First started to lift the blanket under which the seventh holder of One for All had been seeking refuge for the last two weeks. The only thing sticking out of said blanket was her arm, as she was using Third as her emotional support plushie.
"Nana, are you feeling a little better?"
A high-pitched whine saturated with despair and disgust answered him.
First promptly let go of the blanket, now afraid of what sorry state it was hiding.
It reminded of that time where his brother had called his hero"brother-in-law", taking advantage of the vigilante's brain imploding in white hot panic as he realized that he was now technically part of All for One's family.
If they had learned anything from this experience, only time allowed them to heal from such a shock.
All for One was waiting for Izuku at the airport, a circle of emptiness around him as everyone seemed keen on giving him as much personal space as possible. Izuku, walking as fast as he could without outright running, politely greeted him and pretended that he wasn't a ball of stress.
This was quite the challenge as he could hear the sudden loud noises of conversations and the sound of people being sent into action behind the walls hiding the custom services.
All for One asked him if he had enjoyed his trip, Izuku assured him that those were the best vacations ever, and they just as politely didn't mention the kaiju incident while they were still in the airport. After all, this conversation would probably lead to a lot of screaming (All for One could be hysterical like that) and neither of them wanted to draw attention.
"Why is your bag so heavy?" All for One suddenly asked despite the fact he was holding it with one hand as if it was barely heavier than a couple of grapes.
Izuku grabbed him by the arm because this was a conversation they ought to have walking away from custom. The teenager vaguely noted how tense All for One was only for the evil white cat to immediately relax under his touch.
"My mom's boss offered me a collector All Might bust and since we got along, he used his quirk to turn it into gold," Izuku whispered.
All for One blinked.
"How did you manage to make it past custom with a giant All Might bust made of solid gold?"
"Mostly through hopes and prayers but also a touch of super speed at the end," Izuku explained as he dragged the supervillain along before his All Might merch could be confiscated.
All for One laughed.
As soon as All for One warped them home, Izuku let himself fall on the couch, his body lying down on its own and his muscles now refusing to move. After hours on the plane and very little sleep in the past twenty-four hours, he felt especially happy on this couch. He would never leave it again.
He closed his eyes for just a couple of seconds, only to frown as he opened them to see All for One about to carry him from his cherished couch.
"Go sleep in your bed, Izuku" All for One told him.
Izuku shook his head, grabbing his phone and going straight to the Clamor app.
"In a couple of hours," the teenager said. "I need to check that everything is alright with Anyone. I trust Gwen but I didn't have a minute to myself to check on the server while I was -"
A traitorous yawn threatened to dislocate his jaws.
The even more traitorous villain living under his roof snatched his phone and threw it in his room, obviously expecting Izuku to follow it. How devious. How nefarious. How…
Izuku's brain was too tired to find another word.
"Go to sleep, Izuku. We have a busy day tomorrow. Your criminal empire can survive one more day without your supervision."
It was extremely late (or early?) when Izuku heard some scratching sounds at the door. So late, and with Izuku was so out of it, his body having reached the point where he either needed coffee or attempted murder to think like a normal person, that he just assumed that a cat was scratching at his front door.
The strange noises at the door continued but it was only when he heard a click and the sound of the door being opened, which cats weren't supposed to be able to do, that he started to be concerned. Not even raccoons forced doors, did they?
He didn't know enough about raccoons to be sure.
When he heard someone definitely heavier than a raccoon take a step in the apartment, he got out of bed, Full Cowl right under his skin, not quite awake but he didn't need to be conscious to fight for his life.
He opened the door, slamming his hand on the interrupter, light flooding the place, and the trespasser groaned, freezing because light was frying his eyes.
He was dressed in black and wearing a ski mask on his head, which must have felt awful because it was summer and there was no AC in the whole building. The guy had All for One's fancy jacket in one hand and All for One's wallet in the other, probably distracted by all the money in there, and there was a gun at his belt.
Where did he even find that one? We're in Japan!
Izuku didn't intervene because All for One had just exited his room – Izuku's mother's room - before Izuku and was already on the move.
The other reason why Izuku didn't intervene was because he was facing a robber and he couldn't understand for the life of him why he had chosen this apartment.
There was nothing expensive here.
