Chapter 28 – Expectations

Mika had had enough of all the chatter in the lunch hall. Everyone was so loud and she was still trying to calm her body down from absorbing and using so much shadow energy in the last battle. Coming second in Bakugo's team meant that she was through to the next round and that meant more fighting, more stamina needed. Taking it easy and letting her body relax was what she needed. After scarfing down her lunch between Kirishima and Kaminari, she excused herself and let her legs take her on a stroll through the halls of the stadium to clear her head.

She was low key proud, that was for sure. Even though the nerves of the next round were playing on her mind, her brain trying to remember everything she had learnt so that she was as prepared as possible, she could not help the warm feeling in her stomach at the fact that she had made it further. She had made a few mistakes in both the rounds that had been and gone, and they were weighing on her, but she could feel the excitement and anticipation of advancing taking over the worry and she couldn't help the grin spread across her face.

She hoped her Brother was proud of her.

A delicate blush spread across her cheeks as she tucked a few loose curls behind her ear from where they had fallen from her bun. She knew that she would have never have been able to be where she is without her Brother. Her mind drifted, thinking back to where she would have been without him and it made her chest hurt. She had come so far and she wanted nothing more than to see her brother proud of her. Hizashi had done so much for her, taken on so much and she needed to make it up to him.

Mika carried on like that for a few minutes, deciding that she would just walk laps of the stadium till it was time for the next round. As she went, she let her hand drag along the wall, fingertips pulling at the shadows as she went, not quite absorbing them, put pulling and tugging at them a little as she went.

Rounding a corner, she found a stairwell and figured, heading back down to the UA Students area was a good idea now that she had cooled herself down, her body no longer aching as much as it was after the cavalry battle. She all but stomped down the stairs, humming a song just under her breath.

"You!" Came a sharp gravely voice. A raw heat pulsed down the stairs from behind her.

She jumped a little, her eyes faltering from black back to her usual emerald green as her fingertips retracted from pulling at the shadows and her hands moved into fists. Behind her on the stairs was a Hero she had only ever seen on the TV and heard stories about through her Brother. She eyed him, the way his beady eyes were narrowing down on her, reminded her of her Father and the way he would eye her like she was a piece of a puzzle, a part of a wider scheme that she had not aware of. She didn't like it.

"What?" She offered, putting her most unaffected expression across her face, but being in the presence of such an intimidating Hero like Endeavour did have her knees feeling a little shaken.

"You are Hizashi's kid"

"Sister" Mika corrected, watching as her blunt rectification made his left eye twitch slightly.

"Your quirk is nothing like his!" He looked her up and down and it made her skin crawl.

"No it isn't" She agreed with a hint of sarcasm laced in, she let her eyes fall back to the shadows as she turned and made her way further down the stairs, making sure to not let him see how intimidated she felt by his flames that were licking outwards from his shoulders, chest and boots. She let out her breath as she thought that was the end of that encounter when her arm was yanked back. The force made her spin back round to see Endeavour with his huge hand wrapped around her arm, eyes bearing into her own. She felt her deadpan façade falter as she tried to pull her arm out of his grip, him not budging one bit.

"You lack respect for your elder's, child!" His voice boomed through the stairwell as she just stared almost helplessly at him, she felt completely betrayed by herself at the way she was reacting, she had spent years and years building walls and barricades to avoid this kind of emotional response, and here she was almost letting out the wobbling bottom lip at a man whose eyes merely only resembled her Fathers cruel ones. Yet at the same time, this was not how Pro Heroes were supposed to act and she was completely at a loss for once in her life.

"Get off of me" She tried to sneer at him, reaching out with her other hand to start pulling at the shadows, eyes fading to black. God, now I know why Todoroki is such a dick, his Dad is a real scary piece of work…

"Where did you get your quirk from, girl?" He glared at her, the flames on his head pulsing.

"At the Seven Eleven, where else?" She snarked, her voice wavering a little.

"Endeavour!" A stern voice sounded from behind her, and she couldn't help but physically relax when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. She looked up to her professor, letting the black fade from her eyes once more. Endeavours hand immediately released her arm and she took a few steps further down away from him to create distance.

"It's been soooo long! Last time we talked was ten years ago, Right?" All Might began, and although he was greeting Endeavour like an old friend, Mika could hear the edge to his voice, and she knew to make herself scarce. She bowed in thanks to All Might and he merely winked at her before she shuffled round the corner and further down the stairs.

