Nezu woke from his normal dreamless sleep to complete darkness.
He took a deep breath, the scent of earth and the local wildlife filling his senses along with the sound of running water, both working together to relax him.
Nezu rose to stand on all four of his paws and began stretching before shaking himself, then he yawned opening his mouth with only a minor amount of trouble from his throat for it.
Human speech was rather complex for his vocal cords and one of his reasons for drinking so much tea was to keep them from hurting too much by the end of the day.
Nezu tested them with a soft chirp and found them to be acceptable for the moment and moved to leave the space.
Climbing out of his nest and trotting forward until he felt rock under his paws and climbed up them, poking free of the rocks after a few minutes Nezu glanced at his surroundings.
Seeing the lazy riverbank exactly as it was yesterday when he returned to his burrow, a few animals dotted around the bank, getting a quick drink before going to their own homes to rest when the sun rose in an hour or so.
The first thing Nezu's locked his eyes on was a rat, the hunt was quick and he made quick work killing the animal, he took no pleasure in doing so but every once and a while he felt the urge to eat something he caught himself.
A leftover habit of his animalistic mind, though Nezu couldn't quite argue with the fresh meat he ate or that it wasn't good exercise for him.
Returning to the rock pile he slipped out of, Nezu walked over to the river for his own gulp of water, then he went to work cleaning himself, carefully licking himself and using his paws to comb his fur.
All actions he'd only indulge in when truly alone.
He looked much like what he was in these moments, a simple animal.
Nothing more, nothing less than what he would've been if he'd been if he hadn't had a quirk himself.
Nezu did not let these thoughts linger for much longer, there was little point to them and he marched through the woods towards the small hut that he had used to keep his small amount of things in.
He took one of his suits and placed it on, the material uncomfortable to wear but gave him an element of looking more human-like.
Ready for the day Nezu left the small building and made his way to U.A. and to no surprise of his he was the first person to arrive at the building.
Slipping inside Nezu chose to forego the large empty halls and instead entered the vents to quickly reach his office.
Getting ready for the day, Nezu started up a pot of tea then looked through some paperwork, checking his messages for any calls he received since he left for the night before.
Nezu only found one and he was about to see who had left it when a motion trigger alert stole his attention and Nezu checked his laptop to see what caused it, finding the origin of it within seconds.
Izuku stood outside his office despite not being there moments before hence tripping up the system.
He must have asked Kurogiri to drop him off here and so early in the morning? It would have to be about what he'd asked Izuku about last night.
Nezu leapt from his desk to one of the couches and waited for the boy to knock on his door, which he had seconds later and Nezu promptly welcomed the boy to come inside.
Izuku slipped into the room after giving the room a quick scan to ensure its safety.
A habit Nezu heartily approved of personally, most people didn't seem to understand the importance of never taking any space, no matter how familiar, at face value and assume it was safe.
"Izuku, good morning, would you like some tea? Have you already eaten?" Nezu asked, he didn't know Izuku's normal morning routine but he strongly suspected that Izuku had come straight here.
He hadn't done much cooking but a quick internet search along with his knowledge of calculus it wouldn't be that hard to whip something up, though Genji would likely have some strong words for him with his fur being in the kitchen if he didn't clean up very well afterwards.
"I'll take some tea Nezu, but I plan to have breakfast with my mom." Izuku answered sitting next to Nezu on the same couch.
*Well, that certainly uncomplicates things.* Nezu thought as he shut down the room, to keep the expected conversation unheard.
He set to work getting out some cups since the kettle was automatically set to start boiling at a certain time, he'd just need to add the bags "Have you already come to a decision about what I asked you?" Nezu inquired, placing the two cups on the table.
Izuku took his cup and blew on it before having a sip "I have, it helps when the Vespas are willing to hand over a copy of their files." Izuku replied taking some folders out of his bag and placing them on the table.
"I see." Nezu responded not bothering to hide his glance at the files.
"They're ¥800k a pop normally, and that's for the most basic of information, these would have been upwards of ¥50m each." Izuku said causally and Nezu felt a bit more relieved by the fact that most would not easily get their hands on such information.
"And what are your thoughts on bringing them in then?" Nezu inquired turning his head to the side to fully face the boy.
Izuku sighed.
"Gran Torino likely will have the most information on the quirk having seen it in multiple generations so I am willing to bring him in. As I am to Shuzenji-San, her medical input would be invaluable considering we have no idea whether or not there are any consequences for the bearers of Inheritance." Izuku explained and Nezu nodded along.
"Haruki was already aware and I personally feel we should keep her in the loop as well given she could've known the holder before Shimura and tell us about them as well.
Tsukauchi I have no problems with as I stated before." Izuku mused.
