Aizawa watched from the corner of his eye as Midoriya took Shoji away. He wouldn't do something like yesterday again, would he? He shook his head. Neither of the other students had voiced complaints, had they? Aizawa glanced over to where Kirishima and Ashido were paired off and shook his head. They both seemed to be doing well enough. Kirishima was even starting to dodge. That was good, right?
The meaty sound of someone hitting the mat hard had Aizawa turning to see who it was that had gone down. He felt himself tense when he saw that it was Jiro that had slammed Setsuna to the ground. Subtly, he shifted his hand into his capture scarf before freezing when he saw the twisted mixture of a snarl and a smile on Setsuna's face. She was laughing again. She'd just been body slammed into the ground hard enough to echo around the gym and was laughing despite the burst blood vessels blossoming across her skin and in her left eye.
Images came to mind from the previous night of blood and bile. Aizawa shook the images from his mind. Midoriya had told him to consider pairing Setsuna with either Toga or Jiro before they had started. If the two could keep up with the girl, perhaps that's all there was to it. Is it? Is that all there is to it?
Aizawa felt a chill run up his spine. Was that it? Was anything just it anymore? Just how far down did this rabbit hole go? Nedzu had, supposedly knowingly, requested Midoriya to brutalize his classmate. Nedzu had scheduled a meeting with him at the end of Friday, and the students were to have a free study day on Saturday. Was it because it would take all of that time? Was he going to need the time for something? Aizawa, again, shook his head. He was working himself into an early grave with questions he couldn't answer.
He glanced at the door Midoriya had taken Shoji through. What didn't he know about Midoriya? What was Nedzu keeping from him? What didn't he know that he needed to know?
…
Midoriya stared at Shoji for a long moment, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. The large man returned the stare with a deadpan that would put poker professionals to shame. "Personally, I don't believe you need help right away. I do not believe that what I saw in the entrance exam footage was a problem, as I believe you are smart enough or have enough common sense to have dealt with it, were it a problem. Because of this, I don't really have anything to work on right now. Instead, there are a couple questions I have to ask."
Shoji quirked an eyebrow up but generally remained neutral. "Alright."
"When you have one of your limbs amputated, how injured do you become?"
Shoji's other eyebrow came up now, surprise evident in his eyes. "Is that what this is about?"
"Several instances were noted, during the entrance exam, of the robots either mutilating your limbs or of you removing them yourself."
Shoji shrugged. "I mean, it hurts, but not as much as if I actually lost a limb. When I grow them, I don't tend to put nearly as many nerve clusters in them as are in my actual body. My quirk seals up the wound, too, so I don't lose much in the way of blood. Even if I did bleed, I could just grow some more limbs with blood and let it flow back to me."
It was Midoriya's turn to be surprised, and he put down his sheet of questions. "You can freely control the growth to such a fine level as determining the nerve clusters?"
Shoji shrugged again. "Not entirely, but if I focus on it, I can affect it."
Midoriya let a small smile come to his lips. "And how good are you with pain? With body horror?"
Shoji was back to his deadpan. "Seriously? I look like this," Shoji pulled down his mask revealing a mouth spread to his cheekbones, "and removed my limbs in an exam. I would think I'm pretty good."
Midoriya smiled widely now, a slightly manic gleam in his eyes. "Well, Shoji, you won't be able to use it in front of civilians, but I think I know what we can work on today."
…
"So." Uraraka drew out the word even as she followed slowly behind Midoriya, glancing back over her shoulder at the class. "Why is Present Mic subbing in for Professor Aizawa today?"
Midoriya gestured vaguely in the air. "Has a meeting with Nedzu right about now-ish. Mic's just subbing in for today." Hopefully. "Now, as we talked about before, your quirk is…" Midoriya trailed off looking for the right word, "special. That was before you had your surgery, as well. So what we need to do today is take your baseline again before we even start working on your quirk."
"Why would the new legs change my baseline? The recovery drugs?"
Midoriya shook his head. "Now here's the thing, it normally wouldn't. But, and this is only a minor development that theoretically shouldn't have any effect but could have an effect if your quirk functions in some kind of new bullshit way that I-"
Uraraka sighed. "What precisely could have happened with my quirk?"
