Midoriya takes the train into the countryside, and then walks the fifteen minutes to Toshinori’s house.
Toshinori officially retired a year ago, but his brick country house doesn’t feel lived in. The sparse front garden is covered in weeds, almost distinguishable from the plants.
Midoriya knocks on the door, but there’s no answer. He knocks again. Nothing.
He has a copy of the keys to this house. Just in case. He unlocks the door, and squints at the dark interior of the house. Mugs and empty bowls cover the coffee table. There’s a tangle of pillows and blankets on the couch. Midoriya explores the rest of the house. It’s in a similar state: the dishes are undone, and there is rotted food left out, and laundry is heaped by the washing machine, and mould rims the bathroom sink.
He finds Toshinori outside. This side of the house looks even more rundown than the front. The long grass almost reaches his knees. The empty space isn’t appealing or calming. It’s just empty.
Toshinori jumps when the back door slams closed. “Izuku?”
Midoriya takes a seat beside him. “Hey, Toshinori. You forgot I was coming over today, didn’t you?”
“Forgot? No, I …” Toshinori’s gaze drifts away from Midoriya, back to the stretch of overgrown grass spread out before them. “I thought you were in recovery until April.”
“It is April,” Midoriya says.
“Oh.”
Toshinori is wearing a thick cardigan over what might be his pyjamas. There’s a cup of tea by his elbow, but there’s no steam wafting from the mug. It’s cold.
“Have you eaten today?” Midoriya asks. Toshinori purses his lips, like he doesn’t know the answer. Midoriya stands up. “I’m going to go make us something.”
“I should be doing that,” Toshinori says.
“It’s okay,” Midoriya says.
“You’re the guest.”
“It’s no trouble.”
“I can make my own food,” Toshinori snaps.
Midoriya freezes by the door. Toshinori’s voice hangs in the air. His tone, that twisted up look on his face—it seems so much harsher against the backdrop of countryside stillness.
“I know you can,” Midoriya says.
Toshinori brushes his loose bangs away from his face. His hair hangs in a fraying braid down his back. Has he brushed it lately?
“I’m sorry,” Toshinori says. “I shouldn’t have snapped—”
“I don’t think you’re not capable of making your own food,” Midoriya says.
“I know. It’s just …”
Midoriya reclaims his seat. He has today off, and he’ll call his agency to inform them that he can’t make it in to work tomorrow, either. He has the time to make sure Toshinori has eaten, and that there is food in the fridge, and that Toshinori knows how much Midoriya cares about him, even after all these years.
When did this happen? He knew it was hard for Toshinori, that the abrupt change from teaching at a place as chaotic as UA to retirement would be difficult, but he didn’t realise it would get this bad.
“Just?” Midoriya prompts.
“Sometimes I feel like I can’t do anything,” Toshinori says. “Like I really am incapable. Sometimes—sometimes I wake up, and I feel like those decades I spent as the Symbol of Peace were a dream, and I’ve actually been quirkless and ill my whole life.” Toshinori squints out at the grassy horizon. “I never thought I’d end up here.”
“You’re allowed to have this,” Midoriya says, placing a hand on Toshinori’s arm. It’s bony beneath his cardigan. Has he lost weight? “You don’t owe anyone anything. After everything you did, everything you gave, you deserve to just enjoy life.”
“I think I might have forgotten how to. I never had any free time when I was a hero. What do I do now that all I have is free time? I just think all day, and the more I think, the more unreal everything feels.” Toshinori scrubs a hand through his hair. His bangs hang over his eyes, lopsided. “And sleep. The more I sleep, the more tired I feel.”
Again, Midoriya thinks, When did this happen?
“You’ve never had any hobbies, right?” Midoriya says. “You have time to try them all out. You have the money, too, though if you need anything, I’m there—”
“I have more money than I could ever use, my boy,” Toshinori cuts in, and the corner of his mouth pulls up. He’s smiling for the first time today. A small, barely there smile. It counts.
“Then you can order a bunch of starter kits, and try them out! Puzzles, calligraphy, candle making, painting, writing, baking.” Midoriya stands up. He’s getting energetic, now. He gestures at the land stretching out in front of him. A blank canvas. “Gardening.”
Toshinori doesn’t just look tired, anymore; he looks fond. “Candle making? Really?”
“I have more ideas,” Midoriya says. “Dozens. Hundreds. You could do so many things. You could take an online class, or write a book, or start a collection. I’m kind of a collector myself, but it’s for hero merchandise, so I’m not sure if that counts as a hobby or just an extension of my career.”
“Write a book,” Toshinori echoes, thankfully ignoring the second half of Midoriya’s rambling. “A book. Maybe.”
group name: aizawa’s angels
deku: i know you’re all busy - i’m busy too, more than i could have imagined - but if you have time, can you visit toshinori?
deku: don’t overwhelm him in the next week with visits, but please, when you have the time, i’d appreciate it if you dropped by or just sent him an email.
uravity: of course, deku! i probably should have dropped by already…
ingenium: I will be sure to do that. I’ve been incredibly busy lately also.
charge bolt: i feel pretty shitty now tbh
creati: We’ll make sure to visit. Thank you for the reminder, Midoriya.
creati: Is everything alright with Yagi?
deku: he’s ok!
deku: i just
deku: he’s moved all the way out into the countryside after living in the city and working as a hero/teacher for decades. it’s a big adjustment. we owe it to him. after everything he’s done, we can’t just leave him alone.
earphone jack: he’s been living out there for like 6 months already, why the guilt trip all of a sudden?
creati: Kyouka, I don’t think Midoriya is trying to make us feel guilty. He’s trying to help All Might
cellophane: i feel awful too
deku: Okay, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, but Toshinori taught us for three years. He helped make us who we were. And he saved this entire country - more than just this country - and inspired our entire generation and he worked for decades and if we can’t even make the time to visit him regularly so he doesn’t feel lonely then we’ve not just failed to be heroes, we’ve failed to be decent people
charge bolt: whoa
cellophane: did i say i felt awful?
cellophane: i meant i felt like complete and utter shit
uravity: deku, are you alright?
ingenium: This seems very specific. @deku Do you want to talk about it? We could get drinks.
deku: No.
deku: Everything’s fine
charge bolt: you broke out the capital letters and everything, dude
ingenium: I get out of work mid-afternoon. Let me come and get you.
deku: I’m fine
deku: just
deku: @everyone talk to your dad. It’s not that hard
> Mute notifications for this chat?
For 15 minutes
For 1 hour
For 8 hours
For 24 hours
Until I turn it back on
Cancel
> Until I turn it back on
thebookwassomuchbetter reblogged smirking-alya
[Image: Screenshot of a tabloid article entitled, “All Might Dead?”]
fernandidilly-yo:
I WAS SEARCHING FOR ALL MIGHT INFO FOR AN ESSAY AND FOUND THIS AND I STARTED CRYING IN CLASS
.
agentgrayyson:
all might found dead at ua
.
purple-hearts-of-oz:
is he okay
.
greenbeams:
yeah he’s alright but he died
.
anxiousdemifaemess:
I fucking hate posts like this
I don’t know how old you are, but I remember watching All Might’s final fight live and holding hands with my friends because we weren’t certain All Might was going to make it. I remember watching our Symbol get smaller and smaller and thought he was going to disappear forever. Jokes like this are in bad taste.
And E! News never has reliable info, you should disregard pretty much everything they say on sight
.
lazyinsunlight:
fucking e! news. haven’t enough public figures sued them by now? how are they still running??
.
smirking-alya:
pro heroes’ lawyers @ e! news:
[Image: How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?]
Notes: 3,951
Tagged: #when will the evil that is e news be defeated #heroes #all might
“Been a while since we saw you around here.”
Midoriya squints up at the woman leant against the doorjamb. It’s Tatsuko. She has a bag of groceries under one arm, and a squirming girl secured under the other. She doesn’t seem angry at him. He almost wants her to be.
Tatsuko sighs and sets her daughter down. She throws a lollipop in the kid’s direction, and says, “Don’t go running off where I can’t see you, you hear me?”
The daughter catches it and then scurries off to harass some of the neighbourhood boys loitering by the convenience store. Tatsuko takes a seat beside Midoriya on the rickety bench without asking if she could join him.
“How’s your …” Tatsuko motions at Midoriya. He isn’t sure if she is gesturing at his back, or his arms, or his legs. “I don’t know what part of you was broken.”
Midoriya tries for a smile. It feels wrong on his face. He lets it drop. “More than one part, but thank you anyway, m’am.”
