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Halfway through the school year, as summer began it’s exodus in earnest, every school became host to one of the most dreaded duties all teachers must face. There are few things worse, in Shouta’s opinion, than having to sit down with a bunch of parents that all think the sun shines out of their kids' asses to talk about their behaviour and how they’re fairing in their classes.
But this year will be no ordinary year. This year, Shouta will be subjected to honored by the presence of the Midoriya family.
See, Shouta had only been dreading the interview with the Midoriyas only slightly more than he had been dreading interviewing the rest of the families at the start of the week. This was because he had Todoroki Shouto in his class, and the only parent on the boy's file was his father Endeavour and Shouta had been dreading that particular interview. Shouta had worked with the man before, and his whole attitude had just rubbed Shouta the wrong way.
Except, when the time came, it was not Endeavour who had shown up for the interview but Todoroki's older sister, who Shouta had not known existed until she introduced herself as such. Todoroki Fuyumi was a pleasure, truely. She was also a teacher and seemed to sympathise with Shouta’s plight if the way she handled the interview– and the way she slipped him a bottle of Sensei’s Sake with a note taped to it that simply read ‘Thank you for looking after my brother’ as she left– was anything to go by.
Shouta had even given her one of his rare genuine smiles as he opened the cupboard under his desk and put the bottle of Sensei’s Sake with the other bottles gifted to him by the Bakugous, the Kaminaris, and by Tensei.
Now, on the last day of the allotted week, the only parents who hadn’t come to speak with him yet were Midoriya Izuku’s parents, and Shouta was wondering if he could simply hide in his sleeping bag.
Because all of the other interviews had gone well.
Far, far too well.
It was generally accepted that parent-teacher interviews came with a certain amount of chaos. Sometimes screaming parents. Sometimes crying students. Sometimes even crying teachers. And it served to reason that, if the other interviews had gone too well, the last one lined up was destined from the start to go to hell in a handbasket.
Unfortunately, this was one of the duties Nedzu simply didn’t allow him to brush off. Shouta stood and shed his sleeping bag before making his way to the classroom door. Not before sending a look of longing at the cabinet that held his seven bottles of Sensei Sake and one bottle of thirty year old scotch courtesy of the Yaoyorozus as an apology for their daughter sending half of his class to Recovery Girl’s office after discovering that yes, she can create gas using her quirk.
Too bad she had experimented with that by creating a cloud of hydrogen gas. Her reasoning behind it was that hydrogen is the simplest element on the periodic table. Unfortunately it also happens to be quite volatile.
That incident had left Shouta questioning just what they were feeding these kids this year. Maybe there was something in the water? Whatever it was, Shouta didn't like it. Sure, he sometimes had to deal with kids being a bit rough and not knowing their own strength, but having two of his students almost becoming killers not even halfway through their first year? The class reps no less. He usually didn't have to worry about that until second year at least but this class just had to be full of overachievers.
At least the Yaoyorozu incident had been an accident. Iida's quest for revenge in Hosu however… the less said about it the better.
Due to the security breach at the USJ, the school board had mandated that none of the parents be allowed to wander around campus unsupervised and so Shouta now had to escort the parents from the front gate and back. Shouta felt this was simply illogical, and had made his opinion on the matter well known but the school board refused to comment.
The Midoriyas were standing a respectable ten meters away from the gate when he arrived. Mr. Midoriya was standing next to his wife, towering over her in a pressed suit and a crisp white shirt with the top few buttons undone. While Shouta didn't often wear suits, since they were restrictive and unnecessary, he could recognise quality when he saw it and he would hazard a guess that the suit Mr. Midoriya was wearing probably cost around three months of Shouta's salary, from both teaching and heroics. Did Mr. Midoriya just like suits or was he trying to intimidate Shouta? It wouldn't be the first time a parent had pulled something like this. The way Mr. Midoriya was smiling at Shouta, perfect straight white teeth on display but with nothing behind his eyes, pointed to the later option.
Mrs. Midoriya, on the other hand, was short and wore a well loved baby pink cardigan over a nice blouse and skirt. When she saw Shouta her face split into a warm smile so much like her son's it made Shouta pause.
