Izuku is tired.
Strike that, Izuku has that bone-deep exhaustion that he never thought he would have until he was in his later years. Sighing softly, he continues stumbling his way home, the rebukes of the heroes still ringing in his ears. Sure, maybe he should not have charged the slime villain without thinking, but at least he kept from using his quirk, right? He won't be labeled a vigilante for that, will he?
Oh dear, there's the panic setting in.
A hand gently sets itself on his shoulder. "Young Izuku."
He jumps at the touch, but the familiar voice quickly settles him down. He turns and gives him a friendly grin. "Toshinori-san!" Then a thought occurs. "Oh, I'm not in trouble for rushing in, am I? I'm not a vigilante now, right? Mom would be so disappointed!"
The gaunt man seems surprised. "If that's the first thing that comes to mind after the day you've had, perhaps I was worried about the wrong thing. Most boys your age would be traumatized after encountering a villain twice, up close and personal."
He scratches his head, thinking back to that first incident. "To be fair, I was sort of shocking him the first time around," he points out. "Couldn't really hold on to a sparking baby Pokemon."
The man smiles. "Right, and yet you still acted when your friend was in danger, while holding back."
"I'm not sure throwing cayenne powder in his eyes counts as holding back," he mutters, "and I was still scared, especially once I found out it was Kacchan in there."
"But, you acted." He looks him in the eyes. "And I think the other heroes focused on the wrong aspect of that when they were chastising you after."
He blinks, his mind whirling as he tries to figure out where this is going. "Toshinori-san?"
"Young Izuku, you acted when even the pro heroes hesitated because you saw someone in danger. Because of you, everyone including me, acted and Young Bakugo was saved." He points to the child's chest. "You have the heart of a true hero, and I think in time, you will be a great one."
He takes a moment to process this before he offers a watery smile, tears pooling in his eyes and threatening to fall. "Thank you, Toshinori-san. You have no idea how much that means to me."
"I have an idea, but you're quite welcome. You deserve it, not scorn."
He nods, rivers of joy pouring down his cheeks now.
The gangly blonde shifts his hand to his back. "Come on, I'll walk you home. Don't want any more incidents today."
He nods gratefully, leaning into the taller man as they start to head home. It takes a bit for him to calm down, but when he does, he asks, "...so what happened, Toshinori-san? I thought you caught him..."
He scratches his cheek, looking out to the horizon. "Well... it seems the bottle wasn't exactly secure containment..."
Izuku blinks a couple times. "...he fell out of your pocket, didn't he?"
"Sometimes improvising isn't as successful as one might like, what's important is you learn." He says quickly, coughing into his hand.
While he could tease the man dating his mother, he has too much respect towards him. The teen nods, looking off towards the sun. "So... you chased him after you lost him, right?"
"I did, but someone whose form is that malleable can go places I can't without having to smash through things." He explains.
"Oh." He scratches his head. "So you ran out of time, then?"
"Something like that, yes."
He nods understandingly, then frowns. "...wait, did you push yourself again to rescue us?"
He clears his throat. "Only slightly... let's perhaps not tell your mother."
He finds a Ralts beside him, splashing him with Life Dew once more. "I don't think either of us can keep a secret from mom," he points out.
The man sighs, rubbing the healing water off his face with one hand. "True... Maybe focus on the good points, then."
"Are you sure it'll work?" Izuku asks right before changing back into a human, stumbling mid-step.
Yagi carefully holds the boy up around his arm so that he doesn't faceplant. "We can try. Knowing how best to talk to civilians is also a hero trait. It's how we avoid undue panic."
"Right, that makes sense." He pulls out his charred Hero Analysis for the Future No. 13 and starts writing down this advice. "Getting better at talking in general is a good way to develop the skills to persuade others to calm down, but only two of my forms have the capacity to talk so that would make it harder to calm others down unless there's a move they can learn to help lower emotions..." He trails off as he pulls out his Pokémon Analysis for the Future notebook beside it, comparing notes from both of them. "Calm Mind only works on myself, though..."
"Don't forget that you can always talk to them as yourself."
"Right, thank you for reminding me, Toshinori-san," he nods as he glances between both books. "Oh, and there was a new hero today who only seemed in it for fame. Mt. Lady, she called herself."
The man sighs and rubs the back of his head. "Well, you can't always tell a person from their surface. People are complicated, young Izuku. While her attitude may seem spoiled and self-righteous, at the end of the day she is still putting her life on the line. With time, perhaps she will mature to be more of an ideal hero. The same can be said of your hot-headed friend."
"True," he absentmindedly says, too engrossed in his notebooks to notice the words denigrating his friend.
Seeing as he's busy with his books, Yagi turns to making sure their way home goes smoothly. His piercing blue eyes find a head of spiky blonde hair poking out from behind a wall. He doesn't mention it, waiting to see what happens.
A red eye becomes visible, and then a tall woman emerges attached to it. "Oh good, it's you two. Inko was worried something happened since you were taking so long." She looks to Izuku. "...why's there slime in his hair?"
Midoriya promptly looks up and panics, unsure what to say.
"There was a villain incident on the way home and young Izuku here got unfortunately hit by some of the mess." Yagi explains, absently picking out a bit of the greenish substance.
"Oh." She nods. "You should clean that out or Inko might think the worst happened." After a moment's pause, she sighs and places her hand on her hip. "That's not why I was waiting. The brat is refusing to say thank you, so I'm saying it in his place. Thanks for saving him." She bows, making the teen freeze, having not expected that.
A hand pats his back, the man now smiling proudly.
"I-it was no problem!" He finally stutters out. "I did what any decent person would do!"
She scoffs. "Only decent people there were you and All Might, then," she points out.
"Is young Bakugou doing well, then?"
"He is doing fine. Still going on about how he'll be better than All Might," Mitsuki says, laughing boisterously. "No end to his pride, I'll tell you that much!"
"Well, it's good for him to have goals." Yagi shrugs.
Izuku gives him a strange look as Mitsuki gets a call. She sighs and pulls out her phone. "It's probably Masaru," she says, waving her hand at them. "Get home safe, okay?"
Yagi gives her a small bow and guides Izuku home once more. The teenager, slightly confused, lets himself be led, and they are soon in front of their door. He pauses and looks up at Yagi.
"I think she approves of your actions." The hero says simply with a smile.
He offers a weak smile in return. "I don't regret them."
"Good. Now let's see if you can clean up before your mother notices."
His eyes raise to a bit of slime still hanging from his hair. "Right."
"Good, I'll distract her, you slip into the bathroom."
He nods and unlocks the front door.
Yagi waits for a moment before calling out. "Inko, we're back!"
Short chapter because I didn't know if it was worth it to try and cover a scene that was mostly unchanged. Sorry if this disappoints. I did try making what we had here longer, but there's only so much that can be done without feeling like it's dragging it out.
If you think it'll be worth it, we can try to get a scene done for it. Don't know how that will turn out, though.
Anyways, sliced my thumb. Need to let it heal, but will still try editing what we've got. See you all next time, and happy Halloween.