FULL SUMMARY:
Two months ago, Midoriya Izuku was believed to be the rumored mole among the staff and students at Yuuei. After being questioned harshly about his involvement with the League of Villains, he disappeared during All For One's unexpected breakout from Tartarus.
Now two months later, a wounded Aizawa Shouta finds himself saved by a civilian woman, and in the process finds out what happened to his missing pupil. But this chance event launches not just him, but the entire school into an unprecedented turn of events that ultimately culminate in the question that triggered Izuku's disappearance in the first place: Who is the Yuuei mole?
A/N: Whoa, hey, I guess this is my first work for the MHA fandom here. Don't worry, this is a relatively shorter (we're talking 30 chapters) fic, so don't worry, this won't take an entire year like Riot Act (lmao). I don't have that kind of patience with the weird things going on in my personal life right now.
If any of y'all are familiar with the Suspected Traitor AU... hello ;) This isn't totally going to conform to that AU though: Instead of Suffering™, Deku is gonna turn out just fine and 1-A won't suffer (well, not that much). So basically, the title. Since I don't have the ability to tag everything that will be going on in the story (like with AO3), luckily you won't be spoiled on certain important things just by reading a taglist. However, this also means I can't tag every warning this thing garners, so it's a double-edged sword.
CONTENT WARNING: This book will contain a lot of Todoroki's family backstory (including the mess with Touya), mentions of past child abuse and some mild blood/gore near the end (not enough to spike the rating up). Due to a certain character's eternal potty-mouth, this will be rated M, but nothing much else really makes it deserve a proper 'M' rating.
Just warning you right now: THIS IS GOING TO BE EXTREMELY NOT CANON. AKA, many characters are going to be a little better than before or just-plain took a level in Jerkass when in-canon they're either more evil or more morally light-gray than they're depicted here. Please don't swarm me with "but this didn't happen in the manga/anime! This person isn't xyz!" Just the inclusion of you-know-who as Izuku's father makes this incredibly non-conforming to canon.
And while I'll have certain topics that have been discussed in recent chapters (AKA, literally the entire Todoroki family drama), I won't be covering major events that happened after the School Festival Arc (AKA the entire war arc and the Endeavor Internship stuff. The only canon thing I'm keeping in regards to any of that is the Todoroki team-up and Tokoyami interning under Hawks [because I need mentor Hawks in my life please and thank you]).
This will also have OCs in it! So if you don't like stories with OCs, please be warned that they will serve a major role in a background plot within the main story.
Two months had passed since one of the biggest mistakes of Shouta Aizawa's life.
Two months had passed since one of his brightest students disappeared.
Two months had passed since Class 1-A had fallen into despair.
He huffed a breath, clutching at the wound in his side. Ever since that day, everything had changed.
The hero world was thrown into chaos on the day that All For One somehow escaped from Tartarus, and his cryptic message to Yagi of "I'm coming back for what you owe me" had sent Yuuei into lockdown mode. The retired hero had been shocked, but not as much as he'd expected his colleague to be, and instead of deciding to go into hiding, he seemed quietly resigned to the fact that All For One would be meeting him again.
It was most baffling to the staff, who encouraged him over and over again to seek hiding somewhere, and especially to Aizawa, who had been outraged more than anything. It had felt good in the moment when he reached forward and slapped Yagi across his bony face, demanding to know why he would put the kids into danger because he was too much of a coward to run away. Yagi's face hadn't given him much satisfaction afterwards, a glimmer of something unknown in his blue eyes as he calmly told Nedzu that the most he would do was seek shelter in one of Yuuei's bunkers until the threat calmed.
Whether he was a fool who thought that running meant defeat or if he had an ulterior motive, Aizawa had no idea even now, as he stumbled through an alleyway in the city.
Shortly after All For One's message, one of his colleagues came forward with disturbing claims that one of his students must have been collaborating with the villains to break the feared man free - and when he denied it, citing his whole trust in his kids, the name they gave him sent rocks tumbling into his stomach along with his heart.
That afternoon, when he called Izuku Midoriya aside and asked to speak with him in the principal's office, the look of nervous anxiety and pure fear on his face only made his heart sink lower.
After everything he'd done, after everything that had happened that year, after Mirio and Eri - it felt like a punch to the gut when the principal requested the notebook he was writing in and immediately stopped smiling for a moment upon reading it.
