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?
Shouta sighed as he finished up his report. All the villains were tied up, he'd destroyed every sample of the girl's blood in the labs and most of the notes on the drug's progress and had even written up a five page report. He still had at least two minutes to get out of here, but now he is to face his greatest challenge yet: a traumatized, scared little girl.
This, he had not planned for.
After making sure one last time that the Quirk-inhibitors were in place on Chisaki - the only real problematic one - and that his report was in a clearly visible place, Shouta made his way to the room where he'd left the random thug and Eri. He knocked on the door to be polite despite the insanity of such a concept in such a situation, before he stepped in. The thug was still unconscious where he'd left him, but the little girl had tucked herself away into the farthest corner of the room. There were tears streaming down her face and Shouta realized that her horn was glowing, which he just knew couldn't be good, no matter what kind of Quirk the kid had, even if it's not something similar to Erasure.
Red, round, fearful eyes were watching him and Shouta didn't hesitate. He dropped to his knees right there in the doorway and let his voice take on that tone he'd only ever heard from himself when speaking with children, especially frightened ones. "Hey, there. Is your name Eri?" A moment of hesitation and then a jerky nod. He couldn't help but smile but this was a smile he's only ever directed at cats. He could just feel the way it settled on his face was different than any other smile he could make. "My name is Aizawa Shouta. I'm here to take you someplace safe, Eri-chan. Away from all these bad people."
"Are you ... a-a H-hero?" The girl asked in a shaky voice but Shouta was impressed by her bravery to speak up at all to a complete stranger after what she had no doubt just been through.
"Yes. I'm a street Hero," he half-lied, because Vigilantes were their own little brand of Heroes, even though they weren't legal. Though, in all honesty, all Heroism was birthed from Vigilantism, it's just that people have decided to put laws and restrictions in place. Not all of them were logical, due to people going so complacent in trusting in Heroes that they wouldn't use their own Quirks to save their own loved ones from a fire despite having a water Quirk. It was a big flaw that no one but those who've suffered at the hands of it realized. It is why Aizawa had ultimately decided that he would rather become a Vigilante than the government's plaything. (He didn't know they had a young Hawks at that time, or else he would have saved the kid.) "I know it must be hard to trust anyone's intentions right now, Eri-chan, but I promise that I only want to get you out of here. I'll even let you choose where you want to go afterwards."
The white haired girl stayed quiet for a long moment and Shouta just waited her out, no matter how much he just wanted to get out of here. At least one Pro must have arrived by now. Unless Amajiki never got the chance to pass on the message to Fat Gum or any other Pro Hero. He dearly hoped that wasn't true. He'd have to risk going out the front door just so he could look at everyone with Erasure on one more time to keep their Quirks subdued. After all, only those with dangerous Quirks had gotten the Quirk-inhibitors and Quirk-inhibiting cuffs.
"Y-you saved m-me ... F-from that r... rough man," Eri-chan stuttered out through her tears, wiping at her eyes. Shouta only wanted to reach out and gently wipe them away for her. Gods, he hated seeing kids cry. It always felt like a punch to the gut, even if he wasn't the source of their tears. "B-but h-h-how do I-I know t-this isn't s-some trick b-by Chi-Chisaki-i?"
"He's tied up right outside, if you want to see for yourself. He is no friend of mine, Eri-chan. I don't condone what he did to you," he told her gently, not making a move, never raising his voice above barely above a whisper. He didn't want to frighten her, especially not into activating her Quirk, whatever it may be. That would just scare her and she'd never let him help her.
To his surprise, Eri just nodded right away and he moved out of the doorway to let her exit the room as she feels comfortable. He made sure to keep his distance though he stayed crouched to her level so as not to intimidate her with his height when she was so small. He was not a short man by any means, though his height wasn't anything unusual in this world of Quirks where there were people as tall as All Might and Endeavor practically everywhere.
Eri actually gasped in disbelief when she saw the little package Aizawa had made of Chisake. Hell, he'd left a literal bow on the man's head, mostly to piss off Sir Nighteye but it seems to have served a greater purpose. Eri started crying again but he had a feeling this might just be relief. He'll have to ask Midoriya - he's the pro crier in this city.
