A Grey Thin Line

8

If Aizawa has to pinpoint when the chronic headache began, it’d be around the time Midoriya Izuku and Bakugou Katsuki were kidnapped by the League. A headache which increased tenfold when All Might carried out the bloody, unconscious form the teenage Kuroko. One look at that face and he knew they’d found the missing Midoriya.

It was...a lot to take in. This kids the same age as his students, yet the gap in experience is massive. At the USJ, Midoriya had been vicious. Going for weakpoints shamelessly and even dispersing tear gas — where he got that, no one knows. Though Aizawa wouldn’t be surprised if the kid made it himself.

Kuroko throws himself at a problem with the recklessness of someone who doesn’t care what happens, so long as their enemy goes down too. Midoriya Izuku keeps people at a distance with sharp words and an even sharper wit. Only those he deems friends can come close, anyone else will find themselves with a barricade of prickly attitude. He’d move the sun and moon before he budged on his morals and lord help anyone who tries to make him.

Yeah, his potential isn’t zero, but Aizawa still loads up on aspirin when Nedzu tells him the kid’s being moved to 1-A.

Ever since then it’s been a case of Aizawa’s teaching versus Midoriya’s disillusionment with pro heroes in general. So far, neither side has managed to gain ground. Oh sure, the kid respects him, but not so much to curb the biting remarks or actually listen.

Which is why Aizawa is in his apartment, searching for the aspirin while Midoriya sits on his couch. He’s not Christian, but Jesus Christ on a cracker— is this punishment for his sins? Some sort of atonement? He can’t think of anything warranting Midoriya goddamn Izuku at his doorstep with information he acquired through “informants”.

For the sake of his head, Aizawa’s not going to question it.

The eight precepts, that’s a name he hasn’t heard in a long time. All Might really took a salted earth approach to organized crime, it’s what made him shoot up the leaderboards as fast as he did.

Aizawa hates to admit it, but Izuku’s argument that All Might was making other heroes complacent held water. An injured animal is infinitely more dangerous than a healthy one. They’re volatile, unpredictable. The eight precepts are the same. They saw their time approaching and got desperate, desperate enough to do something like make a drug strong enough to take down All Might.

What else has flown under heroes’ noses?

He’s going to have to take this to Nedzu, of course. Which means board meetings and cooperation with hero agencies and so much bureaucracy it’ll make anyone’s head spin.

Midoriya isn’t much help. He’s watching Aizawa down the pain killers with his third cup of coffee, morbid in his curiosity. “Isn’t it bad to mix those?”

“That’s alcohol,” Aizawa replies, “Caffeine is fine.” Or at least not as bad as the former.

Midoriya’s content to leave it at that and shrugs. “So, thoughts? What’s going to happen from here? Not gonna lie, I don’t know much about the whole hero planning process. Usually just...go and do it, you know?”

Yes, he does know. Hours of remedial classes have made him intimately aware of Midoriya’s thought process. “Well, first off we’ll need to assemble a task force and contact the police.” Then, if Nighteye’s...passionate email said anything, there will be talks about the next hero Midoriya will be assigned to. “Planning might take a few weeks, depending on how much we know after recon.” He sees the glimmer in the kid’s eye “And no, you’re not going to be a part of this.”