The Umbrella Academia

What Happens In the Future, Stays In the Future

Shoto Todoroki was never one to panic.

To be frank, he never saw the point in it. After years of dealing with his shitty old man, he's learned how to stay calm under pressure and fight his own fear. Swallowing fear comes way more naturally to him than it should. As does keeping up a stoic demeanor that is necessary for all missions like this.

This time was different.

When Midoriya suddenly stopped responding, and without saying that he'd be going radio silent, he felt a wave of anxiety knock him flat. It felt like Hosu all over again. He remembered the feeling of seeing that text message, a simple address with no other context. Midoriya's texts tended to be paragraphs in length, so the short message was enough to give Shoto pause. Far from just an address, to him it looked more like a scream for help.

He'd abandoned the internship with his dad without so much as a second glance. Saving his friend was way more important to him.

Just like right now. Saving his friend was the only thing that mattered to him.

Upon trying to make contact again and again and getting nothing but static, he asked the others to try for him. No such luck, and it was starting to get clear that something bad had happened. And when he realized that... well, there's a first time for everything, and that moment was probably the first time in his life he felt true, genuine panic.

When his mother poured boiling water over his face, he felt nothing but despair, pain, and a sense of betrayal. Whenever his stupid father called him in for "training", he felt dread, and then resignation. Different forms of fear, but never panic.

Except now.

Now the idea of losing the one person who never left his side since that fateful day, the one person who broke through to him when he had most needed it, was too much to bear, and now he was only keeping it together for the sake of that same person, who would undoubtedly refuse to give up if their positions were reversed.

"It's yours! YOUR QUIRK, NOT HIS!"

...What?

At that moment, everything was lost on him. The biting cold, the burning of his lungs, the numbness of his right arm and leg. None of that registered to his brain in that moment. He felt light, and chained down to the ground at the same time, like a tethered balloon. Strangely, his whole body seemed to ache. Ache like his bones were on fire.

Fire.

How could he be so stupid?

He remembered being a little kid, no more than about four or five. His mother's arm was securely wrapped around his shoulder, her warmth enveloping his whole being. They sat in front of a television, as All Might explained in an interview how children's Quirks are often a byproduct of their parents, but that it didn't mean that the power in question was anyone else's but their own.

Shoto's flames, not his. It didn't matter what he felt about his father. His left side could be used to save lives, but somehow, he forgot that. He forgot that being a hero is about giving it all you've got, in order to reach the top. Saving those without the strength to save himself.

In his blind hatred, he suppressed his strength out of spite. A mistake that could have gotten someone killed. Like back at the USJ, when he could have taken out at least ten of the villains in two seconds, but chose to hold back. Had it been a more serious situation, would he have continued half-assing it? Even if it meant someone getting maimed? Or worse, killed?

No. Not anymore. He won't act like a coward for any longer than he already has. He won't.

"Become the hero you want to be."