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Toshinori looks through the one-way mirror at the surly teenager he’s been called to retrieve, and he can immediately tell that Midoriya doesn’t regret his actions one bit.
There’s still faint splotches of blood smeared on his face, ineffectively wiped off by Midoriya’s short-sleeved shirt and the stained hand-towel on the metal table in front of him. He’s glaring at the wall on the other side of the room, pointedly showing his profile to the mirror, and his hands are clenched in fists on his lap.
Midoriya is quick to anger, Toshinori knows this. Everyone else thinks otherwise, but he has no clue how. Midoriya might have been timid when he was young, but Toshinori has seen his successor’s eyes harden into sharp edges and bright fury too often to think otherwise.
Combine that with how impulsive Midoriya also is, and you have a perfect recipe for a boy who might decide the only course of action he has is to bite a villain.
“Explain to me again how he even got close enough to…” Toshinori hunches his shoulders, and mimes a clacking jaw with his knuckles curled towards his palms.
Tsukauchi, who looks extremely tired, sighs heavily and pulls up his notes again. “The villain was threatening a family, trying to get them to a second location while holding their kid hostage. We have no clue how Midoriya even noticed the situation, but he used Black Whip to pull the kid into his arms, then used his momentum to collide with the villain. The villain had a gun, and Midoriya’s arms were full,” Tsukauchi closes his notes and looks up at Toshinori. “You know what happened next.”
Toshinori is already massaging the bridge of his nose. “He’s got a sense for trouble,” he says.
“So he’s like you,” Tsukauchi says. It doesn’t sound like a compliment.
“Any reason he’s still in the interrogation room?” Toshinori asks.
“This station is small,” Tsukauchi says. “It was either this or the holding cell with the villain, who is very upset about needing surgery for his hand.” He raises an eyebrow, “Your boy is lucky that he probably won’t press charges for excessive force.”
Toshinori sighs.
“Thanks,” he says, moving towards the door. “I’ll talk to him.”
Tsukauchi gives him a nod, then turns and leaves the small space outside of the interrogation room. Toshinori gives one last look through the window, taking in the frustrated scrunch of Midoriya’s thick brows and the restless way his heels bounce against the legs of his chair.
He opens the door.
Midoriya’s eyes snap to him immediately, and then all of that knotted, balled up anger comes untangled. First, there’s surprise in its place, and then, quickly, red-cheeked embarrassment moves in.
“Ah, All Might,” Midoriya gives a half-hearted wave, “I didn’t know… you’d be the one called.”
“Last time you got involved with a villain, I got Tsukauchi to put me as your first contact for any trouble you get into,” Toshinori says. He grabs the back of the chair across the table, pulls it out, and sits down across from Midoriya. “Cause I knew you’d get into more.”
Midoriya’s eyes are rounded and wide as he watches Toshinori sit. “All Might?”
“I want you to walk me through what happened today,” Toshinori says. “And we’re gonna pick it apart and figure out a better solution than biting a man’s hand.”
Midoriya’s cheeks go even redder.
“I needed him to drop the gun.”
“You bit through the bone, my boy,” Toshinori says. “He needs surgery.”
Midoriya gives him a wavering, unsure smile. “Guess we know that even my teeth have gotten stronger now, hah ha… hah…”
He wilts under Toshinori’s flat stare.
“Walk me through it,” Toshinori says, crossing his arms and leaning back, letting Midoriya know he’s ready to get comfortable and stay as long as they need to get through this conversation.
“We were crossing the street,” Midoriya begins.
“Who is ‘we’?”
“Uhm, me, Uraraka, Ashido, Todoroki.”
“So, three very strong potential allies,” Toshinori points out deliberately.
Midoriya shrinks. “Ah.”
Toshinori doesn’t give him time to wallow. He rotates his hand in a ‘continue’ gesture. “C’mon, keep going.”
Midoriya shakes himself, and gets back on track. “Alright, so uh, we were crossing the street, and then Danger Sense went off, and I saw the villain and the family on the opposite corner, heading towards an alley.”
He pauses, and so Toshinori fills in the gap, “So you rushed in without thinking, I’m guessing?”
A gulp, as Midoriya swallows thickly. “Yeah.”
Toshinori sighs.
And Midoriya finally bursts.
“The little boy was trying to be quiet but the villain was hurting him,” he says vehemently, smacking his hands flat on the table. “He must have had some kind of glue or sticking quirk because it was hard to pull the boy away and I had to put a lot of focus into Black Whip to do that and grab the parents to pull them to safety too and by the time I was over there I–”
“You bit him,” Toshinori finishes.
“And I’d do it again,” Midoriya says without shame, eyes flaring.
“But to make sure you don’t, what else could you have done?”
“I,” Midoriya falters. “I don’t know, maybe uh,” he pulls back, and begins to pinch his lip in a familiar habitual motion that Toshinori knows means he’s finally thinking more strategically about what happened, rather than focusing on the emotions that had led him in the moment. It’s a welcome sight, Toshinori will admit. “First thing would probably be to tell Uraraka, Ashido, and Todoroki about what I saw. Then, hm, we probably should have tailed the villain a little bit, and then intervened either when there weren’t many civilians around to possibly get hurt, or if the villain started to escalate the situation.”
“Good,” Toshinori says with an approving nod.
“Todoroki could have immobilized the villain quickly, his ice is good for that,” Midoriya continues, sinking into the analysis. “Uraraka could have gotten the parents to safety while I handled the boy and Ashido destroyed the gun with her acid.”
“That’s a very sound strategy. But what did you actually do?” Toshinori asks, to make his point.
Midoriya pouts as he answers, “I bit him.”
“Like an animal,” Toshinori adds, amused at the way Midoriya huffs. He stands up, and reaches over to ruffle Midoriya’s already messy hair. “It took me a long time to realize that letting other heroes help me out would have solved a lot of situations in better ways.”
Midoriya looks up at him, eyes wide and green, and Toshinori can still see the blood around his mouth from the wild way he had fought earlier.
“Don’t make that same mistake, my boy,” he says, hoping this lesson will sink in. “And for goodness sake, don’t bite someone ever again.”