"Read," Izuku said into the speaker of his phone after he heard the ding of a received message.
"Hitoshi: Depends. Will that blonde oaf be joining?"
Izuku huffed fondly, leaning against the school's entrance gate.
"Reply with: Maybe, but I'll have to ask. He's not with me right now."
"Hitoshi: Really? He's usually right on your tail as long as he can be, right?"
"Reply with: He got in another fight."
Hitoshi was quiet for a long moment, and Izuku knew why. Izuku usually stuck out fights with Kacchan, if only from the sidelines, unless things got really bad.
"Hitoshi: What happened?"
Now it was Izuku's turn to hesitate.
"Reply with: We'll talk at the cafe."
"Hitoshi: Fine. Are you ok?"
"Reply with: I'm fine. My recording is another story."
Izuku fingered the split in half and waterlogged device in his pocket as he listened to the reply.
"Hitoshi: Yikes, that doesn't sound good."
"Reply with: It'll be fine. Either I'll ask mom for a new one or buy one myself. Besides, what's one day of class lost? I heard it once already."
"Hitoshi: If you say so. I'll see you there."
Izuku put his phone back in his pocket and leaned his head back against the wall, focusing on everything he could feel and hear around him, closing his eyes just to give them a rest.
The cool autumn breeze drifted through his fluffy hair, tickling his nose and cheeks. He heard the familiar rustling that he knew indicated the wind brushing through the leaves on trees around him.
He could feel the luckily warm fabric of his uniform pressing in on his arms and legs, the collar around his neck. He could feel the his shoes muffling his sense of vibrations, but not completely distorting it.
He heard a few birds left chirping that hadn't yet flew south for winter. He listened to distant chatter, and the sound of car tires spinning against the pavement of the street, the hum of their engines roaring. He registered the sound of kids laughing from the park about a block down, and a car starting up in the parking lot.
He felt his chest rising and falling in a calm pattern, and heard the sound of air coming in and out his nose. His heart thumped repeatedly in his chest, as if in rythm with his breathing.
After around ten minutes passed and Kacchan still hadn't come out, he decided to go ahead and head over to the alleyway to see if he could find the fallen device on his own.
When he reached the entrance of the alleyway, he stomped once, hard, and knew he'd found it when he felt the vibration ripple and fade suddenly, signaling liquid.
He followed the vibrations to the drain that was pooled with likely not clean water. He heard it moving and realized there were probably fish in it. Hopefully just fish.
He groaned but rolled his sleeves up and stuck his hands in. Definitely fish.
Doing his best to ignore the feeling of small bodies flowing around his hands, he felt around the bottom for the small item.
"No, don't eat that!" He grunted when he finally found it and realized that a fish had been nibbling on the edge. He pulled it out and, belatedly, realized that a good chunk of the thing was missing.
With a groan, and praying the fish hadn't eaten it, his hand dove back into the water and felt around until he found the other piece and pulled it out.
Both halves were completely waterlogged, he realized as he tried to shake them out. This thing was as good as trash.
With a huff of annoyance, he pocketed the two pieces and started back out the alley.
He couldn't help but remember what Tomage had said as he walked. He bit his lip hard.
That idiot. He can't go around telling people to kill themselves. What would he do if Izuku actually jumped?
Even if the teachers didn't do anything, he could go to the authorities for this. He was pretty sure telling someone to kill themselves was a form of murder, and was probably illegal. He would get into even more trouble if it actually resulted in Izuku's death.
Tomage better be grateful that Izuku is stubborn, and has friends and his mom. He would never consider doing anything like that.
He still felt a little bit attached to Tomage and Tonaki from their friendship when they were little. He and the other two always hung around Kacchan, so they became like a little friend group when they were young.
Izuku knew the two were only there for Kacchan, and had likely looked down on Izuku their whole lives and Izuku just never realized it. But he couldn't help but still think of them as his childhood friends.
He knew he could probably never go to anyone about getting suicide baited by the boy.
But Kacchan on the other hand had no sort of hesitancies. He would be yelling about it to anyone who could do anything before the day was over. The whole school would probably know by tomorrow.
Because people listened to Kacchan.
Izuku stopped suddenly, realizing he'd gotten lost in his thought and had no idea where he was going. He stomped once and didn't recognize his surroundings. Great.
