Chapter 27

Chapter Text

"Todoroki Shoto?"

"Who's asking?" Aizawa-sensei asked, stepping between Shoto and the unfriendly looking man with a beagle quirk.

"Tsuragamae Kenji, Chief of Police."

"Eraserhead, Pro Hero."

"Oh," Tsuragamae said, probably having mistaken Shoto's teacher for a homeless man. He really needed to update his costume. "How do you know the offender?"

"Stain?" Aizawa-sensei asked, apparently misunderstanding that the Chief of Police was referring to Shoto. Or—judging by Tsuragamae's annoyed frown and soft "woof" directed at Aizawa-sensei—maybe not actually misunderstanding.

"Eraserhead," the man said, sounding like he was talking through clenched teeth, "how do you know Todoroki Shoto?"

"I'm his homeroom teacher, his emergency foster care parent, and his legal representative."

Todoroki wasn't the only one surprised by that list.

The police officer who'd been fiddling with what Shoto guessed were suppression cuffs took a tiny step back, and the other two looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Fine," Tsuragamae mumbled. "Todoroki Shoto is being charged with unlawful quirk usage occasioning actual harm."

"Actual harm?" Aizawa-sensei asked curiously. "Stain was arrested with minimal danger to the officers involved and is expected to make a full recovery, and without Shoto's ice, Endeavour would have bled out long before the ambulances could ever get there. He didn't cause harm. He saved two pro heroes and the youngest son of the Iida family, you know them as the owners of Iidaten Agency."

The police chief seemed a little spooked to realize how many pro heroes he was possibly going to upset by arresting the person who'd saved their loved ones. Even if Endeavour was getting some seriously bad press, he was still the number two hero. Tsuragamae looked nervous but he doubled down on his agenda.

"Nevertheless, we're charging Todoroki Shoto with unlawful quirk usage. We need to make that very clear to the public. First year students cannot go running around using their quirks and endangering everyone. He's not licensed to use his quirk to apprehend villains or to rescue people."

"So I should have just let three people die?" Shoto asked, startled into talking.

"No, he's not licensed," Aizawa-sensei said, ignoring Shoto's outburst, "but he had emergency authorization to use his quirk from two pro heroes who were involved in the Hosu mess."

Todoroki nodded in agreement, because yes that was absolutely true. Manual had explicitly given him permission to "use his quirk" without putting restrictions on him and, even though his father's permission hadn't been verbal, Todoroki knew the man well enough to know when he was expected to use his quirk and when he wasn't.

"I believe the real problem here," Aizawa-sensei said, his eyes narrowing dangerously, "is that you don't want to give credit for Stain's capture to an inexperienced child. It wouldn't reflect well on your officers."

Tsuragamae clenched his jaw harder but looked away without speaking. Another officer stepped forward to continue the conversation.

"Endeavour said there was another quirk being used. A black tentacle?"

"That is correct," Aizawa-sensei agreed.

"Do you know who it belongs to?"

"I do," Aizawa said, apparently happy to rile up the police officers trying to arrest Shoto by not volunteering any information without a direct question.

"Can I have a name, please, Eraserhead?"

"Midoriya Izuku."

Tsuragamae frowned, obviously confused as if he knew the name but couldn't recall why.

"Another of your students?" he asked before another of his officers stepped forward and informed him that Midoriya Izuku was "the dead one."

Aizawa-sensei smirked.

"Is this a joke?" Tsuragamae asked, letting out another one of those soft woofs.

"No joke," Aizawa-sensei assured him. "He's just not quite as dead as everyone thinks."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning he has a quirk we're calling ghost that managed to preserve his life and his abilities."

"Even if that is true"—Tsuragamae seemed mighty skeptical—"he's also unlicensed to use his quirk."

"Good luck arresting him," Aizawa said. "He's still listed as dead. They won't reverse the death certificate without DNA proof and that's kind of hard to produce when dealing with a ghost."

