#medium shouto

Do you think Todoroki would be even more traumatized if he’d been born with Ghost Sense instead of his original Quirk?

Okay so I just zeroed in on Shouto with Ghost Sense.

There’s a lot to unpack here, the first being that Shouto with Ghost Sense is not the perfect child that Endeavor wants. Now, quirkless Shouto with a younger sibling is a concept that is already being explored in @smoltododorki‘s fic “demolition lovers”, so here’s an idea: Endeavor tries for another child and repeatedly fails. His wife has simply been through too much emotional and physical stress and abuse that she can’t carry a child to term anymore. He keeps trying over the years, even resorting to extramarital affairs if he can chance it, but nothing works, and finally his wife has her breakdown anyway and he’s left with nothing. Now he can’t even try to sneak an illegitimate child into things because the public will wonder where it came from, and there’s no point if he can’t do it without nuking his own reputation like that.

Everything ends in failure, for him.

And while all this happens, Shouto grows. He’s far more well-adjusted in this; he hasn’t been kept from his siblings, and he has plenty of other friends that no one else knows about. Fuyumi knows; she remembers their mother telling her about their uncle, so when he tells her about “Hino,” she recognizes him. His older brothers leave as soon as they can, unwilling to stay with a bitter and broken father who hates the sight of his children for reminding him of his failure. He throws himself fully into his work, shutting out everything else. Provided they stay out of his direct path, his abuse is no longer harsh words and blows, but silence and neglect. They have access to his bank account and they don’t need to ask him for anything, which is good because he ignores their existence.

Okumura isn’t killed in crossfire, in this version of things. When his ghost appears before Shouto, twisted by anger and despair, his spectral form is covered in hideous burns. He screams and weeps with rage, keeping Shouto awake long into the night.

Shouto decides that morning, at ten years old, that he’s going to be a hero. A good one. The right kind of hero.

His father doesn’t stop him. By this point it’s just him and Fuyumi, who helps him find ways to train, places to learn how to defend himself. Officially he’s registered with a mild clairvoyance quirk, so he ducks the vicious bullying that Izuku suffers. He learns to fight, talks to no one but Fuyumi and the ghosts, and focuses on his goals. He avoids his father on the rare occasion that he comes home, because if Endeavor doesn’t hurt him then the maddened Okumura will.

He’s fifteen when he gets into UA. There’s no recommendation for him here, so he takes the exam, fights his way to a respectable spot in the top ten, hears rumors of another boy who knocked out a zero-pointer in one blow, and celebrates with his sister and their deceased uncle.

There are more ghosts when he walks into the classroom. His homeroom teacher has two of them, not bitter resentful things like Okumura but grateful and content and patient. He takes in the rest of his classmates, from children of prominent families like Iida Tenya and Yaoyorozu Momo to fresh faces like Uraraka Ochako and Kirishima Eijirou.

In the corner of his vision, the ghost of a little girl frisks eagerly around one of his classmates, a quiet boy with dark hair and shadowed, tired eyes. As Shouto watches, the boy turns and smiles at the ghost, like a fond brother indulging his sister’s antics.

The ghost girl looks less friendly later, when Shouto drags the boy to a quiet corner, but she stops baring her teeth and hissing when she sees that Shouto is looking straight at her. When he looks at his classmate again, the dull green eyes are lighting up with hope and disbelief. No one but Fuyumi has ever looked so happy to see him before.

Yep, Fuyumi knows!

Oh man oh man oh man you’re right!! Though it’s Iida, not Lida.

Since Shouto obviously doesn’t go for Endeavor’s agency in this world, what he ends up doing is following Iida to Hosu with Manual’s agency. Because of this, he’s the first one on the scene, and ends up sending ghosts to Izuku for help while he stalls things with Stain.

It differs in that Rei’s relationship with Todoroki in YUTS starts way later, on account of the fact that he has no idea she exists. Even after that there are a few notable differences, because even though Shouto knows she’s there, he can’t perceive her unless she makes an effort.

No other reason than they’re different people from different bloodlines who therefore have different quirks. 

There are other disparities. For example, Shouto has no ability to amplify ghosts, which Izuku could do subtly even before gaining One For All. He’s also empathically sensitive to them, and can sense unstable ghosts nearby without having to see or hear them, or ask around the way Izuku does. 

For one thing, it’s not Izuku who fights Shinsou, it’s Shouto.

And it goes… poorly. Not that Shouto loses, but it still goes poorly. He falls victim to Shinsou’s brainwashing, and the experience is unpleasantly familiar. The feeling of being stuck in his own head while his body moves without his permission terrifies him because it reminds him of possession. I can’t decide whether he jars himself free with his own panic or Hino and Rei go into his head to break the control, but either way he gets loose before leaving the boundaries.