Chapter Text
ZERO GRAVITY: GLACIER COMET!!!
The battle between Ochako and Todoroki hits its climax as Todoroki's glacier slams into the battlefield from Ochako's final gambit to beat the dual-quirk user. The result is a massive explosion of Ice and concrete flying everywhere. Even with Cementos putting up walls as a shield for the audience, it doesn't prevent people from clearly noticing the significant decrease in temperature.
"THIS SHIT'S INSANE!!!" Kaminari's yell is the first thing to come from Class 1-A following the walls coming down. Everyone subsequently agrees, even Bakugo with a noticeably impressed grunt.
"Using Todoroki's own ice to make an attack against her. Even managing to make it match her space theme, amazing. Ochako's quirk is incredible!" Izuku mutters, eyes flitting rapidly between his notebook and the battlefield.
The mist itself is still clearing and everyone is on the edge of their seats. Would Todoroki still be in the ring? Would Ochako? Would either of them have fallen unconscious from either exertion or damage?
The mist finally clears, revealing a devastated ring, and both women still standing. Shakily, but standing nonetheless. The crowd goes berserk, as does Class 1-A, with the notable exception of one Izuku Midoriya.
"Midoriya?" Iida gently shakes his friends shoulder, "Are you well?" He doesn't get a response, as Izuku launches out of his seat and goes to the railing to look down at the battlefield. If anyone had bothered to look at him, they would've seen the look of simultaneous horror and disgust.
Ochako is busted up, bleeding from several places and staggering around while clutching her stomach to try and prevent herself from throwing up. Izuku had been expecting that. What he wasn't expecting was to find Todoroki slowly staggering out of an Igloo, 80% of her face blue and covered by frostbite.
He watches as Ochako finally lost her grip and falls, vomiting profusely onto the ground, before subsequently passing out, thankfully not in the pile of lost lunch.
"URARAKA IS UNABLE TO CONTINUE FIGHTING!!! THE WINNER OF THE MATCH IS SHOTO TODOROKI!!!" Midnight's voice echoes through the stadium, followed by a massive roar from the crowd. Izuku doesn't pay the R-Rated Heroine any mind, instead keeping his eyes glued to Todoroki, still shivering and suffering from frostbite, being helped away by Medical Bots.
"Ochako gave that fight her all, and she barely lost..." Abruptly, Izuku pushes off the railing and marches to the stairs.
He would later learn from Mineta that he looked angrier than anyone had ever seen him.
"Midoriya?! Where are you going?! Our match is next!" Iida's calls go unanswered by the usually nerdy teen. He then turns to the rest of the class in search of an answer. "Did Midoriya say where he was going?"
Asui puts a finger to her chin in thought. "I thought I heard Midoriya muttering prior to leaving, Kero." She reveals. "Something about Ochako giving it her all, Kero."
It didn't give them anything to work off of.
"Who cares about the shitty nerd!" Bakugo exclaims, less a question and more a way of saying that they shouldn't care. "Bastard's probably bowing out of the tournament because he knows he can't handle it. His fucking bullshit quirk doesn't even work properly!"
DAD MODE: ENGAGED
"BAKUGO, THAT IS NO WAY TO TALK ABOUT YOUR CLASSMATES!!! IT IS ESPECIALLY UNBECOMING OF A UA STUDENT!!!"
"FUCK OFF FOUR-EYES!!! I'LL KICK YOUR ASS EXTRA HARD IN OUR FIGHT JUST FOR SAYING THAT!!!"
As all hell was breaking loose in the stands, Izuku was blissfully unaware and stuck in his own head as he marches down the hallway towards Recovery Girl's office.
'Todoroki is only using half of her power... Completely disrespecting everyone by doing so... I would've killed for her kind of power when I was younger... I know she told me why she's doing it... but it's bullcrap... She's just becoming more like her father... focused on a goal rather than being a real hero... and if there's anything I hate, it's fake heroes!' Izuku would never find out where this thought process and sudden aggression came from, but he certainly wasn't complaining in the moment.
He marches into Recovery Girl's office, finding Todoroki just having been treated for her frostbite and still holding a hot water bottle to her right cheek. Ochako is unconscious on the bed further behind them, but Izuku doesn't pay her any mind and focuses on his reason for coming. Both women seem shocked to see him, and Recovery Girl goes to say something, but Izuku goes first.
"You don't need that." He says, pointing directly at the hot water bottle. His face is twisted in disgust, as if the bottle had killed his whole family and told him to just calm down.
Recovery Girl looks at the bottle before looking to Izuku. "She is recovering from frostbite, deary. She needs to use it for another-"
"SHE ALREADY HAS A BUILT IN FAILSAFE!!!"
Even Recovery Girl can't help but be surprised by Izuku's outburst. In all the time she's known him—which may not have been very long all things considered but still—she's managed to figure out his mannerisms and behaviour, and this wasn't it, at all!
