Chereads / Fixing A Broken Mask / Chapter 3 - Uninvited Guests at the Beach

Chapter 3 - Uninvited Guests at the Beach

At the Takoba Municipal Beach Park was an old abandoned truck surrounded by piles of junk, so much waste that it would be considered a junkyard, but inside the old abandoned truck was a boy sound asleep. Suddenly, he was awakened by dragging metal across the sand, and someone grunted. The now agitated boy sits up to look out the truck's window, and what he sees shocks him. "Why is that skinny kid trying to pull a freaking refrigerator!? While a muscular man is on top at that!?"

The two strangers were a boy around the same height as him with short, messy, dark-green hair and green eyes, while the other was a man with yellow hair and big muscles. "These people look familiar…." The boy watched the two strangers cautiously and started thinking of a plan to deal with them if they came any closer. The two strangers seemed to be talking about something, but unfortunately, they were talking in a language he did not know. As he watched them, he moved his hand to reach for a wooden bat he found in the pile of junk. "Why are they here so early in the morning? The start of the sunrise seems to be not too long ago."

Just when he finished thinking about the sun rising, the man with big muscles brought his hand on top of the refrigerator and put all his weight to flatten it to the ground. After seeing the man's strength, the boy was starstruck but quickly regained his composure and firmly grasped the wooden bat. Slowly opening the truck's door, the boy sneaks behind some junk piles until he's at the nearest junk pile around the two strangers. The boy peeks his head to see the back of the muscle man, and now he can see the dark-green-haired kid's whole face.

"Wasn't that the kid that went in to attack that slime guy two days ago?"

He stared at the dark-greened-haired kid and then smiled to himself. "That is him! His name was Deku, or I think it was…" he claimed to himself. "So that means…." He looked at the muscle man's back and saw something exciting. Smoke. Smoke seemed to be coming out of his body, and after a millisecond, the man burst into smoke. The boy was perplexed and intrigued. "Why did smoke burst out of his body?!" He asked and soon got his answer after the smoke cleared.

A short, skinny man with yellow hair stands in the middle of the smoke. The man looked so fragile that if someone went up to chop his arm, it might as well snap like a twig. "He's the man that changed the weather after a single punch and the one that goes by the English words: all and might…." He furrowed his brows in wariness as he saw that twig-like arm point in the direction of where he was staying the night: the abandoned truck.

The kid, Deku, nodded in response and started to walk toward the abandoned truck but suddenly stopped a foot away from the car. He points towards the opened door and asks a question the man called All Might. The boy watched as All Might looked around his surroundings worriedly. Soon, the two of them made eye contact, causing the boy to quickly run to another pile of junk and have his bat ready. "Come at me if you dare." the boy said softly.

 . . . . .

The skinny All Might walked towards the pile of junk the mysterious boy was hiding behind. "Young man, you have nothing-" As he was about to turn the corner, a wooden bat interrupted him by almost hitting his kidney, but luckily, he could dodge it. All Might looks at the young, mysterious boy and is shocked to see the state boy. The boy had a severe scar in the middle of his face that looked like it was rotting away. The boy was so skinny that you could see some of his bones, but what shocked All Might the most was how he was only holding the bat with his right hand and shaking a bit from exhaustion. He looked out of breath as if he had used all his strength in his last attack.

"Stay… away… from… me…" the young boy said tiredly in English.

"This must be the missing boy from the missing posters!" All Might conclude after hearing the boy speak in English. "He looks around Young Midoriya's age and is in a bad state."

All Might examined the boy. The boy had dirty blonde hair, emerald green eyes, pale skin with freckles, and that rotting scar between his eyebrows. All Might reached his skinny arm towards the young boy and said in English, "Young man, you are safe now." All Might placed his hand on the wooden bat and pushed it towards the ground, with All Might standing before him. The boy smirked and used this chance to tackle All Might to the ground; now, on top of him, he brought his wooden bat straight in the air, ready to slam down on him.

"I SAID!!! STAY AW-" The boy was tackled down by young Midoriya, causing him to let go of his bat.

"What are you doing?!" Midoriya asked the boy, the boy now restrained. "He was trying to help you! Why did you repay him with violence?!"

The boy stared back at the now angrily confused Midoriya. After regaining his composure, he noticed his shoulders were holding him down and saw this as a chance to fight back, even though he was extremely exhausted. The boy reached toward Midoriya's neck, but he could not get to his neck. As Midoriya was waiting for an answer, he saw the boy's right arm look like it was rotting, just like the scar on his face. All Midoriya could do was stare in shock.

But as soon as All Might sat up slowly and looked over to the two young men, his eyes widened as he saw the boy from the posters smirk and raise his arms towards young Midoriya's neck. Overcome with confusion and anger, All Might turned into his muscular form and grabbed young Midoriya before the boy could touch him.

"Tch…" The boy was annoyed that his plan failed and tried getting up to make a run for it but was so exhausted from fighting that All Might quickly caught him. All Might easily grabbed the boy and held him off his feet as if he were rising into the air.

"Young man." All Might said sternly to the boy in English. "You can't start fights like that! And you almost hurt Young Midoriya!"

After deep breathing, the boy looked around and avoided looking toward All Might. "Sigh…" All Might was surrounded by smoke and turned back to his skinny, weak self, causing the boy to fall on the sand, but All Might still held onto him. "I will have to bring you to the authorities, and they will contact your parents-"

The boy laughed and got out of All Might's grasp. Seeing this, Midoriya went into a fighting stance, ready in case the boy had something up his sleeves.

"I have no parents." the boy stated after sitting down. The boy looked at All Might, Midoriya, and then back to All Might. "Why can I understand you but not him?"

All Might was shocked to hear that he had no parents and that his first question was about being unable to understand Japanese. "Young man, he is speaking the language 'Japanese' while we are speaking in..."

"English. Yeah, I know the name of my language." the boy stated, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"Anyway, as I was saying..." All Might continued after regaining his composure. "You will be taken to the authorities, then placed in an orphanage or stayed with a family."

After hearing this, the boy got up and stared straight into All Might's eyes. "I'm not leaving this place. This beach is my home now." the boy stated. All Might was perplexed by the boy's response and looked back at Midoriya.

"What is it, All Might?" Midoriya asked nervously.

"This young man doesn't have parents, so we must take him to the authorities, but..."

"But what?"

"He keeps saying that this is his home."

Midoriya looked back at the boy and examined him. After seeing how bad the boy was in again, he tried to think about what sort of situation the boy was in but couldn't. From looking at the boy's state, Midoriya could tell that if anyone was in the boy's position, they might have made the same choices as him. Looking down at his clenched fists, Midoriya made up his mind. He looks back towards All Might and tells him what he suggests.