Chapter Text
Shouta taps his foot against the linoleum tile outside Nezu’s office. It’s a bad habit – entirely too revealing for an undercover hero, but something he’s never been able to fully break. He’s well aware of the nervous manifestation, but right now it delineates a different emotion: frustration.
The door swings open, and Vlad is red in the face. He looks Shouta up and down before making an impatient gesture for him to enter the room.
“Ah! Aizawa! Thank you for joining us,” Nezu says from behind his desk. The chair in the middle of the room is taken, so Aizawa follows Vlad until they’re both standing at the side of the room.
“I’d appreciate being here from the beginning of the conversation,” Shouta says, crossing his arms against his chest. “There was no reason to make me wait outside if my student is involved,”
“Apologies, Aizawa. We are quickly approaching the end of the school day and I wanted to hear the situation from the boy before having his teacher present. I do hope you understand,”
Shouta doesn’t, because Nezu is being Nezu. There’s no reason they can’t hold the kid after school, or just discuss the issue tomorrow. There’s also no reason why Vlad should have been in the room without Shouta there. This is his student, he needs to be there.
Sho, you’re being fatherly, again.
He mentally brushes Hizashi’s voice away, trying to tamper down his irritation.
“What’s going on,” he asks, not looking away from the principal.
“Your student is a hellion and a disgrace to this institution!” Vlad chooses to answer, and Shouta rolls his shoulders back. “He attacked another student!”
“Of those accusations, I only see one being accurate, and that’s if I’m being nice. If you continue to aggrandize facts and verbally abuse my student, I will be less nice,”
He can feel Bakugou’s gaze on him, but he doesn’t move to face his student. There’s still too many unknowns, and he needs to focus.
“Tell that to Monoma! He’s in the hospital!” Vlad continues, hands flying wildly.
Wait a minute. Freeze frame. Rewind.
“What?”
“Vlad, please take a deep breath. Yes, unfortunately Monoma was transported to Jaku General Hospital after his visit with Recovery Girl earlier this afternoon. I am awaiting an update on his physical condition right now!”
“What happened,” Shouta grits out. Vlad opens his mouth to speak but his capture weapon is quicker, slipping across Vlad’s mouth and lightly threatening his ability to talk.
“Now, now, Eraser. We’re all trying to play nice,” Nezu chastises, standing up and adjusting his computer monitor to face the room. “Let’s analyze the security footage from the incident,”
Shouta shuffles, still ignoring his student, resting his palms on the desk as he observes the video.
It’s Gym Gamma, and Shouta immediately places his and Vlad’s students in a heroics lesson. This was very recent, then; the fifth period, which has only just ended. He confirms it by flicking his eyes to the timestamp, which displays a glowing 13:55. No one’s in their hero costumes, just gym uniforms as they mill about and chat to one another. The kids seem to have subconsciously separated themselves by class, huddled in two groups.
The main thing Shouta is focusing on, however, is not the children. He’s wondering where the teacher is. There doesn’t appear to be any objective the students are working on – they aren’t even stretching or warming up in anticipation of a physical activity. They’re just being teenagers. Teenagers straight after lunch, to be specific, which is a particular breed of teenagers.
It’s actually quite interesting, how Shouta can immediately tell what’s going to happen, and how he would have prevented it had he been in the room.
A scuffle seems to start within the 1B class. There’s a clear disagreement among the students, and a figure pushes through the crowd, even when a girl with ginger hair demonstrates firm disapproval. The kid who emerges is blond and moving in an exaggerated fashion, approaching 1A with flamboyance.
He’s only known his kids for a week and yet he can feel the discomfort they radiate. No one seems to know how to handle this new person, so they all stay still, silently glancing at one another. Shouta makes a mental note to bump crowd control, suspicious persons, and nonverbal communication higher on his lesson plan.
The kid – Monoma – as Nezu identifies him, drags his sneakers across the floor until he stands directly in front of the class. More specifically, he appears to plant his feet right in front of Todoroki.
“Is there no volume on this?” he asks, pointing to the conversation clearly unfolding between the two on screen.
“Not in Gym Gamma, no,” Nezu hums. “Too vulnerable when discussing quirks and weaknesses in physical combat,”
Shouta nods, trying to convince himself he can read the lips of his student. Todoroki is doing what he always does – standing still with a blank look on his face. He needs more time to unfold whatever is going on with the kid; he’s got a written list of concerning behaviors thus far and a sticky note with a big sister named Fuyumi’s phone number scrawled down. But no matter what Monoma is saying to him, Todoroki’s not the kind of kid to react to intimidation like that. The type of kid to react to intimidation like that is sitting right behind Shouta, and the historical version of him on screen quickly disengages from a conversation with Kirishima to push his way forward.
