"Awaken."
A voice echoed through the endless void of flame, soft and distant—almost reverent.
"Awaken."A lone figure stepped forward, blurred in the haze, approaching the boy who lay suspended in nothingness.
"Awaken... my brother!"With a sudden flare of light, the vision cracked—and the burning void gave way to the rotting stench of a decayed forest. Shinra jolted upright.
Circling him like the little gremlin he was—his idiot younger brother.
"Can you shut up? I'm trying to focus," Shinra muttered, rubbing his temple.
"I am helping," Shoto replied, hands behind his back. "You can't focus if you're dead." He casually pointed toward Toya, who was struggling with yet another villain.
"Then help him. Wait—" Shinra's grin widened. "Don't tell me you're scared."
Shoto gave a small smile—one too cute, one he'd definitely picked up from hanging around Shinra. It said everything.
He was absolutely scared.
Not that it was unreasonable. Ever since they'd arrived up in this forest of death, villains had been crawling out of the woodwork like roaches.
As for why Shoto was here at all? Simple.
Monkey see, monkey do.
"I'm not scared," Shoto said, folding his arms. "It's just common knowledge—three combatants are better than two. Also… Toya's weird."
"Fair." That was a long-agreed-upon truth between them.
Shinra rose to his feet with a grunt, brushing the dirt from his pants. His body felt close to what it had been in his old world—resilient, flame-resistant, strong. But the fire itself... that still hadn't returned. He wasn't sure if quirks could be forced to awaken, but if there was ever a time to try, it was now.
"Tactic 5, Variation 3—simplified. Think you're up for it?"
"Don't doubt me," Shoto said. "My quirk awakened first for a reason."
Shinra smirked. "We'll see."
His pulse quickened. Years of hero drills—finally about to pay off. Sure, their bodies were smaller and scuffed, but it didn't matter. Each tactic and their variations were ingrained in their head, even the ones where they were tired.
"Step one."Distraction.
Normally this would involve overwhelming flames. But since the villain was already half-focused on Toya, a handful of fireballs would do.
"Hey, villain! Over here!" Shoto shouted. "Take my fireballs of doom!"
Five small, glowing orbs zipped toward the enemy—each no bigger than a baseball.
The villain snorted. "Another brat? Another bag of cash." He puffed out his chest, sneering as he batted one fireball aside.
He had no idea what was coming.
"Step two."From his perch in a half-dead tree, Shinra watched as Shoto extended a sleek trail of ice from the trunk, curving behind the villain's flank.
Shinra leapt.
Momentum carried him onto the ice. He dropped to a crouch, skidding along the frozen path at speed—what they called the Demon's Path.
"Step three."He shifted his knees, steering into position. Shoto couldn't adapt the ice path in real-time—not yet—so this had to be precise. A ramp-shaped rock jutted out at the path's end. If the timing was right...
'Sho, come on. Just keep him distracted a second longer.'
"Still having trouble with those fireballs, huh?" Shoto teased. "Well then—have some more!"
This time, the four-year-old flung a barrage of even smaller fireballs. The villain dodged right—right into the Demon's Path.
Perfect.
The villain turned to Toya again, who looked distracted—his gaze fixed on something deep in the trees.
"It was fun while it lasted," the villain said with a sneer. "But it seems your friend ran out of time. Now I'll stop holding—Agh!"
SNAP.
Shinra's knees landed square in the villain's spine. A sickening crack echoed through the woods.
"Sorry," Shinra said as he stood up, brushing himself off. "Seems I broke your back. Damn—I was kinda hoping to see your full power."
"Hey Shin maybe we should make safer hero mo..."
A low, cold voice cut through the clearing.
"A bit cruel for a hero, no?"
Shinra froze. The villain groaned beneath him, unconscious.
"Not even a flinch at the sound of someone's spine breaking… And that smile—"The voice almost sounded curious."Even the younger one looks a bit uncomfortable, but you look more like a demon than any kind of hero."
From the brush ahead, something stirred—slow, deliberate.
A boy emerged.
White-haired, dirt-streaked, and twitching. Scratches ringed his bloodshot eyes, and his clothes hung off him in tattered strips. He looked about Toya's age, maybe younger, but had the posture of someone more experienced… someone used to pain.
