"Really." Shino asks, with her best deadpan face.
"Uhm, yes." Mei replies. She is sitting on the couch right next to her bodyguard-slash-almost an older sister at this point. While fidgeting uncomfortably in her seat.
"This happened." Shino is, honestly, too exasperated to voice her actual opinion. This was… wow. A very Mei Hatsume way to provoke an argument in a relationship. "You mistook his words as an admission of him having sex with the frog girl, and you unloaded your whole 'establish him a harem' plan on him, so he freaked out and yelled at you."
"Y… yes?" Mei is clearly freaking out. More than Shino thought at the beginning of the talk. "Do… do you think he'll break up with me?"
Until that sentence, Shino planned to laugh loudly. Because honestly speaking, this was the funniest reason for an argument in a relationship she ever heard about. Seriously, who the hell has an argument, not over suspicion of infidelity or something like that, but because one side discovered that the other was trying to organize them a harem?
Really, if not for the whole 'her parents are going to totally fire us for it', she would enjoy watching those two lovebirds navigating the complicated river of their relationship. They were so unbelievably precious in their utter weirdness.
"No, Mei." She says and she can see Mei looked visibly relieved. "He loves you. Very much. There are very few things that could make him break up with you. Don't murder anyone and don't cheat on him, and you're safe. But you really did do something bad, and he has a valid reason to be angry at you."
"But… I did nothing wrong!" Mei is clearly rather adamant about it. "I just… I mean, I can't be there for him at all times, and I really like Ochaco and Tsuyu too, I guess, and…"
In Shino's opinion, Mei needs therapy. Psychologist, sexologist, and probably some more folks. Her knowledge about relationships… let's be real. It was funny to watch before she went into one. Now, with a boy out there who has a stressful job (connected to national - or, at least for now, regional - safety) AND is in a relationship with her, it was a bit…
Ugh. It's a disaster waiting to happen, all things considered.
For now, the older sister slash nanny slash bodyguard slash bomb disarming expert (slash tank commander, but it's really not important now, maybe except for the ABC threats training she went through) has to do the job of the entire cadre of therapists.
"Mei." Shino leans forward. "Izuku never had a girlfriend before you. In fact, I don't think he ever imagined himself having a girlfriend. Then you happened. So, naturally, he cherishes you so much that he doesn't want anyone besides you. He can't even imagine having someone besides you."
Mei's fidgeting grows in intensity.
"But… but I don't want it to end as it did with Uncle Kame." Mei finally utters. Shino finally understands where Mei's peculiarity in the fields of relationships came from.
And let's be real. Digging through the comedy to find an entire layer of tragedy underneath makes everything much less funny than it used to be a moment earlier.
She knows what Mei is talking about. No one among the Hatsumes likes to talk about it, but the servants, bodyguards and so on sometimes gossip about them. So she knows. And that was a really ugly case. Hatsumes dealt with it quietly and (more or less) fairly, but…
Considering her age and how… different she was for most of the time, it was probably unsurprising that she took the wrong lesson out of that.
"Mei." Shino says. "Look at me, Mei." She does so. Shino is proactive enough and holds her hands. As delicately as she can. "I know you liked your uncle. He was one of the few people around here that could actually follow you when you started talking about inventions. But you have to understand that he wasn't a good person."
"But…"
"Mei." Shino keeps pushing. Because honestly, this issue has to be unfucked posthaste. "The lesson you should take from what happened to him isn't 'if they were alright with sharing, nothing would have happened'. The lesson you should take from that should be 'do not promise someone that you'll be faithful to them until death unless you really plan to'. He brought this onto himself."
She deflates a bit. Looking at her now is just painful. Is Shino really changing into her older sister in all but blood? She leaves thinking about it for later. In the meantime, she leans towards Mei and hugs her. Mei, to her slight surprise, hugs back.
"Why are relationships so complicated?" Mei says quietly. "I don't know what to do for most of the time."
"You've barely started." Shino replies as softly as possible. "You might be a genius in engineering, but even you make mistakes when you start working on something completely new, right?" She pulls back a bit, just to be able to see Mei's face.
Mei nods back after a few seconds of thinking.
