Chapter Text
Loop # 30
Getting the pair back to his home had taken more coaxing then he was willing to admit. Shoto was overly trusting, as was expected of a six-year-old boy but Touya was more skittish than a feral cat and seemed to only give in because of Eri babbling in her stroller.
Had they been his students and he hadn’t been so worried about getting them off the streets he would have pointed out traffickers use young children posed as family members to lure people in all the time, but if it got the Todorokis to come with him he’d take their trust in Eri’s cute face any day.
The two-bedroom apartment he currently had was meant to be for him and Eri when she got older, but he was still hesitant to have her outside of his sight. He guessed it was lucky then that he kept her crib in his room and the second bedroom was still decked out as a guest room, with futons rolled up in the corner so that the boys he knew couldn’t sleep well on a western-style bed would be comfortable.
Touya seemed dumbfounded when Aizawa showed them the lock on the bedroom door and handed over the key he had for emergencies for when Eri was older. He wouldn’t point out he could pick the lock if he needed to, but handing over the key caused more surprise than he expected.
“You’re letting us keep you out of your own room?”
Shouta rolled his eyes, “As long as you decide to stay, it’s your room. I’m not going to break your privacy unless I think you’re doing something that where you’re causing harm to each other or yourselves. As it stands, you don’t trust me, so feel free to keep me out. The fire escape is also out of your window so if you decide to leave you can go that way if you don’t want to go out the front door. I just ask that you leave the door unlocked if you chose that path so I don’t have to go up the fire escape to get back into the room.”
He felt his heartbreak at the shell shocked look on the boys’ faces but just kept going as if he didn’t, “We passed the kitchen, liquor is already locked up so don’t even try otherwise feel free to eat everything other then Eri’s apples, I’m dealing with her crying because you ate all of them. Bathrooms across the hall. Do you need anything else tonight or would you prefer to head to bed and talk more in the morning?”
“Why are you being so nice to us?”
Shouta raised an eyebrow but shrugged, bouncing a nearly asleep Eri on his hip, “Because you’re just kids that look like you needed some help. If you’re still here in the morning we’ll need to go talk to the police so I don’t get accused of kidnapping but otherwise I just want you two to be safe.”
“Thank You, Mr. Aizawa. ” Shoto whispered, poking his head out from behind Touya’s leg. Shouta couldn’t stop his lips from twitching upward as he crouched down and lightly ruffled the boy’s two-toned hair.
“Anytime, kid.”
“Shoto,”
“Anytime, Shoto.”
Touya looked conflicted but he nudged Shoto towards the bathroom, casting a sideways glance at the older man, “Come on squirt, let’s get you cleaned up.”
“I’m putting Eri down then I’ll be in the living room grading papers if you need anything. I can set out some clothes if you’d like beforehand though.”
“... Yes please,” Touya whispered, “Thanks.”
“No problem, bud.”
“It’s Touya, Mr. Aizawa.”
“And it’s just Shouta or Aizawa. I get enough Mr. Aizawa’s from my students.”
The night went smoothly after that, and with morning came a visit to Tsukauchi. It was only a few short hours later that the boys were placed in Shouta’s care for protective custody.
He wasn’t expecting to cross patches with another Leaguer so soon afterward, but only a week later as he was leaving Hizashi’s moms’ house with his two new sons each sporting a new white as snow hairstyle, courtesy of Hizashi’s mama’s color-changing quirk, and he saw an all too familiar head of straggly blue hair stumbling along the street. Crusty brown covered his hands, splashed along his clothes.
“Sho?” Mic asked before his eyes followed his friends and his face fell, “Oh…”
“He needs help,”
“Softie,”
Shouta glared at him, but Hizashi waved him off, “Let me.”
He hesitated, “Okay, just be careful, don’t scare him.”
Hizashi moved closer young Shigaraki… No this wasn’t the villain that disintegrated his elbow anymore then Touya was the scared villain that had given his students third-degree burns, this was Tenko Shimara, a traumatized child with a quirk that may or may not be his own to start with.
He really had a habit of collecting problem children.
