Toshi's phone pings with another notification as he takes a seat on the train. Izuku has taken to sending all the All Might memes he can get ahold of to the chat between the two of them and Toshinori; he has been doing so practically all morning.
Personally, Toshi is thoroughly amused with Izuku's antics. He's actually very surprised that his boy has gotten so bold in the presence of his most beloved hero (though Toshi is always the one to point out that he's been in the presence of All Might unknowingly this whole time). But he also can't help but feel satisfied that their relationship is progressing quite nicely. After all, he was able to build his relationship with his own successor through sending All Might memes back and forth—though it didn't happen for a few months after they'd exchanged numbers. And his Izuku swore up and down that it was an accident after the first meme was sent.
This time, though, Toshi was the one to send the first meme. Izuku had begun to scold Toshi ("You can't just send All Might memes to All Might—!) when Toshinori responded with an All Might meme of his own. Just as Toshi had with his own Izuku. He couldn't keep himself from sending them the famous 'all according to keikaku' meme that was, of course, All Might themed.
Toshinori seems to be having fun, either way. He's been sending short videos taken by Young Togata, where the young hero sneaks up and scares Toshinori at unlikely times. Toshi never thought that his voice could go so high.
Toshi grins as he subtly glances down the train aisle at their security detail. It seems that Young Iida and Young Uraraka are taking their shift. In his universe, he knows that they're very close friends with his successor. Toshi can't help but feel a strong wave of sadness that this Izuku was deprived of his close friends for so long. He can only hope that, after all of this is over, Toshi's plans and not-so-subtle actions will have paved the foundation to have his son in this world surrounded with the love and support he so deserves.
When the pair of heroes make eye contact with them, Toshi waves them over. Toshi can tell Young Iida is having a difficult time deciding whether to approach them or not—Young Iida always takes his assignments seriously, after all—but Young Uraraka makes the engine hero's decision easy when she pulls the young man towards Toshi.
The heroes take a seat in the row behind Toshi and Izuku, leaning in to have a quiet conversation.
"Mr. Yagi!" Young Uraraka softly exclaims, eyes bright with excitement. "It's been a while! Well, sorta."
"It certainly has," Toshi grins his reply. "You've grown since the last time I've seen you."
She giggles at his joke, then turns her attention to his companion. "And who might this be?"
It's obvious she's digging for information on the elusive Deku, seeing as she was briefed on her job just the other day. Izuku, who's been informed of his identity being shared, decides to humor her.
Izuku's cheeks flush at the sparkly-eyed attention that he receives, obviously not used to it despite his constant mooning over his favorite heroes. "I-I'm Izuku! Izuku M-Midoriya, nice to meet you!"
"It's nice to finally meet you, Midoriya!"
"Yes, we've all been quite interested in meeting you," Young Iida finally joins the conversation, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "It's an honor to get to know such an amazing individual."
Izuku squeaks. "A-amazing?"
Toshi laughs, patting Izuku's shoulder. "Yes, he's quite the bright mind! It's no wonder he's gotten so much attention, these days."
"Is that part of your quirk?" Young Uraraka asks.
"A-ah," Izuku visibly deflates at the question. "No, I, uh, don't have a quirk."
Silence. Then, "No way! That's incredible!"
Your Iida gesticulates vigorously as he speaks, "the fact that your analyses far surpasses those with analytic based quirks is astounding!"
"O-oh, it's not-… I just… really like quirks?"
"And battle analyses," Young Uraraka lists as she counts on her fingers, "and hero ranking systems, and hero match ups, and support items!"
"I-I like… heroes?"
Young Uraraka laughs lightly. "Who's your favorite hero? Do you collect merch?"
Izuku's eyes flit between Toshi and the young heroes. "My favorite hero of all time is All Might."
Young Uraraka grins widely at Toshi, amusement sparkling in her eyes.
"And I collect merch of a lot of heroes!"
"But mostly All Might?"
He nods, blushing deep.
"Well, are you excited to meet so many new heroes?" Young Uraraka asks, taking pity on the green haired man.
Izuku perks up. "Y-yeah! I never thought I'd ever get to meet so many heroes, let alone all of my f-favorite ones. Your class is incredible! It was obvious from your first sports festival that you're all incredibly gifted, and you had great grasps of your quirks already. You really put all the years ahead of you guys to shame with the performances…"
They continue their conversation in this way, basically complimenting each other as much as they could. It's as if they're trying to out-do each other, explaining why either the former Class A or Deku is much more 'amazing' than the other. Toshi knows that they're both amazing in their own ways, but he doesn't try to butt in like Young Iida does. To Toshi, it seems that Young Uraraka and Izuku are doing it for fun's sake.
