Let it be known that Aizawa Shouta did not ask for this. He knew that taking on a new vigilante case with close to no leads outside of possible eye color and estimated height would cause a headache, but looking at the troublemaker in front of him he’s beginning to think he may have bit off more than he should have. Said vigilante is standing in the alley next to the mugger they just knocked out and staring at Shouta. Just… staring, wait are they? Shaking? No, vibrating? Now Aizawa Shouta has never claimed to be an expert in… people but he’s fairly certain that’s not a normal reaction for a vigilante to have when confronted by a pro. He’s certainly never come across it before in his years of dealing with them. Well, considering normal reactions is not his job so he flashes his quirk and sends out his capture weapon to catch them and hopes that’ll be the end of it.
Of course, it’s just his luck that this particular vigilante knows how to dodge and snaps out of whatever they were doing to jump out of the way just in time.
“Wow! That was s-so cool Mr. Eraserhead!” what. “D-do you know why your c-capture weapon floats like that? Was it d-designed to d-do that? Or is it a side effect of your quirk? If it is, do you know how heavy it would have to be to stop floating like that? What if…” That was not the reaction Shouta was expecting… He’s honestly a little taken aback as the rapid questions devolve into mumbling so fast he can hardly keep up. He can just barely make out what sounds like theories about his quirk and support gear.
“Kid-” He’s not sure why he makes the decision to call this vigilante a kid but they sure seem like one as they squeak and slap a hand over their mouth, immediately stuttering out a half dozen apologies. “It’s fine,” he sighs. “Just maybe give people a chance to think of an answer before you ask a new one.” They nod hurriedly and he’s about to resume his attempts at arresting them when something on their wrist starts to beep and they rush out of the alley and onto the roof.
“Sorry, Mr. Eraserhead I’ve gotta go! It was r-really nice to meet you!” They call before racing off in the other direction. Leaving Shouta and the still unconscious mugger behind only slightly baffled. He makes his report and speculates that their new vigilante may be an older teenager given how they acted, younger than anyone would like but it’s not unheard of for hero school dropouts to try the vigilante route this time of year. Later that night Shouta realizes he never introduced himself as Eraserhead, they recognized him on sight.
-
He’s feeling a little more prepared the second time looking down on the scene of a little vigilante helping a young woman home after scaring off some catcallers. He won’t let himself get distracted this time but he doesn’t want to interrupt and scare either of them so he waits and notices how she stands a good head and shoulders over them. She’s… not abnormally tall from what Shouta can see so the kid must be pretty short. Really short for someone in their mid to late teens.
It probably doesn’t mean anything, he’s had students who were abnormally tall or short and it had nothing to do with their quirk as far as anyone could tell. The age of quirks has caused a greater variety in many things including height. Shouta is not looking at a child vigilante. He is not. This means nothing outside of needing to update the police files later. He watches them bounce alongside her enthusiastically asking her something and is glad to see her shoulders relaxing as she answers. There are certainly heroes who would tell catcallers harassing a woman at night to scram but not nearly so many would walk her home so she feels safe. It softens his heart just a bit to see and when he’s called off to deal with a gang fight in progress he isn’t even upset at the lost opportunity.
-
The next time they meet is when the vigilante jumps into a fight Shouta’s more than a little outnumbered in. Not a great time to chat but after he wraps things up on his end he gets the chance to watch the kid duke it out with the last assailant. He’s clearly dealing with a minor mutation quirk, maybe an otter or a weasel and he can’t see well enough to interfere at the moment without risking the kid getting hurt. It’s pretty clear there’s a risk too, they’re really good at evasive maneuvers but it’s obvious they’re not used to actual fighting. He’s about to jump in but they manage to trick their opponent into punching a wall and use the moment of pained distraction to slam him in the head with the collapsible staff they carry around hard enough to knock him out.