Shouta watches as Bakugou shoulder-checks Todoroki out of the way before standing right in front of Monoma. Just standing, which is important. Monoma continues to talk, and Shouta can see how Bakugou freezes when the 1B student places a condescending hand on his shoulder. The first touch has been initiated. Not a violent touch, though. Shouta can confidently place that bet on his own student, who has not been shy with his penchant for violence.
Strangely, though, this is not the reaction Shouta is used to. Usually, Bakugou gets mad in the spirit of his quirk. He burns; hot and quick and bold in an overwhelming display, a visible and show stopping performance of crackles and explosions.
This anger, however, seems to curl itself over Bakugou’s shoulders, not straightening his posture as it normally would but rather folding him inwards – hiding him. His face drops into an expression of nonexpression, and Shouta almost wants to consider the possibility of him switching personalities with Todoroki.
The second strange thing is that Bakugou doesn’t gravitate towards his usual form of violence. He doesn’t set off his quirk and doesn’t make an explosion. Instead, he winds his right arm back and punches Monoma right across his face.
Both classes react, shouting and running forward, some running away. Shouta blindly grabs for the keyboard, ignoring Vlad’s garbled protests as he rewinds the footage. There was something else interesting there, what was it?
This time, Shouta ignores the punch itself, instead analyzing the faces of his other students. With the problem children he’s received this year, he privately couldn’t be happier with the balance that has managed to be struck. Contrary to outside belief, Bakugou’s classmates aren’t actually afraid of him. They tease and poke fun and are always willing to stand up for themselves or others when the kid crosses a line. There’s a balance of respect there, even so early in the year.
And when Bakugou clocks the shit out of Monoma, there’s no protest from Ashido. Kirishima moves forward but it’s not to pull his friend back, it’s to jab a finger in Monoma’s chest, pushing him away. Iida is attempting to reprimand his classmate for using violence, but Kaminari and Sero are red in the face while they appear to defend him.
Huh.
He lets the video continue past where he stopped it previously, only for more fascinating information to arrive. Todoroki, who had been shoved out of the way, reappears by Bakugou and Kirishima’s side, his hand out and iced over. The kid looks prepared to fight, and he’s not the only one. Shouta’s jaw practically drops when Shinsou joins the gang, and his shock increases so much that he has to press pause on the video when his student opens his mouth to say something.
“Why’d you pause it?” Vlad asks, annoyed.
“That,” he says, pointing to the kid with purple hair. “Is Shinsou Hitoshi. I’ve known him a whole week and he has yet to say a single word to me. He just said something to your kid, who seems to have enraged him to the point of verbal communication, and I don’t even get to know what it was,”
Shouta blinks, realizing he can figure out what was said. He rounds on Bakugou, whose eyes are glued to the computer screen. His face is all busted up – black eyes and a split lip.
“What the hell was all that?”
“What the hell was all what, teach?” the kid snaps, leaning back in his chair.
“Why were they defending you,”
Bakugou stills, and Shouta immediately knows he won’t be getting anything. What is it with kids and their reluctance to share the blame? Why does it always need to be one martyr or nothing?
He jabs the play button angrily.
Monoma’s still smiling, so Shinsou’s statement doesn’t appear to have the same effect that it did on Shouta. Vlad’s kid says something else, which seems to make every ounce of Shinsou’s sudden confidence depleted, as he turns his gaze back to facing the floor like usual. Shouta feels anger zip under his skin, and it appears Bakugou had the same reaction as he reaches out to latch onto Monoma’s upper arm, using his left hand to blast off sparks. Class 1B charges forward to disrupt, but Bakugou uses the velocity of the explosions to rocket off onto the observation deck, far away from the group.
The camera angle switches to follow them, and Shouta watches them land clunkily. It would probably be beneficial to let Bakugou practice carrying others when traveling midair with his explosions. He’s incredibly good at flying individually, but it would be a good practice of teamwork and coordination.
Monoma is still talking, because he apparently doesn’t possess any self-preservational instincts, and Bakugou’s face gets more and more blank until he’s straddling the other boy, punch after punch landing. Monoma eventually has the urge to fight back, copying Bakugou’s quirk and letting an explosion off right in his face. The two continue to tussle, and Shouta can’t help but think that his student is holding back quite a bit. There’s no reality in which this confrontation resulted in a hospital trip.
Todoroki appears, making Shouta’s eyebrows raise. Maybe he just needed a common enemy to become a team player. The ice bridge he creates ends just before the observation deck, and he leaps the rest of the way, immediately engaging in the fight.