His phone chose that moment to beep and he pulled it out, looking down at the CCTV camera footage around the perimeter of the Shie Hassaikai compound. Heroes and the police were arriving. Their response time was so-so this time, but he guessed that had worked in his favor this once. When he looked back up at the girl he was trying to rescue, she was already staring back at him. Only this time, she didn't look as afraid. Progress.
"Eri-chan, we need to leave. Quickly. Can I pick you up?"
Red eyes widened in fear once again, panic settling over her features as she stumbled back and nearly fell through the hole in the ground. "NO!" Shouta acted more on instinct when he lunged forward and grabbed her around the waist to stop the child from getting hurt and he immediately opened his mouth to apologize, afraid he'd upset and scare him more, but she only tried to escape his hold frantically, beating at his chest and crying. "Let go! Please let go! I don't want to hurt you!"
"Eri-chan, it's fine, you won't hurt me-"
"But I will!" Eri wailed, fat tears running down her face like a waterfall of pure sadness. "I will I will I will I will I will I will!" She still struggled but she was too close to the edge of the hole for Shouta to just let her go. She could fall and seriously hurt herself, or worse ... She was just ... so small. Was she malnourished? "I don't want to hurt you! You're warm ... " It was whimpered and Aizawa's heart broke for her. Had she never known the warmth of kindness? He needs to get this kid to meet his other kids. Most of them were fucking rays of sunshine. Maybe the Big Three, too. And All Might. All kids like All Might, right?
"You won't, Eri-chan, because you are kind."
"I will hurt you ... I always hurt people."
Her horn was glowing brighter in her distress and Shouta thought he finally understood. So he placed a hand on her head to get her attention and let his eyes flare red and his hair stand up against gravity. "You won't, because you can't hurt me, Eri-chan." The light of her horn faded away and Eri stared up at him in awe. "As long as I am like this, I can cancel your Quirk, Eri-chan. That's what my Quirk is: Erasure. It's only temporary-" Not really, but Shouta would need to look at her Quirk with it before determining if anything more would be lethal to the girl's health. Quirks don't just create special powers, they create special conditions within one's body, a whole new and completely different homeostasis. No two people have an identical homeostasis these days. Everything is so different. The biggest part why Quirk Theory exists and why Shouta's taking it is so people could understand how having a Quirk has changed people's bodies on a molecular level besides the added power. People's health could seriously depend on the changes their Quirk caused. Yamada, for instance, would go both mute and deaf if he were to lose his Quirk. People with regeneration or healing Quirks would die within days of their Quirk manifesting if it were to be taken away. They'd simply ... super-age to death. Someone like Endeavor would probably feel cold for the rest of his life without his Hellflame Quirk. Whatever Quirk this little girl had, she was far too young to even contemplate losing it. "But I can take it away for as long as you need to finally learn to control it. So you won't have to fear hurting people anymore. Until such a time, just rely on me, okay?"
"... Will I really not hurt you, Zawa?"
Eraser felt his heart squeeze at the cute little voice and the absolutely adorable face Eri was making. Gods, he wasn't equipped to deal with this. He barely resisted the teenagers he'd found in his 'care'! "I promise you won't."
Eri nodded and finally relaxed in his hold. She leaned against his chest and seemed to almost immediately doze off. Poor dear must have been worn out to her limit. It will be a long way to recovery for her. Shouta had no delusions about that.
He also had no delusions about what he'd just offered and basically promised this little girl. His lifestyle is going to have to change by a considerable amount. Thankfully, most of his daylight activities can be done from home and the world can afford not to have Eraserhead out on the streets for a couple of nights while Eri settles in. He might worry Nemuri and Hizashi a bit, but the two know him rather well by now. They'll assume he'd simply went off on a stint in Naruhata or Tasomiya again.
"Let's get out of here, Eri-chan."
Ge felt her nod against his shoulder and Shouta set a quick pace, all but running through the underground hideout and then through the compound once he got to ground level. This is where he had to employ all of his skills to just barely manage to avoid being seen by the first responders, among them being, as expected, Fat Gum and Suneater. Some more local Heroes had answered the call, Aizawa observed from the shadows of a tree with Eri still safely dozing in his arms. He'll have to write recommendations for this part to have more Heroes on patrol because they clearly didn't have anyone on duty when he'd sent out the alert. But he'll do that later.
