The Puppeteer

The U.A. Tournament (final)

A/N
For those wondering, I follow until after the internships and then I go to my own story.

Izuku's PoV:
I'm grinning as I walk down the stairs to get to the arena. I hear someone behind me clear their throat and I look to see Todoroki. I feel that my face has returned to it's bored look, but my eyes still have that spark behind them. I turn fully to him and he seems slightly nervous. Which is slightly surprising, since he's the afore-mentioned ever-stoic one. I tilt my head at him and he takes a deep breath.

"I wanted to thank you," he says as he looks at me finally.

"For what?" I ask, actually kinda confused.

"Helping me, making me see that it's not my dads, but my, quirk, for everything."

"That's pretty much the only thing I've done."

"Not true."

"It is true. If you have an example of something else I've done, give me an example." He blushes as I say this and I sigh and turn and walk away. "Precisely." He mumbles something, but I just keep walking. I feel my eyes go steely, the spark leaving as I reach the arena. I step out of the door and walk towards the ring. As I walk, I feel my head start to hurt and glare at everything, gritting my teeth, giving off an air of danger that makes everyone in the whole place get shivers, even the ones who can't see me. I see Bakugou across from me and he looks afraid. I glare at him and he flinches as he looks me in the eyes. Everyone in the place who recognized him as being rambunctious and dominating, not being afraid of anything saw him flinch and they all wanted to melt into their seats as my anger grew along with my headache. For some reason the silence was making it worse. It's like this for several minutes before Present Mic finally started the match. Neither Bakugou or I moved for several moments. Bakugou was the first to move. He charged at me. As soon as he got close enough for me to hit him, I smacked him in the face, then kicking him away. I feel my headache get worse and I grip my head with one hand. Bakugou looks at me and there is very clearly fear written all over his face. As the headache slowly subsides, I slowly lower my arm and look at him. He flinches when he sees the look on my face. Something he recognized all too well. Something I hoped would never be seen again. It happens when things start becoming too much. I don't move a muscle as I get control of Bakugou and he stiffens. Everyone notices. I force him to come at me and make him punch me in the stomach. I grit my teeth as I skid back. I need to snap out of it. Please, Bakugou, keep going. Bakugou comes at me again and kicks my knees, making me fall. He kicks me in the chest and I finally snap out of it as pain finally floods my body. I gasp and force Bakugou away, moving my arm to direct him where I want him to go. I stand up and cough before releasing him. He charges at me and I round-house kick him in the legs, making him fall. As soon as I make contact with him, I activate my quirk to keep him down. I make my quirk travel up his body to his arms so he really can't move. He grimaces as he tries to get up. I glance down at him, my eyes sad. He notices and stops.

"I'm sorry," I say quietly, only loud enough for him to hear. "I didn't want that to happen again. I wanted our fight to be longer, so you would at least talk to me again. I even fed the idea into your head more that you had to fight me... I'm sorry, Bakugou."

He looks at me, looking like he's about to cry. I feel my eyes well up and don't care as several fall. I keep my head down so only Bakugou will notice. I raise my hand and point at him. I force him to lose consciousness and the match is called. I release him and walk away, gritting my teeth as more tears fall. The worst part is he won't remember what I said. He won't know that I miss being his friend, that I miss having someone in my life who doesn't fear or hate me. The closest I've got is Todoroki who doesn't care and thanked me for helping him, and the teachers, who also don't care. I notice my classmates walking through the halls and I keep my head down, stuffing my hands into my pockets as I walk past them. They don't notice my tears, but they do notice my tense jaw and think I'm just angry.

As I go enter a completely empty room, I close the door and slide down against it, letting out a quiet sob as I let tears fall down my face freely, too tired to stop them. Slowly the tears stop falling and I make it so my eyes aren't red as I hear a knock on the door. I open the door to see All Might. He smiles awkwardly at me.

"Time to give the awards," he says and I nod and follow him. I get onto the first place spot and see Bakugou in the second place spot and Tokoyami on the third place, when Iida was supposed to share the spot with him. I close my eyes and take a breath as we rise. As we emerged, I had a blank face on and looked at the crowd. Bakugou was staring at me, scared as usual. I knew he would forget. I sigh internally as Tokoyami is also looking out at the crowd. Midnight starts talking, I don't pay attention. Suddenly All Might is in front of us and I look at him. He looks back at me for a second as if he knows something. He gives Tokoyami his medal and tells him something. He goes over to Bakugou and does the same. When he grabs my metal, I look at him and everyone seems to be tense as he walks towards me. I don't do or say anything as he puts it around my neck and hugs me almost hesitantly. Everyone noticed. I want to cry again, even the number one hero is scared of me. As soon as he lets go of me, I look at him and I recognize that fear that everyone has in their eyes when they look at me. I grit my teeth and quietly growl as I look at the ground. All Might, Bakugou and Tokoyami all flinch. I look at the medal around my neck and grab it, wanting to rip it apart. I instead slowly remove it from my neck and stare at it. I've always been at the top, unbeaten. I want to be beaten just once at the very least, to know I'm not above everyone, but I also don't want to go easy on people just to let that happen because I will know it's not real. I'm tired of being at the top. I could make All Might do anything I want him to. Knowing he's the top-dog and I can beat him makes me feel worse, because if I can beat him, I can beat everyone here. I grip the metal tightly, unconsciously activating my quirk and crushing it in my palm. I drop it and walk away. I don't want the gold metal, I want silver, bronze or none at all. Usually people never want to lose, they want to be at the top. But me? I want to be the same as everyone else. If I could I would trade lives with someone so I can be normal, so people aren't scared of me when I enter a room. So people don't avoid me. I want to be anywhere but at the top. As soon as I leave the arena I hear a combination of everyone in there letting out a breath of relief. I could tell I was letting off that air of danger again, but I didn't care.

I just want someone to defeat me...

A/N
I know this one was shorter than the previous ones, but I felt that was a good spot to stop it this chapter. Idk why I wrote Midoriya in such a way, but I feel it gives more depth to his character that no one knows about. I hope you guys all enjoyed it and I'll see you guys next chapter.