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Toshinori has spent his whole life carrying many of the burdens of his country, and he was happy to do so. He never thought less of those who needed his help, he genuinely feels blessed that he was able to help others as he had. He takes great enjoyment in attempting to make life better for society, in any way he possibly can.
He enjoys spending his life in the service of others. He loves to help people, and to see them smile. Even if it was the simple signing of a card, or getting a picture with his adoring fans, he likes to make people happy. You don't live as long as Toshinori has, nor the kind of life he has without needing help every now and then. But needing help when helping others is different then needing help for himself.
He had been coming to terms with the way he was for the last five years, as his body would no longer allow him to use his quirk full time, and he slowly dwindled into what he is now. He is still respected and utilized as a hero in the background. People seek his advice and opinions, and he continues to give to others in the ways he still can. He adores teaching his students, particularly his protege.
He no longer lives life on the front line, it's still difficult for him to know that there are people out there who could use their hero, All Might, and that he can't be the type of hero he once was for them. He is a champion of the other brave people who are committed heroes and hopes people will understand and forgive him for what he can no longer do.
It was not the first time where he needed help, but it was the first time he felt ashamed that he needed the help. He had stopped by class while the students were getting ready for their licensing exam. A rock fell, and young Bakugo yelled at him to watch out, then young Midoriya jumped in and destroyed the rock and everything was fine.
Except his pride. He made a point to try not to show it and focused on being grateful, but he was irritated with the fact that he needed protection, and with the fact that his students no longer saw him as capable of protecting himself. Aizawa even told him to stand back for his own safety. It was humiliating.
And it stuck with him. He had always known that transferring from being a hero to being a civilian was going to be difficult. He knew enough retired pros to know that most of them struggled with adjusting to their new roles in society, and that several of them had gotten themselves killed because of it. But he had been All Might, the top hero. Nothing had fazed him in years, not even One For All had given him much difficulty when he had first been learning to use it. And so he had always figured that he would be able to make this adjustment, this change just as well.
It only hits him then, as bitter frustration rises in his throat, that he might not be as okay with transitioning to a civilian role as he originally thought.
That too was a tough pill to swallow. The knowledge that he was never going to be able to stand as tall as he once stood, that now he must lean on others as others once leaned on him, that he must ask for help. It burns something inside him, some proud part he had not known existed until that moment where he had to be saved from a falling rock that only a few short months earlier would have been child’s play for him to knock aside.
And it continued to be a tough pill to swallow each time he needed to ask for help, each time he had to admit to someone that he could not do something he used to be able to do without thinking. It rankled him.
It was probably the easiest to ask Young Midoriya for help, the boy had helped him in so many small ways already it almost feels as if he never had to ask. But the times he did, when the word had to come out of his mouth, they made him feel like a failure of a hero, at the one thing he had always wanted to be.
So maybe it made him restless, and maybe it made him reckless. Toshinori is not sure which one had ended him up in the situation, but he knew it had to be one of them, There was no other reason for him to be in front of a group of civilians, arms spread wide as a villain shouted at them to get down, as if he could have done anything about the situation.
“Hold on a minute…” the villain pauses, giving Toshinori a hard look. “Is that who I think it is?”
Toshinori can practically hear the smirk in the man’s voice and something in his resolve hardens. He isn’t a Hero anymore, but he can still be a hero to these people. It’s what Young Midoriya would do.
“Let these people go,” Toshinori orders, allowing as much power to seep into his voice as possible. He can’t recreate the voice that belonged to his muscular form, but it comes close enough.
“And I should just do exactly as you say, huh? Who’s going to stop me? You?”
Toshinori’s mouth sets in a firm line as he deepens his stance, arm still outstretched in front of the trembling citizens. His eyes jump between the exits – he spots three in total, if he counts windows. Can he get everyone out in time? The villain laughs and cracks his knuckles menacingly, and Toshinori hesitates.
What other choice do I have? Toshinori thinks. Screw it.
Lunging forward, Toshinori forms a fist with his boney hand and socks the villain in the jaw.
The villain recoils and Toshinori hisses a bit at the split flesh on his knuckles. Turning around to the civilians, he shouts for them to run.
“Th–Thank you, All Might!” One of them calls as they run towards the door, and something strange buzzes in Toshinori’s chest. It’s been so long since someone called him that name in the middle of the action. For so long now, it’s been stay safe, Toshinori, or you’ll be on the sidelines this time, Toshi.
