Suddenly everyone was talking about him.
Everybody knew about him, some just started talking to him when he was walking and asked him about Idori-kun and how he's doing.
He always explained the same:
His friend left the city spontaneous for multiple weeks, most likely to lay low before he attracted too much attention.
But something else captured his notice even more than the sudden friendliness of all those people: Tenya Iida returned to class two days after the sports festival surrounded by a somber aura.
His brother had been attacked by Surveye and Stain in Hosu if the Media were to be believed. Nothing else was beknown.
"How is your brother, Iida-kun?", he asked finally silently as he stood in front of his class president.
Leave it to him to rub more salt into the wound with false concern and niceties.
"He is well compared to every other victim.
He only received a heavy hit to the hit and the Surveye had been carved into his back.
He will be able to return to heroics when his injuries are healed but nobody knows when he will awake.", explained the boy with the glasses without using a single, small gesture.
"Sit down. Today your lesson is going to be about something different than you're used to.", said Aizawa bored and started to write something onto the blackboard.
Shouto was relieved to see that his teacher had finally been freed from his bandages and that the only mark left was a small scar on his face.
Promptly everyone went to their table and took his seat and watched how he wrote down names and numbers.
"Here you can see how many Agencies inquired you for the internships. Everyone without an inquiry will have to decide for one of the forty agencies that work together with our school.
Read everything carefully and decide before the weekend."
Shouto Todoroki: 5.214
His eyes grew as wide as saucers.
He had 5.214 requests!
Which meant that there had to be countless international addresses. Holy…! That was something…
Ochako Uraraka: 2.854
Tsuyu Asui: 2.636
Fumikage Tokoyami: 2.595
Hitoshi Shinso: 2.192
Those were the four best after him, though it did surprise him that Ochaco was so popular.
But he did not begrudge her for that, she was strong and determined.
And then a smirk crept onto his lips - almost everyone got an inquiry with Aoyama being the loser on the board with just one single request.
But one name was not even listed: Katsuki Bakugo.
It was almost hilarious. But it seemed like the whole hero community decided to side against the brute of class 1A.
Eraserhead distributed the piles of letters together with the papers of the forty main-offers that were free for everyone.
He paged through his pile fast and soon felt his head buzz with all the information.
There were some pretty famous names and it was hard to tell who would be able to teach him the most.
In the managed to reduce the small mountain to an eighth by sorting out every Agency that was further away than two hours of flight and also throwing out everyone that fitted too well to him.
He wanted to learn something and see new ways of approaching problems.
Maybe he should try 'rescuing' and look into how exactly he could help people with his Quirk in case of catastrophes?
His eyes landed on a rather cheap letter.
'Gran Torino,
Speed-hero, retired'
He examined the envelope for a short while before he placed it on the pile for the shortlist.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
"Now that you're not far away from your internship it's time that you think about your hero names.", explained Midnight as their homeroom teacher crawled into his sleeping bag.
"I'm sorry, but why isn't Aizawa-Sensei doing this with us?"
The hero peeked out of his bag to answer: "I'm not good with this stuff. I didn't choose my name by myself as well."
With these words, the thought was let go.
"Thinking about your name to have to keep some things in mind, like:
It should be short and easy to remember. You want to sell yourself and that won't work with an endlessly long name.
Your name has to represent you, remind of you and show a bit of who you are.
And always check that you don't steal someone else's name or that there's a book or movie who has the same name as you, it would be best if you check this with your mobiles.
It is more than okay to choose something that means something to you and always keep in mind that this is going to be what you're called this whole year if not even longer."
After that, the teacher gave them whiteboards to write their names onto.
Almost everyone whipped out their mobile phones to do some research and some other started writing immediately.
He thought for a long time what really was important to him
He would love to show that he was freed from his father and that he left his past behind.
'Deliverance', 'Riddance' and 'Liberation' were words that sounded fitting and if he chooses an English name he still would point towards Endeavor.
Another word was added to the list as he thought about the man who fathered him.
Fray, like 'dispute', 'battle'.
Endeavor, after all, meant 'effort' and Shouto couldn't help his thoughts but jump to fighting at this word.
Maybe he should fuse two words?
Frayation? A mix of 'fighting' and 'freedom'?
"Midnight-Sensei? May I call someone?", he asked quietly when the teacher walked past him.
"You can go onto the hallway, Todoroki-Shounen.", she offered with a smile and he rose with a nod to exit the classroom.
