Chapter Text
There was a tension in the room that couldn’t be missed, but its inhabitants were trying to make light of the situation before the briefing from their colleague and student continued.
The UA staff were still reeling at the idea of one of their students wielding as much power as Izuku Midoriya claimed he did. But none of them missed the sonic boom earlier that morning, and none of them missed the uncharacteristic confidence that shone through the small body of their student.
It did make them curious though- if their student was able to become that much stronger in a bit over two years, at what kind of level was their colleague?
“Hey, Eraser?” Nemuri asked. He turned to show her he was listening. “Obviously your kid,” Aizawa and Midoriya’s cheeks lightly dusted, “got a huge power up. You never said anything about yourself?” Aizawa’s breath hitched, and Izuku quickly grabbed his dad’s hand and squeezed it. The man recovered quickly, and squeezed his kid’s hand back in reassurance.
Shota’s friends all shot each other worried looks at the odd reaction. He raised his unoccupied hand to gain their attention, and gave them a soft smile, ignoring the squawks that came from Powerloader and Vlad, the main miscreants from the morning. Izuku wore a vaguely amused look of confusion, causing Nemuri and Hizashi to smirk at him. The kid was clearly too used to soft Shota to understand the reaction. It was also becoming more and more evident to the two that their best friend had gone very soft for the child
“Senpai… are you okay? Did… something happen?” Thirteen asked carefully. Shota gave his friend a rueful look. “Remember the quirk erasing bullets we were just talking about?” Gasps rang out around the room.
“Sho-” Hizashi began. He was quick to appease his friends.
“Don’t worry I didn’t lose my quirk, I cut off my leg to save it.”
…
“SHO, WHAT?!” Hizashi’s eyes bulged.
Even Izuku gaped at him for that comment.
Nemuri floundered. “Uh, Shota, why didn’t you think to, I don’t know, mention this when we talked YESTERDAY?!”
Nezu’s nose twitched. Izuku and Recovery Girl both hid their faces in their hands.
Shota winced. He was blunt with his colleagues and friends out of past habit and didn’t intend to be so blase. He had also only just now realised how that exclusion may have genuinely upset Nemuri and Hizashi. He shot everyone an apologetic look, and brought a hand up to rub the nape of his kid’s neck comfortingly.
“Sorry, that was a bit insensitive. I had a pretty good prosthetic, so it didn’t end up being too big a deal beyond being unable to fight actively.” He grimaced again. “Sorry Mic, Midnight, there’s something else I probably should have mentioned.” His two friends looked pained at his admission.
“Something other than being forced to literally cut your own leg off?” Mic tried faintly. Eraser nodded apologetically.
“My right eye was damaged to the point where it had to be removed.”
His friends looked even more pained.
“Does that mean you cut your leg off for nothing?” Thirteen asked weakly.
Aizawa shook his head. He felt Izuku grip his shirt.
“I still had my quirk factor, which the bullet would have deleted. I was still able to use my quirk albeit in a weakened state, but more importantly,” Aizawa nodded in Vlad King’s direction, “Provisional Hero Phantom Thief was able to copy my quirk and use it, leading him to become a key player in the early battles.”
Vlad looked heartbroken at the reminder that his students were at the frontline, knowing they were also killed.
Shota took a moment to reassure Kan, who was being comforted by Hound Dog. “Vlad. Your students came a really long way. All us teachers were so proud of the heroes they became.” Izuku nodded vehemently in support.
“Vlad-King-sensei, your class is amazing.” He bowed to the man. “It was an honor to fight alongside those versions of them, and I know they’ll be equally as amazing under your care this time around too.”
Vlad’s face scrunched up with heavy emotion. “...Thanks Eraser, thanks kid.” Twin smiles acknowledged his gratitude.
Aizawa huffed lightly. “Bottom line is, my kid’s the only one who got an insane power boost, however, he’s really all we need, and I’m absolutely not exaggerating. He could deck us all with his pinky finger.”
“Da- Aizawa stooop” The child in question mumbled out with an embarrassed pout.
Little huffs of laughter circulated the room, and tension eased from its occupant’s shoulders. None of the pro heroes missed Midoriya’s slip- that Aizawa’s claim over the child was a two-way street. Hizashi and Nemuri in particular shifted giddily at the notion. Their best friend was a dad! An embarrassing dad teasing their kid! They could definitely get behind that. (Distantly, a shadow of Hizashi’s future past- a version that no longer existed- smiled at the memories made with the kid and two of his best friends.)
Nezu’s tail curled in delight before gently falling. “I do hate to break this pleasant atmosphere, but I do feel it would be best if we moved this meeting forward again.” Aizawa nodded in agreement.
“Alright, back to business. I think we’ll go with Izuku’s side first.” Izuku nodded determinedly.
“Right. So the first signs that things were getting really big happened when Kacchan, Todoroki and I were on a work study with Endeavour.” Slight murmurs rose at that.
“Endeavour was still new to being number one hero, so a lot of eyes were on him. He ended up having a fight with a new and improved nomu, called the High-end nomu. These nomu had intelligence, and Endeavour, while succeeding, did not emerge from the battle unscathed. We also got to notice that Hawks was hanging around Endeavor a lot more than usual around that time, and I later learned from Hawks that he was the one playing double agent.”
Nezu’s eyes glinted. Aizawa added “This is something that we really shouldn’t be telling you, but I’m in agreement with Midoriya’s decision to do so. This information is all from Hawks, who mostly talked to Midoriya, but we do know that Hawks was a key player in this shady HPSC investigation.”
