Chapter 19
Having spent the last three days in the hospital, Izuku was anxious to get back into his routine. Since he did the bulk of the paperwork, most of his duties fell towards Aoyama and the others to pick up the slack or sat there waiting for him at his desk when he came back. His business partner had run his office while Izuku was gone, taking over the morning meetings and other such duties while he healed, and had done a stand-up job, but now that he was back, he saw that the office was just as cluttered as it had been when he'd left. Which was why Izuku had spent the next couple of days working late nights trying to get his agency back into something resembling working order, and why he was here way before anyone else had arrived at the office.
Dark circles marred his eyes, giving him a hollowed out look, though he felt better than he looked. It wasn't the first time he had worked overtime and it would hardly be the last. Having a free a moment to work on getting his arms back into shape, he began lifting the mini-set of weights he had on his desk. He was capable of benching more, but there was no room for such weights around the office, most of his equipment sitting in his one-bedroom apartment, and without using his Quirk, his arms were not where he wanted them to be.
"Deku?" spoke a smooth voice belonging to Aoyama who wore a confused expression when he flipped on the rest of the florescent office lights. "What are you doing here so early?"
"I just wanted to get some extra work done," Izuku explained, continuing his arm reps. In truth, he had been here since five am, unable to sleep with how much energy he had built up with his eagerness to get back to work and give it one hundred and ten percent. He hadn't found any new leads on Psyren, despite his research and with Momozono's help (she had come in early to help him go over the other case files). He had even tried reaching out to some of his older contacts for support information, but Gran Torino was retired, the Shield family were out-of-range, Hatsume rarely looked outside of herself and her 'babies,' and Aizawa would have asked why he was investigating in a petty robbery; only person he could reach was Centipeder and his agency, and he had gotten their answering machine. He couldn't explain why this particular encounter had bothered him. He just felt like he owed it to All Might's memory to figure it out. The guilt in the pit of his stomach gnawed at him any time he had a stray thought of giving up or letting it go. He was just going to have to pay attention to any shifts in the black market and keep an ear to the ground for any news about new merchandise coming up for sale and hope for the best.
"Mon amie, you don't look so good. Maybe you should take the rest of the day off."
"What are you talking about? I feel fine," Izuku waved off as Momozono came back to give his third refill of green tea, pouring out the rest of the contents into his cup. "Thanks, Momozono-san."
"You're welcome Iz- Deku," she said before tilting her head to the side. "I hope I made it to your liking." Izuku gave her a nod and took a sip, pleased to find that it was not cold this time.
"Are you sure? Momozono said you were almost paralyzed." Izuku looked over towards where the young woman was strategically averting her gaze as she walked quickly out the door to make a fresh pot of tea. He drew in a long breathe and put on a smile.
"Don't worry, I'm just fine. I've been given a clean bill of health, and besides I can't afford to take anymore days off. We're behind enough as it is and I want to get these reports in to the police about Psyren as soon as possible."
"If you say so... But don't forget mon amie, you need to be a hero to yourself as well as others. It doesn't do anyone any good if your skincare routine and health are ignored," Aoyama said with a smooth delivery and a twinkle in his eye. "I know that trying to keep up in the world that doesn't cater to people who struggle with Quirks like ours is a major faux pas, but don't forget the progress you've made so far. Even if you are not where you want to be, at least you're not where you used to be."
Izuku lowered his bulky arm weight and gave his former classmate a more genuine smile. It was easy to write the blonde Frenchman off as vain and prideful, but he could be thoughtful when he wanted to be. "I appreciate that, Aoyama-kun. Thank you."
"How many times have I told you? You can call me Yuga when we're off-the-clock. We're bosom friends, oui?"
"Oh uh yes. Thank you... Yuga," Izuku corrected himself. Once the rest of his staff had arrived, Kobayashi barely skating by on the 8:29am punch in, Izuku gathered the materials off of his desk and stepped into the mini conference room.
"Good morning, everyone. Before we go into regular updates and new details, the main reason I called this meeting is that it has been brought to my attention that I may have been mismanaging the way we do things here at the office. I'd like to address this before we go and do any of our regular hero work by temporarily reassigning normal duties. I'd like to clarify this by stating I don't think anyone is doing a terrible job at what their current duties are. This is just an experiment to see if people are better suited towards their new positions so that others won't be so overwhelmed with work they're not accustomed to and so the office won't suffer as a whole." There were a few exchanges of looks, but no one spoke up to voice their thoughts so Izuku continued and flipped the page over. "Alright then, first on the itinerary is case files. I need someone to oversee the case files and make sure the correct ones are logged into the computer and then sent out. Kobayashi, you're good at technology. Maybe you can-"
"I can't type with these nails. My manicure costs more than your wardrobe," Kira-Kira shot back almost immediately while Momozono spoke over her by saying, "you don't like how I do the computers?" with dewy eyes.
"No no, you're fine, but I feel like you would better suited in other places," Izuku said to Momozono with a nervous sweat. "You can run the phones."
"So now she's taking my job?" Kira-Kira said, affronted that anyone would dare to change her job.
"I can take over the computers. Just leave it to me, mon amie," Aoyama interjected with a glimmer in his eye and a small wink. Izuku gave him a silent thank you as Aoyama continued with an alternative suggestion, "Perhaps Momozono could do extra patrols in lieu of being stuck in front of a desk."
"That's an idea, but I can't go out into the field. I still don't have my hero license yet and my Quirk still causes objects to explode if I amp it up too high."
