Chapter 1: The Arrival
His choice of a successor was a heat of the moment thing, even if he had actual arguments for it. Yagi Toshinori is conscious enough to realize that. He had been technically en route to meet Mirio Togata (whom Nedzu suggested to be a good candidate for being his successor), only to run into this kid.
This kid who asked him if he can be a hero as a quirkless boy.
Frankly speaking, Yagi knew that the answer he gave him was slightly hypocritical. Yagi too was, at one point, a quirkless kid with a desire for heroics. The difference is that he was a quirkless and well-trained (if not rather buffy, even before One for All) kid with a desire for heroics.
The green-haired child in front of him was obviously timid, and obviously not trained at all in any form of quirkless combat (Yagi at least was kinda competent in boxing when he was his age, and he could easily recognize the way martial arts training made people walk). Not to mention being small. And the lack of visible muscles. This changed the situation notably, at least in Yagi's opinion.
This kid wasn't exactly prime hero material, especially not someone who was planning to go up a route this hard while looking to be someone like the Symbol of Peace (the question the kid asked was about being a hero like him, after all, and not a hero in general).
Sure, there might have been a brilliant mind underneath that exterior, although it was something hard to judge after a five minute meeting. But there were better places to apply a brilliant mind. Something that Melissa proved. So Yagi Toshinori offered the kid a reasonable alternative for the application of his wits and a desire to help, such as police (oh, Tsukauchi would like a kid this willing to help others). Or support engineering.
There was also the part where he felt that an adult (and an idol to many young people) shouldn't just tell impressionable young kids that yeah, risking their lives excessively is a completely fine idea! Not without their parents around to nod or shake their heads in order to make All Might realize what their opinion on the issue was.
Especially not when he was the Symbol of Peace, whose ideal image as a hero was a cornerstone of the (relatively) peaceful era. All Might maintaining his good reputation was a public service, and he preferred to achieve that by not making major blunders, rather than having the head of Might Tower's PR department go around and metaphorically murder people.
Not to mention how easy it was to go from disliking All Might to disliking the current society and then turning into a villain. He was a pillar keeping society afloat, and he was already painfully aware that he is irreplaceable. His search for a successor was probably at least partially motivated by wanting to retire. Because let's be real, he is TOO irreplaceable for it to be healthy for society as a whole.
Sure, the kid was dejected. Sure, he had his dream crushed by his idol. Sure, Yagi was going to one day realize how close to a lethal mistake he was that evening. But at that time, All Might was certain that his answer was correct and logical.
(the biggest irony of the situation is that the mistake might have been more lethal to All Might and society than to the green-haired kid left alone by their idol on a rooftop, but that's a story from a world that never came to be)
Then again, he had no idea just how bad the kid was bullied for quirklessness; if he knew then he would certainly NOT leave on the rooftop after crushing his lifelong dream.
All Might was aware of just how much of an accidental personality cult he developed around himself and he made NOT trying to alter society in any way a self-imposed goal. That way lies the slippery slope, and Yagi knows that. So he focuses on saving people and charity actions, without digging deep into the social dynamics of the modern era (there are enough people dealing with that as it is). So he doesn't know just how often quirkless kids hear people telling them to kill themselves.
Then he discovers that the Sludge Villain escaped him, and rushes to the scene when he was just seen. Already well aware that his quirk is done for the day, but it's his screw-up, and he has to fix it no matter what! Before someone dies.
And someone almost dies. While All Might, painfully aware of his helplessness (and just slightly pissed off at the heroes on the scene), has to watch. But the green-haired kid from earlier leaps to the rescue, and while he lacks power to achieve anything save for buying the victim a few startled breaths, something in Yagi Toshinori snaps. And he pushes through his limit (lowering it in the process) and saves the day.
It was at this moment that Yagi understood that he just met his successor. Goddamn his small-build, Yagi isn't going to retire tomorrow, and this is something that they can work on. He is going to make this kid into a hero because he just proved to have more courage when someone is in danger than several pro-heroes, end of story. All Might at least had the excuse of not knowing that he could squeeze out more from his quirk before it happened.
Of course, the kid immediately vanished on him while he was distracted by the press. Not before some heroes berate him for risking his life excessively. Honestly, if not for the cameras and his quirk being super-spent, All Might would probably punch some of them in the face for that alone. They should be taking notes rather than berate the kid for that!
Who cares if their quirks weren't suitable, there was a kid on the verge of dying in front of them and they didn't even try to distract their villain! Death Arms tried to PUNCH the sludge instead of trying to yank the kid out of it, for God's sake. It took the green haired kid like five seconds to figure out that the villain's weak spot is his eyes (something that Yagi figured out as well, but it's not like someone would listen to a random skeleton man), what the hell are they teaching the heroes nowadays?!
It took some tracking skills - All Might learned a lot of unexpected skills in the United States, you don't become a Number One Hero just by punching villains in the face - but eventually he finds him. The shock on the kid's face (Izuku, Midoriya Izuku, All Might asks about that finally because he should probably know something like that before offering the kid his quirk) changes into the overflowing happiness when All Might changes his answer.
Then it goes back to shock, when he mentions giving the kid his quirk. Then comes the rambling. Then comes more shock and tears of happiness. A lot of those. This reminds All Might of someone from his past, and he smiles just a bit more than he wanted.
Well, enthusiasm is good. All Might can work with that. But he also has standards. And the kid in front of him has a LOT of work ahead of him.
He tells Izuku that before Yagi starts teaching him, they have to explain the whole deal to his parents. First, because Yagi refuses to be taken for some creep who is teaching their kid something weird behind their back (let's be real, his skeleton form does make him look like that bone-manipulating villain he once fought). Second, they should probably get a heads-up about their son suddenly 'late-blooming' a powerful quirk.
