I doubt such a posh hero would be in a bad motel. Aizawa reminded himself.
He had to trust and hope that eyewitness testimony was right that a man of Gentle Criminal's description was staying at such a bad motel. He was doubtful though. Everything about Gentle's character said he was rich.
After knocking didn't work, he kicked open the door of the latest bad motel room he was exploring.
The room smelled strongly of tea. That was a good sign because Aizawa kept worrying he'd open the door and smell a corpse eventually.
"Mr. Aizawa! Is that you?" Toru called loudly from the floor.
Aizawa immediately breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of Hagakure's voice. He relaxed his combat stance and ran over to Toru who was lying on the floor behind the bed dressed up in oversized black clothes. She was tied up by bedsheets.
"Hagakure! …I'm glad you seem unharmed." Aizawa tried not to make the relief evident in his voice.
She's fine, she's okay. His Purple Highness didn't kill another intern. She's not like Oboro. Aizawa managed to grab his wrist and keep it from shaking.
He couldn't let his student see just how relieved he was. He untied her easily enough and Toru sat up.
Toru looked like she was rubbing what was probably her ankles and wrists as if she had been bound for a while and was uncomfortable.
"Where did the villains go?" Aizawa asked.
"I don't know. I think they bounced." Toru made a pun. "I assume they went home since they weren't native to this region. They heard a hero was coming after them and got super spooked. They booked it and left me here as bait."
Aizawa nodded. If they got scared easily by one hero, they're probably not that strong.
"They either must be very confident or very stupid to kidnap a UA student. No way would UA let that go unpunished." Aizawa hissed.
"Weeellll, they didn't really purposefully kidnap a UA student." Toru corrected. "They accidentally kidnapped me when they scooped up their goods! They didn't see me because I was invisible. They were like…Really two-bit villains. They had no idea what to do when they got over their head!" Toru downplayed their strength so Aizawa wouldn't need to do a huge investigation.
"…You can't accidentally kidnap someone, Hagakure." Aizawa corrected.
Accidental kidnapping sounds a lot less serious than what we thought happened though…Aizawa was still battling away shaking. The comedy of such a terrible situation was disturbing. His Purple Highness thought Hagakure died. I was worried that she did died. Sure, Hagakure didn't know that, but this whole thing was a big deal.
"You can if the person is invisible." Toru responded. "The villain had a quirk where he could make inanimate objects elastic. He caused the floor to be bouncy and I fell into their stolen plushies. They scooped me up and well…You know the rest. When they realized they had kidnapped me, they legit panicked though. So, it really wasn't a ploy against UA or something. Just a very unfortunate situation."
Aizawa looked directly at her. He could tell Hagakure was telling the truth because no normal villain would give their victim their clothes to insure they weren't naked.
So, this really was all a big unhappy accident? Some villains from a city we don't know where visited this place, fled, and accidentally awakened His Purple Highness's and my traumas? It all seemed so unlucky and Aizawa felt emotionless at the awfulness of it all.
His Purple Highness had broken from this, and it was all just a series of unfortunate accidental events.
"Sorry for getting kidnapped though!" Toru apologized and bowed. "Next time I'll scream louder so my comrades notice me. Although I suppose I did learn something on this internship that as an invisible person I can easily get in trouble…Hmmm…Maybe I should pursue being a solo act hero instead of a sidekick or something if I'm going to make my comrades worry." Toru rambled.
Aizawa's eyes widened. Oh no…She's right. I was thinking about how unlucky this whole thing was and what I really should have been thinking about was how dangerous Hagakure's hero situation is. How many more times could this happen? Will it happen again?
"Hagakure…." Aizawa didn't know what to say.
Her unfazed bubbliness cut him off though. "Anyway, what are you doing here, Mr. Aizawa? I thought you'd be back at UA planning course material or grading papers or something." She asked.
"Ah…I…Uhhh…Was on vacation." Aizawa lied. "And I decided to visit His Purple Highness's agency while I was out." He paused. "We should probably tell him you're okay…" He realized.
"Do you have a phone? I can call his agency. I don't carry a phone on me cuz it would give my location away." Toru offered.
