"They've been exposed to the outside world, up close and personal. They've had that fear planted in them. And they've endured it; overcome it. Each has grown from that experience, and forgotten how to hesitate."
We were going to have to pick our own teams: of this much, I was absolutely certain. I glanced around as Midnight continued her speech, mentally sifting through potential teammates for the human cavalry battle. As a formerly homeschooled child, I had never before participated in any sort of school field day-type activity. I knew enough about them from watching anime, but had never participated in one myself. I was fairly sure that group cavalry battles were common in those sorts of situations, but I had often wondered how they played out in real life.
"This is a team-based exercise…" I mumbled softly, but loud enough for Shouto — who was still standing stoically by my side — could hear. "Does everyone on the team get the same number of points? I don't understand how this helps rank students individually…"
"Well, being a hero isn't always only about how well you work alone," Shouto muttered in reply. I glanced over at him, briefly wondering whether or not I should go ahead and ask him to be on my team. "Perhaps our points from the race carry over to this in some way?" As if on queue, Midnight answered our murmured questions.
"Everyone will receive points based on their performance in the last trial!"
"If it's anything like the entrance exam's point system, it should be easy enough to understand," Sato Rikido piped up from my far left, where he stood beside Denki, who nodded in response.
"That means that the point value of each human warhorse will change based on who's in it!" Denki exclaimed proudly, clearly feeling good for having caught on so swiftly. Midnight bristled.
"Don't say what I was gonna say before I can!" she bellowed, her tone of annoyance becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. "But, yes," she continued, brushing off her brief frustration. "That's right! And the number of points you're worth will be five points if you placed forty-second, ten if you placed forty-first, fifteen for fortieth place, and so on... With the exception of first place, whose head is worth ten million points!"
I sucked in a nervous breath through my teeth, my eyes shifting from Midnight to follow the gaze of almost every other student standing in the arena. Midoriya Izuku was now the center of attention. His eyes hide grown huge, widened to a point where they seemed almost too big for his face. Beads of anxious sweat dripped down his face languidly, and if one looked closely — which I was — they would notice a slight quiver running through the length of Izuku's body.
He was nervous. And he sure as shit was not good at hiding it.
"If I were you all," Midnight continued, ignoring Izuku's sudden and obvious distress. "I would go for the guy worth ten million! This is a chance for the low to supplant the high! Welcome, to our survival game!"
"Survival," I repeated, rolling my eyes in spite of myself. "Why do I feel like maybe she's being a bit dramatic? Well… That's the 'Eighteen Plus Only Hero' for you, I guess…"
I heard a low chuckle escape Shouto's throat from his place beside me. I glanced up at him, fighting the blush that came with our eyes meeting unexpectedly. I had been counting on his gaze being too busy, too fixated on Izuku, to bother with me. I had been mistaken.
"Do you have a fever?" Shouto asked calmly, still ignoring the students surrounding us. "Your face is all red." Shouto did not sound genuinely confused or concerned; I frowned. He was taunting me.
"Actually, yes," I replied waspishly, flipping my face abruptly back in Izuku's direction. "As a matter of fact, I almost constantly am running a fever."
My voice was a harsh whisper, barely audible below the other students' murmuring. I allowed my gaze to slide over to Shouto ever so briefly; now he was actually looking confused. I smirked, a small 'tch' noise escaping from my lips, letting Shouto stew in his own juices for a moment before I chose to continue.
"It's a Quirk thing."
Shouto raised an eyebrow, and a sudden pressure on my shoulder made me rip my eyes away from Izuku's present predicament. Shouto's hand was on my shoulder, a confused expression now completely taking over his face. As I stared, I was shocked to discover something that resembled concern in his features.
"That doesn't make any sense," he muttered darkly. His voice was low, and in the distance I could hear that Midnight had once again started to speak. "Your Quirk is elemental — controlling the earth. Why would it — ?"
"The time limit is fifteen minutes!" Midnight bellowed, cutting Shouto off mid sentence. He started, and the hand on my shoulder quivered uncertainly, as though he had only just now realized that he had placed it there. "The point value of each group's headband is worth the accumulated value of each member of that respective warhorse!"
"Todoroki-san, is everything alright?"
Shouto and I both jumped, realizing suddenly that Tenya Iida was standing in our vicinity. The pressure on my shoulder vanished, Shouto's embarrassment taking over as he removed his hand from my person. I glanced over at him, holding back a taunt as I watched him struggle to subdue the light pinkish color that was now dusting his cheeks. Tenya looked between the two of us confusedly, clearly unable to read the mood.
