A/N: yoooo, what's up my dudes? i'm back with more word vomit according to that one reviewer lmao. are my feelings a little hurt? yes. do i think it's kinda funny? ...also yes. but on a more serious note, please be kind when leaving reviews, no matter what story it is. if i'd gotten a review like that when i was a little younger, i'd be crushed. i'd probably stop writing altogether. anyway! we're wrapping up the quirk testing this chapter, i can't believe it took two. oops. i'll be picking up the pace a little after this. hope y'all enjoy! thanks for being here!
'Really, Aizawa-sensei?' Hinami thought, resisting the urge to roll her eyes as she stared down at the note in her hands, the one he'd given her to take to the nurse. It simply read, 'GOT ELECTROCUTED,' in surprisingly neat capital letters. The trio of students had arrived at the infirmary a couple minutes prior, only to find it abandoned. Perhaps the nurse attended opening ceremonies, not expecting students to get injured in the first hour of the first school day. Hinami was just lucky like that. So instead, they took seats in the row of chairs outside the office, patiently waiting for her return. Though some of them waited more gracefully than others.
"What does your note say?" Hinami asked abruptly, interrupting Kaminari's stream of chatter and waving her note in his face—though she had to lean across Kirishima to do so. He'd wisely taken the middle seat.
"Huh? …oh, I dunno," Kaminari dug around in his pockets, searching for the note sensei had given him. He eventually fished out a crumpled ball and reached across Kirishima to hand it to her.
Hinami eagerly reached out for the note, curiosity burning her up. Just as she almost had it in her grasp, Kirishima's hand wrapped around her wrist and gently, though firmly, moved it away from Kaminari.
"You two are bad at this," Kirishima sighed reproachfully, plucking the note out of Kaminari's hand and passing it to Hinami himself. "You aren't supposed to touch, remember?"
"Oh… yeah, that's right," Hinami said dismissively, hastily uncrumpling the note and straightening it out. She barked a laugh, rolling her eyes at the simple message scratched across it. 'DID THE ELECTROCUTING.' Sensei was something else, that was for sure. And she'd known him for a grand total of thirty minutes.
At their curious looks, she smirked and held up both notes for them to see. Kirishima snorted through his nose and shook his head.
Kaminari facepalmed, aggressively. "Really, sensei?"
"That's what I said!" Hinami snickered.
"Oh goodness!" a wispy voice tutted, drawing the trio's attention. At the end of the hall was an elderly woman with her hair pulled up in a tight bun, white lab coat wrapped around her tiny frame. And was that a giant syringe she was using as a cane? In her other had she held a saucer and a teacup. "Already? School's only been in session for an hour," she chastised as she hustled over to them.
Hinami winced, "Sorry, ma'am."
"It's alright, dearie, let's just get you three inside and checked out!" Recovery Girl said, swiftly pushing the door to the infirmary open and ushering them in. They obediently trailed in after her, offering up their notes from sensei, even though they weren't very elaborate.
"Electrocuted?" she repeated, setting her tea down on her desk and motioning to the hospital-style bed next to it. "Go ahead and have a seat, dearie, let's get you fixed up. Can you tell me how exactly it happened?"
Hinami sank onto the crinkly, paper covered bed (which was surprisingly low to the ground, her feet didn't even dangle), as Recovery Girl bustled around, pulling files out of her desk. Hinami caught sight of the tab '1-A' on one of them. "It was an accident," she began, avoiding Kaminari's gaze as he was once again giving her wounded puppy eyes. "We had just finished the fifty-meter dash and he went to shake my hand and accidentally… well, shocked me." So maybe she'd fudged the details a little, but it was close enough.
"I see," Recovery Girl said, closing the file she'd pulled out of her desk and opening a different one. She skimmed over it briefly, murmuring softly to herself. Once she was done, she snapped it shut and rolled over to Hinami on her chair, pulling a stethoscope out of her pocket as she did so. Even though the bed was low, Recovery Girl still had to stand up on her rolling chair to reach over and press the freezing stethoscope to Hinami's chest. She listened for about half a minute before she was satisfied.
"Kaminari-kun, has your Quirk ever gone off accidentally before?" she asked, rolling over to make a note in her file.
"No ma'am!" Kaminari denied, shaking his head vehemently. "I have really good control over my Quirk, I haven't accidentally shocked anyone since I was just a kid!" he said earnestly. "I-I know my Quirk can be really dangerous, so I've always been really careful. I don't know why that happened, I promise!" he rushed out, sweat dripping down his frighteningly pale face.
Hinami blinked in surprise, a little caught off guard by the torrent of guilt and sincerity. Had it really been tearing him up that badly? She assumed he was just shaken up by Shoto's intimidation. She shot a questioning look at Kirishima, who shrugged and mouthed, 'I dunno,' at her.
