Eria

My team's plan for the cavalry battle was simple: avoid the strong teams and win by picking on the weaker teams. It was a easier way to gain points without catching the attention of the strong teams while they battled amongst themselves.

"Hey, you," Shinsou started by calling one of the teams next to us. "You are going down," he provoked with a poker face.

"You—" The moment our opponent spoke, his body visibly froze and his eyes glazed over.

"Give me your points," ordered Shinsou.

Before his teammates could react, the hypnotised boy has thrown his headband at Shinsou. Hurriedly I gathered all the strength in my legs and dashed off.

"That was... too easy..." muttered Ojiro. His eyebrows creased as he followed my lead. In the beginning he was quite reluctant with the plan but I managed to persuade him.

"You can't win if you feel guilty over the methods we use," replied Shinsou, tightening the headbands on his forehead. "Maybe you won't feel so bad if I—"

"I will throw you off if you pull your stunt on him," I hissed through my clenched teeth.

Shinsou clicked his tongue angrily. "Swerve to those teams on your right. Todoroki froze them so they'll be easy targets." He stomped on my shoulder, sending a pang of annoyance through my body. I resisted the urge to strangle him.

Using our same plan over and over again, we tricked a lot of teams into giving their points to us. In the end, we managed to get into the final round as the third place.

"Thanks, Shinsou, even though you're still a pain in the ass," I said, trying to grin at his irritated face.

Shinsou rolled his eyes. "Whatever. As long as I get to win."

"If I meet you in the next round, I'll sure to kick your ass," I muttered. I turned to Ojiro and Shoda Nirengeki from Class 1B, who looked down. Ojiro gave me a sad small smile and left for lunch.

I was glad to have entered the final round, facing 15 other participants. As the clock ticked by, nervousness and anxiety became a burden a little too hard for me to handle. I need to leave the suffocating stadium.

"I should find Todoroki and have lunch together, at least," I said, hoping he could help ease the weight on my shoulders. I wandered around looking for him. Instead I found Bakugou leaning against a wall suspiciously, his head tilted to the side.

"Bakugou, what are you doing?"

As if my voice was too loud of a nuisance, Bakugou clamped my mouth. "Shut up," he hissed. His red eyes glared at me.

By reflex I would have punched him for getting too close but then two familiar voices talked near us.

"Midoriya," spoke Todoroki coldly.

Midoriya took a sharp breath.

"...are you All Might's love child or something?"

I choked but Bakugou's hand over my mouth clasped tighter.

"Shut up, bitch," Bakugou hissed.

I pushed his hand away, shot him a glare and snuck a peek at Todoroki and Midoriya. What... what the hell is Todoroki talking about?

"I'm not!" Midoriya panicked as usual. His arms flailed around him. "W-why would you think of that?"

"If you're not his love child, then there must be a connection between you two that you can't talk about, right?" Todoroki pursued further.

Midoriya remained silent.

"Endeavour is my father. I'm sure you know that he's been stuck as the number two hero like forever. If you have something from the number one hero, then..." Todoroki paused. "......there's even more reason to beat you."

Whaaaaat? Why? I don't understand his logic at all. Was this the reason Todoroki's been so fixated at Midoriya?

"All Might has always been an eyesore to Endeavour as he strived to become the number one hero. Since he couldn't surpass All Might, he moved to his next plan," Todoroki continued coldly. "Have you heard of quirk marriages?"

Quirk marriages were marriages between chosen spouses based on their quirks in order to pass on strengthened quirks to their children. My father said it was a very troublesome social problem that forced a lot of people into marriages. He had known people in his hospital that were forced into quirk marriages.

"Endeavour is a man with accomplishments and money. He won over my mother's relatives and got her quirk. He is trying to fulfill his own desire by raising me to be a hero to surpass All Might." Todoroki's voice was calm yet slightly agitated as he dropped the bombshell of truth.

Todoroki...... I didn't know. I...

I glanced at Bakugou, who was just as appalled as I was.

"In my memories, my mother was always crying. 'Your left side is unsightly,' she said as she poured boiling water over me."

My fists clenched. My heart ached. I wanted to hug that poor boy and tell him that he didn't have to shoulder all this burden on his own.

Bakugou snapped me back into reality by grabbing my wrist, as if he knew I wanted to rush out. He shot me look and warned me to keep it down.

"Basically, I picked a fight with you to show him what I can do, without using my old man's quirk. No... I'll reject him completely without using it."

Todoroki, why didn't you tell me all this? Was I not a good friend for not noticing what you've been going through?

"No matter what your relationship is with All Might, I'll rise above you with just using my right side. Sorry for wasting your time." Todoroki ended his backstory and left. It sounded like Midoriya had chased up to him, but they were too far for me to make any words.

Ah wonderful. My appetite is ruined. How could I eat and feel good about myself while my friend is suffering on his own?

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Bakugou muttered under his breath.

"Bakugou."

"What?"

"Let go," I hissed.

He looked down at my hand and flung it away. "What are you going to do?" He abruptly asked.

"I want to talk to him and give him a big hug," I replied.

Bakugou stared at me silently. "Stay away from others' business."

"As if you're in position of telling me that," I retorted.

"What are you talking about?"