He was underneath some sort of bridge connected to an alleyway and open on the other end.
He started forward again, intending to find something noteworthy and text Kacchan, hoping the boy could find him.
But then he flinched as there was a loud banging noise behind him. It sounded like something metal flying and hitting concrete. He froze.
He hesitated one second before stomping, the vibrations letting him see a manhole before they started to ripple and-
Was that water? Was there a bunch of water coming out of the manhole?
No, it was too thick for water. It was coming from the sewers, and it stunk. Sludge? Was the manhole overflowing?
He heard the liquid splash and shift, obviously moving. There was a lot of it too.
He started forward again, trying to get away from the water- sludge- whatever it was. But then he heard a voice.
It was deep, menacing and mischievous. Pleased, but also a bit panicked and out of breath.
"What's this? A medium sized body, perfect timing kid."
The voice sent chills up his spine and he started to move faster, away from whoever- whatever was talking. But before he could make it more than a few steps, he was suddenly hit by the overwhelming feeling of being surrounded by liquid. No, by sludge.
He tried to scream, but the thick sludge wrapped around the bottom half of his face, keeping any noise from coming out. With a start, he realized it was also keeping any air from coming in.
He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe! He needed to breathe!
He struggled, kicking and clawing at the slime on his face, but it was no use, the liquid seeping through hands.
He didn't know what was happening. Was this that guy who spoke's quirk? Why did he never feel the guy?
All the senses he depended on were being cut off. His quirk was useless in this liquid, he had no way of telling what was going on.
Any thoughts that revolved around what was happening faded in wake of the pure panic that he was feeling, because he couldn't breathe! He was going to die, and he was completely helpless.
He was going to die today.
He couldn't die!
He vaguely registered a muffled voice coming from around him, telling him to stop struggling or something. As if.
But then again, he was running out of energy. The struggling and clawing was useless, it was doing nothing. And he was getting so, so tired.
Black spots started to cloud his vision as his lungs burned, begging for air. His thoughts blurred together in panic that was slowly fading into resignation.
He was very, very tired.
Maybe if he just shut his eyes for one second, he'd wake up and everything would be ok…
Then, with a startle that he couldn't tell if was from him for the sludge around him, another loud bang came from behind them.
"What? Dang it, you again!?" Came the same voice from before.
Then came a new voice.
"Never fear, young citizen! Because I am here!"
Izuku's mind supplied him with one final word in recognition of the voice he'd looked up to for so long.
All Might?
There was a blast, he registered sludge subsiding from around him, and then he was out cold.
—-
All Might repeatedly lightly hit the unconscious boy's cheek. "Young man, wake up!"
He was just starting to worry when the boys face scrunched up and a small groan escaped.
"Oh, good! That we lost you there…" he trailed off in surprise when the boy opened his eyes.
He'd seen strange looking eyes before, some people's quirks affected them, but he's never seen a gaze that looked quite so empty.
The eyes were green, but very light as if fogged over. They were unfocused and stared ahead, never moving, not even towards All Might like they should when someone was standing over them.
Huh.
"Hm?" The boy hummed, and groaned as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head. He still never so much as glancing in All Might's direction.
This was a bit concerning.
"My boy, are you alright?" All Might asked, and the boy's eyes suddenly widened. But they still didn't move.
"All Might!?" The kids head swiveled towards him, and for a second All Might thought he was finally looking at him. But the eyes were still unfocused, like he was constantly zoned out.
But he clearly wasn't, he looked to be on high alert.
"Yes, it is I! All Might!" The pro stood up and planted his hands on his fist. He suppressed a cough and felt steam on his back, however, and knew he was about to run out of time. Darn it.
"Right, well, a heroes work is never done. I need to get this villain to the police!" He called as he turned around and prepared to jump into the sky just as the boy stumbled to his feet.
"W-wait! You're leaving already!? But, I- I have so many questions to ask you! And-"
"Sorry, but there's no time! I really do need to get going! Perhaps some other time, young man!"
All Might leaped into the sky. He heard a yelp behind him and looked back to see that the boy had grabbed onto his leg and was being whipped by the wind behind him.
"What are you doing!?" All Might said, exasperated. "You need to let go!"
"We're really high up, aren't we?" The boy called, sounding terrified, as if it wasn't obvious that they were higher than most buildings at this point. "If I let go I'll die!"