Once at the bottom and out of the way, she let out a shaky breath and let her back hit the wall. That was not what she had expected at all. She had always wanted to meet the top heroes, meeting All Might had been amazing. He was energetic, good and warm hearted and you could see when he was teaching that he wanted what was best for all his students. Her Brother too, he was so kind and wonderful, she imagined meeting all the top Heroes would be like that. Not Endeavour though, he was cold. No matter how hot his flames felt. There was something about the way that his eyes reminded her of her own Fathers that unsettled her and she could feel her stomach do little nervous twists.

She hated Todoroki, but she understood why he was like he was now, he had an arse hole of a Father, that's where he got it from. She lifted her arm up, where Endeavour had grabbed it and inspected her skin, almost expecting there to be a mark due to the heat rolling off him but there was nothing.

"The fuck you doin' Curly?"

"Woah!" Mika jumped out her skin again as Bakugo appeared by her elbow eyeing her funny, she immediately let her blank face fall back over her features as she let the shock settle in her stomach. Even though Bakugo would normally be the last person she would ever want to talk to, seeing him around made her feel a lot calmer. The run in with Endeavour was the most off putting and surreal experience she had had in a while and it set her on edge.

"Dude… the weirdest thing just happened to me" She tucked a loose curl behind her ear as she shot him a grimace.

She pushed off the wall and started walking towards the opening of the stadium so that they could join the rest of their class explaining to him as they went. He listened, his arms crossed and an angry sort of concentration like expression across his face. It made Mika want to tease him, but she knew better than to set him off before the next round of the festival. The stress of the situation made her talk with a slightly softer tone than she would normally speak to Bakugo, he in turn listening more than he normally did due to what he had just overheard between Deku and the half and half bastard.

They wondered over to where Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero and Ashido were stood chatting, waiting for everything to start back up again. Once they joined them, both Mika and Bakugo kept pretty quiet, just letting everyone else do the talking so that they could get stuck in their own heads.

It turned out that the final section of the sports festival was one to one battles. Names were drawn and allocated into battles that would filter winners up the ladder till there was just one star at the top.

It was going to be incredibly tough and Mika had raked her eyes over the names on the board and sighed when she saw a few names that she knew would be tough to beat. She was against Aoyama from her class first and she was fairly sure that she could best him. He had a naval laser and she knew that if he pushed himself too hard it hurt his tummy, and by the way that he had been walking around their seating area in the stadium she could tell that he wasn't doing too good already.

When she bested him, she would be up against either Yaoyoruzu or Tokoyami. She hoped that it would be Tokoyami, she had fought against him before way back in the first few lessons with All Might. He was a formidable opponent and it had been so much fun to spar with him.

Everyone apart from the first few in the line up were now sat in their allocated area. Mika was sat between Ashido and Kaminari. At first, she had just leant back in her seat and let the bubbly pink girl and the electric idiot talk over her, every now and again just nodding or shaking her head. It wasn't until she had actually started to engage in the conversation about some of the contestants from the other class that she noticed what Mina was wearing.

"Ne, Ashido-san?"

"Yeah?" The pink skinned teen nodded with her usual bright smile.

"Why are you dressed like a cheer leader?" Mika asked, cocking her head to the side in confusion. She watched as Mina sighed and a sweat drop appeared on her brow.

"Mineta lied to us and told us that Aizawa needed us to be cheer leaders… he made Momo use her quirk to make our outfits"

"That little perv…" She growled under her breath.

"There is an outfit for you here, Mika-chan" Came a creepy little broken voice from behind both girls. They turned in their seats in their spectators' section to see Mineta holding up another uniform and looking over their shoulders down towards Mina's cleavage.

Without even taking a breath, Mika swung her arm up sending her fist into his face just hard enough to knock him on his arse, she turned to him, eyes blacked out and her now loose hair falling over her face as he yelped out. The whole of Class-1A could feel the dark aura emanating from her and winced at the boy crumpled on his butt on the floor.

"Be a creep near me and Mina-Chan one more time… I dare you!" Mika snarled.

Mineta screamed a high-pitched squeal and scrambled over to the farthest seats from them.

"Thanks" Mina beamed at Mika.

"No worries"