Learning to Trust


"Every truth has two sides; it is well to look at both before we commit ourselves to either."
一Aesop


Chapter 22: Two Sides

"I suppose it's about time I at very least tell you what you need to know about Yagi Toshinori."

All Might's words rang in Aizawa's ears. He gritted his teeth. More secrets? Dammit, Yagi, I already know you're a dying pro. How many more secrets could you possibly be hiding?

Yamada jumped to his feet at All Might's words, and Midnight's mouth half-opened as though she were about to say something, but stopped herself in the nick of time. Aizawa, on the other hand, remained impassive, still slouched in his seat, arms crossed and eyes narrowed in undisguised distaste. He observed all of these happenings around him in stoic silence. Nezu, of course, didn't look surprised at all, but the others apparently hadn't expected this declaration. Aizawa huffed. They've been acting strange around All Might since he got in here…

"All Might," Yamada began in a surprisingly tentative voice. "Are you really sure–"

But before he could finish, Nezu caught everyone's attention, announcing in a voice that was far too cheerful for the room's current mood, "I could use some more tea, and it looks like All Might is almost out of coffee. Present Mic… Midnight… would you mind joining me? I'll probably need a hand bringing things back. My paws really aren't suited for the task. Eraserhead, would you like anything?" When Aizawa shook his head no, Nezu just smiled brightly at the teachers and hopped off of his seat to walk toward the door, motioning for Mic and Midnight to follow.

After exchanging one significant look, they both nodded. As Mic walked toward the door, Midnight laid a hand on All Might's arm for a moment and shot him a small, reassuring smile of her own. He winked at her.

Aizawa gritted his teeth. And what the hell is that all about? He was growing more irritated the longer he shared the room with All Might.

Both men sat motionless in the room until the door had clicked shut behind them.

Finally All Might took a deep breath. "Aizawa…" he began.

But the smaller man ignored him, standing. Avoiding eye contact, he walked over to the wall, arms crossed, to glare at the photographs in front of him. His eyes scanned the pictures, searching for the one he always looked for when he came to Nezu's office.

He was acutely aware of All Might rising from his own seat, sipping his coffee as he approached. The man seemed to be watching Aizawa out of the corner of his eye. Aizawa bristled, frustrated by how the man's very presence bothered him so much. Never before had Aizawa had a problem with All Might aside from the general annoyance flashy showboaters tended to draw out of him. But this was different. Aizawa found that he was on edge, and he didn't like it.

The hulking blond behemoth sipped his coffee again and politely turned his attention to the photographs that Aizawa had been studying as though they really were just killing time while they waited for Nezu to come back with the drinks.

"I take it Mic and Midnight already know about whatever it is you're going to tell me?" Aizawa finally broke in, his voice remaining deceptively flat. "That's why Nezu felt a sudden need to bring us refreshments?"

All Might's blue eyes flicked over to Aizawa again, but Aizawa kept his stubborn gaze fixed on the pictures. "Yes," he replied simply.

Aizawa snorted. Figures.

"They found out on their own. Both of them," he rumbled in his deep baritone. "They weren't told anything more than you were… if that makes you feel better…"

It didn't.

Aizawa glanced over at All Might again, his eyes drawn to the gaudy Golden Age mug that the man held in massive, scarred hands. The sight of that mug pissed him off even more, bringing to mind that afternoon in Yagi's apartment when they had shared tea, and Yagi had spilled his big secret. "I don't feel anything about this," Aizawa snapped shortly, forcing those thoughts from his mind. "Just tell me what I need to know. Is this some last request of his or something? One final hurrah before his health forces him to retire? Or did he just ask that you let him keep fighting until he dropped dead?"

All Might nearly choked on his coffee at those words.

Good. Serves you right, you showy asshole. He tore his eyes away from the mug to again stare fixedly at the photograph on the wall.

"No! No, it isn't like that at all. I promise. No one's dying!"

A slightly bitter smile curved Aizawa's lips. The smile didn't reach his eyes. "Right…" he responded with a little huff. "Maybe you're being kept in the dark like everyone else, then."

"I–"

"Anyone with eyes can see he's dying, All Might. Even you can't be that blind, as busy as you claim to be. His apartment is more sterile than Recovery Girl's office. He has a small pharmacy on his kitchen counter keeping him alive. He can't walk down a long hallway without stopping to catch his breath, and that was before he caught pneumonia while following your directives." His fists clenched then, showing his first real emotion since the beginning of the conversation. "Yet still you have him out chasing villains because he has some incredible mystery quirk and misses being a hero."

"Aizawa–"

"You can call me Eraserhead, All Might."

