Chapter 12

By the end of the first and second events of the Yuuei Sports Festival, two things have become abundantly clear to Izuku. First, the universe is out to get him. And second, so is Todoroki Shouto.

Not that he hadn't already known; Todoroki made his intentions clear, and the universe hasn't pulled any punches lately. But both points have since been upgraded from educated hypotheses to valid, replicable theories.

To be fair to Todoroki, Izuku manages to place first in the footrace, which earns him the ten-million-point headband in the second event, so by then, everyone is out to get him.

Which really only proves the first point.

As for the second point… well.

Izuku has seen Todoroki in battle exactly once, during the incident at the USJ. It's not something he's likely to forget; his classmate froze that monster of a Noumu, so thoroughly that two of its limbs broke off.

Its limbs. Fell off.

The monster had been left writhing and flopping on the ground like an oversized fish before its regeneration quirk regrew the missing arm and leg.

He missed Todoroki's performance in All-Might's Heroes Vs. Villains game, but he heard about it plenty from his classmates. In that case, Todoroki had frozen the entire building, trapping both his opponents and winning the exercise single-handed. He hadn't even needed Shouji's help.

But not once has Izuku ever seen or heard of Todoroki using fire, until his classmate pulls it out during the cavalry battle. The one time Izuku's ever seen fire from him, and it's right in Izuku's face. In one fell swoop, Izuku almost loses both his eyebrows and the tournament.

But, by some miracle (namely Tokoyami's quick thinking), he and the rest of his team manage to squeak into the third event. Izuku barely finishes his sigh of relief when a familiar rattling shriek grates in his ears.

No longer content on the sidelines, Rei comes barreling through the rest of his classmates and crashes into his side with an earsplitting wail of glee. Izuku staggers with the impact and manages to keep his footing only by smacking into someone before he can fall over.

"Sorry!" he blurts as he regains his balance and tries to gather the shreds of his dignity. Rei, the little menace, clings to him with her arms around his middle and giggles fit to burst.

"Deku, are you okay?" Uraraka's at his side in an instant, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder. "Did you get hurt in the cavalry battle? What's wrong?"

Izuku forces a laugh. "Haha, nothing! Nothing at all, just… ground's uneven. I slipped. I'm fine. Thanks, Uraraka."

She beams at him, a little amused now that she knows he isn't hurt. "Well, be more careful, okay?"

Izuku pastes a smile on his face and forces a laugh. "Haha, right." At that moment, Iida calls Uraraka's attention away. Flushed with embarrassment, Izuku cringes and turns to glance at whoever had the misfortune of preventing his fall. "I'm really sorry about that, are you o… kay…?" The smile on his face freezes, and the words die in his throat.

Todoroki's glaring at him like he's trying to wield his quirk through his eyes.

Rei's arms tighten around his midriff, and she offers a quiet warning growl that Todoroki has no way of hearing.

"Th-that was an accident," Izuku blurts, because he doesn't need any special power to feel the hostility wafting off of Todoroki. It might be cold—too cold to mistake for Bakugou's hot temper—but Izuku still finds himself shrinking away, still shoves his hands behind his back to hide the shaking. He shouldn't feel afraid like this, he tells himself. This isn't Bakugou. However strong Todoroki is, they're on even ground here. He shouldn't feel like this. But with Todoroki looking at him like Izuku's personally affronted him somehow, it's difficult to feel anything but small.

Rei's growling gets a little louder.

"L-look, I…" Izuku stammers. "I mean, no hard f—"

"A word, if you don't mind," Todoroki cuts him off.

"Uh, sure?" Izuku brushes his hand lightly against Rei's shoulder, curling and uncurling his fingers so it will look more like a nervous tic. "What is it?"

"Privately," Todoroki says. With a jerk of his head, he walks off.

For a moment, Izuku considers blowing him off and joining in on the conversation between Iida and Uraraka. He glances down at Rei, and finds her frowning after his classmate. But it's not the usual scowl she puts on when someone gives him a hard time; she looks like she doesn't know what to make of Todoroki, either.

With a sigh, Izuku jogs to catch up to him.

My little brother has done well.

I was worried about him and I wanted to help him win the games, but I didn't need to worry after all. The bully didn't get a chance to hurt him, and my little brother was very smart, and very strong, and his other friends helped him.

I'm glad. It's good that he has friends who can help him better than I can. It's good that the bully couldn't touch him.

But this one, the one with the scar… I don't know this one. I don't like this one. He is cold, colder than me even though I am dead and he has fire on one side. He doesn't smile, not even a fake smile or a mean smile. The only times he talks, he says things that make my little brother feel afraid.

