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Yagi Toshinori was at the lowest point of his life.
Worse than when he was a quirkless hero wannabe with no hope of accomplishing his dream. Worse than when Nana died after passing on One for All. Worse than his previous encounters with All For One.
His only true friend, Sasaki Mirai, had left him after they had gotten into an argument. His friend had wanted him to quit being a hero. But Toshinori couldn’t; he had a duty to help people! Only, he couldn’t help people as much as he used to.
Now thanks to the loss of his stomach, he had a time limit. Currently it was 8 hours, but if he pushed himself too much, it would shrink down. Though Recovery Girl said it would also lower slowly even if he didn’t push himself.
Walking through the streets in his emaciated form, he cringed at some of the looks he received from people. So used to seeing the awe and respect in the eyes of civilians, it was shocking to see looks of disgust, of horror, and of fear . Fear from innocent people who he would never hurt. If it was fear in a criminal's eyes, well, that was a different story.
He shouldn’t even be walking right now. If Recovery Girl knew he wasn’t sticking to bed rest, she’d probably whack him with her cane. It wasn’t like he was doing any hero work! He was just… getting some fresh air.
Being stuck in the room was driving him mad.
Mirai had been his only friend for years, though he had a few others who knew the secrets of One For All. Nedzu, Gran Torino, and Recovery Girl knew his secret as well. Less than a handful of people, and while he respected Nedzu, and had a healthy dose of fear of Gran Torino and Recovery Girl, he couldn’t say they were friends. Colleagues, certainly, but not friends.
Toshinori’s head hung down as he continued walking. He was All Might, the number one hero, and he didn’t even have a friend who truly knew him. That was truly pathetic, wasn’t it?
Mirai had been, but they were just too different he supposed, and he had finally driven the man away. He supposed it had only a matter of time before it would have happened.
Toshinori sighed and sat on a bench, watching as the people went on with their lives. Taking slow breaths he watched, unseen as people paid him no attention. Only a couple people sent him looks of disgust if they caught sight of him, but even then, their attention drifted away after only a moment.
Invisible.
Once, months ago, there was a time he would have given anything to be able to get a moment of peace from the public’s eye. Anything was a powerful word. His wish had been granted, but the cost had been high.
He blinked, staring out at the streets with a confused expression. Somehow the sun had vanished, and night was in full swing. Where had the time gone? Had he really been sitting there that long lost in his thoughts?
Getting up, he winced as his left side flared in pain from the movement, his back protesting the sudden motion after sitting for so long. Pulling out his phone, he pulled up the maps, not recognizing where he was.
With the address programmed in, he started walking along the path, checking occasionally to make sure he was heading in the right direction.
Ten minutes later, Toshinori prayed that Recovery Girl would never find out what happened to him, because she would revive him just to kill him again.
It wasn’t his fault! He had stopped for a moment, leaning against an alleyway wall while staring at his phone. His map for whatever reason had stopped working, or maybe it was working? Either way it was showing a completely different route from a minute ago, and somehow he was even further away from his house than when he started!
Anyways, here he was leaning against the wall when he heard people speaking in hushed voices, just loud enough for him to make out what they were saying. What he heard froze his blood. Villains, specifically human traffickers; they were planning to move their ‘cargo’. Toshinori stayed still as the voices headed away, moving to exit the other side of the alleyway.
He had the information, but he was in no condition to be doing any hero work so soon. Recovery Girl really would kill him if he tried when she still had him on bed rest. As much as he wanted to put a stop to it, he couldn’t.
Which meant he needed to give this information to another Hero. His first thought was to give it to Mirai, because his friend was good at this kind of work, and would be able to contact the best heroes to fight the villains and help any of the victims.
Heart dropping like a stone he realized that he couldn’t go to Mirai. His fri- former friend clearly stated that he didn’t want to hear from Toshinori anymore.
He couldn’t tell Gran Torino either; his teacher had retired and was staying out of hero business. Recovery Girl wasn’t an option. He liked living. Maybe Nedzu? The principal wasn’t really a hero in the typical sense, usually he was combating cyber crimes; villains that didn’t commit crimes in person, but rather used their intelligence to do villainous acts.
