Ignited Spark

by 3PeopleInACoat

When Midoriya Izuku was four years old, his quirk finally manifested - not a combination of his parents' quirks, but an entirely different mutation of its own. With the ability to blast lightning out of his body, a horrible accident convinces Izuku to give up his dreams of becoming a hero. But with the help of two girls, Izuku finds the inspiration to fight and become a true hero!

33. Fire and Vestiges

That … definitely could have gone better.

With the door to the nurse's office sliding shut, Aizawa let out a long, tired sigh as he carefully sat down in the abandoned chair Recovery Girl had just vacated, staring down at the open folder of Izuku's test results while Midnight stood beside the desk. The three families had just left with Nezu to be walked back to their seats, the principal speaking to all of them in more detail as to what may happen with Katsuki after the festival was over, and the Urarakas had been quick to follow them out, both looking weirdly flustered and contemplative. Recovery Girl had left the office as well, wanting to go off in search of Himiko after having excused her to go help All Might with whatever distraction he had come up with for the crowd (although Aizawa had to feel suspicious about how eagerly she had been muttering something about sneaking into the cheerleaders' locker room, something to investigate later).

And thus, he and Midnight were left alone in the nurse's office. And that meant … Aizawa was pretty much alone with all his thoughts.

And he didn't really like where his thoughts were going.

"… that was a disaster," He dryly said.

"Oh, was it now?" Midnight sarcastically asked, shaking her head and frowning as she scooped up Izuku's medical files to read over again. "Like I told you, Shouta, this wouldn't have happened if you had just trusted what Hound Dog and I were saying. Bakugou didn't need a fight to realize that he isn't king of the mountain. Tenko was right when he told you that the only reason Bakugou was being cleared to return to class after the USJ was because you told him to clear him."

"Yes, sure," Aizawa scowled under his bandages, "now how about next time, you don't throw me under the bus when you say 'I told you so'?"

"Oh, are you still going on about being slapped? You got off easy. If I were in Mrs. Midoriya's shoes and you indirectly put my son in the nurse's office, I would've kneed you in the nuts."

"Well," He sighed again, looking up at the folder in Midnight's hands, "at least some good came out of that match. Now that we know what Midoriya's … condition is, we can start making some progress into figuring out how to overcome it."

"Cellular degeneration …" Midnight looked sad, staring down at the notes, "… of course it had to be the worst case scenario. As if that poor boy didn't have enough going on."

"It's something that we're just going to have to keep an eye on," Aizawa shook his head, while ignoring Midnight raising her eyebrow, "to make sure he doesn't go overboard again and make things worse for himself."

"Oh," Midnight shook her head, her brief moment of calm disappearing as soon as it came, "so that mean you're not going to be forcing him into random fights anymore? And here I was thinking you were going for a more hands off learning lesson."

"Alright," Aizawa sharply said, looking up at her with clear annoyance in his eyes, "do you just want to get it all out at once, or are you going to just sprinkle in the insults for the next god knows how long?"

"Oh, you want me to get it all out now?" Midnight threw her hair behind her shoulder, putting the folder down on the desk with a bit more force than necessary and making Aizawa realize he had made yet another mistake as she whirled around to glare at him. "Alright then, if you insist. Shouta, I love you as a friend, and you're the idiot little brother I never had. But your handling of Bakugou's situation was irresponsible, and borderline lazy."

Despite his stormy expression behind the bandages, Aizawa couldn't help but wince at that.

"I realize that you've chosen to do a hands-off teaching exercise with Bakugou, but you cannot get up in arms when people point out to you how it obviously backfired," Midnight continued to scold him as she put her hand down on the desk to lean forward over him, "the truth of the matter is, we gambled the safety of Midoriya and Uraraka in the hopes of getting one irresponsible boy to realize he isn't the king of shit mountain, and all it resulted in was Uraraka getting maimed and Midoriya being forced to realize his real limits. And now, not only do we have to worry about UA being embarrassed about Bakugou's behavior on live television, not only do we have to worry about Midoriya pushing himself so much he had to discover that his quirk can kill him, we have to take into effect how the media will be looking at Uraraka as well."

"The media can -"

"You don't care about the media, Shouta, but it's important. They make or break a hero, especially one in training and especially when they're of the opposite sex. Sure, they'll criticize Bakugou for being an idiot, and we'll have to defend him from all the calls to expel him, since we've already made the decision that we can't trust the Hero Commission to not try to make him their new golden boy. But what about Uraraka? Who's been seen working with Midoriya all day long because it's the smart thing to do, but then we chose to pair her up with him again for the last rounds because you wanted to make sure Bakugou had more than one target he wanted to personally shove in the mud?"

"…"

"They're going to eviscerate her, Shouta! Do you know how many headlines make the news when a female pro hero messes up an operation, in comparison to how many times someone like Endeavor messes up?" Midnight shook her head. "They'll probably call her unfit to be a sidekick, much less a hero, and she's only in her first year. Do you have any idea how much that'll hurt her mental state?"

"That's not -"

"She's got a scar now, Shouta. I already want to cry whenever I see Midoriya's scars, because they've barely been in class for two months now. And now Uraraka has a large scar on her arm, and let's not pretend Nezu didn't let us listen to that audio he found today where she admitted she hates her body. A girl with body issues, now having a big ugly scar she can't ignore?"

"We'll put her into therapy with Hound Dog."

"Sure, that might help. But you have to understand, we did that to her." Midnight shook her head, taking off her mask to wipe at her eyes. "We put her in danger, and she's going to be suffering the consequences of that for who knows how long. We put Midoriya in danger, and now he's had to have us sit him down to tell him about how he could possibly die. Because you wanted to teach Bakugou the vaguest lesson I've ever seen, and because I was foolish enough to trust you."

Aizawa turned to glare down at the desk for a moment, unsure of how to handle the mix of emotions Midnight's lecture had put in him - and then his senpai laid her hand down on his shoulder, causing him to look up at her. The angry look had mostly faded from her face, replaced by a much softer look.

One that he immediately recognized, and made him frown.

"Shouta," She said quietly, "I … know that Oboro's death -"

"Nemuri," Aizawa suddenly snarled at her, "don't."

"No," Midnight glared down at him, although he could see the tiredness behind her eyes that always came when they discussed this, "you don't get to shut this conversation down this time. It's been … look, Shouta, I realize that his death … it hit you hard. He was your best friend. I know you loved him. But do you think treating these kids like this - like this job isn't something that we can get any joy out of, that it's something to take with the utmost seriousness - is going to prevent them from turning out like Oboro did? And that Oboro wouldn't be questioning you like I am over how you used Midoriya and Uraraka?"

Aizawa didn't answer that at once, merely turning to stare down at the table for a very long moment.

"Shouta, I think that -"

"I think," He said in a short voice, "that you don't take what happened to Shirakumo as seriously as I do."

That caused Midnight to flinch, and Aizawa merely scowled at himself, knowing it was a low blow. There was a long moment before Midnight moved her hand off of his shoulder, and then she turned away from him, absently rubbing the sore spot on her ass that she had landed on after being thrown out of the arena by Katsuki's blast.

"You," She said softly, but with a tinge of venom in her voice, "are an asshole, Shouta."

"I know."

"And … I think you know that Oboro would be ashamed of how you use his death to hurt people just like him."

That, of course, caused Aizawa to freeze briefly, staring down at the desk for a moment before he whipped up to start shouting at Midnight - but the way she looked at him, far older than she usually looked, caused him to stop.

"You never grieved," She pointed out in a bitter, tired voice, "you just threw yourself into training after Oboro died, and you never came down from that. You're aware of what happened, but you refuse to move on from it. It's why your relationship with Shino failed, why you refused to talk to Hizashi after we graduated and you went underground, why you pushed everyone away until I got you this job, why … why everything happened. Because you lost someone you loved, and you decided to project your feelings of pain and anger out on your students. If I'm being honest, Shouta, I got you this job because I thought it would help you … but if I realized what you would do, I'd go back and change my mind."

That didn't get an answer from the quirk erasing teacher.

"I'm going back out to referee the final round," Midnight told him shortly, and then moved out the door, shutting it behind her.

Aizawa continued to stare at where she had left in a long moment of silence, his mind racing and his heart thumping angrily - and then he let out a long, shuddered sigh, looking back around at the wall. Midnight's words stung, of course, but … but deep down, he knew that they didn't come from a place that resented him. That she wouldn't have said those biting words if she hadn't cared.

And …

Moving his arm carefully out of the sling around his neck, grunting slightly in pain, Aizawa reached for his phone inside his pocket, pulling it out and putting it down on the table before carefully poking his thumb out the hole and putting in his password. Once it was on, he moved into the photos app, scrolling through the various pictures of hero reports, until he finally found what he was looking for, tapping on it and moving the phone to its side so that it would fill the entire screen.

The picture was old - well, not too old, but it was definitely taken during better times. It was their entire friend group sitting around on the benches near the school's gate, and posing for the camera - Nemuri leaning against Shirakumo and Hizashi, her arms around their shoulders and smiling seductively into the camera while the two boys laughed, with Shirakumo's eyes squeezed shut and Hizashi sliding down his sunglasses to wink at the camera. Behind them, Chatora, before his transition, was hoisting both Ryuko and Tomoko onto his shoulders, the two girls laughing and giggling as they joined hands above Chatora's head; on the side, Tensei was laughing and flashing the camera the peace sign, while Shino leaned around him to kiss Aizawa's cheek, his younger self immortalized in the picture straightening up with red cheeks.

Staring down at the photo for a long moment, Aizawa closed his eyes, and let out a soft sigh.

He knew, despite every part of his being wanting to defend his own actions, that he had fucked up tremendously today. Midnight had been right with all of her points - he had gone ahead and made Izuku and Ochako's time at their school more difficult, all because he wanted to go about Katsuki's situation 'rationally' instead of just cutting to the point and getting the kid's head out of his ass. And now he had gotten into a fight with one of the few friends he had left, and was probably at the point that he would be questioning what Shirakumo would be thinking of his actions now.

And … he had known Shirakumo enough that he'd probably kick Aizawa through a wall if he had been alive.

It was clear, from the small discussion the teachers had in the group chat, that Katsuki's presence in his class would not be able to continue without the threat of a major schism between the students. He had to accept that it was his fault - he knew that Midnight was right. And … and she was right that he screwed up with Izuku and Ochako. The poor girl was maimed because of him, and now Izuku had to come to grips with the fact that potential death was on the horizon for him.

So …

… well, those would be thoughts for later. How to deal with Izuku, and Ochako, and Katsuki - right now, those had to be thoughts for later.

Frowning, he looked back down at his phone, pressing the button to return to his messages. Tenya had called him repeatedly during the first of the few rounds, which had annoyed him immensely, but once he had actually answered and figured out what had been wrong, his annoyance had immediately died. He'd given Tenya immediate permission to leave the sports festival early, and head out to Hosu General Hospital as quickly as he could. Because … well …

… quite honestly, it hurt Aizawa to think about, and made him angry as well. Midnight might have been trying to open an old wound by mentioning Shirakumo … but in truth, Aizawa had been thinking of him earlier, once he was told what had happened to Tensei.

And he now had to figure out how to deal with the fact that Tensei, one of his oldest friends, was in a coma that the doctors didn't know he would wake up from.

---

"Such a magnificent quirk …"

Standing behind the leather chair, Nine's eyes remained fixated on the large computer screen the doctor used, with the short bastard sitting in his chair and staring up at it as well. The screen continued to replay the footage that they had just seen an hour ago - Izuku Midoriya, the boy who had robbed Nine of his chance to kill All Might, freezing that loud-mouth blonde boy in place with green ice. Both of them stared at the boy as he stood there blankly, staring at what he had done, before the Midnight woman used her quirk to knock him out. The footage then rewound, going back to the beginning of the clip and showing the flash of green light in the dark smoke cloud.

Nine himself couldn't stop staring at the quirk in action, feeling himself shake slightly - seeing that quirk he desired be even more than he initially thought it would be filled him with an almost uncontrollable desire. The moment he had seen the boy begin to actually using his quirk on the television against the other brat, Nine had become more and more hungry to see the lightning in action - and then, when Izuku had froze the boy in place, he had felt like he had just witnessed a miracle. It had made up his mind on the spot, having Kurogiri bring him right to the doctor at once.

Despite his own reservations, what he had seen made up his mind.

"To think," Kyudai Garaki mused, tapping his finger against his bushy mustache, "that I disregarded this boy as a potential vessel. Clearly, there's more to the boy than we thought. Oh, if only All For One hadn't already made up his mind on who he's going to be using as the vessel … well, what's done is done."

"Mm."

"Ah," Garaki chuckled, spinning around to look at Nine as he turned his gaze to scowl down at him, "don't worry if you think All For One will be taking this quirk from you. He's a bit too busy getting ready for our High-End project."

"That I see," Nine said in a blank voice, turning to look over at the large glass cylinder on the other side of the lab. Inside, what used to be the hooded man was drifting there, various wires and breathing apparatuses attached, while its head continued to deform, the brain pulsing through the various holes in its head. It was still grotesquely large from its mutation at the USJ, arms larger than its torso and shriveled legs, and a long electrical burn where the very same boy they were discussing had hit him in the chest with a lightning bolt scratched into its rapidly blackening skin.

"I must say," Garaki tapped his pen against his notepad, "I'm pleased that you seem to be taking this much more seriously than I first anticipated. And here I was having suspicions that you were going to run off with just the two quirks. Not a large consequence to our Inner Circle, of course, but it would've been a waste if you were simply in it for just the two."

"Don't be ridiculous," Nine narrowed his eyes, "I was promised eight quirks. I'm going to get them."

"Well, try not to be too impatient. You're compatible with All For One's quirk factor, but you do have a limit. You're currently up to four of potentially nine quirks that you can steal and use for yourself safely - your original weather quirk, the artificial All For One duplicate we gave you, the Scanning Quirk, and the Air Wall quirk. And now, you're interested in Spark - that'll be five quirks."

"Spark …" Nine looked around at the various Nomu in the vats, "… so that's the name of my quirk."

"Indeed," Garaki stood up from the chair, "it's a quirk that we were interested in a long time ago, almost ten years now, but the user's incompetence, and my moving away from the area, meant that we have only kept quiet tabs on it. All For One initially had his eye on it, but after what happened with All Might … well, we stopped looking for potentially complex quirks in favor of easier-to-use ones. While All For One is pleased with its potential, he also knows the potential complications of attempting to master the quirk - so he's far more comfortable with letting you have it."

"How kind of him."

"Such sarcastic backtalk!" Garaki laughed, throwing his head up to the ceiling. "And here we are, willing to hand you everything on a silver plate."

"Oh, please," Nine scoffed, raising an eyebrow, "you think I'm a fool, doctor? You think I haven't realized what I am?"

"Oh?" Garaki hummed, sounding smug as he approached Nine, and stared up at the hooded man's prone form behind the glass. "Then tell me. What are you?"

