#I may have pushed myself a lil far by doing a couple impact scenes and then wandering thru a bunch of crowds to watch the fireworks 💀

[gawayne]

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[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 301: All My Todorokis

Previously on BnHA: We learned that when a bunch of superpowered villains are suddenly set loose with nobody around to stop them, things get fucked pretty quickly. Old Man Samurai and a bunch of other useless people decided to make “I pretend I do not see it” their new mantra, and resigned. Endeavor had a moment of despair on account of being crushed by the guilt of having ruined the lives of himself, his family, and basically everyone else in the entire world. For various reasons the heretical notion of “person who has done bad things feels sorry for doing them” sent fandom spiraling into a meltdown, so that was fun. The chapter ended with the entire Todoroki clan descending upon Enji’s hospital room to have a dramatic chat about Touya and All That General Fuckery.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “here’s the story of how Baby Touya slowly went insane trying to win his father’s love.” It’s a tale full of subverted expectations and heartbreaking inevitability, and also like twenty panels of the cutest fucking kids who ever existed on planet earth, who are so fucking cute that I can’t stop thinking about their cuteness even with all of the horrifying family tragedy unfolding around them. It is absolutely ridiculous how cute they are. Touya is out here pushing his tiny body past its limits because he inherited the same obsession as his dad and neither of them can put it aside even though it’s destroying them, and yet all I can think about is Baby Shouto’s (。･o･｡) face. Anyways what a chapter.

so I have to confess that even though I managed to avoid being caught off-guard by the early leaks, the number of people reblogging my Endeavor posts from earlier this week and using the tag “bnha 301” kind of gave me an inkling that this chapter will include more Tododrama lol. that said, I don’t know anything else about it, so we’re still good spoiler-wise

AHHHHH FLAHSBAKC AHHHH. omg I know I typoed the shit out of that, but I’m just going to leave it lol I think it’s fitting

holy shit holy fuck. so this is Rei and Enji’s first meeting, then??

yepppp, oh shit

so wait, I know this is not even the slightest bit important, but are they meeting at Enji’s home or Rei’s? because I always figured that Enji was the one with the super-Japanese aesthetic, but maybe that was Rei’s side of the family all along

(ETA: from what I found during my very brief google search, omiai meetings are often held at fancy hotels or restaurants, so maybe that’s what this is.)

there’s such a period drama feel to this setting. like it’s so outrageously formal fff how can anyone stand this kind of atmosphere though seriously

OH THANK GOD

I mean they’re still stiff af but at least they’re not rigidly sitting in seiza and staring at each other unblinkingly anymore lol. Enji’s actually got his hands in his pockets now. why is this somehow almost cute

oh damn it’s the flowers

Rei seems so subdued and it’s so hard to get any idea of what she’s actually thinking. I want to see her side of this dammit

but anyway, so at least from Enji’s perspective it seems like even though the marriage was arranged and he picked her because of her quirk, he still loved his wife and wanted to do right by her. the fact that he was watching her and noticed that she liked the flowers, and remembered that detail for all these years -- there’s a reason why Horikoshi’s showing us this. we know what’s going to happen later on; we know how much fear and violence and breaking of trust is coming up ahead, and while it may seem like this scene is serving to soften Enji’s character further -- which to be fair it is -- it also helps drive home the full impact of his abuse. that it’s so terrible not only because of the trauma of the abuse itself, but also because of the way it retroactively destroys all of the good things as well. this could have potentially been such a sweet scene, but it’s inescapably tainted by the knowledge of what’s to come, at least for me. and that’s just brutal

anyways, shit. is the whole chapter going to be like this?? feel free to toss in something I can actually make a joke about sometime, Horikoshi

oop, back to the present

omfg lol

“are you all right” “NO I’M NOT ALL RIGHT WHAT THE FUCK.” “oh, right, because of all the stuff that’s happened with me abusing you and you having a mental breakdown and being hospitalized for ten years and then our son coming back to life and killing thirty people, right, right. I almost forgot.” whoops

omfg you guys I’m loving this new and improved steely-eyed Rei. I’m loving her a lot

and what do you mean “part one” fkjds how long is this going to be. TOO MUCH DRAMA FOR ONE CHAPTER TO HANDLE

oh, hello

yeah I’ll say you did. didn’t seem to bother you much at the time, though

HMMMMMMMMMMMM

Dabi Is A Noumu intensifies even further. anyways though would you fucking look at this boy lounging on this moth-eaten couch doing his best DRAW ME LIKE YOUR FRENCH GIRLS impression wtf

