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I.

It hurt.

How long until the firefighters arrived? How long until an ambulance? It felt like time had lost all meaning within the inferno, every second that passed lasting for far too long. Time was no longer on their side, nor was the house they once considered a sanctuary.

He wouldn't stop coughing beneath her. No matter how much she covered him, no matter how much she tried to keep the fire blanket over him, he still suffered. She clung to him tighter, tighter, until the heat was no longer her greatest source of pain.

"Nee-san!" he cried. He kept struggling beneath her, but she wasn't going to move away. She was his shield, and if she abandoned him then what was the point of her existence? What was the point of being his big sister if she couldn't put his safety above her own?

"It's okay," she chanted. Over and over she repeated it to him, but it never seemed to be the truth. If only she'd been smarter, faster, noticed the junk outside blocking the doors and windows. She could've squeezed him through a gap at the very least. He could've run. "It's okay."

She dared to look up—a mistake, but one that gave her a chance to protect him once more. The ceiling above them was falling apart, chunks tumbling to the ground around them. It was by sheer luck that her body moved on its own accord, pushing her further atop him and letting her take the brunt of one chunk's force. Her head was slammed onto the floor, the welts from already-forming burns only worsening her headache. But when she opened her eyes, he was still safe.

All this… Because some girl couldn't handle her brother having no interest in her. Pathetic, she thought for the briefest of moments. If a stupid middle school girl couldn't handle heartbreak, why did her brother have to suffer for it? It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault!

"It's okay," she tried again. She could hear him sobbing now. His attempts to help her, to wiggle out from under the fire blanket, had ceased. "Nee-san's here."

It was getting harder to breathe. He wasn't having as much trouble as her, was he? He was smart enough to cover his face, right? She hacked and sputtered. With less oxygen came the dizziness, and with the dizziness came panic.

"Nee-san's here," she began to chant again. Fire licked at her bare feet. She cried out, but refused to stop reassuring her brother. "Nee-san's here! Nee—"

An explosion from above rocked the house violently. It was the last thing she heard, right alongside her brother calling her name, before everything finally came to a halt.

Everything was far too bright. Everything hurt. Not like the fire—but not like anything she'd felt before, either.

Her ears rang for a fraction of a second, the world separated from her senses by a wall of delirium. She couldn't see, couldn't feel anything but pain, couldn't make out the words echoing around her. And then it all clicked into place, clearing away and filling her with a sense of knowing. A sense of dread.

All she could do was scream. All she could hear was another scream, one that wasn't hers. Her heart hammered in her chest, the voices of adults drowned out by what had to be a child. The room was covered in white—and where the white couldn't reach, there were reds and blues. Blue scrubs covered in fluids she dared not name.

Rubbery hands passed her along. A masked face looked down at her as the hands poked and prodded at her small body. Had she always been this small? So easy to pass around? She used to tower over everyone; what had changed?

"Congratulations, ma'am," the masked person spoke. She squirmed, tried to scream louder, but she was passed along once more to a pair of arms that held her gently. There was warmth, soft skin slicked with sweat brushing back the fine hairs on her head. "A healthy girl."

A breathless laugh shook her. Relief? She struggled to make heads or tails of her situation. But still the arms that held her continued to rock her back and forth, a steady heartbeat echoing in her ears.

"Yayoi," came the breathless voice above her. She squirmed some more, wanted to exclaim that it was obviously her name. She knew her name when she heard it. But all that came out was a string of screams and babbles. "Yes, you're Yayoi!"

A grunt from afar. She could barely see the masked person turn and say, "Sir, would you like to see her? She looks very much like you."

The arms cradling her froze stiff. "Yes…" the woman holding her said, softer than before. "She does…"

Who? Where was this man they were talking to? She looked more like her mother than her father! Everyone knew that! If anything, her brother—

Her brother.

She screamed and squirmed harder than before. The woman startled, the masked person hurried back to her side, and all hell seemed to breath loose from there. She thrashed about, batted away at the hands grabbing at her—she was so small, so weak, what was wrong with her!? And where in the hell was her brother!?

