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After a month in UA, Shouto tells himself that he was considering telling Bakugou, really, if only said classmate didn’t hate his goddamn guts.
It’s something Shouto notices often, half of the time offhandedly. Bakugou goes out of his way to debate during discussions. He takes every group activity as a chance for competition Shouto didn’t ask for if they’re on opposing sides and deliberately goes against Shouto in particular when they’re on the same side. He acts like minutes wherein they interact are precious minutes of his life wasted. He comes up with more nicknames than he’d, on average, bother with. He sends Shouto dirty looks out of the corner of his eye sometimes at random parts of the day from across the classroom.
Shouto hasn’t really done anything to antagonize him, he’s pretty sure. But, apparently, it’s a thing: Bakugou hating him. Some part of Shouto—the irritating one—is telling him, But Bakugou acts like he hates everyone. It’s called ‘the irritating one’ for a reason.
Bakugou dislikes most people as a rule, Shouto learns. However, he’s clearly being more intentional about expressing it than his usual self would, which only serves Shouto’s conclusion.
Thus, he probably won’t be happy if Shouto were to approach him out of the blue and say something like, Oh, hey. It’s become clear to me that my timer is actually dynamic, not static as I’d previously assumed, and we are, in fact, soulmates. Even the thought of doing so is enough to make Shouto cringe at this point. So he doesn’t. Because while Bakugou hates him (he’s pretty sure), Shouto doesn’t exactly return the favor. Hate is tiring, and he has no real reason to.
There’s also how Shouto can already hear Endeavor saying, But Shouto, he is not a girl. And even if he was, your quirks are not even ideal to combine; exploding ice does not seem promising at all. Ugh. Not that Shouto cares about his opinion; it’s just inconvenient to deal with his nosense, so Shouto would rather not.
And, Shouto can’t think of anything good coming of telling Bakugou the truth. There. The final nail in the coffin.
Besides, there are a lot of things that are more important than soulmates and classmates who hate him. Becoming the best hero for no one but himself is one, for example. Training his body to withstand extremely cold temperatures for an extended period of time in a fighting environment is another, more immediate concern. Shouto chooses to focus on those for now.
Thankfully—and Shouto questions why this isn’t in any of the books—it’s most likely easier to try to get over a soulmate who hates you.
+++
The door of the waiting room is roughly kicked open, making Shouto look up briefly. He’s been feeling oddly calm since the end of his match with Midoriya, but also frustratingly introspective.
Standing in the doorway, with a foot still raised and hands in his pants’ pockets, is Bakugou. Of course it is.
Shouto looks back down then, naively hoping Bakugou has heard about the golden rule at least once in his life.
“Why the fuck are you here?”
He hasn’t. Or maybe he has, but he doesn’t give a damn.
If Shouto had risen to the challenge, Bakugou would be pissed that he did. Now that Shouto had chosen to ignore him, however, Bakugou is also pissed because he despises it when he’s ignored.
Honestly, what does Bakugou want from him?
+++
Everyone was made DVD copies of all their matches in the sports festival. No one was required to claim them, and, in hindsight, Shouto wonders why he did.
On the screen, he sees the exact moment he passed out from the impact of Bakugou’s explosion. Watching the earlier part of the fight already almost physically pained him, but, nevertheless Shouto had continued, and now he’s treated to the sight of his perfectly preventable loss—which he doesn’t feel that bad about, surprisingly.
What makes him stiffen in his seat is the moment after, when Bakugou yanks Shouto by his shirt, bodily dragging him up to his level and shaking Shouto’s unconscious form as he growls, “Stop fucking around!”
Shouto knows that Bakugou found their fight unsatisfying; it had been evident enough at the podium. But, here, Bakugou looked devastated that Shouto had lost like that, as swiftly as that.
As he watches Midnight go so far as to use her quirk on Bakugou in order to restrain him, Shouto thinks, ‘Does winning against me at full strength in a drawn out fight really matter to you that much?’
Shouto pauses the recording. He can’t stand any more of this, despite it being technically over anyway. Maybe Bakugou just hates him to the ends of the Earth, and that, combined with his desire to win against everybody, translates wanting to win way more than usual. Or maybe it’s something else, that irritating part of Shouto’s mind suggests. He hates to admit it, but maybe it’s onto something this time.
