'Peace, as a concept, is one we are all familiar with. Peace, as a reality, is one which we will never achieve. Humans fight and argue and look to assert their dominance. The heroes who protect will always be attacked by the villains that attack. Even in Japan, we have struggled to attain peace, even in this modern age. We know of the second Dark Age, the New Age, and the Golden Age of Heroics. We know the great heroes and villains. All Might's rise is emblematic of our inherent tendencies towards war. Despite this, attaining personal peace is a possibility and is achieved through one simple idea: to try and be better.'
-Excerpt from 'Questioning the Modern Age of Heroes,' by Andile Sithole.
Toshinori Yagi has failed many times in life. There have been occasions where he has been too slow or not smart enough. Knowing and acknowledging that not everyone can be saved does not negate the fact that each lost life is a burden and each mistake a weight he must carry.
He was too young and unskilled to aid Nana Shimura the day she fell. Each time he visits her grave, he asks if she is proud of him. And each time he receives no answer for the dead tell no tales.
He regrets not killing All For One the first opportunity he had. All Might had been victorious, and a single blow would have ended the greatest villain of this era. His inexperience had betrayed him then. The morals that he so valiantly fought for made him hesitate. And in that moment, All For One escaped. And each life the villain harmed afterwards was in part his responsibility for failing in his duty.
Today, though, is failure equal to those.
Izuku Midoriya is his successor and in the few months that Yagi has known the brilliant boy, he has failed him multiple times. The boy has died, before. Once because of Yagi's negligence. Another out of grief. And, he suspects, more times out of a burning desire to seek knowledge. A desire he stokes every time he chooses not to confront his successor.
Today, though, he has failed spectacularly. His successor is hurt, and Yagi can only blame himself. His first instinct is to look at Katsuki Bakugou, strong and ferocious, and find fault in him. Yet, that is a disservice to both the boy learning to be a hero and the man who is the greatest hero.
"I should have listened," he says aloud from his place in the nurse's office.
Recovery Girl is busy, moving with a level of efficiency he can only admire as she fixes what she can of the boy's face and wounds. The medical bots hand her instruments without a word, their synchronicity eerie. She accepts nanoweave grafts and applies them to Izuku's face. He knows that she has taken skin from other parts of his body and bridged the missing flesh of his cheek and jawline.
Ejiro Kirishima had warned him against placing the two together. The threat Katsuki Bakugou had levelled immediately after the warning should have been the final clue.
He ignored it out of pride in his successor's strength. What were the worries of a young man compares to the power of One For All and the inky blackness of Shadowshield? He cannot ignore his own arrogance in believing he knew better than classmates who so obviously cared.
"Yes," Recovery Girl says. "Now shush."
Even if not for the warning there were other signs. Ochaco Uraraka and Tenya Iida had both cautioned against the matchup in the observation room. When Izuku and his partner Tokoyami were planning, Tokoyami had called Katsuki Bakugou an abusive ex-boyfriend. It had been said cruelly and intended to hurt, but the fact that Izuku did not refute Bakugou being abusive should have been the reason he cancelled the match, favouritism be damned.
Instead, he had put aside his affection for the boy and donned the mask of the impartial teacher.
For much of the fight, he thought his actions validated by the showing of Izuku's skills, matching Bakugou blow for blow without using his quirks. Izuku's form was sloppy and inefficient but that was a result of experience, not competence. And he more than made up for it with his analytical mind.
That did not excuse permitting Bakugou to use his grenadier bracers to level the entire floor. But the guidelines for villains permitted structural damage. And the attack had not even been aimed in Izuku's direction even if the shockwave was powerful enough that the boy had to use his quirk to block it.
But the inexcusable moment was not stopping Bakugou the moment he threatened to use the gauntlet on Izuku. Everything else before then could have been explained away. But that, was a failure only he is responsible for.
He remembers his successor plaintive scream to his partner before it happened.
He takes a shuddering breath. There is no smile on his face. Toshinori Yagi does not have to be strong every moment as All Might does. Toshinori can be weak where All Might must be perfect. And right now, he has no right to be the great hero.