"You think I haven't figured things out?" Nine shook his head. "I remember nothing of my past. Nothing before my time living in that little 'orphanage' of yours, before it was burned down. I remember wandering the streets for years, with nothing but a number for my name. But nothing before that. Absolutely nothing, besides my name and the feeling that I wasn't … normal."

Garaki, for once, said nothing as Nine turned to look down at him with a scowl.

"And then," He raised an eyebrow, "when I came to you, and you told me about what you could give me. Taking me to this lab, and having me meet All For One. You think I didn't realize it within our first conversation? You're a doctor who specializes in quirks and genetics, and you created that … other proto-Nomu. Number Six."

"…"

"Six. Very coincidental name, isn't it?"

"I believe you had a point?" Garaki scoffed.

"… my mother's name. What was it?" He decided to ask plainly. "Before you took me from … wherever it was you found me."

"Ah," Garaki chuckled, "that's it? You want just your mother's name? You don't want to know anything about her? Or the public bath we found you in? I have all the secrets, Nine, and I'd be more than happy to share them with you if you just say 'please'."

"…"

"Hm. Very well," Garaki chuckled, turning away and walking back over to his chair, "in that case, I will have to refuse to tell you anything. Besides, it'll come in time, I'm sure. You'll just have to be patient."

"I'm through with patience," Nine growled, turning to look over at him as his eyes began to glow red, and they distantly heard the sound of thunder above them outside the hospital, "either give me some piece of information, or tell me what I have to do to get more power. I'm a busy man, doctor."

"And alas, you'll have to learn how to be patient," Garaki smirked, "the process we'll be putting you through begins tomorrow night - All For One will be holding a meeting with the other High Generals of the Inner Circle, and we only just got the other piece from Flect Turn to power up the machine. You'll be a lovely little conversation piece for our dinner party tomorrow night, before we can begin."

"Hmph," Nine narrowed his eyes.

"Just put those questions on the side for now, my dear test subject. Right now, you should be concerned with the task before you - putting in the space for two additional quirks should be simple enough, but it'll be taxing on your body. You'll be in recovery for the next three weeks, and you'll have to begin wearing specialized support items from Yaoyorozu Corporations to support your health."

"You mean …?" Nine glanced over at the desk near the wall, or more specifically, what was lying on the desk. Garaki followed his gaze to the black bodysuit, and chuckled.

"Not that yet," He shook his head, "that'll be for the end of the operations. No, you'll see what we'll be needing to install in you tomorrow night."

Nine merely scowled for a long moment, and then the doctor chuckled again.

"As I said," He made clear, "the questions you seek will be for another time, Nine. It would have been simpler to do the operation all at once, but seeing as you insisted on having the additional slots added one at a time …"

"I prefer to continue moving around with my crew. I can't exactly make the plans if I'm in a fish tank for months on end."

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it just yet. All For One had to go prepare the meeting with the other members of the Inner Circle, but once he returns," Garaki shook his head, smiling fondly, "and preparations are complete, he will go over the process with the both of us. As I said, this will be far more taxing than the first session - but we are not worried, as anything happening to you will not dissuade us in the long run. You are merely the test subject, after all."

Nine scowled, and looked back around to stare at Garaki as the old man walked back towards his chair, his fists clenching slightly.

"Fine," He growled, "be vague. But know this, doctor - All For One won't be around to protect you forever. You're merely a pawn to him, not some important piece of the puzzle."

"Of that I am well aware! I know what my role is," Garaki turned to him with a smirk, "but the question is, are you aware of your role?"

Nine merely huffed.

"Just get my operation ready. And doctor?"

"Hm?"

"I want a list of every cell activated based quirks in Japan," Nine narrowed his eyes, "and I want it narrowed to see who's quirk I'll specifically need."

Hmph," Garaki merely hummed, turning back towards his screen as Nine continued to stand beside the vat containing the High-End. Continuing to scowl for a moment, Nine looked back around at the purple fluid surrounding the hooded man, trying to calm his mind at the irritation the doctor had put there as he tapped his foot against the floor.

He needn't worry at the moment - despite how infuriating the doctor and his blind loyalty to All For One was, he would serve his purpose, and once Nine got all of his quirks, he would have no other need for Garaki, or the Inner Circle. Nine quirks would be enough - he didn't need the full catalogue at his disposal, and for any quirk he believed served its purpose, he would distribute to his followers. He already knew that he was looking for new quirks for Slice and Chimera - quirks that would be compatible with their bodies, and wouldn't hinder them.

It'd take a while, of course … having seven slots would give him a limit, and that would be something that -

Before he could get too lost in his thoughts, however, he became aware of the feeling of a phone vibrating in his pocket. Looking down, Nine reached in and pulled it out, turning it on its side to see an unknown number calling him - but he had a feeling that he knew who was trying to reach out to him. He'd left a message (reluctantly) with the secretary he had gotten, and it seemed now his … potential business partner … wasn't so busy as to call him back.

Answering the call, Nine raised the phone to his ear and turned away from the vat and the doctor sitting at his desk. "Yes?"

"Good afternoon. Am I speaking to Nine?"

"You are," Nine's eyes narrowed at the modified voice on the other end of the voice, making it seem as though he were speaking to an animated cartoon animal rather than a person, "and I am to assume that you're Re-Destro? Can't really tell because of the Mickey Mouse filter."

"Ha! Forgive me, it's better to be safe than sorry. In case someone was listening in," Re-Destro sounded amused, "now then, I assume you've received my card. I'm interested in setting up a meeting between the Meta-Liberation Army, and the Villain Consortium. From the sounds of things, you've been picking up quite a bit of attention in the community?"

"Seems to me I have. I'm in the interest of recruiting new members, and … well, from the sounds of things, an army would be something I'm interested in."

"As you well should! Alas, I'm not going to just give it to you that easily," Re-Destro laughed, while Nine's eyebrow twitched, "I don't know a single thing about you, after all, and introductions are important between business partners to determine how our business relationship will advance. Now then, I do have a few friends of mine - fellow liberation seekers - who are interested in hearing what world you're interested in creating. I'm going to host a dinner party tonight - and it would please me if you were the guest of honor."

"Interesting," Nine narrowed his eyes, "and how am I to assume this isn't a trap?"

"Oh, no need to worry about that. From the sounds of things, you have those barrels of Trigger, don't you? I'd hardly not want to pick a fight when you clearly have the upper hand. Now then, our base of operations is at Deika City, at the central tower. Come alone or bring your fellow Consortium members, it doesn't matter. Either way, we'll be welcoming you with open arms, and discuss any alliances that we may come up with."

Nine paused for a moment, thinking through his options - and then he sighed.

"I'll be there. What time?"

"Excellent! Eight o'clock, my good man, and we'll have someone bring you up to meet with us."

With that, the line went dead, and Nine sighed as he put the phone back down, slipping it into his pocket and scowling.

The Meta-Liberation Army … Nine knew of them, of course. Hell, he probably learned how to read by reading that book. There were points in there he could agree with, of course, but … well, he knew that his version of a perfect world was different from what Destro's vision was. But it would be foolish not to take advantage of an opportunity like this - a potential army at his command would serve his future goals well, and if this Re-Destro eventually got in his way, Nine could figure a way to remove him from power and take his place.

Letting out a sigh, Nine looked back around at the lab, frowning. He didn't know where this experiment would lead him - even though he was the subject, he was only told the bare minimum. But … he wouldn't dwell on those questions. He was just a convenient lab rat to All For One, nothing more. And quite honestly, it's easier to see it that way, until he found his chance to strike.

He'd get his new slots. He'd get his new quirks. He'd gain his army. He'd find the cell activation quirk he desperately needed -

"And you will become the next Demon Lord."

Nine stopped his thoughts at the feeling of a hand taking his shoulder from behind, staring forward for a moment. The voice was familiar, of course, but there was an … echoing sensation about it. As though it wasn't spoken from behind him, but inside his mind. Slowly, he looked around … and then up.

Floating there, staring down at him, was … a man. But a man that Nine felt himself take a step back from, his eyes widening. The man was in a dark suit, with various wires and tubes emerging from his throat, his wrists, the back of his head, even his face, but fading off into nothing. The man's head was … it was a deformed thing unlike anything Nine had ever seen before. A mass of scar tissue, extending from above his upper lip and covering his entire head and the back of neck, with no nose, ears, hair or eyes.

But it was clear, without his eyes, that he was staring down at Nine, his grin spread wide.

"Patience, Mikumo Akatani," All For One smirked, "your answers will come soon enough. You just … have to wait."

With that, the vestige faded into red and black darkness, deep laughter echoing all around Nine.

---

"IT'S FINALLY HERE! THE LAST BATTLE OF THE UA HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS FESTIVAL! THE TOP OF THE FIRST YEARS WILL BE DECIDED WITH THIS FINAL, GLORIOUS MATCH!"

In the tunnel, the two girls could hear Present Mic's screeching voice as though it were up close to them, and the roar of the crowd filled the empty hall they were standing in, just off to the side so no one could see them. Standing there, they looked blankly out at the field before them, as though mentally getting prepared for the final battle of the day that would determine who would be winning this sports festival …

… and then Itsuka let out a low, menacing growl.

"I'm going." She said through gritted teeth, her hands clenched into fists as she and Nejire stood there. "To kill. Them. All."

"Well, I mean -" Nejire tried to palate her and fight down her giggles at the same time, knowing how frustrated Itsuka must be at the moment (while acknowledging silently that Itsuka's pout was both humorous and adorable at the same time), "- I bet it'll be fine, Itsuka! Sure, it's not like -"

"I just asked those two to come out with me tomorrow," Itsuka gritted her teeth, looking like she was about to punch the wall as she raised one hand to grab her ponytail, "told them that we were going to the beach, and - and we're gonna go swimming, and - and then All Might comes around the corner all 'ooh, boy, who's talking about a beach?' and everyone jumps on it!"

Nejire had to suppress a small snort, even if she more than understood Itsuka's annoyance.

"And the worst part!" Itsuka whipped around to look at her, stomping her foot childishly while Nejire struggled to keep a straight face. "The worst part is now, everyone's gonna keep me so busy, I'll have no idea how to get Izuku and Ochako alone for our talk! Because I know that everyone's gonna be so chaotic tomorrow I'm gonna have to make sure nothing goes wrong! Kaminari's probably gonna fry himself in the ocean, Setsuna's gonna poke and tease me, Yui's probably gonna be staring at everyone, and I'm gonna have to make sure Eri has fun, too!"

"Mm-hm …"

"It just - grrah!"

Nejire continued to nod and suppress her giggles as they both absently listened to the sound of Present Mic going on and on over the speakers above them. It had been a few minutes since they had separated from Class 1A, with everyone promising to escort the slightly traumatized and frozen Izuku back safely after All Might had sped away (she had overheard him muttering something about memes, which only confused Itsuka), and now the two girls were getting ready to step outside into the open air to finally get the sports festival over and done with. While they had been walking back, Itsuka had been obviously and quietly fuming, until Nejire had given her an innocent question about the beach which had prompted her to rightfully explode and begin ranting, and thus, minutes later, Itsuka was still grumbling while Nejire tried not to make it worse by laughing.

"I … grrrr," Itsuka grumbled, looking away and crossing her arms while pouting adorably, "okay, okay, I've complained enough, haven't I?"

"Oh, don't be like that, it's all good! I get that it's frustrating," Nejire stepped over and patted her arm, "and … well, I don't think you have all that much to worry about! Remember, Itsuka? I'm on your side! I'll be helping you out tomorrow!"

"You … are?"

"Heck yeah! You don't even have to ask! Don't worry, I'll make sure nobody can bother you three while you go and have your talk! But hey," Nejire glanced back out at the field, "maybe we can plan that later, right? We still have a lot to do today, and we're kinda … well …"

She paused, a thoughtful expression suddenly coming to her face.

"… hey, hey, I almost forgot about Todoroki," She realized, "which isn't good, because you promised Midoriya you'd think about it, right?"

"Gerk," Itsuka winced.

"Yeah! Well, I can't blame you if you forgot about it - All Might showing up in a mini-skirt was kinda out of nowhere, wasn't it? It was kinda traumatizing, so no worries if that got pushed to the back of your mind! Although I gotta say, I think All Might lowkey rocks a mini-skirt."

"I - no, I'm not gonna touch the fact All Might was wearing a skirt," Itsuka shuddered at the thought, raising her hand to scratch her cheek as she looked sheepish, "I just … wasn't really thinking about Todoroki, is all. And … not really thinking about Izuku's request."

"Yeah," Nejire nodded, her smile falling slightly, "it was kinda out of nowhere too, wasn't it? But, uh … well, I guess if he asked, we gotta consider it, right? And talk it through, right?"

"… Nejire," Itsuka raised her eyebrow, looking over at her partner with a skeptical look, "you're gonna ask that we do what Izuku says, aren't you?"

She got her answer from how Nejire began innocently whistling, looking away awkwardly, and the class representative let out a small chuckle.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Anyway, uh … well, I honestly don't know," Itsuka shrugged her shoulders, "do we really have to talk about it? I'm still kinda considering if we even have to talk to Todoroki himself."

"Oh! Well, in that case, if you don't wanna talk about it, we don't have to talk about it." Nejire agreed, smiling happily. "We can talk about those 'friend smooches' instead!"

"…"

"…"

"… I have no idea if you did that on purpose," Itsuka glared at her, her adorable pout returning while she went red again, "or if you really thought what I did was a 'friend smooch'."

"Well," Nejire shrugged, looking completely innocent (although the mischievous look in her eye suggested otherwise), "if it's not a 'friend smooch', Itsuka, what is it?"

Itsuka pouted a bit more - and then she reached over to wrap her arm around Nejire's neck, and brought her head down. Nejire let out a small confused noise, only to squeak as Itsuka began grinding her knuckles into the top of her head.

"Ow!" Nejire squealed as Itsuka gave her a noogie, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Itsukaaaaa!"

"You little …!" Itsuka was unable to stop herself from laughing a bit as Nejire squirmed, her fingers moving up to start tickling her side, and both girls started laughing as they briefly struggled in the tunnel before they managed to get control of themselves, Itsuka letting go of Nejire's neck to let her stand up straight.

"Okay, okay," Itsuka managed to get control of her laughter, "if you're so adamant we talk about Todoroki, then we talk about Todoroki. Just … don't bring up 'friend smooches' ever again."

"Yay!" Nejire happily clapped her hands together, and they both turned to look back out of the tunnel - or more specifically, her eyes moved over to where she knew Momo and Shouto would be coming out of. "So, uh … what do you think we should do? Should we help him?"

"Well …" Itsuka bit her lip a bit, her smile from their tomfoolery fading as she looked over as well, and let out a small sigh, "… if … if I'm being honest, Hadou, I - I kinda don't want to. Like … okay, I'll admit it, I don't really like Todoroki. He hasn't really given me any real reason to like him. He's a jackass, he's done nothing but make me question myself all day long, he's treated me like crap, and - and at this point, I don't even really want to fight him anymore. I just wanna lay down and go to sleep, or just go home and do literally anything else. So the fact it's him that's gonna be making me work my ass off in the next couple of minutes doesn't earn him any favors."

