Mind of Mine || ʙᴀᴋᴜɢᴏ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

chapter 64

Song: Million Years Ago by Adele [slowed + reverb]

"I only wanted to have fun. Learning to fly, learning to run."

...

Twenty-four hours didn't seem like enough. A single day would pass by in a blur before you realized that the day had ended and a new one was about to begin. Where had the time gone? The days on the paper calendar got ticked off every day, bringing you one day closer to your departure from Japan. It seemed surreal, and the truth was that you weren't looking forward to it. Seeing Class 2-A enjoy their winter break, going out to have fun before returning and training for the upcoming battle, you longed to stay with them a little longer, to push off the responsibility and have someone else do it.

But it wasn't fair. Your friends trusted you to get the job done, piling mountains of faith in you to win the war. The longing and want were pushed to the back of your heart, locked away, afraid to worry them.

In the meantime, you finish tying the laces of your shoes, hearing the sound of movement all around in the school private hero gym. This gym was equipped for only the hero department students to use during their free time, equipped with weight training machines and mats to spar in.

Courtesy of a hefty donation from the Number One Hero Endeavor, a new addition to the gym was the sparring room for quirks, where students can battle against each other with their powers without worrying about the damage they'd induced. It gained a lot of attraction, leading to a sign-up sheet that typically got fully booked within minutes of being placed outside the gym doors.

"Y/n," the sound of your name makes you look away from the calendar posted on the gym's bulletin board. "It's our turn now."

"Right," shrugging your shoulders as a way to relieve the tension, you shoot your partner a smile. "Let's make the best out of it. Good luck, Sho."

You take a position at one end of the special rubber mat, and there's a tug at the back of your mind, reminding you of the audience slowly crowding by the window. There's a glass window that stretches across one side of the wall, allowing the outside to look into the training room, a way for bystanders to observe and make comments. You were hoping for some privacy, for an opportunity to remain anonymous during your last remaining time at U.A. However, word got around about your match against one of the Big Three. Now, all movement seemed to have seized in the gym.

There's muffled shouting, probably cheers from your peers and strangers. Ignoring the commotion, you look into the mismatched eyes, the fine hairs on your arms standing up as the clock above begins to count down, about to announce the beginning of the match.

It starts with a battle of power, with Todoroki wasting no time trying to transform you into a human popsicle. The amount of coldness this man created should be illegal, turning the training room into an igloo in mere seconds. By now, people should have realized that no matter how much they tried or whatever tricks they conjured, it would never be enough to defeat you. Students all around could never match the level you were on. What they've learned in their couple of months attending a hero school was the surface of what you knew. And that's what happens when you get raised to be a soldier.

However, there's an individual on a similar boat; he stood before you, left side blazing with heat upon realizing that his ice wouldn't do any damage.

Todoroki Shoto knew what it felt like, getting raised to become a soldier, only to lose their childhood to the greedy wants of a corrupt man. It is why he understood you on a deeper level, a mutual understanding and respect for the background you shared.