10 Steps Ahead

Dagobah Beach

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I walked along the beach wondering what to do. Was analyzing heroes really my only hobby? That's kinda sad. I should probably stop doing that since I can't be a hero now, so I need something else to fill time. I look at the mess on Dagobah Beach. I haven't been here since my mom used to take me when I was a baby. It was a bit messy back then but now it's practically a garbage dump. I trudge through the scraps of metal, plastic and whatever that green thing was as I tried to find the dock. I remember it was a long way down so maybe it was clean, although my child mind may have a different sense of distance than I do now.

I did find it closer than I thought but it was in surprisingly good shape. The beginning was covered in trash like the rest of the beach but the wood wasn't rotting yet and seemed semi-stable. I slid down the trash pile I was standing on and carefully walked to the end. I dipped my toes into the water and looked out at the sunset. The view would have been beautiful, with red and yellow light glowing on the waves, if the trash didn't ruin it. I looked at the beach again, but instead of seeing the overflowing trash can I imagined the sunset illuminating clean sand and clear water.

A smile tugged at my lips. I know what I can do now, after all, if no one else will clean Dagobah Beach it might as well be me.

***timeskip***

It had been a few weeks since I started to clean the beach and I barely put a dent in it. I guess that's to be expected, I knew this wouldn't be easy. Disposing of the trash was difficult. At first I brought it piece by piece to the nearest trash can, but I realized that was not efficient pretty quickly. So now I have a ton of bags I fill and take to a nearby garbage dump (the people that lived here didn't like me filling up their trash cans). I'm just doing the smaller pieces for now, but I took up weight lifting and running so hopefully I can start moving the larger pieces before school ends. It's hard but it's also peaceful, no one at school ever comes here so it's just me and the beach.

I set my bag down and found an area to work through today. But as I picked up a soda can, a flash of pink jumps out of a trash pile and tackles me to the ground. "Ha! I got you now, supply stealer," the person pinning me down says.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Please let me go," I stutter through a mouthful of sand. Thankfully they do get off me. I stand up and look at the person who jumped on me. She has pink hair, some sort of goggles on her head and soot all over her cheeks. There were lines on her eyes like scope, maybe her quirk is some sort of enhanced vision- Stop, don't analyze people's quirk it's creepy. "Um... so why did you tackle me?"

"You," she pointed her finger at me so close that it almost touched my face, "have been getting rid of the materials I need to make my babies. I saw a perfect piece for the lens of my new goggles and now it's gone. So you need to give it back."

"I-I'm sorry. I'm cleaning the beach and didn't know you were using it. I can't get the piece back but I'll leave the beach to you," I apologize, grabbing my bag. I was about to leave when the girl called out from behind me.

"Cleaning the beach! I suppose it does need to be tidied up a bit. You can clean it, but show me everything you picked up before you throw it. Deal?" she asks, sticking out her hand.

I smile and shake her hand, "Deal, uh...?"

"I'm Mei Hatsume, future owner of Hatsume Industries. But you can call me Mei," she said.

"I'm Izuku Midoriya, but I guess you can call me Izuku too," I said. Mei plopped onto the ground and started digging through her bag for something. Letting her continue doing her own thing, I went to the section I was cleaning today.