Izuku wasn't sure what to think as he sat in the principal's office of U.A. high, staring at the chimera before him with wide, confused eyes as he felt his heart stop. This was supposed to be a celebratory week, he'd succeeded in getting his hero license and so did most of his class.
Except then Bakugou had decided to finally ask (or rather, fight) about Izuku's quirk and Izuku had given in because (he knew there was no point in running) he felt like he was obligated to give the blonde an explanation, he went along with Bakugou's demands for a fight.
Some of the words that had been exchanged had been especially heated as Bakugou began to demand why he was chosen and not Bakugou, why 'the quirkless nothing' Izuku ended up getting everything and wouldn't just stay a pebble like he was meant to, and the question that had briefly stunned him, enough that Bakugou ended up landing an explosion that knocked Izuku into the rubble and he was fairly sure broke his leg: 'Why did I have to end All Might'?
Fittingly, it all started to go wrong when All Might himself had arrived to stop him. Izuku had expected the man to either bring them both to the principal, sneak them back to the dorms and force them to promise not to tell anyone it happened (and bring Izuku to the nurse's office) or comfort Bakugou.
He was not expecting the look of pure concern and sadness he received instead, and he especially wasn't expecting the disdainful look that Bakugou got.
He DID fully expect it when Aizawa wrapped his capture scarf around them and started yelling at them, bracing for the man to decide he'd had enough of Izuku causing problems and expel him.
…He didn't expect All Might to verbally cuss out Aizawa for "missing the bigger picture" as soon as Aizawa DID round on Izuku, before calling on Nezu and asking to set up a meeting in the early morning.
Somehow Izuku escaped without detention or worse for the moment while Nezu was being contacted and was brought to Recovery Girl to get his leg healed up before sleeping off the incident in the infirmary, waking up just in time to meet with the principal.
Of all the things he could have expected the meeting to be about though, he had not been prepared for what direction it ended up taking.
"…I-I'm sorry, can you say that again, please?"
"I said that Bakugou will be expelled." Nezu said simply with a tone that felt far too pleasant as the principal drank the tea he'd prepared before the meeting, leaving a small grazing of the coloured liquid on the tips of his fur around his mouth before continuing. "Even with the limited footage available to me, the general order of events alongside All Might's testimony is frankly rather damning."
"B-But!" Izuku's head snapped up as he felt a small panic settle in his stomach at the thought of the blonde being expelled. He was supposed to be one of the world's next greatest heroes! Everyone said so! "You c-can't do that!"
"I assure you, Mr. Midoriya, as the principal I can expel anyone I like within reason." Nezu said with a sound almost like amusement before giving him a softer look, which was a bit impressive with those beady animal-like eyes. "But please, if you have actual reasons to refute Bakugou's expulsion, tell me and I will gladly consider them. If they are good reasons, they may just change my mind."
"W-Well, uh… H-How bad were Kacchan's actions really?" Izuku asked as he grabbed his arm, gripping it a bit tighter as he looked down. "It's not like he hurt anyone."
"…" Nezu blinked then sighed before putting his tea down and frowning. "Your broken leg would say otherwise."
"A-Ah! I meant anyone important!" Izuku said only to be caught off unexpectedly by a glare from Nezu making him yelp in surprise.
"Young man, everyone is important. Even yourself. Even the rest of the quirkless, all mutation quirk users, anyone with a 'villainous' quirk and even people who cannot be confirmed to exist are still important." The chimera tapped the desk with just a small bit more force than was necessary making a knocking sound that reverberated in the roof. "There is no such thing as someone unimportant. The attitude that there could be is what led to my own captors experimenting on me."
"A-Ah… I'm sorry. I didn't m-mean it like that…" Izuku said as he hunched in on himself and Nezu paused before letting out a sad sigh.
"No, I do not believe you did. Still, it is not a healthy mindset to have not only for yourself but for others. Assuming anyone, even yourself, is of a different worth whether positive or negative will only make you a worse hero who cannot help people to the best of your ability." Nezu told the boy with a gentler tone as he opened a gray notebook set on the desk in front of him. "I am going to schedule you an appointment with Hound Dog. I'd like you to keep it so he can discuss the general ways this attitude could harm your heroics career more in-depth than I could. Now, are there any other reasons you can give me as to why he should stay? Even despite his violent actions throughout his school career?"
