Worthless Necessity [HitoZuku]

Chapter 13 - Circling like vultures

Shinsou wasn't sure what he felt at that very moment when Midoriya claimed victory. Sure, there was the surprise that Midoriya could still track him accurately even while blind, and even as they traded blows, Shinsou knew that they both wanted to end this fight quickly.

So when Midoriya finally flipped him out of bounds, Shinsou ignored the ache where his butt had come into contact with the cold cement, fully intending to congratulate his friend, if Midoriya even considered him one, for his victory.

He wasn't expecting his mouth to immediately run dry, and his mind to go blank, as he looked up, right into the eyes of Midoriya Izuku, who was looking down at his opponent. He definitely wasn't expecting his head to seemingly shut down, as the emerald eyes gleamed in the light, no matter how empty they appeared to be.

He most definitely wasn't expecting the first thing to come into mind when his brain finally rebooted to be, Oh shit. He's hot.

He was pretty sure he was sitting there like an idiot for some time, since Midoriya had actually kicked him lightly in the legs, and when he finally realised what was going on, Midoriya had actually stuck his arm out in an offer to help him up, and his dad was yelling at him from the announcers booth to get up so they could conduct the prize giving ceremony.

Yep. Of all the people he had to fall for... it had to be him.

-------------------------------

Midoriya made his way to the pet rescue center, Reiko sitting on his shoulder and purring.

He won, at what price?

His eyes hurting a ton, apparently.

He didn't need to see to fight Shinsou, his well honed instincts told him where the other boy was, and he could feel the slight change in air pressure whenever he moved. His father had taught him how to do that, since his fire quirk could end up hurting an unintended target should the wind be blowing in the wrong direction, and having fought in dark alleyways for a few years, Midoriya wasn't nearly as reliant on his sight as other people were. It had proved to be useful for the functionally quirkless boy.

Midoriya fingered the collar around his neck, adjusting it once more. His almost back to back fights and his visits to the infirmary had shifted the collar, and while it was still covering that horrible scar that lay beneath, it was shifted a tad bit to the left of how he normally wore it.

But he couldn't adjust it in front of his schoolmates. They knew he had it, his idiotic classmate from general studies had literally let every single first year know about, but he didn't want to appear to be reliant on it. The collar was a reminder that he had failed, five years ago. He made a promise, and it had been broken in like, ten minutes.

He failed.

He couldn't afford to fail again.

He came close to the entrance of the pet rescue center, and Reiko suddenly gave a sharp yip and hopped off his shoulder, prancing towards the door. Reiko wouldn't do that for no reason, so Midoriya moved to take a closer look.

By the staircase, hidden under some shrubs and under the cover of darkness, sat a small box, with what looked like to be a rock in it. Midoriya carefully picked up the box, and under the light that passed through the transparent door, he found that, to his horror, it was not a rock.

It was an egg. A bird's egg.

Judging by how cool the egg was, there was no doubt that someone had dumped the egg here for quite some time already. Eggs took several weeks to hatch, and Midoriya wasn't even sure if it was dead already. But if it was dumped here, specifically at a pet rescue center, then that meant that it was probably alive at the time it was left here.