For now, though ...
He pulled out his phone and started searching through kid stores to buy a bed, some toys, books, coloring books, notebooks, colored pencils and crayons, anything he could think of that a kid would need. Clothes included. He also called delivery to get groceries and some food for breakfast that should arrive by the time he gets to his apartment.
He hopes he can get everything ready for today, so Eri-chan can settle in immediately and get some degree of normalcy in her life.
He also hopes she likes the name Aizawa and that Ashou will never, ever learn that he is, by all technicalities, a grandfather.
Shouta will never have a moment's peace again.
(He has a feeling that, for Eri, he wouldn't mind.)
00000
Toshinori did not expect to be pulled right from the airport to the police station to deal with a new disaster after just dealing with the shit that had happened at I-Island. He really wasn't in a mood to deal with just about anything besides maybe Midoriya-shounen, but then the name Eraserhead was dropped and he didn't even think to protest that he needed to at least get his things back to his apartment.
These days, anything that could possibly involve Eraserhead were things that explicitly interested him.
Especially after the little announcement he's made while hacking I-Island and rebooting their security system. At the behest of Kaminari-shounen. Just one phone call had been enough to reveal that Eraserhead was one hell of a hacker.
The announcement had been in Japanese so only a few people had understood and any trace of the announcement being made had been deleted from the systems, no matter what the numerous computer scientists on the mechanical island tried to do to get it back.
The message had been simple.
This is 1-A's Sensei speaking. You have endangered my students. I do not appreciate this. This is the only warning I will give. Peace out.
That's it. That's all the warning both villains and Heroes got before the restraints were deactivated and they could fight. Not to mention that the island's security was back on so the drones were more than ready to offer assistance.
And then Eraserhead had revealed just how brilliant he was: he'd sent the kids from 1-A, all of them that had been on the island even if they weren't in the Tower, a piece of information on just what had happened. It didn't paint a promising picture for Dave and no matter how Toshinori tried to spin the story, he knew his best friend was going to jail. Melissa had definitely been very disappointed in her father but also very interested in the man her new friends called 'Sensei' and her honorary uncle 'Eraserhead'. The police had also had questions, but the students had only had so much they could say. And Eraserhead wasn't even on American soil nor did they have the authority to try and bring him in. Japan wanted their number one menace all to themselves, after all.
To go from that to this yakuza mess ...
Toshinori never seems to get a rest.
Oh, and did he mention he has to work with Nighteye again, after not speaking with his former sidekick for six years? That's right, you read that right, because the universe hates Yagi Toshinori.
And it almost feels like Eraserhead is purposefully adding to his headache.
"So, let me get this straight," he said with a very tired sigh to Tsukauchi, Nighteye and an unexpectedly present Gran Torino. He really wasn't sure why the old man was there, though it could be just an attempt to stop things devolving into an argument between him and Nighteye. Or, well, the fact that the old man has come to grudgingly respect Eraserhead after his quick reflexes in rescuing Midoriya-shounen from what is essentially a hostage situation in the making. "While I was in America-"
'Watching my best friend and first sidekick give into human greed, stop viewing me as more than a symbol and seeing the Quirk before the man and get arrested for ostracizing a civilian-endangering faux villain attack that turned out to be the real deal anyway, while also getting the feeling that I am being indirectly scolded by a Vigilante that has adopted my successor's class for getting caught and needing them to control the situation instead of keeping them safe as is expected of me as the Number One Hero and their teacher.'
"-Eraserhead made another appearance, by contacting Fat Gum's long time intern, Suneater, one of UA's Big Three, who in turn informed Fat Gum and Fat Gum called for police as well as Hero backup, all the while our resident uncatchable Vigilante took down an entire yakuza all by his lonesome, tied them all up with a bow on the leader's head, left his customary report and disappeared without a trace to the point that no one would even know if he was there if not for the report, all in the span of, what, twenty five minutes? And this wasn't even a small case, but the case of attempting to redistribute the Quirk-enhancing Trigger drug?" Goodness, what is it with everyone and Quirk-enhancing bullshit these days?! Why can't people just train their Quirks and be done with it? "And by doing all of this, he stole a case right from under Nighteye Agency's nose?"