The TV was as old as Izuku. No jewelry. The most expensive stuff right there belonged to All for One and Izuku didn't feel the need to hurry unless that thief was an All Might fan who had eyes on his collection. So he didn't exactly hurry out of his room.
With hindsight, he would admit that he had been very tired and might not have been thinking clearly.
As Izuku was wearing an All Might pajama, the thief didn't register him as a threat. Of course, since a two-meters-tall pissed man wearing pajama pants and a Darth Vader shirt, was walking towards him while giving off I am going to rip your head off and use your skull as a cup to drink my coffee vibes, it was completely possible that he didn't even see Izuku. After all, in the same situation, Tartarus guards had not even registered the teenager's presence.
The thief fumbled to grab the gun, the wallet and the jacket falling to the ground, and to his credit, he actually managed to get it out.
Right before All for One broke his arm in two places, the bones sticking out.
Izuku only had the time to blink and the thief's horrible scream was cut short because All for One grabbed him by the throat, his other hand grabbing the belt, and he carried the poor moron horizontally through the apartment, as if he didn't weigh anything.
Carrying him all the way to the large window, left opened because, again, it was Summer and they were desperate for some fresh air.
All for One, cool as a cucumber, threw the squirming thief by the window like he was trash.
The sociopath was turning around like a man who considered his job done and was about to go back to sleep like he hadn't just thrown a whole man from the sixth floor and he had the gall to look surprised when Izuku Full Cowled past him, Black Whip bursting from his arm and catching the guy before he got brutally acquainted with the ground.
At the last second, Izuku remembered to put some wiggle into it so the guy wouldn't stop too abruptly and snap like raw spaghetti. Alas, since All for One had thrown him forwards and not downwards, the thief kind of swung and hit the wall, the shock going up the black tendrils and in Izuku's arms.
Well, at least, the imbecile had stopped screaming.
As if this night wasn't complicated enough, someone chose this specific moment to vehemently knock on the door.
Why? What did I do to deserve this?
"WHAT. IS. HAPPENING. HERE?" Izuku's neighbor screeched.
It was stealing One for All, wasn't it?
All for One went and opened the door, confirming that there was always a way for things to get worse.
"I would love to know that," he barked at Ms. Takahashi, the elderly neighbor that was supposed to keep an eye on Izuku for his mother and that he hadn't seen in months. Izuku hadn't been heartbroken about it. "Why are you banging at my door in the middle of the night?"
She probably wasn't expecting an adult man to answer the door because there was suddenly silence, and Izuku could almost hear her furiously wondering about how she had missed that Izuku's father was back and Izuku would have cringed if he wasn't busy slowly lengthening the tendrils of shadows that Black Whip created.
There was a reason why it was called Whip and not Rope, by the way. Tendrils of dark energy were absolutely not stable.
"I heard screaming…" she said in a little voice, and wasn't that funny how she was never so quiet nor polite with Izuku and his mom?
Actually, now that he was thinking about it, she was more about judgmental looks and telling his mom what to do while Izuku's mom was smiling and making polite noises, ignoring whatever was said.
Funny how you realize some things with time.
"So did I," All for One said, starting to give Izuku a heart attack. "Probably someone turning their TV on without realizing how loud the sound was. That doesn't give you the right to come here in the middle of the night."
The rest was a little blurry because half of Izuku's torso was outside the window, he was in pain, and in the background, he could hear All for One unleashing his inner Karen on his unsuspected neighbor, pretty much implying that she was being nosy and a horrible old crone that was willing to blame an isolated kid for anything wrong, at an ungodly hour in the night.
I think he is low enough for me to drop him without injuring him further, right?
Right after he did, Izuku discovered that judging distance, at night, was far more difficult than expected. Whoops.
On the good side, a new scream confirmed that the thief was actually alive.
Mostly.
"What was that?" Ms. Takahashi asked sharply.
"What was what?" All for One answered, annoyance and exasperation saturating his every word.
"That scream! Just now!"
A long silence ensued, where All for One managed to heavily imply that she was a senile old bat without even uttering a word. Izuku was honestly impressed. And wondering if he ought to take notes.
"Good night," All for One finally said, closing the door on Izuku's neighbor.
Hi Mom! A strange man answering the door instead of me, you say? How strange… Ms. Takahashi insisted that she had seen that villain-looking-man? Well, you know Mom, at her age, I am not surprised that she is getting confused.
