Legends Yet Unwritten
Chapter Two: All Things in Perspective
"Why? What is wrong with me? I was a better student before I came here!" Mina dropped her head into her notebook. She was desperate, and at the end of her rope. If she failed one more of Ectoplasm-sensei's tests Aizawa would kick her out! She pressed her horns to the notes, letting out a sob.
"Hey, don't give up. I got Monoma to pass, and that is saying a lot." Kendo looked over the test. "I don't know why you came to me, though."
The pink girl shook her head. "I've asked Yaomomo. I've asked Blasty. I've asked Mineta." Her head came up, black and gold eyes burning into the redhead's glance. "Mineta, Kendo! Mineta! And I still can't pass!"
Normally, that would have been a slightly stomach twisting admission, but Kendo was frowning. "Do you have more of your tests and quizzes?"
Pages flipped to an under current of muttering as Mina dug out prior tests from the slightly disorganized pocket in her binder. Kendo's face was frozen in the frown as she did the same from her more orderly system. She laid them all out on the table, hers next to Mina's.
"Okay... You're getting more wrong than I am, but not a D. Did you work your percentage out?" When Mina shook her head, Kendo raised an eyebrow. She started going through the tests. "Why do you guys only have a letter grade, and not a percentage on your tests? Thats... huh." She did the math again. "Weird..."
Then she went through the rest of the papers. Mina looked on, the fear replaced with dread. "What is it?"
Kendo passed over the paper she'd been doing her notes on. "So, I have just barely an A. I've got a 93. I went through your tests. But Ken-sensai got us the answers so we can use it as a study aid. You've got a D, but your percentage is an 81. You've just accepted your letter grade, right?"
Mina stared incredulously before letting out a shrill, wordless shriek.
-UA-
Mina had wanted to do something like melt off all of Eraser Head's hair, but she got talked out of it. She was still swearing as she followed Kendo across campus towards the main building where they could see a light on in the evening. "If this doesn't work, I'm still going to kill that-"
"Relax, Pinky. Please. We'll do this by the book." Kendo shook her head. Half of 1-A was hot heads, not just Bakugo. Or maybe he was a bad influence. "We need to talk to the headmaster and get this straightened out. Kendo was pretty sure there was something broken someplace. She'd gone over the other girl's tests in English, to- those were harder to evaluate, but she was pretty sure her grade was supposed to be better. A similar discrepancy showed up in literature and art history.
Each clutched their notebooks to their chests as they took the stairs to the top floor of the admin building. And sure enough, Nedzu was still in his office, along with a woman it took them a moment to recognize Kayama-sensei in civilian attire. Kendo knocked. "Excuse us, Sensai, do-"
"Eraser is screwing me!"
Midnight gasped, "What?!"
Nedzu frowned. While what they had been going over was important, this was more so. He glanced over at the art teacher, being very aware of her relationship with with both Aizawa and Yamada. "Come in, girls. Young Ashido, there are many ways to misinterpret your statement. Please clarify yourself."
Mina slammed her notebook down on the desk with both hands. "My grades are broken! And he's crazy!"
Kendo sighed. Yep, 1-A was a collection of hotheads. "Mina asked me for help with math. She's tried tutoring with other members of 1-A with no change, so she came to me in desperation. I noticed that her letter grades seem to be out of line with her percentages when compared to my grades."
Nedzu let out a sigh of relief. It could have been much worse. He sipped his tea to hide the smile on his lips as he looked at the crimson face of Nemuri. "That is what I was hoping you'd say. I can't imagine how it could have been... other explanations."
Mina flushed crimson as well. "What, no, it's just... Something is wrong! I'm not that bad of a student and he's going to kick me out and..."
"Mina, take a deep breath. Sensei, I told him this would blow up in his face."
"As did I. Young Kendo, I'm of a mind to tell you to discuss this with no one, but you know too much for that to do any good. We will have to trust your judgement. Please, sit, both of you." He waited as the students found chairs. "Your assessment of the situation is completely correct."
Mina frowned. "Huh?"
"Don't grunt, it is an uncouth privilege of your elders. And no, it isn't fair. But your home room teachers have full authority to manage their classes as they see fit. Aizawa-sensei sees things... differently." Nedzu looked down at the two notebooks. He took the more shockingly colored one on a hunch, looking through it until found the tests. "Yes... that would be about right."