Things went quickly after that - several police officers were called, and a detective (not Tsukauchi, his mind had whispered in protest, not the one in charge of the undercover investigation) arrived, and Izuku Midoriya was escorted to an interrogation room in handcuffs. Aizawa noticed, very faintly, out of the corner of his eye, his students watching from a second-floor window in horror at what was happening. The guilt that settled like sediment in a disturbed lake didn't do much to convince him that what he was doing was right.
Midoriya was scared and worried, of course - what 16-year-old kid would feel comfortable being carted off by police in the middle of an otherwise unremarkable day? But with every glance of fear that he gave the adults, it only served to make him more suspicious. What did he have to be so worried over? What was he really hiding? He can admit now that maybe he was colder than he should've been, but at the time, he truly began to think that Midoriya had sold them all out. And the thought enraged him more than he could verbally express.
After finding out what happened to his best friend with Kurogiri, after Bakugo's kidnapping and subsequent retrieval (and the awful aftermath with the media), Aizawa had a right to be upset. He had every right to discard his prior warmth for Midoriya and treat him like the criminal he thought he was - but it didn't mean he felt good about it. It didn't mean doubt didn't still fill his mind with every glance at the boy's wide, teary eyes. He wasn't full-on crying yet, but he'd always been a crybaby - and if he knew Midoriya well enough at this point, he knew he would see some tears soon. Whether they were real or an act was beyond him.
Back at Yuuei, the principal had ordered Vlad, the one who brought the original accusation forward, to go to his room and collect the other notebooks that were there and bring them to his office for more analysis. Obviously something he'd seen had really spooked the man - but what it was, he wouldn't say. Not yet, not with anyone present, anyway. He later emailed Aizawa about his findings, which didn't help matters at all (and honestly made him question Nedzu more than he already was when he watched Midoriya finally burst into tears later on).
As soon as Midoriya was settled into an interrogation room, the following five hours of questioning didn't yield much in the way of results. He answered the questions in a quiet, shaking voice, and the second time he asked why he was being asked these questions, the resulting bark of "You don't get to ask questions here, only I do!" made him flinch back and lower his head, his back shaking. For the rest of the questioning, he only spoke when spoken to, and only answered questions asked of him. He wasn't acting like the traitor would, and it ate away at the hero as he watched and waited. Midoriya should have been panicking and begging to be let out, he should be getting angry, he could even drop the entire emotional act altogether - but he wasn't. He sat there like a boy in the face of his bullies, not wanting them to see the hurt they were inflicting on him. (The term 'bully' made him take a moment to think, and it honestly made his stomach sink a little at the weight of what was happening.)
By the fourth hour, when he finally gathered the courage to ask about why he was being questioned by police, the detective gave him a predatory smile. "Let me ask you a better question: Exactly how long have you been in cahoots with the villain known as All For One?"
Midoriya's face immediately dropped, catching Aizawa's attention again. His eyes widened, and the disbelieving breath of "You... think that I'm the traitor," made Aizawa stand up straighter.
The traitor. Not 'a' traitor, but 'the'. Midoriya knew.
Of course, now that he thought back on it, the rumors were always there after Bakugo's rescue operation. His students were bright; somehow one night after dinner one of them had mentioned just how strange it was that the villains always seemed ready to show up exactly where they were, even if the students couldn't even phone home about where they were going (to avoid anyone listening in and using that information for the villains). Where teenagers were, rumors were sure to follow, and now that he thought back on it, Midoriya seemed to be one of the most stressed about it. After Bakugo's rescue, he started being more cautious, more analytical about anyone he came into contact with. Bakugo noticed what he was doing once or twice and gave him a strange look, but never said anything about it.
Now that he thought back on it, Midoriya was probably trying to figure out who it was before the actual traitor could make another move. And knowing him, it was likely that that was what he was always writing in those books about (a theory proven when Nedzu emailed him translated sections of the book he'd confiscated). What Nedzu saw... could have completely exonerated him. It could have stopped everything right there, it could have opened up further questions about Vlad's involvement, even - not that he liked to think the respected hero and his own colleague could be in cahoots with the League.
But he did nothing. He said nothing, and Midoriya was left shaken and traumatized in the wake of the interrogation. Nedzu popped in to apologize for the mix-up and asked that he keep quiet about it, lest word get out (and heaven knows that they didn't want to give whoever it was any more ammo to use against them), and the utter defeat and emptiness in Midoriya's voice, the complete lack of warmth and respect in his face, made Aizawa's heart clench. Of course his problem child was innocent. Of course he just happened to be a danger magnet.
