Archive of Our Own ^beta

Name: Maskmana

Last Name: nil

Number: +XX XXXX XXXX

ADD or CANCEL

Toshinori's finger hovered uncertainly over the phone.

Right after the finals exam, he’d risked the wrath of Boboiboy’s father via asking him for tips on how to train the next generation. With the sheer strength and skill young Boboiboy carried, he was sure Mechamato had some wisdom to offer him. He had hoped his case wouldn’t turn out to be like Endeavor’s…and honestly, at this point he was pretty sure he was terrified of going to Gran Torino for help again. However, if yet again a fellow hero failed to give good advice, his former mentor was certainly his backup plan.

Mechamato…well, after the finals, Toshinori was certain it could’ve gone worse. The man had quickly but politely declined, citing that much of Boboiboy’s training he was absent for due to his own heroics work, and that the student was trained by an unavailable mentor. He had, however, handed him the personal phone number of ‘my best friend Maskmana, he’s good’ and promptly ended the conversation. Toshinori was half glad, since Mechamato was a fearsome hero and he did not wish to face his wrath if it stretched on.

Still, it had taken him a while to work up the nerve. Maskmana was a completely unknown name, which likely meant the deepest of underground heroes. However, after seeing Dave on I-Island, he was determined to find other sources that could better help him train young Midoriya.

At last, he pressed ADD.

ALL MIGHT: Hello, this is the No.1 Hero, All Might. Mechamato gave me your phone number, saying that you were good, when I asked him for advice and help on training the next generation. Could you please send me some advice?

He then clicked on the profile-you could learn a little bit about a person by reading what they decided to showcase. The profile picture was a simple gold star against a black background, and the profile below it read;

‘Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack. -Sun Tzu’

How wise.

Well, all that was left to do was wait.

///

Unknown: Hello, this is the No.1 Hero, All Might. Mechamato gave me your phone number, saying that you were good, when I asked him for advice and help on training the next generation. Could you please send me some advice?

Pian rubbed at his still-wet hair with the hotel towel and started up a background check while putting on some comfortable clothes. By the time his advanced program was finished, he had dressed in simple socks, shirt, and sweatpants, not necessarily in that order.

The private number of Toshinori Yagi, also known as All Might. Since it had been texted directly to his private number and there was confirmation it wasn’t a chance scam, he had a best friend to chew out over voice message. Whatever happened, he knew Amato could be pretty damn petty when he wanted to be.

Still.

Advice on training the next generation?

If Pian was still a teenager, he’d either bite down hard enough on his lip to bleed or not resist and laugh out loud. However, due to training and his own dramatics (he probably got that half from his parents and half from Amato, the latter could be as dramatic as all hell) he now kept a perfectly straight face. He was half amazing hero (at least he hoped he was, he really wanted to make his parents proud) half barely functioning adult. Honestly, out of their disaster of a friend group, Mara was the only capable functioning ‘adultier adult’ among them.

He was in his late thirties, and yet Pian had never dated once. When he was a teenager, girls and boys scoffed at his plump size and short height, and even the gold diggers wanting to get into his family were turned off by it. When eventually Amato told him about his father’s secret, Pian began training hell while simultaneously doing academic hell during college. In university, he clocked everyone out and focused on reestablishing Maskmana in and outside the town he left behind, zoning everything into his heroics and studying. During that time, the gang had understood and kept at a distance, Amato being the most helpful of them all. Looking back now, Pian saw that only sheer determination and raw spite had barely kept him from burnout.

But here he was now, a successful hero with a company that listened because their CEO had truly worked hard for the majors he carried. He wasn’t the fat Pian DeStar who enrolled in a public school because of the sunshine-like bullied teen he met over Discord that became his lifelong best friend, bringing him out of his loneliness. He wasn’t the kid who had a good heart but still coasted through life because of money. He was the current holder of the title Maskmana, a great inventor and fighter and swordsmaster. He had worked hard even though he would never have the same power his best friend held, and he still rose to the same level.

Honestly?

Pian expected to eventually marry and end up with a kid, whether adopted or born. The legacy of Maskmana had to be carried on, but his father had stressed that as important as it was, Pian still could choose a normal life. He wanted to give someone that choice. But now he stopped to think and reflect, a few years away from his 40s with no romantic partner.