Toshinori watches Recovery Girl kiss Izuku, his body glowing green for a moment. The boy's upper body is covered in bandages. His chest rises and falls slowly, wires and drips connecting to beeping machines. He heartbeat is steady, slow. But it is there.
He can't die. We could make use of his quirk, he thinks and feels immediately disgusted with himself. He does not know the reach or limitations of the boy's quirk. And even then, there is no excuse for what would be murder, both in intent and action.
"I've been at the institution since it was founded," Recovery Girl to outsiders, Chiyo to him, says without moving from her place near Izuku. "I have seen many mistakes and healed more injuries than you could count. But never so many inflicted on one boy in such a short time. This is the third time this week he has been in my office."
She sighs and turns to face him. Looks him up and down. Shakes her head.
"This is your first time teaching, Yagi, so some leniency must be granted. But a failure of this magnitude is not one we can ignore. I don't know what Nezu will have to say to you and undoubtedly Aizawa will be out for blood, but I will say that I am extremely disappointed in you."
Toshinori closes his eyes. Takes another shuddering breath. Acknowledges his fault.
"You should be."
"Go before I kick you out."
He stands without another word. One For All infusing his body and strength fills him. All Might forces a smile and opens the door. He has no other choice. Not really.
Outside, Tokoyami sits on the floor in his costume, his head slumped in exhaustion. The boy doesn't stir from his fitful slumber. Undoubtedly, he will be in pain when he awakens. He considers waking the boy.
There is a bundle of dark cloth in Tokoyami's circled arm, light green lines in geometric patterns marking the cape of his successor. Toshinori decides he might not be the best person to tell anyone else how to behave. He remembers entrusting the boy to defuse, or at least maintain, the situation between Ojiro and Bakugou. The fact that he is here means that Aizawa gave him permission.
And if he doesn't have permission, then they can deal with that later.
He walks the halls to the teacher's lounge. School is over by now and most of the student body has left. Some of the older students linger, busy with a project or other, but he sees no sight of any first years. He ignores the hushed conversations as he passes, pays no heed to the stares. Rumours travel fast, and some distorted version of the truth will have by now made its way across the campus. The validity of the rumour does not matter, only its nature.
And right now, it paints All Might in a bad light.
He sees Aizawa before his fellow teacher does. The scruffy looking man stiffens when he sees All Might. He tilts his head towards a class and All Might dutifully follows. Aizawa closes the door behind them.
"Do you know what the biggest responsibility a teacher has towards their students?" Aizawa asks, tone deathly flat. "To keep them safe. And you have just completely jeopardised that for Izuku."
"I know," All Might says.
"I very much doubt that." His hair stands on end even though he isn't looking at All Might. He has never seen Aizawa so frazzled. "Have you even once considered what this will do to Ojiro? He was very nearly ready to strangle Bakugou."
His eyes widen. "What?" he splutters.
Aizawa cracks his neck in one swift motion. "You left Tokoyami to deal with that situation. And right now, he's so guilty I'm going to have to spend the rest of the term making sure he doesn't have a nervous breakdown. I have to make sure Ojiro doesn't kill someone. I had to spend the last hour calming all the students you abandoned because for some unfathomable reason, instead of checking everyone else you had a duty to, you wasted your time uselessly in Chiyo's office.
"That doesn't even begin to deal with Bakugou. He'll be lucky if the judge tries him as a juvenile."
All Might chokes suddenly on his spit. "There's no—"
"Izuku's mother is fully in her right to press charges against both Bakugou and the school. The fact that you don't know that proves every single reservation I had about you. You let a student who I specifically marked down as unruly and temperamental, possibly dangerous, battle someone he threatened to kill. You did this despite the protests of his fellow classmates. You did not intervene when deadly force was used. You are the reason he's in that hospital room. And now I must deal with this. So, you stay out of the way before you make anything worse."
Aizawa barges past All Might, his expression one of absolute hate. He pauses at the door to glance back over his shoulder.
