Rule #49: Sometimes change is necessary

After her not-so-gentle wake-up call—courtesy of Matchstick—Toru had been directed to change into her hero uniform and then to move to one of the agency's dojos where she would be sparring against the hero to get a feel for where she was at; seeing as her tournament fight was nothing compared to the tag-team battle.

Unclipping the latches on her costume case, what Toru found made her pause—the costume staring back at her wasn't the same one she had originally designed & ordered. Had they gotten her confused with someone else? Toru scanned the manual and letter on top from the supply as it seemed to explain what was going on.

Dear Hagakure Toru,

As we made repairs to your costume, our designers decided to make a few changes in regards to the materials and appearance.

Thank you for understanding!

P.S. Trust me, this is gonna suit you so much better!

What? Toru ran a hand through her messy braids as she reread the quick note, They changed it?! I thought this was supposed to be my costume! And what was wrong with my old one? A quick glance at the clock on her wall told her that she was late enough as it was and she hadn't even changed yet!

Sighing, Toru began to pull out each and every item of clothing before pulling them on. Once completely dressed, she couldn't help but admire her new look in the mirror mounted on the back of the door. Well, as annoyed as I am about the changes—they were right, this does suit me better.

Toru twisted this way and that as she tried to admire every angle of her new costume. Gone was the yellow and white-striped two piece, gone were her sky-blue goggles, there was no more black tabi boots nor matching gloves.

Instead, the supply company had completely upgraded her to a sports bra that hugged her chest in all the right places and she wore thigh-length skin-tight shorts. The fingerless gloves, elbow pads and kneepads blocked out certain parts of her figure whilst she was invisible and the shoes were labelled as 'stealth boots'—footwear that was designed to muffle her footsteps.

All of these pieces of clothing were created from a reflective lens material that incorporated her own DNA, allowing her to completely cloak herself in her invisibility as if she were fully naked. The entire costume was also accented in pastel pink material that bordered and divided the segments of her costume; almost giving her the appearance of a rainbow fish or a brand new pearl.

The only pieces of the costume that was not reflective was the steampunk-styled goggles that were built to protect her eyes against blinding herself when she used her light Quirk and the daggers that easily slid into the sheaths built into the elbow pads and kneepads—though this kinda hid them from view.


After many twists and turns, Toru eventually found herself sheepishly standing in front of Matchstick where he stood waiting with foot tapping and arms crossed in the assigned dojo. He quirked an eyebrow in her direction and the excuse she had dancing on the edge of her tongue faded away as she broke her gaze from him and stared instead at the tatami mats beneath her feet.

Matchstick merely sighed before directing her through some warm-up laps and stretches which allowed Toru the time to take in the training area around them. The dojo appeared to be a traditional dojo, with every detail down to the paper thin screen doors and the mantra written at the front of the wooden-encrusted room, present.

However upon closer inspection you'd be able to see the little details that had gone in to making the dojo durable enough to withstand the usage of a fire-user—something that was essential at the Endeavour agency.

For example there were the many sprinklers mounted on the ceiling, plus the numerous fire extinguishers mounted on the walls and tucked away behind the doors of a storage unit lay a large tank of water and the high-pressure firehose that went along with it. Funnily enough, there were no smoke alarms.

"Right" Matchstick clapped his hands, calling her attention to him, "You're performance at the tournament was shit—" Toru winced at the harsh truth but didn't deny it "—So I wanna see what you've really got. That means seeing your Quirk in action"

"Are we supposed to fight for real?" Toru murmured, unsure if she'd heard the man correctly.

"At the moment it's just a spar," Matchstick smiled, shaking out his arms as he took his stance across from the girl, "But that doesn't mean you get to hold back"

At that Matchstick activated his Quirk, an intense heatwave pushed Toru back a few paces and sweat immediately began to build on her brow. Eyes blew wide at what she saw—sure Matchstick had described his Quirk earlier, but it was nothing like seeing it in person.

Where Matchstick had stood only moments before, a regular happy guy, now stood a demon-like creature completely encased in flames. The only distinguishable features that she could see were his eyes and mouth which appeared to be dark shadows behind the dancing flame covering him from head-to-toe.

So that's why they don't have fire alarms in here. Toru thought, a little hysterically as she stepped back a little and instinctively bent herself inwards a little as if she were about to launch herself at him. "C'me on, Spitfire, we haven't got all day" Matchstick grinned, beckoning her forth with a crooked finger, "Show me what you've got!"

With teeth clenched in determination and eyes focused on the fiery demon before her, Toru knew the only way she would be able to land a descent hit was if she too, was alight. But unlike the smaller things she could do on command, lighting herself up wasn't something she could do like that—the only time she'd successfully done it during the Sports Festival was when she had been so riled up that it had just simply broken free

Right, gotta rile myself up! Toru thought as she crouched down, What makes me mad? Iida's incessant needling? Bakugou's constant yelling? Deku constantly breaking himself? Rio's nail biting? Karma's better-than-thou attitude? Eyes narrowed as her thoughts churned through the list of annoyances and pet peeves that usually set her off. Light began to dance beneath her skin like lightning threatening to break free. The Government's intervention in Koro-Sensei's death! Grammy's early death! My stupid anxieties running my life!

With each and every thought that drew her deeper and deeper into her subconscious, Toru felt herself almost lose herself to her Quirk. All around the room, lights flickered dangerously and some even burst as she drew on the light from within the filaments; soaking up the power that lay within.

