ʜᴇʀᴏᴇs | ʙɴʜᴀ

↳ chapter 10

Eventually, Todoroki pulled us into a simple restaurant, and a nice lady led us to our seats. We sat down on the counter seats and took our orders.

"Two cold soba noodles, please, " Todoroki told the woman, who fumbled with her notepad, scribbling down the orders.

"Hey! I didn't even tell you what I wanted. What if I hated soba?" I huffed.

"Then I would hate you, " he replied.

"You're lucky I like soba, " I made a 'tch' sound at him.

A few minutes later, the lady brought us our soba, my mouth watering at the sight. I hadn't eaten food in the afternoon because I was rushing to training and training really drained all my energy. My stomach gave a loud grumble.

"Enjoy!" the woman greeted.

I hastily dug in, practically inhaling the food. I savored the food in my mouth, the soba melting in my mouth.

"Mmm, this is so good!" I said, giving a thumbs up to the woman, who smiled back at us. She walked back into the kitchen, leaving us alone.

I slurped my noodles, relishing the taste of the noodles, which exploded in my mouth. I turned to Todoroki, swallowing the food.

"I have to say, you were right. These are really good!" I confessed. The heterochromia boy looked at me weirdly, causing me to frown.

"Smile!" I beamed, prodding his cheek.

  A hint of a smile spread across his face. Just the sight of it made me smile even wider, inciting my laughter. I looked at the hot and cold boy, who always kept his walls up and tried to be better than his father. I messed his hair up, chuckling at the surprised look on his face. Todoroki looked like... Like he didn't know how to express himself. As though he had never experienced this. Like he had never had a friend. My heart clenched. What secrets was this kid hiding?

"Are we friends now?" he asked, confused. I smiled sadly at him.

"Of course!" I grinned. If I smiled, maybe it would give him a reason to smile.

•

"Thanks for walking me home, " I beamed.

"No problem, " he replied.

I looked at him in the eye. What was he hiding? The more I stared into his eyes, the more I felt that something was wrong with him. Something was troubling him. As he turned around to leave, I put my hand on his shoulder.

"If anything is bothering you, you would tell me, right?" I asked worriedly.

He turned around and nodded, a smile spreading across his face. His smile made me warm on the inside, reassuring me that everything was fine. Well, at least what he thought was somewhat alright. But I felt the pain in his smile. The anger, the hatred for someone else behind it.

"Alright. I'm not pushing you, but if you ever need me, I'll be right here. That's what friends are for, right?" I grinned.

"Yeah..." he mumbled, as though he was unfamiliar with the concept of a friend.

  Todoroki turned around and walked away. I gazed at his retreating figure, my distress for the peppermint haired boy overwhelming me. I just hoped that he would confide in me one day. I hoped.

  Over the next two weeks, we trained long and hard for our goal, our motivation unwavering. Our training sessions could seep deep into the night, or as early as sunrise. But one thing was for sure.

We knew that we would win. Whatever it takes.

•

Two long weeks of strenuous training had passed, and it was finally here. The U.A. Sports Festival. Our class was in the waiting room, nervously preparing ourselves for the battle of the strongest. I twiddled my fingers, looking down in my seat. Our class was just about to head out when I saw Todoroki approach Midoriya. I sighed. This could either go surprisingly well or horribly wrong. And considering this was Todoroki, the boy I had been training with, this was going to only go downhill.

Todoroki confronted Midoriya in front of everyone about his strength, and how he was stronger than him. I sighed. If I knew anything about Midoriya, it was that he wouldn't back down. I quietly snuck over to Ochaco.

"What's going on?" I whispered, not wanting to destroy the epic moment going on.

"Its a fated battle between men, " she replied.

I was bewildered. This was a thing? Why on earth did they have to fight it out? Couldn't they talk about it peacefully, not battle it out? I could understand that everyone here was extremely competitive, and wanted to be scouted by pro-heroes, but... Okay, now I was just making excuses for not being motivated.

No, I was motivated. I just wasn't affected by this, because I was absolutely confident that I would win.

•

"I pledge that I will be the first, " Bakugo announced into the microphone.

Bitch, please. If anyone was going to win, it would be me.

However, this was a smart tactic. I could hear the roars of fury among the entire cohort. Especially our class, who was furious that Bakugo planted even more of a target on our backs. But isn't that what he wanted? For us to be targeted? The weak ones would crumble away, and the strong would remain. But I was certain that our class was not weak.

"And the first competition is... An obstacle course!" Midnight declared.

Wait, was teleporting past the entire course allowed? There were a lot of loopholes in this. I guess this was fair, especially since warp quirks we're extremely rare. I internally shrugged. While Midnight explained the competition, I could feel all of class 1-A's glares on me, burning holes into my head. I shivered. Perhaps I wouldn't teleport past everything, for the sake of not being murdered by everyone. Looking around me, there wouldn't be much competition, so I decided to take it easy in them. I chuckled.

"I'm in danger, " I muttered to myself.