"Thank you for meeting us, Miss Tomura," the exhausted looking man tells the young lady sitting across from him. "Coming to Japan for just your final year in high school, and to enter through a hero course is quite difficult I can imagine."
Around them, the noises from the Hero Commission main room are muted by the thin walls of his office, but still carry through with a kind of subtle white noise over the room. On the walls, photographs of the man whose office this belongs to, inevitably standing next to one or more heroes, oftentimes holding an award or trophy for them, adorn every space imaginable.
The black haired teenager smiles at the man as she responds with, "How could I turn down such an invitation, Mr. Mera?"
He blankly shrugs, then types something on his computer. "Now, I assume you know of your community service obligation that comes with your hero license?"
"That's a weird way to phrase it, but yes," Hana says.
Mera groans. "I didn't name it. And it adds so much work for me, I'd rather not bother. Anyways, the Hero Commission has noted that you have failed to secure an agency contract for after you graduate, as required by law…"
"I still have six months before I…" she bursts in.
The man holds up a hand, "Let me finish? We noted that you have failed to secure an agency contract before graduation, so when an established hero agency makes a request for you…" he yawns, dropping his hand before continuing. "... we are obligated to pass this on."
With a click, the printer next to her springs to life, spitting out a single sheet of paper. Taking it, she looks at the name on top, and with surprise blurts out, "Team Idaten?"
"A respectable, even if rather sizable, agency. You caught their eye it seems," the man explains. "Why the Hero Commission thought to change recruitment rules like this is beyond me. Used to be heroes could file these requests directly to the schools. Now, I have to take care of it. On top of everything else."
"Is there anything else?" Hana asks, looking the paper over.
Mera sighs. "Nothing beyond the obligatory assurance that you also can accept operating directly under the Hero Commission. And, with the Villain Factory already having targeted you and your brother once, I have to be honest, you would be safer with us."
"Ha," she laughs. "I'm training to be a hero. Not exactly the safest job."
The exhausted eyes stare across the table at the girl, taking her in while fighting a battle against the eyelids threatening to cut them off. Eventually they surrender, and the man continues. "Not many hero students are targeted in their entrance exam."
"I do have an option, you know," she says, looking at the sheet.
Mera raises an eyebrow. "Oh? Keeping it a secret for a reason?"
"It's… It would bring unwanted attention if it got out before graduation," she admits, reaching into her messenger bag and pulling out another sheet.
As the bureaucrat reaches for it, she pulls it back. "Just between us, alright? I don't want this getting out, for reasons which will be obvious."
"I am a professional. What is said between us stays confidential unless absolutely necessary," he assures her while taking the paper finally from her hand.
Lazy eyes suddenly wake up in alarm as it reads only the first two words on the paper. "This is… you have an offer from Might Tower? But, how? Sure, Sir Nighteye maintains it, legally, but it does not have any heroes actually working for it save for Gran Torino."
Sadly, she sighs. "I'm the reason why he's maintained it. Well, me and my brother. How much of our case history do you know?"
"I'm afraid not much, aside from the attack by Queen Bee," he admits.
Hana nods. "Pull up the Floating Hero: Valiant."
Curious, the human incarnation of Morpheus types in the name, and pulls up the file. "Valiant. Real name: Nana Shimura. Killed nearly thirty years ago in a battle against… Now that's odd. The villain's name is redacted."
"All for One," she says. "The same villain who All Might took with him."
Mera purses his lips together, absorbing that information before continuing. "Widowed, one child. Son, Kotaro, taken into Hero Child Protective Services. Name record changed several times, not on file what the names were, as it should be. Career is not exemplary, but still, quite good. Was a teacher at U.A. for four years. Art History. Huh, this is interesting. Part of her teacher record includes custodial and guardianship over one of her students. That's highly unusual. She was the guardian for…"
When the name comes up on his screen, his eyes grow impossibly wide in recognition. Then they dart to the portrait on his desk, of the smiling figure there.
"She was the guardian for Toshinori Yagi, also known as All Might. And, more importantly for me anyways, she was my grandmother," Hana explains.
Mera nods, letting out the breath he had been holding in shock at the revelation. Then he stands up. "Come with me, then. Assuming you can prove that claim, I have something to show you."
With a lazy gait, he leads her to the freight elevator to the back of the building. Holding up a hand for the mechanism to scan, he explains, "When a hero falls, their… effects are stored, to be returned to the family. In the case of Valiant, her things are still here."
Stepping in as the door opens, he motions her inside.
"So, you have, what, the rags of her costume?" Hana asks, a bit mortified.
Mera shrugs. "Among other things. Her file includes an inventory of everything we recovered with her body, and I saw something you'd likely want."
