Word Count: 4,482
"Advance! Block! Retreat!"
Each word was barked with astonishing neutrality by one (assistant) captain Katsuki Bakugou. Every command was clipped and precise, and, after constant drilling whilst on the road, the squadron of men before him was starting to reflect that voice.
Kirishima grunted with every move, more so out of habit than of actual exertion anymore. Weeks of training had made their gear feel more like a second skin than weighted armor; it had been satisfying to observe.
Behind him, Kirishima could hear snickers, and he knew without looking Denki was trying to distract Jirou again, what with his dumb faces and cheesy faux death impressions. He'd known them well long enough to recognize their voices and their habits, their quirks and mannerisms. They were just lucky Todoroki didn't angry yell.
"Advance. Block. Retreat."
Kirishima glanced up between orders to see the captains switching off: now Bakugou prowled the ranks to catch mistakes as Todoroki called the drills. It was easy to pick up by ear; not only because they had wildly different voices and tones, but also styles of instruction. Where Bakugou was rigid and clean in his commands, Todoroki tended to slide between words, if nearly imperceptibly. It left more room for the trainees to flow and morph compared to when Katsuki had them snap and pop between actions.
Both were good, in Kirishima's opinion. Todoroki made sure they could perform properly; Bakugou made sure they could perform quickly.
"Hey, you two fuckers! Yeah, you, Fuzzbrain. Don't act like I'm blind, I know you were dicking around with Shortie for the last five minutes. Hapa's just soft on you."
It took far too much willpower for Kirishima to focus on his movements instead of snickering to himself, but he managed. Somehow.
"Block. To the rear! Retreat."
Finding himself unexpectedly face-to-face with Bakugou, Kirishima grinned, wryly noting the deflated Denki and Jirou getting in the groove of practice again from over Bakugou's shoulder.
The blond scowled, but his eyes weren't so hard. "Wipe that dumb smile off your face this instant. It'll be cemented to your face if you die like that, and I don't want to deal with that." He ambled out of Kirishima's line of sight, but the latter could hear his footsteps pause. "You have good form," Bakugou said at a perfectly human volume, which was quiet for the man. "Don't get sloppy."
The dirt grinded beneath the captain's shoes, and the footsteps resumed, but who could stop smiling when complimented that loudly by their famously picky captain?
Not Kirishima, that's who.
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("Hey, Jirou! You're also doing real well these days. I bet you could kick my ass.")
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("…Shut up, Denki.")
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((It was even harder to stop smiling when some of your best friends acted like that.))
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((Ohh, whatever. He'd just have to not die, that's all. Then Bakugou wouldn't have to worry about his face.))
If it hadn't been for the fact that they were riding horses, Denki might have felt a lot more like a cow than a soldier with all the days of walking they'd done. (After all, cows didn't ride horses. That was the biggest heap of bullshit ever passed onto the earth.) Sure, it had only been a week since they left the remains of Endeavor's camp, but they'd stayed there hardly three days! Hardly a pit stop in the long run.
"Mmmmm… yay, yay, neigh," he mumbled as he slouched atop Sero. His brain was full of cotton balls, statically charged to shock his train of thought anywhere but on the rails. (It sucked.)
"Bro, you sound so dead right now," Kirishima said with concern. "Did you get enough sleep last night?"
"Last night…?" Denki thought aloud, struggling to sit up straight. "Dude, if we didn't have gruel pretty much every morning, I wouldn't even be able to remember what we ate for breakfast this morning."
"Dude, we didn't even have gruel this morning," Kirishima said very seriously.
Denki blinked a couple times to process this information. Now that did the trick. "We didn't?"
"Nah, I'm just messing with you. But seriously, dude, what's up?"
"I don't know," sighed Denki. "Just one of those days, I guess. Why not bother Haku about himself, though? He's been really quiet this morning, too." Both turned their gaze toward the boy in question, who had been silent the entire ride so far.
Haku glanced back at them, his expression a little disoriented, a little tired, but otherwise perfectly neutral. "Oh, sorry," he said, shaking a bit of the disorientation away, "it's nothing, really. There were just a lot of tags left uncleaned, and since we were camped near a river last night, Shoto and I wanted to finish that." He yawned, and Denki sensed Kirishima slow down beside him.
"Yeah," the redhead said, his voice dulled. Denki didn't get why at first, but the realization hit him like a brick to the face, his rational thought and character crashing back to station. Kirishima was the first among them to wander the mass grave. He knew the full extent of the bloodshed.
(Denki also felt more than a little bad for speaking without thinking yet again and pawning his interrogation off on Haku, although it didn't appear to affect him all that much.)
