Chapter 35

Chapter Text

Following Iguchi Shuichi was an eye-opening experience. Toshinori was truly embarrassed that he hadn't realized just how unfair life was to people with quirks that didn't fit into the "acceptable" category, heteromorphs in particular. He'd been aware of the growing wave of quirkless discrimination. It had been building for years and with fewer and fewer children being born without quirks in each generation the problem was going largely unacknowledged.

But that hatred apparently had new outlets and was now also being aimed at people with physical mutations, especially ones with all-body differences like Iguchi. Hundreds of years ago a person's appearance had been used to try and justify horrifying treatment and enslavement, and instead of learning from history it seemed current society was doomed to repeat the same mistakes.

Since Toshinori had started following him a few hours ago Iguchi hadn't experienced anything All Might could get involved in—stopping teenagers name calling, no matter how hateful, wasn't really a hero's job—but judging by Iguchi's current black eye and fading bruise on his left arm, it wouldn't be long before whoever was abusing him tried again.

Aizawa and Principal Nedzu had explained Midoriya's memories of another timeline, so All Might was one of the trusted few who knew what was truly going on. He knew why they were reaching out to the young people who would make up Shigaraki's future League of Villains but he also liked to believe he would have offered this young man a helping hand if he'd met him under different circumstances. It was obvious life had been kicking him down for quite some time. It was almost a text-book recipe for making a villain.

Toshinori's concern only grew when he followed Iguchi to a soup kitchen for the homeless. But instead of lining up to get a meal like everyone else was invited to do, Iguchi moved into the alley behind it and very quietly slipped into the dumpster. Toshinori had to climb onto the nearest building to be able to keep an eye on the young man—he was conserving energy by staying in his smaller form until All Might was needed—so he missed the moment someone from the soup kitchen opened the lid of the dumpster and found him inside.

Toshinori quickly set up his surveillance camera for a top-down view of the scene.

The yelling drew a crowd and the crowd quickly turned into a mob and Iguchi was dragged from the dumpster and surrounded almost before All Might had a chance to press record. The words were vile, the threats were worse, and All Might had never been more ashamed of the human race.

What the actual fuck?

Was this the society heroes had built?

Toshinori changed forms and dropped into the alley, only bothering to shield young Iguchi from the change in air pressure. It wasn't enough to knock anyone off their feet, but it had most of them stumbling back and away from Iguchi and that was what Toshinori wanted.

"Are you okay?" All Might asked quietly as the people around them slowly recovered from the surprise. Iguchi stared at him, apparently startled that he would even care.

"All Might?" several people called, smiling and waving to him as if they hadn't done anything wrong.

"I am here," he said, projecting his voice and hero persona to the crowd, "to stop the evil villains."

"Oh, thank goodness," a flabby, middle-aged woman declared. She was wearing an apron and appeared to be one of the volunteers working at the soup kitchen. Perhaps she'd simply forgotten the very large knife in her hand, but she still used it to point at Iguchi. "This… thing was stealing food. Please arrest it."

"Really?" All Might asked, turning to the man who'd violently pulled Iguchi from the dumpster. "I thought the food here was available to anyone who needed it."

"Any person," the man clarified. "We don't serve his kind here."

"And what kind would that be?" All Might asked, leaning forward to get in the man's face.

"The…um… The…"

"Are you aware," All Might asked the crowd in general, "of the anti-discrimination laws in this country?"

"Discrimination?" the first woman asked, sounding outraged. "How is this discrimination? He's not human."

Iguchi shrunk in on himself and All Might placed a hand on his shoulder, hoping the young man understood it was an effort to comfort him, not to hold him in place.

"Heteromorphs—that's people with physical mutation quirks for you ignorant fools—are very much human and it is an offense under Japanese law to deny them entry to any public space."

"This is a charity run by a private company," the woman said, apparently not noticing how much the crowd had thinned out when they realized All Might could be there to arrest them. "We reserve the right to deny entry to anyone."

"So much for charity, huh?" All Might asked.

The woman crossed her arms and nodded once as if she'd won some sort of argument.

All Might shrugged and reached for his phone. He dialed the direct number for the head of his hero agency.

"All Might, sir. How can I help?"

"I'm in Kamino Ward and have stumbled across a soup kitchen in South Street denying entry to heteromorphs. I'm hoping you can tell me who is funding it."

"I can confirm it's not one of yours," his manager said quickly. That was a relief. Toshinori hated the idea of giving money to any charity that was run like this one. "I'll just check the public registry."

