Eraserhead and Joke

Mistake

Shota looked down at his cell phone and groaned.

There, displayed proudly on the screen were the words: "Best Girl" along with a picture of Ms. Joke pulling a funny face along with the call icon.

He had deleted her number more times than he could count, but somehow, she kept sneaking his phone away and putting herself back in there, the nicknames she gave herself getting worse every time. 

Blocking her and/or hanging up on her had done, no good either. She would just keep popping up on his patrols like an irritating, annoyingly happy rabbit and telling him things or worse, yelling them to him across the street.

So, with a heavy sigh, Shota pushed the answer button.

For a long moment, there was silence as neither Shota nor his unwelcome caller spoke.

"If this is another prank call, I am going to hang up and not answer for a week," Shota threatened.

"Shota...please don't hang up."

That stopped him short.

Not that Ms. Joke asking him not to hang up on her was uncommon, she did that all the time. Generally, though she didn't sound weak or desperate when she did it. His mind immediately switched from, possible annoying prank call, to possible friend in trouble call.

"I got caught in... some kind of gas attack...a villain yesterday, small time thug...robbing a convenience store," she began.

Shota frowned. He hadn't heard of any attack like that lately, but it sounded like just a small scuffle so maybe the news hadn't bothered reporting it.

"I inhaled some of the gas and...it left me feeling really weak..."

"Did you get checked out at the hospital?" he asked.

"Yes...couldn't figure out how to turn the effects off...said it will take about a day."
She paused for a moment.

"Shota, do think you could...take my patrol today? I don't think I can...do much right now."
Shota had been asked to take another's patrol before, normally by Hizashi when his loud friend got a cold or suffered some other illness due to his irrationality and inability to take care of himself well. 

He would grumble to Hizashi about it, but he always did. So this time, he agreed, though, without complaining and, if he added a quick word or two about her making sure to rest, well, that was just him making sure that he wouldn't be asked to take her patrol for tomorrow as well.

A few hours later, Shota trudged along a block of apartments that made up part of Ms. Joke's beat.

He hunched his shoulders, feeling uncomfortable with the bright sun beating down on his costume and the number of people he shared the sidewalk with. The heat was annoying and the noise was even worse. 

This was why he preferred night time patrols. Fewer people and more cool breezes to keep the temperature just right.

Shota grimaced as he spotted the part of his patrol that he had been dreading the most, Mustafa West Park. It was one of the biggest parks in the city and a prime spot for villain gangs to do drug deals, many of which inevitably went south and got civilians involved.

Even if there weren't villiains hanging around, Shota was dreading the crowds of noisy children playing on the play structures or goofing off with their quirks. Children had no sense of rationality or responsibility. He couldn't even imagine how horrible it must be as a teacher who had to be around them all day and try to knock sense into their skulls.

(If anyone had told Shota at that point that he would one day willing, or at least as willing as it possible to be when Nedzu is involved, become one. He would have told them it was a nice attempt at joke but still a very bad one.)

Shota approached the park and quickened his pace, hoping to get through the dread area as quickly as humanly possible. He kept his eyes open for anything shady and, in the middle of the park, he found it.

A good thirty odd people where standing around by the picnic benchs, dressed in trench coats despite the weather. They were all clearly waiting for something.

He thought about retreating to watch them from a distance, but one of the odd group had already spotted him and gave a friendly wave.

Warily, with his hand already on his capture scarf, Shota walked closer, hoping to question the man on what his group was up to.

No sooner had he stepped among the group then a very familiar voice yelled.

"Let's get this party started!"

All thirty people responded as one, pulling off their trench coats to reveal black shirts and t-shirts. They flung them to the side and began to sing at the top of their lungs.

"Somebody once told me the world was gonna roll me..."

Jamming his fingers into his ears, Shota looked around for Hizashi. His blond friend was nowhere to be seen, and while he was leading the singers in that awful song at the top of his considerable lungs, it was hard to locate him by sound alone with so much background noise.

There was only one way out of this situation.

Shota turned and started to run as far away from the group as possible. One of the figure nearby reached out, however, and caught him by the wrist. 

"Let me go right now," he growled.

"Not a chance," Ms. Joke said.

Reaching out with his free hand, Shota tried to pry her finger off, but she dodged behind him and pulled his arm into a lock.

"This is assault," Shota insisted, struggling against her hold.

"Not really. I am not hurting you and/or using my quirk. Laws are much more lenient when it comes to quirkless fights."

"Hizashi is using his," he grumbled.

"If he were attacking, you would have a point, but this little flash mob is an official event for his radio show."

Ms. Joke grinned wider. "Besides, we both know you won't actually do something like that to me or Hizashi."
His cheeks burned. He didn't have a response to that, so he settled for trying to stomp on Ms. Joke's toes. She side-stepped him.

A few minutes later and Shota's struggles ceased and he hung limp in Ms. Joke's grasp.

After what felt like an eternity for Shota, the song ended and Hizashi popped out from the tree he had been hiding in. He walked over to where Ms. Joke was still holding Shota captive.

"Great crowd, today don't you think?" He asked.

"Fantastic," Shota said sarcastically. "Now if you'll let me go, I am going home to take a nap and try to forget this even happened."

"Wanna erase your memory? Eraserhead?" Ms. Joke asked.

She and Hizashi both laughed while Shota mentally cursed himself, not for the first or last time, for letting Hizashi pick out his hero name.

"I am sure he just wants erase that insomniac look from his head," Hizashi said.

In that moment, stuck between his fellow heroes while they exchanged terrible jokes, Shota realized that he made the worst mistake of his life when he introduced his two loudest nuisances (friends) to each other.