A Second Chance (IzuOcha Future Story)

Mentor Advice

Izuku was someone who could be so focused on his hero work that the need of basic necessities can go over his head sometimes. Which was why, one moment, he was on his laptop at his apartment late at night, waiting for an email from Seihashi regarding details on his patrol at the Hero Festival. The next, he was fast asleep on his chair, with his head hanging over the back, his left arm hanging on his side and the other still resting on the surface of his desk, where his laptop was.

It didn't help that today was a practically busy day for him. His afternoon patrol, which was supposed to end at around 4pm, ended 3 hours later due to a villain attack at a shopping mall. By the time he got home late at night, he got some leftovers to eat, made his usual analytical notes on his fight and, knowing the email was coming today as two weeks had passed since the Meet Up, went straight to his laptop, doing other work while waiting patiently for the crucial email notification.

An hour later passed, and he was now limp on his seat and snoring lightly, unaware of how tired he was becoming that he couldn't stop himself from falling asleep. Then, suddenly, a loud, bouncing ringtone echoed in the room. 

It was enough to jolt Izuku out of his slumber, but the sudden movement, and the fact he was leaning on his seat from sleeping, caused him to fall back. A yelp escaped his mouth as he landed onto the floor, on his back, as the ringtone continued to play.

"What the...?" His mind was still foggy from his nap that it took him a while to realise he was on the ground and his phone ringing. Sluggishly, he pushed his fallen seat aside as he brought himself on his knees. Without looking at the desk, he raised his hand up, tapping against the surface of his desk and moving it across until he felt the similar rectangular shape of his phone. He grabbed and, without looking at the caller ID, answered the call subconsciously, as his mind was still recovering from the sudden wake of his unanticipated slumber.

"Hmm... hello?" Izuku brought the phone over his ear, only now realising how slurred his voice sounded. "How long was I asleep for?"

"Oh, sorry Izuku. Didn't mean to wake you up." The voice of Toshinori from the other line allowed Izuku's cloudy mind to slowly become clearer.

"Oh... No, I-It's OK, Al... uh, Toshinori." He finally got up on his feet as a yawn escaped his mouth.

"I just thought, knowing you, you were still awake by now." Toshinori explained.

"Well... I was, but somehow, I fell sleep on my seat." Izuku picked up his seat from the floor before sitting back down on it. While his voice was still slurry, it was slowly sounding clearer.

"Fell sleep on your seat?" Toshinori questioned.

"Yeah... I was... waiting for Seihashi's email about the Hero Festival." He explained, rubbing his eyes. He then heard a sigh coming from Toshinori.

"My boy, you'd just come from a villain fight, and you couldn't just wait for the notification itself, without refreshing the page over and over?"

"Well, when you put it like that..." Izuku felt slightly embarrassed by the statement, rubbing the back of his head. His sleepy mind, while still lingering for obvious reason, was clear enough to not sound slurred when talking to his mentor anymore.

Toshinori chuckled. "There's no stopping you, huh? Anyway, speaking about the fight, good job on it."

"Thanks, Toshinori. The villain wasn't easy to navigate at first, though."

"I can imagine. With a quirk that can turn things to stone with a touch." Izuku took the phone away from his ears and put it on speaker, placing it on the desk to check on his laptop as Toshinori continued. "Normally, that doesn't bode well with your close-combat fighting style."