POV: Issei Hyoudou
Izuku had just left for bed, leaving me in the living room by myself. I was planning to go to sleep, but the conversation with Inko kept replaying in my mind. I did feel bad about not being honest with her, but to my credit, I didn't lie; I just exaggerated the truth a little bit.
For a few days, my father kept shouting that he would disown me when he first found out I wanted to be the harem king. He was lying, of course; he just said that to "Try to scare the stupid out of me," or at least that's what he kept saying.
Of course, with me not even in the double digits, I wasn't able to see past my father's poorly thought-out plan . So all that ended up happening was a lot of crying on my part.
But that doesn't count cause I was like six, so I don't lose manly points for crying. And whoever says otherwise, clearly never watched Grave of the Fireflies, shit still brings a tear to my eye.
And the part about them, "Not believing in my dreams and telling me to give up," is also true.
One day, when Mom was cleaning my room, even though I told her several times I could do it myself. She quickly found several of my "Personal" Magazines in quick succession, enraged by my totally justifiable obsession with the female body. She yelled at me, saying I was never going to get a girlfriend, let alone multiple, if I kept looking at "Dirty books," her word, not mine.
So did I really lie? Not really. But the fact of the matter is, I used Inko's kindness for my own benefit. and not gonna lie, I don't feel good about that.
"I need to find a way to repay her kindness somehow." With those thoughts, I finally drifted off to sleep.
I woke up early in the morning to the sight of Izuku standing above me, saying we needed to head out now—otherwise, we'd be late for the meeting with Mr. Yagi. The couch was comfortable, but I woke up with a weird popping sensation in my ankle, and my back was a little sore.
Other than that, it was an alright sleep.
I had to borrow some of Izuku's workout clothes since all I had on me was my school uniform. Which was currently being washed since it kinda stunk. Thought if I had to voice any complaints, it would probably be the fact that Izuku was several inches shorter than me. So the sleeves and pant legs rested higher up than the clothing was probably supposed to.
We managed to scramble together a hastily made breakfast that consisted of plain bread, undercooked eggs, and orange juice. Truly, we were dining like the finest kings.
By the time we left the apartment, the clock read five in the morning. Izuku seemed full of energy, even this early. I, on the other hand, was barely holding it together. I rarely even woke up on time for school, so getting up before the sun was basically unheard of.
And Izuku still hadn't told me where we were going, choosing to keep it secret even after I kept prodding for an answer the whole walk. I only figured out our destination when we were right in front of it.
It was a beach, if anyone's curious.
A really cramped, trash-filled beach. Covered, as far as the eye could see, in garbage. Some of it looked like it had washed up with the tide, but most of it was probably dumped by people too lazy to go to a landfill.
And that's not even mentioning the smell. It was like the alley I once woke up in—times a hundred. But on the bright side, the view of the sunrise was nice. If you ignored the literal mountain of trash blocking most of it. Still, nice.
When we arrived, we saw Mr. Yagi waiting near a parking lot. It was probably meant for beachgoers, but judging by the state of the place, no one had used it in years.
Mr. Yagi waved us over.
"Good morning, you two. Glad to see the next generation rising so early," he said between sips of what smelled like coffee. "I know I didn't explain much to either of you yesterday, but I plan to change that now. You see, last night I did a little research and found out this beach used to be beautiful. But it's been a total mess for the last few years."
"Do either of you know why that might be?" Finishing his coffee, his attention shifted fully to us.
Izuku spoke before I could even register the question. "Because of the ocean currents—anything dropped in the water ends up here. People take advantage of that when they're illegally dumping trash. Now all the locals avoid this place."
"Correct! A hundred points to you, Young Midoriya." Mr. Yagi dramatically pointed at Izuku like he was awarding game show points. "And twenty points to you, Young Hyoudou, for participating." He made sure I got some points too. He must've thought I felt left out, so he tried to include me. Which was nice of him. But, honestly, it kinda made me feel worse.