Nezu wasn't surprised that Izuku thought that way, Haruki was the reason he knew Izuku was aware of Inheritance in the first place and would probably have some wisdom on the matter comparatively speaking.
"However," Izuku said only to pause and set down his cup to cross his arms, an action that caused Nezu to unconsciously tense up.
"As for Sir Nighteye and All Might... I find myself uncomfortable with them knowing. I understand that this isn't a popular opinion but frankly I don't trust either of those men Nezu." Izuku said and Nezu blinked.
Before he could voice his confusion with more than a chirp Izuku continued to speak.
"All Might's numbers are fixed, no one has zero casualties, especially when they make a habit of destroying millions of infrastructure daily... Yet the man doesn't say anything about the incorrect numbers or any apologies to his unheard victims, not to mention the one time we met he decided to trap my underage student in a bottle that he just stuck in his back pocket." Izuku explained.
His bitterness as he spoke not quite like venom... but it was close enough in Nezu's mind.
"And Sir, is an unknown... relatively speaking. He worked with All Might for years then suddenly broke off their partnership after All For One was dead, which I can interpret as one of two things. Either the man saw what All Might was like and only stayed out of duty to kill All For One, or he didn't care and left for some other reason." Izuku elaborated.
"If it's the latter Nezu, then Sir might be more of a threat than an asset since he would be the kind to blindly follow a man like that, even after being exposed to the man behind the mask." Izuku commented.
Nezu's ears flattened at Izuku's statement.
He couldn't fault Izuku's logic, it was all very reasonable.
All Might had proven he wasn't the most moral person in front of the boy and his record numbers were similarly sketchy, and he couldn't remember the man calling anyone out for it either.
And Sasaki was handicapped when it came to matters involving All Might, the one time he'd been to the man's office it was covered in his All Might merchandise, and Izuku was right in thinking that Sasaki could be more antagonist to their efforts if All Might was as well.
But keeping them specifically out of the loop would be... difficult to say the least.
"That being said, it wouldn't do us any good to ice them out either. So despite my personal reservations about them I think we should still bring them in, All For One has only been able to flourish because his enemies remained in single digit numbers and isolated themselves." Izuku conceded letting his head fall to one side.
Nezu chirped in agreement with the fact "Is there anyone else you think we should read in then? I might have given you a list but by no means think we couldn't add your own people to the loop as well." Nezu offered.
Izuku should have some people he trusted in the loop as well, people he trusted to balance out the unease from All Might and Sasaki.
Izuku blinked, his gaze falling sideways "Currently speaking Nezu, other than Riya and Mido I don't feel the need to bring anyone on my side in." Izuku answered.
Nezu chirped tilting his head.
"Oh, right, they're my doubles. Twice can make duplicates of anything he knows the exact measurements of, including people. A very helpful quirk when you need to spread your work out to keep from burning out." Izuku explained.
Nezu chuffed "That would explain your change in pattern, you acquired Twice's services sometime around last November yes?" Nezu questioned.
"Sort of, my mom found him wandering the streets with his pet dog and asked for me to help them since they needed it, Twice wouldn't accept handouts though so I made a job for him." Izuku told him.
"Ah, is she aware of-" Nezu began to ask but a sudden wave of aggression silenced him.
"She is never to know of this Nezu. Unless you have my body in hand or he makes a move on her, my mother is not to know anything about All For One. Period." Izuku cooly said, waves of unspoken but very threatening intent rolling off the boy.
"I understand Izuku." Nezu promised releasing a few apologetic chirps for bringing up such an upsetting topic.
"No, no don't apologize Nezu. I just… get protective of the people I care about, and knowing any of this... it would completely crush her." Izuku spoke waving one of his hands, the oppression quickly being cleared away.
Nezu however couldn't help but stare at the boy, this wasn't the first time the boy's emotions had spiked around him but Nezu also hadn't the time to give much thought to them either.
"Izuku if I may," Nezu spoke uncertain and the boy hummed encouragingly "How do you do that?" Nezu asked and the blinked, tilting his head to the side clearly confused and wanting further explanation.
"Change the air in the room, how did you learn to do that?" Nezu clarified which only seemed to confuse Izuku more.
Then a look of sudden realization overtook the confusion "Oh, huh." Izuku muttered blinking and rolling something over in his mind "I guess that makes sense, kind of." the boy added bringing a hand up to his chin muttering Russian under his breath.
Nezu chirped to get Izuku's attention and the boy became flustered "Ah, right sorry got lost in thought." Izuku quickly apologized waving his hands.
"To answer your question though, I think what you felt was an unconscious but none-the-less learned change in my pheromones." Izuku told him and Nezu tilted his head, chirping for him to continue.
"Well, you remember when I told you about the Nomus yes? It relates back to that, kind of.
It's because of the difference in the brains of a quirked person and a two-toes." Izuku said pointing to his head.
