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Aizawa regains consciousness, and interviews are held.
Chapter 12: Concerns
Shouta clawed his way back to the waking world, fighting his way past the haze over his thoughts and the heaviness of eyelids. He needed to wake up.
What happened? Where am I? Where are the students?
He could only get one eye open. The bright white ceiling made his head spike in pain, and he groaned. That was a hospital ceiling. He had woken up and been left to stare at them enough times to recognize that shade of white and the sort of tiles they used.
“Ah, Aizawa-kun! Are you finally awake?” He grunted at the familiar, loud voice. Even if it wasn’t the one he’d expected hear upon waking up.
“Where’s Hizashi?” He rasped out. All Might- No, Yagi leaned into view. The number one hero looked terrible, sunken eyes only dimly glowing and his hair more of a mess than it usually was. (The man was horrible at doing more than the bare minimum he needed to take care of himself. Hizashi thought Shouta was bad, but Yagi seemed to be much worse.)
“He’s gone to get some food. I offered to keep watch until he returned.”
That was both good and bad. Good, because it meant his injuries were light enough that Hizashi felt like he could leave the room and let someone other than Nemuri wait by Shouta’s bedside. But also bad because Hizashi felt that someone needed to stay by his bedside and wait for Shouta to finally come around.
Now came the question he was half-dreading the answer to. How willingly would Yagi tell him why he was in a hospital? He hoped he wouldn’t have to pry too hard to get brought up to speed. He didn’t feel up to pulling teeth yet.
“What…” He swallowed past his dry throat. “What happened?”
The blonde hesitated.
“Do you… Do you not remember?”
“Head’s fuzzy. Probably the medication. Help jog my memory.” He needed to know what happened. For his piece of mind, if nothing else. Yagi let out a breath.
“Ah, I see. You… The USJ was attacked by a group that called themselves the “League of Villains”. You and Thirteen were badly injured while protecting the students, who had been scattered throughout the building by someone with a warping quirk.” The man’s face became pinched with guilt, hunching in his chair and staring at his hands as he continued. “The League was after me, but I wasn’t there when they arrived. They brought something called a Nomu, some kind of genetically engineered creature, with the intent of using it to kill me. However, since I wasn’t there, they used the beast to attack you and the students.”
The memories started to trickle in as the man spoke. He let out a hum that he hoped All Might would take as a signal to continue. Thankfully, he did.
“I arrived late into the fight, long after you and Thirteen had been injured by the villains. Some of the students had been hurt as well, but nowhere near as badly, from what little I’ve been told. I managed to fight off the Nomu, but we weren’t able to capture the leader before he escaped with the help of their warper.” Yagi looked guilty, and it took Shouta a moment to piece together why as his fuzzy memories slotted into place.
“You went over your limit.”
If anything, Yagi looked even more guilty at that.
“I know. I should have remembered to conserve more of my time for the class. Then I would have been there when-” Shouta shifted his head enough to glare with his single eye at the older hero, silencing the man before he could further sink into his self-imposed guilt.
“Your secret was almost discovered by a vigilante, several students, and a bunch of villains if I hadn’t realized you were steaming and moved to keep anyone from seeing you. Your secret was almost learned by people we couldn’t be sure would keep that secret,” he said, forcing his words past his rough throat. His glare sharpened. “There was blood dripping from your mouth.”
Yagi’s eyes were wide.
“Who- A vigilante?”
“There was a reason I kept my head pointed away at that point,” he said with a grunt. Yagi, for all his brashness as All Might, wasn’t a fool.
“The transformation…” Yagi muttered, frowning. “Was it the mask? Could they see through it?”
Shouta let out a breath, wondering how much he should say in private. Chances were, Nedzu would demand a meeting with him as soon as the hospital gave him clearance. Actually, he’d probably have an entire staff meeting to gather as much information as possible.
He’d probably end up repeating himself, but it hardly mattered. He needed to make a point.
“He could see through my eyes and hear through my ears. Which would have been enough to get you caught if I hadn’t looked away.”
“I- I see.” Yagi fell silent, brow furrowed as he looked down in thought. He was tired, in the same way he always was when he woke up in a hospital. He didn’t want to go back to sleep yet, but he was worn out.
That actually gave him pause.
He- The memories of his condition prior to his conversation with Sasakia were vague, likely due to his head injury at the time, yet… He was fairly sure he’d been injured severely. Far too much to only feel this bad when he woke up. He was certain he should have been in far worse shape. Enough that he definitely shouldn’t be able to move.
