Work Text:
1.
Hizashi was the first person to realize that something was off about Shouta, and that was only because he was too nosy for his own good.
No one had been in contact with Shouta since the death of Midoriya Inko. When the news broke to the rest of the staff, they had all been in shock. Hizashi's heart went out to poor Midoriya in the wake of the tragedy. All Might had barely been dead for a full month before another person important to the kid died as well. All of the first-year teachers had noticed how Midoriya was academically slipping in his grief, Hizashi could hardly guess how much worse the kid was feeling now that this had to happen to him.
And that was all he could do; guess. Because Shouta hadn't been updating any of them about how the two of them were doing. Despite being there the night of the death, the other man hadn't informed any of the faculty about what happened and Nedzu found out about it through different outlets. The principal was the only one who had spoken to Shouta since giving the man and Midoriya two weeks of bereavement before returning to school so that the funeral arrangements could happen and so the kid could settle down under Shouta's custody for the time being.
Hizashi had a feeling that the other man was drowning in responsibility. While the grouch liked to hide it, he really did care about Class 1-A, so for something like this to happen to one of his students it was only natural that he would step up and take care of Midoriya. But he was only just one man- an emotionally constipated man who could barely handle his own grief let alone that of his student's.
So he took it upon himself to drop in and check on Shouta. Considering that all of his and Nemuri's messages had been left on read Hizashi didn't see the point in calling ahead to warn the man that he was coming over. He had taken a quick stop to buy some goodies and things he thought might cheer up Midoriya however, wanting to help bring a smile to his face. The kid was such a pleasure to have in class, always answering questions with enthusiasm, and Hizashi had grown to have a soft spot for the listener.
Shouta's apartment was a little out of the way from his own, but it was a trip that he had taken many times before, so he simply whistled and jostled the bag from where it hung on his wrist. He was currently out of costume as he hadn't wanted to attract any attention while trying to complete his goal.
Technically, Hizashi had been given a key to Shouta's apartment when the man had bought it, but he didn't think it was a smart idea to barge into the apartment when Shouta was likely in mama bear mode. So instead he knocked on the door, a little pattern that he had developed with Shouta and Nemuri when they were in school together, a way for them to know it was him without having to check.
Normally the door would swing open not too soon after, either revealing an exhausted Shouta or a flirtatious Nemuri. So used to the routine it was only a little concerning when it took a while before anything happened. He could, however, hear someone shifting softly on the other side of the door. Hizashi only picked up on it due to his quirk giving him well above average hearing to compensate for the strain of how loud he can get using Voice.
Concerned he straightened up his relaxed posture just as he heard the lock turn slowly and the door opened up a crack, a deadbolt chain hovering just above Shouta's peering face. The lights were off in the apartment so he couldn't get a good look at his friend beyond his normally strained and reddened eyes.
Which were now glaring at him. "Who's there?"
Hizashi was robbed of words. Perplexed, he waved it off as his friend being so overwhelmed that he couldn't recognize him. Letting a gaudy smile grow on his face he opened his stance and waved his hands around wildly, "Is unexpectedly becoming a parent hitting you so hard that you can't recognize me, Shou? That's so lame! It's Hizashi, man."
Shouta's eye widened, "Hizashi?"
Oh good, he was recognized in the end, the man must have been tired after-
"Gross, ugh."
-all. Huh?
"That's too close to Hisashi. Bye now."
Shouta was closing the door so Hizashi snapped out a hand and curled it around the door to stop him, "What?! So mean! You never had a problem with my name before," he whined.
Silence.
Hizashi's smile didn't falter but an uneasy sense of wrongness started to shift around in his mind and gut.
"What do you want," Shouta said.
"I heard about you taking care of the little listener," Hizashi responded, letting his smile slip off at his somber words. "I brought over a care package to maybe cheer him up and to check on you too."
"You brought something?" interest flooded Shouta's voice, a reaction that Hizashi hadn't expected. He would have thought that Shouta would retort that he was fine immediately, as adverse to others caring about him as the other man was.
"Yeah," he held up the bag and bounced it a little so that the items inside would shift and make a little noise. "So are you gonna let me in or what?"
"... fine," the door closed and he heard the deadbolt shift. Shouta reopened the door and stepped aside.
Hizashi entered the apartment and looked around. It was mostly the same from when he was last there, a little cluttered but kept free of any trash. There were some additions that clearly came from Midoriya, mainly, a floral comforter bunched up on the couch that Hizashi had to advert his eyes from because it clearly belonged to the boy's late mother. Some comics were littered around the coffee table and the titles were so old that Hizashi would have placed them as pre-quirk era runs.
He couldn't see any sight of Shouta's cat, Lychee, so he started to turn around and say, "Yo, where's that adorable fur ball hidING-"
He jumped back at the full sight of Shouta.
It was startling, how his friend's hair was streaked with locks of pure white.
Hizashi floundered, trying to figure out what he could possibly say in response, and he settled with, "Woah, Shou, going grey at the head already?"
Shouta glared at him but picked out the white hair that draped over his right eye, and watched it slip from between his fingers, "I like it better this way."
Strange. Very strange, and the feeling that something was off-kilter just so continued to rise, "I mean hey! At least you can rock the salt-and-pepper look, ladies go wild for that, ya dig?"
Rolling his eyes, Shouta moved forward and reached for the bag, "What did you buy for Izuku-kun?"
Izuku-kun? Well, Hizashi supposed that it made sense for Shouta to be more informal now that he was taking care of the kid, but it was jarring nonetheless.
He let his friend take the bag off his hands and riffle through it, stating, "Brought the kiddo some snacks, also some melon soda, and candy. Oh, and I saw a plushie wearing Fat Gum's hoodie and thought that the kid would appreciate it with how gaga he goes over hero merch."
Pulling it out, Shouta rotated the bear and examined it, "Not All Might?"
"Ah, didn't think he needed a reminder about Yagi's death at the moment," he lowered his voice and worried the back of his neck. "So hey, where is the kid now?"
Shouta placed the bear back in the bag and let it rest on the tabletop, "Resting."
"He staying in the guest room?"
"It's his room now," Shouta said.
"For the moment, right?" Hizashi asked. Shouta didn't react. "Wait, you're not just watching him until they can get into contact with his father?"
"His father?" the Pro raised an incredulous eyebrow at him. "No, he's going to be staying with me for now on."
"But won't his father want to take care of him-"
"Why would he when he sent a letter five years ago, after abandoning him, saying that Izuku-kun was an accident he never wanted and that marrying Inko-chan was a mistake," Shouta moved over to a bookshelf and tipped a miniature wooden sculpture Nemuri made him for his birthday once with his finger. It fell over with a clack. "I'm all Izuku-kun has now."
Hizashi had to pick his jaw up from where it fell at the casualness at which Shouta revealed that.
