The week after taking the exam was a blur for Callum. After sleeping an entire day away from his fatigue, he had to take things gradually; using utensils was difficult, as was writing. He knew that he couldn't risk damaging his violin, so he left it in its case for the time being. Once he regained his expertise with chopsticks, he knew he could handle his stringed instrument.

Fortunately, his week of recovery was undisturbed. It was rather unsettling for Shiro not to pester him at all hours of the day. When he went to the mess hall for his meals, however, the egotistical man seemed to be lost in thought. Most of his friends were in a similar position; Callum was out of the loop. Were it not for his exhaustion, he would at least try to pay them more attention.

Regardless, he didn't have the time to do any investigating of his own. After a week of waiting, a package arrived underneath his door as he woke up. Picking up the slim container, Callum tore off the packing tape and pulled out a blank screen. He pressed the power button at the bottom of the device, and its brightness nearly made him drop it. It couldn't get any worse than this.

"GOOD MORNING, YOUNG MATEI!"

It got worse. Seeing All Might's dazzling teeth in his dark room blinded him for several moments. Callum opened the blinds to his window, the faint sunlight minimizing the strain of the lights reflecting off the Number One Hero.

"You're probably wondering why you're getting a message from Me, ALL MIGHT!" He definitely was. All Might went pretty much all over Japan to perform his heroics, although his time in public had been on a downward trend for several years.

"To answer that question, I have news to tell you; I will be a teacher at UA starting this year!" Callum quirked a brow at that. All Might was an incredible hero, sure, but he didn't seem to be patient enough to handle dozens of teenagers at a time.

"But I believe it's time to get to the nitty-gritty; your scores have been calculated!" Callum tensed, his grip on the screen tightening enough to make a slight creak in the metal before he caught himself. "I cannot say how high you scored, due to Principal Nezu's request, but I CAN say that you more than met the qualifications to make it into the general studies course at UA High!"

Callum sank to the ground, relief sapping the strength out of his legs. He made it. He actually got accepted. More than that, if All Might was to be believed. His score must have been high to have the Principal himself preventing him from knowing.

Standing back up, he gathered his thoughts. The rest of the Number One Hero's message told him that classes would begin next Monday, which was only a few days away. Struggling to flex his fingers, Callum grimaced. He needed to adjust to the increased gravity by then. It was time to train.

It was different, Callum thought, to come to UA as a student. Instead of the forbidding atmosphere that hung over him and his peers, there was now an air of expectation. He had made it into the most prestigious school for heroics in the world. While that was a hell of an accomplishment, he knew his spot wasn't guaranteed to remain. He had earned his seat, but now he had to keep it.

Thankfully, he was able to find his way to his classroom quickly. Wading through the crowded hallways was an uncomfortable experience, but he supposed that he would have to adjust.

Opening the door to G.S. 4, Callum saw that there were about a dozen students already in the classroom. Not wanting to socialize, he settled into the rear seats. His peers didn't seem interested in reaching out to him, which suited him. He wasn't here to get chatty, although he would be lying if he wasn't hoping to see anyone he had met during the exam.

Over the next several minutes, the classroom was filled to the brim with students. The noise grew into a low roar that made Callum grimace. He wasn't used to this much noise in such a small space.

"Can't they just be quiet?"

Turning to the side, Callum saw a purple haired man sitting in the desk next to his. He was glaring at the crowded room, and Callum couldn't help but agree.

"You're right about that. We're here to learn first, not get distracted by each other." The clearly fed up teen looked at Callum in surprise, before quickly returning to a passive look.

"I didn't think anyone would be taking this seriously besides myself. I'm glad to see this isn't the case." He extended his hand, which Callum shook. "Hitoshi Shinso."

"Callum Matei." Shinso quirked a brow at his name, but otherwise didn't react. He pulled out a notebook and pen, absentmindedly twirling it in his hand to deal with the building irritation.

