Lightning Serenade

Chapter 5: Fields IV

Spoiler Warning: A character's identity and quirk challenges that have not appeared in the anime, yet

Touya hated Neito, but it was better than dealing with the pricks on Unit Echo.

And, well... Touya didn't so much hate Neito as he was envious. It wasn't fair that Neito could copy his quirk and wield it even better than the original user, but when was life ever fair for Touya?

It was a small blessing that he wasn't roomed with the overdramatic nuisance, but he would have much rather kept Denki as his roommate instead of being placed with someone new. Denki had only been his roommate for one day, but he was easy to get along with, and switching so quickly gave him emotional whiplash. Looking at the purple-haired kid, though, Touya didn't think that he'd be too much trouble.

Touya did like the attention Neito always gave him, though, not that he'd ever admit that to the small, obnoxious, blond boy. It was a similar set-up to his own home; Neito grabbed everyone's attention just like Shouto did. But, instead of someone always whisking Neito away, like Enji did with Shouto, Neito was allowed to stick around. It was incessant, but Neito gave Touya the attention that he missed out on everywhere else.

At home, Shouto was the prodigy, so he got all of the attention. His siblings would stop mid-sentence when Shouto did come through, trying to soak up every little second of interaction that they were allowed to get before Enji would come barging through to drag little Shouto along behind him on the way to the dojo to train.

Out with his friends, they would ask him about his father and his father's pride and joy instead of asking him about himself. What 17-year-old wanted to spend time with his friends to only talk about his father and his little brother? Not that he knew much to tell them, anyway. He hadn't spent more than five minutes with either of them since Shouto had developed his quirk. Enji always had high hopes for him, though, even when he was a baby. His coloring gave him away that he would be powerful, but Touya still made the wish for Shouto to be quirkless when he blew out his candles on his birthday cake, despite the x-rays showing that Shouto did not have an extra joint in his foot. Still, every year, he would make his wish over the birthday cake that his mother would bake, and his siblings would sing to him around as the candles burned.

Touya felt pretty stupid when Shouto's quirk had developed. He could feel his hope slipping away as a new prodigy took his place, but Shouto didn't have the drive that he did. He knew that if the technology existed, Enji would have taken Touya's drive and determination and implanted it into Shouto's powerful quirk and body strong enough to handle said quirk.

But, now here he was, locked away like his mother was after she had burned Shouto's face, though his stay would be significantly shorter. Neito was like another Shouto in regard to all of the attention going to him, but Neito stuck around long enough to throw some of that attention back to Touya.

Touya was surprised, though, when Neito started spreading his attention between the three patients, taunting one second and then soothing with a quick, but genuine compliment before going for the throat once again. Touya didn't even really mind because it was obvious that Neito still saw him as his number one competitor, and truth be told, he did like Hitoshi and Denki.

They had quickly formed their own little group of four while the others still split among themselves to play card games or board games because they found something better to occupy their time with.

It started during group therapy that afternoon. Everyone was spread out among the tables, having another go at trying to outdo Momo's expertise at drawing when the therapist walked in. Before he even said anything, everyone else already started heading toward the open space in the center of the room, sitting down on the floor in a circle as the therapist got situated. Hitoshi and Denki were not left out because Neito had quickly explained to them who the therapist was and that they all sat on the floor in a circle for group therapy.