Chapter Text
Principle Nezu sat at the head of the confrence room table and watched as the rest of UA's staff took their own seats at various positions around the expanse of the large, U-shaped amalgamation of desks. Some teachers took a bit longer to get situated than others-- Aizawa slumps into his chair, exhaustion forever present on his features as his loud-mouthed soulmate seems to make it his mission to plop into his seat as noisily as possible. Though, as far Nezu's concerned, the word "quiet" didn't seem to be in Yamada's vocabulary save for when he was screaming it out at the top of his lungs.
Eventually, though, everyone in the room has taken their seats and the principle could begin.
"Thank you all for coming," the rodent starts. "I'm sure with the recent school season over and out of the way that most of you would rather be at home relaxing with your loved ones, but as someone wise once said, 'the work of a teacher is never done'."
Present Mic tilts his head curiously. "Huh, that totally sounds like something you would say."
Nezu only smiles. "My point exactly. Now--"
With a clap of the principle's (teeny) paws, the lights of the conference room shut off and an image of a certain lavender-haired boy is projected onto the wall at the very back of the room.
"Onto our agenda." Nezu gestures to the projection before him. "Some of you may recognize this boy as Hitoshi Shinsou, a student with a remarkable brainwashing ability. He was previously enrolled in our school's General Studies Course, but after showcasing some incredible determination and tenacity, he will be rightfully joining the Hero Course for his second year here at UA. This, however, brings us to our current dilemma."
With another clap of his (fuzzy-wuzzy) paws, the image on the wall changes to display a simple T-chart. 2-A was written in red, the number 20 sat just underneath while the other side of the chart displayed a 21, 2-B written above in a contrasting blue.
Nezu carries on with his speech. "As you can see, there's an imbalance in the numbers. An uneven number of students could cause problems further down the line." The principle folds his paws together (rather cutely), smiling as he looks at no one in particular. "Not to mention the possible power imbalance that could be brought about."
At that, almost everyone in the room glances at Vlad with various levels of subtlety.
Or in All Might's case, worriedly whispers, "I think they're talking about you" to the other homeroom teacher.
Bless that poor stick of a man.
Vlad, of course, only made a gruff noise of acknowledgment, his burly arms crossed before him. "I have no idea what you mean."
Meanwhile, Aizawa narrowed his eyes at the other teacher in scrutiny. "Why is the brat being added to your class and not mine? As I remember it, I'm the one who took the time to train him."
"Well, the boy's got tremendous talent," Vlad said, head raised high, eyes closed and shrugging like it was no big deal. "It only makes sense that he'd join my students. He'd fit right in."
"Don't tell me your feeling jealous, Erasure," Midnight crooned, a finger resting against her cheek as she leved her colleague with a playful look. "How cute!"
"I'm not jealous," the tired man lied gruffly denied. He was fooling no one, though, and slumped further into his chair, grumbling about "getting this meeting over with" as his loud-mouthed husband reached over and pat his back in an act of comfort.
"Hey, don't sweat it Kitten--"
"I told you not to call me that in public."
"Oh, haha, oops--"
"Regardless of which class young Shinsou were to join," Nezu interrupted, the rest of the school staff going silent as the principle once again steered the conversation in the right direction, "we would still be left with an odd number of students to split up between the two classes. Unless, of course, we were able to find another suitable addition to the Hero Course."
Snipe turned his masked face away from the projection on the wall to gaze at the principle instead. "I reckon that's what we're here to talk 'bout then?"
"Indeed." A clap of the rodent's (bean-toed) paws causes the projected image to change once more, the school staff now greeted with the sight of a graph chart. Nezu gestured to the chart where both the logos of UA and Shiketsu High were ranked very high on the graph, the logos of a few other hero schools ranked behind the two in a downwards cresendo. "As you can see, both Shiketsu as well as our own school are ranked incredibly high in terms of acedemic curriculum and the prospering of future heros. Both schools are considered to be the best in our country in equal measure."
Mic coughed, "debatable."
He was immediately shut up by his dark-haired companion's binding cloth.
Nezu paid no mind to the interruption and contrinued. "Unfortunately, our rival school doesn't seem to have any students to spare, and in all honesty I doubt they would be too keen on lending us any to begin with. This, of course, leaves us in a bit of a pickle if you take into account the chart you see here— thrown together by our very own Ectoplasm, might I add. Very well done."
The spooky hero in question only nods to his fellow staff memebers as they take a moment to applaude his work.
"WHOA! MATH!"
"Exemplary work."
"To use your skills to create such a display... How invigorating!"
To his credit, Ectoplasm accepted the praise with grace, though he couldn't help but feel a bit sad.