Eventually, Young Uraraka takes out her phone and snaps a picture of her and Izuku, faces smushed together. Young Uraraka wears a bright, teasing grin while Izuku is blushing lightly with a much smaller, hesitant smile.
She sends the picture to the group chat, exclaiming the others will be "so jealous!" that she got to meet him so early in the mission. And immediately, she begins getting responses.
She shows Toshi and Izuku the messages as they roll in, squishing through the gap in their seats so that they can see her screen. The first few are tame, merely statements of discontent at not getting to meet Izuku yet. Young Kirishima laments at not thinking of getting a picture with him during his shift yesterday, and Izuku blushes brighter at this.
It's when Young Todoroki and Young Bakugou enter the chat that things go awry.
It starts innocently enough, sort of. The only thing that Young Todoroki types is, "he's cute."
At this, Young Uraraka squeals. Toshi looks to his boy in panic, and cannot keep it from growing when he sees the pleased gleam in Izuku's eyes and the flush in his cheeks.
The flush only gets deeper when Young Bakugou enters the chat and replies to Young Todoroki, saying "he's cuter in person."
"Ohmygosh, what is this?" Young Uraraka exclaims. "Didn't Bakugou have his shift yesterday?" She gasps. "Do you think he likes you, Midoriya?"
"This is highly inappropriate, Uraraka!" Young Iida says with a stern look on his face. "Please refrain from such gossip about our peers!"
"It's not gossip if he's laying it out there for all of us to see!" Young Uraraka pouts. Her phone explodes with pings and she looks back to the screen. Her eyes light up at what she reads. "See?"
They all look at Young Uraraka's phone to see what's happening, and Toshi can't help but drown in his dread. Toshi pulls out his phone to text Toshinori about the new development as he watches the train wreck happen in slow motion.
Young Uraraka scrolls through the multiple keyboard smashes and reaction gifs to get straight to the content she's looking for: Young Todoroki's and Young Bakugou's conversation.
Young Todoroki replies to Young Bakugou's comment by asking, "I take it you've already talked to him?"
"Yeah, my shift was fucking yesterday, Icy Hot," is Young Bakugou's reply. "He's mine, I call him."
"You can't just 'call him'," Young Todoroki replies. "He can make his own choices."
"Is that a fucking challenge, Half-n-Half?" Young Bakugou asks. "You wouldn't be saying that if you saw how he was flirting with me yesterday."
Young Uraraka looks as if she's about to explode. "You flirted with him?"
As Izuku stutters out an unintelligible reply, Toshi takes it upon himself to say, "It's more like Young Bakugou harassed him with inappropriate comments."
Young Todoroki's text pings onto Young Uraraka's phone. "Hm. I don't believe you. Uraraka, where are you now?"
Young Uraraka ignored Young Bakugou's "don't you fucking dare, dipshit!" and answers, "We're headed to Might Tower now! You're on call for security, right? You can meet us there if you'd like!"
Apparently, text messaging doesn't stop Young Bakugou's colorful vocabulary—in fact, it's probably worse this way. The chat is spammed with unique if not odd threats, with a generous sprinkling of curses spat at Young Todoroki and Young Uraraka.
And all Young Todoroki has to say to that?
"Okay."
ooo
Toshinori is there to meet the group when they arrive at Might Tower. The receptionists are absolutely flabbergasted at the sight of two 'Mr. Yagis', so they have to spend a few minutes calming them down and explaining that they're just twins.
Unfortunately, this gives Young Todoroki enough time to make it to the hero agency to meet Izuku. Toshi leans onto Toshinori as they watch the interaction go down. He's been hit with so many surprises, so many things he's never even thought could happen in the past 24 hours. He doesn't know if his heart can take anymore. He tries to take comfort in Toshinori's silent, almost equally horrified company. Since there's nothing either of them can do to stop this.
At least, Toshi thinks, this isn't as bad as what Young Bakugou did.
Young Todoroki stands in front of Izuku, albeit much closer to him than is typically considered appropriate, with all emotions carefully hidden behind a cool expression. They don't move; well, Young Todoroki doesn't move. Izuku is fidgeting, uncomfortable with the silence and the unabashed staring he's receiving. His cheeks slowly grow redder and redder as more time passes in silence between the two. When Izuku looks like he's about to burst, Young Todoroki makes his move.
