Not Yet

em dna uoy, reh dna miH : XIII

"I recommend emotional stimulation" dr. Matsuda said. Eraser and the doctor were discussing what the hero could do in the meantime while he is still recovering and can't go to work either way. He figured he could at least try something instead of just watching from the sidelines.

"It is so that we can confirm that the catatonia is not caused by psychological factors. We want to make sure the issue is organic to proceed with a chemical treatment" Matsuda-sensei made it clear how urgent the boy's condition was and that they don't have a lot of time on their hands, which didn't help ease Shouta's sense of uselessness.

How do you even stimulate emotions? Asking that of Aizawa is like asking a fish about how flying feels! It's just not in the range of his.... daily routine.

And it's not like they haven't tried that already. They tried talking and making any sort of communication, but how could they even do that while the boy didn't even look at them?!

But then an answer crossed the hero's mind. A very oblivious one that he should've not been missing to begin with.

They just needed Eri. Eri has clearly a strong bound with the unaware boy.

But, he couldn't make little Eri go through this. He's been trying to delay this meeting as long as possible. Guess it's as far as he might get with this, huh?

Aizawa sighed heavily, nodding halfheartedly and telling the doctor he will see what he can do.

Leaving the doctor's office, the healing hero headed to the nearest vending machine, his ponding head demanding coffee to keep his mind from the annoying thoughts and the itch of his arm beneath the gypsum cast.

"Sensei!" Mirio's voice brought Shouta back to the world of living, far far away from his paradise coffee land.

Aizawa grumbled secretly, sparing a glance at his approaching student, before drifting back to icha icha coffe-dise.

Mirio sat swiftly beside the hero on his bench in the empty corridor.

"How's Eri?" Shouta asked without turning, pretending he wasn't concerned out of his mind for not seeing the girl with the young student as she usually would be.

"She's great!" Mirio gave a bright cheeky grin. "She's playing in the common room with her friend!" he pointed toward a room at the end of the hall which giggles and annoyi- cute children clutters erupted from.

"Is that so" Aizawa felt even more disheartened, letting Eri meet her brother would mean ripping off that tiny amount of happiness she just recently got to experience.

"Do you think that... she is ready?" Aizawa didn't even need to clarify what he meant, because Mirio's smile dropped instantly in understanding. He turned his gaze to the ground and looked to be deep in thought.

"I'm not sure. I know she is a strong girl, and I know that she is very attached to her brother. But I want her to have more time to figure everything out slowly. I don't want risking her emotional wellbeing if possible. Not yet at least" he answered truthfully.

It was not something Aizawa didn't know about before, but hearing it from someone else proved he had to just find another way.

Yeah, let's not involve Eri, adults have to carry the burden, not children. And these two had carried enough for a lifetime.

"Onii-san!!" A panicked voice disturbed the trains of thoughts of both hero's.

Mirio looked up to meet the boy running towards them. Kiyoshi stopped at the vending machine, resting his hands on his knees to regain his uneven breath. His panting made it seem he just ran a marathon even though it was only a couple of meters.

"What's wrong?" Mirio patted the boy's back gently, retreating his hand when the boy started coughing a little.

"I can't find Eri-chan! She said she needed to go to the bathroom, but didn't come back!"

Aizawa's nerves skyrocketed at that, remembering his encounter with the villains, and he was reliving that feeling of incapability all over again.

Mirio on the other hand was very calm, he smiled a little and tried comforting the panicking boy. Guess he is an expert in handling kids now, maybe he should change his career to a preschool teacher or something.

"Don't worry, she could have gotten lost on her way back. I'll go look for her, okay? So no need to worry" he ruffled the boy's hair and sprinted into the hallway.

Kiyoshi, now sitting on the bench breathing heavily, kept glancing waryly at the indifferent hero.

"Do you have anything to say, kid?" Now Shouta was totally back to his older self that was just rudely cold and generally bad with any form of human communication. But that was the true him! The situation with the other two kids is just too complicated and those emotions he had for them were just temporary for sure, right?

"Um.. N- no! I'm sorry. It's just ... Eri told me about how cool you are, but you don't seem like a hero to me"

Wow. A rude reminder of why he was so horribly bad with kids. Aizawa was just barely able to stop himself from rolling his eyes and telling the boy he was expelled, he is not one of your students, remember?

"But I know! All hero's don't necessarily have to be in colorful suits and shiny armours! My dad for example! He is not a hero, but a doctor who saves lives far from the lights and camera flashes!"

Those words were certainly the last things Aizawa was expecting form an 8 years old child in the middle of a hospital.

"You are one of those right? You helped my friend Eri after all!" The annoying boy said with a big, awfully bright smile.

An airy laugh escaped Shouta's mouth as he stood up and ruffled the kid's hair, coping his student's former action.

"I'm nothing this noble, I'm just doing my job" he simply replied and started walking away.

"That's still admirable" he could faintly hear the kid's statement from afar.

Kids these days, were did they learn to talk like that?

Being an underground hero had it's peaks, like being able to go out in the daylight without being harassed by fans, or your quirk being unknown for most villains you encounter, which works for your advantage in a fight.

But this, they never get admired by the people. They never get praised or noticed for their hard work like normal heros do. So seeing that they were still doing something important, something worth risking your life for, getiting reminded of that even when it's once or twice, it's a very warm feeling.

*****

Aizawa took the elevator, just because he was feeling too lazy to use the stairs. He was maybe feeling a little worried about Eri too. It could really be just her getting lost, but she was still recovering from her psychological trauma and he didn't want anything, no matter how trivial, to trigger her bad memories. And because he didn't know exactly what happened to her in the past, he just had to be wary of everything and keep a close eye.

Yes, it was only because he was lazy, not because he was stopping at every floor to look for the girl, not at all.

But he didn't find the girl.

At the end, he gave up and decided to leave it to his student, he clearly knew what he was doing.

Aizawa decided then to head back to the ICU. Now that he chose not to involve Eri, he needed to think of a way to carry out dr. Matsuda's recommendation. Maybe it's time to try to investigate the child's origin, who knows, it may help them find a hint to solve this problem.

Hearing the ting of the elevator declaring that he has arrived to his destined floor, he got off and started heading to the room.

Uneasiness started crawling up his heart, and that feeling turned into horror when he saw the door he made sure to close before leaving, wide open.

"But it's not over, heros, remember, we will be back, we always make sure to retrieve what is rightfully ours"

Shit!! Don't tell me...!!