Chapter Text
Meeting again at Dagobah beach after everything that happens feels… a little unreal, Izuku isn’t going to lie about that. Even more so knowing that Izuku is going to meet All Might there.
Well, Yagi-san, officially, but… Same difference.
It’s the first time they’ve met since everything that went down at the Commission headquarters, too. Izuku hasn’t actually heard much from everyone who was involved since — Kaa-san has been burying him under hugs and mountains of his favorite foods, and they’ve been keeping busy preparing a room for Eri when she gets out of the hospital (which should be soon now).
Kaa-san hasn’t even forced him to go back to class yet (which Izuku is very thankful for, because Kacchan wants an explanation and Izuku honestly isn't sure what he’s supposed to tell him, if anything).
“Hello, my boy,” Yagi-san greets him with, and Izuku almost starts crying.
“H-Hi,” he stutters back, and Komyo barks out a laugh.
After the perfunctory greetings, they slowly start walking. Dagobah beach still isn’t completely cleared up yet, but this stretch of it is, all the way to the ocean, and they stop there for a moment, listening to the waves. It’s soothing.
“I have something for you,” Yagi-san tells him suddenly, just as Izuku is starting to wonder if Ketsu is going to try to join the birds they can hear calling above, or if he’ll stay down there, in the sand — he thinks it might be a toss-up, really. Ketsu likes to stick close after everything that happened, but he also loves to fly, and this place is safe.
“Huh?” Izuku asks, looking up at Yagi-san.
“Here,” he says, handing out a familiarly-shaped package, wrapped in cloth.
“Is that…” Izuku’s throat closes up and he swallows past a sudden dry mouth, his fingers twitching around the package.
Yagi-san’s lips curl into a wider smile, and his eyes twinkle. “Why don’t you try and open it?”
Izuku’s fingers shake as he attacks the knots keeping the package closed. He already knows what he’ll find inside, but somehow, the sight of that golden casing still steals his breath away.
“Are you sure?” Izuku asks, eyes jerking up to All Might again. “I thought… I thought it had been lost.”
Yagi-san nods with an amused hum. “Oh, yes. Destroyed, really. Whatever that machine did, it tragically rendered it useless.” And then, before Izuku’s stomach can start to churn with panic, he winks.
“That…” Izuku licks his lips. “Will that even work?”
Yagi-san shrugs, looking out into the horizon. “Hm. Maybe. Truth be told, the only people who’d know to look for it are in the Commission, and they currently have other matters to handle.” Yagi-san’s eyes take on a hard glint as his mouth purses into something resembling a scowl. “I don’t know what they were thinking, keeping that machine there…”
Izuku nods along quietly, alethiometer cradled against his chest. “Do you think they were working with All For One then?”
Yagi-san sighs. “I’d be lying if I said the thought didn’t cross my mind, but… I don’t think so. I think All For One just did what he did best, and took advantage of other people’s bad decisions.”
“That makes sense,” Izuku says, digging his toes into the sand. “If it had worked, people would have blamed the Commission, and heroes.” They still were, as far as Izuku knew, but it hadn’t really reached the public.
The only way Izuku even knew was because he had the context to read between the lines in the many, many articles that had been coming out in the past week about an incident at the Hero Commission headquarters leading to a change in leadership, and because he’d texted Yagi-san, who’d told him about some of it.
“Indeed,” Yagi-san says, flashing Izuku a proud smile that makes him flush. “But enough about this — high school starts in just a few weeks. Have you figured out what you will do?”
“I…” Izuku’s stomach churns. “Not really. I still want to be a hero, of course — now more than ever, even! — but I don’t know…” He looks down at his hands, and finds himself staring into the polished surface of the alethiometer, reflecting his face back at him.
“I didn’t exactly get accepted into any hero school,” he continues, guilt curling in his guts.
Kaa-san had tried to appeal, Izuku thinks, but they’d told her it was too late. he’s pretty sure they’d laugh him off if they knew he was quirkless too.
“Mmh,” All Might says, eyes twinkling again. “I might be able to help you with that.”
Izuku’s heart lurches in his chest. The alethiometer almost slides through his fingers as he takes a fumbling half-step forward. “W-What?”
Yagi-san laughs with All Might’s booming laughter, and Komyo trots over to bump her head against his leg. “Toshi, stop teasing the boy,” she says, but it’s pretty clear she’s grinning as well.
Yagi-san’s mirth eases up into a softer smile. “When I said I had something for you earlier, I didn’t just mean this,” he says, nodding down to the alethiometer.
“Oh?”
“Yes.” This time, Yagi-san pulls free an envelope from his pocket. It is slightly crinkled around the edges, but Izuku’s hands shake as hard when he accepts it as they had when he’d taken the alethiometer.
“Open it,” he says.
Fingers trembling, Izuku does. The letter inside is short, but it doesn’t need to be long. Izuku’s hold on the paper tightens, threatening to tear it, and he forces himself to release it. His eyes start to burn.
“Is this real?” he asks, voice raw. He doesn’t dare take his eyes off the letter, lest its content changes.
“My boy, what else would it be?”
“Izuku, what is it?” Ketsu asks, coming over.
Wordless, Izuku just extends out an arm for him to climb up and take in the letter too.
“You— That— What?” Ketsu stutters out once he does, almost toppling off Izuku’s shoulder. “This says we just got admitted into UA’s hero course,” he says.
Izuku nods, still speechless. His fingers trace the unfamiliar words, and Nedzu’s signature, at the bottom of the page.
“The staff at UA was rather impressed with how you handled yourself during this whole crisis,” Yagi-san says smugly. “And they agreed when we pointed out it’d be a shame to let you slip through our fingers.”
Izuku chokes out a sob. “Thank you,” he breathes out.
Yagi-san laughs again. “No, my boy, thank you.”