Back with another chapter! Thank you all for coming back for more especially new Follower and Favorite daang21, thank you so much for enjoying my stories! As always, huge shout out to my awesome Reviewers Arrowtotheknee2011, cxmgamingKR2, Villainsfan101, and Psy-Kick. I appreciate you all for sticking through the story and commenting!
Here's to the next chapter!
Chapter 14 Heroics
Eri nervously stayed put in the middle of the mechanical nightmare as students were given orders to fix the loud machinery. Mandalay told her to stay within the sights of the main teacher in charged of the repairs while she had to go back to the frontlines for relaying information. The little girl made sure to not be in the way as students ran with tools and blueprints.
I want to help... Eri went up to the teacher within the Support course. "Can I do anything?"
The man with a metal clawed helmet stopped what he was fixing to look at the girl, "How about you run supplies from Creati to the other students that are working on the systems?"
Eri nodded determinedly, running towards the direction the teacher pointed to find the hero-course student. With wanting to pull her own weight, she didn't want to be a liability. The little girl ran up to an exhausted Creati as the teenager continued to make tools and mechanical parts from her body.
"I'm here to help!" Eri approached, opening her backpack.
Creati gasped, "Eri! How did you get here – you're all wet!" The teen crafted a towel for the little girl to dry her off and keep her warm.
Eri avoided the question and reaffirmed, "I'm here to help."
"But –."
A shout called above them from the landing, "Creati, we need hydraulic parts!"
Creati took a heavy breath to continue her quirk, "Can you take these up there?"
Eri nodded affirmatively, stuffing the parts into her backpack and headed to the stairs. I'm going to be a hero. She rushed towards the landing where the person needed parts and she was glad her arrival brought a relieved smile to the boy's face. Opening the backpack she beamed, "Here you go!"
"Awesome, just the parts I needed." He grabbed the pieces to hand it off to the crew made up of students that were in the middle of repairing metal pipes.
The little girl nodded, excited to do her part in helping the heroes win.
News spread like wildfire as information from the frontlines were relayed back into the fortress. The clones' assault was combated through tiring efforts – pushing past their limits, most heroes were able to survive the onslaught until the clones timed out. Muddy piles littered throughout all the battlefields, intermingling with the blood that spread across the ground and within wounds. Breathes of relieved gasps echoed the hollowed war deprived scenes, the waves were finally over.
Other calamities were prevented with much effort to halt All for One's continuation to cross between battlefields. The suicidal efforts to delay All for One from reconnecting with Shigaraki were for not, his body reverted through his age, resulting in him to twinkle out of existence. However, the feat didn't come easy, many heroes fell to keep the Dark Emperor from reestablishing his conscious to Shigaraki's damaged vessel. Bodies plagued the path All for One came through, many bright futures were snuffed out in his wake.
Shigaraki had become unstable due to his mentality feuding amongst the multiple personalities that demanded for dominance, giving many opportunities for Deku to finally get the upper hand within their duel. Throughout their battle, Deku was able to talk to the persona that was seemingly reaching out for help. Diminishing the destructive time bomb that was Shigaraki, the villain couldn't withstand the growing divide within himself. The main purpose of One for All had become fully realized as it battled the subconsciousness of All for One and Shigaraki, eradicating the personas to where that damaged little boy could reemerge. For years, he had been suffocated under the vileness of the two villains that poisoned the body and mind.
The celebration of victory was a sober one, many first responders with a medical background were rushing to the concluded battle zones. Eri held her breath as panic racked through her as she found many injured friends that were brought in just from outside of the fortress's grounds. Upon seeing the life-threatening battle wounds amongst her friends, the situation upset her even more. There was so much red, the tile within the fortress was soiled by gore. There was so much blood…
Pained screams and panicked pleas for assistance filtered throughout the fortress. Eri quickly followed Creati as the girl hero made her way to the injured, prepared to utilize her quirk with first aid supplies. Eri's red eyes widened seeing some of class 1-A students coming in bloodied and or unconscious.
She recognized the blonde that was brought inside by a stretcher. His chest was ripped open exposing his insides with bloodied threads moving within his body. It's Deku's friend – he's really hurt! Eri approached Bakugo just as a bloody hero stood over him with his hands sewing his chest. He needs help! The little girl was confident in her ability – after all, she was able to completely heal someone under a dire circumstance. She pushed through the frantic medics and heroes towards the blonde.
