Chapter 1: Autopilot
Chapter Text
Aizawa woke up confused and in pain. The world was dark, but the throbbing pain in his arms and head wouldn’t let him return to sleep. What happened? Then, memories flashed through his mind. The Nomu! Aizawa tried to sit up.
“Woah, easy there-” Hizashi’s voice. Aizawa relaxed. Between that and the sterile smell, he was either with Recovery Girl or in the hospital.
“Hizashi,” Aizawa croaked. “The students?”
“The studen- oh, they’re fine! Don’t worry, no permanent injuries, and Recovery Girl healed them all already! I’ll get you some water.”
The sound of a faucet, and then he felt a cool glass pressed against his lips. As he sipped water from it, he carefully considered how his body was feeling. His arms hurt significantly, and they were bound. Broken or dislocated, then. Probably broken. His head and face throbbed, not unexpected either. Concussion? And of course his ribs were busted from getting slammed into the ground.
Once he was finished drinking, Aizawa said, “Hizashi, I can’t see.” He felt bandages brushing over his eyelids (and his eyes hurt, he wasn’t sure if that was because they were injured or from quirk overuse, or both, but he was concerned.)
“Oh! Your orbital plate was broken, uh, part of your skull, beneath your eyes,” Hizashi said hastily, trying to explain. “Recovery Girl is worried that might have hurt your eyes, so until she can heal you, she wants them to stay closed.”
Aizawa felt his heart clench a little. He really hoped his vision was intact after this. “Okay,” he responded. “Were the students badly injured? What about Thirteen?”
Hizashi explained that the only injured student was Midoriya, who broke his legs and a few fingers (would that kid ever learn not to break his bones?) that Recovery Girl had healed him. As far as teachers went, while Thirteen and All Might had both sustained some serious injuries, they were both expected to make a full recovery.
“Oh, good,” Aizawa said. Suddenly, he felt even luckier to be alive. If the Nomu had actually managed to injure All Might, it was a miracle he’d come out of that encounter in one piece.
There was a creak at the door. “You’re awake! How are you feeling?” Recovery Girl said.
Aizawa answered honestly, mentioning the pain in his head.
Recovery Girl made a tsk sound. “I expected that. You have a concussion, two broken arms, three broken ribs, and a crack in your skull. Not to mention the facial damage.” She walked him through his injuries and their severity, which were, admittedly, pretty bad. Then, Recovery Girl ran him through a battery of neurological tests (push down on my hand here, what month is it, wiggle your toes) and came to the conclusion that while his concussion gave him some short-term retrograde amnesia (he couldn’t really remember the end of his fight with that Nomu) and that he wasn’t showing any symptoms of brain damage. A good sign.
“I can’t heal you right now,” Recovery Girl said, her tone lecturing. “You’re much too exhausted. Focus on resting and you’ll recover sooner.”
Aizawa agreed readily enough. His eyes were starting to droop. Plus, the earlier he went to sleep the earlier he could wake up. He wanted to be able to talk to his class about the Sports Festival tomorrow. He yawned, muttering a goodnight to Hizashi, and fell asleep.
When Aizawa awoke, he felt like his arms were on fire. “Ouch…” he muttered, cringing despite himself. He sat up slowly and opened his eyes.
The world was… blurry. Immediately, Aizawa was alarmed. Then, he recalled what Hizashi had said: Recovery Girl is worried you might have hurt your eyes. Aizawa sighed. If his eyes were unbandaged that meant she had healed them as much as she was able, and that this was as good as it would get.
Despite the blurry vision, he could see clearly enough that he could tell instantly he was in his apartment bedroom. Maybe Hizashi brought him back here? He had probably been pretty drugged up on pain meds. Though it was a bit curious that Hizashi had put him back at his apartment. It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, but he’d assumed Recovery Girl would overbearingly insist he stay overnight considering the severity of his injuries. Oh well. This was all the better for him, no need to escape the infirmary so he could teach his class. And if she did send him back, worrywart that she was, he was probably mostly fine.
And his casts were off too. Looks like Recovery Girl’s quirk could work miracles. They still hurt (a lot) but they probably just needed another minor healing session. No big deal.
Aizawa glanced into the mirror and squinted, face nearly pressed up against the glass. His face looked okay for the most part, except for the large, half-healed gash beneath his eye and a little bit of ugly bruising.
He stumbled out of his bedroom, chugged some water from the fridge and then went rifling through his cabinets for pain medication. He went with the best non-drowsy brand he could find, which wasn’t very strong, but probably would suffice. He’d have to ask Recovery Girl to prescribe him some stronger stuff later. Glancing at the clock, he noted he had just enough time to eat some breakfast with his medicine and get a move-on to teach homeroom. Then for the rest of the day he could nap. He got into his hero costume and made his way to class.
“Sensei! Sensei, what happened to your face?” Kirishima called as he walked into the classroom. The rest of the class looked a bit worried as well.
Aizawa raised an eyebrow. They should know full well where he got his injuries, considering the villain attack yesterday, but he supposed it made sense for them to be concerned for him if he were never briefed on how he’d been doing. “I’m fine, just a scratch,” Aizawa dismissed. “Now, your fight’s not over yet. Let’s talk about the Sports Festival.”
“Yo, Shouta, are you okay? You don’t look so hot,” The moment he left teaching homeroom, Hizashi had started dogging his footsteps.
“I’m perfectly fine,” Aizawa half-lied. His concussion and previously-broken arms were becoming horribly painful (up from moderately painful) now that the medication was starting to wear off, so he was planning to stop by Recovery Girl’s for some extra healing or medicine after he grabbed papers from the teachers lounge. “I told my class about the Sports Festival, so now I can nap.”
“I thought you were going to explain that tomorrow?” Hizashi questioned.
Aizawa snorted. “No, I did it today.”
At that point, Hizashi was forced to turn back and go towards Class 1-A despite his concern and curiosity, as English was about to begin for the students and he had to go teach it. Aizawa continued toward the teacher’s lounge. Along the way, he saw Thirteen in the hallway. He repressed a smile. It seems they’d recovered quickly, considering they were already up and about within the day. “Good to see you’re doing well, Thirteen,” Aizawa said, inclining a head in a nod.
“Uh, thanks?” Thirteen sounded baffled. “You okay? Your face…”
“Just bruised,” Aizawa answered. He brushed past Thirteen into the teacher’s lounge. He closed the door behind him.
“Aizawa,” Nedzu said, sitting in the teacher’s lounge. “You’re pale.”
“I know,” Aizawa said, starting to get a little annoyed that everyone pointed out something like that. He was involved in a villain attack yesterday, this wasn’t rocket science. Nedzu usually didn’t sit around pointing out the obvious though, so Aizawa stood there and waited for Nedzu to make some kind of point or useful observation.
“And is there a reason for that?” Nedzu said, in a lilting voice.
Well. Hm. Did Nedzu want a specific answer? He hadn’t lost that much blood, so it was probably-- “It’s probably the concussion,” Aizawa answered.
“Concussion?” Nedzu’s ears pointed upward. “You ought to see Recovery Girl.”
“Already did,” Aizawa responded.
“No, you didn’t,” Nedzu contradicted automatically.
“Well, not today,” Aizawa said, a little frustrated.
“Go see her,” Nedzu said, a hint of steel behind his voice.
“Fine,” Aizawa grumbled. If he was supposed to see Recovery Girl for follow-up someone ought to have left him a note. Aizawa walked a few rooms down to the infirmary. “Hello, Shuzenji.”
This was probably one of the weirdest experiences of his life.
For some reason, Recovery Girl had started over on all of her tests, and insisted on doing entirely new scans for him. He’d asked her “what are you doing all this for?” and in response she simply scowled at him and chided him for his impatience. At that point Aizawa just shut up. He wasn’t sure what was wrong with the tests and scans she did yesterday, but he was too tired and sore to complain so he pliantly obeyed whatever Recovery Girl asked of him, hoping this process would get him better pain meds.
He laid in one of the infirmary beds, wishing absently he had just hidden in a closet to nap instead of having to go through all these ridiculous scans ( why did we have to do another X-ray, she knew full well yesterday my arms were broken?) when he heard whispering voices. He quietly crept out towards the door, standing just out of sight.
“-bruised ribs, multiple arm fractures, and a skull fracture!” Recovery Girl hissed. “Nedzu, what happened?”
“I’m not sure,” Nedzu said, an unusual worry lacing his voice. “He was fine yesterday, and he didn’t go on patrol last night.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. He was here, grading papers, well beyond the start of his shift.”
What they hell are they going on about? Obviously I was injured at the USJ… and I wasn’t here grading last night?
“And he was just walking around with those broken arms. He must have been in tremendous pain,” Recovery Girl said, looking uncharacteristically bothered. “He’s always so logical. Why didn’t he just come in?”
I did come in, yesterday, and then you sent me home! I woke up at home!
“Perhaps the concussion was impairing his judgement,” Nedzu suggested. “He seemed confused when I questioned him about his injuries. That doesn’t answer the question of where he received his injuries, however.”
Aizawa was liking the way this situation was progressing less and less.
“He won’t be able to go to the Rescue Training he was planning at the USJ. He’s much too injured to go running around containing the little hellions. If he spends this afternoon sleeping instead, I can probably heal him tonight all in one go.”
… what?
Nedzu sighed. “I figured. All Might already used up his three hours, too. What bad luck. About fifteen minutes ago I sent Hound Dog to round up Class 1-A and get them on the bus. He’ll help supervise the USJ trip. He and Thirteen will have to run the lesson.”
What? We don’t- shouldn’t the USJ still be closed for repairs?
Aizawa snuck back to his bed and pulled his phone from his pocket.
Wednesday, April 14th.
Aizawa nearly dropped his phone. Wednesday was yesterday, right?
But it was Wednesday today.
Aizawa shook his head. The idea that this was yesterday was ridiculous. He must simply be misremembering the days, he must be misunderstanding Nedzu and Recovery Girl’s conversation about his injuries, and Class 1-A was probably going to be engaging in replacement rescue training to replace the USJ attack. Right? Right.
Still… Aizawa squinted at his phone through the blurriness. Wednesday, April 14th. He felt unsettled.
Well, it would only do to check on his students at Unforeseen Simulation Joint. Not because he thought anyone was actually in danger, of course. That was ridiculous. Nedzu probably updated the security system. But, he should check that his students were adapting well and didn’t react adversely to returning to the USJ after a traumatic experience. If Nedzu and Recovery Girl weren’t planning on letting him go teach…
Aizawa quietly slipped out the window of the infirmary and started making his way to where he knew the bus would be.
By the time Aizawa arrived, the bus had already left. He sighed and decided to take the subway most of the way. Then he could get a cab to pretty-close to the facility, and use his staff member entrance card to get in. He felt himself burning with impatience, repeatedly checking his phone for the time. It doesn’t matter when you arrive, part of him said, but he mentally kept track regardless. By the time he was taking a cab to get to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, it was about the time that he and the class were attacked yesterday.
He thanked the cabbie and tipped generously, then made his way to the entrance of the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. He swiped his card and walked in calmly, just to see absolute chaos erupting all around him.
There was screaming and fighting and growling, and Thirteen was on the ground and students were in a vicious battle against villains. It was difficult to tell who was who, with his impaired vision and the fast-moving fight.
“Sensei!” he heard someone cry. He whipped his head to the left, towards the source of the cry, and his eyes landed on the unmistakable bubblegum pink of Ashido Mina. She was surrounded by blobs far too tall to be anyone in his class except for Shoji, and none of them had six arms. Enemies.
He rushed forward and fought them away, punching one in the face and using his capture weapon to slam another against the wall. The third, he swept his feet beneath and followed up with a strong kick to the chest. Within moments, all three were on the ground, wheezing or unconscious.
“Sensei!” Ashido said again, relief dripping from her voice.
“Ashido, we need to call-”
“They cut off communications! We can’t,” she said.
“Go, then,” Aizawa ordered. He quickly opened his phone. “See if you can call from outside. If you can, call Nedzu, he’s in my contacts. If not, find somebody whose phone you can use and call the police and nearby heroes.” He shoved the phone into her hands.
“I will!” she responded, taking the phone and running towards the entrance.
Aizawa recognized Kirishima’s voice and flame-red spikey hair, defeated the enemies near him, then directed him towards the entrance. He did the same Shoji and Kaminari as well, going student-to-student, protecting them and sending them to the entrance. Soon, there were no other students nearby. He was sure his arms must be pretty messed up by now, considering he was overexerting them, but he could barely feel anything over the adrenaline.
“Thirteen, status report.”
Thirteen was still on the ground, alive, but unable to rise. “A teleporting villain brought through a bunch of enemies. He scattered the students around the USJ. Hound Dog is fighting them now! I’m fine, but I can’t fight.”
Aizawa squinted, trying to survey the battlefield. He saw a black-and-gold lone figure bodying a bunch of others around him, so that must be Hound Dog. Directing his attention to the center, he saw the vast purple form that must be the teleporting villain and the hulking blue form of the Nomu. He also saw a smaller, thinner tan blob beside them, who must be the leader with the decay quirk.
“Stay safe, Thirteen.” With that, Aizawa rushed towards the center and began picking off the edges of the group of enemies there in his typical ambush style, much more of what he was used to. His adrenaline was still running high, giving him extra strength, but Aizawa was worried about running out of steam. And about using his quirk. He’d used it a few times in battle, but each time, it felt as though someone was shoving a shard of glass through his skull. So he tried to refrain, and relied heavily on his capture weapon.
Somewhat stealthily, he made his way around the group and towards the leader, and lunged at him as soon as he was close enough. The leader jerked in surprise, quickly backing up to avoid what would have been a devastating kick. “Nomu, kill!”
Shit no shit I can’t-
Everything seemed like it was in slow motion. He heard Hound Dog bark in surprise, probably noticing he was there for the first time. He saw Midoriya and Todoroki (idiots! stay away from the fight!) on the edge of the mountain zone, watching in horror. He saw a large, hulking form rush towards him, impossible to dodge, and bring a fist down upon his back.
C R A C K
Mercifully, Aizawa passed out.
Again, Aizawa woke up confused.
He tried to sit up. Instead, he involuntarily cried out at a searing pain in his back and was forced to lay back down. He let his eyes focus and look around him.
His apartment bedroom. Again.
His vision was much better than yesterday, solid lines instead of blurs. There was a slight fuzziness to it, but nothing severe at all. His arms felt much better as well, probably bruised instead of fractured. His ribs? The less to say about them the better. He must have several broken ribs. Minimum. Slowly and carefully, Aizawa pulled up his shirt, and winced at the horrible black-and-purple bruising across his chest, much more severe than yesterday. Not good.
The worst was his legs and back. Throughout his entire lower body he felt half-pain and half-numbness, the same sensation one gets when they hit their funny bone or when one of their limbs falls asleep. Meanwhile, his back just hurt, and hurt a lot.
Why am I at my apartment?
What is going on?
Aizawa was capable of deluding himself into thinking Recovery Girl might have sent him home with some arm fractures. He was not capable of thinking she sent him home with what by all accounts appeared to be major spinal trauma.
And then there was the fact that the USJ appeared to have happened twice.
Aizawa grabbed his phone and glanced at it.
Wednesday, April 14th. 7:28AM.
“What the hell.”
Chapter 2: Static
Summary:
Aizawa tries to find out the cause of the mysterious time loops.
Chapter Text
Aizawa was beginning to panic a little. He quickly sent a text to Thirteen asking if they were doing Rescue Training today. Then, he glanced at himself in his phone camera. His face looked actually alright now, the gash having shrunk (not appearing to leave a scar) and only a little bit of yellowish discoloration rather than the bruise yesterday, but…
That didn’t mean much if he couldn’t walk.
Was the USJ going to happen again today?
Focus. Prioritize. Go step-by-step. Do small, digestible fragments.
Step One. Find out if the USJ is happening again today.
Step Two. Find pain meds. His body hurt.
Step Three. Figure out why this is his third Wednesday.
Unfortunately, even his easiest part of the plan (getting pain meds) was a problem. They were in a cabinet in the living room, and his legs were doing that horrible tingling-painful thing and he felt a sudden rush of pity for every person who had to deal with nerve damage. I can do it. I can do it. He got into his feet, swallowing a swear word, and heavily leaned on the wall, managing to move his legs but feeling a spark of pain every time he put weight on them. He managed to make it to the living room, but bending down to grab the medicine from his cabinet was going to be a problem. He gripped the couch and lowered himself down (pain-pain-pain in his legs) and grabbed the entire bottle of painkillers, along with some pain cream for his skin. Then, he turned around and made his way back to bed.
Cursing the fact that he didn’t have any water by his bedside (but unwilling to make the journey to the kitchen) he swallowed three pills dry.
The medicine he had was a weak painkiller, not containing any narcotics or opiates. It didn’t have any addictive qualities (probably the reason he could get it over-the-counter) but considering he was pretty sure some of the bones in his back were broken… well, he wished he had some stronger stuff. Some codeine might be nice.
While he spread the topical pain-relieving cream on his back and legs (it was kind of working, but he only had a single bottle, which was only enough to cover maybe a third of the injured area) he glanced at his phone. Thirteen had texted back, confirming Class 1-A was going to the USJ for rescue training. Shit.
He texted both Thirteen and Nedzu saying that a) he couldn’t come in today and that b) they really should consider not doing the rescue training today. Both of their replies to that were confused, but he responded vaguely without explaining, with something akin to ‘just don’t do rescue training today, thanks.’ Nedzu was taking a long time to type out his message, but Thirteen immediately protested, talking about the importance of completing the rescue training on time and not setting back the curriculum. Aizawa just sighed, put his phone down, and started to think.
How had this happened?
Yesterday was definitely Wednesday. But today was Wednesday, and he had the injuries from yester-Wednesday. No one else seemed to remember yester-Wednesday either. And he had injuries (albeit much more healed) from the first Wednesday as well.
So. Multiple Wednesdays. And a villain attack.
Part of Aizawa wanted to curl up and not do anything today and hope his pain got better in the next round, but he wasn’t sure whether or not he was going to get another Wednesday, so he didn’t consider that an option. This was his third Wednesday, right? What if he only got three tries?
His goal in this loop should probably be stopping the USJ attack in the first place. He definitely didn’t want to go through that again, and this seemed like a great opportunity to prevent the attack before it even started. Hopefully that would fix the fact that the day was repeating, too.
He checked his phone again and saw that Nedzu had responded again, this time not commenting on the USJ, but asking him whether he was okay. Aizawa frowned. Should he say yes? He was patently not okay, but again, he had no explanation for these injuries. And if Hizashi, or Nedzu, or Shuzenji saw that he’d sustained spinal injuries…
They’d be horrified. And he had no explanation for them.
He grimaced. He definitely didn’t want to deal with their reactions.
He was still capable of walking, as seen when he got up earlier, but he might not be able to walk anymore if he messed with his back any further… so he should get medical help to mitigate damage…
He sighed and lifted his phone to text back that no, he was not necessarily fine, when there was a knock at the door. “Come in!” Aizawa called.
“Yo, Shouta! Nedzu texted me, asked me to swing by here before I went to work! Apparently you’re not feeling so good,” Hizashi said, poking his head into the bedroom.
“I…” you can’t just say your back is broken! “... am having some weird leg numbness.”
Hizashi furrowed his brows in concern. “Do you want me to drive you to UA? So Recovery Girl can take a look?”
Aizawa sighed. “Yes, that would be appreciated.”
And here he was, again, in the infirmary, with Recovery Girl and Nedzu. “-bruised arms, fractured spine, and your rib cage looks like it’s on the verge of collapse!” Recovery Girl said, as Aizawa laid still in a back-and-neck brace. “How did this happen?”
“I don’t remember,” Aizawa lied, face expressionless. Saying that would make them think he was concussed, but honestly, it was easier than trying to come up with some explanation. And his head did still hurt a little, so maybe he did still have a concussion.
“That’s not true,” Nedzu said, without missing a beat, and… yeah. Nedzu really did know him too well.
“Fine, but it’s not going to make any sense,” Aizawa grumbled.
“That’s fine. Explain,” Recovery Girl said.
“I’ve already lived through this day,” Aizawa explained. “Twice. These injuries are from the previous Wednesday.”
“You’re in a time--” Nedzu started.
The world cut out.
Aizawa woke up in his bed. “Wh-”
His back and ribs still ached, and his legs still tingled, but it was muted compared to what it had been just… minutes? Minutes ago? Aizawa grabbed his phone from the nightstand.
Wednesday, April 14th. 7:28AM.
Again?!
Aizawa took stock of his body. Aching back, tingling legs, but… he flexed his arms, which appeared to be in perfect working order. No scarring, nothing. He glanced at the patch of skin that had been turned to dust by Shigaraki in the first loop, running his hand over the spot. Completely smooth, as if the skin had never been broken.
He pulled up his shirt to see that his ribs were a mess of bruises, but greenish-yellow bruises, not the horrid purple-blue they’d been… yesterday? What the hell was that? Why was he back here?
Nedzu had been saying he was in a time loop, or something like that, right? Was that the trigger of the reset?
“I’m in a time loop,” Aizawa said aloud to himself. Nothing happened. Aizawa sighed. Great, so he had no idea what sent him back. Aizawa got up and sat down carefully on the couch. He texted Nedzu he wouldn’t be in, this time citing a reason (a family emergency, he typed, being as vague as possible, hoping Nedzu wouldn’t assume something was wrong) and considered his next steps.
He needed to stop the USJ, but he also needed to figure out what was causing these loops in the first place. He remembered, feeling vaguely ill, a story about time loops in which the loops had gotten shorter and shorter until time was barely a blip, and another in which everything contained within the time loop had slowly vanished.
… yeah. Top priority was making sure the fabric of the universe wasn’t damaged?
Okay. Possible time loop causes?
He had no idea. Was this some sci-fi invention? Was he being cursed by a clever yokai or some higher power? Or, perhaps a more grounded explanation… could a quirk have triggered it?
He’d never heard of a time-loop quirk, and even if that explanation were true, it would still take a lot of investigating to figure out whose quirk it was. It could just have been a passing stranger, or, hell, someone from the USJ attack itself!
Unless…
A memory, from Aizawa’s first Wednesday, came to mind.
Aizawa was walking slowly through the park, when a kid, about eight-ish, plowed into him.
“Oof,” Aizawa said dryly, stumbling a bit. Wide-eyed, the kid rushed to apologize. “Sorry mister! For running into you, and-” the kid looked ashamed for a moment. “No, I better not tell you about it. You’ll get mad… um, at least you have more chances now! That’s a good thing!”
Aizawa was about to ask the kid what he meant, when the kid ran away to go play with his friends again. Aizawa shrugged and kept walking, not about to chase down an eight-year-old and needing to get to work.
He’d almost forgotten about that.
More chances, huh? That kid could have been talking about something else, but… it was worth a shot. He got up carefully and went toward the park he’d met the boy in, taking the elevator and the shortest path in an attempt to avoid hurting his legs and back. On the path, he found a long sturdy stick, and ended up using it as something of a walking stick or cane. He got an odd look or two for relying so heavily on an improvised stick, but he ignored it and went towards where the park was.
Aizawa was pretty self-aware of his appearance and knew full well that at this point in the morning he probably looked like a scrappy homeless dude. And people made biased assumptions, fast. So, rather than try to approach the kids playing ball in the park, he walked towards the group of moms and dads clustered by the benches, presumably the parents of the group. He gave a polite cough as he approached.
One of the women raised an eyebrow. “Can we help you?”
“Ah, one of the kids in that group ran into me earlier and said they used their quirk on me. Or, implied it. I’m not mad, but it’d be nice to know what it was,” Aizawa invented.
One of the others scoffed. “They’ve been playing here the whole time, and you just got here,” she said. “That’s impossible.”
“Wait,” the one with the curliest hair said, “Is it the kid in the green shirt?”
Aizawa glanced back. It was. “Yes.”
“That’s my son, Miura Hikaru. If y-”
The world cut out.
Aizawa woke up in his bed again. He glanced at his phone: April 14th, Wednesday, of course. The day reset again… but, on the bright side, he knew the kid’s name, which meant he could use the Quirk Database to check what his quirk was.
He decided to see how he was feeling first, though. His legs were still a little sensitive, but they seemed much improved. He poked his ribs. They were a bit sore, but he could only really feel it when he touched them, unlike yesterday, when they hurt all the time. Glancing about, he noticed his vision was perfect, healed from when he’d been bashed in the face during the first Wednesday. As if nothing had ever happened.
Aizawa pulled out his computer. With a little bit of fibbing to the Hero Commission as to why he needed to access the Quirk Database, he was looking up the record of a local kid by the name of Miura Hikaru. And when he found it…
Quirk: Victory Loop [WARNING: TIME-BASED; WARNING: HAZARDOUS]
… he found the answer to a lot of his questions.
Chapter 3: System Assessment
Summary:
Having discovered the quirk behind the time loops, Aizawa strategizes in how he might escape, but comes across several key difficulties.
Chapter Text
Quirk: Victory Loop [WARNING: TIME-BASED; WARNING: HAZARDOUS]
Category: Emitter, Touch-Based
Description: When this quirk is activated, it forces the affected person to relive the same day over and over again until they fix what they believe to be that day’s greatest failure. If no memorable or important failure was had on the day the quirk was used, the quirk will fail to activate.
Extra Considerations: Because this quirk hasn’t been activated very many times, information about this quirk is limited. If you have been affected by this quirk, please contact the Quirk Accident Office at (564-XXXX-XXXX).
This explained everything.
And he knew what his greatest failure of the day was. The USJ.
Or, more specifically…
I let villains hurt my students and coworkers.
He didn’t really mind that the villains had hurt him. It was a bit disappointing that they had managed to injure him, sure, but it was nothing compared to the sting of hearing that teachers and students had been hurt. So now that he knew the cause of the loops, he needed to know how to fix them.
He clicked into the ‘additional details’ part of the quirk. It was a mess of semi-useful information, seemingly a quirk doctor’s shorthand notes.
- injuries will begin to vanish/heal over time between loops -- no scars?
- seemingly no aging (refer to case #2, longest time loop to date, lasting 192 iterations)
- clothes/items do not travel with the person (is it the body specifically?)
- new earrings/piercings/tattoos put on during loop appear to either a) not travel or b) leave a mark on the skin that disappears over time like injuries
- **the failure must be corrected/fixed specifically, not avoided (see case #3 -- baseball game)
- theory: keep event as close as possible to initial setup for higher odds of success in escaping the loop (see case #3 -- baseball game)
Aizawa’s eyes raked over the criteria. The failure must be corrected/fixed specifically, not avoided, it read. And if UA students and teachers getting hurt was his failure… He scowled. That meant he had to get through the USJ attack without anyone getting injured, except perhaps himself. If he was supposed to keep the event as close to the original as possible, preventing the USJ attack altogether wouldn’t be an option.
In Case #3, the basis for that recommendation, a baseball coach was affected, and his ‘greatest failure’ was his team repeatedly losing. When he cancelled the game or switched out his entire team for competent players, the loop still reset. When he only switched out a few of his players and then changed to having better strategy, the team had won.
That’s oddly similar to the USJ in structure, Aizawa considered. The participants were fighters, not baseball players, but still. If Aizawa and the baseball coach’s loops were similar, that meant Aizawa could switch out some of the people who were planning to come to the USJ, but switching out too many would fail to break the loops.
Well… at least he had a goal now. Survive the USJ attack with no casualties, while keeping the initial structure of the encounter the same. Easier said than done, and already Aizawa’s mind was whirring with potential strategies for surviving the villain encounter.
There was something else odd that Aizawa noticed about the quirk, though. There was nothing on the whole page or in the notes that said telling someone about the quirk would send him back.
In fact, rather the opposite. In some of the cases it seems implied that the affected person told someone they cared about and got advice. How strange. Maybe it was a new facet of the kid’s quirk? As kids grew, their quirks often took on new qualities or even mutated over time.
To test whether or not the loop would reset, Aizawa dialled the number for the Quirk Accident Office.
“Hello, my name’s Sherri, how can I help?”
“I’m calling to report a quirk accident,” Aizawa said.
“Oh dear,” the person on the other end responded. “Do you need emergency services?”
“No, just a consultation,” Aizawa said. “The person who did it was named Miura Hikaru?”
“I’m pulling up their file now,” she said. Then, she made a noise of slight surprise. “Oh, I’ve never worked with a quirk related to time tra-”
The world cut out.
When Aizawa got out of bed the next loop (he checked his phone out of habit, and it was still Wednesday ) he felt a lot better. His back was, at worst, slightly tender, and all his other injuries were completely healed. A good start.
So it looked like telling someone again caused the loop to reset. First Nedzu, then the boy’s mother, then the caller at the QAO. Aizawa wasn’t sure why that was specific to him, but he supposed it might just be a new development with the kid’s quirk.
At least now he knew what he needed to do now.
He needed to get through the USJ event in a way that left none of his students or coworkers injured, without preventing the incident, and without changing too many major players. Hm. That seemed like something of a tall order, especially considering the massive scale of the villain attack but…
But he could probably do it. Just one extra teacher would be a world of help when it came to fighting the relatively unskilled yet numerous low-level crooks. So, all he needed to do was figure out how to get a few extra teachers to come along, and then once he figured out how to do that consistently, he could figure out how to position everything perfectly so that the USJ attack would result in zero injuries.
How difficult could it be to drag along a few extra teachers to a training exercise?
Aizawa sat up in bed, scowling. Very difficult, apparently.
He’d tried to bring extra teachers to protect the students three times now, but each time his attempts had failed in spectacularly unique ways. Aizawa approached Nedzu directly and asked for an extra teacher or two to accompany the USJ trip. Then Nedzu asked why, and the conversation got really awkward, because Aizawa didn’t really plan an answer for that, so he just kept dodging the question. Eventually, Nedzu just said that Aizawa could take whoever agreed to go with him, so Aizawa went around asking. Sure enough, every single teacher he talked to made some sort of excuse or said they had something else to do. Which, yeah, he wouldn’t want to deal with the 1-A’s first-ever rescue training exercise either (first-years tend to act rowdy and irresponsibly in the very beginning, usually irreverent and not understanding the gravity of hero work) but he wouldn’t be asking for their help if it weren’t important!
Anyways, by the end of that loop, he managed to strong-arm Cementoss into coming by steamrolling through all his very obvious polite passive-aggressive signals that he didn’t want to come. They went to the USJ together, and Aizawa was treated to the sight of the Nomu easily pounding Cementoss into the floor, Thirteen being taken out again, and Midoriya snapping his arm like a twig. Great.
To avoid the awkwardness of the previous loop, Aizawa quietly snuck into their classified files area (which contained the official teacher scheduling) to see who didn’t have any work right now, resolving to walk up to them and announce to them that they’d been reassigned “because they hadn’t been working on anything else.” Unfortunately, he was spotted (or sniffed out) by Hound Dog, who assumed he was a villain infiltrator. (“Why would a UA teacher be snooping around the files when he has the ability to access them normally?” Hound Dog had said suspiciously, upon seeing him in the file room.)
So, Hound Dog tackled him, restrained him, and brought him into an interrogation room. They’d called Tsukauchi (who was a few hours away) to question him, and by the time they’d cleared everything up and established that he was not a villain infiltrator, the USJ had passed and Aizawa had been forced to start over. Aizawa was still a bit grumpy that Hound Dog didn’t apologize about that. The guy might have been planning to do it later, but since the loop reset, he’d probably never know.
In his most recent loop, Aizawa called Endeavor (he had his number because the man was Todoroki’s father) and let him know about a potential villain attack, asking him to come to the USJ at exactly the right time. Because the USJ was off-campus, Endeavor would be able to walk right in. Well, normally he wouldn’t and security would lock him out, but at that specific time they’d be being attacked so the security system would be down. In that loop, Endeavor arrived near the beginning of the attack, but while Endeavor managed to defeat the Nomu with fire (barely, getting himself badly injured), he’d also manage to send a plume of fire toward the students, giving several severe burns.
So, none of those worked.
Still, Aizawa learned things from these loops. Primarily, he’d learned that there were several distinct problems that arose when he was trying to defeat the USJ perfectly.
Problem number one: The Nomu. It was extremely powerful and capable of regeneration. The number one and two heroes could fight it, but… If All Might fought it, he would hurt himself; if Endeavor fought it, he’d accidentally hurt the students. In fact, Aizawa was pretty sure he’d never have a zero-injury rate if Endeavor was brought along, the first people he’d unintentionally injured had been when he’d blitzed recklessly through the entrance whenMineta and Shoji had been standing right there. It was something of a given that if Aizawa invited him along, he was going to accidentally toast a few people. Non-lethally, and everyone would’ve let it go after because of the dire situation, but decidedly unhelpful in this case.
As for other ways to defeat the Nomu…
Fire had stopped the Nomu’s regeneration, but Endeavor had come so close to losing that Aizawa wasn’t sure that anyone with weaker flames than Endeavor could help him, and Endeavor was by far the strongest fire-quirk user in the area. Aizawa briefly considered that some kind of mind-control might be helpful, but when he looked up pro-heroes with those kinds of quirks, there weren’t any that lived close enough to get to the USJ in time. Desperate, he searched up UA students looking for a quirk like that, and he only found a kid who’s quirk worked on people who answered his questions. Since the Nomu never spoke, that was out.
There were other options, of course. Aizawa knew that All Might couldn’t fight the Nomu normally without getting hurt, but maybe he could try to help him? He knew All Might had wasted his hero time on other things that morning. If he could force All Might to not use up any of his hero time, he’d arrive at the beginning of the USJ, and maybe he’d be able to defeat the Nomu without getting injured, which would completely solve the Nomu issue.
If that didn’t work, Aizawa could maybe look into trying to find people with niche quirks like Paralyze or Body-Puppeteering to stop the Nomu, but he got an odd sense that the Nomu would be immune to many things. Like it was a zombie, not a real person. Maybe it was the strange eyes and exposed brain that made him feel this way.
Then, there was problem number two. Thirteen. When Aizawa jumped in to take care of the rest of the villains, Thirteen always ended up inevitably accidentally injuring themselves against Kurogiri. This one might be easier to solve than the Nomu. If he brought another hero to help, or if All Might started out with them, maybe they would prevent Thirteen from getting injured? Or they could go fight the villains, and Aizawa himself could stop Thirteen from getting injured. Perhaps, even if Aizawa was fighting the villains in the center, Aizawa could whirl around and erase Kurogiri’s quirk at just the right time to prevent the injury? That would take some great timing, though, so Aizawa would have to keep a careful eye as to when Thirteen was using it in future loops if he wanted that to work.
Problem number three. Traumatic experiences don’t disappear. Aizawa didn’t want to think about this at first, but he’d first been forced to put this on his ‘problems’ list in the most recent loop. Midnight had pulled him aside and asked about what was going on between him and Hound Dog. Aizawa hadn’t known what she’d meant at first, but soon enough he realized that he’d been instinctively avoiding Hound Dog because of what happened in the previous loop. Specifically the way that Hound Dog tackled and arrested him thinking he was an infiltrator for looking through classified files. Aizawa had tried to play it off, but from that point on it was impossible to ignore how uncomfortable he felt when Hound Dog was standing behind him.
If he was feeling mental aftereffects from something so small (it wasn’t small, something inside him whispered, violent arrests like that can be plenty traumatic) then who was to say how bad things might from a mental health perspective get if he let himself get hurt repeatedly at the USJ? He had to be careful with that. Luckily, besides some minor burns from Endeavor, he’d manage to avoid most injury these past few loops.
Now having considered problem number three…
There was problem number four. Midoriya.
Midoriya got hurt. Always.
Aizawa had tried doing the USJ… what, four times now? And every single time Midoriya had managed to break some kind of bone. This was getting ridiculous. Aizawa was pretty sure he was going to expel the kid after the loop was over due to his repeated reckless quirk use.
So, now. To plan the next loop.
He was sick of awkward conversations with Nedzu and others about them coming along, so he decided to try something new. He would send out an SOS just as the group walked into the USJ, and by the time backup arrived, villains would be attacking! Perfect plan. Meanwhile, he’d keep an eye on Thirteen to figure out for later when was the best time to erase their quirk so they didn’t accidentally injure themselves.
That morning and afternoon, Aizawa lived as normally as possible, but tracked All Might’s pre-USJ movements as much as he could, keeping an eye on the breaking news. He’d pinpointed the three locations that All Might had stopped major crimes at and diagrammed a rough estimate of his path. Hopefully, he could interrupt All Might in one of the future loops, and convince him to save his hero time so he’d be prepared for the USJ later. Once he’d memorized All Might’s movements, he went to corral his students onto the bus. Aizawa texted Nedzu that there was a villain attack on the USJ just as he and the students walked inside.
Chapter 4: Flight Deck
Summary:
Aizawa tries the USJ event again with backup on the way and makes an odd discovery about Midoriya's relationship with his quirk.
Notes:
TW for graphic violence, extreme anxiety, and dissociation (yeah this chapter's going to be a time)
If you want to skip all of that just stop at "blacking out" before the last line break. You'll be able to read the rest of the story without it.
Chapter Text
Aizawa kept one eye on the fountain throughout Thirteen’s speech and it wasn’t long before lights were flickering, a portal was opening, and villains were pouring through.
“Thirteen, protect the students,” Aizawa heard himself say. As Midoriya moved forward to walk toward the danger (he did that every loop too, frustrating) Aizawa added, “Stay back! Those are real villains. This is not an exercise.” He turned to Thirteen. “Get them out as soon as possible.”
This time, Aizawa didn’t bother telling Kaminari to call using his quirk. He knew it wouldn’t work and that help was already on the way. He walked forward, and even as Midoriya started protesting his decision to fight the villains (“your fighting style’s not suited for this!”) Aizawa leapt forward and attacked the first group of villains.
Okay, so, current strategy and alterations. He needed to keep downing the villains and he needed to keep a special eye on the mist one (Kurogiri) for as long as possible, because he would teleport behind him and attack the students at first opportunity. He knew backup was on the way and that Shigaraki and the Nomu (the major threats) wouldn’t attack him until the cannon-fodder had worn him down. He also knew backup was arriving soon and he didn’t need to hold out for long. As such, he took down villains at a leisurely pace and kept his quirk activated, Kurogiri always within his field of vision.
Unfortunately, blinking was a reflex. He could try and stave it off, but he would need to blink eventually. The moment he blinked, Kurogiri was gone. Damn. He’d just have to hope backup arrived soon. Aizawa channeled his frustration into his fighting, tearing down his enemies.
He’d managed to down about half of the people in the center when the doors burst open. He glanced back and saw a crowd of teachers, All Might included. He saw Kurogiri and Shigaraki panic and squabble a bit, before Shigaraki shouted something at the Nomu and both Shigaraki and Kurogiri vanished within a portal.
The Nomu roared and launched itself at All Might, who looked extremely surprised but immediately started fighting it back, discovering it’s shock absorption with relative ease. Meanwhile, Ectoplasm and Hound Dog came down to help him fight the villains in the center while the other teachers fanned out to handle different zones.
“Is everyone okay?” Aizawa asked, panting and mildly bruised but not seriously injured.
“Thirteen was down,” Hound Dog said. Oh great. So Thirteen gets taken out relatively soon, then. “But they were able to talk and seemed to be relatively okay,” he added quickly. “Not sure about the students.”
Aizawa nodded, and out of the corner of his eye, saw Ashido and Midoriya at the edge of the fire zone, lingering. They’d probably been heading toward the center. Sometimes, Midoriya managed to convince whoever he was within his zone to come toward the center with him to ‘help’ Aizawa. Aizawa wished he didn’t have that habit. It made them much more likely to get hurt, and therefore only prolonged the loops.
“Are you two okay?” Aizawa asked.
“I broke my hand,” Midoriya admitted, showing it.
Seriously? Again?
As Aizawa opened his mouth to respond, All Might launched the Nomu through the roof with a massive crash. Aizawa ushered the two students toward the entrance and into the waiting arms of paramedics. He waved the paramedics off when they asked if he was alright, and then turned back to look for students in other zones. He found Aoyama cleverly hiding beneath some metal panelling. He probably wouldn’t have known he was there if he hadn’t heard the kid breathing. Aizawa was too big to fit in there, so he crouched near the entrance of the hole and quietly explained that the attack was over and that backup had arrived. The kid, looking shaken, pried himself out of his hiding spot and glanced around cautiously.
Aizawa escorted Aoyama back to the entrance, and saw that essentially everyone had gotten back. One ambulance had left, taking Midoriya, Kirishima (he was missing from the group) and Thirteen, while another ambulance stayed, with its paramedics flitting between students and teachers, checking on them. As Aizawa arrived, Nedzu leapt down from Vlad King’s shoulders. “Ah, that’s the last student! Are you injured, Aoyama-kun?” Aoyama shook his head no, and went to go join the rest of the students.
The teachers gathered and planned an emergency meeting to discuss this attack, just as police arrived to help arrest and book the criminals. Meanwhile, Aizawa took stock of this version of the USJ attack. Thirteen was hurt and so were Midoriya and Kirishima fighting the villains, but none of the other students were hurt despite the fact that they were scattered. Kirishima wasn’t injured the other times, so it was probably because the zones were shuffled between students. As far as All Might goes…
“Is Yagi alright?” Aizawa asked.
Nedzu blinked in surprise. “He’s fine, but he sustained some injury fighting that large villain he sent through the roof. He might have lost time for using his quirk.”
Damn, so All Might was injured too. This version of the attack went better, but I need to try to figure out what the Nomu’s weaknesses are. If it has any. I have to weaken it somehow so All Might can take it out without getting hurt, or force All Might not to spend his hero time early, because I don’t think any other person except him has the raw strength to take it on if I want a zero-injury runthrough.
Hm. And as for Thirteen… he had a slightly better idea as to when Thirteen would be getting injured (earlier than he’d initially assumed) but he’d have to keep a better eye to figure out exactly if he wanted to delete Kurogiri’s quirk or Thirteen’s quirk at the most opportune time.
He was starting to feel sore, muscles burning and bruises aching, and Aizawa was reminded once again that he was relatively unsuited for group fighting. He could do it, of course, but he was rarely thrown into random horde battles like this. He usually just snatched up opponents in his capture scarf, which was nice until he was fighting fifty people and only had one capture scarf. Oh well. At least he’d get plenty of practice in the coming days.
Aizawa let himself be dragged along to the emergency meeting and tried to contribute to some extent, but he found it tough to get invested when he was decently sure the loop was going to reset. He’d failed in his objective, after all. Midoriya and Kirishima were hurt, as were Thirteen and All Might...
Aizawa woke up and checked his phone. Wednesday, April 14th. Aizawa sighed.
Time to try again. Aizawa taught homeroom (they were going over basic rescue procedures in preparation for training at the USJ, not that the class would even need them.)
Then, in a sudden bout of frustration, he asked Midoriya to come to his office right after homeroom finished. Midoriya looked nervous as he padded into his office.
Aizawa was feeling incensed that Midoriya had broken his hand again in the last loop. What was this, the sixth time? He couldn’t lecture Midoriya about that, because Midoriya wouldn’t understand what he was talking about. However, the moment that Midoriya was in his office, Aizawa very slowly and patronizingly started going over basic strength-quirk control techniques for four-year-olds as if he were talking to one. He was expecting Midoriya to get angry at him for his condescension, and Aizawa was hoping that anger would motivate Midoriya into actually gaining some quirk control.
Instead, Midoriya’s eyes rounded and he pulled out his notebook and started taking notes. Befuddled, Aizawa kept going, and Midoriya started muttering to himself about ‘not thinking about his quirk as a normal strength quirk’ and ‘not realizing that the basic exercises might help him learn control’ and ‘not considering the quirk as an extension of himself.’
Uh. What.
By the end of Aizawa’s preplanned lecture, his initial attempts at being patronizing had been replaced with complete and utter confusion, and Midoriya gave him a very thankful look and said he’d been quite helpful. Then, Midoriya left for class.
What was that?!
Honestly, Aizawa had no idea what was going on with Midoriya and his quirk. At this point, all he knew was that whoever had been Midoriya’s quirk counsellor ought to be fired.
Aizawa sighed and buried his face in his hands. Midoriya was reckless on the best of days (him repeatedly going toward the center of danger during the USJ proved that) but maybe he actually wasn’t beyond hope. He’d try next loop to figure out more of what was going on. If Midoriya was really this clueless about his quirk, then he definitely needed extra help from Aizawa even in the very first steps of gaining quirk control.
What a problem child.
He texted the main campus they were under attack just as they were walking in.
As the attack began and Aizawa fought the lower-level villains, he kept glancing behind him to check how Thirteen was doing. His inattentiveness got him a bad punch in the ribs, but he saw how the students had been scattered and the way that Thirteen had their own quirk redirected back at them. He activated his quirk a touch too late to help, but at least now he knew Thirteen was taken down at about the four minute mark of the attack.
Suddenly, as Aizawa continued his fight against the minor criminals, Bakugou came flying in from the mountain zone, using his explosions to propel him. “You think you villains can beat me, hah!?” Bakugou shouted, delivering an explosion straight to the face of a nearby villain and drawing as much attention to himself as possible.
Fuck! Bakugou, what are you doing?!
Aizawa punched an enemy extra hard in frustration. He’d been so focused on Midoriya recklessly rushing into battle that he hadn’t noticed Bakugou recklessly rushing into battle. Did Bakugou’s reckless tendencies only surface (or at least surface to the point where Bakugou went to the battle’s center) when he was in certain zones and with certain students?
“Hey, Handsy! Are you supposed to be the big boss? This attack is pathetic!” Bakugou shouted, taking out two enemies with a large explosion. Shigaraki was looking progressively more irate, scratching his neck furiously.
“Bakugou, get out of here! That’s an order!” Aizawa shouted.
“I’m not the final boss,” Shigaraki said. Aizawa’s heart sank as he recognized that line. Aizawa launched himself forward with his capture scarf, racing towards Bakugou as fast as he could.
“Nomu, kill the kid,” Shigaraki said.
Bakugou fell into a fighting stance, but Aizawa knew there was nothing either of them could do against the Nomu. Aizawa threw himself over Bakugou and curled around his body protectively, hoping to mitigate as much damage as possible.
Something slammed into Aizawa’s shoulder. There was a loud audible cracking sound as Aizawa felt his elbow snap and his shoulder pop out of place. The Nomu, with crushing force, closed a fist around his forearm and yanked him up by his injured arm. Aizawa let out a strangled scream before blacking out.
Unusually, Aizawa woke up on the ground. “Hrrg-”
“Sensei, are you okay?” Todoroki’s voice, and he was placing a cool hand on his forehead. Aizawa peeled his eyes open and saw a giant battle between the Nomu and All Might. Bakugou stood between them and he and Todoroki.
All Might must have arrived before the Nomu finished off him and Bakugou.
“I wasn’t sure what to do about the arm,” Todoroki quietly confessed.
Aizawa glanced at it, and was surprised neither of the students had thrown up. His arm looked closer to a pile of blood, bone shard, and skin mush than any real limb. He must have passed out from the pain… it still hurt, hurt so badly, white-hot knives that made him want to scream… but he still remained calm. In fact, he was feeling rather heady and kind of disconnected from his body. Was he in shock, dissociating? He leaned into Todoroki’s cold hand, which was grounding, and gave him something to focus on that wasn’t pain.