"Heroes these days are all about showing off and capturing flashy villains," Mr. Yagi said, walking toward a refrigerator that seemed strangely isolated from the other trash. Once he got close, I noticed faint traces of smoke coming off him. "Things were different before Quirks. Service was what mattered."
Before he could extend his hand, a sudden rush of smoke engulfed him.
Unaffected, he kept talking. "Back then, heroes were the ones who helped the community." The sound of metal being crushed echoed through the beach. "Even if it was kinda boring." Then came a loud slam against the sand, followed by a gust of wind that cleared the smoke—and the entire mountain of trash behind the fridge.
Standing in the now-empty space was the towering form of All Might, still wearing the same clothes Mr. Yagi had on moments ago. Except now, the clothes looked way too tight instead of baggy.
"Both of you are responsible for restoring this coastline to its former glory." The sunrise behind him cast a perfect silhouette over All Might's chiseled face. "This is your first step on the path to becoming Heroes."
"Um… All this?" Izuku looked around at the piles of trash, clearly trying to calculate how many people it would take to clean it all up. Spoiler: not two teenagers.
"But… there's so much. That's impossible!"
He and All Might started talking about something, but I tuned out.
My eyes kept flicking between the crumpled fridge and the seven-foot-two mountain of a man who used to be Mr. Yagi. A guy who once looked like he'd lose a fight to a strong breeze… now out here built like he wrestles gods for cardio.
And do you know what I was thinking the whole time?
"I knew this motherfucker was taking steroids!"
I mean, come on. From skeleton to Greek god? Insane. I can't even imagine how much this guy juices up. It also explains why he looked like a dried raisin most of the time—side effects of whatever he's taking, probably.
I snapped back to reality when I noticed both Izuku and All Might staring at me, waiting for me to say something. Thinking fast, I said the first thing that came to mind.
"All Might." Thankfully, my subconscious mind was smart enough not to blurt out any of my theories about Mr. Yagi's—no, All Might's—special needle that gives him his strength boost.
"Ah, yes, my apologies, Young Hyoudou. In my excitement, I forgot to explain the truth about my situation." All Might got down on one knee and placed a firm but gentle hand on my shoulder. "I understand this might be a bit shocking. But the truth behind my identity and quirk is a well-guarded secret. The only reason we're even having this conversation is because I was careless and revealed my ability to Young Midoriya while you were nearby."
"And while you learning about One For All was an accident, there's nothing we can do about it now. Instead, I'd rather focus on training both of you to become outstanding heroes." He ended his motivational speech with a thumbs-up and a bright, toothy grin.
It was kind of All Might to try and ease me into all this. But any warmth I might've felt disappeared the moment I remembered—this guy's around my dad's age. If he were a hot older lady, this would easily make my top ten life moments. But since he wasn't, it just felt like a friend of my dad giving me a pep talk.
Which, to be fair, was still a nice gesture. But if I had the choice between the two? No contest.
"Ah, shit, he's still talking." I snapped out of my thoughts just as All Might stopped smiling and let his hand drop to his side.
"But with that being said, Young Hyoudou, just knowing my secret isn't enough for me to train you. I don't want to brag, but there's a reason that even after decades as the number one hero, I've only had a handful of sidekicks and partners." Standing up, All Might walked toward the section of the beach he'd previously cleared.
"No, I needed to make sure you weren't an evildoer in disguise. So last night, I had a good friend of mine do a little background check on you, Young Hyoudou. And he found something interesting."
"Wait a damn minute, All Might. Nobody said anything about background checks."
Normally, hearing that someone was digging into my past would send sweat pouring down my back. With my interests, you wouldn't have to look far to find something sketchy—and there were plenty of them.
But no, that wasn't what panicked me.
The real problem was way worse. I'm not from this world—or at least, not this time period, if my theory about time travel is right. Which means there shouldn't be any information to find. No date of birth. No social security number. No family. Just a complete and total ghost as far as society's concerned.
And in the slim chance that there was something about me, in whatever creepy government database they used. That shit was at least outdated by a few hundred years.
And I've seen enough anime and action movies to know that either option wasn't ideal.
