Although his earlier consternation over his loss to Bakugo had been lessened by conversation with his friends, leaving him energized and even excited for the chance to spectate the rest of the festival, Jomei's feet were heavy as he walked back to Class 1-A's booth. His typical clarity of mind was cloudy with thoughts concerning Akiko and her upcoming match. By the time he'd made it halfway back to the stands, he'd still been unable to form a coherent line of thought due to his worry for Akiko, so he instead let his mind wander.

One emotion soon stood out above the rest. Simply put, he felt pride in Akiko.

She'd decided to go out of her way in order to help Todoroki. She was selfless in any situation she thought she could assist in, and had proven that her heart was far larger than anyone's Jomei had ever met a dozen times over since the day they'd first met. In his eyes, Akiko had the heart of a genuine hero.

But it was more than what she'd done for Todoroki, though. Jomei could see that Akiko still had her sights set for their little pair's mutual success, as well. Akiko possessed the goal for success for herself, sure, but she also held onto the hopes of achieving a greater degree of recognition on his behalf. Akiko hadn't needed to task herself with temporarily taking his dream onto herself, and she hadn't even thought it necessary to tell him out loud that she had, but it was undeniable that she had done so in the first place.

So there wasn't any denying that Akiko was self-sacrificing and worthy of his adulation in an uncountable number of ways and for even more plentiful reasons. But Jomei wasn't a fool. He could sing praises of her mastered mental fortitude up to the heavens forever, but that didn't change the reality of the very physical situation she was about to walk into.

Todoroki was unlike any foe either Jomei or Akiko had ever seen before, and it would be a monumental task to pressure the arguably superior student in even the most minor of ways. What made the matter worse was that Akiko wasn't working with a Quirk that she could use for extended periods – when she said she was preparing for 'what she'll have to do,' that told Jomei that she was ready to throw caution to the wind when it came to conservative use of her Quirk.

This newfound resolution concerning her power was a double-edged sword. Indeed, it'd boost her chances of victory immeasurably when faced with an opponent on the level of power that Todoroki obviously had, but it'd also jeopardize the well-being of his girlfriend the longer her match dragged on. His knowledge that Akiko would be the one that'd be enacting such a risky strategy to strengthen her chances of success didn't do much to console him. It didn't matter if any severe harm she suffered was self-inflicted, Jomei didn't want to see Akiko suffer any sort of major injury. End of story.

Jomei sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose while he continued to walk. It was her decision to do this though, and he understood that he had no right to object to how Akiko chose to fight in each of her battles. It was her mind, her body, and her Quirk – she had every right to do as she pleased, and if he didn't like the implications of her planned angle of attack, all he could do was speak his peace and hope for the best.

Not that hope alone could ease his conscience.

The familiar doors that led back out to his classmates came into view ahead and he felt a glimmer of hope. Even if the imminent reality of Akiko fighting Todoroki wasn't going to change any time soon, hopefully being surrounded by his friends and various zany peers would clear his mind of its murkier, more morose thoughts. For the sake of his mental health, he truly wished that his hopes weren't misplaced. Constant worry was bound to drain anyone of all their energy and perceptiveness before long, as Akiko had once so often shown him.

He emerged into the cacophony of activity that was the stadium, and after one last inhale to take it all in, made his way down to the seat Denki and Kyoka had left open for him.

"So how's Akiko doing?" Denki asked.

He lowered himself into his seat. "She's doing fine."

"That didn't sound all that convincing…"

"And it needs to?" Kyoka questioned. "Jomei said she's fine. Leave it alone, Denki."

Denki's eyes remained glued to the side of his head for a little while after that, but he mostly disregarded the feeling when it became clear that his friend would eventually follow Kyoka's advice. Instead, Jomei gazed down toward Midoriya a row or two below him. The boy must have noticed his presence though, as he then turned around to return Jomei's look. His face might've been mostly neutral, but Midoriya's wide eyes betrayed a degree of guilt when their eyes met, and Jomei didn't have time to wonder what its cause was from.

Jomei then twisted his neck around as the door opened to reveal another new arrival – Ashido. Bandages were wrapped around her forehead and a square one was taped to her cheek, with others possibly obscured by her uniform if her slightly-off stride was any indicator, and she let out a soft noise of exasperation as she made her way slowly down the steps from the door. Since Bakugo was already present and Ashido looked rather calm upon her return, Jomei could only imagine what the inner workings were of the fight he'd missed out on when he left earlier.

Ashido plopped down next to Kirishima, who had put an extra space between himself and Bakugo for good measure, and reacted wordlessly with a friendly pat on her shoulder.

She let out a halfhearted grunt of annoyance and rolled her head around in his direction, her lower lip pushed out in an unconvincing pout. "Welp… so much for that second chance."

Kirishima smirked. "Heh. Yeah, I'd say that seems like a pretty good reaction, coming from you. Not like you lost anything for trying though, right?"

"Yeah, but… I might've been excited for another chance to fight for the finals, but I didn't really earn that. Then I end up losing anyway and that big thrill just…" Ashido threw her hands into the air only to let them fall. "Flopped. Honestly, it kinda feels like it makes Iida look bad by comparison since I got so completely wrecked by Bakugo."

"Hey, you can still make that second chance mean something though, Ashido," Kirishima argued. "It ain't the highlight of the festival, sure, but you can always look forward to when it comes time for the runner-ups to duke it out for third. Some good fights have come from those brawls before, too."

Ashido straightened up in her seat. "Right… I guess the bronze medal is better than no medal at all…"

"And don't forget, you've still got ice cream on me to look forward to after all this festival stuff blows over," Kirishima added.

"All the good stuff, too? Sundae-level ice cream?"

"Yep."

"Then I guess I can be happy no matter what happens, then…" Ashido smiled.

"You should be happy now, though! From where I'm sitting, it looks to me like you managed to give Bakugo a pretty hard time," Sero teased as he threw his thumb over his shoulder to point at the bandages over acid burns on Bakugo's arm. "Right, Bakugo?"

"I'll destroy you," Bakugo deadpanned, not even glancing at him.

"Okay then…" Sero grimaced.

Even though his unpleasant anxiety remained, Jomei had to bite his lip to hold back a snicker of amusement. He may have failed to quell his uncomfortable emotions beforehand, but it was reassuring to know that he could still manage to find an abundance of positivity among his peers when he needed it most. If nothing else, he really hoped Bakugo's dynamics with everyone else weren't going to change any time soon.

The repeated metallic tap of Kyoka's earphone jacks then drew his attention to his side. Her elongated earlobes did a great deal of speaking regarding her body language, but her focused expression and her slightly hunched-over posture with her elbows on her knees told Jomei clearly that she was deep in thought.

Denki beat him to the punch before he could speak. "So… I'm gonna go on a wild guess and say that you have that look on your face because of the match, right Kyoka?"

A slight nod. "Yeah."

"So what's the rundown then, boss?"

