Last time Izuku punched Eijiro into the floor, but what does the arena need to endure this time?

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comments:

Psy-Kick: It was quite nice, nothing like good friends punching each other into the ground I guess, especially when that is literal.

The all powerful Machine: Their thoughts on heroes / "real heroes" might have some overlap, but if Stain messes with Ida's family he is going to start deep on Izuku's bad side.

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Proofread by 3DPhantom

Chapter 45: Melting Ego

"Okay everyone!" Present Mic announced. "We've got three more matches to go. The next one is between Juzo Honenuki from class 1B! He's facing up against Shoto Todoroki from class 1A! Both were admitted to UA with recommendations and have shown strong performance today, though with some side effects. Will the arena turn into a puddle or the arctic sea? Either way, Cementos is going to have work to do when this fight is over!"

"They both have powers with far reaching effects," Aizawa commented, "but both also need to improve the technique and control with which they utilise that power."

Izuku couldn't have put it better himself. Well, maybe, but he would have been ruder. With any luck Todoroki would pay more attention to their teacher. Izuku glanced to the side at a glowing spot in one of the VIP sections of the audience that was the older Todoroki. He was probably scoffing at the suggestion that his son wasn't a perfect hero already. He would see his error eventually; he might not accept it but he would see.

"So are you excited to be in the semi-finals?" Midnight asked the two students.

"Should I be?" Todoroki asked back in a quiet voice, his lack of emotion alone was enough to answer the question. "Is it somehow different from my earlier fights?"

"Well… you are closer to the finale than any time before."

"Isn't that what happens when the tournament goes on? Weaker opponents drop out and the rest get closer to the finale. I'll have time to be excited after I win the finale."

"Well well, aren't you confident. How about you Honenuki? Seems you have recovered from the hit in your last match."

"Yes, we have an excellent school nurse, but she is also humble, unlike my opponent. He seems to forget he isn't the only one aiming to win."

"I can see that," Midnight agreed.

Izuku poked Eijiro's side with his elbow.

"Are you sure you don't need to see Recovery Girl? You'll still have to be in shape for the last fight."

"Nah, I just need to rest a bit and relax my body so I can use my quirk properly again. You didn't hit me that hard."

"I'll have to remember that for next time."

"This is going to be an exciting match," Midnight declared, "so let's get it started!" She quickly ran away from the two, further back than with other battles. "Ready? Start!"

Todoroki immediately launched one of his giant ice attacks. Izuku pressed his lips together to make sure he wouldn't drool. Ice caught up to Honenuki in seconds and he disappeared behind the glacier. Izuku sighed. At least the iceberg wasn't as excessively large as with Todoroki's first fight. The entire arena fell quiet.

"Is it over already?" Kaminari asked. Izuku opened his mouth to answer it in a way that would have highlighted the stupidity of the question. Tenya, having experienced Honenuki first hand, reacted faster.

"No. He can't win this by trapping his opponent."

As he spoke one side of the glacier began drooping and falling like it was melting. Honenuki slid out of the ice just before the whole thing collapsed into an arena wide puddle. Todoroki moved his right leg, probably to launch another attack despite the failure of the first one. His foot got stuck as the spread-out ice resolidified around his leg. He glanced down and kept staring for several seconds, a very long time in the middle of a fight. Izuku shook his head.

"He seems confused," Eijiro commented.

"He isn't used to setbacks. A strong quirk and rich dad can do that, or well, in combination with other things anyway."

"Hey that's right, he's a lot like you."

Izuku frowned. "No." His father might be considered a villain, but at least he wasn't scum like Endeavour.

While Todoroki was dealing with the confusion of not winning instantly and started melting the ice, technically using his fireside, Izuku noted, something was happening to the arena barely visible through the now relatively thin layer of ice. It reached Todoroki by the time he released himself from the ice.

An Ice pillar burst from below Todoroki's feet, launching him upwards. The bottom of that pillar began immediately liquefying, but it gave him enough momentum to get away for the moment. Izuku leaned over the railing in an attempt to see better.

"This might be good."

"Eh?" Eijiro responded.

"Honenuki's quirk is a perfect counter to Todoroki's ice, at least the way he uses it. It might force him to reconsider how he treats his quirk, like how sparring without quirks has made you change your fighting style to not just take every hit head on."

"Oh. You're right."

"Probably," Tenya added, "though it most likely won't be enough to make him use his fire."

Izuku couldn't deny that. He shrugged.

Todoroki landed outside the liquefied area but had to repeat the same move as that area spread out. He walked backwards to keep his distance and glanced back towards the nearest edge of the arena.

