The rush into the narrow passageway was a hectic and chaotic mess of bodies violently pushing against each other to make any amount of ground. It became abundantly clear to many that their current situation was the first obstacle of the race, and Todoroki was the first to capitalize. Foregoing fighting through the mob, he instead created a path for himself by freezing the ground and the feet of the competition, allowing him to quickly overtake them and lead the pack.
Many of his classmates and even some that weren't found ways around the ice with admittedly creative applications of their quirks. He hadn't considered that Bakugo could simulate flight via propulsion with his explosions, and he supposed that Yaoyorozu keeping herself off the ice with a bow staff was rather inspired, but he wasn't particularly worried. None of them would overtake him or even keep up with him down the stretch.
Well, almost none of them.
As if on cue, an unfortunately familiar bright yellow blur shot past him from above, and he turned an aggravated eye toward his classmate that landed a few meters in front of him. Midoriya glanced back at him with a slight turn of his head before he noticed a… detached hand and forearm that was hanging onto his gym uniform? Todoroki was perplexed at the sight for a moment, and even Midoriya was momentarily taken aback at the development, but the two-toned teen shook it off and continued on his path to victory.
Izuku, on the other hand, stopped to inspect the hanger-on until it quickly dawned on him. Sure enough, a floating head of green hair and a familiar grin flew to his location and circled around him.
"Did you split your entire body to fly over the crowd?" Izuku asked with an amused and impressed smile.
"Nah, wish I could've," she lightly denied. "Our uniforms aren't DNA-coded, so I'd have to get naked to split everything. I asked Tetsutetsu to throw my body as hard as he could in front of everyone. Speaking of which…"
Izuku spied her body in the air flailing towards the ground near him, and he scrambled to catch it to avoid it garnering any damage. Once he ensured her body was fine and set it back down, she quickly reassembled herself and flicked Izuku on the temple.
"Sucker," she laughed before bounding ahead. Izuku could only mirthfully tsk and head after her and Todoroki alongside the rest of the participants that made it out of Todoroki's trap.
He made it to the next obstacle in time to see Mineta bouncing on his sticky balls and leap for Todoroki to attack him, only for the overzealous boy to be smacked to the ground by a giant robot. Said giant robot was accompanied by many other giant robots, and the runners came to the realization that they were facing an army of robots from the entrance exam.
"Looks like they've encountered their next trial! A test of strength and cunning, it's a Robo Inferno!"
"So, this is what the other students faced in their entrance exams," Todoroki remarked. "They obviously went to a lot of trouble, but I wished they prepared something a little more difficult."
He planted his quickly frosting right arm on the ground in front of him, quickly and violently freezing the ground under the approaching robots. "Especially since my dear, old dad is in attendance," he spat the last few words out with venom.
With a swipe of his right arm, he sent a wave of ice and frigid air at the nearest robots, freezing them in their tracks and allowing him to dart through their legs. Many other students tried to follow, but he had intentionally frozen the giant robots while they were off balance, sending them careening to the ground in front of and potentially on top of the other participants.
Izuku immediately went on high alert. What started off as a tough race between students with already questionable safety measures had just become a legitimately dangerous situation.
"WHAT A SHOWING! Shoto Todoroki from Class 1-A has pulled away with the lead!"
"With both an offensive and defensive attack, no less."
"No wonder he got in through recommendation! He hadn't ever encountered the Robo Inferno before and STILL CLEARED IT LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!"
"Why are you screaming?"
Back on the track, the tumbling mass of frozen metal succumbed to gravity and made its way to the ground. Izuku flared his quirk once again while preparing to intercept it, and he pushed the emerald flames to the surface and coated his body with them to catch the robot. Unbeknownst to him, the outer limits of his fire shined a brilliant orange and flattened out around him and in front of the other runners to keep them out of harm's way.
The green core within the sea of orange caught the falling mass of steel, and it was only then that he noticed two others on either side of him. Kirishima to his right had hardened his body and caught the falling monstrosity, while another boy to his left, Tetsutetsu if he had to guess, covered his body in what appeared to be steel and caught the robot, as well. With a collective heave, the three pushed the robot back and away from themselves and the others.
"Damn it, Todoroki/1-A! Anyone other than me and Midoriya/Lite Brite would've been killed!" came the simultaneous shouts of Kirishima and Tetsutetsu on either side of him. Then, they noticed each other, and they both growled in frustration. "How am I supposed to stand out beside a damn copycat?!"
"AMAZING! Class 1-A's Midoriya pushes back the trap with an assist from his classmate Kirishima and 1-B's Tetsutetsu!"
"He also protected the other students from potential danger, but I'm not sure he even realized that he did it."
"That's why he's already your favorite, huh?!"
"Watch your mouth."
On the track, the orange flame barrier dispersed right as Izuku noticed that it was even up.
"I DON'T NEED YOUR DAMN PROTECTION!" shouted a familiar, angry voice from above. He saw Bakugo sailing over him and the robots in hot pursuit of Todoroki, and he heard a few scattered murmurs that indicated the others were temporarily putting the competition aside to clear a path through the machines.
Izuku was not going to be left in the dust, however. He shot a quick glance to the disappearing form of Bakugo in the air, and he sent a frown in the direction of Todoroki. With his mentor's words replaying in his mind once again, he went up in a bright, yellow flame and shot past the robots in quick succession, clearing the obstacles in the blink of an eye before bounding toward the next stage.