"Is something wrong?" he asked formally.
"Maybe!" I answered without thinking, taking a few steps away from Shouto as I spoke. "I-I-I mean, no. No." Tenya raised an eyebrow; Shouto cleared his throat awkwardly. "Teams!" I blurted, suddenly hyper aware of my lack of social grace. "Shouto and I were discussing teams."
"Neither of you were saying anything," Tenya pointed out matter-of-factly. I flushed.
"Really good friends don't need words to communicate sometimes, Tenya," I whispered, growing desperate as I tried to simultaneously recover from the awkwardness as well as pay attention to Midnight's instructions. "Y'know what I mean?"
"Is there some other part of your Quirk that I am unaware of?" he replied. I blanched.
As Tenya spoke he slid his glasses deftly up the bridge of his nose with his pointer finger. I bit my lip: without knowing it, Tenya was hitting the nail right on the head. Tenya leaned in closer, giving me a once over before speaking again.
"Aizawa-san…" he whispered. Shouto was gazing at him incredulously out of the corner of his eyes. "... Are you… Telepathic?" A sudden scoff from Shouto caused me to jump.
"Hey! Back there!" Midnight's yell drew our trio out of the awkward hellscape of our interaction. I re-focussed on Midnight, who was glaring at us over the heads of the students in front of us. "Am I boring you?"
"No, ma'am!" the three of us said in unison, quickly averting our eyes from one another and once again astutely facing Midnight.
"That's better." she said, letting out a deep sigh before continuing. "The most important part: even if your horse's headband gets stolen, or your horse crumbles in the field, you aren't out of the game!"
"It'll be tough to keep track of who's in play and how many points they have, still," I murmured, mostly to myself. That did not stop Shouto from giving a nod in reply.
"Quirks are allowed, of course, so I wanna see some nice brutality out there!" Midnight said, brandishing her whip. "That being said, if you attack another group brazenly trying to break up their horse, that'll get you a red card and you're out for the rest of the game! Now, you have fifteen minutes until then, so start forming your teams!"
I glanced around the arena swiftly, taking stock of who was the closest to me. Far to my left I spotted Shinso, who gave me a curt nod but walked in the opposite direction. I chuckled; knowing his Quirk the way that I did, I did not even have to guess what his course of action would be. Izuku and Ochaco were already together, of course. Izuku looked thrilled, as did Ochaco, and I felt a soft smile touch my lips before I tore my gaze away from them.
"Hey,"
I whipped around, suddenly realizing that Shouto had yet to move. His expression was just as it normally was, the small blush that I had noticed earlier had completely vanished. I stared at him, waiting for him to speak, studying the scar around his blue eye to entertain myself while I waited. After a short silence, he began speaking again.
"I think we should team up." he stated. It was not a question.
"Do you, now?" I sneered, folding my arms across my chest defiantly. "What if I don't want to?"
"I think that you, Iida, Kaminari and I will work well together in a challenge like this," he continued, ignoring my taunt. I frowned. "Iida already agreed."
"Then why is he over there talking to Izuku and Ochaco?" I said sourly, jerking my thumb over my shoulder in their general direction.
"Of course Midoriya would ask for him to be in his warhorse," he said softly. He glanced over my shoulder briefly before continuing. "They're friends. But Iida knows that this isn't about friendship."
"Then why are you asking me?" I replied tartly. Shouto smirked.
Shouto's smirks were different from smirks I had encountered from others. It was not goading, it was not braggy. It was soft. I still did not fully understand the meaning behind the smirks of Todoroki Shouto.
"You think I'm asking you because you and I are friends?"
"Who says we're friends?" I scoffed, glancing over my shoulder to get a glimpse of what Tenya was up to. It was just as Shouto had predicted — he was walking back over. Izuku and Ochaco wore identical masks of disappointment.
"I did kiss you," Shouto muttered. He was now avoiding my gaze.
"On the forehead." I clarified, staring directly at his face. His lips twitched. Whether that twitch was meant to be a smile or a frown, I was unsure.
"But we did kiss."
"You two what?!"
I jumped, scurrying back several paces upon the realization that none other than Kaminari Denki had just appeared next to Shouto and I. Shouto looked surprisingly calm, his eyes sliding casually over to rest on our classmate, who was now looking between the two of us wildly. A small choking sound was escaping his lips, and despite the horror and embarrassment that I felt churning in my stomach, I found myself mildly impressed that Denki could go this long without talking.