"It's alright, dearie, just breathe deeply for me," Recovery Girl soothed, hopping off her chair to pat the blonde's hand. "You're not in trouble, we're just trying to figure out what happened."
"O-Okay," Kaminari said meekly, allowing her to drag him over to the hospital bed on the other side of her desk. She covertly slipped a lollipop into his hand as she did so. Hinami pretended not to notice, though she'd be awfully put out if she didn't get one by the end.
"Alright," Recovery Girl said a couple minutes later, sitting back into her chair after she'd checked both students out to her satisfaction and made the appropriate notes in their files. "Kaminari-kun, fortunately there seems to be nothing wrong with your Quirk. I'd have to run some more tests to be certain, but it appears to be just a bad reaction between the two of you. Unfortunate Quirk matchups like this happen, occasionally," she explained, picking up her teacup and taking a long sip, then frowning down at the lukewarm liquid. She sighed and set it aside, pushing it away from her.
"There's a chance that it may have only happened since your heartrate was up, Kaminari-kun. But I'd still advise against any type of contact between the two of you, in any case. It seems as though Todoroki-chan's Quirk predisposes her to be more sensitive to electricity," she finished, shaking her head.
Well, shit. That didn't sound good. So basically, she was so weak to electricity that she'd forcefully drawn Kaminari's Quirk out.
"Our romance subplot was too short lived," Kaminari sniffled, pretending to wipe a tear. "We're going to disappoint the fans."
"I think the fans will live," Hinami grumbled as she rolled her eyes, too busy mulling over the implications to properly rise to the bait. If her weakness to electricity was as bad as it seemed, that was one hell of an easy thing to exploit. If word got out that she could be taken out by a taser… well, she'd have a short and bloody hero career. Villains wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of that knowledge. What did this mean? Was it something she could build a tolerance to?
"Todoroki-chan, I'll go ahead and heal up the contusions on your abdomen as well as any muscle aches you have. You might be a bit tired, but there's no reason you shouldn't be able to return to class," Recovery Girl said, finishing up a note and handing it back to Hinami.
"Thank you," she said, taking the note and slipping it into her pocket.
"Mwah! Mwah! Mwah!" Recovery Girls' lips smacked as she advanced on Hinami, who squeaked and flinched as the older woman pressed a kiss onto her cheek. Warmth, fluffy and soft like fresh pancakes, washed through her, gently coaxing her aches and pains away. Hinami giggled at the unexpected sensation, though she immediately snapped her mouth shut and cleared her throat, locking her eyes on the tile in front of her. She felt great though! What did Recovery Girl mean about feeling tired?
In the background, Hinami was only vaguely aware of Recovery Girl speaking to Kaminari. That wasn't important enough to tune in to. She had bigger questions. With such a blinding weakness, did she still have a shot at being a hero? It was as simple as stupid Pokemon type weaknesses, the most obvious flaw a water user could have. And she had it bad. Shoto didn't have an Achilles heel like that. He didn't have any weaknesses at all. And now, because she's so damn weak, she can't even touch one of her classmates.
Everyone's going to know. She can't even keep it a secret.
"Are you ready to go?" Kirishima asked, holding his hand out to her.
"Hmm?" Hinami blinked, finally looking up from the patterned floor tile she'd been staring at. She was starting to make out a little sailboat in the flecked pattern.
"C'mon, Space Case," Kaminari laughed, waving his patched-up hand at her. "We're done here."
"Oh… okay," Hinami breathed, still a little stunned. Without thinking, she took Kirishima's hand and allowed him to tug her off the infirmary bed, shuffling along behind him. Before they left, they thanked Recovery Girl again.
Should she be… making backup plans for when she failed as a hero? Was her career over before it even started? Her eyes stung and she sucked in a sharp, pained breath at the thought. Father really was wasting his time training her. Just as he'd insisted all along. Maybe she was lucky he even bothered since it was useless now. Maybe she should be more grateful, like he said.
Could he have predicted she'd have such a glaring weakness? Was that why he always picked Shoto?
"You feelin' okay, Space Case?" Kaminari asked around the lollipop in his mouth, popping up in front of her.
Hinami blinked at his sudden appearance, though managed to keep her composure. "I didn't get a lollipop," she said, instead of what she was actually thinking. 'That and my hero career is already in shambles.'
"I've got 'em!" Kirishima said, holding out two wrapped lollipops with a proud grin. "Blue or yellow?"
Hinami gasped, perking up immediately. "Blue! But only if it's blue raspberry and none of that cotton candy crap."
"Ah, sorry, it's blueberry," Kirishima laughed. "The yellow one is pineapple."