“Hi, Mr. Eraserhead, s-sir!” the young vigilante exclaims. “It’s nice to see you again, I’m s-sorry if I was in the way but there were a lot of them. N-not that you couldn’t handle it of course! You’re really cool! It’s just… I thought maybe…” they trail off with an apologetic little shrug.
“Don’t worry about it,” he grunts, finishing handcuffing the last of their assailants. “I should ask how you knew who I am though, I’m not exactly well known.”
“Oh, that’s easy. I was doing r-research on underground heroes and I saw this really grainy video from like 6 years ago and when I saw you I recognized your scarf and goggles. Your quirk is so interesting and I’ve got some theories about how it works exactly and erasing quirks is so rare but I totally understand if you don’t want to tell me about it since it’s probably not a good idea for people to know since then people could take precautions or ambush you but I promise I wouldn’t tell anyone and it’s not like anyone would listen to me anyway so you don’t need to worry and my theories are probably wrong anyway, I’m rambling now aren’t I? Sorry!” Their explanation getting faster and quieter over time until the final squeaked apology.
Shouta blinked, he could vaguely remember a grainy video going around a few years ago. It had been taken off most sites but he wasn’t surprised to hear it was still out there somewhere. He was surprised to hear this kid had not only found it but correctly guessed his quirk and recognized him based on a 45 second video where he was hardly visible. The vigilante was fidgeting now, pulling at his fingers and looking like he’d been caught eating cookies before dinner and very much like he'd like to be anywhere but here. Shouta belatedly realized that he hadn’t responded.
“You know…” he started, “it’s pretty impressive you figured all that out from one video.” They sputtered and started waving their hands and from what he could see of their face it looked like they were blushing.
“I’m n-not all that impressive Mr. Eraserhead, a-anybody could have done that!” they objected.
“I don’t know about that, regardless… you do know you don’t have to call me Mr. Eraserhead all the time, it’s a bit of a mouthful.”
“I couldn’t do that Mr. Eraserhead, it’s rude!” they objected, looking a little affronted at the idea.
“Whatever makes you happy, kid.” Any hopes of continuing the conversation and getting some idea of why some teenager was running around at night punching common crooks or possibly arresting said teen were dashed as sirens sounded in the distance and by the time he turned back around the kid was gone. Guess he could add the kid’s apparent manners to the file.
-
Aizawa Shouta would like everyone to know that he doesn’t know how this happened. Fine, that’s a lie but Shouta would challenge anyone to watch that kid throw a punch and not immediately go into teacher mode. He arguably spends more hours teaching and preparing to teach than tracking down criminals and bringing in vigilantes most of the time, he can't be blamed. The kid was pretty good with a staff and very good at evasion but a drunk managed to corner them and swipe it out of their hands and in a fit of desperation they’d gone for a punch. It was like watching a newborn baby deer learn to stand, unsure limbs fumbling around with no follow through. If he hadn’t interfered they probably would have broken something. God, has this kid been running around not knowing how to punch this whole time?
So now Shouta stands with crossed arms glaring down at the much shorter vigilante, who looks appropriately nervous, fiddling with their fingers and glancing around for an escape route they won’t find.
“That was a stupid move Kid,” He admonishes. “You could have easily broken something punching like that.”
“I’m sorry!” They squeak, as if not knowing how to throw a punch is the main problem here and not them being out at 2am fighting criminals instead of sleeping.
Shouta only sighs and shows them how to hold their fist properly and follow through. They nervously copy him and he patiently corrects them until they get it right, by the time they do they’re looking at him with… awe? That can’t be right, Shouta’s a terrifying teacher. It’s probably the neon lights from the convenience store across the street getting in his eye.
-
He wishes he could say that was it and then he proceeded to arrest the wayward vigilante and dump them at the nearest police station as is his literal job. But the next week they try to kick someone, lose their balance and almost fall over so obviously he has to fix that. How this kid hasn’t gotten massively injured yet is beyond him.