All for One came back and stared at Izuku.
"What?" Izuku asked.
"You are a chaos magnet," All for One sighed. "I spent two weeks enjoying boredom and as soon as you come back, crime finds me."
"I don't see what you're talking about," Izuku lied while keeping a straight face. That was starting to become a habit. "My life was calm and peaceful before you barged into it. And now, you're ruining my good relationship with my neighbors!"
The supervillain looked at the door he had closed on , pouring so much disdain in that glance that it was a miracle said door didn't burst in tears.
"You should thank me for ruining that kind of relationship."
Izuku smiled. He couldn't help it.
"I suggest you go to sleep. We have a busy schedule tomorrow."
Izuku doubted that he could just go to sleep after someone had broken into his home. He would have to replace the lock on the door, in such a way that his mother would never find out about it, check on the thief to see if had managed to walk away on his own or if he needed an ambulance, and probably found a way to annoy All for One so the teenager could sleep soundly.
"What's happening tomorrow?" he asked instead.
All for One showed his teeth in what he believed to be a smile.
"We are celebrating your birthday."
Despite being positively exhausted, Izuku made an effort and forced himself to wake up and be somewhat nice despite the homicidal thoughts that invariably filled his mind every day before his first coffee in the morning.
The truth was that Izuku didn't like celebrating his birthday. Birthdays were the day where Izuku felt the most alone. Through the years, he had learned not to expect anything from July 15th. When he wasn't with his mom, he didn't bother to celebrate. Even Todoroki didn't know when his birthday was.
But when someone was enthusiastic at the idea of celebrating his birthday, he was thankful for the attention and acted the part of someone who enjoyed pretending that life was special on the day of one's birth. He did that with his mom. And he would do that with All for One.
At exactly 8 AM, the supervillain knocked at his door, brought him coffee and a pile of gifts.
Izuku didn't open them in his room. Instead, they went to the kitchen table and he methodically unwrapped the green and white paper, which seemed to surprise All for One.
"I expected you to tear them to shreds," he explained.
It made Izuku laugh because there was indeed a time where he did just that, turning gift wrap into confetti.
"I stopped doing that when I was six," he remembered. Before All for One had mentioned it, the memory had been completely occulted, like so many moments from his past. "Did your brother also do that?"
It seemed to surprise All for One, as if he hadn't even thought about his brother at that moment.
"No, Yoichi was meticulous like you are now," the villain explained. "I was the one who never had much patience when it came to unwrapping gifts."
Izuku could have been surprised that All for One wasn't constantly comparing to his little brother (to be fair, he didn't have many other points of references when it came to people Izuku's age) but the teenager preferred to put his greedy hands on not one, not two but three sets of comics.
Something Is Killing the Children, Die, and Wytches.
Izuku loved horror. For someone like All for One who was pathologically allergic to All Might merch, this was the best gift one could offer to him.
"Thank you so much," Izuku smiled. "I can't wait to read them."
All for One, smug like the cat who had just caught the canary, then leaned forward.
Izuku didn't exactly accept the hug but he spent a little too much time debating if he ought to show his gratitude by not squirming away or if it was a bad idea to let All for One think that he was allowed to breach people's personal space as long as he gave them stuff first before and when All for One let go, it became a moot point.
"Not yet," the supervillain informed Izuku. "We have a schedule to respect."
Going to the cinema was an experience that went beyond simply watching a movie. It was an experience, a way to immerse oneself fully into a story through one's eyes and ears and for Yasu, it was the only way not to be distracted by what he was hearing outside his apartment.
Of course, even the environment of a cinema didn't prevent him from picking up every noise around him. However, it allowed him to focus on what people were saying about the film, like a running commentary or even live reactions, instead of the sound of people eating popcorn, of doors and seats creaking, or even on the sound of people breathing.
He was aware that his hobby of listening in to people's conversation was morally complicated but in his defense, he was probably the only person in the world not to mind people talking during movies.
It was why today should have been a good day. The cinema had organized a day dedicated to old horror movies, which always caused good reactions, and there were few enough people for him not to have to follow too many conversations at once.
At least, it would have been the case if Yasu hadn't picked on a conversation that had made him sweat in fear for the last hour.
