Author's Note: This story was originally posted on this website, but I pulled it for a variety of reasons. Since then I've been updating it on AO3 and if you frequent that website I highly recommend reading it there instead because I embed illustrations and the story is going to be further along for a while. That said, I've been using this website for nearly half of my life, and kind of started to miss it, so I'm going to try posting it here again. I did make a new account because the old one has been getting spam and reviews telling me to update other stories.

Thanks! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter One:
The New Guy Downstairs, who Probably Does Drugs

It was an average looking apartment on the edges of Minato, Tokyo. The building was on the older side and gave off an unassuming impression and was therefore perfect for Toshinori Yagi. He didn't want to draw attention.

'Toshinori.' How long had it been since he even went by that name? Long enough so that it felt strange to sign the lease with it. Although even that had been slightly less awkward then getting a job in All Might's Secretarial Office and having business cards printed with his real name on them. Once it had been the only name he had, but when he became All Might, Yagi had all but disappeared. He'd never really planned on having a secret identity, but now he didn't really have much of a choice, just like he didn't have much of a choice to move out here. He couldn't exactly go back to his old life, now that he looked like…well like this more often then he looked like All Might. It would raise too many questions.

So here he was. Standing outside an apartment that practically faded into the background of the city. No one would expect All Might to live in a place like this…but Yagi probably would. Well, when it came down to it, anyone who saw him in this state probably wouldn't expect Yagi to live in a place like this either. In this emaciated body he probably looked like he belonged under a bridge in a cardboard box or else in a hospital bed somewhere.

Toshinori coughed, the sound muffled by the oversized sleeve of a sweatshirt that looked as if it could have fit five more of him in it and eyed the moving van wearily as a few men moved some very modest looking furniture into his very modest new apartment. In truth, even though All Might probably gave off the impression of someone who was all flash and grandeur he'd never owned much in the way of personal possessions. In order to have a personal life, one needed to have time for a personal life and All Might had never had time. It was for this reason that most of what he had brought was as unassuming as his new life had to be. The only thing that could link him to All Might was a couple of mementos that, if discovered could be explained away by his front as All Might's secretary and possibly more damning; his costumes…although even then he could probably make up a story about having them pressed or mended or something. He'd already moved them into the apartment prior to the van getting there and had stashed them in one of the closets in a couple of garment bags behind the rest of his over-sized clothes.

Toshinori coughed again, wincing at the taste of iron. The early autumn air was doing unpleasant things to his remaining lung. He retreated into his new apartment, standing aside briefly to allow the movers past him as they went back out to the truck to retrieve the rest of his stuff. None of the men seemed to be all that bothered that he wasn't helping with some of the heavier stuff, but that was not surprising. He didn't really look like someone who could lift a box comfortably, let alone a couch. When inside, he headed to the tiny kitchen and searched briefly through a small cardboard box, before pulling out a tin of decaf sencha tea and his kyusu.

XXX

It was early enough in the morning so that only a small light showed on the horizon. Nevertheless, despite the hour, a cheap alarm clock started going off next to the twin sized bed which took up 1/3 of the narrow room. It had to be loud to cover the susurrus of noise caused by the fan to one side and a small flat screen television turned to a channel broadcasting kitschy shopping programs. The sort of thing designed to be background noise.

Rin grumbled under her blankets and fumbled at the alarm before finally hitting a button and then scrambling to hit it again, this time more awake because she had accidentally turned on the radio, which blared so loudly that whatever was being said sounded distorted and hellish.

She looked at the window. Even in the meager light she could tell it was overcast. After a moment she took a deep breath, holding it for half a second as if to test something before getting up and beginning her morning routine. It had been about the same for two years now. She took a quick shower, put her wet hair up in small messy half knot, dressed in a pair of jeans, a t-shirt with a faded logo on it and pulled on a pair of well-worn hiking boots. She skipped breakfast but stuffed a handful of hard candies into a sturdy half apron before tying it around her waist and grabbing her jacket as she walked out the door.

