Experiment Seven: Preparation Leads to Results
Shouto's idea of heroes has always been a simple split between 'heroes who are good and heroes who are bad', or 'heroes like Endeavor and heroes who aren't', and he's he's never thought beyond that. He didn't think he'd ever need to, and actually having someone describe their motivations and ideals has shaken him a bit. He never thought heroes had important personal motivations. He thought heroes just sort of…happened, maybe, or when you overcame things, you became a hero. Heroism is a dream you have and then achieve, not a process. Something like that.
Sure Shouto respected All Might, and felt safe with his halo of influence standing over him, but he never thought it was an ambition All Might set out to do. As for Izuku, well— well, Izuku is determined enough that Shouto trusts him, a bit like All Might, but learning Izuku actively wants to give off that effect, that's new territory for Shouto. In fact, Shouto thinks that may actually be twice as cool as a 'not like Endeavor' hero, which makes him twice as cool as every hero Shouto has cared to think about in the past few months, which makes him one of the coolest people Shouto has ever met.
But anyway. Hard work.
Izuku phrased heroism like a thing you have to work your best at. If you're a cool hero, like Izuku is probably going to be, you've got to have cool ambitions, like making people trust you. And people won't trust you if you hold back your abilities for some petty personal reason that doesn't really matter. If he just keeps reminding himself of that, he won't have to keep starting fights with his father. He'll sneakily be the perfect hero, and it will have nothing to do with Endeavor.
The next matter is the attitude. Projecting the feeling that you have altruistic ambitions. All Might is really popular because he's so good at it, and Izuku has that part down a lot better than Shouto does. Hmmm.
After P.E., one of the students in class picks up all the balls for everyone, even though he was on the winning team. Shouto stands in place for a moment, and then realizes the natural generosity for what it is. Heroic attitude. It's altruistic to help even if you're not obliged to.
He approaches his classmate and places a hand on his shoulder like All Might does on TV. "You can be a hero."
"H-Huh?" The classmate jerks back in surprise.
"You're a good person," Shouto clarifies.
The classmate flushes and laughs a little. "Th…thanks, Todoroki…"
Shouto nods resolutely. Positive reinforcement is a good hero thing. His dad would have scoffed at such menial tasks. Because he's the wrong kind of hero. But Shouto is going to be the right type of hero. It's very important people know this.
"I'm going to be a hero," Shouto adds out loud, "and I think doing nice things for people is important."
"Me…Me too?"
Shouto smiles and wanders back to the rest of his class.
What else makes a good hero? Well, determination and confidence, but he doesn't like those. Definitely not a 'perfect quirk'. There's no way Shouto would be a hero with just his quirk, he'd hate it. If he's going to use his quirk, he needs to find out the perfect way to make it useful, with ingenuity, just like Izuku does with his own; Izuku seems useless, but he got it this far because he thinks like heroes think. Anyone can be a hero. All Might said so on TV. Brute force won't cut it. It's sort of like how All Might's quirk is punching really hard, but he can basically fly as well. Because he thinks. Heroically.
A girl drops her books. Shouto leaps to help pick them up. He claps her on the shoulder too, since it seems like a good habit to build, but he can't think of what to say, so he just nods at her and drops it. He's doing fine anyway.
He goes to the nurse's office to have his burn examined during break. It's been a few months, and they should be moving onto an eyepatch soon. Scars get less severe with age, but the one on his face is fresh, and really ugly to look at. His dad wouldn't let him get skin grafts, so it's going to end up a pink smear over his face forever, even after it finally heals. They're going to fix his eyelid later. He could have recovered right away, but his father was worried about the press; he said he didn't want people looking into Shouto's mother. He said she's better off figuring herself out without people pressuring her. He said a lot of things.
In class, he tries to pay extra attention. His grades are already decent, but he wants to go above and beyond, because he remembers sometimes students study together and help each other out, which is heroic thinking. Shouto is also worried that Izuku will leave him in the dust with all his complex science terminology. He's Shouto's age, but managed to figure out all that quirk stuff in seconds, just by tasting his ice. Shouto doesn't think being smart is heroic, per se, but it was still really cool, so he wants to understand anyway.
