Interlude 4: Sus vs Hobo

|An hour later…|

…

After the sudden visit to class 1-A, Vlad King told Suzaku to stay at school for a while more and wait for Aizawa outside of the class, as he apparently had just been issued a sparring match with class 1-A's homeroom teacher.

Suzaku took a bit to remember the man's identity, as his unkemptness didn't translate that well to real life and made it hard for him to recognize him at first. However, after hearing Vlad-sensei mention his name, and associating it with being in class 1-A, Suzaku eventually understood that the hobo-looking teacher was none other than the guy from the show with the power to block Quirks with his eyes.

When he recalled that, he also remembered that the guy had great expertise in hand-to-hand combat, as it was his only asset to take down villains aside from his Quirk-deactivating eyes.

When that fact dawned on him, Suzaku felt a bit of curiosity arise from within him.

He couldn't help but wonder how strong would the class 1-A teacher be when compared to that senile old man who called himself his master.

As such, he ultimately followed Vlad King's instructions to stay for a while more at school, wanting to know how strong a hero so focused on martial arts such as Aizawa would be.

Besides, aside from taking naps and maybe visiting underground fighting clubs to make money every now and then, there wasn't anything else Suzaku had to do after leaving school.

…

Well, maybe studying, but that could wait.

-Sssap!-

Suddenly, as Suzaku was getting lost in thought, the sound of the class door opening reached his ears and broke him out of his thoughts.

"Alright, I'll see you all at Ground Beta" A voice came from inside, and immediately after that, Aizawa stepped out while wearing a tired expression.

"...?"

However, the moment he stepped out, he noticed Suzaku. Shooting the sus teenager a raised eyebrow in confusion, before deadpanning as he muttered "Oh" as if he had remembered why he was there.

"Right, you were here… Do you have your hero costume with you?"

Suzaku nodded as he lifted a bag with the number 21 on it, which had his costume inside.

"Great, put it on and meet me at Ground Beta," Aizawa gave Suzaku a curt nod, before turning around and leaving, not bothering to say anything else on the matter or give any instructions.

Suzaku simply looked at his departing back with a raised eyebrow.

'Talk about going straight to the point'

Still, he didn't think much about it and immediately began walking in the direction of the training ground once again.

However, he didn't get too far, as a certain voice called out to him not long after.

"Suzuki-kun!"

"...?"

When Suzaku turned around, he saw the running guy—Ida, sprinting out of his classroom to meet him.

And, as soon as he approached, the guy offered him a strangely formal handshake.

"It's good to see you again"

"Uh, yeah" Suzaku accepted the handshake, a bit confused by being greeted so suddenly, but still accepting it out of politeness.

"May I ask why you are visiting our classroom? You see, I am the class representative, so I must be aware of everything that happens in my class in order to provide a good level of care and administration to my classmates" Ida said as he adjusted his glasses with two fingers.

"That so?" Suzaku asked, not very impressed. "I'm just gonna be sparring with your teacher for a bit, that's all"

"Sparring?" Ida asked, a bit confused by such a term appearing in a hero school.

"Well, since he is apparently good at fighting hand to hand, my homeroom teacher thought he would be a good opponent for me to practice a bit… You know, for the sports festival thingy"

"Aizawa-sensei?" Ida asked more to himself than Suzaku as he grabbed his chin in deep thought. "I haven't seen him fight, so I don't know what to tell you. The only thing I know is that his Quirk lets him deactivate others by looking at them"

"Yeah, I figured as much" Suzaku said, rolling his eyes from behind his glasses. "Though, I doubt he will be able to deactivate mine"

"What do you—"

Before Ida could ask further, another voice came from a little bit away from them, catching their attention. "Oh, so you were here Ida, and you are also here Suzuki-kun!"

"That's me…" Suzaku said out of reflex, before turning to look at the owner of the voice and seeing the gravity—uh, Uraraka approaching them with a smile, together with Midoriya who was walking by her side with a nervous smile.

Once the two approached, Uraraka shot a curious gaze at Suzaku as she put her finger on her lips. "I saw you were being dragged by your teacher earlier during class, what was all that about?"

"My teacher asked yours to spar with me" Suzaku replied nonchalantly.