(Little brother is always afraid, every minute of every day. I can feel it on him, smell it on him. But he usually doesn't feel it unless the bully comes too close.)

I don't like it, and I don't like him. If he does anything bad to my little brother, if he does anything but talk, then I'll make him feel fear.

He takes my little brother to a quiet place, where no one is around to overhear. He looks at my little brother for a long time, long enough for my little brother to be nervous.

You wanted to tell me something, my little brother says. What was it?

The one with the scar takes a long time to answer, long enough for me to want to ask questions, too. I don't like the look on his face. At least when the bully glares, I know what it means. I can feel it skin-deep, I'm-angry-I-hate-you-I-want-to-hurt-hurt-hurt, but the one with the scar only feels cold. I try to feel harder and listen harder, but the cold is deep, deeper, deeper and deeper, like ice and death and loneliness—

There.

I don't like what I find. Anger-hate-spite would be easy. It would mean the one with the scar is cruel and mean, just like the bully. It would mean I can chase him off and make him afraid, even if my little brother doesn't like it.

But the one with the scar does not have anger-hate-spite inside of him. Instead, there is cold, cold, cold, and then there is hurt.

Not the want to hurt, like the bully. Just hurt. He hurts, he hurts, deep down under all the cold there is pain and fear and loneliness and I cannot hate that because my little brother had that too. There is anger inside him, and hate too, but it is for someone else and he does not hate my little brother.

You blindsided me, the one with the scar says. And I broke my own promise.

That means something to my little brother but not to me. My little brother knows that, and his hands move at his sides, speaking to me. He used his fire. No one felt it but me.

Is that why he's so cold? He has fire but he promised not to use it?

Hey, the one with the scar says. Are you All-Might's illegitimate child, or what?

My little brother panics. His hands fly and dance and wave, not saying anything, just like the words out of his mouth don't say anything, either, That's not it and You've got it all wrong and other things that don't match what he feels. The things he feels are skin-deep, easy to read—fear and panic and embarrassment and shyness, but those are thin and weak as they float to the top. There are happier things underneath, hope and pleasure, I-wish-I-wish-if-only-it-were-true. There is love there, shy and quiet but warm, always warm. My little brother is always afraid, but if I reach deep enough beneath that fear, he is warm.

The one with the scar isn't warm like that. If he ever was, then something must have chased it out of him.

The way you said that, the one with the scar says. You said that's not it. So there is some connection that you can't talk about.

(My little brother feels the fear again.)

You know about my father, Endeavor, the one with the scar tells him. (He's right—my little brother does know about him. My little brother told me so. He told me Endeavor has fire powers, just like my little brother's father does. And a long long long time ago, my little brother hoped and hoped that he might have fire too, and he might be strong like Endeavor. But instead his power is seeing me, and hearing me, and I'm glad my little brother didn't get his father's fire.)

He's been the number two hero for a while now, says the one with the scar. If you're connected to the number one hero, then that means I need to win all the more.

I think that's a stupid reason. I think maybe the one with the scar thinks it's a stupid reason too, but he won't admit it because maybe there's so much cold in the way that he can't feel his own feelings, and he doesn't know how to dig deep like I can. Maybe I'll tell my little brother later, so he can tell the one with the scar how stupid he's being.

He'll do anything to advance his position, the one with the scar says. He made a name for himself, but it was never enough to surpass All-Might.

The cold is thinning. It's still deep and dark, but the things underneath are rising.

So he… The one with the scar pauses, and I know it's because he's feeling all those things. The cold can't protect him forever. He devised a plan.

My little brother is nervous now. A… plan? What are you saying, Todoroki?

The one with the scar answers with another question: Do you know what quirk marriages are?

My little brother is easy to read. It feels like his heart is dropping into his stomach. I don't understand. What are quirk marriages?

Luckily, I don't need to ask my little brother, because the one with the scar explains. It's a practice from previous generations, he says, and the pain-fear-anger-hate-disgust-contempt rises through the cold and dark, closer and closer to the top like bile and sick. Choosing mates solely to enhance one's own quirk, to be inherited down the line, and forcing marriages for that purpose.

I hold on to my little brother's hand. I feel the churning in his stomach. I don't blame him. I don't like this story very much.

It was easy for my father to ingratiate himself to my mother's family, and take possession of her power. The one with the scar talks like the cold is still there, deep and quiet and still, but it's not anymore. The pain is at the top. It hurts him to talk about this, and the hurt doesn't match the cold on his face and in his eyes.

I understand now. I think I understand the one with the scar. He hides behind the cold, just like my little brother hides behind smiles.