He gets driven home, as always. Shouto looks up through his fringe at his father, waiting for him in the main entrance hall, with his tutor.
"I heard you're finally willing to train both sides?"
Shouto shoots an accusatory look at his tutor, but doesn't answer.
"Good, Shouto…you're finally seeing what you have to do!" His father places a big, calloused hand on Shouto's head and ruffles his hair. The gesture of affection is strange, coming from him. It doesn't feel right. Shouto shifts uncomfortably.
"We'll be training a bit today, as well," the tutor adds eagerly.
"I'll supervise, then. I can spare an hour or two to see what Shouto's achieved so far."
Shouto grimaces. They've spent all these sessions catching Izuku up, without any quirks; yesterday was the first time Izuku was allowed to spar normally. He's worried his father will see Izuku fumble and misunderstand. Shouto's not used to thinking like a hero, he wants Izuku around more often so he can make sure he's not doing it wrong. It's not like he can call up All Might for 1-on-1 advice.
They wait in the hall, with the tutor working Shouto through his hand-to-hand combat, no quirks. His father can't complain about that; he already knows the humidifiers need time to dampen the air. While they strike at each other, Shouto keeps nervously casting his eyes towards the door. If Izuku screws up…Could Shouto find a heroic-minded person to help instead? He doesn't think so, not with his father breathing down his neck. What about his siblings? Are his siblings heroic-minded? He can't remember what they're like. He's barely ever spoken to them.
There's a knock at the door. Shouto pulls his hand out of a strike he was aiming at the tutor's chest and gives his father a baleful look.
"Come on. I'd like to hear the boy's interpretation of your little change of heart."
The grimace deepens.
The tutor goes to the door and answers it.
There, standing with his feet in the air, is Izuku.
He's wearing thick work gloves and his training robes, held in a wobbly balance that doesn't look like it'll hold. Izuku carefully walks with splayed palms all the way to the centre of the training hall. Endeavor is staring. The tutor is staring. Shouto might be staring as well.
"Okay," Izuku huffs. He bounces his elbows a few times, nods, and with a sudden burst of warm air, flips upright. He doesn't manage to get his centre of gravity far enough, and has to shuffle backwards to accommodate. He still looks satisfied, and glances towards Shouto with a grin.
Then he notices Shouto's father. "…Sir."
"What was that?" Endeavor asks with a slow, deliberate tone of voice that makes Shouto's stomach churn. He's not allowed to hit Izuku, right?
"I was practicing balancing, sir," Izuku says quickly. "I don't want to be disoriented if I lose my balance and fall back, or if I injure my legs and need to walk on my hands, or if I have to do a backflip and—"
"The flip," Endeavor interrupts.
"Oh. That was my quirk."
"Your…temperature moderation quirk?"
"Yeah." Izuku raises his hands and releases a burst of warm air that ruffles Shouto's hair. "I can release warm air sometimes. Especially if I hold my breath."
"Enough to propel you?"
"I was hoping I could, but it looks like I can't. Hopefully I can in the future. I ran an experiment with my mom where the amount of pressure I release, the temperature, and the length I can release it was recorded, and I figured it out." He holds his breath, touches the back of his neck, and then releases the air again. This time, it's a blast of hot air. "The higher the temperature, the more the warm air expands, the more it uh…hot air rises, right? Like…like in movies with the pressure stuff that expands so fast all the screws and bolts and things will pop out. Because the air is expanding. I can do that inside my body."
Endeavor folds his arms. "And where are you getting this temperature…?"
Izuku turns around and loosens his robe to reveal a small dot of glowing orange skin, surrounded by a ring of warm red. "I have to keep it small, or else it'll expand too fast like the blowtorch experiment did."
Shouto's mouth parts. Did he just…fabricate a second quirk by manipulating the rules of his first one?
