Nezu did not like the Sports Festival.
Not to the point of hating the whole thing, but his feelings for it went well beyond apathy or indifference.
He had a few reasons for this position.
There was the most understandable that more than a few people that would be understanding of.
The sound alone would be enough to leave him deaf for a month, as he had learned when he first started teaching, thankfully most of his students had easy to read faces for lip reading or signed at the time.
Then the smells, that many new humans and food left him nauseous, he had vomited more than once over the overstimulation.
Not that most would know that.
He had worked extremely hard to keep that concealed but Ito, Haruki, Shuzenji, and Yogi knew since they were the only ones that had been around back then when he was a teacher.
But he had other reasons to dislike this event too.
The strain it put on all the staff and especially the support course department.
Nezu was still quite proud of how he had successfully argued for the support course staff to have the rate they were currently making, one of his few victories against the board.
Still though Nezu did not like just how much stress that was put on the teaching staff of the support course, Maijima honestly had it the worst pulling almost quadruple duty, as a teacher, engineer, hero and over time on two of them.
And the stress did not stop just at the support course, the next in line was the hero course students who had a substantial chunk of the buck of stress that came around this time of year.
As awful as it sounded, the first year was the easiest it got for them.
Sure, there were the understandable fears of being on television for the first time and performing for the first time.
But that was nothing compared to the expectations laid on the second and third years that had to give better shows each year, because once the anxiety of your first show came and went that just left the fear of the crowd's expectations.
Many students burned themselves out training for their second and third years, their chances shrinking and the need to prove their worth growing to the point they often ended up hurting themselves even with the hero course teachers watching them as carefully as they could.
Plus, most of the third and even a few second years had the extra load of their work studies as an added stress.
This year at least Shuzenji at least had an assistant to help her with the workload.
Yes, Natsuo had been quite the lovely addition to the staff and Shuzenji's stress had been halved allowing some of her 'youthful' attitude to return and easing the students tension of going to see her.
Nezu thought it was a shame that the boy had not been one of his students, however after the conversation Izuku and he had about the... living situation of the Todoroki household Nezu supposed he was only glad that the boy had any standing.
Despite trusting Izuku to manage things since he had fair beyond proven himself capable of doing so Nezu very much did not stop himself from growling as his hackles raised at the thought of the man when alone.
Nezu's personal distastes aside, he had been strongly reminded of just another reason he loathed the festival today.
The crowd itself was a large bane of his existence.
This whole festival was a glorified dog show of sorts for the hero course even if Nezu had to admit there were some benefits for the students in their careers but not enough to outweigh the stress and trauma inflicted on them.
Frankly, Nezu would prefer to do away with the stadiums and the television crews of the whole thing.
Instead they'd have a privately filmed 'game day' of sorts, letting the students show off their individual talents in the way that it would help them get the eye of the type of heroes they wanted to intern with through an internet portal only accessible with a hero license number.
However, Nezu would be idiot to think he could just cancel the sports festival without major backlash.
No, it has become far too large profile and the school's budget strongly dependent on the profits of the event because of the idiocy of the previous Principal.
The only silver-lining in this whole situation was that as the principal he could make sure the people umpiring for each one was one that would prevent anything too dangerous from happening.
Something that was especially important in the final leg of the festival, the one-on-ones were his least favorite part since no student that fought walked away without bruises and was usually the most dangerous part of the whole event.
All the pressured and overstressed third years ended up with a limp even after the three days of mandatory rest Nezu also implemented.
Mostly because of the demands of the previously mentioned crowd.
There were rarely any higher tiered heroes up in the grandstands, the heroes were almost always those of the mid-range of heroics or were rich before becoming heroes.
The more popular and high ranked heroes were often the ones left to patrol the streets and some more cutthroat types considered it a wonderful day to boost your numbers, what with everyone stopping to watch the festival half of the criminal population would take advantage.
Leaving many vulnerable people and why did these people do so?
Because they wanted the 'pleasure' of watching the hero students beat themselves black and blue in person.
Ridiculous.
Nezu at least no longer had to be at any of the stadiums in person and instead watched the three events from the many camera systems that were set up through the massive three stadiums.
And while he disliked the festival Nezu always paid close attention to it, normally with his tail swaying and a near constant drumming of his claws.
This time, however, he found himself questioning whether to brave the crowd and pop down to the first-year stadium.
Not that he did not trust Izuku to be able to control things as an umpire.
No such a concern was ludicrous.
Izuku would be more than capable of getting any unrulily students in line though Nezu hardly thought anyone of the students would go against Izuku's word.
Because if there was one fact about the ten percent of humans, he knew to be a universal truth of sorts, it was that they were gods of charisma.
Even Aizawa, as much of a social pariah as he was, had a very loyal group of friends, was a preferred co-worker in the underground, welcomed by the police, and an almost rabid fan base even for an underground hero.
And Izuku clearly weaponized his, though likely unintentionally for the most part.
Discounting Izuku's ability to befriend himself, Nezu watched the boy manage something he could only envy and be pleasantly surprised by all the same.
Izuku shortly after taking over Maijima's classes for half a day had made ties to the support course and then the other courses as word spread between the first years and second years of this odd T.A. of the hero course that could just look at you and figure out how to fix most of your problems.
The major day of support that Izuku and Chuumoku gave the students yesterday though had absolutely warmed the entire student body to him, and Nezu doubted any student had not left without a plushie that day.
