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Midoriya was supposed to meet All Might for lunch. It was a Saturday so they didn’t have school, but his mentor had promised a bit of extra training over the weekend. They were going to meet up for ramen and then go out to train. Usually they went to the beach, so that was where Midoriya assumed they’d be going this time.
“I’ll be back in time for dinner!” he called, slinging his backpack over one shoulder as he started to head out the door.
“Oh, Izuku!” Inko said. Midoriya lingered in the doorway, waiting as his mother appeared from the other room, holding the laundry she’d been folding. “Invite Mr. Yagi to dinner, will you? I haven’t seen him in awhile and I want to make sure he’s eating.”
Midoriya couldn’t help but smile. He was really glad his mother and All Might were getting along well. They both meant a lot to him and it was vital to him that they like each other. Luckily, his mother was the sweetest person on the face of the planet. She seemed to really enjoy seeing All Might for dinner and whenever he walked Izuku home.
“Yeah, I will,” he said. “He can’t-”
“I know all the rules,” Inko said. “I’ll make something everyone can enjoy. You just make sure he comes home with you!”
Midoriya laughed again. “I will, I will,” he said. “Thanks, Mom! I’ll see you!” He stepped out the door, letting it shut behind him as he jogged down the street towards the restaurant.
It was a really nice day out, so Midoriya didn’t mind the walk. It was the end of March so the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom. That made the walk very pretty, too. There were a few pink petals in his green hair when he arrived, scanning the tables for All Might. He found him, sitting at a table for two in the outside seating area. He caught sight of Midoriya at the same time, smiling and waving him over. “Young Midoriya, over here,” he called.
Midoriya waved, weaving through the tables and chairs to plop down across from All Might. He noticed before he even arrived that there were already two bowls on their table. “Hey!’ he said brightly. “Am I late?”
“Oh, no,” All Might said. “You’re on time. I got here a little early and I went ahead and ordered your usual.”
Midoriya shrugged off his backpack, tucking it under the table at his feet. He inhaled deeply from the steaming bowl of ramen, sighing happily. “This smells so good,” Midoriya said. “Thank you!”
“It’s no problem, my boy,” he said.
Midoriya couldn’t help but beam when he picked up his chopsticks and dug into his bowl of ramen. He looked up at All Might who was going about his bowl markedly slower with the same intensity. He’d never really had a dad. His father had left to ‘work overseas’ when he was very, very little, so young that he didn’t remember him at all. But All Might acted like he imagined a dad should. He ordered Midoriya’s ramen before he arrived to make sure it would be ready for him. He made sure he got to the doctor when he was hurt. He had lunch with him during some school days. All Might texted him pictures of interesting birds he saw or funny images and jokes he thought Midoriya would enjoy. He protected Midoriya with his life. He believed in Midoriya, really and truly believed in him like a parent would. All Might was, really, the only dad he’d ever known.
Thinking about his parents reminded Midoriya of the task he’d been given by his mother. “Oh!” he said. He slurped a last noodle up before he looked up at All Might, who had paused with his chopsticks resting on the rim of the bowl. “Mom wanted me to have you come over for dinner tonight,” he said. “She says she hasn’t seen you in awhile and she wants to make sure you’re eating.”
All Might smiled softly. “I’d love to come by for dinner,” he said. He slurped up another one of his noodles before he continued to speak. “You’ve got a pretty wonderful mom, don’t you?” he asked.
Midoriya blushed a little but he was still smiling. “Yeah, she’s pretty cool,” he said. He dipped his head over his bowl, slurping up another mouthful. They were quiet for a few moments, eating, before All Might spoke again.
“She reminds me of my master, a bit,” he said.
Midoriya perked up at the mention of his master. He was very curious about the woman who had held One For All before All Might but he never asked much about her. “My mom does?” he asked after swallowing.
“Yeah,” All Might said, smiling softly at the memory. “They do their hair the same way.”
All Might seemed very fond of his master, Midoriya thought, but there was definitely more to the comparison than their hairstyle. Whatever it was, it seemed like a happy memory. He seemed pleased with the nostalgia of it. She must have been a very lovely person for him to be so happy with remembering her.
“Was she your mom?” Midoriya asked. “Your master, I mean. She seems really important to you.”
