Chapter 2: New course of Fate
It was supposed to be an average everyday morning for Izuku Midoriya, his day started like every other day. He would wake up at 5 am, get dressed for his morning jog, return home around 6:30, shower and eat breakfast with his mother while watching the morning news before heading out for school….
That was the plan anyway, as some villain was rampaging through town and had caused all the trains coming in and out of the area to grind to all halt for safety reasons. As it was the morning rush hour, there were quite a lot of people in the immediate area, which put them in harm's way as the villain smashed some of the steel railings for the tracks which caused some large debris to fall would have crushed more than a few people if not for the timely intervention of a pro hero who was able to catch the debris before it caused any harm.
"Oh, it's Death Arms!"
"He carries out justice through his great physical strength, The Punching Hero!"
As he carried the heavy steel load away and threw it a safe distance, another hero made their appearance, this one using water to form a sort of barricade to help the police keep the civilians back from the rampaging villain. "Everyone, this is dangerous, please stay back!"
"The rescue specialist, Backdraft is here too!"
"But man, turning into a monster is an amazing quirk."
"What did he even do?"
"He stole someone's bag and when he got corned, he went out of control."
"A quick like that and he's a bag snatcher."
Meanwhile, as this was happening, Izuku was watching from the nearest building, it was around 9 floors and offered a good view of the action without risking serious injury. He had made his way up the fire escape when he saw the villain appear in hopes of watching how the heroes would deal with him. So far they were handling the situation quite well.
"Hmmm, so Death Arms catching any debris that could pose a risk to the safety of the crows while Backdraft works with the police to keep them calm and at a safe distance." Izuku said to himself as he watched the scene while wearing a pair of goggles of his design which recorded everything he saw and wirelessly sent the footage to a hard drive he kept at home so he can review the fight later. Over the years he can found out that if he recorded the fights he saw, he could break them down at a later time without worrying about being injured, or annoying those around him. "And those two are right about it being a good quirk but at the end of the day, it's only as good as the user" He finished as he had heard the tail end of the conversation between the two guys by the back of the crowd since the goggles also did improve sound pickup and he was curious as to what the civilians were talking about.
He did notice another figure make their appearance as a man covered with spandex and wood run to meet the villain head-on, and if Izuku's memory wasn't enough, the screams of joy from some of the younger women in the crowd reminded him of who this was.
"YOU CAN DO IT, KAMUI!"
"Man, he may be new to the hero scene but his skills, strengths, and cool head under pressure have made him popular with the ladies." Izuku commented as he watched how Kamui Woods swung and bobbed around the attacks from the villain using his wood to form ropes to latch on to stuff and swing around.
"Get away!" the villain yelled at Kamui Woods before he tried another wing at him only for Kamui woods to expertly dodge the attack and land on the train station's terminal roof.
"Illegal use of powers during rush hour and robbery resulting in bodily injury. You are the incarnation of evil." Kamui spoke as he stretched out his arm, Izuku may have known what was coming but it was still a sight to see. "Pre-emptive Binding: Lacquered Chain Prison!" There it was, the signature super move of the wood-based hero, Izuku was excited to finally get first-hand footage of Kamui Woods using it…
Or at least, that should have happened since one last hero made their appearance at the same time.
"Canyon Cannon!" The giant woman shouted as she dropped kick the poor man so hard he flew off the train tracks, went through the wall of the track-way, and painfully smacked into the adjacent building, knocking him out on impact. Meanwhile, the crowd, police, and heroes were shocked at the surprise entry.
"Eh?" And poor Kamui Woods was left still standing in his striking pose with his branches still reaching out to capture an opponent no longer in front of him. The newcomer landed in the meantime and for some reason, the… male-only crowd of photographers started taking many, many pictures.
"Here it is, here it is, here it is, here it is." They all spoke in unison which was kinda creepy.
"Today is the day of my debut, my name is Mt. Lady. A pleasure to make your ass-quaintance." And as she said this rather lewd line, she had slightly bent to emphasize her now giant ass to the crowd, which as expected garnered even more photos taken of her.