He felt bad; there was no denying that, but it should have been worse. Had the doctors put him in a medical coma? Was that why he was this far recovered? Shit, how long had they kept him under?
“How long have I been out?” He asked. Yagi jumped slightly, seeming to remember that he wasn’t alone in the room.
“About… Five days now? Yamada-kun said there have been several doctors with healing quirks working in tandem to help you recover so quickly.”
No, that couldn’t be right. Even with the healing quirks UA had access to, it should have taken much longer for him to feel like this. He should feel full casts on both of his arms and one of his legs, at the very least. But he couldn’t feel more than one cast on his arm, and not just because of whatever pain medication the hospital had him on. But why?
Near the end of Sasakia’s time limit for the transformation, he had felt some kind of flow of energy into his body through the connection. Had the informant been trying to heal him even as his energy for maintaining it was running out?
He wanted to sigh.
He already knew the young man was empathetic; he supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised that he would attempt something like that.
Yagi shifted nervously in his seat, then his face set into something unusually serious. Shouta hadn’t seen that expression since he revealed his condition to UA’s staff when Nedzu had first introduced them all to the man.
“Aizawa-kun. Who caused that transformation? How did they do it?”
Shouta frowned at him.
He didn’t want to reveal the informant. It went against his instincts as an Underground Hero to reveal an informant to someone who didn’t also work underground. Yagi may have lived one of, if not the most extreme, double life in the current industry, but he was still a Limelight hero. Too many eyes were on them for an informant to remain a secure secret. And he especially didn’t want to talk about an informant in a place that he couldn’t be sure was secured. Informants, no matter their status, were too valuable to risk losing due to a lack of caution.
“Not here,” he said shortly. “Not secured enough.”
Yagi’s face pinched slightly. Not from anger, but from concern. He could make a few guesses why, but he wasn’t going to budge. Their conversation was derailed by Hizashi coming in.
His friend confirmed that Nedzu planned to hold a debrief as soon as the hospital gave Shouta the all clear. And Hizashi fully planned to enforce whatever doctor’s orders were given to him. For once, he planned to listen. They couldn’t be sure if Sasakia’s powers had side effects, so they wanted to tread cautiously with his recovery. (Even if it was logical, he hated having to put his duties aside.)
So he would have to wait. For now.
Shouta grunted as he sank into the chair set aside for him in the meeting room. It was more plush than they usually had for meetings, but he would blame that on Hizashi’s insistence on his being careful post-release. Or maybe Nedzu had brought it? He had been the one to see the transformation fall. Seeing him drop must have been more upsetting than he’d realized. (Though, perhaps not. He’d looked perfectly healthy as a Kamiko. Going from that to however injured he’d been at the time would have been an extreme contrast, no matter what.)
It hardly mattered. It felt good to let his body rest, even if the thought irked him.
Ugh, he hadn’t realized how much chronic pain he dealt with day-to-day until Sasakia had (unwittingly) taken all of it away.
It had been seven days since his admittance to the hospital, and two days since he’d regained consciousness. And now he was in a meeting to finally give his full testimony for what had happened during the attack. He’d refused to do it at the hospital due to the lack of security.
His eyes slid over the other people in the meeting room with him.
Nedzu sat at the head of the table, directly facing Shouta, his face unusually blank. Not even his normal, neutral smile was in place. To Nedzu’s right was Yagi, whose face was set in a nervous frown as he watched Shouta sit down. And to Nedzu’s left was Naomasa, who nodded in greeting at the two proheroes.
He and Hizashi had been the last to arrive.
The meeting was small at his request. He wanted to hash out how much they would reveal to the rest of the staff and the public about what had happened to him before they made another press release about the attack. And he wanted to ensure that Sasakia’s name would be omitted from the papers as much as possible, along with the lengths that his transformation went. The last thing he wanted was for someone to try to hunt the young man down to use his powers for their own gain. Even if he knew the transformations had a firm time limit.
Revealing an informant grated on him as it was, but he was pretty sure Sasakia’s actions had saved the lives of many of their students. (And maybe even Shouta’s life, if his hunch about his state in the hospital was right.)
“This meeting room is secure,” Nedzu said, not bothering with his usual preambles. “Please begin.”
The detective calmly grabbed his notebook, ready to start taking notes of Shouta’s testimony. Shouta took a deep breath and launched into reciting what had happened that day.
