Nezu drummed his claws as he contemplated.
Though not the usual things he pondered on, no, he had already finished his caseload for the day and was instead contemplating something of a much lighter subject.
Such as whether he should prepare a special menu for the students when they return.
The main issue was that of making a special menu when the students already had such a wide range of choices to pick from in the first place.
Well, aside from live prey, unfortunately, he was not able to talk the board around since the concept of eating a living animal was considered too barbaric for their sensibilities.
Nezu could understand there being some squeamish students, especially prey-quirked ones, being disturbed by their fellows eating the animals they got their quirks from when they were still alive.
Which was exactly why he suggested there being an outdoor section where students could partake in prey items without bothering anyone.
However, that too was shot down.
He understood that the media would have a field day with that from both sides of the fence.
Predatory supporters would be offended that he would isolate the predator students outside like 'animals'.
Animal rights groups, on the other hand, would protest outside about them being monsters for letting innocent animals be eaten alive by students who did not 'need' to eat meat.
As sad as it was, Nezu would fight that battle another day.
Izuku could probably help him make a better point, but that would have to wait another day.
Izuku was dealing with enough problems for now.
Nezu swished his tail irately at the thought.
It seemed that every time they talked, he learned just another thing that the boy worried over, and the boy rarely had small troubles.
Such as Izuku's unexpected connection to Hawks.
It was not hard to understand Izuku's situation there.
Izuku clearly found something about Hawks that triggered his protective instincts, and he was working on a way to rescue the young man.
From whom was the question, though, the best guess was likely to be the Hero Public Safety Commission.
How, though, was not exactly as clear to him, but Nezu had a few ideas considering the lack of information about the winged hero.
There certainly would be more coverage of such a capable young man before his official debut.
There is no way a quirk like that would have surely hit the news before now, and he certainly had not heard anything about the boy from any of the other hero schools.
Which was... concerning.
Hmm, maybe there was a reason why Izuku's protective urges were triggered.
A soft chime from his phone made him blink and answer his phone automatically, wondering why Izuku was calling him.
"Good morning Nezu, are you busy at the moment?" Izuku asked.
"No, just sitting in my office thinking. Why? Do you need something?" Nezu answered, very matter, not expecting such a call.
"No, I'm on break and was wondering if you'd mind having brunch with me? I can pick something up, and we can talk in your office about what we talked about with my student. You remember which one, right?" Izuku replied.
Ah, Izuku would be explaining things much earlier than Nezu thought he would.
"Of course, I would love to Izuku. I'll start brewing some tea for us." Nezu cheerfully promised, his tail wagging; a few chuffs came out as he spoke.
"Alright, see you in about twenty minutes then, Nezu." Izuku said, and then they exchanged quick goodbyes before hanging up.
Nezu leaped from his chair and started brewing up two pots of tea, one for him and the other for Izuku's very caffeinated tea, and then he locked down the room.
Kurogiri would be able to open a portal to his office even with it locked down.
He wondered if Izuku would also speak to him about the hunt for a successor; it was a fair possibility, given the circumstances.
Nezu had his own thoughts about the issue.
Mainly of the complications of how to address each of the quirks in Inheritance.
If there was one thing that Izuku had taught him, it was that each quirk had its kinks beyond how it worked.
However, if Yagi could not access the other holders, then they would only have a little guess of the changes in the successor's needs after taking the quirk.
And that would naturally make finding the right pool of candidates even harder to find.
A swirl of black and purple mist opened, and Izuku entered his office with takeout boxes in hand.
Nezu greeted him with a chirp and brought over two cups of tea, the two of them sitting together on Izuku's preferred couch.
Nezu's tail swayed lazily behind him as Izuku set up their food.
Izuku had gotten himself Chinese food and a box of marinated mice for him.
Nezu chirped happily from the smell, took one, and savored the first bite.
"Is it good? I asked the restaurant for something good for stoats, but I couldn't be sure it was any good." Izuku asked as he took a bite of his own food.
Nezu confirmed it was with a chirp, then took another bite.
"So, I guess a good place to start would be about Takami-San." Izuku said, waving his chopsticks a bit.
Nezu nodded, motioning for Izuku to continue with whatever he wanted to say, and that he was listening even while he was eating.
Izuku sighed.
"I first met Takami-San by chance in a mutation store, he apparently had a habit of sneaking away to get himself more meat than the commission 'allowed' him to eat." Izuku explained.
"So, he has an obligate carnivore quirk?" Nezu guessed; he had played with the thought before since only a predator-type bird would give Hawks or Takami the natural abilities he seemed to have.
Izuku nodded.
"He has a strong predator drive too and would of have a mouthful of canines and talons on his hand and feet if the commission hadn't deemed the features 'unsightly' and a 'hazard'." Izuku commented.
Nezu's ears folded back, his tail flicked from his suspicions, and Izuku, being the brilliant person he was, did not need Nezu's words to prompt him to explain further.
"Takami-San was bought from his mother, a drug addict who had a fling with a criminal of the same name that resulted in Takami-San being born and has since been in a... secret program of the commission's for making the best heroes." Izuku said.
Nezu's tail whipped from his irritation and a displeased rumbling in his chest as he put the pieces together from there.
"Naturally, I wasn't going to just let that stand." Izuku spat, eyes promising things that Nezu would love to aid him with.
"However, as I'm sure you understand, Nezu, fighting the commission is no easy task, and I can't just openly accuse them of crimes against humanity without undeniable proof, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to deal with them all in one fell swoop as a two-toes." Izuku told him forlornly.
Nezu huffed through his nose and clicked his tongue.
He did understand they were in no standing to challenge such a powerful entity with what was arguably an outlier case of abuse of power from 'one' individual.
