TWO POWERS (Todoroki Shoto x Reader)

Chapter 23: Darling

In addition to Recovery Girl, You, Shoji and Uraraka are the only ones in the screening room, preferring to watch instead of plan. Watching others fight, you realize that you have your work cut out for you – the teachers aren't holding back. Kirishima and Sato fail their exam too quickly.

Watching the fifth match with Shoto and Yaoyorozu against Aizawa makes you feel weirdly uncomfortable. They're not doing too well at first, but in the end they manage to win, following Yaoyorozu's plan it seems. Even though they won, the uneasy feeling doesn't leave you, so you decide to distract yourself by asking Shoji to leave and come up with a strategy. But since you're both unsure of the location of your exam, it's difficult to come up with a solid plan. The general one is that you will either run away or, if he fixates his attention on only one, the other will make a move.

Dangit, Aizawa knows that I don't want to use One For All and used it against me when he decided on the matchups. Talk about playing dirty.

Before you know it, you're positioned in a narrow concrete room filled with pillars, doing your best to calm yourself. Snipe is standing in front of the exit when the horn blares, beginning the countdown of thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes is a long time, but the time limit is probably there as a formality. You either escape or you're captured. Playing tag for thirty minutes is something the teacher wouldn't tolerate for too long.

You hide behind a pillar, managing to run behind the next one before Snipe's bullets hit it. "Just so you know, I can sense your presence. I know exactly where you are at all times."

You look at Shoji, seemingly agreeing that you can't just run. Someone needs to divert his attention. You point at him and then the exit, at yourself and then at Snipe. He nods. Snipe is moving towards you, firing warning shots at the pillar you're hiding behind. As it is about to crumble, you both use the opportunity to run towards the exit. Shoji continues running forward, but you emerge from between the pillars, zigzagging as you openly attack him from the side, knife in one hand, handcuffs in the other.

You charge forward, knife in hand, hoping to stab him. He dodges but doesn't shoot. You charge forward again but this time "miss" on purpose, aiming for his hand with the handcuffs. He must have seen this coming because he instead grabs your wrist to yank you around. "How foolish," he says as he lets go of your arm but also throws away the handcuffs. Now you're in a small stand-off. You charge first, ready to strike. He dodges again, so you switch hands to spice it up a little and attack him again. He dodges that one too, but barely, your hand grazing his costume. He grabs your other arm and pulls you away. But that's all the stalling you needed: the horn blares and a voice declares your victory. You let out a sigh of relief.

"So you trusted that he would be fast enough, taking advantage of the fact that the battle would be over?"

Sitting on the floor, catching your breath and calming yourself down, you reply, "Something like that."

"What was it then?" Sniper asks with his slightly robotic voice.

"I was planning to capture you, but Shoji beat me to the exit," you say, looking back at him.

"You're crazy, but I must give you credit where credit is due. That took nerves of steel," he says as he offers you his hand to pull you up. You take it.

"I blame whoever came up with these matchups. They clearly left me no choice," you explain as you leave the area with Snipe.

"Well, I know we told you to treat us as villains, but to me, you looked like the villain, attacking a hero."

Oopsie. "Well, the villains are usually on the attack, right? I guess it was slightly inevitable."

Snipe is satisfied with that explanation.