Fuck, the group's mood had gone bleak. Even Jirou, who had been silent the entire time anyway, looked moodier than usual. This was bad— low morale amidst even a few soldiers could dampen the whole army's mood until it molded. There was no coming back from moldy morale.
Denki flicked his eyes between his friends with worry gnawing at his insides. What do do, what to say? He knew he was the group idiot, but he could take advantage of that. Just. As soon as he figured out how.
(How was it that he could never fail to make Jirou laugh when he wasn't even trying, but now that he wanted to make all his friends smile, he drew a blank? How dare his stupidity be selective.)
Luckily, Sero was a smarter horse than he, spooking at a sudden bush (because suddenly… bush! was apparently a perfectly acceptable reason to go halfway to buck wild) and nearly jerking Denki right off his back— nearly.
(He still half-shrieked, the panic on his face probably clearer than the day.)
Dazed and on an adrenaline high, Denki glanced between his friends' expressions with a shaken grin on his face. Haku and Kirishima looked back at him with visible concern, but Jirou had to look away the instant their eyes met, not even trying to hide his snort of laughter.
Ah, good old Jirou. His reaction broke the fine veil of gloom draped over all their moods, allowing Denki to breathe easy again and stop forcing his smile.
Good old Jirou.
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(Something was going on with his heart now, surrounding it, holding it near, gnawing at its core.)
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(His laugh was so nice, so light and so real.)
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((What was it about him that captivated him so? No man nor woman back home could set his heart to such a tempo.))
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((Ohh, whatever. Maybe he'd never know. That was all right, if he got to live it forever.))
The sky was so blue up in the mountains. You'd think there would be more clouds up there, since that's where they always seemed to gather, but apparently that wasn't the case.
Shoto stared up at said sky, his mind a blank. It was quiet at the front of the line, especially with Katsuki choosing to stay further back to keep tabs on stragglers and supply carts. There was only wise, old Aizawa up there with him, but being an old, wise man meant he kept to himself more often than not.
(Shoto privately suspected Aizawa was sleeping when supposedly keeping to himself, but there was no way of finding out for sure.)
They were close to General Hawks's camp, he knew. That man had a position to hold on the edge of the war, and he could not have lost it if he was really the third-best general. (Then again, that's what everyone had assumed of his father, and look where that had gone.)
"Halt! Soldier, state your name and business."
That dragged him out of his thoughts. Shoto shook his head to clear away any last doubts and turned his gaze up to the scout tower, where a sharp-eyed soldier kept a keen eye on them. "Captain Shoto Todoroki," he called back without hesitation. "Son of General Endeavor, here to merge ranks with General Hawks against the Huns for the time being."
The scout nodded curtly, scribbled down his answer, and seemingly threw it back into the camp. Shoto wasn't altogether sure how that was going to work, but he put those thoughts away when a short man with unruly, sandy blond hair arrived at the gate just minutes later, seemingly flying there with all the speed and grace he had been gifted.
"'Sup, kiddo, haven't seen you in forever," he said with a grin, and Shoto stared shamelessly back. Judging by the armor, it must have been General Hawks, but the man's demeanor was so contraryto what he had been expecting.
"Do. Do I— have we met?" he asked. His horse was already moving again, heading inside camp after the strange man; Aizawa was doing the same, leaving Shoto feeling as if he'd been swept up in a whirlwind of something.
General Hawks unabashedly laughed, as if he'd expected such a response and took delight in it anyway. "Oh fuck," he mused, "don't remember me, huh? 'Course we met before. Like, ten years ago. Came visiting after the new year to talk with your dad about, y'know, stuff. Met your brother— he was cool— poked over to where you were kept, but you didn't seem very interested. Or maybe you were just guarded. That would've been good to have, hope it carried over…"
Shoto shot a glance at Aizawa, who had cracked open one lazy eye to glare at Hawks with. The man was so vastly different to what he had been assuming, to what he understood a man in power to act like. His only meaningful exposure to an authority had been his father: cold, calculating, and cussed. (Which was, to say the least, unnerving at best and terrifying at worst.)
"…So, that reminds me, I got this letter from your old man maybe a couple days ago? A week? Said to prepare for the battle against Shigaraki under the assumption of no help, so I have been, and—" Hawks's voice came to a clean stop for all of one beautiful second. "Enji was camped about a week away at most. If you're here, then I wonder…?"
"Dead," Aizawa bluntly grunted. (Shoto let out a little bit of his unease, glad that he didn't have to say such a thing out loud.) "Killed in battle, it seems."
"Ahh, got it," Hawks replied, seamlessly dialing back the nonchalance as he shifted his gaze to Shoto, who felt almost cornered beneath it. "Where's your second-in-command?"
