Chapter 2: Seeing Through the Symbol
"Shit, how the hell did you catch up so quickly?!" The villain panicked as he threw long tendrils of sludge towards the number one, hoping to slow him down long enough for him to escape. His anger at the kid that was still holding his fucking eyeball was forgotten in the moment.
Alas, his efforts were in vain as it didn't even seem like the symbol broke a sweat dodging his strike. "It takes more than just a little confusion to keep me away when there are people in need!" Rushing the villain, he closed half the distance before he or Midoriya would even see him move to begin with. He would have easily closed the distance completely but he had something else in mind as he pulled back his massive fist. "Texas-"
'Oh no.' Midoriya instantly realized what was about to happen and hunkered down, keeping his feet in place before-
"Smash!" All Might finished one of his iconic ultimate moves, punching the air with so much power that it generated a powerful wind current blast that flew right at them. The villain was caught right in the centre of it, feeling the force of a hurricane battering him, and with it, his control over his semi-liquid body started to fail as the wind tore him apart.
'Wind pressure?! He can do this with just a punch?!' The villain thought to himself in panic before he felt his body be torn apart by the wind, knocking him out as he was splattered across the floor and wall like water from a balloon.
'He's as powerful as I thought-no, he's even stronger!' Midoriya felt his feet moving back, their grip on the earth weakening even as he put more effort into it. despite that, he was smiling at this experience, giddy to be in the presence of someone like All Might, a man who preached hard work over natural talent and was the living result of that.
With the attack finished, All Might was expecting to see the slime villain reduced to a living splatter, and the boy he was assaulting on his but to his shock, the kid that wouldn't be older than a middle schooler was still on his feet. With their being visible drag marks on the floor leading to his feet. 'Strange, he was able to keep on his feet and barely be pushed back.' He knew he had been holding back, but it was still rare to see something like this, he didn't let that bother him as he instead let out a belly-powered laugh. "Hahaha, apologies, young man. Had I not been confused by the city sewage network; I would have apprehended this villain before we could have ever threatened you."
Midoriya didn't even notice that he dropped the eyeball in his fan-boy-fueled excitement, running up to the pro with stars in his eyes. "It-it's fine, All Might. I can't believe it, I'm talking to you, in person, and you're real!" He had only ever seen him on the TV for this, not having the chance to attend conventions like he would have liked for the sake of training, but oh-man, he was going to near drooling over him like this Kamui Woods fan girls and he felt no shame for that.
All Might took this in stride, continuing to laugh as he reached into his shopping bag for something. "Real I am, now, excuse me for a moment, I need to secure the villain before he comes to."
"How are you-" Midoriya started to ask but he saw the man down both bottles of soda like it was nothing, wiping his lip to clear away any excuses, he held up the empty bottles for him to see.
"Now, I have the containers." All Might raced around the underpass, scooping up pieces of the slime villain and forcing it into the bottles, he even managed to get his eyeballs in there…somehow. "And done! This should hold him till I deliver him to the proper authorities." That done, he now held up the bottles which were filled to the brim with the slime villain.
Picking up a smell, All Might smelled his armpit and pulled with a yikes look on his face which faded into a laugh. "Oh my, they tell you that hero business can be messy, but it doesn't save me from how high my laundry bill will be. Word of advice, young man. Stay out of the sewers." Midoriya couldn't stop his head from nodding at high speeds. He might not see him as his idol, but he respected him, he looked up to him for all he had done to help the world and save people.
That only fuelled that small part of him, that little kid who obsessed over All Might and wished to be his sidekick when he got older. Seeing the man turn, most likely to leave to do what he said he would and then help someone else, he made his move. "All Might. If you could answer just one question of mine, please!"
"A question? Very well, young man, but make it quirk. Pros are constantly fighting both villains and time."
"Power or character, which do you think is more important for a hero to have?"
"That is quite simple, young man. A powerful hero is certainly a good thing, but it is the heart of the hero that makes or breaks them."
'He…he agrees with me, HE AGREES WITH ME!' "So, you believe that if you trained hard enough, even a quirkless person could become a splendid hero?" He asked for a follow-up, he knew he had just asked for the one, but he couldn't help himself.
His question, however, grabbed the attention of the top pro in a way that he wouldn't have expected as he stopped himself mere moments before he would have leapt away. Turning back to him, he looked at him with new eyes, having not seen a confirmed quirkless person other than David's daughter in almost 20 years. "Quirkless?" Before anything else could happen, he felt a familiar and unwelcomed pain in his side as his body started to leak steam as he struggled in vain to keep it at bay for just a few more minutes.
Midoriya was shocked by this turn of events and wondered if this was the work of another, maybe the slime villain had an accomplice who was trying to help him escape but he couldn't sense anyone close by. Turning back to the pro, he was about to ask him what he should do but stopped as he didn't see the towering muscle bond man with perfectly kept blonde hair and a reward-winning smile.
Instead, he saw the exact possible, a much shorter man who looked like a stiff breeze could knock him over. He wore the same clothes as All Might, but on his frame, they were several sizes too small, almost like he wore bedsheets to cover himself. His arms, neck and head were all bony, lacking any definition while his blonde hair was much dirtier and unkept compared to All Might. It seemed that the only this imposter shared with the symbol of peace other than clothing choice and hair colour was their eyes, both were a piercing shade of blue that seemed to lock onto and hold anyone in the place, though there was now a sense of exhaustion in them, like a engine that had been on full throttle for so long, that it was close to breaking down.
"What are you?!" Midoriya demanded as he raised his hands, ready to take this man down and call the cops on him if he had to. Even if he had saved him from that villain, he wasn't about to let some prankster insult All Might like this.
Undeterred by the threat of physical violence from the boy, the man raised a hand. "I am All Might-!" His statement was interrupted by him coughing up what must have been a full cup worth's of blood, and with how skinny and frail he looked, he needed every drop!
"That is a terrible lie, also do you need to see a doctor? It's not normal to spew out blood like that!" Midoriya asked him, now inclined to drag him to a clinic so that he could be checked on as this was far from normal.
"Young man," The man signed, looking around before he gestured for him to follow him. "Why don't we take this somewhere more private? There are some questions I need to answer about this situation and my current condition." He didn't know what his game was, and he knew that following strangers to isolated spots was one of the dumbest things he could do. But he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious or concerned about this guy. Besides, if worst came to worst, he would easily take this guy and get the heck out of there.
He followed the man some ways away from the underpass, with him checking on his pockets now and then to ensure that the villain was still secure. After a while, they managed to find a deserted park. The play area looked like it needed to be worked on, but nothing close to what he had seen in other areas. Finding a park away from any bushes or other obstacles that could hide an eavesdropper, the tired and very sickly-looking man all but collapsed onto it though Midoriya remained standing. "Now, All Might impersonator, I believe you owe me an explanation!" He refrained from pointing at him as that would be rude.
"As I said, I am All Might," Midoriya didn't believe that for a second and the man picked up on that as he thought of a way to explain it in a way he would. "You know that thing guys do when they suck in their gut and push out their chest to look like they have muscles? It's like that?"
