Running down the shore of the beach, Izuku felt relief as the wind whipped through his hair. He'd got his casts off awhile ago, and he finally healed up enough to run around. The healing process had completed a couple months early to his delight, in just under a year. He felt like a bird breaking out of the cage and finally spreading its wings again. He had regained his freedom.
After sprinting all the way down to the edge, he felt himself turn around and begin running his way back. His body was a little tired, and he could deduce he had lost some stamina while he was wheel-bound. He had to make up for that lost time by not only reobtaining that lost strength, but going beyond his limits and acquiring more.
Making his way back down, Izuku felt himself slouch as his hands rested on his knees. That had likely taken an hour away from his day, but it had to be done. He had to get that energy out after bottling it up for so long. Now that it was, he could finally start getting to work.
"Let's pick up were we left off," he said to himself, staring at the trash cluttered around the beach area. It was dangerous to run around like he had with so much trash about. He could've easily fallen and gotten hurt, but he trusted himself to be careful.
It looked like the heap of trash had built up more over the time he was away. It still wasn't as bad when he was fourteen, so he didn't let that bother him. In fact, he welcomed the extra challenge. Whatever resemblance of the gains he'd gotten while All Might trained him was what he strived for. With the extra time, he could hopefully go far enough to where his body had been sculpted immaculately after using One for All for an entire year.
"Aim to Pass: American Dream Plan - Part 2!"
Slapping himself on his cheeks, Izuku began his workout of cleaning and exercising. He remembered the exact outlines of the plan he'd followed over the course of his third year in middle school. While his body wasn't quite up to that yet, he could start by doing close to that and work his way up.
Midway during the start of his cleaning and carrying a popped car tire safely away from the hills of trash did Izuku come across an old workbench. It was a bit isolated from the rest of the trash, but piles of clutter had begun nearing the sides of it from toppling over.
His emerald eyes lit up in recognition. "I remember now, I set you aside so I could hopefully use and work on you."
Pulling the table further away and kicking some rubble away, the boy reexamined the table. It still appeared in good condition, and thankfully still hadn't been infested with anything. He could count himself lucky - as lucky as someone digging around in trash could be.
Those plans to experiment and build his own support items had been on hiatus, raring to go whenever he had sufficiently recovered enough to begin working on them. His excitement at being unbound again had made him get a little ahead of himself and start training right away, but that didn't matter. Building equipment was always tertiary to his training, which was secondary to his perpetually failing attempts to rewrite the past and guide it properly to a brighter future.
His goals would no longer fail. No more setbacks, no more excuses.
First things first, he needed to work on his body. If the future he longed for would become a reality, being strong was a necessity. He would prioritize that, and work on his crafts secondary. He already had the materials ready, which were starting to collect dust from all the time they sat around hidden and waiting to be used. Even if he failed to build anything noteworthy, he could still use that knowledge as a beacon of guidance for other ventures.
Being more important, those two things would come first. They were his way to prepare against the forces to come. However, he had the one thing he had built up over the course of his injury - his internet channel.
You Are Here.
That was the name he had landed on. He didn't even try to hide the clear inspirations All Might had on him and the channel's theme, instead choosing to embrace it. After a large amount of consideration, Izuku chose to keep the channel anonymous, meaning he never gave away his identity or showed who he was on the platform.
The reason was very simple: he was eleven.
Most people probably wouldn't listen very much to little kids trying to spread an earnest message. Even if the message was good, or if the content was inspiring, it would always be diluted down because it came from a child. He didn't want that, so he chose to keep the person behind it unknown for anyone watching.
And they did watch. In less than a full year's time, Izuku had amassed over half a million subscribers on the platform, and millions of views on his videos. He hadn't released much content, but every single video had been a hit.
Researching the algorithms had helped, but what really did it was his informative way of getting the message across, or how he articulately explained the strengths of Heroes and how important they were to society. Not because of power and fame, but duty and incredible responsibility.
No video showed that better than the one he made about All Might, which was also his first and most popular by far.
Izuku basically knew everything about the man already, from heroics to even personal stuff, which of course he mostly avoiding from broaching on. His take on All Might and how he wasn't just a symbol, but a message - not just a shield, but a pillar of support, was what put his channel into the limelight. It wasn't just because he gave the man credit he already had, but because he said what no one else dared.
That time would eventually take its toll, and people needed to get their act together before it was up.
It wasn't a big call out, or anything stated with contempt. Rather, it was stated encouragingly. If All Might could be great, other people could too. Maybe they didn't have the strength or the ability, but they could still choose to smile. They could still hope. They could still live an important life. Not just other Heroes taking those steps, but everyone.
You Are Here. That was his message.
It really resonated with a lot of people, which pleased Izuku greatly. He had said something that needed to be said - acknowledging the elephant in the room - and people were thankful because of that. Reception was mostly positive, and his follow up videos seemed to get that same positive energy with people saying it had brightened their day.
That was a good start. His happiness was other people's happiness.
But he wanted more out of it than that.
Izuku wanted his channel to help people. While it was doing good and spreading a positive message, he wasn't sure if a video could truly save someone. That's why he wanted to keep pushing it. Even if it was just a single person, by the end of it all, he wanted to proudly say that his channel had saved someone who needed it.
Picking up some more trash next to the workbench and carrying it away, Izuku grunted as he carried it out of the dump. He glanced back at the heaping pile as a thought entered him.
Maybe he should finally record a video in real life?
He wouldn't have to show himself, editing or blotting out his body as he recorded the beach clean up. It wasn't much, but maybe something as simple as this could inspire some other people to do the same?
Little acts like this, or acts even smaller. Going out of your way to help someone, even just for a moment. Something miniscule and seemingly forgettable, yet wouldn't be. A message across the internet had the power to reach millions, or even billions of people.
It could reach them, but could it touch them?
Just one person, and it would be worth it. That's what Izuku thought as he carried the trash away.