AN: This chapter was reformatted on 9/26/2021.
This chapter was over two years old and was in need of some editing. If you are a prior reader, don't worry, the content is the same plot wise. I have just made corrections to character delivery and narrative voice. If any discrepancies strike your eye as a reader, please let me know and I will be sure to correct them.
Chisaki climbed the steps to the second story of her apartment building, trepidation knotting her guts with worry.
Oh god, her mom was so going to kill her!
She approached the door to their apartment with caution, hoping to whoever was listening that it was locked —that her mom was out working the late shift at the hospital!
They must have not been listening because the door turned easily under her grip and the door sprung open.
Chisaki's heart plummeted.
There, standing in the entryway, was her mother, Inko, a look of thorough disapproval and anger twisting her warm features. Her hands shook in anger as she clutched a phone in her hand.
"Where have you been Chisaki!" She exclaimed, furious, as she marched up to her daughter, "Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you? I've been worried sick!"
Chisaki curled in on herself, sheepish and apologetic. "I'm so sorry mom, I…um… fell asleep at the park." She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt nervously, deciding that that flimsy lie would have to work and went all in, "I decided to stop at the park on my way home and I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up, the sun was already setting and I ran here as soon as possible."
Inko narrowed her eyes, dubious. "Then what is that burn mark on your shoulder?"
Chisaki glanced at the offending burn mark in surprise.
What burn mark?
It was a relatively large, brown handprint shaped, singe on her white blouse. It must have been from Katchaan's antics at school… How had she almost forgotten about that?
It seemed like a lifetime ago.
"Oh, it's nothing, mom." Chisaki began with a dismissive wave as she moved past Inko and into the living room. "It's just from some play fighting at school. You know how Kachaan gets, always playing his practical jokes." She chuckled nervously and avoided her mom's eyes.
Her mom couldn't know about how Kachaan treated her. She'd been lying for so long now that it was second nature.
Inko sighed and released her death grip on her phone, setting it down on the living room table. "Fine, I'll let this one slide. I'm just glad that you're okay." She said, relaxing visibly. She gazed at her daughter for a moment with sad eyes.
"What's wrong mom?" Chisaki asked, concerned at the change.
"Nothing, honey…" She said evenly, her voice hollow. She shook her head after a moment, and she looked up to meet her daughter's eyes with a smile. "What do you want for dinner?" She asked, suddenly rather chipper, as she moved towards the kitchen. "I could make lasagna, or spaghetti, or chicken noodle soup. I know that its been getting rather cold lately and with the way you were sleeping outside, I wouldn't want you to get sick."
Chisaki took her mother's sudden change in stride; mentally filing it into her box of worries, for later inspection.
"I think that that chicken soup sounds good." She responded with a smile. "Do you want a hand making it? I've always wanted to learn how you make the best soup in the world."
Her mother gave a hearty laugh. "Of course, honey!" She exclaimed, happily. "The more the merrier."
An hour later the pair sat down at the dinner table, bowls of warm soup steaming alluringly.
"This looks so good!" Chisaki exclaimed.
"Well, it is the family recipe." Inko said with a bright smile, as she brought a spoonful to her lips. Chisaki took a mouthful of her own, ravenous. After a moment her eyes went wide with delight. "Oh my god! I think its even better than the usual!"
Her mother's smile widened. "It must be all the love you put into it."
"You mean, all the love that you put into it." Chisaki said back.
Her mother laughed and the two lapsed into a comfortable silence as they savored their soup.
After a moment, Chisaki noticed that her mother had stopped eating.
Inko's gaze had become unfocused for a moment as she stared at the wooden table listlessly.
"What's wrong mom?" Chisaki asked, setting down her spoon in concern.
Her mother looked up slowly, as if preparing herself to deliver grave news. "Honey, I got a promotion today." She said slowly, as if testing the words on her lips.
"That sounds great! I'm so happy for you." Chisaki exclaimed energetically, but seeing her mother's solemn demeanor, she grew hesitant. "That is a good thing, isn't it?"
