#nana you don’t get it I may not have a quirk but I’m like 15 and 6’8 I’m gonna be HUGE!!!

[stingrachelmha]

A quick baby Tosh and his pipe

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

101 Open MHA Gen Prompts

I had a very long ask game where people gave me fake titles and I came up with fic ideas to go with them.  Multiple people asked to use some of them as prompts, and some of my friends have lately maligned the lack of gen prompts out there, so I decided to compile them all into a single post.  Almost all of these are gen, aka not shipping, but you can do what you want I’m not your boss.  Everything is free and open to use WITH CREDIT, so have fun with my word vomit.

1. In Dreams I Had the Sun - Being the number one hero isn’t all it’a cracked up to be, Toshinori realizes early on

2. The Chainlink Fence that Held the Ocean - In his new book post-retirement, All Might opens up about his regrets, struggles with mental health, and his issues with the hero system as a whole.  The backlash is swift and intense.

3. Welcome to the Loud Silence - After an injury, Izuku is rendered deaf.

4. Water Since Turned Red - After a villain attack nearly kills All Might, the beach where Izuku used to go to find comfort now feels tainted.

5. all scrap left untouched is bound together - A group hero students who failed the provincial license exam for the third time, effectively ending their careers before they start, get together to take revenge on UA’s first years who beat them out.

6. You’ve saved more more times than you know - Times All Might saved people without his powers, just by being a cool, nice dude.

7. No Amount of Tragedy Can Justify Your Actions - A dying All for One tries to justify his centuries of cruelty to an uncaring Toshinori.

8. To Leave a Cage Locked - One for All is conscious and has a will of its own, one that doesn’t always line up with Izuku’s wellbeing.

9. Okay, who let in the Kraken? - Izuku is the reincarnation of an ancient eldritch horror.

10. keep us alive up above - Izuku and Shigaraki get trapped together somewhere.  Izuku knows he needs the villain’s help to survive and escape, but the other would rather they both die.

11. The world will revolve around me neither less - The ebbs and flows of AFO’s influence over the years.

12. More Roulette, Not Russian - Kids get their quirks swapped.

13. Patron Saints - Toshinori teaches a class about pre-quirk superhero comic characters and their influence.

14. Don't Come Back - Touya Todoroki’s first few weeks after a severe injury resulted in his father abandoning him.

15. The Blessed and the Fool - Toshinori meets up with a few of his ua classmates after retiring.

16. Not Your Sacrifice - Some of the other kids have started adopting some of Izuku’s self sacrificing habits and the teachers are concerned.

17. Break in the Storm - Villains use a power outage as an opening to break into ua.

18. One Day Those Consequences Will Finally Catch Up - Even though the teachers don’t take her concerns seriously, Inko saves every piece of evidence regarding people hurting her son.

19. a garden in their eyes - Izuku meets a fan who got injured after trying to step into a villain fight, just like he did, and it makes him question some things.

20. what could have been, if not for you - After Inko divorces him, Hisashi’s goes to the press to say All Might stole his wife and son.

21. Promised Misery - All Might finds out the severity of Bakugou’s bullying, and warns him he’s on thin ice with him.

22. Fly Up Higher, Blossom Brighter - Izuku has to write a paper for middle school about being positive, intercut with all the bullshit he has to deal with.

23. Libre Me from Hell - One of Izuku’s new quirks is spiral related.

24. No One to Blame but Yourself - Izuku’s kindness doesn’t extend to murderers, tragic backstory or not.

25. At Its Finest - Izuku accidentally gets involved in a hero commission coverup.

26. A Rising Issue - Izuku starts developing more severe side effects of his injuries.  He’s convinced he’s under the influence of a quirk, while the adults thing he’s finally gone too far hurting himself.

27. What you are in the Dark - Izuku usually keeps most of his anger to himself until he can’t.

28. nowhere to go - Inko moves into UA after their home was destroyed.

29. Something Without - My theory about the 2 OFA vestiges that are blurred out is they don’t approve of izuku as a successor.  Izuku tries to figure out why. 

30. Walking with a Ghost - Toshinori joins the OFA dreams while he’s in a coma.  He gets to reunite with nana, and is more open to Izuku about his past and feelings.  Part of his starts to wonder if it’s worth waking up, since he will die and join the others eventually.

31. Death By Crying - Izuku is affected by a quirk that will suffocate him if he expresses any emotion.

32. Justice is Subjective - The hero commission gets to Shigaraki before AFO does.  

33. Undo / Underdog - Death loop fic.  Izuku keeps reliving the day he met all might after being killed by the sludge villain.  he has to find a way to break the loop and survive, but he gets s little weaker every time he restarts.

34. Like Wildfire - A rumor that Izuku is All Might’s bio son picks up steam, and the characters have to decide whether to deny it but risk suspicion or play along and add a new layer to the lies protecting one for all.

35. Once Upon A December - All Might and Inko actually met in the past trope.

36. Some Legends Are Told - All Might’s first interview post-retirement.

37. Will The Real Mentor Please Stand Up - Aizawa considers himself the better teacher, but a lot of the kids seem to like All Might more.

38. I don't want the cure, I want the POISON! - Inko is killed in a hit and run, and Izuku becomes desperate to find the killer.

39. I will kill my heart before I dance on stage for these bigots - Izuku is interviewed as a rising star of UA, and the interviewer brings in some of his old bullies because they claimed to be his friends from middle school.  Izuku does not play along.

40. Split Ends - A quirk gives Izuku brief visions of what would have happened if he made different decisions.

41. Dreamless Sleep - A One for All dream leaves Izuku with a cryptic half-warning, and he desperately experiments to try and figure out how to trigger the visions to get the rest of it.

42. toxic flowers and pretty blades - Young Inko escapes the constricting life of her cruel wealthy family by becoming a vigilante.

43. The Suns we Orbit - Some of the other teachers believe Izuku is too codependent on Toshinori, and separate them for a time.

44. Submerged - Similar to those buried alive fics only someone’s in a box at the bottom of the ocean.

45. Deprive - Izuku also loses his stomach to an injury, and struggles to adjust to the necessary lifestyle changes.

46. The ashes fall like snow - Post Kamino cleanup.

47. Home will always be here - Inko cares for Izuku after he’s sent home due to “trouble at work study” but he refuses to clarify what that means.

48. Playing Favorites - A look at several times where Izuku was punished, while Bakugou got off scot free.

49. Elusive Dreams - Some kind of training or issue forces the kids to stay away for several consecutive day, and they start losing it.

50. Fracture - Izuku struggles through physical therapy after a severe injury that leaves his hero career in question.

51. Starlight, Starbright - Space cadet au

52. Someone in Your Corner - Gran Torino looking after Nana, Toshi, and finally Izuku through the years.

53. I cast magic missile into the darkness - Generic “the gang plays d&d” fic.

54. One Month At A Time - Izuku breaks a limb, and has to let in heal naturally over the course of several months.

55. Head Above Water - Izuku runs out of his pain meds and can’t get access to more doses for a while, so he has to endure not only the pain, but the withdrawal symptoms.

56. Are you going to leave a path to trace - All Might uses a new strategy to try and get Izuku to be less self sacrificial: what about all the young kids who are going to look up to him?

57. The View from Halfway Down - Izuku realizes that a risky move has just landed him with a potentially life threatening injury, but the fight it still going.

58. The Dust Bites Back - A villain All Might defeated early in his career is back and out for revenge.

59. The Absence of your Worth - Nighteye thinks he’s put together a rock solid case for why izuku isn’t worthy of One for All.  All Might’s response is to ask if he has something against quirkless people.

60. Behind the Screens Nobody is Afraid - All Might explains some of the context of his most popular hero videos to Izuku.  They are much more tragic than the media has spun them in hindsight.

61. Under the Light of the Moon - Someone gets turned into a werewolf.  And I ain’t talking the wattpad piss shit.  I’m talking full-on back-breaking monstrous transformations into a bloodthirsty abomination set to Bad Moon Rising.

62. some dreams were made to be broken - Bakugou crosses a line and finally gets expelled.

63. You Say You're Into Closure - Izuku finally beats Bakugou in a one on one fight fair and square, but Bakugou is a sore loser.

64. Something or Someone Missing - AU’s memories of Izuku get wiped, but those closest to him can’t help but feel an absence.

65. Too Little Too Late - Izuku’s father returns to find he’s been replaced.

66. Collecting Dust - Inko goes through the stuff Izuku didn’t take to the dorms.

67. Where the souls of wanderers go - Toshi meets up with a retired hero support group.

68. Fragility of Trust - Suspected traitor au

69. no one answered - Izuku is trapped in a cell in a building that’s collapsing in slow motion due to a quirk.

70. Eye of the Storm - One of the other kids has a panic attack for the first time between public appearances.  izuku has never seen from from the outside.

71. To Whom It May Concern - The kids find a mysterious collection of letters from previous students hidden in the ceiling of the classroom.  Some are ominous, some are incomprehensible.  Aizawa has no answers.  They enthusiastically go to try and solve the mystery within, but that excitement quickly diminishes the more they find out.

72. Of Popsicles and Ponytails - All Might gets in a discussion with the other teachers about whether the Clark Kent glasses thing would actually work.  All Might bets them it does, so he goes around town with no disguise other than his hair being up, and no one bats an eye.

73. All Men are Not Born Equal - Word gets out to the public that izuku used to be quirkless.  Everyone finds out just how deep anti-quirkless sentiments run when some begin to question whether a quirkless kid should be at ua, regardless of whether or not he has a quirk now.

74. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies - Something about encountering death in person for the first time being the dividing line between child and adult.

75. Sins of the Father - All for One has had many children over the centuries, and has made numerous attempts to groom them into the ideal heir with several different methods.  None of them worked though.

76. Where The Dead Come To Rest - The kids come home after a long, grueling mission where they saw some shit, and are too tired to process what they went through.  They take off their gear for plain clothes, then sit in the common room in silence long into the night, not wanting to open themselves up but also not wanting to be alone.

77. Rivalry - Nighteye tries to pit Izuku and Mirio against one another.  It goes right over Mirio’s head, but Izuku becomes convinced the other boy is in on Nighteye’s plan to wear him down until he gives up One for All.

78. A Subtle Language - All Might and Nana never said out loud that they loved each other, but little things told them that they did.  All Might hopes to pass a similar love down to his own successor.  But Izuku is very different than himself as a kid, and he needs to learn a new subtle language of affection.

79. It’s Gone - One for All stops working one day.

80. A Sight For Sore Eyes - All Might looking after Izuku in the aftermath of the second movie.

81. Loose Lips (sink ships) - Bakugou blurts out something about One for All during a rage, so the rest of the class jump on him and Izuku for answers.

82. No Expectations - Word gets out that All Might is going to choose a successor.  None of the theories or speculation online resemble Izuku in the slightest.

83. Eden was Only a Garden - Izuku gets hit with a quirk that erases some of his most traumatic memories, but in doing so loses part of who he is.

84. Run it Down - With all Izuku’s new quirks and his incredible skill, some of the other students with similar powers (Iida, Sero, Uraraka) start to feel like izuku is upstaging them.  And it affects their friendship.

85. Fool's Gold - Bakugou grows even more jealous of Izuku having One for All, and his relationship with All Might.  He thinks that if he could just prove himself to be more worthy, All Might would change his mind and name him his successor.  But in reality, he ends up jeopardizing the relationship they already have.

