Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

All Eyes on You

Kenichi's POV:

It only got worse.

I told my dad about it. He said that I was just paranoid, and probably scared for the upcoming sports festival. That is because I left out the point about the Shirokages. But I wasn't about to tell him yet. I didn't want any trouble between me, him, or Ryker.

For Ryker it got worse too, and then I started noticing odd behaviors in Kingo, Milo, and Seiryo. They were much more jumpy and anxious than usual, especially Milo, who I knew already had a couple anxiety disorders.

Then Ryker told me that they felt watched too.

Then I checked the news.

Articles and articles, police report after police report after people feeling watched and followed. Hallucinations of figures that weren't there. I didn't want to go all detective into this, but what were the Shirokages doing tormenting other people they didn't even know?

But they're evil. They have the audacity to call me evil when they're the most evilest organization out there.

The sports festival was in two days at this point. I was readily prepared, but I was also scared. This was a big attraction that drew everyone's attention. Something bad was going to happen, it was inevitable.

But maybe, if I was lucky, nothing would happen. Maybe I'd win and get a ton of internships and make my debut. But more likely than not something would.

When I arrived at THA, I noticed I was getting quite the stares. Actual ones. I guess the news of Sasha's and I's fight got around; it was pretty easy for things to get around.

I had to admit, stares from my peers weren't uncommon because I'm the "big bad Kenichi". But more than usual, I guess. Maybe they thought I brutally beat her up in malice, trying to kill her like all those other Gold Vipers. I wonder if they knew the burn scars on her back, or how she lost her arm. Some of them had to have.

When I made it to class, Ablaze stared me down, but didn't say anything. I walked up to Sasha's desk.

"Sorry if I embarrassed you by beating you," I told her.

"Don't pity me!" She snapped. "And don't rub it in my face either!"

I narrowed my eyes. "You put up a good fight, though. I'll give that to you."

She held eye contact for a minute, then looked down, choosing not to respond. I left it at that.

We received our gym clothes for the sports festival, and intel on what we'd be doing later that day. It was a more guided lesson, where we would be put into pairs and put into two roles; hero, or villain.

The heroes would be protecting a device from the villains, and the villains would be trying to take it. A simple task, but the hard part was fearing who I'd be paired with.

When later in the day did come, Ablaze was already manually picking out teams. With my luck I'd get paired with someone I didn't even know.

Someone who didn't know how paranoid I've been feeling lately...

As soon as the bell rang for the hour to start, she projected the pairings on the board. The caption spelled out, in bold, black letters, "Ten minutes to discuss a strategy. Ten minutes is all the time you get to protect or steal the device."

I narrowed my eyes and started reading the board. Villain pairs first, then hero pairs.

Lolana and Seiryo vs Kingo and Coda
Astaroth and Milo vs Ryker and Draven
Anxo and Shion, Maxwell and Rowan
Izora and Luxe vs Kenichi and Sasha