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2021-08-10
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Just clench your ass and yell 'smash'!

Summary:

Shouta very slowly and carefully put down his pen and shifted in his seat, leaning more towards Midoriya and folding his hands on the table as his lips quirked up into the smallest, and most terrifying smile his student had ever seen.

“He said what?”

“Um, just clench your ass and yell ‘smash’?” He repeated uncertainly.

“Just clench your ass and yell ‘smash’,” Shouta’s voice was dangerously low.

“Uh yeah…”

“Just clench your ass and yell ‘smash’.”

“That’s what he said… yeah. Are- are you okay Aizawa-sensei?”

In which Aizawa finds out about All Might's inability to teach and yells at some people

Rated teen and up cuz there's some swearing

Notes:

this takes place after the sports festival but before internships!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

“So… All Might passed his quirk onto you and you’re having difficulty controlling it,” Shouta stated casually and watched Midoriya’s face go blank with shock, before the words that had just been spoken caught up to him and he squeaked, glancing around at the empty classroom just to be sure no one had snuck in and overheard.

“What- how, how did you know? Did All Might tell you? No surely not, he would have told me he’d told you, and considering how few people he’s told in the first place it’s highly unlikely it was him. It certainly wasn’t me so… the Principal maybe? Or Recovery Girl, she is mad at me. But no, surely they wouldn’t. They know how important the secret is!”

Shouta raised an eyebrow in tired amusement, “It was none of them problem child, although thank you for letting me know who else is in on your little… secret.”

“Huh? Then who was it?” He asked confused. Muttering, “The only other people who knew about One For All were unlikely to have told either.”

“You did. Just then.”

His student’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly in surprise and he huffed a laugh.

“I’m not blind kid. I see how similar your quirks are and how All Might favours you. And I’m not deaf either. You really need to learn to keep a lid on that muttering, it’s a miracle no one else has figured it out yet.”

“Damn, I really fell for the oldest trick in the book,” Midoriya said quietly and Shouta had to muffle a snort.

“Yeah, we’re going to have to work on your ability to keep secrets,” he said with an amused shake of his head. “But that’s a task for another day. You don’t have a bus to catch do you?”

“N-no, I usually walk home.”

“Great, I’ll write you a note before you go so your mother knows why you’re late.” He waited for Midoriya to nod his assent before continuing. “I wouldn’t normally push for information, but I want to help you learn to use your quirk properly. If you can’t figure it out, then I can’t in good conscience keep you in this class.”

At his student’s wide, panicked eyes he hastened to continue. “I don’t want to have to transfer you, I really don’t. You’ve got great potential, you just need to be able to use your quirk without hurting yourself at all.”

He leant back in his chair, absentmindedly fiddling with a pen. “So, now that I know how you got it, what can you tell me about what you’ve already done to try and control your quirk?”

“Um, well,” he bit his lip nervously. “I don’t know, not much really.”

“Okay,” Shouta thought for a moment. “What did All Might tell you to do to get it to work?”

“Oh! ‘Just clench your ass and yell ‘smash’.”

Shouta very slowly and carefully put down his pen and shifted in his seat, leaning more towards Midoriya and folding his hands on the table as his lips quirked up into the smallest, and most terrifying smile his student had ever seen.

“He said what?”

“Um, just clench your ass and yell ‘smash’?” He repeated uncertainly.

“Just clench your ass and yell ‘smash’,” Shouta’s voice was dangerously low.

“Uh yeah…”

“Just clench your ass and yell ‘smash’.”

“That’s what he said… yeah. Are- are you okay Aizawa-sensei?”

He raised his eyebrows, baffled at the question, it was the most expressive his student had probably ever seen him and he saw the concern creep onto his face. Although if it was for Shouta or himself he couldn’t tell. But did he seriously not realise?!

“Am I o- Midoriya, kid. You realise that is horrendous advice right?”

“Um,” he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, probably unwilling to talk badly about his mentor when All Might had given him the the quirk in the first place, Shouta realised with an internal sigh. “I guess… it wasn’t great,” he admitted reluctantly.

“Wasn’t great!” He repeated incredulously burying his head in his hands in utter despair. “Izuku.”

“S-sorry,” he stuttered anxiously and Shouta looked back up at him alarmed.

“What? No. There’s no need for you to apologise, you’ve done nothing wrong.”

“You’re angry though, Sensei.”

