Title: Evening of Construct

Rated: T

Summary: Shouto was frustrated with the draw result from his battle practice, and decided to consult his friends

Characters: Todoroki Shouto, Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku

Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia

Notes: I wanted to make a scene of Shouto with Midoriya and Bakugou and I just decided on this one. This scene takes place in anime season 5, the evening after battle drill with class 1-B. I thought Shouto must be extremely frustrated that he was knocked out during the fight and unable to achieve the best result while Bakugou and Midoriya ended up winning, so he sought advice from them on how to improve.

Todoroki found himself at quite an unease that evening.

It was the evening after the battle practice drill with Class B that took place in Ground Gamma. And while both Midoriya and Bakugou had scored wins at the practice drill – Todoroki was the only one who had scored a draw. That result was far from what he expected.

He was strong enough. Looking at his quirk alone, he had enough offensive power to take down the whole opposing team, Iida had enough mobility, Shoji was an excellent scout, and Ojiro was a capable close-combat fighter.

And yet, they were completely nullified. He chose a wrong move against opponents who clearly had seen him fight plenty of times before. They saw right through him and predicted that he would use ice as the opening move. That mistake alone cost them the victory they could have rightfully earned. It was just a practice but he couldn't get the frustration out of his mind, especially after seeing both of his friends' results after that.

Bakugou had always been impressive in individual combats, Todoroki knew. But up until today Todoroki had never seen how his friend could become such a capable leader too. He scored a complete, overwhelming victory for his team without any unnecessary casualties, all due to his quick thinking and decision making.

And Midoriya… he was pretty shaky in that battle earlier, but he had a new form of quirk, what was that? Something that looked like a black whip. He said it's just an extension of his quirk, but it was completely different to Midoriya's previously known quirk, and it definitely seemed like an ability to watch out for.

Todoroki sighed. Both Bakugou and Midoriya had come so far from the first time they were enrolled in this academy. Back then, he completely outclassed them. But this time, it seemed like he was the only one falling behind.

"That's not true," Midoriya said, facing Todoroki over a cup of coffee in their common room. They were having a post mortem debrief session of their previous battle drill this afternoon. The others have commented on how come they weren't even the least bit tired to keep talking about school work even this late, but Todoroki only shrugged them off. He needed this session to calm his mind down.

"Todoroki-kun, the flames you produced this afternoon was super great! We could feel the heat all the way from the spectators' platform, you know."

"Ah… right," said Todoroki, responding to Midoriya's compliment almost half-heartedly. "I did try to go over my limit and produce more flames. It didn't go like I expected, though."

"This talk ain't going nowhere," Bakugou, who had been sitting quietly beside Midoriya with a bored look on his face, suddenly slammed his fist on the table. His patience, which was always on thin ice, already running out after five minutes of debrief session.

"Kacchan!"

"Look, you know where your weaknesses are. Now go over them already, you Two-Toned Bastard."

"You don't need to call him that…"

"Ah…" Todoroki stared briefly at Bakugou with his usual aloofness, then averted his gaze back down to his palms. "Right. First is I depend to much on my ice attacks as preemptive strikes. That's my critical mistake. I'm just not as used to my left side yet."

"That's obvious, but there's another one," said Bakugou, and this time, both Midoriya and Todoroki were eyeing him. A hint of curiosity passed over Todoroki's usual impassive face.

"What? Spill it."

Bakugou threw him a sour look before continuing.

"I told you this during the UA Sports Festival final back then, but I'll say it again. Really, Two-Toned… You suck at hand-to-hand combat."

"Ah.."

Bakugou's words prompted Todoroki's memories of the sports festival just at the start of this school year. He DID say something like that during the final match, but to be honest, Todoroki didn't remember much of it. All he remembered was Midoriya yelling to him "Isn't it your power?" before he finally released his fire, breaking his own vow that he would never use fire in battle. Ever since then, his head was jumbled and his feelings were all over the place with a lot of issues that he needed to fix – he wasn't even paying attention to the battles itself. Of course he would lose the final battle like that.

"You might have said something like that," Todoroki recalled, still without a change in his expression.

"I DID say something like that, dammit!" Bakugou's temper once again rose to the surface as he slammed his hand to the table. "You were too out-of-place to remember it anyway! Your quirk is strong, that's why your movements are very reckless! Today that Steel Bastard definitely used it to his advantage, and that's why you lost!" Todoroki looked a bit shaken at the revelation.

Again, Bakugou's words pulled something from the back of Todoroki's mind.

Hosu city. A dark, cramped alley. Three bodies on the ground. And an obvious menacing figure with swords unsheathed coming at him, almost took his life.

"Wait… that's something the Hero-killer said to me too," he said, and both Midoriya and Bakugou were silent at their friend's remark.

"Stain…?"

"Yeah… during that time we fought him to save Iida," Todoroki said it to Midoriya specifically this time. "It's exactly like what Bakugou said… I had reckless movement because I depended too much on my quirk." They didn't say anything for a while. It did feel a bit strange to have an enemy who almost killed him give out the exact same advice as his friend. Though of course, the context of both had been very different.

