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?
"Finally made it back, eh?" Shirakumo Oboro said as a greeting when Aizawa Shouta finally came to pick up Eri from where the Big Three, Class 1-A, he, Nemuri, Hizashi and All Might were watching over her in 1-A's classroom at UA. That Yaoyorozu girl had gone and created sleeping bags for them all and a pillow forth and they'd all just ... settled in, making a small slumber party.
The funny thing was, this whole thing had started when Shouta had asked the staff of UA to watch over the cute little girl, but then the Big Three got word of it and Togata called Midoriya, who told the others and suddenly they were all there, just hanging out and imparting the joys of childhood upon the little girl that had suffered through so much. Eri-chan had been a bit anxious at first, but had soon relaxed and definitely come to enjoy 1-A's energy. It was heartwarming to watch.
Now, Shouta was back and they were all asleep except for Oboro, who couldn't find a wink of sleep on this fine summer night. He'd been waiting for Shouta to come back, fearing the man will disappear as he was wont to. A big part of him knew Shouta wouldn't do that to Eri - the girl was learning to open up and interact with more people, but she never stopped looking around and asking about her new Papa's return and whereabouts; it would no doubt crush her if he didn't come back for her and Shouta no doubt knew that, which meant he would come back - but a still too big part of him still feared it might happen, if not by Shouta's own choice. You never know what life might throw at you and Shouta's has been crazy enough as it was.
And Oboro had missed most of it. No, he wasn't counting the fifteen, sixteen years Shouta had lived through on this Earth before they'd met as a new Vigilante and a Hero in training. He meant the fourteen years he'd missed since they had met, became friends despite their unlikely circumstances and he'd promised Shouta he'd always be there for him. He felt like a liar, a failure, a fraud, and that wasn't even counting in the heartbreak he'd caused his other friends.
Hell, the reason Hizashi had reached out to Shouta at all was because he'd wanted someone to mourn with! Nemuri had this scary ability to move on no matter the shit she goes through or just hide how much it bothers her but Hizashi needed to be strong for someone else in order to be strong himself.
Shouta, who'd just lost the first and only friend he'd ever had, must have been a mess when they'd met and Hizashi was just the type of person who could help him get back up on his feet.
The fact that the two were now considered best friends by all those who know of their interactions, so many years later, spoke just how well they'd helped each other deal with their grief. Hizashi needed to be strong for someone and Shouta was a natural mother hen, even if he'll never admit it. Hizashi probably didn't even notice Shouta was returning the favor tenfold the whole time. He just wouldn't be Shouta otherwise.
Hell, he'd been taking care of Hizashi and Nemuri and Tensei! Tensei! Iida Tensei, the most by the book, rule abiding guy Oboro had ever met! He was friends with a Vigilante! Just shows how great of a guy Shouta is. Hell, half of Musutafu's Heroes today were on relatively okay terms with him! All Might was friends with him! In fourteen years, Shouta had made quite a name for himself as the Vigilante Eraserhead and he was now finally a Hero.
Meanwhile, Oboro had been a babysitter for the guy who would, eventually, damage Shouta's right elbow with his Decay and order a Nomu to all but kill one of Oboro's best friends by smashing his head into concrete. And Oboro had just stood there ... Or, well, he had been kind of busy all but killing another Hero and scattering terrified teenage Hero-hopefuls and then just watching as Shigaraki nearly disintegrated Shouta right in front of him and then that girl and-
He tried not to think that his corpse had been used to create a monster that hurt people. He had next to no memories of the things he'd done over the years - and he was both grateful for that fact and hated it, because while he didn't have to live with the memories and the guilt, it also meant he can't help others find closure and move on or just maybe help people who had been recently brought to his 'former master' - and it was jarring to lose consciousness as a teenager and wake up in an adult body that's far too different even without the age difference. Kurogiri was a real patchwork of Quirks and experiments. Oboro did not like looking down at his body while he changed these days because there were so many surgery scars that made him question just what had been done to him. He's sure he has a mechanical heart, at the very least, and he does not want to question the big, ugly scar nearly hidden by his hairline. It was body horror at its finest. It made sense that they'd had to do so much shit to him if they were going to bring him back to a state that could be considered 'alive'.
