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“Why are we doing this?” Aizawa asked, begrudgingly sitting in the circle of first-year teachers.
They were all in the staff room after school. All of the desk chairs had been arranged in a circle around Nedzu, who sat in the middle with a top hat.
“It’s called group bonding, Sho,” Nemuri said like it was the most obvious thing ever. She laid herself over his shoulder. “So we can all get a little closer to each other.”
Aizawa pushed the woman off him and glared at the principal. “Why this then? What happened to drinking-”
“ Aizawa ,” Ectoplasm coughed as a few other teachers side-eyed him.
Every semester, Nedzu gave the teachers a reservation at a fancy restaurant as an appreciation gift as well as a chance to socialize with each other. He’d open a tab and all the teachers could order whatever they wanted, check-free.
It was nice and they all attended the generous offer. However, once dinner and dessert were done, the majority of them would order drinks as a last toast type of thing. One round of drinks turned to two turned to three turned to shots to mixers to margaritas to Midnight’s Midnight Minibar.
Last semester’s thank-you dinner, Aizawa woke up on a train in Shinjuku, five hours from Musutafu. He was missing both shoes, his wallet, and the keys to his apartment. Somehow, Vlad and Midnight were with him and none of them remembered how they got there.
But hangovers aside, Nedzu’s present to the staff wasn’t meant to be a free drinking spree. It just happened to turn into one…
That rat quirked his brow in curiosity. “What about drinking, Aizawa-san?”
“ Dinner ,” Aizawa corrected himself. “What happened to dinner ? I thought that was our way of team building?”
The rat hummed, walking around the circle of teachers. “That is true, however, two things are different. One, we have a new member on board. That alone calls for something more than your typical restaurant outings.”
Everyone looked at All Might who bashfully rubbed the back of his neck. Aizawa frowned at the familiar movement of his student. “Ah, Principal, sir, I don’t need anything extra. I’m-”
“A new teacher. And with all new teachers, we show our appreciation in our truest UA form, which leads us to the second point,” Nedzu smiled. “To no fault but the evolution of society, our students have found themselves in multiple front attacks by villains, forcing them to strengthen up at an impossible rate. It is only fitting that their teachers do the same.”
“We’re working out together, then?” Snipe asked, confused.
“No, no, not physical strength. You are all pro heroes and have the physique one would require in your shoes,” Nedzu continued, twirling the hat in his paws. “But the other parts of heroics. Like Aizawa said, teamwork — an understanding of each other and our capabilities. This exercise, for lack of a better word, is to show both our newest teacher what your strength is as well as an insight into what exactly made that strength.”
Aizawa narrowed his eyes. “What are you getting at?”
Nedzu smiled. “If you could all grab a notecard and a pen, I’d like you to write down your name on one and your support item on a second. For those whose gear relies on their quirk, like All Might or Present Mic, just write down your name.”
Nedzu then wheeled in a huge bracket on a whiteboard, the words Most Adaptable Teacher printed across the front.
“Sir, haha, what is-”
“Students shouldn’t be the only ones with mock battles,” Nedzu smiled, passing the two hats around the circle. “Throughout this coming week, we’ll have a tournament of sorts. Pick a name to choose your opponent, then a support weapon to fight with. This’ll show what work your co-workers put in in their own heroic fields as well as how quick you are in adapting.”
Midnight passed the hats. Aizawa pulled out a note card:
Whip ~ Midnight
Yagi Toshinori ~ All Might
Aizawa blinked at the words.
God damn it.
All Might…he had to beat the number one hero… with a whip .
Now, Aizawa isn’t one to judge a book by its cover. He knows All Might has weaknesses and such, but he’s been the number-one hero since Aizawa himself was in UA. That alone carries enough merritt and he, the underpaid underground hero who fights in alleyways and street corners, gets to fight Japan’s pride and joy with a whip.
Lovely.
“Don’t tell anyone who your opponent is but feel free to go to the owner of your support item for advice. Teach your coworkers like you teach your students. That is all.”
With that, the room dispersed. Everyone eyed each other as they slowly shuffled out of the room.
Aizawa didn’t know if this was a good idea or not, partially because, while they were all 30+-year-old adults, they were also very competitive.
By the time Aizawa made it out the doors, Cementoss approached him, asking for advice on how to use his capture weapon. Aizawa didn’t know how to explain the weapon he spent six years learning to someone fighting in a week, so he offered to train together after school tomorrow.
Cementoss was also apparently against Hizashi. Aizawa, being the good friend he was, told Cementoss all of Hizashi’s weak points, only because he was sure everyone else was spilling details on each other too.
~
When Saturday rolled around, Aizawa was feeling confident. He’s used Midnight’s whip before during UA and it wasn’t too different from a capture weapon. When it was his turn, he jumped on the mats feeling good.
Until Nedzu called out his opponent's name and All Might in his buff form walked up…with Snipe’s pistols strapped across his chest.
Aizawa suddenly felt like giving up because now, not only does he fight Superman’s little brother, he gets to fight him with guns.
Yay.
Nonetheless, Aizawa psyched himself up. He was used to being the underdog. He’s got this. He’s got this. He’s-
“Go!”
Boom!
Aizawa did not have this.
“Mother fucker!” Aizawa yelled, dropping the whip and falling to the ground. His leg. His leg’s been shot. And there’s pain. And blood. And -- blood ?
“Holy shit! Call an ambulance! Get Recovery Girl” Someone yelled as a pair of hands pushed on the gushing wound. Another voice pushed him down on the mats as someone began wrapping the hole in his fucking leg.
“A-Aizawa-kun?! What’s wrong?” All Might asked, quickly looking at the smoking gun in his hand. He looked up at Snipe with his hands in his pockets, whistling at the wall. “I thought you put blanks in here!”
“Yeah, I might have accidentally switched out the guns,” He winced.
Aizawa’s head whipped up. “Acci… Accidentally ?!”
“How do you accidentally switch a gun with blanks for a gun with actual bullets?!” Midnight yelled.
“Well, I mean, they all look the same. A-And that’s the one I use for school-”
“You mean, you walk into a school with a fully loaded gun on your side?!”
“What? No, I’m a hero,” Snipe said proudly, pulling back his coat. “I bring three.”
“It’s dangerous!”
“It’s back up!”
“I’m so sorry, Aizawa-kun! I-I’ll pay for the medical bill!” All Might yelled.
Aizawa let the pain drown out the loud noise as the EMTs soon came and drove him to a hospital.
Of his 13 years of heroics, getting shot by the number one hero made it the worst Saturday morning ever.
~ The next day…
Class 1-A was already too loud and Aizawa wasn’t even at the door. The doctors gave him a walking cane for the next few days and pain medication too weak to make him forget any of this ever happened.
With a sigh, Aizawa threw open the door. The class all stopped and looked at Aizawa with nervous glances.
Kirishima raised his hand.
“Yes?”
“Is it true All Might really shot you?”
God damn it.