"Tea?"
Fuck. This was going to take forever, Aizawa internally lamented as he lowered himself to sit across from Principal Nezu. He dropped his satchel on the floor beside him in resignation.
"Sure."
Nezu took his sweet fucking time preparing the tea, but Aizawa already knew there would be no rushing him. He sat and waited, drumming his fingers on his thigh, and entertained himself with his own dark thoughts.
Kobayashi had arrived at the hospital in the small hours to take over watch, but when Aizawa asked what was preoccupying the Yaoyorozu family, Kobayashi had been tight-lipped. He couldn't say. Maybe it had something to do with that conversation he'd overheard with Saito Ren. He was glad to have caught it; Saito Ren was one person Aizawa did not want in-the-know about his double life, for sure, and encountering the Scandinavian at the fundraiser would have been problematic. He would save himself the trouble and just not go.
Aizawa had spent his afternoon following up on Goro — if anyone had seen him, they were keeping their mouths shut about it. He wished he could be surprised, but Goro had made off with the money and his compensation for some tight-lipping of his own could probably outbid what Aizawa could offer for information. Especially since he had covered returning the money to Yaoyorozu Asao out of pocket. He lamented that he couldn't get it back from Goro if he didn't find Goro.
"Milk? Sugar?"
"No, thanks."
It took Nezu several more minutes to make himself comfortable, stirring his tea gently, and sipping with satisfaction. Aizawa waited longer. It was a practice in patience, but he was a master of the art.
"I am going to institute dorms here on campus." Aizawa raised his eyes to Nezu. He was caught off-guard, admittedly, and it took him a moment of consideration to answer.
"I assume you are trying to do this in the near future?"
It, on one hand, made sense. Keeping the students together would make them easier to protect — if staff were made to protect them. On the other hand, however, this introduced other risks. They had talked, quietly, about the possibility of an informant to the League of Villains. Aizawa hadn't forgotten the warp villain from USJ; what if it just…warped into the dorms and took the kids, while the informant kept everything quiet, buffering the staff? More time on campus was not necessarily a good thing.
Having Momo on campus was another double edged sword. He could keep an eye on her more closely here. If he took her under his wing, taught her to invert her victims so they would stay conscious for the flaying, it would be easier to do with her close at hand. Still, that nagging reluctance, that it would be wrong to sway her. Wrong to influence her. Even if it was her birthright.
"I have already commissioned the construction from one of the lead builders in Japan," Nezu said, upbeat and pleased with himself. "They have licenses to use their quirks to work, and expect to have all the buildings done within a week.
"They will also be making some upgrades and adjustments to the campus layout. Nothing that will alarm the student body, but will give us an advantage if UA is attacked."
"I assume you want staff to transition to living on campus."
He kept his interest out of his question, and Nezu nodded happily.
"Yes. There will be staff quarters adjoined to the dorms, with a staff member per floor. You, Present Mic, and All Might will be assigned to the Class 1-A dorms."
Double fuck.
"So Yagi is going to continue teaching?" Aizawa asked, annoyed.
A part of him had quietly — hopefully — assumed that All Might would be calling an end to his time at UA in light of the public revelations about his "Small Might" form, as the tabloids had cruelly — but accurately — dubbed it. And he did not disagree with the media's hardline stance on how everything at UA had unfolded over the past few days. UA had been caught with their pants down. A student, almost two students, had been kidnapped by the League. Getting Bakugo back had gone to shit, and Aizawa wondered if Yaoyorozu was getting a kickback from the school to keep it quiet that All For One had targeted Momo, too. Hero society was panicking because All Might, whose mere existence had been the major deterrent to potential villains, was gone with no warning. And All Might had known his abilities were deteriorating, but he'd kept it quiet. He was a selfish son of a bitch, and to hear that he may be sticking around at UA awhile longer was not the news Aizawa wanted on top of everything else.
"Yes, as of now All Might will continue teaching."
"He doesn't have use of his quirk anymore; it puts more pressure on Mic and I if anything were to happen at the dorms."
Nezu had clearly already considered that possibility. "All Might is still the Number One Hero, with great tactical understanding and knowledge."
Aizawa relented.
"How are you going to pitch the dorms to the parents?"
"They will be notified, and I do expect some resistance. For families who are doubting whether it is safe, I'd like to send the teachers to meet with them personally. I believe seeing the resolve at UA will be valid currency."
A few months ago, at the start of the year, he'd been considering leaving Hero life behind entirely. Had sworn to himself that he would outlast All Might. But his willingness to do all this was weathered. He'd done his duty at USJ and gotten a fuck ton of new scars as thanks. He had publicly shouldered the brunt of society's resentment with regard to the summer training camp's spectacular failure. And, now, he was supposed to move on campus? It was more trouble than it was worth.
"I want you and All Might to work together to decide the best way to cover the quad outside the 1-A dormitory," Nezu continued casually. "There is also the issue of Yaoyorozu Momo."
It took concentration to keep his breathing steady at the mention of her name.
"I understand that she played an important role in facing the villains during summer training."
"She did. She created and distributed masks to other students, and she created the tracking device to put on a Nomu."
"She also suffered a head injury," Nezu noted, flipping through documents in front of him. Student records, Aizawa saw. Incident reports. "In your statement you were the one to notice her absence, and executed a successful rescue."
"Yes."
"We had flagged her as potentially benefitting from a one-on-one with a counselor because of the incident. That was before Kamino Ward."
"She needs one now," Aizawa stated, and Nezu nodded.
"It is critical. I would venture to say that she may have suffered more irreparable damage than even young Bakugo."
She wouldn't stand a chance, Aizawa knew. He remembered the dark in that small, broken space. He remembered the smell of the freezer's steel, and copper. He'd stayed in that empty space for minutes. She had been there for hours, buried under bodies. No. Momo wouldn't stand a chance, if she went in unprepared.
"Let's schedule it then," Aizawa said. "She'll need time to recover from her injuries more first — but, maybe in two weeks?"
"I will check with the counselor and see what time they have available," Nezu agreed, and sipped his tea.
