Finding Me (Todoroki x Reader)

Chapter 36

More silence, but it didn't last long. My tall, metal-cladded friend began walking past me, quickly following after Manual, who hadn't even noticed we'd stopped.

"Of course," he said, but his hard tone didn't quite convince me. Instead, it only unsettled the worry in my gut even more.

~~~

The rest of the day was pretty much the same. We patrolled the streets of Hosu City, but didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Except for the fact that Iida and I were immediately recognised by people everywhere who watched the Sports Festival.

"You're that girl who placed third in the UA High Sports Festival," people would say to me as I passed them by. I always had to remind them that I wasn't the only one who placed third.

Iida was recognised, too, when he took his helmet off occasionally to eat and drink. Many people gasped and gaped at how cool he looked in his costume, and I always laughed at how flustered he seemed. After nearly being pulled over a by kid clinging to his engine legs, Iida didn't take his helmet off for the rest of the day.

It soon became night time, and Manual decided that we could head back to finish up. The walk back to the agency was filled with idle chatter between us - mainly Manual and I - discussing what we'd been learning in class, and what we could do over the next week.

"That reminds me," Manual brightened up as we finally reached the agency, "you should have hero names, right? What are they?"

"Oh yeah, we do," I replied lamely, quickly remembering what we'd spoken about in class last week. Proudly pointing at myself, I announced, "I am the Energy Hero: Nova!"

"Nova. Very nice." I smiled brightly at Manual's compliment. "And what's yours, Iida?"

"Tenya," he replied dully. "I wasn't able to come up with a good name just yet, so Tenya is fine."

Manual just nodded, but stared sceptically at Iida for a moment longer. Looking between the two, I couldn't help but feel like Manual was catching on. He knew something wasn't right, I was sure of it.

I clapped my hands loudly, breaking the deafening silence as I wailed unnecessarily loudly.

"I'm hungry!" I cried out, rubbing my belly dramatically, hoping to defuse the tense situation. "What's on the menu, Manual?"

The Normal Hero just stared at me wide-eyed before breaking into a raucous laugh. "Guess it has been a big day. Let's pack everything up inside, and then I'll treat you to some of Hosu's finest grub. My treat."

"Yipee!" I jumped excitedly at the prospect of nice, juicy food filling my belly after such a long day of travelling and walking. As much as I hadn't used my quirk at all, speaking to people and just scouting the city had been quite draining. Hosu was certainly a big and busy place.

The three of us finally stepped into the almost empty agency, finally able to start disassembling our costumes. Manual breathed out a huge sigh as he took of his fish helmet, shaking his head slightly to loosen up his hair.

"Well," he said, "the nice thing about having the whole city on alert, is that no villains will dare come out."

"Oh yeah, sure..." Iida replied halfheartedly, taking off his helmet as well.

I gently pulled off my eye piece from around my ear, stretching the compacted limb back to normal size. 'Man that hurts after a while...'

Turning back to face my navy-haired friend, I noticed how deep in concentration he was. Iida had closed his eyes - as if to block out the rest of the world. The look on his face scared me; it was a look I'd never seen on him before, not even in the mock battle we had at the start of the term.