Chapter Text
Midoriya Inko had been surprised when she got the message from her son.
She had not expected him to get home sooner than he usually did today, but she was glad to hear that he was getting a chance to hang out with his friends a little. Especially after what happened during the trip to I-island…
That had been a difficult morning…
Thankfully, the call from Mr. Yaoyorozu had come in time to inform her that despite the horrific attack her son was still alive and well!
She had no idea what Izuku had done for the universe to decide that he’d have to get caught up in two historic Villain attacks barely a week apart, however, she could definitely say that she wasn't happy about it at all! She had first heard about the I-island mess while spending the morning with Mitsuki, which had led to the rather ironic situation of her friend having to comfort her and calm her down, until she finally got the call that gave her some much needed reassurance about Izuku’s safety.
Hopefully her son’s streak of bad luck had come to an end!
At least, things with Mitsuki seemed to be getting better now. The blonde woman was still lamenting about being a failure of a mother, but she was starting to get out of her deep depressive funk. Masaru for his part had been incredibly thankful to Inko for helping with supporting his wife through the tough time she was having. He had obviously tried by himself, but it couldn’t have been plainer that reassuring Mitsuki of the fact that her difficulties with Katsuki didn’t make her the worst mother in the country, was not a one person job, especially given her stubborn side. The poor man had been completely and utterly lost at what to do about his wife and son, which made him greatly appreciate any assistance, even if it had just been for one part of his family.
Inko would love to do more to help out, but she had to admit that she didn’t know what to say to Katsuki. She had known for a long while that the relationship between her son and the blonde boy had unfortunately not taken the same route as the one between her and Mitsuki, but the revelation that he hated Izuku so much had come as quite the shock. A part of her still wanted to confront the boy, just to ask him why.
Izuku had always been such a sweet and gentle boy, that Inko couldn't for the life of her figure out what could have made Mituski’s son so hostile towards him. A small part of her hoped it was all just a silly misunderstanding and that the bridge could be mended, if not fully rebuilt, in some manner. After all, her relationship with Mitsuki hadn’t always been smooth sailing either, they’d had their own fair share of stupid drama back when they were still teenagers!
Realistically speaking, though, Inko had to admit that there was little that could be salvaged. Even at her worst, Mitsuki had never raised a hand against her…
Hopefully principal Nezu knew what he was doing. Though, the fact that the incident in the cafeteria had happened at all didn’t exactly fill her with confidence…
According to Mitsuki, the principal seemed to be making some sort of progress and she was willing to believe her friend. Still, from what little Inko knew of the track record other authority figures had with the very strong willed blonde boy, it would likely be a while until a breakthrough was made.
Eventually Inko decided to shift her focus from these depressing topics back to the task at hand, which was getting done with her grocery shopping for the week.
Since Izuku messaged her that he and his friends had gotten themselves a lot of ice cream, Inko figured that a light dinner would suffice for tonight. She’d still have to stock up properly anyway. A boy working such a demanding summer job needed to eat properly after all! Thankfully, unlike his sleeping schedule, Izuku’s nutrition has never been a thing Inko had to worry much about. Her boy had a healthy appetite and made sure to eat his greens to stay healthy.
Granted, it wasn't all to her credit, and she probably had to thank All Might for that. Everytime little Izuku had started getting fussy about his food, Inko had been able to easily convince him by pointing out that the Symbol of Peace would have never grown up to be as big and strong as he was without eating his veggies. Her little son had never found evidence to the contrary and so resigned himself to eating whatever she made for him until he finally grew out of his picky eater phase.
Inko in turn had tried hard not to abuse this tactic too much.
She also made sure to keep her son’s food preferences in mind, to properly reward him for his compliance from time to time, a policy that served her well to this day. She wouldn’t be making Katsudon so often otherwise.
All this thinking about food made Inko wonder what the preferences of Izuku’s friends were. She obviously wanted to be prepared for the day they came over for dinner, after all!
The Hatsumes were originally from Kyoto, so maybe trying her hand on some regional dishes would be a good idea. There was this Nishin Soba recipe that Inko found a while ago that she had been itching to try making for the longest time. For dessert the choice would be a lot easier, though, the older Hatsume sister made it pretty clear that Mei was an unrepentant chocoholic. The teenage girl’s reaction to the chocolate mousse during the dinner at the Yaoyorozu mansion proved that the young woman had not been joking. If anything, it was an understatement.
Izuku’s other friend would be a much greater challenge. Inko experienced first hand the top notch culinary skills of the kitchen staff at the Yaoyorozu mansion, so coming anywhere close to that level of quality would be a great challenge. Anything French was definitely out of the window, the best Inko could do on that front would be something embarrassingly simple like a Crêpe. Maybe something Italian would work? She did know a thing or two about pasta and was pretty proud of her risotto.
That being said, Japanese dishes would still work best. She definitely had to ask her son what kind of food Momo liked apart from high class European cuisine.
At least for now, she only had to worry about cooking for herself and her son. Getting her groceries took a lot less time than usual on account of there being only a few customers beside her. It seemed Inko had lucked out and chosen the perfect time to go shopping! Thanks to that she was able to leave the store and start heading home with a whole shopping bag full of supplies in almost no time at all.
She might even get home before her son returned from his little hangout session with his friends!
Inko would definitely need to ask him about how it went. She was completely starved of stories of her son having fun with any friends, thanks to how he had been unfairly ostracized by his peers for so long!
As she got close to her home, she was treated to a rather curious sight.
An unfamiliar car parked in front of their apartment building.
A car of a make that Inko had never seen before and quite frankly hoped to never see again. It was absolutely hideous and absurdly large to the point that it did not properly fit into any of the available parking spaces. The driver of this monstrosity had clearly done his best, but despite these efforts the vehicle still took up a good chunk of the adjacent parking space.
