Chapter Text
It was the end of Sawamura Daichi's second year of high school, and there was more ending than just the high school lives of the graduating third-years. Everyone and their second-cousins were sitting on their couches, eyes glued to the TV.
Daichi was no different than everyone else, sitting on his couch next to his best friend, Sugawara Koushi, who was completely silent in concentration on what was going on up on the screen. They hadn't said a word to each other since they'd turned on the TV almost ten minutes ago. This was too important to miss even a second of it.
A man and a woman were both walking down a flight of stairs, seemingly hundreds of microphones and video cameras pushed in their faces. They looked to be about in their mid-forties to early fifties, and they both had brown hair, the woman's down to her shoulders and the man's starting to disappear. They were both dressed up for the occasion, in fairly formal wear; the man was wearing a suit with a dark blue tie, and the woman was wearing a black dress that went a little ways past her knees, accompanied by a strand of pearls around her neck. Their eyes were both covered by masks, the kind you'd find at masquerade balls.
This interview was just as important for the rest of the prefecture as it was for the two people on screen - the superheroes protecting Miyagi Prefecture were retiring, and this was their final press conference before whatever came next.
Yes, actual superheroes. It was sometimes hard for Daichi to believe that the characters he'd seen in the cartoons he watched as a kid actually had real-life counterparts, but it got easier every time he'd seen them on the news. They'd been around his whole life, and he'd probably seen them at least a hundred times on TV in the seventeen years he'd been alive. He'd even seen them in person once, when he was nine or ten.
And the best part was that they were just as cool as the superheroes he'd seen in all the fiction he'd ingested over the course of his childhood. They had flashy powers, cool costumes, the whole nine yards. On the rare occasion they got paid for their work - they usually denied the money - they gave most, if not all, of it to charity. Originally, the man was supposed to be the woman's sidekick, and according to Daichi's parents, they used to have that kind of relationship before Daichi was born. But eventually, the two of them both became mutually powerful and equally famous, building on each other and becoming the fan-named Miyagi Duo the people all loved.
When he'd seen them in person, they'd been stopping some kind of monster that was attacking the store right by his elementary school. His parents had just picked him up from school, and they were the third in a long line of cars that had been stopped by all the action. Daichi had rolled down the window all the way and had leaned out of the car, mesmerized by all the lasers lighting up the overcast afternoon sky.
And then they were there, flying through the sky in almost symmetrical formations, shooting lasers and running faster than was humanly possible. And they apparently had even more powers than that, the ones Daichi had seen on TV when they were showing fights live. After it was all over, they'd both flown down to give all the kids on the street high fives, Daichi included. It was scary, but it was also the coolest thing he'd ever experienced.
He'd known they were retiring a while back, almost two years ago now when he'd started his first year. That press conference was almost as important as this one. That time, the world had met the next generation of the Miyagi Duo. The new generation was made up of the child of the older duo as well as somebody else that Daichi didn't remember. The key was that they were young, only about Daichi's age or a little older.
Knowing that had practically gotten Daichi through his first year of high school. Knowing that there were people his age doing more good than he could ever hope to was strange, sure, but he had looked up to them immensely. They hadn't really talked to the public at all - the old duo had said their son was very shy in the interview announcing they were retiring in the first place - but they were still amazingly inspirational to Daichi and probably the countless other students of Miyagi Prefecture.
Things were going to change tonight. Tonight was the last official day of the old duo's work, and after that, the torch would be passed to the new, younger, rejuvenated Miyagi Duo who Daichi admired so much. It was a big day for everyone involved.
"We'd like to thank you all for a great run," the man was saying on screen, "In the course of helping the prefecture, I'd say that the prefecture helped us even more. It helped us grow up and grow from the people we were in high school into the people we’ve become today, and we're immensely sorry to go."
"We've helped train the new duo for a long time," the woman said, "And we’re sure that they're not going to disappoint you." She chuckled, her hair bouncing as she did. "They might be even better at this job than we are. I believe in them with all my heart, and I hope you will, too."
"Will they be delivering anything tonight?" One of the reporters asked.
"Not tonight," the woman said, "They're both fairly camera-shy."
"Give them our regards!" Another reporter said.
"We will!" the man said, before waving at the camera. After answering a few more questions, the man and woman both made their way down the stairs, waving the entire way, before getting into some kind of a limousine or something and driving away.
"Wow." Suga was the first to speak, once a commercial break started after the conference. "So everything's changing now."
"Yeah," Daichi said, "Excited?"
"Of course!" Suga laughed. "The girls at school won't shut up about them until after we graduate, if ever, but that's okay. I'm pretty stoked to see what they can do."
"Me, too," Daichi said, "I've looked up to them ever since I knew they existed."
"I'm pretty sure everyone has," Suga said. He paused. "Can I ask you something stupid?"
"Yeah, what is it?"
"Could you imagine actually meeting the new MD in person? Like talking to them or getting to know them or something dumb like that. What would they be like?"
Daichi chuckled. "That is kind of stupid." He grinned. "But it's something we've all thought about. I know I have." He looked up at the commercial for some new store or something that was playing on the TV. "I think they'd give off an air of confidence. Like they know what they're doing, you know?"
"I'd like to think that they're just like us," Suga said, "Like under the mask, they're just normal teenagers like the rest of us. I mean, you know. Do they have secret identities? What if they went to Karasuno and we didn't even know it?"
"What if we knew them but we didn't know it?"
"Now you're the one being stupid! There’s no way that would happen!"
"I know. But a guy can dream, you know?"
"I think we've all thought about actually knowing them, Daichi."
"Who hasn't? They're the Miyagi Duo, after all, they’re-"
"-Practically the coolest guys in the entire prefecture, you've told me." Suga grinned. “Multiple times.”
"What can I say? They're my idols."
"They're everyone's idols! They're going to be doing photoshoots and posing for magazine covers and become total heartthrobs in no time at all."
“I wouldn’t be surprised!”
They both burst out laughing after that, making as many dumb jokes as they could one after another. Each one prompted another fit of giggles until they laughed so hard they could barely breathe.
It was the beginning of a new era for everyone.