"Ah, are you travelling alone, dear?"

"Yeah, I'm moving in with my dad."

The flight from California to Japan was over eleven hours long- eleven hours stuck in a metal tube miles above the earth. Katsumi wasn't too bothered, though. She'd just pop in her AirPods, listen to music, maybe sleep, or read a book. That was the plan, at least.

"Wow, and you're flying first class?" The flight attendant handed her a bag of chips she had just bought.

Katsumi's mom had given her a credit card to book the flight, too busy to take even ten minutes to help her fifteen-year-old daughter with it. Katsumi didn't care much. She booked an economy aisle seat and forgot about it.

"My dad offered to upgrade my ticket," Katsumi smiled, accepting the food.

Once her father had offered to pay for a better seat, her mum became much more interested in the ticket. After a heated phone call, her mom angrily reminded her ex that she could afford to pay for their daughter's flight herself, and they split the cost of one first-class ticket. Seemed having parents who didn't like each other could be beneficial sometimes.

Now, Katsumi was comfortably settled in a private cubicle equipped with a lounge chair and a TV- far better than being crammed next to an old man or a crying baby.

"How sweet of him! I bet he's excited to see you," the attendant said with a warm smile, Katsumi wondered if she actually cared or just wanted a conversation with someone more interesting than the sour-faced old men and woman who sat in the other seats. "I'll be back shortly with the dinner menu. Enjoy your flight!"

Katsumi smiled as the attendant left. She leaned back and pulled out her old 3DS, loading up an old Pokémon game, switching the language to Japanese to practice before she landed. She was fluent (speaking wise at least), having lived in Japan until she was eight, but it had been a while since she'd read much in Japanese. No worries—she had nearly six months before the entrance exam, plenty of time to brush up.

By hour five, she began to get restless. The meal break had helped break up the long flight, but she hated sitting still for too long, especially in cramped spaces. While her cubicle offered privacy, it also felt a little suffocating. She ended up just half-watching movies till they landed.

By the time they landed, it was 9 PM. Katsumi yawned as she stepped off the plane, offering a quick "thank you" to the flight attendants. She slung her carry-on over her shoulder and headed to baggage claim.

After being so cramped up for eleven hours and getting little sleep, she felt sluggish. The bags would take a while to arrive, so she pulled out her phone. As soon as she connected to the airport Wi-Fi, notifications flooded in—all from the same contact.

3rd of August 20XX (today)

12:23Dad

I'll be in the lobby waiting for you when you land.

Tell me when you lamded

Landejd

Landed!

12:32Dad

Have you left yet?

12:35Dad

Hello?

!

12:46Dad

It's fine I called your mother, see you soon

20:59Dad

Have you landed?

21:08Katsumi

yh, got my bag

where r u?

21:09Dad

Waiting in the lobby!

Read my messages!

Katsumi slipped her phone back into her duffle bag. When her suitcase finally came around the carousel, she grabbed it and dragged it through customs. Thanks to her Japanese passport she got through quickly.

Reaching the arrivals lobby, she yawned and glanced around. Standing off to the side, away from the crowd, was a tall, skinny blonde man with sunken eyes and an annoyed look on his face. When their eyes met, his scowl softened into an awkward smile. Katsumi approached him, not returning the smile.

"Hey, kiddo. Nice to see you," her dad greeted her, clasping his hands together. "Want me to take your bag?" It sounded rehearsed. His awkward hand movements were an obvious coverup for an attempt to go in for a hug he abandoned halfway through.

"Yeah, here," Katsumi replied, carelessly handing him the suitcase as she pulled out her phone. "I gotta tell Mom I landed."

"Uh, sure. Of course." Toshinori Yagi took the suitcase, watching his daughter tentatively. She had changed a lot since the last time he saw her, which made sense- it had been two years. She was no longer the skinny pre-teen he remembered. She seemed to have some muscle, especially in her legs, that would be helpful he thought. She wasn't starting her training from nothing, unlike the boy, she was starting with a decent amount of strength.

But it wasn't just the normal growth that stood out. Her once-dark hair was now bleached blonde, making her tan skin look even darker. She had multiple piercings lining her ears, and long, painted nails too. Toshinori mentally noted that he'd need to remind her that piercings and nails like that wouldn't be allowed in a Japanese school.

His heart sank a bit, realizing just how much he'd missed.

Katsumi put away her phone, her expression shifting to one of thinly veiled annoyance. God, she really looked like her mother.

"Okay. Should we go?"