“During the USJ attack, the villains entered the building through a portal made by one of their members. A mist warper by the name of Kurogiri. The security in the building didn’t go off, presumably due to a quirk possessed by someone else in their group. I attempted to buy Thirteen and the students time to escape by fighting the villain in the main plaza head-on. I knew fully well that I was outnumbered and my chances of surviving the battle were low,” Shouta said, not bothering to beat around the bush. (He never did.) “I had succeeded in taking out several of the villains, but the mist Villain turned out to be a warper. He used his quirk to get around me and scatter the students throughout the USJ, and used his quirk to wound Thirteen. I do not know what the students faced while they were separated. I was forced to focus on battling the villains in the main plaza and keep them from getting too close to the front doors.”
“In hopes that the scattered students would have the chance to reach the doors if they managed to escape the villains?” the detective asked. He nodded.
“Yes. If I could keep them away from the doors and Thirteen, then there was a chance the students could make it to safety. I managed to thin the numbers, but my strength began to flag. I’m an ambush fighter, I don’t take on large groups at once, nor do I use my quirk for extended periods like that.” He frowned, eyes trailing to the table for a moment before looking up again. “The leader, Shigaraki, was observant and stayed out of the initial fighting. He noticed that my stamina was running out and that I had a second tell for when my quirk was active. That was when he entered the fray.”
Shouta lifted a hand and rubbed at his elbow, the one wrapped tightly in a cast, the phantom of the pain returning as he brought the memory to mind.
“His quirk appeared to be a rapid disintegration of cells, possibly through extreme dehydration, as I found when he used it to destroy my elbow.” Sasakia’s profile was the closest he could get to figuring out what had happened. It was the most logical theory, so that would be the one he presented to the detective. “As I attempted to engage him, he ordered the Nomu to attack.”
“It shattered my arms, crushed one of my legs, broke several of my ribs, and cracked my skull.” Hizashi sucked in a breath, looking rather green as his eyes trailed over the arm bundled tight by the doctors. Yagi’s head snapped to him in alarm, having previously been unaware of the damage his coworker had sustained during the battle. And, he was quite certain, they were not the extent they were told of while he was in the hospital. “I am fully certain those were the injuries I’d sustained by that point when several of the students stumbled into the plaza. Shigaraki attempted to use his quirk on one of them. I was barely able to activate my quirk before his hand could make contact with Asui’s head. That… That was the moment the vigilante made contact.”
He couldn’t help pausing at that point. Now came the harder part, explaining who the vigilante was and getting the other three heroes up to speed on what he knew of them.
“The vigilante is someone both Detective Tsukauchi and I know of, but I’m the only one who’s made previous contact with them. He goes by the name ‘Sasakia’ and he’s an anonymous informant for police and underground heroes in Musutafu.” The detective frowned, lightly tapping his pen in thought. He likely hadn’t expected to hear the name of one of their more elusive informants during Shouta’s testimony. Nedzu made a small gesture for him to continue, silently asking for more information about the informant himself. “He’s been active in the area for the past three years. Most of the work he does is missing persons, abduction, and abuse cases. Usually, cases where the victim is a child or a teenager. Occasionally, he steps out of those circles. But, overall, those are his specialties. Normally, Flashstep is the underground hero he reports cases to. He seems to make use of his route specifically to give the information and tips he gets. I’ve only spoken to him a handful of times, and only over the past year.”
“How do you usually make contact with him?” Nedzu asked.
Of course, Shouta and Naomasa were the only ones who knew how Sasakia worked. So that had to be explained as well.
“The butterflies. Coming into contact with them, either by touching them directly or letting them rest on something on your person, allows them to make a telepathic connection. Because of that, he’s never actually been seen in person. He has an empathetic sensory aspect to his powers, which is what he uses to locate missing and abducted people. There seems to be an area around the butterflies that he uses to map his senses, but he also seems to get information about whoever he connects to once he makes contact. I’ve never had to state who I was after picking up a butterfly; he always knew and would greet me by name. If the butterflies are just flying around, they need to be caught to speak with Sasakia. If they are resting in one spot, then they’re waiting to be picked up. If they make a direct path for someone, then there’s an emergency.”
Nedzu nodded at the explanation of Sasakia’s butterfly flight patterns. Undoubtedly making mental notes to use for some later purpose.
“What do you think would have drawn him to UA?” the principal asked.
“He was the one who gave the tip about a group of villains planning to attack a hero school in Musutafu, though he hadn’t known which one at the time. Flashstep passed on the warning before the entrance exams. I remember telling you about it soon after that,” he answered bluntly.