A moment passed, and the familiar jingle of spurs snapped Callum out of his thoughts. Looking to the door revealed Snipe in his Wild West attire. The cowboy hero's gaze was hidden, but he seemed to stare in his direction for a moment before moving to the rest of his class. He hoisted a gun up to the air, firing three shots in quick succession.

Like a bomb had gone off, the rest of the class dashed to the seat closest to them. It took nearly half a minute for everyone to find a seat that wasn't already occupied. By the time they had sat down, Snipe was at the podium in the front of the classroom.

"Rise and shine, ranch hands!" Reloading his pistol, Callum and Shinso braced themselves for more gunshots. When none came, they slowly let their hands fall back down to their desks.

"Now, y'all did a good enough job at the entrance exam, I s'pose, but don't count your eggs just yet." The students looked at Snipe in confusion. "After all, one of the top scorers is in this classroom."

Silence reigned. Someone in this class got a score in the top 10 in the Exam? What were they doing here, in Gen-Ed? Those thoughts quickly turned sour, and a murmuring began to spread throughout the students.

Callum's eyes were locked with his teacher's mask. That was a low blow; even though he knew that knowledge would get out eventually, he wanted it to be on his terms. As it stands, he was just put several steps behind the starting line.

He could feel Shinso's eyes boring holes into his head. He didn't pay his classmate any mind, though. Snipe nodded in his direction, then cleared his throat.

Well

The class fell silent once again. "Well," he drawled, "now that you gossipers have had a minute to yap, it's time for the first exercise of the year; the Roulette Rescue!"

Snipe turned on the projector, and an image of a building appeared on the right side of the board. On the left were pictures of the members of the class.

"We have one day to use this facility before the hero course students claim it, so pick the dust outta your ears and listen up!"

The picture of the building changed to show a cluster of dummy civilians, tied to chairs in a circle. "We're splitting up the class into hero and villain teams. The heroes are saving the civilians, obviously. The villains need to stop the heroes from doing that. Interpret that however you want. If all members of either team are unconscious or forfeit, the opposing team wins. If the civilians are brought to the bottom floor and out the building, the Heroes win.

"However," the class gulped, "if anyone from either team kills a civilian, that is an automatic loss. Both teams need them alive to count as a victory."

The class roster began to blur in motion, the twenty-two faces eventually arranging themselves into teams. The team sizes weren't the same size, however. Half of the teams were split off into pairs, but there were also a pair of three and four man teams as well.

When the teams were sorted out, Callum frowned. He was on the two-man Hero Team A, and he was going up against one of the four man squads. It appears that he would be having an uphill battle from day one. As unfortunate as that was, at least he was used to it.

Additionally, Shinso was on his team. Whether that would be a blessing or a curse remained to be seen, given how little he knew of his teammate.

"Alrighty, ladies and gents," Snipe drawled. "Get with your partners and get out to the field. Time's a'wasting!"

"So…" Callum started, "What exactly is your quirk?"

Shinso's neutral gaze bore holes into Callum. He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. When they reached the entrance to the building, he spoke.

"Brainwashing." Seeing Callum raise a brow, Shinso couldn't entirely hide his flinch. "If someone responds to something I say, my quirk allows me to take control of their bodies. I can tell them to do anything that is within their capabilities, and they cannot resist my commands."

Callum nodded, mulling over the information. "Interesting. How many people can you control at once? Do you have to give them all the same order, or are you able to give different directions to each brainwashed zombie?"

Seeing Shinso's eyes widen, Callum chuckled. "What, did you think your quirk was 'destined for villany'?" As Shinso's hesitant nod, Callum rolled his eyes. "Look, yours isn't remotely close to the most dangerous ones I have to deal with on a daily basis. I'll trust you not to use your Brainwash against me for today. You know, since we're on the same team and all."

Shinso was floored. All his life, he had been told that his quirk was good-for-nothing, evil, villainous, and every name under the sun. Classmates, teachers, even his parents feared what he could make them do without their consent. Most of his life had been a rather lonely one.

And now this guy he just met hardly knew anything about him, yet he was fine with his vile quirk. Part of him wanted to recoil out of habit; to push away someone who may just be using him to advance.

