The meeting room, which was a large and spacious place to begin with, felt cramped. Stuffy, like a wave of uneasiness pressing down upon the occupants sitting inside. Tensions were palpable. Impatience even more so. The lights felt too bright, glaring down at the UA teachers. Hina could still hear the ticking clock over everything else.
It felt surreal; just days ago she was spending quality time with Aizawa, happy that she was making progress with her self and her romantic life. And now here she sat, downtrodden as they faced the reality of the world they lived in. A deep pit of hollowness settled in her body. She couldn't shake the feeling of dread, no matter how hard she tried.
News of the attack at the training camp the day prior had spread like wildfire. Students injured and, in one case, missing. Another incident they could chalk up to the League of Villains. This time, they seemed to have more members of greater threat, something none of the UA staff members were keen to acknowledge.
Classes that following day had been cancelled, even to students unaffected by the incident. No one was killed, thankfully, but they'd come extremely close if the reports were anything to go by. Hina couldn't stomach the very thought of losing a student. She couldn't imagine what Aizawa was feeling right now, having been there and seen firsthand what had been going on. He'd seen how close things had come to turning out so much worse.
The media was probably still swarming the academy's entrance gate as they sat there, shut to those without approved visitor passes. It had been hard getting into the school in the first place just to attend the meeting, since they were desperate for an official comment. Hina had ignored them, pushing her way through to enter the school.
They were relentless, however, demanding some sort of response to what was proving to be a major blow on UA's reputation. Part of her didn't blame them. The academy was supposed to be keeping the students safe, after all.
"To be attacked during a training camp meant to prepare students to fight villains..." The principal spoke then, eyes fixed on the table in front of him. "We should be embarrassed by the irony."
Snipe, All Might, Midnight, Present Mic, and herself were seated around the table, quietly listening to their employer's words. The redhead winced, spine rigid and ramrod straight as she sat in the plush chair. The unpleasant sensation of failure hung over her, over them all.
"We feared the revitalization of villains, but our understanding of it was naive." Nezu continued, folding his paws together. "They had already started their war to destroy hero society."
Midnight shook her head, hands steepled together with her elbows on the table. "Even if we had understood it, would we have been able to defend against it?"
The gossip queen was gone, replaced with a pro hero who had a responsibility to the public. The teasing and flirtatious woman Hina had been texting over the weekend was completely different now. Midnight turned to Nezu, expression hard. "With all these persistent developments unfolding one after another...Ever since All Might, most organized crime had been weeded out long ago."
Hina nodded her agreement. "The League's action so far have been organizational, and on a level we haven't seen in years. It's not something we could have expected out of the blue like this." Then, she sighed, remembering a meeting from just after the USJ incident. "I suppose we knew another incident would happen, just not this soon or of this magnitude."
"So we all got too complacent during peaceful times without realizing it, thinking we had time to prepare." Present Mic summarized, which admittedly was a pretty apt description. The rest seemed to agree that as a whole they were also guilty of that mistake, Hina included. Their own self-assuredness had caused this mess.
Hina looked over to All Might, who was looking perhaps the guiltiest of all, muttering something to himself that she couldn't hear. She frowned, never having seen him in such a state of despair before. She hadn't known he was capable of it until now.
"We can't keep taking unyielding positions like we have up to this point. Publicly ignoring what happened the way we did with USJ would be social suicide." Snipe mentioned. His fist clenched and he looked around at the others. "To have a student kidnapped is UA's greatest failure. They have stolen the trust people had in us heroes, along with Bakugou. Taking responsibility for that negligence is our only course of action."
"All the news outlets are filled with with criticism of UA right now." Nezu nodded along with what Snipe had said. "If they were trying to get Bakugou, it was likely because his violent demeanor was made common knowledge at the sports festival. Should he be won over by the villains, then it's over for UA as an educational institution."