"That's-"
"It's really late, thank you for bringing something for Izuku-kun, I'll be sure to give them to him when he's awake," Shouta sauntered over to him and took advantage of how dazed Hizashi was at the moment to push him back towards the exit. "Goodnight, Hizashi-chan!"
He shoved him out of the apartment and slammed the door behind him, locking both it and setting the deadbolt.
All Hizashi could do was blink and stiffen when the way Shouta addressed him sunk into his head. He turned to look back at the apartment and knew that something was very wrong.
2.
Today was the day that Shouta and Midoriya would return back to UA after two weeks, and Nemuri was trying to resist the urge to pick at her cuticles in worry. Ever since Hizashi went to check up on them during the two weeks off he had been insisting that something was up with Shouta. How he hadn't responded to his special knock, calling him 'Hizashi-chan,' and just not acting like himself.
Nemuri couldn't help but point out how much of a far cry it was from when he was insisting that someone was intruding on UA property, acting paranoid that someone was following after him and his students.
"I would rather have him go back to that," Hizashi had said. "At least then I could see that it was Shouta. This right now? That's not him."
It worried her. So she sat with anticipation for when Shouta would arrive at the faculty office. Now that he was back Nemuri had off until her first class, as she had been taking his place temporarily as the homeroom teacher of Class 1-A. Which had been rough. It took everything in her power to keep the kids calm and in their seats and not weaseling out Shouta's address from her to check up on Midoriya. Which, in all fairness, was charming to see how much all of his friends cared about him.
The darling boy would be smothered in love by his classmates the second he entered the classroom. Nemuri didn't place a bet, because she knew tact unlike some people who thought she didn't, but if she had placed one it would be on Uraraka crushing Midoriya in a hug before he took more than one step past the door.
Homeroom would be over soon and it was about the time when Shouta would come crawling into the lounge to cocoon himself in his sleeping bag on the couch. Any second now.
Any second.
Shouta took so long to get to the lounge that Nemuri moved on to something productive. As such she was already focused on grading papers about the Irrationality Movement that spawned in the art world during the Dawn of Quirks, with all the kids having to analyze the effects of Meta Abilities, as quirks were called back then, on an artwork of their choosing as only a handful of them had survived and they were currently preserved in art museums globally. These papers were actually from a month ago, but she had pushed off grading them until now.
So lost was she in reading and marking up the essays that she didn't hear the door open and close.
Nemuri paused when she flipped to the next paper and her eyes laid upon Midoriya's shaky handwriting.
Picking up the paper, she smiled slightly as she thumbed through all of the pages. Midoriya had been so excited about this assignment. He was beyond animated in her course, as it combined some of his favorite things- heroes, quirks, and, to her surprise, art. When he shyly showed her some of his drawings of heroes she squealed with delight and teased him with the possibility that one day she might talk about one of his paintings in a class far into the future. His face flushed red and he jumbled his arms together to hide his head from her as he stammered that he wasn't all that good and that he'd never picked up a brush in his life! So it wasn't possible that she would!
Her smile slid off her face as she realized that she probably wouldn't see him that flustered or happy again for a while.
She felt someone leaning over her shoulder before she saw Shouta's calloused hand pick up the paper.
Looking up she braced herself for the sight of the sporadically duel-colored hair that her friend had now. Hizashi had talked about it in the staff group chat, but the image that she had spawned in her mind was very different from how it actually looked.
There had to be some explanation about how that happened. She's heard about people's hair or eyes changing drastically after their quirk first emerges, and maybe a whisper here and there about quirk developments later in life, but for Shouta's hair to get that pure white? She called bullshit.
"Did Izuku-kun write this?" Shouta leaned away from her as he read the paper. Nemuri tensed at the unusual way he was speaking. "Oh, I remember this painting, The Illumination Child. The artist caused quite a stir, being one of the first to depict quirks as something beautiful instead of frightening. I can see why he would choose this painting to write about."
Nemuri raised an eyebrow at his words and leaned forward on her desk to cup her head in her palm, "I never realized you paid so much attention to my lessons, Shouta. How very naughty of you to hide that from me."
Shouta gagged vividly.
She pursed her lips. While it was normal that Shouta didn't take kindly to her flirty teasing, he never stooped to overdramatic behavior. But before she could call him out on it, he was picking up a pen and marking an 'S' on Midoriya's paper.
"Hey!" she snatched back the paper aghast. "Shouta! You can't just grade my student’s papers without even consulting me first!"
Shouta didn't even have the audacity to look ashamed, placing the pen back on the table and shrugging with a smile, "It would have been an exemplary mark regardless of if you read it or not."
"The nerve of you, really, Shouta! Midoriya isn't perfect with his assignments, he's prone to skipping words and not being concise with his arguments," she huffed as she flipped through the pages already finding a few mistakes. "I get that you're protective of the kid now that you're taking care of him, but you can't just boost his grades for other classes because you want to."
"Are you going to cross it out," Shouta made direct eye contact with her, smile still in place. "Izuku-kun will see that. Or will you lie and say you lost his paper and make him rewrite it?"
"I-"
"He's been having a very hard time, I think you should cut him some slack," Shouta moved away from her desk. "Besides, homeroom teachers are meant to keep on top of their student’s grades after all."
"Not like this," Nemuri murmured, looking down at the grade. She had no other choice but to set it aside in the completed pile, making a note to actually read it on her own later. There really wasn't anything to do about the false grade, because even if she corrected it in her grade books she had a feeling that a certain someone would notice and change it back.
She glared at Shouta who lingered just a little out of view, circling around Yagi's former desk, opening the drawers despite them having cleaned it out soon after his passing.
Maybe Hizashi had a point.
This wasn't like Shouta at all.
3.
Ochako was worried for Deku-kun. And for Aizawa-sensei too.
Her friend just hadn't been the same since All Might's death and their whole group had been trying to cheer him up as best as they could, but just as they had been starting to crack his shell, he disappeared. Aizawa-sensei too.
None of them had had any idea of what had happened, and none of their texts to him were responded to, they were simply left on read. It reminded Ochako very much of how Iida-kun acted after his brother was permanently injured by Stain. He had noticed the similar behavior too and was right alongside her in wanting to reach out to Deku-kun.
Midnight-sensei was keeping mum about where the two of them were at first, but Ochako had a feeling that she didn't know all that much about the situation either.
The person who ended up knowing what had happened at all was, perhaps not so surprisingly, Bakugou-kun.
He had stumbled into class on the fourth day that Deku-kun and Aizawa-sensei had been absent and paused at the sight of Deku-kun's empty chair, a haunted look on his face.
Everyone noticed, and then they all grew tense. That look was so unfamiliar on Bakugou-kun's face that immediately they all knew that something terrible had happened.
Upon noticing that everyone was staring at him, Bakugou-kun barked, "What?!"
Lifting out of her seat, Ochako took a step in his direction and implored, "Bakugou-kun, do you know something about Deku-kun? About where he's gone?"
