[ENG]Shoto Todoroki : Modern-day Terrorist

Chapter 18 - Seventy-Five

Maoki Nakoyama entered the conference room.

Her eyes swept over the four professors who were sprawled out on their chairs and talking loudly. With their scars and scruffy looks, they looked more like mercenaries than respectable adults.

"Hello everyone"

They raised their heads and greeted her politely.

She wasn't gullible enough to believe that nobody heard her open the door, but at least this time no one greeted her with a knife at the throat, asking if she was who she said she was.

HR would be happy to know they were making efforts.

"Miss Connors, if you will..."

The forty-year-old blonde turned on the video projector with the remote control. Maoki took a seat at the end of the table.

"Hello everyone and welcome to our annual evaluation meeting. Before we get started, does anyone have any questions for me ?"

Connors raised her hand.

"Yes ?"

"I just wanted to remind you that no one has heard from the little Prager since the last holidays"

Maoki starts to rummage through her pile of papers to pull out his file.

Mizuki laughed.

" 'Little' ? Letting him ride one of the center's ponies was animal cruelty"

De Rives looks at him reproachfully:

"We're talking about a missing pupil"

Still amused, Mizuki crossed his arms over his chest.

"So? Missing students happen every year. And this boy was overweight. He was here for what, eight months ?"

Maoki pulled out the 'Anton Prager' sheet from the others. She read it briefly.

"Eight and a half months, that's right"

"That's what I said. The reason he stayed at S and W for so long without losing a single ounce is because he didn't want to make the effort. You all know that we can't do anything if the students don't put in the effort. His disappearance is his own fault"

No one found anything wrong with his reasoning, but no one joined in Mizuki's mockery.

"Anton Prager's disappearance is certainly tragic", Maoki said, "but Mizuki-sensei is right. Our school and the training we offer reduce the risk of disappearance and premature death of our students by sixty percent, but if the worst should happen, it will"

Everyone nodded somberly.

"If the worst is meant to happen, it'll happen" was the unofficial credo of the Sword and Cross teachers.

After seeing even their best students disappear over the years, they had all begun to distance themselves from the children. They did not want to suffer if they did not see them again after the holidays.

Mizuki had been particularly affected by the case of a little Korean boy he had taken under his wing a few years ago.

The boy had been kidnapped for ransom, and when the money was received, the kidnappers had sent his fingers to his parents through the mail.

His mother had left the heroic scene shortly thereafter.

Everyone had a similar story about a child they had made the mistake of getting too close to.
Maoki knew how hard it was to stay away from them, especially since some of them were already traumatized and in dire need of affection and human warmth.