Chapter Text
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The evening was cold.
Frost weighed heavy on the branches of trees, slushy piles of snow lining the sidewalks as icicles hung precariously off the edges of angled rooves. The sun lay submerged halfway under the horizon, casting a golden glow that broke up the ice-heavy clouds that hung low in the sky.
While outside may have been bitten with a sharp chill, inside the bar was another story. Laughter filled the quaint little building, bellies warmed by the liquor passed around the table as stories were told and jokes were made. The group, while small, took up quite the presence in their little corner booth.
Toshinori Yagi, better known as former number one hero All Might, shook his head at the drunkards around him as they spoke with slurred yet warm words. Beside him sat Aizawa Shouta, and beside him was Hizashi Yamada. One, a quiet grump of a man with a soft spot for the children under his care, and the other, a loud-mouthed DJ with a gift for making those around him laugh. On Yagi’s other side sat Kayama Nemuri, a woman with a thread-bare filter and the alcohol tolerance of a Russian boxer.
The quartet was an odd sight to be sure, a hodgepodge of personalities that you wouldn’t expect to mix as well as they did. They were a normal sight to be seen in this particular bar, with Yagi often, if not always, acting as the group’s sober caretaker. It wasn’t a position he minded taking up; he couldn’t have the alcohol due to his injury, but he’d never been much of a drinker in the first place, so he hardly mourned the loss.
On a night like this, he was simply happy to be surrounded by the group of energetic co-workers he called friends; easily keeping him entertained with their inebriated antics.
A glance down at his watch told him that it was nearing eight o’clock— with the sun vanishing behind the horizon, they should be getting back to campus. He glanced around the booth, taking stock of the younger men and woman that surrounded him before clearing his throat. Aizawa glanced his way, bringing a hand up to cover Hizashi’s mouth with practiced ease and shutting down whatever rambling story he’d been telling.
“It’s getting late- we should head back,” Yagi said, glancing around the table. “I’ll get the check, you all sober up,” he grinned, scooting his way past Kayama and walking towards the bartender.
“Quite the sight, you four,” the man behind the counter said as he made his way towards the register, Yagi following him along the length of the bar with a chuckle. “Always a welcome sight, though. That’ll be 5000 yen.” The lanky blonde winced, shaking his head with a grin as he pulled out his card and handed it over to the bulky man.
“At this rate, they’re going to drive me to drink,” he said lightly, getting a snort from the man as his card was returned. “Thank you, for allowing us to take up so much of your time,” he said, getting a dismissive wave of the hand from the man.
“Don’t worry about it, All Might. Your little group keeps me in business,” he grinned, closing up the register and leaving the skeletal man to his own devices. Pocketing his wallet and card, he glanced back towards the other teachers; and jeez, you wouldn’t think they all taught at a prestigious school by looking at them at the moment.
Hizashi was swaying on his feet, struggling to tug on the leather jacket that Aizawa insist he put on. Kayama was watching them with an amused smirk, picking up one of the tankards still sitting on the table and downing it. “Alrighty, boys…” She pushed her way between the two men, hanging off them with a shit-eating grin. “Let’s roll!”
Toshinori shook his head at them, meeting the trio at the door and giving one last goodbye wave to the bartender before following his younger coworkers out into the brisk night air. He tugged his jacket a little closer to his body as Kayama fished her and Aizawa’s gloves out of her purse. Hizashi shoved his hands into his jacket pockets as his teeth began to chatter, with the raven beside him muttering a comment on how he’d told him to put on something warmer.
The quartet made their way down the icy sidewalk with Toshinori out front as the de-facto leader, something that had long since become the norm since Hizashi had managed to get them lost the last time he tried leading them home while drunk. He rounded the corner, thoughts drifting to the stack of papers waiting on his desk just ready to be graded; paperwork, he thought, just in another form… he hated paperwork.
Yagi rounded the corner, the trio behind him following suit as Kayama struck up a new conversation after Hizashi called her inhuman for her ability to hold her alcohol. She was just as drunk as the other two; though the difference between them was that she’d had the same amount of drinks on her own as the two men had drank put together.
“I first had sake when I was in middle school, you grow a tolerance to it,” she said, only to stumble slightly in her step and be forced to lean on Hizashi for a moment before she regained her balance.
“Really? I- I wasn’t allowed it until… high school,” the loud-mouthed blonde replied, glancing towards the raven beside him. “Shou too- I remember I gave him some from my lunch… he hated it! It was hilaaaarious, you should have seen him, Nem...”
“What about you, Yagi?” Kayama asked, picking up her pace to keep in time with the long-legged leader of their drunken little group. “When’s the first time you…. had a drink?” she asked with a smile and an overdramatic bat of her eyelashes.
“Ah, I’m not sure… probably college, though,” he replied easily, coming to a stop at a crossing, looking both ways, and proceeding to put his feet to the asphalt. “I’ve never much liked the taste, though. Just not for me.”