"I've been compiling evidence to make a proper case against the Shie Hassaikai for a year," the usually unflappably calm Nighteye hissed. "And he manages to get all of this in just under a week!?" He gestures lividly at the huge stack of files and papers and even a small pile of disks, all relating to this case, all collected by Eraserhead and delivered to Detectives Tsukauchi and Tsuragamae, though some of the papers seem to be the yakuza's own experimentation notes, the results from a local police lab about the contents of one of the injector bullets dubbed as 'Deleter Shot' and a few of the disks were even live footage from the compound's security cameras that allowed them to view the Shie Hassaikai's rare few allies and even what Overhaul had done to his own stepfather in order to step into power. "Just how is this possible?"
'Because Eraserhead is a hacker that can break into I-Island with just a phone call away from one of his 'students',' Toshinori thinks to himself but doesn't say it. 'And because Eraserhead might actually be Aizawa Shouta, who is quite possibly the son of the greatest hacker of all times, Hal. But does that mean the man I've treated stray cats with is the Vigilante everyone seems to grudgingly respect? Is he Eraserhead? Is he the missing Aizawa-kun? Or is it all a freak coincidence?' There's a reason why Yagi has yet to tell even Naomasa about his encounter with the stranger in an alley. Heck, he'd actually thought he'd dreamed it up or hallucinated it if not for the fact that, apparently, Sensoji-kun is allergic to cat hair and Toshinori had been covered in it.
Ultimately, All Might decided to act as though his former sidekick hadn't spoken up at all. "And all interrogating Overhaul resulted in was him hysterically proclaiming Eraserhead a 'perfect monster'?"
"And accusing him that he'd kidnapped his five and a half year old daughter," the yellow and white clad elderly Hero added, though he sounded mostly suspicious of his own words. "Though, from what I know, Eraserhead is not exactly known for taking potential abuse victims away from the scene, usually leaving them with the police or, if they have family, said family."
"Maybe the girl has no other family?"
"Are we forgetting that Eraserhead has made no mention of this child in his 'report'?" Sasaki fairly spat out the last word in disgust. "Or the fact that we have no proof that she might even be an abuse victim? None of us have even seen the girl and all of the video footage we could pull from the cameras has been tampered with even before Eraserhead supposedly stepped foot in the compound."
"It's true that none of our technicians can remove the editing from the footage," the only police officer present confirmed. "Eraserhead has either managed to stay out of the cameras' lenses entirely or he had some serious signal blockers."
"Most probably a combination of both," Gran Torino guessed. "But as worrisome as a supposedly missing child is - don't forget that we're literally chasing a child that allegedly exists only based on the words of a known villain and crime lord wannabe - what really worries me is some of the notes we've found in the labs."
"What were they about?" The Symbol of Peace asks, not liking the grave tone his old teacher has taken.
"Quirk-destroying bullets, based on a person's Quirk and DNA, according to these," Nighteye says with a sigh as he picks up some of the papers and waves them at his once partner. "Eraserhead had, apparently, delivered an unused bullet as a sample about a week ago to a detective from a nearby precinct and the results came back with traces of human blood in them." Yagi felt his blood turn to ice right in his veins. "The bullets themselves work only for a handful of hours and have only just begun being distributed, probably to commercialize their merchandise to the bigger players with more money to support further research and production. Eraserhead, supposedly, came across these new drugs when hunting down the new Trigger dealers and one of them had Deleter Shot bullets on him, too."
"Interrogating the villain known as Chronostasis, one of the main scientists behind the bullet's creation, even openly admitted that 'Kai-sama', that is Overhaul, got the inspiration from seeing Eraser fight," Gran Torino reveals and Toshinori feels a spike of fear and dread for the Vigilante's safety. "He also said 'It is a Quirk', whatever that means."