"Mm-hm …"

"But …" Itsuka closed her eyes, pouting again for a moment before she opened them back up and looked around at her partner, "… okay, you said you were there when he talked to Izuku. Is this - this thing really all that serious? Do I have to talk to him about it right now?"

"Well …" Nejire hesitated for a moment, her smile dropping slightly as Itsuka tilted her head, "… I … well, I don't think it needs to be talked about right now … but - but it is pretty serious, Itsuka! I swear!"

"Okay. And … you can't tell me what it is."

"Uh … no. I - I can't. I made a promise."

"Right," Itsuka slowly nodded, thinking over Present Mic's endless commentary hyping up the final round - and then she pouted.

"Izuku would … probably be really happy with us if I helped Todoroki out."

"Mm-hm."

"And … happy Izuku makes me happy."

"I guess so! Happy Izuku makes me happy too."

"So," Itsuka raised a finger, "on the upside, I help Todoroki, Izuku's happy with me. Everyone's happy."

"Yep!"

"On the downside," Itsuka lowered her finger with a frown, "I help Todoroki, the odds of me being set on fire are gonna be pretty high."

"Yeaaaaah," Nejire giggled nervously, "it's … kinda … well …"

Both girls trailed off as they stared off at the arena in the distance, listening briefly to the cheering of the crowd as they realized the chances of their hair being set on fire was worryingly high - and then Itsuka let out a defeated sigh, raising her hands and smacking her cheeks.

"Okay," She nodded, frowning but looking determined, "fuck it. Fine. Let's just - we'll help Todoroki. Maybe. If he tries to freeze me, though, I'm putting him on his ass."

"Okay!" Nejire happily clapped her hands together, and then spun back around to smile happily at her. "Are we doing this?!"

"I … yeah, I guess so!" Itsuka laughed as well, infected by Nejire's cheerfulness and looking around at her as she offered her hand up for a high-five.

"Let's kick some booty, then!"

"Yeah!"

With that, Itsuka happily raised her hand and smacked Nejire's open palm with hers - only for Nejire to suddenly intertwine her fingers with hers, preventing her from pulling her hand back.

Itsuka faltered a bit, blinking slightly as Nejire squeezed gently on her hand, and then turned her gaze back to Nejire's face, as though to ask her what she was doing - but before she could, the blue-haired girl suddenly yanked Itsuka's hand towards her, making Itsuka lose her balance and trip over herself with a small yelp, and her face came awfully close to Nejire's -

- just before Nejire tilted her head slightly to the side, and she moved her face forward so that her lips could meet Itsuka's cheek, holding them there for a moment before she moved back with a loud kissing sound and a giggle.

There was a long pause as Itsuka stared blankly ahead, her brow furrowed automatically - and then it finally came to her what had just happened, causing her mouth to drop open wide, and her face to fill with red as she quickly looked back around at the giggling Nejire, a touch of red on her own cheeks as she happily watched Itsuka's face.

"I - huh?" Itsuka squeaked a bit. "What was - uh - w-what - what -?"

"A friend smooch!" Nejire explained happily. "It looked like it was pretty fun when you did it with Midoriya and Uraraka, so I thought I'd give it a try! Now c'mon, let's go kick some Todoroki booty!"

With that, she took Itsuka's hand and led her straight out into the sunlight, walking with determination over to the arena where Midnight was pacing on her podium again. Unfortunately, out in the open, Itsuka could do little to demand an answer out of Nejire over what the hell just happened, less the entire arena would see her freaking out and blushing in all her fluster, and forcing her heart to calm down.

She did pout furiously, however, pointing a finger at Nejire while her face continued to burn hot, and Nejire giggled a bit mischievously again as they saw flames burst out of the four corners of the arena above them, and the crowd roared as Present Mic continued to monologue above them.

---

"Mom, I'm ... I'm going crazy. I can't take it anymore. Every day the children seem to become more and more like ... like him. Shouto's ... his left side looks ... it looks like ... I can't ... I can't raise him anymore ... I feel like I shouldn't ..."

Here he was … walking towards victory … and he couldn't get any of the memories out of his damn mind.

Narrowing his eyes to slits, Shouto stormed out into the sunlight, ignoring the increased volume of the crowd's cheers as he stormed forward across the grass. Behind him, he could tell that Momo was giving him a worried look, her hands folded together and glancing between him and the hill where the arena was, but for now, he ignored it completely. Not when he had several voices ringing in his mind, distracting him and making him grit his teeth as he stormed forward.

"Stand up! If you're downed by a weak punch like that, you can forget beating All Might! You won't even be able to handle small fry villains!"

"Please, stop! He's only five!"

"He's already five! Get out of my way!"

It was … annoying.

"Don't look at them, Shouto. They belong to a different world than you do."

"̵͚̙̗͍̣̜͎̪̳̇̔̃̉̀̔̀͊̔̏̈́̊̚͜͝-̵̠̜͍̰̱͓́̄̇̊̐͝ ̴̢̼̈́́̋̎̈́̒̀͠I̸͕͍͖͈͓̘̮̙̥̣͕̤̾͑̃̈́̈́͒͠ ̵̨͎̟̰͐̓̈̒͗̌̅̽͒͛̾́̚͘k̷̡̧͖̫̲͔̼̟̘̓̉͊̑͜͠n̵̨̻͉̖͖̳͉̜̺̰̻̭͈̅̅̌͆̾́̅͌õ̴̠͖͚̼̬̥w̴̛̻̟͔̩̣̜͕͕͉̙̆̈́̅̇̉͒̀͠͠͝ͅ ̴̛͈͔̦̫͚̝̉̔̍̄̇͛̂͗͝ͅỵ̵͍̬͓̰̮͛̃ͅo̶̧̨̖̣̯̦͍̰̭̰̝̣̐̉̌̉̒û̶͌̑̓̈́͛͑͐̈̽̐̕͝͝ͅ'̸̢̫̹̩̦͚̥̞̯͚̻͉̥͕͗͘ŗ̷͖͖̙̝̠̫̥̯͉͙̩̏͐͑̈́̓ȅ̷̢̱̠̳̔̉͆ ̸̧͎̼̜̫͉̬͇͋͒̀͆m̴͎̱̐y̶̢̡̦̗͎͈̪̰̹͓͋̉͑̋̓͗́̂͘ͅ ̵̧̢͎̜͕͑͑̋͐̀̌̀̌̚͜͝r̸̛͎͈̘͎̹̩̠̗̹͒̔͑͑̈́̀̑̑̔ẽ̵̫̭͓̟̳̖͖͍̪̪̈͠͝͝p̵͇̼͔̖̤̻̯͖̳͒̽̓̈́͌͐͑̓͒̐͒͠l̵̢̧̙̰̰̻̫͖̣̲͇̤̭̻̰̆̿̈́̆͆̂̓̆̎̀ą̵̧̳̩̥̟̩̯̠͇̙͈̍̐́͒͗̄c̸̢̼͔̦͙͖̭͙̬̻̝̬̗͚̤͋ḛ̶͐̒̈́͋͗͗́̇̄͗͑m̷̯̟̩̫̮̱̞͗̔͂̆̑̂̈́̄͊̏̑̕è̴̡̛͔͈͆͛̅̓̋͐̓͊̉͊̈́͗̚n̵̥̪̤͇͕̱̯̱̈̆̒ṫ̶̠̣̳̱̣̰̝̹́̚͝,̸̬̖̍͆̑̆̊͛̌̂ ̴̢̯̣̝̲̝̟̅͌̋̈́̀͐̓̀̆̒͠͝y̴̢̺͈̹̫̻̻̫͍̌͋̀̑̉͒̾͝ò̴̢̰̘̝̫͙̯̋̾̐̑̀̎̚ͅư̵̡̩̗͙͋́̌͑̂̐̒̓͑̕͝ ̶̰͉̣͎̯̰͉̖̫̺̯̌͊̃̊͆͐̋̇̑́̆͘͜͠ͅl̷̨̛̬̱̳̩̤͆̈́́̐̇͆̑͗͂i̴̛̭̙̫̭͕͓̺͎̻̣̰̱̤̳̊̽͑̉̎̚͝t̷̬͖̝͈̆͗ţ̶̼̦̬͕͖̲͌͂̿͒͋̌̈́̓̄͐̒̒̐̚ͅl̴͙͚̗̺̬̱̦̣̬͍̺͎̜̣̣̂͠ẻ̸̡̙͉̯̣̙̘̮̜̀̊ͅͅ ̴̢̛͍̬̩͙̩̟̞̞̠̗̥̜̈̒̏̅͘̚̕ş̶̼̖͎̯͇̙̘̦̲͇͓̤̘͙̃h̵̗͙͈͛̓i̷͕͙̥͂̀̑̏̊̏̆̓́̌̌̚͘̚t̶̨̢̧̪̟͚̬̫̫͚̓̆̋̂͊͆́̏͋́̀̀͝͠.̸͙͚̙͉̩̤̺̍͆̍̑̊̅̿͌̿̕͘̕͘͝"̶̥̱̩͎͈͔̭̆͒̓͆̀͑̌̓̑

"Shouto, do you …"

"But you want to be a hero, don't you? It's okay, Shouto … it's o̷̡͍̖̱͎̱̦̮̘͇͖̻̯̪̐͛̾̎͛̑̈̏̃̎̕̕͜k̷̡̛̘͔̀͐̋̈̊̈́̔͝ͅa̴̦͉̯̫̥͙̭̙͈͊̓̊̌̆̊̃̒̊͂̍͜͝͠y̵̢̼̝̻̗̲̫̘̋̒̏̏̓͝ ̶̢̤̣̗͈͚̖͚̘͖̖̟̇͌̊́̾̿̕͘͘f̴̛͍͓̻̱̩͙͈͐̓̓ồ̷̧̧̥̫̹̲͎͈͓̥͇͚̟͍ṛ̸̨̿̌̔̆͐̄̍̈̎̚̚̕̚͠ ̴̧͎̫͈̼͋̈́͐͋̋̍̀y̵̛̪̤͚̗͗̑̈́̽͋̊̓̀̾̕̕̕o̴̡̡̺̮̤͈̥͇̓̿͋̍̄̂͐͋̄̀̎̚͘͝ǘ̴͔͕͕̖͙̫̲̘̿̉͝ ̵̧̩͇͓̺̞̜͖͈̀͒̃͗-̵̧̧̡̩̱̘̺̬͔͈̤̬̯̕"̸̹̯̫͚͕̘̂͒̒̾͊̏̓́́̌̌̎̀͘͝

"You stole my life!"

"- Touya's just playing around, Shouto! You don't have to t̸̛͔̂̿̾̿̔̋̂a̷̧̠͉̻̳̜̯͂̈́́̅́͠͝ķ̴̺̼̣͈̆̆͛̂̔͌̕͘e̴̜͂̈́̒͌̕͘̚̕͘͝͠ ̷̨̧̼̞͕̥͎͓̼̳̒̔̍̄̕h̸͇͖̅̅̿̈́͌̈̂͂̚ĭ̴̼̘̰͙͚̲̏̔̏̔͆̑̏̂̓͌͋̉͘m̴̢̢̙̯̞̘̙̻̟̐̒͋̊̌̌̓̓͂̈́̚ ̴̡̛͎̹̙͉̖̲̞͚̙̘̪̘̘͊̆̎͂̀̏͋͗́̂̈̋͜s̵̨̨̨͍̞̭̖̦̥͇̀̋̄̒́̓͗ó̷͕͔̙͑̎̿͛̈́́̔́̃͌̽̇̉͠ ̶̫͕͙͚̳͕̈́͒͗̆̉̔̀̄͑͋̀͑̽s̴̢͉̟̪̝̪̰̫͍̝̜̬̅͆̂̋͑̑̿̏̃̚ê̶̡̧̺̻̗̞̟̰̰̖͈̈́̄͂̽̉͝ͅŗ̴̨̢̻̘̺͖̹̹̪̮̥̭̎̉̉͗̃̽̄̈́͜͜͝͝ï̶̡̢͈̪̟̖̩͈̞̠̰͍͇̌͆́̊̕͘ͅo̴̼̺̩͌͆̏̂̽͆̆̉̈́͘͜u̸̧̱̮̹̙͓̟̫͓̹̮͑̀s̵̛͖͕̜̟̙͈̙̘̃̎̒͆̈́̃̑̽l̷̡̧̧͔̺̳̘͖͖̗̃͛̆̉̂͑̽͝y̶͉̓̉̈̈́̑͆͘͠͝ ̸̟͖̭͝-̵̧̡̛̱͖͖͎̬͖̯̳̖͂̏͛̓̈̿̽̃͆͛̚͜͝"̷̮͈̘̼̇

It was … making him angry.

"They're going to be out there giving their all, and then there's you not even trying that hard."

"Everyone is out here giving their all, and you're deliberately holding back."

"You'll make me proud, huh? Heh. I sincerely doubt it."

"… I don't think you owe your brother anything. And - and you don't have anything to prove to your father."

Clenching his hand tight, Shouto merely glared forward, ignoring his English teacher screeching his head off above them as he reached the bottom of the hill and began climbing up the steps. He was tired. He was in a foul mood ever since the fight against that Shinsou idiot and his class representative. And he just wanted to get the gold medal and show it to Touya, to prove that he could make it without using his fire. And all of this … this distraction, these memories of his childhood, of what happened, of Izuku and Itsuka looking down on him … it was making him feel like a volcano that was about to erupt.

But … but this was it. This was the final round. All he needed to do was defeat Itsuka, the one he had chosen to best represent All Might, and shove his victory in his father's face. He'd go home and show the gold medal to Touya -

"You'll make me proud, huh?"

- and earn his approval. He'll -

"… I don't think you owe your brother anything."

Gritting his teeth, Shouto glared forward, seeing Itsuka and Nejire coming up at the top of the stairs opposite of them, the one who had eavesdropped on him before giggling about something before she glanced over at him and allowed her face to fall. But his eyes locked on Itsuka as she looked over as well, her face turning to a frown as they both reached the top of the stairs, and began moving into the circle.

"- AND NOW THIS IS IT!" Present Mic screeched above them. "THE FINAL BATTLE! THE LAST DESPERATE STAND! THE ULTIMATE BATTLE OF ULTIMATE DESTINY! THE FINAL ROUND!"

Moving into the circle, the four of them quietly studied each other. Momo held her arm nervously, glancing between her two opponents. Nejire likewise glanced between both of them, although her gaze flickered down to Shouto's right hand and nodded slightly. And both Itsuka and Shouto stared at each other, Itsuka with a frown and Shouto with a glare.

"So," Shouto clenched his fists, "you're here."

"Where else would I be?" Itsuka huffed a bit.

