Before you continue, I'd like to thank my new followers: Cthulhu rex, FudgeSuperior, Redrayvn, jvaldovinos302, and pedrofaria339.

Read on.

10. Kimeru-chan

Without realizing it, Inko's feet took her to the terrace by the river. It was shortly after lunch. The river whispered by in the canal. Distantly, she could hear the shrieks of children as they played in the neighbourhood park behind her.

She hadn't felt this lost since her divorce… no, before that. She'd started feeling lost when she found out her baby was Quirkless. So much research, but no record of any Quirkless hero, and no child psychology book encouraged otherwise. She'd gotten depressed and anxious and fixated, and Hisashi hadn't really understood, though he'd tried to help both of them, at first. But after two years and no change, and him spending so much time abroad, and them finding less and less to talk about, they split.

And it was just her and Izuku. Her baby who'd never given up on being a hero, even though his mother cried and apologized for it. Even though no Quirkless hero had ever existed. Even though so many children at his school had fantastic hero Quirks, and so many heroes had exemplary Quirks, and Izuku adored the hero who had the most powerful Quirk of all. The hero who…

She sat there for a long, long time, that thought unfinished.

Over the next week, Inko felt like she was living in a fog, and she had no idea how the rest of that thought went. She returned to her terrace, again and again, tried to finish it. And couldn't.

And then Inko had a dream. A light passed from one shadowy figure to another, white, blue, red, green, gold, purple, violet. At the eighth figure, Toshinori, it blazed sun-yellow about him, swelling until she could hardly see Toshinori beneath the figure of All Might. As the light struck his hand, a tune so familiar Inko knew it spun from her own heart sounded in her ears, rippling on the water of her secret terrace.

"I had no power," Toshinori said, "before my teacher gave it to me." He pressed the light into Izuku's hands, and even as it grew in her son, Toshinori's light went out.

Inko awoke.

"The hero who received his power."

And it all fell into place. Inko felt a fire kindle in her chest. Even as she got up off the couch, the phone rang. She dashed to it.

"Kimeru-chan?"

Inko almost dropped the phone. "K-Kano-san?"

"The same." Her voice was rough and raspy as ever, though still quite friendly. "It's been a long while, kiddo. I heard your kid got accepted to U.A.?"

"Y-yeah," Inko said. "I hate to be rude, but why are you calling?"

"Oh, you didn't know?" Kano said some choice words for the record company. "Your name's all over social media, after some kid on a hero-blog got word that your one little ditty inspired All Might; kids share everything online these days. With shit going sideways the last couple months, I guess everybody wanted to feel a little more secure, so downloads of the song have been selling like crazy. Hell, Inko, we had to make a downloadable format for it! It's currently at… three million plus downloads. And with royalties…"

"What are you saying?"

It sounded like Kano was giving her head a shake. "First off, you've got a few yen that you're making off these downloads; I'd like to deliver it in person, if that's alright. Second… uh, maybe not a good idea."

"What?" Inko thought she might know before Kano even said it.

"Are you a poet through to the core now, or do you still sing?"

"Yes!" Inko surprised herself with the speed—and force—of that answer.

"Wow." Kano sounded wrong-footed. "Okay, let me put this plainly then. Do you want to try picking up your career where it left off?"

Inko thought about her son, and this new life she'd been building for herself. She thought about her accounting job, the hefty sum she'd squirreled away for Izuku's education—now moot, as U.A. gave full scholarships to every student who passed its entrance exams—and her own general savings.

"I can do a concert in six weeks, if you can line up the venue."

(that evening)

Come. It was all the encouragement Toshinori needed; the past week had been as lonely as it was horrible. He'd hidden it well, he thought, until Young Uraraka gave him a concerned look after class on Thursday.

He came as close as he could to running the whole way, his briefcase only a slight hindrance. Too slowly—and somehow too quickly—he was outside her door. And the need to have this whole thing resolved, for better or worse, vanished. Could he, could he really handle Inko cutting him out of her life?

As he stood, undecided, the latch slid, the door clicked, and opened. All he could see of Inko was a bit of her face, and one very surprised green eye.

He couldn't speak. He couldn't remember how.

"Come in." She held the door open. He took it, gave her a questioning look. She wouldn't meet his eye. She turned down the hall, and he followed.

There was a new stool in the sitting area. He made to sit on it, but she shook her head. "Sit on the couch." He realized she was trembling.

"In—"

"Y-you said enough before," she said. "It's my turn." He sat on the couch, trying to keep his own hands from shaking. "Close your eyes." Baffled, he did so. He heard a couple of clicks, a small hollow thump, a stifled curse, the sliding of fabric against fabric.

"I t-tried to tell you that night," Inko said from the direction of the stool, "but I realized I didn't know how. This was the only way I could think of."

