Shota Aizawa places his left hand on the prosthetic in front of him – a necessity since he has no right arm – and he feels how unnaturally rough it is when compared to a natural limb's soft flesh. The metals and plastics are a reminder of what he's lost and how it can never be replaced. Sure, with time in rehabilitation to figure out the necessities of how to function with the prosthetic he'll eventually be able to return to hero work – but the reality of the situation is that half of that time will be spent merely learning how to cope with it. He grips the prosthetic, but not too tightly as not to accidentally break it. He's already wasted precious time waiting just to get the support item that he doesn't want to spend more waiting for a replacement.
He was informed to wait for Recovery Girl or one of her nurses in training so that he can have help attaching the prosthetic to his arm (or lack thereof). But being left to his vices with the thing in his one remaining good hand has made him antsy to get things moving along. Besides, part of him would like to believe that if he can bypass the beginning processes of putting on or removing the prosthetic then he can skip to the combat capabilities and fast track returning to hero work. There's no time like the present, he figures.
As Aizawa fiddles with the prosthetic, trying to figure it out on his own, he pays no mind to his surroundings. Which includes the monitors across the way. They display DNA strands formed and fitted to diagrams of sticks and balls. A stick is dragged and hooked into the strand before one of the balls bounces away; the computer chimes as it denies the compatibility of a plausible genetic code. When alternative colored balls are plugged into other sticks, however, these stay attached. When the balls are squished together and applied, there comes another soft chime, but this time there is no protest of plausible genetic code.
"Eureka!", a tiny shout comes from underneath the desk that the computer sits on. Aizawa raises his head, attention drawn to the noise. He half expects Recovery Girl to come around the bend, considering she's about the right height for it. But he instead sees Nezu hop up onto a stool and present its furry self. "Aizawa. Recuperating well, I see!"
"Nezu", Aizawa looks at and then sets his prosthetic down as he addresses the intelligent animal, "I'm.. coming along."
The man sits back and lets out a long sigh. Even now, he's good looking; he still has his long dark hair and rugged fine features. Despite the downturns at the corners of his mouth, there's still a definition in his facial structure that suggests a kind hearted and thoughtful person. These are the types of people that are unable to hide such qualities from beings like Nezu and are often sought out to be exploited.
"What if I told you that you can come along quicker? Your recovery can happen much sooner and with better results than a mere prosthetic", Nezu usually presents itself with a bright & chipper attitude that can have a way of swaying someone with a slightly more negative mindset.
But even so, Aizawa is the skeptical type. He stares with tired eyes that contain a suspicious stare to them. "What is it that you have up your sleeves this time?", he may no longer be active in the line of underground hero work but he's not been out of practice for long enough to make uncautionary observations.
Nezu grins with shiny pointed teeth whilst rolling up the hems of its coat sleeves. The attempt at humor is to no avail, Aizawa still holding his serious stare. Regardless, Nezu continues to grin and presents the computer screen behind it as though that holds all the answers, "The substrate is in place and the beta-N-ring structure–"
"I don't need the jargon", Aizawa cuts the intelligent being off before any attempt at wordplay can be made. Many master manipulators have tried this tactic on him before. "Just tell me what it is that you're offering", he knows that Nezu isn't very different despite the hero workfield relation.
Nezu looks back at the screen and realizes it's of no use more than if Aizawa were presenting a powerpoint to a class. It lowers the facade of a grin and gets serious. Serious enough that Aizawa can admit to having never seen Nezu appear as such until now. "I'm sure you recall the villain that was called the High Evolutionary", and now he understands why.
Nezu holds a paw over the scar that crosses over one eye. "I was a victim of the High Evolutionary's animal experimentation when quirks were at first a rarity", the creature shows its fangs again but this time as a snarl, "If there is anything I gained from my time there then it's not just my intelligence but also the means of doing what he couldn't accomplish. I've made it my goal to outsmart him by splicing genetic code and bridging those gaps between human, animal, and quirk."
