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Chapter 28: Fire and Cloth
🕑 Added 2024-07-03 15:13:19 +0000 UTCOh lord, this was a doozy to write. I know that I have fun writing most stuff; it's part of why I even do this, but this one? This one, I was on a roll! If the chapter name and the set-up from the last one didn't clue you in, all I will say then is get ready for a show.
Chapter 28: Fire and Cloth
Pyre could see the frustration in him; it was like watching Kacchan, to be honest. It was an unfortunate description as his anger was controlling him, making him act like something he could be so much better than. "You don't see it, do you?" He softly asked, stroking his cheek in what he saw as a sigh of connection, a gentle touch from one human to another. But Iida saw him as a villain, humiliating someone who couldn't fight back, infantilizing him.
“Well, it seems like your fate is sealed.”
Stain, having grown tired of this conversation, decided to end it. "I don't have time to listen to whatever else Shigaraki wants from me; leave lackeys."
"We're not his lackeys. He was a client, and he paid for our services. End of story." Mummy made that clear to Stain, who didn't pay him much attention as Pyre kept comforting Iida, missing how little he was actually making the paralyzed hero student feel any sense of ease.
"Besides, we're off the clock right now, but before you do your…Stain business, I got to ask something." Pyre turned to the killer standing behind him, feeling little fear from him.
Stain didn’t like wasting time, but if it got these hired guns to leave. “What?”
“Why kill him? Pretty sure you just target pros, and there’s one right there which you must have been targeting before Iida here interrupted you.” Native started to sweat even more when Pyre so casually reminded the 2 other criminals he was there, utterly defenseless against whatever they wished to inflict on him.
As much as it was a waste of time in the small sense, Stain couldn’t resist giving Pyre some wisdom, a peek into the truths he had uncovered. "I'm going to kill him before he can pervert the meaning and honor the name 'hero' brings. He and too many heroes don't understand what it means to be a hero and insult its purpose by using it as a means to further their selfish intentions."
Stain's words carried a palpable conviction but also a deep disgust at what he deemed to be failed heroes and a fanatical desire to see them wiped clean as punishment for their actions. Thinking about it, Pyre couldn't deny that there were pros out there who definitely pushed boundaries or weren't the nicest people, but to just kill them felt…like a waste. If you killed people you disagreed with, it would make the world pretty dull.
Stain took Pyre's thoughtful face as the boy was receptive to his message as he pointed his chipped blade towards Iida, the same blade that had crippled the fake that the boy came here to avenge. “This boy playing dress-up didn’t have an honorable, reasonable reason to stop me; he didn't care for the life of that fake hero but for his own self-centered revenge.” Granted, Stain would have still fought him if he had come here for pure reasons, as he had a mission he refused to fail or abandon, but it wouldn’t have ended with him trying to kill Iida.
However, it was the opposite. "I don't get it. Isn't that a reasonable response? Sure, it's foolish, but you said yourself, ' He's a boy. He has time to make up for this.' He made plenty of mistakes but had the chance to make up for them. That said, this was quite a screw-up as his gaze returned to Iida, one now, despite being heated, lacked any warmth.
“That said, I have to know: Why take this route? Your brother was a great hero; nearly captured Slice and me once. And yet, he was bested by Stain here, so what chance did you have against Stain when your much more experienced and skilled brother failed? Nothing, that's what." He told Iida, holding nothing but as he needed to hear it, to know that he was in this situation, so close to death by his hand. A death that would mean nothing but more pain. Did he even stop to think what his friends would think once they heard about this?
What about his family? They had already suffered one tragedy; did he stop to consider how it would break their hearts to plan his funeral? He loved his brother; that much was evident in his chosen path, but that meant that his brother and others in his life loved and accepted him back. Pyre wished he had that, he wished he would have such love and understanding growing up, and how that he had it with his friends, he would be damned if he took it for granted or tossed it aside like Iida was.
