Sketching out a reveal
Would it be mean to claim that he was surprised that Hallie still hadn’t figured it out that All Might was, well… All Might?
It’s not that All Might was bad at keeping secrets. Clearly, he knew what he was doing since, up until he was offered his quirk, Izuku had no idea what quirk he even had in the first place. A lot of speculations, but not any significant details. And if he hadn’t actually seen him deflate, Izuku would never have believed it.
Still, for someone that kept both secrets for so long, he wasn’t exactly shy about buffing up during their training before Hallie came along, to the point Izuku wondered if he felt self-conscious about training him while deflated. And he still buffed up at times before Hallie arrived or after she left. Granted, she now had less time to stick around after training. She’d started going on patrols at night around four days after her birthday.
Still, it was a surprise all the same.
The closest it had come to was actually during her birthday since All Might was insistent on getting her a present. He’d been delayed getting it. Apparently, he’d been trying to get a costume made civilian grade jetpack.
They’d learned that Hallie absolutely loved flying during one of their training sessions but rarely got to do it anymore. She couldn’t use her broom to fly casually outside of the magical communities and she also couldn’t go to one because it would be instant recognition, which she wanted to avoid. As for her flying motorcycle (yes, she apparently had one of those), she had registered it as a support item for Hedwig, so she couldn’t use it in day to day either (at least not while flying). So, All Might had this jetpack made specifically to be used by a civilian, with all the permits to go with it.
But it had taken a lot of time to be made because of all the burocracy and paperwork involved in it and was only finished in the morning of her birthday, hence why he had to bulk up and go fetch it. He’d returned and deflated back into his skinny form mere seconds before she, herself, arrived at the beach.
(She’d been absolutely enamored by the jetpack. She wasn’t teary eyed but there was a certain shine of emotion to her eyes at being able to fly around if she felt like it. She looked seconds away from tackling All Might into a hug but Izuku was unsurprised when she didn’t. For all that she was willing to provide others with physical comfort, she herself didn’t seem too keen on getting some right back.)
So yeah, he was surprised she still wasn’t in the know. Especially since All Might had relaxed significantly around her as time went by. In a way, it had helped Izuku become better able to keep All Might’s secret. He’d had to get used to calling him by his real name every time he was in his skinny form. Granted he still reverted to calling him All Might automatically when he saw him buffed up. There were some habits that were impossible to break and he’d been such a fan for so long that he couldn’t help it. But at least now he called him Yagi-san when he wasn’t buffed up and had learned not to automatically believe he was being presumptuous by calling him by his real name and have a downward spiral about it in his mind.
So, when she actually found out the truth, and saw him buff up, Izuku wasn’t surprised or in shock about it. It was more of a ‘well, it was bound to happen anyway’ sort of feeling.
It was midway through September and both of his mentors had recently found out just how badly he was overdoing his training. He probably could have held out longer without them knowing if he hadn’t started also practicing the moves Hallie taught him after hours as well. Hallie gave him some potions that helped ease the newly-revealed exhaustion a lot, but refused to use it regularly on him because of potential side effects from using it.
(She said all potions, for all their benefit, had repercussions when overused. The one that had least of them was the nutrition potion that was given to people that were dangerously underweight. In essence, it had all the nutrients a person needed and was easy on the stomach but it could get people fat if they relied on it too much. The only reason it wasn’t being used on All Might was because it needed the stomach acids to kickstart its effects and he had no stomach.)
They both immediately worked to correct his mistake before resuming training and everything seemed to be back to normal again.
That was when the attack happened.
Izuku technically knew that Hedwig had arrested several villains before she came to Japan and could surmise that some of them might want revenge. It could also be assumed that, because she was Underground and from abroad, he likely wouldn’t recognize any of those villains.
It was just so off-putting that that one of them could look so normal.
When he’d first spotted her walking around aimlessly, like she was just strolling about, Izuku’s first thought was of how pale she was.
Pale skin and paper-white hair, part of it up in the bun at the back of her head that was secured by two normal-looking 5B yellow pencils that stood out on the monochromatic colors of her outfit. She was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt with a toga-like, loose-fitting white dress on top, secured at the waist by a dark grey belt. She had a red underskirt under the dress that he’d only noticed because the wind blew a bit of the dress up just enough to spot it, along with some sort of black leggings under that. She was wearing black and dark grey heels with red soles.
She barely even glanced at him with her dark eyes as he passed her by during his jog so the only reason she stuck to his mind was because she looked a bit odd with all the whites and greys and blacks. But, even then, she didn’t stick out enough for him to actively think about her after that encounter up until he saw her again.
So, it wasn’t until way after that he realized just how close she’d been, which was chilling to think about.
Instead, he quickly became more concerned with the recent news of how someone managed to tag an entire wall with a rendition of Hedwig the day after.