Her posture straightened and one of her earphone jacks reached around to scratch at the back of her head. "That's just it, though. Akiko being put up against Todoroki is going to be an interesting jam to watch no matter how you play it, but at the same time, it's all bound to be… uncertain. It'll be hard to predict what's gonna happen, exactly."

"Why's that?" Denki inquired.

"Because it's a battle of the elements. Todoroki has two but only ever uses one because he's so metal, while Akiko has four but can't use them nonstop because of how her power works," Kyoka explained. "Sure, you can say that all because Akiko has more flexibility and finesse than Todoroki that she should have this gig in the bag, but we can't forget that he beat Tokoyami in a fair fight, and hisQuirk's super strong."

"As shameful as it may have been for me to lose so early on the final stage, I do agree with your analysis, Jiro," Tokoyami added from the row above them. "For the majority of our fight, Todoroki and I appeared to be on equal footing on account of the absolute utility and power Dark Shadow possesses. Against his ice, Dark Shadow could neither be destroyed nor prevented from coming to my aid when it was of vital importance that he do so, yet Todoroki's final attack proved to be powerful enough to immobilize both my Quirk and myself."

Yaoyorozu nodded beside him. "Right. On paper, Tokoyami should have stood a fair chance of winning against Todoroki, but someone with enough power can't always circumvent skill through brute force. Todoroki has undoubtedly impressed all of us and many of the pros in the audience even if only his performances thus far are taken into consideration, so we can't merely assume that Takara's flexibility will be enough to win in this battle. This match will likely come down to endurance and decision-making, because if either Todoroki or Takara sustain a single clean blow from their opponent, the victor could be decided right then and there."

Tokoyami, Denki, and Kyoka all made their agreement with the finality of Yaoyorozu's analysis known, and Jomei merely nodded. Crossing his arms and making the decision to survey the stage below for any sign of either competitor's appearance, he couldn't help but wonder if everyone was putting too much stock in the sheer strength of Todoroki's Quirk. It was an impressive sight to behold when he let loose and power sometimes trumped skill, but for Akiko, skill was power. Even as far back as the battle trials, when everyone had been told to let loose, Jomei knew that Akiko hadn't even come close to unleashing the full force of her power, lest she risk too much collateral damage to the building their battle took place in.

So yes, this match was a matter of the delicate balance between the finesse and firepower that two elemental Quirk users possessed, but after everything, the fact remained…

Akiko stood a fair chance.

It was while she was on her way to the arena that it really hit her. Todoroki only possessed one element due to his handicapping himself, but she had versatility and a capacity for more clever techniques that it seemed he didn't possess. Even if she might not match his sheer total power unless she pulled a gambit with her Quirk's only unmastered mode that she knew would destroy her right off the bat, she knew she could fight smart and hard with her Quirk's mastered modes and push Todoroki to his self-imposed limits. Although achieving her goal in this match meant that she'd likely be forfeiting her chances of moving forward in the final stage, she'd already made peace with such a possibility from the moment she had confided in Jomei her intentions for the match.

She still wanted to win, and she felt she could if Todoroki refused to use his left side. But she'd almost count it as more of a triumph if she missed the finals because Todoroki finally accepted his full abilities.

It may have been the case with Jomei that the pursuit of widespread recognition was high on his priority list, and Akiko had taken that pursuit onto her own shoulders after he'd lost to Bakugo, but fame was the farthest thing from a source of motivation for Akiko's dreams of becoming a hero. Perhaps a part of it was on account of her lifelong shyness and introversion, but personally, she didn't desire the glory, the adoring fans, nor the brand deals galore that'd try to link her to whatever merchandise business moguls thought would sell that followed any given hero's rise to prominence. Instead, all she wanted to do when she became a Pro Hero was help save people, plain and simple. There was a reason heroes like All Might and Thirteen were two of the great pillars of what she thought a pro should look like, and there was a reason why she wanted so badly to emulate them when she became a pro herself.

Not that she looked down on those with more selfish goals, of course. If she did harbor any ill will aimed at those who prioritized the pursuit of money, fame, self-preservation, and so on, then she'd never have been willing to open up to Jomei as much as she had when she learned of his hero motivation so early on in their friendship.

Cheers and general excitement grew louder as Akiko approached the light at the end of the tunnel into the arena. As she squinted against the glare, she suddenly realized that while she would be trying to get Todoroki to go all out, she'd been holding back in a way only she and Jomei were privy to ever since she was accepted into U.A. – and even before then.

Even thinking about it made a chill run up her spine. The last time she'd attempted to explore its potential, she'd ended up in the hospital due to the damage it incurred on her body, and it wasn't an experience she was eager to go through ever again.

So with that gambit of an option moot, Akiko found herself thinking that she wasn't in too different of a position from Todoroki. But Todoroki's excuse for not using his full abilities was different, and Akiko couldn't help but think that he was setting himself back; that it could only impair his potential growth as an upcoming Pro Hero. Meanwhile, her own choice to hold back had been the only thing that allowed her to keep up with the rest of her classmates.

But now she had to throw caution to the wind if she wanted to somehow force Todoroki to make use of his left side. It was going to be painful and a true test of her talents in battle, but she'd come too far to turn back now.

Especially since she'd just now emerged into the arena, which had practically exploded with excitement again. If Present Mic's personal goal for the festival had been to prove how talented he was at riling up a crowd more and more with each passing match, he'd succeeded. Yet another burst of activity followed as Akiko made it halfway through the field leading to the stage, which, alongside the reactivation of the four braziers in front of her, led her to assume that Todoroki had emerged into full view of the spectators again, too.

"For our second semifinal match, we have a battle between elites!" Present Mic prefaced. "Both of them were brutally effective in their own ways the past two rounds, and both of them come from some high-class families, so something tells me that this isn't a fight any of you are gonna wanna miss! Their feats speak for themselves!"

Surprisingly, when Akiko reached the final few steps and had achieved a view of the stage at large, she saw that Todoroki had already made it to his starting position despite having emerged into the arena after her. She wrote off the unexpectedness as a byproduct of the unenergetic pace she herself adopted as she made her way across the field, but Todoroki's body language was what really caught her eye.

"Todorokiiiii!"

Instead of his normal neutral posture, Todoroki's arms were crossed firmly in front of him. His facial features had hardened to the cold, stoic menace Akiko had thought he'd lost in his fight against Uraraka. Todoroki looked at her without lifting his head, though Akiko thought little of the gesture. If he wanted to study how she had carried herself as she did him, then so be it. She'd give nothing away other than her newfound determination to see her promise through.

"Versus, Takaraaaa!"

With introductions over, it took a few moments after the flood of excitement started pouring down from the audience for either fighter to open their mouths.

Todoroki was first. "Takara."

"Yeah?"

"I won't be extending to you the same kindness of offering a way to drop out of the match that I did with Uraraka," he stated, his gaze sharp and intense. "You've already proven yourself to be formidable enough to stand up against the likes of Midoriya and win. If you have any false assumptions about expecting mercy from me now after a performance like that, then get rid of them now."