The Chief of Police huffed softly and seemed to deflate just a little.

"Eraserhead," Tsuragamae finally said in a tone that sounded very tired and suspiciously close to begging, "please give me something to work with here. I don't particularly want to arrest children, but if they're given credit for Stain's arrest it will encourage other wannabe heroes into vigilante behavior."

Aizawa-sensei shrugged. "So give credit for Stain's arrest to Manual. He has a water quirk, he was involved in the nomu fights and evacuation of the public from the area, and he's Todoroki's direct supervisor for his internship. He's also, I believe, a well-known, well-liked Hero in Hosu."

Tsuragamae seemed to chew on his tongue for a few moments. "It might work," he finally conceded. He moved slightly to get a better view of Shoto. "Not a word of your involvement to anyone. If the truth gets out, I will find a way to arrest you and your ghostly classmate. Understood?"

Shoto glanced at Aizawa-sensei who grinned slightly and tilted his head in permission for him to respond.

"Understood."

"Todoroki?" a nurse called as she entered the room.

"Come on, kid," Aizawa-sensei said, turning them away from the police officers. "Let's go get an update on your father."

~*~

Hitoshi was so glad to see a blackwhip appear in front of him that he forgot to ask a question before making the connection.

"Um…"

"Yeah, that's never happened before," he said, slightly embarrassed to be able to capture Izuku is his quirk without needing any sort of response from him.

"Maybe because I'm kind of waiting for it. Sort of leaving the door open so that you don't need to knock."

"That's a good enough explanation for me," Hitoshi said, even though he was still ruminating over what it might mean. Of course, the unique connection between them meant that Izuku was privy to those thoughts as well. Fortunately he chose not to comment. "Your quirk certainly challenges everything I thought I knew."

"Tell me about it," Izuku by way of agreement. "When I first learned about All Might's quirk and his ability to transfer it, I never imagined any of this."

"So it's okay that I know about that?" Hitoshi asked. When he'd accidentally come across the information in Izuku's memories he'd nearly passed out from the stress of knowing something he shouldn't.

"Yeah," Izuku said, "it's not exactly something I could hide from you, but it's something I should probably share with your dads."

"I wonder if All Might has already told them about it," Hitoshi mused. "They do seem to get along with him much better now than they did in the first week. Maybe All Might told them when he was explaining to the staff about that skill he doesn't want the public to know about."

"Yeah, that wasn't All Might using a skill he keeps secret. That was him desperately trying to claim his quirk back."

"Ew," Hitoshi said when he saw a memory of Izuku swallowing one of All Might's hairs.

"Yeah, pretty gross, but it's passed on by DNA and intent."

"So he didn't get it back because you didn't want to give it to him?" Hitoshi asked, trying to clarify.

"Turns out I was still using it," Izuku said with a soft laugh. "I still can't believe how much my life has changed since I got attacked by the sludge villain."

"You were attacked. I thought you rescued Katsuki."

"Both actually," Izuku said, clearly trying not to think about being attacked under a bridge and then rescued by All Might who signed his analysis book and then…

"He left you on a roof?" Hitoshi asked incredulously. "After he crushed your dreams? What an asshole!"

"Don't be too hard on him," Izuku said, obviously calling up memories of when All Might had been nicer to him. Izuku's idea of "nice" did not match Hitoshi's, and thanks to Hitoshi's time in foster care his expectations were already pretty low.

"Zuku," Hitoshi whined and then laughed softly at Izuku's reaction to the nickname. "So you're okay with me using it?"

"Of course," Izuku said happily. "I'm really wishing Kacchan and I had met you years ago. You're a good friend, Toshi."

"Maybe," Hitoshi said, not really thinking his words through before he "said" them in their shared space, "that's why the timeline needed to be changed. You and Katsuki needed to meet me much earlier to avoid the apocalypse."

As soon as he finished the thought he understood the gravity of what he'd just noticed in Izuku's memories on an alternate timeline.

"Shit."