"He's getting pushed to the edge like I was," Tenya said.

"Seems so," Izuku said. "The question is, did he learn from your mistake."

Todoroki put his foot down, literally, and launched another mass scale ice attack, though this time the large ice mass appeared closer to him and moved rapidly like a giant horizontal pillar, or a piston. Izuku tilted his head. It was a little better than before, but still essentially a 'make more ice until the problem goes away' type of solution.

The ice covered Honenuki from sight as it pushed him, but as it reached over the edge of the arena he was still nowhere to be seen. Todoroki had failed to push him out at least, and now Honenuki was out of his line of visibility entirely.

"I wonder how long he can hold his breath," Eijiro said, staring at the still liquid arena under the ice pillar. The quirk was now impacting most of the arena though the floor Todoroki was standing on was still solid. Izuku started getting increasingly excited about this quirk. Too bad a hero student would be unlikely to sell his. Izuku had to be satisfied by taking notes.

While doing that he almost missed a glint in the ice behind Todoroki. A small puddle appeared barely a meter from him. A hand shot out of the puddle and grabbed his feet as Honenuki emerged.

A few seconds later they were both covered in an iceberg, because that had worked so well before. It was probably just an instinctual reaction from Todoroki, and the only thing he knew to do.

The stadium was completely silent for a long time as the glacier just stood there with no sign of either student.

"Uhh, shouldn't they be getting out of that thing soon?" Present Mic voiced his concern. "Are we sure they're okay?"

"Both of them have the ability to get out of that ice, but only as long as they are conscious," Aizawa said.

Both Midnight and Cementos had stepped to the edge of the ice and seemed to talk to each other. The side of the glacier near them began to droop. Honenuki slid out on the arena and was left lying on his back. He gasped for air so hard it was obviously visible even from a distance. Midnight leaned next to him.

"Honenuki is out again and seems to be okay," Present Mic announced, "but where is Todoroki?"

He had barely finished speaking when the whole iceberg began steaming. Izuku stepped back from the railing and put his notebook away. A few rising strands of steam soon turned into a giant hot cloud that filled the entire stadium. It was almost like they were in a steam sauna. Izuku would known, he had one of those in his house.

"Was that…?" Present Mic spoke.

"Yes," Aizawa responded. "I think we can say Todoroki is safe too."

Izuku wiped his face on his sleeve to clean the signs of his salivation. The power output needed to evaporate such mass of ice was phenomenal, a whole buffet in itself. Thankfully the steam cloud covered everything for several minutes.

"Wow," Eijiro said, "I think with power like this Todoroki won after all."

"Don't think so," Izuku said after managing to swallow the remaining saliva from his mouth. "There are no sounds of battle. Either Honenuki got pushed out of bounds by the steam or there is something going on we can't see."

"Too bad you don't have a quirk to see through this."

"True, have to remember to get one."

"Heh. That isn't even surprising anymore."

Finally, the steam started evaporating, first enough to see people around them, then nearby sections of the audience. Slowly the four forms of people on the arena became visible. Three were standing up and walking towards the fourth which was still and seemed a lot smaller than the others.

It was Todoroki.

He was half sunken in the now completely solid arena floor. The floor around his left arm was deformed and smoking and his shirt on that side was just gone.

"No way, he got Todoroki!" Sero shouted.

"Man, that's impressive," Kaminari added. In the arena Honenuki stood in front of Todoroki who suddenly turned to look up at his trapper. The amount of smoke rising from his left arm increased.

"SHOTO-!" A scream echoed across the arena. The light that was Endeavour was burning brighter as he screamed. "Don't you dare to lose!"

The smoke around Todoroki disappeared and his head dropped. Midnight kneeled next to him. Izuku frowned. Damn Endeavour. Midnight got back up and raised her hand.

"Shoto Todoroki can no longer move or fight. The winner is Juzo Honenuki from class 1B."

Endeavour's fires across the stadium were even brighter, causing people to run away from him. Izuku focused his stare on Todoroki who was waiting chin down for Honenuki or Cementos to release him from his concrete prison. Despite the figurative chains around Todoroki, it was the first time Izuku had even heard of him failing or losing at something, and he now looked like it too.

"We are going to have a short break before the final two matches," Aizawa announced. Izuku glanced at Endeavour and turned around. He tapped Eijiro's shoulder.

"I need to go do something. Do your best if I won't get back in time. At least try to not catch a cold."

"Heh, sure," Eijiro responded. "Is… this about Todoroki, or Endeavour?"

Tenya turned to face Izuku.

"I'm not going to look for him if that's what you are wondering, but there is something else that might be worth doing."