Inko sighed. "I'm going to be working even more late nights at the hospital. So… I'll be out until nine, Monday through Thursday." She gave another sigh and began to finger her skirt nervously. "Earlier, I was talking to Mitsuki, Katsuki's mother. She said that the Bakugo's would be happy to have you over for dinner on Mondays and Wednesdays. For the first week or two, I'll be able to make you meals ahead of time and leave them for you in the fridge; but, beyond that, you'll have to fix yourself something." She paused for a moment, her gaze had gradually dropped back to the table, and she covered her face with her hands. "I feel like such a failure as a mother."
Chisaki's heart was in her throat. "Don't say that!" She exclaimed. "You're wonderful mom! You care so much about me and you're always working yourself to the bone. You can't beat yourself up about this."
Inko looked up from her hands, and Chisaki saw that there were tears in her eyes.
"You don't hate me?"
Chisaki's heart squeezed. She stood and moved around the table to wrap her arms around her mother.
"How could I hate you?" Chisaki whispered. "You're the best mom anyone could ask for."
Inko gave a sob and buried her face into her daughter's shoulder.
"You really mean that?"
"Of course, mom."
The woman began to cry, big tears of exhaustion and guilt soaking into her daughter's shirt.
An hour later, when Inko had gone to bed, Chisaki stood alone in the kitchen, washing the dishes. She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about her mother's breakdown.
On one hand, it was nice that she wasn't keeping her concerns bottled up. After all, she preferred this much more than her mother suffering in secret. On the other hand… Chisaki wasn't sure what to do with the information. Everything seemed to be crashing down today, with the UA applications, this whole villain thing with Sensei, and now her mother's anxiety.
Wait, hadn't Sensei given her a phone number to call. Where'd she put that paper?
Don't tell me I've lost it! She thought.
The bowl she'd been washing fell forgotten into the sink, and she hurried to dry her hands on her pants before running her hands through her pockets.
It took a whole gut wrenching minute of searching, but she found the page folded neatly in her back pocket.
She drew it out and unfolded it. Scrolled across the page in a slanted script was a string of numbers.
Chisaki flipped out her phone and quickly created a new contact, registering the phone number under the name 'bartender boy'. Sensei had said that this was a way to contact Kurogiri and since Kurogiri was dressed as a bartender…
She couldn't help but smile, it would be her little inside joke with herself. Almost as soon as she'd created the thing, she felt rather lame. Her inner critic cringed. No normal person would find a joke with themselves funny. But who cared? She was the only person seeing the dumb contact. She was going to enjoy her dumb joke whether it was cringey or not.
That night passed fitfully for Chisaki. While she had gotten to bed at the remarkably reasonable time of 9:30 pm, weird dreams plagued her. She was a toddler in one, playing with green slime, or in another she was looking in the mirror and watching as her face warped, scarred beyond recognition. By the time she rolled out of bed at a little past 7:00 am, she felt poorly rested and drained. On any normal day, Chisaki would have just gone back to sleep. But after her brain's pesky insistence on revisiting yesterday's troubles her bed had come to feel like a prison, and her stomach was notting with nerves and indecision. So she forced herself up and sat down at her computer. Immediately, she went to her open tabs, habit gripping her in search of the safe familiarity of the hero news sites.
"Come on," She muttered to herself. "Let there be something on here. Come on, I need something…" Like an addict, she knew only one way to put her head back on straight. She needed the comfort of the hero fights; of their victory. Then she found it, one of the sites had been pinged at 6:30. Kamui woods had been seen confronting a pair of violent bank robbers by the train station, and the situation had shown no signs of deescalating.
"Perfect!" Chisaki exclaimed, practically shooting out of her chair in excitement. She rushed to change out of her PJ's, grabbed her trusty notebook (For the Future: Hero Analysis #13), and sprinted out of her bedroom.
"Bye mom, I'll be right back." She exclaimed as she charged through the living room. "I'm just going down to the train station to check something out." She had to pause at the entree way, to pull her shoes on.
"Is it another one of those hero fights? You know how I feel about you going to those." Inko said disapprovingly from the couch.
Chisaki rolled her eyes and bounced excitedly, reaching for the door. "Don't worry mom, I'll be sure to be extra careful!" She called over her shoulder as she turned the handle.
And with that she shot out the door before her mother could protest further.
Chisaki sprinted the whole way to the train station, pushing her lungs and her legs to their limits.
Come on! She thought desperately as she ran. I just need a few seconds. Even if the fight is already ending, I just need to see some heroes in action!
