Consequences

Despite what he had said, Toshinori was feeling the strain from pushing his body so hard. Every breath had felt like he was being stabbed. His head had pounded in time with his heart and he had an all too familiar metallic taste in his mouth.

The blare of the alarms certainly didn't help, either.

Still, even standing, he was feeling a little better, now that he'd have a moment to catch his breath.

But Young Yaoyorozu had clearly needed the seat far more. She had yet to recover from whatever she might've done at the Licensing Exam and here she was, rushing to her friends' aid, once again. He could relate to the desire to put those who needed help first, even before his own health.

Toshinori would also be lying if he claimed he wasn't worried for her. He knew from personal experience the type of condition such a mindset could leave one in. It felt so hypocritical to be worried about the girl for doing the same thing he did, but here he was.

Still, if he was honest, he probably would've tried to turn down the chair if she hadn't been in her current condition.

While a part of Toshinori wanted to wait and recover a little more, he instead pulled his radio out of its pocket, waited impatiently for that paradoxically short eternity of a second so his message wouldn't be cut off and stated, "This is All Might. I found the source of the disturbance. There's no danger. One of the Third-Year Students, Mirio Togata, startled Katsuki Bakugou and had set off the alarm to get our attention. We're on the sidewalk between 1-A and 1-B Dorms. Over."

Seconds after releasing the button, the speaker crackled to life and Ectoplasm's voice rose out. "If you can have the students involved wait with you, someone will be out in a minute. We still need to know what happened and decide if any disciplinary action is necessary. The security bots, Hound Dog and I still need to verify that nothing else has happened before we turn off the alarms. Over."

Toshinori looked up at the kids and said, "Well, it looks like we've got at a few minutes."

After a few moments of silence, as much as there could be with the school's alarms going off in the not too distant buildings, Togata finally asked. "How do you know me?"

Toshinori smiled and said, "Sir told me about you the last time we talked, shortly after he picked you up as his intern. He had nothing but the highest praise for you."

The boy's smile grew at that statement.

Midoriya instantly lit up as well, asking, "Sir? As in your old sidekick, Sir Nighteye?"

To which his classmates had various reactions at his usual response to hearing something new about a hero. Some, like Kirishima and Kaminari, gave warm smiles or chuckled, while Bakugou snorted and turned away. Young Iida gave the boy a measuring look, while Uraraka gave him a shy smile.

Despite the painful memories mentioning his old sidekick brought him, Toshinori chuckled before stating, "Yes, him." He could hardly find it in him to be surprised that his student knew about the only sidekick he'd taken up since returning to Japan.

"Nerd…" Bakugou growled, but at least the blonde had gone from being on the verge of launching an attack at young Togata a couple minutes ago, to just being mildly annoyed.

Toshinori was glad that he didn't have to bring up why his old sidekick had been so invested in Mirio Togata, nor the increased strain in their already stressed relationship which the conversation had ultimately led to. "So, I take it you were just messing around, then?"

Togata nodded. "I just wanted to play a prank on him. I thought it would just be funny after a moment. I didn't mean to scare anyone like that."

"I wasn't scared!" Bakugou declared angrily, teeth bared and sparks crackling in the palms of his hands before he closed them into fists. "Just surprised."

Toshinori sighed, knowing exactly where Togata's approach came from. It was why he'd known to ask what he had. "Sir's pranks landed badly sometimes, too."

Togata seemed startled by his words. "They did?"

"Sir plays pranks?" Young Midoriya asked, amazed. "But, he seems so serious! He's known for his piercing glares and no-nonsense attitude. That, and the fact that his Quirk is even more of a mystery than yours." Realizing what he'd said, the boy then stuttered out, "W-W-Well, I mean, not th-that your Quirk's too mysterious or anything, just—"

Toshinori placed a hand on his student's shoulder to calm him down before he said something he'd regret about One for All and looked toward Togata. Taking the opportunity to drive the conversation toward a safer subject, he continued, "His jokes were good for lifting people's spirits when things got too serious but only in the right situations. There's a time and a place for jokes, but you should also consider other ways of making people smile until you know their sense of humor." Then, he added, "And sometimes, other people might just need to see you smile, so that even when they can't, they'll still feel safe with you, there. As you have just seen, sometimes, trying to force a smile on them can even do more bad than good."

