"Yo, Todoroki my dude, everything alright? That was one super crazy attack!"
Izuku had planned on being calm and silent when Todoroki got back, to hopefully allow the boy to calm down, but then Kaminari just outright yelled at the boy when he and Shoji returned to their seats.
There was a quick glance in Izuku's direction from the boy before he refocused on Kaminari. "Yes, I am fine. Do not concern yourself with me."
Kaminari just nodded, going back over to Sero and Jirou, the latter of which jolted him with her ear jack and admonished him for bugging Todoroki.
Momo sighed as Todoroki silently went up the back of the seats and stared down at the field, eyes glazed as if thinking about something.
"I'm worried about him though. I know that growing up wealthier than others can leave you slightly out of touch with everyone else, but he seems even more detached than I would think."
Izuku nodded in agreement. "I'm worried about him too, Mo, maybe after all this is over, I could try talking to him more."
He had already planned to do that, but he still wanted to keep up the act as if he was ignorant of the boy's problems. There were people in 1-A and 1-B who had trouble keeping secrets, and he didn't want any of them to find out just yet.
He shook his head and focused back to the field as Present Mic started talking.
"ALRIGHT EVERYONE! WELCOME TO THE SEMI-FINALS FOR OUR 1V1 TOURNAMENT! WE HAVE CUT THROUGH THE RIFF RAFF WITH THE FIRST ROUND, SO let's MOVE ONTO OUR NEXT CONTESTANTS!"
"First up, we have Bakugou Katsuki vs Setsuna Tokage. All yours, Midnight."
"HEY DON'T STEAL MY LINES IF YOUR JUST GONNA BE BORING ABOUT IT!"
Midnight just laughed at their antics as the two competitors got onto the stage. Setsuna gave a small bow while Bakugou just sneered at her. "You're the one that can split your body up, right? This should be easy, not even worth my time."
Are you both ready? Excellent, let the fight, BEGIN!
"Well, then why don't you just surrender for me now?" Setsuna yelled out, splitting in half. She knew that Bakugou was an excellent 1 on 1 fighter, so she would have to be cautious.
She separated her legs into even more parts while sending her ears straight up. She knew how loud explosions could be and wanted to lessen any damage to her ears.
She surrounded Bakugou with the floating bits of her legs, spinning them as fast as she could around him as if they were orbiting him as she yelled out; "HELLSTORM!"
She closed the distance between Bakugou and the floating body parts, while the boy just stood there, taking the occasional hit with a smirk.
"AH! I get hit harder every time I use my quirk! You really aren't worth all this, so eat shit and DIE!"
He yelled the last bit out as he put his hands forward and released an enormous blast, so powerful that Setsuna's ears, which were floating above the arena, started ringing.
The rest of her body was sent away from the boy at high speeds, and before she could pull herself back together and regroup, part of her thigh landed outside of the field.
Midnight cracked her whip. Part of Setsuna Tokage has left the ring! Bakugou Katsuki wins the match!
There was a few grumbles from the crowd about this, but Bakugou just sneered and walked off the field, readying himself for his next fight.
Setsuna brought the piece of her thigh back to her body and sighed as it reattached itself. "Traitor! And to think I was gonna use you to squeeze Mina's head later! I guess I won't if this is how you treat me."
While no-one off the field could hear her, they could see Midnight cackling at Setsuna's statement as well as the fact that she was talking to her thigh as the girl walked away.
AN: And now we finally get to the biggest fight of the tournament! I've had this fight planned since day 1 of this fic, hope you guys enjoy it! Congrats to the guest on and Jund6 on AO3 who guessed it correctly!
Itsuka placed her hand on Izuku's shoulder as he stood up to go get ready for his fight with Todoroki. "Izuku, I know that look in your eyes. You're going to do something crazy in this fight, aren't you? Please don't be a dumbass."
Izuku turned his head to her and flashed her a smile, winking. "That's my secret Itsuka, I'm always a dumbass!" He waved at the rest of the class. "-Wish me luck!"
There were some small, quiet 'good luck's', before Kirishima jumped up, grabbing Izuku's hand in an Uber-manly handshake. "Screw that weak ass encouragement! Kick his ass, Izuku! You got this, my dude! Go be super Manly!"
Izuku just laughed and gave him a thumbs-up, before heading down to the field.
Itsuka turned to Momo and sighed. "I don't know what, but he's definitely going to do something stupid in this fight."
