Aizawa looked around the conference room as his fellow heroics course teachers took their seats, Zashi sitting on his left as Nemuri took the seat on the other side of the blonde. He could see the worry swirling in those chartreuse eyes behind the tinted lens of his glasses. The past week had been…rough.

“Good morning everyone. Thank you for coming in early so we could discuss the concerns that have been brought up this week. As you are all aware, we’ve had several students make claims of a villain in the school.” Nedzu started, his paws steepled in front of him as he spoke. “Two of them have specified Yui by name and appearance. None of the students have revealed why they think a villain is at the school-“

“I told you. Letting in that girl was just going to cause problems. Just imagine the flack we’ll get once the media gets a whiff. No one will trust us with their kids.” Kan interrupted, tapping one large finger against the table as if to solidify his point.

“Oh shut up, Kan. You’ve been watching for Yui to step one toe out of line to get on your soap box. You’re so loud, a student could have overheard you badmouth her and that’s where the rumors are coming from.” Nemuri crossed her arms as she glared at the man, meeting his eyes as he clenched his hands.

“Don’t you try blamin’ this on me! She’s a timebomb waiting to explode. I’ve heard of her attacking students.” He leaned forward and pointed at her.

“I’ve…heard similar rumors.” Thirteen spoke up, their gloved fingers fiddling around each other when the eyes in the room turned to them. “She can be…a little violent?”

“A little? She tried to stomp a kid’s chest in! Have you seen the boots that girl wears? They have steel reinforcements.” Kan’s goading had the others voicing their opinions, voices muddling together enough that Nedzu grimaced, his sensitive ears folding down.

“Enough!” Aizawa barked out, waiting for them to cease their irrational outburst before he spoke, “Yui is displaying obvious trauma responses. She learned how to fight, to survive, against others that tried to kill her. Where a touch could mean excruciating pain. She’s working against instincts that she developed to keep her safe. It’s not something we can expect her to learn instantaneously, Kan.”

“Yeah! Yui’s spent weeks refining her fighting style so it isn’t as vicious. She doesn’t want to maim or seriously injure anyone.” Hizashi looked around at them, his hands spread out as he gave a small smile. “And this is her first time in a school environment, we have to try and be patient.”

“Maybe isolating her from her classmates isn’t a good idea. Being Nedzu’s personal student won’t exactly endear her to the others if they believe she’d getting special treatment. It singles her out for being different.” Cementoss supplied, not flinching when black eyes met his own.

“Putting Yui in classes that she passed by years ago would only further alienate her. Not to mention dull her mind. She needs an academic challenge. If she easily took the first spot, it would only make her classmates resent her.” Nedzu argued.

“We’re getting off topic.” Kan huffed, turning to Aizawa. “How many times has she gone too far in class?”

His eye twitched, Aizawa’s voice was terse as he spoke. “Twice. Once after a head injury that made her believe she was back in the illegal fighting rings she’d been forced to join. And once last week after she blacked out after not sleeping for a few days.”

“Oh, we just have to worry about her going feral after a bump to the head or if she forgets to sleep? That’s reassuring.”

“What happened after the second time, Aizawa?” Thirteen asked, pointedly ignoring the sarcasm-ladled remark from him.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He sighed, his fingers rubbing circles against his temple like it’d actually help the headache he could feel coming on. Years with dealing with Kan, and he still got headaches around the man. “I gave her a week’s detention. I tried to talk with her about it. Something is bothering her but I think I pushed too hard. She bolted. She came down the next morning and apologized for running off like she had. She’s a little more quiet than she used to be but otherwise it’s the same.”

“We had her see Chiyo about the insomnia, and she got her to agree to some scans. She couldn’t find any sign of a brain injury, so that was a relief. Chiyo gave her a new medication to try for her migraines that she gets from using her Quirk, they’re supposed to help her sleep too.” Zashi’s fingers found his under the table, giving a reassuring squeeze.

“She only stays at school late to attend the support class. Otherwise she’s been going home and crashing from what Izuku has been saying. It’s…possible that she’s overwhelmed with school and she stressed too much that it gave her insomnia.” Aizawa sighed softly, it still didn’t feel right. He knew there was something he was missing, but unless Yui actually came to him and told him…he was as in the dark as the rest of them.

“I think she’s trying to let things cool down after…that last incident. If there’s a chance to not work with the class, she takes it. It doesn’t help that only three students are actively trying to include her. The others seem…a bit scared. Especially when it comes to sparring.” Nemuri tapped her nails against the tabletop, her lips twisted into a frown as she thought back to the exercises they’d done that week. “I tried to show them they have nothing to worry about by sparring with her myself, I don’t think it helped though.”

“Have you seen anything on your cameras, Nedzu? If the students are coming to us, they have to be gossiping amongst themselves. Have you seen anyone confront Yui directly?” Thirteen asked, the teachers all turning to look at the rodent.

Nedzu just sighed, “I’ve been reviewing footage from this week, but aside from catching some conversations, there’s not much for me to go on. Strangely, some of the cameras are malfunctioning too. I have Higari looking into them but he hasn’t found anything wrong with the hardware. And I can’t find any signs of someone accessing them.”

“I’ve tried tracking Yui especially. She’s been stalling a bit when it comes to leaving my office when lunch starts, but she has a tendency to lose herself in her work… By the time she gets to the cafeteria her friends already have a table and she sits by them and makes conversation. Like Aizawa mentioned, she seems more subdued but she’s acting similarly to how she did before the incident. She doesn’t try to interact with the students outside the friends she already has. And no one has approached her that I’ve been able to find. It’s been an uneventful week.”

Kan sighed loudly, his arms crossed over his chest, “How do you know that the interference wasn’t her? She’s a hacker. She broke into your security before she even was a student here.”

“Why would she be messing with footage, Kan? If she was getting harassed, she’d copy the footage to use as evidence.” Nemuri pointed out.

“Not if she was the one harassing students.”

“All right, that’s enough you two. I don’t want another bickering match.” Nedzu held up a paw before Nemuri opened her mouth. “Now, since we have so little in the means of evidence, there isn’t much we can do-“

“Why not just drag the kid in here and make her tell us?”

“You are not interrogating her, Kan.” Hisashi's voice was firm as he glared at the man across the table, the look in his eyes enough to make the larger man pause and ignore the pressure in his ears from the deep pitch Mic's voice had reached.

“If we try to force the matter with her, she’ll either bolt again or completely shut us out. Yui thinks she can handle herself, even when she lived with her biological parents, she had to figure things out on her own. Right now, we’re stuck waiting on Yui to confide in us. Unless something changes…it’s probably best not to pressure her.” Aizawa droned out, tightening his grip on Zashi’s hand under the table.

“So, what do ya want us to do?” Snipe asked, turning his head toward the principal.

“For now, we wait. Hopefully Yui will come to us if whatever she is dealing with becomes too much to bear on her own. If we see any signs of the situation escalating, we’ll have to try questioning her. As educators, our first priority is the safety of our students. We continue to tell any other students that come to us that the issue is being investigated. But they have nothing to fear. I ask you keep an eye out for any signs of trouble between classes. We are still a school full of hormonal, super-powered adolescents. Even with our policies, bullying still happens. If you see anything, please come to me. I believe that is all we have time for, I shall let you get ready for your classes for today. If I don’t happen to see you today, please have a wonderful day off tomorrow.” Nedzu smiled at them before he hopped down from his seat to leave the room.