Worthless Necessity [HitoZuku]

Chapter 21 - The monster you made me

Midoriya stared at Shigaraki with a completely blank expression, as the villain continued to cackle.

"You are, aren't you. I wasn't expecting you to be here, Void. But now I can take out two birds with one stone. Double the EXP, you might say!"

Midoriya merely kept his gaze on the villain, as he heard Ectoplasm herding the students away some distance behind him, as well as carrying some of the injured and knocked out hero course students away. He heard Snipe firing bullets at a Nomu, Yamada and Kan trying to take them down, Ishiyama trying to slow the Nomu's down, Shuzenji treating Thirteen and the rest of the students, Nezu barking out orders left and right to Maijima, and Kayama to round up all the fallen villains and save the students who were still fighting.

Midoriya was well aware that he wasn't fighting at full power, and this was on purpose.

After all, he had to keep an eye out for all the other villains and students that were fighting all around him, and he couldn't pour all his focus into the fight. It had never crossed his mind to hold back simply because he wanted to hide his vigilante identity; that was just illogical.

He had held back during the Sports Festival, but he didn't want to break everyone's bones and utterly humiliate them in front of the entire world. It was a logical course of action that allowed everyone to benefit.

But now, the teachers were here. The pros who could handle themselves better and weren't on the verge of collapse. They could take care of themselves, right?

He needed to hurt Shigaraki, hurt him badly enough, but not damage his jaw, or he wouldn't be able to talk and order his Nomu around. He needed to hurt him and annoy him to the point of frustration so that he would get his stupid Nomu to turn its attention away from Aizawa and to himself instead.

Aizawa's life was far more important than his. He would gladly give his life up for the downed pro hero, if he were able to die in the first place.

So it wouldn't hurt to go full throttle, wouldn't it? He couldn't die from snapping his neck multiple times, or getting a hole burnt through him; blood loss would probably not do anything to him. He kept his focus on Shigaraki, before he shot forwards, aiming a jab at Shigaraki's side.

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Todoroki didn't know what to think when he heard Shigaraki's statement. He was busy freezing several villains in place, when Shigaraki's voice rang out.

Midoriya was Void? Midoriya was the one that knew about his past? That knew about Enji? The one that had saved him and Iida from Stain? The one that his dad had fucking torched!?

He didn't want to believe it, that Midoriya was the one his father tried to kill, that he was the same one that tried to encourage him to use his fire.

Until Midnight knocked the villains in his vicinity out, and he was allowed to take a breather and observe the ongoing fight between Midoriya and the man covered in hands that had introduced himself as the leader of the League of Villains, the one that he heard someone call Shigaraki.

He had considered the fight between Midoriya and Bakugou as a total brutal annihilation of the blonde pomeranian, but this, this was true brutality. Midoriya, beaten and battered and pretty much dripping blood like leaky faucet, suddenly gave off this menacing aura that made Todoroki freeze in his tracks. It was like the one Midoriya exuded during the Sports Festival, while defending Shinsou, while fighting against Bakugou, except that it felt infinitely stronger.

He wasn't even anywhere near Midoriya, nor was he Midoriya's intended target, and yet, Todoroki felt like he was suffocating, his throat tightening for absolutely no reason as he observed Midoriya from a distance.