Narration POV
Nezu sat in his office, rocking his chair back and forth, over and over, over and over.
He was thinking, just like he usually did, just that now, he was thinking about something he normally didn't think of, the feelings of another. More specifically, the feelings of a fifteen-year-old boy who had given his trust to him.
Why did Arthur have this aversion to anyone getting hurt?
Nezu had met heroes who jumped into valiant efforts, who would lay down their lives to protect the innocent, who would spend weeks awake simply to help one more person. All Might filled all of these examples and more.
But even then, All Might knew how to not interfere. During examinations like today's, All Might would have watched from the sidelines, trusting in the safety measures put in place.
Yet Arthur simply couldn't. There was something deeper there, something that made the boy incapable of watching others suffer even the smallest amount of pain. It wasn't just heroic instinct, Nezu had seen enough heroes to recognize the difference.
Although he wasn't quite sure what it was that Arthur suffered.
All these thoughts led to one thing, he couldn't sit still, hence why he was rocking his chair, and he was beginning to doubt if his decision had been the right one. The lesson in restraint had backfired spectacularly.
Nezu stopped rocking and turned on his monitor. His paws moved across the keyboard with practiced efficiency, navigating through layers of security that would have taken most people hours to breach. He clicked a few things and landed on a page that he had deliberately avoided accessing for months.
Name: Aki Tadashi
Codename: Arthur
Information: Locked
His mouse hovered over the third line. The cursor blinked mockingly at him, as if daring him to click. He wanted to know, to understand. His brain demanded it.
The need to comprehend Arthur's motivations was like an itch he couldn't scratch.
And yet he restrained himself.
Because he knew that if he learned this without Arthur's permission, whatever it was, the relationship they had, whether master and protégé or simply friends, would be irreparably damaged. He didn't want to betray that trust. He didn't want to betray a person who had no one and nothing looking after him, because it reminded him of... himself.
Nezu's paw moved away from the mouse, and he leaned back in his chair. His own past was something he rarely dwelt on, but Arthur's situation brought back memories he had spent years burying.
No one had cared about him during those early years. They had experimented on him, day in and day out, simply to understand why he had manifested a quirk despite being an animal. The feeling of loneliness, of being utterly alone in the world, was something he knew intimately.
The scientists had poked and prodded, subjected him to tests that would have broken most minds. They had treated him like a specimen, a curiosity to be studied rather than a sentient being with thoughts and feelings. Even after he had proven his intelligence, demonstrated capabilities that far exceeded any human, some had continued to view him as little more than a very clever pet.
He knew what they had turned him into. The experiments, the isolation, the constant scrutiny, it had all left its mark. Some you could see like the scar across his face and some you couldn't.
He knew he wasn't entirely right in the head, that his emotional responses were sometimes... skewed. His sense of humor was darker than most, his methods more calculating. But despite all of that, he still wanted to do good. For Arthur, for his students, for the people of Japan.
Perhaps that was why he felt such a kinship with the young vigilante. They were both broken in their own ways, shaped by circumstances beyond their control. But they had both chosen to use their abilities to help others, even when the world seemed determined to misunderstand them.
His computer locked itself and turned off automatically, a security feature he had programmed years ago. No one would know Arthur's past until Arthur himself told Nezu it would be okay. Aki Tadashi would remain a ghost in the system until then.
He looked out of his windows. Night had fallen while he was deep in thought, and in fact, it looked like dawn would begin to shine through soon. Had he really been sitting here all night?
The campus was obviously quiet at this hour. In a few hours, it would be bustling with students and faculty preparing for the new academic year. In just over a month, Arthur would be walking these halls as a student.
Nezu grabbed his phone and opened it up. He scrolled through his contacts until he found the one he was looking for.
Arthur.
He knew his call wouldn't get picked up. Arthur himself was probably out there doing what Nezu had come to think of as vigilanting, not that that was a real word, but it was the closest thing to describe Arthur's multiple month-long escapades across Japan. The boy had been more active than ever since their meeting, as if he was trying to cram as much good as possible into his remaining time.
So instead, he typed out a message.
"I'm sorry for the bet. That was a dumb idea."
He closed his phone, expecting it would take hours, maybe days, maybe even weeks until Arthur looked at the message. Arthur was notorious for ignoring his phone unless it was an emergency, preferring to focus entirely on whatever crisis he was currently resolving.
But...
PING
His phone rang immediately, a message notification lighting up the screen. From Arthur.
"I'm sorry for lashing out too."
Nezu smiled despite himself. The kid really was too polite for his own good. Even when angry, Arthur still found a way to take responsibility for his part in their argument.
Nezu typed back quickly.
"How long will you be out this time?"
The response came almost immediately.
"Two days until U.A. begins."
"Good, that will give us one day to announce everything. See you then."
"See you, Nezu."
