Shattered

Deku wasted not a moment as he leapt to the side, grabbed hold of the elongated arm, and then watched as it disintegrated and Overhaul was separated from Shin. He blinked for a long moment as he looked at the two separated before looking over his shoulder where Eri's Horn was glowing brightly.

He couldn't waste too much time though because there was a fuzzy feeling in the back of his head that made him move. He felt his legs shatter from the power he used but then there was no pain and he was still able to stand.

His eyes landed on the form of one of the expendables, the one that could absorb life energy and use it as his own, falling to the ground of the base. Ryukyu wasted no time in jumping on him with Uravity and Froppy right behind her.

The fuzzy feeling appeared in the back of his head once more and he jumped up high into the air, watching as spikes of earth shoot up from where he had been standing a moment ago.

His legs felt wobbly but he landed firmly on the ground before leaping once more, avoiding more spikes of Earth. "LEAVE THEM ALONE!" Lemillion shouted as he shot forward, slamming a fist into Overhaul's face, knocking his mask onto the ground.

"YOU TWO BELONG TO ME!" Chisaki shouted as he ducked under a kick, hands slamming into the ground and shattering it into pieces all around him. Lemillion was forced to retreat with a scowl on his face, going through all the broken pieces of concrete that surrounded them. "GET OVER HERE NOW OR I'LL KILL EVERYONE HERE!"

Izuku's entire body jerked, as if he was about to follow that order and move towards the man, but then he shook his head and leapt further away. He would not allow himself and Eri to be taken back to the villain, he would rather have the two of them die before he did that, because what awaited them was worse than death. The fuzzy feeling appeared and he was able to dodge the white arrow that was heading for his back just in time.

"Shit." Chrono growled just as Rock Lock touched his jacket, sticking the man in place. "Fuck, Overhaul! Get out of here! You can get them later!"

"Shut it you." Aizawa growled as he slammed a fist into the man's head, knocking him out completely. "Deku! Take the girl and get out of here! Head for the hole up there!" Eraserhead pointed at said hole and the boy didn't hesitate. He trusted his teacher so he pushed himself upwards, feet barely touching the ground as his legs shattered over and over as Eri healed him over and over again.

"GEM! I'M COMING FOR YOU!" Overhaul shouted as he ran towards the body of his large minion, hands laying on the man and soon, he was combining with him. "THIS IS NOT OVER AND YOU AND ERI WILL NOT GET AWAY!"

"NOT A GODDAMN CHANCE!" Eraserhead shouted as his eyes flared and Overhaul was soon falling apart from the minion and on the ground. "You think I'd let you get anywhere near my student after this? You're dead wrong." He growled as he kept his eyes wide open and slammed into the Yakuza boss into the ground.

Only to be knocked away from the boss as Shin slammed his entire body into the hero. "Get them boss! Make your dream a reality!" The man yelled as he continued to struggle against Eraserhead, keeping the man down the best he could.

"He's not going anywhere!" Rock Lock growled as he reached for Overhaul to freeze his jacket into place. IF he could just lay a single finger on the man's clothes or equipment, he'd be able to freeze him into place and stop him from there.

"I don't think so." Overhaul growled as his hand laid onto the hero's wrist, meeting the wide terrified eyes of the other man with a terrifying grin of his own. "Now then, suffer." He wasted not a second to blow the hero's arm completely apart.

The scream caught everyone's attention as Rock Lock went down, holding a hand to the place his arm once connected to, blood pooling all around him as he squirmed on the ground in pain.

"Now Gem, return to me." He ordered as he looked up at the ceiling where Izuku was standing at the edge of the hold, Eri still on his back. "Come back and I might be kind enough to return this hero's arm."

"Don't think just because one of us are down, that we're all down." Lemillion appeared, swinging his leg to catch the other man in the side.

"You're all like cockroaches, appearing from the crevices everywhere." Overhaul reached for the leg, only to growl as it went through him and he was instead hit with a punch to the side of his head. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" He screamed as he managed to summon more spikes before raising a platform up to the hole where Deku and Eri stood watching for the moment.

