Chapter Text
Izuku knew that he had been given a grace period by all his friends. He felt their looks all day, and he knew that the topic was on the forefront of their minds even as they spoke to him about completely normal things. It didn't help that he was a bit uncertain of the current events, making his displacement all the more obvious in normal conversation.
But he digresses.
Now, he stands in front of the door to the staff meeting room, nervous energy overflowing his small form. From his right, he feels more than sees his dad shift to catch his eye.
“Izuku.”
His head turns to face his dad’s. He blinks. He wasn’t expecting his dad to be nervous as well. His dad was worrying his lip slightly, something Izuku can’t recall him doing during his time at UA. But why was he nervous? He’d already spoken to the teachers, and they weren’t even teachers to his dad! They were colleagues, friends, equals.
Though, to be fair, Izuku could understand the fear of telling someone everything. He assumed Mic-sensei and Midnight-sensei (he tried not to think about what they asked him to call them lest he turn into a strawberry) knew everything, and Izuku himself had told his mum everything but it was… different.
Here, there would be a call to action, and the beginning of concrete plans to stop the End from coming. It made everything real.
“Izuku” He snapped his gaze back to his dad’s, who was now smiling amusedly. The smile quickly softened, and he pat the boy’s head. “You were mumbling.”
Izuku let out a little squeak in embarrassment, and his dad let out a huff. “You ready to go in, kid?”
Izuku shifted slightly. “Uh, I mean, will I ever?”
His dad, ever the introvert, nodded in agreement. “Fair. Though, if it’s any consolation, we won’t be the last in the room. Vlad’s class broke something so he and Cementoss are quickly fixing the grounds, and Ectoplasm went to get coffee first.”
Izuku nodded absently. Shota pushed the door open and let Izuku step in the room before following.
Izuku's gaze lazered on to a certain emaciated Man and he stood rigidly, as though stopping himself from doing something.
Those already present in the room looked over in slight concern at his demeanour, but Shota knew his kid well, and nudged him in the direction of the man.
A green blur appeared next to All Might who was knocked in his seat.
“Oof, my boy.”
Aizawa watched on in amusement as Izuku koala'd his 22nd (?) person of the day, while All Might flailed around unsurely. As soon as he noticed his increasingly damp shirt, however, he turned a smile on to his successor and returned the hug.
It was a sweet scene. Aizawa knew that this was one of the harder hitting losses, and he was so happy that Izuku got to have this moment.
Then he saw the sappy looks his colleagues were directing at the two. His thoughts soured. No, he would NOT co-parent with All Might. That was HIS kid. It’s not Shota’s fault he died too early and wasn’t there. Okay, maybe that was a little bit too dark, but regardless - co-parenting with All Might?
He didn’t really mind the guy (and admittedly, seeing how happy he made his kid made his opinion of the man skyrocket) but… that would just be weird. All Might was quite a bit older than Shota. He resolutely ignored the fact that Izuku’s mother was quite a bit older than him as well and that he wouldn’t have a choice in sharing.
He watched as Izuku pulled back and tearily beamed at the man. Oh god, his heartstrings were really being tugged. He was going to have to share wasn’t he? Well, if the kid was going to have multiple parental figures he supposed All Might was a fine choice. He clearly really cared about the kid. The tone of the room shifted as his son fully pulled away and moved to the front of the room where Shota had moved to, and he pulled himself from his thoughts. It was time to get serious.
He looked down the ovular conference room table, and watched the final people enter the room. Aizawa nearly hugged Ectoplasm as the hero went to the front to give Aizawa a cup of coffee, before sipping from his own cup and taking his usual seat closer to the other end of the table.
He noticed his kid eyeing some of the teachers he’d had that day, and Shota did too, in an attempt to get a read on how his kid had fared when he wasn’t around. They had never been apart in all those two years, and now they’d practically spent two whole days apart. Raking his eyes over Cementoss, Snipe, Hizashi, Vlad and Thirteen settled his worries. Izuku had been fine.
For the most part, at least.
He then noticed Izuku giving him a funny look. Shota raised his hands in defence. He was his parent, of course he looked up what classes the kid had that day! Izuku’s lips quirked in amusement. The only sign of embarrassment was the slight red tinge on his ears. He knew the kid was pleased by the show of care, though, which in turn made him slightly pleased.
The meaning of the silent interaction was lost on everyone else. The day count was currently co-workers, 1, Shota’s dignity, 2. He’ll take it.
Nezu, who was at the opposite end of the table, clinked his tea cup. A hush fell over the room.
