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It was supposed to be a quick homework break. A brief check up on his social media apps, to give his brain some rest before he returned to work. Instead, Izuku stared unblinkingly at the Hero News Alert scrolling across his phone, his body frozen in denial, his mind filled with nothing but a hum of incredulity.
YUUEI HIGH STUDENT SHINSOU HITOSHI - NEW VILLAIN ALLIANCE MEMBER?
His heart thudded into overdrive as adrenaline flooded through him. He flipped to another news feed, then another.
No… this was wrong, there was no way… There must be some mistake…
Everywhere it was the same. Everywhere was the veneer of regret and sadness that such a ‘promising young student’ had strayed to the villain’s path. It barely hid the self-satisfaction that they knew and understood how their society worked, their smugness in the inevitability of someone with Shinsou’s quirk giving in to the temptation and selfishness of villainy.
It made Izuku’s blood boil.
Yet, he couldn’t deny the evidence splashed across every website. Only one photographer had managed to capture a photo, but one photo was all it had taken. Disappearing around a corner in a scene blurry with sunlight and smog, Shigaraki extended an arm, his face hidden as usual by a disembodied hand. He gestured to the interior of a vehicle, head cocked, inviting a young man to enter. Only the teenager’s back was visible as he bent to climb inside.
Izuku’s heart clenched in grief and horror. That hair was undeniable.
Shinsou really had joined the Villain Alliance.
But just as quickly, disbelief washed through him.
No. No, it couldn’t be. It couldn’t possibly be true. Izuku recalled the look of crushing disappointment on Shinsou’s face when he’d bested him in the Sports Tournament, smashing yet another avenue for Shinsou to achieve his heart’s desire. A desire that Izuku knew and understood more intimately than Shinsou could ever, ever know.
And then, the shock, the hope in his face when his General Studies classmates cheered his name, when the heroes muttered in indignation that someone with such promise had ever been allowed to slip through the cracks of Yuuei’s hero track…
This… this didn’t make sense. Not to him. Not to anyone who knew Shinsou, and Izuku knew, just knew that he understood him. Shinsou would never…
What if… what if Shinsou had in actually been kidnapped? What if Shigaraki had threatened his family, to force him into coming with them? What if he needed help, someone to rescue him?
Izuku leapt off his bed and began to pace. Instinct had him already forming a rescue plan, muttering under his breath; someone would need to be deployed to take in the Shinsou family, so they couldn’t be used against Shinsou. Then, they’d need a team to go in and get him out safely… but they couldn’t do that, they didn’t know where the villains’ current lair was. But maybe they could-
Wait, no, stop – his recent experiences finally caught up to the runaway train of his natural impulses. He couldn’t rush in alone; he’d learned that lesson. Shinsou deserved real, fully-fledged, experienced heroes to rescue him. Plus, Aizawa-sensei really might murder him this time if he-
Aizawa…
Izuku had spotted Shinsou following Aizawa through the hallways of Yuuei more than once. He’d never gotten up the nerve to ask, but he suspected Aizawa had been training Shinsou, helping him improve his skills so that he could fulfill his dream of acceptance into the hero track.
If anyone knew anything about Shinsou’s situation, it would be Aizawa. What’s more, Aizawa would be the key to getting the support and resources needed to get Shinsou out.
Izuku flung open his door, his heart still hammering. He dashed down the stairs and ripped through the dorm’s living area, not pausing even for Uraraka’s startled “Deku-kun?” He had to fight the inclination to activate One-For-All just to increase his speed as he raced for the buildings the Yuuei teachers lived and worked in.
He ripped through the halls, asking every teacher he passed if they’d seen Aizawl-Sensei, if they knew where he could find him. Most of them knew Izuku well enough not to be surprised to see him wandering, or even zipping, through the building, but he left more than one “wait, hold on, what-” in his wake as soon as his current questionee responded in the negative.
Izuku almost blew right by him, barely seeing the dark head barely visible over the top of a couch in one of the teacher’s common rooms. He skidded to a stop in front of his teacher.
“Aizawa-sensei!”
Aizawa slowly raised his head, blinking, bringing his far-away gaze back into focus. He continued turning his phone in his hands, slowly, his expression as grim as Izuku had ever seen it. His gaze sharpened on Izuku’s face, and he sighed, almost as though he’d been expecting to see him, and not happily.
“What do you want, Midoriya.”
“It’s Shinsou-kun! Have you, did you see…?”
“I saw.” Aizawa closed his eyes, emphasizing the deep, dark shadows beneath them, and Izuku’s heart sank. “It’s a blow, certainly. Shinsou Hitoshi has a very powerful quirk, and–”
“But, but–”
“–and we’ll need to be prepared the next time we encounter the Alliance, to make sure we don’t fall victim to-”
“Wait, sensei!” Izuku knew he was being rude, cutting off his teacher, but he was too horrified to care. “You don’t think Shinsou-kun really betrayed us, do you?
Aizawa regarded him dolefully. “What else am I supposed to think, Midoriya? He specifically sought them out, knew where they’d strike next, went with them willingly-”
“Shinsou-kun would never, never, do that!” Part of Izuku was gibbering in terror at confronting a teacher this way – but it was a small part. He stood as tall as he could, fists clenched. “What if something’s happened, what if they threatened his family to make him join them, what if–”
Aizawa glared at him, frustrated, almost angry. “Midoriya, you’re being naïve. If you keep thinking this way, you’re going to be taken advantage of, perhaps fatally. You have too high an opinion of your knowledge of others’ thoughts and motivations!”
