Chapter Text
Everything changed after the war.
Japan was in despair, everyone around the country mourning what had been lost but working together to rebuild it all after all of the damage. It looked like scenes out of a movie. They wished it would get better, that because it was over it meant things would be normal. All For One had been defeated along with Shigaraki. The rest of the League and the Liberation had been either killed or caught and locked away. Japan's greatest threats no longer causing havoc. Rumours started circulating that more laws were being put in place and heroes were still on high alert in case of an uprising from villains that still remained or those turning against the heroes because they believed what they had been doing was wrong. How could they leave so much destruction and expect civilians to just clean up after them?
UA was changing too. It no longer needed to be used as a safe house for civilians. Parents of the students demanded that their children were never to be used as soldiers again. Too many of the children were in hospital. Too many seriously injured and too many close calls to death. Teachers were giving speeches almost every day on TV to try and calm everyone down and to keep the peace. It had been agreed that all of the students were allowed time to just be kids and not to worry about studies or training. A lot of them still remained in recovery. The school decided to close for a little bit, allowing the students to still stay in the dorms if they wished but also offering them to stay with their families if that's what was preferred. No one in Class 1-A decided to stay at the dorms. Some of them hadn't even left the hospital yet.
The students were suffering with injuries, broken arms and legs, quirk exhaustion. Some of the students suffered head injuries but not enough to cause any permanent damage.
Bakugou's arm was ruined. He was likely never going to be able to use it how he used to. The doctors told him he was best off replacing it with a robotic limb, but he didn't want that. His quirk didn't work like that. He needed the sweat in his palms. He didn't care how long it would take for recovery; he was going to get it back to normal. The doctors didn't like that though, they were too scared about his heart and being overworked. The fact that he had died and came back worried them too much to allow him to overexert himself, no matter how much he complained. But Bakugou wasn't going to let this stop him from being the greatest hero. Something so stupid as his arm being s little fucked up? No. He wasn't going to let it stop him at all.
Midoriya lost his quirk. One For All held on for as long as it could, the embers flickering in him but he knew they would die out eventually. He knew he wasn't going to be blessed like that again. He was currently in the midst of talking with the teachers about his return to UA and what that would look like despite him not having a quirk. Afterall, what he has done for Japan, they couldn't not honour him and allow him to still attend. It didn't seem right. It seemed simply unfair. Perhaps it was, suddenly losing something so important to him. But it wasn't the same as someone losing their quirk they had since they manifested it so young. He knew that but it still hurt all the same.
And Shouto... Well, Shouto doesn't think anything has changed for him. He thinks he's always felt this way. Out of place. Numb. It feels the same. Even the burns on his body from his fight with Touya feel like they had always been there. The new scars on his face didn't matter when they were overshadowed by the one that had already been there. The hostility in the Todoroki household is definitely the same. He had stopped Touya, but at what cost? His family still wasn't happy. Of course they weren't because he still existed. Shouto, the cause of all their problems. The one that ruined everything. The only thing that had changed was the fact Fuyumi had moved out. Their mother had been officially released and placed into a 'safe house'. Fuyumi moved out to join her there to offer her care and Shouto is sure Natsuo is also there too. He isn't allowed to know where it is. He's still in his father's care so for the safety of Rei, Shouto must remain without his mother. Perhaps it's for the best, whatever relationship he had been building with her wouldn't matter now she can have Touya back. He wonders if she's been to see him yet. Touya wasn't the one that sent her insane. Shouto was the one that caused all of this. It was his fault his mother got sick, his fault she had to be sent away. Had she been lonely there? He hopes she wasn't; he knows all too well what that's like to feel.
"You did nothing."
Ah... perhaps that had changed. His father's anger returned but Shouto isn't sure it was ever really gone. "You let those two overshadow you. Do you know how humiliating that is for me?!" Enji yells. Shouto sits on the couch, his knees pulled up to his chest as he stares at the wall in front of him. He had got out of the hospital a week ago and for four days, his father had ignored him. On the fifth day, that was when the shouting and blaming started. "Do you know what they're saying about you in the media?" He does. Shouto spends his nights scrolling them all, reading all of the words that are directed at him.
"Look at me!" Enji roars and Shouto tears his eyes away from the wall and to his father. His vision in his left eye had gone completely since his fight with Touya. "You're going to make this up to me. You're going to work harder. Now that Midoriya doesn't have All Might's quirk that means you can now step up and actually show me why you were made. Perhaps you can finally be of some use!"
His family's hero.
Yeah, right.
He's nothing but a fake.
He doesn’t understand why he gets to live, not when others have lost their lives doing more than him. Not when people have lost so much more than him. He will always remember falling, he will always remember the impact as he hit the ground, and most importantly he will always remember looking over to where Touya lay unconscious and how his family were quick to surround him. To try and comfort and be back with the son and brother they had lost.
Shouto killed him. It was his fault. He was a murderer. The thought makes him feel sick.
It didn't matter that Touya was still alive, Shouto had killed that little boy full of ambition long ago. He killed him the day he was born and now everyone has to deal with the consequences of Dabi's destruction.
The slap to his face is what brings him back to reality. It stings against the burn that is still healing on his face. He looks up at his father, not a single ounce of shock on his face. He expected this. He knew at some point the nice act would crumble and here it is now. The Endeavour he knew all too well. Perhaps this time he deserves it though. He’s no longer a little kid. A child? Maybe, but not as small and not as faultless. He feels more like a soldier, a robot than he does a child.
He killed Touya.
He couldn't help his family.
He didn’t even help Midoriya and Bakugou.
He wasn’t a hero. He was a failure.
He was a mistake.
“Are you even listening to me!?” Suddenly the room is too hot and Shouto feels like Touya is there, holding him, crushing him, burning him.
But he’s not, he’s locked up.
You did that to him.
Shouto looks at the flames in front of him. Orange, not blue. His father is angry and this time Shouto thinks he has every right to be. He understands the anger. He really does. It’s the same anger everyone else seems to hold for him right now. Maybe even his teachers think the same. Maybe he won’t be allowed back in UA.
Would that be better? Keep him away from the people he cares about so he doesn’t hurt them? Perhaps he ought to be kept locked up in the house again.
It’s what he deserves after all.