"In the back, sir," he answered, feeling the pressure rise. He didn't like this, not in the slightest. It wasn't the steely gaze of his father, sure, but something about the gravity of Hawks's stare reflected at least a part of that. Maybe it was because Aizawa hadn't felt like a real authority figure since the first ten minutes of day one (he'd always been more like… a distant dad-thing), or maybe it was because he had been the authority until just now, but to be reminded of his true standing made Shoto feel as if he were being caged. He swallowed the lump in his throat and used it to quash the butterflies growing in his stomach. "His name is Katsuki Bakugou. He wanted to keep an eye on the stragglers."
Hawks grunted, apparently pleased, as evidenced by his gaze easening. "Hmm. You'll have to go find him among your ranks soon. I'll show you where I had them led—"
Shoto looked over his shoulder to find no one following them. What the?
"—since I expected him to either be with you or not exist at all. By the way, I heard Nezu chose him despite his lack of experience, what's up with that? Even I knew what I was getting into when Ifirst started this gig…"
Shoto blinked a couple times, tuning the older man out. I can't believe I didn't notice them slip between my fingers.
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(They were fine. They were safe, just elsewhere.)
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(It looked like forging too far ahead of his men was a bad idea. To fully protect and lead them, he had to be amongst them.)
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((Was that what made his friendship with Haku all the more meaningful? To dwell amongst the weakest of men and see from his point of view? To forge the camaraderie needed for trust?))
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((Ohh, whatever. He liked Haku for more than just his perspective. He liked his words, his compassion, his determination.))
The air was different, Uraraka could smell it. It smelled so strongly of men; it was awful. At least at Endeavor's old site, the stench had gone stale, but she supposed there could be nothing done about it when this Hawks guy wasn't parked by an extra stream they could taint.
Uraraka wriggled into a random tent, her only goal to remain unseen. At some point after arriving, the supply carts had been separated from the soldiers, leaving her properly lost with nothing but Deku hanging off her horns once she woke up. Luckily for her, the tent she had chosen was crammed full of random junk to hide under, as if the owner hadn't moved in a long time. Whatever the reason, it was convenient, so she didn't mind.
"Shouta! It's been forever!" a vaguely familiar voice called as the tent flap opened.
Someone else grunted with barely concealed irritation. "Two months, but that's still not long enough," he replied, sounding far more familiar.
(Were they the men who had discussed Momo when visiting her empty tent on that faraway first day? Small world.)
"Pff, okay. It's whatever. I hear you've got a bunch of dog tags that need to be sent home, correct?"
"I would call them Shoto's, but yes. They should be somewhere in here. He and that Yaoyorozu kid cleaned every one, so you have your work cut out for you."
"Ahh, the Yaoyorozu kid, huh?" Feet began to shuffle, and Uraraka pressed her belly flat against the earth, hoping, hoping that if the crate she hid behind was chosen, she would at least pass for a dirt patch long enough to make her escape. "He turned out okay, then?"
"Surprisingly, yes. He was actually supposed to be cut, so I sent Shoto to deliver the news, but the next morning, Yaoyorozu was sitting atop the camp's central pole. Went and completed the arrow challenge, so I had to change my mind."
(Heck yeah, that was her Momo. Uraraka puffed her chest up with pride and held her breath.)
"Heh, you've gone soft, Shouta."
"No, I haven't."
"Yes, you have. The arrow challenge is just to gauge their aptitude. It doesn't matter if they complete it or not, just as long as they show promise."
"Don't be stupid. If he completed it in face of ultimate shame and defeat, I'd call that apt enough." The shuffling stopped, and a crate was pried loudly open, its wooden slats cracking with strain. Uraraka allowed herself to breathe again. She was safe. (Even Deku let out a relieved chirp.) "Here they are. There's maybe four hundred at most."
There was a long whistle. "That's a lot of missing in action."
"If you want to go fetch a few thousand more yourself, be my guest. I'm not going to stop you."
There was a pause, and Uraraka sensed they were distracted enough for her to make her escape, so she began inching away.
"Wow. They did a good job on these. Hardly a drop of blood on them."
"Told you so."
"Say, where are they anyway? I should thank them for making my work so easy."
Uraraka stopped, her ears alert and angled toward the men. Please tell me where Momo is. I don't want to wander around in broad daylight.
"Shoto's tracking down Bakugou, though I'd assume he found him by now. Hawks was taking them for the promotion ceremony later. Yaoyorozu should be eating dinner, so just find where Hawks put the rest of them."
"Gotcha. See ya."
