Molten Rose

Eddie the Head

King of Thrash
Level 2
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A black canvas, filled with the hollow chill that was this empty void. Todoroki found himself falling endlessly, his hair wavering in the intense wind. His expression didn’t waver as he ignited his flame for light. He was but a single matchstick in the endless expanse of darkness. He was nothing but a single twinkling star in an empty sky. Nothing had been illuminated. The answers, like him, still remained in the dark.

How had he gotten there? Where was... Here?

The youth formed a rocket of ice over his skin, only to have it break around him. Useless, he hung there, suspended in unending motion. An ever-falling fishing rod. The level-headed student attempted again to use his flame as a boost this time and he formed his ice into a clunky parachute. He grit his teeth as the pull of pressure crunched into his shoulders.

Still, it broke apart and his fire consistently was sequestered by air. A shard of icy fear pricked his accelerating heart. Was he forever trapped in a neverending abyss? Had he died and this was purgatory? Memories ambushed him. Water over his eye. His mother laughed. His father, angry. Always so angry.

No. Don’t fall into that trap. You’re better than that. Shoto corrected himself, Stay focused.

Just where am I?


The weaver of time tilted his head from his canvas of shadow. A crunchy whisper flowed into the youth’s ears. “I like this one. He’s so juicy with pain.”

Concentrate. The youth reminded himself with a grimace. He went as far as to close his eyes. Adding a new layer to the darkness.

Come on, Shoto. You’re utterly helpless. Trapped in a most unexpected predicament. What do you do? What does your gut tell you when there are no clues?

It wasn’t the best plan, but he opted to somehow use an enhanced super heat. He attempted to blast both of his powers with all his might. Fire blazed from his back as ice shot from his feet. With a violent growl he launched his force downwards, propelling his already gravity propelled momentum with exaggerated speed. Frost accumulated and dissolved upon impact leaving a trail of speckled dew behind him. A comet's tail of dissipating flecks of spark and fragments of ice.

The hero grit his teeth, weighing his body’s balance and adding ice armor to add density to his fall.

I will get out of this. Whatever screwed up reality or simulation this is.

He felt the flame start to char his skin and resisted the pain. Keep going… Until you can’t anymore. There is no other option.

His free fall was broken. His power diminished and now his body hung frozen in the air. At this moment, Todoroki had been plucked from the in-between and submerged in purple slime that immediately fatigued all his muscles, it smothered his flame, and silenced his mind.
 

Eddie the Head

King of Thrash
Level 2
Joined
Aug 22, 2020
Messages
27
Essence
€4,710
Coin
₡8,000
Tokens
0
World
Erde Nona
Profile
Click Here
The youth was diligent, calculated, and had easily surmised he’d likely have fallen into an endless loop of nothingness before starving or otherwise his life flickering out. Perhaps that’s why he’d fallen so fast into this new world.

When he awoke again, he was in another world. His father’s words oddly echoing in his mind. “He’s got a strong quirk. He will survive in this world.”

Shoto had overcome these plaguing thoughts, fears, and pains. Every consequence of his past with the help of his fellow classmate Midoriya. Shoto had grown strong enough to forgive his father.

He shook away the clash of memory and examined his newfound reality. The young student picked off the greasy substance and swatted it to the ground, while he burnt it from his other side, ash melting off of him. Looking down he confirmed he was in his hero suit. He sighed in relief. His flame hadn’t crisped his immaculate clothes. Still, his eyes traced the surrounding area. Narrowing with a chill of concentration. He recalled the endless darkness. Whatever limbo he had been trapped in, it hadn't been for long.

There was a scorch mark in the small field he’d fallen into. As though he’d been a meteorite and simply fallen out from the sky. It didn't make much sense.

“This doesn’t smell like Earth.” A small creature fluttered his way. It was a bird-organism. When it whistled, it created a sound that seemed telepathic. A songlike whistle and immediately words were transported into the youth’s mind.

“What are you?” Todoroki furrowed his brow. Confused, concerned, and curious.

“What are YOU?!” The blue ball of feathers bantered back.

“Human?” He accidentally responded with a question.

“Why’re you on fire then? Normal humans don't do that.” The bird stated in a matter of fact tone as it hovered close to him in observance.

“Oh uh…” He glanced at his left side, freshly engulfed in flame. It was odd. He hadn’t activated his quirk. He hadn’t even felt it activate. Quickly he diminished his fire and noted to himself the strangeness. He felt a looming danger creeping up his spine as he explained to the creature. “It is something I’m able to do.”

