Raiden hates loud noises.

When he was little, loud noises always meant there was some kind of trouble going on. It could be quiet one second, peaceful and tranquil even, then all of a sudden a crash could shake the house.

Whenever that would happen, Raiden would curl up into a ball. His arms and legs tucked in neatly together, fitting perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle as he retreated into the darkest corner of his closet.

Loud noises always meant that Raiden wasn't safe.

He would talk to himself, try and keep his spirits lifted. 'I'm backed into the corner, if something is coming at me, it'll be from the front', he would tell himself as he stared at the closet door, ready to pounce when necessary.

The little boy, blessed with a powerful lightning-type quirk was scared of the very thing he specialised in. Sometimes, he would excel. Like a bolt of lightning, he would light up the night sky in a dazzling spray of dangerous light, and disappear as quickly as he appeared. He would strike both awe and fear, and even praise and delight.

Sometimes he was seen as nothing but a child of destruction. As beautiful as lightning was, it was something to stay far away from. You watch from a distance and if you get too close, you'd get burnt. You wanted nothing to do with it.

Sometimes, he was forgotten. Tossed aside just like an umbrella on a sunny day.

That's why Raiden hates loud, sudden noises.

Like flashes of lightning, they're dangerous, unpredictable and unwanted.

That's why he needs to be needed.

So he'll do anything, even if that means walking through the loudest, hottest, bug-filled place on Earth.

He will do it.

With a deep breath, he clapped his hands, and let his rage fill the sky.

~~~

At the seventh rumble of thunder, Sora inhaled a breath. "That was the signal."

Sora was feeling anxious.

Yua was away, and he was alone with a half-crazy Yuzu.

It wasn't like he wasn't used to it, because he was, but it was just that Yuzu intimidated him. Raiden wasn't there to soften the blow if anything went wrong, and Yua wasn't there to comfort him if he messed up.

He didn't want to be seen as a failure.

He was the youngest, the weakest, the shortest, the skinniest, the cutest and always the one that was underestimated. To him, Yuzu was the person he needed to prove himself to because if he didn't, he might be thrown away.

Because of that, he can't help but push himself whenever he's around, and he won't stop until he's sure he has a purpose.

Yuzu placed a gentle hand on Sora shoulder and pointed to a building. It stood out from the rest in the sense that it was bigger, well-built, and was placed in the centre as if using the shabby buildings to make itself stand out.

That's what people like to do, surround themselves with ugly things to make themselves prettier.

Looking closer at it, coloured glass decorated the outside and the building was raised up on what looked to be a man-made platform.

"A church?" Sora muttered, not quite sure what he was seeing.

"Raze it to the ground."

Sora glanced back at the church and blinked a few times. It's not like he had any reason to refuse to question his judgment, but that didn't mean he still didn't get curious every now and then.

"Can I... get a little closer?" He hesitantly asked.

They were stood away at a distance, quite a big distance. Standing at the top of a cliff, the two boys were looking down at the settlement, the weirdly empty and abandoned settlement...

"Try doing it from up here," Yuzu said encouragingly. "We don't have any time to lose."

He sounded encouraging but Sora could tell that he didn't want to waste time and wanted this to be done as quickly as possible. It was easy for Sora to destroy the church if he wanted to, but with such vague instructions, he couldn't help but second guess himself.

However, he's never done it at such a distance like this before, and he was scared he wouldn't be able to do it.

Destruction was easy for him.

Having no empathy was easy for him.

Looking down on people was easy for him.

"Make it so that people will wonder if there was anything there in the first place."

Sora grinned, happy that he got the opportunity to let loose. He took a deep breath and focused on the inner turmoil and hurricane constantly waging inside him.

The hiss and churning of winds crashed together in a howl of destruction. Sora's heart was pounding out of his chest as he focused all of his effort and energy into shredding the church to minuscule pieces, so much that all that was left was a cloud of soil.

Surprisingly, the distance wasn't a problem.

As the speeding air currents began to reach the church, wood and glass exploded in a frenzy of dust, only adding to the whizzing ball of destruction. The larger it became, the more energy it took out of him.

At this point, Sora had collapsed onto his knees, his legs unable to support the weight of his body alongside the strain of using his quirk so viciously and for such an extended amount of time.

Still, he didn't want to stop. The amount of damage his small little body would do was unbelievable, and that's what he loved so much about it.

The sound was almost deafening. It almost sounded like shards of glass scratching and sharpening one another, ready to kill. The roar itself seemed load enough to tear you to shreds, but instead, Sora only felt more empowered.

Even when the church was already razed to the ground, with the surrounding buildings taking little damage, Sora was hesitant to stop it.

If anything, he wanted his rage to fill the sky.

"Sora, that's enough."

But he barely heard him, or maybe he did and just decided to ignore him. You would have to yell as loud as you could to be heard over the wind, or else the air would carry your voice along with it.

Yuzu didn't care about the destruction, he just had a bit of a headache and the noise wasn't helping.

He threw his head back and sighed, "Destroy it all then."

Of course, Sora heard what he wanted to hear and soon enough, this entire settlement was wiped from the map.

~~~

"Ah, what a surprise," Yuzu said without a single hint of shock in his voice. "Someone survived all of that."

There was an old frail man who looked to be knocked unconscious, with an awful looking head wound. He looked to be a pastor or a priest or some kind of religious figure. Honestly, Sora couldn't tell.

