Chapter Text
“As you can see, this year's lineup will prove significantly more challenging than the last.”
Aizawa shuffled the 20 files in his hands, carefully skimming the information in each profile, only meeting Principal Nezu’s eyes to give him an exhausted glare.
The white bear-rat, Nezu, grinned. “Of course, I know very well you can handle it.”
Class 1-A. UA’s yearly rehabilitation program for the young villains and criminals who were failed by society and tossed aside. Many other high schools in Japan did programs similar to UA, taking in small-time offenders and petty criminals, but no school did it quite like UA.
“We are taking in some large cases this year, we even have some transfers from higher security prisons this time…” The principal trails off, “Well! I won't take any more of your time; I’m sure you have important things to attend to! You know the drill, take some time to study each student's file and remember Monday is move-in day!”
He quickly nods before leaving Aizawa alone in his classroom.
Great. Move-in day. Aizawa’s least favorite day of the year. It’s two days before actual school starts, and it’s sort of for giving the rehab students a day or two to learn the rules and adjust themselves to their dorms.
Although in reality it was really used as a day for the students to arrive privately without the eyes of other students or the press trailing their every move.
Yeah, seeing a bunch of probably traumatized teenagers being unloaded from police cars and prison containment trucks, in restraints, and dragged into the building, against their wills, by police and pro-heroes was sort of a miserable sight.
Not to mention, it was probably stressful enough without all the people. The fewer people around, the better.
He didn't really agree with the policy that they had to be restrained whenever stepping foot off campus.
Well , they all had committed crimes, so he agreed to an extent —but he never understood why they couldn't set the kids up with UA’s usual quirk monitors before transferring them to the school.
Massaging his cranium, he began to look deeper into each student's file. Damn it, the school year hadn't even started and he was already getting a migraine.
******
By the time Shouta Aizawa reaches the east gate of UA, there are only a handful of its teachers and, of course, the Principal– all awaiting the arrival of UA’s newest rehabilitation class of students.
Any minute now, the first couple of kids could arrive.
“Aizawa! Hey, where's Mic?” His purple-haired coworker, Midnight, ran up to meet him, opting to stand next to him.
“Hello Midnight, Hizashi is inside doing some prep work... You know he doesn't really like to watch move-in day.”
Hizashi Yamada, also known as Present Mic, who was also Aizawa's lovely husband of 7 years now, did in fact hate the idea of move-in day and never came to watch the students be moved inside, for very good reason too.
“Oh, seriously? He’s still on about that?” Midnight rolled her eyes, “It's not that different from when he, as a pro hero, has to restrain a normal villain to take them into custody. They're all villains, there's no difference.”
“Midnight, this is exactly why you are not one of the main teachers involved in class 1-A. They are just children; you lack the ability to have any sense of empathy for them.”
The first truck pulled up to the curb, and soon others followed behind it.
“Whatever,” Midnight begins while walking away, trying not to act offended, “good luck.”
Pulling his full attention away from Midnight's insensitive comment and to the first arrival of students, Aizawa lifted his file in front of him, anxiously waiting for whoever would show up first.
Shota himself has a hard time on this first day, too. He has to spend time carefully assessing how to effectively gain the trust and respect of these kids. He knows damn well better than anybody that kids dont just turn out this way for no reason, and its his job to not only find out why but to help them heal from these issues so that they may have a second chance at life.
He knows this because one day, many years ago, he was the one being dragged inside the school building against his will, as a rehab student. He knows that not everybody will accept help, no matter how hard he will inevitably fight for them all.
Then, he has to move on to the next batch of kids that need him, trying to forget about the ones he failed in classes before.
The sudden sound of car doors opening snapped Aizawa out of his thoughts.
The first student he shifted his attention to, he recognized from the file, and he flipped to that page in his papers. Number 12, Kyouka Jirou. Deep purple hair, which was cut in choppy short layers, the kind of haircut someone would give themselves in front of a rusty mirror with a pair of craft scissors. Quirk, earphone jacks, she can use the jacks on her ears to essentially listen to sound better; there are other uses as well.
She was being walked by a single police officer and was in simple handcuffs. One around her hands behind her back, and looser ones around her ankles. Not much of a flight risk, he guessed. She wore a bright orange jumpsuit, and she carried a neutral yet slightly uncomfortable look on her face.
Next, leaving the same car, he recognized as Tooru Hagakure, number 16. Called herself the invisible girl during the time before her arrest. Her quirk, invisibility… obviously. Like Jirou, she wore a bright orange prison jumpsuit and had simple cuffs on her wrists and ankles, with only one police officer walking her in.
