Chapter Text
“C’mon Greenie, you’re no fun!” Mei bounced on her heels, soot stained boots leaving small grey marks on the floor just beside Midoriya’s normally pristine workstation.
“Hatsume-kun-” Izuku whined, “You’re the one who gave me this manual in the first place-”
“Yeah! To read at your own leisure! Not eat into our lunch time. When we should be eating.”
He flipped a page. “This is my own leisure… I’m not hungry, Hatsume-kun.”
“That’s a lie and you know it!”
His eyes paused in their journey to scan the text in front of him. “Fine. I’m a bit hungry but it’s nothing to worry about! I’ll grab a snack later. I wanna finish the manual now-”
“Yeah, yeah, you freaky little completionist, you. Some of us gotta eat, yaknow!” Her heel tapping grew louder and louder.
“Just go on without me! I’ll be fine. Hatsume-kun. promise!”
“Just put down the book! It’ll still be here when you get back. Get some food. Rest. Relax. Save your beautiful brain for class!”
“Hatsume-kun…” Izuku sighed and looked up at the bouncing girl. “I don’t like just… leaving it. ‘S like there’s this… half finished book in my head.”
“That’s a manual, Greenie.”
“You- you know what I mean! I want it wrapped up! All- all nice and finished. All the instructions and diagrams and stuff-”
“Greenie. Mido. Broccoli Boy.” Mei’s eyes met Izuku’s, her arms folded in front of her chest. “I love you and your beautiful, amazing brain, but it is just a manual. No plot. No story. Nothin’! Just finish it after lunch.”
“But-!”
“After lunch!”
A sigh, before the pages to the manual were carefully shut. “Fine…”
A metallic voice piped up behind the two. “Was that a yes I heard? As much as I would hate to end Hatsume’s longest official streak not blowing something in the lab up this week, please, go get lunch. I need to eat too.”
“Ah-?! Power Loader-sensei-!” Izuku straightened up, and began tripping over himself, apologizing profusely. “I’m so sorry, I thought I could stay in here during lunch, I’ll be out of your hair in no time, I promise-!”
“Aw, are you gonna miss me, teach?”
“Something like that. Now go. We both have other matters to attend to, I’m sure.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” Mei began pushing Izuku out the door, the thick soles on his red shoes not providing enough traction to keep him in the room.
“Hatsume-kun-! My manual!”
“Leave it!”
Powerless to stop Mei on a mission, Izuku was dragged out of the room, a look of despair on his face. “All I wanted was to read it…”
“You’ll get your chance soon enough! Promise on my beautiful babies and your beautiful brain!”
“...don’t bet on my brain please-”
Their voices mixed together with the noise of the rest of the hallway as the two went to lunch, leaving one tired teacher in the workshop alone. He sighed, producing a strange, tinny sound from his headpiece. “There’s no way I’m going to survive this year…”
In the lunchroom, Izuku absentmindedly picked at his bento. He turned the pages of his latest quirk analysis notebook. The first of its kind, actually. In the back of his shelf at home, sat thirteen notebooks, the latter few burnt and partially destroyed, all labeled “Hero Analysis for the Future”. Since he changed his sights from the Hero Course to the General Course (to somehow, Support Course), he felt it was… wrong somehow to still call them that. Especially since a good majority of his new notes were about his fellow Support Course classmates, and were very much being used in the present. This new composition notebook was labeled in thick, strong, black permanent marker “Quirk Analysis for Support”.
Whenever Izuku opened up his new notebook, he couldn’t help but feel this strange feeling of melancholy. Like he had moved onto a new chapter of his life, but he had never really wanted the old chapter to end. He didn’t mean to give up his dream of being a hero, not completely. What All Might had said to him that day on the rooftop had stuck with him, whether or not he wanted it to. His own idol, saying to his face that there was no way he could be a hero without a quirk. It stung, no doubt about it. More days than not it hurt more than just a sting. But he realized he could help others become better heroes. Whether that’s helping out the public, or working for an agency, or a whole list of things that Izuku couldn’t even dream of.