"Oh." Togata blinked in surprise as he processed the words, before frowning thoughtfully and nodding, "I haven't really thought about that but now that you've said it, that makes sense."

"Many heroes don't."

"We'll I will from now on. Thank you. I'll try to remember what you said from now on and try to do better."

"I have no doubt of that," Toshinori replied, having seen evidence of the boy's determination to do his best while reading over his files.

It was at that moment that Aizawa arrived. The man looked like he was just too darn tired to be upset. It was, of course, now that he was here when the alarms finally shut off. Almost as if silencing in fear of the consequences of daring to interfere with his ability to interrogate the group of students and fellow staff member about just what happened here.

Heck, considering that the system was run by sentient robots who had to see him on a daily basis, that just might have been the case. He certainly couldn't blame it if that was the case.


One day. Just one day without anything happening.

Was that really too much to ask for?

Yes. Apparently, it was.

Shota listened quietly as all the students explained what happened and All Might corroborated their story as much as possible. He wasn't just angry at Mirio Togata but also disappointed in UA's 'most promising' student. What had he been thinking? Using his Quirk to pull a prank on a traumatized teenager?

Which had triggered his other traumatized students to come running to the first's aid, which—as with Shoji and Jiro's actions during the wall busting incident last night—he was anything but disappointed in.

Still, no matter how adept these kids proved themselves, he was thankful that they would soon be getting therapy.

Oh well, best get started. "Midoriya, you will have to meet Nezu without me. I'll be joining you later."

"Yes, Aizawa-sensei," Midoriya replied before turning to All Might and saying, "Thanks for earlier."

The man smiled back and said, "It was a pleasure, but you really shouldn't keep Nezu waiting. Don't forget what I told you earlier."

Midoriya nodded and finally took off for the school, this time at a quirk-free jog. Good, Shota wasn't quite sure he was ready to see the kids quirk in action again right now. He hadn't quite wrapped his mind the whole 'two-hundred-year old transmissible possibly sentient quirk' thing yet and didn't want to deal with the visual reminder until he was ready for it.

All Might looked to Shota and asked, "Should I stay or get back to my patrol?"

Shota sighed and said, "You can get back to it. Just don't forget to write the incident report." He wouldn't bring up the other part of coming to him about whatever he discussed with Midoriya in front of the other students.

All Might sighed. "The one part of heroics I was actually hoping to escape: Paperwork."

"Something we can both agree on."

All Might told the students goodbye and quickly departed.

Once the other man was gone, Shota pulled out a couple of slips and started writing on them. He then handed them to Yaoyorozu and instructed her, "Give one of these to Recovery Girl and another to Lunch Rush. You'll be placed on a special diet until you're back to a healthy weight. I also want you to focus on ways to get through hero exercises with minimal use of your Quirk until then. If I feel you're not succeeding, I will forbid it altogether until I feel you're healthy enough to handle the strain. It may have been Midoriya I told not to act in a way that makes himself a burdon to others on the first day, but that applies to all of you." He recalled how at the end of the first part of the exam, Yaoyorozu had essentially been carried to the waiting area after the group she was with had just barely managed to get their points without being tagged themselves.

Yaoyorozu looked down at the notes and her face seemed to pale even more than it already had been.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, watching for any sign that she might pass out right here in the street.

"No, just... Trying to think about how I'm going to approach training with the new restrictions."

Shota had no doubt that Yaoyorozu would figure it out just fine. She had proven very resourceful. He didn't understand why thinking about that had made her react that way. "You should go back inside, get some food and rest. I'll ask Recovery Girl to keep a stock of nutrient bars to help you through the day as well."