"ON ONE END! PACKING QUITE A PUNCH, AND LOOKING ADORABLE AS WELL! IT'S ITSUKA KENDOU AND NEJIRE HADOU!"

Above the arena, and in the crowd, Izuku leaned forward in his seat, pulling nervously at his lip while Eri held his hand, sitting in the seat beside him. On the little girl's opposite side, Ochako was lightly snoring, having fallen asleep due to the amount of stamina Recovery Girl's quirk had taken from her, and Yui was currently attempting to wrestle a marker away from Setsuna, who was trying to lean forward to draw on the sleeping girl's face. Still, Izuku only absently reached over Eri and Ochako's head to snatch the marker from them, his eyes flickering between Shouto and Itsuka while he felt his heart thump heavily in his chest.

"I - I hate to have to ask this of you, Kendou, and - and you can ignore what I'm going to ask you if you want to, but … but if you can … I want to ask if you could help Todoroki, he's - he's got a complex with his quirk. He believes that his fire belongs to people he - he doesn't really like. If it's possible, I … I want to see you win the match, but I also want to see Todoroki get over his complex that's hindering him. It probably won't be easy, but … but if anyone can do it, it's - it's you, Kendou."

"VERSUS!" Present Mic continued to commentate. "LOOKING SERIOUS AND DETERMINED! IT'S SHOUTO TODOROKI AND MOMO YAOYOROZU!"

In his own seat, All Might ignored the barely concealed chuckling Tenko was doing as he shared the video of the Number One Hero getting into his cheerleader's uniform with his sister, instead leaning forward while his own gaze flickered between the two duos. He was thankful that it appeared that the crowd had very much lightened up after his show with Class 1A, 1B and Himiko - he'd have to remember to give those who participated extra credit, and put in a good word with Recovery Girl so Himiko could be rewarded with her own fair share of artificial blood for participating - but staring down at his chosen successor, he couldn't help but feel nervous as he tugged on his tie.

"NOW!" Present Mic cheerfully cried out. "IT'S TIME TO FINALLY WRAP THIS UP! KENDOU!"

Itsuka gulped. Tenohira and Hakushu nervously clasped hands while the other parents around them grabbed their arms and shoulders, and Teko clenched his own hands tightly against his arms where he was crossing them.

"HADOU!"

Nejire balled her fists. Yuuyu stared down at her best friend in conflict, still annoyed from their argument but shivering from the cold, and turned to aim a glare at her own classmate down in the arena.

"YAOYOROZU!"

Momo tensed. Up in the VIP box, Yukiri Yaoyorozu shook in excitement, balling her fists together while her bodyguard glanced around suspiciously for anyone who might be approaching them.

"TODOROKI!"

Shouto glared hard at his opponent. Up in the arena, Endeavor crossed his own arms, his flame beard flaring, and unknown to either of them, Fuyumi nervously stared at her phone while cleaning up the classroom, Natsuo cheered on his little brother from the living room of one of his friend's places, Touya continued to glare up at the television screen of the hospital while Stendhal spoke with one of the police officers and nurses behind him, and a white haired woman clenched her own hands nervously together while looking at her youngest son's furious face in worry.

"FIGHT!"

At once - the exact moment Present Mic screeched out that word - both sides acted. Shouto slammed his foot down as hard as he could, and a massive wall of ice shot out. It moved faster than many people in the audience could register, shooting out to slam straight into the other two girls as the other members of the audience behind them reeled back in anticipation -

- and then Nejire lifted up her hands, pouting and squinting her eyes in determination as she angled her hands up so the palms faced the wall of ice fast approaching, and they glowed a bright yellow light.

"Full charge, output level ... thirty!"

At once, her spiraling light shot out of her palms with such intensity, Itsuka winced at the bright light. It flew across the stage to meet the ice right in the middle, the yellow coils wrapping around the ice in spirals -

- and then the entire ring disappeared in an icy explosion.

"W-whoaaaaa!" Midnight screamed as she was, yet again, thrown off her podium from the force. The entire crowd gasped and screamed as the energy of Nejire's quirk slammed into Shouto's ice, and the ice … continued to expand, carried by the yellow light up above the arena and wrapping around it. Both Itsuka and Nejire let out shrieks of surprise and quickly covered their heads as the ice twirled above them, and Momo quickly ducked as well while Shouto quickly moved down into a crouch, squinting his eyes to see what was happening.

The ice quickly warped and twisted around them and the arena as it was frozen around Nejire's wave, and … soon enough, the entire crowd gasped as the ice completely sealed around the ring, moving up into the air above the stadium. Izuku leapt out of his seat, his eyes blowing wide in worry while Eri held tighter to his hand, and Ochako was jerked awake by everyone in the box letting out gasps, blinking in confusion as she looked around - and then squeaked at the large pillar of ice rising high into the sky.

Inside the arena, wincing, Itsuka continued to cover her head with her arms, not even thinking to use her quirk as she leaned away from the utter chill spreading throughout her entire body. Nejire likewise shivered as she closed her eyes, hearing the loud cracking of ice continuing to form around them as they kept their heads down. Finally, the sound of cracking began to stop, and once they were left in silence, feeling cold air nipping at them from all around, they both slowly opened their eyes -

- and then they felt them widen.

"… whoa," Nejire breathed out, her breath escaping in a wisp as she shivered slightly.

Honestly … well, it was hard to blame Nejire for her amazed-sounding reaction, with Itsuka also looking around in wonder. The collision of Nejire and Shouto's quirks, both of them combining together, resulted in Shouto's ice completely expanding overtop them. The entire ring was now resting in the center of a giant iceberg, far taller than anything Shouto had produced today, with the bottom of the iceberg hollowed out enough for the four of them to walk around in, and the yellow light of Nejire's quirk was sealed in the walls around them, illuminating the ring in a soft golden light.

Shouto and Momo, meanwhile, were likewise unharmed and looking around themselves, Momo's mouth falling open slightly while Shouto merely gave a cross look at the giant ice prison he had inadvertently made, and then turned back to glare at the two other girls.

"Well, uh …" Itsuka shivered a bit, seeing her own breath come out in an icy chill as she continued to look around at the blue walls of ice, "… that was … unexpected."

"And kinda cool!" Nejire gushed, hopping up and down.

"How … did that happen?" Itsuka continued to look around in shock. "It was like your quirk just … carried the ice all around the arena. Did you know your quirk could do that?"

"Nope! But hey, I'm not gonna question the logic!" Nejire giggled a bit in glee, even as Itsuka looked around at her with a deadpan look. "Oh, c'mon, you gotta admit that this is pretty cool!"

"I … okay, yes," Itsuka nodded, "I will admit, this is pretty aweso- Nejire!"

Nejire jumped pretty high at Itsuka suddenly shouting her name in warning, and quickly looked back around at where Itsuka was staring - and felt herself squeak when she saw another barrage of ice shooting out of the ground towards them. Quickly, Itsuka jumped to the side and out of its path, while Nejire leapt up into the sky with a burst of her quirk, flying upwards into the air as quickly as she could -

- only to grunt in pain when her head suddenly bonked against the thick ice that made up the ceiling of the ice cavern.

"Can't fly around anymore," Shouto growled at her, looking far more angry than any of them had seen him be all day long as he threw another barrage of ice towards Itsuka, who quickly dived to the side again out of the way, and the ice hit the cave's wall -

- and the entire ice cavern rumbled ominously, causing all four teenagers to quickly look around in nervousness at the sound of large cracking, and buzz of energy that made up Nejire's quirk being unleashed through one of the cracks, yellow flickers of lightning zapping out.

"Shouto, be careful!" Momo quickly told him, looking terrified up at the ceiling. "If you break the ice, then the whole thing will -"

"They have the disadvantage," Shouto quickly talked over her, his eyes staying on Itsuka as she slipped on some of the ice on the ground and collided with the nearest wall with a grunt, "Hadou can't use her quirk to hit me, or she'll have to risk missing and hitting the wall, and bringing the whole cavern down. Kendou might be able to outfight me, but if I keep her at a distance, I can use my quirk to immobilize her."

"But - Shouto, please, just listen to me!" Momo grabbed his arm - only to wince when she ended up feeling the chilling sting, and quickly moved her hand back. "This isn't a good strategy, let's just - we can talk before -"

"Just stay back," Shouto turned around and ordered her, ignoring how Momo winced again, "and keep out of the way. I'll take them both down."

Momo faltered at his command, but Shouto turned his attention back towards Itsuka, ignoring his partner now in his anger, and moved down to slam his open palm against the floor. At once, more ice shot out through the ground at Itsuka as she regained her balance, carefully sliding to the side and out of the way - only for one thick piece to hit her straight in the shoulder.

It wasn't sharp, thankfully, but it was a hard enough blow that Itsuka was thrown off her feet with a grunt, coming down hard on the slippery floor and sliding all the way towards the wall of ice.

"This time, Kendou," Shouto narrowed his eyes, "we finish this."

"Yeah," Itsuka grunted, sitting up and rubbing her shoulder, and wincing when a sharp pain shot through her when she touched it, "whatever you say, man."

BOOM

A blast of yellow light suddenly slammed down onto the ground close to where Shouto was standing, forcing him to quickly switch his attention between the partners, and threw his right hand back up to summon a barrage of ice to act as a shield from Nejire. Still floating in the air, Nejire pouted at Shouto's attempt to hide, and quickly soared right over top the shield as Shouto peaked out. Which meant, of course, that he didn't have much time to react when Nejire's foot suddenly shot out, catching him in the shoulder and sending him stumbling back, his balance lost.

Out in the open, Shouto quickly slammed his hand back onto the floor as he toppled over, and Nejire let out a small 'oops!' as she quickly flew out of the way of more icicles stabbing up at her, floating briefly in the air before she came diving back down with her hands still alight with yellow energy. With a scowl, Shouto stomped his foot down and shot out more ice at her, forming into a thick wall that Nejire was unable to dodge out of the way of.

Hearing her yelp as she thumped against the wall, Shouto nodded, and then turned to where Itsuka had been laying -

- only for two hands to suddenly grab him, one by the back of his shirt and the other by his hair, and Shouto let out a grunt of pain as Itsuka yanked him right off his feet.

With a growling shout, Itsuka threw him as hard as she could over his shoulder, forcing him to flail somewhat in the air from the amount of strength she put in the throw - but before he could collide hard with the ice wall, he quickly flung his hand through the air, and a slide of ice erupted beneath him to slide him away. Itsuka didn't give up, however, growing out her hands and running towards where he was coming to a stop.

Dodging out of the way as more ice erupted out of the slide he was using, Itsuka jumped into the air, and threw her fist forward - but Shouto was quicker, jumping off the slide and slamming his right hand down on the top of her fist.

Letting out a shriek of pain as a sharp, cold stabbing sensation itched at her skin where he was touching her, Itsuka quickly backed away, staring down in shock at the frozen mark on her gigantified hand that was beginning to grow ice. Before it could spread down her arm, she quickly slammed her other grown out palm against it, shattering the ice - but the damage was already done. Pain ached in her hand as tears of pain filled her eyes, and she quickly tried to back up -

- but in her moment of weakness, Shouto shot forward, and drove his foot right into her gut. With a gasp as the air left her lungs, Itsuka was knocked off her feet, landing on her back and staring up as Shouto kept his foot on her ribcage to keep her pinned, glaring down at her in contempt.

"That had better not be all you have," He said flatly as Itsuka looked up at him through her pain, "you'd better get up and -"

He didn't get to finish that taunt, however, as, due to his focus being on her, it was his turn to be caught flatfooted. And that was because of a pair of fists slamming straight into his back, and giving him a full blast of vitality for his trouble.

With a grunt, Shouto was forced forward by Nejire essentially slamming into him from behind, using her quirk to blast him right off his feet and through the air, until he came crashing down on the ground near the wall. With Momo taking a shocked step back, clearly on her guard but not making a move, Itsuka groaned as she rolled onto her side, looking at where Shouto was laying on his side.

Knowing that he would take a moment to try and get back up, Itsuka let out a small sigh. She knew that she had to try to talk to him, of course, but she'd expected it to be during a moment of slight calm, not after a bout of fighting. But still … well, no time like the present.

"H-hey, Todoroki," She grunted as she managed to roll onto her hands and knees, "can, uh … do you mind if we do a small time out?"

Shouto stopped his own attempts to get back up, staring blankly at the floor for a long moment before he slowly turned to look up at her. Wincing, Itsuka still tried to give him a slightly innocent smile, holding her side where she had landed. There was a long pause in which Nejire blinked down at her partner, and Momo likewise looked confused -

- and then Shouto suddenly slammed his hand back down on the ground, and a huge amount of ice shot out of the ground towards Itsuka.

Yelping, Itsuka quickly hopped back up before the wall could slam into her, slipping and sliding on the icy floor.

"Todoroki, I - wait, wait a second!" She tried to move her hands into a 'T' position. "Time out! Time ouUGH!"

The reason she grunted, of course, was because due to her slipping around on the icy ground, she was unable to get out of the way in time of a large block of ice slamming straight into her chest, knocking all the air out of her lungs yet again. Flying through the air from the force, she let out a grunt as she once again slammed against the ice wall, Nejire letting out a small 'ooh' of sympathy as Itsuka slid ungracefully down onto the ground.

Quickly, Nejire threw another blast of vitality towards Shouto, who quickly moved to the side and threw his arm out again with another iceberg, which clipped Nejire right in the side and sent her spinning through the air. Letting out a yelp, Nejire also collided with the ice wall, everyone hearing an ominous crack as she slammed hard against it, and slid down not too far away from Itsuka, laying with her arms flopped out and her legs up in the air.

"So, uh …" Nejire managed to wheeze out, her feet slowly falling down onto the floor above her head and not even caring that her butt was pretty much in the air, "… how are we doing?"

"I, uh …" Itsuka groaned as she flopped down onto her side, "… I think we're getting our asses kicked."

"Shouto!" Momo quickly called out to her partner as he got to his feet, her eyes on his arms and seeing them beginning to tremble. "You don't have to throw them around like that - I can drill a hole in the wall, and if you can restrain them -"

"That's not what my brother would do," Shouto shut her advice down at once, narrowing his eyes at the two girls sprawled out on the floor, "he would make sure that they stay down, and not do anything to get back up. I made the mistake of underestimating Midoriya and Uraraka earlier, I'm not going to repeat that now."

"Just -" Momo looked around at him, aghast and frustrated as she flicked her worried gaze up to where more spirals of yellow light were escaping the cracks forming in the ice cavern, "- I can make -"

"Yaoyorozu, I said to stay back," Shouto turned to give her a sharp look, making Momo flinch, "I don't want to hit you in the crossfire. I've overestimated Kendou's abilities, but Hadou's unpredictable. Keep to the sides until she's been immobilized, and I can take care of Kendou afterwards."

"… okay, now I'm just pissed off," Itsuka grumbled as she started getting up, "did he just say he overestimated me?"

