When Reia finished grading papers, the first thing she noticed was that the majority of the students were gone. While Asui, Uraraka, and Tokoyami stayed inside, the rest of the students were nowhere to be seen. It was...weird, but not surprising. Putting away her work, the woman stood up from her seat at the dining table, then made her way around the house
Usually when the students had weekends and Reia wasn't taking them out, they would go try to find something that would keep their attention. Since it was 35 degrees outside, she assumed that they would be in their rooms, most likely the movie theater if most of them were gone. However, the longer she was in the house, the more she couldn't find them, so with no other place left, she stepped out into the cold with a sweater on before making her way toward the backyard.
Just as she predicted, in the distance she could see some of the students running around. A small smile made its way onto Reia's lips when she saw Sato belt out laughing with Ojiro not following far behind. As she began to walk closer, her eyes caught onto something behind them, and when her eyes shifted in its direction, she immediately stopped, her eyebrows furrowing.
Standing tall behind them was some sort of tent. Colored in a dark, navy blue, the tent was shaped similarly to an octagon, and it stretched across several feet on the grass. With small fishnet holes serving as windows near the top of the tent's walls, smoke seemed to be rising out of the top of the makeshift house. From what Reia could see, faded light flickered inside, flashes of individual shadows appearing every so often.
"Hey Winters-sensei!"
The sound of a voice caused the woman to turn, and she saw Sato walking up to her with Ojiro following behind, both with smiles on their faces.
"Sato, Ojiro, what are you kids doing? It's cold out."
"Just having a mini celebration for finishing with good grades on our test," Ojiro replied.
"Yep. Everyone's cooking marshmallows inside. You want to join?" Sato added.
Reia smiled gently at the two boys. "I appreciate you asking, but I don't want to intrude on anything. I'm sure you guys are having plenty of fun without having me be there. I just wanted to check in to see if you guys are doing alright."
"Well then, if you wanted to check, why don't you go in to see for yourself? And you wouldn't be intruding. Everyone would be happy for you to join," Ojiro said.
Reia's smile couldn't help but grow a little at the statement. "Thank you, sweetheart. I guess if you guys don't mind then."
Both Sato's and Ojiro's smiles grew wider. With both of them at her sides, they led her to the tent and unzipped the entrance. When the woman stepped inside, the first thing she noticed was the flickering of fire in the center of the tent. Its flames licked violently at the sides, but it was contained within the pit it was placed in. It was low enough to not burn anything, and it was high enough to burn the marshmallows that crowded over the top of it.
At the sight of the newcomer, the students in the circle burst into happy greetings and excited gasps.
"Winters-sensei!" Some of them called out.
Iida seemed to have gotten up from his spot next to Midoriya and Todoroki, and he approached Reia, a grilling stick in hand with a white marshmallow on it, and a pleasant smile resting on his face.
"Winters-sensei! I am pleased to see that you're joining us!"
Reia chuckled, grabbing the stick from his hand with a nod. "Thank you for allowing me to."
"Here Winters-sensei! Sit here!" a voice called out.
The woman turned. She saw Mina ecstatically patting the space next to her, Sero, and Kaminari. Smiling slightly, she walked over and sat down. Suddenly, Mina latched onto Reia's arm, causing her to look at the teen with wide eyes.
"You're the best Winters-sensei! I wish you were our English and Science teacher at U.A. instead!"
"What? What do you mean?"
Pulling away from her arm, Mina looked back up at her, mustering the biggest grin she could possibly make. "I actually got a good grade on my test!"
"Me too!" Kaminari joined in, "I actually got a C on my english test! In all my years!"
The boy dramatically fell back onto the tent's floor. Some of the students glanced at him and laughed at his antics. Others just rolled their eyes. The action made Reia laugh softly, shaking her head with fondness at the electric user.
For about an hour, the woman sat in the tent with students. While she enjoyed some of the toasted marshmallows, she listened to the surrounding conversations, sometimes giving her own replies when some of the students talked to her. After around 7 or 8 marshmallows, Reia finally got up, grabbing a few more toasted snacks before heading back toward the house.
She handed off some of the sticks to Uraraka, Asui, and Tokoyami. Since Asui preferred to not be out in cold weather, she stayed inside, and both Uraraka and Tokoyami stayed with her as well, opting to play the consoles for entertainment.
