The warm air blew on Izuku's face, bringing him something tactile to focus on so that he could hone his mind in anticipation for this next fight. He was about to be in combat with a boy named Hitoshi Shinso, and he could control people if they spoke to him. That was going to be hard to avoid, just like Ojiro had said, but he'd deal with it. He just had to keep his mouth shut and he'd win. Shinso was general education, according to his introductions so far, and so Izuku knew that he'd probably have the advantage in hand to hand combat. He just had to get in close and not respond to anything Shinso said, and then he was guaranteed a win. Easy.
Hearing his name be called by Present Mic, Izuku stepped out onto the grass and into the sunlight. The crowd cheered at the sight of him, which made his chest all tight again, but he ignored that. He walked up to the arena as Shinso's name was called as well, the introduction sending another wave of applause through the crowd, though it wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as Izuku's welcome. His conscious mind knew that it was bad to let that kind of thing go to his head, but the selfish parts of him were satisfied with that. It felt good to be liked by the crowd after working so hard to get to where he was. Izuku smiled as he and Shinso stood in their starting positions on opposite ends of the arena, waiting for Midnight to count down to the start of the match.
Izuku caught a look on Shinso's face, something like apprehension. He tried not to smirk at the scared expression twisting his opponent's face, and kept a hold on himself. All he needed was to run up and hit him a few times and it'd be over. No need to overcomplicate things and there was definitely incentive to avoid dragging it out just because he took some amount of joy seeing arrogant jerks get what's coming to them. The longer the match went on, the higher the chance was that he'd fall for one of Shinso's 'tricks', whatever they were. Ojiro had described to Izuku how Shinso got him, calling him names to do with his visible mutations, and from that Izuku could guess that Shinso cut to the core of people to get them to talk. He insulted Ojiro's tail, called him a monkey, and he'd likely use what little he knew of Izuku to belittle and poke at him. He just had to get in before Shinso could say anything really bad and then beat him up a little.
Midnight called for the match to begin, and Izuku started moving.
"I'm sure you'll beat me, since the monkey fled with his tail between his legs and told you all about me. It's kind of funny that you all have to cheat to win, even when you're blessed with perfect Quirks," Shinso said.
The words echoed in Izuku's mind as he ran. 'Cheat, blessed, perfect Quirks.' It took him until he was halfway across the arena to process the words, and then he was already face to face with Shinso when his heart hammered in his chest and his face grew hot as he understood what Shinso was getting at. He had no clue what he was talking about. Izuku with a blessed, perfect Quirk? It was a nice dream, but he lived in the reality where he had Decimation. Too bad Shinso wouldn't see his perfect Quirk, though, since he was about to go to sleep.
Izuku threw a punch at Shinso, landing on his nose and followed by a fleshy crack and the jerky motion of Shinso's head being knocked back by the blow. Shinso stumbled away from Izuku, holding his nose with one hand and balling his other into a fist. Izuku didn't let him say anything else. He kicked Shinso's legs out from under him, let him fall over himself and then punched him in the face again, unguarded as Shinso moved his hand to break his fall. When his head bounced away from Izuku's fist and hit the paved arena floor, Shinso went limp. Izuku wasn't sure if Shinso was unconscious or just stunned, but he was done. Izuku had beaten him in under thirty seconds. He looked over at Midnight and stepped away from Shinso, letting her decide for herself.
Midnight approached and took one look at Shinso's face, with a flood of red coming from his nose and a patch of red quickly swelling on his cheek, and called the match. He had won. Izuku let himself sigh out the breath he'd been holding—it was the precaution he'd made up in the moment, as he wasn't sure what counted as 'talking back'. If he laughed, would Shinso's Quirk count that as a 'response'? What about a sigh? A shocked gasp? Izuku didn't blame Ojiro for not having all the facts, but it was done now. Izuku turned around and walked away, not saying a word or giving the crowd any of his attention.