The bear-dog-mouse held up that morning's paper, covered in scathing headlines about the academy that made Hina shake with anger. Under the table, she gripped her wrist, willing her body back into control, but she just couldn't stand to see her place of employment slandered this way. Her teeth bit her lower lip, holding back the scowl that was threatening to show through.
It was at times like these that she couldn't will herself into completely relating with the public. They criticized heroes for every little mistake they made. Often times they didn't understand the intentions behind their actions and decisions because they'd never be put in their shoes. Lives became their responsibility, and in the heat of combat not everything was black and white.
Because of their ignorance, however, she couldn't entirely fault them for panicking. Seeing a trusted and respected place of learning fail to protect the students as they had for years was something that broke their image of infallible heroes. The more human heroes became, the less the public seemed to trust in their ability to protect them.
"Bakugou may be violent and surly, but he still looks up to All Might." Hina pointed out, wanting to stand up for the student in question. "He's unconventional and rude, true, but his intentions are just and I trust in him. His only dream is to become a hero, and if the League thinks they can sway him to their side, I believe they will be sorely disappointed."
"Since we're on the topic of trust, there's something I wanted to say." Mic said, crossing his arms and looking to Nezu. The boisterous man was unusually reserved, a frown furrowing his brows. Everyone looked to him, wondering what was on his mind.
"Seeing how the attack happened as it did...I'd say it's safe to assume there's a traitor in our midst."
Hina blinked, taken aback at the very mention that one of them might not be on their side. She leaned forward. "Don't you think that's a bit of a leap in logic? We shouldn't say that lightly."
Mic shook his head, gesturing as he went on. "Just think about it. The teachers and the Pussycats were the only ones to know the location of the training camp. That information was kept secret specifically to prevent another villain attack like USJ. Like yesterday!"
His own anger getting the better of him, he stood, hands slamming on the table. "And the teachers aren't the only ones suspicious. Any one of the students could have used their cell phone GPS to send-"
"Mic, really now!" Midnight interrupted. "That's absurd, cut it out!"
"How are we supposed to just ignore this? This problem needs to be dealt with before things get worse then they already are. If that means cleaning house, then so be it!"
"What about you, Mic?" Snipe piped up. "Can you say you're 100% innocent? Is there any proof that anyone here is not at fault? Do you have any sort of evidence incriminating someone?"
Hina crossed her own arms, uncomfortable with the idea. "We'd only be starting a witch hunt if we took action now. We need to have evidence of wrongdoing before we start pointing fingers."
Chastened because both of them were right, Mic sat back down in his seat. The begrudging scowl was his only reply. To him, the facts pointed to a spy, a traitor, and there wasn't much they could really do to prove if there was. Hina could tell it was maddening to the radio host hero.
Snipe sighed. "I see where you're coming from, but if we start throwing baseless accusations around we'll just end up destroying ourselves from the inside. No doubt the League knew something like this would happen. We shouldn't be hasty in weeding out a possible traitor, if that is what's even happening."
"At the very least, I trust all of you here." Nezu said, drawing attention back to him. Hina was glad that the principal knew how to calm a room. Tensions were high, but their faith in the mouse-dog was stronger. "Until we can rule out the possibility, I think we should move forward under the assumption that a traitor is working against us. I can't prove definitively that I'm completely innocent either, though."
Nezu closed his eyes, then looked around his faculty. All eyes were on him. "For now, what we must do as a school is guarantee the safety of the students. And with the suspected leak, there's something I've been thinking about implementing for a while now which may aid both issues. That is-"
"A phone call is here! A phone call is here!"
Breaking the serious discussion and causing several teachers to sigh was All Might's ringtone. He scrambled to grab the device, silencing his own obnoxious voice proclaiming the call and stood from his chair. "Excuse me, I have to take this."
"We're in a meeting, turn your phone off!" Mic berated, but All Might simply waved politely as he edged closer to the door. Hina thought to herself that he seriously needed to update his notification settings.
The door slid shut as he left the room, and the remaining faculty looked to Nezu again.
