Work Text:
Kai went on paternity leave for one month to get everything sorted for Eri. When he came back, two of his students were missing and the rumors included everything from ‘moved schools’ to ‘moved countries’ to ‘killed by a villain’ to ‘they were actually spies and their cover got blown so they skipped town’. The first child that was missing was Bakugou Katsuki, who all the other teachers thought was the greatest person to ever grace the school’s halls and Kai thought was a little shit. The second child missing was Midoriya Izuku, the butt of almost every joke made outside of Kai’s classroom and the reason Kai went into teaching in the first place. (The Boss also happened to see Kai’s dedication to shaping the next generation and officially made him his second in command, even entrusting his granddaughter to him, because of it).
All in all, Kai was concerned for Midoriya and concerned about Bakugou, more specifically, what he might have done. The first day he was back from leave, he had an email from Midoriya Inko, asking for all the schoolwork from the last two weeks and for the next few since her son wasn’t able to be at school for the time being. Two weeks later, he was contacted again asking for a parent-teacher conference. He responded as soon as he saw the very to-the-point email and set up a meeting for that Tuesday afternoon.
It was currently Tuesday afternoon and Kai was wiping down all of the desks for the third time, waiting for the Midoriya family. There was a knock at the door and he sat down at his desk. The first person to walk in was a small woman with long, dark-green hair, wearing a well-fitted, maroon pantsuit. After her was a kid about the same height as her with short, curly, white hair in a T-shirt that said ‘T-shirt’ and dark green harem pants. The kid also had diamond freckles on each cheek and big, green eyes and Kai belatedly recognized him as Izuku Midoriya.
Behind the youngest Midoriya was someone Kai was not expecting for a variety of reasons. The first one was that he’d never heard of or even from Midoriya-kun’s father. The second one was that he had seen this man about three and a half weeks before volunteering to let Eri test her new and very volatile Quirk on him, claiming that he was a Quirk expert and had heard of the incident that led her to be staying with Kai. He was not sure how this man learned about Eri at all, but Kai soon came to realize this was All For One, who Kai used to think was an urban legend. Turns out, he’s not an urban legend and he really is as old as Quirks. He also barely had a face until Eri Rewinded him to the time before whatever incident blinded him. He also helped her figure out how to intentionally activate and turn off her Quirk which Kai had been having trouble with for a while.
Kai stood up and got a third chair out for the unexpected third guest and the Midoriya family sat down, Midoriya-kun looking for a place to put his crutches. All For One (ALL FOR ONE!!!) eventually took them and held them for the kid. His kid… well, at least the white hair kind of made sense. And they actually had matching freckles… damn.
“Hello, I’m Chisaki Kai, the science teacher here.”
“I’m Midoriya Inko, it’s nice to meet you, Chisaki-san.”
“You as well, Midoriya-san.”
Chisaki did his best to calmly look to All For One.
“Midoriya Hisashi.”
“Nice to meet you.”
The man nodded and Kai turned back to Izuku.
“It’s nice to see you again, Midoriya-kun. How have you been?”
“S-same, Chisaki-sensei. U-um, I’ve been not great.”
“That’s understandable. I saw you’ve been on medical leave.”
“Yeah… I got attacked by a villain but then I was saved but the hero didn’t call for medical help and then I was kind of delirious and desperate so I latched onto the hero as he tried to leave and then he left me on a rooftop and then I kind of passed out in the middle of running down the stairs to get back to ground level and then woke up in the hospital four days later. That was, what, about a month ago?”
He looked up at All For One, who was this kid’s father? Apparently?
He just nodded.
“Yeah, a month ago,” Midoriya-kun confirmed. “But I’m trying to get back to school now, if I can.”
“That’s good. Class isn’t the same without you.”
Midoriya-kun chuckled and said, “Yeah, I guess other people have to answer questions now since both Kacchan and I were gone.”
Kai nodded. He and Bakugo were the ones who participated in class the most and that was part of why the rumor mill had been going crazy.
“That’s definitely part of it. So, what can I do to help get you back in class?”
Midoriya-san - Midoriya Inko - took over and they discussed the bullying her son went through, how Kai did his best to stop it and could at least do so in his classroom and during lunch (Midoriya-kun ate lunch in his classroom), but also the kid’s hesitancy both to come back to school and change schools partway through the last year of middle school. The whole time, All For One just started at Kai as he tried to just get through this meeting.
Eventually, it seemed like Midoriya-san was convinced that Kai would do everything he could to keep Midoriya-kun safe and as happy as he could be and she said he would be back in class on Thursday.
They exchanged goodbyes and started to file out the door, but Midoriya-san stayed behind, encouraging her husband (presumably) and son to head on without her. They agreed, All For One helping Midoriya-kun up and getting him ready to go.
Once the door shut, she spoke up. “So… it’s been a while.”
Right now was an important moment to mention that Midoriya Inko was Kai’s first cousin.
“It has.”
“I didn’t realize you were teaching now.”
“Yeah. Someone convinced me to try to do good in a new way.” Her son. But he didn’t feel like that was the best detail to mention right now.
“That’s good. That’s… very good.”
Kai was trying to figure out a question to ask her, but the only one he could think of was, ‘You’re married to All For One?!’ and all of the things that went along with that.
Eventually, she spoke up and said, “I think Izuku mentioned you were on paternity leave recently?”
