Finding Me (Todoroki x Reader)

Chapter 23

Half an hour of side games and embarrassing - yet surprisingly fun - cheerleading later, and I was sitting in the stands waiting for the battles to begin.

I sat with Ochaco and Iida, glad to be out of the extremely exposing cheer uniform. 'I'll have to have a word with Momo about this later,'  I noted to myself as I stared down at the field, watching the area I'd soon be standing in.

Each battle had a thirty minute time limit on it, and we had to defeat our opponent within that time limit or we'd have to find another way to settle the winner. There was a massive square grid - created by Cementos, himself - in the middle of the stadium where we would battle. If we were thrown out of the square, we'd be eliminated straight away.

'So, to win, I either have immobilise my opponent, or kick them out within a thirty minute time slot. Sounds easy enough.'

"Hey, Y/N, you okay?" I tore my eyes away from the arena below to face my brown-eyed friend.

"Hm? Oh, yeah! I'm good," I stuttered out, scratching the back of my head nervously. "Guess I'm just thinking about how this is it - the final round."

Ochaco smiled excitedly in return. "I know, right! I honestly can't believe I even made it this far, it just seems so surreal to me."

"Believe me, Ochaco, you deserve to be here," I reassured her, clapping a hand on her shoulder. "You worked really hard in both rounds up until now, so just do your best and I'm sure you'll do great. Who are you versing again?"

My statement seemed to trigger something in the girl, because she suddenly blanched a ghost white and threw her hands to her mouth as if she was about to throw up.

"Whoa, Ochaco? Are you okay? What's wrong?!" I went into full Panicked- Mum mode, rubbing her back and trying to get her to look at me.

"Uraraka!" Iida cried out when he saw us, and immediately started fretting. "Do you need a bucket? Please sit up straight. Just breathe, Uraraka! I'll find a bucket. Wait here!" And suddenly, the speedster was off in a flash to find our friend a bucket.

I sweat-dropped. 'He's worse than me! '

"Ochaco." I gently started to pry her hands away from her mouth, trying to get her to breathe. "Was it something I said? Tell me what's wrong, please?"

She didn't respond straight away - as she still looked like she was going to barf - but eventually made eye contact with me, muttering a quiet answer.

"B-Bakugou..." she uttered fearfully, shaking even more than before.

"You have to fight Bakugou?!" I exclaimed, a spike of dread running up my spine.

'She has to battle that psychopath? He'll kill her! '

Even though I wasn't the one going up against the ash-blond, explosive boy, I couldn't help but feel scared, all the same. However, looking at my friend's petrified face, I realised that I couldn't add to her anxiety.

"Hey, come on," I urged gently, rubbing Ochaco's back comfortingly. She finally managed to pull her face out from her hands to look at me. I smiled the most encouraging smile I could muster. "He's just a student like us, Ochaco. Just because he's a lot scarier and aggressive than the rest of us, doesn't mean you can't beat him."

Wide brown eyes stared awestruck back at me, the sick aura leaving Ochaco completely. I stopped rubbing her back to completely face her front on.

"You just need to stop viewing him as someone who is invincible - because he certainly is not - and show everyone out there what you can do. You're so incredible, Ochaco, you just need to believe that you are. Once you start doing that, the sky is the limit."