The Idiot's Guide To Faking Your Own Death by whatagoodegg

by alkhuzamaa

The story of that one time Eraserhead's students accidentally gaslighted him into thinking he was dead. Or: a man who has been prepared to die since he was seventeen gets hit with a Quirk that makes him "unable to be noticed". It goes poorly, but not as much as one might expect.

I'm gonna kill that brat, Aizawa Shota thought, scowling as he trudged down the street. No, I'm going to expel her and then I'm going to kill her. What the hell was she thinking, leaving an unconscious person alone in the middle of the street? And her own teacher?! His scowl deepened as he bumped into someone, who didn't even glance at him. No, He reasoned with himself, You have to hear the kid out. You don't know what happened after you went down. Quickly, as though it would give him a hint, he ran through his memories of the night before.

Aizawa had gone out with Jiro at around seven PM to pick up groceries for the dorms. The grocery run had been fine, until they walked outside and came face to face with a kid throwing a tantrum. They had just rolled their eyes and ignored until suddenly the kid began to glow. Aizawa whirled, activating his Quirk on instinct, but the sudden movement startled the kid and they threw their hands out towards him before he could cancel their Quirk. He felt himself get thrown back through the air, and barely had a moment to guess that it was a telekinesis Quirk before he slammed headfirst into a wall, felt a sudden burst of agony so strong he choked on a scream, and then promptly blacked out. He woke up a full thirteen hours later, head aching in the morning light but otherwise completely fine. He had tried to pull out his phone, but the instant he touched it it sparked and popped and began smoking. Whatever Quirk he was hit with must've fried it.

His annoyance only grew as a fourth person bumped into him, sending him a baffled glance. He shot a glare back, but they didn't react, just shook their head and moved on. Aizawa huffed and pushed his way up to the UA gates, walking through unimpeded as usual. He considered stopping by Recovery Girl to get his head checked out, but his priority was to find out what had happened last night. If Jiro had been hurt badly enough that she was unable to direct the paramedics to where he was... The hero shook his head, knocking the thoughts loose. There was no evidence to support such a theory yet. It would be a waste of time to worry about it.

Still, as he walked through the hall, he couldn't quite manage to push down a creeping sense

of wrongness. It wasn't as obvious in a crowded street full of strangers, but here in UA he could tell that no one seemed to notice him. It wasn't like he constantly had students calling out to him, but it happened often enough that it was creepy noteworthy when it didn't. And, even more disturbingly, he couldn't hear himself at all. No footsteps, no breathing, no fabric rustling, nothing. Just to avoid spiraling into a panic, he hummed under his breath, and was both relieved and a little embarrassed when he heard it loud and clear. Maybe he really should have gone to Recovery Girl...

Well, too late now. He thought as he approached the 1A classroom door, only to see it was wide open. He paused for a moment, instantly on guard, but he couldn't hear anything, so-

He couldn't hear anything.

His class was never silent. They were always gossiping or strategizing or laughing or just generally causing chaos, but they were never quiet. Without meaning to, he began to pick up the pace, a lump of anxiety curling up in the back of his throat. When he got to the doorway, he was relieved to see that there were no obvious injuries or fights or fires or anything. But something was definitely wrong. Each student was grouped up with their friends (by now, they knew to be in their seats by the time he arrived, what had distracted them-), but none of them were talking. The whole room was eerily quiet, each student sitting with their heads hung and their shoulders hunched. Several of them looked like they had been crying, or were about to start. Even Shinso looked far more grim than usual, which was saying something. They looked...

They looked like they were grieving.

His fear lurched into panic for a half second, but a quick head count showed all of his kids class were there. He still repeated it twice just in case. Then, once he was satisfied that none of his students were visibly dying, he crossed his arms and drew himself up, settling his expression into a glower.

"Jiro." He said, tone icy. "Let's have a talk... about..." He paused and then trailed off when he realized none of the class had so much as twitched at the sound of his voice. He felt his brows furrow slightly. "Class?" He said, raising his voice. Still nothing. His frown deepened as he walked into the room. No one even glanced up. "Oi, hellspawn, what is-"

"So..." Kaminari said suddenly, startling the class as they all turned to look at him. "Who do you think we'll have as a sub?"

There was a beat of silence where Aizawa raised an eyebrow, opening his mouth to say something, when suddenly the whole class burst into yelling and protesting. Kaminari and Aizawa both winced at the sudden noise, Aizawa blinking in surprise and Kaminari sinking down in his seat.

"That is highly insensitive-!"

"Seriously, Kaminari-!"

"-you fuckin' dunce face-!"

"Why would you-?!"

"Alright, alright! Settle down- I said that's enough!" Aizawa snapped. None of them reacted. He gritted his teeth in frustration, instinctively starting to reach for his capture weapon-

"Guys, stop!" Hagakure yelled, cutting through the racket. "It's not his fault, okay? Some people just use humor to c-cope." Her voice cracked on the last word, and she let out a choked sob as her arms moved like she was covering her face. Instantly Ojiro and Ashido moved to her side to comfort her.

"S-sorry..." Kaminari mumbled, hunched over in his seat.

"No, I'm- I'm sorry for yelling." Iida said, pushing his glasses up. "I should've- I simply- I'm

sorry." A few of their classmates murmured their agreements, and Kaminari gave them an awkward nod. The students fell silent again, though it was a lot more tense this time.

Aizawa dragged a hand down his face. Irritation, confusion and a bone deep unease that was slowly creeping towards horror all curled up in his gut. Okay, so it seemed like for some reason no one could see him or hear him, and it just so happened to be on a day his kids students were all falling apart. Whatever, that- that was fine. He would just have to find a way to communicate with them. He turned towards the blackboard at the front of the room, gaze sliding over his desk as he passed it-

He froze.

Sitting on top of his desk was a pile of flowers. More specifically, white chrysanthemums, red spider lilies, and daffodils. Grief, final goodbyes, and respect... They were funeral flowers.

There were funeral flowers on his desk.

His head snapped up to look at his grieving students again, eyes wide with horror. It couldn't be, right? This had to be some sort of prank.

"Very funny." He said dryly, forcing himself to school his expression. "This won't get you out of that test, you know." There was no reaction. He twitched and swung his gaze to Midoriya. That kid couldn't hide his feelings for shit. "I have a limited edition All Might figurine in my desk." He said, watching the kid closely. Not even a twitch. He sagged in disappointment. "Fuck." He muttered, pinching the bride of his nose. "Well, either you brats got real good at acting in the space of half a day, or I'm dead." He paused, and then let out a low, weary sigh. "If I find out later that this is some sort of prank, so help me god I will put you throw the damn wringer."

As he expected, there was no reaction. He sighed again and raked a hand through his hair as he

tilted back to stare up at the ceiling.

"Death, huh?" He mumbled, rubbing his still aching head. "I rather hoped it wouldn't hurt this much." He paused, and then a wry grin crossed his face as he glanced towards his empty desk. "Still couldn't get someone to cover my shift even when I'm dead, huh?"

"We-" Midoriya said, startling Aizawa slightly. The kid's voice cracked as he broke through the silence. "We don't know that he's- you know."

"Yes, we do." Jiro said flatly. Midoriya flinched, making his friends all turn to glare at her.

"There's a chance." Midoriya said quietly. "With all the Quirks out there, there's a chance that it could've been something none lethal. Like, a t-teleporting Quirk, or a-"

"No, there isn't." Jiro said, gritting her teeth.

"Jiro-" Yaoyorozu said softly, reaching to comfort her, but she brushed her off.

"I'm saying we shouldn't g-give up hope!" Midoriya insisted. "If he's out there- if he's somewhere out there alone, we should be looking for him, or at least-" Jiro abruptly stood up and slammed her fist into her desk, turning a glare on Midoriya that was so vicious his friends instinctively stepped in front of him.

"You wouldn't say that if you heard how he screamed!" She yelled at him.

Instantly, it seemed like air was sucked out of the room. The students recoiled, Midoriya's eyes going wide with horror. Jiro hung her head and began to tremble, and instantly Kaminari and Yaoyorozu bolted over to her.

"You- you don't understand." Jiro choked out. "Everyone- everything makes sound, all the time. They can't stop it. From heartbeats, to breathing to footsteps, to talking- they can't stop. And I can't stop hearing it. So- so I heard everything. The sound his head made when it hit the wall, the way he screamed... And the instant his heartbeat stopped." She inhaled shakily, bringing her hands up to cover her face. "There wasn't- there's no chance. He's gone."

The class went silent again.

"Shit," Aizawa muttered shakily. "Congratulations, you idiot. Like it wasn't enough to just die, you had to die in a way that traumatized one of your kids."

"That doesn't rule out a teleportation Quirk." Midoriya whispered. Jiro's head snapped up with a snarl, as half the class immediately began to protest, but he just raised his voice. "It doesn't! If all the sound he made cut off at the same time, that doesn't mean he stopped making sound, just that you stopped hearing it-"

"Give it a fuckin' rest, Deku!" Bakugo snapped, raising his head. He looked haggard, like he hadn't slept at all. "The old man's dead, and we've gotta man the fuck up and move on!" Uraraka, Iida, and a few other students start to yell back, scolding him, but Midoriya bared his teeth and glared at him.

"Oh, right." He snarled, tone scathing. "Because you're so good at moving on. Tell me, how long have you held onto your grudge against me? Ten years? No, it's eleven now, isn't it?"

"You really wanna talk about this shit now?" Bakugo said incredulously.

"Maybe I do." Midoriya bit out. "When else are we gonna talk about it?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe when we're not fucking grieving for our dead teacher?" Bakugo snapped.

"Shut up!" Midoriya yelled, launching to his feet. Half the class immediately jumped to their feet as well, but he didn't move from where he was standing. Aizawa automatically moved to put himself between them, opening his mouth to tell them to stop, only to wince as he remembered that it would be useless. "He's not dead, alright!? He can't be! There's- there's just no way! He survived fighting Shigaraki at USJ, he survived having a Nomu sit on top of him, he survived as a hero

for twenty years, so- so he can't be dead! He has to find a way to come back. Because- because if a pro-hero at his level can die to something stupid like a kid's Quirk manifestation, then..." His voice trailed off into a whisper. "Then how the hell am I gonna protect all of you?"

Again, the gathered students fell silent. Aizawa let out a shaky breath, reaching a hand up to cover his damp eyes.

"Fuck," He whispered. "You damn brats... Are you trying to make me cry or something?" "I don't need your damn protection, Deku." Bakugo snarled, hands popping.

"Too fuckin' bad." Midoriya snapped, making his friends choke in surprise. "You're getting it anyways. I will never just let you die just because you think asking for help makes you weak or something. I don't care if you hate me for it, or hurt me for it, I'll never stop sticking my nose into your business if there's even a chance it'll prevent you from ending up like- like sensei. That goes for all of you." He swept a determined gaze over the class. "And- I won't blame you all for grieving, but I'm not gonna let sensei just- just die without saying goodbye, either. If there's even the slightest chance he's still alive, then I'll never stop hunting him down. He can't get out of teaching us that easily."

Aizawa crouched down, clasping his hands over the nape of his neck and taking a shaky breath as he listened to the atmosphere in the room ease, several students voicing their support or just mumbling that they would hold off on deciding for now.

"This is hell." He muttered to himself. "I fucked up too many times, and now I have to watch my kids try and find my corpse for all eternity."

No, wait, He thought. Don't ghosts usually have something they had to do to... move on? Unfinished business, or whatever. He sat back on his heels with a sigh, scanning the class. The students had drifted back to their seats by now, but the atmosphere was less tense than it had been before. Now, instead of just sitting in silence, most of them were whispering to each other. He propped his chin on his hand and just... looked at them, for a moment. They had grown quickly since the beginning of the year, both physically and emotionally. Too quickly. He shook his head, knocking that thought loose. It was better for them to grow faster, so they could defend themselves faster. Still, if I was stronger, then maybe they could have just stayed kids for just a little while longer...

Aizawa stiffened suddenly as a thought stuck him.

"Oh, fuck, Hizashi!" He said, eyes wide with horror. He launched to his feet and scrambled over to the door, frantic to check on his husband, only to pause in the doorway. He turned and looked over his shoulder at his class, who still hadn't moved the whole time. "You-" He started, and then hesitated. "I'm- I'm proud of you." He said quietly, but to him his voice seemed to echo throughout the room ominously. "You kids have a lot to work on, but... I'm sure you're all gonna be great

heroes some day." He ducked his head into his capture weapon and turned back to the door. "And I'm sorry I won't be there to see it." He whispered, and then bolted down the hall, running straight for the teacher's lounge.

Once again, no one noticed as he passed, no matter how loudly he ran. He whipped around a corner and skidded to a halt outside the door... Only to pause, hand resting on the handle. To be honest, he wasn't sure whether or not he could handle seeing what Hizashi's reaction to his death might be. But there really wasn't any other option, so he pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Sure enough, sitting there on the couch was Hizashi. Aizawa's breath caught at the sight of him. He looked terrible, his hair up in a messy half bun and dark bags under his eyes clearly visible behind his bright yellow sunglasses. He held several stacks of paperwork in his hands, frowning down at it. Sitting across from him was Nemuri, but neither of them glanced up when Aizawa entered.

"Are you sure?" Nemuri said, brows furrowed in concern. "You can take the day off, you know. No one would blame you."