Who could he contact? The other heroes he knew didn’t know about the attack, and he couldn’t use One For All yet. Recovery Girl told him to not use the quirk for another two weeks. Two weeks of bedrest.
Reaching up, he ran a hand through his hair, fingers catching on some knots. He was a hero. He should be able to do something. But he was useless . He couldn’t even think of a way to stop these traffickers. What was wrong with him? Was this what his future looked like? Sitting on the sidelines, needing other heroes to do something for him…?
Toshinori shuddered, breathing becoming faster.
Why? Why was this his future? He just wanted to help people, but it was his own fault he was like this. He had stupidly gone against All For One without backup, and though he had managed to kill that bastard, his enemy had the last laugh. Weakening him in such a way that Toshinori wouldn’t be able to save people.
He wanted to save everyone with a smile.
He couldn’t do that if he couldn’t smile.
He couldn’t do that if he couldn’t save people.
Just what sort of hero was he?
“Sir, I need you to take a deep breath,” a gruff voice commanded, interrupting his thoughts.
Toshinori obeyed, though it caused him to cough a bit, blood coming out. “Sorry!” He hastily apologized, even as he pulled out a handkerchief to clean up the blood that caught on the edges of his mouth.
Recovery Girl told him there was nothing to be done for his coughing.
“I’ll walk you to the hospital,” the man offered, and Toshinori took a closer look at the stranger. He wore black clothes, and had a white scarf around his neck.
“It’s fine, nothing can be done,” Toshinori said, taking a few small steady breaths.
Black eyes stared at him, the man’s expression blank, but his eyes were kind. “Okay. Are you doing better now?”
Toshinori swallowed, nodding, “Yes, sorry for bothering you, I don’t know what overcame me.”
“You weren’t bothering me, it’s my job to make sure people are okay,” the stranger said.
“Oh? Are you a police officer?” Toshinori questioned, giving a smile. Though if the man was he was out of uniform.
A flash of amusement crossed the stranger's face, “Something like that.”
Speaking of police officers, Toshinori suddenly felt very dumb. He could inform the police, like one of those anonymous tips. Then the police could get the heroes needed to deal with it. But would they believe him?
“Do you know what caused your panic attack?” The stranger questioned, hands in pockets and slouching.
“Panic attack?” Toshinori repeated, frowning.
Black eyes narrowed, “I’ll take that as a no. Would it be safe for me to assume that’s your first one?”
Toshinori hesitated, “In a long time, yes. I had some when I was a child.”
He hadn’t realized he had a panic attack. The stranger gave a nod, and Toshinori realized he hadn't introduced himself yet. “Sorry, I’ve been rude, my name is Yagi Toshinori.”
The black haired man paused, then responded in a dull tone, “Eraserhead.”
Toshinori blinked, that name sounding vaguely familiar. Though it definitely wasn’t a name a parent would give a child. “Hero?” he questioned, vaguely remembering Mirai mentioning someone named Eraserhead. Though he didn’t remember the context.
Eraserhead nodded, “Do you think you’re okay to get home now?”
“I- yes, thank you,” Toshinori said and Eraserhead turned to leave.
It was as the man turned to leave Toshinori realized that he was letting an opportunity slip. “Wait. I… I overheard something earlier.”
The hero paused, turning to him, eyebrows furrowed together, but he was listening to him. The streets were empty but the two of them in the dead of night. “I overheard some traffickers discussing that they were going to be moving.”
Eraserhead’s eyes narrowed on him, attention completely on him, “Tell me everything you heard.”
And Toshinori did.
Maybe he couldn’t be the hero to save those people, but as long as they got saved, that was all that mattered in the end.
Two days later and the trafficking ring was on the news, though they didn’t cover which hero took them down.
Toshinori smiled, glad that they had been dealt with, and that was that. He put it out of his mind. He didn’t think he would ever meet the hero again.
Except Toshinori was apparently a magnet for trouble. Especially when he couldn’t do anything. He was three days away from being able to do his hero work again when he managed to overhear another group of criminals.
This time it was about a bank robbery. And why were all these criminals just discussing this stuff in the alleyways? Toshinori knew he wasn’t that smart; he had been told it often enough, but even he knew discussing criminal activities where someone else could overhear was foolish.
