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When she first enters UA, she expects to meet an exasperated sigh or a heated glare from Eraser. She expects to meet murderous look from Eraser as his friends and colleagues pester but will not snap no matter how little his patience had worn down. She expects to meet an utter chaos that is 1-A while Eraser tries to reel them in while dead on his feet.
What she does not expect is to meet an openly but well concealed fond look on Eraser’s face. What she does not expect is his hair tied up in multiple braids by “Hello Kitty” ties. What she does not expect is the multiple colored nails on Eraser’s fingers covered in copious amount of glitters.
What she really does not expect is the little girl hiding behind Eraser’s legs.
She looks down at the girl with surprised eyes. The girl returns the look but more timid than surprise as she peeks at her. She takes note of her white hair, red eyes and the very prominent horn on the top right side of her forehead. It’s small, just a little stub, but very prominent nonetheless.
“Eri.” She tries not to look up at Eraser with shocked eyes as he places a hand on the little girl’s head, near the horn.
That's… the softest voice she had ever heard from the Underground Hero.
“This is Miruko. She is a Hero.” She could see the little girl’s eyes brighten up at his words. She takes a single step to the side, away from Eraser and reveals herself wearing polka dot orange dress. She is looking up at her with wonder.
“Hero?” she hears the girl says. She grins widely at her.
“You bet I am! Number five Hero in all Japan!” she proclaims proudly while jabbing her thumb to her puffed out chest. Now with more confidence, the little girl takes a step closer to her. “So what's your name, girly?”
“Eri…”
“Nice to meet you, Eri. I'm Rumi, you can call me by my Hero name Miruko.”
She watches with amusement as the girl looks at her up and down, seeming assessing her, intrigued by her.
“Are you… a bunny?” Eri asks curiously.
“Yep. It's my Quirk. Wanna touch my ears?”
She doesn't miss the way her eyes light up.
“May I?” the girl inquires politely. She responds by crouching down and urges her closer. The little girl hesitates, looking back at Eraser. When he mutely nods, she turns back and steps closer to her. She bends one ear, an invitation for the little girl. She slowly reaches out before her palm touches her ear. “Fluffy…”
Her heart softens at the sight of awed fascination on her face.
The girl suddenly stops and stares at her with wide eyes. She stares back in confusion. She steps back and gives her a quick bow of gratitude before rushes back to Eraser. She stands back up, feeling slightly dismayed and confused. Had she done something to scare the little girl away? She watches curiously as the girl insistently tugging on Eraser's hand, urging him to bend down to her.
“She's just like me!” she hears her whisper excitedly into Eraser's ear, cupping her hands around it as if sharing a secret.
She could feel her heart swells.
“Is that so?” Eraser asks with low voice, but his eyes are on her, giving her a hidden but knowing look. So he is aware that her sensitive hearing could detect what is going on.
“She has red eyes and white hair just like me! And she's a Hero! A very famous Hero too!”
“Yes, yes she is,” While keeping eye contact, the look on his face changes into something… softer that makes her heart stutter. “Why don't you ask her, Eri?”
She tilts her head to the side in confusion. Ask her about what? The little girl nods before stepping closer to her once more.
“Miruko? Do you think I can be a Hero?”
‘Oh.’
“What're you saying, kid? You're going to be one of the greatest Heroes there is!” she states with zero hesitation, accompanying it with her usual smirk. The girl instantly brightens up as smile blossoms on her face.
“Really?!”
“Absolutely.” The little girl smiles so wide and so happy at her words that it is infectious. She could feel her body begins to vibrate with utter happiness.
“Thank you!” She turns around and sprints towards Eraser. She crashes into him while throwing her arms around his waist. “Shouta! Miruko says I can be Hero!”
“Yes you will. Why don't you go inside and tell Mi… Deku about it?”
“Okay!”
He turns around as the girly rushes inside into the large building. She approaches him and stands by his side.
“Thank you,” she hears him saying. “She needed to hear that. Bakugou did tell her the same thing but she wasn't fully convinced.”
“What's that all about?”
“Some kids from a playground yesterday told her that she cannot become a Hero because red eyes are for villains.”