Before I went full panic mode, All Might raised his arm to silence me, " I understand that I invaded your privacy, Young Hyoudou, and for that I apologize. But you must understand how important One For All is. If this secret were to ever fall into the wrong hands, it has the potential to throw our entire society into ruin." He wore a serious expression, and it was clear he was taking this whole secret thing very seriously." And besides, while your behavior could be considered downright concerning, it's typical for young men around your age. At least I hope it is"
The air of seriousness was shattered with that comment. All Might was now rubbing his forehead like a teacher having to deal with a particularly difficult student. I would know, afterall, many of my previous teachers had the same look.
"Eh?" What the hell does that mean
"What are you talking about, All Might?"
He took a deep breath before speaking. " Well, Young Hyoudou. My friend managed to uncover a pretty "colorful" record about you. He sent me a copy of his findings, which I read while I was waiting for both of you to arrive." He pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pants pocket and handed it to me.
Unfolding the paper, I was greeted by lines upon lines describing Issei Hyoudou's life. Each line had at least one mention of my name attached to a perverted incident, which was then followed by the date of said incident, the punishment, and the motive behind it. The information was organized and straight to the point. It was as if I were reading a case file dedicated to explaining every notable perverted action I ever committed.
The only problem was, this wasn't me.
Sure, the paper had my name, and a list of perverted things I know for a fact I would've done. But the fact of the matter was. This was a piece of paper describing Issei Hyoudou's life, but it wasn't my life. At the surface level, sure, everything seems to be in order, but under more careful observation, massive differences between this Issei and myself started to pop up.
At first, it was little things, like names of people I had never met, or places I had no memory of ever being at. After that, it snowballed. This Issei never lived in Kouh, never met Matsuda and Motohama, and attended schools I've never even heard of before.
And the biggest difference was the Fact that this Issei grew up an orphan.
Both his Mother and Father died when he was five. Going off what was written on the paper, it happened during a Villain attack. The heroes at the scene were too preoccupied by the rampaging villain to aid any of the fleeing citizens escape to safety. Many innocent people died that day, including my parents.
Normally, this probably would have been the moment a character in the anime breaks down crying. But I didn't even get the chance to question my existence before a phone was shoved in my face. A video began playing of the sludge villain incident.
I thought all nearby cameras were destroyed by that blonde-haired kid's explosions. It might've been better if they had. The video quality was choppy at best and completely useless at worst. On top of all that, it wasn't even facing the villain. It was just vibing off to the side, recording a blurry shot of the crowd and like... half a trash can.
I was about to look up to All Might before I spotted a movement in the crowd of people. Locking my eyes on a familiar young man with brown hair who looked like he was in the middle of picking up a rock from the floor. The same boy was shown tossing the rock in his hand before assuming a sloppy version of a throwing stance. Just as he wound back his arm and threw it, a bright green light erupted from his hand. When it had died down enough for me to be able to see clearly, the light that had once shown was now a metal glove that was dyed a deep crimson.
The video cut after that. "There were multiple heroes on the scene during the incident. But for one reason or another, not a single one was able to step up and help. And yet despite that fact, two young men took a stand and helped save another, even when the Pros couldn't." Looking up to see All Might's smiling face, I felt a small amount of pride well up inside me
"That is why, even with you knowing my Secret. Your actions prove to me that you have a heroic heart. That single factor is the most important part to being a hero, cause even with a powerful quirk," He poked his finger against my chest, right above my heart. " If your heart's not in the right place, then everything else is meaningless."
"But if I'm being honest, that form you used to throw the rubble was terrible."
And just like that, any amount of pride I held in my actions was instantly shattered into small, crumbling pieces.
"Alright, enough talking, we're wasting too much daylight. This beach isn't gonna clean itself."
Izuku moved as soon as the command was given, even when he still carried that skeptical look on his face. And I was eager to distract myself, or at least give myself time to process all this new information.
That eagerness quickly vanished as the gravity of our task became apparent.
