Next To Me

Chapter 19: Clueless Yet Caring

~Revised 03/02/24~

"Come on and give me your answer already, brat!" Tomura pushed, his pinky lowered toward her skin and she felt her nerves shoot up through her body.

His exposed skin was covered in red rashes that were beginning to break and puss. Tomura flinched and groaned every few seconds in pain.

Suddenly, before [Y/n] could give the man any sort of answer, she felt the rock under her get increasingly cold. Almost like ice.

She looked down at it only to discover that it was ice. The rock's surface was completely covered and spreading. It crawled across the surfaces of the rocks and towards Tomura.

The villain noticed immediately. Both their eyes widened in surprise as they watched the ice quickly attach itself to Tomura's body. It crawled up his legs, spread out towards his sides and up to his arms.

He grunted in confusion. As a last-second decision, he grasped his pinky around [Y/n]'s ankle.

She screamed out in utterly unimaginable pain as the nerves around her foot and ankle decayed away. She watched as her black skin disintegrated off her body, exposing her muscle tissues and bones. Tears fell from her eyes as she flinched and tried to pull her leg away from his grasp. Pain shot itself through her body like she had never felt before. She clenched her jaw tightly together in agony.

Before anymore of her body could decay, Tomura's hand became engulfed in ice and as it reached up the back of his hand, he let go of her ankle.

[Y/n] gasped for air as she let out a sob of pain. Her foot felt like it was about to fall off, and the decaying effect seemed to slowly spread up her calf. Her entire body drained of it's black pigment, returning to (s/c) coloured skin. She squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed onto her ankle out of instinct as she began healing herself. Her body instantly let off a bright glow.

She sighed in relief as the pain left her body. But the healing effect was minimal as all of her energy had been sapped from her.

When [Y/n] opened her eyes again, she was shocked to see another body standing in front of her. She didn't recognize who it was until her gaze travelled up to their heterochromatic head of hair. It was one of her classmates from 1A. It was hard not to recognize hair that was half white and half red.

"Todoroki?" [Y/n] gasped.

The boy was standing defensively in front of the girl, glaring down at the half-frozen villain. He said nothing.

"The police have been notified." Todoroki stated, his voice authoritative yet cool.

Tomura glared up at the boy then down at [Y/n], who remained laying on one of the rocks, her body's glow slowly fading away. He sneered up at Todoroki.

"You brat! Kurogiri!" Tomura yelled.

A dark purple portable landed itself over Tomura. Todoroki's ice broke itself from around the ground, breaking Tomura free for a split second while he escaped.

"NO!" Todoroki yelled lunging forward toward the escaping villain.

Tomura's trembling aching body was slowly sucked into the portal, but not before he turned around and stared [Y/n] dead in the eye.

"I'll be back for you, child, and I'll take you by force this time." He said as he completely disappeared into the portal.

The purple misty portal then disappeared from mid-air. [Y/n] and Todoroki were alone.

"Damnit! He escaped." [Y/n] heard Todoroki curse. He clenched his fist angrily at his side as he stared at the rocks.

[Y/n] didn't know what to say as she stared at his back. His hair delicately moved along with the sea breeze. She felt like she was still in shock from everything that had just happened.