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Nezu was proud to be backing and solely running the biggest veterinary schools and care clinic in all of Japan, if he could say so himself. It was no easy feat considering his upbringing living from foster home to foster home, and finally breaking away to make a living for himself before he even graduated from high school. Fifteen years later, he had come out of it with high-end veterinary degrees and a successful business that lead him to create U.A.
His school was quite highly sought after by regional and international students alike, covering not only veterinary degrees but biology and zoology. Its continuation leads to leading researchers and experts being able to provide and fight for the conservation of animals on a global scale. So Nezu could say he was quite proud, and justly so.
However, working in animal care was far from a mentally or physically easy job. Just as if they were doctors or nurses, veterinarians must move on and grieve in silence, paying the bills through each grueling shift.
These sad situations of seeing animals suffering didn’t stop when Nezu got off of work, as proven by the sight before him.
He had yet to even change out of his scrubs as he walked out of the () main building before hearing a chorus of chattering and screeching coming from a small section of forest. While originally planted there for simulation, it now housed a variety of different regional animals.
Jogging towards the noise, Nezu curiously peaked over to see a group of very different owls huddled together. There was only one adult present, huddling the owlets close as they crowded around a small figure.
The poor thing was sprawled out on the ground, laying limply, despite giving out a few unpleasant shrieks and distressed ‘hoo’s. Seeing the clearly hurt creature prompted Nezu to step forward, momentarily forgetting about the surrounding parliament over the baby.
A snap of a twig was all it took for the adult's head to shoot up. Before he could even see them move, their wings sprung up boldly, creating a fan-like shape that hid two of the three owlets. An intimidation attempt, puffing them up to twice the size they originally were. Though a good attempt, it did nothing to sway humans like Nezu.
Getting down on his knees to seem less threatening, Nezu carefully maneuvered himself towards the group. The owl, who he could identify as a male long-eared owl up close, continued to make louder and louder screeches and barks to spur the man away from the hurt owlet.
“Shh, it’s okay. I won’t hurt you or your babies. But I need to check on this one, okay?”
As he inches closer, a sharp beak snapped aggressively, now moving onto a warning rather than to intimidate him away. While the man could acknowledge what he was trying to do was stupid, he didn’t want to leave the baby to suffer on the ground.
“I know you may not understand me, but you can’t help your baby like this,” he insisted, meeting the owl’s piercing red eyes. “I’ve worked on owls before, I can help you save them if you’d just let me. Please.”
Whether it was through a freak of nature that the long-eared owl could understand him, or just a realization that his baby was suffering, the beak clacking relented. His ‘fan’ stayed strong, but Nezu could see fluffy white babies peeking through the folds of their wings.
The man breathed a sigh of relief. Though long-eared owls aren't known to be aggressive, most species are widely protective of their young, and often did not understand human intervention.
With a practiced gentleness, as Nezu got closer, he scooped the baby into relatively clean gloved hands, bringing them close to his chest. The owlet chirped loudly for a moment but settled down as it couldn’t seem to move very much.
Heaving a sigh of relief as there was no noticeable feeling of fresh blood or smell of odor, Nezu turned back to the distressed parent. “Thank you for trusting me with them. I’ll make sure they’re okay.”
Turning away, Nezu walked as fast as he could out of the forest and back towards one of their main clinics. As they moved away from the rest of the group, the little owlet chirped and shrieked in alarm, the man’s hushing doing little to quell the noise.
Thankfully, it was quite a short walk, leading Nezu to rush into double sliding doors and start asking around for some of his staff working the late shift.
“Can I have one of the bird specialists on call into room 1-A, please?” he asked through the open staff room door. Not waiting on a reply, the man shuffled away towards the room quickly.
Due to his lack of protection and a stressed bird in his hand, Nezu was quick to place them on a soft blanket on the main exam table. It was easy for such a small owlet to get cold, so providing a towel worked to both protect him from potentially sharp claws and regulate body temperature.
After a few minutes, the door to the room opened hesitantly, veterinary student Koda Koji peeking inside.
