Crossposted on Ao3 under the same account name
Shouta Aizawa, known to a select few as the Underground Hero Eraserhead, knelt on a rooftop, silently watching over a small part of the city of Musutafu. He was... bored.
There was no other way to say it - he simply had nothing to do. And it wasn't like that was a bad thing. Nothing to do meant there was no crime going on, after all. And yet, still... his body twitched with impatience. He somewhat felt like the class of dunderheads that he had to teach this year - true, they had gotten better after he expelled them and Nedzu waited a few days before reinstating them... but they were still mostly the same. There was simply no way around it. At least there were no problem children this year. Just another batch of kids who would go on, become heroes, become sidekicks and get lucky if they broke the Top 100. There was no drive, no motivation. Nothing except money and glory. It made the raven-haired man want to scoff.
'If all you want is money and glory, you might as well be a pirate.' He thought of the pre-Quirk tales. It was... pitiful, to say the least. He would do his best to whip them into shape, hopefully make at least one or two decent hero students out of the twenty, but he wasn't holding his breath.
From behind him, something ruffled. Within an instant, he was on his feet, Quirk flaring as his Capture Weapon spun around him, facing down a fearsome... cat. A black cat, which simply stared at him in indifference as he sighed. 'Still nothing...' He wished for a moment that he had his sleeping bag. He had tried to bring it, but Hizashi had adamantly protested, claiming it needed to be washed. Which it did, but another night would hardly make a difference. Shouta sat back down, running his fingers along the cat, who quickly welcomed the attention, brushing into it. He breathed in deeply, smelling the damp scent of the city's nighttime. Maybe tonight would be qui-
A flash lit up an alleyway about half a mile away from Shouta. Quickly untangling himself from the animal, who was in no part pleased, he dashed across rooftops. Based on the flash, there was probably some Quirk-based violence going on - a mugging, perhaps. It couldn't have taken him more than two minutes to make it over, but it seemed to mostly be over by the time he got there. There was a small, sobbing woman trying to cover herself with the remnants of a ripped sweater as she crouched near the entrance to the alleyway, while deeper in, there were two more people near the end.
Continuing his observation, Eraserhead remained in stealth for the time being. Subconsciously, he analyzed the girl standing in the middle to most likely be a hero or a vigilante. Considering he didn't recognize her, he was leaning towards the latter. There was a pitiful excuse for a man cowering near the end of the alley, shaking with a mixture of terror and anger, a few minute cuts covering his body, as well as a few bruises.
With a small amount of annoyance, the teacher noted that the vigilante had done a better job at handling the situation than any of his current students would have - prioritizing the victim and making sure they were safe before going in for the fight. Voices rose towards him.
"You don't deserve that Quirk, you know." The girl spoke loudly and clearly, slowly moving towards the man, clearly attempting to intimidate him, which seemed to be working.
"S-Stay away, you wench! She was asking for it!" The man cried out, his words slurring slightly. Drunk, then. His hands lit up green, which had been the color Aizawa had seen before. 'Illegal Unauthorized Quirk Usage,' he noted. He could've stepped in at this point, but a slightly guilty part of him admitted that he wanted to see how the vigilante would finish the task - Underground Heroes often worked with vigilantes, so this might be a useful connection to have... if she was able to keep her wits about her.
The girl hardly hesitated with the words. Instead, she reached out a full arm, as if offering the man salvation... and then yanked it back, causing the man to fly towards her. She didn't seem to be armed with any lethal weapons, instead only having some sort of staff, which she held out and let the man get thrown into it, knocking him out. Within seconds, his hands were zip-tied behind his back. Eraserhead nodded in approval. Despite what the movies said, unconsciousness usually lasted less than a few minutes, often only seconds. Anything more than that would often be a sure sign of brain damage.
With more muscle than she appeared to have, the vigilante dragged the man to the mouth of the alley, depositing him with a note before turning to the still-crying girl on the ground. "Hey, hey, it's alright now, it's alright." She placated, trying to calm the girl down, who quickly was reduced to sniffles. The vigilante shrugged off the hoodie that formed the upper part of her costume and wrapped it around the downed girl, helping her to her feet. "Let me take you home."
As the two walked in mostly silence, only the occasional sniffle to break it as well as directions, Eraserhead followed from the rooftops... after sending a silent alert to police of the location for pickup.
"Good job."
Izumi Midoriya squeaked in surprise, only her well-tested instincts allowing her to spin around with her staff fully extended even as she was caught unaware. It appeared she wasn't in any danger though - considering the man had made himself known, he probably wasn't going to try and attack her. And if he was egotistical enough to try and attack her face-to-face instead of sneak attacking... well, he'd have another thing coming.