Once he overheard the important information, he walked away from the villains and pulled out his phone. Opening his maps, he looked for the local police station planning to inform them.
Thirty minutes later and he was doing his best to not grit his teeth; the secretary was completely dismissive of him. She wouldn’t even let him talk to anyone else and now was threatening to have him arrested for disturbing the peace.
Toshinori didn’t want to give up, but he supposed he would have to find a different police station.
As he turned to leave, the door behind him opened. In came Eraserhead, scowling as he dragged an unconscious criminal behind him.
The man scowled as he looked at the woman, “Where’s Tsukauchi?”
“Who are you?” the woman asked, looking horrified.
“I am the one who called this station earlier so the police could do their job and pick up these criminals, only to have the phone be slammed on me with a screech of ‘Don’t waste our valuable time with pranks.’,” Eraserhead said, eyes narrowed, and his voice speaking in low even tones.
Toshinori snorted a bit.
Eraserhead spared him a brief glance, but turned his attention back to the woman, “Now. This is obviously your first day here, but obviously whoever trained you didn’t do a very good job. Go get the detective.”
The woman bristled, “Who are you to tell me what to do?”
Eraserhead grinned. It wasn’t friendly, or nice, it looked like a smile from a demon of hell coming to grab your soul. “Pro Hero: Eraserhead.”
“You? A hero?” The woman scoffed, turning away to look at the computer screen.
Toshinori winced a bit as he saw Eraserhead glare at her. Even without the glare being aimed at him, it was one of the most terrifying glares he had ever seen. Biting his lip for a moment he murmured, “You’d think the sight of the criminal being tied up would be proof enough.”
Eraserhead snorted, “That would require her to be logical,” he responded, pulling a card out of his pocket and stalking up to the desk and placing it down. “Is this proof enough for you?”
Toshinori silently added ‘bitch’ in his mind. Then scolded himself for thinking that; still, he was tired and fed up with her, and right now he was Toshinori, not All Might. He didn’t have to be the shining beacon of peace right now. He was allowed to have a bit of pettiness.
The woman paled, eyes widening as she stared at him with wide eyes. “Now, are you going to get Detective Tsukauchi?”
She nodded and got up, heading back.
Eraserhead huffed, before turning to him, “So what are you here for?”
Toshinori rubbed the back of his neck, offering a sheepish smile, “I overheard another conversation.”
Eraserhead’s eyebrow shot up, “Again?”
He nodded, “I came to tell the police, but well, you saw how she was.”
“Indeed. After I process this criminal you can tell us the information.”
Toshinori gave a smile, heading to one of the chairs and sitting down. About half an hour later and Eraserhead came back out, the criminal gone and his scarf firmly wrapped around his neck instead of acting like a leash.
Eraserhead just lifted a finger, gesturing for Toshinori to follow. He did. Soon he was sitting in the room from a police detective, “Hello, I’m Detective Tsukauchi, Eraserhead told me that you were the one who gave us that lead a week and a half ago?”
“Yeah,” Toshinori said, giving a nod, even as he felt his cheeks heat up.
“Just so you know, my quirk is Lie Detector,” the detective said, giving a bit of an apologetic smile.
Toshinori nodded, “So how do we start this?”
“How about you give me your name?”
“Yagi Toshinori,” he said.
With that the interview was underway, Eraserhead and the Detective asking him questions. Luckily none of them strayed into anywhere where he would have had to lie. Eventually they were finished, “Thank you, we’ll make sure this is taken care of.”
Sensing the dismissal, Toshinori stood up to leave.
“Yagi-san, does this happen often?” Eraserhead questioned, black eyes staring at him.
“What do you mean?” Toshinori asked.
“Do you often find yourself with information about villain activities?”
Toshinori frowned, thinking about it. He supposed he had overheard conversations before, but usually the criminals spotted him and then All Might would have to deal with them, which led to that information not actually working out.
That was if he wasn’t counting the fact he had information on villains simply due to being a pro hero.
“The fact that you have to think about this is worrying,” Tsukauchi said, a smile showing he wasn’t upset, though he did look a bit worried.
“Yes, sorry, I’m just now realizing how often I’ve overheard information from villains,” he said, a bit apologetic.