“You smell like you’re sick.” The bird observed without hesitation.

“Sick?” Shoto echoed. Something did feel wrong, it had more to do with his confusion, that he was lost. The bird had even said it didn’t feel like Earth. Plus, a bird had said something.

“Definitely. My nose is never wrong.” The bird confirmed.

“Hm.” Shoto looked to the side for a moment. He noticed ice shards accumulating around his feet. He held his breath and wiggled his cream-colored boot loose. He hadn't activated it that time, either.

“Uh, I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?” The bird asked.

“You’re not a regular bird, are you?” Shoto observed back at the fluttering creature, there was something charming about the creature that brought a fraction of a smile to his face amid the world of uncertainty. “I’m Shoto Todoroki.”

“And you’re not a regular human, are you? Am I right?” The bird chirped. “I’d rest on your shoulder but I’m pretty sure I’d become a frozen chicken nugget on one side, or a cooked barbeque wing on the other.”

The bird whistled with laughter and Todoroki found himself blinking in confusion. "What?"

“No worries,” The bird added. “You can call me Chirp. I just arrived here too. Not really sure what is going on. My magnetic field indicator tells me we’re on a different planet. Or, at least I am.”

“Uh… Oh. Nice to meet you, Chirp.” Todoroki was still boggled. Every time he looked away from his body, fire or ice would start to spawn from a different part of his skin. It was causing the youth to worry and ask why this was happening. Why wasn't he where he was supposed to be?

You’re sick. The bird’s previous words echoed in his ears. Shoto took a gulp. Something really was wrong. So easily summarized in two words that he didn’t quite know the ramifications yet.

“Do you wanna stick together until we get our bearings, Unusual Human?” Chirp asked him.

But the youth’s mind was distant. He thought of the fray of flame from his father and just the power it had if Enji lost it for just a moment. His quirks could be volatile too, if he couldn’t control them. He focused on his breathing. Meditation would solve this. Surely.

“Did you hear me, Shoto?” Chirp repeated.

Todoroki was pulled from his thoughts. “Sure, uh, there’s just something I have to do first. Okay?”

“Alright, I’ll go rest on a branch across the way.” Chirp sailed across the sky in a blink.

The friendly, albeit odd little bird was out of range.

Shoto fell to his knees in seated meditation and closed his eyes.

Ice immediately gripped the lower part of his face like the rigid grasp of a palm. His flames took over, combating the sensation. The inner turmoil he’d conquered so recently, now brawled within him. Ice filled his nose and steam poured out. The youth struggled to breathe and shook the spires of steam from his face with a grimace.

His hands were shackled, one with heat, the other ice. He placed the two palms together and flexed his dual quirks. A small clash of temperature combusted between his hands and blasted them apart. Shoto had never experienced this before. His quirk had never before turned on him.

No. No. No.

The youthful hero imagined Deku’s face on that day, the turning point that had healed him. Shoto attempted to harness that feeling again. Reminding his body he was in control, that each were his power. That neither would overtake him.

His flames scorched above him, as tall as a tree, rippling in his hair. A thick sheet of ice hardened the ground spanning across in a blanket, covering the entire field. He felt each power swelling. He pushed it down and again the energy of each element was unleashed, each time stronger than the last.

A tear fell from his mother’s cheek. His father’s blazing scowl burned into Shoto’s memory. Pain and pain. Each were one in the same.

Todoroki shook it away. His weakness came to the forefront in his mind. However, he did not back away this time. He opted to face it. And reminded himself he’d forgiven his father, his mother, and himself. He imagined his first visit to her at the asylum. He imagined himself going into that blazing room that day his father had inherited the top hero’s crown. The only other person able to stand the heat.

I’m more than my power.

He took a few breaths and felt the edge of the clashing elements quell. He sensed within himself, deeper than he had gone before. Searching for what these feelings wanted to unearth. A sense of newness filled him. A sense of knowing flooded his senses. A sense of peace sat in his mind as he pictured it.

A rose of ice, glistening. Pure and crystalline. Immaculate. It was melting as fire surrounded it. The balance of their harmony was something of beauty. His quirk was more than a reminder but also the very thing that had allowed him to come to Deku’s rescue, to save Iida’s life against the Hero Killer.

It was a glowing beacon of meaning. Of purpose for each and every breath he took.

The rose with petals of ice and the flicker of flames surrounding its core was a constant battle. One he recognized. The ice was melting, yet regrowing. The fire remained dampened by the water yet sharp flickering petals still arose around the budding flower.