"How… how do I fix that?" Mei finally asks the right question. "I don't even have a blueprint for this, I don't know what I broke, and I…" Oh no, engineering metaphors. Mei was really out of her depth. And probably more confused and scared than she was in quite a while. This always makes her default to the things she is familiar with.
"Look…" Shino says slowly. "I'm not a telepath. But I think I figured your boyfriend enough to understand what really ticked him off. You don't want him to find a girl behind your back, right?" Mei replies with a nod. "Why?"
"I… I just…" Mei seems to be confused about that as well. "I mean… we have a relationship, right? I don't want him to do things like that without me knowing." She already made it obvious that she is alright with that if she gets notified.
"Of course you do." Shino confirms. "So why did you try to talk Uraraka into a relationship with him behind his back?"
Mei freezes. Shino gets to see the blood slowly leaving her face, and it's NOT a nice thing to watch. Even on the girl that, technically, blackmailed you and will probably lead to you losing your dream job.
"Oh, no." Mei is absolutely terrified. Not what Shino hoped for, but… "Oh nononono, I have to…" She is about to leap off the couch, but Shino grabs her quickly.
"Wait!" Mei freezes while looking at Shino. "Didn't you say he is about to have a very important meeting?" Mei thinks it over and nods. "You'll fix all of that once he returns from it. Give him the time to focus on the job." Izuku Midoriya was very serious about his job.
"O… Oh." Mei calms down a bit. Only a bit, though. "But… How do I fix that? Apologize? Will that be enough? I mean…"
She is almost adorable in that. Almost. It's adorableness with a hint of something that makes Shino want to hug her and say that everything will be alright.
"Mei, Izuku loves you." Shino replies with all the confidence she can muster. "And he knows how… odd you occasionally are. I guarantee you he'll forgive you if you apologize and promise not to do anything like that behind his back again. So calm down."
"Y… you're sure?" Mei asks, her eyes practically begging.
"Yes, I am." Shino might know Izuku Midoriya for only a relatively short while, but let's be real. That kid is so adorably innocent that he is probably ashamed of himself for yelling at her by now. Shino wouldn't be surprised if he planned to apologize to Mei for that. While probably freaking out as much as she was. "Now go, work on your babies while he is busy."
"Thank you!" Mei gives her a rib-crushing hug (hers are rather tough, but Izuku would probably die) before running away.
Shino lets out a loud and pained sigh.
"Sooo…" Shiretoko says, her head popping up from her favourite nap corner. Right behind the couch where the relationship counselling took place.
"I think I prefer disarming explosives." Shino replies honestly. "At least ever since the Hatsumes bought us that remotely operated bomb disarming drone."
Which was honestly a very Hatsume thing to offer to someone's nanny.
(***)
Izuku had little time to think about what happened between him and Mei. He is angry. Both at her and at himself for lashing out at her. He knows she is… living in her own world a bit, and he regretted the 'what is wrong with you' bit. And, especially, the tone of his voice while he was saying it.
That was all he got through before the meeting. He was yet to unpack the whole 'I was talking Uraraka into a relationship with you' bit. Besides, she is still in the hospital (and they are yet to visit her, the hospital was a mess after Dabi's Prominence Burn).
Sure. His love life is a complicated matter. But considering the fact that Dabi just killed dozens of people, it's not an important matter. At least, not today.
He arrived as second-to-last. Most of the room was taken by a large table, surrounded by eight chairs. Not exactly a conference room, more like something that the Principal used for the more informal meetings.
There is, of course, a projector screen at one end of the room. Principal Sasaki and his main co-workers (Shuzenji and Maijima) were already there. Sasaki's secretary was doing something on the computer next to the screen.
Chairs were named. It might have been an informal (and probably illegal) meeting, but Sasaki still liked things ordered.
Izuku's biggest surprise was the discovery that his seat is right next to the Principal. At the very verge of his side of the table. He doesn't feel lucky enough to worm out of it, so he sits there.
He is wearing his hero uniform, of course. Then again, it feels… comfy. Mei made it fit him perfectly, and… shit, he really has to apologize to her for that outburst once this is over, isn't he?
Not now.
"How are you doing?" Principal Sasaki wasn't someone whom Izuku suspected of indulging in small talk. Yet, he clearly was the one to start the talk. Then again, it probably wasn't by any degree a 'small' talk.