“And you never informed the police before?” Eraserhead questioned.
“Ah… not directly, no.”
“What did you do then?”
“My friend, he had connections to the police already, I would tell him and he would take care of it,” Toshinori answered. Realizing that they were going to be talking for a while longer he sank back into a chair.
Eraserhead frowned, “Why did you come here this time then, why not tell your friend?”
Toshinori’s shoulders sagged, “We had a falling out. He won’t speak to me anymore.”
The hero nodded.
Tsukauchi frowned, “Did your friend ever give you any money for the information?”
“No?”
“Did he pay you in any manner?” Eraserhead questioned.
“No,” Toshinori answered, wondering why the detective was asking these questions.
Eraserhead frowned, eyes narrowing slightly as he glanced at the detective.
“You do know what you are doing is basically being an informant. You should have been paid for your information if you repeatedly reported it to the police. Your friend was likely getting paid for the information he gave the police.”
Toshinori coughed, startled, waving a hand as if to ward off that statement. “No! I don’t need to be paid, I just want to help people as best I can.”
Even if he couldn’t do much right now.
“If you’re going to become an official informant for us, then we will be paying you.”
Toshinori froze, blue eyes widening, “Wait. What do you mean ‘official’ informant?”
Eraserhead gave a grin, this one merely unsettling compared to the demonic one from earlier. “You have admitted that you regularly end up gaining information. This information can be useful for saving lives. Obviously that means you need to be able to inform us of said information.”
“And seeing as this is dangerous work, if the criminals catch you, then it’s only right that you are paid,” Tsukauchi added.
An hour later, Toshinori left the police station in a daze of information, with two new numbers in his phone. The detective’s and for time-sensitive cases, Eraserhead’s.
A year passed almost in the blink of an eye. But, it had been a good year, all things considering. His hero time might be limited, but he was able to still help people, even in this shrunken form of his.
Mostly he talked with Tsukauchi, which did end up with the man discovering him as All Might, which had been amusing.
“You’re All Might?!”
“Not so loud!” Toshinori said, waving his hands. “But, yes.”
“Oh my god,” Tsukauchi groaned, burying his head in his hands.
“Sorry.”
Tsukauchi gave him a disbelieving look, “You’re apologizing for the fact you're All Might?”
“I- no, just the fact that I didn’t tell you?”
“Unbelievable. Eraserhead doesn’t know, does he?”
“No, he doesn’t.”
Tsukauchi grinned, “Try and record his reaction if you reveal yourself to him.”
“Okay?” Toshinori said, not understanding why Tsukauchi would look so amused at that.
It had taken Toshinori until a few more dealings with Eraserhead to know why. Eraserhead detested All Might. Thinking him all brawn and no brains. Then he turned around and complimented Toshinori for being ‘logical’.
Throughout the year, he managed to become good friends with Tsukauchi, but he only remained an acquaintance of Eraserhead’s, still not even knowing his real name.
Currently, Toshinori was at home scrolling through the news, thinking about getting in a nap. His phone ringing prevented that though.
Glancing at the name he identified who it was before answering, “Ah, good evening Eraserhead, what can-”
“How soon can you be at the Amber Boar?”
Toshinori frowned, “The restaurant?”
“Yes,” Eraserhead confirmed, sounding as if he was gritting his teeth.
“A half hour?”
Was that someone speaking in the background? “Get here in fifteen minutes,” the hero said.
Toshinori frowned, wondering what was going on. Standing up he changed clothes and then went to his garage, using his car to get there quicker. It would have taken thirty minutes had he walked. Toshinori preferred walking around in case he stumbled across a crime that either he could take care of as All Might, or to get information to report to Tsukauchi and Eraserhead.
Arriving he entered the restaurant, a waiter asking how many. “I’m looking for someone, black hair, ragged appearance?”
The waiter nodded, and gave him directions to a back corner where Eraserhead was sitting looking very put out with a blonde man with green eyes next to him. Taking a closer look at the blonde he recognized him as Present Mic. Across from them, next to the open chair, was a woman with long bluish black hair and blue eyes. Midnight.
They held identical looks of mischief as he approached the table, and Eraserhead just looked tired.