"…What?" Midoriya didn't understand why he chose that of all examples as he had never heard of that being effective, there was a reason that must do it as a joke, at least the people he knew did it for a joke.
"But…how? How would that add an extra meter of eight and at least 200kgs worth of muscle?" He scratched his hair, he had seen some crazy stuff, especially ever since the master had taken him in and began to train him but he can safely say that he had never seen something like what this guy was describing.
He seemed less annoyed by his question and more amused as he chuckled. "Trust me, young man. There are questions that even I don't have the answers to but when you've seen and done all I have, you learn to stop thinking about the minor details."
"I wouldn't call that minor." He muttered before he shook his head, he couldn't let himself get distracted. "However, I'm still unconvinced that who you say you are?"
"And why is that?"
"All Might always has a fearless smile, one as bright as the sun is warm regardless of if he's signing autographs, giving TV appearances or saving lives from villains and disasters." Midoriya, even if he didn't worship the ground the man walked on, never forgot that core feature of his. That smile, that attitude, that 'you can do it' energy he seemed to bring he was in the scene. Even if All Might couldn't save his family from falling apart, his unending smile helped to save his soul.
"But all I see in your eyes is exhaustion, pain and defeatism, almost the exact opposite of All Might." He narrowed his gaze at this man, someone who walked and spoke like he was expecting death itself to appear and take him. a man whose presence made him feel worry-not relief.
"A fearless smile?" He asked himself "As I've said, I am All Might, but the situation is a little more complicated than it looks, before I tell you more, I'm trusting that you don't speak of this to others to share it online."
Midoriya was about to ask him what more he could say before his eyes widened. The man lifted his oversized shirt, to reveal an ugly pink, red and purple mess of scar tissue on the left side of his torso. It looked as if he had been struck by an electrified industrial drill for goodness sake with the skin tightened and dry. "5 Years ago, I fought against a powerful villain, probably the strongest one to ever exist. While I managed to defeat him, it wasn't till after he did this to me."
He lowered his shirt, taking a pained breath as he did so. "My left lung and stomach were lost and it took multiple surgeries to save my life…but they along with the injury took a toll on my body." He could still recall them, Recovery Girl yelling at the doctors as they worked, the brief moments when Nighteye was at his side between surgeries urging him to live. His teacher was a calming presence whenever he was lucid.
"At present, I can only maintain my hero form, my All Might form for 3 hours a day." He finished the explanation, his shame for his reduced time thick in his voice.
"Just 3 hours…is that why you've been seen less these past few years?" Midoriya couldn't help but ask h-All Might. He had noticed it over the years, he couldn't think of someone who didn't but must assumed he was just getting old, or maybe handling a family issue as no one knew anything about his personal. Even the number 2 hero, Endeavour had more information out there about his adult children.
"Correct, young man. I might wish to work from sunrise to sunset like I used to, but that is no longer possible." He used to irritate his sidekick with that, but he always enjoyed it. Being active, racing to wherever he was needed.
"Was Toxic Chainsaw that much of a threat?" All Might cocked an eyebrow there, that was an obscure reference but he did recall fighting against that villain a couple of weeks before the incident so it would line up.
"Him, no way, as if some gutter punk could hurt me!" The punk's quirk might have been impressive, being able to spread radiation to his immediate area, but All Might was too fast for him. he just rushed him, knocked him out and then carried him somewhere isolated till his body was safe for the police to handle. His total exposure time was less than 10 seconds. "You wouldn't know the name of the villain, or find any reports of news stories on the incident. It was suppressed. I asked them to."
"But why?" All Might looked at him, his bright blue eyes, sunken in his head, capturing the boy and holding him in place as even weakened, he still had his stare.
"Because All Might always has his fearless smile and saves the day. The symbol of Peace can't be daunted by evil, so the people can never know that I smile to mask my fear." He looked to the side, to the city that was one of the many in Japan he defended. It was filled with so many people who were just trying to live their lives, who could only do that because they knew that he was out there, protecting them. If they ever found out about his time limit or heaven forbid, his injury…
He turned away from that line of thinking that was never far from his mind these days. "Young man. Earlier, you asked me if you could become a hero even if you didn't have a quirk. My answer is no. Pros risk themselves every time they put on the mask; they understand that any one of their patrols could be their last. That they might meet their end in a disaster or to a villain. I can't in good conscience tell you that you could do the same without some power.
Midoriya…didn't know what to say to that, but he felt angry. He didn't know why. He knew that objectively; All Might was correct. Without the power to back up your ideals, you'll never accomplish anything, it was a fact of life, more so in the hero business. It was a perfectly rational response, responsible even but-
All Might wasn't meant to be rational; he never did what was logical, he always went beyond. That was what made him the number one! He gave it his all and them some, and pushed himself to his limit and beyond them every day. "But you just said that character matters more than power, now you're backtracking?"
"I never said that. I said that one is more important than the other, but I didn't say that one could survive without both." All Might countered, making him stop at how…wrong that sounded coming out of his mouth.
All Might took his silence as agreement as he got up with a huff, before turning to leave but not before he said one last thing. "If you wish to help people, there are plenty of jobs out there that would achieve this. You could go into medicine, perhaps become a support item engineer, even a detective-!"
"You're just like all the rest." Midoriya interrupted him, his head looking down as he tightened his fists at his side. "Obsessed with power…obsessed with quirks." He should have never expected anything more from him. Not when from the moment he woke up in an empty apartment that his mother hadn't returned to in God knows how long to when he returned to that same empty cold space after another day of dealing with his quirkist school and classmates. Students, his teachers, random people on the street, it didn't matter.
Quirks did. Quirk this, quirk that. What quirk do you have? Don't you think that quirk is cool? Hey, that quirk is pretty villainous. He couldn't go a single DAY without hearing something like that. without someone looking at him like he was defective goods. He tried to keep it contained, to not get angry over something that he had known for years, but all that did was fuel his anger that he had gone the entire day suppressing, the entire day keeping a carefully made lid on but that lid was breaking, and frankly, he was too angry to care.
"Young man, things are more complicated then-"
"No, they aren't!" All Might's eyes widened at his outburst, as in that instant, he felt like something in the boy, call it a 6th sense, but there was something more with him, but he didn't have time to figure out as the boy continued, tears in his eyes born from both deep disappointment and anger. "They shouldn't be complicated. I already know heroes get hurt, that heroes can die, but you…you were supposed to be different. Always given speeches on how anyone can be a hero so long as they had a brace heard and the dedication to self-improvement to better themselves, that the circumstances of our births didn't dictate our destine."
All Might wished to stop him, but found that he…couldn't. Those were his words, weren't they? He wasn't lying when he spoke them, he had always believed in them, didn't he? Thinking on it, when did they become hollow? How much did he allow his injury at the hands of All for One to affect him so?
