Red and White, Black and Blue

Chapter 32: Passing the Torch

The following day the news breaks. Alongside nonstop coverage of the chaos and destruction of a full half of Kamino Ward being leveled overnight, All Might's agency released a statement.

The symbol of peace is retired. Effective immediately.

Ryumi sighs, lowering her phone. In a sense, she's hardly surprised. Thinking back, it seems almost obvious in retrospect that something had always been wrong.

Despite being one of their teachers, All Might has always been fairly scarce whenever he wasn't actively running a class.

She tips the chair she's sitting in back onto the rear legs as her tail swishes back and forth. She sets it back down a moment later and drops her phone to reach for her tea.

She didn't say anything to the others when they went their separate ways this morning. Midoriya had obviously been crying, and it didn't feel right to press him for details in the moment. She's never been interested in speaking to Bakugo much, though he also seemed particularly quiet and distant when the police came to collect him. Kirishima decided to wait up for him, of course, and Yaoyorozu was too busy insisting along with Iida that they all go straight home.

That only left Shoto. And well... There was another awkward topic that felt slightly more pressing than discussing All Might's apparent true form.

Not that much was really said about that, either.

Even before the official announcement today, there was rampant speculation that All Might's career as a hero was now over.

And that meant Endeavor was now number one - by default.

Shoto was obviously worried when they parted, but they had promised to go straight home. Fuyumi had been pestering him for the whole train ride, too. There wasn't any getting away from it.

Ryumi sighs yet again and blows the steam from her glass as she drinks. It's what he wanted, right? So it should be fine.

Should be.

She frowns as she lowers the glass back onto the table. Her hand wanders to rub the bandages still covering her left forearm.

She picks up her phone.

~~~

As Shoto steps through the door to the house and pauses in the entry to kick off his shoes, his eyes remain locked on his phone. The headlines are a barrage of the single most important piece of news all year, an announcement that had come during his journey home.

All Might was retired.

He still can hardly believe it's true, even if they'd all felt it from that battle. There was a finality to it that everyone could sense.

Fuyumi appearing at the door pulls him out of those thoughts. "Shoto, there you are! It's good to have you home. Crazy what's been going on, huh?" Though she's smiling as always, she's clearly fretting, wringing her hands as she watches him. "And you took so long to respond to my messages last night."

"Sorry, sis..." He responds awkwardly. He does feel a bit bad for worrying her, especially after she'd been so generous and helpful that night at the hospital. But there was also an awful lot going on yesterday, so it made answering her messages difficult until after the event had ended early this morning.

Before he can say anything else in his defense or elaborate on his apology, a violent slam sounds from deeper within the house, causing both of them to flinch.