"Must Takeyama-chan be so vain? Poor Kamui looks like a wooden puppy that just had its food taken." Izuku said to himself as he tiredly but fondly shook his head as he watched the aftermath as the police secured the villain while the heroes accepted their thanks while standing guard in case the villain tried something, Mt. Lady looked like she was enjoying it since she got to stand right to the perpetrator since technically, she caught him. Izuku seeing the action was over and done with, took off his goggles, rushed down the fire escape, and made his way to school before he was late. But as he was leaving the rooftop, Mt. Lady seemed to turn to face him without anyone's notice and gave him a wink and half-lidded gaze which he caught. 'Sh-she knew I was here?! Wait a minute, then she knew I was recording that! Why do I have a feeling that she's gonna want a copy of that? She is one vain woman.' Izuku thought to himself at the thought of how she was going to hound him about this for sure.
(Later that day at Aldera Junior High)
"Now since you're all third years, it's time for you to think seriously about your futures." The homeroom teacher for the class started, sounding all serious like any teacher with a class of 3rd years would. "I'll pass out hand-outs for you to fill in your future plans but…" He continued before he grabbed those very same hand-outs and threw them into the air while some of the students started activated their quirks "You'll all planning to go into the hero course, right?" He asked/stated as the whole class roared with joy as they all activated or revealed their quirks. The only two who didn't were Izuku who reading a high school level textbook and Katsuki who was resting his feet on his desk like a proper delinquent.
"Yes!"
"Yes, yes, you all have wonderful quirks but using your powers at school is against the rules!" The teacher reminded with no real heat.
"Teach! Don't lump us together in the same group. I'm not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects!" Katsuki stated arrogantly from his desk, which as one would expect didn't sit well with the rest of the class.
"That was uncalled for, Katsuki!"
"Yeah!"
"You should all shut up like the extras you are!" Katsuki egged them on with a prideful smirk
"Oh yes, if I remember correctly, you want to go U.A. High right, Bakugo?" The teacher announced to hopefully stop the class from descending further into unrest since he had a feeling Katsuki would use it as an excuse to fight most of them and intimidate the other half into submission. Once that little titbit was in the air, the class was silenced by it.
"U.A.? That national school?"
"It was in the top 0.2% this year, you know!"
"Their acceptance rate is always really low, too!"
"That's exactly why you guys are just extra!" Katsuki announced as he jumped into his desk and stood proud. "I aced the mock test!" He continued as he pointed a finger at himself. "I'm the only one at this school who can possible get into U.A. I'll surpass All Might and became the top hero and my name will be recorded as the top earners!" He finished, leaving the class in silence.
Till the teacher decided he wanted to burst his bubble.
"Oh yeah, Midoriya, you wanted to attend U.A. as well, right?" he added which silenced even Katsuki who looked like he just remembered something embarrassing at the worst of times.
"That is correct Sensei, like Bakugo, I too wrote the mock test and passed with flying colors." Izuku answered as he turned his attention away from his book to speak to his teacher before he returned to what he was reading.
"Wait, even Midoriya wants to go?"
But…isn't he quirkless? How could he possibly hope to compete?"
"The dude still is the top of the class in just about every subject except PE, remember?"
"The dude skipped two whole grades and I heard he's only still in middle school because all the hero schools don't take students younger than 15."
While the class whispered to each other, Katsuki wanted to throw Izuku out the damn window! How could he forget that Deku was aiming for the hero course as well? And unlike the rest of the extras whose names he didn't even bother remembering, he thought, no he knew that Izuku had a chance at it. Not as much as he did but a lot more than the rest of them.
Over the years, he had seen how the scared and quirkless kid he knew change into someone who was could stand tall and face the world. Ever since he had learned that Deku had been bumped up two whole grades, he had worked nonstop to surpass him and remind him who was better. But for every time he beat him, Izuku would beat him in another field altogether. If he got the higher grade in English, Izuku would get the higher grade in Math, if he outran in on the track, Izuku would outswim him in the pool. When he joined the boxing club and quickly became the star member, Izuku goes and becomes the frickin president of the science club. He may have had the upper hand when it came to actual fighting as he had won 15 of their 28 school fights (yes, he kept count) they had fought over the years but Izuku would always seem like his superior in class as he had held onto the top stop for the past 3 years and was still going strong.
For the teacher, he was proud of the two star-pupils as he had taught both of them and saw that they had the skill and potential to get into U.A. high.
