Chapter Text
The voice is faint. It came from the depths of the night.
It whispers from the deepest well of darkness where existence starts and it echoes to the blinding reality of the living world.
When Shouto hears it, it’s like a hook to the soul and it’s pulling him. Reeling in from the beyond, towards a promise.
At the depth of the darkness, there is light, brighter than life.
Aizawa had doubts when he got offered to be a teacher. He remembered being bored to death in school as a student. Now, with the stress of being an underground hero, he’s determined to be a boring teacher. Efficient, but boring, bland, and straight to the point. Sucks to be him because being class 1-A’s homeroom teacher is anything but boring. The kids always gottem themselves into something, always some drama happening, and stumbled on some life-endangering things. Guiding them through their hellish first year, it’s hard to not admit that he’s a little attached to these tough-as-nails children, but good god Aizawa would’ve loved a break.
Said break seems to be coming as their schooling returns at a steady, regular, boring pace as a normal school with normal kids would.
The moment he thinks that, he siked himself.
He’s particularly late one morning after pulling an all-nighter grading their quiz and covering Joke’s nightshift. He’s tired and a little light-headed, so he’s finding comfort to be as boring as possible in class. So much that he didn’t realize that Todoroki is missing until he calls his name in roll call.
“Where’s Todoroki?” He asks, and instantly, the whole room tensed.
“Sir, didn’t you permit him to go home yesterday?” Midoriya says, panic in his eyes.
Aizawa furrowed his eyebrows, “No, I didn’t.”
Midoriya whips his head to Momo who whips her head at Bakugo who whips his head at Iida who whips his head at Hagakure and… he doesn’t know where Hagakure whips her head to. They started whispering under their breath that had become accumulative bickering.
“Silence,” Aizawa slams his hand on the podium, getting their attention. “Where is Todoroki?”
“Shouto left the dorm yesterday approximately a little after 10 PM,” Momo says. “He said he’s going home. I… I don’t think he told us that he had permission,” Momo glances at her schoolmates, “We just assume he had your permission because he said it was okay.”
Aizawa groans and pinches the bridge of his nose, futilely trying to stop the oncoming headache. Of course, something has to happen when he’s sleep deprived to hell.
“I’ll call him, read page 60 to 64.”
Aizawa stands in the corridor as he calls the Todoroki’s phone. It rings and rings and he doesn’t pick up. He calls again, to no avail. Aizawa grunts and calls Todoroki’s residence, but once again, no one picked up.
“Fuck this.” Aizawa is too tired for this. He calls Endeavor, and that workaholic better picks up or he’s gonna start throwing hands.
“Whoah! Sho, you look like you haven’t slept in a century,” Hizashi says, two cups of coffee in his hands. Aizawa sees a halo behind his husband and angels singing around him.
“It felt like it. Thanks.” Aizawa accepts the coffee, gulping it down even though it’s burning hot.
“What’s wrong?” Hizashi asks, the default cheerfulness cranked down to worry. “You’re pissed.”
“Todoroki went home last night. He’s said to everyone that he has permission from me.”
“Wait, that’s not right, we had roll call last night, he’s there.”
“This happens after.”
“Which means the security would’ve alerted us if the students are out at curfew.”
Endeavor didn’t pick up, damn him.
“Check the CCTV, I’m getting his sister’s number.”
“On it.”
They part ways and Aizawa is calling Endeavor again while he’s walking to his office to find Todoroki’s student records. Aizawa’s patience snapped when Endeavor doesn’t pick up again. Toshinori walks in as Aizawa furiously typed Fuyumi Todoroki’s name on his phone.
“You call Natsuo,” Aizawa gruffly commands. He wants to get this done so he can go back to teaching.
“What’s going on?” Toshinori ask.
“Todoroki went home without permission.”
“Hello?” Says a woman’s voice at the end of the line, Aizawa felt so much relief, but not for long.
“Hello, this is Aizawa, hero code: Eraser Head. I’m calling about Todoroki Shouto, is he at home with you?”
“Wait, he’s home? I don’t know, he didn’t tell me.”
Cold water washes over Aizawa’s back. There’s a gnawing bad feeling clutching his chest.
“Where are you now?” Aizawa asks, masking the panic in his voice, but not his face.
