Chapter Text
Everything around him burned, a fierce inferno surrounding him and Tetsutetsu in its deadly embrace. His head spun wildly, his eyes becoming half lidded at the sheer exhaustion starting to settle deep into his bones. He felt so dizzy, his legs felt like jelly, and he feared that if he were to move even the slightest, his body would fail him. And yet, Tetsutetsu, glowing a vicious orange, with impossibly hot flames dancing on and off his body, seemed none the wiser. In fact, the other teen only pushed further, continuing his relentless attempts to knock him out by punching him once again on the stomach, leaving him breathless and panting as he stumbled backwards. He choked, the heat, the punch, the way Tetsutetsu was screaming at him, it all reminded him of–
“Draw up all the heat you can from inside your body,” his father yelled at the childhood version of him, curled up and holding his stomach after another grueling training session had made him lose his lunch. “And then go beyond that limit!”
As much as he wanted to listen to his father and do that exact same thing at the moment, he couldn’t. He couldn’t! Shoto was already at his limit, if the way his right side started to sting was of any indication. It was a stalemate, his fire was already as hot as it could get, and Tetsutetsu didn’t seem keen on stopping now. He couldn’t do it!
”There’s no way you can’t do it!” The voice of his father boomed once again, making him shiver, ”You’re just not trying!”
Another punch came to his left side, snapping him out of the flashback. He didn’t have much time to rein himself in, however, as Tetsutetsu quickly grabbed the front of his collar, drawing him into himself and raising a fist.
“I’ll keep punching you like this until you pass out!” Tetsutetsu all but shouted, the grip on his collar tightening, drawing him even closer.
How? How was this even possible? He knew Tetsutetsu could withstand extreme temperatures, this whole fight proved it, but he found it hard to believe just how useless his hottest flames seemed to be against the teen in front of him. It wasn’t possible– it just wasn’t! Anything metal around them other than Tetsutetsu himself was starting to melt, and yet the other was perfectly fine to be in close constant to his fire. Shoto grit his teeth, closing his eyes tightly as another flashback made its way to the forefront of his mind.
“Be aware that there’s power hidden in you stronger than any other!” Why was he remembering this now? Damn it!
Tetsutetsu reeled back, preparing himself to punch the daylights out of Shoto once again. With a grin too big for the situation, he yelled, “Grit your teeth and bear it!”
No, this couldn’t end like this, Shoto wouldn’t allow it. He had a whole team that was relying on him to take care of Tetsutetsu he had completely forgotten about in his spiral; for them, he just couldn’t give up. He had already failed them once by not thinking and going all in with his ice, and he didn’t intend to make the same mistake again. Perhaps, and just perhaps, his father was onto something. Perhaps he wasn’t trying hard. Perhaps he had already given up and he didn’t even notice it. Widening his stance, and raising his left hand up, Shoto’s frown deepened, his teeth clamping down on his bottom lip. If it didn’t matter whether it was fire or ice…
He willed his flames to burn brighter, to burn hotter than ever, trying with all the power he had in him to make them a raging inferno not even Tetsutetsu would be able to handle. Tetsutetsu suddenly screamed out, eyes wide as he jerked his hand away from Shoto’s collar, once again putting some distance in between them. Shoto, however, didn’t relent, biting harder on his lip until he tasted iron, blood quickly coating his tongue as he huffed a breath. This wasn’t enough. It wasn’t hot enough. He couldn’t win like this. He needed more. More. More!
He vaguely noticed the expanding waves of air coming from him, the heat making the air explode out, knocking Tetsutetsu back and breaking a nearby camera. And yet, he knew it still wasn’t enough. He needed even more power, he needed to burn as bright as his father, he needed to stop a coward and start trying once and for all.
‘Raise the temperature higher…’ He thought, his eyes unfocused and breathing labored as his right side started to burn, burn, burn . ‘I can go higher… I need to burn myself, in order to become who I want to be!’ Flames burst out all around him, hotter than they ever were before. They were so hot in fact, that they started creating dizzying waves in the air around them, distorting both of their vision.
