Capítulo 2338: 80
Chapter 80: Arbiter
A/N: And now for the scene that was supposed to have happened in the last chapter! … Not too much else occurs other than that I suppose. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy it! The greater plot at hand will come spinning around next time.
"Explain. Now."
Izuku gulped at the sight, red eyes glaring back at him and black locks of hair eerily floating, waving in place. Izuku had gotten that look enough times over the past year, but this specific instance seemed somehow worse than before.
"Oh, uh, hey Aizawa-sensei!" Izuku gulped again, taking up a nervous smile. "Heard that you went somewhere earlier today! How'd that go?"
Aizawa almost seemed ready to snarl at that remark, his face tensing for a few seconds before reverting back to its usual flat expression. "I'm not in the mood, Midoriya."
"Right." Izuku averted his eyes. "Sorry, right. None of my business, anyways." Izuku met Aizawa's gaze again. "Um… Explain what, exactly?"
"Midoriya." Aizawa scowled, the scarf coiled around Izuku tightening. "I—" But then Aizawa stopped himself, shaking his head. He let out a sigh, taking in a breath before looking back at Izuku.
"Look," he began. "I don't want to do this today. Especially after I just got back from… where I was. But we need to do this, while what you did is still fresh on your mind."
It was Izuku's turn to sigh this time. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Izuku looked back down at the fabric holding him helplessly (physically, at least, since his bugs were still in reach) in the air. "Could you, uh, let me go first?"
Aizawa narrowed his eyes. "You won't run?"
Izuku nodded. "Promise. I already know how this goes; this isn't the first time after all." Izuku then shrugged his shoulders, or attempted to, since his restraints prevented him from doing so. "Besides, I know what happens if I do try to run."
Aizawa glared at Izuku for a few more seconds, but eventually loosened up his capture gear and released Izuku to the ground. He pulled his scarf back around his neck, crossed his arms and turned off his quirk — eyes reverting back to their usual color and hair lowering back down.
"Alright," Aizawa grumbled. "Spill."
Despite the word essentially being a command, Izuku took the time to make sure his short entrapment within Aizawa's capture gear didn't leave anything of him sore. He made a show of doing it, closely checking over his body parts in a manner that took a fair amount of time. And definitely not in any way related to delaying tactics, if Izuku was asked as such.
"Mi—"
"Did you manage to speak to Nezu first?" Izuku asked, interrupting Aizawa before the man could start what was no doubt going to be a rather harsh tirade.
Aizawa pressed his fingers against his nose. "Yes, I spoke to the rat."
"So…" Izuku drummed his fingers on his leg. "What did he tell you, exactly?"
"Why? So you can change your story to match his? I don't think so."
Izuku reached out with his quirk and got to work. "Uhh…"
Meanwhile...
An amalgamation of bugs swarmed into Nezu's office, entering the room through the vent and gathering into an amorphous shape before the principal's desk.
However, before the swarm could even speak, before Izuku could even form the question into mind, Izuku was given an answer.
Without even raising his eyes from his paperwork, a single word came out of the principal's mouth.
"No."
Izuku reacted accordingly, of course. And so, he surged his swarm towards the principal.
Within seconds, the bugs were — quite expectedly — frozen by a gust of refrigerated air, it's source and origin completely unknown. The seemingly effortless move left the miniature corpses to fall to the ground by the thousands.
What little number of bugs that were left unscathed (because of course, despite the area effect of the air, Nezu still had managed to save some) were merely left to float idly, their numbers too small to do much else but listen.
"You'll have to try better than that, Midoriya." Nezu still hadn't looked up from his papers when he said that.
"Good luck next time, though!" Nezu cheered. "I'm rooting for you!"
Izuku's eye twitched. He'd have to see what he could do about that at a later date. For now though… he'd start with explaining to Aizawa.
"Well…" Izuku began, "as I'm sure you're aware; I went out. To a place. Outside of UA. In search of Stain."
Aizawa was unimpressed. "Go on."
"Well, instead of Stain, I found Stain. And Kentaro and his party of serial killing hobos. And they were all planning something. Well, planning on lending Waypoint to Stain for some reason. The conversation didn't go any further than that."
Aizawa nodded. "I heard as much from the police. Specifically, I learned of the information about recent interactions between Kentaro and…" He sent a pointed look at Izuku. "And his group, as well as Stain, by his lonesome, void of the rest of his zealots. And given by… Oh yes. An anonymous report from one of Officer Kaniyashiki's infromants, hmm?"
Izuku shrugged. "Hey, it worked, didn't it?"
"That's not the point Midoriya. You went out on your own—"
"I was with Kaniko!"
"You went out with an officer who is enabling you. If your handler was any of the other hundreds of officers on the force you wouldn't be getting away with this. Kaniyashiki's never been one to let rules get in the way for her perceived sense of justice. And she's dealt with vigilantes before, so she's got a soft spot for seeing their stories through before shooting."
