Contrary to Izuku Midoriya's unspoken expectations, Aizawa Shouta stayed behind to talk with Mirai Sasaki… about Izuku Midoriya. Making it very much his business, although he was never invited to discuss it.

"So…" Aizawa asks once the two are alone. "...how is he doing?" Principal seems to either be interested in eye contact with him or is actually wondering about his glasses. But clearly not enough to ask.

"Defiant?" Principal asks for confirmation. When Aizawa nods, he decides to speak more. "Why do you ask?"

In Aizawa Shouta's opinion, that much should be obvious at this point. Principal is either asking for confirmation or is playing some five-dimensional chess game around the assistant commissioner.

"Because hearing his proposal made me worry about his long-term mental health, among other things." Aizawa replies. "More than I normally do, for the record." His problem child is… well, his problem child. That entitles him to being worried about him, in Aizawa's opinion.

Also, it's mostly the other things. The proposal was sane and logical, but it didn't make it any less… wrong.

"He isn't doing very well." Principal admits. "Too much stress, too much responsibility, plus a lot of self-blaming about Hijack getting shot while on a mission that he ordered. Defiant has serious problems with the concept of 'uselessness', and him not being there to stop his friend from being shot shouts 'useless' to him. Frankly, he is quickly approaching a mental breakdown."

Aizawa blinks at the Principal a few times. That's… widely different from what was said in the past when Defiant was mentioned.

"Seriously?" He decides to call the Principal out on it. "I thought…"

"I'd like to say that we aren't, technically, using child soldiers nowadays…" Principal cuts in. "... but I'm not sure if I still have the moral right to do so after Fumikage Tokoyami battled Carnage and slaughtered Overhaul's black ops unit. While being technically underage. What exactly do you think is the result of this?"

Aizawa doesn't reply. Principal sips some tea before continuing.

"A lot of the Network members are, were or will be to a various degree broken." Principal says. "They are getting trained pretty much on the battlefield. Me, Inui and the Special Course faculty are working by the clock to alleviate that problem. To fix what was already broken when we met them. Make them not break any further while under our watch. Or make them return stronger after something does break them. Defiant is simply approaching his own breakdown, simple as that."

Brutal and unexpected. But Aizawa can't deny that there is truth to these words. Really, what a shitty time to be alive.

"We should pull him back from the frontline, then." Aizawa decides. "I'll…"

"That'll only break him further." Principal interrupts him. "He derives his entire feeling of self-worth from being useful to others. If you forbid him from fighting on the frontline, and someone dies, Defiant will shatter. Probably irreversibly." He sighs loudly. "At this point, I'm certain that Defiant breaking apart is an inevitability. Which is why I'm already playing a long-game towards making sure that he'll manage to rebuild himself stronger once that happens."

There is silence in the room. The Assistant Commissioner wonders why the subject was picked up right now. What game is Mirai Sasaki playing right now?

"Are you sure…" Aizawa eventually says. "... that you have the right to do all of that?"

"That's what schools are all about." Principal replies. His face unmoved. "We made them mandatory, because we want the teachers to help us make our children conform. To make all children in the country conform. If schools were about personal choices, we would have left all sub-university education to homeschooling or self-learning. As a result, it's my job to make as many of my students as possible into mentally-stable, productive, functional AND happy adults." He fixes his glasses. "I'm simply a perfectionist when my job is involved."

Aizawa believes that he is never going to like Mirai Sasaki. In business, he is incredibly useful. Other than that… just the wrong type of character for him.

"Self-expression and creativity are, naturally, important." Principal continues. "And we approach every case separately. UA is not interested in a mass production of identical copies, for the record." An attempt of self-defense said after some rather damning words? How odd. "So please, do not misunderstand."

"Really?" Aizawa decides to get a bit sarcastic on this. "What if Defiant decided to settle for something that you'd personally disagree with? Something that he would like to stick to, despite you not agreeing with it on principle?"

"Considering the fact that he has two girlfriends at one time, and I'm actively supporting the idea of him getting another one, I believe that I pass this test." Principal replies calmly.

Aizawa actually stares at him for a few long seconds before deciding to answer.

"What?" It's not a very intelligent answer. But that's all that he can do at the moment.