“Boooooriiiing…” Kayama said as she hung onto his arm, leaning on him slightly as the group crossed the street. “Have you always been a goody-two-shoes, bunny man?” she asked, causing the blonde to chuckle as they made it to the other side of the road.
He merely shrugged in response, keeping his eyes ahead as they continued their trek. The bar was a bit of a way away from campus, but it was collectively their favorite, so on the rare occasion they went out as a group, it was always the first choice. On a night like this, though, he wished it was closer. The cold wasn’t kind to his battered body, pulling muscles taut and making his joints ache.
Kayama slipped from his arm, slowing her pace to keep up with the pair behind them- not that Yagi noticed. Something had caught his eye, a shift in the air that had his instincts jumpstarting into overdrive. Call it what you want, intuition, a gut feeling- but after 30 years in the business, Yagi could tell when something felt… off.
He furrowed his brow, slowing his pace slightly as they passed an alley. They moved under a streetlight and passed another alley. No danger in the vicinity…so why did he get the feeling that something was—
Movement in the corner of his eye had him shifting his stance in an instant, head whipping towards whatever it was that was flying at him as he rounded the corner. The sight of a man stumbling over himself as he ran wasn’t what he’d been expecting, but his guard remained up nonetheless. He was fast; slamming into Toshinori and knocking him to the ground before he had a chance to get his arm up to stop him or even brace himself for impact.
He landed hard on the asphalt, the man above him, covered in more than enough winter wear, scrambling up and backing away from him with wide, panicked eyes. His glove had come off in the scuffle, landing on the ground beside the lanky figure. Toshinori had felt fingers flicker across his skin, the man's hands feeling more akin to ice than flesh. He met the man’s eyes, watching as he glanced towards his now bare hand before looking back at Yagi like he was some kind of ghost.
Then, he took off, leaving a dazed and confused Yagi to wonder what the hell just happened. Aizawa was at his side, trying to help him to his feet by grabbing the thick leather sleeve of his letterman, only for the blonde’s head to begin to spin. He hadn’t hit the ground that hard, what was going on-?
The sudden presence of light in the corner of his vision, accompanied by the telltale sound of crackling flames alerted him to a newcomer- Endeavor. The flame hero touched down on the ground and glanced around the group with a mixture of confusion and anger on his face; though, considering this was Enji Todoroki, Yagi would be more surprised if his face didn’t show an emotion that was somehow crossed with anger.
“Where did he go? What are you all doing standing around for?” he grunted, gaze landing on Yagi and staying there for a moment. “Where did the villain go?” he asked, his tone firm and stoic.
“Villain…?” Yagi questioned, sitting up full with Kayama bracing him from one side as Aizawa braced him from the other.
“Yes, villain- he just ran this way,” Enji sneered, huffing steam from his nose in annoyance like a cartoon bull. “Are you that pathetic now that a quirkless thief is too much for you?” he asked, eyes narrowing slightly at the man still on the ground.
“Wha...?” Yagi asked, his head feeling light as the world around him felt like it was spinning. His vision began to swim, the figures on either side of him shifting in and out of focus as he watched the third pull out his phone and the fourth take a solitary step forward.
“There’s no blood- he might- he might have a concussion,” Aizawa said, his speech tinged with a slurred concern as the lanky blonde felt his eyelids begin to droop. “Yagi- stay awake. You can’t go to sleep on us right now,” the raven said, glancing towards Kayama anxiously.
“Mulberry and Fifth. Yeah- hurry. Yagi hit his head on the road,” he heard the yellow-headed figure say, though by this point the sounds around him were beginning to blur together into an incomprehensible slosh in his mind.
“Get him to a doctor. Which way did the villain go?” he heard Enji ask before a beat of silence, followed by the thudding of boots getting farther away. His head lopped forward as his eyelids slid shut, willpower giving out beneath him as he sank into darkness, despite the concerned voices around him growing in volume.
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By the time a car arrived, Aizawa's arms were beginning to tremble under Yagi's weight. Say what you want about the man's skeletal frame, his monstrous height more than made up the extra pounds; the son of a bitch was heavy. Gloved hands on either side of the now unconscious man heaved him up as Vlad shut the car door and hurried over.
"What the Hell happened-" he asked gruffly, taking most of Yagi's weight against his thick jacket as his gloves struggled to grapple against the former pro's jacket. "Get in the car, Mic we gotta go," he said. to the blonde man still watching the street Endeavor had vanished down in search of the apparent crook.
"Right- right- we should go- go help Endeavor though, right?"
"Aren't you shit-faced right now?" Vlad asked as he closed the rear door behind Aizawa. "Get in the car, let the new number one handle it," he said, moving over to the driver's side. Hizashi climbed into the passenger side, and before he could buckle up they were screeching down the street, heading for the campus.