It was only when he was away from the crowd and the cameras, in the hallway, that he let his anger overtake him. Izuku kicked a wall, said a few curses under his breath and tried everything he could to vent the anger that had flooded him in reaction to Shinso's jabs and taunts. He'd only said two sentences, but he'd still managed to thoroughly enrage Izuku with just a few words. In a way, that was impressive. That wasn't the word that came to Izuku, though. The word that came to Izuku as he mumbled expletives under his breath was that it was scary. He could control anybody with the power he had over people, and Izuku wasn't even talking about his Quirk. Where had Shinso picked up the ability he had to see into peoples' hearts and provoke such deep anger? Was he just that good at reading people, or was it part of his Quirk? Either way, he was unsettlingly good at knowing how to push peoples' buttons, and that paired with his Quirk was dangerous. Izuku finally saw how he got this far into the festival. Shinso wasn't a physical force, but he was strong. That made it even more annoying that he'd done nothing to defend himself. Those with mental Quirks often trained even harder in close combat to make up for their relative disadvantage in hand to hand combat, so why didn't Shinso? Izuku resigned himself to not knowing, since it wasn't like he was going to seek Shinso out after the festival or anything.
He had to put it out of his mind. It wouldn't do Izuku any good to get hung up on Shinso's shallow insults and ignorant provocations. He held his head up high and set off down the corridors toward his class. He walked the halls for what seemed like an hour, and at one point he thought he'd gotten lost somewhere along the line, but as he recognised a turn, he felt the undercurrent of anxiety fade. That was, until he bumped into an oddly warm wall that appeared around the corner. He stumbled back and looked up as his heart nearly stopped in his chest. The sight that greeted him made his blood run cold and his fingers go numb, his head spinning in the gut reaction to panic that overtook him. Izuku took a second to comprehend the blue spandex, red hair and literally fuming expression on the face that looked down at him. It was Endeavor.
"What?" Endeavor asked, and Izuku could've sworn that his bones buzzed from the rich bass of his voice.
"Uh," Izuku droned.
He was stunned, he couldn't say anything. He was stuck staring up at the eyes of this man, eyes cold enough that his Quirk couldn't hide it. Those sharp, blue eyes were glaring at Izuku, and suddenly he was five years old again, looking up at a fiery mouth with his mother crying behind him—no. He wasn't there. That was done. Endeavor was different. Oh, but he wasn't. That's right, Endeavor was like him. If Izuku believed Todoroki's story, and he had no reason not to, then Endeavor was worse, much worse. Izuku took a moment to control his breathing, which had begun to quicken, and looked away from those cold eyes. He couldn't move, he couldn't say a word, but he could do that.
"I suppose you're a fan," Endeavor said, rolling his eyes and reaching a hand out. Izuku flinched, his whole body tensing and his breath stopping. Logically, Izuku knew that the number two hero wasn't going to hurt him, but the little voice inside his head that said all the things he didn't want to hear told him that he wasn't safe.
"Sorry-sir-I've-gotta-go-bye," Izuku all but whispered as he ducked out of the Flame Hero's way and power-walked away, back in the direction of his class.
Once he was around another corner and out of Endeavor's sightline, Izuku ran. He broke out into a sprint and made it back to the class, though he did have to abandon his composure and breath on the way, as he was still struggling to regain them as he appeared and sat next to Uraraka. He felt eyes on him after a few moments, and looked over to see that people were trying to talk to him. He went to ask them to speak up, because he couldn't hear them, but he couldn't hear himself either. Izuku realised with a delay that the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat and the rush of blood in his ears. He took a few deep breaths, and tried his best to think calming thoughts, and it helped a little bit, but he still felt as if he'd pass out at any moment.
"Hey, what's up?" Uraraka asked now that he could hear her over his own panic. "Your face is all red and you're shaking."
"Oh, I'm fine. I just met Endeavor!" Izuku said, but he felt like he was yelling for some reason. He saw Uraraka's face twist into something like shock, anger and disgust all at the same time, and Izuku realised what she was thinking just before she spoke. "Nothing bad happened, I just kinda … freaked out on him and ran away."
"Are you sure?" Uraraka asked, giving him a look he understood without the words accompanying it. She'd heard Todoroki's story as well, and she likely would've been nervous when face to face with the same man from Todoroki's memories, but Izuku couldn't help but think that she would have handled it much better than he had.
"I'm sure. I'm just not in the best spot today in general, much less without running into the number two hero without warning," Izuku said, trying to play it off with a forced laugh that made his voice crack.
"If you say so," Uraraka said. She reached over and took Izuku's hand in her own, almost causing him to pull away in panic before he remembered that he had his gloves on. They really were a lifesaver. "Tell me if there is something wrong, though. Will you?"