"Yeah," Toshinori coughed, following her toward the exit. "I've moved since you last stayed over, but all your old stuff-"

"Did the stuff Mum sent overcome yet?" She hadn't been over to Japan since she was about eleven, the old stuff he was talking about would be no use to her.

"Ah, no, not yet. Do you have enough clothes for a couple more days?"

Katsumi sighed, exasperated. "I'll be fine. I mainly packed workout stuff, though."

"Well, people here don't wear that much outside the gym."

"Great," she muttered.

They stepped out into the cool night air, and Katsumi shivered slightly in her shorts and tank top. The city lights glowed above, bright against the dark sky, as they walked toward the car in silence.

"So," Toshinori said, opening the trunk and placing her suitcase inside, "how about I take you shopping tomorrow? You can get some clothes, maybe a few other things... we could grab lunch too. Real Japanese food, not the American stuff." He smiled as he shut the boot and turned to his daughter.

For a moment, he thought he saw a flicker of interest in her eyes. But it vanished as quickly as it appeared. Katsumi scoffed, turning her head away.

"What?" Toshinori asked, confusion clear in his voice.

"Yeah, let's go out," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You can find some petty thief to beat up while we're at it."

Toshinori blinked, stunned. After the initial shock dissipated he felt his eye twitch. Two years, and this was how she spoke to him?

"You!" he scoffed, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Ugh, you're just like your mother!"

Katsumi rolled her eyes, unfazed.

"Always upset about me doing my job!" he continued, his voice rising. "I'm a hero, Katsumi. Don't you want to be one? That's why you're here!"

"Yeah, you're the number one hero," she whispered bitterly, crossing her arms. "Congratulations. Look where it's gotten you." She glared at him, her voice cutting deep. "A divorced, absentee father with half his insides missing."

Toshinori's mouth fell open. He stared at her, speechless. The girl who held his gaze unflinching was not the same little girl who he had last seen two years ago.

"If there's an emergency, fine, go fix it," she said, stepping back and rubbing her temple. "I know you care about saving people. But you're not the only hero around, you can't run off to help every person who stubs their toe!" She exclaimed. "Look at you. How long can you even keep being-" She glanced around the parking lot before whispering sharply, "All Might?"

Toshinori tried to respond, but no words came out, his mouth hanging open. He watched as his daughter's sharp gaze bore into him. But the way she pursed her lips, how her face twitched and her eyes turned glossy revealed a different feeling. A more vulnerable one than the feeling she was attempting to portray.

"Well?" Katsumi shifted uncomfortably, her tough mask cracking. She quickly looked away, rubbing her eyes as if to hide the tears.

"Look," she muttered, "I just don't want my dad to get worse than he already is. It shouldn't all be on you to fix every little problem. Other people need to step up and help each other." Her voice softened as she stared at the ground, her face solemn.

Toshinori blinked, coming back to his senses.

"I'm sorry, kid. I guess I, uh, misunderstood why you were upset."

They stood by the car in silence for a few moments, both staring at the concrete floor as the awkward tension hung in the air. Finally, Katsumi broke the silence as she sighed, and looked up.

"Sorry," she mumbled, her voice softer now. "I'm just tired so I'm a bit on edge"

Toshinori gave her a small, understanding smile. "No worries. Come on, let's get you home."

Katsumi offered a sheepish smile in return as her dad opened the car door for her, taking her duffle bag and tossing it in the back seat. He walked around to the driver's side and sat down, starting the engine. Katsumi quietly pulled out her phone, scrolling through messages.

"So, uh," Toshinori said, once they got onto the road, "texting your friends?"

"Yeah, the group chat. They wanted me to tell them when I landed."

"That's nice. You gonna miss them?" He kept his tone light, though from what little her mother had told him it was probably best that she never saw those friends again. Then again it was her mother.

"I guess," Katsumi replied, her voice indifferent. "I feel like I won't have much time to think about it, though."

Toshinori chuckled. "Yeah, probably not. You'll be too busy training. Though I'm sure once people find out who your old man is, I'm sure your phone will be blowing up."

Katsumi snorted, rolling her eyes. "Oh, I can't wait for that- people who hated me suddenly acting all friendly."

Toshinori paused, choosing his next words carefully. "You're... okay with it, right? You'll be in the public eye a lot more already if you decide to become a hero but being linked with me-"

"It'll come out eventually," she said, cutting him off with a shrug. "I can deal with it, I'm sure other people at UA will be family of famous pro-heroes. As for my old friends, I had fun with them before I left, but... that part of my life is over."

He nodded, "Well, we'll keep it under wraps as long as we can."

