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When she enters the UA gates she notices a couple of buses arriving. She pays no heed to it, merely continuing her journey to find Eraser and his class, mainly Eraser. After asking around, she is led to the field where she sees his kids having a warmup stretches. It looks like she has arrived just in time.
She looks around the field, searching for her intended target. She finds him standing alone a little further away from his class, his arms crossed over his chest and eyes sharply gaze over his kids.
"Yo, Eraser," she greets with the usual wave as she approaches him. He spares her a glance before his gaze returns back to his kids. "You seem a little tense than usual. What's up?" she asks after noticing the hard line on his lips and the critical and calculative look in his eyes.
"Class 1-A will be having a little tournament with a team from a foreign school. They will be arriving here shortly," he answers.
"Cool. Are we about to see some real fights?" she asks, feeling a little excited.
"Not quite. It will be a hand to hand combat, without the use of their Quirks. So it will be completely different what was seen during Sports Festival."
That explains the lack of explosions and destructions and such. Well bummer. She had wanted to see what his kids are capable of with her own very eyes. She had missed the Sport Festival earlier and the recorded videos of the tournament didn't do enough justice.
She takes a glance at Eraser beside her.
Then again, hand to hand combat could be a good show, with a teacher like Eraser. If her assumptions are correct then Eraser has no physical enhancing Quirks, so in a sense he is basically fighting Quirkless. He will be a great teacher to teach hand to hand combat. She's interested in what skills and tricks he had bestowed upon his kids.
Then she something crosses her mind.
"So that time when we first met… They were preparing for today, wasn't it?"
"Hm," he hums in affirmation. She lets out a low whistle.
"Dang, dude. I didn't think you'd be the type to do some early prep."
"It was supposed to be the day after that," Eraser clarifies. "But a large scale villain attack near their area forced them to reschedule and assist the recovery."
'A large scale villain attack near their area?' She had read the news regarding the recent attack. If the attack is where she think it is then the foreign school Eraser is talking about should be…
"ERASER!"
The Erasure Hero twitches violently as a horror struck look dawns on his face. She gives him a surprised look before turning towards the source, curious on who can make Eraser look as such.
"Ah, Miruko too!" Ms. Joke waves at them as she walks over with a wide very shiny smile on her face. "Hey! Nice to meet you, Miruko! What are you doing here?"
"I should ask you the same thing," she replies instead, completely avoiding the questions altogether. Ms. Joke doesn't need to know that she's here to see Eraser disguised as curiosity on his class' abilities.
"I am here to accept my future husband's marriage proposal!"
"No."
"BWAH!"
What?
"You two know each other?" she interrupts, looking at the two of them back and forth. Eraser looks like he wishes to be erased (heh) from reality at this very moment while Ms. Joke is bent forward clutching her stomach, uncontrollably laughing.
"She and I used to work together," Eraser answers and is already looking thrice the tiredness. "The agency that hired me a while ago was close to hers, so it was inevitable."
"And so our mutual love blooms!"
"No it doesn't."
"Always the quick retorts!" Ms. Joke snaps her fingers at Eraser, still wearing the large smile on her face. It seems this had been going for a while now, seeing they go back and forth with no delay in between exchange.
"Ms. Joke here is the volunteered away team that will fight against my class," Eraser tells her when he sees her questioning look, finally giving the real answer why Ms. Joke is here.
"This isn't our first fight against each other," Joke continues where he stops, turning away from Eraser to look at her. "His kids had gone against mine during the preliminary exam. This time, they will be prepared. Isn't that right, future husband?!" Joke turns back around and smiles brightly at Eraser, giving him a thumb up.
"…Oh I'm sorry, did you say something to me?"
"BWAH!"
"Are you staying, Miruko?" Eraser asks her, ignoring the laughing Joke in front of him. She lets out a thoughtful hum even though she already has her answer prepared.
"I'll stay for a couple of rounds before I start patrolling. I have time to kill anyway," she says. Eraser nods his head before turning his attention to the students, who grow in size when Joke's students came comingling with each other.
"Alright, get to the arena!"
"How much have you taught them?"
"Enough."
"Well if you and I go out together then I could take them off from your hands."
"No."
"Your fly is also down, Eraser!"
"Your students are surprisingly good at hand to hand combat, Joke," she comments while her eyes glued to the battle between two students in front of them. It's the third round; so far Eraser's class scored a win and Joke's one as well.
"Well, they have a great teacher," Joke replies with a happy smile on her lips. "And besides, if you're up against this guy you really need to step up your game," she adds as she bumps her fist onto Eraser's chest, who bats her hand away with a lazy wave. "His hand to hand combat skills are…"
"Don't."
"…No Joke."
"Stop."
"BWAH!"
She tunes out Joke's burst and focuses back at the fight. It's the red haired kid this time. If she remembers correctly, this is one of the two kids that worked under Fatgum not too long ago. He has a skin hardening Quirk, she thinks.
One would think that having an absolute defense and zero offense Quirk would lead him to be quite skilled at hand to hand combat, but that is not the case. Because of his absolutely defensive Quirk, he could carelessly throw punches around without repercussion. But because this little tournament is a Quirkless hand to hand combat, his usual tactics could backfire against him. Basically the kid needs to know when to hold back.