“This is m-!” His gentle caress turned hostile as his hand, already warm, got even hotter as he ceased the speedster's neck, choking whatever nonsense he tried to say now.
"Hush, Iida. This is not the time for some rant. You chose wrong and must pay the price for that." His words were soft but carried a finality and malice, his emerald eyes lighting up, near burning Iida with his gaze alone.
Releasing his choke hold, Iida took much-needed grasps of air as Pyre stood up to his full height, towering over the fallen student like Vesuvius over Pompeii. "As you are now, you're just a match, one that could, if used right, become a raging fire, strong, bright, and proud, but you're being here…you might as well try and use that same match to light a wet log." His words stabbed deep into Iida, who wished to yell back, to do something. Still, he held his tongue not just because of the threat of violence but because…because those words resonated with him.
Pyre was already dismissing Iida, not caring if he heard his words, as he turned back to Stain. "I know that this is asking a lot. But can you spare him? He's nothing but a foolish child who doesn't know better. Perhaps take a hand, even his entire arm if he needs to be punished." He requested, his 'mercy' leaving Native appalled at how twisted Pyre could be, as he spoke about losing a limb like it was a mere haircut of shame.
On the other hand, Stain wasn't in a merciful mood, especially when that claim of young foolishness came from Pyre. "His age is no excuse to soften his punishment, same as it was you. As if I'm not wrong, you're his age, yet you've committed many crimes. The only reason I've even tolerated you is that you're a fake and have, no doubt, unknowingly taken out many false heroes."
Mummy snorted. “Well, we didn’t just walk here. There were a few pros that tried to stop us. Emphasis on try.”
While Stain glared at Mummy for his comment, Pyre got an idea, one that put a smile on his face. "Well, I have a counter to that, Stain. You believe he needs to be purged for his mistakes," He turned back to Iida, his smile growing wider as his innards started to burn. "But why destroy a damaged good when you can improve it?" Pyre finished the sentence and without warning or mercy, bathed Iida in sneering hot emerald flames.
Native could only watch in horror as the kid was burned alive; in some corner of his mind, he realized that whatever Stain did to him was still in effect with the kid despite screaming his heart out in pain, begging for it to end, for the flames to be put out-Iida didn't move, it was like he was given a taste of what hell was like, to be set ablaze by unforgiving flames, but not be able to lessen that horrific pain.
Mummy hardly flinched at the sight of the boy shrieking in agony as the flames ate away at Iida's flesh, melting the materials of his costume and adding to his torment as that melted plastic, rubber, and metal came into contact with his flesh his skin almost all gone, exposing muscle and blood vessels to the direct, unforgiving flames.
Pyre looked proud of his work, not the sort that Native had expected to have seen in villains, as despite the revulsion of his actions, Pyre's eyes and smile remained pure, as if belonging to a child that had made his parent's breakfast without leaving a mess, or a student that had managed to complete an assignment that a teacher had given them. It…it wasn't him ignoring his evil, it was him not being able to see it as evil. To him, burning someone alive, putting them through an experience so traumatic, was an act of good.
It seemed that the only one that seemed to have a somewhat normal reaction to the ruthless violence, this act of monstrous evil was the fanatical serial killer that nearly killed him once as Stain was caught flat-footed by how casually Pyre did that, and how he didn’t even seem to care, quite the opposite, he looked proud of himself. Feeling their gazes on him, Pyre turned away from the human blaze he started.
“Fire is used all the time to forge stuff into stronger stuff. Same deal with this.” Native could barely fathom that statement. This…this devil was insane!
"You're insane…you're just a crazy pyromaniac!" he yelled, and Pyre's bright emerald eyes jumped to him, locking him in place with nothing but a look. Koharu also glared at him as she slithered off her human towards the pro. Climbing up his leg, she started to wrap herself around him, her body heating up and expanding as it shifted into her second form, a form she inherited from her human.