The man grinned wryly as he made his way to the ground. He moved with a fluid grace that Izumi knew only came with experience. Lots of it. So most likely, she was dealing with either a Pro Hero, another vigilante, or a villain. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. The man took note of the staff and only nodded.
"I only want to talk," he said, his voice sounding scratchy and tired. "You a new vigilante on the scene, kid? You should be in school, not fighting criminals."
Izumi flushed slightly with a mixture of embarrassment and indignation. "I'm not... in school at the moment. But what's it to you?" The man looked familiar, that was for sure. Probably not a villain, then. Hopefully. She was acting meaner than she wanted to, but in her defense, some random guy had apparently been following her around in the middle of the night for a decent period of time and she hadn't noticed.
'Hm.' Aizawa thought. 'Not in school... based on the stiffening of her posture, probably hasn't been for a while. That means...' He mentally sighed. 'Another problem child.' He should've known his luck would never last. He noticed the girl's peculiar emerald eyes shining brightly as they analyzed him, or so it seemed.
"I'm an Underground Hero. Unlike most Pros, I prefer working with vigilantes instead of wasting time and resources trying to stop people who are trying to help." Like a lightbulb went off, the girl straightened up, the smile he had seen when she comforted the young woman earlier returning.
"I knew I recognized you from somewhere!' She whispered excitedly. "You're Eraserhead!" It was the Hero's turn to be surprised. Very few people recognized him - for good reason, seeing as how he tried to keep out of the spotlight. However, it didn't stop there. "I've tried to analyze your Quirk so many times, but it's so difficult because most of the knowledge comes from former villains. It's some kind of Quirk Erasure, right?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Probably sight-activated, which explains the goggles..." She started mumbling words that were too quiet for the Hero to hear, but he simply stared in a sort of bemused amazement at the teen in front of him. After a few moments, she cut herself off with a blush, stuttering, "S-Sorry! I just really like Quirks."
That seemed like a sort of understatement. However, the drastic personality change from before was... odd, to say the least. This was obviously more natural to the girl, the stiffness relieved from her tone and her body. Only Shouta's keen awareness as both a Hero and a teacher allowed him to pick up on it - it was subtle enough that most people would just write it off. Realizing the girl was now staring at him, most likely expecting a reprimand, he moved to speak.
"You did well tonight." The words were minimal, but high praise coming from the Underground Hero. It seemed that she either knew or it didn't matter to the girl, who flushed at the sentence. "However, it's late." He took a gamble. "Let me walk you home. Your parents are probably worried." It was a low-risk one, but... it could backfire.
The girl tensed up again and he inwardly cursed. "I can walk home by myself."
"I'd prefer it if you didn't. I know you're a bit injured, no matter how well you're trying to hide it." He actually hadn't seen anything, but most vigilantes carried some injury or other. Without access to Pro Healers or even regular hospitals like heroes did, most of their stuff was done at home. Still, he could tell he had hit something.
The girl bit her lip for a second as she thought. "What if I don't want you to know where I live?" Shouta flashed his hero badge, a small triumphant feeling welling up inside of him as he knew that he had been correct about the living situation.
"I'm a Hero. I'm here to help." The teen's resistance was breaking down. He decided to make the final push. "Here, how about you come back to my house tonight? I can bandage up your wounds professionally. If you feel uncomfortable, you're welcome to leave at any time. Deal?" Even if he didn't approve of problem children being idiots, he wasn't about to let a kid stay in some dumpster alone, injured, especially not when he could help.
The girl's shoulders fell, and she sighed as her final hesitations left her. "Al... Alright."
"So, what's your name, kid?"
The girl stayed silent for a few moments, before her head jumped up with a start as if she finally realized he was talking to her. "O-oh, sorry!" She apologized, blushing. "Izumi. Just Izumi." She wasn't an idiot. She knew the hero had deduced her home situation which was why he offered to take her home. She didn't even have to worry about being placed into the foster system - she was well aware nobody would take her anyway.
The hero didn't pause. "Alright, Izumi. There's another person at my house, but he's a Pro Hero as well. He won't hurt you, although he's a little... loud." He explained. Izumi nodded. Her mind raced with the possibilities - a friend? A roommate? A lover? Was Eraserhead gay? So many interesting questions, but she didn't dare voice them. They eventually made it to a small apartment complex that seemed to be higher-end, but not overly expensive.
"No climbing up the side of the building to get in?" Izumi tried to make a light joke to ease the tense mood that the Pro Hero carried around, but it was most likely part of the package, and not leaving any time soon.
"Not with that leg of yours," the hero replied. Izumi winced at the reminder. She had gotten stabbed in the thigh a few weeks ago, and even though she had bandaged it, it had still gotten infected and was taking a bit longer to heal. She didn't have access to hospitals or healers, either, so she had to make do.
