It is the sunlight that wakes her. Her eyes snap open and the dim remains of a headache fade from her skull. Did She doze off? She doesn't remember being tired. The trip to Tokyo hadn't been a long one. She reaches up to rub her eyes.
The subway car continues to rattle along, and the brief glimpse of day vanishes as they race back underground.
"A mental shutdown?" Two schoolgirls stand by the train car's door, arms wrapped around handrails, heads dipped together in conversation.
"Mmmhmm," the second girl says. "I heard about it online. Apparently the guy's brain just went 'splat' or something and he drove the bus right into a store."
"Geez, that's scary."
"That's not all, I heard the same thing happened to that subway engineer who crashed that train last week."
The first girl frowns, "But, can that really happen to someone? I mean, I know there's that aneurism thing that kills you instantly, or something, but it doesn't make you act crazy, right?"
The second replies with a shrug and a giggle. "Who knows? Maybe there's some kind of gas in the subway tunnels that made him go crazy."
"Don't say that when we're on the subway!"
Midoriya's attention drifts away. They weren't talking about anything, not really. Just rumors and nonsense. She doesn't need to pay attention. She doesn't need to care. She keeps her eyes on the floor for the rest of the trip.
The train reaches a subsidiary station just south of Shibuya, and Modoriya steps off and mixes with the people on the platform. Hsr shoulders slump forward, her hands are shoved deep in her pockets of her All Might hoodie, her eyes are fixed on the ground. She walks. She occasionally checks the GPS on her phone. She says nothing. She looks at nothing. She tries to think nothing.
She walks.
The sheer amount of people in Tokyo doesnt bother her. She is not from a small town - it's only an hour's ride north - but never has she been to a place so congested. Hundreds of pedestrians slide past her on the sidewalk. Their eyes look everywhere but at her. She is fine with this.
A moment is all she allows herself to marvel when she reaches Shibuya. The mass of people, when looked at in a certain way, seems like its own entity, a creature of a million limbs spiraling out and snaking its way through the streets and alleys. A thing with a mind, a consciousness, of its own. It is a daunting thought.
Everything stops.
Everything.
Midoriya looks up and around.
"Hey kid, keep it moving!" Midoriya turns and finds Bakugo scowling at her . "Oh its Midoriya, Get the fuck out of my way." Bakugo shakes his head in disgust. "Go fuck off already."
Sane again, Midoriya continues to the station, her posture stooped, her eyes on the ground. She does her best to look as uninteresting and innocent as possible.
Yongen-jaya. The place feels forgotten. More storefronts are shuttered than open. The people, few in number, walk with the easy familiarity of those who have been here for years. It is both intimate and strange. Midoriya supposes there could be some charm to this neighborhood, but it is hidden beneath the grit that cakes everything.
She passes a hole-in-the wall medical clinic, a shuttered movie theatre, and a convenience store in her search for Cafe LeBlanc. Her directions are not precise, and her GPS has difficulty tracking her location.
LeBlanc is a small storefront across from a bathhouse, its sign small and unobtrusive. Like the rest of Yongen-jaya, it feels like an afterthought, swallowed by the whole of Tokyo.
Nerves set in. She knows nothing about Toshinori Yagi, the man who had invited her to LeBlanc. He is not a friend. Midoriya does not know why this man has invited her, but she no longer questions things. This has all been arranged.
She opens the door to LeBlanc and steps inside. Her eyes take a moment to adjust to the dim interior. A series of booths line the wall, with a parallel bar alongside. It smells of cook smoke, coffee, lacquer and leather. It is the same inside as out, small, cramped and quiet.
A man sits on a stool. He wears a pink shirt beneath an ivory apron. His hair, though receding, is a lustrous black, and his beard is stylized into a point. A newspaper is in his hands, but the man looks bored. At the sound of Midoriya's entrance, the man glances at him over the tops of his glasses.
The two regard each other for a moment, as Midoriya tries to decide what to say. Then the man sighs and says, "I take it you're Midoriya Kat?"
Midoriya opens her mouth to reply, but her words stumble out in a mishmash. She clears her throat and says, "Uh, yes sir."
The man folds the paper and deposits it onto the counter with practiced hands. "I'm Sojiro Sakura. Come with me." He pushes himself off the stool and walks deeper into the store. Midoriya hesitates, then follows. Just past the tables is a bathroom, and just past the bathroom is a narrow stairwell. Sojiro plods upwards and out of sight. Midoriya takes the steps at a quicker pace.
Sojiro stands in the center of a cluttered, dusty attic. Bags, boxes, books, and tools lay scattered around the tops of tables, desks, shelves and a couch. An uncovered bed sits shoved in the far corner, beneath the window with a man sitting on it. "She's here," Sojiro says. Akira doesn't know what to say. The place is big, but it's more of a storage area than anything else. "Excellent," Toshinori says. Then the man leaves, without as much as a handshake.
Midoriya moves to the bed and drops her bag. She sits down on the thankfully clean sheets.. "Hm. Not bad, I guess." By the time Toshinori's gaze turns to Midoriya, " I deem you worthy " Midoriya nods. "Wait what." She turns to Toshinori " I deem you worthy to inherit my power of the One for All."
"Thank you," Midoriya blurts out.
Toshinori nods " Ok we have three months till the U.A. Enterance exam. We are going to train till then, Ill contact you tomorrow." He walks down the steps and vanishes.
Midpriya stares down the stairwell for a while. She bites the inside of her mouth, hard, until she tastes a bit of blood. She does this because she will not cry. She will not cry.
She will not cry.
Then, exhausted, she gets up and heads home.