Maybe he could use this to his advantage…
Shouta didn’t even look up from the first year paperwork as the twenty students passed out around him, checking for any changes to the timeline as he waited for the kids’ looping memories to return to them.
Groggily they all resurfaced, looking around at each other trying to determine if they could speak.
“Welcome back problem children,” He greeted, cutting through the usual tension, “Nice to see all of you awake.”
Shoto’s eyes shot to the front and Aizawa couldn’t stop the smirk from pulling to his lips as the kid paled.
“Oh my god,” The newly returned duel haired teen whispered, “Oh mY GOD!”
“What’s wrong?” Midoriya asked instantly, turning searching eyes on his friend.
Aizawa hummed as his son glared at him, “How about I start this time with changes since I’ve been here for way too long.”
A simple click to his mouse and his screen saver was projected for his whole class to see.
“Meet my family, There’s me, and my biological daughter Eri in the middle. Next are my sons Shoto and Touya, both of whom recently changed from the white hair they had most of their lives back to their natural colors, and lastly, we have Ikki or Mustard as he likes to be called. Next is my best friend Hizashi and his daughter Himiko, and his son, Tenko. You might recognize Hizashi and Touya as the pro heroes Present Mic and Phoenix. Tenko, on the other hand, is joining the support department this year so you might see him around the school.”
“Holy shit,” Hagakura whispered.
“Did sensei really just adopt the whole league?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Shouta scoffed, “Only the ones that were under the age of eighteen.”
Momo was giggling helplessly as Shoto face planted down on his desk, “I always pictured this from All Might, not you, sir.”
“You’re all my problem children first, so shush.”
Loop # 31
Of all the things they expected to come from Midoriya’s formal teardown of Endeavor, Hawks showing up to campus and quietly asking to speak with All Might was not one of them.
And yet the twenty-something winged hero stood in the Teachers’ dorm commons looking shaken and confused. Yagi had waited patiently for him to speak knowing the only other person that might wander in at this hour was Shouta, who he was certain was listening in anyways.
“I… I wanted to become a hero because of…”
Yagi offered a smile, “Because of Endeavor, correct? Is that what has you all worked up my friend? That you idolized a monstrous man because he successfully hid that part of him from the majority of the world?”
“No! I mean, yes, or maybe? I...” The hero’s wings flared out as he buried his face in his collar.
“Take your time, Hawks. I have all the time in the world. If it’s not about Endeavor is it perhaps linked to him?”
The silence was long as Hawks seemed to wrestle with something before he finally pulled his collar down with a jerky hand and asked in a quiet voice, “Do you know about how the commission started talking about not just organizing heroes, but making them too about a decade or so back?”
“Yes,” All Might offered, back straightening. The media mess that had been made from what seemed like a simple miswording of a low ranking committee member as the nation argued on if they simply meant the licenses or if the Commission was overstepping their place in society and aiming to create a private military of heroes had been intense. “What does that have to do with our conversation?”
And just like that, the story started coming out and it seemed that once Hawks started he couldn’t stop telling Yagi about what he had been through as he forced his arms into his armpits as if afraid they would stop him against his will.
He spoke of how he had wanted to be a hero since Endeavor had saved him as a child, how he always looked up to the man and how sick it made him feel that the man he admired was truly an awful human being.
How the Commission had made him an offer when he was merely eight, a promise to train him to be a hero that was just as good as Endeavor if he accepted. How he just wanted to be a hero.
He talked about the training so hard he wouldn’t be able to move for hours afterward, how he routinely throw up from the hits they told him he, a nine-year-old, was supposed to be able to take with a smile, how they taught him to need nothing, to want nothing, not even food or water or warmth in case he was ever held hostage, how they molded him, groomed him to be the perfect hero, to always know what to say during an interview, to know how to comfort a child, to have enough sex appeal to keep those in his own age group interested while not coming off as lewd or perverted.
He told Yagi with something close to fear in his eyes of the conditioning they had put him through to remain loyal to the commission, to say nothing out of line, to let no one know the truth of his training and how he rose to the top of the rankings so quickly when he basically didn’t exist anymore as anything other than Hawks.
