It was barely 6 pm when Izuku arrived home. He found his mom passed out on the couch in a mountain of tissues with a phone in her hand. It had been 3 days since Ichiro's had gone missing; the police had opened an investigation, but had yet to find anything. Ichiro's phone, unfortunately, had proven quite useless in locating Ichiro; it had told them that the watch was out of range, which only served to multiply their worry.

Izuku walked over to the couch and picked the phone out of his mom's hand and unlocked it. He was greeted with a family picture of all four of them at the beach. He felt his eyes grow watery and his fingers started to tremble. Still, he swiped left to look at more pictures. Ichiro had a variety of interesting snapshots on his phone. Izuku hadn't known Ichiro was quite as vain as his phone showed him to be. Izuku walked over to an armchair and took a seat.

Looking through Ichiro's phone had become a nightly habit for him. Tonight however, he did something that he had yet to do, and opened Ichiro's messaging app. There was a group chat of Ichiro's friends at the top. He tapped on the group chat and swiped up, past the 'where are you' messages until he stopped on a conversation they'd had about a week ago. As he read, Izuku felt his stomach churn.

Ichiro: Guys I'm furious right now, Izuku won't listen to my recording.

…

Ichiro: Apparently he's too tired to, so mom said I'll have to show him tomorrow. But he won't be any different tomorrow!

Kyouko: Is he stressed? Why won't he be different tomorrow?

Ichiro: I have no idea, he's been like this for the past few months. He's always up before me, and he's always out of the house before anyone else even wakes up. Even worse though is that mom seems to be just FINE with this.

Yasu: Oof, that sounds like quite the situation

Izuku put the phone down, unable to read any more. He'd been ignoring Ichiro, there was no denying it. What kind of hero would act like that? Ichiro just wanted to show me his recording and I completely ignored him. A fresh wave of ignominy washed over him and his tears came faster now.

He remembered the exact night that Ichiro had been talking about. He'd just been so tired, and he didn't have the time for Ichiro. He'd been working himself so hard that he'd completely neglected those who mattered the most. "What secret do you have that's so important you'll keep it away from your loved ones?" Ichiro's phantom voice replayed the comment in his mind. Izuku felt his heart speeding up, his body trembling. I need a quirk if I want to be a hero, he found himself mentally responding, I have to keep the secret, it's the only way.

Of course, Mental Ichiro said, 'Without a quirk you can't become a hero'. Izuku opened his eyes, trying to banish the inner fiend, but it was not finished. 'I… didn't want to lose you Izuku.' Izuku let out a yelp, grasping his head and trying desperately to quiet Ichiro's voice. SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP. IT'S NOT MY CHOICE TO KEEP IT A SECRET. The inner Ichiro didn't have anything more to say.

When Izuku opened his eyes, he found himself dripping in sweat. His mom had an arm around him, giving him a worried look. She had her own tears, but she tried her best to stay strong for him.

"Baby," she said, rubbing his back lovingly, "come back to me." Izuku gasped for breath, his heart racing faster than it did when he was working out. He turned to Inco.

"Mom," he croaked out, "I…"

"Shh," she said, putting a finger on his lips, "I know honey, I know." Then, she pulled him into a solemn hug. "We'll get him back, Ichiro will come home." Izuku spent the next few hours crying into his mother's loving embrace.

…

Even though the clock was now showing close to 11pm on a school night, Izuku found himself rustling through the shelf beside Ichiro's bed. Ichiro kept an extensive portfolio on this shelf, similar to how Izuku kept his hero notebooks so organized. The box he was currently shuffling through was a clear record box. It had all of Ichiro's favorite music and self recordings in it. All of the tapes were kept safe on usb drives and CDs, just in case something happened to the computer versions of them.

Izuku plucked out one of the more recent CDs that was labeled for one week ago. He recorded this, and wanted to show me. He thought to himself. He clenched the case close to his heart as he moved towards the radio. The least I can do is listen to it. Once he'd inserted it, the music started to play.

The beat was good, but the lyrics sounded like gibberish if he didn't pay extremely close attention. It started with a recording of the original singer and then shifted to one where Ichiro was the singer. The song had a medium paced vibe, and it fit Ichiro's vocal range near perfectly. It had an almost futurist feel to it, similar to a sci-fi movie, but also very much a modern sound once the electric guitar came in.

Izuku found his head bouncing up and down as the song played throughout his room. For a brief moment, it almost felt as if Ichiro were in the room again, and everything that had happened hadn't. Izuku closed his eyes and just let the music take him into the clouds, away from the problems of his world. Oh Ichiro, your voice is absolutely incredible, even when I have no idea what you're singing about.

All too soon the music ended and Izuku was snapped back into reality. He sighed, his eyes had involuntarily watered again. Was I really so busy that I couldn't even give time to listen to a 3 minute song? He felt disgusted with himself.

It was when he moved to retrieve the disc from its place that he noticed something strange behind the radio. Curious, Izuku pulled the radio off its stand and saw his hero notebooks #5 #6 and #9 . They sat right next to an unmarked notebook that had a blue bookmark sticking out of it. Izuku rubbed his eyes, for fear of getting the book wet as he picked it up and opened it to the bookmarked page.