Plus there is always a risk of injuries during the training. It's best to explain the risk ahead instead of being stared down by a parent whose children was wounded during a training they didn't even know was happening.
The kid promptly replies that his father died a few years ago, but his mom is there and she will certainly agree. He offers to lead his idol home with even more enthusiasm. He just looks slightly startled by the idea of Yagi seeing his room, which was brought up during an unconscious muttering. All Might thinks that he knows what caused it.
He saw Sir Nighteye's office. He knows how far some people take the All Might's personality cult part. He can survive seeing a shrine to himself, he just needs to do his best to live up to the hype while simultaneously making the kid understand that no, he is still a human being. He makes mistakes.
He just made amends for one particularly horrible, after all.
Izuku leads him to a two story house that looks relatively well-off. That alone is good, the kid's family is neither too rich (some of the rich people are a bit too… demanding), nor too poor (he doesn't want the eventual rise to greatness of this kid to go to his head; they have enough corrupted people in the industry as it is).
He also looks happy to have Yagi talk with his mother, so the family sounds supportive enough. That's a bonus point too. Having people to support you is crucial, whether they are other heroes or your family members.
Izuku opens up the door and shouts that he's back home. Three seconds later a woman runs into the anteroom, clearly worried. She has the same (admittedly, beautiful) shade of green hair as Izuku, seems to be approaching her forties and...
Recognition runs All Might over like a speeding train runs over a small passenger car that happened to be standing at the wrong place at the wrong time. Just with less broken bones. But blood is still there, since he coughs up a mouthful.
He KNEW that the hair colour and the crying was familiar. Despite so many years passing, he KNEW.
"Izuku, I was so worried with that villain attack going on near us, where have you... " She notices the man behind her son, wiping the blood from his mouth while staring at her in shock. "Uhm, excuse me, but who are…"
"...Misaki?!" All Might finally manages to speak. Even Izuku realizes that something's wrong. The woman (it's Misaki, there is no doubt, he would recognize her everywhere, even after so much time) looks at Yagi with shock on her face.
"How do you know that nam…" She freezes, and there is a flash of recognition on her face as well. "Wait, Yoshio?! What happened to you, why do you look so… thin?"
"Yoshio?" Izuku decides to chirp in, taking the advantage of the fact that both his mother and All Might were thoroughly stunned. "All Might's real name is Yoshio?"
"All Might?" Misaki is stunned by this remark even more than she already was, her beautiful green eyes shifting towards her son. "What do you mean by that, Izuku?" He opens his mouth to say something but Yagi is just slightly faster.
"Izuku, I'll explain everything to her." All Might says. "If it's possible, could you… let me talk with your mother in private?" Izuku looks to his mom, who nods. He clearly wants to hear what it will be about, but he vacates the room.
A few minutes later All Might and Misaki are in the living room, sitting on the couches on the opposing sides of a coffee table. The doors are closed, and Izuku is nowhere to be seen. If All Might's understanding of him is anywhere correct, he is probably fidgeting uncontrollably, looking forward to hearing his mother's answer.
"Alright." Misaki says. "Yoshio, you can start by explaining to me what the hell are you doing here and why does my son think you are All Might?" She is in her confident mood. Reasonably emotional. This should make the situation easy on the waterworks. Then again, she can get kinda scary when not prone to crying, and Yagi is just slightly intimidated by his memories of her.
"I… might have not been fully honest with you back then." Yagi braces himself for the talk. "Yoshio isn't my real name. I had… a very nasty enemy back then, and I was hiding who I really was so that he wouldn't find you. My real name is Yagi Toshinori, and while I might not look the part right now due to an injury, I am All Might." He buffs his muscles with his quirk, just enough for his own body to start resembling his heroic self. He lets it go without putting any strength into it, to avoid coughing out blood again.
"Oh." She is shocked. Probably unsurprising, considering that her old lover just told her that he was the Number One Hero all along. Just… it's a somewhat different shock than he expected? "That explains everything. I was trying to find you after… you know what, but I couldn't find anyone by that name who looked even remotely like you."
"Well, I tried to find you too." All Might replies. "With similar results." Something that he regrets to this day.
She is just slightly startled by it. Is she happy that he didn't just vanish on her but was actually trying to find her?
"That… that's probably because my real name isn't Misaki, either." She replies. "I'm Inko. Midoriya Inko. I was hiding who I was for…a similar reason, really."
She was certainly no hero, he was certain about that much. He would have found out about a hero with her quirk. Unless she was hiding for some completely unrelated reasons (like some abusive past acquaintance), that only left one option. She had to be a villain. It was impossible. All Might knew that she could be intimidating and kinda scary at times, but she was normally such a sweet, wonderful woman and…
His mind makes the connections.
"Oh. My. God." He says in English and blinks a few times, it's a miracle he didn't cough out his lungs at the realization. "Your quirk isn't similar to Mischief. You ARE Mischief." The woman that certainly doesn't look like a famous (but believed to be dead) S-Rank thief nods faintly. Yagi's mind travels back to that memorable evening after his birthday party. "... you weren't cosplaying as Mischief back then."
Her face goes as red as her hair is green. Her hands cover it quickly. Yagi's mind catches up to what he just said and what it meant and ends up coughing up a lot of blood.
(Nana Shimura laughs like a madwoman deep within his quirk, because this is certainly the most hilarious thing she has seen in a long time, despite Yagi being the center of many hilarious events.
Yoichi Shigaraki and Daigoro Banjo, her closest friends among the past Holders, quickly whip out some imaginary (but still tasty) popcorn. They all know that this is going to be a good one. Oh, if only they knew how much.)