Rin sighed as she descended the stairs of her building and saw the moving van. There were only two apartments per building and four buildings made up the entirety of her apartment complex. They were at the end of a street in a neighborhood with small squat houses. The apartment below her had been empty for the last two weeks. Two blessed, quiet weeks. She'd put up with the last inhabitants for close to eight months before they'd…presumably moved out. It was hard to say, she didn't really bother getting to know her neighbors outside of the occasional acknowledgment that it was a good morning, all evidence of the contrary aside. She'd only noticed after a week had gone by and she hadn't heard any shouting, so either they'd been kicked out, left in a hurry or killed each other...whatever the reason the silence had been nice.

She caught a brief glimpse of the man she assumed was her new neighbor as he was heading into his apartment and grimaced slightly. The neighborhood Rin lived in was called Ikigai…probably named many years prior when it wasn't quite so worn and tired. It wasn't a 'bad' neighborhood per se. There were certainly worse areas…some of them as near as a few blocks away, some deeper in the city. As it was, there wasn't a lot of crime in Ikigai…at least none of the flashy stuff. There were rarely villain attacks, there weren't any gangs and even break ins were at a minimum and that was because it just wasn't worth it.

It was a place for people who had given up on finding something better, who could afford to stay out of the worst areas, but didn't aspire to do more then that. Because of this, crime was limited to the stuff that the police still dealt with; vandalism, domestic abuse, drugs and petty theft. Drugs seemed to be the favorite though, which is why the first thought that came to mind when she saw her new neighbor was 'drugs, and not the casual kind.'

He was so thin that 'skeletal' was an appropriate descriptor, his eyes were sunken in to the point of creating deep shadows on his face, his hair looked like it hadn't seen a comb in decades and he was wearing clothes that most likely had been obtained from a shelter or some other charity organization as it would be difficult to imagine why else someone who looked like a walking coat hanger would don what looked like XXL garments.

'Great,' she thought as she pulled her jacket on. 'With any luck he'll at least be a quiet junkie.'

The day was indeed overcast and there was a chill in the air. Rin double checked to ensure she'd remembered to pocket her inhaler and then after verifying the comforting shape, popped a random hard candy into her mouth and headed down the street.

XXX

Toshinori paid the movers and thanked them with a bow, before shutting the door to his new apartment and taking in the room. By now the sun was up, but the windows were narrow and let in very little light, which was a shame…it gave the apartment a dreary feeling.

He began going through the boxes set up against the wall, starting with his collection of movies, which he began setting on the shelves near his television. He turned on the news in the mean time and let the background noise wash over him as he committed to the mindless task, his long fingers curling around each title, reading them before setting them aside. He owned a number of Japanese and American films, though, in truth he hadn't watched half of them. He had a habit of picking out stuff that looked interesting and then letting it sit for months on the shelf as his schedule rarely allowed for much free time and even in those rare moments when he did have free time he almost always had the news on just in case. Well…he supposed that might change a little now. Toshinori frowned a little.

He was brought out of his thoughts as, on the news a story about revitalizing old and broken down areas in the city was interrupted by an excitable looking newscaster who started to stammer his way through a breaking story involving a hostage situation in the Shinagawa train station. Toshinori set down the stack of movies and headed towards the closet in the back of his small bedroom. He pulled out one of the garment bags, pushing aside the rest of his clothes in the process and unzipped it, pulling out the massive suit within. After shedding his sweatshirt, he pulled it over his clothes. It was day time, best to have his civilian clothes handy.

He peeked outside nervously to ensure that there was no chance of an audience…but then, it was still early and no one seemed to be around. Once satisfied, he stepped out and moved to the narrow area between the buildings, transforming in the process, his suit no longer billowing around his skeletal frame, instead fitting snuggly on All Might's massive body. A few seconds later he was on top of another building several blocks away and heading quickly towards Shinagawa.

XXX

Rin was a creature of habit. She liked it that way. This was why she almost always stopped at the same café on her way to the park and bought the same blend of coffee. It wasn't very good coffee, she made much better at home with her little one cup pour-over, but that took time and it was rare she had enough time to invest in good coffee before work.

