Chapter Text
If he thought he had been nervous to go up against Shiozaki… well… he was wrong. Todoroki had been demolishing the competition with only half his quirk since the beginning of the festival and Izuku was going to taunt him into using his full power? He was a masochist.
The bright light of the sun in his eyes was jarring after the darkness of the tunnel and that, along with his nerves and the cacophony of cheers coming from the stands, was overwhelming. He had to take a deep breath and center himself before he could block it all out and focus his attention forward.
Todoroki stared him down from the other side of the ring. He didn’t look any less angry than he had when he went up against Sero in the first round. He was compromised already. He wasn't going to be easy to beat, but, unless Todoroki cleared his head and used his fire, Izuku was confident he could win. He should really use that to his advantage, he should let Todoroki tire himself out until he got too cold to continue, but he knew he wasn’t going to. When had he ever made things easy for himself? He tried to convince himself that this was a good idea, that prolonging the fight and taunting Todoroki until he used his fire would give them both the chance to show off their quirks, but he couldn’t shake his fear. This was either going to end with Todoroki still refusing to use his fire or Todoroki flambe-ing him live on international television and neither of those seemed like a favorable outcome.
Whatever happened, all he could do was try his best; that’s what he needed to be focusing on. Everything else was a distraction. Fight like your life depends on it and get him to use his fire. He could do that… probably… maybe. Well, whether or not he could do that was no longer of his concern, the timer had ticked down and the buzzer sounded.
As was to be expected, Todoroki sent a large-scale ice attack his way. He opted to dodge rather than try and break it because adding barricades and uneven terrain would only serve to his advantage. Even though he didn’t have his spiked shoes, the ice was jagged enough to traverse if he was careful. Getting the higher ground would only benefit him further; from what he had observed, Todoroki’s ice had to start from a solid surface that he was touching, meaning that he couldn’t just shoot ice at Izuku, he had to send it on a path along the ground and control its trajectory upward. Forcing Todoroki to navigate a path up the evermore complex ice structures he had already created would slow him down. His fire, however, did not have the same restraints, assuming it functioned similarly to Endeavor’s. It would be much easier to pick him off the tops of the ice spikes with a jet of fire and Izuku could keep up this dance all day if he needed to.
He could see Todoroki getting more and more tired from where he jumped around the tops of the glaciers. The attacks were coming slower and further apart, but he still wouldn’t use his fire. The terrain had become almost completely covered in ice and the cameras were having difficulties navigating around the new structures to see what was even going on in the fight. As a drone dodged around another barrage of ice, Izuku made a decision. This wasn’t just about Todoroki, he still needed to use this fight to show the world what he was made of, and if the cameras couldn’t see then he needed to switch tactics; he’d displayed enough of his evasive skills by now and that didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere with Todoroki anyway.
With as much force as he could muster, he raised his arms above his head, clasped his hands together, and brought them down onto the mountain of ice beneath him, just like he had in the last leg of the first round. He could only hope that using both hands would put less strain on his wrists. The hit made the whole stadium rumble and the ice shattered out from under him. He hadn’t cleared the arena, but he had leveled a good portion of it, enough that there was room for the cameras to buzz around unobstructed.
The carnage left a coating of ice chips on the ground which wasn’t great for stability. So while Todoroki was still recovering from the quasi-earthquake Izuku had just caused, he decided to kill two birds with one stone. Todoroki had said himself that fire was the perfect counter to his ice, so, if Izuku used his ice against him, then the best way for him to respond would be with fire. He didn’t have high hopes for this, but it was worth a shot; he swept his leg out against the ground with an OFA-powered kick and launched the shards of ice straight back at Todoroki. As was to be expected, he just conjured a shield of ice in front of him rather than using his fire. This was getting annoying; he could see frost developing on Todoroki’s skin even from a distance and cold plumes of air puffed out of his mouth with each breath. He was pushing his ice too far and he was liable to hurt himself if he kept up like this.
“YOU AREN’T GOING TO BEAT ME WITH ONLY HALF OF YOUR STRENGTH!” he shouted toward the barricade.
When Todoroki failed to respond, he spread his arms out and clapped his hands together hard enough to sting significantly. The resulting shockwave shattered the wall Todoroki had been hiding behind and he could tell that he was reaching his limit. He stumbled backward and caught himself with a wall of ice behind him. He got his footing back quickly, but he didn’t attack. Izuku wasn’t sure if he even could attack in this state, at least not with his ice. He was panting heavily, each breath coming out as a plume of fog, and he looked angry. More angry than he had been when he fought Sero and more angry than he had been when he had declared war against him to begin with.
Good.