As soon as the door was closed behind him he dialed Surveyes number.
"Hello? Surveye on the blower. What can I do for you?"
He couldn't force his smile away.
"Hey. I'd like some help with my hero name."
"What…? Oh! Hello, Shouto. I don't know if I can help you with that but I'll try. Do you really want me to help you with such an important decision?"
"Who if not you?", countered the hero and the villain on the other end sighted.
"You have a point. So: Got any kinds of ideas or are you completely clueless?"
Shouto pulled out a scrap of paper with his four words, though he had scribbled 'Surveye?' and 'Deku?' onto it as well before he had left the room.
He would love to pay his tribute to the villain and remind of him even if it was just in a subtle way but he had no idea regarding this thought.
"I'd like to take something that reminds of you, besides that, I found the words 'Fray', 'Liberation', 'Riddance' and 'Deliverance'. I thought about 'Frayation', but it sounds a bit strange and I don't think everyone will understand the actual meaning."
He could hear Izukus mumbling, silent and hard to understand, but it was obvious that his friend was trying to find a solution for his problem.
"Maybe if you scratch the 'N' you'll like it more, 'Frayatio' sounds like a whole other thing.
I'm a bit concerned that your style is too close to your fathers and that you chain yourself to him with that although the basic idea is remarkable.
Split-Hero Frayatio... Split-Hero Frayation... part-Herd... nah... half-Hero, halves-Hero...?
Know what?
Let's stick to the first version: Split Hero… and now the name...
Frayation? It certainly doesn't sound bad.
Hmmm... Suuuurrrveeeyee~
I have no idea how they figured out my name back then but it's kinda obvious… I mean… survey, like observing fits me pretty well and my eye is noticeable and it just fits.
And you said that you want a hint at me...
...
…
Know what?! Fuck it! Take it! The idea is great! It is your idea! And it's your name! I won't figure out something better and it's really good!
He had some problems with following the broker's way of thought.
"So… I should take the name?", he asked to make sure.
"Yes!",
Said his friend on the other side of the mobile determined,
"You didn't come up with this name without any thought!
It stands for something that is important for you. The fight for freedom. Split-hero: Frayation.
… I've gotta go prepare some things for tonight."
That made the hero-hopeful perk up.
"Speaking of that. Was that really you with Iidas brother? In Hosu?"
For a long time, the other was silent but then Izuku started to talk again: "Yes. That was me. I had to stop Stain from killing him. The consequences… weren't pretty but I am sure that Tensei doesn't remember seeing me."
"Why were you so nice to him?", he asked, still not understanding.
"Oh… well...",
Izuku seemed to struggle to find the right words,
"... I… I think I owed him that much. He didn't throw me into jail but let me get away… that… that was a favor I had to return."
"I understand."
And he really did. The grenette still owed the older one of the Iida brothers his life so he saved the others live as much as he could in return.
"I really have to go
Stain is still mad because I caught so much attention at the sports festival.
I'm sure we'll meet soon again! See ya!"
And then he could only hear the beeping that showed him that the call was over.
With a thoughtful expression and his eyes still glued to the mobile, he returned to the classroom where some of his classmates looked in his direction when he opened the door.
"Who did you talk to, Todoroki-kun?", asked Ochaco with a friendly smile.
"Zuko. I asked him what he thought about my idea."
Mina jumped into his line of sight and looked up at him with interest.
"Oh! You call each other by first names! How scandalous! So?"
He smiled slightly.
"He wasn't quite sure at the start but in the end after a bit of thinking he liked it."
Katsuki, who had his chair standing on its hind-legs as his feet were crossed on the table, left one arm to swing in the air as the other was placed over his eyes — but not he lifted the arm that blocked his sight and stared at Shouto hostilely from the sidelines.
"Pft! Your Boy-Toy gave you the green light.
Almost looks like he's your mother with how much you're clinging to him."
"Come on, Bakugo! This is really getting…! Just stop attacking everyone and to insult everyone and everything, that's really uncool! And furthermost Todoroki-kun didn't do anything to you!"
"Ha!", the blond lowered his arm completely and took his feet from the table which resulted in the chair crashing down before the delinquent stood up with a threatening body language.
Shouto subtly placed himself a bit more forward until he stood right next to Ochaco, both of them already adapted a much less obvious defensive stance.
"It looks like everybody got a name! Sit down and then we're going to talk about them.", interrupted Midnight before the fight could even start.
