"I don't get what you get out of this," Todoroki said. His breathing was heavier, but not from the exhaustion. It was the cold that slowly creeped up on him. His breath, visible, came out of his mouth like steam from an engine.

"One of the things I kept thinking when I was training was 'I really want to fight this guy'," Izuku said, cracking his knuckles. The sword was still off the wayside, lying on the ground like a mockery to Todoroki's attempts. "Because it'd be a lie to say you aren't the person with the best quirk in the class."

"If this is your way of provoking me, you ought to try better."

Todoroki sent more ice forward. It was slower this time. Izuku stomped onto the ground, dipping to the left and taking off into a sprint.

"This is my way of telling myself I'm stronger than you," Izuku said. He couldn't keep comparing himself against others, so the only way to do that was to become the measuring stick instead. Todoroki was the strongest first year. "If I beat you with one hand behind my back, I'm stronger. No one can dispute that."

Izuku rushed at him, sliding over some of the ice with his shoes and punching.

Todoroki had some hand to hand combat training. It was clumsy, and clearly not something he had kept up with, but the reflex after being punched was to roll with it and punch back. Izuku didn't dodge the hit, letting his reinforced body take the fist. Grabbing the offending arm, Izuku lifted Todoroki up and threw him onto some of his own ice.

Todoroki gasped for air.

"I'm sorry, I don't do busywork for self-centered idiots," Izuku said. He felt upset. He didn't enjoy feeling upset in the slightest. Endeavor's words had hit a chord with him that nobody else had managed to hit before. The disdain he felt clouded his own behavior. Nezuko-sensei, if she was watching right now, would certainly give him a piece of mind later for throwing away his weapon to prove a point.

But the point was important to him. He would be stronger than anyone, even handicapped. It was something that one had to do on the way to the top. If one loses their sword, use your fists. If you lose your fists, use your feet. If you lose your feet, use your teeth.

"This isn't about you at all," Izuku said, driving his fist into Todoroki's stomach. His own limbs were starting to feel cold, but he could still keep going.

It was more about Izuku and Endeavor.

What a pitiful thought.

Then again, he supposed it was appropriate for a child to react this way to being mocked by a hero he used to look up to. Cold was the enemy, however. His blood pumped fast, the cold transferred through his body quickly.

Izuku put his fists together and came down on Todoroki's head. The boy almost fell over, stumbling forward as Izuku took a step to the left. He slipped on his ice, leaving him vulnerable for a follow up that never came.

Izuku put his foot on Todoroki's back.

"My dad must've really pissed you off," Todoroki said.

"I really don't like him," Izuku said. "Shouldn't have let that out on you, though. You're not responsible for him."

"Feels like I am, sometimes," Todoroki murmured. Midnight walked up to them, slowly as she avoided slipping over the ice. "I forfeit."

Todoroki had his own pride. Izuku could accept it. Helping the boy up after Midnight declared him the winner, Izuku helped Todoroki down from the stage.

Izuku helped him onto the stretcher that two students were manning, ready to carry him to Recovery Girl's infirmary. "I'll use his quirk eventually. I'm sorry I couldn't do it here."

"That's alright," Izuku said, shrugging. "If you ever decide to be less of a loner, we still have a seat free at our lunch table and at the practice gym."

"Sounds… good," Todoroki said. His gaze was distant, however. Following it, Izuku found Endeavor, more furious than before glaring at both of them. Todoroki for mocking him by holding back, and Izuku for spitefully stooping to his level, causing an even bigger embarrassment to be broadcasted live into every household in this country.

Izuku's gaze moved towards Aizawa, who was sitting next to Present Mic in the announcer box. The man simply gave him a nod, standing up and walking out of the box.

Endeavor's foul mood would not dissipate so easily, but he could at least stop him from causing a scene when Todoroki should be resting.

Izuku tried to be friendly with everyone of his classmates. He knew it was a fool's errand, that sometimes you just didn't get along with someone and no amount of friendliness could fix that. Reaching out to everyone didn't mean that everyone would take your hand.

And Todoroki was the kind of person who wouldn't reach out to anyone ever. Or perhaps he just needed the right push. It was never too late in the year to make friends.

He walked with them to the infirmary. Best not to get any frostbite before his next fight.

Momo would certainly be relentless.

