I hope you enjoyed the first round because the fights are about to get even bigger. BTW, in three or four chapters from I'll be closing the polls so pick your now before it's gone.

Chapter cover- Ice around the frame with Cortney in the center about to pluck her left hand.

Ch.18- No choice

Standing in front of Shoto, I know what he's going through but I need to defend myself, I hope Kim ready.

The second the match starts Shoto launches a wave of ice at me. I manage to Fifth gear activated and brace my left hand to fire off a Flush with my index finger to destroy the ice, it goes right through and manages to reach Shoto. He makes an ice wall behind himself to prevent himself from being blown away.

That attack didn't destroy my finger but it's numb if I try to use again, I will break that finger but Shoto retaliates with another attack and this time I use my ring finger to stop his attack. I just need to wait for my chance, Shoto will soon start to feel the repercussion of his quirk and I have two, no three more shots with my left hand before I start to hurt myself. I need to save my right arm for if I need to Ace, I don't know if I'll break my arm with Kim's power but I need to be careful.

"Let's continue." Shoto gave me a second to recover but continues his onslaught.

Stands

"Have you guys notice that?" Axel asks Peace and Pony.

"What?" Pony retorts, Axel holds up his left hand.

"Cortney is using ranged attacks with her left hand. And she has Fifth gear enabled." Peace and Pony both know what Axel is getting at but everybody else is at a lost.

"What's the difference between Cortney using her left or right hand? Isn't it gonna come out the same?" Neito really doesn't see the point with this conversation.

"Cortney CAN'T use her ranged attack with her left arm naturally. It must have to do with Fifth gear for her to be able to do that." Peace suspects.

Fight

"CrapCrap, Crap!" After stopping another one of Shoto's attacks, I used up all fingers on my left hand, all I have is my thumb but Shoto needs to be close for me to use it.

Now Shoto rushing at me while making a pillar of ice to get over me, I fire another Flush using my index finger on my right hand to destroy the pillar but Shoto jumps off in time.

He comes crashing down on me in an attempt to freeze me, I jump out the way leaving Shoto to freeze the spot I was standing at but he follows up by sending his ice to chase me.

When it reaches my foot I have to go all out, or it's all over, I reel back my right arm and throw a full power Aced that blows away all the ice and it still has enough power to hit Shoto and push him back a few meters. It feels like all the bones in my right arm are about to shatter, if I try anything else I'll risk giving myself permanent damage.

"That was more powerful than any other attacks." Shoto pushes away a column of ice, revealing some ice is forming on his arm meaning he's getting close to his limits. Shoto stares over to his dad. The number 2 hero Endeavor, just seeing him makes my blood boil.

"Let's end this." With that Shoto sends off a finishing wave of ice towards me but I'm not letting this end here, I grit my teeth and get ready to fire off another Flush.

"I'm not done yet," I say, flicking my left index finger, destroying his ice and breaking the bones in my left index finger in the process. It's hurt so bad, it feels like the bones are exploding like firecrackers. My attack goes on to hit Shoto again, almost pushing him out of the area.

"Shoto." I say in a demeaning tone while fixing my posture, "Don't think that you can win without hitting me with a single punch. You're reaching your limit, ice is forming on your body, you're starting to freeze yourself. You would counter this with your right side but you refuse to. STOP GOING EASY ON ME! You haven't landed a single attack on me, showing me how weak you are because of something petty." I clutch my left hand while looking like the match hasn't even started yet, "SHOW ME YOUR FULL STRENGTH OR YOU'LL NEVER WIN! LET ME SEE YOU FLAMES BURNS!" As I bellow out my feelings on this match, all the pain seems to wash away and I'm feeling a massive rush of energy.

"Petty? You don't know anything me, now you made me mad." For once Shoto just rushes at me, no ice. He's coming at me in blind anger but remarkable slowly than he normally. He finally makes a mistake by slipping on some ice, giving me a clean shot, I get in close and land a punch in his stomach with my right arm, however even though I got a second wind, due to the damage I've done to my hand, I can't use the drive technique properly. So the power isn't close to what I can normally do.

I send Shoto flying but he does cover my left arm with ice and got it past my gauntlet and covered most of my arm. It's gonna take me a second to get it off but when Shoto gets back up, he sends more ice at me. Now through his ice has lost at its speed and is much smaller so I can just dodge out the way.

When he gets close again, he freezes the ground under me but I send both of us flying away with another Flush from my left hand, I'm not feeling pain anymore for some reason, what's going on did I inherit something from Dad or- I can't think about that, now I need to focus on this match. I might gain a scar but if it's to help someone I'll take the risk. To be able to help Shoto is greater than winning the match.

