vessel of time › todoroki shoto

Prologue 3

  "So, why do you wear a jacket all the time?" He asked as he stared intently into the azure sky.

  "The weather is cold today," I replied.

  "No, a classmate of ours told me that you wear the same jacket every day."

  I couldn't help but gulp. Was he going around and asking about me? Can I even trust him in the first place? I looked away anxiously. "You can trust me, I won't tell anybody else," he reassured me. Wow, is his quirk reading people's thoughts or something? But I guess he does seem approachable and trustworthy. I reluctantly and hesitantly pulled up my sleeve, revealing the horrid scars hiding behind it. The scars covered my arm like a hundred silvery pink snakes.

  "My quirk... involves my blood in order to activate. My father often put pressure on me to master my quirk so that he could use me to his advantage, he wanted me to pause time while on the streets so that I could steal valuables from people's bags or what not without them knowing. That was how I got all these ugly scars, he did this to me. But now... My father's in prison because I set him up, I've had enough of him. All I wanted was for someone to love me. When I was younger, I thought the way he treated me was called 'love'. However, his 'love' left me shattered and that was how I knew it was never really love at all." I looked down on the ground, he listened in silence.

  "...I'm sorry," he finally said after awhile.

  "For what?" I asked, puzzled.

  "I'm sorry that an ugly imitation of love made you feel like you don't deserve the real thing, you do."

  And that was when I heard the cracks in my already shattered heart trying to fix itself up again. I turned my head to look at him, he was still looking at the sky, but he was smiling. His words made me wake up. He made me realise that as many times as it breaks, this is how many times my heart would mend itself. "Arata... Thank you."

    Ever since that day, he had been continuously helping me. Whether it was emotional support or being there to lend a listening ear, he was always by my side. And for that, I was always grateful for him.

A few months later

  The bell for recess rang. "Hey, (Y/N), I'll meet you at the rooftop, I'll go to the canteen first to buy food to eat. What do you wanna eat?" Arata asked with a lot of enthusiasm.

  "A sandwich will do, I'll pay you back later. Thanks!" I said with a smile, something that I haven't done for a long time. After that, I immediately made my way to the rooftop. I sat down at our usual spot. Several minutes later, I heard the door open. I immediately turned my head towards that direction. "Arata-!" I exclaimed before my face turned to dread. It wasn't him. It was Haruko and her group of friends. Each of them were holding baseball bats, probably taken from the PE room. 

  "Look who's trying to find their prince charming~" Haruko said with a sneer. Kumi and Minami laughed along. I immediately stood up and backed away. 

  "Why? Are you that afraid of us?" Kumi smirked. I did not reply to any of their remarks. I wanted to reach for the penknife in my pocket, something that I always brought to school in case of an emergency and if I had to use my quirk, a penknife would be more efficient than my nails, but I had always remembered my mom's words. 

  "(Y/N), hurting someone can be as easy as throwing a stone in the sea. But do you have any idea how deep that stone can go? Of course, this applies to both physically and emotionally, do you understand?" Those were her words and I had promised to live to it.