Dabi what if you actually had killed him??? what would you feel?? satisfaction?? regret?? anything at all?? tell me your secrets goddammit

who are you talking to buddy

Fuyumi-chan, Natsu-kun (is it common for brothers to address each other as -kun?? can’t recall seeing that in many other anime, but hey), and “dot dot dot,,,,,, SHOUTO” lol thank you so much for this bountiful heaping of Tododrama Horikoshi we are blessed

AH, WHAT DID I SAY THE OTHER DAY

ULTIMATE MELODRAMATIC THEATER CHILD. “I’M JUST GOING TO LIE ON THIS COUCH SHIRTLESS AND ALONE AND MAKE SPEECHES TO MY FAMILY MEMBERS WHO AREN’T THERE AND SAY THINGS LIKE ‘WATCH ME IN THE PITS OF HELL’ WITH A STRAIGHT FACE BECAUSE NO ONE’S THERE TO JUDGE ME.” WELL JOKE’S ON YOU MISTER CHATTERBOX BECAUSE I AM IN FACT JUDGING THE SHIT OUT OF YOU LOL

(ETA: and on a more serious note, it’s interesting to see that “look at me”/”watch me” theme being used again though, because we see that same sentiment uttered repeatedly by the younger Touya in the flashback. well kid, you definitely got your wish at last. don’t know what else to say.)

OKAY HORIKOSHI HAS DECIDED THAT’S ENOUGH FUN, TIME FOR MORE FLASHBACKS

oh my sweet precious lord

just as cute as we left him. giving us a child this cute when we all know full well what’s going to happen to him is just unspeakably cruel though

HOMG

I’m fucking speechless. you broke me, congratulations. what am I even supposed to do with this

I can’t get over this. moving forward my life will be split into two distinct parts, B.P. (Before the Pout) and A.P. (After the Pout)

and meanwhile there’s ALL THIS BACKGROUND ANGST BUILDING UP, AND I CAN’T EVEN FOCUS ON IT. Touya’s arm and cheek are covered in bandages (I’m guessing this is shortly after that “ouch!” panel we got some chapters back), and Enji is deliberately avoiding training with him because he doesn’t want him to hurt himself further. I can’t fucking get over the irony that all this time everyone thought Touya had died because Enji pushed him too far in his training, and it turns out that it’s the opposite -- the tragedy ultimately happened because he didn’t want to push him. but I’m jumping ahead of myself though I guess

by the way,

remember this?? just wanted to remind you that it exists just in case you forgot

so now someone is talking and basically saying that Touya is the exact opposite of what Enji was hoping for when he decided to start playing with quirk genetics

-- okay hold up

...lol no, never mind. for a second I thought “holy shit he looks kind of familiar WHAT IF IT’S UJIKO OMG” before I remembered that Enji would have recognized him during the hospital capture mission if that was the case. so NEVER MIND, PROCEED

IMAGINE THAT, ENJI DOESN’T QUITE SEEM SATISFIED WITH THIS SUGGESTION OF QUITTING NOW

(ETA: how the fuck did this man go around saving 62 towns in a single day what even is All Might.)

[clicks tongue several times] trouble a’brewin’

MEANWHILE BABY TOUYA HAS UNFORTUNATELY INHERITED HIS DAD’S STUBBORN STREAK

KLDIHWOEIJFL:KSDJ

!!!!!!!!!!!

oh my god. oh my god. what is this chapter. WHAT IS IT

so now Touya is all “YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND MY MANLY DESIRE TO BURN MYSELF ALIVE” well you got her there champ

THEY’RE TOO CUTE. OH MY GOD. HIS FURIOUS LITTLE TEARS. HER CHUBBY LIL FACE. HIS STUBBY LIL FISTS. SOMEONE HELP ME

also are they just home alone lol or what. “hey Touya, you’re what, like six now?? do us a favor and look after your baby sister for a couple hours for us would you? make sure not to set yourself on fire or anything.” WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!!

now it’s nighttime and Enji and Rei are arguing, presumably about his decision not to train Touya anymore

whew. okay. so, a couple of things here

1. first of all I think this conclusively shows that Enji really was trying to do the best he could for Touya. he stopped training him as soon as he realized it was hurting him, but Touya was still determined so he tried to make it work anyway, and even visited doctors to try and figure out if there was anything they could do. then, once they were absolutely sure that it wasn’t going to work, he tried multiple times to explain to Touya why they had to stop. he didn’t just abandon him out of the blue, which is really important to note. “no matter how much I tried telling him...”