86. somewhere down the road - The final deadline for Nighteye’s predictions passes, and All Might lives.  He debates telling Izuku, as even though it would be a weight off the boy’s mind, he doesn’t want to jinx it.  He will still die eventually after all.

87. Just For You - All Might has certain rules and boundaries for fan interactions that he completely ignores for Izuku.

88. if these walls could talk (their whispers would be maddening) - Montage of training accidents in a ‘cursed’ ua gym

89. If Only I Could... - Nighteye tells Mirio about One for All, including that he thinks he’s more deserving than Izuku and he plans to pressure him into giving it up.  Mirio struggles with the knowledge that his mentor, someone he respected more than anything, only saw him as a replacement for All Might, meanwhile watching Izuku strain under the pressure of that mentor’s impossible expectations.

90. This is a Test Designed to Provoke an Emotional Response - shameless Blade Runner AU

91. Once and for All - Retelling of the Superman story “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?” with All Might.  Some new heroes use much more aggressive and violent tactics against villains while also upstaging All Might.  That, and there general approval from the public cause All Might to question his moral code.

92. Sitting In The Rain - Tsuyu likes to just sit out in the rain sometimes.  Not do anything, just sit there.  Some friends decide to join her.

93. At Sundown - Mysterious creatures start attacking ua every night.  The gang works tirelessly during the day to find the cause and a solution, while defending their school and each other at night.

94. The 1000th time's the charm - Uraraka has been practicing a new move in secret but they just can’t get it right.  She wants it to be perfect before showing it off.  But one attempt gets her seriously hurt while training alone at night in one of the gyms, and she’s too hurt to get up to the phone to call for help.

95. Sunflower Seeds - All Might attempts to start a garden as a new hobby.

96. What It Means To Be Human - Sun god Toshi starts living among people.

97. Eyes on Me - All Might teaches Izuku some unarmed fighting moves to defend himself from bullies.

98. one remains - Izuku has developed all but one of the quirks he’s slated to, and he has no idea what it will be.  Anxiety ensues.

99. Come Back Home - Izuku vanishes from campus and everyone assumes he was kidnapped, but in reality he ran away to try and clear his head after a depressive spiral.  He goes by train as far away as he can until he comes to his senses and calls the others.

100. I Won - Izuku accidentally managed to kill Shigaraki during a skirmish, and while everyone around him praises his heroics, he struggles to deal with the fact that he killed someone.

101. Ivory Tower - All Might grapples with how much izuku suffered as a quirkless person, how he could have done more for quirkless rights in his time as a hero, and how now people may not care as much because he’s retired.

Reminder to credit me if you use any of these prompts, and a special thanks to everyone who submitted titles!

[kakusu-shipping]

Still not over Self Insert Swap AU concepts and sense none of you people sent me an ask about it I’m just going to make the post myself because I have better things to be doing with my brain space and I need these thought EVICTED

But to keep from being annoying I’ll put it under the read more because who knows it might be a long post sorry not sorry but actually sorry

The age gap between Toshinori and I made this AU a little hard to figure out but I think I’ve got it down, basically to start off Nana never met Toshi to pass OFA down to him, and likewise also didn’t have her death fight with AFO early on. She still ended up sending her son away for his own safety, which he’d grow to resent her for, raising Tenko to still become Tomura etc etc still works. I have it details I just dkfsdk It’s a lot it’s a lot I like making AUs that work but I don’t want to write a NOVEL here so moving on

Emile’s Story

Before her final confrontation with AFO, which would happen later, Nana passes OFA onto me, who’s 15 at the time. My S/I is the same up until this point, more or less, Weightless is his quirk and it’s still more a disability than a super power. Why Nana gave it to me gets complicated but it’s mostly for security reasons, she either comes back with Tenko, or she dies in this fight, and without a successor to OFA, she had to find someone just to hold it. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It’s a very last ditch choice on her part.

AFO doesn’t KNOW who has OFA now, giving me a bit of an advantage as I figure out wtf is happening. There’s no healing in OFA’s repertoire so it’s not like my physical condition gets any better. If anything it gets worse.

The first quirk to show itself from OFA’s arsenal is Black Whip, which after sending me to the hospital, immediately gets the attention of AFO and, worse, the Hero Commission. 

Hawks is doing good on his own as a budding Hero at this point, he’s got his own agency going at this point if I remember the timeline right, so the Commission is looking for a new young hero to groom, and I, with my powerful quirk that’s destroying me from the inside out, am just the child soldier they’re looking for.

Around three years after that I have my first run in with AFO, and it goes TERRIBLY as you’d expect. Getting slammed into several buildings when your bones are already pre-shattered ceramic held together with gum and hope is not fantastic on the body. If it wasn’t for Hawks getting other pro-heroes as back up I would most certainly be dead. AFO, of course, got away.

More physically destroyed than previously, I take a semi-retirement, much to the irritation of Hawks, who knows about OFA and thinks I’m wasting it (the hero commission tried to convince me several times to give it to Hawks), and the anger of the Hero Commission, who try to hold me to hero work.

I end up escaping the corrupted commission though Nezu, the child soldier before Hawks. He has a bit of leeway with the commission and takes me from them under the guise of a teacher at UA, so I may find someone better to take OFA. I really owe him a lot and respect him above anyone else.

During the next 2 years I watch over the Hero course at UA, and also still work part-time as a rescue hero for the surrounding area, where I meet Toshinori Yagi!

Toshi’s Story

Obviously, Toshi’s still quirkless in this AU. But he’s still got the hero spirit in him, every call for help is a call for him specifically, so he is constantly running full speed into danger in the off chance of being helpful.

As a kid he was actually pretty successful, running after petty thieves and successfully finding hide away villains where police couldn’t. He was spry, rather fit, and ready to rumble all though middle school. He really believed he could be a hero, quirk or no.

UA told him otherwise.

He ended up in UA’s general studies, though he didn’t attend a lot of general studies classes. He tailed the Hero Course as stealthy as he could, copying their lessons, getting his homeroom teacher to sneak him the recordings of their training. He ended up making it to 3rd in the sports festival thanks to all his semi-stalkerish behavior of his fellow students. And, as in middle school, he also continued his vigilante work, as best he could on his school schedule.

Sense he couldn’t get in trouble using a quirk to stop crime without a licance, as he didn’t have a quirk, Toshi got away with a lot of vigilante activity as a kid, and into his early adult hood. However, as he got older he found himself running to face more and more dangerous villains than before.

Back in Toshinori’s day, most Villains were petty crooks, just learning their quirk, using it as amaturely as a first year in any hero course. But Villains evolved along side heroes, and Toshi couldn’t keep up with their growing strength.

He sustained several injuries throughout his late 20′s and 40′s, major injuries that would effect the rest of his life, even with the amazing medical care of My Hero Academia. He has many physical limits to how much he can do in a day, and walks with a cane to lessen the pressure on his right leg.

But that still doesn’t stop him.

When I become a constant in town as a rescue hero, about 90% of my job became keeping Toshinori Yagi out of harms way. Black Whip, Float, and Weightless make getting him out of danger pretty easy. The other local heroes jokingly tall me Mr. Yagi’s handler.

When not rushing face first into danger, Mr. Yagi is actually a teacher at a local Middle School, encouraging his students to Go Beyond; Plus Ultra! He says it’s very inspiring, especially to a quirkless student he had last year, who apparently applied to UA.

[lilypad-make]

BNHA Fanfic Recs

*Smile* because there are more fic recs !

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23016931

A month into his apprenticeship, Shouto comes down sick. Aizawa does his best to care for him—and learns more about Shouto's childhood along the way.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22753252

Toshinori hadn't expected another riot to come to light, for which he was responsible. Albeit indirectly.

A photo of All Might was released at a young age, but one detail was striking.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22989697

"I didn't realize you could adopt your own son," said Kayama, who looked thoughtful.

"How did you come up with this absurd thought that he was my son?!"

There was a moment of silence before Kan intervened. “So… we always thought he was your illegitimate son. Everything spoke for it. ”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23185138

"Hey, Mrs. Midoriya, do you believe in love at first sight or do I have to go past you again?" All Might again turned his attention to the mother, who was becoming less and less certain as to how she should deal with him.

"... you are in bed, in the hospital, you can't get up," she said carefully, so as not to offend him.

“It doesn't stop me from staring at you. I mean ... I've been watching you for a few hours and wonder what our children would look like."

Mrs. Midoriya seemed speechless and an off-voice just said dryly: "...like Midoriya."

"Todoroki, no!"

THIS FANFIC IS HILARIOUS I’M DYING OF LAUGHTER 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22989928

When Izuku awoke, trembling all over, his limbs almost frozen, his breath small clouds in the air, it was pitch black. His teeth clattered, his lungs aching from the cold air. Why was it so cold?

“The problem child has disappeared,” Aizawa proclaimed in a grave voice. Silence prevailed for a few seconds before they jumped up and put on their work clothes to help with the search. Yes, he had expected that reaction, he thought grimly.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23184208

With his son successor laid up with a nasty case of Quirk Flu, All Might wants nothing more than to take care of his boy. Aizawa just wants to prevent one sick teenage from becoming 20 sick teenagers but practicality like that has never stopped All Might before and it won't stop him down.

It helps that being quirkless renders him immune. Not that he can explain that to Aizawa

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23181799

Deaging quirks are incredibly uncommon. So much so that Toshinori doesn't think he's ever seen the effects of one in person. But still, Nedzu has thought of everything, so of course they have protocols in place for this exact situation. Though they may now live in the dorms, it makes no sense for the staff to entrust the safety of a four-year-old Midoriya Izuku to his 15/16 year old classmates.

No. He's being sent home to his mother.

(aka, Midoriya Inko gets her chance at redemption for a mistake she made years ago, and Toshinori Yagi sees another side of the family he's slowly becoming a part of.)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23173663

Soulmates are forged, not born. They leave their mark on you, and your heart. These bonds we forge leave marks on our hearts and our bodies. A declaration that we love and are loved.

A brief platonic soulmates au centered around Izuku.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23066047

Mirai is convinced that Izuku Midoriya is All Might’s secret love child. So why doesn’t his old/former friend want to pick his kid up??

Seems like he has to inform Gran Torino.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22920037

Ochako and Deku reserve one day a week in their busy lives to meet up with one another. Deku breaks their pattern of hot chocolate and comfort food at sleepy restaurants to make dinner at his tiny apartment. A totally laid-back dinner between good friends, so don't get the wrong idea!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19172767

Izuku is stuck reliving his past mistakes and regrets, stuck in a never ending cycle of torment, while everyone watches helplessly

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22950952

Izuku joins Uraraka for stargazing and makes a few connections he's been missing.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16028441

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.]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23012404

They say you start dreaming of your soulmate as a child, but always forget their face until the day you actually meet them. Izuku doubts he'll ever find his soulmate, so he instead resigns himself to focusing on achieving his goals. That is, until the day a pretty girl keeps him from falling before his U.A entrance exam and everything changes.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18981859

“Did I hear that correctly?” Ashido asked from behind them. “Uraraka didn’t actually need rescue breathing?” “Um,” said Izuku, “that would seem to be the case, yes.” She grinned wider than Izuku thought appropriate, given that one of her classmates had just nearly drowned. “So there was no reason for you to kiss her like her life depended on it?” His mouth dropped open. “Wh—wh—?!”