She worked as a groundskeeper at a park a few blocks down from her neighborhood. It was decent enough work. In the spring, autumn and summer it was often pleasant and sure as hell beat being cooped up in an office building or retail establishment and most favorably, it did not require prolonged contact with other human beings. People visited the park of course, but she could more or less ignore them, instead focusing on mowing, pruning and watering the plants, removing dead or decaying foliage and erasing the evidence that other humans frequented the park via picking up the trash they left behind and occasionally removing the graffiti that decorated some of the sad crumbling statues that the park had set up. In the autumn she raked leaves, in the early spring she planted new trees and plants and in the winter she shoveled the paths. She worked in the morning and was often done by early afternoon.

Today it looked as if it were going to be a longer shift, as today there was graffiti, most likely left by some adolescent who was probably not even out of junior high judging by the nature of the graffiti and the height with which it adorned the statues. The statues themselves were dull. The sort one might find in miniature in a souvenir shop for tourists; pagoda lanterns, Neko and tanuki statues and on the larger side, statues depicting men on horses, assorted deities and standing out from the others, and honestly looking quite out of place, a large statue of All Might with his big stupid smile. The park wasn't nearly as big or grand as the parks farther into the city, so it was most likely poor compared to others, but his headquarters was located in Minato so presumably it couldn't be helped that even her small park had to have the symbol of peace immortalized in stone.

What was annoying…and really, the logical half of her mind reasoned it shouldn't have been given that it meant less work for her, was that the All Might statue almost never acquired graffiti…as if vandals were frightened the man might poof out of thin air the second someone attempted to write an expletive across his giant chiseled torso. It was so illogical. The goddess Amaterasu had acquired more then her share of profanity over the years, but All Might? Somehow, he was beyond vandalism.

She sighed and after grabbing the equipment she needed to begin cleaning off the poorly written graffiti, she knelt down next to a sad stone woman in a kimono to wash the unflattering description off of its surface. Yet another indication of the vandals age was the fact that they seemed to only take her gender into account and not the fact that someone so very clothed and depicted as being on the elder side would not fit such a description. They had probably giggled as they wrote it.

XXX

There was a group of police officers and a few pro heroes gathered near the west exit of the Shinagawa train station. The massive interior was lit only by the windows lining the pedestrian walkway. The rest of the power was off, and the trains were still. It had happened quickly, ruling out the possibility that it had been some lone nut who had simply had one too many bad experiences on their morning commute. This had been organized.

There had been chaos after the lights went off, but now it was eerily quiet.

The few pros that were there had already been in the train station or very near to it when the power had gone off. The group consisted of Uwabami, who had her hand on her hip and was eyeing the darkness of the station calmly, Fourth Kind who was crossing all four of his arms and having a whispered conversation with a police officer and a third pro who looked considerably more nervous than the other two. Nevertheless, he was the one to break the silence.

"We can't just stand here," he said under his breath. "I say we split up and launch a rescue from there."

Compared to the other two, he was a relative unknown. Both turned to look at him.

"I'm sorry, who are you exactly?" Uwabami said wearily. She had come to the city to shoot a commercial the day before and had wound up having to stay in a hotel overnight after the recording had gone long. She was just now heading back only for the station to come under attack. Despite her penchant for the limelight, she was a pro and certainly could perform as such, but she was still in a fowl mood for being held up.

"Uh, well I just started…I haven't really been in any major incidents…"

"Right, exactly how do you propose we 'split up?'" she continued while waving her hand at the vast pedestrian walkway. "I can use my quirk to locate people and capture enemies, but there's a whole train station of civilian hostages and dozens of platforms and trains. I'm not a combat specialist and I don't commonly do stealth missions."

"I'm specialized in hand to hand combat," Fourth kind said with a sigh, while uncrossing one set of his arms and brandishing his hands palm up. "but I'm not really the stealthy sort either. Besides, Uwabami's right, there are too many hostages and too many places to hide."

The rookie hero was young and did indeed look like he might be fresh out of the position of sidekick…or possibly still in the position of sidekick.

"There's three of us…surely we can…"

"We don't know how many attackers there are, first we need a plan," Uwabami interrupted while crossing her arms. Before she could say anything else a booming and jovial voice cut through the tension, making several of the police and the younger pro jump in response.

"Worry not, for I am here!" It shouldn't be possible for a man of All Might's size to enter a room without someone noticing. And while All might wasn't stealthy and often didn't need to be, he was very very fast.

