Erased Individuality

A New Kind of Fear == Dark Clouds Swirl over Izuku

"Midoriya wins!"

Hitoshi cheered alongside the rest of the crowd.

It was quite the unexpected outcome, the quirkless underdog somehow managed to defeat the progeny of the Number One.

But Hitoshi knew from the start who was the stronger one amongst the two, that's why he had already accepted it. Shinsou Hitoshi had already knew the outcome of this fight, the outcome of all the fights from the start. He knew who was going to win this festival from the very beginning, and had already made peace with it.

That's why no matter what he would try his damnedest to get stronger, train harder and harder, even more than those 'heroes' he had already faced. He had already planned his own punishment, anticipated the struggle, and fully accepted the outcome. The outcome that he would congratulate Midoriya with a smile for.

"Man that was intense!"

Midoriya plopped down beside Hitoshi, looking slightly worn out.

"Oh come on, it didn't look that bad. You didn't even get a scratch on you and Bipolar Endeavour looks like he's seen better days."

"Looked better from your perspective maybe, place was like a winter wonderland if the snow suddenly lit ablaze and tried to burn you at every corner."

"Out of the cooler box and into the fire, I guess." Hitoshi shrugged. "Speaking of perspective, where were you last round? You totally missed Hatsume-san basically monetising the Ingenium legacy."

Midoriya kept a thoughtful look. "It... may not be my place to say."

Hitoshi raised a brow, usually when Midoriya said something like that he probably was off helping someone. And when Midoriya usually helps someone 79.56% of the time it's probably a...

"Midoriya-san."

The boys turned around to see an elegant looking girl with her hair tied up into a ponytail.

"Yaoyorozu-san."

"......Trust me when I say I do not intend to break my promise. It would be reprehensible of me to dishonour you after you fought so valiantly." Yaoyorozu bowed to the boy before taking her leave.

"Yaoyorozu-san!"

The girl stopped in her tracks.

"Don't do it for me, there's someone far more important you should be keeping that promise for."

"......Is that so?"

She turned and gave the green haired boy a smile that could almost be described as somber.

"Then I hope that person can live up to it."

Midoriya looked up in slight concern as the sound of her footsteps gradually faded away.

"I should have known."

"Huh?"

"A girl was having some kind of crisis, so naturally Midoriya Izuku swooped in and became her knight in dollar store armour." Hitoshi quipped.

"Hey! What do you mean by dollar store armour!?"

Hitoshi raised a brow. "You're not even going to deny the first part?"

Midoriya sighed. "I'm not going to even bother, I'm pretty tired of trying to change people's opinions of me."

Did Hitoshi just hit a nerve there? "Well, if you want to go for seconds Uraraka-san probably needs some lovin too."

"What? What do you mean?"

Hitoshi sighed. "While you were... preoccupied, she was going up against Bakugou. Y'know, the guy who has a massive hate boner for you?"