Izuku saves Ochaco from drowning, and no one will let him forget how he did it. Ochaco, on the other hand, has forgotten, and is convinced that everyone can read her mind since they seem to know about the very interesting dream she's been having.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18317933

Takes place in season 2 episode 25, when Izuku gets out of the police station after the mall scare.

Izuku has always been good at hiding his fear. He's always been able to push through it and stay strong; it's what he's always done. But seeing his favorite hero walking down the alley, he finally feels safe enough to let his walls crumble, and Toshinori is there to pick up the pieces.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23008009

"YOU KNOW WHAT?” she burst out. “I’ve had about enough of you all just making assumptions about him and me!” He lifted his head, amazed at her bravery. Uraraka’s cheeks were burning pink, but her expression was hardened and unbending. “If you spent any time at all around us you’d know that we are as serious as we’ve ever been about being Heroes! Also!” She thrust a finger out at Izuku. “He was distracting me way before we started going out, so there!” Nobody said anything for a while then.

Ochaco and Izuku have been going out for months now, and even though everyone seems to think they're a distraction to each other, that's far from the case. Isn't it?...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22867849

It was ... no surprise when All Might died suddenly. Nevertheless, his mentor and all other predecessors of One for All stood next to him and were there for him. How could he cry there?

The next morning, photos of All Might's funeral would be circulating on the web and people would tear up their mouths that Izuku was the only one who had taken part with an almost peaceful expression. Izuku would only be able to smile and continue as before, with a side glance at Nana and the First.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22975633

“The internet’s been blowing up about you and Mr. Secret Guy. Can I ask about that? Or should I back off?” the show host asked.

She was expecting it. It was still a bit funny, to think people suspected she had a secret Hero boyfriend. “There’s no Mr. Secret Guy. I’m not in a relationship,” she said, chuckling lightly. She didn’t see herself in a relationship – or a realistic one, at least. Yes, she’d fantasized about it; about being with that man who inspired her to do her best just as he did his best like his namesake.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23101546

Midoriya is absurdly good at art. Everyone else does their best to be creative in their own messy, unique ways.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22921579

If his face hadn’t been already burned pink by the cold, he would've been blushing because of how close she was. She had snowflakes stuck to the top of her lashes. He wondered how that didn’t bother her.

The cancelation of school for the winter offered the children time to be children. It didn’t snow much in big cities, so the more high-quality winter experience was usually just outside, and holiday resorts took advantage of those open areas where people wanted to escape the tight city and enjoy the freedom of space and adrenalin. Everyone had scattered.

Everyone but him and Ochaco.

https://archiveofourown.org/series/828741

As a child, Toshinori hadn't put much thought into what he would be when he grew up. One day a stranger in green appears in a flash of light, saying he's a hero. And maybe, Toshinori thinks, maybe he could be a hero too.

I’ll be back with more fic recs soon !

[mx-bright-sky]

Masterlist for all my bnha AUs

you can ask me about any of these, at any time. I love to talk about my ideas. asking about them will never ever both me.

Warning: the descriptions on the aus are accurate, but not at all written seriously, and i got more bored and wacky as the list went on, enjoy

Ones that have been published on AO3 so far:

Green Lightning: vigilante!izuku au, featuring gadgets, a smug ferret, loopholes, and Shinsou and Hatsume as main characters + two OCs

My Neighbor Midoriya: best friends au with Shinsou and Izuku, featuring lots of fluff, Tsuyu in the Izusquad, actual Bakugou character development, and the complete disregard of just about everything that happens in canon

A Shadow In An Empty Room: ghost quirk!izuku au, featuring NANA SHIMURA, ghostly puns, and lots of various ghosts which may or may not eventually include Touya Todoroki

Crossover AUs/ AUs where the characters are just in the setting of another story:

Hero Emblem: Awakening: Fire Emblem: Awakening au, featuring prince Shouto who adopts random hobos he finds on the ground, izuku who is the random hobo on the ground and also has amnesia, incredibly fed up royal guard Iida, awesome big bro Natsuo, and Shigaraki who hates the good guys because Endeavor is a dick, which is Understandable Have A Nice Day(TM)

Hero Emblem: Fates: Fire Emblem: Fates au, featuring izuku with more low key amnesia, family feud medieval edition, More Shinsou Love, and other worldly shananigans. Also no one dies because I Said So. (also, like in the game, after the chapter where the crossroads comes the audience will get to choose which path to take, and i might end up writing all three paths which would be exhausting but Worth It(TM) )

Hero Emblem: Echoes, Shadows of Valentia: FE: SOV au, featuring an author who Definitely Does Not Have An Obsession with fire emblem, they swear, secret prince Shouto, rowdy boy Izuku, general good friendship, and Darth Vader twists that I saw coming from a mile away in the original game

Rune Hero: Rune Factory 4 au, featuring more amnesia izuku because that’s just how the games i like happen to start, weirdly, Dragon Dad Might, incredibly badass moma Inko, and as much or as little fluff as anyone wants

Puella Magi Izuku Magica: Madoka Magica au, featuring pain, suffering, and ooowwwchhh feelings, but also in the end (because of time shenanigans) everyone lives i promise

Delta Rune au that I don’t have a name for, featuring Shouto eats moss, Shinsou eats chalk, Izuku has the power of fluffy boys, and I Don’t Know Who Lancer Is Yet, But It’s Either Eri Or Prototype Bakugou, Help Me Choose, People

Magnus Chase au that I don’t have a name for either, featuring Norse Mytholigy shenanigans, literally a ray of sunshine Izuku, magic elf Shouto, I Forgot Who Blitzen Is And I’ll Edit It In Later, Fuck, Valkyrie Jirou, chaotic good kids of class 1-A that fuck shit up as a Family, shapeshifter Shinsou, and some good wholesome momojirou

Fossil Fighters Champions au and i’m starting to realize i’m not good at naming things yet, featuring It’s A Pokemon AU But With Dinosaurs, where are all my fossil fighters kids at, Literally A Skeleton Man Toshinori, and low key causing the end of the world by accident

Mekakucity Heroes: Kagepro au (finally something else that actually has a name), featuring One Big Damn Family, whoops I think Kirishima is dead, Bakugou is more depressed and less of a bitch, Izuku is actually 150 years old but is basically 15 in body and spirit so details details, Actually, Technically Everyone Is Dead, But Not, everyone has crazy powers but not the same powers that their quirks are, and Kagepro is fucking weird and also niche so probably a very small fan base here

Sword Hero Online: sao au but it’s 1000% better than sao in every way and makes sense, featuring Everyone Is A Gamer, Bakugou being that douche who cusses people out online in chat, Izuku playing DPS, Kiri playing Tank, Uraraka playing Support, and a story that actually has an end and doesn’t drag out forever

AUs set in the BNHA universe:

Shinsou with One For All AU, featuring bffs Izuku and Shinsou, again, because that���s just my brand at this point, Izuku having a quirk and it’s basically that he’s a dnd character (luck and dice rolls), not much else because I came up with this idea like yesterday and haven’t had a lot of time to plan rip

A Bit Of Irony: Hisashi Midoriya is a villain au, featuring slightly pyrophobic Izuku, bonding over garbage fire dads, and a lot of other things that I don’t want to give away just yet but it’s good trust me I promise

Mirrored Fate: Okay, it’s an au of the above where Izuku has both his parent’s quirks, featuring not really a villain and doesn’t actually want to hurt people but is kinda stuck here Izuku, Shouto befriending the technically not a villain, villains not every getting the hint that Izuku will never stop helping the heroes with shit, and Izuku eventually getting saved I promise

again, because I cannot stop, it’s another au that sort of follows the one above but in this one it’s Villain!Endeavor and Number 2 Hero!Hisashi Midoriya, featuring absolutely horrible garbage fire dads, the number two hero spot must be cursed to make you a douche unless if you’re Hawks, a villain second only to All For One who just wants to beat the shit out of All Might, and like izuku in the au above, shouto helping the heroes at literally any opportunity because the villains can’t catch the hint that these kids are just good kiddos

Shouto and Izuku swap AU, featuring Shouto Midoriya as achey brakey bone hurt juice boy, Izuku Todoroki as oh god stop the feels no, Shouto taking absolutely none of Bakugou’s shit except he can’t actually physically do anything to stop it, making friends and being nice out of spite, and Shouto using support gear which may or may not include a taser which solves a lot of problems to be honest

MY Hero Academia: it’s bnha but I do literally whatever the fuck I want to it when it comes to fixing things, featuring a sentient narrator who is too sassy, Izuku staying quirkless, Bakugou being less of a douche and then getting actual character development, no Mineta, well designed costumes, and much much more

Is It A Crime To Have A Good Time: Fun little one shot where the villains just spend the day at an amusement park. Not doing malicious things, mind you, but just general petty things, such as popping kids’ balloons, cutting in line, playing bumper cart in the go karts that explicitly say ‘do not use like bumper karts’, etc. 

Secret Identities: au where it’s only 8% of the population that has quirks and so they’re more like vigilante heroes that you see in comic books, featuring identity hiding shenanigans, accidentally falling in love with both a person’s secret identity and real person, oblivious lesbians (written by a hella oblivious lesbian), and hiding quirks badly

AU where kouta replaces bakugou and bakugou replaces kouta, featuring an actually decent childhood friendship, Kouta being incredibly done with his reckless bff who just got the ultimate quirk of breaking his bones, and becoming a hero to stop your best friend from getting himself killed smh

it’s bnha but I randomized who ends up in Class A and who ends up in Class B, featuring lots of Class B kids, and honestly, isn’t that enough to make you want it?

