It was time. The fight everyone had been waiting for was upon them. Izuku stood at the arena entrance with Ochako by his side, watching the grass sway in the breeze. He was nervous, but not the debilitating kind he'd been in the past. There was excitement and anticipation rolled into this nervousness, the kind of nervousness that made him want to get out there and start the match already, not hide away and stall for time. He couldn't afford to rush this, though. It was the final match of the sports festival, the thing that decided who went home with the gold medal. Izuku had come so far, and he wasn't going to mess it up now, so he waited patiently.

The introductions started with a whine from the speakers. Present Mic was probably never going to learn to speak with his inside voice.

"From Class 1-A, he's come from humble beginnings but he hasn't let that stop him. The rising champion that'll turn any obstacle to dust, it's Izuku Midoriya!"

"Well, it's time," Izuku said. He turned and smiled at Ochako, who returned the grin in kind.

"Remember what we talked about. You can do this," Ochako said, giving him a thumbs up.

Izuku turned and stepped out into the sunlight. The crowd cheered for him, and it almost felt as though the wave of sound that hit him would knock him over if he wasn't careful. He walked up to the concrete floor of the arena, returning Midnight's nod and standing in his starting position. Izuku smiled up at the crowd, giving them a sweeping wave, which caused their applause to become even louder, somehow. He basked in that feeling for a moment, letting the approval of the applause settle his turbulent heart. As the crowd's cheers died down, Present Mic spoke up once again.

"Also from Class 1-A, the prodigal son of Endeavor and a force of nature. The overwhelming glacial gladiator, Shoto Todoroki!"

Todoroki appeared from the other end of the arena. He looked dead tired, with his feet carrying him with a slow and sluggish gait. His eyes were just as sharp and cold as ever, though, with nothing on his face indicating that he was pushing any sort of limit. Todoroki stepped up to his starting position and didn't acknowledge Midnight's wordless greeting. He was glaring at Izuku so harshly that one must have thought there was a deep history of hatred and animosity between them, but Izuku hadn't even held a conversation with Todoroki until that morning. Izuku didn't return the glare, only looking at him with as casual a smile as he could manage at a time like this. That didn't seem to encourage cooperation in Todoroki—just the opposite, as his fists balled up and Izuku felt all the hair on his body stand up on end as the temperature dropped by a few degrees in a fraction of a second.

Izuku took a long, steady breath and took his gloves off. His skin stung slightly from the sudden chill, but he could manage. He flexed his fingers out and looked down at his hands. The prosthetic middle finger caught his eye, and he considered it for a moment. It was a symbol of his ugly recklessness, the reminder he was stuck with after the USJ. The scarred skin around that stump, and the fake digit itself, served to keep reminding him that he'd been foolish and arrogant. He flexed that prosthetic finger as well, and felt a mix of emotions down in his gut. They were unpleasant feelings that the prosthetic swirled up, shame and anger and disgust, feelings that made him want the fight to start right then and there. He took a few more breaths and carefully put the gloves in his pocket, freeing up his hands to act if he needed to.

"Are you ready?" Midnight asked.

"I am," Izuku said.

Todoroki just nodded silently. Midnight counted in the fight, and Izuku's heart began pumping as the adrenaline entered his system prematurely. He could do this. Ochako believed in him. If the one that had been all but confirmed as the next All Might believed in him so deeply, then who was he to disappoint? Todoroki got low, dropping unsteadily to one knee as Midnight began the countdown.

Three.

Izuku could've sworn he'd seen Todoroki's eyes flash up to the stands. He looked up and followed Todoroki's line of sight to spot the hulking form of Endeavor, lurking at the back of the crowd. Izuku couldn't make out his expression exactly, but he didn't look pleased. The fire curling around him had created a radius of two or three seats that were just empty, as nobody wanted to get close to an angry man on fire, even if he was the number two hero. That just went to show how different Endeavor was to most other heroes, if those he was charged with protecting didn't even trust him not to burn them when he was mad. Maybe that was Izuku's pessimism talking, but Endeavor really was kind of a jerk, even when he was presenting as the number two hero.

Two.

Looking back at Todoroki got him a glare in return. Izuku felt the white hot poker of anger jab him in the chest again, but he ignored it. He was going to talk to him. Throwing away the faith that Ochako had in him to be the better man wasn't an option. Izuku sighed, ready for the barrage of attacks Todoroki was likely to send his way, if the previous match was anything to go off. He held his hands out in front of himself with his fingers spread as wide as possible. Hopefully, this would work the way he envisioned it, and not just make him lose faster.

One.

