"Things get bad for all of us,

almost continually,

and what we do under stress is who/what we are."

-Charles Bukowski

(This man is amazing. I honestly love all of Bukowski's quotes and poems, especially those read aloud by Tom O' Bedlam. 'illneas' has a lot of Bukowski poems on Youtube, so if you're interested I recommend them. I'm particularly fond of 'The Strange', 'Bluebird', 'A Smile to Remember By' and 'Go All The Way'.

The rest of the tournament preceded with little to no fuss because for however much Urakaka had improved, she wasn't the opponent of Todoroki who chose to use both of his powers. Although he proved to be rather inept at using his fire itself, it was the perfect compliment to the drawbacks that he had observed of his ice powers. If his body was ever on the verge of being frozen by its own power, he could just heat himself up with his fire powers. It effectively eliminated one of his main weaknesses; the only one left was his stamina itself.

And he had proved rather quickly that he had an abundance of it.

It was a gigantic iceberg that appeared out of thin air; Deku could feel the sudden drop of temperature all the way from his seat. It was almost the entire width of the stadium, and as he slowly pushed it forward, Deku praised his choice to stop him from the get-go in his head. He honestly doubted that anyone else could bring out that much raw force, except maybe All Might. In a competition like this with an out of bounds clearly marked, Todoroki might as well have been God himself.

Well, 'might' was might in the end. For within that fragile shell of pure and insurmountable power rivaling that of a god, there was the heartbeat of a small, slightly damaged human. Deku could see the moment with perfect clarity as Todoroki slowly turned around to the booming voice of Endeavor, who was begrudgingly being dragged away for further investigation. The monster wore a repulsive smile upon its face despite its' current predicament, its eyes glowing with a morbid, sickening shade of pride. The security quickly made him shut up and dragged him out of the arena, but the damage was already done.

The flaring fire on the top of his shoulder flickered, interrupting his defrosting process. The rest of the match saw no trace of his flame, and his body only being incaged by ice. Urakaka was eventually pushed out of the arena helplessly, and the tournament was concluded.

Very straightforward. If only life would stop interfering at the worst of times.

'...That may have undone everything I said to him. While words of encouragement and truth are nice, it's not like they fix everything. Humans always prioritize emotions over everything else. It's up to him now, and what he decides to do with his powers. Well, it was never really any of my business anyway. Only heroes go around saying preposterous things like it's their job to be nosy. That said...'

He glanced down at the figure encased in ice and felt a strange sense of pity. For all of his power, he was merely a human in the end.

'I hope he can decide on what he truly wants to do with himself, and those powers of his. Before someone takes advantage of it, as he did to me. Her life is gone because I didn't realize what I truly wished for. But you still have chances to decide. I hope they're not wasted.'

He walked away slowly and let the noise of the crowd drizzle out into nothingness as the distance swallowed it whole. He still had some time until the awards ceremony, and it would be stupid of him to subject himself to the mess of bodies that was the stadium without reason to. He leafed through all of his 'emails to friends and family back in America', to slightly update the profile of Todoroki. They were all embedded with code while also maintaining a letter-like format, so even if someone stumbled upon them, they would think nothing of it.

'Was there really any point to it though? Surely, All For One is aware of the extent of his ability already. My service is useless-'

He forced his thoughts to a halt, which were oddly active and more self-deprecating than usual. Slowly, he took a few breaths in and out, but the odd feeling wouldn't dissipate. He just felt high-strung everywhere, and his body wouldn't settle down. His gaze fell down upon the database of quirks, and he resigned himself to reading the whole thing all over again.

Slowly but surely, he let himself get lost in the detailed framework and structure of the myriad varieties of quirks available.

Even as a young child, he had enjoyed quirks, and as he got older, it became a passion of sorts. A passion mostly rooted in inferiority and longing, of course, but a passion nonetheless. At the ripe age of 15, it became an escape from the patchwork mess that was his life. When swimming in the sea of words, the voices in his head that always condemned him quieted down to a low hum in the back of his mind. It was ironic that his coping mechanism was what largely caused his predicament today, but it was healthy, so he could live with being the butt of irony's jokes. He couldn't afford to set himself off and drown aimlessly in the sea of negativity, after all.

Even though he deserved it.

No, put a stop to that line of thinking-

"A-Allean? Sorry if I got your name wrong, by the way. The teachers sent me to get you for the award ceremony. Did ya not hear the announcement over the intercom?" Deku just barely restrained himself throwing a knife at the unexpected voice. "Anyway, they're gonna begin pretty soon, so we'll have to rush a little bit."

"...Kaminari-san, you startled me."

A slightly muffled, mocking laugh rang out of his mouth like a pair of old, rusty bells. His body subtly shifted over, at the perfect angle, somewhat rendering the security camera useless. He was certain that it was now impossible to see the lips of both people now. Throughout the entire transition, Deku's slightly alarmed eyes took note of a reflection of the light in the shape of a knife.

'He's armed... He has that electric quirk, and even though he couldn't have hurt me through that, I was distracted enough that he probably could have got a good slice in. Dammit, what in the world is going on? This guy's trying to be a hero, right? Or could he be similar to me...'

"Situational awareness is a must for heroes, isn't it? Well, actually I wouldn't say that's true. It's always the quirk that matters most in the end... It's rather sad, isn't it? We have the same type of quirk, yet you got all the way to 3rd place. Haa, I feel like I'm being replaced."

He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. Did this guy think that he was getting replaced? Is that what's happening?

"...I don't quite get what you mean. I'm merely an exchange student. I'll be gone pretty soon."

Very soon, in fact, he thought as he recalled the text he had received from All for One. He had judged that he had gotten enough information, and got permission to break cover at any time necessary. Kurogiri was on stand-by and ready. They needed him back as quickly as possible for a new operation, so preferably as soon as possible.

If Bakugo was going to confront him about that, like he was suspecting, then it had come at a very good timing indeed. In any case, Kaminari had a peculiar look on his face as he hummed underneath his breath. In an instant, it all disappeared and was replaced with his cheery deposition.

"Well, that makes things simple. Haha, sorry for saying something weird, how about we just agree to forget about it?"

He stared at his eyes marveling at the difference compared to his eyes in their previous encounter, before walking off to the Arena.

"Sure. I have to go to the Arena now, so bye."

As he walked away, he couldn't help the faint shiver that traveled up his spine with a certain realization. He had never had any inkings whatsoever that Kaminari was, in fact, a spy. If this wasn't just his paranoia, then he truly was fearsome. Like a viper slinking around in the dark, and so incredibly lethal. He would have to be more careful from now on.