Aizawa tightens his jaw to keep it from coming unhinged and hanging. He's in relative shock, having known only half the story previously but getting it all now as to Nezu's origins. On top of that, he's able to understand somewhat what may have drawn Nezu's attention to Spider-Man and how that case may tie in to all of this – he makes a mental note to share those details with Naomasa later.
"In other words.. The traits that make animals and humans superior in different areas can now be intertwined to allow no such weaknesses for either species", Nezu continues to explain what the code on the computer means now that Aizawa has been caught up to speed, "If we take the reptilian factor of regrowing lost limbs and apply it to you then we can bring about a new quirk era for heroes!"
Aizawa's breath stills. He doesn't know whether to hold it in or release it. He's aware that there's likely some other real meaning of this for Nezu like to find a counteractive solution to Nomus in order to best its opponent at the mental 'game' that they're playing. Perhaps, among other things as previously implied histories with the High Evolutionary or future relevances to Spider-Man could occur, but the point remaining nevertheless that it's not about heroes or helping out little old him. He's just a guinea pig. And still.. He's tempted to try this out.
"You haven't tested it yet.. Have you?", and he knows that it'll only be somebody else if not him. Nezu, as previously mentioned, is a conniving and cunning critter. Where Aizawa can't be mentally dominated, he can still be manipulated into carrying out certain actions. Like many heroes within this field of work, they're more caring and thoughtful for others than themselves; so the two can sometimes overlap in quite a sneaky manner.
"I'd hate to bring it to the HPSC but it does need to start somewhere and I just thought who better than someone who could really use the aid", Nezu acts innocent but the underlying look within the beady black eyes of the mastermind tell a different story.
Aizawa looks down at the alternative option. His missing arm needs remedying and the world needs heroes as much as his class needs him as their teacher to bring about that next generation of heroes. For all that it's worth, Nezu doesn't often miscalculate. There's a reason Nezu was entrusted to U.A, or so he tells himself while also reminding himself that Nezu is his boss.
"Let's take the chance", Aizawa accepts to Nezu's terms and conditions.
As Izuku scuttles at an inverted angle, he mindlessly wonders what it is he'll be having for breakfast. This is by far from the first time that he's snuck back home after a long late night out. This is the first time that he's returned rather famished though. He chalks it up as having not eaten during the Sports Festival; he really should have stayed back long enough to have his mom's soup first. He figures his mother's cooking ought to make it worth the wait. But what he comes upon makes him think it may very well be his last meal that he needs to worry about.
The bedroom window from which he usually enters and exits is sealed shut. By nails. They have been hammered in to keep it from being slipped open again, and while he could probably bypass it with his spider enhanced strength, it won't do him very much good considering he's still busted either way. Izuku pulls off his mask. He won't be needing it from the means of entry that he'll have to resort to now.
"Off to a great start this morning..", his sigh sounds as sarcastic as his voice.
"How was the Sports Festival?", his mom doesn't even wait for him to fully open the door. Much less close it behind himself.
Izuku withholds a wince as he asks, "How did you know that's where I went?"
Inko crosses her arms. "Izuku, I'm your mother, you can call it an educated guess that I know you so well."
If she only knew… Izuku subconsciously places a hand over the zipper that safeguards his secret; he threw on a spare raincoat they keep in the shed to hide his suit before entering the house. Since it's as bright a day as the sweltering summer so unsparingly shined, he quickly lowers his hand to not draw attention to the fact that it's a ridiculous choice of attire under any other set of circumstances.
"Are you actually sick or was that a ruse of some sort?", Inko drops her stern stare with the lowering of her arms. It doesn't take long for her concern as a mother to override any angry parental practices.
Izuku has to swallow the initial lie that nearly comes out of his mouth. It pains him as much as it must pain his mother that the lies come so naturally and so easily nowadays. So he does what he has also become accustomed to as of late, "Whichever answer gets me in less trouble?", he resorts to humor to hide his true feelings.
Inko sighs as she shakes her head. Seeing that there is no getting anywhere on that topic, she invites her son to sit on the living room couch with a small wave for a different topic of talk. "I've tried to be as lenient with you as I can", she waits for him to sit to say the serious stuff though, "But now you've forced my hand that I'm grounding you."