Bakugo was like a living dynamo who seemed to be good at just about everything he did and still worked hard to become better at what he could do, he was something who could be a jack of all trades and still perform better than most-but his arrogance and brashness was something of a concern to him as he didn't want the boy to squander his potential just because he couldn't recognize the same in others and accept it.
Midoriya on the other hand was the underdog of the two but still showed results as even though he was quirkless, he was the top student in the whole school as he had set records with his grades and as the rumors said, had only stayed in middle school rather than finish early because it was illegal for a hero course to take in students younger than 15, heck he only really attended school just to pass the time since he already completed it, he was the only kid that could sleep through class and not worry about it. He was the president of the science club and a member of the local dojo which explained how he could beat Bakugo all those times. The only concern he had about young Midoriya was the fact that he had zero friends and barely hang around those his age on a casual basis which couldn't be good for his development.
"Dammit Deku! Why the hell are you going to U.A?!" Katsuki demanded as he turned his fiery gaze into a new target who didn't even flinch and kept on reading his book.
"You and I both know the answer to that Bakugo, I see no need to repeat myself like a broken record." Izuku stated like it was nothing, knowing that it would piss off Katsuki but already prepared and waiting for any violent response he may have.
"How the hell do you think they're even let you in, you don't even have a quirk like the rest of the extras?" Katsuki yelled as he kept to his seat since he wasn't dumb enough to charge the nerd, he knew that Deku could throw a punch. The fact that he didn't react as violently as expected was something the rest of the class didn't miss but had come to expect from the two rivals in just about everything, honestly at this point they weren't even surprised by yet another confrontation between the two.
"They removed that rule a while ago, I checked before I tried. So deal with it because I can and will stand in the same ring with you and can go a few rounds if necessary." Izuku challenged as he moved his hand into his bag to grab his billy club which he kept with him at all times. Katsuki on his part started crackling little explosions from his hands as he got ready to pounce on his long-time rival only for the teacher to decide enough was enough.
"Settle down you two before I give the both of you detention!" The teacher ordered as he locked eyes with the both of them to ensure they knew he wasn't kidding about it.
"Yes Sensei" "Whatever teach." Were their separate answers as they both settled down…for the moment.
(Later after class)
Izuku was on his way home since he and Katsuki didn't come to blows which in of itself was odd but he did glare at him before he left the class the head to the arcade. Izuku was thinking of how he and Melissa planned on making his armor even smaller before he decided to bench the thought and take a shortcut through an underpass. As he was walking he never noticed the sewer lid move but he did hear the faint sound of something coming at him from behind. Like a cat, he quickly jumped forward to avoid the tackle he thought was coming and turned to face the threat. He was met with the sight of some kind of slime monster with two yellow and red eyes and white teeth.
"Oh, a medium-sized invisibility cloak." Said the slime villain as he towered over Izuku, unnerving the young boy.
"Last I checked, I'm not a piece of clothing." Izuku shot back as he slowly backed away with his hand reaching for the inside of his backpack but the slime villain noticed this and jumped at him, Izuku barely dodge by the skin of his teeth. "Watch it, I don't need a hug today from some slime ball!" Izuku yelled as he hoped to stall for time.
"Don't worry, I just going to take over your body, it won't hurt for long." The villain said as he made another pass which Izuku rolled to the left to avoid.
"Like hell, I'm letting that happen!" Izuku said back, thinking about how he needed his suit right about now but he left it in his workshop. Sadly, this momentarily lapses in attention was something the villain used and was able to grab a hold of Izuku.
"Who said you have a choice?" he taunted as he tried forcing his way into Izuku's body via his mouth and nose, suffocating the boy in the process.
"Who…said you…have…one…either?!" Izuku harshly breathed as he found what he was looking for in his bag, his special billy club, the villain didn't think much of it till Izuku jammed the end of it into his body and pressed a button on the handle, sending a powerful current of electricity through his slimy body and forcing him to release the boy and fall back.
"Arg! That hurt you little punk!" he demanded as he could still feel the shock even though he wasn't in contact with the now revealed taser stick.
It's (huff) meant to (huff) I modeled after what they used (huff) to use on cattle on farms." Izuku said as he gulped in as much air as he could before he got into a combat stance and reached into his bag once more "You want another demonstration evo-slush?" He taunted.
