Chapter Text
It was the second day of class 1-A’s new life in the dorms, and so far things were running smoothly.
Too smoothly, if you were to ask Aizawa. He had been teaching this class for over half a year now and he knew better than to get his hopes up.
He was proven right as his number one problem child, Bakugou Katsuki, marched past him towards the exit with his best friend, Kirishima, happily following behind him.
Aizawa sighed heavily, grieving his peaceful afternoon, as he approached the two. “Stop,” he demanded. The two stiffened in place. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Bakugou, as per usual, sneered at him and crossed his arms, revealing the large green bag that he was carrying. It had dirt stains coating the bottom and was worn with use. “None of your business.”
Kirishima chuckled and lopped an arm over his friend’s shoulders as he smiled at their teacher. “Hey there Mr. Aizawa! We didn’t see ya there.” Bakugou rolled his eyes and slapped Kirishima’s arm off of him.
Aizawa raised an eyebrow. “I don’t remember you two getting permission to leave the dorms.” Internally, Aizawa thought that even if they had asked, it probably wouldn’t have been granted. It had only been two weeks since Bakugou had been rescued from the League of Villains and Aizawa definitely did not want him out of his supervision yet.
Bakugou tensed as a small glimmer of panic flickered in his crimson eyes. The boy quickly covered the emotion with a sneer. “I highly doubt you’re going to give me permission to leave everyday. So, what’re you going to do to try and stop me?”
Aizawa was shocked to see him take up a defensive stance, as though he was ready to physically fight him on the matter.
Kirishima’s eyes widened and he quickly threw himself between the two of them. He chuckled awkwardly. “Sorry about that, teach. It’s just really important to Bakubro that he gets to visit Midoribro! He never misses a visit!”
“Oi! Shut up, Shitty Hair!”
Aizawa watched curiously as his students bickered. Bakugou was a very passionate student. He got fired up very easily, but Aizawa had never seen his student look so desperate.
The teacher sighed once more. “Alright,” the two students froze. “I’ll take you to see this ‘Midoribro’, and depending on how today’s visit goes, I’ll evaluate how frequently they can happen.”
Kirishima smiled brightly, while Bakugou stared at him with suspicious eyes. After a minute of his student’s harsh judgement, Bakugou tsked and continued walking towards the exit. “Whatever. The nerd would want to meet you anyway.”
Aizawa raised an eyebrow at the statement but said nothing as he led the way to his car.
You can imagine Aizawa’s shock when Bakugou’s directions to his “friend’s” house brought them to a graveyard.
Without saying a word, Bakugou got out of the car and headed in. Aizawa glanced over at Kirishima, who gave him a small smile as he followed after him. Swallowing down the dread building in his gut, Aizawa walked behind them.
The trio walked peacefully through the graveyard for several minutes until suddenly Bakugou stopped in place and let out a loud growl. “Oh, those stupid mother fuckers,” he cursed before rushing towards a gravestone.
Aizawa’s eyes widened at the sight of it. The top right corner had been broken off and the remains of torn up flowers laid scattered on the ground. Most obvious was the ugly red spray paint that covered the entire front of the stone and read “DEKU”.
Aizawa felt his stomach clench.
Bakugou, despite his cursing, didn’t seem surprised. He merely continued to swear like a sailor under his breath as he kneeled down in front of the grave and set down his green bag. He pulled out a scrub brush and a spray bottle and got to work, as though it was a routine for him.
“Just you wait, Izuku,” Aizawa heard him mutter. “Once I’m a pro, you won’t have to worry about those shitty extras. I’ll buy you one of those big, prissy ass statues and have bodyguards watch it day and night. Nobody will ever touch you again.”
Aizawa stood silently, unsure of how to wrap his head around the situation at hand. Kirishima merely looked on at the familiar scene solemnly. “If you think this is bad, it’s nothing compared to the first time he visited after his rescue,” Aizawa blinked down at his student. “While Bakugou was gone, those bastards broke Midoribro’s grave,” he gestured to the damage on the corner. “It was covered in so many slurs that you could barely make out the stone. The thing that got to Bakubro the most though was the All Might plushy they had ripped up.”
