Paths Of A Hero

Summary: Hero or Vigilante? What is the difference? It used to be black and white, a boundary so sharp cut that many have found themselves in pieces just for approaching it. So why is it blurring now, as Eraserhead tries to keep his head low while unwittingly gaining 20+ kids, at least three Pro Hero friends and seems to have caught the eye of All Might himself, all the while his past is persistently trying to catch up to him?

"You're not going to believe what I found," was Tsukauchi's greeting two days later when Toshinori picked up the phone.

The blond couldn't help but roll his eyes. "While, hello to you, too, Naomasa! How are you? Me? Oh, I'm just fine. Stuck with doing a mountain of paperwork all alone plus Sensoji-kun's stack, too, because I am a sucker who doesn't know to say no. What may be the purpose of your call?"

A snort answered him. "Very funny, Yagi. Now, do you want to hear what I found about our maybe-Eraserhead or not."

"We actually have one of those?" That was news to him. Hadn't their last 'lead' ended in a deader than dead deadend with the still missing and most probably deceased Aizawa Shouta? They'd certainly opened some not yet healed wounds on an old man's heart and it proved to be virtually for nothing. They'd only gotten some new information about the capture weapon, but even that wasn't much as Kronos wouldn't tell him how to make a knife that could apparently cut through the cloth.

"Shut up and listen."

"Rude."

Tsukauchi ignored him on that one. "You know how the name Aizawa seemed to ring a bell but I couldn't recall from where? And no, it's not the Sports Festival fifteen years ago."

"Yeeeees?"

"Well, listen to this: I ran the name Aizawa through the police files and do you know what I found? Or rather, who? Aizawa Ashou, better known as the cyber criminal Hal. You must have heard of him. He's one of the most notorious hackers in the world, indiscriminate in who he's stealing money from, national banks, business tycoons, charity foundations, mafioso or criminal organizations, it didn't matter to him."

Why yes, Toshinori did remember him quite well. He'd been caught while he was preparing to hack Might Tower and all the organizations connected with his agency. Apparently, a kid had seen some suspicious activity around Hal's place of residence and had reported it to the police. The police found nothing nefarious outside, so they'd broken in and the Heroes helping in the operation, as well as a few detectives, had recognized Hal from Wanted pictures. They found nothing else wrong in the area, so they'd written it off as a flavorless prank that actually resulted in a good bit of luck, but now Toshinori was questioning it.

He'd questioned it before, of course, because that was just too much luck, but he was certain now. Well, almost certain.

"Is he in any way related to Aizawa Shouta?"

"Not according to the records, no, but their last names are spelled exactly the same, Yagi,, down to the last character" Tsukauchi revealed. "And there have been rumors at some point that Hal's been seen around with a kid. No one knew for sure if it was a bot or a girl, but a child has definitely been in the picture. There were a couple of kiddie things found in his house. Well, if you can call a remodeled warehouse a house. And get this," the detective said and a few clicks could be heard from the other side of the screen. "Hal's been robbing people left and right for years. He should be filthy rich, Yagi, but his old bank account's been empty since before we could take any listings for evidence or, you know, return the money to the state or give it to charity. Not a single coin left."

"Did he transfer it so he can have money on a different account for when he gets out"

"Doubtful. It's been clear for years that he'll probably end up with a life sentence. He's simply piled up too many charges and he knew it."

"Did you confront him about it?"

"Yeah, that's the weirdest thing: when they interrogated him about the state of his account, the officer in charge said the man had laughed and had seemed delighted and proud."

The blond pursed his lips in thought. "So you think Aizawa Shouta, what? Reported his own father because he wanted to be a Hero? Live a normal life away from crime and villainy? Just kept himself out of the foster system through the money he'd, what, hacked from his master-hacker father? Like said father probably taught him? No offense, my friend, but it seems a bit far fetched and like we're grasping at straws. And what does this have to do with Eraserhead?"

"Toshinori, please follow me: Aizawa Shouta disappeared fifteen years ago. He was kidnapped and they never found him again, even though his kidnappers themselves were arrested two years later. By Eraserhead, might I add. Except Aizawa's shitty homeroom teacher - Kronos had bagged that guy despite the injuries he'd received on the night of the kidnapping. Now, Aizawa might have been just a kid, but he had managed to defeat an entire Hero Course at the Sports Festival, Yagi. He's not some helpless kid, a damsel in distress."