The hero lifts a hand, slowly bringing it up towards Izuku's curls. When Izuku doesn't flinch, Young Todoroki slowly, carefully cards a couple fingers into the greenette's hair. Both Toshi and Toshinori's jaws drop as Todoroki's hand moves from Izuku's hair, down his jaw and to his chin before falling back to his side.
"He's right," Young Todorki finally—finally!—breaks the silence. "You are cuter in person."
Toshi dies.
Well, he doesn't die, but he certainly feels like he does. And poor Izuku doesn't look any better than how he feels. However, it's probably (definitely) for completely different reasons.
Toshinori sighs and gives Toshi a pat on the back. "I'm sorry you had to deal with this alone."
Toshi buries his face in his hands. "He's just a kid. He's just a kid!"
Izuku can't seem to find any words, so Young Todoroki continues to speak. "Would you mind if I took a photo with you as well? I'm actually a fan of your work. I particularly enjoy the piece you did on the net negative results of Endeavor's hero career."
"Wha—? Uh… Y-ye- uh… sure?"
Young Todoroki hands his phone to Young Uraraka, who looks much too pleased with this development. Young Iida stands behind her, apparently doing damage control in their class group chat after that whole bomb was dropped. She ignored Young Iida's grumbling as she raises the phone and begins her countdown. And at the last second.
Young Todoroki. Kisses. Izuku's cheek.
Everyone is frozen in their places, yet Young Todoroki calmly walks over to Young Uraraka and takes his phone from her hand. He hums as he looks at the picture, and thanks her for her help before tapping and swiping on his screen for another minute. It's when he slips his phone into his pocket that the group around him begins moving again.
Toshi is basically sobbing on Toshinori, muttering and questioning why he's 'cursed to watch this horror show' and scolding himself because he 'should have known that adding Young Bakugou and Young Todoroki to the mix was inviting bad things to happen'.
Izuku—bless his soul—is trying his best to comfort Toshi despite the fact that he obviously needs some comforting himself. His eyes look far away, and he seems dizzy with the confusion of what just happened. And his face is bright red as he rubs his cheek gently where Young Todoroki kissed him. But his other hand lightly pats Toshi's back, and his brow is creased with concern, and Toshi is once again hit with the fact that his boy—this boy—is, in fact, not a boy but a grown man. And it hurts to think that someday his own Izuku is going to grow up and be wrapped up in romance and will no longer need his idol because he'll be a pro hero, a symbol of peace! And seeing those two hooligans actually try to courthis boy? This isn't good for his heart!
Young Uraraka and Young iida are hounding Young Todoroki, asking him what he's going to do with the picture, and what he was thinking, doing that in front of so many people.
"I'm going to send it to Bakugou," is Young Todoroki's simple reply.
Just as things seem to be escalating even more, Nighteye appears before them, exasperation evident on his face. "What is going on here?"
Toshinori, obviously distressed, pleads, "we need a break from the young heroes right now. Maybe we can all have our separate conversations for a couple hours?"
Sir Nighteye's eyes flash with concern, but he leaves the current conversation at that. After all, the trio of former Class A heroes have stopped their bickering to focus on the commands of their higher ups.
Nighteye sighs. "Follow me. We'll have separate meeting rooms to conduct our business. We can all group up later."
ooo
Toshi sighs as he, Toshinori, and Izuku leave the conference room together. They were finally all able to go over the differences of their timelines, and come up with a list of where to start looking for this world's counterpart of the villain that sent Toshi here. They'd even gotten Principal Nedzu on speaker phone to give his two cents and relay what he'd discussed with Izuku in their previous meeting. All in all, without the young heroes there to cause Toshi emotional distress, they were able to have a productive couple of hours.
Toshi visibly tries to steel himself as they make their way towards the room the security detail was placed in. He knows that he's being dramatic—but he's always been dramatic, he's All Might—and he knows that his boy is a grown man with such a big heart full of love; of course he'd have romantic relationships! He would be a great romantic partner to anyone lucky enough for him to fall in love with. He just never thought that he'd maybe choose… the boys who literally cause or have caused the most distress in his own successor's life. It actually makes him wonder if this means his own Izuku is or will be… interested…? In those two.
Oh god, oh lord, please help me.