Behind this car was a larger truck, and first came out student number 10, Rikidou Satou. He was also in an orange prison jumpsuit, but this time had two officers on either side of him. He wore bigger, bulkier cuffs and had an angry kind of look on his face. According to his file, he was muscle for a not-so-well-known crime group. His whole group was captured, but he was the only one in his gang attending UA. He had a scratch across his face that he gained from his arrest.
Following after them were Hanta Sero (Number 13) and Denki Kaminari (Number 7). They obviously knew each other, as stated by their file, they were spotted working together on several occasions during their time as villains.
“Oh-em-gee! Bro!” Denki shouted out at Sero, who had spotted him at this point. Trying to stop to talk to his “bro” he was shoved by the officer behind him to keep moving. “Hey, man? What gives? I'm just trying to say hi!”
From behind, Sero shouted back with a slight Hispanic accent, “Whattt, you were caught too?!”
They were both surrounded by two officers each and had prison uniforms on. Sero had normal handcuffs around his wrists and ankles, but also had some sort of quirk restricter around his elbows, as his quirk allowed him to shoot tape out of them. Denki, however, just had a pair of large, bulky quirk cuffs that were very heavy, as it seemed like he had a hard time lifting his hands at all.
Denki had a normal expression on his face, almost playful. Almost like he didn't care what was happening, and maybe even seemed like he was in a good mood. Meanwhile, Sero had more of a nervous toothy smile.
Next came Yuuga Aoyama, number 1. In usual cuffs and a prison uniform, he was being taken by only one guard. He also had a bulky quirk restricter device around his stomach. His face was guilt-ridden, and he kept his eyes down at his feet.
Following came Ojiro Mashirao, student number 6, and Shoji Mezou, number 11. Ojiro had a nervous-upset face, and Shoji’s face was neutral, unreadable. Both of them in prison jumpsuits and quirk restrictors, and cuffs. Shoji had three officers surrounding him while Ojiro only had one behind him.
Tenya Iida was next. Student number 4. His face looked extremely guilty, and his eyes looked distant and sad. He only had smaller cuffs, yet the shackles around his ankles were a bit larger than the others; he also had three officers surrounding him. His hair once cut neatly was now messy and overgrown past his ears. He looked as if he was embarrassed, shrinking in on himself, trying not to be seen.
After that came Kouji Kouda (Number 9). Kouda only had one officer assigned to him, yet he was in heavy quirk cuffs and over his mouth, a muzzle, preventing any speech. This was probably due to his quirk, which involved speech and allowed him to speak to animals (Anavoice), but this caused Aizawa to shift uncomfortably. Kouji looked so uncomfortable, if you looked close enough, it almost looked like the kid was gonna start crying.
Then Tsuyu Asui, number 3. She had two officers, one on either side of her. She had heavy quirk cuffs around her hands. Her face was also very sad, but her eyes took in her surroundings. Long but brushed green hair went down to her lower back.
Coming behind her was Fumikage Tokoyami, student number 14. His face was completely unreadable except for his furrowed eyebrows hinting at anger or frustration. He had three officers surrounding him, every officer was pointing… flashlights? At him. According to his file, quirk cuffs were not super effective at preventing Fumikage from using his quirk. Therefore, they opted for shining very bright flashlights at him as a preventative measure alongside just normal handcuffs. The sight was almost silly-looking.
Then there was Shinso Hitoshi (Number 19). Surrounding him were 2 officers, one in front and one behind him. His eyes were heavy and tired; they seemed to stare off into nothing. And his eye bags rivaled Aizawas own. Messy and overgrown purple hair and lavender eyes. This kid also had a muzzle on to prevent speech. Much like Kouji, Shinso has a voice-activated quirk. He also had large, bulky cuffs on and shackles around his ankles. Shinso seemed to be snapped out of his zoned-out trance when his attention was grabbed enough by a student being dragged behind him, to whom he gave a dirty look.
Aizawa also had his attention grabbed because this student was quite literally being dragged and making a huge scene, causing multiple of the other kids, officers, and school faculty, including pretty much anyone around, to look at him.
This student was Katsuki Bakugou… student number 17. This kid really did not want to be here because he was thrashing and fighting, and pulling with all his strength. It took 5 officers just to barely get a hold of him. Katsuki had the biggest and bulkiest handcuffs strapped to him and very strong shackles around his ankles. He had a muzzle strapped to his face as well. Bakugou does not have a voice-activated quirk; however, they must have put it on him because even with it on, he was being very loud, cursing, and screaming. On his face was such a look of rage that Aizawa was sure would explode, which made sense given his quirk. He had slightly overgrown ashy blonde hair that was spikey and untamed.
Looking semi-concernedly at Bakugo came Shoto Todoroki, student 15. Besides that, the rest of his face was completely without expression. Shoto's appearance was unique; half of his hair was white, and the other half was dyed black. You could tell it was dyed because the black was beginning to fade a bit, making some spots look almost brown, and red roots started showing under the black. And on the side of his face that had the dyed hair, he carried a large burn scar over his eye that undoubtedly affected his vision in that eye. He had three officers with him and big, bulky quirk handcuffs.
