Her efforts are absolutely exhaustive .

Kayama moans and slams her head onto her desk, hair splaying about everywhere. She didn't know what Nezu was thinking- no, that's a lie, he had explained it in nauseating detail when she had first wondered about it- but it was just creating more and more work for her. She had patrol in an hour- where did he think she had time to grade any of these extra so-called assessment tests?!

Ectoplasm gives her a pitying look.

"...too many papers…!" If she had to read one more she was going to go crazy. "What is Nezu thinking-? I know he's a genius but this is too much! Even for me."

All Might- Toshinori Yagi, she reminds herself, it's hard to put a name to the superhero, even if he was in his smaller form- looks genuinely confused. And also a bit worried. Which is nice, she supposes, but she can't help but think 'lucky him, he gets all of the fun stuff. "Are you alright, Midnight?"

"Just call me Kayama, Toshinori. We're all friends here." She pauses and then adds, tongue sliding along her lip. "And, maybe later, I can have you call me something else…"

Aizawa, who happened to be walking by, swats her over the back of her head with papers he has in his hand. Somehow making it look like an accident. The sly jerk.

"Nezu assigns Class 1-C an exorbitant amount of extra tests. Assessment tests." She seethe. The worst kind. "At some point they just start becoming moot because the students start getting bored of them and they start recognizing the types of questions being asked and half-assing it by just reanswering it the same way they did before and not putting any new thoughts down."

It'd be better if they were at least more sporadic but Nezu had a habit of coming off as heavy handed, especially when it involved students and testing, because he was trying to see who got lazy first and who kept going strong.

Not very many were.

Shinsou. Gaiaku. Hanzengi. Umino. Ikimaru. They at least tried to mix it up. But there were only so many ways you could say what basically amounted to the same things over and over again.

"What's… on the tests?"

"What do you want to be when you grow up? What would you do in so-and-so situation? What is your opinion on this law? The trolley problem." She rubbed at her temples, headache forming just thinking about it. "He overcomplicates it, simplifies it, rephrases it to see if their answers change but it basically boils down to the same thing over and over again."

The most frustrating thing is, it also functions as an incredible morality, personality, and 'how students handle pressure' test. And she can't even really, truly fault him for it.

It's how they pick out who has the qualities of a hero and who does not.

Or, at least, how Nezu does.

Everybody else just treats it as a 'what to expect when dealing with x student' and, only in a rare few cases, has it ever completely cut someone off from the hero course. Because they really didn't want to transfer in any particularly… crazy students.

(They had one student who was likely a budding serial killer several years back that had wanted to use the hero business as a cover. Yikes . It was a situation that none of them wanted to deal with again.)

"Is that not good?"

Toshinori still seemed confused.

Kayama pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's good. It's just… near constant."

Honestly, at this point, she wouldn't be shocked to find her students popping up every other week with visits to Recovery Girl. She'd be seeing a lot of fake stomach aches and very real hand cramps. Not that she would blame any of them, even for lying. But still- Ugh, she wants to check out for the day. At least in terms of paperwork.

"...Anyone looking good?"

Kayama almost answers, she almost does. Instead, she… actually doesn't want to say. Because that's Vlad asking the question. And as much as she respected him as a teacher and a hero she doesn't want to bring it up because his… competitiveness often gets the better of him. It's something that spreads to his students and makes them see Class 1-A as a threat, and it's a trait that leads him to viewing anyone else as competition.

She bites her tongue, eyes sliding suspiciously over to him.

(She could say Shinsou, who's so passionate it seems to exude from him, who seems desperate for a direction and any clue on what to do. She could say Hanzengi whose intelligence precedes himself. Gaiaku who wants to become a hero medic despite his punk appearance. She could say just about any of her students is qualified in some way or another.)

And, when he views her students as competition, he'll give his students time to prep.

Oh, he won't make it obvious that it's a heads up, but she wouldn't be surprised if there were suddenly lessons on mental quirks or non-physical quirks or how to deal with quirks that are strangely similar to her current students.

So… she meets him halfway, and mentions a student who she knows who's interest in the hero course is, at best, unpassionate about the possibility of transfer.

"Uhh. Shockingly, one of the people who don't want to be a hero has been showing a surprising amount of maturity." Kayama purses her lips, pulling out the sheet of the little pink haired student who seemed so bored everytime they gave these tests and who's answers were surprisingly consistent across the board. "Tasatsu Medama: Maturity, strong morals, pretty smart… It seems like she's just got a good handle on herself. Good head on her shoulders. I imagine she'd do well in practice."

