Chapter Text
Shouta sighed as he stood up after making a brief statement, putting the empty juice packet into his pocket to discard later. He unzipped his sleeping bag, counting as the students kept muttering to themselves. It was tradition by this point for him to appear in this way. 20 seconds.
Shouta was already disappointed in this class, they still haven’t quieted down. Well most of them have, it was the two boys upfront that were sitting with legs kicked up ignoring him that were still chatting.
“You two,” he said pointing to the chatting boys, “Quite down,” he stated flatly.
A scoff from one boy and an eye roll from the other earned them another black mark in his books. “I’m Aizawa Shouta, your homeroom teacher,” he pulled out an example gym outfit, “Quickly now. Change into your gym clothes and head out to the grounds,” he informed them, turning around and walking out, giving a mental 10 minute countdown.
He was outside and a minute passed before one of the girls of his class came out, still in her overly extravagant outfit. Sure it may have been the school uniform, but she had embellished it so much it looked like a completely different outfit. She flounced up to him, “So, teach. Like, what about the assembly?”
“You will address me as Aizawa-Sensei, not ‘teach’ and there is no time to waste on that if you want to become heroes,” he stated flatly. “You should change into your gym clothes.”
She gave him a dismissive hand wave as she flounced off. A bounce in each of her steps. 5 minutes later and most of the kids had come out. Acceptable for first years, though they would eventually have to get faster. There was no time to waste on changing clothes in an emergency. The ten minute mark passed and there were two missing boys. Shouta waited one more minute, and they were still not present. With narrowed eyes he looked at the students and pointed at one of the boys, “Bring your classmates out. Be back in two minutes.”
The boy, one whose file said he had an energy draining quirk, nodded and ran off. 1 minute and 47 seconds. Was how long it took and the boy he pointed at was dragging along the two boys who were dragging their feet. “Stop pulling us you little leech,” one of the late boys spat.
Quirk Discrimination.
“What took you boys so long?” Shouta questioned and they answered with excuses.
He frowned, already marking them with a black mark alongside the two boys who wouldn’t shut up. “Now that you all are finally here, let us begin.”
“Begin with what, teach?” The flouncy girl from before, interrupting him.
He narrowed his eyes into a glare, mentally giving her a black mark, and he looked down at them, looming ominously with his slouched posture, “UA is known for its ‘freestyle’ educational system. That applies to us teachers as well.”
“Just get to the point,” another girl, one chewing on bubblegum, interrupted.
He shifted his eyes to her, staring her dead in the eyes with a flat expression, “Softball throwing. The standing long jump. The 50 meter dash. These are all exams you took in middle school, your standard no-quirks-allowed gym tests.” His eyes roamed over the students, pointing at the top scorer of the exams, a boy with a quirk that let him manipulate metal, “Kinzoku. How far could you throw in middle school?”
“50 meters,” the boy stated, puffing out his chest proudly as his classmates looked at him with awe in most of their eyes, though he saw some rolling their eyes.
Shouta’s lip curled down a bit, the average for a non-quirked throw at age 14 was 59 meters. That the boy thought 50 meters was fine really showed his dedication to improving himself in order to be a hero.
“Great,” he dryly commented, “now try throwing it with your quirk, do whatever you need to. Just don’t leave the circle.”
The boy frowned, “How am I supposed to do that, my quirk is metal manipulation, not tossing a ball.”
Black mark.
“You want to be a hero? Figure a way out. If you don’t figure something out in the next minute, you’re expelled.”
Instant shouts from the class, saying things like it’s not fair. “Fair?” He questioned, looking down at the students, “Life isn’t fair. I’m training you to be sent out as hero’s after only three years. There is no use for time wasters, the unimaginative, the undriven, the slackers, the disrespectful. Any I judge to have zero potential will be expelled.” He grinned at the class, thrilled with the prospect of expelling them, “And I guarantee that at least one person will be expelled by the end of these events.”
Most likely it would be more than just one. Shouta finished the countdown in his head and looked at Kinzoku, who still hadn’t done anything. “Well?”
The boy panicked and just threw the ball normally. Shouta glanced down at his phone, the boy had gotten a measly 40 meters. “Right. Expelled.”
“How the hell was I supposed to use my quirk to throw the ball further!?” The boy demanded, scowling.
“One. You could have used the Iron in your blood to strengthen your arms when throwing it. Two. You could have used the metal from the tracker to propel it further. Three. You could have used the metal bracelets you’re wearing to create a spring system when you threw the ball,” he stated flatly, listing a few things. “Now leave.”
The boy stormed off, dissident muttering under his breath. Shouta looked back at the rest of the students. “We will be doing the 8 standarized tests,” he smiled at them challengingly, “Prove to me you have what it takes to be a hero.”
