All For Some

Chapter 38 Shadows of The Past

Important notice: 

 I have maintained a biweekly update schedule for this story since spring 2021 when it started. Unfortunately weak autumn/winter 2021 for writing shrunk my backlog of chapters and I have since begun work on first draft my newest original novel. Maintaining the biweekly update rate for All For Some has prevented my from getting really going with that.

For this reason I have decided to slow down the rate of updates to once every three weeks, at least to start with.  This chapter is released on Saturday 16th of July. The next one will then be Saturday 6th of August and so on. If writing goes well I might try to push that up again when the anime returns but no promises. 

Now to the chapter.

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Izuku followed Todoroki across the arena. Separated from everyone else he felt a thousand eyes on him, more so than during the contest even though the audience was rapidly flowing out. Izuku turned his gaze down to focus on his classmate Todoroki, but on the way his line of sight paused on an entirely different Todoroki instead.

Endeavor certainly wasn't one to keep a low profile with the flames constantly burning around his head and shoulders. The scowl on his face would have been more than a match to Izuku's best 'leave me alone' face, especially with his lack of practice on it for months now.

Izuku realized the scowl had moved to target him. He was now facing eye to eye with the number two so-called hero. All Might might have held the more overwhelming power, but unlike him, Endeavour's stare held true hostility, and being burned alive was frankly a scarier thought than being smashed into a stain on the wall. Izuku kept that thought away from his face and turned to look at the younger Todoroki with minimal acknowledgement of his father.

Todoroki too had faced upwards at seeing his father and glanced back at Izuku with a serious, even angry look in his eyes, though not necessarily one targeted at Izuku. They entered a corridor exiting the arena, out of sight of the masses of people finally, but not alone with other students also heading out the same way. Todoroki looked around and picked smaller corridors until they were almost out of the stadium. They both concluded there was no one else present in that exact corridor at the moment. Todoroki turned to face Izuku face to face, alone for the first time.

"What are you trying to do?"

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked, a bit annoyed by the demanding tone. Then again... The image of Endeavour's scowl returned to Izuku's mind, right next to Tenya's relief at having his engines cooled.

"You sent Ida to my team on purpose. Why?"

"Because he is more patient with people who think they're better off not dealing with anyone else," Izuku responded, completely honest for once. "I don't like how you chain yourself to your father, but you might still be able to leave the shadow he has cast."

"I don't need your help to leave anything."

"You think I'm going to buy that? You begged me to take away half of your quirk just to get rid of it because it ties you to your father, and you have done your best to not let anyone get close since school started. All that while acting like your quirk and power means everyone else is below you."

"We are on different levels."

"Maybe in terms of power in a battle, but that doesn't make you a better or more worthwhile person than others. The way you are going, you are going to be just like your father, if not worse."

The look in Todoroki's eyes hardened, but his mouth moved and there was a small sound, almost like he was gagging.

"Never."