“Are you the bird specialist?”
“Y-Yes, sir. I’m Koda Koji, a veterinary student looking to specialize in bird species. The vet is off call at the moment, so my teacher called me out to assist you,” he said, his voice coming out quieter and quieter as he spoke.
“Well, let’s get to it then!” Nezu said with fake enthusiasm. “Could you check for noticeable injuries as I grab our gloves and an IV?”
The student nodded, shuffling forward to unwrap the blanket slightly and peek inside as Nezu compiled what the two may need. The owlet chirped loudly in response, their small beak clacking softly in a weak imitation of the long-eared owl from earlier that night.
“It looks like two wing injuries, sir. One dislocation and one break. The dislocation seems to be limiting his range of motion.”
Coming back around to the exam table, Nezu handed him a pair of leather gloves used specifically for birds of prey, such as the owlet. “Good eye, Koda-kun! It looks like we’ll need to call in an x-ray for the little guy.”
“I’ll go do that now, sir.”
“No need to call me sir, Nezu works just fine. It makes me sound old!”
—
The procedure only took about half an hour, with Nezu taking care to guide Koda through realigning the dislocated bone and wrapping them both in gauze.
“Thank you for your help tonight, Koda. Your knowledge as simply a student astounds me,” Nezu said, thoroughly washing his hands as Koda did some final touch-ups to the owlet’s wings. The bird was quite calm now that he had a decent dose of pain meds and two secure bindings on his small, fluffy wings.
“Hearing you, Nezu-san, say that means more to me than you know.”
“I’d hope so,” the principal chuckled. “If you ever need a recommendation to a facility once you graduate, feel free to contact me.”
Koda’s head whipped over to him so fast, Nezu could swear he got whiplash. “Sir, you couldn’t! I could never ask you to do that for simply repairing an owl’s wings!”
“Nezu is fine, Koda-kun. And speak for yourself, I believe speaking with you throughout this experience has alluded me to things I never would have known birds, or your own studies at my school for that matter.”
“I’m sure you’re very busy yourself, still working as a vet tech and all,” Koda said, carefully removing the bird’s IV line and whipping down one of the side tables they had laid him on.
“Well, I suppose. It’s quite nice to hear about how much my work has done for the next generation like yourself.”
“It’s an honor to be part of one of the biggest schools in the country, so I’d say it all was very worth it, Nezu-san.”
Nezu stopped, staring back at Koda for a moment before letting out a large smile. “I really appreciate hearing that from a student. Much more than you know.”
Tucking the baby owl back into the blanket from earlier, Nezu placed him carefully into a cardboard box. It was better than the blanket or thin gloves he had to hold him in earlier, keeping both sides free from their respective bacteria.
Waving goodbye to Koda and the rest of the staff, Nezu walked back to the forest in a much calmer fashion than he had done earlier.
Stalking through the campus forest, Nezu had high hopes that the owl family had stayed in the area, especially if the adult male had two other young ones on the breach of flying. Thankfully, the long-eared owl gave out a few helpful ‘hoo’s, leading him towards some trees housing lower hanging branches.
Peering out of a large stick nest, the owl from earlier watched him with large, careful red eyes. It wasn’t nearly as threatening, but still held the air of caution. With only his poor night vision to guide him, Nezu reached into the box, letting it fall gently to the floor when the small owl rested in the blanket along his elbow.
Though it did take a bit of grabbing branches and standing on top of large roots, the man was able to carefully place the owlet inside the nest. He was quickly shoved under the wing of the larger male, likely shoved next to his siblings under his flank.
“Well, thank you for not pecking my hand off,” Nezu said, stepping down to look proudly up at his accomplishment. “Though, I ask that you stay around here, so I can take off those bandages in about a month. These little guys usually bounce back fast, y’know?”
The owl stared back at him, giving no reaction to the man’s antics.
“Alright, well… I hope to see you all again soon. It’s been a pleasure talking to such an intelligent animal like yourself. Even if it was very one-sided.”