Strangely, All Might looked as though he'd been slapped in the face. After a long pause, he responded in a surprisingly soft and polite tone, very different from his usual boisterous voice, "Of course. My apologies for being too familiar." He coughed a few times, after that, and took a long drink of his coffee.

"Don't you dare go near him with that cough."

All Might's head snapped up at that.

Aizawa ground his teeth and glared back at the picture ahead of him with such intensity that All Might stepped near enough to observe it, himself. It was an old photograph of Aizawa, Kayama, Yamada, and… He closed his eyes for a moment, but the image was still there floating in his mind's eye. They were all smiling in the photograph in that carefree way of youth when nothing could go wrong and no one could ever die. None of them had smiled like that in a long, long time. "If you're sick, just stay away from him," he bit out, not trusting himself to say more.

"I can't."

His eyes opened again at that. "You can't or you won't?"

"I can't," All Might repeated firmly. His voice had regained its volume, but it sounded faded and tired. "Look, there are things that I don't expect you to understand, but please just let me explain before you pass judgment. Because so much of my time as a pro has been televised and sensationalized, most people don't realize that there are fights I face that no one ever sees. Like this Shifter case, for example."

"So?"

He took a deep breath. "One of those fights occurred five years ago. It was particularly ugly. I won, but the battle … reduced my ability to fight drastically." His voice lowered. "It's one reason I'm considering coming here to teach. I won't be able to keep up the old illusion much longer." The larger man absently rubbed at his left side. "But as I am now… I needed to know who I could trust first."

Something cold settled in the pit of Aizawa's stomach at those words. All Might had a debilitating injury a few years ago?

Yagi's words flashed into his mind unbidden. "I was in an accident. I sustained a fairly bad injury here." He'd touched his side. "I'm lucky to be alive."

Aizawa forcibly thrust that thought from his mind as he processed All Might's words. "So you sent Yagi here to spy on us for you? That's why you had him come here in your place."

All Might's eyes widened. "No, Aiza–" He broke off, "Eraserhead… you're not seeing the whole picture. It wasn't–"

"Of course that wasn't all," Aizawa snapped with more rancor than he'd intended, surprising even himself. He finally turned to fully look at All Might. "Because you're using Yagi as a fill-in for you when you can't fight, too, right? Is that it?" It sounded wrong even as he said it. All Might, showy fool though he could be, would never put his own life before someone else's. But that has to be it. It's the only rational explanation for all of this. The only other option would be… His eyes were drawn again to the way All Might rubbed at his side. Yagi's injury was on his left side, too… He didn't get to think on that too closely, however, as he noticed a veil of steam wafting off of the man, thin at first, but growing thicker by the moment. What the…?

"Of course not," All Might retorted. "I'm–" But before he could properly respond, a fit of coughing caught him, this time uncontrollable, and the steam began rolling off of him in thicker and thicker waves. He'd have dropped his mug if Aizawa hadn't moved with practiced calm, grabbing it at the last minute and setting it on a small coffee table near where he stood, before catching hold of the larger man's forearm to steady him.

"What the hell, All Might? That cough sounds as bad as…" Aizawa cut off abruptly at that, unable to deny the obvious any longer. A wave of betrayal washed over him as a painful knot tightened in his gut. That bastard… Of course… YagiHere I've had your back… and for what? He felt sick. "Shit," he hissed softly under his breath. "I'm such an idiot…"

Aizawa could feel the hard muscle of All Might's arm shift under his hands as his clothing loosened, hanging limply on his skeletal frame. Aizawa's supporting hands suddenly needed to readjust as firm muscle melted away, leaving what felt like nothing more than skin pulled taut over bone, and far too much fabric. He was now able to wrap his hand entirely around the man's bony forearm. The fragile Symbol of Peace was coughing uncontrollably now, practically choking on his own blood.

"Dammit…" Aizawa hissed.

"Eraserhead…" he managed to rasp out the ragged words between painful sounding coughs that shook his entire emaciated body. He fumbled to pull out a blue handkerchief from his pocket to clean up the blood.

"Just shut up and sit down," Aizawa snapped, guiding the taller man to a chair and depositing him there. He then turned to grab the coffee and handed it over to what was left of All Might. "Here. Catch your breath. Then drink this. Don't you dare say a word until you can properly breathe." He hovered over the man until the coughing began to finally settle down and his color came back. Only then did Aizawa finally slump down into an adjacent chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

He didn't take his eyes off of the frail hero until he had drained his entire cup.

"Eraserhead," the blond started again in a somewhat steadier voice, but Aizawa interrupted him once more.

"Do I need to call Recovery Girl?"