He clearly remembered the not-quite-argument that had occurred when he told the rest of the staff about the tip. Many of the people in that meeting had said their security was fine or that the tipster was overreacting. Or that the addition of All Might to their staff was more than enough of a deterrent for villains. He had not been one of them and refused to think that coasting on their previous praises was a good way of reacting. Nedzu had tightened their digital security to appease Shouta’s insistence that the informant was reliable, but he hadn’t done much more than that.
Admittedly, the rodent had a lot on his plate at the time, trying to sift through the recommendation students and their stubborn hero parents who didn’t like hearing “no” or mentors who decided that making a nuisance of themselves was the best way to “convince” Nedzu to accept their student.
He still planned on reminding them to take the tips from underground informants more seriously after this.
“I assume that he’s been keeping watch over the schools ever since, either to sound an alarm or assist in some way. The sudden change in emotions from the school, along with the sudden surge of people on the campus, was likely what drew him to actually make a visible move that day.”
“I see. Please continue then, Aizawa-kun.”
“He made the connection in a hurry. I don’t know if the butterfly landed on me or on the remains of my capture scarf. I couldn’t risk moving my head to find out due to the danger of my quirk stopping while Shigaraki was that close to the students. He- The connection was different that time. I was able to see a version of him in mental landscape, and we were able to speak in what amounted to our first and only ‘face-to-face’ conversation,” he frowned, carefully describing the young man he had envisioned in those scant few seconds, and the mental world that Sasakia had pulled him into. “He said that… His connection was more than just the mind, and he could lend me extra power for a short time, some of his power, to keep the students safe. The power would manifest as a transformation that we could both set the criteria for, as long as we agreed on the outcome we wanted at the end. With the injuries I’d sustained at that time, and the risk I knew the students were in, I chose to accept the offered power. That was when the transformation occurred.”
Nedzu had actually leaned forward in his seat slightly in anticipation.
“How did that feel, Aizawa-kun? What kind of sensations did you get from it?” Naomasa asked. Shouta hummed in thought, recalling what he’d felt after agreeing to Sasakia’s offer.
“Warm. It felt warm, the kind that sinks deep into your bones. It reminded me of… Of taking a nap on a warm spring day. Or stargazing on a summer night.” Describing it like that, while knowing the kind of situation he’d been in at the time, felt strange. But it was true. “Every ache and pain I’d felt up to that point was gone. My injuries from the fight, any effects from lack of sleep from my underground work, even the itch from my dry eye; all of it was gone in the span of a few seconds.”
He didn’t say that it had been the best he’d felt in years, but it had. He caught the way Hizashi had frowned in thought, likely picking up on what he’d left unspoken.
“I knew about the changes, somehow. I knew that I was armored and roughly how powerful it was. I knew roughly how much taller I was than before; I knew about the extra arms and eyes I had. I knew about all of it the instant I was standing and had my eyes open. I just knew.”
“And what did you know about it all?” Nedzu asked, his stare intense and focused.
“The armor was flexible and could withstand low-caliber firearms. I knew the spikes could withstand contact with steel without losing their sharpness. I actually had two capture scarves instead of one, and they’d been enhanced to resist stronger forces, both piercing and cutting. All of it was weighted and designed to work with my fighting style without hampering my movements or leaving gaps in my defense. And the extra eyes and arms felt natural to me. Like I’d been born with them, even though I knew I hadn’t been.”
Part of him couldn’t help marveling at the armor, now that things were safe. He usually didn’t care for it, since it was usually too blocky or heavy to work well for his underground work. But what Sasakia had put in him had felt like something that was just- tailored exactly for him. Something that he’d never had access to before. It was always too expensive and not strictly necessary for his heroic work. So he’d never bothered to try and get his hands on any.
(And, dammit, now he was reconsidering his stance on the matter. He might actually look into getting something now. A vest for protection against knives, at the very least.)
“I’d had enhanced strength and reflexes. All five eyes could move and focus independently, and I could use my quirk with each one individually. My quirk had been strengthened, as well. It could affect both emitters and passive quirks, but it still wouldn’t work on mutations.”
“How was your quirk enhanced?” This time, it was Yagi who’d asked. There was something strange in his face that Shouta didn’t recognize. He wanted to say it was concern, but there was something else to it. Something just a little more intense than usual.
