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Aizawa stares at the man in front of him, a deep frown on his face. All Might’s words echo in his head, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he focuses on them, turning them over, and yet… he remains confused. “I don’t understand,” he states bluntly, and All Might, a wide smile held tightly on his face, shifts uncomfortably.
“What, ah… what part?” All Might asks, radiating nervousness, as he should when asking such an absurdly stupid question.
Aizawa leans back in his chair, frowning up at All Might from across his desk. The man stands there at parade rest, and Aizawa idly wonders how tightly his hands are clenched behind his back, as the slight sweat on his brow gives away his nerves. He wonders what part, specifically, is making the Number One Hero so nervous: presenting this absolute fuck up to him, or knowing he has to go on to also present it to Nezu.
“Why don’t you repeat the whole thing,” Aizawa prompts, his eyes narrowed still, and All Might swallows thickly. Aizawa can almost hear it.
“Young Izuku was badly injured during today’s hero practical?” All Might echoes his first words uneasily and as a distinct question, and Aizawa exhales a slow, steady breath.
“I suppose I’ll start with, what practical?” he asks quietly, the final two words a displeased hiss, and All Might’s smile twitches around the corners.
“I don’t know what you mean-” All Might starts to bluster, clearly clinging to his confidence, and Aizawa has no hesitation in cutting him off at the knees.
“I mean to reference the fact that no combat practical was scheduled for today. Which makes sense, because it’s only the first week of school and they’ve had no training at all,” Aizawa growls, and All Might flinches slightly, his dark eyes dropping briefly before flicking back to Aizawa’s. “So, why were they having a practical at all, Yagi?” He asks slowly, dropping any formal titles to make clear how little he thinks of the man at the moment.
All Might seems to wilt, just a little, his eternal (infernal, in Aizawa’s uncharitable opinion) smile remaining but becoming shadowed. He takes a deep breath. “I thought it was best for them to learn by doing-” he starts, and Aizawa arches a brow, cutting him off again.
“Learn by doing. I suppose we’ll get to the second point then - how, in the world, did Midoriya get badly injured during a practical they shouldn’t have even been having?” he asks, the words practically ice, and All Might looks down again, uneasily.
“Young Bakugo’s Quirk is quite-” he starts to say, and Aizawa abruptly sits up, his eyes burning as his hair rises with his Quirk. All Might flinches at having it leveled at him, paling slightly as his smile trembles.
“His Quirk? You had them in a combat practical, during the first week, with no training, and they used Quirks?” he demands furiously, his voice rising and hardening with each passing moment. All Might flinches back a step, swallowing again. “What in the fuck were you thinking, Yagi?” Aizawa thunders and All Might winces.
“Well, it was- It seemed wise-” he tries, then swallows again, his smile vanishing in his haste to explain himself. He tries to bring it back with each pause, but it doesn’t stick. “It was a well designed practical, and I thought they should be permitted to get used to using their Quirks in a combat setting-”
“With no previous instruction on restraining themselves?” Aizawa asks, then scoffs and lets his Quirk drop. He aggressively yanks open the top drawer of his desk and fishes out his eye drops, pausing the conversation briefly. He drops them in and then pinches the corners of his eyes, keeping them closed for a moment. “Yagi, they’re fifteen year olds. What the fuck level of responsibility did you think them capable of showing, here? And Bakugo against Midoriya? I’ve known them for four days and even I know that explosive little shit can’t manage his temper around the kid.” He lectures even as he rubs lightly at his eyes, then blinks them open to glare again.
All Might is looking down at his desk now, a frown on his face instead of a smile. “Yes, Young Izuku has mentioned a history with the boy, but I truly thought they’d contain themselves and focus on the goal.”
“And how did Midoriya get
badly injured,
All Might? Did you not stop the fight at the first sign they were going too far?” Aizawa asks, rubbing at his temples. “And was Recovery Girl sufficient for his wounds?” he thinks to ask a moment later, looking at the other hero sharply.
“Yes, of course, or I wouldn’t be here,” All Might promises quickly and Aizawa nods, agreeing that the man was too attached to the kid to let him go off to the hospital alone. “And, ah. I did attempt to stop the fight, multiple times, in fact, but Bakugo refused to heed me.”