+++
“Three days till the big day, huh, Kirishima?” He overhears one afternoon, not that it’s any act of eavesdropping. The classroom isn’t big, and Shouto doubts he could avoid listening in on the conversation happening at just the other end of the room.
“Could suddenly become six years or two minutes at the drop of a hat, though, so who knows?”
“Please. Mine ticked down in a theme park when I was a kid, so I was basically doomed from the start. At least you’ve got a fighting chance.”
Kirishima laughs, and that’s when Bakugou pipes in.
“Is it even fucking guaranteed you’d like them?”
If Shouto didn’t know better, he’d think Bakugou was mocking him somehow.
“Stop being such a downer all the time, ‘Splodey!”
“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!”
“Jeez, Bakugou, chill!”
“Also, isn’t it the whole point of being soulmates to like each other?”
“I actually already kind of like them; I don’t know why.”
Bakugou scoffs, reacting to the earlier question. “Not always.”
As if it was some sort of sick joke, the moment Shouto decides to look their way, he catches Bakugou staring at him, giving Shouto another one of his dirty looks. Once Shouto’s eyes meet his, however, he pointedly looks away.
Kaminari whistles. “Someone’s bitter.”
Shouto makes quick work of putting away his things, figuring he’s not in the mood to stick around today, and doesn’t decipher what Bakugou answers with next since he’s already out the door and walking down the hallway.
+++
It feels like some kind of bad omen, stemming from the moment Shouto admitted to himself that despite Bakugou so blatantly hating him, he doesn’t return the favor.
Shouto had sort of predicted something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. Hell, this kind of thing happening is the point (thank you, Kaminari). Still, that doesn’t make Shouto’s realization any more graceful once he becomes fully aware of the fact that he is hung up on Bakugou Katsuki.
And knowing that it was bound to happen doesn’t help the fact that it sucks.
It sucks because sometimes Shouto looks at Bakugou and idly, randomly thinks of what it would feel like to kiss him or make him flush or make him say that he gives up while holding him down on the mats during no-quirks. It sucks because it feels like Shouto’s had the rug pulled out from under him, like he’d been sent to the front lines of a war without a gun, like he’d been thrown into the ocean without ever being given the chance to learn how to swim.
This thing may only be a recent thing, just like how the realization is recent. But it could also have been building up from that day on the train, when Shouto had been able to so vividly recall the look on Bakugou’s face long after he’d gone off.
No. That just makes it worse.
You’re soulmates. Why should this be so complicated?
Because Shouto’s not good at ‘this.’ ‘This’ isn’t something he can just overcome using his quirk or ace by going the extra mile to study.
+++
“What the fuck’s your deal?!”
Bakugou’s tone and expression are unsolicited, as per usual. They’re in the gym, for today’s no-quirks. He and Bakugou are being partnered up more often as of late.
Shouto used his fire quite a lot earlier today. It still rubs him the wrong way sometimes, despite everything that’d happened and everything he’d reconciled within himself. Old habits die hard, it seems.
“Bad day,” he says, curtly, not meeting the other boy’s eyes.
For a moment, Shouto wants to make a knife-sized shard of ice to stab himself with, realizing he wants Bakugou to react with concern.
Of course he doesn’t, just makes a muttered remark about Shouto getting sloppy and being too quirk-dependent. There’s no nickname.
Shouto responds not with words, but by winning the next round. The period goes by pretty fast.
+++
On occasion, they have these periods of truce.
Shouto doesn’t dwell on them, since they’re few and fairly far between, but they’re a thing that happens nonetheless.
Mostly, it’s during those times when Bakugou grudgingly or at least passive aggressively (or just plain aggressively) works together with him in team strategy battles and such. There’s a plan, and Bakugou goes along, plays along, all while still acting like he hates everyone and everything that had led him up to that moment. When things go well, Bakugou never admits it, acts like he was going against the team the whole time, and then it’s back to status quo; when they don’t, Bakugou uses that as justification to do his own thing—and then it’s back to status quo.
They’re not close. They’re not friends. Those moments are rare. However, Shouto guesses this is as much of a silver lining as he’s gonna get, so he takes it.
+++
Eventually, Shouto finds a way to deal with his feelings.
It’s some time within another uneventful stretch of school days and before things started getting ‘fun’ again that Shouto finds himself readily answering to Bakugou’s provocations instead of doing his best to appear unaffected. Bakugou is his normal, pissed off self regardless, and Shouto discovers it’s more fun this way.