Stepping out as the door opens again, the pair find themselves in a large, caged off warehouse, a lone guard behind a small window thumbing through a book. Spotting the pair, he waves a hand. "Hey Mera, what brings you down to the crypt?"
"Have to collect the things for a family member. Bring over number NA-8132018," the bureaucrat tells the guard. As the man wanders off, Mera explains. "I'll need official records to let you leave with them, but you can look through it at least."
With a heavy thump, the box lands on the pass-through. "Here you go. This thing hasn't moved in ages, based on the dust."
"We were out of the country," Hana explains.
The guard nods in understanding, before returning to his book.
Mera gestures to the nearby table with a nod as he picks up the box and carries it over. Setting it down, he opens the lid and proceeds to take items out of it.
Hana sits down, and picks up the belt, strap damaged, but the symbol on the front of a stylized "V" still visible.
As he works, Mera says, "You know, All Might had a belt almost identical to that. I asked him once why that design, when it wasn't very practical. He laughed it off. Guess now I know. And here's what I was looking for."
Extracting the folded piece of construction paper, wrapped around what seems to be an old photograph, he holds it out to the girl. Cautiously, she takes it, and takes a look as to what is on it.
"You need to cheer up," Nao tells her husband as he huffs in annoyance. "It's not every day our baby girl graduates from high school."
Kotaro Tomura scoffs. "The ceremony isn't for six hours and we're stuck in this room until it's time to go. And yes, I know it's for safety."
Gazing out from the top of Might Tower, the married couple chuckles at the skyline. As he gripes, his wife walks up and puts a hand on his arm.
"We're home, for a little while at least. Doesn't that make you happy?" she asks him.
He gestures around the room. "We're in a literal ivory tower, built for a man I never knew but by some quirk of fate have a relation with thanks to my mother. A mother who gave me up."
A knock on the door draws their attention. Moments later, a smiling face framed by blonde hair up in twin buns pops in and says, "Mom! Dad! Hana had me bring something here for you."
"Oh, Himiko! Couldn't this have waited?" Nao asks, confused as the middle schooler dances into the room and sets the very old looking box marked, "Evidence" onto the table in the middle of the room.
Kotaro looks the box over. "Why do you have a police evidence box?"
"Because it belongs to us," she explains, pulling the lid off and throwing it off in a random direction. "Come on, it's neat!"
When the girl pulls out the ripped domino mask, her father's eyes grow wide in horror. Rushing over to the discarded lid, he reads the label before yelling, "How did you get this?"
"Hana got it from the Hero Commission," Himiko explains.
Kotaro snatches the glove out of Nao's hand as she is examining it and shoves it back into the box. He grabs another item that's been pulled out and throws it in before picking up an unfolded piece of construction paper, and stopping.
Eyes wide in shock, he looks at the kid's drawing in his hands, faded crayon still clear on the aged surface. On it, three figures stand, a child's impression of his parents in crude facsimile.
After a few minutes of silence, he looks away, to find Himiko sitting back on the sofa, smiling.
"Did you look?" he asks.
She nods. "Everything that was on Grandma Nana when she died is in there, except for a few things Hana and Tenko wanted."
"What things?" Nao asks.
Himiko giggles. "It's a surprise. You'll see."
Seeing her husband still stunned, Nao asks, "Are you okay?"
"She had this on her?" Kotaro asks in disbelief.
Himiko nods. "Yes, along with a photo of you and her. Tenko has that. She was pretty. Hana looks a lot like her."
He laughs. "That she does."
A soft knock at the door, and Sir Nighteye calls into the room, "It's time to go."
The ceremony is long, as graduation ceremonies tend to be. Even for a graduating class of two hundred or so kids, the speeches, lectures, and awards, take hours to handle. But as each student crosses the stage to receive their diploma, non-hero departments first, the excitement builds in the crowd for when the last group, in their hero costumes, is to be called up.
For one family, when their name is called, it is truly a special event.
"From class 3-B, hero name Valor, Hana Shimura," says the principal, a gleeful spark in his eye even as other students whisper to each other.
Seeing her costume for the first time, instantly Kotaro recognizes the cape and belt now adorning the outfit, and for a moment, he sees the world with roles reversed, gazing up at the larger than life figure of his mother as a child.
A gentle hand on his shoulder, and his partner of 20 years is there with him.
As the applause settles down for the next student, a tug on his sleeve alerts him to Tenko, saying, "She wanted to surprise you."
His father tenses, before nodding. "She succeeded."
"Are you going to be alright?" Nao asks.
Kotaro nods, feeling the piece of folded cardboard now in his jacket pocket resting there. "Yes, I think I am going to be just fine."