"Why do you think I know anything at the nerd, hah?" the surly teen slammed his bag down on the ground and slid into his seat, burying his head in his arms on the desk.
Not expecting to get an answer out of him, Ochako started to return to her seat.
"Auntie's dead."
And promptly jolted back up.
"Deku-kun's mom died?" tears surged forth and her heart clenched. "Poor Deku-kun."
"We must give him our condolences as soon as possible," Iida-kun added with a chop, a pained but understanding look on his face, no doubt thinking about his brother.
Todoroki-kun asked from his side of the room, "Do you know how she died?"
"None of those shitty police extra's will tell us," Bakugou-kun huffed. "And that hobo bastard snatched him up before my mom could go get him."
"Hobo bastard...? Wait, do you mean-" Ochako started but stopped when the class door opened and revealed Midnight-sensei.
As expected, the class started clamoring and asking her all at once if what Bakugou-kun had said was true and if so then where did Aizawa-sensei live and could they go check up on Deku-kun and-
"Settle down, kids, this is no way for hero hopefuls to act!" Midnight-sensei cracked her whip but that hardly stopped the noise.
Eventually, she had gotten them all under control but revealed nothing beyond confirming that Deku-kun's mother had passed and that Aizawa-sensei was taking care of him for now. Bakugou-kun's face turned sour at that, and he stewed halfway across the room from where Ochako was seated.
Since Midnight-sensei wasn't saying anything else she and Iida-kun, and Todoroki-kun too although he hadn't spoken with them about it, decided to confront Bakugou-kun during lunch to find out more about Deku-kun's circumstance.
"It's bullshit," was the first thing he had to say, proceeded by him stabbing his lunch with his chopsticks, growling as if his mapo tofu had personally offended him. "The Old Hag Deku's legal guardian in Auntie's will, and she would have gotten custody of him if that bastard hadn’t contested it. And because he's a Pro the estate attorney took his fucking side. I only found out last night because my mom was planning his murder, rightfully so if you ask me.."
"Why would Aizawa-sensei do that?" Ochako questioned, confused.
"Fuck if I know," Bakugou-kun scoffed. "The fucking nerve of him- I bet he wanted Auntie dead. It wouldn't surprise me if he was the one who caused it."
"Bakugou-kun, you shouldn't speak about our esteemed teacher like that," Iida-kun exclaimed, taken aback at the accusation.
"Shut it, Four Eyes, I know what I'm talking about!"
Todoroki-kun asked, "Do you have evidence?" She couldn't believe he was actually considering that!
"Of course I do, do you think I'm stupid," Bakugou-kun started to count on his fingers. "First Aizawa calls up Auntie and starts asking if Deku has any other family besides her, bringing up her shitty ex-husband and whether he had any relatives. Then at the parent-teacher conference, she saw that he was eyeing up Deku the entire time. And then the last the Hag hears from her, Aizawa-sensei was going to do a home visit to talk about Deku, and now she's dead and he's in her care. Tell me that shit doesn't sound suspicious, I'll wait."
That... Ochako couldn't deny that something about all of that didn't sit right with her. But still, Aizawa-sensei was their teacher! They couldn't just think that he would plan to kill Deku-kun's mom like that! This whole year so far he had been going to bat for all of them, making sure that they would have every opportunity and chance to learn how to become proper Pro Heroes.
Despite Bakugou-kun's words Ochako wanted to have faith in her teacher.
But it was hard when Deku-kun and he came back to class two weeks later. The second her friend entered the classroom she was up and out of her seat to give him a hug, Iida-kun right behind her to comfort Deku-kun.
The other boy looked terrible, he had deep bags under his eyes, and his skin was slightly pale. He sunk into her and Iida-kun's hug but didn't say much beyond a small, "... thanks, guys."
And right behind him was Aizawa-sensei, looking down at the scene with a blank face. It took everything in Ochako's power to not openly react to the changes in their teacher. Nobody had told them about how his hair had gone partially white!
She totally expected him to scold them for blocking the entryway and that they should be in their seats by now. But he didn't do that and instead waited for them to break the hug with Deku-kun and dragged him into the classroom. She was so sure that he was being lenient because of Deku-kun's grief.
Ochako saw how his eyes followed after Deku-kun's form, however, and Bakugou-kun's words nestled deep inside of her thoughts, and she felt unnerved. She shook it off because she couldn't let Bakugou-kun of all people influence her opinion of her teacher.
If only it had been that one moment of weirdness, then she could have dismissed the claims entirely. But it hadn't been, and she didn't know if she was only hyperaware of how Aizawa-sensei was acting as a result of her doubt but she picked up on how different he was acting since before he went away for two weeks.
Usually, Aizawa-sensei spent their homeroom class making announcements and letting them know the schedule for their studies going forward aka typical homeroom teacher duties. Aizawa-sensei did none of that in the following days. He didn't even inform them that they were supposed to have a joint rescue training lecture with Class 1-B and that left all of them surprised and unprepared when it came time for Foundational Hero Studies. All he did was give them a study period each day and then spent most of that time pretending like he was reviewing his lesson plans when really he was watching Deku-kun like a hawk the entire hour.
Today the physical portion of their course was being taught by Ectoplasm-sensei as the school still hadn't found a teacher to permanently replace All Might. They were just practicing enhancing and stretching the limits of their quirks, similar to that week they spent at the summer camp led by the Wild, Wild Pussycats. So Ochako took a moment to inch towards Deku-kun's section as he hadn't started the exercise yet.
"Hey Deku-kun," she announced herself softly, gathering his attention from where he was staring at his crooked fingers.
"Hi," his voice had hardly regained its previous levels, but he still managed to give her a quirk of his lips and it was the closest to a full smile as he was able to give these days.
"Have you noticed that Aizawa-sensei is way laxer now," Ochako asked, thinking that maybe he would have some insight on why that was considering that he was living with him now.
"Oh, um, I guess," Deku-kun looked down. "I don't think I've really noticed, with everything, um..."
Oh no, she had accidentally upset him, and tried to salvage the moment by joking, "Such a relief though! I kinda like how we have more time for other things beyond just studying! Although don't tell Iida-kun I said that."
No real response besides a half-hearted chuckle.
"So, what's it like living with Aizawa-sensei?" she asked, deciding to change the subject altogether.
"It's fine... different, I suppose," Deku-kun rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean- I never really thought about what his personal life was like before. But it's ok I guess. His cat is nice."
"He has a cat?" she gasped. "What kind? What's its name!"
"I don't know the breed, but her name is Lychee, she's really sweet," Deku-kun blushed a tad. "It's strange though, she's not really fond of Aizawa-sensei for some reason."
"Well maybe-"
"Midoriya-kun, Uraraka-san, you should be practicing," an Ectoplasm clone interrupted her and narrowed his eyes down at them. It wasn't as harsh as it could have been, likely because of Deku-kun’s presence.
