Chapter 52

"The cavalry is here !"

The students screamed with excitement, some even rising from their seats when the hero jumped in. Aizawa remained impassive as All Might broke in, his red and blue suit stretching over his skin.

I didn't even dare to look under his belt for fear of seeing something horrible.

Who had seriously told him that such a tight suit was a good idea ?

"Great," Aizawa continued. "You'll have class with him for the remainder of the afternoon"

He slipped away without a sound and I'm sure no one heard what he said, as everyone was too busy admiring the giant in tight suits.

Even Bakugo had sat up and looked at him with interest.

Monoma, on the other hand, looked at him doubtfully, as if he couldn't decide if he deserved his enthusiasm.

"It's his Silver Age costume," Kirishima exclaimed.

"Sir, your cape is incredible," Inasa continued, stars in his eyes.

Midorya, still in the back of the room, said nothing, but his little fanboy squeals of delight here and there irritated me beyond belief.

All Might laughed heartily.

"You're the ones who are going to look amazing soon," he added. "Get your costumes on and let's get started on our first heroic exercise of the year !"

He pressed a button on a remote control and numbered suitcases emerged from the wall.

I'd been assigned number 7, so I grabbed it before walking out of the room to the locker rooms.

Other students walked ahead and behind me in small groups, chatting animatedly.

The pink-skinned girl in front of me seemed to notice me and trotted over to me with a big smile on her face and her arms crossed behind her neck.

"Tell me, Todoroki, why are you wearing a mask ?" asked Mina Ashido.

Many of the people around her strained their ears, pretending to not really be eavesdropping notice.

Their lack of discretion was alarming.

I stared at her for a while, quietly, causing her to shift nervously from one foot to the other.

"My dad is quite famous," I finally said, looking away. "It's a habit I picked up a few years ago to maintain my anonymity"

That, and because of Kenzei.

"Oh" Kirishima seemed to remember. "It's Endeavor, isn't it ? Yorashi pointed that out yesterday"

This new information caused the surrounding students to look at me in surprise.

Even Bakugo seemed to slow down as he walked through the corridors, his red eyes looking at me thoughtfully before turning away.

"He doesn't sign autographs," I informed them before anyone could ask.

Midorya, who was about to speak, buried his head in his shoulders and curled up in his corner.

Whispers erupted around me as Inasa - the mere utterance of his name seemed to conjure him out of nowhere - launched into an admiring monologue about my father and his career. Even I didn't know that much - and I ate with the topic of conversation every day.

I half-listened, preferring to concentrate on the surrounding gossip.

My hearing - like all my other senses, thanks to ninja training - was sharper than normal, so I had no trouble following what was being said around me.

"That explains his aloofness," Kirishima huffed.

Oh ? Was the boy trying to defend my ice queen behavior to the others ?

It was a waste of time - I had no regard for him or anyone else here.

If I had to crush them to get my way, I'd do it without a second thought.

"-perhaps right" Kaminari replied.

My attention was drawn to a larger group in the back, consisting mainly of girls.

"I wonder what he looks like under that mask," Mina hissed.

She wasn't even discreet.

"Maybe he's just hiding the disappointing half of his face," Jiro said in a low voice.

"And his story of anonymity is just an excuse because he's really ugly"

She said this calmly, without a hint of emotion.

"I don't think so," Ochaco exclaimed, shaking her hands (I guessed). "Have you seen Endeavor-san? His mother would have to be really, shall we say, visually unpleasant, for him to have had a child less handsome than himself.

"Say, aren't you one of those girls who likes older men ?"

That voice made my skin crawl. Was it the invisible girl?

"I... not really, but..."

She mumbled, confused.

"Ochaco has a daddy kink !"

I almost tripped.

Does she... find...my father... ?

"At the same time, when it comes to Endeavor... I'm sorry, but even All Might can't hold a candle to him," Ashido added.

A bleak picture came to my mind and I felt like throwing up.

Get it out of my mind, get it out of my mind !

"Anyway," Hagakure added "He's too old to have any expectations. At least he's a good indicator of what Todoroki will be growing up into" (She made a gesture I couldn't see) "So go get him!"

