Work Text:
If there was one thing Aizawa Shouta was known for at UA, it was his creative teaching methods including but not limited to: logical ruses, expulsion, and some very intense lessons. Today however, there was no tiring lesson, just a simple essay.
“You’ve all done enough hero analysis. For this project, you will all be assigned a different classmate and will analyze their quirk,” he began. “I want to see their strengths, weaknesses, where they would excel, where they won’t, how they would be defeated, and anything else you find relevant.”
Aizawa picked up a basket from underneath his desk and began walking from student to student. “You’ll be drawing a students name from here. If you get your own just put it back and draw again.”
He made his way around without any incident and returned back to his desk only to see Midoriya shyly raising his hand.
“Um, Sensei. You accidentally skipped over me,” he said.
“That wasn’t an accident,” Aizawa explained. “This assignment would be too easy for you considering you are already in possession of a detailed analysis of the entire class due to your notebooks. I’ll have you work with a third year instead.”
At the mention of Midoriya’s notebooks, the class quickly turned their heads the boy like animals looking ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.
“This is also why I will be in possession of Midoriya’s class notebook, so don’t bother asking him for help,” Aizawa finished. “You can ask others for help, but I better not see Midoriya cornered anytime soon.”
With that, the bell rang and the class began to pack up and leave for lunch. By the time everyone was out the door, Midoriya began to approach Aizawa’s desk with a notebook in hand.
“Here you go Sensei. That explains why you asked for it yesterday,” he said.
“Thank you Midoriya. I’ll keep it safe,” Aizawa replied. He took the book and examined the cover of it. “14? What number are you on now?” he asked.
“I’m on 16 now. UA has given me a lot to work with,” he answered with a smile.
“When did you complete this one? How much is in it?”
“This one I finished rather quickly,” he explained. “I started it at the beginning of the year so the majority of it is the class. Then there are updated ones of some of the teachers and, since I finished it after USJ, I believe there are some of the villains on there. I haven’t updated it since the Sports Festival though, since I’m using a different notebook.”
Aizawa raised one eyebrow at Midoriya, impressed at how quickly he can gather information.
“I’ll return this in a week when it’s all handed in. Now go eat. I’ll keep it safe,” Aizawa said as he took a seat at his desk.
“Thank you Sensei!” Midoriya said with a small wave as he left the room.
Once the door was shut, Aizawa looked from the notebook to the sleeping bag on the ground. He wanted take a quick nap someplace quiet, but the curious thrall of the notebook got the better of him and next thing he knew, he was opening it.
Each hero in the notebook seemed to have two pages dedicated to them, the first page being a drawing followed by a general breakdown and the second being a more detailed analysis. The margins were filled with side comments that surprisingly made his smile.
After briefly looking over his class, he landed on his page and gave it a quick read.
Eraserhead (Updated)
Real Name: Aizawa Shouta
Quirk: Erasure
Strengths: Hand to hand combat, high intellect, speed, and technique
Weaknesses: Dry eye, USJ eye injury, mutation quirks, Present Mic (???)
Aizawa chuckled at the last point. “He’s not wrong," he thought. His eyes wandered to a note in the margins with an arrow pointing to his scarf and hair.
How does it float?? Is it a secondary levitation quirk? Is it part of the capture weapon? Does he just do that????
“Hizashi is going to get a kick out of this,” he thought, turning the page and going through the rest of the notebook. Highlights of it included Present Mic’s weakness of Aizawa (with no question mark), Todoroki’s strength being, “making fun of Endeavour”, Bakugou’s weakness being, “Kirishima and I, but for two very different reasons,” and Nedzu’s weakness simply being “????”
It wasn’t until near the end that he finally laid his eyes on All Might’s page. However, he smile he wore while reading quickly froze as he looked at the first page.
Where there is normally a sketch of the hero in their hero outfit, this page had two drawings. The second drawing was of All Might in his deflated form, wearing casual clothing. Underneath it was the caption, “Powered Down Form.”
Another thing that caught his eye was a frantic scribble in the margin.
He can stay powered up for 3 hours 1.5 hours (post USJ).
How the hell did Midoriya know about his time limit if this was written before Kamino? Aizawa let out an exasperated sigh as looked at the rest of the first page.
