Hey guys, how's everyone doing? I'm over classes already haha. Anyway I won't mumble any longer, here's the next chapter. I should be able to have chapter 17 out by the end of this week, fingers crossed. On with the show!

Aiko didn't remember his parents. Well, he should say he didn't remember his parents that well. He remembered a soft hand carding through his hair when he was a small child, flashes of a woman with snow-white hair, flashes of a man with hair the color of coal. He remembered a softly sung lullaby, but that was it. Every time he tried to think back on it, think further, he could only see his elder brother as the one carding his hand in his hair as he did on numerous occasions when Aiko was too ill to leave the bed, his mind in a haze of fever-induced dreams, dreams of slaughter, burning villages, screaming children, burning yet freezing blue eyes. Every time he tried to listen to the lullaby he only heard his brother's smooth baritone singing him to sleep, the teenager always taking great care to look after the greatest thing entrusted to him. They were inseparable when Aiko was a child, and yet here they were now.

"Would you kill him?" The question bounced around his head, needling itself into his brain. He couldn't answer it, instead turning away. The question wouldn't leave him. "Would you kill him? Would you kill your brother if you had to?" He knew the answer she wanted to hear, knew the answer that the people that had trusted him, that had provided him refuge wanted to hear, hell he knew what he himself wanted to hear.

But how could he answer that? How could he condemn the one that loved him so tenderly in their early years, how could he condemn the one that he had when the rest of the world turned their back on them? How could he condemn his own blood, his only connection to the people that bore him? The one that had taken that role as if it was his very own responsibility, teaching Aiko to read and write, teaching him to be cautious, protecting him from the harsh world? He didn't think he would ever have an answer to that question.

But then again, how couldn't he? His brother as he was now wasn't the brother that he had been then. How could he not condemn the one that had slaughtered thousands simply because he couldn't have what they did? How could he not condemn the one that searched for those with quirks out eagerly and swiped them away like a thief in the night, eager to expand his own collection? This was the very same man who forced a quirk upon Aiko, had looked down at him as he shook and screamed as it forced its way into his being. The very same who had given him that frigid smile before he left Aiko in a mess of his own sick, body still shaking in agony. How couldn't he? Why couldn't he?

Internally he knew the answer. They all knew the answer, even after his brother-no, his brother was dead and all that was left in his place was a tyrant, a nightmare from a children's book- even after Aiko found her on the ground- beautiful, fiery, dangerous, untouchable her laying on the ground with broken round frames dropped carelessly on the ground next to her instead of shoved onto the top of her head like they normally were; even after he found her on the ground, propped up against that boulder, saw the curly hair that he had run his fingers through so many times plastered to her face with her sweat and her blood, saw those normally freezing and piercing eyes glazed over with something that he didn't want to describe. Even after he felt those pale fingers touching his cheek, even after he felt the same heartbeat that he listened to night after night stutter and halt, even as he closed his eyes and threw his head back as he wailed his sorrows to the heavens after Raava disappeared-he knew.

They all knew, and they hated him for it, and he hated himself for it-and as he lay there on the ground, crimson seeping out of his chest, the cold seeping in, matted black and white hair tinged pink, a crying Eizo holding his bloody hand, a flash of brilliant gold, experiencing a lack of breath, a searing cold, and then pitch blackness where he was the only light, and he would remain alone until he was passed on once more-

He wished that his answer would have been different.

Izuku's lips were pressed into a firm thin line as he walked down the hallway that would lead him to the entrance for his battle. He had been in a foul mood ever since he came back from his talk with Todoroki, not even talking to his friends during lunch or while they announced the brackets for the one on one tournament that was about to take place. He couldn't believe-

No. He could believe, and that was exactly why he was so angry right now.

"Tell me, have you ever heard of quirk marriages?" Todoroki's face was blank as he spoke, but Izuku watched his eyes. Sena had once taught him that you could read an entire person's next actions from their eyes, read their true feelings, and right now Izuku was using that to read Todoroki's, and the boy's eyes were tired, weary. He didn't know what was going on to make the icy hot user feel this way.

