The Girl From Shiketsu
VI. Thunderstruck
"Our internships start next week, man, I'm so excited!" Midoriya could hardly sit still, a wide grin on his face as he shared his enthusiasm with his friends.
Todoroki took a bite of his sandwich, not entirely able of getting on board of that enthusiasm.
As expected, his father had been elated to find out Todoroki chose to intern at his agency, but it didn't change the fact that there was a part of him that didn't want to do it.
But Yaoyorozu's words really helped pushing those thoughts aside. He was training to become a hero. If he wanted to be a good hero, he'd need to control his flames better.
"What's on your mind, Todoroki?" Iida asked him suddenly.
The class president had joined them on their last day of school before the internships started. He was still visibly stressed, but it seemed he found peace of mind in something. Whatever it was, Iida looked a little better now.
"Nothing much." Todoroki answered, taking another bite of bread.
"Must be internship stuff, right?" Uraraka grinned. "I can't really blame you, all of us can't wait for it. Especially you, with that huge list of agencies to choose from."
"Which one did you choose in the end, anyways?" Midoriya inquired.
Todoroki deliberately slowed down his chewing, not quite comfortable with all attention suddenly on him. When the three of them seemed to only lean in closer, eagerly awaiting an answer, he swallowed his food and gave in.
"…My father's one."
The eager expressions all fell at the same time, silence reigning over the group of four.
"O-oh." Midoriya remarked awkwardly. "That's, um, unexpected."
"It is very admirable of you, Todoroki." Iida nodded in approval.
Despite not having told anybody except Midoriya about his family issues, Uraraka and Iida just seemed to… know, somehow. Todoroki highly doubted Midoriya would go around telling everyone he met about it, so it made him wonder… Was it really that obvious that he had a strained relationship with his father?
Not that it mattered, since Uraraka took the initiative to change subjects.
"Ah, once the internships are over, we have to start preparing for our end of term tests!" She spoke quickly, accidentally making her fork float in her flurry of words.
"Yes, right." Iida answered, picking the fork out of mid-air and passing it back to their classmate. "I expect everyone to do their best on the tests."
"Mhm, I still have to revise that last math chapter. I just can't seem to wrap my head around the theory…" Midoriya grumbled.
"Not as much as I do…" Uraraka grumbled, carefully putting her piece of cutlery back on the table. "All of you are so smart."
"Ahaha, don't say such things." Midoriya replied bashfully.
"I'm sure you can persevere by putting your all into your studies." Iida reassured her, at least attempted to.
"You're right, I'll do my best!" She chirped.
Todoroki decided to take another bite of his sandwich instead of saying anything. With the attention shift to Uraraka, he didn't want to lead it back to himself.
Todoroki was surprised to bump into Yaoyorozu at the mall.
Sure, he was fully aware of the fact that they lived in the same city, but since they never really met outside of the clearing under the bridge, it sort of slipped his mind.
"Ah, Todoroki. It's good to see you." Yaoyorozu greeted him with her trademark smile. There was a blonde girl next to her, looking at him curiously.
"Yaoyorozu." He nodded back.
"Oh, how rude of me." She gestured towards the blonde girl. "This is Camie Utsushimi, a classmate of mine. Camie, this is Shouto Todoroki, a friend of mine."
The Utsushimi girl stepped forward, her hand stretched out and a bright grin on her face. "You're the dude from U.A., right? I can't believe Yaomomo didn't tell me how much of a looker you were."
He hesitantly shook her hand, not sure he understood half of what she just said.
"Camie! You shouldn't judge people by their appearances." Yaoyorozu chided her, clearly more knowledgeable of the blonde's slang.
"Still, you could've told me. But that's no biggie, I got to meet him, and he seems like a chill guy." Utsushimi laughed it off. Then she turned back to him. "Todoroki, right? Wanna exchange contact info?"
"Please ignore her, she's always like this." Yaoyorozu apologized. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."
"Yaomomoooo, you're no fun. We could've hung out together and stuff and I would finally have had the opportunity to say 'fam'." The blonde girl whined. "Plus, a handsome guy with two beauties is the ultimate combo."
Todoroki lost track of the conversation halfway through, only really taking note of the girl's nickname for Yaoyorozu.
Yaomomo. A neat portmanteau of her first and last name that actually suited her quite well.
