Howdy folks, how's it going?
Another weekend, another update. Not much to say here this time around.
As always, huge shout out to Chaos Productions for his help.
And as always, I own neither BNHA nor WH 40K.
Enjoy
/
While the time might have flown by, Toshinori thought, it said something of how long he had been working at U.A. and how used he had gotten to the routine as a teacher that, even as early on as the second day of the internships, he was still keenly noticing just how much more quiet things were around the school with so many of the students away.
Not that he thought it was necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Sure, it might make him feel a bit restless, but even the number one hero could use some downtime every now and then, even if said downtime was at his desk at the teachers' office, catching up on some paperwork. While for once he still had most of his time to burn for the day, boring work was, in its own way, a sign that there was nothing immediately demanding his intervention, and it was ironically enough times like this that made him really felt like his entire career had been worth something.
Still, it was not like he wasn't still keeping an eye on things. Kaina should be calling shortly to tell him how things were going, like he requested. The push for that particular internship to happen may have been on him, but that was all the more reason to make sure it didn't somehow blow up in their faces…
"A call is here! A call is here!"
Ah, there it was.
"Hello there." Toshinori greeted chipperly as he picked up his phone, eyes still firmly on the forms at the table.
"Well, that just goes to show you weren't expecting me." The surly voice on the other end, which was definitely not Kaina, grumbled dryly. "You've never addressed me that friendly like without stuttering in terror along the way."
SHIT!
"S-S-Sensei!" Toshinori finally managed to get out after a few moments of fumbling with the phone from sheer shock, and a few more trying to keep his heart from bursting out his chest. "I didn't expect to hear from you so soon…"
"Yeah, yeah, normally I'd be laughing my ass off at just how scared shitless you are of me, Toshi." Gran Torino, the symbol of peace's once mentor, replied, and by now Toshinori's knee jerk reaction had abated enough for him to pick up on the tone. "But I'm afraid this wasn't just a courtesy call. I have been doing some digging around."
And just like that, all traces of the emaciated man's shock and terror had vanished, replaced by a stern, dead serious look. After the USJ debacle, and the shocking revelation that had followed, Toshinori had reached out to the long retired hero, and shared the painful news about Nana's grandson, what had become of her legacy. The old man's reaction had been little more than a long period of silence and a curt 'I'll look into it', but Toshinori was under no delusions that he had taken it well…
"I wasn't expecting it to go that fast." The emaciated man replied, taking a moment to make sure he was alone in the room, and to brace for what he was sure were going to be bad news… "What did you find?"
"…Nothing good." Torino replied, and as much as his tone was unchanging, Toshinori knew the man long enough to hear the sorrow. "The Shimuras… are all dead. Have been for years now."
…
…
…
…He had been bracing for something of the sort, but still it was painful to hear. It was fortunate he had already been sitting, cause he could feel the strength leaving his legs.
"…What happened?" He heard himself ask, feeling like someone else was speaking through his mouth.
"According to what records I could dig up, their house was completely destroyed. The police and forensic researchers found… piles of red chunks they identified as Kotaro, his wife, her grandparents, their daughter, and the family dog. His son, Tenko, was nowhere to be found. Case was filed as a quirk awakening gone wrong." Torino answered, his tone still gruff and to the point, but not without some cracks. "Considering what you told me about the guy at the USJ, I guess it lines up."
"…And they didn't look for the boy?" Toshinori all but whispered.
"They did, far as the records show, but it went nowhere. Soon as the necessary time passed, the kid was declared dead and the case was archived." The old man replied grimly. A moment of silence followed, giving the number one hero the sinking feeling that they hadn't reached rock bottom yet. "And that's not all of it."
"What else is there…?" The emaciated man prompted numbly, knowing that he wasn't going to like whatever followed.
"Besides checking all of these old records, I tried to track down and talk to as many people that knew the family as I could, to confirm some of the things I read. Neighbors, store owners in the vicinity, teachers and work colleagues, the works." Torino give a slight chuckle, a sound that was completely devoid of warmth or mirth. "It didn't paint a pretty picture. Seems like Nana's brat really resented her leaving him in foster care. Anyone I talked to described him as a harsh man with a very unsympathetic view on heroes. It wasn't unheard of for him to take it out on his kids when they started showing interest in the job. I know it is pointless to speculate, what with any sort of evidence having been destroyed alongside everything else, but…"
…But with that horrifying bit of intel it was all but impossible not to imagine all the ways in which that tragedy may have been triggered. Torino didn't utter the words, but he didn't need to. In the back of Toshinori's mind, he could've almost sworn he heard the faintest of sobs, an alien sound from a painfully familiar voice…
…
…
…
"We failed Nana, Sorahiko." Toshinori finally said, after a long moment of silence. Never in his entire life had the number one hero, the symbol of peace, felt so thoroughly defeated. "We failed her. We should've kept a close eye on that family."
"Don't, Toshi. Don't do that to yourself. Do not torment yourself over what ifs." Torino replied with a sigh, for once actually sounding like the weary old man he was. "You're not omniscient, and neither am I. We couldn't possibly have known that respecting her wishes would have led to this. We thought they were safe, we thought wrong, but what is done is done. There's little we can do now other than deal with the fallout."
"You mean Tomura." The number hero stated rather than asked.
"Yes. Fact of the matter, Toshi, is that despite whatever happened to mess him up that badly, the villain that was once Tenko broke into a school to kill you, and tried to kill children just to spite you." Came the blunt and to the point reply. "Tragic backgrounds only go so far to justify our choices, and his choices are far beyond that. He's dangerous, and we need to handle him as such. Specially when he's clearly not the one calling the shots."