Not that most people realized just how accurate the outfit was or even knew who it was portraying. Hedwig was still very much an underground hero, even with all the attention the HedMight ship had dragged her into.
It helped that there weren’t any pictures of her and that she’d purposefully corrupted any footage with one of her magical devices. The only thing that was known about her appearance was that her costume was inspired by female snow owls with a hooded cloak and goggles. There was still fan art of it online, but none of it was that accurate. The only thing that was off was it featuring her old utility belt that she’d given him as a birthday gift and some of the colors.
That meant that whomever had tagged the wall, was very aware of what she looked like, even if some colors were a bit off. So, of course, Izuku was worried about her, especially when it seemed like she recognized the work.
“She’s known as Sketchbook back in England.” Hallie explained once he’d asked. “She used to go inside art museums and galleries to ruin the paintings. She used her quirk to go unnoticed. Last I heard she’d been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for that. I haven’t heard of any more of her actions since she was released so I assumed she was on the straight and narrow. Apparently I was wrong.”
“Is she dangerous? If she can go unnoticed…” All might asked.
“She’s more of an annoyance that an actual danger. She’s very stubborn over what should be considered art and is willing to ruin historical artifacts for it, but she never killed or injured anyone purposefully. Maybe a lot of mental scarring, but not exactly on purpose.”
“How so?”
“Her quirk is Illusion. She literally creates a fake environment. It may be that it’s just a replica of what’s already there, just without her, or it may be a whole completely different realm. The problem is that others can affect the illusion with their own minds if they are creative enough and it could disrupt it. Especially if they insert any green in it.
“Green? Why?” Izuku asked.
“Because of her Deuteranopia. She can’t see green normally. She could if someone inserted green into her illusions, but that just derails the illusion into inserting reds to combat it, which usually results in a lot of illusional gore. As a result, she hates everything green, which only makes the gore worse as a result of that. She also somehow managed to unmask me during our struggle and realized my eyes were green so she was pretty fixated on that back then. I thought a decade spent in the slammer would have mellowed her down, but she’s still coming after me. Though I wonder why now of all times. I know I was more careless that first year I was working in the UK, still trying to get used to the new job, but not nearly enough for her to be able to track me.”
That had been reassurance enough for them.
They knew Hallie had been dealing with Sketchbook shenanigans while on patrol but unable to find her because her civilian name, Paige White wasn’t being used anywhere.
Fortunately, it seemed the worst she was doing was trying to put a spotlight focused on Hedwig, which was bad for any Undergrounder, but not lethal, so it was merely annoying to Hallie.
That was, until she decided to escalate her illusions by going directly after Hallie and the people around her. Which was how, in the middle of his training he was suddenly about to be buried under an enormous and unstable pile of trash that he hadn’t seen prior to that with Hallie and All Might rushing in to save him.
All Might buffed up to withstand the weight of the trash pile at the same time as Hallie tackled him out of the way. And then both froze.
Hallie froze upon realizing that All Might had just shown up out of nowhere. And All Might? He’d apparently just realized that the trash wasn’t weighting on him as much as it should have, considering his bewildered gaze.
And then he was concerned with something else altogether.
“Young Midoriya, why is your hair dark grey?” He asked.
At his side Hallie made a strangled noise before snapping out of whatever downwards spiral she was falling into with a serious look.
“Don’t mention his hair or eyes.” She hissed as lowly as possible but very much urgently as she pulled her goggled mask from her bag and perched them in place, turning the dial on one of the sides… and then immediately dodged an invisible attack.
Izuku said invisible attack because it was definitely one. He felt the air displacement of it as Hallie moved away. All Might seemed to understand immediately as well, changing his stance and trying to feel for where their opponent was.
Izuku did the same, but he couldn’t forget that last exchange between his two mentors. His hair was dark grey? Why?
Thinking about that, weren’t All Might’s pants greener that they are now? Hallie was almost the same except that her red shoes were now an ugly mustard-yellow. Same with his own shoes, now that he thought about it.
Then a memory of Hallie talking about how and why Sketchbook hates green comes to mind and, yup. it all makes sense now. No wonder she was adamant that All Might stop talking about his hair. Sketchbook would have immediately targeted him if she’d known.
In the end, the battle didn’t last long. All Might didn’t even have to intervene despite being ready to jump in as soon as he felt a chance.
Turns out that Hallie’s goggles have a thermal image function that saw through the illusions. It would have been trickier to use it if there had been a lot of people there, but with only the three of them and Sketchbook, it was just a matter of following the one that was too short to be All Might and too tall to be Izuku himself. And Sketchbook was too used to using her illusions to have strengthened her body too, unlike Hallie.
In no time Hallie had the villainess knocked out and tied up using some frayed and rusted steel cables, that had likely washed up on shore at some point, while All Might contacted the police to come get her.
It was then that she withdrew her wand and pointed it at Sketchbook’s temple.
“What are you doing?” All might asked, startled.