He grimaced at the question. He didn’t like explaining how his quirk worked, too many bad memories from his childhood. But he’d had a doctor insist on learning how his quirk functioned after he’d become a licensed hero. For both his medical records (which could be redacted for hospitals outside of hero agencies) and to ensure he could be safely treated if someone tried to disable it permanently. He hadn’t been able to argue with the doctor’s logic.
It had been the first (and last) time he’d ever had an MRI. And he had no plans of using one again. (Too small, too enclosed.)
“My eyes need to focus clearly to specify whose quirk I’m erasing, but the actual erasure is through a psychic element, which causes my eyes to glow and my hair to levitate. If you were to be more specific, my quirk suppresses a person’s ability to use their quirk.” He lifted a bandaged hand and tapped the side of his head to emphasise. “For emitter quirks, there’s a signal that the brain uses to activate the quirk. A kind of mental switch that turns it on and off on command. Erasure blocks and erases that signal so that they can’t turn their quirk ‘on’ anymore. For that reason, I can’t erase quirks that cause a physical mutation, or ones that don’t have an ‘off’ switch.”
The number one hero nodded, his face thoughtful. Likely thinking over his own quirk now and how Shouta’s quirk would affect him if he were subjected to it.
“Sasakia boosted my quirk so that I could not only erase more than one quirk at once, but also so that I could erase quirks that didn’t have those ‘off’ switches. Along with any side facets or effects that their quirks may have had, or any other emitter-like powers.” Nedzu’s brow furrowed slightly, but he didn’t say whatever was on his mind, continuing to listen to what Shouta said. “Sasakia’s senses were partially tied to mine as a result of the transformation. He could see and hear everything I did, but he didn’t seem to have access to my thoughts or memories. He could only get the feedback from those two senses, alongside his usual empathetic abilities.”
His fellow heroes and the detective were silent, absorbing the information he was giving them. It was an impressive amount, considering the injuries he’d sustained up to that point. And everything that he’d come away with because of it… Even he could admit that, if he hadn’t experienced it himself, he wouldn’t have thought something like that was possible. Yet it had happened.
“Sasakia started profiling the villains and their quirks, giving everything he could gather about them from the vantage point he had. He revealed that he couldn’t properly sense the nomu, meaning it either had the mental faculties of an ordinary animal or that it was…” He paused, remembering the unsettling bit of information the informant had given him. “Or that it was braindead and had been programmed to obey whatever orders it was given by Shigaraki.”
The principal’s face was grim at that, as was Naomasa’s, but neither looked surprised by the information. Someone must have found the creature and not mentioned it to him. It didn’t bother him; he hadn’t thought to ask after he’d woken up.
I warned the students to escape after the transformation had finished, and I’d surveyed the scene. That was around the time All Might arrived.” At that point, Yagi had perked slightly. Obviously, he hadn’t realised just how quickly he’d arrived after Sasakia had changed him. He was probably kept out of most of the interviews up to now, only being told second-hand information if anyone thought it was prudent for him to know.
Nedzu nodded. This was the point where they would likely be comparing his testimony to that of Yagi and the students.
“Sasakia suggested I act as support for All Might, covering his back so he could focus on the nomu and ensuring the remaining low-ranked villains didn’t have the chance to strike while the main threat was being dealt with. I agreed with the logic. We tag-teamed for a short period before the warper assisted the nomu in injuring All Might. I attempted to forcibly draw Kurogiri’s attention from All Might by attacking Shigaraki, to both get him in a better position to erase his quirk and to destabilize the portal he was using on the nomu. I used my quirk on him, and he began to lose control of his form. Sasakia thought he may have had more than one quirk as well, and that the loss of one power was possibly destabilizing the others.”
“So he may have been a nomu as well, but one that still had a mind…” murmured Naomasa, carefully noting the detail in his report.
“I kept an Active eye on him; he was the one who got the villains in, and he was probably their only way out. That was roughly when three more students arrived on the scene. Todoroki, Bakugo, and Kirishima.” Now he could cover both how the students reacted and how they had attempted to help fight back. “Todoroki kept his distance and used his ice to hamper the nomu, assisting All Might in breaking loose from its grip. He didn’t put himself directly in the line of fire, positioning himself to aid from a distance instead. Kirishima took it upon himself to fend off any villains that attempted to make their way to the door and to Thirteen, making use of his quirk to ensure his defensive line couldn’t be broken. Bakugo went after Kurogiri, despite the way his quirk was visibly fluctuating, and attempted to pin him. He was using the danger of his own quirk to force the villain into submission.”
