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Aizawa looked up at the clock as the 18+ Only Hero tried to silence the unruly gathering of teenagers before her. Midnight was having none of their impudence and she raised her voice, slashing through the air with the leather whip she carried with her at all times.
"She'll be here soon and you'll know what we're doing then!"
"Are you anxious for some reason, Eraser?" Cementoss murmured quietly. If any of them interrupted Midnight she would be sure to turn on them.
"No," Aizawa muttered in annoyance. "I'm waiting. Cheshire has one minute before she is late." He tore his eyes off the clock with some difficulty and mindfully slowed his breathing. He knew what her costume looked like from her dossier. It was nothing special, he told himself, breathing deep and even. Everyone around him thought he was just doing what he always did - napping whenever he could. In reality, he was trying to still his illogically rapid heartbeat. The young people were as excited as he was, raising hands left and right. Midnight had everything to do to calm them down and answer as many questions as possible.
Finally she had enough. "Quiet, already! She's going to be here, and you don't want to make a bad first impression." She slapped her cat-o-nine-tails to the side in a brisk motion, cutting through the babble. To her right in the classroom seating, Mineta had fallen over and was quite literally foaming at the mouth at the prospect of another female teacher entering the room. She sighed and rolled her eyes, turning just as Tsyu slapped him into sensibility with her tongue.
The door opened during the momentary pause and everyone's eyes fell on Elly in her hero outfit. She wore a soft cloth bodysuit, striped just like her tail in varying purple tones. The belly was white and there were white tufts along her wrists, ankles and about the modest dip in cleavage down the front of the suit. Her feet and hands looked just like cat paws, with soft, rubbery pads on each finger tip and along the toes and heels of her feet. She also sported what appeared to be a respirator type mask to cover her mouth and nose, the bottom half shaped disturbingly like the cheshire cat's curving grin. Aizawa concentrated on the pattern of cracks on the ceiling. To add to his list of irrational ailments, his stomach had tensed into a hard knot.
Mic whistled softly. "Cute." He snickered when he felt his friend's hair starting to rise up beside him. That simple praise had pissed the man off enough for him to lose control.
Elly's ear flicked, but she said nothing. She just smiled at the students and waited for her introduction. She chuckled when the green-haired kid in the second row blurted out her name, though, seeing at least someone knew who she was. Midnight formally introduced her, and she went about the task of stating why she was there - mainly to help broaden their view on their own abilities, and how the different countries viewed heroes and their quirks. She pursed her lips and looked back at the teachers behind her. "I'd spoken to the principal about this, but wasn't sure if you'd heard - before we get into my abilities, I wanted to show them first."
"You want to have a flag match with one of the staff." Midnight and the others already knew. Nezu had told them, but they hadn't chose who would fight.
A tall young man in the back raised his hand. "Excuse me - what's a flag match?"
"Each person fighting wears something like a bandanna..." Midnight reached into her sleeve and produced two medium-sized pieces of cloth, one red and one blue. "The goal is to take the other's cloth. It's an easy way to spar without a lot of injuries."
"We used it a lot during mock battles in the States," Elly confessed. "Before we got into serious ones. And sometimes just for fun." She shrugged, and the Erasure Hero quickly looked away at the gentle sway this caused in her modest cleavage.
Midnight saw this, and her eyes narrowed slyly. "I think Eraser should fight her," she suggested.
Elly raised a single eyebrow. "Eraserhead?" She asked quietly.
"I'll do it," Aizawa stepped in. He loosened some of the scarves about his neck, his face determined.
"Fine with me."
They started to head into the recently renovated battle arena, the students milling about behind them as they filed out. Mic pulled Aizawa aside before they got there, just as Elly and Midnight walked into the huge doors. "Don't hurt her," he told him seriously.
"Who says I would." He grunted, brushed sleep from his eyes and yawned. "Besides, she can handle it. She's a pro hero, remember?"
Mic shook his head. "You get out of control proving a point sometimes." He swerved to the left to watch, moving away as the two squared off.
Elly seemed relaxed, although her tail was swishing lightly behind her. Aizawa liked cats, and he knew this meant she was agitated. Good. She would be off her game slightly, and that meant he had the advantage. He waited until everyone was settled, and held his arm out for the cloth to be tied on it, just as she did. The other teachers stepped away again and Mic jumped to his feet and stood on the sidelines.
"Alright!" He called out in the familiar role of announcer. "First person to take the other's cloth wins!" He paused, then took a deep breath. "Are you ready?" He squealed, his voice rising as it always did on the last word. "Go!"
Elly didn't even move. Aizawa's hair began to rise as it did when he used his power. She couldn't see his eyes since he'd already donned the glasses he wore, but she knew they would be glowing red. Yet all she said was, "So, Eraser... are you afraid of anything?"