A small, stubborn part of him, however, let hope bubble in his stomach. Try as he might, Shinso couldn't see anything beyond curiosity in his temporary teammate's eyes. Swallowing, he forced himself to speak.

"I can control up to four people at once." Seeing Callum nod, he continued. "I can give each of them individual commands, but it has to be something they are capable of. Also," Shinso sighed. "My control weakens if I have more people under my sway. At four people, a gentle nudge could very well break the hold I have over them."

Humming to himself, Callum quirked his lips to one side. "You would be better used as my support, in this instance." At Shinso's likely indignant response to his statement, Callum narrowed his eyes. "I call my quirk Gravity Well. If you're within ten meters of me, there is a good chance you might be caught in my field of increased gravity."

Shinso groaned. "Great. Not only are you going to be the heavy hitter, but I'll be nearly useless. You may as well be doing this exercise without me."

"Absolutely not." Callum refused to let his partner think that was a good train of thought. "I can only let use my quirk for at most ten minutes at a time before my body runs out of juice. The consequences of pushing past that limit too far can be… severe. I'm going to need your help today, Shinso."

Shinso was taken aback by his partner's certainty. With a quirk like that, how could he take longer than ten minutes to complete the exercise?

"Sure."

Not really satisfied with that response, Callum held back a sigh. This was going to be a pain in the ass.

"Hero Team and Villain Team A, start!"

In an instant, Callum and Shinso dashed inside the building. They climbed up several floors in the first minute. Since they were the first teams to participate, there was a high likelihood that the civilians hadn't been moved from the top floor yet.

As they climbed the stairs to the eighth and final floor, a wall of stone shot up in front of them, the top of it looming overhead of the two heroes. It was thick enough to force the pair down a few steps.

A feminine voice shouted from the other side of the barrier. "Take that, heroes! Just try and get past my wall!"

Shinso was pissed. This was the quickest path they could have taken, and they still took too long to get to this point for his tastes. He didn't want to use his quirk yet; he only had one shot before they started ignoring whatever he said. "Well that's just great," Shinso groaned. "How are we going to get through this?"

Callum was silent for a moment, looking at his watch. Five of the fifteen minutes had already passed. There wasn't time to find another route, fight through whoever was in their way, and make it to the civilians in time.

"Stand back, Shinso. This could get messy." Once the purplette went down half the flight of stairs, Callum loosened his grip over Gravity Well. With smooth, practiced breathing, he let his quirk emit around him. The earth barrier in front of him began to tremble, and an urk from behind the wall told him that his opponent had fallen to the ground.

Shinso was wide-eyed. He had gone twenty feet back, so he wasn't under the aura of his partner's gravity quirk. As a result, he saw the wall begin to crack in several places. Its slight angle made its destruction happen even faster than it would have otherwise.

Ten seconds after Callum started, the obstacle in front of them was cleared. Callum was unable to back out of the way in time to avoid the falling debris. He raised his arms to protect himself, flexing against the impact of several chunks of rock. Once they stopped raining down on him, he looked at the one responsible for the intrusion.

The blonde girl who had taunted them was flat against the floor, panting from exhaustion. Her heart felt like it was hammering in her chest. She was barely able to move an eye up to see Callum standing above her, seemingly unaffected by the crushing weight she had just experienced.

"Do you surrender?" Unamused at the interruption, Callum raised his fist to knock her out. Before he could strike at her neck, the blonde below him nodded, a weak 'yes' coming from her lips.

"Kondo Kamiko has been taken out. Leave the building immediately, or your team will be disqualified."

Callum's fist froze in place for a moment, before dropping in front of the girl. Stunned, she hesitantly took the offered hand. When she was pulled to her feet, her opponent smirked.

"Not bad. I think you're going to be a hell of a lot harder to fight next time around."

Shinso saw a fire light up in the girl's eyes. Nodding in affirmation, Kondo made her way down the stairs, leaning heavily against the railing as she hobbled on.

