Chapter Text
It was shaping up to be a pretty terrible day.
Four hours of dealing with police, understandably distraught parents, and a witness who needed to be sedated had Aizawa exhausted. Yet, the day ahead seemed even more daunting - Countless more difficult conversations and upset students awaited him upon sunrise.
Aizawa had run into Toshinori in the early hours of morning. Aizawa rarely slept at night, but he was rather surprised to see the retired hero in staff facilities so early.
"I imagine you also got an email," Aizawa presumed. Toshinori nodded.
"Nezu was pretty vague about the whole thing," Toshinori said. "I couldn't sleep, regardless, so I figured I'd get some lesson plans done and wait for more information."
Aizawa nodded. "Nezu already filled me in on everything. He knew I'd be awake and notified me as soon as he got the news."
"So what exactly happened? He mentioned a 'suicide under strange circumstances'. I didn't know how to take that," Toshinori remembered how his heart had dropped upon hearing those words. There was a time and a place to be vague and he couldn't imagine how the death of a student was one of the them.
"A student named Mukai Sumiko used her Quirk to end her own life," Aizawa muttered "She activated it as many times as possible, and the effort that took killed her. The police came to the conclusion it was intentional after examining the scene and questioning the witness."
His eyes looked emptier and more tired than usual. "Her Quirk was odd, it could predict the soulmate of whoever she used it on. The name of the person you're destined for appears on your left wrist. Maybe not particularly useful, but an interesting Quirk. You don't see divination Quirks very often."
"What did her wrist say? Was it really that bad?" Toshinori wondered.
Aizawa took a deep drink of his coffee before continuing. "Her wrist was blank. She saw that she had no soulmate, and killed herself. A self-fulfilling prophecy."
"She'd never used her Quirk before on herself before?" Toshinori inquired. "That's a little odd. You would think it would be more likely that she triggered it on herself by accident at a very young age."
"Since her wrist was blank, she might have but just didn't remember," Aizawa said. "She was one of UA's observation students. Some Quirks are flagged as anomolous on the registry, like divination, mind control, and clairvoyance Quirks. When they show up in our region, we offer their families scholarships for them to study in the Normal Courses. They can sign up to work with scientists on campus and contribute to Quirk research. That's how Shinsou ended up here, actually."
He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. "Anyways, its likely our own students will be affected by the random activations of her Quirk. At least, that's the current theory, which means we've got to tell our students about a suicide and possible Quirk effects on the same day."
Toshinori considered this for a moment. "They are still teenagers, Eraser. I think we should both prepare for a heightened amount of teenage drama in the next few days."
"I'm not so concerned about that kind of thing," Aizawa said. "My class in particular has been conditioned to expect the unexpected in terms of villain attacks and life-or-death situations. What they aren't conditioned to deal with is the death of a fellow schoolmate who they couldn't save."
"We need to set up a counseling program," Toshinori suggested gravely. "And maybe rework UA's mental health resources. This is a tragedy that should never happen again."
"I agree," Aizawa echoed. "Nezu mentioned that when he spoke to me privately. He suggested everyone in my class attend at least one counseling session because they've faced a considerable amount of trauma this past semester."
"They are very strong and intelligent, but they are still children," Aizawa said thoughtfully. "I can only hope this doesn't hurt them as much as I think it will."
There had rarely been a day at UA that Aizawa felt ill-equipped to handle. Today was possibly one of the worst of his career.
He was thoroughly impressed with how gracefully most of Class 1-A recieved the news. They really were future heroes. He could tell it cut them deeply to know of Sumiko's death, even though she was a stranger, but each and every one of them kept a brave face throughout his speech. Even the students that were slightly behind, like Mineta and Kaminari, managed a strong composure.
Yaoyorozu even asked to address the entire class, and stood before all of them with silent tears streaming down her face. She emphasized that she would always be there for any of them, and that they should all strive to lend a hand to strangers whenever possible.
Aizawa knew this event wouldn't be enough to break them. It was still painful to see them hurt.
