Viridescent

Chapter Eight: Invasion

The day went by at a pretty casual pace, although Izuku's time was mostly occupied by Eri. None of the teachers had a problem with her in the classes since she was more or less dead silent the entire time, choosing to focus on whatever Izuku was doing above anything else. She seemed content to just watch him take notes and do his work.

Lunchtime came around and Eri was obviously rather intimidated by the huge cafeteria full of people, leaving Izuku torn about what to do. Fortunately, they were saved by All Might showing up again.

"There you are!" His deep voice boomed as the Symbol of Peace approached the pair. "Come with me. I've got lunch ready for you in my office."

Izuku nodded and waved at his friends to go on without him. "I'll see you guys later."

"Okay," Mina replied, smiling widely at the little girl attached to his arm. "See you, Eri!"

Eri shyly hid her face in Izuku's shirt sleeve and hurried along with him as they followed All Might to his office.

Ochako watched them go curiously. "I wonder what's going on for All Might to call them away."

"I think they might be related," Denki suggested. "Izuku and Eri are both pretty shy, right?"

"Don't be stupid, they look nothing alike for one," Kyoka shot the idea down instantly. "Izuku's just introverted, not necessarily shy. He got pretty confident during our battle training, remember? Eri's more like...it's as though she's afraid of everything."

"I agree," Momo nodded. "Did you see her face when she saw Fumikage earlier? No offense."

"None taken, it's a valid point," the falcon-faced teen looked rather grim. "She was definitely afraid of me. My face can be a bit intimidating for little children, but that was...that was different than what I'm used to."

They were referring back to homeroom when Fumikage had come over, albeit at a distance like he usually did, to get a look at Eri. She had spotted him behind the other students and all the blood had drained from her face, causing her to bury herself in Izuku's chest and shiver until he took her out of the room with a hurried apology. They hadn't come back to homeroom after that and Fumikage noticed that Eri would do her best to hide whenever she saw him.

He'd scared kids on accident before, but this was different. Her reaction was way too extreme to just be a simple fear.

Eijirou glanced at Katsuki, who was already walking towards the lunch line. "Hey Katsuki, do you know anything? You were chatting to Izuku earlier in homeroom."

"It's none of your business," he snapped. Katsuki knew about as much as Izuku did, but All Might had told him to keep quiet regarding the situation as a whole. He still hadn't even been interviewed by the police yet, after all. But he knew why Eri had been so terrified by the mere sight of Fumikage and now it annoyed him even more that he hadn't gotten to pulverize that bird-masked bastard from the night before.

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All Might got them into his office and brought their lunch out of a small fridge kept in the corner. "So, Aizawa told me there was a bit of an incident earlier in homeroom?"

Izuku nodded, squeezing Eri's hand comfortingly as he recalled the event. "It's my fault. I didn't even consider that she might be afraid of Fumikage."

/////

He was mentally kicking himself for not establishing that Eri's kidnapper and Fumikage looked similar as he rushed the girl out the room as quickly as possible, keeping her clutched to his chest. He had his backpack halfway slung over one shoulder and got them outside in just under a minute, finding a large tree for them to hide behind before he sank to the ground.