Yagi’s blood was boiling as the man finally ended his ramblings, looking lost and confused. How could he have missed the Commission fall so far from grace? How could he miss the evil that lurked just out of view, one he worked under no less?
But he couldn’t focus on that right now. Right now there was a boy not much older than his students, his children, that looked lost and oh so close to breaking.
“What do you WANT to do next?”
The young man looked confused, “I’ve never had the option to be anything but a hero…”
“Do you want the chance then?”
Hawks leapt to his feet, wings defensively pulled around him before registering Aizawa leaning in the doorway, balancing three mugs in his hands as he looked at Hawks like he was reading his very soul.
“What do you mean?”
“If I could give you the option to be something other than being a pro all the time, would you want that?” He asked handing out the teas to the other two before taking a swig of his own.
“I… I think so?”
Aizawa simply nodded, glancing at his phone.
“I’m having the weekly class meeting with 1-A in about an hour. You’ll need to be there. You too, Yagi.”
“What?”
“Alright brats, this meeting’s going to be a little different,” Aizawa called once the entire class was in the common room making them raise an eyebrow. Aizawa has lots of nicknames he gave their class, problem children, hell class, gremlins, ‘the reason I’m going grey’, menaces, etc. but two nicknames held meanings only Yagi and the students understood.
Referring to them as his kids meant they needed to talk about something that related to the loops as soon as they were in private.
The other was Brats. Brats meant there was someone listening in that they wanted to be listening. It meant they were simple UA students and nothing more.
Momo fell in line first, “How is this meeting different Sensei?”
“How many of you have met Hawks, number three?”
Whatever the students were expecting, it wasn’t that. Looks were shared before Kirishima, Todoroki and Tokoyami held up their hands and were graced with Aizawa’s creepy grin that promised dark things if they didn’t listen to the next words that came from his mouth.
“Great! The rest of you are never going to meet Hawks, least of all in our dorms. Do you understand me?”
They all nodded but Iida broke the confused silence, “Sir what is this about?”
“Yagi?” Aizawa called instead of answering and the retired hero was soon edging into the room coaxing a very timid winged man in after him.
The class was trying hard not to gawk and Tokoyami had straightened instantly at seeing his mentor in oversized clothes he had in no doubt stolen from Toshinori, hastily cut slits allowing his wings to move freely.
“This is Takami Keigo,” Aizawa said, “That is the only thing any of you know him as correct?”
“Yes sir,” The group chorused.
“Good. Now Takami wants to offer a trade, he'll tell all of you a story he told Yagi earlier, in exchange we’ll tell him who unveiled Endeavor’s crimes. After there is going to be a vote. Still with me?”
Midoriya nodded, “Okay, are we or Takami-san starting?”
“I… I can start,” The hero fidgeted, “How much have you kids learned about… the Commission so far?”
It didn’t take long for the story to begin and seconds for bloodlust to be bubbling through the air, not at Keigo, but at the fate he had been suffering through.
Midoriya was quick to explain his involvement with the Endeavor papers as the man finished up, gently answering questions before Aizawa took control of the room.
“I offered to let Keigo-san stay with us in one of the spare Boy dorms, off the radar of the media and the Commission if you all agree,” He explained eyes roaming over the class with a critical sparkle, “Are all of us in favor?”
His students stared back at him with disbelief.
“You seriously think we’d say no?” Uraraka scoffed, hands on her hips.
Sero nodded in agreement, “Not cool teach,”
“It wouldn’t be very manly to turn him away, sensei!”
“He is my mentor,” Tokoyami spoke over the impending chaos, “He taught me much. I could never turn him away towards the unforgiving darkness.”
“It’s settled then,” Iida declared, “Takami-kun is our newest roommate!”
Mina grinned nudging Bakugo, “So Bakubabe, is this enough of a reason to get you on cooking duty a week early?”
Bakugo scowled, but stood up, “Fucking fine, but the overgrown bird gets to decide what we’re havin’.”
Expectant eyes turned to Takami only to find him glancing at Tokoyami with a tilted head.
“Oi, Takami! I don’t have all day, numbnut. Tell me what you want to eat so I can fucking get started.”