"I hope we aren't keeping you from any other responsibilities." Yaoyorozu addressed him again. "Camie just tends to speak before she thinks."
He glanced at the overly large clock in the mall. "It's alright. I'm not in a hurry."
"Great!" Utsushimi chirped. "Then join us for some tea!"
"I wouldn't want to intrud-" Before he could politely decline, the blonde had taken hold of his sleeve with one hand and hooked her other arm through Yaoyorozu's, pulling both of them towards the café down the hall.
"Don't blabber about intr- whatever that is. A friend of Yaomomo's is a friend of mine." The girl said without a second thought, clearly stumbling over a word there.
Todoroki didn't respond. It was odd.
Just a few weeks ago, at the beginning of the schoolyear, he would have done everything to avoid a situation like this.
But now? Now he didn't mind.
He still had some time before Fuyumi served dinner, and you spend time with your friends, right? Yaoyorozu was undoubtedly a friend, so this counted.
"I know this is rather spontaneous," Yaoyorozu smiled apologetically, "But it'd be nice if you could stay."
"Uh… sure." As if he could say no when she looked at him like that.
Despite her eccentricities, Camie Utsushimi was a good-natured person with a quirk so fitting it was like a match made in heaven.
And over the short period of time he spent with them in that café, he managed to figure out what most of her sentences meant.
At least he hoped he interpreted them correctly.
Utsushimi, in all her bubbliness, asked a lot of questions about U.A..
"I heard you have a fancy pool! How fancy is it on scale from one to ten?" The blonde blubbered while taking a large sip of her iced coffee.
"Camie, we also have a pool." Yaoyorozu pointed out.
"But theirs is probably bigger."
"That just means that they have to swim longer laps."
"Oh, right!" Camie gasped, then turned back to Todoroki. "Forget that I just asked that, 'kay?"
"Um, okay." Todoroki mumbled.
"Next question: What are your classmates like? I mean, we already saw all their quirks on TV and stuff, but what are they like?"
"You mean besides the aggressive blonde one?" Yaoyorozu deadpanned while stirring her tea.
"Yeah, besides the super-angry Pomeranian." Camie agreed without batting a lash.
Todoroki found that that was the worst time possible to be drinking his green tea. Nearly choking on the liquid, he began coughing abruptly.
Did she… Did she seriously just call Bakugou a super-angry Pomeranian?
"Camie, I told you not to call him that." Yaoyorozu chided her friend with a sigh, this obviously being a reoccurring incident.
"But gurl, have you seen his hair?! It looks exactly like a Pomeranian!" Utsushimi defended herself stubbornly.
"While that may be true, we have to show each other respec-"
"Blah blah blah, whatevs." The blonde girl huffed. "I was asking him about his classmates."
Todoroki glanced at Utsushimi warily, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "They're, uh, pleasant enough. For the most part."
It was only by coincidence that his gaze drifted over the clock, alerting him of how much time had passed.
"Oh dear, it's pretty late." Yaoyorozu said, her line of sight following his. "I think it'd be best for all of us to head home."
Utsushimi pulled a face. "That means homework. I don't wanna do homework."
"Just write to me if you have any difficulties, okay?" Yaoyorozu chuckled while taking out her purse.
After paying and exiting the mall, Utsushimi was the first to say goodbye, heading into the opposite direction.
Todoroki furrowed his brow. "You're also heading this way, Yaoyorozu?"
The mall was located pretty central, and considering the fact that she attended Shiketsu, he had always assumed she lived in the western part of the city.
"Well, yes… Why do you ask?" She seemed confused by his question, tilting her head slightly.
"Isn't it quite a detour for you to go to school then?" He asked. "Shiketsu High is on the other side of town."
"Oh, that." Yaoyorozu chuckled awkwardly. "It is quite a long way, but it makes for good morning exercise."
Did that mean that her jogging route past the riverbank was her going to school? And not some complicated roundtrip as he had assumed at first?
Yaoyorozu sighed, pulling Todoroki out of his thoughts. "Actually, that's not the real reason."
"It isn't? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, you know?" He echoed her words from the night before. It was a two-way deal, after all.
"No, no, I was going to tell you sooner or later, I was just looking for a good opportunity." She paused and gnawed on her bottom lip. "I… I was going to attend U.A. at first."