"It's fine, it's fine." Hizashi said, waving her off with a smile that was so much weaker than his usual one that it made Aizawa wince. "I'm already covering Sho's class today, so it'd be a pain for Nezu to find someone to cover for both of us."

"He would understand." Nemuri said. "Come on, at least take a moment to sleep. Besides, you haven't really taken the time to process what happened yet-" Hizashi abruptly stood up, shooting her a small fake smile as he moved towards the door.

"Ah, sorry, I've gotta go to class now. See you during lunch!" He waved over his shoulder as he left the room (pausing to glance at the still open door with a slightly baffled expression) and strode out into the hall. Aizawa followed him, leaving Nemuri to sigh behind them.

"'Zashi..." Aizawa mumbled, voice thick. There was no response, but he didn't really think there would be. Without thinking, he reached out and grabbed the hem of his husband's jacket, half expecting his hand to pass right through-

Hizashi stumbled slightly as he was yanked to a stop. Aizawa's breath caught with cautious hope as he looked up at his husband... But Hizashi's eyes just slid right over him. The man blinked and shook his head, turning back around with a sigh.

"Maybe I should have tried to sleep..." He mumbled, continuing on down the hall.

Aizawa inhaled shakily and clutched a hand to his chest like that would soothe the ache there before following his husband. The two of them walked back to 1A, where the volume was at a slightly more normal level, though still significantly subdued. The class, who were now gathered in a circle in the middle of the room, perked up when the door opened... and then deflated when they saw Hizashi walk in. Aizawa kept his head down and followed close behind.

"Hey, little listeners!" Hizashi said, waving as he walked into the room. He paused at the sight of Aizawa's desk, still covered in flowers, and visibly took a deep breath before turning back to the class with a shaky smile. "We're gonna have a pretty chill day today with not a lot of work since, well, you know..."

"Yamada-sensei!" Iida said, stepping forward and holding his arm in the air. "Given the circumstantial evidence surrounding Aizawa-sensei's disappearance-" Hizashi and Aizawa both winced. "We, as a class, have decided to hold off on making any hasty judgements!"

"That's right!" Kirishima said, nodding. "It wouldn't be manly at all to write him off just because we lost sight of him once, you know?" Aizawa blinked and turned to look at Jiro, but she was nodding along, so he figured they must've discussed it more while he was gone.

"Like he said," Uraraka said with a determined expression. "We decided to trust Aizawa-sensei and wait for him to come back to us. And if he doesn't, then we'll drag him back!"

"Yeah!" Ashido cheered. "We won't let him get away without seeing us graduate!"

"He promised to help me train to become a hero." Shinso said quietly, shaking hands clenched into fists. "I'm not going to let him just leave before he sees it happen." Aizawa swallowed around a lump in his throat, chest feeling oddly tight.

"You damn brats..." He muttered, watching as Hizashi's expression softened. "I'm sure he would be happy to hear that." Hizashi said quietly.

"Like hell I would!" Aizawa snapped. "If I'm dead, I'm dead, and the living- the living should move on." He trailed off in mumbling at the end.

"That being said," Kaminari piped up. "We wouldn't mind having less work today." "Kaminari!" Iida scolded, but the joke lifted the mood somewhat.

"Yamada-sensei?" Ashido asked, a little nervously. "Were- are you close to Aizawa-sensei?" A few of the students winced at her slip, but Hizashi pretended not to notice. Instead he just tilted his head and smiled, tapping his cheek playfully.

"Hmm... I suppose I could tell you, but you'd have to promise not to tell anyone else, 'kay?" He said smugly.

"Don't you dare." Aizawa said, glaring at him fruitlessly.

"Promise!" Ashido said immediately, the idea of getting her hands on some new gossip cheering her up.

"I'll hold you to that!" Hizashi said, winking as he reached under the collar of his shirt to pull out a thin chain necklace with a ring dangling from it. "As a matter of fact, me an' your sensei have been married for six years!"

"I hate you." Aizawa grumbled as the class exploded into noise.

"But you're so nice!" Hagakure blurted, and then let out a tiny squeak and covered her face with her hands as Hizashi and Aizawa both raised an eyebrow at her, though luckily for her she only saw the nice one.

"Eh... I guess opposites do attract..." Ashido said thoughtfully. Aizawa groaned and ducked his head into his capture weapon, face red with embarrassment.

"Gross." Shinso complained, wrinkling his nose at her.

"But don't you two have different last names? Kero." Asui croaked, tongue sticking out as she tapped her cheek thoughtfully. Hizashi opened his mouth to reply, but Midoriya got there first.

"That's because Aizawa-sensei is an underground hero, remember?" Midoriya said. "If he had anything linking him to a daylight hero, it would put a lot of attention on him that would interfere

with his work. Not to mention making his civilian identity a target for villains..." He trailed off and blushed as he suddenly realized everyone was looking at him.

"Ding ding ding!" Hizashi said, pointing at him with a wide grin. "You get a gold star! Yep, that's one part of being a pro-hero that most people don't think about. It's why a lot of heroes refuse to date civilians."

"Wow..." Kaminari said, leaning on a desk. "Well, I guess if you have to date a pro-hero, sensei's not the worst choice." Without thinking, Aizawa reached over and smacked him upside the head, making the kid let out a yelp and turn to look behind him. He paused when he saw nothing, and then relaxed and pouted. "Geez, Hagakure, it was just a joke!"

"What?" Hagakure said, from the other side of the room. "I'm over here." Kaminari stiffened and quickly glanced from her to where Aizawa was standing with a baffled expression.

"But- but then who hit me?" Kaminari said, rubbing the back of his head. There was a slight pause, and then Sero groaned.

"Not this again." He grumbled.

"No, I'm serious this time!" Kaminari insisted. Sero just rolled his eyes.

"Kaminari spent the first week of school trying to convince me UA was haunted." He explained to the rest of the room, making Kaminari pout.

"Oo, tough luck." Aizawa said with a little smirk. "Boy who cried wolf, huh?"

"I wasn't joking this time..." Kaminari grumbled, crossing his arms. Sero rolled his eyes and ruffled his hair.

"Sure, sure." He said. "You've been watching too many horror movies, man." Kaminari kicked him in the shin, and Sero kicked him back, but luckily Hizashi stepped in before they could devolve into a full blown fight.

Like Hizashi said, class was pretty quiet that day. The students was assigned a self study period, which was teacher code for 'do whatever you want as long as you don't get too loud'. Hizashi spent the class filling out the paperwork for the hero commission to legally report Aizawa missing. Aizawa spent the class sitting right next to his husband's chair, knees drawn up to his chest as he leaned against it, head resting on Hizashi's hip. It was something he did a lot at home, though he never would've even considered doing it at school if there was any chance anyone could've seen him.

During class he discovered a few things about his current state. Rather than just being invisible and silent, it was more like he was 'unable to be detected'. Which meant that no one seemed able to see him do anything, but they might later notice the effect of something he had done. For example, when he threw a pen across the room, no one noticed the pen flying through the air, but they might later notice it lying on the floor. So when he poked Hizashi's leg, he didn't react, but if he shoved it, Hizashi noticed it move and got confused.

Honestly, being dead wasn't a huge difference from being alive. If anything it was just more boring. He wasn't tired enough to sleep, and even he found sitting in silence for a long time to be pretty tedious. Besides that, seeing his husband struggle not to cry while he filled out life insurance paperwork just really sucked, to the point where when he left the room after class ended Aizawa didn't follow him. He did get up and move to a corner though, where he sat watching the teachers

come and go as he struggled to come to grips with his own death. During math class, he watched Ectoplasm write equations on the board, and out of morbid sense of curiosity grabbed a marker and wrote 'hello' in big letters. Ectoplasm wrote right over it, not seeming to notice. None of the students seemed to see anything weird either, so he scrapped that idea with a huff of annoyance and sat back in the corner, resting his forehead on his knees.

He didn't move when the lunch bell rang, but about five minutes after he dragged himself to his feet just to avoid wallowing in self pity for the rest of the day. He wandered into the lunchroom in a bit of a daze, grabbing a few snacks on instinct that he realized belatedly he didn't know if he could eat. He wasn't hungry, he actually felt a bit nauseous from all the stress, but he hadn't gotten hungry very often when he was alive either. He once hadn't eaten for three days just because he forgot to, and it had taken Hizashi smacking him in the forehead with a juice pouch for him to remember that humans need sustenance. Mostly out of curiosity, he unwrapped a melonpan and took a bite, half expecting it to just fall through his body. To his surprise he found he was able to eat completely normally.

He ate the rest of the bun as he wandered through the lunchroom, instinctively noting the location of each of his students. He glanced down when he passed the table with the 'dekusquad' (as Hizashi called them) and paused, frowning down at Uraraka's tray. She had only gotten a bowl of rice and some soup. Her friends noticed it too, and Midoriya and Iida shot each other a worried glance, but it was Todoroki who spoke up first to ask her if she was feeling sick. She waved them off with a nervous smile and said that she just wasn't hungry with everything that happened that day, but she ate quickly enough to suggest that wasn't the full truth. The boys shrugged it off, Midoriya mumbling something about making sure she ate more during dinner.

Aizawa frowned and placed a cream bun on her tray before standing there and waiting for her to notice it. After a moment, she did, and then confusion and guilt crossed her expression before she grabbed it and slid it into her bag. Aizawa scowled and placed a second one directly in front of her. She noticed it much faster that time, staring down at it in confusion before glancing up her friends, who were too busy talking to notice her bread based conundrum. Eventually, she shook her head and put that bun into her bag too. Aizawa threw his hands in the air in frustration and stalked off into the kitchen to grab a convenience store bento from the fridge.

Lunch Rush usually insisted on having each dish be hand made, especially since the integration of the dorm system when the students could no longer eat home cooked meals, but he did keep preprepared stuff like that in case he ran out of ingredients or someone needed something quick. Uraraka probably would've felt bad if she knew about him taking it, but Aizawa knew that both Lunch Rush and Nezu would rather be stolen from than let a child go hungry. He placed the bento in front of her, put her chopsticks into her hand, and then used her hand to pierce the plastic wrap. That way she wouldn't be able to return it or shove it in her bag but she also wouldn't be suspicious of it possibly being tampered with. She nearly jumped out of her seat in surprise when she looked down to see it, but after a moment of bafflement hesitantly began to eat. Aizawa sighed in relief.

"I swear," He grumbled, patting her head absentmindedly. "Stray cats are easier to feed than you brats."

Uraraka didn't reply. He didn't expect her to. Instead he spent the rest of the lunch period walking around checking to make sure that the rest of his students were eating enough. Once he was sure they were, he moved on to wandering the school, trying to find something to do that would keep his mind off of the fact that he was only finding out about Uraraka's money issues now that he couldn't do anything about it. Eventually, out of sheer boredom, he grabbed a stack of tests he had been putting off and set about grading them. He wasn't sure if anyone would be able to see his writing if he wrote it out of sight and then they found it later, but it was worth a shot.

By the time he was done with that, lunch had ended and it was time for practical heroics. One good thing about being dead was that he now had the opportunity to sit in on All Might's lessons, something he hadn't had time to do in the past while being 1A's homeroom teacher, the third year's ethics teacher, and doing his nighttime patrols. He had barely even had time to skim some of the recordings, and he hadn't exactly been pleased with what he found. But none of the staff had the time or the permission from Nezu to oversee All Might's lessons. Something about undermining his authority? Aizawa thought that when you had the authority of being the number one hero, you could deal with a bit of undermining, but whatever.

Beyond Midoriya's injuries on the first day (which Aizawa had thoroughly lectured All Might for) no one had brought any issues to his attention about the class, so he had had no choice but to assume things were going fine. He followed the students out to the field, where All Might announced that they would be playing dodgeball... with Quirks. With no limitations. Aizawa slapped a hand against his forehead with a groan.

"At this rate, you're more of a threat to my class than the League is." Aizawa grumbled, crossing his arms. Luckily, it seemed even an idiot like All Might was able to pick up on the mood after his cheer of 'plus ultra!' got no response. He hesitantly offered to have the class just do one on one Quirkless sparring for a change of pace. Everyone except Bakugo agreed, so they separated off into pairs and got to work.

Aizawa wandered around, observing their movements. By then, most of them had figured out their own fighting styles pretty well, and just needed a bit of practice so that those movements became second nature to them. There were a few exceptions, like Midoriya, but then again he had been forced to switch up his whole fighting style to something more kick based after the training camp. Kouda also seemed to struggle with that, as his Quirk wasn't directly combat oriented, and so did Jiro and Aoyama who had long range Quirks. Kaminari also seemed to flail around a lot, but he could mostly afford to when his Quirk knocked someone out with one touch. Shinso was somewhere in the middle, as he was adapting to his new fighting style rapidly (his growth had become exponential since he got transferred to 1A after the sports festival) but still hadn't quite gotten used to everything. Aizawa went around correcting their form as much as he could. All Might wasn't much help in that regard, since his "fighting style" was just to hit something as hard as he could and hope it stayed down.

It was remarkably frustrating trying to correct someone's stance when they couldn't see, hear, or feel you. Aizawa had to resort to nudging their feet into the right position over and over until they realized that their hits felt smoother or stronger and checked themselves over. Most of them took several long moments to realize something was different, but in a remarkable display of observation skills Midoriya noticed almost immediately. He was a little confused, but he enthusiastically dove into trying out the new form. Aizawa tilted his head as he watched, a little baffled by how fast the kid was learning.