It had lasted less than a year, and was something like sixteen years ago, but… Yagi was still looking back to those years as some of the happiest in his life. He just barely returned to Japan from America, and started fighting his war against All for One. He knew that he shouldn't get distracted by anything, but when he ran into Misaki/Inko and their eyes met… that was the last thing that he had on his mind.
Wait. Sixteen years ago. Just how old was Izuku?
"Izuku." Yagi's mind refuses to process the idea. It's impossible, right? It's just not possible, right? "Is he…" The words 'my son' just refuse to go through his throat. But she understood what he meant.
"Yes." She replies. "I… found out that I was pregnant soon after we got separated." She pauses for a second, while Yagi is struggling to breathe. "I like to think that he got my looks but your personality."
He had a child. He had a son. He found the chosen successor for his quirk in the kid that inspired him with his bravery and heroic spirit and IT WAS HIS OWN SON. And he had him with Mischief, the supervillain that he had an idol crush on (according to Gran Torino, Yagi dared to disagree) for years.
It was a lot to digest. Way more than he expected to find out when he asked Izuku to let him meet his mother.
"He… he mentioned that his father died a few years ago." Yagi manages to push the words out. It's not that he doesn't believe her, somehow - despite her just professing to be a villain - he does. He just… he isn't sure if he can think straight now.
"I… married someone three years after we'd lost contact with each other." She says. "We had a… disagreement a few years ago, and I took the children and left him. I didn't exactly like his approach to my children, and I really thought that he would straighten himself up, but he ended up dying before that happened." She adds, and Yagi notices the plural. Children. There were more. He opens his mouth to ask, but she continues. "I'm… you'll probably not like finding out who he was."
Yagi Toshinori isn't sure if there is something that can ruin his mood right now. He got a successor, he met Misaki again, he discovered that he had A SON. He all but gave up the idea of having children. He was too old for trying to have one, and… frankly, all the women he met during the last fourteen years had one fatal flaw. They weren't Misaki.
"Who was it?" He says. She uses her quirk to open a drawer and then pulls something from it towards her. A picture. She hands it to him, without saying the word, but there are just so many emotions on her face that he doesn't know how to interpret them.
It's a picture from a Herocon. There is a much younger Izuku in the middle, waving a prize for winning a hero trivia quiz, with a proud smile on his face. To his right is Inko, smiling towards the camera while making a thumbs up gesture. To Izuku's other side is a white haired man in a suit, with an expression of just slight discomfort on his face and…
Yagi Toshinori almost vomits his lungs out when he realizes that he is looking at All for One wearing a really atrocious fake moustache.
("Oh. My. God." Nana says in his quirk, her words not reaching him. "His old lover married ALL FOR ONE!?" This is literally the least probable thing in the entire world, maybe after All for One surviving the fight and dedicating himself fully to charity work. That could at least be explained by brain damage.
"Wait, she said childREN, right?" Yoichi, the One for All's first holder, adds from his place. Popcorn lies forgotten next to him. "Does that mean… I have a nephew or a niece?!"
Lariat just groans. This is going to be a bigger mess than he thought. Why do those two blokes not realize that Yagi Toshinori just picked someone who grew up right next to All for One as his successor?!)
"You… married… All for One." Yagi manages to say, thankfully (or not) he was an expert in not vomiting/coughing blood at anything important and thus the photograph was spared from recoloring. "And you… you had a child with him?!"
"Two, actually." Inko's face is once again covered with hands. The words come out slightly mumbled. "I then adopted another child, and… ugh." Hands are off, and she inhales deeply. "They are all really sweet kids. We had a rule about not bringing work home, and I officially retired from villainy. The… disagreement we had was mostly about him trying to have one of my children join his... business. They also didn't inherit his quirk, if that's what worries you." The last words felt just slightly bitter.
"No, it doesn't." Yagi decides to man up a bit. "Sorry, it was just… a bit surprising. A lot to digest… and I don't even have a stomach at this point." She looks at him like she wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a joke or not. "You… don't hold it against me that I…"
"No." Inko shakes her head. "I offered him to retire with me during our argument, but he wanted to remain the emperor of the underworld. I told him that sooner or later someone would kill him, and I said that I wasn't going to hold it against whoever did that. Because All for One… because Hisashi made a decision. And while he was charming and a good husband and father, I… didn't exactly like how he… earned money."
She probably still held it against All Might, Yagi decides. But now she knows who All Might was… and she probably figured out what was the cause of his current looks. The fathers of the majority of her children almost killed each other, because they were archenemies all along.
"Now… unless you are going to arrest me… tell me, why are you here?" Inko steels herself and asks. "Why were you with Izuku? I haven't seen him this happy in a long time."
"I… saved his life from a villain." Yagi replies and her eyes widen. "He ended up asking if a quirkless kid like him can become a hero like me. I… said no. I know firsthand how dangerous this job is, so I suggested becoming a police officer or going for a career in support engineering." There is something complicated on her face, like she isn't sure if she agrees with him or not. "But a while later I saw him trying to save another kid that was being attacked by a villain, even despite the fact that the heroes present on the scene lacked the courage to do it themselves. So I saved them both and…" He inhales deeply. This is something to be said quickly and without giving anyone time to interrupt. "...and I changed my answer. And I offered him my quirk."
She knows what One for All is. He expected it after hearing the part when she married All for One. He doesn't need to explain it to her.
He can see tears welling up, the hand covering her mouth and Inko inhaling deeply. He expected a lot of things, but not this sheer gratitude and happiness on her face. Then there is a shadow on her face that he isn't sure how to interpret.
"You… you didn't change your mind?" She asks, and Yagi fervently shakes his head. Yes, he learned a lot of shocking things about Izuku's family, but...
"You were always more of a vigilante than an actual villain." He replies promptly. "And All for One… Well, if Izuku grew up as his son and yet is still a child with such a heroic heart, then… that's just one more reason to choose him. I just need your permission."
