Chapter 6

Closer Than Before

'I didn't think Ritsuko was one of the drivers. I thought that girl she talked to was one and that she just wanted her to watch,' he thought in his head. Although, it made since that she would be in the race. After all, Ritsuko drove a motorcycle, and he could tell that she was very experienced when it came to driving it.

Suddenly, a large digital screen appeared above the drivers. Izuku knew that it was a surveillance quirk of some sort. On the screen was a male with a rabbit mask on to hide his face.

"Welcome, welcome!" he said in a cheery tone while moving around energetically, "I thank all of you for coming to this wonderful motorcycle race! The rules are simple: get to the finish line. Only the racers may use their quirks as they please to stop the other racers. You may also use objects on you to hit and distract the other racers. If your fall off your bike, you lose! Any quirk is usable in this race! There also may be a few of you that are partners in this race. If that is the case, just know that only one of you can get first place for the money prize!"

The people around Izuku began to cheer. Below the screen a digital count down appeared. It was most likely from the same quirk user creating the screen. The counter started at five and went down to zero. When it buzzed, the twenty racers instantly zoomed forward. The engines of the bikes were extremely loud as well, and it made Izuku cover his ears for a few seconds. He looked up to the screen, and it showed the drivers from above.

The screen focused on three drivers, two males and one female. One of the males got closer to the other one. He was able to touch the guy's bike, and it caused their bike to stall. On top of that, the man pushed on the bike with his hand. It caused the guy to fall over, bringing his motorcycle down with him. The driver that made him lose drove to be side by side with the girl. Izuku thought that he was going to use his quirk on her motorcycle, but he quickly realized that they were partners when she let him go past her.

The screen moved toward the front of the racers. He saw that Ritsuko was one of them, and she was in third place. A girl behind her caught up to her, only being a little behind her. He saw Ritsuko pull something out of her leather boots. The screen got a good view of it to show that it was a knife. She held it up as she looked back. The girl behind her looked surprised as she threw the knife at her. The blade of the knife became imbedded in the front tire of the girl's motorcycle, resulting in it popping. The girl lost control of her bike and fell, letting others quickly pass her by.

It showed a few other places of the race until it eventually came back to Ritsuko. She was right beside the second place driver. The guy raised a knife and stabbed at her to try and make her fall off. However, she was able to raise her right arm in time. The knife was in her forearm now as she drove to the side. Izuku's green eyes widened when he saw her nearly tip over, but she quickly managed to steady herself. Ritsuko then pulled the knife out and drove closer. She held her arm out, and three thin black spikes from the wound pierced his side, shoulder, and knee. It caused him to lose his balance. His sudden fall made the spikes break before she retracted them.

'That must be her quirk. That's cool!' Izuku praised in his head. 'Now she's in second place!'

He saw that she wasn't far behind the first place holder. The man in first place looked back and saw her approaching fast. He slowed down so he was beside her. His hand was letting off a weird a glow, and he was reaching out for her shoulder. However, her hand was already on his motorcycle. This was the first time Izuku had ever seen her touch something with all of her fingers. He saw her kick his bike to propel them apart after that. The guy's bike began to turn grey starting from where she touched it. In a panic, the guy jumped off his bike. Just as he hit the dirt, the vehicle turn completely grey before crumbling like ash.

Izuku was too full of adrenaline from watching the race that he didn't register the nature of her other quirk. He didn't put two and two together that she had the exact same quirk as his most dangerous enemy.

'Wow, that quirk is really cool too! The fact that she has two different quirks is awesome!' he thought excitedly.

Ritsuko was in first place now, and she had a pretty good lead as well. Except the two most problematic drivers were behind her: the guy with the stalling quirk and his female partner. Izuku knew she had to be very careful while dealing with them. Luckily, her bike seemed to be faster than theirs. Despite that, Ritsuko still slowed down so they could get closer.

'No, don't do that, Ritsuko!' he yelled in his head as he furrowed his eyebrows. 'Your motorcycle is faster; you can win without them catching up!' People around him seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Why is she slowing down?! She can beat them with speed with that amazing bike!"

"That girl in first needs to win; I made a bet on her!"

The three were fairly close now. The guy caught up with her, and he was about to touch her bike. Fortunately, she slowed down to get out of his reach. On her way back, she placed her hand on the back of his bike. It caused his motorcycle to turn grey like the last guy's. Having the same reaction, the man jumped off his bike like the last driver. The female partner seemed to be taken off guard, probably because she didn't expect him to lose. Ritsuko took this to her advantage and touched her bike as well, causing her to do the same thing as the two previous racers.