Sitting down he swallowed, “So, um-” he glanced at them and then decided to just be blunt, “I’m not here for business, am I?”
“Unfortunately these two decided to dig through my phone,” Eraserhead nodded in agreement.
“We're so happy that our little Shou found a new friend!” Midnight said, beaming.
“I already told you we aren’t friends, I work with Yagi-san,” Eraserhead responded.
“Nonsense, if you were work buddies, you would have had him on your work phone,” Present Mic retorted.
“I already told you that Yagi-san needed to be able to reach me in an emergency.”
“Nice to meet you Yagi-san, why don’t you introduce yourself?”
“Feel free to be rude to them, they deserve it after forcing me to drag you out here,” Eraserhead said, smirking a bit.
Choices, choices. He could do as Eraserhead suggested, or he could be polite.
He half regretted telling Eraserhead during one of their meetings that he was impressed with Eraser’s ability to not care what people thought of him and say what he wanted. Now every time they met the man told him to just speak his mind. Which… was nice.
But he shouldn’t get used to it, after all, as All Might he had to hold a certain image, and being rude definitely didn’t fit that image.
Still… he had been wanting to take a nap.
“You already know who I am from snooping through personal property, why don’t you introduce yourselves first,” Toshinori said, glancing at Eraserhead to see him giving a slight smirk of approval as Present Mic and Midnight groaned.
“I’m Kayama Nemuri,” Midnight said with a wink.
“Yamada Hizashi!” Mic said, giving finger guns. “We’re so glad that Shouta here has found a new friend!”
Toshinori huffed, “Eraserhead wasn’t lying when he said we were work associates, for your information.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yes,” Eraserhead said, glaring at the two who were suddenly looking sheepish.
“Oh. Sorry.”
Eraserhead huffed, “C’mon Yagi-san, we’re leaving these idiots.”
“Wait, what? But we haven’t eaten anything yet!” Yamada protested.
“We haven’t even interrogated your ‘work associate’ yet! We have to be sure he is good friend material, just in case!” Kayama added.
Eraserhead ignored them, standing up, and then walking over to Toshinori and grabbing his arm to start dragging him away. Toshinori snorted in amusement, but went with the man, waving to the two who remained sitting at the table looking like someone told them they were being served their least favorite food.
“Sorry about them, they mean well,” Eraserhead apologized.
“It’s fine; it was interesting to say the least. Though not how I planned to spend my afternoon,” Toshinori said, changing to head towards where his car was parked.
“And how did you plan on spending it?”
“Taking a nap,” Toshinori admitted.
Eraserhead smirked. “That’s definitely something I can get behind, though I’m surprised you’re taking a nap in the middle of the afternoon. Then again, most people underestimate the power of naps.”
Toshinori huffed a laugh, “Well working these two jobs is time consuming.”
“What’s your other job?”
“I’m a secretary.”
Eraserhead frowned, “You are? That’s… not what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“I’m not sure, I guess something with a bit more action, you don’t seem like the type to sit around. So what company do you work for?”
Toshinori gave a slight smirk, already knowing of Eraserheads contempt of All Might. “I work for All Might’s agency.”
Eraserhead groaned, “You work at that buffoon's company?”
“Yup,” Toshinori said, popping the p.
“I feel so sorry for you,” Eraserhead said seriously. “Having to see that mornon regularly.”
Toshinori laughed, “I find ways to deal.”
Eraserhead nodded.
They arrived at his car, “Well, I’ll talk to you later, Eraserhead.”
“Aizawa,” the man said. “My name, use it when we're out in public like this. The idiots already mentioned my first name.”
Toshinori tilted his head in understanding, smiling, “Alright then, Aizawa-san. Goodbye.”
“Bye.”
It was the next morning when his phone rang. Toshinori glanced at the screen checking the name and then answered, “Hello?”
“Yagi-san, I have a question,” Eraserhead stated.
“Oh?” He questioned, continuing his walk to his agency.
“You said you worked for All Might, so why wouldn’t you just give that information to him?”
Toshinori sweatdropped, and blurted the first thing that came to his mind, “Well, these aren’t exactly the crimes he stops, and him getting involved with cases like this is just a mess waiting to happen. Much better for someone like yourself or the police to deal with it.”
