Chapter Text
The ocean around them surged with aggression as the unexpected storm darkened the skies overhead. Thunder cracked, wind howled, the waves slammed against the cruise ship. Toshinori was bellowing, his voice one that could be heard over nature’s ruckus. “Stay calm! Keep a firm grip on the railing! Do not rush the life boats!”
The ship was coming to pieces around them. A section of wall from one of the cabins flew inches from the former hero as instinct had him ducking. He was gripping a large and solid piece of metal that had been torn off some other part of the ship, using it as a shield behind him to attempt to hold off some of the wind and the water as passengers desperately made their way to the life rafts. “Keep moving!”
Toshinori wished so many times in the last year and a half that he could conjure even a whiff of the flame of One for All. To save his students from the League of Villains. To have prevented or at least been able to act more quickly during the war. To stand side by side with Midoriya in that final fight against Shigaraki. Today it was something more basic. If only he could buff up long enough to hold back these waves instead of being shoved inch by inch closer to the steps and into the only safe path passengers had to escape at the moment.
If wishes were on the table, the hero course teacher desperately wished for one of the heroes who had joined them on this cruise to show up and either move the passengers along faster or have a useful quirk for holding back waves. Or maybe, just holding the ship together for a few more moments. The heroes were busy though. The league of villains was dissolved, officially, but they had fans and copy cats in the wake of the war. Society was rebuilding, but there would always be pockets of hate for heroes.
A surprise storm had broke around the cruise ship, and from those dark waters a smaller vessel had appeared like a pirate ship of yore. Villains with a variety of water based quirks had boarded the cruise ship. They began what the storm was finishing as they deliberately tore apart the fancy rooms and cabins of the ship and drilled holes in the hull. Best Jeanist, Edge Shot, and Gang Orca were doing their best out there against them, but the storm wasn’t helping anyone.
Another large wave crashed over the cruise ship deck and had Toshinori grunting with effort to maintain his footing and hold his makeshift shield. He wasn’t a hero anymore, but he would do everything he could to make sure the evacuation went smoothly before he got onto a life raft himself. An ominous groan of rending metal tore through air and storm alike and reverberated in the metal floor and railing. The former hero was forced to let go of his metal shield with one hand and grip a solid support pole by the stairs as the ship tilted further on its downward trajectory into the ocean.
“Hurry!” The former hero yelled to the terrified passengers as they also tried to account for the tilt. “Those who are more able help those who are struggling. Get to the rafts!”
The civilians were doing remarkably well under his watchful eye. His instructions were reminders of things they knew, but hearing them from All Might brought focus. He didn’t dare move from his spot. The small river running down the stairs to the floors below would become a torrent if he moved his metal wave breaker. The passengers still coming up the stairs and struggling to the escape slide would have so much more of a struggle if he failed this duty.
The last of them came up from below, herded by ship’s crew. Behind them all, his usually curly hair wet and flattened to his head, Midoriya bounded up the stairs. He looked around briefly, decided the crew had the evacuation to the life boats under control, and rushed to his mentor’s side to brace an arm and shoulder against the large piece of metal. Toshinori appreciated it, even as he breathed a sigh or relief to have his successor back in his sight. “That’s everyone from below deck. I double checked. The workers told me everyone got out of the engine rooms before the hull breach flooded the zone.”
The words were imparted in a shout, the only way to hear them over the raging noise of the squall. Toshinori and his student both grunted as wave of water slammed into the other side of the metal. Both of them sliding several inches on the wet and now angled floor. Water rushed around the sides of the metal plate, passengers waiting to slide down to the life rafts below slid and yelled in surprise. The former hero grit his teeth and pushed the metal back with his student’s help. They couldn’t yield until everyone was down the evacuation slide.
As the last of the civilians disappeared down the slide, the crewman left standing beside it gestured urgently at both the former heroes. “They’re all out. All Might, Deku! Lets go!”