Looking at his partner, Shinso saw that Callum was not unaffected by his own quirk. He was leaning against the wall, taking in deeper breaths than before. A few seconds later, Callum shook his head, looking back at Shinso.

"Come on," he said. "We only have nine minutes left." Shinso followed his partner, albeit at a reduced pace from before. Less than a minute later, the pair saw their targets; three dummy civilians tied together and laying down on the floor. In their way, however, were two of the three remaining 'villains.'

The first was a somewhat timid looking boy, with glasses hiding his eyes from their view. His fists were clenched, but he was uncowed by the 'heroes'.

The second boy, however, made Shinso grimace. He hadn't noticed the nearly bald teen while they were in class, but now he recognized the cold, coal-colored eyes and predatory grin stretching across his face.

"Well, well, well," the villain drawled. "Hitoshi Shinso. Imagine my surprise when I found out that you managed to get into UA. Seems like you can't escape your true nature, though; looks like you need to be reminded about what happens to villains."

Callum watched his partner trembling. Trying to stop him from blowing up, he reached a hand out to Shinso's shoulder.

The purplette shoved his hand away without looking at him. "Go on ahead, Callum. Aiko and I have unfinished business."

"Are you sure," Callum spoke quietly. "You aren't exactly built for‒‒"

"I know." Callum's eyes narrowed. Prodding him wouldn't do either of them any favors. It seemed like being able to actually team up with someone was out of the question.

"Fine." Walking towards the opening to the hostages, Aiko didn't bat an eye. His partner, on the other hand, raised his hands. Purple sludge shot at him. Not wanting to get hit by whatever that liquid was, Callum ducked below the slush, sprinting forward faster than his opponent could react. He lifted the bespectacled boy into the air before throwing him onto the ground.

The breath forced from his victim's lungs, he immediately lost consciousness once his head hit the floor. Aiko looked bored at the display, while Shinso winced at the crack that briefly echoed in the hallway.

"I knew he was unskilled, but I didn't think he was that useless. I hope Saya isn't that much of a disappointment, too"

Callum clicked his tongue. "At least he tried to do something to stop me. If anyone was useless here, it was you."

Before Aiko could retort, Callum looked to his teammate. "Keep him busy while I rescue the hostages." Not waiting for a response, he continued past the two conscious participants and into the final room.

The dummy bots were tied together, near a heavily locked staircase. There wasn't any sign of the final villain, though.

"Now where could she‒‒"

A grunt made him look to his right. A redhead girl was already mid-leap, a fist cocked back and vibrating. Knowing he didn't have time to dodge the blow, he resorted to blocking. He crossed his arms over his head, and braced for impact.

The punch hurt. A lot. His left arm took the worst of the damage, being on top of his right. While it didn't quite break, there was definitely deep bruising. Callum staggered back, but Saya wasn't going to let up.

She rushed him, nearly getting inside his guard. Callum deflected a jab, ducked underneath a haymaker, and rolled backwards to avoid the knee that was an inch from nailing his face.

'This girl is pretty good,' Callum thought. As he continued to lean away from increasingly wild swings, he started to grin. 'Too bad being pretty good isn't good enough.'

An entire minute had passed, and Callum had remained untouched by Saya. Her frustration was mounting, and her swings were becoming wilder as a result. When she was too slow to pull her arm back after having another jab reflected, Callum struck. He grabbed her wrist, gripping with enough strength to make Saya yelp in pain. Turning his entire body, he threw Saya against the wall.

Cursing from the impact, Saya slit to the floor, falling to her hands and knees as she tried to stop the swimming in her head. When she recovered enough to stand, she was alone in the room. Both Callum and the hostages were nowhere to be seen, and the locked door was on the ground in a crumpled mess.

Saya groaned at the situation at hand. Those stairs were the fastest way into the building. They would also be the fastest way out. She began walking‒‒'more like limping,' she thought‒‒towards the door.

"Hitoshi Shinso has been knocked unconscious. Callum Matei has reached the safe zone outside of the building. Hero Team A is the victor!"