Uraraka tilted her head, evidently confused as Ida had been earlier about the term. "Spar?"

Midoriya, on the other hand, looked more surprised than anything. "You want to take Aizawa-sensei in a fight?!"

Suzaku shrugged. "Can't I?"

"Wait, we are talking about Aizawa-sensei here! His Quirk Erasure not only will block your usage to your Quirk, but he is also an expert martial artist—"

Suzaku interrupted Midoriya midsentence. "Yeah, I know that already, that's why I came here in the first place"

"Eh?" Midoriya exclaimed perplexed.

Suzaku smiled while he crossed his arms, "You know, I'm somewhat of a martial artist myself…" before then looking in the direction where Aizawa had left. "...And it seems like the only person in this school who has enough skill to spar with me is your teacher"

Midoriya fell silent at that. The confidence that Suzaku was radiating overwhelmed him a bit. 

In a way, he was similar to his "friend" Kacchan, who ever since he was a kid was also brimming with confidence in his every action and future.

However, Suzaku's confidence seemed a bit different, being just a little bit away from the thin line that would turn it into arrogance. Or at least, that's what it seemed to the green-haired kid.

After all, the redhead was planning to take on a teacher, and professional hero—someone who constantly fought with their life on the line—of all things, all while still being but a simple teenager. If that wasn't arrogance, then he didn't know what it was.

Still, the fact that Suzaku was the one who ranked first on the practical exam kept him from saying anything. He didn't know his Quirk either, so that was another factor that would affect the result of a fight between him and Aizawa.

Nevertheless, he didn't think it was very probable he would be able to defeat Aizawa. After all, for Midoriya, pro heroes were still a faraway existence from what he and his classmates were at the moment.

And to think that Suzaku, a seemingly normal teenager like himself would be able to reach that level while still being his same age, was not something Midoriya wanted to even consider.

And he didn't, as Suzaku, oblivious to the shy teenager's thoughts, cut his train of thought immediately after.

"Well, enough chitchat, let's go to the training grounds. I still have to change into my hero suit" Suzaku said as he showed them the box with his costume.

At that, the three of them gave the box a small glance, curious about how the costume of someone from the opposite class would look like, before they noticed the rest of their class leaving for the training ground, and nodded at Suzaku, all of them leaving not long after.

…

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|A few minutes later, at the boys changing room…|

…

"Woah man, you're shredded!"

As Suzaku was changing into his hero costume, someone near him spoke up, causing him to turn around to see who had talked.

"...?"

When he did, he was met with a muscular teenager with red spiky hair staring at him with awed eyes.

'Who was this guy again?' Suzaku raised an eyebrow.

After arriving at Ground Beta, he entered the changing room together with the rest of the guys from class 1-A, who were there to train for the sports festival like his classmates had done earlier.

And, knowing that this was the protagonist's class, Suzaku knew that everyone there was a regular character from the show. Unfortunately, after fifteen years of living in this world, plus however many years passed after watching the anime before he died, it was a tad hard for Suzaku to remember those who hadn't left a deep enough impression on him. 

Such as the guy in front of him, for example. 

He seemed familiar, but Suzaku couldn't quite remember his name, nor what power he had.

Fortunately, the stranger was quick to introduce himself.

Seeing Suzaku look at him strangely, the teenager perked up as he remembered he had not introduced himself, before offering a handshake. "Oh, I'm Kirishima Eijiro, by the way. You can call me Kirishima if you want" 

Suzaku returned the handshake "Suzaku Suzuki, you can just call me Suzaku though"

"You're from class 1-B, right?" Kirishima asked, turning to look at Izuku as he did so. "Midoriya told me"

Suzaku nodded, it wasn't supposed to be a secret anyway.

Then, someone else stepped up. It was a blond guy with a black lightning bolt-like mark on his hair. "Is it true that you're fighting Aizawa-sensei, then?!"

Suzaku nodded again. "Yeah, as training for the sports festival" Putting on a piece of his hero costume as he talked.

"You do know that he can deactivate Quirks, right?" The same guy asked, looking at Suzaku with a bit of disbelief. "Whatever Quirk you have, you'll be done the moment he puts his eyes on you"

Suzaku simply nodded, before looking at the guy and pointing at his glasses.