so yeah, that debunks another common fandom accusation. so by the time he finally makes this decision, which we all know is going to turn out horribly, it’s basically because he’s already tried everything else he could think of. which, by the way, still doesn’t mean he handled this right. but at the very least he was taking Touya’s feelings into account and he was trying, and he didn’t just abruptly toss his son aside (at least not yet)

2. buuuut, then there’s this panel right below all that

which is the other side of it. if he’d just quit like the doctor person advised him to, that would have been the end of it. Touya would still have been upset, but he would have eventually gotten over it and the family would have moved on and possibly even been happy. but what happens next happens because Enji can’t let go. he still has this maddening urge to surpass All Might, and so he and Rei keep having more children, and then Shouto is born, and Enji finally has a kid he can start projecting all of his hysterical ambitions onto once again, and everything starts spiraling out of control soon after

though p.s. none of that is Shouto’s fault though!! he’s one of the few good things to come out of this whole mess and I’m very happy that he exists. the tragedy is that his dad fucking lost his mind over his quirk and fucked everything up. but that’s on him, not Touya or Shouto

anyways, SLKFJLSHGLKJL

I CAN’T FUCKING TAKE THIS YOU GUYS??? LOOK AT THAT LIL BUTTON OF A NOSE??? I’M LOSING IT HERE???

AND TOUYA JUST SEEMS DEVASTATED OMG

because children aren’t stupid, after all. he understands that his dad is still looking to surpass All Might. and so he feels like a failure, and feels like his dad is trying to replace him because he wasn’t good enough. and even now, isn’t that what the adult Touya is trying to prove?? that he was good enough after all?? “I’ll show you what happens when you give up on me, dad”?? “I’ll show you what I can do”?? fuck my life fuck everything

AND YOU CAN SEE THE TOLL THAT IT’S ALL TAKING ON REI GETTING WORSE AND WORSE AS WELL OH GOD

really nice touch here with the panel outlines becoming all shimmery from the heat of Endeavor’s flames (and/or becoming more unstable as the family gets closer and closer to their breaking point). but man, Horikoshi I can’t handle this, please show us more cute kids or something I can’t

GKELKWFJLDKSHFLKL

WITTLE BABE. BEEB. BUBS. SMOL. lkj; oh ouch a piece of my heart just detached and latched onto him huh look at that

TODOROKI “I’M SO SMALL AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON AND I DIDN’T ASK TO BE HERE” SHOUTO AHHHHH

crazy how they all just seem to know right off the bat lol. kid doesn’t even have object permanence yet, let alone a quirk. but do they care?? IT’S THE HAIR, RIGHT. WE’RE ALL THINKING IT, I’M JUST GONNA COME OUT AND SAY IT. they knew the minute they looked at him lol

AND MEANWHILE TOUYA IS OFF HAVING UNSUPERVISED TRAINING/CRYING SESSIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS OR WHATEVER, AND, UH OH

are those blue flames yet?? they seem pretty close

(ETA: this is one of the few cases where the manga being in black and white is infuriating lol.)

OH MY GOD AND STILL

so it’s not like he was so disinterested that he didn’t notice what was happening, and he was still trying to stop it and get through to him. trying to reassure him that it wasn’t the end of the world and there were other things he could do with his life, but this one particular thing just wasn’t going to happen

fucking hell. it’s agonizing seeing how close they actually were to fixing it. if he’d only said the right words, or if he’d realized at this point how destructive his obsession could be to his kids, and backed off from putting that same pressure on Shouto. we came so close to possibly having a happy ending

AND ALSO THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING BUT PLEASE LOOK AT HOW TOUYA IS LIKE THREE AND A HALF FEET TALL AND HIS DAD IS LIKE NINE AND A HALF FEET. Touya barely comes past his knees flkjlkg. the Todoroki household must have been so filled with like plastic stepstools to reach the bathroom sink and all the little baby toothbrushes, and baby gates to keep the kiddos out of the important grown-up rooms and stuff. and also days-old half-empty cups of water and stale crackers and hot wheels and my little ponies strewn everywhere

“BUT EVERYONE AT SCHOOL SAYS THEY’RE GONNA BE HEROES” a wild Deku parallel appears?? how bout that

