As much as Toph has been looking forward to this moment, she feels hollowed out that morning. It's not a good way to start the entrance exam, but it's the truth. And there's nothing that the Todorokis could do to fix it. She has never been more certain of her future until now, and yet it's still blatantly, awfully marred by the absence of the Water Hose team. It's only been a few days, so maybe she'll get used to the gap in her life with time.
For now, it's less complicated to pretend the hole in her heart isn't there.
Toph shuffles into an enormous auditorium alongside her best friend, letting his excitement leak into her own state of mind. Inasa Yoarashi is a force of nature on his own, and Toph falls into his whirlwind of enthusiasm like a pebble in a landslide. "Man, look at all these hot-blooded hero hopefuls!" Inasa must be grinning like mad. "I just love it. We're gonna be heroes, Toph! Heroes!"
She breaks into a grin, something effortless around Inasa. "Hot-blooded? That's a strange way to put it."
"But it works, Toph. That's what you have to be, to be a hero! Endeavor, All Might—they love justice! They're passionate! They'll do anything to win! It's their hot-blooded-ness that makes them the greatest!" He hooks an arm around her in a brief hug. "And who's more passionate than us?! No one! You're gonna do great!"
"So will you," Toph rolls her eyes. Now that the written exam is over, they're going to be briefed on the rules of the practical exam. She lets Inasa find her seat assignment, though Toph was given a tablet with access to all the information she needed in braille. "Hey," she says warningly, catching his elbow before he leaves. "I dunno what the test will be, but you know—"
"Aw, c'mon Toph! You know me!" Inasa insists. "I'll stay out of your zone, and you'll stay outta mine! Easy-peasy, you'll know I'm near if the wind's too hard!"
"We're judged separately, so don't count on me to save your ass," Toph reminds him anyway. She's not even sure how the exam works, but better safe than sorry.
"If only my ass were that lucky," he quips back.
"...What?" Toph asks after a perplexed moment.
"I-I'm kidding, Toph!" Inasa laughs loudly. He squeezes her hand once before twittering off to his place like a bird. He's somewhere off eight or nine rows below her, and parts with an excited "Good luck!" that Toph returns, albeit much quieter.
Her face is definitely still red. Toph would rather not examine the reasons behind it.
The auditorium very noisy, but that's expected with over a thousand students in one room. Toph is much better at navigating in crowds these days, though, and she can pick out Twinkletoes's eager chatter with the person next to him. Actually, he's not the only one Toph can pick out. Up in the right corner of the room is a deep, sharp tone, but what really gives it away as Tenya Iida is the fact that he's giving bossy orders to random people around him.
She should've expected Iida to go to UA. Toph isn't sure why he didn't go through the recommended students exam, though. Maybe he wanted to prove himself the normal way, like Toph. Endeavor couldn't give a recommendation for another student in the same year as Shouto, but he could have had his agency 'distinguish' her. The whole idea feels like a cop-out to Toph, because there were only a handful of students tested at a time, and (maybe arrogantly) Toph think it'd be too easy to stand out with so little competition. The normal exam was harder—not just because the practical portion was a free for all among hundreds, but because her written exam was weighed heavily too. Toph's scores are kind of average, but she'd been studying a lot in the weeks before the exam (plus that's all Todoroki-san allowed her to do once she moved in). And as for the practical portion… well, Toph's a good fighter, but she's never actually distinguished herself in a legal or official capacity. Now's as good a time as any.
Either way, Toph dismisses Iida—this is exam day, and Toph can feel a visceral need to crush all the competition rise in her chest.
"Beifong?" Someone says suddenly, stopping at the empty seat beside her. Toph lights up.
"Shinsou," she greets, holding out a fist. He fist-bumps her and sits down, fidgeting. They must arranged by school districts. "What'd you think of the written test?" she asks, knowing that mentioning the practical exam right now would probably turn him into a nervous wreck. They both now she's a better physical fighter than him, and he's not one of the people Toph needs to totally annihilate.
"Not too bad," he admits, scratching his neck. "I think I did fine…" He clears his throat. "Um. Sorry about… telling Endeavor," he adds lamely.
Toph just shakes her head. She last saw Shinsou at the Izumis' funeral just four days ago, and it hadn't been the right time to confront him about the whole Quirk Rumble thing. Now's not the time either, but she reassures him anyway. "It's already done. I'm not mad about it."
He relaxes minutely beside her. "Are you in trouble?"
"Oh yeah," Toph reveals with a grimace. "I'll tell you about it later," she promises. The less time she spends thinking about the Izumis and the Todorokis, the better she'll be able to focus on the exam.
If she didn't have the exam to focus on right now, Toph thinks she might just shrivel up and turn to dust.
Kouta didn't attend his parents' funeral.
Toph glares at her desk, nostrils flaring. Man. She can't afford to keep flip-flopping through emotions like this, it's messed up. Shinsou elbows her roughly, and eases the tension building in her temples a little. "Let's meet after the exam," he suggests.
"Can't," Toph mutters back, though she appreciates the gesture. "But I'll text you."