“Urgh, kids,” she comments with a disdain and a roll of her eyes. Eraser hums in agreement.
“Seeing the top five Hero having red eyes had pretty much proved them wrong.”
“Is she the girl you guys rescued during the Hassakai raid a while ago?” She wasn’t included in the raid. It’s a goddamn tragic that it cost Nighteye’s life. If she read the reports correctly, Eraser was one of the people who brainstormed and led the raid.
“Yeah,” he nods his head. “She's taking quite a while to get used to normalcy, but she is slowly getting used to it.”
“Poor girl.”
“Hm.”
She glances at him from the corners of her eyes. She looks at his tied up hair – his hands are now in his pockets, hiding the colorful nails – and recalls his small tender moment with the girl.
“You adopted her?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
It seems she’s wrong then.
“Not yet anyway.”
It seems she’s wrong again.
“Really?” she asks, feeling quite surprised but not at the same time. She thinks “unexpected” would be the better word for it.
“Still processing.”
“So when will she be an Aizawa?”
“Very soon,” he answers quietly, softly.
She couldn’t see it, at first. If you tell her a long time ago that Eraser adopts a child as his own she would laugh her heart out. A man like Eraser to have a child? Sounds total bullshit. He looks like he can barely take care of himself.
But now, she see a different light of him, something that he keeps close and only show it to very few people. Just from the hair and his nail and his interaction with the little white haired girl, he is quite a soft, affectionate person.
He would make a good dad.
‘Eri. Eraser’s first kid.’
“Anyone else you're planning on adopting? I bet there's about twenty of them,” she teases with a grin. She expects to hear a witty reply or a glare from the teacher. All she is met is total silence and him looking away from her. “Holy shit, you're considering it.”
“I am not.” He finally turns towards her and glares. “It is illogical to do so. They have their own parents.”
“And you're pretty sad about it.”
“I am not sad.”
“I could help you out, just be prepared for me knocking on your door asking for help to hide the bodies.”
“Miruko.”
“I kid! I kid!” she laughs while shaking her hands at him, a giant grin plasters on her face. He groans in exasperation.
‘His heart’s so big,’ she thinks to herself as her mirth dies out. ‘Big enough to fit at least twenty-one kids, because they are important to him.’
She silently wonders if she would ever fit in there someday.
“And what’s all this getup is about?” she asks teasingly, pointedly looking at him up and down especially his hair. “You got turned into a doll for the ladies to play dress up?”
She expects him to releases a sigh of exasperation or a groan of resignation or something akin but, to her surprise, he merely hums that sounds nothing like she expects. In fact, when she looks at his face, he has this open fondness expression that is still visible even if he tries to hide it behind his scarf.
“Eri wanted to try in hairstyling. The rest soon joined afterward,” he answers, his face sinking further into his scarf.
Really, this man is soft at heart.
Just then, the purple haired boy comes out from the door, waddling towards them with half-closed eyes and hands in pockets. He also has that familiar scarf around his shoulders.
“Shinsou,” she hears Eraser starts.
“Mr. Aizawa,” the kid nods.
“Is everyone ready?”
“Almost. Eri is delaying everyone.”
“An acceptable excuse.”
“I’ll be by the field.”
“Hm.”
The kid walks away in a very similar manner as Eraser’s. Now it is just too suspicious to not ask.
“Is he your son?”
“Why you ask?”
“He looks just like you, down to the stride, the eyes, the exhaustion and the scarf.”
“He and I have no relation or whatsoever before UA.”
“And now?”
“He’s the other kid.”
“The other…? Oh.”
“Hm.”
‘Shinsou. That’s his name.’
“Well that’s two down, nineteen to go.”
“Miruko.”
“Kidding!”
Then, door of the building slams open and students start pouring out. First in line is the finger breaker holding hands with girly, Eri. Behind them are a bunch of kids that usually hang around the finger breaker.
“Midoriya,” Eraser calls out.
‘Midoriya.’ She looks at the green haired boy who is startled by Eraser before starts waving his free hand around in an apologetic manner.
“Sorry, Mr. Aizawa! Eri was excited to tell me about something.”