"Then you know what to do about it, bastard," Bakugou said, breaking the silence. Todoroki looked at him, unsure what his friend meant.

"Fight me. Tomorrow, bare-handed. Use your quirk only for hand-to-hand combat and not area attack. This nerd here can be the referee," Bakugou pointed to Midoriya.

"Me?"

"Why? I'm sure you have Two-Toned's analysis in that notebook of yours, right? You should note more of his weaknesses tomorrow too," said Bakugou. "Put that nerdy knowledge of yours to good use."

"No… not that I mind," said Midoriya, scratching his nose.

"Fine… then we find an empty practice room tomorrow," said Bakugou, and he rose up from his seat. "I'm going to sleep."

"Yeah. Good night, Kacchan."

"Midoriya," said Todoroki, after Bakugou had disappeared from their line of sight. "Let's go out for a bit. I need fresh air."

The green-haired boy nodded. Wordlessly, they both rose up from their seats and headed toward the entrance to the front porch.

"I have a lot of things to work on," Todoroki said as they both settled down on the bench in the front yard, more to himself than to Midoriya. He balled his left hand into a fist, deep in thought. "I'm not happy with the result today, but… it did help me to see a lot of my weaknesses."

"Well if you say it that way… I also have a lot to improve as well," Midoriya replied. "Don't be so hard on yourself. We'll get there."

"Bakugou's amazing though."

"You can say that again," Midoriya said, sounding like a mixture between admiration and resignation. "His quirk, ability, and judgment are top notch. He learns fast too. He's probably the best in our year in terms of combat ability. He's not good with coordination skills before but he's really working on it now."

"So if we want to aim for the top, Bakugou is the mark, huh?"

"What are you saying, Todoroki-kun? You are the ceiling mark for a lot of students to be surpassed. I'm sure Kacchan thinks so too."

"Ah.. well the result today doesn't say so though."

"Today is today. Tomorrow could be different."

"Yeah…," Todoroki clasped and unclasped his left fist. He still couldn't bring himself to calm down. There were so many weaknesses to overcome - his ingrained instincts to use ice over fire, control over his left side, close combat abilities, coordination skills… It's a long way to become a pro hero.

"That day in the USJ, when the League of Villains attacked us the first time… remember Aizawa-sensei said… that we cannot become a pro hero with just one trick? It's painfully obvious to me now." He paused. "I thought my ice was unbeatable up until this point, I never prepared anything in case the enemies could overcome it. I was too arrogant."

"Um… to be honest, I never think you are," Midoriya's words brought Todoroki out of his mind. "There are just… moments like that, you know? Sometimes, something is ingrained so deeply in our minds and it became like a habit that kind of… shackled us. Like, you know how I primarily used my fists before? It was also because of an ingrained instinct. Then I had to switch to Shoot Style because I did so much damage to my arms in such a short time. I couldn't see clearly back then even though it was so obvious, but – it's just part of learning. And if it's you, Todoroki-kun, I'm sure you'll master it in no time."

"Midoriya…"

"Ah, and I'll help you too! Both me and Kacchan will."

"I had no idea you could say something so embarrassing so confidently." Todoroki watched as Midoriya's face changed to an obvious red.

"S-Sorry! It's that embarassing..? S-sorry, I mean…,"

"I'm joking," Todoroki gave a slight smile, seeing his friend's flustered face. "Thanks for saying it. I'm sure tomorrow will be a long day though. We should probably… go in and rest." Todoroki stood up, eyeing the green-haired boy who was still obviously feeling embarrassed by his comments.

He might have joked about it, but he was truly grateful to have Midoriya as his friend. If only that day on the sports festival Midoriya didn't insist to give him a good scolding over how ridiculous he was behaving, who knew how he would have turned out now. He probably would still be swallowed by his resentment, not caring a bit about who he hurt, as long as he could get back at his father.

Even now, Todoroki couldn't lie about it. That feeling of resentment was still there, no matter how much he tried to overcome it. After all, that man had mistreated all of his family. It was his father's fault that the only thing he remembered of his childhood was his mother crying, and him getting beaten senseless as he tried to master his power. After all... who wouldn't hate their power after all that beating? The only thing that kept him on his toes back then was his desire to annoy his father by refusing completely to use fire. Even the sight of his own fire disgusted him. That was, until Midoriya made him realize that the only thing holding him back was an imaginary prison inside his mind.

The past couldn't be erased that easily. He knew this better than anyone. Wounds will heal and damages will be repaired, but the scars and shadows will continue to remain for the long years to come. But at least, now Todoroki no longer felt the crawling hatred and disgust he used to feel when he brought out his fire. He no longer hated his left side when he looked in the mirror because of how much resemblance he had with his father. He never wanted to smash a mirror to a million pieces again every time he happened to catch his reflection. This power was part of him, he inherited it from his father. But yes, it was his own power. And he was his own person.

"Yeah sure," Midoriya also rose up from the bench. His voice brought Todoroki back to the present. "Let's go!"