Just then Present Mic enters the room, screaming, and the majority of students quiets down as he enthusiastically explains the guidelines of the test, which is basically:
Robots, each with different point values. Ten minutes to gain as many points as possible.
That's it? Toph's a little surprised.
Shinsou… is not well. By the end of the explanation, his heart beat is so erratic Toph has to stop listening for it. "We're in different locations," he says, and she has to give it to the guy—Shinsou sounds pretty unaffected when he speaks. "I guess they trying to avoid biases among students that know each other. You're in Battle City A, I'm in C… I'm so fucked," he groans, head in his hands. "Robots. I can't even…"
She reaches out and holds his shoulder firmly. "You've always known it was going to be harder for you to reach your goals… This is just the first step."
"C'mon Toph," he says, bitterness leaking into his tone. "You're probably going to max out the point-count system. If this is the first step, I've already—already failed. This exam isn't meant for me—"
"This exam is meant for heroes," Toph retorts, brow furrowing. Like you, she thinks.
"Which is why it doesn't make any sense," Shinsou mutters angrily. As he speaks, Tenya Iida leaps to his feet to shout a question at Present Mic about zero-pointers.
"What do you mean?" Toph raises her eyebrows, focusing on Shinsou. Iida is reprimanding someone for muttering too loudly—yeesh.
The tired boy shakes his head. "I dunno, I didn't expect UA to be just for the flashy villain-fighting heroes. Over 60% of heroes are classified as rescue heroes, so I though..." He huffs, folding his arms. "Forget it. It was just wishful thinking." Shinsou admits dismissively.
But Toph isn't so sure anymore. "You're right," She frowns thoughtfully. "I mean, how often does the average hero go up against anything like this?" Her mind drifts to Muscular, the S-Class villain that showed up out of nowhere. The Izumis were prepared, but an opponent like that had been a statistical anomaly. "And... it's never just about stopping the villains," Toph adds softly. "There's always more at stake."
Shinsou is quiet, but he seems to pick up on what she's thinking of. "A real hero doesn't just stop villains," he agrees in a subdued tone. "...Maybe there's more to this exam then getting points." He muses, but then he gives a heavy sigh. "Even then, I'm not cut out for something so flashy. I don't mean to be jealous or anything, but—"
"I know, I really do have a good quirk for this," Toph cuts in brusquely. She might even get some metal-bending to work on their opponents, but it'll depend on how thickly they robots are armored. "That doesn't mean you'll fail. Don't sell yourself short, Snoozles, we're both going to become heroes."
"Could I borrow your confidence for a while?" Shinsou laughs half-heartedly, getting to his feet with the rest of the students.
"Only if you give me your resting bitch face," Toph replies, following him. "If I could scare off everyone with a look, I'd be unstoppable."
"Exactly why I can't share the secret," Shinsou points out solemnly. "No one human should hold such immense power."
Toph flashes him a grin, and whacks him on the back heartily. "Good luck, ya meathead. Don't fall asleep during the test."
He snorts. "I'd tell you the same, but I'd rather take all the luck I can get. Go break a leg so I can steal your spot."
Toph's grin turns sharp. "Oh, you are lucky. If we were in the same city I'd let a zero-pointer crush you."
"Ha ha," he deadpans. "I'm so scared. If only you could see me face, you'd know how intimidating you are." He cackles as Toph takes a swipe at him, missing him by a hair. "Later, Beifong."
Toph just smiles to herself as they part ways. Present Mic is corralling students into the entry point for City A, and she takes a moment to stretch her arms and legs. Funny enough, Inasa is in the same city as her, but he doesn't bother approaching. He's talking to someone loudly about his favorite passionate hero—currently he's into Hawks, no surprise there—but Toph does her best to pull her attention away.
The city is built from mostly concrete, and she's already close enough to identify the various robots clambering around. The chatter falls away, leaving only the land and Toph's feet. There's hundreds of them to fight, if she has the mobility to reach them. Some are already climbing towers, crumbling fake office buildings here and there.
She's just thinking about how many structures Cementoss has built for the school when Present Mic screeches, "Okay, START!"
The earthbender lets loose, jettisoning forward when the ground pushes under her feet. Some are slow to start, but not many. Inasa's already gone from her sight and there's a series of crackling explosions on her left quickly propelling ahead. Whoever it is, they're a nuisance. Their quirk is so loud they should be cited for noise pollution.
Toph does her best to map out the streets before her, and the robots approaching. Her feet slam downward, and the earth juts up in a pointed pillar, directly through the center of a 2-point bot.
Oh, Toph realizes with great relish. The pillar, simply formed from Cementoss's pavement, cuts through the machine like a knife through butter. She barrels through another bot with a boulder. Takes out a three-pointer with the same boulder, flinging it back like an especially unwieldy boomerang. The robots might be big and clunky, but they're practically hollow.
This is probably as close to euphoria as Toph's ever been. Saying that her quirk was a good fit for this test was an understatement.