The mouse-dog-bear principal shook his head in amusement, smiling a little. "Well...this meeting has gone on long enough, I suppose. We can further this discussion once I solidify a few things for my proposed idea. For now, please keep what we have talked about to yourselves. I will brief Eraserhead and Vlad King once they return from giving their statements. Thank you."
Hina nodded her understanding in tandem with the others, and the meeting was adjourned.
The rest of the day, Aizawa didn't respond back to her messages. It would be an understatement to say that she was worried about him. The man carried enough on his shoulders as it was. There was little wonder as to why he looked so grumpy all the time. The erasure hero worried about a lot of things, his students and the responsibility he carried as a pro hero, though he'd become quite adept at hiding it all behind a facade of indifference and outward calm.
The redhead had to stop herself from sending any further messages to him than the few she already had, knowing that he wasn't likely to respond anyway, and not wanting to come across as needy or pestering. The circumstances as they were, all she really wanted was a confirmation that he was ok. But still, even later that night, he hadn't replied.
Sitting around at home all day was making her restless. She'd already cleaned every inch of her apartment until it resembled one of the model pictures from the complex's website. Dishes were done and put away, and laundry was actually finished for once. There hadn't been much to begin with, but she'd figured it beat doing nothing.
Left with nothing else to clean or put away, Hina stood in the middle of her living room, looking around with a lost expression. All this nervous energy and no way to vent it.
I suppose I could go on patrol. She thought to herself, realizing it had been awhile since she'd gone out and done her job as a hero. It would keep her occupied and do some good all at the same time. Normally she'd go with Aizawa as a support, but seeing as he was assumably otherwise occupied, she figured that with her quirk's progression the way it had been going, she'd be fine on her own.
Suiting back up into her hero costume, Hina locked her apartment door and headed towards the city. Night had fallen and the sidewalks were illuminated by street lights and the neon signs for businesses along the way.
At first she simply stuck to the sidewalks, branching her quirk out occasionally to people who looked like they may be up to no good. There was such a diverse mix of people out and about that night. Teenaged punks who looked shady but turned out to only be hunting for virtual pocket monsters on their phones. Middle-aged men in sophisticated businesswear that had just gotten off of a long business meeting and were looking for a bar to unwind in.
She'd thought that a young women in a hoodie had been planning to rob a store, but she'd only been lamenting her lack of money to buy a soft drink, before turning away to presumably walk home. Hina continued on, a little disappointed that it was looking more and more like a quiet, uneventful night.
Finding nothing of concern walking the main streets, she turned to the less populated sections of the city, where she rarely went unless for some specific reason. It used to be a known red light district in the evening hours, but since the reduction of organized crime with All Might's return to Japan, most of it's shadier tenants had deserted. Every once in awhile, a brave soul would venture in looking to make a quick buck for those still searching for cheap pleasure.
Hina turned to the rooftops to watch from above, scaling a fire escape ladder with ease and perching on the corner of the building to sit and watch. She was high enough that most wouldn't bother looking up that high for someone watching, but closer enough that she could quickly scale down to stop any crime being committed.
The colder evening air was nice against her skin, keeping her awake and alert as she vigilantly observed those that happened to walk through the area. She'd touch upon their minds without much effort, determining if they were there for some illegal purpose or not. Nothing of note so far.
While sitting there upon the roof's edge, she looked down at her costume, noting how her brightly colored outfit sort of stood out even in the darkness. The silver easily reflected any nearby light, and the golden accents and belt were hard to miss. She pulled at one of the portions where the bodysuit was accented, wondering if she should consider changing her costume design. It had stayed the same since high school, unchanged for years now. All Might had several different versions of his hero suit over the years. It wouldn't be all that strange for her to change the design...
A car pulled by at a low rate of speed, and Hina looked up. A younger man was sat in the driver's seat, window down and peering up and down the street. Hina crouched, activating her quirk. She suspected he was looking for a prostitute to keep him company for the night.