"I'm fine." Izuku replies. Even with the helmet and voice alteration thing, he still fails to fool anyone.
"You realize…" Principal says calmly. "... that you being fine after what you went through is a more disturbing option than you just admitting the truth?"
Well. That man IS a legend of the Japanese education system. Izuku isn't sure why he even tried.
"Alright, fine." Izuku sighs, cursing himself for… well, he brought this onto himself, really. "I had a… terrible moment, but one of the Network members helped me. A lot. "
Sasaki acknowledges his honesty with a scarce nod. Maybe, just maybe, there were some facial emotions accompanying it, but if so, then Izuku missed them completely.
"Good friends help patch up your wounds." Sasaki adds. "But it doesn't hurt to ask for a professional's assessment of your injuries. Just in case you missed something that would harm you later."
Oh. Izuku realized it now. For the first time ever, he seems to have actually gotten a read on the Principal. He is, simply speaking, worried. A school-related authority figure being worried about him is something new.
"You're… worried about me." Izuku actually vocalizes his surprise. He didn't plan to do that. It just happened.
"You're my student." Principal replies. "Being worried about you is my job. And, coincidentally, a calling."
Huh. Who would have thought? Too bad that teachers at his old school weren't like that.
"I'll… I'll think about it." Izuku replies. Sasaki disengages, but it's rather clear that this talk will happen again if Izuku will be crazy enough to not follow the 'suggestions' and have a few sessions with counsellor Inui.
(***)
The police side of the meeting arrives through Eclipse's warpgate a few minutes later. Assistant Commissioner Aizawa is accompanied by Chief Inspector Torino, Inspector Tsukauchi and an unfamiliar man in the uniform of the Takoba city's fire department.
The last man steps through Eclipse's warp gate only to immediately look around, in obvious shock. Someone was clearly newly initiated. And was still holding onto the remnants of his common sense.
"For those who don't know him…" Aizawa says, his face in equal parts showing his desire to sleep and his desire to murder someone violently. "... I introduce fire chief Aoi Miyake, head of the Takoba City Fire Department. I decided that introducing him to the world of meta-abilities is the best way to explain what happened."
Makes sense. Firefighters were clearly going to ask questions. Almost a mile-long line of devastation and something practically melting through two buildings is not normal. Or explainable without introducing the meta-abilities to the mix.
"... call me Backdraft." Miyake replies, while clearly trying to digest what had just happened. Not a hero name, clearly. Just a normal nickname. How rare those were around Izuku nowadays.
"And going in reverse…" Aizawa continues while taking the seat. Torino and Tsukauchi follow right behind him, while Miyake is a few steps behind. "Principal Sasaki of the UA, Chiyo Shuzenji, head of the UA University Hospital, Higari Maijima of the UA Institute of Engineering, and Defiant, head of the Metahuman Network. And an eyewitness of this mess."
Izuku does his absolute utmost not to shrink in his seat when the fire chief suddenly gets extremely interested in him. But the man says nothing and instead moves to his seat.
"Alright." Aizawa still looks like he really wants a nap AND a bloody murder. If anything, it got worse. "Can we now move over to getting an explanation of what the hell happened?"
"Wait, Alchemist didn't send you the recordings?" Izuku blurted out. He actually thought that Mei did it. Aizawa gives him a death stare.
"I believe that the procedures for the cooperation between the police and the Network require some… revisions." Aizawa says as dryly as possible. "I believe that Alchemist freaked out a bit too much, and actually ignored my inquiries for the first three hours after the event. By then this meeting was already set up, so we've let it slide and waited. But in the future…"
He pauses. It's a meaningful pause. Izuku is supposed to say something to end it.
"We'll work on that from our side." Defiant replies. "This shouldn't happen again." Mei, for all her wonderful intellect and creativity, wasn't exactly the first pick for doing de facto administrative work of being their primary contact with the police during the emergency.
She was the Mission Control, yes. But that's mostly because she had a very modern computer with several screens, that she could actually look through the recordings from the suits and drones at once.
She wasn't a tactician. And working according to procedures (more like common sense, they didn't have proper procedures) and actually responding to the police inquiries straightaway… especially while she was worried about her friends… certainly not her forte.
