I’ve been frustrated recently so here’s 4.6k words of what I’ll one day FIX and FINISH of chapter 5 of Slight Emotional Manipulation, like the idea is there but halfway through it sounds so forced and I just never wanted to post something that’s half assed and fake, hence years of hiatus. I wanted Izuku to have a stronger presence but I got too into Aizawa’s, I wanted the scenes with meaning to come naturally instead of forcefully, I wanted it to flow better, the intro’s too long i’d say, i need more meat for the actual story, blah blah. I actually do have a plan for the ending, but that’s for another day. Anyway, I’ll reblog with the next 4.5k later
Notes: The writing app I use is peculiar so *word* implied italics
Tentative chapter title: Words of Wisdom Except the Words Are Silent and Wisdom is Pronounced Nineteen Eighty-Four
Shota is very in touch with his emotions, actually. Despite what his friends, classmates, and Hound Dog have said.
He doesn’t keep a mood journal or attend group therapy sessions of cry along to indie singers- Not that he’s mocking them, he can tell it’s effective, almost too effective, just not for him- but he did attend a single semester of health class when he was 16. So, he counts that as a master’s degree in comparison to everyone who’s incapable of using protection.
And one of the first things he learned in health class through lectures, flashcards, tests, and videos narrated by condescendingly satisfied people were coping mechanisms. Denial, reaction formation, displacement, fill in the rest. Basically, if you’re not crying, you’re coping. Unless you consider crying another form of coping, then he guesses you’re stuck there forever.
But Shota *knows* what happened. He’s perfectly aware of every poorly timed decision that led up to this situation and so far he hasn’t forced his students to recite a pledge to Nezu, he hasn’t spontaneously taken up knitting, and he hasn’t lashed out at the closest coworker. So as far as he’s concerned, he’s not suppressing any feelings.
Therefore, no. He’s not mad at Midoriya. *Obviously.*
Because what reason would he have to be miffed at the kid when this is so clearly all Nezu’s fault? The rat probably pulled some disturbing plots like he always does to get the kid as his own student. He may have threatened to expel him, or take over all his social media accounts and turn them into Death Arms fan pages, or ruin his hero career before it’s even started by spreading the rumor that he’s in cahoots with the Commission resistance- which he’s done before.
Seriously, Shota has sat in his office and watched him call agency after agency expressing his sincere concerns that Mr. Metalloid is misusing the access his hero ID grants him to the building to merge himself with locked steel doors and shift in and out of off-limit rooms. The guy’s agency issued a press release stating that he’s retired to Florida and that was the last time he and Zashi ever shouldered the blame for whatever dumb prank Oboro pulled.
But would his student really get scared into submission from something like that? He doesnt think he would, no one in his class would.
The last time they got threatened with expulsion four of them let the message go in one ear and come out the other as *there’s a second hand clothing store down the block so why don’t you pick out a few eyesore outfits and chase down Mr. Big Bad who’s got a kill count in the thousands.* If rumors spread that they were in any resistance, they might take that as directions to go join one.
And beyond that, Midoriya is Midoriya.
Only-
Shota checked the clock outside the room.
His eyes are complete shit. He cannot see what that says.
He pulled out his phone.
Only 18 hours after Nezu’s threat, Midoriya would have come up with a way around it and then mumbled his plans so loud that All Might would overhear and save him from his tragic fate of failure. And yes, failure, because he has a lot of faith in the kid but you can’t defeat something that’s beyond human comprehension.
And since Shota hasn't heard the mumblings of any despicable plans yet, he can safely conclude that nothing like that went down. So if Midoriya’s motivator for accepting the offer wasn’t fear, then it was probably the quest for knowledge.
Except it wasn’t, because seriously, what could a kid (who just by holding a single conversation with him you could tell has had nothing but unwanted free time over the last decade) possibly learn from Nezu? Something that he isn’t scheduled to learn with the rest of the class in due time, already knew it advance, or is currently learning on the side right now. The remaining list is unsurprisingly small.
Hacking, welding in his spare time, color theory so Nemuri won’t blow a fuse over the theater sets not being perfect, even broken Indonesian for every extra minute he spends around the deca-lingual Yaoyorozu. Not to menton the binder of lesson outlines that Shota has planned for the next five months that Midoriya has definitely been targeting ever since he caught a glimpse of it three weeks ago. He’s learned it all, or is scheming to, hence the need for the binder’s own encrypted safe, and he can probably pull off that scheme without Nezu’s help.