"For those of you who thought the first obstacle was easy, let's see how you feel about the 2nd one! If they take a spill, they're out! If they wanna pass this test, they'll have to get creative! IT'S THE FALL!"
Todoroki wasted no time sliding on the narrow ropes attaching each platform to another, whereas Bakugo continued blasting himself above the treacherous terrain entirely. Todoroki sent a quick look to Bakugo gaining on him, then he looked around the area for any sign of his other troublesome opponent, but he couldn't find him. That put him on edge, as an unseen Midoriya could prove to be a dangerous one.
Izuku, meanwhile, was bouncing from platform to platform, quickly making up any lost ground to Todoroki but doing his best to stay out of his field of vision and move as quickly as possible. Now that he knew that the boy was not above large-scale sabotage, Izuku wanted to avoid any other potential ice mishaps that could get people hurt.
In the process, though, he did get to catch a glimpse of a girl using pretty wicked support equipment to clear some of the drops. Her manic excitement almost rubbed off on him the more he watched. Adjacent to her was Ochako swiftly and almost professionally clearing a tightrope before launching into a somersault and split combo onto the platform that was familiar to him.
Scarily familiar.
"Oh my shit, please tell me mom didn't create a mini-me in only 2 weeks' time…" he muttered to himself with his heart in the pits of his stomach.
"Uh, Verdant? Wasn't that your move?" Snipe hesitantly queried in the luxury box.
The only response he received was an almost diabolical giggle from the woman while she slowly rubbed her hands in delight.
It was very clear to every teacher and hero present that she was way too close with Principal Nezu.
"And now, we're finally approaching the last obstacle. Everyone better tread carefully; YOU'RE STEPPING ONTO A MINEFIELD!"
Todoroki slowly meandered through the path, taking great care to step around the many patches of dirt that looked the most unsettled. The reprieve was short, though, as Bakugo again forewent traveling by foot like a peasant in favor of staying airborne via explosions, and he was quickly gaining on him with a feral grin.
"Don't you dare underestimate me, you Icy-Hot bastard!" he shouted before rocketing past him, sending a few explosions his way for his troubles. Todoroki responded in kind by trying to grab and freeze the boy's arm while keeping pace with him. The back and forth battle of wills continued until they felt a rumble behind them and turned to see what was approaching, and the sight of Izuku launching himself toward them filled them with alarm. Izuku was purposely grazing the landmines in his dash to propel him even faster, and he was coming in hot.
"IT'S A 3-MAN FREE FOR ALL FOR 1ST PLACE! Todoroki and Bakugo were neck and neck in the lead and knocking on the finish line, and now Midoriya is inserting himself into the fray to take 1st place!"
Bakugo and Todoroki disregarded each other and turned their attention to Izuku, both readying a heavy attack of their own to halt his advance. Todoroki swung his right arm and Bakugo swung his left, the duo unleashing a wave of ice and a large explosion, respectively, and Izuku charged right into the attacks with a flash of red. The two teens watched in horror as he plowed through the violent duality in a crimson blaze of glory, carving through the ice like butter and shrugging off the explosion like a gentle breeze.
The next few moments happened in slow motion for the three. Izuku glided past them, paying no attention to their wide-eyed stares while he planted his palms onto their craniums to use them as leverage to launch himself down the path and further ahead. It didn't occur to them until Izuku had become a bright yellow blur once more that he had used them as glorified launchpads, and it, predictably, went as well as one would expect.
A loud, furious howl of rage and a subdued, equally furious growl followed after him, and the two booked it to catch up and steal 1st place back from the green head.
Unfortunately, it was all for naught.
"IZUKU MIDORIYA IS OUR CHAMPION!"
Todoroki slid into the arena with Bakugo blasting himself inside half a second later, but Izuku was already there on his hands and knees amidst the cheers and confetti. He had his hand on his chest while he caught his breath, a light, pink glow on his palm to soothe the aching in his chest cavity. He had slightly overdone it with the yellow flames again, but Recovery Girl wasn't around to hit him for it, so he could rest easy.
Bakugo grit his teeth. He was still behind them; even though he was ever so slowly closing the distance, there was still distance. The missed heroics classes were beginning to add up, and that ate at him. He made his bed, however, and he'd just have to get himself and the bed even stronger while he was cleaning up his mess. He'll catch up to and surpass them soon enough.
Todoroki was silently fuming. Seeing the boy go up in flames always made him incredibly uncomfortable, but the power and skill he wielded were almost beyond equal. It used to infuriate him to no end, and he wanted nothing more than to stomp out the upstart that was practically a facsimile of his father. However, things started to change after he overheard the conversation between Midoriya's apparent mother and Bakugo; it put a few things into perspective. He couldn't think about those things, though. He was going to defeat Midoriya using only his ice so that his father would finally understand the futility of his efforts to get him to embrace his left side. He wouldn't need his fire at all, especially if he could publicly take down a powerful fire quirk and prove his mother's quirk's superiority.
"HA! Told you he'd win! Where's my money?" A heavily bandaged Tomura with his arm in a cast celebrated beside Kurogiri as the two watched the UA Sports Festival in one of the booths in their seedy bar. Kurogiri grumbled in annoyance and slid 800 yen across the table to his sorta-boss and occasional ward.
"Izuku! That was so awesome!" Ochako shouted when she arrived in the stadium and spotted her best friend. "I can't believe you got 1st place!"
"It was nothing," he initially tried to shrug off the praise, but he quickly remembered what he saw during the race. "What exactly did my mom teach you?"