Reia stayed to talk to them for a little bit before she took notice of the remaining two sticks in her hand. She hummed lightly.
"Have you kids seen Aizawa?"
Asui answered. "I think he was in his office last time I saw, ribbit."
Nodding thankfully, Reia walked to the kitchen and made a drink before making her way toward the office.
When she got there, she saw Aizawa's eyes narrowing at the group of papers in front of him. If she looked closely, she could see his eyes twitching slightly.
"I hope those papers aren't giving you too much of a headache."
The man blinked, his run down eyes lifting to see her leaning against the door with a gentle smile on her face. With a deep sigh, Aizawa set his red pen down, running a hand down his face to soothe his dry eyes.
"It's not as much compared to the paperwork I had to do as an underground hero."
"I can imagine."
Nudging herself off the frame, Reia approached his desk, carefully bringing her hands out from behind her back to reveal a single cup and two sticks with marshmallows on it.
"Care for a little break?" The woman asked.
Aizawa blinked.
When she set down the cup onto his desk, his gaze remained on the hot drink, the little wisps of steam dancing in the air. Hesitantly, he grabbed the cup and studied it for a bit before taking a sip.
"It's hot chocolate. I hope you don't mind," Reia added.
The taste of chocolatey goodness spread across his tongue, the heat slightly burning his taste buds. Heat warmed Aizawa's cold hands when he wrapped both around the cup, and when he set the drink down, his lips thinned slightly before speaking.
"Thank you."
Silently, Reia held out one of the marshmallow sticks toward him, and he took it gratefully. For a few moments, both sat not saying a word, instead enjoying the tasty snacks while cold air circulated the room. Once Reia finished hers, she watched as Aizawa closed his eyes, most likely letting the sweetness overtake his senses.
Though they sat with no words passing between them, in Reia's mind, various emotions overtook her, only the chaos reflecting on her face with her eyebrows furrowing and a small frown that came and disappeared all too quickly.
The students and Aizawa seemed to be taking their new lives in stride. Though it was a whole other world, with some adjustment, they began to grow a little more comfortable, or at least tolerant to their situation. But despite their acceptance, Reia knew that they all still wanted to go home. And even with all of her efforts, she couldn't grant them that one thing.
She tried. She tried so hard to try and find some sort of clue on how they got to her universe, but no matter how much research she conducted, all she came up with was a blank slate. She didn't know how to send them back. At this point, she didn't even know if she could. The guilt was tearing at her on the inside. And to top it all off with the previous loss she just suffered?
It felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest. Reia felt like a failure.
Swallowing thickly, the woman berated herself once again, calling herself names and things that only she could hear. She entered a daze-like state, only staring off into nothingness as her mind tortured her. Soon, the expression on the woman's face didn't go unnoticed, and the man next to her set down his cup again, raising an eyebrow.
"What is it?"
"What?" Reia jumped at the sudden voice, pulling her away from her thoughts.
She turned to see Aizawa staring at her with an incredulous expression. For a moment, she contemplated on whether she should say what was on her mind. It wasn't important, after all, but with the immense guilt building up in her chest, her mind seemed to blank, and the words fell out on their own.
"I'm...sorry. I still haven't found a clue on how to bring all of you home."
The sudden statement made Aizawa straighten. Studying Reia's expression, he saw how she slightly huddled into herself as she crossed her arms. A small frown displayed on her lips as she looked elsewhere at the floor. He could tell that the situation was bothering her. He remembered trying to look for a clue on how to go home like she did, but just as Reia came up with nothing, so did he.
Unfortunately, without any indications of what happened, It was out of their hands.
"You're doing what you can with what you have," Aizawa said, placing the stick that previously held the marshmallow into the now empty drink, "you didn't have to help us, but you chose to anyway. You took on a burden that wasn't your own. It was already enough that you gave us a place to stay, so don't beat yourself up about something you can't control."
Almost like in a daze, Reia looked into Aizawa's unwavering, confident eyes. Her heart began to warm, and the tenseness that made her body rigid earlier began to relax. The greens of her eyes briefly fell to the floor before going back to his onyx ones. Then, with the critical self thoughts simmering to nothingness, a ghost of a smile made its way onto Reia's face.
With a short chuckle, she spoke. "Thank you, Aizawa."
"Don't worry about it."
