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When you become a Symbol of Peace, no one thinks to warn you of the side-effects.
Like everyone hanging on to your every word, divining their own meaning out of every single sentence. He would never forget that one (several) times he offhandedly mentioned something by brand, only to have the product in question be bought out from every store by the end of the day.
Or the fact that every supervillain in the entire world will attempt to gain your attention at one point or another. Seriously, All Might hardly has the time to go listen to some guy’s sob story when he could be saving people trapped in a landslide.
Loneliness is another big negative. You’d think the Number One hero would have many friends, right? What with the sheer number of galas, parties and any other sort of meetings he’s got invitations to.
But really, he only ever kept in contact with a handful of people. Naomasa, of course, as All Might’s liaison within the police department. David was still his primary support engineer, even if the man was fairly busy at the I-Island.
He still considered Sir Nighteye a friend, even though they hadn’t spoken in quite a while. Ever since All Might disregarded his warning, choosing to continue serving people over his own health.
No, that’s not quite correct - All Might received an email from him a while ago, asking him to come by at his earliest convenience.
Then he got sidetracked by that Slime Villain, and met Young Midoriya, and- well. He never made it to Sir Nighteye’s agency in the end. He hadn’t even remembered to reply to the email.
Hopefully Gran Torino would be able to help Young Midoriya out with his - the boy’s - quirk, and he wouldn’t have to resort to asking Mirai for assistance. All Might was very happy stemming in shame over here, in Musutafu, while Sir Nighteye lived his life peacefully all the way over in Nagoya.
Speaking of which: Gran Torino. Another person All Might had hoped to avoid meeting again for as long as possible.
He loved the man, of course - he was Nana’s master, of course Toshi had a soft spot for him! But ever since his own training, when Gran Torino repeatedly slammed into said soft spot multiple times, hard enough to make Toshi vomit, he was reluctant to meet the old man again.
But Young Midoriya needed proper guidance and All Might, as much as he hated to admit it, was not the right man for the job.
He never had any trouble with the quirk. Nana commented on it, shortly after he received it
“You’re blessed,” she said, cape fluttering in the wind as she watched him absolutely obliterate an illegal dumping ground. “Clearly, our quirk loves you.”
In hindsight, that was about as much of a confirmation as he could get: it was his own performance that was the outlier, not Young Midoriya’s struggle.
So yes, he could count his friends on a single hand. Well, not quite anymore, if he included the acquaintances (to borrow Aizawa’s words) he made while teaching at UA.
Teaching. Ha. What a farce. Sure, he’s the Symbol of Peace, he’s got the experience that comes with the position - how could he not? - but…
Passing it on to the younger generation is quite the struggle. A struggle he had not expected after surviving Gran Torino’s tender mercies.
Young Midoriya, again, comes to mind. He was of nearly no help to the boy - in fact, he might just be responsible for most of his broken bones. Certainly for all the ones he fractured in that first Foundational Heroics class, coupled with the burns he suffered after All Might failed to pull Young Bakugou back in a timely manner.
But at least that, he could learn. He bought the book - a very educational read titled “Teaching for Dummies”, which had some interesting implications regarding his intelligence - and even took an online course, eager to help Young Midoriya.
There were things, however, which he couldn’t learn. Nobody held seminars on personhood, after all. No bookstore held “Humanity for Dummies” in stock.
After nearly thirty years of being a Symbol, All Might wasn’t sure if he even was human anymore.
He noticed the differences, the amused glances, the giggles, whenever he did something weird.
Announcing that one is “coming in through the doors like a normal person” was not, apparently, something normal people did.
Nor was setting their own voice for a message notification. Or pretending to be his own personal assistant.
Using his own merch seemed to be fine, considering many people - including Young Midoriya - did just that. He kept getting all the samples, anyway, and before he met Young Midoriya there wasn’t really anyone he could re-gift them to. It’d have been a shame to throw it, so he used it.
He wasn’t going to be a symbol for much longer now, that much was certain. Just a few more years, at most, until Young Midoriya was ready to take over the handle.
And then he’d only ever be Toshinori Yagi, All Might a thing of the past.
So he kept his eyes and ears open. Kept learning.
People might forgive the Symbol of Peace for acting eccentrically, but he wouldn’t have that margin of error in his civilian identity.
He was going to be ready, and when the time came, he’d become a real person once more.