Chapter Text
Walking into the general meeting room to find a scruffy man asleep facedown at the table was not how Yagi was expecting to start that day.
When Nezu mentioned a potential new teacher, he imagined that Ingenium finally said yes or at least something other than this mess of frizzy and ashy black hair that was breathing so shallowly that he seemed dead.
He knew he could trust Nezu with his life but was reconsidering it at the moment based on this particular judgment.
Looks could be deceiving, he knew that, but a lot of the time the choices individuals make impact their appearance. What little of the man’s face he could see was covered by dark, patchy stubble with thick scars, indicating he didn’t put a lot of effort into even basic grooming. If he wasn’t going to put effort into something so common, how was Nezu expecting this man to teach anyone to be a hero?
Any further criticism was interrupted when Yagi noticed there was a note taped to the back of the mystery man’s shirt. It was clearly Present Mic’s stylized handwriting quickly scribbled on what looked to be a sheet of copy paper. It read:
DO NOT WAKE
He got called in for an emergency last night and got done in barely enough time to make it here. We’re trying to convince him away from replacing his bloodstream with coffee so LET HIM SLEEP!
Please and thank you!
-Present Mic
Yagi was left contemplating the note for a moment when Midnight made her way in. He glanced up and was surprised to see her stifling laughter. She noticed him and gestured at the sleeping man.
“I should have seen this coming but it’s still ridiculous to see our dear Energy Saver-Chan asleep anywhere and everywhere. We’re lucky he decided to sleep at the table this time instead of scoping out his old hiding places. I’m sure there are still a few intact around here.”
“You seem familiar with him. Old friend?”
Midnight just grinned and took the seat on the other side of Yagi. “Mic, Oboro, and he were first years when I was a second year. We managed to get into all kinds of trouble together. Called ourselves the Rooftop Squad.”
She stared lovingly into the distance, giving Yagi a moment to notice she was getting a few silver hairs along her hairline. It was easy to forget her age considering how easily she wore it, but if this guy was her junior that must mean her age was more than-
“Yagi.”
He shook himself out of his stupor to see her looking at him, mild concern on her face.
“Sorry. Just spacing out.”
She didn’t quite look convinced as she immediately started touching at her hairline. But before he could fumble to apologize, she continued.
“He saved Oboro’s life during that one incident...whatever we decided to name it. The one that gave Oboro his scars.” She paused to gesture over the upper-right part of her face as if Yagi wouldn’t have seen them before.
Yagi was grateful for the tangent. It reminded him of what he had thought earlier: Don't judge a book by its cover. Or a hero by their sleeping habits.
Midnight perked up, her eyes sparkling with delight.
“I know you probably get tired of everyone assuming you like all things quirkless but you have to get them to tell you the whole story sometime. This giant villain took down multiple pros, tearing through the city like it was nothing. It could take your quirk and throw it right back at you and it had already taken out our multiple heroes including our mentor and Oboro. Sho-chan managed to defeat it with just muscle and his support item.”
Now this was interesting. While it was true that Yagi got tired of people assuming quirklessness was all he wanted to talk about, he could see the appeal in this story for him. Plus Midnight rarely mentioned his quirk status, so it wasn’t a worn-out subject.
“That might be a story to tell the students during the unit over quirkless combat. It might help to hear the positives from someone else other than me.”
Midnight winced slightly. “How many kids did you have to toss last year?”
“For not listening to me because I’m quirkless? Only one. Other than that? Well-”
He was saved from that downer of a conversation when Mic slipped into the room as quietly as anyone had seen him move in costume. Which was strange because of both the volume and because of the costume, or what was left of it.
“‘Zashi, what the hell are you wearing?” Midnight voiced Yagi’s thoughts.
He glanced down at himself as if he had forgotten before looking back at her and pouting. “As if you’ve never had to get weird when you’ve had a costume malfunction.” He said, as if he’s not wearing a flannel shirt with his leather pants, with one boot scuffed to hell and the other torn up like a tiger went at it. Even his hair had fallen into stiff and crispy strands.
“Whatever you say, darling.” Midnight smirked at him before a realization sparked in her eyes and she glanced back at ‘Sho-chan’. “Are those...Are those your ‘juicy’ sweatpants!? Why the hell did you have those but not any normal outfits for you two?”
