Maqsud thought he was pretty decent when it came to his awareness.
Came with his quirk after all.
It would be hard for him to make a projectile follow a target if he couldn't see that far, or worse, was near/far sighted.
He also had a way of noticing things most didn't.
Hyper-vigilance was common in sight or eye based quirks, Bullet-Jacker had taught him that years ago and it made enough sense to him.
Maqsud's quirk was all about honing in on things, and striking them with whatever he had on hand, and even more naturally that meant that his eyes would be attracted to movement, any movement no matter how small.
Nearly got diagnosed with ADHD for it when he was younger and couldn't 'filter' his attention, lot of downsides back then but he was able to really help the kids that did have the disorder since he was able to understand in a way most couldn't.
Maqsud's hyper-vigilance also made him pretty good at reading people, his eyes honed after decades of watching the tiniest of twitches in faces and subtle shifts in body-language to clearly read intent.
So, with all of that in mind, Maqsud would swear till he was blue in the principal's face that someone fucked up.
And whoever they were, they fucked up bad.
Cause Midoriya was pissed.
If he didn't know the boy as well as he did, he'd pretend to pray for mercy for the poor sap that crossed the boy.
But he did know the boy, as well as anyone could in only knowing each other for a couple of months, and the list of things that actually put a bee in Midoriya's bonnet was pretty short, plus it was cut and dry.
One, shitty counselors, especially quirk counselors.
Two, people fucking with kids.
Three, people fucking with his students, doubly so if they weren't out of their teen years.
Four, bigotry of any kind.
Five, genuine psychopaths that just liked to hurt people.
All of those things upset Maqsud too, and he could always empathize with Midoriya when he ranted about the idiots that had quirk counseling licenses.
But Midoriya wasn't annoyed or frustratingly exhausted over the world being what it was.
No, as soon as Maqsud came into work and entered the teachers offices, he saw right away that Midoriya was straight up pissed off.
Midoriya was doing a fair job of hiding it physically, bar the steadfast scowl, but the waves of 'murder' rolling off the boys were hard to mistake for anything else.
Maqsud knew something was making the boy angry lately, he wasn't sure what and didn't want to get on Midoriya's bad side by sticking his nose where it didn't belong.
Learned that lesson with Aizawa before and he wouldn't fancy Midoriya giving him a reminder.
However, Maqsud also had never seen his young co-worker so livid before and it was kind of scaring him if he was being honest.
Not even when Ueno and his friends almost hurt Togota and tried to argue about staying in the hero course.
So, Maqsud thought it would only be right if he was a little scared of just what could have Midoriya likely muttering death threats in some mix of languages under his breath.
But whatever made Midoriya this mad had to be bad, like might need professional hero's attention or the police kind of bad.
So, after sharing a wary glance with the only other person in the offices at the moment, one of the teachers of the support course and whom looked very overwhelmed with Midoriya's 'murder; vibes, Maqsud cautiously walked over to where Midoriya was.
Reminding himself that Midoriya was one of his sweeter co-workers and that the boy wouldn't rear up and bite him like a rattlesnake.
"Hey, morning Midoriya." Maqsud greeted, doing his best to pretend that he wasn't intimated as he walked over to the boy.
The boy's cold eyes locking onto him made that a bit harder though.
"You wanna see some footage of the training some of the third years, Bud? One of the kids has gotten really good with their quirk recently." Maqsud offered, understanding that asking directly might not end up well for him.
Midoriya's eyes softened, the murderous air wavering as he nodded.
Relived Maqsud took out his phone and pulled up the footage of the training grounds from yesterday, a pair of elemental quirked boys fighting with each other very skillfully.
Midoriya slowly unwinding and his lips quirking upwards, clearly still troubled but relaxing somewhat to see some of the kids playfully training with each other and so happily too.
"The kiddos are really coming along, aren't they?" Maqsud commented, leaning against the thin divider walls of Midoriya's desk.
Midoriya nodded again "Yeah." he quietly agreed "Thank you Genji-San." the boy added a moment later looking up to him with more thankful eyes.
Maqsud couldn't help grinning, his chest swelling with warmth.
"Not a problem partner, and you can just call me Suds, we're friends now ain't we?" Maqsud told the boy.
Midoriya startled slightly looking up at him for a moment, with wide eyes blinking a few times.
"Y-yeah, friends." Midoriya softly agreed, looking completely in disbelief as he said it, then he hurriedly went back to his books likely flustered.
Maqsud had to hold back from chuckling Midoriya's reaction and walked over to his own desk.
He forgot a lot of the time that Midoriya was younger than the students, especially with how the boy acted, so the few times when Midoriya acted his age were rare and oddly but utterly wholesome.
And Midoriya getting flustered like some of their fans hard not to find precious, or at times funny.
