Chapter Text
With almost no power left, Touya ran. He didn’t care where he was going, just that he had to get away from that woman.
After almost burning to death, he was able to walk to the next alley way and fell asleep there. More like lost consciousness but whatever. An old woman found him and treated his wounds as good as she could, which wasn’t good at all. But maybe he shouldn’t have trusted some lady who picks up half-dead homeless teenagers for fun, because she got way to touchy real fast and he got away before it could escalate.
He really had to learn a lot about being homeless, the first thing was probably figuring out how to survive without any money and no ID. Slowing down, he looked around. The neighborhood he was in was still pretty rich and homeless people definitely didn’t have a chance there. Years of looking down on them himself proofed that to him and he was one of the nicer rich kids. Former rich kids, he supposed.
The houses were all so clean and modern and just uncreative. Who would want to live in something like that? People that didn’t grow up in a literal mansion, Touya, he told himself.
Step one of his ultimate survival plan: get out of your rich kid mindset, it doesn’t help.
He pulled the hood of the sweater the woman gave him deeper in his face, so hopefully no one would see his burns. They hurt with every little move he made and made him look like some ugly villain. Luckily, the people that lived there didn’t question a teenager that looked like he was eight who walked around in dark clothes. At least some kind people were left in the world.
He stopped at a convenience store and considered his next step carefully. Did he keep the last bit of his morals and respect of the law or did he survive? Becoming anything slightly near a villain was the last thing he wanted, but he hadn’t eaten in two days and needed some sort of nutrition. Wasn’t shoplifting a gateway drug to some kind of felony and world domination? He shouldn’t ignore the law just because he was homeless now. On the other hand, he already set an entire park on fire.
Taking a deep breath, he at least entered the store. It looked like every other convenience store he’d ever seen, but now the prices didn’t seem that cheap anymore. 200 yen was something extremely unaffordable now. Fuck. He walked through the aisles and looked at every single snack or food. And he’d made fun of shoplifters because they couldn’t even spare the money for an onigiri. He’d really been a dumb little bitch.
A stack of magazines made him stop his useless search for free food. He knew that magazine, of course he did, his family was famous. Some dumb tabloid who wrote nothing but lies and tried to make a scandal out of everything, but this was different. His face was on the cover, looking at him with dead eyes and the headline, written in big, black letters read Todoroki Touya: Read here how his family is dealing with the sudden death of Endeavor’s oldest son.
Was he…dead? Had they just looked at the scene and, didn’t find him and came to the conclusion that he died?
They really didn’t care after all.
He looked at other magazines too, his or his father’s face on most covers, many in black and white. So he really was legally dead, wow.
A man came up beside him, looking at the photos sympathetically. “Such a tragedy, isn’t it? I really don’t wanna know how Endeavor must feel right now, losing a child just like that.” Touya just had to laugh at that. The idea of Endeavor mourning him was so absurd, it never even crossed his mind. The man looked at him like he was about to kill very person near, so he quickly got himself together.
Still, he was a very spiteful person and had an opportunity served to him on a silver platter. “I can assure you sir, Endeavor is probably happy right now.”
He wished he still had his phone just to make a picture of the poor man’s face. “Young man, that is really disrespectful towards Endeavor and his family, please don’t say stuff like that.” Touya just laughed again and turned towards the man, revealing his face. “Believe me, he’s probably happy he got rid of me.” The man just stared at him in disbelief before murmuring something like a pray. Touya bowed and just walked out of the store again. He probably shouldn’t have said all that stuff, but it just felt so deliciously spiteful in the moment, he couldn’t resist. God, get yourself together and think for a second.
Step two of Touya’s ultimate survival plan: refrain from revealing your real identity if possible.
Spreading rumors of Endeavor’s dead son walking around would only bring him more complications he didn’t need.
