A/N: Hey all! I am restructuring the length of chapters and updates to be shorter chapters (25K to 35K words) with uploads more often. Please let me know if you like this format better.

In this chapter you will get to hear about Katori's father's past. Aizawa will be telling her the story, but the audience will be able to see the story from her father's perspective. His scenes will be italicized and follow the next few chapters.

Please let me know what you think. I thought it was fun writing in his POV and I'd like to know how you all feel about him as a character. Enjoy and don't forget to review!

Chapter 12: The Beginning

Katori watches Aizawa as his eyes focus on the wall just behind her left shoulder. The campus has been quiet since the internships began, and there is hardly anyone on campus. She is unsure what he has in store for her on their first day, but she is eager to learn from him, since he is from her mother's side and a Quirk that she does not have much information on since her father never really focused on that part of her.

"Do you know what today is?" he asks her, bloodshot eyes still focused on the wall behind her. She shrugs at him and he lets out a built-up sigh. "It's your mother's birthday," he tells her and she stiffens at the knowledge, having never known her mother's birthday since her father made it clear to her from a young age to not bring her up.

"Oh," she releases, feeling guilt building in her chest for not knowing the simplest of information about her mother.

"I found this," he tells her, finally looking at her as he pulls a picture from his pocket and hands it to her.

She takes the photo from his hands and looks onto it and her eyes widen at the image that stares back at her. There are three people in the photo, with a young Aizawa standing to the farthest right. His eyes are lidded as they are now while they focus on the person next to him. His shoulders slump forward as he is awkwardly pressed into a hug with the others in the photo. Katori's eyes focus on the small smile on his lips, painting that despite his body language being stiff, he seems happy in the moment the photo was taken.

In the middle is her mother. She has only seen a few photos of her, but she recognizes her as her mother because of how much she looks like Katori. Her eyes are closed in crescent shapes as she smiles widely at the camera. Her arms are crushed in front of her from the tight hug as she clutches onto a small present in her hands. Strands of her long black hair fall in front of her face, but her ear-to-ear smile and large white teeth are still on full display.

Lastly, to the left is her father. She is struck by the image of him, having never seen him like this. His right arm is in his pocket while his left arm is around the two Aizawa siblings, crushing them in the photo as his hand lands on the shoulder of Mr. Aizawa to pull him closer. He is leaning against her mother with his cheek resting on her head. A lopsided smirk paints his face as his purple eyes are the only ones that look at the camera. His straight hair is shorter than it is now, brushing in front of his face against his brows instead of past his shoulders as it is now, and she can't help be see the similarities between his hair and Todoroki's.

He looks happy. Genuinely happy. They all do.

Katori tenses her jaw at the picture, pulling her eyes from it and looking up to Mr. Aizawa, seeing the stark contrast between his happier younger self, and the rugged man that stands before her. "That was taken on your mother's sixteenth birthday," he tells her with a flat tone. "A week before he dropped out of his final semester of UA."

She looks back down at the photo, unable to shake just how happy her father looks in this moment. "What were they like?" she asks him, eyes pulling from their smiles to Aizawa's frown. "My parents, what were they like?"

He shoves his hands in his pockets, turning from her to the large windows that look out at the courtyard. "Your mother was very sweet," he begins, eyes transfixed outside as he is unable to look at the girl who looks so much like her. "She made friends so effortlessly with people," he says shaking his head at the differences between the two of them. "She was everyone's best friend. And she was always willing to help people, never saying no."

"And my father?" she says with a dry mouth.

He tenses ever so slightly that she hardly notices. "He was very energetic; a class clown. He never took his studies very seriously, since he was more concerned with supporting his teammates and having fun," he tells her and her brows lift at the knowledge, not pinning her father as the type at all. "He liked teasing those who took the courses too seriously; I never understood how he and Todoroki managed to be best friends."