And the changes to his Quirk ... He could still make clouds. Kurogiri could have, too, but the knowledge of how had been blocked from him in order not to accidentally trigger any memories of who he actually was. Oboro, now that he's back - thanks to Shouta, no less, and holy shit how did that work!? - can use Warpgate along with Cloud. He needs ... a lot of practice, it's true, because Warpgate is so much more complex than the Quirk he'd been born with and every time he tries to use it, too much information starts running through his head, he actually gets dizzy with it all. It's overwhelming. Cloud is so much easier to control, too. Warpgate requires a lot more focus and information. Like coordinates. Thank goodness that information had stayed over from Kurogiri or else he'd probably be dead if he tried to open a gate.
Then there's how what has been done to him and his Quirk has changed his physical appearance. His hair used to be this pretty white-blue cloudy mass but it was now a misty dark purple. His eyes remained the same ... most of the time. If he tried to use Warpgate, they turned to that lemony yellow that he'd seen in pictures of Kurogiri. Traces of Kurogiri remained in him, no matter how much they all wished to have no reminder of the Nomu. Shouta couldn't do more of it away or else he'd risk Oboro having health problems further down the line. He'd looked guilty about it but Oboro had reassured him he didn't mind, which wasn't 100% true. More like 99%, maybe 98, which wasn't an all that big of a difference. Not for Shouta's peace of mind. He'd freed Oboro, saved him. He didn't deserve to suffer for it. It didn't really matter if he can't destroy everything that had once made him Kurogiri.
Well, technically, Shouta had said he could erase Warpgate completely but he wasn't sure if it would actually affect his appearance in any way regardless, but Oboro had waved him off. Warpgate was actually a very powerful, practically one of a kind composite Quirk - classified by Shouta, who'd apparently taken up Quirk Theory damn, and then analyzed by an overly curious Midoriya - and very, very useful. And Oboro, more than anything else right now, wanted to be useful, to help people, to help Shouta and Hizashi and Nemuri in any way he can.
Principal Nezu was actually kind enough to let him take the next provisional licensing exam when 1-A takes it at the end of summer. (They were taking those in the first year now?! Apparently not, but the Hero Commission was expecting a jump in crime now that All For One was arrested and his empire taken down, because others will try to fill in the vacuum left behind by this new development. Besides, All Might was, apparently, also aiming to retire real soon. Probably by the end of the year. It made sense that they were thinking of boosting their numbers, even if it's just Hero students. But, well, these kids, Shouta's kids, weren't really 'just students', were they? Not with what they'd been through.) He'll have to have a trial period of one year before they let him take the actual final exam. In that time, he needed to have a crash course in the one and a half year of lessons he'd missed due to his ... Yeah. Oboro was really grateful, don't get him wrong, but he kind of feels like he's being given a gift he hadn't exactly earned.
He tried not to think about that. Not when he's around his friends with whom he had so much catching up to do or around the kids so eager to get to know him and hear his tails of their 'Sensei'.
He especially tried not to think about it around the ever tactless and simple minded Sensoji. Hell, he's impressed the guy had made it as a Hero and that he was even still alive to this day. He remembered the first year Sports Festival. He remembered how easily Sensoji had gone down when he encountered one Aizawa Shouta in the first round. Shouta had been considerably weaker, slower and less skilled back then, less experienced. Shouta had improved by bounds and bounds since then without any Pro help in training while Sensoji seemed to have remained on the relatively same level as when Oboro had last seen him. And considering the kind of villains wandering the streets these days, it really is a miracle he'd only now been injured seriously enough to take him off of the field.
"How did it go?" He asked, trying to distract himself from his own thoughts and the turns they kept taking.
"Well enough," the black haired man replied, arching an eyebrow at the mess of sleeping bags, pillows and blankets all around. "You know, when I used to imagine my first time walking into 1-A's classroom, this is not what I thought I'd see."
"Expectations don't always come true, man," he said with a teasing grin. "Besides, this is definitely better than my time in this classroom! They're all such great kids, you know? I can understand why you got attached. And, well, um ... I guess I want to thank you? For ... For being friends with Zashi and Nem, you know ... After I-"
"Hizashi was the one who found me, actually," cut in the slightly younger man. "We ... didn't exactly start off on the right foot. He was angry and I was wary. It took us a bit to trust each other enough for him to not try and take the goggles you gave me."
Oboro's eyes widened. "You really still have the same goggles!?"
