Assassins Can Be Heroes Too || Todoroki Shoto

|51| A Looming Danger

"Rie?" The assassin hummed to face her boyfriend. "I overheard Pixie-Bob and Aizawa talking earlier... they said you had a migraine?"

"Ah, yeah," she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

"Are you alright?" his heterochromatic eyes scanned her figure as if searching for any injuries or signs of fatigue.

"I'm better now, thanks, Shoto," she smiled softly, though their small moment was quickly interrupted by a certain blonde.

"Get a room, you two!" he yelled, "and Sword Bastard, get over here and help chop the food up!"

"I-coming," she sweat-dropped, waving awkwardly to the boy who smiled softly, heading over to help heat up the campfire.

"Hey, Rie?" Uraraka whispered, tugging on her shirt, "about the scars-"

"Not now," she hissed, shooting the girl a glare and unintentionally releasing her bloodlust, terrifying her classmates. She blinked, toning it down and apologising - mainly to the brown-haired girl - as they accepted it.

Some distance away, Kirishima stared in slight fear.

"I assume she told you, too?" he heard Iida from behind him. He inhaled, shuddering as he nodded. The class representative stared forward with a neutral expression, though when he pushed his glasses up, a dark tone laced his next sentence. "To think... that one of our classmates is an infamous Villain..."

"An assassin, at that," agreed Kirishima, shivers running up his spine, "now that we know... it's kinda terrifying."

"You never know what she's thinking..." added Iida, his voice low. He send the red-haired male a firm nod before walking off. Kirishima heaved.

It was fine.

As long as nobody else knew and nothing else happened, it would be fine.

At least, that's what he thought.

~TIMESKIP~

"Rie, where'd you learn to cook?!"

"This is brilliant!"

"A-ah, i-is it?" she stammered bashfully, rubbing the back of her neck with a red face, "my brother taught me, and the chef at our place often invited me to cook with him and the other assistant chefs..."

"No way, how rich are you?!" gawked the boys.

"W-well-"

"She has a manor," Shoto spoke plainly, the students whipping around and gawking at the suddenly timid girl.

"Shoto, you didn't have to-"

"Anyway! YaoMomo, you sure can pack it in!" Kaminari spoke, sensing her nervousness, the girl breathing a sigh of relief and mouthing her thanks. In return, he gave her a pair of thumbs-up.

"My Quirk converts my body fat into a variety of atoms, so the more I store up, the more I can produce," the said girl explained matter-of-factly.

"Just like poop!" Sero piped up without a filter.

The girls' eyes twitched as Momo gloomily squatted down near a tree.

"Apologise!" yelled Jiro, punching him.

"I-I'm sorry, Momo," the boy stuttered, rubbing his face.

The students continued chatting merrily until nightfall, at one point joining in with Class 1-B when they arrived. The female found the majority of them - except for Monoma - rather enjoyable to talk with.

All of them, vaguely unaware of the danger that was looming above them - quite literally.

Four figures stood on a cliff, overlooking the forest and the campsite with identical, crazed expressions. Three of them were male adults (or almost-adults), the fourth a female teenager.

"I'm itching..."

"What, did you get a mosquito bite or something?"

"I'm itching to go... let's hurry up and move!"

"Right... remind me who died and made you the boss?"

"This is just a signal fire," reminded a voice, the four turning to face three more figures.

"Ah, Reyna, just in time," the second male hummed, "she's down there, isn't she?"

Down at the campsite, Rie sneezed.

"Yes... I believe so, according to what Illumi has informed me," she motioned her head towards the poker-faced male.

"Their camp is, indeed, here," he confirmed.

"Excellent," beamed Ichiro, "we'lll fill those holes full of Heroes, and put them in their place."

"All for a better future," agreed the young female.

"Aww, this is no good... it's not cute at all," whined the blonde, tying a mask around her face.

"Our shadowy orchestrator has planned everything," the one with a gas-mask spoke calmly, a small frown on his face, "however, despite appearances... there is sure to be sound reasoning behind it all."

"Huh?" blinked the girl, "I never asked, I was just saying that this isn't cute."

"Who the hell cares?!" growled the one wearing a cloak, "let's get down there already, my blood is pumping."

"Oi, shut up, the lot of you," snarled the scarred male, "we're not going in for attack yet... we wait until all thirteen of us are here."

He stared forward to face three more figures.

"Sorry to keep y'all waiting," waved one.

"A job... finally..." rasped the second one. The one with a reptilian body remained silent, only tightening his bandanna.

"Doesn't matter how many punks with ambition you bring along, it only increases the risks," the male teenager stated monotonously, "it's far better to have a small number of experienced elites."

"Indeed, Illumi..." nodded Ichiro, his dark eyes lingering on the small cabin, "first, we'll make them understand..."

"Understand what?" piped up the younger teenager, her eyes alight with curiosity.

"That their peace... rests in our hands..."