The Realist(Shoto Todoroki x reader- Bakugo's twin sister)

Chapter 62

I tried to see where everyone was by tracing their energy, but all I could sense was Iranaka's- still spilling everywhere like a kid let loose with a paint bucket.

It made everything harder to track. The whole place was soaked in his quirk, smothering any smaller signals under it.

Then, faintly, I felt it- a big energy beneath me. A heartbeat buried under the chaos.

"Gotcha," I muttered, floating a few inches higher as if that would help me think.

I knew I could just yank Iranaka's energy away and drop him like a bad Wi-Fi connection, but that wasn't the mission. My focus had to be Eri. Or Mirio.

And knowing Mirio...yeah, the idiot was probably halfway to getting himself killed or swallowed by a wall right about now.

The officers behind me were quiet, though their boots squeaked every few steps. I could feel their nerves as clearly as I could feel the static in the air.

They flanked me like bodyguards- which was ironic, considering I was the one keeping them alive. Every few seconds, one of them would glance at me like I was about to explode.

"Relax," I said, not looking back. "If something tries to eat us, I'll vaporize it first." I joked.

"Comforting," one officer muttered under his breath. "Because that's totally not the start of a horror movie."

Another officer snorted. "Yeah, next thing you know, she floats off saying, 'I'll be right back.'"

I shot them both a glare over my shoulder. "Do you two want to volunteer as bait? Because I can arrange that."

They immediately shut up.

My eyes glowed faintly as I focused on the energies again. The officers kept moving in uneasy silence, their footsteps cutting through the warped hallway. Every reflection on the metal walls made it look like something was watching us.

Then everything stilled.

The rumbling stopped. The floor steadied. The air stopped vibrating.

For a split second, I thought maybe Iranaka had finally burned himself out.

But then I saw the new layout of the hallways.

"Normal," one officer said slowly, glancing around. "Everything's back to normal."

I turned to him, one eyebrow raised. "Yeah, if your definition of 'normal' involves Escher architecture and walls that forgot how to be straight."

The corridor had rearranged itself again- walls now stacked sideways, floors curving upward like melted glass. It wasn't shaking anymore, but it looked wrong.

Like we were inside someone's fever dream.

One of the younger officers pointed at a door on the ceiling. "So, uh, which way's out?"

Another replied dryly, "Straight up, apparently."

The first guy sighed. "Cool, cool, so death or cardio. Those are our options."

I rolled my eyes and floated ahead. "You guys ever stop talking?"

A third officer chuckled. "Not really. It's how we cope."

"Well, cope quieter," I said, scanning the air again. "There's something under us. Big energy spike, maybe one of the people from our group."

It's really strong. And getting bigger by the second.

One of the officers raised an eyebrow. "And you're sure that's not, you know...the end of the world or something?"