Musume

Chapter 1 Fated Meeting

He breathed out in relief as he deposited the last person a good distance away from the still raging fire ravaging the building. Just in time too, for his time was up. He’d already been pushing it slightly with that last rescue.

He smiled widely at the woman, internally screaming at himself to move on. She was babbling about how thankful she was that he’d saved her and he didn’t want to seem rude by cutting her off, but he was starting to smoke as his time definitely run out.

Someone from the rescue efforts came to collect her and directed her towards an ambulance and he took the chance to disappear before anyone could notice.

Just in time too, because he’d barely darted unseen into a nearby alley when his form shrunk in a puff of smoke.

Sighing, he run a hand through his hair. He still wasn’t used to having a time limit and more often than not ended up in a situation where he was almost discovered. But he couldn’t help it. No matter how much he tried to tell himself that there were more people out there to take care of whatever emergency had caught his attention that time, helping out was almost compulsory by then. How could he stand aside waiting for other heroes to show up, losing precious time whilst innocents suffered, when he could do something?

So most of the time he ended up launching himself to the rescue and just hiding as fast as he could when his time run out, not sticking around to be thanked or interviewed or anything of the sort. His marketing team wasn’t exactly happy with him lately.

He watched from the shadows as the civilians he’d got out of the burning building were fussed over by sanitarians. Any moment now the Pros would show up, even if the most time sensitive part ―rescuing the victims― was taken care of, and they’d help put the fire out and calm the civilians.

It was as he thought this that a sound reached his ears, making his blood freeze in his veins.

Cries. A child’s cries, more specifically. Cries that came obviously from inside the burning building.

How? He had checked every room in that building. There was no one left! Had he really missed a child?

He looked back at the people huddled together not far from the building. He couldn’t see anyone panicking over a missing child, they didn’t even seem to have noticed the sound.

He looked back at the building.

The Pros would be here soon.

Yes, they would be here soon and they’d rescue the child. The child that he’d obviously missed on his sweep of the building…

There was nothing to worry about.

‘They’ll take care of this, you don’t have time! The child will be fine, it’s just a little longer…’

But even as he said this he was already inching towards the building.

Who was he kidding?

‘Just a few more minutes.’ He thought, gritting his teeth and forcing the power through his body one more time, his frame growing to fill out his clothes as he disregarded all his medic’s warnings and went back into the fire. ‘What kind of hero would I be if I left a crying child be hurt because my time was up?’

The inside of the building was so hot, the flames having spread further. He crouched to avoid as much of the smoke as possible and resolutely pushed forward.

Following the sound of the child’s cries was harder than he’d expected. He’d heard it so clearly from outside, after all. In fact, he was astounded at the fact that nobody else had seemed to notice. But this wasn’t the time to ponder the oddity.

His eyes widened as a beam fell in front of a door to his right, almost cutting off his passage. Surprised, his already weak grasp on his power slipped and he coughed as his form shrunk again.

His chest rattled wetly as blood pooled in his mouth, a trickle dribbling down the side of his mouth.

‘I’ve pushed too hard.’ He thought.

Reigning in his cough, he looked back at the stairwell. For a second he contemplated going back; it was painfully obvious he’d get not another ounce of power out today. But…

He was already on the third floor and the child was still crying.

He pushed on. Maybe it was stupid, reckless, but he wouldn’t ―couldn’t― turn around and ignore a crying child.

So All Might… No, Toshinori pushed forward.

He was never so grateful for anything else in his life than the fact that he somehow found the strength to do so.

HPBNAHPBNAHPBNA

He’d found the child ―a young girl― on the fourth floor, covered in ashes, tear tracks on her dirty cheeks, small sobs bubbling out of her throat ―too quiet; how had he heard her?― and dangerously close to the raging flames.

She was thankfully and miraculously unharmed.

But the oddities piled up.

Nobody, absolutely no one in the whole street seemed to know her or to have any idea where she’d come from.

The girl wasn’t any help with that either: she had no memory of anything previous to being found by Toshinori crying alone in the middle of a raging fire.

Then there was the fact that she apparently only spoke English.

He’d brought the young girl to the hospital to have her checked over, wanting to make sure she really was alright and having no idea of what else to do as no one stepped forward to claim her.

He called his best friend Naomasa and explained the situation and the detective agreed to open an investigation.

In the meantime, she needed somewhere to stay and he waved away his friend’s talk of a nearby orphanage.

It’s not like he didn’t have the time now, with his career taking such a heavy hit thanks to his injury, and it was only for a few weeks until they found her family, right?

He could communicate with her and she’d already got attached because he’d saved her. The fact that she also didn’t remember anyone else may have had something to do with that too, but he decided to ignore it as he filed for temporary guardianship of her.

HPBNAHPBNAHPBNA

It was only two weeks later that Naomasa called with the strangest news ever.

She didn’t exist.

There was not a trace of the little girl in the whole world prior to him finding her. She hadn’t existed before that. Her family didn’t exist.

He’d thanked Naomasa in a quiet voice and said his goodbyes before cutting the call, looking down at the little kid sitting on the edge of the table, calmly colouring a sketch of him; of Toshinori, not All Might.

Her hair was a deep wine red colour that stuck in every direction not unlike his own did, her skin pale except for a few freckles covering her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her round big eyes were a pretty shade of green, the most foreign feature on her aside from her sharp cheekbones.

She was a cute girl, and so sweet too. Taking care of her had been no hardship, not even when he had to teach her so many things since she had no memory of anything.

The little girl seemed to sense his stare for she looked up with those innocent eyes of hers and he smiled at her, eyes closing as he thought of the last two weeks.

He had found her crying her little heart out after barely recovering from the injury All For One gave him. She was alone in the world, lost and confused. It had been natural to open his home to her.

And in those two weeks he’d opened his heart to her as well, seeing her sad eyes light up with happiness and joy at the barest show of kindness.

So Toshinori took her in, permanently, and never regretted it as she in turn filled his lonely life with her love and laughter.