Chapter 3
“Traitor.”
Keiko looks up from where her face is currently buried in Bastard’s orange fur to see Aizawa glaring at her. Or, more accurately, glaring at the cat she’s cuddling with.
“Jealous that you’re no longer her favorite, Aizawa?” she asks him, a grin on her face that only grows once Aizawa’s frown deepens.
“Ah, it’s okay babe! You’re still her favorite when Nakaya’s not here,” Yamada says as he steps into the room with a stack of papers. Keiko is currently at the Aizawa-Yamada household to help Aizawa go over the student files for class 1A and enjoy the company of their three cats. The other two, Trashcan the Russian Blue and Ghost the solid black Maine Coon, are currently lounging on the back of the couch within arm’s reach of where Keiko is laying on it. “And hey,” Yamada continues, tossing the stack of papers haphazardly onto the table in front of the couch, “At least you know she still hates Nemuri when she’s over here. It’s just Nakaya you have to worry about stealing her attention.”
“Hey, I’m not stealing anything!” Keiko argues, sitting up and letting Bastard flop over in her lap where she’s currently purring like a motor, “She’s just enjoying my company. The fact that you were calling for her and she chose to come sit in my lap instead is not my fault.”
Aizawa hums but doesn’t say anything else, instead electing to sit on the floor on the other side of the table and pull some of the papers towards himself. He reads through a couple of them before he grimaces, “Shit.”
“What?” Keiko and Yamada ask at the same time.
“We’re going to have to talk to Yagi at some point to figure out what his lesson plans are for the practical hero lessons. We need to make sure our lessons overlap enough that the students aren’t being bombarded with too much new information at once.”
“Ah, shit, you’re right,” Keiko says with a groan, scratching under Bastard’s chin absentmindedly, “Ugh, I’m nervous about working with the guy,” she admits, not looking at either of her friends as she says it since she’s a little embarrassed to admit it.
“Because he’s All Might?” Yamada asks, Aizawa scoffing in response.
“You shouldn’t be,” Aizawa says, “He’s a moron.”
Keiko rolls her eyes, “Well, duh. But still, he’s… he’s All Might, you know?”
“I get it,” Yamada says, kicking Aizawa when he rolls his eyes, “But you don’t have anything to worry about! He’s gonna realize how amazing of a teacher you are and will be asking for pointers in no time, ya dig?”
Keiko wills herself not to blush, “Thanks, Yamada. I’m being annoying, I know, but I appreciate it.”
“Hey! No self-deprecation in this household,” Yamada says, pointing at her. She holds her hands up in mock surrender and laughs at his stern expression which quickly melts into one of satisfaction, “That’s what I thought.”
“Are you two idiots going to help me sort through this or are you going to keep making stupid faces at each other?” Aizawa interrupts, tossing a pen at Keiko that she catches one handed.
“The only stupid face I see here is yours, babe,” Yamada says with a grin, dodging Aizawa’s swipe in response.
Keiko laughs at their antics and reaches for one of the student files. She looks down at the name and sees that it’s one of the recommendation students for 1A, “Should we have invited Kan? I’ll need to talk too him about his initial thoughts about his students at some point, it might’ve been good to just knock it all out today…” her voice trails off as she skims through the file of one Yaoyorozu Momo, so focused on her task that she doesn’t see the look Yamada and Aizawa share. If she had, she would’ve been curious about the weird combination of disappointment and jealousy that passed over their faces.
“Eh, you can always talk to him after the opening ceremony,” Yamada says with a weird tone of voice. Keiko glances up at him and sees that he’s focused on his own paper, so she shrugs off the weird tone and continues reading through the file she’s working on.
“What are your initial thoughts about Yaoyorozu?” Aizawa asks her after a moment, looking up from his own file he’s working on.
“You’ll definitely need to work with Chiyo on her meal plan,” Keiko immediately says, frowning at the one that Yaoyorozu’s parents sent in that their daughter is apparently already on, “She’s definitely not getting enough calories in her current diet, and once she starts physical training, she’s going to quickly become malnourished if something doesn’t change. Maybe you could reach out to Fatgum’s agency and get a consultation with his meal planners? They helped Nishida figure out Amajiki’s meal plan and now look at him.”
“Ectoplasm did mention that they were incredibly helpful. That’s a good idea, Nakaya,” Aizawa says, nodding and jotting it down on a sticky note that he passes to her so she can put it in Yaoyorozu’s file, “Anything else jumping out at you?”
“There’s a comment here from Maijima that has me concerned about her hero costume,” she says, adding a quick note of her own about Yaoyorozu potentially benefiting from the Non-Physical Quirks class she teaches before she passes the file back over, “I want to talk to him about it when we see him next week, mainly about making sure his comments aren’t vague as hell in the future. What does ‘skin issue’ mean, exactly? Is he having trouble with getting her DNA to merge with the fabric of her costume?”
