Pokémon Trainer Hero

Chapter 39: The Sports Festival part. 11-The Melancholy of Shoto Todoroki.

Gar ran into the inside of the arena, through the opening he saw Todoroki bolt through. He stopped his run to a walk and looked around the long winding hallways to catch any sight of the missing teen. After a minute of unsuccessful searching, he began to worry, thinking he had passed him back when he ran in or didn't look in any of the rooms(even though most of them were locked). He wanted to turn back to make sure, but decided to give the benefit of the doubt and called out to him.

"Hello? Shoto? Are you here?", he shouted down the echoing corridors, with no response.

He scratched his head and asked aloud, "Where'd you go half n half?...Arceus dammit! That stupid nickname Katskui uses is affecting me too.", he hissed under his breath while grinding his teeth in frustration.

Just before he decided to retrace his steps, he heard very quiet sobs coming not too far from him. He followed the sobs to a group of large trash bins and in the center he saw Todoroki with his knees clasped to his face as soft sobs escaped his lips.

"Sho-?", Gar said in a soft tone while reaching out towards him.

Before his hand could get close or could finish his thought; Todoroki suddenly sprung his head up, slapped his hand, and cowered away from him in a defensive posture.

Gar back away while saying, "Woah woah woah! Easy there ice cube, it's just me."

Todoroki was silent for a minute as he stared at the older teen, and speaking with uncertainty in his voice he asked, "Gar?"

"Yeah yeah. Just me.", Gar shook his head rapidly while slowly coming down on his knees. After Todoroki visibly calmed down He tried to ask him, "Are you-."

"Im…...Im fine.", Todoroki answered back a little too quickly while averting his gaze and trying to put back on his aloof demeanor.

Gar narrows his eyes skeptically and says, "Really? Cause fine doesn't look like you."

"I am. Really. Just go away.", Todoroki says more firmly while shifting his head away from him.

"Nope.", Gar replied.

"Nope?", Todoroki questions the small statement like it was crazy.

"Nope.", Gar affirms while sitting next to the younger teen. "I'm not just gonna leave you here while you're in this kinda state. Something back at the Chariot race set you off before and now it's bothering you, bad, and I want you to talk to me about it.", He told him with a kind yet assertive tone.

Todoroki looked at him in a 'are you joking?' kinda way, but seeing the resolve I'm his eyes confirm his suspicions. So he looked away from the older teen and stated, "I don't want to talk about it. I'm fine."

Gar gave a small sigh before saying, "You're used to being alone, aren't you?", Todoroki immediately freezes up but tries to play the silent game. But Far smirks at getting his number while following up with, "Though so. I used to be just like that."

Gar leans back while letting out a calming breath and closing his eyes as he reminisces to the teen next, "Until the loneliness ate away at me until I was a hollow shell. I needed others around me. Everyone does. That's just a fact of life.", He opens his eyes and looks over at the teen, who was staring at him with What he could describe as his version of stun. "We can put up the whole 'lone wolf' thing for a while, but eventually it becomes…. horrible.", He tells him with a solemn tone.

Todoroki looks at the ground while hugging his knees and says, "I…..don't wanna bother you with my problems."

"You won't. Just talking about your troubles will help.", Gar reassures him.

Todoroki takes a deep breath and holds it for several seconds before finally letting it and the words tumble out, "Well….it went as far back as I can remember. With my father, Endeavor, you know him."

Gar rolls his eyes and says, "Charming fellow. You know his name is just a fancy way of saying 'try hard' and a Normal type pokemon move."

Todoroki couldn't help but crack a smile at that, but then went into a solemn manner and told Gar everything.

"And that's my story.", Todoroki says with a final sigh of relief and exasperation.