“Just Bakugo?” Aizawa clarifies and All Might nods. “It wasn’t a mutual fight, then?”
“Not at all,” All Might confirms, sighing heavily. Without attempting his smile, he looks much more downtrodden, and Aizawa exhales a breath and tries to breathe out his irritation with it. It’s like beating a puppy sometimes, he swears. He shakes his head and turns his attention back to the problem of Bakugo himself.
“The footage is already archived?” Aizawa questions and All Might nods quickly.
“Yes, it should all be on the database,” he promises, Aizawa already turned to start opening programs on his computer. It takes a moment to find the correct file and open it, and then he settles back and watches with an intense stare. The practical starts off fine, for about thirty seconds. Midoriya and Uraraka walk down the first hallway, and then Bakugo is suddenly on top of them.
No, that’s wrong. He’s immediately on top of Midoriya, and Aizawa is already frowning severely at his entrance. His very first move was to let off a brutal explosion right at Midoriya’s head. If the other boy were any slower, it would’ve detonated right between his eyes. Considering the crater left behind by Midoriya’s last second dodge, Aizawa’s grimly considering that Midoriya’s head might’ve simply been pasted had that actually landed.
“What the fuck, All Might?” he asks lowly, not even taking his eyes off the screen as they start to argue. “You should’ve ended it right there, that was a goddamn attempted killing blow,” he scolds and doesn't bother to glance over - he can tell with just his peripheral that the words landed, All Might’s head dropping. A moment later, the man depresses completely, and Aizawa absently passes a tissue his way to dab up the blood. He watches intently as Bakugo blatantly ignores Uraraka, proceeding to display the single most narrow minded focus Aizawa’s seen, all on Midoriya. It’s clear that Bakugo has completely forgotten the point of the practical, letting Uraraka tear off without a single ounce of consideration for her or his own partner.
Iida tries to contact him a short minute later, and Bakugo’s response is to outright disable his transmitter, which deeply irritates Aizawa on a personal level. As an underground hero, he does most of his work alone, but he regularly has to work with others in infiltration and other missions that require a great deal of communication between participants. To see Bakugo just callously disregard his partner like that rubs him the wrong way. Still, it’s a minor offense compared to what happens next.
He watches Bakugo ready his gauntlets for a massive strike and doesn’t notice how hard he’s clenching his teeth until his jaw throbs in protest. He hears All Might attempt, in vain, to stop the boy, but it’s not enough. He hears, “It won’t kill him if he dodges!” and feels his lip curl. Bakugo approaches Midoriya with a wild and distinctly sadistic grin, splitting his face, before he unleashes the explosion and obliterates the entire corner of the building. For a split second, Aizawa almost forgets the kid is fine, and thinks he just saw the boy get killed. All the while his killer was wearing a cruel, and slightly manic, grin.
But, no, showing remarkable strength, Midoriya stays in the fight. Aizawa watches for a moment as Midoriya throws himself at Bakugo, and then he turns his head to glare furiously at All Might, who flinches. “Why the fuck isn’t the match ended? Why wasn’t he disqualified for that?” he asks in a hard tone, colored rough by anger, and All Might cringes.
“It’s just… look at Young Izuku,” All Might attempts, and Aizawa does, taking in the determined face the kid makes despite his pain, the way he stands even as his body tries to give up on him. He sees injuries marring his body - blood caked with dust, scattered burns, his hair smoking. He sees the way the boy’s barely on his feet, but still glares Bakugo down with steadiness.
“He was so very passionate,” All Might sighs with quiet pride, and Aizawa stiffens. He can… almost, somewhat, see what All Might means, in the lighting of Midoriya’s eyes and the spectacular strength of will he’s showing - but…
“You let him keep fighting… half dead, burned all over, barely standing,” Aizawa asks slowly and lowly, turning to look back at All Might, “because he was feeling passionate about it?”
Maybe his tone is enough to trigger a bit of sense in his head, because All Might flinches and looks down for a long moment.
“He’s such an anxious child, I thought to encourage him standing his ground,” All Might defends himself quietly, but there’s already regret in his tone, and Aizawa scoffs softly, shaking his head.
