•Manipulation• [BNHA × Male!OC]

Chapter 121: FAWKES IS THAT YOU???

Before I knew it, the third round had begun.

I saw Shoto headed for the stairs.

I leapt up and jogged after him.

"Good luck Candycane," I grinned, giving him a pat on the shoulders.

He turned his head and gave me a determined nod.

'Someone seems fired up!'

"Todoroki, Yamada," both of us perked up at our names being called.

"Tokoyami," I greeted as the bird-headed boy walked up to us.

"How's your throat doing?" Shoto asked the boy.

It seemed that one of the 1-B girls Tokoyami's team had gone against had a penchant for growing mushrooms on her opponents' bodies, even internally.

'ugh, gross...'

The boy shook his head, "I'm feeling better after taking the medicine for it."

He paused but didn't avert his eyes from Shoto.

"I performed shamefully out there, so I'll leave the rest to you," he spoke cryptically.

The half and half boy tilted his head quizzically.

"Why me?"

"Our mentors, Hawks and Endeavor. We studied under the heroes who fought the last great battle in people's recent memories." Tokoyami began explaining.

I nodded absentmindedly.

'Now that I'm thinking about it, its true all three of us interned under one of the two heroes. The battle he's talking about is probably to do with the recent high-end Nomu attack.'

"That makes it our duty to uphold the honour of the top two heroes." he added finally.

'Sheesh, someone is taking this way too seriously.'

I kept quiet, pushing down the desire to tell the boy that Hawks couldn't give a rats ass about his honour and would probably trade it for an 8 piece bucket.

"Yeah," Shoto replied simply.

A glance at the thoughts swimming behind his eyes before he left was enough to tell me that his father's recent battle had stirred up a lot of emotions in the boy.

"Yamada," I turn back to Tokoyami who speaks up once more. "I hope you can help protect our mentor's image in the next round as well."

He sounded so disappointed with himself.

I raised a hand and rested it on his shoulder.

"I think Hawks would have been very proud of what you accomplished today," I grinned and the boy gave me a slight nod of thanks before walking off.

I settled back down to watch the fight play out.

'Wracking my brain over that damned bird won't make him respond to me anyways... I'll just go find him after this.'

I sighed, resting my head on my knees and staring at the screen as the teams took their places.

Honestly, I'm glad I focused on the match.

It was an exhilarating one to say the least.

I'd have thought it'd be an easy win for 1-A, with top contenders like Shoto and Iida in it.

However, when 1-B's Honenuki turned all of Shoto's ice into sludge, I began to worry.

Then, when Tetsutetsu had Shoto pinned by the neck I was full on panicking.

'His quirks have no effect on that metalhead huh?'

Tetsutetsu had closed the distance between them in no time at all, and there was nothing Shoto could do about it.

His fire would just make the man of steel glow, and he was in too close of a range for Shoto to use any of his typical area attacks.

I ground my teeth with every punch I saw Shoto eat.

'This isn't good...'

Every hit from Tetsutetsu was basically like getting smacked in the face by a metal pipe.

I almost wanted to look away.

-

But I'm so glad I didn't.

Just as Shoto seemed to be on his last legs, a brilliant glow overtook the screen.

When the camera exposure adjusted, I could see Shoto's flames burning more brilliantly than ever before.

They shot off the left side of his body like a jet engine, glowing a bright tangerine as the air seemed to warp and dance around him from the sheer heat he was emitting.

Tetsutetsu immediately let go of him, flinching back away from the searing heat.

The layers of ice he had put down before melted in an instant.

He got back onto shaky feet, his body swaying from the sheer force of outputting the flames.

It was like watching the rebirth of a phoenix.

-

And then, the camera cut out.

-

It felt so anti-climactic, like the power had failed in the middle of a movie's climax.

But still my heart was left hammering in my chest.

'He's improved his fire control so much in such a short time...'

And to think, just a few months ago he'd refused to use his flames at all.

'It would have been a shame if he carried on like that...' I couldn't help but think.

-

-

'His fire is so pretty after all...'

-

After a while of only being able to hear muffled crashing and see the smoke billowing from a distance, the feed finally switched to a different camera.

Now, Iida is pinned under what looked to be a concrete tower that had been melted and solidified by Honenuki, the 1-B student that went by Mudman.

Shoto was a few feet in front of him, passed out on the ground.

In fact, Honenuki and Tetsutetsu were both out cold as well.

'How on earth is this going to go...?'

It all hinged on whichever side would wake first.

Or would Pony and Shoji be the deciding factors, tipping the scale in either team's favor?

I'd always cherished my quirk, but today, for the first time I wished I had Mandalay's telepathy quirk so I could scream at Shoto to get up.

Things took a turn for the worse when Pony used her quirk to scoop up her teammates and unconscious Icyhot boy, trying to rush him to the capture cell.

However, Shoji was hot on her trail, forcing her to flee skyward.

There she hovered, both teams at an impasse, 1 to 1.

'She's waiting it out so that she can't lose...'

Shoji couldn't reach her nor her teammates, but she wouldn't be able to put Shoto in the capture cell.

I chewed on my lip.

'But this way, no one can win either.'

"Che, she's just running away," I heard Katsuki scoff from somewhere behind me.

Somehow I felt inclined to agree.

And just like that, the last few seconds of time crept by.

And the match was declared a draw.