Izuku was surprised to say the least. Endeavor was one of his idols growing up, especially since his quirk had similarities to the hero. It was a different time in his life where he followed heroes more closely, but here Izuku could clearly remember it. The thought left a sour taste in his mouth. Izuku walked along the opposite wall on the hallway to head to the arena for his match before the hero stopped him.
"Boy, do you have no respect for your elders?" Endeavor called as Izuku passed. Turning around, Izuku found himself staring up at the flame hero. "You're quite powerful. Which hero's son are you? They must have been quite powerful?" Endeavor questioned.
Izuku stared for a moment before he replied. "My dad is a businessman in America, from what I've heard he breathes fire. And my mom has weak telekinesis."
"It's best if you don't lie to me child." Endeavor shot back.
Izuku stared as the temperature of the hallway began increasing. "Is it hard to believe that my family didn't sell themselves for a strong quirk?" Izuku inquired. At this rate, he'd be fighting most of the Todoroki Family by the end of the day. Suddenly, the hallway cooled as the hero turned.
"I was going to tell you to try and give Shoto a good match, but you're no match for my masterpiece. Even if he is handicapping himself," Endeavor taunted. As he began to walk away, Izuku stared at his back and against his better judgement called out to him.
"I see where Todoroki gets his attitude now. He doesn't speak much, but you two are quite similar. However, he's not you, and that power isn't yours either." Izuku turned and continued down the hallway. "He can use his full power or none of it for all I care. In the end, I'll be the one who comes out on top." With his final piece said, Izuku turned down the hallway to head to his match.
Waiting in the hallway, he heard Midnight and Present Mic call for Todoroki to enter the arena and the crowd exploded in cheers. When they called Izuku's name, the crowd became even louder. He walked out confidently, ready to face his opponent. The arena was roaring as the two powerhouses faced off. Izuku stretched to warm up a little bit before Midnight asked if he was ready. He nodded and Todoroki did the same.
The match was called, and Todoroki sent another iceberg. Seeing it coming, Izuku raised his body temperature slightly before he was engulfed in the ice. The entire arena sounded disappointed as Izuku was covered in ice. However, that disappointment flipped suddenly as steam began to emerge from the iceberg and suddenly a hand popped out of the ice.
"That was a good effort." Izuku shrugged as Todoroki could do nothing but glare. Crossing his arms, Izuku stared back at Todoroki before another wave of ice came forward. This time Izuku emerged from the ice even quicker looking for Todoroki who had suddenly disappeared. Izuku looked left before his instincts told him to duck and a leg swept over where his head once was.
Izuku looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with Todoroki before flipping away and putting some distance between the two. Todoroki tried to send another small wave, but this time it was exceptionally slower than the first two. Instead of taking this one head on, Izuku easily jumped to the side of it.
"Your ice is way slower than it usually is, and on top of that you're shivering. You don't have enough resistance to your quirk without using both sides, do you?" Izuku inquired. Todoroki seemed to grow colder as he sent another wave of ice forward. And though this one was larger; it was still the slowest of them all and Izuku took the moment to disappear himself.
When the ice had calmed some, Todoroki couldn't see anything outside of the ice-covered arena in front of him. Todoroki froze as he felt a small warmth from behind him. Izuku sighed as Todoroki turned on him swiftly.
"You're absolutely terrified of fire, aren't you?" Todoroki tried to turn and explode in another wave of ice but there was a heat on his right side that nullified his ice. And suddenly, Todoroki was defenseless. He began to swing wildly at Izuku, desperately attempting to wring his arm free. Leisurely dodges were all the effort Izuku would expend to avoid the blows.
"If this is all you've got then just give up. This is as far as you go." Izuku said. Todoroki was consumed by a blind rage.
"You don't understand anything, you're probably working for my father! f I use his quirk, I'll be no better than him." Todoroki yelled. He was still struggling to get free.
Izuku sighed as the display continued. "Your blood doesn't define you. It's your quirk, you can be whoever you want to be with that power."
Todoroki's struggles ended suddenly and there was a pause. The audience was confused as Todoroki stopped fighting and he looked into the distance. Izuku could only watch as the distant look suddenly changed and hardened as his left side exploded. Izuku's reaction was to jump back suddenly and put distance between himself and Todoroki. Izuku thought he might have a moment to breathe, but then the fire streamed towards him.
Izuku could only smile as he sent a wave of fire back to block. Todoroki stared forward and matched the smile with an equal grin of his own. Suddenly, the two of them clashed again and the arena exploded into shouting when suddenly Endeavor began to call to the arena. But before he could make any substantial progress in what he was saying, his beard flared into his face stopping him from talking.
"Sorry, but we made great progress today and I refuse to lose that to you." Izuku quipped as he faced off with Todoroki. "How about we go ahead and finish this."