"See, since quirks are a form of rapid fire evolution in a certain direction that affects the way the person's brain is wired. A person with an ice quirk is like a penguin, they thrive in colder places and their brain is focused on the things their quirk uses, like the science of thermodynamics but would have trouble with social studies or history." Izuku further went on to say.
"Evolution gets rid of anything it deems useless, like flying for penguins (if they ever flew in the first place) or the natural heat tolerance of the humans before the quirk era began, and this change is most present in the brain chemistry." Izuku pointed out and Nezu nodded to show he was still following along.
"That is why a quirked person wouldn't be useful as a base for a Nomu, their brain is specifically wired for a specific quirk and adding another quirk would most likely make them brain dead.
Following the penguin example, if you took a penguin and just dropped them in a desert it would die from environmental shock or parish shortly after being introduced to an environment so unlike its own because it evolved to live in a completely different climate." Izuku explained.
"If you added a fire quirk to an ice-quirked person their body and brain wouldn't be able to handle the two conflicting forces well, even if both of the quirks worked the same way, like changing the vibrations of molecules, the brain and body are only able to handle what it was made for and unable to handle the changes for heat." Izuku threw out the example for him.
"A two-toes on the other hand still has the adaptability of pre-quirk era humans, our brains by comparison are moldable like clay, as are our bodies. Still holding the many tolerances that quirked people lose for their rapid evolutions, a few more to boot depending on the non-quirk mutations they could pick up in addition." Izuku elaborated then placed a hand on his bicep.
"Generally we can build more muscle faster than a quirked person, since the majority of quirks focus on an ability that has no relation to that, like camouflage quirks, evolutionarily speaking there just wouldn't be a reason to keep that muscle building trait in most cases since larger muscles wouldn't help someone that's supposed to be invisible and spend most of their time 'hiding'." Izuku said.
"But there are other less noticeable changes in the biology of two-toes, like our vocal cords or in this case, our production of pheromones, which makes sense since they are a reflection of said brain chemistry." Izuku commented, waving one of his hands.
"As an animal your senses can pick up on this difference of pheromone output where most humans couldn't, bar empaths or animal quirked humans... though I think humans can unconsciously pick up on it still as a 'feeling' in the air since that would go a long way to explaining how some people react to me." Izuku mused crossing his arms.
After fully processing the idea Nezu would have to concur with Izuku's theory, the human 'sixth sense' was famous and likely a remnant of the human's atrophied ability to pick up on pheromones.
And if they could pick up on Izuku's malice or anger then that would certainly add to his ability to intimate others.
Nezu wasn't sure if it was just Izuku though since he hadn't met another two-toes in person to compare to, though the quirked humans rarely reached the same levels Izuku did Nezu had to acknowledge.
"How interesting, would you please do me the pleasure of explaining more about two-toes biology? Since we shall be opening our doors to them effective next year I would like to know of anything we should have to account for." Nezu requested.
Izuku hummed and gave a nod "I wouldn't mind, the handbooks they give out or sell are mostly junk science, the only thing they get right is our appendix can randomly explode on us." Izuku grumbled before she took a drink of his tea.
"Is that so?" Nezu questioned, a niggle of concern grew in his stomach at that fact.
"Oh yeah, there are a few reasons, the most common is an infection that causes pus to build along with swelling and inflammation which causes it to burst open, which needs to be treated right away because you have twenty-four hours before they are going to be killed by the infection." Izuku commented.
"They could also be blocked by a fecal stone or a build up of fat/mucus which traps the infection which ends up in the same thing, or stress, stress can make our body's do weird things, and a blow to the appendix can cause it to rupture too." Izuku added listing off things on one hand.
"Can they remove the appendix to prevent that?" Nezu inquired, because he would rather not live with the knowledge of there being a ticking time-bomb sitting in Izuku's abdomen.
"Sort of, most doctors now a days aren't trained to deal with an appendix since they only exist in a fraction of the population here in Japan, of course then you'd have to convince the few surgeons that can to fill one of their precious time-slots for a two-toes." Izuku dismissively answered with a roll of his eyes.
"But there are some very reputable butchers I recommend to my students, and yours if any of the two-toes that come would be interested in having an appendectomy." Izuku offered and Nezu ears lowered.
The fact back alley 'doctors' were more reliable in this matter than trained professionals, was deeply distressing.
Nezu startled when he felt a hand on his head, rubbing circles between his ears and Nezu proceeded to melt under the touch laying down on his belly.
"Sorry, that probably sounded more negative than I intended for it to be Nezu, I'm sure there are some nice doctors, but I personally can't put much stock in them." Izuku apologized continuing to pet and stroke his head.
Nezu chirped back and simply remained limp and pliant under Izuku's menstruations.