Aizawa heard approaching footsteps. “Shouta!” he heard Hizashi say, sounding panicky. Aizawa looked in that direction and saw that the teachers had arrived. “Shouta,” Hizashi crouched down and Todoroki got out of his way.
“H’zashi,” Aizawa responded, then felt irritated when his own voice slurred. He reached out with his good arm and tugged on Hizashi’s sleeve. “We’re going to get you help,” Hizashi promised, squeezing his hand. Hizashi stood up and yelled something to the group of teachers, presumably requesting medical assistance. Aizawa, feeling assured enough by the arrival of the teachers, closed his eyes and decided he was exactly done with this loop and feeling this much pain.
“Nononono-- stay awake!” Hizashi ordered.
Hizashi was loud and insistent, but if anything, Hizashi’s familiar fussing made him feel more secure in his decision to give up consciousness. And, well, at this point, nothing was going to be stopping him from passing out.
Chapter 5: Engine Lights
Chapter Text
Aizawa woke up again in an ambulance. Judging by the way he felt like a thousand knives were plunging into his arm, the tingling-coldness-burning, Aizawa guessed he was still in the same loop. He must have been woken up by the turbulence. An oxygen mask sat over his face, making it easier to breathe. He heard two paramedics talking rapidly.
“O2 saturation’s improving…”
“-think this guy is gonna make it-”
“He’ll probably lose the arm though. Might have to be amputated.”
Aizawa stopped cold at that one.
Aizawa knew that his injuries would slowly ‘vanish’ over time (studiers of the quirk theorized that this was because the body was returning to its original state, and not really healing) but if his arm was detached…
Aizawa had no idea what would happen or how painful that might be. He needed to reset before anyone here cut his arm off. “Hey-”
“He’s awake!”
“Time loop,” Aizawa said to them. “Same day. Over and over.”
“Wait, a what-”
The world cut out.
Aizawa woke up in his bed with sharp pain in his arm. He threw off a few blankets and took a good look at it.
It did not look good.
Aizawa tried to reassure himself that at least it wasn’t the absolute mess it had been before the reset, but that wasn’t much reassurance. This was nothing like those arm fractures he’d been dealing with in the second loop, which had hurt but hadn’t been terrifying. Maybe it was because the break was so much worse in the last loop, or because Recovery Girl hadn’t set or healed his arm in the last loop, but either way…
It was absolutely shattered. It was twisted at a wrong angle, bone jutting out, and it was bleeding sticky red onto the sheets. Aizawa reached out with his good arm to his phone and texted an SOS to Hizashi. Then, he curled up around his arm and sobbed.
When the paramedics arrived along with Sekijiro ( Vlad King came to check on me? How nice of him ), and Hizashi, everyone was appropriately horrified but Aizawa just sort of… shrugged them off, so to say. He answered questions about his medical history, but didn’t say how his arm broke, because he really had no good explanation.
Soon enough, Aizawa was in the ambulance and sedated.
When Aizawa woke up this time, he woke up slowly. It was bright, signalling that it was midday. He glanced around him and saw that he was in the UA infirmary (probably having been moved from the hospital.) His arm was still attached (thank god) and wrapped up in a cast. Aizawa could tell he was on pain medication, feeling vaguely floaty instead of feeling absolutely horrible. Recovery Girl walked in with a clipboard. “Ah, you’re awake!”
He answered all her questions about how he was feeling, and ignored all her questions about how his arm got like that. He found himself asking for Hizashi and Nemuri instead.
Recovery Girl sighed. “They’re outside. I’ll get them.”
Hizashi and Nemuri both rushed in at first opportunity, looking concerned, but he did his best to assure them. “I feel fine!” Aizawa insisted. He let both of the two give him a hug.
“You scared the shit out of us,” Nemuri said. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Recovery Girl said…” Hizashi frowned. “That you were going to have permanent damage to your arm.”
“Figures,” Aizawa said, not really worried. Things would reset anyway.
“Don’t be so casual about it!” Nemuri scolded. “What happened?”
Aizawa made a noncommittal noise.
“Recovery Girl said the way it was broken, it would have taken a lot of force. And that someone definitely attacked you,” Hizashi said.
Aizawa tilted his head. “How does she know that?”
“You have hand-shaped bruises from someone squeezing your arm too hard,” Nemuri said, unimpressed. “Shouta, who did this?”
Aizawa sighed. “It doesn’t really matter.”
“Yes, it does,” Hizashi emphasized. “Look, according to Recovery Girl, the amount of strength someone would need to twist your arm to cause that bad of a spiral fracture down your humerus whilst simultaneously crushing your forearm to that degree would take a really significant amount of strength. Almost as much power as All Might.”
That was accurate. The Nomu was almost, if not as strong as All Might.
“Which is why All Might is something of a suspect,” Hizashi continued.
Wait, what?
“What?” Aizawa said.
“Well, it takes a certain amount of strength to break an arm that way that badly, and All Might is one of the only people strong enough to do that in the area. And you two know each other,” Hizashi explained.
“It’s not… why would All Might break my arm!?” Aizawa said. He was baffled they were even considering the mild-mannered Yagi as a suspect.
“Well, you guys don’t like each other much,” Hizashi said.
“Wh…” Oh, that’s right. Aizawa hadn’t really liked Yagi much before this whole thing started, but Aizawa had started warming up to him after about a week of looping (and watching him work so hard to protect the students.) Aizawa had decided that the ‘obnoxious All Might’ was mostly a mask and that the person of Yagi Toshinori was pretty alright.
Honestly, it was a little unusual for Hizashi to accuse someone of something like that, but Aizawa guessed he was just stressed. He was pretty sure if given another few days Yagi and Hizashi would have created a friendship, but because the days kept resetting they were stuck in that awkward between-friends zone where Hizashi seemed to like All Might, but might still accuse him of snapping someone’s arm in cold blood if there was a little evidence supporting it.
“Nedzu doesn’t think it’s All Might,” Hizashi added conversationally.
“Well, be assured that All Might definitely didn’t break my arm,” Aizawa said with a sigh. Well, it was nice being on good pain medicine for a little bit. “So, have you either of you ever heard of this pre-quirk movie called Groundhog Day?”
When Aizawa woke up the time after that, his arm was mostly back together. It felt bad in the same fracture-y way that it had in the second time loop, which was a good sign. He wasn’t really fit to fight in the USJ against a bunch of villains, though.
He texted Nedzu a long explanation about how he was in a time loop.
The world cut out.
His arms were only bruised and sore the next day, which Aizawa considered good enough. Loop number… what was this, thirteen now? It felt like it’d been longer.
He got up and ate breakfast and went to teach homeroom, as he usually did. After homeroom, he called Midoriya into his office again.
Midoriya walked in looking nervous.
“Midoriya, let’s talk about your quirk,” Aizawa said, and immediately Midoriya started looking more nervous. “I want to help you learn to use it.”
Midoriya relaxed a little in response to that. “I promise I’ll figure it out sensei!”
“I don’t doubt that. But it might go faster if I help. How have you been using your quirk up to this point?”
Midoriya immediately launched into an explanation that essentially boiled down to ‘I put lots of energy in my limb, then I punch real hard’ which explained why he kept breaking them. It looked like he had a store of energy within his quirk, a lot of energy, and he didn’t know how to only draw on a little bit of it.
Weirdly, Midoriya spoke about his quirk as if it were its own thing, some disconnected entity that he’d somehow picked up long the way rather than something he’d had all along. It was bizarre, and Aizawa decided to bring it up. “You talk about your quirk like it’s separated from you,” Aizawa pointed out. “It’s not a one-off special boost, it’s a part of you, like a muscle. Thinking about it like you do now will only make it more difficult for you to control.”
Midoriya looked up at him like a deer in the headlights. Aizawa sighed. “What do you think you’re having the most trouble with?”
“It’s too much power,” Midoriya admitted. “I can’t limit it enough.”
“Too much power in too little area,” Aizawa murmured to himself, nodding. “Some basic control exercises should-”
“Wait, say that again?”
“Too much power in too little area?” Aizawa questioned.
“What do you mean by that?” Midoriya asked.
“The energy is diffused over the area in which you activate your quirk. Your quirk is probably harder to contain in just your finger as opposed to your arm, right?” Aizawa raised an eyebrow.
Aizawa wasn’t sure what kind of reaction he’d just inspired. Midoriya started muttering about surface area and scribbled in his notebook. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he looked as though he were practically vibrating in his seat. “I have to go train!”
“Hold on. Let me run you through some quirk control exercises first,” Aizawa grunted.
Aizawa spent the rest of the morning looking over his class’ training exercises and needlessly grading assignments that he knew would get reset. Part of him justified it as getting to know his new class better so he could help them later, but another part of him just wanted to stay busy and distract himself from the looming shadow of the USJ.
Just as lunch started (and Aizawa’s stomach twisted as he saw the USJ was just an hour away) Midoriya burst into his office. “I have something to show you!” he said. Midoriya led Aizawa to Gym B, activated his quirk (across his entire body) and punched a dummy. The dummy went flying and slammed against the wall. “Look! It’s not broken!” Midoriya said, showing Aizawa his arm. The arm was bruised (and it was possible there were fractures under the bruising) but none of that sickening arm-torn-to-shreds stuff. A definite improvement. “I mean, that still kinda hurt, and I probably should have done more control exercises before trying, but- it worked! Now I just need more practice!”
Aizawa nodded, repressing a smile. “Good. Now that you can use your quirk without breaking your limbs, it could be very useful. Be careful practicing.”
Midoriya beamed. Aizawa felt bad that this progress was going to be erased, but at least Aizawa knew how to induce the discovery. Once Aizawa managed to break out of the loop, he was planning to help Midoriya re-learn how to use his quirk safely again. Aizawa went back to his office while Midoriya ran off to lunch to tell his friends about his accomplishment.
Midoriya’s achievement had been a nice distraction, but once Aizawa got back to his office, his mind sank back into dread for the USJ. You have a new plan for it, Aizawa thought to himself, thinking about the plan he’d thrown together quickly this morning. It’s a good plan. You probably won’t get hurt.
These affirmations didn’t make Aizawa feel better. The idea of going to the USJ made Aizawa feel physically sick. You have to. Otherwise you’ll never escape the loop. You have to. You need to keep trying. Aizawa didn’t expect to be dealing with such horrible feelings about the USJ so soon into his loops. It’d barely been any time at all…
Aizawa knew it would be a drag to have a specific phobia of the USJ (it was UA’s best rescue training center) but he was sure Nedzu would be accommodating about any shiny new USJ-related PTSD. Aizawa was more concerned about escaping the loop if he had such a fear, and any other aftereffects, like flashbacks or nightmares.
Aizawa glanced down at his arms, badly bruised. It might not be a good idea to have a USJ run with my arms still hurt. I might make them worse, and delay their healing. Besides, I never got to try changing All Might’s path in this loop.
It was true that he should probably let his arms heal. Letting himself get hurt was pointless and this loop probably wouldn’t go well. It was logical to reset at this point.
All the same, the whole walk to Nedzu’s office, and as he spoke to Nedzu about the time loops, Aizawa still felt like he was failing.
Chapter 6: Nosedive
Summary:
Aizawa tries to make sure All Might gets to the USJ on time, but that process ends up being more difficult than he thought.
Notes:
Hey, I’m back! So, I didn’t like this draft of the story much, so I ended up redoing a lot of it before I moved on. Most of it is detail work, but I will say that the way that the way the quirk works in chapter 3 has been altered. With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the newest chapter!
Also, tw for some serious violence in this chapter. Have a nice day!
Chapter Text
The next loop, Aizawa was fully healed. No more injuries. (No more excuses.)
Aizawa first went to UA to teach homeroom. As soon as homeroom was complete, he quickly left UA. Timewise, this would be a bit of a tight fit, but he had to try. Aizawa took a taxi to the area he knew All Might would stop his first crime at.
Aizawa arrived just in time to see Yagi hidden behind a building, seconds away from leaping into a hostage situation. “Yagi,” Aizawa said, walking up quickly.
“Ah, Aizawa-kun! Lower your voice. I plan to interfere,” he said.
“Aren’t you limited on time? Don’t you have to teach?” Aizawa tried.
Yagi glanced at the hostage situation, full of frantic civilians. Then he looked back at Aizawa in surprise, as if he couldn’t believe Aizawa was being so heartless. Aizawa suppressed a wince. Yeah… with people in danger right over there, telling All Might not to save them made him look unheroic and callous.
“I have to help,” Yagi declared. Aizawa backed up a step, and Yagi transformed into his muscular form. He jumped towards the hostage situation, taking out the villain with relative ease, before spouting some All Might-esque quip and leaping in the vague direction of UA.
Aizawa sighed. Begging All Might to not help innocent civilians was obviously something of a futile endeavor. Maybe if he distracted All Might before he saw the hostage situation? He could try, but both it and the other two crimes All Might stopped would be playing on the local news, and would therefore be difficult to hide from him.
Or…
Aizawa glanced at the police arresting the villain.
Maybe he could arrest the villains before All Might did?
It would be difficult. He’d have to run along rooftops and trace the path All Might had originally taken, out-pacing the start of each crime as it occured. And he would have to book it from homeroom if he wanted to be there in time to stop the first one. But it was worth a shot, and if he could manage to stop one or two crimes before All Might wasted his hero time, that might be enough extra power to get him past the Nomu.
Once Aizawa arrived back at UA, he broke bad news to Midoriya and Bakugou. “Neither of you will participate in today’s rescue training,” Aizawa said sternly.
“You can’t just-!” Bakugou shouted, but a glare from Aizawa cut him off.
The real reason Aizawa was leaving the two behind was because their reckless tendencies made them very likely to get hurt during the USJ. It would be way easier to get a zero-injury runthrough with those two out of the way. Hopefully, it would still be close enough to the originals for him to escape the loops.
Aizawa told them they were being excluded due to their reckless attitudes in the training exercise and left the two to sit and do nothing in separate rooms. Midoriya’s heartbroken expression made Aizawa feel like he’d just killed a dog, while Bakugou looked ready to fly off the handle, but he ignored the two. He had more important things to worry about right now.
Aizawa gathered up his students for the USJ trip and marched them toward the bus. He boarded the bus with the class. As the bus sped along toward the USJ, he started feeling sick. He absently listened to Ashido repeat canned lines about boys again, like she had in all the other loops. Didn’t she ever talk about anything else?
He didn’t want to be here anymore. He texted UA there was a villain attack as the group walked inside.
Once they arrived, Thirteen started their speech. Aizawa kept an eye on the center.
Villains appeared, yet again, and Aizawa launched himself forward without a word.
So long as he kept it to the cannon-fodder and didn’t get too close to the more dangerous villains, so long as no students came running toward the center, and so long as there weren’t unexpected deviations, Aizawa should remain uninjured. That’s what he was counting on.
Aizawa focused completely on slowly defeating the small fry at the right pace, not too fast and not too slow. That was all he had to do. He just had to make sure that these lesser villains were-
Aizawa felt his instincts flare and barely managed to throw himself out of the way. Behind him, a plume of purple mist appeared in the air. Kurogiri? What? How, he shouldn’t have-- Aizawa glanced at the entrance and saw that Thirteen was down and the students had been scattered. But this was way too early. Why-
Suddenly, Aizawa realized what went wrong, and felt like slapping himself. He’d forgotten to erase Kurogiri’s quirk at the beginning of the fight. In previous battles he’d done so automatically, and therefore he kept Kurogiri back for a little bit, but this time, he had just started attacking the less threatening villains by rote and hadn’t really been paying enough attention to Kurogiri.
Aizawa backpedalled quickly and activated his quirk, trying to avoid Kurogiri while still defeating the many other enemies around him.
Kurogiri must have taken down Thirteen early, so he was redirecting his fighting efforts toward Aizawa.
Aizawa felt a gust of air hit him as a punch from a lesser villain missed narrowly. He turned around and spin-kicked the man in the neck. Aizawa heard a sickening snap.
Wait, did he just kill that guy?
In his moment of shock, Aizawa took his eyes off Kurogiri and glanced at the person he’d attacked, whose neck was bent at an unnatural angle. When he looked back, Kurogiri was rushing toward him, pressing his advantage. Aizawa instinctively jumped back and raised his hand to protect his face.
Shnkk.
Aizawa screamed as a portal severed several of his fingers from his hand. He pulled his hand to his chest and felt himself choke. His capture weapon lay on the ground, cleaved in two.
He couldn’t stop now. He had to keep fighting.
Aizawa re-activated his quirk on Kurogiri and kept it that way, but now, the mist villain seemed to be biding his time. He threw another few punches with his good hand, trying to stay afloat in the battle one-handed without his capture weapon.
“I don’t much like getting blood and guts in my portals, Eraserhead,” Kurogiri said, in a tone that implied Aizawa should apologize.
“I don’t like it either,” Aizawa managed.
The door from the USJ flew open, just to reveal All Might. “Oh, thank god,” Aizawa sighed. At least this loop was over. All Might flew in and grabbed Aizawa, pulling him to the edge of the fight.
“The leaders of the attack are over there,” Aizawa said, pointing to the middle of the plaza. “The students are scattered about the facility.”
“Are you alright?” All Might asked, glancing hesitantly at his bloody hand.
“Just go do your thing,” Aizawa said,
“Okay, I-”
The area was suddenly bathed in an eerie green light, which vanished as soon as it appeared. Aizawa glanced around and saw a villain standing behind All Might, laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Aizawa snarled, activating his quirk against the villain.
“Oh, it’s far too late for that,” he answered. “My quirk is active for the next five minutes. Good luck defending against this!” What did he do?
“All Might, we need to-” Aizawa stopped cold when he looked into All Might’s face. It was twisted in cold fury, blue eyes alight in anger.
“... All Might?” Aizawa questioned.
Faster than his eyes could comprehend, Aizawa was pinned to the ground, held down by All Might’s foot against his chest. He struggled, but All Might’s strength was revered for a reason, and he couldn’t escape. “All Might, stop!” he shouted, but there was no response.
“My quirk,” the villain said, with a raspy laugh. “Is called Homicidal Rage. Straightforward name, isn’t it?”
Aizawa’s heart dropped. Shit, fuck--
All Might put more weight into the foot on Aizawa’s chest, and Aizawa felt a rip snap.
Aizawa yelled out in pain, but resisted the urge to use his quirk. If he erased All Might’s quirk now he’d be completely defenseless, and the villains were right there and--
All Might pressed down further. Aizawa felt more snapping.
He gasped. “Yagi, please.”
There was no recognition in All Might’s cold, dead eyes.
The worst feeling Aizawa ever felt was more pressure, more snapping, and shards of rib being driven into his lungs. He gasped and coughed and thrashed, but there was nothing he could do anymore. Knowing he would probably return in the next loop was cold comfort. He felt blood bubbling up through his throat, but it was nothing like movies or television or even what he’d seen when he witnessed a civilian being stabbed in the stomach. It was pink and frothy, and if Aizawa were more lucid, he might wonder if that was because of the air in his lungs.
He didn’t have time to feel relief that he was passing out. It was just pain and more pain, and then his vision went white and everything was gone.
When Aizawa woke up, everything was horrible again.
At every breath there was a stabbing pain in his lungs, his ribs were broken to hell, and he was bleeding everywhere. He fumbled for his phone. Barely able to breathe, he texted Nedzu for help with half-regrown bleeding fingers. By the time he was done sending the message, things were getting fuzzy again.
He dropped his phone on the ground and collapsed into his bed. It wasn’t long before he lapsed into unconsciousness again.
Aizawa woke up in his bed. Shakily, he glanced down at himself again. Judging by the red sluggishly staining his pajamas, he still wasn’t healed enough. He copied what he did in the last loop, and texted Nedzu that he needed help. Then, he curled up in his bed and tried to calm down. Having so much adrenaline in his system was only making him bleed out faster.
Stay calm. It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re safe here.
He repeated the mantra to himself, over and over, until backup arrived a few minutes later. Hizashi showed up first, breaking through the door and running through his apartment. Sekijiro followed him in. They found Aizawa laying in bed. “Shouta, are you okay?” Hizashi said, voice laced with worry.
Aizawa reached out and grabbed Hizashi, tugging him close. He leaned his head against his chest and wrapped his arms around Hizashi. Hizashi gently but firmly removed Aizawa’s arms, and started checking him over for injuries instead. Aizawa could have huffed in annoyance. He didn’t want to have his injuries treated, what he wanted was a hug. His injuries didn’t matter, they’d just reset, but he was feeling incredibly emotionally unstable.
Logically, though, he knew Hizashi had reason to be worried about his injuries, so he let himself be checked (Hizashi panicked when he discovered the state of his ribs) and let Sekijiro heft him up and carry him to the ambulance. He and Sekijiro didn’t know each other that well, they were still acquaintances despite that they’d worked together a while, but seeing the concern etched into Sekijiro’s expression did make him feel appreciated.
He tried to focus on the feeling of warmth coming from Sekijiro’s skin rather than the pain of his injuries, and found himself getting sleepy. (Probably also the blood loss getting to him too, but…)
He closed his eyes, and unlike the instant and painful experience of his vision whiting out, he felt himself drift off slowly, almost like going to sleep compared to everything else he’d just been through.
Chapter 7: Stablize
Summary:
Aizawa makes more attempts to unravel the mystery of the loops, but struggles to deal with his misguided but well-intentioned coworkers.
Notes:
tw for PTSD-type stuff
Chapter Text
Aizawa woke up in his bed once more.
He ached badly, everything hurt, but there wasn’t any blood spilling down his shirt, which was a good sign. He pulled up his shirt and saw many half-healed wounds across his chest, including what looked like surgical marks. He supposed it made sense, he thought. He probably needed surgery with all those rib shards. Damage severe enough to require surgery might explain why he didn’t wake up again in the last loop, and was unconscious the whole time.
He poked his ribs carefully. They hurt, but none of them seemed shattered.
He took a shuddering breath and looked at his hand. It wasn’t as bad as it was before, but he was still missing his fingertips.
This time, he texted Nedzu that he couldn’t come in today due to a family emergency. Then, he walked over to his cabinet and grabbed water from his fridge, and downed as much pain medication as was permitted on the bottle.
Then, he just sort of went back to bed and… sat on it.
He wasn’t feeling up to doing anything right now. He wasn’t in much condition to participate in a fight at the USJ with his current injuries, and he wasn’t feeling up to a fight mentally, either. So… maybe taking a break wouldn’t be amiss.
Still, Aizawa didn’t feel satisfied lying in bed all day. He didn’t want to strain himself, otherwise he might be forced to take another loop off, but he didn’t like the prospect of doing nothing. It just didn’t fit his workaholic nature.
He pulled out a notebook. While his new loops had focused on getting All Might to the right place, this most recent incident had proved that that wasn’t enough to beat the USJ. Those he had dismissed as the ‘cannon-fodder’ at the USJ had a unique range of quirks. Ill-trained quirks, but dangerous nonetheless. What had happened in the previous loop only proved that it was possible for these guys to get lucky hits in. And depending on the quirk, a lucky hit could end a loop.
Aizawa started writing down profiles of all the quirks and faces he could remember from the USJ. There were Kurogiri, the Nomu, and Shigaraki, of course. Then there was that red-haired man with the Homicidal Rage quirk, that woman who could shoot bullets from her fingers, and that man with the rocklike skin… weren’t there about 80 attackers at the USJ? It was kind of a wonder he hadn’t been hit by one of their dangerous quirks sooner in the loops, considering there were so many of them.
Aizawa wrote down everything he could remember. If he knew the most dangerous quirks present, he could take down the biggest threats first and prevent anything like that from happening again. Maybe, he could get names and formal quirk descriptions after the USJ attack happened properly, when the police were booking the criminals.
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in!” Aizawa said.
Sure enough, it was Hizashi. “Shouta, I came to check on you!” he said.
Aizawa sighed. “Yeah, okay. But why?” Aizawa had been hoping his excuse was enough for Nedzu to not send anyone to check on him.
“Nedzu said that you said you had a family emergency!”
“Don’t those require some privacy??” Aizawa muttered. “Why are you here?”
“Well,” Hizashi said, flushing red. “Nedzu didn’t really believe you. About the family emergency thing.”
“Why not?” Aizawa asked.
“Shouta, you don’t have any family living in Musutafu, or even Japan for that matter,” Hizashi said. “Don’t you have only one living aunt? Who lives in the Americas?”
Aizawa grumbled. “She could have died, or something.”
“It sounds like you’re admitting she didn’t, though,” Hizashi said, tilting his head.
Aizawa let out a long-suffering sigh. “My aunt’s fine. Tell Nedzu I’m doing something important right now, and that I’ll tell him all about what it is tomorrow.”
“Alright, got it,” Hizashi said, with a slight smile. “Skipping work, Shouta? How unlike you! Is your new class really that annoying?”
“They’re fine,” Aizawa said, a bit dismissive.
In truth, Aizawa wanted him to stay. Longed for him to stay, even. But if Hizashi stayed too long, he might notice the partially-healed wounds across Aizawa’s ribs inflicted by a scalpel, or his missing fingertips.
Besides, Aizawa couldn’t actually tell him anything about what he was going through. If he told him about the time loop, things would reset. So at least for right now, Hizashi couldn’t know about how All Might had attacked him, how badly he’d been hurt, how he’d kil-
Suddenly, Aizawa felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on his head.
He’d killed someone. He snapped their neck.
Why had he done that?
It was reset now, but he’d still-
“Shouta,” Hizashi sounded worried. “You don’t look very good. Are you sure?”
“I d-don’t--”
Aizawa hadn’t stuttered properly since he was a kid, but in the face of the information that he had committed murder--
“Do you want me to get someone?” Hizashi asked anxiously.
“No,” Aizawa said, sharply. “No, no, I’m just… having a bad day.”
“Oh,” Hizashi said.
Aizawa nodded.
There was a long, awkward silence. It was obvious that Hizashi didn’t know what to say, but that he didn’t want to leave after seeing that something was so obviously wrong.
“You can go,” Aizawa mumbled. “I’ll explain everything to you tomorrow, too.”
Hizashi hesitated. “If you ever need me, Shouta, just call. I’ll come.”
“I know,” Aizawa said. Aizawa did know. Hizashi was just that kind of person. “Thank you,” he added, with obvious sincerity.
Hizashi left with a worried frown on his face, and Aizawa stared down at his notebook filled with scribbles. His list of all the baddies he could remember from the USJ. While they were all enemies, they were all people too, and didn’t deserve to die. And he killed one.
If one of his students had killed someone at the USJ, he wouldn’t have judged them too harshly. They were students with little to no battle instruction, fighting for their lives. But Aizawa was an adult, an accomplished hero, someone who should be able to fight without dealing out fatal injuries. What had happened?
Normally, when he was fighting, he could easily take down enemies without hurting them. Usually he instinctively avoided the neck or the eyes or anywhere that would deal permanent damage, and he was always careful. But for some reason, this time, he just… hadn’t.
Aizawa suspected it was the repeat stress of being thrown into a life-threatening situation (the same life-threatening situation, in fact) that made him act like that, that made him fight more sloppily, that made him aim a kick toward the neck when he should have targeted the ribs. But that wasn’t an excuse.
He couldn’t accept this type of failure. He had to fix it. In his notebook, beneath all his notes, he wrote in capital letters: BE CAREFUL.
It would be his motto for future loops.
Aizawa spent the rest of the day trying to relax. His body was incredibly sore, and his heart ached a little bit at having sent away Hizashi so brazenly, but he just tried to take it easy. He did a lot of research, but he stopped to eat, take a nap, and even to take a bath. He put on new pajamas, and seeing the time reaching close to 1:00PM (about when the class would leave to go to the USJ) pulled out his phone and texted Nedzu that he was in a time loop.
The world blinked, and Aizawa was back in his bed. He gathered his things and started making his way to UA.
So for this loop: teach Homeroom, try to stop All Might from wasting his hero time, go to the USJ and live, research the villains, go back to sleep.
He had a plan.
It mostly went well, in the morning. Homeroom was as boring as ever (he was thinking of switching kids’ seats so at least the conversation would be different) and rather than attempt to stop the first crime All Might interfered in, Aizawa decided to try to prevent the second crime. While the first was a hostage situation, the second was some guy tearing through cars on a residential street. This was a man who seemed to be able to produce energy out of his hands, which was an advantage for Aizawa. Aizawa activated his quirk as he ran forward.
“Huh?” the man questioned, glancing down at his now non-glowing hands.
Aizawa wrapped his capture weapon around the man, tying him up deftly. “You’re under arrest.”
“Hey!” the man yelled, cursing. Aizawa’s intervention allowed another hero (a younger one, probably new) to rush forward and slap some quirk-erasing cuffs on the man. “Thank you!” the younger hero said. “Who are you?”
Aizawa hummed. He probably wasn’t a common sight for daylight heroes, so it made sense for them not to know him. Not answering the question, Aizawa threw his capture weapon out at a nearby rooftop and swung himself away. Fairly simple, Aizawa thought. Now I’ll head back to UA. I want to see how preventing only one of the three crimes will affect what All Might does during this loop.
When Aizawa arrived back at UA soon after, he started grading student assignments and filling out beginning-of-the-year paperwork. He was getting fast at finishing this particular set of paperwork, considering this was like the third time he’d done it. He knew there wasn’t really any point to doing paperwork because in the end it would all reset, but it was good mindless work that made him feel productive.
He wandered into Nedzu’s office with a stack of finished paperwork not long before the USJ was due to start. Surprisingly, Yagi was sitting there, chatting with Nedzu. He’d never seen Yagi at UA in the previous loops before the USJ incident happened, which made sense considering he was held up by all those crimes. Maybe because Aizawa stopped that second criminal, that made Yagi arrive more quickly?
“Hey, I have-”
Yagi turned around. Aizawa flinched at the sight of his face.
Those cold, dead eyes…
… can’t breathe…
“Aizawa?” Yagi questioned.
“I h-have the initial student assessment forms,” Aizawa said.
“Aizawa-kun, are you alright?” Yagi asked cluelessly.
“Just fine,” Aizawa said, voice tight.
Aizawa watched Nedzu’s expression change. It was difficult to tell what he was feeling, due to his non-human facial features, and Aizawa couldn’t tell if the way his ears were twitching meant concern or curiosity or something else. Whatever it was, Aizawa didn’t like it. Aizawa laid the paperwork on the table and wordlessly turned around and left the office.
The moment Aizawa got back to his own office he collapsed into one of the chairs, heart thumping in his chest and breathing uneven. I didn’t expect to react that badly to All Might, Aizawa thought to himself. I thought maybe I’d be scared of his buff form, but now I’m scared of his eyes? His face? Just stellar. Aizawa wasn’t sure of exactly what problems this would cause in future loops, but he was fairly certain that it would cause problems.
Aizawa stared at his desk, finally calming down. He stayed like that for a few minutes, until there was a knock at the door. With a grumble, Aizawa shuffled to the door and opened it. And of course, it was Nedzu.
“Ah, hello, Aizawa!” Nedzu said, sliding into one of the chairs. Aizawa repressed a biting remark and sat down in his own chair.
If he were being honest, he feared Nedzu’s reaction. He’d never seen how Nedzu handled employees with mental health issues, and he was completely unable to explain anything about the situation without causing a loop-reset. He would just have to hope for the best.
“I wanted to ask how you were feeling,” Nedzu said diplomatically, folding his paws on the desk. “As you didn’t seem to be doing very well a few minutes ago.”
There was a pause. “I’m alright,” Aizawa said.
Nedzu didn’t seem convinced. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Nedzu’s face morphed into an expression that Aizawa usually only saw when he was breaking bad news, or telling someone they were wrong. “Aizawa, what just happened closely resembles post-traumatic stress. Or panic disorder. I think you know that.”
Aizawa did know that, but he didn’t want to think about it, or admit it.
“I’m not sure what set it off, but if you know your triggers we can accommodate them,” Nedzu said.
Aizawa averted his eyes, and said nothing. Part of him wanted to sarcastically ask if Nedzu would be willing to fire All Might, and maybe Hound Dog too, but that would raise too many awkward questions to be worth the joke.
Nedzu sighed. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Aizawa. Though I would recommend counseling, it could be very helpful.”
“Okay,” Aizawa said, words sounding hollow even to himself.
Another sigh from Nedzu. “You could take the rest of the day off-”
“No,” Aizawa said, a little too quickly. If he took off, he wouldn’t be there for the USJ.
“It’s okay to miss a day of work, Aizawa,” Nedzu said, completely missing the point.
“I know,” Aizawa said. “But I can’t today.”
“The first rescue simulation is important, but Vlad King could take your place, considering he runs 1-B’s,” Nedzu continued obliviously. “Or perhaps Cementoss could, I believe he’s available.”
“Just not today,” Aizawa insisted.
Nedzu tilted his head and there was a brief pause. Then, he gave a confused huff.
“I don’t understand,” Nedzu said.
… Nedzu saying ‘I don’t understand’ was a very unusual occurrence, and it was a very bad sign for Aizawa. Because Nedzu aggressively investigated everything he didn’t understand.
I’ve already kind of fucked up this loop, Aizawa thought to himself. When the villains attacked the USJ later today, Aizawa’s obsessive need to be there for the rescue training might become suspicious. If he put together that Aizawa knew about the attack beforehand and that Aizawa didn’t tell anyone, it was possible that Aizawa would be in deep trouble. Nedzu trusted Aizawa, so he didn’t think Nedzu would jump to that kind of conclusion, but… well. He didn’t want anyone to ask him questions that he wasn’t able to answer. Even if they didn’t actually suspect him it would still be awkward.
He ought to work on his acting.
“I’m in a time loop,” Aizawa said dully.
“You wh-”
Aizawa woke up feeling frustrated, and a little bit powerless. Now he was going to have to go back and do all of that again. Not that he hadn’t been doing the same things over and over again for… how many loops was it now?
As was routine, Aizawa changed, grabbed his things, ate a quick breakfast and made his way to UA. He was tempted to skip homeroom, but decided not to. He explained to the class they would be training at the USJ in the afternoon with even less enthusiasm than normal.
Once he’d wrapped up the class, he went to the second crime and fought the energy-wielding villain again. He was fairly easy to defeat if caught off-guard. Aizawa again ignored the awestruck junior hero who wanted to know who he was. On the way he checked his phone and looked for the third crime All Might had stopped.
The first crime is a hostage situation caused by someone with a mutant quirk. A delicate situation, even if I were to intervene. The second I can sweep up easily, and the third…
… Arson.
Aizawa scowled. Someone with a quirk that let them set things on fire had done just that. Then All Might had shown up to fight the villain and rescue civilians from the burning building. The problem with this was that the news organization hadn’t released details as to when the fire started. If that villain started the fire while Aizawa was teaching Homeroom or while the first or second crimes were happening….
He couldn’t be in two places at once. Major problem.
Aizawa sighed. The timeline of this day was becoming a mess. Too many things happened too close together for him to intervene with all of them. Hopefully All Might was able to defeat the Nomu injury-free with him only stopping one or maybe two crimes, because if that didn’t work, he was going to have to look into alternate options.
Aizawa stalked moodily down the hallway, feeling down from that discovery. If he could just figure out how to take down the dang Nomu, everything else would be easy by compariso-
“Yo, Shouta!” Nemuri said, walking up alongside him.
“Yeah?”
“You look so grumpy! What’s on your mind?”
“It’s nothing,” Aizawa said, annoyed that she'd interrupted his train of thought.
“Nothing? Ah, c’mon!” she said. playfully.
“Everything’s fine,” Aizawa bit out.
Nemuri furrowed her brow, frowning. “You don’t sound fine.”
“Well I am. So,” Aizawa said, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Nemuri looked vaguely thoughtful, as well as disapproving. “You know, you don’t have to act like everything is okay with you, if it isn’t.”
“I know,” Aizawa said, a bit irritated. “But if I say I’m not fine, then people will ask me all sorts of questions about my problem.”
“That’s not always a bad thing,” Nemuri said. “It’s good to let other people know about your problems. Have you let someone know about what’s bothering you now?”
“I can’t,” Aizawa said.
“Can’t, or won’t?” she asked.
Aizawa narrowed his eyes.
“You could tell me, or Hizashi, or whoever,” Nemuri continued.
“Nemuri, I’m not going to be telling anyone,” Aizawa responded, exasperation leaking into his tone.
Nemuri sighed. “Look, I know you don’t like to tell us things, but when regular people have issues, they just let other people know. You’re always pulling a lone wolf act.”
“And what do you mean by that?” Aizawa asked, a bit offended.
“You like to work alone, do everything alone, yada yada,” she said. “I know you have hang-ups, but friendships require actual communication.”
“Well, sorry for being independent,” Aizawa snapped, trying to hide how that comment stung. His social difficulties were a sensitive topic for him. “And why do you feel so entitled to know everything about me? You’re just like Nedzu, interrogating me over nothing.”
Nemuri’s expression twisted with frustration. “I’m not sure what you have against Nedzu, but seriously? I’ll ask however many questions I damn well-”
“This is none of your business!” Aizawa’s voice rose to a shout. Nemuri looked taken aback, and Aizawa immediately felt a pang of regret. He yelled at her, but in truth, he desperately wished he could tell her (or anyone) what was going on right now. Even if it meant that he was admitting he’d failed to protect his students.
Nemuri winced. “Aizawa…”
“It’s fine,” Aizawa said. He tried to sound neutral, but the words were curt. “I have to go run rescue training for Thirteen.”
“... alright,” Nemuri said, conceding.
Aizawa could see in her eyes that she felt bad for pushing too far, and he himself felt guilty for his sharp retort. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the two of them often waited a day to make up after an argument so they both had time to reflect. That day would never come in this scenario.
Aizawa sighed and muttered a “talk later” to Nemuri before power-walking down the hallway towards Class 1-A. As much as he was dreading the USJ, focusing on it would at least get his mind off of his most recent failures. He hadn’t even failed at the loops, just in interacting with his own coworkers.
Aizawa diligently explained to his students what they'd be doing at the USJ, trying to ignore both his recent argument with Midnight and his students' horribly misplaced excitement.
Chapter 8: Generate Lift
Summary:
Aizawa tries his best again after a complicated loop.
Notes:
tw: panic attacks, PTSD
Chapter Text
Again, Aizawa found himself at the USJ.
Aizawa launched himself down the stairwell, kicking several enemies out of the way. This time he was careful, though. He couldn’t have a repeat of last time.
Aizawa couldn’t help but occasionally glance at the USJ doors. When he’d come in, Thirteen had told him still that All Might had used up most of his time. Hopefully he’d be stronger when he did show up, though, considering Aizawa had stopped a whole entire crime on his behalf.
Aizawa found himself throwing more punches than kicks. They felt safer, probably because he didn’t want to hear anyone’s neck snap again. He punched the red-haired villain in the face, knocking him out, and thus removing the possibility of ‘evil All Might’ for this loop. And, just as he did, All Might burst through the entrance.
All Might rushed forward and knocked out several villains that Aizawa had been fighting. “Aizawa!” his voice boomed as he landed.
The moment Aizawa saw All Might, he felt his muscles seize up, and his throat go cold. It felt as if he had swallowed ice. He tried to speak, but no words came out. His heart thumped in his chest in instinctive panic.
All Might seemed to realize that Aizawa was frozen in place, so he lifted Aizawa up and carried him away from the fighting. All Might dropped him behind a rock, and leapt away to fight more enemies. It took a minute or two of All Might being out of sight before Aizawa’s stiff muscles started to unlock. He gave a shaky but relieved sigh.
Aizawa stumbled to his feet and staggered away from where All Might was fighting, the main plaza. I’ll go check on the students, he thought. Let’s not go near All Might again.
In the mountain zone, he found Kaminari, Aoyama, and Mineta at the mercy of an electric villain, who he easily dispatched with a quirk-erasing glance and a blow to the head. Then, he escorted the three (none of them were particularly great fighters yet, otherwise he might have told them to go on their own) back to the entrance, where the other teachers had by then arrived.
“You’re okay!” Kirishima ran up to his three classmates, sounding relieved.
“With them here, we’re missing three,” Vlad King said.
“We have everyone,” Aizawa corrected absently. “Bakugou and Midoriya are back at the main campus, they were barred from participating. And Hagakure is here, you just don’t see her.”
“You noticed me, sensei!!” Hagakure squealed. “How? How?!”
“Practice,” Aizawa deadpanned, which was essentially the truth. It had taken a few loops worth of experience, but now he began to instinctively listen for footsteps and little puffs of breath without an owner. It was a lifesaver in figuring out where Hagakure was during the USJ.
With all the students rounded up, the rest of the attack went smoothly. Ojiro had gotten a few gashes on his tail, and Thirteen was injured, but nothing too severe. All Might was busy with cleanup (and Aizawa wasn’t going to go up to him and ask) so he ended up asking Nedzu whether or not All Might was okay.
“All Might was injured in the fight,” Nedzu confirmed. “But do not worry! He will recover just fine.”
Great, so preventing crime #2 isn’t enough. Now Aizawa was going to have to try to prevent that delicate hostage situation or that arson case to give All Might more power in future loops.
After the end of the attack, the UA teachers set up an emergency meeting to talk about what had happened. During that meeting, Aizawa very carefully noted everything said about the minor villains. He would look up their profiles later.
“At least there were hardly any injuries,” Snipe noted. “It could have been much worse.”
The attitude of the room turned somber, but Aizawa just resisted the urge to scoff.
“Okay, meeting adjourned!” Nedzu said. “We meet tomorrow morning to discuss the safety updates.”
Aizawa shambled from the meeting and walked down the hallway toward his train home, already planning how he would handle the next loop.
“Shouta, wait!” Hizashi shouted, running up to him.
“Yeah, Hizashi?”
“Um, I just wanted to see how you are doing!” Hizashi said.
Aizawa squinted at Hizashi. While that was a normal thing for Hizashi to do, he’d never done it in any previous loops. Had Aizawa changed something?
Hizashi put on a fake lopsided smile. “Well, you know, it’s just been a while since we hung out! Which isn’t necessarily bad! It just happens sometimes. I just think-”
Hm. Not really revealing any answers.
Hizashi was very good at talking to people and figuring out when something was wrong with someone. Unfortunately, he was also sort of bad at tackling serious subject matter in conversation, so he tended to… dance around the issue. Aizawa guessed that was what was happening here. “I think I’m too tired to go out anywhere,” Aizawa said. “But we could go to my place and I could make us tea?”
Hizashi’s eyes lit up. “Sure!”
The journey was short, but almost immediately after they got back to Aizawa’s apartment (at about the time Hizashi had pushed him into a chair and insisted, “I’ll make the tea!”) Aizawa decided that Hizashi had definitely figured out that he wasn’t feeling well and was trying to fix it.
Hizashi’s concern could be… suffocating. Due to his reluctance to talk about the actual problem, Hizashi would usually just dote over an upset friend until they either felt better or told him to screw off. He would give gifts, bake for them, chatter about nothing, guard the person like a gargoyle and casually violate their personal space.
Aizawa, a private person and easily overwhelmed, had gotten pretty good at explaining to Hizashi “I want to be alone” when it was required over their many years of friendship. It was almost instinct to brush him off. But…
It didn’t feel suffocating now. Aizawa felt so lonely, and there was no reason to push Hizashi away.
Hizashi handed him his tea and sat next to him on the couch, and started complaining about a bad movie he’d just watched. Aizawa half-listened and began to lean into Hizashi’s side, basking in the undivided positive attention.
This is how every loop should end, Aizawa thought sleepily as he felt Hizashi’s arm wrap around his shoulders. After a few minutes, Aizawa closed his eyes and fully slumped into Hizashi, realizing just how exhausted he felt. He hadn’t really had a lot of time to legitimately unwind recently, thanks to the loops.
“I was really worried about you,” Hizashi whispered quietly.
Does he think I'm asleep?
“You looked so pale and shaky,” he murmured, gripping Aizawa more tightly.
That probably explained why Hizashi had done this in this loop, and not in previous loops. After running into All Might, Aizawa probably looked pretty spooked, and Hizashi probably misconstrued that to be a bad reaction to the attack in general. Aizawa must have looked a lot more panicked than in past loops to have set off this protective reaction.
It was also possible that All Might told Nedzu what had happened, and Nedzu encouraged Hizashi to approach Aizawa. (Aizawa was pretty glad this was getting erased, ‘freezing in the middle of combat’ wouldn’t look very good on his hero resume.)
This is all more information for future loops, Aizawa thought absentmindedly.
Aizawa felt himself slowly relaxing, getting more and more comfortable and warm. He suppressed a yawn and felt himself truly falling asleep.
When Aizawa woke, it was dark outside. He yawned, and glanced at where he was sleeping. The couch? He grabbed his phone and noted the time. 11:53PM. It was still the previous loop. Aizawa rubbed his eyes and grabbed his phone, seeing a text from Hizashi.
Went home since you were sleeping -- tell me if you need me!
Huh.
Aizawa yawned and stretched, getting himself a glass of water.
Then, he watched the clock: 11:54PM.
Had he ever been awake when the world reset? 11:55 PM.
No, he didn’t think he had. 11:56 PM.
The idea was a little bit frightening, if he were being honest. 11:57 PM.
But he was sure it would probably end up being just like when he told someone, an instant flash. 11:58 PM.
Right? 11:59 PM.
As the clock ticked, turning to midnight, Aizawa suddenly felt disoriented. The world spun, turning dark, and it looked as if reality were fragmenting and warping before him. He staggered, falling down, and watched the world glitch beneath him.
Aizawa woke up with a gasp.
He took a quick glance at his phone. April 14th, Wednesday, the same day as always. He sighed in… he wasn’t sure if it was relief or disappointment.
That had been scary. He was definitely never staying up past midnight until the loop was over. “Just like a bad trip,” Aizawa muttered to himself, getting out of bed.
That experience had been… frightening, to say the least. But it was easy for Aizawa to shove it aside for now. He felt a bit lighter on the whole. Spending time with Hizashi had chased his loneliness away, and it wasn't too difficult to focus on how the last loop had gone well rather than the terrifying end to it.
Aizawa still needed to figure out how not to get scared by All Might, and how to take out the Nomu, but he was filled with something like a renewed sense of… determination, if not optimism.
Aizawa stretched and gathered up his things.
This loop. I’ll pass this loop. Stop all three crimes, stop the Nomu, and get All Might there on time! I have to do this.
Aizawa marched to UA with purpose.
Chapter 9: Emergency Checklist
Summary:
Aizawa prepares for what he hopes will be his final loop.
Chapter Text
Aizawa knew that it was essentially impossible for him to do everything that would be required in this loop. He had to stop three crimes, ensure that All Might arrived on time, teach homeroom, bench Bakugou and Midoriya, show up at the USJ, and make sure not a single soul is injured there.
So, faced with this impossibility, Aizawa decided to take the only option available for him: delegation.
As he was walking to UA, Aizawa pulled out his phone.
“Black Mask. I need a favor.”
While he couldn’t tell anyone about the time loop, and he couldn’t change too much about the USJ because that might fail to break the loop…
There were certain underground heroes who owed him one who would be willing to help him out with little to no explanation. These machinations would only change when All Might arrived, so hopefully it would alter things only just enough to break the loop.
“There’s going to be a crime happening at XXX Flower Street at 10 am today. I need you to intervene,” Aizawa said.
He placed three calls: Black Mask, Agent Owl, and Snow Sage, all competent underground heroes in their own right, and asked each of them to stop one of the three crimes that halt All Might on his way to UA. They’d asked questions, but had pretty quickly agreed regardless of his lack of answers. They were used to confidential informants and such.