Deku moved further away from the hole as Overhaul appeared above ground, terror gripping him as he held tightly to Eri, both of their quirks flaring at full power. He shook his head as Eri whimpered. "We need to go back." The little girl whispered as her hold tightened on the older teen. "We have to go back or he'll kill them all."

Except Deku knew that if they went back, then everyone would die regardless. He and Eri would die in the end.

He could not allow them to go back to Overhaul no matter what, all of this would be in vain if he did.

With that in mind, he leapt away, ignoring how his body broke and then rewound with each leap, knowing that it would only hurt for a second before being returned to his original state. He knew that if he couldn't get Eri to stop her quirk, then he would have to eventually drop her so that he wouldn't disappear.

But that was later.

Right now he had to dodge the pieces of rocks that were trying to form around him and Eri, trying to trap him in place. A few were pointed and Deku knew that if he got stabbed, he'd be stuck into place, even with Eri's ability to reverse the damage, it would hold him in place long enough for Overhaul to get to him. He couldn't allow that.

With that in mind, he continued to dodge, and when he couldn't do that, he knocked the pieces away from him and instead towards Overhaul to keep him away.

"My precious gem, do you really think you can get away from me?" The man questioned as his lips turned into a vicious smirk, hands hanging low to the ground, ready to slam down and use his quirk. "You belong to me, just as Eri belongs to me, and between us we can rid the world of all the disease in this world."

Izuku gulped and shook his head. There was no way in hell that was happening.

"Either way, if you don't give Eri to me, you'll disappear and that would be quite the waste." He stated as he stood up fully, leant on the one foot as he held his hand out. "You know she has no control, she'll erase you from existence if you don't."

"Yeah, no I don't think so!" Lemillion slammed a punch into the man's gut, sending him rolling across the ground and away from the two. "You're not touching either one of them ever again!" He roared as Eraserhead, Uravity, and Froppy appeared behind him. "This ends here!"

"Go now! Before I have to blink!" The teacher yelled as his hair flared up around his head. His two students and the older one moved almost in sync, surrounding the villain.

"This isn't over!" Overhaul screamed as he scrambled up onto his feet.

"No, this is over!" Lemillion moved and grabbed the man by one of his arms, twisting it so that it was up behind his back and then forcing him to his knees. "Get me the Quirk Suppressant Cuffs!" He growled and held his hands out. He couldn't safely carry them with his costume due to the makeup of the equipment, so he had to have someone else give him a pair.

"No problem there!" Uravity stated as she handed over the cuffs and watched as they were quickly placed on the older man.

"Main objective captured, ribbit. We'll report to Eraserhead and the police up here and wait for further instructions afterwards." Froppy spoke into her calm, the voice of Ryukyu replying a moment later.

"Affirmative. I'll meet up with you two soon enough, Nejire-chan will be making an appearance to join you as well soon."

"Copy, Ribbit." With that, the two moved over towards Eraserhead, who was busy applying some of his eyedrops to his eyes. "What now sir?"

"We'll gather up the rest of the villains and criminals with the police, any injured will report to the paramedics and EMT's." He explained as he stood up fully, preparing to turn towards the problem child and the girl. "I'll be taking Deku and the girl to the hospital personally…."

Screams ripped through the air and everyone in the area turned to stare at the pair letting out gut retching sounds.

Deku was on his hands and knees, screaming as green lightning mixed and flare with golden streaks shoot from the girl. His eyes were glowing a bright green and her eyes were shining pure white. Both were screaming as both their quirks went berserks.

"Shit." Eraserhead growled as he activated his quirk once more, glaring at the two children and hoping that whatever was happening would stop.

It did.

Both children fell forward towards the ground, panting heavily and cheeks flushed with fever and sweat. Deku was able to keep his hands up though, keeping the girl from falling on to the ground and potentially hurting herself more.

