Chapter Text
Toshinori Yagi knew this was the end. In his deflated form, being crushed beneath rubble, all because he ran out of time. Somehow, he wasn’t killed by All for One as he had always truly expected. He had barely arrived on scene when he started coughing blood, and then the villain had used some sort of sonic boom on the building behind him, and the entire thing came down. He could feel it press into his wound, pain wracking his body. His breaths were becoming shallower, and One for All was sand in his fingers as he tried to gain any strength to escape.
He had lived a good life, he thought. Fought a good fight. But he couldn’t die now, not while still possessing One for All. All for One was still out there, and he couldn’t be defeated without Yagi’s quirk. He needed to find someone, even just someone to get the quirk to another person, maybe that one boy Mirai had chosen…
He shook his head. He was getting off track. He needed someone and fast. But where to find people under rubble?
Yagi opened his eyes, which he hadn’t realized he hadn’t done yet. He was worse off than he thought, it seemed. Trying to keep his eyes off his probably worse for wear body, he looked around himself. Most of his surroundings were tightly packed pieces of concrete, only partially covering him. To his left was an opening, leading to the street corner he had arrived on scene from. A very small opening, but one at all. Light streamed through it, and as his eyes adjusted, he saw someone.
The boy was on the younger side, couldn’t have been older than fourteen or fifteen. He had green hair, glowing in the light, and that was just about all that Yagi could see before his vision started to go. He used all of his remaining strength to reach up an arm, and suddenly the boy was in motion, slipping through the gap in the rubble and running up to him.
“Oh no, how do I get you out, how can I help you I-”
“Shh, my boy.” Yagi interrupted. The boy was still mumbling, but quieter now, his arms held like he wanted to help but didn’t know how.
“How do I get you out? Should I call for someone?” The boy was obviously trying to calm himself, like he was trying to not make this worse for Yagi. He appreciated it, but the boy was tearing up and looked very close to sobbing.
“I fear it is too late for me, boy. However, I do need a favor from you.” Yagi met the boy’s green eyes. “I am Toshinori Yagi, but you know me as All Might. I need you to take my quirk.”
“What? You’re All Might? I did see him on scene just a moment ago, but no, you’re so small-” he started rambling again, and Yagi almost felt bad having to interrupt him once again. He was obviously smart. He stepped up for a stranger, went into an (admittedly dangerous) situation just to help someone, and chose to stay in the fighting zone with said stranger while they could both hear the fighting outside. He had the spirit of a hero, if it needed honing to a point.
A good choice to give One for All to, maybe even for the boy to keep.
“I need to you eat one of my hairs. It will pass my quirk to you.” Yagi struggled out, speaking getting harder. The boy finally stopped mumbling, the sentence about his quirk finally registering.
“You need me to what?”
“I have a quirk that can be passed on called One for All. You need to take my quirk so that it doesn’t die with me.” Yagi breathed deeply, feeling that it will be one of his last. He could feel the rubble around him wet with his blood. “It was made to defeat a great evil called All for One. My quirk must be passed on so that he can be defeated. Please, eat one of my hairs.”
The boy’s brow furrowed, but he nodded, plucking a hair from his head and putting it in his mouth, swallowing with a grimace.
Yagi smiled. “Thank you. I’m sorry I won’t be around to help you.” The darkness at the edges of his vision was closing in, the nearby sounds of battle fading out. “If you need help, go to Nighteye Agency, ask for Mirai. Tell them Toshinori Yagi sent you, he’ll know who you are,” Yagi coughed, “or at least who’s quirk you have.”
The boy nodded, openly sobbing now, hiccups and all. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”
“I was not able to be saved today, boy,” Yagi coughed one last time, “but you have the heart of a hero. I believe you can save the next ones, all of them, if you choose to be one.”
The boy reached out for his hand, and the concrete around them rumbled, and Yagi was gone.
—
Midoriya Izuku’s morning had already been one of goodbyes.
“Zuku!” Inko sobbed, hugging her son tightly. He was smiling and sobbing too, both of them mildly flooding the sidewalk.
“I promise I will be okay, mom. We already got everything figured out for the cafe, and I already got my graduation certificate from my online school. Once I get the cafe up and running, I’m going to be even better.”