They made it to one of the upper floors before entering a seemingly random room. "I'm home," the man called out rather flatly, most likely to the other person he had mentioned earlier.
Oh. He could've mentioned that it was Present Mic. Izumi flushed at the man's appearance out of his costume, his usually spiked hair resting around his neck as he embraced Shouta with a hug. He gave the girl a once over before nodding. "I didn't realize we were adopting!" Izumi flushed, but Eraserhead simply raised an eyebrow in mild amusement. "I went ahead and made food since I found all of your snack packets in the bag, so I know you're hungry." The dark-haired Pro rolled his eyes, but Izumi noticed the faintest tinge of a blush on his cheeks. Interesting.
"Welcome to our humble abode, Little Listener," Present Mic greeted.
Izumi stammered out a hello before launching into a full analysis of what she knew of the man's Quirk. "You're the Pro Hero, Present Mic! Your Quirk allows you to greatly affect the volume of your voice! I'm curious, does it allow you to change the pitch? The frequency? Could you go high enough to say, shatter glass? How about directionally?" The questions kept coming, throwing Hizashi off-balance.
"Woah, woah, woah, Little Listener, slow down!" The girl froze like a deer in headlights. "That's a lot of questions at once. How about you ask them over a warm meal?" It seemed the Pros' hospitality knew no bounds.
"Why are you doing this for me?" Izumi questioned as she laid on the couch, spread out as Eraserhead changed the shoddy wrappings of her legs for fresh bandages after cleaning the wound.
"I'm not about to leave a kid alone on the streets while they're injured," Eraserhead replied impassively.
Izumi scowled. "I've been on the streets for years and I've been just fine so far. This is far from my worst injury." She immediately clapped her hands over her mouth and flushed in embarrassment as she realized what she said, but it was too late to take it back at that point. The Pro Hero took it well, though.
"Yeah, fine," he scoffed. "You're just severely malnourished, don't have a home, and haven't been to school in years." The girl was silent for a moment.
"You don't know-"
"Yes I do." The Pro Hero cut the girl off, finishing the bandaging. He took a minute to examine her. There were a lot of scars there, some of them seemed to be years old. "How long have you been doing this, Problem Child?"
'Problem Child? ' Izumi scowled at the nickname. "A couple years."
"Is that how you got these scars?"
"Yeah." Eraserhead picked up on the lie immediately. He might not have been Tsukauchi, but he still knew how to read people.
Instead of calling her out on it, though, all he said was "Uh-huh."
By the time Eraserhead woke up the next morning, the Problem Child had already disappeared. He sighed, but hadn't expected anything different. If he was lucky, he'd run into her again, maybe even work with her.
The next time he saw her, it was two months later, and she was probably bleeding to death and didn't seem to care. She had shown up while he was in the middle of a raid on a Trigger manufacturing plant with multiple other heroes, pulling Death Arms out of the way of a barrage of quills that would've otherwise impaled him. She was bleeding from multiple places, including a massive wound across her stomach that was staining her dark green sweatshirt that he had seen her wearing the first time he had encountered her.
He was more focused on fighting a variety of goons and due to the nature of his Quirk he had to fight isolated and couldn't look away often, but when he did, what he saw confused him. While he was sure she had some sort of telekinetic Quirk, he also saw her with some form of... hydrokinesis? And while it could've been the same ability, it didn't quite line up.
It was a mostly successful raid with no casualties. He found her after the raid getting treated in an ambulance with a pair of Quirk-inhibiting handcuffs around her arms. She looked more annoyed than anything else. "Hey, Problem Child, how are you doing?"
"Eraserhead-san!" The girl lit up. "I'm doing alright, except for, ya know..." She gestured her shackled arms towards him.
Shouta raised an eyebrow. "What are you being arrested for?"
"Unauthorized Quirk Usage," a Police Officer intoned from behind the hero. "Only a misdemeanor, but she's still classified as a vigilante for the moment."
Shouta turned around, resisting the urge to groan. Just like the law to punish those who tried to help. "Unauthorized? You really think I would bring my intern on this assignment without authorizing her to use her Quirk?" He heard a cough from behind him, and very pointedly did not turn around.
"Your... intern?" The officer raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "I wasn't aware that you took interns. I don't remember seeing her on the list, either."
Again, the Underground Hero resisted the urge to groan in annoyance. "She's a new intern, hasn't been registered yet. She has potential, so I included her. Isn't that right, Izumi?" He turned around, startling the girl.
"I- wha- uhm-" She coughed a few times, sputtering a bit before raising a shackled hand to her head in a salute. "Yes sir, Eraserhead-senpai!" Oh, she was really laying it on thick. Aizawa clenched his teeth. The things he did for these Problem Children...