"Good, so we have that covered." Aizawa replies. Torino looks at the UA side of the table with a hint of hostility. Not a personal one, he just feels hostile in general. "Now, what the hell happened?"
"In the shortest version possible, Overhaul lured Singularity into an ambush while deploying four new villains." Izuku replies. "Including his second S-Rank, whose attack was the source of the fire. I believe it might be best to show you the recording of the battle."
Because, frankly, he himself could barely believe how much firepower Dabi had. And Mei mentioned she sent the recordings to Principal Sasaki, with the meeting in mind. The projector screen was in the room for a reason.
"Very well." Aizawa replies. Principal Sasaki nods at his secretary. The recording starts right from the moment when Singularity rushed to the last known position of the police patrol, leaving officer Kaniyashiki behind. Aizawa raises his hand almost immediately.
Oh God. It's going to be one of those 'review your last operation' meetings, isn't it? Long and detailed dissection of what went wrong together with trying to talk about what could be done about it. Debrief, if Izuku remembered the term correctly.
Oh, the price Izuku has to pay for not antagonizing the local police.
"As much as I understand the line of reasoning…" Aizawa says while the recording is paused. "This cannot stand. Considering the contents of officer Kaniyashiki's report and what I learned from overheard Network communication, this whole mess probably wouldn't have happened if they didn't split."
Izuku agrees in theory. If Singularity stuck to her accompanying police officer, Dabi probably wouldn't lure her into an ambush. In practice, though…
"Now you make it sound like it was Singularity's fault." Izuku replies. He doesn't try to sound confrontational. It's more of a statement of fact. How Aizawa saw it is anyone's guess since the man stays calm.
"Not my intention, problem child." Aizawa replies. Izuku slightly boils on the inside. HE ISN'T A CHILD ANYMORE DAMMIT! In more ways than one, actually. "The reason for the split was a valid one. No police officer can keep up with you or Singularity while on foot, and it was a time-sensitive deployment. But this… incident…" Izuku wonders how hard it is for him not to say 'disaster'. "... made it clear that we need a different way of monitoring you."
Fair. Izuku can't really disagree with that. The only problem is that he doesn't have any idea how to do that.
"If I may interject…" Principal Sasaki cuts in. "... I might have an idea on how to fix this… procedural flaw." All eyes immediately drift to him. "The oversight should simply be remote."
Oh. Oh, that's the idea.
"Remote?" Aizawa asks, clearly surprised. "How would that work?" He probably isn't used to having access to so many drones. And other technological wonders. Hatsume Mei working alongside his police department is a recent development.
Sasaki looks at Maijima. The engineer groans a bit.
"The Network members are already carrying more monitoring devices than you have decorations on an average Christmas tree." Maijima replies. "At least those fully outfitted ones. And that's without counting Alchemist's observation drones. We'll pick a building, put some computers inside, connect them in real-time and have one or two police officers on standby to offer their input."
The idea seems sound. But it will not get automatically accepted.
"Who is going to pay for that?" Aizawa immediately jumps to the most important subject. "Establishing Tartarus practically wiped out our rainy day funds. And this sounds like a costly endeavour."
"Thankfully, mine remain untouched." Sasaki says dryly. "This isn't the way I expected to use it, but the security outside of my school is vital to UA's long-term existence. I consider this an investment into my and my school's survival chances."
"If I may add…" Izuku really feels out of place, but they are talking about the future of himself and his friends. He should at the very least offer his own input. "... I'd prefer to avoid having someone try to micromanage me in the field. Also, having someone talking into my ear constantly will be rather distracting."
There was also the part where Force had a stamina bar. That couldn't be measured by any equipment. Izuku would probably quickly end up receiving an order that he wouldn't be able to follow because of exhaustion. And how was he supposed to prove that he didn't have enough strength? And that he didn't ignore the order while using that as an explanation?
"This is understandable." Aizawa replies after weighing options for a few seconds. He probably imagined someone trying to do that with his police officers and decided that he'd rather shoot himself than have it like that. "How about a compromise? Real-world police assistance if possible, the command centre takes over only if you split, it will keep contact to the reasonable minimum AND, in case of multiple heroes deployed at once, will focus on the bigger picture."