“Seems like someone else I know.”
Hell, he’d even started initiating and not just responding.
Bakugou still kind of hates him, but he’s mellowed out a little bit. He still starts the debates, but when he uses nicknames, they’ve got more of a teasing edge to them now (by Bakugou standards anyway).
He also doesn’t go out of his way to avoid Shouto, so Shouto doesn’t avoid him either—and it’s definitely not because everything would feel too alike a romance if he did. (It was.)
The bickering becomes some form of outlet for Shouto, and it makes things easier.
One time, when Shouto says something that makes Bakugou exhale with a surprised chuckle, he asks himself why he hadn’t started doing this sooner. Because he definitely should have been doing it this whole time.
+++
“Y’know I get so fucking tired of your shitty indecision, don’t you?”
Shouto pauses from scrubbing down a plate. He and Bakugou were almost unanimously voted to do the dishes tonight at the camp. At first Shouto thought their classmates did it on purpose with ulterior motives, but then why would they? Was Shouto that obvious? He didn’t think he was.
Bakugou grumbled about it at first, but the running water and task that was simple enough to produce a comfortable cycle of repetition but subtly nuanced enough not to feel monotonous had lulled them into a silence that felt (dare he say) almost companionable.
Shouto takes a moment to let Bakugou’s words sink in. A part of his brain quickly starts panicking, insisting, Of course your classmates knew, and if they did, who’s to say Bakugou himself hasn’t figured you out yet? You’re way too obvious.
He tries to rein it in—because what else is he supposed to do? Look logically at the data presented to you, Shouto.
It only becomes apparent how long he’s taken to staring at Bakugou without saying anything when Bakugou finally gives Shouto a look that means he’s waiting for him to respond, in case he isn't sure.
Shouto mulls it over for another second. And…
Ding ding ding! The verdict is projection.
Shouto hates hoping, but he hates his emotions making him paranoid more.
“What do you mean?”
Bakugou’s eyes actually widen, and he looks at Shouto like he’d just had some important epiphany. Then, he quickly composes himself and the look morphs into one of disdain mixed with an emotion Shouto can’t put a name to.
“Never mind. Just know you’re a fucking asshole,” he says.
Shouto’s eyebrows draw together. As if you’re not one yourself. He returns his focus to the dishes.
And then it’s back to status quo.
+++
Shouto only becomes aware that there’s a rhythm, a synergy, building up when, suddenly, it’s cut off.
Bakugou gets captured by the League, right before Shouto’s eyes, and he couldn’t do a single damn thing.
(It keeps flashing before him, the way he’d frozen up as the portal appeared behind his classmate, and what makes everything worse is that he could’ve done something. He could’ve used his ice. He could’ve used his fire. He could’ve moved. There was no guarantee he’d even be successful, but at least he would have tried.
Shouto doesn’t regret a lot of things, doesn’t get hung up on a lot of things. This is a special case.)
Once everything is over for the moment, everyone is shaken, Shouto simultaneously most and least of all.
Midoriya and the others are saying things like acting independently and sneaking out and getting him back. When Shouto is asked, he meets Midoriya’s stare and doesn’t hesitate for a second.
As a hero, it was the first time he’d ever significantly failed to help someone, and it just had to be his own soulmate.
It was—fuck.
So Shouto goes along, putting the thought of the repercussions of what they’re going to do on the back burner.
+++
“And the only one who’ll be able to do it is…” Midoriya has a hand on chin, eyebrows drawn in thought. “It has to be Kirishima-kun,” he concludes.
Shouto doesn’t note how he feels. He doubts he feels anything. He doesn’t even know whether he’s running on rage or willpower or conviction at this point. All those things are just blurred together now.
Yet, his mind is surprisingly clear. Shouto finds there’s nothing lingering on the forefront of it, and he’s not fixated on the air moisture and how it’ll affect his ice and fire.
Midoriya runs through the plan one last time. Everyone nods when he asks if they’re ready, and then they set out.
+++
Shouto sticks to his role in the plan faithfully. He doesn’t think about how much he wants to be the one to get Bakugou back himself because he trusts Midoriya and his judgment.
They’re successful in the end, but once the all meet up again, no one seems quite the same, Midoriya least of all.