The car went quiet again. Katsumi watched the city lights flicker across the dark windows. It felt strange being back in Japan after so long. The buildings seemed smaller than she remembered. Yet the advertisements for products littered the buildings tenfold, so many with the smirking faces of B-rate heroes. Katsumi grimaced.

"So," Toshinori began, his discomfort with the silence evident, "what did you do before leaving?"

"Uh, my gymnastics team threw me a surprise party yesterday," Katsumi said with a yawn, pulling her gaze away from the window.

"That's sweet," he said, relieved she had some productive connections. "You've stuck with gymnastics, huh? I remember your mom sending me a picture of your first day."

"Hell yeah!" Katsumi grinned, flexing her arm proudly. "I'm into boxing now, too. That's what Mirko does for her training, y'know?"

Toshinori raised his eyebrows, surprised by her sudden burst of energy. "Mirko?"

"Of course! You've met her, right?" Katsumi leaned forward, her eyes lighting up with excitement. "She's getting so popular right now- defeating villains left and right! She doesn't need a team, but she'll take help when she needs it. She's no coward like a lot of the other heroes these days. I bet she'll be in the top ten soon."

Her enthusiasm threw Toshinori off, she had never shown such an interest in heroes before. "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting her, no," he admitted, earning a pout from Katsumi. " I didn't realize she was big in the States."

"Nope, the US is too self-involved to care 'bout other countries heroes." She waved her phone dismissively, "It's just me. God, it is hard to find stuff about her though, she's completely focused on defeating villains." She put her phone down as she began to ramble. "That's another thing I like about her, heroes are supposed to save people, a few interviews are fine and maybe a brand that makes sense for them, but so many of them are barely heroes! They barely fight, run away from villains and don't care about saving people. It's so obvious they're just in it for the fame and money."

"And power," Toshinori added, the faces of certain heroes who fit that description popping up in his head. "It's a shame so many are so shallow these days."

He was quite surprised his daughter was so aware of the problems with heroes. Most kids her age had this blind admiration for heroes. He could guess why she wasn't as enthusiastic as others, why she would be sceptical of heroes. It didn't matter now though, this was his chance to remedy that, to be there. The only problem was he had no idea how she would react to the boy.

"Speaking of heroes," Toshinori said after a pause, "there was this kid a couple of months ago, attacked by a sludge villain."

Katsumi grimaced. "Gross. Lemme guess, no heroes helped?"

"No, none could get close enough. The kid was fighting it off with some sort of explosion quirk, which made it even harder to intervene."

"So they just left him to fend for himself?" Katsumi snarled with disgust.

Toshinori sighed. "It was a tough situation. I'll admit... I stood by, too. I was exhausted and ready to let someone else handle it. But then, this quirkless kid ran in to save him."

Katsumi blinked, taken aback. "Really?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "He couldn't do much, but seeing it pushed me to step in. Both kids ended are fine."

Katsumi sat back, and after a moment, her frown returned. "Shame that kid doesn't have a quirk. I bet he'd make a better hero than half the kids who'll be in my class."

Toshinori felt a weight lift from his shoulders. Maybe, just maybe, Katsumi would be more understanding of his plans than he initially feared.

"Well, focus on yourself," he said gently. "Be the best hero you can be."

"Yeah, that's nice and all," Katsumi muttered, glancing out the window again. "But it doesn't actually change anything."

Toshinori decided it was best to tell her about One for All and Midoriya another time—when she wasn't so exhausted. He was grateful when they finally turned the corner and saw the gate to his- no, their- home.

"Alright," he said, pulling into the driveway. "We're here."

Katsumi wasn't surprised by how normal the house was. All Might was known for donating most of his money to charity, so she hadn't expected a mansion. In fact, it was smaller than her house back in LA, but that house had been huge… so maybe it wasn't that much of a normal house.

She didn't care much about the size, though. What caught her attention was the pool in the backyard, as long as she still had a pool she would be fine. Her dad had also mentioned a gym in the basement with plenty of weights- perfect since she hated public gyms.

She had planned to throw herself onto the nearest soft surface and go straight to sleep, but when her dad offered to make curry, she figured she could stay awake for another hour. After all, it wasn't even that late. After dumping her luggage in her new room, she unpacked a little while he cooked. She tossed her clothes into the wardrobe and took out a couple of rolled-up posters. She was just sorting out her laptop charger when her dad called her for dinner at nine-thirty.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, it felt nice talking to him after so long. The last time she'd seen him was when he'd visited LA, two years ago. It had ended in a ridiculous fight with her mom over a gift. Her mom had barely let him visit as it was, and after that incident, his Christmas visits had stopped altogether, she was lucky to get a Facetime every now and then.

