Work Text:
THE NUMBER TWO HERO’S SON IS DEAD
By Eri Sasaki
Touya Todoroki, the eldest son of Enji Todoroki, died last night after being rushed to the hospital and succumbing to his injuries. Touya lit himself on fire after suffering a psychotic break. He is survived by his three siblings, his mother, and his father.
Touya Todoroki was born on January 18, 2297. He was a frail and weak baby with the constitution for an ice quirk. Unfortunately, the baby was born with a fire quirk like his father. His father had done everything he could to help his son succeed; however, even the great hero Endeavor cannot do anything about his son’s body being unable to manage his quirk. After years of seeking advice from medical professionals and support specialists, his son was forced to give up his dreams of being a hero.
That is when his parents stumbled upon a stroke of genius. His mother, Rei Todoroki, had once been a famous painter in the art world and had given up her dreams to raise their family. She decided to inspire her son to try new hobbies and have him find out what he was good at. Touya turned out to be a naturally gifted piano prodigy with his perfect pitch that allowed him to recreate any song on the radio without a reference.
This would begin the start of a new era in the Todoroki household. The young boy started receiving lessons from the world-class pianist, Kousei Arima, on his fifth birthday. Arima was the best choice to be his teacher as he had once been in the same boat as a young piano prodigy with perfect pitch. He was most suited to raising Touya into a world-class pianist and helping him through the hurdles he had already experienced.
Touya would be the second youngest in history to win the Maihou Piano Competition after his own teacher. It was said that he was close to his younger siblings and had tried teaching them with mixed results. Life was going well for him.
However, it was not all sunshine and rainbows. His mother struggled with raising three children and had slowly started becoming mentally unstable. It had been confirmed by medical professionals that Rei had started relying on alcohol and would try to run away with her children. Her mother’s side of the family had a history of alcoholics. Her therapist has suggested that Rei became jealous of her eldest son’s success and began drinking because of it.
His father had tried getting help from medical professionals when she began drinking. There was not much that could be done for her. He tried sending her to a rehabilitation center, and she was released several months later when she was clean. However, she would begin to drink in moderation and made sure it was never noticeable. She had pretended to stay clean in order to stay with her three children.
Rei’s behavior heavily impacted the three children as Touya took on the role of a mother. With Endeavor busy as a hero and Rei an alcoholic, Touya was forced to take care of his younger siblings and manage the household. It has been assumed by psychologists that this had been detrimental to his mental health.
His mother had been verbally abusive and physically abusive to Touya. Accounts from parents of other piano contestants and his classmates would later support these claims. His father was told of how his wife was an alcoholic and rushed over to confront Rei to find out if it was true. He had been upset to put his wife back into a rehabilitation center and began filing a report to send her to a therapist to help Rei.
His wife had lived in a separate household from Enji in order to be closer to her family. Enji had agreed as she had been clean for a few years and as a show of trust. Not to mention, if she needed help, her mother could help with the children.
Touya and his two younger siblings had been returned to their father’s household and had to readjust to living with their father. They were still rather young, but all the moving around had confused Touya. Their mother had filled their heads with lies about heroes. Their father had struggled to reconnect to his children and help them understand that their mother had lied to them.
Through all this crazy mess, Touya had been playing piano and winning competitions. He became well-known in Japan’s scene of classical musicians. He was only seven years old and already near the top of Japan’s music world. He was said to have been a worthy successor of his mentor.
The situation would escalate further when Rei’s parents paid off the rehabilitation center to release Rei early. She was due to have her fourth child soon and had blackmailed Enji into letting her stay with the threat of taking the children from him. Enji started building a case against Rei in order to protect the children. He had wanted to help Rei recover, but he knew he needed to put the children before the love of his life.
By the time Shouto Todoroki had been born, the Todoroki household had managed to settle down. His three siblings and his father had welcomed their little brother into the world. His mother had been regularly seeing a therapist and had been clean for four months. They had employed a nanny and maid to help manage the household.
When Shouto exhibited the quirks of his mother and father, his father was delighted. While Touya had been excited for his brother, he had desired to be a hero like his father. It was only due to not being able to withstand his quirk that he could not become one.
It would all go wrong on Touya’s thirteenth birthday. His mother had suffered a psychotic break and poured boiling hot water onto the youngest Todoroki. It had been a relapse in her recovery, and she had reacted negatively to being startled. Shouto would be rushed to the hospital, and Rei would be put into a mental hospital.
While Touya had suffered at his mother’s hands, he had been dependent on her. They had often had mother-son moments while painting or playing piano together. Touya quit playing piano upon his mother’s disappearance. He struggled with the change once again happening in his life.
Touya begged his father to be trained with his quirk. His father had refused to train him as his son burned from his quirk. Nevertheless, Touya began to train his quirk despite his father’s warnings. It is believed that he was jealous of the attention Shouto was receiving and was trying to connect to his father.
Touya would suffer a psychotic break due to the abuse from his mother and what he saw as neglect from his father. He would try to burn down his father’s training room. His three siblings would escape the fire. His father had been patrolling a different part of the city when it had occurred.
Touya was many things in life: a piano prodigy, a big brother, a hero’s son. It was a tragedy that no one could see coming. He will be missed.