Izuku stands up just as promptly as he sat. "What?! You can't do that!", he protests her decision despite not being in a position to negotiate.
"I can and I am", Inko stands her ground by quite literally putting her foot down. She's back to being stern, hands on her hips and all. "Your punishment for sneaking out is that you're not allowed to leave this house for AT LEAST twenty four hours", and now the nailed shut window makes all the more sense.
"Y- You can't–", Izuku stammers for an excuse to convince her she's making a mistake. But nothing outside of admitting that he's Spider-Man seems like it will matter.
"Young man, you made a choice and now you have to take responsibility for that choice" She even hits him with the responsibility line to make it all the more difficult of an arguable matter.
Izuku hangs his head in defeat. He may be able to stand up to and talk back to villains, but never his mother. He trudges upstairs to his bedroom to sulk in solitude. It won't be as liberating or freeing as a rooftop, but that's kinda the point of this punishment. He slams the door shut behind himself, allowing some of his bottled up feeling of being irked to come out.
Inko fights down tears. It was usually her husband that would handle things like this. She may be able to be the soft coddling kind of parent but this other part of the job is something else entirely. Hisashi had such a way with Izuku that she doesn't and she just doesn't know how to handle these teenage emotional outbursts. She can't do it alone.
And all alone in his room, Izuku has similar thoughts. That things were easier when his dad was around. That he and his parents were close. That there were no secrets. That he can't do this Spider-Man thing alone anymore. Or, at least, not for much longer.
"As you may have surmised, the recency of this revelation has to do with our new friend Spider-Man!" Nezu operates from a holographic screen display now; the floating panels are easier to reach by beckoning them over or waving them away. The readouts are very much the same though. DNA analysis illuminates the dimmed lighting of the scientific study space that Nezu and Aizawa now occupy. "After obtaining blood samples, the key to this cross species genetics equation was ever so apparent to be only achievable by mutation and not what we have identified as inherent 'quirks' – I much rather preferred when we referred to this innate code as the 'X gene' – but I suppose that would have only complicated the differentiation between mutants and otherwise as they can now be identified today", but most of the jargon is lost to Aizawa's understanding more than Nezu's.
But if there is one thing the man knows, it's also what he doesn't know. "I thought we were still uncertain as to what it was that granted Spider-Man abilities if not by a quirk but by a transfusion of some kind", he points out that there is still variables yet to be discovered for this procedure to work.
Nezu waves a paw, as though casting aside the very thought of these calculations being off. "It matters not the outlet but rather the general neogenics for how the DNA can change", that same paw then holds a cup of tea in it to sip from.
Aizawa hums. He may not be a scientist but he has enough intelligence to think twice. That being said, he's still ever so desperate each and every single time that he looks at his lost limb. Despite whatever apprehensions, anyone else in the same situation would likely also jump at the opportunity of having it regrown.
Nezu then pulls out a hefty syringe just short of being the same ridiculous size of Recovery Girl's comically customized cane. "Now then… Shall we?", it looks like it will definitely feel like more than a prick.
Aizawa isn't the joking type but he feels the need to say SOMETHING, "You couldn't have made a grape flavored drink or a swallowable pill instead? I thought the outlet didn't matter", though he knows it falls on deaf ears for a being of such sadistic nature.
Nezu grins, giddy at the prospect of both sticking Aizawa with a massive needle and getting to experiment on the human. "Come now! It should hurt no more than the discomfort you've had from stabbings in the past", that giddy grin only grows when Aizawa rolls up the sleeve covering his good arm.
"Let's just get it over with…", Aizawa extends his arm to allow for a good vein to be found. Nezu, with whatever medical knowledge may be there, finds one.
"It's no spider DNA, so don't expect eight limbs to replace the one, but lizard DNA should suffice in what it's meant to do" Nezu injects the serum that was concocted for this test to be taken. Aizawa tightens his face, eyes shutting and teeth clenching.
"So should I be expecting scales instead?", Aizawa isn't the joking type as aforementioned and legitimately asks with the concern that there can be side effects to this injection.
To which Nezu shrugs, as mischievous as ever. Being more animalistic itself, it has no issue with such side effects. "I suppose we will just have to wait and see!"
