Chapter Eighteen: Restless

"How was your placement?"

Aizawa wakes up cursing the poor chase he made a few hours ago. He knew the kids would be a good alarm, but now he's in the corner of the classroom suffering a group of chatty teens as they discuss their experiences from the past week. Class starts in ten minutes, but he doesn't have the energy to go get coffee leaving him to stay curled up with a hammering feeling on his sleep-deprived brain.

Yuko rapidly switches between tabs on her phone to refresh the pages when a pink blur appears between her and her phone. She jumps in her seat suddenly hyperattentive of her surroundings. "Mina?" Yuko discovers that the pink blur had been Mina's hand waving.

"Sorry! I wanted your attention. Didn't think it would startle you into next week." For a moment, Mina thought Yuko was going to tip her chair and fall backwards. "How was your placement? Didn't you stay in Musutafu? But now you have me curious. What are you looking at so intensely?"

Yuko's thumb freezes over the screen before twisting her phone and pushing the off button. "Nothing!" It's a horrible lie that gets Mina even more curious as to what she's hiding. Just as curious as Todoroki expressing confused worry looking their way. "Internships, right? Nezu gave me a lot to think about." It's the reason Mina approached, but it's obvious Yuko is trying to keep the subject off her phone. Mina lets it slide.

"Nezu? Why does that name sound familiar?"

"He's the principal."

"You were stuck here? At school?" Mina shivers. That sounds like a nightmare. Yuko had so many choices and she caged herself here. It's not cool at all. Like, she knows she brought it up, but it feels like its rubbing the opportunities in her face. She didn't get one offer, didn't get to do anything fun during placements, and she was scolded again about using her quirk to cause less collateral damage. She didn't even get to witness anything cool to make up for it.

Yuko bobs her head. "Yeah, we went over scenarios, did some training, and other stuff. Probably similar to most people."

"Same. Mostly training, and I was allowed to go on some patrols, but nothing cool happened like with Tsu."

Yuko wonders if that's a bad thing. Mina makes it sounds like it is. Nothing happening sounds like there's more peace. Sounds good to her.

"What's the principal's quirk anyway?" Mina tries to think back to USJ. She can remember him being there, but nothing comes to mind when she tries to think about what he did. That's probably her own fault. She had been pretty disoriented. "It's got to be a mutant quirk. A dog? A bear?"

Mina feels defensive when Yuko frowns. How is she supposed to know? "You shouldn't say that." Mina is very confused. What's wrong with what she's said? "Do you really not know?"

"Know what?" Mina may not be the smartest, she may even have one of the lowest grades in the class, but what's so obviously missing?

"I think it's called High Spec. Don't quote me on that. It allegedly gives him intelligence that surpasses humans."

That's not flashy at all. "So like a rat?" Rats are supposed to be smart, aren't they?

Yuko twists her thumb around her index finger as she tries to even her breathing. It's not malicious since it's like how Mina would talk about her own quirk, or Tsu's, or Shouji's, or anyone else with mutant quirks. That doesn't prevent it from being irritating. She's never been good at biology. How is Yuko supposed to bring up Nezu is a person, but not technically human, and that it's because he has animal origins and not a mutant quirk. She feels like it's so easy to misspeak and make her want to eat her own words. She does not want to make false parallels between mutant types and animals. It's a complicated enough of a topic that has a tight enough wire trying to balance a humanism scope while giving credit and value to one's uniqueness.

Nezu's catchphrase is starting to make more sense. He must be asked a lot.

"I think it would be easier to look him up."

"Is Nezu his name or his given name?"

"He only has one name."

"Eh? Really? How did his parents get that approved?" Mina tosses the idea of searching for him. There's no way she'll find what she wants in the search results.

Yuko places a hand on her face.

"He really only has one name?" says Ochako as she places her bag on the side of her desk. She's never heard of someone with only one name. Ochako wonders if Nezu is his hero name and he hides his real name.

Ochako too? Actually, even Kouda, Tokoyami, and Todoroki are facing them with interest. Do they all not know?