"I'm glad you brought that up, Momozono-san," Izuku interjected with some excitement. "I plan on implementing more times in the day reserved for training and working one-on-one with you and your Quirks so that everyone will be more adept at maintaining their skills. I'm going to be scouting out potential locations until we can afford to upgrade the agency to a larger space, so make sure you list your workout requirements and leave it on my desk by this afternoon, and I will begin looking for a gym space that will accommodate us." He had texted Alyssa earlier this morning asking where her lightsaber class was held since spaces in Japan for that kind of training were limited, so something like a martial arts school would be tacked onto a gym or a recreation center. Normally, she was quick to respond but ever since he had texted her early this morning it had been nothing but radio silence, which somehow unnerved him more.
"That sounds great but that doesn't exactly solve the whole issue of me still being unable to use my Quirk properly. I can't go on patrols by myself."
"You're right," Izuku nodded before looking up from his patrol schedule. "Anyone want to run extra patrols with Momozono-san?"
"I can do extra patrols with her," Kaminari raised his hand. "Anything to get away from doing more paperwork."
"Great! So Kaminari is doing extra patrols with Momozono, and Aoyama is going to be in charge of the main computer files-" Izuku said smilingly, becoming more at ease the longer time he spent going over his list until a beep from his phone alerted him to another notification. He pulled it out and was somewhat disappointed to find that it was another photos back-up reminder rather than a text message. "Umm... Next is dealing with our overall media presence. Another way our agency can move forward is if our image in the media was more clear. Fame and merchandise is one thing, but we would be called on for a lot more jobs if our names were be more recognizable in the public."
"Yeah, man. It's so annoying that they keep misspelling your name in the paper," frowned Kaminari. "It's like the news has it out for us."
"We need better PR," Aoyama nodded in agreement. "After all, what's the point in being heroes if we're not there to provide a sparkle to someone's day?"
"Kobayashi-san, since you can't use the keyboard to type with your nails, I was wondering if you could use your skills towards establishing a better social media presence..?" Izuku added with some hesitance. She sat there thoughtful for a moment before recrossing her leg.
"A social media page, huh?" Kira-Kira hummed with some interest. "I suppose I could do that."
"Alright then. All we have left for reassignment is the office cleanup. I'm sure all of you at one point or another have met our tiny invader. Just another reminder to keep your food in the refrigerator or air tight storage containers and to regularly check traps."
"I don't know why we don't just kill the thing," Aoyama said with some distaste. "An office full of pro-heroes and we can't catch one mouse?"
"We need to hire an exterminator. I can't stand mice," Momozono shuddered in agreement, clenching her fists towards her chest.
"It's a rat and his name is Haruta." Kaminari said with a slight frown.
"You seriously named the rat?" Kira-Kira deadpanned.
"What? He's much of a resident here as any of us. If anything, we're the trespassers, invading in on his home."
"Alright, so Kaminari will oversee pest control and Kobayashi will be in charge of trash duty-" Izuku said before another buzz from his pocket alerted him. He was about half paying attention as the conversation between coworkers on how to deal with the rat problem before he glanced over the text message notification with some interest. He quickly typed in his PIN number and immediately had to stifle a laugh at the All Might meme Alyssa had sent him, this one involving a Snickers commercial parody with his real body and powered up form. Underneath the picture was the text he had been waiting for.
My classes are held at the Irumu Rec Center in the Korusanto District.
"What's up, Midoriya? You've been checking your phone more than usual," Kaminari asked, snapping Izuku out of his reverie.
"It's nothing. Just a friend checking in." Izuku smiled, putting his phone away.
"Oh yeah? Is it Uraraka or... did you manage to find the subway girl?"
"Subway girl..?" Izuku began before realization dawned in his eyes. "Oh you mean Alyssa? Umm yes, actually that was just her."
"I knew it. So you did manage to find her," Kaminari exclaimed. "And you managed to get her number too? Nice."
"It's nothing like that. She was just telling me about the space where her lightsaber class works out." He failed to mention all of the funny All Might memes she had sent him in between all of that, including a video of him being voiced over by someone who sounded a lot like Elvis Presley.
"Lightsaber class? Wait, she's into Star Wars?" Kaminari let out a long winded sigh. "Man, you had me going there, Midoriya. I thought you had this fine woman dogging you, but it turns out she's just another nerd like you."
"What are you talking about? Alyssa's pretty," Izuku frowned before realizing with a hot swell of embarrassment the exact words that had come out of his mouth. "I-I mean, I'm sure she's beautiful in her own way, n-not that I think she's beautiful or attractive or anything-"
"It's true. Not everyone has the same standard of beauty," Aoyama interjected in an effort to keep Izuku from putting his whole foot into his mouth. "I'm certain Alyssa is in a class of her own to catch the eye of our can-do hero."
"Anyways we're getting off topic!" Izuku exclaimed a bit louder than he had anticipated, squeezing his eyes shut in an effort to regain his composure. How had the conversation turned onto his dating life? "Next on the docket is the youth hero initiative program-" Izuku continued, oblivious to Kaminari and Kira-Kira's whispered conversations.
"I have a pot going that says Deku spends the next year alone and married to his work," Kaminari spoke lowly towards Kobayashi, who was casually going over her phone. "Loser has to do the other person's paperwork for the next month."
"You're on."
Author's Note: Ugh, for whatever reason, this chapter was really hard for me to write, but then transition chapters are a struggle. References today are Mouse Hunt and Johnny Bravo, the latter which I give credit to my editor for giving me the idea from an actual hilarious video she sent me on YouTube. I cannot now unsee All Might as Japanese Johnny Bravo lol.
