Chapter Text
You were running, faster than you ever had before. Your legs screamed at you, begging you for a break from this treatment, but you ignored the burning sensations. You had to catch up to this criminal, this monster, who had been wanted for weeks. This man targeted wealthy families, taking everything of value and killing the whole household without remorse. He would then taunt the Heros and policemen, using the victim's fingers to spell out "Too late" at every crime scene. He had a name he called himself, but you couldn't remember it right now.
You had ran into him by pure chance, not expecting to see him creeping about around your favorite coffee shop at midnight. Good thing you were on patrol, you wouldn't have your hero costume on your person otherwise. After hastily exiting the café, you found a spot you knew had no surveillance and quickly changed into your costume, then hid your personal belongings. You bolted in his direction, but he noticed before you got close. He ran off into an alleyway, forcing you to follow him into the darkness.
The mask you wore was making it hard to breathe, but taking it off was a bad idea. Holding it would be a nuisance, and you sure weren't going to leave it behind somewhere. You make a left turn, then a right, then a left again, doing your best to follow your target. Right turn, right turn again, left turn.
You're instantly thrown onto your back, the wind knocked out of you. The man laughs as he appears in front of you suddenly, and looks down on your figure, leaning down and pressing his boot into your chest. Now you remember his stupid name; Invisible Force. He could turn completely invisible, he was even able to erase his heat signature for a short time. Cool quirk, ugly name.
"Don't think I've ever seen you before," He remarks, giving you a once-over. "Are you even a Hero? Anyone can wear a get-up."
And now you've already won.
"I don't know," you start, smiling under your mask. "Do you think I'm a Hero? If I was a random person, why would I risk my life against someone who's as strong as you obviously are?" He freezes, pressure lifting off of your chest. You roll out from under his foot, shooting up into a fighting stance in case he broke free of your quirk quicker than others.
"And," you continue, watching his face stay in a confused state. "If I was a villian," you walk towards him. "Why would I be attacking you? Shouldn't I be praising you for your successes?" You reach for the handcuffs on your belt, getting them ready to cuff him without a hassle. As you move to cuff his right wrist, a fabric of some kind is wrapped around the man in front of you and he's pulled farther into the alleyway. "What the-?"
"Are you dumb?" A man says, walking into your line of sight. "Civilians using their quirks on villains is prohibited." His hair is floating above him, and his eyes glow red under yellow goggles. You recognize him immediately. But wait, did he just call you a civilian, and a dumb one at that? You laugh. You knew not a lot of people were aware that you even existed, but you thought a Hero who was so similar to you would at least know of you.
"Do I look like a civilian to you, Eraserhead?" You scoff at him. The only way you can tell that he acknowledged what you said was by his scarf; he tightened his grip on it and squeezed your target unintentionally.
"Openly admitting that you're a vigilante isn't very logical, either." He spits out. "So the answer to my first question is yes."
Is he serious? No, for real, is this dude joking with you?
"Oh my gosh," You laugh dryly. "I knew you didn't necessarily care about other Pros, but come on, this is just sad." Even in the dark, you can see his confused expression, and you didn't even have to use your quirk to get him there. You hear police sirens in the distance, quickly coming closer. You had forgotten that you shot them a rough location for backup before you ran after Invisible Force. "Since I know how much you love the spotlight, because I actually care to understand my co-workers, I'll let you be the one to be seen with the highly wanted criminal!" You know he can't see your smile, but you do it anyways. "Hope you're prepared for the press." You begin to walk out of the alleyway before you're stopped.
"Hey!" Eraserhead calls after you. You slightly turn your head towards him, too tired of his shit to give him more than that. "What's your name?" You sigh.
"Questionnaire."
"I've never heard of you before." At this, you fully turn your body back towards him.
"You know," you cross your arms. "You aren't the only Hero that doesn't want to be the center of attention, you ever think of that?" You state before walking off. He doesn't stop you this time, letting you lightly jog away from the scene.
It takes a few seconds, but after you're gone, the villain trapped in Eraserhead's scarf seems to snap out of the daze-like state he was in. He starts struggling and acting quite normally to Eraserhead's dismay.
