Learning to Trust

"When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."
-Haruki Murakami

Chapter 34: What Comes out of the Storm

I was almost too late…

Although his expression didn't betray it, especially hidden behind his infrared goggles, Aizawa was almost sick with relief. He hadn't been able to do anything to protect Midnight when they'd been separated by that copycat maniac, and he had lost track of Mic ages ago, but at least then he'd thought they were the only heroes on campus, and had been able to just try to concentrate on the task Nezu had sent him to complete.

It should have been such a simple task… how did it all go to hell so quickly?

"Yagi?" he hissed, still crouched beside the man he'd barely saved. His skeletal form was still a sopping heap on the rooftop. The stillness worried him, but Aizawa gave him another moment to collect himself, moving to scan what he could of the horizon.

While the infrared helped Aizawa see better in the dark, when Shifter used Floodgate's powers, the quirk caused the temperature around her to drop significantly enough that it became difficult to find her—and given that the rain was beginning again as the wind picked up, it looked like she was making herself invisible to him once more. He suspected she'd figured out that he was finding her in the dark with infrared and had started using the quirk to cloak herself. This shifter villain was smart, but hard to read. It reminded him of playing chess with a genius who didn't know how to play the game. Just random wild moves. He'd gotten a bit of a debriefing from Mic and Midnight about her. She was some woman who snapped when her kid had died apparently. Who knew what an anguished mother wanted to accomplish by attacking a school? And who knew what she was capable of in this kind of mental anguish?

He winced at that thought. He couldn't condone her actions—but he could understand a bit of that pain. Pain made people do crazy things—even good people.

That thought caused him to look back down at the shivering figure before him.

We can't stay out here much longer. He has to get inside a building with heat. He scowled deeply. Figures that this moron would have come here, too. Apparently even Officer Tsukauchi can't keep him under control. Idiot. I should have known that he couldn't handle standing on the sidelines for long. Does that moron want to die?

Still, for all of his angry thoughts, Aizawa primarily felt relief that the man was alive, even if he might not be for long if they didn't get moving. He wasn't supposed to be out in foul weather, and he wasn't supposed to be straining himself like this.

He crouched down in front of Yagi, dropping his goggles back around his neck and studying the he grabbed him firmly by the shoulders and shook him as hard as he dared. "Snap out of it, you idiot," he snapped. "We have to get out of here, and I'm not hauling your ass all over campus, so get a grip. What the hell happened down there? Do you need medical treatment?"

He blinked several times, finally focusing on Aizawa again, meeting his eyes. Aizawa suspected that he looked both concerned and ready to murder him at the same time. Clearing his throat, Yagi pulled himself to his knees and tugged himself from Aizawa's grip. Aizawa rolled back onto his heels and studied him through narrowed eyes.

"I'm sorry," Yagi finally responded. "I'm fine."

He sounds like he can hardly breathe. Shit.

"You're lying. I'll ask again… what happened to you down there? And why the hell were you fighting her alone?"

That question must have hit too hard, because suddenly he scowled, clenching his fists as he forced out through clenched teeth, "Eraserhead, we have to go back down."

"The hell we do."

"I wasn't fighting alone. We were taken by surprise. If I don't do something—"

"Don't be an idiot, Yagi," he snarled with more rancor than he'd intended. "You'd be playing right into her hands and you know that. You're smarter than that." Aizawa pulled on his goggles again and quickly scanned the area as best he could from his position. "I don't see any movement. Likely she's just waiting for you to come running back to save people, but she could already be looking for you. We've got to move."

Yagi snorted in frustration and moved to stand, but Aizawa quickly shoved him back down. "She already injured them and is using their quirks. What if she kills them?"

"What if she kills you, dammit!" Aizawa hissed fiercely, silencing him. "I'm not taking that risk and neither are you, even if I really do have to tie you up and drag your ass to safety. I'm tired of losing people because they decide to be brave idiots!" He scowled and, realizing that he'd said more than he'd intended, immediately shut down and turned away.

Don't make me choose them over you, Yagi.

Something in his angry, pained expression must have told Yagi to stay quiet. After a moment, Aizawa continued in a somewhat calmer voice. "Look, I know you're concerned, but odds are she isn't going to kill them. Your villain needs them to be alive to use their quirks right? As long as they're useful, she's going to keep them alive. You, on the other hand, might not be so lucky. They'll be fine."

They have to be…

Yagi nodded reluctantly, obviously hating the fact that Eraserhead was right. "Fine. It isn't like I can do much for them in this form anyway… You're right, of course." The faded man seemed to deflate further as the wind began rushing with more force, whipping their hair around and dropping the temperature again.

Aizawa ground his teeth and motioned for Yagi to stay crouched. "Look, we need to get inside. Just stay down and follow me. We need to get out of the open."