Granted, the parking spaces in front of the apartment complex were a bit on the narrower side, so even with an ordinary car, fitting in there could be quite tricky. In comparison, a huge vehicle like that had no hope at all. Thankfully it was still early enough that most residents had not returned from work yet, so plenty of space was available, but if the owner of that ugly, oversized car did not leave soon then they would run into trouble eventually. None of the residents of the building took too kindly to someone blocking their parking space, especially a visitor at that.
After shaking her head at the sight, Inko made her way up to her apartment, only to see another curious thing.
An unfamiliar man standing in front of her home.
He was fairly large and broad shouldered, and was wearing a crisp black suit, which made him seem quite intimidating. The fact that he was waiting where he was, unmoving, unresponsive to her approach, made her feel extremely uneasy about the myriad of possibilities that could have led to this, and she did not like that feeling at all.
“E-excuse me? Can I help you?” Inko nervously asked the stranger.
“No need Ma’am.” The man replied tersely but politely. “I’m just waiting here until the young Miss is done. She followed your son in to quickly discuss something in private. We’ll be leaving afterwards. I apologize for the disturbance.”
“Young Miss?” Inko exclaimed before realization hit. “You happen to work for the Yaoyorozus?”
“Yes, Ma’am.” The man confirmed. “Me and my colleague in the car downstairs are here just in case to prevent any unpleasant surprises.”
That gave Inko pause. She had seen a couple of security guards during her visit to Yaoyorozu Manor, but she was not aware that they had a need for such a security detail when they were out and about in town.
At the very least this revelation meant that there was no reason to worry about. The presence of such an intimidating man in front of her home could have been the result of many different reasons, most of the ones, that Inko came up with were a lot less pleasant…, so it was reassuring to find out that her concerns were unnecessary in this situation. Inko set them aside and mentally began preparing to play host. Despite the impromptu nature of this situation, she should at least try and return the gracious hospitality extended to her when she visited the Yaoyorozu household.
“Is it really okay for you to stand outside? Why don’t you come in for some tea while you wait?” Inko offered. Just because he was on the job did not mean that this poor man should be forced to stand all the time!
“I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think it is necessary. We’re going to leave pretty soon and I haven’t been waiting for that long anyway.” The man politely declined. “Plus, it wouldn’t be fair to my colleague waiting in the car downstairs if I got to enjoy some tea.”
“Well, my offer would naturally extend to him, as well.” Inko countered. “By car are you talking about…”
“The large American one that does not really fit into the parking lots here?” The bodyguard finished for her. “Yes.”
“Goodness gracious, then I sincerely hope you’re right about leaving soon! Mr. Suzuki, that old grump, is very particular about where he puts his car and I think you might be blocking his favorite spot currently.” Inko warned.
“I’m sure we will be long gone before we can inconvenience any residents.” The man reaffirmed.
“Well, if that’s the case, then I’m going to hope you have a nice day and safe travels.” Inko said to the nice man, before turning to open her front door.
It was a little bit disappointing to hear that their surprise guest was going to leave already. Inko would have loved to use this opportunity to pull out the family album and show Momo Izuku’s baby photos!
They were just too cute!
She’ll have to remember to make sure Izuku invites her over properly some other time.
After turning the key and opening her door, Inko barely got two steps into her apartment before witnessing the last thing she’d thought she'd see coming back home today.
Standing there in the hallway were her beloved son and the girl he had befriended just a couple months ago in an intimate embrace and kissing each other tenderly. They were so completely lost in their own world that they had not yet noticed her entering through the front door.
To say Inko was shocked by the sight in front of her would be an understatement. She always had the nagging feeling that something was going on between her son and at least one of the pretty girls he had quickly grown close to, but to think it had progressed this far already?!
She would never have dared imagining it!
Only after Inko dropped her grocery bag did the young couple finally realize that they were not alone anymore, finding her standing just inside the entrance, staring at them slack-jawed, her eyes preparing to guest star in the next documentary about flooding disasters.
Their shocked and slightly panicked expressions were the last things Inko saw before her vision started to get blurry from the tears gathering in her eyes as her finally fully processed shock made way for a very different mixture of emotions.
“Mom?!”
“Mrs. Midoriya?!”
Both teenagers were also starting to get over their initial shock, resulting in both of them blushing fiercely. It was so adorable to see how the color in their faces matched!
Trying her hardest to hold herself together, Inko approached the young couple, took the closest hand of each, put them together so they interlaced and then held them in her own hands, all while happy tears started to flow down her face. She wouldn’t have long before the waterworks would start to really get going so she would need to hurry to get her congratulations out of the way!
Now was not the time to be a crying mess! She’d have to save that for later!
“I-I’m so happy for you! I could always tell that you were really important to my Izuku!” Inko said in between sobs, with the latter part directed at the tall girl. “I see it now… you two were on a date, weren’t you? I’m so sorry if I interrupted! But… why did you lie about it?”
“Wha-what?! I didn’t lie!” Her panicked son replied back immediately. “We really were just hanging out! This happened literally just minutes ago.”
“I-indeed.” Momo backed up Izuku, the girl clearly still looking really awkward but finally having regained some semblance of her usual composure. “While I can’t say that there hasn't been some mutual pining going on for a… while, this was a very recent development. I actually came here today in hopes of… clarifying the exact nature of our relationship when your son… when Izuku… confessed to me.”
The way that the raven-haired girl’s blush intensified as she said that and how she shyly looked to the side managed to get a giggle out of Inko. Those two were so adorable together!