Yuzu grabbed him by the collar of the robe and began to drag him along. They passed by a few other bodies who were already beyond help, they were also dressed in some kind of religious wear.

Sora gave them a passing glance, pleased that he was able to do this all on his own.

He gingerly began to open his eyes, his words coming out in incoherent babbles and slurs that would be hard to classify as words.

Still, you could see that he was terrified.

"Ah, that's right," Sora turned up to look at Yuzu. "Why did I do that?"

Yuzu began to chew his bottom lip, thinking long and hard about how he was going to word he's next few sentences, "They're like parasites. Like weeds that keep on growing back every time you burn the roots. People like this are better off not existing in the first place."

"As for the rest of the village," He glanced back at the collapsed houses, torn apart by Sora's wind. "Isn't it better to start from scratch rather than fixing something that's already broken?"

"Oh, is that how it is?"

That makes sense.

Instead of looking through the entire mechanisms, tinkering with every bit of equipment, trying to find the faulty wire or blown fuse, wouldn't it be easier to rebuild from scraps and learn from your past mistakes?

Yuzu put out his hand and a pellet of rock shot out, shattering the man's skull as if it was nothing more than jam doughnut.

Sora blinked, not believing his eyes.

Have you ever seen the inside of someone else's skull?

Better question, have you ever seen someone's skull explode so viciously and violently that brain matter and blood flood your vision, rooting you to the spot as a sickly feeling spreads throughout your body?

Sora didn't know the human body had that much blood.

No, he knew all too well.

More than the sight itself, it was the smell.

As soon as the scent reached his nostrils, it was like being hit with a tsunami.

The corpse didn't even look like a human anymore. The neck exploded like some kind of geyser, spraying red all over the ground, making it almost look like a firework.

Instead of gasping and doubling over, throwing up the contents of his lunch, Sora tried to keep a straight face and seem unaffected by it all, wanting nothing more than to finally be seen as an equal. He gulped and forced his queasiness to dissipate, "Are we done here?"

"Yes," Yuzu wiped off some blood on his face with his sleeve. "We're done."

Sora was scared to ask him what he had done.

Usually, he was intimidated by Yuzu, but seeing him like this only resulted in fear.

~~~

"You didn't even know what you were doing? LOL, what a nice, obedient, little child!"

"Shut up!" Sora hissed, "I just didn't ask because I actually believed in Yuzu and had faith in him."

Raiden paused and then carried on as if Sora hadn't said anything, "I struck a tree down to block the dam so everyone would see what was going on, then Yuzu-nii and you were meant to kill all the members of the Church."

"They were... bad people?"

"They were bad people," Raiden confirmed.

Sora breathed a sigh of relief, placing a hand over his heart. By the time they had made it back, it was already the next day, the sun slowly beginning to peek out from behind the clouds. Sora yawned, hating nothing but missing his much-needed sleep.

When they came back, Raiden was awake, waiting to hear from Yuzu like a puppy eager for attention. After a few exchanged words, Yuzu passed out almost immediately and Raiden was left wide awake which meant only one thing.

Sora wasn't going to get any sleep that night.

Raiden began to question Sora, not even giving him time to reply, "So, so, so? How as it? How was it watching Yuzu-nii at work!?"

Sora grinned, "Actually, he didn't do much."

"Whaaaaaa?"

Sora nodded, nonchalantly staring at his nails, "Because I didn't need the help. I smashed the entire place all on my own!" He huffed in achievement, his hands on his hips, "I honestly think I'm perfect. I'm cute, clever, and strong!"

"Shut your trap!" Raiden complained, feeling the need to refute him. Then, he grinned, "Oh, is that so? Says the one who had Yuzu-nii babysit him. Smh, wasting everyone's time."

"Why are you talking like that, you weirdo? Is it because your vocabulary is so poor that you now have to use abbreviations and text talk? Pffft, what a disgrace. Yuzu would be extremely disappointed."

He jumped up, slamming his hand on the table, "Says the one who took so long that I almost... fell asleep!"

"Woooooow," Sora sneered, covering his mouth with his sleeve. "So inconsiderate of Yuzu who's trying to go to sleep and here you are making a racket because your ego is as fragile as a flower. You should just stop breathing."

"So... die?"

"Exactly."

Raiden sat back down, covering his smile with his hands, "At least I'm tall enough to reach the pringles."

Sora's face flushed, his bright red face making quite the contrast with his blue hair, "Shut up, you cretin!" He screamed, "At least I didn't pee my pants when-"

"At least I don't sleepwalk like I'm still a two-year-old!"

"Yet here you are, arguing with someone four years younger than you. Grow up!"

Raiden lurched forwards and slapped his hands over Sora's mouth, "Crap. Yuzu-nii is sleeping."

While Sora heard him loud and clear, that didn't stop him from biting down on Raiden's hand, hard. "What makes you think someone like you can touch someone like me?"

Raiden winched in pain, trying to make little to no noise.

Sora smiled, "Underestimating me is the last mistake you'll make."

~~~

Raidora? Hmmmm 🤔🤔

Me: Ryuu and Todoroki will have some interaction soon I promise!
Also me: *posts another half chapter*
PLEASE DONT LEAVE I PROMISE THIS IS ACTUALLY A TODOROKI X OC

Who's ur fav out of the four.