As she burst into flames, the pro screamed out in terror. The snake's head came before him, glaring at him despite not having eyeballs in its empty, burnt-out sockets. Pyre, for his part, wasn't all that phased by the fear-fueled comment or Iida's continued screams, though he wasn't getting quieter as his throat and lungs burned. Instead, he met Native's dread-filled eyes and shrugged.
"I am what I am. If you think I'm wrong, that's your problem, but I wouldn't wiggle too much if I were you, as unlike me, Koharu likes to use her flames to destroy." Pyre warned him as Stain watched the interaction, decoding more about this boy and his mindset.
"You, you're a different breed of monster." He stated that he had poor opinions of them, thinking they were part of that brat, Shigaraki's ilk, with his opinion going even lower when they revealed themselves to be filth that killed for money. But that didn't seem to be accurate.
"We have to be if we want to create the world we envision," Pyre replied, meeting Stain's fanatical, murderous crimson with burning emerald. Stain was loyal to his ideology, so were they. "But that doesn't mean we needlessly kill."
Stain scoffed as he pointed towards Iida, who was still burning but had fallen silent. He was probably already dead or merely in such a state that he couldn't even cry anymore as the flames continued to eat away at his flesh like piranhas. "And yet, you're burning that fake alive like he was a witch."
"He'll come out all the stronger for it. Hopefully, he'll also come out wiser." Pyre brushed it off, but that seemed…off. While Native could see this as Pyre too delusional to understand the weight of his actions, Stain saw them as the boy being truthful before he recalled a fact about Pyre and his colleagues: the fact that they maimed, they crippled-but they hadn't killed a single person.
“You mean he won’t die?” Stain asked, though he wondered what state the fake would be in after this, only for Pyre to roll his eyes in annoyance while Koharu called Stain slow for needing this explained again.
As Koharu asked how someone like that could get a body count as high as Stain's, Pyre explained it again. "I already explained this. You might see death as the only option. I like to think that if there is an alternative, we should take it."
In response, Pyre found Stain’s sword at his throat, ready to sever his head at a moment’s notice. “Well, I don't, so either finish the job or I will," Stain ordered him. In response, Pyre looked at the blade and then at Stain with little fear in his eyes, eyes that shined even brighter as heat built up inside him while Mummy, who had fallen into the back of the conversation, shifted some bandages about.
“I won't. My flames will make a better hero out of this boy, and I won't let you cut him down before he can become that. Do you wish to purge the failures and pretenders? I won't stop you, but you can't have these two." Pyre replied, solid and resolute in his words, as Stain narrowed his eyes.
Keeping an eye on Mummy, he pushed his blade deeper towards Pyre. “I could take your head off before you could fight back.”
Pyre’s met his gaze. “If you do that, you’ll have an enraged skeleton snake, not to mention the rest of my friends hunting you.” His smile grew frenzied, showing his blackened snake-like fangs and mouth, smoke now escaping with every word he spoke. "That is, provided taking my head off is enough to kill me- as if it's not, I'll incinerate you in flames so hot not even ash will remain."
The stand-off between the three continued, Stain poised to take his head, but Pyre ready to give off everything he could at that moment before his head left his neck; Mummy prepared to rip Stain away from his teammate and friend before he tested the theory that he could regrow an entire body. Native was barely coherent anymore as Koharu's fury at this glorified butter knife using human to threaten her favorite human had her loosen her control over her heat, leaving Native her stress ball.
All four parties remained still, sizing each other up before Stain pulled his sword, sheathing it. He looked Pyre and Mummy over. "Like I said, it's a different breed of monster. An odd one at that."
The tension remained, at least between the 4 decreases. Pyre's smile remained darkened and dangerous, but less threatening at the same time in a contradictory way only he could embody. "I like being the odd one. But don't worry. We don't have any reason to get into your business in the future, so I don't think we'll meet again."