"You'd be a good underground hero if your Quirk wasn't so flashy." He said thoughtfully. "Well, if you wanted to go underground, I'm sure you'd find a way to do it even with that Quirk. You're a little too clever sometimes. Ah, no, don't kick with your toes, use your shin if you can- here, like this..." He guided the kid through several more sets until he got the hang of it, then ruffled his hair and walked off to correct Aoyama again.

He continued bouncing back and forth until class ended, at which point he hesitantly walked back to the teacher's lounge. It had been a long day, and he really wanted to go see his husband, but he also knew that he wouldn't like what he saw. Sure enough, when he walked in, he saw Hizashi fast asleep on the couch, paperwork still clutched in his hand. Nemuri sat in the desk next to him, frowning at something on her screen. Aizawa let out a shaky breath as he moved to grab one of the

blankets from under his desk and draped it over his husband. He knelt by Hizashi's side, brushing some of the loose hair out of his face. Ironically, now that he was sleeping, he looked less dead than he had earlier.

"I... really hate this." Aizawa muttered to himself. He pressed a gentle kiss to his husband's forehead, trembling slightly as he reached down to grab his hand. "Two down, two to go." He joked shakily. "But seriously, you and Nem take your time following us, alright? Being dead really sucks. And I'm patient, so- so I can wait." He paused and let out a quiet breath, then pressed his forehead to Hizashi's. "Fuck... the hell's the point of being a ghost if I can't do anything?"

"Huh?" Nemuri said suddenly, startling him. He looked up to see her frowning at Hizashi. "Did I put a blanket on him? No, I must have..." She trailed off and then shook her head, turning back to her work. Aizawa shook his head fondly and turned back to his husband, sliding Hizashi's sunglasses off and placing them down on the table.

"This is the worst, you know. Seeing you both like this." He whispered, tucking stray strands of hair behind Hizashi's ear. "Nem will try to hide how hurt she is to help you out, s-so you've gotta take care of each other. Don't- don't drift apart like we did after Oboro, okay?" Tears pricked his eyes, and he ducked his head down to rest on his husband's lap. "You'll understand if I don't stay by your side, right? I don't- I can't do anything for you anyways. So you won't get mad if I try to pretend that everything's okay for just a little while longer, right?" Aizawa's shoulders shook slightly as he squeezed his eyes shut, tears leaking down his cheeks.

He wasn't sure how long he spent there, clutching Hizashi's shirt and trembling with the effort of choking back sobs. It was long enough that several other teachers came and left, all of them keeping their voices down and skirting around where Hizashi lay. Eventually, Nemuri came over to wake him up, and Aizawa forced himself to let go and sit back as Hizashi sleepily climbed to his feet and started to leave. He nearly reached out to grab his husband, but stopped himself just in time. He spent another long while just sitting there, curled up in a ball next to where Hizashi had sat.

Finally, when the clock read 5:30 PM, he pulled himself to his feet and wiped his eyes. For a moment, he wasn't really sure where to go from there. Then some little flicker in the back of his mind told him to check on his students, so he trudged off towards the dorms. Before he even opened the door the smell of warm food and spices filled the air, settling him a bit. It must've been Ashido's turn to cook that night. He slid into the dorm, and sure enough there was Ashido in the kitchen, blasting music and singing along loudly. Actually, most of the class was in common room, which was notable because usually at least half of them hid in their rooms until dinner.

Maybe they didn't want to be alone after today. His mind whispered to him. Begrudgingly, he conceded the point. It was probably the ones who were following their usual routines of self isolating that he needed to be worried about. He shook his head to clear it and wandered around the room, using his newfound invisibility to his full advantage. He skirted around Kaminari to move his plate away from the edge of the table, placed a glass full of water in front of Kirishima (who was sprawled out across the floor, panting heavily after losing an arm wrestling match to Shoji), turned off the stove when Ashido got distracted and started to burn whatever she was making, tossed a blanket over Shinso, and moved Kaminari's plate away from the edge of the table again.

To be honest, it was kind of fun seeing how baffled they got when random things were placed in front of them, and he didn't even have to worry about anyone making fun of him for indulging his parental instincts helping out his students. He wasn't hungry, so he didn't eat with them during dinner, but he did sneak some extra food onto Uraraka's plate. Just in case. She blinked down at in surprise, and then shrugged and dug in, and he gave her a pat of the head before walking over to

Kaminari to move his plate again. Seriously, was he trying to knock it off the damn table?

He spent most of the rest of the evening flitting around, doing small things like that in an attempt to keep his mind off of everything. The whole class was more subdued than usual, but they were starting to relax as the night went on, which was nice to see. Eventually though, around the six or seventh time he moved Kaminari's plate, the kid sat back with a huff and shot a glare at the rest of the room.

"Alright," He said as he crossed his arms, and the annoyance in his tone drew most of the class's attention. "Seriously, who's doing that? I was just joking about the whole UA is haunted thing, I don't actually believe in ghosts, so you can knock it off now." The class stared back at him with baffled, slightly concerned expressions.

"Uh, dude?" Sero said, a little warily. "What are you talking about?"

"Someone keeps moving my plate!" Kaminari said, frowning.

"Only because you keep moving it towards the edge of the table." Aizawa grumbled. "But fine, if you wanna dump your food all over the floor and spend half an hour cleaning it up, be my guest."

"You sure you didn't just bump it?" Ashido asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah, I'm sure." Kaminari said with a pout. "It's moved like twelve times!"

"So someone's playing a prank on you, big deal." Bakugo snarked. Kaminari stuck his tongue out at him, but before he could say anything Uraraka spoke up.

"Actually..." She said, a little nervously. "I also noticed some weird things today. I don't think it's a ghost or anything!" She added hurriedly when she got some odd looks. "I just- it's weird. During lunch, I was eating, and I looked down and suddenly there was a bun on my plate that wasn't there before. I thought I had grabbed it by accident and just forgot about it, so I put it in my bag to eat later, and then looked up and there was a second bun there! But I didn't see anyone around me who looked like they put it there, and no one else seemed to notice, so I just put that one in my bag too. And then, like two minutes later, I looked down and I had a whole bento in my hands! And I had already opened it, so I couldn't just put it in my bag or return it or whatever. So I ate it, and it was fine, but the whole thing was just kinda weird, you know? Not to mention, during dinner, I looked up and saw that I had more food on my plate again! If it was just once or twice, whatever, but isn't it really weird that it happened four times?" She said empathetically, leaning forwards with an intense expression. There was a slight pause where the class considered her words.

"Well..." Kirishima said slowly. "I also looked up and saw a glass of water in front of me after arm wrestling with Shoji, but I just sorta figured one of my bros grabbed it for me?" He glanced at his friends nervously, but frowned when they all shook their heads.

"Someone gave me a blanket." Shinso said, not looking up from his phone. "I don't know if that's related or not, but I figured I'd share."

"I also received a package of peanuts after class." Tokoyami said solemnly. "Additionally, though I had intended not to say anything, Dark Shadow has been on edge today. The presence of an otherworldly entity is not out of the question." The other students tensed at his words, glancing around the room nervously.

"Damn," Aizawa muttered to himself, rubbing the back of his head. "I guess I went overboard, huh?"

"I have a better explanation, kero." Asui said, tapping her cheek with her finger. "We have a food fairy." There was a slight pause where everyone stared at her, and then Ashido spoke up.

"I don't know what that is, but I am incredibly interested in finding out." She said, leaning forwards with wide eyes. Uraraka and several other students nodded along eagerly, and Asui smiled slightly.

"My mom says that a food fairy is someone who finds it hard to express their affection for people face to face, kero, so they leave presents like food to brighten up the other person's day." Asui said. The class relaxed and cooed over her words, letting out little 'aww' noises or pretending to swoon.

"That is the cutest fucking thing I've ever heard in my life." Aizawa deadpanned, at the same time as Ashido empathetically said "that's adorable!".

"Talk about manly!" Kirishima said with a grin. "Who do we think it is?"

"Yeah, we've gotta thank the food fairy!" Uraraka added, beaming. "So it's someone anxious who wants to give their friends presents..." She trailed off, and then all at once the whole class turned to look at Midoriya. Aizawa snorted at the stricken look on the kid's face.

"It's n-not me!" He squeaked, waving his hands rapidly. "I mean- if I h-had a present for Uraraka, I would just give it to her face to f-face, you know?"

"That's true..." Uraraka said, humming thoughtfully.

"What about Kouda?" Sero asked. Kouda squeaked and shook his head quickly, rapidly signing something that made Sero laugh. "Yeah, alright, fair point."

"I suppose if we cannot guess who it is, and the 'fairy' in question will not come forwards, we will simply have to thank the whole class." Iida said, pushing his glasses up to hide a smile.

"Oh, hell yeah!" Sero cheered.

"On three!" Kirishima beamed, jumping to his feet. "One, two, three-!"

"Thank you food fairy!" The class all yelled at once before devolving into giggles.

"You're welcome." Aizawa said dryly, automatically ducking his head to hide a smile in his capture scarf.

"Still though," Kaminari said with a dramatic pout. "I think the fairy's playing favorites. You guys all got snacks, and I just got my plate moved around." Aizawa rolled his eyes and started to move over to him.

"Boo!" Uraraka said, though she was visibly biting back a smile. "Don't insult the fairy! Death to the traitor!"

"Death to the traitor!" Ashido joined, waving her first in the air.

"Death to the traitor." Todoroki said, completely deadpan.

"You can't do this to me!" Kaminari wailed dramatically. "I thought we were friends!" "The tides of loyalty remain ever-shifting." Tokoyami said somberly.

"What he said." Shinso agreed with a small smirk.

"Christ," Aizawa muttered fondly as he placed his last bun leftover from lunch on top of Kaminari's head. "Could you kids be any more dramatic?"

"Uh, Kaminari?" Sero said, eyes wide as he stared at him.

"Huh? What?" Kaminari asked, startled by his tone, but when he turned the bun slid off from on top of his head and fell into his lap. There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at it, and then Kaminari grinned and held it high in the air. "I have been blessed by the food fairy!" He shrieked with delight.

"Your prayers have been answered!" Ashido yelled, and then burst into laughter. "Praise be!" Uraraka whooped, giggling.

"Pfft-" Aizawa pressed a hand to his mouth to hide a grin as his shoulders shook from holding back laughter.

"Will you assholes keep it down?" Bakugo snapped, but they could all hear how much softer his tone was compared to normal.

"Looks like someone's jealous." Kaminari said smugly, and then expertly ducked under Bakugo's hand when the boy took a half hearted swipe at him. Aizawa barked out a laugh that he didn't bother to smother, knowing no one would hear it anyways.

"You damn kids," He said, far more fondly that he usually would dare to. He reached out and ruffled Bakugo and Kaminari's hair with a grin. "You really know how to cheer someone up, huh?"

"That doesn't explain why Dark Shadow has been unsettled..." Tokoyami grumbled under his breath, quiet enough that no one heard it. Still, even though he was visibly put out by the (apparent) lack of ghosts, even he seemed cheered up by the warm atmosphere.

Aizawa spent the rest of the night using the sound of his students laughter to drown out the thoughts of his death, and everything he had left unfinished. After all, he had an eternity to think about it, so wasn't it fine to spend a day or two just... not? Still though, he couldn't avoid thinking about it forever, and once he made sure all his students got to bed at a mostly reasonable time (some of them were still reluctant to be alone) he found himself climbing the stairs to the 1A dorm roof and pushing the door open.

It was chilly outside, which was both annoying and comforting. He felt like ghosts shouldn't be able to feel the cold, but the familiar cool night air was settling in a way that nothing else had been that day. He sat at the edge, arms resting on top of the railing as he tilted his head back to look at the stars. There was just something about the night sky that never failed to calm his nerves.

He thought about a lot of things, sitting up there, alone with the wind and the stars. He thought about how he could be there for his students. He thought about how he couldn't. He thought about his husband. He thought about Shinso, who had seemed mostly okay after Midoriya's rousing speech, but was also remarkably good at hiding his emotions. He thought about his life. What he had accomplished, and what he hadn't. He thought about being a ghost, and wondered how long he would stay in this space between life and death. He wondered if he would get to see his students graduate. He thought about his husband. He thought about who would take over his patrol route. He thought about Oboro, wondered if he would see the boy again. He thought about how bizarrely freeing death felt, and yet how utterly helpless it was at the same time. He thought about his husband.

As it turns out, contemplating your own mortality is exhausting. Eventually, he fell asleep there, head resting on his arms. For the first time in a very long time, he did not dream.

He woke up to the feeling of sunlight on his skin and a terrible ache in his joints. That was remarkably irritating. At very least, ghosts shouldn't be able to feel pain. They probably shouldn't be able to sleep either, but he didn't mind that. He walked downstairs to find that the students were already in class, as it was a little after ten AM. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sipped it slowly (never mind how weird it was, he was so glad ghosts could eat-), for once allowing himself to wake up naturally. It was nice, though it would've been nicer if his husband and cats were there. That thought was uncomfortable, so he chased it off by wandering around and picking up some of the messes scattered around. His students were pretty organized all things considered, but they were still teenagers. Messes were inevitable, no matter how many schedules and charts Iida made.

