Shadowfire - OC x Shoto Todoroki

Chapter 9 - The War of Shadow and Fire

When Kaida had successfully shooed Kirishima and Kaminari out of the waiting room, despite their protests to keep her company until her fight with Bakugou, she buried her hands in her hair, counting the seconds between deep breaths as she pulled vigorously on her black locks.

I hurt him, but he was right. I just did what I had to do to win. I didn't mean to, and it's not like I lost control. I wasn't blinded by fear or rage, I just knew that only a large-scale attack would take him out. I am powerful, it's not my fault if people don't stand a chance against that. I didn't lose control... I knew I could hurt him...and I did it anyway.

She slapped her face roughly, dragging her nails down her cheeks to elicit a familiar burn. Too many foreign thoughts, too many arguing opinions swirled loudly around her head. Each thought was no longer written out for her by her father, she had no one to follow blindly and obey without question, not needing to worry about following her own path.

Masahiro had shattered every escape that may have stolen his child from him, imprisoning Kaida in her own head. But the second that large yellow letter emblazoned with the UA crest had arrived at Kaida's door, a sliver of light had filtered through the mess of darkness and pain that stalked her everywhere she went. But she wasn't used to the light. Kaida had spent her whole life in blind darkness, and now the light was pouring in too quickly for her to absorb. It was too much, too busy, too loud and too fast.

She was free, strong and independent, and she wanted her father.

Too many voices roared in her ears, and the world seemed to spin even behind her closed eyelids. She had lost the rhythm of her breathing, her lungs feeling too full, but dry and empty at the same time.

She cried out as she dropped to her knees, sending an unintentional burst of power through the room. The table and chairs flew against the wall, and she flinched violently at the loud bang, clamping her hands over her ears.

She had been sitting against the wall, knees pulled up to her chest and her face hidden behind a sheet of black hair for at least ten minutes when the door slowly opened. She had assumed someone would have heard the noise and come to punish her for unsolicited use of her quirk, but she didn't expect her next opponent to walk through the door, quietly shutting it behind him.

"A little stressed, are we?" Bakugou's voice didn't sound mocking as she would have expected it to.

"Don't start." She mumbled.

She arched an eyebrow when he moved from his position in the doorway but didn't approach her. Instead, he walked to the overturned table and chairs, and carried the furniture back to the centre of the room. Kaida winced when she saw the large scratch that disfigured the paint on the wall where the furniture had hit it, but neither competitor said anything.

He sat down next to her once he had put the room back together, leaving several metres between the two.

"You still gonna give it your all when we fight?" He sounded so calm. It was unsettling.

"Don't worry. Having a moral crisis isn't going to stop me kicking your ass." She gave him a tired, closed-eyed smile.

He let out a breathy laugh. "Because you fucking knocked out the half-and-half bastard?" He shook his head, a disbelieving smile crossing his face.

"You know, if you keep being scared of your own damn quirk, and freaking the hell out the second you hurt someone, you're never going to make it here. You talk big game, you gotta live up to it."

"Jesus Christ, cut me some fucking slack. You're not my therapist." She glared at him.

"UA isn't going to cut you any slack, so why should I? The only slack you're going to get around here is being dropped to the fucking support class when they realise you can't handle the hero course." He shot back.