When Kazue finally came to, all it took was a single glance up at the ceiling of the room he was in for him to wince.

Shit.

His father's office at Headquarters, where he was laying on the uncomfortable leather couch.

"You're finally awake, hm?" the man asked flatly from his desk, the sound of his laptop closing following. "Took you long enough. We're behind schedule thanks to your stupidity."

Kazue rolled his eyes at the smart remark, sitting up with a muted groan. His father wasn't even looking at him, instead rifling through some papers on his desk and occasionally pausing to sign one. Nothing new there. "No, we're on schedule instead of ahead thanks to my stupidity. There's a difference."

"Say what you want," Kimura Katashi replied with indifference, balling up a team-up request from another agency and dropping it in his wastebasket. Kazue snorted at the casual display of 'fuck you', stifling a yawn and waiting for his brain to wake up. His father pushed up his glasses, glancing over at his son for the first time since he'd woken up and fixing him with a stern look. "Now then, there's several things you need to do before you're free to return home. I've forwarded the list to you."

The teen didn't reply, instead shoving his hand in the pocket of his rumpled school uniform to pull out his phone. He paused. It wasn't there.

"Something wrong?"

Kazue ignored the patronizing question, pulling up his left sleeve and double-tapping the screen of his modified watch. Modified meaning that all he'd taken from the original watch was the strap and the metal casing for the bottom, replacing pretty much everything else.

It lit up instantly and he swiped through the applications he'd added by hooking it up to his computer, finally tapping on the locator icon and scrolling through his lengthy list of devices until his phone's name popped up. Kazue pressed it and a map popped up on the screen, a little green dot right on top of the blue dot that represented the watch. He raised his eyebrows slightly, shutting off the device and letting his sleeve fall back into place.

He glanced around the room, vaguely aware of his father watching his every move but not caring enough to actually look back.

Kazue's backpack was leaning against the couch, the zippers closed at one side instead of both at the top like he'd left them.

Ah. He must've dropped his phone when All Might kidnapped him, then someone, likely Tecton, found it on the sidewalk, retrieved his unconscious body and stuck it inside the bag.

Made sense.

The teen pulled out the device and powered it on, tapping on the email notification and skimming through the list attached.

Ugh.

Today was going to be a pain in his ass.

Why, he hears you ask?

Because one of the items on his agenda was to spar with Aerogale's interns, and the timestamp for that task was in nine minutes.

~-~-~-~

"You're who I'm fighting? Give me a break," the obnoxious teen in front of Kazue scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. The brunet gave his opponent a once-over, noting that he appeared to be strong. His left was slightly more muscular than the right, meaning he likely was left-handed, which indicated a different fighting style than someone who was right-handed. Well, probably.

"A fool is made more of a fool when their mouth is more open than their mind," Kazue replied flatly as he stretched, quoting a random line he'd seen on the internet. He found most of his insults that way, and tended to use them on Aerogale and his interns. Not anyone else, of course, because outside of the agency, Kazue was just the quiet, average kid who read manga and fell asleep in class. Well, sort of, considering that most people also knew who his father was. "The way I see it, sparring with the likes of an arrogant prick like you is just a small task on my list of insignificant chores. Shall we begin?"

"Ooh, back at it again with the fancy insults," Aerogale commented from where he was watching across the training room, a smirk on his lips. Standing next to him with a scowl on her face was a redheaded girl, eyes glowing the same color as she glared at Kazue. "It's high time someone knocked you off your pedestal."

Kazue resisted the urge to walk up to the man and smack him across the face, stepping into the ring. Instead, he settled for a simple, "Aerogale, don't talk out loud. You lower the IQ of the whole street."

The hero had the nerve to look offended at the quote, shooing his first intern forward.

"Oh, I can't wait to beat your shit in," the loudmouthed hero student grinned viciously, stepping in the other side of the ring and cracking his knuckles. His dark eyes gleamed with anticipation.

"Oh no, I'm absolutely terrified," Kazue deadpanned, adopting a defensive stance. Loudmouths tended to go in for the attack right away like their winning personalities, aiming for a finishing blow right off the bat. And based on the dark-haired teen's Quirk reading, he was probably planning to do exactly that.

Yeah.

So predictable. It was sad, really.

The intern launched himself forward in a blast of dust generated from his hands at a blinding speed, arm drawn back a moment later to drive a punch straight into Kazue's gut.

Kazue gripped the older boy's wrist with practiced ease and pivoted, deftly flipping him over his shoulder and slamming him into the floor of the ring. He wasted no time in forcibly shoving the teen onto his stomach and yanking his arm behind his back until it was on the verge of breaking, straddling his waist to keep him from getting up.