He uncrossed his arms to enter a combat-ready stance, while Akiko took one last calming breath before doing the same. "I never walked into the arena expecting mercy from you, Todoroki. Ever since I found out you'd be my semifinal opponent, I knew that just dropping out wouldn't be an option for me."

Todoroki's eyes hardened. But she had come into the arena with a mission, and in order to fulfill it, she had to start somewhere.

"You don't have to be like him," she said softly.

"Everything's going to be coming to a head after this match, sports fans, so let's start this semifinal match right now!"

Not a moment after Present Mic finished speaking, Todoroki lifted his right foot off the ground in a prepared stomp. A new shadow crossed his features when his hair obscured most of his face, but Akiko could still make out his thinly-veiled scowl. He then brought his foot crashing down to earth with a strong but swift stomp to initiate his opening move for their match.

In an instant, everything in front of Akiko became obscured by an all-consuming wall of ice not unlike the one that had ensnared Uraraka. Even though it barreled toward her like a bullet train on steroids, Akiko didn't feel unease in the face of it. She'd expected such an attack to come from Todoroki to start out their match, and had prepared to respond without a second's hesitation.

The ice glistened as the rays of sunlight it had blocked passed through it, and Akiko's features flared red not even a second before it hit her.

It had happened again.

One moment the stage had existed in one state of being with two clearly-defined fighters, and the next, almost everything was introduced to the frigid force that could be mother nature's wrath. The only difference between the glacial attack Todoroki had used on Tokoyami and the one he'd unleashed now on Akiko was that this time the ice hadn't frozen a fraction of the stadium solid. Instead, its height had only reached the upper limits of the wall that separated the arena from the lowest lines of spectators, and its width had only filled a quarter of the field below in ice. It was a focused attack, and one that proved Todoroki was more than a one-trick wonder.

Not that any of those observations mattered as much as the fact that several tons of frozen water had seemingly just swallowed Akiko whole.

"No way!" Uraraka cried, and she jumped out of her seat in the bottom row to cling onto the rails in front of her. "Takara couldn't have been taken out that quickly! Right?"

For once, it appeared that even Midoriya couldn't muster a response, as all his attention was glued to Todoroki's attack.

Kirishima picked up the slack, the tone of his response confused and his eyes wide. "I… don't know. I wanna say 'no,' but it didn't look like Takara dodged, or countered, or anything like that… could she have really been caught off-guard that easy?"

One of Shoji's extra arms morphed into a mouth and joined the conversation. "I'm afraid I might have to say yes. Perhaps she underestimated her opponent."

"Doubtful," Tokoyami countered. "Takara wasn't one to underestimate the villains that attacked us at the USJ, so she most assuredly wouldn't throw caution to the wind when faced with a foe such as Todoroki. What's more, there's obviously something more going on here that Midnight and Cementoss may be seeing that we aren't able to from so far away."

"I think you're onto something, actually," Kyoka agreed, though she didn't turn away from the arena to make her response. "The fight hasn't been called yet. If Akiko was really frozen solid by that attack, Midnight would've announced that Todoroki had won by immobilizing her."

Jomei exhaled roughly, angling his head so that he could throw in a comment of his own. "You guys can't honestly think that after how she did against Midoriya that she'd be taken down that easy, right?"

Before anyone could respond, Present Mic crackled in with an announcement. "Wait a second, sports fans! Don't think Takara's out, because something crazy's happening in the middle of all that ice! It looks like… it looks like an eruption's building up!"

All eyes in Class 1-A flicked from the group's conversation back to the arena. In the very center of Todoroki's glacial attack, right where Akiko had been standing, a bright orange blob of light distorted by the ice came into existence. It was unsteady and flickered like the flame of a candle, but flared to life time and again as if building up energy until it became constant in its radiance. It started to move forward through the ice, slowly working its way out toward the edge of where the attack had begun to expand. The last few meters of ice separating the glow from the outside world began to shine, and Aizawa answered the audience's wonder as to what the source of the anomaly was.

"Mic, you've got it all wrong…" Aizawa slowly corrected, and the glow flared brighter than ever as the last bastion of ice between it and the rest of the stage began to crack. "That isn't an eruption or some accident waiting to happen. It's intentional… and all a coordinated effort by Takara to make Todoroki's first attack a moot point. She anticipated the attack, and reacted as logically as she could."

The built-up pressure proved to be too much for the ice to hold back any longer, and the surface of the small glacier exploded into a thousand pieces flying in every direction. Akiko was mostly hidden by the debris and mist, but Jomei could still make out her form standing tall at the end of the passageway she'd tunneled into the ice. She'd triumphed with seeming ease over a more compressed version of the move that had frozen Uraraka dead in her tracks at the worst possible moment.

Yet this was only a taste of what was to come.

Amidst mist, melted ice, and flecks of snow softly fluttering through the air around her, Akiko stared down at her opponent with an unprecedented and unexpected level of determination and calm. From her position atop the exit to the tunnel she'd bored through the ice, she stood slightly above Todoroki, causing her gaze to appear as though she was looking down on him. Her features had hardened confidently after her counter-strategy had worked, and she knew the brilliant red of ruby mode provided her a fierce air.

Akiko silently descended from her perch, and Todoroki only let the barest hint of his displeasure bleed through into his expression, but as quickly as she had noticed the shift in attitude, the glimmer of emotion faded from his face.

"Once again you perform as expected, Takara," Todoroki calmly stated. "Some might have been impressed by that kind of foresight, but you'd already shown me that you can think quickly as far back as the obstacle race, so don't think that I'll be intimidated by you merely using your elemental Quirk efficiently."

As her feet hit the concrete again, she stopped walking. "I wasn't trying to intimidate you."

"Hm." Todoroki looked like he was about to attack again when he stopped himself. He briefly looked at his leg before his eyes returned to her, a sharp menace hidden behind his normally neutral demeanor. "But what did you mean, before? When you said that I 'don't have to be like him?' If I were you, I'd choose my answer carefully."

"I meant exactly what you thought I did," Akiko firmly answered, and she moved one arm behind her palm-out just in case he attacked again. "You don't have to be like Endeavor all because you have his Quirk on your left side."

"So Midoriya told you, then," Todoroki spat.

With one last huff to express his irritation, Todoroki twisted his heel to fire off another attack, and a lively ice wall careened into existence to charge at her. Akiko's arm tensed tightly to build up the energy of her counter, and a tiny stream of fire like that of a contained welding torch whistled in readiness. Even still, Akiko decided to wait until the encroaching ice was nearly upon her to unleash her blast, and when it did, her arm moved in a blur of motion. Her hand lashed upward in a fanning motion palm-out, and all the tension that had been contained was unleashed alongside a wrathfully charged burst of flame directly in front of her. Intense fire and ice met and neutralized each other completely, and the sudden sublimation caused a storm of wind to whip throughout the arena.