It began with a fraction of a second of silence. Izuku looked deep into Todoroki's eyes, and saw pain and hurt there. He tried his best to remain calm, and keep the grimace off his face. He saw Todoroki tensing up to attack, and knew that this was already going to be one of the hardest things he'd attempted.

"Todoroki!" Izuku cried, but that's all the time he got.

A surge of ice sprang up from the ground, though not as large as Izuku had expected. It was huge, don't get him wrong, but it wasn't like the ones he'd launched at Tokyami just fifteen minutes ago. This one was only about thrice as tall as Izuku, and it was narrower, much more focused. As it rushed toward Izuku, still as fast as the gargantuan ones, he could gather that Todoroki was well aware that he was pushing against a hard limit of his Quirk and was now trying to be conservative with his output. The attack swallowed Izuku up in the frozen cage, and Izuku was immobilised. Blue overcame his vision, and he couldn't move. The pressure from all sides of his body was crushing, like it was trying to press through his skin and freeze him solid. It felt like a thick layer of a dozen weighted blankets, each heavier than the last, piled onto him on all sides. It was like this for just a moment, however, as when the ice formed around his hands, it triggered his Quirk, and thin cracks flashed across the thick ice and broke it apart, allowing a second wave of Decimation to flow through it and turn the ice immediately surrounding Izuku to its basest element. Strangely, it didn't turn to ash, but to water instead. As the melted ice fell around Izuku, he smiled, and stood tall as the remains of the iceberg fell around him in chunks and pools.

Todoroki looked at him with a deep scowl, which twisted the lines of his typically handsome face to convey an ugly, mad hatred. The scar on his face was normally a dull, faded brownish-red, but now it seemed to glow in the sunlight, a furious scarlet that Izuku could only attribute to his own imagination. Still, he stood against Todoroki, letting his arms drop to his sides as he spoke again.

"Todoroki," Izuku said. "Can I—?"

Another wave of ice surged from Todoroki to Izuku, crawling over him in an instant. Again, Izuku's Quirk automatically worked its magic when he was completely consumed by the attack, and broke the glacier apart to free him. Todoroki watched this with the same unhinged rage on his face, his singular turquoise eye gleaming with anger. It was like looking up at Endeavor all over again, back up at Dad—no. That was done. He was over it. Maybe he wasn't as over it as he'd thought before meeting Endeavor face to face, but he had put that behind him and it was staying that way. He took a deep breath to recenter himself, and stepped closer to Todoroki.

"Just listen to me! I want to talk!" Izuku screamed.

Silence broke out over the arena, as the two boys stayed still and glared at each other across the distance between them. Todoroki had paused his attacks for the time being, so that wasn't a bad sign. Izuku took a moment to assess his opponent's condition, and found frost growing on his arm and leg already, after just two attacks. He was trembling, barely able to keep himself still. Izuku grimaced at the pain Todoroki must have been in, but kept himself composed. He took another few steps toward Todoroki, but his last one was met with a step away from Todoroki, telling him that he was as close as he was going to get. Izuku sighed, and let his arms drop.

"Are you gonna let me talk?" Izuku asked.

"What could you have to say? You've made your stance clear, as have I," Todoroki said, his voice shaky and strained.

"I did, and I regret that. When you told me about your past and your goal today, I made up my mind on the spot. I said I wasn't going to entertain your childish games, but that was wrong. It was wrong to call your pain childish, and I regret not hearing you out further before letting my anger make my choice for me. I can see you're in pain, Todoroki, and not just your body. I want to make amends, and the first step to that is for us to be open to each other," Izuku rambled.

"I already know about you. You're the son of a lowlife with a powerful flame Quirk. You bear the scars to prove that, and the Quirk you hate is a constant reminder of your suffering that you can't escape. I know you because we're the same. So what could I hope to gain by listening to your inane ramblings?" Todoroki asked, standing up from his crouched position, which seemed to pain him significantly by the way he groaned and had to pause halfway through.

"Because we are the same! We're two people who've been hurt by our pasts, and we both turned to our anger as a cushion. Having that to fall back on, that deeply held need for justice, it fuels you. It fueled me. But I don't want the pain of my childhood to define me. I don't think you want it to define you, either," Izuku said.

"That's not an option for us, Midoriya. Anger is all we know. We are anger," Todoroki said, his voice becoming ragged as he struggled to remain standing.

