Lightning Serenade

Chapter 96: Eraserhead

Aizawa's eyes quickly scanned over the room, taking in the necessary information so he knew what he was working with, his eyes glowing as his hair floated, crouching down low, keeping his center of gravity low to the floor, ready to move in any direction at a moment's notice.

Unconsciously, Hitoshi centered in on Aizawa's thoughts.

No one seems injured. No one is being held in a compromising position, but that can change at any time. Especially with Oboro—Kurogiri. He's Kurogiri now. I have to stop—but if—no. I can't get my hopes up. It's too far-fetched. It's been too long. I can't—

"Uh, hey, Aizawa!" Denki tried, voice cracking with anxiety at the valiant effort as he nonchalantly leaned against the bar. "Fancy seeing you here! Come here often?"

"More often than I'd like," Aizawa answered vaguely in a grumble, relaxing just the slightest bit when it seemed like no one was going to rush forward and put the soulmates in a chokehold and use them as leverage to threaten him with.

"So, uh, I can explain," Denki offered, holding his hands out in a calming gesture to Aizawa as if they weren't surrounded by wanted villains, like Aizawa was the one he was concerned about.

Aizawa straightened more, took another sweeping look around the room before his gaze double backed to land on Hawks where his gaze openly remained for a few, long seconds.

"Hiya, Eraserhead. Long time, no see!" Hawks said with a small, two-fingered salute.

Aizawa deflated, relaxing his stance, though his eyes stayed alert.

"Explain," he demanded, eyeing his adoptive son whose unwavering gaze hadn't left his form since he crash landed through the window, a wide variety of muted emotions crossing over his features that Aizawa would have missed if not having watched Hitoshi grow up.

"Did you not see the TikTok?" Denki started with.

He was met with a blank stare.

"I've been at a training camp with the new Class 1-A for the past two weeks," Aizawa said, glancing around the room.

The villains snickered, not even trying to hide their amusement.

"No need to bother hiding it from us, Aizawa," Dabi drawled. "We got what we needed from your class."

"And don't go thinking you're the only traitor," Toga added with a sharp smile. "We could easily get the coordinates if we wanted. Pop in for a visit whenever we want."

Aizawa was interrupted in whatever retort (or plea) he was about to make by Denki's soft questioned, "traitor?"

Neito was not so quiet.

"People were after Denki, thinking that he was the traitor! And it was you this entire time!" Neito seethed.

"Well, not until after the USJ incident," Shigaraki offered. "I wouldn't be so cruel as to take out one of my own like that."

Aizawa's arm twitched, the only indication that he remembered the pain he encountered at Shigaraki's hand.

Shigaraki was kind enough to not mention that Aizawa was the one to seek the League out, not the other way around.

Hitoshi gasped as he spun around to look at Shigaraki, and Shigaraki swore under his breath. There goes his act of kindness, right out the window. Having a mind-reader in-house kind of sucked.

Hitoshi quickly connected the dots, between reading all of Aizawa's thoughts and Shigaraki's, and finding out that Aizawa had sought out the League after their first encounter. He looked over at Kurogiri who watched attentively from his place behind the bar.