For one, All Might wasn't helping; he was either sitting on the piles of trash while shouting at us, or driving his truck that Izuku and I managed to fill with the smaller pieces of trash to the proper dump sites.
And second, this place fucking stinks. The smell was already strong before we went down to the sand level. But now that we were in the middle of all of it, I could barely even think of anything other than the stench, which was brutally beating my sense of smell.
We kept working like that for what felt like hours. The only reason I knew time was passing was because of the sun rising in the sky.
Izuku was the first to collapse. He was trying to pull a large fridge almost twice his size, and it didn't help that All Might was also comically sitting on said fridge, adding even more weight to Izuku's struggles.
I lasted for a few more minutes before my aching body decided it was time to surrender. The sand was cold and rough on my back. There was also a strange smell that seemed to coat the entire beach. It was like all the foul smells and the strange liquids that had been on this beach were collecting dust, leaving an unpleasant reminder for anyone foolish enough to try to clean the place.
It was between gulps of air, and hesitant inhales of what was for sure toxic gas, that I heard the clicks of a camera.
"Haha, look at the two of you, struggling to even pick up pieces of trash. If you keep this up, I just might have to take back what I said earlier about you two becoming heroes." Raising my head, I spotted All Might's crouched form on the fridge, laughing at us while taking photos.
I was too tired to even care what I looked like right now; my main and only concern was bringing more air into my lungs and letting my aching body rest. Izuku, on the other hand, fell for the teasing rather easily.
"But I thought you said that I was worthy!" He then proceeded to get into a semi-plank form and started screaming. If I had been a little less exhausted, I might've just outright laughed because of how ridiculous he looked. Instead, I settled with a quick chuckle before laying my head back onto the sand.
"I'm talking about your weak bodies." All Might got off the fridge and began walking and talking towards Midoriya's weird semi-plank position, all while taking photos. " Even with a strong quirk, A hero also needs to be fit enough to handle any challenges they may come across. And take it from a guy who's been doing this longer than the two of you have been alive. This path will strain you both physically and mentally."
"In fact, this advice probably applies to you more than anyone else, young Midoriya."
"My quirk, One For All, is a whole lot to handle. The combined physical abilities of everyone who's ever used it created a hurricane of pure force. An unprepared body can't fully inherit it. Your arms and legs would shoot off if you tried to."
"Seriously?" Izuku was understandably a little panicked at the news that he could explode if he didn't properly train his body.
"Yes, Seriously. Or did you think you were gonna be able to attain my awesome power without having to sweat for it?"
After that, All Might gave us a few more minutes to catch our breath before we went back at it.
Our self-imposed community service went on throughout the morning and mid-afternoon. At one point, Izuku questioned whether it was a good idea for us to continue removing trash in broad daylight. It didn't matter much when we first started this morning since it was still early, but now that people are out and about. He was worried people would ask questions.
All Might quickly cut off Izuku before he went off on a tangent by throwing his own information back at him.
"Like you said earlier, the locals avoid this place because of all the trash. So if we don't go around making too much noise, and tread lightly around the occasional jogger, we should be just fine."
That seemed to calm Izuku down. With nothing left that needed to be said, we went back to hauling trash. And by WE, I meant me and Izuku, since All Might was still kinda sitting around and giving the occasional word of advice. I think at one point I caught him watching a cat video compilation.
All Might finally decided to call it a day when he received a phone call. He left shortly after, saying he was needed urgently to stop a rampaging villain on the other side of Japan.
With All Might finally giving us the go-ahead, we walked back to Izuku's apartment — which, on the way back, felt incredibly long. I just chalked that up to the fact that my limbs felt like they were going to fall off. And keep in mind, I was still doing better than Izuku — if only barely. I had to carry him halfway because his body went completely limp. Thankfully, since he was so skinny, he weighed less than a boy his age probably should have.
Once we arrived, we were greeted by a note from Inko. It basically said she'd be back from work in the late afternoon, and we were to help ourselves to the lunch she prepared. Once again, that woman showed me a level of kindness I already know I'm going to struggle to repay.