“You do realize she saw you go from a rail pole to this, right?” Hallie asked deadpan.
“…Oh.”
“I’m erasing her memory of you. Since you didn’t play a part in the battle, it’s going to be an easy fix.”
“Thank you.”
“…you might want to go back to skinny in case she wakes up.” Hallie added while avoiding looking at him.
The minutes it took for the police to arrive where filled with silence and tension, both thick enough to break the knife trying to cut it.
It wasn’t until after Sketchbook was taken away that the silence was finally broken.
“So… you’re All Might.” Hallie stated.
“Yes.”
“I see.”
More silence.
“Teddy is going to make so much fun of me when he finds out.” Hallie finally spoke with a long and weary sigh of resignation.
“When?” Izuku blurted out.
“Oh, my luck is such that he’s bound to find out even if neither one of us tell him anything.” She commented wearily before adding. “Still, don’t actually tell him anything. The longer I’m free from his teasing the better.”
“We’ll be sure to do that.”
“Thanks.” Hallie then leaned back against the rusted freezer behind her. “So… You’re All Might.”
“You’ve already said that.” All Might huffed amusedly, though still tense from having his identity revealed.
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just… I’m coming to terms with it and all that.” Then she paused with wide eyes gazing into the distance. A perfect ‘wait a minute’ expression. “You… absolute… Maniac! You’ve been fighting crime with, like, a fourth of your innards missing!?!?! Have you lost your mind!?”
And that was definitely not what All Might was expecting considering his brief bafflement before settling his expression again to one of determination and resignation like he was about to get into a well known argument that he was done with but still determined on getting his point across which… yeah, Izuku could se why, considering what Hallie had just blurted out.
“I assure you, I’m still quite capable.” All Might ground out.
“No shit, Sherlock! Else you wouldn’t be here! Doesn’t make you any less crazy. If you are so determined to continue hero work why aren’t doing whatever it takes to take care of your own health? You’re listed as Quirkless in the organ transplant waiting list. They will always give priority to someone with a quirk over you. If you had used your status as a hero, you would’ve already been through the transplants. Granted, it wouldn’t have been as good a job as the one my kid is going to do, but you would have been healthier than you are now.” Hallie pointed it out in exasperation. “I researched total gastrectomy, you know? And, so long as you take a lot of small meals along the day and get injections for your iron intake, you could have been within the normal weight category. At least it makes some sense why you are so skinny. You were doing too much exercising during the day for your calorie intake. I just thought you owned a gym or something.
Her words seemed to surprise All Might, but he still retorted once more:
“Surely the OPOs wouldn’t go so far, right?” It seemed the sort of thing All Might would say with his faith in the people, even if Izuku wasn’t quite sure what those letters meant, and he’d almost believed him if not for what Hallie said next.
“You…!!!” She paused and looked more closely at him, head slightly tilted, before saying in a low, gentle tone, but completely self-assured. “You don’t even believe that. You… you are perfectly aware you’ve been passed over.” Ah, so OPO was something to do with organ transplant? She continued speaking. “There’s…. there’s something else, isn’t there? Something about your health that you aren’t saying.”
And if Hallie’s repute for her observational skills and Izuku’s own observations of her hadn’t been enough to convince him, All Might’s full body flinch at her words did. There was something else he was hiding. Something that was bad news for him.
Because Izuku wasn’t stupid. And he knew All Might wasn’t either. If he was perfectly aware that he was being passed over in the waiting list, then he would have done something… unless the was a reason he believed he shouldn’t. Which meant there was something else threatening his life and that he’d felt it was a waste to fight for his right to an organ if he wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy full use of it when someone else could use it to survive instead.
It was easy for him to reach that conclusion. The two heroes already knew he could easily reach that sort of conclusion. So, it really shouldn’t have been a surprise for anyone there that he started crying his eyes out at that, but the other two were still startled by it anyway, like they’d forgotten he was smart.
It took some time, along with an All Might(tm) hug, for them to calm him back down, all while Hallie self-recriminated about pushing for a confrontation ‘in front of the kid’.
(Which was stupid. She’d still been processing that the skinny man she’d been hellbent on making sure he could protect himself was actually the number one hero and Izuku had literally seen her reaching the same conclusions as him as she talked. Of course, she couldn’t have postponed anything without knowing there was something in need to postpone in the first place. She still didn’t seem too convinced of that, though.)
All Might, too, was an emotional mess. At first, he’d been just resigned, but then he must have caught some of Izuku’s feelings through empathy.
At last, All Might managed to tell them both how his former sidekick, Sir Nighteye, upon realizing that All Might was determined to continuing fighting crime despite his injuries, had used his quirk to foresee the future and had seen his death in a few years’ time.
Hallie’s expression turned anguished and then grew cold and calculating as she shut those emotions out.
“Tell me the exact wording.” She nearly demanded.