Mr Aizawa had it pretty rough in the mansion. He wasn't legally our teacher any more, but he was most certainly a father figure for most of us at the time. Our own parents had either forced us to come back home, disowned us, abandoned us, didn't care enough about us to worry, or in my case were flat out not alive. Iida, Tokoyami, Midoriya, Shoji, Kirishima, Koda, Sato, and Mina from our class were back home. From 1-B that went home was Awase, Kaibara, Kuroiro, Ibara, Tsubaraba, Rin, Bondo, and Fukidashi.
That still left twenty eight students, as well as Eri, and now Misaki under the care of one pro hero. He definitely had his work cut out for him, especially since Yaoyarozu's parents weren't staying in the mansion at the time. It seemed they were staying away from that mansion due to the fact that heroes were frowned upon. I imagine they were considering solely their own safety. That's how rich people usually are, right? Care only about yourself, and not even your very own child? That's likely just the cynic in me talking though.
"Mr Aizawa, come play!" Eri said to him, bringing him over to a little doll's house and tea set she had been given by Momo. It apparently belonged to Momo when she was a child, and was one of her favourite things to play with growing up. Aizawa appeased her request and sat on a tiny stool made for a small person, otherwise known as a child. He was hunched over and vaguely interacted as he... Wasn't all that sure of what to do with a situation like this. But just being there made her smile.
Though he did have to step in a few times upon seeing Eri's, sadly, warped views of how a family unit acts as regards getting angry, as well as discipline. Considering her past, it was easy to see how she would be rather dysfunctional, and not the kind that gets a feelgood sitcom made out of it. As sweet as Eri was, her alone would have been enough of a handful given that Mr Aizawa had to educate her, train her, and feed her. And play with her. And keep her safe. On top of that, he had all of us too.
"Hey Mr Aizawa, is the waste disposal meant to make a whirring noise after something goes in it, or a ker-chunk noise?" Kaminari asked, with Sero in tow. Mr Aizawa sighed and excused himself from the tea party to go take a look. Upon further inspection, he discovered there was one of Kaminari's pointers lodged inside of it. Mr Aizawa took it out with a rather unamused look on his already normally unimpressed, tired face. He simply stared at it, dumbfounded, as the two boys also stood there, unsure of how to respond.
"So tell me. How did this get in the waste disposal? This is part of your hero equipment, is it not?" Mr Aizawa asked. Kaminari put his fingers together and smiled rather sheepishly. "Well," He began in response. "Sero thought my pointers were made out of some cheap plastic, and I knew they weren't, so we decided to do a little test... And the results are in! They're not made out of cheap plastic! Take that, Sero!" Kaminari said, spinning around and pointing a finger in Sero's face victoriously.
Mr Aizawa was not so pleased. "You both live here rent free, eating Momo's food while having no job and seemingly no intention of paying your classmate back. You have now gone as far as damaging her property. This is going to need to be repaired by someone more well equipped than I am, such as a plumber. I heavily suggest you apologise profusely to her and pay for the damages you have caused, and think twice before doing something so foolish in the future. This is not your house."
Now, when Mr Aizawa... Suggests something, if one values their life, they take the suggestion and immediately act upon it. "Yes, Mr Aizawa, sorry Mr Aizawa!" Both Sero and Kaminari said in union. Sighing, the wannabe homeless man replied, "I am not the one you need to apologise to. This is not my house, and I would not be complaining if it had stopped working due to natural causes. But you," He looked at Kaminari, "Have broken the device, and you," Then Sero, "Allowed him to do so while seemingly cheering him on."
At that, Misaki came in to the kitchen with a shopping bag. "I'm back! Shota, I have the boba tea you asked for!" She said with a smile. She took out the box and showed him a pack of green boba tea pearls. With a lifelike expression that somehow looked sad, he took ahold of the packet and watched it, as if willing it to change by staring into it. "These are green pearls... I asked for black pearls." Misaki then realised her mistake, "Oh! I got the wrong ones, I'm sorry Shota! I'll go and get the right ones."
"No, it's fine, don't worry about it Misaki." He said to her, before being intruded on without even having a chance to put the packet down. And the intruder... Was me! "I see Kaminari and Sero quivering in a corner, and I see green boba pearls in your hand, I assume now is not a good time..." I said, and frankly I was absolutely right, but with him being the kindhearted man we love him for, he replied to me, "What is it? Do you need something?" Before he then put down the packet on one of the many, many kitchen sides.
"I was hoping that... Well, if you're not too busy of course, maybe at some point possibly we could..." I began, with a very longwinded start. He sighed and said, "Go on?" I then continued, "I was hoping maybe you could teach me a thing or two... About being a pro. I still have a lot of things to learn, and I want you to train me. That way, I'll know I got the best help I could for when I'm out in the field." He then chuckled and responded to my request by saying, "Flattery to butter me up?"
