"Let's begin with the first meeting of the Midnight Conspiracy Society." Kaminari's hushed voice was just barely audible in the darkness of the dorm's common area. It was past curfew so everyone else had returned to their rooms, but no one would mind if a few students stayed out for an extra hour or so. At least as long as they didn't leave the dorm.
"Don't make it sound so dramatic, we're just investigating something," Mina spoke normally, gesturing for her co-conspirator to take it down a notch.
"It's more fun this way." He shrugged, letting his voice go back to a normal volume. "Anyway, I've gathered you all as my expert team, because I think you're the best of the best for this kind of job." Kaminari looked out over the small group of special agents he had summoned to the lobby. Kirishima, Bakugo, and Ojiro
"Well, we really just thought you'd be the only two who'd be interested in playing along... And well, Bakugo just decided to come along with Kirishima." Mina explained awkwardly, with a nervous laugh.
"Would you stop sucking the fun out of everything?" Denki fired back, in irritation. "Anyway, the reason we're all gathered here is to investigate a rumor about one of our teachers... Midnight obviously." The rest of the gathered conspirators mentally rolled their eyes at his perceived need to point out the obvious.
"Are you going to get to the point, or do you want to keep wasting time?" Bakugo asked, as the last bit of his patience evaporated.
"I was getting to that," Kaminari grumbled, crossing his arms in annoyance. "Anyway, we heard a rumor from a certain unnamed upperclassman. He told me that Midnight has a secret affection for some of her students and that in the past she's had several illicit relationships with freshmen." The common room was quiet as everyone but Mina stared at him with varying levels of disbelief on their faces. "I know it sounds crazy, but think about it. She's always saying weird stuff and fawning over us when we do something that strikes her fancy. So we were thinking that if some of us flirt with her, she might act suspiciously and confirm the rumor."
Amazingly, the argument was barely convincing. She did act strangely at times, perverse even. However, there was one major dissenter. "This is idiotic. Isn't this more like Ball Head's sort of crap? If she had a history like that and even an upperclassman knew about it, she'd be fired on the spot." Bakugo made no effort to control the volume of his voice, as usual. "What a waste of time." He huffed and headed towards the stairwell. "Good luck on not getting your asses expelled." The door slammed behind him, as he headed up to his room.
Seeing a perfect opportunity to escape from what was no doubt a stupid idea, Kirishima got up to take his leave as well. "He does have a point. Antics like this are a good way to get kicked out of school. I'm out too."
"Jeez..." Mina sighed as their plan started to fall to pieces already. "He's got a point though. If we act too overtly and if the rumor isn't true, we'll get in huge trouble." She rubbed her chin in thought. "That's sorta why we didn't invite Mineta here for this."
"Wait, what do you mean 'we'?" Ojiro asked with a raised eyebrow. "You say that like you'll be trying it out too." From the sound of his voice, he didn't seem to be bothered by it, but it was a little surprising.
"Yeah, so what?" Mina shrugged the question off, nonchalantly. "The upperclassman didn't say anything about who she was in relationships with, so maybe she's into girls. I'm just in it because it sounds fun." She grinned.
Ojiro raised his hand, with a serious look on his face, as if he were asking a question in class. "What exactly do you plan to accomplish with this?"
"Well..." Kaminari tried to look casual. "We're just trying to find out the truth, there's no ulterior motives whatsoever." It was fairly obvious to everyone, that there were at least some ulterior motives at play. "We're just doing basic recon, is all. We talk to her for a few minutes, see if she behaves strangely, and then retreat. We're not trying to invite her on a date or something." He was never a very good liar.
Surprisingly enough, Ojiro nodded his head. "I see. It seems crazy but I can't fault you for being curious. I don't really believe these rumors, but as long as everyone involved does not draw too much attention, I'll try to help. Just don't expect too much out of me."
