Chapter Text
The classroom buzzed with the excited chattering of Shoto's classmates, meanwhile, he sat silently in his seat by the window simply observing them all. A handful of kids were grouped near the middle of the desks, though Shoto knew that wasn't where at least half of them sat.
"You're gonna join a club? Which one?" Some dark blue-haired girl pestered her friend.
"Probably the gardening one, to be honest. It's kind of perfect for my quirk!" Answered the other girl, who sprouted a small flower from the palm of her hand. "I hope my next school will have one though," she fretted.
"Most hero schools probably won't, but you just want to be a florist, right?" A boy chimed in from the seat next to her, his eyes red like fire. "I'm sure you'll be fine."
Shoto turned away from their conversation, unknowingly glaring at his desk. Something other than a hero..? Most kids our age would jump at the chance for it. He stole a glance back at the group, who was laughing at some joke the plant girl had likely said. Guess not everyone's cut out to be a hero, he thought, watching as the group scurried back to their proper seats as the teacher entered the room.
Still though, a club... he hummed quietly, half listening to whatever the teacher was starting in on. Maybe I could join one. He humored the thought as he leaned his face on his hand, looking forward at the board.
He ignored the snickering coming from two seats over, assuming they were either passing notes or talking in a way that they shouldn't be. It wasn't his problem though, and he remained deadpanned throughout the rest of the class.
When the bell eventually rang and the students dispersed in a loud, hammering chatter, Shoto silently squeezed his way through the group and out into the hall, most kids moving out of his way out of politeness or slight fear.
The voices of the same group from earlier reached him, once more talking about clubs. He did his best to subtly listen in, they were walking in front of him after all and he wasn't technically eavesdropping.
"I've definitely settled on the gardening club," the plant girl stated, and Shoto now realized she had two leaves sticking up on top of her head, bouncing along with her long light brown hair as she walked.
"Exciting! I'm still not sure where to go honestly," the blue-haired girl groaned. "I mean, it's mostly for extra credits for when I apply to some hero schools anyway, but..."
Aren't clubs supposed to just be for fun? Shoto wondered to himself, not caring enough to actually insert himself into their conversation.
"Did you finally pick one?" the red-eyed brunette boy asked with a slight tilt of his head.
The blue-haired girl shook her head despairingly, and Shoto zoned out of the conversation for a moment. I'm probably getting sent to UA, he grumbled to himself. He didn't have an issue with UA High itself, it was more so the lack of choice. He sighed in his head, knowing he likely would've chosen it anyway.
"...heard Shiketsu's good too though!" he caught from some black-haired boy that Shoto hadn't noticed before.
"Well yeah, but I live way closer to where UA is than Shiketsu, and I don't think I wanna move just for some school," the blue-haired girl grumbled, clearly no closer to solving her issue.
So she could potentially be my classmate at UA too..? Shoto thought, not exactly finding himself excited at the thought. Assuming she'd even pass the entrance exams anyway, he revised the thought and felt slightly better.
"If all else fails you could just go for their General Studies course instead! I'm going with the business one, personally," the brunette chimed, patting the girl's back supportively.
Her friends agreed, and it seemed to help cheer up the blue-haired girl. Shoto found himself quickly losing interest in the conversation. He only followed them to try and learn more about the clubs, but the topic shift toward hero schools had long since dulled his curiosity.
"Oh! What about you?" The plant girl suddenly asked, and it took the split-haired boy a moment to realize she was talking to him.
"Me..?" he asked, glancing around. He realized he had no idea where they had even been walking in the first place.
"Yeah, you've totally been walking with us but I only just realized you were there, sorry," she said sheepishly, and her friends nodded.
More like I was following you, he corrected in his head, but out loud he just mumbled that it was fine. "Uhm...what about me?" he asked, hoping for some context on no doubt another topic shift he had missed.
"Are you going to a hero school?" The blue-haired girl specified.
Oh great. "Yeah, UA," he answered simply, a little confused at the ooohs from the others.
"That's so cool! Maybe we'll see each other on campus or something," the brunette boy excitedly offered.
"I don't know, the Hero Course is likely going to be really busy," Shoto offhandedly shut him down, hoping more than anything that they would not cross paths if the brunette actually was able to get in. The last thing I need is rumors following me there.
"Eh, one can hope," the brunette shrugged. "Oh! Wait, we didn't introduce ourselves, did we?"
Shoto shook his head lightly, suddenly realizing he was now keeping pace with the group instead of lagging behind like he originally meant to.
