Shoto sits down, desperately trying to gather and settle the ever racing thoughts inside of his head. However he couldn't even think these days without his father butting in.
"Shoto. This is nothing but a formality to you. If you unleash your full strength, they'll accept you on the spot." his father commands.
Shoto silently nods, he had no intention of using his fire, he didn't need it to complete the trial, his ice was more than good enough.
"Your mother and your brother would be so proud of you."
Shoto's eyes widen hearing that. He mentioned them, he mentions them? Shoto feels a burning feeling inside him, he wanted to shout, he wanted to scream.
'How can you sit here and say that?! They'd be here to say how proud they were in person if it wasn't for you! The reason they're not here is because of... me. I'm the reason they're not here. It's all my fault.' Shoto's thought of anger quickly crumbles into one of self loathing. He'd slept all day before this but still he was exhausted. He was always exhausted. Far too tired to even attempt speaking to his father in the way he wanted to.
"Thanks." muttered Shoto.
Endeavor firmly pats his son on the shoulder. That disgusted him more to feel that, if it was Natsuo or Fuyumi, he'd probably not even look at them. Let alone actually have physical contact-
"MOMO YAOYOROZU! COME ON DOWN TO THE STATION!" screams the intercom. Shoto practically jumps out of his seat hearing it.
"Damn thing. Why is he always so damn loud." mutters Endeavor.
Shoto looks up as he sees, who he assumes is Momo Yaoyorozu skip past him with a spring in her step. She stretches out and takes a deep breath before exiting the room through the exam entry door. Shoto wanted to say good luck to her. But assumed his father would berate him for wishing well of a rival, so didn't bother.
The screen flickers into life as it shows Momo beginning her trial, she practically dances through a hail of gunfire coming from a small army of the test robots as she slides into cover and then, wait what, where'd she get that cannon from? The cannon obliterates the robots as she runs into the newly opened space, jumping up onto the burning remnants of one of the robots, performing an impressive somersault to press the tag on the wall, signifying her success on this stage and advancing to the next.
"What a peculiar quirk." comments Endeavor
Shoto watches with amazement as she's presented with a sheer surface, she clicks her shoes together which start smoking. Then all of a sudden she propels through the air, jumping up like fifteen meters with an honest to god smile on her face! She runs through tagging the next button before moving on. However the next part of the test is the final part, the obstacle being a giant robot with a hell of a lot of fire power. She begins to glow as she throws out two projectiles from her hands, they lay dormant for a moment before engulfing the area with smoke, fogging up the view of the camera's too.
The smoke starts to clear as the robot rumbles its way forward and into the clearing steps Momo with a small yellow device in her hands, she holds it up at the robot where there's a spectacular flash of light, followed by the giant robot going limp and crashing to the floor in a crumpled heap. Momo practically skips along and uses her shoes to spring up onto the giant robot with her fists in the air, an audible 'WOO' comes over the speakers as a loud klaxon sounds signifying the end of her run. She dismounts the robot with another somersault, putting her headphones back on and bobbing her head to the music as she heads back, her eyes sparkling for all to see as she returns to the applicant room briefly, grabbing her gym bag and then exiting.
Shoto barely had time to compose himself before he's yet again wrenched out of his own thoughts.
"SHOTO TODOROKI! IT'S YOUR TURN IN THE BOOTH!" screams the speaker. he couldn't help but wince at another radio pun as he gets to his feet, he goes to move to the door to kick this off but there's a gentle tug on his arm, he turns around to see his father holding it.
"Good luck. Son."
He silently nods in acknowledgement, feeling his father loosening his grip he walks away and heads out the door into the scorching summer sun. He takes in a deep breath as he readies himself.
'I'll do this. I'll ace this. All with her power. Not yours.' he recites to himself as the klaxon sounds.
Shoto immediately puts up an ice wall to shield himself from the hail of bullets heading his way. He gently raises it as he casually walks around the perimeter, the robots halting their fire, confused by this. He then peaks from the top of the ice wall and holds his hand up at them.
"FUCK YOU!" he screams as he blasts the ice at the droids at full blast, leaving a massive jagged ice blast coating the floor and annihilating the robots. He walks forward with a frown on his face, extending out an ice ramp so he can reach the target to tag it, which he does successfully. He uses his ice again to slide to the next obstacle which happened to be the elevated section of the trial that he had to ascend. He didn't have any fancy boots so he gently rests his hand on the ground and begins elevating himself upward with a column of ice, he reaches the height and casually steps off, pressing the button which pings as he does.
"Easy." The final obstacle to his test slowly rumbled towards him. He grits as he looks up to it. This insignificant robot. How would it stop him. How could it stop him when he felt like this?
"Fuck you!"
Shoto launches a jagged piece of ice at it, knocking the rumbling behemoth back.
