Shouta has a feeling that this new school year is going to bring him nothing but trouble.
Not only does he have to deal with All Might being a teacher of all things, he also has to deal with the apparent doppelganger that's running around. You know, the one that looks just like him and knows things they shouldn't know.
The idea sounds impossible—improbable—not to mention highly suspicious.
He's never been a very trusting person. He couldn't be, considering his line of work. There is one thing he is absolutely certain of, despite that.
Shouta trusts Hizashi wholeheartedly.
If Hizashi says there's a near-exact clone of Shouta running around causing problems, then they'll all have to tread carefully.
Actually... there's probably more than one doppelganger, if he thinks about the odd encounter he'd had yesterday on his walk to work. Honestly, how anyone could mistake him as being their father was beyond logic.
He, Aizawa Shouta, is not father material.
According to the school roster, the purple haired teeth he encountered was one Shinsou Hitoshi—a first year Gen-Ed student.
There was no sign of the dark gray capture weapon in the boy's records, but Shinsou does look near identical to the boy Shouta saw, enough that he's able to recognize him. Ironically, the teen does sort of look like him. If he squints, maybe. Mostly in the 'desperately needs a nap' department.
But still, why would a kid like that call him 'dad'?
He digresses, but he'll try to keep an eye on the kid. Just in case.
Back to his previous point on this school year being nothing but a headache; Shouta can already tell that his new class is chock-full of problem children.
They're loud, immature, illogical.
That's to be expected considering they're only teenagers, though he does have to admit, they have some potential. He hasn't even had to expel anyone... yet. He came real close to it during the Quirk Apprehension Test.
And now classes have truly begun.
Shouta's already looked over the results of their first lesson with Yagi from yesterday—a Battle Trial, something he hadn't been made aware of.
And honestly? He's not impressed.
In fact, he's downright livid.
How is it that on the very first day of classes, two of his students had already been seriously injured while under the watch of a teacher? Not that Shouta considers Yagi a good teacher, especially not after what he'd seen.
He's mostly angry that he hadn't been there to put a stop to it before the situation had a chance to get so out of control. These are only first year students, damnit! They should not have been fighting each other on day one. And again, no one had bothered to tell Shouta about the so-called 'Battle Trials' until after they'd happened.
At least he's already had a chance to chew Yagi out for his idiotic decision, and to talk to Nedzu about making sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again.
But the fact Bakugou had been allowed to decimate the building with his volatile quirk in an attempt to seriously injure a classmate is not okay. Midoriya broke his damn arm blocking that attack, not to mention been badly burned. Iida and Uraraka could have been harmed as well in the crossfire.
And of course it didn't end there, because when was anything ever easy for Shouta?
Almost before the smoke had even cleared, Midoriya went and used his unbroken arm to punch Bakugou in the face. Fortunately, he didn't use his own illogically destructive quirk, so Midoriya hadn't broken any more of his own bones.
Bakugou's nose, however, was not so lucky.
By that point Yagi had finally decided the end the match, and he'd collected the two students to be patched up by Recovery Girl.
Needless to say, the match should not have been allowed to get to such a point in the first place. Yagi should have called it off much sooner that he did.
Though, Shouta does have to admit that seeing Midoriya punch a stunned Bakugou square in the face had been rather entertaining. Even if it was a sloppy punch. He'll have to teach them the proper technique at some point...
...Okay, he's getting off topic again.
Regardless, Shouta hasn't known these particular students for very long—only a couple days now—but he's still able to notice that something today feels different.
He uses his skills honed from being an underground hero to subtly scan over the room, though to anyone who doesn't know him, he would just look bored. Sleepy, maybe, considering he's in his sleeping bag.
He's able to zero in on two students in particular whose body language is notably different from Sunday's.
Midoriya Izuku and Mineta Minoru.
Thus far, nothing Shouta has seen from Midoriya makes any logical sense, and what he sees now only adds another puzzle piece that doesn't fit with any of the others.