"But we're also rebelling, right? The anger is there, but it's only a means to an end. Rebellion is the real core to who we are," Izuku said. Todoroki looked at him strangely, and chose to press that line of thinking. "Everything I've ever done since I was five years old was in spite of my father, in spite of my Quirk and in spite of what the world assumes about me based on those things. I wanted to become a hero to prove everyone wrong, to rebel against the misconception that there are heroic and villainous Quirks. My father called my Quirk evil before he used his own to burn me and my mother. My peers at school called me a villain as they broke my spirit piece by piece. That's why I came here, to prove them all wrong. I came here pushed forward by spite and envy. I came here to rebel. And so did you!"

Todoroki gasped harshly. He shook his head violently, grimacing like he was in pain. He crouched down and touched his right hand to the ground, and another rush of ice surged forward at Izuku, who managed to react in time and thrust his own hands out in front of him at the last second. The ice overwhelmed him and he was frozen, but the attack was broken up by Izuku's Quirk just as easily as the others, if not easier. As Izuku stumbled out of the wreckage of the third attack, Izuku noticed that this latest one was slower than the other two. He was succumbing to his limit. Izuku caught his breath and paused for a moment to see if Todoroki was going to attack again. He didn't, standing back up and looking him in the eye once more.

"So you agree. We're the same, so if I beat you, I'll beat that bastard's ideal version of me. I'll be free," Todoroki said. He almost sounded desperate, as if he wasn't trying to convince Izuku anymore.

"No! You know that's not what'll happen, Todoroki. If you give in to your anger, you just play further into his hand. Just hear me out, and you'll see what I'm getting at," Izuku said, trying his best to keep his voice steady over his ragged breaths. Being iced over and over again was already not agreeing with him, so he couldn't imagine what Todoroki was feeling right now. Luckily, Todoroki didn't respond, so Izuku took that as an invitation to keep talking. "If you had said that just a month or two ago, I would've agreed. But I've changed! Or at least I've started wanting to change. Because of the people I've met at UA, because of O—Uraraka, Aizawa, All Might, Hound Dog … and you!"

Todoroki flinched at himself being called out, and said, "Me?"

"Yes! Everyone I've met in the last few months has shown me a different side of the world, and how I fit into it. The teachers showed me that I could be a force for good, instead of just obliging because I wanted to get back at a bunch of middle school bullies and a man that doesn't deserve to see me flourish. Uraraka showed me what it felt like to be confident again, and she showed me all the things that I'd forgotten I valued in myself, like empathy and selflessness. Hound Dog taught me to focus on things I could control and that made me happy. And yeah, you've taught me something too, Todoroki. I think it's only now that I'm realising this because it's kind of like looking in a mirror, but you've shown me how grateful I am for all of that. Things have been coming at me so fast since starting at this school, so I haven't really had a moment to just sit and appreciate everything I've gained in the last few months, so thank you! You've shown me what I am and what I still could be if I fought for what matters!" Izuku explained.

"What else matters when faced with the suffering we've known? What could you have that matches the cold fire in my heart, that pushes me forward when I can't keep going?" Todoroki asked, frost consuming his entire right arm. The temperature was dropping quickly, and it looked like Todoroki was getting ready to attack again.

"Love! Empathy! Kindness and friendship, and all that sappy stuff!" Izuku said, which gave Todoroki some pause. "My life has gotten exponentially better after letting people see what I thought I had to keep hidden! The pain and anger I used before are nothing compared to what pushed me on at the USJ, and even today. It's compassion, and selflessness. I see how you're suffering and I want you to understand that it doesn't have to be that way. With all of that at my back, with all the love I've found in my heart, I know I can't lose. Todoroki, who do you love?"

Todoroki blinked at Izuku and shook his head, as if he was trying to dispel something, and said, "Mom …"

"What's your mom like?" Izuku asked, lowering his voice as he took a few hesitant steps closer to Todoroki. When he didn't stop Izuku, his smile returned, and he tried not to jinx himself by hoping that it was working.

"She's … I don't know. I haven't seen her in years. Because he broke her spirit and took her away!" Todoroki snarled. His whole body started shaking, the ice now spreading to his right leg and covering partway down his thigh.

"Forget him! What about your mom? What's your favourite memory of her?" Izuku said. He was scared that Todoroki would think about his dad and relapse into ignoring him, but it looked like he was getting through to him.

Todoroki glared at Izuku, but didn't attack. His eyes were trained on Izuku, but he didn't look present, as if he was thinking of something complicated. Finally, his eyes widened, losing their sharp edge and instead causing him to look bewildered, even scared. He looked at Izuku and frowned, but not in the same way he'd been scowling in anger before. It was the kind of frown that a person did when trying to hide the expression they wanted to make, and Izuku gasped quietly at that realisation.