"While we wait for that," All Might told the few remaining people in the crowd "Is there anyone who would like to repeat their foul threats? No?" He smirked at the crowd. "Good thing I was recording it then, isn't it." He turned his attention back to Iguchi's attackers. "You," he said, pointing to the man who'd hauled Iguchi out of the dumpster by his hair, "are under arrest for assault."

The man stood there with his mouth open. It was rather unattractive.

"And you," All Might said turning to the woman still waving the knife around, "are under arrest for threatening to… How did you say it?" He pretended to think for a moment. "Ah yes, you threatened to gut him like a fish."

"I… H–He… Um… I mean… I didn't mean…"

All Might tuned out the woman's babble when his manager came back on the line. "Okay, the company is one I recognize. I believe it was set up by several hero agencies so that their heroes and staff could donate anonymously to worthy charities. I suspect they will be unhappy with the way the money is being used. If I'm remembering this group correctly at least two of the agency owners are heteromorphs themselves."

"I would very much like you to contact the company and inform them of the situation at this soup kitchen. Thank you."

"Certainly, All Might, it will be my pleasure."

"Well then," All Might said to the handful of people who remained in the alley after his manager had hung up, "the police should be here any moment. They already have my recording, so most of you can expect an official visit in the near future. Unless, of course, you wish to go into the station with these two to confess your sins and beg for forgiveness."

"A–All Might, sir?" Iguchi asked several hours later as they left the police station together. "Stain was right about you, wasn't he? You're the only one worthy of being called a hero."

All Might really wished Present Mic was here to help unpack that statement and set the young man straight.

"Stain," All Might said, trying to choose his words carefully, "was right about some things. The system is broken." He was learning that more and more each day. "And as a society we need to do better. We all need to do better." He made sure to make eye contact before going on. "But Stain was wrong in the method he chose. Disabling and murdering heroes that he believed were corrupt and unworthy overshadowed the message he was trying to deliver. His actions spread fear and hatred. So instead of trying to weed out the bad seeds who sometimes become heroes, the good heroes were busy dealing with the mess Stain created."

"You think he was wrong about the heroes he killed?"

"He may have been right about their behavior, but I think he was wrong to kill them," All Might said, hoping he wasn't being too blunt. He was a man of action, not words, but if there was ever a "teachable" moment this was probably it. "We have a judicial system in this country that uses evidence and lawyers and scientific procedures to make a decision on whether someone is guilty or not. It's not perfect. No system dealing with people ever is, but it would have exposed the corrupt heroes and shamed them in public. They would have done jail time and paid fines and lost their income, but all Stain did was make them martyrs and allowed the cycle of corruption to continue."

"Stain says you're the only one worthy."

"That's not true either," All Might said, wondering how the hell to word what he needed to say. "In my career I've worked with many heroes and the vast majority of them have been decent human beings trying to do the right thing. They're not as strong or as fast as I am, and they're far more vulnerable to death, but they do what's right and they risk their own lives to save people they don't even know."

He took a shaky breath, overwhelmed a little by the memories of fallen comrades. All Might had been a hero for a very long time, but underneath that Toshinori was just a man. The loss of any life affected him, innocent victim or callous murderer or the million spaces in between. It didn't matter who they were in the end. They'd started as someone's child and they deserved to be mourned.

"Are you okay, All Might?" Iguchi asked, his voice thick with emotion.

"It's been a long day, and I am definitely overdue for something to eat. Would you like to join me?"

Iguchi glanced down at his clothes. They were torn and dirty and, now that All Might had time to notice, smelled pretty ripe.

"Do you have somewhere to stay? Do you have a home?"

Iguchi looked away, obviously embarrassed.

"I have guest accommodation at Might Tower. It's yours if you want it."

"I–I can't impose."

"Why not?" All Might asked, grinning his signature grin. "The room is empty, hasn't been used for quite a while, actually. And besides the head of my agency has need of an assistant. He's quite busy, you know."

"I've never…um…"

"Training provided," All Might said, sweeping away the young man's protests. He suspected Iguchi had been living in the dumpster and being discovered tonight had just been a matter of bad timing. But All Might wasn't going to leave a young man living in such horrible conditions when he could help.

"I…um… I would like to…um… I promise to do my very best, All Might, sir."

"Excellent," All Might said, turning toward the smell of food. "Now what would you like to eat?"