"Yeaaaah … yeah, he did," Nejire likewise rolled over so that she could start getting up, leaning against the ice wall and shivering at its cold touch, "he's a jerk, isn't he?"

"Such a jerk." Itsuka shook her head as she likewise leaned against the wall to get back to her feet, "and from how much he talks about emulating his brother, I'm getting the feeling it runs in the family. Okay … agh … okay. So we're getting our asses kicked. We need a new strategy."

"Okay," Nejire likewise slid against the wall so they could stand together, "but … what are you thinking, exactly? Because I've got nothing! We can barely land a hit!"

"Yeah … well, Izuku said in his notes that he's got a limit to how much ice he can push out before he starts suffering from hypothermia," Itsuka recalled as Shouto continued ordering Momo around, not paying attention to them, "so … we've gotta find a way for him to keep using his ice until he can't use anymore. Or … well …"

Her gaze flickered around to the ice cavern around them, seeing the cracks in the walls and the yellow light within threatening to release, and she let out a sigh.

"… I guess all else fails," She pointed out, "you're the only flier in here, Nejire. You could bring the cavern down on all three of us and escape."

"H-huh?" Nejire blinked, looking around at Itsuka in shock, and then her cheeks puffed. "No way! I won't -"

"It'll definitely be our last resort," Itsuka quickly interrupted her before she could get going, "like, absolutely no choice, Todoroki's about to turn us into ice cubes. Because, y'know, I'd rather not get caved in. So, uh … just something for us to consider."

"Okay …" Nejire pouted, looking off to the side - and then she blinked.

"Oh," She said simply, and then jumped - which was a mistake, since she came down on the iced ground and slipped a bit, "oh! Wait, Itsuka, what about - wh-whoa - what about your volume thingy? Can't we use that?"

"The -" Itsuka faltered for a moment, feeling a bit confused before she realized what Nejire was talking about, and felt her stomach sink. "- oh, uh - that. Well, uh … I don't know."

"You don't know?" Nejire looked curious, looking around at her. "Haven't you been thinking about what Midoriya said? About - y'know - the egg in the microwave?"

"I - I mean, I did," Itsuka blushed a bit, "and - well, I did try, but - but nothing happened. I just - I don't know, I don't know if I can rely on -"

"You just need to calm down."

Itsuka was unable to stop herself from squeaking as a voice - an unfamiliar voice - suddenly spoke directly in her ear, and she felt the strangest sensation on her shoulder - as though a hand had just laid down on it.

Quickly, she whipped around, feeling her eyes widen - but there was no one behind her. All she could see was an ice wall, and her own shocked reflection staring back at her, even as the warm sensation on her shoulder refused to go away.

"Uh … Itsuka?" Nejire looked confused and nervous, glancing between her partner and Shouto as he began advancing on the both of them, Momo standing back reluctantly as she kept her eyes on the ceiling above them. "Are you okay? What was that yelp about? Is something broken? Do you have a broken bone?!"

"I …" Itsuka furrowed her brow, whatever Nejire was saying go in one ear and out - what the hell was that? But before she could turn back to Nejire, the voice spoke again.

"Just keep calm,"The female voice whispered, making Itsuka nearly jump out of her skin again, "breathe in and out, and concentrate. You can use One for All, it's simple."

"W-who's -"

"Don't speak. No one else can hear me but you. Just close your eyes, and concentrate on what the boy told you."

"T-the -?"

"The egg in the microwave."

Itsuka felt herself slowly blink, her brow furrowing - it was becoming clearer and clearer that she must have hit her head sometime during Shouto's assault, because now she was clearly hearing voices. Still, an impatient feeling washed over her - one that she realized wasn't her own - and Itsuka let out a shuddered breath as Nejire turned back to face Shouto as he stomped closer and closer towards them, and she closed her eyes.

"Okay, okay," She said quietly, shaking her head and trying to imagine the rather boring image of a chicken egg sitting carefully in a microwave, slowly turning in a circle while being heated up. Seeing it start to warm up, the heat trying to make it pop.

Just … don't imagine the egg exploding. Lower the wattage. Shorten the cook time.

She felt her closed eyes narrow somewhat as her hand slowly clenched into a fist, taking another deep breath.

The egg not exploding … the egg not exploding … don't let the egg blow up, and everything will be okay … the egg …

"Don't just simply 'use' One for All,"The voice told her quietly yet assuredly, like a teacher telling her she was on the right track, "it's not something to use when you need it, in places that it can be used. It's not a switch for you to use. One for All is a quirk to be used. So use it."

That … Itsuka thought, frowning as she kept concentrating on the imaginary egg, … seems like a gross simplification.

"I'm sure it is," The voice laughed, a bit warmly, "but you know what to do."

And … for the first time, Itsuka believed that voice. Because … because deep down, she knew that she knew what to do.

It … didn't have to be all of One for All. Just a bit of it. Just about … five percent. Just enough to put Shouto on the defensive. Just …

… imagine the heat of the hypothetical microwave, that was just used on the egg in one spot …

… and spread throughout her whole body.

Just … a little bit …

And then she heard Nejire let out a small gasp.

"Uh … Itsuka?" Her voice rose briefly in slight panic. "What's going on?!"

Feeling her brow furrow at the shock in Nejire's voice, Itsuka slowly opened her eyes, her gaze automatically trailing down to her arms as they rose up - and then her eyes shot open as though she were hit by a substantial amount of adrenaline, letting out a gasp of her own.

During those silent few seconds, unbeknownst to her, her entire body began … glowing.

As in, her arm was positively alight with teal lightning, the limb trembling a bit as energy danced along her skin. Underneath that very skin, red glowing lines of energy drew up her arm from her palms, and she watched as the glowing veins and skin began slowly moving throughout her entire body, feeling as though she had just been hit by a lightning bolt from Izuku and woken promptly up.

And … and she didn't feel tired anymore, she realized. The soreness and tiredness of dealing with everything today - all of that was gone. She never felt more awake in her life.

Shouto, meanwhile, immediately stopped his advancement on the both of them the moment Itsuka started glowing, his heterochromic eyes widening as he saw the teal lightning flickering along Itsuka's body. She hunched over a bit, letting out a shuddered breath as she tried her hardest to keep the image of an egg in the microwave in her mind.

And then, finally, the red flickering veins faded, and instead was replaced by the image of her skin softly glowing, making Nejire's jaw drop and Momo gasp from her spot near the wall.

And then Itsuka let out a soft laugh.

"Oh, man," She whispered to herself, feeling like smacking her forehead, "it really was that fucking simple, wasn't it?"

"Huh?" Shouto narrowed his eyes. "What are you -"

He didn't get the chance to finish that question. One moment, Itsuka was leaning forward, staring down at the floor - and then the next, in a bright flash of teal lightning, she was right in his face, and there was no way he could dodge out of the way as her fist suddenly shot out, and hit him dead center in the stomach.

---

"So?" Cementoss said in her earpiece. "Can you make them out?"

"No," Midnight grumbled, putting her hand reluctantly on the ice and trying to peer through the blue surface, but scowling when she couldn't make out anything, "can't see them."

Behind her, she could tell the crowd was becoming restless. The giant ice cave that Shouto and Nejire had accidentally made was beginning to crack ominously, making everyone nervously stood up from their seats as though they were about to run for the hills. Tenko and Thirteen were on the field now, waving assuredly to the crowds as they jogged up to join Midnight near the stairs. The only reason Midnight hadn't let Tenko put his hands to the ice and break it down was due to the occasional flash of yellow light she could barely make out moving around at the bottom of the ice sculpture, meaning that whatever was happening in there, they were moving around - and presumably fighting, something that made Midnight frown.

"So …" Vlad King sighed into the open comms, "… do we break down the ice? Or do we give it a little while longer?"

"Give it five more minutes," Nezu instructed them, one of the first times he had used the comms that day due to how busy the Hero Commission had been keeping him, "and then we'll have All Might smash his way through and get the four out. From my calculations, whatever's going on in there, combined with how the ice is sculpted, should collapse sometime within the next five to ten minutes, and when that happens, we'll need to act quickly so it doesn't collapse on the crowd. Tenko, are you ready?"

"I am," Tenko nodded, although he did look hesitant as he worked his gloves off, "but it would be better to know exactly where the students are before I start decaying. I can decay the ice relatively quickly if I'm ready, but the more it breaks, the less I can spread it - and if I don't see the kids, it's more likely I accidentally hit them in the crossfire, or I accidentally miss a piece and it comes down on them."

"Very well then. We'll have to send down -"

"Wait a moment," Midnight suddenly stopped the conversation, looking into the frozen ice. She might have been seeing things, she acknowledged, but … but she could've sworn that she saw a new bright light in there. Not anything like Nejire's yellow spiraling energy, but …

… but she could've sworn it almost looked like Izuku's lightning from before.

"Principal Nezu," She said carefully, "I … believe we might not have five minutes, if they're still fighting in there. You should get All Might ready - I have a feeling that whatever they're doing in there is going to be coming down on all of us very soon."

Above the teachers, the crowds continued to mutter nervously and anxiously, of course, hearing the subtle cracking noises and snaps of the giant ice cavern in the middle of the arena. However, up in the VIP box, one woman was looking far more concerned about what was really important.

"Oh, dear," Yukiri raised a hand to cup her cheek as she turned to her bodyguard sitting beside her, "do you think Momo will be alright? Maybe we should send someone down to get them out?"

"I'm sure the pro heroes have it under control, ma'am," Jin's clone said in a monotone voice, watching the group down at the ring working to break the ice, "but we can always have me go down if you're not sure."

"Oh, we wouldn't want to bother them," The Yaoyorozu matriarch hummed, still biting on her nail in worry, "but … well, perhaps send a clone down to ask if there's anything we can do to help?"

"Of course," The clone nodded, standing up to head over to the stairwell and create another clone to send downstairs. Sitting back in her seat, Yuikiri let out another small hum of worry, until she felt someone pat her hand, causing her to look over at her seatmate smiling at her.

"Don't worry," Kanshi Shiryoku smiled at her, brushing some of her blonde hair behind her ear, "I'm sure the heroes will have it under control and get your daughter out of there. All else fails, I'll be sending Iguchi down with a few more agents to see if there's anything we can do."

"Oh, of course, President Shiryoku." Yukiri smiled gratefully, patting her own hand in turn, and then turned to look behind them at the seat that was still unoccupied. "Say, do you know if he'll be back soon? I have to say, he's been gone for quite a while."

"Hm? Ah, you mean Mr. 'Prime Minister Candidate'," Kanshi giggled a bit with the older woman, "I hear that he and his bodyguards went downstairs a while ago. Apparently wants to congradulate the winners of the sports festival in person, give himself some good rep. It wouldn't surprise me if he walked out onto the field the moment the fight is over - still though, I imagine he'll be back at some point."

Yukiri giggled a bit at the mental image, and then looked back over at the giant ice sculpture, leaning forward in her seat to look down at the heroes surrounding it. Leaning back in her seat and sighing, Kanshi took a moment to tap her fingernail against the comfortable seat in the VIP box, and then returned her gaze to the woman sitting beside her, dressed in a black sweater and pants and not looking at anyone but the crowds below.

Nagant had been quiet pretty much throughout the entire day, sitting there sullenly and staring at the screens before them. The only time she had really done something other than sitting there like a good little dog was during the last match, in which Kanshi had seen what looked to be a particuarly ugly snarl on her face whenever something bad had happened to the opposite team, and had to bite down the urge to comment on it. Now, however, the assassin's gaze was locked down on one of the boxes below them, where some of the students were sitting.

Following her gaze, Kanshi observed for a moment - and then she nodded slowly, letting out a small giggle.

"Well," She smirked, speaking quietly to her guest, "I suppose that should count as your glance, Nagant. At least it wasn't across a street this time."

Nagant, for her part, only scowled and said nothing.

---

BAM

Shouto let out a sharp gasp, the air driven out of his lungs this time, as Itsuka hit him a whole lot harder than he had been expecting. The force of the blow Itsuka landed on him was amplified by her hand growing the moment her fist made contact with his stomach. He was launched right off his feet, his eyes widening as he flew through the air faster than he had been anticipating, and collided hard into the wall, hearing an ominous crack behind him as pain streaked throughout his body.

"Whoa!" Nejire gasped as Itsuka landed on the slightly slippery floor, breathing a bit heavily as she waved her hand in the air, growing it back down to its normal size. It had been almost a blur, with her moving from one end of the arena to the other in an instant. The teal lightning continuing to flicker around her body, Itsuka looked up, her eyes subtly glowing a brighter hue as Shouto looked up from where he had landed on the ground, staring at her in surprise and fury.

And then Itsuka let out a breath, the cold air showing it escaping from her mouth.

"Okay," She said softly, but her voice somehow was clear to all three of them, Momo having taken a shocked step back, "Nejire, keep me covered. Todoroki," Her eyes met his, "we're going to talk now."

Shouto stared at her for a moment in shock - and then his eyes hardened into a glare.

"What makes you think," He growled, "I want to talk to you?!"

He then slammed his hand back down on the floor, a barrage of ice shooting towards her - but Itsuka was faster this time. In a flash of lightning, Itsuka slid away from where the ice had suddenly slammed against the other end of the cavern, Itsuka wincing as she scraped her side against the cold floor. But she was up in an instant, spinning out of the way of another barrage of ice.

Suddenly, Itsuka felt focused, certain - with One for All now running through her veins, enhancing her speed, she felt an energy and strength she hadn't felt all day long. And that, of course, gave her back her confidence, looking Shouto in the eye as she slid away from him.

"Todoroki," She said in a loud voice, her voice echoing around the ice cave, "Izuku - or, you know, Midoriya - told me to talk to you."

"Huh?" Shouto narrowed his eyes, stomping his foot down to unleash more ice on her, but Itsuka was quick to dodge, her eyes on his shivering.

"Midoriya," She repeated herself, "he told me before this match that - well - you had something going on with you. I know that this isn't really the place or time for it, but … I was actually serious with you before. Can we please take a minute to talk? Just - just stop with the ice for five minutes, and we can calm down and talk."

"Talk? Talk about what?" Shouto snarled. "I told you, I have nothing to talk to you about. Besides, what would I have to talk to you about? Why would I concern myself with talking things through with a hypocrite?"

"I - what?" Itsuka furrowed her brow, stopping for a moment and glancing over to see Nejire taking this chance to get back into the air, and Momo took a hesitant step forward - but from the way the heiress' eyes was glancing between her partner and her, Itsuka knew she was listening. "A hypocrite? What am I being hypocritical about?"

"Criticizing me for not using my fire," Shouto gestured to the lightning flickering along Itsuka, "when it's clear you've been hiding this all day."

"I mean - well, if I'm being honest with you, Todoroki, this is a new development," She raised her eyebrows, giving Shouto that, "but while we're on the subject - why am I not on fire right now?"

