Inside Your Mind

121 - Aizawa

No more beating my brains

Shouta Aizawa was nervously waiting for Shinsou. Not Kaori Shinsou for once, but Hitoshi. He was supposed to show up at his office for a quick briefing before the training, since this was important, but he wasn't showing up yet. Aizawa just hoped that he'd show up at all at some point.

After all, Hitoshi was even worse for being punctual than his sister was. And if he knew Hitoshi well enough then he probably hadn't slept the entire night, because he was too nervous about the training today. As if he had any reason to be nervous. Aizawa had trained with him and he was doing well. If he hadn't been doing well, he would have stopped wasting his time on him long ago.

There was no question about him being able to do the course work. Hitoshi was a smart kid, much like Kaori. A little eccentric, but with his course, that could only help. Everyone in there was eccentric. His assignments were on point and above average. The only thing where he'd really have to prove himself was the physical side of things. But over the last few months, they had made so much progress in their training, that Aizawa had little doubt that he would make it.

Still, he was nervous about it. He had taken that kid under his wings and it was not something he'd usually do. And of course - despite trying to keep it on the down low - a lot of the other professors had heard of it somehow. Which meant Hitoshi couldn't fail. He wasn't allowed to fail this. Aizawa had basically held out his neck for him, so Hitoshi better be good today.

When he heard a knock on the door, he almost jumped up from his office chair. Finally! It was about time. Hitoshi better have a good explanation for being this late and that explanation better was something like saving Kaori from certain death. That would be an acceptable reason for being late.

"Come in." he said, trying to stay calm and not get irritated with Hitoshi. After all he wasn't even that late and it was all because Aizawa himself was nervous about this whole thing. Possibly more nervous than Hitoshi.

The door opened and Hitoshi stepped in. He looked more dishevelled than usual and his eye bags were also darker than usual. So he hadn't slept all night. Just like Aizawa thought. Damn it. He hoped that wouldn't influence Hitoshi's performance today. Maybe it would make him hypervigilant - which could be a good thing when it came to combat training like this.

"Sorry for being late, Sir, I... uh... I overslept." he replied and scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"You don't look like you slept at all." Aizawa deadpanned. Hitoshi laughed nervously and shrugged.

"Yeah, I didn't sleep much. Maybe... two hours or so? And then I took a nap over lunch break, and well... I didn't exactly wake up on time. As you noticed." he explained with a long sigh.

"Well, nothing we can do about that right now. How well prepared do you feel for this?" Aizawa wanted to know. He kind of already knew the answer, but he had some hope left that it might be better than he hoped.

"Not at all." Hitoshi replied with a grin. Of course. Aizawa knew it. He fucking knew it. Why did he even ask?

"Right. Well. We can only hope for the best. You'll be in two teams, one from each of the two courses, alright? It'll work out easiest that way and if you mess up the first time, you always have a second chance, alright?" he explained. Hitoshi nodded eagerly, as if he was expecting to mess up.

"Just try and stay calm. Remember our training. Don't get nervous about having to work with new people. They're mostly nice and they tend to be really accommodating. Your sister fit right in with them. So you'll do fine, too. Got it?" he told him. Hitoshi had started looking pale now, as if it was just hitting him what was about to happen. His nervousness set in pretty late.