Shouta shrugged, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly and not exactly meeting Oboro's eyes. "The lenses broke when I was fighting Garvey so I had to get them updated." He pulled out the yellow goggles that were practically his signature from underneath his capture weapon. "Kronos-sensei and I worked out this was the best design. I know it's very different and they are reinforced,but it's actually still the same goggles. I ... hope you don't mind."
"Man, you have no idea how touched I am right now! Of course I don't mind!" Shouta shushed him when he got too loud and the two students with the really sensitive hearing stirred. Man, these kids must be at their limit to be out like a light like this. Then again, it's been a really stressful week for them. A stressful semester, really. The adults and the older students, though, have no excuse. Even if it had been just as haggering a time for them, the adults were all experienced Pros and the Big Three hadn't actually been involved until Eraserhead had given Eri to them for protection while he goes and does his thing. "Right, sorry. But, anyway, Shouta," he continued after the other stopped glaring at him. "What will you do now?"
The former Vigilante snorted. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"
"Because you've been living day by day - or rather, night by night - with no real goal in mind that we knew of until you went and saved me and helped arrest All For One and now we all worry that you'll just ... drift, aimless, now that you no longer have to look over your shoulder. Well, not as much, anyway. There's still the Hero Commission. Man, but those guys are bags of rotten dicks, Shouta! If it hadn't been for Nezu and All Might, Eri-chan and I would have been shipped off into 'their care' while you were still being detained by the police!" Shouta's eyes darkened at that like an incoming storm. The tips of his hair were starting to lift and his eyes flashed but it was too fast for Oboro to be able to tell if it was that scary looking red or that bewildering gold that was, in all honesty, even more terrifying.
"Well, they've just made themselves my first priority very firmly."
The former Nomu eyed him warily. "What do you mean?"
"I have some things I need to do, so I'll probably be radio silent for a while. Probably about a week or so. Maybe a bit longer, so don't freak out."
"Shouta, you can't just disappear on us again, man!" Oboro replied, aghast. "Nemuri and Hizashi would have a heart attack! All Might might actually have his remaining lung fail from stress! And the kids! If nothing else, think of the kids, Eri-chan especially! They need you, Shouta! You can't just go off and be a Vigilante again - you've got so many people go out of their way to make you a Pro Hero-"
"Oboro, I'm not going to disappear or go back to Vigilantism!" Snapped the Erasure wielder a bit irritably. "That would be irrational and counterproductive! I am now, officially, an Underground Hero with the highest clearance, meaning I have a right and a duty to this country and its citizens to expose any and all corruption I may find within the system meant to protect them and I, for one, am actually perfectly suited and have just the right experience to be able to do that. With All For One put away and the League of Villains going to therapy or the such, it is a perfect time for reforms. Nezu already has a firm paw on the pulse of the Hero Public Safety Committee so he'll be able to help them get new, uncorrupted members to sit at that table, which will automatically change the Hero society as a whole in a matter of weeks, maybe months but still definitely less than a year or, god forbid, years, Oboro. The Heroics education system will change, will no longer resemble a child-soldier factory, for heaven's sake! Who knows, it might even help in Quirkism prejudices! And the entire country won't rest on the shoulders of one man who's already ripe for retirement even if he wasn't sporting an injury that one can usually only find on a fucking corpse! There's a lot of change that can happen just by placing the right people into a government organization the likes of the HPSC and I, for one, don't plan on letting this chance pass me by."
"Shouta-"
"It's because of these kids that I am doing this, Oboro," Shouta interrupted him again, a fire in his eyes that definitely had nothing to do with his Quirk. No, it was that same indignation at the injustice of the world, of the system, that Oboro had seen years ago - which felt like just yesterday to him, which was weird - first at the Sports Festival seconds before his lights were knocked out and then again and again after he met that same sports Festival champion a year later as a Vigilante hell bent on making a change and doing it logically. It's what had drawn him in, what had made him want to get to know Aizawa Shouta in the first place. That tenacity, that sense of justice, those morals, that passion ... It was all there again and Oboro already knew he was done for. He won't object whatever Shouta had set out for himself to do because he knew Shouta could do it.
He'd always known Shouta could do anything he set his mind to.
After all, it was Shouta.
