Author's Note: I'm putting this chapter out early so that I can respond to what's been happening over the last day or so.
So, regarding the recent reviews and messages that I've gotten about Izuku's asexuality in this fic; I'm sorry that it is not to your tastes, but this Izuku is aroace. He's not interested in romance or sex, and that's something that I always had in mind when writing this fic. The conversation between the boys in the locker room during the battle trial arc was setup for this development. Now, I've gotten some reviews and private messages condemning my inclusion of these themes and ideas in this story. I've been getting hateful messages and getting slurs hurled at me in the reviews. This is deplorable behaviour for anyone, the internet doesn't give you the veil of anonymity you think it does. I know who is doing this, and I know how. These people are using guest accounts to send hateful messages, but because they're guests I can't respond or get them punished in any meaningful way.
Saying these hateful things doesn't make you better than me, and it doesn't make me feel bad for doing what I've done. I'm doing something that I think matters, and I'm not going to stop because bigots like these people can't keep their backwards thoughts to themselves. No, I'm not just going to go somewhere else with this. I shouldn't have to. There's such a thing as target audiences, and you, if you're the type of person to agree with these bigoted sentiments, are not it.
Please, if you are the target audience for this story, enjoy the chapter.
Izuku sat on the grass, waiting for enough students to pass through the threshold for Midnight to announce that the first event had come to an end. He had counted twenty people that passed so far, a lot of faces he recognized among them, including Tsu, Shinso Kendo and Yaoyorozu. He had been sitting on the grass for a few minutes, resting his legs. He still felt a little bit of resistance when he moved his arms and legs, and even more when he tried to move his fingers, but Izuku was sure that it would go away if he simply used them more, so he had been doing little stretches for the duration of the first event after he had passed.
He was excited about having come first. That meant that people were watching him, and that meant that he could finally find an opportunity to declare himself as a future Symbol, like All Might had asked of him. Izuku had come to like the 'Symbol of Hope' thing that All Might had spoken about, and really thought that it fit with his view of the world, and of Heroes and their duty.
Deciding that the only really impactful moment to make his declaration was in the awards ceremony, with him on the first place pedestal, Izuku made a promise to himself then and there; he'd get to the top, and he'd announce himself as the next Symbol. He had already promised Todoroki that he'd be coming for the top spot, but he hadn't really thought he'd get that far until now. Now, he had something more than himself to fight for.
Standing up, Izuku approached Tsu, who had come in eleventh by Izuku's count. He put on a bright smile, despite the pain in his joints, and walked up to his friend, who gave a small wave at noticing him approaching.
"Nice job in the race," Izuku said.
"Thanks. Congratulations on coming first," Tsu said.
"Thank you. I wasn't sure I would even place after my little slip up in the middle," Izuku chuckled.
"What was that? I heard Present Mic talking about it, but I didn't see," Tsu asked.
"Oh, I had a little accident with my Quirk in the middle. I lost control and I accidentally went to use one hundred percent of my strength and my body rejected it a bit … violently," Izuku said, shuddering at the memory of All for One.
"One hundred percent? You mean the kind of power that blew your arm out in the USJ?" Tsu asked.
"Yeah. Usually, I can only handle about six percent. I'm working on it, though, as all of us are, I noticed that your leaping is far stronger than it was when … uh …" Izuku trailed off, remembering what had happened when Tsu last tried to leap a long distance.
"I dropped Shinso. You don't have to walk on eggshells around it, Midoriya. It's okay to say that I screwed up. That's what Plus Ultra means, though. Going beyond your limits and doing your best," Tsu said, a serious air about her.
"Yeah," Izuku said, looking away contemplatively.
Looking away, Izuku spotted Shinso running into the field. Izuku went to walk over to him for what looked like thirtieth place, but Shinso collapsed to the ground from exhaustion before he could. Izuku walked over to his friend, seeing him breathing hard and holding himself up by leaning on the ground limply.
Izuku looked around, seeing that the last few students were trickling in. No matter the event, the first trial always ended with forty two participants remaining. He noticed that the required number of participants had already passed, but they were simply letting all the students that had run the race collect in the field before dismissing them.
"Hey, Shinso. Good job in the race," Izuku said, chuckling at his pained groans.
"Shut up, Mr. First Place," Shinso said, smirking playfully.