“I can hear you Shitty Hair,” Bakugou snapped, but not with nearly as much aggression as he usually would. The blond huffed as he finished wiping off the spray paint. He took a moment to bow with his hands folded in prayer position before sitting back up. “It wasn’t just any fucking doll. It was ‘Zuku’s favourite. Our moms both got us matching ones at the mall when we were three or something,” Bakugou’s hands tightened around the tools he was holding as he clenched his jaw. “I thought he had gotten rid of it. He should’ve. I only found out he kept it when I was helping Auntie Inko go through the nerd’s shit.”
With the spray paint gone, Aizawa was finally able to properly read the stone’s engraving.
Midoriya Izuku
2xxx-2xxx
A hero in our hearts
His breath caught in his throat as he did the math. Fourteen. The kid was fourteen when he died. He would’ve been the same age as his class.
Bakugou silently gathered the pieces of the shredded flowers and placed them into the bag. He then went on to replace it with a fresh bouquet of purple hyacinths and set it down before placing a small dish with incense beside it. He carefully lit the sticks before turning to Kirishima. “You’re up.”
Kirishima smiled brightly, kneeled down beside Bakugou, and bowed with his palms pressed together before pulling out a wrapped lunch box from the bag. “Hey Mido! I hope you’re doing alright. Bakubro and I have been busy with moving into dorms yesterday. We’re neighbors!” Bakugou elbowed his friend and raised an eyebrow as though telling him to get on with it. Kirishima chuckled and laid down the box. He delicately unwrapped it, revealing a dish full of Katsudon. “We brought you some Katsudon! I know it’s your favourite, and I finally convinced Bakubro to teach me how to make it last night. It’s probably not as good as his, but I hope you’ll still like it.”
Bakugou nodded in approval before glancing back at Aizawa and gruffly gesturing for him to approach. Sensing the trust in the act, Aizawa took a deep breath before moving closer.
The blond stared at him for a moment, his expression was a strange mixture of uncertainty, guilt and grief. He then turned to the gravestone and pointed at Aizawa. “Izuku, this is Aizawa Shouta, my homeroom teacher and the pro hero E-Eraserhead.” Aizawa looked over at his student in concern at the stumble in his words. Bakugou was clearly struggling to keep himself together as he continued. “You, um, you probably would’ve been in his class stirring up all kinds of hell with those notebooks of yours and your nerd-brain.”
Aizawa respectfully bowed his head with his palms pressed together before sitting back up. “It’s an honor to meet you, Midoriya.”
The three sat kneeling silently in front of the grave before Aizawa tilted his head and finally asked, “Who is he?”
Bakugou closed his eyes as he curled his fists. “He was my childhood friend,” he looked down at his hands and fiddled with his fingers. “Our moms are best friends, so we literally knew each other since birth. When we were kids we promised that we would be heroes together,” the last words came out choked. Kirishima frowned and placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. To Aizawa’s surprise, Bakugou didn’t push it away. Instead, he gripped onto the hand tightly. “When he was four, Auntie took him to the doctor and they found he was quirkless.” It took all of Aizawa’s years of training as an underground hero to keep himself from reacting to those words. He prayed that this story wasn’t going where he thought it was. “I-I didn’t take it well. I was s-so fucking obsessed with how strong my own quirk was and being the best hero th-that when this quirkless little nerd continued to somehow be a better- be a better hero than me in the ways that counted, I got pissed.” By now, Bakugou’s bottom lip was trembling as tears lined his eyes. Aizawa had never seen his student so vulnerable. “I pushed him away. I bullied him relentlessly, used my quirk on him, damn near tortured him on the daily and the teachers did jack-shit to stop it. Hell, they even encouraged it.” Aizawa felt a spark of anger flare up in him. He made a mental note to look into Bakugou’s middle school after this, but he couldn’t focus on that right now. Not when Bakugou had just begun to sob. “Dammit! I’m the reason that he’s dead!”
