Chapter Text
ใโฑ สทแตหข แต แตโฑแต สทสฐแต สทแตหข หขแตแตแถแต โฑโฟ สฐโฑหข สณแตแตแต
แตสฐแตสณแต โฑหขโฟ'แต แตแตแถสฐ แตแตสณแต แตแต หขแตสธ แตแตแตแตแต โฑแตใ
Something Yagi Toshinori could pride himself on was being smart.
It was easy to put on the dumb blond facade while being a hero. Villains would get overzealous, thinking he didn't understand what was going on around him, and the second they slip up, Toshinori could already have them on the ground. With reporters, they never gave him questions that required too much thinking, which allowed him to joke off the "quirk" inquiries.
Some heroes obviously knew what he was doing, and some tried imitating it, knowing how tiring the reporters got at times. Others, like a certain hobo-esque hero, disapproved of it, thinking it was unprofessional. Still, he could admit it was better than wanting to beat them up, so he kept his silence.
Acting unaware, especially in social situations as Toshinori, allowed him to learn about the civilians around him. There were all kinds of things going on, specifically in this diner he frequents.
There was an exhausted lady complaining to her best friend about her horrible mother-in-law, a judgmental woman who couldn't keep her nose in her own business, and the husband was doing nothing to stop it.
A pink haired girl with some type of goggles over her face always seemed to be tinkering with some kind of gadget, occasional sparks popping from the gadget, but she was never kicked out, mostly because there was never any damage, and she order a shit ton of coffee or energy drink slushies.
An elderly man had finally beat cancer and was thinking about going out to a bar of some sorts, something with a party atmosphere to feel good.
And there was another teen who stayed near the back with a dachshund. He spent a lot of time talking to a girl who looked to be around the same age as him and worked as a waitress.
She had h/c hair with pink tips, and e/c eyes.
Toshinori started spending more of his time at the diner, observing the girl.
While she was the youngest employee at the diner, she almost seemed to have seniority over a lot of the employees. She either earned her place in the worker hierarchy or had already been working there when the others were hired. She spent a lot of time at the diner, after school hours and most of the night. During the times she'd stay all night, she'd have a chubby raccoon with her. It spent most of its time in her bag, just sitting in there, and Toshinori caught sight of a collar with "Meeko" embedded on the silver pendant.
She was quick when it came to taking orders from customers and getting them their food. Everytime she passed by the pink haired goggle girl she always had a new drink ready for her. The two never spoke but knew what each other wanted. It made Toshinori wonder if they actually knew each other or it was just a waitress/customer relationship.
When it came to the elderly man, she always had a cup of orange juice with a healthy breakfast ready for him. When he beat cancer, she gave him a card and a cupcake with a candle on it.
She gave the married woman lavender tea the second she came in looking more exhausted each day. The day she passed out in the booth, the girl began giving her notes. After that, the lady looked like life came back to her a little more each day. She had begun meeting with attorneys, learning how to start her own finance account, how her and her husband's assets would be divided, what she was entitled to, everything.
About a month later, she stopped coming to the diner, but one day there was a gift basket with all kinds of treats inside and a beautiful mahogany jewelry box with intricate designs right beside it. Toshinori wondered if there was jewelry inside of it (There was).
The boy with the dachshund usually stayed the longest. He mostly watched the girl, and always seemed to jump at the chance to walk her home.
Toshinori was pretty sure he had a crush on the girl.
Toshinori has been looking for someone to take over his position in the hero world. He can't continue doing his job as long as he wants to. He's too injured. He pushed away too many people, and while the last time Nighteye and him spoke ended in an argument, it did not stop the Pro Hero near the top 10's from searching for an heir for the blond.
It didn't matter anyway. Toshinori found the person he wanted to inherit One for All.
The girl is already saving people, even if she didn't know it.
She'll go far.
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Y/n wasn't stupid.
No normal guy comes into the same diner every single day and orders a bunch of food only to never eat it. He always had the leftovers bagged up and the next day he'd do the same thing.
She quickly figured out he had been distributing them to the homeless.
Still, he clearly had money if he could afford to do the same thing every time. He just spent a majority of his time people watching.
She spent a lot of time at the diner, because she knew if she stayed at home longer than needed, she'd fall into a bad slump. The only reason she had gotten out of it the last time was because the huge bag of dog food for Meeko was empty and he needed more. She went out and somehow ended up with a job as a waitress.
The other employees were okay. They just did the bare minimum and then went home, but Y/n decided to start staying later. Her boss noticed but seeing as the diner seemed to look a lot more lively with the number of guests that had started coming in, he didn't complain, and even gave her a raise.
