The Sword of Ice
IkhnyS
Usually Momo preferred to be distended by reading encyclopedias. Besides being a distracting read, the encyclopedias helped her to evaluate strategies or incorporate materials and information to develop her quirk. But this time she was immersed in a different type of book. She was deeply immersed in a novel.
Momo settled into the largest couch in the common room with a cup of tea that was soon forgotten. The book offered such an interesting tale that it quickly captured her attention and moved her to a completely different world.
In this world there were no such thing as quirks.
The characters of the book were heroes and villains, each with their own personalities, each being their own internal enemies. Momo found herself immersed in the psychology of those fictional people who lived in a drama that seemed so real. As if their lives could happen to anyone.
Set in the European feudal era, the story happened within the walls of an imposing castle located on a large area of land. The land belonged to a family that held great power within the kingdom. The father of this family controlled territory with a hard hand, keeping his subjects docile and controlled. Under his control there could not be an opposing voice to his will. And if there was the punishment would surely be terrible.
The protagonist, the youngest son of the family, did not escape the iron hand of his father. The son's education sought to harden his character. He was imprisoned in the castle, a prisoner of his own father who spent his life isolated even from his brothers. The feudal lord wielded on the youngest of the family a cruel pressure that, at times, seemed sadistic.
Feeling the protagonist's pain, Momo could not help but move in her seat, feeling somewhat uncomfortable. On one hand she did not understand how a father could be so cruel to his child, but on the other she knew that such realities existed. And although it was a fiction in this book at least, somewhere in the world a child was forced to walk a path that it did not choose.
Thirsting for results, the imposing owner of the castle forced his son to a routine of combat exercises that exceeded the limits of someone his age. Insensible and immutable to the sobs of his son, the sword fell with all of its weight on the back of the already naked young man whose clothes were already destroyed by the cuts of the same weapon. The intense voice of the father rumbled through the stone room, claiming strength and reminding the child that it would one day be his job to protect the borders of their domain.
While the punishment continued, the boy wondered what it would be like to step on the ground away from the castle, away from his father. He did not stop dreaming of a life outside the stone walls. His eyes glazed over with tears, searching blindly in the windows of the room, waiting for the light of day that would give him hope for that which seemed never to arrive.
Yaoyorozu felt a tightness in her chest as she progressed through the story. Her imagination projected the image she read of the owner of the castle hitting his wife for wanting to protect their son. The woman was hugging the boy maternally, begging, pleading, for mercy. The blows had cut her lip, the blood from the wound slid down her chin and dripped down on the young the young man's face, sliding lower as if it were a tear.
The man growled in fury, and Momo was afraid of what would follow in the story. The story promised to be fierce. The young man arose laboriously to defend his mother, facing his father of his own volition for the first time in his life. Momo's nails were scratching to the cover of the book, her eyes locked in with desperation to lines that followed.
...
Todoroki entered the common room feeling dejected. He had spent much of the afternoon training with Bakugo, and while he was a worthy opponent to practice, he had to admit that the explosive boy was easily carried away. Before going down, he took a good shower to remove the sweat and dust of the hot water relaxed his muscles to the point of leaving him totally exhausted in it's wake. Eating something and lying down seemed the best option to recover his energy.
As he passed by the common room he noticed the figure of Yaoyorozu sitting in the three-body chair. On his way to the kitchen, his attention returned to the strange expression of anguish of his companion. She was clinging to a book, with her nose among the pages. The girl seemed concentrated in a tragic reading that had captured her. He thought it was not a good time to interrupt, but he got worried about her afflicted self, so he approached slowly, rounding the furniture to sit next to her
...
Fortunately for Momo's nerves, the reading had changed rhythm.
After the cruel years of a violent childhood, the difficult life of the young protagonist finally proposed a small change. He walked through one of the endless corridors of the castle when the metallic sound of swords reached his ears.
A chill ran down his back. He hated that noise and the associations that came with it. But his instinct took him to the source, a room used by his father's soldiers to train. Inside there were two knights wearing helmets and training clothes. They attacked ferociously with their weapons, their movements swift and violent.
The young man looked on, astonished at the abilities of both opponents. He did not know who was hiding behind the helmets, but for the way of moving he could see that they were capable of the most difficult of maneuvers.
One of them dodged the sword of his opponent, but in a movement of weakness stumbled. His opponent took the opportunity to hit his helmet with the broad of the sword.
Momo could not help a sigh when the narrator told the emotions that filtered through the chest of the protagonist upon discovering that it was a girl under the helmet of the warrior that had won the duel. During almost a quarter of the novel it's been stated the difficulties that the young man had with relationships, overwhelmed by his father's obsessive control, isolated from human interactions, his only model of love was his mother, who had been punished for overprotecting him. Now the boy was captivated and in love for the first time.
...
