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Everything is on fire.
“This is fine.” He repeats like a mantra under his gasping breath, lungs clogged with smoke.
The freshly charred skin creeps up passed the iron hot staples on each hand. The world is blurry, but light aqua colored flames manage to grab his attention. His jacket is still on fire. As he realizes this, he quickly discards, what is left of, his black leather trench coat. He was quite attached to that trench coat, he even sowed on the gleaming staples on himself. It was his look; it matched his aesthetic.
Now, with his jacket off his full look came into view. A heavily used low cut tank top with fresh blood stains coming out of the abdomen. But, even the vast amount of blood, and very low tank, cannot distract from the painful scars that riddled the man’s body. Burn scars swept both his arms, what was left of the mutilated skin, was medically stapled onto the healthy skin around it. The same was done for his chest, jaw, and under his eyes. One can only imagine that scars left underneath.
He tells his name, his given name… Todoroki Touya. He is the eldest son of the number one pro hero Endeavor. He has a wide smile, not bothered by the freshly poured hair dye remover dripping down his face, revealing his jet-black hair to be a bright white. His eyes are obsessively filled with vengeance, but there is a flicker of something behind them. One can only wonder if its madness like he claims.
There just seems to be more between those aqua blue eyes, that dance like his flames. He claims they are his fathers, not his own, but who has seen his father’s flames dance?
He screams of the injustice of the hero society and their system that lets men like his father be a hero, when he has burned his own family! Maybe that spark in his eye is a plea, a plea of a little boy who never got the justice him and his family deserved. He has the receipts of the supposed hero societies best, Touya has no problem stepping out of the shadows and bringing them to light.
He has been waiting for the perfect moment to bring down the real villains. In his eyes they are now all guilty, Keigo made sure of that with his fierce wings.
Touya’s mind wanders to the bird, “Well, not a bird anymore” he smirks to no one at all.
His thoughts are cut off abruptly by one of his teammates applying some sort of disinfectant to his abdomen. He deducts that it must be Toga due to the small yet cold hands. She opens her mouth to say something, most likely snarky, but as she looks into his eyes, nothing comes out. There is a sense of silence with everyone on the giant and they all knew why.
Flames erupt out of Touya’s body and his head falls into his bloodied hands, staining his newly uncovered white hair. Even after his flames died down, he stayed like this, no one dared to approach Todoroki in this state. His body shook, he gasped more than anyone thought possible, but no tears fell from his face, he got no release.
His mind continued to race with thoughts, doubts even, the blue flamed villain could not think straight. The emotions that he had been suppressing and have been struggling to surface for years, well they cracked, they cracked hard. The idiot and now emotional villain mustered up the last of his strength and jumped off the giant, barely breaking his fall with the power of his flames.
Some of his comrades attempted to follow and retrieve their burnt ass crispy bacon man, but all attempts were futile at the giant’s rampaging speed through Japan. The Todoroki laid on the ground clutching his now broken wrist. Luckily, his flames cauterized his abdomen wound, so he was not at risk of bleeding out. He was however, still struggling to take in air, in fact a person a block away could probably hear him wheezing like they were standing side-by-side.
He continued to struggle enough that he did not notice an approaching figure limping towards him. At this point his vision was dog shit, and not matter how much he squinted nothing came to light. His anxiety spiked and he attempted to shuffle away, his flames failing him in this moment of crises (yes more than one).
The figure opened his mouth and closed it. Todoroki could hear tears loud enough to be picked up over his own gasping. The figure reached for him and he instinctively flinched, “Now is not the time” he mind echoed, “Be strong”!
The figure shuffled and rearranged himself and attempted to speak clearly, “Touya-ni, I am here, tell me everything” He erupted into another sob.
This time it was Dabi who reached his hands out to comfort his brother. He wiped his tears away. They sat in a sniffling silence until Natsuo noticed dirt in Touya’s eyes. He got some water from his university backpack and dabbed it in a napkin left over from his lunch and cleaned him up right away. After around 2 minutes of gentle dabbing (yes I made that pun) he tried to open his eyes again.
This time he saw his little brother with dried tears smeared on his face, smiling like his brother did not just admit to murdering innocent people to get back at their father. He should be scared of him for what he has done, not gleaming like a carefree hippie. He stutters, trying to find the words to tell his brother that he does not want to be redeemed, his work is done, there is nothing left for him. But, the words cannot leave his mouth, because that glimmer in his eye was stronger than any US marine. His brother wanted him back, even after everything he had done, Enji had made him do. Natsuo hugged his big bro, and that was enough.
For the first time in so long, he felt hope that maybe there was more out for him than just destroying his father. Maybe, just maybe.