Chapter Text
Aizawa Shouta, Pro Hero Eraserhead, watched his newest class as they all left the P.E. grounds, while mentally noting some of them to keep an eye on.
The first one was Mineta. The small boy had some serious attitude and behavioral issues, but Nedzu warned him that he couldn’t expel him without unquestionable proof because of his parents. Shouta hated politics.
The Todoroki kid also showed some red flags, most telling that he didn’t use his fire even once. Shouta was aware that Endeavor had several personality issues that were kept quiet from the general populace.
Bakugou was another problem. The brat was violent, he showed several behavioral problems that should have been addressed, but Shouta had a feeling that his attitude had been ignored because of his ‘heroic’ quirk. His file should confirm it and Shouta made a mental note to check it later.
Then there was Midoriya. The boy had a powerful quirk that he couldn’t control but didn’t seem lazy. He came up with a way to minimize the damage to his body quickly, determined not to lose his seat. But his behavior also raised several red flags. He showed genuine fear when Shouta has done his scare tactic, something that he regularly did, but never had a student react like the boy. He also seemed panicked when Bakugou attempted to attack him, which could indicate past bullying and abuse. It also fit with what he saw of the blond boy’s behavior. But the question was, why was Midoriya bullied? It didn’t seem like a rivalry, but the white-haired boy should have been praised for his quirk just like Bakugou.
Shouta could feel the start of a headache. This year’s class was full with problem children.
He narrowed his eyes when he saw the look that Bakugou sent Midoriya, looking between the two, noting the white-haired boy’s flinch. That was just more proof that there was something wrong with their history.
Shouta could admit that he was surprised when Midoriya asked to talk, but he didn’t show it as he sent the teen off to change and visit Recovery Girl before that.
And from there Shouta’s day became more exhausting. In hindsight, Midoriya’s panic made sense, but the Pro Hero was relieved that he could stop the teen from spiraling into a full-blown panic attack.
The whole story that Midoriya told was a very good example of basically everything that was wrong with their society. (It also showed how unlikely it was that Midoriya trusted Shouta enough to help him calm down from his panic.) The decade-long neglect and abuse that he suffered for his quirkless status. All Might’s negligence after the teen was attacked by a villain and how he carelessly told a child that he couldn’t be a Hero without a quirk, ignoring how many Heroes didn’t have powerful quirks like the man. Shouta himself fought essentially quirkless, especially when fighting someone with a mutation quirk. Quirks were just tools. Then came the ten months of training that barely could be called that and only gave the quirk to Midoriya on the day of the entrance exam without any real advice.
The theories that Midoriya came up with about his quirk that he only had for a little over a month, though he could understand why he didn’t attempt to experiment with it. Shouta made a mental note to ask Hizashi’s help with the teen’s training. His husband not only had experience with powerful and hard-to-control quirks, but he could also help Midoriya with his analysis, and this way Shouta could delay Nedzu taking the teen as his newest student.
#####
Shouta watched as Midoriya left the school after murmuring a quiet ‘See you tomorrow, Eraserhead-sensei’. The teen was emotionally exhausted, but after getting some candy from Recovery Girl, he looked more aware of things around him so he should be fine to get home on his own.
When he couldn’t see the kid anymore, Shouta turned around and headed back to the teachers’ lounge. He needed a coffee. He could already feel the start of the migraine that this whole situation will bring. What a mess.
First, he needed to look over the training schedule that Midoriya had and make necessary changes to it. From the short glance earlier, he thinks that the kid was doing too much. How small he was also concerned Shouta. Midoriya was looking younger than fifteen and the Hero had a suspicion that he wasn’t eating enough. He made a mental note to look into his home life as soon as possible.
He also needed to read through Midoriya’s full file and speak with Hound Dog to arrange a therapy session for the kid. He clearly needed it, especially since he was quirkless most of his life. Shouta was more than aware of how the quirkless was treated in today’s society and Midoriya could have serious issues because of it that needed to be addressed as soon as possible.
Shouta grimaced. He needed to do a lot of things to help the teen, but he had potential and Shouta didn’t want to see it wasted.