“Yagi, I can almost see what you wanted to do,” Aizawa admits, but his tone isn’t forgiving. “But you were entirely wrong. Everything about this is entirely wrong. There should never have been a combat practical, they should never have been permitted to use Quirks, you should have stopped the fight the moment it started even if it meant physically intervening,” Aizawa condemns, one step after another, and All Might shrinks further in on himself. “And frankly, you had the stupidest excuse for not doing so. This kind of thing is probably exactly why he is so anxious.” Aizawa shakes his head, looking back at the screen to see Bakugo and Midoriya still fighting, Bakugo letting off an explosion dead against the center of Midoriya’s spine…
He watches to the end, eyes narrowed and jaw clenched, until Bakugo looks shellshocked to hear he’d lost - stopped in the middle of beating the other kid while he was already down. “This is disgusting,” he spits at last, and All Might grimaces deeply. “Every part of this. You’re incompetence is legendary, Yagi,” Aizawa scolds frigidly, even as he rises to his feet. He turns his computer off with quick, precise movements. “I need to handle this. Enjoy explaining yourself to Nezu when I’m done with him,” Aizawa says coldly before he grabs his bag and takes his leaves. All Might says nothing as he goes, head bowed and shamefaced, and Aizawa leaves him to stew in it.
He heads for the infirmary first, to gather all the details he needs. Classes had ended an hour ago and the halls are deserted except for scant few staff members, but Midoriya himself is still in the infirmary when he enters. Bandaged all over and hard asleep, the kid seemed to be having pleasant dreams, going off how relaxed he is and how large the puddle of drool next to his snoring mouth is. Aizawa snorts quietly at the display before bypassing the beds entirely, heading for the office off to the side. He finds Recovery Girl hard at work inside, clicking away at her computer.
She pauses when he walks in, face hard until she sees it’s him and makes a slightly less displeased face. “Damn. I was hoping for Yagi - boy needs an earful,” she says irritably and Aizawa scoffs softly.
“You have no idea.” he says grimly, because she saw the results, not the happenings. “What was the damage?” he asks and Recovery Girl sighs, pressing a few buttons and the printer whirrs to life in response.
She hops to her feet and makes her way over as the papers print. “Countless bruises, burns over sixty percent of the body - luckily, only fifteen percent of them were third degree,” she sighs heavily, watching the first paper drop. “He had three cracked vertebrae, three broken ribs, a broken left collarbone,” Aizawa nods as she rattles off the damage, guessing when Midoriya got each injury as she goes. “His right arm was twisted to hell and back, extensive cartilage damage that I was thankfully able to reverse… left arm severely burned and broken in four places…” Recovery Girl sighs heavily. “All in all, he went through hell and back. What in the world happened?”
“Nothing that should’ve,” Aizawa sighs quietly before sending her a grim look. “Full recovery?” he clarifies, and she nods, gathering up the printed papers and presenting them to him. He takes them and glances at it - the medical report for today’s incident - and tucks the warm papers under an arm. “Yagi fucked up all around the board,” Aizawa explains shortly, shaking his head. Recovery Girl clicks her tongue and sighs. “None of them were in any way ready to be using their Quirks, and apparently, at least one of them can’t be trusted with their Quirk at all.”
“Ah. First down for the year?” Recovery Girl guesses sagely and Aizawa scoffs before nodding in a blatant, obviously kind of way. It makes the elderly woman chuckle softly, shaking her head. “It never takes long,” she muses, “but usually they don’t get to do this level of damage on the way out the door,” she concludes more grimly, frowning for a long minute before looking over at him. “I’ve seen people walk away from villains with less injuries than this.” she says solemnly and Aizawa sighs before nodding.
“I’ll handle it,” he promises levelly and she nods, showing her appreciation by taking his hand and, with her other, patting a handful of gummies into it.
“Take care of yourself,” she advises before shooing him away. He glances at Midoriya on his way out - still sleeping, still drooling - and then exits the infirmary, heading down the hall. He goes straight to Nezu’s office, spending about three minutes traversing the large building before arriving. He knocks politely and hears a faint greeting, sliding the door open in response.