"I was five years old," Todoroki said, his voice wavering. "She was smiling, but she must have been miserable. She asked me if I still wanted to be a hero. I didn't want to answer, because I was scared that she'd think I was like Father if I said I did. I said I didn't want to be a hero like Father, who hurt her. Mother laughed at that, even though she had to know I knew what went on between them. She echoed a sentiment we'd seen on television, in an interview with All Might. It gave me the confidence to answer honestly."

"What did she say?" Izuku asked, staying in place as he didn't want to risk getting in closer and ruining his chances.

"She said … what Quirk you have doesn't matter. It's how you use it that makes you a hero," Todoroki said, his voice shaking just as much as his body.

"And what was your answer? Your honest answer?" Izuku asked.

"I want … to be a hero. I want to be the greatest hero that's ever lived, and I want it because of her. Her kindness, her compassion, her love. I've spent years hating him, blaming him for hating the path I'm on, but I love heroes because of her, because of the kindness she showed even when she was suffering much more than I was. How did I forget that?" Todoroki said, looking down at his iced over hand in contemplation.

"That's what it does to you. The hate and anger make you forget what it's like to love something, someone. I forgot that I used to love helping people, even though I'm pretty bad at it. I forgot that I loved heroes, and I've had to teach myself all over again that I love training to become one. What do you love?" Izuku said.

"I love my mother. I want to honour her. I want to be a great hero who brings safety and comfort to everyone!" Todoroki said, his voice becoming steadier as he spoke.

"Yes! I want it, too! I'll use what power I have to help those who need it. Will you?" Izuku said, feeling the thudding of his heart in his chest get stronger as his voice rose. It was working!

"Yes. I'll do it. I'll do whatever it takes," Todoroki said, matching Izuku's rising volume.

"Then stop hurting yourself and warm this damn place up already!" Izuku yelled, throwing caution to the wind and giving into the excitement overtaking him.

"I … can't," Todoroki said. He seemed to come back to himself and see that the whole audience had been silent for several minutes as they tried to keep warm, as the whole stadium had been subjected to the same cold as the two boys in the arena.

"You can! Forget about him for a minute. Think about all the good you can do with fire. You can light a candle on a birthday cake. You can bring comfort to people who don't have homes in the winter. You can cook food for those who can't afford it. You can clear the roads when it snows. You can clear an avalanche like it's nothing. You can do so many heroic things, and you can win this festival! Do you hear me?" Izuku said.

"I … I'll burn you. What if I become like him?" Todoroki said, looking down at his left hand, the one on his fire side.

"You won't! I'll make sure! And you can do the same for me, right? We can keep each other in check. We can keep each other from hurting anyone, and that includes ourselves!" Izuku yelled.

Something changed. Air blew against Izuku's face, different from the natural spring breeze. It was warmer than that, and he realised with a startled step back that the coat of frost that had crawled all over the right side of Todoroki's body was melting. Water dripped off of him and fell to the ground, and suddenly he was clear of any ice, and a puddle had formed at his feet. Izuku met Todoroki's eyes again, and he was no longer frowning, no longer trying to hide the look on his face. He was smiling. It was eerie to see Todoroki smile like that, like it was the first time he'd smiled in a long time and had forgotten how those muscles worked. But hot air rushed away from Todoroki and out into the arena, blowing past Izuku and sending a flash of warmth through him that made him shiver as the bone chilling cold was dispelled. Izuku couldn't help but smile as he heard the hissing of steam as all the remnants of Todoroki's prior attacks were dissolved into nothing, and the cheering from the audience at being warmed up.

"Do you mean it? Will you help me make her proud?" Todoroki asked, his turquoise eye seemingly glowing once again as his hair was lifted out of his face by the hot air rising.

"I do. I promise," Izuku said with a laugh.

Fire. Red, then orange. It started as a wisp on his arm, and suddenly the entire left side of his body erupted in a blazing inferno, causing a wave of hot, dry air to wash over Izuku, sending shivers up his spine again. Even his eye was expelling flame, a stream of gold escaping him at any point it could. Izuku couldn't help but grin at the beauty of the flames, but he had to blink furiously as his eyes dried out from the blasts of heat coming at him. He'd been soaked from the ice attacks, but he was already mostly dry, and quickly becoming even more so. The temperature was only climbing.

Izuku put his hands up to fight, but didn't know how he was going to deal with this. Whatever, he'd deal with it. His focus was pulled, however, when he noticed something. His prosthetic finger was no longer attached to his hand. It must have been missing for a while, but he hadn't noticed. Rethinking what had happened in the fight so far, the finger must have been destroyed in one of the ice attacks, succumbing to Decimation or just being crushed by the ice and falling away once it was destroyed. There was a small patch of skin that had been ripped at the base of where his finger once was, and figured it had indeed been ripped off when the ice fell away from him. He didn't feel a thing, so he kept going. It didn't affect what he had to do. He was just going to have to hit with his left hand, now.