"No," he said shortly, opening wide to stare at - nothing. There was nothing there. He stopped short. That had been fast! He spun, surveying the area as his wrappings came about, dropping now that he had no target.
"It's funny," a disembodied voice whispered eerily out of thin air to his left. "So many people tell me that, you know." He aimed at the voice and tried to at least snap what he couldn't see with his scarves. No luck. He listened, straining to pick up any sound that might clue him in on her location. "Surprise," she murmured, suddenly right beside him. One paw came up, and there was a glimmer of metal. It was a small scratch, hardly noticeable, and very, very fast. She was gone before he had time to react, melted into nothingness again and lost somewhere within the huge arena.
This went on for awhile. Mic was unusually quiet, as interested in this as everyone else. In fact, there wasn't much he could have said. Nothing happened. The only sounds were Aizawa's breathing, which was getting rougher, and faint whooshing sounds as he desperately tried to catch her. He tried everything, sounding off objects nearby, flicking his scarves out randomly in the hopes he would find her. Nothing worked and he was finally resorted to taunts.
"What's the matter, kitten?" He called out, hunching low and spinning slowly in a circle. She could be creeping up on him at any moment. "Scared of direct confrontation?"
"Not at all."
Damn it! There was nothing that explained his aiming at her voice and failing, except... his eyes narrowed. That was it. "Isn't the cheshire cat insane? Your method of fighting makes no logical sense!"
"I assure you, Aizawa Shota, it makes perfect sense." She purred where one might assume she did, causing him to groan inwardly and try to stifle the butterflies it gave him in his stomach at the same time. But he was ready.
"There." He jumped backwards and this time caught something when his wrappings spun out to the left of where he heard her. Elly appeared within a loop of scarf, her mask making her appear more fierce than the tone of her voice.
"Cheshire is caught!" Mic yelped, pointing rather unnecessarily and then flailing about in a display of mixed emotions. "Did he guess where she was? She's caught, and no one gets out of those wrappings!"
"I thought you knew, Eraser," she hissed dangerously as he yanked her close enough to grab the winning cloth. "Cats like to play with string."
"What - wait, what's going on?" Mic was as confused as the rest of the students and staff. Instead of ensuring his victory, Aizawa reached up and pulled his glasses up onto his head. "He's showing his eyes? What's happening here?"
"You don't know her fighting style, do you," Midnight stated smugly.
"But..." He stared closely at the scene unfolding in front of everyone. Aizawa's scarves reared up, in a strange display no one had seen before. The wrappings covered the top halves of their bodies. "Is he going for the win?"
Aizawa felt the rush of victory when he snagged her in the cloth. He had been right - her singing the other night, the sultry tones of her voice - he shook himself, snapping his mind back to the business at hand. She knew how to throw it. It had been the only logical conclusion, and he had a fifty-fifty chance when he had heard her speak. He'd been lucky, but he had found out her trick and she would lose when he took off the cloth on her arm. He reeled her in, his heart racing even faster. She was tied up, close enough for him to touch. Close enough for him to do anything else he wanted, really.
Stop being an idiot! He slapped his forehead sharply, hoping to clear his mind. It wasn't like him to think that way, especially not during a fight. He took everything seriously, and it was his job to teach those teenagers ...
Teenagers. That was it. If Aizawa had come close to any feeling of giddiness, it had been when he was a teenager in this very high school. He had absolutely hated puberty. His hormones had caused the most horrible, surging emotions to flood him with - with...
He froze, his hand touching the bandanna but not moving.
...with the feelings he felt now. Hell, if anything, it was stronger now. Confused, he whirled the scarves around, letting her go and using them to cover them both.
The shockingly loud cat scream that echoed throughout the arena seemed to back Present Mic's theory that Eraser was going to win. But Elly disappeared and just as fast reappeared close to the staff, clutching Eraser's cloth and noticeably upset. Her ears were flat on her head and she was hissing. Aizawa, however, appeared eerily calm. He had that creepy grin on his face that he sometimes sported when he thought he'd outwitted someone. His lip was bleeding.
"What happened?" Midnight gasped.
"He kissed me!" Elly tried to keep her voice down but she hadn't realized one of the girls in Aizawa's class had a better hearing range than most.
"Mr. Aizawa what?!" Jiro was so shocked she didn't even realize she yelped out loud. The others in their class pressed her for details but she just stared, a blush burning her cheeks.
"Eraser, what the hell -" Mic had walked over to his friend and was waving one hand in front of his oddly blank eyes. "Uh, guys? He's like, out."
"Time will take care of that, right Cheshire?" Cementoss had wandered over and professionally peeled one of the lanky man's eyes back. "He's drugged. Your signature move, if I recall correctly."
"Yeah." Elly sighed, tail lashing wildly about as she thought what a fabulous first day this was.
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