Aizawa stared blankly still letting everything about this whole thing settle in.
"What brought you to Kamino in specific for a vacation?" Toru asked. "I mean this is a nice place, but I didn't see you as the shopping type, Mr. Aizawa! And this place is mostly known for big shopping complexes."
It would be bad if he's looking for a nice bar here. It would be disastrous if he just walked into the league of villains. Toru was looking for information.
"…Present Mic said there was a good spa here." Aizawa gave the first lie he could possibly think of.
Hmm…The league of villains is actually very close to a spa. I better make sure it's not near there. "I could suggest some good ones! I was researching places to check out in Kamino before coming here!" Toru offered hoping to point him away from the league.
"Ah, no. No thank you." Aizawa responded having no plans to actually go to a spa. He tried to think up a way to get off this conversation topic, and then immediately remembered the important thing he was supposed to tell Toru. "…I should tell you, Hagakure, His Purple Highness retired while you were kidnapped. The villain attack was too much for his old age and he decided to call it quits."
Toru's eyes widened. So I did that much of a number on him to reawaken his old trauma. "Oh, that sucks! Poor His Purple Highness. Although I can't say I'm surprised. I had to clean a lot of alcohol bottles when I first came here. His liver must be struggling." She pretended to buy that lie and act stupid. "Wait…Wait does this mean I don't have an internship to do?" Toru flapped her arms frantically pretending to panic.
"…" Aizawa stared, realizing he didn't know how to resolve this. They'd never had a hero quit in the middle of interning with a student.
I believe standard UA protocol says that if a villain or student gets injured on an internship, they just get the week off…But I don't really want to give Hagakure a free vacation to wander around Kamino and get kidnapped again. Now that he knew the danger Toru was in from just being invisible, he didn't want to take his eyes off of her.
It was the paranoia, the anxiety and old trauma speaking. All of UA protocol said they should trust their hero students and just let them go home and rest.
But I never thought about how dangerous it is to be an invisible student unsupervised. His hand shook briefly again, and he wondered how much he'd hate himself if he left and Toru immediately got accidentally kidnapped again.
"We will find you another internship…." Aizawa started speaking.
"So quickly? I thought you needed to send off the paperwork to an agency and get it approved. Won't that take a bit?" Toru pointed out, trying to get the free vacation.
Aizawa nodded, frowning, because that was all true. "Well then…It's not exactly standard but UA has a free style education…" He swiped his hair out of his face.
Toru grinned excitedly knowing she was about to get a free vacation for being kidnapped.
"But you'll come back to UA with me, and I'll work with you. You won't be seeing anything exciting like a hero capturing a villain or the inner workings of an agency, or how an agency deals with the media, but it will be some much needed hand to hand training." Aizawa lectured.
Toru knew Aizawa couldn't see her horror.
"I was planning to tutor another student over the course of this week, so it won't be too hard to add you into the mix. And you definitely need the extra training if you're at risk for being accidentally kidnapped by enemies." Aizawa nodded, unaware that he had accidentally given away the fact that he wasn't taking a vacation in Kamino.
"But…But…." Toru wanted to protest, but everything Aizawa was saying made sense. A good teacher wouldn't allow their student to immediately get captured again, they would try to give them tools to protect themselves.
She just wasn't expecting that Aizawa suddenly wanted to be a good teacher.
Her shoulders slumped. But…I'm supposed to stay in Kamino with the league of villains and help out…I can't afford to spend all that time with Aizawa…. What a waste.
It was just another problem added to her failure. She was sure All for One would be very disappointed in her due to the result of her internship. She had made a mistake.
"Who's the other student?" She was unsuccessful in keeping the disappointment out of her voice. But she tried to keep Aizawa's attention on how curious she was, instead of how much she didn't want to intern with him.
It worked and Aizawa didn't ask about it. He knew Hagakure probably wanted that free vacation. Any student her age who had a bubblier disposition would.
"Shinso. From General Studies. He has a non-combat quirk like mine, and I was going to tutor him to help him get into the hero program-" Aizawa paused and frowned.