And with that, the three members of the Midnight Conspiracy Society solidified their ranks. Over the next few days, they developed their intricate plan. They knew that on sunny days, Midnight made a habit of eating lunch on the rooftop. That was their main opening of having her alone. Obviously, if one student after another came to try and flirt with her in one day, she would catch on, so they collectively decided to approach her one at a time every other week on a different day, each time. It was brilliant, or about as brilliant as a stupid plan can be.
As the brave leader, and secretly the one most eager to get into Midnight's pants, Kaminari volunteered himself to go first. The night before he studied the finest pick-up artist books he could find in the bookstore's bargain bin. "Yo sensei!" He waved at her casually as he approached, while the rest of his cohorts watched from behind a corner. He tried to keep a confident look on his face, but deep down he was shaking in his boots. He had a ton of experience flirting with girls his own age (with varying degrees of success) but this was an older woman. Not just any older woman, but a borderline sex symbol whose posters hung on the walls of countless adolescent boys across Japan. "You uh... got a sec?"
Midnight looked up from her lunch with a bite of pork cutlet hanging from her mouth. She looked so casual and unlike her posters that it was almost a turn-off. "Hmm?" The pro hero took a moment to swallow her food and wipe her mouth with the back of her hand. "What's up, do you need some help with my class?"
Kaminari was indeed in dire need of help in her class, but instead, he tried to act casual. The rest of his compatriots were hiding by the entrance, still barely in earshot so it wouldn't do to act uncool. "N-nah, I'm good." He stammered, "I was just wondering one kind of food you like when you go out to eat?" Asking her out for dinner would be way too aggressive, obviously, but hinting at it with a casual question with plausible deniability was still safe.
Midnight scrunched her brow for just a moment which was a little pulse-pounding, but she just shrugged and answered: "I like French and Italian cuisine for the most part, why do you ask?" With a smirk, she added. "If you're asking for restaurant recommendations I think mine might be out of a student's budget range."
With an answer like that, the wind was taken out of Kaminari's sails. Not only did she not take the hint, but she also belittled him a little bit, even if it was just in jest. His face went red, and he quickly turned away with a nervous laugh. "I think I could afford to pay for myself and a date if I went to one."
"Oho? So you got a little girlfriend, do you?" Midnight smiled at him after taking a long sip of her tea, and that marked strike three for Kaminari. His pride wouldn't be able to take another hit so he made some feeble comment about going to meet his friends for lunch and exited the rooftop.
"Yeah, there's no way it's true guys. She's as professional as they come." He explained to the rest of the group, trying to tape his pride back together. Meanwhile, the rest of them silently wondered what part of her behavior was professional in that conversation. "I don't envy whoever's up next."
Before he even finished his sentence, Mina had raised her hand to volunteer for the job. "I think I've got her number." She smirked at her fallen comrade, "And I'll show you how it's done!"
A little more than a week later on the same rooftop, Mina casually strolled up to her bodysuit-clad teacher with her usual sunny smile. "Hey sensei, I need some advice." After looking both ways for dramatic effect, she added "Advice about my love life." In a voice that was barely above a whisper, even though the only people in earshot were Ojiro and Kaminari around the corner. They looked at each other nervously, wondering if she was going to push it too far. "You see, I feel like I need an adult's advice, but I don't really feel comfortable asking any of the male teachers so," She trailed off.
With a bit of a smirk, Midnight looked up at Mina. "Ooh, girl talk? It's a little against regulations, but I won't tell anyone."
Mina began to act a little troubled and casually sat down next to the teacher with a sigh. "Well, it's complicated. You see, I think I have feelings for someone, but I don't know what to do about it." The boys began to wonder what exactly she was up to, and if she had just decided to go AWOL and start doing her own thing.
"Well, I would say the easiest way to know is to just talk to them. Just wondering won't get you closer to a real answer." Midnight explained gently, before eating a mouthful of rice.
"That's the thing, I don't know if I can. I think if I were to go for it I might get in trouble." As it turns out, Mina was apparently a talented actress, easily adopting the appearance of an embarrassed, lovesick girl. She took a long pause, as though trying to work up the courage to confess something personal. "Y'see, this is a little hard to admit, but the person I'm into is a girl, and she's older than me. Like over 18 I mean. But she's super cool, stylish, and she even has a beauty mark under her eye."