"We need an ambulance over here!" Eraserhead shouted as he ran over to the pair, the other students on his heels the entire way.

Shattered

He had expected trauma from the Problem Child, there was no avoiding it when the kid willingly went back to a dangerous situation where his body was torn to pieces again and again. He expected the kid to be wary of touch and most likely male adults that would want to lay hands on him or the girl for any reason, even if it wasn't threatening.

What he hadn't expected was for the child to growl and glare at anyone that came near him or the girl with any medical equipment.

Aizawa sighed as he looked at the Problem Child, Eri-both children had cooling patches on their foreheads to help with their fevers- settled in his lap as the two went over a book and his silently pointed at images and made the hand sign that went with the image. It was slow going, but Eri was learning how to sign and communicate with Izuku, which made the both of them rather happy as the teen still was not talking.

The two had been in the hospital for a couple of days, both having been hooked up to IV's when they were unconscious, stuffed full of antibiotics, fluids, and fever reducers the entire time. Though all that effort had almost gone to waste when they had woken up and panicked at having been separated from the other.

Thankfully Aizawa had been there to reunite the two and they hadn't been separated since. Though that had brought the new challenge up of trying to treat them properly. Both had left their IVs in after a bit of convincing on the teacher's end, but further treatment had been stalled. Both panicked at the sight of needles or probes of any sort, even panicking at the sight of an oximeter device on one memorable occasion.

He would have thought the Problem Child would have been able to handle the situation, but apparently the treatment of Overhaul was much worse than he had thought. "I don't know what to do at this point." He admitted as he looked at the two, watching Midoriya sign the word apple to the girl, pointing at the picture. Aizawa would say the word once in a while if the girl didn't know what the item was but otherwise he left them alone.

"Maybe we should call his mother in." Toshinori suggested from his place next to the man, having arrived not too long after the entire bunch showed up to the hospital. He had spent most of his time visiting Mirai and making sure the man was adjusting to only having one arm and the knowledge that he had lost a good chunk of his ribcage as well.

Just to spite the man a little bit, he had suggested he retire due to his injuries.

The glare was worth the scolding of hypocrite he gotten.

"I think we probably should." The underground hero rubbed at the bridge of his nose, hating to have to agree with the retired hero. "She seems to be able to comfort him in a way we never will be able to."

All Might nodded as he pulled out his phone. "Why did we even wait in bringing her in again?" They should've known better but it had been suggested by the commission that they hold off on calling the woman, which honestly, should've been a red flag to begin with.

"Something about acclimating them to a safe place before introducing other variables that could destabilize their conditions." Aizawa rolled his eyes at the reminder of the incompetence of the Hero Commission, or the fact that they were probably trying to wrangle this whole situation in a way to benefit them. It could've been Eri and her quirk they wanted but that took time to do, something that Nedzu had already beaten them too as he had placed the care of the child in Aizawa's hands.

"Hmm." Toshinori held the phone up to his ear and it took only two rings to answer. "Hello Inko, I'm sorry it took so long to get a hold of you, but Izuku has been retrieved from the Yakuza and we have him situated here at the hospital." He hummed again before nodding to himself. "I can't say he wasn't hurt during this whole thing, but he'd currently in one piece and healthy, no visible injuries, and no change in his body asides from what was noticed before." The silence grew for a long moment before he said he goodbyes and hung up his phone. "She'll be here soon. She already has permission from her boss to take off so it shouldn't be long."

"Good, maybe she can help her kid out a bit." They turned to see the two kids practicing their JSL further, both calm and at peace for the time being.

Shattered

"Izuku! You have to eat too!" Inko urged as she pushed the tray back to her son, who scrunched his nose at the hospital food. Eri watched with curious eyes as she nibbled at the apple slices that had been on her own plate. "You can't just stop eating like this, you'll never get out of here."

The boy pouted as he made his hands move, making the woman sigh. "I don't care if the food is unappetizing. You have to eat something, now eat or I'll take away your chocolate chip cookies!" he huffed but picked up his spork to dig into the rice and miso soup.