"Todoroki?" she questions, "Endeavor?" she calls out and he nods once. She blinks at his response, thinking back at the look that Endeavor gave her when she ran into him at the sports festival. She always knew their relationship as a volatile one since her father bested him in a public battle, and sent him to the hospital to recover. Yet, here she learns they were once the best of friends.

"What happened to him?" she asks the pro as he is completely lost in his memories. "What made him a villain?"

Aizawa takes in a heavy breath, transfixed with the memories of the man and his downfall, knowing the exact moment Tatsuo began to turn, and Aizawa wonders if he were to step in, would things have played out differently?

"You're taking this too seriously, Enji," Tatsuo says with a lopsided grin on his face as the flaming boy enrages at his friend's cool demeanor.

"And you're not taking it seriously enough, Satsuma," Enji growls. "You cannot expect to be the Number One Hero if you are not taking this schooling seriously."

"You never want to be at the top of the Hero chain, Enji, otherwise you'll always be targeted by villains," he tells the man as he has many times before.

"The Number One Hero can handle anything thrown at him," he returns as he pushes his Quirk past its limit, sweating and overheating with staggered breaths.

"This Providence Burn seems like it's not worth all this work," Tatsuo grunts as he watches his friend weaken before him.

"Prominence Burn," he corrects him as he falls to a single knee. "It will be my greatest move," he tells him as the white-haired man leans back on the bench with his arms extended over the backrest while he spreads his legs out into a stretch, making himself comfortable before the flaming boy. "You seem to be comfortable. Are you not worried about the provisional licensing exam coming up? What signature moves have you come up with?"

"Not a lot of signature moves when you've got a Quirk like mine," he tells him lazily. "There's the old 'grab 'em by the neck' or the evasive 'slap 'em at the leg'," he jests with his flaming friend who finds no humor in his tone. "Or my favorite, 'touch 'em when they're not looking'."

Enji shakes his head at his friend's lack of drive, and wonders how he has made it this far at UA. "You've managed to extend your hold over Quirks from five minutes to ten minutes. Why don't you focus on that? Or push your body to hold more than one Quirk at a time?" he suggests, knowing that he would never stop with a Quirk like his.

Tatsuo shrugs disinterestedly. "Nah," he grunts and Enji rolls his eyes as he continues to push himself beyond his breaking point. Enji grunts as his body heats beyond a comfortable amount. Tatsuo looks onto his friend with concerned eyes. "You gotta take it easy, Enji. Quirks are physical, and you can easily over exert yourself to the point where your body breaks down. You can cause permanent damage to yourself if you press yourself too hard."

"If I didn't have this damned overheating issue, then I could mount the Number One Hero position without any problem."

"Find someone with an Ice Quirk to be your sidekick and follow you around to regulate your temperature," he responds sluggishly as he looks onto the sky, watching the birds fly above them.

"You cannot be the Number One Hero if you rely on another," he grunts at his white-haired friend.

Tatsuo hums at this, "Sounds like you need a Quirk Marriage," he responds glancing over at the red-haired man who returns with a confused hard-pressed glare. "You know, matching favorable Quirks to yours in the hopes of making a suitable offspring. If your problem's overheating, then your suitable mate for a Quirk Marriage would be someone with an Ice Quirk. That way any kids you have would hold both Quirks, and they could regulate their own temperature. Doesn't help much with you getting to Number One, but with a kid like that, they're destined to be Number One."

Enji turns away from him focusing on his form once more, "And what would be your suitable mate?" he asks his friend.

Tatsuo shrugs uninterested, shooting his head back to the sky. "Well, I need to touch the person to get their Quirk, which can sometimes be a pain in the ass. Know anybody that can take Quirks with the use of their eyes?"

"Sounds like Aizawa's Quirk," he tells Tatsuo, and the white-haired man glances over at him.

"Shouta?" he laughs, "He's a pretty guy, but he's not really my type," he says with a wide smile that Enji rolls his eyes at.

"His sister, you idiot," Enji deadpans. "She has a similar Quirk to his, only she drains others' Quirks instead of erasing them."

