Nothingness and darkness is the known combination of death. That's how it was here, everything stretching in a dull void and cold darkness, nothing else.
A shadow of a person- a teenage girl, was floating in this "unknown". She seemed so lifeless, so dead; her breathing was the only indication that she still had connection to life, and not already in heaven, or hell.
Suddenly a small spark of fire flickered out of nowhere, grew increasingly and engulfed the girl with warmth. She became slightly comfortable. Nonetheless, she remained ever in her initial stable state.
However, that "fire" kept growing and growing, threatening to burn her with each passing second. She struggled to keep on her dear life, which, in itself, was a miracle.
Then, an ice flake formed itself and grew progressively, giving back the lost chills.
The girl briskly opened her eyes all wide, grasped firmly on the ice with her left, and fire with her right.The process shattered her to two…
Waa! Waa!
Newborn children let out their signature crying, announcing their arrival to the world.
I, was one of them.
Seemingly, I was not alone. My companion, a boy twin, was right beside me. That's what I saw, at least.
Everyone was so huge, which scared me and made me feel really uneasy. Although, instead of crying out loud, only small whimpers exited my vocal cords.
I was lifted from what seemed to be a bed, I assumed, to be put in the hands of a young woman. She was so beautiful... her grey eyes -although tired- stared at me with pure love and affection, like if I was the most precious thing in the universe. Her snow white, silky hair (a bit messy after giving birth to a child, or two, actually) swayed with the least movement. Her skin was pale white and her hands were the softest thing I have ever sensed, if I could say so. And her smell... her smell was si familiar and welcoming, so affectionate...
I assumed she was my mother.
After getting to know the gentle soul, I averted my gaze to my right, only to see my twin in her other arm. He had his hair almost split in half: the left side was red, while the right one was white. This combination matched his heterochromia eyes that happened to be with the icy color of blue on the left, while the right one, just like mom, was like the universe, colored in deep grey. His skin was light, his face slightly round, a small nose peeking from his figure. His body rested calmly in our mother's hand as he stared at her. He then switched his attention to me, studying me calmly, just as I did with him.
Our mother giggled weakly at our behaviour.
However, she turned serious in seconds, hugging us firmly. She murmured in Japanese:" You're my treasure, both of you. I love you so much, so, so much. I will always be there for you. I will shield you from any danger."
She caressed each of our heads, smiling at us. She was so calm, so tender, so beautiful, just like ice.
Something broke her calm briskly, though. Loud footsteps were heard outside the room. A deep voice asked the nurse about the state of our mother and us.
This voice, that I magically recognized as father's, is the same one that sent shivers down the spine of mom. She hugged us tighter as a large muscular man entered the room, his moustache and beard set on fire.
Wait... what?!
The man got closer to us, and the closer he got, the more anxious mom grew. Her hands slowly became colder, making us shift.
The man looked down on us, his face was clearer now: light blue eyes shining with egoistical pride and confidence. A shadow of joy seemed to be somewhere in his unreadable mess, but I couldn't tell. His hair was dark red and spiky, and instead of having a hairy moustache and beard, he had fiery ones.I reached out my hands, trying to inspect his beard.
-" You're going to hurt the kids! Turn off the fire!" Mommy demanded.
His eyes widened a millimeter in recognition, and the fire died instantly. I quirked my lips downward expressing my displeasure. He snorted, amused by my reaction.
He then took both my brother and me in his large hands, and the comfortable warmth engulfed us.
He was so standing out, prideful, and majestic; he was so strong, just like fire.
"Shoto and Hikoori Todoroki. These will be their names. They will harness greatness. They will achieve the goal I created them for." Our father said in an over-prideful tone.
-" No.. they will walk their own path, the one they choose." Mom murmured.
Just like that, everything went in a mess of battling fire and ice, screams of anger and agony, torture, loneliness, despair, darkness…
-" HAAAAAAH!" I inhaled sharply, looking around frantically. The clock in front of my bed showed midnight time. Beside me laid a four years old Shoto, breathing quietly in a peaceful sleep under his white blanket. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and headed outside of our shared room.
It was always the same nightmare. It makes sense, though; after all, it's hard for a four years old girl to witness endless battles between whom should be called 'her parents' on a daily basis. It's a heavy load on any kid, and it causes its set of drawbacks.
Each one of them was envisioning an ideal future for us twins, and they're eternally fighting for it, literally.
- "Please DON'T do this! They're kids! They need to play and enjoy their time! They're not war machines nor tools to get to your goals!" My mother's trembling voice raised from our parents room, only to be responded by a slap and angry yells about destiny and reason of creation. That, of course, was my father's response.
Slapping meant that this had taken long enough to make father lose his last line of control. He doesn't usually slap mother, but when he does, the fight would have taken a serious turn.
I peeked my head from the door to inform them about my presence, so maybe, just maybe, this endless war can stop for a moment.
"Oto-san… oka-san…" I called them, my voice wavering weakly under the intensity of the situation.
Their gazes switched to me the moment my words reached their ears. Guilt flashed in mom's eyes when she knew that I, her precious little 4 years old cuppy cake as she liked to call me, wittnessed every detail of the 'sorry of a couple' scene. Whereas, father remained unfazed as usual, him being immune to my glittering tears under the dim lamp light.
-" S-Shoto may wake up… p-please.." again, I tried to ease the tension, even if a little bit, so that at least Shoto would enjoy the comfort of sleep like any other normal child.
Despite that thought in head, I was still afraid of my father's response, especially that I was barely able to keep my tears at bay at this point.
Luckily, he only 'Tched', sending a glare towards mom. She twitched under its pressure, even whe she knew that this meant a small breath of calm, before the comeback of the storm.
After his warning gaze, the volcano turned to my dwarf like form (in comparison to his) and complaimed:
"Your mother is trying to stop me from turning you and your dear twin to fine heroes. This won't happen. When your quirks manifests, you two are goig to walk the path I envisioned for you. You will beat All Might for me." He ordered surprusingly calmly, then walked out of the room.
I ran towards mom whom started crying helplessly the moment that man left.
She hugged me so tight, and caressed the white strands of my hair.
-" I won't be like him… I don't want to be someone who hurts you…" I whimpered, hugging mom back, tears I've been holding streaming down on my face in rivers. Mom looked at me smiling, despite her red eyes.
-" You will become the person you want, Hikoori. You're not chained by your lineage, you can become what you dream of being, even if it you want to be a hero." She was telling me this, despite what she went through moments ago.
She was telling me this, despite the fact that she was avoiding my right side…
-" Mom… if I become a hero, can I save all the moms and children in the world?" I asked innocently, sadly ignorant about those facts.
She was stunned by my question for the first few moments. Then she beamed, even though her cheek was still red from that slap, even though, her tears haven't even dried yet : "A hero can save anyone." She answered.
I tugged harder on the peaceful aura she was emitting, having now set the goal of my future life.
In a few moments, breaths of comfortable sleep left my mouth.
Mom carried me back to my and my twin's room, setting me just beside him.
As I drifted to another world of happiness different from the darkness of nightmares, I could not notice the demons circulating our life, blurring our future into a storm of darkness.
Yes, we all were ignorant of a fate slowly approaching moment zero, so much that we never noticed the ticking time of happiness.