知らぬが仏

しらぬがほとけ

[shiranu ga hotoke]

Not knowing is Buddha; Ignorance is bliss

"Hey, watch it!"

Barely a second before a blur of green collided with a tower of boxes on a small cart, everything froze.

Midoriya Izuku blinked.

He was floating. Why was he floating?

He had been in a rush to get to the beach park. School had ended a little later than usual; the rest of the class ditched him to finish cleaning duty on his own again, delaying his packed training schedule by a solid 15 minutes. All Might had mentioned that he was coming to see him today, and he'd probably reach the beach park soon. Not wanting to be any later than he already was, Izuku dashed out of his apartment after quickly changing out of his school uniform, making a turn at the corner of the corridor a lot faster than he probably should have. All he saw was a blur of brown when he felt a sudden tug from his clothes that roughly jerked him back.

He was in the air a few inches above the ground, hanging from his clothes that had somehow gained a mind of their own and decided to float up in a blatant attempt to defy gravity. The soft cotton material of his workout shirt and his nylon shorts were scrunched up and wrapped tightly around his body despite their loose fitting, lifting his entire body up into the air. The flimsy material, however, was hardly able to withstand his weight and was rapidly losing their hold over his person, leaving him to droop like an awkward marionette.

What.

He looked up. Three huge cardboard boxes loomed over him, balanced precariously on a little cart that was probably smaller than it should have been for its load. If not for this little floating episode that had pulled him back, Izuku would have crashed into them in his hurry.

"Seriously, can you guys be careful?" A feminine voice came from behind the boxes.

Izuku's feet were planted firmly on the ground again after a brief sensation of being pulled downwards by his shoes. The tight grip of his clothes had also been released, returning to its original loose shape.

Someone's quirk? It seemed like a quirk that could manipulate clothing. Perhaps it was similar to Best Jeanist, a quirk centred on the manipulation of clothing fibres? The scrunching up of the material seems to indicate otherwise though. The entire fabric moved, not the individual fibres. Besides, he had felt a distinct tugging from his feet. Even his shoes had moved.

Izuku broke out of his stupor when a man popped his head out from behind the boxes. Grey haired and bespectacled, he gave an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry young man, for putting you into danger like that. I knew I shouldn't have stacked the boxes up so high. We'd have to thank Tachibana for saving us," he said in a low voice, gesturing to someone behind him.

"A-ah no! It's okay! I'm fine, I shouldn't have run so recklessly in the corridor either, please don't apologise!" Izuku replied frantically, quickly moving out of the way so that the man could pass. "Thank you, um… Tachibana-san?"

The elderly man gave him a small nod and pushed his cart away, revealing the frame of another person, his…saviour(?), as he moved.

With jet black hair tied in what looked like an elaborate braid that Izuku could not name, his saviour turned out to be a girl who looked about his age. He could only see her side profile — she was crouching down, looking through the viewfinder of a sleek black camera in her hands that was trained on a… trash bag.

"No problem. Sorry for using my quirk on you without permission," the girl — Tachibana, replied without even sparing him a glance. She paused and shifted. The shutter of the camera clicked. "Running around blindly doesn't seem like a good idea though, you might want to think about that."

Izuku flushed bright red, not quite sure how to respond. A girl was speaking to him. Albeit she wasn't actually looking at him, but she was speaking to him. Him. Midoriya Izuku. His hand flew up to rub the back of his head sheepishly.

"I-I… um… I… I'm s-sorry. T-thank you." Izuku managed to fumble out, somewhat dazed. Not only had a girl spoken to him, he actually managed to say something back. With that little revelation, his eyes darted around the corridor, looking at everything and anything that wasn't the girl before him.

For a long, excruciating moment, the gir—no. Tachibana. The girl whom the man had called Tachibana, didn't reply. Izuku watched as she inspected the photo she had just taken. (Why was she taking pictures of a trash bag? He didn't get it.) Unsure of what to do, Izuku stood in place. He waited.

Unfortunately for him, however, Tachibana did not deign to acknowledge him after that short exchange and was content to let him be. Izuku didn't know that though, so he wasted his precious time inspecting his surroundings instead. (All Might had to be waiting by now, he really needed to leave soon.)

The door of the apartment unit they were standing outside of was open. Several trash bags, filled to the brim, were deposited at the doorway. A rustling of plastic and sounds of people moving things around could be heard from the apartment.