Tatsuo leans up at this, suddenly more interested in the conversation. "Drains them? Like until they're Quirkless? How have I not heard of her?"

Enji shrugs his shoulders, turning from him to practice his stance as he is suddenly no longer interested in the conversation, "Not sure, she's a first year in General Studies."

After their conversation Tatsuo spent the week following the younger of the Aizawa siblings, watching her every move and keeping an eye on her from afar. Since she is enrolled in General Studies, she does not have many opportunities to use her Quirk, so he has not seen it firsthand.

For an entire week, the only thing on Tatsuo's mind is Akari Aizawa. He thinks about her long black hair, her large grey eyes, her button nose and the way it winkles when she giggles with her friends. He can't focus on his studies, and though he has never been one to focus in the first place, all he thinks about is her.

He decides he will make his move today. It has been a week of following her around, and he knows he will not get her out of his mind until he makes his move.

Tatsuo approaches the table, hands dug deeply in his pockets so to approach her with a cool looking demeanor, and not show her that he's shaking. He smiles down at the group of four girls who sit with one another, shrieking about their exams.

"Akari Aizawa?" he asks her, looking down at the black-haired girl who looks up at him with shining eyes. "Tatsuo Satsuma," he smiles down at her. "I am in class 3A with your brother, Shouta."

"Hi," she smiles up at him sheepishly as he grins back down at her.

"Mind if I join you?" he asks with a slant of his head.

She opens her mouth, prepared to say yes, when her pink-haired friend speaks over her, "We don't really have room," she says in a snide tone as Tatsuo's eyes glance down to the clear empty spaces on the bench they sit on. Akari glares at her pink-haired friend who sends her a stern glare.

"That didn't seem very nice," Akari whispers, looking down at her plate of untouched food.

"Do you have any idea who that is?" the pink-haired girl grunts at her in a hushed voice that Tatsuo can still hear. "He's that loser that's flunking out of the hero class in 3A."

Akari looks up at Tatsuo with an apologetic look, knowing that he heard her harsh words. She tries to apologize for her friend, but the words get trapped in her throat, and she is unable to say a word to him.

"Right, of course," he smiles at her with a lopsided grin. "Maybe another time," he says walking away from the girls.

He takes his seat next to Enji who slurps at his soba and some others from Class 3A who do not see the exchange. Tatsuo shoves his chin in the palm of his hand as he tunes out the conversations of his classmates.

"Tatsuo?" his ears perk up and he glances over to see Akari standing before him with her hands wringing together nervously. He looks at her quizzically as she smiles down at him, trying to formulate her words. "Every Thursday I go to the Ramen Palace just down the street from campus right after class," she tells him, not outright telling him she would like him to join. He blinks at her and she nervously bows to him before scurrying off to return to her friends.

He watches as the girls lean in, some of them giggling, while the pink-haired girl looks annoyed. Tatsuo looks away from them when he meets the turquoise eyes of Enji's hard stare. Enji shakes his head at his friend, chuckling at how he managed to snag a date with the young girl, if he can even call it that, but Tatsuo smiles to himself, eagerly awaiting Thursday night.

The week could not drag on any slower, and Tatsuo cannot help but think about the end of the day. Each day leading up to this one, he has walked passed the Ramen Palace to ensure he knows the path to take after class. He can't be late on his first date with the girl. He finds himself getting giddy at the idea as she sheds the cool demeanor that he's adopted.

After class, he practically flies out of his chair to the small hole-in-the-wall restaurant. He runs in a full sprint to the place to get a seat for them. The restaurant is small and not the cleanest of places, and he frowns as he snags a wobbling table to sit at, but there are no other free tables as the eating area is full of patrons. He would have rather taken her to a nicer place on their first date, but if this is her favorite place, it will be his as well.

He waits nervously for her to arrive, and a part of him wonders if this is some trick, and she will never arrive. Or worse, she will arrive with her friends to snicker at his foolish desperation. He grows hot at the idea as he tightens his fists on the table, ready to leave and not waste anymore of his time.

