Chapter 22: Aizawa's Horrible, Very Bad Day

WHAT IN GOD'S NAME?!

Shouta was just walking outside of his office with his mid-morning coffee, when he saw A GIANT FUCKING BOAT FLOATING DOWN FROM THE FUCKING SKY!

"First the angel and now this?!" Shouta shouted. "What's next, a dragon?!"

It was at that moment that Shouta Aizawa threw his hands in the air. This shit might have been ridiculous, but at least some of the Colibus Hills budget was spent on those anti-aircraft missiles. But that didn't mean much when the flying boat was armed with giant harpoons.

Speaking of, why wasn't it shot down the moment it was spotted?

Then his answer came in the form of Momo fucking Yaoyorozu walking towards him with Nemuri and Hizashi, while the giant boat was now being unloaded of LAVs.

Yaoyorozu saluted at him. "General Aizawa –"

"Meet me in my office in four minutes," he quickly said, before turning around. "I can't deal with this shit without my coffee. And maybe lots and lots of alcohol."

"Sir? You requested me?" Yaoyorozu said, as she entered Shouta's office. "It's been four minutes. I'm ready to give my report. Sir? Are you still mad about… that?"

Shouta glared at her while drinking his coffee. Eventually, he opened his mouth.

"YES…" he said, with as much venom as he could. "We almost launched anti-aircraft missiles at you. But to be honest, what would you expect? We are a military base, not a bar that you can just walk in on… especially not while commanding a flying giant boat in the sky."

"Well, we did think of that possibility. So we radioed in ahead of time with General Kayama. We also made sure to land outside of the base, so you wouldn't shoot us."

Aizawa's eyes started to twitch at that.

It was an hour before Shouta went outside for his usual morning walk.

"Hey Shouta, I need to tell you something," Nemuri said, entering his office.

"What?" he asked, not taking his eyes off his coffee.

"Uhh… shit, I forgot," Nemuri hissed. "Well if I don't remember it then it's not that important."

If Nemuri wasn't the same rank as him, Shouta would have made her do the dishes for a month.

"Sir…? My report?"

Aizawa could have snapped his head at the speed he moved his head towards Yaoyorozu.

"Go on please," he said with a forced smile, as he went back to drinking his coffee.

"The first major incident we had was about a week into our mission, when several of my team stumbled across an underground maze, which wasn't abandoned, only looked like it was."

"Oh well that doesn't sound too bad. You guys were trained for exploring mazes."

Yaoyorozu nodded. "Yes, that was good fortune. Just like how it also happened to be good fortune that the minotaur we encountered was friendly!"

"Hmmm, that's good so far," Aizawa said, trying to ignore the fact about the minotaur. I mean, he knows that gods were real and that there are giant snakes so yeah, that's normal nowadays?

"Her name was Pony Tsunotori, and her guardian happened to be the former chieftess of the underground minotaur village. Unfortunately, as soon as she noticed our weapons, she begged us to save her people from some… monster."

"And you guys denied her right?" Aizawa said hopefully, but he already knew what the answer was. They were a military of a foreign government, they couldn't interfere with –

"Unfortunately, we couldn't. She recognized what guns were, sir. She knew what we were capable of because of them, and was under the impression we were summoned heroes."

Aizawa let out a groan. "Couldn't you guys just shoot her? I have to write down reports about your exploits, and give them to the higher-ups, and that's harder than it sounds."

"Sir, I know you're in a bad mood, but what you suggested is still murder, possibly an assassination, and it would mean leaving her people defenseless against the monster."

"Right, sorry."

"As it turns out, the minotaurs were being terrorized by some blue-horned cyclops, who was scaring them away from their main fishing grounds," Yaoyorozu continued explaining.

"And you guys decided that fighting a monster that allegedly scared off minotaurs, like the ones from the old Greek myths, was a good idea, because…?" Shouta asked, his tone dead serious.

"Because we weren't the first Earthlings that had arrived there. Apparently, a long time ago, some Texan got isekai'd here, and his gun was what made him a hero to the minotaurs. When they saw us, they thought we were the second coming of their savior."

"What is this, Konosuba?" Shouta grumbled to himself. "Also, the fact that there could be other humans from our world stranded in this one should be researched some more."