He sent a Look to Nedzu, making it clear he intended to go into more detail on that at a later date. Bakugo’s tactic had worked, yes, but it was not how a limelight hero should have conducted themselves. And the risk he had taken could have gotten him in a tremendous amount of trouble, or worse.
The quirked animal nodded slightly. He understood, and they would cycle back to that in private.
“Shigaraki revealed the nomu had a second quirk and ordered it to take out Bakugo and I to reclaim Kurogiri for their escape. All Might prevented it from making contact with him. The Leader decided to monologue about his motives and swore that the nomu could successfully kill All Might.”
Naomasa looked over at him, lightly tapping his pen against the table to get his attention.
“According to several testimonies from those present during that time, there was a moment when you didn’t speak or act like yourself. Can you explain that?” The detective asked.
Shouta frowned in thought. How best to explain that moment? He remembered being angry, offended by the bluff the villain was making. Trying to blame society for his decision to attack the school and kill the students there. Pretending that he was justified in doing so.
Sasakia could sense that the man had been lying, and Shouta had been able to see it as well. And they had both been angry about it. Angry that he was trying to hide his motives. Angry that he thought what he was doing was fun. Angry that he enjoyed hurting innocent people and sowing fear.
That moment, when he’d spoken… He was saying what Sasakia had wanted to say, but wasn’t present to speak aloud. He had wanted to ensure everyone knew the man was lying. That he wouldn’t be able to hide behind a fake veil of righteousness. They had been in… They had been in sync, for lack of a better term.
“An unintentional overlap of Sasakia’s thoughts and my own, I believe. We were both… Displeased by the false speech that Shigaraki was giving about his motives for attacking the school, and I believe that was what triggered the effect. I’d started speaking his thoughts because we were both enraged by what he was claiming. As soon as I realized that something was off, the overlap vanished. Sasakia attempted to distance his end of the connection from mine to prevent it from happening again. I genuinely don’t think he meant for it to happen, if he had even been aware that it could happen in the first place.”
It wasn’t an unheard-of phenomenon with telepathic quirks. Sometimes a person would only believe they could speak with someone, then discover they could get someone else to speak their thoughts when the two fell too far into synch. Their thoughts would line up, and suddenly, the other person would start telling what was on the quirk user’s mind. It wasn’t an intentional act of maliciousness, simply an accident due to circumstances.
He’d never seen it before, but he’d read a few research reports while looking into quirks like Sasakia’s.
“So it was more due to similar thoughts and emotions triggering the momentary synchronization than any kind of intentional quirk usage,” Nedzu said with a hum. “That’s good. I would rather it be something like that rather than any sort of forceful element.”
He agreed with that sentiment.
“I ordered the students to stay out of the fight, and All Might reengaged the nomu. Just before the staff arrived, he had succeeded in overwhelming the creature’s quirks and ended up launching it through the roof of USJ.” He let out a breath, his shoulders sagging slightly. He had to mention this part; it was one of the reasons he’d lost focus on Kurogiri, so it needed to be in the report. “Sasakia… He had been standing atop the dome.”
“What?” Naomasa jolted, his eyes widening. “Are you certain?”
“Yes. The reaction I felt over the link leads me to believe the shadow I had seen at the top of the USJ dome was, in fact, Sasakia himself. The kamiko transformation may have a shorter range than his telepathy, so he had to take the risk by placing himself so close to ensure he could feed the energy necessary for it.” He knew the next question and continued before anyone could attempt to ask. “It was too far for me to make out any details of his appearance outside of what I had seen during the initial agreement we’d made, especially since the sun was at his back. I was distracted by the reaction he had and a protective impulse that may have been a side effect of the fact that he was supplying the energy for the transformation. But, as a result of that, I took my focus off both Shigaraki and Kurogiri.”
“As a result, when the rest of the staff arrived, the villains were able to escape.” And he was still chagrined about that, even if he felt like he couldn’t hold Sasakia responsible. They had almost been able to bring the two in, and ensure that they wouldn’t be able to pull a repeat stunt like that in the future.
Nedzu looked thoughtful.
“So the transformation may come with a protective instinct toward Sasakia due to his supplying the energy for it. I suppose that’s one way to ensure, even subconsciously, that the person didn’t attempt to use that power against him.”
That was true, he supposed. It may have also just been a trait of Shouta’s, as he had been focused on protecting the students when Sasakia had transformed him, and those might have unintentionally spread to any allies who were nearby. Which happened to include the informant at that time.