"I said -"

"No, you didn't say anything," Itsuka interrupted him, frowning seriously, "I called you out on it during the second round, and you just said you'd never use your left. Fine. But why not? You know I've got absolutely nothing to defend myself against fire - you keep producing ice, I'll just keep punching it away and breaking it until you're at your limit. Fire, though? You can win. So what's the deal, Todoroki? Why aren't you using your flames?"

With each of those questions, Shouto went stiller and stiller, his eyes turning blank as he stared at Itsuka in shock. Itsuka herself slowed down her assault just a bit, her gaze flicking over to where Momo was standing. Her fellow class representative was likewise looking shocked and confused at the abrupt change in topic, but … but instead of flickering her gaze between them, her eyes were now on Shouto squarely, as though she were likewise waiting for him to answer.

Shouto continued to stare at Itsuka for a long moment - and then, his blank gaze flickered somewhat, and for some reason, it slowly turned and lifted up to where Nejire was floating above them, watching the situation unfolding beneath her with rapt attention.

For a moment, Shouto stared wildly at Nejire, an unknowing expression on his face that Itsuka had never seen before - but for a moment, she felt her brow furrow, she could have confused it as a look of betrayal. And then his gaze hardened. Anger - far more anger than Itsuka had seen from him all day - erupted on his face, looking almost as though he were about to tear Nejire out of the sky and back on the ground, and his left side crackled with ice menacingly.

And a protective feeling rose within Itsuka, one that she would normally feel for Izuku or Ochako, but now directed at how Shouto was glaring at Nejire, and making her eyes narrow to slits.

"You told her," Shouto growled out, "didn't you?!"

Stomping his foot down again, another barrage of ice came straight for Nejire - and Shouto let out a growl as Nejire easily destroyed it with a wave of her hands, the yellow light causing the walls around them to creak menacingly again as more wisps of yellow light escaped the ice. Catching the sight of movement out of the corner of his eyes, Shouto quickly whipped around and moved to stomp his foot down to freeze Itsuka -

- but she was too fast, sliding down to the ground and grabbing his ankle. And before Shouto could think to unleash the ice right onto the palm of her open hand, she thrusted up, and Shouto was thrown off balance, his mouth dropping open as Itsuka curled her hand into a fist.

"God," She gritted her teeth, throwing her fist up, "will you just fucking listen?!"

WHACK

Her fist hit him straight under the jaw, causing him to snap his mouth closed, and a gush of blood exploded out of his nose as she uppercutted him. With a grunt, he was thrown right off his feet from the blow as Itsuka rose to her feet, and watched as he came down hard on the ground again.

"I'm trying to help you!" She shouted at him, Shouto quickly looking back up at her with barred teeth and a furious expression. "I don't know what's going on, but god, Izuku was fucking right about you! You're clearly messed the hell up, Todoroki, and I'm offering you the chance to just - I don't know, stop trying to hurt me for a minute so you can answer me like a regular human being?! Tell me to stop talking about it! Tell me it's none of my business! Then fine, I'll drop it and we'll go back to beating the shit out of each other! But if you're just gonna keep trying to hurt me or Nejire, then I'll keep answering you back with hurting you until I find out what's going on!"

"I don't need your pity!" Shouto snarled, slamming his hand down on the ground and trying to ignore his shivering. Itsuka was quick to jump away again as several icicles popped out of the ground below her, moving with such speed she wouldn't be surprised if they stabbed her - probably something else he was emulating from his dumbass brother.

As more ice shot out of the ground, she let out a low growl, and grew out her hand, using another percentage of One for All to power the swing as she punched through it almost as though it were nothing. 'Almost' being the key word, as Itsuka felt herself wince from the sharp pain of smashing something covered in frost, and the strain her body was under from continuing to use One for All.

But at the moment, she was too angry at Shouto and his stupidity to care - if he wasn't going to listen to her, and was going to keep trying to hurt her and Nejire, then he would have to see sense another way.

And that would be at her fists.

Leaping back up into the air, Itsuka twirled over Shouto as he staggered to his feet, eyes wide as she suddenly flipped over him with the boost from One for All. Growling and shivering, Shouto threw another barrage of ice at her, but Itsuka's newfound speed wasn't something he was able to keep up with, not with the massive cave of ice that could collapse on them if he wasn't careful. With that, she threw another punch into his back, knocking Shouto off balance, but as she landed on the ground and threw out another punch, Shouto, this time, took advantage of that by quickly leaning to the side, throwing Itsuka off balance - and then his own hand came up to grab her side.

Yelling in pain as ice quickly spread across her torso, Itsuka leapt back, her hand coming down in a flash of teal lightning and smashing the ice before it could begin covering her. There was a searing pain on both her hand and side now, making her wince and curse as she quickly backed away from Shouto, and seeing a nasty red swelling on the back of her hand. Shouto, despite his shivering, didn't seem tired in the slightest, growling in anger as he stormed after her, and throwing up another ice wall for Nejire to crash into as she tried to fly back down to help, and Momo continued staring at Shouto in silence.

Hearing Nejire thump against the wall with a grunt, Shouto turned his gaze back to Itsuka as she quickly scrambled up, and this time, he didn't use his quirk. Instead, he curled his hand into a fist, and slammed it into the side of Itsuka's face, jerking her head back with a grunt and causing a bit of blood to escape her mouth. But she quickly whipped back around, her own face filled with fury, and her own fist smashed into Shouto's face, jerking his head back.

With Shouto unbalanced, Itsuka flared One for All, and with a shout, leapt forward, tackling Shouto and sending them both flying across the arena to crash hard into the wall of the cavern. Shouto grunted as his back hit the ice wall, the entire ice prison cracking ominously, but he wasn't out of it yet as Itsuka suddenly jerked her head back up, the back of her head smashing into his nose as she threw her fist back -

- but Shouto's own arm came up to grab the side of Itsuka's head, and she grunted as he quickly slammed her head into the wall as well. But this only made Itsuka angrier - with her still technically pinning the recommended student against the wall, Itsuka rammed her shoulder into his gut, making him grunt in pain and anger, before he quickly grabbed her roughly by the side and threw her aside.

Scrambling to regain her balance, Itsuka ducked another one of Shouto's punches, and threw her palm forward, growing out her hand just as it made contact with his chest, and sent him sprawling back. As Shouto stumbled to a stop, Itsuka came after him with another barrage of fists, both of them grunting and growling furiously as they began brawling.

Any thought of Itsuka talking to him was now long forgotten - right now, Shouto had annoyed her all day long and was continuing to insist on hurting her, so Itsuka wanted to hurt him right back. And One for All was still surging through her veins, enhancing her reflexes and allowing her to duck and weave through all of Shouto's attacks, her punches enhanced by her second quirk and allowing her to tap into strength she didn't know she had.

Shouto was clearly trained, of course, and knew how to fight - probably the advantage of having the Number Two Hero as a father, his skills in hand-to-hand were probably roughly equal to hers - but he was also unbalanced right now, his formerly blank face twisted into a snarl. And Itsuka, while definitely furious, was still focused enough to dodge through his punches and attempts to touch her with his right hand, and since Shouto was clearly worked up, his defense was sloppy, allowing her to connect most of her hits.

And as she punched him in the chest again, causing him to yet again stumble, Nejire suddenly swooped in with a yell, and both her hands hit Shouto right in the side. Eyes widened, Shouto was shot right off his feet again, bouncing once, twice, three times against the ground before he finally slid to a stop near where Momo was standing, staring down at him in shock.

"Whew!" Nejire pumped her fists as she remained floating, and Itsuka, yanked out of her rage-filled mindset, quickly looked around at her in surprise. "I was looking for my chance to jump in! That looked cool, right, Itsuka? Huh, huh?"

"I - uh - I guess," Itsuka shrugged, still a bit out of it and watching as Shouto struggled back to his feet, his arms continuing to tremble. "I, uh - it looks like he's reaching his limit."

"Yeah!" Nejire nodded happily, floating there for a moment - and then she looked around at her, her joyful expression falling as she gestured down to Itsuka's body. "So, uh … what's going on? Is this your volume thingy?"

"My - huh?" Itsuka blinked, looking up at Nejire in confusion and then following her gaze - and then she felt herself pale as she saw all the teal lightning that was shooting off her body in flickers, realizing that, in her euphoria in discovering how the quirk worked and fighting Shouto, she kind of forgot that Nejire was right there.

"Oh, uh … well," She cleared her throat awkwardly, "er … y-yeah. It - it is. Kinda."

"…"

"It's … kinda … cool, right?"

Itsuka tried her hardest not to cringe while Nejire raised her eyebrow.

"… well, okay, yes, it's cool, but this is also a really big thingy!" Nejire threw her hands up into the air, her excitement returning in full force while Itsuka looked awkward, whistling innocently and glancing down at her shoes. "This is way bigger than a 'volume' thingy! How are you doing that? Going super fast? Is there an 'on, off' switch? Wait, how has this got to do with your quirk? Your quirk can make your hands bigger! So how are you going super saiyan right now? Your hair's standing up, you know!"

"Oh, well, uh …"

"You …" Shouto managed to wheeze out, staggering back to his feet and wiping his bloody lip. Angrily, he took another step forward to rejoin the fray, but Momo suddenly and quickly grabbed his arm, causing him to look around at her with a wide-eyed, furious expression.

"Shouto, just - please, wait and listen to me!" She implored him, her gaze flickering around to the cracking walls in panic. "This is breaking apart the cavern - please, just take a moment to -"

"Let me go!" He snarled at her, ripping his arm out of her grasp and causing the other two girls to look around in alarm as he shouted at his partner. "I told you to stay back, Yaoyorozu! If you want to escape, fine, but I'm going to finish this!"

He then turned back around to face his opponents, ice continuing to crack in his palm, and Momo took a step back, looking hurt. Itsuka narrowed her own eyes as Shouto began advancing on her again, Nejire likewise pouting and getting ready to take off, and Momo slowly picked up something she had dropped earlier - what looked to be a large paper fan - as she stared down at the floor, seemingly cowed.

"I've …" She softly breathed out as Shouto prepared to throw his hand back, intending to throw more ice at the two other girls - and then Momo suddenly raised the fan up into the air, and screamed out, "… I'VE HAD ENOUGH!"

SMACK

Both Itsuka and Nejire faltered, blinking rapidly, as Momo, her eyes alight with a fierceness Itsuka hadn't seen since Chimera had choked Kyouka at the USJ, suddenly and swiftly brought the fan down on the back of Shouto's head.

The rage-filled look on Shouto's face broke at once as he was forced forward by the blow, both hands quickly coming up to cup the back of his head. He stared blankly down at the ground for a long moment, before what happened finally registered, and he quickly whipped around to glare at his partner.

"Yaoyorozu, what the hell is wrong with you?!" He barked at her, making the three girls blink at the crass language. Unluckily for Shouto, however, Momo was done being yelled at, her eyes becoming fierce again

"What is wrong with me?! What is wrong with you?!" She shouted right back, throwing the fan away and pointing her finger in his face. "What is this, Shouto?! Acting like Kendou did something to offend you when she was just offering you help?! She wasn't looking down on you, Shouto! In fact, all you've done today is look down on her!"

"What do you care for?! I told you to just stay back and out of the way!"

"And how am I supposed to help when I do that?! We have to work together in order to win, you know! What, am I supposed to stay back and let you do all the work?! Should I head outside, make myself a chair to sit in, and sunbathe while all the pro heroes watch?!"

"I had this under control!"

"Oh, yes, letting Kendou beat you up must have been some trick of yours! You were always so good at those!"

While the two of them continued to bicker with each other, their voices echoing in the frozen cave around them, both Itsuka and Nejire stared in shock at the two of them for a moment before slowly turning to glance at each other. While this would normally be a time that Itsuka and Nejire could use to get an advantage over them, they had a feeling, due to how angry their normally kind friend was looking at the moment, that any interruptions would probably backfire heavily on them.

So ... they were content to just take a step back, keep quiet, and let their opponents sort their issues out.

Which ... apparently was a lot.

"What, do you think caving us in is the answer? Oh, yes, please, Shouto, break down the cave while we're still in it, that will end well!"

"It would be fine! I wouldn't let you get crushed!"

"Oh, but what about our opponents? I'm not sure if you realize that we aren't supposed to kill people?! And what is with all the sharp icicles?! Who do you think you are, Touya?!"

"If I'm going to emulate anyone -"

"It's the idiot who constantly burns people?! And then winks at the cameras as though that would make it alright?! Why on earth would you want to emulate him?!"

"Who else would I?!"

"Er …" Itsuka glanced back over at Nejire, who shrugged - both girls knew it would be foolish to step in between them now, but it seemed like their argument was getting … a little personal, so maybe it should be time to wrap it up. So, taking a deep breath, Itsuka grew out both her hands to full size, and clapped them together - and since they were in an echo-y cave, the noise reverberated quite well.

Both Shouto and Momo were shaken out of their argument by the loud noise, Momo jumping a bit and Shouto wheeling around, and both looked over to see Itsuka shrinking back down her hands, while the teal lightning around her began to lessen.

"Uh …" She gave them both an awkward wave, "… hey. Sorry to interrupt, but …"

"O-oh!" Momo gasped, her cheeks going red at once, and she raised her hand to her mouth while Shouto's glare intensified again. "I'm - I'm so sorry, you two! I don't - I don't know what came over me!"

"It's all good!" Nejire assured her quickly, saluting with a happy smile. "Sometimes you just gotta get it out, y'know? Even I gotta shout it all out sometimes! Although I don't usually smack other people when I try to get all the aggression out - but maybe that's just a 'you' thing!"

"Erk," Momo winced, blushing again.

Shouto, meanwhile, merely let out another growl as he began stepping towards Itsuka again - but this time, before he could even think of using his quirk, Momo quickly recovered from her fluster, and moved so that she stood in front of her partner, spreading her arms out. Shouto, for his part, clenched his hands tightly and bared his teeth.

"Yaoyorozu, I swear to god, get out of my -"

"No!" Momo shook her head, her voice becoming more authoritative as she stared down her childhood friend. "Shouto, please, just - just listen to Kendou for just a minute, please? Just to hear her out. After that, I don't care, you two can beat each other bloody. Just - just please listen to what she has to say first."

Shouto glared at her for a long time, ice continuing to crack in his palm as he stared down Momo as though silently trying to get her to stand down. Momo, however, only answered with her own glare, her cheeks puffing slightly to show that she wasn't going to back down this time. Itsuka and Nejire waited for a long moment as their stare-off increased in intensity -

- and then Shouto let out a growling breath, throwing his icy hand down and looking around Momo's shoulder at Itsuka.

"Fine," He said coldly, "what do you want?"

Taking that as her cue (while fuming quietly at his dismissive tone), Itsuka shook her head and tried to turn off One for All now that they weren't in combat at the time being. Her entire body screamed in protest as the quirk slowly died down so that the flickers of lightning ceased, making her feel like a wave of fatigue washed over her at once, but she tried to shake it off.