The underground hero snorted. “If only All Might had some brain matter in that thick skull of his.”
Toshinori gave a slight hum as the line fell silent, before hesitantly saying, “He doesn’t really think, if he sees a crime he stops it without thinking about how some of the crimes can lead to bigger crimes taking place.”
“Exactly,” Eraserhead grunted out. “Anyways, I just had that question, I’ll let you get back to doing whatever you're doing.”
Toshinori glanced at where he was, snickering, “About to head in for my day job.”
“Good luck,” Eraserhead muttered, before the dial tone rang in his ear and Toshinori ended his side of the call.
Toshinori snorted, glancing at Aizawa who was laying on the ground, cats covering him. An eye cracked up, glaring at him, “Why are you here, Yagi-san?”
“I was told by my boss to take the day off,” Toshinori answered. “I figured I’d relax here for a bit, only to find you here.”
“That buffoon actually gave you a day off?”
“Yeah, he did,” Toshinori said, sitting across from his… what was Aizawa? He had known the man for a couple years now, and they occasionally met up without the excuse of work. Were they just work associates? Were they friends?
“So spill, did the idiot do anything particularly moronic recently?” Aizawa questioned.
Toshinori huffed a laugh. It may have been a bit weird, but he did enjoy talking crap about his All Might persona with Aizawa. For all that he loved being All Might and helping people, sometimes the mask felt stifling. But, he had to act a certain way. It was what was expected of him.
“I heard he stopped a couple crooks in an alleyway, but apparently these crooks were part of a drug trafficking ring that the police had been planning on raiding. But since All Might captured them the raid fell apart as the trafficking ring got scared.”
Aizawa groaned.
Toshinori nodded, a bitter taste in his mouth. He hadn’t meant to stumble across them in his buffed up form, but the crooks had seen him, and so he had to catch them. Didn’t make it okay. Toshinori didn’t even have a good excuse for why he was buffed up.
Well that wasn’t entirely true. The Hero commission had called him and told him that he should spend more time patrolling the streets. They didn’t know he had limited time. All they cared about was that crime rates were rising thanks to All Might not being out as much.
Toshinori needed other heroes to step up to the plate though.
He shouldn’t be the only one holding everything up.
As Aizawa had once complained about, having a symbol holding everything up was doomed to bring everything crashing down when the pillar broke.
And he was right.
There were so many things that needed to be fixed. He was trying to fix them, but All Might had an image to uphold. Any deviance from that image, no matter how slight, was being met with backlash.
It was tiring.
Toshinori rubbed his eyes, double checking that his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. “Aizawa-san?” Toshinori questioned, biting his lip a bit as he looked at the man who was splayed out on his couch.
The underground hero startled, awakening almost instantly and looking alert as his head spun around. Kind of like a startled cat.
“Yagi-san?” The hero said, frowning as he looked around.
“Are you okay?” Toshinori asked.
“Where am I?”
“In my apartment, I just woke up and found you on my couch,” he said, even as he saw Aizawa sinked back down into the couch with a slight grimace on his face.
Was that a patch of blood on his couch?
“You're injured,” Toshinori realized, eyes widening as he went to his bathroom, pulling out his medkit.
“I’m fine,” Aizawa retorted as Toshinori walked off.
He came back and raised an eyebrow at the man, “Where are you wounded?”
Aizawa didn’t respond.
The blond huffed, “I am not beyond utilizing All Might’s connections to call Recovery Girl.”
Aizawa gave him an offended expression, much like a cat who was being forced to take a bath. The underground hero groaned, “Ugh. Fine, my chest.”
Toshinori gave a nod, “Take your shirt off.”
Aizawa smirked, “Trying to get me naked?”
He coughed, blood coming out and his face heated up, “N-no! I need to be able to see the wound to bandage it!” he protested.
The underground hero gave a mischievous grin, “Sure.”
Toshinori huffed, sitting next to Aizawa and carefully cleaning and bandaging the wound. It didn’t look too bad at least, not like it would need stitches, “You should be careful for a couple of days.”
Aizawa nodded, “Thanks,” the hero muttered.
“For what?”
“Not forcing me to go to a hospital,” Aizawa answered, looking away.
