Dark as night (BNHA fanfiction) Discontinued

Chapter twenty five: The ultimate power move

Warning. Izuku's backstory is not all sunshine and rainbows. And a bad chapter altogether.
Izuku huffed. Fourth place would seem like a good placement to many, but he hoped to do better. Of course, nobody was to blame but himself. Honestly, he hated the fact that he messed up. The fact that he had to rely on others. He was used to it, just not there being someone who would help.

After the matches finished, Todoroki took him aside. "You called?" He could tell that it was about something serious, making the anxiety bots work overtime. Todoroki glared at him. "You overwhelmed me. So much that I broke my own pledge. Iida, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, Uraraka. They didn't feel it.. When Aizawa defended us, I felt a similar thing. What I'm saying is... Are you Aizawa-Sensei's illegitimate child or something?"

Izuku shook his head.

"Sorry to disappoint, I knew my parents pretty well. It's not like that." Izuku rubbed his neck, not liking the attention placed on him. "Interesting way to phrase that. And past tense? What are you hiding, Midoriya?" Izuku mentally slammed his head into a wall. "That doesn't matter right now. What else did you want to tell me?"

Todoroki glanced at his raised hand. "My dad. He's a powerful bastard who only thinks of becoming stronger. Yeah, he's gone all out to make a name for himself as a hero, but... He's always seen that legend, All Might, as a roadblock and an eyesore. My father could never beat All Might on his own. So he came up with another plan." Todoroki paused, looking at Izuku's steely cold face and shuddering slightly before continuing.

"Quirk marriages. You've heard of them, right? They started to become a problem around the second or third generation after quirks appeared. Strong individuals would choose a partner and force them into marriage for the purpose of passing on a strengthened version of their own quirk. Those earlier generations lacked ethics. With his wealth and fame, my father made my mother's family agree to the marriage, all to get his hands on her quirk. Raising me as a hero who could exceed All Might, just to fulfill his own ambitions. I hate it. Being nothing more than a tool for that human garbage. As I remember, my mother was always crying. 'I can't stand to see that left side of yours' She said, before throwing scalding water on my face. In short, not using my left side against you was my revenge on him. Never using my rotten father's quirk. No, by rising to the top without using it, I'd have denied him everything."

And with that, Todoroki began to walk away. "Wait!" Izuku called, Todoroki stopping shortly after. "My parents... They were the only ones who cared for me. After I was declared quirkless, every person who I met despised me." The other boy cut him off. "And you think that compares-" Izuku carried on. "Non-stop laughter. The bullying didn't even start out light. If I had ten yen for every time I was pushed down the stairs the following week, I wouldn't've had to get so many jobs at ten years of age. If I had ten yen for every time they brought in matches to burn me or blades to cut me, I could pay for a new school. Heck, if I had ten yen for every time I went home to my parents in a condition that hospitals would worry about, maybe I would've had enough money to buy school meals after they messed with mine every day.

If I had a piece of paper for every time they shoved me under water for god knows how long, or held things around my neck to stop me breathing or locked in a small place overnight or every time I broke a bone, I could have made millions of books. If I had a piece of paper for every time they told me to rid the world of myself, I could make a library." Todoroki's eyes gradually widened and he inhaled. "If I had a card for every. Single. Time. That they carved insults into my skin and muffled my sobs, I could build a house out of them." The taller boy took a step back. "If I had a card for every time I wished someone cared enough about the quirkless that I wouldn't've woken up to my dead mother's body, I could fill the ocean with them. You can't change the past, Todoroki, but you sure as fishsticks can change the future. Moping around won't bring back the childhood I missed out on. It won't fix anything. But, trying with everything I've got will. I want to help people from going through what I did, or anything worse." He held out his hand to the speechless teen.