Momo sighed as well, trying her best to hide her worry for her friend/crush. "Definitely, let's hope he doesn't hurt himself doing so…"
"ALRIGHT EVERYONE! THIS MATCH SHOULD BE INTERESTING! FIRST, WE HAVE THE SON OF ENDEAVOUR, SINGING A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, TODOROKI SHOUTO!"
Todoroki walked up onto the stage with a blank look in his eyes. He got into a fighting position, watching Izuku walk up the steps, hoping no-one noticed the slightly flinch as he saw the boy.
"AND HIS OPPONENT, THE WILD CARD OF 1-A, IZUKU MIDORIYA!"
Izuku stepped up onto the stage as he flexed his Quirk. He was going to try something he had never done before, and he knew that if it worked he would be on a timer for the match.
Midnight stepped up onto the field, whip in hand. Alright you two, give us a good show! You both know the rules, so you may…
Izuku grabbed onto Todoroki's quirk and closed his eyes as he focused on the separate halves of the boy's Quirk. He could 'see' them. One was an endless expanse of ice, and the other was a world made of a raging inferno.
And in the middle sat Todoroki, building a wall between him and the flames, condemning himself and others to a slow death from the cold. Izuku wouldn't let it happen.
BEGIN
A weird feeling came over Todoroki's body as he scowled and planted his right foot, sending out a wave on ice to trap Midoriya before he could cancel out his Quirk. At least, that was what he was planning on doing.
What happened in reality, was a short burst of flame coming out of his right foot, narrowly missing Izuku as he stepped to the side. 'Flame from my right side!? What the hell happened!'
He looked up to see Izuku crouched down, the entire right side of his body covered in the golden light he had seen at the USJ. He briefly feared losing his Quirk like the Nomu had, but he could still feel the heat under his skin, meaning Izuku hadn't turned it off completely.
"I know your smart Todoroki, so you must have realised what I'm doing right now. I'm nullifying your ice while keeping your fire in your body! Show me what you will do when you can't use your ice! Will you just give up!?"
Izuku ran forward at Todoroki, dodging under a punch and slamming his elbow in the boys gut. "Or will you use your power to fight me!"
Another thrown punch dodged, a kick redirected at the ground. It was plainly obvious to Todoroki that Izuku was better at hand to hand combat than he was. He growled at Izuku.
"Even after what I told you, and what you figured out, you still want me to use that bastard's power?! How much is he paying you for this?"
Right after that, he took a punch to the face, and he could feel his nose break. "You really think this has anything to do with your piece of shit father?! FUCK ENDEAVOUR, you're facing me! Focus on me!"
Izuku knew that there were only 3 other people that could hear Izuku other than Todoroki, so he was letting out a bit of his inner Bakugou. He knew that nothing but tough love would be able to get Todoroki to listen to him instead of his own mind.
"Look at me. Endeavour is up in the stands, and he's still on fire, but so are you! And look at this-" Todoroki's view shifted as the man who he hated more than any villain's flames shut off. "Look at him! I turned his Quirk off, and yours is still on!"
Todoroki turned back to Izuku, just in time to get a kick to the gut, falling to the ground. "Isn't that enough proof for you, you absolute dumbass! It's not his Quirk!-"
"IT'S YOURS"
A mother cradled her son in her lap, watching an All Might interview.
"Mum… I don't wanna be like him. He hits you and hurts you and I don't wanna hurt anyone!"
Rei Todoroki clutched her son to her chest and she hummed, swaying back and forth while All Might talked.
While children might inherit their parent's Quirks or even a mix of the two, it's up to YOU how you use your Quirk!
"But you do still want to be a hero, right? That's fine. You're not... bound by his blood. Decide who you want to become. And be all you can be."
[WOOOOSH]
Izuku had to take a step back from the wave of heat that came off Todoroki's entire body. The only way Izuku could describe it was… spectacular.
He hadn't expected it to work so quickly. But he was glad it had. He had to both boost and nullify the separate parts of Todoroki's Quirk to keep this up, and while he had gotten better with boosting Quirks over the years, it still drained him fairly quickly.
Todoroki stood up, bathed in fire on both sides, relishing the feeling of warmth, and smiled at Izuku. "Midoriya, you're absolutely crazy! Beating a lesson into someone… Are you sure you're not Aizawa's secret love child or something?!"
Izuku just laughed as sweat dripped from his forehead, from both the heat and the stress of forcing Todoroki into fire-only mode. "Nope! I'm his nephew! Hitoshi's his kid, although he's adopted."
A small chuckle came from Todoroki as he watched the fire on his arms. "That makes way too much sense. Now, are we going to fight! Just know that you're going to lose if you don't turn my Quirk off!"