Helping Shinso up off the ground, Izuku laughed. The two walked over toward Tsu and engrossed themselves in conversation.
"So, what do you think the next event will be?" Shinso asked, still catching his breath.
"It's gonna be a team battle. They'll probably split us up based on our results in the Obstacle Race," Izuku said, looking between the participants still gathered in the field.
"How'd you figure that out? Did All Might tell you?" Shinso asked, only half-joking.
"Nah. I just … have a lot of free time," Izuku said, sheepishly smiling.
"Alright, man," Shinso laughed.
Izuku, Tsu and Shinso distracted themselves with conversation for the rest of the interlude between events. Izuku, though, couldn't keep his mind off his encounter with All for One, and how he had locked Izuku's Super Strength away. He didn't even know that was something the vestiges could do, as they couldn't do much else than communicate with him during dreams and in specific instances when awake. Up until now, they had been just that; vestiges. He put it into the back of his mind as something to talk to All Might about during the lunch break after the second event.
After Midnight had dismissed the eliminated participants, she gathered the remaining forty two students around the. Because of the reduced group size, Izuku could see clearly who was left in the competition, and it was mostly Class-1A, 1B and Mei Hatsume, as well as a short kid with purple balls on his head. Izuku wasn't going to comment on that, because he had seen stranger and less accepted mutations. Midnight strolled up to the podium and officially began to explain how the second event would go down after spinning the wheel and having it land on 'Cavalry Battle'.
"Okay, folks! Today's second event is going to be the Cavalry Battle! This game is a cooperative match for teams of two to five members. The goal is simple: snatch another team's headband. The rider wears the headband, and each headband is worth the cumulative points of all a team's members. If your headband is snatched, don't worry, because you aren't out of the game. You can steal back points, so try your best to stay determined!" Midnight explained.
"Oh. That makes sense," someone, likely Ashido by the tone of voice, said.
"The battle will be fifteen minutes long, and you have ten minutes to form teams now. Oh, I almost forgot! There's a catch," Midnight said, grinning viciously.
Izuku didn't like the way Midnight had said 'catch', and neither did anyone else by the way multiple people stepped away from their teacher with worried looks on their faces. He didn't know what Midnight had planned, but he was sure he wasn't going to like it one bit.
"The points are allocated by placement in the previous event, going up incrementally by five each time. Forty second place in the Obstacle Race is awarded five points, forty first is worth ten, and so on. The thing is, though, first place is an outlier to this system. First place is automatically worth ten million points!" Midnight announced, making Izuku's jaw drop.
Everyone around Izuku immediately turned to face him, their eyes cold and their expressions muted. They were clearly thinking the same thing as him: he was screwed. This wasn't going to be a skirmish for any points a team could find, this was going to be a dash for the ten million points, for one Izuku Midoriya. He wasn't sure that she was watching, but if she was, Izuku hoped Ochako didn't have to see him get torn apart on national television.
Izuku set his face in a determined look, eyeing everyone around him with an intensity he wouldn't be able to summon in any other situation. He looked each of his new enemies in the eyes, telling each one of them that he was ready for whatever they could throw at him and more. He was invigorated by his attitude, actually believing for a moment that he was capable of such things.
"You have ten minutes to assemble your team and start strategizing! Go!" Midnight yelled, and the participants rushed off to branch into smaller groups.
Izuku was running out of time. Almost half of the time they had been allocated for collecting teammates had run out, leaving only five minutes left for him to find a team. He had figured out that to have the most balanced team possible, he would need a speed type, a strength type, a creator and an area of effect emitter. Yaoyorozu had been Izuku's first choice for a teammate, filling the inventor role, but she appeared to have been poached by Kendo, who she seemed to be having an enjoyable conversation with. Deciding to leave that alone, Izuku had moved on, going to the next creator he knew; Mei Hatsume.
"Hatsume! You wanna be seen by the support tech companies' representatives, right? I've got ten million points, so I can help you get noticed!" Izuku said, hoping it would suffice for the girl.
"Haha! I knew you'd come through for me, Midoriya! I'm in! Who else is on the team?" Hatsume yelled.
"I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete yet. Let me think for a minute, and I'll get back to you," Izuku said, stepping back from Hatsume, who gave him a thumbs up in response before going back to tinkering with her gear.