"My thoughts exactly," the black-haired woman said. "We made an agreement that if we dealt with their monster problem, some of them would arrive in the town you've been building here for the last month to answer some of your questions."

Shouta had to give her credit, Yaoyorozu knew how to hustle.

"To make the long story short, as it turned out, bullets didn't exactly kill Minotaurus. He had some defensive magic on him, and was pretty tough, overall. "

"Ahh, I see. That's where you guys ran away, right?"

"No, Bakugou charged at it with a pack of C4, screaming bloody murder."

Because of course he did. "Was he off his meds?"

"No, he did it at my command," the younger soldier told her superior. "He set the explosion off, and we were able to see its body glitching, like he came out of a video game with bad graphics. The only thing that stayed solid was the medallion around its neck."

"Hmm, I guess that you came to the conclusion that it was its weakness."

"That's what we figured. We managed to get the medallion off of its neck during a divebomb, breaking the illusion," the black-haired lieutenant said. "The giant blue cyclops with horns was gone, and in its place was… a gnome, with some purple curly hair."

How did…? Shouta quickly shook his head. "Just go on."

He was too baffled to say anything else, nor ask any further questions.

"The gnome got lost in the maze, and ended up using his medallion to scare away the minotaurs," Lieutenant Yaoyorozu said. "Once they realized they were duped, they strung him up, and my crew ended up taking him with us towards the exit."

"If you can, I'd like to meet the gnome later," Shouta said.

"Already done, sir. He let out some sob story about how no one treated him seriously when he was small, and that he wasn't going to hurt anyone. I told him to come here and get his life in order," the raven-haired soldier said, adding, "His name is Minoru Mineta, by the way."

"Oh, he will get his life in order alright."

"Anyway, our next… misadventure occurred at the magical capital of the continent, Yueei-Shiketsu City," Yaoyorozu explained. "According to Melissa, there are only three entire cities that are either dedicated to the studies of magic, or inhabited only by magic users in the whole world, and we just happened to visit the one on this continent."

"Hmmm…" Aizawa seemed to think about something for a while and then he said, "Is there a chance for people of our world to learn magic or did you guys not manage to get an answer?"

"Oh, we managed to get answers, all right. We spent the first half of the day learning all we could about magic. Monoma can copy magic, Uraraka can manipulate gravity, Kodai can use some healing spells, Bakugou can let off explosions, and Aoyama can fire off lasers."

"Hmmm, good the more power you guys get the less I have to worry about…" Shouta cut himself off before he could finish that sentence. "That is great… We will send a special team to try and establish further contact with the mages. How did your stay go?"

"I would advise you to take some precautionary measures," Yaoyorozu said. "We learned the hard way that these sorts of cities are breeding grounds for cults."

Shouta seemed to shiver at that, with his eyes glazed. He knew what it was like to deal with fanatics. Shaking himself, he said, "We will heed your advice."

"The good news is, there is one less cult in that particular city, mostly due to the fact that our appearance miiiiight have had something to do with their destruction."

Shouta groaned. "How much?"

"How much what?" Yaoyorozu played dumb.

"How much property damage did you guys cause?"

"We only destroyed one catacomb! But in terms of dead cultists… all of them."

Aizawa seemed to wait for a sec and then he spit out his coffee and started coughing.

"How many?"

"All of them," she blankly said. "They all got killed."

"How?"

"Apparently, they had been kidnapping civilians from the past few weeks, forcing them to drink the blood of some ancient dead Demon Lord. They all resulted with the victims' bodies exploding from the inside out, and blood seeping from their bodies," Yaoyorozu exposited. "Then they kidnapped Sato. We searched for him, and busted into their lair, fought them, and then watched a cultist force the blood down his throat. The good news is, it didn't kill him!"

"And the bad news?"

"He grew four eyes, sharp teeth, long hairy legs, and basically became a giant-sized monster whose sole desire was to murder everything. So, we ended up fighting a war on two fronts. We had to take care of the cultists, without getting killed by Sato."

"Is… is he alright?" Shouta asked.

"Kodai was able to restore his body after Bakugou blew the entire place sky high. There won't be any serious downsides for the remainder of his life. The rest of us were also able to make it out of there alive, albeit we had help from a stranger."