Mic, Snipe, and Thirteen were still in the lounge, with Vlad King joining them since Shouta left earlier. The blond man went to speak with the Underground Hero, but he just grumbled when Mic moved in his direction, heading over to the kitchen area for a cup of coffee.
Snipe snorted as he watched the short interaction. “How many students did ya expel this time?” the cowboy look-a-like asked in a dry voice.
“None.”
Silence and disbelieving looks.
“Then what was going on with the little listener earlier?” Mic questioned after a few moments.
Shouta didn’t answer. Midoriya placed his trust in him, despite his reservations and Shouta didn’t want to break it by telling the other teachers about his situation, if not necessary.
The dark-haired man refilled his mug before retreating back to his office to get to work. Hizashi followed him, most likely guessing that Shouta won’t talk in front of the other teachers.
“So, what's going on, Shou?”
Eraser picked up a paper from Midoriya’s file and handed that to the other man, “That’s the kid’s quirk registry, check the date.”
“What.” Shouta hummed in answer. That would have been his reaction too if he didn’t have an anxious teen in his office at that time. “Did he have an unidentified quirk before the exam?”
“No, he was believed to be quirkless.”
Hizashi looked at his husband in disbelief for a long moment before looking back at the paper in his hand. He blinked in surprise when he read over what Midoriya’s quirk was. “Wait. You have a student whose quirk is that he’s haunted? And he could use the quirks of those who are haunting him?”
Shouta groaned at the laughter that he could hear in the Voice Hero’s tone and slumped down onto the couch. Midoriya didn’t mention anything about it, but to be able to interact with long-dead people who also had the quirk that the teen now possessed seemed crazy.
And there was the question of how many people had the quirk before. From their earlier talk, Shouta could deduce that at least four people, All Might, Shimura Nana, someone with some type of smoke quirk, and the person who was born with the quirk in the first place. It would be easier to just ask All Might about more details, but Midoriya seemed like he didn’t want the man to know that he told anyone about the quirk. The older Pro Hero probably thought that as he was still alive, even if crippled, he could help the teen without anyone else but Midoriya obviously thought differently.
Shouta was glad that the teen asked for help. He was intelligent, his rambling about his theories concerning his quirk clearly showed that, but he also didn’t trust a lot of people. Not that Shouta blamed him, it couldn’t have been easy growing up quirkless in this day and age.
Hizashi’s voice pulled Shouta out of his thoughts, “Is this the little listener’s training schedule?” The Erasure Hero looked over to see his husband standing by his desk with some papers in his hands. Shouta made an agreeing noise. “He doesn’t have any rest days.”
Shouta sat up straight. “What.”
Mic nodded as he handed over the papers. Shouta took them and quickly read through it all. His annoyance with the Number One Hero increased, how can he be so stupid to have a child training seven days a week. And the training itself seemed to be too much, even with rest days. If Midoriya continued to follow it, he would end up in the hospital, especially if he takes into account the normal P.E. classes of the Hero course and the Heroics classes.
Shouta really wished to punch All Might in the face at that moment. The man was so far removed from normal people that he thought that a training regime, that Pro Heroes would have a problem following in the long term, is appropriate for a fifteen years old.
But he couldn't. Even if Nedzu would be willing to overlook it, given the circumstances, if he did then All Might would figure out that Midoriya shared his quirk with Shouta. Sadly, the man was intelligent enough, despite his appearance and personality.
“So, I take it there’s more going on than Midoriya not having proper control over his quirk. But you can’t tell me, because you don’t want to betray the kid's trust.” Shouta nodded as he picked up his coffee mug. There was no use in trying to hide it, his husband knew him too well and was too clever. Especially if Shouta planned to ask for his help.
But it can wait until he takes a nap, Shouta decided as he watched Hizashi start to write up a new training plan for his student without any prompting from the man. He needed the energy for the faculty meeting later.
#####
Shouta sat, slumped down, in his chair between Present Mic and Midnight as he listened to the other teachers share their observations and concerns about the new students. There were a few that he took note of, like the Hatsume girl who had blown up one of the support courses’ workshops already, and the Shinsou boy in Mic’s class who showed signs of previous discrimination because of his so-called villainous quirk.
“Thank you, Vlad King,” the principal's voice caught Shouta’s attention and he turned to look at the chimera. “What about your class, Aizawa-kun? You didn’t expel anyone yet this year.”
