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"Alright hellions, listen up!"
Class 1-A immediately jumped to attention, though they'd begun to lose the spark of fear his voice used to inspire in them. God, Shouta really was going soft for this class.
"You have two hours to find everything you need. Present Mic and I will be patrolling the mall, so come find us or call us if there's an emergency or you need something. Stay in groups, do not go off on your own, am I understood?" He looked pointedly at Midoriya, and the boy smiled sheepishly.
"Yes Sensei!"
"Good. Get going."
The kids scattered. Shouta watched as they split off into groups and disappeared into the crowd, noting their directions.
"They'll be alright Sho, don't worry!" Hizashi slung his arm over Shouta's shoulders. He tried not to lean into the touch, at least not while they were in public. "Not every place is crawling with villains, you know."
Shouta shot him a look. "You don't know these kids. They're magnets for trouble."
Hizashi subtly squeezed his shoulder. "It'll be fine! Just let them be dumb teenagers for once."
Shouta hummed, but the tension in his shoulders didn't ease. And despite Hizashi's words, he could see the line of tension in his back. Neither of them were letting their guard down today.
After a brief discussion, they split up, Hizashi taking the lower floor of the mall and Shouta taking the upper floor. It was a Sunday, which meant the mall was packed with people, especially kids and teens shopping on their day off. No one seemed overly suspicious, but houta knew that he couldn't see everyone. Shigaraki could be hidden amongst the crowd, for all he knew.
It wouldn't be the first time.
He noticed Midoriya dragging Jirou and Yaoyorozu into a clothing store, followed by Sero and Ashido, and decided to hang around for a minute or two just to make sure everything was alright. He trusted Yaoyorozu to keep the more rowdy members of the group in check, but still. It didn't hurt to keep an eye on them.
Bakugou and Kirishima were on the ground floor he could see, looking over the railing. The mall's second level floors opened up in the middle, letting shoppers look down to the shops and people below. It was an interesting feature, and a useful one for a pro hero trying to look after twenty kids.
Ashido bounded out of the store, the others on her heels, and made a beeline for Aizawa. Good. They'd noticed him. Their situational awareness was improving. "Sensei! We got you something."
Oh dear God no.
Shouta leaned slightly back as Ashido presented a brown paper bag to him. "What is it?" He asked, both afraid to know and afraid to not know at the same time.
Jirou rolled her eyes. "It's not going to explode, Sensei. Just take it."
Shouta narrowed his eyes at them, searching for any foul play, but they were all earnest, so he took the bag and looked inside.
There, tied up with a bow, was a brand new scarf. There were different breeds of cats dotting the grey cotton fabric, each with a cute little bow on their heads.
He loved it instantly.
Shouta looked up to see five faces watching him with a mix of excitement and dread. He scrutinized them one more time. "Did you blow something up that I don't know about?"
"No!" Yaoyorozu cried, and well, Shouta was talking more to the others than her, but you never could know with these kids. "We just thought you'd like it, that's all."
Sero frowned, fidgeting with his hands. "You do like it, right?"
Shouta stared at them until they started to get nervous, and then took the scarf out of the bag and wound it around his neck. His students cheered.
"See Midoriya! It was a good idea!" Ashido punched him on the arm, and Midoriya, who'd been hiding behind the others, smiled shyly.
"Y-yeah, I'm glad he liked it! I knew he liked cats so… you know…"
Shouta raised an eyebrow. "This was your idea, Problem Child?"
Midoriya jumped a little. "W-well I saw it Sensei and I know you like cats and everything because you've got that cat mug that Shinsou got you and Present Mic says you carry around cat treats for strays when you go on patrol so when I saw it I thought of you and how you do so much to protect us and everything so I thought I would get you that scarf as a thank you or a teacher appreciation gift or something I'm sorry it was dumb please don't expel me."
Shouta stared at him for a long, long moment before raising a hand and ruffling the kid's curls. Midoriya looked up, wide eyed, but leaned into the touch. "Thank you, Problem Child. I like it."
"So… you're not going to expel me?"
"Of course he's not!" Sero said, slinging his arm around Midoriya's shoulders. "He loves it, look at his face!"
Shouta raised his eyebrow again, and the group giggled. He sighed, shaking his head, but his chest felt warm. "Get out of here, you don't-"
A loud bang cut him off, followed by the sounds of screams from down below. Instantly, the group was on alert. Shouta pulled on his goggles.
"Help evacuate the civilians and call the police, do not engage unless you have to, am I understood?"
