Climbing the Ladder {Currently Discontinued}

Chapter 26 - Not what it Seems

This bitch is 3.4 k words. This is my gift to you for reading this slow burn so far.

I very briefly proofread so if there are any mistakes then frick.

"Thank you back there," Jirou huffed. "If you didn't step in I would have been toast. Literally."

"Of course." Todoroki replied. He was holding one of her arms around his shoulder, helping her walk. "Do you think you can stand on your own?"

The moment he let her go, she fell to the ground. "Ah!"

"Sorry!" He immediately picked her up. "I thought you could stand."

"It's alright."

Todoroki thought for a minute. "Maybe I should take you to Recovery Girl. You were hurt pretty bad. Did Kaminari's quirk get out of control?"

"No it couldn't have." Jirou protested. "He knows what he's doing. Someone must have redirected it, or..."

Todoroki tilted his head. "You sound so sure."

She realized what she said and got flustered. "It's not like that!"

Todoroki raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"N-never mind..!" She turned away. "But I'm not unconscious yet. I don't need to be mobile to use my quirk! I promise I won't be a burden, please trust me on this!"

"You wouldn't be a burden," Todoroki frowned. "But that's not what I'm worried about."

"How about this." Jirou suggested. "Let me be your ears for a while. I can listen and see if anyone's coming. And I can help you find people! Please, Shoto!"

Todoroki looked at her unsure. During Summer Camp she never got the chance to help fight. It really hit her hard.

If she wanted to do better, who was he to stop her?

-

"Why didn't we take that deal!?" Kirishima tightened his fists. "We could have saved our friends!"

"If it were a real situation with real villains holding them hostage, then I would have said yes..." Uraraka bit her lip. "As much as I wanted to, I couldn't. There was something off about his deal..."

"What do you mean?" Shoji asked.

"Starting with what was the point of it?" Uraraka sighed. "Yes he cares about his classmates, but with the way he was looking, I don't think that was his biggest concern."

"Well hello, children!" They were interrupted by a merry old voice.

"Recovery girl!" Uraraka bowed. "Is this where we take the wounded?"

Recovery girl nodded. "Wow this is the first batch of class 2-b we've gotten!"

Everyone froze. "What!?"

"What the hell does that mean!?" Bakugo spat. "Has no one in our class captured anybody yet!?"

"Nope. In fact, Class 2-B is the one doing the capturing." She motioned to familiar faces in cots. "About 6 class 2-a students have been captured."

The boys' eyes widened. Hagakure, Mineta, Tsu, Kaminari, Koda, and Momo were captured. The four did not see Mina nor Sero. Kaminari was the only one awake, and he didn't seem to be injured either. He was sitting up staring at his hands. He looked defeated and upset. When he caught sight of them at the door, he just looked away.

"Denki?" Kirishima called out to him, but he didn't answer.

"Recovery Girl?" Uraraka asked. "Are we allowed to go in?"