The Ocean Between Us

Chapter 8

Toshinori

It had been 3 weeks since Joanna blocked Toshinori on the dating app. He'd tried sending her a message every single day, but he kept seeing the same message over and over again.

This person isn't receiving messages right now.

He grew to despise those words over the last few weeks. Every time he saw those words his heart ached deeply.

I bet she doesn't even realize how hurt I am. And she talked about how hurt she was. Pah! She has no clue. Toshinori was out doing hero work on this grey skied Wednesday afternoon.

Walking down the street in his blue costume, he waved at a few fans from afar, continuing his patrol.

How could she just throw away our friendship like that?

Suddenly he heard a strange grunting noise, followed by a scream.

All Might turned to see where the scream was coming from. Just down the road, from an alleyway on the left came a man running out with a purse in his hand. All Might took a step back and readied himself to catch the villain when he made eye contact with the man.

The man's eyes widened and suddenly he disappeared. All Might blinked. Where did he go? He stared hard at the area where he last saw the man.

If he wanted to shake me off, he would probably stand still and wait for me to wander off...  All Might squinted his eyes. Or would he sneak off and leave me here, thinking I would wait him out?

A woman came stumbling out of the alleyway, catching All Might's attention.

"Don't worry, Miss! I'm going to catch the thief and return your purse!" He smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

"Oh thank you! Wait a second, did he drop my purse? It's right here!" The woman picked it up from behind a large mailbox. All Might frowned, and then his eyes narrowed. He smirked.

"Your quirk is impressive, but you can't hold a physical object when you become invisible, is that right?" All Might approached the mailbox and peered behind it. For a moment there was silence, but suddenly the man appeared and tried to dash, but All Might grabbed him in a split second.

"That's why you weren't invisible when you grabbed it and ran away." All Might grinned.

"He snuck up on me while I was taking a shortcut through the alley, and just appeared as if from nowhere and yanked it out of my hands!" The woman held her purse tightly against her chest.

All Might shook his head. "Pathetic. Don't worry Miss, I'll report this man immediately. Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm okay. Thank you All Might, you're amazing!" She grinned. His heart fluttered for a moment. Her smile.. it's so similar to Joanna's. Stop! You need to focus.

"I'm just doing my duty, Miss." he grinned and gave her a thumbs up.

After reporting the crime and handing over the villain to the authorities, All Might was beginning to feel tired, and so decided to go home and take the rest of the day off.

He shrunk down to his small form once he entered his place and locked the door. After stripping off his costume, he walked into the living room in his underwear and crashed on the couch.

No energy to put on clothes.

Toshinori's cellphone began to ring. He reached over and picked it up from where he'd just tossed it and looked at the screen, hoping it was Joanna.

Instead of the name Joanna, he saw Nezu.

Dammit.

"Hello Nezu, Sir."