A sly smile formed on Ochako's face. "Sorry, that's confidential. Sensei's orders."
"She ordered you not to tell anyone?" Izuku questioned.
"Just you," she replied with a playful glint in her eyes. The utterly nonplussed expression she received in return just made it all the more fun for her.
"Now that the Top 42 have advanced, it's time for the real fun to begin," Midnight practically purred into the microphone. "It's your chance to step into the limelight. Give it your best!"
The board began cycling through events once more with a crack of her whip. "Let's see what we have in store for you next. Will your wildest fantasies come to light? What will it be? The waiting is torture!"
'She's having way too much fun with this,' were the simultaneous thoughts of Aizawa and Izuku.
"It's a Cavalry Battle!" she announced. "The participants will form teams of 2-4 people as they see fit. Each player has been assigned a point value based on the results from the obstacle course. The point values will go up in increments of 5, starting at 5 points for 42nd place, 10 points for 41st, and so on."
'Hm, makes sense, so I should be worth 210 points since I came in 1st.'
"And the point value assigned to the 1st place contestant is 10 million!" Midnight announced with a wink to Izuku.
"…Are you fucking with me, right now?" Izuku deadpanned.
"Is that an offer?" Midnight quipped in a sultry tone.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" a furious Inko shouted from the crowd, and a fearful Midnight immediately put her hands up in surrender.
"Nothing, nothing, just banter," she quickly placated the angry mother.
While she shook away the feeling of imminent doom, Izuku was dealing with the newfound attention and predatory gazes of 41 other competitors. It appeared that being worth 10 million points made him an easy target.
Well, that just wouldn't do.
Izuku activated his quirk, making a few step back. He concentrated on separating the flames, and, after a few moments, the colorful fire took on a deep blue hue. All activity around him halted, and Izuku started emanating a cold, haunting aura among the arena floor that he did his absolute best to keep from reaching the audience. The other contestants instantly felt something dark, something evil…
It felt as if death itself was breathing down their necks and grinning maliciously over their shoulders.
"Make it a good show," Izuku challenged with a dark smirk, and several people could swear they saw an ethereal cat hovering over him with an even more frightening smile.
Then, it was gone. The flames dispersed and the oppressive dread vanished. That didn't mean that the discomfort that everyone was feeling left with it, though, as just about everyone was now giving Izuku a very wide berth.
'I may have made an error,' a pale Shinso thought to himself.
'What the fuck, Deku?' Bakugo unintentionally slipped into his old habit.
'Spooky,' a silver-haired girl thought in interest.
"Fumi, did you see that?" a very shaken Dark Shadow poked their head out to ask their companion.
"Midoriya truly does traverse the darkness alongside us," Tokoyami responded.
"Oh my fucking god, you are such an emo," Dark Shadow lamented. They couldn't be certain if their host or anyone else had seen what they had seen. They'd keep a wary eye on Midoriya in the future.
Midnight explained the rules of the cavalry battle and sent them on their way to select their teams. Izuku watched the contestants scatter and group up amongst themselves, steering clear of him out of a desire to beat him, a desire to not be a target, fear, or some combination of the three. He shrugged and started searching for Ochako.
Meanwhile, an unresponsive Bakugo was being crowded by several of his classmates all trying to make their case to be on his team.
"Yo, Bakugo! Let's team up! It'll be just like back in Jr. High!" Kirishima excitedly shouted.
"Right! A blast from the past!" Mina exclaimed with her own excitement.
"It wasn't even that long ago, Racoon Eyes, Shitty Hair," Bakugo muttered.
"Damn it, I know that you know my name!" Kirishima shot back. "And my hair's not that different from yours!"
"It's dyed and you use gel to spike it," Bakugo replied.
"He's gotcha there, Kiri," Mina consoled the now slumping teen.
"Fine," Bakugo finally assented.
Kirishima bounced back with his sharp grin like nothing had happened. "Hell yeah! Let's kick some ass and get that 10 million!"
That brought out Bakugo's own signature feral grin.
Back with Izuku, he and Ochako were busy developing a strategy that centered around just the two of them, as Iida turned down Izuku's offer to team up on the basis that he wanted to prove himself as well. Izuku was the man to beat, after all, and he understood that. They were brainstorming until the sound of rocket boosters became apparent.
"Perfect, you're still all alone. Enter, the star…" a manic voice began, drawing their attention. Izuku turned to inspect the new arrival and was immediately face to face with a pair of goggles with crosshairs on them.
"Team up with me, person in 1st place!" she exclaimed.
"Holy hell, you are quick!" Izuku shouted and jumped back behind Ochako.
"The name's Mei Hatsume, inventor extraordinaire in the support course and future head of Hatsume Industries!" she proudly declared.
"Oh, I remember!" Ochako spoke up. "You're that weirdo from the obstacle course that used those cool gadgets!"
"Precisely!" Mei agreed, either oblivious or uncaring of the negative connotation. "We haven't met, but I'd like to use your current fame to my personal advantage."
"That's really straightforward," Izuku remarked with a chuckle. "Sure, I'm down-"
"If I team up with you, then I'll be in the spotlight as part of the team that everyone is keeping their eyes on!" Mei interrupted, slowly invading Izuku's space.
"Right, yeah, I'm down-" Izuku tried to reassure, but he was interrupted again.