A moment later, her eyes went dark and she relaxed again. A foreigner visiting the country with no idea of where he was going. Nothing she had to worry about. A sigh escaped her.
She sat there another hour, watching and waiting for a crime that wouldn't come. Of course, the one night she'd decided to patrol, there was nothing to do. The old red light district was a bust, so she picked up from her lookout spot and headed another direction, sticking to the rooftops and hopping from building to building.
Hina landed on one nearby the residential side of the city. She ran several paces to go to the next one but slid to a stop, noticing a shadow in the corner of her eye. Perched on the edge of the building was a recognizable silhouette. The carbon fiber, steel alloy capture weapon floated gently around the man's head, but he didn't appear to turn to regard her.
She walked closer, and he finally glanced her direction as way of acknowledgement. But his gaze went right back to the streets below without so much as a word.
Hina's hand went to her hips. "Aizawa. Have you been patrolling all day?"
"Mmm."
Well, that certainly explained the lack of response from her texts. Maybe he simply didn't check his phone. Or he had actively ignored any messages. Either way, she supposed she'd gotten her answer as to where he was.
She stepped closer to the edge of the roof where he was perched. "Mind if I join you?"
"Do what you like." Was his short response, giving nothing away in terms of his mood. It was like they'd gone back to the way things were before she'd gotten to know him better. Unacquainted coworkers. The emotional distance between him and her was palpable. It stung a little.
For a while, she just stood there, arms crossed over her chest as she thought of something to say. The wind brushed at their figures, and the soft hubbub of the city below was calming, in a way. He was busy observing the streets below, unperturbed by the thick silence between them. Or so he made her believe by his body language. Right now, she couldn't really gauge him.
"It's hard to think about, that there might be a traitor amongst the staff..." She said aloud, eyes trailing down to the streets below. "I can't see anyone we work with intentionally putting the students in danger like that. It just...doesn't seem possible."
"There aren't many other explanations for the attack." He replied woodenly, hair and capture weapons settling back into place with his need to blink. She couldn't see his eyes behind the goggles.
Hina sighed, releasing her arms and turning her body towards him. It felt like she was talking to brick wall, but she didn't want him to feel like he had no one to turn to. "How are you holding up? You don't seem ok after what happened."
His head shook minutely. "I'm fine."
"Are you?" Brows raised incredulously, she took a step closer. He didn't bother responding to her disbelief. "Aizawa, you know this wasn't your fault, right?"
She heard him sigh. "Scarlet-"
"I'm serious." She interrupted, knowing he was probably going to warn her off from bringing this up. Maybe he didn't want to talk about it, but she felt like he needed to. "You might try to hide it from everyone else, but I can see you're carrying all this with you. It isn't ok."
She dropped it there, waiting for him to reply in some way. His shoulders were tense, even in the darkness she could tell. He worked his jaw, no doubt debating if he really wanted to have this conversation right now.
"I was in charge of their safety." He finally admitted, bitterness dripping from every word. He straightened from his crouch, but still refused to look her direction. "Maybe no one was killed, but a student was still kidnapped. Nearly two, if Midoriya and the others hadn't stepped in. This is the second time something has happened under my supervision, and I still couldn't do anything about it."
Just because he was present for the incident, he was blaming himself? She supposed if he hadn't been there, he'd be blaming himself for neglecting his duty as a hero to be there when he was most needed. Could he not see the irony in that? Her man of reason was awfully illogical right now.
"Vlad was there. So were the Pussycats! You weren't the sole pro hero at that training camp, and even as USJ Thirteen was there too. This isn't all on you."
Aizawa shook his head in annoyance since she obviously wasn't letting this go. "I'm their teacher."
Hina shrugged. "And so am I! That doesn't have anything to do with it."
He finally swung his head to look at her. His eyes were hidden, but that scowl was undeniable. "Of course it does! How are they supposed to trust me and my guidance if I can't even protect them properly?"
"We took every precaution to make sure they wouldn't be targeted again, and they knew that too. No one except those we could trust were given the location." Hina argued. "And if there is a traitor, this is the first evidence we have of it. You had no way of anticipating they would show up."
