Izuku woke up sometime after it was all over. They had had the big ceremony, they had gone back to school where Aizawa had informed them about the near future at the school, ranging from them effectively getting a two-day vacation while the following days would be the sports festivals for the second and third years, to reminding them that once they got back, they would be going over the various pro's that had been scouting them for internships, to bring informed that they would be having special classes with Thirteen about restraint.

Izuku only vaguely heard about it, as Venom told him.

He was far, far too out of it to care, as he sat on the car back home.

Izuku was DRAINED. Utterly, and completely drained. It was like the numbness that had set in after being struck down by Eren had returned, only several magnitudes stronger.

It was like the entire world around him, from the colors to the physical world he was touching, to the pain in his shattered teeth was completely washed out.

He didn't feel anything at the moment. Not joy or pride at having won, not pain from his utterly destroyed teeth, not disappointment he hadn't gotten to experience the award ceremony, not worry about the fact that Venom had taken complete control over his body at the end.

It was a harsh lesson, one Izuku would come to realize in time, that trying to overcome his problems by getting utterly pumped on a chocolate high, was not the smartest idea in the world. Though admittedly, a lot of his current feelings had a lot to do with getting drained by Recovery Girls healing process on top of that.

The ONLY thing Izuku felt at that moment, was a deep, DEEP desire to go lie down in his bed and embrace the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

Which incidentally, was exactly what he did, being incredibly unlike himself as he completely ignored his mother and just went straight, to bed without even kicking off his school uniform.

I

Shoto wasn't entirely sure what he had been expecting as he headed to the address Mei had given him.

A relatively big mansion, surrounded by stone walls was not it, however.

His father had been bloody pleased with his loss and hadn't even questioned him heading out.

The bastard thought he was finally giving in to his wishes. That he had seen for himself how far he could go with only ice now, and that he would have to give in to the old man's demands.

It was the same thing Uraraka had said to him, just without any damned kind words to try and make him swallow it.

There was no way he was going to bend now, just because the going got rough. Especially not when an alternative had presented itself.

He rang the doorbell, which was covered in dust, and looked like it hadn't been used in years.

After a short pause, a click came, and the door opened, letting him step into the space between the gates and the building proper.

The place was NOT well cared for.

The entire yard was absolutely overgrown with grass and weeds, except for a path where someone had dumped a series of plastic tarp over the top of it all, letting him walk on it towards the house.

Said house was also not well cared for, though in it's case, there was more wrong with it than simple neglect of upkeep.

For one thing, there was a terrace that had completely collapsed on itself, though the lack of rot, suggested it was not the result of rot and tear.

Other than that, the green paint was very faded, with a series of scratches, and cracks in the wood along the whole outer structure. Some were obviously the case of cuts, and some looked like they had been hit by things of various sizes.

As he stepped up to the entrance, the outer door opened, and Mei greeted him in her regular overly cheerful and energetic way.

"Hello, Todoroki Shoto! Welcome to my old home, and lab from before Yuei!"

He followed her into the building, as she closed the door behind him, then pushed a series of buttons at the side of the door.

"What's that for?"

"The 212 taser guns that I've got hidden on the property outside. I deactivated them so you could get in without being electrocuted."

The way she said it, so cheery and nonplussed, was utterly at odds with what she had just said.

"That's quite the elaborate security system you've got there." He said in his regular stoic manner.

"Yeah, I've had several problems with break-ins. It's the reason I moved out and into Yuei full-time. Now I only come back to this old place to pick up stuff. Like now."

She motioned for him to follow, as she began walking further into the house.

As one could expect from the outside, the interior wasn't much more upkept, though there was a distinct lack of damaged walls, instead everything was just covered in dust, like the people living here had stopped giving a shit about cleaning the place years ago.

After a while, they reached a set of open steel doors that looked ridiculously out of place in the old building.

Mei quickly stepped inside.

Inside was a whole plethora of gadgets, and equipment. What drew his eye first, however, was a mechanism in the corner of the room with a large red button with a skull and crossbones on it. Above it was the word, DANGER, helpfully written in large red letters, with yellow and black stripes around the entire thing.

"... Why do you have a self-destruction switch in your house?"

"Oh, that? Don't worry, that's just an old thing I made for show when I was younger. It's a replica of the self-destruct of the one in Vegapunks old lab. The actual self-destruct is remote controlled with a unique method of communication only I have the access to."

"Again, the idea of a self-destruct seems… Unnecessary."

"Nah, it's really not. I had a smaller lab on my Mom's old summer house. I invented a shield that repelled bullets there, and the entire thing was stolen by some Americans. I had an alarm telling me about when it happened, but without any method to destroy it, I didn't have any way to prevent it from being stolen and published by someone else."

For the first time that day, Mei's voice became incredibly venomous.

"Now it's the "invention" of some hack American scientist. Joke's on him though, without some of my other equipment, it's completely impractical and expensive."

"I… See."

"Ah, but don't let my worries bother you. You came for my beloved Kuzan 0.3 did you not?"

She walked through the lab, past all sorts of inventions, up to a spot where a big, white suit had been put up on a mannequin.