"That means my super cute babies will inevitably seen by the big CEOs tuning into the Sports Festival!" she continued with her increasingly manic energy, getting right into Izuku's face. "Following that line of reasoning, teaming up with you would be the best avenue to showcase my babies and get recruited so I can use those connections as a jumping off point to create my own support empire-"
"Hatsume!" Izuku shouted and grabbed a firm hold of her shoulders, freezing her in place for a brief moment at the contact while he looked her directly in her unique, yellow-green eyes with crosshair-shaped pupils just like her goggles. "You're good, no need to explain. Let's do this and get you that empire."
Her smile increased in fervor at the sight of his own, and she opened the case of support equipment she was carrying with her. "I packed a ton of powerful babies with me, so I'm sure you'll find something you like among my arsenal.
"That jetpack," Izuku examined the device. "Did you base it off of Air Jet's?"
"That I did! Isn't he awesome?!" she responded, and the two devolved into a fanboying session for different pro heroes that used impressive and intricate tech, as well as the tech itself and the devices that Mei had built.
Ochako blankly watched on, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. It wasn't the time. She had a sports festival to win. Thankfully, she was brought out of her thoughts by a hand on her shoulder.
"Mm," a girl with black hair and blue eyes framing her stoic face hummed to her in… agreement? Consolation? Solidarity? Derision? Ochako really couldn't be sure.
"Oh, Yui, what's up?" Izuku said when he noticed her arrival. "I figured Class 1-B would try to stick together."
A shrug and a noncommittal grunt was the only response, but he nodded in understanding nonetheless.
"Izuku, who's this?" Ochako asked, curiously eyeing the new arrival.
"Oh, this is Yui Kodai, she's in 1-B. We met at the entrance exam," he explained. "Yui, this is Ochako Uraraka, she's the one I made the mochi for."
Ochako and Yui assessed each other, silently taking in the subtle similarities but brushing them off as coincidences.
"Traitor!" Tokage shouted to Yui as she stormed over with an embarrassed-looking Itsuka Kendo and blank-faced Reiko Yanagi in tow. "How could you betray us like this, Yui?!"
"Setsuna, please don't tell me that you've bought into Monoma's anti-1-A shtick," Kendo sighed with her head in her enlarged hand.
"What? No," Tokage denied before pointing at Izuku. "That's the filthy heathen that swears All Might could beat Godzilla!"
"Wait, really?" Kendo replied with a hint of disbelief in her tone.
"Oh my god, we're not doing this today," Izuku huffed. "All Might would wipe the floor with Godzilla mid-diff, and that's that."
"Blaspheming heretic!" Tokage accused.
Elsewhere on the field, Ibara Shiozaki paused and placed a concerned hand over her heart.
"Someone has lost their way," she softly intoned to her confused team.
When the buzzer finally sounded, the teams were all set. Izuku, with his gravity negated, rested on the shoulders of Ochako, Yui, and Mei with the 10 million-point headband wrapped around his forehead. Izuku locked eyes with a locked in Bakugo and an equally steely-eyed Todoroki; he knew full well that they'd be gunning for him to start, and he just hoped that the other teams were sufficiently hesitant about going after him following his earlier stunt.
"Begin!" Midnight shouted, and everyone moved. As Izuku expected, Bakugo's team of himself, Kirishima, Mina, and Sero made a beeline towards him with several teams trailing a bit behind to pick the scraps of the encounter. He lightly kicked his legs back to signal to Mei and Ochako to duck their heads, and the team blasted off into the air with Mei's jetpack, leaving the rest to duke it out amongst themselves.
"Oh no you don't!" Bakugo growled before blasting himself into the air after them.
"WHAT'S THIS?! Team Midoriya has gone airborne and Bakugo is chasing after them! THEY'RE TAKING THIS BATTLE TO THE SKIES!"
On the ground, Toru's team of herself, Jiro, Sato, and Koda watched in slight dismay, with the exception of Toru herself who had elected to go topless for added sneakiness and would not be deterred by such paltry concepts as gravity.
"Sato, throw me as hard as you can!" Toru shouted.
"But- I- You're not wearing a shirt!" he sputtered.
"JUST DO IT!" she commanded.
Above ground, Bakugo propelled himself to his target with a vicious snarl. "You can't escape from me!" he shouted with crackling palms, readying a powerful blast.
"Yui!" Izuku signaled, and she dutifully dug into her pocket and retrieved a small clump of sand. With a quick application of her quirk, she threw the rapidly enlarging grains of sand at Bakugo, halting his approach and knocking him back down to Earth.
"AMAZING! Such an excellent application of the tried and true staple of both offense and defense, pocket sand!"
"It is a pretty reliable tool."
"Great work, now we can hang up here and play keep awa-" Izuku began before something in his periphery grabbed his attention. He saw the headband careening towards him much too late, though, and an invisible hand snatched his headband off of his head and took it with it into the open air. Only when he noticed the pair of pants and shoes trailing behind it did everything click.
"SHIT!" he screamed in horror.
"Ha! You snooze, you lose, Midori!" the invisible girl taunted back.
"AND IT LOOKS LIKE THE 10 MILLION POINTS HAVE BEEN SNATCHED AWAY! TEAM HAGAKURE ROCKETS INTO FIRST PLACE! What the hell are you teaching these kids, Eraser?"
"Honestly, I can't lay claim to that. That's their own grit and ingenuity at work. Iron sharpened iron."
"You heard it hear first, folks! Eraserhead is a terrible teacher!"