Shouta huffed, “This year’s class has shown much more promise than last year’s. But there are still a few students who caught my attention. First, the Todoroki boy who seemed determined to not use his fire, which is concerning if someone takes into account the burn scar on his face.” He could see some of his colleagues sharing a look hearing his words. They all could read between the lines and could understand that Shouta was concerned about potential abuse. Which could get problematic as the kid was the son of Endeavor. But they shouldn’t overlook things just because of someone’s ranking among Heroes.
All Might frowned, “You shouldn’t make accusations like that, Aizawa-san. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
Before Shouta could react to this, frankly, stupid sentence, Hizashi spoke up, irritation clear in his voice. “Yagi, we were all trained to recognize the signs of abuse in our students and we have years of experience as teachers. Even if it isn’t because of family problems, Todoroki not using his fire, even when he would get higher scores with it, is concerning. He didn’t use it in the recommendation exam either.”
And that was when Shouta remembered that Hizashi looked over Midoriya’s file while he was napping. And there was a recommendation letter in it from All Might. Even without saying anything, the blond man could have pieced together that the walking scarecrow was the one who made Midoriya’s training plan.
“Mineta is another student that I want to keep an eye on. While he did acceptably in my test, his attitude is concerning. Frankly, kid’s a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen right now. If he’s not changing then he’s out.” Several other teachers winced, most likely remembering the incident that happened last year. They also could easily conclude that the only reason the brat wasn’t out yet was most likely because of his family connections. It was always annoying when they had to teach a talentless student just because of who they were related to.
“The last student that I want to keep an eye on is Bakugou. He has some anger issues that were never addressed and he was much too quick to use his quirk against another student without permission,” Shouta finished.
Nedzu watched the Erasure Hero for a few seconds with narrowed eyes before nodding. “Well, if there’s nothing else, then our meeting is finished,” he chirped and several people started leaving. “Aizawa-kun, Yamada-kun, please stay behind. There’s something I want to talk to you two about.” Only Yagi looked surprised at the principal’s request, everyone else was used to the rat(?) pulling away one or both of them at random. They were both Nedzu’s students after all.
As soon as the door was closed, Nedzu took out a cup of tea from somewhere, drinking some before finally speaking, “I heard you had a meeting with one of your new students, Aizawa-kun.”
Shouta narrowed his eyes at the rat(?), “I take it that you’re aware of Midoriya’s situation, then.”
Nedzu sighed as he put down his tea, “Yes, but I couldn’t tell you about it, as it wasn’t my place.” In other words, Yagi persuaded the chimera in some way, most likely with the threat that he would leave U.A. in a very public manner, probably also attempting to take Midoriya with him. Which would have been a very difficult situation for everyone involved. Shouta was really grateful that the teen asked for help. “Sadly I can’t tell it to Yamada-kun, though I’m sure that it won’t take long for Midoriya-kun to trust in him too.”
Shouta hummed, ignoring the narrowed look of his husband, “Who else knows?”
“Other than me and you, Recovery Girl, the retired Hero Gran Torino, and Detective Tsukauchi.”
Recovery Girl wasn’t exactly a surprise and neither was Gran Torino, though All Might asking Midoriya to keep it a secret when his old homeroom teacher knew confirmed Shouta’s earlier assumptions. Tsukauchi was a surprise, however. The only reason Shouta could come up with for him to know was his quirk. Either he picked up on All Might’s lies about his quirk or worked on a classified case connected to the quirk in some way. If it's the second, then it was a problem as there could be more to the whole thing than Midoriya told him, not that Shouta blamed him for it. Hopefully, the teen was aware, because if All Might gave a quirk to a child without telling him all the risk that came with it, then Shouta will make him regret it. There were several ways to do it too, without admitting that Shouta was aware of One For All.
Hizashi spoke up, “I want an investigation into Midoriya’s previous schools. If he was quirkless, then I bet that his whole file is full of lies and the schools are guilty of quirk discrimination, possibly a bunch of other things too, along with the students that went to school with Midoriya.”
There was a dangerous glint in the principal’s dark eyes, “I will take care of it,” he promised. Shouta was again reminded why was he glad that the rat(?) was on their side.