So what else is there? Murder? Technically, Shota did provide him a comprehensive if not brief knife throwing class, although not intending to assist in that department even if it did have all the correct components. And if the kid was that distraught over Aoyama’s scream cutting the mini lesson short then he could have said something. Not that it would’ve changed anything, Shota’s still on thin ice with class 1-A’s parents due to both the Kamino disaster and his overall personality, and he doubts a stab wound would help, but still. Doesn’t hurt to rue shit.
But regardless of how he and the other teachers may humor themselves, or gather round to toy with the idea of framing a kid for some random crime just to get some time away from them, they know Midoriya doesn’t actually want to kill people, that’s absurd. Any misconceptions that he does is the fault of his relentless curiosity and accidentally browsing with the school email. It’s opposite of what Midoriya wants and the majority of what Nezu “indirectly” teaches.
If Midoriya wants to save people, then he should ask advice from an actual pro hero. Which, by the way, is his entire curriculum. And if not heroes, then heroes in training, like his classmates.
Then again, his students may know how to rescue people but they aren’t exactly the most educated when it comes to actually treating injuries. Their strong suit is mainly beating up villains so they can prevent the people from getting hurt in the first place, which obviously doesn’t have a 100% success rate.
Like last week when that exhange student started choking on his soba, and since Sato couldn’t assault the sushi itself, he resorted to aiming a sugar fueled punch at the boy’s stomach. The food did come flying out, so he guesses it was effective, but it was still so, so stupid. Plus it put him on thin ice with the parents of kids who weren’t even his students.
In that case, Midoriya should go to people who do know how to deal with wounds, people like Recovery Girl. Or the nurse with the ice pack quirk. Or perhaps one of the other countless nurse practitioners that he literally helped hire. As in conducted-the-interviews-and-physically-pointed-at-his-final-choices-and-brought-them-all-donuts-on-their-first-day helped hire.
Then again, he can see why the kid maybe wouldn’t want to go to them for help after recent events.
And he doesn’t mean that the nurses refused to help him. No, that issue has long since been resolved after a couple of vindictive staring contests between Shota and an old lady that made every student avoid a certain corridor for a few days.
Recent events being that both of them conveniently forgot that the speed of which Recovery Girl draws her spheres of influence could almost put Nezu to shame. Within a few days all of the nurses had gone on what can essentially be dumbed down to a half-assed moral strike. They had signs and chants but with words written in almost transparent pencil and lyrics that had no apparent rhyme, beat, or even basic synchronization. He’s not objecting to strikes in general, he’s objecting to the complete lack of effort. It’s people like them who give strikes a bad name.
They announced to the crowd of students gathered in the courtyard that although they would gladly heal whoever required their assistance, they would not accompany the hero students on all their missions. It was above their pay grade and literally not what they went to med school for. It was simple. And with the way he’s phrasing this it probably sounds like he disagrees with their decision, he doesn’t.
He just found it weird that something so obvious needed to be stated, or at least that’s what he thought before Sero and Kaminari started texting panicked reassurances to each other, the exhange student and that scary mushroom girl following soon after.
So, yeah, he guesses Recovery Girl and her new band of minions aren’t exactly up for the position of a medical mentor. And he also guesses that he should stop naming examples if he knows he’s going to contradict them immediately after.
Point is, if the kids wanna save lives, then they shouldn’t rely on slimy rats and instead start from the basics, like first aid. So that’s what they’re doing today, something that Shota hopes will… not show the kid the light at the end of Nezu’s dark tunnel, per say, that doesn’t really exist, but provide a band-aid for when that light inevitably tries to burn him alive.
“First aid.”
Shota took a moment to let the others digest his words before breaking his gaze and bringing the rim of his coffee cup to his lips.
“What about it?” Nemuri asked. Shota lowered the coffee.
“That’s the plan.” He brought it back up.
“Isn’t that a little spontaneous of you?” He put the cup back down on the table. Midoriya raised his head from where it was stuffed between the pages of his notebook, large eyes moving between his two teachers while they silently squabbled.
“How so?”
“Well,” Nemuri quickly retracted her legs from where they were sprawled out on his desk, sitting up straight to give the facade of an actual professional. “Why jump straight to first aid when there are so many other things we could be working on? Right?” She turned to Midoriya, the boy flashing a questioning look his way when he didn’t know how to respond.
“Uhhh yeah, yeah! The list was developed early on- like really early, like last year-” Shota nodded, although in a lot of his coworker’s cases it was 15 years.
If someone checked the filing cabinets with complains dating back all the way to his first year at UA, they’d find passionately inscribed notes about how only selling Ma- Sorry, Might Bars was going to stunt the growth of the economy. Technically they still can’t do anything about that if they wants the chocolate bar company to continue their donations, but nothing can’t stop them from being peeved.