Mic flushed a bit before snapping back. “He wouldn’t let us be late so we couldn’t go back to my apartment and there aren’t exactly any clothing stores open at 5 am! The station only had a few things for us to try and what I had in my car didn’t exactly have a lot of stuff in his size. We made do with what we-ACK!”
Yagi tensed as Mic got cut off, his hands flying up to his throat. Panic started to set in before the mystery man sat up, glowing red eyes trained on Mic’s distressed face.
“How are you this excitable?” Mystery man hisses, hair and scarf floating in the air. “We were both up all night.”
“Oops, sorry Sho. I got a little too..y’know,” Mic smiled apologetically, his voice back to a reasonable volume.
The mystery man blinked before Mic started speaking, eyes shifting back to a dull grey, his hair and scarf (which had started floating at some point) dropped back to his shoulders.
“Sorry for waking you, man.” Mic dropped into his own seat, so close he was practically leaning on the man. “But you know I’ve always been one of those people.”
The mystery man just shifted to accommodate Mic’s weight without reacting beyond that.
“I wasn’t fully asleep, it's too public of a place. I didn’t care about that. I care that you almost blew out your speaker last night and don’t think I can’t hear the rasp in your voice. Please at least try to take care of yourself.”
Everyone paused a bit, Yagi in surprise, Midnight in worry, and Mic just pouting again.
“Sure I’ll take care of my voice when you start using something other than bar soap as shampoo!”
“It’s just soap, ‘zashi.”
Before Yagi could be dragged into whatever argument that was building up to be, Nemuri touched his arm and brought his attention to her. “Don’t worry about them. They’re both workaholics that need to take care of themselves better, but Shouta is pretty bad because he refuses to spend any more money than necessary on self-care. I swear if there was a soap that covered shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothpaste, cooking oil, and gasoline, he’d buy it.”
He glanced back at Mic practically in Shouta’s lap still before lowering his voice as best he could and hoping they were too distracted to hear him. “Are they...more than friends?”
He was startled by Midnight bursting into gut-wrenching laughter, startling the other men in the room and even Cementoss who was halfway through the door. Before Yagi could react, she caught Mic’s eye and flicked her hands in sign language and he just grinned before grabbing Shouta’s shoulder and squeezing him as close as their positions allowed.
“We get that a lot, don't worry about it big guy. But nah. We’ve never had that kind of connection, I’m just really touchy with everyone. I get a little more with him because I don’t see him as often.”
Still squished by Mic’s long arms, Shouta muttered, “And somehow you wonder why we don’t get together more often.”
Away from the noise of Mic’s betrayal, Yagi glanced at Cementoss and then Ectoplasm who had joined a moment before. Neither seemed to have any clue either.
At least he wasn’t alone in that area.
Between then and the beginning of the meeting, Yagi learned a handful of things from mostly Nemuri but also Hizashi when he could spare his attention away from chattering with Aizawa.
The mystery man’s name was Aizawa Shouta. That thing with his eyes earlier was his erasure quirk. He’s an underground hero by the name of Eraserhead and somehow got roped into a friend group made up of extroverts.
And he likes cats.
Ten minutes deep into subtly watching them watch cat videos, the door opened for the last time revealing the Principal.
“Sorry everyone! There was a bit of an issue in the support classrooms so Powerloader isn’t going to join us this morning. I hope you all have had a good…” Nezu trails off, eyeing Mic and Aizawa’s ragged and mix-matched appearance, then shakes his head. "..A good morning. If not, I hope you’ve had the best time possible in the situations you were put in. Sorry you boys had to come in right after a fight.”
Mic just grinned and put a thumb up while Aizawa barely blinked in reaction.
“Anywho, as you might have noticed, I’ll be introducing our potential new Foundations teacher today. I was going to try and cover a few other things but I feel this is going to take up the majority of our scheduled time and I’d rather not mess with anyone else’s schedules last minute.”
Before anyone could agree or comment, someone knocked on the window. Everyone startled and looked over except Aizawa who seemed just over it already.
“Oboro!” Mic snapped chidingly before unlocking the window to let his floating friend inside. The man just grinned and stepped down off his cloud before it dissipated. His usually manageable cloud-like hair was all over the place as if he had rushed here (like he probably had).
