Pantomath

Chapter 32:

       "You said you're name was Kobayashi, yeah?"

       "Uh, yeah, it's Kobayashi Izumi, I'm sorry... I'm not the best with names." Izumi laughed nervously scratching the back of his head. (At the front of the room red eyes narrowed in a way that, if noticed, would send most of class 1-A running, Izumi noticed although he didn't so much flinch, they knew he wouldn't play along with Nezu's games. This would be temporary one way or another).

      "You don't happen to know a Hideki, do you? Oh, and it's Yaoyorozu." Izumi nodded struggling to keep the dark satisfaction from his face as he always did. He was a fool if he thought the greenette was going down without a fight or hadn't suspected this betrayal. In other words; he was a fool. Nezu hadn't seen it coming and still didn't suspect a thing. And it felt good.  UA wouldn't know what hit them at the end of the year- he hadn't wanted to do this, but he had set up a final trick should they force him.

He had made it clear he wasn't on the hero's side and had made his peace in what he did and then quickly grew to enjoy it more than anything.

       "No, sorry, we haven't met. It's a fairly common last name though."

       "Oh. That's a shame; he was in this class earlier this year but then he just disappeared during the Sports Festival..."

      "Oh no! And the teachers don't know anything?" At the shake of her head his green eyes widened further, "That's horrible."

       Yaoyorozu Momo nodded in agreement, "There's even rumors going on that he was a spy for the League seeing as he fled right before several were revealed!"

He looked properly horrified at that, leaning forward in interest, "Well, what do you think? You knew him, right?"

"I think... I think he didn't have the heart for that. Or at least the motivation. I think becoming a hero just wasn't for him."

Izumi nodded along, "I suppose pressure gets to everyone."

"What was your quirk again?"

His responding smile earned him a weird look, it was smug and nostalgic and wistful and amused, all wrapped in one with parts she couldn't quite figure out, "Pantomath. It's an information quirk."

"That's seems useful... it's rare for purely internal quirks to make it into the hero course."

"I know, even harder at this time of year honestly, but I suppose you saw the news about what brought me here."

       He smiled talking easily with Yaoyorozu and Hagakure, who had joined them, as he walked with her towards the cafeteria.

     It had been heavily censored but he still got somethings  out about UA forcing a poor, defenseless student into their hero course. Their PR group would be very busy with the damage control he had left for them for a long while, especially with the backlash done from USJ and a later incident when several reporters snuck in and harassed a few students. (Whoops, how was he supposed to know they planned to do that, he'd only casually mentioned it while they were interviewing him- sure it was odd how much he got paid for one thirty minute group interview, but what were they going to do; he knew some people who owed him one and could easily make it headlines what a UA student was doing).

There had been quite a few close calls that he had had to navigate out of, but overall his plan was running as smoothly as could be expected. The class sizes had dropped suddenly due to the accusations going around and many began looking towards other ways to accomplish their specific goals- and if certain positions opened suddenly or he let slip to other students about different jobs; that was hardly his fault, he muttered and talked to himself sometimes.