"You are, undoubtedly, the single worst teacher to plague UA's halls at this moment. And in your very first lesson, you undid everything I was working towards. You set us back so far in your arrogance."
-TDB-
Aizawa feels more frazzled than the last time he fought a villain, one who was competent in close range and had a long-distance emitter quirk. He remembers his heart pounding, blood rushing in his ears, and the quiet tendril of dread that he might not walk away. He won by luck alone which bothers him more than he is willing to admit.
He wishes that just once, once and only once, that luck applied to something important. Perhaps one day he will be lucky, and UA will change the entrance exam. Maybe he will be lucky and Principal Nezu will listen to his objections on certain staff members.
If he can choose a person for that luck to apply to, it would be Izuku Midoriya.
Everything about the kid is a red flag. By now, he has watched the recording of the battle simulation a dozen times, and he can't decide who to punch first. All Might for not listening to Kirishima or stopping the simulation when he had the chance. Tokoyami for leaving his ally and making the plan. Bakugou for being Bakugou. So many options, none of whom were acceptable targets: All Might because there is little point in punching a man who can take an artillery round to the face; Tokoyami because there was so much guilt in the few words they shared; Bakugou requires his help, and no matter Shouta's reservations about the boy, so long as he is a student Shouta will do everything in his power to guide him.
He meets Katsuki's mother when she arrives. The woman is as blonde as her son and looks younger than Aizawa. Which makes no sense unless she had Katsuki at fifteen—not unheard of, but contraceptive measures are ubiquitous—or if her quirk has something do with it.
"Mrs Bakugou," he greets.
"Where is that little shit?"
That is, in no way, what Shouta expects. But he has heard worse. He leans against the chair so that he doesn't loom over this woman. No reason to intimidate her, not when she's clearly stressed.
"We need to talk first," he says evenly. "You son—"
"Acted like a piece of shit. I'd like to have a conversation with him about why that kind of behaviour is unacceptable."
He hums. "Then I suppose you'll also explain how his behaviour will affect his future court hearing."
She stiffens, a hint of fear gracing her features. "What?"
"What your son did would, at best, be considered petty quirk assault which, if he is lucky and the judge is lenient, will result in a fine, expulsion from this campus, and a permanent mark on his record." He says this with the coldness of reason. "That is assuming the Midoriyas don't personally press charges."
Her eyes widen. "Inko wouldn't… we're friends, I can—"
"Talk to her? Certainly." He inclines his head. "It might just be construed as forceful coercion of relevant parties to a court case. Would you like to listen to me before talking to Katsuki? Or do you want to take him home without the facts?"
She takes a seat on the desk opposite him, her hands shaking.
"I would like to help Katsuki," he explains. "He is one of my students. But as it stands, the recording of events doesn't paint him in any positive light. His threats towards Midoriya prior will likely see him charged for aggravated quirk assault, and that has a prison sentence of ten years for adults, three for minors if they have a clean record.
"The fact that I had to caution him against public quirk usage makes me suspect his record isn't clean. I don't have access to it, but tell me Mrs Bakugou, do you believe Katsuki has a clean record?"
Her hands are clenched, arms shaking from the tension. "He's been… he's been cautioned for public quirk usage twice. Officially, that is. And he's-oh fuck, he's served community service before."
He sighs because of course, he has. Some days, Aizawa hates how convoluted privacy laws can get. They can't even look at criminal records of minors when considering prospective students. And something as light as community service would have actively been censored by the government.
"Right now, Midoriya is in critical condition. If not for Recover Girl's quirk, he might very well have died from shock, and even then he'll be permanently disfigured. The absolute best option, the one which I doubt the most, is that Katsuki will receive a sealed red order."
"I've never heard of one."
"I would be shocked if you did. They're particular to crimes related to heroics, or students in hero courses. Each red order is unique, but they all come with restrictions. If he gets one, then he might avoid a prison sentence. But that will only occur if the Midoriyas are willing to accept one."