Izuku smirked. "Then I suppose I'm lucky I got her then, hmm?"
Aizawa's glare intensified. "You're lucky that I'm not reporting the actions of either you or Kaniyashiki."
Izuku opened and closed his mouth, its dry nature only becoming noticeable then.
Izuku took the opportunity to continue with his interrogation. "How many other times has this happened?" he asked.
Izuku blinked. "Huh?"
Aizawa took a step forward. "How many. Other times. Has. This. Happened?"
Izuku gulped. "Umm… Since the Commission got me under their wing, you mean?"
Aizawa nodded once.
"Just, uh, before the raid on the The Precepts."
It was Aizawa's turn for his eye to twitch. "Say again."
Izuku held up his hands and waved them around. "It was just a scouting mission—"
"Just like this time was—"
"It was different! It was just the yakuza. And besides, I was looking for Eri! I'm not even sure that the raid would have been as relatively successful as it was if it wasn't for it!"
Aizawa backed away a bit, crossing his arms again. "Explain."
Izuku sighed. "I met Eri; introduced myself early with a small swarm. Also ended up irritating Overhaul a little bit with some bugs of mine — a delayed trap, if you will. Point is, I'm not sure she would have gone along with what I told her to do if I didn't meet up with her. I would have essentially been a stranger to her."
A moment of silence. Izuku was expecting it to erupt and shatter into another seething remark or a terrifying stare. But Aizawa didn't do either of them.
Aizawa groaned instead. "No wonder she's so infatuated with bugs. I never saw it necessary to dig, but it makes sense. I was wondering why she grew so attached to you, but—" Aizawa sighed.
"Look, Midoriya." Aizawa rubbed his forehead. "This isn't a question of your ability. You evaded me as Snitch for years. I thought that you were a woman for a good portion of that time. The Commission is obviously interested in your skills. Nezu is interested in your skills. I'd be blind to say that you aren't something special."
"Umm…"
"I understand that you're used to skirting the law to get your way. But!" Aizawa exclaimed before Izuku could rebute.
"But that doesn't mean that it's a habit that you should still be keeping. Especially with you now under the Commission's direct jurisdiction."
"Sensei…" Izuku waited for a rebuttal, but one never came. Izuku took his chance this time.
"Sensei. I— I can't just sit back and let things happen when I know I can do something about it. Like… You know about the Culture Festival. I fended off Gentle Criminal and La Brava. If I didn't the entire festival would have been cancelled."
"And during the raid," Izuku continued. "That whole thing with the… the monster combo giant Overhaul at the end. I took care of that with Eri's help. Just her and I. And that whole situation with All For One… And— And on Nabu Island."
Izuku took a breath. And then, he lifted his head up to meet Aizawa's eyes in full. "I'm effective. I know what I'm doing. I can get the job done. And, I know what I'm getting myself into. If I want to stop, or if I feel like I need to stop, I will."
"That. That is what I'm afraid of," Aizawa interrupted. "You say that you'll stop if things get too rough. You say you know your limits. But I've spent enough time getting to know you. And you aren't the type of person who will stop. You won't stop until you've deemed your part done. Whether that's saving one life over your own doesn't matter. You'd do it in a heartbeat."
Izuku took a breath. In. Out. "You aren't refuting the fact that—"
"I already told you that your skills are satisfactory, Midoriya." He shook his head. "But it's irrational. You're still in high school. The life of a vigilante — especially one as bloated as yours — it shouldn't be something that a kid has to take under themselves."
"But you—"
"I know what I've said. The world isn't fair. Life's not fair. A villain won't wait for you to get back up. I've told the class these things, sure. But what I'm teaching now isn't supposed to be for now. It's supposed to be for later."
"Discount the League. What they've done is bring themselves to us. But you Midoriya," Aizawa pointed a finger out, "you're bringing yourself to them. And you would plan to do the same with the plethora of other villains out there if it means you get hurt instead of somebody else."
"I'm being proactive."
"You're being reckless." Aizawa tilted his head forward. "And you need to be less reckless. Preemptively acting before villains strike is one thing. Acting on a shoestring plan is another held together by flimsy office tape. It's akin to the same vein of recklessness that has gotten yourself under Kentaro's radar."
"Kentaro was targeting me specifically," Izuku argued. "He has reasons for it! He's interested in me! I was going to get dragged into it no matter what. You know that, Aizawa-sensei."
"You think that because Edgeshot had the gall to think it was a good idea to include you on those missions," Aizawa continued. "A task force whose sole purpose is to catch a group of dangerous serial killers isn't a place for you. I'm just glad that Edgeshot finally grew the sense to eventually leave you out of it."
"But—."