Nezu set his phone down and finally allowed himself to relax. Well not really relax, his quirk wouldn't allow him to, but he would get as close to relaxing as his brain changed quirk would allow.
1 month and two weeks later
It was a busy day in Juzo News. Interns rushed back and forth carrying coffee and papers, producers huddled in corners having urgent whispered conversations, and the makeup artists were working overtime to ensure everyone looked their best.
Why all the excitement? Because they had two prolific guests coming in, and the combination promised to be either pure gold or complete disaster, possibly both, which was great for the ratings.
The first was one who had been on Juzo News a few times already.
J. Juro Jinno, otherwise known as JJJ.
He was a man who actually brought in quite the viewership, though for wildly different reasons depending on the viewer. Some took what he said as comedy, laughing at his increasingly unhinged theories about vigilante conspiracies.
Others took him quite seriously, nodding along as he ranted about the dangers of unsupervised quirk usage.
And this audience of people continued to grow because Arthur himself had been becoming more and more prolific in the past year, seen more and more across Japan's major cities, that is until yesterday.
When, without warning, suddenly no one had seen him, for over 24 hours. His sudden disappearance after over a year of constant activity was more than just an oddity, it was front-page news.
However, more unusual was the other guest who had arrived, the infamous recluse, Nezu, Principal of U.A. High School. The mouse-like creature rarely made public appearances, and rarely left the U.A. grounds. What was particularly weird was that he himself had asked to come on the show to talk about Arthur of all things.
Yuriko Miyazaki adjusted her earpiece and glanced at her notes one final time. This was either going to be the scoop of the century or a complete circus.
She looked at the two guests, each with their distinct... quirks. Nezu was calmly making tea at the guest table, having brought his own kettle and cup.
JJJ, on the other hand, was shaking his mustache fists at anyone who caught his eye, including the camera operators, the sound technicians, and at one point, his own reflection in a monitor.
"Is he always like this?" whispered one of the interns to another.
"This is him on a good day," came the reply.
The director from behind the glass held up his hand, then spoke through the microphone.
"Three, two, one and we are live."
Yuriko straightened in her chair and stared directly into the camera, her professional smile firmly in place.
"Hello, dear viewers, I am Yuriko Miyazaki and welcome back to Juzo News. Today with us are two very important guests." She gestured to her right. "J. Juro Jinno, host of the popular podcast Get Vigilantes Under Control."
"Hello, Yuriko! I am glad to be here," JJJ said, his mustache fists uncurling slightly in what might have been an attempt at a wave. "Though I have to say, I'm SHOCKED that it took this long for mainstream media to take the vigilante threat seriously!"
"And," Yuriko continued, turning to her left, "the Principal of U.A. High School, Nezu."
"Hello, everyone," Nezu said pleasantly, taking a delicate sip of his tea. "Thank you for having me."
"So today we will be discussing the sudden disappearance of Japan's most prolific vigilante, Arthur. Mr. Jinno, you've been tracking Arthur's activities for months. What's your take on his sudden absence from the public eye?"
JJJ's entire face lit up with vindication. His mustache fists actually uncurled completely as he leaned forward eagerly. "Well, what can I say? I'm sure an underground hero has finally captured that menace and brought him to justi-"
"Could you please shut up."
The squeaky voice cut through JJJ's triumphant speech like a knife. Nezu didn't even look up from his tea as he delivered the request.
The entire studio fell silent. Camera operators paused mid-zoom. Even the bustling newsroom beyond the studio seemed to quiet down.
"What did you just say!" JJJ yelled back, his mustache fists immediately re-curling and beginning to shake with rage. "Did you just tell me to-"
"I said for you to shut up," Nezu repeated calmly, finally looking up from his teacup to meet JJJ's furious gaze. "Your voice is grating beyond measure, and I can measure a lot."
"You-" JJJ began, rising halfway out of his chair.
But Nezu didn't let JJJ get another word in. Instead, his face and words were directed straight at the camera, his small form somehow commanding the attention of everyone in the studio and everyone watching at home. Some people even leaned forward in their seats.
"I have come on here today to say one simple thing," Nezu announced, his voice carrying despite its high pitch. "Arthur is entering U.A., starting tomorrow."
A/N: The normal chapter for today, I'll try to get the next extra chapter out as soon as possible but give me a few days, cause otherwise I might get burnout lol.
Also we are finally about to start the actual U.A. arcs, YEAH!!!! This was longer than I expected it to be, if I'm being serious, but as the relationships developed, I needed more chapters to flesh stuff out, mainly Nezu's and Arthur's because people were getting the wrong idea about Nezu, mainly that he was some machiavellian manipulator who wanted Arthur to dance in the palm of his hand (he isn't that btw)
Power stones, reviews, comments are all greatly appreciated. Thx for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Author out.