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Shota isn’t blind; he just can’t see. The USJ incident made sure that his vision is little more than an indecipherable blend of colors, bordering more on gray than anything else. Until there’s no hope of his eyesight ever returning he won’t accept a new title; he’s still Eraserhead, he’s still 1-A’s homeroom teacher, he just…
It’s hard to get around, when you’re used to having sight and suddenly don’t have it anymore. The rest of his injuries seem trivial by comparison, at least to him, no matter how horrifying he’s been assured he looks right now, wrapped in as many bandages as he is.
Shota knew his route to work perfectly; he couldn’t drive, but Hizashi would drive for him, and he only had to maneuver through the halls. People tend to avoid the severely injured, so everyone gave him a wide berth even though they couldn’t tell exactly how bad his eyesight had gotten. It would be fine.
He failed to account for the difference confidence can make in your stride length, and turned into 1-B instead of 1-A. Having avoided running into any walls or doors still felt like a victory.
Nedzu doesn’t see it that way.
“I’m not firing you,” he says. “But you can’t just wander around without any way to ensure you aren’t crashing into people or podiums.” Shota winces at the realization that that particular story had spread - it wasn’t that big of a deal. “You didn’t even realize most of the papers were still on the ground when you asked Iida to pass them out.”
“I’m not quitting,” Shota protests. “I won’t.”
“I’m not asking you to,” Nedzu assures him. “Just… consider accepting help, at least for a while.”
“What sort of help ,” Shota grits out, “do you think the school can offer me without straining its staff who are already stretched fairly thin?”
“I think you should get a seeing-eye dog,” Nedzu says, and with his job on the line Shota couldn’t turn him down. It would only be until they figured out how to restore his sight, after all. It would be fine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The lady who delivers Shota’s service dog is very kind, and more than a little apologetic. “He might be a bit difficult,” she confesses. “He’s smart, and takes his duties seriously, but when he’s off-duty…” the pause is lengthy, and Shota assumes that the woman has shrugged, and he gets irritated all over again that the colors he can see aren’t distinct enough for him to tell whether he’s right. “The important thing is to make sure he’s wearing his harness when you need him to behave, because the harness is what lets them know it’s time to work rather than time to play, and Hound really loves to play.”
“Hound?” Shota asks. It’s a bit on the nose for a dog’s name.
“We tried to get him to answer to Dango,” she offers. “He just wouldn’t respond to any name other than Hound, which we discovered quite by accident. It’s better to just roll with it—he’s smart enough to rebel if you push too hard.”
“Alright,” Shota says, reaching for the leash the woman is holding, and letting her guide his hand down to the top of Hound’s head. “So when he has his harness on he’ll behave like he’s on duty, and when he’s only on a leash he’ll behave like a regular dog?”
“He’s spirited,” the woman diverts. “A bit more energetic than regular dogs - we think he might have a quirk. He’s the only dog we have available at the moment though, so unless you want to wait a couple of months…” she trailed off, and Shota accepted that an energetic dog was the only option he would be given.
“I can handle him,” Shota reluctantly assures her. “It’ll be fine.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Hound is miraculously well-behaved. Shota has no idea what that woman was talking about - he’s never underfoot, he hasn’t fought with any of the cats (at least that Shota can hear) and when Shota calls for him he always comes. Sure, he has a tendency to go missing when Shota isn’t paying attention, and he’s dead silent so maybe he just lays down and doesn’t move at all, but Shota’s always liked cats because of their independence and how calm they are and he isn’t going to begrudge his new dog the same freedom. If he’s independent, all the better.
When Hizashi comes home from work (and oh, how it rankles that Nedzu made Shota take nearly 3 days off while he waited for a seeing eye dog) he’s thrilled to meet the new addition to their home. “Where is he? Or she? Is it a he or a she, Sho?”
“His name is Hound,” Shota says.
“That’s a stupid name,” Hizashi says immediately.
“He won’t answer to anything else,” Shota informs him, and although Hizashi immediately protests that perhaps they should try and see if he’ll respond to something else Shota has no intention of humoring him.
