Mystery from Another World--MHA

Part 176: Gaming confrontation

While the DJs handled the situation with their characteristic resilience, and their closer students tried to follow suit, the rest of the school was in an uproar over Ibara's disappearance.

Aizawa was aware they had a lead, and he was trying not to panic, but the rest of the staff had no such comfort.

One person who called to try to help was Miss Joke. She heard the whole thing off the news. Shine also told her more about it.

"Are you okay, Eraser?" she asked, rather seriously. 

"I don't want to talk about it," Aizawa said.

"Oh," Miss Joke said slowly.

"Not over the phone..." Aizawa added, "If you want to hear about it, I'd rather just meet up."

"Oh...well, sure," Miss Joke said, trying not to react, "I mean, if you wanted a date you could just ask."

"Forget it."

"Sorry, knee jerk reaction!" she said quickly, "You know I just can't help it...but, really, I want to hear about it."

So, they ended up meeting--nowhere special, just some rooftop near where they'd used to work.

"What's eating you about it?" Miss Joke asked, "It's not your fault--she's not even in your class."

"I think I failed as a teacher," Aizawa said, "My students are braver than I am."

"Not sure that's true, but how is that not succeeding as a teacher?" Miss Joke said.

"It's not because of me." Aizawa stared at the skyline. "Likstar was right...about all of it. I knew that...once she said it. All they learn is to be afraid--of failure, of change, of crossing the line. And the world could be crumbling, and they'd still be afraid to do that if they followed our example. The Meta war changed some of that but not enough. I think they would have been unprepared for any of these challenges... The DJs are fearless... The students are becoming more like them. I don't know--it was different when I was training. Things made sense then. We knew where we were as heroes."

"That was never likely to last very long, Eraser. Things change," Miss Joke said gently, "It's not like we knew... We couldn't have predicted any of the last year or so. Your students are still more prepared than many kids. You did your best."

"And that wasn't enough," Aizawa stated, "That's become painfully obvious... I'm starting to think I've never really succeeded at anything in my life."

"I think you're being too hard on yourself," Miss Joke said.

"I couldn't help Oboro either," Aizawa said.

"That's not your fault," Miss Joke said, "But...wait, didn't he die?" Of course she knew about it. It had been a big deal at the time.

Aizawa frowned. "Not exactly. It's classified."

Miss Joke looked at him oddly. "Okay...but we were just kids."

"I don't just mean then," Aizawa muttered, "I think...I was hard on those two people because I knew they would shake things up, and that didn't seem like a good thing, but it's starting to look like it might be our only chance. Or we'll suffer a lot more damages than this."

"Well, now you sound like me." Miss Joke leaned back. "Really, Eraser...I think it's good you're coming around, but...I don't think the point is for you to feel like a failure. So what if you have a lot to learn? We all do. We'll all have to change. But you're looking at it wrong. We're the ones privy to witnessing what they do. We've been chosen. It's an honor. If they have called you out a little, so what? They only do that to people they think are important. You're still one of the people they've reached out to. That means you're successful in some way, and they don't measure success like we do." She tilted her head. "Truth, Love, Hope, that's what they're about, and we need all of it right now. Hope especially. We're losing a lot of that. We've put our hope in heroes, and heroes are failing us...but Hope in something else... We need to try that."