"Pineapple please," she said, greedily snatching the lollipop from him and ripping the wrapper off. She paused just short of shoving the sweet into her mouth, guiltily looking up at Kirishima. "What's your favorite?" she asked, though her mouth watered like a dog at the dinner table as she slowly lowered the sucker.
"Heh, I like blueberry just fine," he shrugged, though he looked terribly amused. His lips were quirked up at the corners, eyebrows raised.
"You sure?" Hinami pressed, threateningly raising the lollipop to her mouth. "Last chance!"
"I'm sure," he grinned, flashing his pointed teeth at her. "My favorite is green apple."
Hinami hummed a vague affirmative as she popped the sweet into her mouth, smiling at the flood of sugar and artificial pineapple across her tongue. The rest of the walk back to the gym was quiet, but the good kind of quiet. She couldn't help but wonder about Tatsumi, hopefully she was doing okay. Hinami didn't have too many worries, since Tatsumi was the more social of the two. Still… She did worry a little. But Tatsumi could charm a rabid badger given half the chance and a little bit of time. She had charmed Hinami, after all. A much younger, much different Hinami.
Kaminari flung the gym doors open with a dramatic bang, sauntering through like he paid the bills. After an entrance like that, all eyes were on them. Hinami sighed and shuffled in behind him, swirling her nearly gone lollipop around in her mouth, clicking it against her teeth. She only barely resisted the urge to crunch the rest of it under the scrutiny. Kirishima was completely unaffected, trotting in ahead of her.
"You're back," Aizawa-sensei greeted blandly, beckoning them over.
"Here, sensei," Hinami presented the note from Recovery Girl, covertly glancing around the gym and trying to take stock. Honestly, they mostly seemed to be goofing off and comparing their grip strength scores on the little grey devices. She was pretty sure there was a proper name for them, but she certainly didn't know what it was.
Aizawa-sensei scanned the note quickly and sighed, "Alright," he said, pulling another of the grey squeezy boxes out of his pocket and handing it over. "Take a dynamometer, it'll send your result to my phone. You three will have to share."
Dynamometer, huh? Neat.
Hinami took it from him and turned to shrug at Kaminari and Kirishima, only to squeak and jump a foot in the air as she came eye to eye with Shoto… er, rather eye to chin with Shoto. That jerk hit his growth spurt harder than she had and now he loomed over her roughly half a foot, maybe more. And he was quiet as a cat.
"What did Recovery Girl say?" he asked, taking no notice of scaring ten years off her life. Except for that self-satisfied little gleam in his eyes.
Hinami exhaled slowly, refraining from pressing a hand to her heart as it would only amuse him further. "Bad Quirk matchup," she said, shrugging. "Me and Kaminari aren't supposed to touch, he might shock me again."
"It wasn't on purpose," Kaminari defended weakly, giving Shoto a shifty eyed glance.
"Tell that to my brain damage," Hinami deadpanned.
"Brain damage?" Shoto repeated, voice low and toneless. His mismatched gaze ever so slowly drifted over to Kaminari.
"She's kidding!" Kaminari squeaked, frantically waving his hands in front of his face as if it would protect him. "She's just… so funny!" he laughed nervously, sweat starting to bead on his forehead.
"I'm fine, Sho," she snickered, though she'd have preferred to let Kaminari sweat a little longer. "Recovery Girl fixed me up. No brain damage," she reassured, though couldn't wipe the smirk off her face.
"Ah," Shoto muttered, his gaze slid off Kaminari and refocused on the dynamometer in his grasp, absently clenching his fingers around it.
Hinami turned her attention to the device in her own hands, wrapping her fingers around it and squeezing with everything she had. The numbers on the screen lit up her score, a lousy 49psi. She frowned down at the blinking numbers, disappointed. Her Quirk really wouldn't help her in this test, to be honest. There weren't many Quirks she could think of that would be particularly helpful in this instance. Except strength enhancing Quirks, or maybe heteromorphic types with a higher baseline for strength.
Still… it was disappointing. She'd never measured her grip strength before, but this felt like a letdown. Especially when she heard someone shouting about another kid getting a score of 540psi. She grumbled under her breath, shooting a surly look around the room to find out who'd gotten that score. Off to the side of the gym were a couple of huddled boys, chattering excitedly over the dynamometer. The tallest of them seemed to be the one responsible, the student from earlier with six webbed arms. He had managed to wrap three hands around the handle.
Well, of course he'd have an incredible score if he could use the strength of three hands. But even if there were three, his grip strength with just one hand was well above her own score. Did the strength compound? He was well muscled, though not quite as much as her father, and he was already towering over most of the other students.
