Chapter 05

"Miruko!"

"Miss Miruko!"

"It's Pro Hero Miruko!"

She gives them her public smile, grinning widely as the civilians crowd around her, happy and thrilled she is here with them. She indulges them, signing their notebooks and poses for the cameras.

"Keeping the festival safe, Miruko?" one of the young ones asks, eyes glittering as they look up at her.

"You got it! Don't want this place to be gone," she answers proudly. The smiles around her widen and a number of them cheer.

"Thank you Miruko!"

"You're the best!"

"Off you all go then! What's the point of coming to the festival if none of y'all enjoy it?!"

She bids them goodbye as the crowd finally disperses. She releases a slow sigh and drops the wide smile, but not too much because she is in a public place. She doesn't want everyone to think she is tired of them.

Well, she shouldn't be here in the first place. At least, as Pro Hero Miruko.

She had taken the day off. She was supposed to take the day off.

But then, Mt. Lady happened.

Of fucking course it's Mt. Lady's fault. The only thing bigger than her fat ass is her fatass mouth, and Mt. Lady knows about it. She threatened to spread about her Quirk if she didn't stand in for her. With gritted teeth, she agreed.

So here she is. Instead of enjoying the Summer Festival as Rumi Usagiyama, she is patrolling the festival as Pro Hero Miruko, something Mt. Lady should be doing but instead she wanted to enjoy the festival for herself. She's pretty pissed that her moment to enjoy has been taken away.

She needs to find a way to get back to Mt. Lady for this.

"Is that Miruko?"

Ah, another fan. The smile for the public easily appears on her lips. She turns around, hand already in the air to greet them. But before she can get a word out, her throat seizes up.

Approximately twenty kids. Six females and the rest are male. She recognizes them immediately.

It's UA's Class 1-A.

And their teacher is standing right behind them.

"It is!"

"Miruko!"

Most of the children greet her cheerfully, the spirit of the Summer Festival fuels their emotions because is it her or are they glittering? Much to her surprise, all of them are wearing yukatas, each with a different style of their own, very distinctive from one another.

Even Eraserhead has his own Yukata.

She tries not to stare at him too much but… he looks good.

"Yo, brats! Nice to see y'all here! I'm surprised your teacher allowed you to!"

"Well, it's because Eri wanted to go, so…" one of the students, the one that interned under Fatgum not too long ago, answers. She cocks her head to the side.

"Eri?"

She had never heard the name before. Though granted, she never knows the name of any of the students before her. But the way the spikey hair kid said it, it seems like this "Eri" kid is a special one, one that is placed above the rest.

"Shouta?"

Her ears instantly swivel at the high pitched voice. She looks up at the source, which seems to come at Eraserhead. She frowns in confusion because there is no way that deep, rumbling, warm voice of his could go that high. That is until a movement near his legs that catches her attention.

A pair of red eyes are staring back at her as the small figure partially hides behind Eraserhead's legs.

She takes it that this little girl is Eri, then?

"Eri," Eraserhead suddenly starts in probably the gentlest voice she has ever heard coming from him. The little girl looks up at him, who is looking down back at her. "She is Miruko, a Hero just like me."

The little girl, confirmed to be Eri, slowly steps out from behind his legs. Now with less obstruction between them, she can see that Eri has whitish hair that is tied up into a bun. She wears a light pink yukata with cherry blossoms on it. The most striking feature is the tiny nub of a horn on the right side of her forehead.

She can see the wary but growing curiosity in the little girl's eyes as they stare at each other. Eri tugs on Eraserhead's yukata. The Underground Hero bends down as Eri stands on the tip of her toes.

"She looks just like me!" she hears (thanks to her sensitive hearing) the little girl whispers into Eraserhead's ear, cupping her tiny hands around her mouth. "Is she a good Hero?"

"She is one of the best Heroes in Japan."

She bites her lips to stop herself from grinning while fighting down the blush that is threatening to rise up.

Damn it, a simple compliment like that really did get her that much. She knows that it is a well-known fact but hearing it coming from his mouth just makes her feel… good.

"Introduce yourself to her. Know your manner," she hears Eraserhead adds. Little precious girl nods her head before taking a few steps towards her, not too far away from the teacher.

"Hello, I am Eri. Nice to meet you." Eri bows respectfully towards her. She straightens up and quickly returns back to Eraserhead's side. It seems that she is still wary.