Stain turned to leave; as much as he wanted to end Native and the boy, it wouldn't be worth it, at least for tonight. "I still need to find targets in Hosu before moving on, but with that brat, Shigaraki, making a mess of things, perhaps I'll withhold on that hunt…for now." He stated that as he jumped up, grabbing hold of a fire escape, he reached the roof with a few bonds and grabs, leaving without so much as a glance back to them.
That left the five in the alley, one where the smell of burnt rubber, plastic, and pork had long since replaced the smell of trash. Turning to Iida, who remained as still as a corpse, Pyre snapped his fingers, killing the flames and revealing that Iida's horrifically burnt form, his hero costume all but gone, so too were his glasses and hair, his skin was gone in most places, revealing the charred flesh and bone in others.
Placing a hand on his chest, Pyre hummed a smile as he could already tell the recovery process had started, his flames having permeated deep into Iida's flesh and blood despite his state that would leave even the best doctors calling for his life to be cut as an act of mercy, Pyre could feel that his heartbeat was strong, growing stronger even. "Well, give it a few days, and you'll be better than ever, Iida. Let's hope you don't waste it, else next time we meet…well, let's not talk about that."
“GET AWAY FROM THEM!”
Out from the deeper areas of the alley, a voice screamed at the two, neither having time to react to it as Mummy and Pyre were blasted out of the alley by a hurricane-like blast of wind. Launched into the open street, Mummy was just able to anchor himself via the guard railing, but Pyre wasn't so lucky as he crashed through said railing, bounced on the street before crashing into the wall of the building on the other side of the street with a bone-breaking crunch.
Landing out of breath, Uraraka took a deep breath and nearly gagged at the smell in the air. Trying to keep a cool head, she took stock of the situation as she saw Native, restrained by what looked like a snake skeleton that was on fire. No, it was alive, as the snake looked at her, tracking her movements. "What happened here?" she asked, slowly approaching as she tried to think of a way to get the pro free.
Native hardly replied, barely mentally present after the roller coaster of a night he had. Still, she could tell his eyes went to the body, begging that she help him. But when she turned her full attention to the person she had wished to get away from those two villains, she nearly lost her lunch-only having her tolerance to her quirk's side effects to thank for that. Whoever the poor soul was, they…they were burnt beyond recognition.
She didn't think anyone could survive whatever horrors those villains did to this poor soul. Still, as she approached, keeping an eye on the snake that was clearly a pet to the monsters that did this, she was relieved but also stunned when she moved her hand to their neck, being as gentle as she could be to prevent causing them harm and feeling a pulse. Moving her ear to their lips, she could make out breathing, much stronger and more consistent than it should be.
Regardless, this person needed medical care, and they needed it fast. But she still had to tend to Native. She could tell that at least one of the villains was back on his feet already, while the second was pulling themselves from the wall, whatever injuries they had either not practical, or they even got them. No, she recognized that one; she could never forget what she saw at the USJ. It would take more than a non-direct hit from One for All to take out a villain like Pyre.
"Koharu, return," Pyre called out to her, his snake following as she released Native, allowing Uraraka to also inspect his injuries. While not nearly as bad as the other guy, he was also badly burned. Same as many of the heroes she had seen on her way here.
“Another one?” Mummy stood to his full height, his bandages coming up around him like tendrils
Getting up, Pyre wiped away the blood that had been spilled from his head, splitting it open. What could have been a severe concussion was little more than a slight pain in his head, and even that was fading. “Maybe I just attract them, you know?” He noted once he recognized the person that sent them flying, another U.A. student.
“Run…you have to run. They’re too strong.” Native warned her, too injured to even stand as Uraraka faced the two, putting the two injured people behind her.
"Don't talk; you're hurt," she replied, her mind racing to figure out a way out of this. She had just started learning how to use OFA with just 5%, and that last hit was her firing off a blast at 50% power, which left her right arm wrecked. She could remove the gravity of the two, but that would still leave these two. She still needed to find Stain because wherever he was, that was where Iida would be.