He was also certain that Izuku had especially endeared himself to the students of the other three courses, since he could not remember any time that they were personally encouraged not to win, but to show themselves off as only they could.
A few examples still stuck out in his mind even now.
A boy from the support course would not be told to aim for first place, but to get the eyes of as many heroes he could and aim for a sponsorship with his own creative flare.
The business course was given advice and tips on selling products and even networking for the hero students, not for the good of the hero course but to prove their silver tongues were worth their weight in gold.
And General Education?
They were told to show the reason they were the true backbone of the population, and that the only reason the heroes were as strong as they were, was because they were even stronger.
With that all in mind, it was not even that much of a surprise that the first years did not take so kindly that their favorite teaching assistant, whom had been under harsh criticism from the very beginning, was not welcomed by the crowd.
That being said, Nezu did not expect the students of the first year to actively turn on the crowd, refusing to play into their hand and that most were protesting by not using their quirks, bar those with mutations since they could not stop their forms from being what they were.
But to say he was not proud of them would be an outright lie, no Nezu was already making plans to welcome back the students after the three-day break to show his immense pleasure with their actions.
Nezu had been worried that Izuku would be overly stressed today, first from his planned debriefing with those aware of All For One and Inheritance later in the day after the festivities ended.
Having Izuku replace Kayama today was only to distress the boy even more, hopefully the support of the students would lighten the weight of the pressure.
As they moved to a commercial break Nezu's eyes locked on the camera in the commentor booth, and more specifically they locked onto Hawks.
Despite Izuku's support of Yamada's request to allow the young man to join him in the booth he was uneasy with the man's presence.
Hawks was one Izuku's favorite heroes yes, but Nezu was not sure Izuku had met one of the Commission's grunts before and therefore was not aware Hawks was one of them.
Still Nezu really could not bring himself to argue and refuse Hawks to come outright, instead he would have to settle on watching the avian quirked man.
He was undoubtably sent by the commission, their denials to let him originally investigate was likely because they had some sort of intentions with Izuku, and Nezu severely doubted whatever their intentions were, that they were good.
And Izuku did not need to worry over the commission's underhandedness on top of everything else, so he would keep a careful eye on the man, for any step out of line.
Unfortunately, Nezu's fear seemed to come true as Hawks found a moment to separate from Yamada and then walked the halls clearly searching for something.
Nezu moved a paw to hover over a button, ready to call for one of the teachers on standby to separate Hawks or block him from catching Izuku off guard.
Though Izuku was, like before they confirmed his identity, capable of taking him off guard and managed to cross paths with Hawks despite Nezu watching him so carefully.
He could only watch on as the two spoke, Hawks greeting the boy very warmly and Izuku's own lukewarm response in turn which was a concern.
Had Izuku already figured out Hawks's intentions?
But then he watched ever so curiously as Hawks faltered, the man's features wanting to tug at muscles and show... hurt? Rejection? And even a touch of fear?
Nezu had to pause, because that was not the expected reaction for if Izuku would not trust him immediately.
No, he would expect that Hawks would be unfazed or at worst annoyed that Izuku did not just warm up to him, this was uncalculated considering his known info on the young man.
Izuku however upon seeing Hawks's look overreacted and all but coddled Hawks in silent communication while only warmly offering his name, something that relieved Hawks and the man left the meeting holding his wings back from fluttering out of his happiness.
Izuku raced off to a bathroom, spending an exceptionally long time there and coming out with a weight off his own shoulders and a touch more confidence in his smile.
This whole thing made Nezu recline in his seat and slowly take the information in.
Clearly Nezu had done something most fools would, and he both underestimated Izuku and miscalculated the boy's reach.
There was no other way to interpret the way Hawks reacted to Izuku then to conclude that Hawks must have encountered the boy at some point before and made a close relationship with the man that was a hidden affair.
That last part was easy enough to figure out by how both greeted each with the words of strangers.
But Nezu could not think of how Izuku could have met Hawks in a way that the commission was not aware of, they had trackers in the man's wings.
Then again...
Hawks first time to show up on Yamada's show had the man do something very unexpected and defend the two-toes without prompting, and he remembered what Yamada said about it afterwards as he tried to convince Aizawa to sign something.
Hawks knew a two-toes that was related to a staff member and showed up time to time.
Something that was a lie given to cover his ties to Izuku what with the commission's vetting process.
Before he could try and consider how the two might have met Nezu got a text.
Nezu brought up his messages as soon as possible, he changed one number to have that slightly lower pitch and he needed to check it right away if Izuku decided he needed to tell him something before the end of the festival.
[Izuku]
[Izuku: I know you were watching us.]
[Izuku: I'll explain about Takami later, when we're alone.]
[Izuku: He doesn't have anything to do with current threat, just a side project of mine.]
Nezu blinked as he read the messages.
Takami? Was that Hawks name?
Nezu would have to ask about how Izuku came across such info later when they met up.
He was curious but would hold off for now.
Izuku promised he would explain, and Nezu knew he could trust that the boy would keep his word.
So Nezu turned his attention back to the monitors and continued to watch on as the festival played out.
Hey, I'm back.
Thanks for the well wishes everyone, deeply appreciated and apologizes for how long it took to update RL doesn't like being ignored though.
Enjoy the chapters though.