Their Hero Academia – Chapter 3: Izumi Todoroki and the Perils of Lunch
It had been a busy morning. Aizawa's Quirk Apprehension Tests had taken a lot out of Izumi. She had not done as well as she would have liked, coming in 15th, only ahead of Ojiro. She could move quickly for very brief spurts by traveling along ice slides, but she had neither the strength of limb nor the stamina for overly long activities. The unfortunate side effect of inheriting her grandmother's frail constitution and a childhood illness that she had barely survived. When well rested, she could do well enough, and it was believed she would continue to get stronger. In the meantime, she would just have to do her best.
Even beyond the Apprehension Tests, it had been a busy morning. English, Math, Literature, Science… not for nothing was U.A. one of the best high schools in the country. The work so far was challenging, but doable. It would probably be to their benefit to organize study groups before they got much further into the term, though she suspected some would need it more than others.
Fortunately, they had a bit of a break. It was lunch time and Class 1-A was heading to Lunch Rush's Cafeteria. The name was a bit of an artifact now, but kept in honor of the retired Hero. Sato's father, Sugar Man, had taken over the job several years ago.
"I can't believe we have homework on the first day," Mineta complained. "All that English work is going to kill me!"
That… did not make sense. Izumi tilted her head slightly. "Isn't your mother American, Mineta?"
"Just because I can speak it, doesn't mean I want to do it for school, Todoroki."
"I thought the only things you knew in English were pick-up lines?" Kaminari asked, her earlobes swinging freely.
"Yeah, well, that too."
Izumi just shook her head. She was definitely never going to understand the horned girl. She'd arrived late to their locker room for the Quirk Apprehension Tests this morning already, complaining that the boys were "no fun," which had earned her sympathy from Kaminari, a stern talking to from Sora, and threats from Katsumi. At least the morning's lessons had left Mineta too exhausted for trying to force herself on anyone, male or female.
"Oh, Brother?" Sora began. "Would you care to race me to the Cafeteria?"
Tensei stopped short. "Sora! You know there is no running in the hallways! What would our father say?"
"He'd probably remind us of the same thing. But you know what Mom would say…"
Both spoke at the same time. "There's no rules about flying!"
The two of them had always been like that, following the strict letter of the law while looking for any exploitable loopholes in the spirit. Their minds were like twisted corkscrews, brilliant but never following the path one would think.
Both Iida twins activated their jet-packs, zooming through the hallway and narrowly avoiding clipping several students and Aizawa.
Their homeroom teacher slumped against the wall. As they walked past, Izumi was certain she could hear him mutter something about retirement. Excitable the Iida twins may have been, she envied their energy and speed.
Izumi sat down next to Toshi, Shinso, and Asuka after she had gotten her lunch. As always, she first opened her bottle of water and took her pills. Four pills, three times a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was so ingrained in her, she doubted she could forget if she tried. Her friends were kind enough to wait for her to finish that before they began their lunches.
"You doing okay, Izzy?" Toshi asked.
"I'm fine," she insisted. "This morning just took more out of me than I expected."
"Don't overdo it, *chirp*," Asuka said.
She meant well, Izumi knew, but it still stung a bit. She was not a toddler who needed looking after. She shoved rice into her mouth rather than argue. She had enough people worrying about her with her parents; she didn't need her friends doing it too.
Toshi suddenly stood up and waved. "Haimawari! Come sit with us!" He slid closer to Shinso to allow Haimawari to join them at their table.
"Uh, thanks, Midoriya," Haimawari said as he said down. "I really don't know anybody here, so I was worried I wasn't going to have anybody to eat lunch with."
"Well you know us now," Toshi told him. "This is Tokoyami, Todoroki, and Shinso. Everybody, this is Haimawari."
She joined in the polite greetings to Haimawari, unsurprised that Toshi had invited him to join their group. She often thought that making friends was Toshi's real Quirk, not gravity manipulation. The green-haired boy had never met a stranger and was quick to reach out to those he saw as being in need.
"Your Quirk is so cool!" Shinso bubbled. It would have been easy to chalk his enthusiasm up to the fact that he was nearly a year younger than the rest of them, but Izumi knew that that was just the way he was. She supposed he'd be that way at eight or eighty.
Shinso continued on. "You were just like… zoom! Whoosh! Sliiiiide!"
Haimawari chuckled, flushing a little with embarrassment at the sudden attention. "It's really not. It's one of the most common Quirks in the Registry, after strength enhancers. You all have way better quirks. Especially you, Shinso! The way you just made the ground do that thing by singing at it…!"
"It's not what Quirk you have," Toshi said, "it's what you do with the Quirk that matters. That's what my dad always says."
Haimawari shook his head. "Not going to argue with the Number Two hero, I guess."
"Number One!" Shinso said. "I checked the Rankings when we sat down. Le Million and Deku traded spots again!" He paused, then looked over at Izumi. "Shoto's still Number Three and Kirishima-Bakugo's dad is still Number Four."