Shouta glanced at his hunched posture and frantically wringing hands and sighed quietly. “Yes I am, but not at you kid. All Might should have done more to help you.”

“W-well, he did try to explain how to regulate it by using my egg in the microwave analogy,” he defended, only to regret it as Shouta looked even more distressed.

“Egg in the microwave? What?”

“I was… thinking out loud and um, I mentioned that the quirk is kind of like an egg in a microwave, and he said to lower the power or reduce the cooking time so that it doesn’t explode, or in my case, my bones don’t break. But I don’t really get how to do that…” he trailed off.

“That was it?”

“Uh, yeah. I don’t think he’s given me any more advice, just to keep working on it.”

“What, just keep breaking your bones?” Shouta muttered, frowning down at his desk. “Alright,” he ran a hand over his tired face and looked back up at Midoriya, “here’s what we’re going to do. Can you do this time after school every week?”

“Um, yes Sensei.”

“Great. We’re going to do quirk counselling and I’m going to actually help you get control of it, okay?”

“O-oh! Alright! Thank you Sensei!”

“Yeah whatever,” he mumbled as he quickly wrote a note, handing it to Midoriya. “Give this to your mother. Now scram, I’ve got business to take care of.”

Midoriya took one look at the sour expression on his teacher’s face and did exactly that.

Shouta stalked through the corridors towards the teacher’s lounge, mind struggling to comprehend the conversation he’d just had. He knew the number one hero didn’t have a teaching license, but he didn’t realise quite how incapable, and irresponsible the guy was.

It wasn’t difficult to find All Might, since even in his weakened form he was absurdly tall, and he followed Shouta to his classroom with minimal questioning and unreturned attempts at polite small talk.

“Yagi,” Shouta said flatly once he had the man alone in his classroom. “What the fuck?”

The hero looked surprised at his rudeness, “Aizawa-san? Have I done something to upset you?”

“I have seven words for you,” Shouta glared at him. “Just clench your ass and yell ‘smash’?!” He mocked harshly.

All Might paled, and for a moment Shouta thought he understood why he was so furious, and he let himself believe that the number one hero wasn’t a total fool… that was until he opened his mouth and—

“How do you know that?”

“That’s not the problem.”

“It most certainly is,” Yagi responded, puffing his chest out as much as he could in his weaker form and trying to look intimidating. “It’s a matter of national security, I insist that you tell me how you came across it at once!”

“Yagi Toshinori,” he growled. “Do you honestly think I am such an incompetent teacher that I wouldn’t notice Midoriya-kun has not received proper quirk training?”

“He ha—”

“And do you really think, that I am such an inexperienced, oblivious underground hero that I would not connect the dots?”

“What dots? I—”

“It is my job to look for the small things, the subtle clues, as an underground hero and as a teacher. You obviously know Midoriya! His quirk is very similar to yours. You’re weakening as he gets stronger. And then it came to my attention that he never used to have a quirk, so it really didn’t take a genius to figure it out.”

“Right, well I— you can’t tell anyone!”

“Excuse me?” He growled.

“I don’t want the general public to know I’m not a natural-born hero, the response would be… damaging.”

“And whose fault is that? You’re the reason that such an idea exists! There’s no such thing as a ‘natural-born hero’, anyone can be a hero with the right attitude and support. But because you decided you were the definition of heroics, discrimination against quirkless individuals and those with so-called ‘villainous’ quirks has increased exponentially.”

“I hardly think it’s fair of you to blame that on me!” Shouta opened his mouth to say like hell it isn’t, but All Might hurried to continue before he could. “And besides, it’s very, very important for young Midoriya’s safety that word not get around he has my quirk.”

Shouta’s eyes narrowed to slits, “Why?”

“That’s classified.”

Shouta had to make a conscious effort not to punch him, fists shaking by his sides. “Does he know?”

“What?”

“Does Midoriya-kun know that by possessing your quirk he is in danger from some ‘classified’ threat.”

“Ah— no.”

There was a moment of tense silence in which Shouta just stared at him in utter disbelief.

“What the fuck Yagi? Are you stupid or just cruel?”

“Now now—”

“Don’t you fucking now-now me Toshinori. You gave a child a destructive quirk that puts him in serious danger, and you didn’t think to tell him about that part. What sort of an idiot—”

“Aizawa-san—”

“No! You- you incompetent fool! Did you stop to think for a second about the crushing responsibility you’ve put on his shoulders? He is a child! You’ve put him in danger from some unknown threat, and from himself. You haven’t helped him gain control over his quirk with your moronic advice so it’s hurting him, and the stress of the situation he’s now in would be bad for any adult! Are you really so dumb that you can’t see that?!”

