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“This is fucking bullshit.”
“Language, at least not around Asui.”
“Why am I even doing this sh-”
A throat clearing is heard.
“-this crap? In a team effort nonetheless?”
“We are here to set an example how to adapt to unlikely situation for the Hero-In-Training, which in this case happens to be Asui. You and I are chosen due to your refusal of cooperation-”
He sounds greatly disapproval.
“-and for my usual night patrol and goggles.”
“What? Little boy can’t handle some sunshine?”
“It’s hard to be in the shadow when the sun shines on practically everything. And with my goggles gone the villains will have clear view on whose Quirk I am erasing.”
“Pfft, weak.”
“This whole operation isn’t for you, Miruko.”
“Yeah, yeah, old man. It’s for the frog girl, yadda yadda…” She rolls her eyes in exasperation before huffing in annoyance for the umpteenth time for the last ten minutes and continues to pout.
Adapt her left butt cheek. This entire thing is just such bullshit. Why does it have to be her? And why does it have to be teamwork? If it is just she and the kid alone then she can tolerate it but only slightly. And of course she is forced to be paired with Eraser out of all teachers.
It’s not all that bad idea as initially thought.
But it is still bullshit though.
“What is the mouse thinking? Why does it have to be me?”
“A lot other Heroes are also chosen, kero.”
“Hm.”
“Why can’t it be Ryuukyuu-”
“With Bakugou and Ojirou, fighting without transformation and at enclosed spaces.”
“Present Mic-”
“Yaoyorozu, and muted. Finally.”
“Best Jeanist-”
“With Uraraka and limited Quirk usage.”
Her right eye twitches, getting a lot more annoyed by each answer.
“Ectoplasm-”
“Ashido and Tokoyami, and he is down a leg.”
“Crust-”
“Midoriya and Shoji, blindfolded.”
“Nedzu?!”
All she meets is a total silence.
“Right, dumb question.”
She releases an aggravated groan and balls her hands into fists.
“Please bear with it, Miruko. It will only last for two days, kero.”
“Urgh, fine. But I’m not going to be happy about it.”
“I feel like I’m managing two students instead of one.”
“You wanna go, bro!?”
Before she could get a reply from Eraser, a loud alarm catches their attention. Immediately they are on high alert and instantly rush to the source, dodging and weaving through the panicked citizens. Upon arriving, she sees a bunch of menacing looking people exiting the bank. It’s a bank heist, and it seems there are about a dozen of them or so.
“We got company! Heroes!” one of the villains shouts and it gains everyone’s attention. Six of them step forward while the other half rush into a van behind them. She clicks her tongue behind her teeth as she scowls. They’re getting away.
Before anyone could react, a familiar gray tendril shoots out from beside her. The villains brace themselves, expecting the scarf to wrap around one or two of them, but it shoots right past them, surprising everyone including hers. It wraps around the van’s rear wheels just as they start to spin. Then, they stuck stop, jolting the entire vehicle. The scarf had entangled with the axle.
Eraser had successfully stopped the runaway.
Taking advantage of the moment of shock, she jumps forward with one powerful leap, closing the distance between her and one villain. Before he could react, she slams her foot right to the side of his head, a move she knows will successfully knocking him out. She turns around just in time to see the frog girl taking one down all by herself, wrapping her long tongue around him and swinging him down.
Eraser, after taking down a villain with one well-placed foot, jumps over everyone and makes a beeline for the van just as villains start pouring out from it. His scarf floats around him as he takes out a large knife from its sheath at his waist.
A battle cry gains her attention. She turns towards the incoming villain and dodges one fist with a simple head tilt before throwing out her own and easily connects with the villain’s face, causing him to stumble back. Before she could make a second move, he is instantly wrapped by frog girl’s long tongue and swings around to slam into another one.
She quickly looks around and finds one villain, standing in shock. She gives him a devilish smirk, causing him to jump before turning around makes a dash. Before she could react, frog girl’s tongue wraps around his waist and swings him back towards her. She hits the flying villain with one fist that knocks him out.
“Thanks, kid!” she shouts at the Hero-In-Training, who gives her a thumb up. She looks around once more, trying to find any other villains and realizes that that was the last villain around her. She turns towards the van, towards Eraser.
He’s already tying all the villains up with his scarf.
‘Damn it,’ she curses internally. She wanted to see him in action but got too distracted.
“You got them all down?” he asks as he is tightening the bind. She looks around, just to make sure the villains are either tied up – courtesy of the frog girl – or passed out – courtesy of her – before turning back to Eraser and flashes him a thumb. He gives her a nod.