Try as he might to properly apologize, though, for the rest of that evening Midoriya spent every moment isolated in his room. What he was doing, Aizawa hadn't a clue, and the other students weren't keen on telling him. Todoroki actually glared at him at one point, the frosty look so reminiscent on how he used to be before the sports festival, and at that point he retired to his apartment for a cup of coffee and a deeper dig into Nedzu's findings. Nedzu had taken the time to completely translate all of Midoriya's shorthand and had given him the booklet in secret, and now that he had read through it, the entries were completely fascinating, if not slightly unnerving in their detail.
The latest notebook that he'd been working on, Number Fourteen, as it said on the cover, had been completely dedicated to his peers and teachers. When he saw himself on one of the pages, he was blown away by the level of detail that Midoriya had given him, from his height, weight, and outward details to notes about how his quirk might work in varying ways, ways to disarm him if need be, and even how he could improve on it. In all of his years of being a hero, he'd never seen a student go through this much trouble to document all of it - and needless to say he was greatly impressed. The amount of possible ways to defeat him in a fight made a chill go down his spine (particularly where it was written that one could just poke his eyes out), but this was Midoriya. He'd never seen another kid go through that much just to prove himself in such a short time, and the guilt settling in was immense.
Later that night he tried again to see Midoriya, but he was turned away with a quiet "I need some time to be alone for now" and a promise that they'd likely talk about it some other time. The sinking feeling in his gut had told him to keep pressuring, to keep trying, but he accepted it and headed off to bed... and the pounding at his door hours later made the feeling come back full-force.
It was Uraraka at his door, her face tear-soaked and panicked, and as she told him that Midoriya had vanished, his mind was immediately alert as he pulled on his capture weapon and goggles, following her to the boy's room as she talked a mile a minute. Yaoyorozu was nearby, ready to receive the girl as a grim look spread across her face. She told him that she and Uraraka couldn't sleep and decided to try and talk with him, but when they didn't hear anything behind the door and went in, he'd seemingly vanished. His bed was still made, but his notebooks (there he felt even more guilt) were gone and so was he. Upon trying to get into contact with Yagi, the man's phone went straight to voicemail, even more concerning. What was going on?
That next morning, a search party went out. With All For One at large, having even one student out by themselves was dangerous, and the last thing they wanted was for someone to get hurt because of their relation to the school. But try as they might for the first month of searching, they just couldn't find the boy. Stranger still was his mother, Inko, vanishing overnight as well - Aizawa feared that All For One had gotten to them first, and every night he searched until he nearly fainted for the boy and his mother.
And now, two months later, where he was struggling to keep upright with his blood loss. Ever since All For One's breakout and Midoriya's disappearance, the villains (and especially the League) had been ramping up their activity in droves. Every single day the pros were called to help out with one of the League being sighted around villain activity, and the stress was beginning to get to even him. Kan seemed especially busy, called out just about every day. He never came back with a smile, always hunched and in a sour mood. It didn't make him feel any better about any of this, especially when he looked at him with a strange glint in his eye, something that made unease churn in his belly.
Yuuei had ramped up security tenfold ever since the disappearance too. While his students stubbornly insisted that Midoriya was alive and that he would return, he was beginning to lose hope. It had been two months since, and neither hide nor hair had been found of him or his family. His father couldn't even be contacted overseas; the number listed had been found to be out of service weeks ago, and without Inko they had very little to find him with.
Even the students tried to help out with the league; even though they were still interning, most of their days with their mentors were spent cleaning up the messes left in the wake of a villain attack. Todoroki had been adamant in helping too; he seemed to have gained a personal vendetta against a certain flame villain that would not quit, and he wouldn't explain why, only mentioning that "Midoriya-kun would understand."
Aizawa wheezed as his knees buckled, and he collapsed against the side of a building. His latest tango with one of the League had left him with nasty gashes all across his torso, and the deep one in his side was particularly troublesome. If he didn't get help soon, he would die.
Just as his eyes closed, he heard a familiar voice. "Eraserhead? Is that you, Eraserhead?"
Soft, warm hands held up his chin, and he tried to open his eyes enough to see who it was. "... hwa...?"
All he could see was green all around him, worried viridian eyes scanning his face. "Don't worry, I'll get you to safety."
He blacked out just as a deeper voice began talking, the timbre resonating in his head like waves crashing on a shore before retreating like a tide.
When he next came to, he was lying on something soft and pleasant, and his injuries were only a dull throbbing across his body.
He groaned quietly, cracking his heavy lids open, and his sight was full of brightness so intense that he had to close them again.