After eating the food she made and taking a quick shower, we both ended up lying on the couch. With food in our systems and a nice rinse, we mostly recovered from the morning's training. I say "mostly" because I still felt minor aches all over.
"I can already tell that I'm going to be sore all over tomorrow," I muttered aloud as I scrolled through TV channels. I was curious to see how shows and news had changed in a superpowered era. And once again, I was a little let down. Besides the occasional actor or actress with brightly colored skin or looking like some kind of human-animal hybrid, everything was more or less the same.
Not finding anything interesting, I passed the remote to Izuku, who quickly flicked through the channels until he found one covering a hero story.
"What did you think of today's training?" I asked.
I didn't really know if I'd call what we did today "training," but until I found a better word for it, that's what I was stuck with.
"I don't really think anything I say would do it justice," Izuku said, his eyes flicking between me and the screen. He didn't want to seem rude by ignoring me, but whatever was happening with the hero on TV was apparently too important to miss.
"All Might has been someone I've looked up to for years. And to be given the chance to not only meet him but be trained by him — it's almost too good to be true." He paused, leaning in slightly as something on the screen caught his attention, then continued, "And yeah, while the training might be the most I've ever pushed myself in my whole life, if it means I get to fulfill my dream of becoming a hero, I'm going to overcome this. Even if it means I have to drag trash around every day to do it."
He had a determined look in his eye when he said that. He even sounded kinda cool.
"I'M NOT SAYING IT'S GOING TO BE EASY!!" he suddenly shouted. "I'm just trying to say I'm gonna do my best to overcome this challenge!"
As soon as the thought He even sounded kinda cool formed in my mind, Izuku began frantically backtracking, waving his arms in front of his face like he'd just embarrassed himself.
After his mini outburst, we just sat there on the couch, looking at each other in silence for a few seconds.
"Man, you just lost all your cool points with that one," I finally said after letting the awkwardness hang in the air a bit longer.
"Yeah, I know," Izuku mumbled, lowering his head in defeat.
We turned back to the TV and kept flicking through channels until we landed on an interview between a female pro hero and a talk show host.
Luckily, Izuku was too distracted by the fact that the woman was apparently a popular up-and-coming heroine to ask for the remote. Which meant I was free to appreciate the heroine's costume design for a good while.
"Oh, before I forget — All Might said to meet him at the beach tomorrow morning at the same time."
Just as I was enjoying the, uh, artistic choices behind this heroine's outfit, Izuku turned to me and casually dropped that bomb before turning back to the TV.
"You're joking, right? Izuku… you're joking right!"
Authors note
Hello, and good whatever time you're reading this chapter. I made this one longer than usual since I haven't posted in a while. Which is definitely an understatement. I don't have a good excuse for not posting besides work and tons of procrastination. But I also took my time on this chapter, so that added to the wait as well. That's not an excuse, I just wanted to be open behind the wait.
I don't like my pacing of the story so far. At times, I feel like I'm making chapters too short and dragging certain scenes for too long. But on the other hand, I don't want to rush scenes I feel like would be important for plot and character development. I just wanted to rant a little before I gave my thoughts on the chapter.
First, I want to talk about Takoba Beach. The main story never clearly states when the meeting between All Might and Izuku happens there — at least not anywhere I've seen — so I improvised and made it take place the day after the incident. Also, some of you might have noticed that certain parts of the story happen out of order. Some scenes come before others that technically should have happened earlier, and vice versa.
I did it this way because I was drawing blanks on how to introduce Issei into the story if I stuck to the original timeline. This approach let me shape the story in a way that made sense — not just to me, but hopefully to all of you as well.
Second, Izuku is still the main character of MHA. I don't want it to seem like Issei is taking over or stealing the spotlight. At the same time, I don't want to sideline Issei into a minor role for this arc — otherwise, what was the point of making him a main character?
Anyway, that's enough of my rambling. If you have any thoughts on how I could improve things, or if you're enjoying the way the story is unfolding, please leave a comment and drop some powerstones.