This made Todoroki stop walking abruptly. "What?"
She let out another sigh. "It's pretty complicated. I even had official recommendations and all that stuff."
He stared at her in disbelief. What could possibly have happened that Yaoyorozu, Yaoyorozu didn't make it into U.A.?
And then, another realization hit him. If she had official recommendations… just like himself… Did that mean she was also at the entrance exam for scholarship students?
Did that mean they had technically met before?
"Truthfully, one of the main reasons I spoke to you at the beginning of the schoolyear was because I remembered seeing you at the entrance exam." She admitted, confirming his thoughts.
"I…" Todoroki was at a loss for words. The whole entrance exam was nothing more than a blur for him, he only really remembered the resentment he held towards his father and his conviction to not use a single flame in the whole ordeal. "I'm sorry."
"What for?" Yaoyorozu asked in confusion.
"I don't remember seeing you there…"
She smiled and waved it off. "It's alright. You seemed pretty anxious and weren't really paying attention to anybody, so don't break your head over it. You just have a pretty memorable appearance, so I recognized you quite easily."
Yaoyorozu, bluntly laying down the facts.
He cleared his throat. "So… what happened?"
Yaoyorozu shrugged. "I tied with another student. We had the exact same score, but there are only four recommendation slots, so one of us wasn't going to pass. U.A. sent us a message in which they said they would prepare secondary tests to decide a victor, but… Well, I guess I was excited, I mean, I did want to go to U.A., but... the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this other student also really wanted to attend U.A. …"
She lifted her head, looking up at the darkening sky. "And then I asked myself: What would a hero do?"
She returned her gaze to Todoroki, a small smile on her lips. "In the end, I decided to retract my application and attend Shiketsu instead. Prestige-wise, both schools are pretty much the same, even if U.A. gets more publicity, so I didn't really mind. I just… I just didn't want to destroy someone else's dream because of my selfishness."
Todoroki swallowed the lump in his throat. "I don't think that qualifies as selfishness, Yaoyorozu."
"Maybe, maybe not. But there's one thing I do know for sure: It's important for us to help each other out, and to support each other, especially when we are still this young. Besides, I'm happy at Shiketsu. I was even voted vice-president of our class." She chuckled. "I didn't think I would get that many votes. I almost got as many as Moura did."
Todoroki remained silent, letting the information wash over him. He wasn't as selfless as Yaoyorozu. He couldn't have done what she did. He would have taken the additional exam and made sure to pummel his opponent into the ground, and then have the nerve to call himself a hero-in-training.
How shameful.
"I would have voted for you."
Yaoyorozu snapped her head towards him. "Huh?"
"If you were in my class, I would have also voted for you." He said again. "You… you'll be a great hero one day."
Yaoyorozu stared at him with wide eyes. "W-where did that come from?" She clearly attempted to put it as a joke, but it came out dead-serious. He was also sure that that was the first time he ever heard her stutter.
"It's the truth, that's all." He answered.
"That aside, I hope that student is happy at U.A.." Yaoyorozu laughed it off.
"I hope so too." Todoroki agreed. He wondered which student it was. One of the 1-B recommandation students perhaps? Or... Yoarashi?
Working with his father was a lot more strenuous than he'd imagined it. While Endeavour had gone as far as to actually praise him not once, but twice, it still weighed heavily on his heart.
Before he left, he'd paid a short visit to his mother.
She smiled and told him to do what he felt was the right thing. Her smile had been worried, but also supportive.
Yaoyorozu's story also weighed heavily on him, spurning him on to swallow his pride and get through this.
"…portant to keep an eye on your immediate environment. Our quirks can cause collateral damage faster than you'd think, and the last thing we want is for an innocent bystander to get hurt. So make sure to always visualize exactly where you send your flames."
Todoroki nodded numbly.
Blinded by his rage and one-sided view point, Todoroki had never realized that… that Endeavour was actually a competent hero. Perhaps even a good hero.
Endeavour was definitely better at heroism than parenting, that much was for sure.
There was a certain confidence to the man's voice as he described the street nooks and quick rescue procedures, the words rolling off his tongue with ease.
He was completely in his element, and much to Todoroki's horror, it was valuable information. Ever since his childhood, Todoroki had been pretty adept at drowning out his father's harsh words, concentration focused on biting back his tears.