"Dammit!"

Callum spent the remainder of the class stewing over his performance. Snipe had named him the VIP of his match, which made sense. He disabled two of the villains and saved the hostages with just under two minutes to spare. With Shinso nursing icing his head wound, the teammates were silent as the other hero and villain teams faced off against each other.

Callum was grateful for the silence. His body was worn out from the exercise. Despite not overusing his quirk, he still had to carry the dummies (which weighed at least four hundred) down eight flights of stairs. After nearly getting clocked by a vibrating fist, of course.

Said arm was pulsing with pain. Callum had hoped that it would fade with time. Unfortunately, the opposite was happening; he could hardly focus on what Snipe was saying because of it.

The hero in question eventually gazed at Callum, holding his arm in an increasingly futile attempt to suppress the pain. When the student looked up at him, Snipe sighed, before nodding.

"Alrighty, folks," he said. "Class is over. The ones who feel they're too hurt to focus on class can visit Recovery Girl. She'll write notes for those she deems actually hurt."

Several students groaned at the end of his statement. Most of them were tired from the exercises, and could use a nap. Saya in particular was relieved. Her injuries made her vision swim when she tried to focus her attention. She rose, grimaces affixed to her face as she made her way out of the room viewing the test buidling.

Shinso was one of the last to leave the testing room. Seeing him rise from his seat, Callum offered a hand to Shinso.

"Not too bad, man. We make a pretty good team."

Shinso slapped his hand away, making Callum realize too late that he extended his injured hand. Sucking in a sharp breath, he looked up to see Shinso glaring at him.

"What team? You did all the work." The purplette shook his head. "I should've gone with my gut. You didn't need my help; I needed yours. I don't want you and your lucky quirk paving my path for me."

Eyes narrowed, Callum watched his former partner leave the testing room. A small weight seemed to lodge itself on his shoulders, and he clicked his tongue from disappointment.

Slower than the rest of his classmates, Callum also stood up. Before he could leave the classroom, Snipe gripped his shoulder. Rooted in place, he waited for his teacher to speak.

That moment didn't come, however. Instead, Snipe merely walked ahead of him, waving one of his pistols in a 'follow me' gesture. Grinding his teeth, Callum complied, falling into step behind him.

The walk was a silent one. Lunch wasn't for another twenty minutes, so there weren't any nosy students around to poke their noses where it was unwanted. When they walked up the stairwell instead of down, Callum knew they weren't going to see Recovery Girl.

When they reached the top of the stairwell, Snipe put a hand on Callum's shoulder. "You did the right thing, Matei. Adapting to your partner's sudden unwillingness to cooperate is a skill most students here have to learn. You'll be a helluva deputy if you keep growing."

At a loss for words, the student couldn't keep his mouth from slightly dropping at his teacher's remarks.

He certainly earned his spot on the UA staff, Callum thought. I can see why they hired him.

Callum was led to a set of oak doors, with Snipe knocking on the polished wood. Glancing up, Callum saw that there was a lot of fine detail along the doorframe. Following the patterns, he noticed a bulge near the center of the design. Confused, he nevertheless walked into the room.

Sitting behind a heavy desk was a creature Callum had seen at the opening ceremony that day. Part bear, part dog, part mouse, Principal Nezu was an oddity. Callum had never heard of an animal having a Quirk before, especially with the smile plastered on his face.

"Good afternoon, Matei! I trust my esteemed colleague has given you a good impression of UA so far. Care for some tea?"

Callum looked at the offered cup, its smell reminding him of his empty stomach.

"Thank you, sir." Draining the hot liquid in a handful of seconds, his stomach was temporarily sated. "I'm learning quite a bit under Snipe's teachings. Though I have to ask; why are you so concerned about how I'm handling my first day here?"

Nezu's eyes brightened. "An excellent question." He hopped down from his chair, walking directly in front of the first year student. "You see, Matei, I find myself quite curious about you."