Aizawa grunts as he starts rolling the sleeve of his shirt back down his arm. But before he can finish, his concern comes into fruition. He stops short, seeing some semblance of scales starting to peel over his skin; no, worse yet, he's shedding the skin and starting to grow a new layer over his flesh.
"Nez–", his speech slurs as the scales spread up his arm and across his neck. The serum must be rapidly traveling through his system now. A transformation takes over all at once. A dewlap of skin folds under Aizawa's throat as his hyoid apparatus causes a hiss. The scales take color and glisten green whilst covering Aizawa's entire body now.
As Nezu watches this take place, all the mammal can mutter is .. "Oops."
If there's one good thing that can come from being grounded and confined to his bedroom, it's that Izuku can utilize that time to work on developing his web fluid formula; whereas the old formula is great and all, having a few extra solutions to alternate with may come in handy. There are a few things that he'd like to try and change after battling some of the villains he's faced, especially since he may wind up having to fight them again later down the line. Or so he thinks. As he levels a dropper over a beaker, his phone pings and distracts him; he accidentally squeezes too much of one liquid out into the other and causes a miniature eruption of gooey gray chemicals.
Izuku groans while prying the sticky stuff from his face. With his one hand that's not covered in goop, he grabs his cellphone. It's a text notification from the principal of U.A. Finding that odd, Izuku swipes his screen to view the message. And as he reads, his eyebrows raise higher and higher.
Princi 'pal' is NOT your pal: Requiring assistance from Spider-Man at U.A immediately. Eraserhead has suffered an unfortunate genetical change and only Spider-Man's DNA can correct it.
There was already a concern that the principal figured out his identity, but the direct request is all the more alarming. Then secret identity aside, Eraserhead being in danger also raises a lot of worries. Especially considering nothing can be done about either so long as he's grounded.
Except.. Izuku reads the last part of the message again. ONLY Spider-Man can correct it. He can't sit around and do nothing while knowing somebody else is at risk. Not again. NEVER again.
Izuku does what he could have done from the start. He applies just a bit of spider strength to raising up his window and the nails that had been keeping it sealed slide out with it. There's always a means of sneaking out so long as he puts in the effort.
When he leaves, he leaves with haste. He hopes he can return just as quickly so that his mother doesn't find out that he disobeyed her and snuck out again.
Except, Midoriya Misfortune deems otherwise. Literally seconds after he's left, Inko enters the room to check on her son. She sees the open window and fumes, "That boy– ! IZUKU MIDORIYA!"
It's more of a scream than a roar. Like sheet steel being torn in two. It's the desperate cry of a man trapped in a monster. Yet, all anybody can hear is the monster.
Snipe fires off non lethal rounds, hoping to stun the nine foot creature that crawls towards him. Even if the gun toting hero were to have used a stronger caliber, the bullets would have been dispelled all the same. The lizard-like hide of scales serves as a shield and the bullets bounce right off. And so, he's knocked aside with a simple swipe of the monster's tail.
Heroes on site were called to try and subdue Aizawa but none of them have yet been able to stop him in this state. Not even Midnight's knockout fumes were able to have an effect on the lizard-like beast. Thus Nezu calls for Cementoss to secure the school and keep the problem on these grounds within the barrier.
Present Mic enters the same corridor as the reptilian creature next. He'd been informed of the situation by Nezu and rushed straight there. When he sees the glowing red stare of his friend in this new form, he swallows a scream. If brute force isn't able to stop this rampage then maybe he can appeal to the man within.
"Shota.. It's me", he holds up his hands to present himself as nonthreatening, "We just want to help you get back to normal, buddy."
The overgrown lizard towers over Mic but ceases crawling. It seems hesitant. But only seems that way. When the dewlap around its neck stretches out and it gives off another shriek, Mic realizes he's not getting through to Aizawa. But it's too late. The creature's trunk of a tail swings around and smacks him.
Spider-Man, having cleared the barrier gates to get on the school's grounds, comes barreling in through the hallway's viewing window. He vaults through and gets in between the two.
