14 months.
A little over a year. That's how long Izuku Midoriya had before it was time to take the UA Physical Exam. That's how long Izuku Midoriya had to learn how to become a hero. That's how long Toshinori had to turn Izuku Midoriya into a person capable of becoming a hero.
Together, in the dawn light of Dagobah Beach, they made quite the pair. A skinny kid and an even skinnier man, both seemingly on the edge of death. Izuku, utterly exhausted from the single lap he had just run of the disintegrating boardwalk, and Toshinori… well, he just kinda gave off some "don't tell my nurses that I'm here" vibes.
"Kid, this is kinda pathetic."
Izuku desperately gasped down a few more breaths before pulling his hands from his knees and straightening up, wincing as the stitch in his abdomen fought his every movement.
Izuku was embarrassed, but "embarrassed" was pretty much just his natural state of being. He knew, deep down, that everybody had to start somewhere, and he sure as hell wasn't gonna give up after a short job.
"What's next?"
Toshinori raised his eyebrow at the ridiculous expression on the boy's face. It looked as if the kid was desperately constipated, but in a determined way. Should any of this work out, they'd have to discuss… whatever that was. The older man shrugged off that chain of thought.
"What do you know about this place?"
Izuku looked around for a moment as he tried to piece together the intent of that question. He could hardly see the sand beneath the piles of trash, but the sounds of seagulls and crashing waves reminded him just where they were.
"Uh, it's a beach? Or it used to be, I guess. Now it's a landfill."
Toshinori shook his head.
"Nope, it's still a beach. Always has been. Dagobah Beach. It was beautiful, when I was a kid. But then they build a dam a few hundred miles away, in some random river, and things changed. The currents shifted, and now, half of Japan's junk gets washed onto these shores. This place, it's a geographic quirk."
Toshinori was proud of his metaphor. Simile? Eh, he was a hero, not a grammar teacher. Whatever.
"As a hero, you'll eventually have to fight quirks. Figured you might as well get some practice in now. Your job, for the next couple of months, is to clean this beach. Every morning, you're going to get here by dawn, run a lap or two of the boardwalk, and move all this crap to the landfill down the street. I'll check on you a couple times a week and add some laps onto your warm up."
Izuku looked confused.
"This, uh, isn't really what I expected. What about, you know, weights? Fighting? Stuff like that?"
Toshinori rolled his eyes to hide his grin. Man, this kid was just walking into his little lecture perfectly. Maybe he should try teaching more often.
"Yes, as a hero, you'll have to fight. But, if you're lucky, those fights are few and far between. If you become a hero because love fighting, then you're hardly better than the villains who will be lining up to take their shot at you. Heroes help people. You're smart, kid. How do you think your little assignment here can help people?"
"Well it could spark a tourism boom in this area, which could be huge for…"
Toshinori tuned out the mumbled rantings and mentally patted himself on the back for a job well done. He could tell that Izuku was a smart kid, and before any real training could be done, Izuku had to embrace that intelligence. Yes, moving all this heavy shit around would improve his physical conditioning exponentially, but the task would be impossible without some creativity, thinking, and planning.
Plus, he couldn't sip on a beer in a gym. Here, well, who the hell was gonna stop him?
Everybody has a boiling point. There isn't a person alive who, if pushed far enough, won't snap.
At least Ochako was self-aware enough to know that she was nearing hers.
Today had actually been a relatively slow day. Her mom had left a lunch for her in the fridge before school, so at least she hadn't had to find food in that fifteen minute window between tutoring and training. Little luxuries.
She was mentally rolling her eyes at her own internal sarcastic jokes. That… didn't bode well for her continued sanity.
Running used to help her burn away the stress, but right now, as she jogged through the outskirts of Tokyo, she could feel the pressure clinging to her like a leech. She only had to live through 13 more months of this, but she had made the mistake of letting doubt creep in.
Oh, she was outwardly confident. Hell, she was inwardly confident, too. Ochako knew that, one day, she could become a fantastic hero. But she felt like the path toward that end goal was crumbling beneath her tired feet.
She wouldn't complain. Not in a million years. No matter how utterly exhausted she was, she knew that her parents had been through far worse.
Still, she needed a break, an excuse to stop and just breathe for a few minutes. Any distraction would do. Ochako just needed something that would keep her from feeling guilty about stopping. Like, maybe a kid skinning his knee by the jungle gym. Or an interesting bird. Or a green-haired boy pushing half a washing machine down the middle of the road.
Wait.
"Uh, excuse me, are you alright?"
The strange boy froze, as if Ochako's words had snapped him out of some sort of trance. He frantically searched for the source of those words, until, for a heartbeat, he made eye contact with Ochako.
Then his face turned red.
"Oh, hey, uh, yeah, I'm, err… fine. Um, how are you?"
She was gonna just ignore that.
"What are you doing?"
The boy shook his head quickly, seemingly shaking some of the red out of his face, and he took a second to catch his breath.
"Training!"
"By pushing a washing machine down the middle of the road?"
The boy nodded.
After an awkward silence, the kid froze again, as if something just popped into his head.
"Oh, well, that probably seems weird. It is! I want to become a hero, and there's this beach near here, and, uh, wax on wax off…"
He was quite the rambler, wasn't he? Still, he was the distraction she needed, and he seemed friendly enough.
"You want to be a hero?! Me too! That's actually why I'm out here. Gotta get my cardio on, and all that. I take this route all the time, though. How come I haven't seen you here before? Are you new to the area or something?"
The boy mumbled something, but Ochako couldn't understand it, so she asked him to speak up.
"Ah no, not really. I've been out here every day for a month now, but I kinda blend in so it's not surprising that you haven't seen me!"
They carried on with their awkward back and forth until the sun had almost set. There was just something… endearing about the boy. He was ernest, just like she always tried to be. Plus, she loved to talk, and he apparently loved listening.
"Well, I really have to get going. I'm Ochako, by the way. Ochako Uraraka. What's your name?"
"Izuku Midoriya."
"Nice to meet ya, Izuku! I'll see you around!"
With that, she moved to jog off home, but first, she had an idea. She tugged her glove off and gave the washing machine a quick slap, then finally left with a wink.
Izuku spent five minutes in awe of his life achievement. HE SPOKE TO A GIRL! Finally, he gathered himself and got back to work. He gave the washing machine a giant push, and… faceplanted. Hard. The machine took off, as if it were weightless.
In the distance, he could swear he heard Toshinori laughing.
Izuku kinda hated training.
A/N: Been a while, I know. Updates are always gonna be a bit sporadic, but you guys should be seeing a little burst of activity over the next month or two. Hope you all enjoyed, and be sure to let me know what ya think!