Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

Before you Cross the Line

Kenichi's POV:

Dad:
Good luck, Kenichi.

The day of the sports festival was in fact, here.

Every one of my classmates were at school an hour early, and every one of them were as pumped up as the next. I knew they didn't have a chance against me in the end, so I was fine. But the stares got stronger.

I had grown to ignore them for the most part. I got used to the chills down my spine. I got used to the anxiety. All I had to do was ground myself. I knew the real "mastermind" behind this, and as long as I knew that, I knew there was nothing to fear. For now, anyway.

I walked up to Sasha as soon as I saw her.

"Ready?" I asked.

She looked me up and down, "More than you are."

I didn't have my gym clothes on, so I suppose she was right about that much.

Draven was awkwardly standing next to her, shuffling his hands. He was weird, he didn't talk much, I was wondering what was wrong with him. As mean as that sounded, I was genuinely curious.

"I'll just put these on," I signaled to my gym clothes and went into the school, heading straight for the boy's locker room.

From the looks of it, the room was vacant. I changed into my gym clothes at a pace that, to an outsider, made me seem like I was excited for this event. In a way I was. In more ways than one, I was not.

"What would Fireant do?" I muttered, referring to my father.

"Fireant?" Chills ran down my spine, realizing the room wasn't vacant.

A lean guy with bloodshot eyes turned the corner of the locker room. He had the same gym clothes that I had on, and I recognized him from at least two of my core classes. I narrowed my eyes.

"Fireant is one of the coolest heroes out there," he said.

"Fireant is my father," I told him, "he's far from cool."

His eyebrows raised slightly.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He didn't respond right away. "Taio," he replied. "Hero class three."

That explained it, he wasn't in my hero class. "Good luck at the sports festival," I muttered. I turned around to walk out, but before I could, he spoke again.

"You're Kenichi... aren't you?" Taio said. "You're the Kenichi."

"Don't crap your pants," I muttered yet again. I left the locker room.

Yesterday still left a weird feeling inside of me. I tried to act normal in front of Sasha, but I couldn't shake the discovery. It was eating away at me. And between that and the constant, aching paranoia I felt, just around the corner—

"Kenichi!"

"Hey, Seiryo," I said, knowing exactly who it was.

"I've got a LOT to catch you up on. You've kinda been distant lately, you okay? Oh and also, you and Sasha are getting preeettyyy close, are you two dating? I thought you were gay, but maybe not, are you bisexual?"

All the questions he shot at me left me unbalanced. "I'm fine, we're not dating, and when did I say I was gay? I don't really care about the gender I date. If that makes me bisexual then sure I guess."

"Well we've got a pretty big day today, so I'll see you on the battlefield after I beat you!" Seiryo exclaimed. I narrowed my eyes at him. As if.