Work Text:
To: Aizawa <[email protected]>
From: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
Subject: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: June 17th, 20xx
UA High School
Hero Studies
Teacher Shota Aizawa
So sorry for suddenly contacting you.
I have recently been asked to work with an Underground Hero while on my internship in America. You may have heard of Professor Hydra in your professional networks. I was wondering if you had advice on how I can start our working relationship off well. Are there any pitfalls or potential gaps in my knowledge that working as a conventional Hero may have created?
Thank you for your consideration.
Wonder Hero Agency
Pro Hero Deku
1234 Anywhere Dr
New York, NY 99999
—-
To: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
From: Aizawa <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: June 17th, 20xx
Let her take the lead. She’s seasoned. Your impulse will be to offer your ideas, and they might be good, but don’t. She won’t want to be flashy, and you’re often flashy. Learn from her. It’s what you’re there for.
I see you remembered your lessons on business email etiquette. Don’t do that. I’m too tired to deal with it.
—
To: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
From: Aizawa <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: June 28th, 20xx
Your mission made waves on the Underground Hero bulletins, but not the news. I’d say good job, but you broke three ribs. I’m not impressed, problem child.
—
To: Aizawa <[email protected]>
From: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: June 29th, 20xx
Wow, news travels so fast!
In my defense, Sensei, the person had a bone-breaking Quirk and wasn’t part of the intel. They touched me once, but that’s all they needed. Super scary! My mentors asked me to write up an analysis. I attached it here, let me know what you think? If you have time! I know you’re busy.
—
It had been three days since Izuku sent that email, and he blushed violently red every time he thought of it. He’d been a little stoned on painkillers because the US doctors did not hold back on medications at all, and so he’d just asked for what he wanted. Just asked! Without considering how rude he was being! He wanted to die. He’d done a web search for “can I unsend an email?” and “can I delete someone else’s email?” several times but there were no legal or ethical solutions.
Best case scenario, he’d be so annoyed he wouldn’t bother to reply and Izuku would maybe forget before the next time he saw him, which would be who knew when. He tried to sleep and heal and forget about it. Maybe Aizawa would even understand Izuku had been in an altered state and ignore the email out of politeness? Yes, that’d be even better. That’s definitely what would happen.
It’s not what happened. Two more days later, Aizawa replied. With four bullet points.
—-
To: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
From: Aizawa <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: July 4th, 20xx
1. Don’t call me sensei anymore. I am not responsible for you.
2. Your analysis is good, but you knew that. I’d like to see the updated version once you get clearance for the person’s Quirk file, since that will have more details than you were able to get by observation alone.
3. It seems you weren’t being reckless, I was mistaken. There are no limits to your ability to create problems, regardless of your own sense of caution. I underestimated you.
4. What do you get a nine year old girl for her birthday? Just answer, and don’t speak of it to anyone.
5. Don’t get blown up.
—
To: Aizawa <[email protected]>
From: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: July 4th, 20xx
1. Acknowledged! Aizawa-san it is.
2. Please find the updated version attached. It’s still a little weaker than I’d like in some areas, but hopefully the subject will be apprehended soon and more data can be recorded.
3. I’m so sorry to have worried everyone!
4. I have chipped in with some others to treat Eri, Uraraka, and Tsu to a girls’ spa day! You probably already know that, though. So maybe something for that, like a gift card to a restaurant so she can pay for her friends? Otherwise, all she talks about is that Angel Mysteries anime, so something from that would be good. The first season is out on special edition box set.
5. American fireworks aren’t very good.
—
And so the exchanges continued. It was often Villain analysis, but ithey also talked about Izuku’s old classmates or his current coworkers and, sometimes, Eri or Present Mic. The emails weren’t very frequent, they exchange a few each week, but they were a welcome heartbeat that helped Izuku feel closer to home. They kept him grounded, and were a good place for him to air out his confusion and frustrations with Americans. Aizawa was always down to hear complaints about strange foreigners.
—-
To: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
From: Aizawa <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: September 2nd, 20xx
1. Let me know your thoughts on the attached file. I’m concerned about the potential threat to civic gas line infastructure.
2. Thank you for sending that opinion piece on the new Rescue legislation. I had my own opinions on it, but the author has a very good head on her shoulders and it shed some new light on rural Rescue Heroes that I hadn’t previously considered. Go ahead and send your thoughts now that I’ve read it.
3. Your taste in music meets Mic’s approval, but he likes everything, so that’s not much of a compliment. Eri says the playlist you sent was “retro”. If you think you feel old after that statement, just know that I thought it sounded obnoxiously new and like they were trying too hard, so I’m looking forward to my Senior Citizen’s discount for the train.
4. As promised, since you avoided injury for 100 days, attached are images of the current class during Heroics. They’re idiots. You’d get along well.
—
To: Aizawa <[email protected]>
From: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: November 2nd, 20xx
1. Attached is my analysis of the Villain I fought last week. I’ve made a template since I’m doing this so often - I think I’ve captured the basics well.
2. No children stopped by my apartment, but I volunteered for an event where the children dress up and get candy from strangers in a parking lot. It was strange but very cute. Very few Hero costumes, the kids are all into video games and cartoons. It was the party that threw me off guard - the adults here celebrate Halloween very enthusiastically, and with a lot of fake gore and horror. It takes a lot to get me drunk because of my Quirk, but the Sidekicks sure tried. I’ve attached some pictures of the costumes, they were really good! Also, Quirk-related crime goes down on Halloween, so I guess even the Villains watch scary movies and eat an awful lot of sugar.