Toph beams like a maniac, pummeling robots left and right. She loses track after twenty points, too busy pulling up a sidewalk to literally pull the ground out from under a few bots. The only thing holding her back from completely dominating the city is the other examinees, fluttering around with all the effectiveness of fruit flies. She pauses one attack to redirect a pillar towards a building, where a support beam was compromised.
"Move, idiots!" Toph barks at two strangers, bumbling around under the shadow of an unsafe building. They begin to scramble out of the danger zone, but Toph tears off the arm of a three-pointer and wedges it against the crumbling edifice just to be safe.
Toph wipes dust from her face and moves on. There's four more bots in the next alley, and Toph dashes off with a huge grin on her face. She's mostly been using earthbending to hit the robots from a distance, but she's been itching to test out her fists against metal. So she lets a one-pointer in close, barely dodging its arm swinging towards her. As Toph moves, she gives the bot a few knocks with her palms, testing out the tinny, teeth-vibrating shockwaves it creates.
The bot reaches for her with a clawed leg, and Toph side-steps it to bring its center mass within range. Not even hesitating, she punches with her fist—feeling, warping, bending the metal in the same movement—and the bot staggers and freezes with her arm up to the elbow in its wiring. Ow, okay, it's a little more brittle than Toph would prefer.
Yanking her arm out, Toph slams it downward, then backward, manhandling the bot into a manageable hunk of sparking metal. Before her are more bots, but other examinees are quickly trying to confront them.
Then they activate the zero-pointer.
Toph didn't notice it, laying dormant and half-concealed by a building, but it's unfolding itself now, large enough to shake the earth. On the other side of the city there's another, but it's too far to worry about.
It's much, much larger that the other robots, towering over the highest building. But Toph can feel its shape. It's built sturdier, but the material is the same. Toph doesn't have time to metal-bend the machine, there's only four or five minutes left in the test. She'd need to build up a lot of force with a boulder to bring it down; not worth the energy.
Examinees begin to warn each other and retreat to other roads, but the zero-pointer is fast. She can't feel Inasa's wind, so she assumes he's clustered with other examinees on the far side of the city.
There's still bots she wants to take down herself in this street, and several students are having trouble maneuvering around the broken robots and rubble. Toph slams her hands down, forcing hunks of earth to shift and push away rubble to clear more pathways. Someone shouts a battle cry in the distance, still fighting, but the zero-pointer's so high up, it'll probably knock them down before they can reach its body. Besides, he's going for the smaller bots, trying to take them out before the zero-pointer reaches him. Still, the robot's reach was far. He'll get trapped sooner or later.
Just to prove her point, the zero-pointer punches the earth, blowing dust and rubble everywhere. If someone hasn't been hit already, they will be if the bot isn't stopped.
But who said Toph had to be close enough to reach its head? And who says she needs to use a boulder?
She has a perfectly sturdy projectile right at her feet.
Toph takes a deep breath. Rears back—
BANG!
She front-kicks the remnants of one-pointer down the street with wicked force, shooting it like a bullet from a gun. The projectile nicks two smaller bots, knocking them out of commission—and slowing it down. The spear-shaped bot still has enough force to pierce through the outer shell of the zero-pointer, but it only staggers back a little.
"Shit," Toph scowls. Well, she can't just half-ass it like that. Toph dashes forward, foot aching like a bitch. She kicks up a chunk of rubble created by the zero-pointer and vaults it into the same spot—it slams against the metal spear and finally tears the zero-point bot into two.
"What the FUCK?!" A boy screams. "Don't take my kills, you showboat!"
"But it's not worth anything?!" Toph yells back, breaking off to the left to tackle more two-pointers. The zero-pointer took a lot of her energy, exhaustion creeping over her now. Definitely not worth the effort, but now there were eight bots in the street and only one person left to fight over the points.
She thinks the boy hollers back, but then he's right in front of her, blowing up one of the two pointers before she can. Toph tears apart the other bot before he can reach it.
"Out of my way!"
"Out of my way!" Toph shrieks, finally distracted enough to ignore a robot for the explosion kid.
"TIME'S UP!" Present Mic bellows, and an alarm echoes over the demolished city.
"FUCK!" The boy howls.
Toph slumps, letting herself lean against some rubble and just breath. How many points was it overall? She took down at least forty bots, but Toph doesn't remember what type each one was. "Ow," she mutters to herself, lifting her right foot. The adrenaline's wearing off now, and not only her foot hurts. Her arms ache fiercely, her knuckles are raw and her shoulders burn. But her foot is the worst. It can't be broken, she reasons, I was still running on it for a minute or two.
"You!" A low voice growls at her. The explosion boy stalks towards Toph. Funny, his voice is kinda familiar, but she doesn't know anyone with a quirk like his.
"What?" Toph's eyes narrow, and she lets her right heel press against the ground—ow, no, bad Toph.
"The fuck was that with the zero-pointer?!" Suddenly he snatches the front of her shirt, lifting her up towards him. "Trying to show me up, you extra?!"
Toph staggers, barely keeping her footing. "Extra?! Get off me, dickhead!" She braces her forearm over his chest, pushing across his collarbone to create some breathing room. Ow, ow, ow, her hands hurt. "Let go of me!" Suddenly the boy freezes.