"Uh," a man who was going to haunt his nightmares tonight commented when he saw someone get brutally attacked. "This is not the sound a man dying from a stab wound to the chest would make."
He was a very tall man, white haired, wearing a black shirt that cost more than Yasu's entire outfit, black slacks, and probably expensive shoes. He was eating an ice cream, the second one since the movie had started, even though there was nowhere around here selling those and Yasu had no idea of where he kept finding those, and the cotton candies, and the special edition chips, and the food that kept appearing in his hands.
Not only was he watching an absolutely terrifying movie like it was a Disney but Yasu was also convinced that this man knew from experience what was wrong with the gory deaths appearing in the movie.
On the big screen, the serial killer defenestrated the US marine.
"And that's not how someone breaks his legs after falling from the fifth floor," the teenager next to him commented.
He was wearing a green hooded tee-shirt with bunny ears. He was eating cotton candy and drinking soda from an actual glass.
He also hadn't even flinched once since the movie had started.
"When you land feet first like that, the bones of your leg puncture the insides of your chest and certainly don't break at a 90 degrees angle…"
This also sounded like something that was known from experience.
"Yes, I'm aware," the adult next to him gently mocked.
At this point, Yasu was torn between morbid fascination and the hunch that if they surprised him spying on them, he might not get home tonight.
"I am so glad they stopped using CGI in everything," the adult (Father? Brother? Uncle? He seemed a little too young to be the father of a teenager this age.) "The special effects are better at withstanding the passage of time."
This made the college student frown, confusion overtaking the dull terror coursing through his veins. People in the cinema industry had gone back to preferring full special effects about one hundred and fifty years ago.
Snowdrift
[… I thought that we would celebrate your birthday with the others, once I'm back.]
SmallMight1541
[I wasn't planning on celebrating it at all. I was surprised that All for One was so enthusiastic about it but it was pretty fun.]
Snowdrift
[Yes, it's almost as if he has waited a decade to have the occasion to celebrate this birthday.]
SmallMight1541
[You think that All for One is the kind of person to celebrate every occasion?]
[Because it makes sense when one considers his longevity. He has to find a way for the days not to all look the same.]
Snowdrift
[…]
[Suddenly, I feel exhausted.]
SmallMight1541
[I am sorry to hear that.]
[As soon as you come back, we will do something relaxing. If you want. And I will give your missions for Anyone to Inferno and Nuggets.]
[How is the UA Summer Camp?]
Snowdrift
[On my very first day, a five-year-old kicked my class president in the groin.]
SmallMight1541 is typing
Snowdrift
[But cooking is fun!]
Lying in her bed, Himiko was playing with her knife while watching the ceiling. She had put star-shaped-stickers last week in order to brighten her room and in the dark, they were glowing red, purple and blue.
Her hand was sticking out of the bed and her knife was dancing between her fingers. Twisting and whirling, like it had a mind on its own, but she was its master and had complete control over it.
She remembered the time where she didn't have much coordination, to the point where she had believed that she would never be good with a blade. The Himiko from the past could have never imagined she could become so skilled.
Usually, playing with her favorite knife would have appeased her but she couldn't calm down. Her heart was beating like crazy inside her chest and she had to focus in order not to bite her lips.
Tomorrow was going to be a good day. An exciting day.
Himiko hoped she could meet someone cute.
It had been ages since she really had fun with someone.
Gwen
[Are you sure you don't mind?]
SmallMight1541
[No, just give me the address.]
Dabi opened the door of his apartment, wearing black and ripped sweatpants and a white shirt too big for him, and squinting at Izuku with open suspicion. Even the bag of groceries Izuku had placed between his PR supervisor and him wasn't enough to deter his glare.
"I come in peace," the teenager declared. "Gwen told me that Kurogiri was here?"
Dabi snatched the bag from Izuku's hand and stepped away, allowing him to enter his humble abode.
Hawks, his wings almost fully restored, was sitting on the back of the couch, which was a surprise because Dabi tended to throw pillows at Mach speed when Shouto or Izuku even considered putting their feet on his couch. The number 3 hero was wearing red shorts, short black leggings underneath, and a sleeveless white shirt.
He was trimming his black and sharp nails with a metal file. Izuku had seen several of his model shoots and had never seen anything indicating that Hawks had talons instead of regular light colored nails, which was interesting enough.