The rest of the fights went about as expected. Izuku wouldn't say he had a perfect grasp on everyone's combat ability, but he had a rather good approximation. Tokoyami simply had the advantage against Kendo, whose quirk did not deal well with his Dark Shadow. The fight was over by the time he had his hypothermia symptoms treated and returned back to the stands.

Momo already sat there, looking better than before and less exhausted. When he sat down next to her, she took his hand.

Mei's fight against Ibara, the girl with the thorn hair, ended up relatively one sided but in an unexpected way. While her quirk was quite powerful, Mei had a few tools she took on the stage simply to show them off while running around not getting hit.

It ended up with her losing by forfeiting, having achieved her goal of showing off her 'babies'.

Tetsutetsu, the boy with a similar quirk to Kirishima's, though it turned him into iron rather than simply hardening his skin, fought against Kaminari. Unfortunately, it seemed that Tetsutetsu's iron skin ended up the path of least resistance, sending all shocks dissipating into the ground rather than into the body where they might do damage.

Denki fried his brain before Midnight declared him the loser.

The next fight was less predictable.

Setsuna Tokage, the girl with the rather grotesque quirk of splitting her body apart and using the pieces as projectiles, was more than a match for Iida. While he was fast, and hit hard, she seemed to have a rather significant immunity to his hits, and his legs got more and more messed up as he hit some projectiles in flight.

The fight ended when she used some pieces to clog up his engines, forcing him to stop.

She would be one to look out for.

The quarter finals came around.

Kirishima and Monoma were up first. The blond boy from Class 1-B had once again copied quirks off his classmates. This time, it was Tetsutetsu's quirk first. The iron and the hardening quirks bashed against each other, seemingly even.

Except that wasn't true at all. Kirishima had a lot more stamina, and more than that, he had the time advantage. Izuku knew that Monoma had a time limit, and if he had any other quirks copied that would be better against Kirishima, he would have used them by now.

It ended with an uppercut.

Momo and Izuku faced each other next.

It felt different from their usual spars.

It felt different from the usual training.

Somehow, it felt like them going out to eat dinner together. Like this wasn't simply a fight, but a conversation between them. They measured each other up. Momo knew she had a disadvantage due to the lack of her own Nichirin weapon, a chain which would be able to survive her Breath as well as Izuku's attacks.

But she was never one to cry foul over such things.

It was honestly one of those things that he liked about her.

While discouraged when comparing herself to others, a small push wasa enough to turn that self-deprecation into an almost spiteful desire to prove yourself. He should understand it, after all, considering his own fight earlier.

She made the first move. The second Midnight lowered her arm to signal the start of the match, the axe was in full swing. He deflected it, but the wind whipped up behind him. She had a habit of starting like this. One obvious attack, and one from the blindspot. She knew that he knew. She did so anyway because there was a simple truth to fighting him.

There were no blindspots for someone who could hear as well as him.

But even if he knew an attack was coming, that didn't mean he could always react to it. He threw himself onto the ground, the flail sailing back towards Momo. Rolling forward, he pushed off the ground with his arms and leaped over the next throw of the flail, closing the gap and meeting Momo's axe with his blade.

"Third Form," Momo said, her breath becoming visible as her muscles bulged for a short moment. "Stone Skin."

With her axe in hand, she swung it around like a madwoman. What would look like a series of blind attacks to anyone else was a ridiculously precise defense. The ludicrous speed at which she swung would have left her vulnerable at the smallest mistake, but each swing moved into each other like they were meant to.

It also meant that he had to back off. He couldn't hit her, there was no opening for his sword at this angle. He took five steps back as he sheathed his sword. She couldn't keep the attack up forever, she couldn't reach him from there and it would exhaust her too quickly. When she dropped it, the flail was already in motion, its sound hidden behind the mad swinging.

The Mourning Prayer swatted it out of the air. This time Momo closed the gap, the axe coming down on his sloppy defense. She knew his weaknesses as much as he knew hers, and neither of them had any intention of giving the other an unearned win.

"You remember, right? Nezuko-sensei's lesson on the Breath of the Sun and how the other Breaths were created." Izuku said, his eyes as hard as steel. His heart beating in his ears. He pushed her back, taking another five steps back. He was at the edge of the arena now.

"Is this time for a history lesson?" Momo asked, swinging her flail around. Izuku changed his grip, pointing the tip down and holding the hilt next to his head.