"I don't know if he will be able to deactivate mine, though"

"Huh?" Both the guy and Kirishima blurted, confused by his gesture.

Ida, who was also in the same room but a bit away from them, also turned to look at the young impostor when he heard that, curious as he remembered he had said something similar earlier.

Their confusion, however, was solved instantly when Suzaku started morphing his glasses into their zoom mode, bulging the lenses forward.

"Uwah, what the hell?!" Kirishima was startled by the strange ability.

"What kind of Quirk is that?!" The blond guy asked, astonished by what he had thought were simple eyeglasses until then.

Suzaku lifted up the hair above his ears, showing them the part of his glasses that connected to his head with a smile. "I doubt he will be able to erase this"

"Oh, it's like Jiro's…" The blond guy looked at the glasses curiously as he massaged his chin. "Do they have a special ability of sorts?" 

"Who knows?" Suzaku didn't say much, it was better to preserve the element of surprise while he still could, especially when considering that these guys were gonna be his opponents in the sports festival.

Though, if he had wanted to preserve the element of surprise, maybe he shouldn't have told them his Quirk had something to do with his glasses in the first place.

'Well, whatever… I already spilled the beans. Besides, it's not that bad of an issue, I can just mislead them later into thinking that my glasses are my main offensive point, just like I did with Ibara and Sen' Suzaku thought as he smiled deviously. 

After he was done planning how to bamboozle the guys from class 1-A—and the rest of his classmates while he was at it—Suzaku finished putting on his armor and left only his helmet on the box, planning to fight Aizawa without it this time, as he needed his vision to be fully clear considering that Aizawa seemed to be the agile type.

Then, just as he was about to leave the room, a violent voice called out to him. "Oi, red-haired bastard!" 

"...?"

Upon hearing the voice, Suzaku sweatdropped as he glanced behind him with a deadpan. 'This guy again…?' 

And sure enough, not long after, the familiar face of the explosive kid with anger issues appeared from the other side of the room and approached him with heavy steps.

"What?" Suzaku asked with an annoyed face as he watched Bakugo approach.

"You said you're training for the sports festival, right?!" The blonde asked, a vein visibly sprouting on the side of his forehead as he looked at Suzaku.

"Yeah, what about it?"

Bakugo smirked sinisterly once he arrived in front of Suzaku. "Last time at the cafeteria you got away because teachers were watching us… However, at the sports festival, it will be different… Since it's a competition, no one will be there to help you next time!"

In front of the threat, Suzaku rolled his eyes and lifted his hand to Bakugo's face level, opening and closing it as if imitating a mouth with it. "Too much yapping, if you are so confident, shut it and prove it with actions"

That seemed to have triggered Bakugo, who angrily grabbed Suzaku's collar and pointed his finger at him. "I'll destroy you!"

Fortunately, before a fight started, his classmates pulled the blonde away from the redhead.

"Why are you so angry, Bakugo?!" Kirishima said perplexed as he tried his best to hold the irascible teenager back.

"Hands off me, you damn side character! I must teach this cocky guy lesson!"

"Woah, Bakugo is acting more rabid than usual… What did the guy from the other class do to him?" A black-haired guy with tape dispenser-like organs on his elbows said as he looked at the pair with a wry smile from the other side of the room.

His expression, however, changed pretty quickly when Ida, who was just a few meters away from him, answered his question.

"Bakugo-san is angered at Suzuki-kun because he took the first place from him"

When he finished speaking, the whole room fell into silence for a moment.

Only for the entire room to get engulfed in turmoil after that.

"Eeeeeh!?"

"He is the first place?!"

"He?!"

"You are lying!"

"...!"

Kirishima almost let Bakugo go when he heard that, due to the surprise. "He is?!"

Immediately after that, the entire room's eyes fell on the sus teenager, with everyone having their own thoughts about the information they had just received.

"Shut up, you damn four-eyes!!!" Bakugo, on the other hand, seemed to become even more furious when Ida revealed why he was so hostile towards Suzaku.

Suzaku, however, didn't care much about the whole class's shock.

"Well, if that's all, I'm leaving"

After saying that, he nodded at the bunch, and sent a cocky smile towards Bakugo, before opening the door and leaving not long after.

