Glynda scrunched her eyes as she looked over the paper in her left hand, tapping her fingers as her eyes moved back and forth along the paper. On the other side of her desk, Toshinori sweated, nervously shifting his jaw back and forth, trying to not look her directly in the eye when she stopped, looked up and glared.
"Really Toshi," if Toshinori actually had the spine to look her in the eye, he guessed that her eyebrow would be half way up her forehead, "This is the hundredth time we've gone over this. There is no mention of time tables, no explicit measurement of how grades are handed out, not even a backup plan for if you have an emergency elsewhe-uh," she then looked right at him, her arms folded across her chest, "Have you even paid attention to me the past few months?"
Toshinori had spent those past few months alternating between training Young Midoriya to eventually take on the power of One for All, and working with Glynda to get accredited to become a teacher at Beacon. For all that he was the Symbol of Peace, Toshinori had never really understood all that went into the process of becoming a teacher, and these past few months had driven into him just how difficult a profession it could be. Even if a good portion of that was due to the fact that he needed it to get approval by the Council of Vale, an organization that...was not fully on board with him spending his time at Beacon. They were simply adding more problems for him to deal with alongside all the actual useful stuff he was having to learn to be a teacher.
The Council had never really appreciated Beacon, and had long attempted to slowly...circumvent Ozpin and his methods. That's not to say that they might not have a point about not being overly reliant on an enigmatic school master who sits in a white castle, a literal ivory tower, but at the same time that often lead them to disregarding Ozpin when perhaps they should not. That was on top of Toshinori being, in their collective mind at least, the main form of defense of Mountain Glenn, and thus moving him a great distance just to teach in his off time seemed...foolish.
Eventually, they allowed Toshinori to teach, but on the condition that he passed his teacher's exam, and became accredited. Now, that seemed all very reasonable, everyone needs to be accredited, right...well no. The accreditation process and test had long been seen as restrictive and outdated a system, and most simply ignored it. It was so ignored in fact, that only one member of Beacon's staff had been accredited.
That of course was Glynda Goodwitch. So, in order to get Toshinori his position as a teacher, Ozpin had assigned Glynda as Toshinori's tutor. Thus, Glynda had set to work, teaching about protocol, arranging lesson plans, and generally getting his ass up to speed.
Glynda rubbed her eyes, her glasses moving up and down corresponding to her motion. She looked back at Toshinori, who shrugged his shoulders.
"Look Glynda, this isn't what I'm good at. I've really been trying to do well, but some of this stuff...wouldn't it be better to focus on my strengths, and then do well enough on that that I get my 60 points from that, rather than trying things I'm probably never going to get."
"No!" a riding crop slammed into the table, "We don't know what proportion of this test will fit your strengths and which won't," she adjusted her glasses, "Though I must admit, I'm surprised how well you do on socializing properly with your students. Inspiring growth, athletic training, those I get, but that one is rather hard for someone your age."
"Glynda...," Toshinori stopped himself from continuing that line of thought, recognizing that last comment might not actually that smart to prick her on, "I, well when I met the kid, I just...I felt like I had to do my best to work with him."
Glynda sighed, before looking Toshinori directly in the eye.
"This kid means a lot to you huh."
"You bet Glyn."
"...So," Glynda pulled out a drawer, and removed two small glasses, and place one in front of Toshinori, and one in front of her. She then pulled out a large crystal bottle, half way filled with an amber liquid. Toshinori's hollow eyes widened.
"Want to talk about it?"
"That Mistral Brandy?"
"My special order, get one delivered each month," she then adopted an almost dead look in her eye as she popped the bottle open, "I have never had any left over by the next delivery."
"Isn't that stuff pretty expensive?"
"Eh," Glynda poured out some liquid into Toshinori's glass first, and then into her own. She picked up her glass, and stared at it for a second, "With how big Beacon's budget is, and how much my colleagues spend on coffee," Toshinori coughed, those coffee jokes from back when they were students were true? "I think I can treat myself a bit," and then, with one quick motion, she tossed her head back and downed the liquid in one gulp.
