Izuku shifted nervously, his back resting against the wall as Todoroki's eyes bored into him from the other side of the corridor.

"S-So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" Izuku queried, uncertainty thick in his voice. "The lunch hall is going to get pretty crowded soon and I'm-"

Izuku's stomach rumbled loudly.

Todoroki slowly blinked, before speaking.

"Are you and Yaoyorozu courting?"

Izuku coughed, choking on air in shock.

Todoroki watched impassively.

Calming his breathing, Izuku pulled on the frankness of Uraraka's quirk and replied. "I don't see how Momo and my relationship would be your business."

Todoroki continued to stare at the green-haired boy. "So you admit there is a relationship?"

Izuku floundered. "I-I didn't say tha-"

"No matter." Todoroki interrupted, turning his head to look away. "As long as you don't hurt her."

Releasing a small sigh of relief, Izuku gave a weak smile. "Oh, you're just looking out for her."

Todoroki frowned and tilted his head. "Correct, why did you think I was asking?"

"No reason!" Izuku squeaked out quickly. "I mean, I thought you said you didn't have any friends."

"I don't."

"This seems awfully like you're looking out for a friend, making sure no-one hurts them, you know, friend things, to do." Midoriya trailed off, his brain running out of words to supply to his mouth.

In lieu of a true response, Todoroki just shrugged.

Midoriya rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. "So, was that the reason you wanted to talk to me? Because, I was going to get some food-"

"Are you All Might's secret love child?"

Izuku's brain melted.

Todoroki continued speaking. "I've seen the two of you training together, eating lunch together, on multiple occasions you've had to stop yourself from addressing All Might by something that sounds like Father."

Izuku was desperately searching for a plausible excuse, his mind racing.

"It's nothing like that, I promise!"

"It's plain to see that the two of you share a close bond, Midoriya."

Izuku struck gold.

"The truth is All Might has been training me, he rescued me about a year ago and copied his quirk by accident. He's been teaching me how to use his quirk safely since then. You can't tell anyone that I copied All Might's quirk though!"

Todoroki arched an eyebrow. "That was supposed to be a secret? Everyone figured that out weeks ago."

"Oh, I hadn't realised."

"I suppose since you have All Might's quirk, in a way, it makes you his successor." Todoroki mused.

Izuku coughed, hiding a choke of shock.

Todoroki frowned, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes.

"So, you are his successor then?"

Unable to find a believable lie to explain away Todoroki's suspicion, Izuku's mouth moved soundlessly.

Todoroki shrugged. "Whatever, I won't tell anyone if that's what you're worried about. I know what that kind of pressure is like."

Izuku's brow knitted, a thought occurred to him. "Your father, Endeavor, you're his successor."

For a few seconds Izuku thought Todoroki was just going to walk away, before the icy expression on the boy's face cracked slightly.

"That's what the old man wishes for, but I've already decided I'm not going to succeed that bastard, I'm going to surpass him, with just my ice."

Izuku held his tongue, he wanted to grab Todoroki and yell at him for refusing to use his quirk, something that quirkless people were denied simply by genetics.

He knew if he did that he would only drive Toodroki further down that path.

Todoroki turned his head to look directly at Izuku.

"You overpowered me, you made me panic and use my flames." Todoroki paused. "I broke my pledge. How? How did you beat me?"

Izuku watched his classmate carefully, before speaking. "Reimitsu's quirk allows her to possess others, but they can fight back. She possessed Kaminari just as we started to charge, used his body to snag the headband from you and I used telekinesis to take it from her."

Todoroki lowered his head, deep in thought. "You're not All Might, he wouldn't use such complex plans."

Izuku flinched, quickly hiding it. "I know, but you're not your father."

Todoroki stiffened, inhaling through his nose.

"I m-mean that we can't all be exactly the same," Izuku hurriedly explained.

Without a word Todoroki pushed off from the wall and began to walk away.

He paused, looking back at Izuku with his scarred eye. "Have you ever heard of quirk marriages?"

"Quirk marriages?" Izuku questioned, looking down. "Your parents had a quirk marriage?"