Nezu didn’t drop his smile but pinned the newcomer with a dark look that chilled him to the core. “Mr. Shirakumo! So nice of you to join us and only two minutes late I might add. What was it this time?”
He paused, wide eyes accentuated by the heavy scarring above his eye and milky-white covering his iris and pupil. Instead of a verbal explanation, he slowly reached into his jacket, one hand on each side, and brought out two ink-black kittens, both mewing pathetically and squirming to get out of his grip.
Without a word, Aizawa stood up, took one kitten from his hands and said simply, “We can run over to the shelter on 15th street once the meeting is over. I believe they have room for newcomers. Did you check thoroughly for the mother?” Shirakumo nodded. “Okay then. They might be a little too young to be weaned so we should go soon.”
Obviously predicting this outcome, Loud Cloud smiled and took his own kitten to the last open seat.
Somehow unbothered by this whole thing, Nezu just chuckled and said, “Well, I guess if you wanted a character witness, there you go. As long as it involves cats, you can always get Aizawa’s attention. I don’t even have to convince them of your heart of gold under that scruffy exterior.” He grinned with full teeth at Aizawa who seemed to want to disappear into his scarf along with the kitten who had curled up in there.
On the other side of the table, Kan huffed a laugh, his grin looking rather malicious because of his jutting lower canines. “I think we’ve gotten enough character witnesses here. Those two have been all over him since I got here. Probably before too. What are ya? Old roommates or classmates or do we have to worry about relationship drama?”
“Classmates,” Mic said, leaning to be seen around Yagi’s towering frame. “He managed to drop off the face of the earth for about fifteen years after graduation before I managed to bring him back out. We don’t all get together too often so I guess we get a little hyper when we’re all together.”
Nezu gestured to get everyone’s attention before it could delve back into chatter again. “While I am glad to see UA’s ‘Rooftop Squad’ back together, I hope this hyperactivity will die down soon. This is not exactly the example I want to see for our students.”
Properly chastised, Mic and Loud Cloud settled (read: slumped) back into their chairs.
“Now if that’s done, I’d like to invite Aizawa up to introduce himself personally.”
Yagi raised his eyebrows a bit at this. Despite the man’s choice in friends, he seemed like the kind of guy who would just let the principal make the introduction to keep his interactions to a minimum.
He seemed fine with it though, definitely not a surprise to him as he casually handed the kitten to Hizashi and walked up to the front, his mouth still tucked into his scarf. Yagi quickly found himself pinned by the man’s icy stare before it lit up ruby red, glowing like a warning light, his hair lifting from his shoulders as he looked up and down the whole table, catching everyone in his sight. It ended quickly with him blinking his eyes back to stormy grey and his hair obeying gravity once more.
“Sorry if that was startling. As much as I trust UA's security, there is always a reason to be extra cautious, especially considering what quirks could be out there. If you’re wondering what that was, my secondary quirk allows me to interrupt active quirks so it would have revealed a shapeshifter or the like.”
He shifted his stance slightly, standing up straight. The sudden intensity of his aura bringing every fraction of attention directly to him.
“What I am about to reveal must never leave this circle of people. It is a security risk of which none of us want to find out the consequence of. Do not discuss it outside UA grounds, do not even make comments or mention it in a joke.”
Yagi drops his gaze away from Aizawa, glancing over at his closest friends. Of the three, only Mic seems unphased. Loud Cloud and Midnight both wear puzzled looks, eyebrows raised and lips pursed. It must be a genuinely heavy secret to tell only one of your best friends who are all heroes and have all known you since high school.
“I have two hero monikers. One is an underground hero dubbed Eraserhead whose most notable feature is the secondary quirk I just showed you. This is what I more or less look like when I’m under that hero name and in civilian clothing. The real secret, however-”
Yagi physically jerked back when Aizawa began to swell. Wait, not swell, just fill out. In the blink of an eye, baggy clothes were suddenly tight against thick muscle, almost straining at the seams. His ashy hair seemed to correct itself, slicking down into shiny ink-black waves rather than frizz. Stubble evened out, eyes filled in with inky black, even his teeth seemed to straighten a bit. The two prominent scars on his mouth faded until they were barely visible. A million tiny corrections turned the image of an exhausted homeless man into one of the most recognizable people in the country.