So far, the tailed kid is the best in his battle. He obliterated Joke's student, already pinned him down before the ten second mark hit. The tailed kid excels at hand to hand combat. She wonders how much of it is the kid's on ability and how much of it is taught by Eraser.
Joke's student throws out one straight punch. The red haired boy reacts by suddenly bending forward while bringing his left foot up from behind and successfully strikes his opponent right in the face with his heel. The poor kid falls to the ground while the red haired boy stumbles forward before landing on his face. But he quickly gets up on his hands and knees with a very shocked look on his face, as if he didn't expect he could pull such a move. The rest of Eraser's kids whoops and cheers over their victory.
That was quite an impressive move.
"Eraser! You did not!"
"Hmm."
She gives the pair a raised eyebrow. Joke is sparkling as she beams at Eraser while the man has a blank look on his face, but his eyes narrow slightly.
"He needs to work out on his balance to catch himself from falling over."
"Still! I'm shocked you taught your class that move!"
"They still have a long way to go to make use of their hands and feet."
"Always the tough one!"
"Shut up."
"I bet if you and I have babies they will be the most perfect beings on the planet!"
"Stop."
"Date me!"
"No."
"BWAH!"
Eraser shakes his head as he walks towards the ring to declare the winner of the fight, leaving her alone with Joke who is typically laughing her ass off. Almost instantly, the red haired boy rushes over to him, surrounded by excited sparkles. He's probably telling Eraser about how he managed to pull the move earlier.
Now that she knows that Eraser is far from hearing range…
"Joke?" she calls out a little quieter than usual, just to be safe if Eraser decides to eavesdrop. Though from the look of how he is surrounded by his kids, chatting up a storm over the red haired kid's accomplishment, she doubts he could hear her. Just to be safe, anyway.
"Yeah?" Joke straightens up as her mirth instantly dies out, giving her a questioning look. She presses her lips into a thin line, hesitates a bit.
"They're not jokes, aren't they?" she asks, but it feels more like a statement, because she already knows the answer. Joke doesn't answer immediately, and that is already enough to confirm her question.
"He's not interested in me," she states, gazes longingly at Eraser who is trying to move the tournament to the next round but two of his kids decide to cause a ruckus, which lead to Eraser wrapping them up with his scarf. "There is no way he will accept it. I can only bear it with jokes." The Laugh Hero has a sad smile on her lips, a stark contrast to her usual bubbly personality.
"Does he know?" she couldn't help but ask. Surely with all those jokes Eraser would get the idea, right?
"No… but I suspect he actually does but humors my joke just so he wouldn't hurt me."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"It's fine… partly. Don't worry about it; I've come to accept my fate." She waves a hand casually even though her face is pinched slightly. "I'm sure you have a better chance than me."
"Excuse me?" She gives Joke an accusing look, while Joke gives her a knowing smirk.
"Don't deny it. I know that look in your eyes."
They hold eye contact for a little while before she breaks it off with a click of her tongue. Joke's right; she can't deny it.
She is interested in Eraser.
"How do you…?"
"Get close to him? I don't really know, Miruko. I had been trying for years but not once he had looked at my way."
"Sorry for asking," she apologizes with a slight wince, feeling insensitive for asking. Once more, Joke waves a hand dismissively.
"It's fine. No harsh feelings," she reassures just as Eraser comes back, looking even more tired than before. She wonders how long before he drops dead from exhaustion, or maybe he's already past that point a long time ago. "Did you come back to finally accept my marriage proposal?"
"No."
"BWAH!"
"Well, it's time for me to go," she says as she stretches her arms and legs for standing on the same spot for a long time. She had been staying long enough; the fights were interesting but she has patrolling to do. "You want to see me off?"
"Why not?"
She freezes mid-stretching.
"Eh?" she gives the Erasure Hero a surprised look. It was a joke suggestion but she didn't think he would straight up accept it.
"I need a little break anyway," he reasons, scratching the back of his neck casually. "Man the fight, Joke. Make sure they behave." He gives his kids a warning look.
"We're sorry, Mr. Aizawa!"
Eraser groans before he makes his way to the exit. She shares a look with Joke, who has a growing smirk on her lips and wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. She rolls her eyes and huffs before chasing after Eraser, leaving Joke behind.
She tries not to think too much that Eraser readily accepts her suggestion. It's just a good timing. Eraser just needs a little time away; with her by his side is just a coincidence, a perfect timing.
She'll take it nonetheless.
"I'm surprised you're not in the arena to oversee your kids' progress," she comments just as she arrives by his side. Both of them casually make their way to the UA gate.
"I already know what they are capable of. This small tournament is for them to see what they are capable of," he replies with tone full of unwavering confidence. She gives him an impressed look. "They'll be great Heroes. I will make sure of it."
"You really are fond of those kids," she says, feeling the small smile on her lips.
"I do not," he retorts with a scowl as the UA gates are finally within view. "They are hellions, are what they are. They speed up my death."
"Whatever, Eraser." He grumbles as she smirks at him. They stop right outside the gate and she turns towards him. "Well, thanks for sending me off. See ya."
"See you tomorrow."
She halts in her steps and turns around to look at Eraser but he's already making his way further inside.
'So he's expecting me to come back, huh?'