Midoriya winced before sighing, himself. "As a part of the surgery, and in preparation of more complicated prosthetics, you were grafted with a secondary redundant nervous system, as was in your information packet. But if your quirk was putting a strain on the nervous system, be it the energy or the mass or whatever, and that is what was making you nauseous, you would theoretically have a much higher tolerance than you did before. Among other things."
"Well, that sounds amazing, but what do you mean among other things, precisely? What else am I looking at potentially? The information packet was wonderfully sparse on details other than it was necessary, now that you bring it up."
Midoriya winced before laughing nervously. "Well, certain things may improve. You know, baseline stats, body temperature regulation, reaction time and reflexes, memory and learning speed…"
Uraraka stared at the nervously chuckling man in front of her and narrowed her eyes. While that all sounded wonderful, she was getting a bad feeling. "Midoriya, how many times have you given someone a redundant nervous system?" She regretted the question as soon as it came out of her mouth.
Midoriya's face froze before shifting back to a carefully neutral expression. "Enough that you are in no threat of something going wrong. Now," Midoriya shifted and grunted as he picked up a cube from a metal rack before setting it on the ground in front of her, then another, and a third, each cube about two feet in each direction. "Those are solid tungsten. Float them until you start to feel sick."
Uraraka stared at the large blocks of metal, even as Midoriya stepped away and turned to some kind of sensor array. They weren't especially large cubes, but something told her they were exceptionally heavy. Uraraka reached out and tapped the first cube, feeling her quirk settle over it and watched as it floated up to eye level before stopping. Uraraka reached out, tapping the second and third, not thinking the first was that bad.
MISTAKE. Massive Mistake. Nausea hit her hard almost immediately. The retching in her throat calmed itself in a moment, and Uraraka took a deep breath. "I'm good. I'm good."
Midoriya eyed Uraraka and the floating cubes with a gleam in his eyes. "Fascinating, how fascinating. Could you step on that pad for me over there? Keep the cubes floating, please." Uraraka shuddered under that inquisitive gaze but stepped onto the pad, all the same. Midoriya's eyes lit up again and he smiled, scribbling something onto a notepad. "What was your weight limit before this?"
"Uhhh." Uraraka thought for a second before giving a rough estimate. "About two and a half tons, I'd say. Give or take."
Midoriya chuckled slightly. "Well, you've certainly gone over that. Those tungsten cubes are about three point two."
"Tons?" Uraraka asked, surprised. It didn't feel comfortable by any means, and she was pushing up against her limit, but she hadn't lost her lunch yet.
Midoriya gave an affirming grunt, even as he squinted at his screen. Midoriya pointed some kind of wand at her before looking between her and the screen, still squinting. Midoriya put down the wand and passed her a trash can. "Try removing your own gravity, please." Midoriya pointed the wand at her again.
Uraraka scowled and gestured to the trash can. "Expecting me to fail?"
"It's the mother of success." Uraraka rolled her eyes. She was close to her limit, but she could manage her own body weight still, as long as she wasn't trying to move. Uraraka pressed her hand to her own skin and promptly lost her lunch in the trash can. What the fu-
"Fascinating, how fascinating." Midoriya scratched away at the notepad. Uraraka gagged, her temper flaring.
"Want to clue me in here, Midoriya?"
"In a moment. Float yourself, please?"
Uraraka's lip nearly curled in response, but she restrained herself from retorting. Instead, she collected herself, wiped her lip, and tapped her hand against herself again. Uraraka felt a tug across her body but was otherwise surprised to find almost no nausea from floating herself anymore. Uraraka's eyes widened, even as she found herself annoyed at the scratching of Midoriya's pen again. "Now do you feel like cluing me in? What precisely is going on here?"
Midoriya stopped scribbling notes down and turned, smiling. "Your quirk is bullshit is what's going on. You don't have a weight limit. No, wait, that's not entirely true." Midoriya thought for a second before he started speaking again. "As I said before, you appear to have the ability to manipulate both mass and momentum while entirely disregarding the item's inertia. You are not removing the mass from anything. Those cubes still each weighed a ton and some change, even floating there. Your quirk is somehow completely disregarding the fact that that much weight shouldn't be floating in the air. The downside is that your quirk is putting a proportional strain on your system, the more mass and momentum that you are canceling."