He slowly turned back around to the officer. "See? Everything's fine. She shouldn't be getting arrested like she's one of the criminals that she helped capture." He put emphasis on the end of the sentence, making sure the officer got the message. They stared at each other for a few seconds, neither backing down. Finally, the officer sighed.
"Whatever." He reached his arm out and his eyes glowed as he activated his Quirk, his forearm and hand disappearing as he reached into what seemed to be a small pocket realm, quickly grabbing a keycard that he then held to the cuffs on the pair of manacles, letting them fall away. They had evidently been far too tight, as the skin was pinched and red, making Izumi rub them for a bit of comfort as the officer returned the items to his pocket dimension.
Seemingly not being one to hold grudges though, the green-haired girl immediately started her line of questioning. "That Quirk's so cool!" She exclaimed. "How big is your pocket dimension? Can you only fit your arm in? What would happen if you put a living creature in there? What would happen if Ai-" She cut herself off. "-Eraserhead-senpai activated his Quirk on you while you were using it? Would you lose your arm, or would the dimension just disappear?" Eraserhead sighed and shook his head in the palm of his hand as the girl kept going. "Could someone else reach in too if you activated it? Does it take up physical space? Would you be able to use it if you couldn't move your arms?" The officer looked helplessly at Eraserhead, as if he could stop his 'intern' and her invasive questions.
Eraserhead rolled his eyes and looked at the girl, activating his Quirk and giving her enough of a shock to stop her questioning. The officer used it as a convenient reason to get away from the duo, Izumi glared at the Pro Hero for his action while he stared back impassively. "There, you made him go away. You can stop now."
"Yeah, I'm pretty good at that," she shot back, making Aizawa twinge slightly with guilt. "Anyway, your intern, seriously?"
"Kept you out of a cell for the night," he quipped. He offered a hand to the teen, who took it and let him lead her out of the ambulance, her wounds all bandaged but her outfit in ruins. "Besides, I wasn't actually entirely joking. It would be better than being a vigilante, wouldn't it? And as far as I can tell, you don't have any arrests yet, which wouldn't inhibit you."
Izumi scoffed. "You don't want to do that, trust me. I appreciate it and all, but I don't think I can..." She trailed off, and made a strange noise. "I don't think I can be a hero." Her voice was melancholic as she spoke the words.
"Why not?" Aizawa questioned. "What you did tonight, that was hero work. I saw you save Death Arms from dismemberment or even death. Why wouldn't you be able to be a hero?"
"You don't understand!" The green-haired girl suddenly burst. "I am... I have a villain's Quirk!"
Eraserhead sighed. "There's no such thing. Believe me. All I was told when I grew up was that I had a villain's Quirk. People tried to stay out of my line of sight because they thought I'd "take their Quirk"," he made air quotes to emphasize his point. "There's nothing more villainous to some people. But that didn't stop me."
Izumi was silent for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was low. "That's... That's for you. Not for me. Yours is temporary. I'm like... a thief. A cheat."
The Pro Hero turned around to face the girl, and he finally noticed that she seemed to be crying a small amount. "I've seen your Quirk. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
"No you haven't," she shook her head. "If you did... you wouldn't even want to be near me."
"Your telekinesis? I saw it."
But the teen shook her head again. "No, that's my mom's Quirk."
Eraserhead scoffed. "Even if it came from her-"
"No," Izumi cut him off. "That's my mom's Quirk." She emphasized.
Eraserhead was silent for a few seconds. "I... don't understand." Izumi buried her face into her sweatshirt, as if she was hiding from him.
"Whatever. Just... I can't be a hero. Don't waste-" She stopped for a second. "Just stop trying, alright? Thanks and all, but it won't work out. I promise."
Aizawa shook his head. "There's no such thing as 'can't' , Problem Child. I wasn't lying. I see potential in you. Something that a lot of kids don't have. Do you want to be a hero?" He asked.
"It doesn't matter." The words were muffled through the arms of the sweatshirt.
"That's not what I asked."
Izumi was silent for a few moments. "... yes. I want to help people. That's why I'm a vigilante."
Aizawa nodded. "I can help you get your license."
The teen sounded incredulous. "Why would you help some kid you barely even know? I could- I could be a psychopath or something."
"Are you a psychopath?" Shouta raised an eyebrow.
"Well, no, but-"
"Then everything sounds fine to me," he finished with a smirk. "Come on, Problem Child. At the very least, I can get you another meal. Same deal as last time."
She huffed petulantly. "You can't make me."
"Actually," Aizawa smiled, "I can." His Capture Scarf wrapped around the girl, who immediately started struggling. "I'm pretty sure I can find a restaurant open this late."
"... Screw you, Eraserhead-san."