Battle of Wills ~ (bakugou x reader)

Chapter Three

The mouse squeaked in panic as it performed a miniature version of a ballroom dance against its will on the dry grass. The school day had ended, but rather than return to the General Studies dorm with your friends, you took some time alone to practice your quirk. It was getting harder and harder to find quiet, secluded places on campus, but after a few minutes of walking, you came across a small woodsy area some distance away from the main building.

You made sure to practice your quirk every few days. You disliked using it on people besides yourself after what had happened over a year ago, but you still wanted to refine your skill; it would be a waste otherwise. Not many people knew the full extent of your quirk: it was simple enough to say you could control a small amount of liquid or electricity. Expanding on that could bring complicated unintended consequences. You preferred not to draw attention to yourself or complicate your interactions with others when it wasn't necessary.

Today, you were focused on the motor cortex: a region of the brain responsible for controlling bodily movements. Different regions of the cortex corresponded with different body parts, so you had to activate the correct sections of the cortex in sequence to get a desired response. On the ground next to you lay open a neuroanatomy textbook you had indefinitely borrowed from the library. Given the recent villain attack, the administration had more to worry about than a library book borrowed past its due date.

Every now and then you glanced down at the image on the page you had opened the book to. It displayed a map of the motor cortex. Luckily, the human rendering of the organ was similar enough to a mouse's that nothing had gone terribly wrong. Yet. Almost every time you practiced a new skill or tried to advance a basic technique you had taught yourself, you would end up killing the animal. You hated seeing the creatures die, but you knew it was better than the alternative: losing control of your abilities and killing someone once again.

You were so lost in your concentration over the precise movements of the mouse--step right with the right foot, step right with the left foot--that you didn't hear the footsteps behind you until a deep, quiet voice spoke from over your back.

"Who are you?"

You let out a small yelp of surprise, momentarily breaking your concentration. The small field mouse froze in place before falling over. It was dead.

"Damn it," you muttered, feeling slight tears form in the corners of your eyes. In just a few moments, you would have let the harmless creature go, but due to the owner of the voice behind you, you had unintentionally killed it.

"What do you want--" you started angrily, whipping your head around to face the boy.

You cut yourself off mid-sentence as you realized who was standing behind you. With the recognizable scar covering his left eye and the distinctive split hair colors, you were able to identify the owner of the voice as one of the main figures of the Hero Course: Shoto Todoroki. You knew little about him other than his name and his appearance, but you had heard enough to gather that he was incredibly powerful and well-known. You rarely encountered anyone from the Hero Course in person--save Kyoka--so you were surprised and a little flustered.

Todoroki continued to stare down at you with an unreadable gaze. "Sorry if I interrupted you," he said in his soft, yet strong, tone. "This is my usual spot. I was just surprised to see someone else using it."

"Oh, sorry..." you mumbled disorientedly. You quickly moved to gather your textbook and school bag. You didn't want to get in the way of someone like him. You would just have to find a new spot the next day.

Todoroki's eyes widened at your movement. "No, wait," he said in a slightly louder and more urgent-sounding tone as if caught off-guard. "I didn't mean to make you leave."