Era

37

There was something wrong with Todoroki.

She already knew it in the brief flashes of walls closing in can't breathe can't breathe that seized upon her in his quieter moments, knew it in the twitch of her fingers whenever he used his quirk. Half fire, Shinsou had said, but he never seemed to use it in combat. At first Era had figured this might be a cautionary measure; fire had the potential to be a lot more destructive than ice, and in a competition like this it was probably better to capture your opponent than burn them alive.

Against Tokoyami, though... it didn't take a lot of forethought to figure out that that shadowy quirk of his wouldn't be very susceptible to physical attacks. Fire was the optimal strategy, the most efficient way forward, and yet as Era watched the match from the stands she felt her jaw tighten with frustration as Todoroki simply refused to even consider it.

She watched as the breath misted before him in steady puffs, watched the telltale signs of quirk exhaustion reveal themselves in the faintest tremble of his limbs. Todoroki, the powerhouse of class 1-A, was struggling to keep his footing against Tokoyami's Dark Shadow; and while admittedly Dark Shadow was quite powerful in its own right it also didn't take a fucking genius to guess that it would be weak to light. To fire. From what Era understood, Todoroki wasn't an idiot.

Just a stubborn ass. She felt a wrinkle work its way into her brow as Todoroki hastily summoned another wall of ice to fend of Tokoyami's blows, forced on the defense by a swift assault that hadn't relented all match. What was he doing? Did he think that, because this was just a simple game, he shouldn't give it his all?

Era wouldn't have faulted him for that, if she was being honest. But all the evidence was piling up to paint a rather confusing picture, and the longer she stared at it the angrier she became. At first she'd just been unsettled, put off by the familiarities she saw in his motions and his reactions to his own quirk, but now...

Ice shattered into countless glimmering fragments as Dark Shadow burst through, and Todoroki darted to the side with a lethargy he hadn't had before.

A scowl forced itself upon her face, and she couldn't seem to dismiss it. Now, she thought, it was becoming more obvious than ever that Todoroki wasn't simply not taking the festival seriously. It was his training he was disregarding, the lessons in their entirety.

For some reason he refused to use a not insignificant portion of his quirk. And yet he expected to go up against villains, real villains like Argus and Nyx and Vulcan and... and him.

It made her sick to her stomach, left her nauseous with walls closing in and can't wash out it won't wash out and you make the pain stop little bird and and and

"Holy shit," muttered Shinsou beneath his breath, startling her from her reverie. "Tokoyami's strong as hell."

"Todoroki should be stronger," she replied a little too sharply for her liking. If he noticed, Shinsou didn't comment.

"This seems never ending," he said instead. "They're just going to repeat this process until Todoroki tires himself out."

Era hummed, turning her attention back to the match. Maybe, but she had a feeling that Todoroki must be smarter than that. Even if he was intentionally handicapping himself for reasons that were absolutely beyond her fucking grasp—

There. A shift in the rhythm. As Dark Shadow threw its weight against the ice, Todoroki ducked around the swings with a burst of speed and sent frost snapping from his heel towards Tokoyami himself.