“Thank you staff, for agreeing to come after classes. I know you are all busy people, and will undoubtedly become even more so upon the conclusion of today’s meeting.” The teachers nodded. “As for the contents of the meeting… We won't make any concrete plans, but we will have to make decisions on what to do surrounding the information Aizawa and Midoriya-kun have for us today.” He inclined his head slightly. “It goes without saying that this meeting is sensitive in multiple ways. Please be considerate towards Aizawa and Midoriya-kun, and please keep the contents of the meeting to yourselves. It would be best if we kept discussions of the events as private as possible.”
Midnight and Mic looked particularly solemn at that statement.
“Midoriya-kun,” Nezu looked apologetic as Midoriya squirmed slightly under the attention his address brought. “Just to get you up to speed, all the staff know from this morning is that upon the end of the year, most of Japan’s citizens will be gone barring you and Aizawa-kun, within six months, and that you both came back from two years into that future.”
Midoriya nodded, but looked slightly confused at the lack of information the teachers had. Aizawa sighed and dragged a hand down his face. “The meeting got derailed before it could even start.” Some of the teachers’ expressions went sheepish at that comment, but brightened back up as they heard their student softly giggle.
Aizawa shifted, and the room refocused. “All right. The kid and I will go through the whole timeline of events that we are aware of starting from now up until the next two years. I spoke with Mic and Midnight yesterday who told me we were preparing the students for their midterms.”
Nezu nodded. “Yes, they’re in a week.” Midoriya blinked, and pointed at himself.
“Do I…?” Nezu smiled.
“No, if you remember your previous score we will accept that. We can wait until the threat is dealt with before you go back to focusing on your education. Assuming you were on track to pass your first year by the end of it of course.”
Midoriya nodded and stepped back to let Aizawa continue.
“Nothing happened until the break, at the training camp. Even though we changed the location, the information was fed back to the villains.”
Mic’s glasses glinted dangerously. “Our previous suspicions of a traitor… they were proven correct then?”
Aizawa nodded. “It was a student. Nezu and I have already spoken to them.” Aizawa looked carefully at his friends. “The traitor is unwilling, so unless I see a real reason to, I won’t tell you who they are, especially since we’ve asked them to continue exactly as they would have.”
The staff who were preparing to protest considered his words carefully. Aizawa would not make an unsafe decision.
“You want things to remain as unchanged as possible… that includes ensuring the traitor’s safety, correct?” Cementoss asked slowly. Aizawa nodded both in acknowledgement of his answer, and the fact that Cementoss would have clued in to which student it was.
“Exactly. No point trying to change a future from an unpredictable present, especially with it posing such a high risk to the student.”
Another teacher, Ectoplasm, spoke up. “I think we were all initially under the impression that only a newer strong force could be behind such attacks. Namely, the League of Villains which attacked the USJ and Hosu, since they have the Nomu that gave All Might a run for his money… But surely they’re too new to be powerful enough to have that much influence over individuals and have deep, undetected, unwilling spies?”
Aizawa and Midoriya shared a pained look. Looks like they were going straight into the heart of the issue.
Slowly, as though testing his words, Aizawa answered. “The League itself is new, yes. However, there are much bigger, much, much older forces behind it than we could have ever expected.” He stared directly at All Might, who went slightly pale.
Carefully, the man asked “So you know it was that man behind the league and Nomu for certain then?”
“Yes.” Aizawa responded simply. Midoriya gave All Might an apologetic look and went on to provide more information.
“He basically raised Tomura Shigaraki, the visible leader of the League. We found out in Shigaraki’s final moments that he had orchestrated the traumatic event which led to Shigaraki being alone and vulnerable because…” Midoriya hesitated. “...because of someone he was related to.”
All Might looked particularly worried now. “Someone he was related to?”
Aizawa shifted closer to Izuku to provide comfort with proximity. From what he knew, Nana Shimura had been really good to the kid when her vestige was still around. While it would certainly hit harder for All Might, what AFO did hurt Nana, and subsequently Izuku.
Izuku’s shoulders dropped. “His name isn’t Tomura Shigaraki… at least not by birth. It’s Tenko Shimura.”
He watched All Might’s expression drop, and Nezu’s face became shadowed. “Shimura… the same Shimura…?” All Might asked with a shaky voice.
Izuku nodded solemnly.
A confused Present Mic spoke up. “Is someone going to tell us what’s going on?”
Izuku looked slightly sheepish. “Sorry. It would have made more sense if we’d done things in order but the context does help so…”
“I guess we’re going from the beginning before the beginning then.” Aizawa drawled.
Izuku huffed in slight amusement.
Eraserhead turned to All Might. “You can help with this part.”
All Might still looked shaken but managed a smile. “Yes, I figured this information would be shared here. Very well.” All Might turned his seat to look down the table instead of the front of the room. “If you all don’t mind, I’ll fill in some of the background information before Midoriya-shounen and Aizawa-kun tell their tale.”
All Might’s electric blue eyes shone from his shadowed face.
“It begins with a tale of two brothers…”