Chapter Text
"Call all the hero students back to their agencies and back to UA. NOW." Nezu ordered as he stormed into the teacher's lounge, making half the teachers jump in surprise, "Midnight, cover for Aizawa for now, and help Vlad King with the first years. I will contact the other teachers, and the respective agencies."
"What's happened?" Ishiyama asked, confused, as Yamada burst into the teacher's lounge, his phone still in his hand. He had gone out for a minute to answer his phone before Nezu had entered the teacher's lounge, and the Voice Hero zeroed in on the principal, "I just got a call from Shouta and -"
"Mic, I know!" Nezu snapped, temporarily losing his cool, before he took a deep breath and sighed, "Call all the students back, as soon as possible, regardless of whether they are in the hero course or not. Anyone who's gone out for coffee, shopping for groceries, whatever, just get them all back now!"
"Nezu, what is going on?" Snipe calmly asked, trying to figure out the problem, and Nezu turned his head towards the sniper, "We are calling off all the work studies."
"Is that an order from the Hero Commission?" Kayama asked, and Nezu growled, "I don't care about the Hero Commission at this point in time. It's only been a week since the work studies started, and we've already had so many students injured and in the hospital. I should have canceled all this earlier."
Understanding the severity of the situation, all the teachers promptly placed their work down and headed out. It wasn't the time for them to be sitting down and asking questions. If they had any queries, they could ask Nezu later, when everything had calmed down and all the students were within the safe confines of the school.
Yamada stared at the principal, and Nezu glanced at him, "Mic, go to the hospital and find Aizawa. Alert him of the news. And if you see students on the way, tell them to come back as soon as possible. I will be telling Power Loader to increase school security, and then I'll talk to the Hero Commission if they decide to do shit."
"Will UA be alright, pulling all the students back without permission?" Yamada asked, "If we go against the Hero Commission, they might retaliate against UA, and we won't be able to protect the kids."
"We can't protect the students if the students are all dead!" Nezu countered, "You already know Shinsou's circumstances; compared to everything else, this is huge. If the Hero Commission isn't going to take action on their own, then something is severely wrong with their heads and how they function!"
Nezu stormed back towards his office, tapping on his phone, before pressing it to his ear, "Power Loader?... Yes, upgrade security... just do it somehow. Get the students to work on it too. We can't risk... I know..."
Nezu walked back into his office, and Yamada quickly ran out of the teacher's lounge.
Yamada rushed to the hospital that Aizawa had informed him they were at. It wasn't one of the conventional Hero hospitals, but it was one that specializes in treatment for those with mental quirks.
"Shouta!" Yamada yelled, waving his arm as he noticed the black haired man standing outside the hospital, staring at his phone, an extra capture weapon looped around his neck, and Shinsou's mask in his hand.
Aizawa looked up as Yamada ran over to him.
"He's safe. Hitoshi's alright. He's just unconscious. He'll wake up." Aizawa muttered under his breath, just barely loud enough for Yamada to hear, "The doctors said so. No major injuries, and his quirk factor is still fine. But they don't know when he'll wake up due to the more complex nature of mental quirks."
"What happened?" Yamada quietly asked, not wanting to spook Aizawa, and the man raised his eyes slowly, his hand that was holding the mask shaking,
"Mind Break... I knew there was something off when the description of his quirk was labeled as "connection" instead of "contact"... since those were the words that Mind Break himself used to describe his quirk... based on the recording... Hitoshi must have tried to brainwash Mind Break... but the villain used Hitoshi's mental connection as a gateway for his own quirk..." Aizawa stated, and Yamada nodded, putting the pieces together, "You think Hitoshi might have tried to cut the connection himself."
Aizawa nodded, "That was what the doctors were speculating too, when they asked for the cause to decide on the best way of treatment. Hitoshi can cut the connection on his own, but with someone else with a powerful mind control quirk... obviously that put a lot of pressure on him and Hitoshi's attempt to regain control hurt him."
"But the doctors said he's fine, right?" Yamada tried his best to console the Erasure Hero, and Aizawa just exhaled, "Yeah, but... mental quirk. There might be problems that the doctors can't identify as of now... we'll only be sure when Hitoshi wakes up."
"Don't worry so much, Shouta." Yamada pulled Aizawa in for a hug, "We know he'll be fine. He's a strong kid. He'll make it."
"I know..." Aizawa sighed, "I was right there... and I couldn't stop it from happening..."
"Shouta... we're heroes... stuff like that happens all the time..." Yamada murmured, and Aizawa glanced at him, "I was supposed to be hunting Mind Break down... it just feels like nothing is going right..."
"Stop being a pessimist." Yamada halfheartedly berated, "Things will look up soon. All the students are called back to UA, so they're definitely safe, and now, all those villains are behind bars! And according to the doctors, Hitoshi's fine! Things are definitely getting better!"
