Age: 4
The Todoroki household had changed.
Shoto's quirk emerged first, the room was half burnt and half frozen. The quirk was just as Enji Todoroki imagined it. A perfect fusion of fire and ice. On one side of his body, powerful flames licked the air with nearly the same intensity as his own. On the other hand, frost bloomed with his mother's quirk. The ice regulated his body so it would never heat up or freeze. It was exactly what he had bred him for, and he couldn't have been more excited.
'Finally,' he thought with an obsessive and maniacal grin. He would beat All Might.
Training began almost immediately. Rigorous, relentless, private. Shoto was increasingly separated from the others each day, spending long hours in isolated lessons under their father's critical eye.
The result? Shoto was physically close, yet unreachable. He was barely able to spend any time with the others.
Enji didn't even try to hide his favoritism. Natsu and Gray weren't given a second glance.
Then, a few months later, Natsu awakened the second part of his quirk.
It was accidental, undramatic even. He'd been sitting cross-legged at the table, stuffing his face with food, when a burp slipped out, and a puff of flame sparked into the air. Small, harmless, barely enough to light a candle.
Endeavor barely looked up from the folder he was reading.
"A fire quirk," he muttered, tone flat. "Expected, but unimpressive."
"Wow, Yakuto! You can breathe fire. Fuyumi exclaimed.
"Congrats," Shoto said.
Toya just barely looked at him before retreating into his food.
"Awesome, you awakened your quirk." Natsuo beamed.
"What!!, How did you awaken it before me? Damn it!!! I am older." Gray stared wide-eyed.
"Eat it, ice queen." Natsu proudly stood on the chair. Finally, he awakened his quirk. He could breathe fire, the same as before. It was perfect.
Gray just scoffed and pretended not to hear anything.
Endeavor just ignored the ruckus. If it were before, he would've considered training Natsu. He had the perfect body to use fire since he was completely immune. But based on what he saw his output wasn't nearly as impressive compared to Shoto's. However, that was okay; he would just live normally with the others.
He made no move to test it further. No mention of training. As far as Endeavor was concerned, Natsu's quirk wasn't even worth acknowledging, especially not when the boy's metabolism demanded he constantly eat flames just to stay upright.
But Natsu didn't care. He was excited.
"YES! FIRE! Suck it, Ice Boy," he continued, grinning at Gray and blowing a tiny ember from his mouth like it was a victory trumpet.
Gray, who had yet to awaken his own quirk, only gave a tight-lipped shrug. "Yeah. Great."
In truth, he didn't care about the teasing; it was like that between him and Natsu since they were kids… are kids now? The reincarnation was still strange. What worried him more was everything else: the strange new distance between them and Shoto, the way Toya was growing more irritable, snapping more easily. He caught the kid staring out the window, lost in his own head. Muttering sometimes. Distracted. Tense. He would also leave randomly into the woods. Sometimes he would come back with some minor burn wounds.
And Rei, Rei was changing too.
She was still kind. Still soft-spoken. Still did her best to care for them all evenly. But there was something brittle in her now. Her smiles were thinner, her presence fading from rooms even when she was standing in them. She was jumpy. Quiet. The tension in her shoulders never left.
Even Natsu was beginning to notice.
"Why's Mom always so weird now?" he asked one night, flopping down beside Gray on the floor with a puff of smoke curling from his nose.
Gray didn't have an answer. He just watched the hallway, where distant echoes of training rang from behind closed doors, and felt the knot in his chest twist a little tighter.
The house was big. But somehow, it was starting to feel smaller. Cramped. Like it was closing in.
And none of them, not even Natsu, could pretend they didn't feel it anymore.
—
The entire Todoroki family sat at the table for dinner except for Shoto and their father. Gray reached for his cup of water but paused as his fingertips felt cold. 'Hmm.. whats this?'
"Something wrong, Gray?" Fuyumi asked.
"My fingertips…" Gray reached for his cup, and the water inside immediately froze.
"Whoa…you got your quirk!" Natsuo exclaimed."It's an ice quirk like ours!"
"As expected. An Ice quirk like mom's." Toya muttered.
Rei got up from her side of the table and went to Gray's side.
"How are you feeling?"