"It's all about power and greed, no one does something without the thought of gaining something out of it…" Eri gulped remembering what Overhaul had said, it wasn't like she wanted anything out of helping someone – she wanted to do it, she didn't need to prove to others that she was a good person… She determinedly approached the busy hero, gathering her nerves and courage to be at service.
"I – I can help." Eri spoke up, catching Best Jeanist off guard in the middle of his stitching session onto Bakugo.
His eyes hovered slightly to her and back on his charge, "I'm trying to fabricate a functioning heart before he is completely – I need to focus." He cut himself short as he refocused on the boy he was working on.
Eri self-consciously glanced around as more people flooded to and from the fortress in the aftermath of the war. "You aren't going to gain anyone's respect for acting so worthless!" Getting the motivation to push more, Eri moved closer, taking deep breaths to prepare the little built-up energy she had from her previous usage of her quirk.
"I can help." Eri reaffirmed, as she put her hand on Bakugo's shoulder. She ignored Jeanist's protest as she closed her eyes and brought forth her quirk.
Jeanist's eyes widened as Bakugo glowed a dull gold and the blood that pooled out of him seemed to stop – No, not stop, but reverted. Bakugo's chest cavity expanded and fleshed out. Jeanist stared bewilderedly as Edgeshot was thrown out of Bakugo's body as it closed itself off.
Edgeshot, who was previously reworking Bakugo's organ functions from the inside, blinked in a confused daze as his body returned to its original shape. Why am I outside the boy's body? He needs me to hold his organs together.
Eri felt a strain in her head as she focused on rewinding the damage done to Bakugo that put him in critical condition. She breathed heavily as the teenager took a gasping breath of air.
Jeanist stared in amazement as Bakugo took a breath that transitioned into a fit of coughs as he cleared his windpipe of blood. He's alive!
Eri canceled her quirk as Bakugo's coughing had seized to labored breaths. Exhaustion and a headache started to take root as she met red eyes that stared back at her with an expression of confusion. Eri smiled tiredly, "You're better now."
Bakugo nodded slightly, closing his eyes to control his breathing.
"How did you…?" Jeanist asked in bewilderment.
Eri yawned, "I rewound the damage." The little girl noticed many people had stopped to watch her work, there were many large eyes that had started to fill with wonder and hopefulness after seeing what she had done to Bakugo.
"Little girl! Come over here I need your assistance!"
"No, she has to come here!"
Eri nervously watched as many people shoved towards her – demanding her to help them. She felt overwhelmed and guilty, knowing she wouldn't be able to help all of them with the limitations on her quirk. Just wait, one at a time – I can heal a little more.
"I have a person that is dying! She should prioritize my patient!" A person argued.
Eri breathed sporadically as people crowded her more with bloodied wounds and unconscious people. Overhaul's past criticalness remarked softly in her mind, "If you are sick of being used then learn to make yourself worthy of respect." Eri took hold of her anxiety and firmly spoke up, "I can only heal one at a time, I need rest. Do the best you can on your own until I recover."
The people around her stared at her in outraged bewilderment. Before people could demand more from her, a familiar voice spoke up, "You heard her, back off and get immediate aid from other healers."
The crowd dispersed as Erasure Head and Present Mic walked through the main entrance. Eri's eyes filled with happy tears as she ran towards them and hugged Erasure's legs.
Erasure smiled lightly at her, "It's nice to come back to a welcoming face." When he was able to get back to U.A., Mandalay relayed to him that Eri was brought here by a man who left with a message of handing guardianship onto him… Once they clean up the remanence of the war and locate the dead and injured, he will sit down with her and have a serious conversation on what happened.
Eri beamed up at him with tears in her eyes, "I'm so glad you are safe!"
"Likewise, now let's get you out of this stressful area to somewhere that is quieter." Erasure responded, recognizing the signs of her fatigue from her facial expression.
Eri snoozed on a couch in the makeshift war room that occupied the once auditorium for the school, the surviving and conscious heroes gathered their recollections on events to make full accurate reports on the war that will be marked in the history books. All members of the League and Liberation were accounted for whether they were in body bags or within restraints, leaving many heroes feeling relieved that the heroes that hadn't survived didn't die in vain – that their sacrifice made it possible for this war to end in a victory.
However, not everyone was strong enough to recite what happened. There were some heroes that stood quietly in a corner, haunted with paled faces of seeing their comrades die right in front of their eyes – unable to comprehend as to why they survived while countless of others did not. The survivors' guilt will be the next fierce battle heroes must face, and many may need help to move forward from this war.