And a lot of training. Yagi will have to ask Shuzenji to tailor his old training schedule with Nana for a kid with much less strength to start with. It will be a struggle to make it in time.
"Oh, Izuku…" She is almost crying at this point. Yagi is… very close to just leaping over the coffee table to try to cheer her up. "He… is a quirkless kid who wants to be a hero from all his heart. Everyone always ridiculed him, and I… I wasn't sure how to help him. I was afraid of giving him a false hope, but I was also afraid of what would happen if his hopes died out entirely. I… please. Please help him."
The waterworks start. He got to see a lot of those back in the day, most of them happy. Those tears are happy as well. This time he does leap over the coffee table (he isn't THAT weak) and he hugs her. She hugs him back. It worked to calm her, back then.
It works now, too. Just not as fast as it used to. Or perhaps these tears had more weight behind them than those in the past?
He almost doesn't want to break this hug. But he has to. He doesn't return to his seat, however. This couch is… big enough for the two of them. He is holding her hands, like he used to do so often back then.
"I'll do my best, Inko." He vows. "I can see a lot of work ahead of us, but… he'll become a splending hero. A hero like me. It's easier to build muscles than a moral spine. I'll help him with that, but… " He falters a bit. "What are we going to tell him? Does he… does he know that he had a different father?"
The real question is 'oh my god are we going to tell him that I'm his father' because All Might wants it very, very much, but… Inko knows Izuku better. She knows how he would react. What if it was too much for the kid? He is already worshipping All Might apparently, what if…
"Yes, but…" She takes a deep breath. "I told him a different name, I… suspected that you might have been a hero or a policeman, and Izuku is ... kinda scary when he really puts his back into something. He could have actually found you, and then Hisashi might have… reacted badly." So All for One didn't know. He didn't know that he was a stepfather to the son of his archenemy all along. Yagi decides to ignore the scary part for now. "He knows that I loved you deeply and that we lost sight of each other after that town was destroyed. He thinks that you died back then, like… like I did for all that time. But, he should know. Right now. He… needs a father. They all do. Money isn't a problem, and I have some friends to help me out, but dealing with four kids at once is… straining." She breathes in and then lets out the final bomb. "Especially as all of them save for Izuku have Class-Six quirks."
("They. What?" Yoichi is the first to speak. Three Class-Six quirks? Quirks to violate the logic of quirks (and by extension, of the world)? Like One for All and All for One? And her fourth kid was just offered one more Class-Six quirk for her to have to deal with?
"Poor woman." Nana announces with just a bit of a mischievous smirk. "And poor All Might, because I know what he is going to do right now. Godspeed, Toshinori!" Lariat and En (who just woke up and was always a major nerd) wave a banner with CATCH THEM ALL, ALL MIGHT written on it behind her, with colours suspiciously similar to pokeballs.)
"They… oh." Yagi spends like four seconds contemplating this before coming to a decision. "I...I'll help however I can. I… I don't have much experience with being a father, but I'm going to do my best. For them all, if you let me."
Her relief is palpable, and her happiness warms his heart. Getting four children (including one that's biologically his) certainly wasn't part of his plan for today, but well. There we go.
He has a faint understanding that he just agreed to something much harder than defeating villains. Maybe save for All for One. Then again, the worst supervillain in history somehow was a father, so certainly Yagi Toshinori can be as well, right?
(He is yet to realize who the 'friends' helping her are, but that's a story for another day. Specifically the one when he visits Inko to see the Hero Killer - the man who makes the living of ending careers of unworthy heroes by beating them up and releasing the evidence for their crimes… and an S-Rank villain - freeloading on her couch and watching the newest documentary about All Might's career together with Izuku.)
Suddenly she freezes and looks at the nearest set of doors. She puts her finger on her lips, silencing him, before using her quirk to open the door in question. The result of them suddenly opening is a small avalanche of children entering the room and collectively falling on the floor. Before disentangling and trying to stand there while pretending that nothing happened.
"Asa." Inko says loudly. "What did I tell you about eavesdropping on people's conversation?"
The only boy in the group - looking like 10-11 years old, and clearly inheriting both All for One's white hair and red eyes (which makes him look like much younger Yoichi Shigaraki, although this is something that only the Holders are aware of, All Might has MUCH worse comparison on his mind) - perks up, looking like a prisoner awaiting execution but wanting to die without humiliating himself. He is wearing a set of Miruko-themed pajamas.
"To… not whisper to each other while doing so, because it betrays your position!" Asa promptly replies. Inko chokes on air, All Might coughs out blood (he lost a lot of it this evening) and the heroes in his head are rolling on the floor with laughter.
"No, the other thing." Inko replies, while eyeing All Might, perhaps just slightly worried about his reaction.
"To not do that." Asa replies before looking down. "Uhm… sorry, mom, we were just kinda… curious. Izu-nichan was so happy but didn't tell us what it was about, said we had to wait for you two to finish, and we…"
A girl is partially hiding behind him. Probably the adopted child, since no one in the room has pale blue hair. Plus, no one else has a horn on their forehead. She is wearing All Might-themed pajamas. She appears to be five or six years old.
She says nothing, she is just staring at Yagi. He has a feeling that he should feel somewhat… worried by it, since it's quite an intense stare, but she just doesn't feel threatening. If anything, she looks... cute? And friendly?
"How much did you hear?" Inko asks. If they heard too much, if they found out about their father and that they were just looking at his (well, justified) killer…
"From the 'I'll do my best, Inko'." Asa replies promptly. So they didn't hear the most accusing parts, that's…
"You're Izunichan's father." Another little girl says, this time with a white hair (but with some strands of green among them) styled into pigtails. Her eyes are two-coloured as well. Not heterochromatic, just through some unexpected quirk-related mutation both her eyes are half red and half green. She is maybe seven or eight years old, and looks… somewhat threatening, actually? Her glare is a bit creepy. She is also the only child in the room to not wear any hero-style pajamas. Just some normal, although pitch-black ones. "And a hero."
