Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia. This is a contractual Statement. Part of my main work that didn't fit in to the rest of it.
Aizawa Shouta stood straight, staring ahead.
Sitting at the desk in front of him, the Principal of U.A., one Nedzu, gave him a cheerful smile. "Are you sure you don't want to sit down, Aizawa?"
He shook his head, not breaking eye contact. "No. I'm comfortable."
Nedzu gave him a concerned look. "Are you sure? Because you have been doing a lot of late night work lately."
"I'm fine, Principal Nedzu."
The possible rat sighed. "As you were." He made a note of that on a piece of paper on his desk. "Now, I presume you have some idea as to why I called you in today?"
Aizawa didn't comment.
Nedzu delicately picked up a sheaf of papers. "The expulsion of your entire class before the term had properly started." The ambiguous mammal rifled through it with a cheerful grin on his face. "I have received a considerable number of complaints from parents, the Heroics Public Safety Commission and the board of directors about your conduct."
Aizawa shrugged. "You were the one who gave me that authority. And I have expelled a large number of students from Heroics to General Studies before."
The Principal hummed. "Indeed, and they have gone on to be some of our best students." He steepled his digits. "An odd question, but if you look out of my window, what would you see?"
Aizawa looked out of the window. The Principal's window was overlooking quite an area of metropolitan Musutafu, though still within the confines of U.A.'s defences. "...Fog."
Nedzu sighed. "If it was a fine day, I would suggest that you were looking at a microcosm of Japanese society. But the weather is rarely so predictable." He shuffled the sheaf again. "In all I've had many concerned people call for me to punish you, quite severely."
He gave Aizawa a stern glance. "I'm giving you a pay raise."
Aizawa blinked. "Sorry?"
"And I'm taking your ability to expel at leisure."
That shook Aizawa more than the pay raise. He stared at Nedzu. A dark pit opened up in his stomach with those words. "Principal Nedzu-"
Nedzu started to reorganise his desk. "You'll just have to expel students in the usual way. The threat of something is often more effective than the thing itself. I can confidently predict that this incident will pass into school legend soon enough. As long as you are a teacher here, the suspected possibility will be quite-"
Aizawa glared at the principal, fighting to keep his voice level. "You don't understand. I need that to be effective as a teacher. Without it, I might as well leave."
Nedzu hummed. "Well, one alternative they asked for was for you to leave U.A. as a teacher. While I value your expertise, if you wish to leave over such an issue-"
Aizawa leaned on the table. "Listen, Nedzu. You gave me that privilege as part of U.A.'s free education policy. It's not just-"
Nedzu stared at Aizawa's knuckles until Aizawa hastily removed them. His voice cut through the air like a knife. "Aizawa, I do answer to more powers than you. The board insisted on some form of punishment. I entreated them for this. Do you have any idea why?"
Aizawa shrank back slightly at the look in Nedzu's eyes. "I chose this punishment, Aizawa, because I knew you would rather be a media darling like All Might than accept this. I do so hope you prove me wrong. And I am not accepting your resignation - another freedom that U.A. allows its teachers."
He coolly glanced at Aizawa, returning to his paperwork. "Don't let me detain you."
Aizawa left the Principal's office shakily.
Yamada Hizashi stared at his friend with a confused look. "So... he isn't letting you expel entire classes anymore, huh."
The rather dishevelled and tired-looking Aizawa sighed. "Seems like that."
His friend kept poking at the issue. "And he gave you a raise."
In lieu of an answer Aizawa handed his friend the specific details. Hizashi scanned it, eyes wide. "He really did it, huh?"
When Aizawa didn't respond, Hizashi hesitantly gave his friend a comforting pat on the back. "Well, at least this way you can afford to get that new sleeping bag. And if the rat said it would pass into legend-"
"I know."
Hizashi gave his friend a fond smile. "That's just how it is with Nedzu. You go in perfectly sure of yourself, and you leave bowing and scraping, happy he gave you the privilege of his time! My best advice is to just forget about it."
Aizawa just grunted. "You're right. It won't be that bad."
Two weeks later...
Aizawa managed to get the Principal on his way to his office. "Please, Nedzu. Give me back my ability to expel an entire class."
The ambiguous mammal gave Aizawa a cheerful grin. "My, my, Aizawa-san. Are you-"
Aizawa's eyes were even more bloodshot than normal. "I'll do anything."
The potential rodent gave him a short look. Slowly he pulled out a document, only a couple of pages stapled together. "I do have an alternative punishment..."
Aizawa took it, briefly reading it before looking at Nedzu. "Really? This is completely illogical."
Nedzu laughed. "It is, isn't it? Well, I'll leave it with you to read. Don't make the decision hastily."
Hizashi looked through the document, before glancing up at his friend with a raised eyebrow. "This is pretty crazy stuff, dude."
Aizawa grunted. He'd already read through the entire thing in more detail. Crazy was just about right. The whole thing was tied up in enough legal jargon and small print he'd gone over it with a magnifying glass. The primary points of interest, however, were clear as day.
