Chapter Text
All Might arrived at the scene in his true form, out of breath and clutching his side. He had ran as fast as he could without activating One for All but was too late to stop the villain he'd lost track of after rescuing. Unfortunately, before hd arrived, a middle school student had been taken captive. He stood frozen watching the boy struggle blaming himself for all of it.
I lost track of time! Dealing with that fan led to this!!
While All Might clutched his side overcome with shame and guilt Midoriya Izuku was not where he was supposed to be, he'd headed in another direction lost in his own thoughts.
Even... the best of the best said it...
Don't cry!
You knew already right?!
This reality...
It's because I knew...
That I tried so damn hard...
So hard not to see.
To ignore reality.
Izuku, lost in thought, he didn't see her coming. She didn't see him either as they were quickly turning the corner, unable to stop in time. They collided into eachother, hard and fast. Both of them landed backwards onto the sidewalk.
"Ow, ow, ow, shit!"
The girl slowly sat up in front of him, cursing her bad luck. She was about a year older than him but not wearing any school uniforms just casual clothes. He first noticed her shoes, hiking boots with sturdy soles, but faded from age and use, covered with old stains from water and mud. The pants she wore were rugged jeans with holes and frayed seams, her shirt was a generic white T-shirt with a band logo screen printed onto the front and over it she wore a faux leather vest. She was wearing biking gloves with no bike in sight, and her hair was a bright magenta cut into a messy bob. As she opened her eyes Izuku noted her irises were a dull grayish blue. Her tom boyish attire didn't work in anyway to accentuate her feminine features so it took a moment before Izuku realized he was sitting in front of and gawking at a girl who he didn't know. His face flushed red from embarassment at his rude behaviour and he tried to avert making eye contact with her.
"HEY!"
The sudden harsh and commanding tone of her voice made Izuku flinch.
"U-uh, yes! Wha-what is it?"
"Quit gawking at me!"
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to! I was just-just shaken up a bit!"
The girl seemed a bit distracted and was looking around as if searching for something while Izuku was getting up and brushing dirt off of his pants.
"Dammit, I lost it," she said under her breath.
Izuku picked up his hero notebook that he'd dropped and extended a hand to the girl.
"He-here let me help you up,"
She brushed his hand away, "I'm perfectly able to stand up on my—" she winced in pain while attempting to stand up before sitting back on the ground rubbing her leg. Izuku could see her right ankle was red and beginning to swell. It was a nasty sprain.
"Hold still!" Izuku swung his bag around and started riffling through it. He procured some masking tape and two rulers and knelt back down. "You need a splint so you don't hurt it further," he almost reached down to her foot but stopped himself,
I'm probably just bothering her,
Glancing back at her face confirmed to Izuku she was indeed frustrated, but not necessarily because of him.
"You gotta wrap the rulers up first, if they broke I'd just get cuts on my leg too," she snatched the rulers from his hands and started to tear off the lower part of her pant legs. The poor condition of her jeans made it pretty easy for her to rip some fabric off. Izuku sighed in relief and helped tape the denim around the rulers. The girl removed her shoe and pulled out the lace for Izuku to use while tying the splint in place. "Ya can't use tape on the skin directly, plus we can adjust it easier with my shoe lace if the swelling continues,"
"You seem to know a lot about first aid,"
"I kinda have to with how my part time job goes. Any way thanks for the assistance uh—"
"Midorya, my name is Midoriya Izuku," Izuku extended his hand for her to grab again. This time she accepted his help.
"I'm Watanabe Kokoro, I'd say nice to meet'cha but I wasn't very nice to you after I rounded the bend so fast like an idiot. Sorry bout that."
"Oh, no I should've been more aware of my surroundings, were you in a hurry Watanabe?"
"Yes, but there's no point now since my ankle is hurt, can't work like this,"
"Sorry, is there anyway I can make it up to you?"
"Well it'd be nice to have a proper store bought ankle brace and a cold compress!" Kokoro replied in a joking manner but Izuku took his phone out and started looking up the nearest drug store despite that. "Ah, I wasn't serious,"
"You'll still need something cool for the swelling so-" a small notification caught Izuku's eye as he was on his phone, a hero news alert for a breaking news article titled "Middle School Student Attacked by Sludge Villain! Windswept Hero: Whirl Girl Swoops In!" and he felt a lump form in his throat. No way, it couldn't it be...
"You okay?" Kokoro asked Izuku.
"U-uh yeah I'll be fine," he swiped up the map app and showed Kokoro. "There should be a drug store a block away if we take that road on the left down there,"
He walked with Kokoro just to make sure she wasn't having any trouble walking. She was furiously texting someone (Izuku assumed it must be her boss) while he led the way. As much as he tried to hide his unease she eyed him with some concern. If he hadn't been worried about that article he might have started freaking out internally about walking along side a girl he just met. Kokoro went in the store insisting Izuku didn't need to pay for anything, that she'd cover the costs herself since it was mostly her fault (Izuku felt guilty anyway). "You can have your rulers back though, so just wait here til I get the brace on,"
While she was in the store Izuku took a deep breath, leaned against building and opened up the hero news app on his phone. The article featured amatuer footage from a witness but the still image of the paused video already confirmed his fears. How? When? Did All Might—
He tentatively pressed play and watched the scene play out, his heart nearly stopped when he saw Bakugo's face filled with tears practically pleading for help. The length of the video was what really scared him. Kacchan went through that for over 5 whole minutes?!