The suit didn't look particularly high-tech. In fact, it looked like a regular, white winter jacket, along with matching pants, with a pattern the same as thirteen's hero costume, just not as big and poofy.

"Now, self-heating clothing isn't something new. That stuff has been around for over a century now. But as I said, I made this suit to be able to handle the colds Antarctica, before mom told me that due to pesky international laws about the continent, we aren't allowed to settle It large scale. Such a damn waste of land."

She shook her head in annoyance.

"However, it should be absolutely perfect for you! The interior of the suit has heat packs, that will immediately begin to warm the moment they feel a degree at less than -2. Normally, these wouldn't heat up to such a degree to literarily keep ice out of you, as that's just asking to keep the person wearing it alive, but thanks to your ability to handle the heat of fire, you should be fine, so I've removed that restriction."

He stepped forward, and put his hand on the suit, feeling the touch of the fabric beneath. This suit... It represented a way forward, an alternative to the accursed flames that had defined his life with hate and suffering.

"And it will work? It will allow me to compensate for a lack of flames?"

"Sure will! Though there are some complications… a couple of bugs to work out, but that's fine. No invention has ever not needed a few kinks worked out."

A pang of anger flared up, but he forced it down.

"Like what?"

"Well, for one thing, the way I've set it up, you cannot under any circumstances be submerged in saltwater. Like, just so you know, as it is now, it WILL kill you. But that's not too big an issue. I'll just make the thing waterproof for aquatic missions with the next version. More troubling is that I'm not entirely sure how your powers work in relation to your body. Do you need open skin to get full use of your ice? If so, I'll have to completely redesign the entire thing."

"So you want us to run tests."

"Yep."

"Alright. I'm ready."

I

Izuku woke at exactly 10.12 the next day, the dullness of everything having completely given way as he awoke. Instead, he now felt a ravenous hunger, like death itself clawing at his stomach, that dwarfed any other feeling or thought.

As he got up and walked out, he discovered through a note that his mom had prepared some food for him. GOOD! he quickly made his way over to it and DEVOURED everything she had left him.

But it wasn't enough! Not nearly enough! He had to have more! His hunger had to be sated!

He went over to the fridge and quickly began rummaging through it. He had emptied almost the entire thing for food and was crunching his 9th raw egg(Shell and all) Before reason finally returned to his brain.

He immediately felt his cheeks go completely red as he saw the aftermath of his sack of the cold cabinet.

Then, he quickly began to clean up, desperately trying to ignore Venom's snide comments as he did so.

As he did so, thought and reason began to seep back into his brain, along with memories.

It began to sink in.

As he finished up cleaning and went back to his room, he was still weak, still sore, his teeth felt… Strange, and he was still not entirely there, but as he picked up the piece of metal he'd dropped on his desk, he felt a smile come to his lips, as a sense of pride began to blossom in his heart.

There was still so much room to grow, so much of his powers, he hadn't mastered yet, and so much he didn't know about the villains who had attacked Yuri.

But for now, he didn't care about any of that. Right then, at that moment, he felt a sense of real, genuine pride in himself, pride in what he could do.

He closed his eyes and clutched the number one medal to his chest as he grinned.

Then, as he opened his eyes, the morning sun had vanished, and he was in a room of complete darkness.

He froze, the medal still firmly against his chest.

Slowly, he looked around.

Then, a red, low-key light appeared, around where the window should have been.

He turned his head slowly, as red, glowing crystals began to firm out of thin, black air, without a sound.

The crystals, as Izuku suspected they would, began to form words in the English language.

As the words appeared, he couldn't help but notice how uneven they were. Some letters were a perfect, crystalline copy of the letter they were forming, while others barely looked like them, and began to crack as they finished.

Still, he understood what the message was saying.

A child shall be blooded, from her doom shall spring.

He who lays with the jester, the man with red eyes, a bullet thrown, a bursting eye, a severed leg, a crippled man, a destiny you must not deny.

Let him fall, leave him to fate, else wings so large they block the sun, the demon king a paltry speck, in shadow large as this.

Flee the field, leave the battle, don't go there that day.

March 17th, 2218, the year of Gods, the day the seers failed.

Please… Don't go.

The world turned to normal, the light returned, the red crystals winked out of existence.

"Well… At least it's more specific this time.

I

So, about this chapter. First of all, I deeply regret that I didn't make this and the last chapter into one bigger, final chapter, given this is the final chapter one the arc.

This would have worked much better as one big chapter I think.

The second thing I must address is that the most recent chapter has forced me to retcon the date of the previous psychic vision from earlier in the story, as I erroneously estimated to be sometime in February, instead of sometime in March as seems to be the actual case.

I'm mentioning it here, because I DESPISE retcons, and I feel that if I need to have one in my stories, I should be honest about it.

So If you're wondering if this date isn't wrong, you aren't just remembering things incorrectly.

Thirdly, I really wanted to cover it here, but for those wondering why the hell the public isn't reacting more severely TO Eren's effect on Izuku, I was planning on covering it in this chapter, but it didn't really work out, so it will be in the next chapter.

And with that, we are FINALLY done with the tournament arc. For real this time. Next up is the first chapter of Arc 3