"You wrote 'Lucifer' in my notebook, didn't you?"

"The fuck?" Bakugou cursed angrily.

"I thought someone left more invisible words in my notebook so I tried to light the page with fire. And it exploded and burnt down my kitchen."

"What the—" Bakugou looked down at his palms. "I fucking swore I wasn't sweating when I wrote—"

"Oh ho."

Bakugou clicked his tongue. "What are you, stupid? What kind of an idiot uses fire to light a note—"

"I lied."

The boy froze.

"I was just randomly guessing who wrote it down. It could be anyone in class so I asked a lot of people... except you."

"You son of bitch!" Bakugou fumed, threatening to blow me up with the explosions sparking in his palm.

"Why did you do that?"

Bakugou's actions froze in mid-air. "It's to... repay you for saving my life. So we're fucking even right now."

"Then, thank you, Bakugou."

"Fuck off," said the boy grumpily as he stormed off.

Tsundere much. Now back to the Todoroki problem......

***

I couldn't find Todoroki before lunch ended. When I did spot him, it was when all the students gathered to determine the bracket for the final round: a one-on-one tournament. 16 participants from the four winning teams in the last round will compete head on.

Ojiro and Shoda from my team decided to withdraw from the tournament because they felt they did not contribute much to our winning cause. I was saddened to hear that but Shinsou was still carrying his poker face. Their positions were replaced by Tetsutetsu and Shiozaki from Class 1B.

My luck wasn't particularly good in places like this. The Goddess of Luck didn't side with me because if I won two rounds, I would go up against Bakugou Katsuki, who was unlikely to lose in his first two rounds. And if I did win Bakugou, I might end up fighting against Midoriya or Todoroki. Not a very good sign.

My first round was against Ashido Mina, a girl with pink skin in my class. We never had much interaction before, but her acidic quirk might harm me.

After the brackets were determined, everyone could participate in the recreation activities. It sounded like fun, but I still had a mission on hand.

Todoroki's got to be here somewhere, I thought to myself as I walked around the forest outside of the stadium. Even if I couldn't find him, being alone could calm myself from the upcoming tournament. The stadium's atmosphere was too suffocating for me.

"Where is that Todoroki? How could one guy with white and red hair be so hard to find?" I muttered to myself.

"You're looking for me?" said a voice that popped out beside me.

"KYAAA!" I shrieked and jumped.

Todoroki stared at me like I was retarded.

I slowly caught my breath. "Y-yeah... I err... need to talk to you."

"I don't feel like talking," he replied coldly.

"Ermmm......"

"......And what's with that outfit?" Todoroki stared at my cheerleading costume, his face still emotionless.

"Don't ask. I will kill Mineta and Kaminari later." I fumed when I realised I was tricked by those two perverts. "Anyway, I know you don't wanna talk so just hear me out okay? You don't have to talk. Just... listen, please?" My voice trailed off.

Todoroki stood firmly. "......Fine."

I took in a deep breath, rehearsing all the words I wanted to say to him in my mind. "I err... accidentally eavesdropped on you and Midoriya just now. I sincerely apologise for my mistake."

Todoroki visibly stiffened. His fists clenched.

Crap! He's pissed! Oh crap! He's leaving!

"I'm not very good with words so I don't know what to say to make you feel better. But I just want to tell you that you're... you're not alone anymore. You have...... me as your friend. And I know you're not the expressive or talkative kind but I just want you to know that you can talk to me whenever you want. I could also just listen to you and not talk at all......" I let out a small laugh that diminished into nothing as Todoroki's cold eyes pierced through me.

Todoroki remained completely silent. It was agonising.

"......Are you angry because I eavesdropped?" I timidly asked.

"A little."

I'm dead.

"But I didn't want you to find it out this way so... I don't blame you," Todoroki explained. "At least now you know why I worked so hard to win this. I don't want to be that person's tool. I don't want to use his quirk." His fists clenched as he was reminded of his father.

"Tell me, who are you?" Words abruptly came out from my throat.

He stared at me curiously. "What?"

"Your name."

He hesitated a little. "Todoroki... Shouto."

"So you're not your father. You're not Endeavour. You're... you. It's your quirk, isn't it?"

Todoroki's eyes widened. I couldn't read the emotions on his face.

It was getting awkward as Todoroki didn't reply me. He was deep in thought but his eyes stared at me silently.

Please don't get mad...

"I... need some time to think," Todoroki broke the silence. He was obviously disoriented and confused.

"Okay... sure... you're not mad, right?"

"No."

Phew.

"I'll be there if you need me," I added. "Or not. If you don't."

Todoroki silently stared at me, and slowly walked off. Abruptly his feet came to a halt and he turned around to face me. "Thank you," he muttered quietly. "I'll talk to you when I win." A small smile lit up his face. It warmed up my heart.

Todoroki, you can do this. I believe in you. 

***

Hey guys! I'm back! University is over for now and within a month, i'll be entering an internship for three months. I don't know how busy i will be but i'll do my best to post good chapters regularly :)

Thank you for the nearly 5k reads!!!!!! I'm actually glad that there are so many people out there who loved my story :) Even though my story may not be perfect, I'll do my best to create better chapters for you. Thank you! with lots of love XD