"Why did I agree to this…"
"We have to catch her!" Sato shouted on the ground.
"On it!" Jiro replied, stabbing her jacks into the ground just behind them and amplifying her heart beat as much as she could, resulting in a boom that rocketed them forward to close the distance between themselves and their successful rider. They nearly had her back in their grasp right before a detached forearm flew from out of nowhere and yoinked the 10 million points and the 1st place position away from them.
"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! THE 10 MILLION POINTS HAVE BEEN TAKEN AGAIN! THEY'RE PLAYING HOT POTATO!"
"Again, why are you screaming?"
Izuku and co. watched his headband be ripped away from the invisible thief in worry, as Tokage's arm could fly faster than the four of them could with the jetpack.
"How are we gonna get back the headband? Ochako spoke her concern to Izuku.
"Oh, we're getting back that fucking headband," Izuku replied in a low, resolute tone. "Hang on!"
The group nosedived toward Toru's team, and Izuku snatched her headband before rocketing away. "Call that a finder's fee!" he shouted to the indignant girl they were flying away from.
"Be careful not to exhaust all of the fuel! It has a limited supply!" Mei reminded him.
"Right, thanks. Do your goggles enhance your quirk at all?"
"Marginally, they work better for smaller things up close, like when I'm making babies. My eyes themselves would work better long distance, which I'm assuming you need?"
"Yeah. Could you pinpoint our headband and give me a rough estimate on where it would be in, say, 10 seconds?"
"Provided you're really fast, I can give you a general area but not much more than that."
"That'll work just fine. Everyone, hold on as tightly as you can."
"Midoriya and the gang appear to just be hovering in the air with a headband of significantly lower value! You don't think they've given up, do you?"
"No, they're planning something. Knowing Midoriya, it's probably something stupid."
"You'll still love to see it, though!"
"No comment."
The group hovered above the competition for a few more seconds while the 10 million point headband was locked tightly in Tokage's detached grip and dodging strikes from a long tongue, a barrage of sticky balls, and swipes from a sentient shadow. Her forearm made it out of the fray just in time to avoid a snarling Bakugo once again before he was yanked back to his team by Sero. Thinking she was in the clear, she finally made a beeline back to her group.
It was at that moment that Mei pointed directly between the headband and the awaiting team, and Izuku cut off the jetpack and landed with the group on the ground, ignited into a bright yellow, and used the group as a pseudo launchpad to shoot himself to the prize, snagging a few more headbands along the way. Once the 10 million points were back in his grasp, he reignited the jetpack and flew back to his team with a victorious smile.
"Holy cow! You were right! They did have a plan, and it was stupid, but it paid off big time! Team Midoriya has reclaimed the 1st place throne and then some!"
Elsewhere, two people scowled. One was Todoroki, who felt it was time to take him out. The other was Shinso, who felt the same, but he wasn't especially excited about it after the showing with the blue fire. He had no idea what the hell that feeling was, and he didn't particularly care to find out.
Once Izuku was back with the team and the headbands were secure, he sighed. "Sorry, Hatsume. I killed the rest of the fuel with that stunt."
"It's perfectly fine, that move was sure to garner even more attention for my babies!" she… assured him? He couldn't really tell.
"Plus, we still have the rocket boots! We're not down and out just yet!" Ochako spoke up with a pump of her fist.
"Mm," Yui agreed, diving her hand back into her pocket.
"And now, we've reached the halfway point of the game!"
"Midoriya," Todoroki addressed him as his team carried him toward Izuku's. "I'll be taking that headband, now."
"You're more than welcome to try," Izuku responded with his hands wreathed in the kaleidoscopic fire.
"Now, Iida, forward! Yaoyorozu, be ready to protect us! Kaminari, do your thing!" Todoroki directed his team. Iida's calf engines boosted them forward, Yaoyorozu created an insulated blanket as well as a grounding rod, and Kaminari lit up with his quirk for a 1.3 million volt Indiscriminate Shock.
Ochako zoomed backward with the rocket boots in time to avoid the brunt of the attack, unlike every other team in the vicinity, but she didn't get far enough. Within that second, however, the four were blanketed in orange fire that the electricity from the attack harmlessly passed over.
"What?" Izuku was befuddled. "Is this shit only subconscious, or something? How inconveniently convenient!"
"Worry about that later, Izuku!" Ochako reminded. "We're almost out of room to backpedal!"
"Nowhere left to run, eh?" a tired voice sneered beside them. Izuku turned to see Shinso quickly approaching them on a group of very dazed, glazed-eyed riders. Shinso was on them wearing a preemptive victorious smirk, almost trying to rub it in that he was going to snatch the headband away from the Golden Boy himself.
That was until Yui's hand shot out of her pocket and yeeted a handful of sand into his face.
"AH, FUCK!" Shinso screamed and immediately started rubbing the sand out of his eyes. "Retreat, retreat!"
"Geez, Yui," Izuku remarked while also struggling to hold back his laughter.
"I didn't forget what he said about you," she curtly replied.
"LOOK AT THAT, THE TRUSTY POCKET SAND HAS MADE A RETURN!"
The resulting roar from the crowd at the sight of more pocket sand could have been heard on I-Island.
Shinso's riders had dutifully complied and scampered away from them just in time for an ice wall to seal away any more escape paths, and Todoroki's team was slowly stalking forward at the impetus.