Tatsuko whacks the bench. She probably wants to whack him, but is scared of accidentally hitting a healing fracture in his skull, even though his skull had been fine.
“Don’t call me m’am,” she grouses, “and wipe that damn self-pitying look off your face. You think you would’ve helped him anymore than you have by hobbling all the way out here in a full-body cast?”
“I wasn’t in a full-body cast,” Midoriya says.
“Bet you didn’t look very pretty, though,” Tatsuko says.
Midoriya shrugs. “I had a lot of doctors looking after me. People with top-tier healing quirks. They …”
Midoriya knots his hands in his lap, retracing years-old scars with the pad of his thumb. The part that is really getting to him, the part that he doesn’t want to say aloud, is that he hadn’t even considered coming to visit Toshinori these past few months. He had messaged him, had briefly spoken over the phone at least once a week, but Midoriya should have known that that wasn’t enough.
Toshinori hadn’t visited him, either. At the beginning of his hero career, a scant few years ago, Toshinori had been glued to his bedside every time he was injured.
Midoriya had assumed that Toshinori was too weak to make the trip up to see him. Or maybe he just didn’t feel the need to. Serious injuries were an occupational hazard. It didn’t need to be big event every time Midoriya went overboard.
But while he was laying in that hospital bed, Midoriya never, not even once, considered that Toshinori hadn’t visited because he was facing his own kind of battle.
“They fixed me up in no time,” Midoriya finishes. “The PT is always annoying and time consuming, but—I mean, I was back on the job pretty quickly.”
“Too quickly,” Tatsuko scolds. Right. The entire village probably knows about the last few months. The media had been following the story closely.
Midoriya rubs at his knuckles. They feel like bark. “And yet I still didn’t …”
This time, Tatsuko does smack him. “You’re here now, aren’t ya? Just don’t disappear again for months on end. That’s all you can do.” She stands up, dusting off her paint-splattered jeans, and collects her groceries. “There’s no use in stewing over shit you can’t change, kid. Just be there for your old man.
“You’re better than most big city-kids. They always become too knotted up in their own problems and forget that anyone else exists. I think you have the opposite problem.”
Midoriya laughs. Something unwinds in his chest, the tension leaving his shoulders, and he tips a smile up at Tatsuko.
“Thank you,” he says.
She waves his apology away. “The kids are planning on putting on a hero assembly at the end of the year. You had better be there, you brat. You and your dad. Bring a plate.”
She marches off to collect her daughter from where she is pulling up flowers from the neighbour’s gardens. She is out of hearing range before Midoriya could can to correct the fact that she had called Toshinori his dad.
Direct message
Midoriya: sorry for how rude i was in the group chat. you were right - i’m kind of down at the moment
Midoriya: is that offer for drinks still on the table?
Iida: For a friend, always.
Iida: Are you free at 8 tonight?
E! News
Top Stories in Heroes
Shocking Secret Relationship? Hero Ingenium and Deku Spotted on Date in Downtown Tokyo
[Image: Iida and Deku, dressed in casual attire, were seated in a low booth, drinks cradled in their hands. Iida’s eyebrows were pinched, and his full attention was focused on Midoriya. The dim lighting and his baseball cap obscured Midoriya’s face.]
25 minutes ago
No. 2 Detonation’s Hidden Life of Crime?
[Image: Detonation was walking away from a crowd of relentless reporters. In one hand he held grocery bags. The other, held up to flip off the cameras, was blurred out.]
8 hours ago
You’ll Never Believe Which Class 3-A Hero Copycat is Secretly Married To!
[Image: Monoma’s smiling face next to a blacked-out silhouette, a question mark obscuring the face.]
12 hours ago
Midoriya taps at the edge of his desk. The modified kevlar in his gloves makes a strange hollow noise against the wood. “Did you get the packages I sent in the mail?”
Toshinori laughs. It’s a wet sound, his throat congested with blood, but he doesn’t break off into hacking coughs, so Midoriya knows it isn’t a bad day. “Which one?”
“Uh. I sent a few ‘how to’ books about cooking, and gardening, and knitting, and sewing. I sent some notes with that last one. You know I’ve been cosplaying since I was a kid, so I know a lot about sewing, so if my notes weren’t enough, then you can just ring me up. Oh, but you don’t have a sewing machine—”
“Izuku,” Toshinori says.
“I also bought some puzzle games. Some watercolour and acrylic paints, canvases, and paintbrushes. Knitting needles and yarn. And—”
“Izuku,” Toshinori says again, “it’s too much.”
“It’s not! You don’t know what you like yet. You need a little bit of everything.”
“You shouldn’t be spending so much money on me.”
“I’m a pro hero now,” Midoriya says. “Remember all those times you bought me things in high school and wouldn’t let me or mum pay you back because you were said you could afford it?”
“You don’t have to pay me back. Not then, and not now that you have a full-time job. I did it because I wanted to.”
“And that’s exactly what I’m doing,” Midoriya says. “I like buying you stuff. And I can afford it, now, too.”
Midoriya hops off the desk and collapses into a computer chair. It rolls back and bumps into Bubblegum Blitz, a newly acquired sidekick, busy filling in paperwork from that morning’s run-in with a villain downtown. They look up.
Sorry, Midoriya mouthes through a smile. Bubblegum Blitz squeaks.
Toshinori laughs, and he sounds fondly exasperated, the way he often sounded in high school, when the class would send Midoriya off to explain why they had accidentally destroyed another part of campus, since they all knew All Might had a soft spot for him. It had stopped working so well when Aizawa caught on and demanded all reports be made directly to him, but Midoriya would always remember the way Toshinori would look at him like he was torn between disciplining them and laughing at the mess his kids always managed to make.
“I have taught you too well,” Toshinori says.
“Try out the things I got you?” Midoriya asks. “Please? You don’t have to like it and you can throw it all out, but just … try. And let me know if you want more of something.”
“I think I can order things off Amazon myself, my boy.”
“Are you sure you know how to use a computer, old man?”
This time, Toshinori’s laugh bursts out of him. Midoriya rubs at his cheeks, feeling warm.
“Sorry,” Midoriya says.
“Don’t apologise, my boy. I deserved that one.”
After they say goodbye and hang up, Midoriya looks up. Bubblegum Blitz is staring at him.
“Sorry,” Midoriya says again. “Are you okay? Do you need any help?”
“No,” Bubblegum Blitz says. “No, no. Everything is—everything is fine!”
They keep staring at Midoriya for a long minute, like their eyes are fixed to Midoriya’s face, before they wretch their gaze away and flee deeper into the bullpen.
Polarise @officialpolarise
An untrained animal in garish unfashionable orange (left) and my good boy, Barkugou (right) - in honour of @king.deathonation rising to no2 last month
[Image: Bakugou sits on the couch, staring into the camera, flat and unimpressed. Barkugou is perched to his right, dressed in a tiny version of Bakugou’s hero costume. The head piece is lopsided. The plastic grenades strapped to his front paws has been gnawed on. Barkugou looks as though he is smiling.]
replies
Detonation @king.deathonation
@officialpolarise i’ll kill you one of these days
Polarise @officialpolarise
@king.deathonation you can certainly try
[Image 1: Eight year old Midoriya stands in front of the convention centre, wearing an All Might sweatshirt with the hood up. The fabric hair pieces stand up like rabbit ears. Midoriya holds a child’s day pass and is smiling so wide it must have hurt.]
[Image 2: Twenty-three year old Midoriya stands in front of the convention centre. This time, he isn’t wearing anyone else’s symbol—he is dressed in his own hero costume. He holds a backpack in one hand. It is covered in keychains and pins, most of them bearing All Might’s face. His smile is painfully wide.]
no1smallmight
68,393 likes
My very first HeroCon vs this year’s HeroCon! How time flies #tbt #herocon
View all 1,494 comments
ururavity: Aaaa baby deku is so cute!! Can’t wait to see you at the con this year! though you had better not disappear right before a panel again…
no1smallmight: @ururavity I’m sorry! Please don’t float me across the convention centre again Σ(°□°)⊃
ururavity: @no1smallmight don’t get distracted by merch and i won’t have to >:)
totalmagpie: baby boy. baby.
aprisun: What time is your panel??
fandomlover45: TINY DEKU (≧ε≦)
Midoriya peers around the house. The table is piled high with things, but there are no dishes rotting in the sink, and the house isn’t dark and damp like a rabbit’s burrow. The blinds are open, and sunshine falls across the floor in slats. The back door is cracked open. A gentle breeze washes through the house.