Midoriya nodded, and his face grew sad. “Hawks had to do a lot of things he didn’t want to, like pretending to kill heroes to get inducted into the Paranormal Liberation Front, and turning on the villains he actually became friends with during his time there.” He shifted his position to a more reassuring one. “If this isn’t something that we decide to change, please know that Best Jeanist will be okay.”
The teachers smiled at the kid for his caring nature.
“Um, so the point kind of is, there was a lot of social upheaval thanks to Stain, which has already happened, All Might’s retirement and the League. This is also when Hawks started sharing information with the heroes on the down-low. They knew there was a huge army waiting for them, and started the preliminary stages of planning evacuations and preparing for battles.”
Izuku absently grabbed a piece of his dad’s capture weapon and fiddled with it with a forlorn expression. Aizawa rubbed the nape of Izuku’s neck again. He would be fine.
“The official raids started after a tip off from Kurogiri.” He saw Present Mic’s and Midnight’s expressions fall, and confusion on everyone else's.
Powerloader turned his head confusedly. “Why would a villain in custody give a tip off?”
Izuku turned to his dad to silently ask if he wanted to take over. He simply gestured for Izuku to continue.
With only slight hesitation, Izuku did so. “It turns out Kurogiri wasn’t so much as an… individual legal person,” if this wasn’t such a serious topic that hit so close to home Aizawa would have snorted in amusement at the description. “and more of a nomu himself.”
Nezu’s face suddenly shadowed. He must have understood the hurt Eraser, Mic and Midnight were exhibiting. He made direct eye contact with the two at the front. “This is to do with one of UA’s greatest hurts. Shirakumo-kun.” The sorrow in their eyes said it all. The other teachers were not in the loop, but were able to deduce that Kurogiri was a nomu created with an old friend to some of their colleagues.
Gently, Recovery Girl addressed the three Pro Heroes. “Eraserhead… Mic and Midnight too… if there’s anything we can do for you…” she let her statement ring out, grunts of support following it. Mic and Midnight, having had less time to deal with the situation, let out pained, teary laughs. Aizawa gave a soft thanks, and turned to the kid to ask with his eyes if he could take over. His gave him a gentle headbutt, softening his demeanour. Midnight, still slightly teary-eyed, giggled at the scene.
“Oboro… he was still in there. Mic and I were sent to Tartarus to try and break through to him. It worked.” Mic’s breath hitched. “That’s where we found out where the high-end nomu were being made, including Shigaraki.”
Nemuri and Hizashi had already known they had Oboro back, but it being presented to them in this manner made it very real that a version of him was not only still active out in the world, but that they had come close to him. All the healing they had done in regards to his death had seemingly been undone. Especially for Hizashi- Nemuri was a part of their squad, but the fact remained that she was still a year above Shota, Hizashi and Oboro. Hizashi and Oboro were close. Shota and Oboro were close. It was a wound that had scarred less brightly for her than for them.
There was still a scar that had just been ripped open.
While Hizashi and Nemuri were stewing over the first half of Shota’s statement, other teachers went on to clarify the details of the second half.
“Eraserhead, Midoriya, why was Shigaraki in the nomu lab? It felt like you implied he was one of them rather than him being there to hide.” Aizawa appreciated that Cementoss addressed his kid as well as himself, because the All for One stuff was Izuku’s territory. He nudged his kid gently, prompting him to speak.
“All for One had a doctor who was behind the nomu. He was using a similar vein of technology to alter Shigaraki’s body so that not only would he be unnaturally strong without a quirk, but so that the quirk itself, All for One, could be medically transferred over to Shigaraki.”
The staff went wide-eyed at that. “To think that that kind of thing is possible through technology… the implications aren’t all that positive.” Nezu sounded out thoughtfully.
All Might looked slightly unsettled. “Do you know why that man passed his quirk on to Shigaraki? I really can’t see him entrusting his whole fight and legacy to another after fighting by himself for 200 years.”
Izuku’s countenance shifted to one of sorrow. That kid and his bleeding heart. He was truly going to be one of the greatest heroes the world had ever seen. “It became an almost psychic battle. Quirks leave behind vestiges of their user. All for One passed on his original quirk so that he could essentially take over Shigaraki’s now superior body.”
“That’s… not good.” All Might said worriedly. Ectoplasm nodded in stoic agreement.
“This is the point where everything went to crap.” Aizawa announced in a monotone. “I was on the team that raided the hospital which the doctor’s labs were under. We were delayed by thirty minutes. Shigaraki’s new body had been completed two minutes before we entered the room.”
A chilled silence filled the room like a dangerous fog.
Aizawa shook his head. “It was the worst raid I’ve ever been on. Only five of the twenty heroes on the team even made it into the room. We lost two of those five heroes, and completed none of the mission objectives before needing to flee.” He sighed deeply. “So many heroes were involved that they brought on hero students with provisional licences to help with the evacuation efforts. Since our first years all gained Provisional Hero licences, every single one of our hero students was out there.”
There was silence again before a horrified “Oh my god.” sounded. Shota agreed wholeheartedly with that sentiment. “None of us were happy with the hero commission for that as I’m sure you can imagine.” The staff nodded insistently. He placed a hand on Izuku’s head and ruffled it gently. “They all did good though. Really good.”
All Might smiled. “I can believe it.” Izuku gave a small smile.
Aizawa slumped resignedly. “Unfortunately, in addition to being ridiculously overpowered, Shigaraki now also had Ragdoll’s search quirk, and the same desire All for One had to take One for All.”
Midnight groaned. “This never ends, does it?”
Aizawa and Midoriya gave her twin rueful smiles.
Snipe slapped his knees. “Alright Eraser, Young’un, what happened next?”
It was time for them to hear the worst of the tale.