"You gonna let the rest of us have a turn, Space Case?" Kaminari interrupted her train of thought, popping a hand on his hip.
"Don't call me that, Duracell!" Hinami snapped back, feeling her cheeks start to heat up. "I was just thinking..." she muttered, defensively holding the device closer.
"Can I go next, Todoroki?" Kirishima asked, drawing her attention.
"A-Ah, yeah… sorry," she said, dejectedly handing it over. Her Quirk wasn't useful for this test and she'd given her best the first time. There wasn't really any need to try again. Frustrated, she raked a hand through her hair, finger combing out the tangles from the fifty-meter dash. What a pain in the ass. She'd really expected better of herself, especially after the hellish training she'd been doing over the last couple months. Quite frankly, she didn't even want to know what score Shoto had gotten. Just because she'd gotten a slight edge over him in the first test didn't mean that she'd retain that edge.
And the worst part was that he didn't even see her as competition. He wasn't worried in the slightest.
If only there was some way to use her Quirk to help… But how? She'd probably just break it if she tried to bubble it. And even if it didn't break when she bubbled it and squeezed, would that force even register? Ugh.
"Daaaamn, dude!" Kaminari whistled, "Maybe you really are a gorilla."
Hinami perked up, twirling back around to face them, cocking her head to the side as she made eye contact with Kirishima. He chuckled somewhat sheepishly, holding up the screen for her to read. But the screen wasn't what caught her attention.
She gasped excitedly, thoughtlessly reaching out to touch the back of his hand. It had a strange, rough texture. Like fine grit sandpaper, but warmer, as if it had been left out in the sun. "Your skin!" she said, smiling slightly as she poked the back of his hand. It had no give at all, unlike regular flesh. His fingers appeared to be roughly carved out of rock, but not in the same way as marble statues, which were smooth. Instead, they were rocky and jagged and ended in wicked points—almost like claws. "I bet it'd really hurt if you punched someone. Have you ever tried? That's so cool, I wish I had a Quirk like this," she gushed, cupping his hand in both of hers, dynamometer and all, turning it this way and that to get a better look.
"Oh, um, kinda? But mostly only robots," Kirishima laughed nervously, his cheeks pinking.
Hinami blinked, dropping his hand immediately and scuttling backwards. She cleared her throat and rubbed her palms on her gym pants, "Sorry."
"You really think my Quirk's cool…?" he asked, ignoring her apology and rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well, yeah… of course," she nodded, though she felt kind of silly. She shouldn't have touched him without asking. And she shouldn't have gotten so excited. Hopefully she hadn't overstepped too far, she'd hate to make him uncomfortable. "I wish I could punch harder," she sighed wistfully, daydreaming of having Kirishima's Quirk. Oh right, she still owed him a jacket, didn't she? Maybe she could ask the design department at the agency for—
"You do a lot of punching, Space Case?" Kaminari asked tauntingly, his eyebrows quirked.
Hinami's expression dropped and her teeth clenched, a muscle in her jaw jumping. "Not as much as I'd like, that bastard's too fast," she huffed under her breath, glaring down at the polished gym floor. Seriously, how was he so damn fast? He was basically a sentient brick wall. Though at least the brick wall would be good company. Would it kill him to let her get a hit in every once and a while? He beat on her to his heart's content, but noooo, he couldn't let her get a punch in edgewise. Prick.
Even though Recovery Girl had healed it, she could still imagine the bruise on her stomach. Deep purple and navy swirled through the center, like a galaxy pressed into her skin. Sallow green and yellow stars spun out from the edges, fading out into nothing. It had hurt like a bitch. Not to mention she'd almost puked, which was always nasty. If she had Kirishima's Quirk… He'd have broken his hand on her. What would it feel like to turn the tables on him?
Good, probably.
"I've got it!" Kaminari exclaimed, easily shattering the tension with a snap of his fingers. "Our romantic subplot isn't over yet, the writers are just setting us up as tragic, star crossed lovers!"
Hinami jumped as he shocked her out of her musings, eyes snapping up to his face as she belatedly processed his words. "Still going on about that, Duracell?" she asked, though the corner of her mouth lifted into a halfhearted smile. "I'm not going to call you Romeo, if that's what you're after."
"Dang it," Kaminari sighed, shoulders slumping overdramatically. "It was worth a shot." Though he perked up quickly enough as Kirishima patted him on the back.
The rest of the tests passed quickly after the initial excitement, though there were a couple that didn't really suit her Quirk, such as the flexibility test. Thankfully she was naturally limber. For the most part, she felt good about her scores. She'd aced the standing long jump, using her water to throw herself across the sandpit. She had plenty of practice with it thanks to jumping the fence during training with father. Though this type of jumping was more about distance than height, it still translated well. Same thing with the side steps, all she had to do use her water to slide herself back and forth. Endurance running was so much fun, too. She'd always loved running, especially when it wasn't a full-out sprint.