"I want to better the world they will enter in a few years. I want to create a foundation they can build their ideals on. They're the ones that will make this world better, but someone has to give them a proper starting point and maybe instructions and I am ready to do that. And besides, Eri and I aren't the only cases of kids who are born with spectacular, unheard of before powers that people get greedy over. I call true Erasure Gold for that exact reason. If I do this, then maybe I can set a precedent that will show people what happens to bastards like Dr Quirk, Overhaul and those fuckers from the government. Besides, it's about time someone helped Hawks. He's been the Commission's puppet for years now, a replacement for me, no doubt. Someone has to save a Hero, too, you know."
And, if All Might's story is anything to go by, that's something Shouta has been doing since he was little. Never really stopped doing it. He just grew up and did it even better. Everyone needs saving sometime. Even Heroes.
"Just ... Don't go without a bye, okay? And keep safe, alright?"
Shouta nodded and came to sit beside Oboro. The two leaned against each other and watched over the sleeping mess that was twenty one first year students, three third year ones, a should-be preschooler and three Pro Heroes slash teachers. Sitting side by side like this with Shouta, who was friends with his other closest friends in the world ... It felt like a dream he'd had once, many years ago. He remembered it, of course. That dream was perhaps the one thing All For One could never eradicate from his mind and heart. He'd always wanted to start an agency with Shouta, Hizashi and maybe Nemuri, if she would be willing to stray from her own dreams of an agency full of servants who wait on her hand and foot. Even if she didn't, they'd still always be in contact and work together. They would make it to the top fifty on the ranking charts and Shouta would bemoan his fate because he genuinely did not like that kind of attention. Life would be good and full of laughter and their agency's mascot would be none other than the cutest little fluff ball known as Sushi.
They would save the world, one kitten at a time.
And despite how convoluted the path to becoming a Hero had been for both him and Shouta, they had still somehow made it. Well, Oboro will make it, in a year's time, but Shouta was already there, as he deserved. Fifteen years of thankless service was more than enough.
"You won't actually be able to be an Underground Hero, you know?"
"I know. Everyone knows Eraserhead's face, after all."
"You could start an agency. Like we talked about." Oboro felt his breathing starting to even out and his eyes getting heavier.
"Hn."
"I bet the kids would come right there after they graduate. That way you can be a proper mentor to them, like they all want even now, you know."
"I do."
His eyes were already closed as he made his final comment as they both slowly drifted off to sleep. "Told you you'd be a good teacher."
"I guess you were right after all."
Soft snores were all that followed.
00000
"Leaving already?" Shikaku commented more than asked as the sun just began rising over the horizon. He'll probably never see a sunrise in person again, and he lamented at that fact a little, but the sacrifice of his eyes was a very small one compared to the living, breathing, healthy and hale young man that had just exited the classroom belonging to this year's 1-A, a small, still sleeping girl in his arms. "Don't you think you should stay around to say goodbye?"
He actually wasn't surprised. Shou-kun had taken a year before he definitely revealed himself to the retired Pro and he'd actually had the kid's trust. It wasn't until Shirakumo's death that Shou-kun had felt comfortable enough to approach him and let him touch him with his own two hands. He couldn't see the boy, not even with his Timemaster Quirk that allowed him to view the timeline of anything he touched for a certain amount of time. Shou-kun had always been immune to such Quirks, especially if he recently used his Quirk at its true power. Though, after using Gold, Shou-kun tended to be immune to all Quirks except ones that directly affected the physical world by brute force. It had been frustrating in the beginning. Really, Kronos had not wanted to let the boy go but knew he couldn't exactly hold on to Shou-kun forever. But he couldn't even see him when he did touch him. The only way Shikaku could see his once student was if he used his Quirk on an object that had been touched or will be touched by Shou-kun.
He had to get used to it. At least, by the time Shou-kun gained the name Eraserhead, the teen was coming by a lot more often than just after the boy first spoke to him. After a while it was almost as if things hadn't really changed, except everything had. Shou-kun would come by practically every day, they would talk, Shikaku would repair his equipment if it came to it that he needed it. The capture weapon never did, that thing was as resilient and tenacious as the person it was made for, but Shou-kun, over the years, did rip or damage his utility belt, boots and jumpsuit. So they spent evenings discussing upgrades, improvements, replacements.
Shikaku had suggested a face mask.
Shou-kun had rejected the idea, saying he needed clear airways if he wanted to be able to go out all night long.
A visor was similarly rejected due to Shou-kun's attachment to the goggles his supposedly dead friend had gifted him.