"Hey", he greets the creature in front of him before he sees it; when seeing it, he's instantly filled with fear and cracks a quip rather than trying to reason, "Do you know where I can get some tail too?"
It's enraged by his arrival, but more-so his disruption. Spider-Man jumps back from a tail swipe. But it's the claws that he really wants to avoid getting struck by. As he dodges, he notices the red eyes locked onto him are radiating with more than just rage. He understands why Nezu called him; he's the only one who can combat a quirk erasing monster of such a degree.
"Cmon! Snap out of it!", Spider-Man tries and fails the same way Present Mic had when recollecting himself enough to try and reason with the underground hero turned beast. But now that his fear has gone from the thing itself to fear for his friend, he has a better grasp on the situation.
Spider-Man leads the giant lizard into one of the science classrooms. There, a skeleton gets knocked off its rack and desks get flipped over. This is because it's such a confined space. Thus is Spidey's plan. He webs the entrance in some hope that he can keep the lizard trapped in there.
The lizard form of Aizawa stumbles over itself whilst crashing around. It winds up getting caught in a lab coat that had been hung on a coat rack. "Aw, that's a good look for you!" But the coat is torn to shreds and it's freed in no time. "Man, you ruined it!"
The lizard roars as it lurches and catches Spider-Man in a strong hold. Spidey squirms and wriggles as he's pinned to the floor. The lizard's elongated tongue gyrates from its jaws right in Spider-Man's face. He screams back, "Put that thing back where it came from or so help me!"
And after planting the sole of his foot against the lizard's underbelly, shoves the massive monster off. Spider-Man springs free from getting grabbed or pinned again. But putting space between himself and his former ally turned threat doesn't go as well as thought it would. This spacious gap grants the transformed being a chance to flee. It's quite surprising how fast a thing so large can move when it wants to.
"No! Wait!", Spider-Man spins a web but the line doesn't hold any better than a leash might have. The lizard crashes through the floor and makes a great escape. Or, well, as much of an escape as the school grounds will allow.
Spider-Man heads back the way he came rather than pursuing. For starters, he needs to check on the injured and get them to the med bay. And secondly, he needs a better plan than fist fighting Eraserhead's monstrous lizard form; he recalls how things went with Scorpion, and whereas trying to appeal to whatever humanity might remain worked last time, it doesn't seem like that strategy will work again. He faces that fact when carrying Present Mic to the school infirmary.
There's one final reason he needs to put his pursuit of Aizawa on hold. He has to confront the cause of this problem and who started this all to begin with. He finds U.A's principal, who appears just as animalistic as Aizawa does now to Izuku. "What did you do?", Spider-Man's voice is low but also loud enough to be heard.
So when Nezu asks, "What ever do you mean?", Spider-Man doesn't tolerate it.
He gets up close to the small mammal, hunching over it so wide white eyes peer into beady black ones. "Look at what you did and say that again", but what he really wants Nezu to see are the unconscious victims of consequence who have been brought to Recovery Girl.
If there is any ounce of remorse in Nezu, it doesn't show that outwardly. Its blank stare holds only a brief moment. "What matters currently is reverting Aizawa back to his former self", the principal avoids taking responsibility for the crisis at hand and instead returns to the chemistry work that's been taking place during said crisis, "We would have dealt with this ourselves but there is a reason that I called you here to tend to that matter."
Spider-Man's eyes narrow, his form of a glare through his mask. "Because of my immunity to Eraserhead's quirk", he makes it known that he's well aware of how U.A is looking to use him here.
But he overlooks just how much U.A will do so. "In more ways than one", Nezu demonstrates basic chemistry coupled with DNA practices while explaining, "Your genetic structure was the inspiration for this experiment but not quite the core ingredient. With your blood, we can fix the error in the genetic coding."
Behind Nezu, Spider-Man stays silent. Nezu might have expected a quip, or at least some snarky comment, so it turns around. Spider-Man's still glaring. "We'll draw my blood, but only because it's the only way to fix Eraserhead."
Nezu's mouth twitches, about to smile. "Thank–"
"But I'm not giving it to you", Spider-Man cuts Nezu off and the smile ends before it can start, "This is a one time thing that I'll do myself. Then, never again."