That's why I was born, the one with the scar says, only he's covering his scar with his hand. He couldn't beat All-Might, so he decided to make a hero who could. The cold breaks, like ice cracking, and he hurts, hurts, hurts. To hell with him. I'll never be his tool!

Then why, my little brother tries to say.

In my memories, the one with the scar says, my mother is always crying.

My little brother is very smart. I wonder if he knows how much the one with the scar hurts. His fingers curl against his scar, and he hurts so much that I wonder how his face stays so cold. If I turn my head and listen, if I stay quiet enough, I can feel things in the hurt: loneliness and love and pain and why, why, why?

She told me my left side was ugly, the one with the scar says, and I hide behind my little brother. The pain is so close, so strong that I can feel it too, and it hurts and stings and burns.

And then, says the one with the scar, she poured boiling water on me.

The hurt breaks apart, and there's love and confusion and It's-not-her-fault-it-wasn't-her-fault-she was scared-scared-scared-so-scared-I'm-scared—

My little brother hurts now, too. He always hurts when people tell him their stories. I think it's because no one who needs to tell him stories ever has happy ones. Not the dead, and not even the living. I hope one day someone will have a happy story for him to hear.

The one with the scar lets his hand drop, and the hurt drops too. It sinks back down, deep deep down below the cold that he hides behind. There's fear now, along with the cold. He's scared. Looking at my little brother, he's scared and I don't know why.

Todoroki, my little brother whispers, and he doesn't hide his hurt.

The reason I'm aiming to beat you is as a personal triumph, the one with the scar says. I won't use his power for it. I'll become number one without needing to.

And then he turns to walk away. My little brother's feelings whirl around and around. If the one with the scar is deep and dark and cold like an ocean, then my little brother is like a wind storm, everything swirling together, everything confused, too many feelings to pick just one.

If you can't tell me anything, that's fine, the one with the scar says as he walks away. The cold is back, too deep and dark for anyone to see the hurt. Keep being All-Might's something-or-other. I'll climb over you using only my right side. Sorry I took your time.

The weird thing is, he is sort of sorry. Just not for taking time. But he isn't angry with my little brother. He doesn't hate my little brother. He doesn't even want to hurt him, not really. And that means I can't be angry at him or try to chase him off like the bully. He's too much like my little brother—if I was mean to him, then it wouldn't feel good.

Todoroki?

My little brother steps forward to follow him, and pity-sadness-hurt-horror swirl around him. There's… a lot that you don't know about me. That I couldn't tell you, even if I wanted. I don't know why you told me these things, but… thank you. And I'm sorry, for everything that's happened to you. It must have been awful. Whatever it was, you didn't deserve it.

The cold cracks again, and surprise leaks through, close enough to the top that it almost maybe shows on the face with the scar.

But there are things I need to do, too, my little brother says. There are people I owe, and I can't let them down. There are people watching me. People who've helped me, and protected me, and I'm grateful but I'm tired of being protected. He looks at me when he says this, and I grin at him, because I'm going to protect him no matter how strong he gets. His hands curl into fists, and the swirling cloud goes still and settles around him like a blanket. He doesn't smile. There's nothing to hide here. So, this doesn't change what I said to you before. I'm going to beat you.

The feelings settle down, back the way they were. The one with the scar and his deep, deep cold and all the hurt that hides underneath it. My little brother and his fear that never quite goes away, because he's seen too much and heard too much to ever kill it.

Nana is ready to vibrate apart at the seams.

Is it possible for a ghost to simply dissipate into the ether from stress alone? For the first time in years, Nana thinks of her grave—a quiet little spot, calm and silent, probably overgrown by now unless Gran Torino has nothing better to do these days. She thinks of how nice it would be to just sink beneath the earth and sleep—not cross over, no, but simply hide away in the dark and let the world turn without her for a while.

Her problem starts when Toshi first sets foot in the stadium, and Nana is almost trampled by a crowd of restless, dead-eyed spirits. She's only bewildered at first, but their agitation is contagious enough that she starts to feel it, too.

Watching Izuku keep his head above water in the competition is a welcome distraction, but she's still spent hours stewing in a positive feedback loop of nerves by the time Part Two of her problem rears its ugly head.

She loves Toshi, she really does. She is so proud of him and it's a joy to watch him work and fight and live, but sometimes her boy is an oblivious lunk who couldn't read the atmosphere if it was written on a billboard.

"For God's sake, Toshi, learn to read body language," she whispers as Toshi bounds up to Todoroki Enji like he's greeting an old friend, and Endeavor tenses from head to toe and looks at him like he's calculating how much fire it will take to burn him to a crisp.