"I've been training, and I've realized that I can go the other way. I'm going to make an entire style based on the other techniques she has taught me." His body seemed to heat up. Momo's eyes widened. As her flail came around to hit him, the axe already up in the sky for a pincer attack, he moved.

He didn't dodge the flail like he usually would. He jumped, a very short hop, using Momo's own strength against her. When his feet touched the flail, confident that it would hold him, it was like he landed in a shallow puddle. The short hop turned into a leap.

Momo pulled the chain back, but he had already taken hold of it at the base of the axe. He flew forward.

"Breath of the Sky," he announced. This was it. The technique he had been honing. The trick up his sleeve that he hadn't told Momo about so that he may show it to her and the world. Inspired by all the things he loved about Nezuko's dance.

Inspired by the Breath of Water the way that the Breath of the Beast inspired his Wolf's Fang.

"Fourth Form: Autumn Rain." Like the heavy rainfall at the end of a hot summer. He spun around, the position of the sword unchanging. Momo noticed too late just what he was aiming for. The chain in hand, she raised it defensively, wrapping it up around her hands multiple times to form a shield of chainlinks.

His sword came down and crushed every defense. It was a simple strike, in a way. An upper slash using all the momentum of her own axe against her, but delivered with the ludicrous leap that left him upside down in the air.

The chains shattered. And then Momo pulled.

His sword came down on her forehead, making the sound of metal clashing with metal. She flinched back, disoriented by the blow, but her own counter had born fruit. Izuku couldn't get out of the way fast enough as both flail and axe came towards his back. It knocked him forward, right into her, sending them both tumbling onto the ground.

Izuku recovered faster. Though his back felt like might have tried to snap his spine, he rolled with her until they ended up on the other edge of the arena. As they arrived there, he had repositioned himself already, his shoes digging into her stomach.

He kicked.

She had made another chain, he realized.

It was wrapped around his stomach. She hadn't fought him off her because she was disoriented, she had her own plan of attack. As he kicked her, he saw the chains coming out of her arms, her quirk allowing her to use them like an extension of her body. She twisted her body and tried to ring him out first.

It was his sword that gave him the upper hand. He had stabbed it deep into the arena, ending up hovering over the ground as she touched it. They were breathing heavily, almost face to face, the chains from her arms still wrapped around him.

"Winner," Midnight said, leaning over the edge of the arena to check. "Izuku Midoriya."

The crowd exploded into cheers.

It took a while for both of them to catch their breath. By the time Izuku could speak again, they were sitting back at the infirmary, where Recovery Girl had cursed both of them out for ending up there so quickly again. On the screen showing the next fights, Izuku could see Tokoyami and Ibara have at it.

Momo was more exhausted than him. The use of her quirk over the day has left her with less energy, and even Lunch Rush's makeshift infirmary lunch had not helped much in that regard. While she was practically devouring the entire table, Izuku had to remind her to breathe between the bites after she turned slightly blue.

"You're really strong," Izuku said. Momo paused, her mouth stuffed with a piece of bread. "If you had your Nichirin flail, you'd probably have won this. I can't cut those chains."

"If y-you," she said, swallowing and breathing for a moment. "You're learning something Nezuko-sensei can't teach you. If you had used the Breath of Water, I think you'd have an easier time fighting me."

"Maybe," Izuku conceded. It was still a ludicrous leap by her. Perhaps that was the difference between someone who received tutoring in the Breath they had an aptitude for and the person who simply followed an ideal he couldn't live up to. "I'll go back to the stands, you should rest up for now."

"I'll watch the fight," she said, looking towards the TV. Tokoyami had won, and the next fight was already on. Tetsutetsu seemed to have more energy left than Setsuna, who looked more and more tired whenever he managed to destroy one of her body parts, forcing her to regrow them. "You better win this."

"Count on it," Izuku said, smiling. Momo looked to the left, checking if Recovery Girl was watching and then leaned forward, planting a kiss on his lips. Izuku flushed as he walked out of the room. He could've sworn he heard Recovery Girl click her tongue.

Semi-Finals.

Kirishima looked better off than him. Not having to fight his first fight meant that all he had to contend with was the negligible exhaustion from fighting off Monoma until the boy's time ran out. This would have left Izuku wondering if he could actually fight Kirishima.

Fortunately for him, Kirishima was, as an opponent and sparring partner, quite predictable.