Anger makes you do irrational things, like breaking stupid illogical promises that you made to yourself.
“LOOK AT YOURSELF! YOU CAN’T WIN WITHOUT YOUR FIRE,” he taunted.
The anger in Todoroki’s expression turned nuclear before he sent another large-scale ice attack at him. Izuku broke it just like he had broken the last one, his hands were starting to hurt but he ignored it. Recovery Girl wouldn’t be happy with him, but he could still move fine. Nothing was broken yet, just sore.
As the ice shards settled, he saw Todoroki’s shaking form glaring at him from the far end of the arena, he was dangerously close to the edge, each attack Izuku had sent his way pushed him more and more and he didn’t seem to have the strength to take a single step forward. He had thought he had no more fight left in him before that attack, he was impressed he managed this much, but he certainly had nothing left in him now. That was his last leg, it was either use his fire or admit defeat. He was at Izuku’s whims, he could send him out of bounds right now and there wasn’t much of anything Todoroki could do to stop him.
“YOU HAVEN’T PUT A SINGLE SCRATCH ON ME, TODOROKI! QUIT SCREWING AROUND AND FIGHT!” he shouted, ignoring the ache in his hands.
Todoroki shook as he took a step forward and Izuku just waited.
“DID MY FATHER PUT YOU UP TO THIS?!” he shouted back between heaving breaths.
The idea that Endeavor had bribed Izuku to do this seemed to send another wave of anger through his mind and, apparently, spite was a powerful motivator because Todoroki started charging toward him. He was shaking with fury, cold, and exhaustion; was he going to resort to a fistfight before he used his fire? Really? The punch Todoroki sent his way was slow and telegraphed; Izuku had no issue dodging it. He used his forearm to redirect the momentum but the moment their skin made contact he felt his arm burn. He finished the maneuver and sent Todoroki sprawling to the ground behind him and looked down at his arm. It was coated in ice; the long sleeves did nothing to help, his sweat froze the garment to his skin and the salt only made it burn even more.
He had been getting into close range because he couldn’t manage another long-range attack with his ice, not to fist fight him. It was as good of a tactic as someone with an ice quirk could manage, but it was still desperate. Izuku was only more effective in close quarters and Todoroki was smart enough to know that this wasn’t going to end well for him.
“You’re getting desperate, you won’t win like this! You know you won’t!” Izuku prodded him again.
“Why are you toying with me?!” Todoroki called back with more raw emotion in his tone than Izuku would have thought him capable of.
His voice caught on nearly every word and Izuku could only imagine how he was feeling right now; humiliated and betrayed, assuming Izuku had taken a bribe from his father. Izuku’s heart ached for him
“You are not your father,” he said, a much more gentle reminder than the one he had given Endeavor earlier, “It’s okay, Todoroki.”
***
“It’s okay, Shoto. You can use your fire, you are not a prisoner of your lineage.”
His mother’s words, which he had long since forgotten, echoed through his mind as clearly as the day she had spoken them. How had he forgotten that? How much of his mother had he forgotten? How many memories had his father tainted or twisted into something unrecognizable just like he’d done to his mother? How long had he been letting that man control him?
***
Something about a kinder approach must have struck a chord with Todoroki because he just stared back at Izuku blankly. He was still shaking but he stood as still as he could despite it. He was looking at Izuku without really seeing him and it was becoming concerning.
“Todoroki?” he prodded again just as gently as before.
He was only a few feet away, there was no way he didn’t hear him speaking, but he wasn’t present. His breaths were just as fast as they had been but they were too shallow now. This wasn’t good. He was having a flashback of some sort on live television; Izuku needed to snap him out of it. It wasn’t the kindest thing he could have done but anything else would have called more attention to the issue; he wound up and sent a non-superpowered kick to his ribs. The blow caused Todoroki to stumble back but he caught his footing and looked back at Izuku with a little more clarity.
“Are you with me?” Izuku asked as he circled around him, feigning that he was playing it safe when in reality he was doing his best to give Todoroki time to collect himself.
His eyes were still a bit glassy as his usual razor-sharp focus returned to them. The shift was unnerving, it had him feeling like a specimen pinned under a microscope but he ignored it. Now wasn’t the time. Todoroki’s panicked hyperventilating turned back to the normal out-of-breath panting that he had been doing before. The manic grin that spread across his face was the only warning Izuku had before an inferno bloomed forth from his left side.
Oh! …Good!