“Your wound wasn’t that bad, if it was bad enough to need a hospital I’m more likely to call Recovery Girl. Hospitals suck.”
Aizawa snorted, “Yeah. If I had shown up at ‘Zashi’s or Nem’s they would have forced me to go to the hospital; besides, your place was closer.”
“How do you know where I live anyways?”
Aizawa gave one of his wide grins, too many teeth showing, “I followed you after we met the second time. I wanted to know more about our newest informant after all.”
Toshinori sweatdropped, well at least Aizawa hadn’t stalked him and found out he was All Might.
“Yagi-san,” Aizawa called out.
Toshinori paused in his walking, having just left the police station after delivering the newest information. “Yes?”
“Are we friends?” Aizawa questioned bluntly, though his eyebrows were furrowed.
Toshinori turned to the man, hesitating for a moment, “Do you… want to be?”
Aizawa frowned for a moment, then nodded, “Sure, you’re better company than ‘Zashi or Nem anyways most days.”
Toshinori smiled, it was small, gentle, but it was bright, “Then we’re friends Aizawa-san.”
“Shouta.”
“Huh?”
“We're friends now, so call me Shouta.”
“Alright... Shouta, and you can call me Toshinori, or Toshi.”
“What? Don't want me to call you Nori?” Aiz- Shouta questioned in a teasing tone.
Toshinori huffed out a smile, “I’d rather not be nicknamed ‘seaweed’.”
“Fair.”
“So, I was thinking I might one-day teach someone in the future, maybe in a couple years,” Toshinori said. His time limit was getting even shorter, he only had five hours a day now. He needed to seriously start figuring out how to step out of his position as the symbol of peace without society crumbling.
He was still debating if he should find someone to pass his powers to, or if he should let One For All die with him, since All For One was dead now.
“Make sure you get a teaching certification,” Shouta stated.
Toshinori blinked, “Hmm a teaching certification? You teach at U.A, don’t you?”
“Yes, and I got my degree before I started teaching there. Trust me, if you want to be a good teacher you need the degree.”
“Alright, I’ll do that then.”
“Good, you need to find someone to work for other than All Muscles.”
Toshinori snorted, “Yeah, Brawn Might can find another secretary once I get my degree,” he said, lips twitching up.
Toshinori had never really considered himself an introvert. But here he and Shouta sat at a party that Yamada and Kayama had dragged them to. At least the alcohol made it a bit more tolerable.“So, Yagi-kun, tell me, you have a girlfriend?” Kayama questioned, a purr in her voice.
Shouta groaned.
“No, nor am I interested in one.”
“Oh so you’re more of a one-night stand guy?” she continued to question.
“Nope,” Toshinori said, popping the p. “I’m not really interested in women.”
At least he didn’t have to be seen dating people as All Might, small mercies. “Oh, so you're interested in men? Well then you have a boyfriend?”
“No, I’m not really interested in anybody at the moment.”
Yamada downed half of his glass, grinning, “So, what about your other friends? We told you to invite them over, were they busy?”
Toshinori gave a small huff, “That would require I have other friends.”
Three pairs of eyes stared at him. Toshinori blinked, frowning, “What?”
“You don’t have any other friends?” Kayama questioned.
“Not really, I mean… I guess Detective Tsukauchi….” Toshinori replied.
Yamada wailed, getting up and coming to his side of the table and wrapping his arms around him, “Don’t worry Toshi! You have us now! We’ll be your friends.”
Toshinori gaped, turning to look at Shouta with wide eyes, “Is he-”
“Yes.”
Kayama laughed, grinning as she leaned over, snatching his phone off the table before he could stop her. A minute later, with Yamada still clutching onto his side sobbing, Kayama slid his phone back to him. “There we go, now you have our numbers.”
“I-” Toshinori started.
Shouta snorted, “There's no getting rid of them now, you’re stuck with them.”
Toshinori groaned, and Shouta gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
Toshinori looked at the green haired kid who had risked his life to save that blonde kid. That blonde kid who had yelled at the young kid for helping. And now the kid had gone after him when All Might tried to get away from the scene. Had managed to grab onto his pant legs as he jumped.
He could feel his time dwindling down, but as the green haired kid asked his question, he decided it didn’t matter if the kid discovered his secret, “Can someone quirkless be a hero?”