It was while the mist was clearing that Akiko heard Todoroki bark out another comment. "Even though that might be the case, and you know my secret, you still clearly know nothing about me!"

The crackling of ice informed Akiko of another imminent attack, and her features changed colors to emerald green at the same time another barrage of ice sent forth by Todoroki forced the mist to dissipate with the wind it created. Akiko avoided being caught by the assault by launching herself into the air with a pillar from emerald mode whilst she simultaneously heaved two smaller sections of a nearby concrete block up with her.

She punched twice as she flew through the air, and chunks of stone were sent flying on a collision course with her opponent. Todoroki immediately threw up a thick shield of ice. The first stone sent a splintering crack across his protective barrier, and Todoroki ran out from the cover he'd created as the second stone crushed the ice into a thousand glimmering pieces.

Akiko landed and kept up the offensive, amalgamating what little remained of the original block she'd used in her first set of strikes into a smaller, faster array of smaller rocks. Todoroki kept running and responded by creating another protective wall to his right. Some of the larger rocks pummeled into his created cover like a hail of bullets and cracked some parts of it, but most of the other attacks that connected merely bounced off. Todoroki emerged from his seemingly endless cover around the corner of the stage and wasted no time before he slid his right foot along the ground.

It was then, when Todoroki had skidded to a halt that an ice pillar suddenly plowed in Akiko's direction. His leg unexpectedly tensed and the pillar's speed doubled. Akiko was forced to immediately respond by catapulting herself into the air again with emerald mode.

Todoroki took advantage of the opportunity to move further into the play area so as not to risk a ring-out with his proximity to the boundary line, and while he was running further back inside the stage, Akiko swapped back to ruby mode. She spun midair and swiped twice through with her legs at Todoroki with all the force her body and momentum combined could muster, and two long arcs of fire flared forth to intercept him before he could reach anywhere close to the center of the stage.

Her first fiery attack missed its mark and landed harmlessly behind him before dissipating into the air, while her second seemed bound to hit him head-on if he continued running forward at his current rate. Todoroki stopped short with the assistance of a small burst of ice acting as a slope to fight against his own speed, and Akiko's other attack only managed to lick the very edges of Todoroki's ice before the rest of it crashed harmlessly into the arena around them.

Akiko landed a few meters in front of Todoroki's icy slope, and this time, it was he who held the high ground to look down on her. Despite his stoic outer appearance, there was a cold fire that Akiko noticed burning behind his eyes. There was a level of emotion within him that even a few minutes ago she never would have imagined seeing in Todoroki, a thinly-veiled contempt for her and as focused as an unyielding conqueror's gaze.

But she wouldn't let herself be intimidated. Not now.

"For someone with four elements at your disposal, you sure do seem to favor those flames, Takara," Todoroki icily observed.

Akiko felt a chill run down her spine, but she stood strong. "Maybe there's a reason for that."

"Don't you test me," he spat.

His right hand whipped out, and more ice exploded from the slope beneath his feet, the conal barrage reaching forward with crystalline shards shooting forward like daggers along the ground. With Todoroki's words of unintended warning in mind of his added attention to the two modes she'd used thus far, Akiko swapped to peridot mode. With a strong push from her legs, a brief expulsion of air threw her up and away from her opponent's attack, and the gnarled ice slowly lost its power as Todoroki reeled in the effort he'd been putting in to send it onward.

With a brief huff, Akiko landed atop the ice that had been left behind by Todoroki's original attack and slid back slightly. Her hair, eyes, and crystal core swapped again from the yellows of peridot mode to the blues of sapphire mode while she steadied both her stance and breath. Not long after the transition was complete, Todoroki sent another attack Akiko's way in the form of a single large pillar of ice aimed at her chest, but it never came close to impacting its target.

Almost as soon as it shot forward, Akiko arrested control of the ice and forced it back into a more manageable liquid state. She then directed the water behind her with one hand before she let the other take control of it and, with a flick of her wrist, sent it right back at Todoroki in the form of a salvo of snowballs. Hidden within the innocuous spheres were cores of solid ice, but Akiko followed up her reversal of his move with one of her own, making the most of the abundance of ice around her to create a handful of hefty boulder-sized comets which she then cast forth via a few fluid hooks into the air.

Todoroki remained still and stalwart in the face of it. Whether his choice was one based on bravado or confidence didn't matter inasmuch as how he weathered the barrage. Upon the first of the snowballs' arrival, Todoroki dodged each attack with his characteristic skill and calculated calmness, though as the stream intensified and he was forced to start batting away those he couldn't avoid, his eyes widened in realization to what lay hidden inside each of them. One snowball hit him in the shin before he could act, and another clipped him in the side, but Todoroki pushed through whatever discomfort the attacks might have given him in favor of keeping up his defense. A few more hit him between the time the first two connected and the salvo petered out, but he survived none the worse for wear, still standing in the same position he'd started out in – but he Akiko wasn't done.

The first larger attack Akiko hurtled forced Todoroki to raise a sudden cone of ice in his defense that acted to catch the comet mid-air and nullify its power, though the others that continued forth unimpeded encouraged him to adopt a different strategy. The second sizable strike landed squarely where he had been standing, shattering against the concrete harmlessly since Todoroki had already started running briskly to the side. The third attack landed in front of his angle of escape and the fourth followed quickly after that, to which their target responded by creating a column of ice which he rode up and around the arena before landing a good distance away from Akiko on the raised glacier that had been his opening move.

Two more of Akiko's comets crackled in the distance where they crashed into the other side of the stage, but she wasted no time in twisting around to face Todoroki the moment he landed. His right foot hitting the glacial platform breathed new life into the ice, and another barrage of sporadic spikes slithered toward Akiko. Seeing as it didn't look like Todoroki would release his hold on his attack at any time so that she could redirect it, Akiko turned the ice beneath her feet to sleet, beginning to skate around the frozen portion of the arena. She only narrowly outpaced Todoroki's ice and motioned with her hands to fling a handful of razor-sharp icicles at him in hopes of interrupting his focus – she couldn't afford to let her opponent have free reign over the pace of their match.

Her plan proved to be a success. For the instant Todoroki had to take his eyes off her to focus on the attacks she sent toward him, his ability to keep the attack that had been chasing her moving waned, and Akiko saw her opportunity to strike.

'Now!'

She froze her feet in place immediately and spun to face Todoroki in earnest. She crouched to the ground and with a low and sweeping kick across the surface of the ice, as Todoroki successfully dodged her icicles, a web of fractures in the glacier formed, and the entire area between Akiko and her opponent shuddered as it started to collapse and turn to meltwater.

As expected, Todoroki only let a brief flicker of surprise show on his face before he refroze some of the liquid where he'd been standing to form a slide which he rode down with ease. At the same time, seeing as the remaining area of Todoroki's first attack that she stood atop left her precariously close to the boundary line, Akiko leaped from the ice. Midair, she dislodged two massive chunks of the glacier and turned them to steam with a clench of her fist to obscure her angle of descent. It was while she was hidden by the steam that she switched from sapphire to emerald mode in hopes of catching Todoroki by surprise.