All Might's shadowed eyes met his. Quietly, he responded, "No. She knows about my… condition."

"So, am I the only one you decided to keep in the dark?"

The blond pinched the bridge of his nose with his long, bony hand. "It isn't like that."

"Of course not–"

But All Might's blue eyes snapped up bright and piercing, and he stated firmly, "Let me finish, please. I owe you a proper explanation." His voice was quiet, but resonated with a resolute authority that All Might's powerful boom had lacked, and Aizawa found himself struck silent by the surprising strength contained in this frail form.

Aizawa would not be cowed by All Might. But Yagi… somehow, even now, that was a different matter…

All Might–Yagi–held his gaze and continued in the same even tone, weak though it was from his recent coughing fit. "I'm sorry for deceiving you, Eraserhead. It wasn't personal. This is a secret I've kept for years. I was nearly killed in a battle five years ago. I should have died, honestly. The only reason I'm here now is luck and a lot of people with the right quirks on shift at the hospital when I arrived. It took months of recovery and years of surgeries just to get me to this point. They managed to extend my life, but no one really knows by how long, and my strength has been steadily dwindling ever since." He reached up and tugged at one of his long bangs dangling loosely in front of his face before finally just running his hand through his entire mess of hair. He looked old and tired, but Aizawa could see the fire burning behind his eyes. "I can only do hero work for a few hours a day at best now. If people find out what I've become, they're going to lose hope. So to stop that from happening, and to keep villains from learning about my time limit, I've been holding onto this secret." He sighed. "But I won't be able to do it much longer. An abrupt retirement would seem suspicious, given my track record, so Nezu agreed to let me try my hand at teaching here. It would give me a logical way to gradually ease out of the limelight while others take my place."

Aizawa sat in silence, processing all of this. It was a lot to take in, but for some reason, the only thing that really hit home was the fact that Yagi had said that his life had been extended, not saved. He was still dying. Aizawa had known that, but for some reason hearing the man finally say it himself cut deeper–hit too close to home. He cleared his throat, forcing the conversation onto a different path. Now wasn't the time to become too lost in his own dark thoughts. "Why did you lie about who you are?"

"I didn't." Hurriedly he continued before Aizawa could interrupt. "My real name isn't well-known, but it is Yagi Toshinori. I have actually been doing clerical work at my agency when I can't power up, so I can stay in the know and monitor activity." He spread his hands guiltily. "I admit that I intentionally left out a lot of details, but I didn't technically lie." His brow furrowed. "And I'm sorry about those details. I needed to know I could trust everyone here. I've put too much into this secret to just throw it away. I don't expect you to forgive me for keeping you in the dark, but that's the truth." He fell silent.

Aizawa studied him quietly for several minutes, watching the man squirm before him with no small amount of satisfaction–Good. He deserves to squirm–before finally speaking. "That's the most asinine story I've ever heard," he growled. "So you kept a bunch of secrets because you think the rest of the world needs to think you're strong, is that it? You had the good luck to survive a villain attack that should have killed you and you're squandering it because you think that's what people want?" White-hot anger flared up inside, and it was all he could do to keep it under control. Still, his voice dripped with venom. "You idiot. Do you know how many people–good, honest people—would do anything to have that kind of chance to save a friend from death and you're just wasting it because you think they need hope?" He balled his hand into a fist. "Retire, dammit. There are people who care about you, and if you sacrifice your life to give a bunch of strangers hope, you're going to destroy the people close to you. What kind of a hero does that?"

All Might smiled faintly, his gaunt face looking worn and haggard. "I don't have anyone close to me, so that won't be a problem."

"You really are an idiot if you believe that, Yagi," Aizawa responded, his voice low. "But I stand by what I said before. I'll help you as much as I can on this case of yours if you pull yourself from active duty. Let us take care of it. Stay on the sidelines and recover."

"Eraser–"

"Your call. Take it or leave it."

"I can't do that. I'm sorry."

Aizawa stood abruptly at that. "Then we have nothing more to talk about. Good luck on your case, All Might. Try not to hurt anyone by getting yourself killed."

With those final words, he walked out of the room, striding past Nezu, Mic, and Midnight without a word as the door clicked with a firm finality behind him.


Author's Note: Thanks so much for your patience! I know it was a really long wait for this particular chapter, so I hope it was worth the wait. Writing the reveal was even more difficult than I had anticipated (and I figured it would be pretty hard!) Thank you for reading and I hope you are still enjoying the story!

Also, a big thanks to lolo popoki and Haptronym for betaing this chapter, and for Haptronym's help and motivation to even get it written. (It would not have been done yet without her help).

I hope you enjoy!

Sincerely,

Sirius:)