Keigo’s face showed utter bafflement, “I’m allowed to pick what I want to eat?”
Aizawa chuckled as the students stared at him in disbelief before the blond snapped, “Yes, you get to pick, WingDings! Now let’s go get dinner fucking started!”
“Can it have chicken in it?”
“Chicken Katsudon good enough you overgrown pigeon?”
“I never had Katsudon before, is it good?”
“The damn nerd is in love with it, you can tell me if you like it after dinner!”
BoneHurtJuice : Does this count as me overthrowing the government if it was merely a byproduct of me taking down the Endewhore?
ColorShift : Pretty sure
PikaPika : yup
DieHard : definitely
Spoodorman : No question
ONealsFav : Yes
Kaboom : No shit Deku
Elphaba : Pretty sure this counts
ZoomZoom : Most Certainly
BoneHurtJuice : GUYS
IAMDAD : Not even I can argue in your favor, my boy.
BoneHurtJuice : Damnit
LetMeSleep : The tally of overthrowing the government is now up to four, MIdoriya is personally responsible for two of these attempts.
LetMeSleep : Do not take this as a challenge.
PikaPika : Too late
LetMeSleep : Denki Kaminari
PikaPika : YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD
Loop # 69
The meeting with the principal had gone quicker than Izuku had expected, even as he spoke of his imprisonment in hushed tones to the creature, not wanting to scare Eri. The little girl seemed to calm slightly inside the halls of the academy, eyes fluttering over the pictures of heroes. He smiled at her reassuringly when he turned to meet his eyes as Aizawa led them towards Recovery Girl, the elderly woman having been called sometime during the meeting.
It wasn’t long until Midoriya found himself in a bed on the opposite side of the room from Eri with Aizawa staring at him pleadingly. He checked to make sure his little sister was asleep before gesturing for the man to move closer.
Once Aizawa was seated on the edge of his bed, Izuku asked, “Is Kacchan okay?”
The hero couldn’t help the strained chuckles that bubbled in his chest, because problem child indeed.
“You lost your mom, tried to kill yourself, awoke a powerful quirk, were kidnapped and held against your will by a crazy psychopath, experimented on and forced to use your quirk on Eri over and over again before remembering about loops, woke up and were held for another month before breaking out and making your way here, but your first thought is if Bakugo is doing alright?”
He gave a helpless shrug, “He never actually meant his words to me, I know that but I guess this version of me decided that it didn’t seem like such a bad idea after… everything that day.”
“He’ll do a lot better seeing you,” Aizawa agreed, “So will the rest of the class and Toshinori.”
“Can I see them?”
“Soon, it’s,” Aizawa glanced at the clock noticing that it had somehow passed on to the next day between all the excitement, “The day before the Sports Festival. I doubt that Recovery Girl and Nezu will allow you out of their sight until then since the police will be here tomorrow to speak with you, but maybe we’ll sneak you into the locker rooms in between rounds.”
“Am I allowed to mess with them?”
“I doubt you’ll listen to me if I say no,” Aizawa ran a hand over his eyes, “Don’t give them heart attacks.”
Sneaking into the waiting area of the 1-A locker rooms as the opening event was wrapping up was embarrassingly easy even as Aizawa spotted him instantly as he made his way down from the box before the students arrived in search for coffee. Most of 1-A had made it to the cavalry battles, but a few had lagged further behind than they had in a long time. Hagakura, Sato, and Koda didn’t even place, barely missing the 42nd place.
None of the 1-A kids took first, however, making Izuku smile remembering their promise to not take the disadvantaged Ten million point headband unless they were planning on pairing up with kids from other departments.
Izuku stayed back as the entire class filed into the room before leaning out of his hiding spot and smiling at the others.
Kaminari, Shoji, Tokoyami, and Jiro all jumped eyes huge, as Mina and Iida screamed, heads wiping around to look at him before he let his power leach out and stop the entire room in their tracks. He moves swiftly across the room, ducking out of sight before letting his power recede.
“What the hell?!”
“Language, Kirishima” Aizawa sighed, “What’s wrong?”
“Mi-Midoriya was just-” Uraraka was shaking, “I thought he was…”
“I saw him too!” Half of the class shouted.
