Chapter 31

(a/n: GUESS WHAT! WE'RE BACK! And I know that it says January 2nd in the announcement but 3rd was the actual date....typos suck.)

Aizawa POV

It was well after school and all of us teachers and main staff members were currently in a staff meeting. One day a week we all get together and discuss plans for the learning activities. It's boring and I honestly don't see the point. UA Highschool is supposed to have a flexible system so that teachers can teach however they want as long as it's within guidelines, so meetings like this are practically meaningless in my opinion.

We were going over the usual, we should do this or we should do that, when suddenly a small alarm tone rang from Nezu's computer. He excused himself as he checked his screen and his eyes widened slightly, "Mic, Midnight, Eraserhead come with me."

Confused, I raised my left brow, but still obliged. Once the door closed, the mouse principal climbed up and rested himself within my scarf.

Checking his phone, Nezu stated, "We must make haste to the dorms, we'll talk on the way."

"Why do we gotta do that? What are we doing anyway?" Mic asked with a shrug.

"I have my office computer as well as my phone connected to the gear Alex wears to notify me if they take it off without authorization. If it happens, the choker sends me an exact location of where they are. Simple really-"

I rolled my eyes and quickened my pace, "Let me guess the problem child took it off?"

Nezu nodded, "Though only the bracelet, the choker is still on and they don't seem to be moving so tazing won't be necessary, we just need to get over there soon as possible."

Understanding the situation, we all nodded and ran over quickly to the dorms. Thankfully, no one was in the common room cause 1. That would be awkward, and 2. It would just be another thing for us to explain which I am not in the mood for right now.

We finally started coming up on the location as we saw Kirishima outside Bakugou's dorm room, pacing with a concerned look on his face.

"Kirishima, what's going on?" I asked in a harsh tone.

He seemed to notice us and flinched at my words, "I- um I-"

"Do not worry Kirishima, we only want to know what is going on. I got a notification that Alex removed their cancelation bracelet and we are very concerned as to why," Nezu spoke up calmly.

"I- I only wanted to help him…"

"Help who little listener?" Mic asked softly, taking a small step forward.

"Bakugou….ever since the sludge villain attack….s-sometimes he gets flashbacks and memories of which causes him t-to panic a-and cry and just be fearful of everything. Normally, I can help him recover and help him out of that state, but this time it- it was too strong and beyond what I could do so I-" he started tearing up as he lost his voice. Nemuri stepped up and handed him a handkerchief and led him to sit on the floor.

"You asked Alex to use their quirk to help calm him down, yes?" Nezu asked, standing on the floor in front of Kirishima.

The red-haired boy looked up and nodded.

Quietly, we opened the door and looked through the crack. Alex was sitting on Bakugou's left while holding him as he was holding them by the waist and nuzzling into their chest. Alex's mouth moved to say something though it wasn't audible.

What happened next shocked all of us. Alex titled their head back and closed their eyes, moments later they started to glow. A faint golden yellow radiated from their body. Even their eyes were glowing brightly. Then the glow started to be focused into their arms as you could see the faint glow from their veins through the thin sleeve. They held tighter onto Bakugou as the yellow light seemed to encase and be absorbed into his body. The glow around him became brighter and brighter, as the glow around Alex became dimmer and dimmer until finally there was nothing. I couldn't see much in the dark lit room other than their silhouettes. Alex gently picked up Bakugou's now, what I'm assuming, sleeping body and gently placed him on the bed in the room.

Alex walked out of the room with an unsettling look in their eyes. They looked dead? Like their eyes weren't filled with any joy, happiness, or even their usual cheeky glint. It's almost as if all there was, was emptiness and sadness.

"Kirishima?" Holy hell even their voice sounds flat and void of anything.

The boy looked up from the floor and scrambled to his feet, "Is he okay!? What happened in there? He didn't accidentally hurt himself or you did he?"

Alex put their hand up, signaling him to stop, "He's alright. He's sleeping, probably from exhaustion, but when he wakes up, he should be fine and you should be with him in case he wakes up in a panic."

Kirishima nodded and said thank you before entering the room. Softly, Alex turned and closed the door and slipped the bracelet back on their wrist.

"Alex, can you please explain what we saw?" Nezu asked, still smiling. He almost never not smiles.

"I tried to absorb his fear and panic, but eventually I reached my limit. As a last ditch attempt, I tried to instead absorb emotions, to transfer them."

"What exactly did you transfer?" Nemuri questioned.

"Positive emotions and subcategory emotions. Happiness, contentment, joy, excitement, etcetera. By my guess, as a result, I will not be able to feel said emotions for the next 24 hours, though it is still just a guess."

My eyes widened slightly. It's remarkable that they figured out how to do that on their own, but the cost of it is too much. Without even at least contentment, your life and head would only be filled with anger, pain, guilt, sadness, and negative emotions. Nothing else. I sighed and said, "I'm glad you were able to help him and we will make sure to monitor his mental state, however, you are not allowed to do something that drastic ever again."

Alex tilted their head to the side, "Why?"

"Because it is damaging to you," Nezu stated. He walked up to Alex and smiled, "Without positive emotions, the consequences could be drastic. Yes, you helped another student, but you can't do that so carefreely. Not if the damage to yourself is this great."

Alex turned their head away from Nezu and mumbled, "It's not like that's ever stopped me before."

"What do you mean?" Mic and Nemuri asked in unison.

"What I mean is my choices beforehand. You see I fight and live for others, not myself. When I was Zavage, I never wanted to be a killer, I did it so that others wouldn't have to suffer, fall victim to them, or be another casualty. I bathe myself in blood and darkness so that others can see and be in the light-" Alex stopped abruptly and held the side of their head.

"Alex?" Nemuri asked. She walked forward up to them and as soon as she was about to put her hand on Alex's shoulder, Alex collapsed. We all panicked and rushed forward, steadying both Nemuri and Alex. Once, their body was laying on the floor, Nemuri gently pressed two of her fingers to their neck to check if there was still a pulse. She sighed with relief and removed her fingers, "They're fine, pulse is still there. Just unconscious, probably from either mental or quirk exhaustion."

We all breathed a sigh of relief. Nezu clapped his paws together, "Aizawa, could you be the one to carry Alex back to their dorm?"

I sighed but agreed nonetheless. Bending down I gently picked up Alex and held them bridal style in my arms. I made my way back to Alex's dorm, but as I looked down I saw a stain on the sweatpants they were wearing.

"That wasn't there before," I thought to myself. Knowing them it's probably some soda or something. But I know that the stain wasn't there before, I would've realized something like that instantly.

Paying no attention to it, I continued to make my way to their dorm. Once I got there, I set Alex down carefully onto the bed and put a pillow underneath their head. I looked back down to the sweat pants and did the stain get larger?

***THIS SECTION IMPLIES SELF HARM, READ AT OWN RISK***

I furrowed my brows, curious, I touched the stained fabric as some of the contents got on my fingers. The smell of iron filled my nose.

"What the hell?" I whispered. Carefully I rolled up the sweat pants until I saw the ending of bandages poke from under the fabric right below their knee. My eyes widened as I took a few steps back, are they.....cutting?

"No Shota, be rational." It can't be from Bakugou since his quirk would've given them burns marks and since they were bandaged it must've happened at least a day or two ago. But the amount of blood...that much wouldn't have come from a simple scratch…

I pulled the pant leg back down as I left the dorm. Closing the door and leaning up against the wall, my teeth clenched as all I felt was guilt, "Dammit problem child…"

(a/n: OMG WE REACHED ALMOST 40K READS! That's amazing! Thank you everyone!)