"Yeah, I have but why-" It suddenly slammed into Izuku all at once, and he couldn't keep the shocked and disgusted look that flitted across his face all at once. Suddenly it made a lot of sense. Too much sense. Todoroki's dual hair, different colored eyes, dual quirk. That wasn't something that a person normally came across, for all intents and purposes, Todoroki was considered unique in their world. Normally the parents' quirks would mutate and mix, which was how Kacchan got his explosions, and if Izuku had developed a quirk he probably would have had pyrokinesis, a mixture of his mother and father's quirks. For a child to have two quirks, perfectly balanced like Todoroki did-

"Yeah, I'm the product of one." And then to make matters even worse, Todoroki continued to tell Izuku just exactly how much of a terrible man the number 2 hero really was. Izuku's heart ached for Todoroki, and he didn't know what to say to make the boy feel better so he simply didn't say anything. "Sorry for dumping that all on you, that's all I wanted to say. My apologies for wasting your time." He turned around to walk away, only to stop abruptly as Izuku lunged forward and grabbed the boy's right wrist, spinning him back around so that they were facing each other.

"Put your best foot forward Todoroki-kun." He released the captive wrist and took a step back, watching as the boy gave him a confused look before turning around and vanishing again. In that brief moment when he stared into the grey and cerulean orbs, he saw pain. Which made him even all the more determined to save him.

Inhaling once, he brought his hands together and cracked his knuckles, idly releasing some tension as he waited for his name to be called. It was only his luck that he would be the first fight in the tournament, and if he remembered correctly he was due to face Shinsou Hitoshi, a general course student. He didn't know what the boy's quirk was, Ojiro had tried to corner Izuku but he had swiftly avoided him, not feeling up to the task of talking while resolving to apologize to him later for it. He knew it was useless to be as upset as he was, but Izuku couldn't help it. He hated feeling like he couldn't do anything like he was useless. But we can do something. Just make it past this opponent, and you'll face him in the next round. You'll be able to help him. He nodded in agreement with his analytical side, forcing himself to take another deep breath as the thought considerably cheered him up. He would help Todoroki, even if it meant he had to help himself.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! THE POST SECOND EVENT GAMES HAVE COME TO A CLOSE, AND NOW WE HAVE THE FIRST FIGHT IN OUR ONE ON ONE TOURNAMENT! LET ME HEAR YOU MAKE SOME NOISE!" Izuku closed his eyes as Present Mic spoke, searching for his center and finding it. He had to end this and he had to end it quickly, especially when the user's quirk was unknown. He couldn't lose. He wouldn't lose. "FROM THE GENERAL EDUCATION COURSE, A STUDENT WHO SEEMINGLY HASN'T SHOWN HIS QUIRK YET, SHINSOU HITOSHI! AND FROM THE HERO COURSE, FROM THE INFAMOUS CLASS 1-A, THE WIND BLOWING MIDORIYA IZUKU" Izuku cringed as Present Mic pronounced wind like mind, focusing on his next task as he began walking out of the tunnel. He squinted as he exited the tunnel, the light blinding him as he was exposed to the roaring of the crowd. A nervous smile crossed his face as his vision came back to him and he scanned the crowd until he made his way up the steps and onto the platform that would hold the battle. He turned towards his opponent with a smile on his face, only for the smile to immediately drop and die as the familiar purple hair came into view. Students who couldn't even protect themselves. It had taken him a few sessions with Hounddog to get the thought that he could have done more to protect himself and the others out of his head, and this was even after the talk with All Might. From the narrowing of the purple eyes, the boy recognized him as well.
"I want a nice clean fight boys!" Midnight gave them both a hooded look before slashing her whip through the air. "Start!" Izuku didn't move from his spot despite his earlier plan to end it immediately. Something came over him, something that wanted to see what the general education student could do.

"Well, if it isn't the man of the hour. It must be nice to have such a powerful quirk!" Shinsou had his hands tucked into his pockets, standing in place. He had a bored expression on his face as he spoke. "Maybe if you would've teamed up with Monkey boy he wouldn't have dropped out of the competition, it's a shame that all you hero students are turning out to be the same, selfish, and only align themselves with the best. None of you know what it's like to be looked down upon. None of you know what it's like to be powerless!"

Izuku sat in the rain, watching the other kids run around and laugh as they played with each other while they all waited for their parents. It was a class-wide game of tag, only Izuku wasn't invited to play. He could hear the teachers whispering about poor quirkless Izuku. Poor. Quirkless. Izuku.

"Izuku!" His mother's voice called and he hurriedly got up, running over to her only to slip and fall into the mud. His eyes swam with tears as the other kids immediately burst out laughing, mocking how the quirkless loser couldn't even walk. "Oh, Izuku sweetie." His mom was there, pulling him gently up out of the mud, attracting one of his pencils that fell out of his bag to her hand. He always had to be helped, the 6-year-old was never strong enough to do anything on his own. Maybe he really was useless like everyone else said-

"Shut. Up." The words spilled out of Izuku's lips, dark and threatening as his hair shadowed his eyes. He took an angry step forward only to freeze as the purple-haired student smirked at him, a grey fog slipping over Izuku's mind.