With Nejire, she walked over towards her two opponents, still slightly on her guard as Shouto threw her yet another dirty look, and soon, all four of them were standing in a small group.

"Okay," She sighed, looking up at Shouto, "alright, thank you. So, uh - first of all, just to get this out of the way. Nejire? She didn't tell me anything. I had absolutely no clue what you're talking about when you yelled at her, so, uh, can you stop throwing her dirty looks?"

Shouto, for his part, merely glared at her, while she shrugged.

"So, uh … anyway," She put her hands in her pockets, "so the story is - before the match, Izuku took me and Nejire aside so that we could talk about you. He told me that he couldn't give me the details of what you two talked about during lunch, since it wasn't his secret to tell. And - and I respected that. But he told me that … well, after your last match, with Shinsou and Haya, he said that he noticed that you looked … sad when you froze them."

Shouto raised an eyebrow.

"Look, I'm not going to say I know what's up with that," She went on, "but Izuku … he asked me to help you in his stead. Told me that he tried to reach out to you during lunch but you brushed him off. And just so you know, he also told me that I didn't have to, seeing as - you know, you've done nothing but treat me like crap today."

"In that case," He scoffed, "why are you bothering?"

"Because - okay, if I'm being honest, I can see what he's talking about," Itsuka finally dropped her confrontational look, trying to appear more neutral, "there's … obviously something going on with you, Todoroki. And - and I'm starting to get the feeling that whatever issues you have - they don't actually have anything to do with me. So I just thought I would - I would reach out, and let you talk if you wanted to. That's it."

There was another pause in the ice cavern, with Shouto continuing to glare at her, Itsuka trying to look as passive as possible, and Nejire and Momo waiting for a response - and then he let out a breath.

"So that's what this is," He said in a quiet voice, "Midoriya took pity on me, so he pressured you into joining his charity case?"

"He didn't -"

"Well, he didn't have to," Shouto turned away from her, "I'm fine. There's nothing going on."

"Is that right?" Itsuka raised her eyebrow, still angry enough with Shouto that she was unable to stop herself. "Then why aren't you using your fire against me?"

That, of course, only made Shouto inhale sharply, his fists clenching as what little patience he was holding onto finally snapped. He turned back around and raised his fist, as though he was going to throw another punch at Itsuka, only to be stopped by Momo quickly stepping forward and resting her hand on his chest as though to push him back.

"You don't understand." He snarled at her. "No one here understands."

"Okay," Itsuka nodded, frowning, "then help me understand, Todoroki."

"What?" He sneered at her. "Because you think you can help? You think you can understand? Can you understand getting beaten by your father the moment you turn five?"

"I - what?" Itsuka blinked, taken aback, while Nejire winced and Momo quickly looked around to stare at Shouto in shock, but he kept going.

"Can you understand being 'trained' until you're puking up your lunch?" Shouto's voice continued to raise with each word that left his lips. "Can you understand having to watch your own father, the person who's supposed to protect you, smack away your mother when she tries to help you? Can you understand crying to your mother every single night? Can you understand not being allowed to spend any time with your siblings? Can you understand having your mother pour boiling hot water in your eye when she finally loses it, and know that it's your fault?!"

He wildly gestured to the burn mark on his eye, while Itsuka took a horrified step back, staring at Shouto in shock while Nejire continued to cringe, tears beginning to well in her eyes.

"You don't understand anything!" Shouto shouted at her, his voice echoing around them as he moved and poked Itsuka's chest hard. "You could never possibly understand! You and Midoriya have no idea what you're talking about! The only thing you can do is stop with this pity party, and finally let me prove -"

"Shouto, what - what did you say?"

At Momo's quiet voice, Shouto's shouts died in his throat. Staring blankly at Itsuka for a moment, while she continued to stare at him in quiet horror, he looked back around at his childhood friend. He had expected some look of shock or horror on her face - he didn't know how much she knew about what happened behind his closed doors, but he expected her own shitty father to hide those bad parts from her.

But instead, what was on her face was something that took him aback. It was a look of …

… of confusion.

"Your mother … what?" Momo asked quietly. "She … poured boiling water … on you?"

"Yes," Shouto scowled, feeling defensive, "what, didn't you know that?"

"W-when? When was - when was this?"

"When I was five. Now, if we're done with this -"

"Shouto," Momo swallowed loudly, "you've … you've always had that scar. Ever since we met as children."

And that, right then, was when silence filled the cavern again.

---

He remembered it, as though it had happened only yesterday.

He couldn't recall exactly why he had gotten out of bed - if it had been because his father had trained him so late, or - or if he had just been thirsty - but Shouto had gotten up to go and look for his mother, in the large, lonely house that he lived in. He had moved out of his room and through the hall on his tiptoes - his mother didn't sleep in the same room as his father did anymore, but he couldn't guarantee that Endeavor wasn't lurking around somewhere, as though waiting for the chance to drag him back into that room for more … 'training'.

The house had been … awfully quiet since Touya's disappearance. His brother and sister barely came out of their rooms, and - and Endeavor's training had gotten weirdly harsher, the giant angry man far less patient with Shouto's failures. He could feel the bruise forming on his eye, raising his hand to rub it - he hadn't been quick enough, and had gotten hit in the face by a small bar Endeavor had thrown at him, whether accidentally or on purpose. It didn't matter.

And his mom … he hadn't seen her much. Just - just during dinner, when she had been so quiet, and then … and then nowhere else.

It wasn't like he didn't feel sad either, of course - Touya had barely talked to him, for some reason he didn't know, but he knew that he missed his cool big brother being around the house. But he also missed his mom - and he was thirsty, so - so maybe she could help him. And he could stay with her for the night, to help make her feel better.

Her bedroom had been empty, so he had gone to look for her. It took a few minutes to find her, but he was attracted by the sound of the tea kettle starting to go off in the kitchen. He had went to the door, slowly starting to slide it open - and then, he heard his mom speak in a whisper.

Feeling himself blink, Shouto slid the door open just a bit wider, starting to peek inside as she continued to say something.

"M-Mom?"

He looked in, and felt himself stop. His mother had been staring away from him, but at the sound of his voice, she froze with a soft gasp, and straightened up. The eerie sound of the kettle screaming behind her was the loudest thing he could make out. And then his mom had whipped around to stare at him, eyes wide in shocked horror and what could only be described as insanity, making Shouto tremble as blood dripped off the -

- the -

- blood?

Shouto stared blankly ahead as all three girls surrounded him, his hand moving to cover his burned eye. The fury he had felt at Itsuka, the annoyance and betrayal he felt for Nejire, the frustration he felt for Momo - all of that slipped away at once, as he felt himself begin to tremble - but this time, it wasn't from the cold.

"Mom, I'm ... I'm going crazy. I can't take it anymore. Every day the children seem to become more and more like ... like him. Shouto's ... his left side looks ... it looks like ... I can't ... I can't raise him anymore ... I feel like I shouldn't ..."

He had heard that … he had heard that when she … when she had poured the boiling water into his eye. Hadn't he? But … but the memory of … of the blood … she … she injured him …

… didn't she?

Didn't she … didn't she say that when he had come to get water? Or … or did she say it another time? Did she … didn't she …

… she …

"Shouto?" Momo asked in that same quiet voice, the cold eyes he had been used to ever since he had pushed her away suddenly gone as she gently reached out for him. "Are you alright?"

"I …" Shouto whispered, feeling his head hurt and his stomach ache, "… I … I don't feel good. I -"

"Hey," Itsuka spoke up, sounding far more gentle as well while Nejire kept quiet, and Shouto flinched as she reached out to him, "I … I think you need to sit down, Todoroki."

"I - no, I don't -"

"Yes, you do," Itsuka sounded far more firm, shaking her head, and Shouto felt himself falter as she gave him a sad look, "look, man, just - just forget about the tournament right now. I don't care, and I'm not gonna fight you again. No one's watching, so please, just - just sit down."

Shouto stared at her blankly for a moment, the aggression and confusion on his face clearly in conflict - and then he let out a small, shuddering sigh, and his shoulders sagged. All three girls watched as all the pent up aggression and anger suddenly vanished, and was replaced by complete and utter exhaustion.

Slowly, he lowered himself to the ground, only to fall onto his butt a bit harder than they had been anticipating. Instead of asking him if he was alright, Itsuka instead dropped to the floor as well, moving down to her knees. Beside her, Nejire likewise moved to sit down and cross her legs, while Momo moved to her knees as well, putting her hands down on her legs and giving Shouto a worried look as he stared vacantly at nothing for a moment, and then let out another shuddered breath as he raised his hand to cover his eyes. All four of them ignored the ice littering the ground around them as they stared at the white-and-red-haired boy, seeing him beginning to shake as he sat there.

"I … damn it," He muttered, moving his head down so that none of the girls could make out his face.

"Hey," Itsuka said softly, "hey, it's - it's okay, Todoroki. Just take your time, no one can see you in here. You're fine."

Shouto let out another shaking breath, continuing to hold his hand over his eyes and look anywhere but at the three girls. For their part, they patiently waited for him to calm down, seeing Shouto's breath escape his mouth in rattles due to the cold, and Momo had to resist reaching out to touch his shoulder. Finally, after his breath became less noticeable, he hunched over, one hand on his knee and the other one moving up to smooth back some of his sweaty hair.

He didn't look angry anymore, thankfully, but there was a look of lost confusion on his face, looking absolutely rattled. Once she was sure he had calmed down, Momo let out a small sigh.

"Shouto," She said quietly, "I … I know that this must be distressing for you, and you don't need to answer me. But … but what did you mean, your mother poured boiling water in your eye?"

He was quiet for a little while longer, before he finally dropped his hand from his face. Looking up, all three girls saw the tired, taken aback and exhausted expression there.

"I …" He hesitated for a moment, and then shook his head, "… I … I thought my memory of that night was - it was - but now when I try to remember it, it's - it's fuzzy. But I … I remember that I went out to the kitchen for a - a glass of water, and my mother was there, talking to my grandmother. I - I called out to her, and she looked around at me, and …"

He paused, and then shook his head again.

"… and then she grabbed the kettle from the oven top and poured the water in my face. It was - it was an accident, and - and I know she didn't mean to, but - but after that, my father had her put in the hospital. I - I haven't seen her since."

Momo slowly nodded at his explanation, feeling tears begin to well in her eyes. As Shouto continued to stare down at the floor, Momo hesitantly reached out, pausing for only a moment, before she rested her hand on his shoulder.

"Shouto, I - I promise you," She said in a gentle voice, "no matter what your memory is telling you, you've - you've always had that scar. I - I have seen pictures - you've had it ever since you were a baby."

"I … then …" He shook his head, frustrated as he glanced back up at Momo, "… then what does that mean? Why do I remember my mother -?"

"Maybe that's just how you remember it?"

The two childhood friends blinked, and Itsuka likewise looked around at Nejire in surprise. The blue-haired girl gave them all an uncomfortable shrug, having been eerily silent for a long time, but she still sighed as she put her hands down on her lap.

"I … well, I did do a bit of research into this, since I was curious about it," She explained, "but sometimes, people who go through - y'know - something traumatic, they can sometimes develop false memories. Something's that, uh … fake, but it's something you believe. I read that they can be pretty vivid, so …"

"Wait, so - you think that's what Todoroki went through?" Itsuka looked surprised. "He … he imagined his mom hurting him?"

"I mean - I don't know!" Nejire shrugged, looking slightly panicked. "It's just a theory!"

Shouto, for his part, merely stared at Nejire for a long moment, his mouth dropping open slightly, before he turned to look back down at his hands.

Would … was that the case? Did something … happen that he just … made up what happened? Something that he had …

And that, right about then, was when Shouto began to think. His mind racing, he tried to remember the memory of what had happened that night, staring up in fear into his mother's crazed eyes, watching as she snatched the tea kettle from the oven and charged over to him, reaching out to grab him by the back of his head so he wouldn't be able to move, about to pour the contents of the kettle onto his face …

… but … he couldn't remember the pain. He didn't remember what it had felt like. Something like that … a pain he should have never been able to get out of his head … he couldn't recall what it felt like.

And that was … it was when there was an itch. As though there was something he was forgetting.

Wrinkling his brow, Shouto closed his eyes, and tried to push past the fuzziness. He tried to remember everything. His mother was standing there, staring at him with insanity and horror in her eyes. Her hand gripping … gripping …

… not the tea kettle. It was … it was an icicle.

She was holding … an icicle. Gripping it tightly in her hand, as though she was trying to break it with all her strength. Blood dripped off of it and onto the hardwood floor as it was pulled back from where it had been purged into …

… into …

"Good grief," His father grunted as he kept his back to Shouto, his hand on his side, "this was an important time, too ... I'll have to take some time off."

"Where's Mom?"

"Eh? Oh, yes. She injured me, so I put her in the hospital."

"It's ... it's your fault."

"Hm?"

"You're the one ... who made Mom -!"

And that was when Shouto's eyes opened.

"My mother …" He said quietly, "… she … she didn't pour boiling water on my eye. She - she stabbed my father."

"Wait, what?" Itsuka whipped around to stare at him in shock.

"Huh?!" Nejire yelped.

Momo, for her part, said nothing, only frowning as she stared at her childhood friend.

"She … she stabbed him," Shouto realized, his eyes widening in horror and revelation as he sat forward, "she didn't try to hurt me, she tried to kill him. She didn't …"

He reached up to cup his hand over his burn mark again, feeling himself begin to shake.

"… she didn't … do this to me. She … she didn't …"

Shaking his head for a moment, he looked back down to the floor for a moment as he absorbed what he had said - and then, slowly, he turned to look back up at Momo.

"Did …" He asked quietly, "… did you know? About … about how Endeavor treated us."

Momo winced slightly, and closed her eyes as she took a turn glancing down to the floor. The three of them saw the tears that had been welling in her eyes begin to leak out.

"I … I didn't know … for sure," She admitted, "but I … I thought that was what was happening. I would - I would see you with bruises, and - and I asked my father about it, but he told me to m-mind my own business, or be punished for it. I … I am so sorry, Shouto. I - I should have said something -"

"No," Shouto shook his head at once, frowning, "there's … there's nothing you really could have done, Yaoyo-"

He paused for a moment, and then sighed.

"- Yaomomo," He corrected himself, "there wasn't anything you could have done, so I don't want you to blame yourself."

The four of them were quiet for a long moment. And then Itsuka blinked a bit.

"Uh … 'Yaomomo'?" She repeated, looking around at Momo as she blinked for a moment, and then flushed and looked away awkwardly.

"Ah, um … it was a - a childhood nickname," She clarified for her, clearing her throat, "one that Shouto gave me. He, er - he first struggled to call me by my last name, and didn't want to be improper by calling me by my first name, so - so my mother offered a compromise and told him to call me 'Yaomomo'."

"Awww," Nejire cooed, smiling adorably, "that's cute! I think I'm gonna call you that from now on if it's okay, Yaomomo!"