"No, not one word." Aizawa shook his head. "Look. Here's the thing. You're a smart kid. It should be common sense not to be doing the things you do. But apparently it's not. So guess what? From this point on, any other ideas of you going out in the middle of the night with Kaniyashiki to do some stupid thing? Squash them. Rid your mind of them. Actually go along with any of your post-curfew plans and I will expel you, Midoriya."
"But—!"
"However," Aizawa continued. "In the case of an emergency. Or if you really think what you're planning to do needs to be done. Come to me. Tell me. And if I deem it alright… I'll tag along."
Izuku blinked. "Wait… Really?"
"I want to leave expelling you as a last resort, Midoriya. It won't do you any good." A pause. "Worse, I'd lose any of the power I have over you. I'd lose out on punishing you."
"No. Wait," Izuku yelped, mind still reeling. "Seriously? Like, actually?"
"Do you want me to take back my offer?"
"No!" Izuku exclaimed, a disbelieving smile coming to his face. "No, no. I'm just… surprised, is all."
"Don;t get used to it. After all, I doubt that you'll be surprised when I tell you that your actions have gathered you another week or so of punishment."
Izuku visibly deflated. "No. I'm not."
Aizawa's face took upon his signature, spine-tingling grin. "Good. You'll be needing everything that I plan on making you go through if any sense of discipline is going to be jammed into your head. Especially before internships start back up right around spring break."
"Whoopee…" Izuku said in mock cheer, sluggish pumping his fist in the air.
Aizawa's grin impossibly grew wider. "Glad to see your enthusiasm Midoriya. If I'm doing my job right, by this week's end you'll be thinking of my fist connecting with your face whenever you stumble across a villain."
Izuku furrowed his brows. "Your fist? On my face?"
"You need a finer touch in stealth, infiltration, and close quarters combat since I'm even considering this compromise with you. With the way you move on the battlefield, you need them. How do you think that I've survived as an underground hero for all these years?"
"Wait…?" Izuku's face brightened up. "I'm getting special underground hero training?!"
"Don't take it out of proportion. It's nothing special; merely skills that I've picked up here and there. Nonetheless, we start tomorrow." Aizawa had already started off in another direction, his judgement over Izuku seemingly over. "You have until then to cool off and prep."
"Wow!" Izuku cheered. "You didn't chew me out as much as I thought you would!" He called out to the retreating Aizawa. "In fact, this whole thing went loads better than I expected! It's almost uncharacteristic! You aren't going soft, are you?"
Aizawa paused in his step, peeking a glance back at his student.
"Soft?" he scoffed. He tilted his head for a second, seemingly thinking something over. Eventually, he shrugged his shoulders and continued walking off.
"You know what?" Aizawa continued. "I nearly forgot. Make sure to invite those friends of yours. I can't be an enabler of illegal actions like a certain police officer now, can I?"
Izuku sputtered. "You— but— Nezu—bwajefey— herefw—"
"Dang it!" Izuku then exclaimed. "You knew this entire time?"
"Nezu told me."
"That rat!" But then Izuku paused, realization dawned upon him. "Wait! Does that mean that they're allowed to come with us since you know about them?"
It almost sounded as if Aizawa had let out a chuckle. Almost. "I think that you should be worrying more about informing them what you dragged them into, don't you think?"
Izuku deflated once more. "Oh poo."
Izuku walked back into Height Alliance in a daze — a daze partially induced by the disorienting uncharacteristic interaction with his teacher, and partially due to what he needed to tell his friends.
Though, his mind wasn't so clouded that he'd miss the pink-skinned girl lounging on the couch closest to the entrance, just as she mentioned earlier.
…
A nice delaying tactic if anything.
"Hey! Thanks for having my back with Aizawa!" Izuku said as he walked towards the aforementioned couch. The shout spurred Ashido into peeking her head over the couch at the approaching Izuku.
She took on a sheepish grin. "I wasn't going to have him get mad at me anymore than he already was! He's still hounding me for my marks from last semester!"
In the midst of Ashido's plea, Izuku took note of the familiar presence climbing up Ashido's back. It took a few seconds until he could see a hint of large spindly appendages appearing around Ashido's hair, and it wasn't long after that Spurt made his way completely atop Ashido's head.
Despite Spurt's size and weight, and the way he began waving at Izuku once he was fully rested on the girl's head, Ashido's seemed completely unfazed. It completely dawned upon Izuku at that very moment.
That's it!" He exclaimed. Snapping his fingers. "Spurt reminds you of a facehugger, doesn't he?"
"Hehe. Can ya blame me?" Ashido moved an arm over her head and began to pet Spurt. "I think he'd make a great sci-fi/thriller creature! Maybe not the main monster, but something close to it! He certainly acts smart enough for it!"
Izuku swore that a sense of unbridled pride arose in Spurt at the words.
Heh, who knew that Spurt liked being on camera… Wait a minute, how often have Ashido and Spurt been hanging with each other when I'm out?