Gar cups his hands under his chin while drawing in a long breath. When he releases it he says to the teen without looking at him, "Shoto. You're my friend and I hope you take what I say to you as a friend, but you know what I heard.", Todoroki looks at him inquisitively as he stands up and positions himself in front of him. "Whaaa! I'm Shoto Todoroki, I have such a hard life cause my dad is an ass and I have part of his quirk cause I don't know what genes are! Whaaa!", Gar says in a mocking tone while making fake crying movements with his hands.

Todoroki squints his eyes at him while gripping his pants, and says in a tone boarding in anger, "I literally tell you things of a private nature and you mock me."

"Shoto…..", Gar stood his mocking while taking a deep and concentrated breath, "Look I'm not saying that what you went through was right or justified in any way. It wasn't. What I'm saying is how you're taking on your whole 'Rebel' thing.", Todoroki narrows his eyes while raising an eyebrow. "You make it sound like you're in the worst spot possible. That there's literally no one else like you."

"I didn't mean-.", Todoroki tried to argue back but got cut off by Gar.

"And to an extent, your right.", Har says out of the blue, making Todoroki stop with his mouth open.

"There aren't many kids your age with two living parents or parents they know or older siblings who love them. There aren't many with a father that only puts him through brutal training for their betterment in a sick twisted kinda way. Some of them are drunken bastards and beat their kids for no reason, and I won't get into the girls.", Gar continues with his statement in a serious tone as Todoroki looks on with blank shock. "There aren't many kids who have vast wealth, a warm place to sleep, a decent meal. There aren't many kids who have people around them to ask help from or have the confidence to do so. Or have been given the opportunities like you do.", Gar continues as Todoroki feels a wave of emotions he didn't understand suddenly crash down on him. "And they're certainly aren't many kids with a super powerful quirk. Or are recognized and admired.", Gar continues on while Todoroki hugs himself and averts eye contact. "The Distortion World! There aren't any kids with two powerful quirks! Some kids….don't even have a quirk to speak of, and are left alone, ostracized, alienated, made to be ashamed of themselves.", Gar exclaimed while Todoroki feels these new emotions harbor down on him even harder, while trying to satiate the feeling by squeezing himself.

Gar sees this and taking a deep breath he goes back to a more calm tone and asks while gently holding his shoulder, "Do you see what I'm trying to say now?"

Todoroki feels Gar's gentle and friendly touch. He hears the calm and soothing him of his voice. He even feels when Gar gently pushes aside a lock of his hair behind his ears. Just like how his mother would calm him down. Todoroki looks up from his knees and stares into Gar's soft golden eyes and calm expression on his face. It almost makes him cry.

He immediately feels the weight of unusual emotions fall off him and in a small voice he says with a wiggly shrug, "A little."

"What I'm trying to get across to you is that you have so many things that most people would literally kill to have. And yet you make it out like theirs more than just the abuse and separation from your mother.", Gar explains further.

Todoroki looks back down at the floor, unsure of how to process this new info.

Then Gar throws Todoroki through another loop as he asks him, "Shoto. Do you even want to be a hero?"

Without hesitation he says with a bit of uncertainty, "Of course I do."

Gar looks at him with skepticism before stating, "Then why aren't you putting in the effort like one.", This makes Todoroki freeze up in silence with his mouth open, trying to answer.

Todoroki was baffled to say the least. He had never heard someone say that to him. At least not in the way that Gar had said it. Not of disappointment or dissatisfaction, but of curiosity.

"You want to be a hero, but you're half assing yourself by trying to inhibit your own core values. You think a real hero would only use half of their potential? If they did I can assure you there would be more problems caused than solved because they held back.", Gar explains and more clarity.

"But don't you hold back.", Todoroki tries to argue back with his own skepticism.

Har puts a hand to his face while rolling his closed eyes and says back, "Pokémon battling is not life and death. It's a recreational sport. If Pokémon did battle like their lives depended on it, they would be considered death matches."

Gar gives him an expression that says 'this isn't what we're talking about', and Todoroki goes silent again.