“She was,” All Might admitted. “She still is. I care about her very much. We weren’t biologically related, except through One For All I suppose, but she was my mother.”
“What happened to your other parents?” Midoriya asked. He winced slightly when he’d spoken. “Oh, I’m sorry. That’s probably a, uh… Sore subject.”
All Might shook his head slightly. “It’s alright,” he said. “I don’t mind talking about them now. I never had a father. He held me once after I was born, I was told, and then he left. And my mother…” He trailed off, his brow furrowing. “She never cared for me much. She was very distant. Never touched me, never played with me, never really spoke to me. Impressing her was an impossible task. And when she discovered I was Quirkless…” All Might shrugged. “She really wasn’t happy. I’m not sure she ever wanted a child in the first place and she was at least consoled with the fact that I would have a Quirk. I would be special. But I wasn’t. I couldn’t give her anything.” He paused, taking a breath before he spoke again. “I wasn’t happy, either, because she didn’t care about me. I spent almost all of my time outside the house working or training. Even though I didn’t have a Quirk, I still wanted to help people and I decided being strong couldn’t hurt. I wanted so badly to help people, to the point that if I wasn’t actively doing something for someone else, then I wasn’t worth anything. I felt that way for a very long time.”
Midoriya felt his heart sink a little. No one deserved to feel like that, least of all All Might, who had done so much good and was so good himself that he deserved absolutely nothing but good things.
“To be honest,” All Might continued, “I still struggle with that sometimes. Especially now. But I’ve learned and I’m still learning that it’s very heroic to take care of yourself and ask for help if you really need it.” He looked up from his bowl to meet Midoriya’s eyes again. “Promise me you’ll take that to heart, my boy. Take care of yourself and don’t force yourself to suffer needlessly.”
Midoriya bobbed his head again, slurping up another mouthful of noodles. “Of course,” he said. He was listening intently as his mentor spoke but he didn’t want to make it awkward by just staring at him the entire time so he ate while he listened.
“I got my first lesson in that when I was about 12, I believe,” All Might said thoughtfully. “That was when I met Nana.”
“That was her name, right?” Midoriya asked. “How did you meet her?”
“It was,” All Might said. “Nana Shimura. I was working for a delivery company at the time, loading and unloading orders. I was unloading large bags of flour for a bakery in an alley when I heard something happening around the corner. It sounded a lot like a fight and I went to help.”
“Even though you didn’t have a Quirk,” Midoriya said. “Just like I did for Bakugo and that sludge villain.”
All Might smiled, nodding. “I did tell you then that you reminded me of myself when I was younger. You were Quirkless, like I was, but you already knew that. But you charging after your friend even though you didn’t have a Quirk to fight with… It resonated with me because I’d done the exact same thing.”
“So what happened?” Midoriya prompted.
“It was a fight,” All Might said. “A villain was trying to kidnap a child…”
***
The thump of the heavy bags of flour against the alleyway and each other had become routine, almost musical. Toshinori was only 12 years old, but he stayed out of the house as much as he could. He hated his house. It was just a building, four walls over his head, but it wasn’t his home. It wasn’t even close to being a home. He thought maybe, if he earned enough money, he could get a home of his own. If he wasn’t working, he was training. Maybe, he thought, if he was strong enough, he could become a Hero. He could save people. Maybe he could be worth something.
He reached into the bed of the truck again, picking up a 22 kilogram bag of flour and heaving it on top of the stack. He knew they weren’t going to bust when he threw them because he’d done this enough times that he knew his strength, knew the strength of the canvas bags. It was part of his routine. But what wasn’t routine was a high-pitched scream. Toshinori instantly stiffened, listening as the woman who had screamed kept speaking. “No! No! You give her back, you give her back right now!” There was crying, too, from what sounded like a girl younger than he was.
Toshinori didn’t think. He just moved. He leapt out of the back of the truck and hit the ground running. He skidded on some loose gravel, listening for the screams. He turned to his left, sprinting towards the sound of the commotion. He made it two blocks before he saw them, to his right. There was a man standing there, holding a little girl maybe 7 or 8 years old, against his chest with his right arm. His arm was disproportionately largely then the rest of his body. Must be a Quirk, then, he assumed. The girl was squirming, crying, and the man was trying to hold off the woman. She was pounding on his arm, sparks flying from her fists, while he tried to hold her off with his free hand.