“Not sure, but hopefully he can better explain in person,” he says, passing over the file for Todoroki Shouto that he was just looking through before he jots down a note to talk to Power Loader about Yaoyorozu’s costume.
“He’ll be an interesting one in class, I’m sure,” Keiko murmurs, leafing through his file, “Damn, this is extensive.”
“At least Endeavor’s good for something,” Aizawa grumbles, looking over the current file in his hands before he pushes it towards Keiko for when she’s done with the Todoroki file.
“You mean beyond being an aggressive douchebag?” Yamada chimes in, not looking up from his own student files.
“Yeah,” Aizawa nods, “He was extremely thorough with the information he’s submitted for his son’s file.”
“Hopefully you won’t have to train him out of any bad habits,” Keiko says, giving the file back to him, “With how often Endeavor uses rage to fuel his flames, pun definitely intended, it would be a miracle if his son doesn’t act that aggressively as well.”
“We’ll see.”
“How’s your homeroom class looking so far, Yamada?” Keiko asks, starting to read through the file for Iida Tenya, “Anyone interesting?”
“All of the kiddos seem like they’ll be interesting,” Yamada says, “And a few of them failed the practical exam so we might have some interesting competition in the Sports Festival this year if they still have a drive to get into the hero course. One of them has a mental quirk, Shou!”
“If the entrance exam weren’t so biased, they probably would’ve had a better chance of getting in,” Aizawa says with a frown, “But we’ll see what they do when the Sports Festival comes up.”
“Has Nezu said anything about his plans to revamp the exam yet?” Keiko asks, knowing that if anyone was going to hear about it first it would be Aizawa since he’s Nezu’s favorite.
“Nothing yet. Still fighting the board.”
“That’s unfortunate. Hopefully, there’s some movement on that soon. Also, unrelated, but can you pass me the next file? Nothing’s jumping out at me for Iida’s file beyond what you’ve already noted about making sure to have a stash of orange juice on hand for him if he needs it.”
Aizawa hands her the file for Aoyama Yuga while he picks up a new file for himself. Keiko reads through Aoyama’s file quietly for a moment before she hums, “Tricky quirk. I’m sure you’ve already got a plan for helping him with increasing his tolerance?”
“He needs to work on building his overall stamina first,” he says, sliding another file her direction after adding a note to it and picking up a new one to work through, “The kid’s a twig. He only got into the hero course because his quirk was able to destroy a few robots and he inadvertently got some rescue points by destroying some robots that were attacking other examinees. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t train for the exam at all.”
“I mean, benefit of the doubt here, he probably just focused too much on his quirk and forgot that the rest of his body is just as important. You’ll train that mentality out of him in no time.”
“If he even lasts that long,” Aizawa mumbles, “Several of these kids seem like the types to lean too heavily on their quirks expecting for them to carry them through. Like this one,” he gestures to the file of Midoriya Izuku, “The bone breaker from Site D. He clearly—”
Keiko looks up at him when his voice cuts off. He’s looking down at the file with something like disbelief before it slowly shifts into suspicion. Keiko glances over at Yamada to see that he’s watching his husband like she is, concern obvious on his face.
“Babe?” Yamada prods, setting his file down.
“His file is empty,” Aizawa says, his voice flat.
“What?” Keiko says, reaching forward to take the file from him. Sure enough, there’s only one paper with his picture, his name, age, birthday, quirk name, and what school he went to for middle school. “There’s… there’s gotta be a mistake here, right?”
“Nezu put these files together, though,” Yamada points out, “When’s the last time he made a mistake like this?”
“He doesn’t,” Aizawa says, crossing his arms and glaring at the file in Keiko’s hands, “He deliberately kept Midoriya’s file blank. What I want to know is why.”
“Welp,” Keiko says, tossing the file down onto the table, “Looks like we’ve got another problem on our hands, boys,” she eyes the stack with the rest of the 1A students with trepidation, “Wonder how many more we’ve got there?”
“This class is going to be a nightmare, I can feel it.”
“On that note,” Yamada says, standing and stretching, “Maybe we should go ahead and order takeout. We’re gonna be here a while.”
“Takoyaki?” Keiko asks hopefully.
“We had that last time you were over,” Aizawa points out with narrowed eyes.
“Takoyaki it is!” Yamada says as soon as he sees Keiko’s puppy dog eyes. He quickly heads out to pick up their order, already knowing what they each want since they order from there so often.
She fist pumps and shoots Aizawa a triumphant grin, “Ha! He likes me the most!”
“Sure, Jan,” Aizawa deadpans, causing Keiko to break down in giggles at hearing him using another meme. He looks pretty proud of himself for her reaction.
