One week later,
Aina Saionji hid behind the trunk of a large tree as she took several snaps of bare-chested Luke and the area around him.
Near the campsite, half the students had already gone insane, constantly pushing themselves beyond their bodily limits day after day.
The other half could step into insanity at any time as well.
It was hard to tell to which category Luke and Todoroki belonged, with their legs frozen in a thick layer of ice.
Suddenly, both boys stopped and began panting before taking a rare, brief rest.
Aina frowned and stopped taking more snaps.
"… You are sick…"
Spooked, she jumped, looking to her left.
Kota was standing there like a ghost, wearing a white shirt, blue shorts, and a red cap.
A deep, red blush surfaced on Aina's face, but then she remembered it was just Kota, instantly making her narrow her eyes at him. "One word…" she grinned. "One word about this and I will… kill you."
A chill ran down Kota's spine.
Not for a moment did he think that Aina was lying.
There was just something about an ever-smiling and jolly person openly threatening to kill someone, grinning like that, he observed.
"Here, hold these," Aina said, handing the boy a stack of the recent snaps.
With a shaking hand, Kota took the Polaroids and found that they were all of Luke. "… This one's after him, too…" he mumbled, remembering Momo and Toru. One week of coincidental spying had also allowed him to overhear the invisible girl's gossip.
"What did you say?" Aina snapped.
Kota hurriedly shook his head. "Nothing!" he gulped.
Aina kept narrowing her eyes at Kota for some time before relaxing her brows. She sat down on the ground, opened her camera, and slid in a fresh film pack.
"… It is a waste of time," Kota said after a while, looking at the training students. His voice carried a bite to it, which Aina picked instantly. "No matter how strong they would get, they still cannot save everyone… It's better never to become a Hero…"
Aina looked at Luke as he and Todoroki talked to each other.
"… I also knew a boy who you wouldn't relate to Hero-material… like ever," she said after a while. "No aspirations. No desires. No spirit… Just a deep fear that he might not belong among others… This boy was broken. No parents… No friends… No one to smile at him with love…"
Kota's head snapped toward her, curious.
"I have heard of more experienced grown-ups losing their minds if you were to put them in his place," Aina said, remembering the past. "But this boy… No. The smile on his face never wavered. Never. Then, one day…"
When Aina didn't continue, Kota asked, "… What?"
Snapshot Hero: Snappy smiled as Luke and Todoroki nodded at each other before standing up. "One day, he found a purpose…" she told Kota. "Not to be a Hero… He just wanted to do more. More than what people expected of him. That boy refused to stand on the sidelines all his life… Yeah… That day, he didn't decide to be a Hero… He decided not to let others dictate his fate for him."
Kota wanted to ask who this boy was, but, despite being a six-year-old boy, he knew who Aina was talking about.
His head lowered, and he looked at Luke in the Polaroids, smiling as wide as a person could be, covered in sweat.
"A Hero is not what anyone can just claim to be," Aina said. "It's a destination. As long as people have ideals they believe in, they all will have a path leading to the same destination. No one can save everyone, but… one can try one's best to stand true to one's ideals… to the very end. And as long as there are people who believe in those ideals, that person will remain a Hero for them."
Kota's eyes blurred as he looked up, and he found Aina smiling at him.
"One day…" she said, patting his cap, "… you will find your Hero, too…"
The Polaroids slipped out of Kota's grasp as he sniffed, sprawling on the ground.
Suddenly, despite his blurry vision, his eyes landed on a particular photo. Not because it held someone other than Luke, but because of a color…
Red…
Red like blood…
"… What's… that?" Kota pointed.
Aina, who was smiling, looked down and noticed the redness. Her face instantly lost its smile, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. Like a snake, she lunged at the Polaroid and took it out of the fallen stack.
And the moment her eyes landed on the scene, she rushed like a maniac toward Luke, as if her life depended on it.
…
A few moments before,
"Why isn't it… working?" Todoroki let out a grunt as the boys took a breather.
Luke felt the numbness in his fingers and said, "Perhaps… you are not desperate enough…"
Todoroki's eyes narrowed. He didn't ask what Luke meant because, somewhere deep in his heart, he had already been feeling it. He had been missing something, he realized; a spark.
He had improved a lot in the last week, but…
Todoroki remembered the moments from the I-Island, when the white pillar of death had been coming for them.
In those moments, despite failing to prevent the doomed outcome, he had given his best… perhaps, a touch more.
Yes. Todoroki remembered. He had been desperate at that time.
"I…" Shoto said, meeting Luke's eyes, "… am going to burn myself…"
Luke's brows rose. "… It wouldn't work, unless…" he was about to finish the sentence when he saw the resolve in Todoroki's eyes. "… Are you sure? Can you truly push yourself to… death?"
Todoroki licked his lips and nodded.
"Let's bring Erasure Head…" Luke suggested.
Todoroki shook his head. "No… No fall-back options… This is the only way…"
The two boys looked at each other for a while and… nodded, coming to a silent agreement.
When they stood up this time, Todoroki didn't activate his cold side. Instead, he began burning his left side, the temperature rising monstrously within seconds.
Many had picked up on the oddity, but didn't truly care, as this was the purpose of the Training Camp, anyway.
However, what happened next was something none of them would ever forget.
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