He lets the woman take her son. She drags a frozen Katsuki, and from the way the boy winces, her grip is relentless. He hopes Katsuki is smart enough to stay home and not get involved in an altercation. Or worse yet, run away.
Whilst that leaves Katsuki's situation… addressed, if not dealt with, there are still two other students to consider. He hates this part of being a teacher. Deciding which punishment is fair, and wich punishment extreme. Very much of Katsuki's situation is out of his hands, and even in the unlikely event that the Midoriyas aren't out for blood, his career as a hero is over.
Ojiro's actions are simple enough and can be excused because of him being friends with Midoriya. That still doesn't change the fact that he attacked Bakugou after the simulation ended. A short suspension without community service, maybe a day or two, will be acceptable.
He'll have to speak with Ojiro later and explain that regardless of the situation, attacking another student outside of a supervised training session has punishments. And besides, it will give Ojiro some time to think things over and study for the history test Nemuri has planned as he knows the boy failed the quiz yesterday. And, it would remove him from the immediate reaction from his classmates and the other students. Shouta has seen how teenagers behave whenever a new piece of gossip is involved, and he doesn't want to risk Ojiro reacting badly.
His door opens. Very few people—exactly two—have the permission to do so.
"Shouta," Nemuri greets and takes a seat. "I talked to the stragglers. Kirishima thinks this is his fault somehow. Said he tried warning All Might."
She is still clad in her costume. He has known her far too long and seen her in enough compromising situations that it isn't a distraction. When she puts her legs on the table, he isn't distracted by the way her costume hugs the contours of her flesh. They had tried once, and it simply hadn't worked. His interest lay elsewhere, and she was too distracted by her internship at the time.
"He did. All Might didn't listen." Before he can rant, he opens a drawer and removes one of the many packs of salty liquorice he has.
"Those things are the reason your eyes are bad." Nemuri takes the pack and eats one. Shouta sighs and just removes another pack.
"This is a mess."
"It is," she agrees around a bit of liquorice. "What are you going to do about it?"
"What can I? Bakugou's out of my control. Midoriya's condition is critical. And I have no idea what to do about Tokoyami."
"You never mentioned Ojiro."
"Two-day suspension."
She nods, and Shouta doesn't doubt she understands why he made the decision. She always understood him, perhaps better than Hizashi.
"I'll add in some history homework. Drown him in work and distract him."
"Thanks," he says.
"What's the problem with Tokoyami?"
"How responsible is he for what happened? I can't decide because of that." She makes a sound for him to continue. "We're supposed to teach them. I've had five days with him. A month from now I'd expel him instantly. But how I can I hold him to that standard when he hasn't even had the chance to learn anything."
"Then don't."
"And do what? Suspend him? For how long? If I suspend him longer than two weeks, then he'll be unable to pass the term. And if that's the case I might as well save his parents the tuition and make him come back next year."
"None of that has anything to do with your problem. Is he responsible?"
Aizawa closes his eyes. "He made a plan to pit Bakugou against Midoriya and retrieve the bomb himself. And I can't fault it. He knew Bakugou would disregard all else and leave him a clear path to the bomb. It was the logical option. And if he was just a bit better-trained none of this would have happened."
"And if Bakugou chose not to behave as he did, then we wouldn't be having this conversation. You said it yourself, he made a good plan for someone with a week's experience."
He eats another piece of liquorice. Takes his time chewing it. Savours the dryness that comes with it.
"He made the plan out of cruelty. I have no idea why he was so angry with Midoriya, but he called Bakugou his abusive ex-boyfriend—"
"Is he?"
"Nemuri, why do you think I pay attention if my students are fucking each other." He takes a deep breath. "I've reached a point where I have to wonder how many people are abusive in his life."
"Shouta…"
He blinks and considers what he said. "I'll tell you later if I can. It's not my place."
"You know I've got your back."
He snorts but can't help the smile. "I do." He slides a file to her. "The kid was homeschooled for the last four years because of something he did in the past."
"Censored?"
"When isn't it? I've noticed Tokoyami doesn't really interact with anyone in the class, and when he does he barely seems to know how to react. He's got no affiliations on record, so I don't even know if he understands peer interactions. Do I punish him because of how he was brought up?"