"Are you blind?!" He screams at her.
"Are you deaf?! I said let go!" Toph shrieks right back. Why does he smell like a bakery?
"How the fuck are you even allowed in this test, huh?!"
Wow. Fuck this guy. She can hear other students approaching, and Toph does not care. She switches her grip, pulling him close—oh wow he really does smell sweet—and chomps down on the back of his hand.
"AHH! You bitch!" He shoves her back, and Toph actually does fall this time rather than put pressure on her foot. "You fucking bit me? What the hell are you?!"
"Better than you, that's for sure," Toph hisses, and then a burst of light wind ruffles her bangs. Inasa touches down just a few meters away. Explosion boy makes a choking sound.
"Toph!" Inasa cheers. "Hey! Oh my gosh you broke your foot!"
"Did not," Toph hobbles to her feet. Her shirt's all damp now, what's that about? Was that from Explodo-boy?
"YOU! You're that water freak! From the beach!" The strangers points accusingly at Inasa. "I'll kill you!"
"Ah—" Inasa makes an odd noise. "Uhh nooo…. Maybe… yes-sorry-but-that's-a-cool-quirk-though?"
"Of course it is, you extra!" The boy howls. Inasa doesn't flinch, but he does laugh nervously, stepping in front of Toph. "Whatever! Fuck this!" he growls, stomping off.
Toph shoves the hair out of her sweaty face, reaching out to brace herself against Inasa. "Is my foot really broken?" She asks the airbender tiredly.
"I think so!" Inasa exclaims. "But no worries! Recovery Girl can fix you!"
"Did she already heal you?" Toph asks, hobbling alongside him. "You don't seem hurt at all."
"Ah, no—" Inasa huffs, "Guess I was more careful than you, eh? That's no surprise."
His tone is off, somehow, but Toph can't figure out why. Then Recovery Girl smacks a kiss on her leg, and Toph's too tired to care.
In the control room amongst UA's teachers sits Aizawa, glaring morosely at the destruction on the screens. The exam has just finished, but there's always the most calamity in the last moment of the test. Some boy in a teal tracksuit obliterated a zero-pointer in one punch, shattering his limbs. And a girl split a zero-pointer in half, though it took longer and she also manages to crush her foot.
"The eggs look promising this year," Kayama clasps her hands together in delight. "Such passion!"
"That's one word for it," Aizawa muses. I'd call it hubris, he thinks, eyeing the short girl in City A. Or idiocy, he adds, noting the trembling boy in a tracksuit.
Vlad King is staring avidly at footage from City C, grinning at the rescue work of a lanky student. Aizawa narrows his eyes at the fellow teacher. He's had his eye on a few in City C too. This is a fairly new experience, the two of them having to negotiate over which student goes to which class. Aizawa usually doesn't care so much... no, he still doesn't care, what is he thinking?
"Oi, oi, what're they doing?" Cementoss says worriedly, pointing at City A again. A blond boy is confronting the earth girl, grabbing the front of her shirt. She pushes back, yelling—and then bites him.
The argument breaks up before it devolves further, but Aizawa isn't impressed. He awarded rescue points for her actions during the test, but he almost wants to take it back now. At least he didn't give any rescue points to the blond. Still, Aizawa knows better. He can't continue to evaluate the students once the ten minutes are up.
The Erasure Hero flips through a tablet of student files, finding the earth girl, Toph Beifong, and the explosion boy, Katsuki Bakugou. I guess I'll just have to evaluate them in class, he decides, placing marks on each of their files. After another moment, he flips to City B and highlights Izuku Midoriya as well. He's sensing a pattern. Hope I get the purple kid too, he seems reasonable.
"Oh, what did you think of Young—uh, Mido-ri-ya?" All Might asks out of the blue, reading out the student's name with exaggerated slowness. "Quite an interesting student, r-right?"
Aizawa doesn't have any idea why All Might looks so awkward, but he also does not care at all. He glances at the student's file apathetically. "He's one of only two students that successfully took down a zero-point robot," Aizawa states the obvious.
"Yes! He is! Very unusual for more than one student to confront that obstacle to begin with—"
"At least the girl didn't shatter three limbs to do it," He grumbles, cutting off the number one hero. "He better shape up. I don't coddle my students."
Eraserhead realizes his words just as it dawns on All Might, and the hero grins blindingly, still an effective weapon in his smaller form. "Oh! You're already thinking about which ones will be in your class!"
Aizawa stares at All Might expressionlessly, making the blonde man falter. Internally, though, Aizawa's just annoyed at being called out.
"HA HA HA!" All Might's deep laughter echoes through the house, startling Fuyumi.
"Are you kidding me?" Toph screeches from the kitchen. "They sent a hologram?!"
"It's All Might though!" Natsuo exclaims in sinister delight as Fuyumi rushes in. "Wait, wait, let's wait till Dad's home—" Fuyumi shoots the white-haired boy a disapproving look.
"I'm not waiting so you can all see something," Toph rolls her eyes, smacking the projector again to resume the message. "Everyone shut it."
