Echoes of Vapor (Shoto Todoroki)

02.01

PART 01

BEGINNINGS

After Katashi died, Ryou stayed in the hospital for a few days, as he needed to be questioned about things concerning the incident. It was a difficult process to get through, since Ryou would shut down if anyone other than Eraserhead would ask him questions. During this time, Eraserhead uncovered a lot of things about Ryou, such as his relationship with Katashi and the abusive nature of it, what he already knew about the villains, and what Ryou wanted to do with his life from that point on. Ryou intentionally hid the entire smoking portion of the story, not wanting Eraserhead to think badly of him. It was obvious that Eraserhead knew that Ryou wasn't telling the full story, but he never pried.

Once Ryou answered all of the questions they needed to ask him, he was free to go. From there, Ryou ended up missing the last week of his second year in middle school.

Most students of Ryou's age spent their 40 day summer vacation enjoying themselves and having fun, but Ryou had spent the entire forty days in a hellish mental state.

Not only the forty days of summer, but the following year after Katashi's death was extremely hard on Ryou as well. It hurt Ben a considerable amount, especially because there was nothing more that he could do for his boy.

Sending Ryou back to school was painful for Ben. It was equally as painful for Ryou as well, as all of the students decided to swarm him for the first few weeks before they all decided to distance themselves from him. Some cruel people lingered behind to torment the boy even more, simply because of the personal grudges they had with Sakamoto.

Ben considered the first three months of healing to be the hardest. It was hard to get Ryou to go to school and to keep his grades up as well. Some days, Ryou would wake up and be unable to get out of bed, lacking so much energy that Ben had to hand feed him to make sure that Ryou was still eating something. On these days, Ryou didn't even have the energy to manage his long, tangled hair, so Ben would spend a few minutes brushing his hair out for him. Ryou's hair had gotten longer, reaching down to his lower back, which made it hard for the boy to want to care for it.

Once, Ben offered to cut it for him, but Ryou hollowly shook his head, whispering, "Katashi liked my hair..."

Some days, when Ryou would come home, he'd have a black eye or bruises littered over his body, but his knuckles would be bloody and he'd tell Ben not to worry about it, because he is stronger than the bullies. Often times in the same week, Ben would receive a call from the school, informing him that Ryou was caught up in a fight.

Some days, Ryou's window would be open and cigarette ash would be left behind on the sill. Ben hated it when Ryou smoked, because he was still so young, and those things would send him into an early grave- but he would never dare to raise his voice at Ryou, especially because he was in such a fragile state. Instead, whenever Ben would catch Ryou smoking, he would gently approach him, and slowly take the cigarette away from the boy.

Most days, Ryou would let him without any protest, but some days, he would resist a bit, insisting on one more puff, which Ben would always firmly, but gently deny. On those days, Ryou would spend the rest of the day in an even more empty state.

Some nights, Ryou would wake up with a pained shriek, but others he would be functioning normally until something ends up triggering him, launching him into a series of flashbacks, sometimes causing him to have several panic attacks one right after another. The aftermath of his nightmares were always so heartbreaking to witness.

Some days, Ryou would lie in bed, a puddle of tears, and when Ben would come to check on him, he would start apologizing over, and over, and over, in the same hollow, fearful voice.