-Clang!-

As the door closed behind him, however, he didn't notice a certain student with half-red and half-white hair looking at him with squinted eyes.

'So he is the first place, huh…? It will be useful to see how he fights against the teacher'

…

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|A few minutes later…|

… 

After leaving the changing room, Suzaku walked to the entrance of Ground Beta and began looking around for the worn-out-looking teacher who had told him to find him there.

Fortunately, it didn't take him much to find him, as once he arrived at the zone, he was immediately able to recognize the man's tired figure in the distance.

'There he is…' Suzaku thought before he began walking towards the man at a calm pace.

When the teacher finally noticed Suzaku's approaching figure, he turned to look at him with a blank expression before scoffing slightly. "Finally here, huh? You sure took your sweet time" 

"You didn't specify much about the time, plus your students were quite chatty," Suzaku said without any particular expression as he stopped a few meters from Aizawa.

"Is that so? I guess that's my fault then, I'll have to teach them not to waste their time when they should be training" Aizawa said, as he put on his visors, and got into a fighting stance. "Now, get ready, I don't have all day"

Suzaku nodded and took his stance as well. This time, though, it looked much more firm when compared to the one that he showed Tetsutetsu.

It was evident that this time Suzaku was going serious.

As both took their fighting stances, Suzaku's eyes quickly began analyzing his opponent.

'My memory is finally doing its job' Suzaku thought as a smile appeared on his face.

The first thing that caught his attention was the strange scarf-like bandages that enveloped Aizawa's neck. 

At first, he thought they were just part of his hero suit and held no special purpose during combat. However, when he saw them start moving as if they had a life of their own, faint memories of Aizawa using them began emerging in his brain. Both from when he used them to restrain the students, and when he used them in his fight against villains.

'It might as well be called a Quirk on its own…' Suzaku's eyes squinted faintly as he glared at the binding cloth and assessed all of its possible uses from his memories and what he was seeing at the moment.

Restraining enemies, grabbing objects from afar, or acting as a long-ranged weapon, plus its functionality as a grappling hook by pulling oneself in whichever direction one wanted as long as there was something to grab… Its uses were so diverse that Suzaku almost started to want one for himself.

'I wonder if I should ask for one…' Suzaku massaged his chin in silence.

However, he was broken out of his thoughts when, after a while of staring at each other and not moving, Aizawa frowned and spoke with annoyance in his voice. "If you are going to stand there doing nothing all day, then we should just call this spar off… I only accepted because Kan looked like he needed my help, but if this is as far as your skill goes, I'm not wasting my time"

Suzaku frowned a little at that. For some reason, he felt like Aizawa had something against him. Still, he remembered that the guy was pretty moody in the show, so he just shrugged it off as his imagination.

"Sorry, I was checking up on a few things…" Suzaku said, before taking out his staff from the compartment on the back of his suit, and spinning it around as if preparing for combat. "I'll be starting now"

"..." Aizawa didn't say anything, but simply stiffened, as if waiting for the attack to come soon.

And come it did.

-Bam!-

The next second, Suzaku kicked the ground and shot rapidly toward the teacher, his figure being barely visible to the naked eye.

Unfortunately, Aizawa's eyes were everything but untrained.

Before Suzaku could get too close, Aizawa's binding cloth shot quickly in Suzaku's direction, attempting to grab onto his ankle.

"...!"

Suzaku, fortunately, was fast to react, and in a hurry twisted his body to dodge the bandages' grip, evading the capturing weapon by just a mere hair's breadth, and continuing with his sprint as soon as he found himself out of danger.

The binding cloth, however, was not a weapon that would become useless after simply missing its objective once.

Like a snake, the bandages recoiled, before changing directions and shooting straight towards Suzaku's running figure like a bullet, following closely from behind.

"How the heck does it move like that?" When he saw Aizawa's weapon catching up fast with him, Suzaku clicked his tongue and kicked the ground, changing his direction brusquely.

The shift in directions caused the bandages to lose some speed once they tried the same, thus allowing Suzaku to resume his charge against Aizawa, who upon seeing that close combat was unavoidable, retracted his binding cloth and adopted his fighting stance again, ready to engage the teenager.

However, what ended up coming was completely out of Aizawa's expectations.

