Chapter Text
"It's been a while," Eraserhead stated.
"I'll take it that this has to do with last night," Naomasa stated. "I was in the car with All Might when he got your text."
"Partially. It's also about some thoughts I've had related to the old cases we were working on. All for One's existence throws it all into a new light."
"I've already looked into it."
"Through all channels or just the official ones?"
Naomasa suppressed a growl as he declared, "I don't work with civilians that way, not anymore." Seeing movement at the corner of his eye, he glanced up to see Gran Torino. Despite there being nothing on his record and having just recently gotten his license renewed, he fought like he hadn't missed a day. He was careful not to address it with the old man or look too deeply at the vigilante activity in his area, though. Lest he find the evidence to go with his suspicions.
He wondered how many times he used his 'forgetful old man' shtick and pretended to forget he wasn't a licensed hero anymore, then slip off with nothing but a warning after getting caught by authorities fighting villains who would then skip writing any reports about him out of misplaced sympathy. Probably not many, considering how quickly and quietly he could clear the scene.
Eraserhead broke him from his thoughts of Gran Torino's probable vigilante activity by stating, "And you're limiting yourself. I understand in the case active exposure to directly life-threatening situations but…"
"You know how that line blurs as well as I do."
"You also know that…" Eraser sighed, seeming to give up arguing by instead stating, "You said that you've already exhausted all of your avenues to gather more evidence? I'm running my own investigations. I say we work together."
"You're going to go to them either way, aren't you?"
"I am."
Naomasa sighed, resigned. "Fine." He would keep an extra close eye out for if any familiar names or quirk descriptions came up in the near future. "You said that you had something else you wanted to talk about."
"I want to arrange a meeting related to One for All so that everyone can at least be on the same page. All Might told me that you might not even be the only one there right now."
"I'm not. I'm here with Gran Torino."
"I say we both switch to speakerphone, then."
Naomasa pressed a button to do just that.
"Hello Detective Tsukauchi." All Might greeted. "Master?" He asked the latter with noticeably less confidence.
"I'm here. What did you do this time, Toshi?"
"It wasn't me this time, I swear!” All Might replied.
"Breaking up a fight between Midoriya and one of his classmates led to me discovering One for All." Shota declared.
"And you are?"
"Shota Aizawa, their homeroom teacher. In the field, if you know me at all, it's as Eraserhead."
"Oh, you're the quirk suppression guy, right?" Gran Torino replied. "I was wondering if you were real or one of the urban myths told to keep the more troublesome brats from crossing the line into serious villainy."
"Good, if someone like you can't be sure, it means that I've been doing my job right. As have you, I'd guess. I've heard stories from coworkers of a silent night flier who disappears in the breeze before cops can get to the scene."
"You get paid for jobs. I had hobbies."
"In-depth hobbies."
"Do we really have to talk about this?" Tsuchauchi interrupted.
"Sorry," Shota stated. "This discussion isn't productive to the current situation, anyway."
"Maybe some other time, then, since I get the feeling that this won't be our last conversation." Gran Torino exclaimed.
"That's actually why I'm calling. I want to set up a meeting for those of us who know about One for All, for Midoriya's sake. Those of us who haven't met each other, anyway. I assume you are all aware of Nezu and Recovery Girl, as well as All Might. If we exclude them, we can meet up in public without drawing attention. I have a cat café in mind with a lot of people who've been impacted by All For One's activities building up to the creation of the Nomu. I'm sure that if I mention that our meeting is related, they'd be happy to set us up with a safe space to carry out our discussion."
"You do get your work done, a meeting about OFA and setting up contacts with possible allies. And I knew there were gaps in Tsucauchi's resources, just didn't know where." Gran stated. "That being said, It's probably a good idea to exclude the best-known faces from our get-together." Gran Torino declared. "As you already mentioned, we know them well enough."
"Midoriya didn't know about Nezu's awareness until today," Eraser stated.
"Are you…" he then switched gears and said, "seriously Yagi?!"
