MHA : Shoto Todoroki - Modern-day Terrorist

The large, white dome remained unbothered for twelve days straight.

No one got in, no one got out.

There'd been one known civilian casualty and maybe a few others, though they may as well have been trapped by mistake and were hiding somewhere. As long as they steered clear of the plaza, they should be fine.

"Sir"

President Nishimura raised his head from a report he was reading.

A mix of soldiers and Commission employees had secured the place and nobody knew why they'd quarantined the place – rumors about a virus or a gas pipe breaking had kept civilians at bay, though not the journalists.

At least the weather had been nice during the last week, so the watchkeeping hadn't been as much of a chore as it could've been. The sky was turning an ominous grey, though.

"Any breakthrough with the barrier ?"

They'd never seen anything quite like that, as soft as a pillow yet hard enough that no bullet or heavy weapon could pierce it. They'd gotten a few physicists and chemists started on the research, but none had yet managed to get a bit out of the barrier without it dissolving into thin air.

"I think he's getting out"

Nishimura took off his glasses, and indeed the milk-white barrier was rippling.

Right in the middle of their settlement – as though the boy knew where they were – Shoto got out, covered in blood, holding a severed head by its scalp.

Flesh threads were hanging from the chopped-off neck like bloody ribbons. The wind whooshed and the head was swept around like an overinflated balloon.

Everybody froze.

Nishimura's features morphed from pure shock to marveling astonishment.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw several people instinctively back away. Someone gagged.

Shoto looked at them dully, raising the severed head as he would have a trophy.

He threw it on the ground, and it made a wet sound when it fell, rolling in the dirt for a few meters.

When Nishimura looked up, the boy had already disappeared.

*

When he got home, Teka waited for him in the living room.

She held a cup with both hands, the yellow liquid bubbling then popping, brows slightly furrowed as she gazed through the window.

Blood was dripping from Shoto's clothes on the large Persian rug. He smelt a rancid mix of sweat and death.

She locked eyes with him, a silent understanding passing between them.

She walked to him then engulfed him in a hug, barely tall enough to reach his shoulder. He held her close, arms slightly shaking now that it was done.

"Thank you", she said

There was blood on his shirt but now it was also wet with quiet tears.

*

"I don't care about the money"

"This is neither about the money nor the buildings or lands", Teka rebutted. "This is about your father's legacy, Shoto. He entrusted your mother to give you everything. Sign, and everything shall be yours"

She slid pen and contract to him.

He looked down at it, arms crossed, conflicted.

"I'm my father's legacy"

Teka sighed.

"Of course you are", she mumbled.

She'd taken some medicine earlier but she still felt weak and the boy kept on giving her headaches – and here she'd thought she'd be less worried about him once he'd finally come back from his two-week trip…

This kid was nerve-wracking, that she could admit. It was a wonder how Enji had managed to handle him.

And as always when she thought of her son, there was a sharp pang in her chest.

"He built me, not these. I have no interest in stones and cement"

Teka's eyes grew sharp.

"Not even The Endeavor Tower ?"

Shoto looked at her coolly.

They hadn't talked about it but she knew-

There was a knock on the door.

"Ma'am"

One of her men's head slid by the half-opened door.

Shoto was already gazing through the window, suddenly uninterested in worldly matters, eyes dull and face cold, physically there but mentally on another plane of existence.

She pursed her lips. She'd lost his attention once more.

"He's here"

She hid the documents under a few unimportant ones.

"Come in", Teka said

She didn't stand up – as didn't Shoto, but she was half sure it was because he hadn't realized somebody else had come in, self-absorbed as he was - and the man bowed shallowly.

His black eyes slid to Shoto, a tinge of worry – not fear – on his face.

Teka invited him to sit and she'd half expected him to shy away from the couch on which sat her grandson, but he settled next to him, not close enough to be uncomfortable.

"Thank you for receiving me on such short notice"

Teka smiled pleasantly, diplomat she was.

"It is our pleasure, sir… ?"

"Aizawa. Shota Aizawa"

Which she knew beforehand.

Her eyes glowed.

"Delighted to meet you"

Everyone here saw her as this eccentric, crazy rich old woman who'd decided to dot upon her grandson after his father's death.

They saw Shoto and she hid in his shadow, deadly as a snake, ready to strike whoever would stand in their path.

"I am here on behalf of our government as well as Yuei's, the Heroic School"

He was no government official, though, just a quirkless man who'd been stripped of what had made him a god among men.

Though, Quirkless or not, he sure had the balls to come in the devil's den when no one else would only to officially deliver news she was already aware of.

She wondered if someone had forced him to, but the way he kept shooting Shoto's side glances made her think it was personal.

He fully turned to Shoto whereas Teka grabbed the first letter, skimming over the contents to what most interested her.

"On behalf of the Japanese government and for services rendered to our nation, you've been officially absolved"

Shoto snorted.

