Learning to Trust

"I never said I wanted a 'happy' life but an interesting one. From separation and loss, I have learned a lot. I have become strong and resilient, as is the case of almost every human being exposed to life and to the world. We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward."

-Isabel Allende

Chapter 8: Hidden Strength

The rest of the walk across campus to Nezu's office wasn't exactly quiet, but it was filled with the sort of mindless polite chatter that All Might was well-trained to engage in while his mind was otherwise occupied.

Yamada seemed to understand at some level at least that Toshinori needed time to process all that Mic had said, because he'd shifted the subject to the trials and tribulations of teaching English to students who repeatedly fell asleep in his class.

Toshinori smiled gently and nodded absently, occasionally adding an encouraging, "Really?" to let Yamada know that he was, at least in part, still listening. He couldn't help letting his mind wander a bit, however, as he tried to process the past day.

Recovery Girl, Present Mic, and of course, Nezu, know for sure who I am now. Eraserhead and Cementoss both recognize I'm a pro… Those young people I helped probably will be suspicious about me once they have enough time to process what happened back there… He ran his hand through his messy blond hair in frustration. I used to do undercover work with Gran Torino as part of my training… Am I losing my touch? When did I get so bad at this?

His cobalt eyes habitually scanned the vicinity as they approached the tall structure that housed Nezu's office. His expression darkened. Should I just tell the rest of them? Yamada responded well enough… Toshi's mind drifted back to Aizawa, and his brow furrowed. Maybe not quite yet.

Eraserhead was abrupt, rational, and no-nonsense. Toshi thought back to the nutrient packs. But he wasn't unkind. Toshinori had a feeling that whatever small chance of friendship, or at least acceptance, he had with the man would be destroyed once Aizawa realized what had been hidden from him.

He sighed, glowering darkly at the sidewalk, hands shoved deep into his pockets. You knew the risk, he chided himself. But had he really? For the first time, he allowed himself to acknowledge the fact that hiding the truth had seemed safe despite Nezu's warning, because frankly Toshinori hadn't actually expected support or friendship here. He'd expected at best to work in parallel with them, interacting as little as possible. He didn't let himself get close to people. It was too great a risk to their safety. His mind briefly flashed to a beautiful dark-haired woman and her bright smile, now lost forever. And it hurt too much when he eventually lost them. Anyway, people tended to keep All Might at an awed distance as an unreachable celebrity, or else they tried to force superficial friendship on him for their own purposes. He'd learned years ago not to open himself too much.

A small, obnoxious voice whispered in the back of his mind, And admit it, Toshinori. You expected to get written off once they learned about your true form anyway. What use would anyone have for you once they know the truth?

Toshinori must have stopped his polite nodding for too long, because Yamada's voice raised a notch and changed languages suddenly to catch his attention. "Yagi, are you getting deaf in your old age?" he teased in English, a grin on the voice hero's face.

Toshi shook his head to clear it, and managed a small smile. "Sorry," he replied, responding automatically in flawless English without even really noticing that they'd shifted languages. "I've got a lot I'm trying to process. What were you saying?" He turned his shadowed gaze to Yamada who had frozen in his tracks.

For once Present Mic, the famous Voice Hero, had been rendered speechless. He gaped at his generally taciturn companion. Finally he managed to bluster back in his native tongue, "Wait… you're fluent in English?"

Toshinori blinked in surprise a moment as he realized what had happened, and then laughed a little at that, a warm and surprisingly genuine smile flashing across his otherwise severe face. "Of course I am. I spent years in California. I went to college and started my hero work there."

Yamada laughed awkwardly. "Right. I forgot about that. Usually your time in the States just gets glossed over in the documentaries…" He rubbed the back of his neck somewhat uncomfortably. "I didn't think you'd actually understand my crack about your age…" He flushed at that, but Toshinori just grinned and waved the other man's embarrassment off dismissively.

"Don't worry about it." He paused thoughtfully, adding, "Honestly, it's kind of refreshing." They stopped in front of a tall building. It towered above them, a silver and blue majesty dwarfed only by the main building of the complex. "Well," he continued with a small sigh, "this is my stop. Did Nezu mention what he wanted to talk to me about?"

"Nope. Just asked me to send you over."

Toshinori simply nodded and stared up at the building. He had just reached out and grabbed the silver door handle when Yamada spoke again.

"Hey, All-Yagi." He quickly corrected himself as students began walking by. A class must have just ended, and the campus grounds were beginning to fill up again. Yamada glanced at the smiling and chatting kids, waving to a couple. The kids cheerfully waved back, some even calling friendly greetings to him. They sent Toshi strange looks, but for the most part didn't acknowledge him.

Toshinori sighed. Yamada made it look so easy. There was no way he was going to be able to just bond with these kids like that. And wasn't that part of being a good teacher?