Midoriya rubbed at his eyes, getting rid of his tears, not wanting to spread them for this, for him. Not after what he learned about him. "What a hypocrite." He felt slapped by these words, as Midoriya turned his gaze to him, devoid of that earlier respect, now they held contempt as he brushed past him to leave. After a few paces, he stopped to say his last piece. "You're not All Might, as far as I'm concerned, he never existed. But your secret is safe with me. My dream doesn't need me to out you. But I will prove you wrong, you can count on that." He didn't say more as he took a breath, cleared his mind and vanished from the pro's sight, leaving him dumbfounded as he looked around for him, never seeing him quietly leave the park.
Getting his stuff from the store, Midoriya found himself in a terrible mood. He had never believed in the saying about meeting one's heroes more than he did now.
'Idiot! Why did you believe him any better than the rest, if anything!' He wanted to smack himself for ever buying into it. that childish hope that he'll be different. He continued picking stuff and tossing it into his cart, most of it generic and cheap fruits, vegetables and spices, with few things with high fat or sugar content. He did make an exception with the fish, getting enough to last him the next 2 weeks, and some premium canned cat food.
Getting to the till, he didn't so much as flinch as the clerk who knew him charged him 10% more than anyone else, he was used to it and he was lucky that this place only extorted him instead of downright refusing him service like other places had. Walking out of the place and out into the open Tatooine market, he felt as if the Heavens themselves were seeing how much they could foul his mood. Stalking towards him, was Bakugo and his two cronies. The blonde looked even angrier than before, most likely because he didn't catch him but he spared him no mind as he walked past him, the boy and his cronies never saw him as he blended into the crowd, as perceivable as a black dot on a black cat.
Getting back to his complex, the only thing that he could say he liked about the place was the garden portion and the trees that lined the walkway. The former was small, but he did his best to care for it, watering the plants and flowers, and weeding it when he could. He always felt at ease when surrounded by the green, though he could never place it. Entering his apartment, he closed the door behind him and kicked off his shoes, not bothered with slippers as he approached the kitchen counter where he dumped his shopping.
He unpacked the staff and put it all into its appropriate place, with that done, he went into his room to change out of his uniform, grabbing some casual stuff and a good, durable pair of shoes from his closet as well as fresh exercise clothing and gear which he packed into a gym bag.
Within less than 20 minutes of coming home, he was already out the door again. Making it to the street level again, he looked up towards the orange skies. "I have maybe an hour left of daylight left." His eyes moved towards the outskirts of town, more accurately, to the mountains that lay outside town, to his destination.
"Then I don't have time to waste." He said to himself as he got into a runner's position, before bolting off, shocking some people on the street as they yelled at him as he went by, with another yelling that he shouldn't be using his speed quirk in public. He never stopped enjoying hearing that, hearing how the fruits of his labour were mistaken for a quirk. Looking at his fitness tracking watch, he saw that he was moving at a good speed, 35km/h but decided to push it as he put his legs into it, and pretty soon, that speed had climbed to 50km/h. Racing through town, he allowed the anger, the frustration, the annoyance. All of it left his body and was replaced with a deep joy, a song of happiness.
It took less than 5 minutes for him to reach the outskirts, where most of the upper-end houses were. A few minutes later, he was out of town and on an old country road that led up the mountain. It was long and winded, with a killer gradient but he had run this route before and he'll keep doing it, so he merely smiled.
Despite his new personal record, it had still gotten dark by the time he arrived at his destination. Seeing the imposing tall walls in the distance, he slowed down his run into a light jog. The lights of the main gate and those on the walls helped guide him into this place, located in the middle of nowhere far away from anything else. Outside, two people stood wearing martial arts gi with bo staffs held at the ready. Seeing him, the dutiful sentries went to attention with Midoriya slowing down as he approached. When he was 10m away, he came to a stop, huffing as he wiped the sweat from his breath.
Despite it being night, the light of the gate and walls illuminated the place more than enough for them to see his face and relax. "You're a bit early." One of them, a man in his late 30s noted as he looked at his watch.
Knowing that it was safe to approach, he did so with a small smile on his face. "I wanted to see if I couldn't beat my time."
He handed his bag to the second sentry, a woman in her late 20s with dyed blonde and red hair. As she looked through his bag for any contraband, she snorted his way. "Eager for training then?"
"Of course, I am, today's the day the master evaluates my progress." He handed a card to the man, his I.D. as while they knew him, the two were strict when it came to protocol. The man checked went into their little guard house to check his I.D. authenticity.
Once he confirmed that it was legit, he handed it back to Midoriya with a snort. "Oh yes, wouldn't want to be late for that. but don't you think you might have screwed yourself over by rushing here and wasting energy?"
Maybe, but Midoriya had been training for years, he had come so far that he didn't think that his trip to the sanctuary would tire him to such an extent. "Believe me, I still have some in the tank. Besides, if that run could jeopardise my odds, then I wouldn't be deserving of the promotion."
"If you say, good luck them. You're going to need it." The woman told him as they stepped aside and allowed him to pass. Walking up to the massive doors, he placed his hands on each of them before pushing them open, revealing the interior that they and the imposing walls hid from the world. Inside, he saw a sprawling and massive property, easily the size of a small town with all the facilities one would need as he could see parks, dorms even if separated by gender for the most part, bathhouses for each, mess halls, a nursery for the young and a school house for the older kids in the community who through one reason or another, didn't attend school somewhere else.
Recreational spaces were plenty for several sports or just simply outdoor fun and the farm areas that lined the main path. As it was night out, there was little activity to be found on them but he had seen them enough in the day to know that could normally be filled with people and farm animals.
As he walked through and reached the buildings that acted as dorms for men and women, he spotted smaller parks and gardens, each with small ponds which he knew were teeming with exotic fish of all shapes and sizes but he could tell most lights in the dorms were out, not hard to see why as he could tell further away, up on the hill, the hot springs seemed to be having no issues with people. Another place people were at this hour was the mess halls, either having their dinner or just hanging out with the rest of the community they're built for themselves within these walls, so far from the judgement and apathy of society.
All of this paled in comparison to what sat at the centre of it all, the beating heart of their sanctuary.
The Dojo.
Looking at it, he felt that just calling that was a gross oversimplification. The picture that came to mind when someone said 'dojo' was a small building, where martial arts were taught, often either out in the boonies or smacked between two modern buildings as if a relic of now past time. But the building he looked up at was anything but. Standing 4 stories tall and sitting on a piece of land the size of 2 thirds of a soccer field, it looked closer to a school than a dojo. Built from wood and painted yellows, red and white, it stuck out among the browns and greens of the gardens that surrounded it.
From where he stood, he could already hear the sounds of training, of feet stamping on the hard wooden floor, of movement as people were thrown or wrestled to the mat, as others went through practice drills to the beat of a drum or the single worded command of a supervisor. It would be intimidating for a first-time visitor but for him.
He wouldn't wait to enter.
Passing by others on their way out, they greeted him warmly which he returned. It didn't take him long to get to the men's changing room and get himself ready.
Stepping into the main training floor, Midoriya had changed out of his street clothes and into his real training gear, not his exercise clothing. This consisted of a worn short-sleeved green karate gi with a brown belt tied around his waist, designating his proficiency to others. In addition, he also wore bandages around his forearms and knuckles with padded gloves to further protect the back of his hands and knuckles when blocking or striking. He had removed his scarf, letting his full face be seen as he walked through the hall towards the other end. Along the way were dozens of people, dressed in a similar style as they through their kata, shouts from supervisors louder than ever, all spoken in unison but different groups did different things.