Monoma says something to Todoroki, who’s face crumples in confusion as he answers. Then, the confusion wipes – back to his expressionless demeanor. Wait. No. That’s not how Todoroki usually looks at all. This is Brainwash – Monoma must have copied Shinsou’s quirk earlier. Bakugou, with a bruised and bloody face, appears to have a similar realization. He lunges forward again, but Monoma barks an order at Todoroki, and Bakugou stumbles when he hears it.
Shouta watches in horror as Todoroki easily swings a leg over the railing on the observation deck, moving to stand on the other side. Bakugou surges forward, his fingers just missing the fabric of Todoroki’s shirt as he lets go of the railing, free falling towards the ground.
He pauses the video, like that will save his student.
The room experiences a beat of silence.
“No one else was hurt, correct?” he asks, turning to face Nezu.
“Bakugou has minor injuries, but no one else was impacted,”
Shouta sighs, pressing play.
Sure enough, Dark Shadow swiftly swoops in, cushioning Todoroki’s fall before he can splatter to the ground. The Bakugou in the rest of the clip is someone Shouta has never seen before. He’s vicious, brutal, and positively cruel as he attacks Monoma again and again and again. He doesn’t fall for a single one of Monoma’s tricks and attempts to lure him into answering a question, and he’s not at all perturbed when the other boy uses his own quirk against him. Bakugou is cold, efficient as he strikes, kicks, burns.
Alright. Shouta can see how this ended in a hospital trip.
The video cuts, and he lets out a breath.
Shouta turns to face Bakugou, who doesn’t seem to even have the decency to stare at the floor in shame. The kid meets Shouta’s eyes – petulant, disrespectful, the physical incarnation of yeah I did that, I’ll do it again, and you can’t stop me.
“He must be expelled,” Vlad says. “He is unfit to be a hero,”
Here’s where Shouta should agree. Here’s where he should share everything he’s observed about Bakugou from the moment he arrived in his classroom. He should say that the kid is immune to listening to orders and is an absolute liability on the battlefield; he should say he’s is the antonym of a team player and thinks he is God’s greatest gift to Earth.
Shouta stares at Bakugou.
“I disagree,”
“What?” Vlad splutters. “Did you not watch the tape?”
“I did watch the tape, Vlad,” he sighs, turning to face his colleague. “Bakugou went too far, I agree. But there are several parties I find at blame in this situation,”
“Please elaborate, Aizawa,” Nezu chirps, moving to sit back down.
“Where is Toshinori,” he asks.
“What does Toshinori have to do with anything?”
“As far as I can recall, that was supposed to be his heroics lesson. Why was the teacher not present in the room with upwards of forty students? Why did he leave no one in charge?”
“Heroics students should be able to handle themselves without their teacher present for a short period of time,”
“A short period of time, you say? That video was timestamped at 13:55. Fifth period starts at 13:20. Why was the class alone for half an hour? Why were they not given instructions on what to do while waiting for their teacher? Why was a student not put in charge temporarily?”
Vlad doesn’t answer, and Shouta didn’t expect him to.
“That needs to be a conversation you have with Toshinori,” Shouta says to Nezu, who nods.
“I agree. Is that the only other party you wanted to discuss, Aizawa?”
“No. Monoma was a direct instigator in this situation,”
“Now, hang on. Monoma was the victim in this situation,” Vlad argues.
“He can be both a victim and an instigator,” Shouta says, trying to keep his voice level. “Once again I am not excusing any of Bakugou’s behavior. However, Monoma chose to antagonize Class 1A and clearly upset quite a few of them. He technically made first physical contact when he placed his hand on Bakugou’s shoulder,”
“That doesn’t give him the right to beat him up!”
“I never said that,” Shouta snaps. He turns to address his student.
“Have you changed your mind and now want to share exactly what the conversation you had with Monoma and your fellow students was about?”
Bakugou has a shocked expression on his face, but Shouta doesn’t have the time to decipher what it’s for. The kid stares him down, doubling down on his silent act.
“That’s perfectly fine,” he says, walking over to Nezu’s phone. He clicks on the intercom and holds the speaker button down. “Kirishima Eijirou and Todoroki Shouto, please come to Principal Nezu’s office,”
Interestingly, Bakugou moves to protest, but seems to catch himself.
“While we wait for them, we can discuss the attempted murder from Monoma,”
“He didn’t try to murder anyone,” Vlad says. “You’re embellishing,”
“You called my kid a disgrace to this institution,” Shouta bites out. “Monoma told Todoroki to jump to his death!”