Toshinori felt sweat bead on the back of his head, before finally chuckling, "Nemuri has been a bad influence on you, huh?"
"Ha," Glynda laughed, beginning to refill her glass, "She's probably my best friend, she and I have a girl's night out at least once a week," she leaned in toward Toshinori, "The poor woman is still upset that's she's past her thirtieth birthday. Complained to me about it basically every day."
"I looked over her file," Toshinori had looked over the files of every faculty member, "Isn't she almost 32 by now?"
"Yeah," Glynda rolled her eyes, "she's been a bit...obsessed."
"Riiiiiiiight," Toshinori nodded, "any way, about Midoriya," he took back his glass and took a sip, "So I was in Mountain Glenn about a year ago, thought, hey, might as well visit the place that is filled with statues of me, and then I find this Ursa in the city. Now, no problem, small creature, take it out quickly. I lay the smack down on this thing, as it has this kid cornered, and then wham, smack it across the road, heard it collide with the wall, thought it was dead. Really should have check, but standing in front of me, was this kid."
"This little stick nerd, with wild hair and shaking shoulders. I looked down at his book, sign it of course, because I never mind making collector's items, and then this nerd finally gets some steel in his spine, and then asks me to give him an autograph, opens up the book that he had, and then freaks out when he sees my big old Hancock right there," He threw his arms out, and began to laugh, "And he starts bowing. Bowing to me, I mean it's just so awesome. I love it," he looked her in the eye, "Seeing a kid so happy just being there with me for a second, my day had already been made. And I mean it just got better from there."
Glynda had stopped listening. Not because she wasn't interested, because she was interested in all of her students. Not because she was drunk...no, no...she had once drunk Qrow under the table. No, because she saw something she hadn't seen in a decade.
Toshinori had smiled.
Not his Bright Shine Smile that was on all the posters, the one to make the public go crazy. But his real smile. The one he had given when Nana had complimented him during training. The one he had when EGNT went out for pizza night. The one that he had shown when he had finally accepted Enji as the team leader. The one he had when the two had worked long nights on Toshinori's training, him tearing every muscle and ligament in his limbs, and her grumbling as she stitched them back together.
She couldn't remember the last time she had seen it, but she could remember when she had thought it had died.
"Toshinori what happened to you!?"
"I got him," all his teeth were shining, but his eyes were filled with nothing but sadness and anger, a hold through his chest where his stomach had been "I got that bastard."
"Someone get him on a bed. I'm not sure if my semblance can fix him."
"I got him. I got him."
"I know, I know," she place her hand on his chest. It was cold as ice.
"I got him. I got him."
She had thought he had been dead. That his body had simply been driven by some fractured piece of his soul stubbornly hanging on. He had been alive of course, but that had been the last time that the Toshinori she knew, the lovable idiot, had been seen.
And now, as he talked about some little broken kid from Mountain Glenn, that wonderful, stupid boy was in front of her once more. She felt the sides of her mouth turn upward, as Toshinori finished up his story.
"So after telling this kid that he could be a hero, and being about to compliment him on the size of his balls," Toshinori's face had become red with a blush. He had always been a bit of a lightweight, "He starts crying. Like dude, you just made yourself look so awesome and you go and act that lame just because someone says something to you, I mean jeez."
"Sounds like a great kid," she offered, before pouring Toshinori another glass.
"Oh, you bet," he laughed, his true smile mixing with his public, forming something that for a second, she found truly beautiful, "This kid man, this kid. He's going the be the greatest hero the world's ever seen."
"What are you two doing here?"
Ruby turned her head to the very familiar voice, and saw her partner in a tank top and workout shorts. He was scowling, though Ruby could tell it was a "Got up in the morning" scowl rather than, "FUDGE YOU DEKU!" Scowl. That she could now categorize his different levels of pissed-ness was proof that she was developing as a leader.
It was also slightly worrying all things considered, but hey, every one develops at their own pace.