"Err, yes." All Might replies. "Do you like heroes?" He is kinda unsure how to proceed, so he can as well try to ask something simple. Right?
"Yes. Especially Endeavor." The girl replies. "He burns people to death." There is fire, bones and blood in her stare right now. This is her father's stare, no doubt about it. It looks both extremely out of place and utterly terrifying on a young girl.
Awkward silence lasts for a few seconds, both in the room and in One for All.
"Aiko, please." Inko sounds tired. "We talked about not making that joke in front of people. It spooks them. And it's not even true." All Might is something like fifty percent sure that Aiko didn't mean it. But then she pulls the Gang Orca plushie that she kept behind her back and hugs it.
"I like Gang Orca." Aiko says. All Might stops being this tense. Kugo Sakamata is a fine hero, and a good idol to have. "He is from a gang, right?"
(To the surprise of absolutely none of the heroes in One for All that got to see their first meeting in detail, Inko Midoriya and Yagi Toshinori get married a month later.)
Chapter 2: Cleaning Up
Takoba Municipal Beach Park was a name that was at best fifty percent correct. It was Takoba and Municipal, yes. But the beach was there only occasionally, and it was at this point anything but a park.
It was, frankly speaking, an illegal dumping site. Add some waste brought by the sea, and suddenly nobody was visiting it. Unless it was done to dump some more junk at what was once a popular dating spot.
Hitoshi Shinsou liked it that way. Because for as long as it was an illegal dumping site, they could live there without heroes or the police noticing them. Sure, it wasn't a good life. They were going to have to look for an alternative when it got closer to winter. But for now, they had a place to call their own.
Even if it was a closed space between two ruined fridges, with a tarpaulin for a roof. And the entrance door.
Even if they were slowly dying from unresolved medical needs, that he really had no idea how to address. He could somewhat deal with his own by stealing from the pharmacies, but it was only delaying things. He needed particular drugs to feel better, everything else was just him almost overdosing on sleeping pills regularly to, like, not die of that freaky form of insomnia he had.
They were around for something like two months (with three more until it was going to get too cold to survive, then again they were probably not going to survive that long either way so who cares, right?) when the most impossible thing started happening.
Someone started to dismantle their home.
Not their sleeping place itself, thank whatever god is looking over outcasts like them. But the Takoba Municipal Beach Park began to be cleared by someone. Not even by some professional group of cleaners. But by a young kid (probably their age) who was cleaning it one piece of junk at a time with a guy looking like a skeleton that the kid referred to as 'dad'.
Though the latter was mostly operating a truck. And sometimes shouting some words of encouragement and praise. And sometimes coughing out a lot of blood.
It was odd.
It was infuriating, really.
After he returned from his bi-weekly grocery run (okay, theft, but he was on the last legs, alright? it's not like a fifteen year old runaway without documents can actually hope to earn money), he saw the duo finish with a segment of the beach. There was a fierce high-five between them, and then the parent left on a truck, looking to do… well, whatever with the junk. Shinsou didn't care.
The kid, oddly enough, remained and seemed to be taking a brief break. Ten minutes in, Hitoshi decided that it was less of a break and more of a low-intensity period of work, since the kid was gathering small parts of junk near the place where the truck normally parked.
It was the right time to figure out what to do with the intruder.
He approached him.
"Who are you?" Hitoshi asked, startling the other kid. It was the simplest thing to do, provoking a reaction. He wasn't going to activate his quirk right now, the last thing he wanted is the kid connecting him to a string of thefts in the area. People finding out that they can't control their body were a common thing in Musutafu, even if most of the stolen things were food.
"Oh!" The kids exclaimed in surprise. He actually jumped back (that was fast) but he landed rather flexibly. "S...sorry, I didn't notice you. What did you say?" Someone was deep in thoughts, it seemed.
"I asked who are you." Hitoshi said. The basic prerequisites for his quirk activation were already done, if they came to blows, he could just freeze the kid and flee. In a different direction, obviously. He wasn't going to betray where they were living.
"I'm Izuku Midoriya!" The kid replied with just a hint of an irritating enthusiasm. "And you?"
"Aoi Miyake." He replies, because obviously he isn't dumb enough to tell the kid his real name. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I'm cleaning the beach with my dad." The kid positively beams when the word 'dad' is mentioned, and Hitoshi is just slightly more angered. "I'm training for the UA entrance exam, and we've decided that doing some community service together will be good training."
Great, Hitoshi decides. His lifelong dream of proving people claiming that he is a villain wrong by becoming a hero dies a year before he has a chance to realize it, and then he ends up living on a junkyard that's slowly cleaned by a kid with some flashy quirk that will probably get to become a hero. And it's probably just to wave some community service around on the exam for bonus points..
Way to rub salt in the wounds, life.
"And you?" Izuku asks back, while looking at Hitoshi curiously. No actual hostility, oddly enough. Despite Hitoshi looking a bit like a tramp. His clothes had seen better times.
"Nothing interesting. I live nearby." He replies and doesn't add that nearby should be taken quite more literally than Izuku thinks. Or that he is, technically, a small-time villain. Not important enough to get noticed, as it will probably last until his inevitable death in a few months.
Which, somehow, is still preferable to landing back in his foster family.
"Uhm, please don't mention me doing this to anyone!" Izuku clasps his hands and is fidgeting just a little bit. "We're trying to make it anonymously. Dad and Uncle Chizome are very particular about heroes working to help others not for popularity, and… I don't do well with groups of people." He scratches his head a bit. "I would prefer to do that without an audience."
