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Every job has parts of it that are less desirable, and teaching is no different. Whether you teach at a poor public school or the most elite academy there are some day to day tasks that just need to be done. Reluctant as he had once been to take on the position that others in his life had seen his aptitude for long before he himself had, Shouta Aizawa really did love his job. The opportunity to guide the next generation, to make sure that new heroes were prepared for the trials to come – to survive whatever a cruel world would throw at them, was a heavy but precious weight to carry. However on days like today that love was seriously being called into question.
Aizawa tightened his binding cloth on the cowering pair of second years before him and let the full weight of his glare burn into them. “Care to tell me when the rule against quirk use in the lunchroom changed?” The whole room had gone quiet when he had snagged these two out of the air so that now you could have heard a pin drop from across the room. Good. A strong display of discipline set a solid example for the rest of the year. “Well?” when the silence had stretched to an uncomfortable length, “I don’t think anyone here wants to wait all day for your answer.”
Two guilty faces glanced at each other before whispering quivering apologies.
“It didn’t, Aizawa sensei, sir.”
“It won’t happen again.”
“We’re sorry.”
He released them from the cloth and motioned for them to stand at which point the tension in the room immediately relaxed and a few of the other students felt brave enough to start whispering to each other again, but still not finished with them he held them in his glare. “No, it won’t, and you’ll be spending your next period cleaning the mess your choices made so you don’t forget, and before you will be allowed to eat tomorrow you will give written apologies to Lunch Rush for treating the food he prepared with such little respect. Is that understood?”
Two mumbled “Yes, sirs” and he sent them back to their seats. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose hoping to alleviate the headache forming behind his eyes as he trudged back to the teacher’s table on the far side of the room to slump back into his own chair and block out the light by burying his head in his arms for a moment. His next class was going to be “fun” to teach with that. Gawd, he hated cafeteria duty!
“You’re getting soft, Eraser.”
He turned his head away from the comforting dark just enough that he could stare, one-eyed and annoyed, at the owner of the teasing voice.
“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Midnight chuckled and reached over to rub her knuckles behind his ear.
He half considered pushing her away. No matter that she was one of his oldest friends and therefore also one of only two people he would allow to do such a thing, it wouldn’t do to behave so casually in front of the students, but the pressure she was applying truly was helping his headache so he settled for a huff of air and a mumbled “…not your cat.”
She laughed lightly and switched to her fingertips to apply pressure to other points across his scalp. “I’m simply saying that a few years ago a stunt like that would have garnered a suspension at the very least. You know that story about how you expelled the entire lunchroom is still going around? I believe they’re up to telling everyone there were nearly 200 students involved now. You wouldn’t want to ruin that reputation would you?”
“If the number is still going up I’m pretty sure my reputation will survive,” he mumbled.
A smile, well more like a smirk. “Hmm, most likely.” Her hand had moved now to massage his forehead and exposed temple with her thumb occasionally slipping down to run gently over the long scar below his right eye. “So you have planning next period, though it sounds like now you’ll be spending it supervising our pair of acrobats. What’s after that for you this afternoon?”
“Double heroics with my homeroom.”
“Oh, that should be fun! You’ve certainly got an interesting group this year. So passionate! What are you going to have them working on? Anything I can help with? I’ve got last period free today since my third years are starting their independent study projects.”
“Non-verbal communication exercises.” He hadn’t been planning on teaching that topic until after they came back from the internships starting next week, but today definitely called for a quiet lesson. ”You can come in and help observe the practical portion if you feel like it.” With her supervising he might even be able to catch a short nap. Most of his bandages were off now after two days of intense healing sessions with Recovery Girl following the Sports Festival, but he was still left feeling like his stamina was running on empty.
“I think I may just do that. Then after school you, Hizashi, and I should grab an early dinner together. Is he still staying with you?”
“Not anymore. Now that I’m out of the slings he went back to his place last night.”
“Oh well, you both still live close enough it’s not out of the way. We’ll just grab something at Sanzaru then. Obviously we can’t drink because you’re still on pain meds, but we can still celebrate your recovery with some cheap food.”
“I never actually said yes,” he grumbled, “…and you and ‘Zashi can drink if you want.”
“Now what kind of friends would we be if we drank in front of you? We’ll save getting properly drunk for when you can join us.”
He rolled his eyes but decided that comment didn’t require a verbal response.
Midnight kept up a steady stream of commentary for the remainder of the lunch period so that Aizawa wasn’t certain exactly how she managed to actually find time eat her own lunch plus keep up her gentle massage of his scalp, but then again he also wasn’t entirely sure that he hadn’t also dozed off for a few moments somewhere in there as well.
Finally the bell rang to inform the students that it was time to go back to class and he roused himself to stand up and stretch out his back.
Midnight also stood and gathered her tray. A last pat on his shoulder. “I’ll see you 7th period, Shouta.”
“See you.” He nodded to her. Hmm, his headache seemed to have eased considerably. Maybe the rest of this day wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.
*****
Midoriya couldn’t help but grin as Iida managed to maneuver through a particularly tricky portion of the course before them, though of course since only Midoriya was allowed to look at the map of this portion of the course Iida wasn’t entirely aware of just how difficult it had been. A moment later two buzzes from elsewhere in the gymnasium almost on top of each other followed by some loud and colorful cursing from Bakugou and a startled scream from Tooru indicated that two of the other groups had been less than successful.
