My Mangekyo Sharingan Can't Save My Hero Academia: 16 A Mother's Love

[U.A. TEACHERS' LOUNGE – 8:24 PM]

The lounge was quiet.

Most teachers had gone home for the evening.

Only three remained:

Aizawa Shouta, slumped in a chair with a grading pen dangling from his hand.

Present Mic, scrolling through his computer with increasing alarm.

Midnight, pouring herself tea and trying very hard to ignore whatever chaos was unfolding online.

Then Mic's phone buzzed.

And buzzed again.

And again.

He frowned, opening Twitter.

His eyes widened.

"…Oh no."

Aizawa didn't look up from his paperwork.

"What now."

"Uh… Shouta?"

"If it's another meme about my sleeping bag, I don't care."

"It's not a meme."

"Then I really don't care."

Mic held up his phone. "One of our students just went viral."

Aizawa's pen stopped moving. Midnight set down her teacup. "…Which one?" she asked carefully.

Mic scrolled. "I don't know yet. The video's blurry. But it's definitely a U.A. uniform."

Aizawa finally looked up. "Show me." Mic turned the phone toward him. The video played.

Hooded figure. Red hair peeking out. U.A. blazer.

Manhole cover.

THUNK.

THUNK.

THUNK.

Aizawa's expression didn't change.

But his eye twitched.

Violently.

Midnight leaned over his shoulder, watching with growing horror.

"…Oh my god."

"Yeah."

"He hit him twelve times."

"I counted."

"The villain begged."

"I saw."

Aizawa set down his pen very carefully.

"Please tell me that's not one of ours."

Mic scrolled through the comments.

"Uh… the uniform checks out. U.A. blazer. Red hair. Teenager." Aizawa's other eye twitched. "Please tell me it's not Hero Course."

"Can't confirm yet. Video quality's too low to see the badge."

"Please." Mic kept scrolling.

"…There's a betting pool online. Current odds say Hero Course." Aizawa stood up. Walked to the window. Stared out at the darkening campus.

"I don't get paid enough for this."

Midnight sipped her tea.

"To be fair, the villain was wanted in four prefectures."

"That's not the point."

"And he did save Sentinel's life."

"Still not the point."

"And technically, no Quirk laws were broken—"

Aizawa turned around slowly.

His eyes glowed red.

His hair floated.

"Nemuri."

She held up her hands.

"Just saying."

Aizawa deactivated his Quirk, slumping back into his chair.

"If this kid is in my class, I'm retiring."

"Most likely. The closest match I remember is KIRISHIMA."

Mic scrolled further.

"Uh… Shouta?"

"What."

"Someone just posted a close-up screenshot. You can see part of the uniform badge."

Aizawa's soul left his body.

"…What color?"

Mic zoomed in.

Squinted.

"…Gray."

Silence.

Aizawa blinked.

"…Gray?"

"Yeah. Gray badge. Which means—"

"General Studies."

All three teachers exhaled in perfect unison.

"Oh thank god," Midnight muttered.

"Not my problem," Aizawa said, relief flooding his voice.

Mic grinned.

"Man, imagine if he was Hero Course though. You'd have had to expel him."

"I would've expelled him twice."

"Can you do that?"

"I'd find a way."

Midnight smirked. "Poor General Studies teacher. They're going to have a field day tomorrow."

Aizawa picked up his pen again. "Not my circus. Not my monkeys. I wish them a happy Catastrophe."

___

[HINOHARA GENERAL HOSPITAL – AIKO POV – 8:41 PM]

Room 406 was dim.

The only light came from the muted TV playing a rerun of some old hero documentary.

Aiko lay on her side, back braced, legs partially elevated—doctor’s orders.

Most of her day was pain, paperwork, pain meds, and more pain.

Tonight was no different.

Her phone buzzed on the bedside table.

She ignored it.

It buzzed again.

Still ignored.

Third time—long and violent.

She groaned, reached over with effort that pulled at her stitches, and grabbed it.

Missed Call: Yoruichi (Sentinel)

Missed Call x2

Voicemail x1

Text from Nurse Emi: "Akutami-sensei, you're trending???"

Aiko frowned.

"…Trending for what. I'm not even working."

She opened the text.

A link.

She tapped it.

The video loaded. A hooded boy. U.A. blazer. Red hair. Holding a manhole cover. 'Hmm. Hold on. Is that ..'

Her eyes quickly caught Yuta. What was her son doing on the news? Why was his hair red?

Her stomach dropped before the first hit landed.

THUNK.

Aiko blinked.

"…That sounded heavy."

THUNK.

"…He lifted that?"

THUNK. THUNK.

She slowly sat up in bed, ignoring the sharp protest from her spine.

"Why is he hitting him so many—oh my god—"

THUNK.

Aiko clutched her forehead.