"He is in a relationship with both Alchemist and Kappa." Principal replies. "Both girls know about it and see no issues with the arrangement. I actually expect Singularity to eventually join this as well."

… Aizawa is actually taken off-guard for that. And propelled beyond his comfort zone. How to react to this? He finds it much easier to talk about crime and work than about relationships. A part of him is still surprised by the fact that he got married to someone.

"And you're really alright with this?" He ends up asking. He is honestly equal parts surprised with him being okay with it and with him not being okay with it. He doesn't exactly care what people do with each other for as long as it's not illegal.

It might be the perspective of someone that was borned a few decades too late to truly fit, but it also doesn't sound like a long-term stable arrangement. It might also be because he personally has no idea how to make a relationship work - and even one that's only between two people. His works, but… if you expand the numbers?

With how complicated and illogical humans often are, this is begging for problems. And when problems start, everything comes crashing down. Sometimes destroying your entire extended family, the childhood of your children and your career with it.

Divorce was a thing, yes. Aizawa knew about many marriages that never should have happened, and in cases like these, divorce was a blessing. But after seeing enough parents deciding that grass is greener elsewhere and then their children ending up growing into criminals or otherwise troubled individuals, Aizawa personally prefers treating relationships seriously. And as conventional as possible, preferably.

Not to mention where broken hearts sometimes spiraled to. Simply because one side wanted no attachments, while the others wanted attachments very much. If humans as a species were good at communicating things between themselves, Aizawa would be jobless.

From what Aizawa knew about Principal Sasaki, the UA considered getting around too much as a major character flaw. And supported more restrained conduct among its students and graduates alike. Which made this announcement this large of a surprise.

"It's a bit of a complicated situation." Principal says. "There are people that feel naturally inclined towards relationships like that, but their number is smaller than a lot of people assume. In this case, none of the people involved have such inclinations. I suspect that things would be much… emotionally smoother for them if we could clone Defiant. Unfortunately, Rabbit seems to have been taken already by someone else."

Wait, was that a joke? At this point, Aizawa himself has no idea how to interpret the situation.

"However they need each other to function." Principal continues. "Once again, I truly believe that situation would be less problematic for them if they supported each other without being in a relationship, however since they already are in one… making it work is the best course of action."

That even Aizawa can understand. If Defiant truly derives so much self-worth from making others happy and safe… someone close to him turning their back on him would be emotionally crushing, regardless of rational arguments accompanying the break-up.

"Alchemist needed someone who would match her intellect to at least some degree, while actually knowing about the world of the less… unique people." Principal continues. "Enough to make her genuinely interested in it, while being someone whose praise actually has value in her eyes to motivate her to push herself further. Defiant needed someone who would help him achieve his dreams of becoming a superhero, saving people and finally becoming useful to others. Kappa needed someone who would actually understand her and stay with her forever, to save her from loneliness and help her re-enter the society again. Defiant needs someone that will be his living emotional crutch, helping him patch himself up when something bad happens, while being a living example that he DID save people. So for as much as I personally disagree with the relationship, they need it to function and be happy. As a result, my personal disagreement is irrelevant when their long-term happiness is at stake."

Aizawa Shouta is almost certain that there is some sort of underlying message in all of this. Some weird type of manipulation that he isn't sure how to interpret. What is Sasaki truly playing here?

"And… Singularity?" He decides to ask.

"Who knows." Principal isn't even trying to hide that it's about Singularity, it seems.

(***)

Naruhata Branch in Tokyo seemed to have adapted to the way Metahuman Network operated rather nicely. Repulse contacted Midoriya three days after the Shizuoka Massacre (it was already a semi-official term, even if no one seemed truly sure as to who was responsible for it) to tell him that they are in the process of opening two more branches in Tokyo.

That was… incredibly fast. Sure, Izuku knew that they already had the candidates for the new branches, at least some of them. But to move over to actually opening them was… quite a fast change. Tokyo police, it seemed, realized how important it was.

There were more SAT units elsewhere. Tsunagu Hakamada seemed to have used them as a conduit for 'enlightenment' of the local police officers. Or, more like, getting local police precincts together (often through the Riot Police Units, the group that was most likely to see really weird shit firsthand) and starting to pool their friendly local metahumans together.