All Might
Real Name: ?
Quirk: hmmm nope
Strengths: Power, speed, technique, intelligence, cooperation
Weaknesses: His left side, The Aizawa Glare
As he looked around the page, more notes seemed to pop out at him.
I can only seem to channel it into one spot. How does he maintain control?
Pause. How do you explain a quirkless kid suddenly getting a quirk?
Hobbies include putting a poor quirkless kid through training hell and taking pictures of his dying form.
Who would I tell first? Detective Tsukauchi, Principal Nedzu and Recover Girl already know but that was from All Might.
Wait, if I use 100% throughout, am I going to look like him??
Maybe I’ll tell Aizawa first.
“Tell me what?” Aizawa thought. “Quirkless? Telling? What did all these cryptic notes mean?”
Aizawa looked up at the clock again, realizing that lunch was nearly over. He and All Might would be teaching next, so he got up and made his way to the staff room.
Entering the staff room he was met with greetings from all his coworkers. His eyes scanned the room searching for one person in particular before finding him at his desk.
“Let me guess? Sleeping in your class instead of here?” Mic asked him dragging his husband to sit next to him on the couch.
“Actually no. I was reading through Midoriya’s notebook,” Aizawa replied.
“You mean the one he always has on him?” Midnight asked.
“That’s the one.”
“You should be honoured Aizawa. He rarely lets anyone look at them,” All Might says from his seat. “Which one is that?”
“14.”
“That kid works fast,” Mic said in disbelief.
“He’s been working on them since he was four years old,” All Might added, beginning to pack up his things. “I believe he’s on 16 right now.”
“Goodness, you two are two peas in a pod I swear,” Midnight commented.
All Might chuckled as he stood up, his cheeks noticeably pink. “I just simply ask him things that’s all. Let’s go Aizawa, they’re going to be meeting us in Gamma today.”
The two heroes made their way to the training room and quickly gave out instructions to the class.
The class continued on without any incident as Aizawa began to wonder how exactly to bring up Midoriya’s notebook to All Might. As he was thinking, the boy himself called out.
“All Might-sensei! Come check this out!” he shouted.
All Might jogged over to where Midoriya was and stood by as Midoriya demonstrated what appeared to be an axe kick coming from midair.
Now, Aizawa wasn’t one to eavesdrop. It wasn’t necessary. He was a big supporter of the existence of minding your own business. However, he decided his morals be damned when it came to this disaster duo. He let out a sigh before shifting his attention to the duo not too far from him, and listening in on the end of their conversation.
“Wonderful work Izuku but remember to keep your arms down,” All Might said.
“I will! Thank you Toshinori-san,” Midoriya replied.
“Given names? How far does this go?” Aizawa thought as he watched All Might walk back with a noticeable smile on his face.
Fuck it. Why not just go for it. “How close exactly are you and Midoriya?” Aizawa asked.
All Might let out a surprised cough as he turned to Aizawa. “What brought this on?” he asked, trying to keep his voice level.
“Just curious,” he responded.
“Please don’t ask if I’m the boy’s father, I don’t want to have this conversation again.”
Aizawa tilted his head in confusion over the sudden topic. “Nemuri?”
“Indeed. And to answer your question, since young Midoriya and I have very… similar quirks, I sometimes help him out,” All Might explained.
“That’s quite admirable. After all, his classmates had ten years of experience while he had a miraculous manifestation the day of the exams.” Aizawa narrowed his eyes as he looked at All Might. “The chances of that are basically impossible.”
“Yes it is uh, quite the miracle,” All Might replied, looking anywhere but at Aizawa.
Aizawa shifted his focus back to his class. He was already certain of one thing: All Might had something to do with Midoriya’s quirk. As much as he’d like to continue making All Might slightly uncomfortable, he figured he would talk to the two about something more pressing, mainly Midoriya knowing All Might’s secret.
The next time he saw the two alone was in the common room. The two were sitting next to each other on the couch with Midoriya playing a video game and All Might commentating on it. Aizawa walked up with the notebook in hand and took a seat on one of the adjacent recliners.
“Strange to see the room so empty. Where is everyone?” Aizawa asked.