"Why didn't you guys come back as soon as that happened for a check up?" Shouta asked. "For all we know you guys might have gotten a disease or worse gotten cursed!"

"Sir, Kodai is an expert in the field of medicine without her newfound magic, both she and Melissa are capable of reviving the dead every now and then, so we were fine. Also, the mentality amongst the crew is that we're some sort of suicide squad to test if this world is safe or not, so we're kind of not expecting to come back unless our one month time limit is up."

Aizawa seemed to flinch at those words. "You're right, Lieutenant," he said in a blank voice. "Sorry for getting panicked, I wasn't being rational."

"It's fine. But yes, in summary, that was the first two weeks of the mission."

"What happened next?" he said still in that blank voice.

"We decided to go north. Up there, we reached a coastal city, whose main economic strengths seem to be their seafood and that their docks happen to be traveled by ships from various continents, making it a strong economic hub," Yaoyorozu continued.

"Hmmm… did you manage to mark the location?"

"We did, it's on the north center of the map," the black-haired soldier said. "The unique terrain around it allows it to have a Mediterranean climate."

"Hmmmm… quite unusual."

"Yes, quite. I decided that the team would split up into various groups, and we would gather information, attempt to recruit some of the locals, and overall, relax a bit."

"Hmmm… let me guess," Shouta said with a sigh. "Did something happen?"

"Yes, but this time, it was not my fault,"

"Yeah… right," he said, giving her a blank look that said "Yeah, I believe you."

"No, seriously, it was an unauthorized mission that happened behind my back," Yaoyorozu said. "If you want to blame anyone, it's Bakugou, Kirishima, Melissa, Kodai, and Aoyama."

"And please remind me of your role, Lieutenant," Shouta said.

Yaoyorozu seemed to shrink at that. "I won't leave them alone unsupervised again, sir…"

"As you should," Shouta said, nodding. "So what happened?"

"The five of them were out and about, doing their jobs, when they heard a cry for help."

That they should have ignored…" Shouta grumbled, before adding, "I'm going to have a talk with all of your team an hour after this report is done."

"Actually, sir, in this case, it was a good thing they heeded the call," Yaoyorozu said, defending her team. "Someone was actually in distress, and they checked it out."

"And I'm sure that it put your team in a situation with all of your lives at risk."

"How did you know?"

He gave her an "Are you serious?" look.

"Anyway, the cry for help belonged to a local, a bard by the name of Denki Jiro. He and his wife, Kyoka, were musicians who sang for various clubs in the city. They also happened to be a mixed-race couple, with Denki being a human, and Kyoka being a merfolk."

Aizawa had the image of a yellow rat listening to music with an MP3 player, before shaking his head. He still needed to act like he gave a damn about this shit. "Hmmm… go on."

"His wife was abducted by pirates, sir. Sadly, merfolk are one of the highest sought-after races in the black market," Yaoyorozu said.

"And why is that?"

"A number of reasons. Their beautiful singing voices, their natural beauty, the idea that some of their body parts can work as medicine, multiple reasons," she explained.

Shouta nodded along at what Yaoyorozu said. "Hmmmm… we need to keep this part a secret so, tell your little group of renegades to not tell anyone else about it."

"Too late, sir. We all found out about their little "rescue mission" because the idiots forgot to turn off the new body cameras you provided us with," Yaoyorozu said.

"Great," Shouta grumbled, putting his hand on his face. "Now we need to worry about people trying to bring back slavery or capture otherworldly creatures…"

"Yes. Since Bakugou was the one in command, he initially denied Jiro's plea for help, despite Kirishima and Melissa's protests. But then, Jiro added something in his last plea."

Aizawa's left eye twitches after hearing that. "Why didn't they listen to Bakugou? He for once used his brain and everyone ignored it."

"Well, apparently, not for long. As it turns out, Kaminari's wife also happened to be pregnant. So, he said something along the lines of "please save my child/family," Bakugou did an instant one-eighty, and was ready to burn and slay the kidnappers.

Aizawa facepalmed. "So he has a hero complex…?"