All Might was literally trembling at the other's anger.
"I've already had a discussion with him, I doubt he needs another," Shota stated, feeling a touch of sympathy for him. "But I think your right. We'll essentially take care of introducing everyone at UA for Midoriya and his mother soon enough, anyway."
"You mentioned another kid."
"Bakugou Katsuki is a childhood acquaintance of Midoriya's, He knows some things up with his quirk but not what. I think he'll be discrete but I don't want him more involved than he already is, for now. I'll mention him at the meeting but I don't plan to bring him in, yet. The League of Villains doesn't need another reason to chase after him."
"How's he fairing?"
"I'm not going to discuss my students unnecessarily," Aizawa stated.
"Fair enough," Gran replied, seeming to realize he might be overstepping his bounds in asking that. " Besides, the fewer people involved, the better."
With that, they began making plans for their meeting.
As he lifted a specialized trapped door from his tunnels and onto the roof, Nezu climbed out into the twilight, wearing a fresh set of clothes. He closed his eyes and just took a moment to enjoy the breeze ruffling his fur and whiskers. He'd just spent time grooming himself after training. He'd used a special comb, keeping his teeth busy with a block specifically designed for whittling his teeth as he did so.
Nezu had devoted a set of tunnels and spaces to physical training. The main staff who had any idea that it even existed was Majima, who he occasionally went to for an item request, with spatial measurements and Recovery Girl, who got upset on the rare occasions that he injured himself and had to go to her. And even they didn't know where, specifically.
Mostly, there were various climbing-related spaces, walls covered in various materials that could test his ability to grasp them. Bars, wires, and cords that varied not only in material but strength, width and, in the case of the latter two, tension. He had them set in at various angles, sometimes grouped together in various distances so he could practice transfers, including grabbing leaps. He only really had to go to Recovery Girl once or twice a month, where he would be lectured about how dangerous it was to push himself so far without anyone to watch in case he messed up in a way that he needed help.
Sometimes, if his annoyance slipped through in his pain, Nezu would argue back. Injuries came with the territory, even with the safety equipment he'd slipped in where needed. Usually, his was from said equipment doing its job when he got his relatively minor injuries. His smaller size especially made falls a lot safer than for most humans. Plus, he had his robots if anything really went wrong. Which he was careful to keep from possibly happening.
Furthermore, if no one saw him training, it would be harder to know his abilities. An argument that held up especially well now, with a spy somewhere in their midst. A silver lining to that situation, small as it might be.
The real reason for not training in the open, which Nezu didn't feel inclined to tell her, though, was that he needed that privacy to train without having to think like a human and just be himself. Between the walls where no one else was, he moved and acted as he was comfortable, be it on two legs or four, along the floor, clinging to a wall or suspended from a shaky wire.
Other than that, the extensive climb of the UA towers could prove enough for exercise in and of itself. As he spent his days training his quirk already and the real limitation for his direct heroics that he had to make time for maintaining was his physical abilities.
Furthermore, it was a good way to burn off stress. His fight or flight instincts were frustratingly conflicting, not only against his logic but each other; Mice, dogs, and bears all had very different reactions, and the more stressed he became, the more he had to fight those instincts in order to think. The interactions with Midoriya and Aizawa this evening had touched on stressful thoughts about both the past and the future.
On every floor was a changing station, A space for him to hang his clothes and place the belonging within them, as well as a clean outfit to replace it, as he didn't want to mess them up as he traveled through the tunnels. He could leave the last of the daily constraints he tolerated and release his pent-up energy and leave concerns about it all to the robots. Now, he was leaving behind one of these spaces, slipping back into the human world he’d taken a break from, although in a place that was currently unoccupied.
After a moment, he walked to the adge, where he’d installed ledges with a secondary bar parallel to the ground that might have looked decorative but was really for him to stand on in order to enjoy the view. Once there, he pulled a cigarette from the box he kept in the storage cubby for the roof and lit it. He only used them up here, knowing the smell would be strong enough to permeate the walls of the building, possibly causing people health issues and definitely leaving a hint to his hiding spot.