The green-haired boy raised his head to see Todoroki had left, walking towards the main building.

Izuku sighed.

"Tch, what a diva."

"Argh!" Izuku jumped into the air, accidentally activating his Strength quirk and slamming into the ceiling.

Using Slingshot to cushion his landing, Izuku turned, rubbing the bump on his head, to see Bakugo leaning against the wall.

"Kacchan! What are you doing here?"

Bakugo rolled his eyes. "Making sure you get some damn lunch."

Izuku beamed.

"I don't want you fucking collapsing during our fight." Bakugo shrugged. "Besides, Auntie asked me to make sure you didn't forget to eat."

Izuku's smile only got wider.

"STOP FUCKING GRINNING, NERD!"

~"IT'S TIME FOR THE RECREATIONAL GAMES! Those going ahead to the tournament are free to participate or save their strength for the final event!"~

~"Not participating is the logical decision."~

~"Er, thanks for the thrilling commentary, Eraserhead, but before we start the recreational games a display by OmegaCheer cheerleaders, all the way from America! Wait, what are the 1-A girls wearing?"~

Minoru sniggered along with Kaminari as the girls slowly realised they'd been tricked into wearing the cheerleader outfits.

Yaoyorozu dropped to her knees, covering her stomach by wrapping her arms around herself.

The other girls quickly moved to comfort her, Tsuyu stopping only to shoot a glare at Minoru.

Minoru's laughter stopped, a heavy weight settling in his stomach.

Izuku took a calming breath as he walked out into the field, alongside the other members of Class 1-A who had qualified for the final event of the Sports Festival.

The green-haired boy took the lead as the Class Representative, with Momo and Iida flanking him as the co-Deputy Class Representatives.

Both he and Momo were careful not to make eye contact, they'd met eyes during the cheerleading outfit incident and now they kept blushing every time they saw each other.

Thirty-two teens came to a halt in the center of the field, forming a semi-circle, pointing towards the stage where All Might and Midnight stood, each striking a pose. The former's was bold and heroic, the latter's, less suitable for an international event that was being watched by every schoolchild in Japan.

~"Let's get ready to rumble! Yeah!"~

The crowds cheered, chanting various names, mostly for Bakugo and Todoroki, with a few for Izuku, Iida and from one of the Gen Ed classes, someone named Shinso, most likely one of their number.

~"Gladiators!"~

~"They're not gladiators-"~

~"GLADIATORS! ARE. YOU. READY?"~

A few muffled shouts came from the thirty-two finalists.

All Might released a booming laugh. "I do believe Present Mic was hoping for a little more enthusiasm than that fledglings! How about we do this together, it's time to GO BEYOND!"

"PLUS ULTRA!" The student yelled back, All Might's boisterous attitude tempering their nerves.

"YEAH! That's more like it, you'll need some fire in your souls because the Doubles Round is up next." Present Mic paused, the faint sound of paper being hurriedly shuffled around could be heard. "Aha, here it is. So! The rules are very simple, two teams or two will go head-to-head in a timed ten-minute battle. The aim of the game is to eliminate your opponents, in one of two ways, forcing them out-of-bounds or until they can no longer fight."

"The first method is permanent, once someone has gone out of bounds, they are eliminated for the rest of the fight, however if they are injured or tied up inside of the perimeter they can be freed or healed by their teammate if they have the quirk for it before the end of the bout."

"If both teams are not eliminated by the end of the five-minutes, we enter sudden death, where injuries or capture are permanent eliminations and the border of the fight area will shrink by half a meter every thirty seconds."

"Excellent! Thank you for a refresh on the rules, Present Mic!" All Might smiled. "Now, the match-ups for the Doubles Round, selected at random are as follows."

The screen behind changed, now displaying the line-up for the doubles round.

