If Shouta could go back in time, there would be a lot of things he'd do.
Namely ensuring the death of one of his closest friends would never come to pass, saving more than a few people on his patrols by moving just a few seconds earlier, and more then a few horrid cases he'd prevent outright by beating the perpetrators to a pulp before they could start.
But there were more petty reasons he wanted to go back in time, he'd certainly change the sign name Hizashi gave him way back when was usually the first thing that came to mind, but if he was being honest the thing he really wanted to do was give past-Shouta a piece of his mind.
It was always past-Shouta getting him into these situations with his big mouth, why couldn't past-Shouta ever learn to keep his trap shut?
Shouta's morning wasn't too bad, he had a great six hours of blissful quirk induced sleep courtesy of Isamu and his eyes felt much better thanks to the eye mask his co-worker must have put on him.
There were no feral cats bugging him and he got to enjoy a whole pot of coffee before he got into the shower, dressed in his costume and left for patrol.
But as life loves to do it started fucking with him. An hour before the end of his patrol he got a call from a fellow hero Miso-Miso, Miso had woken up sick as a dog and wouldn't be able to take over per usual at 7am, Miso did find someone else to cover his shift but Shouta would have to hold down the fort until 9am.
Spending two more hours in Yaizu would suck but it wasn't a school day and Shouta wouldn't keel over by working a little overtime. Shouta also wasn't a dick who'd blame someone for being sick, Miso was a very hard working person and one of the few older lime-lights he could work with since the man was pretty down to earth and didn't take himself that seriously compared to most.
The other hero that showed up in Miso-Miso's place wasn't, and Shouta swore he knew the arrogant prick from his second year at U.A. but he didn't care enough to give it a second thought and went straight home, because while he trusted Isamu to help with his grading Shouta wanted to go over the papers to be completely sure they were graded fairly.
So, Shouta was quite content as he had some of his jelly pouches and a cup of coffee while he looked over his students' homework. It was a bunch of essays about the laws over hero costumes and whether or not the laws were helpful or harmful, and per usual when it came to these subjects Miyake's paper seemed to have the most interesting take on the matter.
The boy didn't talk much but his writing certainly was a nice insight to his thought process. Miyake was a very methodical person but Shouta could see tiny hints of an emotion in certain places, and those peaks of emotion were always in the weirdest spots that he didn't think Miyake would be hung up on.
He was getting to the part about how Miyake thought the newly proposed law about support gear solely being for the aid of a quirk would be disastrous when his phone started ringing and he recognized the ring tone right away, as it was the one he registered all his students' numbers under.
"Aizawa speaking." he answered almost immediately because he had only given out his number to his students so they could call him if something happened. Sometimes his students would call him when they were walking home at night and they were concerned someone was following them, it was something he's done since he first started teaching and he wasn't going to stop doing it ever.
"A-Aizawa-Sensei." he heard Amajiki whimper into the phone and Shouta jumped to his feet "Amajiki, what's wrong?" Shouta asked only to hear a loud crash and glass shattering, which made his heart stop and as he mind raced thinking of what could be happening on the other end.
Where did Amajiki live again? With Togata from 1-B didn't he? But it was Sunday so what if he went home to see the mom he listed on his emergency contacts? Did Amajiki live with Togata for other reasons than because of the distance from his home and the school?
"We're o-okay Sensei, but there's a group of villains attacking the mall we're at a-and there's this one guy with a quirk that can split the ground and w-we're trying to-" Amajiki tried to explain but there was a series of crashes that cut him off.
"Amajiki!" Shouta shouted accidently crushing the mug he was holding once he heard the stomach churning and far too familiar sound of grinding concrete, his mind unhelpfully going straight to the worst-case scenario, what happened to Oboro dragging itself through his mind.
"Sensei please come help us." Amajiki pleaded his voice shaking and Shouta didn't need to be there to know the boy was crying.
Shouta grabbed his capture weapon and threw himself out the window using it to jump across rooftops "Where are you Amajiki?" Shouta demanded.
"K-Kiyashi ward." Amajiki answered and Shouta's heart seized in a vice-like grip because that was so far away.