Despite his clear anxiety over being voted class president, Midoriya also seems to be... inspecting Bakugou? No, that's not quite right. His expression showed some sort of confusion, but it was clearly analytic in nature. Calculating.
...Like he's trying to figure out a puzzle that doesn't make sense.
Just like Shouta's doing.
He's not exactly sure what to make of that.
Sitting right behind Midoriya, and rather inexplicably in Shouta's opinion, Mineta looks downright terrified. The boy keeps twitching like he wants to look behind him, but every time his head began to turn, he would suddenly jerk back to looking very intently at his desk.
Yaoyorozu seems to have noticed the change in behavior as well, and he notices her glancing at Mineta with vague concern, and... apprehension?
Something must have happened between Sunday and today to account for their changes in behavior, but Shouta isn't yet sure what that could be. There was no indication of it within the footage from yesterday, either.
He sincerely hopes it has nothing to do with the doppelganger situation.
Knowing his luck though, it probably is.
There's already potentially two of them—being Shinsou and himself—running around to his knowledge, and he really doesn't want to deal with any others. He already has twenty hellions to look after this year. Shinsou doesn't currently count since he's not in class 1-A, and thus he's not Shouta's problem.
And in Shouta's opinion, just himself is already one too many, so the second Shouta running around is really not appreciated.
The lunch bell rings then, jolting Shouta from his thoughts.
He watches through half-lidded eyes as his class packs up and files out of the room, talking amongst themselves.
A few of them spare him a glance or two as they go, one in particular being Midoriya. Shouta merely raises an eyebrow, which sends the nervous boy skittering off to catch up to his friends.
Maybe Shouta should talk to Inui about addressing Midoriya's obvious anxiety problem.
If any of them had something they wanted to talk about regarding class—or anything else, really—then they'd stay behind.
It's too early in the school year for Shouta to expect any of them to trust him enough to confide in, though. Things like that take time, and he hasn't earned that trust yet. Questions about the class material? Sure, that's easy. Relationship advice? Not so much. He tries to make himself available to his students in whatever capacity they need him, but he can definitely stand to wait when it came to personal stuff.
Being asked for relationship advice is always embarrassing as hell in Shouta's opinion, though he never lets on that the questions affect him—that would only make whichever student had asked the question less likely to trust him.
There's also the other cases, where an obviously embarrassed student would come to him asking for help with more... sensitive problems.
These are teenagers, after all.
Needless to say, he has one of the pouches on his toolbelt filled to the brim with things like pads, tampons, and condoms. Nemuri's ensured the brands he picked out were 'the good shit' and not just the cheapest thing available. Not that Shouta has much experience with the first two items, but he still makes sure to pay extra for 'the ultra-thin ones, with wings, Shou!' and 'not the ones with cardboard applicators, and make sure to get multiple sizes!'
It's still rather mortifying having to keep his expression straight and his tone neutral while he looks a student in the eye and tells them to 'Practice safe sex, or else.' and hands them a condom.
The joys of being a high-school teacher.
So he waits for a few minutes after all the students have gone in case any want to come back and bother him.
But today, none of them do.
Once he's deemed that enough time has passed, he unzips himself from his sleeping bag and stretches with a yawn. Guess he should get to the staff room so he can eat his own lunch. It may only be the start of the semester, but he's got lesson plans to go over too.
And so he folds up his sleeping bag, spares one last glance over the empty classroom, and heads out.
There's several students making their way to the cafeteria that he passes in the hallway, but he pays them no mind.
Shouta does that a moment to look out the windows as he walks by, and he actually pauses mid-stride to look again when he registers what he's seeing.
The—vultures—media from this morning are still crowded around the front gates.
How annoying.
He's just about to look away and get back to more important things when something else catches his attention. A sudden flurry of activity that ends with one of the onlookers on the ground, and a second person jumping on top of them.