Match 1

Izuku Midoriya & Shoto Todoroki vs. Isshoni Reimitsu & Minoru Mineta

Match 2

Sero Hanta & Rikido Sato vs. Hitoshi Shinso & Mashirao Ojiro

Match 3

Hineru Hagane & Mikumo Akatani vs. Yuga Aoyama & Kaizan Kogo

Match 4

Ochaco Uraraka & Mezo Shoji vs. Katsuki Bakugo & Eijiro Kirishima

Match 5

Renn Takarakuji & Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu vs. Hikaru Chikyu & Toru Hagakure

Match 6

Mei Hatsume & Yosetsu Awase vs. Tenya Iida & Mina Ashido

Match 7

Ibara Shiozaki & Tsuyu Asui vs. Neito Monoma & Juzo Honenuki

Match 8

Denki Kaminari & Momo Yaoyorozu vs. Illia Armstrong & Fumikage Tokoyami

"No way, that little freak and the weird GenEd girl are up against Endeavor's kid and that Midoriya guy, they're screwed!"

"Yeah, talk about bad luck."

Izuku tightened his hands, swallowing the rising worry. The other students were wrong, Reimitsu's quirk was powerful, so long as she had someone to merge with, and Mineta's quirk was far from weak as well, just under-developed and poorly used.

And that's all before taking into account the fact that Todoroki has the teamwork ability of, well, Endeavor.

Izuku shook his head slowly, thinking over his options, they stood a chance one of two ways, either Izuku convinced Todoroki to get over his refusal to use his fire, thus allowing him to regulate his temperature, or he convinced him to make a plan and work in tandem.

In short, Izuku was screwed.

"Oh god, I'm dead, I'm so dead." Mineta paced back and forth rapidly. "This is too much, I-I-I can't take it!"

Mineta was hyperventilating, clearly in the middle of a panic attack.

Reimitsu watched the small boy spiral further and further into his blind panic.

From what she'd seen of her teammate so far she wasn't impressed, he'd clearly been the ones to trick the 1-A girls into wearing the cheerleading outfits.

But she had to do something, she wanted to win, even if it meant someone like Mineta won as well.

This was her chance to prove she could be a hero.

"Mineta, right?" Reimitsu moved to stand directly in front of the purple boy.

The silver-haired girl got a rapid bobbing of the head in reply.

"I'm going to try using my quirk on you, to help you calm down." Isshoni paused. "You just need to not fight me."

Mineta nodded again.

Isshoni straightened from her slight lean down, before activating Two Become One, blurring away and entering Mineta's body.

Immediately, the teen calmed, his normally purple eyes instead a shade of violet.

He blinked.

Mineta stood in a white void, a small, purple orb of energy in front of him, emitting a weak, flicking light.

"Where am I?"

"I've always called this place whitespace." Isshoni waved placidly as she faded into view. "Midoriya used a different name, quirkspace, I guess it answers my question on whether that orb in the center is a representation of the quirk or the soul."

"Th-that's my quirk?" Mineta questioned. "It looks kinda small, I guess."

"That's actually a good thing." Isshoni assured. "I'm pretty sure it means it's got more potential to grow."

Mineta shrugged. "My mother always said all I got from my dad was a useless quirk and his last name, never met him to see if that was true, he cleared out after she told him she was pregnant with me."

"Well, that sucks." Isshoni awkwardly patted the teen on the shoulder in a manner she hoped was comforting.

"It kinda does." Mineta gave a snort. "Man, we're screwed, Midoriya and Todoroki, they're going to crush us, aren't they?"

Isshoni let the connection go, the two of them returning to the material plane. "Maybe not, I have a plan and it may just work."

"Really?" Mineta's eyes lit up.

"Really." Isshoni paused. "The fight starts, I possess you, and use your empowered quirk to trap Midoriya and Todoroki."

"Todoroki can just blast through my sticky balls-"

"Please never say those words again."

"-they're really susceptible to extreme temperatures, fire burns them up and cold makes them shrivel up."

"I'm not even certain on whether you're doing this on purpose or not." Isshoni sighed. "But I've accounted for that, once we've stuck them in place I possess Midoriya and use a concrete manipulation quirk he has to move the section of the platform they're stuck too out of bounds. What do you think?"