"Only one minute left! Todoroki has cornered the 10 million point team and is poised to take the ultimate prize! But, unbelievably, Team Midoriya has managed to keep away from the ice and defend themselves all the while. Midoriya's not going down 'till the bitter end!"
Watching with a keen eye in the upper deck of the arena, Endeavor scowled down at the scene of his son's opponent keeping his distance and staying on his son's left side. "He's exploiting your weaknesses. Don't be a fool, Shoto."
Elsewhere in the arena, Inko was on her feet in almost tangible pride. "HELL YEAH, IZU! KEEP EXPLOITING HIS WEAKNESSES!"
Back on the field, Iida got his team's attention. "Everyone, we only have 60 seconds remaining. I'm going to do something that will make me useless to you, but it's worth it."
"What are you going to do?" Todoroki asked.
Iida prepped his engines for maximum overdrive before entering a running stance. "Just make sure you get that headband, and hold on tight!"
Izuku could see Iida preparing to do something, and that was not a good thing at all. Izuku knew that even at his fastest with the yellow flames, Iida at his top speed was faster, and he couldn't dodge without leaving the team behind since the jetpack was out of commission. Instinctively, his yellow flames reignited, and he ignored the light pain in his chest. The yellow flames would make him almost fast enough to move away from him if necessary, but they wouldn't make him fast enough to react at the same speeds.
Unless…
White fire began to bloom in Izuku's hair, intermingling with the yellow fire in an almost perfect union. The world seemed to slow down exponentially for Izuku, and it was just in time, as Iida rocketed for them and quickly closed the distance between the teams. Izuku looked down at his teammates that were practically frozen in place, and he looked back up at the rapidly approaching Iida. He could just barely move his limbs enough to intercept the attack, but he wasn't sure if he could completely avoid having his headband snatched.
So, he compromised. As Iida sped by them and Todoroki's hand hooked onto his headband, Izuku snagged a firm hold onto as many headbands around Todoroki's neck as he could manage and yanked them away from the boy as he passed. Hopefully, it would be enough.
"Recipro Burst!" Izuku heard when his quirk cut out and time returned to normal.
"Holy smokes, what just happened?! That was one big blur! Why didn't he show off that super speed earlier?"
"Iida, what was that?" Todoroki asked in amazement.
"I forced my torque and RPM into overdrive, which gave me explosive power," he explained. "Unfortunately, the recoil stalls my engines for a while. It's a secret move that I've been saving; no one in class knew about it."
He turned to Izuku with a competitive smirk. "I told you, Midoriya, that I'd do my best to beat you- what? What happened?"
Izuku faced him with a smirk of his own, but that wasn't what gave Iida, or anyone else present, pause. It was the blood streaming down Izuku's face from his nose.
"And like I told alla you," Izuku slurred with his arm raised, proudly displaying all of the headbands he ripped off of Todoroki's neck, "I dun plan on losing ta anyone today."
"THE INSANITY! We thought the entire game was just turned completely on its head! Team Todoroki snatched the 10 million points from Team Midoriya, but Midoriya pulled through and snatched a good chunk of points from Todoroki at the same time! But he doesn't look so good!"
Present Mic covered the microphone and leaned over to Aizawa. "He really doesn't look so good. Should we pull him out?"
"He should be able to heal any damage he might've done to himself on the spot," he hesitantly began. "But, just in case, we'll send him to Recovery Girl after time is called."
Sure enough, Izuku was already quick at work tending to the brain aneurysm he was sure he had just given himself with his pink fire. He would NOT be telling Recovery Girl or his mother about that.
"Um, Izuku? Are you okay?" Ochako worriedly probed.
"Yeah, I'm good," he responded with less of a slur. "Jus' tried somethin' new and almost killed myself, I'll be fine."
"You WHAT?!" both Ochako and Yui exclaimed in alarm.
"Uh oh, folks! Midoriya's efforts were only enough to land him in 5th place, just outside of the cutoff for advancement. There's not much time left in the game, what will they do?!"
"Don't let 'em get away!" Izuku shouted. "We can still win if they're sitting ducks!"
"Then let's go! We can get those points back easy!" Ochako encouraged with utter determination, and the group charged for Todoroki's with nothing but victory on their minds.
Yui yanked one of the lower value headbands from Izuku and clutched it in her hand, meanwhile Yaoyorozu and Kaminari prepared themselves to defend their rider. Izuku killed the pink fire and reignited a flaming mosaic along his right arm, poised to deck Todoroki and take his headband by force. Todoroki responded in kind by shielding with his ignited left arm and preparing to freeze Izuku in his tra-
Wait, ignited?
Todoroki had unconsciously unleashed the fire half of his quirk to defend against Izuku, and the revelation startled him enough that he did nothing to defend against the flame-enhanced right hook that slammed into his cheek. Kaminari prepared to zap the attackers, but Yui enlarged the headband into a tarp and threw it point blank at Kaminari's face, surprising him enough to misfire his quirk and electrocute his teammates. Izuku used that moment to snatch Todoroki's original headband from his forehead, as he didn't want to chance going for the 10 million and accidentally taking a decoy.
"WITH JUST 11 SECONDS LEFT, TEAM MIDORIYA HAS JUMPED TO 3RD WHILE TEAM BAKUGO LEAPFROGS INTO 2ND AFTER RECLAIMING THEIR OWN POINTS!"
Just as he announced that, a hole was blown through the ice wall, and a practically frothing Bakugo blasted into the fray.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM ME YOU BASTARDS! I WILL BE THE ULTIMATE CHAMPION!" Bakugo bellowed to his two biggest competition.