3. I had my first appointment with an American support tech. My data is so far anecdotal, but it’s interesting where the cultural differences and similarities are (like everything else, I guess!). The cultural vibe is very blue-collar, mechanic types (even though being a Hero support technician puts one’s salary very solidly upper class). It’s interesting. I wonder if that’s true other places, or in different shops in Japan than the ones I’ve seen? Do you have any observations on this?
—
To: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
From: Aizawa <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: January 3rd, 2022
1. I had one of the teachers show me how to make comments on the pdfs you send, so I tried that for this one. This work is lower quality than usual. Are you taking care of yourself?
2. Happy New Year. The replacement for the sleeping bag you and the class gave me when you graduated wasn’t necessary, but it is appreciated. The student that inadvertently ruined the last one tested their unraveling Quirk on it and it does seem to hold up. Do you know what Yaoyorozu did to the material to resist it? It would be useful to know for training and strategy study.
3. Thank you for asking. I’m adjusting to Shinso’s departure to his own apartment fine. He only lived with us for a few years. Hizashi is coping by spoiling Eri within an inch of her life. She asked me the other day if he was dying. I told him to tone it down.
4. I’m sorry to hear about your Mother. I hope that she recovers well. I trust she is in good hands, and there are many nearby who will make sure she’s well cared for. I wouldn’t risk Mitsuki Bakugou’s wrath if I were her doctors.
—
To: Aizawa <[email protected]>
From: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Advice on working with an underground hero
Date: March 14th, 20xx
1. My last batch of American analyses! This one has all of the Heroes I worked with. Their going away gift was letting me ask as many questions as I liked of each of them over sushi, it was really kind of them. I’ve learned so much over the last year and made a lot of great connections! I hope that I left a good impression of Japanese Heroes, and they weren’t disappointed by All Might’s heir.
2. I’ve attached the ransom - a few dozen pictures from two different cat cafes, so please don’t tell anyone about that voicemail?
3. Mom is settling in well at the care facility in Taiwan. I still can’t believe the Bakugous arranged that, it was so generous of them. I think her recovery will go more smoothly. She says she feels spoiled - she only shares her nurse with three other people. It sounds like good care, and her room and the facility look great. I’ll be going to visit her right after the International License exam.
4. I’ve barely had time to see what Hero Agencies have made offers. I haven’t decided if I’ll stay in Japan or not, and I’m not sure if I want them to sway my decision or not. I still have time, nobody expects me to make a decision until after I get back from Taiwan anyway.
5. Do you know why Shinso is now only communicating in pictures of baby rabbits?
—
Izuku was rarely more grateful for his status as Pro Hero than when he got to walk right past customs, his carry-on bag rattling on it’s cheap, plastic wheels behind him. He was exhausted, his connecting flight had been delayed twice so he’d spent nearly seventeen hours hanging out in the Honolulu airport, bringing his travel time to thirty six hours. His internal clock was crying in the corner and he wanted nothing more than a bath and bed.
He shuffled his way through the terminal in a sea of arriving passengers, following the signs for the train station. He’d be home in about an hour, give or take. He could make it one more hour. He was just about to pass through the automatic doors that led to the escalator down to the train platform when a hand grabbed his elbow. His body responded fluidly, drawing his arm out of reach while he turned to face the potential threat, adrenaline washing away much of his fatigue for the moment.
Tired, assessing black eyes stared back at him.
“Aizawa-san?” he said in stupefied surprise. “Are you going somewhere?”
“No. I’m here to pick you up.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I said I’m here to pick you up. Your mother couldn’t be here, so somebody had to.”
“How did you know?”
“I have connections,” Aizawa said, sounding annoyed.
“You…have a car?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
Aizawa turned on his heel and headed towards the shuttle for the parking garages instead, and Izuku hurried to follow. They didn’t chat as they walked, which was for the best because Izuku wasn’t sure he had the brain power to manage that level of multitasking. Aizawa stopped at an unassuming sedan, and they climbed in.
“Thanks for getting me,” Izuku said. “I’m really tired.”
“Sure.”
Once they had cleared the parking garage and merged into Tokyo traffic, something that Izuku was worried about rose to the surface of the foggy soup that had replaced his brain for the moment.
“Aren’t you supposed to be teaching right now?”
“School ended yesterday, we’re in between terms. And Hizashi didn’t want you coming home to an empty house.”
“Wait. What? Where am I going?”
“To our place. Just for tonight.”
“Wait, really? That’s way too nice of you, I couldn’t possibly impose!”
“You’re not imposing. You’ll probably be asleep right after walking through the door. Hizashi and I were just going to work on lesson plans, you’re not interrupting.”
“Okay.” Izuku let his head fall back onto the headrest. “That sounds nice.”
“Like you had a choice.”
And while it was strange, taking a bath in Aizawa and Hizashi’s home, and sleeping in Shinso’s old bedroom, it was much nicer to wake up in an apartment that hadn’t been empty for months.
Izuku woke up unfathomably early in the morning, and though everyone else was asleep, he could feel the presence of other people and it made him smile. When he checked his email, he found a new message from Aizawa.
To: Pro Hero Deku <[email protected]>
From: Aizawa <[email protected]>
Subject: Welcome home
Date: March 23rd, 2022
Leave the key under the mat. You’d better brush up on your formal Japanese for when you show your analyses to your new boss. Don’t hurry to reply to my email while you settle in.