𝘙𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘺

Chapter 26

- Izuku's POV -

I could feel the fear that people have for Asami down here.

I see the way people step out of her way and whisper her name when she walks by. I have seen this done a million times when her heritage went public and I had seen it all done in good nature. I had never seen it like this. I have never seen people be so terrified of her.

I know Asami thinks people are terrified of her. I know she focuses on the few people who make comments about her scars or her father but she avoids the forums that rave about her growing strength. She doesn't acknowledge the millions of threads online that talk about how she's the fastest student to have ever attended U.A. She doesn't like to focus in the people who've coined her the nickname of "Japans Sweetheart," or "Mini Might."

Though as I follow her through the arena that's been called The Heart of Underground Quirk Fighting since the beginning of quirks- I understand why she thinks of herself in such a dark manner.

I see old men in masks cheer when she steps through the crowd of contestants. I see them wave fists of money in the air and scream about how she's going to win them "big bucks" tonight. Asami lowers her head so she doesn't have to look anyone in the face. You couldn't tell by looking at her, but I could feel her heart begin to thump as soon as we saw the hidden front door that led us down here.

She refused to walk next to me. She said I could slip through the cracks my first few times walking in here as long as I showed no relation to her. This didn't stop Asami from hovering over me like a crow when it sees field mice. I caught her watchful eye at every passing second and I felt her lingering presence as she led me through crowds.

I watched people move out of her way and I heard the whispers of the man they say she took part in murdering. I even hear some of them refer to her as, "Deaths Door." I don't feel the need to explain to them that the Asami they know is not the real her. I know that "Yatsu" is the alias that is keeping her alive down her. It leaves her untouchable. It means she gets left alone. It means I can breathe without the fear of somebody stealing her away from me and doing something bad.

These people fear Yatsu.

They don't know that beyond these walls, citizens in peril cry out for Morning Glory.

We slip into a large room lined with lockers where she leads me into a locker bank in the very back corner of the room. We lean against the cold lockers a few feet away from each other. She has one of her feet bent up on the lockers to support her and her head is leaned so far back that she's staring at the ceiling. Her hair has gotten so long that it reaches past her hips and hangs in long brown strands that are covered with splotchy black soot. If you hadn't known she had brown hair, you wouldn't be able to see it poking through. My eyes go wide when I realize her hair isn't just brown anymore.

I notice in the dim yellow lighting of the locker room that Asami's hair is turning white.

I don't tell her. I can't. I bite my lip and look away from her. It pains me. I wish I had a quirk to take all of her pain away and if I had to give it to someone, I would take it for her.

"If Dabi is here and he sees me in the ring, he'll appear. If he hears I was here tonight, then I can bet he'll come lurking around again in the next few tournaments. If there's one thing I know about Dabi, it's that he likes to keep tabs on me. For whatever sick reason- I'm not sure." Asami thinks aloud as she pushes herself off the lockers and peers around the corner to see who's around. Besides a few stragglers who have been beaten senseless, we're in here alone. "I'm going to fight tonight. It's the only way we can find him. He slips through the cracks too easily-"