Shinra blinked.'Is this entire generation just... cooked?'
Everyone he'd met around Toya's age, which to be fair wasn't a lot, seemed fundamentally broken—emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And this kid? Seemed a bit worse than normal.
"Are you sure he's gonna be a hero Toya? "The white-haired boy chucked, voice dry. "He unnecessarily breaks the guy's back, and smiles like a child playing a game. Doesn't that make him... the villain?"
Both Shinra and Shoto tilted their head. What?
'Did he miss the part where a grown adult was trying to murder us?'Forget quirks—was common sense not part of the package in this world?
Seriously. First Toya, who looked at him like some sort of creature to be studied and now this kid who had brain damage.
Toya stepped in, arms crossed, his stare asking, seriously? "Don't worry. Shinra's fine. He and Shoto are just excited. Shoto's quirk awakened this morning."
That seemed to settle things.
Still, something about the boy's tone made Shinra's skin crawl.
"How do you know this kid, Toya?" Shinra asked, flames flickering faintly at his fingertips.
Toya scratched the back of his head. "It's kind of a long story. I met him while training. We've been sneaking out at night to fight villains. This trip? It was his idea. He wanted to watch All Might fight up close. That purple portal—that's his quirk."
Shinra blinked.'That's... an interesting coincidence.
BOOM.
The ground shook. Wind howled through the trees as a deafening shockwave split the air. Leaves and debris blasted past the kids.
A tower of fire spiraled into the sky in the far distance—violent, glorious.
The fight was finally getting started, Endeavor had arrived.
"Looks like we're missing the action, standing around talking," the white-haired boy said, eyes flicking toward the rising firestorm in the distance. "We should hurry. If you want to see a real hero battle… now's your chance."
Then, like it was the most natural thing in the world, he extended a pale, trembling hand.
"By the way, I'm Tenko."
Shinra hesitated.
The boy's pale hand hovered in the space between them—still, deliberate, but twitching. A strange mix of confidence and something barely contained. His fingers were red and raw. Fingernails cracked. There were little trails of dried blood beneath the skin, a testament of the many scratches on his face.
He held a smile that refused to reach his eyes.
Slowly, Shinra reached out.
Their hands met.
Cold. Too cold. He didn't know if his fire-resistance just refused to acknowledge this little warmth but, it felt like shaking hands with a corpse.
Tenko's grip was gentle like a girls. But behind it—pressure. Not physical. Something... Grotesque
Shinra stared at him, eyes narrowing. "You already know my name."
Tenko blinked. Then his smile twitched—just a fraction. Like something deeper was pressing up beneath the surface. Shinra could feel distinctly each one of his five fingers digging into his hand.
"I do.. .I do " he said chuckling softly. "You're very interesting Shinra ."
Shinra's eyes caught something in his tone. Not anger or fear.
Before he could pull away, Toya stepped between them, voice tense.
"Alright, enough meet-and-greets. We have to move. Now."
He broke the contact for them.
Tenko's hand dropped limply to his side. His expression didn't change. But his eyes stayed on Shinra . He mouthed a few words " I'll write your name in ash"
Shinra had know idea why he had such a problem with him, but he wasn't one to ignore a challenge, for now he would wait as he hadn't really explored the world fully, but if the boy in his persistent arrgression decided to be a villain in the future he wouldn't mind figuring out who would be turned to ash.
" Hey I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Shoto Todoroki, the soon to be greatest hero in the world."
" As Toya said we have to get going" Another gust of wind howled through the trees, tearing leaves from branches like paper. The sky over the forest bled orange from the distant firestorm." We're about to miss a once in a lifetime opportunity." Tenko spoke again, turning towards the forest.
Shinra stared at Tenko's retreating form for a second longer than necessary.
"Hey!" Shoto piped up, trotting ahead. "Rude! Your ignoring the future number 1 hero."
"We all heard you the first time," Shinra muttered, still watching Tenko from the corner of his eye.
Tenko didn't look back.
"Let's go," Toya said flatly.
And they did—moving together, deeper into the rotting woods, toward the heart of a battle that would burn itself into history.