"Sorry, Sensei," they chimed together. Ochako took the reprimand as her exit and moved away so that Deku-kun could have some room to use his quirk. Getting out of range was a must if she didn't want to get blown away by the pure strength he exuded.
Out of the corner of her eye she watched as he got into a crouched stance, eyes closed as he started to power up his quirk. Ochako was always in awe of how lines of power and green lightning would light up Deku-kun's whole body.
But just before Deku-kun could spring up from his coil, the lights flickered rapidly before puttering out.
Even he looked confused at the development, but he just shook his head and tried again.
The same thing happened, only faster.
That got Deku-kun standing back to full height, staring down at his hands, this time in pure horror. Ochako stopped her own exercise and started to lower herself back down to the ground with a press of her fingertips. She stumbled as she landed but raced to her friend.
She reached out a hand, "Deku-kun-"
"I- I need to go see Recovery Girl," Deku-kun blurted out, not even waiting for permission before he was tearing it out of the gym in a rush. She and a few other students who had heard him watched as he left.
Ochako dropped her still outstretched hand and saw movement to the side. She turned and witnessed both Ectoplasm-sensei and Aizawa-sensei converge to stare after Deku-kun.
And Aizawa-sensei?
He was smiling at his retreating form.
And then Ochako knew that something was deeply wrong.
4.
Nedzu wasn't ignorant to the concerns of his staff and his students. As the principal, it was his job to make sure that he knew all the happenings going on in his school. Whether that be by way of checking cameras or upgrading the security obsessively, then that was just his way of showing he cared.
He had gotten quite a bit of complaint about Aizawa-kun's most recent behavior.
First, it had started with his instance that someone was infiltrating the campus. Which, if that were true, then Nedzu would know. Oh, he had certainly taken the claims very seriously the first time- he couldn't afford to not investigate to the fullest extent if one of his students was in possible danger. But no matter how hard he looked into the first altercation, he simply couldn't find evidence of Aizawa-kun's claims.
Even the second time that led to that semi-disastrous phone call with the late Midoriya-san, Nedzu had investigated the security footage further after Aizawa-kun had left his office. He had stayed up very late trying to find some sort of tampering or quirk use that could explain what the teacher had seen, but there was nothing.
Now, Nedzu did not doubt Aizawa-kun's capabilities as a teacher. The students that he churned out by the end of their three years at UA were always highly successful Pro Heroes. But he was only one man. A very dedicated teacher, but an overworked Underground Pro on top of that. Aizawa-kun always took long hours, and with his proclivity to taking naps whenever he could, Nedzu figured that all the late nights were starting to creep upon the man.
But he didn't remain naïve, and so he kept a clear watch of the security cameras at all times. They hadn't had any incidents this year, barring poor Yagi-kun's passing.
And now Midoriya-san's death.
The circumstances behind which perplexed Nedzu. Seeing as this concerned one of his students, he was keeping track of the forensic findings. Of which there had been none so far. No sign of a break-in, no other DNA found at the scene beyond that of the Midoriya's and Aizawa-kun.
When he had found out about the death, he had poured over the security tapes over and over again. Looking for something that he could have possibly missed, an oversight on his part. But there wasn't anything that he hadn't noticed before.
A part of him felt responsible. Aizawa-kun had been warning him but without proof, those warnings had gone ignored. And look what had happened.
In his call to discuss the time off for both him and Midoriya-kun, Nedzu had even apologized to the other man.
But Aizawa-kun had acted strange and pretended as though he didn't know what Nedzu was talking about.
Before hearing from anybody else, that was how Nedzu knew that something was off about Aizawa-kun. And it wouldn't be until he heard from Yamada-kun and Kayama-san that he started to build a possible picture of what was wrong.
Overhearing the conversations of the Class 1-A students were even more puzzle pieces.
All he needed to do was have a conversation with Aizawa-kun himself before he could start to assemble everything together. So he called the teacher down to his office and prepared a new batch of tea.
Nedzu wasn't surprised when he saw the man's new hair coloration, already having observed it through his cameras, so he simply greeted the man with, "Aizawa-kun, perfect! If you could just take a seat then we could get started."
Aizawa-kun looked at him with an unfamiliar look of curiosity. As though he were trying to dissect him from the other side of his desk. Nedzu's tail thwacked against his seat in agitation. It was a look very familiar to the ones he saw on the scientists who thought they could experiment on him.
Thus, it was not a look that Aizawa-kun was supposed to have.
"Is this about Izuku-kun?" Aizawa-kun asked as he lounged back on his chair.
Nedzu made a note about how the focus on Midoriya-kun and the way that the man referred to the student.
"Nope! This is actually about you!" Nedzu shot the man a fake smile and took a sip of his tea. "Quite a few people are concerned about how you've been doing so I thought I should check up on you."
Over the rim of his cup, he studied the other man. One of the first things Nedzu ever learned about humans was how to read their body language. Each person expressed their true thoughts so unguarded through their body. And Aizawa-kun was particularly hard to read, but Nedzu had picked up on many of his tells.
He compared his past mental profile to the man before him now.
Nedzu couldn't read this Aizawa-kun at all.
The man's body was relaxed and that inherently threw Nedzu off. Most of Aizawa-kun's tells came from things that would slip past his guarded and concealed stance. With him being so relaxed, Nedzu couldn't tell what he was thinking.
"Was it Hizashi-chan? He was just overreacting you know," Aizawa-kun waved him off. "It's hard work taking care of Izuku-kun, so I didn't have time to talk with him and asked him to leave. He shouldn't have taken it so seriously."
"Well, yes, Yamada-kun did come to me with concerns," Nedzu revealed. "But I don't want to dismiss them, after all, it's as you said raising a child is a hardship for those unprepared."
"Yes, but Izuku-kun is a delight, I'm glad he's mine now," was the response before he cleared his throat.
Nedzu took another sip to hide his look of alarm.
Before he could continue, Aizawa-kun cleared his throat again and looked to the side. His face was twisted slightly, and he rose his arm to his mouth and coughed into the crook of his elbow. It was rough sounding, and slightly wet, but somewhat familiar to how Yagi-kun sounded towards the end of his life. It went on for a few seconds, with a slight pause, before continuing. By the time the fit was over with, Aizawa-kun's eyes were slightly reddened and strained- more so than usual- and the tiniest flecks of blood painted his lips.
Highly concerned, regardless of his previously strange behavior, Nedzu asked, "Are you feeling well, Aizawa-kun?"
"I'm fine," he snapped. Nedzu noted it with interest. As far as he was aware, that was the first instance of open anger from him since the incident. And it was about his health of all things.
"I really must recommend you see Recovery Girl," Nedzu watched as Aizawa-kun rolled his eyes before they focused on something distant. "It wouldn't do for you to get sick when you're responsible now for Midoriya-kun's care."