"Is it that obvious?" I said, in a rather lighthearted way as I did really mean what I said. It seemed to be the right answer though, as he gestured for me to follow him out of the room, which I did immediately. "What's the first thing I need to work on?" I asked him, as he began to lead me who knows where. He replied, "What do you think you need to work on?" That was quite possibly the worst thing he could have asked me, as there were so many possibilities... What could he possibly be referring to?
"Uhm... I don't think physical strength is the issue, at least until I get fully acquainted with my transformation quirk. Agility shouldn't be an issue, speed perhaps, or maybe acting to fix a problem before it has even arrived?" I said, querying his question. In response, Mr Aizawa said to me, "All of those things are true, and we will work on your judgement skills soon. The first thing I want you to hone is..." He opened the door to my room, and I was presented with my first task... "Obedience." What the hell was this Karate Kid crap?
"Obedience? What do you mean by that? I always do what I'm asked of." I said to him. In response, he pointed his finger at me and shook his head momentarily. "That's exactly why, right there. Sure, you may do what you're told, but you as questions, do later, when really it needs to be the other way around. You need to learn to follow orders immediately upon receiving them, and ask questions later if required. Most of the time though, you'll have figured out why you were told what to do after doing it yourself. Your first task..."
Mr Aizawa scratched his chin for a moment before gesturing to the whole room. "Clean this place up, it's a mess." It really wasn't a mess, not by my standards at least... "But I did it yester-" I began, before being backhanded across the back of my head. I choked on my words before rubbing my head and pouting. "Every time you question orders, I'll enforce physical discipline." Being a smartass, I decided to ask, "Is that what you said to Misaki last ni-" There was another rather loud slapping sound as my brain rattled around in my skull.
I decided to keep my mouth shut after that, and began doing general tidying up in my room. You know, basic things such as fixing up the bed sheets and covers, picking anything up that could even begin to be considered litter from the floor and disposing of it or placing it on a shelf or desk, made sure any clothes that were lying around were put away, both mine and Tsu's. Wait... Oh crap! "Alex... Why is one of Tsuyu Asui's bras in your room?" It really was innocent, there wasn't anything lewd going on in this room! How could I explain it?
"Well, we sleep in the same room, though we don't get changed in front of each other, so she must have gotten changed at some point while I wasn't around and forgot to take it with her." I explained. "I've been getting up early recently so that I could train, so that would make sense. Come on Mr Aizawa, this isn't the apocalypse, there's no hanky panky going on in here! Not naked anyway. Though sometimes-" He immediately cut me off. "No, stop! That's enough, it was a simple question, I don't need any details..." He squeezed the bridge of his nose.
"Just... Put it away." Mr Aizawa told me, so I simply teleported into her room and stashed it in a draw, one that I was hoping yet also simultaneously hoping it wasn't her underwear drawer. I don't know if it's just an anime thing, but I never understood the desire to raid one's underwear... I teleported back, and looked up at Aizawa. I then caught the stare of a rather curious Tsu as she looked in to see what was happening. "What's going on, kero?" She asked, to which both Aizawa and I stumbled and stuttered.
It was the first time I'd ever seen Mr Aizawa in any way flustered. "N-Nothing, I'm just teaching Alex a few things about being a hero. He's still a rookie, so he needs to learn more about obedience, as well as loyalty. So I'm helping him out." He explained to her. She smiled and replied, "That's great! I'm really glad to see you taking the steps you need for rehabilitation, while also strengthening yourself mentally Alex! I'm proud of you. Keep it up, kero." She them left the room. That could have gotten a lot more awkward...
"Well, the room is clean now, but my conscience isn't. What's next, Mr Aizawa?" I asked him, awaiting my next Herculean Task. "You're to do your homework." "You've got to be kidding me!" I cried out without missing a beat. Mr Aizawa raised his hand, and I immediately teleported back with all the textbooks I had recently been studying. "You didn't think it would be as simple as that, did you? I want you to also be transforming on and off during. Fully. Head included." Now this really was a Herculean Task!
"Is that safe...? What if I..." I began to hesitate. He raised his hand again, but it wasn't for a slap. He put his hand on my shoulder and leaned down. "You won't. This is where you're having trouble Alex. You're overconfident as your abilities as Alakan, but you're underconfident in your abilities as Alex. You need to learn how to follow orders in a heartbeat, without even thinking on whether or not you're able to do so. You just need to trust your superior. They're not going to put you in danger."
