All For Some

Chapter 63: The Old Man

The screech of a train was the first thing Izuku heard as he stepped out of the car at the station. It had been a while since he had traveled in one with having nice cars, and more importantly a teleporting nomu. Rest of the group joined him next to the car. Eijiro was practically radiating excitement with Shoto sticking close to that clean, plentiful, and renewable energy source. Tenya however stood to the side of the group seeming more interested in the ground. Hitoshi walked behind Tenya with a large thermos on his hand and sneaked past him to block him from slipping away.

They would be in the same train whether Tenya wanted to or not. Tenya, Hitoshi, Eijiro and Shoto were going to have their internship close enough to each other to get the same train at least part of the way. Izuku was unlucky enough to not be in that group. Tokoyami ended up further away, but there weren't many better opportunities that existed for him in the hero world and with Hawks he was likely going to move around a lot and quickly anyway.

Izuku had orchestrated it all to keep Tenya safe, but now he was starting to fear having all of them in the area where Stain still lurked. At least none of them worked with Native or other heroes Izuku had identified the most likely to be rotten. He walked with them as far as he could but could not come into the train.

"Have a good internship," he said and glanced at Tenya with begging in his eyes, "don't do anything stupid, including what you think I would do."

Tenya looked away but at least he wasn't leaving alone. Izuku exchanged looks with Hitoshi as he passed. Eijiro gave him a comforting smile.

"We'll keep our eyes open for him," he assured.

Izuku had not exaggerated when he told All Might about the power of that smile. Shoto followed Eijiro.

"Hey," Izuku said. "If anyone tried to talk good about Endeavour, berate you or try to convince you to go back remember that they are wrong. They don't know what they are talking about. You do. Ignore them, freeze them if you have to. I'll throw a lawyer at them if they raise an issue."

Shoto nodded. Eijjiro turned from the train door.

"Hey Shoto, the train is leaving."

Izuku stood on the platform until the end of the train passed him and then some. There was something dark in the image of the train moving to the distance out of his reach. Finally the train turned behind a bend and disappeared. Izuku headed to another platform.

Less than an hour later he was walking down a street looking for the address. He had already checked the place online from a streetview map, so he knew he was not looking for any fancy hero agency, or agency at all. As he stopped in front of the rundown four-story apartment building, he was still disappointed. It seemed even worse than the images from a few years back. With a worn-out outer surface and some broken windows the building looked outright abandoned.

Alarm bells were ringing in Izuku's head. Could All Might and this Gran Torino have plotted this whole thing to lure him into an abandoned building out of sight to deal with him.

If they did they would be unpleasantly surprised but Izuku's life as Izuku would be over. That would give him time to keep an eye on Stain around the clock, but...

He knocked and waited. There was no response. He knocked again and noticed that the door was open. With apology he pushed the door partially open.

"Hello. I am Izuku Midoriya from UA high school I'm looking for..."

Still no response. His eyes descended towards the door. There was a small old man in white and yellow hero costume laying on his face with something red staining the floor around him.