Heading down, she said, "Thank you Aizawa-sensei," before slowly making her way back in.

"The rest of you, except Bakugou and Togata, can carry the chair back to your lounge. And any students behind the hedges in the next ten seconds will get to participate in cleaning the hero wing bathrooms tomorrow, from curfew to the start of the school day and then again after classes let out… That extends to Class 1-B, too."

The rustling of bushes from both lawns could be heard as the kids rushed back to their buildings, fleeing the prospect of extra work, especially that particular chore. Shota didn't bother to look and see who, although he did notice Asui and Hagakure were currently assisting Yaoyorozu.

Rather than wait for the students to clear out, he focused on Bakugou and Togata, saying, "Show me where it happened."

The scene that the boys led him to was headache inducing.

Okay…headache increasing but still…

There was a crater in the ground and a crumbled section of wall, all covered in a mixture of trash and torn plastic, the smoldering material producing a scent that, even from here, made Shota want to gag. It was luck that there wasn't much to burn back here, otherwise they might've had to call in Backdraft from town by now.

Shota should probably bring it up with Nezu that not even a fire alarm went off when this happened, let alone the security system.

After a moment, Shota turned his attention to Togata. "So, Togata, please explain to me what made you think it was a good idea to jump out and scare a trauma victim?"

Bakugou opened his mouth, probably to insist that he wasn't either scared or emotionally scarred, which Aizawa quickly silenced with a glare before his student could even start.

"And did you even account for the Quirks of the student you intended to prank?" He gestured to the mess before them.

"I wasn't thinking, Mr. Aizawa, sir." The boy looked chastised but not scared. Something that sometimes happened when he was dealing with students he never taught directly. The ones who thought that the stories had to be exaggerated.

He'd have to correct that notion.

"For now, you can clean up this mess. I'll have the robots bring by a fire extinguisher, just in case. You've covered their use, along with fire safety in general in class, haven't you?" He was pretty sure that his class had already covered that but he'd rather not just make assumptions.

If he had, he wouldn't have ever thought the situation that led to this mess would arise to begin with.

"Yes, Mr. Aizawa."

"Good. I'll have the rest of your punishment ready by the time you come to my class to talk to my students in a couple days."

"The rest?"

Shota gave him a big smile and said, "Oh, yes. I plan to make this a learning experience for you. I don't suppose you've dealt with the administrative aspect of heroics yet, have you? There's so much to simulate here. What with scaring a traumatized civilian, accidentally setting off explosives and possibly causing a fire. I figure it would be a good idea for you to know the type of Incident Reports, Insurance Work and law suits might come with the worst-case scenario of an event like this. It could only be beneficial to your career to have knowledge of the process, after all. Wouldn't you agree?"

Mirio Togata had paled considerably at this but replied, "Yes, Mr. Aizawa, it'll definitely be useful."


Once Doll Eyes had the equipment he needed to start cleaning up the trash, Aizawa turned to Katsuki and said, "Come with me."

"Shouldn't I help clean this up?" Katsuki asked.

Aizawa shook his head. "No. I need to talk to you about more than this."

"Last night?" Katsuki asked. He wasn't stupid. He knew that despite Deku's secret taking higher priority, there had to be more that their teacher would want to talk about.

"Come on," Aizawa said. "There's a few places along the trail that I know we'll have privacy."

Katsuki followed along with the man until they came to a spot along the trail that seemed totally unremarkable to him but he trusted his teacher's judgement that it was a safe place to talk privately.

"Before we begin, I just want to tell you that you did well this evening."

"Wha...? Aren't you upset at me?"

"You used the materials you had on hand to distract a possible threat before seeking to get the attention of the U.A. staff. That not being an immediate option, you went to the nearest available registered heroes." He gave the same no-nonsense gaze he usually had when he was instructing their classes. "That's exactly what you're supposed to do when you're in danger. Not to mention that it's something that you wouldn't have done even a couple months ago. Your reaction is proof that you're learning. So no, I'm not upset with you for your reaction to Togata."