They spent years like that, going back and forth, discussing equipment. Then Shou-kun discovered an interest in Quirk Theory and their discussion themes changed. Shou-kun was, of course, a fast study and soon he knew more about the topic than the older man did. It was fascinating to see how Shou-kun applied this new knowledge with what Erasure, especially in its Gold form, could show him. After a while, Shou-kun even started writing his own paper!
It was going as good as it could ever be, between a retired Pro Hero and a Vigilante, especially with their past in the way. The guilt over not having saved Shou-kun from his kidnappers never went away, even though he could see (insert snort of irony) that the - by then - young man was fine and healthy.
Then things changed. He'd always known Eraserhead was well respected and liked by a good number of Heroes and most of the police officers he's ever come in contact with. However, he also knew there were a lot of Heroes who'd put him behind bars in an instant. Shou-lun had never minded that, never begrudged them. (Except maybe Endeavor, but Shou-kun had never been fond of the flaming Hero.) Things changed, though, when, suddenly, all Heroes in Musutafu were explicitly told to all but hunt him down and turn him in on the spot, an order given by the government and, especially, the Hero Public Safety Commission. They had the top ten ranked Heroes, they had All Might, on the lookout for a single Vigilante, so both Shou-kun and Shikaku knew this was about more than Eraserhead 'duping the Heroes and police forces for fifteen years'.
Eraserhead caught on before the Hero Commission could even call that meeting with everyone to make it official or whatever. Aizawa Shouta was not an Aizawa for no reason. Hal had not given him his family name for kicks and giggles. Shou-kun had been aware of that order coming for a good three weeks before the Heroes were made aware to hunt for him. He stopped coming around. It was for the best for him to be on the lookout, move around with Eraserhead's gear only as Eraserhead. He appeared in his Vigilante persona only at night and was extremely careful.
He did not hear anything about Shou-kun for about two months.
Then All Might, Present Mic and Detective Tsukauchi came and showed him the scrap of capture weapon and he relieved those moments when his student was taken all over again.
And when the younger of the blonds said Eraserhead was very much still alive despite encountering something with the same strength as All Might, he had to do his best to keep his composure. The Detective had a lie detector kind of Quirk and Kronos had to rely on his experiences from alternate timelines he'd seen at some point and carefully chosen phrases that wouldn't trigger the man's Quirk. And all the while, he had to worry about Shou-kun and keep on worrying about him as he did not return to visit.
This is the first time they were seeing each other in a long while with any medicorum of privacy since then. The thing at the police station didn't count, as there were just too many people around.
Now, everyone was asleep and not even Principal Nezu was in his office spying on them through his monitors. They could talk.
Figures it would happen in the middle of Shou-kun's attempt to sneak off.
"Don't you think you shouldn't lie to the police and respectable, if loud and obnoxious, Heroes?" Shou-kun returned with his usual sass and an arched eyebrow, no doubt.
"Don't you think you shouldn't lie to Chiyo?" He replied right back, also arching an eyebrow.
He could just imagine the younger man wincing. "Yeah, that probably wasn't the best idea, but I wasn't sure how much she'd tell others or to which level she'd want to get involved. I already wasn't sure if she'd reveal my actual identity to the police. She could have been questioned. I didn't want you two to get involved in my mess."
"But you had no problem involving All Might?" Then again, Shikaku knew, sort of, the history behind those two. Shou-kun hadn't gone into details but he could fill in most of them on his own. All Might - or rather Yagi Toshinori - had been the one who saved him that day, along with Shimura Nana - an all but unknown Hero - and Torino Sorahiko. Shou-kun never forgot them and All Might was, for a while, someone Aizawa Shouta admired and respected. The respect stayed but the admiration was soon dialed down by rationality and Shou-kun's ever growing distaste of attention and the way the media commercialized Hero work. Shou-kun wasn't even a Pro and yet he criticized them all to their faces for the money and the fame being more important than the people they were supposed to be saving. It's why a good number of - 'fake', if you go by Stain's terminology - Heroes hated Eraserhead, because Shou-kun could see right through them and wasn't afraid to say it.
"He got involved all on his own," grumbled the former Vigilante. "Besides, he'd suspected who I was for weeks and never said anything to anyone and then, by the time I got Eri-chan, I think he was already certain as to my identity and yet he never made a move to take me in. For whatever reason, he trusted me," Shou-kun said with a shrug. "So I trusted him in turn."