Looking up at the ceiling, along the beams that crisscrossed it, he could make the near-glowing eyes of dozens of cats that watched them from above, their gaze seemingly implying that they saw more than you thought and that they knew more than they should. Even with the lights illuminating the place, it was like those feline eyes created false stars for anyone who looked their way.
Seeing so many felines wasn't cause for any attention, however, as the dojo space was filled with cat iconography. From statues of cats along the walls to the walls themselves being painted with dozens of carts of all shapes and sizes, from real to fictional, it was clear that this space was inspired by felines. Approaching the end, he finds the person he is looking for. Lounging on a throne-like is overseeing the entire hall, with two massive Siberian tigers lying on either side of her.
The person in question was a tall, muscular woman with amber eyes that while might have been passive in the moment, he knew that they could become infernos at the drop of a hat. A sight that would be all the more intimidating by her careful application of black eyeliner which made her eyes stand out all the more. Her thick orange and white hair was kept in a waist-length ponytail, with what appeared to be orange and white cat ears pocking out the top of her head. With how much hair she had, some of her ponytail was resting on the armrest of her throne.
Her attire on the other hand was quite different to what one would expect from a woman who gave out so much authority and power from just being in the room as it was made up of a revealing red and white knee-length qipao, her midriff exposed to emphasis her chiselled abs which she liked to joke could be used to grate cheese. Woven into her qipao was a golden tiger pattern with black trim, with the entire thing held together by 4 small metal fasteners. Thankfully, she didn't just wear that as she knew her modifications left a lot out in the open, so her bottom half was covered by a loose black silk pair of pants and red sandals. Over this, she wore a white and orange haori with a torn right sleeve, on its back was her crest and the motto written in Japanese which translates to 'Excellence through never-ending diligence'
Her fusion of Chinese and Japanese fashion looked good, but he was just glad she had some pants on else he and everyone else would be seeing what colour underwear she was wearing with how she was sitting.
Upon approaching her, he brought his hands up, with his right clenched into a fist and left an open palm, pressing them together, he bowed before he. "Evening, Kenmikoto-sensei. I am ready for my evaluation."
Looking at him, Teitora Kenmikoto's amber eyes twinkled with amusement as she took a puff of her pipe. "Evening to you as well, my ever-studious student. Couldn't wait the 20 minutes for the evaluation to get going, couldn't you?" He chuckled as his face turned a little red for being called out by her. However, while he would normally feel irritation if not pure anger at this jab, he felt only amused affection from her with a bashful smile stretching itself over his face.
"I'm afraid not master, Kenmikoto-sensei. But the early bird gets the worm." Still bowing, he waited for her to allow him to stand straight which she did by tapping her pipe on her armrest.
"And it fools that rush in and gets nothing," Kenmikoto told her, her eyes conveying a deep wisdom that only years of experience could ever truly bring. "Remember to temper her eagerness, my boy. Even the greatest lion knows when to wait and listen."
"Yes, Kenmikoto-sensei." He bowed once more to her as she got up, stretching her arms over her head which made her abs and… above-average bust stick out all the more as he looked away, still red in the face.
"Still, since you're already here. We might as well start it. I was getting a bit bored. Come." She instructed him as she stepped down from her throne and walked towards a door to the side, her two tigers following behind her with Midoriya behind them. Leaving the dojo hall, they walked through the outdoor paths that lined the building, with the night sky bright and clear to them thanks to their distance from the light population of the city.
"I assume that you had a hard day, Izuku?" She suddenly spoke up, her back to him as she took a drag at her pipe.
"How did-forget it. I can't keep anything from you, can I?" Midoriya only shook his head, smiling as he gotten used to her just doing stuff like that with him and others. She was able to read the room and people as if they were books and she was the only one that was truly literate. In a way, it could make talking to her unnerving as she always knew more than you wished, but it also helped ease things if you got past that as he had. After all, it was easy to speak with someone about a bad experience when that person could understand perfectly how it affected you.
She turned to face him, her pace casual but purposely, not a single wasted motion. "You're an honest soul, deceit doesn't come easy to you." She smiled at him, her praise making him blush. "But no, you and anyone else would be hard-pressed to keep secrets from me, especially when I can feel the tension coming off you." As she most likely already figured it out, he spoke up.
"It was…more of the same. Nothing to write home about." She hummed, a slight frown to her as she looked out towards the rest compound, to the farm area which grew trees by the hundreds, some having already been cut down and organised into neat piles of logs.
"It being normal doesn't make a bad day any less bad. It makes it worse. Have you been practising your breathing exercises?" He had confided in her about his treatment at school, and society at large once. After a particularly bad day when he came to train, she had sat him down and after some encouragement and assurance that he was safe, he broke down and cried about it. It pained her heart to see one of her students, one of her people in such pain but for as much as she wished to visit these vile people, she held back.
Instead, she offered him a place there as he was already a student, and already had connections among them. He could easily find a family willing to take him in, and he could transfer to their school but he refused. He wished to prove a point, to make it clear that they couldn't break him down or stop him. She felt it foolish to remain in a dangerous situation and made him promise that if another incident occurred, then she'd pull him out.
With the compromise, she taught him ways to keep himself in check, control his emotions and remain collected and calm as she taught him that bullies always pick their marks and harass them because it makes them feel bigger than they are, and part of that is seeing your reaction, much like how a child might act out if it means drawing your attention. Deny them a reaction, and you deny them their satisfaction and leave them with frustration instead.
"I have, it helps keep me grounded." He recalled just the one incident where he let himself blow up, but as he promised, he wouldn't talk about his meeting with the hero with others. If Kenmikoto caught that he was holding back something, she didn't make anything of it.
"That is good. Remember sinking to their level makes him no better than a dog biting another dog." She reached a hand to one of her tigers, which moved like a housecat to place its head under her palm as she patted them. "Frankly, how that school of yours tolerates that Katsuki brat is beyond me, but the desire for fame can blind even the wisest of men." It didn't take a genius to guess why they allowed that egotistical menace of a child to run rampant and she hated it. She had been around a long time, a VERY long time and seen how society twisted itself backwards to change for quirks. One of the worst was how they valued heroes like status symbols, and how by proxy, a school tries to tie themselves to promising future heroes for the fame that it would bring.
Even if that meant actively shielding that promising student from any punishment their actions might bring to keep their records clean enough to pass most hero schools stringent entry requirements.
"I doubt my teachers would fall into that camp, Kenmikoto-sensei." She laughed at that little jab from the boy. He was an honest one, yes-but that didn't mean he wasn't blunt when it came to his observations.
"You're right, my boy. But let's not give them any more time than they deserve." Coming to their destination out back, they found themselves in an outdoor training patch, one that was lit not by electrical lighting like the dojo, but by dozens of charcoals burning torches stuck into the ground. In the centre of the space was a small patch of water, its waters reflecting the light from the touches and appearing to almost shine like liquid gold. Despite being the size of a tennis court, it was shallow, too shallow for anything larger than a goldfish which meant there was nothing in it.
