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Aizawa was exhausted- which was nothing new.
But today was the start of the new semester, the first day of classes with his new charges in 1A, and he knew it was going to be a headache.
After the tradition of catching new students had been completed, his final problem child, one Midoriya Izuku, had evaded him surprisingly well. In fact, he hadn’t caught Midoriya. Embarrassed as he was, the day had been getting late, and the new students were being fussy in their camps for the final catch (Bakugo Katsuki being particularly vocal). Principle Nezu ended up making the intercom announcement once the older students started getting distracted, huddling around the windows from their classrooms to see if they could spot the final hold out. He confirmed that the event was over- and yes, Midoriya, you will still receive the promised extra credit.
Izuku had materialized out of the shadows near an outdoor shed, hunching from the cheers coming from other students. He’d looked towards Aizawa- thirty feet away and having been searching in the wrong direction- and stayed flighty, confirming from a distance that he was supposed to head to class with 1A.
Eraserhead realized he hadn’t even bothered to use his quirk.
Nezu had stalled him in the hallway, positively brimming with delight at this year’s hunt. He showed Aizawa some of the footage- there had been more than one moment where the child had seemingly just… blended into the background. One minute you could see him, the next he used the movements of the crowd and surroundings to disappear.
Vlad King may have caught all his student’s first, but Aizawa had certainly obtained the most promising one.
Leaving the principal, he entered the classroom as his chosen group chattered away, taking in the new wannabe heroes bubbling with excitement for their new year.
Well, the fun was over. Calling the class to order, he pulled out the uniforms to direct the students out to the field. He frowned slightly while scanning the room- for a moment it appeared everyone but Midoriya was present. That wasn’t to be tolerated. He may have won the event, but tardiness on the first day-
Wait. No, right there- standing carefully behind one of the taller students, Izuku was lingering, he could just make out the green fluff shifting next to Mashirao Ojiro. Aizawa felt like it might even be accurate to say the student was avoiding his range of sight.
With a huff, he turned away, expecting the students to follow him out for the assessment tests.
As the course of the day went on, Aizawa became more and more sharp to Midoriya’s presence- or lack thereof. Almost without thought, the problem child placed himself in locations that were easy for him to blend into the background, to be forgotten and unseen by the teacher.
It was a good tactic for an underground hero in training.
It was an annoying habit for a student of his to develop.
Especially when he was brought to the front to display his abilities, and the only finesse he seemed to have was to blow himself up with his own quirk.
Aizawa shook his head, frustrated that a student was allowed to progress this far without better guidance for handling his quirk. It couldn’t be helped, though. The way Izuku did his best to be out of sight from teachers (from perceived threats, Aizawa was beginning to suspect) had Shota convinced he’d developed some form of detrimental self-preservation tactics.
It’s a good thing Eraserhead learned this on day one. But it would be hard to help Midoriya outgrow the habit, especially when he kept disappearing.
He didn’t want to call Izuku outright, not yet. Because that habit of being able to hide in plain sight was something even adult heroes had to work hard for. At the first battle All Might created with the students pairing off- Izuku’s team won only through his ability to sneak through the course. Bakugo seemed to catch onto this better than the others, but that would make sense since they had both attended the same middle school.
He was fine to allow the behavior as it was.
At least, right up until the villains managed to infiltrate and attack his whole class during USJ, and he lost track of where the problem child had gone. It would have been fine, rational if the boy was off to the side keeping safe, or handling some of the minor villains.
Instead, the problem child came out of nowhere and tried to take on their leader to protect his classmates. Aizawa still has nightmares about what could have happened if he hadn’t been able to act when he did. He’s grateful that Midoriya has such a strong hero spirit, but watching that Nomu reach to crush him had been horrifying.
It had all resolved itself, in the end. One moment his world had gone dark, the next he was waking up to a wailing Hizashi in the hospital, having each detail ring painfully in his concussed ears.
All Might had appeared (about time) and during the ensuing retreat when he’d been handed off to medical, Midoriya disappeared and jumped in once again to help the adults.
That kid was lucky as hell he’d been on bed rest for several days after. As it was, he was going to slip a tracker into his shoes if they didn’t address this soon.
“Problem Child.” Aizawa rubbed at his face with a bandaged hand, loathing the restraint that had been taught into him for handling school age citizens.
Izuku- who had stayed after class as ordered- peaked at him from the chair that was now facing backwards, only showing his frazzle of hair and apprehensive green eyes. “Yes, sensei?”
“It’s important for me to know, if this habit of yours.” He gestured vaguely, encompassing the last week. “Is a matter of you fearing retribution from the hunting event, or if you are refusing to be seen simply because it amuses you.”
The green head (which now that he was looking, was placed perfectly to blend with a plant set up on the back counter, how in the-?) tilted left to right slightly, ducking down till only half of Izuku’s eyes peered at him. “A little bit of both, probably.”
“Well, stop it.” Aizawa sighed, feeling every ache in his recovering body. “I want to see this habit used in the field, it’s not logical to use in a safe setting like our classrooms; is that clear?”
Midoriya nodded, babbling profusely a mix of words that seemed to be part apology and part promises to do better. Aizawa- having gotten better at reading the student’s character, believed him.
Of course, he should have seen this coming for the Sports Festival.
When things started off, there was chaos- there always is. Between the robot section and the rope bridges fiasco, it made sense that he lost track of his problem child. It was natural to focus on those who stayed towards the front, with Hizashi blaring a blow-by-blow narrative of their struggles, Aizawa could admit he wasn’t focused on finding Izuku.
But then it was down to the last hundred meters. With Bakugo and Todoroki fighting in the final minefield, he realized: he didn’t know where the hell the problem child had gone.
He scanned the screens with increasing franticness, wondering how it suddenly became so hard to see a mop of green hair in the same uniform that he always did-
And it wasn’t until the explosion at the start of the minefield went off that he found him.
Flying through the camera’s set up along the finishing stretch, Aizawa watched in disbelief as his stealthiest student once again appeared out of nowhere, catapulting himself to first place in a move that no one else had thought of.
“ERASERHEAD, YOUR STUDENTS ARE AMAZING! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TEACHING THEM!?”
“This has nothing to do with me.” Behind the bandages, Aizawa allowed himself a smile. “Each of them is powered by their own drive to succeed.”
The last camera caught the final moment when Midoriya ran through the tunnel to the finish line, exiting to victory and an explosion of cheers.
He’s going to make one amazing hero someday.