Chapter Text
Musutafu was a bed of vice. There was no way to sugarcoat it. The death of Nana Shimaru had emboldened the criminal element of all of Japan, but her hometown felt it most. Like the seeds of cancer cells spreading after the major tumor was removed, the disappearance of All for One had only encouraged thousands of small-time crime syndicates to take his place. It was a dangerous combination and common citizens were caught in the crosshairs.
This is the story of how a vigilante became a hero. It's not a pretty story. It's not a fairy tale.
But it did start once upon a time, with a sleepless night and a cup of Irish coffee and a beautiful girl.
_
November 15, 2157
Toshinori woke drenched in sweat. It was the same old nightmare, the one where Gran Torino was dragging him away and Nana was smiling back at him for the last time. Smiles were meant to hide fear. She died in fear and now he lived in it.
Tossing the covers away, he paced the small hotel room for a few minutes before he hurriedly got dressed and walked out into the chill of the night air. As he walked, he pulled back his blonde hair in a ponytail, cursing under his breath at the fact he’d forgotten his jacket in the hotel room, but not willing to go back. He couldn’t stand the feeling of being couped up, even for the few minutes it would take to get it.
Without thinking, he rounded the corner and found himself a few yards away from The Caffeinated Cookie, the open-air coffee shop and bakery he’d found a week before, the one with the cute barista. His feet slowed as his pulse quickened slightly. This wasn’t the way he wanted her to see him, but before he could turn and leave the green-haired girl with the babydoll face looked up and grinned.
It was like gravity. His feet moved towards the counter where she was waiting with a lopsided grin. “Why so glum, chum?” she asked when he reached her.
He gave a single, mirthless chuckle. “Just a rough night. Can I get a mocha latte?”
She nodded, starting on his drink, but when she finished it, she looked around to be sure that the cafe was as empty as it seemed before she reached under the counter and pulled out a small flask. She shook it with a questioning glance and when he nodded, she added a shot into his cup. “Seems like you could use something a bit stronger tonight,” she said with a wink as she slid it to him.
“Thanks,” he said, his face growing warm at her smile. If she really knew who you were, she wouldn’t be flirting, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Nana said in his mind.
“Want some company?” she asked.
“Aren't you afraid you’ll get in trouble?”
She looked around at the empty dinner that opened up into the empty street. “Yeah,” she drug out the word, “because the business is really booming right now at,” she made a show of glancing at her watch, “3:37 in the morning, but I get it if you really want to be alone.”
“Well, no, not really. I just…” he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “You know what, I’d actually like the company.”
They sat and talked until dawn. Her name was Inko Midoriya. She was 24, in college to be a high school teacher. He’d asked if she was normally such a masochist and she laughed. He learned that he loved her laugh.
She talked most of the time, with him occasionally prodding her on, but dodging away when she dug deeper into his own life. What did he do? Oh, he worked odd jobs here and there, was trying to find his niche. Mainly, he worked demolition. It wasn’t a lie.
As the dawn started to pull up the curtain of night and the first customer in an hour came into the cafe, he reluctantly stood up. “I guess I’d better go,” he said.
Inko shrugged as she looked over her shoulder on her way to the counter. “Unless you want to fill out an application. We’re always looking for busboys.”
He chuckled. “Not today, thanks.”
She took the order of the middle-aged woman who was impatiently waiting, but as she made the drink, she continued to talk to him. “Well, don’t be a stranger. I’m pulling graveyard shifts every day this week.”
He hadn’t meant to fall in love that morning. Certainly not with such a sweet young lady, who oddly reminded him of his deceased Master, but that’s what happened. As he walked out the diner, with the golden rays of dawn washing over the city, he began to formulate in his mind exactly how he could lead a double life.
_
Inko was humming to herself as she unlocked the door to her apartment. Her roommate, Mitsuki, was standing at the sink, waiting for the coffee pot to fill. Her silk bathrobe was hanging off one of her shoulders and her eyes were half-open. "You didn't," the blonde grumbled when Inko dropped her keys in the tray by the door.
"Didn't what?" Inko asked with a chuckle. Mitsuki was the antithesis of a morning person. She could be miffed by the noise level with which Inko unlocked the door.
"Meet a guy," Mitsuki groaned, pouring the water into the machine. "I swear you've got the worst taste in men."
"I didn't meet a guy," Inko lied, but she could feel the flush of her cheeks betraying her. "Okay, well, I did, but it's not like he asked me out."
"Oh, there's hope for the guy yet," Mitsuki said dramatically as she flicked coffee pot on, then leaned against the kitchen cabinet, waiting. "He might not be a complete scumbag."
"He was actually really sweet..."
Mitsuki snorted. "Of course, because he didn't ask you out. But, mark my words, the moment he does ask you out, we'll discover he's a porn producer or a villain or a... I don't know, a cannibal."
Inko rolled her eyes. "A cannibal? Really."
"The last guy you dated robbed a bank. On your first date!"
"How was I supposed to know that would happen. He wore polo shirts."
"Expensive polo shirts! Or what about the guy who got caught smuggling cocaine into the country."
"I thought he was a chemist."
"Oh, he was a chemist alright," Mitsuki said with a huff as she bent down and scrutinized the slow drip of the coffee pot. "I swear this thing is mocking me! Look," she stood up fairly straight and pointed a finger squarely at Inko, "you're my best friend and I don't want you getting hurt again, so before you get into anything, serious or otherwise, this mystery guy's gotta go through me." She clenched her fist, scowling at Inko for emphasis.
Inko shook her head with a sad chuckle. "I'll start looking into convents as soon as I wake up again."
Her bedroom was dark thanks to thick curtains, and she flicked on the fairy lights strung around it rather than turning on the main light. Mitsuki meant well, but her words had stung a bit and now Inko's vision swam with tears. Her roommate had a point. Inko's track record with men was notoriously bad, even for Musutafu. A particularly bad boyfriend her freshman year of college had led to her leaving the country, losing her savings, and setting her back two years in her studies. It was almost like she was jinxed, she thought as she brushed her teeth and changed into her pajamas.
But Toshi seemed so sweet. There was a kindness in his sky blue eyes that was comforting. She loved the way he smiled, not the forced ones from when he'd first come in, but the honest ones she'd tricked out of him with increasing frequency as the morning slowly came. He hadn't even asked for her number or told her she was beautiful. Toshinori Yagi wasn't the normal kind of guy that asked her out. He was something special.
The tears started with a vengeance as Inko lay down in bed, looking up at the fairy lights that seemed to dance before her. He was special, so he couldn't possibly want to have anything to do with her. On the flip side, if he was interested in her, there was something seriously wrong with him. Maybe a convent wasn't such a bad idea, she thought miserably as she wiped at the tears and shut her eyes.