Todoroki nodded as he launched a wave of ice larger than any other before. Izuku ducked around the ice and went flying dead at Todoroki when suddenly Todoroki switched to his fire. It was in that moment that Izuku realized exactly what was occurring and cut Todoroki's flames before closing the gap. By the time Todoroki could react, he had a foot driven into his side and was sent flying out of bounds violently.
Izuku then looked and realized that part of his body had been wrapped in the cement of the arena and another part of his arm was wrapped in Midnight's whip. Once the match was called and Todoroki was taken away to Recovery Girl's temporary office, Izuku was allowed to leave the ring.
As Izuku walked down the hall and a small recess occurred to fix the ring for the next match, Izuku made his way to the 1-A seating area where Yaoyorozu had already left for the waiting room. When he returned, he was swarmed with questions about Yaoyorozu's opponent for the next match.
"She's your friend do you know what her quirk is?" Jiro asked.
"Do you know how to handle it?" Hagakure followed.
"Honestly, I'm not sure what to call her quirk, but it's a bit ridiculous. She has a heat manipulation quirk, but it's an extreme heat." Izuku replied as he looked for the correct way to explain Maki's quirk to the class. "I guess in simple terms it's so hot around her when she manipulates heat that it expands the universe around her for a moment."
Some of his classmates looked a bit confused at the explanation and that made Izuku sigh. "Basically, she can stop time." The class looked ready to riot at hearing the explanation for her quirk. "She can't do it forever because without anything to heat her in that universe she creates she would freeze, but she can stop time for probably ten seconds at this point."
Before anyone could make another comment Yaoyorozu and Maki were called to the arena. Which happened to be Bakugo and Kirishima's cue to head to the waiting room and wait for the match to end. As Izuku looked to the arena, he could see Yaoyorozu trying to calm herself against her opponent. It was obvious that she was beyond nervous because she had most likely concluded what Maki's quirk was.
Midnight called for the match to begin and suddenly Yaoyorozu was sliding on her back and rolled close to the edge of the arena. She looked a bit confused but made a weapon quickly and rushed forward only to be repelled back further. And just as quickly as the match started, Yaoyorozu found herself at the edge of the ring.
Instead of responding by fighting back, she dropped her weapons and stepped out of bounds herself. She hung her head as she walked out of the arena and Izuku could only stare at her back as she dejectedly walked into the hallway. Maki seemed stunned to have an opponent simply walk out of the arena, but with this she secured the match she wanted. And soon triumphantly left the arena.
Some of the girls left to find Yaoyorozu, but Izuku stayed in his seat. Despite the fact that he was the class rep there was nothing he could do if she admitted defeat herself. At the moment her confidence most likely took a major hit and until she worked through that nothing anyone said would be of any use to her. It could only amount to empty words.
Meanwhile because the match had ended so suddenly, Kirishima and Bakugo were soon facing off. Kirishima hardened himself and rushed forward in an attempt to close the distance between himself and Bakugo, but Bakugo unleashed explosion after explosion. Before long, it became clear that it was a war of attrition. For every step forward that Kirishima could manage in his hardened state, he was pushed another half-step back by Bakugo's explosions.
Bakugo himself didn't move from his original spot in order to beat Kirishima at his own game and further assert himself among his classmates. Kirishima, to his credit, was making excellent progress and was slowly closing the distance between himself and Bakugo, but the explosions began to pick up in power.
Izuku noticed it himself and realized exactly why in an instant. The reason that Bakugo could afford to play such a risky game is because the longer he fights the more he sweats. And in his case, more sweat meant even greater firepower. There was very little Kirishima could do as he began to be pushed farther and farther away from Bakugo. The match has even lasted so long that his hardening was starting to break down. Suddenly, Kirishima found that there were no more explosions coming and looking forward, he could see Bakugo propelling himself forward with explosions.
Returning to his guard, Kirishima was surprised when Bakugo broke through and then even more shocked when the largest explosion of the match sent him sliding outside of the ring towards the wall. By the time Kirishima managed to stop, he had already well lost the match and was left even more in awe of Bakugo than ever before.
"That was super manly!" Kirishima declared as he ran after Bakugo already forgetting the bitterness of defeat.
Izuku could only sigh at the display. There was a brief pause between the matches as the arena needed a small touch-up, but eventually the final match came into view. It was Iida versus the girl from 1-B, Izuku recalled. Present Mic supplied that her name was Shiozaki over the announcements. The match was quite underwhelming though as Iida rushed straight forward and pushed the girl out of bounds before she could use her quirk. Izuku was perplexed by Iida's decision. Despite the fact that he could have lost, he was still quite gentle with how he pushed her out of bounds.
Izuku looked over and saw Maki glaring into his direction and could only smile back. When Present Mic announced that there would be a small break before the next matches, Izuku went to the waiting room assigned to him for the match. Thinking back, he could remember every match he had ever lost to Maki even before they started using their quirks in training. She had always won every match and it was during that time that Izuku made her his goal to surpass.
Izuku looked around the empty room and sighed. "This is my first step in becoming a hero, surpassing who I used to be and beating Maki. Only then can I say I moved forward."