Endeavor looks stunned too, but after a second, he bursts into laughter and reaches out. Shouto twitches, but all Endeavor does is place a hand on Izuku's head. "Not bad…A worthy mind, as well as a useful body."
"Thank you, sir," Izuku says quietly.
"Shouto!" Endeavor shouts, and Shouto flinches again. "I want you to think of five new techniques with your quirk that don't involve covering something with ice or fire by the end of the month."
"But I only just started to—"
"You've been training each individually for years, Shouto," Endeavor booms, loud and deep, "If you have this boy to assist you, surely you'll think of something. You're not going to match All Might by simply having a quirk."
Shouto's eyes water and he opens his mouth to argue, but when he meets Endeavor's glare, he shrivels and bows his head. "…Yes."
"I'll leave you to it. I want to see the results all at once." Endeavor removes his hand from Izuku's head and marches out the door, slamming it behind him.
Shouto's lip trembles, and he bites down on it. He doesn't have the will to look at Izuku.
Izuku makes a small humming noise. "I can probably get all five right away. The first one's definitely explosions."
"Why'd you have to do that?" Shouto asks quietly.
"Huh?"
"Why'd you have to show off in front of him?"
Izuku blinks slowly. "…He asked me how I did it. I had to answer him."
"Why'd you have to come in so weird in the first place?" Shouto's voice rises to a half-shout.
"I didn't think anyone else would be here." Izuku stares at him for a second, before frowning. "I'm sorry."
Shouto clenches his teeth and looks away.
"So, explosions…" Izuku taps his chin with the crook of his finger. "But Shouto-san's reactions don't feel like Kacchan's at all…The flexibility depends on tiny stuff like that…"
"So you can't think of anything?" Shouto asks nervously.
The tutor steps in. "Well, we have a month, so we can—"
"Shouto-san," Izuku interrupts. "Can you coat your hands in ice using the reflex you use for your fire, and then set them on fire?"
"They'll explode," Shouto argues.
"Wear earplugs," Izuku suggests.
At a loss, Shouto coats his hands in several layers of ice, and sticks them as far away from his body as possible. He gives Izuku a nervous look. Izuku smiles at Shouto's hands, waiting patiently for results, so Shouto has no choice but to go ahead and do it.
With a twitch starting at his shoulders, his flames slide down his arms in a smooth arc that ruffles his sleeves before ballooning into a searing explosion of flame with a core so white it makes Shouto's damp eyes brim with new tears. A streak of blue fire blooms back up towards his face. He flinches away, and the muscles in his injured eye twitch rapidly.
They die down to a steady flourish. Izuku takes a finger in his hands and smells it, then fidgets with the other digits for a minute, until finally the Flames dissipate.
"It's not detonating," Izuku mumbles, "at least, not in the traditional way. It's more like a fireball from gasoline. The explosive element might have been because the air in the ice was expanding — Shouto's ice structures are usually hollow. Expanding gases make metal boilers and stuff creak and pop bolts and explode."
"How scientific," the tutor mutters under his breath.
"Very. I don't know enough to write them in papers though." Izuku pops one of Shouto's fingers in his mouth, making Shouto wrinkle his nose. Izuku lets it sit there even after licking it, biting down every now and then, before releasing it. "It tastes stronger when you're doing it intentionally, huh."
"…Obviously," Shouto says.
"Hm. Then, fireball is the first move." Izuku darts to the far wall and outstretches his arms. "Shouto-san, can you make a line of ice using your fire reflex to me?"
Shouto obeys, understanding roughly what move Izuku wants to make. Fire blooms up in a wall between the two. "…Guided fire."
"That's two. Number three is something you'll probably want to train to do, it sort of feels hard even though I don't have a quirk like yours. We'll do that next time I come over. Number four…Do we have anything flammable?"
The tutor takes a magazine from the side bench and hands it over. Izuku points it towards Shouto, hesitates, and then just sticks it to the back of his neck. After a second, flames start snaking up the paper. Izuku places it at the ground. "Shouto-san, can you shoot pieces of ice?"