Yuko finds it uncomfortable to discuss. It would have been easier before placement. That way it would have been like talking about something in a textbook. "He…" Her voice clumps in her throat. Nezu, the person she read way too much about before even applying to this school. Nezu, the person who took her under his wing and helped her settle that she doesn't need to want to climb up the ranks to be a hero. Who offered her guidance. Who was mindful of her needs. No longer does it feel like an academic discussion but an invasion of privacy even if it's public information. "You can look it up yourselves. What about you all? How were your internships? Tokoyami, you interned with Hawks, right?"

"Hawks?! How was he?" Mina gushes and Yuko is happy to have the subject change.

"Even his shadow stands in the light." Tokoyami sounds tired and defeated.

Yuko doesn't know what that means but no one else questions it, so she keeps silent.

Mina prods trying to get some kind of personal information about Hawks out of Tokoyami.

"What about you, Ochako?" Mina regrets her question as Ochako's eyes are set ablaze as she punches the air.

"It was very fruitful."

"Ahahahaha. For real? No, but for real Bakugou?!" Two familiar booming voices echo through the room. Yuko is starting to realize it's not that the whole class is rowdy, but rather the rowdy students are so frequently loud with little care for order that her attention is always drawn to them. This time it's Sero and Kirishima.

"Is that Bakugou?" Ochako returns to earth and looks to the front.

Yuko had already gone back to refreshing the pages on her phone when she hears the faintest 'pft' noise from Todoroki. It's enough that she peaks around Kouda to see what everyone is worked up about.

She would have never guessed it. Bakugou's typical wild hair is pressed flat down like a stereotypical prep student.

"Don't laugh! It's stuck and washing isn't fixing it!" Bakugou snaps back looking murderously towards Kirishima and Sero who continue to goad him.

That sucks. Yuko doesn't know how it got that way, but she feels the mortification. She once put a hair cream in her hair to keep it flat and unfrizzy for a school photo, but the negative temperature froze it turning her hair a powdery white. She ended up having to wash it out in the bathroom sink but there is forever a photo of her looking like a drowned orangutang.

She goes back to her phone uninterested in everyone's discussions. Refreshing various missing persons pages at the national and local level as well as a few news sources. She reported Oda Hitsuko and the two kids she didn't recognize to child services. It's protocol to not inform those who request a welfare check, regardless of the results so she's regularly checking the few sources that might tell her something. If everything is fine then it's a waste of time, but that gnawing feeling grows and grows. Especially when Saionji Mayu is a reported missing person, who Yuko reported to the local trafficking agency against the urge to track her down herself. They probably know how to handle it best. She's pushing her luck lately as is. It's similar to what she told Iida at USJ. She can't let her selfish desires take priority when someone's at risk.

Her eyes stay glued to the screen as Kaminari comments that he found Akaguro's speech cool.

"He's certainly a man of conviction, so I understand if people find him 'cool'. However, he chose to advance his cause by means of a purge. Whatever beliefs you may hold, that and that alone is an error." Iida lowers his hand in a chop motion. It's a tic of his, it oddly looks like he's drawing a physical line.

For once, Yuko mostly agrees with him. His purge crosses the line. What did he hope to achieve? Regardless of reasons, wanting to wipe out most heroes means nothing if they aren't replaced with another forced. Most criminal activity isn't because heroes exist. It's not even that she thinks heroes need to be replace. It's just the naming and the organizational structure that makes little sense. In the current structure awareness, support, and legacy all matter. Awareness of knowing who is eligible to help you. Support from the public to feed money into the system and place faith that the current system is a beneficial system. Legacy of achievements to put more funding and expectations on those heroes.

Agakuro cherry picks simplistic arguments with conviction.

"A simple message offers no nuance, but it is easy to rally around. The world is filled with mobs supporting that type of thing," says Yuko unable to not say something. He's still a sensitive topic to her. "People following the charismatic usually follow because of how they speak, not because of what they speak."

Kyouka laughs and elbows Kaminari claiming that Yuko is suggesting that he's simpleminded.

Aizawa slowly gets himself out of his sleeping bag. He would have rather gotten a few more minutes of sleep, but it had been unintentionally informative. His class needs a lecture on 'sympathetic villains'. He'll make sure they don't even consider letting a villain get away because of their personal feelings.

Hitoshi enters class B. He's nervous, but he does his best to hide it. He wants to be here. He just doesn't want to hear any jeers from his new classmates. At least he can join now. Most schools would make the changes after the first trimester, but he can't afford to miss more opportunities.