At Callum's raised brow, the principal continued. "You performed extraordinarily well during the entrance exam. You, along with Miss Kinoko, stopped dozens of the faux villains sent to chase down the fleeing students. Not only that, but you also used your quirk to tear off an arm of the Zero Pointer that was leading them."

Callum was taken aback by that. The area of influence for his quirk was limited to ten meters. The fist that hit the ground was at least several feet beyond that. If he had indeed been responsible for the damage that metal behemoth suffered, then that meant his quirk was gaining strength again.

"You even scored one hundred and five points, a new record for this exam ," Nezu continued, either not noticing or caring for his reaction. "Yet, you only applied for the General Studies course. Someone with your abilities surely knew that it would be likely that you could easily earn a spot in our Hero Studies courses. So why didn't you?"

'I made over a hundred points?' Squaring away his unease for the moment, Callum cleared his throat. "I didn't want the spotlight the Hero courses would put me under."

"Somehow, I doubt that."

Callum jumped, whirling his head behind him. Coming out of the shadowed corner was a tall, lanky man. He wore dark clothes, except for a white scarf and a slitted yellow vizor. He was clearly unamused with his response.

"E-Eraserhead?" Callum cursed himself for the stutter. "I didn't know you were here."

"That was the point, Matei."

"Now, now, Eraserhead," Nezu turned his gaze to his colleague. "We're getting off track. Shall we get back to the main topic?"

Although the Principal remained smiling, Callum felt the temperature drop by a few degrees from the pointed question. Even Eraserhead marginally loosened his posture, though he continued his mild glare towards the sole student in the room.

"Fine."

"Thank you, Aizawa!" Nezu's grin regained its former warmth. "Now, Matei, I have talked with both Snipe and Eraserhead. They agreed to swap your spot in the General Studies course with a student in the 1-A course that Eraser here teaches."

Snipe chuckled. "You're a bit too much of a go-getter to be stuck in the pits with the rest of the regular ranch hands, cowboy. I think you'd do more than a smidge better learning in a faster paced class."

Callum gaped at Snipe, recovering after a moment. "Thank you, Snipe." He looked at Ai‒‒Eraserhead, politely dipping his head. "Thank you as well, sir. However, I'll have to decline your offer."

The room fell quiet. Snipe cocked his head in confusion. Nezu was equally surprised by his candid rejection, his upturned lips frozen in place. Eraserhead, however, narrowed his eyes at Snipe's student.

Callum felt increasingly uncomfortable as the minutes ticked by. Wanting to break the tension, he rose from his seat.

"I was serious when I said I wanted to stay in Snipe's class. I want to learn how to control the power of my quirk before I can think about letting it get stronger."

"Seems like you've got good enough control over your quirk to be in my course," Eraserhead said. "Better than some of my Problem Children, at any rate."

Callum sighed. "That's… only partially true."

Nezu returned to his seat, acknowledging this may be a longer conversation than anticipated. "Go on, Matei."

"Well," Callum started, "I am constantly working to suppress Gravity Well from extending as far out as it wants to go. My body is constantly tense from the effort to keep other people from being affected by an increase in gravity. The only way to stop it from taking effect is if I'm unconscious. Which, of course, makes sleeping difficult."

"If I push my quirk outside of my body, however," Callum pinched the bridge of his nose, grimacing. "My mind has to focus on maintaining the radius and strength of Gravity Well. Eventually, the strain becomes too much to handle; my vision swims, I lose my sense of balance, and I am very likely to fall unconscious."

Aizawa lowered his head, seemingly contemplating and ignoring the other occupants of the room. Snipe crossed his arms, taking in the new information. Both teachers were taking their time to figure out what this could mean for the student's future.

Nezu, however, was excited. Jumping up on his desk, he clapped his paws together.

"Now this is exciting! There's plenty we can work with here, Matei." The principal pointed a paw at Callum. "See if you can relax your hold over your Gravity Well.

"Don't," he said, seeing Callum about to raise an objection, "try to force it out. Just let go, and see what happens."