She always showed up with something she baked, and the customers made sure it was gone in 2 hours. Cakes, brownies, cupcakes, cookies, tarts, anything really. They were to die for, and her boss genuinely started thinking her quirk had something to do with baking.
After a while, the other employees, were investigated and found out to be part of a human trafficking ring. When quirks first came into play, there was an uptick in trafficking cases, with a lot of quirkless individuals going missing. It was easy to get away with because the quirkless was quickly pushed to the back, uncared for and when one was reported missing, it was always brushed off as them just being dramatic about not having a quirk and running away.
They never turned back up.
An underground hero named Eraserhead had apparently been the lead of the operation and after years, finally had the evidence to bring them down. The news media made a big deal about it for two days before completely moving onto the heroes of the spotlight.
Y/n would never forget it, because she had met a boy named Tokuda Masaki, a victim of the ring. He was quirkless, and one day walking home from school, got caught in the rain and was lured to a building to wait.
He never made it home.
He never spoke about the stuff he had seen or been subjected to, and Y/n never prodded him for it. If he wanted to talk about it, he would. He was allowed to heal at his own pace.
Instead, he spoke a lot about his father, who was apparently a reporter. He could make camera lens protrude out of his body, something that interested the girl greatly.
She had picked up photography as a hobby and potential future career at a young age, courtesy of her childhood best friend, who was now missing. Throughout the years she had collected all kinds of cameras, each in different values, and one day, Masaki brought in his father to introduce them and he gifted her an expensive camera, the latest model, as a thank you for being friends with his son.
When new employees were hired, Y/n was assigned to show them the ropes. The two waitresses had no problem learning from her, but the cook and cashier had to learn. She let them handle their own stations due to their complaints and when the usuals kicked up a fuss about the system they're used to being out of order, they quickly quieted down and let her teach them.
Y/n also paid attention to the customers that come in, everyday ones and new ones. It wasn't difficult to fall into a system with them, and she made sure they had what they needed.
The pink haired girl loved building all kinds of things. She told Y/n she was going to be famous for creating hero support items in the future. A compromise was made between them: she could work on her inventions as long as they weren't destructive to the others, and she'd be supplied with free drinks. It worked well so far and there was no reason for change.
One time an elder man came in and looked ready to give up on life. Giving him an ear to talk to, he explained how he had just come from the doctors, being told he had kidney cancer. She gave him as best encouragement as she could and sent him off with an extra slice of cake. She made sure he always had something healthy, no matter how much he complained of the taste. She listened to him talk about his back pain, let him sleep when fatigue hit him extra hard, and made sure to double his food sizes as he started losing weight.
When he came in one day, looking happier than she'd ever seen him, he was practically jumping with joy as he announced he had beaten it. He thanked her for everything she had done for him and continued coming everyday with a renewed passion for life, deciding to not waste it.
There was a woman who had been a regular, and she talked extensively about being engaged to her longtime boyfriend. When she visited after the wedding, she didn't seem very excited to talk about her special day, and when her best friend had showed up, she whispered to Y/n about how her mother-in-law had done everything to practically ruin the day.
When Y/n asked about the husband, she was told how he just told his wife to not make a scene and cause bad blood. She fought the urge to roll her eyes and scoff, just because she liked the woman enough. This lady had always been confident, and she was going to let her self esteem drop just because she loved this spineless man.
Weeks went by as the woman stopped by for coffee and eggs, looking more tired every time. Y/n decided enough was enough as the woman fell asleep in the booth one day and woke up to her phone ringing. The teen had been close enough to hear the mother-in-law on the other end chastising the woman about not doing her "wife" duties and how she had to do them instead.
That night, she spent the time she could have been sleeping on her laptop, researching all kinds of divorce attorneys for the lady. It'd be easier if the divorce was mutual, but the husband seemed like he would fight it. To make sure that didn't happen, she called Masaki's dad, asking if he could get any information about him. All she could give him was the man's name, but it was enough to dig up some information.
He's already cheated on his wife with someone he works with, and employee-employee relationships were a big no-no in the company, so with the pictures given to Y/n, she wrote down the information of an attorney and handed it to the woman the next day, along with the photos.
As the woman prepared herself to leave her husband, she began talking about her home country. How she loved it there and moved to Japan for her husband, but didn't really want to leave her own home. She decided that's where she was going when everything was over.
That's what she did.
One day, she never showed up, and the day after, nothing. There was a gift basket and jewelry box addressed to Y/n the second day, and inside was jewelry. Reading the letter left for her, the lady thanked her for what she did, writing about how she got in touch with her old friend and he offered to house her when she came back.