"I'm Midori Yuki," the plant girl introduced happily. "You can probably guess my quirk, huh?" she laughed, the blue-haired girl nudging her shoulder playfully.
The other three said their names as well, the brunette being Hiro, a boy with a simple enhanced hearing quirk. The blue-haired girl was Amejoshi and had a water-manipulation quirk, and the black-haired boy politely introduced himself as Nori, wielding a weak fire quirk, but Shoto suddenly felt nervous telling them his name back. They probably know the rumors...What if their attitude changes completely?
However, the others were staring at him expectantly, so he sighed. "Shoto Todoroki," he said, trying to gauge their reactions, his brows slightly furrowing.
Yuki's eyes widened, as did Hiro's, and the two looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Shoto.
"Like...The Todoroki?" Nori asked, glancing around at his friends.
Great, my reputation precedes me, Shoto thought, accidentally rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I guess."
Amejoshi swallowed, seeming nervous. "You're...a little different than I was expecting," she admitted, and Yuki nodded next to her. "More friendly, I guess."
"As friendly as someone who started following us can be, anyways," Hiro added with a frown, painting Shoto's arrival in a different light. While it was the truth, it still hurt a little to hear from someone else.
"Sorry," Shoto mumbled. "I overheard you talking about the clubs and wanted to know more," he explained, turning his gaze away with an unintentional scowl.
"Oh...that's all?" Yuki asked.
The split-haired boy nodded. "I can go if you want, I'll find the board myself."
"It's uhm, okay," Amejoshi said, though not convincingly. "It's near the front entrance on the first floor, should have a big list of the clubs on it and how to sign up," she explained, her friends nodding next to her.
Shoto mumbled his thanks and hurriedly left the group alone, suddenly very glad they weren't in his class last year when he had attacked Tsukomoto and hadn't mentioned it in their brief conversation. He sighed to himself as he continued his trek down to where the blue-haired girl had mentioned the club promotions should be.
When he arrived, there was yet another group swarming the board trying to look at all the clubs, and Shoto found himself glad that he was taller than the average fourteen-year-old as he peered over their heads from the back.
He scanned over the various posters, though not finding any that particularly interested him. None of these seem especially practical, he thought silently as he eyed a bright poster for some kind of anime club.
The words he thought of earlier floated into his mind, but he brushed them aside as he started walking away from the crowded bulletin board. I don't have time for fun anyway.
--
Ice covered Shoto's hands in gauntlet-like shapes, encasing his fists and forearms in a cold armor. He swayed his arms back and forth at his sides, gauging the added weight for a moment.
"They seriously switched up, just like that?" Touya asked from where he sat a few feet away in the dappled shade of a large tree.
Shoto shrugged. "I don't really blame them, it's like not the rumors are completely wrong." He lifted his fists, swinging forward a few times to test out the gauntlets on their own.
"Only 'cuz you're playing into 'em," his older brother shook his head. "But I guess when people peg you as a villain, that's all you really can be," he added as he stood and walked over to the younger boy.
"Yeah, I guess so," Shoto muttered. His brows creased with annoyance and he turned to his brother, stancing up for a fight. "Help me with this?" he asked.
Touya grinned, readying himself by gathering fire along his forearm. "Gladly."
--
"You see anything yet?" a voice crackled from the other end of the line.
"Nothing other than the usual," the black-haired man sighed. Why do we even need these? It's more rational to just do this by myself, he complained in his head. The hero was more accustomed to solo work, so the suggestion of earpieces seemed pointless to him.
"I'll wait for your input then, Eraserhead," the other man said, and the line went quiet.
Thank god, he sighed again. Now that he didn't have a constant voice in his ear, Eraser turned his attention back to scanning the overview of the city he currently had from his spot perched on top of a tall office building.
Villain activity in this area seemed to be fluctuating more than usual, so, for some reason, the police had stuck Eraserhead on this case. He assumed it was because of the suspicions they had of vigilantes being involved, but he never bothered to ask.
You deal with them one damn time, I swear, he grumbled to himself.
"Let's just get this over with," he'd said when assigned, and now he found himself sitting on this roof like he had been for the past hour, waiting for something to happen. Arguably it was an irrational way to be spending his time, but sometimes a stakeout was necessary.
And necessary it ended up being, since as the man went to curse the operation yet again, he spied a crystalline flash in the corner of his eye hurrying across the rooftops. "There you are," he muttered as he jumped up and started chasing after them.