Approaching the water, she didn't stop even as the tigers did, taking a seat at its edge. Reaching the water, she took another step, and another, and another. Each one didn't result in her feet sinking into the water, other than the surface rippling as she moved, she remained dry as she walked on it towards the centre of it. Only then did she turn to him, her gaze one of strength. "Come, Midoriya Izuku. The evaluation begins now." He knew what she was expecting, those eyes didn't lie. The first part of it was to see if he could follow her and if he could perform even while maintaining the same form she was, if he couldn't, he just knew she would fail him on the spot.
However, even with the nervous sweat forming on his brow at how daunting that sounded; he didn't back down. "At once, Kenmikoto-sensei."
Chapter 3: Training and Charity.
"At once, Kenmikoto-sensei." Midoriya looked at the water, before he took a slow breath, through the nose and out the mouth, repeating this a couple of times as he centred himself. He could rush it, but this was his evaluation, he couldn't afford to mess up, and he refused to mess up. Closing his eyes, he felt it, his tenet in his body, felt as it flowed and shifted in his like his blood. Much like before when he made himself vanish from the 5 senses of Bakugo, the villain and then All Might, that last one bringing up some feelings of irritation, he took control of it again but instead of merely closing off its flow out of his body to conceal himself, he was now manipulating some of its flow to the soles of his feet and shoes.
Once he felt that the flow of tenet to his feet was stable and strong, he took his first step onto the water, then another, and then another. With each one he took, his feet touched the water, but they didn't sink as he couldn't hide his excitement at that, jumping up into the air with a fist pump. He had practised for weeks to get this down, running up trees, walls and the many ponds that dotted the compound, more the few times he flew but now? Now he barely needed to think about it. Kenmikoto didn't rush him even if he was taking his time, smiling as she allowed him a moment to feel accomplished in what he had managed.
Lucky for her, Midoriya didn't waste too much time as he quickly made his way over to her, leaving the two standing in the middle of the large body of water, with nothing but the star-filled sky and the many charcoals burning torches to give them light. When he met her in the centre of the pond, all amusement fled from her eye, her narrow ember eyes gazed into his soul, trapping him in place as she walked around him, inspecting him like one would a prize racehorse before a big competition. She didn't say anything, merely hummed and grunted when she saw something, though if that was something she liked or not, he couldn't say.
She went on for a couple of minutes before she spoke, with no warning. "Begin!"
He didn't question or hesitate, sliding into position as he shifted his stance, crouching lower to the ground, lifting his front foot and slamming it into the water, producing a splash, but again, he remained on its surface. His arm was held at his side, with his other first outstretched, closed tight. From that stance, he began his kata, like thunderclaps, he performed swift, powerful and fast kicks, jabs, punches, elbows and knees against an imaginary foe.
"More ferocity!"
"Faster!"
"Stronger!"
"Be flexible!"
With each order she gave, he followed her commands to the letter, increasing the intensity, speed, the strength, shifting his stance and balance to ensure he couldn't be tripped up. Listening to her roar out commands, it was less a woman and more hearing a tiger's roar reverberate through your very being. Sparing a glance at the actual tigers, he could see that they felt this as well as they were cowed by her mere voice, submissive to her will as their dominant caretaker. But he didn't dare linger on them too long, shifting his focus back to his movements.
"Be creative, boy! There is no such thing as a tiger, lion or jaguar that hunts by the book! You need to be faster than lightning, as nimble as a leaf in the wind, strike with the force of a raging inferno, and process the devil's cunning." She instructed him, which he followed, not just increasing his speed and power yet again, but also shifting his stance from the more traditional martial arts position to a strange hybrid of styles from across the world as well as gymnastics and acrobatics as he started not just moving about, but jumping, rolling, backflipping, cartwheeling and any other ways to move, twisting his body as he did so as if evaded his imaginary foes counters and retaliatory strikes.
This was a style that his master had created, a style that had few set forms, that encouraged on-the-fly attacks, blocks, counters and joint holds. A style of pure freedom. This is what she had taught him over the years, and he hoped to one day master it.
Heavenly Tiger style
This went on for a few minutes, but despite the rapid, high pace energy intensive strikes, kicks, jumps, flips and feints, he didn't feel the least bit tired, if anything, he felt better than he had all day. Under the star-filled sky, on a still body of shallow water under the watchful, piercing eyes of his master, he felt alive.
Kenmikoto hummed as she watched him, picking up on this growing feeling of exhilaration in the boy, as it showed in his movements as with time, they started losing more of that human element to them, a piece that existed in all human martial arts, instead, he started to resemble any cat worth its salt, constantly shifting his balance and focus, as capable of striking whatever he envisioned was in front of him as he was at striking something that snuck up on him. He was also maintaining fine control over his Mizohyōjutsu as it didn't matter what part of him was touching the water, he was able to shift that little piece of focus needed to manipulate the tenet in that portion of his body to ensure he so much as sink a couple centimetres into the water.
After seeing him run through dozens of different combinations of varying lengths of the kata she had taught him, she decided it was time to move to the next part of the exam. After all, if all she needed to see from him was that he could fight on water, she wouldn't have bothered with this and just passed it up to someone else to supervise.
"Nezumito." Her instruction was short, blunt and unyielding. Ceasing his movements right as he brought his foot down onto the water in an axe kick, he closed his eyes. Relying on the skills that he had honed in these halls under her tutelage for the last 9 years to guide him, he shut off his sight and instead relied on his 6th sense, that prick feeling he got in the back of his head that alerted him to both Bakugo's attempt to intimidate him, and to the villain.
Only now, it wasn't just that, it felt more detailed, more expansive. The best thing he could compare it to would be a kind of echolocation mixed in with a scent as he could 'feel' the different objects and animals around him, he could 'feel' his master, even in the very edges of it, he could detect the many people still in the dojo, walking, sparring, training-it all came him.
Digging deeper, he could pick up the scent of their emotions, of how intrigued yet on guard the tigers were, he would have never realized that if not for knowing how they never let their guard down when their mistress was in play, these emotions, they all came off them like coloured smoke he could see in his mind's eye, that he could track as they moved.
Turning his mind's eye to his master, he wasn't even surprised by the fact she wasn't as cut and dry as the tigers, as he struggled to make any sense of what she was truly feeling, but he could detect just a sliver of pride-pride in his skills, in how far he had come. Knowing that, knowing that he had someone like her feeling such things for his efforts sent a shot of joy into his heart which only made him wish to work all the harder.
His eyes still closed; he started moving about the water as if he hadn't just given himself a sensory handicap. He threw a couple of punches and jabs, performed a kick and knee, and felt that he was still in tip-top shape to continue. She agreed with him, so they moved on.