He was only vaguely worried that Black Mask might fail to stop the arsonist. He had minimal information to give him, but Black Mask was the most experienced of the three. He’d most likely get the job done.
Then, Aizawa went to teach homeroom. Again. Sometimes he wondered why he bothered. It wasn’t that he didn’t like this class, of course. In fact, over the course of his loops he’d started to slowly get attached to them. They were, at minimum, actually dedicated to becoming heroes.
But teaching the same homeroom lesson over and over again was still boring. He spent most of the time listlessly repeating what he’d said before while internally going over improvements his students could make, in either hero costume or fighting style. He’d seen them fight so often at the USJ that he had a mental list of all the things he could help them get better at.
Midoriya needed to learn how to use his quirk, Yaoyorozu needed a better costume. Hagakure needed some actual weaponry, and clothes. For goodness sake, support could definitely make her a costume like they had with Mirio. Iida needed armor that was more lightweight and Kaminari needed something that would let him attack from a distance without frying his brain, like… wires or something. Kirishima needed more quirk training, Sero needed more technical acrobatics training, and Todoroki needed to use his gosh-darn fire for once. For some reason Todoroki relied way too much on his ice, even in life-threatening situations in which fire would objectively be the better option. They would have to have a conversation after the loops were over about that.
Meanwhile, Kouda… needed a pet wolf. Yes. Aizawa would feel much better if Kouda had a pet wolf. Aizawa had spent days trying to protect these kids and had gotten seriously hurt in the process, like hell he was just going to let Kouda walk around without any animals to protect him. A coyote or big dog, at least.
Mineta… well, Aizawa was considering expelling him too. If he heard that kid say one more inappropriate thing he might just go ballistic.
Bakugou was another person Aizawa wanted to expel. Not because the kid would be a bad hero, but because Aizawa was sick of dealing with him. Aizawa reprimanded him over and over again and he never learned because of repeating time loops. Maybe he’d stop being such a disobedient brat once the time loops were over.
Homeroom was over quickly, with the class looking visibly bored. Looks like his lack of enthusiasm caught on.
Aizawa repressed the urge to lock the class in a room where he could keep an eye on them. He walked away instead as Hizashi came in to teach English. I can’t develop an unhealthy attachment to them, I need to keep a distance, he reminded himself. These loops have already created enough problems for me.
Because Black Mask and the others were defeating those villains for him, Aizawa had extra time to do other things. Aizawa went straight to UA to nearby Musutafu Mental Health Services. He’d called and made an appointment with a therapist.
Hopefully this loop would work out so he didn’t have to call and schedule again. He’d had to call several places to see if they had an open slot today specifically, and it was really awkward. Luckily, he found one. He’d signed up with regular therapy appointments with Dr. Kimura, and since one of his patients had cancelled an appointment, Aizawa could take today’s open slot.
“For our first session I usually take it slow. We can discuss any questions you have, what you want out of therapy, and we can get to know each other a little,” Dr. Kimura said after Aizawa had filled out the patient intake forms. “Is there anything in particular that you want to take from our meetings?”
“Well, not too long ago I was attacked,” Aizawa said, having already made up a lie. “And my new coworker looks a lot like the guy who did it. They’re not the same person, obviously, but their hair and facial structure looks really similar, and I’ve been having negative reactions to him,” Aizawa explained. “My goal is to get over this so I’m not afraid of him anymore.”
Dr. Kimura nodded. “That’s a very reasonable goal. It could take some time to get results, but we should be able to help you with this.”
“How long?” Aizawa asked impatiently.
“Well, therapy for phobias is actually quite effective and well-established,” the doctor said. “Most patients see an improvement within the first few sessions.”
That was relieving. “So we can fix this,” Aizawa said, just to confirm.
“I can’t promise that your fear will go away right away,” the doctor cautioned. “It will take time and effort. But we can work on it, and I believe we will be able to get your fear to manageable levels.”
“Good,” Aizawa said, nodding.
“You also wrote that you’ve been having problems with feeling hopeless since the attack?” Dr. Kimura asked, glancing down at his clipboard.
“Yeah, I just feel as if changing the future is impossible,” Aizawa explained.
Dr. Kimura frowned. “Have you been having any other symptoms?”
“I guess I feel more on-edge,” Aizawa noted. “Paranoid, even when I know everything will be fine. I have anxiety attacks near that coworker of course, and I feel sick when I think about the place where it happened.” The USJ, that is. “And, uh, nightmares.” He hadn’t been having nightmares, but that was probably only because he never dreamed when the loop reset.
“Hm,” the doctor said. “I think we may want to screen you for PTSD. That’s post traumatic stress-”
“I know what it is,” Aizawa said, putting his face in his hands. “I just don’t want to think that I have it.”
“There’s no shame in it,” said Dr. Kimura, putting down his clipboard. “Some things are beyond your control.”
“You’re right,” Aizawa said. “But if I admit to myself that I have PTSD, that’s the same as admitting that I’m not just going to get better spontaneously.”
Dr. Kimura gave a sympathetic frown. “That’s unfortunate, but the sooner you’re diagnosed, the sooner you can get help and use our resources,” he pointed out. “And if you do have PTSD, things aren’t hopeless. PTSD can be treated.”
Aizawa sighed. “You’re right. Let’s get to the mental health screening, then.”
That day, Aizawa left with the paperwork filled out for his next session and a diagnosis of PTSD.
Because Aizawa was worried that the loop would reset, he had asked Dr. Kimura about the process they’d be going through to handle his fear. Dr. Kimura had explained that he would be going over some relaxation and mindfulness techniques, and then they’d be going through exercises where he’d imagine Yagi in different contexts, starting from the least threatening. They’d build up to pictures, and then finally to in-person.
Aizawa started researching the techniques Dr. Kimura had been talking about.
When Aizawa finally brought his kids to the USJ, he kept his eyes down. He saw both Thirteen and All Might’s boots. He showed up on time, Aizawa thought, feeling a thrill of both excitement and fear.
“Are we ready to start?” Aizawa asked, shoving his shaking hands in his pockets.
“Yep, we are!” Thirteen said, clapping their hands together. “And I have a quick speech to give!”
As Thirteen gave their speech, Aizawa tried not to look in All Might’s direction, but just knowing the man was there was setting him on edge. He felt his heart beat faster and panic rise in his throat. You have to keep it together, Aizawa berated himself. Just keep up appearances for a few more moments.
The lights began to flicker.
The students, Thirteen, and All Might were all surprised, but Aizawa didn’t even pretend to be shocked. The moment the villains started pouring out of the portal, Aizawa said softly, “All Might. We’ll protect the students. Do your thing.”
“Right!” All Might said. Aizawa felt a gust of wind as All Might leapt off to fight the villains. Aizawa resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief when the man launched himself away.
It wasn’t long before Kurogiri popped up behind the group, blocking them.
This is it, Aizawa thought, gritting his teeth. All Might is at his full power. I need to defeat Kurogiri, stop anyone from climbing the steps to hurt the students…
If I can do this, it will all be over.
If this failed due to a minor mistake, Aizawa could always try again. But if this failed systemically, because the plan was bad…
Well. Aizawa didn’t have any other plans. So this had better work.
Aizawa didn’t know what else he would do.
Chapter 10: Metallic Exterior
Summary:
Aizawa faces a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.
Chapter Text
Aizawa erased Kurogiri’s quirk and swung his capture weapon around the metal brace in the black fog, something he only knew was there because of the previous loops. Aizawa pulled Kurogiri closer, hoping to find an exploitable weak point, when Bakugou jumped in from the left and slammed Kurogiri into the ground. His hands popped with miniature explosions. “Stay down or I’ll blow you sky high!” Bakugou snarled.
“Oooh Bakugou, that doesn’t sound very heroic!” Kirishima added.
… While that was an incredibly reckless move, Aizawa was somewhat glad that he hadn’t benched Bakugou this loop. Pinning Kurogiri was very useful.
“Students, run,” Aizawa ordered, pointing out of the door. Without Kurogiri to stop them (or an injured Thirteen to protect) the kids could simply leave. While the group fled toward the door, ushered along by Thirteen, Aizawa turned and looked back at the villains in the center plaza.
Unfortunately, it looked like All Might had been pulled into a battle against the Nomu, and that some of the lower-level villains were climbing the steps. Aizawa hissed in frustration.
The red-haired villain, the gray villain, and the tall villain, Aizawa thought to himself after scanning the crowd. They have the most dangerous quirks.
Aizawa turned and looked back. “Thirteen, you continue to evacuate, I’ll hold back the-”
He paused in horror as he saw Kurogiri’s fog moving beneath Bakugou. Bakugou was distracted, looking out over the battle.
Aizawa threw out his capture scarf and snagged Bakugou around the middle, pulling him away from Kurogiri just as the man vanished in a puff of mist. Bakugou looked startled, and Aizawa was immeasurably glad that Kurogiri hadn’t decided to lop Bakugou’s leg off or something.
Kurogiri re-appeared near the center plaza, likely fleeing to regroup.
“Leave with your classmates,” Aizawa said, pointing Bakugou toward the door. Bakugou gave an irritated growl but nodded.
Then, Aizawa started to fight the lesser villains.
He took down the most dangerous ones first and went all out, taking down the villains as quickly as he possibly could. And that was pretty fast, considering all the practice he’d gotten in.
Distantly, Aizawa heard the door to the USJ slam shut. Good. The students are safe. Knowing that his students were safe gave Aizawa a strange type of giddy energy, and he had to be careful not to fight sloppily. Careful careful careful--
The tide of battle was overwhelmingly in his favor, and for once Aizawa found himself enjoying the workout of fighting enemies. Perhaps this would be the last loop after all, though he didn’t want to get his hopes up.
Aizawa heard a cry of panic from a few yards away. Surprised, Aizawa backpedalled and glanced over there, confused. Who over there was yelling--
Then Aizawa heard it. The sound of footsteps, when no one over there was walking. Heavy breathing, when the four villains in that direction looked fresh, showing no signs of exertion.
Hagakure, Aizawa thought, dread bubbling in his stomach.
Aizawa leapt towards the villains to his left and began to fight them in flurries of punches and kicks. After slamming the nearest one into the ground, he puffed a breath and looked around. “Hagakure, are you there?”
“Sensei,” he heard her say, voice shaking. “Sensei, you didn’t forget about me.”
Aizawa felt his heart break. He threw a particularly vicious punch at an approaching villain. “Where are you? I can carry you out of here.”
There was a loud crashing noise, and when Aizawa turned his head, he saw the Nomu go flying through the ceiling with the force of one of All Might’s punches. At that same moment, Aizawa felt a hand latch onto his sleeve. No one was there, which meant…
Aizawa lifted Hagakure’s invisible body (her hand gave him a good estimate of where the rest of her was; he put one arm under her shoulders and looped another under her legs) and ran toward the exit while the villains were distracted by the Nomu flying through the ceiling. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a blur of blue and red and yellow fighting the remaining villains. All Might must have moved on to everyone else at the USJ. Aizawa ignored this as best he could, and focused on reaching the doors.
Aizawa threw open the USJ doors. The class wasn’t anywhere in sight, which was actually somewhat expected. Thirteen would have gotten them to UA’s evacuation safe point, while radioing backup. Aizawa could see the teachers coming from a mile or so out, across the long flat plain left of the USJ. He knew they’d be here within the minute, so he waited.
In the meantime, Aizawa felt Hagakure’s face press into his neck, and felt her tears stain his shirt. “I was s-so scared,” Hagakure hiccuped. “I was in the back of the group and they shut the doors before I could get through because they couldn’t see me and I-I’m not st-strong enough to op-open them!” she said.
That…
Aizawa understood how that had happened, in the panic. It’s not like Hagakure was particularly close to any of her classmates yet, so no one would think of her immediately in this high-stress situation. Considering her quirk, it was easy to see how she had been left behind.
That didn’t mean it was acceptable.
“I’m so sorry,” Aizawa said, trying to keep his voice level. “I won’t let that happen again.”
“But you…” she sniffed. “You n-noticed me so you already didn’t let it happen.”
“I’ll protect you better next time,” he promised, hoping that ‘next time’ would be in the future rather than the next loop. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” she said. “I’m not hurt,” Hagakure said. “I was just panicking.”
Aizawa resisted the urge to sigh in relief. “I’m glad you’re not hurt.”
At that point, the teachers arrived, several ambulances and police cars following them.
“Aizawa, report,” Nedzu said.
“Thirteen evacuated with 19 of my students. I have Hagakure here right now, she’s the 20th. All Might is still fighting villains inside,” Aizawa explained.
The paramedics came up to them for a check-up, but once Aizawa explained that neither of them were hurt (and to be honest, they had no idea how to treat an invisible patient anyway) the paramedics backed off. One of the ambulances left (probably to go toward UA’s safe point) while the second stayed, most likely to treat any teachers who were injured in the fighting.
Aizawa carefully set Hagakure down. She could stand on her own, but she stayed pressed up against his side anyway, refusing to let go. Knowing she was naked was awkward, almost inappropriate, but he refused to dwell on it. He would get her a costume with actual clothes soon enough.
He didn’t judge her about this either. Her reaction was understandable, considering the terrifying experience she’d just undergone. He wouldn’t be surprised if this was a specific fear of hers. Being left behind in a dangerous situation, or having your allies not able to find you in a dangerous situation sounded terrifying.
With the paramedics gone (and most everyone else) the two simply waited for the teachers to be done clearing the USJ.
So it’s all up to this, Aizawa thought to himself. If no teachers are hurt, then this is the final loop.
A few minutes later, Aizawa saw Nedzu and Hound Dog leave the building, quietly conversing. Then Nedzu turned and walked in his direction, while Hound Dog signalled police to enter the building. “The villains have been apprehended,” Nedzu said. “Hagakure, are you alright?”
“Fine,” she answered, voice muffled.
“Ashido has been asking after you,” Nedzu said softly.
Aizawa felt Hagakure’s head pop up. “Really?”
“The students noticed you were missing almost the moment they arrived at the meet-up spot. Thirteen had to stop them from coming back to get you,” Nedzu said.
“So they did notice, after all,” Hagakure said, voice sounding a little wistful, but happy. “Can I see them?”
“Of course,” Nedzu answered. “Though I must apologize-- that you were left behind during the evacuation…”
“It’s okay,” Hagakure said. “I wasn’t left behind. Aizawa-sensei got me.”
Nedzu nodded. “That’s good. We do plan to make more accommodations for you in the future, though, so nothing like this ever happens again.”
“Thank you!” Hagakure seemed to have finally reclaimed her chipper attitude. “Where are my friends?”
“Hound Dog over there can escort you,” Nedzu said, pointing. Aizawa felt Hagakure detach herself from him, and saw her footsteps in the dust as walked over toward Hound Dog.
Nedzu sighed and turned back to Aizawa.
“You did well,” Nedzu said.
That was the first time Nedzu had complimented him after a USJ attack. Aizawa didn’t know whether that was because no students had been hurt this time, or because he’d managed to (rather impressively, in his opinion) find and rescue Hagakure in the middle of an active battle zone.
“Is All Might okay?”
“He’s mostly fine,” Nedzu said.
“Mostly?”
“Well, he did take a few nasty blows to the side, and he’ll probably lose out on some hero time, but nothing too serious,” Nedzu said.
Aizawa felt his heart sink. If All Might got hurt, after all that…
That meant All Might couldn’t stop the Nomu, even if he arrived fully charged.
“I see,” Aizawa said, trying not to project disappointment.
If All Might couldn’t stop the Nomu, then who could?
Aizawa’s fears were confirmed when he saw All Might from afar, and one side of his costume was streaked with blood. His blood, most likely. Aizawa shivered seeing a blood-covered All Might, suddenly feeling high-strung. Out of the corner of his eye, Aizawa noticed Nedzu’s face twitch.
Unlike in previous loops, Aizawa was told to go to a different room, and then he was briefed separately from everyone else. Aizawa figured this was because of Nedzu’s intervention, since he had total control over the circumstances in which the police entered UA and questioned UA personnel. Aizawa was fairly certain that Nedzu had seen how stressed he looked (which of course he was, because his best plan had just failed) and put him in a separate room so he wouldn’t have to deal with so many people.
To be honest, Aizawa was thankful for that. If he had to show up to their emergency meeting slash weird round-table thing again he was pretty sure he’d lose all semblance of professionalism.
After Aizawa had finished answering all the police officer’s questions, he quietly filled out all his forms by himself. It was calming, but the fact that All Might had gotten hurt was a weight on his mind regardless.
Other quirks, other quirks… what quirks could defeat that monstrosity? Nothing in the brute force category could even come close… elemental quirks are out…
Once he was finished, Aizawa poked his head out into the hallway, just to see Nemuri standing there. “Hey, Shouta,” she said, slinging an arm around his shoulder. “Are you feeling okay? That had to have been pretty intense.”
Why was she… oh! They’d had their fight in the last loop, not this one, so there was no reason for her to feel as awkward as Aizawa did right now. “I’m okay,” Aizawa said, trying not to sound sad.
Nemuri frowned, and Aizawa knew he’d failed. “All of your students are safe,” she said, trying to be assuring. “And everyone’s fine.”
If only, if only, this was the final loop. Hardly anyone was hurt.
If only he hadn’t failed. Again.
“That Nomu sure was something,” Aizawa said, listless.
What could even defeat…
Wait! I’m such an idiot!
Aizawa was staring the solution to his problem straight in the face.
Nemuri can just put the Nomu to sleep!
Nemuri nodded. “Oh, yeah. They actually asked me to knock him out for transport.”
“Really?” Aizawa asked, a bit too eagerly.
“It didn’t work,” she said.
Fuck!
“Why not?” Aizawa asked.
“They didn’t know,” she answered, shrugging. “He seems to be… changed, biologically. They’re not sure what’s up with him. Some DNA experimentation, they think.”
“I see,” Aizawa said, feeling his heart sink. “I… think I’m going to go home.”
“You sure?” Nemuri asked, looking concerned.
“I’m sure,” he answered. “I just need a bit of time alone.”
“Alright, if you’re sure.”
Aizawa walked home feeling hopeless.
Aizawa ripped another page out of his notebook and threw it in the garbage can.
Biological agents may or may not work, he grumbled to himself. Unreliable.
Aizawa was sure that there was a way to beat the Nomu, somehow. There was almost always a way. But right now there was no obvious way. Introducing anyone new (or obtaining any dangerous chemicals) to the USJ would be another dancing act where he had to put everything in place before the event even started. And then it might not even work because this stupid, stupid Nomu seemed to be immune to everything!
It would take more loops.
Potentially many, many more loops.
Aizawa threw his notebook to the ground. “I just want it to be over!”
This was supposed to be the last one.
Aizawa grabbed his desk and smashed it against the ground, ignoring the way the splinters dug into his skin.
“This was supposed to be-” Aizawa kicked his chair across the room, and watched it snap in half as it hit the wall. “The last one!”
Aizawa didn’t hate himself, but he did hate that he’d gotten his hopes up. Wasn’t he always telling Hizashi to be realistic, and not optimistic?
He’d failed again. His best just wasn’t enough.
Aizawa ripped the paperwork on his nightstand to shreds and barely resisted the urge to break his lamp, if just for the inconvenience of handling broken glass. He snatched a pencil and snapped it clean in half instead. Then, he threw himself into bed and screamed curses into the pillow.
Eventually his curses gave way to sobs.
After a few minutes of sobbing, Aizawa pulled himself together. He got up, washed his face, and then wobbled back to his bed again, hit by a sudden wave of exhaustion.
It wasn’t truly unexpected. His fight against villains, his brief rampage, and his sudden crying had completely exhausted his body, leaving him feeling completely drained. Within a minute of laying down, Aizawa was out like a light.
Aizawa woke up from a dreamless sleep, and checked his phone.
Wednesday, April 14th.
Aizawa wanted to cry again.
He skipped his morning routine, not bothering to eat breakfast or brush his hair, and simply pulled on his hero costume and walked to UA. He was fully aware he looked more bedraggled than usual. He didn’t care. The odds of him breaking the loop this round were so low, so no one would remember this instance anyway. He staggered into UA, wishing he could just curl up in his bed again. He was still so tired.
When he went into the teacher’s lounge, only Sekijiro was there. Probably because he was early this time. The man was decked out in his ‘Vlad King’ regalia, glancing over papers.
“Hey, Aiza- woah, you don’t look so good. Are you okay?”
“Sekijiro…” Aizawa said, plopping himself down in a chair. “What would you do if you were faced with an unsolvable problem?”
“I’d make Nedzu solve it for me,” Sekijiro said jokingly, but he set down his papers, clearly ready to drop everything to help Aizawa with whatever he needed.
God. Why had Aizawa never tried to befriend Sekijiro? Aizawa had always appreciated him as a coworker, but they had never gotten especially close.
Maybe once the loops were over, Aizawa could try to build a better relationship with him.
“What if you couldn’t ask for help? Had to do it on your own?” Aizawa asked.
“You can usually get help,” Sekijiro said. He paused, as if he was trying to parse the issue. “You wouldn’t be any less for needing help,” he said, seeming to guess that Aizawa didn’t want to ask for help due to self-esteem issues.
Aizawa sighed. Sekijiro was wrong on both fronts, though that was irrelevant to his true problem. Needing help meant Aizawa had failed his students, because as their homeroom teacher, it was his job to protect them.
Sekijiro could sense his skepticism. “Look, don’t you always want your students to come to you for help?” he tried.
“That’s different,” Aizawa said. “They’re children. I shouldn’t need help.”
“Not really. I mean, just think. Can you solve your problem with the resources you have, by yourself?” Sekijiro asked. “If the answer is no, it’s not your fault if things don’t work out. Sometimes we have to do the best with what we have, when we have it.”
“I…” Aizawa paused. If being capable of defeating the Nomu made him a good homeroom teacher because he could protect his students, then would having a powerful or destructive quirk make him a good teacher? Even a quirk as grand as All Might’s or as specialized as Midnight couldn’t stop the Nomu without any injuries.
“Even if the answer is yes, no one can face everything on their own,” Sekijiro pointed out.
So maybe he wasn’t a failure for not being able to do it alone.
Even All Might would need help with this.
Still…
The time loops were holding him back. Regardless about how he felt about asking for help, the time loops would just reset, which meant he wouldn’t be able to get it.
Aizawa gave a wry smile. “Thanks, Sekijiro,” he said.
“Good luck on solving your unsolvable problem, Aizawa,” Sekijiro said, still giving Aizawa worried glances. “If there’s any way I can help…”
Aizawa sighed.
Aizawa needed to make a plan, and he wasn’t in a good headspace right now. Sekijiro would inevitably tell everyone that he looked terrible, and then the staff would be hovering all day. Better to call in for a few loops in a row to recover, maybe try to do therapy, and come up with a new plan.
“Sorry, but you can’t help, because I’m in a time loop.”
“You’re what?”
Aizawa paused. Waited for the world to go dark.
But nothing happened.
“A time loop?” Sekijiro asked, puzzled.
Aizawa waited a few more moments, but the world stayed the same. “It’s not resetting.”
“It’s not what?”
“I’ll be right back,” Aizawa said, throwing open the door to the teacher’s lounge. He sprinted down the hall to Nedzu’s office and pulled open the door. Nedzu looked surprised, and slowly set down his tea.
“Nedzu!” Aizawa said. “I’m trapped in a time loop.”
For once, Aizawa got to see Nedzu react to that statement while he wasn’t cut off halfway. Nedzu’s eyes widened and he tapped a paw against his chin, looking bewildered. “Come in,” he said.
Aizawa did, heart racing in excitement and nervousness as he shut the door behind him.
Now he had a chance.
Chapter 11: Unauthorized Access
Summary:
Aizawa, for once, gets the opportunity to try to work with others to end the loops.
Chapter Text
“I’m in a time loop,” Aizawa repeated, mostly just to hear himself say it again.
“Sit,” Nedzu said, nodding toward a chair. “And explain.”
Aizawa sat down, though he was barely able to contain his excitement. He resisted the urge to get back up and pace around. “I’m under the influence of a quirk. Miura Haruki… or Hikaru, maybe? It’s called Victory Loop.”
Nedzu turned and typed something on his computer. “I see. We do have a Miura Hikaru listed with the quirk Victory Loop. Age nine?”
“Yes, that’s him. It was an accident,” Aizawa explained.
“How many loops have you had, now?” Nedzu asked.
“Twenty,” Aizawa said.
“The loops are based on a perceived failure,” Nedzu said. “What was yours?”
“There’s going to be a villain attack on my class at the USJ today,” Aizawa said.
Nedzu widened his eyes in surprise. He paused for a few moments, as if considering something. “The media break-in,” Nedzu said.
Oh. Aizawa had almost forgotten about that, it felt like so long ago. But that break-in would have been yesterday to Nedzu. “Yeah,” Aizawa said. “One of the villains can turn objects to dust by touching them with all five of his fingers. Considering the gate…”
“Most definitely involved,” Nedzu murmured. “But what did they want?”
“It was theorized that they wanted class schedules,” Aizawa said. “Because they wanted to know when All Might would be there, since their plan was to kill All Might.”
“Do they succeed?” Nedzu asked, dead serious.
Aizawa was tempted to laugh, but refrained. “No. They don’t come close. He wastes all his hero time stopping crimes, though, so he isn’t even there when they attack. He just swings by at the end and finishes things up.”
Nedzu sighed, sounding disappointed. “I’m going to have to speak to him about the balance between hero and educator, won’t I? Now, what about the students?”
“None of them have ever died, but they have been hurt. My failure is ‘let students and staff get hurt.’ If we can get through the attack without students or faculty casualties, then I believe the loop will end,” Aizawa said.
“An interesting proposition,” Nedzu mused. “We will be forced to start over and over again until we achieve the best possible outcome.”
“Exactly,” Aizawa said.
There was a knock on the door.
“Come in!” Nedzu called.
Sekijiro poked his head through the door. “Aizawa, I just wanted to ask you about, uh, the time loop… thing?”
“Ah, excellent timing! Come join our discussion. We’ll get you up to speed,” Nedzu said, sliding the computer monitor with the Victory Loop Database on it to Vlad King. “Actually, it might be a good idea to call in Thirteen and Yagi as well, since they’re both invo…”
“No,” Aizawa interrupted, too quickly.
“Hm?” Nedzu tilted his head.
“I… look, one of the attackers at the USJ has a quirk that induces extreme rage, so much so that whoever gets hit by it will attack whoever is closest to them. In one of the loops, All Might was hit with that quirk, and well…” Aizawa gave a twisted smile. “I didn’t want to erase his quirk because that would leave him vulnerable and surrounded by enemies. He crushed me to death.”
Nedzu’s usual smile dropped straight off his face, while Sekijiro stared at him in undisguised horror.
“I don’t react very well to All Might anymore,” Aizawa said, unconsciously wrapping his arms around his ribs. “I’m trying to get over it, I just…”
“I understand,” Nedzu said. “I’ll speak with him separately.”
“Aizawa,” Sekijiro said, clearly trying to broach the topic sensitively. “Was that the only time you died in the loops?”
“I don’t know,” Aizawa answered honestly. “Maybe. That loop I must have died, my ribs and lungs were so broken. But in a few of the other loops, I was knocked unconscious and stayed that way for the rest of the loop, and there was no way for me to know if anyone finished me off.”
“... are you alright?” Sekijrio asked, frowning.
Aizawa shrugged. “I feel pretty good right now. I can finally tell everyone everything about what’s going on, which has a certain catharsis--”
“You couldn’t before?” Nedzu asked, tilting his head.
“No, whenever I tried to tell someone about the loops, everything would reset,” Aizawa explained. “I would just wake up in my bed again.”
“Unusual,” Nedzu said, glancing down at the description of Victory Loop. “Nothing like that is mentioned in the quirk description, and that’s vital information. Is it possible that was a unique feature of your looping experience? Why would it stop?”
“I don’t know,” Aizawa said. “It just did.”
“Wait, before we continue with this discussion,” Sekijiro interrupted. “Can we come up with a strategy? You said attackers at the USJ?”
“Right,” Nedzu said. “Aizawa, what are the circumstances behind the USJ attack?”
“Approximately seventy aggressors,” Aizawa said. “Most of them are thugs and unskilled fighters, but a few are very powerful. This includes their leader, Shigaraki Tomura, who can turn things or people to dust by touching them with all five fingers. He’s just fast with a deadly quirk. Then there’s Kurogiri, he has a quirk that can generate portals. He teleported everyone into the USJ and is dangerous because he can use the portals to redirect attacks or chop people in half.”
“A warping quirk, of course,” Nedzu muttered. “Still, shouldn’t that have set off the alarms?”
“The alarms didn’t go off,” Aizawa said. “They had a few electric quirks in their ranks, and we theorized that one of them had the ability to jam the signal.”
“So no backup,” Sekijiro said.
“Yes,” Aizawa said. “Though All Might technically is on his way, he’s just late. Iida usually manages to escape the USJ and he runs back to the main campus to get the teachers, while All Might continues ahead to fight the Nomu.”
“The Nomu?” Nedzu questioned.
“The final and most serious threat,” Aizawa confirmed. “He’s incredibly powerful. He’s blue with his brain exposed-”
“His brain exposed?” Sekijiro said, sounding confused.
“-and he’s very muscular,” Aizawa continued, not addressing Sekijiro’s point. “He’s very powerful. Even when I erase his quirk, he’s fully capable of snapping my arms like twigs. And he has.”
“Aizawa, that’s-” Sekijiro started.
“-certainly a problem,” Nedzu interrupted. “Can All Might defeat him?”
“Yes, but even when he’s at full strength, All Might gets hurt,” Aizawa said. “Thus resetting the loop. The Nomu is the main reason I haven’t been able to get through the USJ without injuries thus far.”
“I see,” Nedzu said. “It would be beneficial to recruit a few heroes from outside UA with the express purpose of fighting the Nomu.”
“I don’t know if they’d be able to defeat the Nomu without getting hurt, though,” Aizawa said.
“I thought only UA students and teachers needed to be uninjured,” Nedzu pointed out. “So therefore as long as they win it should be okay. Unless that’s not it?”
“No, you’re right,” Aizawa said. “That actually should work.”
“Toss in All Might, too,” Sekijiro grunted. “Him working together with several other heroes will probably stop him from getting hurt, right?”
“Reasonable,” Nedzu mused. “With the information that there will be an attack on UA, I think I could get Gang Orca, Endeavor-”
“Endeavor will accidentally injure students,” Aizawa said. “I brought him in once before.”
“Hm,” Nedzu said. “Noted. I believe Crust and Fatgum should also be available. Do you believe that they, along with All Might, would be capable of defeating the Nomu?”
“They definitely would,” Aizawa said. “It’s just a matter if they can defeat the Nomu and All Might’s not hurt in the end. I think it’s worth a try.”
“Good, good,” Nedzu said. “So we have those heroes fighting in front, with Thirteen and… hm, Ishiyama or Sekijiro staying back?”
“Wait,” Aizawa said. “Ishiyama or Sekijiro?”
“In place of you,” Nedzu said.
“I need to protect the students,” Aizawa protested. “I have to be there.”
Nedzu shook his head. “It might be better if you’re not. If something goes wrong and you’re severely injured, you’ll remember the experience. We won’t.”
“He’s right,” Sekijiro said. “You’ve done enough as is.”
“I’ve done enough?” Aizawa said, scowling. “I’ve been trying so hard-”
“That’s not what I meant!” Sekijiro rushed to assure him. “I mean that you’ve been working hard all this time. No offense, Aizawa. It just seems like you’ve suffered enough already.”
Aizawa hesitated.
“It would be terribly negligent of me to send you when I could easily send someone else, considering the potential for psychological harm,” Nedzu pointed out. “I promise we will protect your students.”
“Fine!” Aizawa grumbled. “But I want coffee.”
“We can get you that,” Sekijiro promised.
“I’ll call All Might,” Nedzu said.
“Alright! Let’s get this show on the road.”
Aizawa sat next to Hizashi, sipping his coffee.
He hadn’t ended up telling Hizashi about the loops yet. But he planned to, right after this, if his plan worked.
Right now, they were both monitoring communications at the USJ. The staff had been told that they had “learned there was a possibility of an attack” and as such, a few extra staff members were brought along, as well as Nedzu calling in favors from other heroes to possibly take down the Nomu.
Aizawa was a little worried it was too far away from initial setup to work, but it was definitely worth a try. Right now, Aizawa was connected to Sekijiro’s earpiece, listening in. The students were on the bus, going to the USJ, while Aizawa waited, tense, for the attack to begin.
“Before we get off the bus,” Sekijiro warned. “Your teacher, Aizawa, heard there might be a possibility someone might try to target you guys.”
Aizawa heard murmuring through the earpiece. “But that’s impossible! Isn’t the security system is top-of-the-line?” Kirishima protested faintly.
“It is. Still, UA takes this sort of thing seriously, so we have some extra heroes at the USJ for security reasons. Just as a precaution.”
“Of course, it would make sense that UA would be responsible to the utmost when-” Aizawa sipped more coffee as Iida began to chatter.
Suddenly, the lights around the office began to flicker.
Are these lights connected to the ones at the USJ? Is that why they’re flickering? Aizawa thought to himself. No, that didn’t make much sense, and the students were still on the bus--
This time, the alarms started blaring loudly as a purple portal opened in front of them in the communications room. “Fuc-” Hizashi started, backing away quickly. Six villains came through the portal, including both Shigaraki and the Nomu.
“Nomu, capture,” Shigaraki ordered, pointing at Aizawa.
“Shi-” Aizawa jumped back, but he was too slow. The Nomu raced forward and grabbed his arm tightly. No matter how Aizawa struggled, he couldn’t escape the Nomu’s iron grip. Aizawa quickly turned back toward Mic. Three villains were down, clearly having been taken out by Hizashi, whose nose was broken and whose face was furious.
The door burst open, and Snipe stood at the door. He pulled out his gun and shot at the Nomu, but the bullets bounced off harmlessly. Shigaraki leapt back through the portal, and Aizawa felt himself being dragged into a black abyss by the Nomu, even as Snipe unloaded a full round at the Nomu’s face.
Aizawa barely had time to take in his new surroundings when he felt something hard hit the back of his head, and he fell unconscious.
Aizawa woke up dazed in a dark place, tied to a cold metal chair. He blinked a few times to clear his head. Aizawa felt briefly confused over why he wasn’t waking up in his bed when the memory of what had happened washed over him.
This is the same loop, Aizawa said, suddenly alert. Is it the same day?
He didn’t know whether or not the villains had attacked the USJ. If they hadn’t…
Wait. Wait no. He’d seen that they’d broken Hizashi’s nose. That was a staff injury.
That meant the day was going to reset no matter what. He wasn’t trapped here.
Aizawa breathed a heady sigh of relief, slumping in his chair.
Still, he didn’t want to be here for any longer. If he could find a way to properly escape and figure out where he was, then he would know exactly where the villain's base was in future loops! He just had to view this as an opportunity, rather than a curse.
He was in a small dark room, with his hands, ankles, and body tied to a metal chair that seemed to be bolted into the ground. Whoever had tied him up had decided to do a lot of random knots to keep him in one place. He couldn’t move much at all before the loops of rope on his shoulders and arms would begin to chaf painfully.
His capture weapon was gone (of course) as was his utility belt, but he was still wearing his original hero costume. His phone had been in the belt, but he could still feel the hilt of his hidden knife at his waist. If he could just get a hold of it, he could cut the ropes and escape.
The door creaked. Aizawa went limp, closing his eyes. Hopefully the League would just think he was asleep and leave him alone.
Aizawa felt cold water being dumped over his head. He jerked involuntarily and, giving up on the ruse, Aizawa opened up his eyes to see Shigaraki Tomura standing over him. “Ah, awake, perfect,” Shigaraki said. “There are people who want to talk to you.”
Shigaraki shoved a phone right next to Aizawa’s ear.
“Aizawa, are you there?” Nedzu’s voice, urgent.
“Nedzu? Is that you?”
“Someone told them that we knew about their attack,” Nedzu said quickly. “A traitor. That’s why they went after you. Look fo-”
Shigaraki pulled the phone away. “What did I tell you about giving him information? I’ve proved he’s alive, as per our agreement. Now, start talking, or he’ll pay the price.”
Aizawa was completely lost as to what deal they were making, but Shigaraki seemed to calm down after he heard whatever Nedzu was saying. Shigaraki was silent for a few minutes, simply listening on the phone. Then, he simply said, “good” and hung up.
“Do you know what that was, Eraserhead?” Shigaraki asked.
Aizawa didn’t answer.
“Nedzu gave us information about your students,” Shigaraki said gleefully. “In exchange for sparing you. I never would have thought he’d put you above all of those innocent children, but it just goes to show how corrupt-”
What was Nedzu thinking? Aizawa thought, sudden anger burning beneath his skin. He could understand the logic. The loop would reset except for his memories, so minimizing harm to him was a given, and any information given away wouldn’t matter. But! What if the loop didn’t reset for some reason? That could end in disaster, and his students might be seriously injured!
Aizawa pulled furiously against his bonds, despite the pain. “He promised me!” Aizawa snarled. “He promised! He promised that he would protect the students!” Aizawa’s voice rose to a scream and he tried to tear himself from the ropes. It didn’t work, and Shigaraki looked only vaguely amused.
“Oh, did he?” Shigaraki tilted his head, a raspy laugh on his lips. “So he betrayed you, too. We were planning on torturing you for information, especially on how you discovered our attack plans,” he said, scratching his neck. “But considering Nedzu told us everything, now we don’t have to. Soon enough, we’ll give your body to the doctor, and he can make a Nomu out of you. The rat bought you a few more days of mercy before that happens, at least.”
Aizawa felt infuriated and conflicted. Nedzu had probably saved him from horrible pain, but if something went wrong with this loop…
Was it worth the risk?
It was possible the information he’d given Shigaraki could have been fake. Nedzu definitely had to have lied about how they knew about the attack, so that was at least something…
Shigaraki left the room shortly after, leaving Aizawa alone.
I just have to wait until midnight, Aizawa thought. Then this will be over. Probably.
He didn’t have to wait long, though it felt like forever.
About an hour later of sitting in that cell, and suddenly everything was glitching, the world went in and out of focus and--
Aizawa woke up in his bed, breathing a sigh of relief.
He glanced at his arms. His wrists still had some obvious rope burns on them, far enough down that even with long sleeves they’d be a pain to hide. On the bright side, he didn’t have to hide them, considering he could just tell Nedzu what they were from.
The idea of letting people know about the loops still made him happy.
But…
Somehow, the League had known that the school knew an attack was coming. Somehow, the information had been leaked to them.
And then there was that phone call from Nedzu.
Was it really possible there was a traitor at UA?
Aizawa hated the idea of it, but Nedzu had suggested that there was one. And as angry Aizawa was with Nedzu right now for (maybe?) giving away important information, Nedzu was usually right.
“With a new advantage comes a new obstacle,” Aizawa sighed. “Now I can tell people about the loops, but…” Suddenly, he had to worry about who he should tell, considering the security risks.
I’m going to tell Hizashi anyway, Aizawa decided as he pulled on his hero costume. Because I want to tell him really badly. But with everyone else I’m going to have to be suspicious.
Chapter 12: Transmission
Summary:
Aizawa makes strides in learning about who has been thwarting his plans.
Notes:
tw: swearing, violence (of course), references to BDSM (nothing explicit, only spoken of in vague terms)
Chapter Text
When Aizawa walked into Nedzu’s office at the beginning of the day, he paused to simply watch Nedzu’s expression change.
Usually, Nedzu’s expressions were somewhat consistent. He seemed to usually wear a pleasant friendly expression, unless the situation was somber, in which his expression would be neutral. Nedzu was relatively unflappable, and very little could make him visibly react to things in a way that was beyond the norm. At least when other people were around.
Which is why it was so interesting to watch his face change.
Today, it was especially unusual. Nedzu’s expression at first was interest, then it flashed to anger, and finally, to determination. The expressions went by so fast that for a moment, Aizawa wondered if he’d seen them at all.
“Uh-” Aizawa started.
“Sit, sit,” Nedzu said.
“Are you angry with me?” Aizawa said, briefly worried. Had something changed, this early in the loop, to make him act that way?
“No,” Nedzu said, shaking his head.
“Oh,” Aizawa said. “Then what’s wrong?”
Nedzu sighed. “I should be asking you.” After a pause, Nedzu pointed to his wrists. “The rope burns, Aizawa.”
“Ah,” Aizawa said.
“They’re very severe,” Nedzu said. “From here they look deep enough to leave permanent scars. They must be painful.”
“They are,” Aizawa confirmed vaguely, internally debating about how he should explain this to Nedzu. He stayed awkwardly silent while he was thinking.
After a long pause, Nedzu huffed. “Aizawa, you were clearly bound with rope. Judging by burn placement, you couldn’t have done it to yourself, which means someone else was involved. Even if the tying up was consensual, there is no way you would purposefully give yourself such an injury.”
Consensual?
“So either it was an accidental injury, or you were restrained against your will. For instance, in some kind of kidnapping. If it were the former, you likely would have hidden them from me and gone to Recovery Girl,” Nedzu explained. “Therefore, the more likely scenario is a kidnapping attempt.”
Aizawa probably could have gone his whole life without having to listen to Nedzu explain to him why his rope burns were due to enemy action and not bondage play.
God, he hated this time loop.
“It would be really embarrassing for you if you were wrong,” Aizawa deadpanned.
“Perhaps,” Nedzu said unflinchingly.
Sometimes Aizawa hated his boss.
“Nedzu, how much do you know about time loops?” he asked.
“I see,” Nedzu said, sipping his tea. “So you think we should contact Endeavor and Ryukyu to help All Might fight off the Nomu? Hm. A good idea, but we may want to add Mirko to that lineup…”
Aizawa knew that the traitor had to be one of the following: UA Staff, a Class 1-A student, or one of the visiting heroes, because they were the only ones who knew about the attack. If he wanted to figure out who he was able to tell, then he needed to start eliminating suspects. The easiest of the possibilities to exclude were the visiting heroes, simply by making sure the ones that had been told about the attack last time (Crust, Gang Orca, and Fatgum) weren’t told this time. That meant replacing them with other heroes.
Endeavor would probably injure someone, but Aizawa wasn’t truly expecting to pass this loop. He more so wanted to eliminate suspects for the loop.
He also wanted to be there for the actual USJ this time so he could investigate more easily, which meant lying to Nedzu about how bad the loops were. When Nedzu had asked how many loops he’d had, Aizawa had answered ‘six’ without hesitation (fewer loops implied less trauma) and he never mentioned not that he wasn’t able to tell people in other loops.
And, since Nedzu (while extremely unlikely) technically could be the traitor, Aizawa didn’t mention suspecting there was a traitor. He would investigate on his own, at least for this loop.
“I’d rather not tell anyone about the loops until they’re over,” Aizawa explained. “It gets tiring to say everything over and over again.” Aizawa needed a decent reason for keeping everything secret. If the 'traitor' figured out about the loops, there was no telling what they would do.
“Understandable, but we’re going to have to tell the staff members about the attack if we want to prepare,” Nedzu pointed out.
“That’s fine,” Aizawa answered. “Now… I’d better go teach Homeroom.”
“Everyone put their phones in the container,” Aizawa said. “We’re having a pop quiz.”
Half the class groaned, and the other half looked immediately panicked.
In truth, Aizawa didn’t have a proper quiz planned for weeks, and he definitely wasn’t planning one for today. This was the fourth day of school, and they’d barely learned anything.
… But a quiz gave him the opportunity to confiscate their phones from them without explanation. “I’ll give your phones back at the end of the day,” Aizawa promised, to another chorus of groans.
Aizawa disliked the possibility that it could be a student, but he would be blind to not notice how the villains had attacked him immediately after the students were told. Someone who typed quickly on a cell phone could have easily let the villains know exactly what had happened.
So. Aizawa would switch up the visiting heroes, and stop the students from communicating with anyone, but let the staff know of an attack. Then, if the villains still knew that the heroes were prepared for their attack, then the traitor had to be a member of staff.
Aizawa didn’t have a quiz already written, so he’d just grabbed some pre-printed quizzes off the top of his shelf. Glancing down at them now, he saw they were third-year Heroics quizzes from the second semester. As he handed them out, he cracked a smile.
“Why is this such a hard test?” Ashido whined after the quizzes were handed out.
Aizawa decided to take mercy. “This assessment will be curved,” he said.
“Oh thank god!” Kaminari said, slumping in his chair.
Even the highest scorers in the entrance exam looked befuddled at the quiz questions. Some of his students grew more determined, while others started looking panicked.
Aizawa should give all his first-year classes a third-year pop quiz or two. It was mean, but a little bit entertaining.
Aizawa collected the quizzes once everyone was done and gathered them up, as well as snatching the box of phones. The assessment had taken the entire class period. “Now it’s time for English,” Aizawa said, and left abruptly as Hizashi walked in.
The plan was officially in motion.
Aizawa graded the quizzes on the bus.
Because he hadn’t mentioned dying or being injured in the loops, Nedzu hadn’t tried to insist that he shouldn’t come. Aizawa hadn’t told anyone else about the loops, but all the teachers had been told about the attack. In this loop, Nedzu hadn’t mentioned that it was Aizawa who learned about the attack. Aizawa didn’t know whether or not Nedzu had told the teachers that fact in the last loop, which was unfortunate. It was kind of relevant information, since the villains had targeted him specifically, but there was no way for him to find out.
“Students, before we get there,” Aizawa said. “We’ve received a tip that someone may be trying to target you on this trip.”
There was murmuring, and Kirishima opened his mouth to speak.
“While we don’t believe it to be very credible,” Aizawa lied, “we asked a few additional heroes to come as extra security, just in case. They might arrive partway through the exercise, so don’t be distracted.”
Nedzu had asked that the students be briefed so there wouldn’t be any surprises. If this loop was successful and things continued after it, it would be a better PR strategy to address the attack beforehand so it looked like UA had everything under control the whole time. Aizawa couldn’t object without revealing the fact that he was trying to look for a traitor.
But, while the students knew an attack was coming, none of them should have any way of contacting the villains from here, as no one had their phones. Aizawa kept an eye out to make sure that none of the students pulled out any technological device capable of contacting the villains.
No one made a move to do so after the announcement. They just kept talking, except now about this weird security threat.
The bus ride lasted another twenty minutes. The students chattered on, and Aizawa watched. He didn’t see anyone hiding an extra phone or anything of the like.
Good. That made things simple.
When Aizawa opened the door, he was expecting to see All Might, Ryukyu, Mirko, Endeavor and Thirteen either all just standing around or in more hidden security positions, maybe with one or two missing because they were the top heroes in the nation, and they either got caught up or something or skipped.
But when he opened the door, instead of seeing a few heroes looking mildly frustrated at having to do a guard position, he saw complete chaos. The villains were already there, and the fight had already started.
As soon as Aizawa registered what was happening, several minor villains jumped straight for him. The students screamed and backed away in fear as Aizawa grabbed hold of his capture weapon and prepared for battle.
Suddenly, a gigantic dragon (Ryukyu, Aizawa thought with relief) bashed the villains to the side with a roar, slapping them across the USJ with her tail.
“Students, run,” Aizawa ordered. The kids did just that, turning tail and fleeing from the USJ in a group in the vague direction of the main campus.