How could he not chuckle at least a little when at one moment the boy was redating pure death vibes and flustered teen the next?
At least he was able to calm the boy somewhat.
Unfortunately, Midoriya's mood was quickly returned to his earlier sourness, which considering whatever made him pissed was pretty bad Maqsud figured that any mood boosters would be temporary.
At least until the issue was resolved, Maqsud hoped it would be soon.
Nezu, Shuzenji-San and Haruki-San also knew of whatever the problem was, Haruki-San trying to comfort the others about Midoriya's attitude.
But both Nezu and Shuzenji-San seemed pretty upset over what was going on.
Tentatively, Maqsud decided that asking about what was wrong directly would not be in his best interest, if he could help then Nezu would have already tapped him and brought him in on the situation.
And as much as he wanted to take Midoriya on in the shooting exercises, Maqsud did not want the boy to snap at him.
So instead, knowing the conference for the first years protest would be sooner rather than later Maqsud did his level best to cheer the kid up and not let him wallow in his anger.
Telling him some stories back from when he was an undergrounder like Aizawa or showing him a couple of fan letters from kids that were just the sweetest.
And after seeing him do so more of his co-workers got up the nerve to also try and lighten Midoriya's mood.
Maijima being the second best at it by coming to Midoriya with some of his requests from his support gear company, legally 'consulting' with the boy as a quirk counselor, and the boy clearly deeply enjoyed working on the problems Maijima brought him.
Others did their best too though, Kayama pestered him about his costume ideas for the students, Yamada asked Midoriya for some help learning Russian so he could better help Gromova cause he was looking forward to her interning with him again next year.
Sano offering the boy some of the treats his cousin sent him from over in America, recommending books Ishiyama thought the boy would like, and Isamu showed the boy pictures of Oswald and his friends hanging out over at his place.
Aizawa hadn't gone out of his way to do anything but there was a fair chance that Midoriya would be overwhelmed if they all tried to be extra nice to him so suddenly.
It was probably why the others also didn't get involved either, well that and not knowing how to be of help in this matter.
Ryo certainly didn't think his typical work around would help.
Maqsud also learned Midoriya had a killer poker face during this time, he hid his persistent wrath pretty well from the kids, only Miyake seemed to know something was up when he got back from internships.
Made sense since the kid knew the boy longer than any of them did, though a few animal-quirked kids also sensed something was up.
So, they also fielded some questions for Midoriya from the kids too, most of them asking what was wrong with Midoriya and why he was so upset, both were pretty hard for them to answer when they didn't what was upsetting Midoriya.
Haruki-San was able to curb their questions, explaining it was a personal matter that he didn't want to talk about with the students since that would be unprofessional of him since it didn't have anything to do with them.
Which the students reluctantly accepted and then began to make a bunch of gifts for Midoriya, which they all happily brought to the boy on their students behalf.
The boy adored the gifts but clearly felt guilty about the students feeling the need to make them.
And with everything going on before Maqsud knew it the day of the conference arrived, and he was in the back getting ready to go onstage with Haruki-San and Midoriya to address the kids protest.
Maqsud wasn't the best at conferences, so he was a bit anxious as he walked back and forth in the press room.
Interviews were easy, just talking one-on-one but having a good chunk of people lobbing questions at him was a whole other animal.
Haruki-San and Midoriya were less stressed than him by a mile and the two of them clearly noticed.
"Maqsud-San come over and sit with us." Midoriya asked gently, taking him by the arm to make him stop pacing.
"Oh, uh sure Buddy. And I told you to call me Suds." Maqsud told him, letting the boy lead him over to one of the couch in the room.
Midoriya turned red in the cheeks "R-right Suds-San, do you want something to nibble on before we go on?" Midoriya offered sitting down and taking out a tin of cookies from his wonder bag.
Maqsud had seen all sorts of things come out of Midoriya's bag and he was convinced it was a quirked product.
"Nah, maybe after the conference, this is a bit hard to get this on just right for cameras." Maqsud answered tapping the side of his mask.
Midoriya nodded "Okay, do you need anything else then? Something to keep your hands busy maybe?" Midoriya asked, putting the tin away.
"No Buddy, I'll be fine. Just ain't a fan of crowds." Maqsud assured, patting Midoriya on the shoulder, the boy pouting back at him.
Their phone's all dinged and that was their queue to leave for the conference.
"Thanks for the offer, Buddy, let's go and get this over with." Maqsud commented walking out with all of them.
The two of them following Haruki-San out of the room and where everyone else was waiting for them.
Getting in line with Nezu and one of the lawyers from U.A's legal team, then marching out and sitting down in their seats, letting the crowd snap their pictures.
Then Nezu stood up, introducing himself and each of them before opening the floor to questions.