"But Sensei! It isn't fair!" Wailed Mina. She looked like she was about to cry.
"Aizawa has convinced me that while it is potentially controversial there are merits to his idea. Your instructors have been asked to apply a different set of thresholds for 1-A's letter grades than are used for 1-B or the non-Hero courses." Nedzu cleared his throat softly. "I was reluctant, given that the Hero course academics are already an advanced placement equivalent with accelerated curriculum."
"What?" This time, it came from Kendo. Ashido it would seem was speechless.
"Its true." Midnight nodded. "You are doing more, faster, than the General Studies and Support students are."
"But why?"
"Because you are enrolled in the Hero course at UA." Nedzu stated it like it was an inarguable, unquestionable and self explanatory fact. Because it was. UA's hero program was the best of the best. The best were capable of more. They had to be.
"Mina..." Kayami started. "Mina, this is your third term with Aizawa as your home room teacher. Why do you think he's doing this?"
"Because he's a horrible human being! He hates us! He wants us to fail! He told us that the first day! He wants us to fail so he can sleep! He threw out an entire class and he wants to throw us out and he's mean!" The pink girl's eyes were full of tears.
Midnight shook her head. "That isn't the Aizawa Shota I've know for years. You know the reason, he's explained himself until you're probably sick of hearing it."
Kendo could only watch. It was slow moving pile up, or watching a family fight when it wasn't your family. She'd heard stories and rumors, some from Ken-sensei himself. Someone had discovered that the year book for Aizawa and Yamada's third year wasn't in the library. It wasn't out, it wasn't even in the catalog. And he was an underground hero, a vigilante with a license. Monoma could be silenced just by saying the man's name- he'd whispered the story about Aizawa-sensei stomping and kicking a member of the League to death, until 'there was nothing but mud', and Aizawa never changing expression as he did it. She would have been uncomfortable with him, but no more, if it was wasn't for Ken-sensei's threats to transfer the troublesome members of the class to Class A with the promise that they wouldn't last a day. She knew she was a little old to believe in a monster under the bed, but... Aizawa was out there in the shadows. Waiting.
Kendo glanced towards the windows with a nervous reflex. Always waiting.
Mina snerked back on her nose as she fought tears. While her acid glands were the strongest in her hands and feet, all of her sweat glands and mucus membranes made acid, and she was aware of it. "Be... because he doesn't think we're good enough."
"Tosh, young lady. If he didn't think you were good enough, you wouldn't be here."
"But Nedzu-sensei... why? Why does he do this? Why is he like this?"
"Ahh..." The mouse-man sighed. "Nemuri?"
"He hasn't told you why he threw an entire class out. I know he hasn't. And maybe he should, but he's stubborn. We've told him he should." Midnight pinked slightly. "It was his second year teaching. Someone played a prank on a classmate. And that student died. Another lost an eye, two more spent several weeks in the hospital." She watched as the two girls swallowed. The potential for abuse or even just accidents from carelessness were to be driven into them during the first term because of this event. "Apparently no one knew anything about it before hand. So either no one saw a thing, or everyone lied. And some of those who lied did nothing to stop it. What would you have done? Mina?"
Pinky blinked tears away. She couldn't imagine anyone in her class doing something like that. Not even Bakugo, his problem was feeling when he should be thinking. Maybe Mineta, but the creep wasn't that bad and he was more likely to get himself hurt. "I... I would have thrown them all out. And then quit."
"I wouldn't let him quit." Nedzu's voice was soft, distant. He couldn't. When he's been their teacher, he'd liked Aizawa, and would not stand by and watch his student go back into the underground. Underground heroes had five times the mortality rate than those who embraced the limelight and cameras and all the pop culture expectations. As much as it annoyed him at times, all of them, it made their lives safer. The logic of it made no sense to him, but he understood it. So did Aizawa, even if he to hated it.
Kendo quietly reached for her papers, looking at the grades on them. She was glad she was in 1-B, where she had the safe, sane teacher who wasn't trying to destroy them. "I see."
"What?" Mina's forehead was scrunched in confusion.
Nedzu's beady black eyes focused on the pinkette. "Young Ashido, if you make mistakes as a hero, what happens?"
