Hello, and welcome to another fic I'm using to procrastinate on Motivation. Before you nope the fuck out because this is another one of those "Shōto has a twin that's ignored by their dad and tries to get his attention/approval", please give Snowflake a chance. Expect plot twists galore, mental health not getting ignored for once, etc.

Here's the last bit of the description that apparently went over the character limit:

"𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘪 𝘒𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘠ū𝘦𝘪 𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘰."

Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy :)

•❅────✧❅✦❅✧────❅•

In the dim light of a desk lamp, a teenaged boy in rumpled blue pajamas scanned through the hastily completed application packet. He ran a hand through his half-spiked red hair and muffled a yawn, not wanting to wake up his sister in the next room over.

The walls were thin in traditional Japanese houses, leaving no room for secrets that weren't hushed.

The boy squinted turquoise eyes down at the last page, finding that the only fields he hadn't filled out yet were the lines for a parent or guardian's signature, their phone number, and email address.

He swapped out his blue pen for a black one without hesitation and signed his father's name with firm yet smooth strokes. The other two fields were filled in moments later in the same handwriting and color.

A tired smirk curled at his lips at the completion of the high school application, all filled out without even having to involve the man that would never let him attend in a thousand years.

Not that it really mattered. If there was anything that Todoroki Kento was good at, it was forging his father's signature and faking his handwriting.

Now all Kento had to worry about was deleting the inevitable email the school would eventually send his father. It was a good thing that the man sparingly checked his personal inbox. If he hadn't, he'd also be wondering why the credit card company was auto-sending confirmation messages regarding items he hadn't purchased.

Fuyumi did the best she could, but Kento couldn't always rely on his older sister when he needed something. It wasn't like his father actually cared whether or not he had clothes on his back or school supplies.

No.

He was too busy spending the little time he spent at home training Shōto to surpass All Might.

Too busy to the point where none of his other children mattered.

Kento flipped the packet shut with sudden resolve flooding through his veins. He tucked it into the open folder beside the papers and slipped it back in his backpack so he wouldn't forget it in the morning.

No matter what challenges the entrance exams presented, he was going to win.

He was going to win and get into Yūei High, no matter what it took to make it there.

•❅────✧❅✦❅✧────❅•

Kento reached a hand behind him and waited until he felt the stack of paper on his palm. When he did, he added his single application to the pile and passed it to the final student in his row.

He slouched in his seat when the teacher collected the final stacks from all five rows, condensing them into one pile and placing them on her desk.

The woman sat down and began sorting through the applications, raising her eyebrows at a few names.

Finally, when she had finished skimming, she looked up to address the class. "For those of you who only submitted one application, please reconsider signing up for backup schools."

Kento felt her deliberate look of disappointment burning into him, specifically. He met her gaze evenly and with a challenging look in his eyes, daring her to call him out on applying to the high school in Japan with the lowest acceptance rate.

Even so, the brown-haired woman had been teaching unruly teenagers for decades. She merely moved on to the other three students who hadn't turned in more than one, not fazed in the slightest.

It was times like these that reminded Kento that most of his teachers weren't easily intimidated like others his own age. As far as they were concerned, he was just another kid with issues with authority.

That was fine with him. He didn't care about any of them or their opinions regarding his decisions. Indifference, whether feigned or real, was a powerful weapon and Kento wielded it expertly.

The rest of school went by just as any other day. Kento dutifully took notes in the classes he'd need them in, copying down anything and everything written down or projected on the board. During lunch, he began the homework from his morning classes and knocked out a good portion.

Less time spent on homework meant more time for training.

That afternoon, he had a math test. Kento breezed through the problems with ease, only really stopping to think for a second on two problems.

Even if he didn't have a personal tutor like Shōto, he never got less than straight A's on any homework assignment or exam. The only reason Kento ever got points off in any subject was in math, and solely for not showing all of his work or accidentally forgetting a sign.

As far as academics were concerned, stupid mistakes were his biggest problem. A problem that Kento needed to get under control in order to finally reach one-hundred percent in all his classes.

Deep down, he knew that scoring perfectly in school wouldn't magically make his father at least glance at him. Kento didn't even know if his father even looked at his grades, or if he just didn't care.

•❅────✧❅✦❅✧────❅•

"I swear, my professors are trying to kill me," Natsuo groaned over the video call, running his hands down his face in exhaustion. Ever the image of an overworked medical student, the broad-shouldered Todoroki was eating boxed ramen at his desk, doing homework, and calling his family at the same time. "I have the voice-to-text feature on my phone copy down the lectures so I can just listen, but one hour turns into eighty freakin' pages!"

Kento raised his eyebrows at the large number, shifting his laptop a bit further towards Fuyumi so she could have a better angle. Both siblings were seated with folded legs at the traditional low table and eating dinner together, just like every night. This time it was hot soba.

"That's a lot," his sister commented, sounding both impressed and terrified at the same time. "Good luck reading through it."

"Just use control F to find keywords," Kento suggested, stating his third-favorite keyboard shortcut. It lost to the copy-paste feature, but just barely.