Todoroki blinked his eyes open. In his cupped hands was the very image he had seen. An icy rose surrounded by flowering flames.

“I… Know what you’re trying to tell me. And I won’t forget it.” He spoke to himself with genuine acceptance. A promise had been formed.

The rose melted in his hands and the fire extinguished with ease. He had control once again. He considered standing up but he sensed in his gut there was a piece missing. Shoto pressed his eyes closed once again. He waited in the darkness, easing his breath from within.

The framed image of All-Might came to view. As though it were glass, it broke in three. His own reflection was in the middle. Deku’s face on the right broken piece. Bakugo’s on the left.

Todoroki pondered this. Each of them somehow, were a piece of All-Might. However, the three of them combined in unity would be his equivalent perhaps. Shoto delved deeper into this thought. What did it mean? What was he trying to tell himself?

The image of his flaming father appeared from the cloud of his subconscious. Answering him.

You’re the piece of All-Might that equates to his raw power.

Deku’s face came to mind. Deku had All-Might’s spirit but also his tact.

And Bakugo, Todoroki reflected on their previous brawl. Kacchan had the skill.

Todoroki felt that each of them, if they stood together, could be more powerful than All-Might. This was a crazy thought. But now, having realized this, Todoroki felt solace. He knew what he had to improve on. Control.

The young hero stood up and skated over to Chirp. “Alright then, where are we going?”

“I think there’s a town that way. We can gather more information there about where we are and how we arrived.” The little guy fluttered up and down. Chirp was rather cute.

“So I take it you weren’t able to get it under wraps?” Chirp regarded, motioning his small, hummingbird's beak toward Todoroki’s feet.

However, the bird was wrong. Sort of.

Part of his self-promise and conclusion was to practice every waking second. To train with ice and fire constantly smoldering on each side. Use each to its end and it is there beneath the expanse of brazen power, he would discover how to best control it. When the fire went out, he would know the extent of his power and his own control.

His solution was to keep a point of element at all times and to move it around on his body. Pinpricks of power. Consciously controlled. It would teach him the extent of his own dexterity. It would teach him control and even enhance his endurance more than it was before.

It wasn’t super noticeable, however he was leaving an alternating trail of frost and scorch from the toes of his feet upon the ground. He wasn’t sure how to explain this to the bird he had somehow befriended. He merely explained, “This release of my elements is a conscious one, actually.”

“Unusual Human strikes again.” Chirp tweeted telepathically, but he seemed to hum with amusement and excitement. “You’re not really the talkative type, are you?”

Todoroki shugged. Chirp nodded in understanding, “That’s okay, I’ve been told I talk for two, anyway! But I think you’re just less talkative when you first meet people and I’m seldom wrong! Though in this case, it might be because I'm a literal mind-reader!"

Shoto raised his eyebrows at the bird, as though inquiring more. Chirp whistled, “I’m not from where you’re from, we don’t have humans like you, at least not anymore.”

This had an ominous tone, and Todoroki was listening to the bird. “Some things um, happened. Something we call magic died. I was the last token of a time long forgotten. I pretended to whistle instead of speak so as to not get captured and killed. It was not a painful life. But I was surprised to find myself in a new realm. The unexpected happens far more often than the expected. Oh, I’m not sure you realized, and of course I don’t know everything, but I know there is no going home.”

Todoroki stopped in place, his eyebrows scrunched together. “Just what do you mean, we can’t go back?”

“I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But somehow we ended up here and unless the Unusual Human has any ability to teleport through worlds, this is the reality.” Chirp stated frankly.

Todoroki’s eyes widened as he looked at the ground. “But what about… Home?” All-Might. Father, mother, his brothers and sister, Deku, UA? How could he be his best self in this seemingly new world?

“If you didn’t get the chance, as was the case with me, you’ll likely never be able to say goodbye. I’m sorry, the truth, nor the facts never pull punches.” Chirp informed.

“You’ve got to be… This can’t be… What is the reason? The meaning?” Todoroki turned to Chirp.

“I don’t have those answers, I’ve only just arrived like you.” Chirp seemed to shrug with his tone. "Who is to say there is a meaning or reason for this?"

Todoroki frowned and tried to not take out his dismay out on his only acquaintance, Chirp had innate knowledge skills, it seemed. The fellow shouldn't be punished for that. Somehow, what the bird seemed to be saying felt true. But just how could this be? There were… So many things in the universe that couldn’t be described. What was his purpose, if not to have his only goal-no his fate to be a pro hero? Could he bring this fate with him wherever he went? Or would it simply... Follow him?
 
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