Chapter Text
This was far from the first time Touya had set foot in UA, but it sure felt like it was. Perhaps it was because this was the first time he’d gone anywhere on the campus outside of the main building. Looking around at the giant buildings that housed the training grounds, all surrounded by woods, he thought that it looked rather intimidating. Shoto was a few paces behind him, silently grumbling about the twigs that had gotten caught in his hair after he tripped into a bush. Natsuo and Fuyumi weren’t with them today, Natsuo had homework to catch up on, and Fuyumi was simply too busy.
Luckily for them, the building they were looking for wasn’t nearly as far away as the full training grounds. It looked about two stories tall and just as grand as everything else in the school. Gym Gamma, a building specifically made so that students could safely experiment with their quirks.
The inside of the building was completely empty, save for a weapon rack and two benches in the corner nearest the door. One of the benches seemed to have been used as a table, two water bottles, two towels and an odd-looking box sat on it. Touya and Shoto left their own water bottles next to the others, dehydration was just another fun side effect of using their fire too much, so they came prepared. A little further away Touya saw Ishiyama observing two people sparring with training weapons, he looked up, nodding at the two new arrivals and trying to get the attention of the pair who was sparring. They seemed far too busy trying to trip each other up to notice. Touya recognized Izuku, but couldn’t quite place the other one’s face, he would certainly remember meeting someone with that scar. He stared a little too long at the messy line running up from the person’s lower jaw, cutting through his lip and leaving a piece missing before sharply veering over to the bridge of his nose.
Izuku noticed them first, jumping away from the spar to wave hello before blocking a swipe from a practice knife with their staff. The other person also noticed Touya and Shoto and called out to them while dodging Izuku’s blows.
“About time y’all showed up, we were getting worried” Takeda’s odd manner of speech was instantly recognizable, he put the practice knives back on the rack before addressing the two of them. “Welcome to Gym Gamma, it’s built to weather a hell of a lot so don’t worry too much about breaking anything” he paused, “of course, me and Ken will be supervising this rodeo, so I don’t want to see either of y’all doing anything stupid, got it?”
Touya and Shoto both nodded, a little caught off guard at the Takeda’s seriousness, considering she was probably one of the most laid-back heroes in this school. Izuku kept their staff on the ground, “hey, Uncle Kazumi, aren’t you forgetting something?”
Takeda paused, “oh, right, Higari asked me to give these to you” she walked over to the bench and picked up the box, handing it to Touya.
“What?” Touya examined the box, it was made of rather sturdy looking metal, with a latch on the top. He opened it to find a pair of black fingerless gloves, or at least that’s what they looked like, he wasn’t too sure considering that these were much thicker than gloves of this kind should be.
“It’s for your quirk” Ishiyama said “so that you don’t burn yourself while training.”
Takeda nodded “those gloves are made to keep your skin cool, I won’t bore you with the exact explanation but it involves using thermally conductive material and a bunch of little tubes.”
Touya put on the gloves, they were comfortable enough, but that wasn’t the important part. He held out his hand and let his flames burst from his skin, the normal sensation of burning was absent. The gloves themselves didn’t seem to be getting damaged either. Touya examined his hand in awe.
Takeda chuckled at the expression on Touya’s face “well it’s good to know you like them, but you’ve still got to be careful, Higari only figured out how to make these withstand around an hour of your flames before they need to cool down again, so don’t overdo it.”
“I’ll be careful, besides, I’m only here to help Shoto, so I won’t be using my fire that much” Touya smiled as he dragged Shoto towards the middle of the building, followed closely by Izuku and their notebook. Ishiyama slightly raised a circular part of the floor to denote the bounds of the training area. And Takeda stood a few feet awa with a fire extinguisher.
“So, where do I start?” Shoto asked, flexing his left hand.
Touya let a fire light on his palm “well, it’s a lot easier to grow a flame than it is to control it, so first you need to learn how to keep your flames small, that way when you won’t lose control when you get more powerful.” Touya diminished the flame in his palm until it looked more like a candlelight, “try that.”
Shoto extended his hand, palm facing upwards, Touya backed away slightly, remembering last week’s incident. A column of flame burst out of Shoto’s palm like a wildfire, expanding to the bounds of the circle. Izuku jumped away, clutching their notebook. Takeda had the extinguisher pointed at the flames. Ishiyama put up a wall between himself and the fire. Shoto panicked and smothered the flame with his other hand like last time.
“Okay,” Touya was very glad there wasn’t anything flammable around, “let’s try that again, but this time, instead of extinguishing the fire, just, think about making it smaller.” He lit another flame in his hand, changing its size as easy as breathing. “I like to imagine it like a stove, just turn the dial and the flames go down.”
Shoto nodded “alright” he took a deep breath and held out his hand again. A second ticked by with nothing happening.
A more manageable flame flickered to life in Shoto’s palm, still bigger than was ideal, but it wasn’t in danger of scorching anyone in a three-foot radius. “That’s much better” Touya walked a little closer “now let’s try and get it a little smaller.” Shoto tried again, leading to another set of flames bursting from his hand and almost burning everyone, who all backed several feet away. Touya sighed as he quickly put out the flames that had caught onto his jeans, it seemed they was going to be here for a while.