“Could you… please stop insulting me?”

“You want me to stop calling you a fool? Stop acting like one. You want me to stop calling you an idiot? Stop making idiotic decisions. And if you want me to stop calling you stupid, you better stop giving stupid advice like ‘just clench your ass and yell ‘smash’!”

All Might stared at him, dumbfounded as Shouta caught his breath, fierce eyes glaring at him with such intensity that despite being over a foot taller the number one hero cowered.

“I— you’re right, I’m sorry. Perhaps I have not handled this as well as I’d thought.”

He thought he’d handled it well?! Shouta wanted to scream. Instead he gritted his teeth in frustration.

“It’s not me you need to apologise to.”

“Of course,” he said softly, looking like a kicked puppy. “I will speak to young Midoriya at once.”

“Good. And you should write down everything you can tell me about that quirk of his. I’m going to be doing proper quirk counselling with him.”

“Oh! Thank you Aizawa-san, although I know someone who is more familiar with this quirk, I can—”

“Don’t bother. I don’t trust them to do this effectively. And I’ve already arranged it with Midoriya.”

All Might hesitated, but he couldn’t refuse, “Okay. I understand. I can tell you about the quirk now if you’d like? It’s called One For All and—”

“No, write it down and send it to me.”

“U-uhm, I don’t—”

“With all due respect Yagi, right now, I want you out of my sight.”

The number one hero wilted further, nodding meekly before leaving.

Shouta stared at the doorway for a long time, trying desperately to calm his racing heart and slow his breathing. He hadn’t felt this angry in a long, long time.

He decided to go see Recovery Girl next, since Midoriya had mentioned her being mad at him for something, and he wanted to know what.

“Shuuzenji-san,” he greeted as he stood in the nurse’s office stiffly.

“Ah, Aizawa-san. How can I help? Are you injured?”

“No, nothing like that. I just wanted to talk to you about Midoriya.”

“Oh?”

“Specifically about One For All.”

He watched the elderly hero’s reaction carefully as she looked up from whatever form she was filling out, suspicion evident in the way she assessed him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Shouta sighed, he’d had a feeling she’d try that and he really didn’t have the patience for games right now.

“One For All — Midoriya’s quirk that was passed on from All Might. I know you know all about it Shuuzenji.” He drawled and she pursed her lips in thought, before jerking her head in invitation.

He took the seat in front of hers as she pushed her work to the side.

“So, you know then.”

“I’ve spoken to Midoriya and All Might about it.”

She hummed in understanding, “Then what did you want to speak to me about? I won’t be able to give you any more information than they have.”

“No I know, it’s about something Midoriya said. He mentioned that you’re angry at him and I wanted to know why he would think such a thing.”

“Ah,” she inclined her head. “That would probably be because I criticised them.”

“You… criticised them?”

“Yes. When I saw his injuries after the sports festival I just couldn’t let it pass. I told them they were overdoing it and need to come up with another way to manage his quirk that doesn’t involve Midoriya-kun self-destructing.”

Finally, someone else with an ounce of common sense, Shouta thought.

“That’s what I spoke to them about.”

“Good! Hopefully he’ll listen to you. I’m not sure how much my approach actually worked.”

“Your… approach?” He asked, with a terrible feeling that he was going to have to rescind his previous thought.

“I told him that I won’t be healing any more of his injuries caused by quirk overuse.”

Shouta smiled slightly, “You what?”

“I refuse to heal any more broken bones, they need to figure something else out, this isn’t working for him.”

“Oh, there’s no doubt about that. But to clarify, you are fully aware that All Might passed his quirk on only a few months ago.”

“Well yes, of course.”

Shouta took a deep breath.

“So you’ve known all along that his lack of control, the reason he keeps breaking his bones, is because he’d only just gotten his quirk?”

“Yes, like I said,” she responded frostily. “And that’s precisely why I told him I won’t be healing any more broken bones of his. Very few people know about One For All and someone needs to motivate him to get his quirk under control.”

“You… you’re refusing him treatment?”

“It’s just incentive to work harder.”

“No,” Shouta said outraged. “That’s not your job.”

“Excuse me?”