The ship bucked around them, teacher and student both loosing their fight to hold onto the metal shield at the same time. Toshinori still had that grip on the pole beside him and caught Izuku’s scarred left hand as the deck tilted further into the air. The crewman slipped and fell into the evacuation slide with a yelp. Toshinori and his successor struggled to catch their footing. The older man yelled, “Scramble for the slide on three! One, two, three!”
Midoriya released his hand and made an inelegant run for it. The older man did the same. For a man who still needed to use his cane more days than not, it didn’t go great. This time it was Izuku who caught his arm and flung his mentor into the slide, following directly behind. They landed awkwardly on the inflatable landing section of the slide, a nearly full life boat in front of them.
From the heaving ocean one of the villains burst onto the scene. He had a head like a hammerhead shark and he was ranting, “Deku! I knew I’d find you in this ship eventually. You killed our leader! You’re dead!”
It was so mundane a reason, but so dangerous all the same. The shark featured individual pounced on the slide, his clearly sharp tail fin slashing the rope to the life raft on the way by. The ocean surged around them again even as the passengers and the crew on the raft shouted for them. In moments, that last raft was further away than either Toshinori or the much younger Izuku could hope to jump. The shark launched a furious barrage at Midoriya. He was quirkless now, but the third year UA hero course student still had more experience than many fully fledged heroes and intensive hand to hand combat training.
“Please, we don’t have to fight about this,” the teenager pleaded as he blocked and exchanged blows with his aggressor.
Midoriya was more than holding his own. The shark man had the advantage in the wet storm, however. The student’s feet slipped on the wet vinyl of the inflatable landing pad. The shark bashed an elbow into the teenager’s temple. He followed up with what was meant to be a lethal bite with sharp teeth to neck, but Toshinori had gripped his pants leg and hauled him backward before teeth could meet flesh. They caught the life jacket instead, ripped it off, and the boy toppled bonlessly into the ocean.
“Young Midoriya!” Toshinori howled in panic.
The shark snarled, “Our leader hated you, All Might. You’re going to die too!”
The villain rolled to his feet and toward the older hero. Toshinori staggered out of the way. The boat and slide shifted as the ship’s hull tilted even further in the air. As everything shifted, the shark villain caught his sharp tail in the slide and as it began to deflate, he became trapped in it. Toshinori didn’t take the time to consider the wisdom of his next actions, he just acted. He pulled off his own life jacket, tossed it into the raging ocean, and dove where he saw Izuku go under. Just as well he didn’t consider it it. Every water based rescue course told you exactly how low the survival rate of man overboard situations were.
--- A Few Weeks Before ---
“I’m really not big on this plan, Hawks.”
Hawks shrugged from his position beside the window. His office at the Hero Public Safety Commission headquarters was large, but mostly bland. If you excused the few pieces of Endeavor merchandise scattered around. “Its a morale booster, All Might. Not a bad one either. A three day cruise with some press, some civilians, and some heroes. Kind of a showy stunt, but a moment to bring people together all the same.”
Toshinori frowned from his seat in one of the guest chairs. “If by bringing people together you mean trapping Midoriya with the press and three days of interviews he can’t escape from.”
“Give your student more credit. He can handle it. He also understands the boost to cheer and goodwill this will bring and has fully agreed to it. Anyway, the interviewers will have Gang Orca, Best Jeanist, and Edge Shot to corner as well. Also, you, All Might. You’re a performer at heart, I thought this would be something in your department.”
“Have you watched that boy give interviews? Excellent hero, terrible showman,” Toshinori snorted. “Anyway, that’s not the part that worries me. You and the HPSC are making a very big and very flashy deal out of this. I feel like we may be painting a target on that cruise ship and all of the passengers on it for something unpleasant to happen.”
Hawks leaned back against the window and quirked a small smile. “Thirty odd years of hero work have made you a little bit paranoid, haven't they? Its a possibility. Still, those are three of our country’s best heroes that will be on the ship with you. There should be some value as a deterrent in that.”