"Oh… Hey, Kaminari." Shouto muttered blandly. Tenya had at last made his way back over to our group.
"Don't you hey Kaminari me!" Denki retorted. "You two kissed?" Denki's pointer finger was now waving accusingly back and forth between Shouto and I. "What the hell! When?"
"Oh, so is this why you had your hand on Aizawa-san's shoulder earlier?" Tenya asked. My face was now beginning to feel incredibly hot.
"Maybe," Shouto responded, still remaining surprisingly calm. "Is there some sort of problem?"
"All of my questions have been answered." Tenya replied.
"Now hang on, I still have questions!" Denki blurted. I rolled my eyes.
"We were just kidding around!" I hissed. "Fine, Shouto, I'll join the group. Now can we please make a plan?"
"But the kiss!" Denki insisted, grabbing my wrist. "Daichi, this guy's an ice queen — why would you wanna — "
"I think Daichi mentioned discussing strategy." Shouto interjected, his tone living up to his newly given name of Ice Queen.
Denki snapped his mouth closed, releasing my wrist in response to Shouto's stern gaze. I glanced back over my shoulder, eyeing Izuku's replacement for his lost friend Tenya: he had chosen Tokoyami Fumikage. Not a bad choice, I had to admit.
"With both Shouto and I, our warhorse is going to be worth a hefty amount of points," I muttered as I turned back toward my teammates. "We'll probably be targeted by students with lower point values — particularly if they're from class B."
"What makes you say that?" Denki interjected, scratching his head in quizzically.
A sudden outburst from Monoma Neito, a student from 1-B with a copy Quirk, erupted from somewhere within the crowd of students surrounding us.
"Let's show those snotty class A kids what for, everybody!" he shouted, a wide sneer plastered across his face.
"Does that answer your question?" I deadpanned, jerking my thumb in Neito's direction. Denki rolled his eyes.
"Those guys need to get a grip."
"Put that aside for a moment," Shouto insisted, drawing our attention back to ourselves. "The reason I wanted all of you in the warhorse is because I think our Quirks balance nicely."
"I'm sure," Denki muttered sarcastically, shooting me a knowing look. I ignored the blush that coated my cheeks in response.
"Kaminari," Shouto continued on as if Denki had said nothing. "You'll be on the left, sending out sparks to keep people away. Iida will be at the front using his engine power, and to act as defense."
"It's gonna be hard to be using my electricity defensively and keep it in check enough to not electrify you all," Denki said nervously. A curt nod in my direction was Shouto's response.
"That's why we have Daichi here." Denki looked puzzled.
"Dude, earth is a conductor," he said smugly, clearly reveling in what he assumed to be a mental shortcoming of his prodigy-like classmate. I sighed.
"Only if it's wet," I corrected. I unfolded my arms from their place across my chest, focussing my energy on bringing the top layer of dirt nearest to me over to where we stood. "If I wring the water out of it, it should be dry enough to keep your electrical currents from harming us."
"You can do that?" Denki asked, astonished as he watched a light misting of water drain from the cloud of dust dancing around me. "It's dirt, not a fucking towel." I frowned.
"Just let me do my thing, Denki. Geez."
"Daichi will give us a sheet of dry dirt to avoid contact with Kaminari's electricity. She'll be on the right." I nodded, listening intently. In the distance, Midnight announced that ten minutes had already passed. "But you can control multiple bodies of earth all at once, right?" Again, I nodded. "If someone gets close on your side, just send something up to block their path."
"Got it."
"And Todoroki, you can feint your attacks using either ice or heat, right?" Denki said excitedly. Shouto's expression remained stony. "With you on the top of the horse, we'll be unstoppable!" My face fell. I already knew Shouto's answer.
"No…" he murmured darkly. He glanced over his shoulder, and following his gaze I could barely pick out the flames of his father, Endeavor, amidst the crowd watching us. "In combat I will never, ever, use my heat side."
Before any of us could protest, Midnight had begun speaking again. She shouted loudly that the games were about to begin, more for the crowd than for us, waving her arms and whip wildly through the air. The crowd cheered as each group of students assembled their warhorse; I winced a little as Shouto clambered onto the top of ours.
A thin sheet of bone-dry dirt and sand danced over the top of our heads, shrouding us from Denki's slightly spastic Quirk. I glanced around, catching Katsuki's eye from across the field. The blonde was perched precariously atop the shoulders and hands of Eijiro, Mina, and Hanta. I wondered vaguely if Katsuki had even known what their Quirks were before forming the team.