Finally Yamada turned back to Toshinori. "Yagi," he continued. "Just so you know, for what it's worth, I'm glad you're here."

Surprised blue eyes met his for a moment before glancing away. Quietly, Toshi replied with a single, "Thank you," before pulling the door open and entering the building.

Expelled. I could have been expelled. The words settled into Tetsu's mind as he sat in the office with both Principal Nezu and Ishiyama-sensei who were discussing an appropriate consequence for his actions with the runaway support item from earlier. The young man sat stiffly in his chair, barely able to focus on their discussion.

I could have been expelled. Mirio and Fuyuko could have been killed. He tugged awkwardly at his longish indigo hair. In fact, if that other guy hadn't been there, they would have at very least been hospitalized. His brow furrowed in worry. I hope he's okay, whoever he is. He was bleeding. His eyes suddenly went wide. What if he's a cop? Or a hero? What if I accidentally injured a hero? He buried his face in his hands. I'm so dead when Dad finds out…

"Mizutani-kun?" Cementoss's serious voice broke into the student's thoughts.

Tetsu's head snapped up. "Yes, sir! I'm sorry, sir."

His teacher sighed deeply. "You didn't hear a word we said, did you?"

The boy just flushed and mumbled again, "Sorry, sir," his eyes dropping.

Principal Nezu just sighed. "You won't be suspended,but before we plan on your official punishment, I would like to speak with Yagi-san and get his take on the situation as well." Nezu's light voice was serious. "After all, he is the one who was most seriously injured by your device."

Tetsu's head popped up in alarm. "Is he okay, sir? I'm so sorry. The blades weren't supposed to-

But Nezu calmly raised his paw, quieting the boy. "Recovery Girl assures me that your device caused no lasting damage other than some minor scarring." The principal leaned forward and studied the boy critically from his perch on the large sofa in his office. "But you were lucky he was there. I'll send word once he and I have discussed the situation. Until then, the Support Room is off-limits to you unless you are under Power Loader's direct supervision, and you are to take nothing from there. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

Nezu's small, expressionless black eyes bored into his for a moment until, seemingly satisfied, he nodded his white head and made a dismissive motion with his paw. "You can go to class." Nezu picked up a pen and quickly scribbled a note on the pad of paper, tearing the sheet off and handing it over to the boy. "Give this to Aizawa-san, so he knows where you were. You're dismissed."

Tetsu just nodded, slipped off the chair, and walked to the door, stuffing the note into his pocket. He silently turned the knob and pulled the door open, slipping into the quiet hallway.

He took a deep breath, eyes filling with tears that he refused to shed, and staring fiercely down at the floor, he began walking down the long hall to the stairwell at the other end. He was so focused on not crying in absolute frustration that he almost ran into someone else in the hall. Of course I did… Without even looking up, he muttered out a quick apology and scurried off down the hall. He'd almost made it to the stairs when he was startled by a tired sounding, "Young man?" in an unfamiliar voice.

Tetsu froze and then looked behind him curiously. A tall frighteningly thin scarecrow of a man stood staring at him with a fierce look on his face.

Shit. It was the man he'd almost accidentally killed. I should apologize… but what do I say? Nice to meet you. Welcome to our campus. I'm sorry my tech tried to kill you?

Instead of saying any of that, Tetsu's mouth refused to say anything at all except for a stammered, "I-I-I'm… I mean…"

The man's brows drew together, making him look even more dour. The man held up a hand.

Tetsu silenced himself immediately. Wasn't this terrifying guy the one Principal Nezu had said would help determine his fate? I may get expelled after all…

The man cocked his head to the side and spoke in a surprisingly deep baritone that didn't seem to match the frail body it issued from. "You are young Tetsuya, isn't that right?"

The boy's head bobbed, indigo hair flying messily. Then, to Tetsu's surprise, the man smiled at him. It was still a scary sight-all teeth like a predator grinning at its prey-but for some reason that smile put Tetsu somewhat at ease. Perhaps it was the mildness in the man's rich voice or the surprising warmth in his deeply shadowed eyes.

"My name is Yagi-san," the man said gently.

Tetsu just nodded, uncertain how else to respond.

"You're the young man with the murder device, aren't you?"

At those words Tetsu's face turned beet red as he shot back indignantly, "It's not a murder device!" Then he suddenly seemed to realized that he'd just snapped at the complete stranger who he'd already almost killed with his not-murder device.

"Could have fooled me," the man responded simply, crossing his arms.

Tetsu just sighed. "I'm really sorry, sir. The blades weren't supposed to-" He stopped himself. Why bother? He'd tried explaining this a dozen times. No one cared. "I hope you're okay, sir. I really am sorry." He turned and began walking away again when the man spoke once more.

