"SHOOOOUTAAAAA~!"

It was through years of experience that Aizawa not only wasn't bleeding from his ears, but was able to keep a straight face, but that didn't make him want to bash his head against a wall until he cracked it open like an egg any less.

"You're late." Was all he said, mumbled from behind his scarf as he stared down his old friend in irritation. Present Mic simply grinned back, skipping over and throwing a heavy arm around his shoulders.

Normally, Mic's talkshows were late at night and into the wee hours of the morning, but today happened to include a radio interview in his recording studio with a couple other heroes and he had to be there regardless. Logically, he agreed to an interview since he'd be there anyway, so the voice hero found himself staying there late into the day. Consequently, that also found Aizawa waiting on his dumbass.

It was also normal for Aizawa to have night patrols rather than day ones, being an underground hero and all, but of course, Mic requested a partner for his patrol scheduled immediately after his interview and nobody else was available.

Sometimes, Aizawa really, really hated his friends.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting!" Mic laughed. "Interviews went longer than expected and I went up first, so I had to wait through everyone else's, and not to throw shade, but man, was it booooooring!"

"You're yelling, Mic."

"Oh, right."

"Regardless," Aizawa sighed. "I'm supposed to be on 'vacation' right now and I want a nap, so let's just get this patrol over with and go."

Mic was still grinning at him, but was merciful enough to wordlessly follow along. It was a long weekend for U.A., so Aizawa's students were supposed to all be heading home that day. The damn danger duo were originally gonna hitch a ride with All Might, since Midoriya had talked the man into extra training and Bakugou was apparently done letting the special treatment slide and inserted himself into their meet-up. However, the veteran hero had an emergency meeting with Detective Tsukauchi over something involving All For One and had to bail last minute.

Hopefully, the world wasn't ending wherever the two of them were at the moment. Especially if they were still within the same vicinity of each other.

"What'cha thinking about?" Mic butted in, pulling Aizawa along as he made his way towards the main entrance.

Aizawa hummed. "Nothing of importance."

"Really? Because you always tell me it isn't logical to think about unimportant things."

"Fine." Aizawa huffed. "Then it's nothing for you to be concerned about."

Mic pouted at him, dragging him along as he rounded the corner to the sidewalk. "Look, man, anything you think about this hard should be concer- Whoa!"

There's a slight jolt, and suddenly, Mic is stumbling back while someone else goes sprawling onto the sidewalk, completely blindsided by the impact. Aizawa watched blankly as the two regained their bearings, Mic blinking stupefied while the unfortunate soul on the ground stared up at the sky in a daze, so far gone that he could practically see the stars spinning around his head.

Aizawa watched, frowning deeply as the color green registered in his mind and he connected the dots.

"Fucking moron!" A shout ripped through the air. "Watch where you're going! You're gonna kill someone, or yourself at this rate!"

And then there was blonde storming up the sidewalk after them, looking just as exasperated as Aizawa felt.

"Problem children." Aizawa greeted dryly, eying them both warily. Both of them should have been well on their way home by now.

"Hey, little listeners!" Mic exclaimed happily. "Fancy meeting you here! To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"Pleasure's a strong word." Aizawa drawled.

"Agreed." Bakugou growled back, though by the foreign look in his eyes that Aizawa couldn't quite decipher, it was more reflex than anything.

And by logical reasoning, Aizawa instantly knew that this wasn't just a coincidence or everyday shenanigans.

Something's really wrong here.

"Sensei!" Midoriya shrieked, scrambling to his feet and bowing wildly. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bump into you! I should've paid more attention! Sorry!"

"Oi, oi, calm down, listener." Mic chuckled. "You're okay. Just breathe for a moment."

Midoriya seemed to do just that, pausing to take a deep, exaggerated breath. Bakugou was glaring at his classmate with characteristic ferocity, and simultaneously avoiding Aizawa's gaze, but chose not to comment.

"I'm assuming you're both aware of the long weekend." Aizawa commented. "Mind explaining what you're doing here? You should be heading home."

They both stayed silent at that, the guarded look they shared making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. They shared a glance, a raised eyebrow from the blonde and pursed lips from the greenette, and instantly, every alarm bell that hadn't gone off in Aizawa's head yet was screaming.

"I- Yeah." Midoriya stuttered. "We- Uh- Ah-, Or I- Yes, I! I, um, forgot something! Yep! Mm-hmm!"

"The nerd left his notebook on his desk at school." Bakugou cut in. "And as per your rules, we can't be alone when we can help it, so I'm stuck with the idiot."

"Yep, an idiot! That's me! Aha.."

"Also, our parents are out of town, so we need to crash at the dorms."

"We do?" Neither boy blinked when Bakugou smacked the freckled teen over the back of the head. "Ah- I-I mean yeah! Yeah, that's right. I forgot."

While Mic had the decency to look amused, Aizawa's glare couldn't have been flatter. He hoped it was as withering as ever. "Right. You're a naturally-gifted comedy duo, clearly, but being among my top students, I highly doubt that either of you would be so absentminded." That, and Midoriya's being more transparent than a broken window, but that's besides the point. "The truth, please."

It was impressive how they could both look equally constipated. After a moment, Midoriya cracked first. "I guess we came looking for you anyway... For-...yeah."