"You think he managed to save himself and then decided to live under a different identity instead of returning to his dream school and becoming a Hero like he'd obviously wanted?"

"Don't make it sound so insane, man," whined the detective.

"It does sound insane, though, Naomasa. Give me one good reason why a teenage boy who'd finally managed to get into the Hero Course - changing several stereotypes along the way, mind you, and setting a record that is as of yet unbeatable - would discard his one chance and just run off, to, what? Be a Vigilante when he'd had the opening to be the real deal?" It just sounded too unlikely to him. "And there's no record of him being overly savvy with computers either, Tsukauchi."

"As if any sane hacker would show off their skills in the middle of the best Hero school in Japan, All Might." Okay, he had a point there. But only there! "And think about it: he'd been kidnapped and the system had done nothing to protect, save or find him. He was at a delicate age. He could have decided it was simply not for him. Not after what he'd lived through. And maybe Aizawa Shouta isn't Eraserhead, but I strongly believe that the kid is at least still alive and out there!"

The tall blond bit his lip. "If you're going to investigate this, too, Tsukauchi, then please don't bring it before Kronos before you have any solid evidence. We don't want to break his heart if we're wrong."

"So you think my theory might have some truth in it, too," the policeman declared triumphantly and Yagi rolled his eyes.

"I hope it does, my man. Not the same thing. I, too, would like for a missing child to be found, even if that child is no longer a child. One less thing to keep certain people up at night." Yamada-kun. Nezu, probably. Kronos most definitely. Maybe even Recovery Girl! Heavens know that woman remembers every student she's ever treated in UA's shiny halls. "How would we even go about checking this?"

"Well, even the best hackers have to slip up sometime-"

"I thought Aizawa-kun had wanted to be a Hero," Toshinori interrupted, arching an eyebrow despite knowing there is no way for Naomasa to see him doing so. Instead, he did his best to project the gesture into his words, too. He took that moment to also look around the teachers lounge and to be grateful that he was still completely alone. He wouldn't want anyone, especially Present Mic, to walk in on this little conspiracy theory session going on. "I doubt he would go down Hal's footsteps, even if he lost all belief in the Hero system."

"He has to keep himself hidden somehow, Yagi," the police officer pointed out. "He has to have a bank account he can use, documentation that would allow him to get a drivers license, library cards, pay bills, buy things, maybe even a phone to use-"

Toshinori stopped listening to Naomasa at the mention of a phone. 'No, it can't possibly be ... But what if it is?' He looked down at the phone in his hand, his friend still going on and on about how the police usually tracked people and especially hackers, all of it little more than background noise to him right now. He was thinking about his first conversation with Eraserhead when the Vigilante had to take that poor boy that almost been kidnapped home, and then the conversation on the rooftop of Might Tower that followed soon after.

Eraserhead himself had said that the number he'd been given was a special code, had mentioned special programming on a very strange phone model that Toshinori had never managed to find anywhere else despite hours of browsing. Did he seriously have the answer right under his nose, this whole goddamned time?

But no, Eraserhead wasn't known for hacking. Eraserhead may be a vigilante, but never once had he been caught actually doing something illegal. This was all starting to resemble a game of cat and mouse where Eraserhead had them thinking they were the cat and he was the mouse when it was the exact opposite. Only Eraser wasn't chasing them; he was playing with them, playing them. For incompetent fools, at that.

But that also didn't sound like Eraser and there is simply no way a man that relies so heavily on practicality and logic would throw any sort of breadcrumbs, like it seems that he's doing - fake trail or not - their way when the risk of making an actual critical mistake was so high. No, Eraserhead hasn't stayed a free man and an active Vigilante for about fifteen years because of making bold and daring moves like that. Eraser was cautious, paranoid even. Which means that these little revelations were all accidents. But were they really finally making headway in discovering Eraser's identity, or were they barking up the wrong tree. These clues, this case ... They were glacier cold by now. Cold, old and closed. Were they really right to go digging up finally settled graves? The coffin was still empty.

Would it even be better to have something to finally put in it, figuratively or literally?

