Disclaimer: I do not own Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
If Aizawa expelled…
Chapter nineteen: Silent stitching
The audience that was summoned by the Realmcrafter Talespinner69 had finished watching the eighteenth of twenty realms that each feature Aizawa expelling one of his students in the class that he teaches at UA. At this point, only two of the boys haven't gone yet, and just wondering which of the two will be number nineteen, as well as what he'll be expelled over, had a lot of the audience members wondering.
"I'm banking on mister tall, brooding and silent," Gentle Criminal said while gesturing to Shoji, "He seems like he could be expelled over coming off as creepy." La Brava nodded in agreement with the man she idolized.
Gently shaking his head, Kendo Rappa said while pointing at Mineta, "Nah, it's got to be the boy that everyone says is a pervert. That's the kind of behavior that can get anyone booted out of any place if you ask me!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot those guys were here," Dark Shadow remarked casually.
Sighing in a troubled tone, Aizawa said, "I just want to get the last two realms over with." Straightening up a bit, the underground hero went on, "There's only the realms where I expel Shoji and Mineta left, so just play them and let me see why booting them would not be a good idea for me to do."
"Just give me and Kotaro a moment to get the next realm ready," Tale remarked as he and Kotaro fiddled around with the remote for a bit.
As Aizawa slumped in his seat, Izuku said, "Well look on the bright side, Aizawa-sensei. There's only two realms left. This show will be ending soon."
"And hey," Uraraka added, "Despite how most of us have seen what would happen if we were all expelled by you, we've had some measure of fun watching this show."
Snickering a bit, Mirko said where she sat next to Ryukyu, "My favorite up to this point has to be the one where you expelled the tail boy and you all have to go up that kung-fu tower."
"Mirio defecated on my shirt in that realm because he used it as a diaper!" Aizawa shot back.
As a few people chuckled in the audience, Tale said, "Oh, that reminds me. My kind and I have just confirmed that Mirio for real has recovered his quirk."
"That's wonderful news!" Izuku cheered, with Eri laughing and clapping to celebrate Mirio.
Nodding along, Kotaro said, "Yes, yes. Well anyway we got the nineteenth realm in this show ready to be played." Everyone in the audience then turned to face front and center as Tale and Kotaro started up the next realm on the big theater screen. For his part, Aizawa just wanted to get through this realm and the one after this one. Then his nightmare would be over.
...
(If Aizawa expelled Mezo Shoji)
"Ha!" Mineta in the audience laughed at Shoji, "You're the next one to be axed from UA!"
Arching a wry eyebrow, Shoji remarked, "That means you're going to be booted after me."
As Mineta fell back while giving off a defeated air, Hizashi said, "Huh. I wonder what Shoji could have done to warrant Sho wanting to expel him from UA."
Gently shaking his head, Aizawa remarked dryly, "To borrow some of Eri's vernacular, the reason is bound to be cow poop." As for Eri who still sat on Aizawa's lap, she couldn't help but giggle as she just heard Aizawa use her words from earlier.
The day over at UA was well enough one Thursday. Aizawa, as he sat in the teachers lounge, was talking to Hizashi, Sekijiro and Hound Dog. "Hang on, hang on, hang on," Hound Dog said, "You said that you had expelled the Shoji boy?"
After Aizawa nodded a bit in the affirmative, Hizashi asked, "Why did you expel Shoji? The hell did he do?"
"He had weapons in class," Aizawa replied.
In the audience, Aizawa arched a wry eyebrow and said, "That's it? Sure, it'd be an expulsion-worthy offence at other schools, but a weapon at UA, where most students are more threatened by midterms than a knife or a gun?" Folding his arms over his chest, Aizawa said, "Whatever the weapon Shoji had was, it must be bad."
Nodding in agreement, Shoji remarked, "I agree, Aizawa-sensei, and let me just say that I would never for real bring a weapon to class."
"Thanks for being respectful of policy, Shoji," Aizawa said.
"...That's it?" Sekijiro said, "What kind of weapons were they, Shouta?"
"Knitting needles," Aizawa replied.
"Knitting needles?" Hizashi repeated in a confused tone.
Nodding in confirmation, Aizawa explained, "It was a free period, so the students were keeping themselves occupied with some activities. That was when I saw Shoji take out some yarn and a pair of knitting needles and started knitting a scarf." Pointing at the other men, Aizawa said, "Shoji could have very easily stabbed someone with those knitting needles, I'll have you know!"
"I was knitting in class during free period?" Shoji in the audience said, sounding very much surprised.
Shrugging, Aizawa said, "Although I could see what the me in this realm was thinking, I for real wouldn't expel you over knitting a scarf in class. Hell, I'd probably express surprised wonder at the sight then simply ask you to be careful with the knitting needles or just ask you to put the knitting away and do something else."
