Chapter Text
Present Time
'Saki? I don’t really know how to feel about that one.. Maybe Shouko? No, too similar to Shouto, and I’m with done being called that.' She sat in her room contemplating names for herself. She’s been out as transgender to her family for years, and being home schooled her entire life meant that she had no one else to tell. She’s been wanting to pick a name since she was five, but she knew that he wouldn’t even bother to call her it, whatever she picked.
She’s been free of Enji, the man who calls himself her (or rather Shouto’s, but he doesn’t exist) father for two years now. Her mother has had custody over her since she was six, but up until she was thirteen she had to “visit” him for a week every month, which meant she had to continue to endure his abusive ‘training’ -that’s what he called it- for several years. Enji was never supportive of her transition, and in fact tried his best to stop her.
He made her keep her hair short, never let her wear what she wanted when she was with him, and refused to call her by her desired pronouns. He refused to see her as his daughter, and thus she decided to hold back on changing her name; it would have just made things harder.
She was done with it. With that man. It wasn’t too hard to prove to the courts that she wanted nothing to do with him. They gave her mom full custody, and ever since she’s been truly free to live as she wants. Free of that wretched man, hopefully for good.
She brushed her hand over her scar. It was a permanent reminder of the pain he caused. There were other parts of her that reminded her of him too; almost her entire left half resembled him, from the left side of her hair being red, to her left eye being turquoise, to even the quirk on her left side being identical to his. At least her right side resembled her mother. Aside from the features on her left half, she resembled her mother pretty well. Her hair being longer helped with that. Enji would be fuming if he saw her now. He’d probably…
She shuddered. 'Okay, stop thinking about that man, he’s gone. He can’t hurt me. It doesn’t matter if I sometimes see his face when I look in the mirror. He’s not going to hurt me ever again. Think about names.' She went back to thinking of a name for herself.
'Shizuko? It’s cute but I don’t know how I feel about the “ko” part.. Shizu? That’s a good one.' She wrote down the name “Shizu”, to see how it looked. She kind of liked it, but still wasn’t entirely sure. Out of all the names she’s thought of she’s only written down ten, and yet she still couldn’t pick one. She settled to keep thinking about it for now. She leaned back in her chair, chewing on her pen.
“What’s got you so deep in thought, Shouto?”, the voice of her sister, Fuyumi, inquired. She turned to face her; she was standing at her door. She must have left it open.
“About that, actually,” she held up the torn-off notebook page she was writing on, “I’ve been trying to think of a new name; Shouto’s been fine but it’s never really felt… like mine, I guess?”
“Let me see,” her sister said as she took the page, fixing her glasses inquisitively. “Hm.. Shizu’s cute, but honestly they’re all good. I could see myself calling you all of these,” Fuyumi smiled as she handed the paper back to her little sister.
She smiled back. “Thank you, but that doesn’t really help me,” she paused for a second as she pressed the back of her pen into her chin, mumbling, “though I am seriously considering Shizu.”
“Why not try it out? You can always just change it again if it doesn’t end up working, right?” Fuyumi had a point. It wouldn’t hurt to just try it out.
She looked at Fuyumi with a soft smile, “I think you’re right. Can you call me it in a sentence, to see how it feels?”
“Sure thing, Shizu,” the older girl grinned. “My little sister Shizu is super strong, I could only hope to be as brave as her!” Fuyumi smiled at her blushing sister. The girl never could handle a genuine compliment.
“I-I think y-you could have stopped with that f-first sentence,” she stuttered, holding her face in her hands. “Hearing you say it though, to me.. I think.. Actually, it’s perfect!” she asserted excitedly. “I’m Shizu.”
Fuyumi leaned over and hugged Shizu while she was still in her chair, “I’m proud of you, Shizu! It’s a big step!”
“Thank you, Fuyumi. You’ve always been a big help throughout this whole thing,” Shizu said timidly, shifting awkwardly in her chair.
“What’s this? A sibling bonding moment I’m being left out of?” It was Natsuo, who just so ‘happened’ to be walking by Shizu’s open door. He probably heard them chatting; the walls were rather thin, not too much as to hear someone clearly, but you could tell when someone was talking.
The two girls looked at their brother, then at each other, as Fuyumi began to speak, “Shizu here finally picked out her name!”
It looked like the cogs were turning in his head as processed what he just heard. Then, as soon as it clicked, he exclaimed, just a bit too loud, “Really?! That’s great! Shizu, huh? Good name for my little sister!” He ran up to join the hug before Shizu stopped him.
“Please let me get out of my chair first, before you all pile on me,” Shizu said meekly as she started standing up. As soon as she lifted herself out of her chair she was caught in a hug between her two siblings, and she couldn’t help but smile.
She was glad to be able to have moments like this; the man who was supposed to be her father forbid her from even talking to her siblings, but he never had any power over her when she was with her mom. Still, being isolated for a week every month for several years took its toll on her. It wasn’t until these past two years that she got to really spend any meaningful time with her family.
Here she was, Shizu Todoroki. Her mom decided to keep the surname through the divorce, so she kept it too. She didn’t really know how to feel about it, sharing a surname with the man who isolated and abused her for so long, but at least she was no longer bound to the name he gave her. She shoved those thoughts aside. She was here, with her family who loved her.