Bakugo was pale and shaking, nearly jumping out of his skin as something poked into his side.
“You okay, Kacchan?”
He leapt around only to stare at empty air from where the voice had come from.
“That was-”
“It-It can’t be! He’s dead!”
“Not dead,” Izuku argued from on top of the lockers, finally holding still as he smiled down at his gaping classmates, “Kidnapped and experimented on sure, but I’m not even legally dead anymore!”
“Holy fuck!”
“What did I just say about language, Sero?”
Iida was on Izuku first, pulling him down and squeezing him tight, as if afraid he was going to disappear.
Deku gave them all a blinding smile over the taller boy’s shoulder as he pats his back soothingly, “You’re okay. I’m okay too, I kinda awoke a quirk and ended up with Eri at the Shie Hassaikai compound, but I managed to get us both out! She was napping in the infirmary before I came down.”
Suddenly he was pulled from Iida and into Tsu’s arms, then into Todoroki’s, then Ururaka’s, Mina’s, Kirashima’s, Momo’s, Hagrakura’s, Shinsou’s, so on and so on until he had been held in each of his friends’ embraces before he settled in front of the still trembling Bakugo.
He just offered a small smile, “It’s okay, Kacchan. I don’t blame you.”
Suddenly he was being crushed once more, but the trembling shoulders were enough to stop him from any complaints he might have.
“Come on, Kacchan, I’m the crybaby, you need to go out there and win the tournament. Didn’t you say you were going to win for me?”
Bakugo’s speech this time had been more emotional than in the past where he usually stuck to the aggressive declaration he did in the original timeline, but this time his solemn speech had been more of an oath as he spoke of how he made a promise to his childhood friend a long time ago that they would compete in the festival together, but he lost the chance to face him so instead he was going to take first place in the name of his late childhood friend.
That seemed to snap the blond out of his funk because as he pulled back his eyes were hard as steel, and his mouth was set into a fine line.
Izuku glanced at the rest of the class, “I want all of you to do your best too! Don’t make it easy for Kacchan, alright?”
Their determined faces were enough for him to know they would take this seriously.
Once the cavalry battle commenced, it quickly turned into a slaughter. The juxtaposition between the obstacle run 1-A and the cavalry battle 1-A were like night and day. The original groups formed, with Shoji and Tsu taking the empty spots in Team Uraraka and Jiro joining Team Shinsou.
Team Todoroki made quick work of Monoma’s group snatching their headband from them with ease before going after the rest of the low scoring 1-B members, but managing to avoid going against the teams Shinsou was leading his group towards. Team Bakugo made quick work of Ibara’s vines to snatch the 10 million points from her early and played keep away the rest of the fifteen minutes. Urarka led her team more towards the chaotic side as they engaged Team Bakugo in a fight, snatching away the original headband the group had, even managing to grab some of the lower tier ones from Todoroki’s and Shinsou’s teams.
When the dust finally cleared, only the four groups of 1-A held headbands, the stands going crazy as they realized that for the first time in twenty years only a single class made it into the final round.
The final bracket brought feral grins to the class’s faces as the rest of the first years were dejectedly waiting in their stands. The 1v1 battles soon got them on their feet however as they each turned out to be all-out wars each member fighting as if their life was on the line, as first Mina fell to Bakugo, then Sero to Shoji, Tsu to Kaminari, Momo to Tokoyami, Ojiro to Uraraka, Aoyama to Jiro, Iida to Kirishima, and Shinsou to Todoroki.
By the end of the first round, the whole stadium seemed stunned and a keen eye could see how the pros were whispering about which students would be getting the most offers because after the displays they had just shown even the losers would be getting many requests. They almost felt bad for the other classes that wouldn’t get more than a handful of offers between them, if that, while the sixteen of their class that had made it this far would in no doubt get hundreds of internship offers a piece.
In the end, Bakugo and Uraraka were staring at each other from across the ring as cheers filled the stadium after they defeated Todoroki and Kaminari respectively. Izuku couldn’t help but feel excited as he texted his bets with Kacchan’s phone from his hiding spot on who of the pair would end up with the gold medal around their neck. The rest of the class was quick to counter him as the two stared each other down, taking a second before the whistle was blown to bow low to each other before The fifty-fifth battle began, the current tiebreaker.