Uraraka scrunched her brow. "That doesn't explain why my relatively little mass and momentum was the tipping point when I wasn't near my limit."
Midoriya's eyes gleamed maniacally. "Unless, of course, floating yourself is subsequently your quirk pushing everything into the surrounding area. You weren't just floating yourself. You were floating yourself and three cubes and then pushed all of that onto the surrounding area."
Uraraka crossed her arms from where she was resting in the air above the metal plate. "That makes no sense at all."
Midoriya waved his arms before letting out a small oh and retrieving one of the cubes with a grunt. Midoriya presented it to Uraraka. "Here, float this at the same time. If I'm correct, then it'll become obvious real quick."
Uraraka gave the cube a wary look before slowly reaching out and tapping its surface. Once again, Uraraka had a single thought. MISTAKE. The woman gagged in mid-air. The weight was a third of what she had been lifting with her quirk before, but it felt like she was lifting all three. Uraraka found herself cracking her eyes open at the sound of whooping laughter. "I'm right! And it is utter bullshit."
"What- urp." Uraraka took another deep breath. "What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that that cube," Midoriya pointed at the spinning tungsten block. "Still weighs a ton and some change."
"Yes, and? Isn't that exactly what you were just saying? I don't remove the mass from the objects?"
"Yes," Midoriya drew out the word. "Except now, everything in a foot radius around you also weighs a ton and some change."
Uraraka's jaw dropped. "Bullshit."
The manic gleam in Midoriya's eyes reached his smile now and made him look crazy. "Exactly! And I don't know how that is even remotely possible. What I do know," Midoriya reached across the table before pointing a revolver at Uraraka, "is that I HAVE to test this."
The gun cracked as Uraraka screamed out in shock, her arms instinctively coming up to cover her face. A long moment passed and Uraraka heard more maniacal laughter. "What the fuck, Midoriya.." Uraraka's eyes snapped open again, her teeth set on edge even as she yelled.
"Oh, don't be a sourpuss. It's a cap gun, and it wasn't aimed at you."
Uraraka's jaw dropped and she pointed at the tungsten cube that had moved from beside her to directly in front of her. "Did… did you do that?"
Midoriya smiled again now, his mouth stretched wide around his teeth. "Nope, but I know what we're practicing today."
…
Aizawa stared across the desk at the chimera calmly sipping his tea. The chimera stared back at the man he could easily consider to be the head of the heroics department, assuming they bothered to pick one, if not the next in line to run the university. "So, what brings you here, Aizawa?"
Aizawa could already feel the frustration of dealing with Nedzu. "I think you know what I'm here for."
Nedzu's blank face gave Aizawa nothing, even as his narrowed eyes searched for any hint of emotion. "I'm afraid that despite how intelligent I am, Aizawa, I'm still not a mind reader. You are going to have to give me something to go off of here."
"The student contracts?"
"You signed off on them. If you have a problem with them, then you'll have to bring it up the next time you're supposed to read them, hmm?"
"Midoriya's military service."
"Exceedingly useful in training a new generation of heroes."
"Setsuna."
"Doing quite well in your class the last couple of days, don't you think?"
Aizawa stared at Nedzu as the chimera stared back, taking another sip of tea. "I know you have the security footage from Gym Gamma. Did you or did you not instruct Midoriya to deal with Setsuna's behavior using such a method?"
Nedzu gave a long, suffering sigh before putting his cup back onto its saucer with a clink. "I had hoped he would deal with that matter more privately. There wasn't exactly a need to get you involved, nor was there a need to get Recovery Girl involved with Setsuna's natural regeneration. Though I suppose you being her professor gives you a good enough reason to be involved."
Aizawa felt his eye twitch, even as he tried to quell the mixture of anger and horror stirring in his gut. "You instructed your own personal student to brutalize a member of the hero course as behavioral correction." It wasn't a question so much as a shocked statement.