Unable to suppress her emotions further and fearing her tear ducts would raise their sluice gates really soon, Inko pulled her son into a tight hug and buried her face in his chest, as she once again congratulated the young couple.
“I’m filled with relief that you approve, Inko-san. Again, we did not intend to hide anything, in fact I plan to inform my parents straight away once I return home, which is something I better get to immediately.” Momo told them, while trying to look as gracefully as the still very much flustered girl could with a respectful bow. “I hope we’ll get to talk again soon, Izuku. Thank you for having me!”
“Are you sure you have to leave already? I wouldn’t mind if you stayed a little longer.” Inko offered. Even if she could tell already that her floodgates would burst open very soon, she couldn’t help herself. She desperately wanted to talk more and find out how this all started!
“This is very kind of you, but I still have to decline. I’d hate for my Father to be stuck at the YST facility because of my dilly dallying.” The girl declined as she started to leave the apartment.
“Another time then? You’ll always be welcome here!” Inko replied to that as the freshly baked couple shyly waved each other goodbye.
“Ohhh Izuku!...” Inko exclaimed while pulling her son closer to herself again after his girlfriend had left.
“Mom… please! Try to keep it together! Think of the neighbors below us!” Her boy tried to appeal to her, with the way his voice was starting to crack making it clear to her that the emotionally charged situation was starting to get to him too.
“I’ve always been so worried about you! You’ve been so lonely ever since your diagnosis…” She continued, ignoring his plea while she hugged him as hard as she could. The only reason she was still trying to hold the inevitable back was because she wanted to give Momo the chance to leave the potential disaster area first.
“I’ve got n-no idea how this all h-happened. Not that long ago we… were barely acquaintances and now she is my g-girlfriend!” Izuku said more to himself in between large sniffles that indicated that he was close to crying himself. He was almost certainly blushing like crazy too, Inko could tell, even if she was currently unable to look him in the face on account of hugging him so tightly. “I’d never thought something like that would ever happen!”
“Of course it would!” Inko pushed back. “You’re the sweetest and most lovely boy anyone could ask for!”
Hopefully his new girlfriend would help him with dropping his self deprecating habit.
“Also, you’ll have to invite her over again, do you hear me? I want to have a good chat with her!” She added.
“I… honestly don’t think I’ll get a chance to do that before we move into the dorms. M-maybe I could bring her along when I come over to visit during the weekend?” Izuku offered a compromise, which Inko was perfectly fine with.
With the fact that her beloved son was moving out soon brought up, holding back her tears got harder once again. Her Izuku was growing up so fast!
Well, hopefully not too fast, a part of her noted.
Two freshly in love teens alone in their apartment did pose the risk of certain… age inappropriate shenanigans. The faint odor of peaches she was smelling on Izuku did nothing to help with her suspicions. She couldn’t help but worry…
Granted, the odds of something like that having happened already were pretty low. Inko knew her son well enough to know that he wouldn’t jump the gun like that. Despite his rather healthy libido and the fact that his new girlfriend definitely fit well with his tastes, the Izuku she had raised was respectful to a fault, a gentleman through and through.
Momo’s immaculate appearance was another strong indicator for things having stayed family friendly before she had arrived. From what the bodyguard had said, they had not been alone in the apartment for long, so there was no way the young lady would have been able to fix her elaborate hairdo and outfit in time if they really had done anything naughty. A little peek in Izuku’s bedroom would likely provide further proof, but she doubted that would be necessary. In fact, with how much they had been blushing just from sharing a kiss, she felt reassured that any hanky panky between the two was still a ways off.
All of that being said, Inko was cognizant of the fact that they were teenagers. They were young, curious and definitely in their honeymoon phase right now, which meant there was a lot of potential for sudden developments. Clearly they would start fooling around with each other sooner rather than later. It would be wise of her to make sure her little boy got a refresher on sex ed. As eager as she may be to have grandchildren, Inko would not like this to be rushed.
Also, she was kinda worried that Mrs. Yaoyorozu would castrate her son if he turned Momo into a teenage mom… She had hired bodyguards after all.
For now, though, Inko was content to keep hugging her son, as she finally let the happy tears flow with abandon, since enough time had elapsed for the young heiress to have left the building. Izuku quickly joined in too, despite his earlier pleas, clearly overwhelmed by his emotions as well.
There honestly should be no harm, their downstairs neighbors, who would be hit with the brunt of their emotional flood, were a family of carp heteromorphs.
A little water wouldn’t hurt them!
Aizawa Shota was yearning to finally get home and collapse in his bed.
The past week had been exhausting enough with all the home visits to get the parents of the Hero course students on board with Nezu’s little pet project, thanks to some rather tough sells.
Mrs. Jirou for instance, clearly was still a little bitter about the cafeteria incident, but thankfully she kept things much more rational than last time. Instead of taking uncalled for potshots at his appearance, this time she had needled them with questions about U.A.’s improved security, clearly out of concern for her daughter, who had been forced to come face to face with real Villains for three goddamn times in this past term.
Understandable.
Shota was wondering himself how the hell it was always his problem children that got caught up in messes like this. He was almost willing to think that petting that black cat that had crossed his way during his last patrol before the practical exams might have been a mistake, despite him usually not putting any stock in such irrational superstitions.
Either way, the matter of security remained a big issue for most of the 1-A parents, but ultimately they managed to placate everyone’s distress and reassure them that UA had taken additional steps to ensure the students’ safety.
Honestly, as unbelievable as it sounded, all the recent news coverage actually might have helped on that front for a change.
After the USJ, all the media outlets that had gotten slapped on their wrists for the actions of their staff during the preceding break-in, had tried to return the favor by covering the attack in the most unfavorable light possible. Once they started smelling the blood in the water, the yellow press gleefully joined in on the smear campaign, reaffirming his impression that tearing down people for clout and money was literally their prime reason for existence.