Almost immediately, people with flashing cameras appear from nowhere and she is instantly surrounded. Having experience such thing before, the smirk easily comes up onto her face. She had gotten used to this. It is to be expected of a top five Pro Hero.
At the corner of her eyes, the frog girl is almost trampled, so she quickly reaches out and pulls her closer before she is drowned by the crowds. The kid gives her a thankful look. She looks beyond the crowd and flashing cameras, over at the van.
Eraser is nowhere in sight.
“You doing good?”
“That was a lot more tiresome, kero.”
“It do be like that. You did well though.”
“Thank you.”
“Took you long enough.”
“Mr. Aizawa.”
“Where’d you gone to?”
“I hate the crowds so I slinked away.”
“Mr. Aizawa, your sleeve.”
“Yeah, one managed to land a cut. He was aware I wasn’t erasing his Quirk. Don’t worry, I already bandage it all up. I’m good to go.”
“Not used to crowd?”
“It’s not the kind of fight I am proficient at. You did a good job, kid.”
“What? No compliment for me?”
“You’re one of the top five Pro Heroes of Japan. It shouldn’t be mentioned that your work is good.”
“Sheesh.”
“How are you, Asui?”
“A little tired.”
“Let’s have a little break for now.”
"ASUI!"
She hears Eraser shouts so loud that it startles her but not enough to distract. She kicks the villain in the head before jumping back, creating a sizeable distance between them. Seeing him staggering, she takes a chance to look back to check on her teammates.
She stops breathing at what she sees.
Eraser is kneeling on the floor, holding the unconscious and bloodied frog girl in his arms. But it's not that that freezes her.
His hair is rising up in the air, standing on end as if he is submerged underwater. His scarf floats around him, surrounding him and the girl as it ominously circle around them with its own force. She can’t see his face, but his red pupils are glowing in the dark, and that is enough to show.
Eraser is radiating pure unbridled rage, so much it freezes her on the spot.
She hears the villain groans and it snaps her from her stupor. Turning around, the villain has gain bearing and is ready to tackle her. But before she could react, two gray strands shoot out. One goes behind the villain before looping around and tightens on his right wrist. The other strand loops itself around his neck. The strands turn taut, causing the villain's arm bends back at a harsh angle that she hears something popped while he chokes out from the bind around his neck.
Eraser suddenly shoots past her and slams his knee on the villain's temple with enough force to topple him down. She can only watches in shock before it changes into horror.
Because Eraser is not finished.
While keeping the binds tight with one hand, he stands over the villain and bends the bound arm even more until she hears a snap. The villain roars in pain but it quickly gets cut off when Eraser slams his head with one foot so hard she hears a crunch.
"Fuck! Eraser, stop!" She rushed forward to grab him by the shoulder to stop him. But he shrugs her off and continues to slam down his foot on the villain's head. She curses under her breath. Eraser is blinded by rage right now. She needs to do something to make him to stop. She racks her mind, trying to find something.
"Frog girl- the student- your kid! She needs attention!"
Eraser stops in an instant, and in a blink of an eye he is gone from on top of the villain and returns to the frog girl’s side. She releases a sigh of relief, now for sure his anger has passed.
"Cuff him up and call the cops," she hears him telling her. He gathers the frog girl into his arms and quickly sprints off.
"Wait!" she shouts but he is already too far away to hear her. Eraser already disappeared. She huffs before turning around to face the villain. There is a noticeable depressed spot on his head, dripping blood from the wound. It’s borderline life threatening but he’ll live; she can tell thanks to her sensitive hearing. She releases a shuddering breath as she makes the call.
Even she wouldn't go that far.
As the line connects, she realizes that the villain is still bound Eraser’s scarf. She follows the trails of the strands with her eyes, turning around before they end in a pool right where the frog girl was at. Eraser had left his support weapon just to rescue his kid.
She puts the phone away once the call ends. Steeling her resolve, she starts to untie Eraser's scarf from the villain. She is surprised at how difficult it is to do so. They are surprisingly incredibly tough. What are they made of? How does Eraser command this easily?
Once it is off, she takes out a pair of extra-large Quirk suppressor handcuff and cuffs the villains. He’s already passed out and he will not be getting up anytime soon, courtesy of Eraser, but it wouldn’t hurt to be sure. The cops say they'll be here in less than five minutes. Eraser must have arrived at the hospital by now. It would've been not an easy feat to pull due to the distance, but something tells her he will do it just for his kids.
