Switch The Colors

Chapter 13: Dusty Conscience

Those odd figures were beginning to plague Izuku's mind more and more. Why did one of them look so familiar? It almost resembled his mentor, the hair in particular was a damn near striking image of him. It was uncanny, and honestly a little frightening; what could it be foreshadowing?

'That has to be One For All... But why could I see those figures? Were they vestiges of the past or something? Could it have been past users of the quirk, I mean it was passed down to different people, it would make sense...' The boy pondered, walking down a certain corridor with the intent to find his way to the spectators' stands. Izuku then spotted his dual-haired classmate stomping towards the bottom floor where the tunnels to the arena were. "Oh, Todoroki, good luck in your match."

The boy didn't respond, his scowl being enough of an answer that he was in no mood to chat. Izuku raised a brow questioningly as he watched the boy disappear down the staircase, but shrugged it off. It was none of his business as of right now, but he'd be sure to ask him about it later when he wasn't in a rush. For now, Izuku needed to hurry to the stands so that he wouldn't miss the match.

He silently pondered if that were the right choice. Leaving Todoroki to fester with his own apparent rage, it didn't sit well with his conscience, but the decision was already made. He'd learn soon enough just how wrong he was for leaving the boy like that to fester with his anger.

Eventually the greenette found his way to the stands, quickly spotting Kyouka and Mina seated near an empty seat. He smiled, realizing that they went out of their way to save him a seat and promptly headed over.

"How nice of you to save me a seat." The greenette teased, patting Kyouka on the head before he sat down beside her with Mina matching his shit-eating grin at his display of affection.

Kyouka swatted his hand away as she scowled at him, "As if. You're lucky you got here before someone took your seat. You would've lost it if you lost that match, Grasshead."

"Oh? So you're doubting my abilities now? I gotta say, I'm truly hurt here, I thought you'd have more faith in me." Izuku joked, draping his arm over the back of her chair and resting his hand beside her shoulder. He smirked as she blushed; it was as if he were inviting her to lean against him. "So, what'd you think of the match? What you could see of it at least."

"Same as all your other fights, you just looked like you were bullying your opponent. Knocking him unconscious was overkill, wasn't it? Couldn't you have just knocked him out of the ring, or safely immobilized him?" She questioned, relenting herself to follow into his rhythm and leaned into him slightly as Mina smirked smugly at their actions.

"Nah, I think he did the right thing. Isn't that kid's quirk, like, all about the brain and stuff? Knocking him unconscious ensured that he wouldn't fall victim to it." Mina chimed in, cupping her chin in thought as she gave her own opinion of the prior battle. Both Izuku and Kyouka stared at the pink skinned girl in surprise, her analysis of the fight was nearly spot on.

"...Actually, that's exactly what I was going for. How'd you figure that out, Ashido?" Izuku inquired, raising a brow inquisitively as the pinkette shrugged and smiled.

"I dunno, watching the match just gave the impression that you'd want to overwhelm his senses. You blinded him with the smoke cloud, and when he came out of it he seemed distressed. It put him at a disadvantage." She added, answering the greenettes question, while furthering the confusion within her two friends.

"You're a lot smarter than I thought, Ashido. I thought you were mostly about goofing off, but you really got into it there." Kyouka complimented, giving a slight applaud to the pinkette who simply blushed and smiled cheekily at her praise.