Izuku's glare then lands firmly on Todoroki, who's stoicism breaks at the eyes meeting her own. "Do you know how many people would love to have a quirk like yours, Todoroki?" Silence. She knew where this was going. Izuku expected that much. Didn't stop him from being any more pissed off though.
"Millions. Millions upon Millions of people would literally kill for an opportunity to have a quirk like yours. And yet, you squander it." Izuku walks up to the bed, until he's standing right in front of her, still glaring at her the whole while. "I may not be able to use my quirk properly. But I don't run away from it because of one bad thing! You're just going to turn into Endeavour, but worse, because it's your own choices failing people!"
For most, that might've just been enough to break through and get someone to understand. But those were the ideal circumstances, with close friends and a recent decision. Todoroki didn't fit into either of those categories. This was one of only a few times he'd spoken to her—and only the first time he hasn't stuttered in front of her, through no effort of his own—and she'd been building up the resolve to do this for nearly 10 years!
All of this culminated in Todoroki standing up—hot water bottle dropping to the bed haphazardly—and glaring at Izuku, who amazingly didn't even flinch at it. He just met the glare head on, refusing to so much as give an inch to her.
"You do not know what you are talking about, Midoriya." He expected that answer. "My mother's ice will be enough, and I will not use that bastards power. So I suggest you quit wasting your time."
His glare, somehow, deepens considerably. "Wasting time is better than just doing nothing while you go on to kill both civilians and yourself because of a stupid decision." Izuku mutters, surprisingly intimidating. "But since I know I won't convince you here, I'll just have to do it somewhere else."
There wasn't any debate on where that, "somewhere else" was.
"I find myself skeptical of such a statement, Midoriya. You said it yourself that you cannot control your quirk properly. Not even mentioning that you will somehow have to beat Iida and, most likely, Bakugo before we can face off."
Izuku, surprisingly, just smirks at the response. "I guess I'll see you again after I finish beating Iida and Kacchan." And as quickly as it appeared, his smirk was gone, once again replaced with a thin line. "That's a vow, Todoroki. I'll see you in the finals, and when I see you, I'll get you to use your flames!"
"Would Tenya Iida and Izuku Midoriya please report to the preparation rooms, please! The Quarter-finals will begin in just 15 minutes!"
At Midnight's voice calling him, Izuku finally backs off from Todoroki and turns on his heel to leave the office. He doesn't miss it when she mutters under her breath, "I will never understand how Bakugo gets such a name. He seems more like Midoriya's version of Endeavour than a friend."
Izuku arrives at his preparation room with 8 minutes to go, and as soon as he sits down... he starts hyperventilating.
"Oh god! Oh God! OH GOD WHAT DID I JUST DO?!" He clutches his head in his hands and curls into the fetal position on the bench. "I've never even used One for All without injuring myself before! How the HELL am I supposed to even beat Iida?! Let alone Kacchan?"
But Izuku, being Izuku, quickly came to realize something. 'It doesn't matter how I beat them, I just have to beat them while keeping myself going through the tournament.' He thinks and then begins planning.
"Okay, step one, I need to get One for All into a usable state. Beating the likes of Iida and Kacchan will take me out of the tournament for sure if I keep injuring myself." He mutters.
"Steps two and three, beating Iida and Kacchan, simple enough. Except they're much more experienced, and Kacchan likely has a plan to boost the power of his explosions, since he's planning on fighting Todoroki in the finals. So I'll need to find a way to balance things out there. So it's actually more like steps two, three, and four." He's drawing out a diagram in his notebook at this point.
"Then there's step five, getting Todoroki to use her flames. Followed by a potential step six, winning the tournament. Step five will be the hardest of all, since I'll be going up against the better part of a decade of resolve, and a mountain of ice every few seconds." He sighs as he looks at that section of notes. "There's no way to plan for this. I'll just have to wing it and hope for the best."
Izuku looks at his plan and smiles brightly. This would definitely work. Sure it wasn't going to ensure his victory, but that wasn't ever on his plan, it was on him. He could do this!
"Two Minutes until the Quarter-Finals begin!"
And just like that, Izuku's back to panicking.
In all his planning and hyping himself up, he'd forgotten one minor thing. How the HELL was he supposed to even START step one?! In so little time too!
His gaze falls back to his notebook, and his almighty step five. His mind drifts back to the sight of her staggering out of her igloo, frostbite slowly spreading across her body. All while he's powerless to do anything to help her. But how could he-
"Wait... Frostbite! THAT'S IT!!!"
"Would Iida Tenya and Midoriya Izuku please report to the Battlefield! The Quarter-Finals begin NOW!!!"
Izuku stands up, and with a deep breath, marches out the tunnel to face Iida with a confident smile on his face. Although buried under the surface is an ocean of nerves and anxiety, he's ready to give this his all.
He's already made his vow, after all.