"He-ey Kaach-an," Ruby wheezed, placing her bar down in front of her. She coughed for a second, as Tsuyu patted her back, no where nearly as sweaty as she was, "Tsu and I-we were doing cleans today."
"Ch," Bakugo turned on his heal, and headed towards a nearby punching bag, "I've got the punching bag for the next ten minutes. After that, I'm doing cleans."
"Don't worry," Ruby waved him off, Tsu just staring at her, "We just finished our last set, we'll get out of your way."
Bakugo didn't say anything, continuing to walk towards the large sand bag. Tsuyu looked the old thing over, and suddenly almost felt bad for the inanimate object. Thing probably wasn't ready for the bad case of explosions it was about to go through.
"You're getting better," she added out loud, which caused Ruby to look at her. Tsuyu smiled, and then looked back at the retreating form of Bakugo, "Not just the weights. But I can already tell that you have done a good job in getting that...Bakugo to actually be a better person. That's the first time I've seen him in a conversation that didn't involve copious amounts of swearing."
"Really, it's still a challenge," Ruby looked down, not defeated but clearly exhausted, "I mean, he's a wiz at combat. And he has listened to me ever since I beat him in the match. Heck, he's actually gotten better since Deku beat him. But still...in some ways I wonder if Kacchan may actually be more antisocial than Deku."
"That does make sense," Tsuyu nodded, placing her finger on her chin, "For all of Izuku's nervous habits, Ribbit, he seems to put others before himself, and is actually willing to work with others. Kacchan is so self absorbed that he can't really work well with others."
"...I'm not really sure it's self absorption," Ruby admitted, as the two walked over to a set of treadmills. The three were pretty much the only ones in the entire facility, so they were able to continue talking as they began to hear the tale tell sounds of knuckle colliding with leather and sand. Ruby continued as she started the machine, "It's more like...too high a standard."
Tsuyu stared at her for a moment. The machines had started up slowly, and the two began to lightly jog as the speed approached four miles per hour.
"I mean, he thinks that everyone should be really, really strong. But well," She tried to think of the correct way to say this, "He thinks that he isn't really, really strong yet."
PLASSH-CHING!
The two stopped when they heard a chain break, and a litany of curses carry across the weight room. Tsuyu looked over, and saw the punching bag had been knocked off of the hooks, and Bakugo was pissed at his set being disrupted. She could also see a hole where the sand that was inside the punching bag began to flow out from. Tsuyu then looked back at her mentee and raised an eyebrow.
"Really."
"Yeah," Ruby nodded, picking up her pace as the speed of the treadmill increased, "He wants to be the greatest hero ever. The strongest. The one that beats up all the bad guys and slays every last Grim in all of Remnant."
"But that's the same dream that both Izuku and you have," Tsuyu was keeping pace with the younger girl. She would normal go on all fours for her maximum speed, but right now it was more conducive to conversation that she remained upright. Ruby nodded, and then Tsuyu asked, "So then, what differentiates you two from Bakugo?"
"Well, if Bakugo wants to be the strongest hero. Izuku wants to be the hero that saves people. To him, it is taking care of those who need his aid, that's what he finds fulfilling. I think he may just have a bit of a hero complex."
"You don't say," she looked on, a slight pink appearing on her cheeks, though Ruby thought the workout was finally starting to affect her, "So what about you. You're competing with them, why do you want to become the greatest hunter."
"That's...you're going to think this is silly."
"Come on, Ribbit, tell me."
"I want to be the best hero so I can inspire people," her hands clenched, and the arcs of her arms swung slightly higher, "I want to be the one who gets kids dreaming that they can be a hunter too. To be the one who everyone dresses up as for the Long Night to scare the Grimm away. To be the hero who most shows others what it means to be one," her gait had increased substantially.
"Why is that?"
"Because," Ruby seemed to almost slip, but caught herself, and then placed her feet on the non-moving sides of the machine, "Because I think that's what my Mother would want."
Tsuyu repeated Ruby's movement, and then began to walk off the machine. She placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder, and walked her toward the locker room. Bakugo had just finished up the punching bag, and walked over to the clean board, and was oblivious as the two walked out of the weight room. Tsuyu closed the door behind her, found the nearest clear metal bench, and sat Ruby down next to her.