She completely cheesed the pull ups, though. Aizawa-sensei didn't say anything, but there were a couple of dissenting voices when she'd easily blown past fifty pull ups using her water as a platform to raise and lower herself above the bar. Aizawa-sensei eventually had to step in and stop her himself, seeing as she showed no signs of slowing down as she neared one hundred pull ups. Ha! Suck it, Shoto.
Though she was disappointed in her softball throwing score, a pitiful 417.9 meters, according to sensei's phone screen. Well, 'thrown' wasn't exactly the right word to describe it, since she'd bubbled it and floated it out that far. It was harder than she thought it would be, seeing as she was pretty sure she'd thrown Yamamai further than that in the exam. And that was while she had to concentrate on not drowning them. But today, getting it even that far had taken more concentration and effort than almost anything else had. Even still, Bakugou had thrown it nearly three hundred meters further. And wasn't that a kick in the ass? Especially since she knew she could've done better. Actually, forget about Bakugou, somehow Uraraka had somehow gotten a score of infinity. Fucking infinity. That was incredible.
Hinami scowled and shoved her hands in her pockets, shuffling back over to the group and allowing the next person in line to step up to chalk circle. Aizawa-sensei pulled another softball from his pocket and handed it over to Midoriya under Hinami's suspicious, hawk-like gaze. Damn sensei and double damn his Mary Poppins pockets and sleeping bag. He certainly wasn't retrieving each and every softball, nope. He just grabbed a new one. I'm onto you and your space-warping Quirk, sensei.
"Good job, Todoroki!" Ashido congratulated, popping up in Hinami's face.
"Thanks," she said, recoiling slightly at the close quarters.
Ashido didn't seem to notice, however. "You threw it so far! Man, I wish I could control my acid like that!" she sighed, though she smiled while she said it.
"What?" Hinami blinked, words pouring out of her mouth before she could second guess them. "No way! Your Quirk is already super cool, Ashido. You could burn the hands off anyone that touches you, and that's pretty badass. Plus your skin is probably super tough since it builds a natural resistance to your acid!" she said excitedly, eyes bright.
"Well, shucks!" Ashido laughed, bumping shoulders with Hinami. "When you put it that way, I guess it is pretty cool."
Hinami blushed, clearing her throat after her word-vomit. "No problem," she muttered, whirling around to face sensei to avoid further embarrassing herself. In the chalk circle up ahead, Midoriya was thoughtfully rolling the softball in his hands, as if he were testing its weight.
"Midoriya's not doing very well," Iida commented to no one in particular, though his blunt statement was tempered by his soft tone. He actually sounded a little regretful.
"Yeah, no shit!" Bakugou scoffed, "A Quirkless nobody has no business being here."
Hinami's ears perked at the word Quirkless, a thoughtful frown on her lips. How on earth had a Quirkless student made it into the hero course? Bakugou had to be mistaken. Sometimes Quirkless students were admitted into other courses, such as the business and support courses. But in the hero course? It didn't seem possible. Though… interestingly, she hadn't seen any hint of what Midoriya's Quirk could be all day. Bakugou didn't have to be such a douchebag though, his wording was unnecessarily harsh. She could only hope Midoriya himself hadn't heard.
"You must not have heard about his accomplishments in the entrance exam," Iida said, shaking his head. "Midoriya certainly isn't Quirkless."
"Hah?!" Bakugou snarled, "Whaddaya mean, four eyes? He's always been a Quirkless runt!"
Hinami shook her head, doing her best to tune out their conversation. She turned her attention back to the test in front of her just in time to watch as Midoriya reared back and flung the softball with every scrap of power he had…
Only for it to drop straight to the ground, bouncing a couple times before rolling to a stop.
Hinami winced in secondhand embarrassment, averting her eyes from his crestfallen expression. Ouch. He'd only thrown it 46 meters. That had to sting. Poor kid was probably going home. It was evident that he knew he was going home too, by the horrified way he stared down at his shaking hands.
"I erased your Quirk," Aizawa-sensei explained, his hair and scarf floating around his shoulders. His eyes were glowing red like before… when he'd helped after Kaminari shocked her. "Someone like you should've never been allowed into UA, the judges were not rational enough."
Damn! Sensei wasn't pulling any punches. Poor Midoriya.
"Wait, you did what to my—Oh! Those goggles… " Midoriya said, his head tilted to the side thoughtfully as he stared at the strange yellow goggles around Aizawa-sensei's neck. "You're Eraserhead. Aren't you? You can look at someone and cancel their Quirk."