… It was a shame they hadn’t gone over emergency procedures yet, otherwise the students would know where they were actually supposed to go in this situation. Hm.
(Aizawa also noticed that rather than jet off at 60 miles an hour, Iida stayed behind and ran alongside his classmates to make sure they were okay. What a nice kid. He would have to drill self-preservation into him once the loops were over.)
Aizawa turned back and glanced at the battle within the USJ. For once, the alarms were blaring. Nedzu must have activated them.
Almost as soon as he stopped to look, both Kurogiri and Shigaraki vanished within a black portal. Damn, Aizawa thought. The combined forces of all these top heroes had made those two vanish pretty quickly.
Endeavor and All Might were working side-by-side, attacking the Nomu with everything they had. It roared as Endeavor doused it in flames. They seemed to be defeating it incredibly effectively, ripping off and cauterizing limbs with ease. That battle would be finished quite soon. Meanwhile, Mirko the Rabbit Hero was tearing through lesser villains in the center plaza with ease. She laughed and occasionally took shots at the Nomu whenever Endeavor paused from shooting flames at it.
Ryukyu, on the other hand, stayed at the entrance of the USJ.
Wait. Aizawa moved forward a few steps and saw Thirteen’s half-shredded costume. He bent down. “Thirteen, are you alright?”
“Not really… senpai…”
Oh boy. Thirteen seemed to be in an even worse state than usual at the USJ. Ryukyu was probably defending Thirteen while they were down, which would explain why she was loitering at the entrance, rather than going to fight the Nomu.
“I’ll protect Thirteen,” Aizawa said. “You can go fight the rest of the villains.”
Ryukyu roared in confirmation and charged, bashing through a small crowd of enemies. At about the same time, the Nomu seemed to be down for good (a badly-charred mess) and Mirko had downed nearly every villain in the center plaza. All Might hovered over the Nomu apprehensively to make sure it was dead.
Aizawa glanced away from All Might as soon as his eyes landed on him, not wanting to spur a reaction, but he was sure that he’d seen some blood running down All Might’s chin and that his costume was singed. There was a chance he was injured, and Thirteen was definitely injured. Not to mention that this might not even break the loop, being nothing like the original lineup.
Aizawa stood over Thirteen and waited as the three heroes swept up the remaining enemies. Aizawa looked at his phone and saw that Nedzu had texted confirmation that backup was on its way. Good. Thirteen definitely needed help.
Aizawa glanced up from his phone to see Mirko running toward him. He pocketed the device. “Mi-” Aizawa stepped a pace forward as Mirko threw a dangerously powerful kick toward his chest.
Aizawa activated his quirk on instinct (it did nothing, Mirko’s rabbit quirk was heteromorphic) and brought up an arm to block the attack.
Aizawa stumbled back and howled in pain as his arm snapped in half. “Mirko, what the fuck!” he shouted on instinct. He grabbed his capture weapon, grit his teeth, and tried his best to stay standing, despite how his legs wanted to crumple beneath him from the shock. Why is she attacking me? Did she get hit with the quirk All Might did?
Mirko drew her arm back for a punch just as Endeavor used his fire to shoot himself closer to the two. “Mirko, stop. He’s with UA.”
Mirko lowered her arm. “Huh?”
“That’s my son’s teacher,” Endeavor growled, skidding to a stop.
“Oh,” Mirko said. “Fuck. Shit, sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Aizawa lied, hissing in pain. It was not fine. He was pissed off and he was going to be spiteful toward Mirko now, even if the loop reset. This is why literally nobody invites you to anything, Mirko, Aizawa thought, scowling.
Mirko hadn’t recognized him. Normally everyone would meet before a mission to avoid this kind of friendly fire, but because of the lack of time…
Ryukyu bounded back toward the entrance and quickly morphed back into human form. “Are you alright?”
“Yes. Why were the villains here so early?” Aizawa changed the subject, bringing his damaged arm closer to his chest.
“They knew there was going to be an attack. The one with the dust quirk implied that they came early so they could try to kill All Might before ‘extra security’ arrived. Or at the very least they thought it would be worth it to take a crack at him,” Ryukyu answered.
“I see,” Aizawa said.
The villains knew we’d send extra security.
The USJ doors opened, and Aizawa glanced back to confirm that backup had arrived in the form of the UA teachers.
The UA teachers. The heroes he’d spent so much time working with. His coworkers, his friends. They scattered across the USJ and went around arresting villains or providing medical support. A few of them stayed to provide Thirteen medical support. But for once, Aizawa was forced to view them in a different light.
The villains knew.
The original set of visiting heroes were replaced with new ones. None of the students could contact the villains because of the phone confiscation.
There was only one option left.
The traitor is a UA staff member.
Aizawa could hardly believe it, but he had to.
Chapter 13: Dead Reckoning
Summary:
Aizawa has doubts, and decides to put his closest friend to the test.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
If he were being completely honest, Aizawa had been expecting the traitor to be a visiting hero or a student. The idea that one of his coworkers had leaked the information to the villains, either through maliciousness or incompetence…
The idea made him sick.
He’d gone through so much pain, and it was their fault.
He felt uncharacteristically angry. He wanted to rip the traitor limb from limb, to break their bones and cut their skin. To make them feel how he felt, and see if they liked it.
Aizawa took a deep breath.
He had to consider this rationally.
What staff members knew about the attack beforehand?
Principal Nedzu. All Might. Thirteen. Midnight. Snipe. Vlad King. Cementoss. Hound Dog. Ectoplasm. Recovery Girl. Power Loader. And lastly, Present Mic.
Twelve possibilities in total.
But perhaps not all twelve were proper suspects.
Considering the stated goal of the villains’ mission was to kill All Might, it was… probably not All Might. But the villains could be lying. All the same, he’d seen how surprised and devastated All Might was when either Aizawa or students were injured. That didn’t seem like the behavior of a traitor.
But if there was anyone who he was almost certain was not the traitor, it was Nedzu.
Nedzu had been the one to suggest there was a traitor in the first place, when Aizawa might otherwise have believed it was just a mistake. And if Nedzu were the traitor, his actions wouldn’t make any sense, strategically. UA was Nedzu’s base of power, and an attack on UA would only serve to make him (and his associates/followers) look bad. Nedzu would never be so sloppy.
Besides, Nedzu would never work with anyone who used bioengineered weapons like the Nomu. Considering his past, Nedzu was probably the last person who would approve of experimentation on sentient creatures.
The most logical thing to do in this situation would be to eliminate Nedzu as a suspect for now and begin investigations into his other colleagues. If none of them ended up being the traitor, then he could turn around and start investigating Nedzu, simply because there were no other options.
Aizawa felt the instinct to eliminate Thirteen, because they had been so badly ripped apart in each USJ loop, but he supposed it was technically possible that Thirteen had been the traitor and the League had double-crossed their informant… hm. Maybe he’d just consider Thirteen a bit less likely to be the traitor than the other suspects.
“Yo, Shouta, you doing okay?” Hizashi asked.
And then there was him.
Aizawa had known Hizashi for over fifteen years, they saw him almost every day, and were very close friends. He could say similar things about Nemuri. It was impossible to believe either of the two were traitors. He just couldn’t imagine it.
Still, Aizawa was forced to admit that if he eliminated possible traitors based on trust, that he would probably discount every UA staff member as a possibility. The only way to handle this situation logically was to act as if he didn’t have a history with all these people, to investigate them one by one with precision and impartiality. To believe them all potentially guilty until cold, hard facts demonstrated them to be innocent.
Consider All Might and Nedzu innocent for now, due to factors based in logic, but suspect the others. This was the most logical strategy.
“Hello, Hizashi,” Aizawa said, shifting in his seat. Recovery Girl had set his arm and put it in a sling right before the emergency meeting at the USJ. Aizawa had half-begged her to just heal him already, but Recovery Girl refused, saying that his testimony as to what happened at the USJ was needed for the meeting, and if she healed him now he’d just sleep through it. She’d injected a local painkiller into his arm and handed him some oral painkillers. It didn’t hurt now, but it would be a pain to deal with in the next loop.
The meeting had been finished by now, and Hizashi had evidently picked up on the fact that Aizawa was feeling down.
Aizawa had been planning to tell Hizashi about the loops, but, with the revelation that the traitor was a member of the UA staff…
“Shouta, do you want to do something together? I feel like it’s been a long time since we hung out!”
… was it even a good idea to?
“I think I’m too tired to go out and do something, but you could come over to my place,” Aizawa answered.
Hizashi’s eyes lit up. “Sure!”
They were in the same situation they had been a few loops ago.
Aizawa was on the couch, drinking tea, and sitting next to Hizashi. In the background an old movie played quietly, but Aizawa wasn’t really paying any attention to it.
He’d started sinking into Hizashi’s side again, feeling warm and exhausted and safe (even though he probably shouldn’t feel safe) and Hizashi took it in stride, wrapping a comforting arm around him. Unlike last time, though, he didn’t fall asleep, too bogged down by worry.
There were so many worries. About the traitor, about the loops.
Even about what this meant.
It wasn’t often that Aizawa relied so much on Hizashi for emotional support. And that made sense, considering he was a bit of a wreck right now. The time loops were a special case. But still, it could be said that even on normal days, Hizashi was the first person he would go to if he had a problem.
They’d always been a bit touchier than their other coworkers, but Aizawa had assumed that was because they were childhood friends, and therefore more comfortable with each other. But now Aizawa had to wonder if that was true. Nothing this close had happened between them before, but Hizashi was acting like it was completely normal.
But as much as Aizawa believed physical affection in platonic relationships was normal, he wasn’t sure if Hizashi did. They were essentially cuddling. And he had to ask himself…
What was this?
Was it possible that Hizashi was attracted to him? He hadn’t seen any signals before but admittedly he was a pretty oblivious person.
If Hizashi was, that would be a disaster.
He knew Hizashi was bisexual, and had dated both men and women. But…
Aizawa just couldn’t do it.
Though a romantic relationship sounded nice on paper, Aizawa just didn’t like anyone that way. He’d never had any crushes through high school or into his hero career. People acted like he’d have them eventually, but…
Well. He was thirty. He was fairly certain that it would never happen.
Was Aizawa sending Hizashi the wrong signals?
Part of him understood that the loops would reset, and that Hizashi wouldn’t remember this experience. But he was still concerned about how Hizashi felt. He should probably just ask Hizashi about it, but it would be so awkward. What if he was wrong and this was all completely platonic, and he was just being stupid?
But what if Hizashi did want a romantic relationship? Hizashi put so much effort into their friendship. What if he expected something in return that Aizawa couldn’t give?
And there was always the possibility that Hizashi was the traitor, and everything he knew about the man was a lie.
God everything was so complicated now.
Hizashi, unaware of Aizawa’s internal struggle but seeming to sense his distress, turned to him, frowning. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Aizawa couldn’t keep all these secrets. He needed to say something.
Better to clear all this up as soon as possible, anyway, before feelings got hurt.
“I don’t like you!” Aizawa blurted out, and that… is not how he wanted that statement to come out of his mouth.
“...What?” Hizashi asked, confused.
“I’m sorry, I just… I’m not attracted to you. Or anyone. I’m sorry, I can’t…” Aizawa heaved a breath, “...I can’t tell if that’s what you want from me!”
After he said that, embarrassingly enough, Aizawa felt his eyes fill with tears.
Aizawa couldn’t remember the last time he cried before the time loops. Normally, he probably wouldn’t have cried even in this delicate situation, but he could feel the exhaustion and stress of repeated loops sanding down his emotional limits.
“Oh Shouta, no,” Hizashi said. “No, it’s… I knew that already. It’s okay.”
“... what?” Aizawa asked, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes.
“I’ve known you for over a decade,” Hizashi explained. “And you haven’t seemed interested in anyone even in passing. You’ve never dated or been romantically involved with anyone, and you haven’t mentioned wanting to be. It was pretty obvious.”
“Oh,” Aizawa said, unsure if he was about to laugh or cry.
“So this isn’t like that,” Hizashi said. “I know you’re bad at picking up romantic signals. If I had feelings for you, I would have been clearer about it.”
“So you’re…”
“I’m giving you a hug because you look like you really need one,” Hizashi confirmed. “Not because I’m into you.”
Aizawa did start crying then, properly. He clutched Hizashi’s shoulders and sobbed into his shirt, ignoring Hizashi’s sudden look of alarm at what was probably the first time Hizashi had seen him cry all-out since Oboro’s death. “Stressed,” Aizawa choked out between sobs, in lieu of an explanation.
Hizashi let Aizawa cry and began to stroke his hair softly, which made Aizawa cry harder. It was so cathartic to cry like this, even if he hadn’t explained the loops to Hizashi. At least he knew he didn’t need to feel guilty taking solace in this. Because while he should be suspicious of Hizashi… he did find it comforting.
He just couldn’t suspect Hizashi at all. He felt safe in his arms and secure around him.
He had assumed that he would feel torn apart by paranoia when he was near Hizashi, but no. Aizawa still trusted him in body and mind, regardless of evidence.
Aizawa resisted the urge to laugh. He tried to be so logical, but his emotions were still getting in the way of his standards anyway, weren’t they?
Aizawa’s sobs began to die down, and he struggled to lift his limbs under the weight of exhaustion, tiredness seeming to have seeped into his bones.
“Just rest,” Hizashi said.
Aizawa fell asleep soon after.
When Aizawa woke up the next morning, he felt… better, somewhat. Less tired. Less like he was going to start crying for no reason. His arm still hurt somewhat badly from getting broken. He was going to have to go to talk to Recovery Girl about that.
But for this loop, Aizawa had one singular goal.
Clear Hizashi.
He’d briefly considered trying to do three at a time (like trying to clear Nemuri, Thirteen and Hizashi all in one go) but he knew that if it ended up proving one of those three was guilty, he would feel horrible at least for a few loops before he figured out who it was. It was better to just figure out whether it was or was not Hizashi, and he could go from there.
But how was he going to do this?
He needed to give Hizashi a piece of information that he could pass on to the villains, one that was obvious enough that the villains would indicate during the attack whether or not they had that information. The piece he’d used to clear the visiting heroes and the students was the heroes know about the attack, but if he told Hizashi about the attack, he would tell all the other heroes unless he had a good excuse for keeping it secret. On the other hand, if he told all the other heroes about the attack, they would immediately want to tell Hizashi unless Aizawa had a good excuse.
Aizawa wandered over to Hizashi’s apartment, deep in thought.
Maybe he could let Hizashi know he was the one with the tip?
No, bad idea. He didn’t want to get captured again. Not worth the risk.
He knocked on the door. “Hey, Hizashi,” Aizawa said as the man opened it.
“Shouta! Nice to see you, but why are you here?”
“I have to tell you something,” Aizawa said, walking through the doorway. “It’s kind of related to class today, so sorry for barging in.”
“It’s no problem,” Hizashi said, but Aizawa got the feeling he’d say that even if it was a problem. “Why don’t you sit down while I do my hair quick?” Hizashi’s hair was still down around his shoulders, rather than gelled up like it was in his hero costume.
“Okay. I’m sorry for intruding,” Aizawa said, idly walking toward the kitchen chairs.
“Don’t worry about it!” Hizashi said, grabbing a hairbrush. Then he walked into the bathroom, where he then started picking up hair products and arranging them, probably to put in his hair.
Glancing over the situation in front of him, an idea sparked in Aizawa’s mind.
If Hizashi wasn’t at work, then no one would tell him about the attack. He wouldn’t have the opportunity to tell the villains about the attack. In that case, if the other coworkers were told while Hizashi wasn’t there and the villains still knew, there was no possibility of him being the traitor.
… It was really all a matter of making sure Hizashi didn’t show up for work today. And then convincing Nedzu he was just taking a day off. Because if he told Nedzu his plans, the guy would be able to frame whoever he wanted, and Aizawa was trying to be thorough.
With that thought in mind, Aizawa glanced around the apartment and saw Hizashi’s phone was on the counter.
Unlike with the students, where he had to keep an eye on them, Aizawa was completely certain that Hizashi only owned one phone.
Aizawa casually grabbed a water bottle that was laying on the table, took one of his jelly pouches out of his utility belt, and then tossed them both into the bathroom where Hizashi was standing. Hizashi’s face crinkled in confusion before Aizawa slammed the door shut.
“Hey!” Hizashi yelled, the word slightly laced by his quirk. Aizawa hooked his capture weapon on a nearby shelf and pulled it taut against the door, and leaned all his weight on the door. He could feel Hizashi pounding on the door as he tied the other end of the capture weapon to the cabinets bolted into the wall. Then, he dragged Hizashi’s couch in front of the door to further barricade it. Because the door opened out, that would make it very tough to move, especially since the couch was positioned strategically beneath the doorknob.
“Shouta what are you doing?!” Hizashi demanded, but Aizawa was busy looking for further ways to secure the door.
“Hizashi, where do you keep your tools?” Aizawa asked absently, glancing around his cabinets.
“Shouta, let me out!” Hizashi shouted, rattling the door again.
“Ah, here.” Aizawa grabbed a handful of nails and a hammer, and started hammering into the doorframe in a diagonal direction. That would nail the door shut and make it near impossible to open. If his capture weapon (metallic, extremely difficult to move when pulled taught) and the couch failed to keep the door closed, these nails would.
“I’ll use my quirk,” Hizashi threatened.
“You can’t,” Aizawa said. “Without your speaker, you can’t direct the noise in one direction. You could collapse the ceiling or the floor and hurt someone.” Aizawa started hammering nails into the other side of the doorframe. “But you probably already knew that, otherwise you would have done it already,” Aizawa added.
Hizashi didn’t say anything after that.
There wasn’t a window or any other exit in that bathroom. It was either the door, or finding a way to phase through the wall.
Once Aizawa had finished putting in enough nails that he was confident Hizashi wouldn’t be able to force the door open, he said, “Sorry, Hizashi. I’ll free you tomorrow. You’ll survive, you have a snack. And a water bottle.”
“Who are you? What have you done with Shouta!” Hizashi said, voice filled with rage. He hit the door again with a bang. “Where’s Shouta?”
Hearing such hostility from Hizashi only a few minutes after falling asleep in his lap felt slightly surreal. As much as Aizawa wanted to explain that he was the real Aizawa, he doubted Hizashi would believe him. Which was understandable. He didn’t want Hizashi to believe he was in danger, though.
“Where is he!?” Hizashi demanded, hitting the door again.
“Aizawa is safe,” Aizawa said, trying to change his voice a little. “I didn’t touch him. Why would I be locking you up if I could just walk into UA looking like him?”
“An appearance-copying quirk,” Hizashi murmured.
“Yeah, and we can’t have two Present Mics walking around at the same time,” Aizawa lied. “Your friend’s just fine. I just need to pick up some files from UA using your body,” Aizawa said, aiming for a slightly smug inflection.
“Don’t you dare hurt anyone,” Hizashi growled.
“Getting into a fight at UA sounds like a deathtrap,” Aizawa scoffed. “You have too many heroes there. I was just hired to do a little stealing. And no worries, I’ll make sure someone lets you out eventually.”
Hizashi responded with an angry growl. “You won’t get away with this.”
“I will,” Aizawa said, walking over to the counter. He grabbed Hizashi’s phone, texting, Hi Nedzu! I’m sorry, but I have to call into work today :(( bc my sister got sick and she needs me to watch her kids. Is there someone you can get to sub? Thx!
When Nedzu responded with the affirmative, that they could get a substitute teacher, Aizawa silenced the phone, smashed it with the hammer, and hid the broken pieces inside a cabinet.
Aizawa was pretty good at copying Hizashi’s texting style by now. And he knew most things about Hizashi’s life, like the fact that he had a sister with kids, and that they lived close enough for the story to make sense.
The plan was simple enough.
Keep Hizashi here for the whole day. Tell the other staff members that the villains were coming. If the villains knew the heroes knew about the attack, then it wasn’t Hizashi.
Hizashi would have no way of learning about the attack, because other staff members would try to contact him by phone, and his phone was broken now. Between the capture scarf, the nails, and the fact that there was no other exit meant Aizawa was fairly confident that Hizashi probably wouldn’t be showing up at UA for at least several hours.
And if Hizashi found a way to contact the villains from here, all he would be able to tell them is some shapeshifter guy just attacked me and nothing about the attack, because he would have missed the briefing and any texts from UA.
The only way Hizashi would be able to get the information about the attack was by getting in contact with UA. If he did that, Aizawa would instantly know because everyone would start suspecting him of being a shapeshifter.
He thought it was a decent enough plan. Though now apparently he was pretending to be a shapeshifting thief, because he’d wanted to let Hizashi know that “the real Aizawa” wasn’t hurt.
Aizawa sighed and listened a little more closely to the bathroom he’d locked Hizashi in. He just heard growling and pacing, with a little bit of angry muttering thrown in there.
Ah well. No going back now.
Aizawa went to UA, and went to Nedzu’s office first thing in the morning to explain the loops to him. “Hey Nedzu, how much do you know about time travel?”
His arm was in a sling and he was feeling sleepy again. Due to Aizawa’s insistence, they had told Recovery Girl he’d received a patrol injury, rather than admit to the time loops. She’d huffed that he should have seen her sooner, and wrapped up his arm before healing him. He was mostly healed, she said, but he should leave the sling in it a little longer and she could finish the last part tomorrow. (His conspicuous rope burns vanished in the healing as well.)
“I don’t know if you should be going to the USJ event with an injured arm,” Nedzu pointed out as they walked back. “Normally I would have no issue with you supervising rescue training with it, but considering the circumstances… and you’re missing your capture weapon,” Nedzu added, a question in his voice.
“I see,” Aizawa said, ignoring the capture weapon part. “Don’t tell anyone that I came up with the tip,” he added, remembering how the villains had targeted him specifically.
“Why?” Nedzu asked, tilting his head.
“I’ll explain everything after the fact,” Aizawa promised. Nedzu’s ears twitched in curiosity, but he nodded, seeming to accept the answer.
The ‘visiting heroes’ chosen were again Crust, Gang Orca, and Fatgum, like they had been originally. Sekijiro was chosen to supervise his class during the USJ trip. Rather than demand to be in charge of communications and monitoring like he had last time, Aizawa stayed back. He went off to teach Homeroom (he gave the students that third year test again) and substituted for Hizashi’s English class (despite his below-average english skills) and then went back to the staff room, where the other teachers were getting ready to go back up the USJ in case the tip was correct.
Aizawa sat down and just focused on grading the tests again, because he found it entertaining. Despite low scores across the board, he ended up learning things about his students regardless.
Kaminari’s score was low, but higher than expected. Kaminari’s descriptions of how his electrical quirk would function under different conditions demonstrated a very high knowledge of science, especially physics. Aizawa got the sense the kid was sharper than he let on. Despite this, he struggled severely with reading sections, which brought down his score. Hm, I should get the kid extra help with reading comprehension, Aizawa noted.
Midoriya’s test score was also unusual. It was below-average, but only because Midoriya bombed most of the test but did quite well on the rest. In particular, the parts meant to evaluate strategic initiative were actually quite impressive for a first year. Aizawa resolved to make sure the kid developed further skill as a tactician.
And of course, while not as precise as Midoriya in his strategizing, Bakugou’s test ended up being much more well-rounded. A top scorer for sure.
In the end, Aizawa just kept grading quizzes and tried to learn more about his students, even as the heroes went to the USJ to help. He tried to remind himself that it would probably be fine, because there were at least three extra heroes there. He finished marking Bakugou’s test and began to look anxiously at the clock.
Eventually, Aizawa saw a message from Nedzu on his phone about the attack.
The villains knew we were bringing extra help, it read. They brought more attackers than you mentioned them bringing in previous loops. All Might, 2 students injured.
Aizawa quickly sent a message back. Who? How badly?
Midoriya broke his leg and Sato has some severe lacerations. Both are expected to recover fully, however. As is All Might, Nedzu responded.
Aizawa breathed a sigh of relief. His students were fine.
And then it hit him. The villains knew they’d known about the attack, so…
Hizashi was innocent?!
Aizawa felt an odd joy bubbling in his chest.
He should check though. He should go check. Just to be sure.
Without consulting Nedzu, Aizawa left UA, texting Nedzu vaguely about ‘completing a few tasks before the loop reset.’ He went straight to Hizashi’s apartment to check on his status. The train ride was only a few minutes, and from there he quickly crept into Hizashi’s apartment.
As he entered, he glanced around. All seemed quiet and just as he had left it. When he came to the bathroom door, it was still locked firmly shut, except there were large cracks running down the door, as well as some small holes punched through the front, around the size of a fist. They probably weren’t made by a fist, though, considering how thick Hizashi’s door was. He’d probably used an object to try to tear through the door.
“Hizashi?” he questioned.
“Shouta,” he heard Hizashi getting up and saw him through the door. “Shouta, what’s the name of Ne- Midnight’s cat?”
“Sushi,” Aizawa answered carefully.
“It’s really you! Oh, thank goodness. Get me out of here, please. Wait, the imposter. Shouta, there was an imposter, and they were going to go to UA--”
“Don’t worry, we caught them,” Aizawa lied, ignoring the twinge of guilt he felt for lying. He unhooked his capture scarf and pulled the couch out of the way, but still found the door hard to open. Oh yeah. The nails. Luckily, he’d left the hammer on the counter, and he was able to pry the nails off the door with the back fairly easily.
When the door swung open, Hizashi ran up to him and quickly checked him over. “I was so worried!” Hizashi said, wiping red-rimmed eyes. “They said they didn’t hurt you but I didn’t know if they were lying, and I was so worried they might attack a student who was alone. Or take someone off-guard because they were in my body. And I couldn’t get out, I tried, I tried but I couldn’t. I couldn’t use my quirk because we’re right next to a load-bearing wall, and I could have killed a bunch of people on the upper floors if I destroyed it…”
“Shh, it’s okay,” Aizawa said, trying to be reassuring. “We noticed something was wrong so I came to get you. Nobody got hurt.” Aizawa’s previous minor guilt was suddenly turning into crushing guilt. He hadn't truly registered how badly Hizashi might be affected by being locked up without warning, especially considering the fake story he’d made up that was supposed to reassure Hizashi that he wasn’t hurt. Thank god he didn't have claustrophobia. Aizawa wondered if it would have been worse or better if Hizashi had absolutely no idea what had happened, rather than assuming a thieving imposter.
... probably worse. Hizashi had a good imagination.
Still, it had clearly been an extremely upsetting experience for him, and Aizawa had engineered it. For once, Aizawa was glad that things would reset. At least Hizashi wouldn’t remember this.
Still, it was… unethical, at best, to cause pain to other people in the loops. Because even if they didn’t remember it later, it still happened. Which was bad. “I won’t let this happen again,” Aizawa soothed, a double-meaning in his words.
So he had his answer. Hizashi wasn’t the traitor.
It was obvious from the beginning and now Aizawa was cursing himself for not just trusting Hizashi right away. At the start of the day, Hizashi had been acting very obviously worried for him despite thinking that the only person listening was an imposter, and now more recently Aizawa found it extremely impossible that he would be acting in this situation. He seemed very legitimately upset.
Hell, hadn’t Hizashi been acting worried for him when he thought Aizawa was sleeping a few loops ago?
Either Hizashi was the best actor he’d met in his entire life, and also was clairvoyant and capable of telepathically transferring information, or someone else was the traitor.
It was obvious which of those two things was correct. Occam's Razor and all that.
At least it’s not Hizashi, Aizawa thought, but guilt pricked at his psyche. He’d betrayed Hizashi much more thoroughly than Hizashi had ever betrayed him, and that thought stung. At this point, though, the most he could do was run damage control.
Aizawa tried to be a comforting presence to Hizashi, who actually calmed down pretty quickly once he confirmed that everyone was okay. Hizashi gave him a nice hug once, squeezing him around the middle, before he started going around and pacing and doing the thing where he stress-made cups of tea.
Aizawa stopped him before he could make a third cup of tea though, pointing at his hands. “What happened to them?” Aizawa asked, glancing worriedly at his split knuckles and the blood running down his fingertips.
“Oh, I just,” Hizashi gave a nervous bark of laughter, “punched the door too hard,” he said, pointing toward the cracked door.
Aizawa was a horrible person. Aizawa was never doing anything like this again.
“I’ll get bandages,” Aizawa insisted.
As Aizawa carefully washed Hizashi’s wounds and bandaged his hands, he considered his next move. He needed to find a more elegant way to discern the traitor than this. As glad as he was that he could be sure Hizashi wasn’t the traitor, he needed to be more careful with his looping powers. And now that he knew for-sure-for-sure that Hizashi wasn’t betraying him…
… maybe Hizashi could help?
He could tell Hizashi he was searching for a traitor, next loop.
That seemed nice.
He would need help, too, if he wanted to figure out who was the traitor without using techniques that traumatized people. Like the thing he’d done this loop.
It’s probably not All Might, it’s probably not Nedzu, it’s definitely not Hizashi.
Who ought he to investigate next… Recovery Girl? Hound Dog? Thirteen?
Three down.
Nine to go.
Hopefully with a more elegant investigation this time.
Notes:
What if the real traitor was the things we did to assuage our suspicion along the way
Chapter 14: Signal Jam
Summary:
Aizawa can get Hizashi's help now, and suddenly this is a buddy cop movie
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
That night, Aizawa got an annoyed return text from Nedzu about how he hadn’t explained anything. Aizawa texted back that he’d tell him everything once the loop was finished so he didn’t have to tell him multiple times. He’d never seen Nedzu use an emoji in a text before, but the reply to that was simply a sad face emoji, which did make Aizawa feel a little bad. He ignored the feeling.
At this point, Aizawa was more focused on Hizashi. He’d accepted immediately when Hizashi offered for him to sleep over, not wanting Hizashi to be alone after what just happened. Fortunately, besides his keenness on keeping Aizawa close, most of Hizashi’s nervousness began to melt over time. His nervous tics, like fidgeting and pacing, seemed to slowly abate as the evening went on. Eventually, Hizashi gave him another hug and went to his bedroom, (at a time that was pretty late for him, considering his daylight hero status) since Aizawa insisted on taking the couch.
On Hizashi’s couch, Aizawa struggled a bit to fall asleep. Thankfully he managed to do so before midnight, though. He didn’t want to deal with that nightmarish world-glitching any more than he had to.
When he woke up, it was April 14th again and he was in his own room. The moment he was awake, Aizawa threw on clothes and went straight for Hizashi’s apartment. He knocked on the door. “Hizashi, I’m stuck in a time loop!” he said.
Hizashi opened the door. “A time loop?”
“... and so, after that loop, I knew the traitor had to be a staff member,” Aizawa said, huffing. “That’s basically the end of the story.”
Aizawa had left out most of the gorier details, but had admitted that he’d been injured in a few loops.
“Oh wow,” Hizashi said. “That’s… tough to believe.”
Aizawa shot him a glare, and Hizashi waved his hands in denial. “Not like that! You showed me the time loop quirk in the database, so that’s definitely believable. It’s just hard to believe that one of our coworkers would do that.”
“Yeah, it’s hard for me to believe too,” Aizawa said, sighing.
“You realize the traitor technically could be me though,” Hizashi noted. “Er. Um.”
“I know it’s not you,” Aizawa said. He hesitated, and then decided to take responsibility for his actions. “Last loop I made sure it wasn’t you. I locked you in the bathroom for the first half of the day without any means of communicating with anyone, but the villains still were given information. Therefore, it wasn’t you.”
“Huh,” Hizashi said, nodding. “So that’s why you’re telling me. You know I’m innocent.”
“You’re not mad?” Aizawa asked, frowning.
“Well, not really,” Hizashi said. “I mean it is kind of extreme, but oh well.”
“You were so upset,” Aizawa pointed out. “You panicked because you thought I was someone only pretending to be me, and then you hurt yourself trying to escape.”
“Actually that’s pretty bad,” Hizashi amended, wincing. “Let’s not do that again.”
“I’m sorry,” Aizawa said. He bowed in apology. “I made a mistake, and I was too much of a coward to tell you the truth in the same loop.”
“It’s fine,” Hizashi said, with a shrug. “I mean, I don’t remember it, and you seem to feel really bad about it. So I’m not really that upset.”
Aizawa sighed. “Thank you. When we get these loops over with, I promise I’ll give you a proper apology.”
“Was this one not proper?” Hizashi asked, tilting his head.
“You probably won’t remember it.”
“Oh.”
There was a brief moment of silence. “We need to figure out who the traitor is,” Aizawa said. “Once we get them out of the way, we can use Nedzu’s connections with non-staff heroes to fight the villains, so then no staff or students get hurt.”
“And then the loops continue,” Hizashi said, nodding.
“I mean, I could tell Nedzu we have a traitor and tell him to hide that we know about the attack from the staff, but…”
“But the fact that we have a traitor staff member is serious,” Hizashi murmured. “You want to use the loops to uncover them.”
“The loops are tiring,” Aizawa admitted. “But they’re much less tiring now that I can tell people about them. And it’s dangerous to have a staff member working with villains. Better to nip that in the bud.”
“I get it,” Hizashi said, nodding. “And now we need to find a new way to exonerate people that’s not like what you did last time.”
Aizawa winced. “Yes.”
Hizashi’s expression became focused. “Hm. If you could clear Nemuri, you could tell her about there being a traitor in the next loops,” he said.
"Yeah, that’s the same for everyone,” Aizawa said.
“But if you had Nemuri, you could use the strategy you did with me, but better. Instead of locking them in a closet or whatever, you could ask her to knock them out with her quirk.”
“Would that be okay?” Aizawa wondered aloud.
“Probably.” Hizashi shrugged. “It’s not like hitting someone on the back of the head, which is dangerous for concussion and brain damage reasons. Her quirk is essentially risk-free,” he said.
“In that case, the person wouldn’t panic or be stressed or get hurt, they’d just lose out on that day because they were sleeping,” Aizawa said, feeling his doubts ease. “And if the loop will reset regardless, then that doesn’t matter as much.”
“So if we can get Nemuri on board, we can do what you did with me pretty easily without traumatizing potential victims,” Hizashi said, and Aizawa nodded despite not liking the phrasing of potential victims.
“I should have just done that in the first place,” Aizawa muttered. “How are we going to do Nemuri then?”
“I actually have an idea on that too,” Hizashi said.
Hizashi explained his plan while the two walked to UA.
“While you’re getting on the bus going to the USJ, I’ll pull Nemuri aside,” he said. “I’ll tell her that the whole staff was just informed of this villain attack, and that she’s been assigned to the evacuation area. Then, I’ll leave. That should give her ample time to potentially tell the villains,” Hizashi explained. “If the villains know, then it’s Nemuri. If they’re unaware, it’s not her.”
Aizawa nodded. “Makes sense. What if she tells someone else about the attack? Mentions it to them?”
“If she tells other teachers it’ll probably get back to Nedzu,” Hizashi said. “And he’ll send out an alert to all of us, meaning we’ll be re-informed if our plan fails.”
“Got it,” Aizawa said, nodding. “It’s nice having two people.”
“Of course!” Hizashi said, flashing a grin. “Hopefully after this loop you’ll have three.”
“You have the best plans,” Aizawa said, and Hizashi gave a joyful laugh.
The first part of the plan went smoothly.
In the beginning of the day, Aizawa did not go to Nedzu, but taught a regular Homeroom and continued his habit of planning things for the students once everyone was out of the loop. He scribbled them into his pocket book.
Aizawa was pretty sure Yaoyorozu could use a little bit of confidence-boosting, or maybe some therapy for her anxiety. Hagakure needed new equipment and clothes that could turn invisible with her, of course, and he was thinking that maybe it should include a tracker to avoid what happened with the USJ. Meanwhile, Aizawa was severely considering expelling Mineta. It hadn’t seemed very bad at first, but after repeated loops, Aizawa was noticing more and more disrespect shown toward his female classmates. If he couldn’t even respect his colleagues, there was no way for him to be a hero. Aizawa was planning to give him one more chance post-loops to change, and after that was expulsion.
Kouda, unlike Mineta, was an angel. The kid didn’t really need anything (except maybe a pet wolf and/or coyote) but Aizawa should brush up on his sign, and maybe ask Mic to incorporate sign language lessons into their English class, because Kouda seemed to be more comfortable communicating with sign. He knew Kouda could physically speak, but Aizawa strongly suspected he had selective mutism, or he was autistic with problems speaking. Much more likely the former considering his anxiousness in social situations, though both were possible. Whatever the case, he wasn’t going to force the kid to talk if he wasn’t comfortable with it.
As for Aoyama, Aizawa had noticed he was a bit isolated. Was he having trouble making friends? Maybe he should try-
“Shouta, it’s time for you to head out!” Hizashi interrupted, glancing at the clock.
Aizawa closed his pocket book. “Ah. I see.”
The USJ was starting. “I’ll get my class on the bus,” Aizawa said to Hizashi, nodding.
Hizashi nodded. “I’ll do my part. See you in a bit?”
“See you in a bit.”
Aizawa rode the bus to the USJ, occasionally glancing at his phone all the while. When the bus was about halfway to their destination, he got a thumbs up emoji from Hizashi, followed by the text, Plan is working! My side is done.
Aizawa returned his text with an affirmative.
Good. Now all he had to do was wait.
By the time that Aizawa got to the USJ, he was feeling much more anxious. What if this revealed Nemuri as the traitor? More investigating would have to be done, obviously, to confirm, but how would he even handle it if it were her?
Moments before the group walked into the USJ, Aizawa remembered to text Nedzu that there was an attack. Get backup faster and all that. Aizawa pocketed his phone and met Thirteen. Unfortunately, All Might was late (as usual, when he didn’t tell Nedzu about the attack) and Thirteen started their speech when the lights began to flicker.
Villains started pouring out of the portal. Aizawa peered at them, but he didn’t see any extra villains among their ranks. “Thirteen, protect the students,” Aizawa said, before flinging himself down toward the enemies.
He tore through the lesser villains pretty quickly this time. It was dangerous to do so, but he wanted to get closer to Shigaraki. Usually the man made comments about the battle, and while the fact that they hadn’t brought anyone extra along was a good sign for Nemuri’s innocence, he wanted to see if what Shigaraki was saying was consistent with his usual, doesn’t-know-heroes-know script.
It was. Aizawa slowed down majorly as he got closer to Shigaraki, not wanting to face the Nomu’s wrath, but the guy was saying most of his usual lines. Complaining about All Might not showing, some offhand comments about hero society, and calling Aizawa cool (which made him slightly uncomfortable.)
So that meant…
It wasn’t Nemuri. Aizawa breathed a sigh of relief.
“Nomu,” Shigaraki said. “Attack.”
No! I must have gotten too close, or he got impatient--
Aizawa tried to duck out of the way, but the Nomu was far too fast. Aizawa braced himself for the hit when the doors of the USJ burst open. Moments later, Aizawa felt himself being carried away from the battle in a dramatic gust of wind.
Aizawa glanced up, just to see All Might’s face. He flinched as All Might put him down. Luckly, that flinch was one that could probably be interpreted as a delayed reaction to getting randomly picked up and flown across an arena, or maybe the Nomu. All Might didn’t seem surprised by the reaction, at least.
I have to work on that, Aizawa reminded himself. His reactions to All Might had lessened since he’d started doing those thought exercises that were the beginning to systematic desensitization, but he still had a lot left to go. “Thanks,” Aizawa managed as All Might shot off to go fight villains.
Aizawa ducked behind a rock (All Might had dropped him off at the edge of the fight in the plaza, very close to the mountain zone) and pulled out his phone to tell Hizashi that Nemuri was clean. She was the only one with the opportunity to tell the villains that they knew, and she hadn't taken it.
No signal.
Oh. Phones didn’t work in the USJ, right? Because the signals were jammed.
Aizawa frowned. Hadn’t he used his phone in the USJ a few loops ago, right before his arm broke against Mirko? How odd.
He shook his head. Probably the butterfly effect or whatever. Different scenarios, the villains knew different things, etcetera. He put his phone away and resolved to tell Hizashi about the news when they next saw each other.
Fortunately, the heroes broke in soon after. Hizashi was among them, and while they were sweeping up the enemies, he took the opportunity to give Hizashi a thumbs up and mouth ‘clear’ to him across the plaza. Hizashi broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up back.
Once they’d taken care of the enemies, they had to attend the emergency meeting.
“-and as far as additional security measures, I was thinking-” Power Loader was interrupted as the door swung open.
Aizawa glanced at Hizashi. The emergency meeting had never been interrupted like this before.
The reason why quickly became apparent, as Nemuri stalked through the door, looking very angry. “Hizashi,” she said. “I just talked to Recovery Girl. You told me there was an attack and shuffled me off to the evacuation area, but you didn’t let anybody else know? You just left me there and nobody else knew about the villain attack!” she demanded.
… shit.
“Wait, you knew an attack was happening?” Cementoss said.
“Shouta told me about it,” Hizashi yelped.
Aizawa shot him a glare. Way to throw me under the bus, idiot!
“Care to explain why you kept this to yourself, Aizawa?” Sekijiro asked, furrowing his brow suspiciously.
Aizawa grimaced, having no legitimate explanation. “It’s a long story.”
“Well, we’ve got time,” Nemuri said, crossing her arms.
“I mean, it’s kind of confidential-- um, it involves secret information about the one behind the attack…” Aizawa trailed off awkwardly, fumbling unconvincingly with excuses.
Still, Nedzu’s ears pricked and Yagi looked surprised at that.
“Wait,” Yagi said. “Seriously? You have information about All for One?”
“... what?” Hizashi said.
“Hey Yagi, how do you know who was behind the attack?” Nemuri pointed out.
Yagi blanched, and the whole room turned to look at him.
“Uh, I… er, it’s really…” Yagi waved his arms frantically.
“The attack may have had a connection to a certain villain that I and Yagi have faced in the past,” Nedzu said, rescuing Yagi. “We theorize that he may be behind the attack.”
“Why didn’t you mention that at the start of the meeting, when we were theorizing about motives behind the attack?” Thirteen asked. “That’s extremely relevant information!”
“Obviously Aizawa and Yamada aren’t the only ones keeping secrets,” Sekijiro said, as Hizashi squeaked hey! in the background.
“Yeah, what’s going on with this villain? Nedzu, you can’t tell us about him despite the fact he literally attacked the school? Aizawa, you didn’t tell us about the attack because of this so-called secret? The kids’ safety is more important than that!” Hound Dog complained.
“I don’t think Aizawa kept quiet because of that villain, I think he was talking out of his ass,” Snipe commented. “I bet he got Yagi to confess by accident.”
“I agree,” Ectoplasm said. “It is clear Aizawa was lying.”
“Enough!” Nemuri shouted. “Everyone had better start spilling their secrets right now, so help me.”
Yikes. This situation isn’t good, Aizawa thought.
Aizawa wondered whether or not it would be a good idea to let them know about the loop, knowing full well one of them was the traitor. At this point, the loop would definitely reset, no matter what the traitor did. What could they even do at this point? Try to manipulate him? If he were the traitor and he knew his enemy were in constantly resetting loops, he would blandly try to encourage them to end the loops as soon as possible, regardless of whether they caught the traitor. A fairly harmless thing.
Still… Aizawa glanced at Nedzu. This whole All for One thing made him worry that Nedzu was actually working with the traitor. The man seemed to know who was behind the attack, but never found it suitable to inform him, despite the fact that sometimes Nedzu knew he was looping.
If Nedzu was the traitor, knew about the loops, and knew he knew of the traitor, he was probably capable of doing damage. He was too smart.
“Okay,” Aizawa said. “I do have an explanation. However, it does kind of relate to what Nedzu and All Might are keeping secret, just not in the way you think. If Nedzu can come up with a decent excuse for his, I’ll tell all of you everything.”
Nedzu sighed. “I sincerely hope you have a good explanation, Aizawa. The reason that we didn’t tell all of you about the villain in question is because he’s supposed to be dead.”
“Supposed… to be dead?” Thirteen questioned.
“He has the power to give and take quirks,” Nedzu said. “He became incredibly powerful after stealing several healing and strength quirks. We thought All Might killed him but…”
“The Nomu,” Aizawa murmured. “Multiple quirks, as we discussed earlier.”
“So that’s why you didn’t tell us,” Sekijiro said, finally uncrossing his arms. “You thought it might be him because of the multiple quirks, but since you thought he was dead…”
“We wanted to be certain before we told all of you,” Nedzu confirmed. “We’d been sure he was dead, but in hindsight, with all his healing quirks, maybe it’s possible that he made it out alive.”
“He’s very strong. He’s the one who gave me this.” Yagi pulled up his shirt slightly and pointed to his ugly wound.
“He’s that powerful?” Hizashi said, surprised.
“Yes,” Yagi sighed. “In raw strength alone. This isn’t even touching his connections to the criminal underworld. I was hoping that he was dead, but I don’t know of anyone else capable of giving and taking quirks like that.”
“Is it possible he made that thing before he died, and now someone is using it against us?” Nemuri asked.
“It is,” Nedzu said, nodding. “But even in that case, we have to wonder how many he made. Where they are, who is accessing them… all of that.”
There was a solemn moment over the table. “Now Aizawa, better get to explaining,” Snipe said. “There’s not a lot that makes a good reason for not telling us about an attack on the students.”
Fair enough. And Nedzu had given a semi-legitimate explanation, at least one that was good enough to sate him. Nedzu was so unlikely to be the traitor that any half-decent explanation would do it for now. He’d investigate this ‘All for One’ fellow in future loops as he was clearing the rest of the staff members.
“I’m trapped in a time loop,” Aizawa said. “Nedzu, use the Quirk Database to look up Miura Hikaru, with Victory Loop. That’s what caused it.”
Nedzu tapped on his computer, opened the file, and turned it around to face the teachers. They peered at the quirk, looking at the explanation.
“My failure to prevent injuries during the attack is the condition for Victory Loop,” Aizawa said. “However, whenever I tell all of you about the attack, the villains take extra precautions. Because they know we know. Someone’s leaking information.”
“Intentionally?” Nedzu pressed.
“I think so,” Aizawa said. “Nedzu from a previous loop called them a traitor. Either way, even if it is an accident, I’m trying to figure out who leaked the information. I’ve narrowed it down to one of the staff members. I spent a loop making sure it wasn’t Hizashi. This loop, I was checking if it was Nemuri. She was the only one who knew about the attack this time, and the villains didn’t know, so…”
“The explanation makes sense,” Ectoplasm granted, with a nod.
“Thank goodness you’re not evil, senpai,” Thirteen sighed in relief.
“We still have a traitor,” Hound Dog pointed out.
“Why didn’t you just tell us after the test was over?” Nemuri asked, tilting her head in concern. “I accused you for no reason.”
“It makes things complicated, and then Yagi and Nedzu started talking about All for One, and I was worried it was them,” Aizawa said. “I had been nearly certain that it was not Nedzu, but he did start acting pretty suspicious there for a second.”
“What could he even do,” Sekijiro said, shrugging. “You said it was your failure to prevent injuries, and injuries happened this time around. That means the loop is going to reset no matter what.”
Aizawa glanced at the clock. It was nearing 5PM. Seven hours left. He pointed at it. “Seven hours remaining in the loop,” Aizawa said. “I’m confident that Nedzu could cause me severe psychological trauma in seven hours, if he wanted. Injuries reset, but that won’t.”
There was a moment of silence, where everyone just stared at him, slightly horrified.
“Though I’m sure he wouldn’t do that,” Aizawa added as a disclaimer. “The All for One thing worried me for a second, but it makes very little logical sense for it to be Nedzu.”