Inko nodded her head triumphantly before turning to the little girl that had not moved from her son's lap since she had entered the room. "Now Eri, what signs has Izuku taught you?" She questioned the girl as she signed her words as she spoke. She knew the girl probably didn't know a whole lot, but it would help further her knowledge if she signed and talked at the same time.

"Um…" the little girl nabbed another apple slice as she thought over the words, taking a moment to take a bit of her slice, before signing the word for apple to the woman.

Inko laughed at that before nodding her head in encouragement. "That was a good one, we'll have you talking with your hands in no time." She turned over to her bag, pulling out a little child's book, filled with words and the signage of those words. "I brought this along to help keep you from being bored. This same book helped Izuku learn how to sign so I figured it would help you."

Izuku's face lit up at the book and his hands began to fly together as he rambled along, his mother laughing the entire way. "Calm down Izuku, I can't follow that quickly." She continued to giggle even as she opened the book for her and Eri to go through together, once in a while nudging her son to eat his meal while Eri continued to eat her own unprompted.

Shattered

"Thank the gods we called you in." A nurse muttered as she looked at the plump woman in front of her. "The few days we had him and her by themselves, it was near impossible to get either of them to do anything. He was hard to get to eat anything and she wouldn't leave his lap for anything." She ran a hand over her face as she sighed tiredly.

"I'm so sorry, my son can be rather stubborn when he wants." Inko gave a soft chuckle as she held one cheek in hand while the other waved at the nurse. "I'll be in and out while they're here, so feel free to call me if you need help to get them to do something. I won't mind one bit."

The nurse gave a bright smile at that and an over eager nod. "Of course! I would be more than happy to do that when we need help! Now if you don't mind accompanying me, we need to flush their IVs and go over their vitals once more."

"But of course! Lead the way, I'll be more than happy to keep them calm while you do that!" The women walked into the room to stare at the two children, both drawing pictures together, Eri for once was on the bed in front of her own little table while Izuku was leant against the back of the bed with his sketch pad perched against his thighs. "Hey you two! We've got a few things to do and then we'll see about getting you some ice cream afterwards."

The little girl and teen gave wary looks to each other and then the nurse, already knowing that they would be unable to fight against whatever Inko was about to get them to do. Neither would honestly pitch a huge fit, but they would fight against the medical procedures that were so similar to Overhaul and his experiments.

Izuku gave a huff before setting his sketch book aside and dragging Eri back onto his lap, turning to look at the two women expectantly. "This is only going to take a moment." The nurse said as she pulled out several alcohol wipes and two syringes full of saline flush.

"No worries dears, this shouldn't hurt at all." Inko assured as she sat with the two, easily holding each arm with the IV so that the nurse could flush it out real quick. It only took a moment and soon both kids were watching the nurse leave the room before turning to Inko expectantly. She gave them each a smile and nodded her head. "I did say something about Ice cream, so I'll go get that real quick. You two behave and when I get back, we'll enjoy our little treat."

Shattered

"I'd like to ask you something." Aizawa said from his place on the wall, watching Izuku color in a coloring book with Eri. The two had clung so tightly to each other since their rescue that he wasn't sure if separating them anytime soon would do any good.

"What would that be?" Inko questioned as she peeled an apple. Eri had taken such a liking to the fruit that Inko made sure there was a basket full of them, of all kinds that the girl could enjoy at any time she pleased. It helped that the little girl would make Izuku eat a few pieces along with her whenever she did eat some of the apples.

"Would you be willing to live on campus for a while?" He scratched the back of his head as he looked down at the floor. "We got the results of Midoriya's Psych Eval and….well…. he'd be restricted to just training for a long while, no work studies or internships for a long time." He explained as he sighed. "Not to mention that some of the symptoms he's already having of PTSD from this whole thing is rather concerning."

