Chapter 55 - She likes Pink

Bonus chapter because we met the power stone goal.

Enjoy everyone.

*

I spent the next few days avoiding Midorya, courtesy of Aizawa.

I didn't look at him, feeling my teacher's eyes hovering over my neck whenever I breathed a little too hard in his direction.

Aizawa thought he could contain me: why not act as he wished ?

So I kept quiet and acted obediently, making him think he had the advantage over me.

That way, when I decided to get rid of the boy, he wouldn't have anything to suspect me of.

In fact, I had thought of creating a seal to contain Midorya.

Given the way his Quirk had manifested the last time I'd seen him - as if he'd somehow gone back in time - I'd need something to place spatial and temporal limits on his Quirk.

Maybe stretch time so that everything happens so slowly that by the time his alter rebuilds his body, his flesh is already rotten?

Or maybe I need to limit him space-wise, trap him in an infinity where he can never escape and where he'll die.

Hmm, decisions, decisions…

It would take me some time to master either of those, as I hadn't gotten to the highest levels of Fuinjutsu yet.

At least for now…

"Get on the bus, extras," Bakugo growled, his eyes turning comically upward.

He promptly climbed the steps first, yelling when the other students didn't go fast enough. I climbed up last and - oh, coincidence - the only seat left was between

Bakugo and the frog girl, on the strange front seats where two rows of four faced each other.

"Is everybody here?" Aizawa asked.

His eyes went to Bakugo, who nodded.

"Let's go" the professor said.

The bus started and everyone started chatting - or rather gossiping – happily.

I had put on my headphones and closed my eyes with my arms crossed over my chest to make it clear to everyone that I wasn't going to talk to anyone. Luckily, Inasa was far away, so he couldn't make me talk.

Bakugo stiffened to my left, and I could easily imagine him crossing his arms grumpily.

"Midorya," Kirishima began. "You're one of the few people I don't really understand the Quirk of - can you tell us what it is?"

He was sitting to the right of the frog girl.

"Oh, I..."

He mumbled nervously under his beard, and irritation swept over me with dizzying speed. Of course, I remained motionless and pretended to fall asleep.

I was almost sure that Aizawa was watching me through the rearview mirror.

Bakugo stirred.

"He can regenerate himself," he growled, obviously annoyed that the other took so long to answer. "Nothing incredible either"

His sentence made me pause.

What do you mean, 'nothing too amazing'?

The guy was immortal and- oh.

He hasn't told anyone he is immortal, has he ?

I had a brief moment of admiration for the fact that he'd had the intelligence not to reveal his possession of such Quirk. Either that, or he'd done it and Yuei's staff - certainly the headmaster - had told him to keep it a secret to avoid trouble.

Space displacement Quirks were rare, those that could heal on the level of Recovery Girl even more so, and Midorya's must have been one in five billion, if not in the whole world, to have a Quirk as powerful. Many would kill to have such power - All for One first.

"Y-yes," the boy stammered, squirming in his seat. "Nothing too powerful either, not like T-todoroki or Katchan"

Please, someone give him some spine.

"But Bakugo has a despicable personality," the frog said. "That makes him less impressive"

"Say that again, you amphibian !"

His explosions were so close to my face that my skin warmed up.

"Exactly what I said," she says impassively. "And Todoroki oscillates between constantly neutral and downright scary, so I don't know if that's better"

Not really wrong.

"It's true that he can be a little scary at times," Kirishima admitted. "But deep down, I think he's a good person"

Poor boy, the fall will be painful.

"You can't be serious," Kaminari snapped. "I remind you that he froze at least five students yesterday when the fire alarm went off"

"Everyone was pushing each other and it was dangerous," he countered. "At least he made it easy for everyone to get out" "Yes," replied the blond. "Still, I think you're giving him too much credit. He even seemed to be enjoying himself in the end"

So this clam head isn't just full of air.

"How did you even notice that?" the alien girl asked. "I mean, he's wearing a mask: the only thing you can see are his eyes, and that's scary enough"

"Intuition," the boy concluded smugly.

Some laughed openly at him.

He frowned, muttered something, and then sat up abruptly.

"I'm thinking about it," he said. "But even at the table, I didn't see him take off his mask"

I couldn't see his expression, but I imagined him rubbing his hands together like a B-movie villain.

"And since he's sleeping now..."

"I don't think that's a good idea," the frog girl interjected.

"Oh, come on," Ashido laughed. "We'll just take a peek"

"I-I don't think..." Midorya tried, but his voice was drowned out by the shouts of agreement.

Shoulders relaxed, I did my best to make him think I was fast asleep.

I could feel the hand coming closer and was already preparing to intercept it.

"What do you think he looks like under there" someone murmured.

"I'm sure he's got a nasty scar"

"Come on, just pull it gently and-"

He didn't even graze my nose as my fingers wrapped around his wrist and applied pressure. He squealed as I forced him to his knees.

My eyes opened to a suffering, teary-eyed Kaminari.

I ignored him and glanced at the rest of the students, who were watching us with varying degrees of surprise and concern.

"First and last warning," I said to the group.

Trying to get me to take it off was acceptable, but deliberately trying to get me to take it off when I had not consented to it was not.

Ripping it off was simply disrespectful. If it hadn't been for Aizawa, who I could see watching us out of the corner of my eye, I would have accompanied my words with a lesson that none of them would forget.

I dropped the boy when the bus hit a hard bump..

He stumbled and fell backwards, half clutching a seat and the alien girl.

"Hey!" she shouted. "You're going too far, Todoroki !"

I didn't even look at her, put my headphones back on and pretended to fall asleep again. No one argued with her, but then neither did anyone agreed with me.

*

"It's the USJ!" exclaimed the space-suited heroine whose name I had forgotten.

