Haunting

Chapter Eighteen: Sp̸ơ̧͞r̷̡t̨s̶͞ ̵̛͘F̀e͜s̕t̵͟i͝v͘a͡l (3)

As long as he could keep Shinsou's mouth shut, it was an easy win.

He kept up the pace, refusing to let Shinsou breathe for even a moment. Shinsou was forced to dodge and weave between his punches, backing away as Katsuki pushed forward. When Shinsou refused to move back anymore, Katsuki went on a whim and took the initiative.

He paused just long enough to aim his hand at Shinsou's chest. He braced himself, muscles clenching, then made his palms boom with a major explosion, sending Shinsou rocketing backwards and flying past the line in the ring.

Katsuki took in a deep breath, right arm shaking and pulsating as pain blossomed from his palm and fingers, to his wrist, and traveled up his arm. Still, he grinned triumphantly.

First one down.

Izuku was going wild, but to be fair, it was an impressive display, at least in Kaminari's opinion.

The kid was whooping and cheering, laughter bouncing off of the floor and leaking into the air, making others laugh and cheer for the sake of it. The chairs shuddered with Izuku's energy, but Kaminari wasn't worried. Instead, he grinned with Kirishima, happy to see Izuku so happy. He was so relieved Izuku could come and watch them fight. He wasn't sure what the kid would do if he was all alone, but even just the thought made his chest tighten with guilt. Thankfully they had gotten Izuku out of the classroom when they did.

Kaminari was snapped out of his thoughts by the giggling growing in volume, sounding as if Izuku was right in his ear. He looked up on instinct, confused and a little alarmed, and he noticed an almost clear figure hovering over Todoroki and Uraraka's shoulders. It buzzed and flickered like a broken monitor, but he could just pick out the small form of a child. His breath caught and he held it, staring at the figure as it shifted from just barely there to almost comfortably seen. He couldn't make out much, just fluffy hair and a childlike body. Kaminari froze. The figure turned to beam brightly at Todoroki, and he barely made out freckles spotting round cheeks before the figure - Izuku - vanished.

The energy felt sucked out of him. His heart was a painful, sinking drum in his chest, and he knew the others would be just as upset to see what he saw, so he kept the incident to himself. He watched Todoroki stand and exit for his match, Sero nervously but optimistically following.

It was one thing being told he was a kid, it was another matter entirely seeing it.

Endeavor power-walked through the hallway, his footsteps like a powerful war drum as he searched for Shouto. When Shouto had decided to use his fire was beyond him, and keeping such a decision to himself was far past unacceptable. This whole time he could've trained Shouto's fire, made him unstoppable with his heat and ice, but unfortunately Shouto seemed to think such things weren't important, given his flippant attitude. Shouto's reluctance was infuriating at the best of times. It held him back from being the best, from being better than the number one hero, a feat even Endeavor himself was struggling to achieve. Yet he had no problem throwing it all away.

Scowling, he turned a corner quickly. Shouto was heading towards him, his face dropping from the almost calm expression he had before.

Good. He wasn't here for games.

Shouto, he barked. The temperature had dropped a good ten degrees, and Endeavor grit his teeth. Childishly lowering the temperature to antagonize him was going to get Shouto nowhere. Avoiding training with your fire is wasting valuable time! Have you no common sense?

Endeavor blinked.

A black shadow hovered behind and slightly above Shouto, carved out white space where eyes would normally be. It blurred and fizzled with rampant energy, movement inhuman as it twitched and jerked. Chills climbed up and down his back, seemingly spiteing the heat that his Quirk normally radiated. It started moving towards him, slow but steady, reaching out with dripping, broken arms. It harmlessly passed through Shouto's body as it made its way towards him. Endeavor took a shaken step back, body tensing on instinct. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the black mass of a figure. Closer and closer it crept.