"I feel alright. I felt really cold at first, but now I don't feel cold at all." Gray put his frozen cup down and looked at his fingertips. He could feel the ice forming at the tips, but he didn't feel bothered by the cold sensation at all. He looked up at Natsu, who was gulping down a cup of chocolate milk. "It's a lot cooler than coughing fire!"
Natsu choked on his drink, and he slammed the half-full cup down, with the milk inside starting to steam.
"Breathing! Breathing fire, ice cube boy!" Natsu exclaimed.
"No yelling at the table!" Rei looked at Natsu and Gray, and the two of them flinched as they looked back at their mother. She gave the frozen cup to Natsu, and Natsu immediately thawed it in his hands before giving it back to Gray.
The family continued to eat their dinner, talking about Gray's quirk awakening. Gray asked a few questions about how it worked, to which Rei was able to answer most of them.
"Now that our food is finished…" Natsu started.
"And my quirk finally awakened…" Gray continued.
"It's time we settle which one of us is the strongest!" Natsu and Gray both pointed at each other.
"Oh, they're really gonna fight?" Toya's eyes lit up, having been bored by the ice quirk conversation during dinner.
"Please not at the dinner table, boys…take it outside. Just don't go overboard." Rei said. Fuyumi tugged at her mom's sweater with a worried look on her face.
"Is it really okay for them to do that?"
"I need them to burn some energy, and I'd rather they burn and freeze the weeds in the garden rather than the walls and floors. Besides…they just awakened their quirks. They won't be that powerful yet."
Toya, Natsuo, and Fuyumi moved outside to the yard as Natsu and Gray stood across from each other. There was tension in the air as the two of them stared each other down.
"Why is this so tense? Why do they have to fight?!" Fuyumi exclaimed.
"You wouldn't understand, sis." Toya scoffed. "Hey, Natsuo, who do you think is gonna win?"
"Hmm…Yakuto, maybe?" Natsuo answered.
"Maybe in terms of element…But I think Haise is a bit smarter." Toya said.
"I'm all fired up!" Natsu clashed his knuckles together and set his fists ablaze. Gray proceeded to take his shirt off and got into his signature Ice make stance, with ice forming in his palms.
"Why does he keep taking off his shirt?" Fuyumi questioned.
"Are you kidding? He was running naked around the house yesterday. This is tame." Toya said.
Natsu took a deep breath in, heat building up in his mouth and lungs while frost began to build up around Gray's hands.
"Fire Dragon Roar!
Ice Make: Lancer!"
"They already have names for their attacks?!" Natsuo exclaimed. Toya and Fuyumi were visibly surprised until the attacks actually occurred.
The smallest of flames came out of Natsu's mouth, only traveling about a meter before dispersing. Small cubes of ice appeared in front of Gray and landed on the floor.
"Now that I think about it…I don't know what I expected from four-year-olds who just got their quirks…" Toya sighed. However, he was slightly envious of Natsu. He had the perfect body for a fire quirk. He was completely immune. 'If only I had the same body.' He clenched his fist.
The disappointment on the siblings' faces immediately vanished as Natsu and Gray started yelling and ran towards each other.
Natsu and Gray collided into each other, landing a punch squarely on each other's faces. The two of them rebounded from the punches and staggered back. They waddled back up.
"That was a crazy punch!" Natsuo shouted.
"Huh…not bad…" Toya commented.
Natsu charged again at Gray, only to suddenly trip on his own feet as Gray tripped and fell on top of Natsu. The two of them remained on the ground pummelling each other with punches.
Toya couldn't help but laugh.
"I guess this is a bit entertaining!"
"G-guys, I think you should stop fighting!" Fuyumi interjected.
Toya shook his head.
"Typical Woman."
Natsu and Gray continued to fight each other for another few minutes without their quirks, just fists. Toya grew disinterested and left, leaving only Natsuo and Fuyumi until Fuyumi eventually ran between the two.
"That's enough! Stop it!" Fuyumi cried out. She rushed out towards them.
"Huh?" Natsu and Gray snapped out of their trance as they turned to look at Fuyumi with slightly swollen and bruised faces.
Rei walked out to the yard and ran to them.