Ugh. Looking at Hagakure in front of me…Makes me realize I should have probably focused on my own students before deciding to help another student. He felt guilty. Hagakure had a non-combat type quirk and was actually in the hero program, unlike Shinso. But he hadn't paid any attention to her, nor had he helped her out even though she was at a disadvantage compared to her peers.
Not only that, but just like Midoriya, Hagakure can easily get into dangerous situations. If she gets injured, how are we supposed to heal her? It's not her fault because she's not putting herself in these situations, but I didn't prepare her at all to protect herself. Aizawa felt ashamed.
Why had he neglected the student right in front of him? It was probably because all his teaching methods were based on sight. He was a very sight-based hero since he erased what he saw. It was normal for him to rely on seeing, so Hagakure was naturally a big problem for him.
Can I give her a weapon? No…That would make her visible… He had no ideas.
Toru visibly slumped more as if to shame Aizawa for neglecting her.
Is there a way I can still get out of this? This awkward pause and the way he's looking makes it seem like he feels guilty…He realizes he's training someone else's student over his own. So that means he'll push harder on the teaching me thing since he now feels guilty.
Not only that, but there were still questions Toru had about why Aizawa was even there. He was clearly lying about the spa thing. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. This outing to go to Kamino seems very sudden and unplanned too. He checked up on the agency I interned with so does that mean he has some connection to His Purple Highness. Or is he suspicious of me? Or is it standard practice for him to visit the students at their internships secretly to check up on them?
There were a lot of possibilities and Toru doubted asking about them would get an answer, especially if he was already suspicious of her. She had already done several activities as a traitor, including being responsible for the USJ attack, so his suspicion wasn't unwarranted. She just needed to slip deeper into her disguise to throw him off her trail.
If he's suspicious of me, I can't make up some lie about being injured to get that free vacation then. That will make him more suspicious. That meant she just had to accept that she had to go back to UA to be 'trained' by Aizawa.
"All right. Can I get my stuff from my hotel before going?" She asked. Perhaps that would buy her some time to check in on the league and update them on the situation.
Aizawa nodded, glad she had accepted things finally. "I know you were excited about Kamino so I'll meet you by the train station at 5. If you're late I will find you." He promised. "I need to tell his Purple Highness what's going on anyway. So that will give you some free time to pack up and contact your folks about the change in your internship."
It's 2 now…So that gives me three hours to deal with the League. Did he give me extra time to do 'sightseeing' to placate me? Oh well, works in my favor. Toru decided.
Toru nodded. She was also excited about getting into her own clothes. The mention of His Purple Highness gave her a chance to try to prod Aizawa about his connection again. "Are you friends with His Purple Highness or something? You sound a bit familiar with him?"
Aizawa rolled his eyes. He would have assumed his voice did not carry any fondness for the retired hero.
"…I interned with him in my second year." He finally answered. "He was a different sort of hero back then. I'm sorry he changed into…what he was for your internship."
Aizawa's 30…so his second year in UA would be 14 years ago. Which was when His Purple Highness's intern died. Meaning Aizawa likely knew the student and doesn't have fond memories of his internship.
One mystery was finally solved. Aizawa had seemed unnaturally concerned and worried for her. Based on how traumatized His Purple Highness was, Aizawa was probably carrying some trauma of his own in a different way to the intern's death. Toru guessed the reason Aizawa had visited Kamino all of a sudden was paranoia that she would have ended up the same and because he distrusted his Purple Highness and not her.
It was mostly a guess, and it wasn't like she could ask. She wasn't supposed to know an intern had even died after all. Sure, it was easy enough information to obtain on the internet, but Toru Hagakure wasn't supposed to be smart. She didn't research things, so she obviously wouldn't be able to put the pieces together from that.
Still, this is another big mistake I made. If I did better research and figured out that Aizawa had interned at the agency I chose I wouldn't have chosen it. She felt ashamed and reminded herself to always research more before penciling in a fake decision.
Still now she had peace of mind that Aizawa likely wasn't suspicious of her. She noticed that once she bounced out of what he assumed was her going to the hotel to get her things Aizawa immediately started shaking as if to confirm Toru's guess.