He left his class looking for the stairs up, walking past Tokoyami who was again standing in the shadows of the entrance with Dark Shadow.

It took some time to handle his business upstairs and the bronze match started just before he got back. As he entered his classes section the first thing he saw was an ice pillar rising from the arena. He shook his head then rubbed his forehead.

He realized the match hadn't yet been announced over and glanced down.

Eijiro was still moving, running away from the pillar. A piece of ice seemed to be missing from the outer edge of the ice. The attack might have been just a little too big to fully evade, but sometimes problems could be punched away if you were strong enough.

Using the pillar itself as a cover Eijiro had managed to cover a good chunk of the distance between himself and Todoroki, another reason for Todoroki to not make them so large carelessly. Then again even with a large one he didn't get a direct hit so…

He launched another large ice mass at Eijiro who dove out of the way, hardening his legs to get the strength boost from his quirk and extend his jump. Izuku smiled. People actually thought Hardening was bad for Eijiro's mobility, failing to understand that the strength to punch through concrete walls could be applied to more than that. Despite the shorter distance he managed to dodge the attack completely, thought the iceberg was also smaller than before.

Was Todoroki trying to fix his technique or was he reaching his limits? He had just made some pretty big glaciers in the previous match. The end result of the fight wasn't as set in stone yet as someone might have thought. Eijiro charged forward again. He didn't really have any other options.

Maybe a long-range quirk would help him more than one that more closely worked with his hardening. Izuku brushed his chin.

Todoroki launched another attack, but this one didn't go for Eijiro. Instead, the ice formed a long wall that started from Todoroki and reached past Eijiro to deny any evasive movements in that direction. It was even thick enough that it would take Eijiro at least several punches to break through.

He seemed to realize that and moved sideways to get some distance from the wall, but a few seconds later Todoroki created another wall, trapping Eijiro between them much like he had done in the cavalry battle. Though this time he seemed to be slower in creating the second wall, it didn't change the end result. All Eijiro could do was to run at Todoroki faster, but when the third attack came straight through the middle it spread across the entire space left between those walls. The only way for Eijiro was up, but even though his jump was impressive, the ice launched upwards and caught his feet.

Eijiro broke some of the ice away with a punch, but new ice simply grew over his arm until he couldn't move enough to break it even fully hardened. Only his head was left outside the ice.

"Even with his flaws he is still strong," Izuku said about Todoroki.

"Certainly," Tenya responded and turned to look at Izuku. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for your match?"

"Yeah, just wanted to see this one to the end."

Izuku turned back to the corridor and headed to the arena. It had been a long day, but there was only one more fight to go. He didn't want to underestimate his opponent, but couldn't help but start worrying about why he was here in the first place. He walked with a thoughtful frown on his face until he stumbled on the stairs. He blinked a couple of times, half hanging from the railing. After drawing a deep breath, he kept walking and rubbed his forehead. The frown was about to come back when he stopped at a platform between floors and his lips stretched into a wide smile.

"Hey, Toshi!" He greeted his favourite sleep deprived brainwasher. "Are you feeling better?"

"I've been feeling better since you left, but Recovery Girl wouldn't believe me," Hitoshi said, glancing at the short elderly woman next to him.

"I have been a nurse in this school for longer than you two have been alive. Can you imagine how many students have claimed they have felt fine when they were everything but, especially students from the hero course?"

"Then… why did you let To… Hitoshi come? Shouldn't you be keeping an eye on him at your reception?"

"I should, but I also should have some peace and quiet to do my work and watch the tournament." Recovery Girl pointed at Hitoshi with her cane. "Have you ever tried to tell him no?"

Izuku smiled. "Did you make the mistake of trying to debate him?"

Recovery Girl huffed and shook her head, telling Izuku more than any verbal answer could.

"At least you weren't lying with your sales pitch," she eventually responded. "Though I can't complain about getting to view at least the final match directly. I can always monitor him up there since other students' injuries were better within my ability to treat without long monitoring. At least people that get this far are generally sturdy."

"What if you get other patients? Eijiro just got frozen in an iceberg and I wasn't exactly gentle with him before."

"And where am I most likely to find him now that he should be coming to see me?"

"Oh… that makes sense," Izuku realised.

"As I told you. I have a lot of experience with how you hero students tend to behave, and your friend didn't hesitate to exploit that." She glanced at Hitoshi again.

"I just pointed out the obvious," Hitoshi shrugged. "By the way… great speech."

"You liked it?"

"I felt like a used car."

"Used car that's going to have plenty of internship opportunities, hopefully."