"You might want to check his file. Anyway, they rented a gondola, and secretly infiltrated the pirates' stronghold on some man-made island a bit out of the port," the Yaoyorozu continued the story. "They also managed to fight off some pirates and crabs, while they were at it."

"If I didn't know any better I would have thought you guys were making things up…"

"Bakugou and his team were almost successful at rescuing Kyoka, but at the last minute, the ship they commandeered was stopped dead in the water. From there, they were caught and boarded by the pirates, a bunch of aquatic demi-humans, and their captain."

Aizawa only blinked and started thinking of ways to teach them a lesson.

"From the recordings I saw, the captain… was an unpleasant character. He was an orca-like demi-human, extremely tough, an expert with the sword, and cruel. I think the men nicknamed him "Gang Orca," after they all watched the recordings."

"You know I usually question myself how you guys survive all of this most of the time…"

"It's usually dumb luck. But in this case, someone rescued the rescue team."

"And who was that?" Shouta asked, with narrowed eyes.

"Two individuals. The first one was some pirate vigilante named Tsuyu Asui, who accompanied the team, as she was planning to save some trafficked demi-humans. She's actually a bullywug, and good with a sword, given how she fought the pirates," Yaoyorozu said.

Shouta scratched his chin, thinking. "Hmmmm… maybe we can invite her to join us... It would take a lot to convince the higher-ups, but having someone like her would be good."

"The second individual was some masked woman who also helped us rescue Sato from the cultists last week. Pink skin, yellow horns, a mask, but I could see her yellow eyes from behind the mask. Incredibly dangerous with a spear," Yaoyorozu said.

"Hmmm… The locals had informed us of a person like her loitering around the base when your team was here, but most of the people thought of her as a rumor."

"Kirishima didn't say anything, but I saw his face. He looked like he saw a ghost."

Shouta nodded along to that. "Hmmm… he needs to be questioned later."

"Yes, sir. Regardless, everyone managed to escape before sinking the pirate ship, while the masked woman disappeared. Bakugou also ordered the reunited couple to pack their belongings, get carriage, and come to base, saying they could start a new life there."

Shouta sighed. "I will have the paperwork ready, but you just put a target on our heads… well, a bigger target than we already have, given who we're dealing with."

"Understood, sir. Side note, has there been a hospital established yet?" Yaoyorozu asked. "Or are we planning on moving them to a Japanese hospital when the child arrives?"

"We are working on a facility near the "New Home" project, for this sort of thing."

"Understood. Shall I continue?"

Shouta nodded. "Yes, go on."

"For the final week of the mission, we decided to head south, as the map we acquired said we would be going to a nation of elves by the name of Dryadalis," she clarified.

"And how did that turn out, Lieutenant?" he asked.

"We immediately faced complications when we reached the capital city of Summus, and were blocked off by the local guard for not having the proper paperwork."

"You should've just come back home or gone the other way at that."

"Actually, it turned out good for us."

Shouta paused at that, before asking, "How so?"

"We were immediately taken to their queen, Mei Hatsume. Apparently, she was the one responsible for the concept of identification paperwork within the region," the Yaoyorozu girl said. "In fact, she is single-handedly responsible for starting an industrial revolution within the elven kingdom, and she wanted to see the technology we had with us.."

"Wait, you guys had your guns with you, didn't you?"

The younger soldier nodded. "Yes. She instantly recognized what they were, and how they functioned, along with the rest of our equipment. She's made some herself."

"Great, what's next? Is she gonna make nukes?" Shouta asked sarcastically. "We had to deal with magic and now this…"

"Sir, their capital city was amazing. Cobbled roads, lamp posts on the streets, printed press, indoor plumbing, glass windows, elevators! They even had ice cream!"

"Ice cream? Are we sure they hadn't somehow stolen human tech before?"

"NO! Those were all Hatsume's ideas! To these people, she's a genius! She managed to combine magic and science to make all of this! The only person in the group who could understand what she was saying half the time was Awase!"

Shouta was taken by surprise over Yaoyorozu's enthusiasm. "O-okay…?"

"Sir, she figured out we came from the gate just from how we looked and talked alone. She spent the last few centuries learning all she could, and when her parents died, she immediately overhauled her entire kingdom," the black-haired woman said.