Teka looked up.

aizawa's startled gaze settled on him.

"Absolved", he repeated, a faraway look in his eyes.

They waited but this was the extent of what he'd wanted to say.

"… indeed", said Aizawa. "You have been… brave"

Shoto blinked slowly, and she knew he wasn't with them anymore.

"What is it that Yuei wished for us to know ?", she asked.

The man looked back at her, slightly uncomfortable.

"The headmaster wanted to let Shoto know that his… position as pupil was still available. We'd gladly welcome him back"

Shoto was still looking outside.

Teka was casually drinking her tea, looking unaffected.

"Is it ?"

What would Shoto do in a Heroic school ?

Enji she could understand but Shoto – Shoto was more like her than Enji had been alike her husband.

Had she not known who was directing it, she would've thought them incompetent fools.

"He is free to resume his studies whenever he wants and we won't hold him back"

"How generous of you"

She wondered what was the point because everybody knew Shoto wasn't Hero material – especially after what he'd done to All for One…

Was it for the clout ? So that the headmaster could say he'd tamed the beast everybody was so afraid of ? Or did he have another agenda ?

"Though I am afraid to say this decision is Shoto's alone to take"

Even his own name didn't manage to bring him back to earth.

aizawa turned to him.

"You know", he said. "Your father graduated from Yuei"

Shoto perked up, shot him an assessing glance.

Aizawa shrugged.

"Maybe it would do you some good to see what the world has to offer"

" … I'll think about it"

A maybe was infinitely better than his catatonic state, though she didn't approve of the type of school he was to enroll in – if she was sure of one thing though, it was that he wouldn't become a Hero.

Had it been a normal school, Teka would've offered to finance an observatory or modernize a few buildings to secure the headmaster's ear and favor.

Here, Shoto already had both.

"What about tuition costs ?", she asked. "Should I write you a check or do you prefer cash ?"

They talked papers and requirements and she noticed Shoto's thoughtful expression.

The discussion finished aizawa hovered longer than necessary, obviously hesitating about saying something.

"This new Hero, Flame..."

He was an up-and-coming Hero like many others, not remarkable enough to catch anybody's attention, yet he'd been in the public eye since he'd started talking about buying The Endeavor Tower.

Last week, he'd been murdered.

His body had been found at the foot of Endeavor's Tower, his bowels displayed on the stairs.

Something had tingled in aizawa's mind, and he hadn't been able to shake that feeling since then.

"Did you kill him ?"

Shoto leveled him with a blank gaze.

"Yes"

aizawa nodded, looked around uncertainly, eyes settling on the woman who was calmly stirring her tea, expecting a reaction from her, yet she only kept stirring her tea.

aizawa awkwardly got up, greeted the Todoroki – was answered with a small, dismissive nod - then left.

He wondered what it had come to that Shoto could openly admit to murder and that no one would do anything against him.

*

"I heard you've recovered All for One's remains ?", asked Nezu pleasantly

Nishimura cursed.

God only knew how Nezu always knew what he did.

"Merely his head", said coolly Nishimura. "His body was damaged beyond repair"

False : Shoto had simply burned it to the ground.

There'd been scattered ashes and the outline of a charred corpse seared in the ground and nothing else.

That was quite irksome as they had a few research projects that would've benefited from it but oh, well, you couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"I assume it means the head is intact ?"

Nishimura drew a circle on his desk with the tip of his finger.

He knew what Nezu wanted, and Nezu knew what he knew – he just didn't want to make it too easy for the rat.

"As intact as it could've been after what was done to it"

'Damaged' would've been an understatement.

If All for One had to bear any of this torture – and he most certainly did – then Nishimura nearly pitied him. Nearly.

At least the barrier had muffled the noises, and they'd been oblivious to the torture session going on next door.

The unlucky civilians trapped inside hadn't been, though.

They were… well, maybe staging their death at the hands of villains and keeping them under observation would be the wisest choice.

"What about the eye ?"

"The eye ?"

"Eraserhead's eye, stolen by All for One"

Nishimura tapped on his armrest.

"It is mostly intact"

"When can we get it back ?"

Nishimura scoffed.

The audacity of that thing…

"I am afraid you can't get it back"

"It is Aizawa's"

"It was. Now it's an exhibit"

Nezu's patience was running thin, and Nishimura enjoyed every second of it.

"It is Aizawa's. You ought to-"

"We ought to do nothing"

How blissful was it to finally shut the mad rat : to boot, they'd gotten their hands on one of his most powerful weapons, the Quirk erasing one.

If they could find a way to replicate it...

Nezu gritted his teeth.

"Trust me, Nishimura. You do not wish to cross me"

Nishimura merely quirked a brow.

Nezu had never lowered to threaten anybody. It was flattering he was the first to receive preferential treatment.

"...hand me Aizawa's eye"

"No"

Nishimura hung up, as satisfied as a cat who'd eaten the mouse.