Some of those news outlets tried really hard to use the Kiyashi Mall incident to fuel the growing controversies around U.A. further, but this time their antics backfired on them big time.
Nobody seriously bought into the narrative that it was U.A.’s job to make all of goddamn Musutafu warp proof. The great lengths the League had gone through to ensure All Might would not be able to intervene in time and the fuckups of the Heroes who responded first also helped in shifting some of the blame off of them.
Most of all, the performance of class 1-A, how they managed to move civilians out of harm’s way while holding back the Nomu and the serial killer villains, and that video clip which showcased their dedication in fulfilling All Might’s final orders to them as a pro Hero did a lot to pull on the public’s heartstrings. That one video proved to be a much needed ray of sunlight coming through the storm clouds that were gathering over the nation’s future with All Might’s forced retirement…
The historic attack on I-island helped to further cement this shift in narrative. After the dust had settled and they had gotten confirmation that none of the students had been grievously harmed, Nezu had been quite giddy at the prospect of exploiting this opportunity to decisively turn the tables on their detractors.
All those wannabe spin doctors that had been trying to drag U.A. through the mud were definitely playing very different tunes now.
Despite all this he had been legitimately afraid that the Yaoyorozus would jump ship. Of all the parents Mrs. Yaoyorozu had been the most… inquisitive so to speak. The woman had made it pretty obvious from the get go that she wanted a more detailed explanation of how U.A. was planning to protect its students going forward. As a result the meeting had felt more like an interrogation.
Thankfully, Nezu had anticipated something like this. He had plenty of information ready to answer the woman’s questions and was able to fend her off in multiple instances by pointing out to her that sharing too much could compromise their new security strategy. Some measures worked best when they were unknown, after all.
They did suffer one hell of a whiplash when the family suddenly gave their approval. Mrs. Yaoyorozu had genuinely wanted to make sure her Daughter would really be safe, but as a whole the family already had leaned in favor of the dorms.
Shota couldn’t help but feel like he had detected a small hint of schadenfreude in the girl’s expression when they left. Almost as if she had enjoyed watching her Mother put them through the wringer during the intense interrogation. Combined with all the pushback he had gotten form the girl recently, and small things he had picked up in his students’ behaviour towards himself: a frown here, a sigh there, and and that one time Jirou outright glared at him while calling him ridiculous, Shota couldn’t deny anymore that Nemuri and Hound Dog might have had a point.
While he still stood firm on his general teaching philosophy, he understood that his methods had perhaps left deeper scars in his students than he had realised. In Yaoyorozu’s case in particular, he gathered that her opinion of his teaching abilities had declined over time, and the recent events had only resulted in it plummeting to levels well below par.
He’ll have to think about some way to extend an olive branch and that would very likely need to involve the Midoriya boy in Maijima’s class in some form. Irrational as the girl’s worry about anti quirkless bias being at play here was, Shota unfortunately had to admit that his… clumsy handling of the situation did very much allow for such an uncharitable interpretation.
Hopefully sorting things out with Midoriya and Yaoyorozu, even if he was under no illusion that this would be an easy task, would also calm down the rest of 1-A.
God knows he could do without getting second guessed all the damn time!
Unfortunately, second guessing was exactly what he got today in spades, together with humiliation and annoyance…
Suffice to say, the first teaching seminar had not gone well at all.
Granted, he had not been alone with that, nearly all of his colleagues had stumbled into a faux pas or two of their own, with the sole exception being All Might, because he had never showed up in the first place. The former symbol of peace had been excused on account of still having some personal matters to sort out following the attack on I-island.
While everyone got a chance to make an ass of themselves in one way or another, nothing they went through compared to what Shota stumbled into. He had gone into this expecting to ruffle some feathers on account of his disagreements with contemporary pedagogical principles, which still lagged behind the times in his opinion. His sarcastic comments throughout the event definitely had not made him many friends, that was for sure.
Shit had really hit the fan when he allowed himself to be drawn into a discussion during which he had espoused the benefits of preparing the students for the uncertainties they would face by liberally employing logical ruses.
That had not gone over well with the other teachers.
Not at all.
The heated debates he had allowed himself to be baited into afterwards were, in hindsight not exactly his proudest moment. He blamed his pounding headache and his severely elevated levels of annoyance for these poor decisions on his part.
“Hahaha! Oh man, Eraser, that was hilarious! Your dedication to the bit was legendary!” One of the main contributing factors towards his headache was laughing out loud right next to him.
Of course Emi Fukukado had been present at this seminar, as well. He had no doubt in his mind that Nemuri had known, considering how damn giddy she had been to get them all to this seminar in the morning.
Somehow, that green-haired moron had come to the conclusion that his embarrassing performance had just been a comedic bit using a combination of the Socratic method and argument ad absurdum to liven up the discussion and make people realize ways to improve.
Granted, Shota liked the core principle behind the Socratic method. It was always better if the student figured things out themselves. That being said, he was not so keen on having long winded discussions with students where he had to effectively guide them towards figuring out the answer. Those tended to be pretty damn exhausting and there were not enough hours in his day to do that for every student he had.
What was really grating about Joke’s current delusion, however, was that it was still substantially more flattering than what had really happened, despite its absurdity.
“That wasn’t a bit.” Shota finally attempted to correct her. This kind of nonsense was the last thing he needed right now.
“Sure, why not? Let’s go for the hat-trick! It’s not like one more person thinking we’re all insane would matter that much…” Hizashi sardonically whispered to himself.
