Eraserhead and Scribe II

Eraserhead and Scribe II Chapter 7

Aizawa spent his evenings making calls and researching. He located Murder Hornet's daughter with little difficulty. She attended a small university in Tokyo. He contacted Best Jeanist, who promised to check into her.

And the feeling that Scribe was attempting to contact him was growing stronger and more frequent. He knew he dreamed about her every night, but when he woke, her presence was gone. He couldn't swear they were more than dreams or that the feeling he got from time to time was really intuition, but he felt it was, and the feeling was enough to give him hope.

His students were the first to notice. "Mr. Aizawa, is Miss Scribe doing better?" Yaoyarozu asked, pausing by his desk on the way out after class.

He looked up in surprise. Jiro, Ochaco and Tsu lingered behind Yaoyarozu, listening intently. "According to the doctors, she is the same, why?"

"You just seem...more hopeful." Yaoyarozu shrugged. "I thought maybe..."

He wished he could give her something more concrete. The students missed Scribe nearly as much as he did. But he couldn't tell them why he felt more hopeful. He couldn't tell them that he'd formed an alliance with the leader of the League of Villains who had already tried to kill and capture more than one of them. He remembered the horror at the USJ when he'd seen Shigaraki reaching for Tsu's face, his intent obvious. If Midoriya hadn't acted to save her, Tsu wouldn't be there right then.

He gritted his teeth against self disgust. How can I work with that man? Even to get Scribe back? He's done too much evil to ever be forgiven. And yet, when he thought of the man sitting by Scribe's bed in an attitude almost of prayer, he found it difficult to equate the two. Scribe tried to describe this to me. She saw him like this, too—a dichotomy between the villain he is and the man he could have been if the world had been different.

"Mr. Aizawa, are you okay?" Ochaco sounded alarmed. "You look sick."

"No. I'm not sick." Aizawa stood. "I have to go, though, if I'm going to see Scribe today. I'll be back after dinner."

"Yes, sir." The girls stood back to let him pass, but he caught their confused glances.

No doubt it was confusing for them. It was confusing for him. Now that he was recovering hope, he realized his bond with Shigaraki had been formed out of desperation. He'd felt he had nothing to lose. Nowhere to turn. And now she was contacting him on her own, and he knew she was still there, it was only a matter of time before he found her. Or she found her way back to him.

But it was Shigaraki that pulled me out of the despair. He winced a little. I had him, too. I could have called the authorities and one of the most dangerous villains in Japan would be behind bars now. But I let him go. And now I'm carrying around a burner phone with his number in it, and—

A hand on his shoulder made him jump and whirl, eyes flaring. He took a deep breath. "All Might. You startled me."

"You don't startle easy, Aizawa. Your mind must have been somewhere else." All Might looked concerned. "I thought I'd offer you a ride to see Scribe today. I'd like to visit with her myself."

"Oh. Um, sure." Aizawa nodded. All Might, of course, could call on a helicopter to carry them to the hospital, which made transportation much easier.

Of course, traveling with All Might came with its natural disadvantages, too. They landed on the hospital's roof and were greeted by an entourage of doctors and nurses, all seeking autographs. Aizawa managed to disappear into the crowd and went on to Scribe's room. He froze inside the door at the sight of the slight figure in jeans and a black hoodie. "What are you doing here?" He quickly shut the door.

Shigaraki turned, arching an eyebrow. "I thought we'd been through this."

"All Might's on his way. You've got to get out of here."

"All Might?" Shigaraki's mouth twitched. "What're you so worried about, Eraser? We could take him." At Aizawa's shocked look, he snorted. "You should see your face. But seriously, I do want to know why I haven't heard from you. Has she not tried to make contact with you again?"

"I...not really."

Shigaraki gave him a sharp look. "Remember trust, Eraser? If I don't trust you, then you really can't trust me. Share."

"It's just...dreams and...and feelings. I can't swear any of it is more than that. Sometimes I feel like she's really close to me, though. But I haven't seen her since...the time in the mirror." Aizawa looked at him hard. "What have you found out about Murder Hornet's daughter?"

"That she's a model student. Straight As. The kind of girl who'd make any father proud." Shigaraki shrugged. "Oh, and she has a poison quirk very like her father's, but more potent."

Aizawa heard a commotion in the hallway and knew All Might was on his way. Shigaraki flipped his hoodie over his white hair and moved to the door. "Time's up. Keep feeling all the feels, Eraser. She's out there somewhere."

All Might walked in so soon after Shigaraki left, Aizawa couldn't understand how he didn't see him. But then, Shigaraki was good at not being seen when he didn't want to be.

Aizawa let the other man have the seat next to Scribe's bedside. All Might accepted it with a slight smile. "I haven't made it here nearly often enough." He took Scribe's limp hand in his large one. "I guess I don't really want to see her like this." He lowered his gaze to their hands. "I remember sitting with her in her bookstore. I thought I could help her, give her a real life. If I'd known..."

He shook his head, then he looked up at Aizawa and his blue gaze was sharp. "You asked me once if I knew you'd fall in love with her if I brought her back to Japan." He shrugged. "I guess it had occurred to me. I knew about what had happened between the two of you. I knew she had never recovered from it. You know that's when she stopped using her real name, right?"

Aizawa nodded. "Her family was so ashamed of her actions...she left home as soon as she graduated. Worked her way through college and made her own way in the world from then on."

"Yeah." All Might nodded. "So...I knew that no matter what happened between the two of you, she had to make peace with what had happened. And honestly, I didn't see how anyone could help falling in love with her, so yeah, I figured that would be your course." He bowed his head again. "If I did you a disservice, I apologize."

"No." Aizawa shook his head. "I don't regret any of it. Not a minute I spent with her."

"That's good." All Might raised his gaze to Aizawa's, and there was both consternation and understanding there. "I think it's important to make sure we don't regret anything going forward, either."

Aizawa straightened. "What do you mean?"

"Unless I am very wrong, that was Tomura Shigaraki who walked out of here right before I walked in."

Aizawa looked away. He couldn't lie to All Might, and he couldn't come up with a good reason for letting Shigaraki leave.

All Might sighed. "You've both been very forthright about her connection with Shigaraki. I know he believes he is in love with her. I can...almost...understand how something like that could forge a bond between the two of you. Almost."

"All Might." Aizawa took a deep breath, then let it out. "Toshinori. I can't justify it. If you want to turn me into the authorities, I would even understand that. But the fact of the matter is, Shigaraki's the only one besides me who hasn't given up on her. Present company not even excluded. And I was on the verge of giving up when he came in and forced me to believe again. I don't know what that says about me that the one person who gave me hope was the villain who loves my wife."

All Might opened his mouth, then closed it, his brow furrowed. Finally he said, "Maybe it has more to say about the rest of us. Me especially." He set Scribe's hand on the bed and bowed his head. "I shouldn't have written her off so easily. Or you. If you can forgive me, maybe I can help."

Aizawa felt as if a heavy load had been taken off his shoulders. He nodded. "Thank you, Toshinori."