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Chapter Thirteen: Small/Heart
"For today's hero basic training, it's turned into a class with three instructors, including All Might and myself."
Shouta sighed as twenty students stared back at him with varying degrees of dumb looks plastered on their faces, heads full from morning classes and bellies full from lunch. A hand shot up near the middle of the room— Hanta Sero, the first to snap from the post-lunch haze.
"Excuse me!" He said. "What'll we be doing?"
Shouta shoulders heaved with the force of his second sigh. He snatched up a paper from his podium, and revealed to the class a large white card that read 'RESCUE' across the front in large blue letters. "Disasters, shipwrecks, and everything in between," Shouta explained. "It's rescue training."
The class audibly reacted, already giddy despite the lack of information. Young voices overlapped each other like preschoolers at a pep rally, taking his slightest pause as an excuse to talk amongst themselves. To his dismay, he saw even Koharu perk up and start whispering to Fumikage Tokoyami.
"Hey," Shouta grunted. "I'm not done."
A gasp went through the class, the last noise marking their renewed silence. Eyes shot back to him with rapt attention, including the guilty gaze of his younger sister.
Assured that he had once again had the floor, Shouta continued, "You can decide if you want to wear your costume or not this time." He shuffled to procure a small remote that opened a series of lockers hidden in the classroom wall. They slid open one by one, revealing twenty marked cases containing the students' hero costumes.
Murmurs of excited chatter began to rise once more. Sensing that he would soon lose their attention to the shiny toys, Shouta quickly added a final, "The training will be taking place off-campus, so we're taking a bus. Start getting ready."
At least three chairs hit the floor as the class rushed to retrieve their costumes at once.
Such children, Shouta thought.
~o~
Shouta knew what people thought of him as a teacher: cold, aloof, and expulsion-happy. However, despite the pre-conceived notions of others, Shouta always took the time to thoroughly assess each and every one of his students. From the moment they were assigned to his class, he would comb through their test scores, their report cards, physical assessments, and proposed costume designs. He would watch surveillance footage from the entrance exams to see them at war, and from the waiting rooms to see them at peace. Knowing his students, even the ones he would expel immediately, allowed Shouta to make the most informed decisions possible.
Koharu Aizawa had seemed like an obvious exception. As her guardian, Shouta had been personally handed every report card from the time she was six-years-old, and he had overseen her hero training for nearly as long. He couldn't even remember the last time he had gone a day without talking to her. Therefore, why should he waste the time and energy looking into his sister when he already knew everything about her?
Standing in a high school parking lot with tears gathering in his eyes and an overwhelming urge to upend his lunch, Shouta understood why.
What the hell was she wearing?
Looking at Koharu was like looking into a clown mirror. The capture device, wound over her wrists and atop her shoulders, was his. The black of her clothes, slim and lined with utility pockets, was his. Even her hair, wild and purple and untamed no matter how many times he hypocritically told her to tie it up when in costume, was his.
Shouta's breath wheezed out of him, and he scrambled to chase away his overwhelming nausea. But try as he may, the twisting of his stomach continued, Shouta unable to fool himself out of feeling anything other than oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.
Frankly, he should have expected Koharu's choice and prepared for the day he'd be confronted with it. He had at least a decade's worth of crayon drawings and silly sketches of Pro-Hero Koharu tucked into a shoebox under his bed, all a horrible mimicry of Eraserhead with some bright colour thrown in to make it her own. He had lost count of just how many times he had caught her donning his costume, grubby hands covered by too-long sleeves and goggles bigger than her head hanging around her neck. Back then, he had thought it was cute.
Now, the sight of Koharu walking towards him, dressed so much like him and standing so proudly, was by far one of the most terrifying sights he had ever beheld.
Stay small for just a little while longer, he wanted to shout. This is so much worse than I could have imagined. I can't protect you like this. I'm going to lose you too.
Feeling his gaze, Koharu looked in his direction. When she smiled, he still saw that toothy grin from his graduation when she proclaimed she'd be his boss one day. It had been hard to imagine then, with her settled against his hip and a plastic tiara atop her head, but it was much harder now. He had raised that little brat, unwillingly or not. He had seen her grow from a scared girl to a powerful woman, and he knew what she was capable of. He knew there was no stopping her, no matter how desperately he wanted to in that moment.
