Chapter 41: Can I sleep now?
Todoroki had excused himself into a turtleneck and jeans and was sitting under the scrutiny of both Tomura and Izuku. He would have felt uncomfortable had he felt anything. Technically Izuku was hugging him tightly, and a rare flicker of genuine concern danced in Tomura's eyes.
"What is it?" he asked, sounding weary. He just wanted to get over with this. The room was suffocating. He had killed someone as well and so had the rest in the room.
"What do you feel?" the question came from his left.
"Nothing," he answered plainly.
The hell was he supposed to feel?
"Oh Todoroki-kun," Izuku began, hugging him tighter. It made him feel better ever so slightly. Tomura sighed.
"We aren't therapists so I can't say anything. But if you need anything, you can talk to us. And sincerely speaking, please don't scare us like that again."
"Okay."
With another sigh Tomura got up and went to his room, probably to tell Kurogiri an insane way to attack which would involve gaming laws.
Izuku pulled away slightly and carefully looked at him.
"I think you are still in shock, Todoroki-kun."
"Apparently so. Can I sleep now?"
"Of course."
Izuku disentangled himself from Todoroki, allowing the latter to robotically stand up and head to the bedroom, the former following in his wake. He immediately fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, curling up onto his side. Izuku sat on the bed opposite to him, and proceeded to keep watch, knowing exactly how bad the nightmares could get.
He had his notebook open, where he had written down the Quirks All For One and One For All. He was carefully copying it to his laptop, to make the work neat and also possibly discover something else about the Quirks. His own Quirk according to Sensei was an offshoot of All For One with only the part of destroying Quirks, which caused pain in the victims. If the Quirk was a heteromorphic type (as Izuku has observed to his utter horror), then the person was more than likely to die due to the destruction of Quirk cells.
He hacked into the UA servers again, with slightly more difficulty than last time and saw that the First Years had been taken for a Summer Camp. Scrolling down the students list, he stopped in shock to see Hitoshi Shinso on it. He was aware that the boy was in UA, having watched the Sports Festival, but he was still shocked that he had entered the Hero Course so quickly.
Well good for him anyways, Izuku thought, scrolling down the list further. Kacchan was still there, even though he didn't have a Quirk. Izuku smiled bitterly at the utter irony. He hoped that the boy was feeling the consequences now. A strange uncaring sensation came over him for a second as he stared at the picture of his childhood nemesis, which dissipated in a second, causing him to shake his head and wonder what was wrong with his brain.
Todoroki shifted slightly in his sleep but didn't show any signals of distress, so Izuku closed the laptop. He had gotten the location where the Summer Camp was going on, which would enable Tomura to launch his "heist" as he called it, and also forward Izuku's plan of getting rid of All For One.
"All Might," he growled as he pulled up the footage of the last fight of All For One and All Might, "You better be as mighty as they claim, otherwise someone is coming to whoop your ass."
His entire plan more or less hinged on All Might's credibility. His strength was detoriating and Izuku hoped that it was still enough for him to defeat this man who had put the madness in him and Tomura, which most definitely scared Todoroki even if he wouldn't admit it.
Izuku wiped his eyes. Even if he had become a criminal, his leaky ducts were still the same. He had nowhere else to go when Makoto had taken him in. No family, just a scary Bakugo household if AFO hadn't stepped in. Well, he was better off here with no one actually abusing him.
But it was still bad all the same.
His actions gave some sick satisfaction to the burning rage in him. Rage built upon years and years of torment, on being told that he was useless, that he should just take a swan dive off the roof if he so badly wished to be a hero.
Tomura had been "saved" by him too. Izuku and Tomura, they had nowhere else to go.
But Todoroki was totally another case.
He had actually run away from home and all the abuse that it entailed. He assured them that he was better here, and Izuku believed him because he had seen the bruises that Endeavor's sick fascination with beating All Might had left. However, he had seen the way All For One looked at Todoroki.
It was the gaze of a man at a particularly tasty piece of roast chicken.
He didn't even bother with "genial" father towards Todoroki, unlike what he had pretended towards Izuku and Tomura. Maybe it was the departure of Makoto's influence, maybe because AFO didn't see Todoroki useful as a person, unlike what he saw in Tomura and Izuku. He valued Izuku's mind, his quick thinking and analytical skills were useful. He valued Tomura's unyielding loyalty, his Quirk and his person, because he was his perfect successor. But Todoroki, all he saw in Todoroki was how useful and powerful his Quirk was. Nothing beyond that. Kurogiri had been virtually the only proper parent figure Todoroki had known. He disliked All For One with a vehemence, another reason he had agreed to Izuku's scheme of getting rid of that man for good.
Izuku rubbed at his temples. He was developing a headache from staring at the laptop from so long. He shut it down and rested his head on the cool steel table.
Soon after, he passed away into dreamland where everything was nice and good, and they were all pro heroes together, living under the same old one roof.
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