Flea

Chapter Three

Shoto Todoroki sat far back in his chair in the waiting room, arms crossed over his chest. He was opposite the door to UA's nurse's office and so had a good view as each examinee was called in by whom he easily recognised as Recovery Girl. Normally, he never would have payed attention, but his old man had come home complaining about her so often Todoroki couldn't help but feel a faint fondness for the stranger. Anyone who regularly pissed off his father couldn't be all bad. 

He also had another reason to be grateful. Endeavor had a pretty good understanding of the child prodigy's quirk, and so he'd needed to ease Todoroki's training for a month prior to exams. If he came in for a drug test with burns all over him, the nurse might begin asking awkward questions. This meant that in the last few weeks, which he thought would be hell-like in their preparation, Endeavor mainly just left him to his own devices and routine.  

Her eccentric look also served to pique his interest. She had silvery hair even though she couldn't be older than Natsuo. In fact, their hair was a similar colour. The same as.. No, he wouldn't think about her. Not now.

Perhaps that was the real reason Todoroki found the nurse interesting. She reminded him of someone else.  

Recovery Girl was a mess. She wore a white lab coat with several recent looking coffee stains and had curly hair thrown into a messy bun with a random syringe sticking out of it. Her face was almost hidden under all the layers of fatigue and hollowed cheeks, which contrasted with white platform sneakers. They sported her symbol the red cross. Every inch of her skin was covered save for her head. The nurse was so small and thin Todoroki wondered if she was anorexic, though she hid it well.   

Endeavor often groaned that the prodigy was too soft to reach her full potential. Shoto knew he'd sent in multiple private offers of an internship, which she'd ignored. 

"Why does she focus so much on cancer, Shoto? What a weak choice, it shows how much of a coward she is. Her quirk has endless possibilities. If she dug a little deeper, she could probably change someone's very genetic code. That stupid girl could probably bioengineer extremely powerful quirks and create a new frontier of heroes, but what does she do? She hides in a glorified nurse office snivelling to UA about how she wants to do cancer research instead of becoming a pro," Endeavor had spat, prompted by the doctor appearing on television. 

She'd been younger back then, less beaten down. Recovery Girl's hair was still mainly brown, with streaks of grey. The girl couldn't be more than 12. She was speaking at the UA graduation ceremony, smiling warmly down at the class. Fuyumi had changed channel, so she was already halfway through her speech. 

"I believe there is great danger in throwing polarising labels like 'hero' and 'villain' flippantly, as we've begun to do. Yes, you all have your pro hero licenses. But that does not automatically make you a hero, I'm sorry to say. I know many different people in many different professions, who have acted more heroically than pros. True heroism is not in your rank, the monstrous villains you've conquered, or the power of your quirk. You all have incredible skill, that's merely a prerequisite to your profession. It is the ability to remain kind, and generous, and 'soft,' even when the world does not return the favour. The quiet acts of day to day kindness. To love, even when your entire world is burning-"

Endeavor had switched off the television with a scoff. Todoroki remembered being disappointed. He'd been quite interested to see what she said next, but too frightened to ask his father to turn the speech back on. 

Recovery Girl stuck her head out of the door and called, "Momo Yaoyorozu?"

A tall girl with black hair looked up and made her way to the office. She was toting a protein shake Todoroki recognised as a body building solution for quick build up of muscle mass. His old man had them all the time. It was strange, because Yaoyorozu looked quite slim. The nurse spat out some coffee she'd just taken a sip of over her lab coat.