"Cigarettes are bad for you, you know," Aizawa-kun smiled at him, causing him to curl his paw in shock.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh. I thought we were discussing each other's health? I noticed your cigarette tray on your desk so I offered my own input since cigarettes kill, and it wouldn't do for the principal to die when he's responsible for the care of so many students," the other man grew a wide grin and bared his teeth at Nedzu. His fur stood on end at the perceived threat and he stayed silent. "It's not so nice when someone's intruding on your health, now does it?"
His tail thwacked against the back of his chair, and he didn't put up any pretenses of politeness when he said, "That's out of line for you to say."
"But I'm right, aren't I? It's not nice." Aizawa-kun rose out of his seat. "So how about we make a deal? You don't bother me about my health, and I won't scold you for having an addiction to tobacco."
Not waiting for his response, Aizawa-kun turned and headed towards the exit.
Just as he hypothesized, the conversation had led him to the conclusion regarding Aizawa-kun's perplexing behavior.
"You're not Aizawa-kun."
"Of course I am. This is his body isn't it?" with a giggle so out of place with Aizawa-kun's voice the man left his office completely.
Nedzu scowled at the imposter, guilt resurging in his chest as he interlocked his paws. This was most concerning indeed and he would have to do everything in his power to fix it.
His eye twitched when he realized that he didn't want to prove the other right, but he could really use a smoke break at the moment. Darn.
5.
Sick people scared Izuku now. It was irrational, but he couldn't help it.
All Might got sick and died. The investigators had told him that it was possible his mom had gotten sick suddenly and died in the middle of the night.
Sickness meant losing the people he loved, and Aizawa-sensei had a persistent cough these last couple of days.
Living with his teacher was weird. It was like when you saw them outside of school at the grocery store; he could really only think about his teachers in the context of UA or hero work. So getting to see his homeroom teacher all the time now was kind of hard to get used to.
But he really didn't have any other choice but to get used to it. And besides, it wasn't like Aizawa-sensei was treating him harshly. It turned out that the other man was much more personable outside of the classroom. Plus it turned out that he was really into pre-quirk literature, which was awesome because it was always hard for Izuku to find someone who enjoyed it as well, and the last people to really enjoy it the same way as he were his dad and All-
Well. It was comforting. That's all.
Plus Lychee was nice to have around. She was always cuddling into his lap, and she let him pet her. She avoided Aizawa-sensei though, fur standing on end and hissing at him slightly, always darting up and out of her seat so that she could leave the room when he was in it. Izuku didn't really understand the appeal of keeping a pet that didn't like you all too much, but considering that he never had one before, it could have been totally normal behavior for cats to act like that towards their owners.
Regardless, even if he was still getting used to his new environment, it wasn't as hard as he was expecting it.
Then Aizawa-sensei started coughing.
That's how it started with All Might. He said that he had a slight cold. Then before Izuku could even realize it, All Might had gotten so ill that he spent his last remaining days in the hospital.
Izuku didn't know what he would do if he lost Aizawa-sensei in the same way that he lost All Might.
If that wasn't concerning enough, he had to deal with the looming horror that was One for All slowly leaving his body.
He didn't know what he did wrong, or why this was happening. All Might hardly told him anything about the quirk. The only people that he was aware of that knew anything about One for All was Gran Torino and that detective that All Might mentioned every once in a while. Izuku didn't even know the name of the latter, and that meant that he could only reach out to his internship mentor in hopes that he could explain what was going on.
He had been trying to compose a letter to the man these past few days, but he kept misplacing them. The apartment wasn't so messy that he couldn't keep track of his things, but every time he restarted it the newest version would just disappear. He had asked Aizawa-sensei about it once but the man admitted to not having seen anything of the sort around. So Izuku didn't know where the drafts were going. But he didn't let that stop him from retrying- he had to send this letter.
Izuku was just so scared that he was no longer worthy of All Might's quirk. That One for All had realized that he couldn't do anything to save his mentor or his mother and it was rejecting him. All Might had told him that he could be a hero with his quirk, he had been given this chance and now it was slipping from his fingers like sand.
The door to the apartment opened and Lychee dug her legs into his thigh and springboarded off of him to scamper off and hide in his room. He looked up and saw his teacher closing and locking the door behind him.
"I'm back Ku-kun," the man announced.
Izuku gave a wobbly smile. It was sort of unusual to have his caretaker refer to him with a nickname, but that just meant that Aizawa-sensei must care about him, right? In the same way that Izuku called Kacchan, well, Kacchan.
"I finished my homework, Sensei," he held up the sheets of paper. Truthfully, he didn't really know how to start conversations that weren't about school around the man. To Izuku, this almost felt like a really long out-of-school suspension.
Aizawa-sensei got a thoughtful look on his face after he said that. "That's actually something I wanted to discuss with you."
Looking down at the worksheet, Izuku said in confusion, "My homework? I've been getting pretty good grades recently, um, sorry if..."
"No, I’m not talking about your grades," his teacher got closer and knelt in front of him. "I was more meaning how you should address me now that I'm your primary caretaker."
"Oh, do you mean to not call you Sensei after school?" Izuku asked. It made sense that perhaps the man wouldn't want his profession following him into his private life.
"Yes, that. I was thinking that you could call me Uncle going forward."
Izuku's cheeks heated up at the prospect of calling his teacher Uncle. He wasn't so sure that he could call the man that so soon after his mother's death. Don't get him wrong, he greatly appreciated the man stepping up to take care of him, especially the day of her death, but it had just been him and his mom for so long. His maternal grandparents had passed away before he was born and he never knew his paternal ones. Izuku had no other family to speak of, and the only one that he had needed was his mom anyway.
He knew it wasn't logical, but it almost felt like he was replacing his mom if he called Aizawa-sensei ‘uncle,’ and he could never do that. So he didn't need more family. Not right now at least. Perhaps in the future, he could consider Aizawa-sensei his uncle. Hopefully, the man would understand his reasoning.
He started playing with his fingers as he said, "I don't know if I can, Sensei."
Aizawa-sensei frowned, "Why not?"
"It hurts too much, to think about my family," Izuku bit his inner cheek. "I'm sorry, I know it's stupid but I'm just not ready. Not that I'm opposed to it at all! Just not... right now."
"That's very disappointing," he sighed. "But unfortunately I wasn't asking."
His mouth opened a little as he uttered, "Huh?"
"You're to call me Uncle going forward, Ku-kun. I won't accept anything else."
"But- it's too weird! I can't!" he cried. "Please don't make me!"
"You're mine now, don't you get that, Izuku," Aizawa-sensei rose to his full height, towering over him from his spot on the couch. "I'm the one taking care of you, watching out for you; the least you could do is call me by my proper title of Uncle."
Izuku was scared. It was such a turn in behavior from what he knew of his teacher that his blood turned cold. "I- I don't want to have this conversation anymore!"
He jolted out of his seat and brushed past the man to make his escape towards the room that had been given to him. His brain was yelling at him to make sure that he was safe, so he reached his hand back to lock the door with a twist of his fingers.
