Chapter 4
Ms. Joke

Mr. Aizawa suddenly jolts on the spot.

Shouji produces an eye and stares at his teacher in confusion, because he just… did it without any prior noise or warning. Not only that, Mr. Aizawa is not known to just jolt out of nowhere. He sees Ojirou notices it as well; he's not sure about everyone else.

Then, suddenly, Mr. Aizawa throws his scarf to the ceiling, causing a panel to burst open. In the blink of an eye, he jumps into the opening and closes it with another panel. The hole seamlessly disappeared, as if it wasn't there in the first place.

He blinks.

The class continues to fill with chatter. No one noticed it.

He turns his eye to look at Ojirou, who looks back at him. He also has an utterly confused look on his face. He guesses he has the same look in his face too.

What was all that about?

SLAM!

"Hey, Eraser!"

He turns his eye to the door which was slid open (loudly) to reveal the Smile Hero: Ms. Joke. She has a wide grin on her face before it quickly disappears, replaced with a confused frown.

"It's Ms. Joke!"

"Ms. Joke!"

"Wow, It's Ms. Joke!"

The class erupts at her appearance and the smile instantly reappears. She enters the classroom and closes the door behind her.

"Hey, students!" she greets them, one hand waving excitedly.

"Ms. Joke! What're you doing here?" he hears Midoriya asks excitedly (because of course he is).

"Well I am here for a business reason!" she answers while flashing him a thumbs up.

"What kind of business?"

"Business kind."

"O-Okay…?"

"Now then, where's your homeroom teacher?" she asks the class while looking around the room. He sees that after Ms. Joke mentioning it, his classmates are now looking around in wonder at Mr. Aizawa's absence. "I was completely sure he would be here."

"Wait, where did Mr. Aizawa go!?"

"He was here just a moment ago…"

He makes eye contact with Ojirou once more, being the only two who was aware where Mr. Aizawa had disappeared to. Ojirou tilts his head slightly, a silent askance if they should tell her. He shrugs. Well Ms. Joke is asking where he is and it could be a "business kind" of business like she had said. He produces another eye and looks up to where he thinks where Mr. Aizawa had gone into.

He is about to raise his hand to gain her attention when he instantly freezes.

A familiar eye is visible through the crack between two panels on the ceiling. It's glaring down at him with so much intensity he is instantly drenched in sweats.

He slowly lowers his hand.

The eye disappears.

He releases his breath he unknowingly held.

He notices Ojirou is giving him a high eyebrow look, confused. He shakes his head rapidly. Now Ojirou frowns and doubles the confusion but wisely keeps quiet.

"Welp, I guess I have to find him somewhere else!" he hears Ms. Joke declares. By the time he looks up, she is already out the classroom with the door already open. "See you later alligators!"

SLAM!

"Be sure to hand in your homework by tomorrow."

He and everyone else in the class let out a loud yelp. Mr. Aizawa is back. He is at his table as if he had been there the whole time. He looks up to the ceiling where he knew where Mr. Aizawa had come from. He doesn't notice anything amiss.

"Class dismissed," he says with an air of conclusion, putting a file under the arm.

"Wait, Mr. Aizawa! Where did you come from?!"

"And where did you go?!"

"Where did you come from Cot-"

"Irrelevant questions," Mr. Aizawa cuts everyone off, accompanied with a displeased frown. "Now get going before All Might decides to call in the search party again."

He shudders at the reminder, and he's sure his classmates are also feeling the same. There's no reason for him to remind them of that! It was just that one time.

Mr. Aizawa heads over to the door and opens it much calmer than Ms. Joke not too long ago. Then, he closes it behind him-

SLAM!

"ERASER!"

-And Ms. Joke instantly opens the door.

"Damn it, I thought I was for sure I would catch him here!" Ms. Joke whines while snapping her fingers in displeasure.

He frowns in utter confusion. What did she mean by that? There was less than a second between Mr. Aizawa closing the door and Ms. Joke opening it. Didn't she catch him right there and then? Did Mr. Aizawa really disappear that fast?

"Welp! You kids better get going before Eraser gets really angry!"

Without another word, he and everyone are out within a split second.

.