Once he was awake and suitably Not Thinking again, Aizawa trudged back to class. There was an underlying tension in the school that he hadn't noticed the day before, having been too caught up in his own problems. He peeked into Hizashi's class as he passed, though he quickly moved on when he saw how terrible the man looked. In contrast, the 1A room seemed more at ease than the rest of the building. There was still a slight unease to the air, but it felt more like concern than grief. The classes in 1A seemed to have gone similarly to how they went the day before, though by the time Aizawa got there it was only half an hour until lunch, so he didn't get to see much of it.

Again, he followed them to the lunch room, and again he wandered around making sure everything was fine. Once he was sure it was, he moved to the table with Midoriya, Todoroki, Iida, Uraraka, Asui and Kirishima (who hadn't gotten food yet, as he was busy rambling with Midoriya about workout plans), and saw that Uraraka still had an inadequate amount of food for the work she was doing in class.

"You know," Aizawa said, frowning as he placed a bento in front of her and Kirishima. "If you had problems with money, you could've just told me. Nezu has a fund set aside for students who aren't as well off." He paused, and then let out a low sigh. "Well, too late now I guess."

"Ah, Uraraka!" Kirishima said suddenly, practically bouncing with delight as he held up his bento. "Look! We got a gift!"

"Oh!" Uraraka squeaked in surprise, noticing the bento in her hands for the first time. Then a wide grin spread across her face as she took a deep breath. "Thank you food fairy!" She called out, loud enough that several nearby tables startled and turned to look at them. Midoriya and Iida frantically shushed her, but she and Kirishima just laughed in response. Conversely, the tables around them quickly began to mutter to each other, shooting his students glares. Aizawa sighed quietly.

"You kids should learn to think before you act." He muttered, shaking his head in disappointment. "You might not think I'm dead, but the rest of the school does, so now you kids look like a bunch of brats who are celebrating your teacher's death."

Sure enough, not even two minutes later, Monoma came up to them with a scowl.

"And what are you so happy about?" He snarked, but rather than addressing them with his usual enthusiastic distaste he sounded genuinely disgusted. "I knew 1A was stuck up, but to think you wouldn't know how to show an ounce of respect for the dead-"

"Sensei isn't dead." Midoriya said softly, but the glare he delivered with it was fierce enough to stop Monoma in his tracks. "He was caught up in a kid's Quirk manifestation, and is currently missing. The child is working with Quirk counselors to work out what their Quirk does. If we find evidence of his death, then we'll grieve. Not a second before." He shot Monoma one last glare, and

then pointedly turned back to his food. The other kids at the table all wore similar expressions. Monoma just sort of stood there for a second, seemingly unsure what to do in the face of such steely determination, and then he drew himself up and crossed his arms.

"So what is this 'food fairy' you're so excited about?" He asked, changing the subject seemingly out of both genuine curiosity and an attempt to back down without actually admitting he was wrong.

"Oh?" Uraraka said, pretending to try and hide a smirk with her hand. "Could it be that the illustrious 1B is ignorant of the food fairy?" She spoke in a pompous, mocking tone, making Monoma scowl at her as Midoriya and Asui tried not to smile.

"Uraraka!" Iida scolded.

"Yo, Uraraka, that's not nice bro!" Kirishima said, eyes wide and innocent even though he was also visibly trying not to smile. "It makes sense that he wouldn't know about it. I mean, we know that he doesn't have any friends." Uraraka barked out a laugh while Iida blanched, Midoriya pressed a hand to his mouth to hide a giggle, Monoma turned pink with anger, and Aizawa choked in surprise.

"Jesus Christ," Aizawa muttered, shaking his head. "Back in my day, kids just fuckin' hit each other."

"A food fairy is someone who has difficulty expressing their affection for their friends face to face, kero, so they deliver anonymous gifts instead, usually in the form of food." Asui explained politely. Monoma blinked, visibly absorbing that information, and then drew himself up with a smirk.

"An expression of friendship, is it?" He said, chuckling and posing dramatically. "Well, the joke's on you, 1A. The students of class 1B are the closest friends there are! Once they are informed of this tradition, we will become the greatest food fairies there are!" He cackled dramatically, though the 1A students just sort of rolled their eyes. Aizawa shook his head with a little sigh, reaching out to ruffle Monoma's hair.

"You're a good kid," Aizawa said. "But you should try and keep an eye on your own progress more than anyone else's."

"Looks like the food fairy visited your hair." Uraraka said, grinning. Monoma blinked and reached up to touch his hair, which was now a mess, and scowled before quickly raking his hands through it to fix it. Aizawa's eye twitched, and he reached over and ruffled Uraraka's hair with both hands. Monoma gave up with a huff and turned back to her, only to blink and then smirk.

"You're one to talk." He said snidely. "Trouble in paradise?" Uraraka frowned in confusion, reaching up to touch her hair, and squeaked when she felt how messy it was.

"I've been betrayed!" She cried out dramatically, quickly trying to fix it.

"The students of 1B would never." He drawled smugly. Aizawa rolled his eyes and grabbed Monoma by the shoulders, spinning him around and nudging him away.

"Doesn't 1B have practical heroics this afternoon?" He asked rhetorically. "Quit wasting your time here and go eat lunch. I swear to god, if I have to start making sure two classes worth of idiots remember to eat..." He trailed off, shaking his head in annoyance. "Well, it's not like I've got anything better to do with my afterlife." He grumbled, giving Monoma one last pat on the head before moving past him to stop one of the second year management kids from braining himself on the tile floor.

That day's practical heroics lesson saw everyone in a slightly better mood, so All Might proposed the Quirked dodgeball game once again. Aizawa considered throwing a rock at him, to make his ghostly displeasure known, but didn't particularly want to risk accidentally killing the old man. His kids students were already traumatized enough. Plus, what if he came back as a ghost too? Aizawa shuddered at the thought. An eternity stuck with the only person who could see him being an extrovert? He'd literally rather die.

...Again.

He shook his head to clear the thought away as the class separated into two teams, talking strategy amongst themselves while All Might drew a line in the dirt down the center of the field. He wandered around for a moment, not really paying attention, only to jump nearly a foot in the air when he walked by Tokoyami and the boy was suddenly yanked backwards through the air away from him. Dark Shadow emerged fully, wrapping around Tokoyami and trembling.

"Dark Shadow?!" Tokoyami yelped, visibly alarmed. "What's wrong?"

"Scary!" Dark Shadow wailed, voice warbling as it cringed under the sunlight. " There's

something scary here! I don't like it, go away, go away! I won't let you hurt Fumi!"

"I don't understand," Tokoyami said, running his hands over Dark Shadow in an unsuccessful

attempt to soothe it. "What's scary? Are we in danger?"

"I don't know!" Dark Shadow cried out. "I don't know, scary, scary, can feel but can't feel, I

don't know!"

"Oh, fuck," Aizawa mumbled. "It's me, isn't it?"

"Young Tokoyami-" All Might began, stepping forwards, but Midoriya held out an arm to stop him.

"You shouldn't go near them right now." He said quietly. "When sentient Quirks get antsy like this, it's up to their wielders to calm them down. Interference from an outside source always makes the situation worse. Besides, he won't be able to stay manifested for long in the daylight anyways."

"Midoriya is correct." Tokoyami said, frowning down at his Quirk. "I've never seen Dark Shadow behave this way. Approaching us right now... would not be wise."

"Yes, of course." All Might said, fidgeting. "Is- is there anything I can do to help?"

"I'm not sure." Tokoyami admitted. "I may need your aid once I figure out the cause of his distress, but until then I'm afraid all we can do is wait for him to calm down."

"Shit," Aizawa muttered, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, well... Fuck it. If I'm already a ghost, then I can't exactly die again. Hopefully."

"Damn," Kaminari muttered as All Might ushered all the kids to the other side of the field. "You know, I kinda forgot that Tokoyami's Quirk is like, sentient sentient. Like, thinking, and everything."

"And yet here you are," Ashido joked. "Sentient, yet incapable of thought."

"Hey!" Kaminari protested as he followed her. "I think all the time! I had a thought just the other day, you know. I saw this picture of a dog, and it was really ugly..." Aizawa stopped paying attention to that conversation as he crept towards Tokoyami, hands out placatingly.

"Hey, Dark Shadow." He said quietly. "Everything's okay, there's no danger. I'm not a thr-"

"Don't touch Fumi!" Dark Shadow screamed as he clawed a chunk out of the dirt a few feet in front of where Aizawa stood, startling the class. Aizawa immediately came to a stop, lowering himself into a crouch.

"I'm not going to touch Tokoyami." He said soothingly. "I'm not going to hurt either of you-"

"Dark Shadow!" Tokoyami scolded, petting his Quirk over and over again. "What has gotten into you?!" He paused suddenly, looking up to scan the field. "Do you see something I do not?" He asked quietly.

"No! Yes! I don't know!" Dark Shadow cried. "Can't see, but can feel! There's something there, but can't see it! Scary, scary, don't like it!"

"Holy fuck, UA's haunted." Sero whispered.

"Hey, Dark Shadow." Aizawa said quietly, not paying attention as Bakugo loudly began protesting the existence of ghosts. "You remember me, right? It's Aizawa Shota. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just here to watch over my kids, alright? I can leave if I make you uncomfortable." As he spoke, Dark Shadow slowly began to relax, or at very least stopped vibrating with terror.

"Not hurt Fumi?" The Quirk clarified. Tokoyami's head snapped up in alarm.

"I promise I won't hurt any UA student or faculty." Aizawa said.

"Who are you talking to?" Tokoyami asked at the same exact time.

"Scary-thing." Dark Shadow said to Tokoyami before turning back to Aizawa. "You scary-thing. Go away?" It asked hopefully.

"I can go away, if that would make you more comfortable." Aizawa said, though the idea made his chest feel hollow.

"You not wanna leave?" Dark Shadow asked curiously, and Aizawa couldn't help but wonder how it knew that.

"No, I don't." He admitted. "I'm not sure where else I would go. But I'd find somewhere, if that made you feel safer."

"Holy fuck, Tokoyami's Quirk is talking to a ghost." Sero whispered, and Bakugo smacked him upside the head. Conversely, Midoriya seemed to be practically vibrating with joy as he rambled a mile a minute, frantically writing down notes. Everyone just seemed a bit uneasy.

"Mm..." Dark Shadow made a peculiar, warbling hum noise. "You give food, but you also scary- thing..."

"The entity that you are talking to is the food fairy?" Tokoyami asked, eyes wide. Dark Shadow nodded, not looking away from Aizawa even as the other students gasped.

"Holy fuck, UA is haunted by a friendly ghost-" Sero said, and then ducked under a swipe from Bakugo.

"The entity that you sense has yet to harm us, and has even proved itself useful." Tokoyami said slowly, running a hand along Dark Shadow's beak. "Does that not warrant some level of trust?"

"Thanks for that, kid." Aizawa said dryly as Dark Shadow made an expression like it just bit into a lemon.

"Mmm..." It hummed again, wiggling uncomfortably. "Bad feeling. Creepy feeling." "Do you sense malicious intent?" Tokoyami asked. Dark Shadow shook its head.

"No, but is- is kind action, but creepy feeling." Dark Shadow said, visibly frustrated with it's own limited communication. "Not like- not like that can't feel."

"You find it uncomfortable that you can feel the entity, but not sense it?" Tokoyami clarified. Dark Shadow gave a relieved nod, chirping happily as it nuzzled against Tokoyami. It was beginning to shrink, the effects of the sunlight catching up to it. A lightbulb went off in Aizawa's head at the cat-like behavior along with the talk of sensing.

"Dark Shadow." He called, and once the Quirk had turned it's attention back in his general direction, he held out a hand, palm up. "Would you like to try seeing if you can sense me through touch?"

"Touch?" Dark Shadow echoed, tilting it's head back and forth. "Touch... no hurt?"

"I promise I won't hurt you." Aizawa said again, brow furrowing in concern at how often the Quirk

asked that. "Look, I won't even move."

"Mmm..." The Quirk hummed, inching forwards slowly. "Is promise. If you hurt, I bite, okay?"

"That sounds fair to me." Aizawa said, voice warm with amusement.

"You're going to let it touch you?" Tokoyami said, sounding alarmed. "But you never touch anyone outside of training."

"Warm feeling." Dark Shadow said, nervousness slowly shifting into curiosity. " Warm smell. Like... cat? Cat-thing!" It chirped proudly. Aizawa snorted quietly.

"I'll take that as a compliment." He said with a soft smile. "I happen to like cats quite a lot, you known." The Quirk warbled happily, and then hesitantly bumped it's beak against Aizawa's outstretched fingers. Whatever it felt, it seemed delighted by, as it chirped loudly and then surged forwards to wrap around his torso.

"Cat-thing! Warm smell! Familiar smell!" It warbled happily, nuzzling against him. Aizawa snorted and ran a hand over it's head. It felt weird, sort of staticky, but not necessarily bad.

"Watch the ribs, kid." He mumbled, patting it gently. Tokoyami stared at Dark Shadow incredulously.

"I cannot fathom what that entity may have done to earn your trust so quickly..." Tokoyami muttered to himself before shaking his head with a sigh and raising his voice. "Will you allow me to continue training now?" He asked. Dark Shadow whined and squeezed him tighter, at least until Aizawa gently began giving it little scratches on it's head and under it's chin.