Shouta squints, trying to see the distant figures better.
The scene is too far away for him to make out any distinguishing details, but he's pretty sure the one that got knocked down is now being tied up by the figure in all black.
What an illogical decision... attacking someone in broad daylight, and right in front of UA to boot. Not to mention being surrounded on all sides by rolling cameras.
The hero part of Shouta wants to go down there and break up what's happening, especially when he sees the now tied-up person being picked up and taken away. It sends a momentary rush of urgency though him. But unfortunately, he's too far away to be able to logically intervene, and by the time he'd be able to get down there the figure in black would already be long gone.
Frustratingly, there's nothing he can do.
But with all the cameras recording the event—as well as Nedzu's own cameras on the gates—it's unlikely the kidnapper will get away with their crime. Shouta can only hope they're caught before whoever they just took is badly hurt... or killed.
His stomach growls, reminding him that he hasn't eaten since breakfast.
The hallway is empty now, so there's nothing stopping him from heading straight to the staff room.
He's taken by surprise when, the second he walks through the door, Nemuri throws an arm around his shoulders and jostles him.
"Shouchan~" she croons excitedly, much too loud when she's right next to his ear. "Congrats on the takedown!"
...Wait, what?
Just as abruptly, Hizashi's hanging off his other side. "Yeah! That was a solid punch, yo!" he crows, also much too loud.
Shouta has no idea what they're talking about.
He opens his mouth to say so, only to be interrupted by Hizashi as he's guided—note, physically dragged—further into the room.
"You shoulda brought me with you, man! I wanna show those media bastards who's boss, too. Just like, 'POW!', ya' catch my drift?" Hizashi pumps his fist to accentuate the 'pow', as if he's punching an invisible person.
"You've got some real balls taking that guy out right in front'a the paparazzi~" Nemuri says right after Hizashi's finished talking, once again interfering with Shouta's attempts to ask them what the hell is going on. She finally lets him go so she can spin away, stopping with her hands on her hips while she stares him down. "What'd you do with the poor sap anyways? You got back up here pretty fast..."
How in the hell is he even supposed to respond to any of this?
Brows furrowing in his confusion, Shouta begrudgingly—to anyone who doesn't know him, at least—lets Hizashi continue to hang off his shoulder.
"What in the actual fuck are you two going on about?" he mutters at them.
The fact he really doesn't know what they're talking about, that he isn't joking around, must show on his face, since Nemuri and Hizashi frown and exchanges glances over his head.
Shouta rears back when Nemuri shoves her phone in his face in lieu of an actual explanation.
He scowls, squinting at the brightness of the screen and unable to make out much since it's so damn close to his face. Taking a step back, he shoots a glare in Nemuri's direction before he looks back at the screen.
It's a news article, and a video.
A video of Shouta.
But that isn't him, Shouta knows it isn't him because he's right here.
'—I'm not sure what you saw, but it wasn't me.'
...Well, shit.
The video isn't the best quality, but it clearly shows the front gates on UA, having apparently been recorded live no more than fifteen minutes ago.
He listens to the familiar-looking reporter as she accuses UA of withholding All Might from the public, and how they had a right to be able to see and speak with him. What a joke, don't they have anything better to do with their time?
But then there's a flash of black just off-screen, and Shouta watches with an odd sense of déjà vu as someone gets knocked to the ground.
Much to his shock, he's already seen this exact scene play out once before.
He hadn't thought much of it at the time since he wasn't able to make much out, but now with this new perspective he can see more. The camera pans to show the figure in black crouched over someone wearing a hoodie.
An uncomfortable, squirming feeling overtakes Shouta as the figure turns and reveals Shouta's own face, albeit the one on the screen is much dirtier. Older.
And that scar... that expression.
Cold dread sits heavy in Shouta's gut at the sight.
So first his doppelganger ran into Hizashi on his way to work, and now he's shown up just outside UA's front gates?
