บท 334: CHAPTER 326(Hope Of Cloud Cover)
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CHAPTER START---
"I just feel like, things would have been a lot better for us, for the three of us, for you, if things had gone differently," Aizawa says as he looks down at the photograph in his hands.
The small picture was of himself, Hizashi -Present Mic-, and Oboro -Kugorigi- at the end of their second year at UA.
They were all sitting on a cloud he'd created, and Aizawa couldn't even recognize the smile he wore in that picture.
He wipes the tears from his eyes and looks up to see Kurogiri strapped to a chair beyond two feet of reinforced glass with some holes for them to speak.
"Heroes make hard choices, that's what makes us different, different from Villains especially," Aizawa says. "Heroes sacrifice themselves for others, so I wonder. If things had gone differently, if you had gotten out before the building collapsed, if the three of us graduated together and formed that Hero Agency we wanted to…"
Aizawa stops for the moment, shoulders slumping as he leans back in his chair, staring down at the picture with a frown.
"Would the person who took my place, in that version of things. Would they have been able to protect my precious students? I couldn't protect them all, maybe they would have done better than men."
Aizawa brings the picture up so he can look at it side by side with Kurogiri, who was silently staring at him, unresponsive, as usual for these visits.
He'd been visiting much more often since summer vacation began, but the Villain had yet to say a single word to him.
"It's all I've thought about this past year, even more recently. This month makes it one year since you—," Aizawa coughs to interrupt himself. "Since the League Of Villains, attacked the summer camp, and killed some of the students. But no matter how much I think about it, since All For One was there, the best possible scenario was me being there."
Aizawa scoffs.
"If he and All Might or Endeavor fought there, everyone would have died as collateral, so my Quirk makes me uniquely qualified to neutralize him, to protect my students," Aizawa lowers the picture, focusing on Kurogiri. "I suppose against the devil himself, limiting losses is more realistic than saving everyone, right?"
Kurogiri continues to silently stare at him.
"Yeah, I figured you wouldn't disagree. You were always the type to keep trying to save everyone, even to the point that it got you killed…you were always meant to be a Hero, so it's no surprise he used you like this.
Turning the best of us is what devils and demons are supposed to do, and if you were alive they never would have managed that, you were the strongest of us in that respect."
"Five more minutes," the guard announces through the speakers.
Aizawa deflates even more, muttering to himself, "Five minutes, five years…what's the difference?"
Aizawa looks down at the picture, feeling hope slipping away as a new set of tears fall onto it, until a new ray of hope shines through.
"Cloud," Kugorigi's deep, hoarse voice says, struggling with each syllable.
Aizawa's eyes snap up to the Villain, widening to their limits. "Cloud?"
"Cloud…cover," Kurogiri says.
Aizawa gets out of his seat and presses a hand on the glass, "Yes, that's the name you wanted the Hero Agency to have, Cloud Cover, what else can you remember?"
"Cloud…Cover…Hizashi…Shota," the dark purple fog around Kurogiri's face begins to dissipate slightly, revealing flowing dark purple hair atop his head, a piece of a scarred, surprisingly young face.
Aizawa could only see the right eye, and the new scars on the forehead, but he would recognize his friend anywhere.
"Oboro!" Aizawa yells as he sees his friend cry a single tear, before his eyes glow yellow again and the fog begins reforming.
"Shota?" Oboro asks, clearly confused.
ERASURE!
Aizawa activates his Quirk, finally seeing a piece of the body below the fog.
But it doesn't stop the fog from fully reforming, and Kurogiri from going rigid and unresponsive again.
For better or worse, it does not affect his current state.
"Vitals say he's in a deep sleep," the guard announces through the speakers.
Aizawa sighs and dries his tears, leaning his head against the glass.
"So it's not completely hopeless after all," he mutters, looking up at Kurogiri. "Hizashi will be happy to hear about this, but we need you to keep fighting. Keep trying to come back to us, you've never given up on anything before, so don't start now, not when you're friends are fighting too."
Kurogiri's eyes open for a moment before closing again.
A few moments later the doors open, and Aizawa is escorted out of Tartarus.
After getting to the surface from floor four, Aizawa gets into his car and begins the ten-mile drive across the bridge that connects Tartarus to mainland Japan.
"Hizashi, are you busy?" Aizawa asks as the call connects.
"Not really, I just got back from that emergency. Now I'm just helping some of the kids with their Quirks," Hizashi says. "What's up?"
On the other end of the call, Hizashi Yamada, aka Present Mic, was sitting on a large boulder in casual clothes, nursing his sore throat after a surprising amount of combat in an emergency mission he was sent on.
Ahead of him is a large grassy field filled with boulders of varying sizes.
While talking on the phone he observed Kyoka Jiro, in her Earphone Jack hero costume, clashing her earphone jacks together close to the boulders without touching them.
Each time she does this a soundwave rushes out in every direction, knocking her back into the grass.
He watches with an amused smirk as the girl struggles to learn something that came so naturally to him.
In fact, destructive soundwaves were so natural to him, that when he was born, his first cries burst the ears of everyone in the room, doctors, nurses, even his parents.
So wrapping his mind around not simply being born powerful was something he took years to achieve.
"It's about Kurogiri," Aizawa says, and Present Mic's amused smirk stops.
"Oh, did something change?" he asked, hesitation clear in his voice.
"For the better," Aizawa says. "I saw Oboro."
"..."
"Hizashi?"
"..."
"Hizashi, are you there?"