“HAHAHA! A classical Eraser! I’ll never know how you’re able to keep a straight face through all of that!” The insanely obnoxious woman replied, clearly not believing him.
“Joke, despite my best efforts we have known each other for a while. Now think, in all those years, when did I ever joke like that about anything connected to my own damn job?” He confronted her once again, hoping to finally make it through her thick skull.
Miraculously, it did actually shut her up for a moment while she tried to think back.
While Shota tried to enjoy the blessed silence for as long as it would last, Emi’s face went from confusion to concentration, worry and finally settled in complete disbelief. “Holy shit. You were actually sincere ?! What the FUCK Eraser?!”
“My thoughts exactly.” Nemuri joined in. “I always thought the whole ‘logical ruse’ thing was idiotic, but every time I told him Shota shut it down with something along the lines of ‘I don’t tell you how to teach your students so don't you dare to do that to me!’”
“Seriously?! Bad Eraser!” Emi yelled, while whacking him over the head with a big squeaky clown hammer that she had just pulled out from god knows where. The attack didn’t really hurt that much physically, but the sheer stupidity of the green-haired woman’s antics did make his headache much worse.
“Did you seriously just hit me with that?” Shota growled in annoyance.
“Yes! And I will continue bonking you till you realize how stupid you’re being!” Joke asserted defiantly. “I’ll also upgrade to the more serious gear if you insist on staying pig headed!”
“I swear to god, if you take out your baseball bat, then things are going to get ugly…” He warned while glaring at her.
“Uhhh! Kinky! If you want we could take this to a love hotel. I know one that is pretty closeby.” Emi retorted. Apparently even if she was angry with him she could not resist making a goddamn pass. Nemuri and Hizashi’s snickering at that was not helping his mood!
“Stop being ridiculous.” He halfheartedly demanded, knowing full well it would fall on deaf ears, while he turned away to keep walking.
“Bonk!” Joke exclaimed immediately after he had his back to her, while bringing down the toy hammer again. “Told ya I’d continue till you realize how stupid your whole shtick is!”
“Why are you so upset then? Stupid should be right up your alley.” Shota hissed in response.
“Because a teacher needs to have the trust of his students! How are you supposed to do your job right otherwise?” Emi countered. “Plus, this whole thing scares me! If you can’t build a decent relationship with your students, then how is it going to be with our children?!”
“Oh no, what a nightmare. I guess I’m just not husband material then. It would probably be for the best then if you moved on and never talked with me again.” He flatly shot back in the faint hope that maybe just maybe at least one good thing could come from this day.
“Nope! I ain’t no quitter! Thankfully, we’re still early enough in our relationship to fix this issue!” The madwoman asserted much to his disappointment.
“I’m starting to get confused now. Are they a thing or not?” Ishimaya whispered to Hizashi.
“They’re not, but not for a lack of trying on her part.” Hizashi whispered back.
That’s exactly what he needed. His colleagues starting to speculate about his love life!
“If you ask nicely, I could even give you some pointers on how to deal with your students. That should get things sorted out in no time!” Emi confidently continued.
“Advice? From you of all people?” Shota scoffed. “Yeah, thanks but I’ll pass.”
All Joke did in response was to hit him on the head again with her hammer.
“Could you stop that already?!”
“Well, excuuuuuuuse me , but who again was it that caused a huge shitstorm at the seminar when they shared some of their preferred teaching methods?” Emi sassed at him. “The way I see it, you’ll need any help that you can get. Honestly, from the looks of it, the same is true for you lot as well.”
That caused Shota’s colleagues, even the ones that so far had opted to remain silent, to look at the green-haired woman who continued, completely unaffected by the increased number of eyes on her.
“You’re supposed to be the top school in the country, yet you guys seem to be struggling with the goddamn basics! It borders on a goddamn miracle that your school's test scores are still so high up, despite how easy you’re having it!” The woman called them out collectively.
“Now hold your horses! I admit, we’ve allowed ourselves to get a lil’ rusty and definitely should have kept up with these seminars, but that doesn’t mean we’ve been lying in the hammock all day sipping margaritas! We’ve been working hard!” Snipe challenged Emi, clearly upset at what she was insinuating.
“I was saying you guys were having it easy, not taking it easy.”
“Then pray tell, Emi, what exactly do you mean by that? If we’re having it so easy, I sure as hell wasn’t feeling it, especially this past term!” Nemuri joined in, clearly feeling upset as well.
“I’m talking about your students! Thanks to your infamous entrance exam, you get the best students in the country. Which means they have a very high chance to be both very well behaved and be significantly ahead of the curve when it comes to their academic abilities.” Joke started to clarify. “Ketsubutsu doesn’t have that privilege! My class covers the entirety of the Bell Curve. As a result, I have to plan my lessons in a way to both avoid leaving those behind the curve in the dust and properly challenge those who are ahead. That is fucking hard!”
“You’re making it sound that we owe our success entirely to our students.” Kurose chimed in. “While it is true that the entrance exam makes things easier for us, this is balanced out by the fact that we’re having to teach a noticeably more challenging curriculum than your average highschool. Prestige alone would not convince most of Japan’s universities to accept our graduates outright without forcing them through the same entrance exams as the rest of the applicants.”
“You’d be surprised how much stock people put into reputation.” Emi countered.
“Maybe, but those universities have their own reputations to look out for.” Ectoplasm argued. “These institutions would stop immediately accepting our graduates if they started to fail to live up to their standards with any sort of regularity. They wouldn’t hesitate to throw us under the bus to protect their own prestige.”
“Also, please don’t assume that we’re all as bad as Sho. He’s the only one that enjoys lying to his students and as Nemuri pointed out earlier, we’ve been arguing against it several times.” Hizashi betrayed him.