"My Mom," Ruby continued, tears having started to form on the bottom half of her eye, "She was the greatest of her generation. My Dad and Yang and Uncle Qrow are always talking about how great she was, how fast how strong, how good with people. I...I," she swallowed hard, "I am supposed to look just like her. And more than anything, I wanted to be like her."
"That's why I wanted to become a hunter, that's why I got into weapons so early, that's why I worked every day to become the best in my class," she scrunched up the fabric of her shorts in her fists, "I wouldn't be here right now, if it wasn't for her. Her image that I have always been chasing."
"Sounds a little like Izuku, Ribbit," Ruby chuckled a bit, wiping away her tears, "He's chasing Toshinori, wanting to be the most like him."
"I guess so," Ruby looked down again, "But the thing is...not everyone has someone like my Mom, or Toshinori," she shook her head, "I look at Yang sometimes, and you know what, she is stronger than me," Tsuyu nodded, "If she really put her mind to it, she would be the strongest to ever live. But she doesn't. And I think, "Maybe she doesn't see Summer Rose the same way I do. Maybe she just sees the best Mom she could ever ask for, and not the image of inspiration I need to chase.""
"You may be selling your sister a bit short," Tsuyu cut in, "She has certainly seemed to follow your mother's example in raising you. She isn't the natural sort to become an expert in cooking, but she took that on probably because Summer Rose inspired her to be that way."
"That...is true," Ruby nodded in admission ",But still, I just feel like she just never had the drive to become the best hunter ever, even though I know she could. She didn't have that idol to work towards."
"So," she smiled, "I'm going to be that idol for everyone who needs it. I'm going to drive them forward, so that everyone will say, "I just have to work harder, and the world will be a better place,"" she then stopped, and rubbed the back of her head, "Sorry, that seems a bit silly, huh Tsu."
"Not at all," Tsuyu nodded, smiling, "That's a great reason to want be the best, Ribbit," she then clasped the younger girl's hand in her own, and smiled, "And I am going to help you in whatever way I can."
Ruby smiled back. Maybe Yang had been right about making friends with older kids. You just had to put your right foot forward, and show them who you really were.
"Why are we up so early again?"
Taiyang groaned as he looked back at his two compatriots in suffering, the Branwen twins hair both equally messy. He glared at them, before he was pushed aside by a small but forceful push. As he flew to the ground, he saw the form of his leader, currently about to explode with excitement as she ran up to the two groggy siblings
"Because Toshinori is going to be appearing at the Garden in Vale in three hours," Summer then reached into her white cloak, and pulled out four tickets, "and I got tickets. We have to hurry, people are going to start filling up the seats."
Both the Branwen's groaned, though Qrow was far more dejected than his sister. Raven rubbed her temples, and then looked the slighter girl in the eye.
"Listen, Summer," she brushed her hair out of her face, "I get that you got a crush on this To-"
"It's not a crush," she then turned around, and stared off with stars in her eye, "It's true love!"
"Riiiiiiight," Raven rolled her eyes, while suddenly Qrow pulled out his "Special" flask and downed quite a bit of "Coffee", "I get that you think really highly of the guy-"
"Have you seen that video!"
"Yes, you've sho-"
"Never fear! For I am HERE!" Summer shouted, likely waking up half the floor. She placed one hand over her head, and the other on her side, mimicking the motion that Toshinori had had when he had saved Mountain Glenn. She then opened her mouth wide, "HA HA HA HA!" and laughed so hard that she had ensured that the entire floor, as well as the one above them and the one below them. Taiyang groaned as he pulled himself to his feet.
"Look," he finally offered to the small girl, who turned her attention back to him, stars shooting across her pupils, "Let's just go and get this guys autograph. I'm sure you'll sign it if we can get there."
Both the twins groaned, with Qrow giving they blonde a look of betrayal. But Taiyang knew that there was no escaping this, and wanted to get out of there before-
SLAM!