The two were opposites in every way, Mr. Midoriya tall, all sharp lines and edges while Mrs. Midoriya was short, round appeared generally friendly, but it was clear just from the way they were standing, Mr. Midoriya's hand on the small of his wife's back and Mrs. Midoriya's whole body turned ever so slightly towards her husband, that they loved each other very much.
Shouta couldn't help but draw parallels from the Midoriyas and from him and Hizashi. Where everything about Shouta was quiet, dark and understated, Hizashi was loud, bright and flashy. Some opposites really did attract.
Shouta bowed to them in greeting. "Thank you for waiting, please follow me."
Mr. and Mrs. Midoriya smiled at him before approaching the gate…
Just for an alarm to start blaring throughout the entire campus the second the couple crossed the threshold of the gate. Shouta jumped at the sudden loud noise, body falling into a defensive stance before he recognised the sound.
The second the two Midoriyas were clear of the gate, the UA barrier activated, a solid wall of steel dropping down behind them, startling Mrs. Midoriya.
Shouta and the Midoriya's silently stared at the barrier for a few seconds before the sound of three security bots rushing towards them at full speed could be heard. Shouta turned away from the Midoriyas to watch them approach, missing the dirty look Mrs. Midoriya shot Mr. Midoriya and the sheepish look he sent back.
"X ranked threat detected!" An electronic voice came through the speakers of the bot at the front of the pack. "Identify yourselves!"
Shouta sighed. Great, looked like the new security upgrades Nedzu had installed after the USJ were glitching again. If Shouta got a jelly pouch everytime the stupid system glitched he'd be able to have one with every meal and never have to buy any ever again.
First it activated as All Might tried sneaking into the school in his small form with the morning rush of students, causing a two hour lockdown and a mass panic. Then the new costume printing machines that UA had invested a sizable percentage of its budget into (and for good reason, Shouta rode the high of sueing that support company into the ground for substandard equipment for weeks) started malfunctioning, causing multiple wardrobe malfunctions for one of the third years, Togata Mirio since his DNA profile, stored with a few others in a secure database had apparently corrupted. Don't even get him started on the time it deemed every single pro hero working at the school threats and locked them all out. Thank god Nedzu lived on campus and had been able to let them in manually after twenty minutes.
"Aizawa Shouta, hero name Eraserhead," he told the bot.
The bot paused for a second as it processed what he had said before the lights on the bot flashed green. Then it turned to the Midoriyas.
Mr. Midoriya cleared his throat. "Midoriya Hisashi and my wife, Inko."
"Quirks?" The bot questioned after a moment.
Mrs. Midoriya looked between the bot and Aizawa before answering. "Attraction of small objects and my husband can breathe fire."
The bot paused again, longer this time. The alarms shut off mid wail. A few seconds later the speakers around campus crackled as they came to life and Nedzu's voice was projected throughout the school. “Apologies everyone, it seems our security system is having another hiccup. False alarm, there is no X ranked threat.”
Mrs. Midoriya looked relieved. “Oh, thank goodness.”
Mr. Midoriya gave her a strained smile as he pulled his wife closer for a second in reasurance. “Yes, what a relief.”
Shouta shrugged off the weirdness and once again started leading them to the school building.
They quickly headed to Shouta's office. Everyone got comfortable, the Midoriyas sitting in the seats he had brought in specifically for the interviews. Then Shouta grabbed the plain manila folder on his desk and opened it to be greeted with a photo of Midoriya Izuku, looking all the world like he was being held at gunpoint, just like he did in all of his official photos. Once the Midoriyas were ready, Shouta began.
"Now, as you would have seen from the reports sent home after the end of term exams, Midoriya has top grades in most subjects, his best subjects being English and Heroic Foundations while his worst subjects are Hero Ethics and History. But that is not to say his grades are bad in those subjects, even in his worst subjects he remains in the top 25% of the class." He paused when the Midoriyas smiled.
"That's our Izuku!" Mrs. Midoriya said. Oh god, was she looking teary eyed?
Shouta nodded before continuing. "He also gets along well with most of his classmates. However," he paused for a few seconds, partially for the drama of it, and partially because he was trying to word it in such a way that didn't make the parents go on the defensive, "Midoriya has been involved in a few incidents that I'd like to talk to you about."