“Hey!” Toshinori shouted, balling his hands into fists and charging forward. “You put her down!”
Both the man and the woman hesitated. The woman lost less time. She kept hitting him, beating his arm. The man, though, spent a second or two longer trying to figure out who Toshinori was. The mother didn’t care.
The man shook his head, tightening his grip on the little girl. “Get out of here,” he snapped. “Get the fuck out. This isn’t about you.”
“You’re hurting an innocent person,” Toshinori said. “That makes it my business. Let her go.”
The man laughed wryly, shoving the woman to the ground and starting to turn away. Toshinori charged forward again, his mind racing. He had to get him to put the girl down but without hurting her. Since he was starting to turn away, it gave Toshinori an opening. He aimed a blow at the back of the man’s knee. The knee buckled slightly and the man Toshinori had attacked growled in rage. He spun around, swinging his free left hand. While it cut through the air towards him, it grew until it connected with his face.
Toshinori’s head snapped back for the force of the blow. He could hear something crack in his face, feel warm blood dripping from his nose, but it didn’t deter him. As soon as his head popped back to where it was supposed to be, he darted forward again, using his height - he was considerably shorter than the man - and the element of surprise to his advantage. He obviously wasn’t expecting a 12 year old boy to fight back. The man adjusted the trajectory of his punch as Toshinori came towards him and he looked certainly surprised when Toshinori grabbed his wrist and twisted. The man was bigger than him and Toshinori knew that. He knew he wasn’t going to get the man’s arm behind his back. What he was hoping to do was get his focus off the girl and onto himself.
Luckily, his strategy worked. The man snarled in rage, trying to yank his left arm from Toshinori’s grip. His arm started to swell and expand, growing larger, and as it did, Toshinori noticed something happening. The man’s other arm, the one holding the little girl to his chest, shrank slightly. There were limits to his Quirk, then. Maybe… Maybe there was a limit to how long he could use it, too.
Toshinori tightened his grip on the man’s arm, using all of his strength to twist it back farther. The man snarled again, the arm Toshinori had a hold on expanding again. “Go!” he shouted.
“Go?” the man said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Toshinori grunted. He had been talking, of course, to the little girl. Luckily, she’d heard him. Toshinori hadn’t expected the shifting of the man’s Quirk like it had, instead hoping just for a distraction to give the girl an opening to squirm out and run. However, Toshinori’s distraction worked better than he hoped. When the arm holding the little girl to the man’s chest shrank, it loosened the hold on her. At Toshinori’s shout, she drove her tiny elbows into his stomach and was able to free herself from his hold.
The man grabbed for her but she was small and fast, scrambling away from him. The man howled in rage, jerking and spinning over his left shoulder with such force that his left arm was jerked from Toshinori’s grip. He punched the 12 year old boy again, this time in the stomach. Toshinori flew backwards, all of his breath leaving his body and droplets of blood from his nose flying into the air. He hit the ground and skidded back a foot or two before he clambered to his feet again, standing between the man and the mother and child.
“Get out of the way, kid,” the man snapped.
“No,” Toshinori said, standing his ground firmly. He wiped the blood off of his face before holding his fists up again. “I could do this all day.”
The sound of wind rushing above them drew the eyes of both Toshinori and the man he was fighting. There was a figure leaping from the top of the building behind Toshinori. She landed between Toshinori and the angry man, her left foot flat with her leg at a 90 degree angle, her right knee just barely above the pavement and her right fist creating a crater. She was wearing a black sleeveless bodysuit with white boots, a white cape, a red skirt, and yellow gloves. Her dark hair was tied up in a bun. She straightened up, a wry smile on her face, and glanced over her shoulder at Toshinori for a moment. “It’s going to be alright,” she said, still smiling, “because I am here!”
Toshinori’s breath that he’d barely recovered from the man’s blow was taken away as the woman cocked her fist back and punched the man square in the face. He flew backward like he weighed nothing at all and Toshinori got the feeling that he was nothing to her at all. He thunked into a wall, crumpling to the ground unconscious.