"HA HA HA! TOPH BEIFONG!" The All Might projection addresses the girl. Fuyumi watches Toph from the corner of her eye, pleased by the wonder emerging on the teen's face though she quickly tries to conceal it. "Congratulations young lady! You performed spectacularly in the exam, scoring sixty villain points! That alone would put you in the Top Ten! But WAIT! There's MORE!—Ah," All Might seems to falter after hearing something off-screen, as the image switches to footage from the exam.
Natsuo and Shouto perk up in interest, quietly explaining to Toph what they're seeing.
All Might continues. "Blind? Shouldn't we just send an audio recordin—? If you say so... Well! Throughout the exam, Young Beifong, you showed a keen awareness of your fellow students, keeping them from harm's way! And, though your quirk can cause a great deal of destruction, you did minimal damage to the city with it, choosing to exploit existing rubble and clearing paths for others! Brilliant work!" He laughs again as the footage rolls, and Fuyumi lets out an audible gasp as a huge robot appears at the end of the street. "And let's not forget your admirable take-down of the zero-pointer! But—you may be asking yourself—none of that got you any points!
"But you would be WRONG! Because you see…" he pauses dramatically, and Natsuo rolls his eyes. "We also award RESCUE POINTS!"
"Is he always so excited?" Toph makes a face, carefully lowering the volume on the projector.
"You should be excited!" Natsuo grins at the two younger kids. "Fuyumi, you missed Shouto's letter, he's in class 1-A!" He informs her.
"That's amazing," Fuyumi smiles at Shouto, and he ducks his head.
"That's right, rescue points! And for your deeds, we've awards you TWENTY more points, giving you a total of EIGHTY POINTS! That places you at the very top of the exam! YOUNG BEIFONG, WELCOME TO CLASS 1-A! WELCOME TO YOUR HERO ACADEMIA!" All Might strikes a dramatic pose. Fuyumi's heart is pounding at the intensity. What a hero.
Toph shuts off the projector as soon as he gets the words out, startling Fuyumi again. Natsuo makes a noise of complaint. "Alright, that's enough yelling for me." She flashes a grin and elbows Shouto. "Class 1-A, huh?"
"Congratulations," Shouto smiles back.
"AHH! I'm so proud of you guys!" Natsuo cackles gathering both of them into a hug. "Good luck at UA, brats!" Toph sticks out her tongue, but Shouto leans into the embrace.
Fuyumi smiles behind her fingers. She wishes Dad were here to congratulate them, though she's not sure how receptive Shouto would be. Or how nice Dad would behave, now that All Might's apparently teaching at his alma mater. But either way, he's not in the house this evening. Her brothers don't know, but Enji did confide in Fuyumi about his periodic absences when they first began, and she's tremendously grateful for the trust.
She takes out her phone, figuring a text message wouldn't be too disruptive. Toph & Shouto are in 1-A together! Fuyumi hits send before she can second-guess herself. She takes a picture of the two kids (and Natsuo harassing them) and sends it too.
The reply comes back a few minutes later as Fuyumi sorts through the fridge.
Good. Please print that picture for her.
Of course! Fuyumi replies. Mom's going to be so proud.
"You're in 1-B."
Inasa gulps down his anxiety. There's no way to miss the disappointment in her tone. "Uh, yep! But that's okay, I'm super-glad you have Shouto with you! I'll be just down the hall—we'll probably have joint training with your clas—"
"Twinkletoes," Toph sighs. "What happened during the test?"
He balks, but they're talking on the phone so she can't notice it. "What do you mean? I smashed a bunch of robots for points!"
"How many points?"
The airbender presses his lips together at the question. Of course Toph could tell. It's Toph. He tried to stay away from her area during the test—and he tried his best during the test as well! He tried. He really did. But in the end he barely scraped by with enough points to make it into the hero course, a measly thirty-five.
"Inasa," Toph says in a low voice. "Tell me what's wrong. Please."
"It's—" But the words are caught in his throat. He hasn't been able to articulate the problem for a while now. And in the exam, the way the robots crumbled buildings, rattled the earth—he remembers the sparks crackling to life in Bakugou's hands, the sun beating down on his back. "It's just…"
it wasn't just the water that called to Inasa these days.
There had been twelve other children besides Inasa and Toph in Cato Hospital. None of them had any lasting injuries from the experiments. But they all remembered what they went through. There was no physical injuries to any of the kids. But Inasa remembered being hurt. He remembers being put back together, again and again.
And Inasa isn't supposed to know, but several of the kids were having issues with their quirks, even years later. They were too scared to use them, or in some cases, they simply didn't work anymore. Just because they were put back together doesn't mean it was done properly.
Inasa knows what he is. And he doesn't deserve what he'd been given. Not while he knew the cost.
He wants to be a hero so badly. But not like this. Never like this. He pushes it down, suppressed the unnaturalness of his actions whenever he can. And his air quirk is suffering because of it.
Inasa runs a hand over his face, sighing. "It's just bad luck, Toph," he huffs. "I wasn't as strong against those things as I thought I'd be!"