There was an assembly that morning at 10 AM where Nezu spoke to the entire student body. UA had acted quickly to control the news of the situation. The students were bound to find out about the suicide one way or another, and Aizawa had personally suggested the school should be the one to tell them. Better to let them handle an awful truth than hang in limbo with equally awful rumors.
Aizawa only had one more conversation left. He needed to tell the two prisoners on house-arrest before any of their peers had the chance to talk to them.
He chose to speak to Bakugo and Midoriya during his sole free hour of the day as a teacher. They were both smart enough to figure something was wrong when he interrupted their strictly imposed cleaning duties to have a private talk.
"I gave this speech to your classmates earlier, and its important for you to hear it too," Aizawa's tone was deadly. He looked more tired than usual.
Deku's fingers drummed against the cushion of his seat. Something told him this wasn't about schoolwork. Kacchan seemed to perceive the same icy mood in the room, and stayed uncharacteristically docile and still.
"A student in the Normal courses at UA unfortunately committed suicide last night. Mukai Sumiko, if you knew her. This is a very grave and serious matter and I apologize for any distress this event will cause you," Aizawa said. It was the most solemn Deku had ever seen him. "UA values their students deeply, and I may be a rough teacher but I also value each and every one of you deeply. Not just as future heroes, but as individuals. I push you to reach your full potentials as heroes, but I am also here for you to support you as a student."
"There will be free counseling available for anyone who needs it. Talk to me privately or contact me via email and I will help you set that up." Aizawa closed his eyes for a few moments before continuing.
"There will be a vigil for Sumiko on Friday. In the meantime, I must also inform you about her Quirk. She had the unique ability to determine a person's soulmate, and have the name of one's soulmate appear on the inside of the left wrist. Following her death, there have already been several pairs of students on UA campus who have been affected by this power. We believe many more students will be affected as a result of her passing, and should a name appear on your wrist please report it to faculty. We are conducting an investigation to understand these circumstances."
Deku's head was spinning. He felt sick. A suicide at UA? A student had decided to take her own life? His throat felt too tight to speak. He suddenly thought of class 1-A, and how empty and cold the room would feel if even one of them was missing. To lose a fellow classmate to suicide? Deku couldn't even fathom it.
What would he even do if Uruaka, Iida, or Tsu just died? The idea of losing them felt uncomfortably closer than it had this morning. It made him sick. He felt like crying and throwing up.
"I think the counseling would be good for me," Deku said softly.
Aizawa looked at him with a strange curiosity, his eyes flickering over to Bakugo. Perhaps he hadn't expected a display of vulnerability from Deku so soon after they'd decked each other in Ground Beta.
"Very well, Midoriya. I'll contact you with a form to fill out before tonight," Aizawa mentally added Midoriya to the list of people he needed to reach out to.
Bakugo said nothing. In fact, Aizawa had seldom seen him lacking such anger. He just stared down at his feet, blankly. Aizawa added him to the mental list too, just in case. Both of them probably needed it anyways.
"Bakugo, I'll probably send the form to you too. There's a chance counseling for Hero students may become mandatory in the next few days," he lied.
Bakugo's head snapped up at the sound of his name. But no curses or snarls came out, and he simply said: "Yeah. Sure", and looked at his feet again.
Deku had one idea of who his soulmate could end up being, but he hadn't fully allowed himself to entertain the idea. He still hadn't quite processed the news of the suicide, and Aizawa's never-ending stream of makeup work combined with house arrest duties made it near impossible to think.
Maybe it wasn't worth thinking about. Statistically, his soulmate was probably somebody he didn't even know. A faceless individual on the other side of the globe; Someone special he would meet in the many years he had left to live.
Somehow the thought made him sad. He distracted himself with a particularly stubborn spot of dirt on the baseboards.
"Can you stop fucking thinking so loud? Holy shit," an abrasive voice cut through his thoughts like a hot knife through butter.
"Sorry Kacchan," Deku replied immediately, though he wasn't sure what Kacchan expected him to do. It wasn't worth picking a fight with him, not today.
Deku wondered what Kacchan thought of the suicide, and of the soulmates. Did Kaachan ever think about soulmates? Did he believe in them? Did the suicide make him worry about his own friends and loved ones?