"And here I thought I could leave you kids alone for a few minutes. Fuyumi, can you go get the first aid kit for me?"
"Of course!" Fuyumi ran back into the house.
"You know…I said to practice your quirks… not punch each other… " Rei patted her two boys on the head. Fuyumi returned with the first aid kit, and Rei began treating them. Natsu just remained stoic as some rubbing alcohol touched one of his cuts.
"That's enough now." Natsu squirmed.
"Stay still. I'm almost done." Rei said. "Haise, keep icing your face with your quirk until I finish with Natsu."
Gray nodded.
—
Natsu and Gray were left in their room by Rei after being treated. The two of them sat together, having gotten their excess energy out and stared at the T.V. screen. On screen were some debuting American Heroes.
"So I definitely won that one, right?" Natsu said.
"Dude, shut up, Captain Celebrity is on," Gray replied.
"Hah! So I did win!" Natsu continued.
"No, you didn't."
Both Gray and Natsu stood up and glared at each other, but Gray soon dropped the glare and went back to the television.
"Dammit, let's just behave for now. Mom already has enough on her plate."
"But I'm so bored!" Natsu complained.
"She only grounded us for the night. Just get it over with, and we can have fun tomorrow. It's better than what our father has been doing with Shoto. It's like he's keeping him locked up."
"Hmm…why does he do that?" Natsu asked. "I've barely seen Shoto since he awakened his quirk."
"I overheard Toya talking about it. Said Dad has an obsession with surpassing All Might and thinks Shoto will be his way to do it. That man has a few screws loose."
"This All Might sounds strong, I wanna fight him right now!" Natsu said as his eyes lit up.
Gray smirked, "Look at yourself, you're only slightly taller than happy, how are you going to beat All Might? There was a hero ranking chart earlier. He's the number one hero."
"Just wait until I grow back up! But for now, let's ask if we can play with Shoto tomorrow." Natsu suggested.
"Worth a shot." Gray shrugged. He felt a little bad for their triplet. Ever since he awakened his quirk, he was constantly being trained by their father. He wasn't even able to come to the park anymore with him and Natsu. Even their mother started to get more and more nervous.
"Now give me the remote. I wanna watch that show with the pirates!" Natsu shouted.
"Dude, it's my turn. We're gonna watch-"
A loud thud from somewhere in the house broke apart their bickering and they stared silently at the door. From behind it, they could make out muffled yelling and crying, followed by even louder yelling by their father.
Natsu and Gray stared at each other briefly and nodded at each other, knowing exactly what to do without saying a word to each other. Gray opened the door as silently as possible, and the yelling became louder and more apparent.
"How could you let Toya run away!" Enji's voice echoed through the halls.
"He what?" Gray was stunned. He looked at Natsu.
Gray and Natsu began walking faster towards the living room, trying to remain silent as they heard more yelling and crying. They peeked around the corner to see Fuyumi and Natsuo cowering at the other side of the living room as Shoto stood in front of Rei.
"Stop hitting mom!" Shoto flailed his arms out in front of him in an attempt to keep Enji back.
Natsu clenched his fists hard as veins started to form just above his eyebrows. His body began to heat up. Flames of rage started to form around his hands as he took a step forward. At this point, he wanted nothing more than to beat Enji up into a bloody pulp.
Two cold arms grab his torso tightly from behind, holding him back just as he stepped forward. Natsu froze, fists clenched and eyes still locked on Enji, the two of them thankfully still unnoticed."
"Don't stop me!" Natsu raged
Natsu looked back at Gray and saw the same wrathful expression on his face as he had.
"Trust me, I want to beat him up as much as you do. But we can't fight him…not yet…" Gray said. But it was obvious he was trying to hold back his own rage. He knew the rules. Their father would easily defeat them; worst case, he might even send them away to live with relatives so they don't "interfere." Then it would be even worse.
A door slamming averted Natsu's gaze back to the living room.
"Please… just hold back for now," Gray said, almost begging. "We are too weak."
Natsu clenched his fist and looked down at his small, childlike hand. "Not yet huh…not in this body…"
"We're gonna have to get a lot stronger first. But on the day we do get him back, I'm with you. We'll take him down." Gray said solemnly. "For now, let's just sit still."