Giving Aizawa a mildly unsettled look, Hound Dog said, "Umm, Aizawa, I was the one who suggested to Shoji that he pick up knitting. It's supposed to be a therapeutic activity to help him calm down since he and your boy Mineta have been getting into so many spats as of late."
"That doesn't excuse him having weapons out in class," Aizawa retorted.
"Sho, this is UA," Hizashi pointed out dryly, "Shoji is more of a threat here with his quirk than he would be if he relied solely on a pair of knitting needles. Hell, if he did try to attack someone with those knitting needles, he'd be stopped before getting two steps towards his target."
"Knitting needles hardly qualify as a weapon," Aizawa in the audience said, "And they'd probably bend after one use, rendering them moot. Yeah, I wouldn't expel Shoji over knitting in class, and at most I'd simply ask him to put the knitting away."
"This is one of the most lax I've seen you during the show, Sho," Hizashi remarked.
Turing to regard Hound Dog, Aizawa said, "And why did you suggest to Shoji to pick up knitting of all things again?"
"Like I said, as a therapeutic activity," Hound Dog explained, "He and your boy Mineta have been getting into spats a lot, so I suggested that they take up calm hobbies to try to calm the two of them down. Shoji took up knitting at my suggestion, and Mineta said that he already had something that he did to calm down."
"Wait, why had Shoji and Mineta been getting into spats?" Sekijiro asked.
Shrugging, Aizawa said, "Pfft, I don't know."
"Great!" Aizawa in the audience snapped as he gestured to the big theater screen, "I'm shown not even bothering to look into disputes between two of my students! I bet that things will end up blowing up in my face because I didn't get the full story!"
Kaminari, with a surprised look on his face, said, "Also, it's Mineta that Shoji is in a spat with. They got a bit of a spat going on right now in the audience here."
...
Later, Aizawa was walking with Hizashi as they were making their way over to the classroom that Aizawa had his homeroom in. "Seriously, Sho," Hizashi remarked, "With all due respect I'd have to say you overreacted when it came to punishing Shoji."
"He had large pointy metal things on class, Hizashi," Aizawa said, "He could have stabbed someone!"
"In all honesty, the only person who was in any conceivable amount of danger of Shoji trying to stab them would be Mineta," Hizashi said as he and Aizawa reached the door leading into the homeroom for class 1-A. Opening the door, Hizashi walked in as he continued, "And given how the Bakugo boy says hello to Mineta every morning, Shoji stabbing Mineta with a knitting needle would hardly be considered a love tap, so you should have WHAT IN THE NAME OF RA HAPPENED HERE?!"
Hizashi deviated mid-sentence when he and Aizawa looked into the classroom and saw that there were now, like, twenty homeless persons in the classroom, all bothering the students. One early twenties woman was hanging off of Izuku while begging him for change, a few were in line as Sato served them some sweets that he had baked such as cake, and two even had a metal drum with a fire inside sitting in the classroom, trying to warm themselves.
"Our...class was invaded by the homeless?" Izuku in the audience said in a surprised tone.
Sighing as he gently face palmed, Aizawa dryly commented, "And I'm willing to bet that Shoji not being there is somehow making things as weird as they are."
The two men were flabbergasted to see so many homeless persons in the 1-A homeroom. "What the hell are so many homeless doing here in the classroom, bothering my students for no discernable reason?" Aizawa asked.
Holding a hand to his chin, Hizashi remarked, "Let's ask the king hobo. Every large group of homeless people have one among their number who is the leading figure slash spokesperson of the group, which is referred to as the king hobo."
"King hobo?" Aizawa said in an incredulous tone, "The hell are you-"
As if he hadn't heard Aizawa, Hizashi stepped forward and got the attention of all of the homeless people. "Alright, who among you is the king hobo?" After a few seconds, an older homeless man who looked to be in his early sixties easily stepped forward; he was dressed like what one would expect a homeless man to dress, but he also wore a(n oversized) murky green cabbie hat and he was carrying a fairly decent quality walking stick that was over five feet in length.
"I believe that you're looking for me," the older homeless man said, "My name is Hojo, and I am the leader of Japan's homeless population."
"...There really is a king hobo," Aizawa in the audience said with a look of mildly shocked disbelief on his face.
Pointing to the big screen, Hizashi said, "I bet that he's going to be playing an important part over the course of this realm."
"What is the business that you and your good people have here at UA," Hizashi asked as he spoke to Hojo, clearly trying to (seriously) play the role of diplomat, as if he were speaking to actual royalty.
Gesturing to Hizashi and Aizawa, Hojo explained, "We were here to see Mezo Shoji. He said that he'd have the first of the scarves he had promised my group here ready by the beginning of his first period class."