Just as he spoke, the sudden rush of footsteps coming from behind Reia caused both her and Aizawa to look. Appearing in the doorway was Mina, her hand propped up against the door frame as she heaved a breath. She looked up and was about to say something when her eyes widened slightly, and a large grin burst onto her face.
"Ooh~, am I interrupting something?"
Reia shook her head with a fond eye roll. "Is there something you need, Ashido?"
"Oh, right! Uh...so Midoriya and Bakugo are fighting again. Don't know what for. Thought it was funny at first...buuuut I don't think they're going to stop."
Aizawa couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh at the statement. Slowly and painfully, he got up from his chair, taking the empty cup with him. Both Reia and Mina waited for the man to approach, and once he made his way toward the door, all three of them set out in the direction of Aizawa's "problem children", which was what he muttered under his breath, to settle a most likely petty argument that happened between the two.
"So much for the celebration," Reia chuckled.
Mina rolled her eyes. "I know, right?"
–
Change
–
Hizashi Yamada wanted to throw up.
It's been 24 hours since Aizawa disappeared in front of him, and no one had a damn clue on where he went. That day, everything was normal. Yamada came bounding into the teacher's lounge along with Kayama, excited to bother his old friend with nothing but his loud voice and overzealous personality. He was just talking to him. But then Aizawa's mug dropped, and so did he.
Yamada held him up as he tried to get his attention. He tried calling his name, he tried to give small slaps to the man's cheek, but nothing. When he tried to carry his friend to the infirmary, a flash of light blinded him and the other teachers in the room, then all Yamada felt was the weight missing from his arms.
His first thought was to issue a lockdown and announce there was a villain attack.
Bolting toward the principal's office along with Kayama, they burst through the door with panicked explanations falling from their tongues. While Nezu tried to calm the two down to talk clearer, two other individuals entered the office. It was Shinso, Aizawa's pupil, and Hatsume, the support course student.
They explained that they were with Izuku Midoriya when he suddenly disappeared in front of them in a flash of light.
With no delay, the school was placed on lockdown.
With the students told to stay in their dorms and some teachers looking after the stragglers that were still in the school building, the rest fanned out to try and find Aizawa and Midoriya, as well as trying to find if there was a villain on the premises. Yamada tried looking in specific places that he knew his friend liked to linger outside of school, and on school grounds. The rest of the other teachers did the same.
That's when they discovered that along with Aizawa, the whole of Class 1-A had disappeared from the school's grounds.
The school remained on lockdown since then.
Now here Yamada was, sitting in the teacher's dorms with his head in his hand and his green eyes staring at his feet. He didn't know what he was going to do. Now that Aizawa had disappeared, he needed to take over and care for Eri for the time being. She lived in the teacher's dorms with rest of the teachers, and despite knowing that they would help him in caring for her, it might be a little more difficult now that Aizawa wasn't around.
Not only that, but how could he tell the poor girl that the person that was her father figure had suddenly disappeared? And what about the other kids? How could he tell her that her sibling figures had disappeared as well?
How could they tell their parents?
For now, the whole ordeal was kept quiet on school grounds. Hero society was teetering. Even some students at U.A. understood that much. With the Liberation Army growing and the distaste for heroes bubbling under the surface, Yamada didn't know how much time was left before everything would come crumbling down.
And if knowledge of a whole class at U.A. disappearing, right under the heroes' noses, got out? The press meeting about Bakugo would seem more like a candy land compared to what they would have to face.
Yamada sighed again as he combed his hands through his non-gelled hair. With everything that was going on, he didn't even have time to put up his hair. Yesterday, the whole day they had searched and tried to find out what happened to Aizawa and the students, and today was no different. With no idea how to find them, Nezu had to even bring in Detective Tsukauchi and his partner on the case.
There had to be some kind of clue where they all went. There had to be.
And if Yamada wanted to find it, he couldn't just sit around. Getting up from the couch from the shared living room, Yamada put on his leather jacket and amplifiers before leaving the teacher's dorms.
Walking into the school building, Yamada let his feet guide him to where his heart wanted to go. With the familiar structure of the building floors passing him by, he eventually stopped, and his eyes went to the words that stood above the doorway. Taking in a deep breath, he opened the door.
"Have you found anything yet?" Yamada asked as he entered the office.
