The First Generation

Plus One

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...You know I can't protect you like I used to be able to."

"...I know."

"...It might have helped if you had told me that this was your plan."

"...I'm sorry."

"...You'd do it all again though, wouldn't you?"

"...Yes sir."

Toshinori sighed, and leaned back in his seat. Izuku was a very special kind of person. One of the rare kinds of people that came around maybe once a generation. Someone with conviction, born into a world that needed it, and the passion and drive to do what needed to be done. Someone not afraid to take risks. Someone who was always scared that their efforts wouldn't be enough, but worked though that fear, just to keep on trying.

Being fearless meant that arrogance was an easy trap to fall into. Being overconfident was the slope that lead to arrogance. No, Izuku was smart enough to be scared. Not necessarily for himself, but for those who he was trying to help. He had taken on the same burden that they had been born with, and accepted a Quirk. He came to Yuuei of his own volition. He was doing everything in his power to stand with the people he cared about. He believed in the cause he was fighting for, and he was smart enough to fear failing. Because he knew what would happen if he did.

When he first met this boy, Toshinori found a child who had idealism. He knew all about the previous endeavours of Human history, about all the suffering, pain, and prejudice that mankind had inflicted on its own groups just for being different. And he watched this happen all over again, but did it with a smile, confident that not only could man overcome this, but that they could do it faster than before. That for all the centuries other groups had faced oppression, Humanity had progressed enough that if they worked hard, they could overcome this period in prejudice in decades. Maybe even just a few years.

Really, all they needed was something to rally behind. And loud enough voices. Be it everywhere. On the internet, in the streets, in person, to a large group, or one-on one. If they worked at it, they could overcome it.

And Izuku was doing his best to overcome it in enormous ways.

Heroism first, and now an entire orphanage. He had to give the boy credit – He was thinking up things that Toshinori hadn't considered before, though in the older mans case, he hadn't considered them simply due to how unfeasible they were, and how dangerous things could be if he engaged in them in a direct manner. He had spent much of his life trying to gain prestige and what little power he could so that he could help people from the top-down. To do things like Izuku had done, in the way Izuku had done, could risk all of it.

In a sense, that was why Toshinori liked Izuku. He was capable of doing those things without risking his mentors' position.

...When it was put like that, it almost sounded mercenary, but Izuku understood what he meant. To lose his position of power now could mean hundreds of Quirked students would find themselves at the mercy of a cruel overseer if the Quirkless saw it pertinent to do so. And it meant he had at least a small voice in local policy. He was where he was of the most use.

Just like his student was.

"I'd be disappointed if you wouldn't." He said, letting himself smile at his protégé. "I am proud of you, my boy. I truly am..."

Izuku blushed slightly, and a dopey smile made its way onto his lips. "Th-Thanks..."

"... But that doesn't mean that I can help you. Not without risking Yuuei. At least, not right away."