"Uh, yeah," HIzashi says. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, he remembered the Hero Agency we wanted to start, or atleast what he wanted it to be called, and I never mentioned that name."
"So he really is in there," Hizashi says, fighting the tears trying to form. "I'll be sure to go with you next time…I can't believe the one visit I can't go to is when this happens, what a sick joke."
"Well he always was a prankster like that," Aizawa says. "But seriously, he's still in there Hizashi. Our friend, Oboro, he's still fighting."
Hizashi smiles, "If anyone could fight his way back from the grave, it's him, especially when there are people who need him to save them."
"Aizawa," Hizashi says in a quiet voice. "He was born to be a great Hero, he'll save us from this, I can feel it."
"At this rate, it'll be decades before that happens," Aizawa says. "What do you think about moving him out of Tartarus?"
"Out of Tartarus, where the hell would—" Hizashi stops as he sees some UA buildings in the distance. "You can't be serious here?"
"We can keep the transfer quiet, and even if Shigaraki did learn about it, they won't come here. Horizon Tower and UA are arguably safer than Tartarus when it comes to them."
"The Hero Commission would never agree to that, the risk is too high."
"Maybe, but I could see Oboro, his tears, he wants us to save him," Aizawa says. "And don't you think we've kept him waiting long enough?"
Hizashi bites his lip, but nods. "How would we even do this?"
"We have powerful friends, and people who owe us favors. Between Nezu, Horizon, All Might, and Endeavor, I'm sure we can get something done."
"Yeah, friendship is the best Quirk after all, so let's rely on it for this," Hizashi says. "I'll go talk to Nezu when this training is done."
"Good, I'm going to meet up with Edgeshot and Sir Nighteye, they asked for my help on a case."
"Oh, you'll be working with Deku and Lemillion too then, plus Cellophane and Tsukuyomi."
"Team Horizon is managing Minato Tokyo until their boss gets back, so just Deku and Lemillion," Aizawa says. "Before I get back I'll make a stop in Saitama Tokyo and talk to Endeavor."
"Right, I should probably tell Nemuri about this too, she'll be glad to know we've made some progress."
"Yeah, but don't tell anyone who doesn't need to know. This could still take a lot of time."
"So, his parents?" Hizashi asks.
"Best not to get their hopes up," Aizawa says. "We didn't tell them he was Kurogiri in the first place because of how hard his death was on them, so that news plus this…I hate to imagine what it would do to them."
"Or if he'd even want anyone to know. When he's back, if he has all his memories from his time as Kurogiri…"
"He can blame himself all he wants, after he comes back to us," Aizawa says. "Let's just focus on one thing at a time."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right, call me when you're done with Edgeshot and Sir Nighteye."
"Will do," Aizawa says as he hangs up.
Hizashi looks up at the sky, seeing the scant few clouds high above, and smiles.
'I guess there are always clouds somewhere, huh Oboro?'
He falls into his memories, mainly of his friend who could be with them again, soon, and can't help but feel more hopeful by the second.
After all, miracles are being granted all around him lately, so maybe he finally got his.
"Sensei!" Jiro snaps him out of his thoughts, almost a half hour after he began cloudwatching.
"Huh, what's up?" Hizashi asks, looking at the girl with a battered Hero Costume and bruises on her body.
"I still can't direct the soundwaves forward, I think I should go see Mei to have some equipment made for that, like yours," she says.
Hizashi raises a hand to touch his neck, where his sound-directing equipment would usually be.
"That's not a bad idea, but just keep in mind that sometimes equipment that starts as training wheels becomes a crutch," he says before hopping down from the rock, and walking over to her. "Master it, but keep training to achieve the same effects without it."
"Of course sensei. Plus if I ever have to fight a villain without it, I'd rather be ready for that too," she says while removing her visor, which looked similar to Horizon and Cellophane's, but had a speaker design where the face would be. "It should be capable in theory, but the output just feels, off."
Hizashi rubs his chin, "It's based on the design of my gear, so we assumed your power output was the problem, hence making you train to create destructive soundwaves without it, but maybe your rhythm is the problem."
"My rhythm?" Jiro asks.
"Well, your Quirk amplifies the sound of your heartbeat, that's why pumping that into the ground so easily causes quakes for you," he says. "Mine amplifies my voice, so I have more power but can't use to to prevision like you can with your Earphone Jacks, plus it doesn't help me use echolocation like you, so maybe rhythm is the problem. Or more accurately, stockpiling the energy matching the rhythm."
"What do you mean?" Jiro gives him a genuinely confused look.
Hizashi sighs, "Your Quirk is connected to your body, so keep the sound of multiple heartbeats moving around in there then release them all at once, instead of trying to amplify one, amplify a few at once. I do a similar trick with the vibration of my vocal cords, but it puts a serious strain on them."
"My Quirk uses my heart, and by extension my entire body…so what happens if I strain it?"
"Your bones will hurt before your heart, so stop if you feel any pain at all, try it out after you go get some lunch," Hizashi says. "I need to go see Principal Nezu."
"Sure thing sensei," Jiro says excitedly as he walks away.
After he leaves she relaxes, looking at the one boulder she'd been trying to shatter all day, which still stood strong.
Then farther ahead, at the 5m -16ft- wide, circular trench carved in the ground, spanning the field they were currently training in from end to end, almost 33m -100ft-.
She then looks to the man as he walks away, already on another phone call.
"I guess he's not just some lame DJ…"
END CHAPTER---
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