Chapter 02

'Okay. This is no problem. There is nothing to worry about. It's just Eraserhead. We won't be crossing paths a lot. He's an Underground Hero and a teacher of UA. He's too busy to come and meet me.'

Those were her initial thoughts.

Because now she had seen Eraserhead everywhere.

Everything starts reminding her of him.

A black shirt? Eraserhead would wear that. Hell, it might be the exact same shirt he's currently wearing underneath his jumpsuit. He's probably wearing the one with long sleeves because he seems to be the guy who wears long sleeves. If wants a short sleeve one, he can just cut off the long sleeves and then it's done. It's practical.

A scarf? Eraserhead wears one, though it's not an ordinary scarf. She knows it's not. She still clearly remembers from the way it moved by itself from her hips back to around his neck. It's so long that it's almost suffocating just to look at it. It probably weighs a ton too. She doesn't know how he can carry all that weight around nonchalantly.

Resting? Eraserhead probably doesn't get any. The last time she saw him he looked like he was about to keel over and die of exhaustion because his eyebags are probably weighing about 2kg each. It's probably because he's working very hard. He's a UA Hero course teacher by day and Underground Hero by night. He has little rest; it is a miracle he is still functional. Could it be that is his true Quirk? Ultimate Resilience?

"FUCK!"

She throws the black pen (black, like Eraserhead's eyes) across her room, not caring that it might leave a mark on her wall from how hard she threw it. She glares down at the paper on the table before her.

Hell must've froze over because currently, right now, she's trying to do some paperwork. Not because she is forced to, but because she wants to. And she fucking hates paperwork! The only thing she hates more than Villains is paperwork. Yet here she is, in the dining room sitting on the dining table with a small stack of papers next to her.

Her only progress was half of page one. She had been stuck on the same page for three hours now.

Because she can't keep Eraserhead out of her mind.

'He'd probably gone through three stacks in three hours.'

She grabs page one and starts ripping it into shreds before dumping it all onto the table.

This Quirk is fucking annoying. She hadn't had a peaceful moment since she met him, and that was two days ago. All she has been doing is daydreaming about him.

She sneers.

She even starts using the word "daydreaming". This really is a high school crush syndrome Quirk.

She releases a tired sigh and places her elbows on the table, but she knocks into something on the tabletop, causing it to roll a little bit. She looks down to inspect what it is and finds it to be a pencil.

Not just any pencil, it's a wooden pencil, not a mechanical one. She had bought it pretty recently. She's surprised that such a writing instrument is still being sold today.

She finds herself staring down at it for a while. To be more specific, she stares at the eraser at the end of the pencil.

Then, her eyes drift to the pile of shredded papers.

WIth one hand, she digs into the pile and pulls out a particularly long stripe of paper. She grabs the pencil with the other hand and carefully wraps the paper strip around the pencil, bundling it out around it, right beneath the eraser bit.

Then, she holds it up, admiring her little work.

"Heh, Eraserhead."

Then, she freezes, instantly realizes what she's doing.

She snaps the pencil with a finger and throws it away.

She buries her face into her arms, feeling it heating up.

"Stupid, stupid Quirk."

'Does that mean he can erase it then?'

.

Earlier when she said that she had seen Eraserhead everywhere?

She also means literally.

She thought he was too busy to cross paths with her. Being a teacher and a Hero at the time should've put him on a tight schedule. He wouldn't have a lot of free time. He shouldn't be around her.

But every time she is out, be it patrolling as Miruko, or just going out as Rumi, he is there.

Patrolling down the street across her home? He was there on the other side of the road, looking nonchalant and thinking he was not out of place. Going out to buy carrots? He was in the next aisle of the store she was in.

Just looking out her window once and she almost immediately saw him.

Does this Quirk also draw in the person she has a crush on?! He's everywhere!

…Unless he had been there this whole time? It is only now that she is aware of him thanks to the Quirk?

Was he always this close?

All this time, he is within reach?

…She could've been in touch with him much earlier.

"Stop," she hisses herself quietly. She doesn't want the civilians to think that she had gone insane for talking to herself while blushing furiously. She had seen enough of it to happen to high school students. She doesn't want to be one of them even though she was hit by a Quirk that makes her one of them. She has Hero stuff to do. It's incredibly difficult due to the annoying Quirk but she will fight the challenge. It will not hold her back.

Because she is too busy trying to fight the thoughts of Eraserhead from her mind, she doesn't look where she is going and ends up walking into something.

"OOF!"

"Head in the cloud, Miruko?"

She stiffens.

Correction, someone.

She jumps back in a flash and stares at the man she had literally ran into.

Eraserhead stares back blankly.

Of course it is fucking Eraserhead.

This further solidifies that he's always around.

