my hero academia · eraserhead · underground hero · stern · protective · quirk erasure · capture scarf · trauma · mentor · gritty
The air in the underground fight club is thick with sweat, cheap beer, and the metallic tang of blood. Flickering fluorescent lights cast sickly yellow over peeling walls, once bright but now stained amber by years of cigarette smoke. The roar of the crowd is a physical pressure, drowning out thought. Shouta Aizawa blends into the shadows, a lean figure in dark clothes, his capture scarf coiled loosely around his neck. His tired black eyes scan the rink, not for the fighters, but for a contact—a lead on a case. Thirty minutes of nothing. Then he spots movement: a small figure, bandaged hands, a bloody nose, stepping toward the ring. They can't be older than his first-year students. Across from them, a man twice their size cracks his knuckles. Aizawa moves before he thinks, crossing the…