When Aizawa Sensei had started lecturing about the value of non-verbal communication in hero work, Midoriya hadn’t expected to be having this much fun with the practical portion of class. He hadn’t even been aware that their teacher was apparently fluent in JSL until Sensei had opened the class by signing, initially causing confusion among a few of his students. Tooru had even asked him if he had lost his voice. However the more Midoriya thought about it the more sense it made that of course Sensei would have such a skill set. After all Eraserhead was an underground hero who specialized in stealth missions. Even though he mostly worked alone, being able to communicate with a teammate without giving away his position or plans to a villain would be crucial for that.
“You’ll work in 4 teams of 5,” Sensei had instructed them. “Team 1: Midoriya, Ashido, Iida, Tokoyami, and Shoji – Team 2: Kouda, Kaminari, Jirou, Ojiro, and Todoroki – Team 3: Aoyama, Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, Asui, and Sato – and Team 4: Sero, Mineta, Bakugou, Kirishima, and Uraraka. Your objective is to use the signs we discussed as well as any shorthand that you may develop as a group to silently guide each other through an invisible maze. Give poor directions and your teammate will set off a sensor in the floor. The team which sets off the fewest sensors will be the winners.”
“Two steps to the left then hop forward half a meter,” he signed to Mina and cringed when she misunderstood his sign for how far she was to hop, setting off a buzzer. They’d only been given the time spent walking to the gym and about 10 minutes waiting for Aizawa Sensei and Midnight Sensei to turn on the sensors to discuss signs as a group before they had started. Other than that they’d have to wait until they were transitioning to the next portion of the course where they would switch off leaders to discuss which signs had worked and which had been unclear. At first all of the groups had been setting off buzzers every few seconds but now more than halfway through the class the stretches of silence between buzzers were beginning to get longer.
Tokoyami was the last one for him to direct through the course, and when he was finished, having only set off 3 buzzers in their most successful run so far, they were finally allowed time to whisper to each other while they waited for Midnight Sensei to give the signal that all of the groups were ready to switch locations.
“Oh, we are definitely getting better at this!” Mina whisper-yelled and spun around before grabbing hold of Midoriya’s shoulders as their group huddled up near the wall of the gym.
“Indeed,” Iida added, “we only set off the sensors 19 times on that run through, a marked improvement over our 53 on the first course. You truly have a knack for this, Midoriya!”
Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck and felt his cheeks growing warm from the praise. “I mean it was our third time after all. I’ve just had more time to practice. I’m sure that you and Shoji will do even better on your turns to lead.”
“I’m confused on this sign though.” Shoji made a motion with his hands. “Did we decide that that meant to move forward in the direction we were facing or to move toward the leader?”
“You’re speaking of when you hit those two sensors at once, correct?” Tokoyami asked. “That sign meant to move toward the leader. If he had wanted you to move forward in the direction you were facing I believe in that instance he would have done this” another hand motion, “correct, Midoriya?”
Midnight’s whistle pealed through the gymnasium.
“Right,” Midoriya answered as they moved towards the course Todoroki’s group had just abandoned.
Mina bounced forward and picked up the tablet that contained the course map from where it had been left on the floor by the finish line, the only markings actually laid out on the floor being the start and finish line though there were a few small obstacles that may or may not have to be navigated around depending on what route the leader decided to direct their group through.. The leader had to read the map on the tablet to know where all sensors were. “Okay, Iida, Shoji, it’s just you two left. Who wants it this time?”
Iida’s hand shot into the air before Shoji even had a chance to respond. “I believe that I may finally be understanding the meaning of these signs. I would like my chance to test myself. Midoriya, do you have any last minute advice?”
“Just remember what Sensei said about how simple is better in battle so think about the shortest way to tell us what you want us to do. The signs will be easier that way too.”
Iida took the tablet from Mina with a look of firm determination. “As one who wishes to one day be a leader, I will do my best to give you all clear directions!”
The rest of the class period passed quickly as they ran through Iida’s turn at leadership and then finally Shoji’s before Midnight called them all back together at the center of the arena and Aizawa Sensei rejoined them from wherever he had wandered off to, his yellow sleeping bag slung over his shoulder.
“Team 2 is the winner. As the only group that managed to stay out of triple digits after all 5 runs, I would recommend that the rest of you specifically talk to them about how they were able to build their communication so quickly.”
After this he called on several people to give examples of what they had discovered through the exercise – shock at just how much they relied on their voices, that some of the directions might have been difficult even if they had been allowed to talk, a minor tangent about the odd mannerisms that some of their classmates had which they’d never noticed before (quickly shut down by Aizawa – “That Jirou can twist her earphones into loops is not in any way relevant to this conversation, Kaminari.”), and general curiosity about other uses for this new skill.
Midoriya raised his hand almost blurting out before Sensei had even called on him, “Aizawa Sensei, will we get to do more exercises like this one?”
When several other members of 1-A also began to nod enthusiastically, Aizawa raised an eyebrow. “Yes, and some of those will require you to do things like pass along information or navigate a battlefield without being detected by another group so I would recommend that you continue to build on what you learned today.” With that, Aizawa waved his hand in the direction of the doors. “All right, class dismissed. Go get cleaned up. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
*****
In all of his years at UA, Aizawa had taught this lesson every year at multiple levels. While he’d certainly had individual students who had seen the value in it, the popularity driven hero society they lived in which encouraged heroes to go so far as to call out the names of their moves while they fought meant that most students saw such things as a waste of time no matter how often he pointed out that being able to do this could save their lives someday.
To have a class full of students who not only seemed to see the value in it but actively asked him to teach them more? Well that was just unheard of.
Midnight was right. This was quite the interesting group of students he had this year. Ducking his chin down further behind his binding cloth he couldn’t help the small smile he felt twitching at the corners of his mouth.
There were days when Aizawa really did love his job.