He’s beginning to feel a little bit like an exasperated parent following their accident prone child around the park, except instead of preventing them from face planting into a tree, he’s shoving survival skills and fighting stances at them at a frantic pace. At least their conversations on rooftops have gotten him some clues, just eye color confirmation and pronouns so far but he’s making progress! What do people expect? The kid’s really skittish about personal information. He’s also like 70% sure his hair is a dark shade and it isn’t just the lighting. See? Progress.
He’s steadfastly ignoring the voice in his head that says this would all be over easily if he just caught the kid in his capture weapon when he gets caught up in one of his quirk rants. He’s not sure he’d be able to handle the betrayal in his eyes. Not to mention he’s certain now that this kid isn’t out of high school yet. Maybe he can talk him out of this vigilante nonsense.
-
Unfortunately, before he can talk the kid out of his ill advised career he needs to actually talk to him. So here he is sitting on a rooftop waiting for the Problem Child to appear.
Wait a second… Problem Child? Where did that come from? Did he just name him? Oh no. That’s not a good sign. And it’s definitely specific too, he calls plenty of kids “kid” or “brat” but not “Problem Child.” What is it Hizashi’s always saying about cats? 'Don’t name them, it just makes you more attached?'
Well, it sure is a good thing he’s not attached then! Nope, Aizawa Shouta is not attached, this means absolutely nothing. He definitely doesn’t stifle a smile when the kid rambles about some really cool quirk he saw, as if that isn’t literally every quirk the kid’s ever come across. And he definitely doesn’t feel anything when he watches him nail something he’s been working really hard on and immediately turn around with an excited “Did you see that Mr. Eraser!?”
…He might be a little attached.
-
“Hey, Mr. Eraser! Guess what?”
“What, Problem Child?”
“It’s my birthday tomorrow!”
“Oh, and how old are you going to be?” He asks with a smirk. Shouta isn’t expecting a real answer, the Problem Child is usually so careful of anything that might hint at his identity. But even the most careful slip up sometimes and he’s just so excited.
“THIRTEEN!”
Shouta chokes on air.
He feels like he’s drowning and having a midlife crisis all at once. Thirteen? So he’s been twelve this whole time. That’s practically a baby! Shouta taught a baby how to throw a punch properly! Is that even legal? He’s not sure. They’ve been chasing a child around for months! A literal child! Not only that! Said child has been fighting criminals! Real ones! With weapons! And quirks!
Shouta has never been more glad for his poker face as he feels his world crumble around him. He has never wished for an early retirement more than at this moment. His Problem Child is an actual real life child. A currently panicking actual real life child… oh yeah, Shouta should probably do something about that. It probably freaked him out when he got no response, especially since he didn't mean to say it.
“Hey, hey you're ok, everything’s fine.” Shouta is decidedly neither ok nor fine but he can work through it.
God, where are this kids parents? Have they noticed their small child is running around hitting criminals in the head with a stick? Do they not care? It isn't exactly a sign of a good stable home life when a child is up at night wandering the city, and that's not even considering the fighting crime at twelve part of this. Does he even have parents?
Wait. Hold on. Focus. Get the kid to calm down now. Freak out about whether he has parents later.
He’s never considered himself to be good with kids but this one seems to like him? Maybe? So he just lightly sets his hand on the kid’s back and rubs up and down slowly in what he hopes is a soothing manner. It seems to work because eventually his breathing stutters into what could be considered normal and he slumps into Shouta’s side.
“‘M sorry for panicking,” He sniffles.
“It’s fine, Problem Child, you weren’t prepared to tell me and it’s understandable you freaked out a little bit. We can worry about all that later though.” He tries his best to be reassuring and thankfully it seems to work as the kid slumps even further into his side and seems nearly asleep. Shouta is still screaming a little on the inside about the GENUINE. CHILD. next to him but he lets himself relax a little and absentmindedly fiddle with the kid’s hair. Huh, he thinks it might be green.