Wanting to retake control of the situation, Nezu counters this offer. "There's a lot that we can benefit from if we have your DNA. Please reconsider."
But Spider-Man doesn't trust the principal of U.A. And especially after today, for good reason. "Not gonna happen."
Nezu sighs. As typically done when backed into a corner during negotiations, the cleverest always resorts to blackmail. "You say you're doing it for Aizawa. I wonder how true that is. We can keep this incident quiet or I can call law enforcement."
Spider-Man goes silent again. For a moment, Nezu believes that superiority has been re-established in their dynamic. But then Spider-Man speaks as he did the first time after a brief silence, "Go ahead. Make it publicly known what you did here today. I'm sure the police have more than one set of handcuffs."
Spider-Man glances into the window of a classroom, finding only some shelves knocked over. The bulky mass of a reptilian man makes for quite the trail to follow. And that trail keeps on leading down deeper. Soon enough, he's entering U.A's maintenance station – or, in other words, the basement. It makes sense for a lizard's dwelling, dark and damp to make for a humid climate, but it only adds to the creepiness of this little manhunt. The lights are out and it feels like something straight out of a horror movie.
When Spider-Man's spider-sense twinges, the eerie atmosphere only increases. Through the faint aura of radiance thrown by red lit backup bulbs, he senses something. Then he hears that same something too. Swiftly, Spider-Man goes after the noise, despite being spooked by what he's sure to be the source since he's technically actively trying to find that source.
He hears heavy footsteps thudding on the ground, and an almost low singsong growl. The footsteps are in a two footed rhythm. He leaps ahead of himself to confirm who he's chasing is who he thinks. And he catches sight of the assured answer to that self imposed question. The red burning backup bulbs are higher here, the light glinting off a scaly hide. All other colors are washed out but Spidey knows that hide is green in fluorescent lighting.
He sees the lash of the lizard's trunk of a tail. It comes fast and hard. He ducks. The growling from before gets louder and so do the steps as the lizard too catches sight of who shares this basement space. Shocked, the creature gets into a crouch, planting its huge hind claws and grounding its powerful tail behind it for balance.
"Easy there..", Spider-Man reaches behind himself to untuck the waistband of his suit – where he's keeping the cure that he whipped up with his own blood, sweat, and tears (almost all three of those being quite literal) – and he too gets himself into a low crouch.
The lizard flings its arms wide, roaring and flexing its claws. Spider-Man hops backwards to evade. Half roaring, half screaming, the lizard continues to rush him. Spider-Man leaps sideways – he feels the wind of the lizard's plunge brush by him – the claws go whiffing past his masked face, just missing.
Again, those huge clawed hands reach for Spider-Man. Unable to twist out of the way in time, the lizard plucks him out of the air and dashes him to the ground. Stunned, he lays there just long enough to gasp and roll out of the way as razor sharp claws come down to finish what they started. Spider-Man rolls sideways as the claws slash at the ground where he had just been.
Spider-Man shoots a web at the lizard chasing him. But as fast as he shot it, the lizard claws it aside. It advances again. Spider-Man scuttles backwards along the wall and then up onto the ceiling.
The lizard pounces, that being about all it can do. Spider-Man swerves and steers yet again. He has the cure in hand, a hefty syringe that he only needs to stick the thing with. But it's going to be a heck of a lot harder getting close enough to do that than staying away to avoid getting slashed by claws. The lizard hisses, glaring with slit dilated pupils. Its lipless reptilian mouth stretches into a snarl.
Spider-Man hops over a hefty clawed hand. When he comes down, he lands on the lizard's back. There, he tries sticking the needle he has into its back. Key word: tries. The hide proves to be too thick. And he's batted aside by the beast's tail.
"Ah, great.." Spider-Man is backed into a corner as the lizard turns and towers over him. Their brief battle has turned them all around so that he opposes the basement exit now. He has no other choice but to fight this one out.
He pulls his punches still, not wanting to hurt Eraserhead too badly. But he does need to go a little harder if he's going to stay alive. Especially since the lizard isn't holding back. It grabs ahold of him with its tail – a repeat of what happened with the scorpion Nomu – and wallops him.