Nezu is already waiting with a fresh pot of tea - jasmine green, from the smell of it. He exhales a quiet breath and enters the office, sitting down heavily across from Nezu. The rodent scampers atop the desk to start pouring the tea, smiling as per usual, but the distinct lack of aimless humming gives away his own displeasure. Aizawa says nothing until the little ritual is complete - both of them holding cups, and having gotten comfortable in their seats. “I want him blacklisted.” Aizawa says bluntly and Nezu finishes his first sip before exhaling a quiet breath. “Out of the school and never allowed in another hero one.”
“Not even an attempt at intervention?” The Principal asks mildly.
“I can’t see a single reason why we should,” Aizawa states firmly and Nezu peers at him, patiently waiting for him to make his case. Aizawa proceeds, starting with depositing the medical report on Nezu’s desk. The Principal is far smarter than him, and understands all the medical terms with ease as he scans the four pages of information. He waits as the critter scans through it all, giving off a quiet hum at the point of completion.
“This is quite alarming. It doesn’t seem as though Bakugo-san held back at all,” Nezu muses and Aizawa shakes his head.
“He didn’t. You saw the footage?” he asks, and Nezu watches him for a long moment before nodding.
“Yes. I watched the match after I heard Midoriya-san had to be carried to the infirmary after it.” Nezu’s whiskers twitch slightly, and then he sighs. “The smile the boy wore…” he murmurs, and Aizawa has to breathe through a sudden surge of vindication.
“Exactly. The fucking smile,” he growls the words and Nezu’s ear swivels in an uneasy way.
“His carelessness and blatant disregard for the purpose of the match, these are exceptional red flags on their own, but fixable, perhaps, with enough time and effort. Even the anger itself, with intervention…” Nezu trails off, shaking his head with a sigh. “But what can we do about sadism? What can we do with a boy who has not once inside the walls of UA looked half as happy as he did when attempting to very nearly murder another child?”
“We blacklist him so he never learns to do even more damage,” Aizawa states bluntly and unwaveringly, unwilling to budge on this opinion. Nezu nods slowly, a paw rising to rub absently at his muzzle.
“I see you are set on this,” Nezu murmurs, “and I can think of no valid reason to disagree. But I have concerns about what path this boy might take once we’ve cast him out without guidance,” Nezu says grimly and Aizawa shakes his head.
“I’m concerned about that as well, but we’re powerless in that regard. All we can do is report his behavior to his parents, spell out the consequences, and hope he either learns, or his parents’ awareness will be enough to quell any… up and coming villainy. Until he actually does something, no one can intervene.”
“It seems strange, doesn’t it?” Nezu muses, looking at his computer for a moment, though Aizawa can’t see what’s on it. “His behavior is simply atrocious, yet he seemed utterly oblivious to the idea that he may be punished for it,” Nezu says wonderingly, and that makes Aizawa pause, his brow furrowing in thought.
He’d only seen the students briefly after the practical, for the final fifteen minutes of the day spent in homeroom, and Midoriya had been notably absent. Bakugo… had not raised any red flags at all. Nothing about his behavior suggested he’d in any way changed from his every day routine. There was no anxiety about potential trouble, not even any lingering extra anger in the aftermath of the fight. He’d been perfectly normal and at ease. When the other students had mentioned Midoriya was in the infirmary to explain his absence, Bakugo hadn’t reacted at all. Not even a hint of fear of retribution.
“Another kid with a strong Quirk getting spoiled by society?” Aizawa guesses, his eyes narrowing at the thought, and Nezu’s frown deepens.
“If so, they’ve done him a grave injustice.”
“I’m finding it hard to sympathize,” Aizawa rumbles flatly and Nezu nods slightly in agreement.
“Yes, but no child deserves to be set up for failure. His actions have their consequences that he must face, but… so too do the actions of those who encouraged him to this point.”
“You’re thinking the school? They came from, what was it, Aldera Junior?” Aizawa tries to recall and Nezu nods. “If the other school let him get away with behavior like that… no wonder the kid’s an anxious mess. It’s a wonder he’s not worse,” Aizawa muses, though it does seem strange to him that Midoriya, with a Quirk like his, would be a victim of the opposite of Bakugo instead of the exact same. He should’ve been given ridiculous privilege as well, not been left such a nerve-ridden child.