“Ah, yes, I adopted a young girl. Her name is Eri. She’s…” should he tell her he was still in the yakuza? For a while, he really looked up to her and they fell out because she found out what he was doing and was disappointed. Though, that was kind of hypocritical of her since her husband of sixteen years was All For One. Something hash out another time. Or never, perhaps. “She’s a good kid.”
“How old is she?”
“Four.”
“Oh, what’s her Quirk?”
“Ah, we’re still figuring that out. It seems like something to do with time, though. It also seems quite powerful.”
“That’s interesting. I wish you luck.”
“Thank you. And I wish you luck with your son.”
“Thank you. The past month has been… a lot. I’m glad Izuku has you here. He… he really looks up to you. I know you changed your family name, but not what to so I didn’t put anything together until I saw you, but he talks about you all the time. You make school okay for him.”
“I try. It’s not fair how he gets treated.”
“No, it’s not,” she agreed easily. She kept talking but her voice got tight and her eyes started to water. “Hisashi and I… we’re trying our best but we can only do so much. I didn’t even realize how bad the bullying was until he told us about it because the painkillers were making his head all fuzzy. He’s such a smart boy, but so few people look past his Quirklessness to actually see that! I didn’t want to let him come back, but he was so insistent, even though his classmates and some of the other teachers hurt him! He’s- he’s so strong but he’s just a kid! He shouldn’t have to be that strong! He was running around with his lungs full of fluid and three broken ribs when he fell down the stairs and he won’t even tell us which- which so-called hero-” she spat the word with more venom than he’d ever heard from her, “-did that to him! It’s just- he’s so-” She completely broke down sobbing after that.
Kai really wasn’t sure what to do, but he was wearing long sleeves and his usual mask and gloves, so he felt comfortable enough to stand up and open his arms in an offer of a hug. He might not be the most touchy person, but she was and her hugs always used to make him feel better. Maybe he could return the favor.
“A-are you s-sure?” she aksed, looking up at him with her giant, green, wet eyes.
He nodded and she closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around his torso and burying her face in his shoulder. He tensed up for a moment but let himself relax into it. He let her cry for a few moments before saying, “It’ll be okay.”
She sniffled and pulled back a bit, looking up at him. “You really think so?”
“Yes. He’s a strong kid and you’re a strong woman. You’ll get through this, both of you.”
“Th-thanks, Kai.” She let go and began to wipe her face. “It’s… it’s good to see you again.”
“You too, Inko-san.”
She searched his face for a moment before saying, “You should come over for game night soon. We do one every week. I think Izuku should know his cousin and we should catch up. Maybe you can bring Eri by.”
Kai thought about it. On one hand, it was odd for a teacher to go to a student’s home, on the other hand, he was related to the student and Aldera administration didn’t give a shit about anything. “Okay. I can give you my new number and we can set something up.”
“Izuku.”
“Yeeessss?” Izuku asked, drawing out the word. Dad was looking through the classroom window like the nosy bitch he was and Izuku was leaning on his crutches because there wasn’t a seat nearby.
“Are you aware you teacher is yakuza?”
“Yeah. The guys with the bird masks, right?”
“The Shie Hassaikai, yes.”
“Yup,” he popped the p. “He used to wait outside of my elementary school and use his Quirk to heal me if I was hurt and he’d say things about how I wasn’t ‘sullied by a Quirk’ and I should take pride in that and I told him to get a fucking job and actually make a difference. I walked into my first year science class and realized he followed my advice. But he’s pretty cool, so I don’t care anymore.”
“I see… I wonder why your mother wants to talk to him.”
Izuku hummed in an, “I don’t know,” pattern. He peeked in the door, which his dad moved to allow, but they were just talking. Chisaki-sensei always wore a mask and Mom wasn’t really facing the door so Izuku couldn’t read anyone’s lips. He decided that was boring so he backed off and let Dad resume his spying spot.
Soon Dad gasped and said, “She’s about to cry! He made her cry!”
“What?” Izuku asked. He couldn’t imagine what his teacher could say to make mom start crying, even if she did so easily. He peeked in again in time to see Chisaki-sensei - who was an infamous germaphobe that didn’t touch anyone, ever - offer mom a hug, one that she accepted quickly. He didn’t even push her away, she was eventually the one to let go.
Izuku and his dad were both gobsmacked. It got worse the longer the hug went on and both of their jaws were basically on the floor by the time Mom walked out, seemingly having exchanged contact information with him.
Dad recovered first, asking, “Inko, my dear, love of my life, what was that?”
“I’ll explain in the car,” she said in a tone that didn’t give room for argument.
Izuku and his dad followed as she led them out of the building and into their SUV with her at the driver’s seat.
Once they were on the road, Izuku piped up. “So… Chisaki-sensei?”
“Right, right. I had to see him to recognize him, but it turns out your teacher is my cousin Kai! We haven’t talked in a while, but we used to be really close! I invited him and his daughter to join us for game night sometime soon.”
Izuku sputtered, trying to process that. Was that why he stalked Izuku in elementary school? Because they were cousins?? What the fuck? That was at least a better reason than finding some random Quirkless kid and deciding to follow him around, but what the fuck?!
Izuku kind of zoned out from the rest of the conversation because so many things were clicking into place. So many of his decisions and actions made sense now and some of the stories about ‘Cousin Kai’ started to make more sense too. With that, Izuku also realized he had so much blackmail on him now. Not that he needed it because Chisaki-sensei was very nice and Izuku didn’t ever feel the need to convince him of anything, but it was good to know. He smirked at the thought of it and decided this was a perfectly fine revelation. It made him even more excited to go back to school on Thursday.