When it was calm in Ritsuko's area of the track, it showed the other drivers participating. All of them had a useful ability for the race. Of course, some were better than others.

Izuku looked at the map of the track that showed where all the remaining racers were. He relaxed when realizing that she was pretty far in the lead. Her marker showed her making the turns in the track, and she was quickly approaching the finish line. It was right where the race had started.

The screen kept showing the other racers until he could hear the loud engine of Ritsuko's motorcycle. A few seconds after, his green eyes spotted her turning the corner into everyone's sight. The crowd cheered loudly, and she was able to cross the finish line without incident.

Ritsuko stopped her bike, and she was close to Izuku. He saw her look around, and he could have sworn that she stared at him for a good five seconds. Then the remaining racers began to file in and pass the line. All the while everyone was cheering wildly. Even Izuku let out a loud excited sqeal. The whole thing just made his blood pump like crazy. This was probably the most invigorating event he had witnessed in a very long time aside from his hero training at UA.

Izuku saw Ritsuko get off her bike and walk while she dragged it beside her. She was walking right toward him. It made him nervous, but he stood in place. The girl stopped when she was right in front of him. Since she was a few inches taller than him, she bent down to make sure he would hear her over the loud and excited screaming around them.

"Go to the drink stands," she ordered through her fox mask before walking away, dragging her bike with her. Then he heard a voice from the large screen above. It was the same guy with the rabbit mask.

"Thank you all for coming to this eventful race! These are our top three winners!" he said cheerily as the screen flashed once. It showed a guy with a red devil mask in third, a girl with a brown dog mask in second, and Ritsuko with her white fox mask on in first place. Then it went back to the man with the rabbit mask. "Again, thank you all for coming! Soon there will be word of another place at another location along with the specifications, so please do be wary of that!"

With that, the screen vanished, and the giant crowd began to slowly disperse. Izuku was able to get out of the big group of people. It took a minute due to not knowing how the place was set up and the numerous people surrounding him, but he was able to find the drink stands Ritsuko was talking about. After standing for a few seconds, he felt someone tap his shoulder. When he turned around, he saw a really tall guy. The glint in the man's eyes told the boy that he had no good intentions on his mind.

"No offense, kid, but you seem like you don't belong here," he said in a slightly threatening tone. "You should run along. Although, before you do, you should hand over a bit of money. Let's say... all of it!"

Izuku wasn't quite sure of what he should do. His first thought was that he should go look for Ritsuko instead. However, he knew the villain wouldn't let him do that. That meant he had to talk his way out of the situation. To make it convincing, he tried his best to sound villainous. However, it made him feel weird since he was being the complete opposite of a hero. With a smile he said, "I think I'll pass on that, but thanks for suggesting the option."

"Unfortunately for you, it wasn't an invitation. Hand it all over!" he demanded. The man took a step forward. Izuku knew that he wasn't intimidating in the least given his much smaller form, so he had an idea that might make him seem more like a villain. Hopfully more threatening looking as well. The green haired boy quickly bent down and pulled the butterfly knife out from his boot. He got the blade out in front of him, pointing it directly at the villain. On the outside he may have looked like he had some intention of hurting him, but in reality that was not the case. Truthfully, he wasn't going to hurt him. He just did his best to seem dangerous so the man wouldn't hurt him.

"Oh, look at that, the pipsqueak has a weapon. Not that it will do much," the guy mocked. Izuku wavered for a moment. The man walked forward again, causing him to take a step back. Then he saw the girl with a fox mask on and a hood over her hair. She had her left hand on the guy's arm, only her index finger hovering above his skin.

"If you attempt to lay finger on him, I will not hesitate to end your life," she said. From the venomous tone of the voice, Izuku couldn't help but shiver. Ritsuko sounded very serious as well.

"Or what? You gonna hurt me?" The man said the last sentence as if he were speaking to a child.

"If all my fingers make contact with your arm, it will rapidly decay. I'm sure that you don't want that since you probably still want it. After all, it would be ashame if you were no longer able to do anything to make yourself happy." Being the innocent teen Izuku was, he didn't know what she meant by that. However, the man apparently did as he had turned to her with an angry expression.

"Bitch, you wouldn't dare!" he threatened. Ritsuko quickly moved away from him, taking something from his pocket as she did so. As she stopped beside Izuku she raised her hand to display a red and blue cellphone. "Hey, that's my phone!"

"Oh, I know. That's how I got it from your pocket," she said like it was obvious. Then, without a second thought, she put all her fingers on the device. The phone turned grey and then crumbled to the ground through her fingers after it turned to dust. It caught the man by surprise, and it made him take a step backwards. He let out a low growl before walking off, mumbling under his breath in rage.

