Robinn stood up and left before the match even started. The moment the countdown to begin flashed on the stadium screens, she was already walking out. She knew it would be over in an instant. No point in watching Todoroki dismantle Sero. Better to use the time to prepare for her own fight.

  The hallways under the stadium were long and echoing, lined with overhead lights that buzzed faintly in the silence. Concrete everywhere muffling the world above. Her footsteps were the only sound, echoing sharp and hollow. Everyone else was still in the stands, eyes glued to the next spectacle. She caught the faintest rumble of Present Mic’s voice through the walls, barely distinguishable from the hum of the ventilation. Maybe it was the concrete. Or maybe she just wasn’t listening.

  She wasn’t really nervous. Her hands weren’t shaking, her breath was steady, her heartbeat annoyingly normal. But Ibara... Ibara was a curveball. Her Quirk was unpredictable... vines with a mind of their own, and Robinn didn’t have a good read on her. She was weird in a way that didn’t make sense. Saintly, exaggerated, like someone halfway through a stage play.

  Robinn had seen her smile gently while she hacked apart the roots of a tree in gardening club, muttering something about necessary pruning with her usual serene tone. Too much intensity and no hesitation. The same sorrowful expression whether she was watering flowers or decimating weeds like they’d committed personal crimes.

  Hard to pin down someone like that.

  And she hadn’t had the time to put together a decent strategy. Todoroki’s match would be fast.

  Just as she expected, a thunderous crack tore through the floor. The entire stadium shuddered under her feet. The lights overhead flickered violently off, then back on, and a deep chill began to roll down the corridor like fog. Robinn didn’t flinch. She just stopped, looked up at one of the mounted screens near the ceiling, streaming the match with a second or two of delay.

  That did surprise her.

  A glacier. A giant one. Sero trapped and frozen into it, barely visible.

  “He really did go all out, huh... poor Sero,” she muttered, pausing mid-stride. She stared at the screen, arms folded, squinting at the sheer scale of ice. “He must be a bit more ticked off than I thought he’d be.”

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  She heard something faint from the stadium, chanting maybe? A weird call from the crowd. “Good try,” maybe? Hard to tell through the walls. She shook her head and kept walking, slipping into her thoughts again, trying to map out a plan.

  She eventually reached the tunnel leading to the challenger’s entrance... except it was blocked. Solid ice sealed it off in a jagged wall, glimmering with mist at the edges.

  She stared at it blankly for a moment, then sighed. “Figures,” she muttered, turning on her heel and heading the other way. “Guess I do have time to strategize now.”

  Or not.

  As she rounded the corner, she froze.

  All Might was there, leaning lightly against the wall outside her prep room. His real thin and bony form, his shirt loose on his frame. Unmistakably tired. Sunken eyes, hollow cheeks.

  Robinn’s voice came out sharper than she intended. “You know that’s not Midoriya’s room, right?”

  He didn’t smile or even blink. Just looked at her with that worn, haunted expression she hated seeing on him. “Why do you do that to yourself, Robinn?” he asked, quietly. Fatherly.

  She shrugged, brushing past him. “I’m just being realistic,” she said, without looking back.

  The door to her prep room swung shut behind her... except it didn’t shut completely.

  All Might’s foot caught it. A second later, he pushed it open again and stepped inside, uninvited.

  She turned, tense. “What?! Am I not right? He’s all you’ve been worrying about recently.”

  Her voice was louder now, angrier than she wanted. She backed away instinctively as All Might took another step inside, still wearing that unreadable face.

  “Robinn...” he began.

  “What, Dad?” she snapped, cutting him off. “Are you going to apologize?! Well now’s not the time, okay? I need to concentrate... Go praise your new kid. He won his fight, didn’t he?”

  All Might looked down at her. She was practically vibrating, shoulders stiff, jaw clenched, fists twitching at her sides. There was no pretense of her usual polished calm.

  So he nodded, slowly. Turned to leave.

  At the doorway, he paused, his back to her.

  “We need to talk. After the festival.”

  Then he walked out, the door shutting gently behind him.

  Robinn stood motionless, staring at the door. Her chest rose and fell too fast, breath catching, shoulders locked. Her fists clenched hard enough to sting.

  Then her foot lashed out, sending the nearest chair skidding violently into the far wall.

  “Why did he have to do this now?! Fuck..." she muttered, low and ragged.

  She stood there a moment longer. Then she closed her eyes.

  She activated her quirk, her whole body unraveled into air, translucent, invisible, formless. A defense mechanism maybe, but not feeling anything was what she needed right now.

  And it gives her time to think, or atleast try to.

  Author’s Note:

  familiar with, and writing that kind of scene isn’t exactly a walk in the park emotionally. So yeah, not the easiest chapter on my end.