"Oh, I -"

CRACK

The conversation between the four, however, was suddenly halted by the sound of a very ominous crack above them. Blinking, the three girls and Shouto quickly looked up at what looked to be a large fracture in the ice moving upwards quickly towards the top of the ice dom. And then, around them, the walls began cracking as well, and then came the feeling of the ground shaking.

"Uh, oh," Nejire nervously said, standing up as the ice around them continued to crack, and Shouto stood up as well.

"The ice is coming down," He realized, feeling his eyes widen, "it's going to cave in on us."

"Oh, crap!" Itsuka jumped up as well, with Momo quickly climbing to her feet beside her. "What do we do? I think we can punch our way -"

Before she could finish that, however, they suddenly became aware of the sound of more cracking behind them. Looking around, they saw what looked to be a shadow of someone standing just behind the glass wall, with more cracks appearing by the second - and then whoever it was stepped back, and the shadow of someone large and far more familiar appeared, and a familiar fist suddenly smashed through the ice, before grabbing a bit of the cracks and tearing them right off to create a hole large enough for all four of them to step through.

"I am here to bust you all out of this joint!" All Might poked his head in, grinning widely but still somehow looking somewhat panicked. "But to be serious, you four, let's get you back out into the fresh air, ha, ha, ha! Preferably quickly, though, we need Tenko to decay the rest of the ice before it collapses!"

Nodding quickly, Itsuka, Nejire and Momo ran as fast as they could towards the hole in the wall, while Shouto merely walked over while turned to look around at the crumbling walls, seemingly unconcerned with how an entire cavern worth of ice was about to collapse on him, looking far more troubled as he thought. Moving towards the hole, the three girls quickly stepped out past All Might and Tenko, careful not to go right over the line just in case, and quickly looked up, paling when they saw how large the ice sculpture was and how it looked like it was about to collapse on the rapidly nervous crowd.

"Excellent!" All Might nodded and looked back in where Shouto had paused his walking, staring up at the ceiling for a long moment and absently raising his left hand. "Now then, Young Todoroki, if you don't -"

FWOOM

All Might, Tenko and the three girls standing near the ice, with Tenko about to rest his hands back on the ice, jumped in surprise as, before any of them could move, a sudden pillar of fire exploded right out of the hole All Might had made, the Number One Hero hastily moving out of the way before he could get his eyebrows singed off. The crowds around the arena gasped and leaned back as a brillant column of fire lit up the entire ice sculpture from within, blasting straight into the thick ice all the way to the top, and they watched, mystified, as the walls suddenly liquified - and then the entire structure collapsed.

Letting out squeaks, Itsuka, Nejire and Momo were unable to stop the water from suddenly spraying them, quickly whirling around and hiding their faces as all the water that the ice had been splashed around them. Unfortunately, however, it was difficult for them to remain in the ring - the amount of force pushing them from behind was causing them all to stumble, Itsuka looking slightly panicked as she almost lost her footing - but Nejire was quicker, quickly grabbing Itsuka underneath her arms, and with a strained grunt, began flying up.

Momo, for her part, almost tripped over herself, her arms flailing in panic as she almost fell down the hill. But from within the water, a hand suddenly shot out, grabbing her wrist, and yanked her back, Momo letting out a squeak as she was pulled straight into and through the falling water.

"Oh, you've gotta be shitting me -!" Midnight screamed as the rush of water slammed into her, carrying her straight off the podium once again and washed her away. Tenko himself wasn't lucky either, wincing and plugging his nose as the water slammed into him and shot him right off the hill, and All Might was much quicker than either of them, leaping up and soaring straight above the water seeping and throwing everyone in the stadium away from the hill -

- and being unaware of one middle-aged woman staring up at him, or rather, the black suit he was wearing, her eyes going a bit wider as she recognized it from that morning.

Up in the air as well, Nejire strained to keep Itsuka upright, her arms wrapped underneath Itsuka's as they both wobbled in the air. Itsuka for her part was gulping a bit nervously as the water continued to seep out onto the ground - and then, finally, they spotted Shouto and Momo, still standing in the ring as the water finally started washing away from them. Momo, for her part, was absolutely drenched, spitting out some water and waving her arms around as her long black hair stayed plastered to her, while Shouto wiped some of the water from his face, and fire continued to burn around his arm.

"HOLY MOLY!" Present Mic suddenly cut in, making Nejire jump a bit and almost drop Itsuka as they started floating back down to the hill. "THIS IS - THAT WAS - TODOROKI'S QUIRK! HE JUST MELTED AWAY THE ICE LIKE IT WAS NOTHING! UNBELIEVABLE!"

"Yeaaaah," Itsuka winced a bit, being put down on the floor of the ring at long last and feeling Nejire move her arms out from under hers, "guess … he figured it out, huh?"

"Guess so," Nejire giggled nervously, likewise settling down on the ground and looking around as Shouto turned to where the two girls were standing. "Happy Midoriya!"

"Yep. Happy Izuku …" She found herself wincing a bit as the heat of Shouto's flames hit her even from the other side of the ring, "… and soon-to-be-on-fire, us."

"You're … very odd, Kendou," Shouto noted, although they both took notice that the usual coldness in his voice was gone, so it didn't quite feel like an insult, "helping someone who declared themselves your enemy. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were screwing around."

"Yeah, well …" Itsuka shrugged a bit, a sheepish smile appearing on her face despite herself, "… I did make a promise to a friend. Even if it might not have been the best idea."

"Peh!" Momo spat out a bit more water, looking around at Shouto in shock and a bit of outrage. "Shouto, I'm - I'm dripping wet! Why did you -"

"You were about to be washed out of the ring," He said simply, looking around at her with a much softer look and tone of voice than he had been addressing her with all day long, "and I didn't know if the match was canceled yet."

"I - well, I'm still wet! And embarrassed!"

"I'm sorry."

"SHOUTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

At the loud scream that suddenly erupted from the crowd, everyone - from the four contestants in the ring, to All Might landing carefully on the edge of the hill, to Midnight standing up in disgust (covered in grass and mud), to the audience, to even the commentators - looked around as Endeavor suddenly began storming down the steps towards the arena.

"Have you finally accepted yourself?!" He barked as he stomped down the stairs, the heroes and civilians in the seats looking around at him in alarm and confusion as he grinned maniacally. "That's it! Excellent! It all starts from here for you! With my blood, you will surpass me ... you will fulfill my desire!"

"Goodness," Momo scowled, "I wish he would shut up."

"Tell me about it," Itsuka turned to glare at the maniacally grinning hero, "if I ever have to actually speak to him, I'm gonna kick him in the nuts."

With that, the attention of the arena's contestants turned back to each other, completely ignoring Endeavor as Shouto continued to stare at Itsuka, fire blowing off his left side as he gave her a serious look.

"You still good to keep fighting, Kendou?" Shouto picked a bit of dried blood off from his lip. "If we're going to finish this, don't blame me for what happens next."

Itsuka hesitated for a moment, and then turned to glance back at All Might. The pro hero didn't seem certain about letting them continue, what with Midnight storming back up the stairs with obvious fury that she needed to take out on Shouto for covering her with mud - but after a moment, All Might nodded, taking a step back and looking around for wherever Tenko got washed away to.

Letting out a soft sigh, Itsuka slowly nodded as she considered her options - and then she straightened up, and a grin began to spread across her face again. Growing out both her hands, she reactivated One for All, and felt strength return to her body as she leaned forward and answered Shouto's small glare with a feral grin of her own.

"Nejire," She said to her partner behind her, "I'd step back."

Nejire hesitated a bit, glancing up at Momo as the heiress quickly backed away, as though knowing that what was about to go down was about to be violent and she didn't need to be caught in the crossfire. However, instead of moving away, Nejire quickly took a deep breath, hopping up and down, and moved down into a squat beside Itsuka, throwing her hands up and activating her quirk. Itsuka quickly glanced over as Nejire turned to give her an excited and hyped up look.

"Let's do this!" She grinned nervously at her, and Itsuka gave her a look of surprise for only a moment before she grinned back.

"Hell, yeah!" She nodded, looking back around at Shouto, "I'm counting on you, Nej!"

With that, the audience leaned forward in anticipation, realizing that they wouldn't be robbed of the match they had wanted to see. Itsuka's eyes began glowing a deep teal color, electrical sparks glowing up her arms - and unknowing making Tenohira and Hakushu stare down at the ring in shock, while Teko straightened up in his seat. Endeavor grinned maniacally as Shouto continued to build up his flames, and lowered one hand to the ground to begin producing a bit of ice, steam rising into the air as the three got themselves ready.

Izuku and Ochako, sitting up in the top seats and looking worriedly down at the arena, grabbed each other's hands without thinking as they stared at the intense staredown. Setsuna jumped up, shaking with excitement and ready to cheer on Itsuka with all her might, while Yui hummed a bit worriedly and leaned forward in her seat. Below, Itsuka got herself ready, watching as Shouto slowly raised his hand while beginning to glare at his rival again, flames blowing off the side of his face -

- and then he stopped.

Blinked.

And the sudden torrent of flames flickered and died.

Itsuka barely managed to stop herself from lunging forward to start the attack, feeling One for All flicker within herself as she blinked in surprise. Slowly, Shouto lowered his hand, the glare melting away to show that same troubled expression that had been there when he had tried recalling his memories, as he stared blankly at her for a moment - and then he completely deactivated his quirk, his arms flopping at his sides.

The audience stared in shock, beginning to mutter amongst themselves, and Endeavor's own grin faltered as Shouto slumped forward, and then slowly moved down to his knees before the two girls, Nejire likewise staring at him in surprise as her own quirk turned off.

"I …" Shouto hesitated, and then closed his eyes, "… I concede."

There was a long moment of silence in the arena as everyone absorbed what Shouto had said, Midnight arriving at the top of the stairs pausing for a moment to catch her breath - and then everyone began muttering in shock. On the side, Momo stared at Shouto for a long moment as well, her face falling as she glanced around at where Itsuka and Nejire were staring in surprise, and then towards where the cameras were - as fearing for a moment what they would say to this. Or, rather, what someone watching would say.

But then, in a reversal of her partner, her back straightened, and she took a deep breath. Moving towards where Shouto was kneeling, she stood there briefly in silence, before nodding and reaching down to rest her hand on his shoulder gently.

"I also concede." She confirmed.

Itsuka stared down at the both of them in shock for a moment, the teal flickers of One for All dying away and leaving her feeling exhausted - and then Midnight suddenly threw her whip into the air.

"Todoroki and Yaoyorozu concede!" She announced to the crowd. "Kendou and Hadou are the winners!"

There was a long pause in the large arena. And, then, suddenly, the audience roared, far louder than they had all day long. Itsuka and Nejire jumped a bit as they quickly looked around, shaken out of their previous moods so fast they almost got whiplash, as they blinked in surprise. But ... but what Midnight said suddenly registered to them, making both their jaws drop as they realized the crowd was cheering for them.

And then, Itsuka's gaze flickered back to Shouto. Despite her tiredness, her soreness, her need to just go and lay down somewhere and fall asleep, she straightened her back, and sighed as she started making her way over. Finally, she stood before Shouto, who blinked when he saw her flayed shoes before him, and looked up in time to see Itsuka fixing him with an unknown expression - until she suddenly lowered her hand, offering it to him.

Shouto stared for a second - and then he sighed, and reached up to take her hand. Gently, she helped him stand up, both of them standing there for a moment, before Shouto nodded to her, and gave her hand a shake.

"Good game," He acknowledged, and Itsuka smiled gently.

"Yeah," She nodded, "good game."

With that, the four of them turned towards the crowds cheering for the end of the festival, and Shouto, before anyone could ask, moved his hand down to Itsuka's wrist, lifting it up into the air in victory, causing the crowd to cheer loudly at the display of sportsmanship. Momo, for her part, smiled at Nejire as well as the girl hopped around and then threw her arms around her, with the heiress squeaking a bit but still awkwardly patting Nejire's back. With that, the four teenagers began making their way off the stage, giving Midnight an apologetic look as she continued to wipe the mud off of her in disgust, and made their way down the hill and over to the tunnel together, all of them knowing that they should probably go see Recovery Girl together.

"Well," Itsuka cleared her throat, the other three walking with her, "that was … exhausting."

"Mm," Momo nodded, rubbing her eyes slightly but allowing Nejire to keep her arm wrapped around her shoulders, "I agree, Kendou, I am … honestly quite exhausted."

"Yeah!" Nejire nodded, not looking tired in the slightest as they made their way across the wet field towards the tunnel, and moving into the darkness and out of the light. "I'm ready for a nap. Aren't you guys? I think I'm gonna get home tonight and probably pass out."

Itsuka let out a small, weak laugh, reaching over to pat Nejire's shoulder while the blue-haired girl beamed at the three of them.

"Yep," She nodded, "I'm gonna eat something, get into the bath and scrub this stuff out of my hair, and go to bed."

"Hm," Shouto hummed, causing the three girls to look around at him, "so Midoriya was telling the truth? Your hair is dyed?"

"Huh? What do you -"

CLAP CLAP CLAP

The conversation the four teenagers were having was interrupted, however, by the sound of someone ahead of them clapping. Blinking, they stopped walking forward, before looking up at the man leaning against the wall, continuing to clap his hands together as he kept his eyes closed and smiled.

The man, by the way, was tall - taller than all four of them, even leaning against the wall and hunched over slightly. It was clear that he was well built, even under the black suit that he was wearing, and finally paused his clapping to raise one hand and scratch at his cheek, before turning to them to give all four of them a warm smile, although his eyes quickly flickered between both Itsuka and Nejire.

"Well," He chuckled, speaking in a deep voice, "that was quite extraordinary, wasn't it? That was quite the impressive showing from all four of you. My congradulations, you four truly did well out there."

"Er …" Nejire paused, taken aback, "… thank you? Er - wait, hold on, are you a teacher? I don't think I've seen you before, but that's a really cool suit! Do you have a hero costume you don't wanna put on? Or maybe your hero costume is beneath it, and you're waiting for the chance to Superman your way out of it?"

"Oh, no, no," The man laughed humorously, standing up from the wall, "I'm not a hero, my dear. I got permission to come down and wait for you four before the match began, to give you my congradulations."

"Wait a moment," Momo blinked in recognition, straightening up, "I … have we met, sir?"

"No, not directly," He smiled at her, "but I have been to your home. I have to say, though, it's a regret that we haven't been able to meet in person, Miss Yaoyorozu. Your father speaks quite highly of you."

"Oh …" Momo faltered, her smile slipping, and Shouto felt himself frown.

"Sorry, sir," He didn't sound quite sorry, straightening his back, "but I believe the rest of us haven't met you."

"Ah, yes," The man smiled, "you're correct, young man. Where are my manners?"

Moving down into a bow, his red eyes flickered up into Itsuka's, and for some reason, she felt a chill suddenly go down her spine as he smiled directly at her.

"My name," He introduced himself, "is Mugen Shigaraki. Future prime minister of Japan."