Fighting Fears

Chapter 6

I must've passed out after my moment last night, because the next thing I knew someone was yelling at me and kicking me. Coughing and choking, I held my arm across my stomach, looking up to see the boys staring at me. "Damnit Deku, how am I supposed to get ready to train if you're in here making a mess of the whole place?!" Kacchan snarled at me, about to kick again. "Bakugo, stop! You'll only make it worse!" Iida snapped. "Yeah, if you've got a problem with the so-called mess, don't make more of a mess." Kaminari frowned. I realized that I actually had made a mess, probably in my rush.

I bet I didn't even turn on the lights.

"Midoriya, you okay man? We found you passed out like this. Do you feel sick?" Kirishima asked, crouching down on my level. "N-No. I-I'm fine. Just... just a... n-nightmare." I lied. "Pathetic." Kacchan spat, ignoring us to do his own thing. "It's normal for people to get nightmares." Tokoyami reminded him. "Shut it, bird-brain." Kacchan snapped. "You're probably dehydrated. Do you need help getting downstairs?" Ojiro asked. I nodded. He helped me off the ground. "I'm so sorry I made such a mess." I murmured, too exhausted to do anything else. "It's fine. Everyone gets sick, dude. Part of life." Sero shrugged. "We've got everything up here. Go get rest." Iida instructed. I muttered my thanks, stumbling along until Ojiro and I finally made it downstairs. "Deku! Are you okay?! What happened? You look awful!" Ochaco rushed to my side. Ojiro carefully swatted her away, explaining what had happened. "He just needs rest and something to drink." My friend helped me over to the couch. "Hey, I've got to go get ready for training, are you okay if I leave you with the girls?" He asked. "Y-Yeah." I stuttered, eyes starting to close. "Alright. Lemme know if they start fussing over you too much. You know how girls can get." Ojiro chuckled, heading back upstairs. "Deku I'm so sorry. I would've sat with you if I had known." Ochaco said gently. "I passed out." I laughed a little. "I know. Here, drink." She helped me hold a glass up to drink. I squinted at it. "What is it?" I yawned. "It's an American product called Gatorade. It's supposedly good if you have an upset stomach." Ochaco shrugged. I quickly drank the entire thing. "Thank... you..." I shuddered. "Of course. Is there anything else I can do for you?" She smiled. "C-Can you tell Todoroki I... n-need to talk to him... l-later?" I questioned. "Yeah." With that, I was out cold.

~~~

"Midoriya... wake up..." I whimpered, slowly stirring awake. I blinked, getting rid of the blurriness. "Ochaco said wanted to talk to me? It took a while for me to convince our teachers to let me go, so I'm not sure how long I have. Everyone's out there sweating bucketloads with the training. Honestly some of them are half awake, stumbling around and running into trees and rocks. You're lucky you get to stay inside. They told us not to hold back." Todoroki pressed a towel against his arm. "Did you get hurt?" I asked, sitting up. "Everyone's hurt. Not anything bad, though. I think they're just trying to drain our energy for some reason. There's no organization to the training, nor instructions. We were just told to train. Which, y'know, people are enjoying that, I guess. I'm glad to have gotten an excuse to come inside though, no one's had a break in over four hours." My friend shook his head.

"So what'd you need me for?" "Oh! R-Right. I uh... I actually... got sick for a reason last night." I began. "Yeah, a nightmare, you said, right?" "N-No, not exactly. You know I overthink things, so I was up late worrying about what All Might said. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Something bothered me, but then I remembered an article I had read years ago. I read everything I could on All Might, and this happened to be one of the things." I took a pause to breathe, making sure Todoroki was paying attention. "Go on..." "The first thing I did was look at the date. It matched the video Endeavor had taken. So I read the article, and... I figured out why she was so upset." I looked away.

Am I really going to tell him this? He already has a suspicion, and All Might basically gave us permission to figure it out, yet... I feel wrong...