Deku knew he was worried. Suddenly, he felt like texting his classmates all the time. It made him nervous to clean the empty dorms all day. Deku couldn't imagine a day where he would consider killing himself. But he couldn't imagine a day he could live knowing one of his classmates did, either. How was Sumiko's class coping with all of this?
"Deku," Kacchan spoke up again, quieter this time. "What do you think of all of this?"
This caught Deku off guard. "W-What do you mean?"
Kacchan paused for a moment. "Nothing. Nevermind."
Deku had known the boy for long enough to know this really meant "I wasn't expecting a follow up question so either shut up or answer the first one."
"Well, the suicide scared me," Deku admitted. "I don't know what I would do if we lost any of our classmates like that."
"Yeah," Kacchan said. His voice was odd and echoey. "Scary shit."
"I hope my friends would talk to me if they ever felt like that. We're here to learn how to save people from villains and disasters, but saving somebody from themselves? That sounds a lot harder," Deku considered his own words for a minute. "I guess villains are easy because they externalize their pain, you can see it and you either convince them things could be different or the police deal with them. But a friend who tells you nothing of their suffering? I dunno."
"Sure," Kacchan was very invested in getting the grime off of one specific spot on the floor. "Villains are easy. You just beat them the fuck up and go home. Win and the day's over."
He sighed (A very 'Kacchan' sigh, so more of a cross between a scoff and a huff). "I've never felt like that," he said hastily. "Have you?" The words came out rushed, as if he had to physically push them out.
"I have never felt like that," Deku promised sincerely. "I have too many people I care about, and too much of a life to live." And too many people are counting on me, he added silently.
There was a long silence between them after that. Deku could almost feel the strong emotions and tension rising from Kacchan, but he couldn't really figure out why. He tried to concentrate on getting the kitchen spotless.
"I'm sorry for telling you to kill yourself in middle school," Kacchan managed. His voice was completely devoid of emotion, but Deku figured this was probably intentional. As if Kacchan was forcing everything out of the way to give an apology.
"What?" Deku tried to recall this specific instance of bullying. The memory of his ruined Quirk notebook flashed in his head. "Oh! Oh, that? It's fine Kacchan. I never held it against you."
Kacchan's reaction was unreadable. He didn't speak to or even look at Deku for the rest of the day.
....
Well that was odd.
Deku didn't really have more thoughts on the incident. He didn't like that Kacchan was mean to him. But he admired him so much, Kacchan was victory incarnate to him - The image that flashed in his mind when he needed a standard to shoot for to win. And it was a really stupid comment from Kacchan. If he had decided to kill himself, Kacchan's hero career would be over before it began. It was like he had just tried to come up with the worst thing he could possibly say to Deku without even considering the consequences. What really burned was the fact that Kacchan wanted to say the worst thing he could think of to him.
Though he wondered if his friends would see it that way. Deku knew he let Kacchan get away with a lot. In a way, Kacchan was one of his many weaknesses. They had never been reasonable about each other.
That was the basics of his feelings towards Kacchan, at least. The rest were quite complicated. Admiration, frustration, rejection. Confusion. Familiarity. Affection.
And maybe a little of something more. Deku didn't indulge in those feelings, but they resurfaced unexpectedly sometimes. And were typically drowned out by whatever happened next.
Like when they fought recently, at Ground Beta. In the middle of the night, alone at the training grounds - Something had stirred in his chest. A fluttery, uncertain emotion. But it had been quickly snuffed out by the seriousness of the battle and the need to aid Kacchan's distress.
And then, all this talk of soulmates. Could it be possible-?
No. Deku firmly stood his ground on this one. They were rivals and were only really friends as children. Deku wasn't stupid and knew Bakugo essentially hated him, yet it was impossible to deny how oddly intertwined their lives were.
Clearly I have an emotional effect on him, Deku thought glumly. If only it was anything other than disdain and anger.
Deku returned to his dorm alone, drowning himself in some music and an All Might comic book. He was anxious for his class to return and for the commons to be filled with life once more.