“It is not your job to try and help the students with their quirks, the fact that you think denying someone medical treatment will scare them into doing so is a clear example of why that is not your job.”

Recovery Girl looked affronted, “Now calm down Aizawa-san—”

“It’s your job, to patch the students up and to heal what you can. You do not get to pick and choose which injuries, or which students you heal,” he snarled, livid.

“I was just trying to help.”

“Well stop. Stick to your area of expertise and I’ll stick to mine. And if I ever hear about you denying any student medical treatment, empty threat or not I will take it straight to Principal Nedzu,” he promised, stalking out the door before he physically assaulted an old lady.

This just kept getting worse and worse.

“Principal Nedzu,” Shouta said, opening the door with far more force than was necessary, but dammit he was on a roll, he was on a rampage. “We need to talk about All Might.”

The rat stared at him with his usual disconcerting little smile, “Is that so?”

“‘Just being skilled at something doesn’t mean you can teach it, teaching is a skill unto itself.’ Do you remember saying that?”

“I do,” Nedzu sipped his tea delicately.

“Do you remember the context?” Shouta all but growled, trying to at least somewhat rein in his temper before he lost his job.

“I do.”

Shouta gritted his teeth when the mouse didn’t elaborate. “You sent Hizashi and I to university to get our teaching licenses before we could work at UA.”

“As I said, I recall,” the Principle said pleasantly, paws folding neatly. “You are upset because Yagi does not have one.”

It wasn’t a question, but Shouta nodded anyway, “Of course I am. Because the guy can’t teach for— can’t teach to save his life!”

The bear hummed, “Unfortunately, there was no time for him to gain such qualifications.”

“Why not? He’s already picked his successor!” Shouta pointed out hotly and Nedzu’s eyes gleamed.

“So you are aware of Midoriya-kun’s situation. Interesting.”

“I should have been aware from the beginning! But that’s not my point, there’s more than just the teaching license — safeguarding! I know we do things slightly differently here, but he still needs to understand the basic concept! He’s constantly taking Midoriya off alone, shutting them in rooms together, meeting up off campus. It’s a massive safeguarding issue that wouldn’t have been a problem if he wasn’t a teacher, and considering he can’t actually teach, I don’t see the benefit of having him on your staff!”

Nedzu took another sip of tea, setting his mug back down with cold eyes, and had Shouta been less furious he might have worried he’d taken it too far.

“Whilst I appreciate your concern for the students Aizawa-san, that is not for you to decide. You were not so emotional when I announced he would be joining us, has something happened?”

Shouta tried not to scream at the rat’s word choice. “You are aware that he has been mentoring Midoriya.”

“Naturally.”

“Are you aware of what advice he’s given to help him control his quirk?”

“I am not,” Nedzu tilted his head in curiosity. “I am not privy to all their meetings.”

“The only advice, the only advice he’s given him, was to ‘just clench his ass and yell ‘smash’’.” Shouta seethed and the Principal’s eyes darkened.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, and I assume you are aware of just how much responsibility he’s put on the kid’s shoulder’s — probably far more so than I am. But that’s all the guidance he’s given!”

“Well that is hardly sufficient,” the stoat said coldly. “I will be speaking to Yagi about this, as I know you already have.”

“Ah, yeah,” Shouta said sheepishly, certain that the Principal could have garnered the general mood of their earlier conversation through the cameras.

“Please rest assured that I take the standard of teaching here at UA very seriously and now that this has been brought to my attention I will be sure to correct it,” Nedzu said, switching back to his pleasant demeanour so fast Shouta got whiplash.

“Alright, thank you Sir. I have arranged weekly quirk counselling sessions with Midoriya already.”

“Excellent,” the rat folded his paws again. “Was there anything else?”

“No, that’s all.”

Shouta left feeling a little less angry than before. And when he was asked to take over All Might’s heroics lessons for the foreseeable future so that the number one hero could use the time to gain his teaching license — well, it didn’t irritate him in the slightest.

Notes:

written for harmony/MakeItBetter_Loving_Life, thank you for the idea!!

hope y'all enjoyed aizawa being mad, idk why but I feel like he's the sort of person who'd smile when he's really, really angry and it's absolutely terrifying XD

for the record, I don't hate all might, but I spent the past year working in a school and I just akjhfalkdjf it can't be denied that he's a terrible teacher, also, just the very idea of a symbol of peace is so flawed T^T