He runs down the hallway that leads him back to his classroom. Training earlier was less than thrilling but it ended up costing him half of his mask, almost completely burnt away (Todoroki did apologize for it and offered to pay, to which he politely refused) but thankfully it is enough to still cover his face. He has an extra one he had put in the class just in case something would happen.

He stops in his track just as he approaches a corridor.

Ms. Joke quickly puts a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture. She has an excited grin on her face and it looks like she is holding in a laugh from the way her shoulders shake up and down. She has her back pressed firmly to the wall near the corridor.

In her other hand is a pie.

He thinks he knows what she is trying to do.

Then his sensitive hearing picks up footsteps coming down the hallway adjacent to them. Judging by the widened grin on Ms. Joke's lips, she hears it as well. She presses herself further into the wall and readies the pie in her hand.

He could stop her right now. He could save her from the hell that would definitely bestow up her by one Mr. Aizawa.

But his morbid curiosity lets him standing there and watches with anticipation.

Something black appears around the corridor.

"ERASER!"

Ms. Joke doesn't waste a single second and is already swings the pie onto the victim. He hears a squelching splat and then he silently prays for Ms. Joke's safety from now on.

"EW! EW! WHAT THE- HELL!"

Except that's not Mr. Aizawa's voice.

He steps forward to get a better look at the unfortunate victim. It's their tall yellow hair that gives away their identity.

"JOKE! WHAT THE HELL MAN!" Present Mic whines while being completely covered in pie. His face is twisted in pure disgust as he looks down at himself.

Right behind him is none other than Mr. Aizawa, completely unscathed from the mess.

There were two people coming? He only heard one.

"Eraser, could you stop with that silent footstep of yours?!" he hears Ms. Joke says. That gains his attention; Mr. Aizawa can make his footsteps silent?

Well, it would be logical. Mr. Aizawa is an Underground Hero, who strives in stealth and anonymity. But then he starts to realize. Has he ever heard Mr. Aizawa's footsteps before?

"If it means to get away from you then I would never stop using it," he hears Mr. Aizawa replies as he sidesteps Present Mic, who seems to be frozen in place; probably trying not to move too much or else he would be in a worse state than he is now.

"Where have you been, Eraser? Playing hard to get?" Ms. Joke teases as she quickly gets herself to Mr. Aizawa's side.

"Getting the hell away from you was what I was doing," Mr. Aizawa replies as he tries to create a space between him and Ms. Joke but she quickly puts an arm around him and pulls him close.

"Don't be like that, Eraser! You know you love me!"

"I do not and let me go."

"It would be better if I were your wife."

"It will not."

"BWAH!"

Mr. Aizawa manages to free himself from her clutch as she doubles over in laughter. His homeroom teacher grumbles and walks away from her. He straightens when he realizes Mr. Aizawa is approaching him. Then, he takes out something from his pocket and hands it to him.

"Mr. Aiz- How did you-" he stutters as he looks down at the mask in his hand. Mr. Aizawa doesn't answer, merely continues to walk away.

"Wait, Eraser! Don't leave me behind!" Ms. Joke quickly jogs up to his homeroom teacher until they're walking side by side. "Where're you going, Eraser?!"

"Away from you."

"Playing hard to get?"

"We already had this conversation."

"BWAH!"

He watches their backs as they walk away, with Ms. Joke continuously nonstop bothering Mr. Aizawa, until they disappear to another corridor. He looks down at the mask in his hand. Now that he has it now, he guesses he could go back to the training ground. So he quickly runs back down to where he had come from. He'll put it on in the changing room there.

"Wait, can someone please help me here?! This pie is icky!"

.

"Eraser, your fly is down."

"Urgh."

"Oh are you happy to be with me?"

"Shut up."

"Date me!"

"Joke, pipe down or you'll give away our position."

He glances at the two Heroes next to him. Mr. Aizawa is crouching down right on the very edge of the ledge. Ms. Joke is sitting down on it with her feet dangling. He would've joined them and stood on the ledge but they're currently on top of a tall building and he doesn't want to take the chance.

The moon is pretty bright tonight, but it is no match the light produced by the city. Mr. Aizawa had brought him on his night patrol as a learning experience. This'll be his first experience with patrolling during nighttime. He knows Shinsou had expressed about going Underground, and he heard Tokoyami and Hakagure are playing with the idea as well.