The Purrfect Hero: CAT QUIRK AU!! featuring cat boy Izuku, lots of obscure cat facts, absolutely always fucking tired and has sleepy bitch disease Izuku, sometimes knocks things off tables on accident, sometimes knocks things off tables on purpose, feels like he doesn’t get taken seriously, and immediately bonds with Shouto over mmm left side warm and bonds with Shinsou over ‘OH MY GOD YOU’RE A CAT’

Underground Avengers: okay, you know how in like episode two when All Might is explaining his injury he says he got it in a fight five years ago, and we as the audience now know that it was against AFO??? Okay, in this AU, the result of that fight was reversed and AFO won and All Might is in hiding and unable to use his quirk anymore, featuring dystopian au vibes, Aizawa Is Always A Mom, secretly used to be a pro hero Inko, and actually on the side of the good guys for once Stain even those he’s a bastard and I hate him in canon

there’s probably more that I’m forgetting, but I’ll edit it and add what I’m missing later

[2hero2academia]

Season 1 Episode 3- “Roaring Muscles” (part 1)

this episode we open not with a recap, but with exposition central. i nearly took a sip, before remembering that this is episode 3 and we haven’t been exposited to about this particular topic yet. my glass is set aside, but still ready for the next flashback

this graph is very interesting because it isn’t labeled! i’m pretty sure that it’s saying the crime rate went from 20% to 6% because i’m pretty sure someone says that somewhere, but it could just as easily be a jump from 20 to 15, just zoomed in a bunch. label your graphs, kids, and also don’t take graphs at face value, there are a lot of ways to exaggerate graphs

we pick up right were we left off, with all might telling izuku he can be a hero and izuku having a breakdown over it. sometimes when things go your way after being awful for a while, you just need a good cry

and then all might drops the bomb of “i deem you worthy to inherit my quirk.” the fuck does that mean?

it turns out, all might’s super secret quirk that nobody knows anything about is one that wasn’t originally his and one that can be passed on to another

izuku’s entire worldview is kind of rocked by this and he starts thinking really hard about it. were i him, i’d probably start thinking really hard about it too. this is the first time we ever really see izuku’s little mutter storms and they are maybe one of my favorite things about him. i love my boy and all his little non-quirk quirks

all might, who has never had a thought in his life, tells izuku to stop overthinking things. i bet when nana explained one for all to him, toshinori was just like “sick, free quirk!”

all might reels the conversation back to his original point— his quirk is named one for all, it can be passed down to another person, and all might wants that person to be izuku

while all might explains one for all to izuku, we get these laser shots that are going to be recycled a million times over despite the fact that i’m pretty sure they’re not in the manga. still, it looks cool, and it makes me think about color coding the holders of one for all

all might admits that izuku may be quirkless, but he has the spirit of a hero. this is still a flashback shot, take a sip

izuku agrees to be all mights successor so he can prove himself as the greatest all might fanboy of all time- i mean, so that he can become a hero.

the ultimate hero merchandise: the hero’s quirk. i should write a fanfiction with that idea where izuku has all for one. hm.

episode 3!!! not all episodes are created equal. some are training montage episodes. what more is there to say?

welcome to dagoba beach! for those of you who don’t know, dagobah is the swamp planet where luke trains with yoda in star wars. it’s also called takoba beach by the wiki??? for some reason??????

the implication is that all might was like “okay, i’ll talk to you tomorrow about what we’re gonna do” and then tomorrow came and he was like “okay so at dawn tomorrow, you’re going to go to this beach and i’m going to meet you there.” this isn’t particularly important, i just thought i’d note it down for my timeline i’m working on

anyways, what are we doing here? pulling trash?

izuku reveals he’s a super fanboy by bringing up the fact that he knows (or knew, at least) all might’s exact body weight. all might somehow doesn’t find this creepy

izuku wants to know why all might has him up at the crack of dawn at this garbage beach dragging around garbage. i do too, i think. there are probably better ways to do muscle training.

all might tells him that he’s kind of not shit and isn’t worthy yet. izuku doesn’t hear the yet and has a bit of a cry over all might calling him a scrawny noodle boy with scrawny noodle limbs.

all might explains that one for all is an extremely powerful quirk that’s had generations to build up power. if izuku’s scrawny noodle body inherited it, his scrawny noodle arms and legs would burst clean off. i know that it doesn’t make any sense to actually include this anywhere, but a part of me kind of wants to see what that would actually look like. even after ten months of training for one for all, izuku’s arms and legs still shattered when he used it at full power. if he used it now, would it cause his muscles to explode? his blood to boil out of his skin? his bones to turn to dust? messed up, but oh so intriguing.

izuku is suitably terrified by this, but reasons that yeah, working out a bunch sounds like a good idea. i also just noticed that izuku’s wearing an all might t-shirt. he really went to meet the guy wearing his merch. nerd boy if i’ve ever met one.

apparently the buildup of trash on dagoba beach is a sort of recent thing, only starting in the last few years. if i may headcanon real quick, i have an idea about something. so we know that the ocean currents cause things dropped in the ocean to wind up on dagoba beach and we know that a lot of the trash came from people illegally dumping their shit here because, i mean, there’s already a bunch of trash here, no one will notice if i add to it. so the idea of what really kicked this off was that there was a cargo spill out in the pacific and a bunch of random items ended up washing ashore on dagoba, but on a scale never seen before, making the beach look like a dump. the city was preoccupied at the time and didn’t bother with immediate cleanup, and then people also started dumping their shit on the beach. before anyone knew it, the beach was absolutely covered in trash and there would be no cleaning it for a while

until today! all might thinks that the greatest heroes are those who put in community service hours, so he’s having izuku clean up a section of the beach! for training, and to help the environment! what a cool dude

izuku’s a little bit daunted by this task, especially considering he only has ten months to prepare for one for all before the ua entrance exam, because he’s a little nerd fanboy who wants to go to the hero school that all might went to. luckily, all might is the man with a plan to ready izuku for the exam!

according to this plan (helpfully translated by this reddit user, thank you kind stranger), izuku wakes up a 4am every weekday and proceeds to go to school and work out until midnight when he goes to sleep. for ten months, izuku was getting at max four hours of sleep every night. how he’s not dead is a mystery to us all

so begins izuku’s ten months of hell! not a lot to say here, the training montage has begun

izuku’s still kind of nervous about not making it in time, so he starts thinking about doing even more training that he already is and sleeping less than he already is. problem is, he starts theorizing in class, and izuku apparently tends to think aloud

he gets bopped on the head for this

izuku is about as mortified as anyone with anxiety is when being singled out by a teacher all of his classmates laugh and poke fun at him and his teacher kind of implies that getting caught in a villain attack made izuku go crazy

curiously enough, katsuki doesn’t join in on the teasing

anyways, who cares about school, let’s push around some more trash! this tire is fucking huge, it’s like the size of izuku’s entire body what the hell

it is 2:25 in the morning, izuku should have gone to bed 2 hours ago considering he’s supposed to be waking up in 2 hours, and instead he’s studying. do people still know how to read an analog clock?

[queen-of-hearts92]

Revue Starlight 1: I can’t believe it’s not Ikuhara!

GRANT ME THE POWER TO REVOLU-wait. Wrong show.

If you haven’t read the prelude for this, you should! Please go here!

Otherwise come on in for the episode summary and discussion! This will be fun! ouo

Note: I have NOT seen episode 2 as of this post/typing. All this is based on the first episode and the first episode alone.

>RAISE THE CURTAINS Y’ALL, IT’S STORY TIME!

The episode starts with our main character, Karen Aijou, repeating a story she’s seeing on stage which she is also performing in with her childhood friend, Hikari Kagura, who also recites the story. It cuts back to the audience and now Hikari and Karen are little kids watching the play that their teenage selves are performing in. The play is called Starlight, it's about goddesses that were drawn into the glowing of heaven. That’s about it for the play summary. Teen! Karen speaks about ties that bind others together, Teen! Hikari counters that they still can be pulled away from each other anyways and never see each other ever again. She refers to the story as sad. 

Next we get this amazing shot, I pulled it together so it’s one screenshot cause we gotta see it in its full glory. I hope it looks alright!

I WARNED YOU ABOUT THOSE STAIRS BRO

It seems like on these stairs they are underneath the Tokyo Tower, which seems to be quite relevant to this series cause this isn’t the last time we will see it. Not by a long shot lol. Anyways, Karen declares that she and presumably Hikari are gonna go to the stars together and we get a very Ikuhara looking title card. (It also comes in black!)

Is that the Tokyo Tower? God damn this tower is EVERYWHERE.

We then start with how most anime starts, getting up for school. Karen is woken up by her roommate, Mahiru Tsuyuzaki, because she slept through her sweet dino alarm clock going off and they gotta get to school (side note: a framed picture of little Karen and Hikari sleeping on a bus is on Karen’s desk). Karen, isn’t a morning person at all but she gets up and dressed and sleeply waits to cross the road with Mahiru. Karen realizes she left her crown barrette in her dorm so they run back to get it. Mahiru isn’t a fan of running back just for a hairpin but sometimes you do wild shit just because you have a crush on your roommate. 

The two make it to school not only right on time but they are the first ones there, the first class of the day seems to be dance so the two of them suit up and start doing stretches and warm ups together in the dance room.

We also find out that Karen’s class is the 99th one here and she’s student number 1. Mahiru’s student number is 17. Soon the other girls in their class start showing up. Student number 25, Junna Hoshimi walks in first. Junna expresses surprise that Karen got up in time this day, student number 11 Claudine Saijou also comments on that but in song because she’s a theater kid. Student number 15, Nana Daiba aka Banana-chan (yes that’s her nickname), twirls Mahiru and says Karen getting up on time was probably because of Mahiru’s help. We are then introduced to number 22 Kaoruko Hanayagi and number 2 Futaba Isurugi at the same time, I also like to call them our resident Haruka and Michiru descendants lol. Student number 18, Maya Tendou, strolls in with a sparkle sound effect and makes her way to the center of the room. All the girls follow and stand for the morning class. 

We learn there are 28 girls (this is before Hikari comes) in this class all together and that they are Class 2-A which means they are most likely second years (as it goes for anime set in high schools). It’s also May 14th, I dunno if dates will be relevant but we should make note of it anyways just in case.

Karen gives us internal exposition explaining the school is 100 years old and it’s a theater training school. She also says they are classmates but also rivals at the same time but it’s cool they all get along. We then see more of the pretty school grounds and then we go to the girls having lunch. 

During this lunch scene we see more glimpses of what the characters are like and their quirks. At the table with Karen are Mahiru and Nana. Junna comes over and gives them flyers for something called the Seisho Festival, even though this festival isn’t until next year Junna says they are preparing to get ready for it anyways. According to the flyer, Karen’s class will be performing the Starlight play we saw a bit of at the beginning. Nana is nostalgic about the first year they performed this play but Junna scoffs and says what they did was amateurish and they needed to do better than last year. 

We learn that this class at least will perform the Starlight play every year of them being in high school for this festival. Karen is jazzed about doing the play again. Mahiru comments that maybe next time her and Karen could be the “fated couple”. Karen is like, nah Claudine and Maya will probs be the leads since they are the best in the class. Junna disagrees with this assumption and shows her disagreement via dipping Karen and saying they shouldn’t assume who will be getting the roles in the play just yet.

Back in class, Karen is sitting in the back row by the windows (as many protags have) and she...She has a vision/daydream of some sort. We get a shot of gears turning and smoke and then she’s on the top of the Tokyo tower, overlooking the city. Karen admires the view and wonders how she’s getting such a great view when suddenly Hikari walks up behind her and pushes her off the tower. Karen falls backwards in slow motion, the background music turns distorted and off putting. Karen recalls that the tower was where she bought her crown barrette. She talks about a promise coming true and then we get a symbol with a giraffe on it and Karen lying on the classroom floor. 

Mahiru and Futaba (I think) asks if she’s ok and Karen is like its cool I’m fine. We cut to Junna’s phone and on its screen there is the giraffe symbol and it says underneath “Auditions Day 1”.

If you want to prove your love you-wait no thats bears not giraffes

Karen thinks about her weird dream and then the teacher announces there is a new transfer student and, bam it’s Hikari! She has the number 29. Karen is super excited to see her childhood friend but Hikari doesn’t seem like she feels the same way. Hikari has been at the Royal Drama Academy in England for the past 12 years. Karen and Mahiru show her to the dorms after school, on the way there Karen comments on the promise and it has something to do with their barrettes (Hikari’s barrette is stars/sparkles). 

Karen wants Hikari to stay with her and Mahiru, much to Mahiru’s distress, but Hikari says no and goes to her own room. Hikari doesn’t have a roommate btw. Karen says through the closed door of Hikari’s room “let’s be stars one day”, the tower is shown again.