Kirishima instantly pulled his friend into him and ran a hand down his back. “No, you’re not,” he carefully reassured, noticeably ignoring Aizawa at the moment. “We’ve talked about this, Bakugou. What Midoriya did wasn’t your fault!”
“I told him to take a swan dive off the fucking roof that same day! I might as well have pushed him!”
Aizawa’s eyes widened as he realized what happened and how exactly young Midoriya died.
Kirishima took Bakugou’s face and forced him to look at him. “What did it say in Midoriya’s note? Did he say that he blamed you?”
Bakugou’s eyebrows narrowed. “No. He said he fucking forgave me, like an idoit. And that he was sorry to Auntie and I, but he had to be realistic-”
“Exactly,” Kirishima cut off. “If Midoriya said he forgave you, that is his choice, not yours. What you said was wrong, but you were a kid and you were manipulated by your quirkist teachers. It doesn’t make it right. But you’re aware of that and I know you’re trying to be better. To be someone that Midoriya would be proud to call a friend.”
Aizawa could only watch as Bakugou broke down into his best friend’s shoulder. He looked away to allow them some well-deserved privacy as Bakugou calmed down.
Eventually, he heard a sniffle and glanced back to see him wiping his face with his sleeve. He stared at the grave with saddened eyes. “Izuku loved you.”
Aizawa was shocked. He was an underground hero, so he didn’t exactly have a big fan base. “He knew who I was?”
Bakugou snorted, a small smile coming to grace his lips. “Yeah. The nerd fucking loved heroes. He used to go out to look for villain attacks to analyze heroes' moves and their quirks. He wrote it all down in these notebooks, ‘Hero Analysis for the Future’. I guess he thought that if he could break down quirks and fighting styles easily enough, it’d help even out the scales in a fight.”
Aizawa felt a sad smile creep onto his lips. The kid was ambitious and hardworking. He thought outside of the box to get to where he wanted. He sounded exactly like the kind of kid he would’ve loved to have in his class.
Bakugou sniffed again and wiped at his nose. “He um…” he looked at his teacher. “He really looked up to you,” the words went straight to Aizawa’s heart. “Other than All Might, I think you were his favourite. Y-You mostly fight quirkless, especially against mutants, and I guess he thought that if you could become a hero and save people then there had to be a chance that he could too.”
Aizawa soaked in the words. He had never really thought of it that way. He felt his heart ache at the idea that he had provided hope for this kid that had gone through so much. Aizawa nodded solemnly at Bakugou. “I wish I could’ve met him.”
Bakugou let out a wet laugh, “The nerd would’ve fucking exploded on the spot. Probably would’ve started rambling with a shit ton of questions about your quirk and his crazy-ass theories.”
Aizawa smirked, “I would’ve loved to answer them.” The more he heard about this bright, dream-seeking kid, the more he wanted to learn about him. Aizawa paused as he recalled something; perhaps there was still a way that he could. He looked softly over at Bakugou, “This may be asking too much, and forgive me if I overstep my boundaries, but I would love to learn more about Midoriya. He sounds like a great kid. Do you think I could take a look at those notebooks you mentioned?”
Both Bakugou and Kirishima tensed at the question. Bakugou glanced between the gravestone, Kirishima and Aizawa several times, as though one of them held the answer to his teacher’s question. He squinted his eyes at his teacher before groaning. “Fuck it. Sure. I have them in my room; Auntie thought I could use them. Izuku would’ve fucking loved if he could’ve shared his notebooks with you,” he sighed before looking at Aizawa cautiously. “Just...Be careful with them. Please?”
Aizawa smiled and nodded. “Of course. You have my word.”
That was how Shota ended up on the floor of the living room of his and Hizashi’s shared apartment in the teachers’ dorms surrounded by a collection of over-filled notebooks.
There were thirteen volumes in total. The earliest one had entries done in crayon, and was written in the scribble of a four-year old boy excited to take his first step towards heroics. It seemed to work half as a diary, as it rambled about the child’s day and his worries about “Kacchan” getting distant and being rough with him lately and questions on when his father would be coming back from his business trip. Between the entries, were basic assessments of every day-light hero's quirk and status, as well as a slightly more detailed look into All-Might and break down of his career as a hero.