“All Might’s time was running out, so I positioned myself to prevent the students from getting a clear view and made sure to keep my head turned away so that Sasakia wouldn’t get a glimpse of his true form. When the staff overtook the remaining villains, I stayed in place to keep watch and ensure I could assist anyone who called for it. When I looked later, the shadow was gone. I could feel an uptick in the energy I was receiving from Sasakia, but I was unsure why.” He looked to Nedzu, his face calm. He knew the principal was probably aware of what had happened at that point. “When you approached, he instructed me to tell you to call the medics and warned me that his ability to manage the transformation was running out. I’m afraid I can’t remember anything after the connection finally broke.”
All of them were quiet. They had the entirety of his statement now. So they would switch to clarifications at this point. (He had a feeling that there were several phrases and terms that they would want him to clarify.)
“You called it a ‘kamiko’ transformation?” Shouta inclined his head to the principal.
“That was the term Sasakia used for it. He explicitly used it for me while I was in that state, so I can only assume that is the term he coined for anyone that he used his powers to change.” Nedzu clasped his paws together in thought.
“What do you think of the informant himself? What kind of person do you think he is based on your interactions with him?”
“He’s young and makes an effort to seem older and more collected than he really is. He uses formal speech, but often slips up and uses slang and informal language without fully realizing it,” he answered calmly. “He’s emotional, possibly as a side effect of the sensory aspect of his powers, but tries hard to hide it. He cares a lot, even for people whom he only vaguely knows. I believe the energy transfer I felt before the connection broke was him attempting to push past his own limits to heal me.”
He didn’t say the informant was stupidly compassionate because of the attempt, but the thought was in his mind. The pale-furred mammal tilted his head at him.
“You have not used the term ‘quirk’ for his abilities. Is there a reason for that?” Shouta blinked at that, then frowned. He… Hadn’t noticed that he was doing that. Not until the principal pointed it out.
“It… It feels like that’s just the right way to refer to them. I can’t explain why, but I don’t feel that ‘quirk’ is the correct term for Sasakia’s abilities.” There was too much that Sasakia’s powers could do. There were simply too many facets to the abilities for him to fully believe it was a single quirk. Perhaps a team of quirks acting in tandem, but after becoming a kamiko…
Sasakia was the only person fueling those powers; he was certain of it.
“And you’re absolutely certain of this? His powers aren’t simply a very complex quirk?” Nedzu leaned forward, something curious glinting in his eyes as he asked that. He nodded.
“Fascinating. Simply fascinating.” The principal looked excited. Like he’d gotten a piece of a larger puzzle he was doing as a side project.
Shouta had seen it before, and he’d never figured out what puzzle Nedzu was exploring in his free time. Or if he had many of them that he was working on for his own entertainment. (He probably never would.)
“But you have no idea what he looks like outside of his costume? Or where someone could potentially find him?” All Might asked, his face pinched in worry as he shifted nervously in his seat. He couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at the man.
“He’s an anonymous tipster most of the time. The butterflies are the only way to for anyone to communicate with him. I’m fairly certain we’re the only people in all of Musutafu who have a physical description of him now.” Shouta took a small amount of comfort from that knowledge. Hizashi looked over at the hero from his spot beside Shouta and spoke up.
“Look, I know he’s probably gonna get a vigilantism strike. But he’s already established as an informant for underground heroes, Mightyman. The rules are a little different in those cases, right?” The green-eyed man looked over to the detective, who was scribbling notes down.
Naomasa, for as well-meaning as he was, had a small problem with black-and-white views. It was one of the few reasons he and Shouta would get into disagreements during cases they shared. He tended to come down hard on vigilantes and informants due to their breaking of the law, even if they were just trying to help. Shouta knew that, in underground work, saving lives tended to trump written law. Underground agencies were able to cover for their informants, and had special rules and procedures in cases where an informant acted to help or to protect themselves, and had to use their quirks to do it.
Sasakia was already established as an informant in Musutafu, and a fairly well-liked one among those who knew him. There were a handful of underground agencies that were more than ready to vouch for him and help cover his involvement, and he was sure Nedzu would learn that once he contacted Flashstep’s agency.
“Yes, unfortunately. He’s all but licensed due to the number of cases he’s assisted in over the past three years. The fact that, up until this point, he’s remained completely remote in his assistance also means he can’t even be properly called a vigilante.” The detective looked more than a little put out as he said that. “A tipster and informant, yes. But not a vigilante. This would be a warning-level offense at most, just because of the scale of the event.”