One of the talkative boys from before scoffed, a quiet mutter of, “Why should we prove anything to this hobo?”
There seemed to be agreeing mutters from the class. He began the tests, unimpressed with the lot of them as they barely used their quirks to improve their scores from middle school, they seemed more happy with chatting with each other than seriously thinking about training to be a hero.
The tests finished and he ignored the scores, seeing one of the business students he had texted Nedzu to send down to the field off in a corner, with a small hand signal the boy activated his quirk, eyes glowing white, “Why do each of you want to be a hero? Answer honestly.”
He listened to each petty selfish reason the student’s had. The ones who were pressured into it. The ones who just wanted money or fame. Those who just wanted to use their quirks.
Irredeemable.
Zero Potential.
“All of you are expelled,” he informed, looking down at them. He turned and walked off, ignoring their shouts as he shoved his hands into his pockets. He gave a small nod to the business student, who nodded back and left back to his class. The boy’s quirk encouraged others to answer their soul's truth, even if they themselves didn’t know the answer.
He made his way to Nedzu’s office at a leisure pace.
Nedzu was sipping on some tea when he arrived, another glass already placed out for him. With a sigh he picked it up, sipping the admittedly good tea. “You’re whole class Shouta?” The principal spoke, his voice more amused than anything.
He stared back, “They had no potential.”
The principal just smiled, “If you say so, though I suppose you could use this opportunity as a break, don’t worry about your history class, we can find someone to cover for you while you take a vacation. You’ve been working so hard recently after all.”
He pursed his lips together, displeased, he didn’t need a break. Nedzu’s eyes gleamed, “Now now Shouta, I know you, it’s not a suggestion, go take a break.”
Shouta huffed, “Fine,” he grumbled as he stood up. “Thank you for the tea.”
“Of course, and do feel free to drop by for a chat sometime soon, I do quite miss them,” Nedzu stated still smiling and Shouta quickly made his way out, knowing if he stuck around any longer Nedzu would drag him into a long, drawn out, conversation, likely with a game of chess or shogi, or some other game the principal felt like playing.
He left UA, starting to make his way to his apartment, hands in pockets he walked through the streets. About halfway home he was on a crowded street when a scream rang out and shouts of a villain were heard and he was bumped into as people rushed off. Which given that people were running away was probably expected.
What wasn’t normal was shrinking and finding himself buried under a pile of clothing. He blinked. He could feel that his muscles felt different. Looking around he saw some hero’s already on scene, fighting against the villain. He twisted, and caught a glimpse of a black tail.
Well then. Shouta frowned at the pile of clothes, now noticing the familiar weight of his goggles was still on his neck, but that he was surrounded by his capture weapon. And he couldn’t just leave his weapon here. It was too dangerous if it got into someone else's hands, even if it was a random civilian, they could hurt themselves with it. So with a sigh that came out more hiss like he started to test these new limbs of his. Paw’s? Check. Tail? Check. Whiskers? Check.
He seemed to be a small quadrupled animal, and with the new bodies flexibility he was fairly sure he had somehow managed to be turned into a cat. At least it wasn’t a dog. Someone must have accidentally used their quirk on him in their panic. He stumbled around in his little circle for a moment, but quickly picked up the movements for his new, hopefully temporary , body. With a bit of a struggle he managed to get his capture weapon tangled around his body, without sacrificing too much mobility. For now it was a trade off he would have to deal with until he could figure out how to fix this.
Shouta wandered off, leaving behind the pile of clothes, knowing that there wasn’t much else he could do, and he had nothing valuable in his clothes anyways, except perhaps his phone, keys, and wallet. Shouta grumbled as the day passed and he finally managed to find the police station as the sun was starting to set. One of the officers spotted him quickly and came over, “Aww poor kitty, do you need help removing that cloth?” The guy asked in an annoying babying voice.
He got closer and Shouta reflective hissed, glaring at the guy who paused. Shouta scowled inwardly, he didn’t want anyone getting his weapon without his permission. He really wished the police had some sort of animal translator. But, they did have Sansa, who had a cat body mutation, so perhaps the man could understand him. Though he hadn’t worked with the officer before, so he couldn’t be sure.
“Unfriendly fella, aren’t you?” The babying man from before muttered.
Shouta gave his best unimpressed look at the officer who grumbled about idiotic cats and walking away. After a half hour of waiting Sansa came out. Shouta stalked up to the officer. ‘Can you understand me? ’ He meowed.
Sansa looked down, “Hello little one, you seem to be in quite the predicament,” the man started crouching down and holding out a hand to him.
