Izuku had been given his own room, where he could store his clothes in a piece of furniture and settle in. It was strange to think that this magnificent room would now be his new home. Its walls were devoid of decorations, and its spaciousness was vastly superior to the room Izuku grew up in.
"Listen, kid. Most people prefer to live in their homes, and due to your circumstances, you are our first student to occupy our residences. Don't be surprised to be the only one living here, as it just means you're on your way to becoming a hero." An old, decrepit man with a kind expression told him, after knocking on the door. "This is going to be your new home. You can come have breakfast in our facilities in five minutes, and classes start at nine am. Your class is A, and you can find the room by looking at their letters." He informed him in a formal tone, before leaving, without waiting for a response.
Izuku ate alone in the enormous and empty cafeteria the institute had. His breakfast was a banana mixed with cereal and yogurt, and after going back to his room and brushing his teeth, he realized classes were about to start.
He waited inside the classroom as he chose the further away seat in the room. It was quiet and peaceful, until he started to hear several footsteps and many kids of his age entered the room.
He chose to stare at his table, instead of watching the new kids come. He hoped no one recognized him from the picture he was told the school posted online, but suddenly, someone yelled.
"That kid! I saw him on the news!" A brown eyed boy with horns pointed a finger at him, gathering many eyes as a murmur arose among the students, while the majority preferred to sit as far away as possible from Izuku, who could still hear some of their words.
"Wasn't it self-defense?"
"Should we be worried-"
"Vaporized half of the house..."
"My dad said he is a victim..."
"They beat him up every day I heard..."
The one that impacted Izuku the most was:
"He still killed them, though..."
Izuku's heart came to a stop as he continued to stare at his table, keeping his head down. Whoever had said that was right and it hurt so badly. The whispers seemed to be tainted in a mix of fear, morbid interest, and pity? Why should they pity him? Maybe dad hit him sometimes, but mom had agreed with him that he deserved it. However, Izuku was simply a monster for taking their lives, he thought. He didn't deserve to be a hero so, why was he even here?
He didn't deserve any pity.
A tall woman, with long dark hair, glasses and a long skirt entered the room, and she ordered everyone to go back to their seats and remain quiet. To Izuku's surprise, everyone obeyed. It was nothing like his kindergarten school where it had to take several attempts and warnings from the teacher to get the kids to sit and be calm.
"Well, that was quick." The woman praised the class. "Actually, I need everyone to stand up and follow me to the training facilities."
Izuku gasped, his sports uniform sticking to him like a second skin as he leaned on his knees. The exercises had been intense, and he knew he was more tired than most after having to do them all without using his quirk; the other children were panting, but they seemed to be in better shape, not having to resort to leaning on their knees., although there were exceptions, a girl and a boy lying on the ground from exhaustion.
The running drills had been hell, along with the sprints, the burpees, the mountain climbers, the bear crawls, the... it was too many to count.
"You" the teacher said, and Izuku realized she was speaking to him. "Why didn't you use your quirk?"
"Because, last time I used it, I killed my parents."
The silence was sepulchral.
Shouto laid on the couch watching some All Might interview; it had been a long day of studying with his personal teacher, some guy named Adam, who teached him english along with basic math.
He wished he could go to school like normal kids did.
He listened intently to All Might's answer when he was asked an interesting question.
"All Might, how do you believe family influences a hero's identity?"
"That's an excellent question! I believe that family has an extremely important role over shaping a person. Love can make heroes go beyond and above to protect their loved ones. The strength that characterizes heroes doesn't come only from their quirk, it also comes from the support and love a family should provide to their loved ones."
Shouto smiled brightly. All Might's opinion was such a far cry from his old man's outdated and rigid point of view.
He then heard the loud footsteps and knew his father had come home, much to his dissatisfaction. Soon, a shadow loomed behind him, and a deep, harsh voice interrupted his train of thought.
"Shouto, we must go train immediately." He said, turning off the TV.
"Shouto loves All Might's interviews, Enji. Can't training wait a few minutes?" Mom came to his defense.
And Shouto wished she didn't.
Enji scoffed, clearly amused at the idea of his son liking his rival, the man he hated and envied the most.
"Training is far more important than watching a meaningless interview. All Might is a man lacking true philosophy. He is a softie underneath his brave facade, and I do not wish for you to take upon his views. The Todoroki name will not" he emphasized, "be influenced by his emotional and irrelevant takes on life. Now, do I really need to pressure you any further from earning the Todoroki name, boy? Get ready!" He screamed.
Shouto ran to the training Dojo, as an powerless and impotent Rei watched the situation.
"Why wasn't I informed about the boy's situation? I made a fool of myself asking him why he doesn't use his quirk." Kaori Nakamura, the teacher in charge of class A said, clearly regretful, to her co-workers as they ate lunch.
Nakamura regretted so badly asking that poor boy why he didn't use his quirk, after being told he killed his parents in self-defense.