He began slowly creeping to the roof access in the building they'd landed on, pausing only once to motion for Yagi to follow him.

Despite his size, Yagi fluidly moved behind him, melting into the shadows almost as well as Eraserhead.

They slipped into the building without incident, and Aizawa manually locked the door behind them. Finally, he turned back to look at Yagi in the eerie half-light drifting in through the window. "You hurt?" he grunted. "You never gave me more than that half-ass answer last time."

"I'm fine."

Aizawa snorted at that. "Fine again, huh? That doesn't tell me anything." His eyes scanned the other man again, before he seemed satisfied. "I guess I'm going to have to believe you, since you're obviously not capable of understanding what that word actually means."

"Eraserhead, I really—"

"You're recovering from a bout of pneumonia that almost killed you, Yagi," he snapped. "And now you're standing soaking wet in freezing cold temperatures after fighting a maniac. So please forgive me if I don't trust your definition of fine." He scowled, muttering under his breath, "So help me if you die because of this stunt, I'm never going to forgive myself."

Yagi stopped at that, stunned. "It's not your fault—"

"I shouldn't have refused to help," he snarled. "I'd hoped it would stop you, but you're obviously so bullheaded that nothing can do that." He shook his head before Yagi could say more. "Forget it. We don't have time for this right now. She's got to be looking for us. So far, she probably only saw that you were pulled up. I'm hoping she didn't catch which building." He glanced back out the window. With the ever shifting temperatures creating a fog, it was now nearly impossible to clearly see where they had been. There was no way to be certain if she was even still there, or if she was waiting for them to make a wrong move.

As he watched, rain began to fall again.

"I shouldn't have come…" Yagi replied quietly.

"No. You shouldn't have. But you're here now, so as long as you don't die on us, I'll probably forgive you. Anyway, we need to get moving. Nezu is in the Medical building. If we can get there, we'll have access to the only working telephone and the main power grid. Not to mention the fact that Recovery Girl probably still has some of your medications in her office. We're not far, but getting there means we're going to need to cross about fifteen yards of open campus, and I'm sure she's smart enough to know where we're going."

Aizawa didn't wait for Yagi to respond, and instead began clattering down the stairs in front of him.

He heard the other man catch up.

"Aizawa… the heroes I was fighting with… she has Midnight and Mic."

Aizawa tensed, his jaw tightening, but still not slowing his pace. "I figured she had Midnight," he muttered. "We were facing off against your villain together. Thought we had her, but she has some kind of blinding quirk, and she managed to surprise us with it. I got out before she could touch me, but I couldn't see well enough to help Midnight. Your Shifter has managed to stay away from me ever since—I'm guessing she knows what my quirk can do, and she figures if she can't shut me down, then her next best plan is to avoid me."

Yagi didn't respond, his lungs obviously beginning to struggle again with all of the recent exertion, even though they were only going down a few flights of stairs. He scowled bitterly, refusing to meet Aizawa's eyes.

Aizawa tactfully kept his opinions to himself, but still, when they reached the door at the base of the stairs, he stopped and waited for Yagi to catch his breath. It took longer than either of them cared to admit. He could see the man straining to catch his breath like he couldn't get enough air. He was starting to look less stable as well.

"Yagi… do you have an inhaler at least?"

"Lost it a while ago."

"Do you need help?"

"I'm fine—" he began, but then stopped himself. Seeming to consider his options, he hesitated. Then, scowling even more fiercely, he instead shook his head and amended, "Well, I will be fine once I get some oxygen. Recovery Girl has some in her office. I've used it there, but I'm going to need it soon. If Shifter comes up on me like this, I'm not going to be any help."

As if on cue the sound of rain began taking on the harder and more forceful battering of hail. Just like last time, the hail escalated quickly, rapidly making the run outside too dangerous.

Aizawa moved so he could glance out the small window of the locked emergency exit they stood beside. There was still no sign of her. No way we're going out in that now. "Don't worry about that," he said, pulling away from the window again. "I'll cover you if you need it when the time comes." He shot a suspicious glare at Yagi. "Anything else I should know?"

Yagi met his eyes. "Yeah. She has Mic and Midnight's quirks now."

"I figured as much when you said she got them."

"And she may have mine…"

Aizawa froze at that, ice forming in his gut. The villain has All Might's quirk. The unknown quirk that seemed like it could do anything. With that she'd be nearly invincible. Out loud, he simply managed to respond with a terse, "Your quirk? And what exactly does that let her do?"

But Yagi just shook his head, sidestepping the question. "It's… complicated. I'm not sure what she can access from it, since it doesn't function like normal quirks… She probably can't even use it—my quirk is unique—but the real problem is that if she does have it, then I probably can't use it either."

"Catch your breath first. We can't go anywhere until she lets up on the hail anyway."

Yagi nodded and took a moment. Both listened to the rain outside and the rapid, shallow breaths of the lanky number one hero, crouched at the bottom of the stairwell.