This was not going to be fun.
~~~
Aizawa is already done with this day, and it's not even lunch yet. Students that weren't even his were congratulating him in the halls, his phone had been blowing up, and worst of all, Present Mic would not leave him alone about being on his radio show tomorrow for an exclusive interview.
"Shouta, please, my man!" Present Mic whined. "I'm begging- on my hands and knees, begging- just ten minutes!"
"You aren't on your hands and knees," Aizawa pinches the bridge of his nose. "And even if you were, the answer would be the same." He continues walking towards the Principals office.
"You sure about that?" Mic smiles and drops to his knees, walking like that behind Aizawa, with his hands clasped together. "Please, please, please, glorious Eraserhead, just ten freakin' minutes!
"Very sure." Aizawa yawns. "Still no."
"But why?" Mic was back on his feet, speeding up and now walking backwards in front of his best friend. "Look, I will drop it forever if you give me a good reason. A good one, not an excuse of you being tired or some crap like that!" Aizawa stops walking and sighs.
"Because I wasn't the one to actually capture him."
"WHAAAAT?"
"Just keep following me to Nezu's office."
~~~
"Oh, yes, I know who you're talking about!" Nezu smiles at Aizawa. "Questionnaire isn't that well known, and they like it that way! Like you, Eraserhead, their quirk isn't exactly suited for combat. The less who know how their quirk works,"
"The better for them." Aizawa finishes for Nezu. "Well, I was really rude to them, then. I figured they were a civilian, or a vigilante."
"Now you know how it feels to be wrong about a Hero yourself!" The principal smiles at him. Aizawa knew that Nezu was referring to the amount of times that he had been mistaken the same exact way in his early days. Every time Aizawa would explain who he was, the Heros had felt embarrassed. How the tables had turned. "Like I said, not many people know of their deeds, or that they even exist at all! The police force knows of them, of course, and allows them to dictate if someone can be arrested or not, simply so that Questionnaire can stay discreet!"
"How do you know about 'em, sir?" Present Mic pitches in.
"I know everything, Mic, it's my job to!" Nezu smiles. "I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one that knows their actual name, and that's simply because I hired them."
"You hired Questionnaire?" Aizawa raises an eyebrow. "For what?"
"To work at UA, of course! Well, work for UA, more accurately. Honestly, the only reason I'm telling the two of you is because you two are also teachers of UA, and already know of them."
"What do they do?" Present Mic tilts his head to the side.
"It's simple, really; they deal with most of the technical stuff from the comfort of their own home. Isn't that wonderful? They're a Pro and a faculty member at UA, and they still remain anonymous! Seems as if they're living your dream, Eraserhead!"
Indeed you were. And now, Aizawa had to act like that didn't intrigue him one bit.
~~~
"So," Present Mic tapped his chin in thought. "If you didn't necessarily catch the guy, why did you take the credit for it?"
"I didn't want to." Aizawa sips his coffee with Mic. After work, the two of them wanted to hang out a bit (Yamada bribed Aizawa with free coffee), so they ended up at a not very popular café. "Questionnaire threw the victory onto me as payback."
"Wait, seriously?" Mic grips his end of the table with both hands. "Did you see how they took the dude down?"
"Yes but no. I heard, uh, Force's voice, but was too far away to understand anything being said yet. Next thing I know, I saw the guy freeze, and I heard Questionnaire talking, a lot, all while Invisible Force stood still. I aimed to wrap them both up, but I underestimated how far I would need to throw my scarf. I only got Force. You know the rest." Aizawa takes another sip of his coffee. "I saw it happen, but don't know how Questionnaire got him to comply." Mic nods, taking it all in, then smiles.
"You're impressed by Questionnaire, aren't ya?" Mic raises an eyebrow at him.
"It's hard not to be," Aizawa shrugs. That only makes Mic's smile widen. "Whatever you're implying, forget about it." He adds dryly. "Their way of working is just admirable to me. I don't even know their name, Hizashi."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Mic looks down and stirs his coffee, smile still prominent on his face. "Don't come crawling to me when you need advice with 'em, if you catch my drift."
"I will always avoid said drift," Aizawa rolls his eyes.