"Evo-slush." The villain asked, confused.
"I figured snot rag was taken and not originally so I had to be creative, it's short for Environmental Slush puppy but enough about that here's a gift." Izuku explained as he drew another object from his bag, this one looking like an oversized red egg, and threw it at the slime villain, he tried to dodge but since he wasn't expecting Izuku to threw something out of the blue like that, it managed to graze his side, which proved to be enough since as soon as it made contact, it exploded and a wed of weird looking strings sprung all over the place with him inside and shocked him with enough power to knock him into his stomach as he growled in pain.
"Dammit, what the hell is this?!" He yelled as the grenade didn't stop shocking him for another few seconds before it stopped, leaving him a twitching mass of slime at this damn kid's feet.
"Taser grenade works as the name implies. It was designed to be used on groups of foes so it has a lot more kick than even this here taser. Maybe I shouldn't have used it on just one target but you're not dead and you shouldn't suffer any permanent injuries so it's a win in my book." Izuku revealed as he got out his phone from his pocket to call the authorities. 'Good thing I forget to take that thing out of my bag the other day' Izuku thought to himself as he was pretty sure he wouldn't have won without it since sooner or later the villain would have simply overwhelmed him. He finished dialing the number his parents made him memorize before bringing the phone to his ear.
"Hello, Musutafu Police, how can I help you?" The operator on the other end asked.
"I was attacked by a villain by the underpass on the corner of 5th street near Aldera Middle school." Izuku told them as he looked around to make sure he was giving the correct street.
"And the location of the villain, do you know where they went?" The operator asked, seemingly used to people only seeing villains and wanting to know where to start looking if this call was genuine, only for Izuku to surprise them.
"Oh no, I already captured him, he's right in front of me see?" Izuku said as he turned the phone so it could hear the groans of the beaten villain by his feet. "Can you please sent someone over to pick him up?" Izuku asked them while giving a small shock to the villain with his taser when he noticed he was trying to get up.
"Hmm, sure. An officer is one the way and should be there in about a few minutes, till them please stay put." The operator told him before hanging up, they sounded surprised.
"What, they never heard of someone stopping a villain by themselves before?" Izuku said to himself as he put his phone away. As he waited for the cops, another person came to the scene through the sewer and came in fast, bursting the lid off the drain.
"Oh-ho, I was expecting to find this villainous individual but to get here and find him already defeated? I must say I'm impressed!" The number one hero in Japan and maybe the world spoke as he got up from his crouch as he saw that the villain was already beaten.
"Ark!...y-your, here, All-Might is here?" Izuku stuttered as he saw his 2nd idol right in front of him, he couldn't believe that he got to meet All Might in person!
"Thank goodness, I was worried that something might happen with this one, villains usually don't get away from me but being in a new city doesn't make it easy to navigate the sewers chasing after someone." All Might said with a laugh that seemed to be as powerful as ever.
"You're here!" Dammit, Izuku may have been working on his confidence but he just couldn't get out of his fanboyish attitude around heroes he looked up to, he was just lucky Katsuki wasn't around to ruin this for him.
"Yes, I am! So where's the hero who defeated my opponent and just left?" All Might asked as it did seem and very irresponsible to just leave the villain on the ground and not capture them, maybe they left the kid to watch over him till the police got here?
"Aw, well you see…that was me." Izuku managed to get control of himself and stop stuttering and tell him what that.
"Oh-how you took him down then? I must say you handled it quite nicely if I do say so myself, but I hope you know using your quirk without a license isn't exactly allowed, right?" All Might replied as he put down his groceries since it seemed like he wasn't going to be able to leave just yet. At his question, Izuku sobered a bit and frown as if he just ate something bitter.
"I know…don't worry I didn't use my quirk, I'm quirkless after-all." Izuku revealed to All Might, shocking both the number one hero and the petty villain who was still paralyzed on the ground.
'Quirkless! I got beat by some quirkless nobody!?' The sludge villain thought to himself angrily but was wise enough not to say anything since he didn't want to be shocked again.
'No quirk?' All Might thought to himself as this reminded him of his past, now that he thought about it, he did notice that the number of quirkless people had been declining since it had been a while since he spoke to someone who didn't have a quirk or at the very least, could admit to such.
