My Hero Academia: A Hero's Will

Chapter 22

On All Might's recommendation, I had decided to choose Gran Torino for my internship. But what had me worried was the fact that I knew next to nothing about him. Also, from All Might's reaction, Gran Torino was a scary individual. I mean, someone who's name could make the number one hero tremble in fear was bound to be scary, right?

There was something else that was also bothering me. Since our first day in U.A. I, Uraraka and Iida had been leaving the school together. So we were pretty close friends. When we were about to board the bullet train to reach our various destinations, I and Uraraka approached Iida as there was something off about him.

"Iida, if it gets too much and you need to talk, you can call us. We'll be there for you."

"... Sure."

Even though I wanted to help him in some way, I couldn't find words to soothe him. The look on his face, it was something I was familiar with. How could I not be? I had seen the same look on my face in the mirror when Tetsuo was killed. Iida wanted revenge for his brother. But given the number of lives the Hero Killer had claimed, Iida's chances of succeeding in his pursuit to avenge his brother were bleak. Before I could say anything else to him, Iida had already left.

Forty minutes later, I reached my destination. I walked towards the address on the slip in my hands and opened the door of the dilapidated house, only to see an old man lying in a pool of blood.

"Aaahhhhh!!! He's dead!!!"

The dead man looked up at me and said, "I'm alive."

"He's alive!!!"

... Stop laughing at me! What kind of reaction would you expect from someone in that situation?

Anyway, the old man continued, "To slip and fall while carrying ketchup covered sausage links, how clumsy of me! And who are you?!"

Startled by his sudden question, I fumbled and replied, "I-I'm Midoriya Izuku from U.A."

He tried to get up by using his walking stick but dropped down with a plop.

"I want to eat lunch. Lunch!! Who are you?!"

'He's All Might's teacher? I knew he'll be old but this is too much.'

The old bag of flesh and bones perked up as he fiddled with the suitcase that had my costume in it and exclaimed, "Toshinori!"

"That's not my name! It's Midoriya Izuku!"

Right when I was about to leave and talk to All Might about it, the old man spoke in a tone which felt different than how he was behaving a few seconds earlier, "Fire off an attack! Show me your 'One for All'. I'd like to know to what degree you can control it."

It was so sudden that it took me off guard, "...Huh?"

"Nice costume. Put 'er on and come at me... Who are you again?!"

Gah!

With a frustrated sigh, I said, "I'm sorry sir, but I don't have time to deal with someone who can't even remember something as simple as my name, much less teach me to improve my control over 'One for All'."

As I was about to leave, I heard a sound of feet crashing everywhere around the room with high-speed gusts of wind blowing all over the place. I immediately used observation and was shocked to see the same old man standing in front of me with feet planted on the wall.

Gran Torino did not look like a clueless old bag of bones anymore. With a challenging and unnerving snark, he said, "Then I'll tell you once again. Come at me, you zygote! You recently recieved 'One for All' from that justice-obsessed muscle head. He can't watch over you properly, so I'll have to do it in his place. So put on your costume!"