Bakugou makes a noise from behind him, and he swivels to appraise him.
“Was that not his instruction? What’s wrong?” Shouta asks, kneeling beside his student. Bakugou just shakes his head, ducking his face to stare at the floor.
“Either way, Todoroki is fine. He was going to be fine either way. The kid could’ve just made an ice bridge midair and caught himself,”
“That’s not how his quirk works, Vlad. You can only leave its persuasion if the quirk holder drops the influence, and Monoma didn’t do that. He may have intended to once Todoroki fell and meant to give him the opportunity to catch himself but none of that happened so we can’t know it would have happened,”
A timid knock on the door interrupts the spat. Shouta strides over and yanks it open.
Kirishima looks guilty, and Todoroki looks bored.
“Come in,” he grunts, closing the door behind them. The two boys attach themselves to either side of Bakugou’s chair.
“Earlier this afternoon, there was a fight in Gym Gamma between some of your peers. You two were present during the argument. I’m going to play clips of the incident and you’re going to tell me what was being said during the altercation,”
Kirishima nods wildly.
“Yes, sir,”
Todoroki blinks.
Shouta sighs, moving to rewind the footage back to the initial point of interaction between Monoma and Bakugou.
“Here,” he points. “What was Monoma saying to you, Todoroki?”
Todoroki looks from Shouta, to the screen, to Bakugou, and back to Shouta.
“Can’t Bakugou just tell you?”
Shouta prays for patience.
“I’m asking you, Todoroki.”
“Oh.” Todoroki says, looking down at his hands. “Monoma was asking if I was Endeavor’s kid, and if I was as powerful as he was, and if I thought I was gonna be the number one hero someday,”
“Is that all?” Vlad asks, looking vindictive.
“He also asked me if my dad was the one who put the ugly burn on my face, or if I did it to myself because I couldn’t stand to look at how hideous I was,”
“Did he now,” Shouta growls.
Todoroki blinks.
“Endeavor didn’t, if that’s what you mean. That was actually my mom, but it wasn’t really her fault–”
Todoroki gets cut off when Bakugou elbows him.
“I was referring to Monoma,” Shouta says, his mind making endless mental notes. “But I understand your confusion,”
He fast forwards, going to the point where Bakugou interferes.
“Kirishima, what was being discussed here?”
His student swallows, clearly not experienced at being in a principal’s office. This does not shock Shouta in the slightest. Kirishima was a beloved and quiet goody-two shoes in all of his middle school records.
“I – I’d love to tell you, sir. It’s just – I’m not sure it’s any of my business,” the boy says sheepishly, his hand coming up to ruffle his hair nervously.
“Make it your business, boy,” Vlad orders.
“Do not speak to my student that way,” Shouta snarls. “Kirishima, Bakugou has the potential to be expelled and he refuses to help himself. He will forgive you for sharing what you heard, he will not forgive you for withholding information and getting him kicked out of Yuuei,”
“Right,” Kirishima nods. “Well. Monoma was talking crap – sorry, I mean he was saying stuff about Todoroki and Bakugou. Really about a lot of people in our class. He made fun of Iida and called Uraraka broke. He was mainly focused on how Bakugou tends to be…a hothead? He was saying how he was gonna be the downfall of our class and that he ruins everything – which isn’t true at all, by the way, bro! Monoma said Bakugou’s quirk paired with his personality had the makings for a great villain, and then he said how Shinsou was the same,”
“Thank you, Kirishima. Anything else of relevance?”
“Uhm. I don’t think so. Bakugou punched him, which I know is bad but it felt pretty deserved after everything he said. Then Shinsou said something, which I’m really proud of because I wanna hear the guy more,”
Shouta silently agrees.
“What did Shinsou say?” he practically pleads. Bakugou bristles in between the other boys, like he’s irritated at the whole experience.
“Shinsou said Bakugou’s not anywhere close to being a villain,” Todoroki pipes up. “Not in those exact words, I can’t remember the exact words. But he said there’s no such thing as a villainous quirk or a villainous person, that there are situations and circumstances that create someone who chooses villainous actions,”
Shouta blinks, taking in the first words from his student. Some pretty damn good ones, if he has anything to say about it. A very interesting perspective he would be inclined to agree with, clearly stemming from the quirk Shinsou has.
“Then?” Shouta prompts.
“Then what?”
“What happened after that?” he grits out, clinging to patience. Thankfully, Kirishima takes the cue to continue.