The woman - the Hero - turned back around, addressing the mother and the little girl. “Are you alright? Did he hurt either of you?”
“No,” the mother said. Toshinori turned, too, and saw the mother holding the little girl close to her chest, the girl’s arms around her neck. “We’re alright. That boy, he saved her. My ex-husband was going to take her.”
The woman in the cape turned to look at Toshinori for a moment, smiling. “The police are on their way, miss,” she said. “They’ll get him put away. He won’t be able to hurt you or your daughter ever again.”
“Thank you so much,” the mother said. Her eyes shifted from the Hero to Toshinori. “You saved her,” she said. “You saved my baby.”
Toshinori opened his mouth to speak again but he didn’t get a chance. The mother stumbled forward, throwing her free arm around Toshinori’s neck and hugging him tight. His stomach ached more intensely where he’d been punched where she squeezed him but he didn’t mind. It felt good. He hadn’t saved the little girl for the praise. Seeing how relieved and happy she was to have her daughter safe… That was why he’d done it. He’d saved the little girl because she deserved to be saved.
She pulled back from the hug, cupping his cheek with one hand. She leaned forward, kissing him on the forehead. “I can’t ever repay you.”
“You don’t have to, ma’am,” Toshinori said sincerely. “It was the right thing to do.”
She smiled at him again, a relieved smile. She turned and started to leave, kissing her daughter on the temple and talking softly to her. Toshinori felt his heart swell again. He’d done that. He’d reunited that family. For a moment, he’d been a hero. A real Hero. He sighed softly, but his sigh pulled on his chest. He winced slightly, shifting his weight.
The hero in the cape started towards him, one hand on her hip. She was grinning widely. “That was something else, kid,” she said.
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said. “I did my best.”
“How’d you end up here?” she asked curiously.
“I was working down there when I heard someone yelling and I just ran over,” Toshinori said, gesturing the way he’d come. He moved to stick his hands in his pockets but was distracted when blood dripped down his face. He was reaching up to wipe his face again when the Hero tutted and stepped forward. She touched his chin, lifting it up with his fingertips.
“Got a little bit banged up, didn’t you?” she said, tilting his head to the sides to look at his face closer. She reached up either her other hand now wrapped loosely in his cape and carefully started dabbing at his bloody nose. It was gentle and motherly which was what threw him off. His mother had never treated him like that. He sighed softly, contentedly, letting her lean down and clean him up.
“Little bit,” he said.
She clicked her tongue again, dropping her cape and opting this time for licking her finger and wiping a smudge of blood from his cheek. “My name’s Nana Shimura,” she said. “Who are you?”
“Yagi,” he said. “Toshinori Yagi.”
“Well, Toshinori,” Nana said, “you held your own against that villain. Did you use your Quirk?”
“Uh… No,” he said. “I don’t have one.”
She stopped, putting one hand back on her hip. “You don’t have a Quirk?” she asked. “But you went right for that man anyway, knowing he did?”
Toshinori nodded slightly. “Yeah,” he said. “Someone was in trouble so I just… Did.” He shrugged.
Nana tilted her head back slightly and let out a laugh. “You are something else, Toshinori Yagi,” she said. There was a little bit of a sparkle in her eye, like he’d just said the answer to a question only she knew.
“Well, you should probably see a doctor about that,” she said, gesturing to his nose and his stomach. “I’m no good at setting broken bones. Do you have parents?”
Toshinori hesitated. He had a mother, technically. But was she going to take him to the hospital? Probably not. She wouldn’t be proud of him for helping, she’d be irritated that he didn’t do any better and got hurt in the first place and angry that he’d interrupted whatever she was doing.
“No,” he said. “I’m on my own.” He wasn’t lying, either, because he was on his own. He’d been on his own for almost as long as he could remember.
Nana clicked her tongue again. “That won’t do,” she said. She turned away from the crime scene and gestured for him to follow. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Let’s go?” Toshinori asked. He started to follow her, wincing when the motion jarred his ribs. “But the criminal, ma’am, you-”
Nana waved her hand. “Nana, please,” she said. “And he’s taken care of. The police are already here.” And so they were, handcuffing the unconscious man with two normal-sized arms. “I’m more concerned with getting you taken care of.” She paused beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Toshinori, are you alright? You’re crying.”