When a throng appeared in view, Chisaki gave a gasp of delight. She dragged her feet to an inelegant, fumbling, stop and took the opportunity to finally catch her breath and admire the situation.
'Admire' was a strong word. Wonder turned to dread when she saw the damages.
Several buildings were on fire and two ambulances were parked only a few feet away, each surrounded by groups of frantic paramedics. A man on a stretcher lay to her left, Chisaki's stomach gave a nauseating flip when she saw that the man was bleeding from his head and his left arm was bent at an unnatural angle. A pair of paramedics quickly lifted him away.
The situation was obviously much more dire than the alert had suggested.
Chisaki tried to get a glance at the battle, hoping that maybe the situation was improving somewhat, but the group of people were pressed so close together that she couldn't get close.
When some firefighters —led by water hero Backdraft no less— showed up and needed to get by, the mob parted to let them pass and Chisaki got a brief glance at the situation.
Kamui Woods seemed injured, one of his arms hung limp at his side, and he was shooting branches at two men, who had taken refuge behind a capsized car. One of the two men either had a fire producing quirk or a weapon to produce flames, because fire shot out at the hero. Kamui moved back in an attempt to dodge-
Then the crowd began to close up again. Chisaki cursed under her breath and ran forwards, aiming to get into the center of the throng before the gap closed completely. She must have made it just in time, because she ran into someone and bodies were suddenly jostling her restlessly, pressing in on her. The whole situation was rather claustrophobic.
Now she could see even less of the fight, just the shirt of the guy in front of her and the arm of the dude next to her.
I need to push my way through! Chisaki thought decidedly. She began to shove her way through the gap between the people in front of her.
"Excuse me." Or "Sorry about this." She murmured in apology as she squeezed her way through the crowd. Chisaki gave one final shove and she was through, she took a deep breath of unoppressive air and observed the ongoing battle with mounting excitement.
Before her, the fight raged in favor of the villains. One of the villains, he looked to have a shark face for a head and held a gun that spewed flames, was still targeting the wounded Kamui Woods.
At first, the other villain was nowhere to be seen. Backdraft seemed to be attempting to aid Kamui in his struggle against the flamethrower and its wielder, but had to shift his attention when the second robber reappeared and began to throw chunks of rubble at him and the crowd.
Chisaki whipped out her notebook and began to scribble down notes as she observed the fight progress.
"The second robber's quirk must be something akin to super strength. The robber with the flamethrower has no discernable quirk, but seems to be winning purely because Kamui's wood is extremely weak to fire. If Backdraft and Kamui were to switch opponents, they would have a better chance of winning.
This situation highlights one of Kamui's major flaws as a hero, he has no way of fighting an opponent with access to fire. Also, he seems to have a problem with overreliance on his quirk, he isn't making any headway since his opponent just burns what he throws at them. If Kamui had some kind of gear or hand to hand combat skills to fight with, he would be doing much better. For now, it just looks like he plans to dodge and run until his opponent runs out of energy or incendiary solution. I'm just not sure if Kamui will be able to last that long.
Backdraft appears to be attempting to distract his opponent with shoots of water, in order to keep the crowd safe. He also seems to be trying to hit the fires when possible-"
"Hey, kid cut that out. Can't you see that this situation is serious." A man growled down at her in reproach.
She blinked in surprise at being interrupted in such a way. "Oh, I'm sorry sir. I didn't realize that I was bothering you."
"Bothering me? You're just downright creepy. You should be in a mental institution!"
Another voice came from behind her.
"Hey." Another man said. "Let the poor girl be, she's not hurting anyone. Besides, the heroes will figure things out, like they always do."
The grumpy man looked like he was about to say something when a thundering voice cut him off.
"Hello, dear citizens!" Came the call as a man soared above them, his hulking figure temporarily silhouetted as he blocked the sun.
This new hero landed in the street with a resounding crack, as the pavement shattered into a crater at the impact, and a cloud of dust enveloped the man.
Chisaki gasped. That figure, that voice, that flashy arrival….It couldn't be….but it had to be…it was him!
The dust began to clear in dramatic wisps, to reveal a blue and red, skin-tight, suit and a muscular form; accentuated by those two unmistakable, vertical pointing, blonde tufts of hair.
"Worry not, For I Am Here!"