"No use whining about it," someone scoffs. Nana edges to the side and spots the speaker, the ghost of a man in his late twenties. He's in a suit, but his tie is loose and his shirt is half untucked. Judging by the frown lines, the sour look on his face is probably permanent.

"What do you mean?" Nana eyes Endeavor suspiciously as Toshi greets him, heedlessly cheery in the face of his fellow hero's poorly-disguised hostility.

"We're dead," the ghost points out. "Not like they can hear us if we yell at them for being stupid. What're you following him around for?"

Nana bridles a little. "I knew him when I was alive," she says. "I died when he was a kid, and I've been watching over him ever since." She looks at Endeavor. "What about you? How come you're following him around?"

"For kicks."

"What."

The man gives her a bitter smile. "Lady, I'm dead. There's nothing left of me but memories and how I feel about them. I'm following him around because he's an asshole and I am literally made of spite."

Before Nana can answer, Toshi distracts her by cutting Endeavor off at the bottom of the stairs, just to ask him for teaching tips, of all things.

"I mean it, I want to know," he says earnestly in the face of Endeavor's scowl. "I could use some advice on raising the next generation of heroes!"

The ghost laughs raucously. "Trust me, man, you're asking the wrong person!"

Nana scowls at him as Endeavor blows Toshi off. "What was that you were saying about them not being able to hear us?"

He shrugs sullenly. "Gotta blow off steam somehow. Wouldn't want to end up like Okumura."

"Who?"

"The poltergeist."

"What poltergeist?" Nana has to force patience at this point.

"Pfft." The ghost scoffs. "You mean you haven't noticed everybody quietly crapping themselves? Okumura's been a ticking time bomb ever since he started following this dickhead around." He jerks a thumb at Endeavor. "Never met a poltergeist before him. When we got here he pissed off somewhere else, and all the dead have been in a tizzy ever since. Suzuki went out to try and find him, but—hell with that. He's mad enough to rip anyone apart if they get too close. So maybe watch out for him." The conversation between Toshi and Endeavor is at an end, with Endeavor storming off. "Welp, gotta go. Watch out for Okumura."

"Sure, thanks," Nana says sourly. "What're you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna hope the Dynamic Dickhead orders a drink at some point so I can knock it over the second he puts it down," the ghost says dryly. "Don't look at me like that, not everybody gets to follow around their phenomenally successful loved ones. See you around, lady. See if you can get your buddy to find better friends." With that, both he and Endeavor are gone.

While Toshi takes a moment to collect himself, Nana takes a deep breath and lets it out.

So. Poltergeist on the loose. That explains a lot. The kiddo's probably going to want to know, but at the same time he's got a festival to focus on.

...Wouldn't hurt to warn him a bit, though.

Izuku wanders back to the others in a fog, making it back barely in time to catch the assignments for the festival's third events. There's some shuffling in the participants; a few of the winners of the cavalry battle opt out, including Ojiro, and when all is said and done, Midnight displays the placement chart for all to see. Izuku squints to find his name, standing on tiptoe until Rei helpfully whisks herself up to point for him. Then, with a concerned rattling noise, she points to another name nearby.

A lump forms in Izuku's throat, and it takes a moment or two for him to swallow it. If he wins the first round, he may very well be facing Todoroki in the second.

"That's sooner than I expected," he mutters to her when she returns to his side. He takes a deep breath. "No use worrying about him just yet. Looks like my first opponent is… Shinsou. General Education, wasn't he?" His stomach turns with unease. Ojiro was on Shinsou's team in the cavalry battle, and he opted out for some reason. Izuku doesn't know much about Shinsou, besides the fact that he's one of the many students looking to beat Class 1-A. That means he also doesn't know what Shinsou's quirk is.

Rei points, and Izuku follows her finger to see Shinsou passing behind him. The other boy looks tired, his eyes sunken and shadowed, though Izuku supposes that he's not in any position to judge.

"It's you, right?" Shinsou says. Somehow his tone of voice is even flatter than Todoroki's. "Midoriya Izuku?"

Izuku is about to answer when Ojiro comes up from behind and gags him with his tail. The blond tail tuft goes right into his open mouth.

"Midoriya," Ojiro says sharply, as Shinsou walks away smirking. "Don't answer anything he says." Before Izuku can ask what he means by that, Ojiro drags him off to one of the side rooms.

He has to shoulder his way through nervous ghosts. Rei growls and shows her teeth to clear the way for him, but still the hairs on the back of his neck are standing on end by the time he and Ojiro are somewhere quiet. Nervousness makes his mouth quicker, eager to distract himself from whatever has the dead in a panic.

"That was—honest of you," he blurts out as he sits down by his classmate.

