Need You (ShinDeku)

Ch. 47 - Mask

"How're ya feeling, kid?" He asks, glancing in my direction.

"Fine." I try not to sound rude but I'm really not in the mood. I just want to get Midoriya back.

Aizawa greets us both silently with bentos and they sit on a couch while I pick a chair across from them.

I glance at Aizawa momentarily as he sighs, before looking down at my food and beginning to eat.

"Hey, I wanted to apologize for putting you through this." I look up at him in surprise. "I should have assigned a pro to watch over him when we heard the news that the league escaped." Why are people apologizing to me today?

"No." It comes out more forceful than I thought it would. What is he saying? Am I not enough? Am I getting kicked from the hero course?

He sighs again.

"Listen, I'm not saying you're not capable Shinso. You've done great, actually, but the point is you're a first year without even a provisional license and you don't have nearly as much experience as your classmates. That's not your fault, and I fully trust that you will catch up to them," He pauses again. "But I shouldn't have given you a task like that when the leagues whereabouts were unknown."

I sit back slightly in my seat, biting my tongue. I should have been able to do it.

"Point is, you did a good job considering the situation, and these past few weeks you've demonstrated that you are much more emotionally adept than your peers, which is essential for hero work, and I would like to formally apologize for putting you through what happened yesterday."

I blink unsurely. Is this supposed to be praise?

"I'm... still gonna be on the case, right?" I swallow nervously, glancing between Mic and Aizawa.

"As long as you feel capable." I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, relief flooding over me.

Tears spring to my eyes and I lean over in my seat, covering my face in my hands as I nod.

"Thank you, Sensei."

———

The rest of my lunch period was spent chatting with Mic and Aizawa about my progress in training. Mic was really impressed with what Aizawa said about me, and said he would try to come to my next training session.

I knew they were just trying to distract me from what happened yesterday but it didn't bother me. It actually really helped.

Lunch ended and the rest of my classes went by. During last period Aizawa surprised me with a fancy looking box. We were supposed to be working with our support gear and learning how to use it all, but as of right now, my only support gear was the capture weapon that Aizawa was teaching me to use. Eventually I wanted to add more, like first aid supplies on my belt, and I was thinking about learning to use a bo staff, but I really hadn't thought that far ahead.

The thing that I wanted the most though, was a mask that could allow me to change how my voice sounded. I had recalled telling Aizawa about it one time and he seemed pretty interested. I was explaining how it could theoretically work as long as it was still my natural voice, just warped because of the shape of the mask.

I wasn't in the hero course at the time and we had only been training for a couple of weeks, so I was beyond surprised when I opened the box to see a sleek black mask. I carefully took it out, looking up at Aizawa with wide eyes.

"Well? Try it on." He said, raising a brow.

I turned it over in my hands, setting the box off to the side before slipping it onto my face.

"It fits?" He asks.

"Yeah." Perfectly. "Thank you so much." I was surprised that my voice came out so clearly.

"Good." He ignores my last comment. "One of the support course kids has a quirk that lets them measure things with their eyes, they got the measurements to Hatsume who made the mask. I told her what you said about how it would work and all that, so now we just have to see if it works, and if it does you gotta learn how to use it." He explains.

"Right. Okay. Should I, uh,-"

"Start with just changing your voice and then try to use your quirk on me. If it works, then we can move on to you imitating other voices."

"Okay, um, I'll just-" I reach up and slowly twist the knob on the side of the mask. I can vaguely hear parts of the mask moving. "Is this- woah." I cut myself off, startled at the embarrassingly high-pitched voice that came out. It sounded nothing like me at all.

I looked over at Aizawa to see an amused expression on his face. I'm grateful for the mask covering my embarrassed blush as I look down.

"Well it certainly changes your voice. Try using your quirk."

"Okay I can, yeah, I'll... uhm, how are you?" I say awkwardly.

He responds, totally unbothered, still with an amused expression on his face.

"I'm fin-" his face goes slack with an empty expression in his eyes. He stands there, waiting for instruction.

1630 words.