"Hello, Yami!" the winged hero warmly greeted him. "How was Dubai?"
"I have no idea of what you're talking about…"
Izuku's voice trailed off as he looked at a life-sized-statue of Fatgum in the corner, with what suspiciously looked like a Fatgum hoodie that could fit the hero.
The fanboy in charge of half of his decision process understood the need to grab merch from a hero and could hardly throw them the first stone on that one. The Anyone part of keeping him alive was calculating the probability of having another pro hero with a vendetta against his organization.
Before he could ask what those animals had done in his absence, Kurogiri emerged from the room in the back, wearing jeans, a tee-shirt with a cat on it, and fuzzy purple cat slippers. His hand disappeared for a moment and when it reappeared, it was holding a bottle of orange juice.
When Nagisa had told Izuku that Kurogiri was at Dabi's, he hadn't realized that just like Hawks, the barman had practically moved in.
Hawks was here because after All for One had burned his feathers, the pro hero was literally grounded until they grew back. And he probably enjoyed messing with Dabi, hence why he had decided to stay here instead of in a hotel. But for the rest…
"What happened to all of you?" the teenager asked.
"Your roommate," the three of them answered at the same time.
Izuku should have seen it coming. When something went wrong around him, it would usually be traced back to the immortal mass murderer that prepared him pancakes.
The actual members from his organization were unwilling to explain what All for One had done but fortunately, the mole who intended to destroy his organization from the inside had more incentive to be helpful.
"All for One is terrifying and apparently became worse when you weren't here to act as a buffer with common mortals so we all abandoned the bar and sought refuge here," Hawks explained.
Izuku considered the fact that All for One had been so unbearable in his absence that Kurogiri, who was his closest coworker and almost a friend, had fled his own bar. He soon decided that it wasn't his problem and that trying to understand what was going through All for One's head would finish to drive him insane.
Kurogiri gave him the USB key that Nagisa has sent Izuku pick up (she didn't want to bother the bartender during his day off but she didn't mind making Izuku run errands) and retrieved the generator he had hidden in Dabi's closet, behind the water bottles.
"Stop hiding bullshit in my apartment!" Dabi growled as he finished putting his groceries in the fridge.
Izuku considered explaining to him that only luck and faith kept this apartment in one piece and that bringing supplies was a form of love language to be sure that Dabi, or any guest (such as Todoroki), wouldn't be left without water, electricity or food on the day said luck ran out.
"No," the teenager said instead.
Fortunately, he managed to get through Kurogiri's warp gate before the flaming pillow could nail him in the head.
SmallMight1541
[I am here.]
Nagisa didn't answer his last message, leaving Izuku standing in front of a residential building. One of the recent ones, perfectly built to accommodate any kind of quirks, which indicated that money wasn't a problem for whoever Izuku's favorite hacker was at.
Maybe it was a family member. The Ginkumos were specialized in civilian clothes for pro heroes and anyone who enjoyed bulletproof and mostly quirk-proofed stylish outfits, making the entire clan comfortably wealthy.
It was a gated residence with a large courtyard but jumping over the fence wasn't a problem for Izuku. His phone in hand, he started to look for the apartment whose number Nagisa had sent him earlier.
"Dango!" someone called. "Dango, come back here!"
But Izuku, now on his guard and listening intently, heard the unbridled cavalcade of little legs in the stairs, and soon, a corgi appeared in his field of vision. The dog, absolutely adorable, had a big doggy grin on his face, obviously delighted at his newfound freedom and not caring one bit about his master's desperate cries for him.
Until he noticed Izuku, at least.
Stealing One for All had come with several inconveniences, such as the Symbol of Peace probably cursing him every day, the bone-breaking problem and a stalker fascinated with his quirk but the most surprising one had been how animals now deeply distrusted him.
The corgi was no exception and he froze when he saw Izuku, completely canceling his momentum and looking at him with open suspicion.
Izuku looked at those adorable brown eyes and his adorable sausage-shaped-form. His body moved on his own. The next thing he knew, he was on one knee and was making pss pss noises in the vain hope that the dog would accept to be petted by him.
He could have said that he had lost all dignity but to be honest, when adorable fluffballs were involved, he had none.