Dazed by the beating, he's pinned yet again. The lizard's jaws snap within an inch of his head while he holds the biting beast back. He can't toss the creature off like last time and he can't keep this up forever either.
Spider-Man looks at the cure he's holding and thinks of another way to administer it. If the lizard wants to eat something so badly… "Eat THIS!", he serves it the cure by shoving the vial down the lizard's throat.
It recoils and lurches back, reflexively retching and taken by surprise. Freed, Spider-Man twists away and bounds to the ceiling. There, he reopens his hand to check on the vial he's still holding – it's empty, all of its liquid contents poured out. The lizard cries out in agony, another cross between a scream and a roar.
The cure, fast acting, begins to take effect. Scales shed from skin, popping off as the size of the beast decreases. It drags its claws until they become nails; one of which those hands decomposes. Aizawa reverts to a human form and falls unconscious.
Spider-Man lets out a breath of relief.
To Nezu's credit, which is more than Izuku is willing to give, Nezu did indeed call the police. Or rather, just one member of law enforcement. Which is better than the HPSC, at least. Izuku recognizes the detective, white eye lenses meeting a rectangular gaze.
"Are the pockets in that overcoat deep enough or.. ?", Spider-Man's stare shifts into a squint.
To which Naomasa returns a similar look, eyes narrowing. "Just what are you implying?", his tone somehow comes across as more accusatory than Spider-Man's.
But between the two, Spider-Man has more space to gesture. And he does. What he gestures to is a lack of other police officers. "Nezu called you. Only you. And it's not the first time. Do rats come in pairs?"
Naomasa puffs up his chest whilst crossing his arms over it, offended. "What happened here isn't something that can be easily overlooked. The law is set and final and there are consequences to when someone takes matters into their own hands", he's speaking directly to Spider-Man but the words have little to no effect at the moment.
What Spider-Man is focused on isn't himself or his own case study, but rather Aizawa's condition. "So you're going to arrest a good man just because he made one small mistake? Sure, maybe people got hurt, but nobody was killed! It was contained and controlled!", he argues for the favor of his fellow crimefighter.
When Naomasa points out, "Contained and controlled thanks to the efforts of U.A's principal", Spider-Man sees how this is going to be played and hushes up.
Aizawa currently remains unconscious, closely monitored and recovering, but unresponsive otherwise. Whereas it seems the effects of his mutation are null & void, the lack of an arm again attesting to that, more heroes have gathered outside the room and the perimeter just in case. Spider-Man doesn't like the way that looks, regardless of personal bias or how he himself faces similar ridicule due to his technical vigilante status still.
"Look..", but then Naomasa's stern expression and demeanor softens somewhat. "Eraserhead IS a good man and we aren't arresting him for anything", he uncrosses his arms to put his hands on his hips, "We're just making a note of this incident on his record to keep a watchful eye on his future activity."
Spider-Man untenses a little, settling for that being enough. But he secretly still knows the truth. Aizawa will be made out to be the fall guy here so that Nezu and U.A get off easy without any blame. "It's just not fair", he knows that sounds childish but he doesn't care at this moment, "You can't tell me it isn't fair what you're doing here."
Naomasa looks back at Aizawa. This man is an ally and a friend to him. "You're right.. But this unrewarding line of work often isn't", and he shows some semblance of a soul that Izuku is allowing to forgive the detective.
But Nezu, on the other hand – speaking of the devil, Nezu enters the room as they speak – he won't forgive Nezu. Spider-Man crouches down to the principal's height so that he can address Nezu directly, "If you endanger Eraserhead again.. I will maim you" When he stands up straight again, he looks back to ask Naomasa, "Am I lying?"
Naomasa answers based on what his quirk tells him, "No."
And with that, Spider-Man leaves. Yet again, he's left wondering just how much of a victory or a loss this classic misadventure mixed with the others truly is.
Izuku plans on starting his swing home. But first, he needs to make a quick pit stop. That little mishap took more time than he had wished it would have. It's no surprise that he sees a missed call from his mom when he checks his phone – he shudders since, somehow, one missed call is a worse number to see than one hundred – and so he needs to figure out how he's going to get out of this one.