"Ah, so you've come to that conclusion too, uh?" Toshinori replied heavily, as they finally reached the point he wanted to think about the absolute least, but had already resigned himself to.
"Nana's grandson turned into a psychopath out to get you? Bio-engineered monstrosities created specifically to counter you, with multiple quirks at that? You know was well as I do that this has HIS signature written all over it." Torino replied, all but spitting the words as if they were something disgusting.
"Yeah, I didn't want to believe it, but I did see the signs." The emaciated man agreed, and that just further compounded on the failure he felt. "I was so certain I had done it. I turned his skull into paste. No one should've survived that."
"With any luck, you are indeed right and this was just one final fuck you he left behind." Torino conceded. "But a sad truth is that monsters never go down as easily as we'd like. You know what they say, hope for the best, prepare for the worst. It's nice to see that you're actually thinking ahead on that front for once."
Toshinori blinked, the weight of his sorrow and regrets briefly lessened by the sudden confusion at that last statement.
"I don't follow, Sensei." He replied hesitantly, fully, painfully aware of how the other man felt about those who couldn't keep up…
"I'm talking about the search for a successor, you numbskull." Came the predictably grumpy reply. "I've seen the festival footage, and did some digging, it's clear you got a favorite. Trust you to pick someone even more reckless than yourself, Toshi, but at least you picked someone who's clearly not afraid to get shit done."
…
…
…
"…I am afraid you're mistaken, Sensei." The number one hero eventually ventured, after comprehension had finally sunk in. "I, uh… I have no intention of making Young Midoriya my successor…"
In the ensuing silence, he could almost imagine the older man blinking uncomprehendingly. Having been his mentor for so long, Torino could usually read him like a book, and the number of times he had been mistaken in his judgements could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
"…Really?" The older hero replied with open surprise, in what was likely a once in a lifetime occasion, but Toshinori knew better than to point that out. "Why not? And why focus so much on the kid then?"
"In fairness, you're not the only one to have thought so, even Nezu asked me about it. But while I briefly considered it, I've decided he's not a good choice, precisely because even I find him too reckless. As for why I am helping him along regardless, well, I still believe the kid has what it takes to be a great hero without One for All, and I'd like to help him get there." He left out the part about how they met, knowing Torino would never let him hear the end of it.
"Well, I was gonna get on your case for not sending the kid my way, but I guess that makes more sense now. Pity, I actually liked what I saw." The older hero admitted, and Toshinori had to suppress a shudder at the implication.
"For what is worth, I did send him to Kaina…"
"Ah! Then I'm sure that she'll sort him out well enough." Torino replied in approval. "But still, you're gonna have to find someone soon. And on that note, be prepared to deal with Mirai. He's reached out to me, he also thinks you've made your choice, and he's none too pleased. No doubt he's gonna be trying to push that golden boy of his on ya again soon."
Toshinori grimaced at that. He had looked up young Togata, and far as he could tell the boy was well on his way to become an amazing hero in his own right, but something about that particular possibility didn't sit right with him. His former sidekick meant well, but he was far too blinded by his own biases, by his borderline worship of All Might, to recognize one simple truth, one that Toshinori had known for a while but had only recently started to come to grips with himself.
His career as the symbol of peace had, quite simply, been too successful.
Japan, and to some extent the entire world, had become far too dependent on him, and that just made it so, when he'd inevitably need to retire, there'd be chaos in the transition to whatever came next. Picking a successor to take his mantle, to carry that weight on his shoulders alone, would not fix the issue, merely perpetuate the cycle until something inevitably went wrong…
No, the world did not need another All Might. It didn't need one person to be a symbol. It needed anyone to be able to fill that position, for many to be able to work together and share the load. That was the other reason he had decided to be a teacher, to make sure that whoever became his successor wasn't alone, that they would have the people that could stand beside them.
That was something Sasaki had yet to understand, part of why they had their falling out. He could only hope that when next they talked, they could finally come to this understanding…
"I'll keep that in mind." Toshinori replied somberly. "But back to the previous matter, send me all the files you've found, I'll share them with Nezu. He's probably already figured this all out, but it doesn't hurt to make sure."
"Way ahead of you, kid, I sent'em to the rodent myself before calling." The old man replied, and the number one hero could hear his smug smirk. "I say it again Toshi, don't got letting all of this consume you, you're tougher than that. We're gonna make it right, in the only way we can now."
"…I understand, Sensei, thank you." The number one hero replied truthfully. He was fully aware that these revelations had been as hard, if not harder, on the old man than him. "Take care now, and keep in touch."
"That's something I really should telling you rather than the other way around, you numbskull."
With that as a farewell, the call ended, and Toshinori just sat there, staring at nothing. There was a lot of work to do.
"A call is here! A call is here!"
Speaking of…
"Hello?" He asked carefully as he picked up his phone again.
"Say, Toshinori," The voice he actually had been expecting, answered. "Where the heck did you even find this kid?"
/
I'm gonna be completely honest, I had intended to have this two conversations done in this chapter, but then the writing got away from me a bit. The hopefully much shorter second conversation will take a bit of the next chapter, and then the internships will continue.
Also, to the people managing the tropes page of this fic, I'm not sure if it's right to say how every chapter has an Orky Translation Corner when I've only ever managed the one. I swear, I have been wanting to get caught up on those, but I just haven't managed to find the time yet…
Cya all on the next one, stay safe and take care.