He reaches for another liquorice and finds that pack empty. He slams it on the desk, and the loud clap seems to echo in the tiny office.
"This class is a mess." Nemuri just watches him and holds out a liquorice. He takes it. "Thank you."
"Suspend him for a week," Nemuri says after a beat of silence. "Throw in some community hours. I haven't spent much time with him, but I don't think he's a bad kid. Maybe he made a bad decision, but how many have we made? Remember that fight against—"
"I remember you falling in a sinkhole—"
"Or how Nezu almost—"
"That was Hizashi's fault and you know—"
"And the cat."
Shouta sighs. "Fine. You win."
-TDB-
Darkness surrounds him, a haze consuming his senses. He knows unconsciousness and has had to deal with it before. He pushes past the haze, struggling for the light.
He opens his eyes slowly. The world is blurry. It takes a while for the white to resolve into the ceiling, for the weird droning to become the beeping of some machine, the sharp smell to reveal itself as antiseptic and illness.
Izuku shifts his body. Pain hits him, sharply in his torso and a dull throbbing from the neck up. His eyes sting with unshed tears. He tries to lift his arm but finds the energy too great and gives up with a huff.
"Good, you're awake." He flicks his eyes to the side and sees Recovery Girl. "How much of that do you remember?"
He frowns. The pain in his face flair up making him groan weakly. White spots fill his vision. Then a sensation like ice fills his veins. The pain dulls slowly.
"You've been hurt badly, Izuku. Using my quirk on you depleted your energy reserves. But not everything can be healed."
"H-how… bad?" he croaks.
"It will scar. You will retain full functionality, but you'll need to come in every day for a healing session."
"You c-can treat it… yourself?"
"I've dealt with worse."
He closes his eyes. Another scar to accompany the rest. "I-I… understand."
His eyes feel heavy. Fighting it is useless for he has no energy to do so. The darkness takes him again and he falls into a dreamless slumber.
When he wakes again the room is the orange of the setting sun. Everything still hurts but he has the strength to sit up this time. His body is bandaged heavily, his neck and the right side of his face the worst, but there were some around his torso.
"Don't touch those." He looks up. Recovery Girl looks tired, weary, as though she has just come from a battle. "I had to stitch some of those cuts. If you poke too hard they might start bleeding again."
"S-sorry," he whispers, wincing at how it hurts his throat. Recovery Girl hands him a bottle of water and he sips gratefully, the cool liquid soothing his throat.
"You have nothing to apologise for."
"I keep on coming here," he says slowly. "I should have… careful. Should have been more careful."
She shifts, her features softening. "You cannot control what others do. Do try to be more careful in the future. I would hate to see you again for tripping."
Blood rushes to his face. "I'm c-clumsy sometimes."
"Clumsy sometimes?" She huffs. "If you do get hurt like that again, don't hesitate to come see me."
He nods slowly, grimacing at the way the pain flares up. "Okay."
"If everything seems bright, or you experience synaesthesia, it's because you're currently on a strong mix of stimulants and opiates."
It takes him a long moment to parse through her words. "Aren't those bad?"
She waves away his concern. "You'll be fine. You might crash in approximately three hours and sleep for half a day, but you do need to be up."
"What about Kaachan?" She raises a brow. "Bakugou."
"Why," she begins slowly, cautiously, "are you so worried about him?"
"Because I… I hurt him," he explains before taking another sip of water. "He must have a few bruises."
"Izuku, do you understand why exactly you're in a hospital bed?"
He sees fire in his vision, red eyes set in rage and remembers unbearable pain. The fear, the complete terror of what would come assaults him. His hands tremble. He takes a deep breath and casts aside the memory of fear, locking it deep in his mind.
I will remember even if you forget.
He hears the beeping of the heart monitor, rapid and oppressive in its tempo. He takes another deep breath and watches it slow.
"It was an a-accident," he says. "Accidents happen."
It was no accident, the voice roars. He sought to kill you again.