"Fair enough," Tsukuhino had to concede. "So, I know you're probably sick of this question by now, but what will you do from now on?" He ignored the groan this earned him as Shou-kun started walking away towards the exit. "I heard Nezu made you an offer. Have you considered it?"
"I actually already made a decision," revealed his once student.
"Is he aware of this?"
"I have ensured that he will be made aware, yes," Shou-kun said with what sounded like a grin on his face that might terrify people but to Shikaku, it only communicated that Shou-kun has found a way to get his way in things that he'd been fighting an uphill battle for that looked hopeless. Shikaku wondered if they should expect a big change come next entrance exam, here at UA. No doubt Nezu will do something to change it regardless of Shou-kun's final decision, because that rat is not stupid. Who knows how many others like Shou-kun the school had turned away because of their biased practical entrance exam? The Crawler and PopStep are only two of no doubt many that would have been wonderful Heroes, based on Shou-kun's stories about them. "With a few conditions, of course. I guess it largely depends on his response now what the majority of my time will go to outside of raising Eri and finishing my paper, though that thing could be done by the end of the week. I'll also probably have to dodge All Might for a good long while, so there go a few more hours out of my day."
"You could always come to stay at my place," he offered but knew it wasn't as good an idea as it sounded. His bond with this amazing young man was quite obvious by now, after all.
"The Hotta brother's cafe is also not an option. I might be tempted to just end up staying with Knuckleduster or one of the other Vigilantes, but I don't want to spoil the surprise."
"What surprise?"
He imagined Shou-kun might have winked at him. "Now, that would be telling."
Shikaku huffed, escorting his former student and said students adopted daughter all the way to the gates. They were locked, of course, but that didn't really mean anything to an Aizawa. Hal had trained Shou-kun far too well for even UA's famous security to stand in his way, which might just piss off or impress Nezu. One can never tell with that rat-bear-dog man. "You have any idea who the mole is or should I go around and start investigating?"
"I figured it out the second I went to eat some of the cafeteria food," Shou-kun replied, adjusting his grip on Eri-chan so he could take out his phone and remotely hack the gates to let him out. "I'm honestly not even surprised none of them noticed. All For One made a really good choice with whom to place as a spy. Or, well, who to replace with one."
"And how did you?" He asked, curious and never doubting. He's never had a reason to doubt Shou-kun's words before, after all.
"For one, my phone always gathers data and collects signals from all computerized devices in my surroundings, which ultimately makes it easier to hack things should I need it. The cafeteria had been closed save for the Todorokis, Principal Nezu, Recovery Girl, my students, Eri, All Might, Midnight, Oboro, Present Mic, the Big Three and the two of us. And, of course, Lunch Rush, who had served us food to recuperate from the shitstorm we'd just all been through. Most of them all had their phones on them, but I had their numbers and signals saved already except for the Principal and I've already gathered the security systems' signal earlier this year, during the USJ disaster and then at the Sports Festival. Oboro, of course, didn't have a phone and neither did Eri. Lunch Rush had a phone but two signals came from their direction and that's what first caught my attention. I confirmed my suspicions when I used Gold so no one else would notice and saw that they had no Quirk. I have no idea where the real Lunch Rush may be but the one currently puttering away in the kitchen is just a replacement robot, not an actual person. And I know Lunch Rush is an actual person because I've viewed their Quirk out of curiosity back when I'd been a student here myself." The gates opened for Shou-kun without pause. "I've left my findings with Principal Nezu, of course. A small thank you for letting me become a Hero, too, and for saving my skin. I know you two aren't on the best speaking terms since the incident with my kidnapping, but please work together to try and find the real Lunch Rush."
It would make sense for Shou-kun to ask this of him, of them. Between Nezu's High Specs and Kronos' Timemaster, they should be able to find Lunch Rush in no time. But one question still remains, though. A very logical one. "Why not just hack into the robot's processor and be done with it? Wouldn't it be easier and quicker?"
"I'm not exactly trying to promote my very much illegal hacking skills, Kronos-sensei," was the deadpan reply he got. "Besides, this will be a good reconciliation exercise for you two. And take Chiyo-san, too. You two have some catching up to do." With that, Shou-kun started walking away as the gates slowly started closing once again. "I'll be seeing you soon, Kronos-sensei."
Shikaku huffed and crouched down to touch the ground so he could watch him go, in his own strange way.
'What a problem child.'