Upon arrival, they were greeted by the iron gates opening and Recovery Girl waiting outside the building. "Honestly, I shouldn't even be surprised by this point," the old woman remarked as Vlad and Aizawa manage to heave Yagi onto a waiting gurney and follow her into the large building. The school wouldn't be most people's first choice when it comes to a potential traumatic injury, but it was the heroes' first choice considering the woman that worked there and the quirk she possessed.
To go anywhere else would be a waste of time.
The former number one was wheeled into Recovery Girl's office and deposited onto a medical bed, his feet sticking up and ankles resting on the footboard. The old woman shoved the men aside once the blonde was laying on the bed, looking him over with a critical eye before adjusting his head with a yellow-gloved hand. She took a closer look at the back of his head, humming to herself before resting it back on the pillow.
"Well there's no signs of a head injury- what happened while you all were out there?" she asked, turning around to glare up at the group.
"Someone ran into him. A villain, from what Endeavor said," Kayama explained as she shed her coat and folded it over her arm. "If he's not injured, why did he pass out?"
"The man that ran into him must have had some kind of sleep-inducing quirk," Recovery Girl replied, furrowing her brow and glancing back towards the lanky blonde laying in the bed.
"Endeavor said the man was quirkless," Aizawa replied, tugging off his gloves and shoving them into his pockets. "He could have been wrong, but..." he trailed off, glancing towards Hizashi.
The sudden presence of heat in the room alerted them to the fact that they had a guest- the group glanced back towards the door to find Endeavor standing there with a scowl on his face. "Bastard slipped through my fingers," he grunted in explanation, glancing towards the unconscious Symbol of Peace. "And him?" he asked lowly, raising a solitary brow in question. Corded arms crossed over his chest as Aizawa rolled his eyes.
"We think the villain had some kind of sleep-inducing quirk."
Enji gave him a look, face twisting into a half sneer. "Right..." he said, tearing his eyes away from the blonde to look at the underground hero. He opened his mouth to speak, only for the office door to open again, this time followed by a panicked squeak and a soft "...All Might?"
A green-haired boy rushed past the heroes, surprising them with his presence as he came up to the side of the bed. "All Might? What- what happened!?" he glanced back with wide, confused eyes, anxiety filling his frame as his gaze flitted between Yagi and the rest of the heroes in the room.
"Midoriya, what are you doing here? You should be in your dorm. It's past curfew..." Aizawa said with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How did you know he was here?"
"Oh, I- I got a text from someone, they said they saw All Might being wheeled into the building on a stretcher... I got worried," the boy replied, only to glance back towards his mentor. "He's alright, right? Why is he unconscious? What happened?" he asked, turning his questions on the old woman standing beside him.
"Seems he was struck with a sleeping quirk. He's fine, young man," she replied, shaking her head at him before shuffling her away through the small crowd. "I'm going to get him something for his head when he wakes up. I'll be right back," she said. Midoriya bit his lip and turned his attention back towards the former pro, reaching out to rest his hand on top of the old man's calloused one.
"Okay... he's gonna be okay, though?" he asked, getting a huff from Enji in response.
"All of this idiotic fretting... she said he'd be fine, boy," he said, only to furrow a brow when the greenette began to sway on his feet.
"Midoriya-?" Aizawa said, standing up a bit straighter and reaching a hand out towards his student, only for the boy's knees to buckle and send him toppling forward like a sack of rice. Thankfully, Kayama was there to break his fall, getting her arms around him before he could collide with the linoleum.
"What the-"
"Midoriya? Midoriya-!" Aizawa came forward, kneeling down to brush the boy's hair out of his face and press the back of his palm against his head. "What-" he glanced to his side, only to find Kayama lurching forward herself, Midoriya still in her arms. "Kayama-?"
A wave of dizziness hit him like a truck, causing him to suck in a sharp breath from where he sat on the floor. "What the-" Aizawa glanced back towards Hizashi, finding the man crouching down beside him with worry etched into his features.
"Shou-? Shou what's- why is- why are you-" The blonde set his hand on top of Aizawa's and glanced back towards Endeavor. The redhead was quick to move, picking up Midoriya and hoisting him onto the other empty medical bed before kneeling down to right Kayama and set her against the filing cabinet as she slumped forward.
"Midnight. Midnight, snap out of it- I thought she couldn't be affected by sleeping quirks," he growled with a glance towards Hizashi, who was busy patting Aizawa's face in an attempt to wake him up.
"She- she is! I don't- I don't understand-!" he replied, heaving the raven up with some difficulty and managing to get him situated in a chair. The same fog to hit the others hit him as well, vision going in and out of focus as he found exhaustion suddenly gripping him tightly. "Endeavor...?" he glanced towards the Flame Hero, only to find the man leaning against the filing cabinet beside Kayama with a look that told him he was trying to keep his eyes open himself.
"Shit..." was all he could manage to muster before the darkness overtook him.
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