Emerging from the smokescreen of steam, Akiko rolled with the impact of her landing and used her momentum to punch into the air and throw a sizable section of one of the nearby stone tiles toward Todoroki. He blocked it with a similar technique to the one he'd used to protect himself from one of her prior comets, and returned to the offensive without a second of wasted time.

Akiko's chest throbbed in discomfort, but with the necessity of keeping the pressure up on Todoroki to even stand a chance of forcing him to use his left side, she powered through. She dodged to the side of his ice not a moment too soon and immediately responded with a series of jabs that threw an even greater number of small stones, each one tearing away randomly from the concrete of the stage to fuel the volley.

No matter how much pain she put herself through, she'd keep going. This fight may have already proven to be as strenuous as her match against Midoriya in its totality, but she wasn't going to worry about the probability of her success. She was in a one-on-one fight with the guy who overpowered Tokoyami in fair combat and she was able to keep up, so if that wasn't proof that she should continue to go beyond her previously assumed limits, she couldn't imagine what was. More importantly than that, though, she'd made some promises.

Todoroki raised another cold barrier in his defense and let it be torn apart under Akiko's assault. When the stones ceased to pelt his protective cover and it was little more than a translucent sheet of ice between him and his opponent, Todoroki pushed it over and let it shatter at his feet. He then walked over the thin flakes of ice and advanced forward while Akiko tried to steady her breath and stand ready for whatever he'd strike with next.

Before Akiko had fully recovered her breath, Todoroki stopped. His heel twisted along the ground, and a menacing mix of shards and blunt pillars of ice erupted and sped toward her. Even though she inwardly grimaced through the aching buildup of strain in her crystal core, Akiko only let herself exude the unbridled intensity of her resolve upon her face.

The ice encroached closer, and Akiko resorted to ruby mode once more. Not until Todoroki displayed the flames she knew he possessed would she let defeat so much as become a passing thought in the back of her mind.

That one was a promise she made to herself.

Excitement flourished amongst Class 1-A as the second semifinal match continued. With each passing minute, Akiko flowed between her four mastered modes to employ them in equally impressive and effective ways. Considering that the majority of her peers had only ever seen her use her Quirk in earnest during the battle trials, to see her using every one of the elements she had at her disposal must have been a rather novel experience. What's more, no one in their class had seen her use her powers so often and swap between them in such a rapid succession as she was now, which only added to the visual spectacle Akiko had put on display. If anyone thought that her Quirk had a weakness in the speed by which she could swap between her modes, such a theory would've been completely debunked by what Akiko was managing to do with Crystal Core right now.

In only a matter of a few minutes, Jomei surmised from everyone's reactions that it must have seemed to most of Class 1-A that Akiko had become a completely different fighter. Most mouths were agape in some amount of shock or surprise, and Jomei noticed that even Bakugo appeared to have been taken aback somewhat by her efficiency and adaptability in battle now that Akiko wasn't even giving herself time to breathe, let alone her opponent. At any other point in time, with any other level of risk placed on her well-being, Jomei might've been inclined to join his classmates in their shared state of awe.

But he couldn't, and it felt like a rift had formed between him and the rest of his classmates as a result. He couldn't simply sit idly by and pretend everything was fine when he knew what the cost of Akiko's current level of Quirk usage would impose on her, both mentally and physically. With no end in sight, tension built in his shoulders and back with each passing second the fight dragged on.

"Truly, this must be the full force of what Takara can muster with her Quirk in battle," Tokoyami commented. "Furthermore, her tenacity and constant diversification of her angles of approach sporadically enough to thwart any attempts Todoroki might make to adapt to her fighting style shows her capacity for strategy. Should I have never been dropped into the downpour zone alongside her and instead only witnessed that mental acuity of hers here… I can scarcely imagine my astonishment."

"To think that she's been holding in this true potential of hers in each of her previous battles and still triumphed…" Yaoyorozu paused, shaking her head. "If she fought like this all the time, and took the right steps in her application to U.A.… she could've been a recommendation student. I'm sure of it."

"Whoa! You mean that, Yaoyorozu?" Hagakure asked.

"Yeah, Yaoyorozu, even I'm a little surprised, ribbit," Tsuyu seconded. "After all, that's really high praise coming from someone who is a recommendation student."

"It's all true though, for sure," Kirishima said, his eyes lingering intently on each exchange of blows as they transpired. "Todoroki took down pretty much everyone that's been thrown at him in no time at all once he figured out a way to freeze them in their tracks. You can't tell me that Takara isn't on a whole different level if she's able to fight him one-on-one and even keep up the pressure this whole time."

Kyoka nodded thoughtfully. "I think I have to agree with Kirishima on this one. Akiko might not have more brute strength than Todoroki does, and this is still a battle of the elements no matter how you dice it, but… it's insane how much more adaptable she is. Unless your Quirk boosts your durability somehow, any of her modes could mess you up if she lands a serious hit on you, and with how many different kinds of attacks she's using to keep Todoroki from finding any patterns in her fighting style…"

"She could win this whole thing," Denki quietly finished.

"I don't doubt it," Midoriya agreed, and all eyes fell on him in the bottom row of the booth as he suddenly contributed to the conversation. "Todoroki has power, yeah, but that doesn't mean that he's invincible and has infinite stamina. Takara doesn't either, but Todoroki's attacks have only ever been some variant of the same few techniques he's been using so far. If Takara keeps up her current rate of pressure against him for long enough, then it might even be possible that she'll find an opportunity to strike before Todoroki can."

'But at what cost…?'

With only that single thought, the tension that had begun to mount in Jomei's body continued to intensify. He crossed his arms tightly in front of him and his jaw clenched tight.

He knew that Akiko was doing this to help Todoroki somehow, but…

"Hey, Nishimura?" Ashido cautiously intruded. "Are you okay there?"

While Jomei could tell that Kyoka was giving him a silently concerned look, he more clearly saw Denki turn and immediately catch on to his unease. "Yeah, man, what's wrong? You look like you're about to snap."

Despite the increasing constriction he felt in his throat, words tumbled out of Jomei's mouth. "You guys are all talking about how amazing it is that Akiko's able to keep up with Todoroki and how she might even beat him, but I've known her long enough to tell when something's up. Akiko might be busting out every idea and technique she's ever had up her sleeve to try and outlast Todoroki, but I think you're all forgetting that her Quirk isn't meant to be used as much as she's using it here. Right now… she's holding back the recoil of everything she's making her Quirk do even though it's not strong enough yet to be used this much safely."

A sinking realization rippled throughout Class 1-A when he finished talking, and the tightness in his throat felt as though it would choke him if he dared to try and speak again.

"Wait, she's holding back the recoil of her Quirk? What's that mean…?" Denki hesitantly asked.

