When the time came for students to head home for the day, Shouta and Shinsou walked to the Support studio together. They had trained for a few hours after classes ended. Shouta guided the student through the training regimen that Midoriya had made for him. He also added some other things he thought would help the kid.

The General Studies student was green when it came to hand-to-hand combat. Not as green as his friend's hair, but there was a lot they would need to work on. Despite his lack of experience, Shouta approved of the teen's persistence, always getting back up when the man would knock him down. Not giving up was a good trait for a Hero.

Reaching the Support Studio, Shouta approached the door with caution. He knew from experience, as a student and a teacher, that there were some Support students that had a tendency to let their projects run wild. And, from overhearing Maijima's grumbling in the teachers' room, he knew there was a new one in the batch of first years.

The man knocked on the door to alert their presence and slid the door open. The room was empty of most students except for two in the far corner, a pink one and a familiar green one. The pair didn't notice them come in, too absorbed in their projects.

"Ah Aizawa, what brings you here?" Maijima said, looking up at them from the computer. "You don't usually come by the studio."

"I'm here to pick up Midoriya," Shouta answered, nodding his head towards the green one. Shinsou had already made his way over to his friends as the teachers talked. "Nezu wants me to collect the rest of his notebooks and bring them to UA."

"Oh yeah. The principal mentioned that when he informed me about taking him on as a personal student during English class," Maijima said, shuddering slightly. "Not surprising with the level his analysis skills are already at without formal training, but the idea of those two teaming up…I can't help but worry what they'll get up to."

"Yeah," Shouta said, feeling a slight shiver up his spine at the thought. But he was the one who introduced them. It was the logical thing to do to best help the boy. Though what that meant for the future with the combined force of Midoriya's smarts and Nezu's deviousness…well, only time will tell.

"Anyway, just fyi, I have one of his with me," Maijima said, holding up the notebook. "I'm working on adding his notes to the student profiles and plan to give it back to him tomorrow."

"Good to know," the Erasure Hero responded. "Oh, I'd like to request that Midoriya join 1-A during their Rescue Training tomorrow."

"As long as he's fine with it," the redhead said with a shrug. "Though you need to let him have studio time at some point. What would be the point of his analysis if he can't use it?"

Shouta nodded and then turned his attention to the two Support students. They were focused on tinkering away while their purple-haired friend watched from a safe distance. The teacher approached the group to see what they were up to.

"…and his Quirk works in a way that he can use his own breath and shoot it out through the holes in his feet," Midoriya was explaining, point at the different diagrams in his notebook. There were two gadgets on the table next to it that looked like one of the drawings. "He uses his Quirk to propel himself around, bouncing between surfaces and kicking his opponents. There is a limit to how high he can propel himself but it doesn't affect his fighting style."

"Is this one of your Quirk Replicating Support Items?" Shouta asked, causing the students to jump. He reached out and gently picked up one of the gadgets on the table.

"Y-yeah. With a few a-additional features of m-my own. I f-figured it would be g-good for added mobility," the greenette said, sheepishly scratching his head. "Since I don't h-have a Quirk, I need something else t-to give me an edge. I have some o-other ideas to help me, too."

Shouta looked the Support Item over, turning it in his hands. The build was solid, if a bit crude still. It was metal with holes on the bottom and fixtures on the sides to attach to a shoe. There were other holes on the back that appeared to be where the air would be sucked in to then be pushed out through the holes on the bottom.

"I'll need to p-practice moving around with them," Midoriya said, reaching for the gadget which Shouta handed back to him. "It'll take s-some getting used to using them, b-but I want to be as comfortable using them a-as I can be before the Sports Festival."

"Perhaps you can bring them with you tomorrow," Shouta suggested, earning a confused head tilt from the teen. "I'd like you to join 1-A in their Rescue Training tomorrow after lunch. Maijima says it's up to you, but if you agree, I'll allow you to bring some Support Items to test."

"Again?! What about balancing my time in the studio?" Midoriya groaned in exasperation. "I can't use Support Items I have no time to make."

"We will work on it, but I had already planned for you to come before we agreed to that," Shouta answered. "After the Rescue Training, we'll let you focus on Support."

The greenette grumbled under his breathe, too quiet to understand.

"Oh, come on, Hero-kun," the pink one piped up. "Think of all the testing you could do! I'll even lend you some of my babies to test. Maybe you could even have the other students test them!"

Ah, so this is the excitable one Maijima was complaining about.