"Nakamura, you weren't a fool. You just asked what at the moment seemed like a rational question. I heard his case on the news a few days back, and well, I didn't think of telling you because I thought you already saw the article the institute issued of him. You know, it was a case of self-defense, but there are still some idiots online who accuse him of murder." Hiroki Yamamoto replied softly. Him and Nakamura were the only young teachers of the school, as twenty eight and thirty year olds. "Being a new teacher is hard, but you can just try to provide him some support next time I guess..." He suggested.
"That boy needs to understand he needs to use his damn quirk, or otherwise he doesn't belong in this school." Yamamoto, an old teacher, said, shaking his head in disapproval.
"That boy needs someone to discipline him firmly. A hero in the making can't allow himself to show weaknesses. He needs to understand this isn't a freaking game. People are going to depend on him." Another teacher pressed the issue as well, and soon, Nakamura's voice was overshadowed by the rest of the old men on the table.
She was going to prove them wrong.
Shouto puked as he kneeled on the wooden floor.
"Shouto! This isn't enough. Keep going and stop puking, for the love of God!" Endeavor loomed over him, all rough and harsh, so unlike All Might, Shouto thought as he clutched his stomach in pain.
"I wish All Might was my father." He said outloud, for no other reason than to piss his old man off. Nothing could be worse than what he was already feeling, couldn't it be?
"What did you say, boy?" Shouto could hear the fury in his voice and he felt a sense of fulfillment. As he looked up to find Endeavor's cold blue eyes, he repeated his words, pushing away the fear that told him that this was a very, very bad idea.
Before Shouto could react, Endeavor punched him in the face, his hand closed in a fist as it collided with Shouto's cheek. However, as he was clearly about to hit him again, mom appeared from behind and grabbed his arms.
"Enji, stop this! He is just a little kid!" She pleaded, putting herself between them.
"That's what you keep telling him, but Shouto is made to make it big, woman! He won't be able to do that if you coddle him so much. Now get out of my way." He warned, but Rei stood firm. He wasn't going to let him hurt her baby boy.
"I won't let you hurt him!" She yelled, raising her fists, ready for the fight.
However, she couldn't dodge the fist in time, nor the second one, but she used her ice to create a barrier between them.
"Run, Shouto!" She ordered him, and she felt relief as her boy did what he was told, as she created more ice when Endeavor quickly melted off the barrier.
"I'm going to teach you both a lesson!" Endeavor roared, and Rei created a spike of ice to use as a weapon, and aimed at his head. However, her movement must have been too obvious, since Endeavor easily dodged and grabbed the spike, melting it off in seconds. "Stop this madness and give up, woman." He said.
"No way! You're just going to hurt him and I won't let you!" Her eyes shined with determination as she encased Endeavor's whole body in ice.
Furious, Endeavor melted it off again, and hit her across the face, sending her tumbling to the floor. The man was a trained pro-hero, of course she was going to punch her hard enough to send her to the floor, Rei thought, desperate.
She was afraid for her own life and for Shouto's.
Endeavor kneeled, going in to punch her again, when something struck his skull, with a sharp, resounding impact.
Behind him, Shouto stood with a pointed icicle, as Endeavor lost his balance and fell, knocked out cold.
Rei stood up as fast as she could and grabbed Shouto, holding him sweetly against her body, as she quickly dialed 911 with tears in her eyes.
"Midoriya, I need you to stay after class." Miss Nakamura told him, and Izuku wondered the reason behind this approach.
She surely was going to tell him off for not using his quirk in class, or maybe she had finally realized he didn't belong in the hero course. Izuku hoped it was going to be the latter. If the rest of the day was going to be just like the training in the morning, he might as well tell the adults he had given up.
After the bell rang and miss Nakamura was supposed to leave and let another teacher come in for the english lesson, she instead took Izuku outside of the classroom, and squatted to reach his height so she could see his eyes.
Izuku hated when adults did that.
"I wanted to tell you something, boy." She spoke softly. "You didn't kill your parents. They did it to themselves."
Izuku frowned, confused. "What do you mean, miss Nakamura? I already told you I did it myself. If I were to be born quirkless, I would have never murdered my parents..." he trailed off, and the teacher, to his confusion, seemed to flinch at his words.
"Izuku, your parents put you in an impossible situation. They forced you to use your quirk on them, pushing you to defend yourself in the only way you knew how. They failed you as parents by putting you in that position" she said, frowning too, so serious and so far from the kind and playful approach she always seemed to take to teach their students. "You're not a murderer Izuku, you're just a victim of abuse."
Izuku felt himself tear up. This was an adult telling him this. Could she be right? He didn't dare to dream.
"Look, there are many victims of abuse like you, some that had to use their quirks to defend themselves, so many to the point there was a law created to protect them in these very specific situations. You can look it up on the library's computers: it's named Quirk Abuse Protection Law." She was about to ruffle his hair, but as he flinched, she stopped herself shortly. "I understand if you don't want to use your quirk, but, just consider how many people you could help and save if you did, Midoriya-san. Think about it , will you?"
Izuku nodded, his throat tight.