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Hizashi leaned back in his chair in the announcer's booth, whistling to himself. The Sports Festival was his favorite event of the school year. He loved seeing the students working hard to prove themselves. It warmed his heart to see them so excited and determined. The hero classes especially.
The other classes may not be as enthusiastic about the Sports Festival, since this event is more for the hero students, but Hizashi knew how important it was that the other students participate. The support students, for instance, needed a way to show off their support gear to prospective support companies. On the other hand, the general education department had a handful of students who had been hoping to make it into the hero course. This was a good way for them to have a chance at transferring over should a spot open up in either one of the hero classes.
Shouta was proof that having the other students participate was a good idea. After all, without the Sports Festival, Hizashi never would have met his best friend.
… And Shouta wouldn't have become a hero, but Hizashi felt that their friendship was the best thing to come from Shouta entering the heroics course.
Speaking of Shouta, Hizashi glanced to his right at his best friend, who had advocated for the cancellation of the Sports Festival in light of the attack on the USJ…. And who was near falling asleep in his chair. He snorted at the familiar sight, causing Shouta to peer over at him through half-open eyes.
"What?" He grumbled.
"Oh, nothing Shouta." Hizashi grinned cheekily, earning an eye-roll from his companion. They were silent for a moment, then, "So… Midoriya got first place. It must be nerve racking, knowing that everyone will be after the ten million points on his head." Shouta hummed in agreement.
"His strategy during the minefield section of the obstacle race was very creative. I'd even call it a genius move, if only it wasn't so reckless."
"Aw, Shouta," Hizashi teased, "you know you're proud of him. It can't be easy, competing against those with strong and powerful quirks while not having a quirk himself. He was just 'thinking outside the box.'" He loosely quoted Shouta.
Shouta huffed in what Hizashi knew was amusement, though to anyone else he would appear annoyed, "I suppose he was. I just wish he didn't endanger himself in the process." He paused. "I'm proud of all my students. They've come a long way since the USJ."
"It's only been a month, don't tell me you're actually getting attached to your class this time?"
Shouta was quiet for a few seconds, "This one is different. They all have the potential to be amazing heroes. They've already seen what real villains are like, and that experience is driving them to do better everyday... I'm willing to die for these kids, Hizashi. I want them to succeed in life; even if I'm not there to see it happen." He sighed, "First, I have to make sure they actually survive long enough to graduate from UA. Hopefully, the rest of this year won't be as... hectic , as the USJ was."
"With our luck, Shouta, those kids will be finding themselves in the middle of trouble again soon enough."
Shouta gave a tired groan, "Nedzu, have mercy on us…"
Hizashi laughed at him, earning himself an exhausted glare.
He turned and looked out the window to the field. The kids were slowly returning for the cavalry battle, most looking nervous or excited or both. Hizashi glanced around, wanting to check on Midoriya. He frowned when the boy was nowhere to be seen.
"Midoriya's still not back." He murmured.
"I'm sure he's fine, Hizashi. He still has a few minutes until the break is over."
"Still… The kid's probably freaking out right now. How do you think he'll do this round? Everyone will be targeting him, and I'm afraid his lack of a quirk may influence any potential teammates into refusing to work with him…" Hizashi pointed out worriedly.
"I have faith in my Problem Child. He'll do fine, no matter who ends up on his team." Shouta said confidently.
Hizashi nodded, but his brows furrowed in concern. He couldn't put his finger on why or what… but he had a sinking feeling that something was horribly wrong.
He shook off the weird feeling. This was the Sports Festival for crying out loud; nothing big could happen here. Not with the amount of security and Pro-Heroes on the premises this year. In the words of Shouta: It would be highly illogical for anyone to attack the school right now.
He settled back in his chair to watch the stragglers finish making their way back onto the field. The pit in his stomach only grew as he noticed that Midoriya was still missing, and so was Todoroki.
A quick glance at his watch showed that the ten minutes were about up. It was time to pick teams for the cavalry battle, yet the first and second place students of the first round were nowhere to be seen.
Hizashi bit his lip, "Shouta, both Midoriya and Todoroki are still unaccounted for."
Shouta leaned forward and looked out the window, scanning for his students. He sighed in exasperation when he didn't find them.
"Problem Children — both of them."
Hizashi snorted unwillingly, before trying to cover it with a cough. Shouta stared at him, utterly unamused.
"Well —" Hizashi started, "it's time for them to pick teams. You're their homeroom teacher, you should go look for them and tell them time's up."