Next, Izuku wanted to focus on the speed type. The obvious choice was Iida, if he wasn't already taken. To check, Izuku used Float to hover above the crowd, making everyone look at him strangely for a moment before going back to their own business, mainly coming up with plans against specific other teams. Izuku crossed his legs and got into a position that was akin to sitting down on nothing, like he had seen a Hero capable of flight do once. He scanned over the crowd, spotting his other choice of teammate off to the side of the group and Iida standing alone, so Izuku dropped down to the ground to move toward him.
"Iida! Hey! Are you available?" Izuku asked, pushing past some people to get to the taller boy.
"I am not," Iida said.
"Great! I was thinking that we could team up! I know we haven't really connected much over the few weeks of school, but I think that this'll be a great opportunity for us, don't you?" Izuku said.
"I suppose. Who else do you have with you?" Iida asked.
"Well, I only really have Mei Hatsume, but I'm sure that the person I have in mind next will agree to join," Izuku answered.
"Alright, then. I don't see why not," Iida said, smiling politely.
"Yes! Okay, uh, if you could go and wait with Hatsume over by the stage, I'll be right with you with our final teammate," Izuku said, waving Iida over to where Hatsume was fiddling with her gadgets.
"Alright," Iida agreed.
Feeling like he was on a roll, Izuku made his way over to the spot where he knew his final choice was. Izuku didn't like thinking of his classmates and friends as objects to his victory, but it was a necessity in the Festival to stop thinking of the enemy as your friend and to think of them as either a tool or an obstacle. It was a harsh truth, but it was true. He had also said so to his class, and he wasn't one to go back on his word, so he had to stick with it, even if he didn't like it all that much.
"Koda, how are you?" Izuku asked, at least trying to make it seem like he wasn't after the boy for his Quirk. Thinking that almost made Izuku sick, but he pushed it down.
'I'm doing well,' Koda signed. Izuku was a bit rusty on his signs, so it took him a moment to translate it in his head. He had only really learned it in the first place to help Bakugo communicate better, but since they fell out for about a decade, he hadn't really had a chance to put the skill into practice. He was glad he was getting it now, but it was still feeling like too little too late.
"That's good. Do you have a team yet?" Izuku asked.
Koda shook his head, and Izuku knew he had the boy. It was an odd satisfaction to have no opposition, but Izuku shook that thought off as he smiled politely.
"Would you like to come work with Iida, Hatsume and I? I think that this could be a really special chance for you to shine, and I think I can help you," Izuku said.
After a moment of thinking, Koda nodded. Izuku smiled, and Koda smiled back, both boys happy to be in agreement. Izuku guided Koda back to Iida and Hatume's spot, who were surprised to see him with Koda of all people. Izuku agreed that it was a bit unorthodox to get someone with a very low combat or evasive ability on his team when he was the one the everyone was going to be after, but he was planning on getting Koda to use his Quirk in a new way that he didn't think anybody was expecting.
"Okay, we have a team. Now what? There's only a minute or two left before the Cavalry Battle starts, and that's hardly enough time to come up with any meaningful strategies," Iida said.
"On the contrary. I've already thought out some plans that we can put into place," Izuku argued.
"Such as …?" Iida asked.
"Such as Koda being the left wing, Hatsume being the right wing and you being the head, leaving me to be the rider. Hatsume, do you have a pair of roller skates in your pack?" Izuku asked, turning to Hatsume.
"No," Hatsume answered.
"Can you build one?" Izuku asked.
"Yes," Hatsume said, getting to work immediately.
"Great. Koda, how does your Quirk work?" Izuku asked, turning to Koda.
From Koda's signs, Izuku gathered that he couldn't actually talk to animals, it was just that he could project an intent to anything around him, and any being with brain power under a certain threshold was compelled to help him complete it. That usually meant animals, but other things would obey him as well. He refused to say what, since it obviously spooked him, and Izuku didn't pry. That was good, it meant that Izuku's idea still worked.
"Good. I'll have you summon the birds that have lined up around the ring of the stadium and get them to peck at the other teams' leaders' eyes so that they can't see. Maybe snag a headband or two for good measure," Izuku said, winking at Koda.
"What am I going to be doing?" Iida asked.
"You'll be our main source of mobility. You're one of the fastest people here based on pure, straight line movement. We'll be counting on that to get us around the arena at high speed, because the other teams are gonna come for us as soon as the game starts," Izuku explained
"I assume you'll be keeping away any attempts on our headband with your Blackwhip and Super Strength?" Iida asked.