Natsuo grinned wryly, running a hand through his spiky white hair. "Yeah, I probably should do that instead of taking two hours to read through it. At least then maybe I could figure out what's going on."

The youngest of the three smiled briefly at his brother before pulling back, focusing on eating to allow his siblings some time to talk about... life, he guessed. Fuyumi gave Natsuo tips for college, even if she'd gone to get a teaching degree for elementary school and he was studying medical welfare. College was still college.

A minute or two passed before Natsuo finally directly asked him a question. "So, Kento, what high school did ya apply to? Applications were due today, right?"

The redhead leaned forward, shoulders hunched over in the epitome of terrible posture. "Arutravi High," he lied blandly, listing one of the better local schools. It was regarded well for its academics, especially its college prep courses. "Two back-ups, but I'll get in."

Fuyumi laughed. "I wish I had your confidence. Maybe then I would've gotten in all those years ago," she admitted, rubbing the back of her neck.

"You make it sound like you're old or something, sis," Natsuo snickered, muffling a yawn while continuing to work on homework off-camera. His smile faded a bit, but he asked his next question regardless of how he might feel about it. "Shōto's going to Yūei, right?"

Kento's expression shuttered at the mention of his twin and his grip on his chopsticks tightened involuntarily. "Yes," he replied, barely succeeding in keeping the resentment out of his tone. "He still has to take the exams, but father believes he'll get in."

Of course he did. Shōto never failed in anything, unlike the rest of the family. Out of all of them, Tōya had been the closest to fulfilling their father's goals. Up until he'd burned in an inferno of his own flames.

The next-oldest, Fuyumi, had a weak iteration of their mother's Quirk since it had been diminished by their father's fire. Natsuo was the same, only a bit stronger. Neither of them used it.

As for Kento... he couldn't even make ice, let alone fire.

But Shōto... he had a perfect balance, half-fire and half-ice. He'd succeeded where Tōya had failed.

Where Kento had failed.

He supposed they both paid the price for it. Tōya was burned by his own fire, so rather than training him to better protect himself from it, Endeavor cast him aside in favor of Shōto. Kento's Quirk didn't live up to his expectations, either, despite being twins with the golden child. So just like all his older siblings, he was forgotten like a piece of garbage.

•❅────✧❅✦❅✧────❅•

The day after his application was sent in, Kento upped the intensity of his training and spent every spare moment preparing for the exams. He had nine-and-a-half months to get ready.

He couldn't just pass, either. Kento needed an indisputable win on both the written and physical portions of the exam. Even if wouldn't be against Shōto for either, starting off high school as the leader of the regular hero students was a must. Kento didn't need anyone standing in his way of beating his father's obsession.

The redhead blew out a breath of irritation, shifting the coals beneath his criss-crossed legs to further stir up the fire. It still wasn't hot enough.

"I can go higher!"

"You sure, Ken? It's pretty hot already..."

"Yeah. I can do it!"

Kento gritted his teeth at the memories that resurfaced while he was among the flames. Memories of Tōya helping him improve his resistance to fire while he increased his own power.

Memories of older and younger Todoroki brothers trying to grasp at a dream that would never come true so long as Shōto remained the center of their father's attention.

"Damn it," he cursed, running a hand down his face with more force than necessary. Kento couldn't stop the images from flashing into his mind no matter how much he tried.

He got back to his feet in frustration, charred wood crumbling beneath his bare feet and fire licking at his specialized pants. Was there even a point in trying to improve his resistance further?

Kento couldn't help but wonder if he even could improve any more as he stepped out of the fire and into the ring of dirt surrounding the stone-lined pit. He grabbed his shirt from where he'd slung it over a nearby branch and pulled it over his head, then shoved on his socks and shoes.

If the redhead stayed too long out in the woods, Fuyumi would get suspicious of what was taking him so long to come back from a 'hike'. The last time that'd happened, their father just so happens to be home and also got suspicious.

Kento barely had time to scramble out of the fire, put the rest of his clothes back on, and pretend to be roasting marshmallows on a stick. He'd originally brought them to keep the Tō Training Tradition, but...

His father had left in a huff of hot air the second he'd stumbled upon his son making s'mores, muttering about kids not knowing what's good for them. The Tradition worked, even if there was only one person left to partake in it and its purpose had partially changed.

At least now Kento had an excuse for smelling like smoke whenever he got home from his 'hikes'. Fuyumi and his father just brushed it off as him being a weirdo alone in the woods instead of jumping to the conclusion that he was a chain smoker or something.

It wasn't like anyone in his family even knew about his resistance to changes in temperature. Kento didn't plan on telling anyone, either. As far as anyone else knew, he just had a mild resistance to the cold due to his Quirk.

There was always a time and place for everything, and the reveal that might finally set Todoroki Kento above his twin wasn't to happen until later. Any future in which he became the victor over Shōto demanded it.

How was chapter one? Too many page breaks for my taste, but we established a goal and the motivation behind it and inter-familial relationships. 

It's also kind of obvious, but any guesses as to what Kento's Quirk is? Potential attributes?