"Which has been helped by my presence, for both Izuku and Eri." She added on as she cut the apple, quickly turning the slices into bunnies. It would give the kids something to converse about and a new way to introduce food to Eri. "I've noticed that he's been doing better with me here and Eri has responded well because of that." Inko had always known that Izuku strived to be a good citizen and role model for younger kids, so using Eri to make him eat also had the benefit of showing the little girl it was okay to eat as well. They were helping each other out quite a bit and Inko only encouraged that.

Aizawa nodded in agreement. "There's also the problem of integrating Midoriya back into classes with his classmates." He ran a hand through his hair as he thought back to when the year had just started and what Midoriya had been like back then. "At the start of the year, Midoriya was skittish and shy around his classmates, never initiating touch and flinching at loud noises. Over the year, he had improved greatly and had rarely reacted to loud noises or fast movements unless it was from Bakugo."

"Yes, my son had indeed gained quite the confidence. I even met several of his friends when they came to the apartment after school and all were so well behaved and kind." Inko agreed but she also knew where this was going. "I'm assuming after his time with the villains while protecting Eri, he has regressed back to those habits of before?"

"The doctors have stated as much. Trauma response and PTSD, none of which is his fault, but something I wish I could have stopped from happening." He knew already that nothing he said would have kept Midoriya from going back to helping that little girl, comforting her, and being at her side until they could form their rescue to get them out. Now though, those trauma responses he had at the start of the year were back, and ten times worse than before. "Because of that, I'm afraid reintegration into his classes are going to be tougher than I actually expect."

"Most likely they will, but holding him back is only going to make it all worse." Inko finished cutting the last bunny before setting them all onto the plate, opening a small bag of pretzel sticks and setting them on there as well. There was a little bowl of Peanut butter for the two to use as well. A healthy snack that she knew both children would enjoy. "I've learned that the hard way myself, especially before his quirk came in so late. I gave him no support and no encouragement in his pursuit of being a hero. I wasn't really the greatest mother out there but I tried my best."

Aizawa flinched at the mention of Midoriya being quirkless, his mind flashing back towards the notebooks that the boy had written. He couldn't even begin to understand the utter torment he had been through, especially if his own mother hadn't supported him in his endeavors. "Hopefully between the two of us now, he'll have more than enough support." Aizawa stated as he straightened up. He couldn't change the past, but he could try and make the future easier to handle.

"Hm, sounds like a plan then. I'll have my things packed up for a while, it helps that U.A. is close to the law firm I work at." Inko nodded in the end as she finished off the platter with bottles of juice, one apple and one grape. "Just email me the details and have a room set up for me, I think we'll be good after that."

Aizawa sighed in relief as he nodded his head and pulled his phone out. He'd make sure that Inko would have full access to her son's room and her son would share his apartment with Eri, that why the distance between the two would be minimized at least a little bit. He'd still have a key to the rooms just in case, just like Inko would, but at least the two wouldn't be forced to separate and Izuku would return to the dorms to his own familiar space.

It would provide at least a little bit of comfort for the teen and the little girl. A space that was their own with minimal possible entry by individuals they didn't trust.

Shattered

The two settled into the dorm much easier than Aizawa thought they would.

Might have something to do with Inko, Yamada, Nemuri, and Yagi though. The four of them having teamed up to welcome the two back into the teacher's dorms and then made it apparent that they were more than welcome to join them whenever, or to hide away when needed.

This meant that Izuku could sit on the couch with a sketch book and Eri could play on the floor with dolls that Inko and Nemuri had gifted her. Yagi had given her little onesie outfits that were modeled after very prominent heroes and Yamada had given both nothing but blankets galore. The entire common area and the teen's dorm room were covered in blankets of all sorts.

But it seemed to help the two to sink in to the comfort of the dorms.

Though Izuku's reintegration back into the classroom was going much harder than the teacher thought it should. Even with his mother being on school grounds in the morning and late evening wasn't abating the boy's anxiety during the in between. Not even Eri making an appearance at lunch seemed to help a lot, outside of getting the kid to eat something.