The feeling doesn’t last long. The villain growls in front of him, sharp claws ejecting from the tips of his fingers. Toshinori’s eyes widen.
“Look what you’ve done now, old man!” The villain bares his teeth. Raising a hand, he makes to slash at Toshinori’s chest. Toshinori jumps back, the claws skimming and tearing the front of his chest. He’s panting already, his one remaining lung working in overdrive to keep up.
“I did what was right,” Toshinori grits out between breaths. Something flares to life in the villain’s eyes– something dangerous.
An angry villain is the worst kind of opponent. They're volatile, unpredictable, and Toshinori can't rely on his strength anymore to muscle through any attacks that he can’t catch with strategy alone.
He doesn’t even know what this villain wanted, and the villain seems to have forgotten his goal as well. He’s focused single mindedly now on cutting Toshinori open like a fish on a cutting board.
Two things occur to Toshinori in that moment, startling revelations that almost take his breath away. They are realizations that almost seem to contradict each other and yet Toshinori feels them ring true in the very center of his being.
The first. If only there were someone to help him right now.
It hits him like a bolt of lightning, like a flash of one for all sparking suddenly in the darkness. He is not enough, he never will be again, and he needs help but there would be no shame in accepting it so that he could live to see another day. These people he protected and allowed to escape are not weak for being unable to save themselves and neither is Toshinori.
He’s been comparing himself to his colleagues and his students and even to the hero he once was but Toshinori Yagi had worth long before he donned the persona of All Might and he will find worth again now that All Might is gone. He needs only to look for it.
The second thought that hits him is less a thought and more a memory. It’s a memory of a quirkless boy with not a drop of power at his fingertips, who used the only thing he had on him in a desperate attempt to try and save his friend.
Toshinori does not have a backpack handy to fling into the villain’s face. But as he casts his eyes about the room he finds something even better.
The poor potted plant that had been innocently doing its job of decorating the bank’s lobby doesn’t deserve to be thrown at the villain, but that’s the fate it gets. The shattering of the ceramic pot over the man’s head is far more satisfying than it has any right to be, and as he staggers back, dazed, confused, and now covered in potting soil, Toshinori doesn’t hesitate to strike again.
He sinks another fist into the man’s gut, and then kicks his legs out from under him. The villain clearly wasn’t expecting the potted plant, but Toshinori being able to strike so hard and so quickly seems to be a surprise too.
The villain had been underestimating him, and Toshinori had been underestimating himself. He won’t make that mistake again.
Once the villain is down, Toshinori plants a foot on his back and grabs a pen from the desk beside him. The long elastic coil keeping it anchored snaps easily, and Toshinori wraps it tightly around the villain’s wrists while those claws aren’t trying to swipe at him. It’s not the best thing that could be used to restrain a villain, but it’ll do for now.
And with that, Toshinori finds himself standing over a defeated villain, breathing heavily and too bloody for his liking, but triumphant. His body aches with the pain of a fight he can be proud of, and he’s shocked to realize that he had almost forgotten how this felt.
This is a moment Toshinori never thought he’d get to experience ever again. Although he still has to wait for other heroes and the authorities to get here and handle the villain more professionally, there’s no denying the fire that has been re-ignited inside him. The warmth of it is so familiar, and it finds its home in his heart like it never left.
*********
“Wow All Might you saved the day again, you're always so cool!” Young Midoriya buzzes in excitement. “I wish I could have been there to see you in action!”
“You must be the only person in the world who wanted to be there, to see me in action.” And had the kid been there he wouldn't have been watching.
“Are you crazy, the eyewitnesses are the envy of the whole country!”
“That seems a bit exaggerated, don't you think?”
“No, If anything I'm understating it,” the kid says, “I wish there was some video footage at least!”
“It was not that big of a deal, my boy,” he downplays it. Even though it kind of was a big deal to him, he knows that probably is the last time he would be directly involved in a fight as the hero.
“Really?” The stuff I have been reading about it sounds amazing, it seems there was even a potted plant involved?” Young Midoryia gives him a quizzical grin.
Toshinori can’t help but smile and think how much he has been influenced by his wide eyed protege.
He came to see young Midoriya for a reason, so he takes courage, go beyond plus ultra!
“Okay kid I’ll tell you all about it, but first I wanted to ask for your help with something.”