"I mean…Shoto…", Gar says to him, while trying to find the words. After a brief moment of silence he finally speaks. "Think about all the heroes with not so good quirks. Their still heroes because they used what they had and used it all. They never held back what they did, what they are. And neither should you. If you do...then your hero career is going to be very short lived.", He tells him in full honestly.

Todoroki feels the weight of his words in full clarity, and it weighs down on him once more to the point where a breath is caught in his throat. But still trying to hold strong with his mind a buzz with thoughts, he fights back with one last statement.

"You don't understand.", Todoroki finally squeaks out. "This quirk...it's a curse. It's not just fire, it's his fire! It's my father's fire!", He says frantically while looking down at his right hand. "The same fire that took my brother and mother away.", He finishes up in a solemn tone while dropping his head.

Everything is silent between the two for a long time. Todoroki didn't want this conversation to continue on. All these new feels and thoughts hurt as they swarmed around and crushed his soul. He wishes that this never happened and it was just as it was before. He had gotten used to it before, it was bearable, and he had grown used to and accustomed to it. But then Todoroki was pulled out of his wishes with one word.

"Shoto.", Gar said to him in a soft tone. Just like his mother would. "Your quirk is not a curse. It is a part of you. It's what makes you who you are. And it's not his fire either."

"But-.", Todoroki brought up his head while trying to fight back in a frenzy of emotional panic, but Gar cut him off.

"Your fire power may have come from your dad, but it's not his flames in your body. It's your fire in your body.", He tells the younger teen, who looks at him with wide eyes. "So own it like it is.", He says with a determined tone and posture.

Todoroki stays silent as he laments to himself about all that was said. He's never thought of it like that or given it any thought at all.

He sighs dejectedly and replies, "I….don't know if I can. I've spent so long not using it to go against my dad. I don't know if I have a reason to own it."

"You said your dad wanted to craft you into someone who would topple All Might.", Gar asked him and got a small nod in return. "You're not doing that much, which is good, but if you need a reason to use it then use it to best him."

Todoroki cocked an eyebrow in confusion and asked back, "What do you mean?"

"I mean use "his'' fire against him. Use it to be better than him. Use it to be everything that Endeavor isn't and can't be, cause you can.", Gar exclaimed with excitement in his voice.

Shoto was silent as he listened to his words with a new found opening. Almost as if black curtains were pulled out from his face and he could finally see a light he had been looking for. It was a feeling of pure surrealism, like riding a bike for the first time without falling down.

As he was thinking to himself, he was pulled out of his mind when he felt Gar's hand on his shoulder. He looked to the teen with an inquisitive look as he said, "Life is a long road full of new doors to open. The only one that can stop you from progressing and changing, is you."

Todoroki didn't know what to do from there. He looked at the ground, the trash bins, the walls, the hallway as if trying to find some kind of answer to a question he didn't have yet.

Already at his utmost limit in every regard, the only thing he could do was slump his head onto the older teens and ask, "How do you know all this?"

Gar gave a slight chuckle and replied, "Let's just say I've opened a lot of doors in my life, and I've still got many more to open. And so do you. So don't think that what you are now is the end-all-be-all."

Without warning, Todoroki shifts his body in front of Gar and immediately grabs him! Gar initially panics, but calms down when he feels Todoroki's headrest against his chest and hands grip the back of his sweatshirt. In what he could assume was a hug. Or at least a Todoroki version of a hug. They sat like that for a minute before Todoroki crisis out one word.

"Thank you."

Gar smiles, and pulls the younger teen into his body and hugs him back. They both sit there in each other's embrace with a comforting silence engulfing them. With The only other sound coming from Todoroki's soft sobs and Gar moving the material of his shirt as he rubbed his back.

Hey Everyone, sorry to say this, but another problem has occurred with my computer, but luckily its an easy fix and should be resolved quick. Once I get in contact with the guy Ill drop it off to him and he'll have it fixed in a day. So If you see that I miss a day or two on my week long upload string, then you know why. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy all my new chapters.