hey, hey, you - take care of yourself!! yeah, i'm talkin' to you, punk! make sure you're staying hydrated!! and enjoy the chapter (:

Discord server, if- *compresses myself onto an origami swan*: https://discord.gg/DSBF4dP

~

Now that the worst of the immediate chaos had finally dissipated, it was about time Izuku returned to the future to inform Tsukauchi of the way things had turned out in the raid. He let Hitoshi Brainwash him and settled on the floor, breaking out and waiting until the pain had eased off before opening his eyes and getting to his feet in the cosy office. The detective was behind his desk, one hand propping up his head, brow crinkled in a frown. His brown gaze flickered upwards, giving an absentminded smile in greeting.

Tsukauchi abruptly sat up straighter, closing the file he was flicking through, exhaustion fading and replaced with genuine relief. "Oh, Midoriya-kun! Aizawa-kun woke up a couple of days ago. He's already back to work because he wants to help out with Ikari-kun's case."

Izuku's eyes widened, already filling with tears as he stumbled forwards, bracing his hands on the desk as he dipped his head for a moment to calm himself before frantically looking back at the detective. "H-he's awake? He's okay?"

"A few new scars, but yeah, he's okay," the man said with a smile that made the corners of his eyes crinkle warmly. "We'd been keeping him up to date on everything that happened since he could probably still hear us, even if he was in a coma. It seems like Uraraka-san's unfortunate incident was the final straw for him to wake up. He was wholly ready to go out and fight villains again until the doctors and nurses managed to wrangle him back into bed to check his health."

"I'm so glad," Izuku whispered, bending over and resting his arms on the desk, then burying his face into his sleeves. "I- I really am..."

A gentle hand patted his shoulder comfortingly. The hero sniffled a final time before wiping away the tears and standing up again, unable to stop grinning. Tsukauchi looked down at his phone, resting it on the desk as he typed away, tilting it far enough that Izuku could see the screen.

"The green canary is in the nest," he read out, perplexed. "What?"

"Chargebolt and Red Riot were pretty adamant about using code words to keep your situation a secret," Tsukauchi informed with a laugh and a shrug, only to frown and pull his phone closer. "Oh, Eraser's in a fight right now..."

Izuku gnawed nervously on his lower lip. "I hope he's okay..."

The detective was silent, eyes widening minutely before he shot up from his seat, expression carefully calm but the set of his jaw betrayed him. "The situation is going south. He needs police back-up."

"Let me help," the hero insisted, walking alongside the man as he kept his gaze firmly on his phone screen, even as he crossed the room.

"You can't, Midoriya-kun. It'll complicate things if you're seen alive." Tsukauchi inhaled sharply through his teeth. "Shit... This isn't good..."

"What?!" Izuku leaned over his shoulder to see the screen, seeing a live feed of the fight on top of a tall building, a familiar figure cornered on the precipice. "Shit!"

"Units have already been dispatched, and heroes in the vicinity have been notified. He'll be fine." The detective froze in surprise as Izuku activated his Oni armour, white eyes narrowed into a challenging glare. "...what..."

"I'm anonymous now. Tell me where he is, or I'll find him myself," Oni snapped, barely waiting to be given the address by a very bewildered Tsukauchi before he was gone.

While activating One for All also meant triggering the start of the pain and drastically shortening the time he could spend in the future before he was forced back, he needed to get to Aizawa as quickly as possible. He burst out from the precinct, instantly leaping onto a rooftop, the intensity of his power cushioned by his costume. It took a precious second to get his bearings in a city that was so familiar and yet so strange, but the moment he'd locked onto his destination, he was darting across buildings, sometimes covering several rooftops in a single bound. The whiskey tones of the evening sky rushed past, wind howling past his helmet, slightly muffled.

