Izuku softly hummed as he looked through the homework sheets that Bullet-Jacker had left for him, he carefully looked through the answers.
Glad to find that most of the kids knew at least the basics of quirk studies by their second year.
Relieved when he saw most of them had correctly guessed that regardless of the type of quirk a person's diet could be very different from the 'average'.
And that they could correctly place themselves on the I.Q.C. ranking system.
Both were very simple things, but Izuku had been plenty surprised by how idiotic people could be about one of the most important things out there.
The world basically revolved around quirks and yet, most people would look at him strange if he told them that fire quirked people needed to eat more salt.
It gave him a little hope for the future generation, even if some of them would forget about it later after school.
All For One's strangle hold on Quirk studies was strong, he could only restrict the progress of the field for so long though, basic information like this would become common knowledge sooner rather than later.
Sighing Izuku allowed his head to fall back and stare at the ceiling, some days he wondered just how much All For One had erased or what discoveries in quirk science that All For One also covered up.
Izuku knew a few things that had been, like how the old studies from the Dawning that proclaimed that certain quirked people had a small but innate understanding of things connected to their quirks, like math or biology, which were hidden and covered up as 'anti-mutant' propaganda by the two-toes of the time.
What other quirk science could be lost to time because of that man? Had someone discovered the real reason that Quirks started to appear? What the reason for their sudden and vastly different evolutions their species started to undergo was?
The door of the teacher's office opening brought Izuku out of his thoughts and he watched as Kurose-San enter the room, nervously drumming her fingers on the homework in her hands.
Her eyes timidly found his and Izuku sat up straight and he beckoned her to come over, noticing her anxiety rather easily and she must have been more nervous than Izuku thought as she immediately crossed the room over to him and sat down the chair of his neighbor.
Well, Izuku doubted that Aizawa would mind all that much since he didn't use his chair as often and wasn't here at the moment.
"Something on your mind Kurose-San?" Izuku asked gently turning towards her.
"Yeah, sorry if I'm taking you away from your work, I know that you're super busy most days-" Kurose-San said nervously and began to try and apologize but Izuku held up his hand.
"It's alright Kurose-San, go ahead and tell me what's on your mind." Izuku reassured the woman.
Kurose-San exhaled, and her shoulders slumped, her head following after, hung forward somewhat.
"I've been trying not to think too hard about the dorms, but I can't keep my mind off of them since Nezu-San released the plans this morning." Kurose-San told him, rocking her knee side-to-side as she drummed her fingers even faster.
"I mean I've lived in apartments before, I am living in one now actually. And Master-San has been so generous to stay in 2-A's dorms for the first year for me but I'm still…" Kurose-San's words stopped as she struggled with how to explain what she was feeling.
"Overwhelmed?" Izuku offered.
"Yes!" Kurose-San exclaimed, relieved that he understood what she was trying to say.
"Like I love teaching, and the kids here can be great but I've only been a certified teacher for a few months now, not to mention I've never babysat a day in my life, much less be responsible for a whole class outside of school hours before." Kurose-San ranted a little, one of her hands coming up to rest on her face.
"I just don't think I'm ready to be that responsible, I forget to do my laundry half the time and would forget to eat on time if it wasn't for my alarms. There's no way I could watch over twenty teenagers." Kurose-San confessed to him.
"And that's not even taking into account that I'm passively radioactive if I forget to drink my supplements! There's no way I could be a dorm mother right now." Kurose-San pointed out as well in her misery.
Izuku nodded fully understanding where Kurose-San was coming from, moving to the dorms would already be a big thing and for the homeroom teachers they would be watching over their classes in one of the thirty-three buildings for the students on top of that.
"I understand, the dorms are going to be a big adjustment for all of us, I can't imagine the hassle some of you guys will have deal with to cancel your current apartments on top of it all." Izuku replied, softly patting Kurose-San's knee.
Kurose-San whined at that and slumped in her seat.
"Oh, my current landlord is being such a dick about it, threating to keep my whole deposit and everything since I'm breaking the lease early." Kurose-San complained before rolling her eyes.
"As if I haven't been a good tenant and always paid my rent on time." she huffily added under her breath.
"If you want, I can have someone I know from my law course look over your lease. Get you some advice at least so you can keep your deposit." Izuku offered, it would be a quick favor that the Vespas could do.
They had quite a few lawyers in the family after all and Izuku knew more than one learned real estate law.
"Really? That would be so great thank you so much Midoriya." Kurose-San told him looking like a weight had been taken off her shoulders.
"It's not a problem," Izuku said waving it off "We T.A.s turning teachers have to look after each other after all." Izuku jokingly added getting a soft smile out of Kurose-San.
But it fell as something else apparently came to her mind.