When Bakugou comes back with them, Shouto doesn’t look at him.
He can’t, yet, because he knows he’s vulnerable to saying something stupid right now, and he’s in no place to. He wants to keep his head clear for as long as possible, revel in this rare occurrence before it’s over again.
+++
Class is on again. Repercussions have no reason to stay on the back burner anymore, so, like Shouto has been anticipating, they don’t.
He knows their decisions weren’t the best, but he doesn’t regret them.
Then, summer comes and goes as well, and Shouto trains with his fire a lot. Simultaneous use of both sides is still a work in progress, but he believes he’s getting there.
In a flash, the downtime is over.
Surprisingly, Endeavor doesn’t offer the slightest resistance once he’s met with word about the dorms. He only reminds Shouto not to slack on his training.
+++
Shouto’s dorm room is directly above Bakugou’s, but other than a few remarks about the floor being too thin and Shouto’s evening showers being a hindrance because the bathroom floor is even thinner, they don’t talk much.
Actually, Shouto thinks their last real conversation was back at the camp, and for a bit he keeps puzzling over what Bakugou might have realized. Maybe he does know about Shouto’s feelings now, and this is Bakugou’s way of telling him to fuck off.
And it would be fine, since Bakugou has hated Shouto from the beginning, except it’s so very not.
Somewhere along the class debates and the bickering and the nicknames and the no-quirks matches and the team battles and the set-up pairings for tasks, Shouto had stopped being okay with Bakugou blatantly showing that he hates him. And he’s gotten to thinking that maybe the other boy tolerates him more than he lets on.
This is bad. This is very bad.
For the first time, Shouto stops caring so much and just starts avoiding Bakugou, too.
It’s debatable if it helps.
+++
“Todoroki-kun, are you finished with the map?” Shouto’s teammate for their current in-classroom task asks, and he nods. This is the first time he’s gotten to work with her in all their time at the remedial short course for the provisional license exam. He only knows the girl as Bakugou’s newest self-proclaimed rival, specifically at no-quirks, where she is apparently unmatched. That Kanto chick, Bakugou calls her. Shouto make a mental note to ask what her actual name is later.
So far she had proved a pleasant and agreeable person to work with. Shouto can’t help his curiosity at times, but he knows it’s not appropriate to ask why she failed. That’s not something they do here at the short course, like a silent rule. After all, the reason Shouto himself failed was getting childishly caught up in an unfounded quirk contest when it was neither the place nor time to.
They work in silence for most of the period. Towards the end, however, the girl huffs an annoyed breath and stops writing to roll up her long sleeves. She sighs in relief after doing so and goes back to their nearly done paperwork.
Shouto’s eyes are immediately drawn to her timer, which is ticked down at all zeroes, but the numbers and letters are grey in the way they would be if the timer hadn’t ticked down instead of being bolder and black.
She catches his eye. “Weird, right?”
Shouto is about to apologize for being impolite when she explains conversationally, “Apparently I was born with my timer like this. Means my soulmate is dead or something like that. No one really knows since it almost never happens.”
She goes back to writing then, but once he finishes soon after, she turns to Shouto and asks, “How ‘bout you?”
It only occurs to him then that he hasn’t talked to anyone at all about his soulmate situation since January, and the fact that this girl is a near stranger to Shouto somehow makes him feel comfortable letting out some of the stuff he’d kept pent up since the day on the train.
“I’ve met mine—” her eyes widen— “but they don’t know I’m their soulmate.”
She tilts her head in confusion. “Well, why don’t you tell them?”
Shouto’s heart clenches, not too unlike the first day of school in April. “Because they don’t like me.”
The girl looks at Shouto like he’d just said something completely inane. “How can you be so sure about that? Did they tell you outright or something?”
Shouto pauses. Then, “No, but I can take hints.”
“And you’re fine with that?”
No. No, he’s not.
“If you’re not, then you’ve gotta try and work things out!” She says emphatically. “It’s so rare for soulmates to even meet, but when they do,” she pauses to smile a sad smile, “usually it’s something that shouldn’t be allowed to slip away.”
Shouto wonders if she’d be able to say the same things if she knew the person he was talking about was her self-proclaimed rival, but that’s only to distract himself from the thought that rings throughout his mind: she’s right.