After a moment of tense silence Toph relents, sighing dramatically. "I was looking forward to being in your class, Airhead!" She admits mournfully. "You better catch up to me, Yoarashi, because I'm not going to wait around for you."
Inasa laughs freely, always up for the challenge. Though, a part of him is thankful he's not in Toph's class. The more she saw of his quirk, the more likely she is to notice how odd it's been acting. "At least you know Shouto in your class, right? You won't be alone!"
"Uh huh. Neither will you," Toph says dryly.
"Eh?"
"Hitoshi is in your class," she reveals smugly. Inasa's stomach does a swooping sort of tumble. "Now you'll have to get along. Or else."
"Oh," his voice is about three octaves higher than normal. "That's… that." Now Inasa really doesn't know how to feel. He met Hitoshi on only one occasion, and there hadn't been much room to get to know each other: at the Izumis' funerals. It hadn't been that bad to look at the boy, though. Shinsou was a funny guy, a little ill-mannered the same way Shouto is. They're not friends, but maybe Toph's right, and they will be. "That's great news for him," Inasa says finally. "Tell him for me?"
"I will. Congrats, Twinkletoes," she says softly. "We're—We're really doing it. Becoming heroes."
He grins into his phone, practically melting at the wonder in her quiet voice. "Yeah, Toph. We're on our way."
Shouto's first day of high school passes in one long stream of events melding into each other. He's never been to a public school, so it's all a little overwhelming. If he could re-do one thing, he would pay more attention to everyone's names.
He and Toph arrive together at the gate of UA in a shiny silver car. As they exit, Shouto sees a jet-black sedan speed away, and a tall girl with a ponytail standing on the sidewalk. She notices him before he can look away—she was a recommended student, he recalls.
"Oh, Todoroki-san, right?" She lights up eagerly, approaching them with a tentative smile.
"Yes," Shouto nods. "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."
"Th-that's okay. I'm simply not as… memorable as you." She looks away. Todoroki supposes she's right, his scar and hair are quite unique. "Um, but I'm Momo Yaoyorozu!" She gives a short formal bow, and he can see Toph's unimpressed look. The ponytail girl looks past Shouto to Toph—and with despair, he can see the exact moment it occurs to the stranger that Toph is blind, because her face immediately switches to pity. "Oh my…. Who's this girl, Todoroki-san? Your sister, you're helping her to class?"
Todoroki gives Yaoyorozu an equally pitying look and shakes his head.
"This girl is Toph Beifong, and I can answer questions just fine on my own," the earth girl answers curtly, eyebrow raised. She walks towards the front door, and Shouto follows. Yaoyorozu is nice, but he doesn't quite know what to say to her.
"Oh, sorry for the mistake," Yaoyorozu catches up, looking between Shouto and Toph questioningly. "But—I know your family, the Beifongs from Gaoling, yes? I had no idea they had a daughter my age!"
"No," Shouto interrupts before Toph can, watching her face flush with emotion. Mostly anger. Thankfully, he's learned a lot about defusing Toph Beifong over the past few years. "Those Beifongs don't have a daughter."
Yaoyorozu blinks in surprise, but clearly realizes another question about it would not be welcome. It's not really Yaoyorozu's fault, but she happened to press all the wrong buttons in the span of a few minutes. "Oh, n-nevermind then. So. What classes are you guys in?" She tries one more time, and Shouto thanks Kami for the change in topic.
"We're both in 1-A," Toph answers for them both, blowing at the bangs in her face. Todoroki glances at the building directory and takes a left turn. "So are you, right?"
"Yes," Yaoyoro—wow, it's tiring to say that, Shouto ought to switch to her first name—Momo exclaims, clasping her hands together. "Oh, wow, that's wonderful, Beifong-san. Todoroki-san. I look forward to our time together!"
He nods. Toph rolls her eyes. "Ok then, Sugar Queen."
"Here's the door! Oh, it's so large, I suppose that's to accommodate all types of quirks?" Momo muses. Then she freezes, glancing at Toph. "Wait, what did you call me?"
Toph pushes the door open without answering, stepping into—chaos.
"—insist that you remove your legs from the desk immediately! These desks have been used by generations of heroes and—"
"Oi, oi, oi!" A blond boy pulls his legs off his desk to stand, staring directly at the small blind girl next to Todoroki. "Sure you're in the right room, Earth Girl? Didn't you read the sign?" He sneers.
Is this a school bully? Todoroki muses to himself. He's shown his colors so quickly.
Toph goes rigid for a moment, then she just turns to Shouto, genuine curiosity on her innocent face. "Hey, did you hear a fart?"
Oh Kami, Shouto prays as the blond boy's desk bursts into flames. Why couldn't I be in 1-B? A few students begin to snicker from their desks, whispering loudly amongst themselves.
"YOU WANNA GO, BLIND BITCH?!" The blond screeches, lunging forward.
The tall boy in glasses shoves himself between the two students, and Todoroki moves to hook his arms under Toph before she can try to earthbend anyone into the classroom below theirs. "I'LL TAKE YOU DOWN ANY DAY OF THE WEEK, SPARKY!"