Native didn't hear her, mumbling his pleas for her to flee. "They…that monster already torched the kid…you have to get out of here before you're burned to a crisp, too." Wait, that other body was a kid? It couldn't be; it was way too big, almost as big as…
No.
Uraraka turned back again to the body, trying to find anything that could be identifiable with them and praying that she was wrong, that Native was just off his rocker thanks to his injuries. But, to her horror, she saw them; they were severely burned, warped from the extreme heat, but she saw Iida's exhaust sticking out of his badly burned calves. Now that she saw that, she saw other traces as well
His unusually broad build for a runner, the few remaining black bits of his costume's undergarment, melted pieces of white and gold around him, some burned to his body. "Impossible…why, why him?! He was after Stain." She barely kept her calm as she…she was too late. If she had just gone after him sooner if she had figured out where to look sooner?
No, if she had spoken up before they even left for their internships. Iida had been acting off ever since he left the Sports Festival; how could he not when his brother was attacked and crippled? He was hurting, and she just let him shut her and everyone else out. She suspected he was lying when she asked if he was handling things; she suspected that he chose Manuel for a reason….
“I did this.” She uttered softly, but it was still heard by the other 2 on the street.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Her eyes were shifted to Pyre, who spoke up, the villain having the gall to look human and like he could ever understand the pain he had done. “Iida chose to pick a fight he couldn’t win. The results of that are his and his alone. But don’t worry, I think he’s learned his lesson.”
“A lesson…? You did this…to teach him a lesson?” Uraraka asked, barely comprehending his blasé attitude. Her rage built as Pyre just stood there like he had done nothing wrong.
“Yes? I swear, how many times do I have to repeat myself tonight?” The villain seemed confused and a little annoyed; he dared to be those things when Iida..he.
She felt herself snap as she roared back at them both. “What is wrong with you! What went through your twisted head to make this okay?!” Her grief and rage were coursing through her, numbing the pain of her broken arm as she, more than at any point in her life, wanted nothing more than to pummel someone into the ground, that being the crazed pyromaniac that she knew nearly killed Bakugo at the USJ, and now left Iida an almost burnt corpse!
Pyre's eyes locked onto her furious ones, her gaze just as piercing with a sense of irritation to them. "Well, it was an important lesson; he needed to learn to control himself and not pick fights he has no hope of winning." Pyre was blunt and dismissive even about his actions, as he and Mummy knew that Iida would be fine and that he'd be better than that in a few days. But Uraraka didn't know not, even if he tried to explain it, she was too far gone in her fury to understand it as One for All burst forth from her body, the girl's control over it slipping as she tapped into 10% of its power.
Both barely had time to react to her, as Mummy pulled himself to the side while Pyre jumped into the air; a moment later, Uraraka came barrelling through where they used to be, her left fist smashing into the road, piercing all the way through to her elbow.
Landing, Mummy looked at the damage she had just done, an attack that would have done more than just bruise him if she had managed to land it. “What the hell? I thought her quirk didn’t work like this!” Mummy had read through Pyre's report on the U.A. students; they all had, but there, while she showed some superhuman strength at the festival, it was much less controlled than this, akin to her trying to control a hurricane and only succeeding in pointing it in a specific direction.
More than that, it should have left her with shattered limbs, a possible consequence of using that much power, the same as with Nine. But as Uraraka pulled her fist from the ground and turned to glare at the two, she looked like she could keep going!
"I'm not letting either of you get away with this! All you do is hurt people, so it’s time to pay for that!” She declared at them, righteous fury dulling the pain of pushing her body and One for All to such levels.
However, that statement didn't elicit any fear or hesitation from Pyre about facing such a force. All it did was anger him. "People are already being hurt; they're hurting right now, and you don't seem to care about them, do you?" He wasn’t blind to his actions, he left plenty of heroes and cops in the hospital, but it seemed that people only gave a damn when it was because a ‘villain’ was the reason.