"Heroes should be prepared for the unexpected. I have no excuse for this."
Nothing she told him was getting through. She hadn't pegged him as the stubborn type, but he casually brushed off her reasoning without any trouble. Her frown was heavy, worry for him filling her chest. He was so intent on pinning himself as the one at fault here, it hurt to watch. "We can't prepare for what we thought we'd already prevented. You need to stop blaming yourself."
He turned away, saying nothing. The unspoken desire to end the conversation was obvious to her. They may be on the same rooftop, but he felt a chasm away from anyone at the moment. The way he was isolating himself to work through his self-criticism wasn't healthy. It was painfully similar to the way she handled her own confidence issues and she didn't want to see him sink to that level.
Hina was afraid that something else was going on to make him feel this way. In any other circumstance, she'd never resort to using her quirk to figure out what was on someone's mind. It felt like a major breach of trust and privacy in most cases, but she was concerned that he wasn't telling her something. Her eyes began to glow blue and she looked into the first few layers of his mind.
She was startled when she saw a flash of red, and her quirk vanished as if it was never there. The suddenness made her take a step back, and she was fixed with Eraserhead's piercing stare evident even behind his goggles. His black hair floated in angry tendrils above him. The capture weapon coiled and spun with the activation of his quirk.
"Get out of my head." He demanded icily.
How did he know?
It was rare for others to detect her intrusion unless they too had a mental-based quirk. She'd tapped into his mind plenty of times to project her thoughts at him, but he'd never reacted to her presence before. Something had changed, or perhaps he'd just become used to the way her quirk felt by now, having been exposed to it so frequently. Right now, however, she pushed that surprise revelation to the side to focus on the man in front of her.
"I'm sorry." She stated sadly, meeting his stare unflinchingly. His aura was intimidating, but Hina had never been afraid of Eraserhead or what he might do to her. Even in anger, he would never put her at risk. Eyes locked on each other, Hina stepped closer until she was directly in front of him.
He said nothing, didn't even move, watching her as she approached. Her hands reached up, lifting the goggles from his eyes to his forehead so she could look at him properly. The irises were still a vibrant red, quirk still activated. Her thumb tenderly brushed the scar under his eye, reminding him that he already did everything he could to protect those kids, more than was expected of him even.
"Please don't shut me out." Hina muttered. "I'm worried you'll lose yourself to the guilt."
She waited. For any sort of reaction, really. She just wanted him to face what had happened without placing it solely on his shoulders.
Eraserhead's red gaze lingered for several moments, watching for...something. Hina didn't know what. Until he let out a tired sigh. Eyes closing, his hair and the capture weapon fell back into place around him. The intimidation melted away to expose the tired and disappointed man underneath. Aizawa opened his eyes, half-lidded with exhaustion, and reached up to grasp the hand she'd kept placed on his cheek.
"Just give me time."
Even without her quirk, Hina could see the weight behind his eyes; the worry, the fear that what he was doing already wasn't enough. No one could say he didn't care about his students, despite what impression his appearance left. She doubted anyone else blamed him for what happened other than himself. Perhaps the media, but what did they really know anyway?
"Ok." She said with a little nod, managing a tiny smile for his sake so he wouldn't think he'd upset her for wanting space. With a lift of her toes, she leaned in to place a chaste kiss against his lips, then pulled away. "You know how to reach me. I'm always here."
Sparing his one last glance, she took off the other direction and jumped to the adjacent rooftop, heading somewhere else to patrol for the night. Her feet beat fast steps against the building, and she didn't hear any sounds of pursuit behind her. Aizawa wasn't following. That was ok.
If time was what he needed, then that was fine. Her self-confidence issues hadn't been resolved in a day. So long as he allowed her to help, Hina would do what she could to encourage him to let go of all of the unnecessary guilt he was carrying with him. He'd done so much to help her. She was more than willing to return the favor.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