He did his best to hide the fear in his eyes and plastered on his own manic grin. He could hear Endeavor shouting something from the stands but neither him nor Todoroki paid him any mind. This wasn’t about him. As Todoroki poised to fire at him, he realized this may have been a mistake in more ways than one: firstly, he could do nothing to stop the flow of ice-cold panic pumping through his veins, and, secondly, he could feel something in the frigid air shift as the fire made its way toward him. Rapid change in the ambient temperature of the arena was not good and the fire didn’t even get a chance to meet him before the consequences of that shift made themselves known. The ice surrounding them sizzled for a split second before a shockwave that seemed to emanate from nowhere and everywhere shattered it to pieces, the force of it hit before the resounding bang went off and he did his best to brace for impact. He felt himself fly backward and he rolled to a stop and back up onto his feet as fast as he could. His ears were ringing and he couldn’t see anything further than the grass under his feet through the dust in the air… wait… the grass under his feet?
Shit.
“MIDORIYA IS OUT OF BOUNDS!!!” he heard Mic announce over the loudspeakers.
Goddamnit.
“BUT WHAT’S THIS? TODOROKI IS OUT COLD IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE! IS THIS ANOTHER TIE???”
…What?
“Play back the tapes!” Midnight ordered with a flick of her whip.
Izuku was stuck between making his way back to Todoroki to make sure he was alright and watching the jumbotron. Midnight was with him… he was probably fine… right? His anticipation got the better of him and he kept his eyes trained upward as he walked back to the ring. They had been at the center of the arena when that explosion went off and Izuku watched the split screen slow motion replay of Todoroki braining himself on a pillar of ice at the exact same moment when he himself passed over the boundary line.
“ANOTHER TIE?!?!?! HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE IN UA SPORTS FESTIVAL HISTORY???” Mic shrieked over the speakers, causing Izuku to flinch out of the trance he’d been in.
He was back in the middle of the ring and Todoroki was still knocked out as he got wheeled away by med bots. There was nothing he could do for him now.
“Alright viewers, let’s move on to the next match while we figure out how to break the tie!” Midnight announced with another theatrical flick of her whip before ushering him back off the stage.
“Follow Todoroki-kun to Recovery Girl,” she murmured to Izuku, holding the mic away from her face and shooting a pointed glance at his hands which were slightly swollen.
Goddamnit.
He could still flex his fingers, but it did hurt a good deal. He had done his best to stabilize his joints as he used OFA, but the throbbing ache that he was becoming more and more aware of by the second told him it wasn’t enough. Was he ever going to be able to do this properly? He was such a failure. He clenched his fists and grit his teeth in a vain attempt to ground himself. Recovery Girl was going to be so mad at him and she was going to tell All Might and All Might was going to be so disappointed and– GAH! He didn’t even win the fight! If his performance didn’t look good enough for the camera then he did all that for nothing! Or… maybe not nothing, he had gotten Todoroki to use his fire, but he’s not sure if that was a good thing or not; he didn’t seem to be in a great frame of mind when he finally conceded.
He was both picking and biting at his lip when he finally made his way into the infirmary and the sight of the cool, sterile, white walls clued his mind back into the pain radiating from his hands. He should stop fiddling with things, he had already fucked up enough.
Todoroki seemed to have roused, but his eyes were clamped shut and he had a grimace on his face, it was likely that he had a pretty bad concussion right now so that made sense. Recovery Girl took one look at him and silently pointed him toward her assistant, the student with the x-ray quirk he had met before. He wondered if she was doing a proper internship now that she’d graduated, but he was too anxious to hold a conversation so he didn’t bother trying. He just quietly offered her his hands to look at.
“Do you have pain in your fingers or just your wrist,” she asked after studying him.
“B-both.”
“Hmm, it doesn’t look like anything’s broken, it’s likely a sprain, bone bruising, or both,” she mused aloud before glancing back to Recovery Girl who was still tending to Todoroki. “I’ll let her know when she’s done and we can go from there. I’ll get you some ice for now.”
He held the ice in his hands more tightly than he probably should have, but the burning cold helped him from spiraling too much so he didn’t stop. Recovery Girl didn’t say anything when she healed him, but he felt his stomach drop regardless; she must be disappointed, he just kept messing up, it’s like that’s all he was good for.
Neither him nor Todoroki got much time to rest before they were both being summoned into a meeting with Nedzu, All Might, and Snipe.
“Good afternoon gentlemen, please take a seat, we have much to discuss,” Nedzu greeted them cheerfully.
Izuku glanced over to Todoroki who was eying All Might critically. Oh! Geez, he should not be calling him All Might, not even in his head. He was Yagi-san right now and it wouldn’t do for Izuku to blow his cover even if it seemed like Todoroki was connecting dots on his own. That was… an issue for another time; how could he be so perceptive and clueless at the same time? Whatever, unless he started asking questions he didn’t need to worry about it yet.