"You really should let Tokoyami train." He said, voice warm with amusement and affection. "If he doesn't get stronger, how is he going to protect himself?"

"I protect him!" Dark Shadow said indignantly.

"And I'm sure you do a very good job." Aizawa assured it. "But you two are a team, so you need to work together to get stronger together. That way, you can protect each other."

"Protect each other!" It chirped excitedly. "Yes, good! Fumi, let's train!" Dark Shadow said, rapidly uncoiling from around Aizawa to retreat back over to Tokoyami.

"What a wonderful idea." Tokoyami said dryly, shaking himself off as he got to his feet. "I wish I had thought of that."

"Ah, Tokoyami-kun! Are you ready to begin?" All Might called. Tokoyami ducked his head, feathers ruffling in embarrassment.

"Yes, we are. I apologize for the inconvenience." He said, walking across the field to join them. "Not to worry, so long as everything is sorted now." All Might said with a warm smile.

"Err!" Aizawa called, imitating a buzzer noise as he leaned back on his hands. "You're supposed to say 'you're not an inconvenience' or 'as long as you're okay'. Honestly, I don't know why Nezu thought it would be a good idea to let you teach without getting a teaching license first..." He trailed off into grumbling, turning back towards the building-

Only to find himself staring into a pair of wide green eyes. He jumped, breath hitching in surprise before he forcibly calmed himself.

"Christ, Midoriya!" He said, glowering back at the kid. "You scared the shit out of me." He paused when the kid kept looking directly at him. "What are you doing?" He asked. Mostly out of curiosity, he reached out and waved a hand in front of his eyes. Midoriya didn't even blink, but he did reach forwards to bat a hand at Aizawa, and the hero automatically leaned back to avoid getting smacked in the face. The kid's expression smoothed out and he stood up, sending a wide grin and big thumbs up back at his classmates.

"Yep, like I thought!" He said cheerfully. "There's nothing here!"

"Behold." Aizawa said dryly. "My name is now 'nothing'. I am so lucky one of my students

was generous enough to bestow such an amazing name upon me-"

"Nothing that you can sense." Tokoyami corrected. Midoriya nodded easily, writing something

down in his notebook.

"Don't interrupt me." Aizawa griped uselessly. "I wasn't done being dramatic yet."

"Are we seriously all just going to go back to training like we didn't just find out ghosts are real?!" Sero said incredulously.

"Ghosts are not real!" Bakugo yelled at him.

"Hate to agree with blasty," Shinso drawled. "But I'm definitely leaning more towards regular

Quirk shenanigans than actual ghosts."

"We don't know that it was a ghost, kero." Asui said, tapping her cheek thoughtfully. "We just know that it was just something we couldn't sense. Perhaps it was a faery, or a brownie, or some other form of spirit, such as a poltergeist. Oh, kero, I hope it wasn't fae, we would have broken so many rules..." She trailed off, shaking her head.

"Wow, Tsu! You know a lot about supernatural stuff, huh?" Uraraka said, smiling at her.

"Wait, I thought we already established that it was a fairy! A food fairy, right?" Ashido said.

"Hey," Aizawa complained jokingly. "You can't call me a fairy. That's homophobic."

"The folktales of the fae are far different than our own modern interpretation of fairies..." Asui said, visibly gearing up to go on a rant, only to be cut off by All Might trying to get the class to actually start the exercise.

"Boo!" Aizawa called again, louder than last time. "Let her speak!"

Unfortunately, his students didn't seem to value his opinion, as they simply moved on to playing dodgeball. Surprisingly, it didn't go as terribly as Aizawa thought it would. No one died, at very least, and there were only four kids who needed to see Recovery Girl at the end of class, so that was good. He would've preferred none, of course, but he would take what he could get. He walked the four injured students (Hagakure, Shoji, Midoriya, and Iida) to the nurse's office, mostly out of habit, and made sure she got them all healed.

He noted that Midoriya seemed excessively skittish around Recovery Girl, to the point of trying to insist that he really wasn't injured at all, which Iida quickly refuted. The kid practically looked like he was considering jumping out the window to run away when Recovery Girl let out a disappointed sigh at the sight of his newest burn. Though, to be fair, she hadn't reacted that way to any of the other student's injuries, so Aizawa couldn't really blame the kid for being on guard. (He could blame himself for not noticing it, though.)

He pushed down his annoyance and followed the kids back to the dorms, where the class was once again almost entirely gathered in the common room. Midoriya bolted up to his room as soon as they entered the building, calling out something about a shower, and the other kids just shrugged it off. Aizawa... kind of had a bad feeling, but he couldn't really tell what the feeling was about, so he just spent his time wandering around, trying his best to be helpful. Doing so sparked an argument about what manner of supernatural creature was among them, with Bakugo, Shinso, and Jiro all firmly arguing that it was just a person pulling a prank, though all three of them begrudgingly admitted that they didn't have an explanation for what happened with Dark Shadow.

Eventually, the argument began to die down (Though not without Uraraka nearly starting three separate fistfights. Once Asui explained the concept to her, Uraraka had her heart set on the 'food fairy' secretly being a brownie.), and Sero got Ashido to help him make dinner. Something called picadillo, which looked sort of like chili and smelled amazing. For a second, Aizawa realized he didn't remember exactly when he had last eaten, and then remembered that wasn't an issue anymore since even if he could eat as a ghost, he probably didn't need to. Which didn't mean he wasn't going to eat whatever came out of that crockpot, because again, it smelled amazing.

And yet, he couldn't shake that weird, anxious feeling. He figured it was excess energy, left over from how much more sleep he had gotten than usual combined with him not going on patrol that day, so he started pacing in a loop around the dorms. Around the common room, up the stairs, around the second floor, up the stairs, around the third floor, up the stairs, around the fourth floor, all the way back down the stairs, rinse and repeat. His knees protested the repeated stair usage, but he ignored them. The mindless routine worked out some of his energy and settled his nerves somewhat. He had just gotten to the third floor for the sixth or seventh time when he noticed it.

The smell of blood.

He froze mid step, mind whirling. It wasn't a strong smell, one probably wouldn't have recognized it if they weren't already intimately familiar with it, but for it to be noticeable out in the corridor meant that it was a lot of blood inside the room. He already knew that the other occupants of the

third floor were all in the common room, so he ran to Midoriya's door immediately. It was locked, and built by PowerLoader to stay that way in case of a villain attack, so no amount of banging on the door or throwing himself against it got it to open. Gritting his teeth, he ran down the hallway and threw himself out the window, shooting out a strip of his capture weapon at the last second and using his momentum to carry him back across the building to Midoriya's balcony. Luckily, the glass door was unlocked, so he was able to throw it open without much struggle.

For all his training, for all his experience, Aizawa still found himself freezing for half a second at the sight in front of him. It was Midoriya, digging a scalpel into his own thigh as he clamped his teeth down on his other hand. Blood ran down his leg onto a towel, the air heavy with the smell of it. And then the second was over and he lurched forwards, grabbing the boy by the wrists and forcing him to hold still.

"You- what are you doing?!" Aizawa blurted, mind whirling with adrenaline and shock. Midoriya stared right through him for a moment, eyes hazy, and then his gaze abruptly focused (though not on Aizawa) and he blinked down at his hands in confusion. He leaned backwards, trying to tug out of the man's grip, but Aizawa only held him tighter. "Why- fuck, Midoriya, why would you-? Why- why am I only finding out about this now that I can't help you?!" Aizawa felt tears prick his eyes as he ducked his head, breathing shakily.

"Um, h-hello?" Midoriya called hesitantly, gaze sweeping the room as he kept trying to move his hands. "Er, ghost-san? Is that you?" Aizawa bit his lip, forcing back a sob. "I- Dark Shadow said that you were nice, so- so I'm guessing that you're trying to be helpful? Um, that is, if you aren't Hagakure, of course..." He trailed off with a nervous laugh, wincing at the silence. "Right, so, I get that this looks bad, but I promise it's okay! I have to smile, you see, so that my friends can rely on me. So I only do this kind of thing when I really need to smile, you know? And I really, really need to smile right now. My whole class has been really upset since sensei... vanished. And I've been trying to give them hope, trying to talk about realistic and logical, but I-" The kid took a shaky breath. "But it's really, really hard for me to have hope. That's- I'm not used to hoping. I stopped doing that a long time ago. But it doesn't matter what I think, or what I feel, I just need to look like I have hope, because then my friends will too. So this is really a good thing, you see?" He smiled nervously.

Aizawa just stared back at him, utterly horrified by the idea that Midoriya was doing this, at least in some small part, because of him. What was almost worse was how calm the kid was, like he knew "ghost-san" couldn't do anything about what he had seen. He was right, of course, but it was still jarring to see how calculating he could be, even in a situation like this. For fucks sake, he had gotten caught self harming by a fucking ghost! He should be freaking out right now! And yet, instead, Aizawa was the one panicking. He had been a pro-hero for nearly twenty years, and yet

a fifteen year old was handling this situation better than him. He took a deep breath and let go of Midoriya's wrists, instead prying the scalpel from his hand and putting it on the desk out of reach.

"Ah-" Midoriya said, blinking in surprise once he noticed he was free. He smiled, and then hesitated when he noticed the scalpel was gone, but before he could look for it something else caught his eye. "Oh, geez." He mumbled to himself as Aizawa pulled a first-aid kit out from under the bed, glowering when he saw how extensively stocked it was. Why the hell did the kid had suturing supplies? And why the hell did they look like they'd been used?! "I guess we really do have a ghost. Even I can't think of a Quirk that could do this..." Aizawa glanced up to see what he was looking at and winced at the sight of bright red hand prints pressed into the kid's skin.

"Sorry..." He mumbled as he began disinfecting the cuts.

"This is so weird." Midoriya muttered, tilting his wrists back and forth. "I didn't feel anything at all

while it was happening, not even a breeze, but now I can feel a little pain. And I couldn't hear anything either, not to mention sight..." He trailed off, tilting his head thoughtfully as Aizawa began wrapped gauze around the wounds. It was a patch job at best, but he already knew he wouldn't be able to drag Midoriya all the way to Recovery Girl. Still, though...

"It kills me that this is the most I can do for you." Aizawa whispered to himself as he grabbed the scalpel along with the bloody sanitizing wipes and anything else sharp he could find. Midoriya startled and let out a tiny squeak when he noticed his leg had been bandaged.

"Oh, wow." He said, blinking. "That's so weird. No wonder you freaked out Dark Shadow." He glanced around the room and his brows furrowed. "Hey, did you steal my scalpel? And my scissors? What the hell, ghost-san?" He crossed his arms with a frown, and Aizawa had to resist the urge to smack him upside the head.

"I confiscated them," Aizawa said slowly, even though he knew it was useless. "Because you are a danger to yourself, and I refuse to sit by and watch you actively self harm." His voice dipped dangerously low to a snarl at the end, and he took a deep breath to try and center himself again before turning and dumping the sanitizing wipes in the garbage. Midoriya didn't react to any of it.

"So, I guess this is your way of saying no more of that, huh?" Midoriya mumbled.

"Damn right it is." Aizawa grumbled under his breath, repacking the first aid kit and adding everything sharp he could see before snapping it shut.

"Well, fine." Midoriya said with a little huff. "It's almost dinner anyways, and now I have proof of ghostly activity!" He held up his arms, showing the handprints on his wrists, which were still a soft pink. They looked like they were probably going to bruise. Aizawa winced at the thought and mumbled another apology, not that the kid could hear it.

Midoriya grabbed the towel from the floor, poured some water from the bottle on his desk onto it, and wiped up the last of the blood on his leg. Then he pulled himself to his feet and rolled his shorts back down, tossing the towel into a nearby plastic bag, and quite suddenly Midoriya looked like nothing had happened at all. Conversely, Aizawa could feel his hands shaking, breath coming just a little too quickly as he pushed down his nausea. It wasn't the first time he had a student who self harmed. UA had a very intense training program, and some kids needed help finding healthy ways to cope. But that was different. He had never walked in on them actively doing it, and he had always been able to help afterwards. He hadn't just had to let them walk away, unable to tell anyone what had happened and leaving the kid at risk of doing it again.

He shook his head to knock the thoughts loose, taking a deep breath. Okay, this- this was fine. First things first, he had to put the first aid kit somewhere Midoriya wouldn't find it. That was fairly easy, he just ducked into the bathroom and pried off the vent cover before hiding the kit behind it. Then he scrambled to follow the kid into the common room, crossing his arms to hide his shaking hands. For now, he'd just have to keep an eye on Midoriya until he could find some way to communicate to one of the other teachers what was happening. Writing didn't work, and they couldn't feel when he touched them, but maybe he could try and flicker the lights in Morse code or something? He raked a hand through his hair with a shaky sigh as he watched the kid burst into the common room with a wide grin. God, how was he able to act so cheerful so soon after doing that? Logically, he knew why, but still.

"Okay!" Midoriya called, getting the attention of his classmates. "I've got good news and bad news, which one do you guys wanna hear first?"

"Goo' ne's!" Kaminari yelled around a mouthful of food. Iida immediately scolded him for it, but

Midoriya didn't seem to notice.