The door slides open behind Shouto, and the blond's eyes dart to the newcomer. "Ah! Kacchan?!"
"DEKU?!" He sounds even madder now. "THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?"!
The person behind Todoroki begins to babble in fright. This whole situation is so confusing. Shouto's never been to a public school before. He wonders if they're all this hectic or if it's just this high school in particular? All he knows is that it's quite early. If he were still being homeschooled he would be sleeping right now.
While Todoroki mourns his lack of sleep, his friend hisses like a rabid animal. "What the fuck's a Deku?!" Toph howls, squirming in Shouto's grip. "Let me go so I can kill Blasty!"
"I'll kill you first!" Blasty screeches back, though he doesn't try to get in front of the glasses kid, preferring to foam at the mouth from a distance.
Since Blasty's not attacking, Shouto lowers Toph until her feet touch the ground again. "You realize this is the first day you're off the hook," he tells the girl quietly, reminding her of the six months of house arrest she just completed. It was awful waiting around at home the day the Izumis died, not knowing what Toph had been doing all that time but knowing she was furious enough to get herself into trouble. Shouto was over it by now, but that didn't mean Toph gets a free pass to fly off the handle again. "Don't get suspended on the first day of class."
"Fuck you too, IcyHot," Toph pouts, straightening out her jacket and stepping back. "What's your problem, Sweaty Hands?" She demands, pointing a finger at the blond. "You've been on my case since the exam!"
The boy stares at her, furious all over again. Todoroki might be alarmed by the anger on his face, but he can't help but think it's hilarious that Toph has no concept of fear. "Sweaty Hands?! Who the fuck do you think—"
"I don't even know your name!" Toph complains, cutting him off. "So just fuck off, or I'll make you fuck off."
Sweaty Hands splutters. "What does that even mean? You're gonna fight me?!"
"Only if you ask for it!"
"Please stop this at once!" The glasses kid cries out, making a slicing move with his hands. "This is unacceptable behavior from UA's top students! Class hasn't even started yet!"
"Ah shut it, Glasses!" Sweaty Hands barks at Glasses, throwing himself back into his seat. He props his feet back up onto his desk defiantly, garnering Glasses' attention once more. "You're not the boss of me, Private School."
I should probably learn their names, Shouto thinks to himself.
Toph rolls her eyes, turning away from the two kids. "You know where my seat is, Shouto? Otherwise I'll look it up." UA sent her an 'accessible tablet' last week, equipped with most of the information she'd need to look through before attending. The surface was malleable enough to create multiple braille patterns, essentially creating an entirely haptic version of a smartscreen.
But there's also a seating chart by the door for all the sighted people, which is a lot quicker to look through. Todoroki taps his nails on a desk in the back row, and Toph nods in appreciation. Momo is already in her seat, having snuck past the chaos peacefully, and Shouto takes the desk beside her, between the two people he knows by name.
Thankfully, Toph ignores the other students—especially Glasses and Blasty—as the remaining kids trickle into the classroom.
"This is a strange class," Momo comments, softly amazed. She glances at Todoroki, so he assumes she's talking to him.
"Maybe UA is just strange," he proposes in return. "I wouldn't know."
"At least it's interesting?" She offers a wry smile, looking just as unsure as he feels about school. He remembers the jet-black sedan she arrived in. She also clasps her hands daintily, like Fuyumi tends to do. Maybe…
"Yaoyorozu," he repeats, mostly to himself. It's a familiar family name too. Momo looks up inquisitively. "You've never been to a public school."
"Ah," She nervously pushes a lock of hair behind her ear. "I-Is it that obvious?"
"No, that was just a guess," Todoroki admits, a little startled. He didn't think he'd be right, but at least he's not alone. Toph snorts from his other side. Momo looks confused now, but he doesn't get the chance to explain—a yellow sleeping bag inches into the classroom, and their homeroom teacher emerges from it like a huge, human-sized moth. Aizawa reprimands them all squabbling so loudly he could hear it down the hallway, and then orders them all to get changed into gym clothes instead of attending the opening ceremony.
They do a quirk evaluation, and Aizawa promises to expel the weakest student. Momo proves again to be very resourceful, just as he remembers from their exam. Shouto and Toph don't have trouble passing either. He learns that Glasses is Tenya Iida when he greets Toph, but Shouto's a little unclear on how they already know each other.
"Went to school with him for a while," Beifong admits begrudgingly, picking at dirt under her nails. Shouto waited for more, but that's all Toph says on the matter.
A nice round-faced girl breaks the record for the ball toss, so Shouto now knows her as Infinity Girl. A green-haired boy breaks his finger doing the ball toss. And then Sweaty Hands tries to obliterate the green boy, calling him a 'deku', and Aizawa erases his quirk, thus introducing himself as the Erasure Hero, Eraserhead.
"Oh, and I lied about expelling the student in last place," Aizawa adds as an afterthought, and a truly manic grin stretches over the man's tired face. Todoroki is oddly reminded of Shinsou. "It was a logical ruse."
