Chapter 4
Hound Dog groaned while he sifted through the pile of papers on his desk. So much extra work at the beginning of the school year was unprecedented! It would cut much into his free time to suitably analyze these notes, but in a strange way he was kind of thankful for that.
After all, it meant that the kids were getting proper help for their problems instead of bottling them up internally until they broke. He sadly reminisced about the few cases he had the displeasure of handling in the past. Especially in a stressful job like theirs, burnout, psychosis, trauma and emotional detachment were far too common. Hopefully he could assist them in healing old mental wounds and give them the tools to guard against new ones.
He would be even more satisfied if Nedzu had accepted his proposal to send all students of class 1-A into therapy, but alas... The animal must have had a reason, although he would not tell him.
The newcomer to the faculty, Argent, or as her fans called her online the "Eleventh Goddess" seemed more reasonable and had already sent multiple people to his office. There was something strange about the young woman, but he would not pry as long as she continued to take her role as teacher seriously. More seriously than Eraserhead certainly. After he spoke with the stuttering, mumbling mess that was Midoriya and the ice-cold, closed off Todoroki he could not understand how that man had not immediately set them up for a psychological evaluation. Well, he could guess the answer. It started with "Lazi" and ended with "ness".
As good as Aizawa was with combat and strategic thinking, his pedagogic skills left much to be desired. He cared for his students that much was obvious, but he had problems showing that and putting it into practice beyond throwing himself between them and danger. The USJ incident had shown that.
While the Erasure Hero had not thought twice about risking his own life for the wellbeing of his pupils, he had not accepted any of the presents or visitors to his hospital bed. It was concerning that he kept everybody (including the other teachers) who cared about him at a distance, barely participating in any other activities outside of work.
Oh well... It was one of the hard truths Ryo had to learn early on in his career that you simply could not help everybody. He could only dearly hope that Aizawa would come to him when it all became too much for him to bear alone.
On another note, Argent displayed some noteworthy characteristics as well. To have risen so high in the national hero rankings at such a young age was not the product of luck, but of talent honed by years of brutal training. Hound Dog could not imagine what the young woman must have gone through on her path to adulthood to already have that much experience. Whatever it had been, it could not have been healthy for a developing mind.
Children needed time to grow and discover themselves. Too much training and not enough freedom could lead to all sorts of abnormalities in the human psyche. Ryo had noticed the alarming absence of close friends or family on her contact information sheet. Instead only the hotline of the Hero Public Safety Commission was listed as the closest confidante. Either she was an orphan or had no contact to her family on top of being socially isolated.
Perhaps he was interpreting too much into those signs, but it was always good to keep small details like this in the back of your mind. So far she had shown herself (during their two meetings) as a confident, will-strong individual with a focused and objective outlook on life. Nothing to officially worry about.
Personally though... he was not sure about what hid behind those sharp, radiating eyes of hers.
~[#҈#]~
Tanya was drinking a cup of coffee at one of her favourite outdoor cafes when she suddenly spoke up, seemingly at random towards the crowd.
"I hope the blood you used for that disguise was ethically sourced through the HPSC and not stolen, Himiko."
A plain looking girl who had been walking absently in Tanya's direction suddenly froze, a frown forming on her lip as she groaned.
"Senpai! How do you always know it's me?"
Not looking up from the papers she was grading, Tanya gestured to the seat across from her as she answered:
"I'd recognize the smell of blood no matter how faint. I take it your last mission was a success?"
The girl plopped down into the cushioned seat, smiling far too widely for the thin face she was wearing.
"Yep!" she chirped. "I've made contact with the League and convinced them that I want to join! They bought the story that I was ostracized for my quirk and now want to destroy society because of it without a second thought." She snickered as she added: "What a bunch of rubes."
Tanya finally lifted her eyes from the stack of papers to give the shapeshifter a dry look.
"Weren't you initially ostracized for the blood requirements of your quirk and nearly driven insane as a result?"
Himiko rolled her eyes.
"Well yeah, but that was before I met you, Senpai, and you saved me and vouched for me to the HPSC." She sighed wistfully in remembrance. "You were like my own knight in shining armour."
Tanya quirked a brow.
"I restrained you when you ambushed me in an alleyway, then dragged you to the police."
"Yes, but then you visited me while I was in custody and told me my quirk could help people."
"I was merely pointing out the obvious undercover hero work your quirk could be utilized for. Anyone could see the value in being able to perfectly mimic others."
Himiko's expression became serious.
"Anyone could, but it took eight years after I discovered my quirk for you to be the first to tell me that it wasn't evil." She looked down at the table and mumbled: "Sometimes I still wonder how terrible things would have been had I chosen anyone else to be my first victim that day..."
"It's pointless to worry about what-ifs," Tanya lectured as she put away her graded papers and sat back to enjoy the rest of her coffee.
Himiko grinned once more.
"I guess you're right, especially because I never could have chosen anyone other than the cutest, most adorable girl in the whole world that day. The way you were pouting was just the sweetest thing ever! Yeah, just like that! So adorable!"
Tanya brushed the finger pointing at her face aside and did her best to smooth out her annoyed expression.
"Need I remind you that I am both three years your senior and your superior?"
"Nope! You're the boss, Chibi-senpai!"
Tanya resisted the urge to growl at the infuriating nickname and reminded herself that Himiko Toga, codenamed Carmilla, was a valuable asset to the HPSC. A natural prodigy who was not only able to meet all scholastic requirements in order to finish highschool at the age of fourteen, but had also managed to earn her special-operations hero license in only one additional year of training. Even Tanya herself was impressed, though she would never actually tell the girl to what extent. Himiko was already incorrigible without her knowing how much Tanya respected the younger women's skills and keen, albeit odd intellect.
"How much longer will that disguise you're wearing last?" Tanya asked to change the subject, causing Himiko to put a finger to her lower lip in thought.
"Hm, maybe one or two more minutes? Why?"
The barely contained smile turned into a full-blown grin as Tanya slammed her empty cup down, tossed some bills on the table, stood up and grabbed Himiko's wrist to drag her to the nearest alleyway away from public view where a (literally) melting girl would no doubt cause panic.
"Oh~ Senpai, what are we going to do in here?" Himiko asked in a sensual tone, wagging her eyebrows suggestively.
Tanya chose to ignore the cackling gremlin's attempts at flustering her by looking away and gesturing in an impatient fashion.
"You're no fun hehe..." giggled the younger girl whose form began to promptly slough off to reveal a naked blonde girl with cat-like features underneath.
Sometimes she didn't know which is crazier.
This quirked-up world she's found herself in, or the people in it.