"The good news is that it's friendly!" Midoriya said, and got a few blank looks in response. "The bad news is that we do, definitely, one hundred percent have a ghost."

"You mean a brownie?" Uraraka asked hopefully. Midoriya paused and shrugged. "I mean, I'm leaning more towards ghost, but sure."

"Why do you think there's a ghost?" Todoroki asked, tilting his head.

"Okay, so, listen," Midoriya said, in a tone that Aizawa was pretty sure meant he was about to tell a lot of lies "Basically, I was doing my homework, and I spilled my water over my desk, and I kind of panicked because I really didn't want to have to rewrite my whole essay, you know? So I freaked out and started wiping up the mess, and I wasn't really paying attention, but I reached forwards-" He paused dramatically. "-and then suddenly I couldn't move! Like, my arms were locked in place, mid air. I could move the rest of my body, but my arms were just... frozen. And I kind of freaked out for a second, and then I looked down and realized the water had spilled right on my computer charger, and the exact space that I had been reaching for was totally electrified! And as soon as I noticed that, I could move again! And then, once I could move, I looked down and saw these!" He lifted his arms to show the large, red handprints on his arms. Too large to be from his own hands. "And it was so weird, because I couldn't see or feel anything in that area at all while it was happening, but as soon as the ghost let go I could!"

The whole class stared at him blankly for a second. Aizawa included.

"Jesus, did you seriously come up with all of that in the, what, fifty seconds it took us to get down here?" He asked incredulously.

"I literally can't tell if you're joking or not." Shinso said, squinting at Midoriya.

"He's not." Bakugo said, scowling. "Deku's a shit liar-" Midoriya's lip twitched wryly, but he kept his eyes wide and innocent.

"I call bullshit on that." Aizawa muttered, glowering.

"-but ghosts aren't real." Bakugo continued insistently.

"You know, I'm starting to think that maybe they are." Kaminari said, a little faintly. Tokoyami launched to his feet, and if he were a more expressive person Aizawa thought he would've been smiling.

"Luckily," Tokoyami said. "I have a method to test such things." And then he turned and bolted up the stairs.

"I think that's the fastest I've ever seen him move outside of training." Aizawa said thoughtfully.

"I didn't know he could move that fast." Shinso said, in a nearly identical tone. Aizawa shot him a look, and then decided he didn't have the energy to be annoyed right then, so he just let out quiet a sigh and gave the kid a pat on the head.

"You think he's got one of those... What do you call it... Electromagnet thingies?" Kirishima asked.

"Electromagnetic field detector?" Midoriya suggested, and then nodded to himself. "I wouldn't put it past him to have one, honestly. Maybe he has a binary response device? Those are the things that

beep when a ghost pokes it. Supposedly, anyways." He added sheepishly when he got a few odd looks.

"Those things are bullshit, they just beep randomly." Bakugo said with a huff.

"Tell us again how you don't believe in ghosts, Bakugo. I don't think we heard you the first thirty times." Jiro said dryly. Bakugo shot her a glare and grumbled under his breath, but for once didn't retort.

"Behold!" Tokoyami called as he burst into the room, visibly delighted as he held what looked like a board game above his head. "Long ago, I managed to acquire an ancient device, used to communicate with spirits-"

"Is that a Luigi board?" Ashido interrupted excitedly. Tokoyami shot her an absolutely disgusted look, which made Aizawa snort despite himself.

"It is a Ouija board." Tokoyami said in a tone dangerously close to a pout. "And we are going to use it to contact the entity among us." Aizawa perked up, a little curious despite himself. Maybe that would work?

"Among us? That's su-" Kaminari mumbled, and Sero whacked him with a pillow before he could finish. Tokoyami didn't notice, but as he glanced at his classmates his expression shifted into something a little more nervous.

"That is... if anyone would care to join me?" Tokoyami asked hesitantly.

"I'm in!" Ashido announced immediately.

"Me too!" Uraraka cheered.

"I call dibs!" Kaminari yelped, throwing himself forwards. Tokoyami's expression relaxed slightly at their enthusiasm.

"Ooh, can I join?" Kirishima asked, grinning. "It'd sorta be like a test of courage, right? C'mon, Bakugo, let's go talk to a ghost!"

"Fuck no." Bakugo snapped, and Aizawa barely stopped himself from muttering language. "Ghosts-"

"Aren't real, yeah, we get it." Kaminari said, rolling his eyes. "But if they aren't real, then nothing's gonna happen, so you might as well join in, right?" Bakugo didn't reply, just crossed his arms and glowered at the ground. Kaminari sat up, delight flashing across his face. "No way," He said slowly, and Bakugo tensed. "Dude, are you afraid of ghosts?"

"I'm not afraid of shit!" He snapped, bristling. "Oh my god, you are!" Ashido said, cackling.

"I am not." Bakugo insisted, gritting his teeth. "It's- ghosts aren't real, but if they were, I'm not stupid enough to go fucking around with them."

"That's fair, actually." Sero said thoughtfully. "Out of all of us, Bakugo would probably be the most likely to survive a horror movie."

"Damn right I would." Bakugo grumbled under his breath, though he did relax slightly.

"That's okay, bro!" Kirishima said, patting his back. "You don't have to join if you don't wanna." "We are only able to have six people use the board at once anyways." Tokoyami said.

"Oo, because of like, 666, right?" Uraraka said earnestly. Tokoyami paused and then shook his head.

"There is only room for six people to sit around the board at a time." He explained gently, making Uraraka blush and let out a little, nervous laugh.

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense..." She said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck.

"If only a limited number of people can use the board, we should probably choose people who won't activate their Quirks if they get startled, just in case... something happens." Midoriya said, a little nervously.

"I'm out." Shinso said immediately. "I mean, I'm gonna stay and watch, but I wouldn't touch that board with a ten-foot stick."

"Oh, there's a thought." Midoriya mumbled, pulling out his notebook. "How would a brainwashing Quirk interact with someone possessed by a ghost? I wonder, would you brainwash the person, or the spirit? Could you exorcise someone by brainwashing the spirit and ordering them to leave? If you bumped into them..." His mumbling trailed off into near silent levels, and Shinso gave him the usual baffled-annoyed look he did whenever Midoriya rambled about his Quirk.

"I should probably opt out..." Kaminari said with a pout.

"Yeah, me too..." Ashido said, scratching her cheek with a sheepish smile. "I've accidentally melted a desk more than once after getting startled..."

"I'm good, so long as I put some tape on my pinkies!" Uraraka said, wiggling her fingers. "I... would like to abstain." Yaoyorozu said nervously.

"Same." Jiro said.

"Yep, I'm good. You guys have fun." Ojiro said.

Kouda was already shaking his head rapidly before anyone even looked at him. "No, thank you." Shoji said, a little stiffly.

"I'd be down!" Midoriya said, sliding his notebook back into his pocket.

"Me too." Todoroki said immediately.

"Sign me up!" Sero cheered. "Aw, man, getting possessed would be so cool!"

"Seriously?" Aizawa said, wrinkling his nose. "How did on earth did you manage to get this far

with so little self preservation?"

"I would like to join." Asui said, tapping her cheek as her tongue poked out.

"I'm in!" Kirishima said quickly.

"I will refrain." Iida said, nervously pushing his glasses up. "Someone should... watch over the

situation. To make sure no one interferes." It was clearly an excuse, but all eyes snapped to Hagakure anyways.

"Hey!" She protested, and then paused. "...Okay, that does sound like something I would do, but still!"

"So it'll be me, Tokoyami, Uraraka, Todoroki, Sero, Kirishima, and Tsuyu?" Midoriya clarified.

"Seems like it!" Kirishima said, and they all turned to where Tokoyami had been setting up the Ouija board. Somehow, during the time when they had been distracted by their conversation, Tokoyami and scribbled a giant pentagram on the floor with chalk. The Ouija board sat in the middle of it, with candles scattered around it. Tokoyami paused at the sudden attention, and then swept an arm out dramatically.

"Join me," He said somberly, though his eyes sparkled with visible delight. "As we venture into the great beyond."

"Yeah, fuck that." Bakugo said, turning on his heel and walking straight out of the room.

"Nooo, Bakubro!" Kirishima called after him, pouting, but all he got in response was a middle finger over his shoulder.

"Admittedly..." Sero said slowly. "I am also having second thoughts. Maybe I should just-" "Too late now!" Uraraka said cheerfully, pushing him towards the circle.

"Those candles are a fire hazard." Iida noted nervously, though he didn't move to do anything about it.

"Gather round, my friends." Tokoyami said, clearly having the time of his life. "The dark is often deeper when faced alone."

"You're way too into this." Kaminari said, leaning over the back of the couch to peer at them as they all sat in a circle. Aizawa flicked him on the forehead as he moved to sit by Midoriya, though neither of them reacted.

"Now, before we begin, I must inform you of the rules." Tokoyami said. "First of all, only one person should be the medium, or the one asking questions directly to the spirit. For this session, that will be me." The slightly manic twinkle in his eye ensured no one argued. "If you have suggestions for questions to ask, direct them to me. Do not address the spirit directly."

"That seems impolite." Todoroki noted.

"Second, remember to be respectful. Provoking a spirit very rarely results in anything other than disaster." Tokoyami continued, ignoring him. "That goes for anyone outside the circle as well." He shot a hard look at Kaminari and Ashido, who both pouted in response, but didn't argue. "Third, keep in mind that spirits can, and often do, lie. Not every answer we receive should be taken at face value. Fourth, if I see the signs that we have encountered a malicious entity, I will inform you, and we will end the session immediately. To end the session, we will move the planchet to 'goodbye' before removing your hand. Never remove your hand without saying goodbye first. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." Sero said, already looking uncomfortable.

"This is a little more creepy than I thought it would be." Uraraka said, giggling nervously.

"Is this really safe?" Iida asked, nervously pushing up his glasses.

"Can we request that the 'spirit' haunts someone in particular?" Todoroki asked.

"Like a ghost hitman?" Midoriya said, looking a little too intrigued for Aizawa to be comfortable.

"No, you cannot." Tokoyami said, shaking his head with a little sigh. "If you all understand, then let us begin. Place your hand on the planchet." All of them did so, glancing at each other warily as Tokoyami took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. "I call out to the spirits of the great beyond." He said, and Kirishima let out a low, impressed whistle when they heard how ominous he could make his voice sound. "I welcome you to join this session. We do not claim any negative energy you may bring, nor any resentments you may have leftover from life." He opened his eyes and stared down at the board intensely. "Are there any spirits here with us tonight?"

Aizawa leaned over, placed a finger on the planchet, and slid it over to no. Sero snorted as behind them Kaminari burst into laughter, which made Tokoyami's eye twitch.

"Liar!" Dark Shadow said, startling the students, though none of them removed their hands. "Warm-thing is a liar, it is here!"

"Thank you, Dark Shadow." Tokoyami said, shaking his head as they slid the planchet back to the neutral G. "Does the spirit present have malicious intentions?"

Aizawa slid it over to no again, letting out a huff of amusement when the kids all relaxed.

"Are there any other spirits present with you?" Tokoyami asked.

No.

"Can-" Sero started, and then cut himself off and turned to Tokoyami. "Ask it if it can say anything other than no."

Before he could, Aizawa slid the planchet to yes.

"Can you ask it what death is like, or is that rude?" Todoroki asked curiously.

"That... should be fine." Tokoyami said slowly. "How did it feel to die?"

Aizawa paused, trying to think of a way to word it, and eventually settled on P-A-I-N-S-L-E-E-P- W-A-K-E.

"So you were in pain, and then it felt like you fell asleep, and then you woke up dead?" Tokoyami clarified.

Yes.

"Well, that's not so bad." Midoriya said. "I mean, there's certainly worse ways to die." Yes.

"That's... bizarre." Tokoyami muttered, causing the gathered students to stiffen. "What's wrong?" Kirishima asked anxiously.

"It's- There's nothing bad, but- the spirit should not be able to respond to anything that isn't a direct question." Tokoyami said with a frown, though he quickly reigned it in at the nervous expression

on the other kid's faces. "As I said, I see no signs of ill intent. It is simply peculiar." "Can we ask it how it died?" Uraraka asked.

"Yes, that should be fine. Spirit, will you please tell us how you died?" Tokoyami asked. Aizawa paused, and then slowly spelled out Q-R-K-A-C-D-N-T.

"Quirk accident?" Midoriya guessed, and Aizawa ruffled his hair as he slid the planchet to yes. "Wait, we nearly forgot the most important question! Are you the food fairy?" Uraraka asked. Aizawa huffed and rolled his eyes. Yes.

"So it wasn't a brownie after all..." Urararka muttered with a pout.

"Thank you for all the food, kero." Asui said, inclining her head.

U-R-W-E-L-C-O-M-E.

"Not that we're not grateful or anything, but why are you sticking around here, helping us?" Sero asked curiously.

Aizawa hesitated, wondering how much he should say. Finally, he settled on a half truth.

U-S-E-F-U-L.

"You wanted to feel useful?" Midoriya asked quietly. Yes.

"That's kinda cute, but also kinda sad." Uraraka said, frowning. Aizawa felt his ears go pink as he glowered, and didn't respond.

"Did you have kids while you were alive?" Kirishima asked. "I know my moms get antsy when they can't do anything to help me out."