“It’s fine. Hurry up now.”
“Come on, Uraraka, Iida!”
‘Uraraka and Iida,’ she watches as the bob haired girl and Ingenium’s baby brother chase after fi… Midoriya. Eri is on his shoulders giggling away, enjoying the free ride.
“Wait, where’s Todoroki?” she hears the girl asks, pausing in her chase.
“He’s with Yaoyorozu!” Ing… Iida answers over his shoulder without pausing. Seemingly satisfied, Floa… Uraraka quickly chases after them. Then, four more students rush past her dashing towards the same direction as Midoriya and the others.
“Guys, come on! We’re late!”
“Wait up, Asui!”
‘I suppose those are Asui and Todoroki.’ She had worked with the frog girl, Asui, before so she knows who she is. It’s not hard to notice Endeavor’s kid, with his distinguish red and white hair. So either the black haired girl or the purple haired girl is Yaoyorozu and she doesn’t know the other one.
“Jirou, you forgot your hand wraps!” a boy with yellow hair shouts as he appears from the opened door. The purple haired girl halts to a stop to look back at the boy with an alarmed look. The other three continue on, leaving her behind.
“Crap!” the girl curses, looking like she’s about to dash inside at that moment when the yellow haired kid speaks again.
“Don’t worry, Ojirou got it!” Just then, the tailed boy, holding a large roll of hand wrap, joins the yellow haired kid as they sprint past her.
“Thanks, Kaminari!” the purple haired girl says, now joining the duo on their way.
‘So the purple haired is Jirou and the black haired is Yaoyorozu then. The yellow haired kid is Kaminari and the tailed boy is Ojirou.’
“Out of the way!”
“Ashido, no fair!”
“You gotta catch up, Kirishima!”
“Don’t let her get away, Sero!”
“Get off of me, Soy Sauce!”
“Sorry, Bakugou!”
“AOYAMA, YOUR GLITTER IS IN THE WAY.”
Four students are stumbling on top of each other while also trying to catch up the rest of the class, while another one is prancing along with them seemingly not participating the competition but somewhat involved nonetheless.
‘Pink girl is definitely Ashido. I know Bakugou, so the black haired kid with the apologetic look is Sero. That would mean the spiky haired kid is Kirishima. And judging how the prancing kid is literally glittering, that is most definitely Aoyama.’
“Is everything in order, Shouji?” she hears Eraser asks beside her. Turning around towards the door once more she is greeted by two students.
“Satou is taking out the cake from the oven and Kouda is putting his rabbit back in her cage,” the tallest kid answers, earning a nod from Eraser.
“Is Dark Shadow behaving well, Tokoyami?” Eraser asks the other student. A bird shadow pops out from the bird kid’s body and gives a chirp and a thumb up.
‘Shouji and Tokoyami.’ She had met Shouji a while ago, and Tokoyami is Hawks’ intern who thankfully recovered completely after Hawks’ unfortunate giant mishap. Another kid bursts through the door with a sheepish look on his face.
“Sorry Mr. Aizawa!” the kid apologizes.
“It’s fine, Satou. Go on then.”
‘And that is Satou. And that would leave one to…’
Another student comes out, looking very nervous. He’s the one with the flat rocky feature. A quiet one, she thinks.
“Go on, Kouda.”
‘Kouda.’
The quartet doesn’t rush like the rest. They seemingly takes a relax jog to their destination even though everyone else had said they are running late. She guesses that’s all twenty of them.
Wait, she’s missing one.
“Hagakure,” she hears the warning tone coming from Eraser.
“Sorry!” she hears a disembodied voice coming from… somewhere. But, just then, she sees a pair of floating gloves appearing from behind Eraser. Said glove them swings around as they go to where the rest of the students are at.
‘Oh yeah, Hakagure is the invisible girl.’
“Are you guys having something?” she finally asks, curious on where they are rushing to, and why.
“Midoriya and Uraraka found out that I still train Shinsou despite the transfer is completed. Then the rest of the class wanted to join in and it went downhill from that point on.”
She snickers at his misery.
“Do you mind helping out?”
“…Don’t mind if I do.”