"All Might, are you even listening to me anymore?" Tsukauchi's half annoyed question finally reached his ears and he coughed in surprise, trying to apologize around the handkerchief he had to put to his mouth lest he spew blood everywhere.

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry. My mind must have wandered off during that last part."

"Which last part."

"..."

The man on the other end snorted, amused and half exasperated. "I know chasing Eraserhead can be quite frustrating, and the man himself often does not exactly help that feeling-"

"No, no, Eraserhead is fine. Quite intriguing and fun to talk to- Shit."

"... You've talked to Eraser, Toshi?" Came the teasing inquiry from his friend and Toshinori groaned, long and loud.

"Double shit."

That only had the police officer cracking up. "I swear, you're no better than Mic and Midnight! Or half the Heroes in this part of Musutafu!"

"And Hosu. And Kyushu. And Naruhata and Tasomiya," the blond Number One supplied tiredly, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Hell, half of UA is that man's friend."

"Really?"

"Well, 1-A are. Thirteen has, apparently, also joined their Eraserhead Is A HERO Change My Mind club, which is understandable, after USJ. Principal Nezu has even expressed a desire to speak with him, but neither Yamada-kun nor Kayama-san are willing to hand over their phones to contact Eraser and since no one knows I have a way to contact him, too, they haven't ask-"

"You have a way to contact Eraserhead?! Since when!?"

"... Triple shit."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I ... forgot to mention it?" It was the truth, actually. He really had forgotten. And it's not like the thought of giving Eraserhead's number away was at the forefront of his mind. He owed the man that much, at the very least. "I, uhm, remember that time with the kid with that emotion-based, animal-trait manifestation Quirk?"

"Since then!? Toshi, that was before the school year started! Two months ago!"

"Well, yes, but he kind of told me it would be useless to use the number from a different phone? He, uh, doesn't answer unknown numbers?"

"Are you forgetting what my Quirk is, All Might? I can tell that you are, at least partially, lying."

'I'll run out of shits at this rate!' He gave an awkward laugh to his friend in reply. "It's, uh ... It's not exactly a lie ... He, uhm, he screens? his calls? Or something like that? I didn't really understand." And that is the truth. Yagi Toshinori is not an idiot by any means, but he's not exactly tech-savvy. Eraserhead, though, seems to be the exact opposite. 'Maybe I should finally move on to the fucks, because this is a whole new level,' he mused to himself.

Naomasa sighed and the Pro could just imagine him rubbing at his forehead. "Why, exactly, did he give you his number? Are you secretly dating now or something?"

"Unlike the kids, I still don't even know what he actually looks like- fuck!" Yup, you guessed it. He'd finally leveled up. What is wrong with him today? Why such a loose mouth all of a sudden? Surely it can't be nerves. He's been keeping secrets - tens of thousands of times bigger than these ones involving Eraserhead - for a whole lot longer without difficulty and yet he cracks under pressure now?

'I'm not going to be able to look Eraserhead in the eyes - or, well, goggles - ever again, am I?'

"Mind explaining that?" And so Yagi sighed and explained how the kids got to visit the Vigilante after USJ and how, in turn, Eraser had taken to visiting them during their internships and making the experience even better for them. By the time he finished, he'd heard Naomasa make a popping sound that resembled pills being popped out of their tablets and he knew the police officer must have taken some medication to battle the headache no doubt waging war with his head the longer he listened. "Damn. Or, as you like to say, shit. And none of the Pros reported any of this?"

"Well, he didn't exactly approach them all as Eraserhead."

"The fact that he can just take off the goggles and scarf and blend in is really annoying right now," grumbled the police officer. "Then again, I'd actually rather keep the guy out on the streets. He turned in another Nomu just last night."

"Seriously? Does he know they're not exactly human anymore?"

"I have no idea what that man does or doesn't know," Naomasa replied immediately. "Anyway, Eraser has given us the location where he'd caught the Nomu. Seems he finally used those handcuffs he stole off that Bakugo kid. They did a pretty good job at restraining the Nomu. Big, green, only one giant eye, plenty of teeth, exposed brain. Didn't fly but looked like it could be a pretty damn good swimmer."

"Shit. Is he specializing them now? Bastard." He had to refrain himself from puffing up into his muscle form as rage coursed through him at the mere thought of All For One and his many devious, evil deeds.