"So, who would like to begin?"
All the hands stayed down.
"Kirishima-shounen. How about you?"
The redhead shrugged and stood up.
"All right."
– he placed the board on the table and turned around so that everyone could see what he wrote –
"I choose the name 'Red Riot."
"Inspired by the hero 'Crimson Riot', yes?"
"Yup. He's my idol."
"That's pretty good.
But I'll also make the people expect a lot from you."
"I can take it."
Aoyama had a whole sentence instead of a name and it was shortened to 'Sparkle' in the end.
Tsuyu called herself the 'Rainy season heroine: Froppy' which was rather cute and a good pick.
Momo Yaoyorozu chooses the name of the 'everything creating heroine: Cerati' which was easy, simple and on the point.
'Alien-Queen', from Ashido was replaced with 'Pinkie'.
Ochaco got a lot of praise for her name: 'Space heroine - Uravity'.
Mashiro Ojiro took the rather obvious way by calling himself 'Martial Arts Hero: Tail-Man' closely followed by Rikido who choose 'Sugar-Man'.
Kojoka settled for the name of her Quirk and thusly became 'The Hearing Hero: Earphone Jack'.
Denki named himself 'The Stun-Gun Hero: ChargeBolt' and was proud that he actually added the explanation for his name as well.
Shouto copied this idea and also wrote down the words that made up his own name.
Mezos idea to call himself 'Tentacole' did not really surprise anyone.
Koij chooses 'Anima' and Fumikage had the interesting idea to pick the name of the god of the night 'Tsukuyomi'.
And then there was Bakugo.
"I had two ideas.", explained the blonde before he presented his first pick.
'Lord of Explodo-Kills'
Shouto snorted and hurried to slap a hand on his mouth but his classmates also bit onto their lips, shaking with stifled laughter or were complaining loudly about the name.
Midnight looked rather distraught, mainly because the previous process had been really good, yet Bakugo just had to blow up - in every matter of the word - the party, just like his typical behavior.
"That might not be the best idea.", she said carefully and the boy shrugged, erased his first name and started to write something different.
"I don't really like the idea because I hate this person from my childhood from the depths of my heart but I'll just hope that he is going to get mad when he sees it.", declared Katsuki and Shouto knew immediately whose idea it actually was.
Everyone was silent when they saw the new title.
'Nuclear hero: Ground Zero'
"This one's really good.", whispered Mina disbelieving and Denki nodded with wide eyes.
Bakugo exploded.
"Ya tryin to make fun of me?!!", he screamed combatively but got chased away by their teacher with the words that he should keep his second choice because it was really good.
The next one up was Hitoshi who went to the desk and placed down a board with the words 'Control hero: Puppeteer'.
"That went better than I expected.", told their teacher and looked around.
"And now only Iida and Todoroki are left. If you'd please share your names with us?"
Tenya stood up first and strode to the teachers' desk stiffly.
"I choose the name 'Bequest' inspired by my brother, Ingenium."
Midnight nodded thoughtfully before she asked: "Both can be translated as 'purpose' and 'inheritance' if I'm not mistaken?"
"Exactly."
"Todoroki, if you would show us your name?
He went to the front nervously and presented his whiteboard to the class but glanced to the side quickly.
"I decided to call myself the 'Split-Hero: Frayation'. The name is made of the words 'Fray' and 'Liberation' with the loose translation: battle for freedom.", was his explanation after which he waited to be corrected or rejected with a beating heart.
"Your name is really good. It's easy to see that you have thought a lot about it.", said Midnight reassuring.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
He was the first to leave the classroom and came upon a rather untypical view as soon as he opened the door.
All Mights face was right in front of him.
"Hello there, Todoroki-Shounen. I'd like to talk to you for a short while if that's possible?"
"Uhm... yes?", he mumbled confused and closed the door behind himself before he followed his teacher.
"You received the request of a hero called 'Gran Torino'.", started the hero.
He nodded and interrupted the symbol of peace: "That's true. I considered him for my shortlist. He's a retired hero."
All Might started to shake and turned his back towards him.
Still confused he crooked his head to the side.
"You have to know that he taught one year at UA-high. Gran Torino was my homeroom teacher.", explained the adult and almost sounded something like scared.
This man had to be really impressive.
"B-but there is no better teacher than him, so if you choose him your chances for a good career are high."
"I will think about and consider it."