All Might looked at the screen, the feed rippling in waves as the fire distorted the image. He was in awe, his eyes wide as he looked at the sheer amount of power the young Todoroki possessed. He quickly glanced to his side, seeing a sea of disbelieving faces in his students, that mirrored his own thoughts. He quickly turned back to the screen, and he couldn’t help but think that the fire was very much like Young Todoroki’s father, but something felt different, desperate, in the way Young Todoroki was looking at Tetsutetsu. All Might couldn’t help but frown, starting to feel slightly concerned at what he was seeing.
Tetsutetsu braced himself, placing his arms in front of his face to protect it from the scalding flames.
“It’s too hot…!” He shouted, his brows furrowed in concern. However, something soon seemed to shift in his expression, and he started to walk towards Shoto once more. The two toned teen blanched, his expression falling for a split second before schooling himself. There was no way Tetsutetsu could still stand in this heat! It was sweltering, it was starting to be suffocating. And yet, it was still not enough? Shoto felt a pit form on his stomach, the voice of his old man once again shouting at him that he was not trying hard enough, that he needed to go higher, to keep drawing up heat from inside his body. That his masterpiece couldn’t be bested by a dumb hardening quirk he was supposed to melt through instantly, not struggle! He wasn’t good enough, once again. He was about to fail his team again. Didn’t he ever learn his lesson? Even when he tried, he could never be enough, never in his father’s eyes, nor his own, nor his teacher’s and classmate’s. Not even when it was so hot, hot, hot.
He was startled out of his thoughts when Tetsutetsu charged at him, grabbing at his left arm and shouting some incoherent nonsense Shoto’s brain could no longer process. His focus was forced out of him however when the other kicked his stomach, sending him backwards slightly, yet still rooted in place by Tetsutesu’s hold on his arm. He gritted his teeth, looking at the other teen through his bangs.
“You…” His voice was raspy and strained, alien to his own ears. “You just won’t escape with a burn if you keep going like that.” Or so Shoto wanted to believe. He wasn’t so sure anymore. He clicked his tongue, the pain on his right side making itself very present in his mind now that he wasn’t so lost in his own thoughts. Shit.
“Those who don’t risk it all during training won’t be able to do it in a real fight either!” Tetsutetsu howled, landing another kick to his stomach, the heated metal of his skin making the pain feel like he was being branded. Flames were lighting Tetsutetsu’s body up, dancing on top of his metal skin as he continued screaming, “Higher ranks and limits–,” another kick, Shoto could swear he started to taste blood on his tongue, “are there to be surpassed!”
Shoto lifted his head, looking at Tetsutetsu with wild eyes, his mouth set on a grimace. Who did he think he was? His father? He knew that! He knew! He was already pushing himself way past his fucking limit, damn it! “Shut up…” He said through his teeth, before calling for more flames to burst out, enveloping Tetsutetsu in an inferno of his own making. He soon realized they weren’t as hot as he wanted them, and Shoto cursed under his breath.
Tetsutetsu scoffed, “What’s wrong, huh!?” He reeled back once again, bringing down a flaming hot hand hard against Shoto’s arms. Shoto couldn’t help but flinch, the pain luckily muddled thanks to his left side taking most of the damage. “You’re slowing down, Todoroki!”
“You’re slowing down, too!” He retorted in a growl, the words sounding fake even to his own ears. It was too hot, and the mounting dizziness from when he started to use his fire was starting to be too much. He found himself being unable to move his body the way he wanted, and his right side was burning so much he was starting to be in severe pain. He couldn’t continue on like this, if he did– if he did they would lose. He would fail them.
No. No there was no fucking way.
He couldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t let that happen! He didn’t care if he damaged himself, he had to see this through for his teammates! He felt his mind become muddled by his rage, his body moving on his own to dislodge Tetsutetsu from his arm, creating some vital distance in between the two of them. In that moment, he once again heard his father's voice speaking to him.
“... go beyond that limit!”
