Chapter Text
When Aizawa followed (read: stalked) Yagi around the block, he wasn't expecting to see a young boy leaning against the wall, clearly waiting for him in an alleyway where the streetlamps didn't touch.
Oh no, Aizawa thought. He didn't want to do this. And while he knew that he would get back-up and that justice would prevail, he really, really, really didn't want to be the one that had to put-down All Might's career. Not like this. What was a trip to the groceries, with a side-quest to pet some cats, had quickly dissolved into this mess.
Aizawa tugged out his capture scarves. Not sure how well they would work on Number One hero, but Aizawa was nothing but practical.
“Shounen,” Yagi breathed, “Are you alright?” He took a step forward, and the kid took a step back.
"I’m fine," the kid replied.
Aizawa clenched his jaw, still trying to process what he was seeing.
"Shounen, we really shouldn't be meeting like this."
"Well, when else should we meet? Do you remember how our last early morning jog went?"
"Yes, but this looks strange, too."
"Then let's make this fast."
Clothes were being shuffled and Aizawa crouched down, ready to take the plunge. For justice. All Might joined the UA staff and now he has to arrest him and end his career.
"They aren't original at all, so it wasn't hard. They're in the abandoned warehouses in the Ota Ward. 28 of them total, but there was talk about hiring some illegals as back-up. They're probably going to kill all of them when the job is done. The sale won’t be happening until tomorrow night, probably more towards one in the morning, so I guess two days from now, but they should be doing a goods’ check tonight. Be careful, I don't think everything that they're selling is dead."
Aizawa paused.
"I was scared of this," Yagi said, shaking his head. "And you too, shounen. I don't know how you got this information but you really shouldn't put yourself in danger-"
And a car drove by, and in the brief second the light flooded the alleyway, Aizawa got a good look at him. The area right above his eye was bruised and swelling, and there was a thick bandage on the side of his neck. A face that, altogether, looked too young to look so bruised.
"Yagi-san," shounen cut it. "I'm not a hero. I can't even be a vigilante. This," he motioned to the manila envelope that he passed to the blond, "this is the best that I can do.” He straightened up and gave a full bow, “Please," he said, "Please save them."
And Aizawa learned too much while on his walk to feed his stray cats.
--
Midnight was asked to be a part of a case. Aizawa, who had to cover her classes, had awful feeling that he couldn’t explain squeezing down on his chest.
“Man, it’s rare for us to be called out like this,” Yamada said, arms folded so that his head rested against his head. “Guess it’s a big deal.” He gave a toothy grin to his friend, “Lemme know if you need help, alright?”
Aizawa wouldn’t ever take it, but his friend’s heart was always in the right place. It helped solidified the ground under his feet.
“Thanks,” he said, “but I’m taking Snipe up on that offer.”
From behind, where Cementoss wasn’t even trying not to eavesdrop, he told Vlad King, “Saw that one coming.”
In the meantime, Yamada was coming up with a reaction and eventually decided on, “Oh, come on, Aizawa! We've been pals since forever!”
It brought a smug smirk to Aizawa’s face, as all peaceful days did, until he remembered why it was so peaceful.
Of course, he didn’t get any confirmation until it came onto the news a week later, about the wonderful and near miraculous save that All Might and other heroes had done to stop a human trafficking incident, but at that point, he had a good idea about what was going on.
--
The first time the underground hero met All Might's Informant, officially, he caught the kid smoking behind a building. And of course he recognized him, he wouldn’t ever forget the (bruised and swelling) face of the person Yagi was meeting.
"Eh?" he gasped, shocked, and when his eyes caught on the fallen cigarette, moaned. "No..." he dragged the sound out before it ended with a deep sigh.
Immediately, Aizawa's eyes took note. A split lip and a black eye. The swelling mess above his eye seemed to be less than it was before.
"Kids shouldn't be smoking," Aizawa said, frowning, "Or be out this late."
Informant-kun gave a dry retort back. "And heroes should be helping people, saving them, instead of bullying people."
Behind his goggles, Aizawa's eyes were trained on him. His expression didn't twitch.
The kid sighed back. "If you're here Eraserhead-san, does that mean you're looking for information about the lost kid down the street? It's not a serial kidnapping," he explained. "Satoru-kun’s down in the empty apartment building that way with some college students. As strange as it sounds, there's nothing bad going on," he said, pointing in the general direction to his left. "They're pretending to be ghosts. It's pretty cute, actually. Sato-san of the police-force knows, so I’m sure he’s keeping an eye out until someone has to follow the law and he’ll let them off with a warning."