"I think it may work, Todoroki is incapable of teamwork and refuses to use his left side, the fire side, so we can just stick down his right side." Mineta grinned, the feeling of impending doom from the conversation with his mother forgotten for the moment.

The purple teen continued. "The fact he could free himself with his fire, but won't, will make his mind freak out, and Midoriya won't be able to help himself from trying to save him, it's perfect!"

Issshoni gave a matching grin. "Then let's do this!"

Rounding the corner, Izuku saw his partner for the fight, resting against the wall of the entrance tunnel.

"Todoroki." The green-haired teen greeted his classmate, stopping against the opposite wall.

Todoroki looked at him, but didn't reply.

"What you said earlier, about quirk marriages." Izuku stopped, searching for the right words to say. "You were trying to say that's what happened with your parents, isn't it?"

An icy glare was Todoroki's reply.

"I just want to help." Izuku admitted.

"You want to help?" Todoroki snorted, the most emotion Izuku had seen him express so far. "See if you can fix this, my father charmed and paid off my maternal grandparents to allow him to marry my mom, who he selected for her ice quirk, so they could make a kid with a mix of both their quirks, to surpass All Might since he couldn't, took four attempts in the end."

"My eldest brother, Toya, he had a fire quirk, much more powerful than the bastard's. He forced him to train all time, until he pushed him too far and Toya's quirk burnt him, it ki-"

Todoroki paused.

"It severely injured him, left him in a coma for years, all because Endeavor wants to create the hero to surpass All Might, the abuse drove my mom insane, she poured boiling water on the left side of my face because it reminded her of him. So, can you fix that?"

Izuku sighed. "Of course I can't fix that."

"Then why are you trying?"

The green-haired boy sighed again, deeper this time, leaning back against the wall. "Trying to help, it's kind. Just kind."

"Kind?" Todoroki raised his eyebrows. "Kindness is a distraction, saving lives isn't about kindness."

"Todoroki, kindness isn't a-"

~"It's time for the first match of the double stage to begin! On Team A, it's the spooktacular GenEd girl that took victory in the Cavalry Battle as a part of Team Midoriya and the purple pervert-"~

~"You can't call him that."~

~"It's true! Anyway, it's the purple bounce pad of 1-A! And on Team B, it's the two powerhouses of 1-A!"~

Izuku gave a slight smile at the faint sound of Bakugo's indignant shouts.

At the sound of the bell Izuku set off down the tunnel and into the stadium, Todoroki a few paces ahead of him.

~"What's your thoughts on this match up, Eraser, seems a little one sided don't you think?"~

~"Only at first glance, Reimitsu has a powerful possession quirk, she attempted the U.A. Heroics Exam but failed to make it in as she had no-one to possess, which shows the flaws of the exam, it flavours those with highly offensive quirks."~

~"Like Todoroki and Midoriya?"~

~"Certainly Todoroki, however, the key strength of Midoriya's quirk is its versatility, he can be an offensive hero one second, and support hero the next."~

~"Thanks for the analysis, Eraser, time to hand over to Midnight now the participants are in place."~

Midnight cracked her whip, quieting the crowd.

Izuku's eyes drifted up to the private 1-A box, finding the tall, dark-haired figure that was Momo.

"Rules, no targeting of eyes, or other particularly sensitive areas, if any part of you touches the ground outside of the ring, you are eliminated, restrained or unconscious participants that remain in the area will be eliminated when the time limit of ten minutes has elapsed." Midnight cracked her whip again. "Cementoss will remain ringside as long as myself, to repair the ring and separate the participants if required. Understood?"

Izuku nodded, Todoroki gave a near imperceivable nod of his head, while Mineta and Reimitsu gave far more positive responses.

They have a plan, one they're confident in.

"On my mark." Midnight raises her arm, before bringing it down with another whip crack. "FIGHT!"

Before Izuku could even react Todoroki slammed his right foot down, a glacier of ice growing from the point of contact, swallowing up Mineta and Reimitsu, reaching just short of the first row.

Izuku blinked, unsure of what to do. Was it over already?

The ice began to crack, before a shower of ice fragments peppered Izuku and Todoroki, the former releasing a breath of fire to melt them, the latter creating a wall of ice to block them.

