There had been a lot of things about Midoriya that hadn't made sense to Mezo when they first met.
There were the more outlandish things that would boggle anyone surely enough, like how much money he made, the fact Midoriya was his mother's boss despite being the same age as himself, or how the South Side all gave him a lot of respect.
But personally, the thing about Midoriya that baffled him the most was how anxious the boy used to be of other people.
Mezo could brush off the timidness when it came to himself, his mother or any of the others in the South Side, their quirks made most of them intimidating if they weren't criminals in their own right.
However, if anything the longer Mezo knew the boy the clearer it became that Midoriya was more comfortable with them than everyone else, and for the longest time Mezo just couldn't understand why.
As someone whose quirk commonly made them look 'scary' Mezo understood that Midoriya likely had some troubles for not having a quirk in the first place and that might make someone wary of people, but not to the extent of how terrified Midoriya used to be of anyone that wasn't his students.
Midoriya looked like a 'normal' person after all, and most wouldn't know about his lack of a quirk unless he said something about it.
But as he now stood in the midst of a crowd of heroes, many of whom whispering things he couldn't believe a professional hero would ever say about a child, much less his friend, Mezo felt that he was slowly coming to understand why Midoriya was so afraid of others.
If this was how the people who were sworn to protect people were talking about him, then just how bad did regular people treat Midoriya?
Had living in the South Side really blinded him that much to how badly two-toes were treated outside of it?
Looking around however Mezo saw that Uki, Awase, Sadi-San and Tokoyami-San were equally taken aback by the reaction of the crowd as he was.
Bakugou, although clearly angry, was far more... composed and Mezo supposed he would be since he'd known Midoriya the longest out of all of them, and was probably the most aware of the depth of discrimination against those without quirks.
Mezo couldn't help feeling disappointed with himself for not being aware of it, aside from Bakugou he'd known Midoriya the longest and had seen in person how skittish the boy was years ago.
Even for a thirteen-year-old Midoriya was so small, hunching in on himself if he wasn't lost to his mumbling and there were days Mezo would've sworn that Midoriya would apologize for breathing.
Even if Midoriya made excuses about it being his anxiety and that he wasn't used to having friends, Mezo should have realized that Midoriya's fear of others didn't just come from nowhere.
Turning to look down towards his friend Mezo couldn't help a growing pit of worry building in his stomach.
As confident as Midoriya had grown concern wormed through Mezo, he wasn't the focus of all the discourse going on around them and it made him uneasy, he couldn't imagine how it could be affecting Midoriya right now.
But as he glanced down to the center of the field where the stage was, he saw Midoriya's eyes were locked onto their box with a small smile and looking for all the world as calm as could be, not even a hint of acknowledgement towards the crowd around them.
Why was he so calm?
"Cause all those extras shitty-ness doesn't mean dick all to him Eldritch fucker." Bakugou suddenly said surprising Mezo and he turned to the boy shocked.
Had he really said that out loud?
"What do you-" he tried to ask but Bakugou tsked rolling his eyes.
"Izuku used to be a doormat but thanks to you idiots he's grown a spine and pulled his head out of his ass, stopped giving as much of a fuck about the dumbasses not worth his time." Bakugou explained jabbing a thumb towards the wall and presumably towards the people in other boxes and the crowd.
"Any extra that chooses to take time off to watch a bunch of kids beat the shit out of each other ain't worth the crap their spewing, as far as Izuku's concerned we might as well be the only people here in the stands." Bakugou added.
Before Mezo or anyone else could ask for any clarity on what Bakugou meant by that the sound of someone tapping a microphone rang throughout the stadium.
"Thank you for such a warm welcome, though I would hate to distract anyone from the main reason we're all here, so with great pleasure I'd like to welcome 1-A's Haku Rinko to make this year's student pledge." Midoriya spoke, with a slight jab at the crowd in his words before he motioned for one of the students to come up and join him.
And on Izuku's prompting a young girl with her hair in twin ponytails and odd ears to run up on stage with him.
"Thanks for the opportunity Deku-Sensei, now then," the young woman said with a bow to Midoriya before she turned to the crowd and her eyes narrowed at them, perhaps she too wasn't so pleased by their response to Midoriya?
Mezo wouldn't doubt that the students were attached to Midoriya by this point, most of Midoriya's liked him on a personal level and he worked with them for at least a month now.
"You know, I didn't have a lot of support in becoming a hero," Haku began letting her eyes slid across the stadium.
"My quirk makes touching anything difficult unless I'm wearing gloves, and that isn't touching on my medical issues," she told them all and Mezo nodded along, his own quirk made most uncomfortable and he couldn't remember a time people took anything from him when he offered it with his hands, aside from his friends and mom of course.
"But you know what? I am here, at U.A. The best hero school in the country because I worked my butt off to get here," the girl told the crowd, and most were probably confused by the fact she didn't seem to be that proud about saying that.
"I even dreamed about being up here and I can't count how many times I rewrote my original speech. I wanted to tell all of you just how much this moment was supposed to mean to me, about how hard I worked just to finally be here." Haku spoke her face scrunching up as her anger became even more clear.