He felt a tap on the shoulder and turned to see Kokoro leaning over him, shopping bag of first aid stuff in tow. "Something happen? You're crying," She glanced at the video and Izuku quickly paused it, as if she would unsee him crying and he'd be able to keep himself composed. "Oh damn! That kid has the same uniform as you! He okay? You guys friends?"
Izuku wiped his tears from his face and slumped to the ground. "He-he was rescued but it looks like..." he scrolled down to the end of the article, Bakugo had been hospitalized and he felt his face heat up again, barely holding in his tears.
"Says he's stable, thank god right?" Kokoro tried to lighten the mood with that but Izuku just sat there trying not to cry more. "Hey hey, he's gonna be fine," she sat down beside him and started to remove the makeshift splint and wrapped the denim ripped from her pant leg earlier around a cold compress before placing it on her ankle. As she opened the packaging for the brace Izuku let out a small sigh and quietly spoke "It's all my fault..."
"Didya hit the ground too hard earlier? When I crashed into you I mean?"
"N-no that's not it...I was attacked by that villain earlier and rescued by All Might," as he said this Kokoro's eyes grew wide.
"So what was that guy doing attacking your friend if All Might saved you from him? There's no way he'd lose track of snot face right? Ya sure it's the same villain?"
"I'm positive he's the same one. I distracted All Might earlier I—"
Izuku told Kokoro about All Might rescuing him, stuffing the villain in bottles, and checking that he was alright. He showed her All Might's signature in his notebook and told her how he grabbed All Might as he was leaving. He left out how All Might had been injured and weakened since he made a promise but he told her how he'd bothered All Might with a selfish question he just didn't want to admit he already knew the answer to.
"I grabbed him because I selfishly wanted someone to tell me I could be a hero, even without a quirk, and I knocked the trapped villain from his pockets when I did," He'd started crying halfway through his story and now his face was stained wet from the tears and snot. "He told me that pro's put their life on the line everyday and that I needed to be more realistic, just like everyone else had already been telling me, if I had just gotten it through my head sooner..."
Kokoro pulled out some tissues from the shopping bag. She watched as Izuku wiped his face and blew his nose before she said "It's not your fault though anyway,"
"B-but it really is!"
"Tch! It's not, if anything it's All Might's fault for letting his guard down before he jumped, and for letting himself get caught up with you before he checked his pockets for the villain. Did he even look down to check after you landed?"
Izuku thought for a moment and replayed the scene in his head. All Might had immediately turned to prepare another jump to get to the police after they landed. "No he didn't" he said somewhat surprised about that himself.
Even though All Might was on a time limit he could still have checked his pockets while he walked. He also didn't need to personally stay with me while I came to after fainting from the attack. As long as he alerted another person nearby or called the police to send someone there he didn't need to do any of that. The courtesy of signing my notebook was another moment of wasted time though I'm grateful he did. One of All Might's most popular features was how willing he was to spend even one moment with his fans before going back to work. He practically mastered the high speed autograph perfectly just so he could give one in a hurry for his fans before leaping to the next matter that needed his attention—
"Okay that muttering is freaking me out..." Kokoro's words broke Izuku out of his trance as he had apparently been conveying these thoughts out loud.
"AH! Sorry it's just a habit from when I'm writing down my analysis in my note—THE NOTEBOOK IN YOUR HANDS RIGHT NOW?!" Kokoro had apparently been holding it since he showed her All Might's autograph and was flipping through it while he was lost in thought.
"Lotta attention to detail in these notes, wow you are one heck of a herotaku,"
"Gi-give it back..." Izuku was afraid of letting someone look through it since all people did was make fun of him after they even saw the cover.
Kokoro whistled as she poured over the pages, "Are you saying you find Mount Lady sexy or do you think she is objectively sexy to the point she could use it to strategic advantage? For a guy without a quirk you seem to put lots of thought into quirk applications but you'd really only need notes on how to counter them in opponents or how to combine them in a team scenario." She closed the book and handed it back to Izuku.
"Wanna swap contact info?" She said giving Izuku a bright smile.
A GIRL ASKED FOR MY PHONE NUMBER!!
His face turned bright red. "S-sure, of c-course!" They exchanged numbers and he helped Kokoro stand up so she didn't need to put too much weight on her ankle. As she waved goodbye Izuku looked back at his phone to check the time and he closed the contacts app. The news app popped up next and before he closed that he accidentally brushed the play button over the video and was quite surprised to see the camera fall out of the hands of the person filming after a gust of wind kicked up and blew them back. The phone had landed with the lense facing the sky, showcasing some of the people in the crowd who had been looking on when Bakugo was attacked. The guy filming lifted up his phone to turn to the scene again and that's when Izuku noticed. That guant figure. The blonde bangs. Clutching his side near the edge of the crowd was All Might. Anyone else watching the video wouldn't have known who he was but Izuku did and felt sick to his stomach.
All Might... You were right there and you didn't save Kacchan... He was right in front of you. You—
Kokoro was down the street, originally she was walking home but she had stopped and looked back at Izuku one last time before she was gone for some reason. His face was beginning to twist in an unsightly manner as he looked at his phone. Kokoro smirked and whispered gently under her breath,
"Jackpot"