This Ain't Good

14: A Different Perspective

Days passed and time flicked in and out of thought, minimal changes from minimal effort and then some. Todoroki was louder than ever by means of conversation participation, but nods and shakes of his head were still frequent -he rarely felt welcome but these two, odd ducks treated him as a familiar. Shinsou Hitoshi and Todoroki Shoto got along swell, seems the only people their green-headed friend tolerates happen to not be looking for friends, are outwardly quiet and sarcastic (or brutally honesty that comes across as rude. They're both bullshit detectors too), and probably have some kind of issue Midoriya tries so desperately to fix. And he sure is fixing them, it may be a bit of a bubble-gum and sticky tape method at the moment, but he'll get to the glue and nails soon. Bakugou was even more pissed than usual, his delicate pride wounded after his villains vs heroes battle (instructed by Bakugou's personal hero, All Might) where he neglected his teammate and pitted against Uraraka Ochaco (the girl with the zero-gravity quirk Midoriya met at the entrance exams) and shitty fuckin' Deku. The plan was straightforward, maybe even set in some form of not-quite-hardened cement, but as soon as Bakugou swung his right for Midoriya in a surprise attack around a corner, it was all over in no time at all. Midoriya wanted the exercise to be fair but as soon as he saw that fiery fist tumbling towards his unstirring features, he lost control and cowered in silence. Laying in a puddle of frozen sweat, he breathed in and out, in and out, and in then out, until his quaky nerves loosed and eased to a manageable level, more space for thinking. But, during all his respiratory regulating among other bodily functions, his muscles and their memories had different ideas: dawdle down through the spindly and twisty corridors in utter hush, ringing shoes fading their vibrations along the metallic walls, until he'd accidentally touch the villains' fake bomb (touching it being one way to 'beat' the exercise and villain team), let Play run its course, and hear the winning alarm blare. A thirty-minute journey (twenty-four of which spent slacking his tense muscles and stressed lungs) to him looked like instant teleportation to his teachers and fellow students. He, admittedly, felt bad for ending the exercise so quickly while learning nothing in the process but honestly didn't have the guts to apologise and he did technically win the way he was 'supposed' to.

People believed his quirk was spectacular, such a plain thing called distance divided by time= speed, but used so intelligently making their classmate so flexible with their abilities. Of course they didn't know his 'speed' was a lie and he was, in fact, moving at the same pace he'd usually be, but he would never correct them after he told the general studies class haste was his to attempt. Maybe, once upon a time when Pause wouldn't make him feel nauseous, he would explain to people what his quirk was and how it worked from his incomplete knowledge behind it but after trying once, he gave up all hope. He said his truth but the coming late of his quirk was his downfall; Midoriya Izuku was and forever will be (in some people's eyes) quirkless. The resulting factor of his truth-telling was just more scrapes and bruises, a moon next to a star: a wobbled crescent accompanying an eight-pronged scar. From then on, he's been avoiding anything to do with his quirk; all through Aldera he was prematurely quirkless so no worries, everywhere else it was just speed or something plain and generally generic like that. So, from then on, using simple excuses and lies that rolled from his tongue like most do, his quirk had been dumbed down and drained of specialties just so he could fit in.

Midoriya had tried not to talk too much in class, more annoyed by his peers' boisterous attitudes and dumb facades lathered over seeping nervousness. He's also found some new people to despise, however not as much as he does his dear ol' Kacchan. The newest names on his Avoid at all Costs list are a Mineta Minoru (a short-statured pervert who doesn't even deny his indignant tendencies), Monoma Neito (some loud-mouthed and idiotic kid from the 1-B hero class, but most of 1-A already dislike him), Iida Tenya (he finds his high regard of rule following annoying in addition to calling him out before the entrance exams in the auditorium) as well as some unhonourable non-mentions.