Izuku felt his mind grinding slowly, trying to think harder for a firmer more concrete reason before settling upon two he thought would be irrefutable. "Y-You tried so hard to save him though! To make everyone know he is safe. A-And this was a one-time thing! E-Every other time has been in training! A-Aizawa has never had a problem with it, so they can't be that bad, right?"
"Well, this confirms a fear I had." Nezu sighed as he leaned back in his chair a little and shook his head softly. "No, I'm afraid Aizawa SHOULD have had a problem with it, Mr. Midoriya. I've personally reviewed the footage and I have many problems with it. It seems according to notes that Aizawa was meant to forward to me from All Might but chose not to because he 'knew better from experience', All Might also had concerns but not the knowledge of how to handle such scenarios. Do you remember your first hero exercise, and the attack Bakugou used on you that frankly could warrant an arrest? 'He'll be fine if he dodges' should ring a bell?"
"A-Aah, well…. I…" Izuku looked down meekly, wringing his hands together. "…I dodged?"
"Yes, which is fortunate, yet the issue is not with your survival skills but with the fact Bakugou acted at a level unacceptable in a training environment. I will certainly be reviewing Aizawa's lesson plan to see what on earth he was thinking of putting you into field training so early."
Izuku blinked and looked up in surprise, briefly being brought off his initial train of thought as he processed that information. "W-Wait, what? I thought h-heroics lessons were done by All Might?"
"They are taught and presented by All Might." Nezu corrected as he pressed his paws together on the desk, leaning forward slightly. "I do not deny I accelerated All Might's process to become a licensed teacher, as I was worried about the growing urgency to pass on One For All myself, yet I would not give him duties so far as creating full year-long lesson plans so early in his career. He suggests lessons and ideas at staff meetings, but Aizawa creates the actual plans and I criticize and oversee them for flaws, which there is honestly a disappointing amount of usually. A part of me has always wondered if he does them at the last possible moment."
He then gestured towards Izuku with one paw waving a little carelessly in the air.
"However, the battle training is the first major flaw to slip past me, nevertheless. If he is lucky, we will simply be discussing how he can improve his teaching methods." Nezu said and Izuku blinked, blurting out before he could manage to stop himself.
"I thought he was allowed to run his class however he saw fit?"
Nezu froze in his seat, before his eyes narrowed slightly as he took on a new aura that unsettled Izuku, making him shiver slightly at the way the principal's expression dropped.
"Is that what he told your class?" Nezu asked and Izuku nodded, making the expression of the principal darken slightly. "Then I shall need to discuss with him in more precision what that is meant to mean. It means I allow lessons to be taught within reason in unorthodox ways, not that guidelines that are in place for a reason can be ignored. This combined with the growing worries I have had with his expulsion 'ruses'…"
Nezu shook his head and looked back up at Izuku.
"I apologize, I got off topic. This is not about Aizawa's failure as an educator—I will deal with that in my own time—back to your other point. When you say we worked hard to save Bakugou, I assume you mean the Kamino raid?" Nezu asked and Izuku nodded, thinking perhaps he might at least have a point here until the principal chuckled. "Yes, we did. We worked to save him from villains, and I did my best to manage PR regarding the affair, but we are heroes. We would work hard to save him no matter what if we are doing our job properly. Yet if a fisherman reels in a poisonous fish, why should he keep the creature?"
"P-Poisonous?" Izuku repeated as he felt his stomach do another flip, while the chimera nodded as he began explaining himself to the freckled teen.
"Yes, poisonous. That is the analogy I shall go with for Bakugou's attitude and actions." Nezu decided as he met Izuku's eyes as he said with a tone of damning finality. "His villain-like behaviors."
"H-He's not a villain!" Izuku immediately retorted and frowned as he gripped his chair. "He even fought against the league trying to use him! He never gave in!"