This way or another, Mei Hatsume as mission control proved to not work as well as they hoped. They need an alternative. This is… bearable, so to say.
"I'm alright with that, but if you'll add a firefighter to the command centre's crew." Izuku replies. Both because this is a very good idea, and because he wants to start his work relationship with the fire chief on a positive note. Backdraft gives him a questioning look as his only answer. "Look, I'm certain that any firefighter will notice things about to explode, electrocute someone, or start a fire way faster than any of us. Not to mention the fact that having someone to advise us on what to do if a villain collapses a building with people inside and the nearest rescuers are minutes away sounds like a pretty good idea."
"This is both reasonable and doable." Backdraft admits while sending a questioning stare to Aizawa. He seems reserved about it… no, more like reserved about the whole superhero stuff. Then again, he was yet to see the actual recording of superpowers at work (save for Eclipse, that is). Witnessing meta-abilities changes your outlook on them.
"Fine, then I guess we have that covered." Aizawa replies. While sending a questioning stare to Maijima. What is this, a relay race of facial expressions?
"We should have the command centre prepared within a week if we really hurry." Maijima replies. "I advise not to connect it directly to the police network. Overhaul has some superb hackers, and if they hack into it, the results will be… bad."
The engineer sounds like a master of understatements. Aizawa only nods. Considering the fact that he kept Tartarus off the records when it comes to the police's databases, it's rather clear that he doesn't trust his computers, either.
"Let's continue watching the recording." Aizawa announces instead.
They go through Singularity's pursuit of Dabi. Backdraft doesn't comment when Dabi throws his blue flames at Uraraka, nor when Alchemist mentions the flame temperature. But he visibly tensed.
The recording is slightly edited. Mei reshuffled data from several sources, sorting it chronologically. They actually hear Defiant asking for a situation report (while Uraraka's pursuit continues) right before his deployment. And his immediate panic reaction when he realized what was happening and yelled at Mei to relay his warning.
Izuku isn't sure about it, but he is almost certain that Chief Inspector Torino of all people stared at him APPROVINGLY after it. Surely, it can't be it?
By the time Uraraka was ambushed, Mei's recon drone had already caught up with her. It was present in the Marukane Ward with such a situation in mind. As a result, they get to witness the ambush from two perspectives - Singularity and the drone above her.
Izuku isn't even surprised when the recording is paused again right after Singularity dove behind the air conditioner unit.
"What's her condition?" Aizawa asked, clearly eyeing Shuzenji.
"The biceps muscles of her right arm were practically severed in half." Shuzenji replies. "Guaranteed return to full health, but we talk about close to a half a year of healing followed by extensive rehabilitation. Unfortunately, despite being a grandma, my ability to kiss owies goodbye is rather limited, especially on injuries like that." She sighs. "Unless the Network has someone with a healing quirk, Singularity is practically speaking out of service. At least until Reveal Day."
"That would be awfully convenient." Maijima comments from his seat.
Izuku shrinks internally when Aizawa gives him the Stare. He shrinks, even more, when Sasaki realizes that something odd is happening, and looks at him as well.
"We… might have a metahuman with a healing quirk in our protection program." Izuku admits. Because it's the only metahuman in their protection program, those two words sound way more serious than they should. Or maybe he is just this good at recruiting metahumans into superheroism? "We're yet to test her quirk against this type of injury, but at least in theory, she should be able to heal it. In a matter of seconds, really."
"What?" Shuzenji looks furious now. "And you didn't tell me? Do you have any idea how many people died in my hospital after that battle? Why didn't…"
"It's a bit of a special circumstance." Aizawa saves Izuku from further shrinking under her gaze. "The girl in question is six years old and on the run from Overhaul. Having people miraculously return to full health in your hospital is a sure way of making him launch a full-scale assault on the UA to take her back. And trust me when I say that having Mustard gas your hospital will cause more deaths than hiding her from the world."
Shuzenji seems to mull it over for a moment. But finally, she relents.
Izuku really wants to go home. It's only going to get worse from now on.
(***)
In case you were wondering, yes. You just witnessed the precedessor of a hero agency being established. The system is slowly born, although it's still very far from getting there.