No romantic partner, but two kids who could carry on the legacy still.

Pian didn’t expect them to. When he saved them, they were two all-but-royal children who just lost their parents. Whether it was the fire in Kaizo’s eyes or the determined spite he saw in Fang’s, eventually he began training the kids. Their eyes looked like Pian’s when he started college; unsure but ready to take shit and get back up.

He made sure they received more than enough rest, trying his best to account for their ages. Fang was a ripe 3, while Kaizo was 12. Two children, one whom had barely started to walk, seeking an outlet and something productive after the trauma. Gogobugian kids were slightly hardier than humans when it came to body due to being a rare species where all genders could reproduce, but that didn’t change their years. Eventually, he learned how to adjust with them.

Fang and Kaizo loved red carrots as it was the first Earth food he introduced to them. Fang loved the stealth and undercover lessons. He quickly picked up hiding in the shadows, and was an expert at the disguises. The makeup he painted with defter fingers than his brother’s own, and the different shoes and heels he wore confidently without the slightest hesitation.

In contrast, he trained Kaizo far more in combat. While he was pretty good with stealth and undercover acting for his age, that was nowhere near Fang’s. Thus, he focused on advanced sword techniques and martial arts. At age 17, Kaizo would be able to land a hit on you from a high angle, with a perfect sword stance and a great deal of impact. In contrast, Fang at 8 would quickly land two small hits to vital areas, at a speed greater than his brother and from a hidden, shadowed area and even higher ground. Kaizo was the raw power and precision, while Fang was agility and speed. It was better for their bodies, too, considering their ages.

Every year, on the anniversary, Fang would hide in the shadows completely for a single day. Despite scanning the security cameras on his ship, Pian never found him-it was like the shadows made him unseen, and years later he laughed at the irony with Fang’s new power. Kaizo would train obsessively, and Pian would make sure he didn’t skip any meals and drank water, but otherwise he let him vent and stepped back to watch for burnout. The next days, he would also lighten the training even more and increase the caloric intake for both of them for a bit.

When Fang was 8 and Kaizo was 17, he returned them to Gogobugi to have even some semblance of a civilian lifestyle. He warned the two not to fight, as with their abilities they were miniature armies like him. ‘You’re children, not heroes. Enjoy your age for now.’

Barely six months later, reports came in of yet another attack on Gogobugi that was thwarted by the Captain Kaizo and the mask-wearing Kitsune.

Pian hadn’t known what to do with the myriad of emotions swirling within him on that one.

It took him two years to track them down, following the path of carnage the two blazed across villains. He told Kaizo to find some way to stop the fighting Fang was exposed to, preferably by doing a long-winded low-risk mission. Fang did not have the emotional maturity to truly handle the weight of this decision. Kaizo did. He asked Kaizo if this was truly his choice, and never had he seen himself but younger reflected so much in the Kap’en as he confidently replied-

“Yes.”

Maskmana: Find ways to adjust to your students. Their diets, their habits, those may not seem important but they build your understanding of their character. Do not force them into any style, instead see what they flourish in the most and emphasize that. However, it is also important to have a base understanding of other core subjects. Simply put? Make sure they know enough to be pretty good in other things, but the place they shine in the most should be given room to grow. Your students are not you. That is why it is important to get to know them. Make sure they know they can always come to you for help.

Maskmana: Feel free to contact me, however like you I may not reply immediately as a result of work. I am unsure if the advice I offer is truly good, as it is my experience. Please seek from other sources as well.

“Oh hey Pian? What’s up?” Amato greeted when he opened the hotel room door. He was just down the corridor of the I-Island hotel, where he’d booked a room for Pian once he arrived during the attack.

“Kindly explain,” said Pian with a smile that meant danger to the worst of villains, “why you gave All Might my private number early enough that I was not even on this fucking world.”

Amato gulped.

“In my defence…he slammed Boboiboy into a wall during finals?”

Pian took a deep breath. Half to calm his eye twitch, the other half to prepare to hear the following bullshit.

Was it truly a surprise that him and Amato really were disasters, only seeming put-together to people who didn’t know them?

Yeah, nope.