Hizashi flicked through it again. "So, you'd give up your salary increase. And you would be assisting Nedzu on any cases that he found interesting by doing his whole N routine? The one you specifically said was childish and immature?"
Aizawa nodded. "Don't forget completely irrational."
Hizashi glanced at the next paragraph, eyebrow raised. "Not just that, if he's being, quote, 'incredibly clever,' then you will be legally bound to 'stand around looking impressed.'" he threw the booklet down. "This is ridiculous, man!"
Aizawa could certainly agree with that. He sighed. "It's apparently the only thing he could think of as an alternative to losing my expulsion privilege."
His friend stared at him. "I can't believe you're seriously considering it."
When Aizawa didn't answer, Hizashi moved closer. "Y-you're joking, right? Or pulling a logical ruse? You-you wouldn't seriously do it, right?"
As his friend looked to the side rather than look him in the face, Hizashi tried a different tack. "I mean, giving up your salary increase just to be able to expel students at will? It's just not rational!"
Aizawa made a pained sigh. Hizashi pressed on. "It's not rational, is it?"
"...I know it isn't," Aizawa conceded.
Maybe he didn't need it, after all. The best thing to do would be to throw it away. That would make sense.
Somehow, he couldn't find it in himself to get rid of it.
After the Sports Festival...
Aizawa stood in front of Nedzu, the contract in his grasp. Beside him, Hizashi stared at his friend. "Dude, this is insane."
He ignored his friend. Nedzu steepled his digits. "Are you sure about this, Aizawa-san? This isn't a very logical course of action."
For an answer, Aizawa glared at Nedzu. "Damn that logic. I need that capability to be effective."
"Well, if you're sure-"
"Aizawa, you've only been eating jelly packets. You've barely slept! Maybe you need a-"
Before anything else could be said, he signed the contract. Nedzu and Hizashi shared a glance, then the Principal picked it up. "Well, it's signed. I've gotten what I wanted."
He sighed. "How disappointing."
Aizawa straightened up. It seemed that some inner force of vitality had returned to him. The bags under his eyes didn't seem so pronounced. "This has been so irrational."
Nedzu sighed. "Truly. And you can keep your pay raise for the good work you've done."
Aizawa stared at him. Nedzu grinned. "How did you put it? It was just a logical ruse."
For a second, Aizawa glared at Nedzu, then his eyes widened. Then he left with as much dignity as he could afford.
His friend gone, Hizashi rounded on Nedzu. "So what the hell-"
Nedzu cheerfully turned his computer screen around. "What did you think of the Sports Festival, Yamada-san?"
He spluttered, his train of thought derailed. "The Sports Festival? Why are we even talking about that? I'm asking about this goddamn contract-"
The results appeared on the screen, Nedzu tapping at certain names. "Aizawa's class performed admirably, didn't they? Not just there, but in their academic work as well."
Images and videos flicked across - a boy with a rhinoceros beetle mutation tossing a competitor out of the ring, a girl with light pink hair and cloud earrings summoning a tiny puff of cloud that shot lightning, another girl with a canine mutation standing triumphant over a much larger student. Nedzu looked over the results, grinning.
Hizashi suddenly got the Principal's point. "They managed to make up half the finalists, which is... pretty good" Understatement of the century - Aizawa's students had torn through the rankings - even when they'd lost it had been a narrow thing. Another thought hit him. "And you had some important VIPs in your box, didn't you?"
"Indeed! Several members of the board, a couple of parents-"
Hizashi stared at the ambiguous mammal. He'd seen them leaving afterwards. The final puzzle piece clicked into place. "You've won, haven't you?"
Nedzu chuckled. "And what have I won, exactly?"
Hizashi's head was spinning. "You proved that Shouta's methods worked. Considering how many recommendations they received despite being in the general course... you're having them re-enrolled?"
That got a laugh. "Oh, I've put them back already. After such a display, how could I not?"
Hizashi glared at his boss. "And you got Shouta to sign that ridiculous thing-"
"To help me with various tasks."
Hizashi shook his head. "You forced him to make an irrational decision. You've got leverage on him-"
Nedzu tutted, waggling a digit with a small smile on his face. "I didn't force him to sign it, he chose to. I'm not a monster, Yamada-san."
No, Hizashi thought, you couldn't call Nedzu a monster. Monsters didn't play with your brain, at least not while it was still in your head.
The Principal smiled. "Well, if an interesting event comes up, be sure to let him know, will you?"
A dark gleam entered his eye. "After all, he knows what will happen if he doesn't."
AN: I do like Nedzu as a character. With Nedzu, the only winning move in a game is not to play. It is probably a bit cruel, and certainly mean to Aizawa. Definitely not possible in canon, but this bit has been living in my head. It is canon for this.
Villain Notebook's next chapter is being prepared. I'm just hashing everything out. Until then, enjoy!
