Pain.
All he could feel was excruciating pain all over his body.
After what felt like an eternity to the man, he started to become aware of murky images and some unrecognizable sounds. As he started to wake up, he could feel a rush of intoxicating, familiar, powerful energy that he knew all too well, and while he expected it and was comforted by it, it terrified him. Opening his eyes wide open, he could see his hands faintly glowing, and judging by the soft golden light on his pillow, he assumed his face was shining as well. The pain was starting to fade, and his thoughts were becoming much clearer.
Immediately, panic shot through him. 'NO! THIS IS NOT THE TIME! I CAN'T BE!' Forcing down this immense energy was difficult, almost as difficult as the fight he had just woken up from. Straining against the bonds strapped to his bed, he let out a roar of pain, anguish, and despair. As he tried his damnedest to repress his quirk, he barely heard the door open. Finally, after an eternity of fighting something that could not be fought, he slowly stopped glowing and calmed down.
And then the pain came back tenfold.
Nearly doubled over on his bed, he tried to curl up into the fetal position as much as his bound arms would allow. Hearing two people mumble in the background, he opened his eye a sliver. What greeted him was two very short elderly people and one very lanky man. Coughing, the short old man stared hard at him with what looked to be some amount of disappointment and a much larger amount of pity. However, before either of the older people could say something, the younger man did, towering over the hospital bed.
"Why. What do you think you're doing, fighting your quirk like that?"
Groaning, the man in the bed mumbled, "I have too much to do before I can allow myself to retire." The old woman walked up to the table, clearly disapproving of his line of reasoning.
"Toshinori, you were just extremely injured in what may have been the biggest fight of your entire life, and yes, I understand just what that entails. You need to let your quirk take its natural course, or there could be severe consequences."
Looking up, the Symbol of Peace did not feel like the number 1 hero that he was, instead feeling like he was a small child who refused to take a nap. "Chiyo, you *cough*… you can't expect me to leave *cough*… leave Japan without its Symbol of Peace." Slowly unfurling his body, he noticed he felt a lot lighter, and a hell of a lot weaker. "What… what happened?"
The older man sighed, stepping forward as if to take the lead. "Toshi, after defeating All for One, you had to be immediately rushed into surgery, and they aren't even close to finished. According to the surgeons, you will lose a lung and a large part of your digestive system. They said-"
The tall man quickly cut him off, "You can't work as a hero for more than maybe 5 hours. For the rest of the day, you're a frail, weak man. Unless, of course, you decide to see reason and use your damn quirk."
Before Toshinori, better known to the public by his hero name All Might, could answer, another massive wave of pain crashed over his body. After a couple of seconds of bearing with the pain, he finally grunted out, "You know…why I can't do…do that yet, Nighteye."
Turning away from the injured man, Nighteye looked at the old man.
"Torino, if he's not going to listen to me, you either need to make him understand what exactly he's doing, or convince him what he's doing is wrong. Clearly, I'm not someone he's willing to listen to on this topic." Obviously done with the conversation, Nighteye made his way over to the door and left the room.
Gran Torino sighed, knowing that whatever happens today was going to affect All Might's relationship with his former sidekick. "Toshinori, please just hear me out before going through with what you are doing. No matter what decision you go choose, your role as Symbol of Peace will be severely affected. Either you can spend an absolute maximum of 5 hours doing something you were doing minimum 16 hours a day, or you pass the mantle onto the next one and place your trust in a world without All Might will survive. I don't know if you've forgotten or not, but I was with your predecessor when she made that decision, and her choice gave rise to the greatest hero in Japan."
All Might groaned, "Nana may have made that *cough*… that decision, but we are very different people. If I give…this up, the whole world could suffer." Recovery Girl's eyebrows furrowed, clearly troubled with how stubborn All Might was being.