We then get a montage of Hikari being amazing at everything because she’s a anime transfer student, that’s just how these things go. Next we go to everyone but Hikari in the showers (don’t worry, we don’t see anything at all) and Karen is fangirling about Hikari and how cool she is. The other girls join in on the fangirling and it’s commented that Hikari seems rather cold, Karen defends her saying it just means she’s cool and mysterious. The other girls playfully tease her about that statement. Afterwords Karen realizes Hikari isn’t around and looks for her. 

And I must mention this line is said:

Is this foreshadowing? We just don’t know.

I could be wrong but have a feeling this will be important later down the line.

Anyways. Maya comments that she can’t “see Hikari’s heart” and then we go back to Karen. She goes to Hikari’s room and finds it empty, she also finds Hikari has the same picture of them as kids as she does. Karen then notices Hikari outside running off somewhere and decides to follow her. This leads Karen to the school, Hikari seemingly has disappeared. Karen notices a strange elevator she’s never seen before, she steps in and presses the down button cause thats what you do when you find strange elevators. 

And then.

The fucking elevator rapidly drops down screeching all the way, speeding down like it’s a fucking rollercoaster. The gotta go fast elevator takes her to the “Underground Music Theater of Seisho academy”, this stage is under a recreation of the Tokyo Tower. A voice declares that day one of the auditions has begun. We are shown center stage, the voice says the competitors are aiming to be “the top star”. Karen is flung into the air and lands safely in a audience theater chair. The stage lights up and Hikari and Junna are seen decked out in a fancy uniform. The two start singing and then, they start dueling. Hikari has a dagger and Junna has a bow and arrow. 

Karen is confused, she asks “Is this Starlight?” which means that the songs they are singing are likely from that play. A stray arrow whizzes by Karen’s head and then its revealed she’s not alone in the audience. There's a giraffe. A talking giraffe.

*Insert Spongebob joke here*

This giraffe was the voice from earlier. The giraffe says the revue has begun and talks about the wonderful combo of song and dance and fighting. He says the person who presents the “most sparkling revue” will have the path to the “top star” opened to them. He also says the top star will get the “heavenly tiara”, a tiara is then shown. There are suddenly stars on stage everywhere as Hikari and Junna fight. 

Karen is still confused, the giraffe says “they understand” and says “they are desperate” and thats what makes them Duelists Stage Girls. He asks if Karen has the same determination. Hikari is struggling, Giraffe says if the metal pin/button on her jacket falls the revue is over. Hikari gets pinned to a wooden star decoration via arrow and loses her weapon, it seems like she’s going to lose. Giraffe says that those who don’t wish to play lead don’t get chosen and asks Karen to leave. Karen gets on Giraffe’s neck, he tips over and she leaps off his head towards the stage declaring she and Hikari are going to become stars together. 

Then, the transformation sequence happens.

Maybe one day she’ll become a car to revolutionize the world.

After she transforms Karen, wielding a sword, announces her presence on stage. Junna tells her to fuck off and Hikari seems horrified that Karen is here. Karen then smoothly charges to Junna, blocking her arrows with ease, knocks Junna’s pin/button off and smoothly dips her finishing the duel. There’s a very brief shot of Junna kneeling on the ground in the dark defeated before a curtain falls on her.

Karen stabs her sword into the ground declaring “Position Zero!” and we get this shot of curtains/ribbons covering tower like a fucked up christmas tree.

We can’t go without our phallic symbols you know.

Giraffe declares the first day of auditions over. Karen is pretty pleased with herself, Hikari on the other hand is crying and says “Baka Karen!”. The episode ends here.

We get to see the opening and its pretty cutesy but, we all know ops can lie about what the tone of a series is don’t we?

This looks a little different from when I did theater. Less giraffe. 

>If 9 girls worked for Love Live it can work here!

Alright now, Imma go over all nine of the girls very briefly and then we can move on to the episode breakdown.

Karen: Our protagonist! I find she’s starting off the series about as standard as protags get. She’s passionate, kinda weird, and determined. However there's one particular thing that stands out about her to me, she’s not untalented or struggling with the craft she wants to do. Quite the opposite in fact! Like she won that duel with pretty much no problem and doesn’t seem like she’s struggling in any of the classes! Her classmates tease her about her being a sleepyhead but they never tease about what she can do nor imply she’s behind everyone in someway. I find that to be quite unusual for this kind of protag character. I’m interested to see where she goes from here.

Hikari: Hellllooo mysterious transfer student! I’m getting strong Homura Akemi vibes from her, as in she knows more than she lets on and really doesn’t want the main character to get involved into whatever crazy shit is going down. It will be interesting to learn about her as the show goes on.

Mahiru: She’s very cute but all I can think is “oh this girl is gonna get her heartbroken isn’t she”. I’m getting a strong vibe she has feelings for Karen but is too shy to confess, and unfortunately it seems like Karen only has eyes for Hikari. This, could get messy.

Junna: Serious business girl here. I like her design, I can’t say I’ve seen this particular look for a character before. Specially the bell decorations. Unfortunately for her, she’s the one who loses these stage duels first and we will get to see via her what happens when someone loses. If anything. Could be nothing. Or she’s fucked. Guess we will know next episode.

Claudine: If this show was made in the 90s, Claudine would have the “ohohohoho!” laugh. This is based off her looks alone btw. She’s one of the top students and she reminds me of a classmate who was in choir with me in Jr High and she would sing opera in the girls locker room nearly everyday. It seems like she’s not a “mean girl” and gets along with her classmates, except for Maya. She and Maya obviously have a rivalry going on, to a point they compete with each other over eating lunch. But they were also the leads the the play last year so there’s probably more than meets the eye for their relationship for sure.

Nana: Her nickname is Banana and I just. I dunno if I’ll ever call her that, but her hair does look like bananas. She’s interesting, it seems like she’d interested in Junna since she took like three pictures of Junna with her phone in one scene. She might be the “is sweet but 100% can kill you if she wanted to” type. She also seems pretty nostalgic, talking about how fun it was to do the play last year and such.

Kaoruko: Ah yes, one part of the couple of this series. She and Futaba are always seen together, even on the steps from the start of this episode and in the op. Kaoruko is the femme in the relationship and seems to have a knack for traditional dancing, but she’s also a bit childish. She’s super sleepy in the morning and when Futaba drops her she complains and during lunch when she finds a food she doesn’t like she plops it into her girlfriend’s plate. I like her.

Futaba: The other part of the couple of the series, always seen with Kaoruko. Futaba is the butch in the relationship and her skill lies in stage combat if her wiping the floor with everyone during practice is any indication. In the op she’s seen riding a moped. She seems pretty patient with her gf’s antics. Sighing and rolling her eyes like she’s super used to it, like when Kaoruko dumps the food she doesn’t like onto her plate. I like her too.

Maya: The other top student and rival to Claudine. Maya seems to be very confident in herself, she walks like she’s all that and a bag of chips in her first scene and she isn’t intimidated by Hikari’s talents. It seems like she might know something is up with the not seeing Hikari’s heart comment but it’s hard to say for sure right now.

>Holy Zettai Unmei Mokushioku Batman!

-This anime nails down the Ikuhara style excellently! Especially in the last half of the episode, the part with the sewing(?) machines when Karen enters the stage reminded me of the Utena movie when Utena turns into a car. The action scenes are amazing and I’m really impressed with them! You could legit replace the soundtrack of this show with Utena’s and it would work just the same (in fact I went ahead and did just that!). I’m very impressed in this regard for sure.

-Something that I picked up on right away is the fact that Revue Starlight starts similarly to shows like Utena, Princess Tutu, Madoka Magica, and Penguindrum. A standard not so new plot is happening and then PSYCE you are going down an elevator 2000 mph and there's a secret stage underground and a giraffe is there. I think this is a reason why this show gives me a good feeling about it, cause it opens the same way shows I love have done.

-The fact that this school’s specific age was said makes me go HMMM. To my memory, that’s not something you state in anime unless it’s important to the story or becomes relevant later. A 100 year old school is nothing to sneeze at anyways.

-I’ve seen some folks saying that the underground stage bit is imaginary and it’s really just a normal audition but I very much disagree with that. It’s too mysterious for such a simple explanation, Hikari is way too dodgey about going there for it to be normal, and we see Junna get the call for this weird audition in the classroom. No this is real, giraffe and all.

-Speaking of the Giraffe let’s talk about him a bit, so it’s clear he knows what’s up and he acts as a referee of sorts at the very least. I looked up to see if giraffes have any particular symbolic meaning but I can’t find anything concrete, just spirit animal websites which isn’t a reliable source to say the least. So, let’s look at this from a historical perspective briefly. Giraffes are subjects of African folklore unsurprisingly, it seems these tales revolve around how the fuck it’s neck got so long. Outside of folklore, giraffes have captured people’s fascination for a long time. They were often kept as pets on the continent and especially overseas. The Greeks and Romans thought giraffes were a camel and leopard hybrid and called them camelopardalis. Giraffes have often been used as showanimals so to speak, their owners would travel around the world to be like LOOK AT THIS LONG THING. They were liked because they were pretty and elegant looking and yet they are also very powerful animals...hm possible meaning here? 

I also must mention Qilins. 

A Qilin is a mythical animal from east asian cultures, and they are based on giraffes. A giraffe was brought to China and the Emperor declared them to be magical creatures (I don’t blame him, giraffes are amazing). Quilins are basically very small dragons that sometimes have unicorn-like horns. In Japan, Quilins are called Kirins which is also the modern word for giraffe in Japanese. In the power hierarchy of mythological animals in Japan, Kirins are at the top with the phoenix and the dragon right behind it. There's a lot more about Qilins/Kirins to say but for now I think it’s a being to keep in mind going forward. It might be relevant or not, we will see.

-I refer to Futaba and Kaoruko as the Haruka and Michiru of the group because let’s face it, ever since they’ve appeared in the 90s they’ve been a source of lesbian couple inspiration in anime and other media. Honestly that’s what I think of first when I see couples in anime like Futaba and Kaoruko, even if their personalities aren’t 100% like our favorite early 90s gays. Now if they will be like them in their actions it remains to be seen though.

-Hikari seems really upset Karen became a Stage Girl, that’s one reason why I’m thinking there's more than meets the eye for these auditions. She seems way too upset, to the point of crying, for it to be just “oh crap we gotta be rivals now”. Her cold demeanor also extends to this, trying to push Karen away so she doesn’t get involved. Whoops she got involved, you tried Hikari.

-The Tokyo Tower is seen EVERYWHERE in this episode and it’s even in the title card! I don’t know if this takes place in Tokyo but even if it doesn’t that doesn’t change the fact it’s in places it shouldn’t be. The only relevance for why the tower is around as of right now is it seems to be the place Karen and Hikari got their barrettes and made their “promise”. There might be something else that happened there too though.

-On the shot of the girls sleeping/knocked out on the stairs, there's something odd here. The narrator says 8 women, not 9. And Karen, isn’t there. Her cape and sword are at the top by Hikari but Karen herself isn’t there. Oh dear, this can’t be a good sign for Karen.

-I find that the curtain falling on Junna after she loses interesting, especially with how fast it comes and goes. Took a few tries to get a screenshot, which will be below. Symbolism? Besides a pun that is, “IT’S CURTAINS FOR YOU” being a phrase that describes when someone has lost. Or the curtains falling meaning the ending of a stage performance. We won’t know more for sure until we know if anything in particular happens to those that lose.