Izuku folded his butterfly knife and shoved it back into his red boot. Then he looked up to Ritsuko. She was in the middle of taking off her fox mask. After that she removed the hood from her head. Her light blue hair was tied into a loose bun as well. He also just registered that she had a bag with a somewhat fancy and complex design on it. He assumed it contained the money reward the rabbit masked guy was talking about.

"I didn't peg you as someone to carry a knife with you," Ritsuko stated. He tensed a little.

"Y- yeah, I bought it for self defense. I had a feeling that this place was going to be a spot for villains. Since I'm still not the best with my quirk I didn't want to use it," he explained. After a few seconds she gave him a nod.

"Follow," she commanded before walking off. He trailed behind her until they stopped at a place serving drinks. Izuku wasn't sure what kind they were. To play it safe, he stuck with his bottle of water. However, he was only able to get one more sip before he realized it was empty. He was taking drinks from it during the race without even realizing it. Izuku still had a chocolate bar that he had bought, so he started to eat that instead. Then he remembered something important.

"Hey, is your arm alright?" he asked worriedly. "It got hit during the race, and it looked kind of bad." She nodded.

"My quirk hardens my blood," she explained.

"So you can stop your bleeing?"

"If the wound isn't too deep or big, yes," she answered. Then there were drinks placed on the counter in front of them. There was one for each of them. Thirsty from the chocolate he ate, he took a drink from the clean glass. Whatever it was was strong, and it made him shake his head as he gave a bit of a sour face. However, the aftertaste was actually rather refreshing. It made him take another drink.

"What are you doing here, Izuku?" he heard Ritsuko question. After taking another drink he turned to her.

"I- I heard you and that girl Wednesday night mention this race. I was really curious, so I decided to come," he explained.

"Oh," was all she said in response. He looked at her for a moment before finishing the drink he had. Izuku wasn't even sure what it was, but it was fairly good. Then he saw Ritsuko slide her untouched drink to him.

"You apparently like it more than I do," she said. The boy looked at her with an uncertain look, but she nodded to signify that it was alright. Hesitantly, he decided to accept her offer. Afterwards, however, he started to feel a bit out of it. His head began to spin slightly as another drink was placed in front of him. Hoping it would help clear his dizziness, he took a few sips from the glass. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work. Instead, it felt like it made it worse. Then it hit him. He finally realized that he was actually drinking alcohol. The realization made him shake his head. Although, he did actually kind of like it. It made him detached from reality, and it helped him forget about his worries and any bad memories he had. In other words, it made him feel happy. Ritsuko seemed to noticed his dazed state after glancing to him.

"Maybe you've had enough," she suggested. Izuku shook his head before finishing the third drink.

"No!" he said assertively. Ritsuko looked at his face and saw his flushed cheeks.

"Is this your first time drinking alcohol?" she inquired. He nodded, and she sighed at his answer. It didn't help that he got drunk pretty quickly either. Still, she watched him drink another glass. She tried to stop him again by going to take his next drink, but he gently slapped her hand away.

"No, s'mine!" he slurred. When he was taking a drink of his fifth, she got his phone from his pocket.

"Hey, dat's mine!" he said with a slightly raised and upset voice, grabbing at his phone. Although, she kept it just out of his reach. She looked at the time and saw that it was nearly 2:00 am. The girl was about to give it back, but she saw that he had a few messages that he hadn't read yet. She pushed the now drunk Izuku back into his seat to get him to stop leaning against her in an attempt to obtain his phone.

"Keep drinking," she ordered. He grumbled something before finishing his sixth drink. She looked back down at the texts and read the first part of them, but read no further since she couldn't see the rest. It was an invasion of privacy just reading that small bit, so, with a bit of guilt, she gave his phone back. Ritsuko didn't even look at the caller ID.

It was when he had his seventh that she stopped him. Forcefully, that is. She literally had to drag him away. Thankfully, he went pretty quietly after struggling for a few seconds. Ritsuko took him over to her bike and got on, making him get on behind her. She tensed when she felt his arms wrap tightly around her waist. He leaned forward against her back, his chin resting on her shoulder.

"You know, you're really warm. Pretty too," he whispered a bit tiredly. "You smell really nice too. Just like coconuts and vanilla. It's really nice."

Ritsuko knew that he was a pretty shy person based on how he acted around her, so hearing this more bold side was odd to her. Even if he was drunk and incoherent.