"Are we fighting, or what?" Izuku yelled over the roaring fire.

"Yes," Todoroki said, his voice strained. It looked like he was tensing every muscle in his body to maintain the fire, which made sense considering he had to be pretty rusty with the power he swore never to use until now.

Izuku knew his game plan. He ran at Todoroki, balling his hands into fists and sprinting right at the other boy. Todoroki raised his left hand, and a blazing fire burned brighter than Izuku thought it could. He held the ball of fire in his hand, pointed at Izuku, and held his arm back as if he were about to throw it. However, Todoroki froze as his wind-up hit its peak, and stopped in his tracks. The flames dimmed, the fireball in his hands extinguished himself, and he took a step back. Todorok's left side put itself out and he planted his right foot on the ground, conjuring a lurching stream of ice that lunged at Izuku along the ground. It was the slowest attack he'd made all day, and Izuku dodged to the left easily. Izuku looked Todoroki in the eye, and the glimmer of familiar fear he saw there told Izuku that he still wasn't going to actually attack him with his fire. That was fine, he just needed him to not freeze to death in the middle of spring.

That meant he had an opening, though. Izuku rushed forward and threw a punch at Todoroki's nose. Todoroki attempted to lift an arm up to block it, but his whole arm jerked and didn't obey him. The hit landed, causing his head to fly back as Izuku's punch rocked Todoroki. He went for another, cursing his lack of speed as he wasn't using his mangled hand to hit. He pulled his arm back and went for another punch, landing it square in the jaw as Todoroki was still recovering from the first hit. He went stumbling, and swept his right arm, hand iced over, at Izuku's head. Izuku ducked under it, using the momentum to kick out and trip Todoroki so that he had to abandon the attack to stop himself from falling to the ground.

While he was distracted, Izuku thrust his mangled hand out at Todoroki's face, planning to make him dodge to the left, closer to where he could hit him with his good hand while he was distracted. This however, made Todoroki's eyes go wide as flame poured out from his left side, making Izuku ditch the feint to avoid getting burned. He still attempted the left handed punch, and landed it as Todoroki had seemingly been frightened by the image of Izuku trying to use his Quirk on him. That let the hit connect right at the cheekbone, and Todoroki's head jerked to the side when it did. When Todoroki looked back at Izuku, his eyes were different, as if he wasn't looking right at Izuku but the space next to him. Izuku realised that he must be giving into the exhaustion. After all, warming up wouldn't magically make him good as new, ready to fight like he hadn't still put his body through hours of unhealthily cold temperatures. He could take this match, even when Todoroki had used his fire.

Izuku threw another punch at Todoroki, this time at his nose, which connected with a painful crunch under his knuckles. He needed to end it quickly, both because Izuku himself was also tired enough to go to sleep on the ground, and because the longer he engaged in a fist fight, the more he risked accidentally touching him with enough of his fingers to activate his Quirk. He only needed three fingers on the hand he was hitting Todoroki with, so he tried his best to have proper form and not mess it up, but it was hard. He only felt comfortable risking one more hit. Todoroki stood there and took the hits, trying his best through the haze of what was probably frostbite, heatstroke and a concussion, but he wasn't going down. He looked like he could pass out on the spot, but it was simply inertia keeping him on his feet.

Wishing with all he had that this would be the one to end it, Izuku threw his final punch, and it connected right on Todoroki's jaw, pushing his head back and causing him to tip over. Todoroki fell onto his back, his whole body going limp from a state of total tension. He passed out on the spot, and left Izuku huffing and puffing, keeping his hands up as he refused to let his guard down before the fight was officially called. Midnight held out her hand, telling Izuku to back off while she checked that Todoroki really was out. She crouched down and put a hand to his wrist, and listened to his breathing, and stood up quickly. She looked back at the crowd with a big grin.

"Izuku Midoriya wins!"

It felt unreal, like he was dreaming. He looked around at the crowd, and could see that they were screaming their lungs out, but couldn't hear a thing because of the blood rushing in his ears and the thoughts going through his head. His whole body felt like it was floating, but at the same time he felt like the world was pulling him down to the ground, the allure of simply passing out unavoidable after a day of fighting. Izuku managed to stay awake, though, and grinned back at the crowd with pride exploding in his chest and tears coming to his eyes. He'd actually done it.

He'd won.