Around the room, the teachers who switched with the previous patrol were gathered around. While Hound Dog and Vlad King both stood next to the wall, Snipe and Ectoplasm were seated on the chairs next to them. They were looking to Principal Nezu who seemed to be thinking about something, and next to his desk, Midnight, Detective Tsukauchi, his partner, 13, and All Might stood waiting for his response.
At the sound of Yamada's voice, all attention turned to him, and Detective Tsukauchi could only sigh at his uncertain question.
"Unfortunately, no. After we looked over the security footage, we found no trace, residue, or anything, aside from the flash of light, that pertained to the disappearance of Eraserhead and his students when we investigated the areas. We also looked on the quirk database for anyone who was registered with some type of teleportation ability, but there was no one we could identify."
"What about the security cameras outside the school? Maybe a villain had teleported them from outside the grounds? It could be why the alarms didn't go off," Midnight suggested.
Tsukauchi shook his head. "We made sure to check those, even the surrounding buildings outside the school that had security cameras in its direction. If there was a villain, then we would have seen them. The patrol we had out that day didn't report anything suspicious in the area."
"So, what, are you saying it's all pointless?" Vlad King joined.
Again, Tsukauchi shook his head. "Of course not, but without much of a lead, the investigation would take longer, and more people would need to get involved."
Snipe winced. "So much for staying quiet."
"Then what do you suggest we do?" All Might asked.
At the front of the room, Nezu stared at his desk with his paws clasped together. For a moment the whole room remained silent. They waited with bated breaths as they watched Nezu try to come to a decision. After what seemed like forever, the chimera finally unwrapped his hands, and he sat up straight.
"I believe we should continue to investigate the matter for another day," Nezu started, then turned to Tsukauchi, "however, if nothing can be done, then letting anyone you know that could help should be the next course of action."
The detective nodded at the statement, putting the hat in his hand onto his head. "Alright then. Sansa and I have to head back to the precinct, but...we're going to do everything we can to bring back Eraserhead and his students. We'll find them."
Once the detective and his partner took their leave, the teachers remained in the office, all dumbfounded and frustrated. One by one, they began to file out. Yamada eventually did too, and with a heavy heart, he went back to his classroom, getting ready to teach the class that was supposed to be after 1-A.
As he began to set up some of the papers on the students' desks, he couldn't help but look out the window. The sky was a dull grey, and little drops of water pelted against the window in a soft rhythm. Yamada frowned lightly, his arms dropping to his sides limply.
Where did you go, Shota?
Later that night, Yamada laid down on his mattress in his dorm, the darkness only illuminated by the moon and the glow of his phone. His mind ran through different situations and scenarios his friend might be going through, wherever he was. With his hair disheveled and his red glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose, he lazily scrolled through the old messages between him and Aizawa.
His eyes would occasionally catch onto some sentences as he scrolled toward the beginning of their messages. Even now, Yamada refused to scroll on the other app that had conversations between him and Aizawa. It went all the way back to when they first met. When they were in high school. They had a group chat then, and Yamada would always reminisce about the good times, but he refused to actually read the messages there. They had one less friend to spend time with.
And Yamada was beginning to think he was going to be the only one left from it.
Sighing deeply, he rubbed at the bags under his eyes, and his glasses moved upward. He didn't know what he was going to do. A small tear pricked the corner of his eye, and he immediately wiped it away. Focusing back onto his phone, Yamada again checked Aizawa's contact as he clicked out of the conversation.
Tsukauchi and his partner have tried to get a hit on one of the student's or Aizawa's phones. They tried to track them, but all they came up with was the signals all coming from inside the school. It didn't make sense! Despite all of the students' phones and Aizawa's phone getting tracked to U.A., none of the devices were seen anywhere.
None of it made sense.
With Yamada's eyes half closed, he looked at the picture made to be his friend's contact. It was when him and Aizawa were younger. Arm wrapped around his friend's shoulder, Yamada had a large grin on his face while he pulled the emo boy close to him, a small scowl present on the boy's face. Even after losing contact and reconnecting later on, he still didn't change the contact from what it was.
Yamada slowly began to drift off, and his finger hovered slightly over the call button. Despite knowing it probably wouldn't work, he wanted to press it anyway. Even if there was only a flat tone on the other end, he just wanted to try. So, with nothing but a hazy mind and a pointless attempt, he pressed the green button.