"I already called the police so they should get here soon to pick him up." Izuku said as he pointed his stun baton towards the downed criminal for emphasis as he continued to look upset.
"Is that right, then I shall wait for them as well, after all, you only had to act because he got away from me, the least I can do is stay and make sure he doesn't try anything." All Might decide as he was both curious and concerned about this young boy.
"Really?" Izuku asked as he brightened up at the thought of hanging out with All Might, something the hero picked up on.
'There's something very wrong with this kid, just now when I mentioned quirks he looked so sad…and angry but now he's made a complete 180.' All Might thought to himself as he turned to face the kid fully. "Of course young man." All Might proclaimed with his usual loud and proud tone, silently thanking the fact he didn't have to chase the villain for long. 'Good thing I still have about 20 minutes left.' He thought to himself as the boy he came to know as Izuku Midoriya asked him a ton of questions about hero work, how it is like to have such status and what does he do to keep himself in shape. This went on for another few minutes till a squad car pulled up and after the officers realized that young Midoriya was the one to take the villain, they loaded him up in the back, thanked the hero for his assistance (which he found to be odd) and left. He noticed that they didn't show the boy any gratitude which he found to be rude since he handled the situation with an impressive level of grace and skill and yet, they said nothing. He also noticed how the expression on the boy's face had darkened and look sad at the same time so he could imagine he picked up on that too.
"Young Midoriya, I think we need to talk." All Might said, sounding serious which knocked Izuku out of his dark funk.
"Hm? Oh, a talk, like right now?" Izuku asked as this was getting too exciting for him, he was supposed to be on his way to the dojo.
"Yes! Now," All Might announced as he crouched down and started doing leg stretches before he pointed to his back. "Get on my back." He said like he was talking about the weather.
"WHAT!" Izuku yelled in response as that wasn't something he ever thought he would hear from the man.
"We can't have a serious discussion in the middle of the street, we need to have somewhere more suitable." All Might explained which calmed the boy down as it did make sense, but it was still unusual.
"Okay…this is so weird." Izuku said as he put his backpack on and made sure it was secure before he climbed into the back of the blonde hero, he felt like he was a kindergarten kid again and his dad was taking him to the park or something.
"Now hold…on…TIIIIIIGHT!" All Might instructed as he took to the skies with one big jump, in their wake were the screams of a scared shitless junior high student.
"WHY DID I AGREE TO THIS?!"
(Later on some rooftop near the market district)
Once they landed, All Might was able to get the boy off his back and place him down, Izuku for his part looked like hell as his hair was all messed up...well, more so than usual and he looked like he just ate 3 lemons at once.
"Damn, that was scary, how can he move so fast?" Izuku muttered to himself as he tried to collect what little dignity he had left as to not look like a total idiot in front of All Might.
"Good grief, it took longer than normal to find this place, maybe I do need to do more research about the buildings in this city." All Might said to himself as it was a hassle finding this place. "But onto business yes? Young Midoriya, why did you look so angry when I mentioned quirks?" All Might asked the young lad who took a moment to compose himself.
"Because I hate how almost everyone I met thinks that the only way you can do things, I hate how when people find out I don't have one, suddenly think I'm not as capable." Izuku told him with an angry grimace as he thought back to the days he had to endure that before he shut them all up.
"So you don't like being seen as weak?" All Might asked him seemingly having found the problem as he knew more than a few people[cough, cough(Endeavour) cough] who hated being seen as weak in any form.
"I don't like not being given a chance to prove I'm strong, quirks are just tools, nothing more." Izuku clarified for the hero. Most would have not seen the difference but All Might did, Izuku wasn't too prideful as to hate things like pity or weakness, he just wanted to be given a chance to shine as much as everyone else, he didn't want to be the best but prove he had what it took to stand amongst them like an equal.
"I see, I take it you're interested in the hero course yes?" All Might summarised as he could imagine that this kid's drive was leading him to one place.
"Yes." Izuku answered as he looked the man in the eye, even if All Might's eyes were hard to see with all the shadows covering them.
"Even without a quirk, surely you know that you're in for an uphill battle?" All Might asked, he didn't want to shoot this kid's dreams down but he wanted to see if the kid was serious about it, after-all once upon a time he was quirkless too.