“Shouta… ” Hizashi started.
“And thinking, I’m sure it’s not a quality exclusive to Nedzu,” Aizawa said, shrugging. “Seven hours is a lot of time. All of you have the talent. Though, if I were the traitor and I knew about the loops, I’d angle for more of the manipulation route myself.”
“I get the point,” Sekijiro said.
“Hm,” Thirteen tapped their fingers on the table. “It is kind of dangerous that one of us is the traitor, and now all of us know about the loops. Maybe we should set up Aizawa with some kind of security detail?”
“A security detail against ourselves,” Cementoss murmured, shaking his head.
“Kind of depressing,” Nemuri agreed. “But necessary. Sorry for accusing you, Shouta.”
“I don’t need a security detail,” Aizawa said.
“You just admitted to be concerned about the traitor using psychological torture against you,” Thirteen pointed out.
“I’m not concerned,” Aizawa said. “Just… slightly cautious. About the possibility.”
“I agree with Thirteen,” Nedzu said. “Keeping Aizawa from harm is vital in this scenario, as he is the only one capable of ending the loops. I think we should form a rotating security detail with Yamada always present, considering you stated he was clear.”
“Nemuri’s clear, too,” Aizawa added.
“It could still be her,” Sekijiro pointed out. “Isn’t it possible that she just didn’t contact the villains this time?”
“I guess, there’s no reason to think she wouldn’t tell the villains in this round when she did in the other loops,” Aizawa said. “Unless she saw through Hizashi’s lie, which…”
“I stood there for two whole hours!” Nemuri fumed.
“... I don’t think she did. But even if so, if things stop adding up for her in future loops, we can always re-test her in a different way,” Aizawa said with a shrug. There really was no reason for traitor-Nemuri not to contact the villains in this situation, so he was fairly confident in her innocence. And aside from that, he knew Nemuri quite well, and trusted her anyway.
“Aizawa, before you go,” Yagi said. “Please, don’t go after All for One. I could see it in your eyes that you want to investigate. Don’t.”
Aizawa shivered and glanced back at him.
“Don’t even research him,” Yagi said, his voice lowering to almost a whisper. “He’ll find you, like he found me. He won’t just kill you, he’ll kill everyone you love.”
How could anyone be so powerful?
Aizawa remembered the horrible scar that marred Yagi’s side.
Was that the man who was targeting his students?
“I agree with Yagi,” Nedzu said. “The risk is too great.”
“I understand,” Aizawa said.
An eerie hush had fallen over the group of heroes, but it didn’t take long for Nedzu to quietly sort out the security detail who would be protecting him, assign them different times, and sort everything out from there.
Because of the extra security, Aizawa couldn’t really go home this loop. He ended up curled in his sleeping bag in a back office, with Hizashi, Nemuri, Hound Dog and Cementoss. None of them questioned his decision to sleep when all of them had to stay awake to watch him, and Cementoss and Nemuri murmured quietly in the corner while Hound Dog stalked around near the door. Hizashi sat near his sleeping bag and gave his hair comforting strokes. The first time he'd done it, Aizawa hadn’t been able to stop a sleepy contented sigh, and now Hizashi just kept doing it.
Eventually, Aizawa was lulled to sleep by the dim lighting, quiet murmuring, soft footsteps and the feeling of Hizashi's fingers running through his hair.
Aizawa stretched and sat up, back in his bedroom.
He tested his arm that had been broken by Mirko, and found that it didn’t even twinge. Perfect.
Not Nemuri, not Hizashi, probably not Nedzu and All Might.
Four down, eight to go.
This loop, Aizawa wanted to get Recovery Girl out of the way. He was hoping to ask her some health-related questions about the loops… which was a bit risky to do if she were a traitor.
And he wanted to look into All for One a bit.
Yagi’s dire warnings rang in his head, but…
Just a little bit. Besides, things were resetting, weren't they? No one would ever know.
Notes:
next up: Aizawa schemes about tricking an old woman
Chapter 15: Aviation
Summary:
Aizawa finds himself able to pursue new lines of conversation because of his access to new information, and his attempt to clear Recovery Girl takes a surprising turn.
Notes:
ART!
I've never gotten art on a story before, but I have Shi_no_tamashii to thank for this masterpiece:
Link to it!
Chapter Text
The day after he cleared Nemuri, Aizawa went right to Nedzu to explain the loops. He planned to catch both Hizashi and Nemuri alone later when they came to school (so he could explain things to them too) but for now he wanted to ask about something. With more information, he could probably unlock new avenues of conversation with Nedzu.
“The loops are based on a perceived failure,” Nedzu said. “What was yours?”
“The school got attacked by villains. One of them was All for One, their leader, wh--” Aizawa started, but was abruptly cut off when Nedzu dropped his teacup and it smashed into the ground. Nedzu got out of his chair and began to pace, mumbling to himself for a moment. Then, he turned sharply toward Aizawa. “He’s alive?!”
“Well-” Before Aizawa could say anything else, Nedzu started pacing again. His paws came up to pull at his whiskers, and Aizawa watched his expression crumple into one of raw fear and panic. “He comes here? Could All Might even defeat him in this state… the amount of devastation… is this related to the media break-in yesterday? I didn’t even notice a connection, I’m supposed to notice--!”
“He doesn’t come himself!” Aizawa interrupted quickly, unnerved by Nedzu’s unusual behavior. He’d never seen him act scared, in truth, let alone to this extent. “He just sends other people. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you think that.”
Nedzu looked surprised for a moment before he bent over and started making odd, breathy, chirping noises. It took Aizawa a moment to recognize it as laughter. “Ahahh… thank goodness. I wasn’t expecting such a fright this morning,” he said, dragging a paw across his face. “Well. Still not ideal, but…”
“I’m sorry,” Aizawa said, legitimately so. He knew All for One was bad, but to induce that kind of reaction in Nedzu… “I just heard his name come up, and I was curious. As for the loops, the reason the loops reset is that some students and staff get injured by some of his followers. If we can avert that, the loop should continue.”
“Good, good,” Nedzu said, rubbing his eyes. “Anything else?”
Aizawa had been two seconds away from telling him about the fact there was a traitor among their staff, but Aizawa was pretty sure Nedzu was under enough stress as it was. “Um-”
“Out with it,” Nedzu said.
“So whenever I tell the staff members there’s going to be an attack, the fact that we know is leaked to the villains,” Aizawa said. “So we have an information leak problem with the staff members specifically.”
Nedzu sighed. “I see.”
“I’m trying to use the loops to figure out who it is. So far, I’ve cleared you, Hizashi, All Might, and Nemuri,” Aizawa said. “So it’s everyone else. I was thinking I could clear Recovery Girl this time. As well as ask you about what’s going on with that All for One thing.”
Nedzu nodded. “Recovery Girl… she’s very discreet. Any leak in information is unlikely to be her, but thoroughness is not uncalled for in this scenario, I suppose.”
“We’d just have to tell either all the staff except her that the attack is happening, or only her, and see what the villains do. They’ll bring extra people if they know we know,” Aizawa said.
“Informing only her may be easier,” Nedzu murmured, “especially considering we can also inform Yamada and Kayama separately, since you said they were innocent. Now, tell me everything you know about the information leaks.”
“Hm,” Nedzu looked deep in thought. “I see what you mean, but I simply can’t imagine any of our staff working with the villains. And none of them are incompetent enough to release such vital information on accident. I would have guessed the cause of this to be a student… and yet...”
“I had a loop where I stopped the students from contacting anyone, and we still got villains," Aizawa finished.
“As far as I know, no staff member would benefit from working with the villains,” Nedzu frowned, tapping his desk. “With students, perhaps they could have been coerced, but with staff…”
“Unlikely,” Aizawa said. “Unlikely that they were coerced, unlikely they’ve been a mole since the beginning, and unlikely they’ve converted recently. Yet, they're somehow the most likely of our current options.”
“It’s a difficult problem, to be sure,” Nedzu conceded. “It’s certainly a boon that you have the advantage of time to solve it.”
“The advantage of time sure is something,” Aizawa said, shaking his head. “I’m going to go talk to Nemuri and Hizashi. Will you inform Recovery Girl?”
Nedzu nodded. “She’ll trust me the most in this situation.”
The two parted ways, and Aizawa left Nedzu’s office to poke his head in the teacher’s lounge. “Nemuri, Hizashi, I need to talk to you about something?”
Both of them exchanged a glance. “Sure,” Nemuri said.
Aizawa ended up pulling them both into a side room, where he got out his computer. “So, have either of you heard about time loops?”
“Holy crap,” Nemuri said. “A traitor, time loops, some sort of puppet-master villain... this is way too complicated, you know. I’m not sure how you get yourself into these things.”
“Me neither,” Aizawa sighed. “Luck’s not on my side. Or, maybe it is. Hard to tell occasionally.”
“Hm, so what are your goals for this loop?” Hizashi asked.
“I want to clear Recovery Girl, find out more about All for One, and get over the All Might fear a little bit more,” Aizawa listed.
“The All Might fear?” Nemuri questioned.
Ah. Sometimes Aizawa forgot that his friends didn’t automatically know certain parts-- he’d explained his traumatic looping experience to Nedzu and Sekijiro, and he’d explained the basics to Hizashi and Nemuri, so it was easy to slip into pretending that they understood. He preferred pretending that they'd been here the whole time.
But they were looking at him expectantly, and Aizawa had never had the opportunity to tell anyone the full truth, which included the traitors, the loops, the pain. It was best to seize the moment while he had it.
“In one of the previous loops, there was a guy who had a quirk that could induce extreme rage in whoever it hit,” Aizawa said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “It hit Yagi, so he went out of control. He caught me and slowly crushed me to death.”
Ah, Yagi murdering him was always a good segue to the darker parts of the loop.
Nemuri’s eyes widened. She brought her hand to her face, curling it into a fist and covering her mouth. Hizashi, on the other hand, moved closer to Aizawa, a subtle invitation for physical contact. Aizawa took it, leaning on Hizashi again.
“So now I’m trying not to get scared of him any more. I’ve managed to make some progress with careful systematic desensitization, with thought exercises and occasionally with pictures. But because the loops reset, I have to do it by myself. I can't actually get a proper therapist.”
“That’s terrible,” Hizashi announced. “Next loop you should clear Hound Dog, so you can go to therapy.”
“That’s actually a good idea,” Nemuri agreed. “You can explain to him what you’ve talked about so far and try to go from there. Not as good as if he remembered, but, you know.”
Aizawa nodded. That actually did sound like a good idea. “I guess I’m just clearing people based on who’s convenient for me,” he said, slightly amused.
“Huh, why’d you clear who you did then?” Nemuri asked.
“You two I cleared first because it’s stressful suspecting you, and Nemuri’s quirk would be great to handle potential traitors,” Aizawa said. “Nedzu and All Might I’ve never officially tested, they’re just obvious non-traitors. Recovery Girl so I can get a checkup about how the loops are affecting me. And…” Aizawa tried not to wince, “... injuries in previous loops.”
“Do you get hurt often in the loops? Have there been a lot of them?”
“Over twenty,” Aizawa said. He'd stopped counting. “And… yeah. I get hurt. A lot.”
There was a brief pause. “You wanna talk about it?” Nemuri asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to,” Nemuri started. “But we’re here to listen. And support you. We will be in future loops, too.”
“Thanks,” Aizawa said quietly. “I just…” Aizawa didn’t know how to finish the sentence. Instead of answering, he hid his face in the crook of Hizashi’s neck. He noticed Nemuri’s face flash with surprise, and felt Hizashi shift slightly, likely having a similar reaction. It was always a little odd having Hizashi express surprise at how accepting Aizawa was for things like hugs, because it felt like we just did this yesterday. But of course Hizashi didn’t remember that.
Aizawa would have expected to become more touch-averse over the course of the loops, but for whatever reason he was becoming progressively clingier instead. He was pretty sure he was going to have to get therapy and work on undoing whatever unhealthy dependence he was developing. Oh well. At least this wasn’t emotionally exhausting for Hizashi at the moment, because the loop reset each time. Hizashi was a little bit of a doormat, he would probably let Aizawa over-rely on him, but Aizawa wanted to be a good friend. Which meant developing healthy coping mechanisms. Or something like that.
“We’re not going to let you get hurt this loop,” Hizashi said firmly.
“Thanks,” Aizawa said. “I’ll try not to get hurt. But I need to be there for the USJ, because no one else knows who’s supposed to be there and who’s not. I need to figure out if it’s Recovery Girl.”
“But…” Hizashi looked hesitant.
“It’s okay, Hizashi,” Nemuri said, giving him a shoulder pat. “We’ll just come with him to the USJ, since Nedzu will be sending us extra backup anyway after a few minutes, and then it’ll all be fine.”
“Probably,” Aizawa said. Both of the two packed a punch as heroes, and while they wouldn’t be effective against the Nomu… “I think, with the three of us, so long as we don’t get too close to the leader, none of us will be hurt,” Aizawa said. “Just stick close, and we’ll be fine.”
“We can work with that,” Hizashi said, looking less doubtful. He gave a nod.
“Good,” Nemuri said. “One more thing. Shouta, how are you planning on handling All for One?”
“I’m not sure,” Aizawa said. “I asked Nedzu about him, but he didn’t really answer any of my questions. I was thinking about asking Yagi, since he seems to know something, but I’m not sure if I want to do it in this loop or not. I feel like Nedzu might get upset at me if I snoop around.”
“I’m thinking-” Nemuri started.
“... ask anyway?” Hizashi said.
“-you should wait until next loop.” Nemuri finished.
The two glanced at each other.
“Very helpful,” Aizawa said dryly.
“What about a compromise? Wait until the end of the day, and Nedzu will have less time to get upset at you.”
“Decent plan,” Nemuri agreed. “And at that point you’ll know whether or not the loop is resetting.”
“I’ll do that,” Aizawa said. “The USJ to test Recovery Girl, then I ask Yagi about All for One tonight.”
For the first time in the loops, Aizawa got on the bus with Hizashi and Nemuri.
"Nice and cozy bus!" Hizashi said cheerily, despite the fact that it was a completely average bus.
“What are they doing here?” Kaminari asked, point-blank.
“Don’t be rude!” Iida admonished. “I’m sure they’re here for an important reason.”
“They’re here to supervise,” Aizawa said lazily, sitting down and slouching in his seat. Hizashi and Nemuri took spots next to him.
The ride was less boring than usual with Hizashi and Nemuri’s light bickering and occasional teasing in the background. He closed his eyes, but wasn’t truly tired. He just listened to the conversation on the bus.
When the bus finally came to a stop, Aizawa stretched and corralled the students off the bus toward the USJ. When he got there, he saw Thirteen and All Might already there. Good, Aizawa thought to himself. That means Nedzu spoke with him.
Thirteen started giving their speech to the students, while Aizawa kept an eye on the center. Hizashi kept following his gaze and looking toward the middle. Then, he would turn back and give Aizawa a puzzled look. Aizawa paid it no mind, and his behavior was explained when the portal opened in the plaza.
Aizawa took a look over the villains who started streaming in, and…
It was odd.
Things were different, but… not normal different.
In every previous instance, when the villains were informed that the heroes knew they were attacking, they’d bring around thirty extra buff-looking mutant types who would round out the edges of their attack, and guard the flank. But this time…
There seemed to be around twenty extra, and they weren’t the strong-looking defenders that guarded the edge of the little army. No, instead they brought along about twenty extra regular-looking ragamuffins who were mixed in with the rest of the crowd.
Which was confusing. It should be the same.
Did the traitor inform them in a different way, leading to a different reaction?
Did this imply it was Recovery Girl?
Aizawa needed to get close to Shigaraki. It was risky, but if he got close, the villain would start chatting him up while he fought the underlings, or he might be able to eavesdrop on Shigaraki monologuing to Kurogiri. Shigaraki was very liable to bragging, which was useful in this situation.
“Thirteen, protect the students,” Aizawa said by rote, before launching himself toward the villains.
“Sh- Eraserhead, wait!” Hizashi yelled.
Ah, right. Hizashi and Nemuri were there. Considering the crowds of tightly-packed villains (easily taken out by a) sleeping mist, b) a strong range attack like the quirk Voice, or c) All Might) and Aizawa’s disadvantage against large groups of enemies (though admittedly he was getting a lot of practice fighting groups lately) the better strategic decision probably would have been to have Hizashi, Nemuri, and All Might fight the enemies while he and Thirteen stayed back. He probably looked like a dumbass for jumping into a crowd of enemies for no reason.
All Might started fighting some enemies on the side (a little bit away from Aizawa, probably not immediately sweeping everyone that Aizawa was fighting out of courtesy) but he was quickly drawn into a battle with the Nomu, as Shigaraki pointed at All Might and shouted an order. Aizawa heard a loud scream that must be coming from Present Mic, and figured that Nemuri and Hizashi (or just Hizashi) were probably coming up behind him.
It was surprisingly easy for Aizawa to make his way closer to Shigaraki, though he made sure to slow down a bit as he got closer, not wanting to have an actual confrontation with the man and his dust quirk. “See, I told you UA brought extra mini-bosses,” Shigaraki was saying to Kurogiri, scratching his neck. “Is it a randomized event? Man, these suck to deal with on short notice.”
“Do you think they knew we were coming?” Kurogiri questioned.
“Nah, I really don-” Shigaraki was saying, but then the doors to the USJ were thrown open by Nedzu’s backup. Kurogiri quickly shrouded Shigaraki in black mist and they vanished in under a second, leaving Aizawa to wonder about their intentions.
They took extra people, but to Aizawa it didn't seem like they knew what the heroes knew. Were they aware Hizashi and Nemuri were coming, but unaware why? Had the other staff known that Nemuri and Hizashi were coming? Nedzu definitely hadn’t told the staff directly, but maybe they saw the two come with? Aizawa racked his brain, but he couldn’t remember whether or not staff had seen Hizashi and Nemuri come with him on the bus.
Well… Thirteen and All Might were at the USJ during bus-boarding, so they definitely didn’t know. Recovery Girl was told of the whole oncoming attack, so it probably wasn’t her. Was it possible there was a bug, or some kind of camera or listening device placed inside UA? He hadn’t considered it likely at first, because Nedzu was likely to have noticed, but maybe he shouldn’t discount the possibility…
Or did the villains bring extra enemies for another reason? Was it because they knew All Might would be here this time?
No… that didn’t make sense. That would imply that the villains had known All Might would be absent in the original run, which was unlikely because their goal was to kill All Might (if they knew he wasn’t coming, why did they still show up?) and because they always acted surprised at All Might’s absence.
Did this exonerate Recovery Girl? Maybe? The villains had seemed confused as to why Nemuri and Hizashi were present, which meant at the very least that she had not told them that the two were being sent along as extra backup because the heroes were expecting an attack, which is something that she knew.
Did this make the people he’d already ‘cleared’ more suspicious? Aizawa wasn't sure.
In under ten minutes, the attack had been mopped up. Aizawa wandered near Nedzu and Hound Dog. “Anyone injured?” Aizawa asked.
“No one except for All Might,” Nedzu said pleasantly. “He’s expected to heal nicely, however. And… pardon the subject change, but what conclusion did you come to about the test?”
Aizawa saw in his eyes that he wanted to know about Recovery Girl, specifically if she had turned out to be the traitor. It didn’t have a simple answer, and Aizawa decided he wasn’t going to try to lay out the whole scenario. “The test went as expected,” Aizawa said. “No changes.”
Nedzu’s eyes gleamed in satisfaction. “Very well.”
Hound Dog looked lost, but wisely didn’t ask.
“I’m going to go talk to Hizashi and Nemuri,” Aizawa said. “I’ll see you at the emergency meeting later today.”
“How’d you know we were going to have one?” Hound Dog asked.
“I figured one would get scheduled,” Aizawa said. “It’s the logical course of action.”
Hound Dog grunted, not commenting further on the excuse.
Aizawa kept an eye on the emergency meeting, hoping he would see someone acting a little off, considering the traitor had done something different this loop, but he couldn’t really find anything. Everyone was acting normally, except for Nemuri and Hizashi, who didn’t make as many suggestions or theories as to what was going on as they normally did. Probably because they knew most of the truth.
Aizawa’s suspicion about the incorrect numbers was confirmed at this point. While the total number of villains was still being counted (booking was apparently the responsibility of Naomasa Tsukauchi, who would be visiting ‘tomorrow’ if it ever came) at this point there were an estimated ninety-five villains captured, while previously there were around seventy. And yet, the villains had seemed confused as to why Nemuri and Hizashi had come along.
An aberration, Aizawa thought to himself, frowning. One without explanation.
The meeting ended with no major changes. Aizawa walked out of the room with Hizashi and Nemuri following him. Once they were a decent distance away, Aizawa turned to them. “I’ll explain what exactly happened in a few minutes. But before I do so…” Aizawa pointed to Recovery Girl’s office, which was a little way down the hall. “I want to talk to Recovery Girl and All Might.” He wanted to ask All Might about All for One, and see if Recovery Girl was acting any different than usual.
“Are you sure?” Hizashi asked, concerned. “You said you didn’t react well to All Might.”
“I prepared a little bit extra today by looking at some pictures,” Aizawa said, and it really was convenient that All Might was famous enough that he could google him and find lots of images. Aizawa was pretty sure his fear was improving, as he'd been significantly less afraid than usual when he saw All Might from a distance in this loop and in the recent ones. It was a little bit fast to be having a conversation with the guy already, but Aizawa was pretty sure it would at least end out mostly okay, if not completely okay. “I’m ready,” Aizawa said. “I have to ask about All for One.”
Nemuri nodded. “We’ll be outside.”
Aizawa turned and walked into the infirmary.
Chapter 16: Classified Cargo
Summary:
Aizawa has a conversation with All Might, and begins to accumulate more knowledge that he shouldn't have.
Chapter Text
When Aizawa glanced into the infirmary, only Yagi was there. He was resting in an infirmary bed, and Recovery Girl was absent. “Hello, Yagi,” Aizawa said. Seeing the guy in person closely wasn’t as bad as he’d expected, and it was easy to quash down remnants of fear.
“Ah, hello Aizawa-kun! Do you need anything?” Yagi asked.
Part of Aizawa wanted to go through niceties, ask him how he was, and maybe even say thanks. Aizawa was a little allergic to those types of things, but Aizawa did really respect him a lot, and wanted Yagi to know that he appreciated him. The other part of Aizawa was burning with impatience.
“Well, I just wanted to stop by to ask about something,” Aizawa said. “So, I think we both know there’s a possibility that… someone specific was involved in that attack.”
Yagi’s eyes became guarded. “Someone specific?”
“Yeah. Particularly, All for One-”
“Where did you learn that name?” Yagi’s response was immediate and harsh.
“Uh-”
“Do you work for him?!” Yagi demanded, his body rising with smoke.
Aizawa instinctively flashed his quirk, and the smoke vanished. Whether or not Yagi had actually planned to transform, or if it was an emotional reaction, he wasn’t sure. “I don’t work for him!” Aizawa said, backing away quickly until his back hit the wall. He grasped at his capture weapon, fully aware it would do nothing against a threat like All Might.
Suddenly, Yagi’s face softened, going from blazing anger to guilty concern.
Aizawa didn’t understand why until he realized how he must look. Pressed into the wall, his arms raised in defense, and body shaking with poorly-disguised fear.
He straightened and dusted off his costume (despite the fact that there was no dust on it), managing to swallow most of his anxiety now that Yagi looked calm rather than enraged. Despite that, the shaking in his hands didn’t subside.
Yagi looked regretful. “I wasn’t going to hurt you,” Yagi said.
“Sure,” Aizawa said, his response coming off slightly sarcastic even though he didn’t intend it that way. He clasped his hands behind his back and brought his voice back to a flat, neutral professionalism. “Nedzu told me the name.”
“Oh,” Yagi said, somehow looking even more guilty. “I’m sorry. I should have thought of that. I assumed you must have been working with him, since there’s no way for a normal person to know that name, but…”
Aizawa sighed. “It’s fine, Yagi. Don’t feel bad about it. I just wanted to ask your opinion about whether it was All for One or not. Any information you might have had pertaining to his potential involvement in the attack?”
“Of course,” Yagi said, sounding like he was making an atonement.
Yagi’s explanation of All for One and his exploits was brief, but informative.
Apparently something Nedzu left out of his explanation was that the man was two hundred years old, alive since the dawn of quirks. Holy shit. He had a secret empire that ran throughout Japan, one that All Might had been trying to knock down even after the man’s apparent death. And it seemed like the guy might not be dead at all.
“I don’t know anything about his plans or whereabouts, of course,” Yagi said, shaking his head. “If I did, I would already be there trying to stop him. I do have lists of some places he used to do business, some of his old associates, if Nedzu would be interested in those.”
“He might be,” Aizawa said, immediately interested in stealing the lists. “He probably knows most of them for himself, but it’s always good to cross-reference so no one misses anything.”
“Agreed,” Yagi said. “I can get them tomorrow.”
“I could go get them for you, considering you’re stuck in the infirmary right now,” Aizawa offered.
Yagi gave him a suspicious look. “Your offer is appreciated, but I’ll just make sure to get them tomorrow.”
Hm. Fair enough. This conversation had started off really poorly. Maybe Aizawa would be able to convince him in some other loop. “Alright,” Aizawa said. “I hope your recovery goes smoothly.”
“Thank you,” Yagi answered, still clearly off-put.
“By the way, do you know where Recovery Girl is?”
“Uh, down the hall,” Yagi said. “In the medical stock room? I think she was sorting.”
“That makes sense, thanks,” Aizawa said, and with that, he left the room and reacquainted with Hizashi and Nemuri.
“How’d it go?” Hizashi asked.
“Fine, mostly,” Aizawa said, deciding to sugarcoat it. “It was tough, but I got some more information about All for One. Not a lot, but a few details.”
“Excellent!” Nemuri said. “See, you got it. Recovery Girl’s innocent, and a little more information-”
“Well,” Aizawa interrupted. “She might not be innocent?”
“... what?” Hizashi asked, puzzled.
“The villains brought extra people,” Aizawa explained. “Yet they didn’t know whether or not we knew about the attack.”
Hizashi raised an eyebrow. “Don’t they usually bring extra people because we know about the attack?”
“I don’t know!” Aizawa said, a bit frustrated. “They brought different people this time, not the usual crew for when ‘the heroes know about the attack.’ And when I got close, they were debating whether or not we knew they were coming. Usually, Shigaraki will be all ‘oh, we knew that you predicted our attack, and we have thwarted you’ ,” Aizawa said, mimicking his raspy voice.
“So they didn’t know that Nedzu was sending backup and knew about the attack and everything?”
“Exactly,” Aizawa confirmed.
“...huh,” Hizashi said.
“I know,” Aizawa said. “My best guess right now is that the traitor knew that something was wrong, but didn’t know everything. That would fit with the villain’s caution and suspicion, and also the fact they didn’t know what was happening.”
“This makes everything way more complicated,” Nemuri said with a sigh.
“It’s actually not that complicated, if you consider each possibility independently,” Hizashi said.
“Okay then, do it,” Nemuri said.
“Okay, so there are three possibilities,” Hizashi started. “The most obvious possibility is that the traitor is Recovery Girl, All Might, or Nedzu, and that the way you told them this loop inadvertently made this happen. Then there's possibility two: a bug or a listening device caught the information.”
“Neither of them seem super likely,” Nemuri said, shrugging. “But they are possible.”
“The last one is just that a traitor saw that something was weird with us, either behavior changes or that we were coming to the USJ, and reported it, leading the villains to bring extra people. If they knew that Nemuri and I--wait, they knew we weren’t supposed to be there, right?
“Right,” Aizawa said. “They mentioned in previous runs that they stole a class schedule and saw that Thirteen, All Might, and I were supposed to be there.”
“Yes, so in that theory, they saw we were sending extra teachers and they decided to bring extra people,” Hizashi said. “It’s basically the ‘bugged’ theory except the bug is a person.”
“Did they know that the two of us were coming?” Nemuri asked Aizawa.
“Maybe,” Aizawa said, shrugging. “The wording was ambiguous. I think they might have. Shigaraki looked confused, but not surprised, at the fact that you were there.”
“You know what he looks like when surprised?” Nemuri said.
“I’ve spent a lot of time near him lately, it’s all in the voice.” Aizawa deadpanned. “It’s just that he’s usually not that calm. He tends to freak out a lot when things don’t go his way. If your appearance was completely unexpected, I get the sense he would have been much more upset. Though I could always be wrong.”
“So how can we narrow it down?” Nemuri asked. “Trying to prove it’s not Nedzu would be a bitch. He’s too intelligent.”
“I’ve got it,” Aizawa decided. “Next loop, I'll ask Nedzu to tell Recovery Girl, but I won't tell you two. If the unusual result happens then, it’s because I told Nedzu and Recovery Girl. If it doesn’t, it’s because I told you two, potentially because someone saw us going on the bus or because they saw us acting strangely.” … Does this make Nemuri a suspect again? Ugh, I hope not.
Nemuri nodded in approval.
“And if it’s because of us, in the next loop, you could tell us what happened but not let us go to the USJ, because then you would know whether it was because we went to the USJ, or because we attracted attention by acting weird,” Hizashi said.
“This gives me a headache,” Aizawa complained. Hizashi laughed in response.
Aizawa poked his head into the medical storeroom. “Hello?”
“Hello, Aizawa,” Recovery Girl said. “Can I get you something? You’re not injured, are you?”
“No, I’m not,” Aizawa said. “I just wanted to ask you if Yagi was doing alright.”
Her eyes flashed with surprise briefly, which was understandable. Aizawa probably wouldn’t have gone out of his way to check on Yagi if this were the first loop, despite how Aizawa had been grateful to him for saving the students’ lives.
“Well, he’s doing quite well, actually--” she began.
It only took a few minutes of conversation to determine that Recovery Girl was acting completely normal. She was obviously a little more down than usual, probably discouraged by the villain attack, but she also expressed thankfulness that no one else had been hurt. All in all, exactly what he would have expected out of an innocent Recovery Girl.
Hm.
He thanked her and left with Nemuri and Hizashi.
“Was she suspicious?” Nemuri asked.
“No,” Aizawa said, unsure of whether that was a good thing. He didn’t want it to be her, but now he was still confused.
“Let’s go and prepare for the next loop, then,” Hizashi said.
The three went back to Aizawa’s apartment. Rather than have someone sleep in the bed and someone else on the couch or anything like that, the group half-disassembled the couch and turned the living room into a nest of pillows and blankets, vaguely reminiscent of a slumber party. Aizawa curled up in his sleeping bag next to his two closest friends. While he assumed he’d have difficulty falling asleep (on the floor, feeling edgy) he didn’t, really. Being close to them chased his loneliness away, and he finally found himself able to relax.
When he woke up, he was in his bed again, and it was another Wednesday.
He sighed and stretched, and then walked into the school.
There was just one goal in this loop.
Don’t tell Hizashi and Nemuri, tell Nedzu and Recovery Girl. That should give him more information about where the leak is taking place, whether that be the infirmary, the bus, or a particular person. Aizawa walked straight in that day to talk to Nedzu and explain the time loops. “So now I’m trying to clear Recovery Girl during this loop,” Aizawa said, intentionally leaving out last loop’s result, as well as anything about All for One.
“I see,” Nedzu said. “Recovery Girl is very discreet, so I doubt she’s the cause of the leak… but it’s not uncalled for to be thorough in this situation.”
“Of course,” Aizawa said, and then went off to teach Homeroom.
Homeroom was short and relatively boring. He’d decided to just go with normal rescue procedures for the day, not wanting to change anything or act suspicious in a way that might interfere with his ‘bait’ for Nedzu and Recovery Girl. Despite this, Aizawa noticed Midoriya was participating less than usual, which was strange. He’d barely made any changes to the start of the loop, and none that should be affecting Midoriya. Still, Midoriya looked pale and avoided answering questions. “Midoriya, would you speak with me during lunch?” Aizawa asked.
“H-hai, sensei,” Midoriya muttered back.
Aizawa finished the rest of the lesson rather quickly, but kept a curious eye on Midoriya.
Once lunch rolled around, Midoriya followed Aizawa to his office, looking petrified. “You’re not in trouble, Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “I just noticed you looked a bit faint during class and wanted to ask if you were alright.”
“O-oh! I’m fine, Aizawa-sensei,” Midoriya said, very obviously lying.
“Okay,” Aizawa said. “But, if there is something wrong, it’s my job to help you with it. So don’t be afraid to speak up, alright?”
Midoriya mumbled an affirmative.
“And, about your quirk…” Aizawa said, deciding to try to cheer Midoriya up with something the kid liked. “...I do have a little bit of advice for you. Try to consider the quirk as an extension of yourself, first, and then try spreading the energy throughout your whole body instead of just channeling it through a small area.”
Midoriya’s eyes took on a strange light, and he started to mutter under his breath about energy ratios and surface area and One for A-
Midoriya cut himself off before he finished the phrase, quickly beginning to talk about quirk as part of body instead. But ‘One for A-’ sure sounded oddly like…
“All for One?” Aizawa questioned aloud.
Midoriya looked up at him like a deer in the headlights. “You… you know?”
“I do,” Aizawa said, nodding. How the hell does this kid know about this major crime boss? Wasn’t Toshinori upset at me for just knowing his name? Who told this teenager? “Nedzu told me,” Aizawa said.
Midoriya’s face changed to a mix between relief, surprise, and annoyance. “Oh, then I don’t have to worry about hiding anything from you!”
Aizawa inclined his head in mild agreement. This just confirmed All Might and Nedzu were hiding things from him.
“So I’m not allowed to tell anyone, but All Might and Nedzu can spread the news to anyone they want?” Midoriya’s said, looking miffed. Within seconds, though, his expression morphed into guilt. “No, I’m just being childish. Sorry Aizawa-sensei.”
Aizawa had literally no idea what he was going on about, but he decided to take advantage of the situation. “Is All for One-”
“One for All,” Midoriya corrected. “You’re saying it backwards.”
“Um, okay,” Aizawa said, despite being completely certain he was saying it correctly. “So is One for All related to the reason why you weren’t feeling well this morning?”
“Yeah,” Midoriya said. “So, when I was walking to school this morning, I saw shadowy figures in the park… they looked kind of like ghosts. I think they were the past users of One for All. They seemed to be trying to speak with me. One of them actually said something.”
... what?
“I see,” Aizawa said, not seeing at all. “What did they say?”
“I’m not sure if it was to me or to the other figures, but there was this one shadow I could see better than the others, I think she was a girl. She was saying that ‘the day repeating was annoying’ and ‘the teacher is the only one that changes’, whatever that means. I know it sounds crazy-!”
Wait. Did this shadow person have the ability to see through the loops? Shadow person in the park? What the fuck?
“Who are these past users again?”
“You know, the people who have had my quirk in the past,” Midoriya said dismissively. “Everyone who’s used One for All in the past.”
“So considering your quirk is One for All…” Aizawa paused, and Midoriya nodded and didn’t tell him he was wrong, so he continued, “...are these types of things normal for you?”
“No!” Midoriya said. “I mean, I just got the quirk, but this is super weird for me. I was planning to ask All Might but then you asked to talk to me.”
“Interesting," Aizawa said. "Say, Midoriya, where did you get your quirk?" Aizawa's current suspicion was that maybe Midoriya had gotten his quirk from All for One, and All Might and Nedzu wanted to hide it from Aizawa since Midoriya was their golden child.
Midoriya squinted. “I got it from All Might… wait, if you really know about my quirk, you would know that! You were just fishing for information, weren’t you!”
“Maybe,” Aizawa said.
Midoriya buried his face in his hands. “I’m so bad at this! I’m not supposed to tell anyone but I already told two people! All Might’s gonna be so disappointed in me!”
“How did you get your quirk from All Might?” Aizawa said, still fundamentally confused about the situation.
Midoriya still looked pretty upset, but he gave a shaky sigh. “Since you already know this much, I guess I’d better just tell you. And you’re a UA teacher, right? You’re supposed to be trustworthy!” Midoriya tried to hype himself up.
“It’s obvious this means a lot to you,” Aizawa said. “So if you don’t want me to tell anyone, I won't. You also don't need to tell anyone that I learned this. I could… ” Aizawa hated to give up on important information like this, but he hated making his students uncomfortable even more, “... just pretend I didn’t hear anything.”
Midoriya’s eyes flashed with surprise. “Thanks… Aizawa-sensei. But I really should tell you the whole story, since you could probably figure it out on your own anyways. I already sort of told you everything anyway," Midoriya said, grimacing.
“So it all started on a bad day in middle school--” Midoriya started.
Chapter 17: Landing Gear
Summary:
Aizawa learns more about the All for One conspiracy, and must make a difficult decision.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Midoriya’s story about his quirk was completely unbelievable.
Yet it made perfect sense.
It felt like just the explanation he’d been missing. Midoriya’s inability to use his quirk? It was because he’d just received it. Midoriya’s distrust of authority figures? He was quirkless before, so discrimination against him was likely. Midoriya’s odd connection with All Might? He was All Might’s successor, in both quirk and spirit.
It made perfect sense, and Midoriya’s genuineness convinced Aizawa it was true.
It made perfect sense… except for one detail.
Why was it called One for All, and what connection did it hold with All for One?
Was it just a themed naming convention having to do with quirks that could be transferred? Or was there a connection between One for All and All for One? “And so the figures you saw were everyone who used One for All in the past,” Aizawa mused. “Do you know where the quirk came from?”
“I don’t know,” Midoriya said. “All Might just said it could be ‘passed on like a sacred torch’ or something like that, so I just assumed the first guy was born with it.”
Aizawa made a humming sound. That was very possible, and right now he was leaning toward ‘named after All for One to serve as an ironic counter to him’ but he still couldn’t discount a connection without any evidence. “Thank you for the explanation, Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “I’m sure Nedzu and All Might will give me the third degree about keeping it secret. I appreciate your honesty.”
“You’re not mad?” Midoriya asked.
“No, I’m not. All Might asked you to hide it, so I can’t fault you for it. Besides, it was a good idea to tell as few people as possible considering how big a secret it is,” Aizawa said. It was true. He couldn’t even blame All Might and Nedzu for keeping it from him. He did, however, wish that someone had given Midoriya more constructive quirk training. It seemed like a vital miscommunication had taken place.
He could bet that All Might was thinking ‘oh, I’ll get him into UA, and then UA will teach him how to use his quirk.’ But UA expected Hero Course students to already know how to use their quirks at a competent level, because they’d had their quirks for ten years at this point. Sure, they helped students refine their quirk control, but they were so far beyond the basic steps that thinking something like that was laughable, especially considering All Might was the Heroics teacher, meaning that if anything, teaching Midoriya how to use his quirk fell under his purview, not Aizawa's. But All Might hadn’t been to school in thirty years. He probably didn't know who was supposed to do what or who taught what thing. For him, this wasn’t a completely unreasonable mistake to make.
Meanwhile, Nedzu probably assumed that All Might was teaching Midoriya how to use his quirk on the side. Besides being his de-facto mentor, All Might also understood almost everything about One for All and had personal experience with it. And to be fair, All Might was probably trying.
But regardless. In the end, nobody was taking extra time to teach Midoriya when he obviously needed extra help.
And it was a shame, too. Midoriya was such a bright student that he was capable of improving his quirk control by leaps and bounds with minimal instruction. Aizawa didn’t like the loops, but if there was one thing he was grateful for that had come from them, it was that he’d gotten all this information.
… He was going to amend his previous statement. He wouldn’t have been angry they kept a secret, if they hadn’t let Midoriya’s quirk instruction hit the ground like a sad sack of potatoes.
Aizawa repressed a sigh. “Now that I know this, I can help you learn quirk control more easily. And as for threatening to expel you on the first day… I made that judgment based on your less-than-stellar performance in the Entrance Exam. Considering that was the first time you’d ever used your quirk, that wasn’t a fair assessment. You have much more potential than I initially assumed.”
“Oh," Midoriya said, looking a little more confident, and a little sheepish. “Um, thanks! Can I go talk to All Might now? I want to ask him about the shades.”
“Alright,” Aizawa responded. “If you learn something important, let me know.”
“I will!” Midoriya gave him a nod and turned around, going to go talk to All Might.
What a disaster. At least he actually knew what was going on with Midoriya now.
It was only twenty minutes later that Yagi showed up in his office, looking for answers.
“Aizawa-kun,” Yagi said. “I heard you spoke with Midoriya about his quirk.”
An understatement. Aizawa nodded, ignoring the way he felt himself stiffen. He was frankly still frightened of Yagi, but not to the point that he couldn’t hide it. If Yagi started looking angry or went ‘buff’, though, Aizawa wasn’t making any promises. “I did,” Aizawa said, nodding.
Yagi gave him a considering and slightly suspicious glance. “He said that you kept getting his quirk mixed up… saying it backwards, as All for One.” His eyes sharpened. “Is this true?”
Oh! Oh shit! “Did Nedzu tell you about the time loops?”
“Yes, he did. He explained it was imperative for me to be here because of it.”
“The name of… that man… came up in previous loops. Midoriya accidentally said something about One for All, and I thought he meant All for One. I pointed it out and pretended to know what he was talking about. He spilled everything from there.”
Yagi sighed and dragged a hand down his face, the suspiciousness vanishing. “I see,” he said.
Oh thank god. “Yeah… so is anybody going to explain how those two things are connected?” Aizawa asked.
Yagi’s face took on a determined mask. “I will… but you have to make a promise to me. This information is extremely sensitive. Knowledge about All for One, One for All, and their connection could not only get you killed, but Midoriya. The safety of your student is severely at stake, in this.”
Aizawa nodded. “I’m an underground hero, so I’m used to keeping important secrets.”
He wasn’t, really, but he figured Yagi would believe him. His experience in underground heroics was mostly just running from fight to fight as police repeatedly spam-requested his presence whenever they saw someone with a dangerous emitter quirk. For whatever reason, though, everyone acted like he was in the secret service.
Yagi sighed. “I suppose. And I doubt Nedzu would have hired you if you weren’t… judicious, about secrets.”
“That’s true,” Aizawa agreed, and that one actually was true.
“I’ll give you the short version. Around two hundred years ago, All for One was having a fight with his brother, who was thought to be quirkless. As a way of controlling him, All for One forcibly gave him a quirk,” Yagi said, giving a minute shrug. “That quirk was a basic strength stockpiling quirk.”
“Thought to be quirkless?” Aizawa questioned.
“Yes, that’s the next part. The brother did have a quirk, one that allowed him to pass his quirk onto others. It was useless at first, but when combined with a strength stockpiling quirk, it became One for All: a stockpile quirk that passes down from generation to generation. It’s so powerful because it’s had so long to gather energy.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Aizawa said. “And the past users live within the quirk?”
“It seems so,” Yagi said, shrugging. “Nana- ah, my mentor- saw the past users, though I never did. It’s unclear whether someone returns to the quirk, or leaves an imprint, though…”
“That really is something,” Aizawa murmured. “And now it’s Midoriya’s.”
Yagi nodded, and a faint smile formed on his face. “For so long, the sole purpose of the quirk has been to take down All for One. But now, Midoriya can do with it what he likes.”
Man, Yagi’s not going to be happy to learn All for One is probably still alive. Wait-
“Did All for One not like your quirk?” Aizawa asked carefully.
Yagi gave a sardonic chuckle and shook his head. “He didn’t like it at all. He thought since it was originally his and his brother’s, that it should belong to him. He viciously chased anyone who had the quirk, and killed many of the past users.”
Aizawa felt faintly sick. “Oh.”
“I’m very thankful All for One is dead now,” Yagi said. “I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable giving it to Midoriya, or any successor, if the man were still alive.”
“Because of the danger,” Aizawa said.
“Yes, because of the danger,” Yagi affirmed.
What a fucking disaster--did the villains go to the USJ because of him?
No, that wasn’t it.
The villains had been targeting All Might.
‘-he viciously chased down anyone who had the quirk-’
Aizawa was swept with relief. The villains, which were connected to All for One, had been trying to kill All Might. Of course. They must still think he had the quirk, or maybe they’re not sure who his successor is. Otherwise, they probably would have included Midoriya in their targeting. At the very least, they weren’t going for Midoriya yet.
Aizawa had to hide Midoriya’s quirk from the villains at any cost. Already, Aizawa’s mind was racing with precautions. Benching Midoriya from the USJ was a good idea, I can’t let a single villain see his quirk. Should I stop him from attending the Sports Festival? No, no, that’s his single best networking opportunity in all of his first year… but I can’t just let the villains know he’s All Might’s successor! He’s going to have to reveal his quirk eventually, but he’s not strong enough yet. Maybe I can pull a few favors to get him internships, but stop him from attending the Sports Festival… I’m sure Nedzu could set something up for him…
By his second year, if not sooner, he’s going to be forced to reveal his quirk during work studies or public events or otherwise, if he wants to continue with the UA hero course and build popularity to be a daylight hero. Even if he stops to train in private, there’s a high likelihood that the information will get out anyway. Class 1-A and all the teachers know about his quirk, and we have a traitor.
I need to find the traitor during these loops and arrest them and stop them, before they leak information about Midoriya’s quirk to All for One, if they haven’t already done so. Even if I can manage that, we’re still on the clock. Realistically it’s only a matter of time before All for One knows.
There’s no time to waste. I need to make sure he understands his quirk and self-defense techniques as soon as possible. He needs to be top-tier in combat, evasion, and running for his fucking life by the time he reveals his quirk, considering he might be targeted by villains stronger than himself at any point beyond that. Could we put him in witness protection?
“Well, thank you for telling me!” Aizawa said, swallowing a nervous laugh. “I appreciate it. I think I found a way to help Midoriya with his quirk control.”
Yagi’s expression became more pleasant. “Yes, he was talking about that! It seemed like he had a good idea. I admit, I didn’t want to let you know about this, but I suppose there have been some unintended positive consequences.”
“I suppose so,” Aizawa said, with a nod.
There was a long, awkward silence.
“I should get going,” Yagi said, turning to leave. “And keep the secret! Your student’s life depends on it.” Yagi’s gaze went dark. “If you put him in danger…”
“I won’t,” Aizawa said hurriedly.
Yagi gave a satisfied nod, and left the office.
The moment Yagi was gone and the door had shut, Aizawa’s legs crumpled and he found himself on the floor. He heaved a breath, and wrapped his arms around himself.
The start of the conversation hadn’t been so bad… but between learning all those things about All for One, the general stress of being near Yagi, and Yagi’s angry face at the end…
Aizawa felt an absent urge to go seek out a friend. It didn’t have to be Hizashi. He wanted to go see Nemuri, or maybe spend a little time around Thirteen, or go play poker with Hound Dog. Maybe sip his coffee and pretend to be bored while Power Loader prattled on about his students’ use of support equipment.
He sort of missed spending time with his friends. He hadn’t been near them lately, considering most of them were suspected traitors.
He glanced at the clock. Maybe he could visit some of his other friends. The Hotta brothers? Maybe some of his underground hero coworkers?
No, there wasn’t time. He was due to gather the students for the USJ in a half-hour, and any deviation would ruin the loop. He could indulge himself tomorrow. Aizawa reached up and locked the door, and then simply curled into a ball and laid on the floor. He didn’t have anything to do, and he couldn’t really go outside lest someone notice something was wrong with him.
He spent the next thirty minutes like that, and still felt stress buzz faintly beneath his skin even as he dragged himself up and went out the door toward the bus. Look confident, he told himself. Or at least disinterested. You don’t want any changes this loop.