Rage blazed in her eyes behind the fiery light that had engulfed them. Invisibility was shrouded in molten light which encompassed her figure in its powerful glow, no doubt making her look like a walking solar flare. All sense had faded from her mind as Toru now faced Matchstick head on. Through the angry haze Toru noticed that the hero had been watching her transformation from meek and mild to the glowing and snarling beast that now stood before him. A threatening animalistic growl ripped itself from her lips and Toru shot forward like a bullet, her focus solely locked on the only other creature in the room with her.


By day's end, Toru was nothing more than an exhausted sweaty mess sprawled across the dojo floor, staring up at the dojo's ceiling through tired lids as she sucked in breath after breath of sweet, sweet air. At some point, she'd discarded her boots, leaving them haphazardly thrown aside next to the several empty water bottles and the dirty plates from lunch.

Across from her, Matchstick seemed to be faring better—if you counted not collapsing to the floor as soon as training had ended. Rolling her head over to look at the man, Toru was pleased to note that at least some of her hits had caused damage—if only to his uniform or hair more than anything else.

All around them, the dojo had taken a serious beating. Burn marks scoured the walls and flooring in large patches of blackened ash, a couple of the screen doors had been burnt through and some were even missing altogether.

The sprinklers had been activated during their breaks so as to cool down the embers lodged in the cracks of the tatami mats. There was even a fire extinguisher which lay empty off to the side where Matchstick had used it to calm her down from the rage-induced power.

During one of their breaks, Matchstick had sat Toru down and taught her some meditation techniques; ones that helped her look within and calm herself down—much like if she was having a panic attack.

It was here that Toru had told him she could only activate the full body technique when she was in a rather emotional state and that rage was the easiest one to use. In turn, Matchstick had instructed her through the opening of her chakra gates during their meditation.

He suggested that during her 'episode' during the Sports Festival, she'd most likely (unintentionally) opened one or two of them to gain the power and now that it was open, she had no idea how to use it properly, hence the emotional switch. It had certainly been eye-opening that was for sure.

Toru closed her eyes against the pit-pattering of the sprinklers as they landed on her contented face and dripped down onto the singed mats below. Her panting breaths had slowed by this point and she was just happy to lay beneath the artificial rain.


Following a second meditation session after the pair had collected themselves and a quick and easy dinner made from the TV ready meals hidden in the back of the fridge, Toru found herself leaning against one of the couches in the communal area with her make-up bag sitting open on the coffee table next to her.

Her recently washed hair was piled high upon her head in a messy bun with the occasional strand springing forth and dripping water down onto her yellow smiley-faced pyjama shirt and the hems of her octopus-themed pyjama pants were rolled up to her knees so she could paint her toenails easier.

On the couch above her, Todoroki sat draped in possibly the most relaxed position she had ever seen him. He had exchanged his slightly signed hero costume for a pair of All Might-themed pyjama pants, a large white t-shirt that read: 'GO BEYOND: PLUS ULTRA!' in large block letters and an oversized multicoloured cardigan that had been left undone.

Occasionally a soft snore would escape his lips and a few strands of red-white hair would fly about as he exhaled. Whatever his father had done with him that day had exhausted the teen far beyond anything that had ever happened at school—or at least as far as Toru could tell. Though dealing with Endeavour would probably leave anyone emotionally drained.

Across from the pair, Matchstick had draped himself sideways across an armchair, with his long legs hanging over one of the armrests as he relaxed; watching the two teens over the steaming cup of tea in his hand. Not much broke the comfortable silence of the common room, bar from the shaking of the nail polish bottle or the snores from the tired teen on the couch.

"So, Toru…" Matchstick began quietly, making sure not to wake Todoroki (if he was anything like his father, then you didn't want to wake him).

"Hm?" Toru hummed, looking up from where she had removed the foam separaters from between her own freshly painted toes and moved to gently placed them between Todoroki's unwillingly ones.

"I see you inquired about time off for a wedding…?" Matchstick smiled behind his cup as Toru situated herself at Todoroki's feet and began pulling out different colours of nail polish to use.

"Oh yeah" Toru nodded, deciding to with the black crackle nail polish overtop of the base colours. "They's family friends—or at least the bride is, I've never met the groom. But she talks about him a lot"

"How d'ya know them anyway? Are they friends of you parents or something?"

"No, uh, they're my donor family" Toru began laying down the base colours on Todoroki's nails, alternating between shocking white and bright red.

"What?" Matchstick sat up at that.

"Yeah, it should be in my file. I got a heart transplant when I was younger—the bride's father was the donor"

"And how old were you when this happened?"

"Uh…ten, I think. Yeah, ten"

"Right…so this wedding…"

"Oh yeah, uh it's supposed to be a surprise for the bride. Like I said, since I've got her father's heart, so I'm gonna walk her down the path to the shrine"

"Isn't that usually done by the monks?"

"Yeah" Toru nodded as she moved onto Todoroki's other foot, "But the groom is English, so they're gonna do a mash-up of a western and an eastern wedding"

"Huh…and, uh, how're you gonna get there?"

"Oh, uh, Hitoshi's gonna pick me up" Toru then moved onto applying the crackled varnish, after carefully drying the base coat.

"Hitoshi…?"

"Oh, Shinsou Hitoshi"

"The brainwasher kid? The purple-haired one from the festival?"

"Uh, yeah, that's him—the bride's his older sister"

"Huh, well, have fun"

"Thanks" Toru grinned, going back to painting the unconscious Todoroki's toes.