Nine years ago, the Todoroki mansion:
"Damn it stand on your fucking legs, Hikoori!" Endeavour yelled in my face a menacing annoyed look in his eyes. I stood up groggily, wavering from the intensity of training I am going through.
'I have to do this... I have to train fire instead of nii-san... he promised he won't use it...'
"Do it again! You have to melt this sword!!" He coached another time to the exhausted five years old me.
'I have to use my fire to save that person from my vision...'
Endeavour gave another swinng of the old (almost harmless) sword; in response, I blasted the strongest fore attack I could muster at it.
'I have to be strong... to save everyone...'
I launched the flames at full power, and they were powerful enough to melt the half of the sword aimed at me, but those flames were going to touch father too. Flinching instantly, I weakened my fire attack. I barely blackened the sword, taking the full blow and falling to the hard floor as a result.
'Do not hurt father... I love father so much... I won't hurt him... he is like that because of Endeavour...'
"You little...!!"
Endeavour raged and grabbed me harshly from the ground, putting me on my legs forcefully another time to continue training.
'Endeavour is the greedy, but father loves us deep inside... I know that...'
"Again!"
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I looked through the window from my seat beside my teachers, and my eyes fell on Endeavour another time. For some reason, my unconcious decided to keep an eye on him. He had an annoying scowl on his expression, and it was too prideful and self absorbed that it made me sick. He was waiting for the next match, too, the one of nii-san vs Midoriya. It was the best testing ground for nii-san's fire since Midoriya has the most comparable quirk to All Might, that is, of course if nii-san actually used his left side.
'On a surface level thinking, it would seem that nii-san won't use his fire side because of what he sees in it, which is pretty much what mother saw when she tried to burn him...'
I thought, unconsciously touching my scar.
'But his opponent is Midoriya, and as far as I know from what I saw back in the sludge villain incident and what I heard from nii-san about the U.S.J attack, he is the kind of guy that would rush to save anyone in need. Which means...'
If what I had anticipated was true, and that the pain I felt in my chest when Midoriya and my twin left alone, I could tell that the green head knows about our family situation. In this case, he won't hesitate to save my brother from the shadow of Endeavour restraining him.
The clock kept ticking and ticking, then finally, it was time.
The two competitor stood face to face, the torches of heated rivalry blazing.
My heart beat faster and louder, and my focus sharpened on the match, erasing everything away in an instant.
'Nii-san...'
"Staaaaaaart!!!!"
And the baton was tossed. Shoto blasted his ice toward Midoriya immediately, to which he responded to with a finger version of "smash". The wind gust produced by the impact dispersed through the whole stadium, and I bet that it was cold as hell.
'...Midoriya!
He was ready to injure himself to block nii-san's ice attack...! Is he that desperate...?'
My twin did not give his opponent a chance to recover and went to attack another time. Midoriya smashed his way through the ice again, breaking another finger in the process.
Things kept going on like this, nii-san launching an ice attack that gets blocked by Midoriya's smashes, until his whole right hand was out of fingers in one piece.
'His pain tolerance is incredible...
But he still has a limit. Nii-san has only to force him to use all his fingers and he's busted.'
And that's what happened. Nii-san, using the momentum of Midoriya's smash to get the upper hand and close the range. In a split second, he fired his ice in Midoriya's direction. It kept growing and growing until it covered his leg. The latter, overwhelmed by the speed of my twin's attack, used his whole left hand in a much stronger smash. The wind vibrated the even the control room, frost forming on the edges of it's window.
'It's much stronger this time... I see... the bigger the surface he uses in the attack, the stronger it is.
Now... he is out of chances to attack, unless he wants to use his legs and lose mobility, which labels him lost automatically either ways.'
Moments and the dust cleared, revealing my other half, all sound. However...
'Nii-san is getting a frost bite. He is not using his left side even to regulate his body temperature...
It's not like him to this far and endanger his victory, even for the sake of his rebellion...'
"Just like I thought..." Shoto started, his tone as neutral as ever. "Those pros out there can now see that I'm more than just the son of the "no.2" hero."
He paused, exhaling an icy breath.
'He is sad and pained, but nothing is visible to everyone's eyes...
Everyone except...'
"Sorry about all that, and thank you, Midoriya. Thanks to you..." He said coldly, lifting his eyes to the position of Endeavour. "That guy's face says he got knocked by a leg or two." He finished bluntly, then looked at my direction briefly. He huffed then turned to Midoriya again.
'He never accepted his left side... but this time, he is taking it too far... He is hurting himself.
That glare too... what does he mean by it...? Why did he look here, of all places...?
Does he know... about me...'
"You clearly cannot fight with your hands like this, so let's end this now." He stated the facts, and attacked again, aiming to deal the finishing blow.
I glanced at Midoriya, but I did not see a defeated face. What I saw was pure determination.
'What is he aiming to do...?
What can he do?'
"Where are you looking?!" Midoriya screamed, blowing another smash through Shoto's iced defence, with his broken finger.
