Ryo trudged his way to the main building, shoulders slumped.
The sun hadn't risen yet and he normally wouldn't even be at U.A. yet but he had tried to sleep for the past two hours and hadn't been able to.
See, after he finished his patrol yesterday and was about to go home when he got a call about his aid being requested at a landslide.
He was tired but he couldn't ignore the people that could've been trapped in there, so he got his rear in gear and left to the disaster site, and what a disaster it was.
He could smell the dead long before he was on scene and the unearthed septic tank wasn't helping matters, but with a group of campers nearby the mini-earth quake Ryo did his best to overcome the awful smell searching for the scents of anyone that could be trapped inside still.
He was able to find some still alive, others weren't and he was mentally prepared for most of it, but much like he often told the students he counseled there were always going to be things you can never prepare for no matter how much you try.
One of those things was pulling children from the rubble only to realize that he had been too late to save some of those kids.
Any day that ended with dead kids wasn't a good one and Ryo was kind of a hypocrite going back to work the next day when he knew Nezu would let him have the day off if he asked for it, and it might be the workaholic in him but helping his students would make him feel better than moping around his home over it would.
Ryo made his way up to the staff offices and dug out some of his students files and went to his office to catch up on some of his reading.
Midoriya, the proactive kid had already made up a group of files for the students in Ito-San's class and the issues they could be facing.
He already had the same thing from Ito-San but Ryo was privately glad the kid even bothered with it unlike some of his co-workers.
Ryo shook his head as he thought of Aizawa, how a man could spend hours preaching about the importance of gathering all the evidence you can when he didn't bother to learn much more than their names was just as hypocritical, Aizawa barely bothered to learn anything other then his students' names and watching their entrance exam before deciding he knew enough to teach them.
Idiotic little Kouhai.
Ryo often questioned what Isamu saw in their sleep deprived under classman, and things like this was one of the many down sides of being with such a man, and that wasn't taking into account the years of emotional baggage the man refused to acknowledge even with it almost crushing him.
Sitting at his desk Ryo went through the files and was pleasantly surprised to find a decent, if very untrained and raw base-line of psychology, it wasn't at an academic level in any sense but Midoriya seemed to have more understanding of the subject then the average person.
And his concerns for some of them seemed to have some real grounding behind them and Ryo would have to find time to squeeze them in or arrange with one of the other counselors to see to them.
Ryo jumped at a sudden and unexpected knock at his door "Come in." he called out automatically and Midoriya popped his head in the room, looking around before he fully entered his office.
Ryo blinked surprised the boy's appearance and glanced at the clock to check if he had lost more time than he thought he had, but it was still a good two hours before school would even be open for the early birds.
"Hello Midoriya-San, what brings you to my office? Forgot to add something to these?" Ryo asked getting a quick whiff of the air.
Midoriya was a fairly neutral scent most of the time, after the 'bucket incident' Ryo learned Midoriya's anger clung to him even hours later, currently though it was something else.
Sympathy was the most dominant and held a faint undertone of a bitter sadness surrounding the boy but with a stronger hint of gratitude, an... odd combination certainly and Ryo got a touch caught up trying to think what could've made such a scent but noticed when Midoriya ducked his head.
"You know I have a lot of connections to the underworld, and that the Vespas and I are close right? Well, they um... they told me about what happened this morning Inui-San." Midoriya said his hands fumbling with the strap of his bag.
Ryo ducked his head slightly "Ah, I see." he muttered scratching the back of his neck and avoiding looking at the boy, he wasn't sure he wanted the boy to try and comfort him, Midoriya probably had good intentions but Ryo didn't need to sit through another talk about how it's 'not as bad as it could've been.'
"Right, so I wanted to thank you and I asked Nezu about what would be the best thing to get you, and he said you were almost finished with your current chews." Midoriya told him fumbling over the words slightly as he searched in his bag before pulling out a bag and Ryo recognized the brand immediately.
It was a bag of the good chew-toys, the flavored ones that wouldn't lose their flavor over time and would last him at least a month each, it was a bag of five strawberries without squeakers "Oh, Midoriya-San-" he tried to say.
"Midoriya is fine Inui-San." Midoriya interjected as he pushed the bag into his hands.
"Right, Midoriya thank you for these, but I'm afraid I am not quite following?" Ryo told the boy "Don't get me wrong I love these, I just don't know what you're supposed to be thanking me for." Ryo clarified.
Midoriya flustered at that and he could smell some embarrassment as Midoriya ducked his head and pushing his pointer fingers together "One of the people you rescued a couple hours ago was a girl, about ten years old, bright orange skin, fluffy white hair and a pair of red horns about this long." Midoriya began to explain holding his hands above his head.