"Three!" shouted Midnight, beginning her countdown. I felt our warhorse shift as each of us braced ourselves. "Two… One… Start!"
I watched in awe as almost every single warhorse around us lunged straight for Izuku's team. Izuku looked mortified as two teams raced toward him. Someone's Quirk had him stuck in a sink pit of some kind, but before either team could make it to him he and his group had jettisoned themselves into the air with a jetpack, no doubt courtesy of the Support Department.
"Daichi!" Shouto called out from above.
"On it!" I grunted.
I felt my temperature spike as I lifted us into the air. The ground below our feet followed us as the surrounding area broke apart as I stole away a piece of it for air travel. The resulting unsteadiness of the surrounding earth caused several teams to nearly topple over, though unfortunately each team maintained their balance in the end.
"Iida!" I grunted, forcing the rock upwards against the weight of the four of us. Tenya nodded in response, and I heard the familiar mechanical whir of his Quirk firing up. "Let's get Izuku's headband!"
"Aye aye!" Tenya called.
A second later we burst through the air, our little patch of earth propelled forward by the power of Tenya's leg engines. Up ahead I saw Izuku notice our swift approach, a look of surprise dancing across his face before he mouthed some kind of command to Ochaco. Shouto's arm groped through the open air, Izuku's warhorse descending to the ground before we could even reach them.
"Dammit!" Denki shouted, looking down below over the edge of our rock. "Those Support Department kids are no joke!"
"I'm gonna take us down!" I said, desiring nothing more than to not have my fever spike any more than it already had.
"Have a look ladies and gentlemen!" Midnight's voice broke out over the clamor of arguing UA students as I landed our earthen platform just behind the warhorses surrounding Izuku. "Not even two minutes have elapsed and already we have a melee of tumultuous proportions on our hands!" To my left I noticed a group from class B glance in our direction; my stomach dropped as I had a sudden epiphany. "Anywhere you rest your eyes, there's two teams vying for and stealing each other's headbands! After all, it's a fine strategy to aim for second to fourth place headbands instead of the big ten million!"
"Shouto…" I muttered darkly, my eyes staying fixed on the class B group. They were now running in our direction. "If I placed second, and you placed third… Then that means…"
"Yeah," Shouto replied, also having noticed the approaching group. "We have the second most points."
"Shit!" Denki swore as he sent out a bolt of electricity, startling the other team. "Go, guys, go!"
I lifted the rock off of the group just a bit, bracing my calves to steady myself as Tenya fired up his legs again. We burst across the field away from the other group. I kept my eyes on Izuku, following his movements as they flew across the sky to escape Mineta's group, which consisted of himself and Tsuyu hiding on Shoji's back.
I heard Midnight rambling loudly about point values in the distance. As we skated across the field atop our low floating rock, I glanced at the jumbo screen in the distance. Truth be told, it was a little disappointing. Even with my and Shouto's combined points of second and third place, we were still only in fourth place.
"Class B is doing way better than us!" I shouted angrily. I heard Shouto grunt an annoyed acknowledgement of my realization.
"Iida, Daichi, turn us around," he ordered gravely. "We have to find Midoriya and take the lead."
"Roger!" Tenya and I said in unison.
Izuku was not difficult to find. I followed his voice, discovering him in the midst of the confusion of the other teams shouting at one another. Katsuki's yells were, as usual, particularly loud. With another burst from his legs Tenya sent us careening toward Izuku's team, and we stopped just feet in front of them. Izuku looked concerned, eyeing our group warily from his place on top of his warhorse.
"The time has come," Shouto declared ominously, looking Izuku dead in the eyes. I held in a snicker. "I'm taking it."
"In the midst of class B's ascendence, the title fight comes to the fore!" Midnight's voice broke through the tension between our teams only for a moment. "Upon whose head shall rest those ten million points?!"
"Daichi, sure up the sand around us!" Shouto ordered. The light mist of dust that had been following us for the majority of the game hardened in response. "Kaminari — !"
"Yeah buddy, I know!" Daichi called back, cutting Shouto off. "Hang tight!"
"Iida, advance!"
We ran forward, leaving our rock behind in preparation for Denki's attack. Behind us I heard calls of frustration and pain as Denki's "Indiscriminate Discharge" shocked our competition with 1,300,000 volts of electricity.
"There's less than six minutes left on the clock," Shouto told us. I let the sand shielding us from Denki's electricity return to hovering just over our heads. "Sorry about this, but just endure it for a second."