Kyoka grimaced, but answered on his behalf. "It means that she's only still in the fight right now through sheer willpower, and that the longer this fight goes on, the more recoil and pain she's going to have to hold back if she's gonna keep going."

Denki's shoulders dropped. "Hey, but doesn't that mean-"

"Yeah, it does, Denki." Jomei choked out, his voice strained as it teetered on the verge of breaking. "It means that she's in agony right now… but she's still fighting anyway."

Not a single soul in the booth dared speak after that statement had been made. The knowledge of what level of drive Akiko must possess to continue fighting in the capacity she'd been since the very start with nothing but resolute determination guiding her movements immediately silenced Class 1-A. Jomei could feel every one of his classmates looking at him, but one individual's reaction to his reveal of the pain Akiko was putting herself through to stand up to Todoroki on even footing stood out above the rest.

Jomei couldn't tell if anyone else noticed it too, but he knew for certain what emotion one of his classmates in particular now appeared to feel. Midoriya's eyes met his, and Jomei could only interpret the pained look on his face as one of unbridled guilt. He narrowed his eyes at Midoriya and immediately realized that the reason Akiko had been pushing herself so hard for Todoroki must've been because of something Midoriya had told her; something that had somehow set Akiko on a path that had doomed her to suffer beyond anyone's imagination. And the worst part of it all?

Todoroki still hadn't used his flames.

Akiko wouldn't give up until he did.

And Jomei was helpless to do anything but watch as it all went down.

Even breathing started to hurt not too long after Akiko employed ruby mode one more time. She launched herself with streams of fire stemming from her feet to desperately dodge another one of Todoroki's attacks and almost tumbled over herself when her feet hit the ground. She managed to stay on her feet and come to a skidding halt. Her breathing was labored and one of her hands hovered over her crystal core as a sharp pain spread like a network of knives inside her chest. The pain wouldn't be enough to stop her though.

She couldn't let it stop her.

The crackling of another round of intense ice drew her attention up again, and Akiko became acutely aware of how close the imminent attack was to striking her. Instead of propelling herself away with ruby mode, she resorted to peridot mode and lifted herself only high enough into the air to avoid the ice and punch an intense air funnel back at Todoroki to prevent him from immediately following up the attack. Akiko landed on the ground again, but couldn't quite afford to pay enough attention to Todoroki as another internal snap born of the strain she'd put on her Quirk caused her to double over with a groan.

To call her state as 'in pain' would be putting it mildly. She wasn't in pain, she was in agony. Her chest felt as though a massive vice had been clamped around her back and crystal core, her limbs felt as though they had been set alight, and her lungs weren't nearly enough to supply her body with enough oxygen to meet the demands of what she wanted and needed it to do – but she kept pressing on anyway.

She didn't have a choice. Akiko could only continue fighting with all the energy she could muster and hope that she could last just long enough for the dam, the band-aid, that was her willpower to force Todoroki to use his left side by the time the backlash of her Quirk inevitably hit her. With the promise she'd made to Jomei ever-present in the back of her mind, she could also only hope that said backlash wouldn't be enough to send her to the emergency room. She'd hold on as long as she had to, and nothing more.

Looking back up, Akiko was unsurprised to see that Todoroki had prevented himself from being flung out of the ring with a wide array of icy pillars that had caught him when her wind had almost blown him away. The way he slowly started to push himself back up to his feet from the ice wasn't the most important detail she noticed about her opponent's current condition, though.

It was that there was a thin layer of frost forming on his right side.

Thanks to the superhuman nature world people lived in nowadays, it was easy to forget that Quirks were as much physical abilities as they were barely-understood where conventional science was concerned. When strained too much, a muscle would snap. When running for too long, one would run short of breath. These were constants of the human body, and the limits of a Quirk manifesting in some physical detriment or another was hardly a new concept. Akiko's crystal core fractured or shattered, so perhaps the consequence of Todoroki using his ice for too long was the frost that was now spreading on his body?

Akiko realized that his fire would inherently offset this limit of his. Both of his sides combined provided him a natural equilibrium in regard to his Quirk that might allow him to use it ad nauseum without running into any issues… but he refused to do so.

At that moment, Akiko felt a brief flare in her heart overshadow the pain in her chest to help her stand tall once again. Concurrently, Todoroki had finally managed to climb back onto his feet. Her entire body was still in excruciating pain, while Todoroki's body looked like it was subtly trembling in response to the overwhelming amount of cold it was being subjected to.

Suddenly, she felt like she could bring an end to this match right now, if she didn't care about risking everything. Most people in Class 1-A had become familiar with her four elemental modes by now… but there was a reason she often referred to them as her 'mastered' modes – they were the ones that she'd figured out how to utilize without immediate backlash. The same could not be said for her fifth, and final mode.

Amethyst mode.

Being the state that she'd been born into and always returned to whenever she wasn't in combat, the colors it provided her features were undeniably the most familiar to her. Even with her body accustomed to its passive embrace, however, active use of its potential wouldn't simply drive Todoroki to use his flames. It wouldn't simply carry the possibility of ending their one-on-one match completely in her favor. It would probably render her power inaccessible following its active use.

And she was certain it would critically, if not mortally, wound her, too.

It wasn't an option, and she couldn't waste any more time thinking about it. Her hair, eyes, and crystal core changed again to ruby mode when she heaved her heavy fists back to a combat-ready position. 'I can't afford to keep using emerald and peridot mode, since the strain they'll put on me in exchange for their level of effectiveness here isn't worth it at this point. Only using sapphire and ruby mode is probably my best bet now – even if Todoroki's able to find a pattern in my fighting style and exploit that, ruby mode's power and sapphire mode's low strain requirement to be useful should be enough together to help me stay in the fight.'

On further inspection, Todoroki's right side wasn't the only part of him that seemed to be suffering from some form of setback. His breaths were as equally labored as Akiko's own, and with each exhale he made, cold mist escaped his lips. Not long after she raised her fists again, Todoroki's expression warped into one of obvious frustration, and he lifted his right foot again.

"Come on!" he shouted, and his foot slammed back down.

But the ice wasn't nearly as fast as it had been. Whereas before it sped along like an apex predator mid-hunt on the savannah, now it was more like a lethargic beast of burden that could only pursue her with a mere echo of the energy it once possessed. The knowledge that Todoroki was in fact slowly losing his battle power gave Akiko hope. So long as nothing unexpected happened, she could keep up.

She could still keep the promises she'd made.

As if to fan the flames in her chest further and draw more adrenaline out of her body as a result, Akiko roared as she slugged a heavy punch in the direction of the incoming ice. The furious cone of fire that bellowed out from her fist roared like a banshee and decimated Todoroki's lackluster latest attack to spill toward him in hot pursuit.

"If you thought that I'd let myself go down easily all because the fight's been going on for a while, then think again, Todoroki!" Akiko shouted, and she ignored the protests of her arms as she began pummeling another barrage of fireballs toward him. "I've come too far now to give up!"