"Yes, but I won't be using my Super Strength," Izuku said.
"Why not?" Hatsume asked, finished tinkering with a pair of roller skates for Koda.
"I can't. Something's going on with me. Maybe it's exhaustion, maybe I'm overworked, but it's resulted in a loss of control over my Super Strength. Blackwhip and Float, if we get desperate, are my only powers for maybe the rest of the Festival," Izuku revealed.
"That certainly gives us a handicap," Iida said, grimacing into the distance.
"Yeah. We'll get past it, though. We have to. That's the 'Plus Ultra' state of mind," Izuku said, taking deep breaths to steady his nerves.
A few minutes later, Team Midoriya was assembled in one of the corners of the field. Izuku was sitting on Koda's shoulder, using the bulky boy as his main support, leaving his leg to drop down onto Hatsume's hand, the girl only really providing superficial support. He'd admit that his wings were more lopsided than he'd expected, but he was willing to work through it if it meant he kept his optimal teams, or at least the most optimal team for his circumstances.
With the crack of Midnight's whip, the Cavalry Battle began. Izuku motioned forward, and Iida took off immediately, taking the rest of his team with him. It was slower than Iida would normally move, but it was excusable since he was pulling the entirety of Team Midoriya with him.
As Team Midoriya raced around the arena, Izuku took note of the formatting of some of the teams. Todoroki had a team composition similar to his own, with a power type, a speed type, an emitter type and an area of effect type, those roles being filled by Kendo, Sero, Yaoyorozu and Todoroki himself respectively. Yaoyorozu had created roller skates for all of the ground members of her team, and Sero was pulling them along as the head of their team with his Tape. Izuku considered himself to be the power type, Iida the speed type, Hatsume the emitter type and Koda the area of effect type, so the two had thought out how to build the best team possible extremely similarly.
As the team maneuvered around the field, narrowly dodging hands and teams trying to grab Izuku's headband using the team's superior speed and instances of Blackwhip, Izuku judged only a few teams, namely Todoroki and Bakugo, as well as maybe the blond kid from 1B that seemed to be able to copy Quirks, to be truly dangerous to them.
"Guys, I think that we should stop focusing on the smaller, less combative teams," Izuku said.
"What do you mean?" Iida asked, making a sharp turn to avoid a swipe from Tsu's tongue in passing.
"I think that none of the other teams, except for Teams Todoroki and Bakugo, really want to go after us. They haven't really chased us, just taking pot shots as they pass by. They'd like the headband if they managed to swipe it by chance, but they aren't willing to fight us for it. Todoroki and Bakugo are. They're who we need to concern ourselves with," Izuku explained.
"I wouldn't discredit our classmates so easily," Iida said.
"Wouldn't you? If we keep reacting to every little swipe or apathetic attempt to get the points like they're Todoroki, or like they're Bakugo, we're gonna burn out and not be at the top of our game for when the real things try their luck," Izuku said, dodging under a stray purple ball from the short kid he had seen earlier.
"That's being unfair to our friends," Iida yelled.
"That's being naive, Iida. There's a difference, and it'd do you good to learn it!" Izuku said, raising his voice slightly.
Izuku liked to think that he could keep control of his emotions well. Some people, like Aizawa or Recovery Girl, would say the opposite, that he was a hyper-emotional kid that stuck his nose where it had no right to be, but he believed that being willing to help, no matter if the help was wanted, was the mark of a Hero. He was willing to die on that hill, which was probably something that would come back to bite him one day.
Suddenly, three different teams surrounded Izuku's. He had anticipated this, but had hoped for the opposite; that the lesser teams would be intimidated by his team's combat power and mobility and go after some other points. That was wishful thinking, he knew it, but he was still disappointed when Teams Shinso, Asui and Monoma surrounded Team Midoriya, circling around maliciously.
"What's up, Midoriya? Are you ready to give up the ten million?" Shinso asked, smirking evilly.
Izuku kept silent, knowing that if he responded to Shinso, he would fall under the boy's control. His Brainwashing Quirk's activation condition is verbally responding to a question he asks, and both of the statements Shinso had just uttered had been questions. That, combined with the knowing look on his face, told Izuku to keep his mouth shut when it came to Shinso.
