A Slight Emotional Manipulation of Peers

You Named The Snake Edamame?

Izuku is good at acceptance.

Which is great, because it's not exactly optional when you're born with a life like his. He had to accept his quirklessness, the broken-beyond-repair friendship between him and Kaachan, his father's 12-year business trip, and so much more. And you can probably imagine how after having one loss right after the other for 10 years straight, he no longer saw the point in complaining about it. It's not like screaming, crying, and cursing out the world would change anything, anyway. So why bother?

That's why when the week of Aizawa-sensei and him being principal and secretary together came to an end yesterday, he didn't make a fuss about it. Sure, he'll miss the notebooks, the mechanical pencils, the endless opportunities for analysis, and the feeling that he was fulfilling his promise for once to help other quirkless kids, but it'll be okay. At least Aizawa-sensei gets to be vice-principal if that's what he meant last week.

And it's not like it was the last chance he'll get for all of that, right? Work Studies are coming up this week- tomorrow, you asshole-  and he might even find a specialized hero to work with where he can apply the skills he's learned. Intimidation techniques and the negative side effects of alcohol consumption, that is. He loved it, but it's over, and he'll have to come to terms with that. Because that's how good he is at acceptance.

So you can imagine the heart attack he had when not even two steps into the school he feels a signature gray capture weapon wrap around his torso, hoist him into the air, float him all the way in front of 2-a's classroom, and plop him down in a chair next to a mini desk with a single notebook, a sheet of paper, mechanical pencil, and a couple markers. Of course, the first three seconds were spent with him admiring the fine quality of the stationary, because hey, Copic markers ain't cheap and he would have had to sell his soul to afford them. But right after that? Pure panic and confusion as to why Aizawa-sensei couldn't just say hello, how is he, how is his mental health, instead of kidnapping him with his scarf for the second time in two weeks.

"It'd be a waste of a perfectly good capture weapon," Ah, he said it out loud. Izuku forced himself to look away from the Copic markers- what? they're really expensive- to give a dead-eyed stare at his homeroom teacher. He gets a decent amount of sleep every night, but lately, he's just feeling perpetually tired. He can already see hints of purple beneath his eyes and he has no clue as to why. "In any case, verbal communication is a waste of time when more important things need to be done today." Izuku tilted his head.

"Aren't parent-teacher conferences today?"

"Yes, which means I'll have to be dealing with the justifiably overprotective parents of this hell class and answer the excessive amount of questions about their child that I know they'll have." Ah yes, the guardians of hero students are a different species altogether. Izuku's mother's meeting with All Might feels as though it was just yesterday, and he can still perfectly remember the frown on her face, the dead inside look on All Might's, and the cackling of his father once he told him about it. Aizawa-sensei should consider himself lucky he never met her, nor was he the target of her rage.

"Unfortunately," Aizawa-sensei continued, "as I have realized from past experiences, parents don't like asking questions. They'd much rather prefer it if I had a mind-reading quirk and answered whatever they were wondering about before they even open their mouths. It's a very dysfunctional relationship, in my opinion. But since I can't read minds, I'll have to settle for the second most accurate source of information regarding their state of mind: Whatever the hell you have written down in your notebook."

"I'm afraid I have no clue what you're talking about," Izuku muttered quietly, averting his eyes back down to the markers.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. By the way, how's Uraraka's father enjoying the present you told his daughter to get for him on his birthday that he had apparently been secretly wishing to own for the last three years?" Izuku stared harder. Wow, these markers are so captivating . "That's what I thought. Anyway, since I also cannot read your mind, analyzing what you think the parents' questions will be and preferably yelling it out as loud as you can before they enter this room will be your responsibility for today."