Chapter Nine
"And we're back, folks!" Present Mic declared. "The first match-up of the second bracket! For those of you just tuning in, the match-ups for the coming bracket were randomized, each and every one of them matched with different opponents! This adds a level of shock and awe common to the calling these students pursue!
"So with that out of the way, let's once again meet our contestants! In one corner is our determined defender with a mop of green curls, Izuku Midoriya! In the other corner, the icy-eyed juggernaut, Shoto Todoroki!"
It took everything Izuku had to keep his breathing regulated and minimize the trembling of his knees. His brain was working in overdrive as he faced Shoto, who seemed utterly unperturbed at the circumstances. A mask, he was certain, at least in part. Shoto had not been shy in declaring him a rival for his apparent connection to All Might. But there was no way his fellow student was feeling as nervous as Izuku.
'Think, Izuku,' he scolded himself. 'Ochako believes in you, and so does Tenya. All Might believes in you. Now think!'
He began turning over every detail he could recall about Shoto's Quirk and fighting style in his head, thoughts and ideas rolling like a washing machine. It was … still not promising for his chances. It wasn't just Shoto's powerful Quirk, although that was certainly a factor and a big one at that. It was his intense training prior to attending U.A., obvious even if Shoto hadn't spoken of it directly. It was his insight, his instincts, his grit … He had what it took to be a great hero, and it wouldn't shock Izuku if he did indeed rise to the top five hero rankings at some point in his life.
But not with only his ice.
That stood out to Izuku as his one saving grace against Shoto. He, too, had noticed the drawbacks of Shoto using his ice in large amounts in rapid succession. It made perfect sense — Quirks were extensions of a person's bodily functions, and every Quirk had some kind of drawback. It seemed that Shoto's ice caused a rapid drop in his body temperature, inducing hypothermia and, pushed even further, probably such ailments as frostbite. It stood to reason that using his fire would have the opposite effect and cause a rise in his temperature, as Izuku had long theorized with Endeavor's Hellflame Quirk. Shoto had even alluded to such a thing during their "chat."
Therefore it stood to reason even further that having Shoto overuse his ice would leave him vulnerable to close-range combat, as Ochako had done during their duel. It would give Izuku a chance to launch him from the ring with a well-landed push powered up by Fa Jin. A solid strategy.
The remaining problem, though, was the sheer scope of Shoto's ice! He had covered half of the arena in one move at least twice today! And no amount of Fa Jin's kinetic energy to boost his speed or strength would allow him to outrun or overpower even a single barrage. He was against a wall — literally, a wall of ice — and no tactic or strategy he could come up with in this brief time had theoretically panned out.
You are not alone, said a woman's voice in his ear. Nana Shimura.
Izuku took a shuddering inhale and tried to let Nana's words comfort him. He briefly considered the fact that she was able to speak with him, but put that in the back of his mind to think over later.
"The first round of the second bracket: Izuku Midoriya versus Shoto Todoroki!" Midnight called. She cracked her whip, "Begin!"
"Goodbye, Midoriya," Shoto said, and he sounded as if he did, indeed, regret what was coming. He stomped his foot, just as predicted … and something happened. Izuku felt his arm rise in a twitching motion, his index finger tingling like a surge of electricity. He curled his finger under his thumb and flicked.
Naked force lashed out and ripped apart the forming ice wall like glass under a sledge hammer. Pain lanced through Izuku's finger … and a warm sensation tingled throughout his body, dulling the pain.
His reserves were filled up by the blast, just as before.
"Not enough!" Shoto declared, his teeth bared with frustration. He stepped again, and another, larger spear of ice raced at him.
Leapt for the skies, Izuku!
Shoto grit his teeth against the cold that sunk its teeth into his right side. He'd considered holding back in his first attack, but decided it was too risky. Midoriya was tied to All Might, and almost certainly had borne training similar to his own. He had wondered if the unsure, stumbling, nervous appearance was a facade to throw off rivals, but decided it was far too deep to be anything but genuine.
So he'd released a more focused form of his initial, wide-scale ice wall that wouldn't rise over the crowd, but would leave Midoriya no room to maneuver. And it was a good thing, as something Midoriya had done had ripped his ice wall to pieces, the force of it still enough to wash over Shoto and push him back a few steps even afterward.
But Shoto was observant, himself. He had realized that Midoriya's force-based Quirk needed time to accumulate and had a finite reservoir of energy. Whatever he had done had undoubtedly drained him dry. So another focused ice wall came, the one that brought the chill in him to such a throbbing bite.