Still grinning at him— that gummy smile, that toothy grin, the guilty one after she's stolen a cookie and the watery one when he comes home safe— Koharu reached up to fiddle with the pink goggles atop her head. She snapped them pointedly at him as she pulled a goofy face, her small nose scrunched and her eyes twisted. She smiled at him again before she joined her new friends, turning her back to make a comment to an enthralled Ochako Uraraka.
Shouta was seconds away from either throwing up or crying, neither of which was remotely acceptable. An unbearable fondness tugged at his eyes, love and fear mixed with memories, and sometimes she was just so much like—
"Let's hurry this up," Shouta snapped to the class at large, his voice level and betraying no hint of his inner turmoil as he stamped those feelings down hard to be processed fucking never, thanks.
He filed onto the bus without another look back, marching to the sound of Tenya Iida as he took over instructing his classmates onto the bus. His students joined him swiftly, their excitement granting them speed as they passed him by with delighted cheers at the interior of the vehicle. Shouta pointedly closed his eyes before Koharu boarded the bus, and remained standing as the last of the class boarded. They filled the seats behind him, no less boisterous as he would expect from them as Iida conducted a headcount.
With twenty students aboard, the doors slid shut and the bus lurched forward. The trip would be short, and Shouta would be glad to concentrate on standing through the sway of the bus rather than further contemplating his gross parental feelings. His students prattled on at his back, the excitement in the air palpable the closer they drew to their destination.
Koharu's voice stuck out from the rest, just like it always did for Shouta. One of his only comforts before sleep was the sound of his little sister walking, talking, breathing, alive, puttering through their apartment as Shouta pretended to rest. He had spent too many years listening through the walls of their apartment, assuring himself that she was safe and happy, to simply turn off his attention now. Shouta tried not to listen as she bantered with Eijirou Kirishima, and pointedly heard nothing of the praise they dolled out to Izuku Midoriya, the same boy he had been forced to scold over and over already. Soon enough, her voice blended into the cacophony of her classmates until he could hear her no longer.
It wasn't the relief that Shouta expected, losing her voice to the crowd. He felt his stomach churn again as he gripped tightly to the nearest safety bar. He thought he had gotten over this. Blessedly, his eyes soon landed on the steadily growing dome of the Unforeseen Simulation Joint.
With a short look over his shoulder, Shouta's voice pierced through the clamour of his class. "We're here. Stop messing around," he scolded.
The murmurs began again, half the class pressing their faces up against the windows to get a better view of their destination. A cheer rippled through the class as Mina Ashido spotted the building first and began excitedly smacking her palm against the window.
They're worse than children, he thought. They're toddlers.
Thirteen greeted the class as they stepped off the bus, their arms sweeping above their head in an eager greeting. "Everyone, I've been waiting for you!" said the Pro-Hero as they waddled their way towards them in a large space-suit. "Let's go inside without delay."
"Looking forward to working with you!" chimed the class as they followed their newest teacher into the building with their usual jabbering.
Having been designed to formulate a multitude of possible rescue-scenarios, Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or U.S.J., was a spectacularly large building with enormous disaster features. It hosted six separate disaster zones: ruins, landslide, mountain, fire, flood, and downpour. The entirety of the park was encased in large metal walls topped with an vast glass dome that flooded the park with sunlight.
Yes, U.S.J. was quite the sight— but what Shouta didn't see was the third instructor.
As Thirteen wowed the students with their description of the park, Shouta slowly approached the teacher's side. "Thirteen, where's All Might?" He asked during a break in the introduction, halting Thirteen's dramatics. "He was supposed to meet us here."
"About that," said Thirteen as they stepped closer into Shouta's space to speak low. "It looks like he did too much hero work on his way to work and ran out of time, so he's resting in the lounge," they explained with three fingers held up, referencing All Might's current time-restraints.
Shouta fought back a roll of his eyes, wanting to remain professional in front of his coworker. However, he couldn't resist a small jab of, "That's the height of irrationality."
Well, we took precautions just in case… Shouta thought with a glance behind him to his students. He couldn't help but wonder how often All Might would end up saddling more work onto the other teachers' backs. He rolled his shoulders with a put-upon sigh.