"No way!" I exclaimed, getting on my feet.
'What the hell?! With his broken finger?!!!'
"Why are you going this far?!" Nii-san asked him, as shocked as everyone else is.
'What is driving him like that...'
"You are shivering, Todoroki." He answered simply.
'He noticed his weakened state, but this is no excuse to-'
"Quirks are just another aspect of our physical abilities, so there's a limit to how much cold you can generate, isn't there? But you can solve this problem easily by regulating your body's temperature with the heat from your left side, am I wrong?" He paused, barely clutching his fist in passion, the continued, his voice echoing with so many emotions: "Everyone is... they're giving everything they've got so they can get closer to victory! They're doing it so they can become someday number one!!" He lifted his head, looking determinedly straight in my twin's eyes and continued further, his passion growing with each word: "You claim you can win with half your strength, but you havn't laid a single scratch on me!!"
He then clutched his fist and screamed: "So come at me with all your power!!!"
I felt a surge of so many emotions boil inside of my heart intensely.I glued to the window, then walked away, then glued to it again, then stood in my place, stomping my right foot ferociously.
'Modoriya... he is... he's trying to accomplosh what I couldn't do for as long as I have lived...
He's trying to save my brother...
He's trying to make him accept himself!!'
My head was buzzing way too much. From one side, I'm feeling my mess, from the other, I'm feeling nii-san's-all his melancholic, pained, shocked mess. The stress was too much to bare; but I had to nonetheless.
"What do you think you're doing!" My twin answered Midoriya angrily. "Did my shitty old man pay you off or something?!" He questioned, venomous rage spilling from his mouth. "Now you're pissing me off!!" He finished, running at slower, sloppier rate compared to the beginning of the match.
"There is someone who you promised to cherish and protect!" Midoriya said again, his voice condensed with feelings. "You said you wanted to be always there for her! How are you going to do that-" He screamed, giving my brother a punch in the gut the moment my twin jumped to announce his attack. I squeezed my left eye in pain, feeling the impact of the hit in my heart.
"-If you're going to be using half your strength!!!" He finished, holding his now frozen and broken left hand.
The crowd wowed at the switch in roles of offense and defence, despite Midoriya's pathetic state.
Nii-san, with his swirling mind clouded with too strong emotions launched his ice again. However, it was weaker, and his opponent noticed that.
"Your ice has gone weaker, Todoroki!!" He yelled, stating the obvious.
'Nii-san... grab it...'
Shoto planted his foot in the ground and burst ice out of it.
'Nii-san you can be...'
I couldn't handle it anymore. I burst out of the control room right to the stands.
"What the hell...! Todoroki!!!!!" Aizawa sensei screamed, but I paid no mind. I kept running, the conversation of the two competitors still echoing in my ears.
Another smash came out, shaking the podium slightly.
"I want to live up to everyone's expectations...!! I want to be able to save people, with a smile...! I want to be..."
'Nii-san you can be...' I reached the light, and got out of to the stands.
"A cool hero!!!" Both Midoriya and I screamed our heart out.
My twin, from the impact of the shock, stood in his place. He looked at me, an unexplainable expression drawn on his face. He then seemed to remember something and frowned so hard, looking at the ground.
"This is why, everyone is giving their all!!!" Midoriya continued his speech passionately.
"I can't begin to understand your and your twin's circumstances, or your resolution... but even so...!!!" He paused, taking a deel breath, then continued as strong. "Now that I think about the idea of you becoming number one with half your strength, and that you're doing this just to disavow someone... it's just a fucking joke!!" He finished, screaming angrily.
Shoto stood in his place, head bent down, body tensed in frustration, and the ice stamps on it grew even more. The pain in the back of my heart grew rapidly, and I felt like falling to the ground.
"Shut up!!!!" He screamed.
Nonetheless, Midoriya remained unfazed, and aimed another punch at him.
"That's why, I'm going to win!!! I'm going to surpass you!!!" The boy with the broken body yelled, sending my brother flying.
Then, my heart stilled for a moment. Sadness, pain and anger were playing in the background of it.
'It's not that simple... despite everything, it's not easy to abandon the past like if did not happen... mom, Touya, our siblings, us... we all suffered...
Yet...'
"My father-..." Shoto wanted to say, but was cut off instantly by Midoriya's desperate scream: "It's yours!!!! It's your power not his!!!!"
The wind played through my hair, and I felt my heart drop at that moment.
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"You are not enslaved by your lineage."
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Yes... I remember clearly...
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"You can become whatever you want to be."
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She said...
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"You can be a hero."
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Then, then the red and white Amaryllis blossomed for the first time after so long.
Hey there~~
First, I have to get this off my chest...
Sorry I did not thank you the last chapter for your support, Christine-san and all of you readers!!
I was writing through a strong headache so I totally missed it. Sorry.
And I have to thank Killer-san because I seem to learn new words of him every time they comment XD
That aside, wow, that was intense. I actually felt all the characters' feelings while writing. Whew.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, as I did!
Regards.
Author-chan.