And like before with Uraraka, Midnight did not call the match. The crowd was silent.
A sinking intuition dawned on Shoto and he looked up … and a sense of deja vu came to him as he saw a distant figure floating in the sky.
"Again?" he asked aloud, exasperation muted by sheer surprise.
"Unbelievable, folks! We've got another aerial evasion that, I can safely say, not one of us could have seen coming!"
Izuku only faintly registered Present Mic's commentary as he wobbled and wavered in midair. "What the hell?" he wheezed, his unmitigated shock letting slip a rare swear.
That would be from me, Nana's voice said. Time seemed to slow as Nana seemed to appear before him, her cape billowing in imaginary wind. That was my Quirk, Izuku. Float. Though, cooking inside One For All while Toshi wielded it has made Float far more powerful. It's more like Flight, at this point, though I do prefer the original name.
"I can use other Quirks?" Izuku asked in unashamed awe.
Soon, Nana said with a nod and a faint smile. As you adjust to each one and earn the respect of other past bearers, they can grant you access to their Quirks until you are ready to use each of their original powers. She looked down, her lips pursed. I agree that your main disadvantage against this Shoto kid is maneuverability. She looked back to him and her small smile turned into a grin. I thought this might level the playing field.
"But I don't know how to fly," Izuku pointed out.
Oh, I know that, Nana said, her grin growing just a little. That's why, just this once, I can offer direct help. If, and only if, you allow me.
Shoto shook off his surprise and began pacing, breaking the frost from his skin while slowly warming and loosening his muscles. There was no way Midoriya thought a battle of attrition would win him the match, so he had to be ready. He felt his flames licking at the edges of his will, ready to burst free, and forced them down with a muted snarl as he focused on Midoriya's sudden new power.
'What is this?' he wondered sternly. 'I doubt it's like Uraraka's Zero Gravity. Could it be some kind of self-propelled flight? If so, where did it come from?!'
His thoughts were stopped by Midoriya flipping forward in midair and launching bodily towards him, skimming over the ice like an Arctic bird. Shoto slid his left foot back and focused on his right, generating another, narrower ice wall over the first to intercept. But Midoriya spun in a barrel roll and swerved from its path, arcing upward just as he neared the ground and back toward Shoto.
'He's fast!' Shoto thought. 'And maneuverable!' On reflex, he created a pillar of ice beneath him to launch him into the air and out of Midoriya's way. A pillar that was reduced to chunks when Midoriya slammed into it with a cry of "Smash!" He kept flying through it, but darted up before he crossed the boundary line and hovered several feet in the air.
"Is this what you call heroics?" Midoriya asked loudly, almost angrily. He darted through the air as Shoto began to fall, all but helpless in the grip of gravity. Shoto grit his teeth and summoned a huge slab of ice to divert Midoriya, or to absorb the force of the punch that was coming. A rush and blur to his left indicated a dodge just as Shoto reached the ground, rolling to spread out the impact and regain his feet.
"You could have had me there!" Midoriya snapped. "If you used your left side!"
Shoto hissed as those words registered, prodding at his temper. His flames licked at his left arm, but he wrenched them down. "What did you say to me?" he asked, his voice hard and cold as the ice that littered the arena.
"You heard me!" Midoriya cried. "We're here giving it everything we have to make our dreams become truth! But you? You're handicapping yourself!"
Shoto focused his anger away from his left and into his right, growling as the cold seeped deeper into his belly when he erected another spike of ice toward Midoriya. But he didn't fly toward the ice, he simply banked away in a horizontal arc.
"You think you can win this with only half of your strength, Todoroki?! You haven't put a scratch on me yet!" He hooked a thumb at his chest to illustrate. "If you can't win against some untrained kid with that handicap, how do you plan to be No. 1?" He tilted forward, prepared to charge. "How do you expect to save anyone?!"
Shoto snarled and dug deep for more ice. But he didn't launch it forward. He waited until Modoriya drew too close for comfort, unwilling to fully commit at such range. Then he sidestepped, his movements sluggish and formed an ice wall for Midoriya to slam into headfirst.
"Smash!" Midoriya shouted, clear and bright as a trumpet, and did just that to once again reduce the ice to mere fallen hail. The force of it pushed Shoto back a step, clearing the air for Midoriya to fly past and arc back into the air to float and wait.
"What do you intend for this, Midoriya?!" Shoto shouted. "You're asking for my fire?!" He created a growing ramp to guide him into the air toward Midoriya, the cold chewing at him even as his anger seemed to keep the worst of it at bay. "Now I'm past mad and pissed off!"