Nezu had actually designed the air system for this roof with his habit in mind, downwind from the other building, and the air system adjusted with consideration for it. It was also high enough that it would dissipate before reaching ground level.
Nezu though about the evening. After the boy had left, he and Aizawa had talked about a few things.
It appears that Midoriya wasn't the only one sending up large red flags about his past. Apparently, young Bakugou had said some things, too. Aizawa wanted to add an investigation of their old school to his workload for heroics.
Nezu had given his blessing and told the other to reach out to him if he needed help. Usually, he would personally head a couple such projects each year that he'd find by looking into the students' histories. Unfortunately, with everything that had happened this year, he didn't have the time or resources he usually would, to head the investigation.
They'd also taken time to discuss Midoriya's schedule; what classes they might shift around. Nezu was considering talking to Hizashi and letting him restructure Midoriya's lessons so that he could double some research time as English studies by looking into from other countries. His own conversations with Izuku over some of them could be used to determine his understanding of the material and the boy could just meet project quotas and exams for the class.
Just before leaving, Aizawa had brought up that he'd come up with a good cover story for his request in order to 'set the bar' for training Midoriya. It was actually something the boy had brought up the previous night, related to an old case that Aizawa had recently reopened because of the links it seemed to have to the Nomu. Nezu had no doubt that it would be reason enough to not only get his request authorized but scheduled quickly. It seemed reasonable to assume it would even be the only interest the man had. It was pretty brilliant, actually.
Still, the man would have to be careful. There was always the off chance of the other catching on to his real goal.
It was bound to be interesting. He'd love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
Pushing the idea from his mind, Nezu took a deep breath and let out a puff into the air as he looked out beyond the walls at the city.
After a while, Nezu shifted his gaze over to Ground Beta, his mind already on another set of thoughts; Midoriya's ideas.
It was probably one of the most reinforced of the training grounds. It was certainly one of the most extravagant, complete with an underground mall.
To be fair, he was already planning something more widescale down the road. He had a bad the trouble they'd been facing was just starting. He wanted to be wrong but…
He just couldn't shake it. Like when something was changing in the lab, where they didn't say anything to him but he could tell something was up from the way the workers scrambled outside his cage.
And if the complications with the dorms were anything to go by, it would be good to have a test run as he silently set up the spaces within the school for wider habitation. And it would double to keep the kids safer than in their current living situation. And, if worst came to worst, there would be buildings directly connected to UA just off property which, while not as secure as the main property, would be close enough for the heroes on his staff to reach if needed. Maybe he'd even make some additions to them for people who would refuse to come to UA itself, but be willing to accept the buildings further out.
And a last-ditch effort to protect those who would inevitably be left behind if the school had to go west to Shiketsu.
On the bright side, Nezu supposed it would be fun starting this part of his greater project early without "tipping his hat." He so did love pulling his tricks in plain view of everyone without any of them catching on.
And although these thought’s brought him some joy, there was another thought that brought him more joy.
Many humans had been confused at why he would go through the effort of having such detailed training grounds. Secretly, it was, in part, so he could have access to spaces where he could experience what it felt like to freely roam such spaces. He would sometimes just walk through the streets of his simulations, empty as they were. He knew that no matter how he tried that they’d never be the same, though.
And if his fears of the future came to pass and those streets were one day filled, it would be with scared civilians and he’d be fool to think it would be safe for him. No, he’d be giving up all of his sanctuaries except for those between the walls of UA.
As he stared at the scene below, he hoped that, not only would doing this have all the advantage the boy brought up and allow him to better plan for future crowds, but it would also fill the streets of one of these zones with a bustling community that he could actually walk through. It still wouldn’t be the same as in the cities and he wouldn’t be treated as an average member of the group but he’d be welcome, nonetheless. It’d be a selfish desire he’d be fulfilling, but hardly a harmful one. Especially with everything else it would be accomplishing.