No, the classes seemed to stress him out and his hands were always twitching.

He had tried to sketch at first, with his sketchbook next to his notebook, but most of his teachers had asked him to put it away and informed Aizawa of the situation. They had even tried a fidget toy but many of the teachers felt it more distraction than help and had asked to have it put away during lectures. Not even Aizawa explaining the situation helped because many of them believed to be right about it being a distraction, except for Hizashi and Nemuri who allowed the toys for all the students because it calmed them down and made them focus.

But not all teachers were on the same wavelength and they deserved to have their ways respected unless it caused actual harm. The ban on fidgets in their classrooms wasn't harming anyone, truly, just limiting the ability to express anxious energy healthily during those periods.

Aizawa needed to find a way to get the kid something that would help with his anxiety, or else he would burst in the middle of a class and truly be harmed by all of this. It was already making him jumpy and skittish with his classmates, his anxiety and senses ramped up to sense danger to himself or anyone around him. He flinched at simple movements that weren't near him and just about jumped out of his seat at every out of place noise. It wasn't healthy and it was just getting worse without an outlet.

He remembered before, that there had been no real complaints at the start of the year when Izuku had his analysis notebooks out. He'd write in those and then write in his normal notebook, which wasn't a huge deal. It probably actually looked like he was just writing more notes in class instead of something else. Easily hidden and it gave the kid something to do to sooth his anxiety.

The only thing was that he hadn't actually seen any of those analysis notebooks since they had moved into the dorms and Nedzu had wanted to see them. He wondered what happened there.

He'd have to talk to either Midoriya or Nedzu to figure that out, when he had time that he just didn't at the moment, but for now he'd have to just allow the kid the chance to decompress during his classes. He ignored the sketchbooks and fidgets, made sure the kid got a jelly pouch whenever he passed by because he knew he wasn't eating as much as he should, and then made sure that he knew he had a place to hide during lunch or other periods that didn't work out very well. He'd had the boy hideout in his office more than once during Ectoplasm's or Cementoss's classes, two of the teachers that refused his sketchbook or fidget toys.

Though he knew this couldn't last. It just couldn't last the way it was going, no real outlet for himself to relax and just space out happily in his own little bubble, to let his senses go and for his body to just melt somewhere.

Which he had wished he had done sooner.

Screaming was coming from Midoriya's room and he had no choice but to use his key to get in to see what was going on.

Eri was on the floor, tears flooding over her cheeks as she watched her caretaker thrash violently with sparks of green flaring all around him. The tv was playing a Pixar moving of a girl with brown curly hair singing around what seemed to be her family. Kid must've fallen asleep during the movie and Eri had just let him, thinking no harm of it.

The screaming proved them all wrong.

This was the most noise the teacher had heard from the kid since Overhaul and go figure it would be from a nightmare.

He went to flare his quirk, but froze when suddenly the kid's entire body seemed to be encased in the green lightning and something black seemed to squirm out from his skin and around him.

He didn't waste another second to activate his quirk and soon the kid was slammed up onto the couch, sweat pouring down his face as his quirk came to a complete stop.

"Midoriya." Aizawa called firmly, moving slowly so that he could come between Eri and the still panting and terrified teen. "Midoriya, can you look at me?" God damn it, it wasn't time for Inko to have returned yet and he'd have to figure this out on his own.

"Is…is he-he hur-ting?" Eri whispered as she inched closer to the couch behind Aizawa, her little hand reaching out towards the one person that had been with her through so much. She hated seeing him hurt like this but there was very little she could do to make it better. It was always him making her feel better.

Aizawa gulped but nodded his head. There was no logical reason to lie to the little girl about the situation. "Yeah, yeah he's hurting, but just like you, he'll have help." He explained lowly as he slowly made his way so that he was in Midoriya's sight instead of out of it. The boy's eyes whipped to stare at him as soon as he could the teacher's movements and stayed on him. "I'm here to help Midoriya." He stated to both the little girl and the teen.

