Chapter 18 – Shota Aizawa

"You know, you're kind of a moron," rang out a voice he quickly realized was Ren's. He had suddenly awoken.

Aizawa was in the nurse's office. Recovery Girl was quietly chatting with the principal in the corner. He was laying in one of the hospital beds, wrapped up tight in blankets like a mummy. Ren was seated next to him her phone in her hand. She made a tsk tsk noise.

"I don't know what you were hoping to accomplish. I guess I can give you the whole 'run before you can walk' lecture. That seems to be a favorite among UA faculty to their arrogant, over-eager first years." Ren seethed.

"What happened?" Aizawa mumbled, blinking his eyes rapidly and taking a deep breath, trying to will himself more awake.

"Well, let's see. Your forceful grip, your WHOLE hand on my arm, exposed you to way too much of my quirk. You screamed out a horrific noise like a dying elephant and after evacuating all your bodily fluids and passing out, I carried you here," Ren retorted.

Aizawa turned his head towards Ren with a horrified expression on his face.

"Okay you didn't evacuate any of your bodily fluids, well you did drool a little," Aizawa wiggled his body to loosen himself from his cocoon and threw the covers off his body. He realized that he was wearing the same clothes and they appeared to be…unsoiled.

"You're lucky though. It can and has happened. It isn't pretty. All Might can give you first-hand knowledge of that. This isn't like you to be so impulsive and irrational. Or at least not the Eraserhead I worked with years ago."

"Well, I'm…."

"Sorry? Well, you should be!" Ren interrupted.

"No, I was gonna say I'm surprised you carried me all the way here. You haven't been doing real hero work in years so I assume you're pretty out of shape."

Ren growled, stood up, and left Recovery Girl's office.

"Kimura, wait!" Aizawa tried to sit up but felt faint. He got to his feet and ended up falling on the floor. Recovery Girl shuffled over. "Aizawa, you stay right where you are! You are in no condition to be running around!"

20 minutes later Recovery Girl gave Aizawa the okay to stand up and see how he was on his feet. He was back to normal. She still insisted he wait 30 more minutes to make sure he was fine. After what seemed like forever, he thanked Recovery Girl and got lectured for the 10th time that night which was unusual for him since he was the epitome of rule-following and even-thinking. "In all my years, for you of all people to pull a stunt like that. Hope this isn't the new Eraserhead."

"I won't worry you again Shuzenji. My apologies." He bowed deeply before her. They both left the main school building and being the last ones out, Recovery Girl locked up the main doors behind them. Aizawa started towards the bus station bidding her farewell. If he hurried he could catch the last bus. He realized without his binding cloth he wouldn't be able to rush through the rooftops to get home quickly. It must still be back in the classroom where they were working on the study and the school was locked up for the night he thought. It was Saturday so the streets were mostly empty. At the station, he realized the buses on Saturday didn't run as late as they usually did during the week and he had missed the last one of the day. He decided to call a cab. He opened the compartment in his utility belt where he usually kept his phone. It wasn't there. It was probably back at Recovery girl's office and of course she locked up after him. Great Aizawa thought. 8 mile walk home. He at least could sleep in tomorrow morning since it was Sunday. As he made his way through neighborhood streets after about a mile in, he realized he was near Ren's house. He had dropped by to check on how her moving in went for Nezu a couple of weeks before. He wondered how she was doing now. She seemed pretty upset with him earlier. He had acted very brazen in his last attempt during the study procedure. It was very unlike him to not follow protocol. Suddenly the sky opened up and a torrential downpour ensued. "Dammit, just my luck," he mumbled. Well let's hope Kimura doesn't mind late night guests he thought to himself. He hoped he could remember the way to her house. He had used the GPS on his phone before. Now he had no guide. After knocking on the door of the wrong house and waking an elderly woman from her sleep and getting chewed out, Aizawa didn't want to risk further embarrassment and harassment but he also wanted to get out of the abysmal weather. He knocked on the house next door.

"Aizawa?" Ren had opened the door and was staring at him surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Not too keen on walking home in this rain…."

"Come in! You'll catch a cold!"