"Can I talk to you alone, Midoriya."

I hesitated for a moment before following after Todoroki. "Save me a place at the lunch table!" I shouted to Kacchan before I disappeared into a corridor and lost him from my sight.  

"So... What did you want to talk about?" I asked, rocking my feet to give myself something to do. It was a bit awkward just standing there whilst Todoroki just stood there and stared at me saying nothing. "Look, if you're not gonna say anything then I'm just going to leave." I sighed finding it fairly annoying that he called me into a random ass tunnel for no reason. I could have been sitting in with my friends eating some katsudon. Just as I turned around to leave, Todoroki finally decided to speak. "I do wonder. About you that is. You seem to get a lot of attention from teachers. I notice how Midnight, Present Mic and Aizawa all seem to pay more attention to you. Plus All Might seems to have his eyes on you." Todoroki spoke out of the blue. I felt my heart rate speed up slightly. I didn't even realise what he had said about All Might, I was just worried that he would find out about Shota being my dad. "What are you getting at?" I asked, just wanting him to spit out whatever it was that he was going to say. "I'm not sure, exactly. Something is going on between you and our teachers and I want to know what. It could be anything from you being one of their children," I tensed slightly when he said this, although he didn't seem to notice, "or you could be in relationship with-" I cut him off before he could say anything else. I knew what he was going to say and I honestly didn't want to hear it. Where the fuck did this boy's mind wander to? "You know what, I'm just gonna stop you right there. I assure you that I don't have that sort of relationship with any of the teachers. And the fact that you even thought that is rather questionable." I quickly dismissed his theory and rushed on before he could realize I hadn't said anything about his theory of one of them being my parent. "Look, they're probably keeping an eye on me because of something which has happened to me in my past. It's none of your concern and I'll advise you to keep your nose out of my business." I snapped. Todoroki looked at me with a cold calculating look in his eyes. Like he was trying to determine whether I was lying. 

"If we're done here I'm going to leave." I tried to walk away but Todoroki started talking again. "You know my dad is here today. Endeavour. He must have been thrilled when he saw you use the fire aspect of my quirk. You've undone so much of the hard work I've done. I was in the process of rejecting him and his stupid quirk and I have a feeling that you've just undone years of work." Todoroki was speaking more to himself than me. I didn't reply to what he was saying. I just stood there, leaning against the wall opposite him, and listened as he spoke about his shitty home life like I was some sort of therapist. "My mother and father had an arranged marriage so that they could come up with a powerful child. I was my father's only 'successful' experiment. He worked me to the bone as a child so that I would be strong enough to surpass All Might. He even drove my mum to madness, making her give me this burn." his monologue, whilst touching, seemed to pop up out of nowhere. There wasn't an appropriate place for me to mention that I was really hungry and wanted something to eat. "Just know this, Midoriya, I will beat you without my old man's quirk!" his gaze snapped up from his hand and he glared at me. I just nodded my head slowly. What was there to really say after hearing what he had just told me. We stood there a bit awkwardly for a minute before I muttered a rushed goodbye and scurried down the hall towards the cafeteria.   

Todoroki's words constantly played in my mind. I could tell he had told me a very watered-down version of what had actually happened. Although learning about why Todoroki was so averse to using his quirk was helpful, I wanted to help him. He just needed showing that his father's quirk didn't define him and that it's his own power. However, it was going to be hard to get him to realise that. He was as stubborn as Kacchan. "Hey, dipshit, are you going to eat or are you gonna stare at your food like a gorm!" Kacchan shouted. His loud voice made me jump in surprise and accidentally spill my drink over the table. "Oh no." I whispered in dismay. I ignored Kacchan's laughter and Iida scolding him. I instead got some napkins and started mopping up the water which was steadily spreading over the table. "Let me help you," Kirishima said, taking a handful of napkins and leeching the water from the table. 

Once we had finished drying the table to the best of our ability, I thanked Kirishima earnestly. Seeing as he was the only one to assist me. "It's ok, somebody had to help." he shrugged. I thanked him again before a bell chimed, signalling it was time to go back to the field.

When I walked out onto the field, something peculiar awaited me. "What are your students doing Eraserhead?" Papa's perplexed voice echoed. "I have no idea." Dad's voice replied in a resigned tone. The girls in my class were all stood, with confused faces, wearing cheerleader uniforms. I saw two boys from general studies laughing to themselves from the opposite side of the field. They pointed to the girls and laughed, even more, I had a feeling they were the culprits. "Hey. Why are you wearing those?" I asked, taking note of the disgruntled looks on both Kyoka and Yaomomo's faces. "Two boys from general studies told us that the girls had to dress up like this for one of the mini-events which is going to happen," Yaomomo said, her voice conveyed her annoyance. "Yeah. It looks like they told every girl in the hero course the same thing." Kyoka fumed, pointing a shaking finger to the girls of 1B who had just emerged onto the field looking extremely confused. I shook my head and sighed. The lengths some boys went to were very extreme. They clearly had no regard for how the girls themselves would feel. "By the looks of it, you don't have to, so you could just go and get changed." I said, trying to comfort my friends. Kyoka and Yaomomo nodded and began to walk off but the rest of the girls just shrugged. "I'm not too worried. I've always wanted to try to do cheerleading!" Mina shouted energetically as she jumped in the air. I loved Mina's enthusiasm. "As long as your comfortable." I shrugged. After seeing them all nod (except Hagakure, I just assumed she did by the way her pom-poms moved) Papa's voice spoke up once again. "I hope you all enjoyed your lunch break because this is about to get wild! Between the sixteen remaining competitors, we'll be conducting one on one fights!" The crowd cheered at this information. I was quite excited as well. One on one fights were the perfect circumstances for me to analyse people's quirks and take some notes on fighting style. "COOL! One on one fights are so manly!" Kirishima exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air. "The matchups have already been decided and will now be displayed on the screen behind me." Midnight called, directing her whip to the screen behind her. I watched as the tournament brackets appeared and scanned the screen for my name. It looked as if I was fighting last and I was going up against the girl from 1B, Ibara. I didn't even realise she had made it through to the 3rd event. She must have been in the fourth team which consisted of; Ibara, Tetsutetsu, Shinso and Hatsume. I only recognised two of the names of that team. The 12 other students all belonged in class 1A and they were: Me, Todoroki, Kyoka, Kacchan, Yaomomo, Iida, Kaminari, Sero, Mina, Ochako, Tokoyami and Kirishima. I had no doubt in my mind that the fights would get intense.

As the mini-games began I left to psyche myself up. I wanted to be in prime mental and physical condition to fight. I decided to sit in a quiet place and close my eyes. I calmed my nerves and meditated. Even if I was fighting last, I wanted to be as calm as possible. I knew I was going to get myself excited watching all of the other fights. At that moment all I could do was wait for the fights to start.  

Thanks for reading Chapter 33. I've been wondering if I should do a Q&A type thing. Mainly just because I'm bored and want something to do other than write and do school work. So if you have any questions ask away and I'll answer them at the end of the next few chapters. Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are. 

 I've written a new book, it's really short but it's there. It's a Todobakudeku story called Countdown.