Once she finally got used to his touch she relaxed and began driving. She followed a small dirt road for a little over fifteen minutes before she stopped. Ritsuko told Izuku to get off. After a few seconds, he let her go and obeyed. Then she got off as well and pulled the motorcycle into a bush to hide it. She stepped over to a tree, and Izuku was close behind her. The girl climbed up the tree a little bit until she got past the first layer of leaves. There was a treehouse that was hidden by the them. Her hand felt around on the floor until she felt something. She pulled the object down to reveal that it was a ladder.

"Climb up here," she told him as she pulled herself into the treehouse. After a few moments she saw a drunken Izuku poke his head up into her view. He stared to smile.

"Nice place!" he praised before getting into the house. She got a few blankets and layed them down on the wooden flooring. Ritsuko sat down on one of them with a book in her hand. She opened the book at a bookmark she had placed the last time she had read it.

After reading for a few minutes, she suddenly heard a quiet sniffle. When she lifted her head she saw that Izuku was crying. She wasn't sure why; maybe he got a really bad splinter from the wood or something.

Ritsuko put her bookmark back in the book before closing it and setting it down. She scooted towards him slightly. The girl wasn't very good at comforting anyone in general, so she had no idea what to do with the crying and still drunk Izuku in front of her. She eventually decided to begin with her curiosity.

"Izuku," she said gently, gaining the attention of the green haired boy, "why are you crying?"

"I just can't help but think about everything," he said with a sniffle and rubbed at his dark green eyes with his sleeves. Although, another stream of tears stared to fall.

"Like what?"

"I was just... always bullied as a kid since I was quirkless, and I still am picked on sometimes. It just really gets to me, but I never show that. Hiding it though is really hard sometimes, but I don't want to say anything so I'm not a burden to anyone. Especially my friends. Sometimes, it makes me feel so lonely though since I can't tell them. Just to make sure that everyone else is happy, I remind myself to stay positive so I don't bring their mood down," he explained to her.

She scooted a little closer, "What about you and your parents?"

"I'd do anything for my mom. I don't like lying to her, but I had to do that so I could come here; there's no way she would have let me go to that race if she knew about it."

"Your dad?"

"He's somewhere else for his work. I haven't seen him since I was like four. He doesn't call very often either, and it just makes me really sad; mad too. I need him to be in my life. I want him to be an actual father to me!" It was like a dam suddenly broke as even more tears cascaded down his cheeks.

He was extremely depressed, and she could easily see that now. Izuku really did do a good job at hiding his sadness by pretending to be so happy and optimistic. She was surprised that someone that acted so happy and so kind was truly very lonely and so sad. Ritsuko sat up straighter and scooted closer. Now they were well within reach of each other.

She heard Izuku let out a loud cry before throwing himself at her. It caused her to fall back with Izuku on top of her. He was crying into her shoulder, his knees next to her hips, and his arms beside her. She winced in pain from his knee touching her right hip, but she did her best to ignore it.

Ritsuko allowed him to rest on top of her, crying his tears out. Eventually, his cries turned to quiet sobs, sniffles, and hiccups. She then gently rolled him onto his side. He quickly grabbed her wrist when she tried to get up.

"Don't leave," he pleaded in a whisper that was followed by a quiet sniffle. Izuku sounded desperate for her to stay.

"I'm just getting the blanket, it will only take a few seconds," she assured him. Slowly, he released her. His green eyes watched her as she grabbed a blanket and threw it up so it landed on their legs. After that, she layed down and tugged it to their shoulders.

Ritsuko could see that he was still close to spilling his tears again, so she thought of something to help calm him. She began to slowly run her hand through his wild green hair, making sure her index finger never touched his head. After a moment, he showed her a smile as he leaned into the touch a little. It made a small smile appear on her face. Not long after, she saw him close his eyes and quickly fall asleep. Still, she stroked his hair for another minute or two before stopping.

She suddenly felt his arm wrap around her waist and pull her closer. It took a few seconds, but she felt alright with his sudden warm embrace. Ritsuko let him gently hold her in his sleep. It seemed to make him feel better, and she didn't mind it too much. Then he held her tighter, successfully pulling her even closer to his smaller body. Her dark grey eyes saw his eyebrows furrow, and his face turned into one of dismay. Keeping her index finger up, she gently cupped his cheek with her hand. It seemed to relax him since his face returned to normal.

Soon, Ritsuko found herself moving a bit closer to him. They were so close now that their noses were nearly touching. Although, being this close to him made her feel amazing. She had never been held like this in pretty much her whole life. It made her feel like she was wanted by someone. Someone that she could trust.

She began to feel very nervous all of a sudden. Although, it faded when she felt him put his chin to her forehead. Ritsuko closed her eyes. The last thing she felt before she slipped into sleep was Izuku's warm arm move comfortably to her back.

Word Count: 4245

~ Posted November 2, 2018