Preydator || Todoroki x OC

•14: Rough Morning•

Fear. Fear is all I can feel as it stares at me with red, beady eyes. The white rabbit stands before me on the forest floor, it's nose twitching as it sniffs around, it's large ears flickering back and forth. It bores its eyes into mine, feeling as if it were staring through my soul. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to tear my eyes away.

"Rini." An all too familiar voice surrounding us calls out from the forest.

Suddenly, a red fox appears. It's tail brushes my leg as it strides past me. "Rini." It coos at the rabbit and I tense up.

"Run!" I try to shout at the poor, white animal, knowing what happens next.

The white rabbit doesn't move an inch and stays frozen in place, its gaze still locked onto mine.

The fox snarls and bears its sharp teeth as it lunges for its prey. The rabbit squeaks in pain and anguish as it is torn apart, dark blood pouring from its carcass. "Mom!" The rabbit cries out in pain, but its eyes stay locked onto mine.

"You're weak." The fox jeers with a laugh. "You're still so weak." The fox suddenly turns its head towards me. Its cruel and condescending grin shows its bloodstained teeth as it tosses the rabbit to my feet.

My eyes widen in horror as the carcass of the rabbit continues to look me dead in the eyes. A murder of eight crows land by the carcass, five of them cawing out. The fox's haunting laughter fills my head and the crows begin to join in. "You're weak." They chant. "You're still pathetically weak!"

"Rin, it's time to get up." I jolt awake at the sound of kncoking at my room door and Aizawa's voice.

I sit upright in my bed, panting. I wipe the sweat on my brow as I calm down. 'Another nightmare.' I sigh in relief as I get out of bed. 'It's way too early for school.' I think as I gaze at the clock. 'I wonder what's special about today.' I ponder  as I make my way to the bathroom to take a cold shower. The cold shower floor sends a shiver up my spine as I turn on the water, running through my short, black hair and washing away the residual anxiety from my nightmare.

As I get out of the shower and get dressed, my mind wanders back to a certain burnt-skinned villain who would sometimes comfort me after cases of night terrors. 'I miss Dabi.' I think to myself. 'I haven't seen him since I was arrested, and he's probably wondering where I've gone. The probably thinks I'm dead or in jail.'

I sigh as I grab my fox mask from the counter. "You're still so weak!" The fox's cackle echoes in my mind. I bite my lip before shaking my head as if to shake away the thoughts and placing the mask over my face.

I quickly hop down the stairs to meet Aizawa in the kitchen. "Why so early today?" I ask him.

"We have a bit of a special class planned today. I need to be at the school a little earlier than usual." He explains.

'Special class?' I think curiously before brushing the thought off. 'I guess I'll find out when we come to it.' I say to myself before digging into the rice and side dishes. "So, have you teachers investigated any further about those intruders in the school yesterday?"

He shakes his head. "Unfortuneately, there's quite literally nothing we can do about it. They came and went without a trace. They never even appeared on the security cameras, so we have no clue what they look like."

"They said they wanted to get to the teacher's lounge." I say to Aizawa. "That's about all I heard before they spotted me."

He sips his coffee with a thoughtful expression. "Well, if you know anything else, feel free to share. You can trust us."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, I can definitely trust the guys who stripped me of my freedom and then threatened to send me to jail if I didn't go to this dumb hero school." I sarcastically reply.

He sighs. "Well, you can at least trust me."

My eyes light up as I suddenly remember something about one of the voices I heard in the vents. "One voice belonged to a female, and it was really familiar..." I trail off, deep in thought as I try to recall just where I've heard it before. "Ah! The woman from the grocery store robbery!" I remember her long, fuscia hair and shrill voice as I dragged her out of the vents. "Wait, but she was arrested. That can't be right." I quickly rebuttal myself.

"Who?" Aizawa asks, confused as to what I'm talking about.

"The day I met Todoroki, we got caught up in a robbery at the grocery store on Surata Street. One of the robbers was a man with a metal manipulation quirk and a woman with a sleeping gas quirk. I'm pretty sure it was her voice I heard in the vents." I explain to him. "But that doesn't make any sense. I saw both of them get arrested and get dragged away by the police." 'Although I was carried away to the hospital in the middle of it.'

"It seems unlikely it's them, then." Aizawa replies. "Unless they escaped- which is possible since the quirk suppression handcuffs might not be as effective for those with emitter-type quirks if they don't emit from their hands. But even so, how would infiltrating UA benefit simple robbers? Assuming they're low on money, nothing particularly expensive in the school- except for the building itself, I suppose."

'That's true.' I think as I dump my dishes in the sink. I know that it's extremely unlikely, but I'm certain that it was her voice I heard.

He gets up from his seat and stretches. "Let's get moving now. If we get there early enough, maybe I'll have some time to nap in the teacher's lounge."

'If you wanted to sleep that badly, you should've just waited on waking both of us up.' I think as we walk over to the front door, adjusting my mask over my face. 'That reminds me...what's this special class he has planned? Is it important enough for us to wake up this early?' I sigh, remembering I'm not even voluntarily part of this hero course. 'Probably not.'

-----

"'Morning, you all." Aizawa greets the class. "Today is a particularly class." He explains as the shelves containing our hero costumes emerge from the wall again. "We'll be going a bit of a field trip to USJ for some rescue training with pro heroes Thirteen and All Might."

The class' faces light up in excitement for their first excursion. "My arms are ready to rumble!" I can hear Kirishima say and Tsu remarking that nobody can beat her in the water. The rest of the class similarly erupts into enthusiastic chatter.

"Do I need to participate?" I ask. 'Rescue training? I have no interest in being rescuing anybody or being a hero. This is pointless.'

"Yes." Aizawa responds and annoyance washes over me. "As I mentioned before, officer Osaro wants you being as active in this class as possible."

I roll my eyes. "What a pain." I mumble. 'Started off rough today with a nightmare and it's only getting worse. I have a feeling I'm going to hate this.'