"Yes Sensei!" His student turned and began to direct people to the stairs without missing a beat, and Shouta swung down to the ground level to discover the source of the commotion. Civilians were running in all different directions, making it nearly impossible to get a clear direction to head in. Shouta cursed under his breath, throwing his capture weapon up to the second floor railing and climbing above the crowd.
Some of his students were bunched together, back to back, quirks at the ready and looking as frustrated and confused as Shouta felt. He swung to a railing closer to the group.
"Iida!"
The boy turned, as did Bakugou, Kirishima, Todoroki, Shouji, and Hagakure. "Sensei!"
"Evacuate civilians and get out of the mall, secure the perimeter!"
"Yes Sensei!" The group split off, Kirishima dragging Bakugou with him. Shouta continued to scan the crowd, searching desperately for any hint of the source of the sound.
He didn't have to search long.
Anothing bang! echoed throughout the mall, and Shouta's head snapped to the South. That was a gunshot, he had no doubt. Guns had gone out of fashion after the emergence of quirks, but many low level villains still used them, and the police actively wore them at their hips. They were, however, very hard to get your hands on.
Not hard enough, apparently, because Shouta was watching a man shoot one into the air like it was a toy and not a deadly weapon. He had sandy blonde hair sheared short in an undercut, though as soon as he was done firing he pulled his black hood back up over his head and attempted to disappear back into the crowd.
Not this time.
Shouta swung forward, landing a kick to the man's side as he landed. It definitely knocked the wind out of him, but as Shouta moved to attack again he was nearly bowled over by a woman running for her life, and by the time he straightened the man was alreading aiming the gun at his chest. Shouta threw out his capture weapon, snagging it around the man's ankle and pulling him off his feet as he fired. The shot went wide, hitting a sign above his head.
Compared to the villains Shouta had fought before, this guy was supposed to be nothing. It would take him thirty seconds tops to tie him up in his capture weapon and phone the incident in to the police. But this wasn't an empty alley in the poorest part of town. This was a crowded mall, and that bullet could have just killed someone if Shouta hadn't been quick enough. He needed to get that gun out of the man's hands, and fast.
Shouta rushed forward, dodging civilians as best he could and lunging at the man, but the crowd had slowed him down too much. The villain scampered away, just barely out of reach, bumping into a lady with an arm full of shopping bags. She tried to push him away and keep going, but he grabbed her wrist and yanked her into his chest, firing up at the ceiling again before aiming the gun at her head. Shouta froze.
"Stay back! I'll kill her, I'll do it!" The man shouted, voice carrying over the roar of the crowd. People finally started to take notice of the altercation and backed away, most running for an exit but some staying to film the standoff.
"Put the gun down, you're only making it worse for yourself. You can still make it out of this-"
"No! There's no going back for me, they'll kill me! This is the only way…" The man shook, and Shouta watched his finger twitch on the trigger.
"It's not. Whoever you're running from, I can help you get away from them. All you have to do is put down the gun." Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Midoriya creep behind the villain, quietly ushering civilians who had stayed behind to watch the encounter to the exits. He turned to Shouta and gave him a nod. He would have preferred to have Hizashi as backup, but Midoriya was capable in his own right, not to mention that he was young and would probably be seen as less of a threat. It wasn't Shouta's favorite option, but at least it was an option.
"They'll find me, they alway find me, I-I don't want them to think I'm weak anymore!"
"What you're doing isn't strength. You're threatening an innocent woman's life. Just put the gun down, and we can figure out what to do next." Shouta took a step forward, palms up. The man tensed.
"Stay back! I-I'll kill her I swear!"
"Calm down, we're just talking."
"No! No, this is over! This is the only way-!"
"Don't-!"
Shouta lunged forward, but someone else beat him to the punch. An invisible hand pushed the man's arm out to the side as he fired three shots in quick succession. He stumbled, looking confused. "Who-?"
"SENSEI!!!."
Shouta, who'd begun to charge the disoriented villain, froze at Hagakure's voice. He'd never heard his student sound so terrified. He scanned the mall, searching for her, but of course, she was invisible. No, what he saw instead was his other student, a hand to his stomach, dripping crimson blood onto the floor of the mall.
Midoriya locked eyes with him, almost confused, before he crumpled to his knees and fell to the floor, blood beginning to pool around his torso.
Time froze. For a moment, all Shouta could do was stare at his student's body, motionless on the ground.
Hagakure was screaming. Two invisible hands began to press into Midoriya's back to turn him over, and still, all Shouta could do was stare and stare and stare.
It didn't last long.