Okay, at least he isn't evicting them and making them die on the streets for a popularity stunt.
WOW WHAT A RELIEF THAT IS.
"I won't." Hitoshi sniggers just a bit. "You keep doing that." He wants to say something exactly opposite to that, but it's not like he has an alternative.
"Alright! Thank you!" Izuku completely ignores the negativity in Hitoshi's voice and takes his words for true encouragement.
He is way too positive in Hitoshi Shinsou's opinion.
She looks… not that bad when he returns to their home. But he knows that this is temporary. But he isn't leaving her like that, even if it will be the last thing that he does in his life. He wants to be a hero to someone at least once in his life.
***
Midoriya felt like a dumb kid, but he proved that he was anything but dumb few days later. Hitoshi thought that he fooled Izuku with his 'oh I'm just a local concerned citizen' play, but no. There was more to the kid than that.
He was observing him at work a few times (always afraid that Izuku was going to find their little hideout this time), but he wasn't the only one doing the observation. He realized it when at the end of the workday, Izuku suddenly turned towards Hitoshi's observation spot, waved towards him (he was like a hundred meters away from him and well hidden, damn it!), and pointed to something on the ground.
Hitoshi waited until the truck departed to check what it was about. He found a thermos filled with food (actually WARM food).
Izuku knew that he was homeless. Hitoshi considered just fleeing from the beach and looking for a new place to stay, but she had one of her bad days and that made travelling impossible. They ate the food instead. It was delicious. He left the emptied (and cleaned up) thermos on the cleaned part of the beach soon before the kid arrived to continue his training.
***
Neither side seemed to be willing to acknowledge the existence of the food donation bit. Izuku Midoriya was leaving the food at the end of his work, and then picked up the thermos after arriving at the beach.
He wasn't doing anything else than that. Hitoshi was kinda relieved. The amount of food delivered was narrowly enough for the two of them (did Izuku know? or was he just so generous for a single person), so while it wasn't super comfortable, Hitoshi could cut down on the grocery thefts.
The weird thing is that nothing else happened.
Izuku Midoriya didn't try to find them, didn't try to strike up a conversation. He was just leaving the food there. All while slowly but surely evicting them from the sad excuse of a house they had.
He wasn't always arriving with his father. From time to time he was instead with a scary looking man without a nose, who was referred to as 'Chizome-san' or 'Uncle Akaguro'. A few more times Izuku was instead accompanied by a brown-haired and slightly weird acting man referred to as 'Sako-san' or 'Uncle Atsuhiro'.
Izuku had a lot of uncles, evidently. Each and every one of them looked completely different. Were they from different sides of his family? Then again, skeleton-man wasn't similar to either of them.
Eventually, it was Hitoshi who decided to start the conversation. And he had once again emerged from the junkyard to confront Izuku Midoriya, while his current caretaker was absent.
"Thank you for the food." Hitoshi said and Izuku, once again, was startled. Odd, if someone were to ask him. Especially for someone this observant.
"Oh, no problem!" Izuku replies with a kind smile. "You looked pretty hungry back then, and I saw you watching me for a few days so I asked my mom to prepare something for you. She is already cooking for me, my three siblings, my dad and whatever uncle or aunt drops by for dinner, so one or two more portions aren't that much."
"That's one large family you have." Hitoshi comments and Izuku shrugs. "What do you want from me? You have an agenda in all that."
"H...huh?" This somehow startles Izuku again. He actually stares at Hitoshi while blinking rapidly. "No, I told you that heroes do good deeds wanting nothing in return. You looked hungry and I think you are homeless, so I decided to help."
Is this kid really THIS pure? Hitoshi doubts it. The thing is, he would normally throw that option through the nearest window right at the start. But with Izuku, he only doubts it. It's still on the table. He is surprised at himself.
"You should sleep more, though." Izuku adds, and Hitoshi does his best not to snarl. "The bags under your eyes are kinda… large."
"I know." Hitoshi deadpans. What is he supposed to say? 'Well, I have that weird neurological disease that kinda makes me unable to fall asleep without using a lot of sleeping pills and it's going to kill me sooner or later either through accidental sleeping pills overdose or through staying awake for too long'?
Way to bring child services on your head. And then, bam, back to the foster family. Probably THAT foster family.
"Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome?" Izuku asks and Hitoshi almost trips despite standing straight.
"What?" He manages to speak. How does this kid… this kid that he is literally meeting face-to-face for the second time in his life… know what the disease that's killing him is?! Isn't it rare? Extremely rare?
"You clearly have no mutant quirk, and you don't seem to have any signs of mutations associated with the majority of physical transformative and emitter quirks." Izuku promptly replies. "This indicates either quirklessness, some really weak quirk or something strong, but subtle. You carry obvious signs of some really bad insomnia, and I don't think that it's because you are homeless. So my theory is… you have a mental quirk, but it grew up wrong. Your brain is constantly receiving meaningless input from your quirk, so it stays active and you can't fall asleep. So, Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome."
He finishes his lecture, and only now realizes that Hitoshi is looking at him like he just saw a ghost. Or a teacher that cares. He panicks.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to pry!" Izuku says, while hiding behind his hands as if he expected Hitoshi to attack him. "I'm just really interested in quirks and mental quirks are super awesome. Mom and dad say that I have a knack for their analysis, but… I'm not sure if they are right." He looks kinda conflicted over it.
"No, you… probably have a knack for it." Hitoshi decided to admit. "You are really something else. I had to visit three different specialists before one of them figured out what it was, and you just took one look at me and made a correct diagnosis."
"Thank you! Uhm, can I ask… what's your quirk?" Izuku asks.
