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It hadn't been easy, raising Fumikage. He'd been moody since the day his parents took him in, always sitting in the dark and muttering to himself. They realised fairly quickly that, in reality, what he was muttering to was the slowly solidifying emanation of his quirk: Dark Shadow.
Once Dark Shadow developed, the two of them became (quite literally) inseparable. He had a hard time making friends, and would instead spend all his time with his quirk, talking about his favourite heroes and bands. Dark Shadow was volatile, though, and for a while Fumikage had no control over it at all. When night came around, the shadow bird would go on a rampage, often terrifying its host.
Raising Fumikage was essentially like raising two children: him and his quirk, but his parents were up for the task.
When Fumikage was eight years old, they took a trip to the big city. Fumikage was always enamoured by the idea of it, and between his bird head and the fact he was so... emo, he hadn't fit in in their rural environment. It was only bad luck that they happened to be caught in a street without any streetlights when Dark Shadow went out of control.
Fumikage's mother held his shoulders and tried to calm him down while his father ran for help, or some light stronger than a phone's torch.
"Remember, Fumikage, take deep breaths."
"It's too strong!" he yelled, his voice layered over with Dark Shadow's. It broke his mother's heart to see him so scared, to see what were essentially her twins, fighting.
And then Dark Shadow disappeared.
Dropping down from a rooftop was... a man. Cloth and hair floating around him.
"Are you alright?" he mumbled in monotone. "It looked like the kid lost control of his quirk." He looked drab as anything, dressed all in black except for a scarf around his neck and bright yellow goggles, but she was sure she'd seen him somewhere before...
She felt Fumikage tense in her arms and looked down. His eyes were wider than she'd ever seen them, beak slack.
"We're alright," she replied. "His quirk is a bit hard to control. Thank you so much..."
"Eraser Head," the man said... oh. That's where she knew him from!
"Eraser Head?" she repeated. "That's amazing, my son here is a big fan of yours."
("Noooo, Mom, don't tell him that!" Fumikage whined.)
"I don't suppose we could get a picture? Or an autograph? Or not, my son tells me you like to keep a low profile."
"I-" Eraser Head shrugged. "Sure." Then crouched down to be on eye level with Fumikage and asked: "What can help you control your quirk? I can only keep my eyes open for so long."
Seeing that her son was stunned into silence, she decided to respond for him: "Light is what usually keeps Dark Shadow at bay. Usually he's very friendly, but when it gets too dark..."
Eraser Head reached into one of the pouches on his belt and pulled out a torch, which he turned on and handed to Fumikage. "You can keep that. Do you think it'll keep your quirk under control?" Fumikage nodded, eyes still wide.
Eraser Head's hair and scarf stopped floating. Eraser Head stood up to full height and took off his goggles.
"Your mom says you want my autograph?" he said. It was subtle, but he sounded amused. "That doesn't happen for me very often."
"You-don't-have-to-if-you-don't-want-to-I-understand-that-you-like-to-keep-a-low-profile-but-if-you-would-sign-my-notebook-and-take-a-picture-with-me-Dark-Shadow-and I-would-really-appreciate-it-" Fumikage mumbled, all in a rush. He reached into his backpack's pocket and pulled out a notebook, offering it to Aizawa without moving his stare from the ground.
Eraser Head took the offered notebook, hesitated, then signed it. Fumikage's mom took a photo of the two of them together. Although neither were photogenic (Eraser Head looked like he'd never been in a picture before, and Fumikage still wouldn't look up), they still printed the picture out and framed it in Fumikage's room.
Fumikage's parents received a call from their son on his first day at U.A. It was surprising, he wasn't very good at remembering to call.
"Mother, Father, I have news of utmost importance to share with you." He always took that dramatic tone, even when delivering menial news. "My homeroom teacher is... Eraser Head!"
"Wow, honey!" his dad exclaimed.
"That's so cool!" he mom added. "Does he remember you."
"I didn't question him about the event, Mom." As cool as their son tried to be, he was still an easily embarrassed teenager.
"Either way, I'm sure it'll be great to train under such a great hero," his dad said. "You'll learn so much from him."
There was some muttering from the other end of the line before Fumikage spoke again. "Dark Shadow's embarrassing me."
"What's he doing?"
"He says he's going to remind Aizawa-sensei about that night and tell him I'm a fan," Fumikage grumbled.
"Would that be so bad?" his mom asked. "You remember, he said he doesn't often meet fans. He'd probably be delighted!"
"No he wouldn't, it's a specific kind of heroics that actively avoids the limelight! Besides everyone's obsessed with All Might being our teacher. I don't want to seem weird."
"All Might's your teacher?" his dad exclaimed.
"Dad, that doesn't matter!"
His dad laughed. "You shouldn't worry about seeming weird, Fumikage," he said. "Just be yourself. Anyone who doesn't want to be friends with the real you, doesn't deserve to be your friend."
"I know, I know."
"How is Dark Shadow getting along with the other students?"
"He's more popular than me," Fumikage said.
"Is everyone being nice?"
"It's fine."
Fumikage's parents smiled as they pushed their reluctant son for more info. He seemed genuinely excited about his new class. It had been years since he'd been so happy to spend time with anyone other than Dark Shadow.
It was always nerve wracking to see their baby start anything new in his life, especially when he'd always had such trouble getting along with his peers. This once, though, they had someone reliable to assuage their worries.
The photo with Eraser Head from that night was up on the wall, and had been for about seven years. They also knew he'd kept the torch his favourite hero had given him and still clung to it when he got nervous of the dark. He was in good hands.