Shouta wanted to pinch his nose, ‘So I take it you don’t understand cat’s Sansa. ’
“Would you like my help to untangle you?” Sansa offered.
A scoff came from nearby and the other officer spoke, “Don’t bother, that cat is unfriendly.”
Shouta rolled his eyes even as he got up and left, this idea had been a bust. He frowned, it was nighttime now, and while he didn’t want to be in this predicament for much longer he was tired. Looking around he found what looked to be a decently clean ally and laid down, using his capture weapon as a sort of bedding.
He woke up hours later with the sun shining down, annoying him. He stretched, annoyed a bit that he was still in the body of a cat, so either it wasn’t a time based quirk where it would wear off, or it would take longer to wear off.
He’d give it about a week to wear off, which was usually how long time based quirks lasted at the longest. There were only a few exceptions for when that didn’t happen. Shouta sighed, he should probably make his way to his apartment, but without his key he wouldn’t be able to get in.
Keeping to the alleyways he started to make his way in that general direction, figuring some direction was better than none. Walking as a cat was a lot slower than as a human, but he didn’t feel the need to rush over since it wouldn’t help anyways.
He took the rest of the day to get to his apartment, ignoring his tired body. It seems that he required more sleep as a cat, but he figured that he could train this new body of his to not sleep for 12 or more hours.
Shouta slept that night on his window seal. When he woke up it was sunrise. He frowned, wondering what to do, and grimacing as his stomach protested heavily as he hadn’t eaten anything in the past day. Looks like he had to find some way to get food.
Which shouldn’t be too hard, right? People loved cats! Surely he could get some food from someone, which was better than trying to figure out how to hunt. Shouta wasn’t sure if he could bring himself to eat a mouse or other type of animal, even if his new body could probably digest it.
With a sigh he stalked off to find some person to give him food.
Hours passed and people didn’t give him anything, apparently he was ‘creepy’ or a ‘demon cat’ he even ignored whatever dignity he may have had to put on his best ‘puppy eyes’ which is a stupid name cause cat’s could make the pleading expression so much better.
It still didn’t get him any food.
So another day passed and he hadn’t had anything to eat, but he had found a puddle of water he reluctantly licked up. As he woke up to his 5th day of being a cat he seriously debated eating some of the trashed food, he was so hungry, stomach painful in the desire for something to eat. Gnawing at him, a constant reminder for how long it's been since he had eaten. Hizashi and Nemuri would be so mad at him if they knew. They didn’t think he ate enough in the first place.
He didn’t want to eat garbage though, he might be a cat but he wasn’t an animal.
But if it came to eating trash or dying he would eat trash. He knew a person could go forty days without eating. But he didn’t know if he could go that long, he already felt so fatigued and it hadn’t even been a week.
One more day. He’d try to find something actually edible for one more day and if he didn’t he’d eat some trash. It only had to be a few mouthfuls. Just enough to last another day or two until he could transform back. That was all.
His stomach rumbled hungrily, and he did his best to ignore it for now and shakily raised onto his paws, making his way through the alleyways, staying close to the edge of buildings… of houses. He looked around, trying to focus a bit more on what was around him and he found himself in a sort of schooling area, near what seemed to be a middle school. Shouta frowned, debating how likely it was that the kids would feed him, or would hurt him.
It wasn’t worth the risk, he thought, turning away before he paused, hearing soft thuds of someone entering the alley in a rush. Turning back around he saw a green haired boy pushing himself against the wall, breathless. Shouting came and a couple boys ran past the alley, yelling angrily about a, “Useless Deku, hiding away from his betters.”
Shouta scowled, bullies obviously. Then the boy must be their victim. The boy gave a small sigh of relief and then the boy looked at him. The green haired kid gave a small smile, “Hello….” Green eyes looked over at him and Shouta stared back at the kid, tense, ready to run if the kid decided to hurt him, “You look hungry… I don’t have much, but I can give you my lunch, better than if I bring it in anyways, Kacchan would just blow it up or one of the others would knock it out of my hand.” The boy mumbled as he pulled a small bag out of his backpack.
The boy pulled out his lunch, setting it down gently, the bell of the nearby middle school ringing, “Here you go, I got to go to class now.” The boy said, pulling his bag back on and rushing off, a muttering of, “Oh no I’m late,” coming from him.
Shouta walked to the food and started eating it, glad to finally be able to eat. Glad that the pain in his stomach would be able to go away. Glad that he found someone who was actually nice to an apparent stray. That kid was interesting though, while other adults and kids saw his appearance they thought he was some demon cat, but this kid ignored his capture weapon, and probably ratty fur in order to help.
Shouta was glad that there was someone who didn’t judge something solely based on appearance.