During the divorce process, she had taken the jewelry her ex-husband had gifted her in hopes to change her mind and placed it in the jewelry box, an heirloom of hers. She had it delivered along with the gift basket, and told her to do whatever she wishes with the jewelry, keep it or sell it for extra money. All she requested was for her to keep the box. It was old and special to her, and she knew the teen would take great care of it.
Y/n did as asked, and kept the jewelry box, selling all of the jewelry except for a fancy pearl crystal hair clip.
Days go by and everything stays the same, but one day changes it, for Y/n and Toshinori.
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Everything sucks.
But doesn't it always?
Having a slime villain thing come up behind you, commenting saying what a "perfect skin suit" you would be and entering your body isn't usually on anybody's bucket list. It sure as hell wasn't on the girl's.
Y/n blacked out for the most part. She couldn't breath as the slime entered her mouth and nose and ended up passing out from lack of air, like any normal person would. The last thing she could remember was some dude talking, she wasn't sure if it was the villain or someone else.
When she came too she felt someone patting her face quickly, calling out to her. "Wake up! Hey!"
Y/n snorted and jolted up brushing the hand away, frowning at the person who saved her. Surprise surprise, it was All Might, the number 1 hero. "Oh." She wasn't big on heroes. There wasn't any reason for her to be a fan of them. She didn't hate them, or most of them. She was neutral, and planned on staying that way. The number 1 hero who Y/n was pretty sure was in his forties was not going to change anything.
He gave her a blinding smile and chuckled. "Thought we lost you there!"
Who's we?
Y/n scooted back from the man to get some space. "I'm fine." Almost as an after thought to be polite she opened her mouth again. "...Thanks."
All Might stood up. "Sorry about that back there," he apologized, "I didn't mean to get you caught up in my justice-ing. Usually I pay more attention to keeping bystanders safe, but it turns out this city's sewer system is pretty difficult to navigate!" He seemed to pose throughout his spiel, ending with some loud ass laughter.
"...Right..."
"Anyway, you were a big help, thank you!"
Y/n deadpanned at the blond in front of her. She was literally a victim. This dude needs some socializing classes, not that Y/n was any better herself but still.
"I've captured the evil-doer!" He held up the slime guy in a literal plastic bottle. Two fucking plastic bottles.
Y/n stayed silent. If all heroes were like this then society was doomed from the start. Or maybe this guy was just getting too old for this. She stood up and kept her gaze on the plastic bottles that All Might was fitting into his pockets. No way they were going to hold the thing.
"Welp, I've gotta get this guy to the police so they can take care of him." Does this guy ever not smile? "Stay out of trouble now! See you around!" He paused for a second. "I..." He trailed off, not sure how to start the conversation. When she raised an eyebrow at him, he quickly shook his head. "Nothing, have a good day!" He jumped off into the sky, not knowing he'd have to stop halfway due to the strain his body was being put under and end up losing the slime villain.
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Today was just not Y/n's day.
She was just trying to deliver some baked goods when the route she was taking was blocked off by a villain. Only this time Y/n felt a pit in the bottom of her stomach, the sole reason being because it was the sludge villain that attacked her from a few hours earlier. If it was here then All Might lost him.
Y/n strained her ears and listened to the heroes up front shouting about there being a hostage in the sludge. Y/n frowned along with most of the crowd that had formed. They're pro heroes but none of them made the move to try and help the boy. Maybe they did earlier but stopped. Y/n had always thought heroes do whatever they can to help people, even if it meant putting themselves in danger.
Maybe she was wrong.
She heard the crowd question where All Might was. She thought these people depended on him too much.
Y/n glanced around and noticed a fire hydrant with a hose lying right by it. There weren't any firetrucks around so she assumed it had come from the fireman pro hero, and it looked like his hoses were attached to his body so Y/n wasn't completely sure if it broke off him or something of the sort. She stared at the fireman pro hero who was busy putting out the fires on the buildings along the street.
The girl wondered if they all went to U.A., and if they did then who the hell was teaching them hero skills, or as All Might would put it, "Justice-ing."
The sludge villain seemed to be on top of the end of the hose, and Y/n could only hope she was seeing it right. She backed away from the large group of bystanders and checked the backs of them, hoping to find some sort of wrench. There seemed to be a man with a tool box sitting by his feet, discarded in worry about the villain.
She set her deliveries on her bag and grabbed the tool box, moving back so he wouldn't see her stealing. She opened it and looked for a pipe wrench. It would be the only wrench that would most likely fit on the hydrant, even though the risk of damaging it was high, it was a risk that needed to be taken since no other hero would do it. She found one and jogged back to the hydrant, loosening the cap and setting it aside before fastening the hose on. She adjusted the wrench to grasp onto the top of the hydrants hexagon nut just enough for her to turn it as much as she could.