"Well, if you are one hundred percent sure about this, then we need to go over how your surgeries and effectively quirkless body for 19 hours a day will affect you. Best case scenario, you keep most of your digestive system and a fully functioning right lung along with a left lung that works at 30% capacity. Worst case, no stomach, reduced intestine size, and only a right lung at 75% capacity."
"Do it. I still have more to do."
Recovery Girl and Gran Torino looked at each other with worried gazes. All Might just rolled over on his bed, mentally preparing himself to both hold back his quirk and survive the countless number of surgeries in his future.
"Ah, you're a new face! Don't get too many of those around here." The cashier said to a lanky blonde man.
"Just moved in, so I figured I might as well check out the local grocery stores." Toshinori replied. As he started putting his food on the counter, he heard a scream across the street, along with the shattering of glass. Whipping his head around, he saw a giant mass of – was that living sludge? – running out of the broken window with what looked to be a register. 'Dammit, it doesn't look like there are any heroes around, but I can't just buff up in front of these people.'
Despite the internal debate warring inside the lanky hero, the villain had no such conflict, choosing the most direct path out of the area – flying through the streets at speeds liquids shouldn't be able to go, he was destroying light poles, cars, and even injuring nearby pedestrians.
'Gods above, give me strength.' Without a second thought, Toshinori ran out of the store and into an alleyway, ignoring the clerk yelling at him about his groceries. Once hidden from the public, he flexed his quirk to its crippled – albeit still massive – limits, filling out his body to a shadow of his once former glory. Flying out of the alley at supersonic speeds, the citizens around could only see a blur of yellow, along with the massive battle-cry,
"FEAR NOT, FOR I AM HERE!"
All Might knew the criminal heard him, if his picking up the pace and erratic behavior was anything to go off of. Then, as he saw the sludge man slow down, his eyes widened as the man just slithered through a random manhole in the street, leaving the cash register of money on top of it. As All Might approached the manhole, he ripped it off with a blast of steam coming out from the sewers. 'Well, that's convenient.' Deflating ever so slightly, he could pass off the steam as from the sewers, and he could now fit down the relatively small hole in the ground. Puffing right back up, he listened for a second to see just where the villain had run off to.
"Damn, I only have about half an hour left of my peak, I need to find him quickly," muttered All Might, just as a loud splash came from the sewer on his right, maybe four to five hundred meters down. Speeding towards the sound, he realized this was exactly what the villain was hoping to do – lose the number 1 hero in a maze of the sewers.
"I swear to any and all gods out there, if I deflate as I defeat this guy, I'm going to make them regret it."
A young boy with green hair could be seen walking through some back streets, looking over his shoulder constantly. He did not have much to fear, as the few people around ignored him like the garbage in the alleys, but he knew from experience that bullies tended to stop him at choke points – 'like under the bridge right ahead.'
Pausing, he tried to see if there was any other route he could take to leave, but it was all rundown apartments and closed shops, long since out of business. Taking a deep breath, the young boy cautiously looked under the bridge to see if there were areas big enough to hide a teenager. Luckily, it was just a straight shot, with the only worrying part being a rickety old manhole and the darkness the bridge cast.
Drawing up every single drop of confidence he had – a pathetically small amount – he started speed walking in order to get through the tunnel as quickly as possible. As he approached the middle of the tunnel, however, he heard a terrifying rumbling underneath the streets. Barely turning towards the manhole in time, he saw what could only be an eruption of sewage splattering onto the walkway. Before he could even so much as scream, the sludge started to form a vaguely bipedal shape, along with manic eyes and a large mouth.
"Hey kid, I'm really in a bind here, so I gotta borrow that body from ya!" the sludge man shouted, flying over towards the boy. Suddenly the boy's vision was clouded with a sickly dark green, and he felt his jaw get wrenched open, with all of the man's disgusting fluids starting to enter his throat. If jello was dropped in a full garbage disposal and left to rot a year, that wouldn't even begin to cover the absolutely rank smell and texture that these disgusting fluids had.