His heart skipped a beat as he saw the scene. Three figures were forcing Aizawa to back up to the edge. Another three figures were already downed on the rooftop, a testament to his teacher's unwavering ferocity. Police were gathered at the base of the building, tiny from such a height, and clearly not working fast enough because Aizawa was in danger, and they were doing nothing-

One villain shoved forwards, and Aizawa tumbled off the edge.

Oni launched himself onto the rooftop, rage and panic buzzing through his entire body, rolling to a stop in front of the villains and completely ignoring them in favour of leaning over the edge, because his teacher was far more important. There were no posts or protruding pieces of architecture for Aizawa to wrap his capture gear around, leaving him plummeting downwards, off-white ribbons fluttering upwards with his ragged black hair, gaze frantically searching for something, anything-

"Sensei!" Oni called, voice little more than a desperate scream, one arm outstretched and the other braced against the ground.

Aizawa's eyes automatically snapped up, a moment's hesitation written into his features before he twisted in the air and sent out a wave of capture gear. It wrapped tightly around Oni's forearm, nearly tugging him off balance, but he held strong and steady, determined to be the pillar the underground hero needed while he precariously climbed up the side of the building with gritted teeth. Oni jolted as he was kicked in the back, shifting a foot to steady himself and turning his head around to glare at the villains, one of which decided it was a good idea to try and strangle him, which only registered as a slight pressure around his throat and merely made his annoyance rise. He stayed still, even as another villain stomped down on his ankle and the first jumped onto his back, still trying and failing to throttle him, he stayed perfectly sturdy, because if he moved too much then Aizawa might fall, and he couldn't let the man down again. A blade clinked harmlessly off his armour, and after checking on his teacher's progress, he glanced back to see them trying to bring a sharp axe down on his leg, doing it enough times that the armour was starting to warp and cut his skin, despite being incredibly resistant to sharp-force trauma.

They thankfully seemed to realise it was moot and tried shoving him again, nudging him forwards and managing to flatten him against the roof with two piled on top to lock him down, but still he stayed silent and kept his arm extended as a lifeline to Aizawa, even it was being pressed at an awkward ankle, and the teacher's entire weight was centred on his forearm. One villain reached out to try and unravel the capture gear, but Oni brought back his elbow with a low growl and sent her flying backwards across the roof. He strained against the weight, feeling the pain across his whole body increase with the reignition of his Quirk, managing to shift back into a crouch and steady himself enough to hold out his other arm as the underground hero climbed up. Aizawa stared at the offered hand for a moment, warily glancing between his secured strips and the gauntlet before taking it and letting himself be pulled back to safety. All of them tumbled backwards, backpacked villains barely leaping away in time to avoid being crushed, and the teacher landed on top of Oni, who let out a rasping breath.

Despite the buzzing pain scorching beneath his skin, Oni was quick to recover, hopping up into a fighting stance in front of his teacher. In the shadows and against the dark of Aizawa's outfit, it was near impossible to tell if he was injured and bleeding, so the best course of action would be to focus on defeating the villains. His own tiny injury and pain were irrelevant.

His analytical gaze skimmed over the enemies in the calm. They were exchanging nervous glances, clearly not expecting another hero to arrive so soon, much less a completely unknown one. None of them had noticeably used their Quirks on him whilst he was vulnerable, which either meant they didn't have Quirks that had external effects, or their Quirks wouldn't work through his armour – or, hell, maybe some were Quirkless. Two were relatively bulky, one with a Quirk that seemed to have made their skin into something like ceramic, and the other with no visible alterations, but he wore a medieval-style knight helmet that concealed his face and had a large silver axe in his grasp. The last one had a smaller build but glowing orange eyes implying some kind of sight-related Quirk, perhaps linked to a mental Quirk – after Banisher, Oni wasn't taking any chances, and definitely wasn't going to let them get in any hits.