Erasure left Eri snoozing to check to see his students' conditions. He wasn't a stranger when it came to hard fought battles, and he was prepared to keep his composure if he learned of any of his students that weren't fortunate to survive… he will stay strong for the rest of his kids.
The hero walked through the hallway where the students were getting treated and were waiting to recite their experience for the report. He walked past the kids until he saw familiar faces, happy tears and relief were evident on their faces as he checked on each of them. Some of his students within 1-A were conscious and were out of critical conditions. In the back of his mind, he tallied off his students that he was able to find, most of the pro heroes were coming back to homebase to report and he knew some of his kids were within those groups. The only functioning eye he had left wondered to the rows of white sheets that lined up against the wall – I need to make sure all the kids are accounted for. He needed to do this, to ensure that none of the students were still out there on a battlefield needing help – to inform their parents as to why their child was never coming home.
Erasure closed his eye, encouraging himself to move towards the sheets that covered smaller forms. There shouldn't be any child bodies… on reports they had won the war – but in reality, they lost because they couldn't save every single child that was forced to cut their studies short and take what they learned out into the field. It was the pros' responsibility to protect the youth, to ensure they can continue their studies to become fully realized heroes…
He opened his eye forcing himself to lift each sheet that covered a child size body. His eye met with blank dead ones that once held child innocence. Each sheet revealed one less bright future. He had four students unaccounted for, and with almost two dozen child-sized bodies under sheets, it made him prepared on meeting his missing students' dead gazes. Erasure Head noticed he wasn't the only homeroom teacher wondering towards the dead. They had an obligation to the parents to know where their child was, no one should be left unknown.
Erasure closed his eye, rubbing at the side of his scarred face with the eyepatch as the past injuries stung him. He had just come across one of his present students under a sheet after meeting gazes of upperclassmen and students from other hero classes. Mineta's blank eyes stared back at him, under the sheet next to him was Tokoyami. He silently gave them his solemn apologies as he continued to search for his final two missing students. After multiple children were revealed to have died, Erasure finally came across his last two students that were unaccounted for… Uraraka and Asui laid bloodied with multiple stab wounds that had bled through the white sheets they were under. Most of the heroes that were at Okuto Island had been killed, overwhelmed by the ground zero of the clone outbreak. From the report of the few survivors from that location, Kyoka would have been amongst her dead classmates on that island if it weren't for Kamui Woods. He had encased her and a few heroes he had managed to grab within a wooden cocoon that was able to withstand the clones' onslaught until they dispelled.
This war had touched everyone within this country, impacted homes, mentalities, lives – there was no sugarcoating it. This country was thrown into chaos and lives were taken in order to bring back stability. The profession of being a pro hero comes with risk and one must face the consequences, that it was expected for heroes to put other lives before their own and this large room full of bodies was evident of that. From these recent battles, the only citizen casualties were the people that weren't able to escape fast enough before Dabi's inferno overwhelmed the location where shelters halted underground. Erasure Head stood up straight, taking in the sober silence of the makeshift morgue within a high school…
Eri stirred from her slumber, noticing Erasure Head staring off with a faraway gaze. "Mr. Aizawa…?"
His black eye met her red ones, "How are you feeling?"
"Sad, I couldn't help more people." Eri mumbled.
"You did all that you can, don't be too hard on yourself. Bakugo is alive because of you, focusing too much on the what ifs has never helped anyone." Erasure assured her as he moved to sit on the couch beside her.
Eri nodded silently, even though she didn't have the capability to help other people in that moment, she had hoped the people that wanted her to heal were able to get some assistance.
He waited for her to say anything on what had transpired, when she didn't say anything else, he decided to address the elephant in the room. "Is there anything else you need to tell me?"
Eri turned her gaze towards him in bewilderment. He stared at her silently, awaiting her answer, "I'm okay, I didn't get hurt."
"How did he find you?" Erasure Head asked in a calm tone.
Eri clutched onto her arms, "He found out where the shelter was and went to get me."
Erasure held back the fear and horror within his expression – not knowing what had happened to her. He studied her mannerism, she looked uncomfortable, but compared to her last experience with Overhaul by being a frightened little girl that couldn't speak to anyone for weeks, she was handling it well. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"He wanted me to heal my grandfather and I went with him to make sure he didn't kill anyone else in the shelter." Eri answered looking down, worried she had disappointed the hero.
"He threatened you?"
"No, not really… just other people if they didn't get out of his way." Eri responded, throughout their travels on the abandoned streets they would avoid people unless it was necessary to run them through.