Midoriya opens the fridge. Too empty, but not as barren as last time. The top shelf is filled with eggs, and butter, and a half-full carton of milk. On the bottom shelf is a container of egg-shape lumps, dense and so golden they are almost brown.
“Your classmates have been visiting me,” Toshinori says.
Toshinori eyes Midoriya. He opens the cupboard and busies himself with inspecting the open packets of sugar and flour and hot chocolate, rather than having to meet Toshinori’s suspicious gaze.
“That’s good of them,” Midoriya says, tone carefully even, turning over the flour packet and pretending to read the list of ingredients.
“Hm.” Toshinori probably knows that Midoriya had ordered his classmates to visit, but he is either too grateful or too tired to force the issue. “I didn’t like having only my herbal teas to offer, so I’ve been stocking up. And I tried my hand at baking. It’s good to have something to give your guests. The scones in the fridge are for you to take home.”
Midoriya crosses back to the fridge and stares at the egg-sized balls. Those are scones?
“Thank you,” Midoriya says, even though his teeth hurt at the thought of eating those. “It’ll be nice to have homemade food.”
Toshinori beams. “I know heroes are too busy to cook for themselves. If I can help you out, even a little …”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I want to,” Toshinori says, hand pressed to his chest, right where his heart is, and he has a purposeful gleam in his eyes that Midoriya recognises from his fights with villains.
Something in Midoriya’s chest breaks. He will savour each scone, even if they crack his teeth. He can’t bring himself to tell Toshinori that scones don’t need to be refrigerated.
Toshinori made these for him. For him. Midoriya won’t do anything to jeopardise that.
group name: aizawa’s angels
deku: thank you, guys
deku: toshinori seems happier. it means a lot to me.
uravity: i have no idea what you’re talking about deku ;)
ingenium: It was our pleasure! And you had a point. It doesn’t matter that our lives are busy, we need to support the people who are important to us.
uravity: it was fun, anyway! all might lives in a really pretty place in the country
detonation: i didn’t visit the old man for you, shitty deku. he was my teacher too
detonation: he gave me carrot cake that tasked like cement. it was fucking awful
deku: still, thank you, everyone!
deku: and you should let toshinori know how grateful you are that he put so much effort into baking just for you, his students that he loves so much :-)
charge bolt: i feel like every time i come into the chat midoriya is being kind of scary
charge bolt: is being at the top getting to you, @deku?
deku: aaaa sorry if i’ve seemed a little rude lately! i have been kind of stressed after my injuries last month!
deku: but i wasn’t joking about the baking thing. if toshinori stops baking because of something we did or said, i might throw myself into the sun
deku: :-)
charge bolt: ….. i’m visiting all might on wednesday, i’ll play nice
deku: you’re a good man, kaminari :-)
charge bolt: pls stop using that emoji, dude
deku: :-)
charge bolt: horrifying
pocketramblr reblogged peteyprker
[Video:
Midoriya and Uraraka are in the middle of a panel. They are in full costume. There are empty energy drinks scattered along the table, along with stacks of gifts a group of fans had already handed over.
Offscreen, a fan leans into the mic, and asks, “Deku, are you All Might’s biological son?”
Midoriya sighs loud enough for the microphone to pick up and collapses onto the table, face down. The crowded hall laughs at his pain.
“You’re still getting that question?” Uraraka asks.
With great effort, Midoriya reemerges from the folds of his arms. “I will never escape this question, no matter how old I am.”
The question-asker leans into the microphone again and says, “You’re avoiding the question. That’s suspicious.”
Deku throws his hands into the air. “No, it’s not! All Might isn’t my biological father. I’m not lying. Why do people always assume I’m lying about this?”
“You’re all asking the wrong question,” Uraraka tells the fan. She turns to Midoriya and asks, very seriously, “Deku, do you want All Might to be your dad?”
Midoriya opens his mouth. Closes it. “That’s … that’s not a fair question.”
“We need an answer, Deku,” Uraraka says.
People in the audience holler encouragingly. Someone calls out, “Answer her!”
The mouthguard around Midoriya’s neck doesn’t hide his growing blush. “Growing up, every kid wanted All Might to be their dad. It’s All Might. It’s not weird.”
“I didn’t ask what you wanted when you were a kid,” Uraraka says. “I asked what you wanted now.”
Midoriya mumbles something unfavourable that the microphone doesn’t pick up, but makes Uraraka laugh, clear and sweet like a bell. She is enjoying seeing Midoriya’s embarrassment, even more than the fans.
Midoriya presses his hands to his face. He peeks out behind the slats of his fingers, and says, his words muffled behind his palms, “Fine. Yes. I … I might want All Might to be my dad.”
The hall erupts into cheers. Uraraka stands up and waves her hands in the air, like she’s conducting an orchestra, and the cheers get louder. Midoriya groans and slumps down. His head makes a soft thump when it collides with the table.
“No one is surprised,” Uraraka says when she sits back down, and everyone laughs. “No one. I think our classmates were all talking bets back in first year, though we were convinced you were actually related, instead of All Might accidentally adopting you.”
“You were taking bets?” Midoriya scrubs a hand through his hair. His curls stick out at odd angles. “Do you want to know something embarrassing?”
“Absolutely!”
“When we were first years, Shouto—that is, Polarise—” A faint cheer echoes through the hall at the mention of Todoroki. “—cornered me during the sports festival to ask me if I was All Might’s illegitimate love child.”
“What did you tell him?” Uraraka asks.
“I told him no, of course!”
“Boo!”
The crowd echo Uraraka’s boos. When they calm down and the hall is quiet again, Midoriya rubs at his cheeks, as if he was trying to scrub away the faint blush lingering there, and says, “We’re supposed to be answering fan questions. We got off track. Sorry, everyone! Who’s next?” ]
greentea-moo:
i was lucky enough to attend the uravity + deku panel - and look, we finally have a believable answer to the dad might theories!
.
ayacchii-pyon:
DAD MIGHT IS REAL
.
peteyprker:
i still say deku is all might’s bio kid and god herself can’t make me change my mind
19,949 notes
Tagged: #are we just going to ignore baby 15yo polarise pulling deku aside #to ask him if he’s all might’s illegitimate love child #because that image is just #so fucking funny #and i want to draw it immediately #herocon #deku #uravity
Toshinori’s house is messier today. The curtains are open, but the coffee table, the counters, even the couch is blanketed by household debris. Midoriya thinks he will have to coax Toshinori out of bed—it wouldn’t be the first time he had slept through to evening on his worse days—but instead, he finds Toshinori in his wheelchair in the backyard, a notebook braced on the arm of the chair, writing furiously.
Midoriya knocks on the glass sliding door. Toshinori startles. His glasses slip down his nose, and he smudges ink on his cheek when he pushes them back up.
“Young Izuku!” He peeks at the dusted pink horizon. “Ah, I must have lost track of time. I’m sorry.”
Midoriya steps aside so Toshinori can push himself inside and then follows him into the kitchen.
“It’s okay. I’m early. I caught a group of villains just after lunch, so the agency let me finish up for the day.” Midoriya makes a face. “I expect I’ll have to do a bunch of PR for it tomorrow.”
Toshinori laughs. He leaves his wheelchair by the breakfast bar and gets up to investigate the contents of the fridge.
“You got groceries,” Toshinori accuses.
Midoriya doesn’t look guilty. “I went to the one in town. Tatsuko tried to strong-arm me into buying a bunch of discount meat.”
Toshinori holds up a few packets of pork. “This meat?”
“She’s a very intimidating woman,” Midoriya says defensively. He doesn’t mention the even larger stack of meat in the freezer. Toshinori will find it sooner or later.
“Weren’t you just telling me about the wanted villain group you single-handedly took down today?”
“I can fight villains,” Midoriya says. “I can’t fight middle-aged civilians. There are no rules in that supermarket. I would die.”
“She would eat you alive,” Toshinori agrees, and they share a moment of silence commiserating how frightening Tatsuko can be.
They cook dinner side by side. The kitchen window is cracked open to let out steam. Toshinori turns on the TV for background noise and refuses to change it until the extended segment detailing Deku’s villain take-down is over, no matter how many times Midoriya begs for the remote, making proud little comments about Midoriya’s success all the while.
When the stir fry is finished, they push the loose papers and mugs off the couch and coffee table, and settle down to eat in front of the TV.
Midoriya lowers his bowl. “Toshinori, can I ask …”
“Anything,” Toshinori says.