Sighing out with a shaky breath, Mr Aizawa let go of me and stepped back, and I began studying and doing basic arithmetic while transforming my body in and out of its lizard state, except for my head. I gulped, and my breathing got shallower, before starting to hyperventilate while trying to psych myself up to do it. My neck started turning green, and I was straining myself, trying to make myself do it... But I went limp as I gave up trying. "I can't do it... I... Can't trust myself... Not yet."
"You want us to trust you, right? How can we trust you if you can't trust yourself?" He asked me. Damn him and his sound reasoning and logic! I didn't want to answer his question, mainly out of embarrassment. "Because my distrust in myself is from years of self loathing. Your distrust in me is because I messed up once. A big time one, but once. I have had sixteen years to hate myself for every little thing I do. Hell, I hardly even trained before the Sports Festival because I just couldn't bring myself to even bother trying.
Why should I? As I already proved, I just mess things up and hurt the ones I care about rather than protect. I never even wanted to be a fighter, I just wanted to protect people... Search and rescue, remember?" I confessed to him. It wasn't very often I was able to express my true feelings about myself, as I never felt the ability to open up, especially face to face. I'd always feel something catching in my throat, almost like invisible hands choking me to stop me from speaking my mind.
And it wasn't helping that Mr Aizawa was radio silent for a few moments. But then... He spoke. "When I was your age," he began to relate, "I had two friends. Surprising, right?" I used that opportunity to say, "Your words, not mine." He smirked a little and continued, "Present Mic, who you know well, and one other person. He was a kindhearted young man, and he wanted to open up a hero agency with Hizashi and I. He's the only reason why I open myself up to people." I decided not to comment on that, the air in the room told me this was a serious moment not to make fun of.
"But one day while we were in the field, working for an agency... A massive villain attacked us out of nowhere. My friend, Shirakumo... Died. This was fourteen years ago, almost exactly actually, his anniversary is coming up... And for a long time after that, I questioned every action I took, every move I made, every day, just like you're doing now. I hid away from the public eye, did all my work in the shadows, avoided human contact wherever possible outside hero work. And I didn't make any other friends apart from Hizashi.
Life is cruel, and unexpected things or certain circumstances can trick people into thinking they're worthless. But the truth is, no one is useless. I have one of the weakest quirks of any hero, I can't even attack a solid fifty percent of villains with it, yet even I still managed. My only regret is not following through with Shirakumo's wish of making a hero agency with Hizashi, and now, I'll never be able to do it. I'm not gonna force you to do this transformation yet, but you need to make sure you don't regret your life choices, you understand?
You have nothing to be ashamed of. You're a bright young man with a promising future. Don't squander it in self pity. And if you tell anyone else what went on in this room today, I will hogtie you and hang you from the balcony, got it?" He seemed dead serious with that threat, despite the fact that, well, I physically cannot be restrained, it is literally impossible. But it appeared to be out of embarrassment himself that he said that, considering Mr Aizawa himself never was much of an emotional person.
"Thank you Mr Aizawa... I'll work on it. I promise! I'm going to train hard every day, and I won't stop until I hear you tell me that you're proud of me!" I said to him, smiling up at him and feeling far more determined to get a proper hold of my quirk than ever! His role as father figure to the class was definitely growing on me, and I think he knew that too, as he smiled in return. "Good. Keep it up. I have other things to tend to. Drop your homework on my desk when you're done with it."
He didn't have a desk. It was hard for all of us to move on from U.A. lingo, or just school terminologies in general. I nodded, and Mr Aizawa left to go do... Probably everything, honestly. That man never got any rest, and the dark patches under his eyes were clearer than ever. Who could even sleep at times like these either? Any day now, and a villain could come bursting through the mansion walls and kill us all... Where were the League of Villains anyway? It was winter and I still hadn't heard from them.
There had been some massive fight in Deika City several weeks ago, which was probably them but... I don't remember Shigaraki being able to level a whole block... Something big was going on, I could feel it. But I didn't have time to think about nonsense like that! I had to train! I had homework to do! I had a curriculum to study for! Just because U.A. was gone and heroes were shunned, didn't mean I had time to dawdle! Mr Aizawa was right, I had to live life to the fullest and take back our society!
I just had to have a little more faith in myself. With my friends and other Pro Heroes, we would be unstoppable! What really did we even have to fear? We just have to take back the city, and take back our lives! Why should I be scared, when it's impossible to detain me? Police? Villains? No one was going to stop me once I fortified my mental abilities! "Alex, you've been switching in and out of your battle form for three hours... Please take a break, kero." No one except my girlfriend!
[A/N: It's about damn time I started writing again... I'm going to try and force myself to write. When I finish this fanfiction, which will be within fifteen chapters presumably, I will be working on original stories. I have big things planned, just you wait. The world isn't ready for what I'm going to unleash...]