Chapter Text
“I’m telling you, the earth is in a firmament made of water!” Todoroki exclaimed, holding a cup of water. The sunlight hitting it created a circular rainbow on the table. “Look at this! And now look at this!” He held up a picture on his phone of a halo around the sun. “See how the water reflects the light into a circular rainbow? How would you explain that rainbow around the sun if there is no rain there?”
The Dekusquad shared looks, some even sighing. Iida leaned in to look at the picture. “I’m fairly sure that is because of the dew drops high up in the atmosphere, Todoroki.” He commented in a calm manner.
“Okay but what about actual rainbows? Rain doesn’t actually bend the light, it acts more as a screen. Again, the firmament bends the light and then it projects onto the rain when it falls. That’s why rainbows in Australia are so flat, because it is closer to the firmament, while in Canada the rainbows are super arched! And did you know that there are drawings of the firmament in basically every culture? The whole world agrees, and everybody believed it for centuries until very recently when the governments decided to lie about it for money. People back then were smarter than you think!”
But no matter how desperate he sounded, or how much evidence he showed, his friends kept staring at him like he was a ghost.
“So the people who went to space actually went through an ocean?” Uraraka asks.
“Of course not! Because we never went there, obviously!”
“I think you need to get off Reddit for a while, ribbit.” Tsuyu said.
Todoroki looked at each and every one of his friends. Iida, Uraraka, Tsuyu, heck even Midoriya seemed to doubt him.
“I’m sorry, Todoroki,” The last one began, “while you do make some excellent arguments, I really don’t think it’s true… Maybe we should just drop the subject.”
‘Excellent arguments,’ he said, so he might still be open to it. I need to bring more evidence next time. Maybe even prepare what I am going to say, so they will see me as an expert. I’ll ask Reddit for the most convincing arguments, starting with Flat Earth. I already know about the airlines never crossing the north or south pole, even though that would be so much easier if you wanted to fly from Canada to Russia, for example. But what else? Oh, maybe the ice wall…
While Todoroki was in his thoughts, the conversation topic had shifted. He did not realise it until Midoriya asked him something.
“...what about you, Todoroki?”
“Hm, excuse me?”
“Iida is going to recruit some kids at the Sports Festival for interns. Do you plan on doing so, too?”
Oh, the Sports Festival. Right.
He took a sip from his glass. “Honestly, I haven’t thought about it much yet. I might.”
“I’m sure many kids would be honored to intern with you, ribbit.” Tsuyu commented.
“Yeah, you’re a big inspiration to many young heroes!” Uraraka added.
Todoroki wasn’t sure what they intended to achieve by making those comments, but he thanked them anyway. If only they complimented his extensive research on cryptids in the same way.
At home, Todoroki thought back on their conversation.
The Sports Festival.
That’s where he made up his first conspiracy theory, about Midoriya being All Might’s secret love child. It had all made sense in his head: how Midoriya did not have a dad present in his life, how his quirk was nearly the same as All Might’s, how he clearly was All Might’s favorite student. Ultimately, Todoroki ended up being proven wrong, but also right, in a way. While All Might was not Midoriya’s dad, he did transfer his quirk, one for all, to him. So there wás a connection between Midoriya and All Might, and he had picked up on it very early on.
After finding out the truth from Midoriya and realising he had been very close to guessing it, Todoroki decided to keep an eye out for similar connections. And he had a knack for it, because very soon, those connections turned into theories and conspiracies. He realised that, if you knew where to look, you would find a whole lot of truths that others were not able to see. He joined online forums for people whose eyes had opened, too, and started doing some research of his own. His friends told him he was spiraling, but to him, he was simply taking a deep dive into an ocean of truths. It was freedom, if anything.
Grabbing a bowl for his soba, he accidentally slammed the kitchen cabinet closed a little too roughly. He put the bowl down with a hard thud and leaned on the counter with a sigh.
He was getting too worked up over this, and he knew it. If only his friends were more open-minded!
With stiff, swift motions he made his soba, before putting it in the fridge to cool down. A lot has changed since the Final War, but his love for cold soba has not. It was his comfort food, the one thing he could always get back to.
Once the soba had cooled down enough Todoroki went up to his tv, sitting on a cushion before it. He needed a distraction, so he turned it on and watched the news. A blue-skinned news reporter reported on crime rates as Todoroki slurped his soda.
Apparently, crime rates were slowly climbing up again after being at an all-time low after the Final War against Tomura Shigaraki and All-For-One. After the war had ended, all of Japan began helping each other, not only in building up their lives again, but also with the little things. There was barely any need for crime anymore. Todoroki saw it in his job, too. As a kid he fought more villains than he did now. He didn’t mind, though, being a hero was about helping people, whether that was stopping a robbery or helping a cat from a tree. Plus, he had more time to hang out with friends, something that became important to him, too, after attending U.A.
But crime was bound to come back, and so it showed.