Ryo startled at the description as had indeed pulled such a girl from the rubble and his heart fell as he remembered, because he also knew the girl's leg was horribly mangled and that one of her eyes had been gouged out, he was unsure if the girl was even alive when he had first found her.
"Her name is Rikio-Chan and I've been teaching her for over a year now, aiming to be a vet when gets older... I called her foster brother and he said she's recovering well and was even awake but the doctor's think they'll most likely have to amputate her right leg." Midoriya told him.
Ryo turned away from the boy shame building in his stomach "I'm sorry, I wish I could've gotten to her sooner Midoriya." Ryo apologized defensively crossing his arms to hug himself.
"But she's alive thanks to you... my student is still alive, that's not something I get to say often after something like this Inui-San, and it's thanks to you that I don't have to bury another one of my kids. I don't think I'll ever be able to find the words to explain to you how much that means to me Inui-San." Midoriya countered his grip tightening on his bag's straps.
Smelling again Ryo found the gratitude and sadness was much more pronounced now, and the look in Midoriya's eyes it was honestly a bit heart-wrenching to look at, mainly because of how young he was.
"Midoriya," Ryo said only to stop unable to find the words to continue, should he address what the boy said by his students dying during events like this often? Or perhaps the fact the boy had likely experienced the multiple deaths of his students?
Then again Midoriya was quirkless and had probably been through a lot already, and trying to get him to talk about it might not be the best option either despite all of his training shouting the boy was not mentally okay.
Ryo glanced down at the chews he bit his lip and considered something before picking up the bag "Want to chew with me?" he offered as he opened the bag.
Midoriya blinked tilting his head before nodding reaching into his bag and pulling out a white bunny chew surprisingly, and upon seeing his surprise Midoriya chuckled "My students were usually nervous about being seen using their chews after I first started giving them out so I bought myself some so they would be less self-conscious about it." Midoriya explained rubbing the back of his head.
Huh, that was actually something Ryo remembered feeling self-conscious about, there were plenty of people that would treat him less than human because of his quirk and he didn't want to give them anything to use against him.
"Would you mind if I did some work in here while we chew?" Midoriya inquired and Ryo shook his head.
"No, that would be fine Midoriya." Ryo told the boy as he dug out one of the chews to get started on it.
And almost immediately as soon as he popped the strawberry in his mouth, the flavor coming out with every nibble, and the sound of Midoriya writing away and muttering in some other language was a strangely calming sound.
So though it wasn't quite professional Ryo was pretty sure the boy wouldn't judge him too harshly and leaned forward on to his desk and onto his crossed arms, closing his eyes and just kept chewing on the strawberry.
It was nice to do this, kind of relaxing even to just have a minute to chew on something and breath, hero work on top of being the head counselor for the hero courses were two rather demanding jobs and finding time to just get a second to destress like this... well he did have it he just didn't take it.
Ryo should probably arrange a call with his therapist now that he thought about it, it had been a couple months since his last session…
The tranquility lasted for a while and Ryo drifted a bit almost falling asleep even before the intruder alarms sounded and he jumped to his feet, quickly he left the room and looked out the window of the hallway to see a large group of people outside the gate and the gate shut.
Ryo frowned wondered just what the cause of the mob outside this time could be, he didn't think anything controversial had happened with the students lately, or the staff for that matter... but Midoriya just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose once he saw the group.
"You know what's up with them Midoriya?" Ryo asked and the boy nodded.
"If I'm being honest I'm surprised that it took this long, I thought they would've been here yesterday... it's not everyday a group of 'promising' hero students are expelled on the first day of their second term by a teaching assistant on their first day, much less one that's quirkless." Midoriya answered shaking his head.
*Oh, right that.* Ryo thought frowning, as much as he'd hate to say it he understood what Midoriya meant by that.
People were irrational and it wouldn't be hard to whip up a crowd against the boy because he was quirkless, as painful as it was to admit it, just like the fact he still got plenty of hateful quirkist letters from people because he had a dog quirk.
Carefully Ryo placed a hand on the boy's head causing the boy to blink and turn to him looking confused "Don't worry about it though, I'm sure Nezu-San will deal with them soon." Ryo said trying to reassure him.
The boy blinked again then smiled closing his eyes "Yeah... I guess he will." he muttered not moving away from him.
Human chew toys should be a thing and I will die on this hill, plus Izuku nibbling on chew toys with his students is a precious mental image.