"Speaking of the move, how are you feeling about it? This is probably going to be a pretty big chance for you too." Kurose-San inquired, a hint of worry in her eyes.
Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, and his eyes looking away from her.
"Honestly? I think the move will be harder on my mom than it will be on me. I've been living home part-time already with how I travel for my work so moving out for the dorms won't be that much of a change." Izuku explained to her.
"I'm still going to see her twice a week and call her on the other days, but I know that not having me there on Sundays and Thursdays will make her empty-nesting even worse." Izuku further elaborated lazily moving his hand.
"And maybe I'm just a little nervous about being the 1-A dorm mother," Izuku admitted using the term Kurose-San used earlier, hunching in on himself somewhat.
"I mean, I don't doubt I can handle living with people my own age, but I'm sure that I might need to lay down the law with them to establish my authority." Izuku said a touch disappointed.
Kurose-San's eyes softened and she moved her leg out to gently nudge and bump his foot, her version of reaching out and resting out a hand to rest on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry about your mom, I wish I could help you with some advice there but, well... you know, I'm a H.Q.C. kid." Kuroses-San apologized, looking somewhat guilty about not being more help.
Izuku didn't blame her for that, her sympathy was more than enough.
"Don't be sorry Kurose-San, no one can control that and I'm sure my mom will find something to help, my uncle plans on coming over with his dog Scamp more." Izuku replied.
Twice would have moved in but their apartment didn't allow dogs that weren't registered as support animals.
Though he was free to visit all he liked.
"Though I think you won't have to establish yourself with the kids, you can be pretty intimidating all on your own." Kurose-San told him.
Izuku chuckled "You haven't met a lot of teenagers then, they like to push the boundaries and since I'll be their age it will only make them bolder. I can say that for certain." Izuku informed her.
He'd been 'challenged' by plenty of students his age or a little older, orphans especially would push his buttons when they first met him, something that Izuku never blamed them for since they needed to do so to feel secure themselves and where they stood with him.
"Just another reason that I'm glad Master-San will be living with them for the coming year." Kurose-San replied.
"Just remember that you need to be calm but firm, there is a difference between being stern, strict and cruel. You can be stern, even strict when it's needed but never cruel." Izuku said to reassure her.
"Still need to work on that personally." Kurose-San muttered letting her head fall to the side.
Izuku pat her knee again.
"Building backbones are hard to do, it took me forever to be able to reliably defend myself to people outside the red-light districts." Izuku commiserated with her.
"I don't think that'll ever stop sounding weird to me." Kurose-San commented, and Izuku knew that she meant about the red-light districts.
Izuku shrugged.
She was right, most people would find the reverse true and would openly stare at him for saying that telling a gang leader to screw off was easier than talking to someone else his own age causally.
"Thanks for talking with me Midoriya, this really helped me." Kurose-San told him.
"It's no problem, Kurose-San, I don't mind helping you. You're doing great so far and have been worrying about things that anyone would." Izuku reassured her.
Izuku understood how nerve-wracking being a new teacher could be, especially when you were thrown into a more chaotic situation, even if U.A. wasn't as bad as the districts it was still pretty different from a normal classroom dynamic.
Kurose-San smiled back at him.
"Still, thank you. I'm going to finish these papers, talk with you again tomorrow Midoriya." Kurose-San told him before she stood up and with a wave and left for her own desk.
"See you then." Izuku replied with a wave.
Izuku softly exhaled and turned back to the homework he was grading, feeling slightly more calmed after talking with Kurose-San about something so mundane.
It helped him somewhat having so much going on because it helped to distract himself from what wasn't happening on the other side of things.
Tenko was coming out of the fog, but he wasn't close to doing anything like trying to sneak out.
Leaving the bar on his own for a night was not something that he could see Tenko doing, nor Tenko leaving for more than a few hours unnanounced.
The coming out of the fog had come with more caution with Tenko's awareness of All For One's more concerning habits.
An unintended consequence of Tenko being less awe-struck with his 'Sensei'.
At least Izuku knew that Iguchi-San would tell him if Tenko did make any spontaneous plans that would keep Tenko out of the bar for a while.
Since that would be their best time to try and put their rescue plan into action.
If it wasn't spontaneous then Kurogiri would tell All For One and there was a chance that All For One would keep an eye on Tenko's actions and who he was hanging out with.
Still the wait was killing them all on the inside, though he was glad that he was the only one that saw Tenko in person.
Yagi and the others would never be able to take seeing Tenko without acting if they did.
Though he did feel glad that there would be a nice and large support system for Tenko to rely on to help Tenko deal with what had happened to him once they did get him out.
Hado especially was excited to meet her other cousin and get to know him.
*Small mercies, small mercies.* Izuku told himself, circling an incorrect answer and writing what the student had done wrong.
At least he knew that very soon the book he and Mido wrote would be published soon.