"So, what do you think of class 1A?" Midnight twirled in her chair next to Quanxi's desk as she approached.
"I'm not sure yet. There are a few who stand out but they are all in that class for a reason." Quanxi responded, placing her folio on her desk before slumping down into her chair.
"No opinions whatsoever?" Midnight stopped twirling, turning her attention to Quanxi fully.
"You teach them, don't you?"
"I teach them politics. Most of them are half asleep in my class, if they're listening at all. They aren't exactly talkative in my class." She pouted, Quanxi held up her hands in playful defeat.
"Ask Aizawa if you're curious, he's seen class 1A in action more than I. Besides, I wasn't at the entrance exam." She said, dodging the question.
"No, I would also like to know your opinion of 1A." A deep, baritone voice rumbled behind her, a shadow cast over her desk from the over head lights. Midnight's eyes smugly sparkled at the support, leaning in closer to Quanxi.
"I can't imagine I saw anything you haven't already. I'm used to teaching villain hunters, not idealistic hero students." She said as he sat down in the chair the other side of her. Even though she couldn't see him, she could feel his stare on her as she sat frozen on thought. She had made some assumptions about 1A already but she learned early in life that assumptions were rarely precise. She sighed audibly, surrendering to the prodding of her colleagues.

"Very well then, I am very interested in Katsuki Bakugo, as well as Midoriya Izuku. There is real dangerous power behind both of them, that could shift the entire course of their lives. I'm personally interested in working with Fumikage Tokoyami. The girls in the class are going to be powerhouses too. Momo Yaoyorozu is going to be one of the best strategic minds in the coming years. Shoto Todoroki has potential to follow his father to the top ranks, of course, but many of them do, including Tenya Ida and Eijirou Kirishima." She mused, at first just to placate her two companions but then it morphed into thinking out loud about what she had seen in class earlier and in Aizawa's own physical assessment the day before.
"Obvious hard hitters aside, I think Ochako Uraraka has potential and Tsuyu Asui. Toru Hagakure is going to be a very valuable intelligence asset, as is Kyoka Jiro."
"What about Kaminari?" Aizawa rumbled.

"The jury is still out with him. I'm doing combat assessments tomorrow at the gym, so ask me tomorrow afternoon, when I get to go toe to toe with each of them." That certainly caught Aizawa's attention. Until now, he had been just trying to get her to talk to Midnight but her comments had now caught his interest. He turned from his desk, where he had been very keen on a nap, to face Quanxi.
"You're doing what?"
"A combat assessment? Similar to the one you did?" Quanxi looked at him, confused at his question and the look in his eye that she couldn't pinpoint. He didn't clarify his question, clearly waiting for her to explain herself.
"Wait, are you going to do individual assessments?" Midnight is the one to ask the question, her disbelief obvious in her voice.
"How else am I going to get individual information?" Quanxi was genuinely confused by her new friends expression, somewhere between admiration and sympathy. She had thought long and hard about how to find out where each of the students were on the learning scale, so that she could effectively teach them and the files on their abilities were at least a month old already, providing little to no help in the planning process. Teens changed very fast these days. Even comparing some of the results from Aizawa's assessment and the Entrance Exam results, the clear difference between then and now could clearly be seen.

'They are learning faster than I thought.'

Even with their accelerated learning taken into account, Quanxi couldn't be sure that the plan she made two days ago was still going to be effective tomorrow. Planning was starting to seem quite useless to her.
"Eraser just did an assessment, you can't use that information?" Quanxi turned back to Midnight.
"Not really. Sure, it's a good backbone for me to build off, by exemplifying strengths and weaknesses but I need much more nuanced information than that, and I can really only get that by putting them up against my own skill set."
"So, you're going to fight them? Each and every one?" Midnight said in disbelief.
"It's not going to be much of a 'fight' as it is going to be an ass-whopping for these kids. I've heard someone say that if the entirety of humanity came together and held a bare-knuckle fighting tournament, you would come first place." Aizawa interjected, before Quanxi got a chance to answer. His confidence in her abilities is at least comforting, knowing she met the bare minimum and could easily best a teenager.
"It's called a sparring match, I'm sure you've been in a few." Quanxi responded sarcastically. "I'm a combat teacher. How else am I going to teach?" She held Aizawa's gaze in challenge but the hero said nothing. Quanxi wasn't sure if the look in his eyes was disapproval or curiosity or something else entirely. The bell for lunch interrupted the tense moment between the two, saving Midnight from a very uncomfortable moment.