Izuku twitched. Curious, he mustered up his courage.

"I-is someone m-moving out?"

Suddenly, sharp blue eyes were trained on him. Hard, intense gunmetal blues seemed to pin him in place. He wanted to flinch and look away, yet Izuku could focus on nothing else.

"Your neighbour has passed away. Didn't you know?"

Her response hit Izuku like how he imagined the cart of boxes from earlier would have, had there been no external intervention.

"Eh?"

He was rooted to his spot, dumbfounded. If he had no idea what to do before, he was now a thousand times more confused and clueless.

"P-Passed away?"

She nodded, rising to stand up straight. Her eyes were still fixed on him, unwavering, accusing. The trash bag that she had been photographing levitated into the air, depositing itself into another cardboard box that leaned against the wall.

"An old lady, aged 73. She passed away roughly two months ago, but was only discovered three days back when the landlord came to check on her after she fell back on rent." She gave him a wry smile. "Did you know her?"

Izuku didn't know what to say. Was there anything that could be said? He nodded mutely.

How did her death remain undiscovered for two months? Unwelcome images of the kind old lady's body rotting, decaying, shrivelling up undiscovered bombarded his mind. Come to think of it, his mom did mention that she hadn't seen the old lady from next door at the market recently, but they didn't piece that information together with the lady passing away. Who would?

He didn't know. He hadn't known. But what kind of hero would he be if he couldn't even help the people around him? They could have checked on her, then she wouldn't have been left alone for two months.

"Don't feel too guilty about it, kid. Lonely deaths, kudokushi, like this are common." The elderly man from before interjected from behind him, now back with an empty cart.

"I'm sorry." Izuku apologised, though he wasn't sure what he was apologising for. There was a long silence.

He fidgeted a little. "May I ask about what you are doing now?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're cleaning out her apartment." The girl replied again with a hint of irritation. "You're lucky that we're way past summer now, or you might have been the one who discovered the body, stench and all."

"Oh."

"Now Tachibana, be nice! It wasn't anyone's fault, certainly not the boy. I didn't let you come along just to harass the client's tenants." The elderly man chided. He made his way to the apartment door and begun packing more filled trash bags into the cardboard box, but the bags flew up and fitted themselves into the box on their own before he was even done with one. He grunted. "Thanks."

The girl rolled her eyes and sighed.

"You're right." She turned to face Izuku, her shoulders tense. "Sorry about that. It's just frustrating that everyone seems so caught up in their own lives that they don't notice anything that doesn't concern them."

With a sigh, she continued. "I shouldn't have taken out my frustrations on you, though. I was in the wrong." She stuck out her hand with a small tilt of her head. "My name is Tachibana. Tachibana Akari. Nice to meet you. Don't worry, my hand's clean."

Needless to say, Izuku's brain spontaneously combusted at the idea of shaking hands with a girl. A pretty girl at that, even if she was a little intimidating. Though she had a small, delicate nose and soft lips that wouldn't be misplaced on a doll, her eyes were fierce. They were sharp and narrow, and the intensity of her frigid blue irises only added to the intimidation factor. It was altogether a little incongruous, (and intimidating, did he mention that already?) But still, oh my god a pretty girl wanted to shake his hand!

"Ah-no it's okay! T-t-there's no need to a-apologise!" Izuku replied, frantically wiping his sweaty hands on his clothes before reaching out to reciprocate the handshake. "I-I'm Midoriya I-Izuku, it's n-nice to meet you!"

Tachibana and the old man shared a knowing glance, then they both burst out laughing. Izuku tensed. Did he do something wrong?

She gently let go of his hand, grinning. Suddenly Izuku wasn't quite sure why he found her so intimidating and scary earlier; her eyes curled into beautiful crescents as she laughed, causing them to lose their fierce edge, making her look infinitely friendlier.

"I'm sorry for laughing, but there's no need for you to be so tense, Midoriya I-Izuku-kun."

He couldn't tell if she was actually apologising or teasing, or both.

"Yeah," the old man added, slapping a hand on his back. "I see you haven't spoken to girls much eh, young man?"

Midoriya Izuku was mortified. They were definitely teasing. He had not known that it was possible for his cheeks to feel that hot, but they certainly were now. Part of him wanted to turn his back and sprint away from any further embarrassment, but he fought down the urge.