Shouta thought over what that meant. "Hmm… we may be able to advance our own technological systems if we manage to come in contact with them."

"Well, then it's a good thing that she initiated first contact! She spent the entire week with Awase, and this airship we have was a gift from her," Yaoyorozu said. "She wants an alliance with us, and this is the sort of thing she's offering us, as a start."

"Hmmm… go on?"

"Sir, the only reason the Imperials haven't dragged off all the elves as slaves already is because Hatsume's inventions are keeping them away, for now. She knows that the Emperor uses information blackouts to keep his control, and she wants our two nations to work together to keep him from gobbling up any more territories," Yaoyorozu said.

"Ugh… I was afraid you were going to say something like that."

"Sir?"

"What I'm going to say is classified, Lieutenant," Shouta said. "After the Musutafu Incident and the SREU's first official report, the Japanese government has been debating how to deal with this… new world. Option A is to attempt and engage in diplomatic meetings with the Special Region's governments, including the Empire. Option B is to send all of us back to Japan, seal the gate, and pretend that it never existed. And then there's… Option C."

"What's that?"

"Scorched Earth. An army with the sole task of destroying the Special Region."

Yaoyorozu remained silent at that.

"Surprised? I was too," Shouta said. "Sadly, Lieutenant, we are a military force beholden to the government. We have to take care of all problems as efficiently as possible."

"Doesn't this seem… excessive?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"In any normal situation, yes. However, we're dealing with evil otherworldly magical beings who can destroy continents and bring back the dead with just a few words."

"Evil…?"

"Oh, so you haven't heard of them?"

"Heard of who, sir?" Momo asked.

"You guys might be our first exploration team, but we've deployed others to every place you've visited trying to gain more information," Shouta said. "Some rumors your friends Uwabami and Hagakure have heard of are about some maniacs seeking to turn this entire continent into a wasteland. Naturally, it freaked every politician and military man back in Japan."

"Oh… so… how's Uwabami doing?"

"That information is classified."

"Let me guess: She moved here?"

If by "moving here" you mean "prodded with medical tools to understand how she works," then I suppose that's a yes, Shouta thought to himself. "You could say that."

"I see," Yaoyorozu said. "Well, if that's all, my report has ended, sir."

"Understood, Lieutenant. You're dismissed."

As she walked out of the door, Yaoyorozu looked back. "Oh, sir… I have a question."

Shouta raised an eyebrow at that. "A question?"

"Why did you insist on us to run away most of the time whenever I give you these reports? Were soldiers, fighting is part of the job description," the black-haired girl said.

Shouta Aizawa didn't answer Yaoyorozu, as his mind had drifted elsewhere.

He remembered arguing with the Prime Minister at not sending Yaoyorozu and her initial team into the unknown. He didn't care if anyone above him thought he was sentimental just because Yaoyorozu was his personal student. They were in their twenties, all of them. They all had their whole lives ahead of them, they shouldn't risk them in some completely unknown territory.

Despite that, he couldn't argue with orders from above him. Every single member of the SREU had graduated from basic training. Soldiers ready to be used by government officials who never liked showing their faces, just hiding behind the facade of national pride.

Truth be told, no one in the country would truly care if any of those kids died. With the exception of the daughter of the Yaoyorozu conglomerate, none of their families would be a serious threat to the JSDF within the court of law or public opinion. A simple visit to their next of kin, a line of "They died a hero," and life would move on. There would be someone else to replace them on the Special Region Exploration Unit. New soldiers were being trained in Latin, after all.

It wasn't right, but Shouta didn't have lots of options. He couldn't leak anything to the public. All they would care about would be the angels, monsters, magic, elves, not about the young soldiers risking their lives out there. It wouldn't help change anything.

Shouta may have been a general now, but he was still just another soldier, just another tool of the government. As was Hizashi, and Nemuri, and… so was Oboro.

He remembered when he and Oboro were younger. Deployed off to the coast of Somalia to deal with pirates. It was a joint effort along with the militaires of several other countries, including China, Australia, Ukraine, South Korea, and even a few members of NATO.

On paper, it sounded like a good cause. Protecting ships with relief supplies for nations who needed it from pirate attacks sounded like a valid reason to use military force.

