Chapter Text
Aizawa glanced wearily at the clock. The meeting had been going on for nearly two hours. He and Izuku had been standing for nearly two hours…
With a huff, he grabbed two chairs and put them in front of their place at the end of the table. Yes, it was scarier to have Nezu able to directly stare them down from the opposite end as opposed to standing so they could look at everyone better but the man was tired. And phantom pain was apparently still a thing even though his leg was back. Joy.
Izuku glanced at him worriedly, knowing the signs that his phantom pain was acting up. He just smiled tiredly at the kid and gestured for him to sit as well.
Mic gave him a similar look. “Sho, is something wrong?”
“I still have phantom pain from when I lost my leg even though my leg is currently very present.” He deadpanned.
Recovery Girl frowned, before catching Shota’s attention and giving him a reassuring look. “It should fade with time, as you become more aware that you have your physical leg back as opposed to a prosthetic.”
Shota nodded in acknowledgement, relief only clear in the minute dropping of his shoulders.
Gently, Nezu prompted “Are you able to continue, Aizawa?”
“Yes, don’t worry. The pain is nothing new, and we should be done within the half hour.”
Nezu nodded and gestured to the two at the front, inviting them to continue at their own pace.
With a final worried glance at his dad, Izuku began first. “Those first two battles and the fall of UA occurred within the span of two months. By the third month, it was a small group made up of those of you who were still alive, and the last of us students.”
Ectoplasm’s heart broke. “Oh kid…”
“Vlad-Sensei went out with his two students to scout out some places… none of them came back.”
Vlad’s eyes misted over at the thought of his whole class being killed.
“Near the end of those three months we had another small-scale fight, with a group of villains. Instead of losing people, we actually gained one. Kurogiri seemed to have been suffering after Shirakumo was awakened for a bit. He was all… glitchy, and didn’t seem to have a sense of self at all, much less an allegiance to any side.”
Izuku’s lips quirked. “Sensei and Mic-Sensei refused to leave him behind. Mic sensei in particular was very… vocal.”
Shota snorted. “Hysterical is more like it.”
“Hey!” Mic whined. “Leave a guy and his apparently not dead friend alone.”
Izuku shook his head. “Anyway, it was getting a bit hard to tell by then, but somewhere around the four-month mark was where it got bad again.” Izuku suddenly went silent. He didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Going further made it more real. Delving more and more into grief long moved past for the sake of necessity. To live another day.
Shota picked up on the sudden silence and the withdrawn body language Izuku was suddenly exhibiting, and shifted to lean forward slightly more than Izuku was, drawing attention to him instead of the kid.
“Four months in was when Shigaraki’s internal battle with All for One was beginning to drive him to near insanity. He began letting out indiscriminate shockwaves of his improved disintegration, indiscriminately killing people on both sides, and decimating the last of any major buildings.”
Shota’s eyes glinted with deep emotion. Izuku’s glazed over, as he lost himself in some horrible memory. Shota subtly bumped his knee against Izuku’s own.
“While we know that at least one other league member was still alive, the only humans the kid and I actually saw past this point were Mic, Kurogiri and Shigaraki.”
Recovery girl laughed with morose incredulity. “Four months was all it took…”
The room took a moment to reflect on that information.
“Me, Izuku and Hizashi travelled around with a relatively mindless Kurogiri. That is until Izuku did some hand wavey stuff with his quirk that would give scientists an aneurysm.”
Izuku looked as though he didn’t know if he was offended or not by that. All Might cocked his head in slight confusion, though a sharp glint in his eye revealed he may have pieced something together.
Shota sent a sharp look to Hizashi and Nemuri. “It’s impossible to replicate what happened. It was a set of seemingly impossible circumstances that led to a continued unstable existence.” He breathed deeply. “However, it was in fact, the continued existence of a version of Kurogiri with Oboro- Shirakumo as the driver’s seat.”
Nemuri and Hizashi looked incredibly pained.
Izuku nodded sagely. “Kurakumo.”
Mic and Nemuri momentarily let go of their pain with twin amused huffs.
Aizawa considered his next inclusion. It wouldn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but, with a glance at Izuku, he thought it might be okay to be a little bit more personal, even though it was an illogical addition to the story. Maybe it would bring his friends some peace knowing there was a light in the darkness.
“The four of us… obviously we were all in the throes of immense grief and turmoil and all that fun stuff,” he flopped his hand dismissively while the staff looked on in faint horror. “but we were okay. While I would never wish for any of those things to happen again, in a moment away from the heartache… it wasn’t…bad. It was nice watching Mic and Oboro being stupid together. And corrupting my kid.” He finished dryly.
Izuku had a cheeky smile on his face while Hizashi and Nemuri shook each other excitedly. Their nephew would clearly be okay with helping them with pranks. Score. They ignored the glare Shota had sent their way.
He sighed and dragged a hand down his face. “Anyway, we kept travelling, trying to hunt down Shigaraki and whoever was left of the league. By the time we saw him again, it was pretty safe to assume it had been around six months.”
The Pro Heroes in the room recalled what Eraser had said that morning. He claimed it took six months to end the world. This was the end for them, then.
Aizawa leaned forward, gravely. “We found him. Alone, and very clearly affected by it. Thanks to Kurogiri,” “Kurakumo.” “we know that the only reason he managed to last so long in his psychic battle for his body was because of his friendship with the other league members, namely Spinner, who joined after the Stain fiasco.”
“The five of us fought. Not only was Shigaraki significantly weakened by All for One’s consistent efforts to take over, but we also had a very strong teenager. Unfortunately, a cornered Shigaraki was an immensely dangerous one regardless. From that point on, it was just me and Midoriya for another year and a half.”
Aizawa and Midoriya fell into a tired silence. Hizashi fidgeted before bursting out of his seat and storming to the front of the room. He placed a hand on both Aizawa’s and Midoriya’s shoulder, looked them in the eye and announced "I'm giving you both a hug now.”
Both looked extremely confused before their faces were hidden by an emotional Hizashi Yamada, who was actively ignoring Vlad and Powerloader's vehement shaking of their heads.
Izuku froze before sinking into the embrace. It had been familiar, once. Maybe it could be that way again. Meanwhile, Shota was having an internal war. Being soft with his kid was one thing. Being soft with his best friend in front of other people was another. He felt Hizashi’s grip tighten as the man muffled sobs. It was then that Shota chose to follow Izuku, and go limp in the embrace, before wrapping his arms around Hizashi and Izuku.
Izuku’s waterworks were promptly reactivated.
Shota was about to turn to focus on his child when he felt another pair of arms wrap around him. He quickly stiffened, and turned his head as much as he could while trapped by Hizashi to see a similarly tearful All Might, who accidentally egged on the Midoriya tears, which made All Might’s tears worse. Gosh, Shota thought. He had really forgotten what a pair those two made.
He was about to try and awkwardly escape before he felt another pair of arms. And another. Oh no no no don’t tell him he was in the middle of a group hug. Shota Aizawa, the stoic, no nonsense teacher and pro-hero, was inside a sappy, tearful group hug.
He shifted again, before he heard Hizashi mumble a weak “Sho, don’t even think about it right now.” Shota slumped, defeated, in the centre of a huge hug between that majority of UA’s staff, with a bonus teenager. Well. The warmth radiating from the group was a nice reminder they were all alive anyway. He supposed he could stay a bit.
His arms tightened around Izuku and Hizashi. A single tear slipped from his eye.
The reminder really wasn’t so bad. Izuku tightened his grip similarly.
Yeah. They were all alive.