A billowing gust of air brushed past gently, sending the calm tides of the ocean crawling up the sandy shore and pushing a few rocks aside. The lapping sounds of water caking the ground were equally met by a secondary ambience, that being the wind whistling as if nature were a choir cheering its newfound freedom.
Standing beyond the beach past the staircase leading downwards towards the shoreline was a young boy admiring his work. A proud sigh of relief escaped his lips, exhaustion still fluctuating throughout his exerted body. Hands resting on his hips, he continued walking along the side of the metal fencing as his bright green eyes scanned over the open-spaced clearing.
Once being littered with trash, Takoba Municipal Beach Park was now free of its manmade curse. Not a single ounce or speck of trash had been left lying around. Not a single rock had been spared being uplifted in search of any stray pieces of glass or rusted metals trying to sneak by the child's vigilant inspection.
Everything had been cleaned. Such beautiful scenery could be called a dump no longer.
The young man, Izuku, sighed again, the pride in his tone dipping as he lamented the next battle he must and was currently facing. Although he may have cleaned the beach up, that didn't mean it would stay that way forever. Left unchecked, lazy companies or even the general public could use this place as a dumping ground once more. For both personal and ethical reasons, he refused to allow this issue to fester.
Majority of the trash that had washed along the beach had come from the ocean. Even if he lobbied his own city and have the elected bodies enact specific ordinances to protect people from littering across the beach, that wouldn't stop the ones all the way across the water from doing the same. This issue went well beyond city level, making it much more problematic to hurdle over towards an easy solution.
Izuku already knew that, which was why he had already made the proper efforts to rouse action against this beforehand. Sending anonymous reports and letters to city hall, as well as leaving messages on the official town page and adjacent sources while covering his tracks, he worked to both get his voice heard, as well as garnering enough of the public to become aware of the movement and support it.
He wished he could say it was going swimmingly, but there were already speedbumps being formed on the road to keeping the beach clean. The first was that Musutafu - the city he lived in - did not want to put any effort to prevent dumping on the beach because it was already ruined. It had already become a problem, so they saw no reason to stop it if the problem still lingered afterwards.
There was a time where he considered the avenue of having them also clean up the beach, but he never petitioned for that because of his own training. If they accepted, unlikely as it would because of the money and resources required, it would absolutely get in the way. His best bet was generating enough voices over the year not to clean up the beach, but to become aware of the problem so that when Takoba was clean, he could use that awareness to get it protected.
Thankfully, that plan had seemed to work. During the last month or so of cleanup, the city had become aware that the beach was being cleaned and had slowly but surely remediating their stance. Without needing to spend the resources on physical labor, Musutafu had become more incentivized on maintaining the wellbeing of the beach. Izuku was sure this wasn't out of any ethical reason or adjuring, but because if the beach passed official inspection, they could reopen the beach again for the public.
Though the reason may be displaced, that didn't matter too severely if the ends were the same. Now that the city had reasons to appeal and campaign on Takoba's behalf, and many civilians becoming aware of the plight, things were beginning to look up. But the battle was still far from finished.
Musutafu's inaction and making them move had only been obstacle one. The second was of course those across the ocean who wanted to continue dumping. Just as Izuku feared, they were pushing back against sanctioning it. The dumping had been going on for years and certain companies weren't too keen on changing things because some people over the sea wanted to use a small beach.
If worse came to worse, he would try to use You Are Here's influence to garner more support. With enough people pushing the movement, it would become more likely to pass. That was his ace in the hole in case the other avenues became exhausted, but hopefully he wouldn't need it. Doing so would provide a possibility of his identity being discovered, which he had taken many precautions to avoid. He still wasn't entirely against it, but his age put him in a tough spot.
He was twelve now, and had been making videos for around two years. That fact being exposed to everyone would be really awkward...
For now, it hadn't come to that. The battle had already outgrown his own hands, and the city was taking its own efforts. He just had to wait and see over the course of many months what transpired. Relying on his knowledge of the future reassured him, but he still wasn't so sure.
None of this had ever been a problem in the first timeline. He had swiftly realized that after spending a year anonymously fighting for the cause. Many ordinances had swiftly passed to protect the beach back then, yet it was struggling to get through now. The reason for the difficulty spike was rather simple, actually.
He wasn't All Might.
No one was.
It was All Might who easily obtained permission to protect and prevent dumping in Takoba Beach. With his influence, all it took were a few mighty words and change would be made.
Influence he never, ever had.
Without the backing of the greatest Hero who ever lived, these laborious steps had become the quickest route to passing a new enactment. It was rough, but it had to be done. It was times like these Endeavor's words would ring in his head - they were not All Might, so they must do one thing at a time.
At least the beach had been completely cleaned, and his training was finished. He still had a long way to go and would continue to train his body, but he could safely say that he had passed the bar of requirement to wield One for All without exploding horrifically.
Moments earlier, Izuku had spent the day clearing out the remaining litter loitering about, bagging them all up inside a large heavy-duty trash bag. He'd done a lot of leg exercise today by squatting down and running along the beach. Going over the entire park several times to ensure he hadn't missed anything, the boy could confidently say his job was done.
Taking a final around, he took in the spotless scenery a bit nostalgically. It looked just as it once did in his memory, hitting home far more than he expected.
Hearing the scuffling of shoes along gravel behind him, Izuku glanced back to see two people who looked to be a couple several meters away walk past. Because of all the attention he had stirred trying to stir up the public, some people had come out in person to view it. Even before it was entirely cleaned there had been people showing up.
It had been awkward to see a few people pass by and spot him in the midst of both cleaning and training. He had to pretend like he wasn't the one cleaning up the beach, which had been difficult a couple times with how dirty he had gotten depending on the timeframe they showed up. A couple of those times he spotted them leave carrying trash themselves, spurred into action after seeing the mountain of garbage being depleted.
The sight warmed his heart. It was nice to see his extensive efforts rewarded with the knowledge of other people wanting to do their part, too.
...Though one of them had hauled off his old workbenches in a truck. That hurt.
Heading over towards the line of trees leading into the forest, Izuku grabbed his hidden camera for the last time. He looked at its battery life and stopped the recording. There were now dozens of videos with hours and hours of footage onto it that needed to be edited. That was going to be a pain, but he'd researched some software that could help him stitch a montage of his cleanup efforts together and keep it properly censored.
Stuffing the camera into his exercise bag and zipping it up, the boy couldn't help looking back once more at the beach park as he departed.
"Thank you..." He muttered to himself, bidding it farewell. It had given him a lot in both versions of his life - helping him change as a person. He would do his best to ensure it stayed clean.
He held up hope that the next time he arrived, the view would be kept this way.