Chapter Text
“Don’t worry, I’m only going to borrow your body for a few hours. I didn’t realize he was in town.”
Izuku felt a sudden wave of irritation as, once again, he was being attacked by a villain.
“Ms Inko is going to kill me…” He sighed, shouldering off his backpack, before throwing it in the villain’s eye.
Ignoring the garbled curses our protagonist wasted no time in utilizing the advantage he had created; escaping the dark scary tunnel a less cunning middle schooler would have surely been murdered in.
At least, that is how our story would have gone, with Izuku able to pretend none of this happened when he returned home earlier that day, were it not for a huge blast of wind flinging him into a wall. An indeterminate amount of time later, Izuku opened his eyes, groaning. Squinting up, he could kind of make out a large man emerging from the tunnel, two Dr Pepper bottles in hand.
"Ah shit,” The stranger whispered, not low enough for Izuku to not-hear-him, before jogging over. “Are you alright, citizen?”
Belatedly, Izuku realized the man above him was All Might .
Uprighting himself, Izuku scrambled to his feet and blurted out, "It's really you!"
"It's really me!" All Might grinned, brows still pinched in concern. "Are you feeling okay young man? Not seeing double?”
"Oh, certainly! I mean certainly not, I’m fine– It’s not the first time I've ran into a wall. Um," Izuku bowed multiple times. "Thank you for saving me, I didn’t realize I was surrounded like that– I’ll have to do more research on liquidification quirks later–"
"It's all in a day's work, no thanks is needed! So you want to be a hero then, young man?" All Might asked as he bent more down to his level, Izuku nodded. “Any specific field pique your interest?”
“I’m leaning towards rescue,” Izuku chirped. “My quirk isn’t very suited for combat, but it makes me really fast and able to get people away from danger easily. I want people to see my smiling face, and know they’ll be okay, if that makes sense.”
“Big dreams, but you seem like a smart young man so I’m sure you’ve thought it out,” All Might’s smile seemed to get bigger as he ruffled Izuku’s hair. “Maybe we will work together in the future.”
And damn, if Izuku did die due to head trauma right then? He would have died happy.
Straightening, All Might held up one of the Dr Pepper bottles. “Welp! If you don’t need to go to the hospital it seems my job here is done, I will be taking this evil-doer to the authorities!”
As All Might turned to leave, Izuku felt a bit of panic run through his body. “Wait!”
The large hero turned as Izuku grabbed his previously-thrown-bad, digging through his and pulling out his prized notebook. Flipping to a blank page, the fourteen year old held it out to All Might.
“Before you go, if you have time, do you think maybe I could possibly get an autograph? Please?”
All Might paused, before laughing. Not in a mean way, but full body and very warm.
"Of course young man, hand it here.” All Might fiddled with the pen for a moment, before asking, “Who should I make this out to?”
Izuku hesitated, knowing he wasn't supposed to, but this was All Might! There was no way this could get back to him, right?
Right?
“Use the name Izuku Shimura, please."
All Might promptly started coughing up blood.
"Holy shit are you okay?!" Rushing over, Izuku eyes widened as the number one hero lurched over and continued to gag up blood. "Oh my God! Should I call an ambulance? Was it his quirk? I thought it was just sludge… Wait I should definitely be calling an an ambulance right now–"
While Shimura continued to freak out externally, the Symbol of Peace was freaking out internally.
With dark hair framing a pale oval face, a mole on the right side of his chin, and overly-assuring mannerisms, Izuku Shimura’s resemblance to his Mentor suddenly smacked Toshinori right in the face. Suddenly, it was like Nana was breathing right in front of him, fretting over a scraped knee Toshinori had gotten. Only instead of a scraped knee, Toshinori was gagging on his own lung tissue.
"911, what's your emergency?"
Before the boy got a chance to properly open his mouth, Toshinori snatched the phone out of his hand and hung up.
"Not so fast!" Little Shimura made a face eerily similar to Nana’s as Toshinori waggled his finger at him. "I'll have you know I am perfectly fine."
"You were… you have blood… rolling down your chin…"
Faltering for just a second, Toshinori smiled wider. "I simply overdid it."
"Huh?"
Putting a finger over his lips, Toshinori crouched down as he whispered, "Just between us, it's a drawback of my quirk. I promise it's nothing some sleep won't fix."
The boy slowly nodded, seemingly believing him. Thank God.
"Well, I must be off!" Toshinori stood tall and wiped his face off. “Stay safe, young citizen!"
After taking a few steps back, Toshishinori leapt into the air, little Shimura waving him off.
With nothing but the open air before him, Toshinori wondered what Nana must be thinking. Was she happy they had met? Or, like Toshinori, deeply affected by the cruelty fate had once again shown them by dangling what Toshinori could never have in front of his face?
“WAIT!”
Whipping his head around, the old hero's eyes widened comically as what he could not have quickly gained on him.
The boy has Nana's quirk, Toshinori realized, and suddenly felt like he couldn't breath.
“All Might!" Little Shimura shouted, now flying right next to him. Backwards. "Do you think you could land for a second?”
Ordinarily, All Might would have refused, but ordinarily his mentor's spitting image wasn't the one asking. What could Toshinori say? He was weak.
Finding a suitable roof to land on, little Shimura fluttered down next to him, cheeks pink from the wind. It reminded Toshinori of when he was younger, and Nana would fly him and Kotaro up far above the cities in the clouds. Back when everything was so simple.
“Young man, I don’t think I have to tell you that was against the law,” All Might scolded, tensing a bit as the pain in his side increased. Shit, he didn’t have much time left.
“I’m sorry,” And the kid looked it, too. “It’s just you kind of took my phone– I know it was an accident, totally not blaming you! But my social worker would have assumed I got kidnapped again if it showed I was all the way in Tokyo."
Toshinori felt his heart do a dangerous thing in his chest. “Come again?"
"Oh, there's a tracker on it, for safety reasons," Little Shimura said, as if this was what All Might was confused about, and held his hand out. "So my phone? May I please have it back?"
Dumbly Toshinori handed the phone over, watching the kid fiddle with it for a few moments, before smiling.
"Sorry for bothering you, I promise I won't use my quirk like that again," Little Shimura said as he began to hover above the ground. "Thanks again for saving me! And the autograph! And giving my phone back! And-- uh okay bye!"
Steam started to rise off of All Might’s form as he watched Izuku fly off, but he could barely pay any mind to it as the fact his mentor's kid was abducted replayed over and over in his head. The fact that little Shimura had a social worker was now something burned in his brain.
And, as a true hero, Toshinori knew he wouldn't be able to stay away anymore.