With each volume, the analysis became more and more detailed. By the time Shota got to the final book, his heart was heavy with grief for the problem child he never got to teach. The kid had so much potential to be an incredible hero. Perhaps the most he had ever seen. It was clear that his heart was pure with the need to save others and that after looking at some of the notes he had written on people’s quirks, he could definitely label Izuku as a genius. He could only imagine what Nezu would’ve done if he had ever gotten his paws on him.
Shota barely reacted as Hizashi entered the apartment.
“Hey Sho, I’m…” Hizashi trailed off at the sight of his husband surrounded by open notebooks. “What’s going on, babe? New case?”
Shota sighed, trying to alleviate some of the weight that was pressing on his chest. “No. I took Bakugou out to see a friend of his today,” Hizashi silently sat beside him and carefully moved some of the notebooks. He could tell that Shota clearly needed to talk about whatever was going on. Shota met his eyes and Hizashi instantly felt concerned at the sadness swimming behind his partner’s gaze. “He took me to a graveyard, ‘Zashi. The kid’s friend was Midoriya Izuku. Fourteen. Quirkless. He committed suicide.”
Hizashi’s breath hitched as he gripped onto one of Sho’s hands. He glanced over at the books around them, “Are these…?”
Shota nodded. “These were his. Quirk Analysis notebooks. He’s been writing them since he was four and ended up making thirteen different volumes; all completely full. He was a genius, Zashi.”
Hizashi felt a knot tie in his stomach as his husband choked on his words. Shota ran a hand through his hair as he looked back at the notebook, vol. 08, in his hands. “He was so fucking smart. Just listen to this.”
“ Eraserhead. Status: Underground. Quirk: Erasure. Type: Emitter. I was lucky enough to catch one of Eraserhead’s fights tonight on my way home from the grocery store and immediately began researching him. There aren't many videos of him online, but along with what I watched, I think I was able to put a few things together. His quirk works through eye contact and causes his hair to float as well as his eyes to glow slightly. Honestly, it’s kind of a give away for an underground hero, considering he is presumably trying to keep the activation requirements of his quirk a secret from villains. He should probably consider fighting with his hair up or wearing reflective goggles. It’d make it even harder to decipher the concepts of his quirk. Not to mention the full coverage goggles would prevent any debris from flying into his eyes and impairing them or worsening his dry eye, ”
Hizashi’s eyes widened. The kid got that from the few videos out there and seeing Sho fight once? Most people didn’t even know who Eraserhead was, to be able to put together that much information …
“ The best part about Eraserhead is how he fights. Since his quirk is non-combative and doesn’t work on mutants, Eraserhead has trained his body to be a weapon on its own. Mixed with careful precision and some fierce martial arts skills, Eraserhead fights quirkless with the use of a few support items! I’ve never seen anything like it. I wonder how his capture weapon works. It’s pliable enough that it can bend and fold and light enough to be easily thrown, yet when he pulls on it hard it seems to harden and act as a strong restraint. Maybe there’s a metal alloy of some kind woven in the fabric. When- ”
Shota paused and swallowed around the lump building in his throat.
“ When I become a hero, I’ll definitely need a couple of support weapons. I don’t know if I could use something so complicated like Eraserhead’s capture weapon, but maybe some blunt-force weapons as well as something for range attacks? Maybe one day I’ll be able to meet Eraserhead and ask him some questions about his training. If I’m going to be the world’s first quirkless hero, I need to learn to fight and Eraserhead would be the best person for me to learn from. ”
Shota squeezed his eyes shut as he finished the entry and took a few deep breaths. “He...He had so much potential,” he breathed through trembling lips. “All he wanted was to help people, and everyone acted like he had committed a crime just for hoping. He, fuck, he deserved so much better.”
Hizashi wasted no time in pulling Shota into his arms as he felt his own eyes well with tears in pain for the boy he would never know. He didn’t say anything. There was nothing he could say. A boy was dead and the world was a lesser place because of it.