There were new regional branches to be opened soon enough. Izuku was increasingly terrified of this. Sure, most of the job there was going to be left to the regional heads, Izuku was neither in position nor of right mind to micromanage anything while he was focused on Overhaul, but… they were going to at least theoretically answer to him, right? That was… intimidating. He wasn't sure what to feel about it.

Hitoshi Shinsou didn't seem particularly happy about soon being responsible for what was de facto going to be the internal investigations branch of the Metahuman Network. So many things that could go wrong. So many things that would probably go wrong sooner or later.

Soon after that, Mei decided to drop by. With some news.

"The HeroNET is practically up and running!" She says with a bright smile to Izuku once they are alone in his room. Midoriya spends maybe a second or two surprised that she didn't start to immediately undress herself before his mind catches up to what she just said.

"What?!" He blinks at her a few times. "How did you do it so fast, I thought it would take months to set up!"

She beams at him. A lot of people are singing praises about her creations, and she stopped caring about it, but when Izuku does it, it's different. Because in his case, she actually cares about his opinion.

Mei Hatsume absolutely loves it when her boyfriend says words like that to her. Because he is so adorably honest that she knows that he truly means it. And what's even more important, he doesn't care about earning money or other boring things. He is saying those words because what she made can help him save lives.

And that's, honestly, incredibly attractive in her opinion.

"Well, we cut some corners here and there." She replies cheerfully. "Not in security, mind you. But we did borrow some source code from the stuff we made for the GSDF before the war. With some modern updates. To save some time."

Yes, that sounded like a very good idea. Actually having it would greatly ease the communication problems between the recently popping up Metahuman Network branches. Having the HeroNET arrive right now sounded like a blessing.

"We have both a mobile and computer version ready." Mei says. "All hosted on Hatsume Industries-owned servers. Security is, naturally, top-notch. Of course, we talk about hacking attempts, because we can't exactly do much about people noting down passwords next to their computers. Overall, it's generally speaking better secured than the e-services of most modern banks."

"So, did you…" He is about to ask (because he is absolutely giddy to test what she made), but she doesn't let him finish. Instead she pulls out a pendrive from her pocket, and looks at him with a bright, satisfied smile.

Of course she came with it. Stupid Izuku.

Ten minutes later Izuku is sitting in the chair, in front of the desk with his laptop sitting on it. Mei decided against pulling a chair on her own, and was instead standing right behind him, already logged into the HeroNET.

According to Mei, he got in rather lightly. Being the head of the entire organization and so on. He was going to be responsible for verifying the accounts of prefectural branch heads, who would in turn verify the accounts of the regional branch heads and so on. It was going to be a heavily layered system.

Verifying someone required physical access to whatever device they were going to use, and inputting your personal password and fingerprints. The latter were required only for initial verification, but Izuku still expected to have himself walk around with a USB-connected fingerprint detector for quite a while.

Checking fingerprints apparently wasn't a standard thing for most computers nowadays. How troublesome.

The HeroNET was going to involve both the superheroes/sidekicks and the generally understood support network of theirs. Plus a lot of non-hero metahumans, as the protection system of the Network was also growing.

The support network meant local police officers and so on. The whole network was also compartmentalized to a degree, with regional branches having their own chatrooms.

Or, more like, an option to open their own local chatrooms. However many they wanted, inviting whoever from the local branch they wanted to have aboard. Alongside standard private messaging.

There was also an option to open prefectural chatrooms, similarly to talk about whatever you really wanted with whoever you wanted. And another option for national-level chatrooms.

And forums. That was the option as well, similarly compartmentalized. The hierarchization of the system and requiring to be either invited or at least accepted by the administrators were rather common features throughout the HeroNET. Then again, considering the whole secrecy of informations and the fact that people could literally die if you fucked up the security, it made sense.

There was even an option for social media. Every account had a feed of its own. You could publish posts, photos and videos. But, once again, security. Nothing visible to outsiders, and you had to personally accept whoever petitioned to be able to see what you posted.

Naturally, they were very explicit warnings about not posting too much regardless. Especially when faces or other things that made them potentially possible to be located and/or identified. Izuku was certain that it wasn't Mei who wrote those, but someone in the Hatsume Industries had some good ideas.