Shouta can't help but notice that while Mrs. Midoriya looked concerned, Mr. Midoriya looked to be trying to restrain a grin. Shouta's gaze lingered on him as he detailed all of the incidents he could off of the top of head.
"The incident with some members of class 1-B the day after the USJ. Apparently some students of 1-B thought it was a good idea to antagonise the students of 1-A. One of the students, Monoma Neito, required an emergency session with our school councillor after your son was through with him."
Mr. Midoriya had puffed out his chest and was looking far too pleased about his son using his words to eviscerate his opponents and leave them traumatised in his wake. To be fair, Shouta was secretly a little impressed. He'd met Monoma and that kid was a piece of work. A small part of him wanted to know just what Midoriya had said to him to turn him into the crying mess that Shouta had seen being escorted to Hound Dog's office. A larger part of him wanted to learn how to do that too.
Mrs. Midoriya turned to glare at her husband. Shouta nearly laughed as the man all but wilted under Mrs. Midoriya's gaze, like a time lapse of a flower that hadn't been watered in a week..
However, Shouta wasn't done. "He was also involved in an accident during quirk training that sent half of my class to Recovery Girl's office.”
Mr. Midoriya leaned forward in his seat. “Oh?”
Shouta pursed his lips. “He was paired with a classmate for training and asked her if she could use her quirk to create gas.”
Mr. Midoriya nodded. “Ah, yes, Yaoyorozu-san, Izuku has told me a lot about her.”
“She created a cloud of hydrogen gas, which detonated when it came into contact with another student’s electric quirk.”
“Kaminari-kun, I presume?” Mr. Midoriya asked with a knowing look in his eye. Just how much did Midoriya talk to his parents about his classmates that they were able to identify them by name from just a description of their quirk? Actually, considering Mr. Midoriya was a world renowned quirk specialist and CEO of a quirk consultation company, perhaps that was to be expected.
“There was also the incident at the Sports Festival with Endeavour…” Shouta trailed off meaningfully. He didn’t feel the need to go into details since this particular incident had been televised.
Never in all of Shouta’s years could he have seen that coming.
“Ah, yes. Izuku told us all about that. Endeavour really should be more careful with his quirk so no one would feel the need to use a fire extinguisher on him. It really is a safety hazard, and as the Number Two hero, it really doesn’t look good-” Mr. Midoriya was cut off when Mrs. Midoriya stomped on his foot.
Mrs. Midoriya smiled pleasantly at Shouta even as her husband subtly rubbed his foot against the ground. “I talked to Todoroki-kun afterwards to make sure he was alright and he’s such a nice young man. I invited him to dinner but he was rather busy...”
Shouta nodded. He looked back down at Midoriya’s file and hid a grimace. Of course, those were only the incidents Midoriya was officially implicated in. Shouta however suspected that he had been involved in quite a few more incidents.
For instance, the Stain incident. He had mysteriously disappeared right in the middle of attacking another of Shouta’s students, Iida Tenya. According to Iida, Stain had been ready to finish him off when he was suddenly enveloped in a black cloud that had come out of nowhere.
When the cloud disappeared, Stain was nowhere to be found, and just in time for Midoriya to show up with his mentor Mr. Brave in tow to save the day.
Stain had been found a few days later gagged and bound in front of a small police station on the outskirts of Tokyo in one of it’s shadier wards. He also seemed to be missing his quirk.
When All Might had heard this particular tidbit of information, the man had gone white as a sheet and choked on his coffee. Aizawa had also been disturbed to find out that Stain’s quirk was gone. To think some villain out there had developed a drug to permanently destroy quirks… It was a chilling thought.
This one incident wasn’t enough to make Shouta suspicious of Midoriya. Surely there had to be a few people with quirks that produced smoke that would appear black in a dark alleyway, besides Midoriya’s butler/babysitter/personal uber.
Except then it became a pattern.
Uraraka gets mugged on the way to school? The mugger is found stuck to a wall with some sort of sticky balls like a fly in a web the next day.