--
"You're sure it'll be fine..?"
"For the hundredth time Sho, yes. Honestly, you'd think you want to be stuck next to me for the rest of time with how you're acting, jeez louise."
"I just want to be sure. I'm fine going on my own."
"Good, because you already agreed to it an hour ago anyway."
Shoto sighed to himself as he ran across yet another building. The night had been unfolding just fine so far, so Touya, currently Dabi, had been right for the most part.
I was worrying for nothing, the split-haired boy reasoned in his mind.
He had his alias, Black Ice, and recently his brother had started lending him some black hair dye to further hide his identity. He could easily handle most encounters with thugs and the like on his own now, so overall Shoto was feeling more and more confident as the night went on.
"No one's gonna recognize you, you'll be fine," his brother's reassurance rang through his head as he slid to a rough stop, nearly toppling over the edge of a roof.
He muttered the words to himself under his breath. With any luck, Dabi would be right, and they'd continue getting away with their work. Shoto exhaled heavily and pulled his hood up, trying to discreetly use his left side to regulate his temperature. Excessive use of his ice often left him cold, and the new technique he'd wanted to try out tonight was no exception.
"Trouble...where's more trouble," he mumbled as he gazed down at the alleyways and slums below.
Originally Shoto had wanted to go further into the city to try and find criminals to basically beat up, but Dabi had insisted on the slums instead, saying it was easier to get away with it there and that there'd be more crime anyway.
I wonder what he's doing right now, the split-haired boy thought quietly. Due to his mind already being on the subject, for a moment he assumed the footsteps quietly approaching him from behind were his older brother's, but as he turned to greet him, a thin cloth quickly snaked around him and pinned his arms tightly to his sides.
The boy's eyes widened at the attack, and they opened further when he realized he couldn't get his quirk to work to help him wriggle out of the binding. Dread coursed through him as he tried and failed to escape.
"That was easy," came a tired-sounding voice from the shadows in front of him.
Shoto's gaze snapped towards it with a glare, watching as the black-haired man stepped toward him with a scowl of his own. Who the hell..?
"Y'know, you're pretty annoying," the man commented, his voice rough. "Almost thought I wouldn't catch up with that fancy sliding work you've got going."
Does he mean my ice bridges? The split-haired boy wondered, one of his eyebrows raising, and he cursed himself in his mind as he realized he'd stopped melting them. He opened his mouth to speak, but quickly snapped it shut again. "Voices are recognizable to an extent, try not to talk too much if you can help it," Dabi had advised.
The black-haired man, who Shoto assumed was a pro-hero, wrapped part of his binding cloth around his forearm and lifted the split-haired boy off the ground to pull him closer and get a better look.
"...Kind of small, aren't ya?" he commented.
Shoto looked off to the side, his glare deepening.
The man seemed to pause at this reaction for a moment before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Oh great, you're just a damn kid," he muttered, mostly to himself.
A damn kid who's been doing your job, Shoto corrected in his head, but didn't dare to say anything to the pro. Instead, he just shrugged, as well as he could anyway. While the hero seemed to be cursing something under his breath, the split-haired boy decided to try and scope out a better look at him.
He had long, semi-curly black hair with a matching black outfit that almost seemed to be sweats, dusty yellow goggles, and a long white scarf that seemed to be what was holding Shoto captive.
As he tried eyeing the man a little closer, Shoto found himself suddenly dropped back onto the ground, though the binding didn't loosen in the slightest and after a quick test he found that his quirk still refused to work. He looked up at the man, who was typing something into his phone while still grumbling about "idiot kids and their damn sense of justice," all while somehow still looking at the split-haired boy.
Everything suddenly clicked in Shoto's mind.
"Eraserhead," he mumbled, luckily quiet enough that the hero hadn't heard. The Erasure Hero, Shoto scowled.
He'd hardly seen anything about the hero himself on mainstream media, but there had been more than one occasion where Endeavor had complained about the "rude, tired soloist." If it weren't for the fact that he was tying him up, Shoto would likely be impressed by the pro's work.
However, he was arguably one of the worst possible heroes to have run into.
The effects of his Erasure Quirk meant Shoto couldn't use either side to escape, and the binding cloth that wrapped around his body meant he couldn't reach for his phone to call Dabi for help.
He was completely on his own.
I can do this...Probably, Shoto attempted to hype himself up in his mind, though considering Eraserhead's abilities he found himself lacking in confidence.