“What are you writing? All these papers—”
“Ah.” Toshinori avoids his gaze. “I … I thought about what you said, and I decided to try my hand at writing. I thought it would help me feel more connected to my past, stop feeling so much like it happened to stranger, but the more I wrote, the more my memory started going …”
“You’re writing a book.” The realisation sends a shock of excitement down Midoriya’s spine. “That’s so cool! I know you’ve told me stories and I’ve watched all your interviews and fights and documentaries, but a firsthand account of your life would be amazing—”
Toshinori laughs. “Still a fanboy after all these years?”
Midoriya cuts himself off. “Always.”
Onscreen, the audience laughs, loud and echo-y. Toshinori waits until the sound dies down, before asking, “Then you … you don’t think it’s a bad idea?”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Midoriya says. “How can I help?”
[Thumbnail: Sato and Toshinori stood behind a marble kitchen counter. Sato was clean, but there was flour all over the counter, the electric mixer, and Toshinori’s Deku t-shirt.]
Cooking with Sugar Rush - ft. All Might!
10,939,291 views
16,192 comments
skygemspeaks - 2 weeks ago
He tried, and therefore no one should criticize him.
elevity - 1 week ago
I guess even All Might can’t be good at everything
Recommended videos
Cooking with Sugar Rush - ft. Invisible Girl!
7,939,393 views
Cooking with Sugar Rush - ft. Gale!
6,229,494 views
Cooking with Sugar Rush - ft. Detonation and Deku! (Yikes)
12,393,229 views
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Editing
Attachment: [Revised_Draft3.doc]
The fight scene on page 81 didn’t happen like that. It was way cooler in real life. You have to give it more oomph!
I’m so glad I agreed to edit your writing. Another editor might have let your writing stand as it is, but you’re definitely being too humble. You’ve done enough good for the world that you can brag a little bit. You should brag a little bit. You are too cool to downplay yourself—this is my favourite hero you're writing about!
ALSO WHY HAVE YOU WRITTEN ABOUT ME SO MUCH? I’m so embarrassed! This is a book about YOU!
All my structural changes are marked in green. Comments are available in the margins.
Good luck!!
Deku
“Most celebrities with books like autobiographies waited until they had a book deal before they begin writing,” Yaoyorozu says, sipping her tea.
“Ah,” Toshinori says.
“You haven’t done anything wrong,” Yaoyorozu reassures him. She lays down her faded mug on the table, beside the box of expensive teas she brought for Toshinori. “When a famous person writes a book, they often do it for the publicity or for the money, so they make sure they’re guaranteed to be published before they start actually writing. This isn’t what you’re doing, right?”
“No,” Toshinori says. “After Izuku suggested writing a book, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. The words were there suddenly and I needed to get them on paper. I needed to tell my story.”
Yaoyorozu smiles. “Exactly. You’re less focused on the end result. Not that you’ll struggle to find a publisher who wants to work with you.”
“So I could do it, then?” Toshinori says, fiddling with his fingers. “I could get published?”
Yaoyorozu laughs softly. “Yes. You could probably ask any publishing house in the world—any one that published trade memoirs, at least—and they would jump at the chance.”
“Do I just … send in my work, then?”
Yaoyorozu pulls out a notebook from her briefcase and uncaps a biro pen. “Let me teach you how to write a query letter.”
littleanimu reblogged thehunniestofbunnies
[Video: Iida stands in front of a white backdrop. He is decked out in plastic armour—white shin pads and small pieces of plastic that are fitted over his shoes, acting like boots; a chest plate that barely covers his ribs; arm guards over ill-fitting black gloves; and a stylised helmet covering his hair. There is barely any fabric beneath the plastic armour. His upper arms and the long expanse of skin between his knees and groin are exposed. He is wearing black booty shorts.
“When I vowed to follow my brothers’ footsteps and become a hero,” Iida says, holding his arms stiffly at his side, afraid to move lest the flimsy costume break, “I hadn’t pictured myself ending up here.”
The shot changes. Uraraka stands in front of the same backdrop. She wears a pink one-piece and black socks that show off her thick thighs. Her gloves extend past her elbows. Inflatable rings that look like pool floaties are strapped around her wrists. She’s laughing too hard to get a word out.
The shot changes. Midoriya wears green short-shorts and a sweatshirt that cuts under just his ribs, leaving his toned stomach on display. A headband with bunny ears sits on his curls.
“Who made this?” Midoriya asks. He twists around, revealing a fluffy tail that matches the ears. “And why did they add a tail?”
A title screen appears: Heroes Try On Sexy Hero Halloween Costumes
“Have you seen the sexy version of your costume?” someone asks off-screen.
Uraraka, now in casual clothes, makes a face. “Unfortunately.”
The camera jumps to another shot.
“My actual hero costume is the sexy version,” Kirishima says with an exaggerated wink, before he laughs at himself. “Sorry. Yeah, I’ve seen people wear my costume on halloween, and they always look great. Sex-ified or not, they always look super manly.”
The shot changes.
“No, I haven’t,” Iida says.
“So this is going to be a new experience for you?” the person off-screen asks.
“I’m prepared for anything,” Iida says. They throw the bagged costume at him. He catches it and flips it over to examine the example photo on the back of the bag. Iida is silent for a few moments, and then says, “I … I am not prepared for this.”
The shot changes. Midoriya holds up a pair of very small green shorts. “I don’t get it. This wouldn’t protect anyone in the field. I’d end up in the hospital if I wore this during a fight.” He abandons the shorts to sift through the rest of the bag. “This doesn’t even come with armoured parts?”
“It’s not for real hero work,” says someone off-screen. “It’s just a costume.”
“A costume representing real heroes,” Midoriya points out. “It should be realistic. Oh, my god, are these bunny ears? Why!”
The shot changes. Uraraka stands in her pale pink costume. “This isn’t as terrible as I thought it was going to be. I’d wear this to the beach. I mean, it even comes with these floaty things so—” Her face cracks, and she bursts out laughing.
The shot changes. Midoriya is dressed in a sexy All Might costume. The tiny shorts look more like underwear, and the skin-tight red top doesn’t cover his belly-button. A short blue cape dangles behind him.
“I can’t decide if I’m more outraged at how inaccurate this costume is,” Midoriya says, playing with the flimsy yellow belt around his hips, “or embarrassed about how much skin I’m showing.”
He fidgets with the cape. It rips off the Velcro shoulder pads and slips to the ground. Midoriya bends down to pick it up, and gasps, holds it up, showing off the gold All Might insignia emblazoned on the blue cloth.
“Outraged! Definitely outraged. All Might never had any symbols on his capes, let alone his own trademark. Who designed this? Have they ever even seen an All Might costume in their life?”
Uraraka pops into view. She’s changed out of the costume, and is wearing loose tracksuit pants and a Froppy t-shirt. “It’s not the short-shorts that are freaking you out? Really?”
Midoriya waves the cape with its incorrect symbol at her. “This is infinitely more upsetting than short-shorts! Has All Might seen this?”
Uraraka looks something up on her phone and then turns the screen to Midoriya, who screams.
“All Might wore the sexy halloween version of his costume a few years ago,” Uraraka says. She turns the phone back around briefly, eyeing it with consideration. “He sure is showing off a lot of skin. Hm.”
Midoriya looks as though his entire life is ending in front of his eyes. “What? Gross! Uraraka, that’s our dad!” Uraraka blinks at him slowly. Midoriya splutters, and back-pedals, “I mean—that’s not what I think! All Dad is just my teacher. I mean—”
“Wow,” Uraraka says. ]
encrypted-cryptid:
Things That Make You Go Hm
.
space-trees:
ok i know the part where deku panics and calls all might their dad is cute but how can you cut this video short? rest of the video is GOLD. red riot ends up in basically just speedos and suspenders and it is. the single greatest thing i’ve ever seen
you can watch the full video here
.
sleepyshark:
tag yourself i’m the producers at 3:39 rendered fucking inarticulate at deku in just panties
.
sallyssongismysong:
ingenium radiates such strong dad energy even in booty shorts
.
thehunniestofbunnies:
ingenium has major bde (big dilf energy)
7,359 notes
Tagged: #i’m so fucking bi #heroes
All Might @dadmight
AN ANNOUNCEMENT IS HERE! In November, my autobiography will be hitting the shelves! #allmight #autobiographies #mightymemoir
replies
bees? @timelybees
@dadmight your WHAT
anime fan ♥ @animika123
@dadmight I’M GOING TO PASS OUT
Deku @officialdeku
@dadmight HYPE HYPE HYPE #mightymemoir
“Writing is so difficult,” Toshinori says. He’s hunched over his knees, hands buried in his hair. “Before I started, I thought it would be easy, but it’s—it’s really not.”