A moment later a long pole of ice appeared in Shouto's hand, scratching through the ground below us as we ran. The temperature around us dropped to a chill, so much so that I could see my own breath. Despite that, I felt a sudden relief from my ever-increasing temperature for a quick moment while Shouto froze all of the teams behind us in their tracks.
"What's this? Todoroki held back the mob of horses in one fell swoop!" yelled Midnight. My father's voice broke out over the intercom.
"He used Kaminari's electricity to stop everyone firmly in their tracks so he could be sure to freeze them all," he explained calmly. "He's looking back on the obstacle race, where too many people were able to dodge the ice for his liking."
"Nice commentary!" Present Mic sang. No doubt my father was rolling his eyes in response.
Our group looped back around briefly, Shouto snatching the closest headbands deftly from the heads of our rival horses. The groups from class B looked particularly miffed, shouting after us angrily as we continued on toward Izuku's group. Tokoyami Fumikage's Dark Shadow shot out in our direction as we approached; the jetpack Izuku had been using throughout the rest of the match had clearly reached its limits.
"Daichi!" Shouto shouted as he covered his face to shield himself.
I brought down my foot roughly with my next step, sending up a wall of earth just short of our group. It shot forward, crashing right into Dark Shadow's face and sending him off his course toward us. I heard a muffled 'oof!' escape it as it retreated back toward Tokoyami, who was grimacing in frustration.
"That damn elemental Quirk…" I heard Tokoyami mutter to Izuku, whose expression had hardened resolutely in response to our swift approach.
Shouto sent up a semicircle of ice to surround our two groups, clearly anticipating outside interference. We shot forward, and I allowed the wall of dry sand to return to covering us as Denki shot out several hundred volts to ward of Dark Shadow. Every time we got a little closer to Izuku's warhorse, Dark Shadow somehow managed to put the distance between us again. I frowned, sweat dripping down my back. We were running out of time.
"There's only about a minute left!" I heard Midnight say through the clamor of the other students. "And Todoroki has set the field! All that's left is swiping that ten million!"
"Guys…" Tenya murmured from the front, catching our attention. "We only have about a minute left, and I'll be useless after this… So, I'm counting on you."
"Iida?" Shouto muttered, but Tenya barrelled on.
"Just hold on tight!" Tenya shouted. I braced myself, grasping Shouto's ankles as tightly as I could. "Recipro Burst!"
We shot forward faster than we had moved the whole match — it felt as though we were flying. My feet left the ground, knocking into Denki's just a little as we were dragged through the air by the force of Tenya's engines. I watched, wide eyed, as Shouto reached out his hand. His fingers wrapped around the cloth on Izuku's forehead, the headband sliding off as we passed his group with unparalleled speadiness. A smile broke out across my face: we had done it!
"Iida, what was that just now?" Shouto asked. Whatever Tenya's answer, it was cut off by Midnight's bellows.
"That was blisteringly fast!" she shouted. "Iida, if you have super acceleration, why didn't you use it in the preliminaries?!"
"I can forcibly rev up my torque to explosive proportions if need be," Tenya explained. Now stationary, I glanced over my shoulder. A thick cloud of black smoke, emanating from Tenya's leg engines, was obscuring Izuku's team from view. "However as kickback I'll suffer from engine stall in short order. That was the trick I had up my sleeve that I never told my classmates."
"Todoroki has the ten million!" Midnight called. Tenya turned us around, now facing Izuku through the smoke.
"I thought I told you, Midoriya," he yelled brazenly. "I am challenging myself against you!"
"After them!" I heard Izuku yell, turning his team in our direction.
"Shit," I muttered darkly. "We gotta get out of here. We just have to hold onto that ten million for a little longer!"
Despite my warning our teams lunged toward one another. My eyes widened as I saw Izuku's Quirk manifest in his hand, grasping the air in an attempt to get at Shouto. A sudden burst of light told me that, despite his insistence, Shouto was using his heat side.
"Shouto, what — ?"
"Quiet!" Shouto snarled, using his other arm to grab at Izuku.
Flames danced through the air as Izuku and Shouto had it out above our heads. I watched in awe, never before having seen Shouto's flames for myself. They were beautiful, but I saw Shouto's eyes widen in horror as he suddenly realized what he was doing. It was in that brief moment of self-doubt that Izuku took his chance, snagging the headband at the top of the stack tied around Shouto's neck.
"I got it!" Izuku yelled triumphantly. I smirked.
