Secrets [Todoroki]

*Chapter Two*

Many days later, Miri sat in her room. The bookshelf to her left lined up to the brim with books about superheroes and villains alike. Drawings of things, and documents written in a different language that she was the only one in the house to understand cluttered her desk. Her bed lay just a mattress on the floor and a thin blanket.

Looking out her window at the moon, she debated if this was what she wanted.

Her mother is pushing her to go to the school, though Miri didn't understand why. It seems...conflicting for someone like her mother wanting her to attend U.A. High. But her mother had her own agenda for her attending. Her father isn't exactly in the picture anymore to voice his opinions.

Miri and her mother don't exactly see eye-to-eye on many things. Calling her mother a strange person was the understatement of the year, but understanding that the woman was a force to be reckoned with was something Miri learned a long time ago.

The letter was clasped tightly in her hand. She had grabbed it from the mail that morning before her mother could even wake up. Opening the letter seemed...private. Like she alone should see the contents.

But the problem was opening it. If she opened it, it meant she wanted to do this, wanted to do what her mother wanted of her. But if she didn't, she'd be rebelling.

But what did she want? Regardless of what other people expect? Hopping up on to her windowsill and looking down, Miri contemplated that. The city lay before her, dark, but empty.

Climbing down, the letter still clasped tightly, she walked the barren streets. Walking always cleared her mind when something was on it. It was a coping mechanism for everything with her now. She's been taking many walks at night lately.

The sound of something skittering behind Miri put her on the defensive. Nothing ever came around her house. They know better.

Her eyes glowed green and purple. A green aura covered her as she increased her hearing to forty. She could hear the deep ragged breaths of something behind the wall a few feet from her. Her ears throbbed from the amplified noise, but now that she knew where her target was, it was easy pickings.

In a burst of speed that broke her pinky toe, she rounded the corner and faced a horrifying sight.

Broken bones don't really hurt Miri much, especially when she can amplify her pain tolerance to where she almost feels nothing. While her body works to heal, she can nullify any pain and still keep punching.

A big creature with the head the size of a snow shovel and eyes the size of dinner plates stood before her. The bug-like creature had pinchers as big as Miri's head and arms longer than she is tall. His mouth frothed with what smelled a little like bleach. Venom.

She moved back as the creature moved to his full height, which was several meters. He looked like a praying mantis and tarantula hybrid. She shuddered slightly. She wasn't a fan of bugs.

Considering how she didn't know if touching him would hurt her, as some bugs can secrete a toxic mucus, she decided using super strength wasn't the best idea. Her ability can only amplify physical attributes to herself and if the mucus burned through her skin and into her blood system, she could end up dying. Her healing won't help the blood system.

Only one way to find out.

Miri rolled out of the way as the creature swiped at her. She grabbed a garbage can and took the lid off of it and held it in one hand, in the other she held the garbage can. She smashed it into the creature's side, denting the can with her strength. The creature squealed and was flung to the right, but as Miri suspected, the garbage can was being eroded away thanks to the mucus.