Midoriya grimaced and darted to meet him. Shoto jumped from his favored right foot, but Izuku's grimace turned into the barest grin and he swung a straight punch.
'He expected that,' Shoto realized, dread gripping his heart. And then the punch came straight to Shoto's torso, with force that felt in the moment like a train car. He was distantly surprised to hear no bones breaking. Shoto screamed in fury and formed a single small spike in the ice to halt his slide back, launching himself forward to engage in hand-to-hand.
Midoriya narrowed his eyes and dodged, but his foot slipped and he had to recover his balance. That burning focus in his eyes wavered for a moment, then reasserted itself and he floated just above the ice to come at Shoto with more punches. In turn, Shoto dodged as best he could, offering counters where he could.
But this tight spot had its tactical advantage, small as it was. As the fight kept up with their fists, it kept Shoto moving. It broke the frost from his body and forced his muscles to move, to generate body heat that dulled the razor edge of the cold inside, even just a little.
"Why are you doing this?" Shoto demanded. "What do you benefit from me using those cursed flames?" A thought occurred to him, and his anger flared, focused by the cold inside. "Did my father put you up to this?! Bribe or coerce you?"
"Of course not!" Midoriya shouted, and the sheer pure conviction in those three words left no doubt.
"Then why?!" Shoto demanded, punching when he saw an opening. Midoriya was clearly untrained in any form of martial arts, but the cold was sapping Shoto's strength and speed, locking his body into place if he didn't keep moving. "Why are you doing this?!"
"To show you the truth!" Midoriya shouted as he came forward again. "I want to be a true hero! One who can smile and make sure everything is okay! To make sure everyone knows it's okay!"
Those words resonated inside Shoto's mind, in his memory. Why?
"To do that, I have to give everything I have, with everything I've got!" Midoriya's eyes seemed to catch fire. "And so should you!" He backed off and that fiery gaze — so different from the cold will of Endeavor — tempered into something more … more warm than hot.
"I can't understand what you've been through, Todoroki," he said, speaking rather than shouting, but his voice carrying all the same. "Your life, your hardships, it's been so different from mine." His eyes narrowed, like shutters focusing light. "But that doesn't matter right now, neither side of it."
Memories started bursting from the cage Shoto had held them in for years. Cracks were forming in that prison, widening under mounting pressure. "Shut up," Shoto seethed, to Midoriya and to his own mind. But the memories were still pushing, ready to come back in a straight stream, like water escaping an overpressured pipe. Memories of his father's training, of his mother trying and failing to protect him from Endeavor's brutal methods. Memories of her consoling him to the best of her meager ability. Of him wailing that he didn't want to be like Endeavor, a bully who hurt his wife and children.
You still want to be a hero, don't you? His mother's voice spoke gently in his ear. You can be the kind of hero you want to be.
"You can't beat me, Todoroki," Midoriya said, and then launched himself at a terrible speed. "Not like this!" And he landed another of those devastating blows that knocked Shoto from his feet to begin falling and rolling down his own ramp, to bump and bruise and only slow when he hit the cement of the arena and halted mere feet from the boundary.
More memories began to play behind Shoto's eyes as he vaguely registered Midoriya picking his way down the ice. Not flying … huh. Memories played of his siblings having fun without him, of his father taking him away to train away from "their world." Of his mother starting to lose herself … Of how he got his scar. From his own mother pouring boiling water onto the side of his face that most resembled Endeavor! Of Endeavor sending her to a mental hospital … and Shoto's anger calcifying as he resolved to never be like Endeavor, to never use his flames!
"I won't be like him," Shoto found himself spitting, dragging himself to his feet despite his muscles trembling even as they locked up from the cold. "I will not use his power … in my left side …!"
"Your left side!" Midoriya shouted, his eyes now more bright than warm, his grimacing smile wider. As if he'd finally gotten to where he wanted this conversation to go. "Your power, don't you see?! Your flames, your Quirk! Not his!"
Shoto gasped as one more memory surfaced, something he had not forced into the cage so much as … neglected to think about. All Might's words in an interview on TV that he watched with his mother.
Yes, that's right. Children do often inherit Quirks from their parents. Or develop similar power sets. But the most important thing to remember is that a Quirk is what you make of it, regardless of your history. You decide how you use it. That's what I mean when I say, 'I am here.' Only you can decide to become a hero; no one else.
Take this to heart, kids: You've got it.
Then his mother spoke again, in the vaults of his mind.
Honey, you do still want to be a hero, don't you? Stay true to yourself. You are not a prisoner of your lineage. It's okay to use your power … to become who you want to be.