"W-we don't have to interact with the heroes anymore if you don't want to, Toshi," Izuku murmurs as he wraps his arm through Toshi's. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable."
Toshi would give anything to take his suggestion, but he knows he could never do that to his boy. After all, he knows that Izuku would eventually regret giving up the chance to meet so many heroes, even if he won't admit it.
"No, my boy," Toshi says, patting the hands that gently hold onto his arm. "it's alright. Let's get you some autographs, shall we?"
When they enter the room where their security detail plus one is, Toshi wishes that he took up Izuku's offer. Because there, arguing with Young Todoroki and Young Uraraka, is Young Bakugou with a Dynamight hoodie.
Before Toshi can change his mind and drag Izuku from the doorway, Toshinori powers up and speaks to the quarreling group. "What's going on here?"
The argument stops immediately in the face of All Might, and each hero faces him.
It's Young Bakugou, of course, who answer first. "I'm here to give something to the nerd."
All Might frowns disapprovingly. "What did I say about your behavior?"
Young Bakugou scowls at the ground. "Sorry. Got something for Midoriya."
"And how did you find yourself here, off duty, and heckling the heroes that are currently on their job?"
This time, it's Young Uraraka who speaks up, pouting as she says, "I told the group chat about Midoriya's merch collection and asked someone to bring some of my merch. Bakugou said he would but only brought his own." She throws her hands in the air with exasperation. "I should've known he'd do that with all the weird stuff he's been saying!"
Young Bakugou approaches Izuku, standing a bit closer than would normally be considered polite. He gestures for Izuku to take the hoodie from his hand. He smirks, and says to him in a low voice, "I didn't sign it, but it's the limited edition that'll be released in a couple weeks."
Delicately, Izuku takes the garment from the explosion hero's hand, stuttering out a soft "thank you" as he does.
The small, genuine smile that Young Bakugou gives him immediately disappears the second Young Todoroki steps beside Izuku with his phone held out to the green haired man. Izuku gives Young Todoroki an inquisitive look.
"Put your phone number in."
Toshi makes eye contact with Young Iida, who seems to have completely given up on everything in life. He doesn't even flail his arms in those wild gesticulations. He just. Stands there. With eyes as dead as Toshi currently feels.
As the young ones would say, Toshi laments, that is a resounding 'mood'.
ooo
The rest of the week passes quickly. Former Class A has taken quite the liking to Izuku, and all gift him with some merchandise from their own lines when they first meet him. And they also add Izuku to their group chat.
Izuku gets starry eyed whenever he's brought into any conversation in the group chat (which is almost all the time), and he's so excited whenever he talks about his conversations with the former Class A. Toshi thinks it's sweet how happy Izuku is to interact with more people his age. It warms his heart that Class A still loves him even though he didn't get that initial interaction with them in high school.
The group chat between both All Mights and Izuku brings just as much—if not more—joy to Izuku. Toshi works tirelessly to show the other two that they have more in common than they first realize. And because of his efforts, Toshinori spends a lot more time with Izuku and Toshi outside of meetings with Nighteye and Lemillion. Toshi can't fight the elated feeling he gets when he sees Toshinori get less awkward around the green haired man, and Izuku less shy around his idol. Eventually, it's mostly Izuku and Toshinori that send most of the messages in their little group chat.
While Izuku goes to school or works with Nedzu, Toshi spends his time with Toshinori, doing behind the scenes hero work or talking about Izuku. It seems that Izuku's already wiggled his way into Toshinori's heart; Toshi wouldn't have it any other way.
Toshi likes to think this would have happened on its own: his boy would have found his way into the lives of former Class A, would have found his way to All Might. And eventually, he would have found his way to Toshinori. That love that Izuku so desperately needs and deserves would have found its way into his life eventually. After all, how can anyone not be drawn in to such a warm light?
No, Izuku would have found this eventually. Toshi just made it happen a little faster.
ooo
In a deserted bar, barely lit by the old lamps scattered around the room, sits the League of Villains. They sit spaced out, as if they don't want to get to close to one another. Their eyes shift between figures, weary of the actions their comrades may take against them if they aren't careful. Unfortunately, one must always stay vigilant if they choose to follow the path of a villain. Villains are, after all, very untrustworthy.