All in the span of two second from their first moment of contact.

Curses spewed from the intern's mouth and the brunet sighed in annoyance, grabbing a fistful of his hair and shoving his face further into the floor to shut him up. "Lesson one. Don't be so goddamn predictable."

He let the loudmouth get up again, retreating to the opposite side of the ring once more, warily watching to make sure that he wasn't about to get hit by a surprise attack. Sure, the guy didn't appear to be that smart, but it was common sense to try and catch your opponent off-guard.

"I'm not about to be pushed around by a fucking junior high schooler," the teen spat, eyes gleaming with new light. Clearly, he was still in denial.

"Then stop talking big and fight me," Kazue replied with zero enthusiasm, noting that the guy was preparing to use his Quirk again. And by the placement of his feet... wow, he wasn't as stupid as the others in the past had been. For once, Aerogale had chosen an actually decent intern.

Unfortunately for him as he launched himself forward yet again, the brunet was roughly thirteen steps ahead and counting. When the dust blast came, Kazue's eyes were long-since closed tightly and his breath held, relying on his predictions to tell him where his opponent would be. He ducked into a roll after waiting slightly less than a second, springing to his feet and rotating his hips, driving a fist straight into what felt like a cheek with an audible crack.

With the contact, Kazue utilized his own Quirk to take control and blasted all the dust in the air out of the arena. His eyes shot open as soon as he was able to see again, swiftly driving an elbow into the stunned teen's stomach and knocking his legs out from under him with a sweep.

"Not bad," he appraised, brushing some dust off the shoulders of his now-grey t-shirt and making a face at the appearance of the training room. As much as he wanted to say that the janitors would be in for a treat, 'clean training rooms' was also on his list. Great. Another pain in his ass. "Utilizing your Quirk to give you an environment you have an advantage in and negating your opponent's sense of sight. Might I make a suggestion?"

"Fuck you," the teen growled, clutching his stomach from where he was curled on the floor.

"My Quirk, among other things, allows me to see how someone else's works," Kazue began, completely disregarding the eloquent response of his 'student'. "You have plenty of untapped potential, if I'm being completely honest. You're quick to adapt after being beaten, and your Quirk's nothing to laugh at. However... did you know that you can actually control the dust you generate, not just shoot it out like a trigger-happy maniac?"

Absolute silence filled the room, Aerogale just watching the lesson from the side like he always did. The idiot would never admit it, but he would be completely lost as a teacher if not for Kazue's impromptu lessons during sparring with his interns. They were always quick to try out what he'd mentioned later, finding themselves unable to do so and having to suck up their pride and ask him for help.

And all the pro would have to do was supervise as his students got taught for him. A win-win in his book, really, if he didn't have to do anything but his reputation of 'producing visible results' in his interns only went up.

"I'll take that as a no," the brunet continued, wondering if his father had any industrial vacuums just lying around that he could use. He held out a hand to the wide-eyed hero student, arching an eyebrow. "Want to try?"

A small smile curled at his lips as his offer was 'accepted', pulling the older boy to his feet. Without missing a beat, he grabbed the wrist of the fist flying at his face, twisted it, and proceeded to wrap his ankles around the teen's neck and slam him into the ground.

"Element of surprise," Kazue commented, letting air back into his opponent's lungs and getting back to his feet. Finally. The first match was over, and he got to beat up a cocky hero wannabe while not even wanting to be one himself. Even if he hated them, the sparring sessions were the highlight of his workday. "Good tactic against anyone who's not experienced in strategy. Also, you've got three strikes. Out of my ring. If you want to learn more about your Quirk, come find me the day after tomorrow."

The dark-haired teen muttered something under his breath as he staggered to his feet, cursing as he stalked away. Kazue huffed out a laugh, expecting the lack of response. "Well then. Next," he sighed boredly, eyeing the waiting girl and picking apart her Quirk more than he already had.

The next match would be a bit more interesting, if the reading had anything to say about it. The girl's Quirk allowed her to cover her body in fire. Bad news for someone who relied heavily on martial arts to fight, let alone needed physical contact to use his Quirk.

In other words, a pain in Kazue's ass to utilize any of the plans he'd created during the last fight.

Ugh. He'd rather be sorting paperwork. Which also happened to be on his list.

It was going to be a long day at the agency, and all because he'd helped out All Might.

A/N: And that's chapter three, where we get closer insight to Kazue's life, I guess? Katashi's kind of a dick, but there's more depth to his character than being that and a workaholic, so...

Question: What genre of manga do you think Kazue reads? It will be revealed in the next chapter.

Questions/comments/things I should change?