“I-I’m at my apartment. I live in another town. Aizawa-san, what’s going on?”
“Get someone to Todoroki’s house,” Aizawa commands his senior in dire, thankfully Toshinori doesn’t question it and transformed into All Might, disappearing in a gust of wind.
“Aizawa-san?” Fuyumi’s voice began to panic.
“Don’t worry, Todoroki-san. Your brother is just skipping class and went out of the dorm at curfew.”
“That doesn’t sound like Shouto.”
Yeah, no shit, that’s why Aizawa got a bad feeling about this. “I’ll call you again once we found him.”
Aizawa doesn’t get to hear her reply and hangs up. As soon as he does, All Might called him.
“Todoroki isn’t home.”
Aizawa held his breath for a second, a loud thump on his chest, “How do you know?”
“I found Endeavor and he lets me in. Aizawa, Endeavor didn’t know Todoroki is coming home as well.”
Aizawa felt the pulse in his whole body, worry changed into laser focus, “Hizashi is going through the dorm’s CCTV, I’m going back to class to ask for clues.”
“He might be at Natsuo’s place, there’s no need to panic yet.”
Aizawa inhales sharply, “I’m not panicking, but we can’t take any chances. You know the first 48 hours of the disappearance is the most critical time to find a missing person.”
Aizawa hears a cold scoff, “He probably ran away,” Endeavor says, loud and clear despite being far.
“Oh? Has he always been running away from your home, Endeavor?” Aizawa says with the bitterness of a crushed aspirin in your mouth.
Endeavor doesn’t speak again, and Aizawa hung up with a quick, “I’ll text you data from the surveillance.”
Aizawa speed walks his way to the security and found Hizashi turning into the corridor, there’s a worried look there on his husband’s face.
“He’s not caught on our surveillance,” Hizashi says with a knot between his eyebrows. “I thought he might be in his room, but I checked, the whole dorm too, but he isn’t there. He left his phone behind. Sho, what’s going on?”
“Todoroki isn’t in his home, All Might checked.”
“Damn, this is weird. This isn’t like Todoroki at all.”
“I know, I got a bad feeling about this Zashi.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Hizashi says, grabbing Aizawa’s arm, “We’ll find him.”
They separate ways again. Hizashi alerts the teachers and Aizawa calls Natsuo Todoroki as he speeds walk to class. He picks up on the first ring, and Aizawa prayed to all the entities he can think of that Todoroki is there.
But he isn’t.
Aizawa had to calm another Todoroki and say that he’ll find the youngest Todoroki. He runs to his class to inform his students about the recent development, hoping they can give him more information about Todoroki at that moment.
There’s a chance that they can still find Todoroki.
One in tenth chance.
Aizawa slams the door open, and the students are crowding in the center of the class.
“What’s going on here?” he raises his voice.
The swarm of students parted, and right at the center, Todoroki is staring back at him. Looking like he ran a marathon, his uniform is a mess as if he put it on in a hurry.
“Sorry I’m late,” Todoroki said in caving breath. “I woke up in the middle of the woods, and I didn’t have my phone with me.”
++++
The tension is so thick a spoon would bend if you tried to scoop it. Todoroki is sitting at the principal’s office. Nedzu is ever smiling, Todoroki is sipping his water slowly, his body slumped at the chair and the bags under his eyes show that he hadn’t slept all night. Aizawa is by Nedzu’s side, washing down his painkiller with another cup of coffee. All Might in on the other side, looking very worried.
“So, Todoroki,” Nedzu starts, getting the attention from Todoroki’s tired eyes. “Where were you?”
“I don’t know, some woods.” Todoroki pauses, “I flag a taxi to the train station once I found a road.” Todoroki tilts his head, “He said I’m in Hinode.”
“That’s far,” All Might mumbles.
“Not too far.” Aizawa says, taking out his phone to see google maps, “That’s an hour away by train.”
“Ah, I think…” Todoroki scratches his head, “I think I walked.”
“You think?” Aizawa narrows his eyes.
“I remember walking through a place, just not the woods… and I don’t remember why.”
“Is there anything you remember?” All Might says.
Todoroki hums, his face is as stoic as ever, but the pause is long, as if he’s unsure whether to tell or not.
“I… I remember feeling free.”