"Idiot. You're just as upset as I am. Don't try to hide it." Aizawa let out a dry chuckle at Yamada's antics, "You... want to see Hitoshi?"
"Yes, please, kind sir." Yamada jested, and Aizawa glared at the blonde, before he made his way into the hospital.
"Hey!" Ashido waved, as Ojiro and Sato entered the dorms, "You guys are back early!"
"Yeah." Ojiro nodded, "Apparently, Shishido got a call, and told us to come back as soon as possible. I have no idea what's going on, though."
"It probably has to do with the sheer number of villain attacks once the internships started back up." Sato sighed, before he looked up, "How are your injuries, Mina?"
"Great!" Ashido grinned, throwing her hands into the air, "Kind of itchy, though!"
"Say... where's Jiro? Wasn't she in the dorms too?" Kaminari asked, looking up from his phone; he, Mineta, Sero, and Shiozaki had just gotten back a few minutes ago after the Lurkers had gotten a message from UA.
"Oh, with Recovery Girl." Ashido replied, "She went to get a checkup."
"Alright." Kaminari nodded, as Sero spoke up, "So... assuming that everyone else was called back to UA... who else are we missing?"
"Not sure." Hagakure replied, "Uh... Aoyama is in his room, Mina and I are here, the Lurkers team and the Shishido team are back, Yaomomo is also out, but Tokage is in the 1-B dorms... Kiri is not here. Shoji is resting and Jiro is with Recovery Girl..."
"Iida, Midoriya, and Shinsou are still out. As well as Uraraka and Asui. And Bakugou and Todoroki; I'm pretty sure I saw them on the news with Endeavor like... two hours ago. Koda and Tokoyami also remained in the dorms today." Ashido finished off.
Right as she finished speaking, the door opened, and Uraraka and Asui entered the dorms, "Hey guys!"
"Uraraka! Tsu!" Hagakure cheered, "Welcome back! Did anything happen?"
"Ryukyu suddenly got a call, kero." Asui replied, "Then she turned to us and Hado-senpai, and told us we had to come back to UA immediately. We don't know why, though."
Uraraka nodded, "It was weird!"
"Same here." Ojiro spoke up, before some yelling from outside the dorms rang out.
"Fucking shit, Icyhot!... No, I have no fucking idea why we're being sent back after ONLY one fucking week!... Shut up!"
"Bakugou and Todoroki, I assume?" Sero smirked, right as the hot headed blonde and the dual hair colored boy walked into the dorms, and started taking off their shoes.
"Hi." Todoroki looked up, and Bakugou rolled his eyes, "Fucking hell. It takes forever to get from here to Endeavor's agency!"
"It's not that bad." Todoroki dryly replied, and the explosive blonde snapped at him, "Not that bad your ass! Fucking waste of travel time."
There was a small bark, and Kinu and Kacchan raced down the stairs and out into the common room, running up to their respective humans. Kacchan yipped and rubbed himself against Bakugou's leg, while Kinu just pawed at Uraraka's shoes, looking up excitedly.
"Kinu!" Uraraka placed her case with her hero costume in it down, and promptly scooped the chinchilla up, "Were you with Yuwai and Koji today?"
Kinu chirped, as Reiko looked up from her position on Midoriya's bean bag, where she was cuddling with Ryuto.
Similarly, Bakugou placed his bags on the ground and reached down, patting Kacchan on the head and scratching him behind the ears, as Koda emerged from the hallway, Yuwai huddled by his foot.
"Seeing as the Ryukyu Agency, the Lurkers, and the Shishido agency work studies students are back here... I'm going to assume that all the UA students were sent back?" Todoroki asked, and Ojiro nodded, "I think we're just waiting for Kirishima, Iida, Shinsou, and Midoriya to come back."
Midoriya trudged back into the 1-A dorms, carrying his backpack and his hero costume case. He slowly pushed the door open, and peered around, and took a step back when he noticed that nearly the entire class was gathered in the common room, and Kan turned around, noticing the new arrival.
"Midoriya!" Ashido yelled, "You're finally here!"
The greenette just stared blankly at her, and closed the door behind him. He slipped his shoes off, placing them neatly on the shoe rack, before he resumed trudging back up to his room.
"Wait, Midoriya! Vlad King-sensei has an announcement about the..." Yaoyorozu's voice trailed off as she noticed that Midoriya wasn't even listening to her, and didn't even respond. He just walked out of the room silently, and Kan sighed, "Well... I guess I should start."
"But Izuku..." Uraraka pointed in the direction that Midoriya disappeared to, and Jiro blinked, "Wait... doesn't Shinsou intern in the same agency that Midoriya does? At least... for the time being..."
"Yes, with my brother." Iida nodded, confused, as Kan cleared his throat, watching out of the corner of his eye as Reiko and Ryuto hopped out of the bean bag to follow Midoriya, "I will speak to Midoriya later. I think he is equally aware of the circumstances at hand..."