He got to the bus and let Iida order everyone around into the bus. He slumped into his seat and tried not to look too down. The loop was almost over, and this was one of the Nice Loops where Nedzu was sending backup right away.
Soon enough, he was at the USJ Entrance. Thirteen and All Might stood together as Thirteen gave their speech, and Aizawa avoided the gaze of All Might’s buff form, trying not to focus on him too hard. Instead, he worked on scouting for villains.
The plaza was soon flooded with villains.
The normal amount.
No extra villains, no weirdness, Aizawa thought. Does this imply Recovery Girl is innocent? I think it does. She was informed the same way each time… and yet the result changed, thus meaning that the traitor is probably someone else.
That meant he could get a checkup!
No time to think about that now, though. Aizawa actually ended up staying back near Thirteen while All Might rushed forward to fight the villains. When Kurogiri arrived to shred Thirteen and scatter the students, Aizawa was ready for his every move. Right as Kirishima and Bakugou jumped forward, and just as Kurogiri was about to scatter them, Aizawa flashed his quirk, giving Thirteen the opportunity to push through the two reckless children and point their hyper-dangerous quirk at Kurogiri. Thirteen activated it. Aizawa was forced to blink soon after, and it was because he did that Kurogiri very narrowly escaped certain death by Black Hole.
Aizawa wasn’t sure if that made him feel better or worse about the time he accidentally killed someone in a loop. It looked like Thirteen was ready to kill or maybe seriously endanger their opponents in this fight as well, despite their previous speech on ‘using quirks to save.’
Hm. Did this clear Thirteen? Somehow he doubted that they would almost murder one of the villains’ greatest assests if they were working for the villains. “Senpai, look out!” Thirteen yelled.
Aizawa quickly whirled around just as a bullet whizzed by his head. Oops, he still had to deal with the shooting-quirked group that was at the front of the villains. He jumped down and took them out quickly as All Might fought the Nomu in the center plaza. As soon as he’d defeated around five villains at the bottom of the stairs, the doors of the USJ blew open. The cavalry had arrived.
This time, the loop went stunningly well. Aizawa would have even passed if it weren’t for All Might getting injured by the Nomu. Aizawa covertly let Nedzu know that Recovery Girl had been clarified as innocent.
“Excellent,” Nedzu said with a nod. “Who do you plan to clear next time?”
“Maybe Hound Dog or Power Loader,” Aizawa said noncommittally. “Actually, I cleared Recovery Girl first because I was wondering if she could get me a checkup.”
Nedzu’s ears pricked. “A checkup?”
“It might be nice to get a medical opinion on how the quirk is affecting me,” Aizawa said. “Plus, I’ve been injured in past loops, and while my injuries seem to reset, it would be nice to check for aftereffects,” he shrugged.
Nedzu nodded. “A good proposition. Because the only one injured in the attack was Yagi, Recovery Girl should have time for that today. We’ll simply have to explain the loops to her.”
The explanation to Recovery Girl was short. Nedzu quickly and efficiently explained the loops, as well as why they hadn’t told her sooner. Recovery Girl looked vaguely offended about the fact that they’d been ‘checking’ to make sure she wasn’t a traitor this loop, but that vanished from her face when Nedzu told her that Aizawa did it because he was doing it to everyone, and that he’d chosen her as one of the first because he wanted to get a safe checkup.
“Finally taking your health seriously for once,” Recovery Girl said, looking satisfied and giving him a pat on the knee. “Come sit down.”
Recovery Girl checked his heartbeat, blood pressure, and breathing, as well as testing his reflexes and an examination of his head and neck, including feeling for his lymph nodes. After essentially running him through the normal doctor tests, Recovery Girl did some X-rays of his arms upon him revealing that he’d broken them in one loop. She also drew some blood, saying she was going to run a metabolic test.
When all his examinations were done, Recovery Girl asked if he’d be fine with Nedzu coming back in. Aizawa had agreed, considering Nedzu would forget all his medical stuff after the loop reset, and that he might have some valuable insights on how the loop might be impacting his health.
“So I have the results of your scans,” Recovery Girl said, paging through them. “They look completely normal. And there’s no scar tissue, either. It’s like they’ve never been broken.”
“Good,” Aizawa said.
“However,” Recovery Girl said. “Your blood pressure is abnormally high for you. Very suddenly too, according to your chart from the doctor’s visit you had a half-month ago. Unless you’re having sudden thyroid problems, or you’ve suddenly increased the salt in your diet by quite a large margin…” Recovery Girl glanced at him questioningly.
Aizawa shook his head.
“... then at this point, the more likely cause by far is stress. This is consistent with the fact that your hair has become unusually brittle all of a sudden. That’s probably stress too.”
“According to the description of Victory Loop, the quirk attempts to restore your body to its previous state after every reset. The amount of stress that you would need to be in, in order for your hair to turn brittle even as your body resets every day…” Nedzu trailed off.
“The loops have been a lot,” Aizawa said.
Nedzu frowned.
“I’m going to run your blood to check your vitamin and mineral levels, and check your thyroid to rule that out as a cause. But Aizawa, given what we know, you need to reduce your stress levels significantly. It’s gotten so severe that it’s impacting your health a little even though the resets are trying to erase it,” Recovery Girl said.
“I can’t,” Aizawa said. “Repeating the same day is stressful, I can’t relax.”
“Then we need to end the loops,” Nedzu said.
"End the loops?"
“Yes. Do what you did this loop, except at the beginning, ask me to bring along extra heroes to fight the Nomu.”
“But I can’t… the traitor-”
“The traitor will be found eventually,” Nedzu said. “You’ve already formed a trusted group--you, me, Yagi, Shuzenji, Yamada, and Kayama--”
“And Thirteen,” Aizawa said absently, remembering Thirteen’s near-murder of Kurogiri.
“And Thirteen,” Nedzu added. “And now that we have a good segment of the staff who we know it’s not, we can investigate the traitor effectively.”
Aizawa shook his head wordlessly. He had to find the traitor. Otherwise, Midoriya would be in danger.
“Aizawa,” Nedzu said. “This lesson can be hard to learn, but sometimes, you have to know when to quit.”
“What if the students are in danger?” Aizawa asked.
“We’ll make sure they aren’t,” Nedzu said. “If the loops end, we can set up precautions and test the staff members across multiple days,” Nedzu said. “We’ll find a way to make it work. You’re an important asset, Aizawa. Even from a cold, strategic point of view, you’re too valuable of a piece to sacrifice.”
“There's six down,” Aizawa said, absently. “Six to go.”
“Can you last six more days?” Nedzu asked. “And that’s not including that the leak in truth could have been caused by technological spying, or you making a mistake that forces you to start over.”
He had to check whether it was bringing Hizashi and Nemuri to the USJ that caused the reset, or their behavior. That was another loop. So seven days at minimum.
He could last seven days. He knew he could.
But god. He really didn’t want to.
In the face of his own desire to end the loops (no more USJ, no more repeating dialogue, no more pain) and the looks of muted worry etched on Nedzu and Recovery Girl’s faces… the only thing he could say was…
“Okay,” Aizawa said. “I will.”
It felt relieving, yet bittersweet. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t do this, once he’d learned there was a traitor among the staff. And yet, he was too weak to follow through with his own promise.
“Then I’ll end the loops early,” Aizawa said.
Nedzu’s face lit in relief, and he gave Aizawa a rewarding pat on the arm.
Notes:
We're going full steam ahead toward the ending! No worries, I know there are still several plot threads that need to be addressed yet, but they'll get wrapped up before the end, I promised!
I plan to go a little bit after the loops to show the effects they have, but I don't intend to do a full canon rewrite of what happens afterward. Just some things to show how this will likely impact the MHA world.
I hope you're enjoying the story!
Chapter 18: Lying Pilot
Summary:
Aizawa's creativity and improvisation skills are put to the test.
Notes:
tw: manipulation/controlling attitudes, discussions of unhealthy relationship dynamics, discussions of torture
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Once his checkup was over, Nedzu handed him a ceramic mug full of lavender tea and led him over to Hizashi and Nemuri, who were casually chatting after the emergency meeting. Nedzu essentially shoved him at them, giving them an explanation of the time loops more quick and straightforward than anything the frazzled Aizawa would have been able to put together at the time. Nedzu gave them both strict orders not to cause Aizawa any unnecessary stress, and then left him in their capable hands.
This time, Nemuri insisted they go back to her apartment. Aizawa understood why once they got there. As soon as they got there, Nemuri handed him an armful of soft blankets and he loved them so much. Some of them were warm and fluffy, while others were heavy, cooler blankets.
Almost immediately, Aizawa wrapped himself in a cocoon of blankets on the couch and shoved his face into the soft ones. “How come you hid these from us?” Aizawa demanded.
Nemuri laughed. “I wasn’t hiding them, I just got lots of blankets from my sister, who’s moving houses and wanted to get new ones. I didn’t think you’d like them so much.”
“Your sister has good taste,” Aizawa said, melting into his blankets.
Nemuri made some simple hot tofu, and the three of them ate it over the living room table. The spectre of everything that was going on was still looming, as evidenced by the concerned glances and the fact that Nemuri and Hizashi were very clearly avoiding the topic, but…
This was nice. Aizawa liked nice moments like these.
“The time loops will be ending soon,” Aizawa said, deciding to bite the bullet and sate their curiosity a little. “I plan to make tomorrow the last one.”
“That’s great!” Hizashi said. “Are you going to be alright?”
“I think so,” Aizawa said. “I mean, I’ve still got a lot to do. I need to help Midoriya with his quirk, and get Hagakure better equipment, and I have lots of recommendations for combat options and improved costumes for my students, because I’ve spent so long observing them during the loops,” Aizawa said, popping more tofu in his mouth. “I mean, I don’t like leaving the fact of the traitor unresolved, but I’ve got to admit that I don’t think I’m qualified to solve that anymore. It’s too complicated, and it’s bad for my mental health, and I’m going to pass it off to Nedzu.”
“That’s a tough decision to make, but it’s probably the right one,” Nemuri said. “I think it’s pretty obvious you’ve been through a lot lately. Just spend some time focusing on yourself, and we’ll try to handle it for you.”
“Thanks, Nemuri,” Aizawa said. What she said was true. He’d spent a long time just doing thing after thing and just barely taking enough time to decompress in the evenings before he was thrown bodily into more dangerous situations. Besides, he’d spent so long considering his students strengths and weaknesses and analyzing what directions they might go that he was eager to put his plans into action once the loops were over.
The rest of his time at Nemuri’s house was very pleasant. It was a belly full of warm food, and being wrapped up in soft blankets, and his best friends reaffirming his life choices and telling him he was doing a good job. Aizawa yawned. He ought to get Nedzu to tell people not to stress him out more often.
“You look tired,” Nemuri noted. She glanced at the clock. “I think it’s late enough to sleep.”
Unlike at his house, Aizawa ended up taking the couch by virtue of being really comfortable and no one having the heart to kick him off. Nemuri had a spare mattress that Hizashi slept on, while she retreated to her own bedroom.
With all the properly soft blankets, it was a wonder Aizawa didn’t fall asleep earlier.
Aizawa stretched and rolled out of bed, feeling vaguely comfy even though the loop had reset and he was back in his room. After that talk with his friends, his guilt about leaving the loop early had lessened a good amount.
After he got ready, he swung by Nemuri’s house and snuck in her back window. He carefully crept to her closet, grabbed an armful of blankets, shut the closet and then swung away, hoping not to alert her he was here. It seemed like she’d already left for school, though, so he got to keep his loot.
After his blanket theft (he put them in his bag so Nemuri wouldn’t see them) he went straight to UA, ready for another encounter with Nedzu.
“So that’s how the time loops work,” Aizawa explained. “And what we know about the traitor.”
At first, Nedzu had been excited about the possibility of using the loops to figure out what the traitor was, but once Aizawa mentioned his checkup and how the past-Nedzu had wanted him to avoid any further looping, Nedzu quickly reversed his decision and insisted that this be the last loop. He’d promised that he’d bring extra heroes so that All Might could hopefully fight the Nomu without getting injured.
“And since this is the last loop,” Aizawa said. “We might as well clear another person. Why don’t you tell only Hound Dog this loop, and we’ll see if it's him?”
Nedzu agreed, and the plot was in motion.
Once Homeroom was over, Aizawa went back to his office and started looking over papers, legitimately considering grading them because this was supposed to be the last loop. He wrapped one of Nemuri’s blankets over his shoulders.
There was a knock on the door.
“Hello?” Aizawa asked.
Midoriya stumbled into the room, looking petrified.
“Oh, Midoriya. What do you need?”
“Um,” Midoriya said hesitantly. “So, there are these shadow people. Right?”
Aizawa nodded.
“And they wanted me to tell you, ‘We want to know what’s going on. Tell us or face your imminent demise.’ Um, I’m not sure how you know the shadow people, but they said that you would know what that meant?” Midoriya trailed off, cringing.
Oh. Since he never explained what was going on to Midoriya, the past users within the quirk were probably still confused and angry about the days constantly resetting.
“It’s okay, Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “I do know what you’re talking about.”
Midoriya blinked in relief. “Really?”
“You can tell the shadow people that the reason things are repeating is because we’re trapped in a time loop due to a quirk. I’m the only one who remembers, aside from them. I’m planning to make this loop the last one,” Aizawa said.
Midoriya crinkled his face in confusion. “Really?”
“Don’t tell anyone, Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “It’s important you keep it secret.”
“Oh. Okay, Aizawa-sensei,” Midoriya said.
“And Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “You’re benched from the rescue training at the USJ.”
“What?”
It took about an hour to explain everything about the loops to Midoriya, finally leading to an explanation about how the loop would reset whenever anyone was injured.
“Since you always get hurt, I’m making you stay here,” Aizawa said. “That way, you’ll be safely out of the way and I can pass this loop without much trouble.”
“I see,” Midoriya said, trying to hide his frown.
“We’ll work on your quirk,” Aizawa promised. “We just don’t have time right now.”
“Understood, sensei,” Midoriya answered.
“Now run along with your friends,” Aizawa said. “Hopefully tomorrow everything will be back to normal, and we can work on making sure your quirk doesn’t harm you.”
Midoriya nodded and quickly backed out of his office.
Aizawa sighed. Hopefully, that satisfies the past users. Now, I’ve got two more people to explain the loops to…
Hizashi and Nemuri were much easier to convince, since he’d talked to them several times already and knew what questions they would ask. He made them promise not to come to the USJ, though. If they got hurt, he’d have to start all over again. They agreed fairly easily once he told them that several heroes would be coming with at the beginning to boost security.
From there, he spent some time grading (not as monotonous as usual, since it’d been a few loops since he’d properly graded anything) and then went to gather his students for the USJ.
Last loop, let’s do this, Aizawa thought, watching Thirteen as they gave their speech. All Might stood near them, with Crust, Fatgum, and Gang Orca scattered in hidden areas throughout the facility. In moments, the portal opened, and the area was flooded with villains.
A normal amount of villains. No reinforcements.
That implies it’s not Hound Dog, Aizawa noted absently. And the lack of the weird result means that it’s Hizashi and Nemuri showing up to the USJ that caused the extra twenty people that one time, rather than the fact that the two knew at all. That re-exonerates Nemuri… hm, wait, does that mean the traitor found out about it near or on the bus?
Should he try running background checks on the bus driver?
Maybe he could check the bus for bugs…
Or maybe Hizashi was right, and one of the five remaining staff suspects saw them come on the bus…
Aizawa stood still and let the other heroes fight the villains in the plaza, staying with Thirteen to protect the students. When Kurogiri appeared near the front entrance, Aizawa was ready. He’d seen every single move that Kurogiri was about to make, from aiming for Thirteen to scattering the students.
Which is why it was so jarring when he did not that.
Aizawa darted forward, fully prepared for Kurogiri to use his opening to go for the students. Except Kurogiri didn’t. If Aizawa hadn’t been spending all his focus getting ready for Kurogiri’s predicted movements, he might have had the presence of mind to dodge. As it was, he was completely unprepared for Kurogiri to suddenly lunge to the left and swallow him in mist. He found himself suddenly in a cold, dark, basement.
Fuck! Another kidnapping loop?!
Almost as soon as he was able to get a sense of his surroundings, he blinked, and once his eyes were closed, he couldn’t open them again. What the- Aizawa brought up his hands and tried to force his eyes open with his fingers, but they seemed sealed shut, almost unnaturally.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Aizawa startled and backed away from the voice.
“It’s the result of a quirk,” the person said. “It simply forces your eyes closed, nothing more. I considered a blindfold, but blindfolds slip. Better to exercise complete caution, here.”
“Who are you?” Aizawa demanded.
“I prefer the name Demon Lord, or Emperor of Darkness. But if you know me, you probably know me as All for One.”
Aizawa jerked visibly, and All for One laughed. “Ah, you do know me! Good, good. I assume All Might must have told you. Or the rat, Nedzu. He was always a bit too smart for his own good, in my opinion.”
“Why-?” Aizawa started, but he couldn’t finish his question.
Why are you here now? Why did you target me in this loop?
“You must have many questions,” All for One said. “In order for this to make sense, I’m going to have to do a bit of explaining. So pay attention. I won’t repeat myself.”
Aizawa kept an iron lock on his panic, keeping his face neutral and guarded.
“As you probably already know from your coworkers,” All for One said with a sneer, “I have the ability to give and take certain quirks. And quirks that are taken leave… impressions, behind. Copies of the consciousness of the person who once had them.”
All for One began to pace, his footsteps echoing through the room.
“They can manifest as shadowed figures, and are quite difficult to come in contact with, unless they want to meet you or you know where to find them,” All for One continued. “Most of the impressions aren’t particularly thrilled with me,” he said, with a little laugh, “since many of the quirks I have were taken… without owner permission, you might say.”
He heard All for One’s pacing stop.
“Do you understand me so far?”
Aizawa was quiet.
“Do you understand me?” All for One said, voice edging on dangerous.
“Yes,” Aizawa said quickly.
“Good. Now. Usually, when I want to see or hear the impressions, I have to seek them out. But not today. For some reason, today specifically, there’s increased activity. They’re moving, and they’re talking. Do you know what I hear them whisper?”
All for One’s voice became quiet and serious. “They whisper your name, Aizawa Shouta. Why is that?”
It’s because they’re like Midoriya’s shades. They can feel the loop, and they know that I’m the one looping.
Aizawa said nothing.
“I would ask them myself, of course,” All for One said, casually. “But most of the shadows don’t like me, and the ones that would talk are stopped by the rest. It would likely take weeks to enter the shadow realm and pull an answer out of one of them, considering how stubborn they’re being right now. That’s not time I’m willing to take. So tell me. Why are they so interested in you?”
“I don’t know,” Aizawa said.
“You do know,” All for One said. “Don’t lie to me unless you’re willing to face the consequences. And you know, it would also be nice to learn how UA learned of our attack. Can’t say I was expecting to see Crust there, of all people. Was it our spy? Or perhaps one of the thugs I hired panicked and went to you,” All for One theorized.
He just confirmed the fact that we have a spy! Or maybe he’s lying-?
If there really was a spy, there was no way All for One was planning to let Aizawa escape alive. He wouldn’t just dump valuable information like that and let it escape. Either there was no traitor, or the man intended to kill Aizawa. Aizawa favored the latter.
“I wish that those shadowy figures wouldn’t talk about me so loudly,” Aizawa emphasized. “Or wouldn’t talk about me whatsoever. I don’t like catching your attention.”
“It’s a bit late for that,” All for One said “They seem to like you though, Aizawa. They’re obeying your request and quieting down, but perhaps they should have done it sooner if they truly cared for your wellbeing.”
I can only hope that the shades got my message, and that they stop whispering about me in future loops.
“I’d hate to have a repeat of this,” Aizawa said, speaking mostly to All for One’s shades.
“The only way you’ll even have a chance to repeat this experience is if you tell me the truth, and if I let you go,” All for One said. “Tell me. Why are the impressions interested in you?”
“I’m not sure,” Aizawa said.
All for One grabbed his arm and squeezed it tightly enough to bruise. Aizawa jolted, but couldn’t escape his grip. “I could tear this off,” All for One said threateningly. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll start with the fingernails. Then the fingers. After that, I’ll go for your eyes,” All for One growled, before releasing his arm.
“What if I tell you and then you just kill me?” Aizawa blurted out. “I don’t want to die.”
“If you cooperate, I’ll let you go,” All for One said. “Many may consider me a villain, but I am nothing if not magnanimous. Your odds are better if you’re simply honest with me.”
Aizawa was almost certain the man was lying. He knew too much to let live.
Aizawa felt fear and panic take him, and suddenly his mind was racing. Idea after idea popped into his mind, but they slipped like water through his fingers, and he was unable to focus on any of them. He felt a lump in his throat as tears formed in his eyes.
His first instinct was to quash his feelings down, get rid of the tears, but right now was not the time for stubbornness. Right now was the time for strategy.
Acting tough was a useful strategy in some situations, but this was not one of them. There was no way for him to bluff or intimidate his way out of this, and All for One overestimating him would only lead to harsher punishment and tighter restraints.
In this situation, it was much better to be underestimated. To look weak.
So that’s what he would do.
Perhaps before the loops happened, he would have been too proud to play this card. But now Aizawa understood that there were many things more important than pride.
Aizawa let tears roll down his face. “I c-can’t, if y-you kn-knew… ” he purposefully stumbled over his words, playing up the stutter.
All for One made an unexpected cooing noise. “There, there,” he said, and it took all of Aizawa’s self-control not to flinch or punch All for One when the man trailed a hand down Aizawa’s back, “You’re young, and you don’t know what’s good for you. I’m willing to make allowances for your mistakes.”
Aizawa certainly wasn’t expecting him to play that card, but he supposed thirty seemed pretty young when one was two hundred years old.
Not sure what to say, Aizawa just sobbed instead.
“You know, I don’t think this is a very productive conversation,” All for One said. “Gigantomachia, grab him and follow me.”
Aizawa panicked and thrashed as a giant hand wrapped around his waist and lifted him off the ground. His surprised cry was responded to with an annoyed growl from a new voice, probably Gigantomachia, and a huff from All for One.
After about a minute of walking, Aizawa was placed on something fairly soft. Judging by the texture and shape, it felt like an old mattress in decent shape. Someone shoved a soft, fabric thing in his hand. Blanket. A few moments later, Aizawa heard clanking metal and jingling keys.
“I’ll give you a few hours to make your decision,” All for One said. “I’m sure you’ll end up doing the right thing. If you give me the information, you could even work for me. I can guarantee I’d pay much, much better than that little teaching job of yours.”
Aizawa frankly wasn’t sure what All for One was thinking, trying this honeyed approach less than ten minutes after he’d threatened to pull out his fingernails. He couldn’t actually be expecting Aizawa to change sides, right?
Hm, wait. Aizawa felt an odd pull. It was subtle, but it was there. It wanted him to believe All for One, and it made him want to believe All for One too. Not a normal feeling.
Another quirk? That would explain why he thinks he can convince me…
The pull was powerful, but now that he was aware of it, Aizawa was able to focus on actively resisting. Despite this, he ducked his head to All for One in concession. All for One made a smug noise, and Aizawa heard his footsteps get farther away as he walked.
Holy shit!
I dodged a bullet there, I can’t believe my luck.
But he said a few hours. He’s coming back. He’s coming back and he’s going to kill me.
You did what you wanted to do! You stalled, and you managed to buy yourself several hours. You did as well as could be expected.
But he’s still coming BACK.
Aizawa grabbed the blanket and curled it around himself tightly. Even if he wasn’t cold, the pressure of a blanket provided a very basic comfort to Aizawa, and helped control his panic. And while being unable to see was sending him spiraling into feelings of helplessness and powerlessness, the lack of visual input reduced overstimulation. In a way that made him feel like he was about to be killed any minute, but still.
He stumbled up and felt around the area that he was. He found cold metal bars and a padlock. Clearly a cell. There weren’t any obvious weaknesses that he could tell, not that All for One would leave him in a cell with obvious weaknesses.
A few hours. Would that be enough to get him past midnight?
Probably not. The USJ event was supposed to end at 3:15PM. As far as the time currently went, it couldn’t be later than 5, and ‘a few hours’ sounded more like All for One was going to go eat dinner and then come back rather than leave him overnight.
Aizawa went back to the bed and tentatively laid down. If there was no good way to escape right now, then there at the very least was time to plan his next move. He had essentially three options: tell the truth, say nothing, or lie.
The most obvious answer was lying. If he could think of a good, believable lie, All for One would react according to it. The best lies would be convincing, and would encourage All for One to keep him alive and in one piece for the remainder of the day. On the other hand, if All for One saw through the lie, that would anger him greatly. As such, the penalty for a bad lie might be crueler and harsher than even the punishment for saying nothing.
‘Say nothing’ was most likely going to end in torture. It was… a last resort, if the truth was too risky and All for One didn’t buy a lie.
Then there was ‘tell the truth.’ The truth was a high-risk, high-reward strategy. An intelligent thing if All for One knew about the loops would be to treat him gently, try to woo him over to the villains’ side, and convince him to end the loops as soon as possible. If All for One took that route, Aizawa would be safe, and it would have been worth it. High-reward.
On the other hand… if All for One didn’t use that method…
All for One might decide to give him permanent psychological scars, to disable his effectiveness once the loops were finished. Worst case scenario, in his quirk arsenal, All for One held something that could end the loops. That would be a disaster. High-risk.
Lying currently seemed like the best strategy. But what would be a convincing lie? He didn’t know much about the shadow people, or how he could even be theoretically involved with the shadow people. Were Midoriya’s shadow people and All for One’s shadow people connected? Maybe… that would explain why they started whispering about him enough to alert All for One in the exact same loop. Well, whatever. Even if the shadow people weren’t connected, it was worth trying to lie about, because he couldn’t think of a single other thing that would warrant the shadow people even knowing about him.
So. Midoriya’s shadow people saw something interesting about him… no. He was trying to hide the fact that All Might had a successor. All Might’s shadow people saw something interesting about him. What would be interesting enough that it would spur all the shadow people to whisper randomly and aggressively about him, when they were normally completely elusive? Especially if the shadow people weren’t actually connected to All Might, he would need something pretty big to explain why the shadow people were talking about something they saw from All Might’s perspective if they never had before.
And of course the lie had to be something that would make All for One want to keep him alive as a hostage, and not something that would make him want to torture or kill him immediately.
Aizawa spent several hours agonizing over what he should do.
He ended up inventing one very interesting lie, a lie so bizarre that it was believable, but he had no idea how All for One would react to it. He dismissed the idea, but no matter how he thought or planned, he couldn’t really think of anything better.
Maybe he ought to tell the truth? But the truth was more dangerous, solely by virtue that All for One could outwit him more easily if he actually had the truth, but…
“I’m back, Aizawa-kun,” All for One said, his voice a little sing-songy. “Now, care to share?”
“Sure,” Aizawa blurted out without thinking. Well, shit. Now I’m going to have to tell that lie.
Aizawa could almost taste the satisfaction in All for One’s voice. “So, let’s get to the first question. The impressions. Why have they spoken about you?”
“I think your shades know about me because they can see me through All Might’s shadow figures, because he has a few,” Aizawa said, hoping this detail wouldn’t blow his lie apart.
“Of course,” All for One said, as if it were completely obvious. Oh, so that is how it works. “But why do they speak of you? What makes you so special?”
The lie needed to be something so gossipy and so juicy that it would reasonably be talked about extensively by shadow people who usually didn’t normally interact with the material world. What news could be that important? Aizawa could only think of one thing.
“I’m in a romantic relationship with All Might,” Aizawa said. Fuck. I cannot believe I just said that.
There was a stunned silence. Then, laughter. All for One began to guffaw loudly. “That’s… hah, I was not anticipating that answer! How truly unexpected. To think, the oh-so untouchable All Might has gotten attached to someone, romantically! After so many years! No wonder the impressions find you interesting, Aizawa Shouta.”
He believes me!? Oh my god it worked. Now I get to see if the lie pays off... How will he react? Best case scenario he holds me for leverage and doesn’t hurt me. There’s still the chance he’ll kill or torture me for revenge, but I think my odds are better this way, since he’ll probably spend longer considering what to do with me…
“You know, Aizawa,” All for One said. “Are you sure he isn’t taking advantage of you?”
“...What?” Aizawa was completely thrown.
“He is twenty years older than you,” All for One said. “And with all that fame and fortune, he’s much more powerful. He’s friends with your boss. Are you sure your relationship doesn’t contain elements of coercion?”
Well, maybe. The fact that All Might was almost twice his age would be a little off-putting to him personally, though it wasn’t the worst age gap he’d seen considering he himself was thirty and decently into adulthood. Regardless, he didn’t know how to respond, considering he didn’t actually have a relationship with All Might. “Why would you be concerned about that?” Aizawa said, trying not to sound hostile.
“Not everything about All Might is as good as it seems,” All for One said, his voice faux-sympathetic. “I would know. Now hearing that he might be using someone like you for personal gain, especially in such an intimate relationship--”
A 200-year-old crime boss, responsible for experimenting on people and turning them into Nomus, was acting concerned about the power dynamics in his fake relationship. What the actual fuck had he gotten himself into.
“Well, technically I’m his senior in the workplace?” Aizawa said.
All for One tutted. “Having multiple power imbalances in your relationship doesn’t fix things, Aizawa. Haven’t you ever heard that two wrongs don’t make a right? Besides, you two have the same official rank in the hierarchy. You’re both just teachers.”
“Seniority matters a lot at UA,” Aizawa pointed out.
“But he’d easily command the respect of your boss and coworkers,” All for One said, shrugging. “Besides, in terms of your careers as heroes, he would be considered to have seniority.”
Aizawa paused. “I guess…”
“Enough of that for now, we can talk about it later. Now, how did UA know of our attack?”
“Nedzu told me about it,” Aizawa said. “He acted like a person told him about it, but he wouldn’t say who…” Aizawa trailed off, and braced himself for an angry response.
Instead, all he got was a considering hum. “It would make sense for Nedzu to be vague if a person leaked you the information,” All for One said.
There was a long pause, and suddenly Aizawa heard the footsteps of All for One, leading away from the cell. He was leaving?! “Wait,” Aizawa said. “Where are you going?”
There was no response. Only footsteps, progressively sounding more and more distance, leading away from the cell he was stuck in.
He bought my act, and he seemed to believe all my lies… but why did he leave?
All for One struck gold.
He knew there was something odd about Aizawa when the impressions of past quirks began to whisper about him, but he didn’t think it would be this. A romantic partner? He almost couldn’t believe it! All Might had avoided romantic partners for most of his life, knowing full well he would kill them, now that he’d faked his death it made sense that All Might would seek someone out.
He was surprised that All Might chose someone so pitable and weak-willed. The man in the other room had seemed pliable and easy to shape. Indeed, the man had given up a great deal of information quite quickly, even considering he was under the influence of a persuasion quirk. Perhaps that’s why All Might chose him, All for One mused. He imagined that with all of All Might’s fame and power, it would be easy for the so-called Symbol of Peace to bend the man to his will. After all, it’s what All for One would do. He himself avoided sexual and romantic relationships (all he wanted was power, and attachments were weakness) but if he did have a partner, he would want complete control over them.
Regardless, it was all an advantage for him.
Firstly, the fact that the man had spoken of All Might’s shadow people implied that All Might still had One for All, which was necessary to have access to the impressions. That meant he still had time before All Might picked a successor.
Secondly, he had so many options now when it came to messing with All Might. He could convert the man to his side (Erasure quirk was useful), torture him and send All Might the videos (would be a hell of a way to tell All Might that All for One was still out there), kill him and mail his head to All Might (wasteful, but permanently traumatizing), or, the classic, use Aizawa as bait to lure All Might to this location.
Ah, so many possibilities~ he thought. He’d left the man in his cell, sick of talking to him and ready to fantasize about every single possible option he could use to get revenge on All Might, and then select the best one. He was tempted to force Aizawa to join him, considering how easily swayed the man seemed, but he was sort of already doing that one with Tomura and variety was quite important in these situations-
There was a crash through the wall.
There stood All Might, eyes blazing blue in rage.
Well, All for One thought. I suppose I don’t need to lure him here, any more.
A nagging in the back of his mind made him wonder how All Might found his location, but it didn’t truly matter. He knew that All Might had already fought several times today, that he was probably running low on energy. This might be my best chance to put One for All down for good.
“Oh, All Might,” All for One taunted. “Here to fetch your precious one? I never realized you were into younger men, though I have to admit your choice is handsome. If a little scruffy.”
“What?” All Might’s face was still etched with rage, but his voice was puzzled.
“You know, your,” All for One waved a hand. “Romantic partner.”
“I don’t have a romantic partner,” All Might said, now looking extremely confused.
“Oh, so Aizawa Shouta’s just a coworker?” All for One sneered.
“Yes,” All Might said, baffled.
“You may think you can fool me, but I know the truth!” All for One retorted.
All Might, frustrated with the odd conversation, threw a whirlwind punch at All for One.
Aizawa heard a thundering crash in the other room. Then, footsteps.
“Wh-?”
The footsteps skidded to a stop. “Eraser! We’re here to rescue you!” It was Hound Dog’s voice. Aizawa jumped from the bed and ran toward the metal bars. He heard creaking metal, and he knew that Hound Dog was bending the metal bars so he could get through. He felt Hound Dog grab the collar of his shirt and pull him through two bars that had been bent out of shape. “What’s with your eyes?”
“I can’t see,” Aizawa said.
Hound Dog growled in response and grabbed Aizawa’s hand. “I’ll lead you along. Are you injured besides the eyes?” Hound Dog asked.
“No,” Aizawa said.
Hound Dog tugged on his hand and the two ran through the tunnels. Aizawa was pretty quick, but Inui’s Dog Form quirk gave him boosted speed, which meant Aizawa was being half-dragged anyway. As they were running, Aizawa couldn’t help but ask, “How did you find me?”
“Nedzu pulled a favor and was able to track the signature of the teleporting villain,” Hound Dog answered. “We were planning to go fetch you tomorrow, but Nedzu insisted we get today, even though we weren’t ready-”
The sound of a large explosion rattled the compound they were in. As it did, he felt Hound Dog grab his back and hoist him off his feet and into the man’s arm, before he took off at nearly double their previous speed. “Sorry, Eraser, we gotta go fast,” he said, making a sharp turn. “This place looks like it might start crumbling.”
“It’s fi-” Another loud explosion, and Aizawa felt dust and rubble hit his face. Hound Dog growled and skidded to a stop, before making another quick turn. “Don’t worry, staircase isn’t far from here,” Hound Dog said.
The man must have been speaking the truth, because before long, Aizawa could feel that they were going up an incline. Hound Dog ran up the stairs so quickly that it made Aizawa a little dizzy. Then, Aizawa felt sunlight hit his face and smelled fresh air. “We’re out,” Aizawa said.
“Yes,” Hound Dog said. “Not far now, we just have to put distance between us and that building.” A crash sounded distantly, but Hound Dog ignored it.
After a few more minutes of running, Hound Dog slowed down. Aizawa heard distant conversation as he was lowered onto a flat, leather-y surface. From the smell, he could guess that he’d been put in the backseat of a car.
“Aizawa-kun,” Nedzu said quietly.
“Nedzu,” Aizawa answered. “I’m fine. Uninjured.”
He heard a sigh of relief and felt a fluffy paw brush the hair out of his face. “What about your eyes?”
“Someone used a quirk to seal them shut,” Aizawa answered. “Nedzu, why did you… well, I got captured in one other loop, and you didn’t send a raid so soon. Why this one?”
“Aizawa, there were no casualties in this loop except for your capture,” Nedzu said. “If we didn’t move immediately, this would have become the permanent timeline. I assume in the previous loop things were going to reset.”
Aizawa felt a chill down his spine. He’d sort of assumed that All Might or someone had gotten injured again after he was teleported away by Kurogiri, but he supposed he had set everything up to go right… “That would explain it.”
“Do you know why you were targeted?” Nedzu asked.
“It was those stupid shades… I’m pretty sure I managed to convince them not to talk about me, anymore. So hopefully he won’t try to target me in any future loops,” Aizawa said. “If he does I’ll have to try to find a way to take him out, too. How exhausting… at least Hound Dog is clear…”
“What?”
There was another loud crash.
“Damn, who the hell is All Might fighting in there?” Hound Dog said.
“All for One,” Aizawa answered.
“What?!” Nedzu said, shock bleeding from his voice.
“Um, yeah. He’s still alive.”
“Well,” Nedzu said, his voice sounding ever-so-slightly hysterical, “You won’t have to worry about whether or not the loop resets! Because All Might will definitely get hurt in that battle. So things will reset. Oh… oh dear…”
“What do we do?” Hound Dog said, now sounding worried.
“We need to put Aizawa-kun in a safe place,” Nedzu said. “Somewhere All for One won’t find for an hour… of course! I’ve got it. Hound Dog, we’re going to one of my safehouses. Keep out of the fight. You won’t make a difference.”
“Yes, sir,” Hound Dog said, sounding now even more confused and worried.
“Keep safe!” Nedzu said.
Aizawa sat up. It only took a moment for him to find the seatbelt and click it in. Nedzu did likewise. “Now, Takabayashi, here’s the address--”
Notes:
all for one: i know the truth! i know about the loved one you're trying to hide!
all might (thinking): oh no, he knows about Midoriya, doesn't he?!
all for one: you're dating aizawa shouta aren't you
all might: wait what the fuck
Chapter 19: Broadcast
Summary:
Aizawa discovers vital information about the traitor, and deals with something else unexpected.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
There was very little conversation in the nearly twenty minute drive to Nedzu’s safehouse. Twenty minutes of silence gave Aizawa a little time to think about what had just happened. That felt a little bit like a fever dream, Aizawa noted. I can’t believe tomorrow morning everything will be back to normal. It’s unsettling, after so much happened…
Once they group arrived, Nedzu murmured a word to the driver (who drove away once they got out of the car) led Aizawa to the front door and flicked on the lights.
The safehouse smelled mostly like sawdust and fresh paint, with the distant sound of whirring machines in the background. Aizawa walked forward and found a couch sitting in the room’s center. Exhausted, he immediately laid down on the couch.
“You aren’t injured?” Nedzu said.
“I’m just tired,” Aizawa said. “I want to sleep.”
“Well, before you do that,” Nedzu said. “Some interesting news actually came up on the drive here. The news is reporting that All Might managed to defeat All for One.”
“He actually won?” Aizawa asked, sitting up quickly.
“Indeed! Be sure to tell me in the future about this, it will inform my strategic decisions,” Nedzu said.
“I was afraid he would lose,” Aizawa said. “Didn’t he already fight today?”
“Yes, but with the help of Crust and Gang Orca, he took down the Nomu fairly quickly. He had most of his time in hero form remaining,” Nedzu said. “It is comforting to know that All Might is capable of defeating All for One at this junction.”
“I’m guessing he got injured, though,” Aizawa guessed.
Nedzu sighed. “He did. Expected, but such a shame. It would have been nice to see All for One captured, but we’ll simply have to accomplish it next time.”
“Speaking of next time, what’s your plan?” Aizawa asked. “As far as All for One goes, I mean.”
“You should stop the USJ attack and end the loops. Then we should take a few days for All Might to recover and to gather our forces, and then attack All for One’s base,” Nedzu said gravely. “Best to handle this as quickly as possible.”
It’s true, Aizawa thought. According to Midoriya, All Might would become less powerful over time as his quirk was transferred to Midoriya. The sooner All Might fought All for One, the more likely he would win. “Good idea,” Aizawa said, laying down again now that the excitement was finished. As he laid back down, he felt Nedzu throw a light blanket on top of him. “Thanks,” Aizawa said.
“In order to go through with the plan, I’m going to give you the location of All for One’s base. If you remember this, it could give us a great advantage,” Nedzu said.
“Alright,” Aizawa said, nodding.
“Now. 10-22, Yokohama, Kamino. Repeat it to me.”
“10-22, Yokohama, Kamino,” Aizawa said. He was tired, but he understood the value of the information. “10-22, Yokohama, Kamino…” Aizawa mumbled it under his breath a few times.
“Good, keep it in mind,” Nedzu said. He could hear Nedzu pacing back and forth, a nervous tic of his. “Aizawa-kun… are you okay?”
“Yes?” Aizawa said. “Why are you asking?”
Nedzu sighed. “The kidnapping?”
“I’m uninjured,” Aizawa said.
“That doesn’t mean you’re okay,” Nedzu said. “All for One in particular is known for twisting the minds of his victims. While I’m grateful for the fact you’re physically unharmed…”
He’s worried about me?
“I’m fine,” Aizawa said. “He mostly just left me alone. Whenever he questioned me I just made up lies.”
“Good,” Nedzu said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “Though didn’t you say you were captured before? In a previous loop?”
“Not by him that time. Just Shigaraki, really. I never ended up seeing All for One. They just wanted to turn me into a Nomu in that one.”
Aizawa felt the paw on his shoulder clench at that statement. “They what?”
“They wanted to make me a Nomu, so they’d have a Nomu with Erasure… ?”
“How dare they,” Nedzu said, a low growl rumbling from his throat.
“They were only planning to make me a Nomu, they didn’t actually start trying,” Aizawa rushed to assure. “So I’m okay.”
The paw unclenched from his shirt, and resumed gently petting his arm.
“They’ll regret even threatening such a fate,” Nedzu said, a promise beneath his words. “Tell me about this in future loops, and I’ll make them understand what a mistake it is to target you.”
Aizawa hadn’t been expecting Nedzu to get angry so quickly at that news, but considering Nedzu’s backstory involving unethical experimentation… he could see why Nedzu got upset at the idea of one of his staff members being turned into a Nomu. In fact, Aizawa thought, I wonder if that was one of the reasons All for One and Shigaraki wanted to turn me into a Nomu. Because they knew it would really mess with Nedzu.
Wow. If that were true, it would mean All for One was an even more horrible person than he’d initially imagined.
Something about Nedzu making threats against his enemies made him feel oddly safe. Aizawa barely suppressed a yawn as he felt his muscles relaxing. He curled into his warm blanket.
“10-22, Yokohama, Kamino,” Nedzu whispered. “Don’t forget the address.”
“I won’t,” Aizawa mumbled back, moments before falling asleep.
Aizawa woke up in his bedroom and sat up, rubbing his eyes. After a few moments, his eyes opened. It looks like the quirk sealing my eyes shut was undone, Aizawa thought to himself. His eyes still felt a little sticky, but at least he could open them now.
The first thing Aizawa did after getting out of bed was writing down the address. Forgetting is not worth the risk, he thought to himself, putting the little slip of paper in his hero costume’s pocket. Then, he got ready, and went right to UA, ready to talk to Nedzu again.
Aizawa gave Nedzu a quick overview of what had happened, including the traitor but skipping over most of the parts about the Nomu. After a few minutes of talking, he slid Nedzu the slip of paper with the address.
“This is where his base is,” Aizawa said. “But we should wait a few days to attack. All Might can beat him, but we need to defeat the Nomu today under the right circumstances at the USJ. Give All Might a few days to heal, get together a team, and we can take him down.”
Nedzu looked slightly overwhelmed, but his eyes gleamed with excitement. “And your plan for dealing with the traitor is…?”
“We’ll just set up Power Loader as the traitor for this loop, see if it’s him,” Aizawa dismissed.
“Even if you clear Power Loader, that’s still four possibilities remaining,” Nedzu pointed out. “But you seem as though you’re setting this up to be the final loop. Wouldn’t you want to continue to reset until you found the true traitor?”
Saying ‘ it’s for my continued mental stability’ felt more difficult when he needed to self-advocate without any other people backing him up. Instead of answering, Aizawa just shrugged and averted his eyes. “It’s better this way,” Aizawa said.
“Ah,” Nedzu said, still looking a little confused (and a bit curious.) “Then we can begin. Are you going to teach Homeroom?”
Aizawa glanced at the clock. It was nearly time. And you know what… “No, I’m not going to,” Aizawa said. “I just taught Homeroom thirty times in a row.” He’d lost count of the loops by now, but thirty or so sounded right.
“Isn’t that what you normally do as a teacher?” Nedzu pointed out.
“Yeah, except I don’t get days off,” Aizawa said. “And normally when I teach students, they learn things. They keep forgetting everything I tell them.”
“Hm, that does sound bothersome,” Nedzu said. “I’ll ask Yamada or Ishiyama to cover your shift.”
“Okay, that sounds good,” Aizawa answered.
Aizawa went to his office to plan the details behind the loop.
Well, if the shadows had listened to his request for them to shut up, he’d hopefully not have to deal with All for One targeting him, but he should be on the lookout regardless. And, since he’d acquired new information about the traitor (they probably got their information on the bus, or near it) then he should keep a lookout during that time frame. He should probably also background check the bus driver, and maybe examine the bus for bugs once the USJ was over.
It felt odd not going to Homeroom, but Aizawa spent the time relaxing and running a quick background check of the bus driver. As he’d expected, their record was essentially perfect, sans a vandalism charge from five years ago. There really wasn’t much point in investigating more deeply. If there was something in his public record that indicated he was working with criminals, Nedzu would probably not have hired him. He’d simply have to keep an eye on the guy and maybe talk to him later.
Aizawa spent a few hours simply grading assignments again before the USJ came about. He gathered up the kids and put them on the bus, then followed them on, curiously glancing at his surroundings in search of bugs. He risked a look at the bus driver, who looked at worst, a little bored. Not exactly incriminating. It was kind of a long drive.
The conversation on the bus proceeded as usual, and he hadn’t seen anyone looking at them as they boarded the bus (did the person only come check when Nemuri and Hizashi were with him?) If the villains knew they had backup, it would be a pretty clear sign that Power Loader was up to something.
Thirteen began giving their speech as usual at the USJ, with All Might by their side and the assisting heroes hiding throughout the USJ. When the villains poured through the portal, Aizawa noticed nothing was amiss.
Good, probably not Power Loader then, Aizawa noted. But I still have to be careful, in case the shades didn’t fulfil their promises of not talking about me.
Aizawa stayed with Thirteen to protect the kids while All Might jumped forward and the extra heroes left their hiding places to fight villains.
“There are other heroes already here,” Thirteen said. “Senpai, is backup coming?”
Aizawa opened his mouth to say yes but paused. He hadn’t actually texted Nedzu before he went into the USJ, something he typically did… was Nedzu planning on sending backup? “Uh, I don’t know,” Aizawa said. “Phones aren’t working, though.”
“Oh dear…”
“Kaminari-kun!” Midoriya said. “Why don’t you contact UA with your quirk?”
“Sure!” Kaminari said.
Wait, isn’t-
Kurogiri appeared before the group, derailing Aizawa’s train of thought. He quickly used his quirk against Kurogiri but avoided leaping after him to prevent a repeat of that kidnapping loop. Again, he blinked just in time for Thirteen to nearly kill the guy. Kurogiri vanished and fell back toward Shigaraki again.
Aizawa glanced back at the villains fighting the heroes in the center plaza. The lesser villains were getting bodied, and a mix of Crust, All Might and Gang Orca was giving the Nomu serious trouble. Shigaraki and Kurogiri vanished into the mist, clearly dubbing this a lost cause.
Aizawa glanced around his group. Thirteen was fine, as were all the students. That meant if All Might escaped this loop unscathed, that everything would be over. Thank god. And down to four possible traitors too, which meant that the majority of the staff had been cleared.