"Did he take you on his own?"
"Yes."
Erasure had read the report of Overhaul being attacked by the League, costing him his arms and quirk, and it was perceived that he was quirkless, but clearly that wasn't the case, "His quirk evolved?"
Eri nodded, "He couldn't control it that good like he could with his hands so he took me in order to fix my grandfather because he couldn't do it as he was."
"What happened next?"
"We had to get to the hospital and it was super far on foot. There was a lot of scary people on the streets… but he protected me." Eri smiled nervously, remembering how he would act like he didn't care, but he had moments of when he would give her the benefit of the doubt. He had tried to act indifferent, putting the façade of the dangerous Yakuza he once was to keep her in line, but there were cracks in it – the truths behind the eyes.
Erasure noticed the light smile she had, shocked that a small smile would be for that man. "Eri, he isn't a good person."
"I know, but he's not Overhaul anymore. He just wanted my grandfather back, he let me go and brought me here to safety." Eri responded.
His eye widened not expecting that man to easily let her go, "Just like that?"
Eri gazed down sadly, knowing her grandfather wanted her to stay, but he let her go because he wanted her to be happy. "My grandfather told him to bring me here safely, he will do everything for him."
Erasure frowned, not very keen to have a Yakuza boss and an escaped convict on the loose. He wasn't sure he could trust them to not come back to take Eri again. "Do you know where they are?"
Eri glanced up at the hero, she shook her head, not wanting to bring anymore issues to her grandfather.
"Eri…"
"No, I don't know where they went." Eri responded, avoiding his gaze. She didn't know where they were, but they were heading to an area where they needed a boat.
Being a teacher for so long, Erasure narrowed his eye, "Why are you protecting them?"
Eri's eyes watered, "Heroes are supposed to protect people and make people better. I don't want anyone to get hurt anymore."
Erasure sighed watching her rub her eyes, this conversation seems like it will have to wait. "Let's get you something to eat."
Erasure Head sat on the table in the teacher lounge, alone with his thoughts on everything that had transpired. Many heroes died within the span of a couple of days, many others were injured to the point where they could no longer be in the hero industry… He had to watch friends, coworkers, charges get wheeled away in body bags for transport to their next of kin.
He felt sick to his stomach – the risk of dying came with the profession, but to have so many in such a short amount of time was heartbreaking. The floating U.A. has returned to the ground, reality becoming really clear by just how much authorities were running thin on rounding up the defeated villains and exhausted heroes. Citizens and news crews will soon be emerging from shelters with the ultimate threats gone and rebuilding will soon be on the way.
"Erasure, I just want to let you know Eri is inside. A guy left her here and wanted you to know that you have full guardianship." When he heard Mandalay's voice relay that information to him it made his blood run cold. Anything involving Eri would revert his mind to always go back to that Yakuza, clearly, he was mistaken to believe Chisaki had been contained after the prison escape, but the description Mandalay gave him made him realize just who had Eri back in his clutches.
Erasure stared at the table where he took out all the contents from the front pocket of Eri's backpack. A passport with Eri's name on it, a picture of a woman with white hair, and money sat in front of him. Within Eri's backpack were things that would secure and reshape her future. Eri told him that her grandfather wanted a future for her, and the older man must have put some contingencies in for her if they were to ever separate. Erasure didn't know much of the old Yakuza Boss, the majority of criminal reports of the Yakuza clan were when Chisaki stepped more into the spotlight.
That sweet little girl, that had endured so much – Erasure's mind reminisced on Eri coming into his life, all shy but with a deep wonder on everything in the world. Her anxious shell had broken away with bright eyes that shined with such enthusiasm on everything that was new to her. Once she learned how to smile, it was present on her face every day, the little things brought her so much joy.
Full guardianship huh…? He allowed himself to feel relieved, that something in his life would become permanent rather on a whim of what society needed him to be. Erasure Head took Eri in because she had no one else and had a dangerous quirk, her sole known family was in a coma and there were no records of her birth or parents. The picture and passport gave him some idea on where to start to finding out more about Eri's past. The money left for her will be what it was intended for – her future.
In war there has to be casualties… Hope you enjoyed Eri's little ending with the heroes, Eri's new future can start with Erasure Head without the ghosts of her past haunting her. We have one more chapter to go, the next chapter down the road will focus on the Yakuza, and where they will reside to reestablish themselves. Let me know if there is any ideas or things you might want to see for the end! Ideas are always welcomed to bring me to a grand conclusion
Thank you so much for reading!