Callum felt his chest tighten from the prospect. Taking in several deep breaths, he tried to slowly loosen the habitual tension in his sternum.

The effect was immediate. The heroes in the room fell to their knees from the sudden increase in their weight. Picture frames and paintings hanging on walls tore off the nails holding them down. The bookshelf behind Callum collapsed, as the books on its shelves were fairly heavy to begin with.

Panicking, Callum reigned in his quirk. The pressure in the room lifted, and his teachers all rose to their feet. When they all looked towards the student, he steadfastly glared a hole into a corner of the room. He refused to return anyone's gaze.

Snipe cleared his throat, breaking the awkward silence. "Now that y'all have your answer, I'd like to have Callum here visit Recovery Girl for the rest of the day. He got clocked pretty good during the exercise; I don't think attending class is a bright idea."

"An excellent point! Callum, you are free to go to Recovery Girl's office. She will have a lunch substitute for you. I also remember," Nezu's lips turned into an alien frown, "that she wanted to see you on the first day. Something about pushing yourself too far, I believe?"

Not rising to the Principal's bait, Callum sighed. "You're right. Thank you all, for giving me the opportunity to change classes. I hope I can learn a lot from you, Snipe, even if it's not as 'advanced' as you think I deserve." With a grin affixed to his face, Callum strode out of Nezu's office.

Once the door was shut, Aizawa managed to overcome the moderately blurred vision Callum caused. "Did anyone else notice?"

At the lack of response from his peers, Aizawa continued. "Not once did he call any of us 'sensei', despite one of us actually being his teacher."

Snipe hummed. "That is a bit peculiar. Maybe he's had less than positive experiences with people in authority."

"He is from the only Quirk Refuge in Musutafu, Snipe." Nezu turned, moving to sit at the only untouched chair in the room. "They have Emergency Provisional Licenses for a reason, after all."

"That's all the more reason he should be in my class, Nezu. He needs to know he's being observed at all times."

"Now that is just ridiculous, Aizawa." Snipe loped towards his colleague. "A kid from a place where paranoia is king would be a might ticked off at being scrutinized like a criminal."

"Have you seen what the people at that refuge are like, Snipe? Because I have. They aren't exactly model citizens; they're criminals using their licenses as an excuse to assault people."

"In case you hadn't noticed, partner, Callum earned fifty rescue points during the entrance exam. That doesn't exactly fit in with your usual suspects."

"That remains to be seen. For all we know, he may be putting up a ruse. I'm going to keep an eye on him, regardless; it's only‒‒"

"Only logical, yes," Nezu cut in, pinning the two teachers with a predatory grin. "Aizawa, you're right that he does need to be observed. Snipe, you're also right; his actions up to now have earned him a fair chance at UA. To satisfy all parties involved, I propose a compromise."

"Well, el padre, what did you have in mind?"

"Aizawa, you will observe his activities outside of class; so long as it doesn't interfere with your usual patrols, of course.

"And you, Snipe, will monitor Callum's conduct on campus. I will instruct some of your colleagues to do the same, but you will be the primary observer of his action while he walks our halls. I trust this will satisfy both of you?"

The two Pros held each other's gaze, searching for something. Seemingly satisfied, they nodded and shook hands.

"Get this right, gentlemen," Nezu piped up as they were leaving. "News of a Refuge student will spread like wildfire. It's up to us to do damage control when the media inevitably discovers Callum's existence."

With the heavy wooden door opening and closing a second time, Nezu was left alone in his office. The next several minutes were silent as he thought of the next dozen steps. Blinking, the stoat reached for his phone.

"Good afternoon! I know it's been a while since you and I have talked, but I believe I am in need of your expertise…"

And that's a wrap! Long time no see, folks. These last few months have been somewhat turbulent for me; college, home life, and work have all been throwing haymakers at me, and dodging them took a lot of time and energy.

Hopefully what I delivered to you all is worth the waiting you've had to endure. I'll be working my hardest to make the next chapter come out within the next month. Until next time, friends and fans!