It only took a few seconds for him to run through all the information. In that time, Aizawa was trying to pull himself to his feet, although barely managing to haul himself into a kneel. If he was having that much trouble just moving, Oni definitely wasn't going to let him fight. The hero lightly patted the teacher's head, then shot forwards, leg swinging around in a kick. He slammed his armoured shin into the ceramic villain's side, wincing at the cracking sound that came with it but not daring to sink into his sympathy because they had nearly killed Aizawa. Oni lunged forward, grabbing their head and crashing his knee into their face, darting aside when they went limp and letting them collapse to the roof, unconscious within seconds.

His gaze shifted, torn between taking out the axe-wielding villain due to the unknown Quirk factor, or the glowing-eye villain because of the worrying potential of her Quirk. He tilted his head, shrugging to himself then instantly dashing towards Knight, launching himself into the air to bring his boots down on the helmet, then spring off and use all his momentum to kick Amber in the chest, sending her to the ground. Oni didn't even take a break, flashing back over to the first villain and thudding his extended bo staff against Knight's inner elbow, causing his arm to collapse and lower the raised axe, leaving him open and vulnerable for the hero to land a brutal uppercut to the villain's chin, knocking off his helmet and knocking him out in the same movement. Amber was back on her feet, a viscous orange liquid dripping eerily from her glowing eyes like wax, and swiped her palms along her cheeks, collecting the strange substance on her skin with a dangerous smile.

"Don't let her touch you!" Aizawa barked suddenly from behind, voice raspy and pained, but still sharp in a way that had the hero automatically standing to attention. "Her Quirk sends you into a coma!"

Oh... yeah, that wasn't good.

"Coma Quirk, huh?" Oni commented, cocked eyebrow reflected in a slightly widened eye. "That's unique. You'd be pretty valuable in the medical field, or as a capture-and-detain hero... what made you become a villain, huh?"

"They needed me," she said through gritted teeth, scowling.

"Who needed-" He was cut off by a spray of her Quirk was flung towards him, narrowly missing as he dodged, the colour and light fading as it landed on the roof. "Okay, I get it. Less talk, more fight. You asked for it..."

With his skin burning and his bones aching, he activated One for All and sprinted towards her, moving behind her before she had time to react. Oni raised a leg, planting it firmly on her back and harshly kicking her to the ground, cringing at the sound of her teeth clacking together as her chin collided with the ground. There was a pause as he glanced at his display, reading her vitals to confirm her unconscious state then letting himself relax, shoulders slumping and a pained breath hissing out through his teeth, warped into something sinister through the voice modulator.

He barely held back a yelp as his arms were suddenly wrapped tight to his torso, not struggling solely because he'd noticed the white strips around his body. Oni calmed down, letting himself be dragged across the rooftop, boots scoring lines into the ground.

"Who are you?" Aizawa asked sternly, and the hero peered awkwardly over his shoulder to see the teacher gripping his capture gear tightly, expression faintly pained as he shifted on his feet with a wince, but the fact that he had yet to use his Quirk implied some level of trust.

Oni wiggled a little, managing to slide his hands close enough together behind his back to press the button on his wrist, letting the gauntlet flash white and fold back into a band. He let his Quirk dance green across his skin, hoping that it would be iconic enough for his teacher to let go because wow, the strain on his body was only aggravating the time-travel-dimension-travel related pain that was already there, and if he was trapped any longer he was going to have to tear through the capture gear, and he didn't want to do that-

The restraints loosened and he ducked out of them, concealing his hand once more and turning to blink happily at his teacher. "I'm the green canary, apparently," he commented with a grin that squinted his eyes.

Aizawa nearly crumpled, finally letting the strong facade slip as he hunched in on himself with a pained noise, clutching at his arm. Oni worriedly hopped closer, cursing under his breath at the sight of a massive gash in his teacher's bicep, possibly deep enough to go down to the bone and clearly a sign that Knight had landed a successful attack with his axe. It was likely he'd already lost a lot of blood and needed medical attention as soon as possible.

"Okay, sensei, we can wait on the rooftop for help, or I can carry you down to the ground so the paramedics can help you," Oni said softly, letting the man lean most of his weight on him for support.