"Sure you do," I called back snarkily. I saw Izuku's eyes widen in surprise as he opened his palm, revealing the value of the headband. "Assuming makes an ass out of just you, Izuku!"
"Todoroki, get your wits about you!" Tenya's sudden instructions called my attention back to Shouto, who was staring at his left arm in shock. "That was dangerous!"
"Leave him be, Tenya," I murmured. I reached one arm comfortingly toward Shouto, but he flinched away from my grasp. I bit my lip; he was not doing well.
Midnight had begun to count down from ten, and I felt a rumble through the ground as not only Izuku, but Katsuki's group as well, sprinted toward our group desperately. I stomped one foot, sending up a circle of heavy chunks of earth to flank us on all sides.
"Time up!" Midnight called. Izuku grimaced.
"Talk about saved by the bell," I said breathlessly. Shouto was still not speaking.
"Let's see who our top four are!" Midnight continued dramatically. "In first place, team Todoroki! In second place, team Bakugo!" The loudest growl I had ever heard erupted from Katsuki's mouth. "In third place, team Tetsu — Wait, it's team Shinso?!" I chuckled at Midnight's confusion, watching with delight as Shinso Hitoshi sarcastically thanked his previously mind-controlled team for their hard work. "And in fourth place, team Midoriya!"
"What?" I gasped, glancing around frantically. "How — ?" My eyes fell on Shouto, whose forehead I suddenly realized was completely bare. "Shouto, your headband!"
"I know…" Shouto muttered angrily. "That damn Tokoyami…"
"The first four teams will move on to the final event!" Midnight declared. In the distance I saw Izuku crying tears of joy. "Now, step forward!"
Our warhorse broke apart, setting Shouto carefully down on the ground as we spread out. I flexed my shoulders, feeling stiff from holding Shouto up for that long. I paused mid-stretch, noticing that Shouto was quivering. I walked toward him slowly, unsure of what to do or say.
"Shouto…" I whispered, coming to stand beside him. He was glaring at his left hand, flexing it into and out of a fist repeatedly. "Hey, Shouto, are you — ?" I reached for his shoulder, only to be brutally brushed away.
"I… I can't go on like this…" he choked out. My eyes widened. I had never seen Shouto lose his cool like this before. "That's exactly what dad has always told me…" Midnight announced an hour lunch break in the distance.
Without another word Shouto turned on his heel, marching toward the exit of the arena. I blinked, feeling somewhat dumbfounded about the sudden cold shoulder. Before I could think any more about it my feet had started to move, taking me toward Shouto as fast as my tired legs could carry me. I grabbed his shoulder, desperate to get him to talk to me about what was bothering him. For the life of me, I did not know what I cared so much. My stomach was already in knots both from exertion of my Quirk, as well as from Shouto having slapped my hand away.
"Shouto!" I insisted, pulling on his shoulder to force him to turn and face me. "Shouto, please, just talk to —"
"No!" Shouto blurted out, cutting me off. I recoiled, releasing his shoulder from my grasp. "No… I don't want to talk… To you." I blinked slowly, somehow not able to fully comprehend his words.
"But… But, I just —"
"You don't get it." Shouto muttered darkly. I was not permitted to finish speaking; clearly, he did not want to grant me license to speak at all, anymore. "How could you? You, the child prodigy of Eraserhead… How could someone like you, with a father like that, with a Quirk like yours… You could never understand." My expression hardened.
"Shouto, be careful," I murmured. "If you keep talking like that, you're gonna piss me off." Shouto scoffed.
"Talking like Bakugo isn't going to make what I said any less true," he replied.
"You don't even know me, Shouto," I bit back. I could feel eyes on me; whether it was other students or people still in the crowd, I was not sure. "You don't know anything about me, my father, or my Quirk, so why don't you just shut up about shit you don't know?" Shouto smirked, turning away from me. He did not even see me as worth arguing with.
"Go back to your sandbox, Aizawa," he murmured hoarsely. He was walking away. "Feeling at odds with your own Quirk… Someone like you could never understand."
And then he was gone, disappearing through the arena exit, his mood icier than ever. My arms fell limply by my sides, dangling there defeatedly as I stared after him. In spite of myself, I felt hot tears stinging at the corner of my eyes.
Todoroki Shouto really knew nothing about me. Little did I know that it would not be long before the true nature of my Quirk would really get the better of me.
I'm very excited to get to the one-on-one battles! As always, thank you for the support, and reviews are much appreciated!