Finally, after Yagi seemed to have rallied what strength he had, Aizawa asked his question.

"Why can't you use your own quirk?"

Yagi shook his head. "I can't be sure. But before her powers changed, she used to need the quirk activated by its owner to use it herself. It makes me think that she can probably feel when a quirk is in use. She no longer has that limitation, but if I transform, she is probably going to feel the quirk activate."

"And she might realize who you are if she sees All Might suddenly appear."

"Exactly. Not to mention the fact that I don't know if my activating it may give her access. It took us months to work out what we knew about her quirk before it changed. Now it's anyone's guess."

Aizawa nodded. "Got it. Any way around that?"

Yagi shrugged. "Not sure. We aren't sure what we're dealing with anymore. She's more powerful and seems psychologically unstable. I'd assume if she gave up a quirk, she would lose the ability to feel them activate, but now that she's able to hold multiple quirks, that's not likely to happen."

"What if I erase her quirk?"

Yagi's eyes met Aizawa's and he shrugged. "Depends on if your quirk erases the base quirk or the active quirk. If you take out the base quirk, then she should lose hold of all of them. That should be all it takes to neutralize her." Yagi managed a sheepish smile. "That was actually my original plan before I lost your support." He tugged lightly at one long strand of his bangs.

Aizawa froze at that, eyes widening. "Your plan was to neutralize her and take her down quirkless?"

Yagi shrugged. "Basically. We didn't know enough about her at the time though, and with her erratic behavior and increasing strength, it was probably too much of a risk anyway."

But Aizawa was hardly listening, suddenly realizing. "You didn't plan to be in the fight at all, did you?" Dammit. We could have avoided all of this nonsense if I'd just listened to Mic and let All Might explain.

Yagi nodded, finally straightening to his full height. "Yeah. I planned on being there in case I was wrong and you couldn't erase her base quirk. Normally I'd have done it myself, but between my illness and limited timeframe, it seemed more prudent to ask you all for help and leave myself as backup." He managed a tired smile, adding wryly. "Because, someone once told me that even men like us don't have to do everything alone."

And instead of just hearing you out, I decided to refuse. None of this would have happened if I'd have listened. Yamada was right—you aren't Shirakumo. I don't have to keep saving you.

"I'm sorry, Yagi. I—"

But Yagi didn't let him finish, abruptly ending the conversation. "It doesn't matter anyway. She's gotten too dangerous now. Even if we'd have tried my plan, I doubt it would have worked. Midnight's quirk wouldn't have been able to completely knock her out. And now Shifter is losing her regular patterns and becoming more brazen. And she's gotten even harder to predict."

"She's on Trigger," Aizawa replied, quietly, still lost in his own frustrated thoughts. "The real bad stuff."

"You're sure?" His hushed voice raised and he leaned forward eagerly.

Aizawa shrugged. "I can't guarantee that nothing else is at play, but Trigger is my best bet. I sent a copy of my file to Officer Tsukauchi. Not sure if you had a chance to look at it, but in a nutshell, she shows signs of using the Ideo Trigger we saw in Naruhata. The tongue turns black in users. They lose control—usually they go crazy, but there was an oral version on the market that just made them less stable. I'm guessing that's the version she's taking. She was laughing like a maniac when she set off that flash quirk and blinded me. I could see her face clearly for a moment, and her tongue was definitely black. Between that and the fact that she's acting more erratic, I'm guessing she's using an updated version of the drug that's managed to minimize the mental damage while multiplying her abilities." He glanced out the window again as the rattling of hail began to lessen. "Doesn't matter though. I can still erase the amplified base quirk. It's just going to be a lot more annoying to deal with her."

Yagi nodded thoughtfully, but Aizawa couldn't help but notice that the man seemed almost relieved at this turn of events.

Aizawa's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Any reason you look so happy that we're dealing with a villain taking illegal quirk enhancers, Yagi?"

The blond glanced away toward the window, and replied simply, "It's better than a whole team of villains combining quirks, right?"

You're still keeping secrets, aren't you, Yagi?

Before he could say anything else, though, Yagi motioned to the window. "Hail is letting up. That means we get a short window before she floods us out and then plummets the temperature. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be inside the Medical Building by then."

Gritting his teeth, Aizawa forced himself to put his own concerns aside and focus on the here and now. Yagi was right. This was the only break in Floodgate's weather where it was relatively safe to move. They had to go now. "Right," he grunted. "Let's move. I'll lead." After pulling on his goggles and scanning the perimeter through the narrow door window, he unlatched the lock. Turning to Yagi one more time, he hissed, "She's got to know that this is our best bet to move. If she's figured out where we are, this will be when she attacks. Stay on guard."

"Always."

"And leave the fighting to me."

