Midnight's Interlude

She waits until the door creaks on its hinge to speak. "Good," she says while pushing her chair out and standing, "Now that she's gone, how about you and I speak more candidly."

Nejire—the only one to remain in the room and obviously the one she's speaking to—crosses her arms and averts her gaze to an empty aquarium in the corner.

Midnight sighs a sigh. Teenagers, she wants to groan, but nobody here will relate to it. She'd gone into this meeting hoping to solve the issue, but it seems she's only succeeded in making more. She opens her mouth to continue the previous conversation, but quickly decides against it.

Instead, she asks, "How are your courses?"

"Fine."

"Good," Midnight nods, "That's good. I was very impressed by the report you turned in last week. Your analysis of Hayashi's art's influence on lower income groups' opinions of heroes was very well written."

Nejire hardly seems concerned by her commendation, but she still musters enough gratitude to give something akin to a smile. "Thanks."

Midnight walks slowly around her desk, moving into the space beside Nejire's left knee, where she reclines against the table's surface. "You are a good student, Nejire, and you will make for a remarkable hero, but you can't keep acting like this."

"Like what?"

A child, she wants to say, if only to vent her own frustration. But that wouldn't solve anything, so she quells the urge with a twitch of her pinky and eyes the ceiling tiles instead. "I think you know what I mean."

Nejire looks away. "I can't work with her."

A hum. "That may be so, I understand the feeling, there are many people whose company I do not particularly enjoy. You won't get along with every person you are forced to work with, in this field that is almost a certainty, but will you let your dislike for another be the reason you fail to save a life or capture a criminal? Will you let it hold you back?"

"We're not in the field right now."

That is true, they weren't, however. "What is the purpose of school? Of this academy?" Midnight asks her.

Nejire clearly thought her question a stupid one. "To train the future heroes of Japan."

"Oh?" Midnight raises a brow. "Is that true for our business department? Our support studies? For those in the general programs?" She waits for an answer that will never come before shaking her head. "We exist to prepare students to be effective and contributing members of society, irregardless of their role in it. That includes skills like personal accountability, responsibility, and maturity."

"I'm mature!"

Unwittingly, a salacious grin appears on Midnight's face as her eyes rake up on down her student's body. She must slap her cheeks to stave it off. Nejire doesn't seem to notice. "You skipped personally accountable and responsible, but I digress. What I am meaning to tell you is that we expect you to show a certain modicum of good faith to Midoriya moving forward. We will no longer permit warrantless attacks on her character or actions otherwise deemed to create a hostile learning environment."

"But—"

Midnight raises a hand to stop her objection in its infancy. "We will be asking her to do the same for you. This rivalry is not one-sided, we recognize that, and we are not trying to lay the fault solely at your feet. But, and this is just my opinion here, but Midoriya looked genuinely hurt by most of the things you said today."

"Why can you not just switch our partners for this project?" Nejire scowls at her, deliberately ignoring the last bit. "Everything was fine before!"

"Everything was not fine before, it was easier; easier does not mean better." She rubs her temples, already a headache is forming. "We spoke with the senseis from senior high," she admits, and when she reopens her eyes Nejire appears almost like a statue, "Their description of your character differs mightily from the embittered young woman I see before me now."

"Is that so?" Nejire murmurs.

"It is. They said you were a bright and happy young girl who was like an endless stream of questions. What happened to her?"

The words felt wrong as soon as they left her lips, but it was too late to take them back.

Nejire stands up just to prove the point. Her feet strike the ground harshly as she does, and the legs of the chair make a racket as she knocks it around briefly. Her cheeks are flush with embarrassment as she replies, eye skittering about to the other faces present in the room,"She matured, started taking some accountability," her student says, only half paying attention now, "May I be excused?"

Midnight sighs but nods, waving her to the door. "You may." Then, as a consolation prize, or perhaps an apology, she tells her that, "The secret to the project is to simply appear as a couple before the cameras. It does not have to be real, it just needs to look like it is. Greet each other, smile, watch an anime together, maybe do something nice. Act like a married couple and you will see your scoring rapidly increase, that is all there is to it. I will tell Izumi to do the same."

No acknowledgement comes. Neither a word nor a pause in her student's stride. The door closes behind Nejire as she leaves, leaving the office in a contemplative silence.

"That could have gone better," she decides.

From the side, a coworker of hers snorts. "Like chanting nenbutsu to a horse."

So distracted by her own disappointment in herself, Midnight fails to remember to give Izumi the same advice she gives Nejire.

But, surely, such a minor thing could not make the situation any worse?