Izuku dropped into a combat stance. "That's what you think! Even if I get burned, Recovery Girl can just heal me!"
Recovery Girl got a shiver down her spine. She looked up at the TV to see Izuku fighting a flaming Todoroki.
"What is that boy thinking, and why do I already hate his idea?"
"You would be willing to get 3rd Degree burns just to win a match!?" Todoroki yelled. He couldn't imagine that being true for anyone.
Izuku nodded, moving towards the boy. "Fuck yeah, I would be! I am here to show that even people with non-combat Quirks, or cowards Quirks, or even Quirkless people that they can be heroes if they try! No amount of pain is gonna stop me!"
"We'll see about that!" He sent out a wave of fire at Izuku, who ducked into a combat roll and dodged it, reaching Todoroki and sending a kick to the side of his head.
Todoroki saw Izuku's arm get burnt as it got caught in the flame, but the rest of him was fine. He could admit that he didn't have very good control of his fire, but that was impressive.
He hesitated for a moment as he went over that thought. His fire. It felt weird calling it his Ic-. The thought was cut off by a fist hitting the side of his face. As he fell on his ass, he snapped out of his daze.
He saw Izuku dodge backwards as he shot another stream of fire at the boy, doing a backflip before pushing off with his hands, landing in a crouch. Todoroki could see the gold on Izuku's right side starting to flicker, and could feel the fire on his own right side fading.
"Sorry Todoroki, but I don't have much boost juice left in me. You ready to go back to the twilight zone?" Before he could respond, the gold on Izuku's body vanished, and Todoroki could feel his ice returning to him.
"And I know how good you are with your Ice, so I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to stop that too." And almost as quickly as the ice had returned, both Todoroki's ice and fire vanished.
"Heh, your whole game plan was just to get me to use my fire, wasn't it? But you're looking a bit tired there, Izuku, boosting people takes a toll on you, doesn't it?" The sigh he got from Izuku confirmed his suspicions.
Izuku got into a combat stance again, shuffling towards Todoroki. "It's like I said earlier. I'm not going to allow any amount of pain to stop me from kicking your ass."
They went back into it, throwing punches and blocks, dodging and weaving through the others attacks, but Todoroki found himself getting overwhelmed, taking the occasional hit.
Even now, semi-exhausted, Izuku was better at martial arts than he was. As the boy stepped into one of Todoroki's punches and spun the boy around in a hip throw, he understood that.
He looked up into the crowd to see his sperm donor watching the fight, and got an idea. An idea born out of spite and the feeling of freedom he was experiencing. "Hey, Midoriya!"
Izuku stopped midway through his follow up and looked at the boy in confusion. "What, Todoroki?"
"My old man wants me to win this and show everyone who's gonna be the next number one… so this is really gonna piss him off." Todoroki then smiled at Izuku and stood up, turning to Midnight.
"Miss Midnight!"
"I surrender."
"WHAT IS THIS?! TODOROKI SHOUTO HAS SURRENDERED! IS HE SURE ABOUT THIS?!"
"Doesn't matter if he's sure, he's already said it. Midnight, call the match."
Midnight shook herself out of her daze and cracked her whip. They are correct! Todoroki Shouto actually did surrender! This means that Izuku Midoriya is our winner!
Izuku just stood there, watching as Todoroki got up calmly, and dusted himself off, only to notice that his entire top half was naked. His fire had burnt away his shirt and jacket.
As Todoroki started to leave, Izuku followed him into the hallway. "Todoroki! Are you sure that was a good idea? What if he hurts you for that?!"
Todoroki just turned around and stared at the boy for a few seconds. "Then I will take the pain knowing that there is hope in the future. I was worried about what would happen when you told Nezu and Aizawa about what my father has done, but now…"
A spark of flame appeared on Todoroki's arm. "I remembered something during our fight. Something important that I had forgotten in my hatred of my father. Something… freeing."
He looked Izuku in the eyes and gave the first genuine smile Izuku had ever seen from the boy. "You helped me realise that protecting people is more important than spiting them, Midoriya. I know I'm not very good at things like this but... Do you think we could be friends?"
Izuku stomped over to the boy and placed his hands on his shoulders. "If you think I would just forget about you now, then you're even stupider than I thought. You're stuck with me now. Welcome to the world of friendship, Todoroki, it only goes up from here."
They headed towards the seats, taking the long way when Izuku saw Endeavour coming their way with his Quirk. They were silent the whole trip, having said all they needed to.