But that was when Shouta Aizawa was still a young idealistic idiot.

One of the missions required ground troops to escort a destroyer from the Maritime Self-Defense Force, and Shouta's squad was up. A few previously successful missions and recently promoted to First Lieutenant, Shouta felt like he was invincible that day.

He was dead wrong.

He should have seen that ambush coming. You couldn't exactly tell who was the enemy and who was just a civilian, not until they shot you in the back. Shouta and the rest of his squad should have died that day, but… a real hero was made that day in the form of Oboro.

He kept on fighting, inspiring everyone else who was on his knees to keep fighting, too. There were explosions, rubble flying, Shouta couldn't remember what had happened that day clearly. His body only cared about keeping him alive, and then… it was over.

His squad had won, but… not everyone made it out alive.

The smile on Oboro's body was something that would stay with Shouta forever.

Oboro saved everyone that day, and he didn't even get posthumous recognition from the higher-ups. He was just another number. Another person to throw into the meat grinder.

Many years had passed, and Shouta moved up the ranks, along with Hizashi and Nemuri. But he had become a pessimistic ass after everything he had seen after Oboro's death. Politicians caring more about reputation over duty, officers in other's pockets, it all made him miserable…

But then came Momo Yaoyorozu.

When he first met her in basic training all those years ago, he thought it was some sort of bad joke. The daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Japan, deciding to become a grunt? He figured she'd be out of there by the end of the day. But instead… she persevered.

She had talent. Wherever she didn't she honed in her skills. But the thing that intrigued Shouta most was the reason she joined… She just wanted to make the world a better place.

She could have gone into law. Or politics. Even education. All of those would have let her help others, too, but she preferred to get her hands dirty the old-fashioned way.

"No reason, no reason at all," he lied. "Just the paranoia of an old man."

Yaoyorozu didn't seem fully convinced, but she still nodded at what he said.

As she closed the door behind her, Shouta Aizawa vowed that he wouldn't let his prized student die. He wouldn't let anyone in the SREU be murdered in this hostile world.

He wouldn't let another Oboro Shirakumo happen. Not on his watch.

Within the halls of the Demon King's castle, Kurogiri sneezed.

He wasn't sure what caused it, considering that he wasn't cleaning anything, so no dust could have gone into his nose. Perhaps someone was talking about him? It was possible.

He knew that Kuroiro wanted to be promoted, despite the fact that he was a member of one of the most powerful inner circles in the world. Perhaps the dark elf simply wanted to prove himself better than the shadow demon. That would explain his odd work ethic and eagerness to use the shadow demons the young master granted both himself and the dark elf.

Perhaps it was his liege. When Kurogiri informed him that Melissa Shield was spotted at Yuuei-Shiketsu City, he demanded every detail, and once it was confirmed that she was indeed traveling with those JSDF soldiers, the Collibus Hills was indeed the most likely location of their base. And it would explain why young Izuku would mention his name: He was the one who explained to him just who exactly the Japanese Self-Defense Force was.

Even decades later, his old life as Oboro Shirakumo was still helpful to him.

Author's Note: And with that, the second arc has concluded.

So. Both of these arcs have basically given you a rundown of all the background characters within this lovely fantasy world, all while sprinkling crumbs in the background. Now that that's done all that's left is the rest and relaxation episode, and then the real story can begin, featuring the Todoroki Royal Family, the Demon King and the Hero, and the true villains of this story, regardless of what world they're from.

Shin: I was actually expecting a bigger reaction from the readers on what happened to poor Awase, but I guess one person's reaction is still better than none. Yeah, the ice cream scene was totally lifted from Goblin Slayer, I literally said it during my last notes. Also, I will be doing my best to keep dropping more scenes between Mirio the Hero and Izuku the Demon King in the background, because both of them are gonna play big roles in less than twenty chapters from now. I might watch Thundarr at some point, too.

valkrus: Fixed all the typos. And you will see more of this story, I promise.

Honey- (Guest): Glad you find this to be that good! Anyways, here's what happened in this chapter, the reader now understands why Aizawa is such a mess! Yay!

Anyways, back to the regular old shilling…

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- Ernalore