As he read, Izuku got a strange uneasy feeling in his gut. Ichiro had been researching All Might's past, and in pretty extensive detail. Luckily he hadn't been able to find the truth, but the sheer extensivity of his analysis gave Izuku the creeps. Given another week or two, Izuku was sure that Ichiro would've been able to answer all of the questions he'd raised. What disturbed Izuku in particular, was that the only piece Ichiro had been missing was One For All. If he'd known about the quirk, then the entire story would've made sense.

The thought of Ichiro doing all this research swirled around in Izuku's mind. He'd done it for Izuku's sake. It pained him to think that he could never tell Ichiro the secret behind One for All, even after all of this.

Those thoughts brought him back to the fact that Ichiro was still missing and he had no idea where. He let out a huff as he closed the notebook and turned off the light. Right as he got underneath his covers, his phone rang out with a text message. He normally charged his phone over a bedside shelf while he slept.

Izuku seized the phone, maybe the cops had found something and had texted to inform him. The stupidity of the police using a text message registered only a moment later when, instead of the cops, the text message showed that it had come from All Might.

All Might: Meet me on the pier tomorrow morning at 6am, we need to have a serious talk.

…

The next morning, at 6am sharp, Izuku trudged out onto the boardwalk, just as requested. The pier was nice, it had a few swing benches on either side and looked out over the sea. The sun was already up, and All Might stood at the edge of the pier in his skinny form, looking out over the ocean. Izuku gulped, he hadn't been training at all since Ichiro disappeared.

All Might turned around to face him, his face contorted between a mixture of confusion, anger, frustration, and disappointment (or so Izuku thought that was the correct combination). Izuku didn't look him in the eyes, he couldn't.

"Young Midoriya," All Might said, "I'm surprised that you came out this morning. I've been calling you on the phone for multiple days now." A pang of guilt hit Izuku's chest. He'd seen those missed calls, but he hadn't answered them until now. His eyes had cried so much recently, that he didn't have any water left to dispense from them. "What have you been doing? You're skipping training, and I haven't gotten a single call from you at all."

"Ichiro's gone All Might." Izuku said weakly, still unable to look his hero in the eyes.

"Gone? What do you mean gone?" Izuku closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. 'I don't want to lose you', the mental Ichiro echoed his real life counterpart. Izuku fought back the torment, he couldn't have an episode here in front of All Might. He opened his eyes, and turned towards his idol.

"I mean that he's been declared missing and I have no idea where he is, we reported it to the police but they've been useless so far. I search for him every night now, and my mom has become a mess. We told my dad about it, but there's only so much he can do besides worry from California." All Might listened quietly as Izuku vented. "But it keeps eating me inside, the way I treated him just before he disappeared. I… I told him to stop calling me his brother. I yelled at him, and told him that… the only reason he was born was because I was a failure to my parents and… that I wanted him to get out of my life." Izuku's knees gave out and he hit the ground, bowing to All Might.
"All Might," he said, "I know what you said a few months ago but… I don't know if I'm really fit to be your successor, I'm barely able to comfort my family, how can I possibly hope to comfort random people?"

All Might shifted his weight, and Izuku could feel his beady eyes staring at him. Judging him with the highest scrutiny. He knelt down and used a hand to bring Izuku out of his bow.

"Young Midoriya," All Might said, "when you ran to help that boy from the sludge monster all those months ago, you failed to stop the villain. Remember? You inspired me to act by your own shortcomings." Izuku tilted his head, and watched All Might buff up, bringing his trademark smile with the muscles. "Do you really expect heroes to be perfect Young Midoriya? Of course we're not perfect, it's called being human." Izuku sat up on the back of his legs; he crossed his arms and looked down.

"Still," he said, "that doesn't mean that I don't feel responsible for it. I want to find Ichiro and bring him home so that I can apologize for everything I've said."

"As you should," All Might said. "That's why I know that you are worthy. Even through your mistakes, you still strive to make things right. What good can a hero bring to others if he can not first bring good to himself?" Izuku sighed, All Might was correct, but he didn't like it.

"I just wish it didn't hurt so much." Izuku said, "I wish that I could go back in time and change everything."

"You and everyone else, Young Midoriya, the important thing is to keep moving forward." All Might produced a phone from his pocket and tapped around it for a few moments. "Thankfully, you have help in moving forward. Get back to training on this beach and I will take on Ichiro's case personally." At that, Izuku stood up fully and stumbled back.

"Wow you'd do that for me? But you're so busy with other hero work and keeping Japan at large safe from villains." He protested.

"Hahahahaha," All Might laughed, "fear not Young Midoriya, I am a very good multitasker! I'll just use my weak form when working on this case. It's the least I can do for my successor."

"Wow, thank you so much All Might," Izuku said, bowing continuously, "you have no idea how much it would mean to me." All Might gave him a thumbs up.

"Do not worry Young Midoriya, because I am here to bring your brother back to you."

A.N.

Big sad vibes, I hope Izuku feels better. Well I hope you enjoyed it, if you're still reading this far in then I'm honored you like my writing enough to keep reading it. This story has really been a big experiment for me in writing dramas, I love the drama and angsty genre, and I really wanted to get into it with a project like this. With each chapter I try to improve my writing style in different areas, and I might accomplish that in some chapters more than others, but overall this story has helped me a ton in understanding human emotions and our complexity. This has been my personal favorite chapter to write so far and I hope you will stick with me as we draw towards the final arc of this story. Anyway, that's all I've got for today. I hope you all have a fantastic day. Love ya'll.

-Nick