"Nice to meet ya too, young lady!" She returns the greeting with a wide smile, different from the one she shows to the crowd.

She stares at how Eri keeps a hold on Eraserhead's Yukata, and Eraserhead's hand on her hair.

They're close, very close.

It makes her curious who the little lady is.

"Well I had taken too much of your time. We should go on our own merry way," she says. She's about to turn around when one of the students speaks up.

"Why don't you join us, Ms. Miruko?"

"Can't, kid. I'm on work duty."

"You join us while still doing your patrol!"

"Yeah! Technically, you'll still be doing her job, watching around the festival, while also enjoying it!"

She feels apprehensive, not sure if following them is good advice. They look excited at the prospect of her joining them though.

So, she looks at Eraserhead, silently asking for his input.

He doesn't offer any answer immediately. Instead, he keeps on staring at her in silence. She tries not to blush under his gaze. He then suddenly narrows them a little. She doesn't know what's going on in his head while giving her that look.

"It wouldn't bother me," he finally answers, making his children cheer and her gasp.

She is very surprised he is allowing it.

"You sure about this?" she can't help but ask.

"I wouldn't mind having an extra eye, knowing just how trouble magnets you Problem Childrens are."

"Hey!"

"Mr. Aizawa, you're so mean!"

"Only Midoriya is the trouble magnet here!"

"W-Why only me?!"

"Suffer in truth."

"Great song."

"Jirou."

"Sorry! Force of habit."

She finds herself quietly snorting out of humor. His children are quite chaotic, by the looks of it.

.

Somehow, she finds herself walking side by side with her crush as they look after his kids, passing by the many stalls around them. The entire time, she tries her best to not look at him. He had already played her heart too much; she wants to preserve a little bit of her dignity.

Just standing here, right next to him, is already making her heart beating a little bit faster.

But whenever his kids want his attention, for some reason, they include her into it.

"Mr. Aizawa, look! A black cat mask! It will fit you really well!"

"Should we get a bunny mask for Ms. Miruko too? She's already a bunny so buying a bunny mask seems redundant."

"A bunny bunny."

"A bunny squared."

"Mr. Aizawa, Ms. Miruko, do any of you have any change? I wanna play that shooting game."

"Look, Mr. Aizawa! It's that fishing game! I bet Ms. Miruko will excel at it."

"Mr. Aizawa! Todoroki and Yaoyorozu are flirting again! Can you separate them, Ms. Miruko?"

"But she asked for Todoroki?"

"The food, Todoroki!"

"What?"

Every time that happens, her gaze would unintentionally draw to the Underground Hero and lingers a little too long for her liking.

She realizes pretty late that he still has that gaudy scarf over his yukata. She notices that the yukata is actually the same shade of color with the scarf, with barely any design on it.

It's so like him.

And it is very hard to keep her attention away from him because Eri is exceptionally adorable, especially towards Eraserhead. The little lady always looks at him for approval and gets a huge smile on her face when it is granted, and always shows him what she gets, standing on the tip of her toes as she holds it up high towards him.

And… Eraserhead looks so doting to her, paying all of his attention to every single word she says to him. And his eyes… Whenever those black eyes are on Eri, they suddenly go very… warm.

So very warm.

He looks so beautiful with those warm eyes.

"Eri, come here!" One of the students suddenly beckons the little lady over. Eri bounds over to the bobby haired girl, who takes out a pair of candy apples from her back. She can see that Eri immediately lights up at the sight of them. It must be her favorite candy then. The little lady grabs the candies with both hands, wide eyes glittering.

Then, she turns around and rushes over to Eraserhead.

"Shouta, for you!" Eri holds out one of the candy apples up to him, going as far as standing on the tip of her toes.

"Thank you, Eri." He takes it off from her hand and Eri returns to her normal height. She has a cute smile on her face. Then, the little lady turns and looks at her. Then looks down at the apple in her hand. Then looks at her.

Then looks down at the apple.

She can see the torn look on her face, seeing the internal struggle. She knows Eri wants to give the last apple to her, but she also wants the apple too.

That's so fucking cute.

"Don't worry, Eri. Miruko and I will share."

She stares at Aizawa with wide eyes.

"Okay!"

She keeps her eyes on him as he watches Eri hops away, before he starts unwrapping the candy in hand. Then, she watches him, pushing his hair out of the way, a little too sensual for her eyes, takes a bite out of the candy apple. Her sensitive hearing zeroes in on him chewing before swallowing.

