"Principal, what are you doing?"

Nezu was shaken out of his stupor when he heard Yamada's voice. He looked up, noticing that the blonde had poked his head into the Teacher's lounge, "You've been sitting on that couch for like... since Shouta left to teach 1-A. You okay?"

"I am alright." Nezu puffed his cheek out as he flicked his tail nervously, desperately using his paw to cover his screen even though there was no way the Voice Hero could even see his screen from his vantage point, "I'm good."

"Well, if you say so." Yamada shrugged, before he grinned and winked, "If you ever want some advice on how to spend more quality time with your kid, just hit me up, okie?"

"I will keep that in mind. I believe you have a lesson to go to." Nezu shuddered slightly, and the blonde hero let out a small laugh, before exiting the Teacher's lounge.

Hearing Yamada's fading footsteps, and making sure that the Voice Hero was nowhere near the lounge, Nezu unlocked his phone screen again, and stared at the list of Wikihow articles that were on his screen.

"How to Be a Good Father"

"How to Be a Good Parent"

"How to Parent Effectively"

Nezu let out a small sigh, and clicked on the first weblink, opening the webpage. He felt like this was some kind of sick joke; he was one the smartest beings on the planet, and he couldn't figure out how to be a good fatherly figure to the boy he had taken into his care. Nezu was trying his best, but while he knew how to be a good mentor, although he did have some issues when it came to emotional affairs, he didn't know how to be a good parent.

With so many things going on, it was an understatement that Nezu had his paws full; all the administration work regarding the villain attacks, the internships, just a lot of work that the animal principal just wished he didn't have to do. Despite being Midoriya's legal guardian, they had both been so busy that neither of them had much time to relax.

And with a war brewing... Nezu just wanted to spend one day, without any burdens; just him and Midoriya, maybe Reiko and Ryuto too, if the boy decided to bring them along. Nezu knew that he couldn't take the place of Midoriya's parents, but he also felt that the boy seemed to be okay accepting him as a parental figure. They could go to the park, or a coffee shop, and just hang out, like any other family out there.

Well, he wasn't going to get anywhere if he didn't try; might as well start reading that article and figure it out on the way, and hope he doesn't mess up.

And maybe run his thoughts through Yamada before he did anything.

Midoriya let out a growl as he shot forward, jabbing his knife at Shinsou's throat, but the taller boy was able to use his own blade to deflect the oncoming attack.

He twisted his knife, trying to dislodge his weapon from Midoriya's grasp, but the boy was able to jump, creating some space between the two students on the rocky arena. The greenette looked at his blade, and let out a small sigh, his shoulders drooping as he continued examining the knife in disappointment.

"I know, fake knives are nothing like the real thing." Shinsou nodded, waving the blade around and watching as the plastic or rubbery knife wiggled, "But I don't think the teachers want to risk us getting hurt."

"I get that." Midoriya agreed, "But... is it even considered practice if we're not using real knives?"

"You do have a point." Shinsou muttered, "Maybe we can train on non-weapon combat?"

Midoriya thought about it for a second, before he nodded. He tossed the fake, flimsy knife to the side, and Shinsou followed suit, before the taller boy pulled out his capture weapon. He instantly threw the cloth at Midoriya, but the boy was easily able to evade, and started climbing up one of the large rocks that littered the area.

Narrowing his eyes, Shinsou chased after Midoriya, but the green haired boy just leapt down onto the ground, and ducked behind more rocky structures, making sure that he was out of Shinsou's line of sight, before he started looping around, trying to sneak up behind the taller boy without him noticing.

Shinsou continued climbing upwards, hoping that his higher vantage point would allow him to figure out Midoriya's location, but he just couldn't find Midoriya anywhere. The lavender haired boy hopped down to another rock, noticing that Midoriya was currently scaling another structure, and immediately threw his capture weapon at him.

Midoriya immediately reacted, releasing his hold on the rocky structure, and grabbing the capture weapon. He gave it a firm, solid tug, yanking Shinsou off balance.

Before either of them could react, Aizawa's voice rang out, "That's enough. Class is dismissed."

The greenette looked up, confused, while Shinsou face planted onto the floor in surprise.

"Shinsou, don't just aim your capture weapon at your opponents and trip them up." Aizawa commented, walking in and pulling the purple haired boy to his feet, before turning to Midoriya, "Good job using the rocky terrain to your advantage. You both know each other's movements very well, that's why you should try to make more use of your surroundings. That would give you more options."

"Understood." Shinsou grinned tiredly, rubbing his sore cheek, and Aizawa finished, "Go see Recovery Girl about that. Also, Midoriya, I believe the principal would like to talk to you later."

The small greenette nodded. He wondered what the principal wanted to talk about, since he already had plans with Sasaki and Togata to work on One for All, and see if they could make any of the other quirks manifest early, so Togata would at least know the basics on how to control them if they ended up in a fight; they didn't want Togata to be tripped up in the middle of a battle by a new quirk.

"Hello, Izuku!" Nezu grinned cheerfully at Midoriya, as he pushed stacks of paperwork to the side in a failed attempt to clear his table, "I wanted to talk to you about something real quick before you head off to your appointment with Togata and Nighteye!"

Midoriya nodded, and Nezu continued, "So... er... are you free this weekend? Or do you have other things planned with your friends?"

The green haired boy blinked in confusion, and Nezu elaborated, flicking his tail around nervously, "I mean... this year has been full of stressful events... so now that all the examinations are over, I was thinking that maybe we could spend some time together? And you are technically, legally under my care... so..."