"Please." She pleaded as the tears continued to fall down her face, her hand landing on the side of the couch so that she could look up at the other in fear and concern. "Please be-be oh-kay." She hiccupped, the sound catching the teens attention and those large emerald eyes landed on the girl. "I do-don't wan-want you-u to hu-hur-hurt any-anymore." She gasped out.

Izuku gulped as his hands, shaking and covered in sweat, reached out towards the little girl and taking her into his arms before looking back to his teacher. The little girl buried her head into his neck and clutched at him like an octopus, Aizawa knowing she would not be removed easily if at all.

"It's okay Midoriya." Aizawa stated as he kept a hand raised out towards the teen, to let him know he wasn't a danger. He wasn't a little girl and so knew not to take anything at face value right now, not when the boy could turn and attack just as fast as protect. "It's just you, me, and Eri here, no one else." He waved a hand behind him to show the empty room with that movie still playing.

The teen gulped again before taking a shaky breath and giving just as shaky nod. His hands moved to sign behind Eri's back but his movements were so jerky and shaky that Aizawa couldn't tell what he was trying to say.

"Don't worry about explaining, you don't have to right now, just try and breathe. Try and get Eri to breathe with you, both of you aren't getting enough oxygen with all that gasping and hiccupping." He gave a rueful smirk at that, but nodded encouragement to the teen before taking a deep breath himself. It took a few times of mimicking his teacher, but soon enough, the teen was taking deep calming breathes and Eri was dozing on his shoulder once calming herself. "Good job."

'I'm sorry, I don't know what happened.' Izuku signed once his hands had calmed down sufficiently to actually get his signs to show. 'I just started a movie for us to watch and then…'

"Nightmares are like that, they happen to everyone, especially heroes." Aizawa stated calmly as he waved away the boy's worried expression. "You've got major PTSD and Trauma to go through with Hound Dog, and it hasn't even been a month since the Overhaul BS. You have to give yourself time to heal."

'But I can't just let it control me like this.' He had furrows between his brows and a frown on his face, his arms loose around Eri even as he kept her against his chest. 'Heroes can't be weak like this.'

"Heroes, more than anything, are human beings that need help like everyone else. We suffer trauma and face fears just like everyone else. We suffer injuries and setbacks just like everyone else. Just because you had a setback and are taking time to get back on your feet, that doesn't make you weak Problem Child. That makes you anything but weak." He reached a hand out, pausing until he got a nod from the kid, and laid it onto his shoulder in comfort. "That makes you strong because I know some veteran heroes that have retired after everything that they've gone through, similar to your own situation, and they couldn't even return to a normal life afterwards. Not where you are back in school, helping in the care of Eri, and continuing your training to be a hero. So no, just because you're having a setback and are struggling to get back on your feet, that doesn't make you any less of a hero." He paused for a moment before tilting his head towards the little girl in the teen's arms. "I don't think she thinks of you as anything but her hero, no matter how hurt you are right now. If anything, she thinks your even stronger of a hero that'll continue to protect her, even now, away from Overhaul."

Izuku blinked furiously as he looked down to Eri, trying to keep the tears from flooding down his face again. "I…" he coughed as his throat itched at the use of his voice but he shook his head and tried again. "I don't….wan-wanna disap-point her."

Aizawa gave a soft smile as he raised his hand and gave that curly hair a good ruffle, ignoring how the kid leaned up into the touch for once. "I don't think you could even if you never spoke again, kid, that's what it means to be someone's hero."

He ignored the tears that fell down the kids face but accepted the soft "Thank You Sensei" that he got.

It wasn't a great improvement or anything, but it was a start, and that was something.

Shattered

A.N. Well then, this was a hard chapter to write and that's mostly because of the whole trauma dump I've just done to Izuku and Eri. The poor things! But after everything the two had gone through, you can't tell me there isn't trauma! Because there is! A great deal! But whatever! Here is the next part so I hope you all enjoy!