She finds it unfortunate that his scarf covers her sight from his Adam's apple.

She bites her lips to stop herself from letting any embarrassing sound escape her throat.

Fuck, she doesn't know which one is the candy here.

Then, he holds it out towards her. She stares at it before looking up at him because… is he serious?

"Don't disappoint her," he says, subtly tilting his head towards the side. Looking at where he was gesturing, she finds Eri playing the ring toss game, surrounded by the students.

She doesn't know a whole lot about Aizawa yet, but one thing she knows is that Eri seems very precious to Aizawa.

She returns her gaze to the candy apple in his hand, vision unintentionally tunneling on the part where he bit.

Her face begins to flush.

She pushes a lock of white hair back, and then she leans down and takes a bite out of it. The crunch of the apple sounds almost deafening to her ears. She quickly leans back and covers her mouth as she chews.

She had taken a bite out of where Aizawa had bitten.

'An indirect kiss.'

She feels her face heats up. She turns away from Aizawa, hoping he won't see her blushing face.

"I was hoping you would take it from me but it seems this is enough."

Her face reddens, now out of embarrassment.

"…Just, shut up."

.

"Hurry! The fireworks are about to start!"

One of the female students urges them impatiently as everyone follows her, though not as hurriedly. She watches them trying to find a good spot to have a great view of the fireworks. They clump together, preferring to watch together over individually. She can't really b-

"Ah, shit."

The voice gains her attention.

Turning to the source, she finds herself face to face with Mt. Lady in a yukata.

To her surprise and confusion, Mt. Lady is not looking at her. She would've expected her to start teasing for standing next to her crush but no. She has an unexpected expression on her face.

She is staring at her crush with fear in her wide eyes.

Suddenly, a gray strand shoots out and wraps around Mt. Lady until it cocoons her until only her eyes are visible.

"Takeyama," Eraserhead suddenly starts with a low and dangerous voice. She tries not to let it show how the deep and rumble of his voice has an affect on her. "Is there a reason why you are not in your uniform, right now?" Eraserhead asks in a commanding voice.

"Mrph!" Mt. Lady squeaks, voice muffled by the scarf around her mouth. Her eyes have grown wider, even more scared than before.

"Is that why Miruko is here instead?"

She can't help but give Eraserhead a glance. He makes it sounds like he knows she isn't supposed to be here. What gives him the idea?

"M-Mrhph?" Mt. Lady sweats heavily while avoiding his eyes. She can see him glaring hard at the fatass.

"When I see you again, you better be wearing your uniform." He pulls his scarf back, inadvertently spinning Mt. Lady like a top. She stumbles a bit as she regains her balance.

"B-But- The fireworks!"

"Are you refuting me?"

"No, sir!"

"Get going."

She can see Mt. Lady's lips tremble before they jut out into pout. She turns around and shuffles away, her bent form shows her dejection.

"I never knew you knew Mt. Lady personally," she comments to Eraserhead, who is massaging the bridge of his nose.

"We used to live on the same block, until she destroyed the entire building." She gives him a sympathetic look. "And then I was stuck babysitting her for a few years." She gives him another, more sympathetic look.

"Must be tough."

"You have no idea."

She snorts.

He looks so frustrated right now. She can understand that feeling. Mt. Lady can be just that. Though lucky for him, he has control over her, unlike her.

Her hand lifts up, about to put it on his back to com-

"Mr. Aizawa, it's about to start!"

"Everyone get ready!"

"Put on your earplugs, Eri."

The first ignition pop quickly quietens the crowd. And then, the bang that leads to the colors in the sky. One pop leads to another, and soon, the sky is lightened up with many colors of various flares.

She doesn't really like fireworks all that much, mainly because they are very loud to her sensitive ears.

But right now, she can't even hear anything.

While everyone is watching the fireworks together, she instead finds herself staring at Eraserhead instead. All other senses dull out. All are focused on her view of the one and only Eraserhead.

He has Eri in his arms, carrying her. Eri looks up at the fireworks in the sky with trance, while Eraserhead looks down at the little lady. She sees creases on the corners of Eraserhead's eyes, hinting of a hidden smile.

"It's so beautiful," she barely hears one of his kids say.

It's just a Quirk. It's just a stupid fucking Quirk.

"Yeah," she whispers to herself, her gaze softened. "Beautiful."

But fuck it gives her feelings.