Heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains

Chapter twelve

I turned to the other man on the roof, hoping that the darkness hid the expression that was on my face.

He wants to... teach me...?

A million thoughts whirled through my head as I stared at the pro hero across from, none of which were good. In the end, one thing became impossibly clear:

He's only willing to help me because he doesn't know that I'm worthless.

"Why are you trying to help me?" I asked, truly not understanding. Even if he wasn't trying to actively catch me, he has no reason to help me like this. I don't understand his motive. "You don't even know me."

The man sighed tiredly, a habit he and I seemed to share all too much. "Do I need a reason to help you?" He asked, his voice seemingly it's normal monotone.

"Everyone has a reason for everything that they do," I responded callously.

"Maybe I just don't want to see a kid die," Eraserhead said calmly, but there was a dangerous undertone there.

I felt my body go statue still, freezing up as if it was never capable of movement in the first place.

Death. It was something that I was all too familiar with in my life, finding myself close to it almost every time I entered a classroom or left the house at night... Every time that I stand on a rooftop and remind myself how much it would hurt my mother, Eri and Shinso if I did the one thing that I wanted to do while up there. Maybe he didn't want to see me die, but I still kinda did.

"I..." but even with all of those thoughts flooding through my brain, all of the complicated emotions attached to them, "okay. Where do we start?"

—-

Aizawa POV

I took the kid to the skate park, the stone slopes were high enough to teach him how to move properly without the chances of him getting more than a broken arm. We stood on top of one of the middle slopes, a thing not much taller than that of the boy's waist. I watched the way that he stood there, standing on the very edge of the concrete slope. If a strong wind came across the boy right now, there'd be nothing to stop him from falling right off.

He looks so... serene.

The look on the kid's face was one of someone that didn't seem to really care that he could fall at any moment, that he could get hurt. It wasn't the look that a child should be wearing.

"So now what?" The kid asked, his eyes still closed as a small breeze ruffled his hair, leaning the boy forward just a bit.

I took a moment to reconsider teaching the boy this lesson given his current behavior, but decided to go with it anyway. "You fall," I told him simply, "and roll when you do."

The kid nodded before setting into motion. Without showing any hesitation, the green hooded kid jumped off of the ledge with all of the grace of a bird taking flight. He fell to the ground, his body already in the motion to roll. The kid did a side roll, landing with one leg kneeling while the other looked ready to kick off the ground at any moment.

I couldn't stop the wave of shock that moved through my body at the sight. As with everything else so far, the kid was much too proficient at this movement.

I wasn't expecting for him to fail, but this... this is too much.

If the kid had the build of a skater, I would've thought that he picked up the move that way, but there wasn't an ounce of muscle on the boy's body to suggest that.

So why...

"Was I supposed to land like that?" The boy asked, just loud enough for me to hear. There was enough uncertainty in the kid's tone that you'd think he was about to be expelled. "I'm used to being pushed down a lot, so I learned to roll and land in a way that I could run right after." The kid started mumbling, over-explaining himself.