They sat there in their living room crying in each others’ arms surrounded by the life-work of a child for hours. Eventually, as they finally pulled apart, something caught Hizashi’s eye. He frowned as he pulled up a burnt, torn, and waterlogged notebook. He nearly choked when he saw the number thirteen on it and realized it was the kid’s last journal. “What happened to it?” He asked, horrified.
Shota watched sadly as his husband began to thumb through the pages. “Bakugou admitted that he used to bully the poor kid. A lot of people apparently did. The notebook must have gotten caught in the crossfire.”
Shota raised an eyebrow as Hizashi paused about halfway through the book. He flipped the page and frowned before frantically searching through the rest of the book and turning back to that page. He looked up at Shota with eyes wide with confusion as he handed him the notebook. “Why is his last entry All Might’s signature?”
Shota froze as he stared at the oversized signature. “I don’t know,” he mumbled, running his thumb over a tear stain that dotted the page. “I’ll ask Bakugou tomorrow.”
***
Aizawa stared at Bakugou as he gawked down at the notebook in his hand, “What the fuck?”
He sighed and leaned back into his chair. “So, it’s safe to say you didn’t know about this?”
Bakugou didn’t look up at him, he merely continued to glare at the gaudy signature. “I avoided this one as much as possible and he never told me about this, which is fucking weird. Izuku idolized All Might, if he met him, there is no fucking way he’d be able to keep that shit to himself. And it’s his last entry which means-” Bakugou cut himself off as he suddenly stiffened, his eyes widening. “All Might was the last person to see him alive.”
Before Aizawa could say anything, Bakugou had burst out of the classroom. The teacher cursed under his breath and quickly followed behind him. “Bakugou, wait. What are you doing?”
“Getting fucking answers!” He spat as he threw the door to the teachers’ lounge open.
Hizashi, Cementoss and Nemuri jumped from where they had been relaxing, as Bakugou’s fiery gaze swept across the room searching for his target.
Hizashi glanced over at Aizawa with a confused expression before smiling softly at Bakugou. “Hey Little Listener. What’s going-”
“ You !” Bakugou snarled, his teeth bared, as All Might stepped out from the staff kitchen.
The explosive teen marched up to him and slammed the open notebook on the desk. “What did you say to him?!”
Aizawa’s eyes widened as he realized what Bakugou was insinuating. He placed his hand on his capture weapon, ready to restrain his student, but waited for the ex-number one hero’s answer.
All Might looked at Bakugou in shock and glanced down at the notebook. “I’m afraid I don’t know what or who you are talking about, Young Bakugou.”
This only seemed to anger Bakugou further. “Izuku! Midoriya Fucking Izuku! You signed his shitty-ass notebook, which means you saw him, now what did you tell him?!”
All Might blinked a couple of times before taking a closer look at the notebook, Aizawa frowned as a flicker of recognition was shown behind the ex-number one hero’s eyes. “Ah, the quirkless boy.”
Bakugou growled as he ripped the notebook out of the hero’s hands. “His name is Midoriya you bastard,” he held out the notebook behind him for Aizawa to take. The teacher noted the small tremor in Bakugou’s hands as he did so and carefully took the book from him. “What did you say to him?”
All Might frowned and glanced at the other teachers who, with the exception of Aizawa and Hizashi, looked just as confused as he did. He chuckled awkwardly and tried to ruffle Bakugou’s hair. “That was over a year ago, Young Bakugou. What’s all of this about?”
The child snarled and let out a small explosion at the reaching hand, causing All Might to yelp and look at Aizawa for aid. The teacher merely shrugged and crossed his arms. “It’s important. Just answer his question, Yagi.”
The former number one sighed and ran a hand over his face. “He had been caught up with the sludge villain.”
Bakugou growled at the mention of the villain. “That fucker attacked Izuku before he got to me?” He narrowed his eyes at All Might. He couldn’t help but tense as he remembered the feeling of sludge being forced down his throat. He remembered the all-encompassing fear that filled him as he watched the heroes stand by and do nothing. He remembered Izuku. “If you stopped him, then how the fuck did he get loose again?”