And it was him,
"All Might." She said breathlessly. It was All Might, in the flesh. The Hero of Heroes himself stood before her.
The robbers and the heroes alike were frozen, the robbers in fear and the heroes in relief, while they caught their breath. Then Backdraft finally returned his attention towards the fires that raged along a pair of store fronts and that threatened to consume some of the surrounding buildings.
"Now then," All Might said in that carrying voice. "You two villains, I have a suggestion for you. Turn yourselves in to the authorities and no one here needs to get hurt."
The two villains shared a look, and Chisaki gave a guess on what they were thinking; something like, 'if we're going down anyways, let's go down fighting'. She must have been right, because one man sprayed fire with his flamethrower while the other threw a car at the newly arrived hero.
Both attempts at an attack were in vain, of course, but Chisaki had to give them props for their guts.
All Might made sure to stay out of reach of the gun and its spitting fire, and caught the flying car before carefully setting it down.
The villain with the super strength threw another chunk of concrete, this one with iron bars protruding from it. All Might caught the projectile and hurled it back at the man, who managed to dodge it by a hair's breadth.
"Come now, lads, do we really need to keep going like this?" All Might asked sympathetically. "I don't want to have to get serious here."
The villains, of course, didn't answer.
The great hero sighed. "All right then. But don't say I didn't warn you."
There was a flash of movement and All Might seemed to disappear for a split second, then he reappeared just behind the flamethrower wielding villain. All Might pulled his arm back and let loose a terrifying punch at the Villain's feet.
There was a sound, like the clap of thunder, and a wind so strong that it knocked the villain clean off his feet; Chisaki thought that she had even caught a little breeze from her position on the sidelines. She expected the villain to get back up, but he stayed down, immobile and unconscious.
With one of the villain's incapacitated, All Might turned to the other, the poor man was shaking as he stood only a few feet away, only now realizing the danger he had subjected himself to.
"You don't have to get hurt. You can still surrender." All Might said graciously.
The man nodded, "I-I surrender." He said shakily.
The police must have shown up at some point, because a handful of officers ran forward and proceeded to handcuff the villain who was still conscious, and picked up his comatose partner.
All Might turned to the crowd of onlookers, with his trademark smile shining brightly.
"Is everyone else alright?" He asked with his booming voice. "If any of you need medical attention the paramedics are just over there, please don't hesitate to see them. They'll take care of you."
Reporters began to break through the crowd and began to run towards him.
"All Might!" One of them called. And then another, "All Might!", and another, "All Might!", each clamoring for some exclusive insight from the Number 1 hero.
All Might smiled but didn't seem to quite respond to them. "Well, I apologize, but I have somewhere I need to be. I wish all of you a good day!"
With that he darted away, narrowly avoiding the advancing wave of eager reporters and journalists.
Chisaki watched him soar through the air and land with a stumble at the end of the block. Meanwhile the reporters flocked to Backdraft, who had finished putting out the fires, and the crowd of onlookers began to disperse.
Why is All Might in such a hurry? She thought in bewilderment. Then something occurred to her as she looked down at her notebook. Oh! She should follow him and see if she could get his autograph! This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, after all, and she might never get this close to All Might in person again!
Chisaki sprinted her way down the pavement and around firefighters, onlookers, and paramedics. Chisaki watched in slow motion as her hero turned the corner with a concerned glance over his shoulder.
No, no, no. Wait All Might, don't go! I need to get your autograph!
She turned the corner. There he was, turning another corner, she noticed that he looked rather distressed. But surely it was nothing. This was All Might after all. He had nothing to be distressed over.
But that was an odd place to be going.
Chisaki knew that corner, that was a dead-end alleyway. All Might would have nowhere to go.
That was perfect! She could corner him!
I'm going to meet All Might. I'm going to meet All Might. I'm Going to Meet All Might!
She was almost there now. She sped up.
She turned the corner and almost shouted in alarm, she must have taken that corner too fast because she lost her footing and went flying to the side. Chisaki only got a glimpse of the alleyway before she crashed into a pile of trash bags.
That was real elegant, Chisaki. Now All Might's totally going to want to talk to you, now that you've proven yourself to be a bumbling fool. And now you smell like trash.
She gave a grown and rubbed her bruised tail-bone.