With such an impressive Quirk, I wonder why she didn't think it would be smarter to master it completely.

I stood at the back of the group with my hands in my pockets.

After much thought, I decided it would be best if I didn't interfere with what was about to happen; scattering the students was the most fun part of this mini-arc.

Maybe, since we were in the real world, one or two of them would even die ?

It would certainly be interesting to see, but I had more pressing concerns: I had to find the traitor.

My eyes fell on each of the most suspicious people in my life: the invisible girl, Kaminari, the pink alien, and the guy who could shoot lasers from his stomach.

Later, I'll try to widen my search, but for now, I'll concentrate on them.

My bored eyes detailed the famous three-finger gesture the astronaut made to Aizawa.

I saw Bakugo flinch and frown. Midorya didn't react, his astonished eyes still detailing the landscape.

"Good," the astronaut continued. "We'll split up..."

The famous portal opened at the main square and the horde of villains emerged.

Aizawa put on his glasses and jumped into the fray like the badass he was.

The astronaut tried to evacuate us, but as expected, the Portal Man blocked our way.

I watched the events unfold without flinching, feeling no need to participate.

If Dad saw me being so passive…

It's a good thing there were no cameras.

As expected, Bakugo and Kirishima threw themselves into the fight.

To my surprise, Kaminari tried to step forward, electricity crackling in his palm, but stumbled before falling to the ground, the invisible girl on top of him.

Interesting.

"Sorry," she mumbled before getting up. I think someone pushed me..."

I didn't have time to think about it because the black portal had already enveloped us all, taking us to parts unknown.

*

I blinked several times, trying to understand why sending me here was a strategic choice.

Hadn't they read every student's file ? Didn't they know our Quirks ?

"Wow," Bakugo said, obviously as surprised as I was. "I didn't think anyone could be that stupid"

"True," Monoma said before touching my shoulder. "But any advantage is worth taking, isn't it?"

"Yes," I said before stepping back to gain momentum. "Get out of my way, I'll take care of this"

Bakugo rolled his eyes and Monoma just smiled, a small cloud of steam leaving his lips. I ran, jumped over the railing and launched myself into the air.

The wind whipped my skin and made my hair fly around my face.

The villains in the lake chuckled to themselves, surely thinking they were dealing with an overconfident teenager.

I smiled back, fueled by the energy I'd built up.

Just as my shoe brushed the water, there was the familiar sound of bells.

In a split second, the entire lake had frozen over, trapping the second-rate villains in its wake.

I landed softly on the ice, half turning to the other two boys.

"Are you coming ?"

Bakugo had tried to use the ladder to get off the boat, but had slipped and was now sliding on his buttocks, trying to get up with his explosions, but only managing to propel himself in an even more haphazard fashion.

Monoma had created an ice slide for himself and jumped out with a huge smile on his lips.

The air had cooled and I exhaled steam.

"We have a choice," I said. "Go and help Aizawa-sensei or the other students who are scattered all over the USJ"

"Bakugo growled, "Since when are you the leader?"

"Would you rather we stay here and wait for help ?"

In this version of the story, I didn't even know if Iida had gone to warn Yuei.

I hoped so for the sake of the other students, because I wouldn't lift a finger if Shigaraki decided to force his Nomu to play butcher.

"Helping the students makes more sense to me," Monoma interjected and watched curiously as a small blizzard formed in the hollow of his hand. "By the way, Todoroki, your Quirk is very strange, it's the first time I've-"

"Aizawa is a professional, but he specializes in fighting at night and in small groups. Considering the number of villains, I think a little help wouldn't go amiss"

And I really didn't want to waste my time helping others.

I really wonder what would happen if one of them died.

While Monoma looked at us blankly, obviously agreeing with our decision no matter what, I waited patiently for Bakugo to make up his mind.

He snarled.

"Go for Aizawa"

He ran forward, trying to lead our small group, but slipped again.

When he tried to propel himself into the air with his explosions, I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Our goal is to be discreet, or even to arrive by surprise. Save your sweat for later, you'll need it"

He stared at me curiously - almost too long - before he pushed my hand away from his shoulder.

"Make us one of your slides so we can get there faster"

I didn't appreciate his tone.

I didn't even have to move when a slightly raised slide materialized in front of us.

The opening was at the end of the frozen lake, behind a pile of rocks in front of the main square.

Bakugo didn't have time to say anything as I kicked him in. His curses echoed long after he was gone.

Monoma laughed and then went in.

I, for my part, surfed the roof of the slide with ease, my eyes scanning the surroundings.

Within seconds, I found the other two boys on the other side, brilliantly ignoring the murderous look Bakugo gave me.

Still, I appreciated the fact that he hadn't been stupid enough to yell indiscriminately.

Although, coming to think of it, maybe he should have; it would have given me an excuse to shut him up.

"It's going to be tough," Monoma said.

He had made a long sight out of ice and was watching the place intently. His ease with a Quirk that was not his own was remarkable.

"Explain" the other commanded.

Since I wasn't in the mood to put up with him - or anyone else, for that matter - his annoying remark only made me want to smash his head against the ground.

"Aizawa-sensei looks tired," Monoma replied without flinching. "There are still a lot of vilains around him. And the guy with the blue hair - the one who seems to be their leader - is scratching his throat a lot"

If Shigaraki is scratching his throat, it means that something isn't going his way.

Iida certainly managed to get away; I can't think of anything else that would frustrate him so much.

"The one with the exposed brain looks dangerous" I remarked.

"Which one? (He moved his long sight) "The one with the bird's beak, right ? You've got really good eyes, Todoroki..."

"Yes" I said evasively. "Right now, he's standing still, but if he ever-"

And there, right in front of the rocks where we were hidden, Shigaraki appeared.

*

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