Nedzu rolled his eyes, flicking a wrist nonchalantly. "Oh please, it was necessary for Setsuna's situation that she be put under a dominant immediately, preferably one under our current control."
Aizawa had to physically swallow to keep himself from yelling at his boss, especially as he calmly took another sip from his tea. "Please explain," Aizawa bit out through clenched teeth, "how tormenting a student is an appropriate punishment for attacking another student."
Nedzu's brow shot up, even as he chuckled. "Is that what you think that was? That wasn't a punishment, Aizawa. It was course correction at its finest, a reward for Setsuna to be under Midoriya, if anything. He's turning out to be a fantastic person."
"Explain."
Nedzu took in the clenched teeth and barely veiled anger with a sigh. "Animal quirks are unique to each individual, Aizawa. Just because someone might share Gang Orca's quirk doesn't mean that they would experience it the same or, for that matter, even look the same. Instincts are a fickle thing, and with predatory quirks, they tend to be even worse."
"Midoriya mentioned something about predatory quirks having higher kill rates than others." Aizawa watched as Nedzu grimaced. "He also mentioned that they get swept under the rug."
Nedzu rocked his head back and forth in thought. "Well, he's not wrong. No one really cares that the man with the manatee mutation is grazing his way down the coast. But if Gang Orca tears a chunk out of someone's throat when they're fighting? A prominent mutation quirk, high in the rankings, killing a villain without just cause? Well, let's just say the government and HPSC think it's best for everyone if these kinds of stories simply go away."
Aizawa felt his stomach turn. Just how many of these stories were covered up if Nedzu could speak so casually about them? Was it simply exposure? "What does that have to do with Setsuna?"
"Ah, yes, right. We were speaking of your student. Generally speaking, instincts are trained and dealt with by the family they are born to. Families with animal quirks in their trees are tight-knit groups. The few quirk counselors specializing in these kinds of situations are known to these families. The children grow up with strict structures and learn how to handle their instincts. They are directed towards positive outlets. Setsuna never had this guidance, her quirk being a mutation in her family tree, as it is. Her records are clean, as well. She's been fairly well behaved, first in her class and sports. Have to be the best, I can understand that."
Aizawa pinched his brow. "But why did that require Midoriya's actions?"
Nedzu sighed again. "Do I have to spell everything out for you? Two predators cannot exist in each other's territory for an extended period of time outside of close friends and family. To Setsuna, she was surrounded by threats. Midoriya, myself, your other students, you. She needed to either be on top of them with all others subservient or to be put in her place. Midoriya did precisely that. Now she rests comfortably underneath Midoriya in the hierarchy. Midoriya gives her her orders, and she trusts him to take care of her. Just as these things should be."
Aizawa was quiet for a long moment. He was preparing himself to acquiesce when something else Midoriya had said came to mind. "And if she hadn't accepted it? If there were still a problem?"
Nedzu's eyes gleamed as he bared his fangs. "Then I'd have fed Setsuna and her family to the giant plague rats in Madagascar."
Aizawa's veins lit on fire, feeling as though someone had injected him with ice. "That isn't a funny joke, Nedzu. Her misbehaving doesn't warrant the death penalty."
Once again, Nedzu rolled his eyes. "If only Midoriya had kept his mouth shut. Though I suppose his needling of my operational methods to you is the least he could have done, considering that he didn't want to become Setsuna's alpha."
Aizawa's skin felt clammy and his mouth felt like he'd been sucking on cotton balls. His boss had all but admitted to planning his student's murder. "How many?"
Nedzu looked up from pouring his tea and cocked his head. "Hmm? How many what?"
Aizawa struggled to find his voice once more. "How many have you dealt with, Nedzu?"
Nedzu leaned back in his chair and once again bounced his head from side to side. "So much you don't know, Aizawa. Underground hero and yet you don't know even half of the players of this great game. Mind you, that is the way that we want it, but it still must be upsetting to know just how little you really know. Here, look at this." Nedzu leaned forward and tapped several of the keys on the keyboard in front of him with his claws. The rhythmic tapping and clicking ended a few seconds later, and he turned the monitor. "Recognize this student, Aizawa?"