Backup arrived very soon after. Ah, I guess backup comes anyway, he thought mildly. Good thing Nedzu’s got it covered.
“Any news?” Nedzu said as he walked by.
“It’s not Power Loader,” Aizawa grunted.
“Good!” Nedzu said, a little bit gleefully, before he called over the other heroes to coordinate a defense.
The subsequent USJ cleanup and emergency meeting went as they had before, with little incident. Aizawa didn’t notice any major differences in the topics of conversation, which reassured him. What reassured him even more was that All Might showed up to their meeting, something that had never been done before.
“Are you okay, Yagi?” Aizawa made sure to ask. He still felt very nervous talking to the man, but found himself capable of suppressing the reaction, unlike before.
Yagi blinked in surprise. “I’m fine, Aizawa-kun!” he said cheerfully. “Completely uninjured.”
Hell. Yes.
Throughout the meeting, there were even throwaway comments about how no one had gotten hurt. Aizawa barely managed to contain his excitement. The meeting was so serious that he’d probably get weird looks if he started smiling. Well, he’d probably get weird looks at him smiling for no reason anyway, but…
Aizawa briefly considered explaining to everyone how the time loops were resetting, but he decided to put it off. Tomorrow, if the loops reset, then he would tell them.
Once the meeting was over, Nedzu subtly beckoned Aizawa to his office. Aizawa followed him inside and sat down in one of the chairs. “So the loops over, huh?” Aizawa said conversationally.
Nedzu’s whiskers twitched, perhaps in excitement. “Yes, very true! Right now, I’m planning a raid on All for One’s base. But, from you I need to know who might be a traitor, so that I don’t include them in the planning.”
“The four left are Cementoss, Vlad King, Ectoplasm, and Snipe,” Aizawa listed.
Nedzu’s face crinkled. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Hm?” Aizawa asked.
“None of their motivations line up,” Nedzu said.
“Really?” Aizawa questioned. “Don’t none of the staff really line up, though?”
“I suppose,” Nedzu said. “But you listing out those four options really makes it seem so odd that one of them would be the traitor. I would have eliminated all of them as possibilities based on a variety of factors.”
“I’m not sure what to say,” Aizawa said, shrugging. “Maybe there’s a bug or something?”
Nedzu tapped his chin. “Aizawa, what method did you use to clear the students?”
“I ended up confiscating their phones in the morning, and kept my eye on them after they were told about the attack. I didn’t see any of them call anyone, so they didn’t have a way to contact the villains,” Aizawa explained.
“Did you make sure to take into account Kaminari’s quirk and radio equipment?” Nedzu asked. “He still would have been able to contact people without any external devices, if he was wearing his costume. Which he probably was, on the bus.”
Aizawa froze. He hadn’t.
Was Kaminari…
It probably wasn’t him. Right? He was such a sweet kid.
But it made sense, in a certain way.
The traitor had figured out their information on or near the bus, which fit with Kaminari. On the day that Nemuri and Hizashi came, Kaminari could have let the villains know that two extra heroes were coming, thus leading to the weird result.
So it was… possible.
“I’m an idiot,” Aizawa said, slouching in his chair. “No. I didn’t. It could be him.”
“Then I would hazard to say that Kaminari is the likeliest suspect,” Nedzu continued, sounding mildly disappointed. “And, considering his quirk, perhaps it was he who was jamming radio signals at the USJ.”
Hm. That fit, too. In the loop in which Aizawa’s phone miraculously worked inside the USJ, Kaminari and his classmates were escorted to safety by Thirteen before they even entered the USJ. If Kaminari was the one jamming the frequencies at the USJ, he might have been too far away in that loop.
“I wish I could use the loops to check if it's him,” Aizawa admitted. “But there’s no more resetting, now that no one is injured.” No way to confirm (or debunk) a serious suspicion of his student.
“This is still a good thing,” Nedzu advised. “We got through a villain attack with no injuries, and we have a decent suspect for the traitor! We’re well on our way to creating a plan to take down All for One. It’s mostly a victory.”
“I suppose,” Aizawa granted, though this so-called victory still felt… unfinished. “I’m going to go home then.”
Nedzu nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on Kaminari, though I don’t think he’ll do anything else during this loop.”
Aizawa wandered home alone, feeling a little lonely. Part of him wanted to go talk to Nemuri and Hizashi about the loops again, but it was a little late in the day to do that, and it would just be easier to bring it up in front of everyone tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Aizawa mused. Finally, it’s coming.
He was happy that time was continuing for sure. And yet he felt a deep shame and disappointment in himself that he’d failed to notice the signs about Kaminari before the loops ran out. Now he had little way to investigate his suspicions. Not to say he wanted the loops to continue! Definitely not, he was glad they would end. But if only he’d figured things out sooner… he probably could have saved himself a lot of agonizing if he hadn’t stupidly missed the fact that Kaminari’s radio equipment meant he could contact anyone at any time. Idiot brain, Aizawa chided himself. Idiot brain, figure out how to think under stress!
Aizawa curled up in his bed, feeling sorry for himself.
Everyone deserves a little time to indulge in their self-pity, Aizawa thought.
Aizawa went to sleep shortly after. And despite the fact that he’d succeeded in his true goal, making sure no one got hurt, something that in almost any other context would have made him feel like he’d done well…
Under these circumstances, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d failed the loop again.
Aizawa woke up not long after. He yawned and picked up his phone, expecting to see Thursday, April 15th emblazoned across the top of his phone.
Wednesday, April 14th.
Aizawa nearly dropped his phone.
“What the fuck-?”
He was back on Wednesday morning.
What… what did I do wrong? Did I misinterpret the quirk somehow? What’s going on?
Aizawa’s stomach dropped.
He had no idea why his plan hadn’t worked, which… severely impeded his ability to form a new plan. Aizawa let out a sigh and tossed his phone across the room.
Now I have to figure out what on earth is going on with the time loop quirk… hopefully that doesn’t take too long…
Notes:
It won't take too long! Promise! ^.^
This chapter was a little bit rough to write, but I'm hoping it was good to read! Have a nice day :)
Chapter 20: Change of Altitude
Summary:
Aizawa demands answers, and finds them.
Chapter Text
Aizawa marched to school without even bothering to change out of his pajamas. He shoved on boots and made his way straight to UA, crossing his arms and sulking on the train. When he stalked through the UA gates, he saw concerned glances from students at his obvious anger and unusual dress, but they all skittered out of his way as he walked stiffly to Nedzu’s office.
“Aizawa?” Nedzu said, blinking in surprise.
“I’m under the effect of a time loop,” Aizawa said. “Miura Hikaru. Victory Loop.” He pointed aggressively at Nedzu’s computer.
Nedzu’s eyebrow rose as he typed in the information into his computer. “Okay… that quirk is registered in the database,” Nedzu said.
“So the description,” Aizawa said, “says that once you solve your greatest failure, the loop will keep going on. But I solved it, and it didn’t reset!” Aizawa sighed and plopped himself into a chair. “I’m sorry, I’m just frustrated. I’ve been at this for ages,” Aizawa scowled.
“How long?” Nedzu said.
“Over a month,” Aizawa said.
Nedzu frowned at that. “Hm, that’s not good. Why don’t we call the staff together? Do some brainstorming.”
“Huh, you’ve never suggested that before,” Aizawa noted.
“I’m suggesting it because you’ve probably come to me before, yet you’re still here, stuck in the loops,” Nedzu said. “Therefore, perhaps my advice alone isn’t sufficient.”
Well, not exactly, but Aizawa wasn’t going to reject an emergency meeting on his behalf now that he was pretty sure Kaminari was the traitor. “Okay, let’s do it.”
Due to the classes that were in session, in the end, only Hound Dog, Sekijiro, Hizashi, Nedzu, and Yagi were available for the mini-impromptu meeting.
“I’m trapped in a time loop,” Aizawa told them.
A murmur of confusion swept across the group.
“How’s that possible?” Sekijiro asked.
“A quirk, called Victory Loop, with user Miura Hikaru,” Aizawa said. “Nedzu texted you all the quirk descriptions.” He paused a moment for everyone to open up the page. “You’ll see it says that once you overcome the greatest failure of that day, that the loops are supposed to stop. I overcame mine, but they didn’t. I’m still stuck in the loops,” Aizawa said.
“Hm,” Hizashi said, rubbing his chin. “What’s your ‘greatest failure?’”
“There’s going to be an attack on my class today, at the USJ,” Aizawa said, ignoring the surprise that rippled through the room. “My failure is that students and staff were hurt in the attack.”
“Wait, there’s going to be an attack today?!” Yagi said, worried.
“Very troubling,” Nedzu said.
“But the least of our problems,” Aizawa reminded. “I managed to get through a whole loop and no one got hurt, but things still reset.”
“Hm,” Hizashi said, tapping his notebook. “Maybe you were wrong about your failure?”
“Maybe,” Aizawa sighed. “But I was so sure. I was so guilty about that specifically, so… well, I’m not really sure what else it would be.”
“It could be that the quirk doctors were wrong or misinterpreted the quirk,” Sekijiro said. “It says not much is known about the quirk. Is there anything about the quirk that you’ve noticed that isn’t directly stated in the description or the notes?”
“Well… ” Aizawa said, thinking. “One weird thing that happens they didn’t state outright is that if you reach midnight, you can actually watch the quirk reset. It’s a little terrifying, the world sort of glitches out.”
“One of the testimonials mentions it, but you’re right that it’s not listed under the notes,” Hound Dog said, glancing at his phone. “Anything else?”
Aizawa suddenly remembered something. “At the beginning of the loops, I actually wasn’t able to tell anyone that I was stuck in a time loop. If I told you guys about the loops, things would reset. I’d just sort of blink and appear back in bed again.”
“Yeah that’s really unusual,” Hizashi said. “But wait, if you can tell us now, what changed?”
“I’m not sure,” Aizawa said, shrugging. “Just suddenly I could.”
“Can you tell us what you were doing before the change occurred?” Nedzu instructed. “If you remember, that is.”
“Um… well it would have been before the Endeavor and Mirko loop, would have been before the first loop with Crust and Gang Orca,” Aizawa murmured, trying to remember. “Would have been before I tried to clear any staff… would have been after the initial loops… right after All Might arrived at the Nomu battle completely fresh but still failed,” Aizawa said. “So then I came to school discouraged, and then I spoke to… Sekijiro, I think.”
It looked like Aizawa had lost everyone in his mumbled explanation, but Nedzu just nodded. “What did you say to him?”
This part was easier to remember. “I asked him how I should solve an unsolvable problem. He joked, ‘just ask Nedzu to solve it for you’ and that led into a conversation about asking for help. I remember thinking, it would be nice to ask everyone for help, but things would reset, so I couldn’t tell anyone. Then, wanting to reset, I told Sekijiro about how I was looping, but for some reason the loops continued,” Aizawa finished.
“That’s kind of ironic,” Sekijiro said, tapping his pen on the desk. “A conversation about asking for help, right before you were able to ask for help.”
“Maybe it’s not a coincidence,” Hizashi said. “Could that have possibly led to the change?”
“The quirk’s based on perception, it seems,” Hound Dog growled. “Aizawa, how did you perceive that conversation?”
“Um,” Aizawa didn’t really feel like explaining his complicated feelings but it seemed like he’d have to, “I argued that I shouldn’t need help to fix my problem, but he said that it didn’t matter. In the end I realized that even All Might fighting the villains got hurt, so the fact that I was expecting myself to be able to defeat the villains head-on alone was pretty stupid.”
Sekijiro suddenly looked excited. “So, Aizawa, after you talked to me, you didn’t feel like you were failing if you asked for help?”
“I suppose so,” Aizawa said, nodding. It was an accurate statement.
“Maybe that’s why the loop didn’t reset!” he said. “The loop seems to reset based on whether or not you feel like you failed. Since you felt like you were failing for asking for help, at first, the quirk just reset when you asked for help. Then after you talked to me and I convince you it was okay--”
“Then I could ask for help, and it wouldn’t reset,” Aizawa said, realization dawning. “That’s possible.”
“You could test it by convincing yourself asking for help is bad again,” Hizashi suggested.
Hound Dog groaned. “Please, don’t do that. You’re going to trap yourself in the loop with no help again.”
“So,” Yagi said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “What does that tell us about the quirk?”
“That it’s probably more based on feelings than was initially assumed,” Sekijiro said.
“Maybe that’s why you failed even though no one was hurt,” Hizashi said. “Because you felt like you failed, so the loop reset anyway.”
That was… very possible.
“I did feel like a failure,” Aizawa said.
“Well… try not doing that!” Hizashi added.
“Thanks, Hizashi,” Aizawa said dryly.
“Do we think he needs to complete with win conditions and feel like he succeeded, or is it just feeling like he succeeded?” Sekijiro asked.
“I don’t know,” Hound Dog said, shrugging. “But I bet the quirk is just that the person has to feel like they’ve overcome the greatest failure. That actually kind of explains all these odd addendums… like ‘the person must complete their failed event similarly to what it was initially?’ What does that even mean? It’s probably just that people don’t feel like they overcame the obstacle unless the setup is the same,” Hound Dog said dismissively.
“Hm,” Nedzu said. “Perhaps we should just not send the students to the USJ. Then, considering that you managed to prevent the event entirely,” Nedzu said, glancing at Aizawa. “You could focus on trying to feel as though you succeeded?”
Normally, that would satisfy him, but… “I need to test something at the USJ,” Aizawa said, feeling as though he definitely needed to see if Kaminari was the traitor.
Nedzu frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Aizawa confirmed. He’d have a very tough time convincing himself he was succeeding if he passed up this opportunity.
“Alright,” Nedzu said. “Let’s prepare for the USJ.”
Aizawa was on the bus, trying not to throw glances at Kaminari.
The students hadn’t been told of the attack, so that the villains wouldn’t bring extra people. If the villains were prepared for them coming, Aizawa would have to start investigating the staff again, but he was hoping that wouldn’t be the case. It was probably going to be Kaminari.
And Aizawa had a direct test in mind to see if it was Kaminari.
The group entered the USJ, where Thirteen and All Might stood, with the extra visiting heroes scattered about the facility. Thirteen began their speech, but it wasn’t long before the lights began flickering and villains began pouring through the portal in the center plaza. Aizawa pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen. No Signal.
As the villains began to move forward, Aizawa turned toward Kaminari, who was standing in the back of the group. He activated his quirk.
As soon as he did, the USJ intruder alarms started to blare loudly and startlingly. The facility was bathed in flashing red light, indicating the building had gone into emergency mode. Aizawa quickly glanced down at his phone. The signal on it was working again, and he was free to text whoever he pleased.
Aizawa glanced back up and saw Kaminari looking at him, his face rapidly paling in fear. It didn’t seem like anyone had noticed their little exchange, far too distracted by the encroaching villains, but Kaminari had certainly noticed his quirk being erased. If his fear was any indication, it seemed like he knew what Aizawa had figured out. Aizawa brought up one finger to his mouth into the universal shush signal and turned to Thirteen. “Keep an eye out-” Aizawa said, just as Kurogiri popped into existence before them.
Aizawa sighed and geared up to fight Kurogiri.
It wasn’t long before the villains were defeated. Everyone seemed uninjured, including All Might and Thirteen, which was a good sign as far as loops went. If Aizawa managed to feel successful in the future, that was.
Kaminari, on the other hand, still looked nervous. He occasionally shot glances at Aizawa and avoided talking with his friends.
Aizawa walked over. Kaminari backed up a few paces but then held his ground, looking up and staring Aizawa in the eye. “Sensei.”
“Come talk to me after everyone is escorted to the school,” Aizawa said. “I haven’t told anyone, but I want an explanation.”
“This is a mistake!” Kaminari started, but Aizawa shook his head. “Tell me once we get to the school. It’ll be more private, we don’t want anyone overhearing and blaming you if this really is a mistake,” Aizawa said.
Reluctantly, Kaminari nodded.
Aizawa sat across from Kaminari, trying to keep his face calm and understanding and not desperately eager for answers. This might be the final loop, so he needed to be sensitive. Even if Kaminari was the traitor, he was still fifteen. Aizawa was hoping there was a good explanation besides indoctrinated into villain organization but that hope was probably a little bit too optimistic to be realistic.
“So, Kaminari,” Aizawa said. “I know you were the one who was stopping signals from reaching UA. And I know you gave them information, to some extent.”
Kaminari sank into his chair, looking uncharacteristically upset.
“Look, kid. Are they threatening you? If they are, we can help. If you just helped them because your beliefs align with theirs, we can talk about that too. As your teacher, I’m not here to punish you. I’m here to advocate for you. But this is a very serious situation, and if you really want my help, I’m going to need your honesty,” Aizawa said.
Kaminari gave a suspicious and yet defeated look. “You’re not just going to… expel me, or… have me arrested, or something?”
“If you’re actively dangerous to your classmates, then I’m going to have to expel you, or at least ‘suspend’ you, in a sense,” Aizawa said. “But I’ll do everything I can to stop anyone from arresting you.” It was true. Juvenile detention never helped anyone, and Aizawa certainly wasn’t planning to try to prosecute Kaminari, even if Kaminari wasn’t coerced into becoming the traitor. If that meant covering things up? So be it. There was a reason he was talking to Kaminari separately from everyone else.
Kaminari seemed to sense that he was being truthful in his statements. He sat up a little straighter, though he still was sweating and trembling slightly. “I…”
There was a long pause. “Take your time,” Aizawa said.
“Um, I’m… not sure where to start,” Kaminari said.
“What about the first time you met them?” Aizawa suggested. “Maybe your reasoning?”
"My family's been struggling with money lately," Kaminari admitted. "I've got two dads and a younger brother. Dad got fired from his job and pops has been out of the job market for twenty years, so things... weren't going great."
Aizawa wanted to ask questions, but he stayed silent, deciding not to interrupt.
“Pops managed to get something low-paying, but it’s not enough to support a family of four,” Kaminari said. “Dad’s trying but he’s having a hard time getting accommodations," Kaminari’s didn't meet Aizawa's eyes. “Shigaraki offered me a lot of money. It’d be enough to keep us afloat for several more months, enough for one of my parents to get a new job. So. That's it, I guess.”
This makes more sense than my theories for the past ten loops, Aizawa thought. Manipulating a student in a time of crisis… it makes a lot more sense than a staff member going rogue. And Aizawa felt vaguely comforted that Kaminari was doing this because he was bribed (coerced?) rather than because he liked the villains or anything.
“They said they wanted to attack All Might,” Kaminari said. "And, well. No one can defeat All Might, right? So it was harmless. And I was right, no one got hurt."
“The fact that no one got hurt was lucky,” Aizawa said, letting his voice turn stern. “There were a lot of villains there that were angry, and weren’t afraid to hurt kids. It may not have come to harm, but it was a bad idea.”
Kaminari's expression soured. “I wanted to help,” he said. “I would have gotten a job to help with extra money, but my parents insisted I should only worry about my studies. I had to do something."
"Maybe. But this wasn't it, kid," Aizawa said. "Dealing with villains is dangerous. Would your parents really have wanted this?"
That got a reaction out of Kaminari, whose faced twisted in a wince.
“They’re good parents,” Kaminari said. “But they're wrong about me. Even though they're struggling they won't let me help because they want me to do well at UA. I only got into UA because of my quirk, which I can barely control..." Kaminari frowned. "And I'm not good at studying."
“Quirk control and study techniques can be improved with training,” Aizawa said. “It's not hopeless. And if things have gotten so bad that you’re willing to make deals with villains, then I think UA could help. Meal plans, a scholarship, something of the like,” Aizawa said. If there was nothing UA could do, Aizawa had accumulated a fairly large amount of money on account of Nedzu being generous with raises.
He'd be willing to, if Kaminari was telling the truth.
And Aizawa was pretty sure he was. It looked like it was killing Kaminari to admit all this stuff, and the kid would have to be a pretty good actor to be lying. Aizawa almost wanted to bring in that truth detective, Tsukauchi, to confirm, but he wanted to keep the police as far away from this case as possible. Nedzu would probably be sympathetic, and Nedzu would be able to sniff out whether or not all this was a pack of lies fairly easily.
“That’s it?” Kaminari’s face flashed with worry and skepticism. "No expelling?"
“Look, I assume you did what you did out of desperation, so the only logical course of action is to make the situation less desperate,” Aizawa said. And if circumstances aligned (aka Nedzu said that Tsukauchi could be trusted to keep what Kaminari did quiet)...“Though you might have to say that you’re not planning to do anything like this again in front of someone who’s quirk can detect lies.”
“I can do that!” Kaminari rushed to say, his eyes widening. He seemed shocked that he was getting another chance.
“Good,” Aizawa said. “Then we should probably get you home. Your parents have probably arrived by now.”
Aizawa, upon initially learning of the traitor, had been very angry. He’d actually felt a very uncharacteristic desire for revenge, considering that the traitor was directly responsible for so many loops of pain. He had wanted to hurt the traitor when he thought they were a staff member, even though the other UA teachers were his friends.
Those feelings had dissipated once he’d learned it was probably Kaminari.
He just… couldn’t feel that way towards a student.
Aizawa huffed in amusement. “You know, you have no idea how much trouble you’ve caused me lately,” Aizawa said.
Kaminari stared at him for a moment. Then, he stood and straightened up. He gave a deep bow. “Thank you, Aizawa-sensei.”
Aizawa nodded in response, and the two of them walked toward the entrance of UA, where Kaminari’s parents always waited for him in every loop.
I may still need to expel him, Aizawa thought to himself. While there were obviously other things that factored in, he still made a deal with villains. I'm not sure he has the ethical qualifications to be a hero.
Aizawa knew this, but seeing the abject relief on the kid's face... well, he couldn't bring himself to say it.
We'll see.
Chapter 21: Slow Descent
Notes:
quick tw: mention about suicidal thoughts (nothing too severe)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Aizawa went straight back to his apartment after learning the news.
He skipped the emergency meeting, texting Nedzu something about how he’d do his debriefing tomorrow if things didn’t reset. Nedzu seemed dissatisfied, but Aizawa didn’t really care that much.
He wasn’t sure if Nedzu knew about Kaminari being the traitor. He supposed it was all down to whether or not Nedzu had listened in on his private conversation with Kaminari. Aizawa knew there were cameras in his office, so it was possible, but Nedzu usually avoided using those out of respect for his privacy.
He supposed it didn’t matter either way. Everything would just rese-
Wait, no. This was supposed to be the last loop.
Aizawa shook his head. It was so easy to treat this like just another loop even though it was supposed to be the final one. So then it did matter what Nedzu thought, because this was the final loop. Regardless, if Nedzu didn’t listen in on that conversation, Aizawa planned to tell him about Kaminari being the traitor tomorrow. Nedzu would know what to do, and he’d probably support Shouta’s decision to hide Kaminari’s actions from the police.
When Aizawa thought of this, all he felt was a strange hollowness in his chest.
This is a good result, he thought to himself. You found the traitor. No one was hurt.
“Ugh,” Aizawa said to himself, sinking into his kitchen chair. “What’s wrong with me?”
He’d gotten attached to Class 1-A during the loops, Kaminari included. So much so that it irked him that he couldn’t immediately right Kaminari’s wrongs.
I could, though, I could talk with Kaminari, in the next loop, before he makes this mistake…
No! No, this needs to end. Stop making things harder on yourself.
Aizawa sighed. Despite the fact that intellectually he knew that he should let the loop end now, he wasn’t sure if the mixed feelings bubbling up in his chest would let him. If he could just press a button to end the loops… he would. But trying to wrangle his feelings into shape was much harder.
Aizawa was trying to hype himself up by reminding himself how great it was that his class had not gotten horribly murdered, when his phone rang. Aizawa glanced at the caller, seeing it was Nedzu.
Aizawa sighed as he answered it, ready to listen to Nedzu lecture him for not attending the debriefing.
“Aizawa,” Nedzu said, and his voice was so deadly serious that Aizawa froze upon hearing it. “In any of the previous loops, was Kaminari attacked after the USJ?”
“What!?” An icy feeling crept through Aizawa’s chest. “No, never.”
“Kaminari Denki and his younger brother, Kaminari Daichi, are dead,” Nedzu said. “They were murdered.”
Aizawa felt his breath catch in his throat. No. “How could-?” This has never happened in any of the previous loops… a change that encouraged the villains to attack Kaminari…
The realization felt like a bucket of cold water hitting him in the face.
Hadn't he erased Kaminari’s quirk in the middle of the USJ?
Kaminari’s quirk failing in the middle of the attack and letting messages through… had that convinced the villains that Kaminari had sold them out? “-I’ll fix this,” Aizawa promised. “When the loop resets, I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen.”
“Good,” Nedzu said. “Come back to UA, and I’ll brief you on the details of the attack. He was attacked by the same people who attacked the USJ… the disintegration quirk is a distinctive touch,” Nedzu said.
Aizawa felt a wave of nausea go through him. “I understand,” Aizawa said. “I’ll be there in no time.”
Aizawa arrived at UA not ten minutes later. There was a team of heroes and detectives at UA already, buzzing around frantically about the potential threat of the League. It looked like they were sending out some kind of security escorts to protect the other students, too.
When he arrived, Nedzu pulled him aside and gave him a packet of materials.
“It’s a summarization of what happened,” Nedzu said. “So you can plan for next time.”
“... Is there a reason I’m not joining the main investigation?” Aizawa asked.
Nedzu grimaced. "Yes. They’re dealing with materials that are… unnecessarily graphic, considering the level of information you need.”
Translation: I don’t want you to see pictures of your dead student.
If he weren’t in a time loop, and if his student were truly dead, Aizawa would probably have insisted on seeing the crime scene photos. Perhaps as some kind of self-punishment for failing his student, but also as some kind of closure. But considering that Kaminari was going to be alive in the next loop, in this case it'd probably just be unnecessarily traumatizing. “Thanks,” Aizawa said.
“Next loop, tell me that this happened,” Nedzu said. “I want to create a dorm system for the students… If the League plans to target them individually, they need to be protected until the League is arrested.”
“I understand,” Aizawa promised.
Aizawa started reading the packet.
Aizawa’s fears that they’d both been killed by disintegration were half-wrong. That honor went only to Denki, his skull half-missing when they found him. Nothing but ash and blood. Daichi, on the other hand, was given a simpler death. A snapped neck, quick and clean.
Aizawa found himself sending up a silent prayer that Daichi’s death had been painless.
(He didn’t bother for Denki. He'd felt Shigaraki's quirk firsthand, so he knew for certain that his death had been torture.)
“Nemuri,” Aizawa said. “I need you to knock me out with your quirk.”
“Um,” she said. “Okay, but why?”
“I need to be asleep by midnight, but I’m not able to sleep right now,” Aizawa said. The descriptions of his student’s death were bad enough that he knew he’d have trouble falling asleep. He felt a pang of gratitude that Nedzu hadn’t let Aizawa see pictures of the corpses. But he still needed Midnight's help, because he was still having problems sleeping and didn't want to deal with the past-midnight glitchiness. “I’ll explain it all tomorrow.”
Nemuri agreed.
When Aizawa woke up and saw that it was Wednesday, he breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure what he would do with himself if it turned out that that had been the final loop.
He went to school quickly, skimming over his daily routine, and went straight to the teachers’ lounge. He wanted to come up with a solid plan before telling Nedzu this loop.
I need to make sure that the villains don’t attack Kaminari, Aizawa thought to himself. Which means they can’t think he betrayed them. Could I just not use Erasure on him? Maybe, but the bringing of extra heroes puts him in a precarious situation…
They didn’t kill Kaminari right away in loops where they brought extra people, but didn’t mean the villains didn’t notice that, or weren’t planning to kill him a few days later.
Whatever dorm thing Nedzu was planning would likely be up in record time thanks to Power Loader’s expediency and Cementoss’ quirk. They could use it to keep Kaminari safe. Still, he didn't want Kaminari to die while the dorms were being built, or when he left the dorms to go on his internships. He needed to minimize the chances of Kaminari ever becoming a villain-target in the first place.
The villains can’t think that Kaminari betrayed them, Aizawa thought to himself. How do I make sure that everyone’s safe, all while not making changes that provoke the villains’ suspicion?
Some kind of fake information campaign? Maybe, if he could make up an excuse for the information leak that resulted in the extra teachers being there… but that would mean more loops…
Aizawa didn’t realize he was pacing and biting at his fingernails in anxiety until Thirteen said something. “You okay, senpai?”
Aizawa stopped what he was doing and slipped his hands in his pockets, sighing in response. I used to be more stoic than anyone here, even Vlad King, but now I can’t help but show signs of stress. I used to be able to keep a straight face even after the worst of news...
Aizawa was pretty sure that if he’d kept up that stoic attitude during the worst of the loops, he’d have broken. The extreme emotions that came along with dying, near-death, and seeing someone die (all in quick succession) were NOT meant to be repressed like that.
Aizawa was hoping he’d regain some of his stoicism back once his stress levels decreased, after the loops. Despite that, the days where he never showed anyone he was stressed or hurting were in the distant past. Letting other people help him had been his only salvation in the loops.
But Thirteen was missing a lot of context. They were probably pretty concerned with him right now, since ‘days in the distant past where he never showed anyone he was stressed’ was literally just yesterday for them.
“I’m fine,” Aizawa said, like a liar.
“Are you sure?” Thirteen asked.
“Well,” Aizawa said. “Have you ever come across something…” Aizawa struggled to explain without getting too far into explaining the loops. “Where you feel like you’re on the cusp of accomplishing something, but right as you reach that point, it’s taken from you? The goalpost has shifted, it’s farther away now. And just as you reach it again, it’s snatched away. Over and over.”
He couldn’t see Thirteen’s face, but he could hear their concern in their voice. “That sounds pretty tough.”
“I just can’t seem to reach my goal,” Aizawa said wistfully. “I’ve come up with all these complicated strategies, yet they fall flat.”
“Maybe you’re just overthinking it, senpai,” Thirteen said. “Or maybe you’re trying to do too much all at once? Sorry, I can’t really give good advice when I don’t know what it is… ”
Aizawa appreciated that Thirteen was trying to assure him, though all he’d really wanted was a good listener. “Thanks. Sometimes I just wish this would all be over, though.”
Thirteen stiffened, and it took a half-second for Aizawa to figure out why. Aizawa noted was going to have to be a bit more careful about throwing out statements like ‘I wish this would all be over.’ He was only talking about the loops, of course, and he felt a desperate, clawing desire to live both for himself and his students, but he couldn’t deny it sort of sounded like a red flag for suicidal thoughts. He wasn’t sure how to go back on that statement now, though.
“So how’s your planning for the USJ going?” Aizawa asked, changing the subject.
The two talked for a little bit about the USJ, with Aizawa bringing up a few of the plans he’d thought of for his students through the loops. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a class of twenty,” Aizawa said. “So I got started early on thinking of potential training methods.”
Their conversation wrapped up quickly, with Aizawa planning to return to his office and officially make a plan for this loop once he was alone. “Aizawa-senpai,” Thirteen said. “If you ever need anything… just ask.”
“I will,” Aizawa said. He bid them goodbye and ducked into his office.
None of the plans he came up with were good enough.
Most of them were exceedingly complicated and involved setting up some kind of emergency misinformation campaign. He had no doubt he could do it, but he worried that the villains would discover they were misled one or two days after it had been set up, when it was too late to reset, and kill Kaminari.
Complicated, complicated, complicated… maybe Thirteen was right. Maybe I am overthinking this… or doing too much at once. But what would be the simplest option?
He couldn’t let the villains think that Kaminari betrayed them. So he couldn’t interfere in any obvious way, but he suspected any changes would be looked at by the villains with suspicion. So what could he do?
You could just let it happen without changes.
Aizawa slumped down at his desk.
He’d considered the possibility of just… letting the USJ run as normal, with a few people getting hurt, so that the villains wouldn’t notice anything amiss.
But if he wanted to do that and end the loops right after, he would have to learn to make his peace with an imperfect run. With Yagi getting hurt. With Thirteen getting hurt.
“An imperfect run…”
It was simple. It was the best, most logical strategy, when it came to escaping the loop with minimal injuries to himself and his students.
"Could I even accept an imperfect run?" Aizawa muttered. He sighed. It looked like he was actually going to have to put in the emotional labor of doing so. "Just great."
Notes:
I'm back y'all!!
Chapter 22: Crosswind
Summary:
Aizawa makes a decision, has a conversation, and gets lucky.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Right now, Aizawa couldn’t dwell on the imperfect loop. He had to teach homeroom.
When Aizawa entered and saw Kaminari alive, chatting with Ashido… well, part of him felt the urge to slap Kaminari for endangering himself by screwing around with villains.
Aizawa resisted.
Instead, he decided to go over the regular Wednesday lesson for once, rather than his usual fare of improv-ing one for his own amusement. He even actually tried to put effort into it this time, rather than looking dead.
After homeroom, he pulled both Bakugou and Midoriya aside. “Neither of you will be attending the USJ Training Session today,” Aizawa said.
Midoriya’s eyes got huge and sad, while Bakugou’s face twisted with rage. He opened his mouth to bark out some retort but Aizawa shook his head. “Both of you were far too reckless during your initial training exercise, and I want you to spend some time thinking about how you could have succeeded in that exercise without doing harm to yourself or others.”
Bakugou did a little more stomping and yelling while Midoriya got eerily quiet. Only Aizawa promising that they would be involved in the next training exercise quelled Bakugou’s ferociousness, and even that barely soothed his anger.
When Bakugou finally stormed off, he was left with Midoriya.
“I’m sorry, Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “The difficulty you’re having with your quirk is no joke. I’ll talk with you tomorrow about how we can work on improving your quirk control.”
The blankness in Midoriya’s eyes faded, revealing a confused and slightly nervous look. “You’re going to help me with my quirk?
“Yes. I have some ideas for you. But you’re not coming because I don’t want you to break your arm during this field trip,” Aizawa said.
Midoriya huffed a little, face determined. “But I can’t let myself can’t fall behind my classmates!”
“You’re already behind, Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “But we’ll catch you up. Don’t worry about it.”
“Fine,” Midoriya muttered, looking away.
Aizawa resisted the urge to give Midoriya’s head a fond pat. Midoriya looked mad enough at him that he was fairly sure it wouldn’t be taken well. Plus, from Midoriya’s perspective, they hadn't known one another very long.
Oh well. Since he’d have to train Midoriya with his quirk after the loops anyway, he’d have time to make it up to him.
Aizawa let the USJ arrive without telling anyone.
I’m going to try to minimize differences, but I can make a few harmless changes… so long as those changes don’t lead back to Kaminari, they should be fine to make.
So he texted that the USJ was being attacked as they walked in. The League of Villains would probably blame the teachers’ arrival on Iida’s escape, so there wasn’t too much danger there.
“Alright,” Aizawa muttered to himself. “Let’s get started.”
As the villains streamed in, Aizawa said, “Thirteen, protect the students” and “Kaminari, try to contact campus with your quirk” for the record even though he knew Thirteen would get downed early in the fight and that Kaminari definitely wouldn’t try. But, plausible deniability and all that.
Aizawa rushed forward and started beating up the lower-level villains at his now-typical slow pace. He was careful to fight slowly to avoid getting too close to the ringleaders. If he got too close to Shigaraki, the guy would send the Nomu after him. He wanted to avoid that, even if it was technically something that happened on the first run. His own cautious fighting wasn’t something the villains could reasonably blame Kaminari for.
It seemed like a reasonable risk. Though maybe that was just his cowardice (or self-preservation instincts) talking.
Aizawa glanced behind him. The students had been scattered, and Thirteen was down. All according to plan. (Aizawa internally winced that his injured coworker and endangered students being considered ‘all according to plan.’)
Still, all he had to do now was wait.
Just a few minutes later, All Might broke through the doors of the USJ.
“I am here!” he said, and Aizawa sighed in relief, backing away from the center, anticipating All Might’s intervention.
As All Might rushed forward to fight the Nomu, Aizawa realized that he probably could have resolved the other crimes (the ones that had wasted All Might’s time in the morning) to make things easier for the man without arousing the villains’ suspicion.
Oh well, Aizawa thought sourly. A bit late now. He aggressively shoved down feelings of bubbling dissatisfaction. They couldn’t have that, not in this loop.
As All Might’s fight against the Nomu distracted the villains in the center, Aizawa ducked off to the side towards the Ruins zone to look for students. He didn’t see any students here, only villains, and none of them defeated. That was a bit odd, considering usually at least one student was sent to every zone…
Aizawa quickly took out the villains around the ruins zone, wondering absently if the student in question simply managed to escape the ruins quickly without fighting anyone, which might explain the lack of students in this section. Once he was punching out the two last villains, his implicit question was answered as he heard footsteps and saw dust despite the lack of a person. “Hagakure?”
“Sensei, you noticed me!” she said cheerfully. “Wait… that’s bad… that means any of the bad guys could have noticed me too…”
“I’m just rather observant, you’ll have more time to practice your stealth during your time at UA,” Aizawa assured. “Now let’s get to the entrance.”
By the time Aizawa had escorted Hagakure to the entrance of the USJ, the teachers had arrived and started to gather up students toward the entrance. Hagakure went to talk to Ashido, and a quick scan of the people there revealed only one person missing: Aoyama. Luckily, Aizawa knew just where to find him.
Aoyama would often just party up with whoever was in his zone, but if sent to certain areas (the mountain zone, for instance) had a penchant for finding clever hiding spots. Over so many iterations, though, Aizawa essentially had a mental map of all of Aoyama’s most common hiding places. He found Aoyama beneath some metal paneling and, after a patient explanation that the attack had been dealt with, managed to get the kid to come out. Aoyama followed him back to the entrance.
“So, we have everyone then!” Nedzu said.
The teachers checked the students for injuries, but it seemed like there wasn’t anything worse than a few nasty scrapes and bruises. Aizawa appreciated the lack of injuries, even if it was largely attributable to the fact that Midoriya was not part of their group, but still. Not bad.
“How bad were Thirteen and All Might’s injuries?” Aizawa asked.
“Hm. Nothing good, of course, but they’re both stable and are expected to make a full recovery,” Nedzu said.
Good. A full recovery… I think I can live with a full recovery…
Aizawa was called to the emergency meeting, as usual. He didn’t really contribute, as had become standard for the loops. No point in throwing out guesses as to who attacked or why when he knew the truth. Instead, he was much more focused on battling his own feelings. His desire to fix Kaminari's mistakes, his guilt over letting Yagi and Thirteen get hurt…
Aizawa ended up staying in the emergency meeting room a while, thinking absently about the decision he was trying to make, even as other staff members filtered out. Hizashi gave him a worried look but seemed to understand he didn’t want to talk. Hizashi left with Nemuri, but Aizawa knew that Hizashi was going to ask him about it later.
“Aizawa?” Nedzu asked.
“Hm?” Aizawa looked up, and realized he and Nedzu were the only two left.
“Are you okay?” Nedzu asked.
Hm, blunt as ever. But Aizawa had probably been acting a bit too subdued, even for right after an attack…
“I don’t know,” Aizawa said, knowing Nedzu wouldn’t accept ‘I’m fine’ as a non-answer.
“You did well,” Nedzu said.
Hm, that was the second time that Nedzu had ever said that. The first was when he rescued Hagakure when she'd been left behind for being invisible. He supposed he’d sort of done that again, or maybe it was how quickly he found Aoyama that was the impressive part…
“Thanks,” Aizawa said. “But me finding Aoyama and Hagakure was mostly luck.”
“It’s not that,” Nedzu said. “I was talking about the attack in general. Your defense of the students was brave and skillful. We would not have had zero casualties among the students without you there. You did well. You should know that.”
You should know that, but you don’t. That's what he was trying to say.
Aizawa couldn't help but think that he must have looked really subdued if Nedzu felt the need to give him assurance.
Regardless, he supposed Nedzu was right. If it weren’t for him, students would have been injured. Especially Midoriya. But did that mean he did well?
I saved the students. Everyone else will be okay. Is that good enough?
“Thank you,” Aizawa said. After a polite bow, he wandered out of the room through the halls of UA, going absently towards the exit.
I want to fix Kaminari’s mistakes... But not doing so, I'm protecting him. I can help him make up for those mistakes later.
I don’t want Thirteen to get hurt... But T hirteen will heal, the injuries aren’t permanent.
Yagi lost time... But I know where All for One is. Once we ensure his defeat, Yagi’s lost time will matter much less.
Aizawa finally got home, and laid down on his couch with a sigh. He figured he should… make dinner. Maybe spend the rest of the evening de-stressing. Maybe set up a few lavender candles. He took an absent glance at the clock. Not much time left in the loop.
Aizawa managed to waste an hour or so by making a dish that took forever to make, then barely eating any of it because of nerves. He wrapped it up and put it in the fridge, pacing around his table. He made himself a cup of tea, thinking of all the times that Hizashi made a bunch of tea when he was stressed. He sipped at his lemon-ginger, sitting on the couch, unsure of what to do with himself. Normally he would be making plans for the next loop, and while part of him was tempted to (considering he wasn't over his conflicted feelings, he expected things would reset) he didn’t want to be so defeatist. At this point, he honestly should just try sleeping.
His phone dinged with a text.
Aizawa picked it up and glanced at it.
Hizashi: I’m sorry for being so nosy, but I noticed that you were looking sad earlier. I just wanted to let you know that if you ever need to talk, you have my number.
Aizawa gave a faint smile, putting his phone down with a fond sigh.
I already know that, dummy…
But there wasn’t really time for a conversation now.
Aizawa walked over to his bed and laid down, knowing he couldn’t put off going to sleep any longer without risking the glitchiness.
At this point, Aizawa wasn’t sure how he felt. Or, well, he did, but his feelings were complicated. Everyone seemed to think he’d done good enough, despite the injuries to Yagi and Thirteen, despite the fact that they didn’t know who was behind the attack (even if he did, he hadn't told them). Nedzu thought it, Hizashi thought it, and he was sure that Thirteen and Sekijiro thought it too, considering the advice they’d given him in past loops. But he still wished he could have just prevented this whole thing in the first place.
No, he didn’t really feel like he'd succeeded… but considering what he'd been through in the loops...
“ We do our best with what we have.”
“You always pull a lone wolf act--”
“Aizawa-senpai, if you ever need anything…”
“You did well.”
“If you ever need to talk, you have my number.”
… maybe he didn't feel like he'd failed any longer.
Aizawa yawned and rose, feeling sleepy. His pajamas felt a little scratchier than usual, but he ignored it in favor of rubbing his bleary eyes. He got up from his bed, too sleepy to really think of a new way to break the loop.
As he was standing, though, Aizawa noticed that he was still in his hero uniform.
He stopped cold at that, feeling wide awake.
His heart caught in his throat. This had to mean…
No, he couldn’t trust, even hope, that this was really it, not until…
Aizawa, ever-so-slowly, reached his hand out toward his phone. He clicked the button in the middle to turn it on.
Thursday, April 15th. 7:03AM.
Aizawa choked on a relieved sob.
The loop was broken.
Notes:
So there we have it! I do plan to have "epilogue-style" stuff showing the aftermath of the loops and how things have changed because of them! I'm very excited for that, actually. I have some stuff planned for the aftermath.
Chapter 23: Wingstrike, Pt.1
Summary:
Miraculously, unexpectedly, time moves forward.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Aizawa managed to stumble to UA, feeling a little overwhelmed. Just the concept of no more loops was nearly unbelievable, and this feeling doubled when he saw the USJ attack on the news. Since the story broke very early this morning, he’d never seen any actual news about the USJ attack before. It was new. It was staggering.
As for the news, luckily, UA managed to play it off as a minor incident considering only one teacher (no one was admitting All Might was injured) was injured. Most of the news stations were talking about the gall these villains must have to even try to attack UA.
Aizawa knew the truth. Those villains were more intimidating than most would ever know. But he knew exactly where they were, and he was planning to have them arrested.
As he swiped his card and entered UA, everything was the same, yet entirely different. There were the typical teachers running around with some occasional earlybird students, but everyone was in different places. Today, Power Loader was fiddling with a broken microwave, trying to fix it. Today, when that Gen Ed student dragged herself into the school, she was carrying a pink-colored backpack. Today, Kouda was here a little early, very obviously trying to sneak a rabbit into class.
These were things that never happened, and never would have happened, within the loops.
Aizawa felt dizzy with power. He could do whatever he wanted! Well, at first that kind of thinking seemed kind of contradictory, because it seems he could have ‘done anything’ without consequences in the loops, but he was so bogged down with responsibilities that he never would have let himself. Now that the loops were over he could just… not show up for work! Lay down and do nothing! Let other teachers cover his shifts! And no one would die as a result.
Not that he would even do those things but… just having the option felt good. He felt so free, and yet the world around him felt uncertain, a bit tilted off its axis. Anything could happen.
But he couldn’t worry about that too much now. He had a lot of unfinished business.
There was speaking with Kaminari… getting Nedzu to build the dorms… training Midoriya in his quirk… engineering All for One’s defeat…
But for now he could just… teach Homeroom, and watch the day change.
He told the class about the Sports Festival for the first time in many, many loops. Their enthusiasm was refreshing, of course, along with their obvious determination to succeed.
This was a good class.
Afterwards, he wandered over to the support department to talk with Power Loader.
“Maijima,” Aizawa said, poking his head in. “I need to talk with you about a students’ costume.”
“Hm?” he lifted his head and glanced over at Aizawa. “Sure, come in.”
“I think Hagakure’s costume needs a revamp,” Aizawa said dryly.
“Mm… which one is that again?”
“Invisible student,” Aizawa said. “Seat 16, Class 1-A.”
Maijima paged through a packet until he found what he was looking for. “Aha! Oh. Okay, I can see why you came in.”
“Yeah,” Aizawa said, shrugging.
“It looks like she didn’t know fabric for her costume could be created by synthetically copying her hair fibers, so she just requested gloves and boots.” Maijima looked up. “You usually don’t get involved in first years’ costumes like this.”
It was true. Aizawa liked letting the first years figure out what costumes would best suit them by trial-and-error, like he’d done. Commonly, if they still had something inadequate by the end of second year, then he’d have an intervention. But things were different now. He’d watched his students fight with these costumes in many, many active battle scenarios, and he was itching to do something about all the costume mishaps he’d watched happen in real time.
“It was easy to see the problems with my students’ costumes in a real fight,” Aizawa said, shrugging. “I might end up speaking with others about theirs…” Mineta… Kaminari… Iida, even… “... but hers was just the most immediate.”
Maijima nodded sympathetically. “Gotcha. I’ll ask Hagakure to come down here for a meeting and we’ll talk about improvements for her costume.”
“Oh, and consider adding some kind of tracker for her allies,” Aizawa grunted. “If she’d been injured and got knocked out during the USJ, we might not have been able to find her in time.”
Maijima paled under his helmet. “Good idea.”
Satisfied with this outcome, Aizawa left the Support Department trying to repress excited trembling, feeling like he’d downed several coffees even though he hadn’t even had any today. Aizawa pulled a little notepad out of his pocket and quickly scribbled down the names of all the kids who he wanted to talk with costumes about. Just as he finished, he felt a body collide with his chest. “Sor-” Aizawa started.
“Oh! There you are, Aizawa-sensei!” Midoriya said, who’d been the one to run into him. He looked a little bit pale. “Um, there were these shadow people-”
Ah. This again.