Growing ever more sluggish, Todoroki could only ensure his safety in response to her combined assault by going on the defense. He grunted with exertion as a large ice wall countered the dregs of Akiko's fire cone attack, and when the wall failed under the ensuing barrage of smaller fireballs, he resorted to mostly dodging the strikes as best he could, with only the occasional use of his Quirk to defend him when his body proved too slow to keep up with the cannonade. His breath fogged and the ice of his right side continued to cluster into visible crystals, but with a fierce battle cry of his own, his passion mustered more power from his Quirk once again. Todoroki twisted his heel and a barrage of ice barreled toward Akiko with almost the same speed his attacks at the beginning of their battle had possessed, but she didn't recognize his efforts with as much as a flinch of fear.

She didn't let herself feel any fear, either.

'Hitoshi.'

She launched herself into the air like a rocket, blotting out the sun like a demon as she did so.

'Midoriya.'

Two sweeping kicks and downward punches sent a flurry of long arcs and jets of flame at Todoroki whilst continuing to propel Akiko in the direction of her adversary.

'Kyoka.'

Todoroki was forced to return to the defensive and ran forward so that her attacks would land harmlessly behind him rather than waste any more of his stamina on summoning more ice to nullify her attack. Even though he whirled back around once he was sure of his safety and her flames had landed on empty space, Akiko had already landed where he used to be and was preparing another strike. Her features had transitioned to the deep blues of sapphire mode, but her expression betrayed no hint of any willingness to stop.

Fragments of the ice around the arena melted, and three sizable streams of water rushed for Todoroki with the intensity of a fire hose on full blast.

'Denki.'

Despite his attempts at preparedness, Todoroki could only turn two of the streams that pursued him to harmless snow before the final one slammed into him and sent him skidding across the concrete. Akiko lowered her stance to the ground and kicked skyward, and more melted ice turned into a vertical whip-like attack that raced to follow the clean hit she'd got on Todoroki.

'Takai.'

Only by the grace of sheer luck did Todoroki roll out of the way of her streamlined strike, and although he quickly climbed back to his feet, it was clear the damage he'd sustained throughout their battle was taking its toll. His arms hung heavy at his sides, and Akiko knew from his behavior before now that he must have been furious at how she was able to land a good hit on him. Their eyes met in the brief pause of their battle as Todoroki stood up.

'Jomei.'

Todoroki's stance widened, and Akiko returned to ruby mode, ready to rumble one more time.

'I have so many people that have put their faith in me over the past few weeks! People that have opened their hearts to me! I have to make it count! I have to!'

Akiko could feel her crystal core cry out desperately for her to stop, informing her of the brutal nature of the backlash she'd sustain when it finally arrived, but she ignored the pain. The only indicator she gave of her discomfort was a short spasm of her shoulders as her entire chest convulsed, but she wrestled control of her body once again. She wasn't done yet.

"Todoroki!" she shouted fiercely. "Before, you said that I clearly know nothing about you, but I do! So don't go ahead and write me off, because at least in some ways, I do know what you're going through!"

Without giving her opponent a chance to respond, Akiko took advantage of the brief moment of pause her declaration put on her opponent and propelled herself forward with all four limbs shooting fire behind her. Once she had closed around two-thirds of the space between them, she cut off the stream and rolled along the ground to hide her quick transition into sapphire mode. The instant she stopped, she whipped her hand in Todoroki's direction and a large ice ball rammed right into his abdomen – courtesy of the remnants of another one of his earlier attacks that laid forgotten off to the side.

Todoroki pulled off another last-moment maneuver to stay in the ring via the creation of another ice barrier at his back. He glared at her, his hair in increasing disarray and his breath rougher than ever.

"Why…? Why are you doing this!?" he demanded. "You're clearly in pain! I can tell!"

Absentmindedly, one of Akiko's hands reached up to swipe a few stray strands of hair from her face while she fought for breath. "I'm doing this because I know what it feels like to try and live the life you define for yourself while your parents don't give a damn about you, or whatever your dreams might be! And I know what it's like to hold yourself back, especially when you're afraid of the consequences. I may not know what it's like to be scarred in the same way that you've been, but you want to know what I do know!?" She stood up straighter, and the intensity of her voice grew louder as she made another push to shatter the prison Todoroki had constructed for himself in the deepest confines of his mind. "I know that just because you know that your father's entire way of thinking is wrong, you're already ten times the man Endeavor is, and I'm here to make you understand that!"

His eyes went wide, and his entire body froze as he stared emptily at her. Her actions up until this point endowed her words with nearly as much power as any attack she'd managed to land on him. She smirked slightly, even though an action as minor as that reminded her of how much pain she was in.

'Almost there, Midoriya. I promise.'

No matter how hard he tried to fight it, Jomei's composure was beginning to crack.

He saw the opportunity Akiko had made for herself. Whatever she'd just said had hit Todoroki in such a way that no physical attack of hers ever had, and Jomei knew that in this brief period of hesitation Todoroki was going through, Akiko could win right then and there. Sadly, Jomei also knew that she'd never take that shot unless she'd helped Todoroki completely. She wouldn't give up until she'd accomplished that goal, no matter the consequences as to her own safety.

It was then that his fingers started to drum a nervous beat on his arms. Many members of Class 1-A were simultaneously paying attention to both the match below and the seemingly endless growth of his stress with every moment it dragged on. At this point, the only thing he was concerned about was Akiko's safety and the state she'd be in when her match finally ended. Even if she did win, he couldn't even be certain that with Recovery Girl on the scene that she'd be fit to fight in the finals with how much she'd pushed herself over the course of this battle.

Kyoka and Denki each put one of their hands reassuringly on his shoulders, but even that did little to remedy the abject helplessness he felt now. In fact, in some ways, it almost made him feel even worse about everything going on. Their empathy reminded him that while he was caught up in his own worried thoughts about Akiko, his two closest friends were concerned about Akiko's well-being too.

Not that he could talk to them even if he wanted to. His throat was so tight that he couldn't speak, so he let them draw their own conclusions about what he was going through. He couldn't imagine that they'd draw any other conclusion about his mental state than what everyone else could infer about it right now.

His gaze continued to burn a hole in the concrete of the arena, and he hoped – no, prayed that this match would end before too much longer. Before Akiko could get so badly hurt by the backlash of her Quirk when she couldn't hold it back anymore that she'd be in need of hospitalization and not a mere visit to Recovery Girl's temporary office.

'Come on, Akiko… please be safe…'

Sometimes, knowing as much as he did about his girlfriend was as much a curse as it was a blessing.

"For some reason, Todoroki hesitates, but Takara doesn't take a shot!" Present Mic announced in surprise. "Just what the heck is going on down there!?"

Years of introspection and getting lost in her own mind, combined with the fledgling social skills she'd managed to develop over the past few weeks had taught Akiko well how to identify when someone else was in the same state of being that she so often found herself in even a month prior to her acceptance into U.A. Now that Todoroki's eyes were so clearly unfocused despite their being aimed at her, she could tell that his thoughts were anywhere but on their fight.