Startled, Toshinori reached up to touch his cheek with his fingertips. They came away wet, not with blood this time but with tears. “Oh,” he said. “I didn’t realize it.” He’d learned a long time ago to cry quietly so he wouldn’t disturb his mother. He must’ve gotten so good at it that he could cry without even himself noticing.
Nana swept forward, pulling him into a hug. It was strong and comforting, a warm weight he’d never felt before, but it wasn’t strong enough that it unbearably hurt him. He didn’t know what to do for a moment, didn’t know how to respond, but it felt right to hold her back so he did. He was hugging someone who seemed to have a genuine interest in his health and well-being. “Toshinori, why are you crying?” Nana asked softly in his ear.
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice shaking a little with his shoulders. “I don’t know. I want to be a Hero so bad. I want to help people but I can’t, I’m… I’m useless. You’re the first person to treat me like I’m not. You’re the first person to treat me like a Hero.”
“My boy…” Nana pulled away from the hug, leaning down to cup his face in both of her hands and wipe away his tears with her thumbs. “Don’t cry, Toshinori,” she said. “You’re worth something to me. You’re not useless. Did you see what you did back there? You reunited that family. That would never have happened without you. You’re so, so special. Who cares if you don’t have a Quirk? That was pretty damn Heroic to me.”
Toshinori laughed softly, a breathy, watery laugh. Nana smiled before she kept speaking.
“You don’t need a Quirk to be a Hero,” she said. “Don’t you ever give up on your dream because I have a very, very good feeling that you’re going to be the greatest hero of all someday. Promise me, okay? Promise me you’ll put on a big winner’s smile and fight on with all your might.”
Toshinori nodded slightly again, his dark eyes wide and shining with tears. “I promise,” he said softly.
“Good,” Nana said. She smiled again, bright and warm like the sun, and straightened up. “Let’s get you taken care of, little Hero.”
***
“With all your might,” Midoriya repeated. “Is that… Is that where you got your Hero name? From her?”
All Might nodded. “It was,” he said. “Fight with all of your might. That was something she said often to me. I wanted to keep a little bit of her spirit with me so I took the name to honor her, what she stood for, and what she did for me.”
“That’s awesome,” Midoriya said, slurping up another few noodles. “That’s a really awesome story. We’re the same!”
All Might smiled again. “We are,” he said fondly. “We’re a lot alike, my boy.”
“She sounds like a really nice person,” Midoriya said. He’d realized while his beloved master was talking that he knew so little about All Might. “I would’ve liked to have met her.”
“She would’ve liked you,” All Might said. “She liked most everyone. She would’ve seen the Hero in you that I did when we met. That I do now. She saw a Hero in everyone, even in a 12 year old Quirkless boy with no family. She took me in that day and I haven’t seen my mother since.” He paused, thinking for a few moments. “Nana told me a few years later that a part of her knew that day that she was going to give her Quirk to me.”
“Like you did for me,” Midoriya said, a little in awe.
“Exactly,” All Might said. “Although she did have a bit more time for training, time I would’ve liked to have had with you. I was about 13 when she gave it to me. And even then I had a few years before my own entrance exam.” He tilted his head down slightly, lifting his chopsticks up to his mouth and swallowing a few noodles from it.
“My,” he said, lowering his chopsticks. “I don’t think I’ve ever talked that much about myself.”
“Well, you can talk about yourself to me if you want,” Midoriya said. “I’m a good listener. And I like hearing about you.”
All Might smiled at Midoriya again. “Thank you, my boy,” he said. “I appreciate it.”
“And you know what, Dad?” he prompted, the familial term of endearment unknowingly slipping from his lips.
“What?” All Might asked.
“I think Nana would be proud of you,” he said. “I think she’d really like who you turned out to be.”
***
Walking away from the Midoriya household after a lovely dinner, Toshinori was alone but he didn’t feel alone. He felt like he had that day so many years ago when Nana Shimura held his face in her hands and told him he’d be cared for. “Well, Mama,” he said, “do you think I did alright?”
He may have been imagining it, but Toshinori could’ve sworn he felt a hand on his shoulder.