"Shoji promised you guys scarves?" Aizawa asked incredulously, hands on his hips.
Hojo nodded in the affirmative. "Indeed. He said that all of them were going to be knitted scarves that he would have made himself."
Sucking in a cringing breath, Hizashi said, "Oh, about that." Gesturing to Aizawa, Hizashi said as he continued talking to Hojo, "My bud Sho here had Shoji expelled from UA. We have no clue where Shoji is at now."
"You were knitting scarves for the homeless?" Ibara in the audience said to Shoji, "That is a very kind thing to do for those in need."
"Yeah, and I bet you not being there because Shouta gave you the boot will end up contributing to whatever ends up occurring with the homeless here," Hizashi added.
"But the winter is going to be cold!" Hojo said, "And the girl we had just taken in, Sakura, is in more need than any of us!" Aizawa and Hizashi looked over to where Hojo was gesturing to, and saw a homeless teen girl who looked to be roughly the age of the first year hero course girls. The homeless teen girl had chin length pinkish hair, and she was dressed like what one would expect a homeless teen girl to be dressed.
"...I get the feeling that she's going to be important as well," Hizashi in the audience commented, "My guess is that she'll be a key figure among the homeless of Japan in this realm, or maybe a possible love interest to Shoji."
"A potential love interest for me is a homeless teen girl?" Shoji asked rhetorically.
Shrugging, Hizashi said, "Yeah, Sho here expelled Shoji on the basis of Shoji was knitting in class, and Sho thought that Shoji could have used his knitting needles as stabbing weapons."
"Oh! Then maybe we ought to give up pens and pencils as well!" Bakugo yelled from where he stood in class in an annoyed tone as he tried to fend off the homeless people who were all in the middle of asking him for change, "Those can be used to stab a person, too!"
"Please just spare enough yen so I can get something to eat!" the homeless person trying to beg some change off of Bakugo asked.
"I don't have any cash on hand!" Bakugo snapped, then added while pointing to Yaoyorozu, "Try asking Pennybags McPonytail over there! She carries on hand an average of one-hundred and fifty thousand yen in cash on any given day!"
Pointing right at Bakugo, Yaoyorozu said in a firm tone, "It's THREE-hundred and fifty thousand yen in cash on hand, Bakugo." Scoffing incredulously, Yaoyorozu continued, "Please try to get your facts right the next time you want to-" Yaoyorozu stopped short when she noticed that all the homeless people in class had turned to look directly at her.
Not five seconds later, Yaoyorozu could be seen running down the hallway as she was fleeing from a swarm of homeless people all trying to beg her for change.
A number of audience members were all laughing as they pointed at the big theater screen. As for Yaoyorozu, she was annoyed that in the currently playing realm, she had the homeless of Japan sicced on her by Bakugo, who was one of the persons in the audience laughing.
"So now it's three-hundred and FIFTY thousand," Spinner remarked in a mildly bemused tone as he folded his arms over his chest.
"Lifestyle of the rich and wasteful, am I right?" Skeptic remarked.
Jerking a thumb at Skeptic, Dark Shadow said, "I forgot that he was here too."
...
Later, Aizawa and Hizashi were going about trying to find Shoji, accompanied by Hojo. Also Nezu was there. "That boy is one of the few good persons out there who cares about the less fortunate such as the homeless of Japan," Hojo said as he walked with the two UA teachers and pro heroes, "You've done a great disservice to Japan at large because you thought he had weapons out during class, Eraserhead."
"Those knitting needles could have caused some serious damage," Aizawa firmly defended.
"Although I could see where you're coming from Aizawa," Nezu began, "There was no need to expel Shoji simply because he was knitting in class. Knitting needles are by no means enough of a danger to actually qualify as weapons. In fact, Shoji would be able to do more damage by punching someone."
"And Shoji knitting was one of the tamest of activities that your kids were doing in free period that day, Sho," Hizashi pointed out, "Or need I remind you about what Iida was doing?"
Briskly shaking his head, Aizawa said, "Yeah no. At the very least Iida had nothing out that could have qualified as a weapon in my opinion."
In the audience, Izuku turned to face Tenya and said, "What did the you in this realm do, Tenya?"
Tenya, with a mildly paling look, said, "I don't want to know."
As Aizawa, Hizashi and Nezu searched with Hojo, they were surprised when Shigaraki came jumping in out of nowhere. "Aha! I got you all right where I want you!"
"You!" Aizawa declared as he pointed at Shigaraki, only for Aizawa to cover his own eyes after Shigaraki threw some dirt at his face.
"I needed to debuff you so I don't have to worry about your quirk getting in my way of killing that homeless noob!" Shigaraki said as he dashed forward and grabbed Hojo roughly by the collar of his shirt, pulling him away with such force that Hojo's gatsby hat flew off and landed on the ground while Hojo dropped his walking stick.