"I win. Be a good hero student and turn around. Walk out of bounds." Dull green eyes locked on the tunnel that he had come out of earlier, his red shoe covered feet betraying him as they took stuttering steps forward. Faintly, he could hear the crowd gain a hushed silence as Present Mic's voice boomed.

"WHAT'S THIS? MIDORIYA SEEMS TO BE WALKING TOWARD THE BOUNDARY LINE!"

"It must be Shinsou's quirk. From what I can tell, it must be one that allows the user to enforce his will over his opponents. It would be a very useful quirk in heroics, and is a prime example of why I say the entrance exam is abysmal in assessing true talent." There was Aizawa-sensei's voice now, but it sounded muted, probably due to the fog.

Stop moving body! I can't-I can't go out like this! He was so close to the boundary now, only about 6 steps away.

5 steps. What could he do, how could he break it-

4 steps. He couldn't disappoint his mom, he couldn't break his promise to Yagi-

"What have I told you about giving up?" There was a figure walking through the thick grey fog that blanketed his mind, a figure that shined brightly. The fog shrieked and twisted, fleeing from the path that the figure walked, the glow dimming the closer it got until Izuku could make out a black t-shirt and the first word that was on it 'Water'. Slowly more of the figure appeared to him-a woman, frigid blue eyes staring into his blank green ones. "You can't just give up when things get hard kid, but now isn't the time for a lecture huh?" A familiar small smile crossed her face as she turned and began to walk away from him, the fog dissipating completely. He tried to open his mouth, but no words came out. He tried to reach his hand out, but his body wouldn't move besides his feet, still shuffling towards the boundary line.

3 steps. The curly-haired woman came to a stop at the edge of the tunnel, and when she stopped so did Izuku's body in the real world. She spun around so she was facing him again, her body gaining a blue glow as a white-haired man with black streaks appeared next to her, his body flickering in and out of existent before solidifying and being covered in a black glow. His appearance was followed by the appearance of 7 other shadowy figures, none of them able to form like the first two, but Izuku instinctively knew who they were. The man looked awfully familiar to Izuku, but the heroics student couldn't exactly place where he had seen him before.

"Izuku." The woman surrounded by the blue glow spoke, giving him a thumbs up. "I'm proud of you kid. You're getting closer and closer to your goals." How was she here? How was Izuku seeing them all?

"MIDORIYA HAS COMPLETELY FROZEN AND ISN'T MOVING, WHAT'S THIS? WHAT'S GOING ON!"

If Izuku wasn't mistaken, a disgruntled look came over the woman's face as Present Mic spoke. "That man is too loud, and that's coming from me. But onto the matter at hand-you called us here kid. Now, go kick some ass. You'll see us all again." Her eyes took on a white glow as the shadowy figures dove toward Izuku, swarming around him. Through the tiny gaps of light that Izuku could see the man hanging back, watching him silently as his form flickered once more and he too became a shadowy figure, joining the others in their flight around him. "Oi, let me handle this one. The kid doesn't need any broken bones." How could she talk to them?

A blue-tinted hand came to rest on his shoulder.

xxxXXXxxx

To the outside observers, the change happened instantly. One minute Izuku was frozen, barely away from the boundary line, the next minute the boy had red veins dancing across his body and his eyes took on a white glow. A giant wind left his hands, whirling around his body like a tornado that hid him from sight. When it died down, he was facing Shinsou again, white glow gone, red veins transformed into green sparks of electricity.

"What the hell, walk out of bounds already!" Izuku's green eye's sparked as he gritted his teeth before moving, spinning his arms around in a circle before he thrust a palm forward, a gust of air blasting forward and smashing Shinsou out of bounds.

"Shinsou is out of bounds! Midoriya wins!" The crowd cheered hesitantly, Present Mic commenting on how the fight was lackluster, but Izuku ignored them all as he made his way off the platform, stopping on the edge as he watched the purple haired student pick himself up off the ground.

"What do you want, come to gloat?"