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Quanxi glanced at her schedule for the rest of the day. Another check in with the headmaster and then her General Studies class. Vetting their teachers was clearly a big part of that school and as much as Quanxi would love to play hookey and not go to that meeting to work on her lesson plans but she would rather not know what Nezu would do to humans that disobeyed his orders. Cute, but probably lethal, given the chance. How the commission bribed him into running one of their best schools would always be one of the great mysteries of the hero era. When the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch break, Quanxi was already at her desk, writing down her own observations from her earlier encounter with 1A. Each student had an encrypted folder for her to track their progress, make plans and express concerns without others having access. Secrecy was a thing that Quanxi was very good at and she learned early in her time as a villain hunter that the Hero Comission didn't always use the information funneled to them for safety purposes, as they publicly stated. Aizawa lumbered in, dragging his feet the final 50 meters of the staff room. As he slumped into his own chair next to Quanxi, she noticed the deeper circles around his eyes and the wheels of his brain turning behind the vacant expression on his face. She knew that look. It's one her girlfriends has described to her, one she would wear every night as a villain hunter. Calculating potential risk, assessing threats, constant vigilance. It was not a look Quanxi was expecting to see in the eyes of one of the teachers at one of the most secure locations in the country.

"Are you alright?" Aizawa didn't need to say anything for Quanxi to read his body language. The man was tired. Present Mic may have said that he took naps during every lunch period but the bags under his eyes and the way he slouched into his chair next to her told a different story. He was burning the candle at both ends. She'd seen and felt that type of exhaustion before and as other teachers started to file in, complaining about their new workload, Quanxi takes a deep breath to talk to her colleague, sitting idly in the chair next to her.

"Aizawa, would you mind if I asked your opinion?"
He quirked an eyebrow but turned his chair in her direction, giving her his full attention. She handed him her tablet, with her tentative teaching plan laid out. She watched the reflection of her work in his eyes as he scanned her documents, flipping though each page. His expression was blank, hiding any visible judgement. Quanxi watched him carefully, trying to glean anything from his body language.
"Why do you want my opinion?" His question took her by surprise as she retrieved her tablet from him. Her pause let him elaborate.
"You're more capable than most of the teachers I've seen float through here. That you whipped out numerous possible plans for the next 4 months, with detailed goals in under 3 days is a testament to that." Aizawa stated, not as an opinion but as a solid fact.
"Leave yourself room to change it up though. These kids are probably going to give both of us a run for our money." He grumbled, sighing. "Don't forget that they are first years, too. You're going to follow this class up the years, so you'll have plenty of time to build upon what you teach them now." Quanxi said nothing, pushing her hair behind her ears in thought.
'I could break things up a little more, let them explore some of their own ideas...'

She returns to her tablet, the wheels in her head turning.
"What is the assessment you have planned for tomorrow?" His voice was suddenly much closer, sending a shiver down her neck. His voice was low and velvety and clear through the hubbub of the staff room. His interest took her by surprise.
'I really have to stop being surprised by his questions. He is as invested in my teaching as I am in his.'
"I'm not sure yet, to be honest. Every thing I usually use isn't meant for such a large group." She sighed, turning her mind back to the current problem. Aizawa said nothing, but didn't turn away either. He was waiting for her to continue.
"Any ideas would be welcome, Aizawa." She quipped, feeling the intensity of his gaze and bristling against it. She hadn't been observed this closely since her time as a villain hunter and even then it hadn't lasted long, as she proved to her superiors she was more than capable of making decisions without input.
"You don't need my opinion, Quanxi. Nezu hired you for your specific skill set." He retorted, turning back to his own computer. Quanxi would have spay something back, if she hadn't caught the corners of his mouth turning up into a small grin. He was joking.
'Reading his humor may be more of a learning curve than I initially thought.'
Quanxi turned back to her own work as well, hopeful that this year may not actually be so bad.