Finding Me (Todoroki x Reader)

Chapter 73

The recently built, high-classed-looking dormitory: Heights Alliance.

"So, we all got the go ahead to move on campus," Sero said, turning to address everyone.

Toru heaved a loud sigh, her uniform slumping over with clear exhaustion. "It took a lot of convincing for my parents."

"I was pretty concerned about mine," Jiro chimed in.

 Ojiro nodded, saying, "Makes sense. You got most of the gas attack."

As my friends all chatted amongst themselves, I couldn't help but become a little uncomfortable. All the talks about parents and convincing to let us move on campus just brought back the memory of how the chat with my parents went down....

{Two Days Ago}

"No. Absolutely not."

I flinched at Dad's hard tone, shrinking into our lounge room couch as much as possible as I watched for Mr. Aizawa's and All Might's reactions. Not only ten minutes ago had my two teachers rocked up out of the blue - the day after I was released from hospital - before they were talking about moving all UA High School students into a dormitory system they had suddenly put in place.

We would be five minutes from school - a gift from high above for my lazy ass - and would have twenty-four-seven security coverage. After everything that had happened regarding Bakugou and I, this seemed to be the best the school could come up in regards to ensuring our class' safety, and the safety of the other hero classes and courses, too. I could only imagine how the other courses were feeling after all the trouble we'd put them through so far this year.

Overall, I thought it was good idea. My father on the other hand... not so much.

"Mr. L/N," Mr. Aizawa said, "Please here us out-"

"No," Dad retorted, his face stone cold. "I refuse to allow my daughter out of my sight again after what she's gone through. How do you expect us to just let her out of our care, when your school is clearly unsafe right now? I don't think so."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Aizawa," Mum said from my other side, "but we just got her back. Please don't ask us to let her go."

"Honey, we didn't have a choice..."

I curled in on myself, wanting to escape the slowly shrinking room I found myself in. Sandwhiched between my parents, I felt trapped, caged in a place I used to feel safe in. Now... now I was unsure, uncertain. And I hated it.

Sparing a glance up, I found my eyes locking with tiny, blue ones, All Might's eyes. He was looking directly at me, but it wasn't intimidating or dazzling; instead, it was... soft, unbudging, and seemed to boar right into my soul. He seemed to be asking me: 'What do you want? What is your choice? '

My voice refused to work, not as I scanned over the former Number One Hero's skeletal form. Arm in a sling and clothes saggy on his thin limbs, he was but a mere shell of what power he once possessed, and the hero he once was. Just a simple ghost of the greatest hero of all time. A deep, cutting pain pierced my heart, spearing deeper the longer I looked. 'He's like this because of me,' I thought. 'Because I'm a fake, a fraud...'

"Your parents may have lost sight of who they are because of that man. Don't let him do the same to you."

Shoto's words echoed through my head, bouncing around my brain in a jumbled mess until they came spilling out my ears, nose, and mouth; and landed right in front of me. He was right: I couldn't let this one dark mark on my life stop me. Just because I had a misleading beginning, didn't mean I couldn't make things right, and still forge a path for myself. Right?