He took a lot of corners while walking away in case the man was following him. That was the third time running away in four days with serious and painful wounds all over his body and he wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. The pain was agonizing, especially because the burns slowly started to get dirty and if he didn’t want them infected he should find a way to clean them soon. At least he knew how to take care of burns, thanks to his very useful father. He tried to concentrate on the pain in his face to ignore how hard running actually was.
In that moment he realized that he didn’t even know where he wanted to go. All he’d done until now was getting away, but where was he going to go? Back home was out of question, any kind of charity safe place too, since he was legally dead and easy recognizable and he sure as hell won’t rely on sketchy alleys.
The luck was more or less on his side, because half an hour later, he stood in front of the perfect opportunity. A plot of land in the middle of a wealthy district, completely and utterly destroyed. He remembered all the stories and conspiracy theories, how much people talked about it back then. Like seven years ago, out of nowhere, some kind of force destroyed a house in the middle of town and the family living in it was killed. No signs of a villain, no scientific explanation, no reason at all. Just destruction.
He knew that he and Fuyumi were scared back then, fearing that their house would get destroyed too. They used to sit under a blanket at night, trying to comfort each other and- STOP.
Step three on Touya’s ultimate survival plan: No missing siblings and home until all steps are completed.
That’s a good plan. He can deal with the trauma of almost dying and leaving everyone he loved behind later.
The destruction in front of him looked like he could actually stay there for at least a night. He carefully tries to step a foot on the rubble and works himself through it after realizing it was stable enough. The stuff was strangely arranged, as if someone already ‘cleaned up’ a bit. That theory only proved itself after he found a little…cave-thingy with a self-made bed and personal stuff lying around. So someone already lived here, of course Touya’s luck wasn’t that good. But either way, he was tired and everything hurt, so he was not making his way out of the rubble again.
Sitting down outside of the cave, not inside on the bed, he had some respect left, he relaxed a bit. If his life was going to be like that for the rest of it, he was starting to doubt it’s worth it. No way was he going to almost die every single day just so it can hurt even more when he wakes up the next morning. But at the moment, he didn’t really have a choice, so he just sat there and waited.
He let his thoughts wander back to the man at the convenience store. What he did there was very stupid and he knew it, so he just had to hope the man thought it was a hallucination or something. Touya really had to be more careful. He looked at the cave again. Some clothes were lying around there, as well as a first-aid kit. Maybe whoever lived there was kind enough to let him disinfect his wounds. Though he still had to be careful, he didn’t want the old lady all over again. Because of that, he did his best to stay awake. Just falling asleep here would be a fatal mistake and extremely unsafe. He knew at least that much.
He’d fallen asleep there, great.
Some kind of noise was waking him up and he opened his eyes to realize that noise was someone walking through the rubble. They were coming closer and closer and Touya tried to shake himself awake. He had to flee. Quickly. The pain that shot through his body when he tried to stand up didn’t make that easy though. God, why was he stupid enough to literally burn himself. The person would be close enough to see him any second and then all his chances of surviving were gone. Fuck.
Careful, he tried standing up again, this time slower and more considering of his wounds. It still hurt like a bitch, but it was bearable. Fleeing still wasn’t an option though, because the lack of water and nutrition made him sway with every movement.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Shit. Touya was dead. He was going to get killed. That was it.
“I asked you a question, dipshit.”
Just then Touya noticed that it wasn’t a grown man or an old woman speaking to him. It was a child.
He carefully turned around to see a small boy standing there, maybe a few years younger than himself. He was frail and clearly not healthy, his long silver hair was dirty and frizzy and his face looked like he was haunted by something.
“You’re a child,” Touya said surprised. The boy just tilted his head. “Yeah, what about it, you don’t look that old either. You’re a little burnt, by the way.”
Touya scoffed. “I’m older than I look.”