He could hear a television on in the background and dishes clacking together, so wherever he was, there had to be civilians about. But who had found him? And why were they so familiar?
Before he could think any deeper on it, he heard a door opening and he heard a soft, feminine voice, the same one from before. "Aizawa-san, are you awake?"
He could only nod.
A brief sigh of relief. "That's good, I had been hoping that I hadn't gotten to you too late. You're lucky you passed out where you had when you had; I'd almost missed you."
He could say nothing, only hear as she stepped closer. Something scraped against the floor and then her soft hands were running across his arm.
"I don't know if you recognize my voice," she continued with a soft, mirthful chuckle, "but I'm sure you would if you opened your eyes. For now, though, I'll just say that we weren't that close before, but I entrusted someone very special into your care."
What? Who?
She sighed again, this time sounding more solemn. "You failed him there, I'm afraid - Yuuei broke him with their callous actions. I'm just lucky my husband found him when he did before something more awful happened. Had it not been for Hisashi and Yagi-san, I fear he might have figured that he had no other place to go."
Yuuei... wait-
He tried to open his eyes again, and when the brightness filled his vision again he kept going. The green swam in his eyes again, but as he blinked, she came more into focus, and before him the long-lost Inko Midoriya sat, her face full of disappointment.
She tried to smile at him. "For what it's worth, I must thank you for trying to hard to find my son, Aizawa-san... even if we didn't want to be found."
His brain short-circuited for a moment, and when he opened his mouth to speak, only a breathy noise escaped.
Inko gave him a half-smile this time, patting his arm. "I'm afraid I had to leave your phone behind with a few of my husband's... colleagues, shall we say, earlier. You can have it back once you're healed and can leave. As much as my son and Yagi respect you, our family doesn't want our location leaked."
"... why?" He finally spoke, in complete disbelief as she stood from the chair again. She'd thinned considerably since he'd last seen her months ago - and her eyes were heavy with an emotion he couldn't quite name.
"If Yuuei knew where we were, there's no doubt they'd overreact with the news of what we've been doing for the past two months," she replied, her voice low and resigned, "and the last thing I want is for my family to be torn apart again because of heroes barging in where they aren't needed. You can call me a villain all you like for consorting with the man behind it, but you have a little girl you cherish like a daughter; surely you'd understand my fears firsthand as a parent."
His heart clenched painfully when he was reminded of Eri. She would be worried sick for him at this point in time, even if Mirio was with her.
"My son..." she hesitated before looking back at him, "... my son has forgiven you, you know."
He could only stare.
"You don't deserve it, but he has," she continued, her voice raising somewhat. "He never even thought twice about telling us how capable you were as a teacher and as a hero, even if my husband and I had some choice words about that whole mess. That boy would come back from the dead to pardon his murderer if he had the choice, I swear. Even with Katsuki... he was always so stubborn about being able to save everyone, even those society would call irredeemable."
She chuckled wetly, and her thumb came up to wipe at her eye. "I guess I should be lucky he has such a good and honest heart, but... if I'm to be honest, sometimes it's more of a curse than a blessing, especially when that heart gets him hurt."
Shirakumo came to mind with the faraway tone to her voice and his heart clenched again, even more painfully this time due to the unspoken explanation she was giving him. If... if he's here...
Interrupting his thoughts, she shook her head. "Well, I can't dwell on the past. You must be hungry; Izuku always used to talk about how you would never eat quite enough." She gave him a scolding look and wagged her finger. "You can't rely solely on those jelly packets, you know - they aren't proper nutrition, and I am not going to have a malnourished hero in my house!"
He was reminded of Kayama with that motherly gesture, and he bowed his head in something like shame and his cheeks pinkened. "... of course, ma'am."
"Good. Dinner will be ready soon, so I'll bring you in a tray." Then she smiled, turning to walk back to the door. She paused at the knob, turning back with an apologetic look. "I apologize if it gets too loud out here... tonight is game night, and my husband's colleagues always show up to blow off some steam. I've told them to keep it down, but I can't promise they'll honor that on their own."
He nodded, and with one last smile she left the room, the door closing quietly behind herself.
Shouta Aizawa rested further against the soft pillows that he already reclined against, eyes drawn to the ceiling of this plain, barebones guest room - and when he heard excited shouting from the living room, he closed his eyes, the pain throbbing in his wounds again at the thoughts swimming in his head.
A/N: Chapters will be coming out every Sun, Wed, and Sat!
Please tell me what you thought!