Too many questions being asked at once only to be silenced with a look from Midoriya, skillfully using his anger to make most of them quiet down.
"I thought we went over this the last time. Either act like the grown working adults you are, or we will have you escorted out." Midoriya sternly told the reporters.
Maqsud sighed internally, grateful that he did so.
"Good, now remember to use your manners when you ask your questions and wait to be called on." Midoriya scolded, rubbing some salt in the wounds.
"The one with the snake quirk in the back." Haruki-San said pointing towards the back.
"Can I ask what is U.A's official response towards the student protest during the first years part of the sports festival?" the person softly asked.
"We fully support the student's choice to protest, and the U.A. staff currently speaking has no plans to do anything about their behavior, as there was nothing about their protest that can be considered inappropriate." the lawyer, a woman named Zanna answered.
"The young woman in the front, green hair." Nezu pointed out next.
"How can you say their behavior was appropriate? They didn't respect the festival and were very malicious to the crowd." The woman demanded.
"Because we at U.A. don't teach our students to stand by in the face of bigotry," Haruki-San flatly responded.
"Regardless of whom is being discriminated against." Haruki-San told them.
"The man over there with the feathers." Haruki-San pointed to.
"There are concerns from the general public that Midoriya teaching, that he's being malicious to the students because they're quirked and will mis-treat the students because of this, do any of you share-?" the man asked but Maqsud couldn't help laughing, unintentionally cutting the man off.
"Apologies folks," Maqsud quickly said, biting his tongue to keep from continuing to laugh.
"But that's a load of horseshit." Maqsud told the crowd waving his hand dismissively.
Maqsud placed a hand on Midoriya's shoulder since he was sitting next to the boy.
"Midoriya-San here is by far the most supportive member of the staff, and that's one of the reasons the kids were so offended on his behalf." Maqsud told the crowd.
"Why Midoriya-San would sooner be struck by lightning, hit by a truck, and swallowed whole by a land whale right here and now than ever mis-treat any of the students." Maqsud jokingly told them.
Midoriya couldn't stop himself from smiling over at him, awe and gratefulness in his face, making Maqsud grin himself back even if the boy couldn't see it.
"Now, let's move on to the next question, y'all with the bowler hat there in the middle." Maqsud said.
"Are you really going to let your students continue to disrespect the heroes that are currently in the field?" the person questioned.
"The only people that would be targeted by the protest the students held were those that were bigots that were actively discriminating someone from a minority." Haruki-San answered leaning forward slightly.
"Unless you were one of those bigoted heroes, I don't see why you would feel threated by their protest by our students, since it has nothing to do with you otherwise." Haruki-San added moment later, one eye 'raised'.
Effectively silencing the reporter in the bowler hat.
"Because really, tell me what exactly is the problem with what the students were protesting? What part of them demanding respect for a person in a minority was wrong? Please, spell it out to us." Haruki-San questioned back.
Letting the crowd stand in silence, all but daring them to say the unspoken reason why they didn't want the students to stand up for Midoriya specifically.
There were times that Maqsud forgot that Haruki-San was one of the second generation heroes and was at times reminded of this fact.
"No? Then let us move on to the next question then. Any takers?" Haruki-San inquired, not expecting a woman with glasses stand up and eagerly raise her hand soon after "Yes, you miss from Juko News." Haruki-San said.
"To Midoriya-San, please tell us about your thoughts on the sudden rise in positivity towards the quirkless like yourself from big name heroes like Hawks?" the woman asked.
Midoriya blinked, taking a moment to think it over.
"I'd like to say that I hope for this to be the start of something better for us, but frankly speaking, having a few people come forward and state their support of us would not be enough to change the years of compounded discrimination we face today." Midoriya carefully answered.
"It's a step, if it's a step in the right direction or the wrong one, I don't know and only time will tell." Midoriya commented somberly.
Maqsud's chest felt a bit tighter when he heard Midoriya's words.
They were most likely right but that didn't mean he'd have to like it.
Fighting discrimination of any kind always felt like two steps forward and shove off the chiff back.
So yeah, as much as it hurt to hear, people wouldn't stop turning their noses up to Midoriya and other quirkless people just because a few heroes were protective of them and supported their rights.
It would definitely take a few decades before any true headway could be made in fighting the discrimination towards the quirkless.
They could though get started on getting the ball rolling, he'd would just need to figure out how best to go about it.
Most people when Izuku is radiating pure murder: Stays tf away
Snipe: I'ma cheer him up
Izuku purrs under Snipe's attention
Most people: wtf?
Izuku turns to them and glaring daggers
Cherry-bomb shrugs and pats Izuku's head while he's still glaring them down
Cherry-bomb: He's just a grumpy-boy this week