Midoriya sighed, resigning to be away from the studio. Again. "Alright, I'll go tomorrow. But after that, I need to have actual studio time if I'm going to have any chance in the Sports Festival."

"Agreed," Shouta said with a nod. "Now, it's time for everyone to be heading home. Pack your things and let's head out."

The two Support students cleaned up their area and packed their things. Though the pink one had to be coaxed into leaving by the two boys. Excitable and hard working. Once all the bags were packed and the Support students removed their coveralls changing back into their full uniforms, they left the Support studio together.

The group of three students and one teacher headed out of the main building and towards the gate. Or rather, what was left of it. The pink one was talking to Shinsou about all the 'babies' she's been working on and the boy would nod along. Midoriya wandered over to the remains of the UA Barrier and crouched down to examine it. Shouta followed suit and listened to the greenette's mumbling.

"It's not rusted or dissolved…disintegrated maybe?" Midoriya muttered, hand on his chin. "But it smells dusty and old. Decay perhaps?"

Huh.

Despite seeing the kid's notebooks, it was something else to hear his analysis in person. The way the ideas just seemed to flow out of him within seconds of observing something. Several of the teachers had already tried to figure out what happened to the Barrier but none of them had come up with what the student suggested.

"I'll let Nezu know your observations," Shouta said, making the teen squeak in surprise. "I've never heard of anyone with a Decay Quirk, but perhaps the principal can find out more. Now let's get going. I have lessons to plan and I still need to take you home to retrieve your notebooks."

The teacher herded the students out the gate. Shinsou and the pink one headed towards the station while Shouta and Midoriya went to the teacher parking lot and drove off in one of the school cars. The trip wasn't long and was mostly silent except for the radio on at a low volume. The teen directed the Hero to his apartment but otherwise the pair was quiet. Once they got there, the man parked and followed the kid to his front door, taking out his key to let them both in.

"Izuku?" a woman's voice called out from what must be the kitchen. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me, mom," Midoriya answered as a green-haired woman entered the hallway. She looked so similar to the teen that she could only be his mother. Upon seeing that her son was not alone, she stopped suddenly in surprise. "Oh, um, this is one of the teachers at UA."

"Aizawa Shouta. I'm the homeroom teacher of the Hero Course Class 1-A," the man said introducing himself. He bowed in greeting. "Nice to meet you."

"Oh, I'm Midoriya Inko, Izuku's mother. Nice to meet you, Aizawa-san," the woman replied. "Won't you come in?"

The teen and the man took off their shoes and followed the mother into the kitchen. She gestured for them to sit at the table while she made some tea. Midoriya sat on one side of the table and Shouta took the chair opposite of him. There was a bit of an awkward silence as they waited for the woman to return.

The mother came back with the tea and a plate of cookies. After pouring the tea and handing out the cups, the woman sat down next to her son. She sent a questioning look to the boy for a second before turning her attention to the man across from her.

"May I ask why a teacher of the Hero Course has come to our home?" she asked, breaking the silence. "He's in Support, not the Hero Course."

"That is correct," Shouta confirmed, taking a sip of tea. "However, for the past two days, he has been observing the training for the first year Hero Classes. His assignment was to analyze the students and their Quirks as they trained in order to improve the Support he can provide."

The mother tilted her head in confusion the same way her son did from time to time.

"On the first day of school, Midoriya's homeroom teacher learned about his analysis notebooks and brought it to my attention," the teacher continued. "Which I then passed on to Principal Nezu. His analysis is exceptional, something that we wish to cultivate at UA. By having him observe the training, it betters his skills as well as provides those in Support with information concerning each student's individual needs. The principal has also offered to teach him personally to improve his analysis skills."

Suddenly, the teen across from him was enveloped in a hug by his mother. The boy's face flushed in embarrassment over his mother hugging him like this in front of one of his favorite Heroes. Shouta hid a chuckle as a cough and smirked into his scarf.

"Oh, Izuku, that's wonderful!" the mother exclaimed, ignoring her son's flailing to be freed from the hug. "To think your hobby is going to help you in Support! And the principal wants teach you personally? I'm so proud of you!"

"Mom! Can't! Breathe!"

Shouta sat there watching the pair, amused by the greenettes' antics. The son was a blushing mess, trying to get free from her arms. The mother paid no mind as she continued to hug and gush over her son. It reminded him of Hizashi hugging one of their more anti-social cats at home. He huffed out a laugh at the thought.