“In their rooms studying. I needed a break from English grammar rules so I came down here,” Midoriya explained, his eyes not leaving the screen.
Well, now seems like as good a time as any to drop the bomb.
“I found your notebook very interesting, Midoriya,” he said. This got Midoriya’s attention as he paused and looked up to Aizawa.
“Really?” he asked.
“Really. My favourite part was All Might’s page. I didn’t know you were aware of his time limit.”
The look of panic on the two’s faces was one Aizawa would treasure for years to come. The two looked to each other with their eyes wide before looking to Aizawa, who was calmly looking back.
“Well, there was an incident over a year ago where Midoriya happened to see me run out of time,” All Might explained.
“Ah, well, that explains it. It would have been nice to tell me, but what can you do?” Aizawa said as he opened the notebook to All Might’s page. “I am curious though. Do you remember what you have written down here Midoriya?”
“N-no,” Midoriya replied, now realizing what is happening.
“And now that your memory is being jogged, I assume you regret giving me this?”
“Yes, Sensei,” Midoriya said dejectedly.
“Wait what’s in it?” All Might asked, getting up and taking the notebook Aizawa handed to him.
As he read it over, his face seemed to morph from confusion, to panic, to a small bit of fear. He looked up at the two and closed the notebook. “I may have started helping him out before UA.”
“But his quirk didn’t develop then.”
“Well that was the first time he used it.”
“You’re not making any sense. Then can you explain the notes about him ‘suddenly getting a quirk,’ Yagi? Or something he was planning on telling me?”
Before All Might could open his mouth, a quick cough caught the attention of the three. Turning to the entrance, they spotted Bakugou sporting an irritated look on his face.
“Don’t let me interrupt this riveting conversation,” he said as he made his way to the coffee table in the middle of the room. “I just left my book here.”
“Bakugou, I hope whatever you may have heard will not be spread throughout the class,” said Aizawa.
“I’ve kept my mouth shut for two months, Sensei,” Bakugou said as picked up his book. “Good luck to you though.”
As he made his way out of the room, Aizawa glared at the two offenders in front of them, both sporting very sheepish grins.
“Are you telling me,” Aizawa began. “That Bakugou is currently more informed than me?”
“How about we take this to Midoriya’s room before we are faced with any other intrusions,” All Might said.
“Let’s go, and I better hear everything."
“The father theory sounds more believable,” Aizawa said as he rested his face in his hands from his seat in Midoriya’s room. The other two were seated on his bed, finishing their story, nervous energy practically radiating off of them.
“Passing the quirk down to me and All Might using up the last embers of One for All in order to stop All for One resulted in his retirement being earlier than expected,” Midoriya said, his foot tapping nervously against the floor.
“Care to explain how Bakugou was let in on this piece of information before me?” Aizawa asked, lifting his head from his hands.
“The day Bakugou and I fought was him confronting me about it because he pieced it together,” Midoriya explained.
“So you’re telling me you gave one of my students a quirk that would paint a horrifically large target on his back for years to come?” Aizawa said, glaring at All Might.
“Aizawa, you must understand. I-”
“I made this decision,” Midoriya interrupted, a firm and determined look in his eyes. “I understand what’s at stake and that is why I wanted to tell you first. Besides All Might, I know you of all people would be able to prepare me for what I may face.”
Aizawa was quiet for a moment as he took in his student’s words. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to let them know how much he didn’t appreciate the secret keeping, but he knew better than anyone why secrets are important. In the end he let out a sigh and looked up at Midoriya.
“He made the right choice picking you. Only the Symbol of Peace would be someone who would give me such a hard time.”
The smile on Midoriya’s face almost made the headache worth it. Almost.
“As for you Yagi, you better be pulling your weight with this problem child right here,” Aizawa said. “Just because I’m helping now doesn’t mean you can slack off. We still have 19 other kids.”
“Why thank you, Aizawa,” All Might said with a smile.
“One more question though,” Aizawa said as he got up.
“What is it?” Midoriya asked.
“Can I see those training pictures?”
Midoriya let out a squawk as he lunged for All Might, attempting to stop him from pulling out his phone but ultimately failing as All Might handed the phone to Aizawa, the two teachers now enjoying how red their student’s face was.