At this point Izuku had tuned the commentary out, looking through the steam for Mineta and Reimitsu.

And then he saw them, Mineta stood, surrounded by ice fragments, his eyes glowing violet. One of his spheres, swollen to at least fifty times it's normal size sat at the ground zero of the icey escape.

Reimitsu had possessed him, empowering Mineta's quirk. Powerful enough to block Todoroki's ice.

Crouching down and activating Strength , Izuku launched himself at Mineta, turning his left arm into rock.

A wall of purple rubber sprang up in front of Mineta, reflecting the force back onto Izuku's wrist, bending it reverse and breaking it.

"Take this!"

Izuku looked up in time to see Mineta pull sphere after sphere, twice the size than normal, from his scalp, throwing them at Izuku and Todoroki.

B - Cement

Izuku slammed his open palms down on the concrete stage, he could suddenly feel the presence of every bit of concrete in the area. Concentrating on in front of himself, Izuku raised a wall of concrete up, Todoroki doing the same with his ice.

Instead of sticking the spheres deflected, before suddenly exploding in every direction. Viscous purple goo flew at both Izuku and Todoroki, binding the former's arms to the concrete, and the latter his right arm and leg.

Activating his Strength quirk, Izuku pulled at his arms, trying to free them. Instead he could feel the bones, muscles and tendons straining under the force, preparing to snap.

Izuku quickly ruled out his Acid quirk, a compound of two Acid quirks he'd copied during the USJ, as soon as the combined Mineta and Reimitsu spotted him using it to melt the goo they'd just throw more.

A - Spacial Blade

In front of Izuku a blade of condensed air formed, reaching out with a Minor Telekinesis quirk he swung it down through his arms, above the goo.

Izuku stumbled backwards, his arms remaining attached to the concrete stage, the points where they had been severed covered in normal skin.

Mineta paled, before taking a slightly queasy appearance. "Oh shit, M-Midoriya's arms!"

Standing straight, Izuku slammed his foot down on the concrete floor, using his Cement quirk again to rupture the ring in a straight line, aimed at Mineta.

With his opponent off-balance and unable to throw more spheres, Izuku rushed forwards, managed to get almost five feet from Mineta before Reimitsu materialised from within him.

The silver-haired girl charged at him, sending a punch towards his undefendable torso.

With a single strand of Slingshot Izuku fired a loose piece of concrete at Reimitsu's wrist, forcing her punch wide.

Ducking another punch Izuku cursed, he had realised until now quite how many of his quirks relied on his arms and hands to be used.

Explosion. Wave Motion. Slingshot's secondary ability.

Izuku could see Reimitsu was getting ready to spring a trap, her eyes gave her away.

Good thing Izuku had a surprise of his own up his sleeve.

Reimitsu's form began to blur around the edges as she raced at Izuku, at the same moment he cancelled Spacial Blade, his arms returning to their rightful places, free of goo. He'd been distracting Mineta and Reimitsu while Acid had burnt through the bindings.

Raising his left arm, Izuku activated his Recoil Defence Parallel Circuit, his arms turning to elastic rock. Face set in concentration, he added Strength and Wind Generation to the mix before flicking his finger.

With a crack like a gunshot a tornado of air burst forth from Izuku's hand, slamming into Reimitsu and knocking her high into the air, towards the boundary.

Reimitsu smudged, re-entering Mineta, to escape elimination by ring-out.

Izuku was soon forced back on the defensive, dropping back behind a new concrete wall, curved to stop Mineta using the same explosion trick.

Looking around the ring Izuku caught sight of Todoroki repeatedly trying to freeze the goo to a point it would lose its adhesiveness, ice building up on his right side.

"Todoroki, you have to burn it away, your ice isn't cold enough!" Izuku called, still sheltering behind his wall, his finger and thumb throbbing as Hyper Regeneration began its work.

"No." Todoroki responded through chattering teeth, his breath coming out as mist. "I will never use my father's flames, I told you why."