In the end it took close to an hour for Shoto to consistently be able to summon flames only the size of his hand. But it was progress.
Shoto experimented a little more with just how much he could control his fire. It turned out the answer was not much at all, in frustration, he started trying to copy what Touya was doing and make his fire flare out around himself.
“Why on earth isn’t this working?” Shoto huffed and dropped his hands as yet another scorch mark marred the floor, embers flickering in and out of life on his arm.
Takeda shook his head “alright, I think that’s enough, you’re just barkin’ up a knot now, better you quit beating the devil ‘round the stump and actually practice something useful instead of giving a trick like that a lick and a promise.” He spoke sternly, clearly trying to get a point across.
Touya, Izuku and Ishiyama all nodded in agreement while Shoto just stared at them in complete confusion “I’m sorry, did you actually understand whatever that was?”
Touya paused as the realisation that he did, in fact, understand that sunk in. He turned and glared at Takeda who was holding back laughter, “damn, sorry, I swear I didn’t mean to confuse anyone.”
Touya pinched the bridge of his nose “don’t take that as an excuse to do that more often, got it? You were obnoxious enough when I couldn’t speak cowboy.”
Izuku shook their head, a smirk on their lips, “and she got another one.”
Shoto huffed “whatever, I suppose I’ll get it eventually.” He looked around at the charred evidence of his failed attempts “hey Touya?”
“What?”
“Where did you learn how to do that? I know father never would have taught you something so, showy.”
Touya tapped his arm “well, it’s just something I taught myself back when I used to sneak out and train at Sekoto Peak, it was just fun to test myself like that. I think I was actually about your age when I finally figured the damn thing out.”
Shoto tilted his head “did you learn any other tricks?”
Touya shrugged “a few, but none that I could repeat now that I’m so out of practice.”
Izuku frowned “you haven’t practiced with your fire at all since you ran away?”
“I mean, at first, but after I turned fifteen there wasn’t really a reason.”
“Why the hell would you just quit?” Izuku asked incredulously.
Touya shook his head “the point of training was to become a hero and prove Endeavor wrong for abandoning me, after I turned fifteen, well, I was past the age to get into a hero school, so what’s the point?”
“That’s not the only way to become a hero” Ishiyama said offhandedly. Both Touya and Shoto turned to look at him incredulously while the other two seemed completely unfazed.
“It isn’t?” Shoto asked curiously.
“Well, there is an option that allows people of any age to try and become a hero, but it’s insanely difficult, so nobody really tries.” Ishiyama shrugged “heck, if you still wanted to be a hero you could always try it.”
“What is it?” Touya asked.
Ishiyama started to explain but Takeda interrupted “I don’t think they want to hear the bureaucracy of it all Ken.” She playfully, and very softly, punched Ishiyama in the shoulder, because Touya was sure that actually punching Ishiyama would have broken her hand. “Listen up button” she threw her arm over his shoulder, “first you’ve got to get recommended for the thing, which is tough enough. But then it’s a series of absolutely brutal tests, both pen and paper as well as practical, only around ten percent of people pass. And then, you’re basically allowed a provisional license, which means that all your missions will be accompanied by an established pro hero until you prove yourself to be capable of handling things on your own. Not many people are willing to go through all that, but it’s there.” She looked pointedly at Touya, clearly asking if he’d take the risk.
Touya thought about it for a while, on one hand, he’d actually be able to achieve the dream he’d long since given up on. On the other, it sounded like an actual nightmare to go through, not to mention, “how many people would know that I was doing this?”
“It would go on the commission records, but those aren’t available to any heroes, Endeavor wouldn’t find a thing” Ishiyama said.
Touya tapped his arm in thought. Takeda jumped into the conversation “besides, you could always just start after we finish up the investigation, if you want to of course.”
“I mean, yeah” Touya nodded, then, more confidently, “I do want to do this, or at least try, if I fail then I fail, but at least I could say I gave it my best.”
Izuku huffed, frowning, “so we’re letting him do the stupidly difficult path that lets someone be a hero without going through a hero school.”
Ishiyama sighed “you know why we won’t let you try Izuku, you’re a literal child.”
Izuku giggled, immediately dropping the façade, “yeah I know, I’m just joking. Seriously though, I think, if you tried your best, you could totally do it!”
Touya laughed “I don’t know why you’re so confident, but I think there’s one person’s opinion I want to get first,” he said, turning around.
“What do you think Shoto?”
Shoto looked taken aback “you’re asking me?”
“Yeah, if I’m doing this, it’s going to be with your approval or not at all” Touya smiled at his little brother.
“But, but what about Natsuo, or Fuyumi? Don’t you want their approval?”
Touya shrugged “it would be nice, but I’d do it anyways, you on the other hand, you know exactly what becoming a hero would mean to me, because it means the same thing to you. So, do I have your permission?”
The shock on Shoto’s face gave way to understanding, then a soft, yet determined smile.
“Absolutely. Let us both show the world, and our father, that we refuse be defined by their expectations.”