Hybrid Heroes - Shōto Todoroki

Chapter 19: Scars Made of Flames

"True," Scarlett's voice was quiet. Then she looked up at me, and that look in her neon green dragon eyes told me to be scared. "But not just anyone can make the flames blue."

The inhuman noise I made afterwards gained a lot of attention in our direction.

"Blue flames burn the hottest," Todoroki said quietly. "So someone was actually trying to kill your family."

"Whoever it was had to have known that Bree couldn't survive the fire," Scarlett said, walking away from the shrine. "Her and my father are the only ones in our immediate family that don't have fire-resistant skins. But my father was out of the country in London that night."

"Th-th-there has to be someone else...other than Lea..." I stuttered. No matter how I wanted to stop them, intrusive thoughts of younger days at the Akuma Estate came rushing back to me. I thought I was over this. I thought I was over having panic attacks.

"It wasn't my brother," Scarlett said with a harsh certainty in her voice. "My sister's quirk proved that. If it were Lea's flames, the temperature she saw would have been the same as normal orange flames. But these blue flames were hot. That's the last thing she ever said to me before we got separated. I intend to find her killer," her eyes glanced over both mine and Todoroki's shoulders to glare at Endeavor in the background, not paying attention to any one of us. "One way or another."

The next few hours Todoroki and I were broken up to separate quirk-training areas. Remember those wires and harnesses from earlier? Turns out that I had to be hooked up to that to help train me to maneuver better in a 3D plane versus the 2D plane that everyone else lives on. 

I was grateful to finally stretch out my wings for a few hours as it allowed me to test the main function of my technologically advanced corset with a built in design that realigned my spine every time my wings were out to make sure I wasn't forcing my weight too much to one side of my body.  The outfit was designed with my own weaknesses in mind and how to counteract them.

"Shit- shiiit!" I screeched at one point,  dropping nearly fifteen feet from a high beam to be dangling upside-down in the harness, swinging back and forth. "Meeeh...move..." I whined, trying to flip my body back right side up. 

"Having trouble up there?" Todoroki eventually stopped by after practicing in the fire zone with Scarlett in her dragon form.

"Ha..." I nervously laughed. "It could be better. You're lucky you never have to do this."

"Actually, Pyra recommended I still try." Todoroki rubbed the back of his neck. "She also said something about it might boost your confidence if I train with you."

My face turned a light pink as I twisted myself around to find my cousin and glare at her. All she did was make kissing noises off to the side. "I hate you..." I grumbled, flapping my wings to turn me back upright and hang in the air while Scarlett's boyfriend Dustin hooked Todoroki up to his own harness. "There's no rules when using these except don't sue us if you injure yourself." Dustin joked. "So use your quirk freely as you wish to better maneuver."

"Got it."

"Hey, Wolfie!" I laugh, jumping off my beam and letting my wings take flight to go straight for him.  With a smirk,  Dustin steps back, and instead of grabbing onto him and pulling him back up to the beam with me as a prank, I slam into Todoroki instead. 

Scarlett, being the little prankster she is, yanks on my wire and forces it to recoil while I'm still clinging to Todoroki for whatever reason. The two of us go up, but I'm screaming the entire time with my eyes shut closed. I don't stop screaming until Todoroki clamps a hand over my mouth. "We stopped moving." He tells me.