Plot twist the curtain literally ate her.

-Cool thing about the elevator, when it drops down its styled to look it someone cut the dang thing out with scissors. Like a cut of reality? Anywho, I just think it’s neat.

-I like the glimpses we got into the girl’s dynamics and personalities. Claudine and Maya are rivals and possibly more than that. Futaba and Kaoruko are together all the time. Mahiru is the responsible friend who might have a crush on Karen. Nana is friendly and sweet and likes to reminisce on the past. So on and so forth. It makes me curious about seeing more of them that’s for sure.

-On wikipedia, it states this anime is 12 episodes long and while I’m still not sure if that is correct, I’m gonna assume that’s what we will get until told otherwise though.

-I like how the teachers don’t look like, ya know super young and childlike. No their teacher looks like an adult and you can tell she’s one compared to the teenagers. I really like that. I’m curious if we will see other staff members of this school but it’s hard to say if we will or won’t right now.

-I wonder how big this academy is? The dorms appear to be at least a few blocks away from the school itself judging by when Karen and Mahiru leave in the morning and when they show Hikari where the dorms are. It’s not as wild as Ohtori’s design but I want to see more of this campus for sure.

-The musical part sounded good BUT it was really hard to hear over the fucking giraffe talking. I’m gonna assume this won’t happen next time cause Karen is in this shit now but it was a little annoying. I get why, had to explain shit, but I was like aw man when he was talking over the song.

-Hikari’s cape is blue while everyone else's is red. Interesting. SYMBOLISM?

-I’ve seen some people say “oh this is an idol anime?” no. No it isn’t. The girls aren’t idols, they are stage theater performers. I can’t say I’ve seen a ton of idol anime but no this ain’t an idol anime. And just because it has a game coming out for it doesn’t make it one either, if it did we should consider Fate/Stay Night one then lol.

-A Stage Girl eh? Hm, the fact that they are called something like this concerns me. Like it’s a mark of being fucked over like duelists in Utena are.

-There are flower petals all over the opening and the last shot of the opening is Karen and Hikari holding hands. Interestingggg.

-This show is hardcore using Utena as a basis and invoking Utena imagery, just look at the official art! The opening, the dueling outfits, the fact that dueling is occurring and how they are won, the title cards, the transformation parts, the flowers (what kind of flowers I dunno), the tower, even the god damn title all invoke Utena imagery. I’m hoping this means we are going to good places.

>Gogai! Gogai! Speculation and Questions time!

-So this is a school that's there to recruit girls for a very specific dancing group which appears to be named after a, I assume, tragic play. And the recruitment process is done in an underground stage and it appears this class and solely this class have been chosen for this audition. I don’t know about all of you, but this sounds awful ritualistic and just plain fishy to me. There's something wrong with this group, or whoever is running the group behind the scenes. At least it feels that way.

-This series could be a metaphor/symbolic for two things, it could either be about the competitive nature of stage theater and how it can make or break relationships we have with each other. Or, if they are going deeper than that, it’s about all the struggles of those who do theater professionally/want to do it and everything that comes with it including exploitation, being overworked, sacrificing relationships, and, if they really are going for it, homophobia. It will really depend how much creative freedom is here. I’ll talk about that a bit more later.

-There MIGHT be a deeper reason to why Hikari left Japan all that time ago. To chase her dreams? Something darker? Is there more to the Tokyo Tower beyond them just getting barrettes together? Why the dream sequence at the start? Was there a falling out there? Too little to go off of just yet.

-So, this is the 99th class right. The first years below them are 100th then. Does, that indicate anything? Why was this particular class chosen and why now? Unless this happens every year to the second years? Many questions.

>But is this really such a good idea?

This anime shows A LOT of promise, I haven’t been this excited for a new anime in a long time like I said in the prelude. However, I’m worried that my gut feeling is wrong. It’s mostly cause of who produces this series. I’ll explain my two big concerns here.

-Revue Starlight looks A LOT like an Ikuhara work, that is for sure. But, is it going to talk the talk if it’s walking the walk? Will this just look like an Ikuhara thing and not commit storywise? I’m not expecting Utena levels of greatness or discussion here, I just feel if you are gonna imitate Ikuhara you need to have something to say. But, what is allowed to be said is unknown here. You see, like I said in the prelude, Bushiroad has its hands in this project. These are the guys that have made Love Live and Bandori, their usual target demographic is male otaku that want to imagine themselves in relationships with fictional girls and buy all the merch and blu rays. This begs the question, is the Revue Starlight anime going for that crowd? 

It’s not airing at “Otaku O Clock”, which is a time period late at night that specifically airs shows for male otaku (RS airs around 4/5pm btw). But that doesn’t mean it won’t be an issue nor does it say what the target demographic is. Revue Starlight is going to be a multimedia project, it has an rpg mobile game planned, as well as a stage musical. So that begs the question, how much creative freedom is here with the anime? Will it be limited because they want to appeal to and not upset the male otaku? If so that might prevent this series from being more than just a superficial Ikuhara look alike. However, Bushiroad has also produced Watamote which is a jab at socially awkward otaku but Watamote wasn’t gonna be a multimedia project so. I dunno if that should indicate anything at all.

-Even though I’ve been referring to the girls in this show having romantic feelings for each other, the other thing I worry about is the use of lesbians/wlw here. You see, shows like Love Live and Bandori don’t have a whole world inhabited by girls for no reason. Having little to no male characters in these types of shows is so there isn’t anyone to get in the way of the entitled male otaku’s fancys of being in a relationship with one of the girls. In turn, any and all gay romantic tension in these shows aren’t for the girls benefits nor are they for any queer person watching, it’s so the entitled male otaku don’t feel threatened and for any yuri fans. 

In these shows, there will never be a canon gay couple or even any girl that will admit that she’s gay. Most will call this queerbaiting but that would imply that this is for any queer people, cause it isn’t aiming to bait queer folks. So I’ll refer to it as Yuri Baiting, sure the girls can flirt with each other and “act” gay towards each other but nothing will ever come of it! As a gay lady myself, it’s frustrating to watch. Love Live is annoying enough with it but Bandori, oh man. It hangs around the borders of committing but it just doesn’t, legit theres a character flirting with every girl she sees and she’s pretty much all but gay without saying anything but they never will say as such! Despite me being a fan of both these series, I really really hate seeing this.

Now I’m gonna clarify what I mean by committing, I don’t mean that the characters have to kiss or even be like “THIS IS MY GIRLFRIEND”, you can have gay characters without them ever declaring themselves as such. Utena is a great example of that, Anthy and Utena fall in love with each other and even though they don’t kiss in the show (beyond a frame in the second ending credits) you can tell that’s what's going on via the language of visual storytelling. Granted Utena made this even more obvious in the movie where they do kiss, hell it’s one of the last shots at the end! Another example is with Haruka and Michiru, they don’t really like say they are together romantically but you can tell they are via how they are shown interacting with each other and how other characters see them and comment on it. You can do this without even saying the word lesbian! Hell even before Ruby and Sapphire of Steven Universe got married you can tell from the moment we meet them they are very obviously a romantic couple. In the same vein, you can tell Pearl was romantically in love with Rose from Rose’s Scabbard (and even before that) onwards. In Legend of Korra, reading Asami and Korra’s interactions as romantic is very much the correct read because they become the official couple at the end even if it’s never said within the tv show. I haven’t seen Yuri on Ice but my understanding is Victor and Yuri, while canon, also shows they are romantically into each other via visuals. Visual storytelling is useful like that!

Hence you can tell in things like Love Live that it isn’t going to do that, I’m using Love Live as an example cause it’s so fucking clear it’s Yuri Baiting that you can’t fucking miss it. This is super 1000 times more obvious in the mobile game where, sometimes the girl on your screen will hit on you or flirt with you (please stop I am 26 YEARS OLD). And while yes, in universe the player is another student at the all girls school but that doesn’t matter. Their dialogue is directed to the person playing and when the target audience is male otaku well, that is who they are really speaking to.

Gdi one time Riko, one of the girls in Love Live, blatantly buys yuri doujin/manga but does that mean anything? Nopeeee! AND, the same anime has probably one of the biggest examples of Yuri Bait in this particular series! There’s an episode of the anime Love Live Sunshine where Chika and Riko are standing by a beach, looking in each others eyes and holding hands and the sun slowly comes up all romantic looking and the music swells and Riko tells Chika “I love you.” and that’s where this episode ends. Now you’d think this would go somewhere, but NOPE. No it sure fucking doesn’t! It’s never fucking mentioned again. When I first saw the ep I was like “Fucking christ this isn’t gonna go anywhere isn’t it.” and ta dah I was right! Cause fuck you if you think they’d ever commit to anything that isn’t pandering to their shit tier demographic and anyone who is queer can go fuck themselves cause all we are seen by these people is fetish bullshit that fucking hates you and fucking christ I’m SO TIRED OF THIS SHIT! AaaaaaaAAAAHHH!

This Chu Chu is here to prevent me from ranting too much about off topic stuff. Please stand by as I scream into a corner.

Ok. I’m good now. Ok. Sorry about that.

I could go on but I won’t. My point being here is I’m worried that the Revue Starlight anime will backflip into this direction. If it does then any and all romantic looking interactions are a fucking lie and fuck you if you think it’s anything else but fetish pandering. I’m hoping it doesn’t do that in this anime, but it’s hard to tell at this point. So I have this fear anyways. I am hoping I’m concerned for nothing, I really am.

>Starlight, Starbright?

So, after all this I am left to wonder if my good feeling about this show is correct. I’m either right or the visuals are tricking me and this show is either really mediocre at best or outright bad. Right now, concerns aside, this show feels very very promising. The fact I’m able to write this much about it is a good sign to me. 

Well, that’s all for now! I promise the next post won’t be as long, or at least I’m thinking so but who knows? Thanks for reading!

Meet you back on the stage for episode 2!

[ytoz]

Yagi Toshinori has plenty of bad habits

It never occurred to him that there might have been something more to it. [On AO3]

Um, warnings for an explicit portrayal of (undiagnosed and in deep denial of) depression and passive suicidal tendencies? Also, lots of unhealthy habits, please don’t imitate this wreck (ᵕ_ᵕ̩̩)ƪ I should be studying but here I am pulling out my old fanfic ideas to do anything else.

Working hard was the norm- boasting about how few hours of sleep a person got the night before was something to be admired, something to commiserate over, especially with the kind of workload teachers piled on them. Toshinori’s dreams were big, and he had to work hard to achieve them.

The habit followed him to his work. He was often way too busy, participating in Yazuka raids, rushing to the latest disaster, building up his agency and police contacts to figure out All for One’s next move. Without the schedule that school imposed on him, or the convenient cafeteria with ready meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, food fell to the wayside; mostly snacks as he hopped to his next destination or while he poured over reports and briefings.

They were healthy, filling snacks of course. Fuel enough to feed his body and work- but nothing else. He crunched down on tasteless nutrient or caloric bars, red apples and bananas when he could find them.

As the Yakuza slowly faded, his agency flourished, and so did the myth of All Might. Yagi Toshinori took a back seat as the media clamoured for his attention, and a determined young man dug out a place as his side-kick. Grand Torino was slowing down- his age not letting him pull as many all-nighters or stakeouts as before although it did nothing to dull the utter ruthlessness he had in the field or when training. All Might shouldered more and more of the world, and the only person who still called him Toshinori was Grand Torino.