"Oh yeah!" Ashido suddenly exclaimed, her head jerking upwards. Spurt remained on her head despite the sudden movement.
"That's right! Yaomomo asked me about taking you to Aizawa awhile ago and afterwards asked me to tell you when you got here that she wanted to talk to you about something!"
Izuku blinked. "Wait, wait. You asked… tell me…. Yaomomo… Ah. Yeah, gotcha."
And there goes stalling. Barely lasted a few minutes. Oh well.
"Thanks Ashido," Izuku said. "I think that I know what it's about. I'll head up in a few. Thanks for letting me know."
"Of course! Though…" She looked left and right with conspiratory eyes, cupping one hand and leaning forward to whisper. "Just as FYI between you and me: she seemed a bit miffed when she went up! Got me thinking if it was something that you did?" She waggled her eyebrows. "If you know what I mean."
Izuku coughed, nearly choking on air. "I— wha—you—"
Ashido fell into a giggle fit. "Ha! Your reactions are always priceless!"
Izuku exhaled, straightening out his face and beginning to walk off. "I'm going now Ashido!"
"All— alright!" Ashido said in between giggles. "Good luck! You'll— You'll need it!"
"Yeah," Izuku muttered. "I can imagine."
After a proper ten plus minute scolding from Momo, and a near full minute staredown courtesy of Todoroki, Izuku was once again questioning why exactly he had let his friends talk him into letting them go scouting for Stain.
After all, it wasn't exactly his fault that Nezu had scared the crap out of both of them as he sneakily deposited them into their rooms. How would he have known Nezu capable of carrying two full grown teens at such a speed and with such furtive skill? The principal was barely three feet tall!
Nonetheless, once Momo had calmed down, it was time to get down to business. Rather than meet up somewhere on campus, they ended up using Mei's drones — newly outfitted with face to face communication.
This was despite the fact that Momo insisted that she could make communicators of the same caliber as a fraction of the time with little effort required. Mei had responded with a rather posh scoff and continued on her merry way.
Which led to where they were now; Izuku, Todoroki, and Momo sharing a screen since they all were already in a single room while the others had their drones all to themselves.
"So that's that," Izuku finished, catching his friends up with (most of) the recent events.
"It was honestly a lot tamer than his usual routine," Izuku continued. "I'm not sure if it's something I did or if he's just fed up with me but… Meh. I'm not complaining."
Pony leaned forwards towards her screen, eyes wide in question. -But…?-
Izuku tilted his head. "Huh?"
Manga's head swelled over the screen. -Our dear Pony here means that, hmm… How should I put it? Your teacher is a sadistic slave driver! You're always busy because of him!-
"Ah," Izuku held up a finger. "But all of you know the reason for that now. As you can see, there's justification for it."
-But still!-
"I believe that they're referring to the catch," Momo supplied, appearing off screen to the others, but otherwise seated beside Izuku.
"Being Aizawa-sensei's student as well, I can certainly attest that he isn't a slouch in any aspect. You might say 'slave-driver,' but he just knows how to get us to work hard. Very, very hard. I find it very hard to believe that he left you off so easily, Izuku. Hence, the 'but.'"
"Erm…"
-Aha! So there was a but!-
Izuku's eyes darted on screen to Manga, Setsuna, Pony, and Mei. And then he glanced at Momo and Todoroki beside him.
Probably not a good thing. No, absolutely not a good thing. It'll be best to break the news to them while I'm nowhere near them. Use the bugs, mhm. Mhm. Wonderful idea. Meanwhile, break away from the rest and run off and hide. People to prioritize keeping away from would be Mei, 100%. Next is who, Setsuna? Manga wouldn't hurt me… much. Pony's too passive… I think? UA's really changed her though so… Todoroki's fine. I'm sure with that. Momo… yeah, no. So that means make a clone, run off, and then—
-Bro!- Manga shouted out. -We're still here you know!-
Ah. Screw it. "Brace yourselves, 'cause you're all probably going to hate me."
-Oh come on Izuku!- Setsuna called out. It can't be that—
"Aizawa sort of figured out all of you guys' compliance with my plan and as a result he sort of wants all of us to take on a punishment training regiment. But we'll be learning special underground hero skills, so it won't be that bad!"
The latter was added to quell the anger, though Izuku wasn't sure just how effective it was in doing its job.
The ongoing silence was perhaps more terrifying than he would have thought. Though, when it finally broke, he wasn't all too thrilled exactly…
"YOU WHA—"
A/N: So… originally there was going to be a Halloween chapter over at Cicada, but I never got around to it. (Probably never will, honestly). Then I was thinking of a teaser for my next My Hero fic, but then called that off. So… Happy belated Halloween everybody?
But anyways... Up next: The end of March.
Status de energia semanal
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