The whole point of that segment of the HeroNET was to actually allow heroes (and known metahumans) to socialize, without having to hide who they are. Like they will have to in front of most of society. Among others of their kind, that will fully accept who they were. Without risk of someone who was against the metahumans succeeding in tracking them down.

You might have been the strongest superhero out there, but if you are consistently isolated from people… well, eventually you'll snap. And that's not good. Especially if you are the strongest superhero out there. They don't need a Plutonian in their midst.

There was also a database of known villains, and…

("Uhm, Mei?" Izuku asks at this point. "Could you, uhm…"

"Yes, Izu?" She asks, her voice coming from somewhere above his head.

"Could you lean back a bit?" He decides to go for simpler words, but… c'mon, he can do that much. He should man up a little. Actually confront the situation properly. "You're a bit… distracting."

Not quite the words that he should say, but still a truth. Feeling her… reasonably impressive breasts rest on top of his head IS rather distracting. He is, all things considered, a teenager slash young adult. Some things are unavoidable.

"Oh, alright." She says. The pressure vanishes. Izuku can focus on the job. The day is saved.

He could swear that they got bigger ever since their first meeting. Must be his imagination. Then again, as stated, he IS a teenager.)

… it's actually rather detailed. Things like names (both regular and villain, plus known aliases), pictures and villain classification are obvious. The sections for detailed analysis of their quirks, a list of prior engagements and tactics used both by the villains and their enemies (to list out what they can be reasonably expecting to be used against them again), known crimes, associates, places of operations, etc. are a bit less obvious, but…

…well, Izuku would really like to fill them all up, but it's too much work for a single person. He already has an idea on how to deal with all of that, at least temporarily. It will require some - at least temporary, maybe permanent - organizational changes.

Oh, joy.

"So, how is it?" Mei asks him. She is clearly looking forward to receiving more praise. Izuku still feels a bit weird about someone actually valuing his praise, especially to this degree. The last almost three months are really… weird.

"It's great!" He says and she beams at him. He loves seeing that smile of hers. The satisfied smile after hearing a positive review of her newest baby. Especially when it's HIS positive review. Then her smile is always the brightest. "You absolutely outdid yourself this time, you know that?"

Oh dear, it's this smile. Then again, it's not like he is currently in a hurry anywhere.

(***)

In the end, some Metahuman Network members end up being technically a part of two groups. They simply don't have enough regular members (police officers and so on are only there to have an access to the list of available heroes in their general area and the database of active villains) to fully reorient someone to a desk job.

Eventually - Izuku hopes - they will be able to simply hire appropriate non-metahumans to work for the generalized Network. Secretaries, advisory councils, PR department, actually paid interns and so on.

Then again, if the Reveal Day ends up with what's left of the Government deciding that the Network should be made as official as possible, there is a large chance that there would be having proper governmental agencies to do at least some of those things. Izuku himself isn't sure if he's looking forward to this.

The generally understood leadership of the Metahuman Network is soon composed of Defiant, who is its leader, with Repulse agreeing to be his official deputy. Izuku at this point trusts Koichi Haimawari enough for that, and he begins to realize that there is only so much that he can do on his own.

Repulse might lack a warper, but he is in Tokyo. Shinkansen still takes you to most parts of the country, and tends to arrive on time. Haimawari is also a bit more streetwise than Izuku is, making him capable of reaching most places on foot if needed.

They are supported by three more people. Namely, Hijack, Alchemist and Arsenal. The first one is tasked with overseeing the Underground Heroes' rehabilitation program, inspecting regional branches and generally being the closest thing they have to a counterintelligence unit. Alchemist is in for support (equipment, mostly).

Arsenal joined because they needed someone to oversee the villain database. She is driven, her Japanese is extremely good (making the database look and feel professional), and she is very good at compiling data. Her ability to fit absolutely everything into her timetable is nothing short of inspirational.

She somehow manages to attend UA university, train her hero skills, discuss quirks with Izuku and Mei's Circle of Big Brains (Shinsou being an ass as always) and doing that. How? Nobody knows. It's a mystery.

("You know, it's all fine and dandy right now." Hijack says. Izuku braces himself for something incredibly tiring. "However, I'm almost certain that after the Reveal Day the government will eventually replace this council with some governmental agency. And then promptly fuck everything up."

Izuku would have screeched at him for cursing in front of Momo, but let's not baby her THAT much.