"Húxū" Having tested his 6th sense to ensure it worked fine, he was prepared for her command as he took that stretched field of 'sight' and added layers to it, increasing its sensitivity, increasing how much detail he could detect. At the same time, he shrunk it, he reduced it from 20m where he couldn't make out anything more than shapes past 10m, to a far smaller 6m, but within that space, he could detect everything, from the shifting air to the stray leaves passing by, even the rustling of their clothes and texture of the water they stood on. It would have been a sensory overload, and it still kinda was but he kept himself calm and centred, allowing it to wash over him, but not overwhelm him.
Through this, he detected something coming towards him and coming towards him fast, 'seeing' it as it passed through the many layers of his bubble, he could pick up the relatively small size of the object, how it seemed to have 4 triangular points, and how it was spinning towards him. Quickly he was able to surmise that this was a shuriken, which he reacted to by shifting his body to the side, letting it pass harmlessly by where his left shoulder would have been. He wasn't given time to rest as another 2 were sent flying towards him, their trajectory would mean they would hit different parts of him. Crouching, both passed over her.
Then he 'saw' a third, coming on right for his chest which he reacted to by thrusting his palm into the water and throwing the water at the shuriken, which was enough to knock the thing off course and send it to the side where he heard it plump as it sunk into the water.
His master didn't give him time to rest, she didn't give him a warning as she continued the barrage, throwing an assortment of shuriken, knives, rocks and even her smoking pipe his way, forcing him to either dodge. Some came close, those that came in groups where she planned out how he'd dodge some and throw them to catch him off guard, but he somehow managed. She didn't remain stationary either, moving around him, throwing at different angles for different targets, her speed making it seem like he was being attacked by 3 even though he could only track her.
Soon, the bottom of the water was littered with projectiles and weapons, where she was storing them, he didn't know but he felt that his bubble was starting to strain. Mercifully, his performance seemed to have been enough for her.
"Enough, you may open your eyes." Opening them, he saw that she was impressed by him, even if she was pouting at the loss of her pipe which she'll have to fish out of the water and dry out later.
"It did well in dodging my attacks, but you must remember you can't just remain still, it would have been easy for me to simply overwhelm you if I so choose." She advised him, as she had been able to run circles around him before he seemed determined to barely move from that spot. If she so wished, she could have just rushed him and attacked him directly.
"Apologies, it was a challenge maintaining Húxū, moving at the same time would have disrupted both," Midoriya replied, taking a breath to cool down as he was still learning how to multi-task with more than just two things. If he wasn't walking on water, perhaps he would have been more mobile, but as it stood, it would have stretched his concentration too thin and led to him either falling into the water or needing to see the doctor about multiple shuriken and knife wounds.
"You need to work on that, Izuku." Kenmikoto nodded her head, being firm in her instruction, but not harsh.
"I will."
"Then let us continue." Seemingly vanishing from where she just was, he was only able to see her again when she was right in front of him. Her speed was so great that those knives, stones and shuriken might as well have been snails. He couldn't even blink before she slammed her palm into his shoulder, a blow that sent him tumbling back a couple of steps and was accompanied by a throbbing pain from the impact. Midoriya was only barely able to maintain his mizohyōjutsu as he hissed from the pain of that one blow. Still, he was on the clock and rolling his shoulder, aside from the pain, he was pretty sure it wasn't broken or dislocated.
Observing him, Kenmikoto noted that he was still in fighting order, even if she suspected his shoulder would have a bruise later, it was a marked improvement over when he started as back then, a blow like that would have sent him down and in need of the doctor. "Ashi." She told him a moment before she rushed him again. He didn't wait, and quickly followed her instructions by controlling his tenet once more, not just to walk on water but bringing up to the surface, just above his skin on his arms and legs, boasting their strength and durability. Right in time for him to perform a cross block, her blow this time around still moved him back, but he took no damage.
She kept on him, striking him any way she knew how using the same style of combat he had just been practising for her, but comparing the two would have been insulting as while he liked to think he was proficient, above average. She was in a whole other league, not so much moving as she flowed through every attack, block and counter. He found himself blocking and evading more than he did trying to fight back. Her speed forced him to reactivate Húxū in some capacity, using it to help him 'see' her attacks in the moments leading up to them, granting him the much-needed time to prepare to move out of the way or block.
This 6th sense boast didn't help him as much as he hoped as she managed to get through his defence, knocking his feet from under him, tripping him up, palm strikes to the face, chops to the side, punches to the gut. More than a couple of times, he lost his concentration and fell into the water, soaking his bruised body but she didn't give him a chance to so much as breathe. "Get up." She didn't yell, she didn't scream, but her voice, her orders still carried the same strength and uncompromising power of a tiger's roar.
And each time she said it, he got right back up for another round, the growing number of bruises and pain was something he ignored in favour of proving himself to her, of showing her just how serious he was about this. 10 minutes, and 4 other knock-downs later, she suddenly switched things up. "Toratsume!" She yelled, her fist reared back and no doubt having enough strength to kill a weaker person. Rather than try to block it, he copied her movement and pulled back his fist, sending as much of his tenet into his hand, specifically his knuckles, as he could. That excess tenet flowed out of his body and into his boxing gloves, increasing their durability right before their two fists collided.
Rather than sounding like flesh and bone crashing into flesh and bone, it sounded closer to an iron hammer striking another iron hammer, with a dull clang ringing through the air. Not even a moment later, she struck again, and he matched it once more. Now, he couldn't afford to take a blow, he had seen that those hands could do without the armament of tenet, with it, a single blow could very well kill him. but she was relentless, keeping the pressure on him, keeping him on the back foot as he struggled to try and counterattack. Landing on his back, he was caught completely open but he managed to spot something in the water which he plucked out and held in front of it.
His master fist stopped mere centimetres from contact with it, with a silence falling between the two, only broken by their breaths as she, at last, pulled her fist back and smiled at him and what he was holding as a means to protect himself.
Her pipe.
"Cheeky bastard, the evaluation is over. You did well." Looking up at her, she dusted off her clothes and took a step back, allowing him to get back to his feet.
"Does that mean I-" She smiled at him, her eyes that of a proud teacher watching their student cross another major milestone.
"Yes, you passed, Izuku. Congratulations." She bowed to him, a gesture he quickly matched even as his face broke out into a huge smile, how could he not when he made another step towards his goal and got his red sash, after so much blood, sweat and tears, he had done what he had been told would take him another decade of training, he had reached the highest rank below 5 heavenly sashes.
Getting up from the bow, he handed the pipe back to its owner with a sheepish look to him. "Sorry about using the pipe against you like that, I know it's your favourite."
"Fighting fair is fighting stupid. You knew I had a weakness, and exploited it, as I taught you." She waved him off as she placed it into the sleeve of her haori. "However, you should go take a shower and if the bruises persist come morning, speak with the doctor about them, understood?" She instructed him as the two walked off the water and back onto dry land, though she was the only one that was still dry.
"Yes, sensei." Midoriya bowed to her once more as the woman hummed in response before turning to leave.
"Then you're dismissed." Midoriya took this ad turned and left as well, heading back inside to collect his stuff before he went to the men's bathroom to clean himself up. Kenmikoto on the other hand, took a moment to walk about the gardens, enjoying the peace as she thought about her student, one of her best students and how hard he seemed to work. 'He's certainly a diligent boy, perhaps…he could do it.'