Toshinori heard her take a few deep, trembling breaths. Silence. The sounds of daily life from outside.

And then the first sharp notes as Inko plucked at the strings of a violin.

"Night is close 'round us,

The day now is done.

Beasts the light kept away

Draw near, now we must run.

As fear grips our hearts,

Remember the sun."

Toshinori had been at a bookstore the day he first heard that song, playing as background music while shoppers milled about. His eyes had alighted on a copy of Heroes Through the Ages, and something clicked together in him, his frustration and worry meeting with his desire to do something for this country and the people who had not earned the hardships the selfish and powerful heaped upon them. In an instant, he saw All Might, clearer than anything he'd ever known.

"As we flee in terror,

The weak and sick fall behind.

Our grandparents and children

Left for monsters to find.

In the dark, on the run

Please… remember the sun."

Toshinori was crying. He made no attempt to hide it, only to stifle the noise so his crying wouldn't intrude on this wonder of such poignant sadness. If silk could speak, surely it would sound like this.

"In greed they tear at us,

Leaving no flesh on our bones.

Even those they will break,

For the marrow, with stones.

Broken, battered, undone

Can we still remember the sun?"

Even as she uttered the last word, Inko's voice changed. Where before it had been delicate, so fragile a wisp of breeze could break it, with that word it began to swell and grow. The plinking at the strings, like drops of ice hitting cold water, ceased, and the bow raked across them, slow and deep and fierce, rising and widening until Toshinori knew nothing but that sound, billowing and crackling like a thunderhead.

"All they took was soft flesh,

Leaving only hard steel.

The weakness they tore at

We now hardly feel.

Though the monsters hunt us,

Still we remember the sun."

What he had seen, what he had heard, Toshinori knew, was Inko; she hadn't lied about herself. But he realized, in this music, a deeper part of her worked, hidden, maybe even stronger than he had been in his prime. Yet it felt familiar, in a way his memories couldn't convey.

"The day will not come,

The sun will not rise,

If we do not turn the world,

If we don't open our eyes.

Gather fire in your bellies,

And become the new sun."

And here it was. Toshinori heard his whole life laid out before him in verse. He had risen in darkness, and beaten back the night. Now his strength was gone, but he had done what he needed to; he had passed on this blazing coal to a new bearer. This song… how had Inko known him before he'd even known himself? He was smiling, even as the tears kept trickling down his face.

"The dawn now is on us,

The night flees away.

Crushed now before us,

'Til the end of this day.

Rejoice now in sunshine,

In light warm and kind.

This could ne'er have been done

Had we not remembered the sun."

The broad, powerful sweeps of the violin softened and dwindled, returning to the delicate plucking that had started this masterpiece. But now, the night had been chased away; Toshinori might have been napping in a field of daisies and violets on a warm summer morning.

Toshinori opened his eyes after the final note had faded away. Had Inko's apartment always been so warm?

Inko was looking at him, quiet and expectant. Even nervous. Toshinori wiped his face, and blew his nose. "I didn't know anything about anything." He managed to meet her eyes. "You're stronger than I ever was, Inko, if you can forgive me for keeping One For All and Izuku a secret from you for so long."

Inko adjusted a string on her violin. "I don't know if I have, just yet." She ran a hand through her hair. "But I love you, and I know, even though he's not yours, that you love him as much as I do."

Toshinori's heart clenched. "How do you—"

"—know?" She smiled, and the tears started coming. "Because you called him 'Izuku'." She sniffed. "There's something else." She packed away the violin, set it on the table, and sat beside Toshinori. "My songs are getting popular again."

Toshinori smiled. "That's—"

She held up a hand, and even though she was clearly trying, she couldn't keep the grin from spreading across her face. "And my old agent called. She thinks I'm popular enough again that I could re-start my career." She waited just an instant, either out of anxiety—which Toshinori suspected—or for dramatic effect. "And I said yes! I could have a concert as early as the end of next month!"

She laughed at the look of surprised delight Toshinori was sure was flashing across his face. He made no effort to hide it. He changed. "That's wonderful!" He all but shouted, even as he shrank back to normal.

Inko squealed. The next thing he knew, she was in his arms, kissing him all over, and he was kissing her. They paused after a moment, her on top of him, and he realized three things. She was dressed up; he'd been so scared he hadn't noticed, but she was wearing a kimono of red silk. Her kimono had slipped off her shoulder, giving him a new perspective on life. Her face was red, she was panting, and there was something hungry in her eyes he hadn't seen a moment ago.

He was suddenly extremely nervous. "D-do you—"

"Yes!"

NOTE: In case anyone was curious about the tune to "Remember the Sun"... I can't read or write music to save my life. I can say, however, that the tone is only a slight variation on the lullaby from the movie "The Prince of Egypt". Hope that helps, and you enjoyed it despite my tremendous musical shortcomings.