𝘍𝘈𝘓𝘊𝘖𝘕//𝘚.𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘪 𝘹 𝘏𝘢𝘸𝘬𝘴' 𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

9. 𝘍𝘌𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘝𝘈𝘓 𝘛𝘐𝘔𝘌

"Man... I really wanted to wear my costume..." Whined Ashido. Today was the day when the sports festival was gonna be held and we were all currently waiting in the 1-A waiting room. It's been about a month or two since the incident with the league and I was happy to have a distraction. At the same time worry was eating me up from the inside out.

In the meanwhile, I trained with Shoto more and more often, and we ended up spending a lot of time together. Eating lunch in school together, going out for food after training, watching playbacks of hand to hand fights to pick up some tips... I could notice small improvements in his technique, along with improvements in our friendship. But as our friendship grew, a new foreign feeling grew in me too, and I couldn't help but wonder if Shoto felt it too.

"Well to keep everything fair, we can't." Answered Ojiro. "Everyone! Are you ready? We will be entering soon!" Announced Iida as he entered the room. Suddenly, Shoto stood up from beside me and walked towards Midoriya.

"Todoroki? What is it?" Midoriya questioned as he saw Shoto approach him, everyone's attention was now diverted to them. "Looking at things objectively, I think I'm stronger than you." Stated Shoto, my eyes immediately found Aoyama's and we gave each other the 'behold, drama' stare.

"Y-yeah..." Midoriya confessed. "But... All Might has his eye on you, doesn't he?" Midoriya looked quite shocked at Shoto's statement "I'm not trying to pry about that. But I'm going to beat you." Declared Shoto. I scowled, where did the friendly demeanor that he has with me go..?

"Oh? Is the best in class making a declaration of war?" Denki chimed, "Hey hey hey, why are you picking a fight all of a sudden?" Asked Kirishima as he tried calming Shoto down, Shoto dismissed his words.

"We're not here to play at being friends, so what does it matter?" He said and started to walk off "Todoroki, I don't know what you're thinking when you say you'll beat me, but of course you're better than me. I think you're more capable than most people... but, I'll be going for it with everything I have too." Midoriya stated.

"Okay everyone! Pack it up, let's get outta here and show those idiots what we got!" I sighed and got up, successfully breaking the tension in the room. We all started to get up and leave one by one, I waited for Shoto and walked up to him.

"What was that little performance with Midoriya about?" I joked. "I was just making my point clear." He stated. "So you're not here to make friends? Am I not your friend?" I asked with a concealed grin, messing with him. He avoided eye contact.

"N-no... you're different." He said, I caught a little glimpse of a blush on his face. "Well, you're my friend too Shoto. But I'm still gonna try to beat you y'know." I stated. "You will try." He said with a small smile.

I smacked his arm. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? You think you're better than me or something?" I challenged, a smirk plastering itself onto my face. "We'll see about that..." He simply stated. "Tsk. Asshole." I chuckled. As we headed towards the arena I could hear Present mic announcing our entrance, "It's time for the students to enter the first-year stage!" He said.

As we entered the arena I used my wings to cover my eyes from the blinding lights. The cheers of the crowds were deafening when we all entered the arena, the huge crowd sure made me uncomfortable but I brushed it away. Present mic announced the arrival of the other classes as well, we all gathered in the arena and waited for instructions. "Time for the player pledge!" Said Midnight, grabbing our attention.

"Representing the students is Katsuki Bakugou from class 1-A!" She stated. "Oh god..." I sighed. Bakugou walked up to the microphone and took a deep breath. "I pledge that I'll be number one." I face palmed, of course he did... I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised.