"...any questions about managing your expenses with an inconsistent income? Now will be your last chance before tomorrow's test." Hina said, setting down her chalk and turning towards the class. Most were still furiously scribbling away at the notes she'd written on the board, heads bowed down. She waited a few moments as one by one they finished their notes, looking up at her blankly.
A quick pan around the room with her quirk confirmed that none of them had current questions, though she'd expect some the next time around from either Momo or Iida at the very least that they wouldn't think of until after the test. They always seemed to be brimming with endless questions.
Hina glanced at the clock to check the time only a moment before the school bell rang, indicating that class was over. She'd been really cutting this lesson close, though the students had asked lots of questions during the course of class which had slowed her down a bit. But she was glad they were engaged enough to care about inquiring further on the material.
Everyone began to leave their seats, off to whatever their next class was. It took a few moments, but eventually they all filtered out through the door to the hallway.
She turned and began the task of erasing all of the notes that she'd written. It was a pain, since she'd just have to write them all over again during the course of this period, but she didn't want to give the students all this information at once and expect them to absorb it as well. Once the chalkboard was clear, she sat at her desk to wait for class 1-B to arrive.
They always took a few minutes to get there, so she took the opportunity of silence to check the news on her phone. Tapping to her homepage, a picture of the wreckage of a stone wall that had clearly been destroyed was bathed in red and blue police light at the very top of the page.
The headline attached made her pause. Explosion at Musutafu's Maximum Security Prison! Her eyes scanned the words, frowning in worry.
'Authorities are currently investigating the suspicious circumstances surrounding what caused a large explosion near the prison's eastern wing. The damage destroyed both the prison's external wall as well as the main building inside, leaving both heroes and law enforcement concerned that this was an intentional escape attempt.
'Several heroes arrived quickly on the scene to prevent a full-scale riot or further escapees from regaining their freedom, but some speculate that there may have been a few that slipped away in the seconds after the explosion occurred. Until prison officials complete their own internal investigation and census, we are unsure just how dangerous this unexplained event truly is.
'Nearby residents to the prison are advised to keep their doors and windows secured, and to avoid traveling alone at any given time until this incident is resolved. This article will be updated further as more information is released.'
Hina closed her eyes, rubbing at her eyes as a pit sank in her stomach. Musutafu's Maximum Security Prison was where her brother had been kept for the past 5 years. He hadn't been deemed dangerous enough to be locked away in Tartarus, so they'd sent him to the next best thing. The prison had never had a break out incident until now, which would surely cause a stir with the general public in the coming days.
There was no way to know if her brother had been among one of the escapees, or if it had anything to do with him at all, but her gut instinct told her that this was definitely, somehow, connected. Until the prison confirmed their missing inmates, the redhead would worry incessantly that her brother was out there somewhere. And knowing him, he'd-
"Hitagawa Sensei?" Hina looked up swiftly, seeing the first few students of class 1-B standing in front of her desk or entering the classroom. Kendo watched her with some concern, holding the straps of her backpack. "Are you alright?"
"A-ah, yes, I'm just fine." She fixed a smile on her face and straightened in her seat, turning off the screen and tucking her phone back into her pocket. "Sorry to worry you. Please take your seats."
Tetsutetsu and Ibara, who stood behind Kendo, both seemed unconvinced of her claim but respected her enough not to pry, and obediently took their seats. The rest of class 1-B filtered inside in ones and twos until the room was full of students. The bell soon rang to tell the students that class was officially back in session, and she stood from her chair to face them fully.
"Welcome, class. I hope you are prepared to take lots of notes, as there is a lot of information to unpack today." She clasped her hands together, purging her brother from her mind entirely and focusing on work. She could worry needlessly later when she was home.
Instead of disdain towards what they had ahead, she saw determined smiles, pencils already hovering over empty pages of paper to begin. They seemed very confident that they could handle anything she thew at them, and a quick perusal through their minds confirmed her initial impression. Cocky little brats, they were.
"Well...Let's begin, then." She smiled dangerously, swiping the chalk from the holder and set herself to see just how prepared they were for the lesson ahead.
Scribbling in the last few small changes she wanted to make to the lesson plan for the following week, Hina shut her journal with a snap and stood from her desk, stretching out her back until it popped in a few places.
It was nearly 9 pm, but she'd finally completely caught up on her assignments that needed grading. For once, she had no left-over work to complete the following morning and the inbox on her desk was blessedly devoid of student homework. Without the worry that things were left unfinished, the redhead breathed a sigh of relief. Grabbing her purse, she flipped the light off beside the door, plunging the room in darkness and dragged the classroom door open at the same time.
"Ahh!" She squeaked, jumping back a step when Aizawa stood directly in front of the door, hand raised as if to knock. He pulled back as well, not expecting her to be there. Gripping the front of her costume, she willed her heart to calm itself as what had initially registered as danger in her mind quickly vanished upon recognizing who it was. "Fuck...you scared the living hell out of me."
"Sorry." He said evenly, a tiny smile playing at his lips, stepping aside so she could leave the room, shutting the door behind her. "I wasn't expecting you to be leaving already."
"It's fine, neither was I." She chuckled, feeling foolish now that the moment had passed. They began walking down the hallway, when she realized that he had come to her classroom for some reason or other. "Did you need me for something?"
"Sort of." He shrugged, watching her carefully. "Come on patrol with me tonight."
Hina nearly stopped short, but caught herself before her feet tripped up. Accidentally doing something like that would just exacerbate her embarrassment. Had she misheard? "Patrol? Me?"
"Yes. You."
At first, she had the inkling that this was some sort of prank, but he seemed entirely serious. Her head shook in confusion. "Why the sudden invitation? I thought you liked working alone."
His hand idly rubbed at the back of his neck, but his expression remained neutral. They'd reached the entrance doors. "You mentioned last week that we would do something I found fun. So I'm inviting you."
"Oh, right." The redhead had completely forgotten her comment from their conversation with Cementoss. That didn't mean she hadn't meant it, but Hina hadn't actually thought he'd ever take her up on the offer. This was pleasantly surprising.
Aizawa eyed her from the corner of his eye. "If you don't want to, that's-"
"I'd love to." She interrupted, afraid she'd given off the impression that she wasn't willing. She stopped, causing him to as well, and gave him an amused smile. "But, seriously. You really find patrolling fun? That was your first idea for what you wanted to do?"
Aizawa's expression turned bland. "Are you coming or not?"
She nodded happily. "Of course."
Fully aware that Aizawa preferred high-up places to stake out during his patrol, she'd been nervous that her lack of a mobility-oriented quirk would cause her trouble keeping up with him. Using a capture weapon to reach high places wasn't an option for her. However, he seemed to keep her capabilities in mind when choosing spots to watch from, as her nimbleness and flexibility served to make up for any other lacking feature when there were things easy to climb nearby. Or she was just looking into it a bit too much. Either way, she was thankful that her acrobatic ability had some sort of use.
They found themselves on top of a bank, watching the street-light illuminated sidewalks below for passersby. Hina had been able to scale the building quite quickly from the flag poles jutting off the side of the building, and vaulted herself over the roof's edge to sit beside him in one smooth movement. One foot dangled down, the other tucked perpendicular to her body.
The wind caught at her hair, which was pulled up to be out of her way. A few stray bangs brushed at her face, but she did her best to ignore them. Her focus was entirely on the streets below, occasionally stretching out her quirk to someone she thought was acting sort of suspicious. So far, they hadn't come across any villains or criminals, and all she ever got from those passing by were mundane thoughts.
They didn't talk much. Aizawa was usually not that talkative to begin with, and the last thing the telepath wanted to do was annoy him to the point where he would regret asking her along. He had stated that he was taking her up on the offer of doing something fun, like he'd mentioned, but Hina wondered why if there was another motive behind his sudden request for company on his patrol.
Struck with another feeling of boredom, her eyes flicked over to Aizawa, who was crouched on the edge of the roof, hair and capture weapon levitating gently upwards. He'd always looked so cool while activating his quirk, so professional and serious, and always at the ready. Plus, it could be a bit intimidating to be the target of his quirk-cancelling gaze.
Before her simple glance turned into prolonged, creepy staring, she looked back down at the streets below, extending her quirk to an older gentleman that was slowly walking his way across the sidewalk, cane in hand. Her mind was immediately filled with images of much younger women posed in provocative, risqué outfits. Obviously he partook of those playboy magazines quite often. Hina grimaced, looking away quickly.
Aizawa seemed to notice her discomfort. "What?"
She waved his concern away, smiling a little because it was sort of funny. "Just a perverted old man. Nothing we need to do something about."
He hummed acknowledgement, before looking back around him. Then, almost as an afterthought, he turned to her. "I should have asked when we started patrolling, but what is your preferred fighting style?"
Hina turned to him again, finally tugging some of her bangs out of her face. "Most of the time I end up flooding the villain's mind with distracting thoughts, then close in for hand-to-hand combat if necessary. There isn't much other use for it in combat."
His eyes narrowed, not entirely in agreement, but moved on. "And if your opponent is too sturdy for close combat?" He ventured, watching her carefully.
She only shrugged. "I honestly just have to figure something out on the spot. My nimbleness and speed usually help me evade until something comes to mind." She could tell he didn't exactly like that answer.
"You should have figured all of that out during your hero course. That's the point of it; working out your quirk's strengths and weaknesses." He mentioned sternly, and she looked away sheepishly.
"Yeah...I've always been more of a support hero, so I never figured I'd be in the brunt of combat with someone like that. My methods have always counted on someone else being there with me to assist." He went to reply, but she held up a hand. "And before you lecture me on it, yes, I know that's an irrational mindset. And I have no excuse, especially since I'm a teacher. I just...haven't really been a pro hero for a long time, I guess."
His hair fell and settled into it's normal demeanor, the ribbons returning around his neck. He lifted the goggles to his head, revealing the red had left his eyes, and looked at her more with curiosity than accusation, of which she was thankful. "Why is that?"
The part of her that had deep-rooted issues with her brother wanted to rise to the surface. It wanted her to shy away from the question or just pretend she was ok, but this was Aizawa. She wanted to get to know him, and the best way to do that was to allow him to get to know her. Even the parts that weren't all that great. Plus, it wasn't like no one knew who her brother was.
"After my brother Daichi turned villainous, the public lost faith in me as a hero." Hina admitted. "Every step I took or word I said was scrutinized by the public, and more than once there was an article published questioning whether I was just biding my time to take the same path as him. Hell, even some of the villains I helped arrest thought I'd possibly consider joining them."
She smiled humorlessly. "There's nothing worse than being lumped in with the people it's your job to defeat. So after awhile I just...faded into the background. Let the public figure I'd retired or something. I just wanted to stop being the talk of the town for reasons like that."
"Why care what they think? It's not like a popularity rating determines whether you can perform rescues or not." He questioned with a shrug. Obviously he had no problem working no matter what the world thought of him, but Hina wasn't that strong-willed.
"They're my reason for pursuing being a hero in the first place. I spent so much time working my way up, and in a single moment my brother destroyed it all. I couldn't handle the shift. I wasn't that experienced at the time, and pretty green. It shouldn't have affected me like it did but...in the end I just let it happen." She accompanied her explanation with a shrug, eyes turning back to the streets below. "I'd always struggled to justify being able to become a hero with the quirk I have, and it seemed a sign that maybe it was time to accept I wasn't cut out for it after all."
And then she smiled. A small, shy smile all to herself. "But I like being a teacher. Working with the next generation of heroes has always brought me a lot of fulfillment on it's own."
"Staying at UA means maintaining your pro hero status." He remarked casually. Something about the way she described herself was bothering him, but he wasn't sure how to voice it right at the moment, or if his comments would be unwelcome. "It should still be a high priority, if only for that reason."
"Yeah..." She trailed off, eyes still following some of the people below them. "In these five years I've missed out on a lot of training and progress. I need to gain that confidence back too, at the very least for the students' sake. I need to be at my very best to protect and educate them."
Aizawa nodded his agreement, though some part of him still wasn't satisfied with her self-deprecating comments about her quirk. As someone who'd experience the same feelings when he was younger, to see her struggle with them now was just a little disappointing.
He was still very curious about her brother, and about her quirk in general. He knew she was telepathic, but the extent of her powers was unknown to him. All most of the staff knew was what she'd told them when they'd first been hired on. Who knew if she'd grown more powerful in that time, or if she'd stagnated in the way that she was describing?
A small silence settled between them, until Hina shifted in place, peering a little closer down to someone running by. She pointed. "There. He's scouting for a store to rob. From the sound of it, he's getting desperate, so he'll probably act soon."
He snapped his goggles back into place, his hair and the capture weapon both raising as he got ready to move. It sounded small fry, but he knew better than to make assumptions like that. "If he's not thinking clearly, that'll just make things easier for us."
Hina followed his lead, sliding down the side of the building by a drainage pipe and following after the potential criminal, eager to begin her slow return to hero work by assisting him in whatever way she could.
God, she'd missed this. She'd been a fool to ever stop.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