Keiko picks up the next file, starting to read about Tokoyami Fumikage and his sentient, or possibly just sapient, quirk, Dark Shadow. She’s fascinated by Dark Shadow since sentient/sapient quirks are so rare, and she really hopes that the two of them end up being interested in her Non-Physical Quirks class. The class itself is optional and not a lot of students end up joining it, especially the ones that have flashy quirks, but everyone could really learn a thing or two from the stuff she teaches in that class. She goes over a broad overview of quirks, quirk laws and regulations, and quirk history in her non-optional Quirks 101 class that’s part of the basic curriculum, but the other class allows her to help get rid of toxic mindsets about quirks that society has enforced. She just thinks having a sentient/sapient quirk in the class could give good insight into what direction the next generation is headed in.
“You should probably make sure there’s a flashlight of some form included with Tokoyami’s costume,” Keiko says, jotting down a note in his file, “You could probably benefit from having one on hand as well during training in case his quirk goes out of control. Looks like they have a history of having issues in the dark.”
“Already added it to my list for when I see Power Loader next.”
Keiko nods and moves on to Hagakure Tooru’s file, frowning when she sees Maijima’s note. “What does ‘where is it’ mean? Did he lose an invisible costume?”
“He really needs to work on making sure his notes have context.”
“That’s what I’m saying!”
A few minutes later, after having gone through the files for Ojirou Mashirao and Kirishima Eijirou, Keiko pauses on Kaminari Denki’s file. She reads through it once, then twice, before she adds a note about quirk counseling, “I’m sure you’re already aware, but keep an eye on this one. His quirk’s drawback seems to be on the more aggressive side, and I want to prevent him from getting permanent brain damage in fucking high school.”
“Of course,” Aizawa nods, adding Kaminari’s file to the stack that they’ve unofficially dubbed the Problem Children. Along with Kaminari, it now includes Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, and Aoyama. They’re still only halfway through the roster at this point, and Koge is positive that there are at least a couple more kids that will be added to that stack before they’re done.
Keiko moves on to Ashido Mina’s file and after reading through it says, “Another tricky quirk, although it looks like she’s been working with a quirk therapist to increase her control. That’s good, but I’d still like to add her to the quirk counseling group.” She adds a note to Ashido’s file about quirk counseling and tosses it over to Aizawa so he can place it in the Problem Children stack. “These kids are going to keep both of us pretty busy at this rate, and I still have all of 1B to look over. I’m just hoping Kan’s group doesn’t have as many that need quirk counseling, because my schedule’s looking to be pretty busy already at this point. And who knows how many more problems will crop up as the year progresses.”
“I’m sure Hizashi would be willing to assist if needed,” Aizawa points out, giving her another file, “He might not use his license as often as you, but he’s still a good quirk therapist.”
“Oh, for sure! Once I have the full list of kids that need additional counseling I’ll meet with Yamada and see how he wants to split them up or if he wants to tag team it.”
“Kinky,” Yamada says as he walks back into the apartment with the bag of takeout. Keiko’s face immediately turns bright red, and she forces herself to focus intently on Mineta Minoru’s file and ignore Yamada’s laughter as he steps into the room.
“Don’t tease her too much,” Aizawa says, amusement evident in his voice, “I still need her to look over more student files.”
“Just give me my takoyaki,” Keiko pouts, setting Mineta’s file aside and holding her hands out in a grabby motion towards Yamada. He’s quick to pull out her box and pass it over, winking as he does which doesn’t help with the blush Keiko’s still trying to get to go away. She’s quick to pop open the box, stab the fried dough with the toothpick, and shove it in her mouth, willing herself to stop being so flustered.
She’s not sure it works.
Yamada passes Aizawa his okonomiyaki and sits down with his own takoyaki. He’s quick to start eating his own meal, Aizawa following suit.
“Shit!” Keiko hisses, quickly catching the bite that fell on her shirt before it could fall further and hit Bastard, who’s still in her lap. She’s not concerned with the fact that she was just nearly hit with her food, which makes her snicker a little bit. Aizawa is quick to hand her a napkin, which she uses to try to get the stain out of her hoodie, but she soon realizes it’s a lost cause. With a sigh, Keiko sets her food on the table and picks Bastard up to set her next to her. She meows in protest but doesn’t run off once she sets her down. Once she’s free of the cat, she quickly pulls the hoodie up and off, balling it up and tossing it to the side of the couch where her bag sits. She smiles as she picks Bastard back up to place her in her lap, takes a second to pet her, and reaches back for her food, happy that she decided to wear a decent tank top under her hoodie instead of the one with a hole over the left boob like she almost did. She would’ve been so embarrassed!
Keiko glances up and sees that Aizawa is staring at her with an unreadable expression, his face flushed. "You good, 'Zawa?" she asks, eyes darting over to Yamada only to see him looking at her similarly. She immediately tenses up, "Uh, is everything alright? You both look like you've seen a ghost."
Aizawa is quick to look back down at his food and say, "We're good," but she doesn't fully relax again until Yamada shoots her an easygoing grin, immediately moving on to teasing her about nearly dropping food on their cat.
She continues the conversation, matching Yamada's energy, but she can't help but wonder what all of that was about.