“Then, Monoma said … well, he said. I don’t agree with this, obviously. I’m not saying this, but he said that people who have villainous quirks like them would probably be better off dead, but then he like, stopped himself and said ‘oh, at least they’re not quirkless,’ and started asking these crazy gross questions like what’s better: a villain with a quirk or a civilian without a quirk, or having a quirk like brainwashing or being quirkless–”
Shouta turns to stare down Vlad. What exactly has he been doing in this first week of school? Sure, Shouta’s probably able to brag considering his own student delivered a hospital-inducing beatdown, but he needs to take wins where he can.
“ –and Bakugou started beating him up again. Or, not beating him up, that sounds so aggressive, it really was some kind of defense,”
“Thank you, Kirishima,” Shouta cuts him off. “I really just need to know one more thing from you two. Todoroki, what did Monoma say to you when you got to the observation deck?”
Todoroki appears deep in thought, and Shouta desperately wants to remind him this was really only twenty minutes ago.
“He told me to jump off the observation deck,” he informs them tonelessly, like it’s directions he’s providing to a shop down the street.
“He told him to fucking kill himself by jumping off the observation deck,” Bakugou’s snarky tone cuts in. “Monoma told Todoroki to kill himself so yeah, I beat the shit out of him. Don’t ask me if I’m sorry or whatever ‘cause I’d do it again right now if I needed to. Hopefully the fucker got some sense knocked into him,”
“What kind of hero speaks like this?” Vlad asks incredulously, throwing his hands up.
“My father, Endeavor, does,” Todoroki volunteers, and Kirishima pats his head.
“You two are dismissed. Thank you for your help,” Shouta says, feeling very tired all of a sudden.
“Is Bakugou in trouble?” Kirishima asks as he’s shepherded out the door.
“Oh, yes,” Shouta says drily. “But you can ask him about it tomorrow in class,”
Kirishima gives him a killer grin paired with two thumbs ups, and Shouta rolls his eyes as he shuts the door. Vlad is sulking when he turns back around.
“I’d be amenable to a month’s detention, including Saturdays. An apology, a written apology, to Monoma as well as mandated counseling sessions with Hound Dog. Twice a week, two months,” Shouta says graciously.
“Suspension,” Vlad utters, and Shouta clicks his tongue. They turn to hear Nezu, who appraises them all.
“Two month’s detention, no Saturdays. Written apology and counseling, twice a week, two months,” he says, nodding to himself. Shouta nods back.
“Problem child?” he prompts, waiting for Bakugou to stand and follow him.
He guides them to the teacher’s lounge, and watches as Bakugou idles before entering, like he’s not sure if he’s allowed in. It’s ridiculously sweet, for some reason.
Shouta collapses onto the couch, shutting his eyes as he buries his chin in his capture weapon.
“Shouldn’t I go back to class or something?” Bakugou grunts out, and Shouta peeks through one eye at him.
“No,” he drawls. “You’re a mess,”
Bakugou scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest, his face drawn tight and defensive. Shouta pats the space on the couch beside him and waits until he feels a weight settle.
“Don’t tell Vlad,” he starts. “But I can’t help but think there was some element of heroism in what you did today,”
He lets Bakugou think that over for a moment.
“What?”
“People like Shinsou have heard that nonsense their whole lives. Villainous quirks, villainous people. It breaks a person down. It strips them raw. And everytime it happens, the majority of people do one of two things: they agree, or they ignore it. Today, you made a statement that that line of prejudiced thinking does not belong in Class 1A, and I, for one, am grateful,”
“But…I beat him up?”
“Yes, you did. And I’m very upset with you. You had numerous other opportunities to handle the situation in a better manner. You are a heroics student and you need to represent that ideal 24/7, even when people piss you off. Next time Monoma gets on your nerves you need to not react. People like him feed off of getting under people’s skin, and he got under yours today, kid. You’ve been constantly pissed off since I met you and yet I’ve never seen you as pissed off as you were today,”
Shouta pauses, looking up at his student. Bakugou’s eyes are wide and glassy, and he clearly wasn’t expecting the way this conversation is unfolding.
“What was it?” he asks quietly. “What got you so worked up?”
Bakugou shuffles his feet, staring down at his hands as he fiddles with his fingers.
“I – I dunno. I think Monoma is just really good at pushing my buttons,”
Shouta sighs. Not today, then.
“Go to Recovery Girl. Get fixed up and then go home. I’ll see you tomorrow, kid,”
Bakugou nods, standing. He shuffles over to the door, and Shouta watches his hand reach for the doorknob.
“Bakugou,” Shouta calls out, waiting for red eyes to meet his own. “Take care of yourself, kid. I’m always here,”