Avoiding his soulmate hasn’t helped his being hung up on said soulmate, and Shouto had already established he’d like for Bakugou not to hate him.
He’d kept telling himself that there was no good reason to tell Bakugou the truth, but he had only let the skewed perception of soulmates he was raised with to influence him. If Shouto had felt so much lighter just from telling an almost stranger a vague version of his plight, how much better than that would it feel to confess it to the person who mattered?
+++
Bakugou looks at him with that disdainful look a few meters away, hands in the pockets of his pants. They’re in the open area right outside the front of the dorms.
“So? Spit it out! What the fuck did you want to talk about?”
Shouto glares at him for that, even though it’s kind of unfounded, before taking a deep breath and letting his shoulders plop. He schools his features and wills his heart to chill a little, not that it does. “My timer’s dynamic. I found out later that day when I took off the bandages and it ticked down.” Shouto isn’t able to note the lack of shock, too deep in his own head. “I was scared to tell you. I guess I still am. Then you started acting like you hated me and I used that as an excuse to put off telling the truth even more, but I started liking you and I was just... a mess. Later, I realized I was tired of you hating me and that the only way to change things was to come clean.”
Shouto thinks he said all that in too few breaths. He looks over at Bakugou then, whose scowl has only deepened.
“What changed?” He asks, voice flat.
It only catches up to him now that Bakugou has displayed no surprise whatsoever. “…W-what?”
“I said, what fucking changed?”
Shouto’s eyebrows furrow. Why does this always happen? “What do you mean by that?!”
Bakugou lets out a dry chuckle. “Oh, here we fucking go again. First, you reject me without even batting a goddamn eyelash, and then you try and keep shit civil like it’s no big deal at all. Now, when I stop playing along, you say you’re fucking tired of me hating you? Get a fucking clue.”
Shouto’s eyes are wide as saucers now. He’s breathless. “You’re saying—”
“I’m saying,” Bakugou cuts him off, and crosses his arms. “I fucking know we’re soulmates and I’ve known from the fucking start. I saw my timer tick down with my own two eyes so it didn’t take much to figure out that if I believed what you said, shit doesn’t add up!” He’s gesturing wildly now. “Surely enough, lo and fucking behold, we meet again around the time you said you were supposed to meet your soulmate.”
“You knew all along?” Shouto tries to confirm, disbelievingly. Earlier conversations come crashing back to him then—and how the fuck could he have missed this? “I—fuck.” His throat is tight, chest even tighter.
Unexpectedly, Bakugou smirks. “Yup, and I’d thought you’d figure this shit out, but no. Society fucking lied. Your soulmate is supposed to just get you, but now we know that filthy crap’s a scam.”
Shouto feels like this isn’t over yet. “Yeah, but did society lie about everything?”
“Why don’t we find out?” There’s a glint in Bakugou’s eyes. Shouto can’t tell if it’s good or dangerous.
“What?” He’s been saying that a lot. It’s starting to get irritating. He really needs to work on this ‘magically understanding your soulmate’ business.
“Fight me,” Bakugou says, as if that’s all they need to do, as if it’ll make up for everything and set them right back on track.
The way he says it—nonchalantly, conversationally—makes Shouto want to believe him.
“Okay.”
And it’s just like usual, just like how no-quirks always is, except it’s so very not.
It’s not because Shouto feels something in the air with every step he takes, no matter if it’s forward or backward. He barely dodges Bakugou’s punches, but it feels exhilarating and natural at the same time. Once one lands, Shouto is knocked back, but he quickly recovers and lands a hard kick to Bakugou’s shin. Bakugou grits his teeth, and Shouto goes brutally on the offensive.
Bakugou is fast, however, and much better at dodging. He expertly maneuvers and blocks as necessary, not missing a single chance to retaliate by charging after every opening Shouto leaves as he himself attacks.
They go at it for a while, and neither of them manages a clean victory until they’re both panting and drenched in sweat.
Shouto wonders how long they’ve been sparring before deciding he’s done with standard tactics. He punches Bakugou right in the nose, as hard as he can, and takes advantage of Bakugou’s brief moment of occupation to make his move. Shouto takes a few steps back before he runs at his opponent, gripping Bakugou’s shoulders and using his momentum to straight up send him to the ground by force.