-a frazzled looking blonde woman appeared in the doorway, hairs all out of place and fire in her eyes. She looked at them with such fury that Taiyang was quite sure that even a Grimm would fall back in fear.
"Ms. Rose," anger bubbled, "I hope you have an explanation for waking up all of Beacon at 5:15 in the morning?"
"I have very good explanation," Summer nodded her head...
...And then a split second later had made a 180 and had somehow thrown herself out the window. Her three team members and their angry teacher just stood in place for a moment, utterly flabbergasted.
"You'll never take me alive!" they heard called from the window, and Summer's teammates turned to see a deep red starting to climb up Glynda's face. Deciding discretion was the greater part of valor, the three followed their leader in their defenestration, and managed to book it to her before Glynda could even move. As they all broke out in a sprint towards the garage and Taiyang's car, the heard a scream that somehow traveled over a square mile. Summer's three teammates looked at their leader, who shrugged while she ran.
"If she didn't want people to wake others up, then she should set a better example."
"Sometimes," Raven slapped her forehead, "I wonder what it says about us that despite this, you are still clearly the "Good One"."
xXxXxXxXxXx
"Well, what do you know," Raven observed, whistling in surprise, "it actually might have been a good idea to get here early."
They had arrived thirty minutes after their escape, and already there had been a line forming. They had officially been let in at 7, with an hour and a half to find their place. And by the time that they were let in, there were hundreds of people in the audience. Young kids with giant posters, older adults sitting thoughtfully in the back row, and well...
"WE LOVE YOU TOSHINORI!"
...fan girls. Of whom Summer was the loudest, and the closest to the metal bars that separated the garden stage from the audience, which was standing room only. On her head, sat a hat with two golden antennae standing up, which all three of her teammates had though she was stupid to pay money for. She then pointed out that they were surrounded by a sea of the antennae. To which the three agreed only probed that people were quite easily parted with their money.
"Two minutes...two minutes..."
"So," Raven looked back at Taiyang, "Bet you fifty the instant the big guy gets here, she faints and we have to carry her out of here."
"I'll take that-OOF"
Both of them fell to the ground, as without turning around, Summer had punched them both directly in the gut. Qrow winced, before attempting to take another swig from his flask, only to curse under his breath as he felt no more liquid come out.
"Gonna have to sneak into Glynda's office again," he muttered, looking up for a second, "Better wait a week, maybe let her kill Tai fir-OOF"
And then he also found himself on the ground, though this came from Taiyang's fist colliding with his stomach. The two glared at one another, but before they could start arguing, the lights went out. Suddenly, spotlights began to shine down from the towers surrounding the garden, and then, suddenly an explosion of force emerged as something landed in the center of the room.
"Do not worry concerned citizens, FOR I AM HERE!" Suddenly, a figure stood up, and then placed his hands on his hips proudly. Two truly large pieces of hair stuck meters into the air over a large muscular man wearing a gaudy mix of red, blue, white and gold. A smile that was pure shining ivory adorned his face, and everyone in the room had to cover their face. Raven stood in awe for a second before whistling.
"Hey, maybe Summer isn't as crazy as she seems," she let out a low growl, "Guys got muscles you could grind meat on."
"You see it too!" Summer shouted, before suddenly pulling out a second hat, "Now if you would just pu-"
"No."
"It is truly great to see you all here!" Toshinori continued. He waved his arm at the gathered crowd, which was cheering very loudly, "Remember, your good feelings are key to the good of all of humanity. It saps our enemies of their strength. By doing your best to care for each other, and find good in life, you are just as great a set of heroes as I could ever be!"
The crowd roared. Hats began to be flung into the air, as the cheering grew louder. Even the three unwilling huntsman in training started to feel it, there was some kind of raw charisma behind the giant standing before them, and it felt like something truly special was occurring.
BANG!
And then a shot went off. One of the security guards had raised his pistol to the ground, and fired into the air. The shot caused the crowd to grow quiet, and suddenly every security guard in the room raised their weapons as well. The man who fired walked calmly up to Toshinori, and placed his gun in his face. While the crowd grew nervous, Toshinori never stopped smiling, which actually caused some of the other weapon wielders to look around nervously.