The number one hero.
“Apex?”
Attention briefly swiveled to Yagi as he had been the only one able to stutter out a response to Aizawa seemingly being replaced with the number one hero: Apex.
Apex (Aizawa?) however, seemed unphased by most everyone’s silence. “That isn’t the worst response I’ve had to the whole situation. Mic almost blew out my eardrums and Recovery Girl tried to take out my ankles with her cane. It’s not exactly an easy secret to tell, especially with how long I’ve had it hidden.”
“What happened to you?” Cementoss asked softly as if a normal volume would shatter the man who could bring villains to their knees by simply showing up.
“A villain,” he put simply. “A kingpin who had been deeply rooted in the underbelly of Japan for generations. My master fought him and lost her life, as did her master, and so on. You’ve never felt true fear until you’ve met the man with a million quirks.”
A chill ran down Yagi’s spine at that. Normal villains were hard enough to fight with only one quirk. But even if Aizawa’s statement was a hyperbole, a dozen quirks could level cities before you could blink.
“A little over four years ago I finally cornered him and forced a fight. I’ll admit I was somewhat blinded by revenge but more so with the images of all the thousands of lives he had ruined just in the pursuit of new quirks to control. I managed to take him out but not without a hole in my chest the size of a fist and missing a few ribs and a lung.”
Midnight noticeably paled at this, her and Cloud’s expressions raw and horrified. Mic seemed...saddened but reserved as if he had heard this story before.
“His iron grip over Japan died that day and I nearly paid for it with my life. But instead, I spent half of a year in the best medical care available. And have been running on between two and six hours of quirk usage a day. I can no longer be Apex full time and when I let go of my quirk-”
In a rush of steam, scruffy and exhausted Eraserhead returned. The piercing void of Apex’s eyes was simply replaced with a worn-out iron that had seen the horrors of hundreds of fights, none of them free of consequences. It almost made the scars more prominent.
“I finally accepted Nezu’s offer when despite my best efforts at balancing my hero work with my health, I could no longer last a full-length patrol. I realized that I could not put off the changes that need to be made for the first generation to enter the workforce without me standing over them.”
“You’re retiring?” Midnight seemed to get over the big reveal just in time to barely process the new information. Even Hizashi seemed a little startled by the news.
“Not yet. I’m hoping to pull back on my presence over the next few years to let others come forward. If there is enough cushion, there should barely be a stumble when I do fully retire.”
“It’s a logical conclusion. Isn’t that right?”
The rooms turned its attention to Cloud. He lounged back in the chair, one hand still cradling the kitten. He grinned at Aizawa, and Yagi felt as if he was witness to an inside joke. He watched as Aizawa's face softened, the slightest hint of a smile brightening his eyes even as his mouth remained still.
Midnight elbowed Cloud, causing him to startle before glaring at her, “Of course you’d be the one to make a joke in the middle of a dramatic speech. Read a room, genius.”
Before they could delve into a petty squabble, Aizawa cleared his throat to get their attention again. “You’re right. I can’t continue at 100 percent until I drop. That’d leave a lot of chaos for everyone else to clean up. I’ve already made enough of a mess. I-”
He dropped his shoulders in a bout of unexpected humility. Intelligent eyes clouded over with shame and regret as he fumbled to speak, suddenly looking much, much older than before.
“There is much wrong with hero society right now. And I know I’m the cause of a lot of it. I’ve made mistakes that have far-reaching effects because of my status. But if anyone can bring the students’ attention away from the spotlight and back to saving people and being true heroes, it might as well be me.”
He turned to properly face the majority of the room, bowing low as he spoke.
“If you’ll have me, I wish to be UA’s next Heroics Foundations teacher.”
Most of the room froze, unsure of how to react or what to do. This was their idol, the number one hero, the face of heroics, and he was bowing to them.
Mic bristled when some of the attention went to him, waiting for his reaction. “Hey don’t look at me, I’m the one who convinced him to take the job in the first place. I already know he’d be a good teacher.”
Cloud nonchalantly added, “I’m pretty sure I told him on multiple occasions that he needed to become a teacher. We were just high schoolers back then but you should have seen how protective of the little kids he was and how much they loved him. Apex or not, Aizawa Shouta has my approval.”