Shinsou is harassed by a group of Gen Ed students for his quirk? After an anonymous tip off the student’s lockers are searched and found to contain illicit substances.
When he thought back on it he remembered the student he expelled on the second day with no small amount of trepidation. Midoriya had wanted to ask Shouta about his quirk on the way to the training ground when they both happened to overhear the vitriol Mineta was spewing about his female classmates Shouta had expelled him on the spot. Had Midoriya had something to do with that too?
And let’s not forget Chisaki Kai and the whole Shei Hissakai. Now, that could be totally unrelated to his student snatching a young girl from Chisaki after said girl ran into him while he and his family were on a trip to the city.
God, Shouta hoped it was a coincidence. He did not like to think about a Midoriya with the power to break into a yakuza compound, bind and gag everyone inside, and turn Chisaki Kai's quirk erasing bullets against him and the other higher ups before disappearing without a trace.
Shouta briefly spared a glance at the cupboard filled nearly to the brim with alcohol. Yes, that thought coupled with the insane amount of alcohol he had been gifted to him was enough to give him a problem. Best he didn't think about it too hard.
“We’ll have a talk with Izuku about not getting into any more incidents,” Mr. Midoriya assured him, his voice smooth and even.
Shouta did not like the narrow eyed suspicious look Mrs. Midoriya was sending her husband. He did not like it one bit. In fact, he had the sudden gut clenching certainty that said talk would not be so much about avoiding getting into incidents but more about avoiding getting caught.
Unfortunately, the latter option seemed more likely from Mr. Midoriya, considering the stories Shouta had overheard from Midoriya’s childhood.
Sure, Shouta didn’t have any children, but he was certain that teaching your kid how to break themselves out of a bank vault with just a few bobby pins and a pen wasn’t standard procedure. Neither was giving your children unprompted advice on how to commit tax evasion, money laundering and fraud.
Actually thinking back, perhaps that was one of the reasons the seemingly straight laced and innocent Midoriya was struggling in his Ethics class. Shouta would have to look further into that.
“Now, do you have any questions for me about Midoriya?” Shouta hoped to wrap this interview up quickly.
The two thought for a moment. Then Mrs. Midoriya spoke up. “Is Izuku making friends?”
Shouta grimaced, causing Mrs. Midoriya’s eyes to widen in concern. “Yes, he’s made friends. I’m pretty sure that the whole class consider him their friend. Sometimes his classmates fight over who gets to partner up with him during class exercises.” Personally, Shouta had no idea how he did it and simply decided not to question it.
Mrs. Midoriya smiled. “Oh, I’m glad. He’s told us that he made friends but he never brings any over to the house.” She looked disappointed at this. Why this was, Shouta had no idea. Shouta saw enough of his class during the school day, if he ran into his students outside of school he would probably hide.
Mr. Midoriya nodded. “As long as Izuku is happy and healthy, that’s all I really care about.”
“Well, if that’s it then I’ll draw this meeting to a close,” Shouta said, already standing up.
“Oh, of course!” Mrs. Midoriya said before reaching into her purse. At the same time, Mr. Midoriya reached into his suit jacket. In unison, both Midoriyas held out something for Shouta. Mrs. Midoriya was holding an expensive looking bottle of gin, the bottle itself looking to be worth a small fortune due to the detailing, while Mr. Midoriya held out a smaller, planer bottle with a wooden stopper filled with white powder.
Shouta stared at the bottle of white powder incredulously. Mrs. Midoriya took one look at the small bottle and cried out in dismay. “Hisashi! I thought you were joking!”
Shouta closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Please tell me that is not what I think it is.”
With his eyes closed, Shouta could not see the couple before him but he could hear them just fine.
“I swear to god, Hisashi-”
Mr. Midoriya huffed loudly. “So giving him a seventy-five-hundred-thousand yen bottle of gin is fine, but heaven forbid I give the man a little something to help him get through the day. Look at him! Izuku was right, the poor man looks dead on his feet!”
“Hisashi, you can’t go giving pro heroes cocaine for christ's sake!”
“I’m going to open my eyes,” Shota said slowly, interrupting the bickering couple, “And when I do, I will not see any trace of any sort of illicit substances and I will pretend that this never happened.” There was a quiet rustle of fabric and then silence.