"True, and I admire that tenacity." Nezu assured him before shaking his head with a soft sigh. "But I do not believe it comes from a pure place. He doesn't wish to be associated with them because they are not the 'winners' in his mind, the side with All Might is and we have All Might. The footage I have recovered of the Final Exams, another affair I am disappointed to find out happened under my nose, was the way your exam went down. It did however give an insight into Bakugou through the audio captured and paints a concerning picture. Tell me, Mr. Midoriya, if the villains were the clear victors, if you were the one fighting them and you were losing and he had no context to which side either of you were on… Who do you think he'd pick? Would he pick the person in need of help or the side he thinks will win?"
"I…"
"Though he denied villainy and we are thankful for that, the fact remains he was not captured for no reason." Nezu said simply with a small tut of discontent. "He was captured for actions and behavior that made the league think they could convince him to join them. I am not saying he is a villain but the fact that his behavior is like one means that his place at a hero school is rather questionable."
Izuku winced then paused before his eyes lit up slightly. He had it!
He hated to say it, yet a part of him knew deep down it was true, this had to be a good enough reason to lessen it.
"B-But sir! If you expel him, then… Then with that black mark he wouldn't be able to get into other hero schools! A-And if you arrest him, he might become bitter and end up deciding to lash back out when he gets out or lash out when no school takes him and end up becoming a villain, maybe even an S-Rank one!" Izuku said as he clenched his fists, feeling certain that Nezu had to acknowledge this. "A-At least if you only transfer him or s-something if you have to and give him a chance, U.A's r-reputation won't be hurt and Bakugou definitely won't become a villain."
"U.A's reputation means very little to me in the face of my student's personal safety." Nezu was quick to respond, without a moment's hesitation. "It might hurt my pride to admit to the media that Bakugou was a problematic student, but the damage control for that is simple and natural from measures I already wish to take in putting screening tests in place to weed out more potential issues in our students ahead of time. Damage control on the media for Bakugou's actions will not be hard and Bakugou's safety can be handled by a detail of pro heroes rather than being kept on U.A's grounds."
"But… If he becomes a villain…." Izuku said softly, clinging to the last argument he had
Nezu shook his head, cutting Izuku off before stating one simple thing.
"This may sound cold, but why should I care if Bakugou might become a villain outside of U.A.?"
Izuku went wide eyed as his head snapped up in surprise. "W-What?"
"Why should I care if Bakugou might become a villain outside of U.A.?" Nezu asked simply. "Or indeed, even if he would. His expulsion is not an unjustified event and if he chooses to turn into a villain over it… Then just like the actions that got him expelled, he made the choice to do so, not U.A., I would bear no guilt on my consciousness and only relief that I did not let him stay."
"R-Relief?" Izuku asked, confused and Nezu gave a soft nod of affirmation.
"Yes, because by expelling him, I keep a dangerous sociopath who would turn to villainy over being punished for his cruel actions from getting into a position of power." Nezu gave Izuku a softer look. "I do not presume to know your mind, but All Might has spoken to your character many times. You would never be okay with him hurting others unjustly, so why would it be okay against you? If he still does it to you to this very day, over his self-centeredness and egotistical belief that he needs to be at the center of everything as the footage of his reasoning behind your altercation has shown, why would you want him in a position of power that could be abused?"
Izuku winced at that and looked down at the floor. "So… even if he went down the worst path…"
"Then it is the path he will have chosen, and we will respond with the appropriate reactions necessary." Nezu said simply as he stood up from his seat. "Now, I must go attend a staff meeting and find out what I am going to do about Aizawa's methods. I am sorry to say none of your reasons are solid enough to not expel Bakugou, they are excuses at best that will not truly make a difference. I am sorry. Katsuki Bakugou will be expelled from U.A. immediately."
As he walked past Izuku, he paused for a moment then set a paw on the teen's lap gently. "I know this is hard for you to understand, with how rare it seems to be for Bakugou to receive proper punishment so I want you to answer these two questions not to me, but to yourself."
He let go and walked towards the door, speaking as he did so. "If there was a murderer in a school that you run, that you look out for everyone in, that you want to keep everyone safe in, would you at the barest minimum remove them from the school as soon as possible? Even if they were famous, popular even with the public, if you knew the true danger they possessed?"
"But he's not-"
Nezu opened his door, the creaking cutting Izuku off as he turned back to finish off what he was saying.
"Answer those questions for yourself first, Izuku." Nezu said softly, closing the door after he spoke his final words.
"And remember what would have happened if you didn't dodge."