Mic practically perks up out of his seat, grin exploding across his face, "Isn't that our lil' musician club member?! Pink hair, horns, scary eyes?"

"You shouldn't call her eyes scary."

He remembers her.

The few times he'd gone to check in on the music room he'd unfortunately hadn't gotten to see her in the middle of her work. The student had been learning the controls for the recording equipment as best she could by herself- (He had felt bad because he hadn't had time to help her out and had seen her struggling over an instruction manual labeling all the buttons and instruments she could possibly use) -and had seen her playing around on a piano and messing up repeatedly as she tried to figure out a melody. He hoped one of these days he'd finally see some of her work in action.

"Musician?"

Mic pauses, surprised to find Kayama looking absolutely confused.

"Yeah, she's in the Music Club room everyday…?" He frowns. "I'm thinking of the correct student, right? She seems pretty interested in music and- Noo?" A question mark is practically hanging over his head as Kayama shakes her head.

"I've never heard anything about that- but music isn't anywhere on her career profile."

Mic mopes.

"But… I was so sure."

Kayama laughs, shaking her head, as she pulls up Tasatsu's file and the career she'd listed as her biggest interests. It was certainly one that she didn't see everyday but it certainly explained why she was placed within her class. It was too bad she was homeschooled up until this point, she'd loved to see her previous test scores and see how she did on them all.

"Well, to be fair, I never know what she's writing in that little book of hers. Maybe it's music related."

(She doesn't realize how right she actually is.)

The discussion falls into other students as Vlad attempts to weasel out quirks and any other students that may prove to be competition for his own in the upcoming Sports Festival.

...She wants her students to beat his into the ground.

Physically.

Maybe not the most 'heroic' of an attitude but Kayama wanted her students to show up the hero students so-so-so bad.

...

...

Kayama huffs.

Glad that she can finally pull away from her grading and make her way back to her classroom.

"Oh, Nezu, thanks for covering for me."

"Haha. It's no trouble at all. It's always wonderful to help teach the next generation!"

She squints. "Uh… sure." She looks between the student sweating buckets in his seat and where Nezu stands at his podium. The large whiteboard is covered in scrawling words and diagrams and her student has a stack of paper that she knows she didn't give him and shaking hands holding a pen that looks fresh out of ink. "I hope you've learned your lesson, my student~" She purrs. "Because we here at UA want to make sure that you're well aware of what happens when you act-" Her hands snap into a clap since she doesn't have her whip to snap for effect. " Badly. "

It's either a testament to her capabilities as a teacher or the horror that is Nezu because her student nods rapidly and looks insanely relieved by her presence.

Kayama isn't so egotistical to think it's because of her.

Nezu is an… unfortunate, hell.

"Yes, yes! I've learnt my lesson! Can I- Can I…" he raises a nervous finger, as if he isn't sure if he's allowed to ask, "...go home now?"

"Of course. Off you go!"

Nezu laughs.

Maniacally.

"I hope you've taken my lessons on filming without permission to heart, Kiroku Eiga!"

Her student shivers and she doesn't blame him. Shaking her head as he rushes out, forgetting to close the door behind him and everything in his hurry. "Is that… truly necessary? I'm sure if we just brought it up with him and Shinsou and Tasatsu, we could have found a solution."

Nezu smiles, sipping at his tea. He'd brought a thermos for the hour of punishment her student had undergone. "And miss an opportunity to educate a budding reporter on the ethics of journalism? Why! I wouldn't miss it for the world." He hops off the stool he'd set up. "Besides, UA is a private school. Even though it was a mistake caused by his last school being public, and also allowing passive quirk usage, he should still be well aware of the legal trouble he could possibly get into in the future! Especially with filming the wrong person. Haha!"

Well, he does have a point.

"Your student is quite camera shy."

"Hm?"

"Tasatsu Medama! I even have the security recordings from her in the music room kept in a hyper secure server," Kayama can't help but tilt her head, confusion palpable. "Haha! You should inform Yamada that if he wants to catch a glimpse of her work in progress, he had best catch her by surprise. It almost seems like our young student has terrible stage fright. Or, I would assume. If I didn't know any better!"

...Okay.

So.

Something's going on with that.

Kayama doesn't ask. Not because she doesn't want to. But because she doesn't think Nezu would answer. At least, not in a way that wouldn't give her more questions than answers. Nezu left, heading back to his office with laughter in his voice and always knowing more than everyone else and taunting them all about it.