"Eraser!"

"Shut up, Joke."

Oh, and Ms. Joke is here too. Much to Mr. Aizawa's annoyance, she had heard about tonight and had been waiting for them outside the 1-A dorm. Mr. Aizawa would've left her behind if she hadn't made the argument that her help in the learning could beneficial.

So here they are, on top of a building with Ms. Joke nonstop harassing Mr. Aizawa ever since they left UA.

"Hey, Shouji!" He turns towards Ms. Joke when she calls out to him. She has a wide excited smile on her face but since when she doesn't? "Did you know that Eraser once left a civilian on a roof just because they hate cats?"

"Could you stop telling people that story? It's beating a deadbeat horse by this point," Mr. Aizawa interrupts with an exasperated voice. Joke only laughs louder.

Their conversation gets cut short when he hears a loud cry coming from directly below them. The atmosphere around him instantly changes as the lighthearted teasing disappears.

"Step aside for the moment, kid," Ms. Joke tells him. The Smiling Hero turns to give him a smile as Mr. Aizawa dons his golden yellow goggles. Her smile is not as wide as the usual one; it's more toothy… and it reminds him of Mr. Aizawa. "Let the Pros handle this one first and learn from it."

Without any other words, Mr. Aizawa and Ms. Joke jumps off of the ledge without exchanging words with each other. He looks over the ledge and watches the fight unfolds before his eyes (twelve of them).

The way Mr. Aizawa and Ms. Joke fight… it's like a dance. Fighting so close to one another yet never hitting each other. It's even more amazing that they're never directly looking at each other yet aware of each other's presence.

They are very well in sync.

That is until Ms. Joke slaps Mr. Aizawa right in the face right as the fight ends.

He winces. The rest of tonight's patrol is not going to be good…

.

"Don't you sidestep the issue, Joke. I know you were doing it on purpose!"

"That's the funniest joke you had ever done!"

"Joke."

"I have no idea what you're trying to say, Eraser!"

"Joke!"

"He's always like this," Ms. Joke whispers to him, comically putting a hand to her lips to block them from Mr. Aizawa's view, who is currently fuming at the Smiling Hero.

He tries not to stare at the red hand mark on Mr. Aizawa's cheek.

"He's so uptight he couldn't take a harmless joke."

"That was not a joke and it was also most definitely not harmless!"

"Oh cheer up, Eraser!" Ms. Joke says to Mr. Aizawa, her grin is wider than before. Mr. Aizawa only scowls more.

Then, he releases a defeated sigh and his body sags.

"Just… let's continue with the patrol," his teacher says with exasperation. He notices Ms. Joke has a triumphant smile.

Mr. Aizawa then suddenly throws his scarf upwards and pulls himself up.

"You better catch up, Shouji kid!" Ms. Joke tells him as she is already climbing the pipe lining up the wall.

"Wh- Wait!" he stumbles in his steps as he tries to find a purchase on the wall of the building. By then, the two Heroes/teachers are already on top of the building and he has to stop to admire the feat. When he finally climbed to the top, Mr. Aizawa and Ms. Joke are on another building.

"Come on, slowpoke!" Ms. Joke shouts while waving a hand. Mr. Aizawa is slouching right next to her with his hands in his pockets. "First rule of Underground Hero works is mobility!"

"That's second," his sensitive hearing catches Mr. Aizawa's words.

"I mean second!" Ms. Joke rectifies. "Now get your butt moving!" She beckons him with a hand.

He walks over to the edge and looks down the long drop between the buildings they are standing on. Thankfully there is not a whole lot of distance between them. He could easily jump over it. So he leaps to the next building and safely lands on the roof.

"Finally catching up," he hears Mr. Aizawa says. "Just don't get left behind."

Without any other words, Mr. Aizawa and Ms. Joke turns and runs to the edge of the building. Now more ready, he chases after them. They jump over from one building to the other. Much like the fight not too long ago, Mr. Aizawa and Ms. Joke are very in sync with one another. Not only that, he barely hears their footsteps.

He remembers that Ms. Joke had worked with Mr. Aizawa before his time as a UA teacher.

He wonders if Ms. Joke is inspired by Mr. Aizawa and tries to be a bit more like him.