Izumi waved it away. "Father doesn't care about the Rankings. He says they're nothing but trouble. He would probably opt out of the whole thing, if he could." It certainly seemed an arbitrary and pointless system to her. Heroes were heroes, why worry about statistics?
*BAM*BAM*BAM
The sound of someone slamming a spoon against a lunch tray caught their attention, and she looked to see Sero standing with one leg up on a table, doing the banging.
"And now," the pink-skinned boy said, "it's time to play everyone's favorite game… "Can Sato Eat it?'"
Around him, Kaminari and Mineta burst into applause. Sato posed theatrically. Others in the lunch room looked on curiously, this being the first time they were seeing the game the two boys had been playing for years.
"Now," Sero went on, "many of you already know how this game is played. But for those of you joining us for the first time, let me explain! Our boy Sato here has a Quirk that lets him eat anything! And I do mean anything! So name your item! And we'll find out… Can Sato Eat it?!"
"This notebook!" Ojiro shouted, tossing it towards them.
Sero caught it with a deft hand. "You heard the lady, Big Guy!"
Sato took the notebook and bit into it, chewing and swallowing rapidly. Paper, metal rings, cover, all of it was gone in moments. "Needs salt!"
Asuka put her head in her hands. "You'd think they'd have outgrown this game by now."
Green light sparked from her mid-section as Frog Shadow appeared, grabbing a plate off of Toshi's tray. "This plate! This plate! This plate!" With a flick, it sent the plate flying, while Asuka tried to hide under the table.
Sero shot out a stand of tape, its acidity tapped way down, and reeled in the tape. "A plate for the Green Lady!"
He handed it off to Sato, who set it spinning on his finger, leaning in to take a bite as it spun. It too, was quickly gone. "Crunchy!"
"Really, Frog Shadow?" Asuka demanded of her other half.
The frog-being gave a little shrug. "What?"
Izumi really didn't understand the point of the game, or the theatricality associated with it. Sato's Quirk was specifically stated to be the ability to eat anything. And while she supposed there were limits to that as yet unfound—she imagined he couldn't consume energy or gas or the like—she could not see the point in "testing" it against ordinary, everyday items, when they all knew what the result would be. Nor did she understand why so many were so impressed by it.
"Wooo!" Shinso stood up in his chair, cheering. "Go Sato!"
No, she did not understand it at all.
"These spoons!" Katsumi said, as she approached the show in progress. She shoved a handful of spoons in Sato's face and he took them somewhat reluctantly. He should have been more reluctant, as they suddenly went off like firecrackers in his face. Both he and Sero let out rather loud shrieks, but neither was harmed any, the explosions more noise than spark. Mineta and Kaminari though, had shot under the table, huddling together, fearful of Katsumi's wrath.
"Dang it, what was that for?" Sero demanded. "You ruined the show!"
"Good!" Katsumi shouted back. "Maybe now I can eat my damn lunch in peace! Woman up and stop acting like a bunch of shitty kids!" She gave Sero a shove, forcing him to back into his seat before stomping back to her own table. A table, Izumi noticed, that now had a clear empty circle of tables around it.
Haimawari looked pale. "Is she… is she always like that?"
Izumi understood his fear. Katsumi possessed a formidable Quirk and a short temper. And she already seemed to have it in for him. Now, he had seen what she was capable of. But he also did not know her as they did. He did not know how she had stuck up for Izumi against bullies when she was much sicklier than she was now. He did not know the doubts and fears she revealed when no one else was around. But those were not her secrets to tell.
Toshi and Shinso looked awkwardly anywhere but at Haimawari. Neither wanted to be the one to answer that question. Asuka was about to speak, but Izumi knew that she would be blunt about it, and while she understood the value of such bluntness, now was not the time. Such would only sour Haimawari against Katsumi further and damage any potential ways forward.
"She has her good days and her bad," Izumi said, seizing the moment. "You will see."
"I guess…" Haimawari said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I'll speak to her," Izumi assured him. "No matter how forgiving of her we may be, she should not run roughshod over you like that."
"And she'll actually listen?" he asked, surprised.
"She always listens to Todoroki!" Shinso assured him. "It's, like, super weird. I mean, if it was my dad, I'd get it, but her Quirk isn't anything like his!"
In truth, Izumi did not understand the power she seemed to have over Katsumi either. They had been friends for a long time and shared much. But friendship alone should not have been enough to overpower the fierce girl's instincts. All she could do was apply whatever influence she had sparingly, only when a word to turn her away from a course of action was absolutely necessary. She did not seek to change her friend, only occasionally redirect.
"YOUNG GRANDSON! DID YOU EAT ALL YOUR VEGETABLES?"
Izumi winced as All Might appeared behind them, far more stealthily than she would have expected of so big a man. Toshi, meanwhile, literally jumped out of his seat, his gravity-power lifting him into the air. All Might grabbed him with a practiced hand and returned him to Earth before he could get too far.
"ALL MIGHT!" Shinso cheered, despite having met the man several times. "YEAH!"
Toshi just banged his head against the table. "Grandpa Might…!"