“Maybe you should try using a different pen,” Todoroki suggests from the armchair. Midoriya, perched on the arm, pokes him and tries to look stern. Todoroki just smirks up at him.
Toshinori continues on as if Todoroki had never spoken. “I know what I want to say—I lived through it, so I know what I happened—but the words for this scene just … won’t come. And when they do come, they feel all wrong.”
Inko bustles into the living room with a platter of hot drinks. She looks more amused than sympathetic at Toshinori’s plight.
“Maybe I gave you too many hobbies,” Midoriya says.
Toshinori pushes his hair out of his face. He grabs the elastic band around his wrist and starts pulling his hair into a ponytail. Inko collects a handful of clips and helps Toshinori pin his long bangs back.
“No,” Toshinori says, “I’m just whinging. I wasn’t expecting writing to be this frustrating. I’ve given up baking for a while to focus on it. Maybe when I’m finished I’ll pick it back up. Maybe I’ll pick other things back up, too. Uraraka noted that my backyard looked bare last time I was there, and I have all that land …”
Todoroki slides a hand around Midoriya’s waist, pulling him in closer, and murmurs, “If we’re lucky, he’ll forget he owns a kitchen.”
This time, Midoriya’s stern look is much more effective. Todoroki buries his face in Midoriya’s muscled thigh, hiding his smile. Midoriya runs a hand through Todoroki’s hair, fingers almost snagging on the complicated braiding at the base of his skull.
On the couch, Inko is also fiddling with Toshinori’s hair. She scratches his scalp, careful not to disrupt the clips, and he leans into it, eyes closed. It reminds him of the way Todoroki goes boneless against him when Midoriya idly plays with his hair while they are sitting together, watching TV or reading or catching up on podcasts—domestic and instinctual.
Midoriya looks away from his parental figures, and back down to where Todoroki is still smiling against his thigh.
Midoriya has given up trying to understand Toshinori and his mother’s relationship.
Griffin’s Cool Tweets 2XXX @griffinmcelroy
This means there’s a chance we could convince The Pro Hero And Maybe Literal God Deku to guest star on mbmbam. This is simultaneously the best (for the show) and worst (for my general emotional health) thing to ever happen to us.
[Image: Snippet of transcript for the latest episode of the popular hero podcast, Hero Might Mania!
DEKU: I’ve been listening to the show on and off since I was 13. Of course I jumped at the chance to actually be on it.
PODCASTER: That’s what? Ten years? That’s amazing. I didn’t even know this show existed ten years ago and now I work here. You stuck with the podcast for a decade?
DEKU: I love hero analysis!
PODCASTER: It doesn’t freak you out when we talk about people you know in real life, your colleagues and friends, or even about you yourself?
DEKU: Hearing people talk about me can be hard—it’s embarrassing!—but it’s important to hear other perspectives. Sometimes they pick out things I wouldn’t have considered. And podcasts calm me.
PODCASTER: How so?
DEKU: I like being able to switch off and listen to the sound of someone else’s voice. I listen to a lot of podcasts while I’m doing housework or working out—a few other hero podcasts, and a handful of moral philosophy podcasts, and one American comedy podcast, My Brother My Brother And Me—]
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Final Draft
I’ve written this scene more times than I can count and I think this section of the book is finally done. Any and all comments would be much appreciated.
The writing process is taking more out of me—both emotionally and physically—than I had expected. So I’m just going to finish off this email by saying: thank you.
Best,
Toshinori
Todoroki finds him on the balcony in the middle of the night. He’s wearing a thick cardigan over his pyjamas, while Midoriya is in a ratty t-shirt and boxers. Midoriya hadn’t thought about jacket. His only thought had been to get out, to find fresh air before the pressure in his chest drowned him.
Todoroki sits down and rearranges them until Midoriya is curled around him, half on his lap, the cardigan keeping them both worn. Midoriya sags against him.
“Was I too loud?” Midoriya has been crying; Todoroki can hear it in his voice.
“No,” Todoroki says. “Barkugou woke me up.”
Barkugou perks up at the sound of his name. He settles his chin on Todoroki’s knee, and whines up at them, jealous that they’re paying attention to one another and not to him.
Midoriya makes a noise in the back of his throat, an aborted laugh, and scratches behind Barkugou’s ear. “You little traitor. You told on me, huh?”
“What was it?” Todoroki asks.
The tablet in Midoriya’s lap is dark. He doesn’t reach for it, just pushes closer to Todoroki, and says, “Nighteye. And Nana. And … a lot of things, actually.”
“Ah,” Todoroki says.
Todoroki brushes his thumb back and forth over Midoriya’s thigh, and they sit in silence. He waits for Midoriya to speak, but he doesn’t. There’s no need to. Not really.
When Midoriya is ready, they pull apart and stretch out their legs, and head back to bed. The tablet is left on the dining table.
Todoroki strips off his cardigan and the singlet underneath with its soaked shoulder, where Midoriya had buried his wet face in the fabric to breathe in Todoroki's scent, and nudges Barkugou off his pillow. They crawl under the covers. Midoriya slots against him as though they were never parted.
Penguin Random House @penguinrandom
It’s alright, now! Why? Because All Might’s autobiography is here! “All Might: The Price and Principle of Peace” is now available!
[Image: The book cover: the title emblazoned over a photograph of All Might’s last triumph. Toshinori’s fist is held aloft, his tattered cape billowing out behind him. With the helicopter spotlights focused on him and the photograph’s exposure turned up high, he looks angelic.]
pretentiousandmean reblogged officialdeku
syrren:
alternate titles to ‘all might: the price and principle of peace’
.
thegirlthatisinblueandblack:
that last one actually hurt me
.
officialdeku:
1,393 Notes
Tagged: #all might #deku #tpapop #heroes
Midoriya had worked on the book when it was in its earliest stages. He had been Toshinori’s fact checker, and cheerleader, and editor, and he had even written a handful of paragraphs when Toshinori’s memories failed him and he needed a fresh perspective. He spent nights curled up beside Todoroki, reading drafts on his tablet. He listened to Toshinori ramble about sentence structure, and scenes falling apart, and every writing problem under the sun.
But when his copy of the book arrives in the mail, all shiny with that intoxicating new book smell, he feels like a little kid again. Like he’s seeing the book for the very first time.
Todoroki, off visiting family, isn’t there to see Midoriya dance around the living room, Barkugou bouncing around his feet in contagious excitement, yelling and holding the book above his head.
Midoriya collapses into the couch and opens the book. The spine cracks. The glossy paper is smooth and cold under his fingers.
If All Might had written a book when Midoriya was younger, back when he was hungry for every scrap of information about All Might, without a single hero in his contacts list, he would have been so overcome with excitement that he broke down crying.
A decade later, with a contacts list almost entirely dominated by top-ranked pros, Midoriya is hunched over the book and crying for a different reason.
The dedication page is smaller than he expected, considering the acknowledgements at the end of the book spans several pages and includes almost a hundred different names. There are less than half a dozen names noted here, at the beginning: Nana, and Gran Torino, and Sir Nighteye—
And Midoriya Izuku.
For Midoriya Izuku, the very bottom of the page reads. Deku.
And then: Thank you.
Midoriya closes the book and places it on the coffee table so he doesn’t accidentally crease it, and then scoops Barkugou up and buries his wet face in his fur.
Growing up, heroes didn’t command respect the way they do today. People often spoke about heroes like they were a rarity, like they weren’t capable of protecting them from the growing villainous underbelly.
Crime was prevalent in my suburb. All around me, people were living with a weight on their shoulders. Their safety was at risk almost constantly. They grew used to being afraid. The police were often unable or unwilling to help, and the heroes that did arrive were too human to make a difference.
I remember being ten years old and standing behind police tape and watching heroes risk life and limb to carry people to safety, only to then face the reality that, despite their efforts, there were still casualties. Despite how hard they fought, there was still a crowd of restless, fearful civilians watching on without hope.
Everyone around me looked tired. Their shoulders slumped. There was no shine in their eyes.
I knew from an early age they deserved to have hope. Humanity deserved to have hope.
And I decided then that if the world could not give it to them, then I would. Even if it killed me.