If only his students would react the same way whenever he made them graphs...
Once the commotion settled down, Nezu once again took charge of the conversation. "But back to the matter at hand."
"If we're looking to add another brat to my class," Aizawa grumbled, "then we're going to have to be very critical about who we choose. My students aren't just any ordinary trouble children."
"You're right," All Might agreed, his brows furrowed in thought. "Taking into account 1-A's—"
"2-A, as they'll soon be," Cementos reminded.
"Right, right. Taking into account 2-A's current, uh... expirience, any candidates we consider would have to measure up as well."
With a wide grin, Mic shot his fellow blonde some finger guns. "Totally! We ought to give the little listeners someone who can keep up with them! It's only fair!"
"True," Thirteen agreed, "but I think that might be pretty hard to do now that Shiketsu's out of the picture." They turned towards the chart projected on the wall. Anybody looking at the image would be able to see just how large of a gap there was between the top two hero schools and the other contenders. "It doesn't exactly give us a whole lot to work with."
The room went quiet, the space-themed hero's words ringing true. The fact that UA was such a righ-ranking school, as well as the fact that the students of soon-to-be 2-A were just on another level entirely, left the task of finding a suitable new student to add into the fray a real challenge for anyone involved.
"Are foriegn candidates off the table by any chance?"
All heads turned to All Might, causing the retired pro to backtrack at the sudden attention. "Uh, well, I just thought that if we couldn't find someone suitable within our own country, it might not hurt to try looking elsewhere..."
Nezu tapped a paw against his (fluffy) chin thoughtfully. "Yes, I suppose that could work." The principle turned his attention towards Vlad and asked, "Two of your students are foriegners if I recall correctly, yes?"
"Oh yeah!" Mic piped up. "Horse Girl and Lizard Boy!"
"Pony Tsunotori and Hiryu Rin," Vlad corrected, sending the boistrous blonde an unimpressed look before turning to his rodent superior. "One American and the other Chinese— though I'll say that Pony's Japanese still has room for improvement."
"But she and her classmate perform well in your class, do they not?" Nezu questioned.
"Of course." With his chin tilted upwards and his chest slightly puffed out, Vlad looked like a proud father boasting about the accomplishments of his children.
Which, to be honest, was about as accurate of a description as they came.
"I think this should go without saying, but if we're really planning on making an addition to the Hero Course, foriegner or not, then we should do so with extreme caution." All heads turned to Power Loader, the bite-sized man holding up a metal-tipped finger matter of factly. "Choosing the wrong candidate could result in a waste of not only our time, but our school's resources too."
Midnight tapped a finger against her chin, humming softly. "Yes, I agree. A dilema such as this should only be handled with the utmost delicacy— like one would a lover."
"Power Loader does make an excellent point," Nezu agreed with a nod. He went silent for a moment before smiling towards the rest of his staff, seeming to come to a conclusion. "Very well then. I shall begin putting together a list of suitable candidate as soon as possible. If I'm unable to find someone fitting our needs, then I'll take All Might's suggestion and look overseas."
At the mention of his name, the skinny blonde nodded in acknowledgement, happy to have contributed.
With one last clap of his (squishable) paws, the lights in the room blinked back to life and the projector was shut down. "Thank you all for coming. Please feel free to return home and enjoy the rest of your evening."
As the school staff made their way out of their seats and out the door, the small rodent spoke up over the small commotion to make one last announcement.
"Oh, and please remember to attend our next meeting two weeks from now in order to discuss our school's budget plan--"
A caphony of quiet groans rumbles from the group of adults.
"Where our very own Ectoplasm will grace us with his own PowerPoint presentation as well as his famous blackberry cobbler."
The groans swiftly transformed into cheers.
"HELL YEAH, FREE FOOD!"
"Well cover me in butter and call me a biscut."
"Actually, I'm allergic--"
It isn't until two weeks later that Nezu gets the call, sitting at his desk well into the evening and looking through the various profiles of likely student candidates with one paw (the other sticky and stained a deep purple). He's just about to take another bite of his cobbler when the phone on his desk rings and he picks it up.
"Mr. Gang Orca," the small rodent greets through the line, his (equally stained) mouth stretched into a pleasant smile. "What a surprise! I wasn't expecting to hear from you anytime soon. How may I help you?"
"I heard about your little problem," a gruff voice says. "You're still searching for a good fit, right?"
"Yes, that's correct. I haven't had much luck, unfortunately."
"I think I might be able to help out with that."
Nezu blinked, silent for a moment.He was just in the process of licking cobbler entrails off his paw, his tongue frozen mid blep.
The very image of educational dicipline.
"Hmm..." the rodent hummed, thoughtful. "What did you have in mind?"