Keeping You (Todoroki x Reader)

Chapter 12

'Deku! On your left!' I called out.

My green-haired friend turned just in time as an oil barrel came flying at him, a magenta aura surrounding it. Lightning quick, he bent backwards to avoid being hit and sent it flying with a kick that dent it in half. That's gotta be Reiko Yanagi's Poltergeist quirk. The spooky girl from our joint forest training camp had the ability to telekinetically move objects that did not exceed the maximum weight of an average person.

I ran into the open space, giving myself momentum as energy steps appeared in front of me and I climbed them. I jumped off the last one onto a pipe just below Midoriya, turning to face where the energy form had stood. I turned off my glasses to reveal not Yanagi but Monoma standing there, his usual smug smirk pulling his tin lips tight. On his fingers hung three pocket watches, dangling like tree ornaments as they glittered in the sun.

A scream that sounded eerily similar to Ochaco's rung through the clearing. It took all my will not to look for her, to call out and see if she and the others were all right. But I couldn't feel them nearby.

We'd expected this, for Shinso to use our voices to confuse us. He'd used the same tactic in the first battle and we'd be foolish to let ourselves fall for it. So for now, I just gritted my teeth and stood facing Monoma, ready to fight.

Midoriya sent an aerial blast from the flick of his finger towards the smug blond, forcing him to jump quickly to the next pipe over. Midoriya and I followed, both landing on the pipe Monoma previously stood upon. I raised my hands in a fighting stance, hands glowing with pent up energy. If I couldn't deck him outside of the arena, he better believe that I was going to floor him in it.

'Did you find me?' Monoma said nonchalantly. 'What a shocker. After seeing the insufferable win Bakugou pulled off, we obviously have our sights set on you this round. Anyone with an ounce of cleverness would want to be careful of someone who is not only strong but incredibly agile.' His cold, grey eyes panned to me and, All Might save him, he appeared even more smug. 'And you, dear L/N. As infuriatingly pathetic as you are, we couldn't ignore how versatile you are. A scout, a defence and an offence. Why, you could very well take our whole team down by yourself if you wanted.'

I spared Midoriya a quick glance and so did he. Monoma knew of our plan, knew what to expect from us. But where were the rest of his teammates if they knew we were the biggest threats?

His tone dropped into a cool slither, lethal and biting. 'But isn't that too obvious? Someone even wiser might choose a different route. After all, Bakugou was only successful because he was backed up by his other three teammates. So why not crush your other three first?' He chuckled darkly, bending in a mock bow at us both. 'Thanks for being so flashy and for telling us where you were. Sounds like my teammates have found the rest of Class A's hopeless combatants already.'

Midoriya went to shoot again, but I quickly grasped his shoulder. He is just egging us, is what I hoped he saw in my eyes when they briefly locked. We couldn't respond to him, no matter how much we wanted to. Monoma's quirk allowed him to mimic other quirks, meaning he could've mimicked Shinso's prior to our encounter. We couldn't risk it.

'It's three against four,' Monoma continued, playing with the three clocks dangling on his fingers. 'Will your friends hold their own? Shinso is lurking about so they won't be able to communicate freely. I'd hurry and go to them if I were you. They likely need help. But wait, hold on! What if the scream just now is Shinso's voice modulator at work? If that's the case, you'd be leading us straight to the rest of your classmates who aren't actually in trouble. Ha! What predicament...'

The silence we responded with killed me. Monoma was right: we were in a predicament. I couldn't sense my friends around nor Monoma's classmates-