"I really appreciate it, you are probably the plainest kid around, no one's gonna think to look atcha!" The boy tried closing his mouth, but the force was too much, locking his jaw open so the man could hide inside of him. Trying to make contact with his body did nothing as well, the boy's hands flowing right through the liquid body as if he were swimming, and not currently dying. Losing consciousness, the boy could only think back to his mother, silently crying out to her, asking for her forgiveness.
'GOD DAMMIT, WHERE COULD HE HAVE GONE?' All Might screamed in his head, flying around corners of the elaborate sewer maze trying to catch a glimpse of his target. As he passed by an offshoot, he saw a slight ray of light, possibly caused by an open manhole.
"This better be it you son of a bitch," he whispered, flying over to the spot and using his immense strength to boost himself up the 30 or so meters to street level. Hearing a skirmish behind him, he turned and saw the slimeball forcing himself inside a teenage boy.
"DETROIT SMASH!"
As he ran over to the scene, he could see that the slimeball had been scattered to the point of unconsciousness, and the boy looking like he was just about to join him. Catching the smaller boys frame, he set him down on a patch of grass and checked for injuries. "Nonononononononono kid don't you go dying on me!" Quickly debuffing to save his time – 'Shit, I have only about five minutes left,' – he opened the boy's airways and checked for blockages. After a quick confirmation that they were clear, he put his fingers on the boy's neck to check for a pulse.
'Okay, weak, but no irregular beats, when he wakes up he should be able to walk, but I can't afford to leave him here on his own, especially after a traumatic incident like that.' Toshinori looked over to the blobs of sludge, and realized he didn't have a way to secure him, at least until he looked over to the garbage bin right about the largest pile.
"Bingo, soda bottles will have to work."
Quickly collecting the bulk of the villain as fast as his frail body would allow, he finally allowed himself a brief moment of rest. As he started to sit on the curb to nurse where his missing lung was, he noticed a book had fallen out of the boys backpack, a notebook called Hero Analysis for the Future, Vol. 11. Toshinori picked it up out of curiosity, he flipped through the pages, noticing the scattered yet highly detailed notes on heroes, classmates, and what appeared to be minor villains. He even spotted his soon-to-be coworker, Eraserhead – although his entry was light on details, other than a sketch, rough estimation of his quirk, and a rudimentary grasp of the man's fighting style. Suddenly an idea hit Toshinori, and quickly fumbling for the first writing instrument in the backpack, he signed his signature across the first two empty pages he could find, which happened to be in what looked to be the last 10 or so pages of the book.
After a few more minutes of flipping through the pages of the notebook and making sure the area was clear of people, he decided now is as good as any time to wake the boy up. Buffing up enough to look like All Might again without actually decreasing his time too much, he leaned over to the boy and started to rapidly hit his cheek.
"Young man, young man, young man, I need you to wake up please, otherwise this is going to hurt tomorrow," All Might called to the boy, speeding up the light taps that weren't hurting the boy, but painting his cheek a nice shade of red. Finally, the teenager groaned, and as he opened his eyes, All Might had a gut feeling, not that he had much of one now, that this kid was going to freak out.
And freak out he did.
"ALL MIGHT SIR IM SO SORRY FOR GETTING IN YOUR WAY I DIDN'T MEAN TO I WAS JUST WALKING HOME AND SOME SLUDGE GUY CAME UP AND HE GOT IN MY THROAT AND - "
"YOUNG MAN! I'M NOT MAD AT YOU, I SHOULD BE THANKING YOU! YOU MANAGED TO DISTRACT THE VILLAIN LONG ENOUGH FOR ME TO FIND AND CAPTURE HIM! AND I MUST APOLOGIZE, I AM NOT NEARLY AS FAMILIAR WITH THIS SEWER SYSTEM AS I SHOULD BE, AND YOU PAID THE PRICE FOR MY IGNORANCE," All Might managed to speak over the motor-mouthed boy, silently hoping he would return to his house as soon as possible so that he could turn in the villain and get some rest.