It hissed as the water shot into the hose, making it grow and quickly traveling to the sludge villain. He paused, seemingly confused and it took less than a minute for the water to become too much for the slime to handle and he yelled as his "body" swelled and exploded.
Y/n heard the crowd scream as she herself ducked to avoid as much of the sludge as possible, it probably wouldn't have been fun to clean out of your hair. The girl slowly stood up and noticed the villain was scattered across the whole area, including on the heroes, the boy it had taken hostage and the front part of the crowd. Murmurs arose from them as they looked around, confused. No new hero had run in, so who could it have been?
The water was still coming out of the water hose so Y/n strode away before someone connected the fact it has been her. She got a hold of her bag and deliveries, beginning to leave the scene. Before turning the corner she glanced back and met the eyes of that old man who's always sitting in the diner. He was staring at her dead in the eyes, that's when Y/n knew he'd been watching her the whole time. As the tired teen turned the corner, she huffed out a slight laugh at the fact he had looked like he caught sight of a ghost.
That was going to be a mess to deal with tomorrow.
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Y/n had just finished the deliveries when All Might popped out in front of her, smiling without a care in the world.. "I AM HERE!"
"Again?"
His laugh boomed throughout the street as he grinned at the female. It didn't last long as steam began coming from the hero's buff body. A poof later and All Might was gone, the scrawny diner man standing in place.
Y/n and the skeletal man stared at each other in silence for a long time.
"Heh!?"
The male coughed up some blood, and Y/n reached into her bag and pulled out a small pouch of tissues she carried around, tossing to the skeleton, who fumbled to catch it. "Thank you, young lady." He took one out and wiped the red liquid away. "I came here to thank you, Y/n, correct?"
Y/n just nodded. She was pretty sure this sight wasn't exactly meant for her.
"Aren't you surprised?" All Might questioned.
"Yeah, I am, I just don't really know what I'm supposed to say." What are you supposed to do when you find out the Number 1 Hero doesn't actually look like the media shows him?
The hero sighed and stepped closer to the girl "I'm counting on you to keep your mouth shut. Don't go talking about this online or telling your friends."
Y/n absentmindedly nodded. "Alright, I won't say anything, just don't start telling me your life story."
All Might ignored her and lifted the side of his shirt, exposing a horribly bruised crevice on his skin. Y/n made a face. "Pretty gross right? I got this in a big fight five years back. My respiratory system was basically destroyed, and I lost my whole stomach. All the surgeries have pretty much worn me out, and it can't be fixed." He let the shirt fall and cover the injury back up.
Y/n stayed silent. She felt sympathy for the guy. If the number 1 hero could have gotten to such a horrible state, it was only a matter of time before this hero job would kill him off.
"Right now I can only do hero work for about three hours a day. The rest of the time this is what I look like." He gestured to his worn out body.
"You've been like this for five years. How hasn't the public caught wind of this? You always seem to be in the spotlight."
"Most of the world don't know of the fight that caused this. I did everything I could to keep it under wraps." He scrunched his face up. "I'm supposed to be the guy that's always smiling right? I'm the symbol of peace, people everywhere have to think that I'm not afraid." He looked at his hands. "But honestly, I smile to hide the fear inside. It's just a brave face to put on when the pressure is high. This job isn't easy." He clenched his fist.
"Well it's not easy for you cause you look like you're on the brink of death." Y/n tightened her grip on her bag. "What're you planning on doing when you can't get out of bed one day? That'll probably be the last day you'll ever live."
All Might stared at her in surprise.
"What're you gonna do when you come across a villain you can't defeat? Look, I understand this hero thing can't be easy, but if you've known you're getting weaker, i'd suggest having an heir or training someone to take your place. That number 2 hero seems like a little too much of a douchebag to be kind to people like you are." The teen got ready to walk around him. "I'm not gonna say anything about this, simply because it's not really my business."
All Might grabbed her shoulder before she could go any further. "Please, you misunderstand. "I came here to thank you."
Y/n raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
"If you hadn't been there," he began, referring to the sludge villain she saved the boy from. "I don't know what would've happened. Nobody would have. I couldn't even do anything." He looked down in shame. "I was just a bystander like everyone else." He picked his head up. "When I saw this girl who I constantly saw save people, save someone she didn't know, it inspired me. There are stories about every hero, how they became great, most have one thing in common: their bodies moved before they had a chance to think. You acted like it was second nature to you."
Y/n took a step back. She wasn't sure if she liked where this was headed.
"YOU TOO, YOUNG L/N, CAN BE A HERO!"
"Heh!?"