"If not, it is not because of your pitch. I especially liked the part about walking to Tartaros. Letting Monoma copy my quirk was also genius. Too bad you didn't catch Eijiro with it too."

"Hey Eijiro needed a chance to show what he can do too, also you're the one who taught him to watch his words while fighting."

"I guess I did… wait what did you call him?"

"Eijiro."

It was Hitoshi's turn to smile. "I see, so we are up to three now. Finally. Was it so hard?"

"Yes," Izuku said and turned his head to face away, "but he made it easier."

"That much has been obvious since the beginning. We should have made you fight in front of people sooner."

"It… wasn't that. We can talk about it later, but… There is more to worry about than the finale."

"Oh."

Hitoshi didn't have time to say anything more as Izuku grabbed his shoulder.

"Still glad to see you up."

"For now, he still needs to be monitored," Recovery Girl said.

"Not alone overnight?" Izuku said and smirked. "No problem."

"Shouldn't you already be out there beating that Honenuki guy?"

"I was just going there. Any suggestions how to beat him?"

"You're asking me?" Hitoshi said. "I might be biased but be careful with the head."

"Yes, please," Recovery Girl agreed. Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, looking down unusually meekly.

"Yeah, sorry."

Recovery Girl sighed and kept walking past Izuku.

"Maybe there is still hope for you. Go show it in practice. No reason to make this tournament any longer than it already is."

"Wish me luck," Izuku said as he passed Hitoshi.

"As if you'd need that. Seems a bit overkill actually."

Izuku was smiling a lot more for the rest of the walk down. He reached the corridor on the ground floor without frowning, maybe a few blinks and rubbing his forehead for a moment, but not frowning. Then he ran into Eijiro, and Todoroki.

The redhead was holding his arms with his hands still shivering a bit but with a grin on his face. Todoroki was walking eyes down, an empty expression on his face. If anything he seemed tense. If Izuku hadn't seen their match he would have been mistaken on who was the actual winner.

"You don't seem to mind losing, again," he told Eijiro with a smirk.

"With a fight like that, no way. I just wish I'd gotten closer and seen how well Todoroki fights in close combat. Never seen anyone really get to do that with him."

Izuku wanted to say something about what that might mean for Todoroki's skills in such a situation, but in an unusual expression of self-control he kept his mouth shut. Instead, he lit his Dragon Blade and held it as a shield in front of Eijiro, who let go of his arms and held his hands in front of the flames like he was sitting by a bonfire.

"Thanks. So, you want my quirk now?"

Todoroki's head finally perked up.

"That's up to you," Izuku responded. "You don't need to, but do you want another chance to show it off to people?"

"Oh right, that too. Hell yeah I do. If you can do that. Not sure how much it helps against that Honenuki guy."

"Okay," Izuku said, shut off his Dragon Blade and held his hand between them like wanting to shake Eijiro's hand. Eijiro accepted the gesture and grabbed his hand, firmly. Rather than a regular hand shake he pulled Izuku closer until their forearms met. Despite the firm grip his arm was still shaking.

"You should get checked by Recovery Girl after getting frozen like that."

"Nah, I'll be fine, and wouldn't want to miss the finale."

"You don't have to. She's waiting for you with our class. Both her and Toshi figured what you would do."

"Heh, that's Hitoshi for you. Shame he missed… Eh, I mean. Maybe you should give him my quirk next time you want to spar. You could hit at full power even if it's just training."

Izuku stared at Eijiro for a moment then brushed his.

"That might not be the worst idea. Also… We can't have each other's quirk most of the time, but practicing with different quirks has taught me a lot, and it would help us understand what each other can do. Remind me about this tomorrow." As he spoke his hand went from his chin to his forehead. He drew a long slightly shaky breath.

"Will do… Are you okay? You don't look that good."

Izuku blinked a couple of times to clear his vision.

"Yeah, don't worry. My body just needs to adjust to taking in more quirks."

"Oh, because you also got both from Hitoshi. I didn't think of that. Sorry, I shouldn't have pushed mine on you too."

"That's okay. It's like adding weights at the gym, lifting gets harder but it is the only way to get stronger."

"Oh, didn't think about it like that. Well, you can always borrow my 'weights' if you need to train."

Izuku chuckled and tested the quirk by hardening his body. Surprisingly he also felt better as he did that. His head still felt dizzy, but breathing was easier. Izuku sighed in relief and looked down the corridor, past Todoroki who was staring at him and Eijiro, with more determination now set in his eyes, thinking of his upcoming final match.

"I hope you don't have plans for the evening, victory party at my place… both of you."

Eijiro gave him a thumbs up. Todoroki just looked at him with an emotionless stare.