The gods he had cursed not 15 minutes ago were apparently out to get him, because this kid had both met the number 1 hero of Japan and his personal favorite above all, and he sure as hell was not going to waste this opportunity.
"All Might sir, do you know if you can si- WAIT, YOU ALREADY DID! Thank you thank you it will be passed down as a family heirloom ohmygod All Might gave me his signature this has got to be the best thing to happen to me ever!" the kid apparently had only started warming up, as All Might could see the gears in his head turning, cranking out more and more questions for him to ask his hero. Pausing, All Might could see the kid visibly stiffen, as he had apparently picked out the most important question for him to ask.
"Mr. All Might sir, do you know if you can answer one question for me?"
Putting on the biggest smile he could, All Might knelt down so he would be eye-level with the boy. "Sure kid, I'll answer any one question you have! Unfortunately, as a hero, I am very busy and must be off soon to turn in this villain! So please, ask away!" 'Please kid, make it a simple one so I can rest for a minute. Or a day.' The strain of holding even a semblance of his All Might form was giving Toshinori a massive headache, and he could feel his lung working overtime to avoid spraying this kid in his blood. It was a miracle that the boy hadn't noticed he wasn't nearly as buff as the TV showed him, or that his hair was just ragged enough that his signature bangs were starting to droop.
Standing up as straight as he could, the boy looked All Might in the eye and asked, "Is it possible for someone as useless as me to become a hero?"
Taken aback, All Might nearly lost his smile as he had not been expecting such a self-deprecating question. Having dealt with these before, however, All Might gave his usual answer, "Of course! I believe that everyone has the potential to be a hero, no matter what kind of quirk they have! Even with a quirk that can only change your hair color, if you have the heart and the drive, anyone can help someone in –" "But All Might sir, what about someone who doesn't have a quirk at all?" The kid looked at him, with hopeful green eyes, praying that his hero would believe in him.
Instead, he was met with a wall of steam.
'GOD DAMN IT, WHY NOW?'
Standing before the teenager, Toshinori knew that he would have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.
A/N: Hey everyone, long time no see. This authors note is going to be decently long, as its half update half rant.
As you guys noticed (or not, pretty easy to be forgotten with only one story peaking 100 favs and follows), I've taken a long break, dealt with some family and personal health issues, changing jobs (gotta love toxic work environments), school kicking my ass, and honestly I felt that I was not able to be creative enough to continue any stories. However, this idea I've been sitting on for damn near 3 years, and when I was sitting down and going through cleaning up my PC, I found my old cheat sheet to a couple of vague plotlines that I had wanted to do, so here we are! This is what I want to be my 'main' fic and to be known as the author of, with Dancin' coming second to this. As of uploading this chapter, I have the first 3 written out, and while this is only about 3k words, the plan for this story is large chunks of 10k or more chapters with month breaks in between in order to keep a solid pipeline of content going – the intervals between updates may be shortened depending on how fast I can create them, but I'd like to have a solid cushion where if shit goes sideways, I'm not stuck with 2 days to get everything together and produce a low quality chapter.
Also, while changing jobs has improved the situation, I still have little free time and money to match it, and I've seen authors creating platform accounts to help support them. I'm extremely hesitant to do this, as 1) by nature, I feel like I should be doing this for free as it's a hobby, 2) I don't want to take advantage of reader's kindness, and asking for money just rubs me the wrong way, and 3) while this plot is my own, I will be using copyrighted characters and other story elements, and I'm not exactly one to look for trouble. I doubt I'll be creating one, but it's been a thought in my head for a decent while now, and figured you all deserve to see where my headspace is at right now.
Anyways, with that over, any questions or comments that you want to ask in private, just shoot me a message on discord – TwistedSaiyan110#9898