If he was meant to be grounded for 24 hours already, he can only imagine what sort of punishment will be cooked up for him when he gets home. Not only that, but the emotional toll this must be taking on his mother is something he can't allow. He just can't live with himself knowing how she must feel about his lies and sneaking out.
He decides it's time to come clean. Kinda.. He has a call to make and a favor to ask.
When Izuku opens the front door, he doesn't know whether to do so slowly or to just swing it open like ripping it off as one would with a bandaid. It honestly doesn't matter since not even his Spider-Sense could have prepared him for the sheer motherly aura waiting for him beyond that door.
"Mom, wait, I can explain–", he starts to stammer out the excuse he genuinely took time plotting on the way back.
But Inko cuts him off with only a look. It's an angry look, but yet one brimmed with tears, her eyes watery. It's unspoken what she has to say to him but it says more than words would.
Izuku's heart skips a beat. He's torn between wanting to lock himself in his room to rot in punishment and actually confessing the truth about why he's done these things to her. But that second of a skip is the time it takes for his 'coming clean' of a truth of a lie to present itself.
"Um.. I can explain instead.. I guess?", Hitoshi Shinso stands behind Izuku; somehow, Shinso appears more scared than the one actually in trouble.
Inko pauses momentarily, taking stock of this new development that they have company. Which is long enough for Izuku to swallow down his guilt and commit to his attempt at smoothing things over, "I was having a sleepover at Shinso's.."
He's unable to meet his mother's eyes so Inko winds up looking at Shinso instead. She notes the eyebags and unruly hair that he has and then looks back at Izuku.
Izuku glances up, wincing when he realizes his excuse may not have been the best to go with afterall. "We didn't do very much sleeping..", but he has no other choice than to commit to the lie at this point.
Inko holds her stare a while longer, still saying nothing. She squints like she's searching for some hidden and deeper meaning. Whatever she finds must be satisfactory enough for her since all she then says is, "Oh..", and then she allows them both in.
Izuku hangs his head and sighs. Certainly, that is not the end of it. There's more to be discussed and dealt with there. But for now, he's gotten away with that issue.
Just as he's hoping to lower his guard at long last and relax, Shinso decides then to whisper something unsettling to him. "One of these days.. You're going to tell me what you're hiding from all of us.. That or I and everyone else are going to find out on our own", Shinso walks past him towards his room while also tacking on, "It's only a matter of time."
Out of all the favors he asks his friend for, this one took a lot of convincing. He's sure that he's reaching the end of his rope with that. So what Shinso said doesn't sound like a request a friend might ask back. It sounds more like a demand or a promise.
He hears that in the back of his mind all throughout the rest of the night, It's only a matter of time until they all find out…
AUTHOR NOTES
I keep telling myself I'm going to find a way to condense these chapters but they turn out to be real doozies every time.. So, expect an even longer one next time! In the meantime, onto reading reviews:
Welcome back Pikapowerz! I thought I'd mentioned it before but it's worth bringing up (again?) that there won't be any additional spider-powerups for Izuku nor other Spider-Men in this story - I like solo Spidey adventures and the difficulty he has pushing past his limits by himself too much to do anything else - but I did finally get to watch Deadpool and Wolverine and I did enjoy it! My favorite part is probably 'comic accurate' Wolverine as a variant!
Thank you for the suggestions, theMAX360! I may actually work some of those into the story some way or another! As for Goblin's representation here, without giving too much away, I have plans to do both in a sense!
Hope that you stick around to read more too, Sageofchaos!
Bakugo's arc is gonna be one heck of a wild ride that will prove difficult to write but hopefully fun to read, so be prepared, SonicMax!
As a Spider-Man writer, I can attest that it's a general rule all Spider-Men can never suffer 'too much', but it probably is too much if you're saying Izuku is suffering more than Peter - I'll try to ease up, AwesomeMan327, but no long term promises!
Next time, we get to see Spider-Man REALLY get involved with U.A's craziness! Till then!
-Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood comic accurate author!