Shouta groaned, "This festival is more trouble than it's worth." He muttered. "Text Nemuri and tell her I'm going to find the boys." He told Hizashi before leaving the room.
Hizashi did just that, trying to ignore the way his hands trembled slightly with anxiety.
Everything was fine. Just fine.
A couple minutes later, while the students were in the middle of picking their teams for the Cavalry Battle, Hizashi's phone rang. He answered as soon as he saw Shouta's contact pop up on his screen.
The first thing he heard when he accepted the call was Shouta's hard and fast breaths. The man sounded like he was well on his way to hyperventilating. In the background he heard someone whimpering and whispering something he couldn't make out.
"Shouta?" Hizashi didn't bother trying to hide his worry. A feeling of complete and utter wrongness filled him at the sound of his best friend so close to panicking during what should have been a safe school event —
"Hizashi", Shouta choked out, which sent alarm bells ringing inside Hizashi's head, "I found them. Midoriya, he's —" Shouta's voice cut off, before he appeared to force the words out, "He's dead."
There was no way Hizashi had heard that right. "What!?" He said loudly, stunned. That… that couldn't be right. He had just seen Midoriya fifteen minutes ago — the kid had been fine.
"He killed himself, Hizashi." Hizashi's eyes widened in horror, an inaudible gasp escaping his lips. Shouta continued, "He slit his wrists, there's — it's too late. It's already too late." He heard Shouta take a shaky breath before Hizashi pulled his phone away from his ear and put it on speaker while he moved to text Nemuri and Cementoss, "How did I not see this coming? How did it get to this point and I-I didn't even notice?"
Hizashi forced himself to take a deep breath and did his best to shove his emotions to the side; Shouta had just stumbled upon something extremely traumatic. He had to be strong for him right now. He had to be his hero, his light in the darkness. He needed to keep Shouta as calm as possible, he had to make sure his friend didn't spiral.
He stood up and spoke as strongly as he could, hoping it would help ground Shouta, "Shouta, I'm on my way." He glanced at the text replies he had gotten from his colleagues, "Nemuri, too. Cementoss is calling Recovery Girl." Not for Midoriya, if Shouta said it was too late, then Hizashi believed him. No, it was Shouta and Todoroki (Hizashi had already guessed that he found Midoriya first. God, like the poor kid needed anymore trauma —) who needed her right now. "Stay on the phone. Keep talking."
Hizashi remembered the day he and Shouta had learned how to handle civilian's during an emergency, and while Shouta was definitely not a civilian, he was emotionally compromised at the moment. Right now he wasn't Eraserhead: The Underground Pro Hero, he was Aizawa Shouta: Class 1A's homeroom teacher, who had just found the aftermath of his student's suicide.
God. His student had committed suicide. His student had killed himself. Hizashi felt nauseous with devastation just thinking about it. He couldn't imagine how Shouta or even Todoroki were feeling right now, being the first to find him.
"Todoroki." Hizashi heard Shouta say through the phone.
"Midoriya, he —" The boy choked on his words, "H-he told me it'd be okay." Todoroki whispered, barely loud enough for Hizashi to hear him, "S-said he'd—he'd come back?" The kid said it like a question, and Hizashi's heart broke. Todoroki had found Midoriya when the boy was still conscious — that meant he'd seen Midoriya die.
Hizashi blinked away the tears in his eyes. He couldn't break down now. He had to stay strong. He… he had to take care of Shouta. He had to make sure Todoroki was in safe hands. He had to make sure Midoriya's body was moved so no other students saw it and —
Fuck. He had to make sure Midoriya's mother was informed.
What if she was watching the Sports Festival from home? Had she cheered her son on and celebrated his first place win during the first round? Was she anxiously staring at her TV screen right at this moment, wondering why her precious son wasn't with his classmates?
How could he look this woman in the eyes and tell her that her son had ended his life in the middle of a public and highly populated school event?
How had no one seen this coming? How had no one been around to stop this from happening?
Why did it happen? Why did Midoriya take such desperate action? Why did he feel like this was his only option? Why did he choose to do it here and now, of all places? Why didn't he tell anyone he was considering suicide? Why didn't he ask for help?
Why… Why did nobody notice that he was struggling...? Surely there had been signs that he wasn't doing okay…?
Teenage boys did not just kill themselves out of the blue like this for no reason . Something had to have happened to trigger this.
… But what? Midoriya had looked happy enough when he won first place… what could have happened between then and the middle of the break to cause this?