There is just so much innocent curiosity in Izuku's face that somehow, just somehow, Hitoshi is compelled to answer. He knows it's borderline suicidal, considering his whole villain in hiding status, but…
"It's called Brainwashing." Hitoshi replies. "When I speak to someone and they speak back, I can issue an order to them and they will be compelled to follow it." He braces for inevitable revulsion, but instead IZUKU. FUCKING. BEAMS. Like someone just told him that Christmas came early.
"That's an awesome quirk!" Hitoshi stares, feeling his jaw drop. There is not even a hint of being weirded out on his face. "Have you ever considered becoming a hero? You could de-escalate a hostage situation just by talking to the villain! You should work on the naming, though. Brainwashing sounds kinda grim."
Hitoshi stares. Izuku grows increasingly uncomfortable and starts to fidget slightly. Hitoshi keeps staring for a few more seconds before his brain manages to compute what he just heard.
"Where?" Hitoshi finally asks. "Where were you my whole life?" Izuku looks a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights, he is freaked out and has no idea what it is about. "Everyone kept telling me that I have a villainous quirk. For years. Now I'm homeless, I live in a junkyard and that's where and when I meet the first person to ever say that my quirk is great."
"Errr…" Izuku clearly doesn't know how to answer that announcement. "I… was probably too busy being tossed around my school for quirklessness to be able to tell you that." He tries to smile but it falls flat in front of Hitoshi's stare. He isn't buying self-deprecation jokes, at least not from a kid who is this goddamn pure.
"You're quirkless and you are trying to get to the UA?" Hitoshi says finally. "I mean, I'm totally going to cheer for you, if only for what you just told me, but… it's kinda… impossible?" He heard of the robots. What was he going to do, even if he got there? Brainwash them? UA was never an option for him.
"Apparently I'm a late bloomer." Izuku replies, looking away and scratching his head nervously. "Some form of strength amplification quirk, but it doesn't activate due to some built-in security measure. I'm most likely too weak to bear it, and my body keeps it offline to make me, uhm, not damage myself. I'm working to pass the threshold before the exam, so that it actually works."
He was still 'tossed around his school' for quirklessness before that. Hitoshi heard of cases of supposedly quirkless people suddenly late-blooming powerful quirks. While, typically, wanting only to see the world burn at this point. Some of the worst villains were born that way.
Considering that they were talking about a powerful strength-amplification quirk on a kid that just guessed Hitoshi's quirk-related diseases and managed to narrow down his quirk to a mental one by SEEING THE BAGS UNDER HIS EYES (like, once, unless he figured it on the spot today), it was probably good that Midoriya didn't seem to hate society.
Good for society, that is. Brains and brawn were a terrible combination to face.
"That sounds kinda cool." Hitorshi replies. "What's your opinion about quirks that make you drink human blood?" Hitoshi decides to ask and studies the reaction. Surely, there has to be a limit to how accepting this kid is, right?
"Like uncle Chizome's quirk?" Izuku asks back and Hitoshi realizes that there is probably no limit to speak off. "I mean, it's just a quirk-dictated alteration to dietary needs, yes? You just have to register it officially and then you are eligible to receive blood from the nearest blood bank. It's nothing weird."
Too pure. Just… too pure.
Hitoshi is blinded by Izuku at this point. He doesn't know how to deal with being blinded.
"I… see." He says. If his calculations are correct, one of his uncles should be here soon. He doesn't feel comfortable around adults. "I'll be going."
"Drop by next time!" Izuku waves at him and returns to cleaning the beach.
***
The day after that, he came out to collect the usual food donation only to find a much larger thermos filled with food, a packet of Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome medications and a blood bag. All placed on the sand right before Izuku left.
Hitoshi Shinsou hadn't cried in a long while. And he never in his life cried happy tears. Both things changed on that evening. He did that for a second time when he saw the colours returning to her face.
***
Hitoshi came out to hang with Izuku a few more times. Always when his uncles and dad weren't there. They never mentioned the things that Izuku was leaving on the beach. It was just random, meaningless smalltalk.
It was after a week had passed since THAT day when Hitoshi began to understand what Izuku was doing. He was luring Hitoshi in. Not in any malicious way. All he had to do was to just… call the heroes. Or villains. Or whoever else he knew. And Hitoshi would be out of the picture.
He was seeing Hitoshi as an abandoned kitten, who clearly didn't trust people that tried to take them to a vet. So he was trying to build his trust. Trust to… do what exactly? Was he waiting for Hitoshi to actually ASK for help?
What help could he actually offer to a small-time villain? They were going to end in juvie, and that was the best case scenario. Returning to whatever family they had left was way worse of an option.
Sure, he cut down his thefts to the minimum. Midoriya was providing him with everything that they needed to survive, at least before the winter came. But there were still things they occasionally had to get from somewhere, and it's not like he had any money to spare, right?
He felt kinda guilty about it. He considered asking Midoriya to provide him with just a few more things, or perhaps… actually asking him what he TRULY wanted from Hitoshi (in other words, what help can he offer), but then, of course, things happened.
He stole himself a new pair of boots (because the old ones practically broke on him) and that's when he ran into a hero. Nightshade. He heard about him from someone who had a really bad meeting with him (namely, his one and only companion) and Hitoshi knew why exactly he couldn't get caught.
So he ran. He was quite fast, and Nightshade was never the fastest of heroes. Things got a bit worse when he was joined by Redwing. Hitoshi had no idea why those two heroes were in Shizuoka, much less Musutafu, but he had no time to think about it.
He eventually managed to lose them, before circling around back to Takoba. It's the time for Izuku to be working there, but Hitoshi ignores it. Instead he dives straight for his little home.
"Himiko!" He says while pretty much jumping inside. She was sleeping, curled up in the corner. But she jerked up from her sleep at his voice. "We're going, now!"