Big dogs tended to growl at him but small dogs believed themselves to be invincible so Dango, obviously aware of his superiority, descended the stairs and sniffed Izuku's hand. For a moment, the teenager could have sworn that he saw confusion on the dog's face but all of it was forgotten when the puppy licked his hand.
Izuku had negotiated some back rubs when the master of the beast arrived, one foot shoved in a sneaker, the other still in an All Might-themed-slipper. He had short white wavy hair, was dressed in a comfy outfit, and he was familiar.
A moment later, a spider-headed-woman dragged herself in sight, obviously out of breath and dressed in black shorts, a magnificent white lace top with a long train and matching fingerless gloves.
For Nagisa, this was considered a casual outfit.
"I'm sorry," she said to the man Izuku had met during a march. He wasn't aware that they knew each other. "I had no idea he would dash out as soon as I opened the door."
"Yes, Dango is fast… Don't I know you?" he smiled at the teenager.
Izuku found himself returning the smile, truly delighted.
The teenager had known this man for barely an hour before he had been forced to flee from the march. He didn't even remember his name. But he did remember how much he had gotten along with him, even if it had been for the briefest of times, and meeting someone he hadn't expected to ever see again was a beautiful surprise.
"Aww, look at that," Banjo poked her in the arm, repeatedly. "Both of your grandsons are spending time together."
Nana, seventh holder and grandmother, watched carefully what was happening.
She wasn't worried for Tenko. But she committed every detail to memory.
After all, it has been so long since she had seen her first grandchild.
Izuku had only planned to give Nagisa the USB key and to be on his way but he was promptly invited by Shimura Tenko, adopted by a bunch of college students who proceeded to feed him, and somehow, someone shoved a game console in his hands.
Torn apart between being intimidated by those young adults, people who were in college and who had their lives together, and the need not to look too pitiful in front of them, Izuku did his best to win at Might Kart.
They destroyed him.
The All Might avatar he had been given was mercilessly pushed down from all the roads, when he didn't drive out there on his own, Izuku having no idea of what he was doing. He was so thoroughly obliterated that if anyone from his organization had seen him, all of his reputation as a fearsome vigilante and as the villain who had ended the number 1 hero's legacy would have vanished like a snowball stuck in Hell.
However, Tenko soon avenged the All Might avatar, leaving everyone, even Nagisa, in the dust. Playing then taking breaks by eating snacks and drinking soft drinks then playing again while everyone was laughing and fake-threatening each other turned out to be extremely fun.
Nagisa was busy being the uncontested queen of Cheese Land when someone rang at the door. Since Izuku wasn't playing, he walked there with Tenko because apparently, one person was needed to prevent Dango from dashing through the door.
This turned out to be an excellent precaution because Izuku looked away from the dog sleeping on a pillow, stomach exposed, little legs in the air, for two seconds and the next thing he knew, his hands had moved on his own and he was holding the corgi right above the threshold.
"Oh, nice reflexes, Mikumo! And hi, Gran!"
"Tenko! I didn't know you were busy today!"
Izuku froze.
First came denial. He couldn't be so unlucky. Then, came bargaining, as he thought he had earned some rest and for the universe to stop mistaking him for a chew toy. Anger should have been next but he was holding a puppy, which tended to drain any feeling of rage out of him.
So he looked at the little old man holding several boxes of baked goods. He had a cardigan and a cane. He was the embodiment of the sweet old man who liked to dote on his grandson.
Last time Izuku had seen him, he had been in his hero costume and Hosu was burning. The sweet old man all too happy to share his snacks had kicked Izuku in the chest so hard he had broken several of the teenager's ribs.
"Beat his ass, Sorahiko!"
"Come on! He is right here! One kick and this nightmare is over."
"Do not be mean to my nephew!"
"He started it!"
"Do not be mean to my grandson!"
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TOLD GRAN TORINO TO BEAT HIS ASS."
"I can but you can't."
"IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY, SHIMURA."
"She has a point…"
"DO NOT START WITH ME, THIRD."
"Don't offer him tayaki! He is the enemy! No, he isn't hungry! There is a supervillain that cooks him breakfast every morning!"
"It's too late! He got fooled by this angel face! Why can't no one look at those chubby cheeks and see the formidable villain hiding behind them?"