"All Might!" One of the police said, his voice awash with relief as the big man stepped forward. The effect seemed to spread throughout the rest of the small group as well. Even Uwabami and Fourth Kind seemed to relax by a couple degrees.

"Be so kind as to fill me in?" He asked, seemingly directing the question at no one in particular, his smile visible despite the meager light.

"The power went out about forty minutes ago," one of the police officers said. "All of the civilians that were waiting in the station evacuated with the staff, but the trains that were coming in and going out at the time shut down. We're pretty sure everyone who was inside them are still there and whoever is behind this is most likely with them. We know there is more then one attacker, but we don't know how many people are involved."

"Have they contacted you at all…made any demands?"

"No demands…just a warning not to approach."

"Your quirk can locate people. Very useful in this situation!" All Might said to Uwabami, who raised her eyebrow. "Are the hostages just in the trains?"

"It seems so. They're all in small groups. I can't tell the difference between the hostages and the attackers though."

"How many trains are currently in the station?

"About half…" Fourth Kind said. He had been going over the train schedule with the police.

"If you give me a map I may be able to tell you where they are…" Uwabami added.

"Shouldn't be a problem! There's an info desk right there!" All Might said while pointing to one side of the station.

"Right," Uwabami said sweetly, "glad you're here, hon, but could you keep it down just a touch?" All Might's fixed smile showed just a twinge of bashfulness before it was back in full. He gave her a thumbs up.

"Ah, sorry," he replied, his voice dropping from it's usual cadence to a whisper that still somehow carried across the room. "I don't recognize you? You're a pro?" he added while turning to the younger hero, who had been watching All Might slack jawed. The young man licked his lips and nodded.

"Uh, yeah…I'm Junichiro Sumitomo," he said and then looked vaguely embarrassed about giving his real name instead of a hero name.

"What's your specialty?"

"Uh…I can…I can fade into the shadows…surprise people…but uh…to be honest I haven't done a lot of professional work on my own…"

"Ah well, this seems like a good time to start," All Might said. "let's get these people out of here."

XXX

The lights inside the train that had been heading for Shibuya had flickered briefly before dying forty minutes prior. The doors had shut, and the patrons had been forced into their seats and on the floor. There was a chorus of whimpering, crying, fragments of whispered prayers and the like. It was warm and dark.

One of the attackers was standing in front of the group of frightened passengers with his back to the door at the back of the train. His hand was on one of the metal bars in front of a seat…or rather his hand was welded in the metal which had traveled up his forearm. Likewise, whatever tile or marble made up the floor had overtaken his right leg, fixing him in place. His other hand was outstretched towards the hostages.

"Would you all please just shut up!" He shouted, causing a whimper from within the small crowd. "How long is he going to make us wait…it's getting hot in here!"

There was another attacker on the other side leaning against the door that was separating them from the conductor.

"Calm down, everything is under cont-" the sound of the door being ripped off its hinges caused the comment to die in his throat. For a moment there was only darkness beyond and then a blur and the man who had been complaining about the heat a moment before slumped down, unconscious. His associate stared slack jawed as All Might rose slightly, illuminated by the light from the ruined door behind him. "Stay back or I'll-" was as far as he got before he too crumpled to the ground against the conductor's door after a sudden burst of movement which caused the train to rock slightly and a burst of wind to travel through the group of hostages. It all happened in a matter of seconds.

"Everything's all right now," All Might said, catching himself before he spoke too loudly. Instead he tried to convey his usual confidence in a low tone. It perhaps didn't have quite the same effect as it would have if he'd spoken it loudly, but the shear spectacle of All Might, standing larger then life and smiling made up for his whispered tones. Slowly the mood began to change and ripple through the group as the new situation dawned on them. The big hero put his fingers up to his smile to signal quiet. "Sit tight for a moment while we clear the rest of the station," he added as he threw both attackers over his shoulders, prying up the man who had attached himself to the train with little difficulty.

In another few minutes the pros had moved through the rest of the trains and had taken out the remaining attackers. In the eight trains that had hostages in them, the attackers were spread out thin, with most having only one villain and two of the trains having none at all.