“Really? If you had waited for maybe three more minutes you could have literally thrown me under the next bus that came down the road instead of settling for just metaphorically.” He hissed at the blonde loudmouth.
“Well, it was your brilliant idea to pick a fight with the other teachers at the seminar. You’re like a brother to me Sho, but don’t expect me to catch a stray for you and then say thank you afterwards!” Hizashi countered.
“I freely admit that my actions today had been ill advised.” Shota admitted. “That being said, I hope we can all agree that the educational philosophy being promoted there had its flaws too.”
“Maybe.” Maijima replied. “Next time, though, how about voicing your criticisms in a constructive way, instead of asserting your rug pulling shenanigans have a better educational value. Nezu is not going to be too pleased when he hears about what happened today, so we better make sure we don’t have a repeat of that. Unless, you want him to organize a special seminar for us.”
Shota felt a cold shudder run down his back at that. He really was not in a hurry to find out what their boss could come up with if he felt the need to get hands on in this situation! While he was very tolerant of unorthodox teaching methods, Nezu had made it clear from the get go that he reserved for himself the right to use unorthodox punishments in return when he didn’t like the results.
“Don’t ya worry! I’ll whip you into shape in no time! Can’t have my future fiance stay stuck in such a medieval mindset when it comes to dealing with children!” Joke spoke up.
“You’re giving me an incentive for the opposite.” Shota retorted.
“Oh you want incentives?” The annoying woman giggled as she got ready to strike him again.
Only this time she missed on account of Shota being prepared.
“I can keep this up aaaaaaaall summer if I need to. You should know by now just how much I love roasting people! This is going to be fun!” Joke confidently asserted, not being discouraged at all by the miss. “If you don’t see the error of your ways by the end of today, then I’ll keep it up during your patrols. I know all your habits and preferred routes like the back of my hand! Run all you want but you won’t be able to hide!”
“Don’t you have anything better to do?! Like doing your damn job and caring for your own students?” Shota shot back, hoping his poker face held firm and didn’t show any signs that he was actually dreading what she just said.
It was true that he wouldn’t be able to avoid her. He’s been trying to do exactly that since the day they fucking met! Yet, despite his best efforts and his expertise at stealth, Joke had the uncanny ability to run into him at the worst possible moment.
Like she had today, although that had very likely been Nemuri’s fault.
“Well, getting you to stop being stupid would save all those poor students at U.A. so that would technically be Hero work.” The green-haired moron started. “Also, I’ve got plenty of vacation days saved up so I’d be able to keep this going into fall too, if I wanted. The newbie that started last term would definitely benefit from substituting for me for a bit.”
“Great…” He deadpanned, while internally wondering what else could go wrong today. Maybe the Nomu from the USJ would show up to finish the job?
Honestly? That would feel more like relief at this point.
“I know right? I was so sad that we kept seeing each other less and less over the years, but now we have the perfect excuse to meet up more!” Emi happily replied, willfully ignoring the sarcasm. She had to, there was no friggin way she could have missed the sarcasm in his voice.
With that Joke suddenly stopped walking as the group reached an intersection.
“I actually have to turn left here.” Emi announced to the whole group as she started waving goodbye. “Bye guys! See you at the next seminar. Don’t be too discouraged over embarrassing yourself cause you’ve got too complacent recently!”
“Well, I can see why Aizawa doesn’t like her too much. That woman is a lot to take in.” Maijima mused after the Joke had finally left.
“Never thought I’d get roasted by someone who made being the class clown their brand…” Snipe chimed in. “She’s right, though, we did get awfully comfortable. Gotta make sure my skills as an educator stay as sharp as my marksmanship going forward.”
“Yeah… that’s true for all of us, especially a certain someone.” Nemuri agreed before turning to Shota with a smug grin. “Unless said someone is looking forward to having a couple of hot dates every week with Emi for the rest of summer and the following fall.”
Shota refused to dignify that with an answer, but unfortunately he was not able to stop his eye from twitching in annoyance. That was all the confirmation Nemuri needed to know that this had indeed gotten under his skin.
All he knew was that he’d have to keep his goddamn mouth shut during the remaining seminars. Hopefully once All Might joined them, he’ll make a bigger fool of himself on account of his complete inexperience.
That wouldn’t help him get that insufferable wannabe comedian off his back, though…
As he trudged along with his colleagues, he decided that this was an issue his future self could solve. For now, all he was wanting to do was to get back home and fall into his bed.
Yotsubashi ‘Re-Destro’ Rikiya was in deep thought.
Planning a revolution was no easy task and he was currently immersed in the newest reports his inner circle had delivered to him during this current strategy meeting.
Or at least Skeptic and Trumpet had. Curious had notified them ahead of time that something urgent had come up which would delay her for a bit.
During the last few meetings they had been able to make decent progress with working out a list of targets and objectives that should cripple the regime and ensure the success of their takeover.
The big ones were pretty easy to figure out. Seizing the National Diet and capturing the Prime minister together with his cabinet would throw the regime into chaos and disrupt any response to their uprising. Capturing the Emperor and… convincing him to dissolve the regime and task the MLA with forming a provisional government would be vital to legitimize their actions. Assaulting the Musutafu branch of the HPSC to secure the evidence of their numerous misdeeds and presenting them to the public should finally deliver a decisive blow to their bogus propaganda of caring for the common good . Finally, seizing and occupying as many large population centers as possible should deprive any potential opposition of the resources they would need to stop them and force their surrender.
This was, however, easier said than done. Each of these targets would require numerous smaller objectives to be achieved first, each of which had numerous complications and potential points of failure of its own that they needed to be mindful of.