After a relaxing shower, Midoriya changed into a pair of clean clothes he had packed and headed for the mess hall to grab something to eat. Entering it, he saw that it was even larger than the main floor of the training dojo, with a large central area and 2 levels above them to the side, the place lit up with intricately made lights and plenty of windows to allow the cool night air into the massive space.
It was calming, and comforting even as he moved through, joining the line of other latecomers, making small talk with the person in front of him. They might not know each other's names, but the people here were different to the ones beyond the walls. They were so invested in their conversation on an upcoming festival that once he collected his tray of food, he joined the man at the same table of 40 people. He smiled the entire time, an honest smile as he could never tire of this place, of its people if he had been at home right now, he would be sitting by himself, with only whatever was on the TV to keep him company.
But here, within these walls, in this hall, he was never alone as no matter the time of day, rain or shine, there was someone present, someone he could just walk up to and start a conversation. Here no one cared that he was quirkless, after all, over 70% of the people that lived here were quirkless as well.
Shoving some grilled fish into his mouth, he giggled as the spiced fish melted on his tongue, giving him an explosion of rich, savoury flavour. "You know, if you like this place so much, you could always just move here." Looking up at the source of that statement, he saw another one of the residents, someone he was particularly close to.
The speaker was taller than him, but not by much despite being in his 20s. With bright blue and black hair but what stuck out most about them was their scars, his exposed arms and part of his face were badly burnt, with the scar tissue being far dryer and a light shade of purple. But he focused on the amused blue eyes of the man as he took the free spot next to him, a plate of him in his hands.
"Someone needs to care for the apartment, I don't have the cash to pay for a housekeeper to do it." He swallowed his fish before he answered, with the man humming a response. They've had this conversation more than once so he didn't bother pushing it.
So, he decided to focus on something else. "How was the exam with the old lady? Since you're not stress eating, I'm guessing you passed." Midoriya pouted at that statement, picking at his food.
"I don't stress eat, I-" The man didn't even let him finish making an excuse, waving it off.
"Pack on the nutrients, or whatever else you wanna call it, it is what it is." He told as Midoriya opened his mouth to argue that, but decided it wasn't worth it, not when he was pretty sure that Hanen was doing this partly to screw with him.
"It went well, I passed it, though I feel like I could have done better." He replied, thinking back to the test and how he could have done better.
"What else is new with you?" He was met by a sarcastic remark from the man who took a bite out of his food. "You want me to spare with you again?" He looked at him out of the corner of his eye.
"I don't think that will help; I think I need to work more with my tenet when my martial arts." He was pretty sure that he could improve that aspect, but then again, the master was clear that there was always room for improvement, so he would have to prioritise stuff he wasn't that good at.
"That sucks, but hey-all the power to you," Hanen replied as the two fell into a comfortable silence, not needing to carry on a conversation and merely enjoying their meals and each other's company before they finished, putting the empty trays into the table set aside for them, the two left the mess hall into the evening air. Walking towards the men's dorms, Hanen asked him a question.
"Hey, something came up and I won't be able to help out on Saturday." He started, with Midoriya catching on pretty quick.
"So you need me to cover for you, right?" He asked the man, as this wasn't the first time something like this happened and when it did, he normally asked him.
"That's the gist of it." Hanen nodded his head, not telling him what he was going to be busy with.
"I can do that, but you owe me." Midoriya had planned to spend his weekend training, but he wouldn't hurt if he lost a day helping out.
"I'll pay you back," Hanen promised him, which Midoriya had no reason to think he wouldn't, he had asked him to cover for him in the past, and always paid him back, even if at times he felt like he was screwing with him like when he paid him back by giving him some old playboy's magazine just to see him turn red and toss it into a fire.
Finally reaching the dorms, they stop at the first one as that was the one that Hanen lived in. The older man turned to walk inside, waving over his shoulder. "Cool, see you when I see you."
"Have a good night," Midoriya called back to him before he went to the other one and entered, quickly finding the room that had been set aside for him whenever he had to stay the night. Unlike his apartment, the space had more life to it, even if he didn't sleep here all that often, he had put more hero posters, along with print-outs of different foods and their nutritional benefit, exercise regiments and a detailed calendar of events and achievements he had raked up. Moving to it, he crossed out the one that read 'get your red belt' with a happy sigh.
Shooting his mother a quick text saying he was staying with friends, he turned the lights off, removed his clothes till he was just in his boxers and collapsed onto his futon, falling asleep in just a few minutes as he knew he would need to get up earlier than normal to make it back home, shower and get a fresh uniform so that he could make it to school on time as he didn't want to give his teachers any more reasons to make his life hard.
When the weekend came, Midoriya could have gotten out of bed faster, than he had thought, when he showed up for school the next day, Bakugo had been waiting for him and tried his darndest to make his day a living hell, with no help from the teachers no matter what he did. It seemed just ignoring him made him worse as just got louder, and bolder when he didn't give him any sort of reaction and left him looking stupid. It wasn't till the next day that he kept his distance and went back to the default of acting like he didn't exist, which Midoriya was more than happy with as the less he had to deal with him, the better.
Having chosen to spend his Friday after school at the sanctuary, he was able to soak up the atmosphere and go to bed far more content, because of that, he was up with the sun barely peeking out from the horizon. Stepping around, he took a deep breath of the clean, cool mountain air before rushing off to the farming area.
When he got there, he saw that there were few others, mainly farm workers as they set up the carts that were going to carry their precious cargo. That cargo was boxes upon boxes of freshly grown produce. Common fruit stuff like apples, oranges, bananas, peaches, and pears along with more rare fruits such as mangoes, avocadoes, lychees and guavas. There were also vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, onions and eggplant. All of which he knew was top of the line as this same produce was used to prepare the hundreds of meals that the mess hall cooked up daily. Walking up, he saw that most of them weren't on the carts yet, so he moved to correct that.
"Morning, Ōbi." Midoriya walked up to the person managing things, a man in his early 30s with a large build and brown hair shaved more on the sides than the top of his head, like himself, the man was quirkless but was still one of the strongest people in the sanctuary.
Looking up from the form he was reading, the man smiled. "Morning, kid. Think you could help load them in, we were meant to do it yesterday but other issues need to be addressed." He pointed towards the dozens of boxes that needed to be loaded.
"Sure thing." Midoriya nodded as he went and picked up the first one, walking towards the carriages and loading them up, giving the boxes to the person already on the cart who was moving them into position.
Continuing this for a while, others started to show up as well and helped to move things. Including a large fox-like woman who stood heads and shoulders over any of them. her size and strength making it easy for her to carry 4 boxes at once while she talked with one of the women. he couldn't hear what they were talking about, but going from her smile, it must have been pleasant. "Seems like it's a lot this time around," Midoriya noted as he walked up Ōbi for what felt like the 15th time with a box, heading towards the 3rd cart in the line.
"That's because it is, it's around 2 thirds of the remaining crop for the year which we're hoping to unload," Ōbi replied, surprising Midoriya as he knew they had their ways of boasting crop yields, because of that, even when he tried to do the math in his head, he figured that just the 9 out of the 12 carts they were loading up wouldn't be enough to carry that much.
