to tell you again!” Aizawa’s arms slowly lower causing his co workers to finally stop restraining him, and he finally sits down with grumbles slipping through his teeth.
Shoutas hair fell in front of his face as the meeting went on, tears fell down his face as his anger morphed into sorrow. He tuned out the rest of the meeting, none of it mattered to him. As Aizawa looked through his long dark hair he saw the face of a traitor, Yagi was no longer a hero to him, not after what unimaginable things he caused his kids to go through by letting them leave. All Shouta wanted to do was to punch Toshinoris teeth in so that ignorant and foolish man could never smile again. Shouta kept glancing at the clock that was in the room, there was only so much time Nezu could keep him here before they all had to get to their class. So Shouta counted down the minutes left that he had to be in the room, each tick of the clock only causing his rage to grow.
Eventually Aizawa began to lose focus on the clock, the lack of sleep from not only patrols but nightmares from losing the kids, finally caught up to him. As Aizawa was zoning in and out of the situation at hand the room grew louder, more voices were added causing a migraine to form in Aizawa's head. Tears began to fill Aizawa’s eyes as the pain from the lights and noises became too much, and Shouta let his hair fall in front of his face, his own personal curtains to the world.
The yellow blob in front of Shouta began to stumble around until it hastily left the room much to the loud protest from the people around him. Shouta just sat and stared as everyone left the room, letting the buzzing that consumed his mind slowly drain out so he could finally think. When it was quiet enough Aizawa finally pulled his hair away from his face only to see Present Mic at the doorway. The eyes that stared through him were full of melancholy, after the death of the kids not only has the school seem more empty to them, but their home as well. Mic lingered at the door hoping Aizawa would for once take care of himself and join him before class. But as the silence grew more awkward he sighed and walked away, leaving Aizawa alone in the office.
After Mic left the only people in the room were Shouta and Nezu, and while Aizawa had no proof he knew that the rat was a part of this. While Shouta admired his bosses ability to use logic over emotions, the extent that Nezu ridiculed everyone for something seemingly caused suggested that he was covering up something. Granted Aizawa can't prove any of this so all he does is silently glare and almost growl, as Nezu exits the room, leaving Aizawa alone.
Shouta sat in silence a little while longer, as his migrain slowly dissipates, and now all he is left with are his thoughts. His thoughts of guilt and emotional heartache as he failed to help his students. Shouta looked down, his calloused hands faced him and seemingly stared back at him. Aizawa clenches his hands into fists reflecting on his earlier outburst, and he comes to terms on what he needs to do, for himself and for those around him. But right now Shouta can't do anything but move forward so he gets out of his chair and walks to class, dreading the rest of the day infront of him.
“Alright everyone get in your seat,” everyone scrambled around trying to quickly get back in their seats. Aizawa chokes on his breath as he gazes at the five empty seats in front of him, each mocking and terrorising him for the lives he failed to protect. “Due to recent circumstances.” All the students face’s fell to a gloomy sorrow, their eyes were drawn to the empty desks creating a void in their hearts, one that brings them closer together by falling into an inescapable pit of despair. “ I have to do some extra paperwork and have nothing to teach this period,” Mina and Kaminari's eyes lit up a bit at the mention of a small amount of free time. “So for this period just don’t kill each other and don’t burn down the building.” Aizawa’s mouth tightened at the mention of fire while glancing over at the empty desks before sighing and climbing into his sleeping bag for a well earned nap.
Kaminari hesitated for a moment, waiting silently for his teacher to really be asleep before silently creeping over to Tsu and Mina.“ Hey Tsu, are you feeling any hoppier over there?,'' Kaminari flashes his finger guns with a wink, truly a pitiful attempt to make her laugh. Kaminaris voice echoes across the room as no one else has spoken, leaving only Mina to clasp her hands together in embarrassment and glare at Kaminari for such a stupid idea. Until a stifled laugh appeared before the two clowns, immediately snapping both of their heads towards Tsu. Her hand covering her mouth and tears in her eyes, out of sadness or laughter neither could tell but nonetheless they both smiled at the progress they made in cheering up the girl.
“ Goodness Kaminari, out of all the things you said to break the silence that's what you landed on?” Tsu said as she shakily calmed herself down from the brink of tears.
“To be fair it’s better than what I was originally going to say,” Kaminari replied.
“What were you going to say? Mina questioned?”
“Well, I was going to say it's no use in being sad as technically it was their fault that they died as they did leave without asking, so it was a bit of karma.” All eyes became dinner plates and quickly faced Kaminari after hearing such blasphemy, trying to understand why Kaminari would have the gall to say that out loud.
“Kaminari, what the heck?!?!” Mina explained, while Tsu looked down and went back to her sorrow state.
“What? You asked–” Kaminari tried to defend himself before a slam from the desk behind him shut him up before he could finish.