—All Might: The Price and Principle of Peace, page 5
All Might: The Price and Principle of Peace
by All Might (Goodreads Author)
★★★★☆ 4.09 Rating Details 693,111 Ratings 21,004 Reviews
This sensational debut nonfiction novel follows All Might’s journey from guileless first-year student to famous Symbol of Peace to retired teacher watching his students blossom in the spotlight. In an unprecedented memoir, All Might opens up the curtains of the hero community and shows us adrenaline-pumping fights; the breath-taking highs of victory and the heart-wrenching lows of loss; the pain of retirement and the sweetness of mentorship; the
…more
GET A COPY
Kobo Online Stores^ Book links^
LISTS WITH THIS BOOK
Books That Made Me Cry
1,213 books — 4,781 voters
Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once
19,201 books — 89,602 voters
COMMUNITY REVIEWS
The Dragon Girl rated it ★★★★★
IT’S FINALLY HEEEERRREEEE
[Gif: Jonah Hill screaming in excitement.]
[Gif: Flailing kermit.]
…more
Jade rated it ★★☆☆☆
With how everyone has been going on about this book, I was expecting a literary classic. Instead, I had to force myself to read past the first 100 pages. It has an eye-catching premise I guess—though I’ve always kind of hated the hype around a washed up pro like All Might—but I was expecting a book about thrilling fights and badass beat-downs and instead I get this… over-sentimental dribble. More action, less waffling about how ~impressive~ other heroes and students he worked with are. Also, was it really necessary to go into retirement details? Who wants to read about a hero who’s outlived his …more
Ei rated it ★★★★☆
I’ve been looking for a book that accurately describes what it’s like to live with chronic pain without trivialising the condition for years. I never expected to find that validation in a memoir by the man who spent the last few decades fighting villains and signing autographs.
I’m a fan of All Might (who isn’t?!) so I raced through this book. It was exciting, I loved the tidbits about the hero community, but when I got to the last third of the book and All Might’s body started to betray him (the way my body has been betraying me for years) I knew I had really found something special. All Might doesn’t offer up a simple solution (because there isn’t one) but he still found peace and was loved and supported and I can’t say enough how thankful …more
Midoriya doesn’t know how long he’s been standing by the water cooler, holding an empty plastic cup and staring vacantly out of the window. His mind is full of static. When Bubblegum Blitz touches his elbow, he jumps. If there was water in his cup, he would have tipped it down his front.
“Sorry,” Bubblegum Blitz says, drawing their arm to their chest. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s okay,” Midoriya says. “My fault, really. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. You just seem a little, uh, off?”
Midoriya smiles, and even the dark bags under his eyes and his unbrushed curls, sticking up as though someone has been tugging on his hair all night—Bubglegum Blitz shoves down the hot swoop in their stomach at the thought—doesn’t erode the brightness of his smile.
“I didn’t meant to worry you!” Midoriya says. “I stayed up all night reading All Might’s book. Rereading, technically. I know I should have waited to finish after work, but I couldn’t put it down! It’s just—it was so—”
Midoriya makes a complicated gesture with his hands. He could be described a sun imploding. He could be miming baking a cake. Bubblegum Blitz isn’t sure. But the look in his eyes, the wet shine there, says more than words ever could.
Midoriya runs a hand through his hair, tugging on his fringe. “Sorry, Gum. You probably have work, huh?”
“No, it’s okay,” Bubblegum Blitz says, patiently. They muster up their calmest smile, the one they strap on in the field even when they feel as though the fear will swallow them whole. “Tell me about it.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Bubblegum Blitz says.
“You’re a good hero, Gum,” Midoriya says, offhand, like his words don’t make Bubblegum Blitz feel as though they’ve inhaled sunlight. And then he barrels on, and they can’t help but be drawn in to his words about All Might.
Maybe Bubblegum Blitz will buy a copy of the book for themselves.
Pinky @officialpinky
can the villains in tokyo be chill for the next hour i have to go hug All Might real quick #mightymemoir
[Image: Photo of All Might: The Price and Principle of Peace, held open by a pink hand.
“I always knew I would become a teacher one day; I had spent so many years as a hero, it felt wrong not to try and impart my knowledge on the generation that would succeed me.
I had not, however, intended to love my students as much as I do.
Teaching was hard. I was so deeply out of my comfort zone, it was like being a young upstart hero again, but the children under my care were full of so much passion, and drive, and life. They made me remember the reason why I became a hero in the first place, and why I loved it so much. They made me want to keep living—not for myself, but so I could go on to see them grow into the strong heroes I knew they would become.”]
replies
All Might @dadmight
@officialpinky You’re always welcome to visit, Ashido!
Pinky @officialpinky
@dadmight i’ll come over this saturday!! PREPARE TO BE HUGGED ＼（Ｔ∇Ｔ）／
Uravity @officialuravity
@dadmight @officialpinky Can Tsuyu and I come??
All Might @dadmight
@officialuravity @officialpinky The more the merrier!
Pinky @officialpinky
@dadmight @officialuravity GIRLS NIGHT AT DAD’S HOUSE
all-fighting-all-mighting reblogged cyclonesally
yackronin:
SCREAMS i’m reading all might’s new book and look at this quote from page 169
[Image: Photograph of All Might: The Price and Principle of Peace.
“At UA, I experienced an emotion I thought had been lost to me forever: fatherly pride.
I was nervous during that first sports festival; I felt like I was competing myself, rather than watching safely from the staff box. When Midoriya won the obstacle race, I celebrated with him. When my students were knocked out, I despaired. And when it came to hand out metals, I couldn’t help but embrace my students.”]
i’m crying?? all might loves his kids so much???
.
carolklav:
omvkkemk you left out the paragraph where all might basically just waffles on about the future number one’s first time in the spotlight
ALSO this Gold line that came straight after
However, he could have done without the tears. Midoriya always was a bit of a crybaby. I suppose he never grew out of that.
DRAG HIM, ALL MIGHT
.
cyclonesally:
All Might immediately after meeting Class 1-A:
.
gay-threnody:
fkgjkjtgkjgt all might at the usj attack:
[Gif: “That mother’s adrenaline is kicking in!”]
.
bean-there-done-that:
Ironically my favourite parts of TPAPOP are the parts written by other people, especially Deku. The enthusiastic little editor’s notes at the bottom of the page are so cute, doubly so when All Might responds back.
[Image: Photograph of All Might: The Price and Principle of Peace, zoomed in to bottom of page 137.
“*Editor’s note: It’s your story! You shouldn’t talk about me so much.
**Responding author’s note: Our stories can’t be untangled, my boy; they’re not separate.”]
89,439 notes
Tagged: #my copy is in the mail!!! #i’m so excited to read it #tpapop #heroes #class 3a
They don’t talk about recovery. They never have, really. In the aftermath of brutal fights, they talk about the pain that comes with seeing civilians hurt; the strain of using a quirk not your own; and the heart-dropping moment where you’re sure that you’re not going to live through the next hour.
They talk about their injuries, but they don’t talk about the reality of recovery—the medications, and the therapy sessions, and the way it aches at night, so bad you think you’ve been injured all over again. And how, sometimes, it feels like you’ll never get better and the fear of that makes it hard to breathe.
They don’t discuss it, but Midoriya notices. He sees the pill box that appears in Toshinori’s bathroom, beside his normal bottles of painkillers; he sees that, somedays, Toshinori moves like he’s wading through cement and can’t bear to sit still for long; he notes the presence or absence of his wheel-chair; and he sees the inconsistent care put into the house, the layers of dust and the flowers that appear in the front garden and the new books sprawled out on the coffee table.
He wonders if Toshinori notices things, too. What did Toshinori see when Midoriya returned from a month-long silence after being injured? Did he see the faded bruises, the way he was moving stiffly, the fear on his face when he saw the depression Toshinori had fallen into?
In the field, Midoriya can mask his fear with a smile. It’s harder to strap on a smile in front of his loved ones.
Maybe Toshinori did see him—really see him. It would explain why he’s thrown himself into recovery as much as he has.
(That frightens Midoriya. If he disappeared again, would Toshinori sink back into a depression?
He tries not to think about it too much.)
[Image: Kirishima beams at the camera. He is in casual clothes—a pair of torn overalls over a yellow Charge Bolt t-shirt, paired with vibrant red crocs. In his arms are over a dozen potted flowers, small and bright and waiting to be planted.]
58,030 likes
deathonation
What the fuck are we supposed to do with all these flowers
View all 1,204 comments
rippedredriot: but look at them, baby! they were too good to just LEAVE
deathonation: @rippedredriot Then let someone else buy them. We don’t have the room.
rippedredriot: @deathonation :’(
deathonation: @rippedredriot Uh FINE just put the damn pout away
rippedredriot: @deathonation also while you were gone i found apple trees
deathonation: @rippedredriot WE LIVE IN AN INNER CITY APARTMENT, DUMBASS
blacknovelist: / heart eyes motherfucker
vampshouta: how does red riot manage to look so good shirtless and powered up but also while all soft and holding flowers
flowersalesman: @vampshouta get you a man that can do both
chargeboltt: nice shirt, kiri ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Direct Message
Young Bakugou: you wouldn’t happen to want a bunch of apple trees would you
Old Man: Pardon?