'They weren't kidding,' she thinks to herself as she remembers when a bunch of her colleagues, other heroes had told her about Eraser and his kids. When she hears the siren, she looks down at the scarf. She supposed she could do something for him.
She walks down the hallway, one hand gripping the wound up scarf as she looks for the right door. The nurse said they’ll be down here somewhere. When she finally found the right room she enters before stopping by the door and looks inside.
Lying unconsciously on the bed is the frog girl who thankfully is not drowned in tubes and whatnot, only an IV bag attached to her arm. That means it is not as serious as she thought. Right next to her, sitting on the chair is none other than Eraser himself.
His head is bowed, his two hands are holding onto one of the girl's.
She knocks on the door frame to announce her presence.
"Hey," she greets when he looks up at her. He grunts back as a reply before leaning back against the chair, releasing the girl's hand in the process.
"You took care of the villain?" she hears him asks as she approaches him.
"Yeah, I took care of it all so don't worry."
"Thanks," says with another grunt. His body slumps even more.
"Here." She holds out his scarf at arm’s length towards him. He gives her a look of surprise, judging from his raised eyebrows.
"Oh. Thanks." He takes it from her but doesn't put it around his neck, merely letting it rest on his lap. His gaze is back locked on the unconscious girl.
"How is she?" she asks when the silence starts to stretch.
"Nothing too serious, thankfully." The relief is evident in his tone. "Only a hard hit on the head. If all is well when she wakes up, she'll be released by tomorrow."
"That's good to hear."
"Hm."
She internally grumbles when they are back to silence. So much for starting a conversation. She should’ve expected it, really; Eraser doesn’t seem like the guy who talks a lot. It’s an opposite of her; she can’t stand silence. She needs to find something to fill in the air.
"That was irrational of me. To react to my emotion like that."
It seems she doesn’t need to say anything.
“I wasn't fast enough to grab her."
She looks at him with a raised eyebrow. She remembers what Bakubrat told her about. Eraser will take all the blame and he won't be easy on himself. She needs to find a way before it spirals down.
"I don't know, Eraser. Even I wouldn't be able to catch her that fast." She casually shrugs her shoulder in a lazy manner.
"But-"
"And besides." She nonchalantly places an arm on his head, using him as an arm rest. She hears him growling in threatening but she ignores him. "It ain't your fault, nor mine, nor hers. It's the villain's for being a douchebag."
Eraser doesn't respond for a while, casting them in silence before she hears him sighs under her.
"I guess you're right," he mutters out.
"What do you mean you guess? I am right." She leans down to show the victorious smirk on her lips. He gives her a half-lidded glance before pushes her arm off from his head and stands up.
"I'm grabbing coffee," he says as he dumps his scarf on the back of the chair. "You want something?"
"Carrot juice from the machine."
"Of course it is."
"Hey, what does that supposes to mean?!" she shouts but he ignores her as he makes his way out with his hands in his pockets. She huffs and is about to claim the just vacant seat before she hears a noise coming from the bed. Looking up, she notices that the frog girl is waking up.
Well, Eraser left too early.
"You're up," she says as the frog girl blinks a few times before turning her head and squints at her.
"Mir...uko?" she calls out, voice quite weak.
"One and only."
"Where...?" the girl roams her eyes around the room, brows furrow in confusion.
"We're in the hospital. You were only out for less than an hour." The girl seems to relax at her words, but the eyes still roam and the brows still furrowed.
"Mr. Ai...?"
"He's out to grab a few drinks. He's worried about you." She frowns when her eyes widen in panic.
"Not his fault."
She blinks in surprise. Then, she remembers what Bakubrat told her about how Eraser's kids are aware of how he is constantly blaming himself over any mistakes. She internally, somewhat finds it touching that the feeling goes both ways.
"Don't worry, he's already alright," she reassures with a lazy wave of a hand. The frog girl looks at her in surprise.
"He's… okay now?" she asks, voice slightly scratchy. She hums in reply with a light nod. The frog girl stays silent, keeping her gaze on her. She raises an eyebrow in confusion.
"Is something wrong?"
"It is not easy to convince Mr. Aizawa." The eyebrow lowers and she shifts her weight from one leg to the other.
"Really?"
"Yes, so to hear that he's okay now is... surprising."
Just in time, Eraser walks in, a steaming mug and a juice box in his hands and his eyes land on the frog girl. They widen before his entire body sags with relief.
"Asui."
"Mr. Aizawa."
He walks over to them, handing her the juice box without taking his eyes off the frog girl. Now with a free hand, he rests it on top of the girl's head.
"Thank goodness you're alright."
She could see that the frog girl is basking in the small gesture of affection.