“We need to figure out a tiebreaker in the next fifteen minutes or I fear Mic is going to start vamping,” Nedzu warned.
Snipe scoffed out a laugh and Al–er, Yagi-san grinned goodnaturedly, but Izuku bit his tongue before he could react; he probably shouldn’t be laughing at his teacher’s expense, even if it was a kindhearted ribbing at worst.
“Their quirks are too volatile, they’re gonna blow each other to bits ‘fore anyone can be declared a winner. No offense, boys,” Snipe started.
Todoroki nodded his head with no change in expression and Izuku offered a nervous smile.
“Another arm wrestling match hardly seems fair with Midoriya having a strength quirk nor does it offer anything new and interesting to the viewer,” Yagi-san added. “I’m Yagi, by the way, nice to meet you boys,” he said with a smile and a knowing look pointed toward Izuku.
“Yes, I agree, hence the meeting, we have a little under fourteen minutes to come up with another solution that we can all agree on,” Nedzu responded.
“An’ we want to keep it within the parameters of a 1v1 fight, right? Doin’ an obstacle course or some sort of timed trial would deviate too much from the spirit of the third round; it’s always been 1v1s far as I can recall,” Snipe piped up again.
“Yes, that would be preferable, I could imagine we would get some backlash about it not being fair for x, y, and z reasons. They say no publicity is bad publicity, but I’d rather not have any disputes about it put either of these two under public scrutiny,” Nedzu returned.
The adults went back and forth with a few ideas for several minutes and the whole time something was nagging at the back of his mind. If their quirks were too volatile for a full-out 1v1, why couldn’t they just fight without them? It made sense to Izuku, it would show off their martial arts skills, it would level the playing field, and it would still be something new and interesting to the audience; people still watched boxing and stuff like that, right? What was the difference? It might not be the most grand thing but anything else put them both at risk for being too injured to participate in the final round and, surely, that would be far worse for viewership.
As their implied timer was beginning to run out and they had yet to come to a consensus, Izuku decided to bite the bullet; the worst they could do is call him an idiot and ignore him, which wasn’t anything he wasn’t already used to.
“Um, why don’t we j-just fight without our q-quirks? P-people still watch MMA fights, r-right,” he peeped out when the conversation stalled enough for him to get a word in.
His heart sank a bit as All Might glanced at the other two nervously. He couldn’t see Snipe’s expression due to his mask, but he had tilted his head in a way that looked like he was interested, and Nedzu had a full smile of sharp teeth on display which Izuku didn’t know how to read… was that a good thing?
“Sometimes the best solution is the most simple,” Nedzu spoke after what felt like an eternity of silence, but in all reality, it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, “We’ve been waffling on for 13 minutes now and the answer was right under our noses. What does everyone think about that? I believe it’s the best option we’ve heard yet.”
“It may be a bit lackluster viewership-wise, but I can’t see how anyone could argue it was unfair, nor does it seem likely that it would result in them being too injured to continue to the finals,” Yagi replied after taking a moment to think.
“Sounds like a good idea to me, viewers’d be more disappointed by the finals being botched than a ‘lackluster’ rematch,” Snipe concluded.
The three of them turned their focus back to him and Todoroki after that.
“Sounds the most logical,” Todoroki agreed.
And everyone’s focus turned to him.
He clammed up under the attention and just nodded his head.
“Alright then it’s decided, you boys are due out any minute now, surely. Get to your waiting rooms; I’m sure the coordinators are waiting to direct you already. I apologize for taking your limited rest time away from you but I’m sure you will both sleep soundly tonight,” Nedzu dismissed them with what Izuku assumed to be an apologetic grin; it was difficult to read emotions from an inhuman face.
After that, Izuku was directed through the hallways in a blur and before he knew it he was standing at the end of the tunnel again. He’d caught wind of the results from Tokoyami and Kacchan’s match; if he won this he would be up against Kacchan in the next round… He honestly wasn’t sure whether he’d prefer to win or lose this fight but he knew he’d beat himself up until the end of time if he didn’t give it his all. So, whatever happens happens.
“AND NOW FOR THE REMATCH YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR, CLASS 1A’S FRONT RUNNERS TODOROKI AND MIDORIYAAAAAAAAAAA,” Mic announced and the coordinator ushered him out quickly, clearly not expecting such a rushed introduction; they must be pressed for time.
“Alright folks, you all saw the last round, a groundbreaking performance all around, but we can’t have our champions out of commission before the final, can we?” Midnight asked, pausing for dramatic effect.
“This time we’re going to have a special challenge,” she exclaimed as she pulled something out from the pouches of her belt.
