𝙙𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 (𝗏𝗂𝗅𝗅𝖺𝗂𝗇! 𝗍𝗈𝖽𝗈𝖽𝖾𝗄𝗎)

chapter thirteen

todoroki

I'm not going to lose him.

In front of me, Dark Shadow was hovering, staring down at me like he was ready to tag me out. He was in the way of me and Sero, who I needed to get to.

Using my left side, I sent up a quick wall of flames to block him from getting to me. Not only did the fire stop him, but the light from it also weakened Dark Shadow. I dashed around the flames and dove straight for Sero, freezing his arms before he could bind me with his tape.

"Nice work, Todoroki!" Jiro yelled, following me. She gave Sero a quick tap on the shoulder and he frowned.

"Sero, you're out! Please return to the waiting area," Mr Aizawa's tired voice sounded throughout the training area.

He groaned before obliging. Jiro turned to me and said, "We should probably find Uraraka. She's fighting Midoriya."

"Okay," I said. Mixed feelings flooded through me at the idea of Izuku and Uraraka fighting, even though this was just training. As much as I wanted Uraraka to win for the team, I wanted Izuku to win since I was slightly biased in his favour.

Mr Aizawa had given us another class training session. We were in teacher-assigned groups of three, and one group had to pretend to be villains while the other group were the heroes. Luckily for me, my team—with me, Uraraka, and Jiro—were the heroes.

Jiro used her earplugs to listen to the audio waves in the ground. "They're over by that rock." She pointed. "Let's go."

She stood up and started running. I trailed close behind her, watching for Tokoyami and Dark Shadow.

As we got manoeuvred around the field, tall rocks jutted up from the ground, blocking our view of Uraraka and Izuku's fight.

Out of nowhere, Jiro stopped and put her earphone into one of the rocks. "Tokoyami's coming."

Instead of speaking, I took on a loose stance and waited for my classmate. He emerged from behind a rock, Dark Shadow soaring near him, and started running in our direction. Jiro and I separated, creating a gap between us.

"I can get him," Jiro announced, stomping her foot down. "Cover your ears."

I stood by, waiting for a chance to tag Tokoyami out. Jiro adjusted the speakers on her legs and sent out a wave of sound so violent I nearly fell over. Tokoyami paused to cover his ears and Dark Shadow quivered from the noise; At that moment Jiro dashed up to the two and slapped Tokoyami's shoulder.

I almost cheered, but Jiro didn't seem as excited. Right as she had placed her hand on Tokoyami, Dark Shadow had tagged her, meaning she was out.

"Jiro, Tokoyami, you're out." Mr Aizawa sounded more exhausted than he usually did, if that was even possible.

The two students both sighed and started walking away. Before Jiro was out of my sight, though, she turned around and pointed to the rock Uraraka was on. "Go."

I nodded to show that I understood and started jogging to the rock. A crash came from it, signalling that the fight was ongoing.

I made it to the top of the mostly-flat rock and took a moment to observe the scene. Uraraka was calmly floating in the air, rising higher with every passing second. It seemed that the nausea she usually felt when floating things wasn't affecting her at all, and she looked confident in her ability to win.

Izuku was on the ground, stretching out his legs in preparation to jump up and reach my teammate. The look on his face was strikingly different to his usual expression: His eyes were narrowed angrily and focused solely on Uraraka, missing their usual gleam. His lips were turned down in a deep scowl, and even though he was supposed to be pretending he was a villain, his frown seemed all too genuine to be fake. He looked seriously pissed, which was concerning, considering that anger was focused on Uraraka, his friend.