The Meta Liberation Army was slightly over a hundred thousand strong, but not all of them were combat units. Every Army needed support staff after all! Even if they could deploy every single member to the frontlines, occupying and controlling the whole country with these numbers would be next to impossible. As a result the scope of their plans for territorial occupation had been substantially decreased. They would have to make sure they prioritised quality over quantity, which meant they only needed to take and hold the core of Japan for long enough to fulfill their objectives and victory would be theirs.
With the crimes of the regime laid bare for everyone to see and the authority of the Emperor behind them, the public surely would realize that their cause was just and join them en masse!
Until then they would remain outgunned and outnumbered on the macroscale. As long as they could prevent their enemies from rallying their forces, the brave warriors of the MLA would be able to gain the upper hand on a local level, overwhelming any opposition with their numbers and then move on to destroy the next pocket of resistance. Basically a strategic defeat in detail.
To achieve this, their first strike would need to be as strong and brutal as possible. The regime’s chain of command needed to be completely shattered to ensure that it would take as long as possible for their troops on the ground to organize anything resembling an effective response.
Such an opening move needed lots of preparation.
Lots and lots of preparation…
It required many topics to be discussed, one of which was the main item on today’s agenda.
If Shigaraki Tomura’s fifteen minutes of fame have shown Rikiya one thing, it was the fact that there were more players involved in the game than he had initially thought. Therefore it was vital to get an accurate picture about what other factions were lurking around in Japan’s underworld. Considering the scale of their plans, every crime syndicate, Villain group or even street gang had the potential to get in their way in some fashion and bring unwanted attention to the MLA before they were ready for it.
Though most such groups would likely prove to be hindrances, some even had the potential to be looked at as opportunities to take advantage of. Such groups could be strategically used as pawns to cause distractions that could tie up enemy assets, limiting their ability to intervene in the uprising. Others had the potential to get aligned with the MLA and earn a place in the new order by serving along them as auxiliaries.
The report Rikiya was currently skimming, however had nothing to do with such groups but rather with one that he wanted to purge with extreme prejudice.
It was a report about Humarise.
Despite their best efforts, that filthy, foreign sham religion had established itself in Japan. Their numbers remained fairly small, especially compared to their operations in the West, but they were not something that could be safely ignored.
On the bright side, it seemed that the rest of the world was starting to wake up and see the followers of Humarise for the criminals they truly were, especially the EU from which this doomsday cult emerged originally. In all likelihood, that high profile robbery of a cargo train transporting dangerous chemicals across the German border into France would finally convince Berlin to join the efforts to finally label that cult as a terrorist organization, which had been spearheaded by Paris for years now.
The tired old theatrics of Flect Turn, where he would disingenuously denounce his criminal followers and offer thoughts and prayers for the victims, before going into another sermon where he would once again spout his crackpot prophecy, clearly wasn’t working anymore.
What was concerning, however, was the fact that their criminal activity was increasing across the globe. Clearly, that subversive cult was plotting something big, and Rikiya severely doubted that this would be something Destro would approve of.
“As encouraging as it is to learn that Flect Turn is going to get what he deserves sooner rather than later, there is a distinct lack of information about the activities of the Japanese Humarise branch. Would you care to elaborate about that?” Re-Destro asked Trumpet when he was done reading.
“From what my sources both in- and outside the regime are telling, they are being really quiet. Granted, that might be the result of our ‘beloved’ government not taking the threat they pose as seriously as they should.” Trumpet replied.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me? For all we know they might actually be colluding!” Rikiya scoffed at that.
“I doubt that is the case.” Skeptic chimed in. “While there are ideological parallels, I think Humarise is still too radical for the liking of our oppressors. It is more likely that they are deliberately looking the other way and tolerating the cultists, since they believe that they might be useful later down the line.”
“All the more reason to make sure to remove them from the board.” Rikiya said in response.
“I guess all we have to do then is convince our tyrants that keeping the zealots around is more trouble than it is worth.” Trumpet suggested. “I doubt it would take much to goad the HPSC into overreacting. With how much they’re struggling to contain the rise in crime that All Might’s retirement has caused, they’re bound to react with extreme prejudice if anyone else was starting to cause more trouble, especially with some media pressure.”
“Agree. A simple false flag operation at the right time should ensure that the regime takes care of this issue for us.” Skeptic said as he nodded in agreement.
“It is a bit of a shame. I would have preferred we delivered righteous justice to them ourselves.” Rikiya lamented. “I do agree, however. Letting the tyrants handle this would be much more convenient for us. We need to save our strength for much more important matters.”
“True, but I’ll make sure to compensate by provoking our ‘dear protectors’ in a suitably dramatic fashion” Trumpet remarked with a mischievous grin.
Before the discussion continued, the men were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Curious.
The lighthearted joke Rikiya wanted to make at the rare occasion of the pale-blue skinned woman being late died on his lips when he saw her face.
“I deeply apologize for being late Grand Commander, but I’m afraid I’ve got bad news.” The woman announced with a grave and serious expression. “We have a crisis at hand!”
“Continue.” Rikiya replied, trying hard to remain calm. He had the feeling he would not like what he was about to hear.
“In preparation for today’s meeting I was trying to reach out to a street gang that I had made use of in the past. There was potential for them to serve our noble cause, but unfortunately I had to learn that they had been wiped out almost to a man, and that got me curious.” She started explaining. “It is a rather unexpected development because the leader of said gang had a fairly powerful Meta Ability for a street thug. He was a transformation type who could become an anthropomorphic wolf man, which significantly enhanced his strength and speed. Together with his claws and teeth he was quite formidable in closed quarters combat.”
“And that is our problem because?...” Trumpet threw in, clearly starting to get impatient.