"U-Uhm…no. I can throw them normally though."
Izuku quirks his head, taps his chin with the crook of his finger, and nods. "Okay. That's fine."
Shouto grows scales of ice along the surface of his arm, mood picking up now. He needs to toss a few times before he manages to hit the flaming magazine. It explodes.
"Number four," says Izuku. "Number five…well, it doesn't have to be for combat, right?"
"He…didn't specify, no," the tutor says slowly.
"Okay, good. Number five — Shouto-san I think it might be hard to switch between Flame reflex and uhhh, your ice quirk how it works with your mom and sister so can you only use ice from the atmosphere?"
"Of course," Shouto says defensively, "you didn't explode when I had to cool you off during your introduction, remember?"
"Oh! Yeah, I forgot. Okay, uhhmmm…Sensei, do you have a pen?" Izuku asks.
The tutor has to get one from the changing room. Izuku bounces on his heels, looking pleased. Shouto shifts from foot to foot, feeling excited too.
"How many ideas for my moves do you have?" Shouto asks.
Izuku quirks his head. "About 12 before I realized your Flame-based ice doesn't detonate. Maybe 8?"
"Just now?"
"Oh! No, I spent all night planning them out. Your quirk is really interesting, and you sounded like you didn't want to use it like one or the other. I thought it was a shame if you became a hero feeling bad about your quirk."
"Oh, no, I…" Shouto fidgets with the hair at the nape of his neck. "I changed my mind back then. I-I don't mind. Being a hero with my quirk, I mean."
"Oh, I didn't realize!" Izuku looks happy. "That's good! Well, I'll add individual skills to my research later, too, so you'll be extra prepared to save people."
Shouto clenches both his fist and his jaw and nods. Heroic thinking!
The tutor returns with a pen. Izuku holds it out. "Okay, I didn't really think hard about this one, but we need a whole lot of time to practice. So create an egg of your Flame-reflex ice around the end of the pen. Make sure it's thin."
With some effort and a lot of hand-waving, Shouto manages a decently round circle around the tip of the pen. He looks to Izuku for the next step — he genuinely doesn't understand what he's getting at, here.
"Now, coat the egg with ice from the atmosphere. Make it thicker."
It's a lot easier than doing it by reflex, though his hands instantly go numb with cold. He clenches them to get them circulating again as Izuku inspects his work.
"…Right, let's see…" Izuku plucks the double-layered orb from the pen. "Okay, it's working! So now you just set it on fire and cap it."
Shouto gets it now, but he's not sure why it could be considered a special move. He lets a blossom of fire loose inside the egg, and then quickly caps it with ice as a massive tongue of flame lances out. He's left with a glowing orb.
"Lamp," Izuku explains.
"…Oh. For rescue," the tutor realizes.
"Yeah! Shouto-san doesn't really need flashlights with his quirk, so this way it's kinda like sharing."
Heroic thinking!
"This one's my favourite move," Shouto says immediately, so Izuku knows he's a heroic thinker.
"Okay. We'll train this one a lot too, then," Izuku beams. "So you like my ideas? Really?"
"You're so smart. You're like a genius."
Izuku turns a little pink and rubs the back of his head shyly. Shouto narrows his eyes. He almost forgot. With a hand covered in atmospheric ice, he touches the back of Izuku's neck. "Don't let that keep going."
"Oh! Sorry, I forgot I left it like that." Izuku bows his head so Shouto can access the spot of red-hot skin easier. "Thank you, Shouto-san!"
"…No problem." Shouto can feel the warmth prickle painfully against his skin, but it can't pierce the layers of ice he put up. Eventually, when he can't feel any warmth from Izuku anymore, he pulls away.
Izuku whirls on him. "Hey! Shouto-san! do you want to come to my birthday party?"
Shouto: Izuku is so cool…so heroic…
Shouto: [very deliberately does not think of how Izuku managed to superheat a portion of his skin just to create a very small amount of warm air or what would lead him to that conclusion to begin with]