I know this is like a pivotal moment in the Todo Tragedy and all, but fucking look at this lil dumpling

“sup bro, it’s me, the manifestation of your fears of inadequacy and lack of fatherly affections. a GAAA. ba-baAA-baa [gurgling baby sounds]”

OHHHHH IT’S THE SOUND OF MY HEART BREAKING OH NO

HE WANTS TO BE LIKE YOU ENJI. good lord somebody please just get this family some therapy

“DAD YOU IGNITED IT IN ME” flkjslkj nope, nope. not ready for this pain here

baby Shouto, would you like to weigh in on this affair? “DA!! ba-ga-daaa, [pacifier chewing noises]” oh my, you don’t say. so insightful for one so young

OH MY GODDDDDD

IT’S SO DRAMATIC BUT ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT ARE THE SHOUNEN WOOSH LINES SURROUNDING FOUR-MONTH-OLD SHOUTO LOL HE WAS LIKE THIS FROM BIRTH OH MY GOD I AM DYING HELP

SHOUTO YOU’RE RUINING THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER!?!?!

“yo, the fuck kind of family was I fucking born into” oh, son. if you only knew. IF YOU ONLY KNEW!!

(ETA: lmao I got so distracted by the ridiculous cuteness that I glossed over the fact that Baby Touya seems to possibly be aiming at him?? it’s hard to tell because he’s also super out of it from heatstroke and may just be losing control in his attempt to show off his upgrade.)

ANYWAY THAT’S THE END EXCEPT WHAT’S THIS LAST LINE OMG

ffffff. and we’re in for ANOTHER chapter of this next week?? MORE drama?? MORE BABIES?? MORE OF EIGHT-YEAR-OLD TOUYA’S SLOW DESCENT INTO MADNESS. MY HEART CAN’T TAKE IT, BUT ALSO YES PLEASE SIGN ME UP

[lentaska]

Height Difference - Part Two

Note: First person POV, OFC from non-wrestling background English is my second language, I apologize for any grammar/wording mistake. This is a work of fan fiction using characters from wrestling, I do not claim any ownership over them.

@thecristsandcallihancult @monstersmaid

Part Two “I wanna talk to you about something.”

Road trip usually made me sleepy, but I was too nervous to even think properly now. We would arrive at the stadium within one hour, and for the first I’d meet Fulton’s friends.

It might sound weird that we finally got chance to meet each other’s friends after five-months dating. The schedule conflict had been the issue, we had friends who must travel around to work, and both of us agreed to meet them when they were gathered together. Which meant, I was about to meet not only one or two wrestlers, but whole group of them.

“Are you sweating?” Fulton eyed me, joked. “They’re not gonna interview you, lil’ bird. They just wanna know what kinda person you are.”

“What if they don’t like me?”

“They will like you. Take it easy, they’re all nice people.”

As a wrestling newbie - I only knew how it looked like - my subconscious reply was “no they are not nice, they hit you with chairs”. And it made Fulton laugh hard.

“My bad, I should teach you the basic. Those scenes you saw is part of the story plot, we all have plots at some level. It may be easier for you to consider it as TV show.”

“But you got hurt... I don’t wanna see you get hurt.”

No matter how many times I told myself that wrestling was his passion and job, and he could handle it well, seeing him got injures still scared me. The biggest worry I ever had while dating an artist was “my boyfriend cut his finger when sharpening pencil”, to date a wrestler was something way different. I was very frustrated during the first month of the dating when he returned with bandage wrapped his arm or bruises on back

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” He gave me his hand and waited for my response, “Trust me.”

Nodded, I put my hand on his, he grasped it and rubbed carefully. He might not be good at comforting people by words, but he had his way to show consolation and support.

I looked outside of the window, we were getting close to the destination. Wondering what a real wrestling match would be like, I heard Fulton’s voice, “I wanna talk to you about something.”

The serious tone gave me bad feelings.

“When we were with your friends, you said you don’t wanna move in together now.”

Swallowed hard and told myself to act cool, I replied, “well, it’s only five months and we never talked about financial stuff.” The latter part was a lie, I was hoping to use it to make the statement more cogent. The thing was, I had never been through this stage, it’s a totally new concept to me.

“We discussed the financial stuff weeks ago, it was the day I got my contract with Impact, remember?”

You had no idea how much I hated his good memory sometimes.

“Right...” I coughed embarrassingly. Wording was an art that I wasn’t equipped with, especially when I panicked, I didn’t even gave second thought to what I said, “you know it can end up in bad way right?”

