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The kids shuffle onto the bus amidst shouts for order from their new class representative and Aizawa Shouta watches impassively.
He’s grumpy for more reasons than one but as the bus pulls away and Shouta leans back in his seat to settle in for the drive he tries to convince himself that said ire is directed solely at All Might and the foolish hero's mistake this morning.
He gnashes his teeth when the thought persists until finally he pulls out his phone and taps out an angry text to the man about how there is no excuse for having bailed on his responsibilities and that if he really felt the need to step in himself at every single possible turn on his way to work then it just means he didn’t trust the heroes that work in that neighborhood to do their fucking jobs. He adds in some more expletives with harsh jabs of his fingers and then once he’s finished saying his piece he holds down the backspace till the message is gone.
It’s a method he’s been using for years when speaking his mind is more trouble than it’s worth but keeping quiet instead burns and shakes with uncontrollable anger in his core.
He can’t say he feels totally better– he does still have to run this training without All Might now after all. But it’s lessened enough that he can focus on more important things. At least till later when he gets back to UA and can rip All Might a new one in person.
His anger at All Might now somewhat assuaged, Shouta crosses his arms, closes his eyes, and tries and fails to ignore the way his mind keeps pulling him towards the student sitting alone in the back of the bus.
Todoroki is wearing his gym uniform today just like they had discussed he could and he’s even carrying some prototype gear the support department had cooked up to account for his left side.
Shouta shouldn’t be worrying about him at all.
But for some reason he is.
The bus arrives, the class troops inside, Thirteen gives a speech— and suddenly villains are attacking and Shouta has more to worry about than just Todoroki.
***
Todoroki Shouto has never had a Sensei before.
Well that’s not strictly true. Shouto has had teachers before.
But he’s never had one that inspired the respect and trust that Aizawa-sensei does.
The way any sensei should.
The school year has barely started but already Shouto feels seen and heard in a way he’s never felt before.
Because Aizawa-sensei had done more than simply listen to him, more than encourage and validate him, more than inspire him to create a new blend of both halves of his quirk.
Aizawa-sensei had reminded him that regardless of Endeavor, Shouto wants to be a hero.
He’d gone home that day and lay on his bed for hours relishing the thought and picking apart what it really meant. And he understands himself on a deeper level now because of it. At the core it comes down to one truth that he knows his father will never understand.
His ice is useful.
In a way that his fire can never be.
Because more than anything, the side of heroics that first drew Shouto in was rescue heroes. All Might himself might possess the power to take on heavy hitters in combat. But the videos of him that go viral are the times when he carries people to safety, punches the air so hard wildfires go out, lifts entire cars out of the way when debris comes raining down.
And fire can’t do any of that.
It’s ironic that Endeavor has spent so long chasing All Might’s coattails yet he hasn’t realized that fact yet. Endeavor will never beat All Might. Because no matter how many cases Endeavor closes, how many villains he defeats and arrests, it’s just not the same kind of heroics as someone who can leap from the ground below and soar high enough to catch a falling airplane before it crashes into a building.
Fire can’t do it.
But ice can.
With his mother’s quirk Shouto can prop up falling buildings, create ramps for people to evacuate from, throw up defensive shields for them to hide behind, and so much more.
Plus sliding on his ice gives him speed and mobility and combining both of his quirks together gives him water which can put out fires and help treat burn victims or dehydration.
Compared to all of that, what can fire even do besides burn people and cause them pain?
Well, perhaps Shouto is being a little unfair. Fire can provide warmth in the cold and light in the darkness after all.
But not the way Endeavor wants him to use it.
Shouto has no problem cupping a flame in his palm when he needs to and he knows that the reason he can send out ice so indiscriminately is because he has his left side to melt it down after.
But when it comes down to it, fire is more a hindrance than a help in rescue situations. And Shouto refuses to use it in combat.
He’d been expecting Aizawa-sensei to give him a hard time about it.
He’d been wrong.
There is an expression Shouto had heard from Natsuo a while ago when his brother was gushing about a close friend. “I would die for him,” Natsuo had said with a wide beaming smile and Shouto had privately thought the sentiment to be stupid.
How could anyone possibly care for someone and appreciate them so much that their life becomes worth more to you than your own?
But he thinks he might get it now.
Because if something were to happen to Aizawa-sensei…
If Shouto were there to possibly stop it but at the very cost of himself…
Well he’s not sure yet what he’d do.
And then villains attack and Aizawa-sensei leaps into the fray alone and a villain with a warp quirk sends the class scattering across the USJ and suddenly Shouto knows.
He would die for him.
Threatening the villains with hypothermia so they’ll give up information doesn’t feel very heroic.
But Shouto doesn’t care.
Sensei is alone without backup and the sooner Shouto can help him the sooner his heart will stop racing in his chest at the thought that Sensei might already be–
No.
There's no time for panic.
The threatened thug gives in, spouting nonsense about the main objective being to kill All Might and how the leader of the villains has brought a weapon that they claim can do just that.
Shouto pushes down his worry and fear and in the way he’s been coping with it all since he was a small child he converts it into anger instead.
How dare they.
How dare they!
There are only two heroes in this world that Shouto cares about and these villains dare to threaten both of them?
No.
This will not stand.
Shouto won’t let it.
He slides on his ice at a rapid pace, pushing the limits of his quirk in his haste to get back to the central plaza.
He can feel the cold seeping into his skin, frost settling on his cheek, and he flexes his left hand with a scowl.
Time to see what his new gear can do.
And isn’t it ironic that he couldn’t get a new hero costume just yet but thanks to Power Loader-Sensei picking apart the bare bones of his original costume he now has a thin undersuit that utilizes pathways between his two sides to allow him to send warmth from his left hand throughout his entire body.
