A light in the void (my hero academia)

SMASH

All Might was standing in the middle of the cleared beach, waiting for his successor to arrive for their afternoon training.

It's been one month since they had started hand to hand combat. Their time was being split between simple sparring and quirk training. Today they will start testing the limits to Izuku's control. Past tests had shown that at this moment Izuku had little over a 5% control over one for all, which was pretty impressive considering he shouldn't have any control.

All Might, checked his watch again. Izuku was late. He was usually always on time. this particular thought worried the hero. Izuku would always show up on his training sessions, even if it was raining, even if he was tired. He would always show up. All Might, once, had to send the boy back home, on a day when the kid showed up pale and shivering, he had later given him a lecture on taking care of his health and knowing when he had reached his limit. So Izuku being late now was quite alarming, to say the least.

His mind swirled with the possibilities. What if something happened to the boy? What if he was hurt? His was cut off from his speculating by a green tuft of hair showing up in his field of vision, he turned around fully towards the direction the boy was coming from, smiling in relief.

That smile was abruptly whipped off his face as he took in his successors state. The boy was limping, he had a black eye forming on the right side of his face, the bruise still fresh and standing out against the paler of his skin. To say the kid looked tired was an understatement. He looked nothing short of exhausted. His eyes were looking directly at the hero but not quite seeing him. The usual light All Might would see in them was gone. Dull green replaced his once bright emerald eyes.

"My boy, what happened to you?" He asked, voice soft and tinged with concern.
The boy seemed to just notice the hero, shaking his head and looking at his mentor, he smiled, the anomaly not quite reaching his eyes.

"Oh, no- nothing really All Might. I'm f- fine, just fell down some stairs. You know me, I'm always clumsy" He stuttered, tone light. The clear lie sending a red flag to his mentor but the urgency in Izuku's voice pleading the hero to let it go did not go unnoticed. All Might knew that this was not something he could easily overlook, he opened his mouth ready to push on, but the look he saw in Izuku's eyes made him think better of it. it was a look of utter defeat.

"What do you say we skip the training today and go out for ice cream, it's a nice day today and I know this great place near the park that sells hero themed cones." The older man offered.

Izuku beamed at his mentor, tension leaving his shoulder in relief. He was glad the symbol of peace didn't ask any questions. This wasn't something he could explain without getting in trouble and complicating things.

He was in his room, getting ready for his afternoon training workout with All Might when his mother suddenly burst into the room, looking furious, animosity and rage pouring out of her like a river. In her hand she held a paper, one Izuku recognized as his high school application for UA, he had sent it about two months ago but kept a copy of the application anyway for good measures.

This was by far the stupidest thing he could have done. Since Inko seemed to have gone through his stuff. His heart rate spiked and the air was abruptly knocked out of him as he realized the trouble he was in. His mother had found the application, she had found out about his aim to still be a hero. No matter how many time it had happened, Izuku couldn't be ready for what happened next.

Inko needed to teach him a lesson. He should know by now that someone as pathetic as him could never dream of being a hero. This particular lesson had Izuku limping to the beach sporting a black eye, some burns from his mother's favorite punishment for him and many other bruises; most of them probably future scars to add to the list of the endless scars adorning his body.