"There's no one but civilians in this one," Uwabami, said while tapping her ear. They'd borrowed ear pieces from the police to make communication easier. She was standing in the train that should have been heading to Kamakura, closest to the east exit. The people inside the train were watching the development with interest. "They didn't even realize the station was under attack."

"Anyone take down someone with a quirk that could shut down or disrupt technology?" Fourth Kind asked. He, All Might and the younger pro were standing back in the pedestrian walkway as the police tied up the mostly unconscious attackers.

"I'm afraid I didn't take the time to ask," All Might said, while eyeing a clock nearby and counting in his head. "No worries, I'm sure their quirks will be uncovered in questioning."

There was a squeal and the sound of something heavy moving. Usually the sound would have gone unnoticed in the bustling train station, becoming a part of the background noise, but with everything shut down it was far more conspicuous.

"What was that?" Fourth Kind said while eyeing the interior of the station.

"Uh, the train in the Yokosuka/Sobu line just took off!" A police officer shouted from further down the walkway.

"Uh, isn't that were Miss Uwabami was…huh?" Sumitomo paused as he eyed his surroundings. All Might was gone.

XXX

The overcast day had made way for rain. It was a cold autumn rain, made even more abrasive by the wind that had also picked up. The train hadn't been able to get far when All Might caught up, or rather overtook it. He'd leapt overtop of the locomotive and had landed on the tracks ahead of it.

All Might's smile took on a brief grimace as he turned back towards the oncoming train and was barraged by the rain. For anyone else, even most pro heroes, it probably would have looked suicidal. As the train neared, gaining speed, All Might raised his right fist and punched the air in front of him. For a moment, the wind trajectory changed direction and the rain stopped in that immediate area before flowing back a second later. The train creaked against the force, slowing down to the point that All Might could step forward and grab the front of it. There was another loud, long creak as the train seemed to try to keep going forward before it came to a complete halt.

He sighed. He probably could have stopped it even at full speed, but not without a lot more damage. This was, of course a city and no doubt the news had kept up with the whole ordeal so it was unsurprising that he now had an audience. Despite the cold rain, now a full-blown storm and the aching in his side, which had been steadily growing in the last hour, his smile returned in full as he began to push the train back towards the station.

"Think you almost lost this," he said to one of station supervisors, who had joined the police and was watching in awe.

They got the door open and Uwabami, looking frustrated, helped get the passengers out. No one was injured but there definitely was some confusion and shock. Once the last civilian exited, All Might ducked inside and headed towards the front of the train. Uwabami followed him.

"I tried to get into the operator's cab when we took off, but the door's shut tight, something you could help with perhaps?" She said, her voice taking on a sweet calculating tone. "I can't sense a heat signature or movement from inside," she added.

The door didn't pose much of an obstacle for him. He set it aside and then froze for a moment. There was indeed someone inside. There was a man in the seat. Judging by his uniform he was a conductor…had been a conductor. He was slumped over in the chair and his face was covered by a plain featureless mask with a bit of Japanese writing on it.

Uwabami slipped around him and approached the man. She removed the mask carefully, a somber look on her face.

"He's dead…it looks like he's been dead for hours," she said as she turned the mask over in her hand. There was just a single word written on it in kanji script; 'Life.'

XXX

It had been a long day. About part way into scrubbing the graffiti off of the statues it had begun to rain hard. It had stormed like the sky had something to prove and the wind had gotten a say for good measure. By the time she'd finished her work for the day and had headed home she had been soaked and freezing.

She slipped out of her clothes, cringing as she peeled off her shoes and socks with an unpleasant squelching noise. After once again donning dry clothing she went to the kitchen and pulled out her rice cooker, absently turning on her television in the process before she began to search through her cabinets for a half bag of rice she'd put away the day before. After a moment, when she was aware of the hissing noise emanating from her television she frowned and eyed it wearily, greeted only with static. Rin picked up the remote and pressed a few buttons before sighing and heading towards her door.

There was an old satellite dish set up outside her apartment. It had been there since before she moved in, presumably having belonged to whoever had lived there before her. Rather then removing it or upgrading to something from this century she had just made use of it. When she wanted to watch something that wasn't the news or some horrible television drama she watched movies.