"Well, it can't be helped," he said. "Shall we begin?"
"Ehh…" started Thirteen, stammering as the spotlight was suddenly thrust back onto them. Shouta moved off to the side as Thirteen continued, "Let's see… uh, before we begin, let me say one thing— er, or two, maybe three… or four… five, six—"
Shouta's attention slid to Koharu as Thirteen postured heroically for the class, taking in the brightness of Koharu's eyes as she listened to the Pro-Hero. How much longer would she look like that, now that she was joining the world of Heroes? How much longer would it be before she stopped looking at them with such admiration— before she stopped looking at him like that?
"You're so cool, Thirteen!" Koharu suddenly shouted, her words lost to the crowd of her classmates' similar shouts as Thirteen finished their speech.
"That was wonderful!"
"Bravo! Bravo!"
Shouta heaved a sigh, reminded that he needed to stop being weird about his pseudo-daughter and get back to work. "Alright, first thing's first—"
A crackle of electricity coursed above. The lights burst in quick succession above them, dimming the room to natural light. In the centre of the room, the water fountain's stream began to stutter.
And hovering in the middle of the room, an inky black portal appeared.
The air was sucker-punched from Shouta's lungs, his thoughts rapid fire. Why here? Why now? But most importantly—
Fuck.
Fuck, oh fuck, oh fucking fuck!
"Gather together and don't move!" He commanded over his shoulder to the class, his eyes fixed forwards to the spreading portal. He couldn't look back at his class. Not knowing who was behind him. "Thirteen, protect the students!"
Bodies began to pour from the portal, lumbering out in staggering numbers.
One of the voices of his students sounded; Eijirou Kirishima stood near the front of the pack, squinting downwards to the growing catastrophe. "What's going on? Is this like the entrance exam where the lesson's already started?" He began to step forward, angling for a better look.
"Don't move!" Shouta barked, halting the teen in his place. "Those are villains."
The class fell into a shocked silence as they struggled to react. Meanwhile, Shouta's hands were already on his goggles. He pulled them up from his neck and over his eyes, the band snapping comfortably into place. Matter over mind, his body had made the decision to fight. After all, there was no one else to save them— All Might was out of commission, and they had to assume that the villains had a means of disabling the sensors that would call for aid.
"Thirteen, start evacuating the students," instructed Shouta as he stepped towards the edge of the staircase leading to the approaching villains. "Try calling the school. They anticipated the sensors, so it's possible someone with a radio-wave type Quirk is interfering." Shouta paused, remembering the Quirk of one of his students. "Kaminari," he called. "You try contacting the school as well."
The boy gave a serious nod, his hand already over the amplifier that covered his ear. "Yes, sir!"
"What about you, sir?" Midoriya burst. "Are you planning to fight them all by yourself? With that many, even if you can erase their Quirks…" he trailed off for a moment, before forcefully continuing, "Eraserhead's fighting style is capturing after erasing the enemy's Quirk. A frontal battle is…"
"Eraserhead can do it."
His chest swelled, and Shouta chanced a glance behind him. It had been Koharu that spoke up from her place next to Kirishima, her eyes shining with unshed tears and hands curled into fists at her side. Shouta's eyes swept across the group, taking stock of the frightened expressions of his students and the way they stood tall with their shoulders squared regardless, brave in the face of danger. They had no idea of what was coming for them— but wasn't that why he was there?
"You can't be a hero with just one trick," Shouta said, far gentler than he meant to. As he activated his Quirk, he saw the breath catch in Koharu's throat. Her hands stuttered to reach for him, and Shouta risked it all to catch her eye once more.
She gave him a watery smile, and Eraserhead leapt into battle.
chapter end
This chapter's working title: Shouta has Feelings and is Fucking Tired of it.
Actual title: if you google Koharu's name, you'll see that Koharu means "Small/Heart; Spring/Summer". I chose it specifically because the same search for Shouta yields "Soaring, Big".
To M: welcome back my love, and thank you! I'm so glad that you've been finding Koharu funny in your reviews. I don't know how funny I am by myself, but humor is one of Koharu's core pillars so I'm really glad that that's coming through.
Otakugirl1996 & oLainao: I'm glad to see you keeping up with this story, and thank you for your reviews! I promise that all voters will be revealed in due time… :)