Downfall Of The Stars

The Crow's Jewel

I'm alive.
I'm just as surprised as all of you.

~

"My quirk is Decay. It can easily be used to kill."

Aizawa is not known for being a lenient person –in fact, his expulsion record could only prove how strict he truly is– yet he would be the first to admit that he lets this boy get away with far more than any of his students ever could. 

Midoriya wasn't a troublemaker by any sense of the phrase, it was more that the kid seemed in a constant and genuine state of anxiety. Sure, this could easily be passed off as just being one of the few undiagnosed mental health issues the staff suspect he has, but between the gut feelings and scars and new injuries, they had enough to suspect the kid had been in some sort of dangerous situations over the years that he refused to tell them about. There was also a bone-deep worry that prying into the kid's past and problems would cause the skittish boy to run. He knows it down to his bone marrow; knows that if that were to happen, they might never find the boy again. 

At some point last year, Aizawa had been unofficially listed as Midoriya's emergency contact and guardian on the school records (not that the boy in question knew that) and had taken to checking up on the kid during free periods and class hours. It had been after they found him that time, bloody and too near to death to not have someone watch him should something similar crop up again. 

(Looking back on it, perhaps the lack of care in how the child was treated and the lack of action to find the people who left the boy in such a state might have been what cinched it. If no one else was going to look out for him, then Aizawa would, if just to be entirely sure a UA student did not end up that way again.)

And since Aizawa didn't teach him at all, had no free periods or breaks that overlapped with the support student's timetable, initially it had been all the more simple to agree to. It meant there should be no way for him to bond or get to know a victim too well. A strict relationship where he watched from afar and reported his findings to Nezu. 

Aizawa should have known a job is never that easy. He hadn't expected to grow fond of him and his personality so quickly. Quite frankly, he didn't actually expect the kid to come out of his terrified little shell, and it made that little thing in his heart sing with pride whenever the kid gushed about something or other or mumbled through his analysis homework in Aizawa's office on Saturday lunchtimes. 

And right now, Aizawa had the kid in his classroom, demonstrating his quirk. Quirk use in the classrooms was forbidden when the subject was not hero training, so he ought to put a stop to it. 

He doesn't. 

Aizawa trusts the kid with this. He knows that the boy is going through some sort of examination, breaking down the expressions and voices of his students and cataloguing who's paying attention and who's indifferent to it all. Aizawa knows this is vital for how the kid feels around this class, and knows that the teen needs to feel safe before he can spend any length of time anywhere near his new students. 

The boy replaces his bracelets as soon as he's satisfied. 

Aizawa says nothing. 

From a subtle glance, his students are shocked and some even a little scared, but Midoriya commands the room in a way the hero hasn't seen before. There is confidence in his posture that overshadows all his previous anxiety. He thinks there's something a little desperate there too, but it's quickly replaced with something analytical and quiet. 

Through the demonstration, Aoyama hadn't been the only one unfazed by the boy's quirk. Tokoyami's stare was quiet and subtle, but he wasn't afraid like the rest. Dark Shadow was making intrigued noises over his shoulder as they returned the teen's look.