Without power, being a hero was dangerous, especially if one was an above ground hero. The kid stared at him with wide eyes as he deflated, his time for today coming to an end. Toshinori sat down, gesturing for the kid to take a seat. He gave a quick explanation to the kid that he got injured and to keep it secret.
“What kind of hero do you want to be?”
“One like you! I want to smile and help people.”
Toshinori sighed, “Kid, being a hero is an admirable goal, but you know there's other types of heroes than an above ground hero like me, right? You could be a support hero, or a rescue hero. You could be an underground hero. That is…” Toshinori hesitated, but then remembered how scared the kid had looked, even as he ran in. “That is if you want to be a quirkless hero.”
“Huh?”
“My power. I can transfer it. So really it’s up to you, either way I will help you. Just think about it, young man.”
“Help me?”
“Yes, I’ll train you for the ten months until the entrance exam.”
The kid beamed.
Toshinori swallowed as he entered into U.A. even if he was in his buffed form, because today… today was the day Shouta learned who he truly was. 5 years of amazing friendship, and it was likely about to end. It was nice while it lasted.
Walking through the halls he sighed, would Nemuri or Hizashi still want to be friends with him after this? Or would they be mad that he lied to him?
Buffed up, he entered the lounge, phone in a pocket poking out with the camera to record reactions. Tsukauchi had asked it of him after all. Even if this lost him his friendship, he would act confident.
Already he could see Shouta glaring at him, muttering just loud enough for him to hear, “Why did All Might come here if he has no teaching license? Frankly it’s illogical for him to teach.”
“I do actually have a teaching license,” All Might said, “It’s just under my civilian identity.”
Shouta scowled, but nodded his head at that, looking a bit less grumpy at All Might’s presence. It had actually been Shouta who suggested it, ironically. Toshinori had mentioned in an offhand comment about, ‘teaching a student eventually’, but the younger hero had told him if he planned to teach he should make sure he knew what he was doing.
Taking the classes helped a lot, and he got a chance to start using those techniques when he was teaching young Midoriya, but it would still be different as he would be teaching a full class in the upcoming year.
“Before we begin the meeting, as you all know All Might will be joining us as a foundational hero studies teacher. All Might,” Nedzu said, gesturing for him.
“I’m happy to be joining this staff, but you should know that my time as a hero is shrinking, about five years ago I suffered a wound that means I can only spend a certain amount of time in this form.”
“That form?” Snipe questioned.
All Might nodded, but Toshinori grinned the grin he learned from Shouta. Even as his buffed up form he saw a shudder run down a couple spines, “Shit Shou, he smiles like you,” Hizashi whispered. Which he should hope so, he had picked it up from Shouta after all.
Without further delay he released One For All, smoke poufing around him and he grinned, despite his nervousness as he looked at Shouta. “Sorry for hiding this from you Shouta.”
Shouta was staring at him with wide eyes and mouth open, “T-toshi?!” his friend exclaimed, mouth opened wide in an undignified manner. “You’re All Might?”
“Yup,” Toshinori said, giving a bit of a smirk.
The other teachers were looking back and forth, though Hizashi and Nemuri were groaning.
“But… you agree with me when I talk trash about All Might?” Shouta questioned, voice a slightly higher pitch.
“Yes, yes I do.”
Oh dear, it looked like he was giving Shouta an existential crisis.
Shouta groaned, slumping as his head hit the table, words muffled, “You and I are going to have a very , very long talk.”
Nedzu clapped, his eternal smile never disappearing, “Now, let’s get onto business shall we?”
U.A. wasn’t prepared for an All Might and Aizawa that got along, and worked well together to terrorize and teach the future hero hopefuls.
Students weren’t prepared for All Might to suddenly pull a logical ruse on them after a couple weeks of seeming like the nice teacher. Nor did they expect him to threaten expulsion. Mineta really wasn’t expecting for All Might to follow through with the expulsion threat.
The world wasn’t ready for when the class graduated, having been taught by both Toshinori and Aizawa. Having survived villain attacks. Having people doubt them. Having the world almost fall apart.
Class 1-A suffered through three years of chaos, and when they graduated they took the world by storm.