Izuku tried to dart across to Todoroki, only to be stopped by another hail of spheres.

"They're your flames, not his!" Izuku yelled. "He doesn't create them!"

Todoroki's left hand tightened into a fist, wisps of smoke beginning to trail from.

"USE THE FLAMES I GAVE YOU!"

Izuku cursed in frustration at Endeavor's shout, watching as Todoroki's hand went limp, the smoke cutting off.

"No. I refuse to use your flames!" Todoroki barked, it was the first time Izuku had heard him raise his voice.

"Todoroki." Izuku called, getting his attention. "We can't win like this, we're going to time out and lose since you're trapped."

"What do you suggest?"

"Use their own strategy against them." Izuku answered. "Please don't fight me, I promise I won't use your flames."

Izuku blurred, turning into a multicoloured streak and entering Todoroki.

He blinked, finding himself in Todoroki's quirkspace, the void white in colour, with what he assumed to be Half-Hot, Half-Cold in the center.

It was unlike any other quirk Izuku had seen so far, clearly only a single quirk, but two-tone, red and pale blue, swirling around like yin and yang.

Turning, Izuku saw a door, sliding and of a more traditional style, in front of it stood Todoroki, watching him closely.

"You copied that girl's quirk."

It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Izuku nodded. "During the cavalry battle, Two Becomes One, it's a powerful quirk, versatile."

"Did you mean it?" Todoroki questioned. "That you wouldn't use my left side?"

"Yes." Izuku answered. "It's your quirk, you get to choose what you do with it."

Todoroki blinked, his face remained impassive. "I see, then, yes, I agree to not to fight your possession."

Izuku smiled. "Thank you. Together, we can win this."

"Good." Todoroki stepped to one side.

Izuku walked up to the door, pausing, before sliding it open and stepping through.

The green-haired boy felt the possession take hold, before something went horribly wrong.

Black lighting covered Izuku's body as he yelled out in pain, finding himself in his own quirkspace, a silhouette of a man with spiked hair stood over him.

"Huh, you want us to share your power with him?"

Izuku sighed in relief as the pain subsided, the black lightning slowing to the occasion spark.

"My power?"

"One For All, by possessing him you are containing it in another body, it requires approval." The silhouette answered.

"You're a vestige." Izuku realised. "Wait approval, what approval?"

The silhouette sighed, Izuku could practically hear the sound of them rolling their eyes.

"Yes, approval." The silhouette responded. "When One For All is passed on the new holder is judged, by all of the vestiges. If we agree they are worthy unanimously, then the quirk manifests, otherwise, it reverts the current holder. However, this is a new situation, you are not passing the quirk on, it is still bound to you, instead you are temporarily housing it in a new body."

Izuku frowned. "I see. So you all have to agree that Todoroki is worthy to have One For All while I possess him?"

"No, this is different. You could possess him even if we all thought him unworthy, but while you did One For All's power would be beyond your reach." The silhouette paused. "In this case Todoroki only requires the approval from one of us to use One For All. That vestige will then act as a conduit for One For All's power to flow through to Todoroki."

"And you're going to give your approval."

The silhouette gave a curt nod. "That I am. Good luck, Izuku Midoriya."

The lightning around Izuku turned ice-blue, growing in volume until it covered every square inch of him.

Todoroki opened his eyes, the irises glowed ice-blue, odd bursts of similarly coloured lightning shooting across his body.

"This power." Todoroki whispered. "This is All Might's power, the quirk you copied. I see now why my father never stood a chance at surpassing him."

The temperature suddenly dropped, lower and lower, emergency heaters coming to life in the stands to protect the spectators.

With another, even colder wave of icy air Mineta's spheres peeled away, dropping to the floor harmlessly

~"What's this?! Looks like Midoriya's managed to copy his opponent's quirk and has possessed his teammate!~

~"Todoroki's free, but they're at disadvantage since he was immobilised for so long. Even if they were able to immobilise one of their opponents now they're not enough of the match left as Todoroki was trapped for."~

~"I get it Eraser, if they wanna win they've got to force at least one of their opponents out the ring, or knock them both unconscious."~

Todoroki stood, light blue eyes boring into the violet of Mineta's. "We are going to win, without using my father's fire, understood?"