He waits for a minute for Hound to show up, because saying Hound’s name was a surefire way to get him to come, but there isn’t the sound of dog nails clacking against the floorboards anywhere in the house. “Hound?” Shota calls again, wondering if maybe he just hadn’t been heard the first time, and sure enough Hound shows up, sitting next to Shota with his side pressed up against Shota’s leg so that Shota will know where he is.
“Oh. My. God! Sho, he’s so cute!” The blur that Shota assumes is Hizashi seems to be vibrating, which means Hizashi must be literally jumping for joy. “Can I pet him? No, he’s a service dog, right? I don’t…”
“You can pet him,” Shota says. “If he’s not wearing his harness, he’s off the clock. The lady said he was a very smart, possibly quirked, normal dog when he isn’t in the harness.
“Awwww~” Hizashi coos, and Shota can feel his hand brush his thigh when he reaches out to ruffle Hound’s fur. “Of course he’s smart, look at him! And I could believe the quirked thing; I’m pretty sure Labradors are supposed to be brown or yellow, but he’s white. The Heterochromia is unique too - one of his eyes looks like it’s always spinning, Sho, and it’s bright red just like yours when your quirk activates!”
“I see,” Shota says, knowing that he doesn’t. Not really, not now. Maybe someday, after he’s rested enough that the surgeons are willing to take a chance on him again.
“He’s so adorable, and so smart, yes you are, yes you are~” Hizashi says, and Shota can feel the presence at his side melt away. “Aww, where are you goi—” Hizashi cuts off abruptly, making the slightly choked noise that means he’s in shock. Shota wonders what expression he’s making right now, but thinks he might know exactly what it is. “Sho.” A hand grabs Shota’s shoulder, and he has to remind himself that it’s Hizashi, that he knows who is next to him. “Sho, why is your dog on the ceiling?”
“What?” Shota asks, grouchily. “What do you mean?”
“Sho,” Hizashi repeats, “your dog is on the ceiling!”
“Is he floating, or is he sticking to it?” Shota asks, completely done with this situation already. Might have a quirk his ass, regular dogs don’t end up on the ceiling when someone talks to them in a high-pitched voice.
“He’s sticking to it and walking on it as though it were the floor,” Hizashi says, then adds in a whisper, “I think he’s glaring at me…”
“You’d deserve it,” Shota says. “He’s smart and independent; don’t baby him.”
“Oh,” Hizashi says, sounding very dejected.
“Relax,” Shota tells him, following the hand on his shoulder to Hizashi’s arm, then over to Hizashi’s shoulder which he patted twice. “I’m sure Tempura will let you pet her for a while.”
“Yeah,” Hizashi agrees, before perking up again. “Hey!” he yells. “Does this mean you’ll get to come in to work tomorrow?”
“I will,” Shota confirms. “I guess we’ll see how Hound behaves when he’s in his harness then. The lady said he’d be a consummate professional.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hardest part of dealing with Hound turned out to be getting him in his harness - was it some sort of torture device? Was he afraid? Was he still asleep in some corner of the ceiling where Hizashi claimed he was curled up last night? Shota doesn’t have any idea, but he wanted to leave 20 minutes ago to ensure he got to class on time despite getting used to assisted walking and Hound is nowhere to be seen.
Eventually, finally , Hound appears at his side. The approach was perfectly silent, and Shota nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt fur press against the side of his leg, but he takes it as a victory when Hound cooperates as he puts on the harness. They leave later than Shota had hoped, but somehow arrive earlier than he expected to, and have no issues along the way.
Maybe Nedzu was right about this being good for him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s only a minute into class when Shota decides that getting a seeing eye dog was the best advice Nedzu had ever given him.
He can’t use his usual trick of flashing his eyes red and having his hair rise to silence his class - his quirk is effectively out of commission until his eyes can focus again ( if they ever can ) and his injuries mean they aren’t as afraid of him as normal. Monday it had been a problem, but apparently being absent for 3 days and then walking in with a dog has made the class far more energetic than he would accept, and he’s tired of it.
While Kaminari yells “Your puppy is adorable,” Ashido and Hagakure are squealing, and several other groups of students are attempting to talk over everyone else. Shota resolves himself to just waiting it out before a deep rumbling growl echoes through the room and silence falls.