Where was this outrage and desire for change when he needed it? When Kon, Hasaki, Nine and Makihara needed it? Why were they told they shut up and take it when they were hurt, but when they fought back, it was suddenly a crime? Exhaling smoke, he barred his fangs to the girl. “Just like Iida, you won’t listen to words, so maybe you’ll listen to my flames.” He rushed her, his hands held as if he had claws to tear into her.
She seemed to meet his charge, moving faster than he was. Still, where she had speed, he had the experience as he jumped over her before she could strike him, flipping in the air and firing a fireball right at her. Uraraka felt the heat coming towards her and turned around and, with her left hand, flicked a finger towards the fireball, firing off a blast of air which struck the fireball's center, pushing it back. At the same time, the rest continued, but that saved her as it meant that Pyre's emerald flames fall around her, making her sweat, but leaving her with little harm.
Mummy wasn't still in this exchange. Even before the flames had dissipated, his bandages shot out towards her, grabbing her boot and wrists, but she quickly tore them before he could try to capture him. "Remember, if she touches us, we start floating," Mummy reminded Pyre as he wrapped his bandages around a nearby car and turned it into a giant puppet, which he sent towards Uraraka.
“What about your bandages?” Pyre asked back as he let loose a thick cloud of smoke to obscure her vision, giving Mummy a chance to attack her and force the enraged hero student back.
"If she messed with them, I can just eliminate them. So, let’s keep this to a distance.” Mummy replied as Uraraka was back on them, relentless in her drive to see them defeated. It didn't even seem like property damage would stop her as she tapped a car before picking it up and throwing it at them, forcing Pyre to counter with a Serpent’s Fireball, causing the vehicle to explode. She used this as a distraction to get close to Mummy, who moved his puppet to defend him.
With her glare still as hot and furious as ever, she tapped it, removing its gravity before punching it with just 3% of OFA, sending it flying off into the air, forcing Mummy to let it go, or else he would be taken off with it, again leaving him open. Still, Pyre managed to turn his head and fire off another Serpent’s Fireball, this one she didn't counter but had to dodge. As Mummy wrapped his bandages around a nearby tree to create another puppet, Pyre noted that for all her speed and strength, Uraraka was favoring her left arm.
‘Hold on.’ Wanting to test something, he charged her from her left side, breathing out another smoke cloud, before dashing out of it, still on her left, before quickly shifting his aim and firing a Serpent’s Fireball for her right side. She still reacted to this, but he could see how slow her moments were and how she gritted her teeth. With the light of the flames approaching her, he could see the most telling piece about her. The fact her fingers were heavily bruised and red.
She flicked the flames away, this time with three fingers, but he could see how much it hurt to do that. Was he injured from another fight, or… was this merely the adrenaline? “Looks like I wasn't wrong about her quirk's explosive power. She's just ignoring the pain," he stated out loud, seeing how Uraraka's eyes widened, just for a second before she got herself under control, but he had seen enough.
She was like Nine then, with so much power but a body that couldn't handle it. He wondered if she could understand what they wanted and what they sought to do, but he brushed that aside as those eyes. Those weren't the eyes of someone willing to change or accept what they believe could ever be wrong.
"But I wonder how long you can do that? How long till you've injured yourself too much to fight back." Uraraka hated that she was asking herself that same question. She might still be standing, but everything hurt. Thanks to Gran Torino, she had just barely learned how to use smaller bursts of One for All and had immediately forgotten that. She couldn't help when she stumbled into these villains and their senseless crimes.
Just to keep up with them and keep the pressure up, she had been using a much higher level of One for All that she could tolerate, and while her bodies weren't shattered like it would be, she could feel her limbs crying out in pain as she had pushed them well past their limits, she wouldn't be surprised if she had torn muscle and allowed cracks to form on her bones.
She needed to finish this fast, but how? That one with wraps, Mummy, if she recalled what the news called him, was a ranged fighter. She could probably take him down with a single well-placed punch, but she must close the distance. Meanwhile, Pyre and his snake were just as big, if not bigger, obstacles; they weren't letting her close and could fire from a range, and if what she saw at the USJ and just know was any indication, she'd need to take them out with a single strike as well else they just regenerate.