The class is understandably distraught as they shuffle back into their school uniforms. Todoroki had believe Aizawa too, but he hadn't been very worried about his own position in class, so it didn't matter in the end. The grape boy seemed especially frazzled by the whole experience.
Almost immediately, Sweaty Hands stirs up a ruckus in the locker room. Shouto doesn't see it coming, unfortunately, and is rather blindsided when the grape boy slams upside-down into the locker next to him. Todoroki shoves his pants on, figuring he'd rather be clothed properly if this escalated further.
"Bakugou!" Someone shouts in protest. "This is crazy!"
"Grape fucker got what was coming to him!" Sweaty—Bakugou—hollers at a six-armed student. "Shitstain's been bothering me all day about bullshit! Fucking perv!"
The explosive blond catches Todoroki's eye, and something about the look on his face alerts him to something deeper about this argument. He turns to the short grape boy in question.
"What's your deal, Bakugou?! I just wanted to know how you keep getting the hot girls to talk to you!" The small boy snaps, valiantly struggling out of the locker. Shouto feels a deep-seated primal urge arise from the pit of his stomach. He's not sure what it's telling him to do yet. "Have you copped a feel from the blind one yet?"
Before he knows it, Todoroki shuts the locker and ices over the handle.
"TODOROKI!" Iida gasps in horror. "You can't do that to a student—!"
"Are you going to let him out?" He asks evenly, piercing the taller boy with a steady look. Todoroki wouldn't say he's angry. No, this is more visceral, more abrupt than the steady simmer of his usual frustration. "He's talking about Beifong."
"I—I should—" Iida's face contorts in distress. "He was absolutely despicable—Beifong and the other girls must be respected—but that does not excuse—" He looks like an error sign on a laptop now. "I—won't let him—"
"I say we leave him till the ice melts," A bird-headed boy murmurs wisely. "A few moments in the dark may be enough to pay for passage in the light."
"That's so manly," A redhead whispers. "Tokoyami's right, the ice will melt. Let's just get to class."
Shouto shrugs. He doesn't catch Bakugou's eye again, but there's a shift in atmosphere among the students. A good one. He exits the locker room and finds his friend waiting for him down the hall, slouched against a wall.
"You sure took your time," she notes sourly, fiddling with the elastic in her hair.
"Did you hear any of us?" Shouto asks, somewhat worried.
"Why the hell would I want to listen?" Toph crosses her arms, leaning towards Shouto as they walk down the corridor. "Aizawa's a piece of work. I don't think he decided not to expel anyone until the very end of the test. This place is so weird."
Shouto nods his wholehearted agreement. They walk at an even pace, just a little behind their peers for privacy. Most of the students are discussing each others' powers, completely overlooking the grape left in the locker room. "At least it's interesting," he echoes Momo's words as they walk back to the classroom.
"You know what's more interesting?" Toph whips around, a sharp look crossing her face. "The fact that you didn't use your fire at all for those tests."
It's a good thing Toph is blind, because Shouto's so surprised by the turn in conversation he has no idea what his face looks like. "It... wasn't necessary." Something pulls at his chest as he says it, the lie gnawing at him uncomfortably. As much as Shouo trusts Toph, it's hard to articulate what he means, or the aching frustration he feels about his left side.
"Seems like a good source of propulsion," Toph counters lightly, cracking her knuckles. "Y'know, for those tests you sucked in, like the standing long jump."
"I got second place," he counters, eyes narrowed. That was one of the last tests, and his energy had been flagging at that point. "I did better than you in the long jump."
"And you would've been even better than Blasty if you balanced yourself out with fire," Toph replies adamantly. "Just a thought, Shouto. I don't call you IcyHot for nothing."
Shouto's beginning to understand what Inasa means when he calls Toph pushy. "I know," he murmurs. He spent a long time not knowing how to treat his left side—years and years of back and forth with Endeavor, wanting to be just like him and also nothing at all like the man—and even now, Shouto's still figuring out what sort of hero he wants to be.
"I know you want me to use it, and I will," Shouto admits quietly, bumping shoulders with Toph. "But I need time. I'm a little behind, you know." If he's going to use fire, it needs to be in the best way possible—on Shouto's terms. He's been refusing his father's training for the past few years, choosing to develop it on his own instead. It's a slow, sometimes painful process, but Shouto needs it to be this way.
And he's not ready to put it into practice at UA just yet.
The blind girl slumps, her frown melting away like water washing over the shore. "Alright, Todoroki," she punches his arm. "If you need target practice, just know I'll volunteer Twinkletoes any day," Toph vows solemnly.
"Thank you for you sacrifice, Beifong," Shouto lets himself smirk as they reenter their classroom and the chaos that is the other 17 students of their class. The green boy who broke a finger staggers into the classroom just before the bell rings, likely exhausted from Recovery Girl's healing. Grape boy comes back halfway through their English lesson, glaring at Todoroki and Bakugou like a furious little ant. The rest of the day passes without much fuss.
Yeah. If Shouto could re-do his first day of school, he would only try harder to learn Green Boy's and Infinity Girl's names. They seemed nice.
