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Toshinori clutches his briefcase tighter when the train hits a bump in the road. Kami, why does he even bother with public transportation?
To be fair, his own car had broken down a few weeks prior, but still. Public transportation is a nightmare.
The train is overcrowded and there are people standing in Toshinori’s face. Someone presses into his side to make room for their friend, and Toshinori edges further away. That means that he bumps into a sharp-looking woman, and she glares at him. Her friend tugs at her arm but she shoves them off.
“Back off,” she snaps.
“Sorry,” Toshinori mutters. The woman softens slightly, but she’s still angry.
Understandable, Toshinori thinks. He tips his head in a silent apology and pulls out his phone, content to read the news as he waits for his stop.
Unfortunately, fate has other plans.
“Hey, isn’t that All Might?”
Toshinori doesn’t see who it is, but someone suggested it, and everyone is quickly realizing.
Yet another reason he hates taking the train.
“It is!”
“I recognize him from Kamino,” one passenger adds.
“You’re right!”
“Wow, I can’t believe I’m on a train with All Might!”
Toshinori is overwhelmed by the responses, but overall this is going better than he had dared to hope for.
Of course, everything goes wrong the moment he thinks that.
“All Might?” an old man snorts. “He’s just some schmuck pretending to be great at something he isn’t.”
The man has a cane, and briefly Toshinori thinks of his old mentor. The comparisons stop there, though. Gran Torino was constructive with his criticism.
“Symbol of Peace? More like Symbol of Despair, in my book. What did he even do, during Kamino?”
Toshinori’s shoulders fall, weighed down with the weight of his responsibilities. The old man is right. What did he do?
No one speaks up against the old man, and soon the tension is broken when the conductor announces, “Next stop!”
Toshinori hurries off the train, despite the fact that this isn’t his stop. He just… he needs to get off of that bus. It was already muggy before everyone recognized him, but then that old man made staying there unbearable.
Toshinori glances up at the arrival time of the next train and grimaces. It won’t arrive for another ten minutes, and he was already going to be late for his meeting without this detour.
Naomasa is going to kill him, once he gets over his worry.
Ring! Toshinori pauses when he sees who’s calling him. He hurries out of the station and is just barely out the door when he picks up.
“Naomasa,” he starts.
“Toshinori,” Naomasa sighs, his voice full of anger and relief. “Where are you? Normally you’re here by now!”
“I know, I know,” Toshinori sighs. “I got held up on the train.”
“Oh.” Naomasa’s voice is softer now, sympathetic. He knows Toshinori’s plight all-too-well. “Still, you need to get here soon or we’ll have to start the meeting without you.”
“I’ll get there as soon as possible!” Toshinori assures. “It’s not like I’m the only one you’re waiting on, right?”
“Er…” Naomasa hesitates.
Toshinori groans, “Don’t tell me that everyone is there already!”
“I won’t lie to you,” Naomasa says. “They are.” He at least has the decency to sound empathetic to Toshinori’s plight. Some of his other coworkers would be cold and uncaring of the circumstances.
It hurts to suggest, but the words, “Start the meeting without me,” slide out of Toshinori’s mouth easily.
“What?”
“Start without me,” he repeats. “We both know that I don’t really need to be there.”
“Still,” Naomasa hedges. Toshinori was the Symbol of Peace for so long that to keep him off of a case feels wrong, unnatural.
“Just send me the minutes afterwards, yeah?”
Naomasa hesitates, but he eventually concedes. “Yeah. Take care of yourself, all right?”
“Yeah, yeah. See you tomorrow.” Toshinori hangs up and sighs. What should he do now? He glances at the train station hesitantly and debates going back in, but ultimately decides not too. The train home isn’t coming for a while yet, and he doesn’t want to wait in such a crowded, muggy space.
Toshinori glances around. Maybe there’s something interesting nearby?
There are cafes and shops, but nothing looks interesting to Toshinori. He walks around a bit, and eventually he reaches the end of the road. Nothing to see but a few thin trails leading in every which way.
He sighs and begins to turn back, but something in the distance catches his eye.
A little speck of green, barely noticeable. Toshinori finds new strength and walks forward with purpose, eager now to see whatever plant this may be.
The closer he gets, the more plants he sees. Some are only visible once he’s past them, and Toshinori marvels at how well they’re hidden.
A secret garden, visible only to those who wish to see it.
As Toshinori wanders through the small forest, he grows more and more content. He inhales, and the crisp scent of pine cones tickles his nose. Toshinori grins.
This garden is a secret known only to Toshinori, or at least that's how it feels. The crisp air and beautiful flowers are a gift all their own, and Toshinori is glad to bask in them.
He spies various flowers, and all of them hold special meanings.
Valerian symbolizes readiness, and the flower makes him think of Midoriya. His successor. His son. He is always up for anything, and he wears a near constant smile. (The day Midoriya is unprepared is the day that Toshinori eats his hat.)
Irises remind him of Naomasa, of his brave and loyal friend who would do anything for him and whom Toshinori would do anything for.
The freesias remind him of his students. They may be wiser than their years, but they’re still children in the way that counts.
Toshinori could come up with endless comparisons, but he digresses.
Each flower reminds him of someone he cares for, and it makes this secret garden all the more special. Toshinori inhales, and it’s in that moment that a single flower falls to the ground. Toshinori thrusts out a hand to catch it, and it sits squarely in the center of his palm.
It’s a blue lotus. The flower symbolizes new beginnings, and Toshinori can’t help but feel that it’s accurate. This garden has given Toshinori a new idea, a new spark of hope.
With all that his class went through last year, a garden might be the perfect beginning to this one.