He moves to get up when someone grabs the chair across from him, and his body relaxes when he sees her shimmering gray eyes. "Sorry I am late, our class went over," she tells him with a wide smile.

Tatsuo melts at her smile and finds himself matching her grin. He asks her what she likes here and she gives him a few options, but he ends up ordering the same as her. While they wait for their food, he asks about her and she begins to tell him everything, and to his surprise, he listens to everything she says. She tells him that she loves books, and she likes to travel, longing to visit America one day. She mentions her older brother, Shouta and how she looks up to him, stating that she never truly had a pro hero that she could admire with a defensive Quirk such as theirs, and hopes that he will become the greatest hero one day.

Once they receive their food, she continues to animatedly speak about her family and her hobbies, talking between bites while Tatsuo quietly listens with a soft smile on his face as he eats silently, loving the sound of her voice and the excitement in her tone as she tells him everything about her. He wonders if she is able to get a word in with her friends, and if that is why she speaks so much to him, and he can't help but feel sorry for her if that's the case. She is so passionate, and he loves seeing her like this.

Tatsuo pays for the check after she vehemently tries to pay for her own food, but he doesn't relent and takes care of the tab despite her adorable attempts at appearing intimidating. They continue to sit at the wobbling table as it teeters each time she lifts her hands to emote what she is rambling on about. Tatsuo can't help but smile at her, never seeing someone so passionate when they speak, and feels his chest lifting at her positive energy being a stark contrast to Enji's constant hotheadedness.

"Oh geez," she blushes madly, "I've been blabbering on this whole time, and you haven't said a word!" she finally realizes, shaking her head and slamming her hands down on the wobbling table with determination. "No more, it's your turn to speak. Tell me everything!" she nods eagerly.

Tatsuo smiles at her adorable determination, loving the way her nose and face winkles and scrunches with every emotion she is feeling. He opens his mouth to say something when they hear an explosive boom shaking the building, followed by the sound of distant shattering glass and wild cries from the streets.

Tatsuo jumps out of his seat, pushing the table away as he moves towards the windows of the establishment, looking out to see a building on fire in the distance. "What's going on?" Akari asks as she joins Tatsuo at the window with a few other patrons from the restaurant.

Tatsuo swallows hard as his jaw tenses at the sight. 'The building that's on fire… it can't be… it's so close…' he thinks to himself as his heart races. He needs to check for himself, but he can't leave Akari here during the commotion, but he also has to make sure it is not that building. "Stay here," he tells her, turning towards her with stern eyes. "I'll be back!" he promises her as his body moves before his mind can convince him to stay.

He runs against the crowds of people that panic as they flee from the scene. He persists through the crowds that will him away from the explosion. Eventually, he reaches a police barricade that wraps around the burning building. His heart sinks into the deepest pits of his stomach, pushing up the bile to his throat as absolute panic rages through his body. It is the building. His apartment building. His mother and father…

He ducks under the barricade, running towards the building engulfed in flames as he tries desperately to reach his home. "Hey kid, stay back!" an officer calls out to the white-haired boy, grabbing him by the shoulders and holding him from stepping forward.

"That's my building!" he calls out frantically, thrashing against the officer's hold on him. "My parents are in there!"

"We are evacuating the tenants as we speak," the man tells him in a stern tone. "Stay behind the barricade and we will reunite the families once we have everyone out."

'Once we have everyone out?' Tatsuo looks up at the enraging building, seeing the damage to it, knowing there is no way 'everyone' will get out. He pushes against the officer, and before he can make another move, the building begins to buckle and collapse under the weight of the destroyed beams.

Everyone begins to erupt in a panic and the officer releases Tatsuo in favor of fleeing the collapsing building. Tatsuo panics, feeling frozen and helpless to do anything with his useless Quirk. He watches with wide incredulous eyes as a colossal wave of debris smashes against him and bashes him to the ground, slamming his head into the pavement and knocking him unconscious.