But right now, he didn't know how to deal with this. He didn't know how to deal with an Endeavour that didn't shout at him every five minutes.
It was making him feel antsy.
"Shouto, are you paying attention?" Endeavour's piercing blue eyes contrasted the bright flames surrounding them sharply.
"Yes."
"Good, we need to make the most out of this internship. I'm going to make sure you will have bested that other brat by th-"
"Midoriya." Todoroki abruptly interrupted his father.
Endeavour narrowed his eyes at him. "Excuse me?"
"That 'brat' has a name. It's Midoriya." Todoroki stood a little straighter, locking his gaze with his father's defiantly.
"… I will make sure you will have bested Midoriya by the end of this." His father spat out the green-haired boy's name with as much venom as he could muster.
Shouto nodded. Baby steps, baby steps.
Besides, there was still an ongoing competition between Bakugou, Midoriya and himself. Some extra training wouldn't hurt.
On the third day, at night, all chaos broke out in Hosu. Screams erupted out of nowhere, an explosion sounded in the distance and his father put on his game face.
And somewhere amidst it all, Todoroki received a cryptic message from Midoriya consisting only of coordinates.
Coordinates that were too close for his liking. Ignoring his father, Shouto sprinted off, assuming the message was an SOS signal of sorts, not that he knew why Midoriya was in Hosu City to begin with. Wasn't he supposed to be somewhere else? Not that it mattered, the boy was bound to run into trouble by just going grocery shopping.
Eyes flicking between his phone screen and the streets, he weaved his way through pedestrians, closer and closer to his destination.
Once he reached the coordinates, he cursed under his breath. According to the app, he should be at the right place, but he didn't see nor hear Midoriya anywhere. He ran further down the street, checking the area for any sign of the green-haired boy, but found none. Circling back, he decided to check all the alleys.
He didn't know what he had been expecting, but the scene in front of him was not it.
Iida, motionless on the ground.
Another Pro-Hero, slumped against the alley wall.
And a constricted Midoriya, screaming at the top of his lungs, begging the villain about to kill Iida to stop.
It was a mess.
At first, Todoroki seemed to be able to hold the villain at bay with his ranged attacks, spamming columns of fire and ice in the narrow alley, but the Hero Killer was too flexible and too fast for Todoroki to really land an attack on him.
He gritted his teeth together when one of Stain's attacks came too close for comfort once more.
At some point, Midoriya regained his mobility, but Stain swatted him away like a fly. Driven into a corner, the two of them fell back to strategize.
"It's the blood type." Midoriya said.
"What?" Todoroki asked, confused. Where was the context?
"His quirk. It has to do with blood types." The green-haired boy replied under his breath.
Todoroki narrowed his eyes. "Okay then, what now? We need to protect the other two, but I don't know how much longer we can hold out against him."
"Make sure he doesn't cut you. If he gets his hands on a single drop of your blood, its game over." Midoriya said seriously.
Nodding, Todoroki complied, pushing the other boy out of the way of another attack.
They dodged it pretty easily, but soon Stain was after them once more.
And then, Midoriya fell victim to one of Stains attacks, red liquid trickling from his leg. Pushing himself, he stood up again, prepared to take on the villain once more.
"Stop!" Iida's anguished voice tore through the alley. "Please, stop!"
"Iida!" Todoroki called out to their other classmate. "If you want this to stop, you need to stop making that face and get up!"
Iida's pained, angry expression was clear as day even during the night, the boy gritting his teeth together furiously.
Todoroki released another column of flames, shouting at Iida once more, "Is this what the man you want to be would do?! Is this what a hero would do?!"
Todoroki stomped on the ground, ice shooting up between Stain and himself. "You're the class representative of class 1-A! You better start behaving like it!"
The ice crumbled away, Stain's katana inching closer towards him, making Todoroki curse. He wouldn't be able to put up another wall in t-
The katana shattered suddenly, courtesy of Iida intercepting it, his eyes burning with new-found determination.
Everything after that was an exhilarating blur, consisting out of punches, kicks and too many close calls.
And then, it was finally over.
They stood tall, well, not really, but they stood tall as Stain laid on the ground, defeated.
"What?! How can you say such a thing?!" Todoroki shouted furiously. "Were we just supposed to let them die?!"
Gran Torino stepped in front of him, shaking his head. Iida also held up a hand.