Well… shit. There went her theory about sensei's Quirk.
"Eraser-who?" Kirishima asked in a stage-whisper.
"I think I've heard of him before, he's a pro hero," Asui said, finger pressed to her chin. "He avoids the media though, stays on the down-low. Ribbit."
"You're not ready!" sensei said sternly, his scarf whipping around him like an agitated cat tail. "You can't control your power. Were you going to break your bones again? Counting on someone else to save your broken body?"
"N-No! That's not what I was—" Midoriya's voice cut off as sensei's floating scarf snapped out and ensnared him, yanking the trembling boy closer.
"No matter what you were planning, you're only a burden on those around you if you can't even throw a single punch without shattering your arms! If your fellow heroes can't depend on you, you're worthless in battle," Aizawa-sensei pressed on viciously, even as distressed tears welled up in Midoriya's eyes. "With your Quirk, there's no way you can be a hero."
Hinami flinched at the ruthless wording, shuffling uncomfortably as her heart clenched in her chest. That was entirely unnecessary. Did he really have to phrase it that way? Calling him worthless was just… too far. She could almost hear the poor kid's heart shattering from where she was. Though Bakugou snorted and rocked back on his heels, smugly crossing his arms and smirking as Sensei tore into Midoriya. He was… enjoying it.
"I've returned your Quirk," sensei said flatly, withdrawing his scarf and turning his back on Midoriya's distressed form. "Hurry up and take your final throw. Get it over with."
Hinami's hands drifted up unconsciously, twirling the ends of her bangs through her fingers as an icky, sour feeling curdled her stomach. Midoriya was going home. She didn't know him, but… Sensei's public dressing down had made her sick. It was cruel to tear into him like that in front of everyone. Even if sensei believed what he was saying, there was no reason he couldn't have said it in private.
A sharp crack! echoed through the field, Hinami's bangs fluttering away from her face as an aggressive breeze whooshed past her. She gasped as her eyes locked onto the tiny speck of the softball, soaring across the sky. Had… Midoriya done that? He was slumped over, clutching desperately at his wrist and trembling like from head to toe.
"Did you see that, Sho?!" she asked, covering her eyes as she squinted at the sky. Shoto didn't reply with words, only giving an affirmative hum from beside her. He hadn't been interested in anything besides side eyeing Kaminari and proactively arranging himself between the two of them, no matter how close or far the other boy was. Dork.
"I… I did it, sensei!" Midoriya said defiantly, fire in his bright green eyes even as they watered with pain. "I'm not broken! I can still move!"
"This kid!" sensei chortled with a shocked grin, the first happy expression she'd seen on him all day. The expression seemed foreign and stiff on him somehow. He certainly wouldn't be getting laugh lines anytime soon, that was for sure.
Hinami gave a startled laugh, an impressed smirk spreading across her lips as sensei's phone lit up with the numbers '706.3.' He did it! He actually did it! But… damn it, he beat her score too. Actually… he beat everyone but Uraraka, come to think of it.
"Woo! Nice one, Deku!" Uraraka cheered, pumping her fists in the air. "That's an amazing score!"
"What a strange Quirk," Iida said, adjusting his glasses. "He got the second-best score, but it appears he's broken his finger."
Bakugou didn't have anything to say about that. In fact, he looked like he'd been punched in the gut. His jaw hung open and his eyes were big as saucers, bugged halfway out of his skull like he'd just attended a funeral where the corpse hopped out of the casket and did a jig.
But Bakugou's shock wore off in the next heartbeat, explosions crackling through the air as he propelled himself across the field, shrieking like a banshee all the while. "What the fuck was that?! Explain yourself, fucking DEKU! Tell me how you did that or you're dead meat!" Just as he closed in on Midoriya, sensei's tactical scarf snapped out and jerked him to a dead stop, looped around his chest and face. Hinami nearly snickered at Bakugou's stunned expression, the loop around his face had smushed it into an even more demented scowl than usual.
"Stand down," sensei commanded, biceps flexing as he pulled the cloth taut.
"How—How's your damn scarf so strong?!" Bakugou growled, though it was muffled as the scarf tugged his lips with how hard he was pulling against it. Like a dog nearly choking themselves out at the end of a leash.
"It's a capture weapon made of carbon fiber and a special metal alloy," sensei explained, giving the capture weapon a sharp yank and causing Bakugou to stumble back a couple steps—or otherwise wrench his fool head off his damn shoulders. Sensei obviously had no more fucks to give about silly things such as whiplash. "It would be wise to avoid making me use my Quirk so much!" sensei advised, giving another tug on the scarf to punctuate his point. "It gives me serious dry eye!"
Bakugou stumbled back a couple more steps as Sensei recalled his scarf. He didn't move towards Midoriya again though, head bowed.