"The game is almost over, and the top three teams are facing off for the top spot! Time for a countdown!"
Bakugo shot like a missile toward the fracas with explosions on his mind, Todoroki was a snarling wreck at being forced to use his fire, and Izuku's entire upper body was lit ablaze in preparation for the inevitable impact.
"TIME'S UP!"
And with that announcement, all three riders fell face-first to the ground. The horses all shared a collective sigh of relief at the end of one of the most intense face-offs they had ever experienced.
"In 1st place, Team Todoroki!"
"In 2nd place, Team Bakugo!"
"In 3rd place, Team Midoriya!"
"And in 4th place, with a comically large headband just barely edging them into the spot, Team Shinso! These 4 valiant teams will advance to the final round!"
"Thanks for the lift," Shinso said to his newly conscious and thoroughly befuddled teammates before walking away with a smug smile. The smile was only partially faked, as he still had some sand left to clear out of his vision.
Izuku was sitting on the ground and trying to both regain his energy while he waited for the world to stop spinning. His head slightly ached, and he just hoped that his mother didn't catch sight of the blood. It was wishful thinking, and he knew it, but he could still hope.
"Midoriya," Todoroki addressed him as he walked to the teen and stood over him. "Can we talk? Alone?"
Izuku stared quizzically at the heterochromatic teen before nodding and getting up to follow the boy, just barely missing an unhappy duo of Recovery Girl and his mother sniffing around the area for him. They ended up in a hallway connected to the faculty and student entrance of the arena. The two only silently stared at each other. Izuku knew that Todoroki was merely working up the nerve to say what he wanted to say or ask whatever it was that he wanted to ask, so he didn't fill the silence at all and gave the boy all the time he needed.
"I was overwhelmed, and it made me break the promise I made to myself a long time ago," Todoroki finally spoke up. Izuku knew that there was even more to come, so he didn't interrupt and let his classmate find his words.
"Iida and Kaminari, Yaoyorozu and Uraraka, none of them felt it. In that moment, I was the only one who could sense your true power, and it was overwhelming. It reminded me of…"
Todoroki trailed off, and a terse frown found its way onto his countenance. He stopped looking at his left hand, and he stared Izuku in the eye.
"Are you a bastard child of Endeavor?"
Izuku… was not expecting that question. In fact, one could probably say with a decent level of accuracy that he was expecting quite literally anything other than that. The idea was so ludicrous that he wanted to laugh it off as a really dry joke from the stoic boy, but he was mostly certain that Todoroki wasn't aware of the sheer volume of hatred his mother wielded for Endeavor that would make that joke funny.
"I know that not even you truly believe that's a possibility," Izuku finally answered.
Todoroki sighed in relief. "I just had to be sure."
A silence fell between them, but it wasn't tense. It wasn't awkward, either. Izuku stared blankly at Todoroki, and Todoroki returned the stare. It was as if the two were truly seeing each other for the first time.
"Endeavor is my father; you've clearly heard of him, so you must be aware that he's the current No. 2 Hero," Todoroki began, and Izuku nodded in confirmation. "My old man is ambitious; he aims for the top. He's used his power to make a name for himself as a hero, but he was never able to beat All Might, so the Symbol of Peace always remained ahead of him as living proof of his own failure. He's still at it, though, trying to take All Might down a peg in one way or another."
Izuku did not like where this was headed. He truly did not.
"Have you ever heard of quirk marriages?"
'Oh no, no no no no, please no…'
"They became a problem in the first few generations after superpowers became widespread. There were those who sought out powerful mates-"
"With the sole intention of creating powerful children, closer to super soldiers given the turmoil society was in back in those days," Izuku finished to Todoroki's surprise.
"So, you're aware?"
"Yeah. I've done quite a bit of research on quirks and societal progress over the centuries in spite of quirks. It was a rabbit hole I fell down after stumbling on paranormal singularity theory."
"So, you know that people were often forced into relationships under the guise of 'old fashioned arrangements', then."
"Yeah… you're going where I think you're going with this, aren't you?"
Todoroki closed his eyes, and a lengthy exhale escaped his nostrils.
"Yeah."
Another silence fell upon the two, and it was far less comfortable than the previous one. Todoroki opened his differing eyes to stare at Izuku's reaction, and he saw a furrowing of Izuku's brow that slowly deepened into a frown. Soon, that frown grew even darker, and his face fell into a snarl before he stopped and composed himself.
"Your father is a real piece of shit."
Todoroki would be lying if he said that he was expecting that kind of reaction. He didn't really know Midoriya at all, he just knew that he was someone else on the planet that had a fire quirk, and apparently their moms used to be friends, but he hasn't truly confirmed that yet. He would ask his own mother about it when he finally worked up the gall to see her in person.
For now, though, he couldn't help the small smile from forming. "Yeah, he really is."
"My mom hasn't ever told me why she hates Endeavor so much, but I'm really starting to see it," Izuku said.
That also took Todoroki by surprise. He had figured that he knew at least everything that his mother had told Bakugo in Recovery Girl's office after the battle trials. "She hasn't?"
"No. She doesn't like to talk about it, and I don't make her. I just know that there's some personal beef between them."
Todoroki internally deliberated on if he should reveal what he heard the boy's mother say. It was pretty relevant to what he himself was planning to tell him, but it also came from a different perspective, a different level of hurt that he couldn't speak to.
