"So... to sum everything up, you got someone fired?"

Kazue took a sip of his hot chocolate and nodded, leaning back in his chair and running a hand through his hair tiredly. "Yeah," he sighed, not remembering the last time he'd ranted for anything more than five minutes, let alone half an hour. "I should've just said that and been done with it."

Haruma cracked a grin, opening up his laptop again and starting the report for the patrol he'd just gotten back from when the brunet had ambushed him. "No, no, that was entertaining. I don't think I've ever seen you so worked up, and I've been working here for how many years?"

"Three," Kazue muttered in embarrassment, averting his gaze to stare out the window at the setting sun. Unfortunately, he didn't get to admire the view for long due to his phone vibrating in his pocket. The brunet fumbled to grab the device, startled, pressing 'ACCEPT' and pressing it to his ear without bothering to check the caller ID.

"I AM HERE! Er, as a phone call!"

Kazue spat out his hot chocolate, pounding his chest with his free hand as he choked on the drink. "What the f- heck?" he coughed, waving off Haruma who looked ready to dive across the table and give him the Heimlich. "Did you get this number from Midoriya-san?"

"Yes," All Might confirmed. "From your business card. It looks very professional."

"It is professional," Kazue replied, slightly miffed. He'd never really understood why Katashi had gotten them for him, but now he felt like defending the pieces of paper. "Is this about my offer?"

Haruma raised an eyebrow at that.

"Would you be willing to stop by the staff room after school tomorrow?" the hero requested. "I think it would be best to have this conversation in-person."

Conversation, eh? Likely about how he knew about Midoriya and All Might's shared Quirk and how it worked. He briefly wondered if the blond knew about the suppressed power, but doubted it. Maybe he should've dug more into his iteration of the Quirk instead of just Midoriya's... "Okay."

"Great! See you tomorrow, Shōnen."

"Right... bye, All Might-san," Kazue replied, hanging up and gulping down the rest of his hot chocolate. He glanced up at Haruma, who was staring at him weirdly. "Do I have something on my face?"

"You were talking with All Might on the phone," the dark-haired man stated.

Oh. Right. Haruma was a big All Might fan and had practically had a heart attack when he'd been told that the hero would be teaching at Yūei.

"Do you want me to get him to autograph your hoodie?" Kazue offered, thinking it was the least he could do for the man.

"Do we need oxygen to survive?"

The brunet snorted, a smile curling at the edges of his lips. "Don't forget to bring it tomorrow morning, then."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

~-~-~-~

"Hey, brat, would you mind if I committed vehicular manslaughter?"

Kazue sweatdropped at his driver's question as she turned the final corner to the school, speeding up as she went. "Fueki-san," he warned, eyeing the large crowd of reporters that were starting to take notice of the car barreling down on them.

"Fine," she sighed dramatically, stomping on the brake yet somehow still managing to stop without the car screeching across the pavement. "Good luck getting through the gates, brat. See you."

"Yeah," the brunet replied blandly, grabbing his backpack and opening the door. He'd been expecting this ever since All Might had been confirmed as a teacher, and it'd finally happened.

Almost as soon as Kazue stepped out of the car and shut the door, he was instantly swarmed by the reporters like moths to a light. He ignored their endless questions about how All Might was as a teacher and a thousand other things, making it as far as a mere meter away from the gate.

Then one of the reporters recognized him.

"Hey, you're Dreynen's son, right?"

Kazue sighed, casting an unimpressed look over his shoulder, figuring now he somewhat had to answer if they knew who he was. "And what of it?"

A microphone was shoved in his face. "How is All Might as a teacher, as someone who regularly spends time with a top hero?"

Ah. Apparently, that made his opinion worth more to the vultures known as the press. The brunet rested his hands in his pockets, quirking an eyebrow. He knew how the press operated. "Would you prefer the stretched truth to sell more stories, or the actual truth and be bored to death by how normal it is?"

Either way the overly-eager woman answered, it was a trap. Get a story and have everyone know it was exaggerated, or get the actual story and not get anything worth making into an article. Meaning, Kazue was free to push the microphone away from his face with a finger and continue in through the gates.

The press was a pain in the ass, no doubt about it. How the hell Katashi had dealt with them ever since his debut was beyond him, let alone how he could freely turn the charisma on whenever they were around.