“And if the villains started looking for him? Is there any way to secure his safety if the League of Villains tries to track him down? If a villain managed to catch a glimpse of him atop the USJ…” Yagi pressed. Shouta couldn’t help sitting up straighter at that.
“You think they’ll try to track him down? As revenge for interfering?” He couldn’t help asking. Sasakia was well hidden, but if a bunch of villains start scouring the city looking for someone with a quirk similar to Sasakia’s powers, then…
As far as he knew, no one had one. But a vengeance quest meant that anyone even remotely similar could be hurt as collateral, or worse. Not to mention the pressure it would put on the agencies and heroes that often received Sasakia’s information.
Nedzu looked over to Yagi, his face lightly scolding.
“Perhaps, you had best explain why you’re so concerned about that Yagi-kun. It will make planning things much easier.” He couldn’t tell if Nedzu actually wanted Yagi to share whatever was eating at him, or if he was just using it to make the hero calm down. Yagi visibly hesitated, either way. Glancing between the principal, the detective, and his fellow teachers, as though fighting to make up his mind.
Then his shoulders sagged and he started talking.
All For One. A man whose quirk allowed him to take away someone’s quirk and give it to someone else. The man who may have been the one to create the nomu. The man who was responsible for Yagi’s injury and declining health. A man who would kill to get his hands on a ‘quirk’ as powerful as Sasakia’s. And if he were truly part of the League, like Yagi theorized based on the existence of the Nomu, he would stop at nothing to take it for himself.
If Yagi was right, then there was now a target on Sasakia’s back. One that Sasakia likely didn’t even realize was there.
Shit.
“So, what are we looking at doing?” Hizashi asked. His expression was grim, his radio-host persona fully set aside.
“Firstly, I intend to inform Flashstep’s agency that one of their informants was involved in the USJ attack and assisted Aizawa-kun in protecting the students. That should safely cover his actions and allow us to have everything involving him redacted from the official records. He will be protected from that angle,” Nedzu said, paws braced on the table. “Secondly, I would like Aizawa-kun to share his patrol route with Sasakia. Preferably, I would like to convince him to report to you more often, but I think letting him know where to send his butterflies to contact you would be a good start.”
Shouta frowned, rolling the idea around in his head. He preferred not to share his routes, although getting in more regular contact with the informant would be helpful. Especially since it was his tips that put the League on their radars in the first place. But something told him that wasn’t the reason Nedzu wanted him to do that. If he had to guess, the real reason was that:
“You want me to earn his trust.”
The highly intelligent animal nodded.
“Ideally, I would like to put him under UA’s protection if All for One is truly alive and possibly targeting him. Having him close at hand would make protecting him and his abilities much easier. Before we can even broach such a topic, however, we need to give him a reason to trust us. To trust that we are, in fact, trying to help him. As it is, he is fully unknown outside of the informant work he’s done. He has no reason to believe that we wouldn’t try to use his identity against him if he revealed himself to us.”
“So we need to ease our way into it. Even just to get him to call us for help if villains do start trying to target him,” Hizashi sighed, leaning back in his seat. Shouta hummed in agreement.
“I can try. But, ultimately, the change would be left to Sasakia,” he said. Nedzu let out a tired chuckle.
“Isn’t that how things always seem to be?”
Shouta couldn’t disagree with that.
Afterword: I know this is mostly just- Aizawa describing what happened at the USJ. But I felt like some parts ought to be rehashed for the sake of showing that there was a proper police testimony about the whole thing. I’d originally planned for the interview to be from All Might’s perspective, but for some reason, he just wouldn’t let me write him. Trying to get into his head was too hard because it kept turning into mental panic spirals about AFO and the possible similarities between Sasakia and him. And how far the guy would go to take a quirk like that for himself.
Not very conducive for writing, as I’m sure you can guess.
I mostly wanted to get into the unintentional target Izuku now has on his back. Because there’s no way Shigaraki wouldn’t tell AFO about Eraserhead’s “second stage” and how much faster/more powerful he became because of it. So, uh, now there’s a background race going on for who finds out Sasakia’s civilian identity first. The Heroes of UA or the League of Villains.
Izuku is blissfully unaware of this. For now, at least.
I also had a little fun digging into how I thought Aizawa’s quirk actually worked. I’ve seen some debate/ideas for how it works, but I wanted to throw my hat into the ring. I thought him having some kind of psychic suppressor element, with his eyes/line-of-sight helping him specify who he was using it on, made more sense than some of the other theories I’ve read. Why not share the idea, right?