Izuku didn't like this new side to Aizawa-sensei that the man was showing him. Could he really get through living with the man for the foreseeable future if he was so willing to ignore Izuku's distress in order to get what he wants? The teacher had never displayed that behavior at all during class. Heroes weren't supposed to act so callously like that to grieving victims, it just didn't sit right with Izuku.
Something quiet whispered at the back of his mind that heroes didn't have to put up pretenses behind closed doors, Endeavor didn't and whose to say that Aizawa-sensei hadn't always been like this?
No, he couldn't think like that. This was probably just the man not understanding Izuku's boundaries and it was probably, in his eyes, a nice gesture to show that he was dedicated to taking care of Izuku from now on. He had to think positively about this situation because he had nowhere else to go if it was-
Stop, he had to stop going down that train of thought.
Izuku wasn't expecting the man to follow after him. In fact, Aizawa-sensei didn't announce his presence at all, and Izuku flopped backward onto his bedsheets. He curled around his mom's comforter and pushed his nose into it. He could only faint smell traces of his mother's scent- she always applied her perfume while she sat on top of her bed, it was something that faintly reminded him of lavender.
It was due to not expecting Aizawa-sensei, that when the man said, "I heard from Recovery-chan that you were losing your quirk," Izuku froze. "Is this true?"
"I- it's-"
"Don't lie to me, Izuku, it's my job as your homeroom teacher and your Uncle to know these things," Aizawa-sensei said from the other side of the door. "If it's true... I don't know if we can keep you in the Hero Course..."
"No!" Izuku blurted out, hands gripping his shirt and pulling it down slightly as his heart started to beat faster and faster. "N-no! Please! I can be a hero quirkless, I can! Aizawa-sensei you fight-"
"Quirkless?" Aizawa-sensei interrupted, before clicking his tongue. "You can't really think that, do you?"
"W-what do you mean," he stuttered. "You-ur quirk is Erasure and it-"
"My quirk allows me to get rid of everyone else's leaving me the only quirked fighter," Aizawa-sensei said. "I use my quirk to defeat the weaker and defenseless now quirkless opponents."
This- this couldn't be real, Izuku refused to believe that anything that had happened today was reality. He was dreaming- everything up to the day that his mother died must be one long and horrible dream. He slapped his hands over his ears, blocking out the voice of his teacher as he dug into his lower lip with his teeth mouth-filling with a metallic tang from blood and salt from the tears that steamrolled down his cheeks.
He didn't know for how long he wasn't listening, but when Izuku tuned back into the world, he heard Aizawa-sensei finish with, "It wouldn't be right for me to not expel you."
Izuku choked back another sob.
"Although, I suppose even good teachers fall prey to nepotism."
"H-huh?" Izuku choked out, breathless.
"It would be cruel to kick my nephew out of the Hero Course, wouldn't it?"
Izuku knew what Aizawa-sensei was doing. What he wanted Izuku to say. To cave in.
But Izuku's dream was being dangled right out of his reach again, threatened with disappearing from his grasp forever. This chance that All Might had given him, the remaining piece of his mother that would have lived on in his hero costume, he couldn't lose any of it- quirk or no quirk!
"It- it would be c-cruel," Izuku clenched his eyes closed. His throat strangled itself around the word, and he had to force it to leave his lips. "Uh- Unc-cle."
"Ah, you're right it would be cruel, I'm so sorry for insinuating that you couldn't be a hero, Ku-kun," Aizawa-sensei's tone flipped completely, sounding regretful and pretending that he was sorry. But Izuku could hear an underlying smugness. "Could you come out here? So that you can see I'm sorry?"
The thought of being in front of his teacher made Izuku sick to his stomach, but the threat of being expelled weighed heavy on his mind so he forced his traitorous stiff legs to move forward and unlocked the door.
Peering out from behind the safety of it, he looked up at Aizawa-sensei who looked apologetic. The older man opened his arms, and Izuku moved an inch behind the door in response.
Aizawa-sensei glared at him.
Scared, Izuku darted from behind the door and let the man pull him into a hug. He felt as the man that was his teacher dug his fingers into his shoulder and bury his head into his chest. What had been comforting in the wake of his mother's immediate death now felt like a snake constricting around him, slowly killing him.
Izuku had to get that letter to Gran Torino, fast.
(+1)
Before he even opened his eyes, Shouta swung out a rope from his capture weapon and reared back to break free from... nothing.
Then, his eyes snapped open.
The first thing to greet him when he finally opened his eyes was a black inky void, absolutely nothing in front of him but himself. His initial response was confusion, as the last thing that he could remember happening was Midoriya being puppeteered by his parasite of an uncle. Shouta's chest heaved at the reminder of the danger his student was in and he went to take a step further into the void so that he could hurry and get back to him.
He would have moved forward fully had it not been for the broad hand that clenched down on his shoulder.
Shouta whirled around and socked the person in the face before even getting a look at who it was.
And when he did he was greeted to the bewildering sight of a fully healed All Might. Of course, now he was sprawled against the ground due to Shouta punching his lights out, but that did nothing to diminish how the older man was in the prime of his health, not skinny with sunken cheeks but rather filled out with his iconic muscles.
So shocked was he, that all he could do was mutter, "Yagi?"
Yagi cradled his jaw and rubbed at it, and said, "I'd say that it's nice to see you again, but under these circumstances, I don't think it'd be wise."
"How...?" Shouta backed up.
The only way for Yagi to be here, looking like this, was if Shouta had-
"You're not dead if that's what you're thinking," a woman's voice interrupted his mental spiral and he jolted at the proximity of it. Looking to his side, there stood a woman he had never seen before in his life. Her outfit was reminiscent of some of the older heroes before his generation, with the simplicity of her costume and the white cape.
"Master," Yagi said, clearly recognizing the woman. At least that made one of them. Although, Shouta did note that his voice sounded a tad betrayed. That only served to make the woman forlorn.
"Toshinori," she sighed, reaching out a hand to help the blond oaf up. "Please. We all need to explain some things to Aizawa-san."
Yagi looked apprehensive at her hand, but eventually gave in and accepted her help. "I suppose we must."
"We? Who's we? Actually no," Shouta pointed at the woman. "Who even are you? And what the hell do you need to explain to me?"
"My name is Shimura Nana," the woman, now identified as Shimura, said. "And what we have to explain to you Tenth is about our quirk, One for All."
"Our quirk?" he asked.
"Hers, and mine," Yagi explained. "And young Midoriya's after me, and now..."
"And now you," Shimura finished. "Unwillingly."
"I don't have this quirk, this One for All."
"You do," Yagi insisted, placing a hand on Shouta's shoulder again only for him to brush it off. "When young Midoriya forced you to consume his blood, the quirk was transferred from him to you."
Shouta recalled that moment, and how his memories stopped as soon as he had been forced to swallow his student’s blood. He also recalled the words of Yoichi...
