Strings (BNHA x OC) [Rewrite]

21 || Safe

Eraser Head quickly fled Tartarus, grabbing his phone from an electronic locker near the entrance.

He swiftly dialed a number into the phone and held it up to his ear. He listened to the dial tone for what felt like too long.

Pick up! he pleaded. Pick up your god damn phone, Yamada!

The phone was finally picked up, and the man on the other end, Present Mic, simply asked, "Aizawa?"

"Where's Eri?!" Eraser Head quickly demanded.

"Woah — chill out dude. She's right here with me in the dorms."

"It that Mr. Eraser? Can I say hi?" Eri's voice could be heard in the background. Hearing her, the erasure hero breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe, at least for the time being.

"Hi, Mr. Eraser!" Eri said cheerfully.

"Hi, Eri. Can you give the phone back to Mic? I really need to talk to him," he said, trying to sound as normal as possible.

"Sure, here you go!"

The voice hero came back to the phone. "What's up?"

"Get Eri and hide somewhere, now," Eraser Head ordered.

The other hero's voice held concern. "Wait, what's going on?"

"Just do it," was the stern reply, "and don't move from that spot until I call you again."

"Okay. I don't know what's going on, but okay."

With that, Eraser Head hung up and quickly made his way from the prison.

———

—34 Minutes Later—
——

Eraser Head sprinted through the gates of UA and onto the campus grounds. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary at first glance, and there were no alarms going off.

On his way back, he had called Principal Nezu, notifying him that something could possibly happen, and telling him to be prepared just in case.

Not far from the gates stood another hero, Snipe. He approached the erasure hero. "Eraser, Nezu told me to come meet you," he said. "Nothing has happened, no attacks."

Eraser Head sighed in relief. Puppet was bluffing.

"Do you have any idea where Mic and Eri are?" the erasure hero asked.

"They should still be in the dorms."

"And the students?"

"All still in their regular classes. Nothing has changed with the schedule."

Eraser Head nodded. "I'm going to the dorms," he said, then he turned and started to speedily walk towards the dorms.

——

It took him little time to make it up to the dorms. The opened the doors to the common room, and the first things—or rather people—that he saw were Present Mic and Eri. Mic was sitting on the couch and Eri was sitting on the floor, a bunch of crayons and papers in front of her.

Present Mic was first to notice the other man's presence. "Aizawa!"

Eri turned to look at the erasure hero. "Mr. Eraser! You're back!"

She ran up and hugged his leg with the biggest smile on her face.

"Oh! I drew you something!" She let go of Eraser Head's leg and ran back over to the section of the floor that was littered with paper and crayons.

She picked up a piece of paper and ran back to the erasure hero. She held up the paper for him to look at the illustration on it.

He crouched down so that he could see it better. The drawing was entirely out of crayon. Though the lines were simple, he could tell that it was a drawing of him surrounded by cats.

"Do you like it?" Eri asked cheerfully.

He reached out and ruffled her hair, and she let out a giggle. "Yeah, it looks great."

She sat back on the ground and continued to draw. Now she was drawing what seemed to be Present Mic, long lines of yellow crayon on top of a stick figures head.

Present Mic ushered his friend to the side.

"So what happened?" he asked. "I heard there might've been an attack."

Eraser Head sighed. "Puppet Master bluffed me out, said something about both you and Eri being in danger."

"Don't let her get to you dude. She's in Tartarus now — locked up tight."

The erasure hero knew that. Within the prison, she would have no contact with the rest of the League. She was securely trapped.

He rubbed his face with his hands, finally realizing how tired he was after the day's events.

"Go rest, we'll be here," Present Mic assured, putting a gentle hand on the other man's shoulder.

Eraser Head nodded. "Yeah, okay."

He said a quick goodbye to Eri before heading off to his living space.

——

After he got to his room, he flopped down into the rolling chair at his desk.

He was utterly exhausted.

He groaned in annoyance as his phone started to ring in his pocket. He pulled it from his pocket and looked down at the screen to see who could've possibly been calling him, and it was Detective Tsukauchi.

He tapped the accept call button and put the phone up to his ear.

"Yes, Tsukauchi?" he asked. "What do you need?"

"Hi, Aizawa," the detective greeted. "I'll say this: the news I'm about to tell you isn't good."

"Okay."

The erasure hero heard a heavy sigh. "Puppet Master is no longer in custody — she escaped."

At hearing that, Eraser Head jumped up from his chair. "What?" he questioned.

"She's escaped Tartarus. Cameras in the holding cell show that she had the help of the warp villain Kurogiri along with Mr. Compress. We think they found her location because she had some sort of undetectable tracker either on or in her person."

"Dammit..." Eraser Head muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I just thought I would tell you since you were the one trying so hard to get her into custody," Tsukauchi said.

The erasure hero took a deep breath to keep himself from raging. He grit his teeth. "Thanks for letting me know, Tsukauchi."

"Yeah. I'll leave you, now. We're trying to track her back down so I have to get back to that."

"Bye."

Detective Tsukauchi hung up and Eraser Head placed his phone onto his desk.

He placed his hands on the surface. There were plenty of loose papers and documents on it, along with books and writing utensils. He roughly swiped his hands to the side, throwing everything off of the desk and letting it all hit the floor.

All the efforts—all his efforts—had been for nothing. The lives lost, the blood spilled; it resulted in nothing. None of the League was in custody; each and every one of them had slipped away. Even Puppet, who had been locked in Tartarus, the most secure prison in Japan, was broken out.