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Shouto was done.
He was done with this society.
Which was why he was here, standing on the other side of the battlefield. He was why Eraserhead was encased in a block of ice; thin enough to breathe, hear, and see through, but thick enough to trap, and prevent his quirk from reaching him.
He had never wanted to be a hero.
Which is why he was a spy, diligently staying hidden, undetectable, in the hero course, gathering information until it was time.
He’d never opened his heart to his class, or wore his emotions on his sleeve. He never made friends with them, content with being a loner and carrying out his tasks with less prying eyes.
Which was why he felt nothing when Midoriya trembled as he brokenly whispered out into the shocked silence.
“Why?”
Shouto tried to hold in his laughter, he really did, but he couldn’t help it. Giggles spilled out of his mouth as he clutched his stomach. The other students all eyed him wearily with faintly laced fear from their frozen positions spread out on the battlefield. His ice bound them to their spots, prohibiting them the ability to move, speak, and use their quirks. But he didn’t pay much attention to them, no. His attention was only on one person. One person, whose mouth was free of ice.
The confused, betrayed look on Midoriya’s face only made him laugh harder. The boy should’ve seen this coming, should’ve known it was inevitable. But, once again, Shouto had given Midoriya too much credit.
The freckled boy looked like he wanted to say something, but seemed at a loss for words. Even Bakugo didn’t make any noise, though he was steaming with anger.
Gasping for breath as his laughter died down, Shouto returned his gaze to his former classmates. “Why? Why am I a villain?” His voice was sharp as he drank in all of their expressions. “Midoriya, you know why. I told you my past, my present. I thought you would understand. I thought you would believe me.” He huffed a laugh, but there was no joy in it. “But I guess I was wrong.”
“No!” Midoriya pleaded, “I believed you! I still do!” The boy clenched his fists, eyes shining.
Shouto stared at his former best friend, “Do you?” He drawled out lazily.
Midoriya’s face twisted, as though he were in physical pain, as he quickly responded, “Of course I do!”
“Then why didn’t you do anything?” Shouto demanded.
“I-“
Shouto angrily cut him off, “I quite literally implied to you that I was being abused, and you didn’t do anything! Where was your brain then?!” Scoffing, he watched as some of the other students turned their curious gazes to Midoriya. “You over analyze everything and yet when I hint to you at the abuse that I’ve been enduring, you suddenly stop thinking and don’t put the pieces together?!”
He wasn’t upset, really. Touya-nii had already told him to not expect anything from his classmates at UA. Not to expect anything from the useless heroes society is creating once again. And of course, his nii-san was always right.
This was all for show. But he could have some fun, couldn’t he?
“Todoroki-kun, t-this is not you!!” Midoriya shouted. “What are you doing?!”
Anger. It rolled off of him in waves as Midoriya uselessly tried to sway him back to the heroes’ side.
“Midoriya, you don’t know me!” He shouted back. He knew the anger showed in his voice because the boy with emerald green hair flinched at the volume of it. He panted, the action of yelling unfamiliar to him. His heart thundered in his ears. “You don’t know me.” He repeated, voice wavering. “Even if I know you, you don’t know me, you never will know me.”
Shouto paused then, almost as if he were giving them all a break to process what had just happened in the past ten minutes.
“You were the first person I trusted besides my brother, and you broke that trust.” Shouto admitted quietly, to his former classmates, and to himself. He shook his head, disappointed. Heroes always seemed to break that fragile trust that people placed on them. This would be the last time he would make that mistake. Nii-san would be proud of him.
“Todoroki-kun…” Midoriya whispered. Shouto didn’t listen to the other murmurs of his former classmates. His mission here today was only for one thing.
To reveal his position.
He smiled sadly to himself, gazing down at the ground, and sighed in disappointment. “It was a plea for help, Midoriya, and you didn’t come and save me like the hero you’re training to be.”
That seemed to be the breaking point for the freckled hero, because the tears finally came streaming down his face. But Shouto wasn’t done, oh, he was far from done.
“You too, Bakugo.”
The sudden change in subject had the blonde blinking in confusion.
“Hah?-“
Shouto pushed on. “You also knew I was being abused, don’t play dumb. After you overheard me the first time, I made it so you would overhear the other times. I thought if Midoriya really wasn’t going to do anything, then you would.” He scoffed again.
“I couldn’t have been more wrong.”
He took a few steps toward the blonde, “You want to be the number one hero, but how will you be able to keep thinking that after I leave?” He mocked, “How can you be number one when you know you failed to save someone right next to you?!” Shouto says this because he knows that Bakugo had just been starting to really care for him and accept him as a friend. Because he knew Bakugo, and he also knew that he knew. Bakugo had done nothing with the knowledge Shouto fed to him in breadcrumbs.
No words came out of the blonde, but angry noises sure did. Curses, probably.
He backed away towards the spot he was in before, wrapping up his little speech. “I enjoyed being your friend, Midoriya. I enjoyed my time here at UA with you all — to an extent. But as long as I’m with the heroes,” he shrugged, “I’ll never be free.” And with those words, he turned around, ready to leave them to his melting ice and their thoughts.
“Todoroki-kun, don’t do this!” Midoriya begged, the desperation in his voice clear. “We can still help you-“
“Help me?” He whirled back around, facing them once again. He couldn’t believe that Midoriya was spouting this out now. Logically, he knew they were just stalling for time until the pros arrived, but this? Anger bubbled up inside of him as he snapped out, “I waited for the heroes to come help save me for a decade. No one’s coming. No one's coming because it's Endeavor." He spat bitterly, “I can’t even be helped anymore. It’s too late. You can’t change my mind, Midoriya.” He was done. This society had always been doomed from the start.
“The heroes have failed me. They have failed many others too. It’s a doomed cycle; a never ending samsara. So I gave up on the heroes that society looks up to so much, and turned my attention to the villains. We are going to make this world right and fair again.”
He spared Midoriya another glance. The boy was taking this just as well as he expected him to. He almost wanted to pity the boy, but well, Shouto didn’t need to waste anymore time on him.
“This was a decision I made a long time ago,” he says anyway. Maybe to the rest of the class. Maybe to Eraserhead. He doesn’t know. “Just don’t take this too personally. And don’t blame me for what’s to come in the future, especially when this little society you’re all so fond of is burned to the ground. It’s inevitable.” His tone of voice rings with finality and sheer malice. And for once, Midoriya is silent.
The sound of clapping brought everyone’s attention to the figure on the left side of the battlefield.
“And I was afraid you’d gotten too attached to these little heroes, but I guess I was wrong!” A rather cheerful voice called out.
Shouto rolled his eyes.
Dabi strolled over, past the block of ice Eraserhead was encased in, to stand next to Shouto. “Anyways, time's up. Ready to get out of here, Sho?” He asked, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“Always.” He was ready to leave everything all behind and take a breath of fresh air.
“Any last words you’d like to say to your little friends?” The black haired man teased. Ugh, older brothers..
Shouto elbowed his brother in the stomach and told him to, “Stop being such a little shit, nii-san.”
Dabi chuckled. “Whatever you say, Sho.” The portal opened up behind them and Dabi gave him a little nudge. “Go on then, we gotta get outta here.”
Shouto sighed, giving Class 1-A a final withering stare. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, he shouted with crazed eyes and an uncharacteristically high pitched laugh, “See you on the other side of the battlefield, heroes!”
And with that, Shouto backed into the portal alongside Dabi, leaving a devastated class of heroes behind.