"That's my child. That's my actual biological child."

The groin hit played.

Aiko winced so hard her stitches hurt.

"YUTA—WHY—YOU CAN'T JUST—"

She fumbled for the phone, replayed the video, paused it, zoomed in on the hooded figure.

Same build. Same posture she'd seen at the dinner table a thousand times.

"No. No no no—"

She unpaused.

THUNK. THUNK.

By the eighth hit, she had covered her face with one hand.

By the twelfth, she had disconnected spiritually from the physical plane.

When the video ended, she sat in silence for a full ten seconds.

Then whispered: "…I raised a criminal."

Her phone buzzed again.

A message from Yoruichi:

YORUICHI: Aiko please don't be mad. He saved my life.

She typed back with shaking hands:

AIKO: I AM NOT MAD.

AIKO: I AM HORRIFIED.

AIKO: FOLLOWED BY MAD.

A notification popped up:

HeroNews24: "Breaking: Unidentified U.A. Student Subdues Villain in Hinohara. Public Applauds."

Aiko stared at it.

"…Unidentified. That's the only good news I've had all week."

Another notification:

Trending #4 in Japan: #ManholeHero

"…I'm going to die."

She scrolled through the comments.

@SomeDad: My son asked if this was legal. I said no. He said it should be.

@HeroWatcher: Twelve hits. TWELVE. That's not self-defense that's a GRUDGE.

@FuturePro: This kid's going places. Probably jail, but places.

She shifted—too fast—her stitches tugging sharp and deep. A quiet hiss escaped her. Aiko dropped the phone onto her lap.

A passing nurse doing the night rounds  saw her distress and rushed in.

"Akutami-sensei? Are you okay? Do you need pain medication?"

Aiko stiffened at the appearance of Nurse Emi. “No—well—yes—but not the medical kind.”

Emi's surprise was soon followed with understanding.

"Did you .. see it?"

Aiko pointed helplessly at her phone.

"My son just beat a villain with city infrastructure."

"Are you ok?"

"Physically, I've been through worse. Emotionally .."

"He—" The nurse gestured at the screen. "He saved Sentinel! If it helps."

"By committing assault."

"The villain was wanted in four prefectures—"

"I don't care if he was wanted in forty prefectures!" Aiko's voice cracked slightly. "That's my baby hitting a grown man in the—" She gestured vaguely. "—the unmentionables!"

The nurse bit her lip, clearly trying not to laugh.

"Sensei… do you… need anything?"

Aiko slumped back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling.

"Do you have anything for maternal humiliation?"

"…We have chamomile tea?"

Aiko closed her eyes.

"Bring two."

The nurse nodded and hurried out

.

Aiko picked up her phone again.

Dialed Yuta's number.

It rang. Once. Twice. Three times. Voicemail.

"Hey, it's Yuta. Leave a message." Her jaw tightened. She tried again.

Voicemail. Again. Voicemail.

She tossed the phone onto the bed and dragged both hands down her face.

"He's ignoring me."

The TV flickered.

She looked up.

The news had switched to a breaking report.

A blonde anchor with too-white teeth smiled at the camera.

"—and in local news tonight, dramatic footage out of Hinohara as an unidentified U.A. High School student intervenes in a violent villain attack—"

The video played again.

THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.

Aiko grabbed the remote and muted it.

But she couldn't look away.

Her son—her son—moved with precision. Efficiency. No hesitation.

The same focus she'd tried to teach him when he was learning to ride a bike.

Except now he was using it to beat a man unconscious. The camera angle wasn't good enough. If it was, she would have seen the look in his eyes. Maybe understood that he had gone through more than prompted to that very situation tonight.

But it wasn't.

Hence this was all she saw.

She watched the villain beg.

Watched Yuta not stop.

Watched Sentinel—Yoruichi—step back and just… let it happen.

"Yoruichi," she muttered, "I'm going to kill you."

Her phone buzzed again.

She grabbed it.

YORUICHI: In my defense, I was bleeding out. And I didn't know it was your kid.

AIKO: NOT AN EXCUSE.

YORUICHI: He said he took javelin classes???

AIKO: HE TOOK ONE SUMMER COURSE WHEN HE WAS TWELVE.

YORUICHI: Well it clearly stuck.

Aiko resisted the urge to throw her phone across the room.

The nurse returned with two cups of chamomile tea.

Aiko took on

e, drained half of it in a single gulp, and set it down.

"I need you to do me a favor."

The nurse nodded. "Of course, Sensei. Anything."

Aiko pointed at the TV. "If my son shows up on the news again tonight, unplug it."

"…Understood."

"And if anyone asks if I'm related to the 'Manhole Hero,' tell them I died three months ago."

The nurse's lips twitched.

"Sensei—"

"I'm serious."