"Ask your mother about it after the festival," Todoroki suggested. "It'll help truly contextualize the monster that my father is. For now, however, my father's sole goal in his life right now is to build me up to usurp All Might."
Todoroki's fist tightened. "I refuse to be a tool for that scumbag. He's the reason that my mother is crying in every memory I have of her. She called my left side unbearable before she splashed boiling water on my face."
Everything made a little too much sense to Izuku in that moment. The heterochromia with the scald mark over Endeavor's eye on the side with Endeavor's hair all came together.
"The reason I challenged you was both because I wanted to settle our previous battle and because I needed to prove to my father that I can win without having to rely on his damn fire quirk. I needed to prove that I can defeat a powerful fire quirk using only my mother's ice and put his twisted ideology to bed for good."
He looked back up to Izuku with a smoldering determination. "I'm going to show him that I reject his power and that I can take 1st place and be a hero without using his damn quirk."
Izuku briefly looked down and considered everything the other boy had said. Todoroki turned to leave, but Izuku spoke up.
"I believe it."
"What?"
"I believe that you can win this festival and be a great hero while only using your ice, that is. I mean, barring some specific situation where you'd have to cauterize a wound on a civilian so that they don't bleed out, but I'm certain even you could get past that hangup for the sake of saving a life, right?"
Todoroki knew the question was merely rhetorical, but he also strongly suspected that there was a right and wrong answer to the question that he didn't want to potentially get wrong, so he remained silent.
"You're incredibly strong, and you trained exceptionally hard for this, even beyond the torture your father put you through. You worked your ass off to get where you are now. So, yes, I do believe that you can do it. But, I don't believe that you should have to."
"What do you mean?"
"Our lives are honestly pretty similar in many ways, even if they couldn't be any more different in many others. We're both children of pro heroes, we were both trained to the bone from a very young age, and we both have massive expectations on us. However, my mom didn't train me to the point of abuse or isolate me socially, and she was the only one who believed in my dream to become a hero when most others wouldn't dare attach that aspiration to a quirkless kid."
"Oh, right, you're a late bloomer."
"Yeah, and my dad was a quirkist terrorist."
Todoroki's eyes widened at that statement, and he wasn't sure what to do with that information.
"My dad was a deadbeat that pretty much bounced when I got my initial diagnosis, but when he found out that mom was training me despite my official status, he flipped out and came back home with the intention of killing me. Probably her, as well."
"…What happened?"
"My mom atomized him and dispersed him into the open air."
There was a pregnant pause between the two teens and the third one listening in on the conversation around the corner.
"Excuse me, what the fuck?"
"Well, I wasn't home for his arrival, but apparently he attacked her and tried to look for me in our apartment, so she tore him apart by his base components. Her quirk is Attraction of Small Objects, and I figure that there isn't a minimum size requirement, only a maximum. So, yeah, he's pretty dead, if removal from existence even counts as death.
"I bring that up to stress that my father was an abject pile of squirrel shit, and I don't miss him at all. My quirk also mostly comes from him, as he could breathe fire. Do you see where I'm going with this?"
Todoroki's eyes widened in realization, and he frowned in apprehension. "They're not the same."
"They're not," Izuku agreed, "but whenever I use my quirk, hell, whenever I see fire at all, in the back of my mind, I can't help but be reminded of him. I think about the man who cared about me so little that he was ready to kill me and my mother just because he felt I was rising above my station. I think about the man who only valued what my quirk status could provide, rather than who I was as a person, as his own progeny."
He lit a small, colorful flame in his hand. "But I don't think of it as his quirk. It's not his quirk; it's mine. It always has been mine, and it always will be mine alone. No one can change that, least of all him."
He cut the flame and looked Todoroki in the eye. "Your quirk, be it the fire half or the ice half, is no one's but your own. It's not your father's quirk or even your mother's quirk, and no one gets to dictate that but you. You can be the best damn hero you want to be using your quirk how you see fit because it's your quirk and yours alone, and you are the master of your own destiny. Don't think of any part of your quirk as a shackle to overcome; instead, take it, make it your own, and be the best damn version of Shoto Todoroki that you can possibly conjure up that answers to no one but himself."
Todoroki was thrown back to a memory long-forgotten. It was a memory of himself and his mother watching an interview that All Might did in which he echoed the same sentiments that he had just been given. He remembered his mother asking him if he still wanted to be a hero as he was positively transfixed by the screen. He remembered her reminder to stay true to himself…
"You are not a prisoner of your lineage. It's okay to use your power to become who you want to be."
Todoroki was not crying.
He was not.
Fuck.
"Goddamn you," Todoroki choked out and leaned against the wall. Tears silently escaped his clenched eyelids, and he felt a soft hand on his shoulder. Taking a leap of faith and opening his puffy, newly-red eyes, he saw the other boy giving him a kind smile before patting him on the shoulder.
"You're not alone. You never are."
Todoroki sniffled. "Thank you, Midoriya." He stood up straighter and composed himself. "I'm going to kick your ass in the final round despite this conversation."
Izuku offered him a challenging smirk. "Like I said before, you're more than welcome to try, but I don't plan on losing today."
Todoroki turned away to leave the hallway and catch the tail end of lunch before the final round began, but he stopped when he heard Izuku speak up again.
"Make it a good fight, though," Izuku challenged.
Todoroki offered his own smirk back at him. "You're on."
Bakugo, meanwhile, stood silently on the wall around the corner. He had quite a lot to think about.