"Hey kid, you need me to call your parents or something?" The pro finally spoke up.
Shoto's eyes widened, and he hurriedly shook his head.
"They're probably worried about you," Eraser said. "I doubt anyone would want to find their kid's bed empty in the middle of the night."
Yeah, I'm sure that bastard would make it the whole country's problem if he saw I was gone, the boy grumbled in his head, his annoyance reflecting on his face.
Eraserhead sighed and crouched in front of Shoto, lowering his goggles so he could see the bright red glare from the man's eyes. "You don't have to be stubborn about this y'know."
Shoto's scowl deepened, and he looked off to the side. "I don't care," he muttered.
"So you can speak," the pro mused. After a short pause, he sighed. "Look, if you cooperate here, I'll probably be able to let you off the hook. Otherwise, I'll drag you down to the police station and tell them to send your ass home."
Angry silence was the boy's only response as he tried calculating a way out of this that didn't involve him being turned in, and even better without his father finding out.
If I get him to drop his quirk for even a second I should be able to use my ice to get out the gauntlets, but what then? I'm still bound, and I doubt he's just going to let me walk away without a fight, the words flowed around his brain, ever so slowly piecing together his plan.
He glanced up at the hero, who seemed to be impatiently waiting for a verbal answer.
My phone will take about fifteen seconds to turn on, but I'll have to risk speaking again to call Touya...What to do?
"Alright, time's up kid, you had your chance--" Eraserhead started, but Shoto quickly interrupted him with a hard kick in the stomach.
The boy then slammed his forehead into the pro's nose, readying his ice for the moment his eyes closed.
"Fucking hell!" Eraser exclaimed, catching himself before he could roll backward.
The instant Shoto felt his quirk deactivate, he covered himself in ice and slid out of the hero's binding cloth. He turned to run towards the edge of the roof, but the hero recovered faster than he expected, and the capture scarf quickly wrapped itself around the boy's foot, causing him to fall over.
"You really want to do this the hard way, huh?" the black-haired man groaned.
Shoto smiled at him over his shoulder. "You bet." Using his ice to make a blade, he hurriedly cut the part of the cloth that wrapped around his shin and rolled into a standing position.
Before he could use his quirk further, the pro's eyes had glared red again. Shoto silently cursed to himself and brandished the blade, glad that Erasure hadn't managed to melt it.
It must not be able to get rid of my ice itself then, he thought quietly.
The two stood in tense silence for a moment before Shoto once again turned and sprinted toward the edge of the roof. The hero called after him, but he didn't slow. Instead, he jumped.
He highly doubted that he could outrun Eraserhead in a rooftop chase, but his main goal was just to get himself out of his sight. The second I can use my quirk again, I need to get the hell out of here, he swore.
Heavy footsteps echoed across the buildings as the two ran from roof to roof, and eventually, Shoto could tell the hero was gaining on him as his shouts to stop grew louder.
"Quit running!" He called, the irritation in his voice louder than the boy's panting breaths.
"Quit chasing me!" Shoto shouted back, not caring about hiding his voice anymore as he blindly threw the sword at the hero.
"Damn brat," Eraser groaned, closer than Shoto had expected him to sound, but he knew not to look back over his shoulder.
Just keep running, just keep running, just keep fucking running, he chanted in his head.
Hope fluttered in his chest as he realized the area they were in. Touya frequented this area of the slums often enough he knew where plenty of different nooks and crannies were, and Shoto silently thanked him for showing the younger boy where most of them were as he hopped down toward a shorter building.
His eyes widened as he saw a band of the hero's capture scarf fall under his feet, but he quickly refocused on his landing.
Shoto's main hope was that Eraserhead wouldn't realize that he wasn't aiming for the roof itself, and relief flooded through him as he successfully climbed his way down into the narrow alley below.
He watched as the pro hopped over the gap, and Shoto held his breath in anticipation as he hid in the shadows of the alley.
Knowing the pro would back peddle the second he realized, Shoto hurried out of the alley and started running toward where Dabi had said he'd be. With any luck, I've lost him, the boy thought to himself as he glanced over his shoulder.
Not seeing the hero chasing him anymore, Shoto allowed himself to sigh in relief before continuing his rush to his older brother.
Meanwhile, up on the roof, Eraserhead had stopped his pursuit and now stared after the boy with a frown. "Just go home kid," he sighed, watching as the small dark shape disappeared into the night.