“If you’d let me explain,” All Might said and shook his head. “I had barely managed to stop the villain in time. Poor kid was unconscious. I was able to get him to wake up and signed his notebook. I was running out of time to hold my form, so I attempted to leave,” All Might chuckled at the memory as Aizawa, Bakugou and Hizashi glared. “The kid was a huge fanboy though and clung onto my leg when I took off. I brought us to a roof and tried to leave once more, but the kid stopped me. He was determined to ask me a question.”
Aizawa knew All Might was dense, but his disdain for the hero only grew with every word he spoke. “You tried to leave a clearly injured child alone, without medical attention, twice ?” He snapped.
All Might opened his mouth to defend himself, but Bakugou cut him off before he got the chance. “What did he ask?”
The room fell silent at the question. Bakugou’s voice was quiet, as though he was almost scared to hear the answer, but simultaneously carried the promise of violence should he say the wrong thing. When All Might didn’t react, the teenager growled and let out another round of explosions. “Tell me!!!”
All Might took a step back from the angry teenager. “Okay! He asked me if I thought somebody who was quirkless could ever become a hero.”
Aizawa’s breath hitched at the question as his hands fisted into his capture weapon. “What did you tell him, Yagi?”
The number one hero had the gull to look confused. “I told him no. He seemed smart, but without a quirk he’d only manage to get in the way. I told him that it was nice to have dreams, but that he needed to be more realistic and if he wanted to help people he could try being a policeman or something. Then, since I had to turn in the sludge villain, I left.”
No. He said he fucking forgave me, like an idoit. And that he was sorry to Auntie and I, but he had to be realistic
Realistic
Aizawa’s eyes widened in realization. “Bakugou, wait!”
But he was too late. Bakugou let out an animalistic scream as he launched himself at the number one hero. “You bastard!!! You killed him! You fucking killed him!” He blasted the hero onto his back before pounding into him with his fists. Blood flew off All Might’s nose and painted Bakugou’s knuckles.
Aizawa quickly turned on his quirk and caught the feral, grieving boy in his scarf, pulling him away from a deeply confused All Might. Hizashi placed himself between the two of them as Aizawa gripped tightly onto his struggling student. “Bakugou, please.”
The boy continued screaming, throwing threats and curses into the air as he grieved his friend. “He killed him! He killed my best friend!”
Aizawa tried to sooth him as the screams slowly dissipated into sobs. He made eye contact with Nemuri who gestured to her arm, clearly offering her quirk, but he silently denied the offer. Bakugou was upset, but he needed to process this. He just found out that his best friend turned rival killed himself as a result of meeting their idol. It was a lot for anyone to take in.
“I don’t understand. What’s going on?” All Might asked stupidly.
Aizawa clung onto Bakugou as he snarled at the hero. “That kid whose dreams you crushed was named Midoriya Izuku. He was an extremely talented quirk analyst, an overly kind kid, and incredibly hard-working. He wanted nothing more than to be a hero despite being told by everyone in his life that it would never be possible because he was quirkless. He idolized you ever since he was four years old,” the underground hero’s eyes narrowed as he instinctively activated his quirk. “Over a year and a half ago, he killed himself.” All Might paled as his eyes widened in realization. He could hear the horrified gasps of the teachers around them. “You telling him to ‘be realistic’ were the last words he ever heard.”
All Might gaped like a fish as his eyes fixed onto the notebook sitting on the desk near by. “I-I didn’t … I didn’t know that he would …”
Bakugou winced in arms and shivered as angry sobs forced their way past his lips, his hands unconsciously sparking as he gripped tightly onto his teacher’s shirt. Aizawa carefully guided the kid to his feet and looked over at Hizashi, “I’m going to bring him to his dorm,” he looked cooly over at All Might, “Don’t think this is the end of this, Yagi. Midoriya deserves justice.”
As he lead his student out into the hallways of UA, Aizawa felt his heart shatter at mumblings coming from Bakugou. “I-It really wasn’t my fault. I mean, I didn’t help and I’m not innocent but he- he didn’t do it because of- it wasn’t me.”