"Next up is Mineta," sensei said blandly, slumping back over and shuffling away as if that encounter had drained the life out of him. "Let's hurry and wrap this up," he grouched, pulling a little bottle of eyedrops out of his never-ending pockets. If she weren't so annoyed with him, Hinami would sympathize with the dry eye thing. Her Quirk made her eyes really dry too, though she especially hated it when it made her lips crack. The cracks took forever to heal and broke open all the time, no thanks to her lip-biting habit. At least the nose bleeding side effect was just annoying, rather than painful.
Midoriya squeaked and inched away from Bakugou's stunned figure, careful not to turn his back on the volatile boy as though he were an uncaged tiger. Which was probably a wise decision, considering the events of today. Well, at least her spectacle with Kaminari wasn't the only ridiculous thing to happen. That did make her feel better, if only a little. She should thank Midoriya for that.
"Ouch!" Uraraka said sympathetically, hovering over Midoriya as he rejoined the group. "That looks like it really hurts."
"A-Ah no, it's fine," Midoriya whimpered, giving a watery smile as his face flushed bright red. Hinami watched as he put on a brave face, even as he cradled his black and purple finger. Damn, that looked nasty. He was probably in a lot of pain.
Without taking her eyes off Midoriya, she elbowed Shoto in the ribs and held out a hand, making a grabby motion. "Ice, please," she requested, if a touch forcefully. Shoto obligingly dropped a fist-sized chunk of ice into her open palm without comment.
Without preamble, Hinami marched right up to the green haired boy. "Here," she said curtly, shoving the ice at him.
"O-Oh!" Midoriya squeaked, sweat pouring down his face as he balked under her gaze. "I-Is that for me? Th-Thank you!" he said, scrambling to take the ice from her, politely cupping his hands so she could drop it into them.
"Aww!" Uraraka cooed, hands on her cheeks. "That's so nice of you, Todoroki!"
Hinami inclined her head in a sharp nod, acknowledging both of their words. Though she wasn't actually paying attention to them. She cut her eyes at sensei, her temper simmering under her skin as his heartless words played on loop in her head. That kind of public dressing down hadn't sat right with her at all. It smacked of intentional embarrassment. There was no need to be so discouraging. And that Bakugou kid was such an explosive dickhead, no wonder Midoriya looked like he was going to shit his pants every time Bakugou looked at him.
Worthless… what an ugly word.
"Where did you get the ice, Todoroki?" Uraraka asked, head tilted to the side.
"Hmm?" Hinami pulled herself out of her thoughts, belatedly registering the other girl's question. "Oh… Sho made it."
"Who?" she questioned, frowning. "Oh! Well… duh, the ice guy," Uraraka said with a short laugh, the tips of her ears burning. "That's kinda obvious now that I think about it," she sighed, playfully bonking herself on the head. So cute. "But… how do you know him?"
Hinami sighed impatiently, resigned to answering the same question again. "He's my twin," she explained shortly.
"Oh!" she said with another little laugh, "Well, that explains why he was upset earlier when you got shocked."
Hinami snorted and shook her head, unsure if she wanted to know what the other girl had thought before found out they were twins or if she had thought the same thing as Kaminari. "Before you say it," she sighed, watching as the other girl's mouth opened, "I know we don't look alike."
Uraraka blinked in surprise, giving a sheepish smile. "That predictable, huh?"
"I've just heard it a couple times today," Hinami said with a shrug, glancing off to the side and trying to figure out the fastest way out of the situation.
"Well… now that I'm looking, the two of you do have really similar features," Uraraka said thoughtfully, pursing her lips as she scanned over both of their faces. "It's just… you know, the hair kinda throws it off."
"Gather up, kids!" Sensei called as he waved them over.
Hinami frowned, realizing that she'd missed the last two tests in her preoccupation with Midoriya and Uraraka. Damn it, she'd really wanted to see what Yaoyorozu was going to make to pass the test! She scanned the crowd of students as they converged on Aizawa-sensei, keeping an eye out for the dark-haired girl. Though before she could locate the other girl, something hard plinked against the back of her head. What the hell was that? Damn, that kinda stung. She reached up to soothe the area, only to find a pebble of ice tangled in her hair. Damn it, Sho! She whipped around to shoot him a dirty look, clenching her fingers around the ice and melting it with the heat of her hand. She should've expected that though, she knew he'd get his revenge one way or another.
Shoto stared back, innocently shrugging his shoulders as he ambled over to stand next to her. Hinami rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.
