Imaginary Friends

2

Todoroki Shouto doesn't remember his mother. Well, he kind of does; he remembers her white hair and her vague smell of fresh peppermint. But he doesn't remember her.

Hunter was just supposed to be a coping mechanism. He wasn't supposed to exist outside of Shouto's training time with his father. But Hunter kept talking to him even when he wasn't training. So Shouto accepted Hunter as his friend. This must be normal right? Mom had talked about imaginary friends before. That's what this must be. Hunter was his imaginary friend.
Hunter talked to Shouto a lot, but most when he was brought to the training room.
"I'll take it from here," Hunter would say as he almost took control of Shouto's body, Hunter completing the day's training, saving Shouto from having to get so beat up every time. Hunter had short blond hair so it wouldn't get in his face, and his piercing blue eyes were starchly counterbalanced by the scare that covered his body. Hunter was meant for fighting. He was born for battle, he once told Shouto, he felt like his purpose was to fight. To defend. And if he could do that by helping Shouto, then that's what he'd do.

Shouto talks to Kaeru whenever he can't sleep. Kaeru appeared not long after Hunter, and Kaeru is soft and sweet, but always tired. Long black hair sweeps over his shoulder, soft as a stuffed animal, and Shouto likes running his hands through it in his mind's eye. He's there when Shouto wakes from a nightmare he can't remember and he's there when the darkness of the room freaks Shouto out. Kaeru would make up stories and tell them to Shouto until the boy fell into a restless sleep, and Kaeru was there for Shouto when he eventually woke up halfway through the night.
The first time he had a nightmare, he tried to go wake his mother at Kaeru's suggestion, hoping motherly affection would help sooth the problem. Instead, they found father awake.
They wouldn't make that mistake again.

Riza and Ryoko are sister and brother who formed out of Shouto's need for help with school. He'd get swamped by the other kids for the first little while,
"Oh, you're Endeavor's kid, right? How cool must it be to have a pro-hero as a father?!"
Riza was there for him when he broke down crying in the washroom because there were too many overwhelming facets to his day. When the teachers would yell at him a little bit too loudly or when the kids would crowd around him too much, Riza was there to catch him.
Ryoko was stricter than Riza, but nothing like father. When Shouto didn't have enough energy to go to school, Ryoko was the one to get him out of bed, dressed and out the door. Ryoko was the one who made sure Shouto's homework was done, and he had brushed his teeth before bed.
The twins shared similar looking features most visible with their dirty blonde hair and striking green eyes. While Ryoko was large and muscular, looking like someone from a military action movie, Riza had softer features including freckles, but don't be mistaken. She could still cut you with a single sentance.

Shouto realized Ayako came around about a half hour after his mother poured boiling water onto his face. Crying and hurting, Shouto slipped back into the recesses of his mind while Ayako, built to take all kinds of punishment, pushed himself out to take control. He took a deep breath, bandaged his face, and went to go lie down.
None of them blame Ayako for the burn getting infected. Shouto's siblings were going through their own stuff and had enough to deal with without having to take care of Shouto too. Mother was taken somewhere, where Riza said she'd get better. Shouto didn't know if he believed her. Father just said the burn would be good pain experience and to use it as a lesson.
So Ayako changed the bandage daily, but that's about as much experience as any of them had with extensive injuries.

Shouto is in 6th grade when father breaks his arm during training. He wasn't fast enough dodging out of the way of a devistating attack, and it knocked Shouto back against the wall of the training room, landing on his forearm as he hit the ground. The pain shot through his arm, and suddenly, Shouto was only dimly aware of what happened, and he knew Ayako was helping him. That was one of the few times his father actually bothered to bring him to the hospital.
"Can't have it healing incorrectly," Father explained, like he cared about the broken bone against the malformation his son's right side of his face had become.

Nanako comes when his father is out of the room and Shouto is left alone with his applesauce snack. Shouto wishes he was still in the hospital, because then, father wouldn't have a chance for more training today. Although Riza informed him that was unlikely, he still didn't want to take any chances.
Nanako saw the applesauce as Shouto was thinking about the kids toy's he'd seen in the hospital waiting room and wishing he'd grown up with those. And Nanako, in all his 6 year old glory and complete lack of memory, completely devoured the applesauce.

Shouto liked to think of Itome as Touya's replacement. When Touya left, the only barrier between Shouto and his father had left with him.
When Touya left, Shouto could hear a big argument going on downstairs. He knew better than to go and see what was happening. He heard Touya walk out. He never heard him come back.

Shouta was scary when he first appeared. Short, spiky black hair, just a hint of a 5 o'clock shadow and wild red eyes that seemed to peer right into your soul, despite looking perpetually exhausted. He came with the last year of middle school. The pressure was on, and no one was handling it well. Father had backed off training for a while, but he was constantly hovering over Shouto, and Ayako would have to take the brunt of the punishment if he came home with anything below a 90%. He was quickly becoming burnt out between weekend training, after school training, regular school hours, plus studying and homework. So Shouta came around to help deal with everyone. He knew where all of Shouto's friends were at all times, and he kept track of what was due when, and made sure whoever was needed was awake, like making sure Hunter was available for weekends. Shouta was the prime reason Shouto even graduated with good marks. Without Shouta, Shouto would have tanked long ago.

Shouta recieved the graduation certificate with Shouto's name on it, and the lot of them enjoyed a break from getting beaten up by their own father.

The summer goes by with as much incident as usual. He trains almost every day except for the days when he can't get out of bed on account of his injuries. He's getting quite good at using his powers, if he does say so himself. Nowhere near his father's level, though he figures he could easily overpower most of the kids his age.
He doesn't make any new friends.

He specifically avoids people at the entrance exam. It's for the "advanced kids" and he sees a girl who comes to those fancy parties his father drags him to occationally. He likes watching her work with her quirk, pulling things out of her own skin. She's really the only one worth paying attention to.

He gets in. Of course he gets in, he wasn't going to waste 9 years of training just to have it blow up in his father's face.
He gets in.
This is what he was working towards this whole time, right?