"He's in my body," he said, hatred building in his gut. "That was his goal, right? In forcing me to consume Midoriya's blood."
Yagi looked just as angry as him, "The only way for him to get control of your body was if One for All existed in you."
He growled and started to pace, "That still doesn't explain anything! How can a quirk just be transferred- is that why you were always sneaking around with Midoriya? What am I saying- that's not possible; quirks can't be shared. I want answers, now, about who the hell Yoichi is, what that has to do with how he stole my body- and where the hell we even are?!"
His rant ended with a semi-spin, gesturing at the absence of space all around them.
Yagi and Shimura shared a look.
"It would be best if you followed me Aizawa-kun," Yagi stated, gesturing towards the void. "There is a story I must tell you, about two brothers..."
Wanting answers, Shouta followed after All Might and Shimura. As they walked, Yagi spun a tale about two of the first quirk users, and how they had created a legacy quirk that could be passed down from person to person. Of how the first brother and the first user fought and the First died. And how the story and the people it contained were not who the vestiges- the predecessors of One for All before Yagi and Midoriya- thought they were.
"It wasn't until we were dead at the hands of All for One that any of us realized that the First wasn't as heroic as we were lead to believe," Shimura explained. "He was bratty originally, and intolerable to be around, but that changed when the quirk was passed onto our Ninth."
Yagi tightened his jaw and looked down. Shimura curled inward slightly beside him in shame.
"He was obsessive, and he started using Izuku's physical mutations to appear before both him and you," she continued. "Of course, this was only possible by his using En's- the Sixth's- Plus Alpha in combination with those ignition glands. He told us his plans, and- we panicked. We couldn't let him succeed. So we..."
Shimura trailed off and didn't say anything after. Shouta almost spoke up to demand she continue when Yagi's solemn voice finished what she started to say, "Orchestrated my death."
Shouta looked towards his fellow teacher.
"Slowly, One for All was leaving my body, having passed it on to young Midoriya," Yagi looked down at his chest, hand glossing over where his cavernous wound used to be. "But a few embers of it remained. It was through that connection that the vestiges dragged me here, killing me."
"We thought if we had another with us we could stop him," Shimura explained, some tears building up in her eyes. "We- we didn't want to kill you Toshinori, we thought-"
"Regardless of what you thought, I had made a promise to raise Izuku, and mentor him into becoming the world's greatest hero," Yagi cut her off. "Besides, I couldn't even do anything to stop the First."
"I'm sorry, Toshinori."
"I know." Yagi glanced back at Shouta. "I wish I could have been there to protect both you and Izuku. This never should have happened."
"It's hardly your fault," he gruffed out, sinking his face down into his capture scarf. "This whole situation could have been solved if Midoriya didn't have bastard relatives."
"Very true," Yagi nodded, a small smile breaking on his face.
Even though they were walking, Shouta didn't feel as though he was moving at all but somehow they started to get closer and closer to the remnants of a broken-down room, ten thrones encircled around the middle. Even though there were ten thrones, only four of them were occupied. A man who suspiciously looked like the hero Lariat took one seat, another was a shorter man with a high collar so his face was half-hidden, and the other adult had two parallel scars running down the side of his face. And the other seat was held by-
"Midoriya!" Shouta yelled, running past Yagi and Shimura to reach his student’s side. The body was a shadow of himself, a bright green formation that tapered off into wispy smoke. But he recognized the childish curve to his face and the curls of his hair. That figure was no one but Midoriya, of that Shouta was sure.
Midoriya tilted his head towards Shouta's position but otherwise didn't respond.
"Kid, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you," he hung his head, hiding his expression beneath his hair and scarf.
"He can't hear you," the man with the scars told him. Shouta ignored his interjection.
"Geeze, why'd we have to get stuck with this guy," the man who was possibly Lariat grumbled. "If we were still with the Ninth he would have been jumping for joy to talk to the rest of us. Not just beeline it to the one face he found familiar."
"Fifth, not the time..."
"I'm just saying!"
Yagi approached him and looked down fondly at Midoriya. He reached out a hand and placed it on top of the boy’s head. The shadow preened under it and nuzzled into Yagi's hand as best he could.
"I wish we could see how he's doing," the hero lamented. "The First has cut us off from him."
"Can't he speak to you here?" Shouta asked.
"It doesn't work like that," the shorter male spoke. "He has to be dead to join us here."
If that was the case then Shouta was glad that Midoriya couldn't communicate with them.
He moved away from his unresponsive student and glanced at the strangers before him. In his haste to get to Midoriya, he had missed two crucial things.
The first being that there were two other men in the room besides those seated. Their backs were turned towards him as they stood braced against the only door in the broken room, one that resembled that of a vault. The one on the left looked vaguely similar to Bakugou, regarding his hairstyle at least. The other one, on the right, had his dark pulled up into a tight ponytail.
The second was that there was a low persistent banging sound coming from the door that they were blockading.
"Ignore them," Shimura turned her nose up. "They're of no use to us."
The first man growled at her.
"Quiet, Shigaraki sympathizers!" the potential Lariat hollered pointing a finger at the man and jerking his jaw at him.
The scarred man rubbed two fingers against his temple and said, "Might as well introduce ourselves before we get on with it, shouldn't we? I'm the Fourth, but you may call me by my name Shinomori Hikage."
"I'm the Fifth," the loudest one said, before huffing and continued, "You probably know me best by Lariat."
So that confirmed it then. He certainly wasn't like anything that his hero texts had described the man as.
That left the shorter of the men in the seated thrones, who ducked his head beneath his collar in a move that Shouta found similar to what he does with his own scarf. "I'm the Sixth. En."
Recalling what Shimura had previously stated he asked, "You're the one with the smoke quirk then?"
"Yes." No further elaboration was offered.
"The two back there are the Second and the Third," Shinomori stated. "Ever since the First's betrayal they've taken an oath of silence. So don't expect them to participate."
"Bah! Like they weren't doing that before that cockbite went all Bastard Uncle on Ninth," Lariat rolled his eyes. "Hey new guy, can you believe that they blame Midoriya for the First being a complete and utter nutjob? As if the kid can be responsible for the lunacy that runs in that family!"
"Ninth is a part of that family, so won't he also turn out crazy?" questioned En.
"Never!" All Might retort, an offended look in his eyes, who spoke at the same time Shimura said, "Family doesn't condemn a person's character!"
"You would say that Shimura," En muttered, hiding even further behind his high collar after getting yelled at. "The two of you are biased."
"No we're not!" they said in unison. Even the shadow Midoriya joined in and gave the tiniest of glares at En.
"Like mother, like son, like grandson," Lariat faux-whispered behind his hand to Shinomori in an attempt to be inconspicuous without bothering to lower his volume at all.
Thus, setting off another round of yelling.
Shouta stared down at all of the remnants of once alive people and felt a headache build-up already from the idea that he would have to rely on them for help.
At least it looked like Shinomori had a headache just the same as him.