"It's time for your results," sensei said, tapping on his phone a couple before pressing one of the side buttons. A bright blue holographic screen snapped into place, displaying everyone's final rankings. Hinami's heart leapt as she squinted at the screen, struggling to make out the words. The blue light was kind of hard to see in the glaring overhead sun, but once her eyes adjusted, the results were clear.
Yaoyorozu Momo
Todoroki Shoto
Bakugou Katsuki
Todoroki Hinami
Iida Tenya
Hinami rocked back on her heels and sucked in a quick breath, shoving down the swell of emotions dogfighting in her chest. Fourth. She'd placed fourth. Not only had Shoto outperformed her, so had Yaoyorozu AND Bakugou. How? She gritted her teeth, viciously, hard enough that her jaw creaked. Her ears were ringing so loudly that she almost didn't hear sensei.
"Also, I was lying about expelling last place," sensei said blandly, though he did grin vengefully at the group's outraged and scandalized gasps. "That was a rational deception to bring out the best in you."
Like she gave a shit about that! She hadn't worried a smidge about being sent home, she had at least that much confidence in her abilities. But… losing to Shoto, however, was exactly what she feared. It was a familiar pain, one that she was intimately acquainted to. Just another reminder of how much more talented and gifted he was, as father made sure to point out at every opportunity.
She was beginning to think father was right.
To rub salt in the wound, it wasn't only Shoto. Because now she had to worry about Yaoyorozu and Bakugou. How fucking embarrassing. Digging her nails into her palms, she glared daggers at the ground and steeled herself for a quick glance at her twin.
Shoto just looked bored. He wasn't even looking at the screen anymore, hands in his pockets and posture loose as he stared off into space. Hinami narrowed her eyes, unconvinced by the act as she looked closer. Upon deeper inspection, the charade crumpled. Well, at least to Hinami's eyes. She was well versed in reading her twin. His lips were pulled ever-so-slightly tauter than usual, a tiny crease between his eyebrows. The most damning tell of all was the nearly silent crunch of frost from his pocket—his fist must be clenched. If she hadn't been listening for it specifically, she would've missed it.
'Gotcha!' Hinami thought triumphantly, smirking. Though it wasn't a nice, happy smirk. No, not quite. It was closer to the glint in the eye of a fox as it scented a mouse.
He was bothered.
"What, Sho?" she asked with a little laugh, digging an elbow into his ribs. "Not used to being in second place, huh?" She had intended for a lighthearted quip, but the words came out too sharply, with more bite than she wanted. Too much of her resentment had leaked into her tone, making it all teeth and nothing to soothe the harsh words. She winced, shame creeping up to redden her cheeks and ears. Why'd she have to be such an asshole? No wonder nobody besides Tatsumi could put up with her mean ass for longer than a day.
Shoto gave her a sideways glance, tilting his head to look down at her. "I'm not used to it," he admitted eventually, his words ringing hollowly.
So arrogant, she thought, standing up as straight as she could to lessen the significant height difference between them. She hated when he stared down his nose at her. But… that remark was a little uncalled for on her part. His damn Quirk was just… so overwhelming. Technically, that he had two!
No! No excuses. If he was better than her, it was because she wasn't working hard enough. At that thought, she ironed her lips together into a firm line, stubbornly swallowing back the apology that leapt to her tongue. She was sorry but admitting it now would taste too much like defeat. And she was far too acquainted with that taste.
"Stop making that face," Shoto said solemnly, before he lifted his hand and patted her on the head. Twice!
Hinami sputtered in rage, mouth gaping open like a slapped hog. "Sho, you jerk!" she yowled, taking a swipe at his stupid hand, which was still on her head. Shoto's solemn air finally broke as he smirked and withdrew his hand quick as a cat, deftly avoiding her.
"We're done here for the day!" Aizawa-sensei announced, pocketing his phone. "Return to the classroom and collect your syllabuses, but other than that, I'll see you tomorrow. Prepare yourselves," he said ominously, smirking, "it only gets worse from here."
Well, that was encouraging.
Hinami watched Aizawa-sensei shuffle off, unsure how she was supposed to feel about his parting words. She was pretty conflicted about him in general, if she was being honest. He'd helped her when Kaminari shocked her and even reassured her when he'd seen her scar, but then he'd turned it around and berated Midoriya in public. He also seemed to have a penchant for trying to psych them out, delighting in their anticipation. Just what was his angle?
"Are you coming?" Shoto asked, a couple steps ahead of her.
"Yeah…" she mumbled, the weight of the day settling firmly on her shoulders, legs aching as she trudged after him.
Later that night, when Endeavor would come home from patrol, he'd find his youngest daughter already hard at work in the training dojo. She'd stare knives at his back when she thought he wasn't looking, but she leapt into every exercise headfirst and didn't flinch once. He'd wonder what changed.
He wouldn't ask.