Sure, he had fully intended to get through UA solely in General Education. He certainly had the grades to do it. Somehow, though, he got moved to the Support Course. Apparently his analysis was a highly useful thing for inventors to bounce things off of. Reading that in his acceptance letter felt like it was too good to be true. He felt more like a visitor in the department. His workstation didn’t even have any tools or materials on it. Just a stack of notebooks ready to be filled, plenty of pencils. He brought his own laptop, bought by his mom as a gift for getting into the Support Course, and took notes there as well, but for some reason, the notebooks always felt so much better. More tangible. Something to read and remember easily. Though, the computer sure did help emailing the teachers and students he needed in order to brainstorm ideas for the other inventors…
Izuku was just about to flip to the next page of his notebook when the sound of the bell marking the end of lunch rang. He looked up, fingers brushing on the page of his notebook, a bite of rice halfway on his chopsticks. A glance down revealed he had barely made a dent in the lunch he had. “I swear I just got here-”
“We have been here for forty whole minutes, and you’ve been flipping through your little notebook the whole time! ‘Kept trying to get your attention, but I guess you don’t respond to ‘Greenie’ anymore. And here I thought you cared.” Mei choked out the fakest sounding sob, a smile on her face.
“Hatsume-kun-”
“No, no, I see how it is. You don’t care about me or my inventions any more…. I’ll take my manual and leave, if that’s how you’re gonna be.” She sniffed, turning her head up to the ceiling.
“Hatsume-kun, no!” The volume in Izuku’s voice ticked up. “I wasn’t done with that yet-!”
“You’ll just have to beat me to it then~” Mei shot up from her table in the cafeteria and began running towards the door.
“Hatsume-kun! Wait!” Izuku was close behind her, but his untrained body was unaccustomed to the exercise. He quickly fell behind her, trying to weave past the groups and clusters of students in the hall. He ducked past arms, legs, wings (which, cool, he’d love to study those someday actually, they didn’t look like someone like Hawks’, more along the lines of insect wings?) and jogged around one of the last corners before running into-
A person. A living breathing person. Who didn’t even flinch when Izuku ran into them. The man stumbled back, the wind knocked out of them briefly, but that didn’t hold a candle to the way that Izuku fell backwards. He landed harshly on the tiled floor, and stayed down as the dark haired man’s eyes glared a menacing red. His hair defied gravity, forming a sharp, pointed crown over his pale face. His scarf blocked his mouth from Izuku’s sight as well, leaving the fallen teen with a view of the man’s furrowed brows and glinting crimson eyes. It didn’t take long for Izuku to recognize who was standing in front of him.
“Eraserhead-sensei, I’m so sorry, I- I was trying to get to class. And-”
“And you still had time until the bell rang.” Eraserhead’s voice was a flat monotone.
“My friend, she wanted to-”
“I’m sure that whatever she planned to do is no worry.” At Eraserhead’s words, Izuku glanced to the side. Most of what Mei did caused at least some level worry. But Eraserhead didn’t need to know that.
“...Sorry, sir.” Izuku stood up from his place on the ground and bowed slightly. “I- I’ll be more careful next time.”
The expression on Eraserhead’s face softened slightly. His hair still was up, his eyes were still red, but his eyebrows relaxed, the lines in his forehead smoothed. He blinked lightly, his hair dipping down, before floating back up once his eyes opened again.
“Is that part of your quirk, sir? Your hair? It seems something like a low-level telekinesis quirk rather than something to aid erasure… Though if you can’t control it it’s probably just a side effect… Maybe you could cut your hair or tie it up when you patrol, so villains won’t know when you have your quirk activated… I think I had some notes about that in one of my notebooks… I- I can’t seem to remember which one. I- normally I’m so good about remembering my notes- sorry-.”
Eraserhead tilted his head before he blinked, this time leaving his quirk deactivated. “That’s most likely because my quirk was active. It cancels out everything except mutation quirks. That includes analysis and memory quirks.”
Izuku startled. “...I think it’s just nerves, Eraserhead-sensei. I- I was diagnosed quirkless at age four. If I developed a quirk now that’d be… a shock.”
The teacher quirked an eyebrow before sighing, “...call me Aizawa-sensei. I try to keep my hero life and my school life separate.”
“Oh- uh… Alright… Aizawa-sensei… Um… I’m sorry for stopping you like this. I better… get to class. Have a good day.” Izuku bowed awkwardly before shuffling around Aizawa and heading to class, his head still bowed as he weaved through the still crowded halls.
The teacher’s dark eyes followed the mess of green hair that stood out from the rest of the people in the hall. He frowned before turning back around and began his trek again to his classroom. At least his students had a few moments of extra free time due to the whole ordeal. Something in the back of his mind told him to keep an eye on that student, though. As much as he likes to deny it, he is a sucker for picking up problem children. Maybe this one could be added to the collection as well.