*Its not too far.* Shouta hissed at himself he just needed to get creative "I'll be there soon Amajiki, just keep calm and stay on the-" Shouta tried to assure the boy but he was a loud bang and the phone abruptly cut the call off.
Shouta's mind blanked briefly then he gritted his and he swung himself forward as fast as he possibly could ignoring the routes he normally took for stealth, mentally telling fate to get the hell out of his way if it wasn't going to help him get to his students.
Then in a rare moment of sheer audacity, the universe decided to give him a break and offered Shouta a hand.
"Heya Eraser, far be it me to criticize one of you undergrounders but aren't you supposed to stick to the shadows?" A young and slightly teasing voice asked and Shouta never would have thought he'd be so happy to see the cocky #4 hero from Kyushu in the flesh.
Not wasting a second Shouta changed direction and briefly used his quirk on Hawks causing his wings to seize long enough for Shouta to get his capture weapon around Hawks's ankle "Hey what are you-" Hawks exclaimed clearly taken aback by what he just did.
"Take me to Kiyashi ward mall now. Villain attack there. No time for questions." Shouta hissed back and maybe he'd feel bad about snapping at the younger hero later but he did not have time to argue or explain why Hawks needed to take him there right now.
Hawks at least seemed to appreciate the seriousness of the situation and unlike most heroes his age didn't hesitate to comply with Shouta's hasty demands and just told him to tuck his head in before he dived to gain more speed.
The ride wasn't pleasant and Shouta was sure to have wind burn by the end of it but Hawks had gotten him there in four minutes flat and as soon as they saw the half collapsed mall Shouta released Hawks to get on the ground and pushed through the crowd to get to the entrance.
Getting to the front he was first terrified to see more of his students there then relieved when he saw they weren't harmed, but Hado was red-faced as she argued with a hero with a fish quirk and a pale Togata sat curled up on the ground and constantly glancing at the doors, he was being consoled by a shaking Haya and she was clearly also trying to talk him out of going into the building, Miyake stood next to Hado and was staring down the hero with clenched fists until he snapped his head to Shouta.
"Aizawa-Sensei." Miyake said, his voice having hints of awe as his wide eyes stared at Shouta baffled, the other three's heads also snapped to him "Sensei! Jiki-Chan and Oz-Chan are still inside and this, hero won't even ask someone to go in to look for them!" Hado exclaimed rushing over to him, pointing to the hero blocking the door with a hiss.
"Miss as I was telling you, the villains are still destroying the interior and we can't relocate units to-" The hero tried to say but Miyake's deep growl made him stop.
"A hero's first priority should be civilians, not a building that can be rebuilt." Miyake hissed his pupils narrowing on the other hero and Shouta would love to give his student some bonus points for that but he had more important matters to deal with.
Shouta gently moved Hado aside and stalked over to the doors "Sir I can't let you-" the hero said holding out his arm to stop Shouta but he smacked it away.
"I am a pro-hero and I am going in to recover my students who called me for help since you can't be bothered to. If you won't let me in through the door, I will make one." Shouta coldly told the hero glaring down the man whose gills flared in panic.
Not giving the man a chance to gather himself Shouta went to the doors and ran through the halls searching for any sight of Amajiki and Mineta, unfortunately he found two villain fights first and he had to help the heroes out before he could move on.
But as he got close to the large mostly trashed courtyard where a hero and a villain were still fighting he caught a brief flash of bright pink on a second level, stopping he pulled himself up on a collapsed beam to get a better look.
And his heart almost stopped as he saw Amajiki helping Mineta over to the stairs. Other than Mineta missing a leg Shouta couldn't see anything majorly wrong with either of them than some cuts and bruises.
Shouta was going to call out to them but the stupid hero threw the large stony villain at the wall right next to his students and the walkway they were on shook and was clearly going to collapse in a few minutes.
No Shouta's entire body screamed at him.
Shouta threw himself towards his students, his mind was so focused on getting to them he missed the rocky villain had gotten up and was coming at him and since he was in the air he couldn't correct his course to avoid the villain.