"I will. I think it's just the nerves of the festival getting to me. I'll be fine," Izuku said, sighing as he melted in his chair.
"Right. Oh, but congratulations on winning your match against that guy!" Uraraka said.
"Thanks. I wasn't sure about it going in, since I didn't know how Shinso would try to provoke me, but I managed to just ignore it and knock him out," Izuku said. He felt some of the anger at Shinsos return as his chest grew tight, but he took deep breaths and blocked those thoughts out.
"Nice! I knew you could do it!" Uraraka said, smiling brightly at him. Izuku couldn't help but mirror her glowing expression.
"What did he say to you?" Ojiro asked from behind Izuku, who looked back at his classmate and considered him. Ojiro looked pensive, deep in thought, and Izuku probably knew why. Shinso had said horrible things about Ojiro, and he'd taken it hard.
"He said I was blessed with a heroic Quirk, and that he thought it was funny that we had to cheat since we're already so easily achieving our dreams," Izuku said. He couldn't fight the bitterness that laced his words as he explained, his face twisting in anger as he spoke.
"Oh, man. That guy really is the worst," Ojiro grumbled.
"Yeah, but I beat him for you. And for me, since it did feel good to shut him up. I just wonder if my next fight will be nearly as satisfying. Or easy," Izuku said, looking down at the arena as the next two fighters entered.
Yaoyorozu and Ashido showed themselves to the world with hardened expressions on their faces. Izuku didn't know how this match would turn out, but he thought that Yaoyorozu winning was a safe guess. That wasn't to discount Ashido's abilities, as she had the tools to overcome Yaoyorozu with her natural athleticism, possibly the best in the class, and her Quirk's acidic fluid, which could simply destroy all of Yaoyorozu's creations as soon as she brought them out. Still, with how Yaoyorozu had somehow turned a contest of strength with the physically strongest of their class to her favour, Izuku didn't want to ever say that Momo Yaoyorozu was at a disadvantage again. They both had their strengths and weaknesses, but what mattered was how they used them. Izuku was excited to see how Ashido's acid competed with Yaoyorozu's creations, since it would be very informative for his own chances. He knew that his next fight would be against the winner of this one, so watched closely. If Ashido lost but her acid did prove effective against Yaoyorozu's creations, then his Quirk, which broke down objects in a similar enough way to Ashido's acid, had a shot at fighting Yaoyorozu. If Ashido's acid was effective enough to give her a win, then it would be a battle of attrition between her and himself, with their athleticism and quick reflexes being the main attribute instead of their Quirks, which could easily maim the other if used with full force. Whoever got tired enough to be tagged first lost between Izuku and Ashido. Similarly, whoever ran out of energy first between himself and Yaoyorozu also lost, because running out of energy meant Yaoyorozu was basically Quirkless, and it meant not having the instincts to Decimate a restraining device or a projectile from Yaoyorozu. Either way it turned out, there was much to be learned from this battle.
The match began, and Yaoyorozu immediately opened with a net conjured from her skin and thrown at Ashido. Ashido then immediately countered with a splash of acid that ate through the net like water dissolving strips of paper. The net fell into a number of different dripping heaps on the ground, the acid scorching the cement of the arena floor. The two fighters stood and watched this happen, staring each other down as the net was destroyed. Yaoyorozu looked like she was thinking, and Ashido simply looked to be preparing for another attack.
While they had their moment of pause, Izuku tried his best to examine the net Yaoyorozu had used, which was now crumpled on the ground hundreds of metres away, so it wasn't easy. It seemed like the netting was dense enough that he could grab on and hook all his fingers onto it pretty easily. He could probably Decimate it without a lot of effort, much the same Ashido had with her own Quirk. That was good to know. Izuku then turned his eyes to Yaoyorozu. He knew in vague terms how her Quirk worked, with each creation taking a certain amount of mass from her own body to generate the items she made, as she couldn't create something out of nothing. This mass came from her body's fat stores, which meant that too many creations could starve her to death an hour after lunch. He didn't know her exact limit, though, so just tiring her out probably wasn't a valid strategy. He looked at Yaoyorozu closely, and couldn't see any kind of change in the shape of her body, which meant that one creation likely didn't use a lot of energy, and that she could fight battles of attrition as well. When he realised that he was sitting next to his girlfriend—partner—whatever-they-were and actively assessing another girl's body, Izuku turned bright red and looked at a random spot on the ground for a while.