Shigaraki then grabbed Hojo by the face and pushed his quirk into working, drawing pained cries out of Hojo as he turned into and crumbled to dust. "This is what you get for repeatedly trying to pester me for money!" Shigaraki exclaimed as Hojo collapsed into a pile of dust.
"You killed a homeless man because he asked you for money?" Dabi in the audience said as he looked to Shigaraki, "That's rather overboard, Handy-man."
"No! Not the king hobo!" Toga cried, "Who will lead his people now?!"
"I...actually want to know that myself," Hizashi admitted.
After Hojo was dusted, Shigaraki turned to face Aizawa, Hizashi and Nezu. "Now I will kill the three of you!" Shigaraki declared, "And there is nothing that can-" Shigaraki stopped short when a knitting needle, thrown with the skill and precision of someone highly skilled at the art of throwing knives, pierced his head through the temple, going into his brain. Shigaraki, never changing his expression or stance, died standing where he was standing.
Hizashi and Nezu, as well as Aizawa who had cleaned his eyes out, turned to look at the direction that the knitting needle came from, only to see Shook standing there, his arm and hand held out in a manner suggesting he had been the one to throw the knitting needle like that. "Knit one purl two, motherfucker."
"See?" Aizawa exclaimed, "He just used a knitting needle to-"
"Aizawa, a dangerous villain who we saw kill someone right before our eyes just now was threatening to kill us!" Nezu snapped, "I think Shoji using lethal force here is both excusable and justified!"
"Also the king hobo is dead now," Hizashi said as he gathered Hojo's dropped gatsby hat and walking stick, which weren't on Hojo's person when he was dusted. Aizawa, seeing that there would be no convincing anyone that his reasons were valid, decided to just go fuck it and agree to reinstate Shoji, asking only that he not bring his knitting stuff to class anymore. Shoji agreed to this.
"Wow, he made knitting look totally badass," Bakugo in the audience remarked, sounding like he was genuinely impressed.
Gesturing to the big theater screen, Aizawa said, "You know, the me in this realm never would of had to go through all of the stupidity presented to him if he had simply asked Shook to leave the knitting in his dorm room."
"Which I would if I took up knitting for real," Shoji remarked.
...
Outside in the front area of UA grounds, Aizawa and Nezu saw that there was a whole swarm of homeless persons standing in front of a stage on which Hizashi, Shoji and that homeless teen girl Sakura stood on. "...Is Shoji distributing the scarves he knitted?" Aizawa asked.
"He will," Nezu said, "But Yamada said that he wanted to do something first."
On the stage, Hizashi moved to stand right in front of Sakura, both of them facing each other with their left and right sides (respectively) facing the crowds. "Your crown," Hizashi said as he placed Hojo's gatsby hat onto Sakura's head. "Your sceptre," Hizashi said as he handed Hojo's walking stick to Sakura. Hizashi then turned to face the crowd of Japanese homeless, turning Sakura to face them as well. "Homeless population of Japan, behold!" Patting Sakura on the back, Hizashi loudly declared, "Your new queen!"
As the crowd of homeless cheered, Aizawa looked on with a flabbergasted look. "...Hizashi wanted to crown the next leader of Japan's homeless population?"
Shrugging, Nezu remarked, "Yamada is quite the character." The underground hero and the quirked animal principal of UA then watched as Shoji, Sakura and Hizashi proceeded to give out the scarves Shoji had knitted.
FIN
Turning to look at Hizashi, Aizawa remarked, "The Nezu in that realm had a point. You are quite a character, both for real and in a lot of the realms we've seen thus far."
"And speaking of realms," Kotaro called out from where he and Tale stood in front of the big theater screen, "We only have one left in this showing!"
Mina clapped her hands together and rubbed them. "Oh hells yes! It's going to be Mineta since he's the only one left to do now!"
Sighing in a trouble tone, Mineta remarked, "I'm probably not going to like this."
"Oh stuff it," Kyoka said, "You've watched everyone else in class get booted, so it's only fair that we get to see you sent to the chopping block." A lot of other audiences members all nodded in agreement with Kyoka.
Tale, for his part, merely looked at his remote for his big theater screen. He arched a single wry eyebrow as he wondered how the inevitable realm featuring Aizawa giving the axe to Mineta will turn out to be.
END OF CHAPTER
Author's notes;
This has been the Shoji chapter, which covered the idea of having weapons in class, although the 'weapons' were knitting needles that, although in a pinch could be weaponized, would not do all that much at friggin' UA of all places, where the average quirk is loads more dangerous. Just look at Bakugo.
Anyway, it goes without saying that the next chapter will feature Mineta getting the boot. It'll be a nice round off to class 1-A, hopefully.