Aizawa was standing now, towering over Izuku, making the most of the height advantage he usually downplayed. He was definitely angry, now – Izuku could count the number of times Aizawa had raised his voice like that on one hand. But somehow… Izuku got the feeling that most of that anger wasn’t directed at him.
Aizawa sighed, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, and turned away from Izuku to walk out of the room.
“Go back to the dorms, Midoriya. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing you can do. And I know you have homework to finish."
Izuku did not back down.
“Respectfully, sensei… I think you’re wrong.”
Aizawa paused, mid-step.
“You… I thought, I thought you would understand, I mean I’ve seen him with you, and I thought… Shinsou-kun wants to be a hero more than anything. He’s spent his entire life doing whatever he can to achieve it, and… and… he wouldn’t. He would never become a villain. Whatever’s going on, it’s not that he betrayed us.”
Izuku could feel tears pressing at the back of his eyes; he clenched his jaw, trying to hold them back, and only partially succeeded. “And if even you don’t believe me, then I’m going to have to get the evidence myself!”
Aizawa remained frozen for half a moment, as Izuku tried not to sniffle, rubbing angrily at the escaped teardrops running down his face. Then Aizawa turned and faced Izuku, who stumbled at the intensity of his expression. Aizawa stared at him, and Izuku felt even more than usual like he was being x-rayed by his teacher’s bloodshot eyes. But he stood firm, too confident in his trust and his convictions to do anything else.
Though Aizawa’s expression barely changed, he seemed to come to a decision.
“Come with me.”
Izuku was puzzled, but swiped again at his tearstained face and followed Aizawa unquestionably through the hallways and up the stairs until they reached a blank stretch of fourth floor. Aizawa looked surreptitiously to either side of them; when a door opened in what was supposed to be merely a wall, Izuku jumped, fighting to keep down a squeak. He stepped into the secret room after Aizawa, who closed the door behind them. The room contained nothing except a table, surrounded by empty chairs.
“Sit.” Tight-lipped, the word bitten off. Izuku obediently sat.
Aizawa leaned against the wall, arms crossed, staring down at Izuku as though he was trying to bore a hole straight through him. Izuku gulped, but did not look away.
“I am only telling you this because I know you will make a bigger fuss than we can afford if I don’t. Or that you might do something as stupid as go after him next, and get both of you killed. So I am going to tell you. This conversation will not leave this room, do you understand me?”
Izuku nodded vigorously. Aizawa released a heavy, frustrated breath.
“The Yuuei teachers believe that there may be a traitor in the school, among the teachers or the students.” He raised a hand at Izuku’s immediate gasp. “Let me finish.”
Izuku stifled the flood of questions and protestations that immediately jumped to mind. Aizawa continued.
“Our suspicions were first roused following the disastrous training camp incident. Our location was secret; how else could the Alliance have found us? And other occasions point to the presence of a traitor as well; for example, how did they know we’d be at the USJ dome.”
Aizawa rubbed at his eyes. “We finally shared our suspicions with the police – we have a trustworthy contact there. They came up with a plan.”
Izuku was processing so much information so fast, he felt as though steam was coming out of his ears. But the look of dread on Aizawa’s face pushed back all questions but one.
“What… what does this have to do with Shinsou-kun?”
The words dropped from Aizawa’s mouth like bricks of lead. “They thought the best way, possibly the only way, to figure out who the traitor is, was to send in a spy.”
Izuku stared up at his teacher, horrified, the implications unfurling before him. Aizawa met his gaze squarely. His tired eyes were sad.
“Shinsou agreed to be the spy we needed. He was an excellent candidate, between his intelligence, bravery, and the prejudice surrounding his quirk. We trained for months, and now, he’s finally made his move. It’s all up to him now, until he can find out who the traitor is. And then, we get him out.”
For once in his life, Izuku was at a loss for words. Shinsou, left engaging the enemy all alone, surrounded by danger and the accusations that everything expected of him for his entire life had finally come true-
Abruptly, Izuku’s horror flared into fury.
“How could you!? How could you ask him to do that? Of course he would say yes, and now he’s all alone, he could be found out and murdered at any second, how could you-”
“You think I wanted to let him do this!?” Aizawa roared, his own anger reigniting all at once. Izuku jumped back; he’d never heard Aizawa yell like that before, hatred and fear and helplessness all twisted up into one hoarse cry.
Aizawa clenched his teeth, closing his eyes as though in pain. “The police gave him the offer behind my back. I tried to talk him out of it. The only way to stay involved with the project, and do my best to keep him safe, was to agree to be in on it. I’m his ‘handler.’” Aizawa practically spat the word, lips curling in a snarl of self-disgust.
Izuku stared at his teacher, eyes wide. Aizawa seemed to realize he’d overstepped. He sagged, like all the air had gone out of him, and collapsed into a chair next to Izuku, hands going to cover his face.
They sat there, side by side, for a long time. Finally, Izuku tentatively broke the silence.
“S-sensei?”
Aizawa dropped his hands, elbows resting on his thighs as he sagged forward.
“Yes.” The reply was too toneless. Izuku continued anyway.
“Sensei… can I offer to… to help get him out of there, when… when the time comes?”
Aizawa let out a breath, and sat up straight. He eyed Izuku without answering, long enough that Izuku began to squirm. When he did speak, it was not in answer to Izuku’s question.
“You thought Shinsou would be a victim of extortion before he’d actually betray us to the villains.” Aizawa laughed softly, almost under his breath. It was not a happy laugh. He stood then, and opened the secret door.
“Thank you, Midoriya. And remember please, this time: keep your mouth shut.”
And Aizawa left, leaving Izuku adrift in a wake of tension, exhaustion, and maybe the smallest amount of hope.