One by one the rest of the teachers slowly began to agree, each chiming in approvals, small grievances, and rebuttals to those grievances. It wasn’t that they were blinded by Aizawa’s status but of course, you don’t get to be the most beloved hero by being a bad person.
It took a minute for Yagi to realize everyone was staring at him now.
“What.”
Kan scoffed, “You’re the other hero course teacher. You kind of need to throw in your two cents here.”
Yagi just glowered at Kan’s tone but couldn’t escape that reasoning.
“I’m going to be honest, if Nezu or even Apex himself came to me about hiring the hero Apex as a teacher, I would have shut that down immediately.” He turned his attention to Aizawa. “I don’t know you personally but considering that you directly told my godson it was too dangerous to be a quirkless hero, crushing his lifelong dream without a second thought, I’m not a big fan of you. He might have accepted your apology and your amendment to your statement but I haven’t yet.”
Most of the room looked horrified and so much more unsure. Even Nezu’s fur fluffed up a bit in contrast to its usual smooth appearance. Aizawa was still inexpressive except for the slight tension in his shoulders.
“But, I know Eraserhead a lot more personally than I know Apex; not that that is saying much. And I’ve seen what he’d do to save just one more person, capture one more villain, or keep going for just one more minute. I’ve seen him duck away from the press and brush off compliments from civilians, officers, and other heroes alike. And I’ve seen him admit his flaws, throw away any hint of pride, and humbly ask forgiveness from a quirkless middle schooler when he realized he was in the wrong.”
He locked eyes with Aizawa, steel grey meeting electric blue. Aizawa’s eyes spoke of uncertainty and confusion, betraying his internal turmoil.
“I will agree to his employment, if and only if, he can prove to me and to all of us, that he is just as much Eraserhead as he is Apex.”
No one spoke for a moment, all trying to realign their thought process with this new information. Even Mic seemed quiet as he exchanged glances with Orboro and Midnight before looking over at an outwardly impassive Aizawa.
Just when the silence started to stretch on too long, Aizawa shrugged his shoulders. “As long as you understand that there is a difference between my personas and me. You are probably right about me being more Eraserhead than I am Apex, but my name is Aizawa Shouta and outside of battle, I’d appreciate you calling me that.”
Yagi hesitated for only a split second before nodding. “You can call me Yagi Toshinori then. I hope we can work together soon.”
This time a sly grin broke out on Aizawa’s face, leaving him looking a little unnerving. “But you do realize that I will be teaching as Apex, right? That’s how I’m trying to retire slowly. There will be a lot of annoying reporters involved. You are going to have the number one hero as a coworker.”
Yagi stared back, trying to hide his unamused expression. Apex or not, this man was going to be his co-teacher in the coming year. He can only hope that the students will not suffer for it. If only Aizawa could teach simply as Eraserhead,...he sighed. The year ahead suddenly seemed far more difficult with this new development.
Once more, Nezu clears his throat. "Now that's settled, I like to address a set of troubling rumors of which I had forgotten to address at the beginning of this meeting. Basically, they indicate that Trigger has begun a resurgence. We aren’t sure how it has returned but I have a feeling if it isn’t snuffed out soon, we will all have to be on high alert for the coming school year.”
A shiver ran down Yagi’s spine at the idea of seeing those damn drugs again. All that work trying to get them off the streets and they might just pop up again?
“They never made a cure for that stuff?” Mic questioned, interrupting Yagi’s internal monologue.
“I'm afraid not. They couldn’t complete a cure soon enough to stem the original surgence and with the takedown of who we thought was the only manufacturer, it was deemed for there to not be a need.”
“It could be someone different.” Most looked over at Aizawa who had spoken. “Remember Blackstrike and the Killer drug he had made? It helped his group practically wipe out over two dozen heroes by shutting off their quirks before the fight. If he is producing both Killer again and a new derivative of Trigger, we are in for a much bigger and much longer fight than we can hope for.”
A tense silence fell over the staff, each either contemplating their own experiences with Trigger or Killer or thinking about stories that had been told to them first-hand. One could easily be unstoppable if their enemies had no quirks and they had magnified powers.
“But don’t be irrationally paranoid yet,” Aizawa paused his statement when Mic elbowed him for the sharp comment. “These are only rumors. Just be alert and report anything suspicious. We’ve won this fight and will win it again.”