'Come on, Todoroki… '

Todoroki's eyes drifted from her and down to the ground. He growled in such emotional anguish that for a moment the pain Akiko felt in her chest was replaced by utter heartache for whatever her opponent was going through. His arms curled in toward his chest like he was fighting to keep a demon inside him, and his whole body trembled as he fought to even hunch over.

"You shouldn't let Endeavor control what you do with your Quirk!" she shouted, pouring every ounce of passion into each word she belted out. "Do you want to know why? Because when you refuse to use your left side all because of him, it gives him more control over you than he could ever get otherwise! Don't let what he expects of you rule you, Todoroki! Your Quirk is your own, not his! Use it!"

One last groan of reluctance from Todoroki later, and everything changed.

His head lashed up from his hunched-over position and his eyes met hers for only an instant before an almost imperceptible flame grew and enshrouded his left eye like a wing of fire. That fire grew in intensity, his whole body straightened, and with one last sudden snap of his head up toward the sky…

Todoroki screamed years' worth of trauma out into the heavens.

An inferno instantaneously exploded out from his left side. It revolved around him for only a moment before it repeatedly flared several times over in intensity and whirled like a tempest around him. The roar of more than a decade's worth of pent-up energy unleashed in the flames drowned out the cries of their owner and the audience around them, and Akiko was forced to take a few unsteady steps back as it continued to grow and scorch her from afar. No matter what happened now, one thing couldn't be denied.

Today would be the day that went down in history as the moment in time the Todoroki Shoto of tomorrow was born.

"What's this!?" Present Mic exclaimed, "Todoroki's using his left side!? This has never happened before, even during his special recommendation student entrance exam, but he's definitely using it now! We're way past the ten-minute mark for this match, but it looks like one of our fighters has gotten one hell of a second wind!"

Eventually, the fire let out a sound like a shriek and collapsed in on itself. It lost none of its intensity, though, but Todoroki's form was finally revealed to Akiko once again. The fire ate away at the entirety of his sports uniform jacket and left little more than ash in the wind. Half of his chest was exposed, but aside from that, it appeared as though Todoroki had reeled in control at last.

The frost on his right side melted away with each passing second, and a twisted grin appeared on Todoroki's face. "Takara! You might have been a fool to help me in the middle of such an important battle! Up until this point, I may have thought of you as little more than a mirror of me, a sick reflection! All that said, I can't help but think… you remind me of my mother."

His fire began to emerge from his abdomen up, and from his hip down. The dichotomy between his two sides had never been clearer, and as his sick grin grew wider, Akiko couldn't help but ignore the abject agony she was in right now to smile warmly in return.

"YES, Shoto!" Endeavor cried from somewhere off to the side.

Present Mic expressed everyone's confusion. "Huh?"

Endeavor started to stride down the steps at the bottom tier of the stands. "Have you finally accepted your purpose? That's it, very good! This is the dawn of a new era for us! With my blood in your veins and a perfect Quirk, you'll surpass me! You will live up to the reason I created you!"

It may have easily been confused for sweat from the heat of his own Quirk, but Akiko could've sworn that she saw a single tear run down Todoroki's cheek. Before she could even question if what she saw was real though, it was gone, evaporated by the active flame it had flowed next to.

"Endeavor shouts words of encouragement…? Uh… what a doting father!"

Now that Endeavor's unexpected intrusion on the match had ended, Akiko's attention returned in full back to her opponent. She wasn't going to delude herself into thinking she'd be able to beat Todoroki now that he was at the true height of his power.

Honestly, it'd be more accurate to say that she was resigned to her fate. Promises kept.

"Thank you, Takara… for everything," Todoroki continued. "But know that now, I'm going to be coming at you with everything I've got! Don't blame me for what happens next!"

An island of ice sprouted up to obscure half of the area behind him in seconds, and Todoroki raised his hand to reveal an intense fire compressed onto every square centimeter of his palm, ready to be unleashed. His composure returned, but what Akiko did next momentarily stopped him in his tracks.

Bizarrely enough, she chuckled. "I'm not sure if that'll be necessary, Todoroki."

Perhaps it had been because of how her eyes had been glued to Todoroki alone and adrenaline had been pumping through her veins for so long, but only now that Akiko felt her legs trembling terribly underneath her did she recognize how she must have looked. Strands of hair were stuck to her face at random by beads of warm sweat, her uniform had been marred by all the action it had seen throughout their match, and her chest heaved even though she'd been standing still this entire time. She must have looked like a dead man walking when compared to Todoroki, which, for all intents and purposes…

She pretty much was.

A single fracture appeared in her crystal core. With no more reason for her to hold back the recoil of her Quirk any longer, it looked like the dam was more than ready to break. One of her final actions before the backlash arrived was to smile tiredly at Todoroki and force an arm of hers into a thumbs up, as if to reassure him and everyone watching that she was okay.

Then it all hit her at once.

In one fell swoop, her crystal core fractured like a glass pane. Akiko could hardly hear the entire stadium's shock and horror over the sound of her crystalline chest piece breaking into a thousand pieces. After it happened, the only sensation she could feel was the flowing warmth of her own blood as it trickled down her chest through the gaps and seeped into her uniform.

Fortunately, all Akiko would be able to remember of the moments that followed after that would be the details of the concrete as it raced up to meet her.

Authors Note: Okay! Sports Festival! Pretty much done! OH MY GOD, THIS TOOK WAY LONGER THAN I EVER ANTICIPATED.

In other, less absurdly exaggerated news, I definitely thought this fight would be odd or way harder to write than it turned out to be. But hey! For a fight I decided upon on a whim when a tournament randomizer decided to be useless to me and actually remark a bunch of canon matches from canon in round one, I think it turned out to be pretty good! Todoroki vs Midoriya was literally 'I broke my finger, well guess what, imma use it anyway!' for like half an episode, so I'm glad I was forced to use a little choreography to make this match make sense. Akiko's fight not lasting 'as long' but being much more emotionally charged was my answer to the dilemma of how to execute my own version of Todoroki's awakening. Whether or not I was successful is up to all you lovely people.

And to answer the question before it comes up – Akiko doesn't use sheer determination all the time to hold back the backlash of her Quirk because of both the pain involved and how its more liable to do more damage to her body than its worth, as I hopefully properly established in this chapter. Oh, and yeah, this is another clever little bit of course-correction for the main plot. You guys probably coulda saw it coming that this would happen, but I am quite happy with how this little development for Akiko's characterization turned out. Better than rehashing canon, anyway.

Oh, and yeah, Class 1-A is unanimously impressed with Akiko, but we'll find out soon enough what the longer-term reactions of everyone (and Jomei, in particular) will be when it comes to the self-sacrificing nature of her performance back there. Will there be a lot of feels? Most certainly. What will those feels be, though?

Guess we'll have to wait for the epilogue of this arc and find out, eh?