They reached the seats, getting swarmed by his classmates. Izuku smiled as Todoroki actually spoke to a few of them before heading towards the back seats.
He was focused on Todoroki, so didn't realise that Momo and Itsuka had reached him. This meant that he wasn't able to dodge the chop to the head that Itsuka gave him.
"What did I say about not being a dumbass?!"
THANKS FOR LISTENING, EVERYONE! THE NAME IS MEI HATSUME, REMEMBER THAT! AND CAN EVERYONE THANK MY ASSISTANT, HITOSHI AIZAWA! GIVE HIM A ROUND OF APPLAUSE!"
The crowd clapped slowly, reeling over the anti-climactic fight. Although, after Izuku and Todoroki's fight, most others would be boring.
"OH I SHOULD PROBABLY GIVE THE ANNOUNCERS THEIR PERMISSIONS BACK!"
There was a crackle from the speakers before Present Mic's voice came back over the intercom.
"NOT COOL HATSUME! YOU CAN"T- OH WHATEVER! LET'S JUST MOVE ONTO THE NEXT FIGHT! CAN WE GET MOMO YAOYOROZU AND PONY TSUNOTORI OUT ONTO THE STAGE!"
Momo jogged up, smiling up at the stands, waving to her friends, and where she knew Inko would be sitting. She could hear Izuku and Itsuka cheering the loudest, and blushed.
Pony pranced up into the stage and waved at Momo. "Heya Momo! I'm gonna beat the crap out of you!" Both Momo and Midnight reeled at the difference between her body language and her actual language.
"I don't think so! I already won against you in the author's mind as the remaining ship for this fic, a fight like this will be easy!"
"What are you talking about!?"
YOU MAY BEGIN THE MATCH
Pony had to quickly dodge to the left as Momo chucked something at her. She took a quick look back to see a metal container sending out a glue-like substance. She quickly flipped back to Momo, sending out a horn to intercept another container. "Not going to get me with that, Momo!"
"Nope, but I will with this!" She threw two more metal objects on either side of Pony, who just looked at her, confusion written all over her face.
"You missed?" Pony had a flash of fear at the smirk Momo gave in response to that.
"Did I?" another object appeared in Momo's hand, and Momo pushed down on the button at the front when it finished being created.
The two metal objects extended upwards and started sparking. Taking advantage of Pony's momentary lapse in concentration, Momo created a launcher from her stomach and shot it at the girl, wrapping her up in a shiny net and pinning her to the ground.
"Now you have two options, Pony. Surrender, or I will use the metal net as a lightning rod for the generators on either side of you." Pony struggled for a few seconds before remembering what Sero looked like after being tased in his match.
She sighed. "Fine, I give up!"
Pony Tsunotori has surrendered!
"MOMO YAOYOROZU HAS WON THE MATCH! SHE MUST REALLY LIKE TASING PEOPLE, SHE'S REALLY GOOD AT IT!"
"Alright everyone, that wraps up our second round. We have the Semi-Finals next, so be back in your seats in 30 minutes. Our first fight for the Semi-Finals will be Hitoshi Shinsou versus Momo Yaoyorozu."
"YOU'RE SO BORING!"
"WHY ARE YOU ALL SO BORING?! WHERE IS YOUR SENSE OF SHOWMANSHIP?!"
"Mic, the students are allowed to surrender for any reason. It's not Hitoshi's fault he didn't want to get tased today. Momo Yaoyorozu wins this fight by default."
"OH PLEASE LORD NEZU, SHINY BE YOUR FUR, PLEASE SEND ME AN EXCITING FIGHT! I CAN'T TAKE THIS BOREDOM ANY LONGER?!"
"You actually pray to Nezu for help?""YOU DON'T?"
"Seems like your prayers have come true for this fight, Mic."
"THANK NEZU! I SHALL GIFT YOU AN OFFERING OF CHEESE AND TEA AFTER THE FESTIVAL, MY LORD!"
"Ok, before Mic manages to convert people to Nezu's cult, please welcome Izuku Midoriya and Bakugou Katsuki to the stage."
Izuku and Bakugou walked up to the stage, one with a determined glare, the other with a smirk. Midnight shook in excitement for the match as she raised her whip.
Bakugou sneered. "You think you're so tough, don't you, Deku? Just because you beat that Icy-Hot bastard doesn't mean you'll beat me. I'm going to kick your ass so badly they'll have to stop the fight!"
