Words To Live By

Chapter 9

The question started to rein in his mind: How to be a hero when you wouldn't even save yourself?

Was it like a sacrificial thing? Like a thought that everything would be alright if he was gone by not the person next to him so he would rather save them then himself.

Thoughts and feelings were confusing

He didn't want to bring anything back up to All Might. He needed to focus on getting into UA. So he did. Cleaning that stupid beach till his body about gave out on him every night.

There was still no word from Kirishima though he had stopped pressing in fear he was being annoying at this point. He had intervened but obviously his tactic failed. Bakugou was also still very much avoiding him.

Maybe it was the lack of people to talk to that he found himself mumbling even more and more to himself. Only noticing when classmates threw something at him to shut him up.

Really all this muttering was going to get him in trouble one day

But he really couldn't help it

Maybe it was the combination of lack of people to talk to and stress that led to him looking like a crazy person that Saturday morning.

Morning training done. He snuck away to a new tea shop to work on some analysis before going to evening training. Per habit he tucked himself away in a corner but close enough to the door in order to make a quick get away if needed. He was bent over his book looking at his old All Might notes along with the new ones.

All Might really hadn't explained at this point exactly how he was supposed to handle the quirk. He just knew his body wasn't prepared. He had looked over All Might's technique over and over again but he couldn't find the exact reason why all this beach clean up was going to be of any use.

"Oh so it's you cleaning up the beach."

Midoriya would be lying if he said he didn't jump almost a foot in the air. A small squeak may have even escaped him.

Who could tell

"Sorry you were muttering," the guy who had spoke before glanced at Midoriya and then to the line he was standing in waiting to order

Midoriya felt like he recalled him from somewhere. The split hair and different eyes. Not to mention the scar. He just couldn't pinpoint it.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to mutter like that. It's a bad habit unfortunately," Midoriya leaned slightly on his table slightly covering his notes with his arms

"You are the one cleaning the beach."

Midoriya blinked and nodded realizing he hadn't responded the first round

"By yourself?"

Midoriya nodded again

"What's your quirk you've done nicely? Figured it was someone with a cleaning quirk or something," they guy looking ahead and not at Midoriya his hands in his pockets

"Oh no it's a strength quirk but I'm not using my quirk to clean. I'm just trying to build strength so I can handle my quirk better."

The boy had the nerve to glance up and down at Midoriya and nod, "Yeah makes sense."

Midoriya felt pink and slightly grateful the line moved so the guy had to walk forward to order. He put away his notebooks and started focusing on finishing his tea before it grew cold. He still had almost a full cup.

In his time of muttering it looked like the tea shop had filled up a bit. Likely lunch rush filtering in. Midoriya wiggled his nose realizing the dual haired guy probably wasn't the only one who heard him muttering.