Dropping by someone's place unannounced was generally a breach of etiquette but Sorahiko hadn't cared much about politeness when he had been young and now that he was positively antic, he cared even less about it. However, he didn't expect to find Tenko with company and was willing to drop the cakes in his fridge and leave until his friends' grandson insisted on him staying.
A good man would have shaken his head and left. But Sorahiko was who he was. Staying among a group of guilty-looking-college students who were now scrambling to hide that they had been drinking alcohol and insulting each other while playing video games was positively hilarious.
Those clever kids promptly sacrificed the youngest member of their little pack (probably someone's little brother), throwing him at Sorahiko so they would have the time to hide the bottles of beer and anything incriminating. Those were good friends, so Sorahiko indulged them and focused on the kid who looked supremely uncomfortable, hanging on to his glass of iced tea like it was liquid courage.
"Oh, so you want to become a quirk analyst?" Sorahiko gently teased the child. "And here I thought kids your age all wanted to become heroes!"
To his surprise, Mikumo took some time to consider the question.
"I wanted to be a hero when I was younger but this is a difficult career," he admitted. "There was a point where I had to think about my future and to be honest, I couldn't see myself being a hero. So I tried to find something else, something that would make me happier."
How insightful for a child so young.
"Yes, every hero has to pay a heavy price to do their job," Sorahiko confirmed. "Most of them retire before they're forty."
Back when Sorahiko had obtained his license, heroes were short-lived. They didn't live long enough to reach the age of retirement. Now, pro heroes tended to be shooting stars: they shone for a couple of years before crashing down as their bodies stopped working.
When Sorahiko was still a teacher, half of his job had been to make sure that his students had good habits and good training so their bodies wouldn't break down once they reached the age of thirty.
Toshinori's image appeared in his mind.
He hadn't been the best teacher.
"It's good that they are children like you." His voice was surprisingly soft. "The world needs more than pro heroes to function."
Mikumo nodded.
"But honestly, I never thought you were a quirk analyst when you so obviously work out!" Sorahiko laughed.
It might not have been visible for someone who didn't have a keen eye but the boy moved extremely well for an awkward teenager and his clothes didn't manage to completely hide how fit he was, in such a way that he could have easily blended with a crowd of hero students.
Mikumo violently blushed and started to stutter about how he wasn't a quirk analyst yet and how he had a gym membership.
Sorahiko proceeded to ask him if he worked out to have success with girls.
The boy became an absolute mess and Tenko ran to them, saving the child from Sorahiko's teasing.
SmallMight1541
[Did you not do a background check on him?]
Gwen
[He's a friend! I don't do background checks on friends!]
SmallMight1541
[Can't you make an exception when they are related to heroes?]
Gwen
[You're really ungrateful for someone who was thanking me just yesterday for once again preventing his pet sociopath from getting into his server!]
Izuku's nerves were positively frayed once he reached the beach house and he decided to go for a nap in the vain hope that his brain would stop screaming in blind terror. He let himself fall on the bed, too tired to move while his brain was going through the conversation with Gran Torino again and again.
Had the old hero noticed his hesitation? He had briefly thought of telling him that he was past the age of wanting to be a hero now that he was in a high school with no hero course but he had realized that he had no idea what kids his age felt.
He would have to ask Yuuto and Hebisuga later. He should have asked earlier. Would it be suspicious if he distributed surveys to his classmates in order to know what people his age thought?
Izuku fell asleep at some point and only emerged from his slumber when he noticed All for One hovering by the door. The supervillain said something to Izuku but the teenager only managed to grunt some noises back at him, so All for One put the blanket back on him and left.
Izuku closed his eyes again.
When he opened them, it was pitch black outside and his phone was doing its best not to implode under a deluge of notifications.
Slapofjustice
[Summer camp of UA under attack. Please, send help.]
Son Goku
[Request for help!]
[I don't know how many villains there are but some of my classmates are injured!]
Floatmeintospace
[Im a hero student]
[I know you have no reason to trust me but please we need help]
Biribiri
[HELP]
Poltergeist
[Request for help! It's not a trap! I swear!]
God of Darkness
[Request for help!]
Carmine
[REQUEST FOR HELP]
Le misérable
[A l'aide!]
Legosi
[under attack]
[we can't use our quirks]
Shadowman
[Send help, please!]
Lamb
[Request for help!]
Snowdrift
[Don't come.]
[Stay where you are.]