"Good point!" All Might landed on the nearest rooftop, and the boy immediately fell to his knees and hands palms flat on the ground, breathing heavily and shaking.
"That was not very smart, my boy," All Might called, stepping towards the edge. "Now, I really must get going."
"Wait, the boy called, stumbling to his shaky feet again. "Please, sir, just one thing? I- I'm a going fan of yours, and I really want to b- be a hero like y- you, but, you see, I- I'm-"
Dang it, he's out of time.
In a fit of coughing a blood and a cloud of steam, he feels his body abruptly shrink back down to his sickly size. Great. Just great. And right in front of the kid, too.
He should've just left, why did he stay?
He turned to the kid once the steam had cleared expecting a gasp, a scream, a shocked face, anything.
But the kid just kept staring blankly at him eyes still unfocused. It looked like he was looking right at All Might, but the hero realized, belatedly, that maybe he wasn't.
The kid furrowed his eyebrows confusedly, and then stomped once, hard. Only then did he let out a gasp and his eyes went wide. "What the- All Might!? You shrunk!"
All Might blinked right back at the boy. He was so confused.
"Yes, I did."
"How!?"
With a long, heavy sigh, All Might told the boy of his injury and showed him his stomach, not that the boy reacted at all to the sight, again.
"Oh," the boy breathed when All Might had finally finished, his green curls falling into his face. He made no move to push them aside. "This is a big secret, huh?"
All Might nodded grimly. "Very."
The boy then nodded seriously. "Right, I swear I won't tell anyone, All Might!"
"Good," the pro felt relieve knowing the boy would keep the secret. "Now, what was it you wanted to ask me?"
The boy blinked. "Ah, right! Well, um, see- I've always wanted to be a hero like you, a- and save people. But, the thing is- I- I'm, um," the boy hesitated, head bowing down slightly and eyes following suit.
After a second, the boy raised a hand and waved it in front of his face. "I'm- I'm blind."
All Might blinked. Once. Twice. His eyes widened.
Oh.
He let out a long breath, staring into the boys downcast eyes. Suddenly that fogged over, unseeing gaze made a whole lot more sense.
"Then how did you-" he started to ask, but the boy cut him off.
"My quirk lets me use vibrations to see. That's how I knew where you were, and that you got smaller."
Huh. He had to admit, that was pretty impressive.
Then his thoughts tracked back to the matter at hand. "You want to be a hero, but you're blind," he summarized.
The boy hesitantly nodded, head coming back up. The eyes were almost staring right at All Might, it felt weird knowing they weren't actually seeing him.
The questions came out as a whisper. "Can I still be a hero like you, even with- y'know."
All Might did know. He sighed.
"Being a hero is an admirable goal," he started, "and I realize that your quirk makes that goal a lot more likely for you with your disability."
The boy tensed, probably sensing the incoming 'but'.
"But," All Might grudgingly trudged on, "not being able to see is a large weakness. If your opponent were to catch on, it wouldn't be hard for them to take advantage of that.
"Whether or not it's possible, I'm not certain. But it would be difficult and risky, even more dangerous than normal. And normal heroes die all the time."
Maybe he shouldn't have used the word 'normal', if the boy's flinch was anything to go by. But he couldn't turn back now.
"I don't believe it is a wise choice to try. I'm sorry."
It was quiet for a long moment, dreadfully so, until the boy breathed out a soft, "oh."
All Might started towards the exit, still needing to take the villains to the police station. "If you want to help people, there are other ways to do it."
But then he cut himself off, because he couldn't think of anything that someone blind could do.
If he was a fire fighter, how would he see where the fire was? A police officer, how could he shoot a gun? A doctor, how could he see to- well, y'know.
So he didn't finish, just walked off the roof, leaving the conversation off at that. He felt bad, but the boy needed to be told the truth before he got himself hurt trying for something unrealistic.
About halfway down the staircase, he reached for the bottle in his pocket, and grabbed onto nothing.
He froze. Reaching into the other pockets he still felt nothing.
"Oh no," he muttered, patting down his pants. It was gone. It must've fallen out when the boy grabbed onto him.
He heard an explosion a few streets down.
Dang it.
—-
All Might said Izuku shouldn't.
He never said Izuku couldn't.
Izuku would take that for all it's worth.