Nezu scratched his head, desperately racking his brain to figure out just how to get his point across. He thought he had figured it all out... but apparently he hadn't had such luck. Maybe he really should have gone to Yamada before he talked to Midoriya; this was getting increasingly awkward.

The green haired boy could clearly tell what the principal was trying to do; Nezu was trying to act like a proper parental figure, even if he had absolutely no idea how to do so. Despite knowing that he couldn't fully replace Midoriya's parents, the animal principal was still doing his best to fill the void in his heart, and at the very least, Midoriya could really appreciate that.

Even though he felt that his actions could be perceived as rude, Midoriya interrupted the principal, "We can go to a park over the weekend."

Almost immediately, Midoriya could see the relief on Nezu's face, and the principal grinned sheepishly, "Alright then! You can bring Reiko and Ryuto along if you like! Er... that's... kind of what I wanted to talk to you about... And I believe you have something planned with your upperclassmen."

Midoriya nodded again, and he reached for the doorknob, before he turned around, facing Nezu again, before he spoke up, "Thank you."

Nezu smiled back at the boy, as he watched Midoriya leave his office.

As soon as the green haired boy left, Nezu let out a sigh of relief; that had gone much better than he thought. The principal turned back to his computer, and cracked his knuckles. Now, all he had to do was take leave, and finish up all his work, and some more, so that the Hero Commission would have no reason to make him do more paperwork.

With how things were going so far, he didn't know if he would ever have the opportunity to take time off and relax with his adopted kid, so he was going to make the best of it.

Midoriya let out a small sigh as he walked into the 1-A common room. Togata had improved immensely in using Blackwhip, but despite their best efforts, they still weren't able to make any of the other quirks manifest.

He found Shinsou reading some newspapers while he lay in the bean bag, Shirou nestled soundly on his chest, both of them completely ignoring some of the other students having a heated argument as they watched the news.

"Well, the number of crimes has been increasing lately." Uraraka commented, "Do you think the teachers would allow us to go out to apprehend them? I mean... we do have our provisional licenses."

"While the number of villains running around has increased ever since All Might-sensei retired and my father became the Number One hero, the severity of these crimes has decreased. These villains seem more like trouble makers, not people who actually want to kill or hurt others." Todoroki nodded.

"Who knows? It might be a ruse to make the Hero Commission force us on "internships" again. And we all know how well that panned out." Jiro huffed, looking up from her phone, "I honestly do not want to go on more internships until we have a better idea of what's going on. Like... I really want to know where the League is; I'd rather hear that they be destroying something. I don't like this lack of information."

"I agree." Yaoyorozu nodded, "And given how Aizawa-sensei talked about them... He probably knows more, but he isn't allowed to talk about it... but there's definitely something wrong. It's uncharacteristic for the League to be so quiet."

"But that's why we need more practice! Who cares how strong you are, if you're unable to react in the event of a real villain attack!" Kirishima countered, "There's only so much training we can do! We need the experience if we want to be better heroes!"

"Well, we'll be useless as heroes if we're dead!" Mineta shrieked, "And if you ask me, so far, I've had enough of villain attacks! I don't want to intentionally get into one!"

"Please... stop arguing..." Stammering, Koda waved his arms around rapidly, but no one was paying any attention to him. Yuwai sat by his foot, gently nudging him in encouragement, before Uraraka let out a small huff, "Well, you have a point there... but these are like... minor villains! They're nothing like Shigaraki or Overhaul!"

"What the fuck are you shitheads arguing about?! I can't fucking cook if you guys are shitting yourself like a bunch of lousy toddlers!" Bakugou stomped out of the kitchen in frustration, the pink apron and mixing bowl in his hands contrasting his angry demeanor sharply, "If you fuckers want to kick ass so badly, go fight each other, you bloody turds! Or go fight the teachers! Or even that pink Support Course kid's shitty inventions that always blow the fuck up!"

Uraraka turned around, blinking at Bakugou like a owl, before her face lit up, "That's a great idea! I sure hope Aizawa-sensei would let us spar! We could even try out new group strategies that don't require the use of our quirks!"

Bakugou rolled his eyes, letting out an exaggerated sigh, before he went back to the kitchen, as Uraraka started talking about who to spar with the next day.

Midoriya settled down next to Shinsou, and asked softly "What was that about?"

The lavender haired boy took his eyes off his newspaper, and nodded at their friends, "Some news about villain attacks; the usual. But they can all feel it, and they're agitated. Some just deal with it in a different way than others."

The greenette nodded, "I've heard a couple reports... some heroes are acting weird lately. Like, they're saving people and stuff, but it seems like they're putting on a show more than anything else. It's odd."

"I've read some articles about that too... but I just felt that the news has been putting more pressure on heroes ever since All Might-sensei retired." Shinsou replied, "It could just be stress from all the attention."

"True." Midoriya let out a soft sigh, "It just seems too... coincidental. Like they're working with a different motive, for people other than the Hero Commission."

"You mean, they're working for the League?" Shinsou frowned slightly, "I don't think so. Hiding is one thing... but I don't think Shigaraki is capable of something like this, and All for One's in jail."

"Well... the Eight Precepts of Death did work with the League before..." Midoriya let out a small shrug, and Shinsou paused, "You're right... they could just be working with another organization that's already had these "fake" heroes planted within our society for years..."

Midoriya and Shinsou just shared a worried look with each other, before they turned back to their classmates, who were still chatting earnestly, the amnesty from their previous argument seeming to have already faded away.

At least, for the time being, everyone was safe.