They laid her down on something soft, flatter than before, and prodded her once more. A cold compress to her chest, gone as soon as it appeared. Fingers pulling and pushing at her skin, opening her mouth, her eyes. Bright lights blinding her. And then nothing.

"I think it's just stress," the masked person said. A figure approached, larger than the others—larger like she used to be, imposing like she used to be. "She must know she's away from her brother. He'll be coming soon, little one," they went on, tickling her belly. "Just a few more minutes. Mama's doing her best."

"Give it here." The man's gruff voice was commanding, absolute. The masked person couldn't even argue. The man held power. "Focus on my wife."

"Y—Yes, sir…"

It. Had he really called her an it? She tried to glare up at him once her vision returned, but her face barely had the strength to master such a complex expression. So she settled for more screaming, despite the strain it was beginning to leave on her throat.

He held her coldly, a far cry from the woman—from the "Mama" she'd been held by, apparently. There was no warmth in his thick arms, a stark contrast to the burning red of his hair. He was as cold as his ice-blue eyes, an appraisal taking place as he stared at her.

"A fighter," he concluded. His stern pout turned into a smirk.

Damn right, she was a fighter. At least he acknowledged that much. She thrashed about even more, scrunched up her face. She would make him deaf if she had her way.

"Yes, yes!" he egged her on. "Livelier than the others!"

"Sir, please be careful with her—"

"Look at her! She's a strong one!" The room spun as he hurried over to "Mama". She was huffing and puffing, no longer calm and collected. She was in pain, the masked person flocking to her side with the other people in scrubs. "Go on, Rei! Put your all into it!"

"Mama" screamed. The man was ushered away, but his shouts for her effort were matching her own pained sounds. She cried and cried, and in a matter of minutes it was over. "Mama" was silent again, exhausted, and a tiny form was cleaned off near her and swaddled by the masked person.

It didn't dawn on her, what her situation was, until she put a name to what was happening around her: Childbirth. Her own birth, and the infant who'd just emerged. She stilled for a moment, sucking in air as best she could. Her gaze drifted up and up until finally she saw that red hair again.

Was this… her father? Was he going to be her father now? The fire… Had it… Her brother was okay, right? He had to be. She'd shielded him as best she could from the fire—he had to be okay!

But how would she ever know? If she'd just been born, then that could only mean… The fire had killed her.

"Ah, Yayoi-chan's calmed down!" the masked person said. They hurried over and removed their mask—she was met with the sight of magnificent sideburns and a tiny moustache. "She must've missed her brother."

Well, he wasn't wrong. This just wasn't the brother she wanted to see.

The man returned to his wife's side just as the new baby was laid in her arms. She could barely see tufts of hair on his head, and compared to her boisterous appearance he was near-silent. He wouldn't even open his eyes yet, content with being held by his mother and making the occasional gurgle.

"Hm." Her father grunted at the sight of the baby. He seemed to be more interested in her still. "We'll see how these two turn out."

With belaboured breaths, his wife mumbled, "Yes, dear…"

He took a step back, no longer concerned with his wife or his more silent child. She squirmed some more, resisted him, but he just brought her close to his face and grinned once more.

"I expect great things from you, Yayoi," he said quietly, almost as though sharing a secret with her. "You might just be the one I've waited for to surpass All Might."

Hey all, welcome to my BNHA OC story! As you can probably tell, it's the rebirth scenario we're dealing with and our heroine was born into the Todoroki family. I have about four more chapters written up and a fifth one (so chapter 6) almost complete and I'll be trying to upload every fortnight if I can. So if my math is correct... November 26th is when chapter 2 is out? I hope that's 14 days lol.

This will be OC/canon, and right now I'm very open to suggestions for who to ship Yayoi with. I have a rough idea of who would work best with her, but deciding who will drastically affect the few years before canon starts in the story. So yeah, if somewhere down the line you think "Oh these two would work", let me know!