"Yeah," Aizawa muttered as he told them yes. "Twenty, in fact."

"We've got a ghost mom!" Ashido whooped, leaning over their shoulders to peek at the board.

Aizawa shot her a useless glare and quickly spelled out D-A-D, and then realized what he just wrote and promptly turned bright red, quickly scrambling to take it back, but in his panic he spelled out something closer to F-J-G-I-G-N-F-R.

"Aw, he got embarrassed!" Sero teased. "Sorry, ghost-san, we've already got a class dad though, so you're stuck with the mom role."

"That's right!" Kirishima said, nodding enthusiastically. "Dadzawa for life!"

"We know better than to call him that to his face, though." Kaminari said, shooting the open air a wink. "I'd probably get detention for the rest of the school year!"

"Sensei's away right now, though, so maybe ghost-san can fill in for him until he gets back?" Midoriya suggested, and was met with loud cheers of approval that had the kid blushing and grinning.

"Imagine the look on sensei's face when he gets back, and we tell him we picked up a stray ghost while he was gone." Shinso said with a little smirk.

"Can't give the ghost detention!" Kaminari said excitedly. Aizawa pulled his knees up to his chest and let out a shaky sigh, blinking back tears.

"You kids are still going on about that...?" He muttered.

"Is it alright to ask for ghost-san's name? Kero." Asui asked Tokoyami, making Aizawa tense.

"Yes, that should be fine." He mumbled, looking a bit put out by the pleasant atmosphere. "Spirit, would you please tell us your name?"

Aizawa hesitated, ducking his head into his capture weapon.

"On the one hand," He mumbled. "It would probably be best for you to get used to the idea that I'm dead as soon as possible. On the other hand..." He paused, scanning their cheerful faces, and bit his lip. "Well, a little hope is fine, right?" He muttered to himself as he slid the planchet to no.

Tokoyami blinked in surprise. "No you won't tell us, or no you don't remember it?"

He moved it back to no, faster this time, and Tokoyami nodded.

"Alright, then. Ghost-san it is." The boy said.

"Oo, okay, I've got one!" Ashido said, bouncing on her heels. "So, you said you died in a Quirk accident, right? And you're haunting UA, so- did you use to be a UA student?"

"Not bad." Aizawa mumbled as he said yes.

"Nice!" Ashido said triumphantly, pumping a fist in the air. "I'm the best!"

"I'll see if I can find any articles about people dying on campus." Midoriya said, keeping one hand on the planchet as he pulled out his phone with the other. "In the meantime, ghost-san, what's your favorite food?"

Aizawa huffed and rolled his eyes as he spelled out H-A-M-B-U-R-G-E-R. Actually, his favorite food was the omurice Hizashi sometimes made him in the morning (because it always came with a cute little message, a cup of coffee, and a kiss on the brow), but all of that would be too long to spell out, so he just diverted to his comfort food that he usually got after a tough patrol.

"Seriously? So ghost-san really is a kid." Sero mumbled. Aizawa's eyes narrowed and he leaned down, blowing out the candle closest to the kid. Everyone in the room jumped as Sero let out a startled shriek. "Okay, okay, I get it, not a kid! Please don't do that again." Sero shuddered with fear. Aizawa snorted and patted the Sero's head comfortingly.

"Oh, I found something!" Midoriya said suddenly. "He didn't die on campus, but it looks like it was an accident. Shirakumo Oboro?"

Aizawa froze. It took him several long seconds for him to remember to breathe, and even longer for him to calm his heartbeat enough that the static faded from his ears and he was able to hear once again.

"-looks like he was interning with the same hero as Aizawa-sensei. Maybe that's why he's helping us out?" Midoriya said. Aizawa took another deep breath, digging his nails into his knees to hide

his shaking hands.

"Perhaps." Tokoyami said, visibly intrigued. "Are you Shirakumo Oboro?"

Aizawa grabbed the planchet at snapped it over to no fast enough that the gathered students jumped in surprise.

"Ah, I guess not then." Midoriya said, brows furrowed as he turned back to his phone.

"What about what Tokoyami said earlier?" Kaminari said, leaning over Sero's shoulder. "Spirits can lie, right?"

No, Aizawa said through the board again. And then he lifted the planchet into the air and slammed it down three times. No, no, no.

"Okay, okay! We got it dude, you're not him!" Kaminari said quickly. Aizawa jerked back, inhaling shakily before lifting up his capture weapon to bury his face in it.

"Please don't ask me about him," Aizawa whispered. "Please, please don't..." They didn't hear him, of course, but they did glance at each other warily.

"Do you think it's a cover up?" Todoroki said suddenly, continuing when he got a few odd looks. "I mean, if a UA student died on campus, it'd be a big deal, right? But if there's no articles about them..."

"That could be ghost-san's unfinished business!" Uraraka agreed enthusiastically. "Like, he's sticking around until someone finds the truth about his death!"

"Yo, ghost-san, what are your pronouns?" Shinso asked suddenly. Aizawa huffed as he spelled out his answer.

H-E-H-I-M.

"Pog, boy ghost." Kaminari mumbled.

"The hell did you call me?" Aizawa muttered back, not lifting his head but still feeling a little bit cheered up by his student's good mood.

"Was your death covered up?" Tokoyami asked.

"I mean, the public hasn't been informed yet, but that's not really a cover up, right?" Aizawa

mumbled. He wrinkled his nose and slowly slid it over to no.

"Boo, boring." Ashido pouted. Aizawa just rolled his eyes.

"So what's your unfinished business, then?" Kirishima asked curiously.

"Fuck if I know." Aizawa muttered. He paused, considered it for a moment, and then slowly slid the planchet through P-R-O-T-E-C-T.

"You have to protect someone? Kero." Asui said. Yes.

"Oo, tea. Who is it?" Hagakure asked.

Aizawa paused, considered how much to tell them, and then shook his head and spelled out S-E-C- R-E-T.

"Laaaame." She booed. Aizawa blew out the candle next to her, and she let out a startled shriek. "Sorry, sorry! Nevermind, you're not lame!"

"I'm fine with being lame." He muttered. "I've seen what you think is 'cool'." Aizawa shuddered at the memory. He could never hear K-pop the same way again.

"Is the person you have to protect on of your kids?" Kirishima asked, and then blinked. "Hey, wait a minute, if you were a UA student when you died, then how did you have kids?"

"I mean, I'd guess he just did it the usual way." Sero said, fighting back a smirk.

"Sero!" Iida scolded immediately. "That is highly inappropriate-!"

"Midoriya, look up UA teenage pregnancy scandals!" Ashido said enthusiastically.

"Absolutely not." Midoriya said, cheeks turning a dark pink. Aizawa's own face was a similar shade as he leaned down and blew out a third candle.

S-T-R-I-K-E-3, he spelled out as the kids startled. "Oh, fuck." Sero whispered.

"We do not claim any negative energy you bring to the session." Tokoyami said firmly, glaring at the empty air. Aizawa rolled his eyes.

"Do you think he left?" Midoriya asked nervously. No.

"Oh, geez, that means he's gearing up for something bad." Uraraka mumbled. Aizawa didn't respond. "I knew it!" She groaned, throwing her free hand up in the air. Aizawa hid a small smirk behind his capture weapon.

"Tokoyami said no bad vibes, remember ghost-san?" Kaminari said nervously.

"What about good vibes?" Aizawa said jokingly, wiggling his fingers in front of the kid's face. "Behold, positive energy is being sent your way... Or something. Turns out, being a ghost doesn't come with an instruction manual. Oh, right." He slid the planchet over to yes, rolling his eyes when the students immediately relaxed.

"So- so then what happens after three strikes?" Jiro asked nervously.

B-E-D-T-I-M-E, Aizawa spelled out with a smug look.

"Eh?!" The students cried out.

"You can't make us go to bed! You- you're not my real dad!" Kaminari said indignantly, though he was visibly fighting back giggles.

"That's right! You're not dad-sensei, you can't tell us what to do!" Ashido cried out, crossing her arms with a glare at the empty air. Aizawa raised an eyebrow, and with a flick of his capture put out all the remaining candles at once. Several students shrieked in surprise, and then watched as Aizawa jerked the planchet over to goodbye before lifting it straight into the air. Then he grabbed

the board and folded it up again before putting everything back down in a neat pile. A slightly awkward pause followed, while the class just stared at each other in confusion, and then all eyes turned to Tokoyami.

"I will admit," The boy said slowly. "For all my knowledge of the paranormal, I am not an expert. I have not seriously studied in the field, as for me, it is simply a hobby."

"Is that your way of saying you have no idea what the fuck just happened?" Shinso said, and received a reluctant nod in exchange.

"Well, that's delightful." Todoroki mumbled.

"To be fair, it is after nine PM." Iida said, pushing up his glasses nervously. "Curfew is in less than half an hour, so we wouldn't have been able to stay up much longer anyways."

"But there's no way I can just go to bed after all that!" Uraraka said incredulously.

"How about a sleepover?" Kirishima suggested, brightening up. "We could gather up a bunch of blankets and all come sleep down here?"

"Good idea," Aizawa mumbled to himself as he cast a sidelong glance at Midoriya. "It would be good to have someone else to keep an eye on you."

"Yeah, let's do that!" Kaminari said, a little too quickly. No one blamed him. The gathered students began to run around, cleaning up dishes from dinner or grabbing blankets and pillows from their rooms.

"Actually, I'm pretty tired, so I think I'm just gonna-" Midoriya started, climbing to his feet. Aizawa scowled and grabbed the kid by the back of the shirt, yanking him back to the floor. The kid paused, blinked, and then tried to get up again. Again Aizawa pulled him back down.

"Deku?" Uraraka asked nervously. "Are you alright?"

"I can't get up." Midoriya said, frowning in confusion. "Or- I can, but I can't stay up. I think the ghost doesn't want me to leave?"

"Ding ding ding." Aizawa drawled. "You get a gold star."

"Aw, ghost-san is lonely!" Kaminari cooed. Aizawa flung out a section of his capture weapon and whapped the kid on the head, not that he noticed. Midoriya stared into the empty air with a baffled expression, and then realization dawned on his face and he sighed.

"I'm not gonna go doing that again, alright?" The kid muttered under his breath. "So you can leave me alone already."

"Yeah, no. Try again when it's been more than a few hours since the last time, and then maybe I'll believe you." Aizawa snarked. Midoriya tried to get up again, but this time he didn't even get an inch off the ground before he hit the floor again.

"Alright, alright, fine!" Midoriya said, crossing his arms with a huff. "How the heck am I gonna tell Ectoplasm-sensei I didn't finish my worksheet because a ghost wouldn't let me not participate in a sleepover?" He grumbled.

"You know, out of all of our teachers, I think Ectoplasm-sensei might be the one who's most likely to believe you." Kaminari said thoughtfully. "I mean, ectoplasm is the stuff ghosts leave behind,

right?"

"Our ghost-san doesn't leave anything behind!" Uraraka protested loudly. "He's very polite, he would never litter!"

"No, ectoplasm isn't like litter, it's like..." Kaminari paused, wrinkling his nose. "Body fluid? Ew, that sounds gross."

"Oh, so it happens when the ghost is an omega." Ashido said casually. Aizawa had no idea what that meant, and based on the disgusted and horrified screeching that followed he really didn't want to.

After that, Iida was able to round up most of the students into a vaguely orderly cuddle pile, with the exception of the kids who had already fallen asleep (like Bakugo, Aoyama, and Kouda). He was insistent on having the boys and girls on different sides of the room, at least for sleeping, which no one really fought him on outside of a few huffs and eye rolls. The kid also made sure everyone charged their phones and set their alarms so that no one would be late for class the next day, which Aizawa gave him a pat on the head for.

The class spent the rest of the night huddled together in their friend groups, whispering to each other until they drifted off. At one point, Aizawa realized that Shoji had formed extra ears on his tentacles, and was sitting guard as opposed to actually trying to sleep. The teacher sighed and moved to kneel by the kid.

"Hey, Shoji." He mumbled even though he knew it was useless. "You can go to sleep, kid. I'll take watch tonight." As expected, Shoji didn't reply, but to Aizawa's surprise he did relax and start to nod off. Maybe it was some sort of subliminal message thing? Whatever it was, Aizawa was glad for it as he tucked a blanket around the boy and gave him one last head pat.

As promised, he kept one eye open the whole night, sitting next to Shoji and Iida in the corner of the room where he could keep an eye on the entrances (and Midoriya). He was used to long stakeouts from his nighttime patrols anyways, so it was fine. He deliberately ignored the little Hizashi in the back of his head that scolded him for his self destructive behavior. He dozed off and on, but didn't let himself fall fully asleep even as the sun began to peek through the windows. Soon after, Iida began to stir when his alarm went off. Shoji and Jiro both twitched, so Aizawa leaned over and shut the alarm off without thinking. By then Iida had already woken up, putting on his glasses and clambering to his feet.

Luckily, despite being insane enough to wake up at five AM, Iida proved that he had some small amount of common sense by not trying to force his classmates to wake up at five AM. He tiptoed around them, yawning as he chugged a glass of orange juice before pulling on his shoes and leaving the dorms. Aizawa remembered Snipe complaining about some of the hero kids going for runs in the mornings, so he left Iida to his business.