Izuku nodded Todoroki's head. "Understood, no using your flames, also, I have a plan."

Todoroki's eyes flickered, before turning green, Izuku was in the driver's seat now. Slamming Todoroki's foot down, Izuku activated Half-Cold, creating staggered walls of ice to shield them from more of Mineta's spheres.

Mineta leapt back, dodging Izuku's attempt to freeze him at range, the thin ice around his ankles breaking and peeling away.

Purple goo ran down Mineta's body and onto the floor, before rising back up again to form a thick, domed cocoon, completely obscuring them from view.

"They plan to waste the remainder of the fight." Todoroki commented. "Does this action undermine your plan?"

"The exact opposite." Izuku spoke through Todoroki's body. "I was counting on this."

Slamming Todoroki's right foot down again a massive ice basin formed, with a ramp aimed in the direction of Mineta's cocoon.

Crouching, Izuku called on Slingshot and pushed off from the floor with all four strands as well as a Strength-enhanced jump.

At the same time Izuku created a set of clip-on ice skate blades, securing them over Todoroki's boots.

"You know how to ice skate, right?" Izuku questioned as they plummeted towards the basin.

"I do." Todoroki replied, landing graceful in the basin, skilfully skating around the basin, gaining speed. "Do you?"

"Er, no?"

"Is that a question or an answer?"

"Both?"

Todoroki sighed, his breath misty. "What was your plan if I didn't know how to skate?"

"I didn't plan for that." Izuku admitted.

"You planned for a new facet of Mineta's quirk, but not if both yourself and I could not skate."

"Yeahhh, I did, didn't I?" Izuku gave a weak chuckle as Todoroki continued to skate around the basin, gathering momentum.

Todoroki snorted slightly. "You are the most terrifying intelligent idiot I have ever met."

"Todoroki, look out!" Izuku shouted.

Looking across, Todoroki saw a hail of Mineta's spheres coming down upon them.

"I need to use one of your quirks." Todoroki stated, holding his arms backwards, twin tornadoes forming around them, increasing his speed and getting them out of the line of fire.

~"What are Todoroki and Midoriya doing? There's only a minute left on the clock and Mineta and Reimitsu have the advantage!"~

"Damn, I wanted to build up more speed but we don't have the time, I'm going to have to take the reins!" Izuku yelled, Todoroki's eyes turning green.

Changing course, Izuku kept Wind Generation in effect as they rocketed towards the ramp, the telltale sparks of Creation appearing across his palms.

"What are you doing?" Todoroki queried as the edge of the ramp came closer and closer.

"Creating pure oxygen." Izuku answered, before Todoroki's arms turned to rock as his body left the end of the ramp.

Izuku clicked their fingers, a stray spark igniting the oxygen as he switched the Wind Generation to their legs.

A massive ball of fire propelled them forward, their force sustained by twin tornadoes of wind and fire, his earthen fist aimed at the rubbery cocoon.

"SEPTEMBER SMASH!"

The fist hit the cocoon, causing it to ripple dangerously, before rupturing and allowing Izuku and Todoroki's attack to continue, fist slamming into Mineta's chest.

Izuku and Todoroki hit the ground and rolled, separated back into their individual bodies as Mineta hit the wall of the stadium, cushioned by a scrap of the goo cocoon, splitting apart.

Midnight cracked her whip. "Mineta and Reimitsu are out of bounds, Todoroki and Midoriya are the winners!"

Izuku pushed himself to his feet, glancing across at Todoroki, the both of them covered in purple goo. "We don't make too bad of a team, do we?"

Todoroki kept an impassive expression on his face. "Our teamwork was adequate."

Izuku chuckled to himself, wiping goo out of his hair as Todoroki walked away.

"I really need a shower."

A drop of blood splashed on Izuku's one of trainers, darkening the already red fabric.

Reaching up, Izuku brushed his nose, his fingers coming away bloody, his head pounding to the rhythm of the dripping blood.