I nearly gagged.

If the prospect of dating a 15-year-old girl when I was mentally close to 35s was sickening enough, the idea of having a romantic relationship with anyone made me feel even worse.

I was a confirmed aromantic in my previous life, and it seemed that condition had followed me here.

"He has such atypical hair and eyes. It gives him a charm"

"And the scar on his eye makes him look like a... bad boy. It's rather... attractive,"

Yaoyorozu admitted with difficulty.

She looked uncomfortable just trying to join the conversation: in my opinion, she was just talking out of a desire to fit in.

"Oh, so you like bad boys," Mina teased.

"This... this isn't..."

"He does give off mean vibes," the alien girl agreed with a knowing look. "And he's so big that -"

At this point I decided to lose interest in their conversation.

Even Inasa and his incessant monologues were more interesting than a bunch of pubescent teenagers.

*

After putting on my suit, I took a quick look at myself in the long mirror in the corner of the dressing room.

I'd chosen the ANBU outfit, except for the porcelain mask, which I had no use for.

There were an extraordinary number of pockets, both visible and invisible, which allowed me to hide a large number of weapons all over my body.

A tanto hung from my back - granted upon presentation of an official document certifying my ability to use one - and the black top under the metal chest, which would normally stop at the base of my neck, had been enlarged to play the role of a mask covering the one I already possessed.

The fabric was so fine and of such good quality that you couldn't tell the difference from the original.

Instead of open-toed shoes, however, I'd opted for a pair of black boots. My outfit was simple, dark, and most importantly, it looked good amidst the flood of colorful, skin-tight suits worn by the other students.

"Wow, Todoroki, your costume is incredible," Kirishima exclaimed.

Iida adjusted his glasses and joined the conversation.

"It's true that our comrade Todoroki has shown great clarity in choosing a set of clothes that enables flexibility and economy of movement"

They fell silent and looked at me strangely, as if they were waiting for me to... oh.

"Your clothes aren't too... disastrous," I said.

And I meant it.

If Iida was a little confused, no doubt trying to figure out if what I'd said was an insult or not, Kirishima was beaming with joy.

Had I replaced Bakugo as the grumpy character who had to be befriended at all costs ?

I chuckled briefly.

If so, he would be sorely disappointed.

"You're all wonderful," All Might mused, his eyes sweeping over each of our outfits.

His smile seemed to freeze when he saw me.

Oh ? Did I just make him uncomfortable?

A grin stretched my lips.

Maybe he still remembered the Heroes Awards where we'd shared a table - or maybe I looked too much like my father for his taste and that made him uncomfortable.

"Well" he continued, looking everywhere but in my direction. "Today, we're going to have games where you'll compete in duo. One team will be the villains and will plant a bomb in a building, and the other team will be the heroes and will have to stop them in the allotted time or retrieve the rocket"

Then he went into more detail, divided us into groups and started drawing the matches.

"Team A for the heroes against E who will be the villains"

So I and Inasa as heroes against Midorya and Jiro.

My eyes went to the nape of the green-haired boy in front of me. He flinched at my gaze and twitched his fingers nervously, his shoulders hunched.

Hmm, I wonder how I can make his experience as awful as possible... If I try hard enough, maybe he'll leave Yuei of his own free will.

I didn't know if All Might had given Mirio his power, in which case there was still the risk that he might pass it on to Midorya for some reason stupider than canon.

Even if the starting parameters were quite different from canon, the whole thing was still too close to the original version for me to appreciate it.

"Teams A and E, go and set up"

A few minutes later, we were standing in front of the building, waiting for the countdown to start.

"Well," Inasa began. I don't know if you've seen me before, but I can control the wind. "You can control ice, can't you? So if you-"

"Save your breath," I cut him off sharply. "This game is already over"

His nasal voice horrified me, and the morning of (trying to) be polite had ruined my mood.

"What the-"

The bell rang.

A cloud of steam escaped my lips.