"Are you okay?" A raspy voice asked her.
Chisaki looked up in surprise. The man who stood before her was almost skeletal, thin with unhealthily protruding cheekbones, with shaggy blond hair that stuck out awkwardly around his head. He seemed to be clutching his abdomen below his baggy white shirt, as if in pain. His small blue eyes watched her with an honest concern and were focused on her expectantly.
"Oh- um, I'm fine." She sputtered nervously, her gaze moving behind the man as she scanned her surroundings for All Might's hulking figure.
"I'm glad to hear that." The man said with a smile.
"Thank you for your concern." Chisaki said absentmindedly. "But, by any chance, have you seen All Might? I'm sure that I saw him pass through here."
The man's smile dropped an inch and she could see some worry in his eye. "Um, All Might? No, I haven't seen him…I'm definitely not him? Or related to him in any way?" The man said with a nervous laugh.
Okay, that was kind of suspicious and way out of left field. She hadn't asked about him being All Might. Which lead her to believe that… —No. This guy can't be All Might… I mean, how? All Might was definitely, certainly, irrefutably the number one hero with a silhouette that she would know anywhere. He was well built, healthy, strong enough to take on the strongest villains. And this guy? This guy looked like he could break in two if you so much as nudged him wrong!
"Sure…" Chisaki said awkwardly as she ran her eyes over the alley again. Everything looked normal, just a bunch of trash and stray garbage—
There was a suspicious splash of colorful fabric poking out between a bit of trash in the corner of the alleyway.
"What's that?" She asked, getting up and stumbling towards that bit of fabric. It was blue. Just like All Might's uniform.
"Oh, that's nothing. Totally not related to All Might!" The strange man exclaimed, waving his hands in a panicked frenzy.
Chisaki passed him, focused entirely on her new target of interest. She reached down and pulled that bit of material, gingerly. Soon, she was holding a complete All Might suit.
She turned to the man, perplexed. "What the hell?" She asked, looking between the weak little man and the suit All Might always wore. She ran her fingers over it, it wasn't a cheap reproduction.
"Please give that to me, young lady." The the distress was evident in his eyes but there was a polite forcefulness to his words.
Chisaki's brain worked, connecting outlandish dot to outlandish dot.
All Might had disappeared…This shady guy was the only one here…He'd acted strangely when she'd mentioned All Might…He had All Might's costume…this man even shared some, hazy, physical characteristics with All Might; the blond hair, blue eyes, even that serious tone reminded her of All Might.
Chisaki took a deep breath as dread settled in her stomach. She locked eyes with the strange man, "Tell me something. And please, I just— I need a straight answer. Are you… All Might?"
The laughed nervously, wringing his hands and staring off, "Me? All Might? No, there's no way—" His lungs seized and he doubled over in a fit of wracking coughs. Flecks of something red splattered across his lips.
"Are you okay?" Chisaki asked, alarmed. Was that blood? Should she call an ambulance?
"I-" Cough "-I'm fine, this is…normal." He said shakily, as he wiped away the blood with the back of his hand.
A silence fell between them. Chisaki watched the man wearily, worried that he might go back to coughing up blood. He, meanwhile, pressed his lips thoughtfully, eyes on the sky, before he took a deep breath.
"My name is Toshinori Yagi." The man began in a decidedly calm tone. "I am All Might."
Chisaki blinked. Her breath caught in her throat. She felt her knees go weak, and she fell back against the wall, the empty uniform clutched like a lifeline in her hands.
"All Might? You? I— I don't understand. But how? I just saw you stop those villains. You were fine! You were normal!"
"I understand that this might be difficult for you." Toshinori began calmly. "But you seem like a sensible young woman, and I…. well even I need to tell someone the truth every once and a while."
Chisaki could only watch in horror as he lifted the corner of his baggy shirt, to reveal a crater-like wound on his abdomen.
"This," He began, "Is is a wound that I have had since seven years ago. I fought a terrifying villain, and while I managed to subdue them they still managed to get me pretty good. Even after multiple surgeries my internal organs are still… well I've been told that they will never recover. When I was told this, I was also told to quit hero work all together. But how could I when so many people needed me. So, here I am. Still showing up to fight while I can. I'm on a time limit these days, so I can only maintain the appearance that you call 'normal' for a few hours a day. When that time is up I return to looking like this."
