Ashes of Love and War - TodoMomo

|| Chapter 1 ~ Part 3||

"You better get going," Sero said, flashing the soldier his strange smile as he took a step forward. "Unless you want to test your luck against me. I may be no Shouto Todoroki, but I'm pretty confident in my abilities." He rested his hand on the hilt of his sword.

The man didn't answer and stared wide-eyed at the demigod.

Shouto turned and walked past them dismissively.

"Wait! Todoroki!"

He didn't pause as hasty footsteps sounded behind him, catching up. "Where are you taking her? To Prince Bakugou?"

Shouto hummed in acknowledgment, adjusting the woman on his shoulder as he followed the alleyways back towards the city's outer walls.

"He's not going to be happy that you're bringing him another one."

"He's never happy unless he's fighting."

Sero chuckled. "You mean unless he's beating up Prince Midoriya?"

Shouto snorted but didn't respond. It was no secret that the two princes didn't get along. It was partly why Midoriya had stayed behind during the war while Bakugou led the Spartan army to the northern nation. He had asked Shouto to stay behind with him, but he had ignored the Prince's request.

"You know?" Sero said, leaning in closer. "She's quite pretty actually. Too bad she went and cut her hair off."

Shouto shifted the woman on his shoulder as he maneuvered around the increasing number of soldiers. If he hadn't checked that she was breathing earlier, he would have thought she was dead. "It was to get away. He had her hair wrapped around his fist. If she had stabbed him first, there was no guarantee that he would've loosened his hold on her. It was her best option for escaping."

"Oh! That's pretty smart," Sero said, seeming genuinely surprised.

Shouto silently agreed. It was rare to find a woman with a fighter's spirit and the courage to act on it outside of Sparta. Other city-states didn't encourage those traits. Maybe they had been away from home for too long.

"You don't have to give her to Bakugou. You could keep her as a hetaera, I mean. I don't know why you haven't taken any hetaeras or helots for yourself anyways."

"I don't want any slaves."

"But when we get back to Sparta we'll be old enough to receive our own land," Sero said, making the sign for money. "And I'm sure Prince Midoriya and Prince Bakugou will reward you too; it's not every war we get a demigod to help us fight."

"It's not like we won because of me."

"That's true, but you still were undefeated, and if it wasn't for Apollo and your father, Ares, protecting the city, your ice could have easily brought down the wall."

Shouto scowled and threw Sero a dark look at the mention of his father.

Sero cringed and raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Sorry, sorry. I know you don't like talking about him. But it's the truth. You were just as powerful and scary as Achilles on the battlefield. Especially that time when you burned all those soldiers with that blue fire."

Shouto tensed, his throat tightened at the memory. He could still taste the blood and soot in his mouth and he pushed the memory away.

"Why do you keep bringing them to him anyway?" Sero continued. "You'd get good money if you sold them."

Shouto's eyes narrowed, and he waited several moments before responding. "He's the only one who won't let them be hurt or raped," he said finally, his voice low.

Sero blinked, and stared at him, then he made a small noise in the back of his throat and dropped his gaze. "Oh, I see." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Who would have guessed that the famed Shouto Todoroki would have a soft spot for women and children?" he asked under his breath.

Shouto rolled his jaw. Familiar anger rushed through him, and he welcomed it. "It's not like they asked for this war any more than we did. The gods just play with us mortals like we're pawns."

His voice grew thinner with every word until he was hissing through his teeth. "This all could have been avoided if not for their selfishness. If Zeus hadn't made the Trojan prince choose which goddess was the most beautiful, Aphrodite would never have made Helen fall in love and elope with him. And this war wouldn't have happened. We wouldn't have been here for ten years if not for them."

"I suppose that's true, but you shouldn't disrespect the gods so much," Sero said. He quickly glanced around as if he were afraid they were going to be struck down by one of Zeus' lightning bolts.

Shouto didn't answer.

The smell of burning flesh was growing stronger the closer they got to the outer walls. The abrasive scent stung his eyes and nose. Shouto's fingers twitched, and he gripped the woman over his shoulder tighter as they passed a pyre of burning corpses.

They came to the city's main square. The buildings here, once immaculate and opulent, had all been broken into and looted. The street was littered with shattered vases and anything not worth stealing. The broken shards crunched under Shouto's feet as he navigated his way forward and through the throngs of soldiers.

In the center of the square sat the Trojan horse, now empty but still standing proudly as a symbol of victory. Exuberant soldiers from every region crowded around the wooden behemoth, erecting tents and packing carts full of slaves and anything else valuable to take back to their city-states.

As he walked through the tents and men, Shouto could see the green capes of Athens, the white tunics of Thebes and the blue cloaks of Mycenae. There were other colors from smaller city-states that Shouto didn't recognize.

On the far side of the square, a group of red-cloaked Spartans were busy loading carts with valuables.

"Oi, Todoroki!" A man with spiky red hair jogged up to them and stopped to salute. Eijiro Kirishima was one of Sparta's top defenders and known as Prince Bakugou's right hand.