"But frankly speaking, the only thing I can think of right now is just how unbelievable it is that there are so many bigots with a hero license out there right now." Haku spat at the crowd and Mezo's hearing caught more than a few affronted gasps from the people around them.
"I couldn't believe it when there were so many people outside the gates of U.A. demanding for Deku-Sensei to be fired after he was only doing his job. But I thought hey, it's just a group of crazy quirkist idiots and it wasn't that big of a deal." Haku said waving one of her hands mockingly to go along with her anecdote.
"Yet, here we are with a bunch of 'heroes' who won't even show the facade of a shred of respect and clap politely for someone quirkless." Haku told them with her face in a sneer.
"And I can't begin to tell you how disgusting it is to hear grown men and women trash talking someone my age all because of quirk status." She added a second later with venom in her voice.
But then Haku scoffed and smirked up at the crowd with daggers in her eyes.
"However, at the same time I can't help but find the fact that so many grown ass people being threatened, by a teenager of all people, utterly hilarious." Haku said putting her hand on her hip, gleefully throwing even more shade at the offended heroes in the stands with them.
"But hey, we aren't here to talk about the quirkist stuff you adults have been forcing us to deal with, you want to hear me make a stupid pledge on behalf of my year." Haku commented with a shrug.
"So today I pledge that I'll show each and every one of you idiots just how much a quirk 'really' means in heroics, and I won't use my quirk today to show you just how far someone can go without one." The girl promised with vicious grin and Mezo heard even more gasps.
"And I think you lot will find I won't be the only person in the hero course to do so today, consider it our protest against you for trying to fire one of our favorite teachers." Haku added off-handedly before she gave the mic back to Midoriya apparently done speaking.
Then she hopped off the stage to the clapping and cheers of not the crowd but of all the other classes, her fourteen other classmates being the loudest to show their approval of Haku's pledge along with one of the support courses.
The sound of clapping beside him caused him to look away from the field to Bakugo, who had an equally vicious grin on his face as he clapped for the girl, and a second later Mezo joined along with everyone else in their booth.
However his eyes couldn't help falling back to Midoriya, wondering just how his friend would react to the speech in his defense.
And the scene is unsurprising, at least from Mezo has come to expect from Midoriya whenever he gets praised.
A twinge of pink on his cheeks and eyes welled up with tears, hands tightly gripping the mic and a look of complete surprise but absolutely overwhelmed by the fact someone would stand up for him.
Though to be fair to Midoriya Mezo probably would be in the same boat if he was in Midoriya's shoes.
Haku had chosen to spit in the face of many people in her chosen field in order to defend Midoriya, even at the cost of her own career later since her choice no doubt would be seen by everyone.
Which would be more than enough but then to have the rest of the first years cheering for it? With who knows how many choosing to join her in protest?
How Midoriya hadn't started crying was a miracle in and of itself really.
Hawks chuckle and clapping shocked Mezo, having been so focused on the field and his own musing made him completely forgot about the two announcers.
"Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I for one think that Haku's pledge is one I can personally get behind, don't you think Mic?" Hawks said and Mic was quick to reply.
"Absolutely my fine feathered friend, but this introduction is becoming a drag so why don't we let Midoriya tell us what our first event of the festival will be." Mic encouraged.
"Will do Mic." Midoriya agreed having gotten himself back together and pressed a clicker and bringing up the dial and letting it spin.
They watched as the dial eventually landed on one of the activities.
"Oh, looks like we're going to be watching the kids deal with the roundabouts today." Mic commented "Would you be so generous as to tell any first-time listeners how this event works little buddy?" Mic requested.
Midoriya huffed but complied all the same.
"'Swings and roundabouts' is an event where the students will all get on one of eleven roundabouts and randomly given one of these colored wrist bands, with their goal being to get on to the roundabout that matches the color of their given wristband." Midoriya said holding up a bright red wristband and signing away with his other after placing the mic back in it's stand.
"The students will have ten minutes to do this, the wristbands have trackers and the students have to make it to the middle of the roundabout to trigger the device and register you as one of the forty-two students moving on." Midoriya explained.
"However, the student must remain on the roundabout or lose their place, the roundabout will speed up over the ten minutes and if they fall off a roundabout they'll be disqualified."
"The event will end before the ten-minute mark if forty-two students manage to get to the right roundabout or there is only forty-two students left on the roundabouts all together." Midoriya further told everyone though the screens certainly provided good enough visuals for them to understand.
"Naturally, the students aren't allowed to seriously harm each other but they can fight if they wish during the ten minutes." Midoriya pointed out "Any questions kids?" Midoriya asked his eyes on the crowd of students.
A loud chorus of 'No Deku-Sensei' came from the students, loud enough to be heard even without a microphone of their own.
Midoriya chuckled "Then I think we should let you all get started. Mic if you will?" Midoriya requested looking up to the commentator booth.
And in that moment Mezo couldn't help savoring just how far his friend had come from where he started out, Midoriya a year or so ago would likely never have the will to stand down there as the umpire.
He was more than likely steadfastly ignoring the crowd as a whole, but here he was and making waves in the heroics community all the same.