"Don't know. My point is: Eraser seems to have the best - or worst, depends on how you look at it - luck at running into these things. Chances are, he'll find the actual hideout and give us the info so we can actually plan a proper raid. Eraserhead has never run into a situation head on if he knew he couldn't fight his way out of it."

'But that's changed, hasn't it, Namoasa?' He thought, recalling the state he'd found the smaller man in at USJ. Even if it weren't for the Nomu, Eraserhead could have fallen to the many villains all over the place. The ones at the central plaza hadn't been the only ones there, after all. Eraser had simply faced a good bulk of them all on his own and he'd nearly died for it. Eraserhead had jumped into that fight without hesitation, simply to ensure twenty children would be able to evacuate. 'And he'd do it again in a heartbeat, if the way he talks about them is anything to go by.'

Those kids and Eraserhead shared some sort of connection now and neither side is willing to let go.

Only Eraserhead would let his end go if it meant saving the kids.

Toshinori could only hope it will never come to that.

The kids of 1-A would never forgive them, any of them, for it. Not even All Might.

"I guess we'll be on standby if he needs assistance," he said instead of revealing all of that because he had the feeling Eraser wouldn't want such an obvious weakness to be exposed. "What are you going to do about your Aizawa investigation? I mean, it seems like things are getting a bit ... hectic, where Eraser and All For One are involved and there was also that Stain incident. Will you really have the time to devote to another such big investigation?"

"I'll find time. We'll find Aizawa Shouta no matter what, All Might!" Naomasa said with conviction and Toshinori couldn't help but get excited and smile, too.

"Sounds like a plan, my man!"

They talked for a short while longer before hanging up, leaving Toshinori alone with his thoughts. He should seriously be doing some school-related work - the finals were coming up, starting in only one week - but he just knew he wouldn't be able to focus at all. Not with all the thoughts swirling around in his head and UA's teachers lounge is definitely not the place to be thinking about this the way it deserves. 'Maybe a walk will help clear my head.'

The one thing he could appreciate about his true form, so skinny and sickly-looking, is that no one recognizes him as All Might and that, as such, gives him anonymity and peace to go about his day like any other normal person instead of being surrounded by a horde of paparazzi or fans. Besides, he has to save up his time for teaching these days. Hero work was reserved only for the weekend and the days he didn't have any classes! With all the drawbacks that came from his injury and this form, it still somehow had this one good thing to it.

He wasn't sure how long he even walked around like that, but he ended up stepping out of UA's fates at some point and just wandered around the streets surrounding the campus for a while. At one point, he saw a couple of kitties rushing into a alleyway that was already very noisy with the sounds of other cats and he got curious. Was some kind old lady feeding the animals? Maybe she needed help!

Unable to repress his own curiosity, (Sm)All Might peered into the alleyway to find it, indeed, full of cats and at least ten cans of cat food strewn all around. Bowls of water, vitamins, wet wipes, brushes and flea collars, both old and new, were also in the mix of felines - of all shapes, ages and sizes - but at the center of it all was a person who seemed to be struggling with petting the cats weaving around their feet while also at the same time wiping a kitten of cracked mud and filling hard, dry food into other bowls that the cats can eat at a later date.

And that person was no little old lady.

Messy black hair up in an artfully messy bun at the back of his head that kittens swiped at, pale skin only slightly smudged from a calico trying to bury its face into his, a short stubble decorating jaws, chins and upper lips and a pair of tired eyes he'd recognize anywhere at this point. He nearly hacked up his good lung when the young man looked up at him from his crouching position surrounded by cats. They were so black, a little bloodshot with dark bags underneath.

The man was no doubt in his late twenties to early thirties, dressed in a simple black shirt - long-sleeved with a shallow V cut - and snug dark denim pants and a pair of black boots, but Toshinori would recognize the supposedly missing and/or dead Aizawa Shouta anywhere after studying his last taken picture - from the Sports Festival fifteen years ago - for an hour and trying to picture that young man wearing yellow goggles, all black clothing and a white scarf-like weapon. He tried to say something - anything - maybe even hack up some blood, but he couldn't seem to make his mouth move.

And then a deep baritone reached his ears.

"All Might-san."

(Yagi Toshinori nearly hacked up his lung.)