“I think I’ll have to take a look into the school and see if Bakugo’s records were somehow… arranged. For him to so openly harm another student and be so sure of no consequences - this speaks of experience. It implies he’s harmed Midoriya, or another student, in front of others before now.” Nezu frowns at that, and they fall silent for a long minute. “I’ll have to speak at length with Bakugo’s parents when they arrive - they’ve already been called, of course, and I expect Bakugo-san will arrive with them. I’ll have him collect anything left at the school on his way out,” he says firmly and Aizawa nods, exhaling a small breath at so easily getting what he wanted.
Not that he’d ever doubted Nezu would agree with him. They don’t tolerate blatant attacks like that between students - and they certainly don’t tolerate it when the attacker seemed to enjoy the other’s pain so very much.
For a moment, Aizawa imagines the angry little kid as an actual Hero. If he managed to keep it under control enough to get a license, what would he be like on the field? Apparently, the kind to completely ignore any mission objectives just so he can cause the enemy of the day pain.
“He completely ignored everything about the mission. Even when he had Midoriya down already, he didn’t just tie the kid up like the goal stated - he kept wailing on him.” Aizawa reflects, glaring off at the side for a long minute. “With heroes like that..,” he says, trailing off with a quiet, displeased click of his tongue, and Nezu hums agreement.
“Quite right. We have enough villains, we don’t need them playing the heroes, as well.” Nezu says, staring down at his tea for a very long minute. They sit in silence, each stewing in their respective thoughts - Aizawa, thinking about Midoriya standing there facing Bakugo down, unable to put any weight on one leg, bleeding all over and covered in burns. Nezu, thinking about how he oversteeped this batch of tea just a little, and reflecting that he really ought to stop dithering about and just order that batch of Gold Tips Imperial he saw, even if it’s a tad bit ridiculously expensive.
“Well,” Nezu says brightly, then. “One down, hm? And he even made it four days in! You’re losing your touch, Shota-kun,” he lightly admonishes and Aizawa rolls his eyes fondly.
“Yeah, yeah. Give me another day and I’ll have Mineta on a platter for you.”
“A whole day?” Nezu asks, his eyes glinting a bit, and Aizawa sends him a questioning look. “Even after this incident today at lunch?” he asks innocently, turning his computer screen around to show Mineta crawling under a cafeteria table to look up Yaoyorozu’s skirt.
Aizawa’s eyes narrow, and his grip on his teacup becomes dangerously tight. Nezu watches in amusement as he takes a steadying breath, then clears his throat, forcing down the urge to go and find someone to physically strangle. Right now, he’d pick Mineta as the victim. “He’s expelled,” Aizawa says flatly and Nezu’s nose wriggles in amusement as he nods and turns the screen back around.
“I suppose I’ll have to call him and his parents down as well! Sounds like I’ll have quite the evening,” Nezu says chipperly, always eager to remove problems from his school.
Aizawa nods his agreement, exhaling through his nose. “Need help?” he asks and Nezu waves a paw dismissively.
“Not at all. Get yourself some rest, Shota-kun, you have patrol in three hours.” Nezu says kindly and Aizawa nods again, even as he rises, a hand reaching up to rub at the opposite shoulder. He didn’t even have to do any of the work, yet he feels exhausted after today’s events.
He turns to leave, pausing with his hand on the door handle. He’s struck again by how much he appreciates this - all he had to do was walk in, demand two expulsions, and he got them, no questions asked. Sure, that was because Nezu was ahead of him every step of the way and had come to his own conclusions, but still… He takes a small breath, then sends Nezu a serious look. “Thank you,” he says, simple but heavy, and Nezu seems startled as he looks his way. His ears perk for a moment, then he gives a small smile and dips his head.
“Of course. I always heed my employees when it’s important,” he says easily, but his smile is warm, and Aizawa offers a quirk of his own lips before he finally makes his escape.
It’s nearing six in the evening when he finally exits the building, passing Bakugo and two people who must be his parents on the way out. He nods to them politely, briefly scanning Bakugo’s face - calm, if distinctly irritated. Still not a hint of worry.
He swallows down the urge to scoff and simply continues on his way. The kid’ll realize his fuck up soon enough.
He almost wishes he could be there to see it, but… it wouldn’t be worth the headache.