Since her mom had moved them to America when she was eight, Katsumi received birthday and Christmas presents from her dad every year, whether he delivered them in person or sent them over, the latter being more common. They were usually things she'd been into when she was younger or generic gifts you'd find by searching 'best gifts for teenage girls' on Google. Whether it was because he didn't care enough to put thought into it or just had no clue what to get her, she didn't know. Most of those gifts ended up shoved in the back of her closet. But for her thirteenth birthday, he had sent her a perfume. She'd worn it every day until it ran out and begged her mom to buy her another bottle.

The only time she regularly talked to him was on Father's Day when her mom let her call him from her phone. Her mom always insisted she shouldn't bother him often—he was a busy man, after all. She didn't even let Katsumi have his number until recently. Katsumi doubted it was about not bothering him, though. More likely, it was just another way to keep her away from him.

Her mother and All Might barely spoke. He wasn't on her birth certificate, they had never married, and her mom refused any financial support. Being successful in her own right, her mom didn't see the point in maintaining contact. To the rest of the world, there was no connection between them, so to her mother, there was no need to acknowledge him. Katsumi sometimes wondered if her parents had ever really been in love. Maybe it was the remnants of that love that had turned her mother so cold toward him.

It wasn't until Katsumi got arrested for fighting another student that her parents were forced back into communication. 'Unlawful use of a Quirk in a public space' and 'grievous bodily harm' or something, she didn't remember what the police threatened to charge her with. Katsumi thought it was ridiculous they had both agreed to the fight, why should she be arrested because she won? Her dad's agency handled it (likely by paying the police off), but both of her parents agreed it couldn't happen again. Grounding, restricting her tech, and community service were all considered, but All Might had a different idea.

"It's obvious the kid has a lot of energy," he had said. "If she wants to use her Quirk to fight, let her- but in a productive way of course."

He was already planning to teach at UA, so it was decided that Katsumi would attend the school so he could keep an eye on her. Her mom had argued that there were plenty of good hero schools in America if that was the route they were going to go. That and Japan's villain problem was worse than the US and she didn't want her daughter in a dangerous place like that. But after handing Katsumi a Japanese newspaper article on their crime rates, she realized her daughter could barely read it. Reluctantly, she agreed to send her to Japan. So much for caring about her safety.

Katsumi suspected her mom had grown tired of her anyway- her dislike for Katsumi seemed to outweigh her hatred for All Might nowadays.

Annoyingly, Katsumi's birthday was on March 15th, a couple of weeks past the cut-off date for UA's next class. Technically it made her unable to apply as she would be joining high school at sixteen, while her classmates would be fifteen. Luckily her dad had spoken with the principal, and it was decided that Katsumi would be recommended to take the next entrance exam in February, despite not meeting the age criteria. If she passed, she'd join the first-year class in April.

In the meantime, she was technically being 'homeschooled' for eight months. To Katsumi, the idea of no school for that long almost made getting arrested worth it- though she hadn't dared say that to either of her parents.

After dinner, Katsumi said goodnight to her Dad, pleasantly surprised with his cooking abilities. She brushed her teeth, changed quickly, and was in bed by ten past ten. She hoped the big meal and the long flight would knock her out, but instead, she tossed and turned, her heart racing as her mind refused to settle. It was worse than before, she always had a harder time sleeping when she was in Japan. Maybe she should just give up and take her sleeping pills.

She was back in Japan.

She was back in Japan.

In the back of her mind, something screamed at her, a warning she was desperately trying to ignore. Frustrated, she got up and rummaged through her duffle bag, pulling out the pill bottle. Swallowing a pill, she told herself she'd be okay. She'd been taking these since she was eight. She would be happy here. She wouldn't let old memories ruin this second chance at having a real father.

Climbing back into bed, she squeezed her eyes shut.

At midnight, her dad walked upstairs to go to bed. Passing by Katsumi's room, he noticed the door slightly ajar. He stepped closer, peeking inside. A soft smile tugged at his lips as he saw her silhouette beneath the covers, her breathing steady. But his eyes drifted across the room and his face fell when they landed on the open bottle of pills on her desk.

Tiptoeing in, he picked up the lid and the bottle, sealing it quietly. Her insomnia and nightmares were one of the few things her mother had bothered to tell him about. She blamed him of course, declaring his fights with villains were worrying the child into severe stress. Placing the pill bottle back where it belonged, he left the room as silently as he had entered, gently closing the door behind him.

As he got into bed, he made a silent promise to himself: by the time Katsumi graduated from UA and became a hero, she wouldn't need those pills to sleep anymore. That was the least he could do for her.