Lucky for her, neither one of her foes wished to fight her if they didn't have to, so Mummy made another outreach. "Girl, you can grab those two and leave. We don't have any issues with you, at least now."
“And just let you walk?!” Uraraka yelled back as Pyre let out some smoke. It was not enough that she couldn't see them, but it did mask their bodies somewhat.
“Do you even have the power to stop us? Or are too stupid to understand you’re out-classed.” Mummy asked back, moving his hand to hide how his wraps were extending towards the ground and slowly crawling towards Uraraka, who didn't notice them, her attention remaining on them.
Koharu, who had remained silent this entire time, spoke up to Pyre about why their opponent was against thinking this through and pulling back. "Maybe she's upset about Iida, but I can't understand the big deal. Not like I killed Iida, he'll be fine." His attitude just added fuel to the fire.
"Shut up! The big deal?! Is that all you have to say? I'm saving them but also taking you down before you hurt anyone else!" Uraraka tried to take a step forward but found herself trapped. Looking down, she saw that Mummy's wraps had managed to ensnare her legs and quickly grabbed her arms, restraining them. She wondered how he even did this before she saw them moving on the ground and then the smoke Pyre was putting out.
Both could tell she figured out their plan, though if they were honest, this was more of a contingency than their main ploy. If she had taken them up on their offer, Mummy would have never captured her. But since she was insistent, they might as well force it.
“Maybe next time you’ll listen,” Pyre told her as he took a deep breath before aiming his head towards the sky. “Serpent’s Fire Scales!" He fired out a massive fireball, one that seemed to be aimed at nothing. Still, with a thought, it exploded into over a dozen smaller ones, all trained on Uraraka, who couldn't defend herself from the coming onslaught. She closed her eyes and awaited the attack, but when it came, she felt nothing. In fact, she felt colder.
"Looks like I made it in time." Her eyes shot open to see a wall of ice had saved her, created by a new figure that emerged from the end of the street, their form illuminated not by the emerald flames that had started to spread but by the bright orange flames that stuck to their left side like a child would their parent.
“Todoroki? But how?” Uraraka couldn't help but ask; meanwhile, Pyre and Mummy frowned at another U.A. student interrupting their night.
Freezing the bandages that restrained her from smashing them, Todoroki explained. "The old man decided to come here to hunt for Stain. But I had my own suspicions about why Iida had decided to come here and went to look for him." His glare heated up when he looked at the two, both in a much better condition than Uraraka was, whose state reminded him of how she looked during their fight.
"Then I found their handiwork and followed them and the noise here." Todoroki knew burns; he saw one every time he looked in the mirror. But those poor heroes, they looked much worse than he did. Beaten till they couldn't even stand, with the reason for that standing before him. Looking as inhumanly as he thought it seemed, his clothes wished to leave him, fluttering despite there being no wind, just the updraft from the fires here and there.
On the other hand, Pyre showed a smile lit up by the emerald flames that danced around him, flames that seemed to take offense to Todoroki's very presence, to the different fire he brought, to the ice he conjured. He had been more than a little miffed with how the fool denied his fire the chance to shine during the festival. He hadn't even been the one to defeat him at the USI; that honor had gone to Slice.
But it would seem tonight, he'll have his shot against him. "Those heroes put up a good fight but fell to the flames like everything else." He crouched, his body temperature rising along with his anticipation for the coming fight. Todoroki matched his readiness as he could recognize the look in Pyre's eyes; it was the same as Bakugo's when he had already decided to battle.
"Mummy, you can handle Uraraka. Todoroki's mine." Koharu leaned forward with him, the two not waiting for a response as Pyre jumped into the air and let loose a wave of fire toward the two.
And that is that! I don't know when it happened, but I've come to thoroughly enjoy writing Izuku, just letting his hair down and fighting to his heart's content.