Mina swallowed. "People get hurt. Villians get away." She knew that. They'd told her that so many times. It seemed like he liked trying to scare them with the statistics, reading news stories to them if a hero got hurt. They'd all fought and not just training or the sports festival or to get their license. They'd fought to live. Every time, she had that pit in her stomach, that black silent scream in the back of her mind. If she knew it was coming, too nervous to sleep the night before; always, too wound up to sleep afterwards. Then she'd drag the next day. The tension at the corners of her eyes. Aizawa had that tension. "He... he's scared."
Midnight nodded. "He'd rather you hate him than to have to tell your parents why one of you kids aren't coming home again. Please don't tell him I said that."
"But why math? Or english?"
Nedzu leaned forward in his chair. "English is nearly universal, but a mistranslation could lead to disaster during an international operation. Particularly ad hoc ones like-" He cut himself off, glancing at the 1-B representative- I-Island was a secret, the students hadn't been in the middle of it. Just like the details of that unsanctioned rescue mission in Kamino. "And everything is based on math. But more importantly, the theory is to condition you to the point you envision the smallest margin of error as possible. I think Aizawa may be taking it to a slight extreme, but it is his class. It isn't fair, but who is it unfair to?"
"Japan is full of unfairness." Ashido stared down at her knees. Aizawa had said that to them... how long ago? Less than a year? Was it only that long ago? It is the heroes' job to change that. And it wasn't fair. But it was right. Her fingers tightened. She'd seen the changes in the class now that they'd seen the real thing- Midoriya, Todoroki, Iida. Bakugo had changed. Kaminari had changed a lot. And so had she. She still wanted it to be fun, but she knew that fun wasn't part of the equation for a hero sometimes. "It's the hero's job to change that," she uttered the words slowly.
Kendo frowned- it sounded like a quote, but nothing she'd heard before. Ken-sensei had taught them about duty, but that with duty came honor. The adoration of the people. Heroes kept the peace. They made everyone safer by existing, and as a pro hero she'd have a tax-free government check, plus whatever she could make on the side from endorsements and the like. That was fair, right?
-UA-
The next morning, Mina made a point of actually being on time for class. Not just slipping in with Aizawa coming down the hall, but before about a third of the class. And after homeroom, she waited a moment, standing by the teacher's desk.
Who is it unfair to? Nedzu-sensei's words had filled her brain all night, when she should have been working and sleeping. There was a lot of people it wasn't fair to.
"Ashido. I understand you had a question about grading?" He didn't bother to look up from what he was reading.
"Yes, sir."
"Is there a problem?" His voice didn't change, but he did look at her. Nemuri told him everything last night. He was honestly surprised that it had been noticed at all- no previous class did. He was rather proud that one of his students picked up on what was different.
The tightness was in his eyes. It never left. Every second of every class, every trip, every exercise, it was never not there. It was the way he was, so it wasn't obvious. "No, sir. I just... Thank you."
Aizawa's eyebrow twitched upward. "You have an english quiz later today. Do you think you're ready? I understand Yamada-sensei was gloating and using the word 'diabolical' in the teacher's lounge this morning."
"Uhm..." Swiftly, she crouched down and flung her arms around her still seated teacher. Aizawa's eyes went wide, then it was over. She stood up, grinning. Aizawa was one of the people it wasn't fair to- he was responsible for them. Not just today, or this year, or all of their time at UA. He was responsible for them forever. That when one of them screwed up, he'd be asking himself what he could have done differently. He'd taken that on himself, and none of them could take it away now. "I am now."
"Good." Aizawa frowned. "Don't make a habit of that."
Authors Notes: There are those who think being in Class 1-A grants special privileges. What they don't understand is that some privileges are terrible. Special privileges for Aizawa's class.
Aizawa the monster. Aizawa the nightmare, the merciless. Aizawa who cares enough to know that these aren't just kids, and they aren't at just a school. Aizawa, who has, sadly, lost the ability to turn "it" off. Ever. He has traded the fuzzy pats of being a teacher, being loves by students, for making sure they are safe. Dedications to him at concerts and shows and festivals, no, nothing for him, everything for the people they will protect and to each other. Special little gifts on the days that other teachers get mugs and flowers and candy, no, just give him the gift of no more funerals. No more wheelchairs or seeing eye dogs. No more retiring for medical reasons at 25. No more pain, no more nights wondering where he screwed up.
And as a result, yeah, he needs a hug.
And Vlad is right. Monoma wouldn't last a day. This scale makes an Aizawa-D a low B for 1-B students.