"I- I need to tell Tsukauchi..." Aizawa managed to get out, weakly gripping onto the hero's forearm and desperately glancing up through his goggles. "There's... information I found, before I... and I want to talk to you, too."

"You need medical attention, we can talk later," he responded, trying for firm but too emotional to really land it convincingly.

"Problem Child..."

"Sensei..."

Oni wrinkled his nose in the tense silence, gaze skimming over his teacher's features in the low light, affection for the man making him weak. He let out an exasperated groan, lightly bracing Aizawa's shoulder with a palm and scooping the capture gear off to wear it himself, first using it to create a tight tourniquet around the deep wound before turning and securing all the villains with ease. The roof door opened just as he finished, and he stared for a moment at the hero leading the pack of police in surprise.

"Tsu-chan," he blurted out, only to slap a palm uselessly against the fangs of his helmet, other arm still secured around his teacher to hold him upright.

The woman tilted her head, expression unreadable. "Do I know you?"

"Froppy, I'm going with-" Aizawa paused, shooting a confused glance at his companion.

"Oni," he supplied automatically, slightly stunned by the realisation that, although the man had literally named him in the other timeline, he had no idea who Oni was in this timeline.

"I'm going with Oni to the police station. I need to talk with Tsukauchi about the investigation," the teacher stated, not so much as a tremble in his tone.

"Are you hurt?" She asked, hopping over and staring suspiciously at the supposed stranger for a moment before eyeing their teacher.

"No." Aizawa glared at the accusatory stare he got from Oni. "Not badly," he amended bitterly.

Tsu looked unconvinced but nodded anyway. "Alright. I'll finish up here then meet you there." Her large eyes settled on the hero, somehow giving off a threatening air despite her expression remaining unchanged. "Look after him, Oni."

"Of course, Froppy-chan," he responded brightly, deactivating his glove for a moment to show his scarred hand and grinning at the stunned look she gained, making her gaze widen impossibly further as green lightning skittered over his skin. "I'll always look after Eraser-san... especially when he doesn't want me to."

Oni swiped his teacher off the ground, holding him securely and offering a wink at his classmate before leaping straight off the building, bouncing back across the city with his time limit snapping at his heels. The receptionist gave them a startled look as they abruptly entered the precinct, but let them pass at the sight of the familiar underground hero in the stranger's arms. Aizawa slumped down in one of the chairs in Tsukauchi's office, sighing heavily and wincing when he jostled his arm. His black hair looked quite windswept from the rapid trek.

Izuku let his armour deactivate and he sprawled out on the carpet with an unattractive wheeze that sounded like he was dying. Both of them remained in mutual silence for a moment, needing a second to recover and get a grip on their pain.

"...are you injured?" Aizawa asked quietly, tone hesitant, as if he was afraid that the illusion would shatter the moment he spoke up.

"Not physically," Izuku responded tiredly. "Well, maybe a few bruises. My armour protected me from most of it, I think."

Another lull fell between them. The hero sighed then hauled himself back to his feet, pressing the button on the desk to summon the detective, although it was likely he was already on his way back. He turned around to blink warmly at his teacher, leaning slightly on the desk and pressing his palms down on either side of his hips.

"...I'm really glad you're awake, sensei," he commented, voice soft and green eyes sad.

Aizawa stared at him for a moment, using one hand to tug his goggles down. "I'm... glad you're not dead, kid."

"Me too," he quipped with a boyish grin, only to tilt his head and grow thoughtful. "How much did you hear when you were in a coma?"

"Most of it," the teacher answered, scratching at the scar on his cheek and briefly glancing at the strips tied tightly around his arm, lips thinning. "Everyone thought you were dead, but you came back, and now Uraraka got attacked by Banisher, too."