"Which is where my plans for Endeavour and Tsutsumi Kaina come into play." Izuku stated and Nezu perked up.
Of course, Izuku would have a plan that would make things work out in his favor.
"Tsutsumi? How does she come into play in this?" Nezu asked.
"Well, you see, once I have successfully gotten Endeavour convicted for war crimes, the arrest will shake things up in the country, so while everyone is questioning how the commission could possibly let something so horrid happen," Izuku mused idly, waving his hand.
Izuku then smiled, a much more vicious affair than his usual smiles.
"well... it would be a shame to have one of the other top heroes come forward as to have been groomed since he was illegally bought as a child and that he was forced to go through permanent and debilitating surgeries before he was a teenager," Izuku told him putting his head in one hand.
"Especially if there was proof of there being another case of grooming which ended up with the victim being wrongfully locked away after she tried to rescue the hero when they were a child, wouldn't it?" Izuku said, and Nezu could not help churning in approval.
He understood what Izuku meant; Tsutsumi was another victim of the commission's grooming project that took Takami and rebelled, all of which was covered up by claiming the woman was insane and went on a killing spree.
"How did you come across this information?" Nezu inquired, taking a sip of tea to help clear his throat.
"A connection of mine, the Vespas, told me of Takami-San's situation, but Tsutsumi's was a story from a different connection, someone who used to be close to her before the Commission recruited Tsutsumi." Izuku informed him.
"Understandable, however, from how Takami-San reacted to you, I'd assume that you'd met more than once before." Nezu pointed out.
"Well, Takami-San and I have been meeting each other in private every Tuesday, he sheds his feathers to sneak out and get live prey with me, but he wasn't aware of who I was until after the incident that caused me to be outed." Izuku explained.
"The two of us would just talk about day-to-day life, though he likely lied to protect his identity since I didn't let on, I knew who he was." Izuku further told him, a bit of sadness crossing Izuku's face.
Nezu felt a pang of sympathy and chuffed, butting his head against Izuku's arm, the boy sighing and stroking his head.
"Takami-San did not handle the reveal the best and needed time before he reached out again, as you saw." Izuku told him sadly.
Nezu chirped apologetically, sorry for intruding on such a private moment.
Izuku smiled sadly and scratched behind his ears. "Don't apologize. You couldn't have known with how closely I kept my cards to my chest." Izuku assured him.
Nezu felt a touch spoiled and found himself understanding why Takami was quick to make sure Izuku knew that he still wanted to be friends with him.
Nezu hardly had to speak for Izuku to understand; he did not need to force his body to conform to a human standard for his friend, and there was no need to carefully dumb his words down or hold back from his natural urges to continue being a person to Izuku.
All of these were the same luxuries that drew Takami in the first place and won him over to Izuku's side.
Pulling away from Izuku, regretfully so since he loved the way Izuku scratched behind his ears and sitting up again.
"Thank you for trusting me with this, Izuku, and should you need any help in this matter," Nezu told him, and Izuku chuckled.
"I can rely on you. I know Nezu." Izuku finished for him.
"With that matter settled, is there anything else you wish to discuss?" Nezu asked as he poured himself another cup of tea.
Izuku lulled his head side-to-side, thinking about it before shrugging.
"I've already thought of counters for the needs of Shimura's quirk, and I'm working on a workout plan for them." Izuku informed him.
"Which is all I can do for now until we get anything more concrete on the past users, and I'm already asking around my contacts to see if they can find something." Izuku added dismissively, waving his hand.
Nezu folded his ears back, he would not be able to help much there without being able to look at the statistics himself.
"However, there is another issue that came to my mind today that I think we should talk about." Izuku commented, and Nezu tilted his head curiously.
"Currently speaking, Yagi, if he is able to contact the past users, would be our best source of information on Inheritance, and we'll need to make a reason to explain why Yagi is hanging around U.A. so much." Izuku stated.
Ah, Izuku was right, having the number one hero around would undoubtedly attract the attention of the masses and All For One.
Nezu tossed around the ideas before finding the most solid one.
"Considering his waning time and his age, it wouldn't be hard to convince people to believe that Yagi would be taking up a teaching position here as he transitions from active hero work to retirement." Nezu supposed aloud, only for Izuku to scowl.
"And what, pray tell, would you have that buffoon teach?" Izuku pointedly asked with his arms crossed.
Nezu paused in the face of Izuku's hostility towards the idea.
"He'd be a teaching assistant, much like yourself, Izuku, for the heroics class since that would be the least suspicious." Nezu replied.
Izuku's scowl lessened to a frown.
"I will agree to that on one condition, Nezu. He has to be enrolled in teaching courses that I took and will not be made a teacher until he graduates." Izuku laid down for him.
Nezu chirped in agreement, and there was no reason to argue after all.
There would be no downside to Izuku's demand for Yagi to get a better education when he was so foolish in matters when they spoke in their meeting.
"Unfortunately, there will be the downside of All For One targeting the students since he will undoubtedly think that Yagi would only start working here to either find or guide his successor." Izuku pointed out to him.
Nezu's tail swished, and his ears folded back.
"Yes, he would; it would be unavoidable," Nezu confirmed.
"In which case, how do you feel about discussing ways to improve our security on the grounds? I noticed in the plans there were not any feedback alarms in the practice areas, like the USJ. It's pretty far from the rest of the campus, and that could cause problems." Izuku mentioned.
Nezu perked up, more than happy to speak with Izuku in a way he could help with.
And Izuku was right; there were no alarms for if the facility suddenly went dark for any reason, and with a quirk like Kurogiri's, there could be some problems leaving such facilities that way.