Aizawa didn't say anything, but took a step closer.
"Oh, the actual serial kidnapper is at the fast food restaurant at the corner of the station, by the way. Uh... Ossan's Special, I believe. The rooms above it, at least. Just be careful because his quirk turns people into dolls. You should probably get there soon, I'm not sure if people would magically retain their original self after being a doll for six months."
The kid didn't even tense. He was probably planning on escaping (unlikely) or he was really confident in his ability to (more likely). Either someone was going to come and get him, or he would get himself out. Both of them, Aizawa was prepared for, but he would prefer the later. No doubt, if the kid knew his hero-name, he knew what his quirk was. Aizawa would have to be quick and efficient. As always.
Looking at him, he could tell. Informant-kun wasn't built for power. If anything, it would be speed. Unless he was packing heat in another way.
"But Eraserhead-san, are you sure you should be here? There's an explosion down west and the suspects are getting away. Four of them ran south, but one of them gave the police the slip. The guy who started the explosion isn’t a part of their group, so I do hope you’ll cut him some slack. The rest are the remains of Crane that got away last month. It's never a quiet day here, huh?"
Aizawa, at the same time, heard the call for help on his commlink, repeating back the exact same information that the kid said. He narrowed his eyes, as the kid turned to give him a smile.
"Told you so," the kid said. "I'd have given you a better heads up, but you ruined my smoke break."
Aizawa frowned.
The kid smiled.
"The guy that set off the building does a trick of light. It's a cool quirk, but I think you'll be fine."
“...Repeat, any active Heroes in the area, we need back-up…”
“Hero-san, aren't there more important things to do than stop a minor from smoking?”
--and Aizawa went to answer it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the kid was pulling another cigarette out of its case. Still on the ground, not at all concerned about leaving, he remained there like a fixture in the street.
--
"Truly, Eraserhead-san. Thank you for the quick response."
"Not at all," Aizawa replied back. He looked back at the burning building. It was a shock to think that they only needed to call one ambulance when half of all the firefighters in the area were here.“I’m just glad that no one got injured in this.”
“Ah yes, it really was a miracle. The fire alarm went off ten minutes before it exploded, so the building was mostly evacuated at that point. It looks like that, but one of the suspect's quirk makes thing look brighter than what they are,” the officer explained. He rubbed the back of his neck, “The property damage reports will be hard to fill, but I am grateful that it will only be property damage reports we have to fill.”
“...Miracle, huh?”
The words echoed in his head, floating around him like a plume of smoke. And wrongfully (not that he could really do anything about it), he was credited with this arrest. When he went back to the location of where Informant-kun was, there was no one there. Not even a cigarette butt.
Aizawa turned around to go catch a serial kidnapper instead.
--
There he was, Aizawa thought.
“It’s illegal for minors to be smoking.”
Green eyes flitted up to his face and then he took a long, heaving sigh. If he wasn’t in a gakuran, Aizawa would have believed that he wasn't a student, or if he was, an overworked office worker, just from the exhausted slouch of his shoulders. He looked like he was waiting for the world to smear him into nothing. The cigarette that Aizawa kicked out of his hands laid on the ground. He’d pick it up and throw it away later.
“Surely,” Informant-kun started, slow and stressing his words. He rubbed his face with his hand, looking as exhausted as Aizawa felt. “There are real crimes, where people are getting hurt and possibly dying. Surely, surely those are more important than if a supposed minor smokes, right, Eraserhead-san?”
“Then, you shouldn’t have smoked in a place where you can be easily caught.”
The hand that ran over his face ran through his hair, and then rested on the back of his neck. Aizawa caught on the bruises on his wrist.
“Isn’t it a little late for you to be out anyways?”
"For minors, I suppose," he replied back. He reached for something in his jacket pocket, and then his eyebrow twitched. Looking back at Aizawa, he abandoned it.
It must have been where the rest of his cigarettes were.
"You're not a minor?" Aizawa asked it, but his voice was flat like it was more of a demand.
"I dress like this because I get more customers," Informant-kun replied, and Aizawa felt his skin crawl. Maybe he did need to go and arrest All Might after all.
Green eyes flitted back up to him, his eyes shining a bit before he looked back down on the ground. It was a novice mistake, to take his eyes off of a threat. Unless he was confident that he could take Aizawa.
He wished he'd do it sooner rather than later. Aizawa wasn't made of time.
“Maybe you should stop beating around the bush and say what you really want to.”
His temper was shorter than usual, so Aizawa got right to it.
“...I heard you have some information about Present Mic.”