"Hatsume, don't speak to Shinso. If you do, he can control your mind," Izuku said, not breaking his eye contact with Shinso.
"We don't want to do this the hard way, Midoriya," Tsu said, her non-expressive face as passive as ever.
"Speak for yourselves. I wanna do this the hard way!" Monoma, the blond kid with the copycat Quirk, announced.
Monoma was a complete wildcard in this situation for Izuku. His copycat power scared Izuku, not only because of the unknowns surrounding it, but the mere idea that someone could touch him and copy One for All. It barely worked for Izuku, and not even him now. He had no idea how it would react to Monoma trying to copy it, if it would even work. All Might had said that the power couldn't be taken, only given, but copying isn't exactly taking, it's emulating. The rules of Monoma's Quirk were unknown factors, and that frightened Izuku more than it had any right to.
"Koda, now!" Izuku said, readying his hands to summon Blackwhip.
Koda whistled a high pitched tone in response to Izuku's command, the two having talked about what to do in this situation. The three teams surrounding them looked at each other quizzically, but soon realized what was going on by the incessant cawing of the birds that had been perched on top of the stadium's inner ring, but were now diving through the air to the enemy teams around Team Midoriya.
Izuku heard a familiar croak, and turned around to face Tsu, whose tongue was shooting toward his face from inside the shell that was made from Shoji's webbed arms, almost too fast for him to see. Luckily, Izuku had been working on reflexively activating his Quirks, and had gotten to the point where he could successfully use both Blackwhip and Float through his instincts alone.
He threw up a Blackwhip Shield, which Tsu's tongue bounced harmlessly off of. He retracted the shield, staring Tsu down. Izuku looked between the different teams, which were now getting attacked in earnest by the birds that had swarmed them.
Izuku had let Koda decide the severity of the attack, which really meant that nothing serious would be done; only pecking at the face and scratching on the arms with the birds' talons. Nothing harmful in the long term.
Teams Monoma and Shinso peeled away, moving onto other, smaller targets. Team Asui, however, stayed. Teams Asui and Midoriya faced each other down, Izuku staring Shoji down with Blackwhips swirling around him. He was ready for when Tsu made her next attack, but it never came, instead a few purple balls flying from the small opening in Shoji's hunched over embrace, confirming Izuku's theory that another person was in there with Tsu.
Recognizing the balls as coming from the short boy he had dodged earlier as a passing attempt to attack, Izuku swung his arms in a wide circle in front of him, hitting all the balls with Blackwhips. He noticed that, instead of flying away, the balls stuck, forcing Izuku to dissolve the Blackwhips as they were, which felt far stranger than it had the first couple of times before he had learned that retracting them was much more satisfying.
"Stupid guy!" a voice with a lisp called out from inside Shoji's protective embrace.
"Just because you can't beat him with a simple attack, doesn't mean he's stupid," Tsu said, clearly not enjoying being partnered with whoever was in there with her.
Taking the chance to take his eyes away from Team Asui while they bickered, Izuku followed Team Bakugo with his eyes, watching as they clashed with Team Monoma. He saw Monoma use Bakugo and Kirishima's Quirks, letting him see just how Monoma's own Quirk worked. It looked like, from his smaller, less powerful explosion compared to Bakugo, that Monoma inherited an inferior version of his target's powers, with more limited use and scope. That, or he had simply not built up enough sweat to make a big enough explosion. Seeing Monoma's use of Kirishima's Hardening, Izuku's first theory was proven correct, as Monoma couldn't Harden to the extent that Kirishima could.
"TEN MINUTES LEFT!" Present Mic announced.
With a new feeling of urgency, Izuku then turned his sights to Team Todoroki, seeing them engaging with a boy with a similar Quirk to Kirishima's, letting him morph his skin into metal. It was an interesting power, but it seemed unable to handle changes in temperature very well, as the metal almost instantly cracked as Todoroki froze his entire team, the cold making his metal skin contract slightly, forcing him to keep out of his metal form.
"As much as I admire Tsu and Shoji, we have more pressing matters at hand," Izuku said, tracking Team Todoroki from the other side of the field.
"Todoroki?" Iida asked.
"Yes. Have you made up your mind on whether or not you're with me on this?" Izuku asked back.
