UA's Immortal Teacher

Part 10

Todoroki leaned against the rough stone wall, facing Shinso directly. In the cavalry match, he had used his flames to defend against Bakugo, forgetting his oath in that split second. His left side had flared up instinctively, and he was sure that his father had noticed the mistake. But even though he was angry there was something he needed to ask the purple-haired boy. There were just too many similarities to overlook...

"Shinso, are you Aizawa's illegitimate child or something?"

Todoroki heard a strangled wheezing sound and looked at Shinso with a bit of concern. He was staring at him with wide eyes and a pale face.

"What."

"Are you Aizawa's secret love child?"

"What... what makes you even think that?"

"You both display irregular sleep patterns, use quirkless combat techniques, have mental quirks, and you both always have cat hair on your shirt."

Shinso paused and looked at him, obviously freaked out. Todoroki didn't understand why he was reacting this way. It was either a yes or a no, so why was he taking so long to properly answer? He looked like he was thinking something through, relaxing a bit after a moment or two.

"No. I am not Aizawa's secret love child."

"Oh..."

He was so sure that he was right, and Shinso's reaction was a bit suspicious. He decided he would have to conduct more research and ask again when he had more proof of the secret love child theory. Just as he was walking away, planning to do just that, Shinso spoke up.

"Oh, by the way, why don't you use your fire side? You're not really giving this tournament your all."

Should he...? Might as well.

"Have you ever heard of quirk marriages? They're an old concept, and now they're outlawed, but when the phenomenon of quirks first started people would go into arranged marriages to create a child with a strong quirk. My father, Endeavor, married my mother for that exact purpose, in the hopes of creating a child that could surpass All Might because he never could. In my memories, my mother was constantly crying, and she told me she couldn't stand to see the right side of me right before pouring boiling water over my face."

Shinso's face was horrified, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Even his eyebags had paled a bit as he listened to Todoroki speak. He saw the purple-haired boy's eyes shift to the burn surrounding his eye, then quickly looked to the ceiling.

"Oh..."

"That is why I will never use his quirk. I will prove to him that I don't need it to rise to the top, and I will deny him any victory."

With that final statement, Todoroki pushed off the wall and started to make his way toward where everyone was eating, leaving Shinso standing there. What he didn't see was the figure standing at the end of the tunnel, listening to every word.

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Izuku walked over to the bleachers with long, swift strides. He planned to watch the final event with the hero students, chaperoning them along with Snipe and Ectoplasm. The two teachers stayed near the back of the section, but Izuku chose to sit with the students, partly because he didn't want the cameras to catch him sitting with the other teachers and he knew that he could pass as a student, and partly because he would be able to observe the reactions of the students more accurately when he was amongst them.

The first match was about to start, so the two students designated to compete, Shiozaki and Honenuki were both in their separate prep rooms. They were both in class 1-b, so they hadn't had quite the experience that class 1-a did. Izuku had still watched their first lesson in the Heroics class, so he knew they had potential, as Aizawa would say. Now they just had to show that potential to the rest of the world.