“Your dog is terrifying,” Kaminari amends, and Shota grins maniacally, petting Hound and giving him ear scratches.
“Good boy,” he tells him, relieved silence has fallen again. “The rest of you know better than to behave like that. Now,” he motions toward the desk, where Hizashi had informed him he had a stack of worksheets prepared. “Iida, if you’ll pass these out…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not much changes during the rest of the year; All Might was already around to help out during practical heroics classes, he just has to do a little more since Shota can no longer see to correct the student’s technique. Shota still lectures like usual, but Hizashi grades his papers. Shota starts studying braille, because it would be nice to read again without help, but in the meantime he has a screen reader that Nedzu instructed him on how to use, and Hound ensures that he can go anywhere he normally would have.
Shota is a little discouraged that his eyesight is hardly any better than before, and Nedzu has asked that he wait to try another procedure that might help restore it until after the summer camp because they’ll need someone to help chaperone 1-A and teach the remedial classes. Shota agrees to wait, and he does.
The summer camp arrives quickly; Shota is rather fond of the initiation ritual he likes to throw at his class, with the Wild Wild Pussycats forcing them to hike through mud-monster infested forest to get to the actual lodge, and isn’t willing to cancel it just because he’ll have to have a dog keep him out of the landslide zone. He gleefully tells Hizashi about it the night before, how Vlad king had bowed out and was letting his kids take the first day easy, but Pixie-bob had agreed to run the initiation as usual anyway. He isn’t sure, but it feels like Hound is laughing about it almost as much as he is.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of course villains attack the summer camp. Of course all of their precautions came to nothing. Of course they would still be located, and all the kids would be in danger, and Shota couldn’t do anything about it.
He can feel the heat off the blue-black-purple blur in front of him; some sort of villain, too close to the lodge, too close to the kids that he’s supposed to protect. He releases the harness he’s holding, resolved to let Hound get away even if Shota himself won’t be able to, and he reaches for the capture scarf he still wears even though he can’t properly use it without his vision yet.
Then the blue-black-purple blur disappears, a shrinking brown blur in its place, and Shota pauses. What just happened? His eyes darted around the vicinity to no avail, desperately searching the area only to meet blobs of green and brown and the bright distinctive colors of his student’s hair.
Focusing on getting to somewhere he can be useful, Shota puts his hand against the side of the building and moves to where he knows the door is, ushering those who identify themselves as students in and preventing them from leaving when they try to sneak past him. He doesn’t know where Hound got off to, but he hopes that the dog is okay.
Shota isn’t useless... but he still wishes he could do more .
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The camp stays on high alert even after all of the students are retrieved. None of them are missing (a miracle) and all of the identifiable villains have been apprehended, though how that happened remains a mystery. Many of them were found unconscious in the woods; three of them were found dead, including Muscular. Kota claims to have no idea how it happened despite being found unconscious near him.
Hound shows up shortly after the all-clear is sounded, pressing up against Shota’s side the way he always does to announce his presence. Shota scratches at his ears absently, saying “Good boy,” because he had been told that service dogs operate on praise. How did they catch so many villains while suffering no casualties of their own? Was there infighting among the villains? Something else in the woods? What had they missed?
The biggest victory of the night is the apprehension of Kurogiri, the warp portal responsible for getting the villains to and from the USJ and the Summer Camp. He had apparently come to try and bail out the villains, and been apprehended himself. None of the students have owned up to being responsible, and any of the students that Shota thinks would be strong enough to apprehend Kurogiri are also the types who would absolutely claim responsibility if they had managed it. With all of the Pro Heroes agreeing that they had nothing to do with Kurogiri getting taken down, it remains a mystery.
“Is that your dog?” one of the villains, a kid who goes by Mustard asks. Shota nods at him, trying to figure out what that tone of voice means. There’s something there… Perhaps the kid is afraid of dogs? “Fucking crazy,” the kid swears, and Shota actively stops himself from reprimanding the villain for his language the way he would one of his students.
“He’s a good boy,” Shota says, continuing his ministrations to Hound’s ears.
Hound simply barks an affirmation in response.