Shoto looked at her intrigued, while Yaoyorozu's eyes slid down the lines of the book. The girl had put a hand to her mouth, covering a small smile, and a slight blush graced her cheeks. He felt a mildly intrigued by the content of the book that had her so entrapped, so he drew just a little bit closer to read the title of the novel.
"The Ice Sword"
Unconsciously Momo lowered the tome, placing it in her lap. Shoto felt an electric shock from his hand to deep in his chest and when he looked down he noticed that her free hand had landed involuntarily on his. He tensed, but then settled back into the couch, pressing his back against the backrest, keeping his hand under hers.
...
If someone discovered that one of the soldiers who defended the castle was a woman, she would have great problems. The only ones who knew the secret under the helmet were the knight whom she trained with and the young master of the castle. So the protagonist entrusted himself the mission of guarding her identity.
She told him a thousand stories, tales of travels and adventures. He listened to her, hypnotized. The girl spoke to him of magical places and incredible landscapes that he could never know of because he locked inside the castle. At night, they hid in the secret passages of the fortress and spent hours conversing. However, the girl mostly talked while he listened.
The stories the girl told soon became the escape that he longed for. Her detailed descriptions had taken him through deserts, forests, meadows and through villages, kingdoms and distant cities. She told him about new cultures, varied folks, and starry nights.
And one dawn in particular, in which the torches gave the warm illumination of the hidden corridor, she spoke to him for the first time of a love story.
...
Momo squeezed Todoroki's hand when the book began to describe the secret love between the two. She could feel the need of the boy to be loved and the tale implied that he was slowly getting to know the one who could and would give him that long-awaited affection. The tales of the girl were interesting and colorful, but the avid reader was more interested in the reactions of the protagonist who had discovered new facets in his narrator. And little by little he began to fall in love with her. Her life, her adventures, and each aspect of her personality that she revealed to him.
...
Shoto glanced at their hands and noticed that Momo had unconsciously interlaced her fingers with his own. His eyes widened in surprise and he looked up at his companion's face. He found that she was totally enveloped in the book, her smile still planted on her lips and her eyes lightly veiled by a mantle of tears that made her dark iris shine. He swallowed nervously and rested his head on the backrest, turning towards Yaoyorozu, observing her strange reactions, while allowing himself to enjoy the contact with her fingers. Soon, hypnotized by her face and feeling the warmth of her hand, he fell asleep.
...
The warm feeling that the story between the two had left was displaced by a cold wave that pierced Momo's chest. In a drama like the one she was reading, there should always be conflicts, nothing could be easy.
Not even falling in love
Not even being happy.
The nocturnal adventures had an abrupt end when the Lord of the Castle followed the boy through the corridors. Of everything the man had imagined he would find, he never thought that his son was sneaking around with a knight, nor that the knight was a soldier in his army and was a woman on top of that.
His anger echoed through every corner of the fortress, not only because of the disobedience of his descendant, but for being deceived by this girl. The army invaded the passages and surrounded the young couple. The boy begged for the life of the girl. But she was silent, knowing that her destiny was immovable.
The guards escorted the girl to the dungeons. On the stone path, the cruel sound of a whip against flesh resounded. From that of a ruthless father unloading his anger against his own son.
This time the young man did not give his father the pleasure of listening to his suffering, not a cry fell from his lips. That night, when he received the harshest punishment of his life, he swore that the torment inside the castle would end.
The only scream that came out of his mouth and that was heard in every corner of the fortress was "I love you!" It was not directed to his tormentor.
Momo felt a weight on her shoulder that distracted her from the reading. When she looked, she found Todoroki, sleeping next to her, with his head resting on her shoulder and their hands intertwined. An intense blush cheeks, and nerves knotted in the pit of her stomach. At no time had she realized the presence of her companion, much less the position so close they had been keeping.
She slid the bookmark over the pages of the book and closed it delicately with her free hand, knowing that it would be impossible to concentrate on her reading again.
She remained rigid for a few seconds, listening to Shoto's deep breathing. As she relaxed, a smile of affection crossed her lips and she allowed herself to raise her free hand and caress the red and white fringe that fell over his closed eyes. She observed his features, discovering the peace that resided in them while he slept. She was glad to have the opportunity to see him like that.
Suddenly the story of the book mixed with the little she knew of her partner. She watched him worried, while in her mind she gathered the incomplete information she had of Todoroki's stormy family life. He had not told her much, being a very reserved person. But what she knew was enough to understand that he didn't had an easy childhood.
She rested her forehead on the top his head, enjoying the aroma of the shampoo that drifted from his hair. Momo could not avoid the selfish desire to be the one who managed to bring some light to the dark story that her friend led.
Thanks for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. This story was written and published in Spanish first, but I wanted to try the translation to share it with more TodoMomo fans out there. I'm not that good with English so I had a lot of help from Bajo la Sombra del Velo with the translation. Also IAmTheQueenOfMe did the Beta reading of the english translation, helping us with the Grammar and vocabulary Thank you very much to both of them!