It can't be just a coincidence.
And what about the person his doppelganger attacked? What was the purpose of kidnapping a civilian in broad daylight—especially when there were so many witnesses.
"Hey!" one reporter shouts, shoving their microphone in the other Shouta's face before he has a chance to make his escape. He looks about as unamused with that as Shouta himself had been when the same thing happened to him just that morning.
"You're that scruffy guy from earlier! Why are you attacking an innocent civilian?!"
...Okay.
Shouta knows they look nearly identical, but he takes offense to being called 'that scruffy guy'. There's also the fact that now everyone thinks he's the idiot who just got caught committing a crime.
That might be a problem.
He can only watch as the other him ties up the unconscious person and slings them over his shoulder, carrying them away in spite of the reporter's protests. Some of them even try to chase after the man, shouting their questions, but to no avail.
The other Shouta disappears into an alley, and the video ends.
"Your doppelganger struck again!" Hizashi exclaims, shaking Shouta with the arm still slung over his shoulder. His voice is still too damn loud to be right next to Shouta's ear, but it's quiet enough to not be overheard by everyone and their mother. "And I was right—I did see another you!"
Grunting in response to being shaken, Shouta finally shrugs Hizashi's arm off and sighs.
"Unfortunately..." he mutters, dragging a hand down his face. It's not that Shouta ever doubted his husband, but it's different seeing the evidence with his own two eyes.
Nemuri's pocketed her phone by that point, and now she's looking between the two of them with narrowed eyes. "Is somebody gonna explain why there's two Shoutas, or am I just supposed to come up with an answer myself?" she asks sardonically, a hand still perched on her hip.
Shouta doesn't want to know whatever outlandish answer Nemuri is capable of coming up with, thank you very much.
"We're not sure yet," he tells her before she has a chance to speak again. His answer seems to disappoint her, so he just shrugs. "All we know is that Mic encountered him yesterday, and now this."
"Wait—so you were serious about running into Shou before school? I thought you were just fucking around." Nemuri turns to Hizashi with raised eyebrows, causing him to sputter in offense.
Hizashi throws his hands in the air, which Shouta easily dodges. "Why would I fuck around about something like that?" he shoots back.
"Oh, I don't know, mister late to school because you 'saw Shouta' and just had to chase after him, but really it was because you weren't 'feeling the vibes' for school that day," Nemuri deadpans, taking a step forward to stare Hizashi down despite being shorter than him.
"Okay, first of all—" Hizashi holds a finger up, cheeks tinged pink as he leans forward to mirror Nemuri. "I haven't done that since I was a teenager, so get your facts straight, yo! Second of all—" He holds up a second finger. "—I know what I saw, and what I saw was Shouta!"
Shouta can't believe he has to break this up, stepping between his two friends with a sigh.
"Knock it off, you two," he mutters, and ignores the way they pout at him. He continues; "What matters is that there is another me out there causing problems, so we need to stay vigilant and not fight among ourselves."
"We're not fighting, we're just having a friendly discussion~" Nemuri winks at both him and Hizashi, but she does take a step back.
Considering their last 'friendly discussion' ended with a table being broken in half, Shouta doesn't believe her.
Her expression turns serious though, and she adds, "But for real, what're we gonna do about this?"
"Nothing we really can do. Not right now, at least," Shouta says with a shrug. He finally manages to get to his desk and retrieve his bento then, plopping down in his chair. Hopefully he'll have a chance to eat now and maybe look over some stuff before they all have to get back to class.
He takes a bite and swallows before continuing; "...It'll likely be brought up at the staff meeting Nedzu set up for tomorrow after school."
Nedzu had suggested it after Shouta and Hizashi went to speak with him yesterday, so that was sure to be interesting. By then Nedzu will have had time to go over the gate footage of the doppelganger, too.
Yes, Shouta thinks. This school year is most certainly going to be nothing but trouble.