"What are you doing here, Eraserhead?" she asks, mainly to distract him from her blushing face but also she's curious as to why a busy man like him is out and about right now. "UA ain't near and you mainly work at night. What's the deal?" She hopes her question comes out naturally and is not stuttering like a bumbling idiot.

The Underground Hero doesn't answer immediately, merely continues to blankly stare at her. Her face slowly grows redder under his gaze. What is he seeing right now? Has he noticed her blushing face?

…She hopes she doesn't look terrible right now. She was in a bit of a rush earlier so she didn't give too much thought of her appearance. Does her hair look weird?

But before Eraserhead can utter a single word, a loud alarm suddenly begins blaring, gaining both of their attention. Immediately, she is in her Hero mood. The alarm is coming from the local bank. The final evidence is when a couple of masked people sprinting out from the doors.

"We need to go quick before any Heroes arrive!" she hears one of them yell.

"Too late, one of them is already here!" the other yells back as he stares at her in the eye. She thinks they're referring to her. Unsurprisingly, neither of them seems to notice Eraserhead, who is in fact a Hero. She would be more surprised if they knew who he was.

"It's only Miruko. She won't be able to catch us!" the first one says confidently as the second guy suddenly climbs onto his back. The words and confidence spell bad for her.

Then, they zoom away leaving strong gushes of wind behind.

"Fuck!" she curses out loud, gritting her teeth. No wonder they are so confident; she can't catch up with them at that speed. She can chase after them but it's only futile; she'll lose them very quickly.

Suddenly, before they can go too far, the escaping robbers stumble and fall onto the ground. That confuses her. Did they trip and fall? But even the robbers look confused. What, that can only mean…

She looks to her side and, true enough, his hair is floating and his eyes are shining gold. The Quirk "Erasure" is in full effect. Encircling him is his scarf, moving on its own. She is lucky he is here by her side.

Then, she wordlessly watches as he grabs a strand of the scarf that floats around him and, with zero effort, he flings his arm towards the robbers, shooting out the scarf in their direction.

The scarf streaks through the air, weaving through the confused civilians and approaches the still recovering robbers at incredible speed. In a blink of an eye, it instantly wraps around both of them, trapping them together. WIth a big yank, the robbers fly through the air towards them, sailing over the civilians, until they sprawl at his feet.

"All settled and done," he announces.

She blinks, for the first time since the robbers attempted escape. She had watched the whole thing without blinking. He had done it all without moving from his spot, from her side. Not once he looked like he was putting any effort in capturing them. He did it so casually, like it's an average Tuesday to him.

And all this work, he still has one hand in his pocket.

"You got any Quirk suppression handcuffs?"

His question snaps her out from her stupor. She focuses back to the present Eraserhead. She quickly realizes his Quirk is still activated, still keeping his gaze on the robbers, and his hair is still floating. They're beginning to twitch. She thinks he's nearing the end of their usage.

"No, I don't usually carry one around," she apologizes. "They were never conscious when I took them down."

"There is no way around it. Knock them out," he tells her. She lets out a gleeful smile and winds back her arm. The two robbers look at her with horror.

"Wait no please-"

"We won't run away we promise just-"

"Too late."

With two swings, she knocks them out cold. They slump lifelessly against the restraints around them, but she knows they're still alive.

When she hears a sigh coming from her companion, she turns towards him. He finally has his eyes closed and his hair returns to flow down his shoulders. He then takes out a small bottle from his pocket, uncaps it and squeezes a little droplet in each eye without flinching once. He must've done this so many times that there is no reaction from him. Then, he takes out a large knife from somewhere she can't see and cuts the scarf, disconnecting him from the tied up and definitely unconscious robbers.

"You'll take care of the rest," he suddenly says to her as the remaining scarf winds itself around his neck while he puts away the knife. She frowns at him.

"You caught them; they should be yours," she says. Then, she slowly narrows her eyes. "Are you pushing the paperwork on me?" she asks.

"Yes," Eraserhead answers with honesty as he turns around and walks away. "Because I know you're competent to do them," she hears him add.

She finds herself blushing.

'Was that… a compliment?'

"You're a Hero, afterall. That's the basics of a Hero."

The feeling quickly disappears. She glares at his disappearing back.

"Fucking ass."

He doesn't seem to hear her, or at least he ignores her.

A police siren quickly gains her direction, gaining her attention. She turns her head towards where the siren is coming from, the opposite of where Eraserhead is leaving. She sees a good number of police vehicles are approaching fast. A little unnecessary, to be honest. She turns back to Eraserhead.

He's already gone, even though she wasn't looking away for so long.

The glare quickly drops and she finds herself sighing, staring at where he had disappeared to.

When he threw that scarf with absolute precision… She saw it in his eyes. The instant calculation that went inside his head to come up with just the perfect amount of throw to catch the fleeing robbers. He even did it with one hand. It was effortlessly perfect.

'…So cool…'