Kan looked up gravely, "Due to the sheer number of villain attacks that either targeted students, or resulted in the students getting injured on their work studies... from this day forward, the work studies are canceled. Permanently."
"Is it just for UA, or are the other schools also going to be canceling these mandatory work studies?" Todoroki asked, and Kan scratched his head, "As far as I know, some of the other schools like Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu have been pulling students back, but we still aren't sure if the Hero Commission is going to take any action regarding this matter."
"Well... something serious must have happened for all this to happen so... suddenly, right?" Kaminari spoke up, "Like... I know Jiro got knocked out and Shoji got injured... and that thing with Tokage... did something happen today?"
"Shinsou isn't here... does this have to do with him?" Kirishima asked, and Kan fell silent. He internally debated whether he should tell that to the students, when the door to the dorms was flung open again, and a quiet Aizawa walked into the room.
"Sensei!" Sero yelped, and Aizawa raised his eyebrow at the students, before turning to Kan, "Mic's with him right now. Did you tell them?"
"That the work studies are canceled, yes..." Kan trailed off, as Iida asked, "Did something happen to Hitoshi?"
Aizawa froze up subtly, and lowered his gaze, "Shinsou's fine, but he's in the hospital right now. He happened to encounter someone who countered his quirk perfectly... it didn't turn out too good. Vlad King, you can go take care of 1-B now. I can handle 1-A."
Kan was stunned by the sudden change in topic, before he blinked and cleared his throat, "Ah... okay."
The Blood Hero slowly made his way out of the dorms, unsure of how the situation at hand might make Aizawa act, and the Erasure hero turned his attention back to the students, "You guys have one free day before we start lessons up again. You're all dismissed."
He surveyed the students, "Midoriya isn't here. Where is he?"
"In his room." Iida promptly replied, "If we're dismissed... I'm going to tell him the news."
"I'll deal with that." Aizawa gruffly replied, "Now go do your own stuff. I don't care what, just don't break anything."
Reiko and Ryuto shot into the room as Midoriya entered, closing the door gently behind him, and flopped down on his bean bag.
The white feline curled up next to Midoriya, using pawing at Midoriya's cheek, as Ryuto huddled down by Midoriya's neck comfortingly.
"He was right behind me... I should have..." Midoriya gritted his teeth in frustration, "I'm useless... it's my fault. If I had just... been faster..."
Reiko blinked at him in confusion, not really sure what was going on, but judging from the fact that Shinsou had yet to come back, despite working at the same agency as Midoriya, it was clear that something had happened to him. She pressed her paw down on Midoriya's nose, gaining Midoriya's attention, and the greenette trailed his gaze over to the feline.
She purred, tilting her head in confusion as a clear sign that they had no context, and Midoriya limply lay down on his bed, weakly muttering, "I don't know... he was there, talking to the villain... and just... I don't know..."
He curled in on himself, whimpering, "I don't know, I don't know -"
A knock on the door rang out, and Midoriya hastily covered his mouth with his palm instinctively; was he being too loud? Was he disturbing his classmates or teachers? He waited, his heart pounding, hoping that he was quiet enough that the person outside his door would just go away.
There was another knock.
"Midoriya? Can I come in?"
He could hear the familiar sound of the homeroom teacher's voice, and Midoriya sank even deeper into the bean bag. Aizawa wasn't just 1-A's teacher, but he was also Shinsou's adoptive parent. He didn't deserve the right to just ignore him like that.
Pushing himself up, Midoriya shuffled to the door, and opened it, looking up to meet Aizawa's tired, black orbs.
Aizawa observed Midoroya's blank, dull expression, and looked at him in the eye, trying to keep his voice even, "Hitoshi's okay. He's just unconscious. We just have to wait for him to wake up, but we don't know when; mental quirks are a lot more complex in nature. It is hypothesized that Mind Break used Hitoshi's quirk as a connection to use his own quirk, and that put a lot more pressure on Hitoshi."
Midoriya just blinked blankly, and lowered his gaze towards the ground, "... I'm sorry..."
"It's not your fault." Aizawa muttered, "No one knew that Mind Break would use his quirk like that."
There was more silence between them, and Midoriya felt that he didn't really deserve the right to ask, but he wanted to see Shinsou, "Can... I see him?"
"I'm not sure." Aizawa replied, "That hospital specifically caters to patients with mental quirks, and it's notorious for not letting anyone other than family members visit due to the sensitive nature of their medical equipment. I can ask... but the chances are low."
Midoriya nodded bleakly, and didn't even bother closing the door behind him before he flopped onto his bean bag lifelessly, and Aizawa sighed, not knowing what else to do, "Lessons start in two days."
The Erasure Hero gently closed Midoriya's door, and turned away, heading back towards the teacher's lounge.