Wearing the fingerless gloves has been a pain to adjust to but if they work as promised to mitigate his risks for hypothermia without him needing to use his fire then Shouto will wear them all damn day.
He hasn’t tested the offensive function yet and was hoping he wouldn’t have to use it today without making sure it actually works first.
But as he coasts into the central plaza where a massive black creature is holding a wounded Aizawa-sensei up by his head, his doubts and hesitations go out the window.
Heroes can’t be one trick ponies.
And he’s going to use everything he has to make these fuckers pay.
“Oh? What’s this? A random npc deciding to–”
Shouto ignores the villain speaking, focusing entirely on the wave of ice he’s sending at the creature with a wide sweep of his right hand. With his left he directs a wave of warm air towards Aizawa-sensei, hoping it’ll be enough to shield him from the cold of the attack.
His ice sprouts spires, thick pointy columns shooting upwards at the creature’s face and it drops Aizawa-sensei just as Shouto had hoped it would.
Shouto has one second of triumph before he’s faced with the full brunt of the main villain’s focus. Shigaraki, the ones he’d questioned— read threatened— had called him. Some kind of destructive quirk in his hands.
“You know I really hate wannabe heroes busting in to disrupt my quest.”
There’s movement out of the corner of Shouto’s eye and it takes everything in him to school his expression to tamp down his surprise at the sight of three of his classmates just hiding right there in the water.
Shouto hadn’t taken the time to learn any names yet but he knows the one that is Midoriya because of his similarity to All Might as well as the fact that Aizawa-sensei had said they’d be the only two wearing regular gym uniforms today.
Shouto takes one second to make eye contact with Midoriya and flick his fingers in Aizawa-sensei’s direction before he focuses back on the villains. Midoriya is strong even without his quirk that for some reason hurts him to use. If Shouto can buy time and be a distraction then his classmates will have no problem getting Aizawa-sensei to safety.
Shouto can do that.
The creature bursts free of Shouto’s ice, sparks running across its torso as the wound he’d just inflicted on it practically zips out of existence.
‘They said that thing was engineered as a weapon to defeat All Might.’
“This npc has guts doesn’t he Noumu? I don’t even think he’s listening to me.”
‘So there’s no way I’ll be fast enough if I try to dodge it.’
Shigaraki scratches at his neck agitatedly as he hisses an angry order. “Maybe you should show him why he needs to be paying attention.”
‘The only thing I can do is…’
The creature grabs for his left arm right as Shouto lights it on fire.
‘I won’t use my fire for combat. I refuse to throw it around burning people like he does…’
There’s an agonized animalistic shriek in his ear and the scent of burning flesh but the Noumu doesn’t let go of him and Shouto has to grit his teeth through the pain building under the punishing grip on his arm.
‘...but if someone burns themselves because they’re holding onto me while I’m on fire then that’s on them.’
“Kill him!” Shigaraki yells and Shouto burns even hotter in response.
His gear wasn’t made to withstand this kind of heat and they’re barely out of the prototype stage so he can’t be sure how long it’ll keep working but… well he only needs a minute for this to work.
The Noumu’s free hand reaches for Shouto’s neck right as he squeezes his left hand into a fist as he slams his right hand flat against the Noumu’s chest and sends out ice from the palm.
A powerful stream of water bursts from the gloved spot, hitting the Noumu with enough force to knock it back and away.
The grip on his arm is painfully wrenched free but Shouto ignores it, converting the agony into fuel for his rage the way he did with everything else.
They hurt Sensei.
They hurt the one person in the world to stand firmly on his side— the one hero after All Might that Shouto knows to be good .
In his anger his left hand squeezes tighter reflexively and the stream of cold water from his palm turns hot.
They’re going to pay.
Shouto refuses to stop when the Noumu breaks off an ice spike and throws it at his face.
He doesn’t stop as it slices his forehead and he doesn’t stop when the Noumu manages to get past his defenses to land a devastating blow to his stomach that sends him scraping and rolling across the ground.
He doesn’t stop when the doors to the USJ blow open to reveal an enraged All Might.
Shouto doesn’t stop until he’s cradled in All Might’s arms as the hero carries him to where Midoriya and the other two have taken Aizawa-sensei.
He doesn’t rest until All Might tells him he can.
There’s blood running down Shouto’s face and he can’t feel his left arm and he’s shaking so badly from quirk overuse that he’s twitching, jerking repeatedly against the ground when All Might sets him down. His head hurts like it does when he has a fever but his teeth are chattering like he’s freezing and the dichotomy of the two has nausea swirling in his stomach and bile rising in his throat. Everything hurts except his left arm which feels disconnected like it’s been ripped off completely and Shouto has to look down and check that it’s still there at all.
All Might snarls at Shigaraki but without the power of his Noumu to back him up the villain only attempts one hit before fleeing through a portal with a now broken arm.
Shouto looks over at where he’d impaled the Noumu, trapping it in ice to prevent it from freeing itself with movement and then he glances down at Aizawa-sensei.
His teacher has a ruined elbow and a bloody face but he’s alive and that’s all that matters.
Shouto coughs on his next inhale, blood flecking the ground as he chokes and it’s with a frankly detached air that he remembers taking that hit to the chest that felt like it fucked up his ribs.
There’s hands on his face now, someone turning him on his side and hissing at the heat coming off his forehead and Shouto finds himself staring at the steady rise and fall of Aizawa-sensei’s chest.
His teacher is still hurt and unconscious.
But he’s alive.
Everyone is alive, even All Might.
Shouto did that.
And he didn’t even need his fire to do it.