My resolve is set, so I'll keep giving it my all. Shoto sends out more ice I blow it away with another Flush, but now it's reaching the point that I'm even damaging the nerves, so put my thumb into my mouth and pull back to fire another Flush, I even manage to push Shoto back again but now I'm down to kicking but I still have something so I can still win.

"Why are putting yourself through this?" Shoto does not understand what motiving me to continue fighting even though my pain is showing now. Blood is pouring out the sides of my gloves and I'm wobbling but I'm still fighting on.

"Because you're holding back your full potential. I want everybody to be a great hero. " I say and Shoto leaves himself open allowing me to shove my foot into his stomach, that seems to snap him out of it.

"I'm giving it my all, like you should be. I don't know your story but let me tell you something, someone in your family loves you. My family is watching me fight right now, they're in the crowd. I fight for the people that you love so, STOP SCREWING AROUND." I Sparta-kick Shoto in the stomach to get my feelings across but Shoto seems lost. When Shoto gets back up, suddenly my memories of what Dekuy said to Shoto rush back to me, "It's yours. It's your quirk, not his."

Shoto's flames suddenly burst to life, I did it, I helped Shoto realize what he forgot. In-person, I get to see Shoto full flames but I'm not done yet, I still have a match to win. Shoto melts the ice off his arm, the flames are so intense they're somehow even hotter than Peace's. Fire covering one side Shoto and ice covering the other, this is Shoto's full power. As Shoto smiles at me, Endeavor comes out of nowhere to encourage Shoto.

"Why are you smiling.. with those injuries in this hopeless situation… you're crazy. Don't blame for what happens next." Shoto says as he prepare to send an ice age at me. As I activate Sixth gear, Cementoss and Midnight try to stop the match but it's too late.

Shoto sent a gigantic wall of ice at me but I jump over and run down the ice. Shoto uses his flames to melt the ice and sticks his hand out.

"I understanding now Cortney, thank you." Shoto says as I put all the power I can into my legs.

"You're welcome." Just as our attacks collide an explosion goes off, Cementoss puts some walls in between us but doesn't matter. We send debris everywhere and cause a massive shockwave. Once things settle down and the smoke clears away, I somehow knocked Shoto out of bounds and into the wall.

"Todoroki i-, is out of bounds. TAN WINS! She advances to the third round. " Midnight declares it, I won. As the crowd cheers and things calm down, the fatigue of the entire match hits me at once, I fall asleep right then and there.

Later

I wake in the nurses' office, my gloves and gauntlets have been removed and my hands are covered in bandages. I feel really tired, I wiggle my fingers a little to see if they still work, I can move them but not without some pain.

"You're real lucky." I hear Recover Girl say, "Somehow you managed to avoid gravely damaging your hands but that was still very reckless to keep fighting." She scolds me on my decision and she is right.

I sigh, "But can I still fight? I'm leaving this up to you." She is the doctor it's up to her if I can still fight or not.

"I'll allow to keep going if you want to, but I'm banning you from using any special attacks, one more and who knows what might happen." I'm happy that Recover Girl will still let me fight but her request does put me on edge a little to know that if I use one more attack I'm done for, it's kinda scary.

"Hey is Cortney ok?" And Tetsu bust into the room along with Peace, Axel and Pony.

"I'm ok Tetsu, don't worry about me." I try to give Tetsu a thumbs up but have some trouble, "Ok, I'm not at one hundred percent."

"Your friend here almost gravely injured her hands but she's will be able to continue but I'm banning her from using her special attacks." She informs them about my condition.

"Are you sure that's a good idea to let her keep fighting, if she's in that sort of condition?" Axel asks but I want to keep going and Recovery Girl said I'll be fine.

"Don't worry about me go cheer on Ibara, I'll be back at the start of my next match." I say before Recover Girl forces them to leave and head back to their seats.

I lay down to regain some energy but then get a call. It's Lisa, I haven't talked to her in a little while and I really want to see her again.

"Hey sis, what's up?" I hear her laugh a little when I pick up.

"Nothing much, I just wanted to tell that you're doing awesome, I've been watching you since the start. Keep going you're almost there, make sure you're number one." Sis encourages me to finish the fight.

"Hey sis, are you ever coming home?" I really want to see Lisa again in person.

"Yeah, I'll be coming back before your second semester starts, I promise." I smile knowing that I'll see sis soon.

"Great, make sure you tell me about your time in America. Because with us it's never boring." I'm glad sis decided to call right now because that means everyone is cheering for me to win so I need to rest up and think of a strategy for my next match. I hope the others will be able to advance as well.

"Look sis, I need to rest up but keep cheering me on." I will wish I could show her my spirit now, she agrees before hanging up.