It took him 5 minutes to respond to his name the last time, and that was when Grand Torino lost his patience and kicked the files out of his hands.

“When was the last time you ate?” Grand Torino had demanded, hands full of take-out.

All Might’s eyes had already returned to the papers he was picking up, a spark of irritation as he had to reorganise the papers again.

“I’ve eaten plenty! Had a cup of coffee a while ago,” he waved off the question, trying to find the place where he left off.

“I’m talking about a full meal Yagi. Sit down and put those papers away.”

All Might rolled his eyes, giving in to the childish temptation since this office had no external windows and there was only Grand Torino and him here anyway. He did turn his back to his old teacher first- he wasn’t stupid.

“I ate in the hospital, when I got injured back on the 25th,” All Might said, pulling up his sleeves and setting down his ever-present earpiece.

Grand Torino busied himself, setting out containers of gyoza and chopsticks at the edge of the table that the reports had yet to take over, and All Might poured soup into the takeaway containers of ramen. As All Might set the bowls down, Grand Torino looked at him with weary eyes, a slump in his posture. In that moment, All Might felt truly aware of Grand Torino’s age. Grand Torino was approaching 64 to All Might’s 35. He had been chasing the shadow of All for One for longer than All Might’s career- and the futility of it showed in the wrinkles around his eyes. The beady stare Grand Torino fixed him said volumes about his exhaustion, the readiness to put this fight away but also the desire to see All for One get his due for what he did to the Shimura family, his partner’s heart and soul.

The exhaustion was evident in his voice, quiet in the way Grand Torino was for only the most serious of things- like when he broke the news that Nana was officially declared dead.

“Toshinori,” he sighed, scanning All Might’s face for something, “Toshinori, that was in April. It’s already the 26th of May.”

All Might shrugged. The days seemed to blur into one another- sleeping regularly had fallen to the wayside within the first few months of his hero work- probably when he received unrestricted access to the police database. He managed well, catching a few winks of sleep during lull periods and when he was being ferried to whatever event his publicity team had convinced or badgered him into. The year held no personal meaning to him in his quest for All for One, flipping past with barely an acknowledgement. It was no surprise to him that a month had gone past already- he measured his time by the milestones he reached searching for All for One.

“I’m pretty sure All for One’s base is in Japan; he’s been pulling back from his overseas ventures- there’s less of a personal touch to the recent heists even though we know the Venteri and the Glassglows are connected to him. He has been expanding into Japan, although he might just be trying to fill the power vacuum left by the takedown of the Natoris. We have to be careful getting rid of the Precepts- we need a clean sweep to stop him from–“

“Yagi.” Grand Torino’s voice cut through his rant. “Shut up and eat, you silly boy.”

All Might stuffed his face with noodles in response, giving his old teacher a boyish grin with bulging cheeks. Grand Torino snorted as he stabbed a gyoza with his chopsticks, rolling his eyes at All Might’s antics.

“You’re way too old to try that on me now, Yagi-boy.” His voice was fond, but Grand Torino’s eyes tracked him for the rest of the meal. All Might didn’t know what he was looking for, but Grand Torino didn’t seem to have found it by the time he left for the night.

And finally, he confronted All for One- the pinnacle of All Might’s career. Leading up to the battle, he thought he would be too nervous to sleep but the 8 hours he set aside each day disappeared in a blink of the eye. Every time he nipped at the heels of All for One his hands would shake, heartbeat loud in his ears and breath catching in his throat. He knew he had to be at his best, and fed his body accordingly. In the lead up to the final battle, he was probably at his peak; stronger than Nana with experience to match.

All Might settles everything he can before he goes. He updates his will, clears out his fridge and packs the few personal items he has away. He clears the grave of Nana’s husband and the empty one beside him. He sends Grand Torino a box of premium taiyaki and signs a few of Nighteye’s All Might collectables in secret with much blushing. He does his best with his report backlogs and settles what he needs in his agency (there’s not much really, his agency runs itself like a well-oiled machine. Publicity’s still sore about being asked to pause scheduling appearances for the time being, but it’ll be worse if they had to cancel.).

He’s stalling a little, making busywork as the day approaches, but his heart feels lighter than it has in a long while. (He stares at the little blinking cursor on the blank document, and everything that he thinks of seems trite and lame. Maybe it’s best if he leaves it to his publicity team- or would it be some other department that takes care of it?)

All Might walks into the battle with All for One with the knowledge that none of his 7 predecessors have made it out dogging his heels. It comforts him, but also makes him feel guilty that he hasn’t a successor.

(It’s been passed down for seven generations already. He shouldn’t end the chain- but if all goes well then One for All can die with its brother.)

It’s not All Might, Pillar of Peace that leaves the fight. It’s not Quirkless Yagi Toshinori either. He doesn’t know who does. It’s honestly a bit of a surprise to wake up at all.

Grand Torino assures him that All for One is dead. Nighteye tearfully recounts how he was carried off the field, how he was touch-and-go for weeks, and how they weren’t sure if he would wake up at all.

The results of the battle are carved into his flesh- wrinkles and scars, deep eye bags that don’t seem to go away despite the time he spends bed bound. All for One takes his pound of flesh from beyond the grave, with surgeries and a body that’s becoming unable to handle the power of All Might. Every time they put him under for another round of trying to save his life, he can’t help but wonder if this is the last time.

He tries his best to be upbeat and cheery, and the psychologists lets him walk. He says nothing about the stranger in the mirror, or how he has to rediscover Yagi Toshinori out of necessity.

(It turns out that the idealistic bright boy with big dreams is a cynical bastard when he grew up. Quiet, gangly, with a face that makes children scream and a body that constantly betrays him.)

It’s been a long time, but self-loathing is an old friend that catches up every time he slows down.

His ability to use his quirk dwindles as his body thins. He figures out how to project an image of his healthier, more youthful self but the reality sets in. He passes gossip magazines at the convenience store shelves that analyse his increasing eye-bags and wrinkles that cast his eyes in shadow.

He declines more media appearances as his time as All Might shrinks from 18, then 15, 10, 7 hours; much to the dismay of his publicity team, who bitches to the new secretary in charge of All Might’s personal life, Yagi Toshinori, in hopes of figuring what exactly takes up All Might’s time.

(The rumours range from having found a beau, to actually having an entire secret family with a newborn. Sawada from Insurance assures him that All Might is clearly suffering from fatherhood. Mirch from legal sarcastically notes that children are supposed to be less trouble as they grow older, and they start arguing about the structure of All Might’s hypothetical family between Sawada showing off his Tuna-fish as proof. Tsunayoshi is a cute kid, and Yagi gifts him a tuna-plush and a signed All Might card when he gets corralled into Tsunayoshi’s third birthday party. Tsunayoshi bursts into tears during the party, and Sawada assures him that Tsunayoshi’s just shy, but Yagi leaves quickly anyway, burdened with guilt and embarrassment.)

It would be strange to see Secretary Yagi napping on All Might’s couch (such unprofessional behaviour! It was difficult enough to push his hiring past HR manager Ogino, and he would surely get a stern talking-to in both identities), and with the need to ration his time as All Might, he can no longer be on-call 24 hours from his office, necessitating an actual place where he can rest.

Yagi eventually settles into a small quiet apartment in the city, close to a train station on the same line as his hero office. Nighteye takes advantage of his new personal fridge and full kitchen to push fresh fruit and packed lunches onto him. Somehow, his fridge was always stocked with juice packets and mash that was easy on his reduced stomach.

He doesn’t spend a lot of time there, though. It’s a shameful place, the waiting area that All Might is trapped in until he has recharged long enough to meet expectations.

He knows that Nighteye is increasingly upset with his persistence in keeping All Might’s routine. Grand Torino lurks in the corners of his office, eyes dark and disapproving, but staying out of the argument even when All Might points out that Grand Torino’s still going strong at his age while Nighteye counters with the fact that Grand Torino’s not the one missing half his insides, or having problems keeping up with the physical demands of his quirk.

The long bitter feud lasts 8 months, until Nighteye can take no more.

“I can’t watch you keep killing yourself.” He says, staring out the window rather than at Yagi. “By being here, I’m only enabling you. Covering for you when you run out of time, helping you with your paperwork; I don’t dislike it, All Might. But doing it only isolates you from reality as it is.

“You need to accept that you can no longer work as All Might does,” Nighteye turns to him, eyes blazing in the way that reminds All Might of the plucky 20 year-old, newly minted licenced hero at the top of his class, that dogged his steps until All Might officially took him in as a side-kick. “I will not contribute to the future that I saw, I will not be part of the reason you fall in battle. All Might! Please, listen to reason!”

All Might knows that even though he and Nighteye are close, as friends and as mentor-mentee, Nighteye still holds him on a pedestal and there are things that people would not confide in their idols. He can also pick up contextual clues, and know that ever since Nighteye Saw his fight with All for One, he has begun to fear his powers of prediction in a new way. Nighteye would never be so foolish as to completely renounce his quirk (although he is an excellent hero without it), but Nighteye’s use of Foresight has become even more sparing as a hero, and he practices it more. Uses it on small things and try to change what he Sees. Gets more and more upset, but also more determined to change the future. Clings to the desperate hope that his Farsight has a larger margin of error and obsessively checks on things that he Saw in the past.

Toshinori’s heart breaks, even as he smiles brightly but not unkindly. He doesn’t put down Nighteye’s concerns, but he’s also unsure of what to say.

“Alas, my other eternal nemesis, paperwork. I thank you for keeping it at bay for so long, but I suppose the forces of evil can never be kept away for long!” he says. It’s not all he wants to say, but it’s for the best that Nighteye leaves and flourishes without him now. He can still watch over Nighteye as he stretches his wings outside the shadow of All Might, ensure that when All Might finally goes, Nighteye will have a life outside of him; a reason to keep living besides a hollow shell of a man waiting for death.

Nighteye gives a weak chuckle. It sounds more like a sob, but he smiles back at All Might’s overdramatic proclamation. If his eyes appear shinier than usual, it’s merely the reflection of his glasses.

All Might sends him off with a robust severance package and more than enough money to buy his own building and start his own agency.

Energy drinks and jelly packets still appear in his apartment’s kitchen, and paperwork piles up in his office despite him devoting more time to it. The 30 years that he spent searching for the shadow puppet master of the underworld pales in comparison to the extensive reports he files in triplicate. He spends a lot of time just staring at the paperwork completely overwhelmed- knowing the necessity and importance, but being unable to muster up the will to do anything.

The days slip by, reminiscent of the time before his fight with All for One, but with less purpose or urgency. He drifts through, spending his days as All Might and nights as a paperwork wrangler while it multiplies around him. He brings the routine paperwork back to the apartment where he can complete it without the risk of HR manager Ogina walking in on him napping on the paperwork by accident. The desk that Nighteye used to have becomes buried under the to-do pile.

Nighteye completes his first solo major case. All Might sends him a fruit basket to celebrate. There’s no note attached. He doesn’t know what to say to Nighteye. He ignores the 70 unread texts from Nighteye, and only answers the hero-related emails.

Yagi eats more of the jelly packs when he remembers to feed himself. More boxes appear like clockwork, keeping up with his consumption. He still loses weight, and the doctors assigned to his case worry.