"You're the one who started making excuses." Bakugou growled.

"You weren't helping!"

Aizawa's quirk flared. "Enough." Both boys went silent. "I swear, when something is actually wrong, getting either of you to open up about it is like pulling teeth. Please, I am begging you. Tell me what is bothering you, because clearly, something isn't right."

His hair dropped back over his shoulders. His eyes were itching so badly that he was sure he'd scratch them right out of their sockets, but he held firm, Mic remaining blissfully quiet as the standoff played out.

"It's not like we couldn't handle it!" Bakugou suddenly shouted, frustration bleeding through his voice.

"But there's so many people!" Midoriya reasoned, tone grim. "We couldn't take the chance! It could be like the mall..."

"I know the last time I got followed, things went to-"

"Someone was following you?"

The constipated looks came back, and suddenly, Aizawa was hyper-aware of the bustling city around them.

There were dozens of people walking up and down the sidewalks, gawking at Mic's studio or the voice hero himself. There was an intersection to the left, where cars had a perfect vantage point or a reason to slow down, and to the right was a cafe, where anyone could be watching from afar unnoticed.

Officially on edge, Aizawa schooled his expression. "I see." he said. "In that case, it would probably be safer to stay here in Present Mic's studio. There happen to be other heroes present as well."

"Really?! Who?!" Midoriya asked, eyes sparkling with excitement, before he paused, backpedaling as he nervously wrung his hands. "I-I mean, right, okay. Got it."

Neither of them were looking at him, Midoriya staring down at his shoes and Bakugou glaring off to the side, but Aizawa made no comment. "Mic, escort them in, and you two, describe the person or people to him in as much detail as possible. We'll handle it. They won't follow you or anyone else."

Midoriya, at least, seemed satisfied with that, while Bakugou only scoffed, rolling his eyes but saying nothing as the two followed after a babbling Present Mic. With a sigh, Aizawa pulled out his phone before turning back to the trio. "Boys,"

The two glanced back. Aizawa nodded. "Thank you for coming to us about this."

He didn't stick around to gauge their reactions, rounding the corner and marching down the sidewalk, memorizing the face us every passerby that paused for too long or glanced the studio's way. Mic would message him the information once he had it, and Aizawa would be damned if whatever had his students so guarded eluded him for much longer.

It was a side thought that had Aizawa dialing another number, still on alert as the receiver clicked on the third ring. "Yes, hello! I am apologizing for the delay-!"

"All Might," Aizawa cut in. "You're still with Detective Tsukauchi, correct?"

All Might was slow to reply. "Yes, I was just finished meeting with him. I assume something has happened?"

"Not yet." Aizawa huffed. Then, as an afterthought, "And it won't."

"Ah, that's good." All Might sighed. "I haven't been feeling well, so I knew something was amiss-"

"Your two star students approached me claiming they were being stalked." Aizawa stated bluntly, cutting right to the chase. "Since nothing has come of it yet, I can't exactly make a public scene, so I was hoping that the detective would be willing to work with me on this."

The line was dead silent. The eerie quiet stretched on for so long that he wondered if he'd been hung up on or if the veteran hero had just suffered cardiac arrest.

And then, a low, "I see."

There was something about his tone that had Aizawa taken aback, but he said nothing as All Might's voice filtered back through the receiver. "Do you have a description?"

"Not at the moment," said Aizawa. "But I should momentarily."

"Alright." All Might hummed calmly. "I'll have Naomasa and others on the case as soon as you have information."

"That easily?"

"Do not fret, Eraserhead." All Might assured him. "I am owed many favors."

He ended the call at that, and a text from Mic was lighting up his screen before he could even think to call the former number one back.

Toutetsu Sawao. Thirty seven years old. One hundred and ninety three centimeters tall. His skin is a dark, sickly green color with yellowish patches. His quirk is called swamp, which allows him to swallow anything up to the size of a small car into the ground like quicksand, then absorb or transport it in his own body. Honestly, Aizawa could likely tell you the name of his childhood dog, he'd learned so much about the guy.

His only known living relative is his twin sister, Sawako, who currently lives in the USA, and their parents, Mao and Taka, were murdered last year. Allegedly, Toutetsu Sawao himself was the one who killed them.

Along with fourteen other people, two of them sidekicks who'd disappeared and another eight students from various hero schools around the area.

Aizawa wasn't quite sure how the police force and involved heroes had hunted the guy down so fast when he'd gotten away with literal murder for so long, but Detective Tsukauchi had genuinely impressed him. He'd have to get the names of other people involved in the case, because he might want to work with them in the future.

All Might, meanwhile, had nothing to say on the matter.

That was fine though, because school was back in session, and all of his students were safe and sound. Shinsou was back for training that morning. Kaminari was there to blow out a fuse in the dorms before classes even started. Iida was herding everyone to class and Satou was baking cookies at four in the morning and Aoyama was happily staring off into space.

And Bakugou was yelling, repeatedly slamming his fist against Midoriya's desk, while Midoriya was mumbling, furiously scribbling something into his notebook and occasionally batting the other's hand away.

It was fine. Aizawa didn't bother asking, because as far as he was concerned, there was no more need to worry.