This made the mother and son aware again that they were not alone. Midoriya blushed even more while his mother had a hint of pink on her own cheeks as well. She let go of her son and straightened out her clothes. The teen took a sip of his tea while avoiding the man's eyes. Again, he covered a small laugh as a cough.

"The reason I've come to your home, Midoriya-san," Shouta said, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Is to collect the other notebooks your son has written and bring them back to UA."

"Why do you need to have them at UA?" the mother asked, glancing at her son briefly.

"To be frank, his analysis is vulnerable here," the Hero answered bluntly. The woman's eyes widened at the comment while the teen flinched slightly. "The information he has in his notebooks could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. If a Villain were to have even just a page from one, which ever Hero was written about would be in jeopardy."

The mother paled at the implications. "I-I had never thought of that," she said, wringing her hands nervously. "It's been a hobby of his since he was little. I never considered that they could be dangerous like that."

"Which is why I am here to collect them," the man stated. "We can keep his notes safe at UA and are going to help him develop a code for them. We want to help him improve his analysis skills as well as help him keep the information safe."

"Of course," the mother said, smiling warmly. "Izuku's notebooks are very important to him. Thank you for taking care of my son as well as protecting his work."

After that, the two Midoriyas and Shouta finished their tea and munched on the cookies. Not wanting to overstay his welcome, the teacher stood up, thanked the woman for the tea, and directed the teen to show him the notebooks. The mother insisted she didn't need help cleaning, so the two males headed to the boy's room.

Shouta fought the urge to scoff at the All Might themed plaque on the door. Once the teen opened the door though, he couldn't help but groan quietly at the amount of Hero Merch that filled the room. There were posters, figurines, and various other Hero themed memorabilia. He rolled his eyes at the All Might bedspread.

I figured he was a fanboy but…damn.

Glancing around the room, he noticed that a majority of the merch was All Might. But he also saw a sprinkling of other Heroes as well. Best Jeanist, Gang Orca, Thirteen, even some of the newer Heroes like Kamui Woods. He took note of a figurine of Present Mic and planned to tell Hizashi that he was represented in his star student's room.

Midoriya had crossed the room to a bookshelf that had various books, manga, and what could only be the rest of his notebooks. The teen gathered them carefully and placed them on his desk. Shouta produced a black tote bag out of his scarf to carry the notebooks in. The boy quirked a brow in question but he gave no explanation.

Once the notebooks were all in the bag, Shouta picked it up and headed towards the front door. Midoriya followed to let him out and his mother joined them in the entrance. As the man was putting on his shoes, a framed news article and a picture caught his eye.

Straightening up, he examined it more closely to find it was about the beach that had been cleaned up a short while ago. There still hadn't been anyone to come forward to claim they did it, but with the picture of Midoriya with the beach behind him paired with the article, Shouta could piece together that it was probably him.

"Midoriya," the Hero called out. The teen turned to him and the man gestured towards the framed news clipping with a quirked brow. A silent question.

"Y-yeah, that was me," the greenette sheepishly admitted, getting a proud smile from his mother. "Someone had to. I thought, why not me?"

"Huh," Shouta let out. He looked at the before and after pictures seeing how much trash had been removed. "How long did that take?"

"About ten months," the teen answered. "Hauled a truck load of garbage pretty much every day."

"By yourself?"

"Basically?" Midoriya said. "I had a little help from Mei-chan, though she just wanted to try out her inventions and it was mostly towards the end with the big stuff. But for the most part, just me."

Huh. This kid is full of surprises.

"Why not say it was you?" Shouta asked. Though he knew he himself wouldn't have said anything either if he had done it. Dealing with the media was a pain.

"Would it have mattered if I did?" the teen countered with a shrug. "I didn't do it for the credit. I did it to make people smile. Knowing that people can enjoy the beach again is enough for me."

"I also asked if he wanted to say it was him," the mother interjected. "But even if he doesn't want the credit publicly, I wanted something for him to remember what he did."

Shouta nodded in understanding then bid the Midoriyas goodbye. He left the apartment and drove back to UA with the notebooks in hand. As he drove, he thought about the cleaned beach and the boy responsible for it.

Cleaning that amount of garbage in ten months by himself, mostly, was quite a feat. If the kid put the same amount of determination and effort into getting in the Hero Course, he had no doubt that the Hero-hopeful would accomplish his goals. The man smirked as he thought about the coming Sports Festival.

This year's festival is going to be interesting.

...

Blog name: ja0-s-blank-canvas-fic

Notes extension: post/626548111222898688/chapter-23-a-tired-man-collects-some-notebooks