Hitoshi eyes the rows of students and the extra desk in the back. He's going to stick out like a sore thumb. He recognizes Yanagi but she's busy listening to the chatty boy behind her.

He recognizes many others from the sports festival, but he doesn't remember most of their names.

He sits at the desk in the back. He can't help but find the irony as Monoma is the first to greet him in any capacity. The same person who demeaned General Studies and sabotaged his cavalry team. Everyone else is busy talking about their placements. Maybe he's too fast to judge. He's been there less than a minute.

Monoma gives him a breakdown of heroics classes. As expected, the Heroics Department has more time to focus on heroics. He isn't surprised when Monoma tells him that All Might always lets them do fun stuff, though he is surprised to learn that Foundational Hero Studies is split between All Might and their homeroom teacher Vlad King. Even more so when he discovers it isn't even a 50/50 split. All Might shows up about 20 percent of the time. Occasionally less.

Does class A monopolize his time? Hitoshi doesn't want to believe it because class A and B aren't divided by rankings, but doubt creeps into his mind. Maybe 1-B is right that 1-A gets preferential treatment.

"Come on! It was funny!" Kirishima shouts as Bakugou scoots over after sitting down in the cafeteria. His hair still isn't better and Shitty Hair, who Bakugou still refers to as such despite his atrocious hair, won't stop with the mockery.

And people complain about him while others like Shitty Hair and Hound Dog get away with everything!

Bakugou shuffles over more trying to create more distance when his elbow stabs someone. He looks over his shoulder, and oh hell no. It's Half-and-Half Bastard. Bakugou should have upped and left when he could. If he walks away now, he'll be mocked for his hair and called a coward. Across from Half-and-Half is Karatou. An unfortunate 2-for-1 special. Or is it 3-for-1 special? He would have assumed somebody merged two people into one if Half-and-Half's body proportions didn't resemble a normal person.

Karatou looks up from her phone then back down which ticks him off. "If you have something to say then say it."

"It's probably in your best interest to forgive Kirishima already. Ideally he shouldn't have said it, but it's not like you haven't said things similar thing to him. Either except that's how you two behave or change. Do you even remember his name?"

"Shitty Hair—"

Her eyebrows rise high and Bakugou shuts his mouth. He knows this. She literally just said his name. His name is called in class all the time. He chose him for his cavalry team. Why isn't a name coming to mind?

"He's an extra." That explains everything. There's no need to know the names of extras. The sports festival forced teamwork, but he's good enough alone. He's so strong he won't even need a sidekick. There's no need to know the names of the faces he saves. That's the end of it. Remembering a bunch names aren't needed.

"So commenting on your hair is too far, but demeaning Kirishima's hair every time you talk to him or about him is. Got it." Her tone is flat and dry. Her words indicate criticism but her tone is flat. "At this rate people are going to think you're a chunibyo."

"I'm not!"

"What's a chunibyo?" Todoroki speaks over Bakugou.

"I'm not a damn chunibyo!"

"It's usually used to described young teens with grandiose delusions, desperately want to stand out, and have more or less convinced themselves they have some special attributes like a protagonist of a story."

Todoroki nods and thought over the definition. "His power isn't a delusion, but I can see the similarities."

"You wanna fight?!" Fuck. He should have let Shitty Hair sit next to him and ridicule his hair. At least Bakugou knows his hair looks stupid. Actually, screw that. He should have walked off to not listen to any of them.

Yuko takes the first bite of her lunch and struggles to get it down. It smells delicious. It looks delicious. It tastes delicious but the texture. She puts her chopsticks down and gently push the tray a few centimeters closer to the centre of the table.

Bakugou catches the face of disgust and thinks it's directed at him.

"People get it. Your strong. Your smart. Your capable. Whatever. You know your strengths and you stick to it because it aligns with what you want. I get it. But are you ever going to garden the areas that could use tending? Communication is important to most people." It might take a while to sow seeds, but isn't it better to try than to stand on a patch of grass that regularly gets rained on. It's impossible to care and foster everything, but communication is how people coexist. Nothing worse than years of speech therapy and feeling stuck on the same micro issues.

"You should tell that to Endeavor," says Todoroki with some bite.

