When Things Were Simpler (BNHA Fanfic)

Ch.16 - Soulmates Share Minor Injuries

Ch.16 - Soulmates Share Minor Injuries

Todoroki had no idea what he was doing. Well, the vigilante hadn't lashed out at him so he supposed the situation could be worse. Still, what was he even supposed to say? He'd grasped at straws and tried to guess at what might give him a way to ask about what was going on and found that above all else, he ought to thank her for saving him.

He had and somehow it'd been enough for the tiny stones beginning to hover around her ankles to clatter to the ground. Still, that now left him with the dilemma of what to say next. While there were a number of questions to pose, somehow he felt as though he was about as likely to get them as he was to see Endeavour being a good father.

At the small token of gratitude for how they'd saved the heroes before, Sky shrugged "We're not villains, despite how you heroes treat us."

He blinked at the tone. There was no anger but in its place there was a weariness he hadn't witnessed before. Different from Shinsou's tired expression just as it wasn't akin to his own hate-filled expression he'd seen reflected in Iida before the incident with Stain.

Something about the words stoked his own quiet fire though and he turned, meeting the ice and steel in the other's expression. "You're still a criminal. Heroics or not."

Sky shrugged and there was a flat boredom in her expression as though this conversation was an utter waste of time. "That we are. And actually, I suppose I ought to rephrase that statement and say that some of us aren't villains."

He blinked and backed up a step, temperature suddenly dipping and rising in response to the flash of panic that shot through him. No way... despite saving them, were some of them seriously real villains?

"Who?"

The female said nothing and instead sketched a brow as though debating what he would do if she didn't say anything at all. She went to breeze past him; to head inside of the café and at the sheer nerve of the gesture he stepped away from the side enough to block her.

She stopped at the movement and was close enough as her hair swayed slightly with the movement that he felt a brush of her quirk nearby. He had no idea what it was, but he could sense and feel that invisible barrier merely a hair's breadth from him. The realisation hit him that there was nothing he could do to force her to tell him. At no point had he debated having a fight and if he were being honest... he was tired of fighting them. Mutual understanding was what he truly wanted right now - to know why people decent enough to save him would be considered villains.

Sky shoved her hands in her pockets and braced her feet slightly farther apart and the cold that splintered across her gaze was more frigid than his ice as the temperature around them dipped in response to the unspoken challenge.

"Take it from me, hero, that vigilantism is laughable as a crime to some of us. We would be locked up for a long time if we tried to be real heroes."

Todoroki remained silent for a moment and didn't know what to think. On the one hand, knowing they were taking down real villains was a relief but yet some part of him wanted to believe that this group of misfits was trying to help. Their software had taken out a mole who had been dangerous and the two girls had put their lives on the line to save his friends and himself.

"Why save us then, if you're so bad?"

The other tilted her head in curiosity as though contemplating the question, and he felt her gaze settle on the burn across his left side. "Just because the heroes did nothing for us or for those kids doesn't mean we'll stoop to their level and let innocent people get hurt or put into a critical condition."