Young Bakugou: we’ll be there soon
Old Man: ??
“You’re an idiot,” Bakugou informs him.
Midoriya looks up from where he’s mashing his noodles into paste. “What?”
“What the fuck is sulking going to accomplish, huh?”
“I don’t …”
“You made up with the old man, didn’t you?” Bakugou says. “He mentioned you—he fucking babbles on about you a lot, but he mentioned you specifically this time.”
There’s only two people Bakugou calls old man—his dad and All Might. “You visited Toshinori?”
“‘Course. We went on the weekend. Fucking Eijiro found these plants at the swap meet near our apartment, and he wouldn’t put them down, and it’s not like we have anymore room for them on our apartment’s shitty balcony, so we had to find somewhere for them to go. And the old man happens to have a shit-tonne of empty space.” Bakugou stuffs his mouth with noodles, and then says, muffled, “He’s doing fine. Better than fine. So stop fucking sulking like the world is ending. Fucking baby.”
The mushed up noodles fall off his chopsticks. Midoriya sets them down. He’s not hungry today, anyway.
“It’s been years, so I shouldn’t feel like this now,” he admits, “especially after becoming the Number One barely a year ago, but … he gave his power to me, didn’t he? So it’s my responsibility—”
“Idiot,” Bakugou says. He prods him in the side with his chopsticks, just above his hip where his armour is the thinnest, and Midoriya yelps. “Cut that shit out.”
“But—”
“Midoriya!”
Kirishima waves at them from across the empty street. This section of the block is still cleared out while the stability of the building is tested. The villains have already been carted away.
Kirishima bounces over to them. He pushes his weight onto Bakugou like he’s an arm post rather than his husband, but instead of complaining, Bakugou relaxes into him.
“We’ve been reading All Might’s book,” Kirishima says, and then amends, “Well, Bakugou already finished it, he’s a much faster reader than I am. I’m about halfway through. It’s so good. It’s crazy being able to read about All Might’s life as a hero after watching him for years. I can’t wait to see when our class comes in!”
“He mentions you,” Bakugou says.
Kirishima squeaks. “What? You never mentioned that, babe! When? What page?”
“He mentions all of us,” Midoriya says.
“Especially you,” Bakugou growls, and Midoriya laughs and picks his chopsticks back up, if only to have something to do with his hands.
“That makes sense,” Kirishima says. “It’d be weird if you weren’t in there, Midoriya.”
Across the street, the crowd of officers are dispersing. The parting uniforms reveal a head of gummy blue hair and pink skin. Bubblegum Blitz waves at Midoriya, more enthusiastically than even Kirishima had, and Midoriya smiles and waves back.
“Fucking hell,” Bakugou says.
“Be nice,” Kirishima says.
When Bubblegum Blitz reaches the bench, they don’t bother to say hello to Bakugou and Kirishima. They rattle off a summary of the officer’s movements, and describes in detail the villains’ arrest, even though Midoriya had been right there when Bakugou handcuffed the group. They go purple in the cheeks when Midoriya mentions this.
When Bubblegum Blitz finally leaves, they glance back over their shoulder at the three top heroes, still with that purple-pink hue to their face.
Which is understandable, Midoriya thinks. Bakugou has been drawing more media attention than usual since the last Hero Rankings were released. Rookie heroes are often overwhelmed when they meet new pros.
“Sorry,” Midoriya tells Bakugou, “Gum is probably intimidated. You’re the new Number Two, after all!”
Kirishima and Bakugou make eye contact. Kirishima rubs at the back of his neck, and says, “I, uh. I don’t think Katsuki was why Bubblegum Blitz was nervous.”
Midoriya cocks his head to one side. He gets the impression that he’s missing something. “What?”
Kirishima sighs. Bakugou looks pained.
“Like I said,” Bakugou says, “you’re an idiot.”
[Thumbnail: Bubblegum Blitz talking to a field reporter, their hands flapping in front of them, their eyes big and shiny.]
bubblegum blitz rambles about deku (compilation)
55,174 views
View 79 Comments
yonch - 2 weeks ago
lol you can see the hearts in this kid’s eyes when they look at deku, his crush is so obvious
iochilan - 3 weeks ago
Tbf can you blame Bubblegum Blitz… I would also ramble on national TV if asked about Deku
10 likes
[Image: All Might sits in the middle of the couch, Asui and Hagakure on either side of him. Jirou and Yaoyorozu are squashed into a single armchair together, Yaoyorozu on Jirou’s lap, and Ashido is sat on a pillow by their feet. A monopoly board is on the coffee table. Brightly coloured mocktails are balanced around the board. Some look dangerously close to toppling over the edge of the coffee table.]
ururavity
68,939 likes
Game night at All Might’s! Jirou, Momo & Ashido have formed an alliance against us - we’re gonna be bankrupt soon! （／_＼）#gamesnight #allmight
View all 3,499 comments
composeregg: girls night girls night girls night
plantazar: omg pinky looks so good [heart eyes]
violetanimatron: CREATI I’D DIE FOR YOU
They hold a book launch at Toshinori’s country home.
There will be another party in a week’s time—an official party in the city with publishing agents and journalists and scores of pro heroes flocking in to celebrate their retired symbol. There, they will be under a spotlight, dressed impeccably with diplomatic smiles. Midoriya is looking forward to it. Toshinori is nervous, but Midoriya has re-watched his speeches over the years dozens of times. He’s a natural.
But here, there is no pressure. There are no outsider eyes. There’s questionable food, and a constant stop-start of music as Kaminari and Jirou fight over the aux cord. There isn’t a dress code. Midoriya thinks that, under his hoodie, Shinsou might be wearing pyjamas.
They toast Toshinori, and he fumbles over a thank you, as if he’s unused to praise, as if he hadn’t been celebrated as the Symbol of Peace for decades.
Sometime later, Toshinori excuses himself and goes into the backyard to get some air. Midoriya finds him several yards out, crouched beside the newly planted apple trees. He’s eyeing an apple tree that barely reaches his knee.
“It’s cold,” Midoriya says.
He sits down beside Toshinori, tucking his legs under him. The damp earth bites into his skin through his jeans.
Toshinori hums. “It’s nice out here.”
Midoriya leans over and wraps a scarf around Toshnori’s neck. Toshinori stares evenly back at him until Midoriya sighs, picked up the second scarf he grabbed from the coat rack for this exact reason, and secures it around his own neck.
Toshinori traces the length of a branch. The waxy leaves tremble under his hand, and it seems so small, the branch no thicker than one of Toshinori’s spindly fingers—it seems impossible that something so delicate could grow into a towering tree and give birth to heavy fruit.
“I’m sorry,” Midoriya blurts.
Toshinori blinks up at him. “What for?”
“For—for not checking in with you when I got injured. For not realising how the retirement might really be affecting you. And not doing enough. And—”
“My boy,” Toshinori says, and there is a vein of something unnameable cutting under his words—something a little like regret, and a lot like nostalgia. He doesn’t sound upset, though. He sounds almost—old. “You can’t do that to yourself.”
“But—”
“You’re a successor,” Toshinori says. “You’re the new symbol, and that’s a lot of responsibility, but you can’t hold yourself to impossible standards like that. You’ll break. Trust me. You can’t do everything, be everything, even if you give everything you have and then some.”
Midoriya sounds younger when he speaks, closer to fifteen than twenty-five. “I want to save everyone.”
Toshinori lets go of the apple tree. It bobs in the country breeze.
Toshinori doesn’t tell Midoriya that it’s impossible to save everyone. They both know this. Intimately.
“You don’t have to watch everyone at every minute of the day to save them.” And then, giving up pretences, Toshinori lifts his dark eyes, and says, “I’m an adult, Izuku. You don’t have to babysit me. You can help me, you can keep me company, but you can’t hold my hand. I don’t need you to save me. Not like that.”
“You’re important to me. You’re like—you’re family. I want to make sure—”
“You are,” Toshinori says. He gestures to the house inside, bracketed by newly planted flowers, light from the kitchen spilling out onto the budding garden. Laughter rises into the air. Someone is teasing Kaminari; they can just hear his spluttered argument over the music. “I’m okay. Really. I’m doing better than I was, and you’ve helped me reach that better place, but—I can’t be okay if you’re driving yourself into the ground.”