There is static in his mind for a moment. It clears, and his head is blessedly quiet for a second that seems to stretch for infinity.
Then the voice screams in pain.
But that, he can ignore. Just like the monsters that hide in the deepest recesses, Izuku can forget the screams of the voice burning.
"And you consider that level of force an accident?" she asks, softly, gently.
"I can break his body if I used my quirk. He wasn't aiming at me. I just dodged the wrong direction." He shrugs. The motion pulls at his injuries and he winces.
"Did you try and break him? Did you once try to actively harm him?"
There is something in her question that he can't figure out. Even with the stimulants forcing his mind to work actively, and the painkillers numbing the pain, there is still something in her question, a weight he finds incomprehensible.
"What does that have to do with it? I got hurt in an accident. Hurting him back doesn't justify it. That only makes things worse."
"And you find absolutely nothing wrong with this situation."
"It's not like I've never been hurt before."
He thinks of all the injuries he's received in the abyss. The worst, the deep and thick cut on his shoulder had healed in minutes thanks to an eye large as a continent. He thinks of his many deaths.
"And who's hurt you before?"
He blinks. "No one," he says quickly, not even caring that the lie is poor. "It doesn't matter."
"You know you can speak to us if you have any problems."
"I do? Aizawa-sensei said the same thing."
"Even problems you have outside of school."
He looks to the side, away from her too kind gaze. "I don't think y-you can help. Can I go now?"
"I can't stop you, technically. And you have to go to the teacher's lounge today." She walks to a cabinet and opens it, removing a cane from it. He stares at it. "Trust me when I say you'll need it for the next few days."
Recovery Girl slowly disconnects the monitoring equipment, checking over him one last time in the process.
"What do the teacher's want with me?"
She pauses just about to remove the IV needle. "They'll want your account of the event."
He nods. "Okay."
When she is done he removes the blanket. Slowly, he turns and lets his legs dangle off the side of the bed. He takes the cane then. She helps him as he places his weight on his legs. They nearly give out until he puts most of the weight on the cane. A spot on his torso hurts, the same spot that's been bandaged so heavily.
"What happened there?"
His legs tremble as she says, "Some of the ceramic plates in your vest shattered. A large piece stabbed you."
"I guess I'll just have to fix that for the next revision."
He takes a tentative step forward. It hurts, and he is thankful so much of his training revolved around using his legs because were they any weaker, he would fall. He takes a breath and takes another step forward.
"Now, you won't be doing any exercise until I give you permission."
That nearly makes him trip. "W-wait, what?"
"I'll prescribe you a series of stretches to perform but if you deviate from what I mandate you'll wind up in a hospital for the next few months."
"…Fine." He walks slowly to the door, noticing Recovery Girl following him. "Are you—"
"Escorting you, yes. Would you have accepted a wheelchair?" He flushes at the very idea. "We don't want to exacerbate your injuries any further if you get lost."
He opens his mouth to argue. Decides that she makes a perfectly valid point. Opens the door instead.
The hallway is bathed in orange. All the shadows are long, deep, and full-bodied. Like this, he feels like the entire world is open to him. He notices Tokoyami immediately. The boy has his head bowed in sleep. Nothing about it looks peaceful.
"Tokoyami," he says, more forceful than he expects.
The boy's eyes open. He blinks rapidly, looking around wildly until he spots Izuku. He stands and Izuku gets to see exactly how badly ruffled his feathers are. There is dirt and dust specking them, and he still wears his costume. His eyes are bloodshot and they give the illusion that they are red throughout instead of merely his irises.
"Midoriya," the boy says uncertainly. "You left this." He holds something dark in his hands.
He takes his cape, burnt in places and battered, but still whole. The material is warm to the touch, he realises now, and wonders if it had a layer of thermal insulation. Good for anyone going through shock like a civilian he might be called upon to rescue.
"I'll let you talk," Recovery Girl says, startling Tokoyami, "if you make sure he gets to the teacher's lounge."
"I would have done so regardless."
"Well, let me leave you to it."