"How exactly?" He instead asks Hijack.

"Fill it with suits, give them the enough power to change into a superpower in its own right, allow them to use some heroes for assassination of potentially troublesome opponents, start goddamn grooming new heroes into their lackeys, give it some stupid-ass name like 'Hero Public Safety Commission' or something…you know, the usual." Hitoshi replies, his eyes still locked onto his favorite mug. It's filled with coffee right now.

Himiko decorated it with cutesy stickers a few days ago. Hijack doesn't seem to mind.

Izuku decides that someone watched some films and read some books about governmental involvement in superhero affairs, it seems. Good. It's the closest thing they have to theoretical preparations for the job in front of them.

"Don't you think…" Izuku decides to ask regardless. "... that you're overreacting a bit?")

(***)

HeroNET quickly turns out to be a major boon to the generally understood governance of the Metahuman Network. Izuku was, once again, reminded that if he didn't meet Mei (or, to be exact, if she didn't find him on the internet and correctly identified him as a fellow metahuman with superheroic aspirations but in need of equipment), he would be… well, he would never get so far.

She made it all possible. For that alone he was madly in love with her. The feeling seemed to be mutual. He made her achieving her dreams possible as well.

Overhaul seemed to have been laying low after the Shizuoka Massacre. The string of successful operations of the local police, Special Operations Unit and the Metahuman Network's sidekicks continued. Alongside sidekicks (and sometimes superheroes) assisting the rescue services as well.

Although Aizawa decided to avoid pushing too quickly. Overhaul was probably planning something, but no one on the police side had any idea what that could be. He was certainly trying to push into Shizuoka, although the state of emergency and the GSDF assisting the local police made it much harder.

Still, it was outside of their current range of operations. And for now, the heroes had no noticeable presence in Shizuoka Prefecture. Even if they were metahumans in the province, they most likely lied low. Especially if they suspected that the Massacre was caused by people like them.

In short, things got surprisingly quiet. Network focused on training, and some territorial expansion elsewhere. With new prefectural branches being mostly left to focus on their own problems.

Izuku himself was secretly surprised with how many people decided to help. It was… honestly, rather shocking.

When asked, Principal Sasaki replied that when a crisis lasts for too long, many people grow tired of it. Normally, they would simply lay low, not wanting to put themselves at risk and focusing on surviving. But when there seems to be no end to the troubles in sight, and someone offers them an option to make the situation a bit better, they go for it.

Izuku is still terrified of the growing number of people looking up to him now.

(***)

"Ribbit." Tsuyu decides to turn his attention to him. They were watching a cartoon together, while cuddling on the couch. The cartoon seemed to have been occupying most of her attention (Izuku himself was recharging his batteries before having to visit another newly established regional branch for Standard Introductory Presentation), until now.

"Yes?" He asks back. They are lying on the couch on their right sides, with some pillows under their heads and with Izuku behind her. She is wearing her onesie (a surprising thing, really). He has his left arm thrown over her side, about where her belly is. It's less about anything pervy, and more about the snacks being there.

"Mei calls you Izu, ribbit." She says, She twists her position a bit, enough for their eyes to meet.

"She does, yes." Izuku acknowledges. "What happened?"

"Can I give you a nickname too?" She asks. Izuku is a bit surprised, but… well, not a problem to him, right?

"Sure." He says. "What do you want it to be?"

"Zuzu." She says after a second. She must have come up with it earlier. Well, it doesn't sound THAT bad, right? He feared worse.

"Why that name?" He decides to ask.

"It feels warm, ribbit." She replies. It makes sense, although in a surprisingly Tsuyu way.

"Alright then." He replies. "But I'm calling you Tsu from now on."

"Ribbit." She says. It's an enthusiastic ribbit. It's an adorable reaction to him simply shortening her name and making it an official nickname. Especially as he already referred to her that way a few times.

Izuku decides to watch at least one more episode with her. They might have watched five already, but in all honesty, Izuku lowkey wants to ignore that there is something outside the room. It's really not important to him right now.

(***)

Expect a moment or two of cooldown. Then things are going to start happening again. And this time, yeah, this time it's going to be a big one.

Also due to the backlog of chapters growing significantly smaller, I'm thinking of returning this fic to weekly releases. You can consider it to be almost confirmed at this point.