Now that the League's leader, All for One, has healed as much as he possibly could have, it's time for the group to act. Waiting for Sensei to heal rather than striking while All Might was at his weakest was a risky move, seeing as it gave the hero more time to heal as well as train a successor. But Sensei isn't stupid. In fact, the man is probably the wisest individual one could happen upon. After all, he has been alive since the dawn of quirks. And if Sensei says that All Might has no more power and his successor's novice will mean One for All's downfall… well, Tomura is inclined to believe him.
So, over the past few years, Tomura has been building connections with strong villain groups at the command of his Sensei. He's gained new recruits he's dubbed the Vanguard Action Squad, comprised of nine high-class villains including Dabi, Toga Himiko, Mr. Compress, and others. He's in charge of a few groups of lesser villains who have the sole purpose to distract the heroes and lead them away from their actual plans and base of operations. Hell, he's even working together with Overhaul and his yakuza despite his—very vocal—disagreement on the subject! And yet, Sensei is stillpushing Tomura to build this final connection before they take any action against the heroes.
He still has to recruit the Hero Killer: Stain.
Apparently, Stain has been making quite the impact on the media nowadays. The serial killer has somehow gotten his ideals videotaped and posted on the internet after some recently graduated heroes failed to arrest the man. And thus, he's gotten a lot of attention; especially from those who have been losing faith in hero society since the now former number two hero, Endeavor, was revealed as an abusive asshole who tortured his wife and kids all for the sake of surpassing All Might.
Tomura fights the urge to scratch at his neck. He's trying to give up the habit, but anything that reminds him of All Might makes him antsy and frustrated without fail. Having Stain here ranting about said hero definitely didn't help things.
So, to move the conversation along, Tomura speaks about the real reason Sensei wants him to recruit Stain.
"What can you tell me about the Hero Blogger: Deku?"
A deep seeded hatred and malice burns into Stain's eyes. "That fake."
Tomura keeps his face blank despite the thoughts racing through his head.
Ah. This plan may not be as foolproof as Sensei thought, after all.
For one thing, Sensei is actually very interested in Deku. If he were younger, Tomura may have been jealous over the blatant curiosity Sensei displayed over the internet personality. After all, his Sensei has wondered out loud why he wasn't able to find such a 'promising young mind' earlier. It's very obvious what Sensei's intentions are towards the blogger turned unofficial 'hero'.
And for another, Tomura can finally see what his Sensei does in Deku. Sure, he stubbornly refused to even think about Deku when they were first becoming famous. But soon enough—and to his chagrin—he was unable to escape the hype. So, just to point out fault in Deku's everything, Tomura dug into the blogger. He found the early blog that the internet personality used and hacked it so he could download all the information and posts that were on it. The blog was deleted less than thirty minutes after he'd logged out of it, but Tomura didn't mind; he'd gotten all he needed.
The problem was, Tomura couldn't find a single thing that would turn Sensei's fascination away from Deku. Yeah, the early posts are not as well written as the newer ones, and the analysis wasn't as thorough, but it was obvious that Deku is a self-taught genius who would—with a little instruction—become the greatest tactical mind the world has ever seen. And the more Tomura read, the more he wanted to get his hands on Deku.
So, Tomura talked with Sensei, and they now agree that having Deku would benefit their cause greatly. All that's left is to find the pieces that will put the plan into action. Unfortunately, Sensei thinks an important piece is Stain.
"The coward hides behind a computer screen, refusing to take action despite obviously having the means to save countless lives," Stain spits the words out with venom. "They horde their information until the active heroes beg Deku to help them. And Deku is still celebrated despite such greed and cowardice. What a joke. It's ridiculous how they're being praised for hiding away in their room so they can't be judged for their words. A real hero would stand by their words and take action instead of squirreling away and letting others fight their battles for them."
Well Deku isn't a real hero, a childish part of Tomura wanted to shoot back. And there are about a million other little, hypocritical things Tomura wants to point out—like the fact that heroes literally hide their identity all the time—but he holds himself back. Sensei really wants Stain on this job, and Tomura can concede that having Stain's quirk would be very helpful to the mission. He just has to tread carefully; twist the situation in favor of himself.
Tomura leans back in his chair, face carefully masked to keep from alerting the serial killer of his true thoughts. "Then, maybe you'll be interested in what I have to offer."
Stain raises an eyebrow at Tomura's words. Tomura forces his grin down, into something smaller so as not to raise suspicion, and says:
"We are looking to capture Deku. Are you willing to join?"
The answering feral grin is all the response Tomura needs.