Izuku watches her walk away, leaving them alone. He swallows, unsure of himself. The hostility from Tokoyami is gone, and that is almost worse than feeling a burning gaze judging his every action and being found wanting.
"S-sorry," he blurts out, "for whatever I said. I didn't mean to make you so angry."
"You have little to apologise for," the boy says, calmly, though his appearance belies that.
"I made you upset. You should always apologise for that." Tokoyami flinches, stepping back. "I'm sorry."
Tokoyami shakes his head, seems to regain his bearing. "The fault is entirely mine. Had I not been spiteful and listened to your concerns, then you would not be in your current state."
"Accidents happen."
"That was not an accident," he says sharply. "He wished you harm and sought to accomplish his goal. And… I aided him in doing so."
"W-what, no, this isn't your fault. We just had a bad matchup."
Tokoyami closes his eyes. His fists clench. And then he starts vibrating.
"Midoriya," he says, voice perfectly level and on the edge of pure rage. "You really don't see any issue with this, do you? No, let me say this. Cruelty is unbecoming of a hero and acting upon it has repercussions, and rarely are they benevolent. Acting on any negative emotion does so. I've been taught this my entire life because my quirk has sentience of its own, and it can influence me. It hated you and your duplicity, and I allowed myself to believe its words. Even now, it is calling me a traitor."
Izuku swallows, legs trembling at staying upright so long. "But I've never even met you before."
"It is irrational," he agrees, still angry but now Izuku knows very little is directed at him. "As is your casual disregard for your personal health and safety. I do not claim to understand people well, but tell me, do you have any concept of the worth of your life?"
He stares at Tokoyami, wary of the earnestness in that gaze. And he knows that Tokoyami can never know of the depths he plundered to know about his quirk, can never know about the scar on his arm.
"Of course, I do," he says, voice cracking. It sounds like a lie to his ears.
A lie is a lie is a lie.
"I see…" Tokoyami exhales. Inhales deeply. Exhales again. His stance loosens just the slightest bit. "I will not ask you forgiveness for I very much doubt you can even recognise my fault. Instead, understand that so long as I live you will always have an ally in me."
Izuku wants to smile but he fears the pain that will come from it. "Does that make us friends?"
Tokoyami laughs. It is a quiet sound, the tiniest bit true joy but mostly bitterness. "If you so wish." He extends his hand. "Fumikage Tokoyami."
"Izuku Midoriya." He extends his hand. His legs betray him then and he stumbles forward. His eyes widen in anticipation of the pain.
Strong arms catch him. Tokoyami holds him gently, carefully, his gaze worried. Izuku flushes in embarrassment. And is forever thankful that the boy says nothing, instead, helping Izuku stand upright without a word.
He extends his elbow to Izuku, not looking at him. Izuku places his hand on it, grateful for the help. Because right now his legs are tired. He wonders how long he has until the pain starts as they walk, his cane an unwanted companion in this.
Step-step-tap. They walk at the pace Izuku sets, slow enough that he thinks Tokoyami secretly a saint for he never shows any irritation. Step-step-tap. They turn a corner.
"Can I ask you a question?"
Step-step-tap.
Tokoyami glances at him out of the corner of his eye. "You may."
Step-step-tap.
"Did you even go back to class after the trial was done?"
Step-step-tap.
"No."
Step-step-tap.
"So, you were out there for a few hours. Doesn't your neck hurt?"
Step-step-tap.
Tokoyami sighs. "It is a minor irritation. Do not worry about it. More worrisome are your cumulative injuries.
Ste-step-tap.
He is growing to hate the sound of the cane. Each tap is a reminder of weakness. And weakness is not something he can abide any longer. He knows what lurks in the darkness, knows the cost of weakness in a place where drowned gods can come back to life.
But right now, here in this moment, he can be weak if only for a moment.
A/N:
That's all from me for now. Thank you for reading this. If you enjoyed the story leave a favourite and if you have any questions just drop a review. But know all of that is unnecessary, and as always your readership is quite enough for me. Cheers.