“-but it’s not set in stone, the whole point is to add as we go. And since three people sprained their ankle yesterday and thought the best solution was to shake it off, this feels like an appropriate time to do some medical training… I think. But in a hypothetical situation where that wasn’t a time-sensitive problem, yes.”
Midoriya may have some more things to learn if he thinks that alone will satiate the beast. The message *Like what?* slithered across Nemuri’s eyes in neon lights and the boy coughed.
“There’s getting construction plans approved for those two new elevators, handling the potential partnership with that clothing brand that offered to give major discounts on school uniform manufacturing if the hero students would promote their shoes-”
At least the email infiltrating lessons from Hatsume are clearly paying off, and with any luck Midoriya can improve in time to avoid being given a masterclass by Nezu. Vaguely, Shota recognizes hacking emails is bad and he should say something about it. But less vaguely, he thinks about how much he doesn’t care. The boy’s eyes grew distant.
“-the wifi password that the business students started hogging, broken air conditioners on the third floor, the corrupt sales manager of the Clip Mart across the street that refused to keep selling me any more of their pencils even though I’m obviously their most loyal customer and instead forced me to buy post-its instead- blue post-its! Which is crazy because how can you even *read* the letters-”
Midoriya cut himself off with a sharp inhale as the chair he was sitting in was pushed by a black combat boot, leaving him spinning around in silence and right out the office doors. Ectoplasm shut them behind him.
“And much more!” Nemuri’s hands flew in front of her, waving around like she was concocting a vision to him, “Like, let’s say, an art exhibit.”
“There’s one on the third floor.” Shota cut in.
“A theatre production!”
“Be more specific.”
“A theatre production on the dangers of an unknown forest!”
“They already tried that.”
“The dangers of strangers.”
“The strangers were actually *in* the forest."
“The dangers of cults.”
“Tried that, too. It didn’t last five minutes in the PTA meeting. Didn’t last five minutes in the forest, either, if I read the script correctly.” This one he was a little disappointed about. Whether it was because he thinks it’s a serious issue that many people should learn about or because he wanted to take the opportunity to throw a paper ball at Nezu every time a person got tricked into ruining their life is not something he is willing to disclose.
“The dangers of too loose clothing!”
“Why would we ever want to do that? Who would even come to that? What is the target audience in all of your-” Clearly self-interested “-ideas?”
“A song and dance we perform to the whole school during a festival filled with haunted houses and treats.”
“*We did that too*- Were you here for anything last year? Genuinely, where were you?” Midnight held up a finger and Shota decided that perhaps the 15th straw should be the last. “We’re doing first aid. Not just because it’s obvious that first aid in a *hero school* should have been prioritized during their first year, or because I have anything against your theatre productions-”
That’s a lie, he has everything against them. They make him stay an extra three hours late at this hellhole because he can’t do paperwork and make sure the tech crew kids don’t power saw their limbs off at the same time. He can’t walk through a hallway without finding splotches of blue paint on his clothes that don’t come off in the wash because of course they don’t. And every forty-five minutes one of the kids’ bad playlists resets and he has to go through their horrid music taste all over again. If he had a nickel for every time he’s considered using the costume crew’s god foresaken measuring tape as a noose, he’d have enough money to buy them three more measuring tapes so they could stop trying to paint lines and numbers on his capture weapon whenever they lose theirs.
"-But because I can’t say for sure that if we don’t teach them now, while we still have the ability to gather them all in one place without internships and patrols getting in the way, they may never have the chance to learn it again.” Shota's eyes danced across the room, passing over every other teacher in the room, just obvious enough for Nemuri to catch his hidden message: *Especially not from them*.
Nemuri finally backed down, that was one thing she couldn’t argue with. Majima glanced up from his computer.
“Hmm?”
“Nothing.” He turned back around to the whiteboard just as Midoriya rolled back in. Perfect timing. “Now, first aid.”
“My man,” Shouta let his head drop back to stare at the ceiling while Majima’s voice continued to cut through his brainstems. “You don’t need our approval to teach first-aid to your class, and I’m sure you already knew that since you use the UA employee handbook like Eri’s bedtime story-”
“Go to hell?”
“-so why did you gather us here?”
“Because it’s not just my class in the second year hero department, Majima,” Shota tried to tune out the sound of Vlad clapping, “Vlad’s class needs this lesson just as much as mine does. As does Thirteen’s class and Ishiyama’s and Snipe’s- Letting one class learn something while the rest don’t get the chance to is not only unhelpful for the people who’ll eventually need medical assistance in the future but also very, very likely to cause internal issues with one another.”