"I...I didn't…I just wanted to...to prove I could...I…"
The villain's hands shook as he stared at Shouta, gun in hand and still pointed towards his kids. His finger was on the trigger.
Shouta saw red.
The next thing he was conscious of was Hizashi prying him off of the villain's limp body, screaming his name.
"Sho! Sho you're gonna kill him, stop! Sho, calm the fuck down!"
He was panting. There were bloodstains on his knuckles. At some point he must have been scratched, because there were deep gouges on his forearms. The villain on the ground had at least a broken arm and two broken legs. It looked like his nose was broken too. Definitely a concussion, because the floor around his head was cracked. His breaths were shallow. Barely there. He was probably barely alive.
Good.
"Sho-"
He ripped himself free from Hizashi's grasp, spinning around wildly until he spotted Midoriya on the floor and beelining straight to his student. More blood had pooled around him. Hagakure was trying to stem the flow with her hands.
"I-It won't stop S-Sensei, I-I can't stop it, I don't know what to do, he won't wake up-!"
Shouta pushed her hands away, taking off his capture scarf and beginning to press it into Midoriya's wound. The kid looked pale. "He's going to be okay. Go find a medic."
"Sen-"
"Go!" He ordered, and Hagakure took off running.
Hizashi knelt down next to him. "Sho-"
"Is he breathing?" Shouta asked. He couldn't tell. He was too focused on the blood under his hands.
Hizashi's hands shook as he felt for a pulse. He paused, then moved his fingers to a different angle and pressed harder. His eyes began to water.
"Sho, he's-"
"No. No absolutely not."
"Shouta-"
He ignored his husband, pressing his capture weapon into the man's hands. "Tie this around the wound," he ordered, already beginning chest compressions. Hizashi nodded and did as he was told.
The kid was so small beneath him. Shouta'd never realized just how small he was. Midoriya made up for his height with his heart. What he lacked in stature he made up for in bravery and kindness and determination and all the things that made up a good hero, a great hero, the kid was going to be an amazing hero one day, goddammit, and Shouta was going to make sure of it, even if he had to challenge death itself to do it.
Not this one. Not yet. This one's mine still, you can't have him. Not until he's old and grey and retired and lived a full life. Until then, I won't let you have him. Give me my kid back right fucking now.
"Shouta!"
Under his hands, Midoriya sucked in a breath, and then another, wheezing a little as his eyes flew open. Shouta stopped, putting his hands on the kid's shoulders to stop him from sitting up.
"Hold still, you're injured, help is on the way, just stay down kid. And don't fall asleep."
Midoriya blinked up at him. "Sen...sei?"
Shouta almost cried. "Yeah, yeah Problem Child, it's me, you're safe now, just hold tight."
"Hurts…"
"I know, I know kid, we're gonna take care of you, I promise, just-"
"Sensei!"
Shouta whipped around. Hagakure was running towards them with paramedics hot on her tail. She slowed, clutching the blanket that was now draped across her shoulders. "Is he-?"
"He's alive," Shouta said, both for her sake and for the medics rushing to Midoriya's side, "I had to resuscitate him once already though."
A medic in her late thirties nodded as he spoke, never taking her eyes off Midoriya, which Shouta could distantly appreciate. "Thank you, we'll take it from here."
They loaded Midoriya onto a stretcher and began rushing him off, Shouta, Hagakure, and Hizashi right behind them. All of his students were waiting for them outside the mall when they exited.
"Deku!"
"What happened?"
"Is he gonna be okay?"
"That's so much blood!"
Shouta pushed through them, gently but firmly. "He'll be alright. HIzashi-"
HIs husband nodded. "I've got them, you go."
Shouta briefly wondered how he got so lucky to have a husband that knew him so well, giving Hizashi's hand a light squeeze before chasing after the stretcher.
"I'm riding with you."
"Sir-"
"He's my student and I currently have guardianship over him, let me in the damn ambulance."
The paramedic hesitated, but ultimately relented. Shouta slid into the back and watched as people fussed over his kid, putting a breathing mask over his nose and stemming the blood that was leaking out of his wound.
"Sensei?"
"I'm here kid," Shouta said, taking Midoriya's hand, "I've got you, you're going to be okay."
The kid blinked, eyelids drooping. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. Get some rest now."
Midoriya hummed, his eyes falling closed, and Shouta held onto his hand for dear life as the ambulance continued their drive to the hospital.
Midoriya was alive. He was breathing, right in front of him, and there was a pulse under his skin, and he was alive. That was enough for now.
It had to be enough.