Soon after Iida left, Bakugo came down the stairs, freezing and then glowering at the sight of all the students collapsed in piles. Aizawa vaguely remembered Kirishima trying to encourage Bakugo to join them the night before, only to come back down the stairs sheepishly admitting that Bakugo had already succumbed to his usual eight PM bedtime, so he could guess why the boy was irritated. Thankfully, he didn't try to wake them up either. Instead he just grabbed a water bottle and his shoes and slipped out the door. A few minutes after that, Midoriya's alarm went off, and again Aizawa clicked it off with mild annoyance. Unlike Iida, Midoriya didn't wake up, so Aizawa let his head fall back against the wall and closed his eyes once again.

It took nearly two hours for Iida and Bakugo to returned. Both of them immediately sought out

Midoriya, probably since he hadn't shown up for whatever morning workout cult they had going on, and frowned when they saw the boy was still asleep. Bakugo opened his mouth like he was going to yell at him, making Aizawa tense, but Iida slapped a hand over the boy's mouth and glowered at him. Bakugo glared right back, and the two of them had a whole silent conversation before Bakugo huffed and batted the hand aside, stalking off into the kitchen. Iida rolled his eyes and went up the stair, probably to take a shower.

About forty minutes before class started, the other student's alarms starting going off. Aizawa didn't bother to turn them off this time, even if he kind of wanted to. And no, it wasn't out of any sort of 'parental affection' or whatever Hizashi called it. He just wanted a few more minutes to nap. Obviously. Besides, his kids students already had parents.

'Dadzawa for life!' He remembered Kaminari saying, and automatically hid a blush in his capture weapon. He shook off the thought and pulled himself to his feet, taking a moment to stretch out his aching joints and muscles. He made his way into the kitchen, weaving around the gathered students easily and patting each of them as he passed. Partially to comfort himself, and partially to make sure he still could. Midoriya was pouting to Uraraka about his alarm not going off, muttering that he always felt sluggish throughout the day when he didn't have time for his morning workout.

"Most people don't need an adrenaline rush at five AM to get through the day." Aizawa grumbled, though he was mostly just being prickly because of his nerves and his annoyance with morning people as a whole. "Besides, you shouldn't workout with an injury anyways." He shot the kid a glare, but only because he knew he wouldn't see it. All things considered, working out was a much better coping mechanism than self harm, but excessive exercise was also a form of self harm, and he hadn't kept a close enough eye on the kid while he was alive to see if it had gotten that far...

He shook his head with a sigh, grabbing a mug of coffee. He leaned against the counter as he held the warm mug in his hands, letting his eyes slide shut and his head rest against the wall behind him. He sipped his drink slowly, listening to his student's quiet chatter as the coffee warmed him from the inside out and slowly woke him up.

With a quiet click, the clock ticked over to 7:23 AM.

Exactly 60 hours after he was hit with the Quirk, Hagakure screamed.

Aizawa jolted in surprise, spilling his coffee all over himself. "Jesus fuck," He muttered, glowering down at the coffee spill on his shirt before looking up to see what had startled her. To his surprise, he saw the whole class staring at him in shock. He frowned, glancing behind him, but didn't see anything. Hesitantly, he leaned forwards and waved his hand in front of Ojiro's face, since the kid was closest to him. Ojiro flinched back, and Aizawa's eyes went wide. "Can you see me?" He asked, quiet hope filling his voice.

"S-sensei? I- yes?" Ojiro stammered, looking confused and a little scared. And then, all at once, the students (along with hundreds of other people across campus) all doubled over, clutching their heads and wincing in pain. Aizawa's heart lurched with panic as he bolted over to them, frantically trying to figure out what was wrong, but it was barely even two seconds before they all relaxed again, staring at him in shock.

"You- you were here the whole time?" Shinso choked out, still visibly reeling with shock.

"I r-remember you- no, it's- I remember you being here." Ashido managed, still clutching her head with a baffled expression. "I couldn't see you at the time, but now that I think about it- you were there?" Aizawa blinked in confusion. So the Quirk he was hit with made him unnoticeable until, presumably, a certain amount of time passed, at which point they immediately became able to see

him both in real life and in their memories? Was that even possible? No, wait, more importantly... "I'm not dead?" Aizawa said, baffled.

And then he didn't have any more time to think about it, because Midoriya launched from his seat and bolted for the door. It was only years of training that allowed Aizawa to lunge forwards, flaring his Quirk to make the kid stumble and wrapping his capture weapon around Midoriya's torso, yanking him to a stop. All sorts of confusing emotions swirled inside the hero, like confusion and hope and relief, because if he was alive then that meant that he could get the kid the help he needed-

Midoriya burst into tears. Aizawa blanched, unsure what to do in the face of such a sudden and violent display of emotion.

"I'm s-sorry!" Midoriya sobbed, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. "I'm sorry, I w-won't do it again, please d-don't be mad! I can't- please don't expel me!" Aizawa stared at him incredulously for a second, until he remembered how to speak again.

"Jesus, Midoriya, I'm not mad at you!" Aizawa said in a horrified tone as he knelt by the kid's side to fret over him. "I want to help you, not kick you out!" Midoriya hiccupped, lowering his hands to stare at him in disbelief. Admittedly, that kind of stung a bit, but Aizawa just sighed and pulled the kid into a hug, pressing a hand against the back of his head to tuck the kid's face against his shoulder. "It's alright, kid. I promise I'm not mad at you. I was just worried." Midoriya sat rigid for a moment, not even breathing, like he expected Aizawa to take it back or something. When he didn't, the kid went limp with relief, sobbing into his shoulder desperately. Aizawa patted Midoriya's shoulder a little awkwardly as he cried.

"I thought- I thought you were d-dead," Midoriya sobbed. "I was s-so scared, I didn't know what to do, I th-thought you were gonna die-"

"It's okay, kid, you're okay-" Aizawa rambled under his breath. "Everything's gonna be okay. You did a good job, kid, you were very brave..." Midoriya only cried harder, shaking with the force of it.

Aizawa heard a soft thump noise, and looked up to see Jiro kneeling in front of the two of them, one hand outstretched and shaking like she wanted to touch him to make sure he was real but was too afraid that he wasn't. With a little huff, Aizawa reached up and took her hand. She inhaled sharply, tears pricking her eyes, and then threw herself forwards to hug him with a choked sob. Aizawa didn't even bother to roll his eyes, just wrapped his arms around the two of them. When he looked up again, he saw the whole class gathered around them, shifting anxiously as they all tried to hide their own tears. He let out a quiet sigh and then held out a hand.

"Well?" He said dryly. "Get over here, brats."

They did. Shinso lurched forwards first, and then the other seventeen students followed. Aizawa let out a little grunt as they slammed into him, and then suddenly everyone was crying as he did his best to hug all of them. Aizawa let out a shaky breath, squeezing his eyes shut. If you asked him, Aizawa would say that he couldn't even remember the last time he had cried, though it had probably been just after Oboro. And yet, right then he felt a prickling sensation in his eyes, similar to when he overused his Quirk, and then suddenly there were tears spilling down his cheeks and his breathing was shaky as he tried to choke back sobs.

"I'm really glad I'm alive." Aizawa whispered, so quietly that even he barely heard it. He wasn't sure he had ever said those words out loud before. He had thought them a few times, when he got

transferred into the hero course and at his wedding and a few times when he sat with his husband, their cats, and a cup of coffee in the morning, but he had never spoken them into truth. He sat there for a long time, silent tears leaking down his cheeks as his students crowded around him, sobbing and clutching each other. And then, all of a sudden, Ashido's head snapped up and she gave him a look of quiet wonder.

"You called us your kids." She whispered. Aizawa froze, and then quickly shifted his expression back into his usual blank look, though it was slightly ruined by the tears on his face.

"No I didn't." He deadpanned.

"You did!" Ashido protested, a wide grin stretching across her face. "You said it more than once!" "I don't know what you're talking about." Aizawa lied blatantly as his ears turned pink.

"I also heard that." Tokoyami admitted. Aizawa shot him a betrayed look, and then the kid paused. "Ah," He said quietly. "Warm-feeling. No wonder Dark Shadow relaxed around you so quickly." He shook his head and ducked it back under Shoji's arms, which were stretched out to wrap around about seven students at once.

"Sensei's the food fairy." Sero breathed, eyes wide. The flush spread from Aizawa's ears to his face as he ducked it behind his capture weapon.

"No, Sero, you can't call him a fairy," Shinso said, smirking up at the two of them despite the tears on his face. "That's homophobic."

"Alright, get off of me you brats." Aizawa grumbled as started to try to push himself to his feet, though there was no heat behind it.

"Noo, don't leave us!" Kaminari cried out, still actively sobbing as he clutched the hero.

"Wh-what kind of dad would you be if you abandoned your k-kids like this?" Uraraka said, tears streaming down her cheeks as she threw her body weight against him. The other students cried out in agreement, holding him tightly enough that he couldn't get up. Aizawa let out a long suffering sigh, settling back down and letting the kids flop over him again.

"You know you all have class today, right?" Aizawa said dryly, and received a lot of loud booing in return.

"Aizawa-sensei, sir!" Iida said, lifting his head with a little sniffle to show his teary eyes, half hidden by his askew glasses. "Unfortunately, due to Kaminari using his Quirk too close to the circuit breaker last night, the dorm experienced a power outage and no one's alarms went off this morning!" Iida continued, chopping his arm. Aizawa stared at him incredulously for a second, ignoring Kaminari's indignant hey! as he sighed.

"You're supposed to be the responsible one." He griped, reaching over to fix the kid's glasses.

"And as such, I am responsible for my classmate's mental health as well as physical." Iida replied, face turning pink with embarrassment as the hero wiped his tears away.

"Wrong." Aizawa replied immediately. "That's my responsibility. Morally and legally, because I signed a fu- a ton of papers that gave me partial guardianship over you hellspawn so long as you're in the dorms. That means it's up to me to keep you kids safe, physically and emotionally." He paused, and then pitched his voice into a whisper. "Dead or alive."

"Ah-" Tokoyami said suddenly. "That's why you could break all the Ouija rules. You weren't really a ghost at all."

"Told you ghosts weren't fuckin' real." Bakugo grumbled, not lifting his face from where it was hidden behind Shoji's arm.

"Can- can we all appreciate the fact that Aizawa tried to check if it was a prank or not by t-telling Midoriya he had an All Might figure in his desk?" Sero said, sniffling as he flashed a wry grin. Midoriya, whose face was still buried in Aizawa's shoulder, laughed thickly.

"You- you looked so frustrated when you w-were trying to get me to eat," Uraraka choked out with a wet little giggle. "You s-said 'stray cats are easier to f-feed than you brats'."

"I stand by that." Aizawa grumbled, face bright red.

"You told All Might he was more than a threat to our class than the League." Todoroki said with dry amusement and a tiny, nervous smile on his face.

"I stand by that, too." Aizawa shot back.

"You m-messed up Monoma's hair." Kirishima giggled, almost hysterically.

"You calmed down Dark Shadow." Tokoyami muttered.

"You booed All Might when he interrupted me, kero." Asui added with a weak little ribbit.

"You hit me on the h-head, like, thirty times." Kaminari sniffled, though he sounded more amused than upset by it.

"You told me I could be an underground hero." Midoriya whispered. "You thought you were in hell." Ojiro breathed.

"You're m-married to Yamada-sensei!" Ashido cut in.

"You- you weren't gonna tell us you were dead?" Iida said, looking lost. "You patted us a lot, kero." Asui mumbled.

"You said you were proud of us." Jiro whispered.

That one had the group falling silent. All eyes snapped to Aizawa, who was blinking back tears. He glowered at them as he reached up to wipe his eyes.

"The hell are you looking at me like that for?" He grumbled, with no heat behind it. "I'm not gonna take it back."

For some reason, that sent the kids into a fresh round of tears. Aizawa rolled his eyes and let them cry, patting everyone he could reach. Not for the first time, he wished he had more arms.

And then, all of a sudden, the door burst open. Standing there in the doorway was Hizashi, out of breath and staring at them all with wide eyes. All the breath left his lungs, and he felt a twinge of guilt when he realized that he had been too caught up in comforting his students and reeling from the realization that he wasn't actually dead to think about whether or not his husband would suddenly remember him being there, but the feeling was quickly pushed aside by bone deep relief. Tears sprang to his eyes once again, and he wordlessly held his arms out.

Hizashi jolted forwards, tackling him in a hug. He didn't seem to notice the students squished between them as he burst into loud sobs. Aizawa clutched him closely, ducking his head into his husband's shoulder to hide his tears. Soon after, he heard Nemuri scramble into the dorms as well, gasping at the sight of him before also throwing herself into the pile.

"Y-you're okay!" Hizashi wailed, trembling as he clutched him desperately.

"I am," Aizawa whispered, dragging his hands through his husbands hair to soothe them both. "I'm okay. I'm alive, and everything's gonna be okay."

Later, he would have a lot to do. He would have to talk to Nezu about Uraraka's money issues, he would have to talk to Nezu about getting help for Midoriya, he would have to talk to Midoriya about his issue with Recovery Girl, he would have to talk to Midoriya and Bakugo about that grudge they mentioned, he would have to talk to All Might about his lesson plans, he would have to talk to Monoma about whatever was going on with him...

But none of that had to happen right then.

Right then, he could sit with his husband and his friend and his students kids, and be glad that he was alive.