"No. I believe that everyone has the potential to do anything. That's the beauty of 'Plus Ultra' in my mind; anyone can go beyond. When you disregard our classmates, our friends, the people you're supposed to be leading, it maddens me to no end. That's not the behavior of a leader," Iida said, powering down his Engines.
"What are you doing?" Izuku asked, not believing that Iida was jeopardizing their entire team like this.
"I'm taking a stand. What you're doing is wrong, and I won't sit by and let it happen," Iida said.
"Iida, come on! You're gonna get us eliminated," Hatsume complained.
"I-Iida! Stop this!" Koda said, his voice hoarse from underuse.
Izuku was beginning to panic. He couldn't believe that Iida was throwing away their chance based on his moral code. This was the most important event of their lives, and he was going to ruin it, not just for himself or for Izuku, but for Koda and Hatsume, two people who weren't involved in their argument in any way. That wasn't fair to them, and he wasn't going to sit by and let them fail because of an argument between him and Iida.
"Bakugo gets a pass due to not technically hitting the ground after leaving his horse! And-oh … what's this? Team Midoriya has frozen without the need for Todoroki's advances?" Present Mic exclaimed, putting all the attention on Izuku's team.
"Great. This is just great. I bet Ingenium would be really proud of Tenya the Quitter!" Izuku said, knowing it was possibly the only way he could get through to Iida now.
"What? How did you know that I'm related to Ingenium?" Iida asked.
"Your Hero costume, your Quirk and your name. The Iidas have been Heroes for generations, and I'm just about the biggest Hero nerd there is, so it wasn't hard to connect the dots," Izuku explained.
"Well, don't talk to me about how my own brother feels about me. I'm sure he'd tell me to hold my ground when it comes to things like these," Iida said, keeping himself firm.
"Like when Ingenium worked with vigilantes when the situation called for it?" Izuku asked.
"He … he'd never! That's illegal!" Iida exclaimed in disbelief.
"One of those is true, the other is one of your biases born from the fact that he's your older brother! We all have misconceptions about our family, but nobody's some perfect person that'll do the right thing and feel great all the time, unconditionally. Sometimes, there's things you have to confront, and sometimes, it'll break your heart, but it's worth it almost all of the time!" Izuku yelled, feeling some tears build in his eyes.
Izuku had been ignoring the state of his home life ever since he had moved into the secret room in the teachers' lounge. He was miserable outside of school hours, and he was quickly coming to realize that he missed his mother, despite the feelings of anger and hurt that rose inside him when she crossed his mind. He had to address that, and him saying it out loud finally made him realize it completely.
Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku saw Team Todoroki's trajectory shift. Team Todoroki began to make a straight sprint toward Izuku and his team, and he knew he was screwed if he couldn't get Iida on his side in the next few moments.
"Listen … we don't have to agree, but at least don't ruin Hatsume and Koda's chances at this Festival. I might, but they don't deserve that. Present Mic talked about Bakugo being allowed to continue after leaving his horse and not touching the ground, meaning Operation: Floaty Boat is viable," Izuku said.
"Alright. Give the signal when you feel it is the right time," Iida said after a moment, in a low voice.
Iida's Engines roared to life, smoke exiting them and heating the whole group. Team Todoroki was still rushing toward them, so the entirety of Team Midoriya looked forward with determination in their eyes, Izuku locking eyes with Todoroki, who had the exact same look. The two bore their teeth, knowing that a clash was inevitable. Fortunately, Izuku knew that the clash would not come then and there, as he tapped each member of his team on the shoulder twice, the signal to initiate Operation: Floaty Boat.
Iida had been against naming the plan 'Operation: Floaty Boat', but it had been the deciding factor for Izuku going with the plan in the first place. The plan, in short, involved all of the members of Team Midoriya pushing Izuku into the air with all their power, aiding his jump into a Float powered leap. Izuku would Float into the sky, staying there for as long as possible before coming back down with, presumably, not much time left.
All the members of Team Midoriya leaned into the middle of their grouping, Izuku crouching down on their collective platform made of their hands. Izuku activating Float preemptively, and once the push began, uncurled himself and jumped up, hearing the sound of ice spreading across the ground.
Izuku soared into the air, seeing his team enveloped in one of Todoroki's smaller icebergs. He flew upward, locking eyes with Todoroki as he escaped the attack meant to do him in, a confident smile on his face as he rose through the air.