Secrets [Todoroki]

*Chapter Forty-One*

As the night winded down, the young heroes threw themselves into the camp environment. Unknown to them, however, all of that was about to change...

𓆩*𓆪

"Heroes..." His cruel voice hissed, "are naïve. To think they've been at the top of the food chain for this long...humiliating." His mind was clouded with thoughts of the students. "Good guys shouldn't always get to win. Not everyone gets to be...saved. How is this fair?"

He sat on his haunches, white hair practically glowing within the moonlight. A small chunk of wood sat in his hand, a blade in the other. He chipped carefully at the chunk. Wood shavings lay scattered at his feet.

He had been there for three days. Three long and boring days, but what he was there for was so worth it. It would always be worth it when it came to bringing that feeling back all over again.

He never considered himself a sadistic person initially, but he was given a taste of what it meant to be so much stronger than someone...to have their life in his hands. It was exhilarating. He wanted more of it.

For months he waited for another moment like this one. Everyday passed by him, a monotonous existence with few joys. He wondered what he had done before that day...

Someone had contacted him. What was their name again? He couldn't recall. They offered him a chance to join with a group of people who wanted to follow—what was his name again? Oh, yes. Stain. The group wanted to follow Stain's ideology.

It was useless to him. The Hero Killer meant nothing. A mere fluke. He was someone who made headlines for a week, but then he too faded from the minds of everyone.

What did he want? He wanted eternal fame. He wanted people to fear his name. To flinch in his presence. He wanted to be spoken of for generations to come.

He too always wanted to be like All Might, but never to be a hero. He wanted the power the hero had just being in the room. He wanted the fear criminals had of the man. The crime rate had dropped because of the mere existence of him.

He wanted all of that. He wanted to be powerful. More powerful than anyone else in the room. He wanted everyone to fear him. If he made the hero rate drop? Even better. Nobody stood in his way.

He didn't want to work with a group of people to do that. No, he wanted to do it on his own. To be the strongest, he couldn't be with others. They held him back. He was heading for the top of the food chain. Anyone who got in the way of that?

He stood up. The blade he used for carving the wood was stuck in the stump he had been sitting on. Its blade was buried entirely in the wood.

He held up the wooden figure in his hand. A young girl with long hair and a very muscular body was modeled crudely in the wood. "I will break you repeatedly. Limb by limb. Bone by bone. Nobody will ever get to walk away from me alive. You will be no exception, Mirianne."

With his hand only, he crushed the figure. Splintered wood rained down to the ground. He placed his foot over the wood.

"Just like old times..." A cruel smile grew over his face as his body morphed.

His enormous frame slunk into the trees, his scaley body melding with the darkness. Yellow cat eyes shone like two gems in the night.

The time had come.

𓆩*𓆪

At first, there was fire.

The forest was alive with a blue fire; one that burned hotter than anything Hibiki had experienced before in his life.