Shouta had long since resigned himself to getting headaches whenever his kids--his students--were brought up. From them getting into fights or declaring war to becoming celebrities and landing in life-or-death situations, his pesky students always found a way to annoy him, even outside of school. Nonetheless, Aizawa could pretty much manage teenagers with minor casualties from them almost dying--details, details.
Children were out of his expertise.
Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose as he opened the door, already prepared to either drink enough coffee to pass out or collapse on his bed and never wake up again, only to get hit by the sound of a little girl crying inside the house.
Eri.
Still feeling exhausted from the night and excessive thinking, Shouta locked the door, immediately rushing towards the living room. The first thing he noticed was that the man claiming to be Eri's father was gone as if he'd never existed; That in itself was disconcerting, especially since the girl herself was now crying--who knew how long she had been. With furrowed brows, Aizawa went down on his knees to face Eri.
"What's wrong, Eri?" Of all days not to be home, Hizashi chose today.
The bluish-white-haired child continued to sob, furiously rubbing at her eyes so they would stop welling up with tears. She sniffed and threw herself at Shouta instead when she failed to suppress her tears, clutching him with all of her might, "Papa... Papa left," Eri mumbled wetly in Aizawa's shirt, "I'm scared for Papa."
Shouta's frown deepened, instinctively tightening his hold on the little girl. She was scared... for her father? The same one who, according to Eri's own words, left her on many occasions?
His eyes flickered to the child's perpetually closed fist, an undecipherable thought popping up in his mind.
"...what do you have in your hand?"
Eri--after silently hesitating for a few short minutes--opened her palm to reveal the opal bolo tie the man, Dazai, had never wanted to remove from his person. Aizawa had been under the impression it was precious and he still had that feeling. He put a hand on Eri's head and combed through her hair; Shouta swore he had seen the same pattern before.
"Papa left it for me," Eri's voice trembled, "Chuuya-papa did the same thing."
Right, her bracelet.
____
Aizawa sighed--of course, his students had done something again.
Since this morning, a couple of first-year students--including some of his own--became the talk of the staff due to their collectively odd behaviour. Naturally, the ones treated with the most suspicion were the transfers; UA didn't take transfers, it simply wasn't feasible.
His coworkers could manage their own students and Shouta would worry about his. Truthfully, the fact that Midoriya had a part in the rumours didn't surprise him; the others did a little more, but this was UA, the most publicized school in Japan.
Shouta reached out to open his classroom door, only to freeze as his eyes narrowed at a distinct detail which only appealed to him thanks to his knowledge of his kids'-- students' habits.
His class was silent, a stark contrast from their usual audible energy. It was like it was after USJ or the Stain Incident; the silence they had was different, heavier.
It sounded unusual, it felt different, it was different.
With suspicions and worries--not that he would admit his concern--raised, Shouta pushed the door open and stepped in. No one said a word, most eyes riveted on him. From every corner of the room, restless and uneasy energy could be felt from the teenagers. Aizawa felt his further narrow as he prolonged the silence; a few of them
Bakugo seemed deep in his thoughts with his eyes intensely focused on the two empty seats, Uraraka seemed as agitated as the rest of the class, although Shouta couldn't pinpoint why she seemed so out of character to him, and Todoroki looked as if he was piecing things together each minute.
But one detail was much more prominent; Midoriya and Kaminari were nowhere to be found.
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"Are you out of your mind!?"
Sweat beaded on Hitoshi's nervous face. It took everything in him not to flinch at his class' assisting teacher, not moving an inch--he wanted to do this, there was a reason why he'd tried entering the hero course, after all. Only to fail of course.
"You are a UA student, not a Yokohama citizen," Hitoshi's attention was increasingly piqued at the mafioso's words, "You need not involve yourself in whatever concerns our city; Our problems should not matter to you."
Hitoshi gritted his teeth. He knew Yokohamans often kept to their city, wholely rejecting outsiders but he wasn't an outsider, "Didn't you all essentially take us in? You told me the ones who accepted me no matter who I could've been to them are in trouble right at this moment and you expect me to sit back and ignore it?"
Hitoshi had known them all for a very short time. Although, realistically, it couldn't have been that long, it had felt like they'd been his family for months; at this point, he didn't know how he would've coped had it not been for Miyazawa and Akutagawa-san being around him. In truth, he'd barely interacted with the rest of the group as a whole. Hitoshi often regretted that he hadn't spent as much time with his family as he should've.
Except for a few.
"You're Shinsou Hitoshi-kun, right? Why don't you join cute little Eri and my miserable self on this walk~?"
"...wait... are you--?"
"Who I am doesn't matter, Hitoshi-kun~ Don't dwell on it."
Hitoshi clenched his fists, "Who do you take me for, Akutagawa-san?"
Akutagawa just stared for a moment, Rashomon threateningly flickering along the edge of his coat before he merely huffed. He turned around, keeping his back to Shinsou to speak before he left, "Do whatever you want, then. Just know your place, brat," Hitoshi swore he heard a 'stupid Jinko' afterwards.
Hitoshi stayed still until the older was out of his sight, his mind stuck on Akutagawa's words. Somehow, he understood the brooding young adult's meaning perfectly--there was no way he would be able to handle everything Yokohama had to offer the way he was.
At that moment, Shinsou Hitoshi decided to do something extremely dangerous, which would make him a hypocrite in the school. He didn't care, however--he'd survived the slums and everything after until he finally got here to begin with. Some things were risquier than the hero society and Hitoshi had been surrounded by these things his entire life. Some of the most dangerous individuals and organizations in Japan were quite the level up, but nothing he wouldn't get through.
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Contrary to popular belief, Ozakl Ochako knew exactly what she had been doing since the beginning of the school year.