Aizawa ushered Midoriya to his office, shutting the door. “No worries, I know about the shadows. Past users of One for All, right?”
“T-that’s what they said!” Midoriya agreed. “Wait, you know about One for All?”
“Yes, I do,” Aizawa said, nodding.
“Oh, Yagi-san never told me that!” Midoriya said.
“He probably forgot,” Aizawa said, lying without hesitation. “Anyways, how much do you know about the shades?”
“N-nothing?” Midoriya squeaked.
Did All Might not brief him on this? “They’re just the past users of one for all, ‘stuck’ within the quirk. They’re copies of the original personalities that ended up accidentally stockpiled along with One for All’s power,” Aizawa said.
“Oh,” Midoriya said. “It’s good you know, then. Because they had a message for you.”
“What is it?” Aizawa asked.
“They said… you did a good job with the loops,” Midoriya crinkled his face in confusion, “though they really wished you fixed it faster, they got bored. And… that… they’re not thrilled, but since you proved yourself… that they support your union… with All Might?”
Aizawa felt himself choke. “What?!”
“That’s what I said!” Midoriya added. His eyes got wide. “You’re not actually with…”
“No,” Aizawa said, shaking his head. “No, definitely not. I just used that as a lie to fool All for One, so…” And apparently at least one of the shades fell for it… goodness sakes…
“Who’s All for One?” Midoriya asked.
“Never mind. Don’t tell anyone I said that,” Aizawa said.
“Uh, okay,” Midoriya said. “All this is kinda weirding me out…”
“Sorry, Midoriya,” Aizawa said. “To make it up to you, do you want to talk about your quirk instead?”
Midoriya left his office overjoyed, a notebook full of advice on training a basic strength quirk and muttering under his breath about energy over surface area. “Remember to do the basic exercises before you test out your theory!” Aizawa called after him, though he wasn’t sure Midoriya heard. He sighed. “One responsibility down,” he muttered to himself. “And now… another.”
The conversation with Kaminari was even more awkward than before.
Since Kaminari hadn’t known that Aizawa knew he was the traitor, he’d only been mildly nervous walking into his office, but then he’d almost passed out from shock when Aizawa told him that he knew he was the traitor. Aizawa ended up having to give the kid a juice pouch and some water, he was so pale. Then, they’d had that same conversation as before, where Kaminari explained his ‘villainous’ motivations, and Aizawa told him that what he’d done had been a terrible idea but also let him know he was considering letting Kaminari stay in the hero course.
In the end, it had been a whirlwind interaction, and Aizawa still wasn’t sure whether Kaminari needed to be expelled. Maybe if he could get Tsukauchi to talk to Kaminari, he would be able to judge better then, as well as gaining Nedzu’s perspective on the issue…
“Oh, but while you’re here,” Aizawa pulled out his notepad. “I think you could do with some costume improvements.”
“After all that…” Kaminari said. “We’re just going to talk about costumes? Like nothing happened?”
“Well, if you’re continuing in the hero course, yes,” Aizawa said, a bit blasé. “Maybe I should have brought it up first. But I think if you could get some kind of long-range weapon that could conduct electricity, you wouldn’t have to keep doing that one-off attack that makes you useless for the rest of the battle.”
“Okay,” Kaminari said, still looking a little faint.
“Have more juice,” Aizawa said.
“...Okay,” Kaminari said.
Kaminari left, bowing and thanking him as he did (for letting him stay in the hero course and not having him arrested and whatnot) and Aizawa reminded himself that he was still going to have to talk with Nedzu and Tsukauchi about that. But he had a lot of things he had to talk with Nedzu about so he was sort of planning to group them together and then have a several-hour-long conversation with Nedzu about basically everything. But since that task was the biggest thing, Aizawa was saving it for last.
Next… Aizawa pulled out his notepad. Maybe I’ll talk to Yaoyorozu about her costume… she has full reign over it, of course, but she deserves someone warning her about all the sexualization that’s going to come from it. Maybe Midnight could handle the situation in a more sensitive--
“Aizawa,” a voice from across the hallway. All Might’s voice.
Aizawa turned to glance at him, and he looked angry, blue eyes blazing.
“Midoriya mentioned you knew about One for All,” Yagi said, lowly. “And with a little more pushing, he admitted that you ‘didn’t want him telling anyone’ that you knew about All for One, as well.”
Seriously? I thought I was done with stuff like this...
Aizawa’s voice caught in his throat. He instinctively withdrew from All Might, creeping back slowly.
“Nothing to say, Aizawa-kun?” Yagi said.
Shoot... I’m not in the loops any longer…
Whatever happens now is permanent! I have to say something!
“Nedzu, told me," Aizawa said.
“No, he didn’t,” Yagi said. “Nedzu said he wouldn’t tell any of the staff about One for All, and I trust his word.”
Aizawa tried to be logical with himself, he’d been in basically this situation before, and it had been fine! Besides, All Might wouldn’t splatter one of Nedzu’s staff members against the wall in UA! That would just be asking for retribution. Despite these reminders to himself, Aizawa continued to back away shakily, whole body flooded with adrenaline. Still, he managed to keep a neutral expression.
That neutral expression might have fooled most of the staff members. It would never fool the person who happened to come around the corner at that time.
Nedzu.
Dammit, this is not how I wanted this to be done, Aizawa thought to himself as he watched Nedzu’s expression flip from pleasant-neutral to what-the-actual-fuck. At least next… wait, no, I don’t get a next time. Spectacular.
“What,” Nedzu said, glancing between pissed-off Yagi and mildly-terrified Aizawa.
“He knows about All for One and One for All,” Yagi said, giving Nedzu a sharp glance. “If you didn’t tell him…” he trailed off, letting the implication set in.
Puzzled, Nedzu glanced at Aizawa.
“Time travel bullshit,” Aizawa said, heart beating rabbit-quick.
Nedzu nodded. He told Yagi to stay there, and pulled Aizawa into a private room, where Aizawa sat in a chair and put his head on the table, puffing out a relieved breath. “Sorry, usually I can handle All Might so long as he doesn’t look that mad,” Aizawa mumbled, fully aware that Nedzu didn’t really have the context to interpret that statement.
Nedzu handed him a mug of warm tea. “I will handle All Might,” he said. “But then you need to give me answers. I am, perhaps, a bit confused,” he admitted, and Aizawa got the sense he was being a bit sarcastic, or maybe a little playful. “But time travel is confusing on the best of days, so I hope you can forgive me.”
“Thanks,” Aizawa said, sipping his warm tea.
He knew this conversation was going to be interesting.
Notes:
Part 2 coming, stay tuned! I have multiple epilogue chapters planned.
Chapter 24: Wingstrike, Pt. 2
Summary:
Aizawa explains the loops to Nedzu, and plans are put into motion.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Aizawa decided to explain everything to Nedzu.
Everything.
Nedzu deserved that much. (Besides, if he withheld any information from Nedzu, he risked piquing his curiosity, which would only make him investigate harder.) All in all, it was better to be upfront.
So he started going through everything, or at least everything that pertained to Nedzu.
He explained how everything had started, with Miura Hikaru. (Nedzu pulled up the quirk on the Database, like he always did, and he was pretty sure that Nedzu would believe anything he told him now that he had proof of this quirk’s existence.) He explained how injuries carried over, and how often he was badly injured. How he hadn’t been able to ask for help at first, and of course, how All Might had crushed him to death after being affected by someone else’s quirk.
“So that’s why you can ‘handle him so long as he’s not angry’,” Nedzu noted, after hearing that. “His anger causes an instinctive reaction.”
“Exactly,” Aizawa said. “I can deal with his normal face alright--” though alright wasn’t exactly ideal, “--but I haven’t been able to make much progress on that angry expression as I’d like. Potentially because I haven’t been able to actually visit a therapist or anyone else like that. They’d just forget anything I told them because of the time loops, so.”
“Hm,” Nedzu said, with a frown. “We can find you a therapist. And if you so chose, you could take a leave of absence as well, unless you think it’ll be better for you to keep busy.”
That was an interesting question. As much as Aizawa wanted to flex his newfound freedom by dropping all his responsibilities like hot coal, he figured that wouldn’t be very good for him. Going from hyper-busy, hyper-dangerous days to doing absolutely nothing would probably leave him floundering. Besides, he was actually a little excited to teach his class now that they would remember what he did.
“I’ll stay, at least until the Sports Festival,” Aizawa said.
Nedzu nodded. “Alright. Now that that’s settled… Wait, was there anything else?”
“Oh, there’s plenty more,” Aizawa said.
“More? How much?”
“I’m not even halfway done,” Aizawa said. “We still have a traitor, a kidnapping… several more traumatic injuries…”
“Oh dear,” Nedzu said, sighing. “More tea it is, then.”
Aizawa almost forgot to tell Nedzu about that loop. It had been a major loop at the time, but its importance had sort of faded away in retrospect: when compared to his later kidnapping (by All for One) and his discoveries about Kaminari, it seemed almost trivial now. But the revelations of this loop had set the stage for many things, and it held many Nedzu-relevant events.
“And a minute or so after the students were told of the attack, the lights started to flicker. But not at the USJ, where I was. Then Kurogiri appeared and teleported me away,” Aizawa said.
Nedzu’s eyes widened minutely.
“I later learned that the reason things changed is because someone tipped off the villains to the fact we knew of the attack; in particular, that I had known about the attack,” Aizawa said. “Therefore, we had a traitor.”
“Did you ever find out who it was?” Nedzu said, excitement gleaming in his eyes.
“Kaminari,” Aizawa said. “But he was sort of coerced. We can get into that later.”
Nedzu seemed to accept that answer for now. “He must have contacted the villains with his radio equipment, despite the fact you took the students’ phones… And what about the rest of the kidnapping?”
“It went alright,” Aizawa said, grimacing. “I didn’t mention this, but Mic got punched in the nose at some point, so that counts as a staff injury. I knew things would reset, and you did too, and you acted accordingly.”
Nedzu’s nose scrunched up, perhaps in dissatisfaction, or disbelief. “Did I leave you there?”
“No, you sold information about the students to the villains in exchange for my safety,” Aizawa said dryly.
Nedzu grimaced. “Truly?”
Aizawa shrugged. “The loop was going to reset anyway, so.” Aizawa had been furious at first, but over the loops his opinion had cooled, to the point where he’d just rather let this go.
Nedzu sighed. “Still… it’s disappointing to hear. To think I didn’t have any better plan… a trade of information is no guarantee that they would leave you unharmed. There’s not very much assurance.”
“Well, they left me alone for the rest of that loop, which was nice,” Aizawa said. “But they were planning to turn me into a Nomu later, so I suppose they were planning to break their promise.”
When Nedzu’s claws dug into the wood on his desk and anger overtook his expression, Aizawa was prepared. He’d acted like this last time, too. “They’ll regret-”
“Yes, regret ever threatening me with such a fate,” Aizawa said, with a tinge of exhaustion. “We’ve been through this.”
“Apologies,” Nedzu said, face smoothing out, but sparks of rage remained in his eyes.
“Sorry,” Aizawa said. “Now we get into the part where I started to investigate the staff members--they weren't the traitor but I thought they were.”
“Then later I figured out about All for One. He’s alive, by the way.”
“What?”
“The stress of the loops started breaking through even though my body was being reset. My blood pressure went through the roof, hair started turning brittle, and all that…”
“So even though All for One kidnapped me, it ended up being sort of a net-positive loop. All Might beat him in battle, actually. And now I know where he lives.”
“Which is when I learned the traitor was Kaminari--”
“Then I woke up, and it was Thursday,” Aizawa said. “The loop reset when I accepted that my best wasn’t failing.” At this point, Aizawa’s throat was sore from overuse, and his tea had gone cold.
“I’m going to have to set up the offensive against All for One,” Nedzu said, tapping his pen on the desk. “Yagi will need to be involved of course… this could have been a disaster, but at least we have an address…”
“Least these loops were good for something,” Aizawa muttered.
“I’ll work on that,” Nedzu promised. “For now, just…” He waved a paw in the air vaguely. “Go… set up a therapy appointment, or something. Rest.”
Aizawa stumbled out of the office, emotionally exhausted but feeling an odd sort of catharsis. He ended up walking over to the teachers’ lounge and grabbing his sleeping bag, curling up on the teachers’ lounge couch. It wasn’t unusual for him to do this, even before the loops, but now more than ever Aizawa appreciated the way his busy coworkers buzzed around him, ever-present but quiet as not to disturb his nap.
It was the perfect place.
"Yo, Shouta!" Hizashi said cheerfully. And loudly.
... Nevermind.
Nedzu stared down at the student’s file, expression neutral.
Kaminari Denki.
He carefully placed the file aside.
Notes:
More epilogue on the way! Apologies for the short chapter ;)
Chapter 25: Damaged Craft
Summary:
Hizashi worries, Nedzu and Aizawa get into an argument, and Yagi is helpful for once.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
When Aizawa, about to fall asleep, was interrupted by a “Yo, Shouta!” he felt both happy to see Hizashi and the desire to slap him for shouting at him in the middle of his nap.
“Thirteen said you weren’t feeling so hot,” Hizashi said, plopping down on the couch next to him.
Ugh, traitor. “I feel fine,” Aizawa said.
“You sure?” Hizashi placed a hand on his head. “Hm, no fever.”
“Just like I said.”
“But now that I’m thinking about it, you do look a lot more tired than usual. And a little bit bonier. It’s kinda hard to see under your baggy clothes, though… have you been eating enough, Shouta?”
Hm. Aizawa had eaten a bit less than usual in the loops, but he figured it would be fine since his body reset. It was possible he’d lost some weight over time. “If you’re so concerned then bring me a lychee jelly pouch,” Aizawa grumbled.
As Hizashi grabbed one from the cabinet, Aizawa hauled himself up, blinking tiredness out of his eyes. When Hizashi came back to the couch, Aizawa leaned heavily against Hizashi, and snatched the lychee-flavored jelly pouch from his grasp.
“Yeesh, you are thin,” Hizashi murmured as he felt Aizawa’s ribs dig into his side.
“Worrywart,” Aizawa muttered in response, sipping on the lychee-flavored jelly pouch.
The other teachers in the teachers’ lounge politely pretended to not have noticed the interaction.
Not long after, Aizawa received a text from Nedzu asking him to come to his office.
“Got to go, Nedzu’s calling,” Aizawa said.
Hizashi gave a frown.
“I’ll tell you all about it later,” Aizawa promised. And about the loops… you obviously already suspect things are wrong, I can’t hide them from you much longer…
“Okay, good luck,” Hizashi said.
“You said you had news?” Aizawa asked.
“I’ve located All for One's base, just as you said,” Nedzu responded. "The preparations for the attack have already begun."
“Good,” Aizawa said with a nod.
Nedzu’s smile turned razor-sharp. “And I have even more plans than that! Considering what happened in one of the more recent loops, I’ve decided to enact a plan I've been thinking about for a while--a dorm system! Considering the targeted threat these villain pose to the students, this step could be vital in their protection.”
“Oh, you said that last time, too,” Aizawa noted. “I just forgot. But it’s a good idea, we should definitely do that.”
Just as Nedzu was about to speak again, the door creaked open. Looking in from the hallway was Yagi, who poked a curious head in.
When Yagi made eye-contact with Aizawa, he blustered, “Oh- I’m sorry…”
“It’s fine,” Aizawa said. “I don’t mind. You can come in.”
Yagi glanced at Nedzu for implicit permission. Nedzu, in turn, looked at Aizawa, who felt a little bit like he was being peeled apart by Nedzu’s calculating gaze. Aizawa did his best to look confident and untraumatized. Then, Nedzu looked back at Yagi, and gave a nod. Yagi walked into the office.
“I've caught Yagi up to speed,” Nedzu started. "He wanted to know a little more about One for All."
"What do you mean?" Aizawa asked.
“Can you tell me about the past users that live in the quirk?” Yagi said. “Nedzu said that in the loops you learned something about them. That part of One for All is so mysterious, and any information is paramount.”
“Well, I don't know much. But I learned a little bit through my interactions with All for One,” Aizawa said, and Yagi paled at that. “He said that the shades were impressions of people’s quirks, and said that he had several of them himself.”
“Interesting,” Nedzu murmured. “That almost implies that One for All stockpiles the quirks of the past users, as well as their strength.”
“Are you sure?" Yagi asked. "I mean, I haven’t developed any extra quirks, and neither had any of the past users, to my knowledge. Maybe it's just coincidence?”
“That’s true,” Nedzu said. “They are sister quirks… perhaps it is just a coincidence.”
Nedzu said that, but he didn’t sound very convinced.
“Thank you for the information, Aizawa-kun,” Yagi said, obviously not wanting to dwell upon this much longer. “Did you know anything else about them?”
“Besides that, nothing else we don’t already know.”
“Ah, well. The information you did have was interesting, so thank you. Is there anything else you have to share with us, Nedzu?”
“That’s all!” Nedzu responded cheerfully. "But we ought to get started. To defeat All for One, prosecute Kaminari for his crimes, and build the dorms, we have quite the workload ahead of us--” Nedzu began, but Aizawa’s brain short-circuted at prosecute Kaminari for his crimes and he didn’t even register the rest of the sentence.
“Nedzu, what?” Aizawa asked.
“What?” Nedzu said.
“Prosecute Kaminari?!” Aizawa said, in disbelief. “What do you mean?”
“He’s the traitor,” Nedzu said, waving a paw.
“That doesn’t mean he needs to be prosecuted,” Aizawa said.
“That’s exactly what it means,” Nedzu said. “He needs to be held responsible.”
“That doesn’t make sense!” Aizawa said. “You always do what’s best for the students,” Aizawa said. “There’s no need to throw him into the criminal justice system when we can do for him equally well.”
Now, Nedzu seemed to grow more frustrated. “The information he gave away prolonged your experience in the loops and put you in danger multiple times.”
“But he was being coerced,” Aizawa tried.
“Not very strongly,” Nedzu argued. “He could have said no.”
Aizawa had been so sure that Nedzu would be on his side, would want to protect Kaminari as well. Seeing this kind of hatred from him was surprising, and unusual. “I don’t understand,” Aizawa said. “What on earth is wrong with you!?!”
“Couldn’t you try to be the least bit self-interested?” Nedzu said, voice getting louder. “Look at what he’s done to you!”
“I’m fine!”
“You’re not even the same person anymore!” Nedzu retorted.
"Shut up!” Aizawa protested.
“This is his fault! He did this to you, and he needs to be punished!” Nedzu slammed his paws against the desk. “He reported you to the villains, almost got you experimented on, almost got you killed-- and you expect me to act like nothing happened!”
Aizawa was thoroughly regretting cutting off Nedzu when he was about to go on his angry rant about revenge. Maybe it would have let him… decompress a little. It looked like his anger had just built and built with no outlet. “This is pointless,” Aizawa said. “Why don’t you get mad at the villains, instead of at my student?!”
Nedzu gave an irritated huff. “What difference does that make? Your student is a villain plant! It’s basically the same thing!”
In the midst of this, Yagi piped up. “Um, in my opinion-”
Both Aizawa and Nedzu shot Yagi dangerous looks.
He continued regardless. “You said that we were trying to lower Aizawa-kun’s stress levels, right?” Yagi said. “Because it was negatively impacting his health in the loops.”
“Yes,” Nedzu replied.
“Well, having a student arrested would probably be very stressful for him,” Yagi said tentatively. “So, maybe this wouldn’t be a great idea.” Yes! Thank you Yagi!
Nedzu looked between Yagi and Aizawa for a moment, before coming to a decision. “Fine,” Nedzu bit out. “But I still want to expel him.”
“Thanks, Nedzu,” Aizawa said, gratitude seeping into his tone. Despite this victory, Aizawa knew better than to push Nedzu any further, at least for now. “I’m going to try to take a nap.”
“Fine. I’ll continue my preparations for the raid on Kamino,” Nedzu said. His tone had gotten softer, yet there was still a tinge of exasperation and upset in his voice. But Nedzu gave a nod that was clearly meant to be dismissal, and Aizawa wasn’t about to try to stay.
Yagi followed him out. Once he and Yagi were outside the office, and the door had shut, the relief hit him all at once. Aizawa bowed deeply to Yagi. “For protecting my student--I owe you--”
“No, no,” Yagi said, shaking his head. “I was just helping. Besides, I feel really bad about scaring you earlier… we’ll call it even?”
Aizawa gave a nod. “I’m sorry for putting you in that position, I thought for sure he would be on my side,” Aizawa said. “I’m still a bit taken aback that he wasn’t.”
“Well, Nedzu is logical,” Yagi said. “It’s not that logical to risk keeping a student who leaked villain information in the past.” Even as Aizawa was about to protest, Yagi continued, “But you probably thought Nedzu’s protective instincts would kick in, right?”
Aizawa gave a bit of a reluctant nod. Nedzu was always very reliable in his support of UA students.
“The protective instincts did show up, just… on your side, not Kaminari’s,” Yagi continued. “Maybe in a different situation he would have helped with Kaminari, but…”
“My side,” Aizawa murmured. “He was angry on my behalf?”
“I think so,” Yagi said. “You did get hurt… badly hurt. He probably feels guilty about it, so he’s lashing out at anyone even tangentially responsible.”
It was at these words that Aizawa was reminded how well Yagi probably knew Nedzu. They’d probably known each other for years at this point. “That’s how you managed to do it,” Aizawa said. “You said that trying to prosecute Kaminari would stress me, and that’s what convinced him to stop.”
“Nedzu can be very single-minded,” Yagi said, shrugging. “But if you can show him his thought process has a contradiction, he’ll stop. In his head, he convinced himself getting revenge was justified because Kaminari’s actions hurt you, but that logic doesn’t hold up if you remind him that revenge on Kaminari would hurt you even more.”
It was a relief that All Might actually had some brain between his ears (and a decent EQ) otherwise trying to get Nedzu off the revenge train would have been much more difficult, if it was even possible. An ugly swell of anger rose inside Aizawa at Nedzu’s actions. “How dare he justify hurting a student using me," Aizawa grumbled, feeling put-out.
He glanced at Yagi, who seemed a bit taken aback.
“Sorry,” he said. “And thanks for your help.”
“It was no problem,” Yagi said. “Um, and… I’ll try not to…frighten you in the future?” he said, very awkwardly.
I’m not sure you’ll be able to help it very much, and the amount of time I spend with you will probably be proportional to how well my therapy goes, Aizawa thought to himself. Still, it seemed as though Yagi would be one of his greatest allies in the coming days when it came to the Kaminari issue. The guy really was a good man.
“Thanks. And by the way, good luck against All for One, All Might,” Aizawa added.
Yagi paled a little.
“No worries,” Aizawa said, giving the man a pat on the back. “You’ll win.”
I’m so tired, Aizawa thought to himself, but shook the feeling off. I’m out… just need to get these things out of the way… then I can stop.
A few hours later, Nedzu finally gave in and admitted to Aizawa that he had been wrong, in a quiet but honest manner. Aizawa had never seen Nedzu look ashamed before, and the fact that he did made him uneasy.
“So once he talks with Tsukauchi, you’re alright with him staying?” Aizawa asked.
“On a provisional basis,” Nedzu said. “If he’s a mediocre student, just expel him. We can always set up safety measures for him elsewhere, put him in witness protection in another school.”
Aizawa nodded, but fully planned to keep Kaminari. At least for now, he’d be nervous sending away a student like that. (Back in the loops, he’d classified his desire to protect-protect-protect the students as a simple logical impulse, as the only way to escape the loops was an injury-free run. The voice hadn’t gone away.)
So once the conversation was over and his feelings about Nedzu had cooled, Aizawa put away the rushed, half-useless plans to transfer Kaminari to Shiketsu that he’d been working on, and let himself focus on other things.
Notes:
You thought this would be the last epilogue chapter, didn't you? FOOLS! There will be MORE and MORe--
This is one is kind of more angsty than I expected, more recovery-focused (and other staff member-focused) chapters upcoming.
Chapter 26: Air Traffic Control
Summary:
Several teachers find themselves concerned over the recent changes to Aizawa's behavior.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Hizashi was worried.
His day had started fine, to be sure. He’d had tasty pancakes for breakfast, he played his favorite songs in his headphones on the way to work, and he’d slept well. But that feel-good train had promptly gone off the rails when Thirteen had pulled him aside shortly before school started. “I’m worried about Aizawa-senpai,” they said. “He said some… very concerning things to me, yesterday.”
While they refused to specify exactly what these concerning things were, Hizashi took it upon himself to investigate a little. Thirteen was a bit of a worrier, but they weren’t the type to exaggerate, so if they said concerning it was probably concerning. Hopefully it would turn out to be nothing and he’d be able to assuage their worries.
Though, now that he thought about it, Shouta had been acting a little off yesterday, even before the attack on the USJ…
So he’d checked on Shouta. The man didn’t seem sick and his temperature was fine, but once he sat up from his sleeping bag, his pale face and dark circles became apparent to a keen eye. He looked exhausted. And while most people would argue that Shouta looked tired all the time, they were mostly reading into his lack of hair care. This was what he looked like when he was really tired.
But worse, Shouta looked… thin. It was definitely subtle, sure, but he was ever-so-slightly more gaunt than he had been a few days ago.
No… no, that couldn’t have been true. This had to have been something that happened over time… but… Hizashi could have sworn that Shouta looked normal on Tuesday. It was probably just a trick of the light.
Hizashi had just been on the edge of thinking maybe this is all in my head, and he’s just a little tired after that villain attack when Shouta leaned into him with uncharacteristic ease (marking another unusual occurrence, Shouta didn’t usually initiate contact like that) and let Hizashi feel the body underneath those baggy clothes. It was thin.
Something was up, and Hizashi was worried.
“Did Nedzu tell you anything?” Hound Dog asked.
“No!” Hizashi said. “No matter how much I said I was worried about Shouta, he wouldn’t tell me anything! He just said that Shouta’s problems were his to share. He wasn’t taking me seriously, I could tell.”
Hound Dog’s frown was evident, even beneath the muzzle. “It’s strange. Nedzu doesn’t usually brush you off like that.”
“Well, he did this time, so we’re back to square one,” Hizashi said, letting out an indignant huff.
“We’ll have to come up with some other plan, if Nedzu’s not going to help,” Nemuri said.
“Aizawa’s been in and out of meetings with Nedzu all day, you know,” Hound Dog said. “Do you think he knows what’s going on?”
“Maybe,” Hizashi answered, though he didn’t like the thought of that.
“Well, how did he react to what you said?” Nemuri asked.
“He didn’t seem to react at all, to be honest,” Hizashi said. “He was calm the whole time. He only acted surprised when I mentioned that I thought that Shouta had lost weight.”
“Hm, so not much of a reaction… Yagi, what do you think?” Nemuri asked.
Yagi, who was in the corner of the teachers’ lounge (having previously been uninvolved in the conversation) choked on his tea. “Ah… perhaps you could convince Aizawa-kun to go to Recovery Girl, if you’re concerned for him,” Yagi suggested, giving a weak smile.
“That’s actually a good idea,” Nemuri said, approvingly.
“Good to hear Yagi is being helpful once again,” Shouta added.
Everyone in the room whipped their heads around to look at the doorway, where Shouta now stood.
“Er… Shouta!” Hizashi said. “Hello!”
“Am I not invited to your secret discussion?” he asked dryly, looking unimpressed.
“Well, I guess you a-” Nemuri said.
“No, you’re not,” Hizashi interrupted, voice firm.
Shouta looked amused at that, though he didn’t smile. “I have something to explain,” he said. “It might answer your questions. I didn’t think I’d have to talk about it so soon, though. How obvious was it?”
“You weren’t obvious, Shouta,” Nemuri said. “But we’ve known you for a long time. It’s not bad to have people around who can tell when something’s wrong, you know.”
Shouta seemed to accept that answer. “Alright then. Let’s get started.”
“It all started with Miura Hikaru,” Aizawa said. “He’s nine, his quirk is Victory Loop, and he accidentally used it on me.” Aizawa launched into his explanation, perfected after having to tell Hizashi and Nedzu his story so many times over.
Admittedly, seeing Hound Dog and Yagi’s reactions to his story about the loops was interesting. While Yagi knew about the loops on a semi-consistent basis, it wasn’t very often that he got to tell them about the loops directly, and Hound Dog had only ever learned about them once. Watching their (slightly horrified) faces was just an interesting pastime.
Speaking of, Hizashi and Nemuri weren’t really reacting as normal, either. Usually when he spoke with them about the loops, they were casual (occasionally even a little excited) about the possibility of looping time. Here, neither of them seemed to be taking this lightly. It made Aizawa a little nervous.
In his explanation, Aizawa didn’t get into the more personal or painful aspects of the loop, since that would take forever to explain and he already felt a bit wrung-out from his extended explanation to Nedzu, but he didn’t shy away from explaining how the USJ and the stress of it had taken a toll on him. He quickly went over how the loop’s resetting had affected his body, and why it was possible he might have lost weight. (He didn’t talk about the other stress-related effects on his body.)
The explanation was short, quick, and effective. Aizawa was pretty sure that he’d managed to successfully get across what had happened without being too dramatic about it, so now all of them could move on. He’d probably admit the darker aspects of the loops later in private.
But when he was done, everyone’s faces were still full of frowns.
“That’s horrible,” Nemuri said, breaking the silence.
“You guys are taking this way too seriously,” Aizawa said.
“You would say that no matter what… was it really bad, Shouta?” Hizashi asked.
“It was pretty bad,” Aizawa said. “But I don’t want to exaggerate--”
“Why would you be worried about exaggerating?” Nemuri huffed. “You clearly just had a terrible experience. Don’t get all insecure on us now.”
I suppose that I did have my bones crushed on multiple occasions. But it’s not like you know that, Nemuri.
“Okay, that’s true,” Aizawa said. “But why are you acting so grim? You guys don’t usually act like this when I tell you about the loops.”
“Do you explain it after we’ve all noticed and been super concerned over how you’re acting, also getting into the negative health effects?” Nemuri asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No,” Aizawa said.
“There you go,” Nemuri said, shrugging.
There were a few moments of silence, where the three of them (and Yagi) just looked down at Aizawa with varying looks of worry and pity.
Aizawa felt a flare of uncharacteristic irritation. “Don’t look at me like that. It wasn’t that big of a deal, barely anything happened, and I don’t want you to treat me any differently!” he snapped.
“Okay! We won’t,” Hizashi rushed to promise. Hound Dog rumbled his agreement.
“... Good,” Aizawa said, his anger deflating in the face of easy agreement. “I just want things to be normal.”
“We got it,” Nemuri said, giving Aizawa a pat on the shoulder. “No acting weird.”
Aizawa sighed. “Thank you,” he said, feeling a little foolish for his insistence.
As Hizashi turned and started asking Yagi if he’d known about the loops too (Yagi turned pink and denied it), Nemuri grabbed a cookie out of her purse, opening it with the clear intent of eating it. Then, after staring down at the cookie for a few moments, she handed out the cookie to Aizawa. “For you.”
Aizawa took the cookie. “... Are you sure?”
“You need food, and you deserve a treat,” Nemuri answered.
Aizawa was pretty sure that telling him to his face he needed a treat was not 'acting normal', but he wasn’t going to deny the cookie. He took a bite out of the cookie. It was an average, kind of disappointing store-bought cookie, but he liked it anyway.
“Oh, Shouta, we should still bring you to Recovery Girl for a health assessment!” Hizashi said.
“I’ve gone to her in previous loops,” Aizawa dismissed. “So there’s no need.”
“But doesn’t she need to update her records?” Hizashi said. “It would be nice if she recorded the state of your health now, so she has a baseline for later?”
Aizawa grumbled, but couldn’t contradict the logic of the statement. “Fine.”
Oh well. Checkups were annoying, but they weren’t too bad, and he would get to eat a cookie during it. Not the worst, exactly. And since Hizashi seemed intent on dragging him along, he could ask Hizashi about giving some students extra tutoring. Not that this class was any less competent than his previous classes (no, quite the contrary) but since he knew so well what students struggled with which…
No harm in giving them a little extra academic help, right?
Notes:
When we're fully done I'll put the chapters from 26/? to 26/26 so you guys know. But for now...
More epilogue in progress, sorry not sorry lol
Chapter 27: Unsteady Steps
Summary:
A few days pass, and a few things change.
Notes:
tw: things about weight
Chapter Text
Aizawa sat in the observation room, watching the training exercise. It was an exercise for all the first years, so he was accompanied by Vlad King (the 1-B teacher) and Thirteen (the expert on all things rescue.) Right now, Midoriya zipped around the damaged city, carefully picking up dummies meant to represent injured civilians. He was doing well.
“It’s good he got his quirk under control quickly,” Vlad King commented. “Within a few days is pretty impressive. Maybe that bad performance at the Entrance Exam was a fluke.”
If only, Sekijiro, Aizawa thought to himself. Still, what he said about how quickly Midoriya gained control was true. Although Midoriya had fractured his arm once practicing his quirk exercises, he’d been able to control it just fine since then, especially when he used it across his entire body instead of just a part.
While Midoriya transported the dummies, his partner, Kouda, spent time tracking more of them down. According to Kouda, the dummies had a distinct plastic-y scent, so they were easy for his new dog to track.
“Where did Kouda get that dog?” Thirteen asked, glancing at Vlad King.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I think it’s his.”
“It’s his,” Aizawa said. “Half-wolf, half-Doberman. He got special dispensation from the government to have it because of his animal communication quirk.” This was the closest Aizawa could get to giving Kouda a real wolf, legally-speaking. Though it had taken effort, between the support of Nedzu (unexpectedly easy to convince) and Kouda’s parents (concerningly thrilled at the idea of owning a borderline-illegal giant dog) and the fact that the government agency that had it was eager to get it off their hands…
“Only took a few days,” Aizawa said, smugly. “He named it Sparkles.”
Thirteen grinned at that, and Sekijiro just barely managed to stifle a laugh. (Aizawa wasn’t sure if they were amused at his own obvious pride in getting Kouda a wolf-dog, or if they just found the name Sparkles funny, but he didn’t mind either way.)
Sparkles and Kouda found another one of the dummies, and Sparkles barked loudly to signal to Midoriya the location of the dummy. The two were making it through in record time.
“You must be proud of ‘em, eh Aizawa?” Sekijiro asked. “Improving so much just two weeks in.”
“Yeah,” Aizawa said, and it was difficult to hide the fondness in his voice. “I am.”
COSTUME REQUEST CHANGE FORM
CASE #134352
UA HIGH; CLASS: 1-A; SEAT: 8
Desc.: Req. addition of long-range tool that can carry electrical current to complement electrical quirk, suggestion: disks; potential starter blueprints attached
CASE #134412
UA HIGH; CLASS: 1-A; SEAT: 19
Desc.: Req. changes to the bottom half of costume, replace current setup with normal pants+belt; note: any aesthetic suggestions to have in place of cape?
CASE #134587
UA HIGH; CLASS: 1-A; SEAT: 20
Desc.: Replace leotard with shorts and crop top, leaving shoulders exposed. Add velcro to the back so it can be removed with reasonable ease in case Creati needs more skin exposure to create an object. Interweave current outfit material with kevlar.
Aizawa walked back to his office, sipping a protein shake. He’d just managed to send the first of the costume requests of the students to their partner support companies. It had taken a little while because asking for changes was a process, and not one that he could do alone. The costumes belonged to the students, so he had to call them into his office and talk with them about what they wanted out of their costumes. He was really only a consultant at best when it came to the costumes.
Kaminari (who he’d spoken to earlier) loved the idea of getting some sort of long-range weapon so he could electrocute without knocking himself out. After some discussion they’d settled on disks: aerodynamic, not too tough to design, and not very harmful when not full of electricity. When he spoke with Yaoyorozu, Aizawa did his best to be sensitive and just ask what Yaoyorozu wanted from her costume without judgment. (He didn’t want to judge her if she was going for sex-appeal, even though he didn’t really approve of that for a fifteen-year-old student. And if it was that she just liked the design and felt independent in it… well, he didn’t really get much say about costumes, if she wanted to keep it.) That didn’t really turn out to be the case, though.
Yaoyorozu admitted that mostly she just wanted something functional, something that would let her use her quirk to its fullest potential, but that her only ideas for it had been revealing. She’d said that she’d thought it wouldn’t matter that much… but after some comments were made (Aizawa knew exactly who she was talking about) she’d realized that wasn’t the case. Aizawa felt the burn of rage but managed to calmly talk to Yaoyorozu about some alternate designs, and eventually they’d settled on one that Yaoyorozu had liked, both for being functional and something she’d be more comfortable in.
His conversation with Mineta… well, it had been bookended by threats of expulsion, if he didn’t clean up his act around the girls of the class, and Aizawa emphasized that he would know. While Mineta didn’t know this, Aizawa from the loops had learned a lot about when Mineta liked to say his inappropriate comments, and when he assumed authority figures weren’t listening. They’d still managed to have a conversation about costumes in the middle of it, where Mineta admitted several people had called him a baby because of his costume (Aizawa couldn’t help but wince from secondhand embarrassment after remembering the design). Mineta agreed that he’d liked to have it changed. It was an easy fix, and Aizawa put in for it to happen.
His conversation with Todoroki had gone… oddly. When Aizawa mentioned that the ice would severely inhibit his ability to use his fire, Todoroki had calmly stated that he didn’t mind. When Aizawa pointed out the fact that the whole point of a costume was to help you do Heroics, and that he’d need his fire-side for that, Todoroki’s face had gone dark with anger, and he said that Aizawa was just like his father. Aizawa got the sense that wasn’t a good thing (though he had no idea why) and let the matter drop.
He’ll just have to learn on his own, Aizawa thought to himself, with an internal sigh. Eventually Todoroki would see how the costume was inhibiting his abilities, and hopefully he’d put in to try to change it himself before Aizawa had to stage some kind of intervention.
“Aizawa, it’s time for your check-up!” Hizashi said, voice sing-song.
Aizawa sighed. “Now? I thought it was every two weeks.”
“Every two weeks starting now,” Hizashi said.
Aizawa sighed again, this time more loudly. “Fine.”
Recovery Girl and Nedzu agreed it would be better for him to have more frequent appointments to monitor his weight and general health, considering his recent experience. During his last visit, Recovery Girl had given him lots of protein shakes and granola bars, which were easy and convenient snacks. They were easy to down when he felt too tired to make something or nothing seemed appetizing, just like his jelly pouches.
Honestly, it was a little odd that certain things (like his weight loss) had escaped past-Recovery Girl’s view… but she had guessed that at the time, she hadn’t known how the loops worked and therefore didn’t know what to look for. She, on the other other hand, knowing of this past oversight, was ridiculously thorough, and her checkups were longer than any he’d ever had with her before. She asked tons of questions about his mental and emotional health, too, trying to monitor that, and it ended up just being a parade of checks and questions.
“This is taking forever,” Aizawa allowed himself to complain.
“Shut up,” Recovery Girl said. “Your blood pressure has lowered slightly… not in a good range yet, so we need to keep improving… you’ve put on a few pounds… which is very good, mind you…” she said, marking things on her sheet with a pencil.
“Why is this taking so long?” Aizawa asked. Even with her increased thoroughness, this was getting kind of ridiculous. “Are you… stalling?”
Recovery Girl rolled her eyes. “Maybe I am. Didn't take you long to figure it out... though I suppose that's why Nedzu hired you.”
“But why…” Aizawa asked. An idea flashed in his mind. “The attack on Kamino. It’s happening right now, isn’t it? And you’re trying to keep me from seeing!”
“That’s right, dear,” Recovery Girl. “But it is nice to have the excuse to have such an extensive check-up, I’ve been pulling out some of the more obscure tests.”
“Why would you do this?” Aizawa asked.
“Nedzu asked me too,” Recovery Girl said, setting her clipboard down. “He thinks you have All for One-related trauma.”
“I don’t…” Aizawa started. “Well, no. I do. But I could have handled it fine.”
“I don’t doubt it, but I’m not the one who decided. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Nedzu so fussy,” Recovery Girl commented.
He’d never heard someone describe Nedzu as fussy and he was pretty sure he never wanted to hear it again. “I’ll have a conversation with him about boundaries. For now, I guess, until the fight’s over…” Aizawa repressed a sigh. “You can continue your checkup.”
He didn’t miss the way Recovery Girl’s eyes lit up, ever-so-subtly, even though her face didn’t change.
Troublesome doctors, Aizawa thought to himself, shaking his head with a hidden smile.
Chapter 28: Disembark
Summary:
The fight with All for One concludes, Kaminari doesn't have to face the music, and Hizashi figures out more about what happened in the loops.
Notes:
tw: talk about ptsd and trauma... but now that I think about it, is that not just every chapter?
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Maybe thirty minutes later, Recovery Girl got a notification on her phone, and gave Aizawa a nod. “Well, that’s it. You’re free to leave.”
Not bothering to question, Aizawa left the infirmary, absently planning the rest of the day in his mind. The first person he saw, though (who happened to be Hizashi) ran up to him before he could make any actual decisions. “Shouta, did you see what just happened on the news?!”
Hizashi was probably talking about the All for One fight. “No,” he said. He wasn’t too concerned, though. Recovery Girl would have told him if All Might had lost.
“All Might had to fight a villain in Kamino. He won, of course--but it was so destructive. Thirteen, Hound Dog, and Ectoplasm got called to help deal with cleanup. The Wild, Wild Pussycats did too--Nedzu’s coordinating,” Hizashi said.
“That’s… unfortunate,” Aizawa said.
Hizashi continued on obliviously. “They estimate there are a few hundred casualties, though of course it’s hard to tell at this early stage. I would go myself, of course, but considering my quirk they don’t want me around rescue zones… can’t have me destabilizing any rubble with my quirk,” he said.
The severity of the situation suddenly hit Aizawa. “Oh.” He’d known the fight was destructive, would be destructive, but he hadn’t imagined close to that number of injured.
“Are you okay, Shouta?” Hizashi asked, concerned.
“I just wish I’d been able to prevent it,” Aizawa admitted.
Realization lit in Hizashi’s eyes. “Ah… the loops! Oh, don’t worry about it, Shou,” Hizashi said. “This villain… it didn’t seem like there’d be much of a way to apprehend him without massive destruction, and I don’t say that lightly.”
That was very true.
“So don't feel bad about not being able to fix that with the loops! Sounds like the loops sucked,” Hizashi said.
“Yeah,” Aizawa said.
“Hey, why don’t you come over to my apartment after work’s done?” Hizashi asked. “Like old times! I’ll make you tea.”
“That would be nice,” Aizawa said, lump forming in his throat. “I’ve got one more thing to do before I leave for the day, though.”
Nedzu narrowed his eyes as the three people he needed walked into his office.
Tsukauchi, Aizawa, and Kaminari.
This would be the final test.
If Tsukauchi verified that Kaminari’s story was true and that he wasn’t planning to work with villains any longer, that was it. He’d be forced to keep Kaminari at his school. If Tsukauchi said that Kaminari’s story was false, and that he was purposefully malicious, Aizawa would be twice as hard to console. It really was a lose-lose situation.
Appearing to have noticed Nedzu’s hostile stare, Kaminari started looking nervous and crept back behind Aizawa. Hiding behind him. Typical. Aizawa noticed, and gave Nedzu a reproachful look.
Nedzu felt a bit of faint amusement. Aizawa was certainly no more timid than he’d been at the start of the loops, at least. “Let’s begin,” Nedzu said.
Tsukauchi started interviewing Kaminari, and Nedzu’s suspicions were correct. Kaminari’s story had been true, he didn’t plan to work with villains any longer and promised not to in the future, and he seemed regretful for his choices. But still, Nedzu couldn’t help but bare his teeth slightly at Kaminari saying, “at least no one got hurt.”
He regretted it a little when Aizawa glanced at him with actual worry, as if he might break his promise about letting Kaminari stay.
He’s so attached, Nedzu thought to himself. Hm, that might create problems later on, but I suppose things could be worse considering what a vicious experience he had…
Aizawa’s health was slowly but surely improving, and Nedzu did all he could. He reduced Aizawa’s workload, and tried to give him more constructive work over menial administrative tasks. He made sure to remind Aizawa to eat if he hadn’t done so. He tried to keep a calming and soothing atmosphere.
But there was a limit to how much he could do. Some things just took time.
Aizawa looked relieved when Kaminari’s testimony was over.
Good enough, Nedzu thought, and it was.
When Hizashi had invited Shouta over for tea, he’d expected a somewhat stilted conversation, one where Shouta expertly dodged the topic of whatever awfulness had gone on in the loops and Hizashi tried his best to guess.
What he hadn’t been expecting was Shouta practically melting into him, and telling him everything.
A play-by-play of the loops, which had been even more sickening than Hizashi had imagined. As he told him about every horrid injury, Shouta squeezed him tighter. Hizashi drew him closer in turn. “-so then she crushed my arm,” Shouta said.
“Oh no, not again,” Hizashi said, a bad joke. He regretted it the moment it came out of his mouth, but Shouta just laughed, the noise sounding half like a sob.
“Yeah, always the arms,” Shouta said.
“I’m sorry,” Hizashi said.
“No, no, don't worry about it,” Shouta said, lifting his head to look up at him. “It just hurts to talk about now, since thinking about it upsets me. It was easier to talk about, before. It was just yesterday, then, but now it’s different. You understand, right?”
Hizashi didn’t understand, and probably never would. Still, he nodded. Shouta breathed a pleased sigh and relaxed again. “Yeah… I think after that was the loop was where I started looking for a traitor among the UA staff… there wasn’t one, by the way,” Shouta rushed to assure. “The leak was something else. But I spent however many loops trying to deal with that. Oh, I just remembered I have something to apologize for. Sorry for locking you in a closet.”
"...What?"
"I sort of locked you in a clos--well, not a closet. Your bathroom, technically. You were pretty unhappy about it, let me tell you."
"What?"
Shouta was curled up on Hizashi’s couch, half-asleep, looking tired. “I’m sorry about all this,” he said.
“Don't say that,” Hizashi said. “There’s no reason to be sorry.”
“Maybe, but in the future I’m worried I’ll rely on you too much,” Shouta admitted. “I always came to you in the loops for emotional support, but you can’t be here for me all the time.”
“Don't worry about that, silly,” Hizashi said, shaking his head. “You’re the one who just got brutally murdered and revived, focus on yourself! Besides, I’m not your only friend. You can talk to Nemuri and Nedzu and Sekijiro and your underground hero guys,” Hizashi said. "But if you did just want to talk with me about everything, I'd be fine with that."
“I don’t want to drain all your emotional energy,” Shouta argued. “You have a life too.”
Hizashi sighed and put his hand on Shouta’s shoulder, looking him dead in the eye. “Shouta, it’s okay. Just trust me. Now that we’ve talked about it, trust me that I can lay down boundaries and make some distance if it gets to be too much for me.”
“Really? You will?” Shouta’s voice was a bit skeptical.
“I promise. If I’m too emotionally exhausted to support you, I’ll pass you off to Nemuri or something. It’s going to be fine,” Hizashi said.
"Thanks, Hizashi," Shouta said, with the faintest hint of a smile.
Something about the promise seemed to assure Shouta. He laid back down on the couch again, and promptly fell asleep.
Hizashi threw a blanket over Shouta and turned out the lights. He must have been pretty tired... but it's good he's getting some rest.
“Good night, Shouta.”
Notes:
I am planning one more chapter after this one--the end approaches. A bittersweet occasion 😌
Thank you for all your support! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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