"You piece of shit!"
He fires ice at the caterpillar treads on it, preventing it from moving, the robot aims its cannon downwards as he raises up a wall of ice, which takes the brunt of the impact. Shoto's body felt cold, very cold. Not like that was going to stop him as he raises his arm up again.
"It's your fault. All of this is your fault! JUST DIE!" he screams as he sends a javelin of ice straight through the torso of the robot, the robot's core crashing down behind it as it slumps over and crashes to the ground, destroyed. Shoto couldn't help but tilt his head back and scream to the heavens in triumph and fury as he feels the cold on his frozen side. He'd done it, all without using his father's power.
That was a big step for him. He walks back into the applicant room with a satisfied smirk on his face, he couldn't help but feel the eyes of everyone in there were on him. But for the first time he didn't care. He wanted everyone to see him for once, he wanted his bastard of a father to see him. He walks past where he father waits for him and towards the exit, he hears stomping from behind him as he hears his father walk after him. Funny really, the second strongest hero in the country chasing after his own son.
"Well done Shoto. But, you could've halved the time of that test if you had used your fire." his father said
"I didn't need your fire." iterates Shoto. He didn't turn to look at him when he spoke, he was riding this emotional high and didn't want to get off for anything.
Endeavor is noticeably taken aback, oh how Shoto wishes he could've seen the look on his face, but he just kept walking. That's when he looks out the corner of his eye and sees that girl from before, Yaoyorozu? Hugging her mother and father profusely.
"You did amazing darling! I'm so proud of you!" said the father
"You didn't even seem nervous! We'll have to get your favourite meal tonight as a way to celebrate!" said the mother.
Shoto couldn't help but feel his amazing high start to fizzle out after seeing a healthy family dynamic. A happy mother and father with their child celebrating and sharing a victory... Something that no emotional high could ever replace.
"Shoto..?" his father's voice gently said from behind him. Shoto stopped.
"Yeah?"
There's a brief pause, he waited... What was his father going to say?
"... The car's waiting."
Right. Of course that's what he was going to say. He turns and follows his father, sighing as the last of his emotional surge departs from him. It may've been relatively easy that exam, but for Shoto it was a great way of expressing himself.
---------------------------
"Okay. So... if I can really focus, my overall range with this quirk is somewhere around ten meters, but if I can up that limit then-"
"Izuku... you're mumbling again." yawns Tsubasa.
Izuku rubbed his head, readjusting back into reality.
"Oh. Sorry. Okay, I'm gonna try now." gently says the boy in green.
Izuku focuses as he shuts his eyes, remembering that warm feeling from within himself that he felt every-time he attracted something towards him. He breathes in through the nose and out through the mouth as he opens his bright green eyes. Seeing the notebook that Dr Tsubasa was kind enough to hold for him locked in his vision. He reaches out for it with his hand, for a moment, nothing, but in the next it gradually comes out from Tsubasa's hand and floats towards Izuku at a reasonable speed, it coming to a rest in his outstretched right hand. He takes out the pencil from behind his ear and starts jotting down his findings in a page in his notebook labelled 'Attraction - Izuku' with a small smile on his face that he didn't realise was even there. Tsubasa stretches out from across the lawn as he walks inside.
"I'm gonna get a coffee or something."
"Okay, sure. I'll follow you in."
Izuku follows Tsubasa back inside, Tsubasa immediately diving for the coffee pot as Izuku sits down at the desk, looking carefully through his notebook, checking his notes were accurate and nodding as he gently closes it. Izuku sighs to himself, he'd started to learn and become more adept with this quirk and the UA trials were only a handful of days away... But he didn't feel that it was what he wanted right now, right now he needed time. He didn't know how much or what to do with his time, but he needed it. Izuku's eyes scan across the the desk and they come to rest on a formal looking report of sorts. It was labelled: 'Mustafu Apartment Blaze; Police Report'. Izuku wasn't quite sure as to how it got on this desk or more so how it ended up here in the first place, but curiosity was the main factor in this as he pulls it towards him with Attraction and opened it up. He read some parts of it aloud, as was the way when he read things.
"Let's see... All but two residents accounted for."
He thought that was odd, did people really not know where he was? To be fair he didn't really stick around to ask questions or give a statement.
"Reports of a green haired young man saving multiple lives, both of people and animals."
Oh! He did get a mention; how nice of them.
"Potential cause of the explosion is unknown. No quirk factors of those living there or nearby in persons of interest could have done this."
Still no answers. Great. He got that it was a mystery and nobody knew what caused it, but he still held out hope that there was some small thread or clue that could at least point to a reason as to why this had happened in the first place.
"... however there was a bizarre concentration of nitroglycerin in the water supply..."
Wait. What?
Made by truen