“The means by which these potential auxiliaries were destroyed.” Curious continued without missing a beat. “They got into a turf war with one of their weaker rivals and according to the testimony of one of the few survivors, their people got shot with this before the battle started.”
At that Curious opened up the big suitcase she had carried into the meeting, producing a small and transparent plastic bag, which contained what looked like a small red dart of some kind.
“We don’t know yet what exactly this is, but every person that got hit with such a dart completely lost their ability to use their powers for a short period of time.” Curious revealed, pausing for emphasis, and to let everyone in the room process what she just said.
Rikiya for his part felt his blood run cold as he heard that.
This couldn’t be!
“Are you absolutely sure that is what happened?” Skeptic asked shortly afterwards.
“Yes. I met my subordinates today to verify this and even went so far as to interrogate the survivor we got again. This is the reason why I was late today and unfortunately I have to say that the information is accurate.” Curious said in response.
“WHO? ” Re-Destro boomed to his subordinate, as his body started to bulk up thanks to his Meta Ability to the point that his suit started to tear at its seams. “ WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING THIS POISON INTO THE WORLD?!”
“Nothing concrete yet, but I do have a very promising lead.” The pale-blue skinned woman replied, before handing out folders for everyone. “The gang that used this despicable weapon has connections to a Yakuza group known as the Shie Hassaikai. They’re quite active in the drug trade and, if the rumors are true, even involved with Trigger. In other words they have experience with manufacturing dangerous substances.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?! Governments have been trying to create something like this for centuries at this point to no avail! Hell, even I-island hasn’t been able to deliver this silver bullet despite their enormous resources! How the hell did a bunch of fossils like them achieve this?!” Trumpet yelled when he heard that.
“Because it wasn’t them.” Re-Destro growled, as his body started to shrink down after he had processed the initial shock. “Open your eyes! The regime has to be behind it!”
“That does beg the question why they would entrust such a vital project to a group of criminals.” Skeptic chimed in.
“Probably to better hide it.” Trumpet suggested. “There is no way that they could keep something like this secret if they had to get the funds out of the national budget. The Hassaikai probably were given an offer they couldn’t refuse. In exchange for funding and providing logistical support, the regime is looking the other way for their other crimes and doesn’t label them a Villain group.”
“Possible as this may be, I don’t think coercion would have been required.” Curious cut in cryptically. “The acting head of the Shie Hassaikai is quite the interesting personality. He is quite young for a man leading such a group and he went to med school which he finished top of his class. If some of the comments in the research papers he contributed to are any indication, then he might be very much aligned with the ideology of our oppressors.”
On the woman’s insistence, Rikiya and the others quickly skimmed over the excerpts of a certain Chisaki Kai’s academic output, which made his blood boil again. This bastard seemed to be a proponent of the crackpot theory that Meta Abilities had been the result of an infectious disease and was advocating for better ‘treatments’ and ‘cures’ to be developed!
“As you can see, forceful methods would not have been necessary. This deplorable little piece of garbage would have eagerly joined any effort to forcibly grind human evolution to a halt for the benefit of the regime!” Curious spat hatefully.
“I want this bastard dead! Together with his little gang, his associates, his friends, everybody he ever worked with and even his goddamn pets! I want them all DEAD!” Re-Destro raged. He may usually be against bloodshed, but a sin of this magnitude left no room for leniency!
All that stood defiantly in the way of Destro’s dream needed to be eradicated! Root and stem!
“We have to be incredibly careful. If the regime is involved then they likely put measures in place to protect the development of their silver bullet.” Skeptic warned. “Considering how mature this weapon seems to be already, there is a substantial risk of it already being in production and stockpiles of it existing somewhere.”
“I will see to it that the Shie Hassaikai are investigated thoroughly.” Curious spoken up. “With a little luck this was their first viable prototype, which they distributed among their associates for testing, and no large-scale production exists yet. Also, I’ll attempt to unravel their network and see if I can secure a sample of their poison for ourselves.”
“Disrupting their operation takes precedence.” Rikiya announced. “Like Skeptic said, there is a substantial risk that the enemy has a stockpile of this poison that could be used to counter our plans. In light of this revelation some substantial adjustments need to be made.”
“Skeptic, consider my decision regarding your suggestion from the last meeting as rescinded.” Re-Destro continued. “You now have my full permission to acquire the force multipliers you lined out in your proposal and even expand beyond the initial scope of your plan. I want to make sure that as many of our warriors as possible have the means to fight back against our oppressors, even in the case that their Meta Abilities and support equipment is rendered unusable by the enemy’s chemical weapons.”
“I guess that means Hearts and Minds needs to organize more events out in nature to give our troops more time to train.” Trumpet chimed in.
“Add training for driving heavy vehicles to that, as well.” Rikiya added, causing Trumpet and Curious to look at him in surprise.
“I see, the plan is to be expanded to the greatest possible extent then.” Skeptic said, before he started to type quickly on his laptop, likely preparing to send out the orders to his subordinates.
“This… is going to make things more complicated once we’re in control.” Trumpet sighed.
“I know. Escalating things like that will make stabilizing our government substantially more difficult, but I’m afraid we have no choice.” Re-Destro explained. “It is clear to me now that this isn’t the best opportunity to start our uprising, but the final one we’ll ever get. If we don’t seize control, then the regime will perfect this poison and find a way to forcibly administer it to the general population and most governments in the world are sure to follow this example. The very fate of metahumanity hinges on our success! If we must burn our own cities to the ground by unleashing more devastating weapons to stop this incoming age of barbarism, then so be it!”
With this grave statement Rikiya adjourned the meeting, desperately hoping that the future he and his fellow warriors were building would be worth the weight of all the innocent lives he had just condemned to death.