To Love, To Lose, To Leave

Chapter Four

Wednesday (Gym Gamma)

To Shoto, quirk training wasn't anything new. His father's forced that onto him ever since his Quirks developed. Now, Shoto knows that his father has apologized and that he's been actively changing in order to prove the sincerity of his apology.

If Shoto is being honest, though, he was taking advantage of the old man's desire to change at first and would buy bulk amounts of cold soba with his credit card. After he told his therapist, though, she made him stop the soba buying and encouraged him to sincerely reflect on whether he was ready to forgive his father or not.

After a lot of thinking—and crying, which surprisingly, Shoto found to be very cathartic—Shoto decided that while he was open to the idea of forgiving his father, he wasn't ready to actually do it. His therapist had told him that even if the abuser has stopped their damaging behavior, the past abuse is still there.

And so he had sat down with his father and explained how forgiveness isn't completely out of the question, but that he'd need some more time.

The old man took it well, and they've been taking things slow in terms of rebuilding their relationship. Things weren't bad. Not perfect, of course, because nothing can be perfect. But not bad. Not bad at all.

So now, instead of holding a numbingly repressed anger at the idea of Quirk training, Shoto finds it to be quite relaxing. The sound of his classmates' exerted shouts and yelled out Ultimate Moves was a known, familiar thing.

It was safe, and when he looks back at the past years of being a student at UA, Shoto thinks that his fellow classmates would also agree.

Today was one-on-one rotations, which Shoto tends to enjoy. Students are randomly sorted into groups of two, and a timer is set for ten minutes. With your Quirks, you're supposed to fight against the other student in the group with you. When the timer goes off, you are to have a brief discussion with your opponent regarding a strength they have and a weakness with a suggestion for ways to improve it.

After three rotations, Shoto gets randomly paired with Midoriya. He seems to be doing well, considering that he and Bakugo broke up recently.

When the timer begins, Shoto starts by stomping on the floor, his ice bursting out in sharp spikes as they rapidly make their way toward Midoriya. Green lightning flickers around Midoriya as he jumps into the air, seeming to soar as he hangs in the air weightlessly.

Ah. He's probably using Float.

Just as Shoto starts to use his flames to propel himself upwards, Midoriya's Blackwhip shoots out of his hands, the web-like tendrils wrapping around Shoto in a sphere of darkness.

Midoriya's voice is muffled but loud as he yells out, "You give up yet, Todoroki-kun?"

Shoto brings his hands up, pressing them against the thick wall of coils. "Not yet!" he shouts back, making his hands burst out with searing hot flames as the flames at Shoto's feet spin him in a circle. He spins faster and faster, a white line following the flames from his hands and growing thicker and thicker in size.

Finally, the tendrils snap, and the sphere splits open. Shoto has a wide grin on his face as he quickly blinks at the sudden change in brightness. His left side is still aflame as he brings his right hand upwards. Pillars of ice shoot out of the ground, reaching for Midoriya's foot in an attempt to capture him. Midoriya manages to dodge the pillars, simply using Float to stay just out of reach.

"Ha!" Midoriya crows out. "That as far as you can—"

Shoto's eyes widen at the sight of a large piece of concrete hurtling straight for Midoriya.

"Midoriya, watch out—!"

Before Shoto is done talking, Midoriya's already turned around. He raises his hand, making a fist, and punches the concrete with insane precision and accuracy. The concrete crumbles into dust, cascading down to the ground with a fog-like thickness.

As Midoriya floats to the ground, Uraraka's voice in the distance shouts out, "Sorry, Deku-kun!"

Midoriya waves his hand towards the sound of her voice, even though neither of them could probably see the other. They were too spread out, and the dust was limiting the distance of vision even further. "You're all good! We're fine—"

Midoriya suddenly stops talking, whipping his head back around. His eyes flick over from Shoto to the door of the gym, and even though Shoto isn't always the best at interpreting people's facial expressions, the panic on Midoriya's face is clear as day.

"Midoriya-kun, are you—"

Midoriya breaks into a sprint, the green lighting around him flickering on and off. "I have to go, sorry!"

With that, Midoriya practically throws open the gym door, disappearing from sight.

Shoto frowns. What happened with Midoriya? He turns his head back to where Midoriya was just standing, then towards the door once more. Did he forget to do something or—

Shoto blinks twice.

Hang on.

When did those circles get there...?

There's a trail of them, from where Midoriya was standing, spreading out further and further, heading towards the door. They're not that big in size, and seemingly dark in color.

Maybe Midoriya had a drink in his pocket? Shoto wonders, walking towards one of the dots and crouching down beside it. He presses a finger against it. It's wet and stains his skin with a bright, bloody red.

Shoto blinks once more before a sinking realization dawns on him.

Midoriya—

Shoto dashes towards the door, making a sheet of ice under his seat to propel himself forward, practically breaking the door down as he continues to follow the dark, wet circles.

Midoriya's blood.