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Himari was sweeping up when she heard the knock on the door.
She sighed, “not again…” so many times parents had yelled at her for not treating their precious treasure of a child in the way they thought was ‘right’. Every parent had different preferences so how on Earth was she to know what they wanted, first of all, and how on Earth was she supposed to pay attention individually to each child when she had at least ten to take care of at any given moment? She was the newbie caretaker, so the older caretakers often foisted off their work onto her, so ensuring every child had a perfect experience was… well, impossible.
Himari opened the door and saw… A pressed suit, very neat, especially considering that it was the middle of summer and she was sweating through her apron. Maybe he had a heat resistance quirk? She looked up to see a man with curly white hair and a smile that was almost pleasant. She had plenty of experience with people’s fake smiles (parents were unbelievable) and there was just something not quite right about his eyes. It wasn’t cold or sharp, per se, but… It reminded Himari of how her grandfather used to look at her when she broke something in the kitchen. Not unaffectionate, but there was a sort of chiding, condescending feeling to it.
Oh boy. This was gonna be an annoying one.
“Please come in, Mister…,?
“Ah, Midoriya Hisashi. I’m Izuku’s father,” Izuku. That was the kid with the green hair like a little bush. The one with freckles and health problems. Now that Himari had pinned the kid, time to talk to the dad.
“A pleasure to meet you, Midoriya-san!” She gestured past the doorway
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Hisashi could see the stupid woman calculating, trying to remember who Izuku was. Could practically hear her inane thoughts.
He had forgotten what it was like to not be feared by members of the thoughtless masses. He was sure, however, that it was just as irritating back then as it was now.
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Himari led Midoriya-san to the room arranged specifically for conversations with the guardians of children. It was more maturely decorated than the other rooms, far fewer bright colors and no toys. Usually it was clean too, but it looked like one of her coworkers had left a half empty cup of tea on the table. Probably Yanagi, that bitch, she did as little work as possible and still got paid more than Himari because she was a ‘manager’. Bullshit.
Ah, but Yanagi wasn’t the current problem.
“Midoriya-san, if you’d please sit down, then we can talk about whatever it is that’s on your mind,” He stared at the table for a few seconds as if judging its inadequacy. Himari grimaced, “Would you like some tea before we start?”
“No, thank you, I just had a cup of coffee,” he sat and she was forced to admit that no matter how doting a parent he was, he was graceful, “now then, shall we get started?”
He smiled at her and she was reminded of the time she was on vacation with her friends and losing a bet had put her in a shark cage.
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The woman’s little half-smile was so infuriatingly smug that Hisashi almost found himself sympathizing with all the heroes who had fought him in the past. She was trying to look stern but he could tell that she thought she had already won. She was probably used to winning disputes with the tired parents of toddlers, after all.
Yes, she was far too satisfied with herself.
That would disappear soon enough.
“Kobayashi-san, what is my son like, in your own words?” She startled a bit, obviously she was expecting the first thing out of his mouth to be a complaint. No, that would make it far too easy for her to get defensive and then brush it off afterwards. She managed to push past her confusion before she started talking, though.
“He’s a quiet, gentle boy. He… He likes to draw, but he doesn’t seem to like talking to other kids, so it’s hard for him to integrate properly with the rest of the class,” it was laughable how little she actually knew his child, “Oh! Except he also plays quite often with little Katsuki’s group! Those are really the only other children in the class that he interacts with.”
Katsuki… The Bakugou brat? Hisashi recalled meeting Mitsuki Bakugou once and being distinctly unimpressed. He couldn’t imagine anyone marrying her, much less reproducing with her. He also couldn’t imagine that Mitsuki’s spawn might interact gently with his son, considering both the parentage and Izuku’s recent despondency. That meant this Kobayashi-san was either hiding something or never actually paid enough attention to the children she worked with.
“I see…. For the most part, your impression is correct. Is there anything else you would like to mention?” she hesitated, thinking, before shaking her head. Hisashi decided to take things up a notch, “it is disturbing that I must trust my child to people with such a lack of thought and foresight”
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“What…” Did he just say?
“Ah. I apologize,” he smiled at her while oozing contempt, “did I say that out loud? My mistake,” there was absolutely no way that was a mistake. Himari wished to the Gods that she could be rude right now, but alas… And also, what the hell was with that question? Not a single parent had asked her about what she thought of their child, except the ones that had the real brats. Maybe Izuku acted up at home or something? Who knew.
“What exactly did you mean by that, Midoriya-san?” she grimaced, “I hope you understand that each caretaker can only know every child so well, considering how many we are expected to take care of.”
“Oh, I understand that perfectly well. After all, a teacher can’t be too close to any individual student if they want to treat each child equally. The same logic would apply for caretakers,” that was actually pretty reasonable, “but I don’t think you, or anyone else working here, is doing even the bare minimum of what this job requires. For a career of being a caretaker, you seem to take remarkably little care.”
“Excuse me, even if I can’t spend time with each child, I still care-”
“No you don’t,” Himari was left gaping, “let’s not play this little game of ‘you say this, I refute that’. I’m sure we can both agree that it is both tiring and boring,” he waved his hand as if brushing the thought away, “I don’t care whether you sincerely cherish my child or not.”
What? What kind of parent doesn’t…?
“What I care about is how you treat Izuku, not how you feel about him. Insincerity is fine, but if I ever see Izuku coming home bruised and crying again…”
He stood up and Himari felt like all the warmth of the room was sucked out, like he was 20 meters tall instead of two. His shark’s smile shook her to the bone.
“I’ll be back.”