Unfortunately, he was not stupid, despite his boasting attitude and outgoing personality, he went against the grain. When Izuku came forward to attack and end it quickly, his blade was not deflected and sent tumbling.

It was parried.

Kirishima's skin had turned into a shade he hadn't seen before, bulging outward like the craggy exterior of a mountain. Harder than he had ever seen. His face seemed to twist into a ridiculous and scary visage that made Izuku remember the Serpent Demon.

He had to raise his sword to block a punch and ended up with the metal and fist hitting his chest. Izuku held his breath.

When the next swing came, it went right through him. Kirishima had seen the technique, however. He knew what to expect. When Izuku came down with a stab from above, he tried to block it with his arms.

It punched through. The Mirror Flower was the tool to punch through someone's defense. His entire strength was put into one stab, the wind kicking around it leaving the stone skin to explode into blood.

For one moment, Izuku was worried he had gone too far. Fortunately, the damage was superficial.

However, Kirishima seemed to have his own disadvantages. The technique crumbled. Only seconds had passed.

It… reminded him of the Breath of Stone. Kirishima's breathing was haggard. Out of his mouth came visible breath. His eyes were hardening and cracking as well.

"I am Unbreakable." He announced his Quirk Super Move's name to the world. "I know I can't beat you without pushing myself to my limits, Midoriya!"

And in spite of Izuku's observation, the boy's roar came with another round of hardening. His hair followed suit, growing in length as it became like his skin. His fangs became stone-like and spread out. His fingers became claws.

"Of course," Izuku said. His eyes moved over the crowd. He could see Todoroki, who had rejoined the stands of the class, looking at them with a critical eye. Izuku could hear it. The sound of everyone's heartbeats. The excitement of seeing people go beyond.

"Plus!" the distorted, powerful voice of Kirishima echoed as he wound his fist back. Izuku prepared his own move. He pulled the sword back, his breath shifting. "ULTRA!"

The Drop Ripple Thrust met the fist with a shallow breath. Izuku couldn't have put all his strength into it even if he wanted. In the end, it was his sword that lost against the hardness of the boy's ultimate move. It was, however, not all lost. Izuku joined his hands together. Kirishima pushed his hands over his ears, preparing for the sudden sound that never came.

Instead, Izuku skipped that step and immediately pushed into Kirishima's chest. The boy flew backwards, unable to stop himself despite his increased weight.

The distance between them was too great. Kirishima couldn't push through and hold the form until they met again. When the skin around him returned to normal, he fell to his knees, sweating and breathing heavily.

Before Midnight could say a word, Kirishima grinned widely, one eye open, one hand raised in a shaky thumbs up. "Good fight."

Izuku gave him the same, noting the stinging pain in his hand.

The skin on his palm had been ripped off from the sword hilt.

Recovery Girl wouldn't be happy.

"We'll take a break before the finals," Midnight told him. "Catch your breath. I want to see your best out there, got it?"

Izuku clenched his fist over the wound, nodding. Kirishima and him ended up walking back to the infirmary together.

"Aaaaaaah!" Eri shouted at the TV. Nezuko was preparing tea, watching the girl jump and down on the couch as she watched Izuku's fights. The Sports Festival was a welcome distraction, and though she seemed to push her hands over her face whenever the Tokoyami boy was on the screen, she was immensely enjoying it.

This made the finals, in which Izuku was going to fight the bird-faced boy, something of a conundrum for her to watch. She didn't like Tokoyami, no doubt due to the bird-like appearance and her own trauma involving Overhaul, whom she knew wore a plague doctor likened bird mask.

She finished up with the tea, adding two spoons of sugar for Eri's as she walked back into the living room. She put it on the table, but Eri was too distracted by the TV.

Something smelled burning and rotten. Nezuko frowned. She hadn't expected them to be this fast. And even then, she hadn't expected them to be this stupid.

She looked towards the window.

"Eri-chan," Nezuko said. "I'll be going out to ask the neighbors something, alright? Will you be a good girl and stay here?"

Eri slowly turned her head towards Nezuko and blinked. She noted the tea on the table, taking the cup with a soft grip and pulling it to her chest before nodding. Nezuko put a hand on the girl's head, patting her slightly before walking out of the door.

It was when she walked into the obvious trap that it happened. A snap of his fingers. Fire, hot enough to turn skin and bones into ashes. Nezuko burned, and made no sound.

