Chapter Text
Toya Aoyagi knew that something was wrong
when the next time he was conscious he heard a baby crying. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that those noises were infact coming out of him, which made the crying even louder, he heard people talking in the background but he couldn't focus on that right now.
What was happening? Toya asked himself.
The last thing that he remembered was walking back home with Akito, tripping and falling onto the street. Cars headlights speeding towards him and Akito shouting his name.
Oh.
Had he died? That was most likely, then how on earth was he alive right now? Was this the afterlife? Hearing a baby cry for any longer than a couple of minutes sure seemed like hell to him, so he prayed that it wasn't.
Multiple hands were handling him, it was odd, Toya was never one for physical touch with people he wasn't close with, so being grabbed by multiple people wasn't really the most comfortable for him if he was completely honest.
"His name will be Toya." A gruff voice spoke after a few moments of just Toya crying. "Toya Todoroki..." A much softer, obviously female voice spoke. Huh, so he's guessing that that's his name now, thinking about it, neither of the two voices sounded particularly happy, perhaps they were tired, Toya deducted that he had most likely just been born, childbirth could often be difficult for the mothers, so it's probably for the best to not to dwell on it too much.
Toya wondered how he was reborn with all his memories, if this was a normal occurance, then why wouldn't he remember his life before his last one?
He missed Vivid Bad Squad, it dawned upon him that he has no way of finding them, meaning he'd lost all of his friends; Tsukasa, Akito, Saki, Shiraishi, Azusawa, Kamishiro. A pang of hurt flashed through his chest at the realization.
The crying didn't stop.
---
From listening Toya found out a lot of things. For some reason, he was fully conscious ever since birth, which was quite unusual, but he could use this to his advantage, adjusting to living again would be easier, especially regarding school, he still needed to study, however not as much as he did to stay an excellent student in his old life.
Toya found out a lot of stuff just by listening and observing, his new mother was a pretty woman with grey eyes and hair white like snow, her name was Rei. His new father was a buff, red-haired man with the brightest cyan eyes he he'd ever seen on a person, his name was Enji. Toya was shocked to find out that he was born into a world where people had super powers -I mean, how cool was that?-, which were called quirks. Apparently his father was a hero, when Toya found out about that he was ecstatic. However that admiration for the man who was his father quickly dampened when he saw how he was treating his mother. If Toya was an actual child, he most likely wouldn't understand what was wrong about his behavior, however with the mentality of a teenage boy, he knew that how his father was treating his mother was wrong. It freaked him out when he found out that Enji was ranked as no.2 hero in Japan.
When Toya looked at himself in a mirror he was delightfully surprised by the fact that overall, he looked incredibly like he did when he was a child in his past life, not even his hair color had changed.
It annoyed him that he couldn't voice anything with words yet, no matter how much he tried it never fully worked, not enough for anyone to understand anyways, so he stayed silent, not wanting to cry as it made him a little embarrassed to do so.
---
When Toya was 5 years old he had two siblings, Fuyumi and Natsuo, he came to care for the two a lot, protectivness became a second nature while he was around them, whenever there were any problems with their father Toya took all responsibility and tried his hardest to get Enji to leave Fuyumi and Natsuo out of it, his mother too, however that rarely worked as Enji often liked to blame Rei for anything.
When Toya was 5 years old he had finally developed a quirk. It was some sort of partial mutation, as it was connected to his mother's yet different. Hydrokenisis with a mix of cryokenisis. He had control over water and with that water he was also capable to freeze it and also control it.
The night that he had developed his quirk there was a lot of screaming, Toya made sure to hide his siblings from it before he went to inspect what they were shouting about.
"HOW THE FUCK IS HE SUPPOSED TO SURPASS ALL MIGHT WITH A USELESS QUIRK LIKE THAT? HYDROKENISIS? DONT EVEN FUCKING JOKE ABOUT THAT! WHY ISNT IT FUCKING WORKING?" A smack resounded inside the room after the shouting had stopped, Toya flinched at the sound but covered his mouth so that his small gasp wasn't overheard, his eyes wide as he listened.
Stifled sobs and heavy breathing was all that he could hear from the room at the moment, it made him sick, he didn't want his mom to cry, he didn't like it when Enji hurt her.
"No..." Enji spoke up again. "I can work with this, the boy can mix it with his cryokenisis, for now it could work, I'll train him. With my training he'll be able to beat All Might. I'll make sure of it."
---
After that the actual hell began. Training everyday, bruises adorned Toyas knees from how much he fell onto them. He was exhausted, his entire body ached and he felt so cold and dehydrated. Yet Enji didn't want to stop, he didn't want to give Toya breaks.
Man the water bills sure we're going to be high from now on was one of the thoughts that Toya had, due to the fact that he was sure that he had used way too many liters of water just as a pathetic attempt at defending himself against his fathers attacks during their training.
After their first training session was finished, Toya guzzled down so much water, trying to quench his thirst. He tried to ignore the new bruises and burns on his body, trying to ignore the dread that this from now on would be a normal occurance, it made him feel sick, why must he end up with a bad dad in both of his lives?
He fell onto his futon, not even being able to properly process Fuyumis words of concern for him, he weakly assured her that he was fine and that he just needed to sleep. Fuyumi left him alone and went to Natsuo instead.
Toya missed his past life, he wanted to sing with his friends again, not be here. He wanted to watch Tsukasas plays that were made for him and Saki to laugh and smile at.
Tears welled up in his eyes as he tried to push them back, he didn't want to cry.
---
And so the cycle continued.