With that, the tense atmosphere softened a little.
It was no wonder he was number one. Even if Endeavor has more takedowns under his belt, the flame hero couldn’t calm a crowd like Apex could. All it took was confidence and sound advice from him.
Strange.
Out in the hall, Yagi expected the rest of the Rooftop Squad to converge on Aizawa and probably drag him away to...something. Possibly to interrogate him on being Apex and not telling them. It was a strange situation that Yagi didn’t have all the pieces to, yet, but he tried to put it out of his mind for the time being. It wasn’t his business.
Before he could get far as he walked away, someone came rushing up behind him and he was tapped on the arm (considering his shoulders are too high up for most people).
He turned back to see Mic having grabbed onto Aizawa’s arm and dragged him over.
“Hey, Mighty Man! I just wanted to try and break the tension before you and Sho started a rivalry or something. I swear you two would get along like Rock and Roll if you just gave each other a chance. You’d probably get a kick out of debating hero culture. Your ideas are on the same frequency just not at the same tempo. Ya dig?”
Before either of them could respond, Mic perked up, practically vibrating where he stood.
“Let’s get drinks tonight! I took the day off so we could hang out outside of school and it’d be sick if Yagi could join us. Whatdya say?”
Yagi was preempted again, this time by Aizawa huffing out, “I have patrol as Eraserhead.”
Mic’s tone and expression turned sharp. “No you don’t and I know that because I planned it around your daily recovery time and you’re not going out and making your shoulder worse by swinging on your scarf. What are you going to do if it gets too bad to go out as Apex tomorrow?”
This easily shut Aizawa up, as if Mic knew exactly how to get his friend to shut down his workaholism for one night. It was almost cute, seeing Aizawa’s lower lip jut out just a tiny bit before he buried his mouth in his scarf.
“Fine, but I hate going to bars and being the only one just drinking water. How about going to The Sleepy Kitten off of Fourth Street and just having brunch?”
“Deal!” Mic shouted a bit too loud for their close proximity but before they could process the word, he was rushing over to drag Midnight and Oboro into his altered plans.
Yagi and Aizawa were just left there for a long moment before Aizawa sighed. “I swear he is ranked with five out of five intelligence but sometimes his personality and creativity overshadow any rationality. I’m at least glad I changed the venue.”
Yagi just looked at him questioningly causing Aizawa to continue.
“Don’t tell him but I had a bit of a drinking problem a year or so before I got hurt. I got sober after almost missing a rescue because I was too drunk to wake up properly.”
“In Bespin City? The sinking cargo ship? I remember watching you and being worried you had gotten a concussion beforehand.”
“Yep. That was one hell of a shitshow but if it helps, I’ve been clean since then. Not a drop of alcohol for me. It’s too dangerous for everyone.”
Yagi considered that for a moment before brushing off the worst of it.
“I’m glad you’ve got a support network now. I never got into alcohol because of the fear of being drunk at the wrong time. But I guess you being the number one hero would make it even more important. I’m not even on the scoreboard.”
“Which is good. Keep your privacy,” Aizawa huffed, “you’ll regret it if you don’t. Before I could shift back and forth, I couldn’t go to even an animal shelter without being mobbed and stressing out both the employees and animals.”
Careful not to startle him, Yagi softly settled a hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing to help ground the hero and bring him out of his darker thoughts.
“Well, I’m glad that out of all of this, you’ve gotten your own privacy. I’m not even a fraction as popular as you and I still get cameras shoved in my face all too often.”
Mic chose this moment to come back over and ushered them to the exit so they could head over to the cafe Mic had managed to rent out (as to prevent unwanted attention from other patrons). Aizawa outwardly seemed to be annoyed or even angry at the rushed treatment but after seeing how much his emotions bled into his eyes, Yagi could tell that he was happy and interested in his friend’s million-mile-an-hour talking.
Finally shaking off the rest of his hesitation, he used his superior height to quickly catch up with them, pacing his steps to walk alongside them. Mic and Shirakumo seemed lost in a fight over who is paying while Midnight and Aizawa just watched the over-excited duo.
Aizawa let himself fall a little back so he could walk next to Yagi.
“It is nice to meet you by the way. Let’s just hope the year doesn’t go to shit.”