Aizawa stared for several seconds before it clicked for him. "Mihara Susumu, I booted him from the hero program because he wouldn't have survived more than a year with the effort he was putting in."
Nedzu chuckled lowly. "Yes, well. Mr. Mihara here took the transfer to general education a bit worse than you had expected. Oh, he was fine for the first couple of weeks, the time you generally spend monitoring them after the transfer. But not too soon after, he got hooked on Bliss."
Aizawa cringed. "I thought we'd practically eradicated that from the streets." Bliss was a horrific cocktail of hallucinogens, date rape drugs, sexual enhancers, paralytics, and tranquilizer dense human blood that had been developed during the Urban Wars. Aizawa had been glad to see it cracked down on, and cracked down on hard.
"Practically eradicated doesn't mean it is impossible to acquire. Snipe tracked the young man to a drug den in the slums. I offered him a simple choice. Rehab or to disappear forever."
Aizawa jerked to his feet, mouth open, but froze when he saw Nedzu pointing a single claw at him, jerking it back down towards the seat. A wordless gesture that didn't need explaining. "He chose rehab. That footage of him is in one of our outpatient rehab facilities. He made the right choice and with his help, we've developed several new drugs capable of helping Bliss users."
Aizawa snorted derisively. "Oh, that's so much better. Death or human experimentation."
Nedzu pinned him with a cold stare, lips peeling back in a soundless snarl. "If I were you, Aizawa, I'd be very careful with accusations of experimentation. Everything that has been done was with the subject's direct approval." Nedzu closed his eyes and took a deep breath with a long sip of tea before flicking his wrist again. "Those that choose to improve are fixed. Otherwise, they don't need to worry about it. Besides, if we didn't take these measures, the government would. U.A. is one of the three major hero institutions when you include the universities in the RUSA and the EF. We are both a shining beacon for the country and an important part of national security. We can't afford any stains on our reputation if we are to maintain that security."
Aizawa could feel the anger churning in his gut. "Even at the cost of human lives?"
Nedzu just sighed, cup clinking as he put it down. "This is why you weren't informed. Far too many of you humans are far too emotional. Almost eight thousand deaths an hour and you focus on the wrong part of it. They made the decisions that led them to that end, Aizawa. I can list you a dozen active SSS-Class supervillains across the world, some of whom have had more of a positive impact on their areas than their own governments do. Two are in our own nation. Our own government both condones and sanctions black book operations on our own soil weekly. The commission is so corrupt that a serial killer has a point. A few students who can't be bothered to keep their own houses in check are the least of my concerns, Aizawa. My loyalty is to this institution and to my own."
Aizawa licked his lips. "I should stop you. I should go to the media. Do something."
Nedzu just rolled his eyes and took another sip of his tea. "And risk reprisal? No, you are a smart man, Aizawa, and when you get past this initial shock, you'll see the logic behind my actions. Sometimes you humans simply need a little course correction. Otherwise, you end up doing regrettable things, after all."
"I resign."
"No. No, you don't."
Aizawa stood and turned, walking from the room. He couldn't breathe and felt like he would throw up everything he'd ever consumed. His pulse pushed well past safe levels. I'm working for a monster. The questions that were plaguing him now, though, echoed in his mind. Just how much more was he missing? Did he even want to know?
…
Nedzu watched as Aizawa stalked out of his office, as pale as a ghost. Truly what was that man thinking? Hmm, on second thought. Nedzu tapped several keys on his phone before placing it in front of him.
"Sir?" Snipes's voice connected after just a moment.
"My meeting is over. Keep an eye on Aizawa. Report if he does anything regrettable."
"Ah can do that. Any… further actions?"
Nedzu thought about it for a second. Perhaps taking Hizashi's leg off with something higher caliber as a warning? Hmm. "No, I don't believe so. Just report, I'll decide from there."
"Can do, sir." Nedzu smiled. Perhaps Midoriya had done him a favor. It would be useful to have one of his favorite people know how things really worked in the world.
Notes:
Aizawa's spiraling. Besides that there were a few fun tidbits dropped through the chapter. How many did you catch?