Yagi was barely holding it together when Aizawa arrived. “It was a kid,” he gasped out. Yagi had his hand balled up into a fist and the fist pressed to his lips, as if to remind himself that he could not start screaming. “Or. Young person, maybe 20. Homeless, I think. Activated their Quirk on reflex and then ran. The kids—” Here, he pressed his fist harder to his mouth, sucked in a wheezing breath, as if the air itself was pushing down something with physical weight. “The kids—” “Scattered immediately,” Aizawa finished for him, and Yagi managed a nod. Yagi’s eyes were so dilated that the blue was almost invisible. He shook violently. He looked like a scarecrow in a windstorm.
Someone activated a Fear-Inducer Quirk so powerful that it reduced All Might to this — of course Aizawa’s class had bolted. “I’m sorry,” Yagi gasped out, and his apology did not twist Aizawa’s heart, it didn’t . “I tried to— I tried—” “It’s fine,” said Aizawa shortly. “You got hit with it too. Not your fault.” He turned to face the other direction, moved to walk away. “I’m going to get them.” Yagi’s hand shot out, wrapped itself around Aizawa’s upper arm. Aizawa paused. “Midoriya,” croaked Yagi. “I need to — I need to get — Midoriya— “ Aizawa exhaled. He carefully extracted himself from Yagi’s grip— and, fuck, he always forgot how giant Yagi’s hands were. “Toshinori. I’m going to get them,” he repeated, firmer this time. “I’ll bring them back here. All of them.” And then he walked towards the Ghost Quarter’s entrance, to do just that. Behind him, Yagi crumpled into a shaking, shivering pile on the ground. The several-mile stretch of cityscape was called the Ghost Quarter, because nobody lived there. It was a remnant from one of Japan’s earliest big-threat villains, named Seismic, whose ability to control earth and ground-matter was still one of the strongest recorded Elemental Quirks to ever exist. The Ghost Quarter was the site of the final battle to take him down.Aizawa had gotten some of his kid and ran out of somnambu