"Nothing in life worth having comes easy, I don't want to be side-lined just because my pinkie toe is double-jointed. More importantly, I want to be a hero that can be a beacon of hope." Izuku told him with an air of nervous determination, at his last three words-All Might stiffened as he recalled his past.
"A beacon?" All Might asked him, wanting to hear more. 'Wait a minute.'
"Yes. I want to be able to save people, to help people to become the living symbol of proof, proof that being quirkless isn't the end of the world and that you can do whatever your heart desires, that all it takes is the will and effort." Izuku told him, gaining more confidence and passion as he kept speaking till he had straightened his back, raised his chin, and spoke like a leader. At this, All Might remembered something from his past, back from when he was in Junior High.
It was snowing that day, a day that felt like a lifetime ago…
'I want to become a beacon of hope so that people can believe again so that they have something to hope for, even if I'm quirkless.'
'This kid…is just like me…'All Might thought to himself, shocked that he had run into something who had a drive to help, just like he did. He was so lost in thought that he had completely forgotten about his time limit…but he remembered when he felt the pain of his limit closing shoot through him. "Shit. I forget all about that." All Might said to himself as he felt his lips get bloody as steam started coming off his form.
"All Might, are you all right?" Izuku asked him, worried as he didn't think this was part of whatever quirk All Might had and he seemed like he was in pain before the steam started forming. "Damn, what's with all this steam?" Izuku asked as he tried waving his way through it till he came into contact with the number one hero….
Who was now super skinny and sickly looking?
.
.
.
"The Hell!"
"Y-You Deflated!? Alright, who the hell are you? Don't make me taze you." Izuku demanded as he jumped back and took out his stun baton and got into a defensive stance, this guy may look weak but looks can be deceiving.
"I am All Mig-!" was what he wanted to say till he coughed up a mouthful of blood, Izuku being as smart and observant as he was recalled something from the past and chose to help this…deflated form of All Might, answers can come later.
"Oh my god, are you all right? Damn, I need to call a doctor or something." Izuku said as he ran up to him and helped him to sit down, leaning on the railings for support, he was about to reach for his phone till All Might waved him off.
"There's no need for that, it's not like it will do any good." All Might told him as he breathed out a sigh of exhaustion.
"What do you mean won't do any good, you look like you haven't eaten in weeks," Izuku panicked as he searched around his bag for a moment before he pulled out his bento and practically shoved it into the surprised hero hands. "Here, take this, you need it a hell of a lot more than I do." Izuku finished as he put down his bag.
"I don't think-!" All Might tried to refuse but Izuku wasn't having any of that.
"Did I stutter? Eat. Up. Or I will taze you and force it down your throat." Izuku threatened as he presses the button to let out a little crackle of electricity to get his point across, which combined with the glare he was sending the man's way scared him, hell it reminded him of the looks he would get from Nana and Sorahiko.
'Jesus, this kid can be scary when he wants to be.' Was All Might's thoughts as he submitted and ate the surprisingly great-tasting meal under the watchful eye of the middle schooler. Once he was done, he placed the empty box down and faced the boy who had calmed down.
.
.
.
.
.
"We can sit here all day, you know. I already missed my Judo class so I got nothing to do for another 2 hours." Izuku told him with his hands on his hips and an unimpressed expression that nearly mirrored the face his mother would give him whenever he screwed up and wasn't willing to talk.
"I was hoping for the alternative." All Might said aloud as he knew he wasn't getting out of this without an explanation.
"I imagine that this has something to do with what happened five years ago?" Izuku said out of the blue which got a very bloody reaction out of the man.
"[COUGH]. How do you know about that?" All Might asked the kid with a shocked and slightly scared face.
"I don't know what happened but I notice that around that time you seemed to appear less and less and it's been getting worse lately since people rarely see you these days. You save the day and are gone before anything else. I've been told I'm observant." Izuku told him as he recalled the pattern he noticed all those years ago, he just thought All Might was trying to live a more normal life since next to nothing was known about it in the first place.
"So you are, I don't think I've ever run into someone like you, figuring that out is impressive, but since you already had your suspicions and have seen me like this," All Might said as he lifted his shirt to show Izuku the horrid wound upon his person. "Yeah, I know, not that pretty. It's an injury I got from a villain's attack five years ago." All Might confirmed.
