All For Some

Chapter 47: Turn Up The Heat

"Where's Tenya?"

"Right," Hitoshi started. His tone made Izuku immediately worried. "Principal Nezu came to see him during your match and told him there is a phone call he needs to take. He never came back after that."

Something squeezed Izuku's insides like an invisible hand had reached into him, about to rip something away. The words were innocent enough, except for the principal coming personally, but that fact, something in Hitoshi's voice, and Izuku's own instincts made a chill go through his spine colder than anything Todoroki could create. A phone was in his hand faster than even a notebook ever was. Hitoshi tilted his head.

"You kept a phone with you during the fights?"

"Not at first," Izuku said while picking the number. "I needed to pick up the phone for something. Good thing it didn't break."

Izuku raised the phone to his ear and waited in silence, no one interrupted. Unfortunately that included Tenya as the phone beeped busy. Eventually Izuku gave up and began staring at the screen that was only showing Tenya's name and face.

"Izuku, he's okay," Hitoshi said.

"Maybe, I mean he wasn't injured when he left, but... I got a bad feeling about this."

"I feel the same, but it is something you can't control, probably, at least not right now. You just won the UA sports festival. Take a moment to enjoy this, at least until we can reach him."

"I know that but..."

"No buts. You've spent the whole day worrying about others. Can't you take at least this moment for yourself?"

Izuku stared at the ground for a moment before looking at Hitoshi again.

"No." His voice was apologetic, but not hesitant. "Even if we don't know what is going on with Tenya..."

"Todoroki," Hitoshi said, "so what are we going to do about him?"

Izuku stared at him for several seconds.

"You think I'd let you walk into that mess alone, especially after what happened before? Eijiro told me about your encounter."

"Yeah, we aren't going to let you do that again alone," Eijiro agreed. "Just tell me what you need."

"You guys," Izuku said and shook his head. "You understand that anything we could do would put you on Endeavour's bad side."

"Never stopped you. If Tenya was here he'd tell you to not get burned."

"Heh, too late for that," Eijiro said. "So what do you want to do?"

"There are only two things that can help Todoroki. One is to get him to change what he is doing."

"Easier said than done," Hitoshi said.

"The other is to take down Endeavour."

Hitoshi didn't immediately say anything, so Izuku continued.

"Yeah, I know. The good news is he already doesn't like me."

"That's the good news?" Hitoshi shook his head.

"It made him show his true colours. Before we only knew what Todoroki told us."

"Still can't believe it," Eijiro said looking down. "I used to look up to him."

"Like most people," Izuku said and put a hand on Eijiro's shoulder. "He is one of the best examples of how the current system worships people that don't deserve it."

"Right," Eijiro sighed but quickly perked up. "So how can we help?"

Izuku smiled softly at the redhead.