The number one hero —her hero!— was just a weak, wounded man?
Chisaki could only stare at him.
Her biggest hero, the person who she had aspired to be, he… he wasn't not omnipotent…he was human…yeah. That— that was rational. Right? I mean it was unreasonable to expect him to never get injured or anything… But she just— she wasn't expecting this…
"Very few people know about my condition. As I'm sure you can imagine, knowledge like this is quite dangerous. So, I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't share it with others." Toshinori said slowly, watching the girl across from him inquisitively.
Chisaki nodded slowly, still trying to take in what this revelation really meant.
"How-" She took a deep breath and steadied herself. "Okay. How does no one know about this yet? That All Might, the number one hero, is so injured that he's coughing up blood?"
Toshinori gave her a small, sad, smile. "Well I asked that my condition not be made public… I want people to feel safe! If the people know that their Symbol of Peace is just as mortal as them, they'll feel vulnerable and defenseless. I want to bring people a sense of security."
"Is that why you're still a hero, even though you're so hurt?" Chisaki asked, meeting his eyes with a quiet boldness.
"Exactly!" He said, his smile widening. "As a hero, it is my duty to the people to smile and fearlessly defend them."
Something that Sensei had said gnawed at her. He had mentioned something; "hero's are just smiling for the camera"…. Judging from Tohsinori's account, that held water. All Might the hero was nothing more than a facade. Fuck.
She couldn't help but feel betrayed, but this weak man in front of her, was he really to blame for lying? … The people, the hero system, needed him to put on that facade just to preserve their lie of safety. It had made people like Kachaan kings. It had pushed her under their heel. She had simply drawn the short end of the stick.
The realization twisted in her chest. It pounded in her ears. It repeated in her brain like shards of glass. She needed to talk about this with someone. She couldn't hold it in.
Sensei. Sensei would understand—
"Well," Not All Might was talking again and it pierced her ringing mind. "if you'll excuse me, um…Oh, I'm sorry, I never caught your name." He said politely.
Chisaki sighed and mustered a shaky smile for her fallen idol. "Chisaki Midoriya." Her voice felt heavy as she heaved it from her lungs and it barely cleared the lump in her throat. "My name is Chisaki Midoriya."
He stepped forwards with a smile, oblivious to her inner turmoil. "Well, it has been a pleasure young Midoriya, but I have somewhere I need to be." He reached for her hands, for the suit that sagged, hollow, in her hands. She let him take it. "Thank you once again. Stay safe out there." Toshinori said with a friendly wave, before he turned and stepped out into the street. She blinked and he was gone.
She stared after him in quiet, earth shattered, grief. The alley felt empty without him there to torment her.
The knowledge of the truth weighed heavy on her mind. The air felt thick in her lungs. Her notebook hung empty in her hands.
She had forgotten the autograph.
She sighed and stared down at the tattered, singed, pages in defeat.
It probably wasn't worth it anyway.
Maybe she should have asked him if she could be a hero…
Chisaki trudged homewards in a haze of distress. What was she supposed to do now?
Everything was different.
She didn't want to go home. She didn't want to face her mom. She'd ask questions. She wouldn't understand the answers.
She needed someone who would understand. Sensei. She had Kurogiri's number. She could call him. See if he could bring her back to talk to Sensei.
She pulled out her phone and called the number under the contact "bartender boy". She felt her spirits lift a bit when she saw the contact name. Awww, good old personal jokes…
He picked up almost immediately. "Hello?"
"Hey Kurogiri, it's me Chisaki." It took every last shred of energy to actually make her voice come out. "Is there any way that I could talk to Sensei today? I know that you guys are probably busy, with your um…. villain stuff. But I have something that I really need to talk to him about."
There was a pause. It was just for a second but it was enough for her words to hit her. She was actually asking a villain to take her to his boss, as if she were asking a teacher about an essay she'd submitted. Fuck.
"If it's that important, I can pick you up at four. Would the same park as yesterday work alright?"
"Y- Yes! Thank you. That would be great!"
"Good to hear. I will see you then."
She breathed a sigh of relief.
"See you then."
There was a click as he hung up, and Chisaki was left alone with her thoughts, thoughts that suddenly sent her legs shaking.
