The Hope Barely Found

Cake is for Talkers

Iida and Mina were clashing on stage, not that Izuku was paying attention.

After walking Todoroki and Izuku back to their class area and calling some backup to patrol around the area, Aizawa reluctantly returned to Mic in the announcement stand. Not before ordering the boys to "Stay put or so help me I will personally ensure you're both in charge of all the chores for the next week and you'll lose hoodie privileges." Just for good measure.

Iida was racing around the arena leaving Mina to chase after him as he dodged and ducked over and over again. Todoroki noted Mina practically had no chance against his speed and sure enough the battle ended with Iida's victory after running Mina around to exhaustion.

All Izuku's energy was gone at that point. He couldn't even muster a nod towards their direction as they returned.

Kaminari and Kirishima were going up next. Kaminari kept swinging around while Kirishima blocked almost every attack, barely sending his own in return. Kirishima's blocks were repetitive, the same repeating arms crossed in front of him.

As Kaminari persisted, Kirishima's blocks eventually started getting slower and slower, until he completely missed the next attack and collapsed to the ground.

"Bro, you good?" Kaminari checked, pausing in his attacks.

Kirishima tried to give a thumbs up only for his eyes to roll back as he lost consciousness. Kaminari remained on stage next to him until the medical team came with a rolling cot to take him away.

It took a while before Katsuki returned to the stage to go against Iida. He had been healed of most injuries, only a few small bruises remaining. Izuku tuned out most of the battle to stick to his thoughts. His own match was next. It had taken lots of signed begging to get Aizawa to allow him to participate in even one match, though if he won he had permission to move forward.

It felt like a year before Katsuki was declared the winner and it was Izuku's turn. He would be going against Todoroki. Izuku tilted his head at the thought. He wouldn't be going full out on this match. He didn't want to hurt Todoroki, not that he knew why. He'd never had trouble hurting an opponent in a battle before, even if he did feel guilty or regret it afterwards.

Standing across from each other, all other noises were drowned out. It felt silent thought the arena felt light. More like a joke then a fight.

"You ready for this? I've been wondering who would win in a fight." Todoroki let a small smile take over.

Izuku nodded once, trying his best to clear his mind. He had to focus. If he went on auto-mode then Todoroki would be paralyzed or dead before he realized what he had done.

The second the announcements started the match, they both jumped at each other, punches and kicks flying. Elbows were thrown, flips tossed, dodged and blocks made. It was a mess and no one could tell what was happened. Even Mic was rendered speechless.

Izuku had to fight his thoughts that were trying to take over.

"Again."

"Kill him."

"Again."

"A mindless weapon."

"Again."

"Useless."

"Again."

Izuku felt sick. His stomach was turning knots as his training started to take over. Before he knew it Todoroki was on the ground in front of him with Izuku's hands around his neck. He instantly released and looked down at his hands in horror. Todoroki slid to the ground and started to cough as he sucked in air thankfully.