Katsuki sighed, releasing tension he hadn't even realized he had been holding.

"That being said, there's something else that I need to discuss with you. I was hoping to talk to you about it when things settled a little more, but now seems as good a time as any." Aizawa sighed, before stating, "Despite popular depictions of the heroics field, whether a person can become one or not isn't restricted a great degree by their… disposition. In previous years, I accepted this as an unfortunate fact of life and did not greatly calculate it into the consideration of a student's heroic potential." Aizawa crossed his arms and said, "A lot of things have changed this year and that's one of them."

Katsuki wanted to disappear. But, since that wasn't happening any time soon, he buried his emotions he asked, "Are you axing me over what you learned last night?" He clenched his fists, bracing himself for the answer.

"No, but you're now on thin ice. The facts that you regret your actions, you've displayed the ability to admit when you're wrong and incidents, like tonight, where you prove that you can learn your mistakes and are making strides to improve yourself, are all that's saving you right now." Aizawa looked him dead in the eye. "I didn't want to put you on the spot in front of your classmates, but you will be receiving anger management from Hound Dog and if you show no signs of improvement or if you put one toe out of line in relation to your attitude, you will be removed from the Hero Course. The only reason I won't threaten expulsion from U.A. altogether is that you've become too large of a target to be safely released back into the public. But if I see you as unfit, I will personally make sure that you'll never get your Hero License. Am I clear?"

Katsuki swallowed over the lump in his throat. "Yes, Mr. Aizawa."

After about twenty seconds, Aizawa sighed and said, "Then the first thing I want you to do is tell me about your past with Midoriya. You don't have to say anything but telling me will help in better securing your currently precarious position in my class."

Katsuki nodded. "You might change your mind, once I tell you."


And here's another chapter done.

I've had jobs that required using walky-talkies and that first second where you have to wait before talking or be forced repeat yourself is so frustrating!

And just because Bakugou is trying doesn't mean he's suddenly going to be a perfect friend for Izuku. He's still a complete jerk and has spent his whole life putting Izuku down. As disgusting as it is, it's an ingrained habit.

There is a time and a place for jokes. From a realistic perspective, sneaking up on and startling a kid who'd been through multiple villain attacks, two of which were while under the supposed protection of UA no less, was an example of when it doesn't belong. Of course, Mirio hasn't learned any better from the hero he's interning under, has he?

And, one of the first in series warnings about Sir Nighteye's personality was the scene building up to where Izuku first walks into his office… the report that he strapped Bubble Girl to the tickle machine for having no jokes in was for the aftermath of the interaction between the League and the Percepts. He wanted jokes after she'd reported evidence of blood being cleaned up, there. People obviously died horrifically in there and the description of the gore wasn't funny enough for him? That thought makes me nauseous.

Then there's the implications of that tickle machine itself, a device that can restrain and 'tickle torture' workers in full view of anyone who comes into that office. There's a PTSD reaction waiting to happen, depending on who walks through that door (I'm surprised that Izuku, who in the first pages/minute of the series, is shown being held down so Bakugou could use explosion without him escaping, didn't have a more visceral reaction at the sight). And that's not even considering what it does psychologically to the people strapped up to it, both directly from its use on them and from the stress and humiliation of it happening where anyone can see it.

The whole situation is messed up and this is a well-respected hero that's been deemed responsible enough to be left in charge of students. Sorry…I just felt like I had to say something. I'm going to stop now or I might just keep going down his list of issues (if you want to do that anyway, it probably won't take much prompting in your comments). But yeah, I have a deep hatred for Sir Nighteye. He's a horrible person and I suspect that he was designed to be a hate magnet so that our first experience of on page/on screen death with the heroes would be a little more palatable.

Those of you who have read SC:SoTCRF have read something explaining the reason for Momo's reaction, here.

And yes, this conversation with Bakugou is finally happening. It took me a while but it's finally here. After that, I will be looking at Izuku's first time meeting Nezu, which I'm also looking forward to.