Shouta opened his eyes and sighed in relief when he didn’t see the small bottle of cocaine anywhere. “Thank god I don’t have to arrest my student’s parents on the charge of possession of an illicit substance since that would definitely make things awkward in the classroom,” Shouta said dryly.
Mr. Midoriya bowed his head. Mrs. Midoriya gave Shouta a small relieved smile before turning her gaze on her husband, her countenance shifting from sheepish to blistering fury in a millisecond. Ahh, so that's where Midoriya got it from. “We’ll be having words about this when we get home.”
Shouta took the gin and stashed it away with the rest of the alcohol before going right back to business.
“I’ll be escorting you to the gates now.”
The two Midoriyas nodded and stood to follow him out of the classroom. They quickly left the building, Mr. Midoriya looking like he was being marched to his doom all the while.
Shouta on the other hand was feeling… unsettled.
Even with the security system glitch, the being offered a little glass bottle of cocaine… he had a nagging feeling that the interview had been a little too tame.
It was ridiculous, but still, Shouta trusted his gut and right now his gut was telling him that this wasn’t over.
Shouta had never before wished so badly to be wrong than when they were all in sight of the gate, only to run into All Might.
All Might was wearing his ugly yellow pin stripe suit as he speed walked through the gates and towards the school building. He barely spared the group a passing glance before freezing in his tracks and doing a double take.
Shouta too stopped in his tracks when he saw the rage in the Symbol of Peace’s face, but what really made Shouta want to take a few steps back was the horror underlining his expression. All Might raised a trembling hand and pointed at Mr. Midoriya. “YOU!”
Mr. Midoriya made a point to look around himself. When he saw no one else around he turned back to All Might with his head cocked to the side as he pointed to himself. “Me?”
“All For One! How did you manage to infiltrate UA?!” All Might bellowed, taking a step forward.
Mr and Mrs Midoriya both took two steps back to match. “I walked in through the gate? I think you might have mistaken me for someone else, All Might,” Mr. Midoriya said a little nervously.
All Might took another step. “I would never forget the face of the man who killed my master!”
Good, what an absolute shit show. Shouta wished he could erase their quirks to get All Might to stop harassing Mr. Midoriya but as much as he despised him, he didn’t want to accidently out the man’s secret form. Instead he did something that he could only remember doing enough times in his life to count on both hands.
He raised his voice. “ALL MIGHT! SHUT UP AND GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!”
Immediately all three adults turned on their heels to face Shouta with their mouths open. Shouta cleared his throat before speaking at a far more reasonable volume. "I believe there has been a mistake here, All Might. These are the Midoriyas, Midoriya Izuku's parents."
All Might did not look reassured. "I am not mistaken. I'll be taking him into custody for questioning, if he has nothing to hide then he won't mind, right?" All Might turned a smug glare on the Midoriyas.
Mr. Midoriya glared at All Might. "You want to arrest me just because I look like someone else?" Mr. Midoriya reached into his suit jacket, making All Might tense. "You can arrest me when you have probable cause. Now excuse me, my wife and I have to get home now." A swirling portal appeared behind the couple and they both stepped in before either pro hero could react.
The portal disappeared once they were through, leaving behind nothing but a whiff of Mrs. Midoriya's floral perfume.
All Might's chest swelled, no doubt ready to– Shouta didn't actually know what the number one hero would try to do, just that Shouta was pissed. He sent his capture weapon towards All Might and wrapped it around his neck, making the number one hero wheeze. "I cannot believe you, All Might."
All Might turned to him, all the while trying to unwrap the capture weapon from around his neck. Shouta glared at him, only a shred of self restraint stopping him from using his quirk on All Might. "Trying to arrest a student's parent because they looked like– like a villain?" Who even was All For One anyways? Shouta had never heard of him.
All Might tried to answer but the capture weapon was making that difficult, so with great reluctance, Shouta let him go.
All Might gasped (what a baby, the capture weapon wasn't that tight) before wheezing "that man is a terrible villain that needs to be stopped!"