Yagi froze and so did Tsukauchi, which means this was the first time he was hearing this, too, or else there would already be a search for Aizawa Shouta going on, even if it were to be just Tsukauchi and Yagi, maybe Yamada, but definitely no one else.
"Did anyone say anything about the girl?" Yagi asks in order to divert the attention away from the Quirk that sounded like it belonged to a missing UA student.
"She supposedly has red eyes, pale skin, is really small for her age, has long white hair and a small horn on the right top-side of her forehead. Her name is Eri," Tsukauchi quickly supplied, meeting his eyes and a silent message was exchanged between them right then and there. They will have to talk about this. Later, perhaps at a later date, even, but they will have to talk about it nonetheless. This was both what they had hoped for and silently sort of feared. Because Eraserhead now had an identity. He was no longer a nameless shadow of the night that helped out the Heroes like some legend of old. He was no longer a phantom of the night, but a human being, a man who had been a child, a Hero-hopeful who had given up on the dream and had instead taken up the mantle of vigilantism.
As always when things were concerning Eraserhead, every bit of (maybe) information they get results only in more questions than answers.
"We can put out a search flyer or something."
"She's a lost child, not a lost pet, Sorahiko-san," Nighteye respectfully corrected the elder while fixing his glasses. "I want to see that footage, though."
"Didn't you say no technician the police had at hand could retrieve the original image?" Toshinori half asked, half pointed out and the dual-toned haired man nodded but did not seem deterred.
"There's a hacker in Tartarus that probably can, though." Yagi and Tsukauchi went stiff all over again and he's pretty sure Gran Torino caught on to the fact this time. "The criminal known under the alias Hal, Aizawa Ashou. He's infamous for being able to get into any system, undo any code and manipulate it all to his will. If he's willing to make a deal with us, he will probably at least get a reduced sentence to fifty years instead of what is basically a life sentence in prison. It's not like he's a murderer."
"You want to enlist the help of a known criminal?" He asked in a voice that suggested he thought Nighteye should rethink his choices. He just wants the future-seer to drop this train of thought. He doesn't want the name Aizawa dragged into this mess. Especially if Eraser is, indeed, Aizawa Shouta. He'll probably learn of his maybe father's involvement and disappear so underground they will never find him again.
And they can't afford that, if he truly has the girl with him.
No matter how much Toshinori trusts the man with his life, despite knowing next to nothing about him, this isn't about Toshinori's life, but the life of a possibly traumatized, abused little girl.
"We need confirmation that Eraserhead has, indeed, left with her, at the very least."
"It's very possible that he did," Yagi couldn't help but muse. "Eraser has a soft spot for children. I've seen it first hand." Both with a random almost-kidnapped boy and Class 1-A. "If he had even the slightest suspicion that there was a child in danger, the girl wouldn't have been left behind."
"And with how you idiots have been hunting him, there's no way someone as cautious and clever as that man would stay and risk getting arrested by the police," Gran Torino added and that was that. No one could argue a solid, rational point. "Question is, though, if this Eri girl is with him, will Eraser go out again or will he focus on caring for her."
"What makes you think he'll keep Eri?" Nighteye asks and Torino snorts.
"My intern was very enamored with Eraserhead's character. And besides the point that this Eri doesn't exist on paper? She's most probably traumatized, as Overhaul doesn't exactly strike me as a caring caregiver. There's no way he would just drop her off with child services or something like that."
"You had an intern?" Nighteye asks suspiciously, no doubt understanding instantly what that meant. The way he eyes Toshinori said it all; Sasaki Mirai knew All Might had chosen a successor and it wasn't Togata Mirio, as he'd been hoping because Togata was still very much doing his work study with Sir Nighteye.
"Yeah. Nice kid. Reminds me a bit too much of this goofball here, but that's a good thing as well as an exasperating thing."