The battle was nothing short of bloodthirsty as Uraraka was quick to rush Bakugo, hand to hand combat and mixed martial arts they had learned during the various loops forcing them into a spellbinding dance of explosions and flying debris. If it wasn’t for the screaming and cussing coming from both participants, Izuku would call it beautiful. It also ended up being the longest battle, nearing twenty minutes before finally Bakugo managed to get a lucky shot in and blast Uraraka into the ground outside of the ring.
Bakugo stood tall on the top tier of the podium, looking nothing like the once chained child that had been there so many loops ago. As All Might greeted him proudly, congratulating him on his win, Bakugo could see the confusion in their teacher’s eyes, could see the unasked question on why the class had so quickly switched from apathetic to bloodthirsty between the rounds of the festival.
He didn’t give him the answer but as All Might gave him his hug he whispered, “You need to give someone else a hug, Old Man. Come to 1-A after the stadium clears out.”
The hero didn’t have time to ask questions as he pulled out of the hug, quickly covering his confusion with his work smile once more as he took Bakugo’s hand and raised it in triumph for the world to see, an end to yet another Sports Festival.
The text from Bakugou as he left the podium had the class cutting their usual mingling short as they all moved towards their classroom, knowing that they had a green shadow following them back.
It took over an hour for the stadium to clear out enough that All Might could sneak out, but when he happened across the scene in Class 1-A, where all the students were chatting around the classroom, all focused on Midoriya’s desk, the young teen smiling and laughing in oversized scrubs, he barely reacted. His eyes seemed to rest on the boy for a bare second before he turned a hollow smile at the rest of the class that was now staring at him with mild confusion.
“So what's this I heard about someone needing a hug?”
The room seemed unsure of what to do until Aizawa marched forward, placed a hand on either side of Yagi’s face and physically turned his head back towards the desk that Midoriya was frozen on top of with a few classmates crowded around him.
“Last row, third seat. Who do you see?”
“Young Tokoyami, Uraraka, Iida and Tsuyu,” Yagi replies slowly though this time his eyes lingered on his protege before forcing his eyes back to Aizawa who had realization dawning on his face, “Shouta, I don’t-“
“There’s a fifth person there, Yagi.”
The taller man’s jaw snapped closed, eyes flittering back to the desk before he shook his head blinking back tears as he bit out, “No there isn’t.”
“Toshinori,” Aizawa breathes, “Nezu is planning on telling the rest of the staff tomorrow because he didn’t want it getting out with the Sports Festival today, but remember the text Nezu sent us about the breach two days ago that I went to check out? It was two kids that had escaped a psychopath that was experimenting on them. Do you want to guess who they were and why we felt the need to gather up all of the Loopers?”
“I-“
“It was Eri,” Aizawa continued, not giving his friend time to answer, “I got my daughter months earlier this time because she was being kept with another prisoner that was able to rescue her and save himself. A stupidly heroic heart of gold problem child of a prisoner gave me my little girl back.”
Toshinori’s head snapped back to look at the desk where Midoriya was smiling sadly up at him, looking small and vulnerable as tears started forming in his eyes, mirrored by his mentor.
“You mean… he’s….”
“What I mean is if you don’t go hug your son in the next minute or so I’m going to punch you in the teeth, you idiot.”
That’s all it took before Yagi was crossing the room in long bounds tears already streaming down his face. The other students moved out of his way as Izuku simply held his arms open and was swept up into Toshi's embrace clinging to his mentor like he was afraid the man was going to disappear as he let the memories of his time in Overhaul’s care crash over him.
The room had carried a heavy tangible air of grief since Bakugo had cried out at the very beginning of the loop, suffocating and all-consuming as the very glue of 1-A was stripped away, and as easily as it had come, it was gone. The fog lifted away from the group instantly as the father and son cried and laughed in utter relief, uncaring that the rest of their family watched on with blissful smiles.
They’d be okay.