"You mean Toxic Chainsaw did that?" Izuku asked him, shocked that he was able to wound the hero so badly only for All Might to shake his head as a no to his answer.
"Nope, a punk like that couldn't even dream of such but it was a villain that the government doesn't want to be well-known because of his power. I lost my left lung and my whole stomach. I've become emaciated from the repeated surgeries and the aftereffects. Right now, I can only work as a hero for about three hours a day." All Might told him with a frown as he thought about how he could work less and less with each passing day.
"It's that bad?" Izuku asked him as he came to sit next to him
"Afraid so, as you guessed, that time limit of mine has been steadily decreasing as the years go by, soon the day will come when I will be forced to retire." All Might said, speaking the truth that he hated to acknowledge but it wasn't something he could ignore, not at this point.
"Isn't there, I mean can't you travel to I-island? They study just about everything there. Surely one of them could help." Izuku suggested, he knew of the breakthroughs that had seemingly weekly there.
"I appreciate the gesture young Midoriya but David Shield himself looked at this, he tried…and he failed." All Might revealed to him.
"You went to see Shield-sama?" Izuku asked as his mentor never said anything about this and Melissa also kept quiet about it two but maybe that had this meeting before they met.
"Shield-sama?" All Might asked, he may use English words and American slang a lot but he hadn't forgotten proper Japanese prefixes and suffixes over the years.
"Yes, my father and Shield-sama are partners and work closely together, just about everything I know I owe to them and Mellissa." Izuku told him as he thought to all the fond memories he had made on I-island and how hanging out with Melissa was always the highlight of his trips there.
"I see, he did tell him he had taken on a sort of apprentice last I spoke to him, small world." All Might stated as he cracked a smile at the unlikely things that had happened today.
"Does...does Melissa know, she looks up to you, you know?" Izuku asked as he gestured to his whole…smaller form.
"[sigh].No, she doesn't, we just couldn't bring ourselves to tell her." All Might said as he and Dave didn't want to tell the poor girl, she didn't need to know such depressing things. They sat silent for a few moments, each one digesting the day's events and the revelations that had been revealed to each other before Izuku spoke up again.
"…I'm not going to pretend I know what you're going through, everyone breaks differently and deals with pain in different ways but you should tell her, she wouldn't see you as any less, trust me, her hearts as big as her brain, she's the big sister I never had after all so I should know besides," Izuku started as he thought about Mellissa and her endless kindness and her understanding heart. "For what's it worth, I don't think less of you, if anything I think you're even better than I did before." Izuku finished as he looked towards the wounded titan he came to idolize like many kids, only know he knew he was human and that made all his feats and achievements even more impressive.
"Young Midoriya, you have a heart of gold. I'm sure that if you gave it your all, one day you may just take my place as the number one hero." All Might told him suddenly, in another timeline he would have told him it wasn't possible without a quirk but right here and now, he saw that this boy had a different kind of power, one that many pros didn't have. This kid reminded him of himself but also showed him that he was going to be even greater than most of the current heroes. This show of support, this vote of confidence from the number one hero was enough to bring Izuku to tears.
"Thanks, thank you so much." He repeated as he tried and failed to wipe away his tears.
"Come here, let it all out." All Might soothed him as he brought the kid closer so he could cry it out, he would of if not for him touching his wounded area by mistake. "Ouch!"
"Sorry!"
"It's fine, it's just sensitive is all." All Might told him as he rubbed the area, waiting for the pain to die out.
"How about that…" Izuku said as he reached for his back and started looking through it.
'Just how much stuff does he have in there?' All Might thought himself as he wouldn't be surprised if the kid pulled out Nezu since that darn…whatever he was loved to pull such tricks on people. After a few moments, Izuku pulled out a small package and handed it to him.
"It might not be much but they do help me when my muscles are sore. I sometimes lose track of the time when I'm working out." Izuku said as All Might looked at the now revealed muscle patches the boy had given him, he knew that they worked great on aches and cramp muscles and he could see that they were made in France, just like the ones he used.
"I agree, I used that same brand, I even got some more…today…" All Might said as he gestured to the empty spot where his groceries would have been if he didn't forget them by the underpass, the same groceries that had his patches and dinner for the night.
.
.
.
"Dammit!" All Might coughed out with some blood as he just realized his screw-up.