Thankfully he was saved from making the choice of fighting the villain or finding a way to avoid him by the only other competent hero there as crimson feathers dragged the villain away from Shouta before their paths crossed "Get the kids Eraser!" Hawks shouted tackling the villain with a classic swoop his namesake bird was known for.
Shouta wouldn't need to be told twice and turned back to the boys and saw Amajiki had noticed him and was rushing to meet him halfway with Mineta being dragged along, his rushing however caused the unstable stairs to almost fall apart and the only reason they didn't was the quick addition of feathers holding things in place.
Not wanting to take any chances Shouta threw his capture weapon once he was within reach and yanked both boys into his arms, he hugged them a second longer than was needed then released them, quickly moving Mineta onto his back and dragging Amajiki by the arm away from the fight and out of the ruins of the mall.
Exiting the building went much quicker and Amajiki was all but tackled by Hado as soon as they got outside "Jiki-Chan!" she squealed almost knocking the boy over "You're okay!" she sobbed her face buried in his chest, Amajiki clearly had no idea what to do about this and he was likely still in too much shock to process things properly.
Amajiki at least had Togata and Haya to balance her out but then they began piling the boy with questions, Shouta turned to Miyake "Keep an eye on Amajiki, I'm going to find some E. to check them over." He instructed Miyake and got a quick nod in return.
Normally Shouta would never entrust such a responsibility to a first year but the only hero there had shown himself to be incompetent at even calling for more backup and Miyake was a very diligent student with some medical training under his belt from his internship with Gang Orca.
Shouta moved through the crowd searching for wherever they had set up the triage area and just as he spotted the white tents Mineta's arms tightened around Shouta's neck and spoke up.
"Is Jiki okay?" Mineta rasped and Shouta hated how wispy his student's voice was "He will be, he's not the one missing a leg." Shouta answered almost automatically and the boy scoffed.
"Better me than him, mine will grow back." Mineta muttered right before his grip loosened "If I got a do over I'd still push him out of the way Sensei." Mineta added.
Shouta gritted his teeth, he had no context for the incident Mineta was referring to but he wished he did so he could scold the boy for his recklessness, Shouta wouldn't comment for now though and reminded silent on the matter as he approached the triage and started explaining to a volunteer about his students condition.
A few hours later Shouta returned home exhausted but relieved that neither Amajiki or Mineta had any serious injuries and they both would just have to remain home for a few days. He had already texted Nezu about both boys being absent and that he might get some calls about Hado, Haya, Miyake, and Togata similarly staying home.
Shouta collapsed on the couch running a hand through his hair as he took a breath and gave himself a few minutes to rest as he cataloged what he'd need to do next.
An after-action report would need to be filed, an explanation of cause for why he interfered at all, a second explanation of cause for why he used Hawks as a bus, change the bandages on his hand because in his rush to help his students he hadn't noticed that he had gotten shards of his coffee mug in his palm when he broken it earlier.
"Fuck I'll need to clean that mess up too." Shouta grumbled his hand coming down to cover his eyes "And throw this costume in the wash." he added glaring at the blood stains in his capture weapon.
His phone buzzed with Hizashi's ring tone and Shouta sighed before answering it "I'm guessing you heard about the mall?" Shouta guessed.
"Of course I did, Ten-Ten works in Tokyo and has a bunch of sidekicks everywhere in case you forgot." Hizashi hissed back.
"I'm fine, my hand has a cut but that happened way before I got there." Shouta tried to assure the blonde.
"I know you know I have a charity stream and that I can't personally drag you to a doctor, but Nemuri is already on the way over." Hizashi replied and Shouta groaned.
"Love you too Sho, I'll be home as soon as the stream is done." Hizashi promised before he hung up on Shouta.
"Damned brain-dead cockatoo." Shouta huffed and wondered if he'd have enough time to lock himself in his bedroom.
Fate however was done going easy on him though and Nemuri opened the door far too loudly to be ignored strutting in and quickly caught him with her whip.
Shouta should've known better than to hope, it never worked out for him.