Izuku had pulled out of public schooling at the start of middle school due to the bullying from his classmates, and had finished a few months ahead of schedule because he could work at his own pace. He had even taken extra classes, as the online courses offered a lot of extracurricular classes, like a few business courses, some first aid, and a lot of coding. He even learned some basics on electronics. Izuku had given up on heroics, but was considering trying to go to UA still for support courses, before he realized that his bullies could still get in, and that it may just be a continuation of his previous school experiences, and decided against it.
“If you need anything for the cafe, just ask your father and I. Do you have the credit card I gave you? You can buy whatever you need for your business with it while you start up,” Inko sniffled and tried to wipe some of the tears off of her face, “or even later on, we can afford it now, and your father and I really want to support you as much as we can from America.”
Izuku nodded, sobbing too hard to reply. He had seen the cafe while walking home from a villain fight. His usual route home had been closed off for road repairs, so he was walking through a part of Musutafu he hadn’t even noticed before. It was mostly older residential buildings, but was right off of a shopping district, so a few of the buildings had a ground floor storefront. A building with what was obviously once a cafe caught his eye. It was three stories, the first being the cafe, and the other two looking from the outside like small apartments. The front window held a “For Sale” sign with a phone number scribbled below it, and Izuku had immediately taken a picture. After doing his research, he brought the idea up with Inko, who was over the moon that her son had found a new plan after giving up on UA, and especially one she could financially support with her new job.
Inko had finally gotten her dream job in America, and was moving there to be with Hisashi after a very long conversation between her, Hisashi, and Izuku. Since he was old enough to get a job and Inko and Hisashi could easily send him money from America, he was allowed to choose to move to America or stay in Japan. Izuku chose to stay, but asked for frequent calls and visits as possible.
The taxi behind Inko honked his horn, and Inko squeezed her son one more time, kissed him on the cheek, and stepped back. He had grown since she pulled him from school, standing tall and healthy, not at all the scared, thin boy she saw when he finally came to her about the bullying. She was so proud of him.
“If you need anything and you can’t get a hold of your father or me, remember to call Mitsuki, okay?” Inko had stayed friends with Bakugo Mitsuki even as their kids had grown apart. Inko wasn’t sure it was Bakugo Katsuki doing the bullying of her son as he wouldn’t say names, but the scars were telling. She had sobbed but Izuku had assured her it wasn’t a problem to be friends with Mitsuki, just that he didn’t really want to see Katsuki at all. Inko had honored this, and he hadn’t seen Katsuki in nearly three years.
“I promise I will. Call me when you land, okay? I love you,” Izuku said, wiping the tears off of his face and steadying his voice. He would miss his mom, but he knew they’d be calling near daily and she would be visiting much sooner than her promised ‘as soon as possible’.
“I will, Izuku, I love you too. Be safe!” Inko loaded her last suitcase into the taxi, still crying. As she got in, she started waving, and both Midoriyas cried and waved to each other until they couldn’t see the other anymore.
Izuku took a deep, steadying breath, and went back inside.
---
Izuku’s new apartment was on the top floor of the building the cafe was in. It was definitely a bit drafty, but was about as well as you can expect from an older building. It wasn’t as small as it once looked, just thin. The stairs were on the right side of the building, and Izuku’s front door opened to his large living room, which had windows out to the front of the building. At the back was a long hallway, with two bedrooms on the left side and the kitchen and bathroom on the right. For a fifteen year old, it was very spacious, and currently not very furnished. His main focus over the past weeks had been fixing up the building in order to get the cafe running, so couch shopping had never really been a priority. Since she was leaving for America, Inko had given him the furniture from their apartment, so despite only living in the space for a few days now it already felt homey. The apartment on the second floor had only been fixed up enough that it was a very basic apartment, without any furniture. Izuku planned to eventually rent it out, but once again, the cafe had been his focus.
The cafe was in great shape now. Underneath the dust and cobwebs of an old building sitting empty for a while, it had been in great condition. The previous owner of the building, after realizing a fifteen year old was calling him with his mom in order to start up a cafe, had given them a great deal on the building. He had previously owned a diner in the space, and saw a lot of himself in Izuku, and gave him a lot of tips on where to buy things and what he should focus on in fixing the place up to running order. Those tips paid off, with him focusing on the lights and wiring in order to make sure it was safe (the electronics and wiring elective classes were paying off!). He looking around for furniture sales in nearby towns for restaurants, and found a good amount of furniture for the cafe, along with appliances.