Vlad didn’t clap this time, already silenced by the look on the Eraser hero’s face, but he nodded nonetheless. They might have issues with each other but they could at least agree that more tension between their classes was the last thing either of them needed, the aftermath of the USJ and sports festival being enough proof of that. As good of a hero-in-training that Monoma kid was, they didn’t need first-aid lessons adding more fuel to his already wildly insensitive burning fire.
And that’s ignoring Shinsou’s weird fight instigating tendencies for altercations that don’t even involve him.
They’re not amusing, they’re really not. Don’t look at him like that.
“Hence why I need all of your approval before I go forward.” He concluded.
Technically, he didn’t actually need their approval. Screw Majima but he does read the UA employee handbook on a semi-regular basis, semi-regular turned regular during the course of last week’s events. He’s read it enough to know that vice principals here can make as many changes to the curriculum they want around here (Tyrannical, he’s aware. But what did he expect?) as long as The Rat signs off on it.
Which he will, on anything Shota brings to him, because it’s not the consequences that he cares about, it’s the entertainment of seeing how Shota is gonna have to fight those consequences off tooth and nail to get himself out of the PTA’s wrath unscathed. Which he won’t.
But “technically”, he’d rather jump through flaming hoops getting the
teachers themselves to sign off on the curriculum changes than have to find some natural, conversational way to bring up the fact that he was promoted to a position not a single one of them knew existed here, not even himself. He’d just assumed the “vice principal” position mentioned in the handbook was Nezu’s way of making it seem to the HPSC like his power was absolutely being checked and balanced at the school.
It wasn’t, in case that wasn’t clear. And it still isn’t, in case anything he’s ever said made someone think otherwise.
“But just because all I’m asking for is a go ahead that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to compromise,”
Shota tapped the dry erase marker he was holding against the surface behind him, geasturing to the whiteboard covered in red arrows, circles, distinctive chicken scratch handwriting, and blue- Oh, the kid was right, he can barely see the pencil marks on those. Jesus who would sell such a thing.
“I’m aware it’s not as simple as just rounding all the students up in one place and teaching them the same thing; you guys all had your own lesson plans that would eventually cover this subject, so all this might do is get in the way of that. But I really do think it’s necessary to teach them all at the same time, that way they can help each other through any confusion without our direct assistance, which is something they’ll need to do as adults during medical emergencies, too. So if any of this doesn’t mesh well with what you guys had planned, feel free to make some changes or offer alternatives. Anything you feel is important.” And with that, he leaned back against the board, waiting for his coworkers to barrage him with suggestions.
He received silence.
“Really.” Shota stated again, shrugging when Midoriya gave him a confused glance. The kid was well prepared to jot down any edits needed to be made, but there’s not much he can do if no one speaks up. “I’m open to anything.”
Thirteen scratched the screen of their helmet. Majima’s eyes drifted towards the door. Vlad. Nemuri grinned, and that’s when it hit.
“You have no plans at all.” He breathed out. Silence again. Shota placed the marker down and chose his next words carefully. “I can’t believe i’m asking this, but have any of you, at any point in time, ever told your students or at least heavily implied that you should shove something in the mouth of a person having a seizure so they don’t bite off their tongue?”
More silence. And then, a hand.
“Christ.”
“It’s not my fault, okay? I just- I’m not used to helping out with that kind of thing! And why should I be? Why should any of us be? We’re not doctors, we’re pro-heroes. Right? Kayama, am I-” The redhead turned to the sight of Nemuri rolling her chair a little farther away from him, eyes communicating that there were many times in which she would love to be associated with Majima, this very moment not being one of them. Majima turned back to Shota. "If anything, this is the *commission’s* fault.”
“No this is your fault, Majima, you are a *grown man*-” Nemuri slid a little further away.
“I’m a mechanic, Eraser. I build machines. So if it’s really necessary, my robots can do all my first-aid for me.”
“Can they teach for you, too?”
There weren’t many things Majima could say in defense to that. Or rather, anything he could say that would actually be true. And he could sense fifty more viscerating comments from Shota hurtling his way from a distance. But the one thing he was right about was that he was a mechanic, a mechanic who could build things pretty well. And while it’s clear that seizure assistance and teaching weren’t included in his machines’ skill sets, lifting an arm was.
Majima’s recently updated suit’s metal finger was pointed before Shota could interrogate the excavation hero any further.
“Ectoplasm has never actually done first-aid on site. He just stays with the person while a clone runs off screaming for help from an actual nurse.”
Shota’s gaze slowly drifted to the hero in question, face carefully impassive.
