Headcanon that even though Toshinori is weak, he’s fast. That razor sharp gaze never slowed, his reflexes haven’t dulled with age or illness.
Everyone forgets this, of course. How could they not? He’s a different person nowadays, even though he really, actually isn’t. people know that he’s All Might, but they look at him and honestly see a completely unrelated person. He’s separate. He’s not the same.
So it’s only natural that sometimes they kind of, sorta, almost forget. Forget that he was the strongest hero of his time, that he could and did change the weather with only a swing of his powerful fist. That his mere existence kept crime and violence at a historical low, ushering in the longest era of peace since quirks dawned.
Oh sometimes though, sometimes, they’ll get a reminder. Bakugou will throw a pen at the back of his head in class when the man is turned around lecturing and Toshinori, without pausing for breath, without even a hitch in his perfect script, will snatch it out of the air and have it hurdling back even faster and so, so much harder before they know what happened. The class notices, and takes turns testing it on occasion. They forget the least of all, and Midoriya, he never does.
He’s sturdy, too. Toshinori may pay a higher tribute to a willow tree than his own youth nowadays, but he doesn’t get knocked on the ground. It’s something in his unbreakable stance, how he still holds himself like a 300 lb immovable object, like he forgets that his body has changed. The other teachers see this and realize that in his prime, All Might wasn’t always standing due to strength, but sheer insurmountable skill.
I like to think that rarely, during administrative meetings, Toshinori will begin speaking in his thundering voice like a leader again, slipping into that persona when he needs to be firm, and the other pros will go cold with the reminder. Subconsciously they will bend their opinions under that voice, instinctually following it like they did in times past.
I’m gonna be 100% honest with y’all, if I was reading bkdk fic and Bakugou referred to HIMSELF as ‘Kacchan Bakugou’ in a FIGHT????
I would probably put my phone down, gag, vomit, and continue reading because that is just… too much, too on the nose, it’s too cringe for me to handle. But I would still eat that shit UP
So.. for this to have happened in the ACTUAL MANGA? it’s quite something
Bakugou is so funny for correcting AFO like that. He was essentially like "um EXCUSE me, my name is Pookie Bear Bakugou. Get it right." Like BRO you are down so bad for Izuku we can all see you. The closet is glass.
AFO really depersonalized from himself so hard that he started viewing heroes and villains as archetypes and then made his own avatar (shigaraki) to self insert into his fav story