"I wanted to tell you that your quirk is really cool," Izuku said mildly, glancing up at a row of students directly in front of him. "It was a bad match up, I think you would have won against a lot of other people. I don't know what people have told you, but your quirk isn't bad or anything. In fact, it would actually be really good for hero work. But you can't just blame your misfortunes on everyone else. We earned our places in the hero course, flashy quirks or not. Earn your place too." He didn't even realize he had been moving as he came to a stop in front of the general course student, holding his hand out. It took a moment, but a pale hand eventually wrapped itself around his crooked and scarred one. "Besides, you already have people that believe in you. Just learn to believe in yourself." He gave the boy a bright smile and turned on his heel, beginning to walk away as Shinsou looked up to see his classmates cheering for him.

"You did really good Shinsou!"

"Yeah you almost had him!" Izuku was halfway across the stage when a sudden shout of his name had him stopping and turning around once more, head tilted to the side in question.

"Midoriya! I'm sorry, about before and what I said earlier." A student who couldn't even protect himself. The words echoed between the two of them as Izuku's smile softened.

"I'll forgive you on two conditions. One, you don't ever say something like that to someone ever again. Two, you have to come get ramen with my friends and I."

The rest of the fights in the first round of the tournament went by quickly and the 16 condensed to 8. Todoroki's fight had been immediately after Izuku's and he had faced a girl with a vine quirk from class 1-B. Izuku along with everyone else had winced after he encased her in entirely too much ice, Izuku's simmering rage from earlier growing just a bit more fierce after he noticed the dead look in Todoroki's eyes as the boy thawed the shivering girl out of the ice. Next round. His mind promised him, causing him to inhale and exhale harshly before paying attention to the next matches. Mina had faced off with Sero who had been paired up with Uraraka and two people from class 1-B during the cavalry battle. She had been able to beat him by nimbly dodging all the attacks from his tape by doing backflips and cartwheels (something Izuku wanted to learn instantly upon seeing it), as well as skating around on her acid until she was able to get close and deck him in the chin. Iida had faced off against Aoyama, easily pushing the boy out of the arena after the shining french kid had hunched over, whispering 'J'ai mal à l'estomac'. Kaminari had faced off against Hatsume, surprisingly losing after his electricity had messed with the girl's babies that she had gotten him to wear, causing her to go berserk and use some sort of...punching glove on him? Izuku wasn't too sure what it was, or where the girl had gotten it from but it looked like it really hurt. Tokoyami went against Yaoyorozu, Dark Shadow proving to be too quick for the girl, pushing her out before she could create her first item. If she could work on improving her creation time, she would be a deadly opponent in the future, Izuku thought. Kirishima fought against the boy who also had a hardening quirk, only his was based off of metal, and the match ended in a draw after they both passed out at the same time from exhaustion. Mina, who now sat next to Izuku had made a comment about 'Eiji finally finding his long lost twin', snickering as she did so. All of the matches of the day had been good, but it was the last fight that really stole the audience's breath away along with Izuku's.

Bakugou vs Uraraka. The match had been explosive, both on the part of the participants and on the part of the audience. When the audience yelled and screamed at Kacchan for toying around with a girl, Izuku winced as he leaned forward, his hands clasping themselves against the railing. They couldn't see what he did, and he was honestly surprised that they didn't notice the hundreds of rocks hovering above the stadium. Uraraka's plan was honestly amazing, something that he hadn't even fully thought of. He had been tempted to give Uraraka some pointers on how to beat Katsuki, but that wouldn't have been right. It would have come across as him doubting her potential, and he definitely didn't want to come across like that. But still, if he was her he would have focused entirely on getting close enough to touch him, he never would have thought to use the rocks as a distraction to do so. As they streamed towards the fighting duo, hurtling with speeds that would be difficult for any normal person to counter, Izuku thought, just for a moment, that his pink cheeked friend had won. If it was anyone else, she would have.

But then again, this was Katsuki that she was facing. The explosion that had ripped itself from Kacchan's hand was the biggest explosion that Izuku had ever seen the boy manually produce himself, and it probably even rivaled the explosion that had come from the explosive boy's gauntlet. It tore the rubble to pieces, reduced it to ashes, and the concussive force behind it sent Uraraka flying backwards. Izuku held his breath as his friend rose to her feet, took a single step forward, and fell leading to Kacchan's victory.

And thus concluded the first round of the one on one matches.