"Excuse me," Toshinori asked, "What do you think you are doing?"
"Shut it," the man declared, putting the gun in Toshinori's face, "One more word and I'll have the boys take a few of your fans out."
Toshinori stopped, and then looked the gunman directly in the eye, "Don't you mean you'll blow my brains out."
"Nah, ya see," the man gained a rather large smile, "That's actually the goal here. I know that you could dodge my bullets or tank every single shot in this here pistol of mine. So, if I am trying to kill you that presents a conundrum," with his free hand, he began to rub his chin, "How am I supposed to kill some near invincible showboating dumbass if he can stop my bullets. Answer," he pointed his free hand at Toshinori's face, "I make him take it. So here's the deal. You lower your aura, and let this bullet kill you. Then nothing happens to the hostages, and we walk out of here happy. If not, well...I got ten guys here armed with enough firepower to put casualties in the dozens. So, why don't you just lower your aura, and we can all go our separate ways."
"Heh," Toshinori chuckled, looking over his assailant's shoulder, "I really don't think that would be a good idea for two reasons."
"Humor me," the trigger cocked.
"Well first," a bit of distaste appeared on Toshinori's features, "You all clearly aren't security, so if I had to guess, you have already committed several murders to get this far."
"You have a point," the man raised his arm, "Blow um to pieces boys."
Nothing happened. There was not gunfire, not screams, nothing. A second later, the man heard a clatter of something land behind him, and felt sweat begin to drip down his face.
"The second reason that would be a bad idea is that those ten men have already been taken care of."
The man turned, and his eyes widened when he saw what was in front of him. There stood a rather petite woman, with a long white cloak, a black dress and black hair highlighted by cherry red. Beneath her were the ten rifles of his comrades, scattered around in a heap. Behind her, he saw his men in a similar fashion, with three other figures standing above them, all looking only mildly off put by the situation.
"You bastard," he returned his attention back to the girl in front of him, and the look of fury in her eyes, "You messed up my CONVENTION!"
Before he could even register what was going on, the man felt his nose cave in. His last question, as he drifted into the realm of unconsciousness, was how the hell something so small could pack such a wallop.
xXxXxXxXxXx
"Thank you very much concerned citizens," Toshinori gave a thumbs up to the four as he tithed them all up in rope. They had come outside, since Toshinori needed to allow the crowd to breath after the incident, "You helped a lot in preventing any unnecessary injuries. I could not have done this without you."
"Ah...ah...ah," the smallest of the four continued to stare up at him completely flabbergasted, though the others only seemed to be mildly blushing in embarrassment.
"As shucks," Taiyang rubbed the back of his head, "We're just glad to help."
"Could I get all your names?"
"Oh right," Taiyang placed his hand on his chest, "My name is Taiyang Xiao Long."
"Qrow Branwen," Qrow nodded, even he was mildly taken aback by the stature of the man in front of him. Maybe this whole thing had been worth the loss of his alcohol.
"Raven Branwen," the taller girl smirked as she looked him over more closely. Ah, he knew that look, those admiring One For All's great physique. He could not blame them. After all, these muscles had been passed down from one user to the next for generations.
"..." the fourth remained completely flabbergasted, unable to really process what was going on. Raven then elbowed her, causing her to respond, "Su-summer Rose."
"Xiao Long, Branwen, Rose," Toshinori nodded, finishing tying the captured terrorists to his waist, "I'll remember those names. I'm sure each and every one of you will be truly great heroes," all four of them suddenly took a step back. There was something so...affirming about being told that by a man like this.
"Now, if you will all excuse me," he turned around, back towards center city, "I will have to deliver these ne'er-do-wells to the police. It will take a few hours, but don't worry, you all will have free access to tomorrow's show," the crowd cheered again, and just before he took off, Toshinori raised his fist to the sky, "Now remember what I say. Feel good about your friends and neighbors, seek the betterment of all people, and GO BEYOND! PLUS ULTRA!"
