Chapter Text
Kai Chisaki is not a good person, and he knows as much. Especially right now. Breaking into people's homes in the dead of night is certainly not something a good person would do, and that's probably one of the least condemning things he does. And yet, he can't help it. Especially not right now. Not when it's Eraserhead's home that he's sneaking into.
Not when it's Kuroneko's home that he's sneaking into.
It's not a name you would ever expect to hear from the perpetually tired, done-with-everyone's-shit underground hero. But look just a bit deeper. Look just a little past what UA's news reports focus on. Look fifteen years ago, just before the first general education student was transferred to a hero course and became one of the first people with "villainous" quirks to enter the world of heroics. Look at Aizawa Shouta, who wore spiked chokers, fingerless gloves and black cat paw earrings to school, and you will see the face of the man behind such a bizarre vigilante name.
For all his faults, Kai always tries to be fair. He's willing to forgive and to reward, but he's not afraid to hurt, kill or maim if the situation calls for it, even when he has nothing to do with the victim. But this is about more than just protecting others or awarding for good deeds. This is personal.
He slowly slides down the wall to the window on the third floor and presses his palm to the glass, smiling at the familiar sight as it bends inwards. He doesn't have to do it - he could just disassemble the glass and put it together behind him - but he wants to be a little dramatic, even if no one is there to see it.
He lightly traces the walls with his fingers as he silently steps through the apartment, marvelling at how sterile it is. Despite how well he's managed to deal with it, his mysophobia still occasionally flares up, causing his quirk to go haywire on his own body, causing intense hives and rashes. Despite knowing that the hero could never have predicted it, he still thanks Eraserhead under his breath for keeping the place that clean.
As he slowly steps through the apartment, careful not to disturb anything, he spots what he's looking for. On the floor lies a yellow sleeping bag, and inside it, his target. Aizawa Shouta.
Most people would look at the sleeping man and say he is sleeping peacefully. But Kai knows. Frankly, he doesn't even need his quirk - though it certainly helps - because it's almost like he's looking in a mirror. He sees the all too tense jaw, the then sheet of sweat on the man's forehead, the drawn eyebrows and he can almost feel how the man's nails dig into his palms.
Kai frowns. He can't exactly fix this. Destroyed limbs? Sure. Removing cancer? Go ahead. Trauma? He would just be making it worse. But just because he can't do everything doesn't mean he can't help.
He gently lowers his hand towards the back of Eraserhead's neck and makes brief contact. He scowls as the man's body falls entirely limp, knowing that despite how much he hated this part of the process, it's a requirement unless he wants the man to die of the sheer amount of pain his quirk causes. Despite how much he wants to, he can't say he realised that via logic.
Calming himself down, he gets to work, making quick work of Eraserhead's previously broken bones which didn't heal properly and some of the more prominent scar tissue. Now, for the hard part.
He takes a deep breath, knowing that he can't fuck this up. He owes the man too much to do that.
He slowly reaches into the man's brain with his quirk, trying not to destroy anything, and grasps the hypothalamus. Pretty good so far, going deeper. Digging deeper, he slowly wrapped his quirk around the suprachiasmatic nucleus, analyzing and comparing it to some of his previous patients. Damaged, just like he thought. He carefully warps the neurons, trying to combine what he has and what he knows about the brain from his past experiments. Just a little more, and... done. Not with everything, but it's a start.
After repeating the same process with the thalamus, he moves his hand to the man's eyes and is completely shocked by what he sees.
He's worked on a few vision quirks in his life. Between lasers, fire, bullet-like tears and turning others to stone, he thinks he's seen it all. In all of those cases, the eyes somehow adapt to the quirk, becoming more resistant to not cause long-term damage to the owner.
Eraserhead's eyes are normal. Too normal. There's no increased tear production, no caiman-like tears that can keep the eyes wet for hours. Well, that's something to work on. After all, quirks evolve all the time. Very few people are going to look at the man weird for suddenly gaining a small power-up, especially given how few know about his quirk. After a few seconds of internal debate, he decides to go with the latter method, justifying it by saying it's more unnoticeable and more convenient than mandatory crying sessions not to cause damage to the tear ducts.
He gets everything done in almost two minutes, and after returning Eraserhead his god-given right to feel his body, he returns to the window, exiting the apartment the same way he entered it, smoothing out the glass behind him. However, he doesn't immediately return home. He knows he still has time on the clock.
He sits down on the rooftop and touches his left hand. Tears immediately spill from his eyes as he feels the all-too-familiar pain of his quirk, and he gets to work.
Later that evening when he walks out of his room, no one will question the way he massages his wrist nor the almost glowing red eye on the back of his left palm. Kendo might give him a tired shake of his head and Hekiji will ask if he's feeling alright, but at the end of the day, this will not be the first time this will happen, nor will it be the last. At the end of the day, Rikiya will still come up and ask him for a hug and Deidoro will still offer him a drink. Toya and Yu will still ask him to spar, Soramitsu will still laugh at his shitty puns and his custom print t-shirt that says "villain costume" and he and Shin will still argue over who gets to cook tonight.
Yeah, everything will be alright.