Toya was awoken by his blaring alarm, 5:30 showed on the display and Toyas lips curled into a frown of displeasure. He groggily got up, knowing he had fifteen minutes until he had to be in the training room to train with his father.
He washed his face before brushing his teeth, staring at himself in the mirror, an unpleasant feeling growing inside his chest the longer he stared. He looked tired and worn out, there were fading bruises and burns from when he hadn't managed to dodge his fathers attacks, Toya wishes they would disappear faster.
Toya took a quick shower changing into a pair of sweatpants and a long t-shirt, before checking the time and heading towards the training room. He was early but that was fine, his father preferred it when Toya got there early, in his words it 'showed that he was determined about being a hero'.
Toya wouldn't mind being a hero, however he still wanted to be capable of making music, it wouldn't be the first time he'd be dealing with a father who wants to control Toyas career path and steer him towards something he clearly doesn't want. Once, Enji had found Toya while he was practicing Fragile and his reaction was that "he should stop trying to learn how to sing" as he needed to focus on training to be a hero. Toya continued to practice in secret, writing down all the lyrics from the VBS songs that he remembered, just in case and he often sung to Natsuo and Fuyumi if their parents (meaning Enji, because his emotions practically controlled everyones mood inside of this godforsaken house) had huge fights.
-
"Good, you're early." Enjis deep voice spoke as Toya walked into the room. "Good morning." Toya spoke shortly and quickly, he wasn't particularly used to associating with people he didn't like being around, that's why he spent so much time out of his house, however that was not a possibility here.
A flaming fist suddenly headed towards Toya, now, if Toya hadn't expected it to happen, he would've most probably gotten hit, however after a few training sessions Toya realized that Enji would not give him warnings about when he was going to attack. He blocked the blow with a shield made from ice, the impact making him stumble back a bit. He quickly stabled himself and defended himself from a kick aimed at his side.
Occasionally Toya had enough time to send a water or ice attack at Enji, however most of the time he was greatful for being able to dodge or block his attacks that just kept on coming. It was like Enji had unlimited stamina.
-
Toya felt his body shake as he tried to stand back up as fast as possible, he himself might be older but his body is still small, he's had this life for only five years old after all, and it was very obvious that such a young body was not built for this sort of training yet.
Usually after an hour straight of training Toya was already incredibly exhausted, his movements would get sloppier, his reaction time was worse, his ability wouldn't activate as fast as he needed it to so at that point he had to spend the rest of the time blocking or avoiding his attacks, until Enji decided that Toya could go to have breakfast or take a short break.
-
"You may leave now." His father said before exiting the room, leaving a panting Toya lying on the floor, his body felt like it was burning yet like he was being held under freezing water at the same time. He hated this feeling, however this was how he always felt. Toya had figured out pretty early on that the cold feeling came from using his quirk too much when used against fire, his body automatically tried to use it's quirk as a defense mechanism against the heat, spreading coldness throughout Toyas entire body in hopes to cool him down. It did work for a bit however it stopped working in the long run and that's where the feeling of burning was coming from, well more specifically from the burns that adorned his body.
---
Toya let himself cry that night.
Silently so no one would hear him of course. He prayed internally for his past friends to come and find him. Five years was such a long time. If he could at least find some new ones, but he couldn't, Toya was pretty much isolated in this godforsaken household, the only people that were around him were either his parents, who Toya couldn't talk to, they could find out that Toya doesn't act or think like a normal five year old child, that he acts like someone multiple times that age, hell, back at home he'd be a grown adult by now. Or his siblings who were both way too young for any of this.
Toya was all alone. He wished he could smile with the people he loved and cared for. He wished he had a reason to smile at all, there was nothing to be happy about here. Toya wishes he could go out with VBS and sing live with them at least one more time. He wishes that he could see the Tenmas again and admire Tsukasas acting skills with Saki, have the feeling of having two loving siblings.
Toya felt like he was going crazy here. He might be able to withstand it more than a normal kid would but Enjis expectations for him were starting to get to him, that small voice nagging him in the back of his head saying that he'll be a disappointment to his father in any life. Toya wanted to sing, however he didn't know if it'd ever feel the same without Akito, Shiraishi and Azusawa there with him.
He didn't know anymore, and that's what made him so anxious about this, he had no control over anything even though he felt like he should and it was horrible.
This wasn't like at home where he could rebel against his father by not playing classical music and sing street music instead. No he was literally stuck, held down by the man who was his father and the no.2 hero.
Being a hero sounded nice. In theory, saving people and helping them isn't something Toya would be against, sure, if it was fully his choice, would he train to be a hero? Probably not, but still. However, a seed of doubt for the whole hero society grew inside him even with the limited information he had about the outside world. Enji Todoroki, or as his hero name 'Endeavor', was the second best hero that this world had. He was so close to being first, being surpassed by a hero named All Might. From an outsiders perspective Toya could see the guy having fans if he was that good of a hero. Heroes are amazing afterall, right? Enji Todoroki was also an abuser. To his wife, Toya had seen it way too many times, tried to stop it way too many times, to his youngest children, who he was oh so clearly neglecting to 'train' Toya. Toya knew training had to be tough, but he also knew that a father should not be okay with leaving a supposedly five year old child with new bruises and burns littered all over his body everyday.
How could an abuser be the second best hero out there? What does that say about the hero commission? Do they know about it? If there's a hero that's so high up in the rankings like that, who says there isn't more? These worries plagued Toyas mind whenever he thought about heroism. He hated it.
God, he'd kill for a coffee to at least give him the energy to go on right now.