And then he took off, flying through the air, followed by the screams of the captured criminals. For a few seconds, everyone just stood there, before suddenly the whole crowd broke out into a roar. Summer turned back, and looked happily at her compatriots, and then sadly Qrow sighed.
"Okay fine," Qrow nodded, "We can come back tomorrow."
xXxXxXxXxXx
They did not make it back the next day.
In retrospect, perhaps returning to Beacon had not been the wisest move. By the time they had arrived, Glynda had gathered the whole of the faculty together, and was preparing to throw the book at team STQR. Luckily, Ozpin had stepped in, and reminded Glynda that she had actually been the one to cause a bigger disruption than the four of them. Though this had almost caused the young woman to punch his lights out, expulsion was quickly off the table, as was suspension.
Instead, for the next day, the team would have to simply spend time with Glynda washing all the windows in Beacon castle. Without their semblances. IT had started at the crack of dawn, and ended well into the night. By the time they had returned back to their dorm room, each of them was exhausted. But of them all, Summer was truly dejected.
"I know this is my fault," she groaned, falling down onto her bed, "If I had just kept quiet, none of this would have happened, and I could really get a chance to meet Toshinori."
The other looked at her sadly. She had taken the punishment as well as they could expect her to, but even they acknowledged that she had been the one to be most hurt by it. She then grabbed onto her Toshinori Antenna cap, and looked it over, tears welling up, only for suddenly, as she looked inside the cap, her mouth popped open.
"Ah," she began, mouthing out nonsense, "ha...ha...hahahahahah,!"
She then flipped the cap around until the inside was facing them. And on the inside the cap read...
TOSHINORI YAGI
"He signed my cap!" Summer yelled, waving it around in the air, "He really signed my cap!" She then threw her hands in the air, "HE'S THE BEST HERO EVER!"
E/N: This chapter of TOB has a... Let's call it a thing. A thing that wind should be able to explain.
-Shovern
Wow...three of mine. I think this might be one of the two that are just going to be stuff I wrote, though that other one will probably just be one story rather than three, mildly related stories. Which is strange, because I didn't write these as three related stories, but I guess they work really well together. The theme for these three is Toshinori and the Roses and I might as well talk about it.
The first one was actually something of an attempt to get Toshinori and the adults more screen time. I thought it might be fun to explore the relationship between Glynda and Toshinori more, seeing as they are old teammates in this story, and are the two most active members of that team in the story, and thus probably have a bunch of history, both good and bad. Glynda sort of ended up representing the one person, who actually remembers the real Toshinori, the one who first became the symbol of peace. She doesn't just remember the image, but she remembers the man, the boy really, who she saw tear himself apart, and then use everything he learned to make the whole world the best it had been in centuries. But that also means when Toshinori had his injury, she was hurt more than perhaps anyone, in some ways worse than Toshinori himself. So, seeing how much Izuku has managed to rebuild Toshinori, she begins to believe a bit more that our main character just might have what it takes to be the symbol of peace.
The second part continues my attempt to keep Ruby from falling completely out of the spotlight. She and Tsuyu are still working on getting her physically up to speed, all so she can compete with her rivals, Bakugo and Izuku. At the same time, I thought it would be kind of neat to see the competition between how Izuku is instructed by Toshinori, and Ruby is driven by the memory of her mother. Just neat little differences between the two.
And then there is Fangirl. I was sure this was gonna be non-canon when I wrote it. I totally didn't think GF was gonna let me put out the first actual look at Toshinori and Summer's relationship, since Summer is so important to RWBY, and making her act like a stereotypical fangirl seemed a bit out there. I, however, thought it was both slightly hilarious, and also a neat little idea that Summer was inspired by someone she admired, just like her daughter was inspired by her. It is a connection the two could share, and a little better way to just contextualize how this universe's history is laid out.
Also, starting on Toshinori signing Izuku's book, and ending on him signing something for Summer works way too well for some reason.
-Wind-Waker