And with those words that vibrated in his very bones … Shoto let the grip on his left side loose. Heat arose within him, blessed, warming, burning heat that thawed the razor frost and filled him with new strength. That emerged from his left side and exploded in a conflagration.
"Holy smokes, people! There's a fire in the house!" Present Mic shouted.
"You helped me," Shoto observed as the cold finally melted away in the wake of his blazing left side. "You moved me to push past my handicap, even though it would make it twice as hard for you." Midoriya, for the first time since he'd begun to fly, looked worried. He looked uncertain.
And yet, there was pride hidden behind that nervousness.
"I want that, too," Shoto declared. "I want to be a hero!"
The pride was no longer hidden as Midor- No. As Izuku smiled at him, a real smile instead of the nervous grimace or the baring of determined teeth. This was real. And it made Shoto feel pride in himself, as well.
This was a smile worthy of All Might's disciple.
Shoto couldn't help but match that smile, to show his elation at taking hold of his own destiny.
"Yes, Shoto!" Endeavor cried to the heavens as he heavily walked down the aisles of the stadium. "Marvelous, just grand! Have you finally accepted yourself? This is a new era for our work! With my blaze in your blood, you will surpass me. You will live up to the reason you were born!"
For the first time in … a long time, Endeavor's words seemed to have no effect. They curled away like paper tossed above a bonfire.
"Amazing," Izuku whispered, that Quirk-nerd shining through.
"You're smiling," Shoto observed. "Even though I am now using my true strength, you're smiling." He scoffed, with no malice behind it. "You must be nuts, man." Izuku's smile faded into stony determination, and he nodded in something like agreement. "Don't blame me," Shoto said, "when this ends badly for you."
He was right.
There was no way this wouldn't end badly for him.
Izuku had convinced Todoroki to save himself, to cast away the shackles holding him back … and in doing so had made it harder for himself. Could he possibly approach Todoroki now? Could he win?
He clenched his fist and summoned that new power. Nana's power of Float.
My power? Nana whispered in his ear. It's not just Todoroki who needs to hear those words, Izuku. It's your power. Yours, not mine. Not ours. All of our Quirks … One for All … They are yours, Izuku.
Izuku felt tears welling up and dug deep for his determination. No matter what happened, he would go down fighting. Todoroki would no doubt come at him with a big ice attack. So he prepared Float and waited- There! As the ice came at him, he leapt and stabilized himself, flying above the wave of ice just as he had before.
He reared back his fist and summoned every scrap of kinetic force he could bring from his reserves … and then he felt it again. Something deeper. Something vast and unspeakably powerful, like a tsunami or an erupting volcano. It latched onto Fa Jin and boosted it, feeding into it, building upon it.
You have the spirit of a true hero, Izuku, Yoichi whispered with almost brotherly pride.
"SMASH!" Izuku shouted as he punched forward with everything he had.
There was light and heat and force and … and pain.
It felt like his entire right side erupted into agony as his bones shattered and his muscles tore. He screamed his pain out as the conflicting forces of his own power, Todoroki's fire, and Cementoss's attempt to preserve them both became embattled and exploded outward in naked force. It pushed Izuku backward to land hard and roll like a log. Finally he came to a halt … and dimly noted that his arm was across the boundary line.
"Izuku Midoriya is out of bounds," Midnight declared with a crack of her whip, her voice haggard. "Todoroki wins!"
Izuku bit back a groan as his arm continued to scream at him. Was this …? Was this the power of One For All? Had he tapped into it, beyond Fa Jin? Not to mention he had used Nana's Float Quirk.
What did all of this mean …?
Before he could begin to analyze, he passed out cold.
Chapter nine IS HERE! Sorry for the wait, but this one took a lot of polishing. The struggle is real to balance homage to canon with individuality.
*To any who think this is too similar to canon, I did my best to pay homage while making it my own – it's too important to Shoto's character arc to overlook. It was a fun challenge that had me reading the chapter and watching the episode about a dozen times.
*Yep, everyone, Izuku can fly now! I had planned to start introducing other Quirks later, but this was the only thing I could think of that would give Izuku the edge he needed to put up a real fight without making him too powerful this early. Don't worry, other Quirks will come when he is ready, though not all at once.
*For any who wonder how Izuku was flying so well when he just got the Quirk, there's an explanation coming next chapter.
*Shoto's exasperated "Again?!" is something I've been looking forward to writing for quite some time! And it was just as fun as I expected.
As always, thanks for reading! Leave a review if you like! And may your inspirations flow freely!