The rain outside had finally subsided for the most part, now just a light sprinkle. Rin walked out onto the small landing that could perhaps generously be called a porch and eyed the satellite dish, confirming her suspicions. It had been knocked off kilter by the wind. She picked up a chair she had set out several months prior when she still spent time sitting outside.

The satellite dish was just out of reach, fixed to the brick near the roof. She positioned the chair carefully at the edge of the porch and climbed onto it, cursing slightly as she reached up towards the rusted dish and managing to only brush it with her fingertips.

"Do you need any help?" Rin almost fell off the chair, managing to catch herself on the divider and avoiding what would most likely not have been a fatal fall, but would certainly have been unpleasant. She cast her exasperated gaze towards the sound of the voice.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!"

It was her new neighbor. He was standing in front of the building with what looked like a bag of groceries in one hand and an umbrella in the other. He was also wearing a light jacket that, like his other clothes was definitely intended for someone much larger.

"Are you all right?" He added, a look of concern on his gaunt face.

"Yeah," Rin said with a grunt as she stepped off the chair, while trying to keep most of the annoyance out of her voice. "I was just…my satellite dish got knocked around by the storm."

"Would you like a hand?" he asked again. His voice was deep and friendly.

When she was a little younger, Rin probably would have told him to fuck off. She'd had very little tact in junior high and highschool, but as an adult and someone that mostly preferred to avoid attention if possible she'd learned the value of not telling people to fuck off or rather telling them in a way that was less likely to cause offense…especially if they were neighbors and could make her life difficult.

"Uh…it's not a big deal," she started.

"It's no trouble," he said and started up the stairs. Rin frowned. Ok, so maybe 'fuck off' would have worked better against this guy. Closer up, she noticed something else about him apart from his gaunt frame and his oversized clothes. He was quite possibly the tallest person she'd ever seen. If anything, this just added to the incongruity of how thin he was.

He put away his umbrella and set his grocery bag down before reaching the top of the stairs.

"That's an old one," he said, while indicating the satellite dish which was covered in rust, his voice was still pleasant. Rin was beginning to reevaluate her initial impression of him being a junkie, mainly because in her experience heavy drug users tended to show some kind of indication that they were on drugs; twitching, tremors, excess movement, excess chattiness…and this guy just seemed…friendly and maybe a little tired.

"Yeah," she said, conceding to the situation. "It was here when I moved in."

He stepped underneath it, moving the chair a bit and reaching out for the dish.

Small talk, Rin thought…that's what normal people did…they made small talk.

"You just moved in?" She said, seizing on the most obvious point of conversation.

"Yes, this morning," he said as he grabbed the dish and pulled it back into position. "Is this right?"

"Looks right," she replied with a shrug.

"Do you want to check if it's working?" He asked before coughing into his sleeve.

"If it isn't, I can keep messing with it…you've moved it close enough, so I can reach now." For a moment, it seemed as if he was going to insist that she check, but he appeared to reconsider, perhaps catching the impatience in her voice. For some reason she felt a twinge of guilt. Perhaps because so far, he really was giving off the impression of genuine kindness. And it was perhaps this feeling of guilt that pushed her to introduce herself, something she rarely did without some prompting.

"Uh thanks, I'm Rin…Hajime…" she said the last after a brief pause. He gave her a tired smile and extended his hand.

"Toshinori Yagi, it's nice to meet you miss Hajime," she shook his hand, which was both weirdly large and so skinny she could feel the bones under his skin. "Have a nice evening, good luck with your satellite dish," he added as he picked up his umbrella and shopping bag again and headed back down the stairs, coughing again as he did.

Rin returned to her apartment. So probably not a junkie…which meant that there was something else wrong with him. Again, she felt a slight twinge of guilt, this time for making a snap assumption that he was on hard drugs when it looked like the more likely explanation was that he was sick. Still, he seemed nice and if he wasn't a junkie that greatly improved the likelihood that he would not be a disruptive neighbor. Of course, now that she knew his name, that meant neighborly greetings were probably going to be a thing now. Oh well, she'd gladly take that over nightly disruptions to her routine.

What Rin did not know at the time was that her routine, as it were, was going to be more then interrupted. Indeed, meeting Toshinori Yagi was going to disrupt her status quo in a way that would change the rest of her life, but then…All Might seemed to have that effect on people.