It was when he began to move towards her house that she made her move.

Her burnt remains pulled themselves together. Her hands were first. They grabbed the man's arm with an iron grip, her nails turning into claws as she dug into his arm. He screamed, but her other hand had already come up, grasping his mouth to stop him.

"Death's vastness holds no peace," she said, her grip on his arm tightening. The nails dug until they hit his bones, whereas they continued, piercing into them like a hot knife through butter. She wouldn't kill him, such was her oath. That didn't mean she couldn't stop him from hurting anyone ever again. "I apologize, better men than you have tried and failed to kill me."

"Y-you're a monster!" the man managed to shout. He kept trying to snap his fingers, but she wouldn't let him. Her grip tightened around his mouth once more, forcing him to shut up.

"Again," she said. "I apologize. I cannot accept such a descriptor. I believe it is much more appropriate for those who participate in the torture of a child."

She turned her wrist. His arm snapped, turning at an angle that would be unhealthy. She knew just how much pain it would take to knock someone out, and how much blood one would have to lose before it became critical. She let go. At this point, the man was already in too much pain to scream, but not in too much pain to listen.

"I would like for you to pass on a message to Overhaul," Nezuko said. "Eri is to me as Izuku Midoriya. You will not touch them. You will not come near them. They are under my protection."

But she knew foolish men like him. She knew the yakuza, or those that styled themselves after them. She knew the pride and the fall of many monsters like Overhaul, who thought himself above it all.

She knew his old boss, who was, while not a good man, a better man.

"Your arm will not heal," Nezuko said, looking down at him with cracked eyes. "The best surgeons in the world will likely not be able to repair this damage. There will be no strength in your fingers to snap with them."

He turned and ran, his arm limply hanging off the side. She let him go, watching as he dashed behind the buildings and towards the alleyways that would lead to wherever he had stashed his car.

Nezuko walked back home. Eri might be worried.

Izuku faced Tokoyami with a bright smile.

Tokoyami himself looked awfully pleased, despite his usual stoic demeanor. He couldn't help it, of course, a bird didn't exactly have the muscles in their face to speak with their expressions like a human did, and a bird-like head would have the same effect even on a person.

But that mutation wasn't his quirk, no. His quirk was that shadow. It was strong, and while Izuku had found out in joint training that it was susceptible to bright lights, he didn't have anything to produce those. He did, however, have the bright midday sun looming overhead.

Which left him to fight Dark Shadow like he would fight any other monsters.

Izuku had both of his swords at the side. The sharp sword, which he could not usually use, was ready to be drawn.

On the signal, they clashed. Tokoyami's one weakness was his own physical ability, which made him play it safe and from a distance. Dark Shadow obliged, meeting Izuku at a point as far as it could stretch.

Izuku breathed and cut.

A continuous cutting motion. Dark Shadow's claws vanished and reappeared, forcing him to block some of the swipes. At one point, he attempted to take the shadow's head, but it simply transformed, the neck moving backwards to stay out of reach of the blade.

"What a macabre dance," Tokoyami muttered. His voice was… quieter. He was trying to hide a strain. "We should finish this soon, Dark Shadow!"

"Yes!" Dark Shadow shouted, its distorted voice echoing all over the arena. Its claws increased in size and it brought the together, trying to hammer down on Izuku.

"Wolf's Fang," Izuku warned. He ripped through the shadow's torso before the attack came down, appearing behind it and slashing at the 'cord' that connected Tokoyami and the shadow. The midday sun was bright overhead. The shadow reformed slowly.

Izuku sheathed the sharp sword and drew the blunt one.

It was over the second he was in his range.

Dark Shadow's arm came up in defense as it reformed, but the shadow simply gave away and let Izuku hit his master with one swoop.

He raised his sword in victory when Tokoyami fell, unable to stand up.

Chapter 20, upcoming:

The Sins of the Father

"In the end, we are who we choose to be," Inko said, pushing a key on the keyboard. The screen turned black, then green. Another few keystrokes and it turned black again, with a green, text-only file browser. "We tell ourselves that sometimes we have no choice, but that's a lie. We always have a choice, and I made the wrong one."

A combination of keys. A prompt.

"If you do this, they will kill you."

"If I don't do this, I will kill myself. Just this once, I have to make the right choice."