When he recovered from that, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Izuku looked over and saw Uraraka trying to get his attention.
"What is it?" he asked under his breath.
"Can I talk to you? In private?" she asked in a whisper.
"Sure," Izuku said.
Uraraka got up from her seat and started walking toward the hall, and Izuku followed. He walked with her until they were both surely outside of the class's range of hearing, except for maybe Jiro and Shoji, but they were both probably distracted by the festival. Even if they weren't, Izuku hoped they knew not to use their powers to spy on peoples' private conversations. He waited for Uraraka to speak, and grew concerned when it looked like she was shaking a little bit.
"What's going on?" Izuku asked, putting a hand on her shoulder to steady her.
"I can't fight him," Uraraka said, her voice steadier than he'd thought it would be.
That was right. Her next fight was Todoroki. Izuku was so proud of how far she'd gotten, but knew deep down in the thoughts he didn't consciously think that she couldn't win against him. He sighed, and shook his head. Izuku wasn't going to let this get to her. It was his turn, now.
"You've been doing so well, though! I saw how you took down that guy from Class B, and he was pretty strong. You've been fantastic!" he said.
"No! I mean, yeah, he's powerful. I was never gonna beat him. But after what he told us this morning, and what I saw from you after talking to his dad? I can't fight him. I don't think I have the nerve to hurt him any more than he's already been hurt," Uraraka said.
Oh, that's what it was about. Todoroki was clearly in pain, and Uraraka didn't think she could add to that. Izuku wasn't going to lie, not in his own head. He felt a lot of empathy for Todoroki's situation, but he had no patience with the way he was choosing to express his reasonable anger and sadness. He'd wanted to talk it out with Todoroki, but one thing had led to another and they'd eventually both chosen the harder way to sort out their weird fake rivalry.
"You're too nice," Izuku said. That got a smile out of Uraraka, but it was quickly brought down by a pensive frown.
"Maybe. I do think he's wrong for taking his anger out on you, but I do feel bad for him. I can see that he needs this. If I try to talk to him during our fight, what do you think will happen?" Uraraka asked.
"I don't know. I don't think he's beyond reason, but he's angry, and that clouds your judgement in some weird ways. There has to be something he'll listen to, but I'm not very interested in finding that, because if I'm being honest, I don't want to help him," Izuku said.
"Isn't that our job?" Uraraka asked.
"We're fifteen," Izuku shot back.
"We're training to be heroes," Uraraka said. She gave Izuku an incredulous look that he had to look away from to hide how much it hurt him.
"We've been training for a month. He's not my problem, and he isn't yours," Izuku said with an edge of frustration to his voice, an edge that he saw Uraraka take note of.
"Aren't villains technically not our problem?" she asked, now staring right at Izuku's with none of the warmth he'd known her for.
"That's different," Izuku replied, meeting her eyes after a moment of hesitation. This was a new side of Uraraka he was seeing here, and he wasn't sure he disliked it, but it was different, and a little jarring.
"Sure, we're gonna get paid to take care of them, right? So it's all good if we deal with those guys. But Todoroki's not a villain, so we have no obligation to him?" Uraraka asked.
"We have no obligation to anyone," Izuku said.
"You have no obligation to me?" Uraraka said.
"Not inherently, no," Izuku sighed. Uraraka's face twisted as he spoke, and she leaned away from him slightly. He felt his face heat up as he registered what he'd said. "I didn't mean to say I don't want to do things and be there for you, because I do. That's because I care about you, and I want to do what I can for you. I think that's the difference. I'm not going to do things for you, for anyone, because there's some obligation—I'll do it because I want to. I did want to talk to him, but he didn't want that. He wants a fight."
"I don't think he does," Uraraka said. "I think he's just sad and angry. I don't think anyone's ever really reached out and tried to help him. I bet if I tried to connect with him, he'd be willing to hear me out."
"What do you see that makes you think that?" Izuku asked. Again, he realised the implication of his words after he'd said them, making his face turn red from the frustration he tried his best not to point at Uraraka.