Hizashi's thoughts had been rushing through his head at breakneck speed, trying to find an explanation for what had happened, when Shouta's voice came through the phone in reply to Todoroki.
"He's not coming back, Todoroki." He whispered, his voice cracked and broken. "He's gone."
Hizashi covered his mouth to silence the distressed noise just begging to escape him.
He turned a corner and almost ran right into Nemuri and Recovery Girl.
"Hizashi," Nemuri sounded like she was barely keeping her own voice steady as she spoke, "Cementoss is making sure people stay in their seats and on the field while we —" she swallowed, "while we deal with the situation."
Hizashi doesn't know how to feel about that. Can't comprehend how there are hundreds of people here to watch the Sports Festival in person, completely unaware of what had just occurred under all of their noses. Some were probably complaining, wondering why the next round had been delayed.
If only they knew.
Hizashi nodded shakily to Nemuri before taking his phone off speaker and putting it back up to his ear, "Shouta? I'm with Nemuri and Recovery Girl — can you tell me where exactly you are so we can help you?"
Hizashi heard a slight rustling as Shouta presumably shifted his position, "We're in — we're in the boy's bathroom. The one for competing students." Shouta sighed softly and made soothing shushing noises to Todoroki, who Hizashi could hear sobbing in the background. "I know, I know. Shh… You're okay, let it out."
Hizashi quietly relayed their location to the two women by his side, and the three of them headed off immediately.
When they reached the bathroom, the first thing Hizashi heard was crying. Nemuri held the door open while him and Recovery Girl walked in and headed straight for the broken stall door at the other side of the room. He could smell the blood before he saw it, making him come dangerously close to gagging. The smell was incredibly strong, and he could see it under the stall wall. There was so much of it. He held strong and entered behind Recovery Girl, only to lean back against the wall and stare at the scene in shock and despair. Hearing what had happened didn't come close to seeing the proof with his own eyes, nor did it help him prepare himself for the storm of emotion that crashed into him as soon as he saw the body.
Midoriya was sitting on the floor, his body leaning back against the wall while his arms hung limply at his sides. Blood covered his arms and uniform, a large puddle of the stuff all around him on the floor. He had identical, deep cuts on both forearms. The wounds had long stopped bleeding, a sight which left Hizashi stricken with grief. Midoriya's body was so pale , his skin almost yellow from the incredible amount of blood loss. Did he even have any blood left in his veins?
Shouta was kneeling in front of the body with the young Todoroki, both of them uncaring of the blood soaking into their clothing. Shouta had Todoroki in a strong embrace while the boy sobbed into his chest. Hizashi could see tears silently trailing down Shouta's face as he stared at Midoriya.
Hizashi swallowed and slowly approached the two while Recovery Girl tried to gently coax Todoroki away from Shouta.
Shouta glanced up and stared at Hizashi hopelessly, "'Zashi…"
Hizashi squatted down next to Shouta, and put a hand on his shoulder, "Oh Shouta…"
Shouta turned his head to look down at Todoroki and carefully pried the devastated boy away from himself, "Todoroki, come on, you should — you should go get clean—cleaned up, and let Recovery Girl make sure you're alright."
Hizashi sighed sadly as he heard Shouta stutter. That was just not something that Shouta did, and it only showed just how much Midoriya's actions had shaken the man.
Todoroki sniffled and leaned back on his heels, he brought a hand up to wipe the snot and tears off his face but was stopped short by Shouta grabbing the boy's wrist. Todoroki stared down at his hand, which was covered in Midoriya's blood, "... What about Midoriya…?"
"We'll take care of him, Little Listener." Hizashi said softly.
The distraught boy just nodded and finally allowed Recovery Girl to lead him away. Hizashi watched Nemuri take over at the entrance to the bathroom, asking permission before using her quirk to make Todoroki sleep; she picked him up and strode away with Recovery Girl at her heels, presumably to the school infirmary.
"He's gone…"
Hizashi turned his attention back to Shouta at the quiet words.
"He's really gone, isn't he, Hizashi?" Shouta looked up and into Hizashi's green eyes.
Hizashi let a single tear trail down his face at the broken expression Shouta sported now that Todoroki couldn't see it. "Yeah… He's— he's gone. I'm sorry, Shouta. I'm so sorry —"
Shouta pulled Hizashi into a hug as his breath hitched.
As they cried in each other's arms and tried to comfort each other, Hizashi decided that Shouta had been right.
They should have cancelled the Sports Festival this year.