“*What?*”
“AT LEAST I’M DOING SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE.” Ectoplasm shouted, rolling his chair away from Majima as well.
“You’re saying that this entire ti-”
Ectoplasm whipped his head to Ishiyama, marking the end of their book club.
“CEMENTOSS ISN’T ALLOWED NEAR INCAPACITATED VICTIMS ANYMORE BECAUSE EVERY TIME HE DOES THE CPR HE BREAKS THEIR RIBS AND DOES EVEN MORE DAMAGE.”
“Ishiyama you don’t even have hands why would you attempt to-” He just keeps getting cut off these days.
“Snipe’s been sued five separate times for reckless endangerment of a civilian because he doesn’t realize that emotional support is ineffective if there’s a gun pointing at their face the entire time.” The cement hero responded calmly, as if he’d just been waiting his turn. Snipe for his part just shrugged.
“Not much I can say to that. It’s becoming a real problem.”
“Many would say it already is.” Midoriya supplied thoughtfully.
“The first time it happened the girl just started confessing all her wrongdoings to me. Second time the guy ended up pulling out his own gun?”
“You emotionally supported the criminal.” Shota’s throat felt raw.
“And then the rest was actually on the same day. Family of three, three separate case filings- That one stung. Hurt my online presence a bit, too, I even considered going private for a second.”
“Have you ever considered just taking off the gun mask.” Snipe snorted.
“That’d hurt my online presence even more.”
“What is the mask even doing for you, Snipe?” Shota asked, although knowing better than to expect an actual answer. “We know your identity, everyone knows your identity. All it’s done for you so far is have you banned from seven states and kicked out of airports.”
“Okay am I crazy or did we already attempt to teach them this? Disaster training at the USJ, remember?” Vlad interrupted. Shota stared at him while Thirteen rolled off to join Nemuri and Ectoplasm in their isolated corner.
“No, Kan, I’ve completely forgotten. Remind me.” The blood hero’s hand fell back down to his lap.
“Personally, I think driving is more important.” Hound Dog yawned out from his spot by the espresso machine.
Shota’s stare went blank and before Midoriya could ask whether or not that counted as a legitimate suggestion to write down, his teacher’s capture weapon was looped around the back of his head to cover both his ears. Then looped over green eyes when he remembered that if the kid knew sign language it’s not too far-fetched to assume he could lip read, too.
“Personally, I think that I’ve already been seen unloading at least fifteen dummies from my trunk and if I don’t demonstrate heart failure on them soon, who knows what story people will come up with to explain it. I think those dummies cost money coming directly from the school budget. I think too many props that took too much time to develop have already been made for this. *I think* that first-aid is literally a part of the curriculum. I think this has serious PR stakes that can and will cost all of you all of your jobs if a UA student is seen in the ER for choking on crab of all fucking things because the chunks were too large and not one trainee or *teacher* in the most prestigious hero school in Japan knew how to do the Heimlich maneuver without breaking a rib and puncturing a lung somehow.”
“Must I bear this cross forever?!” Lunch Rush snapped.
“I think I’ve already roped too many people into this to go back now. I think your approval meant *jackshit* anyway for whether or not I go through with this plan, which I will.” Hizashi tilted his head. “Hound Dog, I think you’re only prioritizing driving lessons because you can’t commit the easiest crime of jaywalking without getting distracted by a squirrel and causing five different car accidents. And, oh yeah, I think *people will die if we don’t teach them this lesson*.” Shota let the capture weapon leave his student’s ears and fall back around his shoulders. A beat of silence passed.
“Ughhhh,” Nemuri groaned, “is that your only reason?”
“IT’S THE ONLY REASON I NEED-”
The sound of a door creaking open cut them off, Sero’s face appearing on the other side and depicting utter bafflement at the scene before him before remembering what he came for.
“Kaminari’s in the nurse’s office… Kirishima said he burned himself this morning trying to make eggs, which would’ve been an easy fix if he hadn’t rubbed, uh, butter on the wound right after? He’s fine, I think, he’s in Recovery Girl’s room, but his wound’s infected now. So, yeah, just came to let you know… Bye.”
The office was engulfed in silence for a few moments after the boy left until Shota got out of his leaning position to make his way to Recovery Girl, nodding at Midoriya and leaving one last message.
“I hate all of you.”
And he was gone.
Midoriya waited till the door was fully shut behind him before pulling out a stack of permission slips from Shota’s desk drawer, holding out one of them to Vlad for him to read. But before 2-B’s homeroom teacher could take the paper from the student’s grasp, the boy tightened his grip and leaned in with a grin.
“*Sign*.”
1 note
·
View note