There was a clang of bells and ice leapt from beneath my feet, covering the building in a split second. First the outside, forming a cage, then the inside, covering the walls and ceiling with dizzying speed.

The cannon's Shoto is feeble in comparison.

A thick layer of ice covered every exit except the main door - the one we were facing.

Inasa opened and closed his mouth several times, visibly amazed at my prowess.

"You... how...?"

I entered the building, leaving him behind.

The sound of my shoes hitting the ice was the only thing that echoed in this immense frozen building.

I took my time, climbing the floors one by one, savoring the effect it must have had on all the other 1-A students to see me calmly strolling along after dealing with this. I wanted them to feel inadequate and uncomfortable. I wanted them to feel inferior and insecure, and most of all, to know that it was Shoto Todoroki who was on top.

I turned the corner and found Jiro.

She was frozen to the neck and her wired ears were attacking the ice in a vain attempt to get her out.

She gritted her teeth at the sight of me, red with humiliation.

I didn't even give her a second look when she yelped as a new layer of ice covered even her ears, making it hard for her to breathe.

Then I reached the third floor. There, a corridor full of frozen debris led me to a large open room where the bomb was.

And Midorya, too.

I noticed a camera hidden in a corner and immediately froze it. I didn't want anyone to hear what came next.

I walked on, stopping right in front of him, my eyes never leaving his. He flinched and looked down.

Hmm, so he managed to remove the ice above his knees? It is still seeping into his shoes…

"There's a way out of this, Midoriya"

At these words, he looked up at me with hopeful eyes.

Disgusting.

I smiled wickedly and leaned down to whisper in his ear.

"If you pull hard enough, you can rip the soles off your feet and free yourself from the ice"

I straightened up as he widened his eyes in horror, all the blood draining from his face.

"It's going to be messy, I'll give you that. And I can't guarantee that you won't suffer terribly. There'll be blood everywhere and you won't be able to stand on your feet,"

I continued nonchalantly "But if you crawl fast enough, you might be able to... no, actually, even then you'd be useless"

He clenched his fists and I saw tears in his eyes.

Oh, I'd struck a nerve.

"Why are you doing this ?" he whispered through clenched teeth.

"Why do you still exist ?" I replied matter-of-factly.

He frowned. He didn't understand. Of course he didn't understand. For him, the first time he'd seen Shoto Todoroki was yesterday.

For me, as soon as I stepped into this world, he was the player I had to defeat if I wanted to live my life to the fullest.

"I hate you, Midorya," I announced calmly. "And if you could, I don't know, say, jump off a building and hope to be reincarnated in another life as something useful…"

I watched the effect of my words on his mind, the way the last shreds of his courage crumbled before my eyes.

Bakugo had told him the same thing, and he'd commited suicide before discovering his Quirk.

It must have hurt to be told that after all you've been through, you're still worthless.

Well, not that I can understand these kind of feelings.

I peered at him from under my lashes, head cocked to one side, watching his face crumple and tears roll down his cheeks.

Pathetic.

And this was the supposed protagonist of this world ?

A few well-placed words and everything he was crumbled like a house of cards.

I walked around him and made my way to the bomb, his sobs accompanying me like a soft melody.

My fingers touched the object and All Might screamed into our earpieces that Team A was the winner.

I ripped off the communication motto and threw it to the ground, crushing it under my shoe.

There was a limit to my patience, and if it turned out that the boy was going to hang on anyway... well, let's just say I'll stop being reasonable.

*

Author's note :

I guess you realised it considering how far into the story we are, but I'll still say it for the people in the back : Shoto is not a nice person.

He is nice when Enji is around, and maybe even Teka - but that's it. 

Anyway, what do you think of this chapter ? 

The picture of feet ripped off, of skin torn off as if it was rubber while your blood splashes everywhere and tendrils of flesh are still attached to your skin-

I managed to disgust myself.

Power stones goal : 185. Won't say we're doing good because every time I say this we don't manage to get the number necessary for the bonus chapter. So yep, we're doing bad.

P@treon = Nar_cisseENG where you can read up to 50 chapters ahead.

See you in the next update everyone !