His Reasons (Todoroki X OC)

S5 Chapter 20

After Hawks made up some kind of excuse on why they had to postpone the test for a couple more minutes, the hero and Amari burst into the waiting room where Katsuki was staring back in confusion. He had obviously heard about the delay on the announcements and made his way back as well in hopes of an explanation.

He watched the two with an unreadable expression as the boy crossed his arms in interest. "Where have you two been?"

Breathing heavily, the bird looked nervously towards Amari before trying to snap on his half hearted attitude in hopes to quell her anxiety. "Are you okay chickadee?"

Yet that's when the girl started pacing back in forth, slapping her own nervous giggle as she began to pull her hair aggressively. "Oh yeah yeah, I'm great just great. I mean, it's not like everyone's gonna be watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake and go all Nomu in public with the president literally out for my head. I mean, I already have a target on my back and an immense amount of pressure so why not add more right? Ha ha it's so funny..."

She was talking at a million words per minute, the girl getting more unhinged by the minute as her breath started to grow shaky. "I can do this...I can do this...I can do this...I don't know if I can do this.."

Seeing her distress, Katsuki immediately rushed over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, causing the girl to slightly flitch. "Hey, what the hell are you saying? Of course you can do this. Where's that annoying attitude of yours that I can never shut up, what happened to that?"

Amari chose to stare down at the floor before answering sadly. "Katsuki, the president doesn't want me to pass, she's doing everything to make me fail. What if I can't beat that? She's even making people watch the exam...and the crowds....I don't know if I can do it..."

Widening his eyes at this new information, her brother turned to Hawks in order to gain an explanation. He knew better than anyone how scared Amari was with large crowds because of that villain incident with the public last year. "What does she mean by crowds?"

His eyes were piercing, causing Hawks to cast his own away. "The kid is right. The prez doesn't like her so she's gonna do anything to wipe her out. No one goes against the commission, and this is why. Disobey, and they destroy you.."

Recalling the letters that the man collected, he sighed. "I tried my best to stop this but once that woman has set her mind, there's no changing it. I'm sorry kids, I won't lie. This is gonna be really rough. She knows everything about you chickadee, which means she'll use anything."

Amari closed her eyes at his words, recalling the file that she found on Hawks' desk with her information on it. Of course the president would have that kind of information, which meant that the woman knew just how to hurt her, how to make her break. She was just like All for One. "So by having an audience..."

Shoving his hands in his pockets, Hawks finished sadly. "She's trying to make the entire world to see your mistakes and disown you as a hero. If she manages that then those letters I collected are useless. Along with your uncomfortable reaction to crowds, it's a sure fire way for the world to see that you aren't worth supporting..."

Katsuki took in his explanation before balling his fists roughly, a hiss to his tone. How dare that woman try to drive Amari out. Over his dead body would he let that happen. She's worked too hard, too damn hard to be here. "That bitch.."

It was such an underhanded thing to do but that's exactly what the president was great at. Hawks was sure that if Amari appeared before her and begged on her knees for forgiveness then that woman would've called the whole thing off.

But that wasn't something that Hawks even bothered to suggest because he knew Amari would never do that. She was too stubborn, stubborn for her own good. If only she hadn't defended him, then her future wouldn't have been so destroyed.