Shouta frowned. Sure, the man was shady as fuck, most likely a criminal too if the cocaine was anything to go by, but a villain? Shouta prided himself on being able to accurately read people and when he was in that meeting with Mr. Midoriya, the possibility that the man sitting across from him was a villain had never once crossed his mind.
Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose. "This… villain…"
"All For One," All Might added helpfully.
Shouta nodded, "This All For One… when was the last time you saw him?"
"When I killed him over a decade ago," All Might answered immediately.
Shouta stared at All Might. "Let me get this straight… you think Mr. Midoriya is the villain you killed over a decade ago… because they look similar…"
All Might sputtered. "Well, I– they never–"
The moment Shouta's last fuck withered away and died was marked by his quirk activating, making All Might shrink down in a puff of steam from someone who eats steroids for every meal and desert to a regular looking gym rat. All Might gasped, taking a step back from Shouta.
Shouta stared the man down his hair floating and being moved about by the slight breeze. "I am going to my office where I will have a glass of sake and then have a nap. If you try to stop me or wake me up, I will string you up from the tallest building in ground beta. If you try to arrest Mr. Midoriya again without rock solid proof that he is somehow this dead villain you killed over a decade ago, I will call Gran Torino."
All Might paled. "Oh no– that– that won't be necessary."
Shouta finally blinked, letting his hair fall and All Might puff up again like the showy peacock he was. Then he turned on his heel and stalked towards the school building, already plotting ways to make anyone who intercepted him on his way to his office with any problems less than life threatening regret being born.
God, he was so damn tired. He briefly lamented not just accepting the damn bottle of cocaine.
Once in his office he pulled a shot glass from a desk drawer and a bottle from the alcohol cupboard. He ended up grabbing the gin Mrs. Midoriya gave him. He took a moment to simply marvel at the craftsmanship that went into the bottle before putting it back into the cupboard and grabbing a bottle of Sensei's Sake instead.
He quickly poured himself a shot, muttering a quiet 'kampai' before knocking it back. Good shit. He seriously considered just drinking the whole bottle but instead set it and the shot glass down on his desk, grabbing his sleeping bag and crawling into it.
With the taste of sake on his tongue, he curled up and drifted off to a peaceful sleep. He would unpack the mess that was the Midoriya family later, after he'd gotten some much needed rest.
***
Hisashi mopped his brow. That persuasion quirk he had been using the whole interview to convince Eraserhead that he wasn't suspicious really took it out of him, and that was before he tried using it on Inko to try to stop her from making him sleep on the couch that night.
The effort was futile. Hisashi pouted as he got to work laying sheets over the couch. He may have thrown his pillow a touch too hard at the couch in his irritation, but a minor touch based repair quirk easily took care of that. He finally let out a sigh as he threw the duvet over the couch.
It was only a little cocaine! Not even half a kilo, and that poor teacher really looked like he needed a little bit of pep in his step. Hisashi wondered if he would be in even more trouble if he just happened to anonymously slip the bottle inside the man's apartment. He could easily find out where the man lived if he wanted to, it would be so simple.
That was a stupid question. Inko would probably be furious, and Hisashi was in no way eager to suffer the wrath of her quirk turned on him again. The time she found out he was a villain had one time too many, thank you very much.
He'd have to at the very least put that idea on hold for now. Maybe he'd have another chance in the future. After all, it would be a shame to waste two hundred grams of perfectly good cocaine.
With that decided, Hisashi turned his attention to the blonde pest. He thought he'd washed his hands of him all those years ago when he faked his death in order to retire and spend time with his wife and newborn.
He hadn't even murdered the man when he tried to crush his Izuku's dream of being a hero. Hisashi may not be the biggest fan of Izuku's desire to be a hero but he still supported his son. Yes, he'd been very tempted but had known deep down that Izuku wouldn't be happy with him if he murdered the number one hero, so he had refrained.
But today's interaction… Hisashi would find some way to make him pay.
After all, Inko only ever forbade him from ever touching All Might. She never said anything about psychological warfare and pulling mean spirited pranks on the man.
"Kurogiri?" Hisashi called out.
Kurogiri poked his head out of the kitchen. "Yes?"
Hisashi smiled at his favourite employee. "Could you please get me some itching powder next time you go out?"