Toru went to the league of villains as soon as she could, before retrieving her own things and clothes and after removing Gentle Criminal's clothing so she wouldn't be seen.
When she opened the door to the bar, the smell of old blood greeted her nose. She immediately went on guard as she opened the door and saw Shigaraki throwing a hissy fit on the floor.
His shoulders had two new large gashes on them, although they looked about half a day old. He hadn't properly treated them though and they were still very visible. Kurogiri also had a cut on his arm but had a bandage on it because he had repaired the wound unlike Shigaraki.
Kurogiri looked happy to see Toru, clearly frustrated at Shigaraki throwing a fit on the ground. His eyes raised excitedly, and he gave a deep sigh.
"Toru. We were wondering when you'd arrive." Kurogiri told her. He was about to throw her a mop for the blood Shigaraki was still lying on.
"Unfortunately, I'm not here for long." Toru told him. "But first, what happened? Did we get attacked?"
Shigaraki in a bad mood was nothing new, but the blood on the floor was. And even Kurogiri had been injured, the tied-up bandage on his arm confirming it. That was rare.
"Negotiations with the hero killer did not go well this morning. He got a bit…Stabby." Kurogiri admitted.
"That damn Hero Killer is so entitled! He's just killing whatever he wants, just like me! He's not better than me!" Shigaraki screamed on the floor.
"Shigaraki will be better soon. He just needs to get some…anger out of his system until Master can deliver the Nomu." Kurogiri seemed tired, probably from dealing with Shigaraki and the Hero killer all day.
Toru hated to destroy his mood. He obviously thought someone else would be around to deal with Shigaraki thanks to her showing up.
"Now…What happened with you? I assumed you'd be here late last night. You're always punctual usually." Kurogiri pointed out.
"An incident occurred, and I have some bad news. The hero I was interning under quit because I traumatized him too much." Toru explained.
This caused Shigaraki to briefly stop pounding on the floor. He laughed. "I thought you said you had bad news?"
Kurogiri waved his hand. "Don't mind him, he's high on the adrenaline of bleeding so much. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if he let me bandage him, but he keeps insisting he can do it and destroying the bandages."
That explains it. Toru looked at Shigaraki. This happened frequently when Shigaraki was injured. He didn't want help or pity which was admirable, but one slip of a finger destroyed any bandage or disinfectant that they were about to use.
Shigaraki glared.
"Explain what happened in detail now." Kurogiri requested. "How is your pro hero retiring unfortunate?"
"I got kidnapped by some bozo villains yesterday. They didn't know they had kidnapped me and because they were planning on posting viewtube videos of their crimes in Kamino, I thought I needed to ensure they left Kamino before escaping." Toru explained.
This caused Shigaraki to be more mad. "Wait, some villains were here? And they didn't know how dangerous this place was for them? Oh, we gotta teach them a lesson-" He sat up finally, his anger now directed at a new target.
"Calm down, Shigaraki. We are getting revenge on one villain who has spurned the leagues offers at a time. And you have decided that today's target is the Hero Killer, might I remind you." Kurogiri reminded.
Shigaraki huffed. "Tomorrow's problem I guess…. Who were these idiot…Viewtube villains were you saying?"
"Gentle Criminal and La Brava." Toru replied. It was her duty to share whatever information the league of villains wanted.
Shigaraki gave a nasty smile. Now they were on his hit list!
"You could have easily escaped if they accidentally kidnapped you." Kurogiri pointed out. "Then you could have spent the rest of the week at the league and then showed up free from your kidnapping at the end of the week."
"I didn't want to look suspicious. But you are right that the way I handled things was a mistake. Please report to All for One so I can be punished." Toru replied.
Kurogiri sighed. "So, your kidnapping traumatized your pro hero and he quit I'm guessing?"
"Mmhmm." Toru replied. "He was His Purple Highness's agency. A UA intern of his died 14 years ago and it gave him PTSD and made him act pretty lax towards his interns because he didn't want to be responsible for them. I thought that would be the perfect place to slack off and get free vacation time. But unfortunately, I went too far, and he ended up quitting." Toru explained.