Turning away from the tree and the family of owls, Nezu intended to walk out of the forest before he had an idea. Turning back to the bird still watching him, Nezu spoke. “Wait, actually, how would you like a name?”
The owl tilted his head to the side, seemingly emulating the dog trait of tilting his head in confusion. His eyes remained large and passive, staring almost straight through Nezu himself.
“Well, I give many of the animals I meet in my care names, especially those I find intriguing. It gives… a more humanly perception of them, rather than reducing them to seeming like we’re not on the same level of being.”
Staring at the bird for a moment, Nezu pondered the idea, thinking back to what he knew about owls. “Fuku- no, too vague. Kurai? Nah. How about… Shouta?” he asked, tapping a finger on his chin. “It means soaring and to ascend. I feel like that’s rather fitting.”
Nodding to himself, a smile grew on his face as he remembered the younger owl hidden safely away from the outside world. “And though I haven’t met your other children, the little one I did meet was delightful. I’m thinking… Izuku? It’s a little more random, but I do hope to see him again, even if the wait is longer than I would hope.”
Shouta stared back at him with wide eyes, giving no reaction to the man calling out one of his owlets. Though, once Nezu turned his eyes away from the staring contest he had with the biggest bird, he could see a few pairs of tiny little eyes and white plush feathers peaking out of his wing fluff.
Taking the staring and silence as a sign to leave, Nezu waved to the family. “Well, have a wonderful night, Shouta, and to your little ones too!”
Finally turning away, Nezu was ready to peel off the scrubs that had been long since plastered to his body in sweat. Now that he could relax after taking care of Izuku, he knew that his night was mostly paperwork and coffee from here. He just hoped the family would stay a bit longer, so they could meet again.
—
It ended up only being a few more weeks before the two species met up again. However, it seems they are only destined to meet under increasingly bad circumstances.
Nezu, ever the attentive principal and owner of U.A., was puzzled when he received a notification about a break-in through one of his campus walls. It was small, and only raised an alert through one of his cameras, so the principal wasn’t very concerned.
Though his school was relatively meant for veterinary care, often the facility could receive exotic animals in need of treatment and housing. Thus, for the safety of the students and animals alike, he created an ID system for everyone on school grounds.
While it could be a straggler student after hours, Nezu rose from his desk, stretching his back with a satisfying crack. Hours at his desk did his body little good, but there was no other way to get mountains of paperwork done. Making sure he had his phone in his pocket and was wearing his ID lanyard, he strolled out of his office, hands shoved into the pockets of his white overcoat.
It didn’t take long for him to arrive along the barbed gate wire, while not as effective as brick, it was cost-effective for such a large campus which already had a permanent set of security on hand. They had been notified as well, though held about the same amount of concern as Nezu.
Seeing that it only seemed to be a small issue, Nezu notified the staff to be on alert, but he could most likely handle anything that broke through. Especially if that anything was a suffering or starving animal, his expertise.
Pausing his trail of thoughts, Nezu focused on the movement he heard from a nearby bush. It was much larger than any animal he expected to crawl through the hole made in the gate. Pausing, he was almost too late to notice the figure lunging out at him before he could move away.
Stumbling back while miraculously keeping his balance, a figure dressed in an assortment of dark colors recovered from their tumble quickly, getting up. As they stood, they pulled a large kitchen knife out of their jacket pocket, pointing it at the man.
They stared at one another in stunned silence for a moment before Nezu spoke. “Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Don’t act fucking stupid. I know vets like you have a loaded wallet and I would appreciate it if you gave it up without a fight,” they said, gesturing with their knife to drop it on the ground.
“Feel free to take it, but there’s really nothing interesting inside,” Nezu shrugged, pulling his wallet out to toss it at their feet nonchalantly. “And you do realize this is private property, right? We have constant security.”
They chuckled, tossing his ID and a few saved coupons back onto the dirt. Yet to find any money at all, Nezu could see the growing irritation on their face. “Not very good if I’m here robbing you out in broad… well, out pretty late at night.”