"I-I… yeah…"

The old man gave another hearty laugh. "The two of you look like you're about the same age. Are you a middle schooler, young man?"

Izuku gave a stiff nod.

"Why don't the two of you make friends then, Tachibana here is a middle schooler too. Third year. God knows she needs some friends; what kind of teenager follows old people around to clean dead people's houses?"

He figured that it was the girl's turn to be embarrassed now, but instead of flushing red like Izuku did, she rolled her eyes and turned to the old man with a glare.

"An intellectually inquisitive teenager who is concerned about social issues like these and gathering firsthand experience for her research, perhaps?" She retorted. Izuku was immediately jealous of her composure. "Besides, I have ample friends, you don't have to stress your old heart worrying about me."

She quickly turned to Izuku to address him. "Not that I don't want to be friends with you, I'd be happy to. Please don't get the wrong idea."

"Ah, it's okay, don't worry about it." He managed to say with more calmness than he actually had. "I'd be happy to be friends with you too!"

She laughed. "Well, to be honest, I don't exactly live in the area so I doubt I'll really see you again, but you can find me on my social media accounts, I guess."

As if struck by an idea, her smile widened, gaining a wicked edge to it.

"Photography and writing are my hobbies, so I'd love it if you checked my blog out! I run Sōmei Middle School's online newsletter as well, and we've been trying to increase viewership recently." Her friendliness suddenly started to make sense now. "Mind you, I'm not very good at maintaining online conversations though, but feel free to contact me through these platforms."

Though a part of him grimaced at the blatant publicity, he couldn't help but admire her boldness. Awkwardly, Izuku shared his contact details with the girl, and was rewarded with a satisfied smile after he had followed the girl and bookmarked her blog and school news site.

"Um… By the way, I've been wondering, are you part of the old lady's family? You guys don't really seem like it."

Tachibana stiffened, then shook her head. The tension from before returned.

"We are a professional cleanup crew that specialises in cleaning out newly unoccupied houses of people who have passed," she explained. "Well technically I'm not part of it, but Takahashi-san here," she gestured to the old man as she said his name, "and another two people who are inside," she continued, gesturing to the apartment, "are part of the crew."

"I'm just here to lift trash bags, give moral support and take pictures since the old man won't let me do any actual work."

"Oh." Izuku paused before asking again. "Then what about her family? The old lady's, I mean."

Tachibana grimaced. "People these days don't really have time for these things, so they pay others to do it. This time though, it's the landlord who called us in. This old lady… she… she didn't have anyone left."

Looking at Tachibana's grim smile, Izuku definitely regretted bringing up the topic now.

"Kudokushi cases like this are common though, it's really nothing new here." The old man added. He grunted as he used a roll of tape to seal the cardboard box and loaded it onto the cart, before turning to give Izuku his full attention. The corners of his mouth were turned down, and his dark eyes behind wiry spectacle frames seemed to speak of untold grief and resignation. "She has already passed and there's nothing you can do now, young man, so don't worry too much about it."

"O-okay."

A brief silence ensued, before the girl broke it.

"By the way, Midoriya-san, weren't you in a rush to somewhere? You were running to get to somewhere, weren't you?"

"Oh my, All Might!" Izuku squeaked. "I'm sorry I've got to go now bye!" With that, he dashed off at full speed to get to the beach park for his training.

Tachibana raised a questioning brow, sharing a look with the old man.

"Oh my, All Might? Strange expression, don't you think?"

AN:

Hi, if you're here, thank you for reading! This is my first time publishing anything and I'm still not sure if I'll continue, but please leave a review!

In case you were wondering, Kudokushi, which means lonely death, is a real issue in Japan due to their growing aging population. Many of the elderly are alone due to various reasons, such as their spouses passing away and not having any children, or no longer keeping in contact with their children for various reasons, such as a reluctance to become a burden. This results in many of the elderly who pass away due to old age remaining undiscovered in their own homes for an extended period of time. Special clean out crews that are paid to clean out apartments of people who have passed away really do exist, and sometimes even if the person who passed do have remaining family members, they may still hire these clean out crews to do the cleaning for them. This will feature pretty prominently in Akari's characterisation, which is why her first encounter with Midoriya revolves around this. Also, if you have any guesses on what her quirk is, please leave a review, I'd love to hear from you!

Kei