Mina was worried. She had watched the same fight as everyone else, and while she had been cheering for her explosive friend, the gravity user put up a good fight and nearly won, only to have that victory snatched away at the last moment. Mina knew what it was like to think that you finally did it, that you won and it was over, only to have that win upstaged at the last possible second. As someone who used to attend dance competitions when she was younger, it happened to her more than she liked to think, and she knew the feeling that came after well. The disappointment, the self loathing-she knew it all too well which led to her current situation, strolling down the hall towards the preparation rooms. Izuku had been ready to go after Uraraka himself, but he would be the first match after the break and after Eiji's tie breaker, and so she told him that she would handle it while he prepared himself. After a brief stare down he had acquiesced, and Mina understood why it took him so long. Though Mina liked Uraraka, they weren't necessarily close. Most of the time they only spoke because Izuku spoke to both of them which would lead to them sitting at the same lunch table at times, and sometimes even walking to the train after school together. She could see how it would be odd for her to volunteer to go comfort her, but she knew what she would probably find behind those closed doors, and she knew that Uraraka probably wouldn't want their green-haired friend to witness it.

"Love you guys." A choked voice sounded behind the closed blue door that Mina stood in front of. She raised one pink hand and knocked, not waiting for a response as she slid the door open, and then slid it shut behind her. As she stood face to face with the brown-haired girl, she thought of a million things that she could say to make the girl feel better.

"You totally almost kicked his ass. You did really well Uraraka!" The words that left her lips, followed by a punch to the air, weren't included in that list at all. But as Mina spread her arms after the fact, enveloping the wet-eyed girl in a hug, scratched up and bandaged arms wrapped around her back as her classmate shook with silent sobs. It hadn't been what Mina had meant to say.

But somehow, Ochako let her know that it was enough.

Todoroki Enji was a fiery man in all aspects of his life. His temper was like a dry leaf that led to a forest fire, once sparked it blazed into an inferno. His passion for his profession was a whirlwind of flame, only growing hotter and brighter the longer he continued on his trek of chasing after what seemed unattainable, growing hotter and raging wilder as he was continuously shown the too far ahead back of the number 1 hero. As a father, he was the epitome of the brightest flame, too bright to look at, a blistering heat that burned even if you weren't anywhere near it. He was the living embodiment of flame whose will would not bend to anyone's, the one that forced everyone else into submission lest they got burned. But there was always one person that refused to let the heat of his flame consume him, and now as he stared down at dark green eyes that seemed to swirl with rage, he knew that there would be two.

"You are the one with the elemental quirk no? Just like my Shouto, though it seems you can wield Earth, Air, and Water instead of Ice and Fire. Though there is something about the way you wield your power that reminds me of All Might. My Shouto was created to surpass him, so beating you will be the first step on his road towards that. That's all I wanted to say." Endeavor watched and waited for the boy to cower beneath his radiance, to shy away from his heat. He was the flame that devastated forests, the inferno that blazed until even the wells were all dried up.

"I am not All Might." The boy's voice seemed to be infused with a deeper power, the air around them seemingly darkening as he spoke, shadows creeping forward and looming over the number 2 hero. He suddenly felt small, almost as if he wasn't a brilliant fire that could rival the sun, but rather the flame of a candle, one that could be easily snuffed out. "And Todoroki is not you." The words had whipped over him with the chill of a glacier as it shifted and creaked, ice plummeting from its side, sending waves upon waves of water hurtling away from it. If he stayed here in this moment he would inevitably be smothered, either consumed by the water or snuffed out by the shadows. The feeling stayed with him up until the start of the match, long after the green-haired enigma had walked away.

"LADIES AND GENTS, AFTER THAT ARM-BREAKING TIE BREAKER, ARE YOU READY FOR THE START OF THE QUARTER FINALS! IF SO LET ME GET A YEAH!"

"You're too loud, be quieter."

"ERASER YOU GOTTA WAKE UP, WE HAVE A REAL SHAKER TO KICK OFF OUR FIRST ROUND OF THE QUARTER FINALS! FROM CLASS 1-A, WE HAVE THE KING OF COOL HIMSELF JOINING US, BUT BE CAREFUL HE MIGHT FREEZE YA OVER! IT'S THE ICY TODOROKI SHOUTOOOOOOO. ALSO FROM CLASS 1-A, WE HAVE NATURE'S BEST FRIEND HIMSELF, THE EARTH SHATTERING, WIND STOPPING, MIDORIYA IZUKUUUUUU!"

The two boys stared at each other from across the ring, one with a deadened look, the other one with a serious glare plastered across his face. Green electricity crackled and danced to life, forest green hair swaying with an invisible breeze as Midnight's arm swung up wide. The audience leaned forward with a hushed breath, silence spreading quickly across the arena. The sound of Midnight's whip cracked down, ice burst forward immediately, reaching and climbing towards the sky-

And the first match of the quarter-finals began.