Tsuragamae Kenji, Chief of Police, who had just suggested they broke the law by saving someone's life, cleared his throat. "That is, if all this had been a public event."
Todoroki backed down, lips pulled into a thin line.
"Luckily, with all the other disturbances going on in Hosu at the same time, there were hardly any witnesses of your actions. We'd like to keep things that way, which is why we prepared a cover story."
"A cover story?" Midoriya echoed.
The dog-like man nodded. "Of course, this cover story will have your guardians take credit for your actions, and as such, it won't be violating any rules. I'm fully aware that you may not like the thought of not getting recognition for your outstanding tasks, but this is for the best." He sighed. "I really don't want youngsters like you getting into trouble for something like this."
Midoriya was the first to respond. "No, it's alright. We understand."
Soon after, Todoroki and Iida nodded as well. "Thank you."
Tsuragamae shook his head. "No, thank you for being so understanding." He stood up, looking at the three young heroes-in-training in their hospital beds.
"You three… you three have promising futures ahead of you. Just try not to get into situations like this without a hero license, okay? We can't always cover things up for you." Tsuragamae chuckled and bid them farewell.
Due to their injuries, the three boys were forced to stay at the Hosu General hospital a bit longer than planned.
"It's like, I'm the "Hand Crusher" or something." Todoroki mumbled to himself while Midoriya and Iida compared scars. "Is it some kind of curse?"
The three of them looked at each other, then burst out laughing.
A knock at the door tore them out of their laughter. The young nurse assigned to their room peeked through the door. "Excuse, there's a visitor here for Mr. Todoroki."
Todoroki frowned and looked towards the door. His father already stopped by earlier that day, so who could it be?
He got his answer when a black-haired girl stepped into the room, face set in a scowl.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Todoroki asked the newcomer.
"Are you a magnet for trouble or something?" Yaoyorozu sceptically gave him a one-over. "Every time you go somewhere, you end up on the news because you got involved in something crazy."
She shook her head, folding her arms in front of herself. "Unbelievable, really. I nearly choked on my tea when I saw the report. Camie was sending me messages to no end."
"Well, you can tell Utsushimi that I'm perfectly fine."
Yaoyorozu simply raised a brow, giving his bandages a meaningful glance and daring him to repeat that sentence.
"Mostly. Kind of. I'm still alive." He corrected slowly.
She sighed. "Let's just hope you don't get attacked by random villains again in the near future, alright? And don't be so reckless, your luck might run out sooner than you think."
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, mother."
She nodded approvingly, then turned to the other two occupants of the room. "I know we've never met before, but the same goes for you two, understood?"
Midoriya and Iida simply nodded in agreement, confused by the girl's sudden presence, but not daring to say anything to her.
Then Todoroki realized something else. "Yaoyorozu… why are you in Hosu?"
"To scold you for being reckless." She answered without missing a beat. "And before you ask, there's a direct train connection, and Camie was bugging me about it."
She let out a long sigh and her stern features softened. "All that aside… that was very brave of all of you. Even if the Pro-Heroes hadn't been there, I'm sure you would have done something incredibly stupid. But I guess that's just part of being a hero."
Todoroki didn't know why, but whenever she spoke of heroism, it re-lit a flame in his heart. Her words were so earnest, so full and inspiring that she kept reminding him of the core of his dream, of all of their dreams.
It reminded him of the sacrifices she made so willingly and of how much he could learn from her. That was probably why he always ended up thanking her for those words.
Additionally, her intuition was too on point for her own good. He could already see the sweat drops forming on Midoriya's and Iida's foreheads at her too-close-to-the-truth statement.
"I'm here!" The door suddenly burst open, a frazzled Utsushimi standing in the doorway, clearly out of breath. "Is he still alive?!"
Todoroki blanched and shot the black-haired girl next to him a look.
"I told you she was bugging me, so I took her along." Yaoyorozu commented innocently, the corners of her lips tugging upwards suspiciously. "You don't mind, do you?"
AN: Aaaand... that's a wrap on the Stain arc! You should know by now that I gloss over canon events and paraphrase them a lot, so if you want to see the whole thing, go read the manga or watch the anime.
Next time: The final exam arc, in which Yoarashi and Todoroki deal with their differences!
Please leave a review, they make my day :)
~Emi