"Then what were they supposed to do?"

Tetsu stopped in surprise and turned to look at the man. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

The man's dark eyes and gaunt face were unreadable, but his relaxed stance put the boy at ease. "You were about to say they weren't supposed to do something. What weren't they supposed to do?" The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully, as though thinking back. "I remember you trying to say something like this before, too."

The boy just gaped at him. "Wait. You aren't mad at me?"

The frail man smiled again, faintly this time. "Seems unfair to get angry before I know the whole situation," he replied mildly. "You've been trying to explain. So explain. It's not a murder device, you say. So what is it?"

Is this guy for real? Does he actually care? Tetsu took an excited couple of steps toward the man. "It's meant to be a multipurpose support item based on an AI system. It's supposed to be programmable for seek and capture missions."

The man nodded slowly. "Well that explains the homing device, but how exactly is it not a murder device?"

Tetsu began pacing the width of the wide hall as he tended to do when he got excited. "I see how it looks that way, but it's been developed more for the purpose of seeking out villains and incapacitating them in order to capture them-especially villains who are able to disguise their outward appearance. It's able to be fed multiple images and video clips of a person and create a comprehensive algorithm in order to properly identify that individual. I programmed it to ignore superficial details and focus more on bone structure and genetic markers as much as possible. The goal was to create an item that helps heroes see what their eyes tend to ignore: mannerisms, body structure, voice inflections, and things like that."

The man whistled appreciatively. "That's… actually quite ambitious. And it could be incredibly useful to heroes and police alike. And the purpose of the blades?"

Tetsu blushed. "Well… that's to be used if the hero is backed into a corner and needs a long range attack."

The man chuckled and flashed another toothy grin. "So, it's still a potential murder device." His voice sounded dry and caught a bit in his throat.

The boy's shoulders dropped. "It's supposed to be a best resort protection that only targets the enemy it's programmed to fight, so innocent bystanders can be kept out of harm's way… But it doesn't really matter now. The whole thing is a failure."

The man coughed into a handkerchief and eased himself into one of the chairs in the hall outside an office door. He motioned for the boy to sit beside him.

Tetsu hesitated for a moment before awkwardly trudging over to the man and plopping dejectedly down beside him. He sighed, glancing back up at the man briefly as he coughed again. "Are you okay, sir?" he asked quietly.

The man simply nodded, tucking his handkerchief into his pocket and pulling out some kind of throat drop.

Tetsu studied him up close. Sure, the guy was kind of scary looking, and Tetsu wondered if he was dying of some sort of terminal disease. Sure looked like it. But this man was honestly the first person to actually listen to him explain his device, and out of everyone, he had the most reason to be angry and ignore him. Just goes to show how much you can't tell from a person's looks…

"Now," the man said gently, finally seeming to have properly caught his breath and cleared his throat, "how is your device a failure?"

Tetsu's violet eyes lowered. "The blades are only supposed to come out if triggered. The device is programmed to recognize its target and only attack that if activated to do so. I've been testing it in the afternoon after most people are gone or early morning before they arrive on campus. I'm not supposed to test it here, but it seemed to be the safest place once school is out, since the campus limits who has access. I know exactly who will be here, and I can control what qualities my device should look for. It's programmed to activate within a limited radius of that tree, and to only go after its target. But even though the target I programmed into it wasn't there, it activated on its own. I think it reacted to Mirio. It's the best I can come up with…"

"Why?" the man asked. "How can you be sure it targeted the young man and not his companion?"

The boy flushed again. "It's programmed to only activate for the qualities of a specific person. Mirio isn't that person, but… well… I guess I could see how it could get confused and have turned on. But if that's the case, then my device is far too dangerous." At the man's puzzled expression, he clarified, "That would mean it learned superficial attributes and ignored the critical aspects, which defeats the purpose of the entire program. If all it was looking for was blue eyes and blond hair, then what's the point? It's doing nothing more than any heroes can do on their own. And it could wind up targeting almost anyone that way." Like it did today...

The man's eyes narrowed a bit and he studied the boy quietly for a moment. "This sounds as though you've actually programmed it to seek and destroy someone, which is also incredibly dangerous."

Tetsu flinched, but didn't immediately respond. How was he supposed to explain this?

The man didn't back down, though. "Young man... what target was it programmed to seek and destroy?"

The boy silently studied his hands for a moment before replying in a quietly awkward voice, "All Might."

Author's Note: Thanks to my beta, lolo popoki for saving this chapter from its overabundance of typos, redundancies, and overall issues. As always, the story is infinitely better with lolo's help! Also, thanks for all readers for reading. I appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If so, please drop me a line and let me know what you think. If there are issues that need improving, please let me know that as well, so I can work to improve my craft.

Sincerely,
Sirius:)