"I feel like crap," I mutter to myself, I don't even need to see Kim to know she's the same way. I'm stuck without my two other gears for the rest of the tourney so I have to rely on just myself, good luck guys.

Stands

After the area is repaired the next fight starts it's Tenya vs. Ibara and the fight ends before it starts, Tenya uses Recipro Burst to push Ibara out the area to end the fight.

"Damn, that move is scary fast. I could barely keep up." Axel comments to which Neito chimes in.

"I saw you using that same technique during the cavalry match, so you show be able to keep your eyes on him." Neito tries to make undermine Axel.

"Let me explain my quirk. My quirk allows me to collect data on people abilities, it's worthless on emitter quirks, I think I may be able to copy transformation quirks with some more training but it's best used on mutation quirks. But that not the end of it, it takes some time for me to get used to it, special moves especially I need some more time to work on Recipro Burst, so shut up Neito." Axel ends off his explanation by telling Neito to shut it.

The next matchup is Peace vs. Tokoyami. Tokoyami summons Dark Shadow to knock Peace out of bounds but she fires off a Grand Flash which forces Dark Shadow to retreat and allows Peace to close the distance to pin Tokoyami which wins her the match.

The final match is Bakugo vs. Kirishima. Kirishima uses his quirk to block Bakugo's explosions, he manages to cut Bakugo across the cheek with one of his punches and forces Bakugo to back off. Kirishima keeps up the pressure and forces Bakugo to go on the defensive. This all happens while Tetsu cheers Kirishima on.

Meanwhile

Recovery Girl has finished the last of my treatment so now I can finally leave, my hands still hurt whenever I flex them so I really can't use my special moves.

"Before you go sunny, please try to come with another way to use that other quirk of yours." How does she know about that?

"What do you mean?" I try to see what she know.

"Your mother told me about your family condition and your quirk. You have quite a dangerous quirk you better learn how to control it. I'm not healing anymore reckless injuries like that. Now get going before you miss the last match." I take her advice to heart, I do need to figure a way out to control my full power.

I manage to catch the last match in the middle and Kirishima is holding his own against Kachy that impressive and he has Tetsu cheering him on. I look to see who I'm up against next, Tenya. He's fast so I have watch out against him and rely on my grapples if I want to win against him.

However, my focus is brought back to the match as Kachy attacks start to make their way through Kirishima and this looks like the match is coming to the end.

Kachy fires off a massive explosion and Kirishima blocks it before unleashing a series of powerful explosions and Kirishima manages to stay up however Kachy ends it with one final explosion knocking out Kirishima.

My match is next, so I have to go now. If I want to win the match I have to be defensive, I don't know how strong Tenya kicks are but I have no real options.

The second the fight starts, Tenya runs straight at me, when he gets in range I try to keep up but he runs out the way, I hear him behind me and follow through my kick doing a full pirouette to force him back. He's aiming for my sides if he grabs me it's all over, I see him about to do something.

"Recipro Burst!" Suddenly Blue flames shoot from Tenya's engines, he then launches a kick at me, this is my only chance if I fail to grab him it's over. When I grab Tenya's leg, he throttles his engines to throw me off but I'm digging my feet into the ground to make sure that doesn't happen, I wait until he burns out after his ten seconds are up Tenya keeps trying to get me off but I'm not moving.

After ten seconds pass Tenya engines are flooded, I pick up Tenya and hold him over my head. I walk over to the edge all while he struggles to escape my grip but I throw him out of bounds.

"Sorry if it looked like I wimped out, I'll tell you something if I failed to grab your leg, I've would have lost. I was just lucky that I did grab your leg." I explain to Tenya what happen.

"Lida has been thrown out of bounds, Tan advances." I do feel bad about how the fight went but I'm in the finals.

The next fight is Peace vs. Kachy, Kachy is avoiding not to use his explosions against Peace since she can just eat them. Peace taunts Kachy saying she will win, Kachy holds his hands out forming a ball of light in the middle when it goes off, a massive explosion goes and Peace is blinded using the opportunity to grab Peace and throw her out. She can't recover in time and is eliminated.

This is going to be a tough match for me, Kachy would want me to go all out but I can't. This is going to be painful, but I'm still going to win no matter what.

Writer: The finals are here will Cortney win or is Bakugo going to blow her dreams away. Find out next time. Btw, this time Thana is on an assignment so I'm covering for her, uh Delaila do want to do something or can I just end it here?

Delaila: I have one thing *Unfolds paper* Genesis Noir Gracely your refrigerator is running and your pants are in the freezer. You better catch it and thank you for following.

W: Was that a joke?

D: No, you might want to help them.

W: GODDAMMIT! *Runs through door*

D: *Looks at viewers* Remember Go beyond Plus Ultra. See you souls.