"I guess I just see the way he looked at you when we all talked in the hall earlier. When he talked about his dad. He was angry, yeah, but he was also sad. He was so sad. I know I said that I got into hero stuff to help my parents with money, but the USJ taught me that I do want to help people, too, I do want to save peoples' lives. And I think the first step to saving someone's life is to save their heart," Uraraka said, and something struck Izuku. It hit him in the chest, and he almost thought he was winded for a moment, but realised that his chest ached because his heart was beating so fast it was nearly audible. He looked at her with wide eyes, registering what she said. Saving hearts, that sounded familiar to him somehow. "Todoroki's heart has been broken by everyone in his life. I get the feeling that he's trying to reach out with this 'fight me' stuff, but he's been shaped so much by his father that he just can't think of any other way."
Izuku was silent for a moment. He leaned against the wall and sighed. He remembered where he'd heard about saving hearts before in a flash of embarrassment. It was All Might, in an interview not long after his debut. He'd spoken about his philosophy of heroism, about how he'd invented his signature catchphrase. His slogan, "I am here," told people not to worry, because now that All Might was on the scene, nobody would be hurt. It lifted their spirits and let them know that they were safe. It did what Uraraka wanted to do for Todoroki. All Might was right. She was worthy. Izuku felt his entire body tighten as he realised just what he'd been saying. He'd been trying to talk her into giving up on someone, a classmate they both knew was struggling. Izuku felt the stinging poke of shame in his chest and held his head in his hands.
"I'm sorry. You're right. I just … was stupid. We are going to be heroes. Heroes don't just stop the bad guys," Izuku said.
"Right. Thanks, for understanding. I think someone could reach him if they tried, and I meant what I said after the USJ. I'm done with sitting around and letting someone else do the work. You don't have to try, but thank you for understanding why I want to," Uraraka said, smiling for the first time since they'd started talking. It was a sad smile, and Izuku could gather that she was still put off by their disagreement.
"Of course. I think you could do it, and even if nobody can help him, he still deserves to have someone try. Everyone deserves an attempt at the very least. I don't know why I thought he was an exception," Izuku said. He frowned at himself, and sighed.
"You were angry. Just like him. I don't think he's wrong when he says you're similar," Uraraka said, catching Izuku's attention again. "You both have a lot of anger you don't know how to express. I think the difference is that you're trying to teach yourself how to feel that anger and let go of it. Todoroki is just holding onto it, because it fuels him. The angrier he is at his dad, and at you, the more determined he gets to beat both of you. Doesn't that remind you of anyone?"
It did. It reminded Izuku of himself, not even a month ago. He laughed, but it was forced. He hated that he'd let this happen, but he had to resolve this somehow. He needed to let Uraraka know how sorry he was that he'd seriously argued for her to let someone hurt themself just because he was still mad at him. He pushed himself off the wall and stood in front of Uraraka, looking down at her face as they nodded to each other. He absently took her hand in his own gloved one, and gave her a serious look as he thought of what to say.
"The match is gonna start soon. Time to try reasoning with the walking blizzard," Uraraka said with a nervous laugh.
"You can do it. I believe in you," Izuku said.
He waved her off with a small frown. Izuku was worried about how she'd do against the force of nature that Todoroki embodied with his crazy powerful Quirk. He had to have faith that she'd be able to talk some sense into him, though, if not win. He had to believe in her, which he did, but it was hard. She wanted to do something insanely difficult, and which was nearly guaranteed to cost her the festival. Izuku couldn't say he was surprised at this development, since he'd always known that she was a better person than him. She was more personable, talkative, friendly and simply better at interacting with people than he was. That's what had charmed him in the first place, and it's what kept amazing him as they spent more time together. Her ability to put effort into people she barely knew was beyond him, and that was what made her such a great future hero. It was what made her worthy of All Might's power. Izuku saw her off and made a promise to himself that he was going to commit to getting better at that aspect of being a hero, the part where he had to garner trust from the people he'd save. The part where he had to connect with others.
Izuku walked to the class's seating area slowly, not wanting to sit around and wait for the match to begin. He took the time to convince himself that Uraraka would be okay. He eventually managed to find the right way to make himself believe it, but there was no telling what would happen in this match. Izuku figured that there was no better way to find out than to watch, and sat down as the match began. This was going to be hard on everyone involved.