"W...what? What's happening?" She started to receive sensible dosages of blood recently, and she started to act… more sanely, had some of her strength back but still looked pale. And her resistance to UV light was still practically zero.
"Nightshade is here." Her face pales even more . "I lost him, but if he is in this ward, he will find us sooner or later. We need to leave, NOW."
She is weak, but not weak enough to be unable to move. She grabs her backpack (they are always, technically, ready to escape at a moment's notice, it just wasn't an option when she was so blood starved), and he grabs his.
He leaves first, just to see Nightshade, Red Wing, and Thunderbolt, the FUCKING NUMBER THREE HERO, standing in front of them.
"Well, your ability to run is decent enough." Nightshade says with a smile that's just a tiny bit sadistic. Hitoshi knows they are dead. Nightshade had almost beaten Himiko to death for having a villainous quirk right after she escaped from her home. If Hitoshi wasn't around to brainwash the hero, he would have just murdered her. Red Wing is apparently a friend of his and Thunderbolt… "But you've run for long enough, little villains."
Yeah. With Thunderbolt's speed, they can't hope to escape. Himiko clings to his back, and he would really want to save her, but this time? No, this time they are done for.
"To have to call me for two kids, hmph." Thunderbolt shakes his head. "Well, have your fun. You still owe me. A lot."
Then the beating starts.
***
"What. Are. You. Doing." Hitoshi hears a familiar voice saying. A familiar voice that he never heard - never even imagine - to carry so much sheer fury.
He can barely lift himself from the ground, and that's mostly because Nightshade stopped casually beating him around with a riot baton. It was still a better option than having him beat Himiko (Red Wing was mostly watching and Thunderbolt was playing on his phone, and Nightshade could only beat a single person at once), all things considered. So he persevered. Most of his teeth did as well.
Himiko crawled into the corner again, holding her head, the sunlight burning her, the girl left to be the dessert. Hitoshi wasn't even disappointed over her not even trying to help him, really. He remembered how long she was plagued by nightmares about Nightshade after they got away last time. She was facing her worst fear, and it was strange to expect a different reaction. She was still whimpering each time Hitoshi felt another blow on himself.
But he still manages to lift his head enough to see Izuku Midoriya stand a few meters away from the scene. With his uncle Atsuhiro standing right behind him, with an expression of sheer, livid fury on his face.
"Oh, great." Red Wing sighs. "Witnesses."
"Well, you've done fucked up, friends." Thunderbolt announces and hides his phone. "Now we'll…"
"I asked you." Izuku stares at Nightshade. No, he doesn't stare. He glares. With so much hostility and raw anger that despite not being a target of it, Hitoshi still feels his heart stop for a second. Nightshade actually takes a step back under the glare. "What are you doing?"
"Teaching some villains a lesson before arresting them officially, of course." Thunderbolt replies calmly. "We are…"
"Are you so blind that you can't even see that I'm speaking to Nightshade?" Izuku Midoriya says. Hitoshi can see Thunderbolt go slackjawed. A fourteen year old kid just casually ignored him. More than that, it sassed him and treated him as unworthy of mention, despite him being the Number Three Hero.
A kid that had absolutely no signs of his standard jittering left in him. Just absolute fury. With a small hint of personal hatred.
"Kid, I don't know who the hell are you, but…" Thunderbolt makes a few steps towards the kid. It's an intimidation thing, really. His superspeed quirk allows him to cross a kilometer distance in a second or two if there are no obstructions. He is just trying to make the kid stop talking.
"I'm Izuku Midoriya." Izuku replies, finally facing Thunderbolt. His face is one of pure fury. Then he takes a step forward… and Thunderbolt stops his advance. "Son of Yagi Toshinori, personal assistant of All Might, the Number One Hero. The child who has All Might visit his family for dinner a few times a week. The child that has just recorded you playing on your phone while another hero is beating two defenseless children. The child that made sure that the recording from his bodycam is being sent real time to his father, who will no doubt send it to All Might and Principal Nedzu. The child who has just murdered your career and is looking forward to you landing in jail, you fake." The last word is practically coated in venom. Then Izuku turns his head from Thunderbolt (who, somehow, MADE A STEP BACK during the monologue) and looks back at the thoroughly frozen Nighshade. "Now, I'll ask again. What. Are. You. Doing?"
"You son of a …" Thunderbolt clearly doesn't buy it. And is furious at being intimidated. He lunges at a kid, his hand clenched into a fist, not using his superspeed quirk but… then he disappears. He just vanishes without a trace.
"Well, that was an enjoyable spectacle. Until you attacked my wonderful assistant." Atsuhiro announces and Hitoshi realizes that despite noticing him at the beginning, he somehow failed to notice him still being there the whole time. Did Midoriya drag so much attention to himself that he somehow… "Now time for the encore, my dear little fake heroes!"
Hitoshi ends up seeing Atsuhiro ramming Red Wing's head into a broken fridge (and then the hero suddenly disappearing). Right before he deftly dodges Nightshade's baton (which seems to hit him, but no, it's just his jacket, because Atsuhiro crouched and left it hanging above him in the air, somehow) and makes him vanish as well by tapping him lightly on his knee.
Himiko and Hitoshi stare at the people in front of them. Hitoshi has so many questions. Starting from 'Izuku knows All Might personally?!" and going all the way to 'did his uncle just DEFEAT THE NUMBER THREE HERO and two other heroes like it was no big deal?!'.
"Uncle Atsuhiro." Izuku gulps nervously, and he is clearly back to his normal, anxious self. "When I told you to follow me, I kinda… like… expected you to offer me vocal support. On the body-cam bluff. Not, technically, kidnap the Number Three Hero."
"Well…" Atsuhiro scratches the side of his head. "... Plus Ultra?"
Even Hitoshi thinks that the kick to the ankle was well-earned.