He just hoped that the press would be gone by the end of the day, even if he knew that wasn't going to happen. They were annoying, and Kazue didn't exactly have a burning desire to have more microphones shoved in his face.

~-~-~-~

"Good work on yesterday's combat training," Eraser Head stated to the class. "I saw the video and results. Bakugō, you're talented, so don't act like a kid."

The ash-blond looked away. "I know."

"And Midoriya," the man continued, the green-haired boy visibly jolting in his chair. "You settled it by breaking your arm again, huh? You can't keep saying you can't help it because you can't control your Quirk. I don't like saying the same thing over and over. As long as you fix the control issue, there's a lot you'll be able to do."

Kazue coughed into his hand as Midoriya lit up, effectively making the other teen jump in his chair yet again.

"Feel a sense of urgency, Midoriya."

"Yes, sir!"

With that out of the way, Eraser Head continued. "Now let's get down to homeroom business. Sorry about the late notice, but today, I'll have you decide on a class representative."

The class exploded in an instant, half the class clamoring for why they should be picked. Kazue let his head fall from his head to his desk, taking the opportunity to open up a certain app on his watch and turn off his hearing aids.

He loved being able to tune out the noises from crowds to just a barely-audible murmuring in the background. It made sleeping in class so much easier when he had to strain his ears just to hear faint, unintelligible mumbles.

Well, at least until someone tapped his shoulder a few minutes later. Kazue lifted his head and turned the devices back on before glancing over at Half-Hot Half-Cold, whose name he'd finally learned the previous day to be Todoroki Shōto.

"We're voting," the other boy explained blandly, holding out an empty tissue box with papers stuffed inside, a small pad of mentioned paper, and a pen.

Kazue nodded once in thanks, taking the items. Scribbling down a name, he shoved it in the box and handed everything to Kōda Kōji, the guy with the Anivoice Quirk. He hadn't voted for himself, obviously. Being the center of attention wasn't exactly on the top of his to-do list, let alone how much of a pain in the ass it would be to 'lead' the class. Yeah, right, like they'd actually listen to him after he'd spoken to precisely six out of nineteen of them.

He let his thoughts wander until the votes had been tallied up, his eyebrow raising slightly at the results. There were barely any zeroes from the people who'd voted for someone else than themselves, most students had one vote, and then...

Yaoyorozu Momo was in third place with two votes, and Midoriya Izuku was in first with three. However... the name 'Kimura Kazue' was in second place with two votes, ahead of Yaoyorozu simply because the list happened to be in alphabetical order.

Kazue blinked once, then twice. Seriously? He'd gotten two people to vote for him instead of themselves? If he had to guess, out of all the students, there were three possibilities. Midoriya, although he was also unlikely as he'd won, probably with his own vote combined with Uraraka and Iida as they all seemed close and the two had zero votes. Yaoyorozu, for reasons unknown. And then there was Kaminari, whom he'd been paired up with on the heroics exercise the previous day.

The brunet found himself standing next to Midoriya in front of the class staring at the wall above his seat, hands shoved in the pockets of his blazer. Like always in front of an audience, he wore his trademarked blank slate that betrayed none of his thoughts. On the inside, he wanted to find the nearest hole in the ground, curl up in it, and die.

Midoriya, however... the shorter boy was literally shaking in his red shoes. He really needed to learn how to still his nerves if he wanted to be a hero. The large majority of heroes had to deal with the press, also known as an even larger crowd of people. If he couldn't handle standing in front of eighteen people...

Eraser Head finally spoke up from where he was sitting on the floor in an obnoxiously yellow sleeping bag. "Then, the class rep is Midoriya, and the deputy class rep will be Kimura."

"S-s-seriously?" Midoriya stammered, teeth chattering as he spoke. "Seriously?"

"Calm down," Kazue muttered under his breath, resisting the urge to sit down next to his teacher and take a nap, too. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Pardon me, but I must say you're not taking this seriously enough!"

The green-eyed teen deadpanned at Iida's ramrod-straight raised hand, making a decision. "Alright, if that's how you feel, then I'll gladly give up the position."

"Urm... that's not exactly what I-" Iida began, only to be cut off.

"Yaoyorozu-san," Kazue stated, looking over at the person he'd voted for. "Would you be interested in the position of deputy class rep?"

I was originally planning on having Kazue be the class rep, but it didn't really fit with his current character or the timeline I have planned out.

Oh well.

Double update since we hit 1k 🥳

Questions/comments?