Chapter Text
“How sad, Todoroki Shouto.”
Those words, that voice, has been stuck in his mind since the Summer camp.
He can’t stop thinking about him. He can’t-
That man knew him. That man had looked at him with recognition in his eyes.
Maybe it was a vendetta against his father. Maybe he just generally would have reacted like that to any of his classmates. They clearly knew them, and he wasn’t just some random kid, he was the son of Endeavor.
And yet… the man had called him out specifically.
He couldn’t shake the feeling he should know more. He had to know more.
Those icy blue eyes still made him shudder.
Not every single person with a fire quirk was related to the Todoroki family.
But flames that powerful, coupled with the same bright blue eyes that stared back at him in half the mirror?
He should know this person.
And yet, when he asks about it, he’s brushed off.
« Fuyumi, we should talk… » Shouto hovered awkwardly in front of the table. He’s not sure how to bring it up… « There was a villain with fire at camp— »
« Oh, you must have been so scared, Shouto! » Fuyumi stood up from where she’d been grading papers « I didn’t ask you when you came back, wanting to wait for you — do you want to talk about the attack now? » She walked over, hands hovering over him but not quite touching him.
« Fuyumi, no, that’s not what I- » « No, Shouto, it’s okay to have been scared! » Fuyumi quickly assured « Especially with what happened to your friend! I know what father thinks about therapy but if you need to talk— »
« Fuyumi! »
« I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m just worried! » She finally pulled back. « What were you saying? »
Shouto sighs. He knows he shouldn’t hold it against Fuyumi but… she treats him like a child. « The villain had blue flames, and I was wondering— »
Fuyumi blanches at the mention of blue flames, reaching out again. « Oh, God… did you get hurt? I know your right side doesn’t resist as well to flames and with you using your quirk… »
Shouto can hear her starting to fuss again, so he just turns around and walks away. He doesn’t have time for this.
Father is of no help, either.
His only comment to the attack was that Shouto should have done more. Should have been stronger,quicker…
Shouto cut off the conversation before his father could get it in his head to train Shouto more even as he’s recovering to make up for his failure.
He bowed, apologized, and ducked out of the room.
The Todoroki family was not as powerful or old as his mother’s family — only really seeing any light since his father’s ascent into the hero ranks.
Which means Shouto should not be as frustrated as he is when almost no information comes out of the brief research he’s done.
His father was an only child, so no aunts, or uncles or cousins.
His grandparents didn’t seem to have any family alive other than them, and they had been dead for far too long for Shouto to have heard anything from them to suggest otherwise.
There was only one relative he knew of that would be in his 20s (like Shouto assumed the villain was).
The only problem is that Touya is dead.
Shouto knelt down in front of the altar that occupies what once was Touya’s room. It feels like it’s been years since he’s last been here and — it probably is. He rarely takes time to give the picture on the altar more than a passing glance, more than a bow of the head in respect for his dead brother.
Now he looks up at the picture of a kid, younger than Shouto is now, with white hair and piercing blue eyes (like one of his, like father’s).
He analyses the picture for just a couple moments more, before realizing he has no idea what to do.
He doesn’t know how to act around altars, around the dead, and he isn’t about to ask Fuyumi for help, and Natsuo is off in Fukoka studying, and… he wouldn’t know how to talk to his older brother either.
Would he know how to talk to Touya, he wonders? If this room wasn’t just a picture of a life that once was, if it was actually inhabited by a living person, would Shouto have come here asking for help, rather than sit in awkward silence?
He doesn’t remember much of Touya, and he never does ask about him (he can’t stand Fuyumi’s sad smile, or Natsuo’s cold shoulder, and he would never dare bring him up to father.), so he has no frame of reference.
He looks up at the picture, and feels a pang of longing he hasn’t felt since he was a kid — what would it be like to have siblings? Not siblings like he, Fuyumi and Natsuo are but… Like the Iidas? How would he feel to have a brother to speak highly of like Iida does Ingenium?
Touya wanted to be a hero: of that, Shouto is sure. Its almost all he knows about his brother.
He takes a deep breath.
« … Hi Touya. I’m your younger- youngest brother, Shouto, and I’m going to be a hero. » he starts. Introductions are in place, aren’t they? He never did get to be with Touya and its been… what, 10 years since they saw eachother?
« I… Don’t know if you’re actually dead. You probably are but… if you’re not, I’ll find you, and if you are… Could you help me? » it feels… foolish to talk to a picture. But if he just imagines a world where he’s not, where he’s talking with a brother who’s quiet to let him finish, it makes him more comfortable.
« There is something about that villain that I need to know. That… Maybe will let me know you. »
He slowly stands up, and bows to the altar.
Maybe that was why he walked into the hospital, why he walked with Kirishima, why he eavesdropped on the police conversation with Yaoyorozu, and he decided to join the plan for saving Bakugou.
The anger at himself — for not being able to do more, to help even when he’d been right there — made the choice easier. No hesitation made him doubt his choice.
But he’d be lying if he said that was the only reason for joining the plan, so he didn’t. It wasn’t his fault if others assumed.
He’d hoped he’d see the fire villain, get to corner him, to speak.
Touya was dead. But a fire user, almost the same age he’d be if he was still alive, with the same blue eyes that stared at him from the altar, for so many years now?
Something in his mind itched for more information, that there was something he didn't know but needed to.
He listened to the plan being formed, to Iida’s complaints, letting his burning shame guide him.
He hoped his classmates would understand if he got separated from them…