Ultimately, Izuku was ready to open in the next few days, and was so excited. He just needed one last grocery store run for sugar and he would be ready to go.
Who would’ve thought a run to the grocery store could go so wrong?
---
Izuku was walking down the street, grocery store in sight, when suddenly sound exploded around him. He was knocked flat to his back, arms protecting his head, and when he finally looked up from the sidewalk, he could see heroes fighting a villain down the street next to him.
“Oh no, I have to get out of here,” Izuku said, looking up at the grocery store. He could probably run past no problem, and the store was away from the direction of the fight, he really just wanted to finish grocery shopping, but the sounds of the fight were getting louder and he thought it might be getting closer–
“No worries! I am here!” said a voice suspiciously like All Might, and as Izuku whipped his head rather violently towards the voice, the sound boomed in their direction again, knocking Izuku back and crashing into the building next to him, sending it crumbling down.
The dust hit Izuku like a wall, making him cough, and as he looked up, he could just see a pile of rubble between him and the fight. He slowly stood, rubbing his eyes, trying to get the dust out. After a few blinks, he could see well enough again. The rubble seemed pretty stable as far as rubble in an active fight goes, so unless he started messing with it he was probably fine to gain his bearing there for a moment. The dust started to settle and the fight started to move further down the street, police sirens and booms and sound surrounding him but getting quieter. Izuku looked back at the rubble, and as the dust settled he could see a gap, revealing a small empty space made by the support beams of the corner of the building. Izuku squinted, it looked like inside there was something moving.
The man inside raised his hand towards Izuku, and he was through the gap in the rubble before he could even think.
Izuku wouldn’t lie, he immediately started to panic. Hands in motion but not sure where to press on the bloodied man’s body, he started to talk, not very consciously sure of what he was saying before the man interrupted him.
“Shh, my boy.”
“How do I get you out? Should I call for someone?” Izuku tried to stay calm, keep his breathing even, stop mumbling so bad. The man in front of him was pale, paler than anyone should be, and his body, or what of it wasn’t completely beneath a collapsed building, looked more like a red mess than anything else. His first aid class did not cover this! He didn’t know what to do!
“I fear it is too late for me, boy. However, I do need a favor from you. I am Toshinori Yagi, but you know me as All Might. I need you to take my quirk.”
“What? You’re All Might? I did see him on scene just a moment ago, but no, you’re so small-” Izuku looked the man over, mumbling. He supposed at he had just heard All Might on scene, but this man is so small, small in a way All Might probably could never be, though he supposed his clothes did seem to have the same pattern as All Might’s hero costume, could this really be All Might?
“I need to you eat one of my hairs. It will pass my quirk to you.” The man wheezed out, speaking obviously becoming harder.
He needs him to what?
“You need me to what?”
The man was only taking shallow breaths now. “I have a quirk that can be passed on called One for All. You need to take my quirk so that it doesn’t die with me.” He took a deep breath. “It was made to defeat a great evil called All for One. My quirk must be passed on so that he can be defeated. Please, eat one of my hairs.”
Izuku looked down at his hero, everyone’s hero, dying before him. What are the chances this is just some weird guy with a weird request before death? But also, who would be at a fight, yelling “I am here!” the same way as All Might, in his clothes? He nodded, and reached to Toshinori’s head, plucking a hair as gently as he could. He took a breath and shoved it in his mouth, swallowing it with a bit of struggle. He had never thought about how hard it would be to swallow hair.
“Thank you. I’m sorry I won’t be around to help you. If you need help, go to Nighteye Agency, ask for Mirai. Tell them Toshinori Yagi sent you, he’ll know who you are,” Toshinori coughed blood, and Izuku reached forward, as if he could help, “or at least who’s quirk you have.”
Izuku finally started to cry, the gravity of the situation finally hitting him. He was watching someone die, and there was nothing to be done, the man nearly gone in front of him. Could he have done anything in the time they talked, could he have run for paramedics, or police? Another hero? Could he have changed this at all?
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.” Izuku choked out.
“I was not able to be saved today, boy,” Toshinori coughed again, “but you have the heart of a hero. I believe you can save the next ones, all of them, if you choose to be one.”
The man’s eyes started to close, and Izuku reached for his hand. The fight was getting closer again, but he held it until it went limp, and then he stood, and without a second thought, ran.