The boy raised an eyebrow and walked into his cave, where he took a bottle from under the bed and drank. Touya used that moment to analyze him a bit. He was obviously malnourished, which probably came from living in a cave of dust and rubble. There was no visible quirk, but from the way he raised his pinkie while drinking, Touya could guess it was a 5-finger-quirk. There were bandages around his neck and arms and scars under his eyes. Touya had absolutely no idea what to make of him, though.
“Care to explain what you’re doing at my house?” The boy asked, looking at Touya suspiciously.
“I don’t think you can call this a house.”
“Well it was my house, like seven years ago.” So he was part of the family that lived here before that strange incident. They weren’t all dead after all. “So you survived whatever happened here.”
“Yeah. Now tell me what you’re doing here.”
Touya considered his options. Should he trust this guy? Not that he seemed like much of a threat, but he still had to be careful. On the other hand, this seemed like a chance of survival and testing his luck to find another one didn’t seem very smart.
Step four on Touya’s ultimate survival plan: surviving ALWAYS comes first.
“I’m trying to stay alive,” he answered eventually. It was the truth, without giving away too much.
“Obviously, but that still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
“Ugh, I searched a place that was kind of safe. I already almost got raped once and I don’t want that to happen again.” The boy looked at him strange. Before coming closer and examining him and stepping back again. What the fuck was going on with this guy.
“As long as you’re not planning on killing me, you can stay for a while. I hated being alone anyway.” With that, he went back into the cave, pulled out a book and began reading, without minding Touya at all.
Touya had met many strange people in his live, but this guy really took the cake. He just hoped he hadn’t made a fatal mistake with coming here. “Aren’t you gonna ask more questions or something? Or are you just letting a random stranger stay in your home?”
The boy shrugged and continued reading his book.
“Do you at least have a name?”
“Shimura Tenko.” Now he looked at Touya, expectantly, probably waiting for him to say his own name. He already made the mistake of revealing his identity once, which was stupid, so should he really do that a second time? But Shimura didn’t seem that untrustworthy and he was just a child, so maybe it was worth it. He needed him to survive, after all.
“Todoroki Touya.”
That definitely wasn’t what Shimura had expected. He looked at Touya surprised and a little confused. “Aren’t you…you know…dead?”
Touya snorted. “On the paper, yes. No one, except you, knows I’m alive so please keep it to yourself.” Shimura nodded, not seeming to know what to say next, but eventually turned back to his book. Touya sat back down again and watched him a little more. The book he was reading was some YA novel, he remembered Fuyumi reading it once. Not that he was ever interested in reading, drawing and dancing were more his thing.
He didn’t really know why he chose those two specific things to be his hobbies, it just kind of happened. Both were a way to forget for a bit and get lost in his own world and he’d mastered the art of escapism almost perfectly. It were also the only ways to express his emotions he knew, aside from ranting to Natsuo or setting something on fire, which was better than nothing.
Setting things on fire was inherently bad and he always kind of felt sorry for Natsuo, who had to hear all that at just eight. Touya really was a bad brother.
“You know,” Shimura suddenly started to speak again, breaking Touya out of his thoughts. “Whenever I read brutal scenes in books like this, when they get hurt really badly, I think about how most kids reading the book, as well as the author, have probably no idea how those things actually feel like. And I don’t mean this in a way of judging them, I just think most people would think it’s pretty fucked up that an eleven-year-old boy knows what a stab wound in the right thigh feels like.”
And- Touya never thought about it that way, but it was true. Whenever he saw a movie and someone got burnt, he winced in sympathy, which definitely wasn’t considered normal. Or the one time in physics class when they were talking about fire and how having a burn was talked about like some fantasy scenario that’d never happen to one of them, while Touya sat there with way too much bandages under his school uniform.
His life wasn’t normal and he knew that, but someone saying it out loud made that a bit more real. What his siblings and he went through was completely fucked up and it was in that moment that he threw away any need for Endeavor’s approval and plans of becoming a hero. He smirked to himself and made a decision.
Step five on Touya Todoroki’s ultimate survival plan: Stop caring and start getting revenge.