MHA/BNHA react to For The Want of A Nail by Clouds part 1

Shoto felt numb. Not that he ever let himself feel much to begin with, but everything just seemed so out of focus and the crowds were quieter than they should have been. How had he lost?

"Um, Todoroki?" Momo put a hand on his shoulder and it was all that Shoto could do not to flinch. "Are you okay?"

Todoroki: Yes.

"I'll be fine." Shoto said firmly. He had to be fine. If he were to show anything but the utmost composure on television, Endeavor's punishment would probably be even worse. Not that he was looking forward to the increased training that would undoubtedly follow his failure, but... he'd endured this much. He could handle a little more if it meant rising to the top without his power. "I apologize for losing our points."

"It's not..." Momo hesitated. "I mean, yes, that's very unfortunate and I'm not happy about losing either, but that's not what I was asking. Um, do you need to see Recovery Girl?"

Mina: Oh right the chemical burns from my acid.

Shoto turned to her, slightly raising an eyebrow, "Why would I need to see Recovery Girl?"

"Um..." Momo hesitated. "The burns?"

Shoto's eyes widened slightly in shock. He'd only activated his fire for a split second out of instinct before he'd realized what he was doing and snuffed them out, but that shouldn't have been nearly enough to burn him especially.

Endeavor: Not fire burns.

"It's just that with what Bakugo pulled with Ashido's acid, a lot of us have chemical burns, so we're all going together!" Momo explained. "Those tape grenades kinda exploded everywhere, you know? We're just lucky that Ashido didn't make the acid strong enough to do any real damage."

Mina: Yeah I wouldn't want to seriously hurt anyone.

"Oh." Shoto looked down at himself, noticing for the first time that there were holes burned into his uniform from where Ashido's acid had splattered over the field as it fell. Sure enough, there were a few small burns trailing along his arms, but the pain wasn't anything more than what he was used to from his normal training. "I hadn't noticed."

"Understandable!" Iida joined the conversation, arms already swinging as he spoke. "The adrenaline in our systems was more than enough to keep us from noticing until the game was over as well! However, I believe that it is best to get these wounds, however minor they may be, taken care of quickly so we can focus on learning from the next rounds!"

Iida: How did I not notice-

Midoriya: A lot of people missed it, Iida. Not just you.

Shoto thought about that for a moment. On the one hand, his father would consider going to the nurse for something so minor as a sign of weakness, but on the other... even if Endeavor managed to shove his way back into the student areas, he wouldn't do anything to cause a scene if there were other people around. If only he'd used his fire...

Shoto stomped down on that thought the moment it popped into his head. No. He wouldn't become like that (*&^$# by using his power. In fact... Shoto forced himself to take a breath and almost smiled as a thought occurred to him. His father had failed too. He'd failed to become number one. Losing here just meant that he was better at failing than his father could ever be.

He hoped the $@#^& enjoyed what he'd created.

(a few people chuckled at his pettiness, especially Dabi, while Endeavor scowled)

Izuku grinned at Mei and Shinso as Midnight cracked her whip to draw their attention to the screen where the brackets were laid out. They all had bandages covering various parts of their arms and faces from the cavalry battle, since Recovery Girl had insisted on only healing the worst of the damage so they wouldn't be too exhausted to do well in the rest of the festival. Izuku had even managed to get her autograph, even though Mei and Hitoshi hadn't stopped teasing him about geeking out over the school nurse. It was so weird having a friendship that included teasing that wasn't intended to hurt like the bullying he'd grown up with.