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(Dammit, that didn't give her anything to work off of.)
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(Deku patted her head comfortingly with a foreleg, chirping his comfort.)
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((She appreciated it, she really did, but she couldn't help but worry…))
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((Ohh, whatever. Momo was a capable girl. Heck, at this rate, she wouldn't even need her whispering advice anymore. That was good.))
Katsuki sat crankily at the table, slouching so low, the tip of his nose was mere millimeters away from his teacup as he glared at it. Hapa made shitty tea. It was just boiled leaf water, nothing more.
He flicked his eyes toward the halfling himself, who sat and sipped tea mildly across from him, completely bemused. (Or maybe he was just zoning out. Katsuki couldn't tell, and he didn't particularly care, either.)
"Your tea fucking suuuuuucks," Katsuki called, making his voice as low as possible just for the heckling of it. Half-n-Half blinked once, turned to look at him, took a sip of tea, and nothing more.
Ugh, all this dumb brooding. It was not appreciated at training camp when dealing with the Todoroki family soap opera, it was not appreciated now, again when dealing with the Todoroki family soap opera. Fucking hell, was Hapa really being this melodramatic about some petty family drama? He had thought better of him.
"Hey, you're not concerned about being commander, are you? 'Cause it's really not that hot of a shit. There're gonna be higher ranked generals than you," Katsuki snapped, and Half-n-Half finally looked like he was waking up, though he didn't look fully convinced. He'd never been the best at this pep talk gig, and it was showing. He scowled. (What would that shitty little green bean have said?) "It's gonna be your fucken power anyway. No one's gonna tell you how to use it. If you don't want to be like you shitty dad, then by god, fuck him. You're not him."
Shoto put down the tea with a soft clonk, seemingly ruminating over Katsuki's words. However, before he could reply, that dumb pigeon man poked his head inside the tent. "Hey, kids," he practically chirruped, "ready to become real men?" He stepped inside and laughed, much to Katsuki's annoyance. "Okay, that's not how it works, but for real. Time for you to hippity-hop off the floor and out the door and be promoted in front of all your horses and men."
"Could you stop talking like that?" Katsuki grumbled as he shuffled out. "We're not that young."
"Why do the horses have to be present?" Hapa wondered aloud, and Bird Man threw his head back and laughed again. (It was almost grating his nerves how much this man laughed.)
"Don't worry about it," he assured the boys. "I'd say this isn't going to take all that long, but Present Mic is here and everything, and he tends to talk a lot, so really, I don't know. Also, we're doing a thing tomorrow probably, so get ready for that. I'll fill you in on the details later, but…"
Katsuki couldn't even try to give half a shit beyond that. Pigeons here said Mic talked a lot? Well, if that was the case, then whoop-de-fucken-doo, might as well start singing a century of human life was like a dream and get his funeral over with before he died of old age. (Or boredom.)
"You got them?" a strange voice half screeched, forcing everyone within a kilometer radius to listen to him. Katsuki sneered and glared at the owner, finding him to be unfortunately tall and garishlyblond. Literally impossible to miss, this man.
"Yup!" Pigeons replied, and the screecher grinned and sent them an okay sign, motioning to the haphazardly made stage before their (fortunately) beautifully trained soldiers.
It was hard not to slouch and scowl at everyone up there as that Present Mic drawled on and on about such-and-such a year when such-and-such an emperor did such-and-such a thing. (Might have been Emperor Nezu in all the stories, but… nah, it couldn't be. For that to happen, the guy would have to be, like, infinity.) It was dry and meaningless, but also sooner than Katsuki expected.
"And now, in the tragic events of war, we have lost ourselves a hero. General Endeavor died for the country, and it has been declared that his son Shoto Todoroki shall take on the role of commander to begin following in his wake." (Katsuki noticed the ever so slight shift in Hapa's demeanor, and god fucking damn it, was he going to have to do that dumb pep talk thing again?) "Katsuki Bakugou, the second-in-command as chosen by Emperor Nezu himself, will be promoted alongside him! It is hoped that together, they will help bring peace to the land again!"
Scattered cheers ran through the men, and the screecher nodded curtly to one of them, who gracefully climbed the stairs onto the stage to present himself and Hapa with their new armor. Katsuki took his own wordlessly and nodded in acknowledgement, but Half-n-Half inhaled sharply.
"Haku?"
(Whaaaat the fuuuuuuck?)
Peony put a finger to his lips as he handed Hapa his armor. He bowed and trotted offstage.
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(For his skill, Katsuki never would have guessed that Peony was so graceful.)
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(And seriously, Hapa. What the fuck was that.)