"Can we please get on track, there's a man controlling my body at this very moment and doing who knows what to Midoriya," Shouta interrupted their squabbling before it could get out of control. "I'd really like to have my body back. And to save my student."
All of the vestiges sobered up and the conversation turned serious as Shinomori nodded, "Yes. We should begin, but before we do, there is something very serious I must warn you about that puts a bit of a time limit on you regaining control of your body from the First."
Shouta raised an eyebrow at him, "And what would that be?"
"One for All is a quirk not suited for being shared between multiple people," Shinomori began. "The strain it has on quirked users greatly affects their health and their life span. I only managed to make it to forty when I held it, and it has only stockpiled and grown stronger since my time."
"How old are you again," Lariat asked, tapping a finger against his chin.
"Thirty," Shouta said, a dawning realization at the warning of Shinomori.
"We can already tell that your body is straining against the second quirk," Shimura stated.
Shouta cursed under his breath, "So I'll die if we don't get rid of it quickly."
The vestiges all shared an uncomfortable look. Sighing, he closed his eyes, "I'll take that as a yes."
"Not only is the First risking your life by masquerading as you, but we have a feeling he won't just stop once you're dead. That he will just move on to the next person that Midoriya holds a close bond with," En theorized.
Dryly, Shouta said, "Glad to know my death wouldn't be an inconvenience to him."
Turning away from the group, Shouta paced. This whole situation certainly wasn't ideal. He had an unknown amount of time to solve this before he kicked the bucket, plus he didn't want to leave Midoriya in the hands of Yoichi regardless of a time limit. As strange as this whole shared quirk was, he'd been dealt with worse hands before, and at least this time he had a group of semi-competent people on his side to get him through this.
His eyes roamed towards the oblivious Midoriya, and having his thoughts already focused on his death made him recall a point early in their conversation.
"If a part of Midoriya is here even before he's dead, and supposedly that means when he dies he'll join you all, then will the same happen to me?" he asked.
"If all goes to plan then no," Shimura told him determinedly. "For either of you."
"And what exactly is this plan of yours?"
"Aizawa-kun do you recall the hero that young Midoriya did his internship with after the Sports Festival?" Yagi posed.
"Of course I do," Shouta grumbled. As though he would forget what heroes he entrusted the care of his students with. "He interned under Gran Torino."
"Sorahiko was a close friend of mine when I was alive," Shimura spoke up. "He knows about One for All and trained Toshinori when he was younger. Thus, he's currently the only person alive in good enough standing to help us from the outside."
"How though?" he questioned. Unless the senior hero could develop telepathy to talk to them in this weird void, he couldn't exactly see how he'd even know that they needed help.
"Before I died, I reached out to my old teacher and asked him to keep a careful eye on Izuku; helping him with One for All if there were ever any complications," Yagi answered him. "He may seem senile, but his wit is as sharp as ever. If anyone were to figure out that something was wrong with you, but also that Izuku wasn't safe, then it would be him."
Cleaning under his nails, Lariat continued, "The main goal is to transfer One for All to the geezer."
That made Shouta pause. "I'm not going to force-"
"Not force," Yagi quickly interrupted him, hands up and fingers splayed wide. "We intend to snatch back control of your body from the First, just enough so that you can explain and ask him to take the quirk from you."
"He should say yes if what those two have told us about him is true," Shinomori nodded.
"It frees your body, plus, the man's so old that One for All might just kill him immediately, and then First won't be able to control his body," Lariat shrugged. "Which I hope not because I want to crack open the First's head and I can't exactly do that if this whole place up and vanishes upon the death of One for All itself."
"You will, unfortunately, have to wait in line," Yagi stated firmly with a dark look in his eyes. "I believe that I'm entitled to the first swing."
"It should be me saying that," Shouta grumbled.
"Can't exactly hit him in the quirk void if we free you from it," En pointed out.
Turning his head to the side, Shouta huffed, "The shadow me that’ll get left behind then."
"But, that's our plan as it stands now," Shinomori concluded.
Thinking it over, Shouta couldn't think of any other alternative paths to take, as much as he didn't like the idea of having to sacrifice Gran Torino for him to get his body back. That wasn't even considering how Midoriya might take another death of a loved one.
"If you're having any doubts, don't," Shimura came closer to his side, hand hovering just above his shoulder as she debated physically comforting him. "I have a feeling that Sorahiko might just say yes for one last chance to see me again before passing on."
"Plus he's grown very fond of young Midoriya," Yagi approached as well. "He may deny it all he likes, but he's a good person and a true hero underneath it all."
"Fine, let's do this," he agreed, casting away whatever personal feelings he may have about the plan. "So- how am I supposed to get control of my body in the first place?"
The vestiges went quiet, no one speaking up. Shouta took that as them not knowing at all. Which was... wonderful. Creating a plan and not even knowing how to go through with-
"If we're to do this, then we're going to need his help," Shimura stated cutting off his thoughts, a look of disgust on her face. "We're going to need Zero."
"Master, there must be another way to do this," somehow Yagi, and the other vestiges if their faces were anything to go by, knew exactly who she was referring to.
Lariat spoke up, "Come on, Eighth, you know as well as I do that the only person who can hold back against Shigaraki-crazy, is a Shigaraki."
"And the only one available at the moment is..." En trailed off staring at the door that Second and Third were holding back.
"No, absolutely not," the Second snapped speaking for the first time since Shouta arrived. His face peered over his shoulder and Shouta took not of the scar crossing the bridge of his nose. "It's one thing for Yo- for the First to be out and about causing problems, but there's no way in hell we'll willingly let him get free."
"Who?" Shouta asked, tired of how these people loved to talk with no concern for those who needed context.
And of course, nobody answered him. Instead, Lariat and Shinomori looked towards each other and nodded, no words needing to be said. In sync, they swooped upon the Second and Third, arms wrapping around the two men to forcibly move them away from the vault-like door. In all fairness, the two men resisted the hold and tried to break free to no avail. Second looked close to sinking his teeth into Lariat's arms if it would let him go.
The banging against the vault door went once more until it stopped. Shouta watched as both of the wayward vestiges stopped struggling and went limp. A terrified look blossomed on the Third's face, and Shouta could only wonder who it could be behind the door.
Whoever it was that they were holding back had realized that the door wasn't being forced close anymore. He knew this, due to the vault door turning and creaking open.
The first thing that peered from the shadows behind the door was piercing red eyes, followed by a menacing-looking man, grinning at the group. The man had a familiar shade of white hair and even more familiar freckles upon his face. He stepped into the crumbling room and gestured broadly at the assembly before him. His eyes zeroed in on the wispy green form that represented the Ninth.
And Shouta realized that in being swept up by his body being stolen and learning about who Yoichi was and the quirk he held, that he had nearly ignored the background confirmation of who exactly Midoriya's father was.
"Have no fear, darling. Daddy's here."
All for One.