Something inside him snapped at that, his flames bursting out and raging around him in a cacophony of warm colors. Scorching heat spread through the arena, making Tetsutetsu stumble back and choke on his own breath. The teen once again protected his face, taking in raspy panting breaths that burned his throat, making it even harder to breathe.
He tried moving forward, but was stopped by another strong expanding wave of air, making him tumble back into the ground. This was getting out of hand, Tetsutetsu knew, he had to snap Todoroki out of it, and fast!
“Todoroki—-!” He choked out, going into a fit of coughs soon after from the heat aggravating his throat.
However, all Shoto could hear was the roaring of the flames around him, dancing their deadly choreography as he poured even more, more, more power into them. He felt like a broken dam, his power bursting out uncontrollably from the seams, creating devastation in its wake. And yet, despite being vaguely aware of the writhing body on the floor, Shoto felt like it still was not enough. He knew his flames could be more. He needed his flames to be more. To go beyond his limit. He needed his flames to be higher, brighter, hotter!
Shoto needed more!
More!
MORE!
There was an explosion of blinding white, forcing Shoto to screw his eyes shut. Someone screamed, he wasn’t sure who, his ears felt like they were filled with cotton. All he could register was the howling wind, and an incredible pressure starting to weigh down on him. When he finally managed to open his eyes, the bright yellow flames that were blazing around them a second before were gone, replaced by a haze of overwhelming blue. Shoto’s eyes widened, in awe at the cerulean flames bursting from his left side, scorching mercilessly at their surroundings. He hazily registered that the heat was no longer scalding, but rather incandescent, white and blistering. It was incredibly oppressive, the air around them felt so shallow it was starting to get incredibly hard, and painful, to breathe. And yet, Shoto couldn’t help but feel fascinated looking at the display of blues in front of him.
It felt like nothing he had ever done before, it felt like—
Shoto stumbled, mouth agape as blinding hot pain suddenly invaded his senses. He suddenly was in agony, his whole right side felt like his nerve endings were being ignited, burned at their very core. It burned so badly, it sent him reeling. Shoto screamed, stumbling backwards as he started to feel the skin on the right side of his face throb painfully, to then slowly start to realize it was blistering and starting to melt away.
Oh God it hurt, it hurt so much!
He placed his right hand over his face, desperately calling upon his ice to quell, mitigate, pacify the red-hot burn that was taking over his body. And yet, it never came, the familiar glacial cold of the ice part of his quirk felt muddled, far away, more like a slight chill under his fingertips rather than the frigid cold he was used to.
No, no, no, no, no! He was so hot his ice was useless!
His heart hammered loudly in his chest, his throat starting to feel raw from his screaming. He felt something sticky and sirupy start sliding down his nose and into his lips, feeling his mouth fill with the taste of iron, making him almost gag at the putrid taste.
The agony continued, becoming worse every single second the blue flames were raging against his skin. It was pure torture, an attack on all the nerves in his body. He felt as if his skin was being ripped apart by the flames, it was all consuming misery.
He tried to call upon his fire, to stop the blazing flames from continuing, but they felt completely out of control, wild and untamable– they weren’t responding to his commands whatsoever!
Oh God, oh God, he felt lost in the hurricane of blue, nothing made sense anymore, everything just burned, burned, burned. Every single nerve on his body was on fire, every single sense could only register fire, and it was excruciating. He was so hot, he was so hot! He couldn’t do this! Please make it stop!
Make it stop!
MAKE IT STOP!
Suddenly the flames disappeared, leaving Shoto panting heavily, and exhausted. He had half a mind to question what had happened, had his finally gotten control over his flames? He tried to call for his quirk, but soon realized he didn't feel it there. His mind supplied him a name, a reason, but he was so out of it, the pain still so palpable, that it didn't make any sense. However, for some reason, it felt safe. Immediately relief flooded his system, and he felt the adrenaline leave his body in waves. He hung his head, swaying for a bit before his eyes finally rolled to the back of his head, relieved to welcome the darkness, and the numbness that came along with it.