"Todoroki, you dropped this!" He turns in time to see Momo running towards him, a familiar trinket in her outstretched hand.
"Thank you," he mumbles as he takes it back from her. Most of the class is making their way out of the training building and back towards 1-A's classroom, so when she doesn't move for a few moments, he tilts his head at her in a question.
"Ah, Todoroki… if it's not too much trouble, I was wondering what that is," she stammers quickly, gesturing at the gadget still in his hand.
"It's a gift from my sister," he explains, flipping it over so she can see it better. "It's a mini flare gun that shoots a snowflake pattern into the sky. She always said that if I needed her, I just had to shoot this and she'd be there."
Yaoyoruzu is deep in thought as he passes it back to her, and she pries off the side panel to take a peek beneath.
"Would you like it?" he blurts out suddenly. "If you shoot it at the sky, I'll be there." Her cheeks light up at the sentence before she's eventually able to shake her head no.
"I could never take something so important from you, Todoroki!" she insists as he fumbles for an explanation. Todoroki was not a naturally careless person, and in fact, the only way such an important memento could have escaped was if it had been on purpose and he had wanted someone to find it. And that was exactly what he had done-except his attempt at a chivalrous gesture was completely backfiring into a pitiful story about his childhood.
"Well, if you ever need me, I'll be there," he mumbles with the shreds of his dignity. "I promise."
"And I for you as well!" she cries happily, oblivious to his inner screaming. She smiles and holds up her hand for a high-five, and after a moment's hesitation, he awkwardly returns it.
"Yao-momo!" Awase's screaming at the top of his lungs, his arms burning as he drags the creation hero against the ground. There's barely enough strength left in him to keep both of them moving, let alone carry her. His mind fumbles for a plan as the Nomu screeches and crawls closer, saliva still dripping from its jaws.
He needs a plan, or a second opinion, or anything really, but all he has is an unconscious hero-in-training and his broken-down body.
"Please, Yao-momo, give me something!" he screams as his foot snags a rock and sends the two flying onto the dirt.
And then he spots it. A blur of red emerging from her elbow as he crawls on his hands and knees to where she's lying on the ground. When the item finally pops free, he turns it over in his hands and gives the girl in front of him a long look.
A flare gun? But the Nomu's nearly on top of them now and this is his last chance, so he squeezes his eyes shut and shoots it straight up into the sky.
A million snowflakes break the horizon, yanking Todoroki's attention from the panting and desperate boy in front of him. He makes out the words "Kacchan" and "villain" every now and then in Midoriya's speech, but his eyes remain fixated on the crystals in the sky.
"Yaoyorozu," he mumbles underneath his breath as he stares, bewitched by the ice. The patterns of the flare gun are all-too-familiar and though he doesn't know how or why the message is in the sky, he knows that Momo needs him. Now.
"Todoroki!" Midoriya yells, snapping him back to reality. His head is lolled to one side, stray blood dripping down on Shoji's shoulder as he examines his classmate with an almost frenzied expression. "Please guard the front with me and Shoji as we bring Kacchan back to camp! You're our best distance fighter at this point, and we need you to clear a path!"
His feet remain rooted in place though, eyes still locked on the now fading snow in the sky. The image is seared into his mind though, and if he crossed over the trees, he could probably make it to her position in a couple of minutes.
"Todoroki, snap out of it!" Midoriya's practically in his face now, shouting into his eyes. "We need you!"
But she needs me too. He tries to split his gaze between his broken-down classmate and the help beacon in the sky, but his eyes can only go so far apart and there's only one of him. He has to lock eyes with only one… but which one?
Who would a hero save? And immediately, he knows that the answer is "both". It's the answer Midoriya or even Bakugo would eventually come up with in a similar situation-and by some insane miracle, they would pull off the impossible. Every. Single. Time.
But he's not a hero yet, he's a hero-in-training, and try as he might, he knows he's not anywhere near Bakugo or Midoriya's level. Though they may be regarded as the three powerhouses of Class 1-A, there has always been the unspoken gap in… spirit between them and him. His moves, his thinking was all too simple, too predictable, too inside-the-box. But he had been raised inside a box, grown inside a clearly-defined mold and place in society, and he was simply… incapable of going beyond. Fate had not been as kind to Shoto Todoroki as it had been to his two insane, but definitely heroic, classmates.
So he has to pick one. But he's paralyzed by the decision before him as stray ice and fire shoot off his body in uncontrollable bursts. It comes down to Momo or Bakugo-he knows that much-and the choice should be easy but his feet are rooted to the ground.
Midoriya's "We need you!" is still echoing in his ears, and he knows that a hero's job is to save those that they can reach. And Bakugo is inches before his eyes, easily accessible and protectable. But then, isn't Momo also reachable? She's only a couple of ice mountains away, and the decision gnaws at his brain.
Why isn't there a rule for this? A regulation, a standard, a previous experience-something to point him in the direction to go. But there isn't. There's only two cries for help in the night, and one of him.
He can't make the decision, so he lets them make it for him and doesn't resist when Shoji grabs his arm and drags him along, deeper and farther into the forest.