And Toshinori was touched, honestly! To think anyone would compare such a wonderful child like Midoriya-shounen to him ... He couldn't have received a greater compliment! He's quite proud of that, actually. And he's also relieved and immensely grateful that Sorahiko approves of his choice of successor! After all, the man had trained with Nana back when they were partners since they were young and then he had trained Toshinori with her and then by himself, after Nana's last fight against All For One. Gran Torino was practically an expert in training One For All users, so it is no wonder Midoriya-shounen returned from his work study with a greater understanding of his Quirk and definitely better control. Though, both intern and Pro Hero had had some 'Sensei help'. Eraserhead had done the most important part of the whole teaching Midoriya-shounen to use One For All thing and that was that he taught the boy how to feel the Quirk, to embrace it as though he'd been born with it.
Toshinori always found new things to be grateful to the Vigilante for, it seemed. Maybe, one day, he'll be able to treat the man to a drink!
"So you've chosen a successor? And you didn't think to tell me? I want to meet him," Sir Nighteye said and the blond couldn't help but inflate into All Might, not really liking the tone Sasaki was using. The clairvoyant might say 'meet him', but he actually means 'evaluate him' or, if they were being honest, 'judge him'. And maybe Toshinori would have once been eager to show off his wonderful little successor to his former sidekick, but ever since Sasaki had dared to use his Quirk on him without permission, he couldn't find it in himself to feel the warmth he once did for this man and he knew Sasaki was just as bitter. There is no way he would let Midoriya-shounen get mixed up in that. The boy had enough on his plate, what with the League of Villains, Eraserhead's near death right in front of him, One For All breaking his bones up until recently, Stain, the demanding UA Hero Course curriculum, the thing with Shigaraki at the mall and then the shit that had happened on I-Island.
The legacy of One For All was a hard one to bear; Midoriya-shounen didn't need the bitterness of those left behind to drag him down. Dave had proven to be more than enough, and that was a far more bitter pill to swallow than anything Sasaki could dish out.
Still, that didn't mean he'd be letting Sir Nighteye meet Deku.
So Toshinori smiled wide and bright, the best media-practiced smile in his arsenal, and watched as Sasaki seemed to be stuck between fanboying like in his youth and being irritated that Toshinori was directing such a fake expression at him of all people.
"If you wish to meet him, you will have to arrange it with his Sensei!"
Tsukauchi and Torino choked on their own breath, understanding perfectly what that would mean and entail and clearly finding it both amusing and ballsy of Yagi to bring it up.
The second tallest man in the room looked confused. "His Sensei? What does a teacher have to do with anything even remotely relating to One For All?"
Yagi just nodded, striking a pose and laughing his signature All Might laugh. "The boy says he's certainly helped him a lot where controlling it is concerned! And if it wasn't for him, my boy and all of his classmates would probably be a whole lot worse off today!" He really tried not to think about that, about Thirteen's ruined suit, or about the limp, broken body lying in a pool of the man's own blood. It's an image that will haunt him as much as the teary, relieved faces of his students.
"The youngster is definitely a better teacher than you," Torino quipped between what sounded like choked, held-in gaffs.
"He definitely does paperwork better," came Naomasa's two cents, sounding to be in about the same predicament as Sorahiko, and Toshinori was both offended and ashamed that a Vigilante did more and better paperwork than he did. He'll take it up with his friend later about calling him out on it, though.
All Might, though, still just kept smiling and he had to hold in his own amusement as dawning realization settled over Sir NIghteye's face. He found it within himself to speak with a steady voice. "You see, he's very protective of his class. He won't take it lightly if someone hurts one of his kids in any way!" His little announcement at I-Island has surely made that very clear. Even from halfway around the world, Eraserhead protected Class 1-A in what way he could. That was very admirable. Though that level of computer skills was also very dangerous and actually envious. All Might still had trouble with the simple grading program they used at UA.
"You can't be serious," Mirai tried almost desperately. It was no secret that he disliked the Vigilante in question greatly, even though some of his sidekicks and interns were okay with him. Togata Mirio in particular, which was an extra sour spot for Nighteye, since he had hoped the boy would be Toshinori's successor. And while Midoriya-shounen hadn't been chosen out of spite but because the boy had definitely earned it, the Symbol of Peace couldn't help but be viciously glad it was the green bean after all, no matter how skilled and good Togata was. Call him petty but he'd never said he was perfect.
"I'm sure we can get Eraserhead's number for you to arrange a meeting." And he laughed again.
"This is a fucking nightmare."