The Couples of Class 1-A

LCO | Ch. 47: Perfect to a Flaw

"Alright, that's enough for now. Go ahead and take a break."

Yaoyorozu let out a sigh of relief at Ectoplasm's suggestion, keeling over to tiredly rest her hands on her knees. She muttered a groggy: "Thank you sensei," in-between breaths, and he nodded in return—disintegrating into a pile of gray goo, as all of his clones did when recalled.

Yaoyorozu had been practicing for a while now—around fifteen minutes straight. Today, Gym Gamma was cluttered from floor to ceiling with impromptu cement platforms and bridges, designed with the intention of housing training areas for each individual student. She in particular was located off to the left quadrant of the room, practicing endurance training by mass-producing complicated items and weaponry. It was a common enough exercise for her, but today she'd also faced the added challenge of having Ectoplasm attacking her at the same time. It'd made for a rather disorienting and fast-paced experience, but the training was valuable nonetheless.

By this point though, Yaoyorozu was already quite exhausted. Her body felt weak as she lightheadedly made her way to the water station at the edge of the gym. There were a handful of metal chairs set up, so she took one after finding her water bottle, and sat down to watch the others in silence.

Everyone was working so incredibly hard. There wasn't a corner of the room devoid of the sounds of explosions, punches, and strained grunting. Strangely though, it almost felt like music to Yaoyorozu today. There was a familiar comfort in hearing the sounds of her friends hard at work, and it admittedly did a lot to motivate her. But today especially, the sounds served as a white noise for the back of her brain—something to muffle her internal monologue. Keep it from thinking about... unpleasant things.

Mouth pressed on the lip of her bottle, she took notice of a figure in the near distance. He was turned away, but that red and white middle part was unmistakable even at a mile away.

Todoroki.

Her eyes narrowed. It seemed that every time she saw him these days, she couldn't help but leer at him. Last night had made it worse, though—so, so much worse. Just a glimpse of him was enough to put her in a bad mood, and right now was no different. She didn't look away though, since he couldn't see her from this distance anyway. He was too preoccupied in his sparring to notice.

Todoroki was practicing using his left and right sides simultaneously again. He'd been getting rather good at it lately, if she remembered—there had been impressive cases where the force of his attacks had caused a rather intense pressure differential. Even in the chaotic buzz of the gym, his attack had had everyone turning their heads. Now though, watching him, he seemed entirely off-form—his fire and ice far weaker than normal.

She'd sort of suspected as much, given his obvious lack of sleep, and the mental strain that would've come from being in detention for two hours. She might've even felt sorry for him, were it any other day; but she was too busy feeling vindictive to bother concerning herself with that. Still though, she didn't revel in those feelings, despite how much she would've preferred to just let herself be guiltlessly mad at him. Saying "good riddance" wouldn't help how she felt, and frankly, now that she'd had a day to cool off, Yaoyorozu didn't feel like those words even summed up her true feelings anymore.

She just felt numb about it all. Cold, angry, but tired enough to remain mostly apathetic about the matter. She'd done her crying; all that was left was to get over it all and move on with her life. She'd been stupid for pursuing Todoroki this long, and now she was merely reaping the consequences of her own foolishness.

Todoroki in the distance keeled over, hands on his knees, and for a moment looked like he was about to retch. The sight made Yaoyorozu blink back to reality, and for a few seconds she watched with nothing but concern in her eyes as he struggled to hold in his breakfast. Ectoplasm even ceased his attacks for a moment to worriedly check on him, but before long, Todoroki put up a hand, sighed, and straightened out of his slumped posture. The teacher gave him a gentle nudge following that, and he left to sit down on the sidelines and have a drink of water.