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((People weren't just that graceful by nature. It was bred and trained into them. Just what did Peony learn in his sickly younger years?))
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((Ohh, whatever. He had bigger shits to be taking than wondering why Peony could prance around so lightly.))
"So, remind me again. Why haven't you just ambushed the enemy already? You said you knew their location," Aizawa said dryly. It was late, far too late, for him to be awake. Only owls were up at this hour, eating their mice or whateverthefuck.
Hawks leaned back until only his face was dimly lit by the lantern. "Well, you know. Stuff happens. We're caught in a stalemate right now. That's why we haven't been ambushed yet either." There was an awkward, nervous grin on his face as he flicked his eyes in the direction of the enemy camp, as if he would catch the eye of someone across the camp borders.
Aizawa raised an eyebrow, not liking where this was going. "I can't read your mind, you know," he said blandly. "I need you to tell me the reason why."
"It's, uh…" Hawks sat up straight and ruffled his hair, looking anywhere but at Aizawa.
The older man decided he was putting too much pressure on the guy and took a sip of water. "When at Enji's camp, I found a letter from home in the ashes of his tent." Hawks settled his fidgeting and now peered curiously at Aizawa. "Took place probably six weeks ago now, but Shoto's eldest brother ran away. We don't know for sure of his whereabouts."
Hawks sucked in the two ends of his upper lip to form a triangle as he chewed for a second.
"It was burned as part of a paper lotus for Enji's pyre, so Shoto doesn't know yet," Aizawa continued, taking Hawks's reaction as confirmation of the worst.
Hawks dryly chuckled. "Guess I should tell him soon then, huh?"
"I can't read your mind, Hawks," Aizawa chided, pretending he didn't know out of want for a verbal answer. "What's so daunting to tell?"
"That his brother's the leader of the enemy across the border."
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(Somewhere out of earshot, Shoto sneezed violently, filling him with a mysterious, dreadful unease that wouldn't go away.)
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(Something was up in the night air. It could be smelt, felt, imperceptibly and inexplicably sensed. Something, something was up.)
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((So it was true. He'd always heard the elder brother had been a vindictive one, but why? From what he knew, the kid didn't even have to put forth that much effort into a good life. Shoto was the heir to Enji's military legacy; the eldest was the heir to the family property. The middle son… well, now that was a mystery.))
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((Ohh, whatever. Maybe if they captured the eldest, they could pick the nits out of this situation.))
Ah, the cool breeze of the night. Soft and gentle, though it still nipped sharply at the stitches holding his skin together. The prickles of hurt felt good, refreshing and invigorating him and bringing him into a liveliness he'd never felt at home.
Home was a cage. Its tenants, cattle. So when his father left to war with Shoto in tow this time, he couldn't do it anymore. His sister had been long married off, fine. Take his twin, that made sense. Take his baby brother? That was slaughter.
Shoto has the right blessings, can't you see his hair? With equal gifts of prosperity and death, he is the perfect one to honor my legacy! You have only prosperity, you only need your inheritance.
Stress burst one of his finer seams, allowing a thin trickle of blood to drip down his cheek. The man laughed and cracked his knuckles.
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("Hey, Dabi, anything else you wanted to put in this threat? We're just about done.")
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("Keep the kid commander alive. But don't tell them that. That is all.")
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((Take his twin, that made sense. But it still wasn't right.))
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((There was no brushing that aside.))
Author's Note xiii. thank you all for the song recommendations last chapter, though i only ended up downloading the bts one from a guest. it set my mood properly, but i did like listening to everyone else's!
before we got the recent arc, i was very fond of the headcanon that todo's older brothers were twins. still am fond of it, hence why it's showing up here, but this'll probably be the last work of with it.
I meant for the (thing) followed by the ((thing)) to be just for kiri's segment, but around denki's I decided to make it a thing for the chapter. Parentheses are like my thing at this point it seems. (this) was supposed to be like a view beyond the character's direct perspective, whereas ((this)) was meant to be the opposite, going straight to the character's unspoken and potentially unknown thoughts. Decided to make them all start with "ohh, whatever" for parallelism.
hawks is fun to play with. can't wait for the chapter to come out tomorrow and force me to rework the details of the next two chapters again. o u o. i have the rest of orchid hacked into chapters now so! time to just power through it before school starts yay.
that's about all this time! ofc there's more lying around but i dun like long author's notes. if you have any questions, feel free leave it in the reviews, since i've gotten into the habit of replying to those now. anyway, thank you all so much for all your follows/faves, all your reviews. it really means the world to me, and it never fails to blow me away all the love you guys give me. thank you.
i hope you have a greaaaaaaaat daaaaayyyyy~~~