-Swoosh!- 

Once within range, Suzaku's muscles tightened, and swung his staff violently at Aizawa's figure, creating a sharp and highly acute sound after cutting the air with it.

'What speed…!'

The speed of the attack was such, that Aizawa's eyes widened and he in a hurry twisted his own body while jumping away, dodging the powerful swing by some miracle, even though it had scratched slightly his cheek.

"...!"

The surprised expression on Aizawa's face remained, even after he made some distance from Suzaku.

Although he had seen Suzaku fight with the robots during the practical exam, being on the receiving end of his powerful and swift attacks was a completely different experience than seeing them through a screen.

Not only were his eyes barely even able to catch up, but the strength that could be felt purely through the breeze that his attacks created made Aizawa understand that not only was the redhead fast like him, but also incredibly strong.

He dared to say, that not many villains had this level of skill and power.

-Bam!-

'This kid…!'

Unfortunately, he had no time to analyze Suzaku's abilities any further, since his opponent had already shortened the distance between the two and was swinging his staff at him yet again.

-Swoosh!-

In a swift movement, Aizawa threw his head back and dodged the swing, although his chin and nose were grazed slightly by the weapon in the process.

Still, the pain in his reddened chin and the itch in the tip of his nose didn't matter to Aizawa, as that small dodge had opened a gap in Suzaku's offense.

-Swoosh!-

Making use of that small opening, Aizawa's fingers controlled the binding cloth and caused it to rapidly shoot in the direction of Suzaku's staff, twisting around it for a small moment, before then tightening in less than a second and putting it completely under Aizawa's control.

Suzaku, who was too close to Aizawa to dodge, tried his best to pull the staff away the moment he saw it being bound by Aizawa's weapon. However, before he could even try, Aizawa controlled the bandages and in a swift motion threw the staff far away, disarming Suzaku.

"Tsk…"

Seeing that now his only means of attacking from afar had been taken away, Suzaku clicked his tongue and readied his fists.

If he pulled back now, Aizawa would gain the distance advantage with his binding cloth. Therefore, if he wanted to do some damage, he had no more option but to fight from as close as he could, all while avoiding both the bandages and Aizawa's attacks.

"Let's see how you are in hand-to-hand combat, kid" As Suzaku prepared, Aizawa threw a sudden punch towards the teenager.

Normally, a teenager as young as Suzaku would have panicked after having his weapon taken away, and then being attacked.

However, to Aizawa's enthusiasm, not only did Suzaku dodge with ease his attack, but he also immediately counter-attacked with a punch of his own—No, it was actually a kick!

Barely reacting to the feint, Aizawa jumped away and avoided being kicked in the stomach.

However, Suzaku wasn't planning on letting Aizawa take even a break, as immediately after the teacher made some distance between them with his jump, the youth shot in the teacher's direction once again and began throwing quick and deceiving attacks that seemed to confuse Aizawa's faintly, causing his blocks or dodges to become a little slower.

-Thud!-

-Bam!-

-Whack!-

-Swoosh!-

"Gotcha…!"

"...?!"

Then, as Aizawa dodged what seemed to be a punch by mere inches, Suzaku's free hand suddenly grabbed the teacher's binding cloth while he was distracted, before pulling it away from his neck.

'What?!' The unexpected attack surprised Aizawa, who was not even able to grab his weapon, before Suzaku pulled it away completely, and threw it into the distance, leaving Aizawa disarmed much like himself.

Still, the erasure hero did not panic, and in a quick movement, Aizawa shot a fast kick toward Suzaku's face, one that was unfortunately dodged nevertheless.

However, his objective was not to hit him but rather to have the youth dodge.

The moment the redhead pulled his head away to dodge the kick, Aizawa made use of that opportunity and jumped away to make some distance.

This time, however, Suzaku didn't pursue him, as Aizawa had lost the binding weapon, and thus wouldn't have the distance advantage.

Instead, after seeing Aizawa retreat, he simply began walking around him, like a hunter circling around its prey.

Aizawa, however, did not feel scared, instead, a wide smile could be seen on his face as he stared at the redhead.

'This kid… Has potential…!'

…

-To be Continued…-

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(A/N: Since you looked quite pitiful in the last chapter, I decided to give you guys another one, feel grateful)