Sips and Schemes

Nezu stared down at the papers that Shota had presented; Midoriya's analysis from last night. He grabbed the cup of tea that he'd placed off to the side, now properly steeped in the time since Shota had handed over his student's notes and started talking about the boy's unnoticed talent. Although the principal had yet to say a word or maybe in part because of that, Shota knew that he was interested.

"Self-taught?" Nezu finally echoed back after he'd placed the cup down, as if making sure he hadn't misheard.

"Midoriya informed me that he has a whole series of notebooks full of hero analyses to vouch for it. He has them in his room. Ill be collecting them this evening and wanted to request something to place them in. Perhaps a safe, or…"

"Oh, I think I can find a space somewhere upstairs for something of this quality."

Shota wasn't completely sure he should be surprised. Much of the upper floors of UA's main building were not used for educational purposes, but more sensitive information and projects that were not common knowledge. "I don't want to deprive Midoriya of access to them…"

"Oh, I was thinking of setting up a room for him to better practice honing his skills and keeping his notes there. Plus, we have so much training footage just sitting in storage, unused and I'm sure there's a more than a few old alumni who wouldn't mind seeing the results of practice analyses on their Quirks… After all, official ones are so very expensive. Of course, he has more potential than that which should be tapped into. I'm considering that empty room across the hall from the area I set up for you." One of the carrots Nezu had waved for Aizawa to join UA was a safe place to keep information for and work on more sensitive assignments he took up for his underground work.

Shota felt a headache coming on. "Were you saving that room for something like this?"

"If I found a student with potential, I wanted to make sure they had all available resources. I am good at looking at the overall picture but you are a master of your niche. And I also don't want him up there alone - he seems to have a gift for finding trouble."

Aizawa was able to suppress the snicker at that comment but the smirk slipped through. "He certainly does. And, I guess the arrangement works well for me." He admitted grudgingly, "I wanted to inform you that I've decided to step in as a Quirk counselor and that will give Izuku an additional opportunity to talk about issues he might be having with it in private. I plan to reach out to his mother and set up an appointment to discuss this, as well as tell her about her son's Quirk."

"An excellent idea. If you hadn't volunteered, I would've requested for you to act as his counselor, now that you know about him. And I would like to be present for the interview, to help show that we're taking this, seriously. I assume that you've already requested All Might's presence, as well?"

Shota nodded.

"Would you also mind sending Midoriya to me after school? I'll be happy to help him make arrangements for his notes."

"He and Bakugou are restricted to the dorms for the next three days as part of their punishment for fighting."

"Ah, well, you mentioned a hole in a wall between dorms, right? Perhaps I'll go over and talk to the kids while, Ishiyama and the robots work on the repairs…"

No, Shota did not like the thought of Nezu getting to spend an indiscriminate amount of time with Midoriya while the boy had nowhere to flee. Especially not in their first encounter. "Once I'm done with my day, I can bring him up. Does four-o-clock work for you?"

Nezu gave a nod. "I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that I'll also be setting up sessions with him." His whiskers twitched in excitement as he stated, "Will the after school block work for the sessions? I'm assuming you've already decided to use his study hour, seeing as you currently have training with young Shinsou booked for after classes let out."

Aizawa nodded, "Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I plan to have Midoriya training with me. Tuesdays, for visits with Hound dog. I'll be setting up my own set of classes with him. I also refuse to release him to a work study until I'm confident in his ability to —"

"No need for that… Midoriya needs a certain amount of hero hours in order to keep his license, but it doesn't have to be for field work."

"And who's going to take a UA student for anything but that?"

Nezu smiled and said, "You know that I have more responsibilities than as a school principal."

Aizawa felt his heart skip a beat. Nezu had his paws deep in a great many pies. There's a reason he was chosen to organize the raid on Kamino Ward. "Seriously?"

"If I'm going to have him helping other heroes, he should be properly compensated for it. Plus, I've found that in many cases, nothing teaches better than experience. That's why we have these internships in the first place. If we're going to focus on Midoriya's intelligence -which clearly, we both think is a good idea - we have a lot of ground to cover." He frowned, "Now, I regret waiting this long to reach out. To think, I could've had almost another year and a half to work with him… Oh well, nothing to be done, now."

"I also don't want you bringing up your work study offer, until after his house arrest is over. No one's allowed to discuss anything hero class related with him while he's being punished."

"Why do I have to get punished, too?" Nezu asked, only half-jokingly. He clearly wanted to get started with young Midoriya, as soon as possible.

"Because, this might've been avoided if you had taken time to meet my student's needs before now. Besides that, I want to bring up the work study programs with Midoriya and allow him to join in the class discussion with the Big Three, beforehand."

Nezu sighed before relenting, "fine. I'll wait. But after that, I want to talk to him." He followed up by asking, "is there anything else that you would like at this time?"

"Yes, actually. I want to get an idea of what we need to prepare Midoriya for, and I have something in mind, but I'd need your help."

"I'm listening. What do you have in mind?"

I'm sorry but this last thing is going to remain secret for a while, although I'll drop hints back to it later. I'm excited about it though.

You wouldn't believe how long these chapters took to get right. I've been working on this conversation in the background while trying to get the talk between Izuku and Aizawa and the confrontation with Aizawa and All Might taken care of. I'm so glad to finally have it done and am ready to move on to the next stage.