“I suppose not, but I didn’t exactly come out here to greet someone breaking into a private facility meant for staff and students.”
“What stunt are you pulling?! Look at this shit!” Roughly shaking Nezu’s leather wallet, a few small bills and an assortment of coins dropped out. The wallet didn’t even house his credit card, its outward appearance betraying the contents inside. “You don’t even have more than ten bucks in here!”
“Well, I don’t really see the need to carry cash on me if I wasn't going to use it. My usual grocery trip isn't until later this week,” Nezu said as the figure distractedly tore into the leather in their own anger. The man took that moment to reach down for his ID, being met with a boot digging into his shoulder and the knife pointed straight at his nose.
“Don’t take me for that stupid, old man. I’m not letting you out of here until I get what I want. Now, phone, watch, give me whatever I can palm off.”
Slowly shuffling away from the sharp object, his attempts to get back into his feet were thwarted by a few narrow slashes towards his eyes. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, especially with you waving around a knife near my eyes.”
His snark seemed to only further aggravate his assailant, who pocketed Nezu’s wallet in order to have control of both their glove covered hands.
“I know you won’t be talking that big once I shove this knife right where it belongs!”
Just as they went to swipe at him, a pair of sharp clawed feet snatched the hilt of the knife straight out of their hands. They let out a shrill shriek, clutching their hand where the predator's nails had momentarily dug in and broken skin.
Looking towards the bird that saved him, Nezu was happily surprised to see the long eared owl, Shouta, clutching the knife close from where he had perched on a branch after snatching it.
Taking that moment to hop back into his feet, Nezu sent a kick to their gut, knocking his shoulder into their side in order to pin them to the ground. It was an easy feat once he had his full body weight pressed up against the arms uncomfortably pinned to their back.
All it took was a message to his head of security for them to finally come rushing over
“Sir, I know you own this facility, but it would be smarter to just alert us first and let us do our jobs. You could have been seriously hurt!” The man scolded as Nezu and him watched some of the other staff cuff him and call the authorities. “Just watching through the cameras made me nervous for you.”
“It’s alright now. Though you are probably right, it was a bit rash of me to think I could handle it on my own. I’ll keep that in mind, Inui,” Nezu nodded back to the man, known by his nickname ‘Hound Dog’, who gave a sigh before walking off to direct the other security members.
Returning his ID and measly money into the wallet that they had stolen from him, Nezu turned to finally address the elephant in the room.
“It’s nice to see you again, Shouta. Thank you for the assistance!” The owl gave a impassive ‘hoo’ back, finally dropping the knife from his clutches on the branch.
Humming, he walked closer to the long-eared owl, who simply tilted his head curiously. “I wonder, was this getting even for helping little Izuku? I suppose I don’t owe you any favors now, huh?”
Maybe Nezu was seeing things, but he swore he heard an exasperated sigh as he picked up the knife and walked away. Turning back, Shouta was already gone, silently disappearing into the brush of the forest.
From then on, the birds because a constant that students would see while touring the small forestry, munching on a rat or two that Shouta had valiantly let the little ones finish off. They had even named all of his babies; Izuku, Katsuki, and Hitoshi. The former had his wings heal excellently, and it wasn’t long before he joined his brothers in using their cute but useless downy feathers in at attempt at flight.
Once the owlets were able to fly and began to grow into their adult feathers, visiting Nezu in his office on the high up floors of the main building also became a weekly adventure. Chaperoned by their attentive father, the three growing owls of varying color perched on some plastic stands he had bought just for them.
While Nezu was disappointed he would never get to interact with them outside of watching from a distance as they stared curiously at rolling desk chairs and doors, he had made sure the feeling never overwhelmed him. They were still wild birds, even when they eventually left Shouta’s nest in search of something big enough for themselves.
For years to come, Nezu’s window remained open and inviting to his owl acquaintances, even as his hair grayed and one by one, their visits soon ended altogether. But he never felt lonely, not when he was visited by many of his old students and, once in a while, the owl who had saved him all those years ago.