Midoriya goes quiet. Toshinori laughs, and breaks the silence: “Though I know I can’t expect too much from my busy student, Mr. Big Shot Hero.”
Midoriya flushes. “You of all people can’t call me that!”
Toshinori laughs again, a bright sound that bubbles out of his mouth, and picks up the paper cup propped against the sapling. He takes a generous sip.
Midoriya squints at him. “Is that juice?”
“Yes,” Toshinori says too quickly.
“You’re not supposed to drink alcohol,” Midoriya says, not fooled even for a second.
“I’ve decided that I’m no longer going to define myself by what I can’t do,” Toshinori says imperiously, and then throws up blood on Midoriya’s shoes.
Class 3-A Vines (High School Edition)
853,949 views
View 2,249 comments
obsessedfangirl5143 - 2 years ago
i know i talk a big game about selling my soul to go back in time and become part of this class but if i was woken up at 2am by caffeine hyped teenagers doing the fork in the garbage disposal i would walk into traffic
530 likes
Hide replies^
sophiegaladheon - 2 years ago
3:04 tailman’s face when he sees pinky and charge bolt is the face of a broken man
starknightgirl - 1 year ago
2:49 i remember seeing this vine years ago, i didn’t realise the dumbass kids in it grew up to be ACTUAL PRO HEROES
300 likes
mithrilroses - 1 year ago
all the copycat smack cams could be there own compilation at this point
rikugou - 1 year ago
i wish they would recreate some of these now
210 likes
Hide replies ^
cademon1 - 6 months ago
Isn’t their 10 year anniversary coming up soon? They should remake these
ssjggoku - 8 months ago
Where did they get those inflatable morphsuits???
Hide replies ^
mountliang - 8 months ago
creati probably made them
skytouchie- 7 months ago
the real question is why are deku and detonation duking it while wearing them
nesloga - 4 monts ago
safety first
im-an-indoor-person reblogged boshberry
[Image 1: Deku stared at something offscreen, eyebrows drawn, mouth set into a hard line. Plumes of smoke rose behind him, half-obscuring the fleeing civilians.]
[Image 2: First-year sports festival. Deku dived out of the way of a furious Bakugou with the desperation of a man throwing himself out of the path of gunfire.]
[Image 3: Deku smiled like a shark—wide and toothy and hungry. Despite the bloody gash at his temple and the soot darkening his suit, he looked like he was having fun.]
[Image 4: Sixteen year old Deku looking to the side, staring into the lens of someone’s camera phone in dawning horror. He looked like a man who had just been delivered an execution date. Written across the black board in the background were the words: Surprise Exam.]
[Image 5: Deku was smiling brightly, braced in front of a crowd of high schoolers. Some of the kids were tear-stained, their clothes torn, but they were staring up at Deku, dazed with the force of their relief.]
[Image 6: Deku at HeroCon, staring down at a stall packed with All Might figurines, still in their boxes. His brows were furrowed, his shoulders hunched, and he was tearing up. The vendor floundered on the other side of the table, unsure what to do with the Number One hero stuck at their stall, agonising over something as simple as choosing what to buy.]
boshberry:
Deku when lives are in danger vs Deku when facing everyday inconveniences
.
sleepydekus:
you mean: deku when someone else is threatened vs deku when he’s threatened emotionally
19,949 notes
Tagged: #tag yourself i’m the second one whenever i find a cockroach in my room
They eat toast over the sink the next morning. The unlucky few who have to head into work early are running around, trying to wake themselves up and get ready. Everyone else is sprawled around the living room, blankets pulled over their head to block out the weak sunlight.
Midoriya has an early morning shift. He’s half in costume, long gloves stuffed into his utility belt so he doesn’t spill coffee on them. His mouth has been scorched numb—he can’t even taste the bitterness of the freshly brewed, sugarless coffee he’s downing.
Even though the sun has barely risen, Toshinori is already bustling around the kitchen. His dressing robe is fluffy, deep blue, and long enough to reach his ankles, despite his towering height.
Midoriya tries to snatch up the toast as soon as it is cooked, but Toshinori bats his hands away. He thickly spreads jam on the slice before handing it over.
“I eat plain toast all the time when I’m running late,” Midoriya says.
“Buttering it takes two seconds,” Toshinori scolds, and loads the toaster with bread again.
Jirou speeds past the breakfast counter, her hair in knots. Toshinori holds out buttered toast as she sprints by, and she takes it and shoves most of it into her mouth without blinking. Her thank you is delivered with a spray of crumbs.
Midoriya glances around the kitchen as he chews. “Are you going to pick baking up again? Now that you’re finished your book, I mean.”
“Maybe,” Toshinori says.
Iida comes into the kitchen, squinting against the soft light coming through the window, still in yesterday’s clothes. Toshinori finds Iida’s glasses behind the sink and passes them over.
“Breakfast, too,” Toshinori says, and stuffs toast into Iida’s hands.
Iida doesn’t seem capable of words right now. He nods, almost takes a bite out of his glasses before reconsidering at the last moment, and starts in on his toast.
“Go wash your face,” Toshinori suggests. Iida nods again, and disappears into the bathroom.
Midoriya finishes his slice and butters a second piece. Toshinori rubs at the back of his neck, fingers slotting beneath his short braid.
“I don’t think I’m any good at it,” Toshinori admits.
“What?” Midoriya inhales his toast and cuts off, spluttering. He drinks water straight from the tap to clear his throat. “Don’t say that. You’re a great cook. We love eating your food.”
“You don’t have to—” Toshinori says.
“Does it make you happy?” Midoriya interrupts. “Baking. Does it make you happy?”
Toshinori considers this. “Yes,” he says finally. “Yes, it does.”
Midoriya nods. “Well. There you go.”
“You have jam in your hair,” Toshinori says.
Midoriya’s hand fly to his fringe. His hair feels hard under his fingers, strands clumped together with jam. “How did I manage that? This is why I eat plain toast when I’m in a rush!”
Midoriya pushes the rest of the toast into his mouth, and dusts crumbs off his fingers with a tea towel, rather than brushing his hands on himself and risking having to complete a public patrol while smeared with orange jam.
He ducks around Toshinori and heads for the bathroom, where Jirou and Iida disappeared. The sound of a hair-dryer whirring and someone gurgling mouthwash can be heard.
Midoriya pauses in the doorway.
“Toshinori,” Midoriya says, “the kids in the village are putting on a hero assembly soon. Tanako invited me—us ages ago. We should go.”
Toshinori smiles. The morning sun lights up his hair, washed and braided and more alive than it has been in months.
“I’d like that,” Toshinori says. “Maybe I can bake cupcakes. Do you think they’d like cupcakes? Maybe they’d prefer something else.”
“They’d love cupcakes,” Midoriya says. “Everyone loves your cupcakes. Trust me.”
Midoriya tips a smile at Toshinori, and then ducks into the bathroom to try and wrestle some sink space from Iida and Jirou.
[Image: Almost twenty people are gathered in Toshinori’s living room. Food is spilt over the table, and everyone is turned to one another rather than the camera, smiling and talking. Toshinori is in the middle of the room. His head is ducked, hiding his bright smile, a faint blush on his cheeks.]
uaclass1a
71,393 likes
All Might’s unofficial book launch! Thanks to everyone for coming! (If you look closely you can see Jirou about to pounce on Kaminari for stealing the Aux cord). (If you look even closer you can see the drying tear tracks on Deku’s face).
View 4,697 comments
rippedredriot: Congrats, AM!!!
earphonejacked: if anyone asks what happened to kaminari - just know that he deserved it
pinkalienqueen: congratulations, teach! sorry i had to work and missed the party :(
aoyprincecharming: Félicitations ˚✧₊⁎( ˘∇˘ )⁎⁺˳✧༚
no1smallmight: Congratulations, Toshinori. You deserve it.
Chapter 12: The Rising Sun
I met Midoriya Izuku on a Tuesday.
He was smaller than average for a fourteen year old. His hair puffed out like a feather duster, and his face was red with excitement. At the time, I mistook the shine in his eyes for hero worship.
He asked if he could be a hero. I told him no.
But Midoriya Izuku can’t be stopped by words alone. He proved me wrong—on that day, and in the months that followed, and in every year that has since passed.
I realise now that the light in his eyes wasn’t anything as simple as hero worship. What I glimpsed that day was the beginnings of the Number One Hero Deku—his grit, and his determination, and his burning desire to save others—trying to burst out of the too-small body of a middle schooler.
What I saw that day was the mark of a real hero.
—All Might: The Price and Principle of Peace, page 137