25Chapter 5: Planning
Yagi was, for a lack of better words, at a loss. Thankfully, that nightmarish stampede while handing out food, had been handled by Tsukauchi and after that talk with his friend, he knew that he would have to rebuild to help the community, but Yagi was unsure how. He knew how he wanted the final picture to look, but he didn't know where to start.
Yagi had tried asking the orphanage kids what they needed to prioritize those things first, but Yagi had quickly realized that they couldn't tell the difference between want and need. Most of them wanted toys or started talking in detail about how they wanted to be a pro-hero. The rest were mostly shy and refused to tell. Hitoshi did seem like he had ideas for Yagi, but he shook his head when Yagi asked him and told him to figure it out.
"A human's basic needs are food, clothes, and shelter." Yagi remembered his Economics teacher telling him back when he was a student, "People here do have shelter, even though it's not much." Yagi thought as he walked through the roads, looking at the battered, old buildings.
"Clothes… I think people could use some better clothes. But can they spend on clothes if they don't even have enough money to buy food?" Yagi asked himself. Yagi didn't mind giving clothes and food away for free, but it didn't look sustainable. He did have a lot of money but it wasn't infinite! Plus, he planned to expand his help to other communities too and would have to invest his money wisely.
"Let's see…" Yagi thought hard as he tried to recall the economics classes he had taken at UA, "I'll need to build a supermarket of sorts to offer a supply of everything the people might need. But I'll need to create jobs for people to earn money too. Not everyone can be employees, so I'll have to make some people work as suppliers or manufacturers."
Yagi smiled excitedly, that seemed like a good plan, "…How do I do all that?" He asked himself and sighed deeply. It annoyed him that he seemed to be making good plans but he was messing it up at its implementation. The almost stampede at the truck yesterday was a good example.
"I can't call Tsukauchi, he's probably busy," Yagi thought to himself, "Then again, he did tell me to ask for help."
"Yo, how's it going?" Tsukauchi picked up the call.
"Somewhat alright I guess," Yagi replied, smiling weakly, "You aren't busy or anything are you?"
"Not really, I was just about to go on my lunch break. Did you need anything?"
"I was just a bit confused about this little project of mine. You wouldn't mind giving me insight, would you?" Yagi asked.
"Not at all!" Yagi could almost hear the delight in Tsukauchi's voice, "I'll be right over."
Yagi smiled. If he knew Tsukauchi would be so happy to hear that he needed his help, Yagi would have kept in touch with Tsukauchi way more. At least he had the chance to make amends now.
A little while later, a beaming Tsukauchi arrived, "Good to see you took my advice on asking for help to heart. You never listen usually."
"That was back when I was All Might." Yagi joked back.
"So, what did you need help with?" Tsukauchi asked, putting on a serious face.
"Well, I was thinking, this place needs a supermarket. But, I don't know how to coerce suppliers to get things here, and I don't think people here have enough money to spend on things. So, I decided to hire the locals as employees to get them some cash, but they don't have the training to do that, and not everyone can just be a salesman. I'll need manufacturers and all that. How do I do it!?" Yagi blabbered on.
Tsukauchi sighed, "Remember what I told you, Yagi?"
"Baby steps?"
"Baby steps," Tsukauchi agreed, "The supplier thing you can easily help in by offering endorsements as All Might. And even though you shouldn't keep offering things to keep this project of yours sustainable, I think you'll need to subsidize some things. Otherwise, it's going to be too expensive for the people here."
"And what about the training?"
"That, you'll have to ask Nedzu. He's an educator, so he should have a good eye on how you could do it."
"That works. But what about the supermarket idea? Where do I make it? How do I get the land?" Yagi questioned. Tsukauchi seemed to be at a loss too when Yagi had an idea, "Wait, we gotta go meet that old guy!"
"Old guy?" Tsukauchi looked at his friend, wondering whether all the stress finally got to him. Nevertheless, he followed Yagi.
"The cashier at the grocery store. He's been around here for a while. Maybe he can help us." Yagi said hopefully. The bells rang as Yagi pushed open the door to the store, "Back again, are you?" The old man asked, "I'm afraid you have taken all the groceries I had, and it's not yet time to send someone out of this locality to get new groceries."
"That's now why I'm here," Yagi interjected, "I was thinking if you'd be ok to serve groceries at a lower price if I can guarantee suppliers."
The old man shrugged, "I suppose if the prices are fair."
"What's the use of doing that?" Tsukauchi asked, "I thought you wanted to make a supermarket?"
"I do, but I need a place to store food in the meantime. A huge supermarket isn't just going to spawn into existence, will it?" Yagi retorted.
Before Tsukauchi could reply, the old man laughed, "It's been a while since I have met young determined kids like you."
"Kids?" Tsukauchi asked.
The old man waved it off, "When you get to my age, everyone seems like a kid. The last time I saw determined kids like these were 30 years ago. That kid was blonde too and had a hairstyle awfully like yours." The old man pointed to Yagi who suddenly took on a solemn expression, "I suppose you really are giving back to your community,"
Yagi nodded with determination as a confused Tsukauchi looked on.
"Then, I should give you two pieces of advice as your elder," The old man said, "Firstly, don't bring your police friend here too often. Meet him outside here. The local Yakuza will take time to soften up to you. Best not agitate them."
Tsukauchi nodded at that, "That's a good idea. We don't want a gang war spewing out."
"And what's the second advice?" Yagi asked.
"I think you are smart enough to realize that people here need jobs, and the richer areas don't want to pay them. So maybe, you should use local resources for building the supermarket."
Yagi stiffened a bit, "I wouldn't have minded, but after seeing the furniture store, I think any building made with resources from here would collapse in a month."
"Still, I think this construction company deserves a shot. Just look into it, would you?" The old man said as he handed Yagi a business card.
Yagi sighed and read the card, 'Uraraka construction company.'
A/N: Sorry, it's a short chapter, but hope you liked it nevertheless