Izuku crossed his arms and frowned at the boy. "Really Kachaan? Trying to rile me up? You've been nothing but talk our entire lives! Ever since I got my Quirk you've left me well enough alone! You have no idea what I can do."
Bakugou let out a growl and instinctively put his hands behind his back in preparation to boost towards Izuku. Izuku just smirked at the boy, not pointing it out. He needed to boost forward for Izuku's plan.
Are you both ready? Wonderful. Don't kill each other, and… BEGIN!
The second that she said it, Bakugou instinctively activated his Quirk, sending him forward. He had thought that Izuku would have cancelled it out, so he was surprised to find himself flying at the boy faster than normal, the recoil from his blast hurting more than it usually did.
He looked at Izuku, who was charging him, eyes glowing gold before fading back to normal. The bastard has boosted him for a moment to throw him off! He prepared his opening move, a massive right hook when Izuku dropped to the ground under him.
A second later, he pushed himself upwards with his hands, both of his feet landing squarely in Bakugou's chest, where a crack could be heard. Bakugou only barely managed to hold in the cry of pain that tried to escape his throat.
"YOU BASTARD! I'll KILL YOU, QUIRK OR NO QUIRK!" He walked towards Izuku and dropped into one of the many Muay Thai stances he had practised over the years.
Izuku dropped into his own stance and approached Bakugou. While Izuku had turned Bakugou's Quirk off, the recoil from his explosions had made the boy's arms incredibly strong.
Izuku found this out the hard way when he miscalculated and took a punch to the chest, and felt his arm get grabbed. A quick spin later and Bakugou had his arm in a lock before he pushed upwards, and Izuku yelled in pain as his arm was broken.
In retaliation, he stepped forward and dropped, spinning and taking Bakugou's legs out from underneath him. He then sat on the boy's chest, and punched him in the face a few times, wanting to end the fight.
Bakugou was holding back his stupid ass tears as Izuku sat on his obviously cracked ribs. He had tried to move when he felt a punch to his forehead, then his nose, then he forehead again, dazing him as he took hits from the fist and smacked back into the concrete.
Unfortunately for him, that was all Izuku needed to grab Bakugou with his unbroken arm and throw him to his right, before pushing the boy out of the ring.
There was silence for a moment as the crowd as they processed the fight before the entire stadium erupted into cheering and clapping. Bakugou seemed to snap out of his daze a few seconds later, and growled, slamming his fist onto the cement next to him.
"Don't think this means anything, Deku! You had to trick me to win! Next time, I'm going to rip you apart!"
Izuku ignored him as his vision started to fade. He saw Midnight grabbing his non-broken arm and holding him up before he could face plant into the concrete below. His last thought before blacking was;
'I wonder if they'll let me fight Mo like this…"
"I'm sorry Aizawa, but he's in no condition to fight. His exhaustion from his foolish plan fighting Todoroki, as well as the activities throughout the day, made it so I could only partially heal him. His arm still has a few fractures."
Aizawa sighed as he watched his nephew sleep in the infirmary, running his hand down his face. "I get it, he just really wanted to win. And I'm sure Yaoyorozu isn't going to like this either. I think they had planned this to be a rematch from their battle trials."
Recovery Girl shut the door to the patient area and walked Aizawa to the door. "Well, he always has next year… I wish he could have fought as well Aizawa. But we can't let him do permanent damage to himself just to win a festival."
Aizawa nodded. "Well I'm done for the day, I'm not needed at the announcer's booth anymore. I'm going to go drink at a bar with Joke, erase this stupid festival from my memory, and do questionable things with her because I can't admit I like her to her face, or she wins."
Aizawa walked out of the room, leaving Recovery Girl to head back to Izuku.
"Did Aizawa just say he was going out with Mrs. Joke!? People have thought they were dating for years!"
The ceremony was complete.
Bakugou and Todoroki came in 3rd together, although one was smiling while the other tried not to kill everyone around him.
Izuku was sitting on a stool at the second place podium smiling at Momo, who had just been given the first place medal by All Might himself.
"Sorry about not giving you a good fight, Mo! I promise we can spar some other time!" Momo just shook her head.
"Do not worry yourself. The fact that I am even up here shows both our strength! We got to the finals match! It was only due to Bakugou breaking your arm that the fight had to be cancelled."
Izuku just smiled. "Well, you deserve to be up there! Your fights were really awesome!"
"Oh! I might have to do a rain check on that chat as well, Recovery Girl wants me to go straight to the infirmary after this."
Momo sighed, nodding. "That's fine, I can wait."
'I've been waiting for years, what's a few more hours?'
