ʜᴇʀᴏᴇs | ʙɴʜᴀ

↳ chapter 16

  I was absolutely exhausted. I collapsed in my seat next to Izuku, complaining about the growing discomfort in my body.

"Maybe you should see Recovery Girl..." Izuku trailed off weakly, having just come out of Recovery Girl's office.

  I shook my head and smiled, denying the need to be healed. I explained to the freckled boy that I wanted to deal with the injuries and heal them by myself so that I would not only have a high pain tolerance, not also have to depend on Recovery Girl every time I was injured. After hearing my pathetic reasoning, Izuku forcefully dragged me to Recovery Girl.

"Izuku... No! I thought you were my friend, " I fake sniffled as the black-haired boy dragged me there with a mental strength I didn't know he had.

  Poor Izuku had to deal with my wailing until he reached Recovery Girl's office, asking her if she could heal me. She sighed at my unwillingness to be healed and chided me for my bullheadedness. I scowled at Izuku for not listening to my demands when Recovery Girl turned away, in which he responded with a nervous laughter, like he knew that I was going to butcher him.

•

  I stood on the podium as All Might awarded me my medal. Something felt... Wrong. Iida wasn't here because of a family emergency, and I was severely worried for him. He looked distressed as he left, muttering about his brother. Standing on the third-place podium by myself... I felt so lonely. Well, until I looked up and saw Bakugo chained to a boulder. I chuckled nervously.

  After the prize presentation ceremony, I sighed and slung my backpack over my shoulders, walking home with a heavy heart. This would be the end of Shoto's and I's daily training sessions, which I would miss dearly. Shoto came up to me and asked me a question that caught me off guard.

"Where are you going? You aren't coming for our training sessions?" he asked quizically.

  Just that question was enough to brighten up my whole world. I chuckled at his question. How could I possibly say no to him? I grinned and followed him to his house, where we would be training. Again.

•

"Hey, Sakura-chan? I'm going to the hospital today to visit my mother, " Shoto says, opening the gate wearing his day clothes.

"Oh, okay. It's fine if you don't want me to come-"

"I was wondering if you would follow me?" he asked.

  I felt slightly giddy with enthusiasm, and I immediately replied with a confident 'yes'. I was grinning my own eagerness. I didn't know what this feeling was, but I loved it. I paused for a second at my own thoughts. I loved it. I loved it. For some reason, that word made me stop in my tracks, puzzled.

  Shot turned around to look at my frozen figure, wondering if he did something wrong. He walked to me and placed his hand on my shoulder, asking me if I was alright.

"Yeah... Sorry I was just thinking, " I said, my statement partially true.

What's going on with me? Why was I so affected by that word?

My thoughts made me delirious, my head swarming with these thoughts as I aimlessly walked with Shoto to the hospital. In the end, I put my thoughts away to the side, because it wasn't the most important thing at the moment. Before I knew it, we were in front of the hospital.

"You ready?" I asked Shoto, who stood frozen outside, a look of remorse glazed in his eyes.

  I knew all about Endeavor. I was practically his number 1 fan. When I was a child, I heard that he had several children, one child who was my age. I heard that his wife ended up in the hospital, but I shrugged it off as a child. But now as I looked back, I finally saw the clearer picture. I looked over at the peppermint haired boy, again, who seemed to have snapped out of it and sent me a look of reassurance.

"I'm fine, " he smiled.

  And so we ventured into the hospital, and went up to the room. As we were in front of the door, I saw Shoto's hand hesitate. Seeing this, I gave him a small smile, which he returned. He pushed the door open, and behind I saw a beautiful white-haired lady sitting at the chair near the window still.

"Mom?" Shoto's small voice asked.

  I had never heard his voice so gentle and childlike before. The woman turned around, and upon seeing Shoto, she gave a huge smile, lighting up the whole room with it.

"Shoto, it's been a while, " her gentle voice echoed in the air.

"Yeah, it has, mom. I want to tell you about how my life has been, " he said, sitting down on the bed. I sat next to him, greeting his mother pleasantly.

•

  Within minutes, we were all laughing and grinning, warming up to one another. Shoto's mother, Todoroki Rei, was constantly teasing us about being a couple, even though we denied all claims. I laughed at the accusations being throw about.

"Todoroki and I are just friends. I come over every day to train, " I smiled at the kind-looking woman.

  Mrs. Todoroki grinned at how her son had been doing. Seeing that he was doing great after all these years probably lifted her spirit. Soon enough, it was late in the afternoon. I looked at the time and tugged on Shoto's sleeve.

"Wow, time had passed really fast! At this rate, we won't get any training today!" I said, pointing at my watch.

"It's fine, you guys should go. You can come back here any time anyways, " Mrs. Todoroki said.

"Alright Mrs. Todoroki!" I replied, slinging my bag overly shoulder.

"Please, dear, call me Rei, " she said, standing up to hug the both of us. I froze when she hugged me. I wasn't close to her at all, why was she hugging me?

"After all, you're my son's future spouse,"

  We all laughed at her words, shrugging them off. Todoroki and I exited the hospital, chatting happily on the way back to his house for training.

  After all, they still needed to train to be heroes, right?