"Well, that doesn't sound like too much of a problem. We can fake some records to say he retired later in the week and kill him so that the pros can't question him, and then you can spend the rest of the week here-" Kurogiri suggested.
Shigaraki smiled again. The idea that he would get a free hero murder kinda cheered him up.
"I wish we could do that but unfortunately Eraserhead found out he quit. He's the one who 'rescued' me from the kidnapping. Apparently he interned with His Purple Highness himself and had PTSD from the incident as well which caused him to decide he needed to check up on me. And I wasn't where I was supposed to be." Toru explained.
Kurogiri made no visible facial movements from that story.
"And he's decided I have to go back to UA to intern with him. I have to meet him at the train station at 5. Which is why I say the situation is unfortunate. I don't have long here and that's bad news." Toru reported.
Shigaraki was now frowning. "That does suck!" He started frantically scratching his neck. "Aww man if we killed Eraserhead when we had the chance this wouldn't have happened! Next time…"
Once Shigaraki said that, Kurogiri got out of behind the counter to mop up Shigaraki's blood himself. "Let's not be hasty…"
He's trying to keep Eraserhead alive again…Toru noted.
"The situation could be a lot worse. And we can use this." Now he was trying to talk like the only sane adult here. "Perhaps Toru can distract Eraserhead. I was a little worried that Eraserhead would decide to check up on one of his students. It's actually good that he went to check up on Toru, instead of say…Anyone who was interning in Hosu now."
"There is a student interning in Hosu right now…" Toru confirmed. "Iida of the Ingenium family is interning there. And he doesn't look exactly mentally sound."
Shigaraki sighed. "So, if Eraserhead was going to go out of his way to check on students, he could have checked up on that Iida dude."
Kurogiri nodded. "And we know how much trouble Eraserhead gave us the last time we sent a Nomu out. So, this actually worked out well for us."
Toru cheered up a little. Shigaraki did too.
"So, I'm assuming you're sending a Nomu to Hosu to do some revenge towards the Hero Killer who spurned you?" Toru asked.
Shigaraki nodded. "Master is lending three Nomu. And we're going to dye the city in blood tonight until nobody is ever talking about the Hero Killer again. He'll see just how powerful the league of villains is."
Kurogiri nodded. "It would be best if you changed your objective this week to distracting Eraserhead. We don't need Eraserhead taking a detour to Hosu, and we don't need him poking around into any of the leagues' actions. So keep him busy training you." Kurogiri ordered.
"I will do the mission assigned to me." Toru saluted although nobody could see. "I will go get my things then and arrive at the train station early so he doesn't have time to decide he should be worrying about Iida or something! Bye bye!"
Shigaraki nodded. "Yeah, just leave us with the hard hero killer revenge." He said sarcastically and nursed his wounds.
"Got it!" Toru whistled. "Hope you get better soon!" She joked.
And with that she high tailed it out of there before Aizawa could notice she was missing. She returned to her hotel room, got dressed and arrived at the train station at 45 minutes early.
"Come on. Let's get you back to UA." Aizawa motioned. "His Purple Highness is glad you're okay by the way."
"I'm glad I am too!" Toru agreed cheerfully now that she had a new mission and followed Aizawa on the train.
Aizawa looked awkward once the two of them sat down. He didn't really want to converse too much on the train, he wanted to nap, but he felt like he should say something.
"…I'm sorry for not stopping the internship sooner." He finally said. "I knew…. Vaguely that there was something wrong with His Purple Highness. But all of UA had hoped he was getting better. Plus Ultra they said…" Aizawa apologized.
"It's all right. I'm just excited to learn all I can from you." Toru had switched gears quickly into an overly excited schoolgirl. "Even if it's just one on one tutoring instead of interning it's still a good opportunity!" Toru had a new mission, and she was determined to not screw this one up too.
Aizawa nodded but smiled a little to himself. He was glad she was okay.
In my rough drafts there's one more chapter of the internship but it will be probably split into several chapters because it's long. (And mostly covering Toru's new internship with Aizawa, and also Shinso)
The Shinso fans did get to me. He was never going to be that big in the original story, but I guess he has a place now.