“ Are you kidding Kaminari, they didn’t ask to be murdered even if they did break the rules it is NOT their fault that they are dead.” Kaminari shrank in his chair trying to disappear from Iidas rage-filled gaze. “No one asks to die, and with all the commotion that has occurred this year I wouldn't be surprised that they were targeted specifically,” Kaminari blanches as Iida continues. “So if you could get your ignorant head out of the dirt, you should apologise for saying something like that about our classmates.” Iida glares at Kaminari, as he has half a mind to punch him for saying something so stupid. Only for him to quickly relax, the rage in his body drained out of him slowly, thinking that his friends wouldn't want him to stoop so low as to attack another for simply saying something silly.
As Kaminari quickly apologises for his rude behaviour, murmurs started to go around the class until Mineta in a fit of fear yelled out “Wait do you really think they were targeted, Iida? Does that mean th-they could try to come after us?”
“Well-” as Iida attempted to escalate the situation, Jiro cut in.
“Of course we are being targeted, After the USJ incident and what Midoryia, Todoroki and Iida said happened in Hosu. Some upcoming supervillains have gotten to know us and may even see us as future threats, so they will want to take us out before we become bigger problems than we already have been.” Mineta began to cry out that he no longer wanted to be a hero before Jirou continued on. “Even if we were to stop our journey as hero students, that would just make it easier for villains to kill us and our families, they likely wouldn't know or care that we stopped being a hero, just murder us in cold blood. So the most logical way to continue is to keep training, and hope that we can get strong enough to defend ourselves.” Silence takes over the room once again as the sombre reality finally hits everyone and truly comes to terms that they can't back out of the lifestyle they have chosen. All they know is that they can't change their mind about being a hero, it was this or death.
Hours passed, Aizawa was still in his sleeping bag going in and out of consciousness. Over hearing each conversation around the room made Aizawa’s heart sink further as some voices were absent. Each word grows the void in his soul, missing the silent mutters from the corner of the room, loud bangs and monotone words following soon after. The bell rang ending the class, each student gathered their belongings and left in a hurry. The absence of a high pitched cheery voice and another that would preach on and on about being a good and a ‘manly’ person when the students were leaving, reduced Shouta to a shell of a human only filled with sorrow and pain. Even though Shouta felt the crushing weight of death wanting to keep him in his sleeping bag, he got up, and began to pack away his things.
Just as Shouta was about to leave his class room a ray of hope stopped by, Present Mic. “Hey Shouta…” Present Mic walked over and picked up Shouta holding him out in front of him, like a liquid cat. “ I’m so proud of you for holding out this long,” Shouta’s eyes finally looked up into Mic’s, still and limp like a noodle. “I know the death of the kids hasn't been easy, I’ve seen you relapsing.” Present Mic took Shouta into his arms in a firm hug. “Thank you for lasting this long,” tears began streaming down both of their faces. “I know it feels like Highschool all over again, but you made it through then, you can make it through now!”
“mic-“ Shouta tried to get out.
“We can make it through together!” Present Mic got a little louder as he began crying harder, “Our house will be a lot more quiet without Shinso,” Mic chokes on his words before continuing. “But we can live for them! We- we can make sure no one else has to die like they did.” His voice begins to die out, as the conversation stops being Mic trying to comfort Aizawa to Yamada Hizashi trying to convince himself that everything will be okay.
“MIC!” Shouta finally cut off Yamada, through all his tears. “I can’t do this any more,” Aizawa picks himself up onto his legs and pushes Yamada away. “ I can’t teach, I can’t be in these buildings,” Shouta looks away. “ Today is my last day, I’m quitting. I couldn’t help these kids, I shouldn't be a hero teacher.” Aizawa starts to walk away but Mic grabs his arm, “Please! Don’t leave me here! I only got through everything because of you.” Mic grew quiet, as the real reason he came over got out. “ I need you…” Shouta rips his arm away from Mic’s grasp, “I need to take care of myself first Mic, and I can do this anymore… I’m sorry.” Shouta walks out the door leaving Mic to collapse in fear and grief, shaking as he lets out more tears.
Regret fills Aizawa as he leaves the front gates of UA, the Idea of leaving everything he has known is bittersweet. He wishes he could have left on better terms with Yamada, how he should have said goodbye to Midnight. But Shouta knows that if he stays in the building any longer he won't have the energy to leave, and he doesn’t want to decay in front of those he loves. Shouta’s pockets feel light as his phone and all forms of communication with his friends were left behind, in a past that was filled with faces that can never come back. Hopefully Nezu can figure out how to replace him, Shouta sniffs back his tears as he walks forward. He loved his life, but now that his kids are gone from it, his life will never be the same, and it hurts too much to live it. So Shouta makes one last decision as Eraserhead and walks away from UA forever, hoping to one day catch the sunset and see his kids again.