She held up the items to the crowd: two pairs of handcuffs rested precariously on each extended pointer finger. They looked to be standard issue quirk canceling cuffs that most police officers carried.
“Our contestants are going to be wearing these quirk-canceling cuffs for the fight! That’s right we’re going back to the basics, mono e mono, are you ready boys,” she asked more provocatively than was probably appropriate before beckoning them forward.
She latched both ends of the cuffs around one wrist so that they wouldn’t actually be restrained and as the second ring clasped around him he felt the torrent of power that he had grown accustomed to disappear. Ivy not Deku, Ivy not Deku, Ivy not Deku . He fought quirkless all the time, he wasn’t quirkless anyway, not anymore, he could do this, he was fine.
This was fine.
“Get back to your starting marks,” Midnight ordered after fastening the cuffs around Todoroki’s wrist as well.
He bit down on the inside of his cheek in an effort to keep his expression neutral, but he’s not sure how successful it was. He walked back to his starting mark and took in a deep breath through his nose. They were Ivy, not Deku, they could do this. They relaxed their shoulders and got into a well-practiced fighting stance.
The timer ticked down until the buzzer sounded; they shot forward like a bat out of hell and Todoroki did the same. He led with a punch and they caught it, wrenching his arm around in an attempt to immobilize, but Todoroki used his weight and momentum against them and sent them both crashing to the ground, forcing them to release their grip and roll away to avoid getting pinned.
They were back on their feet in a split second, but so was Todoroki. They charged forward and sent a powerful kick into his side before he properly got his footing back; all he could do was block, he didn’t have the time to dodge, but blocking wasn’t enough for a hit that hard. His forearm took the brunt of the impact away from what would have been his ribs and he stumbled back for a few steps. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the opportunity to strike again before Todoroki had his feet firmly planted.
Todoroki charged at them again, this time with a kick and they dodged out of the way and sent a kick back at him while he was off balance. He toppled to the ground, but they didn’t want to start grappling with someone heavier than them, especially since Todoroki might be physically stronger than them without OFA. That wasn’t something they wanted to test right now and it didn’t make for good television anyway, so they waited for him to get back on his feet before advancing. They charged full force ahead and jumped up just before meeting him, bringing all their momentum down to their foot, which was aimed right at his chest. Again, there was very little Todoroki could do against the speed and force of the attack. He fell onto his back and gasped for the air that had been thoroughly knocked out of his lungs, but he recovered concerningly fast. Most people would be dazed for a few seconds at the very least, but he rolled to the left and out of the way of Izuku’s momentum before he could catch a knee to the sternum.
Izuku’s surprise made him hesitate, and that was enough time for Todoroki to get to his feet again. They circled around one another cautiously for a moment before Izuku charged at him; if he was on the defense then they could use that to their advantage. They exchanged blows back and forth for an amount of time that Izuku didn’t have the mental bandwidth to track properly. It felt like a dance, going back and forth with a brutal rhythm. Though, it’s not like he had ever danced with someone to know what that was like, but he imagined it was similar.
They weren’t landing a single hit, or at least not ones hard enough to matter, they needed to try something else. They feigned another kick to the ribs which Todoroki went to block making it so that he only had enough time to partially block a fist to the jaw. It glanced off his forearm and lost some momentum, but it still hit its mark.
Izuku made the same mistake again, assuming Todoroki would be dazed from the blow, but he recovered damn near immediately and delivered a swift kick to their exposed flank. They stumbled back, but both of them seemed to be too used to getting hit to be dazed for long. Izuku advanced again while Todoroki was off balance and grabbed his arm which had been stuck out to the side for stability. He wrenched it behind his back like he had earlier. However, unlike earlier, Todoroki didn’t have the momentum to throw them off balance.
Grappling was a risk, but they needed to trust themself; they saw an opportunity and they took it. With his arm twisted behind his back, they pushed him to the ground and pressed a knee to the center of his spine. Their combined weights slammed Todoroki into the ground chest first forcing him to gasp for air again. Any squirming around threatened to pop his shoulder out of place; he tried to reach back with his free arm, but the movement strained his joints further and he let out as much of a pained groan as he could manage after getting the wind knocked out of him twice in rapid succession. He wriggled around as much as he could and Izuku counted the seconds in his head.
1
2
3
“Todoroki has been immobilized! Midoriya advances to the final round!”
Well… shit.
Eves from the Discord made a Shinso POV for this chapter and it's so good??? check it out???
https://archiveofourown.org/works/56411635
I keep forgetting to upload this meme so I'm putting it here lol. POV Aizawa in the commenter's booth after this fight