So, he asked. "Then why are only loading 9 of the carts?"
"The rest is for everything else," It wasn't Ōbi who answered, but the tall woman from before. Walking up to them, he could see that she was far taller up close, far taller than even All Might. He blushed a little as he noted her foxlike curved figure while her blonde hair was done up to just reach her shoulders with a single strand over the right side of her face. It looked good on her. Lucky for him, she didn't notice him staring.
She has large blue eyes with bushy eyelashes and pointed ears, along with green fur and a white furry underbelly.
Continuing to explain things, she gestured to the back where others were coming forward with even more boxes. "Teas, medicinal herbs, bandages, cast powder, books, clothing, toys-anything that we could make or afford to donate as they need all they can get."
Trying, and failing if Ōbi's amused smile was anything to go by, to hide his reddened face from the taller woman, he looked up at her, focusing on her large blue eyes that seemed to sparkle even when she wasn't doing much-dammit! "Morning, Kyūfune. I hope you slept well." His voice rose a little in pinch.
Takasame Kyūfune looked a tad confused by his sudden pitch change but shrugged it off, thank the heavens. "I did, I knew we were leaving early." She replied, having only seen him briefly the night before she was called off to help with something. but now that she was with him, she looked around for a certain someone. "Where's Hanen?"
Part of him felt a bit jealous that he was asking about him, but he crushed that under the biggest mental rock he could find. She was merely curious as to why someone who said they'd be there wasn't, no need to add any weird connotations to it. "He said something came up, so I'm covering for him."
"Odd, but I'll speak with him when I see him." Kyūfune brushed some hair behind her ear, like him, she was used to him doing stuff like this. He left for work and missions without much warning, showing up out of the blue like he had always been there. With that said, it took another 20 minutes for everyone to make it, and for loading to complete. With that done, they got on board with Midoriya riding in the cart behind Kyūfune's along with Ōbi, the taller woman needed all the space they could spare for her to ride comfortably.
With no horses or donkeys, it fell to them to move the carts by sheer force of muscle which didn't prove to be an issue as 12 people got into position, took the reigns of the carts and started pulling. Slowly, but gaining in speed, the carts each must have weighed 1,200kgs began to move at a comfortable pace. Approaching the main gates, the guards opened the gates for them, allowing them to leave with waves and wishes for a safe journey.
Outside of the walls of the compound, the lead cart picked up the pace as they went from just 3km/h to 12km/h, then to 16, and finally, they were moving maybe 25km/h. They were far slower than any motorised vehicle, but that didn't stop the rare person who saw them doing a double take when they saw a convoy of carts being pulled by mere men and women. As they approached town, Midoriya was eager to see the faces of people who saw them and wondered if there wouldn't be any fresh ones that weren't already used to their eccentric group.
Still, it would be a while for they got to Raxus ward, and they'd need to swap out horses halfway there, so he took the time to sky gaze, watching the clouds.
Raxus Ward was different to many other wards in Japan, it wasn't one of nightclubs and bars like Kamino, nor was it one of schools and parks where you could let your kids play around with little parental supervision like Chandrila.
Raxus was a dump, in every sense of the word.
Located on the fringes of Shizuoka City, it had once been a thriving residential area with green parks, a clean river and plenty to offer for anyone who wished to start a family away from the stress and mess of the city, now it had long since been re-classified as industrial land with many companies moving in within weeks. Now, the landscape was one of refineries, factories, warehouses and all other manner of industrial enterprise.
All this growth of industry might have created hundreds of jobs and pumped billions into the local economy, but none of that was clear for the people that lived here as their once green and peaceful ward had been polluted and exploited till it was but an ugly shell of its former self. A heavily industrialized cesspit with junkyards and abandoned buildings. City officials liked to pretend that the issue could be solved if people moved if they just left the place and allowed it to be used for its purpose, but that ignored the fact that some people simply couldn't move.
Not necessarily because they couldn't afford to, but because this place, this hell hole, was the only place that didn't shun them, belittle them, and hurt them for the crime of merely existing. Cities might have had lower rates of discrimination when compared to the countryside, but that didn't mean it didn't exist-and Raxus was a prime example of that as its residents, those with mutant quirks, quirks seen as villainous or outright quirkless people. Stuck between the lynch mobs of the countryside, and the wilful ignorance of the city.
This was the world that Midoriya and the rest of them arrived in, a world where people kept to themselves and did their best to not get involved, or else they ended up beaten up or worse. As they rode on through, Midoriya couldn't help but wonder how things could have been allowed to get to this point, and why people and heroes would allow such a tragedy to happen and continue to happen. But then he recalled All Might, the hypocrite who hid his humanity to pretend to be more, and with that, he had his answer.
It's easy to think that you're living in a perfect era when you don't need to do anything when you ignore the issues.
Approaching their destination, it was revealed to be an old community centre turned into a soup kitchen/shelter for people who couldn't find somewhere else to sleep without needing to keep an eye open. It was one of the poorest ones in the region, but it was also one of the few that didn't refuse quirkless people which meant it didn't have much in the way of support such as donations, which is why they were there.
Riding up to it, they met with an old lady in her late 70s, her once vibrant blonde hair nearly entirely grey as she leaned her weight on a cane. With her were a few of the shelter's workers/residents. Stopping before them, she took out her phone and saw the time, 9 a.m.
"I'll never get tired of people actually showing up when they say they will." The elder joked as Ōbi jumped out of the cart he was riding on and approached her.
Finding her wit funny, the man chuckled as he pointed at himself. "Granny, being fashionable late is an idiot's excuse for not getting there on time."
"If only some could learn that." She pocked the side of the man next to her, one wearing worn, second-hand clothing who just grumbled about it, but didn't try and retort, Granny Biscuit wasn't one you opposed on a whim. "Go on, help them unload stuff!" She smacked the other as the three rushed in to help them off-load some of their goods as one-third was meant for the shelter, giving without payment or any expectation of compensation other than the understanding they'll use it to care for the people under their care.
The rest was to be sold. "Get to, people. We open in an hour!" Ōbi yelled at the group as they all waved.
"Sure!" With that, they got to work, moving things off the carts, and setting up stalls and stands for their goods. Watching them move like a well-oiled machine, Ōbi turned to Granny Biscuit.
"We'll see about getting you canned goods for winter." It might have still been May, but he wasn't one to leave things till the last minute, especially as the issue around getting that much-canned foods would be a hassle as the shelter had hundreds of people living in it, hundreds more that came by for meals regularly. Just supplying them for a single week would be challenging, making that 3 months of winter, and potentially dozens of cases of people falling sick and needing to keep their strength up primarily through healthy nutrient-rich food and you had a logistics nightmare.
The old lady waved him off, that canned stuff might last but it always tasted like metal. "Ba! Never mind that. These people should eat a hot meal prepared with fresh ingredients. Taste a hell of a lot better, too."
"I can attest to that, granny." Ōbi chuckled as he watched them set up shop.