And it’s not like no-quirks—because Bakugou stares right up at Shouto, breath knocked out of him, and before Shouto can gain purchase, Bakugou has grabbed him by the back of the head and Shouto is met with Bakugou’s lips on his.
They’re both hot and sweaty and still buzzed with adrenaline, and it’s probably actually really gross, but Shouto kisses back with all the fervor he can muster. When Bakugou’s mouth moves against his, and he tries to deepen the kiss, Shouto decides he likes the feeling of not breathing.
Once they part, Bakugou says, “You have no fucking idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”
Shouto smiles, and lets up when he realized he’s still holding Bakugou down. “Same.”
He stands then, offering a hand to Bakugou, who takes it.
“Don’t take this as me going easy on you for the top spot,” Bakugou warns.
“Oh, I very much intend to beat you fair and square so don’t even worry about it.” Shouto says, but he’s smiling.
When they enter the dorms again, despite it being a good couple of hours after lights-off, they’re greeted with the sight of the light in the common room being open. Uraraka is sprawled on the long couch, Kirishima on the short sofa beside it, and Midoriya is standing against the counter of the shared kitchen while munching on onigiri as he holds the tupperware containing it in his other hand.
Kirishima takes one look at the two of them before whooping. Uraraka groans, and then stands, pulling out a wad of bills from her pocket and handing them to Kirishima. Midoriya does the same.
“What the fuck’s the meaning of this?” Demands Bakugou.
Midoriya shrugs, expression completely innocent. “But Kacchan, when you said we should stop pairing you up with Todoroki-kun all the time for group activities, you never said we should also stop the betting pool.”
Bakugou’s hands fly to his face. “Oh, for fuck’s sake…”
A smile uncontrollably pulls at Shouto’s lips. They did know after all, huh?
There’s practically nothing left of what used to weigh down on his chest now.
+++
For the record, it was not easy at all to try to get over a soulmate who hates you.
He takes it all back.
(That’s probably why that wasn’t in any of the books.)
+++
“You’re telling me you have met your soulmate, whom you have missed after your tick-down, again?”
Endeavor’s stare is so typically intimidating, his form towering over his son’s. His quirk even isn’t activated.
Shouto doesn’t waver in the slightest.
“Yes, he’s in my class.” Shouto keeps his voice and breathing even. He’s not losing one of these intimidation games again. He’s used to this now.
His father crosses his arms. “Do you intend to pursue him romantically?”
Like Shouto expected, his voice had dropped almost an octave. It was the be-all, end-all question.
“Yes,” he readily responds, making sure to raise his voice a little bit.
And the thing is, Todoroki Enji isn’t the kind of person who makes a person’s sex into a paramount matter if what was being talked about was just romantic partners. However, they’re talking soulmates, which changes things—because all Todoroki Enji cares about among all this are heirs, heirs, heirs.
“You are aware that if you do this, Shouto, you may never have any biological children, aren’t you? That if you do this, your quirk—the same quirk I have spent many of my years trying to achieve and the same quirk you will spend your entire life cultivating—dies with you.” His voice grows more intense the more he speaks.
All Todoroki Enji cares about are heirs, heirs, heirs—and it makes Shouto’s blood curdle.
“Yes, I am aware. I have thought about this.” And Shouto does his damnedest to keep his voice unwavering, his posture straight, his gaze focused.
Only a matter of seconds now…
Finally, after a long, solid moment of staring, his father shifts, and then grunts. Shouto remembers at the last second to hold in his sigh of relief that he’d gotten through.
“Shouto…” He warns, and he probably knows Shouto was prepared for this, doesn’t he? “Know that I have never believed in soulmates and I never will. I still do not approve of this, but I am prepared to acknowledge it.”
When Shouto nods, he seems to be satisfied, and turns away to go back into the house and out of the cold evening air.
I don’t need your approval, Shouto doesn’t say. He also doesn’t know how feel about getting his father’s acknowledgment, which caught him off-guard and had him try not to visibly react.
To Shouto’s surprise, Endeavor turns back then. “Don’t you dare let this hinder you from becoming the top hero.” His eyes are burning, unforgiving, merciless.
Hinder him?
Shouto thinks of Bakugou, of his unbelievable strength, of his conviction as certain as the sunrise to win against anything and anyone, including his own soulmate, in his quest to get to the top and stay there.
This time, Shouto only narrows his eyes in a glare. How could you ever think that?