Yagi hesitated only a moment before he flashed a blindingly fake grin at Aizawa, and replied, "Of course."

Somehow Aizawa doubted it, but he just gave up and pushed the door open, motioning to Yagi to follow him into chilly rain, faintly lit by the dim glow of the nearby Medical Building.

"We're going to be having a long talk when this is all over, Yagi. You know that," he grumbled as they slipped outside.

But of course, Yagi couldn't hear him over the icy rain.

By some miracle they made it to the Medical Building without incident, even managing to get inside before the rain became too bad. It seemed that Shifter must have assumed they would have logically moved away from her, rather than staying so long in the building nearby.

At least that's what Toshinori hoped. It still felt a bit too easy as far as he was concerned.

Both men moved away from any windows and went immediately to the stairs, pausing at the base. Toshi just sighed and took a deep breath. According to Aizawa, they needed to go up two floors to meet Nezu. This was going to be hell on his breathing.

Eraserhead must have seen his hesitation, because he reached up to place a staying hand on Toshi's shoulder. "Hang on, Yagi. Can you even make it up there? Why don't you wait down here and let me get Nezu."

But Toshi shook his head. "No. I need the oxygen up in Recovery Girl's office anyway. And the last thing we should do is separate right now. I can make it." He took as deep a breath as he could manage, and his traitorous lung gave out on him, causing him to begin coughing harshly. He could feel the blood pooling in his mouth, and spat it out, swiping at his mouth with his sleeve. He met Aizawa's disbelieving face and added, "I'll take a break on the landing."

Aizawa just scowled, but began walking.

They took the stairs far more slowly than Toshi liked, and to his disgust, it seemed as though he actually needed to be moving at this snail's pace. Even going so slowly, his chest hurt and he was already getting lightheaded again. A cold chill was creeping in his bones as well. He hoped it was due to reduced power kicking the heat off and not the start of another fever.

Panting he stopped on the landing as promised, bent over with his hands on his knees as he struggled to catch his breath.

Aizawa waited.

Toshi motioned for him to just continue. It wasn't much farther, and Nezu was probably watching them on the cameras.

But Eraserhead didn't budge. "We're not separating, remember," he grunted, supporting Toshi with a surprisingly gentle grip. "Anyway, I've got nothing to report. Other than collecting you and losing Midnight and Mic, that is." He glanced up the dimly lit stairs. "Nezu probably already knows that. He's been monitoring as much of the campus as he can access since the power grid dropped. That's why I was out there in the first place. Nezu and I had just managed to lock down the dorm students when he noticed an anomaly. He sent me to check it out."

Toshi's head snapped up at that. "Anomaly?" he wheezed.

Aizawa just shrugged. "Mizutani Tetsuya was the only student missing when we locked students down. Nezu had gotten a message before we lost contact that he was at the police station with you. We locked the kids down—only eight are in dorms right now—seven if you count Mizutani's absence—but Nezu's read on the UA Barrier's log showed too many students on campus."

"Young Tetsuya slipped out of police custody while everyone was distracted," Toshi replied bitterly, finally properly catching his breath. He coughed again, swiping once more at the blood on his mouth. He tried to ignore the way Aizawa stared. "It was my fault. I was distracted and assumed he was asleep. We should never have left him alone."

"The hell it was. He was in an entire police station full of officers, Yagi. If that kid got past all of them, I don't know what you think you were going to do about it." Eraserhead snorted at that. "And yes… part of the problem was Mitzutani being on campus. I was going to go out to look for him, but the principal said he wasn't the only extra student."

"Someone else stayed late on campus?"

Aizawa shook his head, brows furrowing. "No. That's the weird thing. Even Nezu was alarmed by this one. Our extra student doesn't exist—at least not anymore." A sad look flickered across the man's face before he continued. "She was a General Studies student here a few years back. Wanted to transfer into the Hero track if a spot opened up. I looked at her file—she was one of those sorts who would have been perfect in the program, but her quirk wasn't suited for the physical exam." He snorted in derision. "Anyway, the girl got sick a few years back. She died pretty soon after." He sighed. "Nezu wanted me to just keep an eye out to see if I could figure out what was happening. The Barrier has never glitched before. I didn't get a chance to check though."

Toshinori could feel himself grow cold, and this time he knew it wasn't from the weather or any fever. He shook his head. "The Barrier didn't glitch," he replied quietly.

Aizawa turned to Toshi with narrowed eyes. "What? What do you mean?"

Toshinori met his eyes. "Your extra student—the one who died. Was her name Mizutani Kokoro?"

Author's note: Thanks so much for your patience in awaiting another slow chapter of my fic! I appreciate you! Hopefully I'll be able to get at least one more chapter out this summer before work gets too busy again!

Also, thanks to lolo popoki and granny_griffin for betaing this chapter and helping me decide which version to post! I appreciate it!

Sincerely,
Sirius:)