"Don't speak in metaphors. And you! I don't care if he is your dad, no one cares about second place." Bakugou takes several mouthfuls of food. He doesn't need to let his food get cold because of them. He eats more as Todoroki looks at him. Todoroki is creeping him out. If he has something to say he should say it.

"By that logic shouldn't you be emulating All Might's mannerisms?" asks Yuko.

"No, because I'm going to surpass him of course."

Now she's staring at him too.

Is it so hard for them to speak openly?

It isn't subtle nor is he trying to be

Aizawa arranges for their Foundational Hero Studies to be a mix of lecture and videos about 'sympathetic villains' and 'problematic vigilantes'. They are both a problem and burden to the system and he doesn't shy away from that. Too many villains have gotten away and too many vigilantes have gotten hurt.

One case is about a woman who had vicarious trauma from her friend who suffered repeated sexual abuse before eventually killed herself. The woman took it upon herself to 'rid the world of filth' and attacked and killed people she had even an inkling of belief would commit similar crimes.

Mineta eeped at some point.

Aizawa is even being kind by not sharing the grotesque images and details he could be sharing.

Another example case is someone who claimed they saved themselves when no one else would save them. As such society could only blame themselves if they acted villainous. Such logic doesn't work when committing fraud, theft, and nearly beating people to death.

Then there's a vigilante who interrupted an undercover investigation, indirectly causing one agent's death, and allowed the villaisn to get away. It took them another eight months before they could capture and enforce punishment.

These are useful lessons for his class and he likes to believe that they'll understand that they are still students and that she should not become that vigilante.

Kaede is bored.

School is boring. She could condense a week's worth of lessons and homework withing a day.

She knows this. Her dad knows this. The school knows this.

Nothing can be done, though. Japan loves uniformity. Being academically advanced is paraded as an exceptional thing, but there's still the social expectation to grow besides one's peers. If it's brought up, people tell her to do more outside school. Participate in more clubs. Find more involvements. That she needs it all to round her character.

Becoming a more rounded won't change the fact that she was at a sixth-grade reading level in first- grade.

Still, Eiko did as she was told and did more. It's the only way to keep stimulated and not rot away. It only further proved that she shouldn't be in middle school. She can't drop out. There were various paths she considered taking and almost none could be accomplished as a drop-out. It would be permanently on her record. There is technically teijisei, a form of night school that Dad attended when she was young, that lets people get their high school equivalent if they drop out, but it will always be weighed against you.

Of course, in their eyes it was better to have it than not have it, but it's like a lesser blemish rather than an irritated blemish.

Eiko needs stimulation and she wasn't getting it from school.

Yuko considers getting back on the train. What she wants to ask shouldn't be said with the risk of tracking. It's Monday, though, so he'll probably be working overtime.

She walks home, stopping only to briefly look at the park. Specifically the bench Mayu almost exclusively sat on. It's not the day she typically comes, but Yuko wonders whether she'll be here later this week, whether she's been rescued, or whether she still needs help.

She refreshes the pages on her phone again. Mayu is still listed as a missing person.

There's still no mentions of the others.

Wait.

No.

The page refreshes again the Miyazaki page has Hitsuko listed as missing.

Yuko's throat constricts. She opens up her email and clicks drafts and presses send on the one related to Hitsuko. Even as she does so, she can't help but feel like she's failed.

They're all together, right? What other reason would there be to send her profiles about two people she's never met. Maybe she should have released the documents to the authorities together? Hindsight is always worse, plus she still has no answer to give on how she obtained her information. Safety is more important, but part of that is the authorities taking her seriously.

Her fears were founded. She should have spoken up sooner. She could have put their lives in danger.

She goes to a hero school and heroes have their own workarounds. Maybe she should have gone to one of them. It would still be hard to explain where she got the information, but they would be able to do something, wouldn't they? Yamada? Nezu? Aizawa?

Yuko isn't sure. Would that have been any better?

She isn't sure.

Why can't there be a clear answer?

What had she been thinking?

She knows what she thought. She went down the avenue for trafficking for Mayu as a missing person. Assuming the others might be in the same scenario she contacted the local authorities for a welfare check. If the kids are gone or there's something suspicious about their homes then they could follow up.

Hero in training? Her actions may have costed lives.

If they are together and authorities are pursuing Mayu they may be expecting only one child, not four.

Tears run down her face.

Please be okay.