Ojiro blinks. "Huh?"

"Bowing out of the competition like that," Izuku says. "Instead of just… I don't know… going with it."

"I thought about it." Ojiro looks away, sheepish. "But… really, it didn't feel right." He fidgets a little in his seat. "The whole point of the second round was to see who was good enough to advance. If I can't even remember what I did to pass, then I have no way of knowing if I really was good enough."

"I understand," Izuku says. "Sort of. I mean… the only part I don't understand is why you don't remember."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Ojiro says. His face turns grim. "It was that kid from Gen Ed. Shinsou. He has some kind of mind control quirk."

Izuku's stomach turns. As soon as the recreational events are over, he's going to have to face this kid in a fight. "Mind control," he echoes, voice faint.

"That's why I stopped you from talking to him," Ojiro goes on. "Like I said, I don't remember anything from the actual cavalry battle. The last thing I remember was Shinsou talking to me. I answered him, and that's where my memories stop. I'll bet you anything that's how his quirk works—if you answer something he says, he can take control of you."

Izuku buries his face in his hands, fingers tangling in his own hair. "Okay. All right, so that means—I just have to keep my mouth shut. Shouldn't be hard, now that I know."

"That's not all," Ojiro continues. "During the battle, one of the kids on another team bumped me pretty hard, enough for it to hurt. That's where my memories start up again. So if you do get controlled, you'd need something like that to break free." He sits back. "That's all I know. …Hope it helps."

Izuku takes a deep breath that hitches a little. Ojiro is another classmate who barely knows him. But here he is, giving Izuku vital information that could very well save his skin in his first fight. "It does. It really does." He manages a smile, and this one does reach his eyes. "Thanks, Ojiro. You didn't have to do this."

"Sure I did." Ojiro snorts. "He turned me into a puppet, remember? Call me petty, but I kind of want to see him lose." He turns to Izuku with a lopsided grin. "So… beat him for me, will you?"

Izuku grins back. "You got it."

They part ways, and Izuku wanders off to clear his head. Rei vanishes on ahead, and Izuku lets her go. Now that he remembers, he might as well find his way to the booth where Aizawa and Present Mic are, so he can check on Mika and maybe figure out what to do with her if Aizawa doesn't want to watch her anymore. Plenty of his classmates will be sitting out the next event. Kouda's one of them; he might not mind.

Izuku is halfway there, tense and hurrying in the midst of nervous ghosts, when a familiar voice rings out and makes him jump.

"There you are!" Ms. Shimura swoops into view, waving to him. All-Might is nowhere to be seen. "I've been looking for you. Listen, there's a poltergeist wandering around."

"We noticed," one of the ghostly passersby grouses before moving on. Ms. Shimura ignores him.

"I, uh, sort of figured," Izuku answers, with a glance around to make sure no one can hear. "Do you know something about them?"

"It's a him, I think," Ms. Shimura says. "Did you know that Todoroki Enji has ghosts following him?"

At Endeavor's name, Izuku's gut twists. Just the sound of it feels like a punch in the stomach. "I, uh. No."

"Well, just one ghost right now. Didn't get his name, but he was kind of a jerk." Ms. Shimura glances around. "But apparently one of the ghosts on Endeavor was mad enough to go poltergeist, and he's wandering around scaring everyone." Her blank eyes turn back to Izuku. "Kiddo, listen. I saw the board—play your cards right, and you'll be fighting Todoroki in round two, right? You need to watch yourself, because there's… something funny about his dad."

"I know," Izuku says quietly.

"Oh good, then—wait, you do?" Ms. Shimura blinks at him. "Well, anyway, just watch out for that kid. I don't trust his dad. Can't quite put my finger on why, beyond him acting like an asshole, but… dunno what the means for his kid."

Izuku does.

"Do you know where the poltergeist is?" he asks.

"Huh? No. I know his name's Okumura and he's probably pissed off because of Endeavor, but beyond that, nothing."

Izuku checks the time on his phone. "Bet I can find him before I have to go out."

"Half-pint, are you serious—?"

"I've got nothing better to do," Izuku says. "I just have to go get Mika and then—"

Mrrrow.

Honestly, Izuku's not sure why he bothers being surprised anymore.

He turns to look in the direction he'd been heading before, and finds his cat once again trotting at Rei's heels. They both look quite pleased with themselves, and vaguely Izuku wonders if Aizawa knows she wandered off.

Well, nothing for it.

"Thanks, Rei," he says. "We've got some time before the third event. Want to help me find an angry ghost?"

Rei's smile is a touch wider than a human mouth has any business being. Izuku takes that as a yes.