“I might,” he tilted his head, and Aizawa narrowed his eyes, “He’s blond, works at UA, voice-quirk, ah… your graduating class, right? You guys seem pretty close. Got dinner last Tuesday at the izakaya.”
He paused, sizing up the older man, and he wondered what he saw, because he started to speak again, a smile across his split lips. The teacher couldn’t imagine what kind of life he lived, that he could have such a gentle smile when his lip was probably throbbing. Should he drag him to a clinic?
“But, I’m honored to think that my information has made it up to you, Eraserhead-san.”
“The information you got about the incident last week,” Aizawa replied back, because this was just a test, and after this, he would decide if he was going to haul Informant-kun in or take it up to Yagi instead. “I need to catch some rats.”
“...There’s going to be a price,” his smile was gone, but that inquisitive gaze remained. Aizawa wasn't sure what kind of answer he was hoping for. “And my information isn’t cheap.”
This, he was prepared for. “How much?”
The young man blinked back. His gaze was sharp, uncannily so given his stature. His lips twitched, like he wanted to smile but couldn't quite commit to it. “And… you’re just going to take me for face-value? Not going to try and beat it out of me instead?”
To be honest, Aizawa was better at that anyways.
“...If it's faster to interrogate you with my fist...”
“No, no, very deal,” he lifted his hands up as though to surrender, and only showed an thick cut in the early stages of scarring across his palms instead. He got up to his feet and nearly tripped on the sidewalk. He stumbled forward and Aizawa fought with every bit of himself. He wasn't sure if he wanted to drag him to a hospital, or smack him so he fell down faster instead.
They exchanged the amount. Aizawa’s hands stilled when he was told the amount, was that really all? And then, once he confirmed the amount and tucked it away into his jacket smiled back.
Informant-kun gave the rundown of the situation that happened, more importantly, all three groups that appeared and where the remains of their groups were. The estimation of numbers, the base, the area. The time and places where some of the members frequented. Aizawa narrowed his eyes at him as he listened carefully.
"Motives?"
"Cash and fame," Informant-kun replied. "And Cranes are getting bigger, so they probably got desperate. Guess they didn't think that Present Mic would get to the scene so fast."
Of course, he thought. No wonder Yagi, despite all that he said and tried, never dragged this guy in. Informant-kun couldn’t be a child. He was a full professional in his field, probably some baby-faced adult who knew how to use what he had. He could only imagine what kind of information and report he would turn in those manilla folders and USBs. This information must have led to the arrests without dragging it through the media's attention. This wasn't the kind of information that just anyone could get.
But Eraserhead had been an underground hero for a long time, and he had never even heard of this Informant-kun before.
“Do you need anything repeated?” he asked quietly. "The first time, I won't charge."
“I’m more impressed at the amount of information that you gave for this amount,” Aizawa replied back, meaning it.
“...The amount of information I give is equivalent to the money that I paid. Any extra,” he gave a little coy smile, “is service.”
“I’m not interested in kids.” Aizawa was not looking at his painful looking split lip.
“Shame. Figures you would be the one that the uniform doesn't work on," he replied, leaning back. Tipping his head back to look up, he gave a mournful sigh, "And I was really looking forward to sucking on that cigarette."
Aizawa's hand shot out to grab Informant-kun by the back of the neck and yanked him closer. Informant-kun’s eyes widened comically and his hands flew up to grab Aizawa’s shirt in an attempt to steady himself. His breath caught in his throat, and looking at wide green eyes, Aizawa thought that he looked too innocent for the part of world he sat in.
"Uhm..." His voice hiked up several octaves.
Aizawa considered. He could. He could take Informant-kun off the street and into his apartment. Probably not forever, but just for the night. Just so that these wounds could be properly treated, and he would have a safe place to sleep for the night. He could tie him up and drag him right to All Might's door. Maybe the police.
Aizawa considered his options.
“...I suppose I did. That doesn't mean you should be tripping over yourself for me,” he said. He took a step back, releasing him as he adjusted his goggles. “I’ll be around.”
Aizawa had people to save. Aizawa had people he wanted to help. That’s all.
“Izuku,” Informant-kun called out. “If you’re looking to call me something. Izuku’s fine.”
Aizawa wondered if it was a code-name. It sounded like a civilian's name. He didn’t want to think that someone who was handing out information for cases that didn't end up on the news was someone that didn’t know the basics of keeping a guard over his identity. He narrowed his eyes.
A false lead? A red herring? The truth?
“Eraserhead,” he said, even though Izuku probably already knew that.