"That IS tricky." The teacher nodded, seriously, apparently not realizing that Mina was, in fact, describing her. "This is just my personal opinion, but I think that at 16 you're mature enough to make decisions like that." Midnight looked at Mina with a sincere face. "That said, I think that you might end up getting her in trouble if you wanted to pursue a relationship with her. Pros are always under public scrutiny, and even if I personally don't think it would be bad, other people might not be so open-minded. So my advice is to wait a few years and then ask her out." With that, she finished up her lunch and started to pack her things. "Oh, if you were worried about the whole lesbian thing, don't sweat it. There's a fair handful of heroes who are openly in same-sex relationships, and it doesn't really affect their popularity rankings."
Mina froze as she realized that she had effectively talked herself into a corner. After advice like that, asking Midnight out was impossible. So, with nothing else to do, she hung her head in defeat and left to regroup with her team. Once again, they regrouped in the dorm common area. "Yeah, I think this is a wash." She said, taking a sip of a sports drink. "I feel like we may as well drop it at this point."
"No way!" Kaminari shouted. "We still have one more member to try. This isn't over until we each take a turn." He was amazingly resolute on something so trivial. It was almost admirable in its pettiness.
"Even if Ojiro pulls it off, it's not like you'd be getting any from it," Mina said, sulking from the sting of her failure.
"Don't I get a say in this?" Ojiro rubbed the back of his head, awkwardly. However, neither of the other two students seemed to hear him and continued to bicker back and forth.
After several days of rain, finally, the weather was nice enough to eat on the roof, and so Ojiro slowly walked toward her, against his will and better judgment. "Uh, hey." He waved stiffly. "I'm Ojiro, by the way, I don't know if you remember my name yet or anything."
"Of course I remember. I'm not that hopeless as a teacher." Midnight put her lunch down and casually leaned her chin against her hand. "You made a good impression right around the sports festival, too. Much better than your other two friends over there anyway." Her eyes quickly flicked toward the place where Mina and Kaminari were hiding. Ojiro froze solid, terrified that their game was going to backfire on them but Midnight quickly reassured him, "Even though it meant giving up your chance to shine in the tournament, you chose to stick to your principles, and that was seriously impressive. Don't worry, you're not in any trouble. Even if it was a pretty crazy, stupid plan."
It only occurred to him just then, but Ojiro looked back to the rooftop's entrance and realized that Midnight was seated further away than before. "We're out of earshot? Wait how long have you known?"
"As soon as Kaminari walked up to me, honestly." Midnight smirked at him in a way that almost perfectly hid her latent sadism. "You know there are cameras on the roof so when I wanted to confirm that he wasn't acting alone, all I had to do was go check right?" None of them had considered that, but now that she said it it seemed pretty obvious.
"Are we in trouble then?" Ojiro took a careful step backward as though Midnight were posed to swoop down upon him at any moment. "Just so you know none of us were planning on going through with anything."
"Nah, you're off the hook, it's all fine. Besides, whatever rumor you heard was probably not too far off the mark. That said, first years aren't really my type." Midnight finished the last of her food as though nothing strange had happened. "Keep up the good work, and get back to me next school year and we'll see how things go." She had a faint grin on her face as Ojiro walked back to the others, in a state of pure shock.
"Hey man, I guess it didn't go so well right?" Kaminari patted his classmate on the shoulder to console him in his moment of defeat. He mistook Ojiro's look of confusion and surprise as being upset, so naturally, they all figured he lost the challenge the same as anyone else. For the time being, he figured he'd keep this information to himself, just in case. He just gave a simple answer and tried not to grin as they made their way back to classes.
Author Note: Thanks for reading, first and foremost. Additionally, this is sort of an experimental type of fanfic for me because I usually write continuous narratives rather than a series of short ones. Hopefully, it's still entertaining. Tell me what you think in a review or comment, it's always highly appreciated.