"It wasn't Ikari-kun's fault," Izuku said, moving his hands into his lap to play with his fingers. "I just wish I could help him, but... there's really not much more I can do, especially in this world..." He suddenly froze, gaze wide and brain whirring a mile a minute as he pieced things together. "Wait a second... Sensei, you knew that villain's Quirk sent people into a coma, and you were on the Banisher case before you went into a coma, and doctors weren't sure what had caused you to go into a coma and thus couldn't counter it – wait, wait... you were tailing people you suspected to be involved with Banisher, right? And if you recognised her and identified her Quirk, that means she's the one who attacked you before, and she's also likely involved with the group that wants to use Ikari-kun, and – and she said they needed her, so the question is who are they, and why do they need her?"

Aizawa dragged his hand down his face, briefly concealing his expression as he let out a noise that was halfway between a laugh and a sob, lips pulled back in an actual, real, genuine smile that few were blessed enough to see. "You're really something, Midoriya."

Izuku clutched at his chest, tears already spilling down his cheeks. "Sensei..."

"I couldn't really remember much about what happened to cause me to be comatose... but then I saw those villains whilst out on patrol today and I followed them... It wasn't until she used her Quirk did I realise why she was so familiar," Aizawa explained, still smiling crookedly in a way that could be interpreted as fond as the hero tried to pull himself together.

One for All involuntarily flickered over his skin and he tensed up, setting his jaw as he forced it back down. Aizawa observed, happy face shifting into concern. The door opened, and suddenly there was a crying Tsu latched onto her friend. Tsukauchi stepped into the room and closed the door behind them, smiling at the scene and settling himself behind his desk. Izuku wrapped his arms tightly around the woman, pressing his chin on top of her green hair and let her sob into him, feeling his own tears continue to spill from his eyes at the reminder of the heartache he'd inadvertently caused his loved ones.

"Izu-chan..." She whispered, muffled against his chest as her hands clenched tighter in the back of his shirt. "It's true, you're really alive... you're really here..."

"Yeah, I'm okay, Tsu-chan," he assured softly, burying his face into her hair and laughing a little, heart almost hurting at all the overwhelming emotions. "I'm gonna find a way to fix this, I promise."

"Don't forget your time limit, Midoriya-kun," Tsukauchi warned from behind them, and Izuku looked down at himself to see emerald lightning skipping across his form without his permission.

"Right..." Izuku mumbled, forcing his Quirk back down and planting a kiss on his friend's head before pulling away and standing up. "I really can't stay for much longer without hurting myself, so, sensei..."

He trailed off, opening his arms and staring questioningly at his teacher. Aizawa paused, something vulnerable dancing across his features for the briefest of moments before he got to his feet, striding forwards, and encasing the hero in a warm, safe, homely hug. Izuku started crying harder, nuzzling as close to his teacher as he could, emotions a chaotic mess of happy-sad that couldn't be expressed in words. It was rare that Aizawa let himself be so soft, and it was a moment he'd cherish forever.

Reluctantly, Izuku forced himself to step back, feeling his Quirk spring back up too strongly to vanquish a third time.

"I'll be back soon," he assured with the brightest smile he could muster, kneeling down and feeling his body grow less solid as more pain tore across his form, and-

He opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling with tears streaming down his cheeks and a cut on his calf.

It wasn't fair.

Hitoshi sounded concerned. Belatedly, Izuku realised he'd completely forgotten to tell Tsukauchi about the raid. He'd have to do it later...

~

only one chapter left of this arc 🥺

fun fact, the future aizawa subplot only came about bc so many people commented "why do i feel like aizawa dies in the future?" and i was like "i want to make then Afraid because it will be FUNNY" - and obviously i wasn't about to actually kill him off, and i was admittedly hesitant about the coma thing because that's such a fanfic cliché, but oh well!

"but the fact that he had yet to use his Quirk implied some level of trust." - in actuality this is me Avoiding the issue of what would happen if Erasure was used on Izuku whilst he's not solidly in the future