“What do you mean by ‘bad’?”

My voice faltered, “moving in can be different from what we think... W-what if we break up?”

Fulton’s face clouded over, brows knitted together in exactly the same way when he faced a difficult opponent in match. “So you think it will somehow ruin everything. I kinda start to wonder if you have enough faith in our relationship.”

I screwed up.

Having the thought that he might refuse to talk to me, I turned away, couldn’t help feeling despondent. The abnormal aura between us did not vanish after we arrived the destination, although Fulton acted like nothing happened and introduced me to his friends - he even grinned like usual, but I could sense his displeasure.

The meeting with his friends was short since they were in hurry of preparing for the match, but they were all friendly and considerate people. They knew it’s my first time watching wrestling show with almost zero knowledge, and were willing to answer every question I had, even the stupidest ones. After a short chat with the Sami Callihan - whom I learned that actually had easy-going nature in real life rather than the malicious personality in rings - about what the main event was tonight, I looked up and found Fulton was gone. I didn’t even have the chance to say “good luck”.

A hand patted my shoulder, it’s Jake Crist, “looking for Fulton? He already went to the ring. Aren’t you going to watch the match?”

“I’ll just stay here.” I forced a smile.

The younger Crist stared at me for a while, said, “I don’t wanna be gossipy but did you two have argument?”

“It’s my fault.” I replied, eyes downcast, “I said stupid things and upset him.”

“This is how relationship works. Couple always argues about small things.”

“But today is the first time he brought me to meet you guys, it’s so special for him and I ruined it.”

“Don’t say that. Whatever the argument is, I believe there’s a reason.” Jake gave me a comforting smile. “Fulton talks about you a lot. Every time he mentions ‘Birdie’, we know the topic is about you.”

I blushed. He liked to give me pet names.

“You two are deeply connected, things will work out.”

I nodded, feeling much better, “thank you.”

“By the way, you can also watch the match here.” Jake turned on the TV.

The first scene I saw was Fulton leaning at the corner of the ring, face covered in blood.

“Hey are you alright?” Jake asked me.

Slightly shaking my head, I bit my lips in disquietude. It didn’t take long to know that Fulton lost the match, he looked like a beast in trap, wounded and dispirited, I wanted to hug him so badly, hence the first thing I did when he walked into the room was to grab his hand.

But he gestured stop, “Don’t touch.”

My arm froze in an awkward posture. Everyone in the locker room turned their sights to us, the confusion in air suffocated me. I didn’t want to act like grouch in front of his friends, it would embarrass him, so I mumbled “sorry” and left quickly.

 Wandering in the hallway, I tried to figure the reason that he said those words: was it because the argument we had in car? Or was he displeased that I didn’t go to the auditorium but stayed in backstage? I made mistake too and I wanted to fix it. Maybe we could try cohabiting first? It sounds fine for me...

With no attention paid to signs and turning, I somehow got lost in the building. Guided by intuition, I took another turn and was immediately stunned by the person appeared in front of me. It’s Fulton. He looked better than when he was locker room minutes ago, all the blood and mess was cleaned up.

“Where have you been?” he asked in worries.

“I got lost.”

Fulton let out a sigh, “like always...”

Before he went further, I cut him off, “I want to apologize.”

He looked puzzled, “what is it for?”

“I’m sorry for what I said. I have faith in our relationship with no doubt, but I never went so far in the previous ones and didn’t know what to do...”

Fulton dragged me into his arms, I was relieved a little in his bear hug. “I’m sorry too, Birdie.”

I looked up at him for an answer.

“You’re gonna think it’s stupid... I was covered in blood and I don’t wanna ruin your dress. I know how much you like this dress, you only wear it on special occasion.”

I wasn’t sure which one surprised me more: the reason why he didn’t want me to touch him after match, or how much attention he put on the details. But this was not what I needed to consider now.

“Listen, I have been thinking about what you said. I shouldn’t push you, if you’re not comfortable with moving in now, I’ll wait.”

Grasped Fulton’s fingers, I asked, “what’s about we start with cohabiting?”

“Are you sure?” his eyes widened. “I don’t want you to force yourself...”

“I’m sure.” I threw my arm around his waist, “by the way, can you take me to another wrestling show, I’ll definitely be out there to support you.”

With little strength, Fulton scooped me up and let me sit on his shoulder, “whatever you want.”