His bed is gathering dust. His bedroom is a place for changing clothes; it’s been years since he slept in a proper, non-hospital bed. But he’s pushing 50, most of his clothes hang off his shoulders and belt, and his back complains from the decades of hard hero work whenever he wakes slumped over his desk.

The first time he tries sleeping in the bed, he wakes chocking on memories and air, what’s left of his lungs working overtime. He ends up sitting at his kitchen table, filling out forms by rote and moonlight, lost in the hazy quietness of the night. He comes to with most of his paperwork done and false dawn lighting up the room.

He sees Nighteye on assignments and hero gatherings. They exchange professional words at first, but All Might starts to pull away socially until soon they barely exchange nods.

Pillows appear on his bed, and he sleeps better propped up.

The police force assigns him another partner, Naomasa, and All Might is beyond pleased to have another person that he can write New Year letters to. He keeps up better with his paperwork with Naomasa’s help, and misses working with Nighteye intensely.

His life falls into a tedium despite everything, and sometimes he stands on the edge of life and death and wonders.

Some new hero, full of bluster, tells him that All Might is a has been and he’ll be taking his place as the Number One hero soon. All Might wishes him all the best with a genial smile, and inwardly hopes that he won’t see him broken too soon.

He eats less and less. More often than not, he takes the last subway home. Grand Torino hovers at the edge of his awareness, but he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t know how he stands with his old mentor, now that the reason they’ve come together is gone. Why would the old man would want to see the impertinent boy he often railed at? All Might has done his duty as the last holder of One for All and defeated the nemesis his 7 predecessors had been killed by.

There’s no reason for them to interact so they don’t.

Shuzenji bends his ear about taking better care of his body, but Yagi can’t see the point.

He’s a dying man in a world moving on beyond him, and he longs to let go. He can’t really imagine a future beyond the daily tedium of his life with no goal beyond saving the people in front of him. In the moment, adrenaline floods him and his training takes over, but once everything’s quiet he wonders what would happen if he just… disappeared.

(Not die in the line of duty, certainly not. He knows his standing as the pillar of society- hundreds of research papers have been written about his impact on society and how it has ensured this unprecedented stretch of peace ever since quirks first appeared and how technological advancements have leapfrogged. He reads them to remind himself that the world still needs a symbol and a reminder. He reminds himself that it’s what 15-year-old Quirkless Yagi Toshinori yearned for, in a world of violence and survival of the fittest.)

(He doesn’t think about the other things the boy yearned for. Nobody talks about the quirkless or the disabled or the chronologically ill in this world of miracles. Not anymore. Toshinori is shouting into the void.)

There’s only so much he can delay the end. He’s down to 5 hours now, and concerned about passing on his quirk since he survived the major confrontation that he’s been preparing for all his life.

He’s offered it to Nighteye before he left, but was declined. All Might wonders if Nighteye would decline again now. He hasn’t spoken to Nighteye in 5 years already.

Nedzu invites him to U.A, points out the assorted heroes and trainees that Nighteye has taken under his discerning wing, and leaves him with a stack of folders of the brightest and best of the upcoming generation, and a job offer.

He thinks about it for days, meets a boy who reminds him so much of Nighteye (and maybe a little of Quirkless Yagi), accidentally gives out his secret, and realises: this is the one. The person that he will choose to carry out One for All’s and Nana’s legacy.

This is the person that he would be comfortable leaving to world to.

He sort of looks forward to resting.

[heshein001]

92 Questions Tag

 Tagged by: @sonofqueen

Answer the questions and tag 20 people.

20 people? Really Urgh.

@dantecain @lonelyblueshark @mazurah @julei-zu @sugarofthesouth @wrenstep @perendhil-loki @humblydefiant @kii-nam @marmaboy @scarlet-geek @clefabledude @princesswytch @spookyscaryexoskeletons @dailyrowlet @kauriart @thesparklingpariah @fyeahmerrill @dark-limit @eightbigpaws

No pressure, don’t feel obligated, I just wanted to put 20 names down as per the ‘rules’, and to be honest, that was hard enough.

THE LAST: 1. Drink: Water. Dull I know. 2. Phone call: That I made? To my Dad. That I received? From a haulage company in Lithuania. 3. Text message: From my Dad. I convinced him to start watching Game of Thrones, and I got an update telling me he was halfway through season one after having had the DVD set for one night, 4. Song you listened to: I Don’t Know What the Weather Will Be, by Laura Mvula. (though if we want to count songs that I ‘heard’ on the TV as well, it would be It’s Raining Men by the Weather Girls. ) 5. Time you cried: A few weeks ago, a couple of days after the passing of my mother.

HAVE YOU: 6. Dated someone twice: Nope. 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: Not especially, no. 8. Been cheated on: Not that I am aware of. 9. Lost someone special: My mother passed only a few weeks ago. My Nana (Mum’s Mum) died when I was young, maybe about six or seven, then the year after that my Grandad (Dad’s Dad) died, then a couple of years after that, my Mum’s Dad died.  10. Been depressed: Yes, clinically so. 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: I don’t know? I have only been drunk once, and while I woke up on an unfamiliar couch dressed as a pirate with a bucket next to me, there was nothing in the bucket. Don’t know if I had been during the night before though. LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS: 12. Purple 13. Reds 14. Blues IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU: 15. Made new friends: Erm... I guess? Not entirely sure. Acquaintances, yes, not sure if I’d call many of them friends. 16. Fallen out of love: Nope.  17. Laughed until you cried: Not that I can recall. 18. Found out someone was talking about you: Yes, at work., when I saw some emails between managers. Wasn’t particularly pleased, given I was being shafted for something they had missed as well. 19. Met someone who changed you: I wouldn’t say so. 20. Found out who your friends are: I guess? I mean, I have a small social circle anyway, so mostly it was just “yes, I still like you.” 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Nope.

GENERAL: 22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: All except one of them, I think, and the random one added me, so she must think she knows me from somewhere. That isn’t to say I’ve seen many of them in years, but I have met them at some point. 24. Do you want to change your name: I quite like my name. It is an odd quirk that my initials are BMW. 25. What did you do for your last Birthday: Not much. I share my birthday with my Dad, so inevitably end up spending time with him. My Mum was also in hospital, so that prevented anything big. I think we went round to my parent’s and had a Chinese with my Dad and my brother. 26. What time did you wake up: I half woke up at 8:00am when the dog came to demand food, but went back to sleep after my other half dealt with that. I got out of bed at around 11:30am. 27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Sleeping, I think, though it may have been in a state of half sleep whilst still chatting with my partner. 28. Name something you can’t wait for: Erm... Not really sure. Nothing comes to mind. I’m a patient sort of chap. 29. When was the last time you saw your mom: Depends what you mean by saw her. I saw her, physically, the day before her funeral, in the chapel of rest, about two or three weeks ago. When she was actually herself, however, and not laid up in a hospital bed, I’d say it was back in May. 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: More money. It sounds shallow, but it would make like life easier and more comfortable.  31. What are you listening right now: The hum of the computer and the tap of my fingers on the keyboard. Also the odd little bubbling bloop sound from the fishtank. 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Yes. I had a fairly close friend in school called Tom. 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: My damn foot. I’ve done something to bugger up my left foot, it is swollen up and the heel is sore as anything, can barely put weight on it. Painkillers and anti-inflammatory are helping, but gods it is sore. 34. Most visited Website: It is either tumblr or the BBC news. LOST QUESTIONS 35. Mole/s: I have one on the back of my neck I am aware of, probably more. 36. Mark/s: I’ve got some dints in my head from being pulled out with forceps when I was born. I have a couple of marks on the top of both my feet where they have scarred after the skin was rubbed away, which occasionally still open up. 37. Childhood dream: Can’t remember. I had nightmares about werewolves though. 38. Haircolour: Fairly standard and boring brown. 39. Long or short hair: Short, I guess.  40. Do you have a crush on someone: No, my fiancé excluded 41. What do you like about yourself: I like my eye colour. I also like to think I am fairly mature and am responsible, making me good in a crisis. I also like to think I’m quite good with kids, for the most part. 43. Bloodtype: No idea. 44. Nickname: None that I know of. 45. Relationship status: Engaged. 46. Zodiac: In the Western Horoscope, Gemini. In the Chinese Zodiac, Rooster. 47. Pronouns: He and him etc.  48. Favourite TV Show: Game of Thrones is one of the few shows I go out of my way to watch. I also have enjoyed Once Upon a Time, Queer as Folk, Doctor Who, and then a few older things my partner has introduced me to, such as Miss Fisher. 49. Tattoos: None, and no plans for any. 50. Right or left hand: Right handed. 51. Surgery: None. 52. Hair dyed in different colour: I have in the past had it dyed lighter, but not in any recent years. 53. Sport: I don’t play any sports, and the only one I don’t mind watching is tennis. 55. Vacation: None planned currently. Was in Finland not that long ago. I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy holidays to quite a few places: France, Spain (including associated Balearic and Canary Islands), Greece, Germany, Turkley, Norway, Canada, Dominican Republic, Italy, various parts of the UK and Channel Islands, Belgium, Finland. 56. Pair of trainers: I think I have one pair in the wardrobe?  MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: Nothing right now. A bit ago, bacon and egg sandwich. 58. Drinking: Water. 59. I’m about to: Attempt to write an RP post. 61. Waiting for: Nothing comes to mind. 62. Want: Not to have to go to work tomorrow. Also for the dog to stop farting. 63. Get married: In the near future. 64. Career: I did train to teach, but didn’t finish the course. Work in an office now, which is OK, but hardly the most fulfilling thing. Can’t find any better alternatives though. WHICH IS BETTER 65. Hugs or kisses: Hugs are more universal. 66. Lips or eyes: Eyes 67. Shorter or taller: Doesn’t matter to me, though I am slightly taller than average myself. 68. Older or younger: I tend to get on better with somewhat older people generally. I am a very old soul, however. 70. Nice arms or nice stomach: Arms, if I have to pick. 71. Sensitive or loud: Sensitive please.  72. Hook up or relationship: Never really done hook ups. Relationships are more my thing. 73. Troublemaker or hesitant: More hesitant for sure. HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a stranger: Not that I can think of. 75. Drank hard liquor: Yes, a few kinds. I’m not a big drinker, though. 76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: No, I don’t think I’ve ever lost a pair of glasses. 77. Turned someone down: Once that I can recall. 78. Sex in the first date: It depends on the person, I guess, but as a general rule, I don’t think so. 79. Broken someone’s heart: Not that I am aware of. 80. Had your heart broken: Not really. 81. Been arrested: No. 82. Cried when someone died: Yes. 83. Fallen for a friend: Yes, which then evolved into what it is today. DO YOU BELIEVE IN: 84. Yourself: Depends on which way the wind is blowing. 85. Miracles: Not as a general rule. 86. Love at first sight: It is a nice idea, but no. 87. Santa Claus: No. Not as you mean it, anyway. 88. Kiss on the first date: If it goes well, sure. 89. Angels: A nice thought, but no, I wouldn’t say so. OTHER: 90. Current best friends name: Well, my best friend is my fiancé, so does that count? 91. Eyecolour: Blue. 92. Favourite movie: No idea. I’ve seen so many over the years, but haven’t been to the cinema especially to watch one in a while. None immediately come to mind.