Next was Ejirou Kirishima (Number 8). He had 2 police walking him in, and large handcuffs and shackles. His expression was full of a type of shame you could tell he was trying to hide. He looked insecure, and his shoulders tense. His hair was bleached and dyed a bright red but you could start to see small black roots poking out. It was spikey but fell down to his shoulders.
After that came Izuku Midoriya, student number 18. His eyes looked empty, and his face was unreadable except for a glimmer of curiosity when he spotted Katsuki in the crowd. Izuku’s hair was messy emerald green with a stripe of white peaking through. Aizawa remembers that when he first read his file, he had to do a double-take at the section about his quirk, because somehow Izuku has more than one. Two, to be exact.
Quirk(s): telekinesis and quirk reader (it allows him to know exactly the details of someone's quirk by just looking at them, he even learns things the person might not even know about their own quirk and capabilities.)
Midoriya had three guards surrounding him and heavy burdensome quirk handcuffs.
Then came Mina Ashido (Number 2) and Momo Yaoyorozu (Number 20). Both of the two had very hefty quirk cuffs that seemed to weigh them down. They also both had uneasy faces, the kind you would imagine a little kid having when you caught them sneaking an extra cookie. Mina had 3 officers around her, and Yaoyorozu only had 1. Mina’s hair was bright pink and messy. IN contrast, Momo’s hair was long, silky, and very well taken care of.
Finally, the last one of the students being loaded out of the vehicles was Ochako Uraraka, student number 5. Like the others, she had quirk suppressors around her wrists and smaller ones around her ankles. Two police officers walked with her on either side. Ochako had thick and tangled shoulder-length brown hair, and she had a very serious look on her face.
After double-checking that every one of his students had arrived, Aizawa began to make his way inside as well. He knew he had about 30 minutes until all of his students would be processed and led to his classroom, and he could not be late for that.
The processing was simple and quick; the students would be taken out of their restraints and given UA’s smaller quirk monitors and a quick explanation on how they worked, as well as UA uniforms. After that, they would meet Shota in class, where he could go over the rules and introduce himself as their teacher, then of course show them to their dorms.
UA’s quirk monitors do not restrict the wearer from using their quirk at all. It's a small metal bracelet that is very difficult to remove. However, the user can still use their quirk; it will notify Shota and any other staff nearby when a student activates their quirk. If necessary, a staff member can release a tranquilizer to be used in emergencies only .
If there is an attempt to remove the bracelet or it is tampered with, it will also release this tranquilizer.
Any staff member at UA can scan each student's bracelet if needed and access their entire file, everything. Aizawa doesn't love this feature because he is required to update every single piece of data he learns about the students to his files, which isn't great for trust. For example, if one of his kids trusts Eraserhead with a traumatic story and another adult that the student doesn't trust reads this, it could stop the kid from sharing anything else with him– which has yet to happen, but it still bothers him.
*****
As kids started shuffling into the classroom, Aizawa leaned against the front board, looking closer at his students' appearances.
The first thing he noticed was that most of the students, especially the ones who, according to their files, had been on the run for a while, had grown out hair. Some of them had poorly boxed dyed hair or hair that had obviously not been cut by a professional. But a lot of them just had hair that was messy and ungroomed.
Aizawa never cared about his own hair, but knowing how teenagers are, he hopes he can help some of them reclaim their confidence.
Another thing he noticed when he was able to look better was that a lot of kids had big, noticeable scars on their faces. Well, no shit, obviously these kids were gonna have scars; not only physically but emotionally as well. But it was important for Shota to take note of some of these things so he could better work with his kids.
For example, Kirishima had a scar that ran over one of his eyes, a sharp one, obviously by a cut of some sort. Tenya had a couple of healed scratches that riddled his face. Denki had lightning marks all over, probably from overuse of his quirk. Shouji had a huge scar next to his mouth. Both Shinsou, Bakugo, and Kouda all shared small, jagged scars that went on the bridge of their noses and slightly under their cheeks– Aizawa could guess very easily what that was from.
Not to mention Shoto’s unmissable huge burn mark. Bakugou also had a large mark on his face that wasn't quite healed yet. Aizawa knew that Katsuki got that from his very dramatic arrest. Other students had scars as well, but those were just the ones Aizawa noticed right off the bat.
Standing up straight as the last kid took their seat and turning to face his class fully. Shota Aizawa sighed sharply, which cut through the awkward tension in the room. Then, without missing a beat, Eraserhead gave a full, toothy, sarcastic smile to his class before tiredly beginning his introduction.
“Welcome, everyone, to the first day of the UA rehabilitation program.”