Once More (My Hero Academia)

22: Todoroki vs Midoriya 2.0

Before Todoroki could recover fully, Izuku took his chance and darted at the boy with a high percentage of One For All, his legs also reinforced with Blackwhip, wrapping around like armor.

When Todoroki finally focused back on Izuku, it was too late to summon an ice attack.

The green-haired boy was only inches away. On his left side.

Izuku first saw the blinding light. Then the searing heat as the flame exploded in front of his face.

With a sharp breath, Izuku dodged the fire before it could cook him.

Once he backed up to a safe distance, Izuku could smell the smoke from his singed hair.

But what surprised him was the sight in front of him. An enormous flame, even larger than the one in the Cavalry Battle, blazed from Todoroki's left side.

"This is what all of you wanted, isn't it?" Todoroki seethed with anger, pain pouring from his expression, "Well, see him? See my father over there? He achieved his goal. The pain he brought upon my family, it's all gonna be worth it for him now."

Izuku didn't even look at Endeavor. All he could see was how vulnerable Todoroki seemed right now, despite the threatening heat of the flames.

"Todoroki!" Izuku shouted, "That's not what your father achieved, unless you make it to be!"

"I thought you said it's none of your business," Todoroki uttered, his bottom lip twitching.

"This fire belongs to you," Izuku snapped, emotions flooding. He had witnessed Todoroki accepting his power and using it to become one of the strongest heroes he had ever met. If only he could understand that. "Stop surrendering to it! Make it yours."

The emotion in Midoriya's voice shocked Todoroki. It bewildered him, and it amazed him.

Ever since his father started training him and destroying his family, he had believed otherwise. This fire would never truly belong to himself.

But Midoriya, a boy he only met since school started, seemed to believe in him with a sense of certainty that he himself didn't even have.

And for that moment, Shoto felt a weight lift in his heart and seemed to forget about his father.

That's right... Deep down, he just wanted to become a hero like All Might, like so many other hero students around him.

So like everyone who stood in this arena, he had one goal only. To win.

Todoroki lifted his left arm, and the flame doubled in size. Midoriya leaped back, and the green light of his quirk brightened as well.

Both of them knew, things only just started.

Todoroki burst forward, the previously cold air heating up dangerously.

Emerald light flared around Midoriya, the atmosphere around him seeming to tense at the sudden increase in power.

Using his momentum, Todoroki lashed out his left arm, along with a torrent of fire, toward Midoriya. The air around them expanded at the sudden change in temperature, releasing a strong blast of energy on par with Midoriya's previous attacks. The energy exploded forward, and Cementoss had to quickly conjure a tall concrete wall to shield the audience from the shockwave.

But instead of meeting the attack head-on with a blast of his own quirk, Midoriya leaped off the ground, the floor fracturing under him, and flipped in the air so he was right above Todoroki's head.

The fire blast passed under Midoriya, its heatwave exploding upon him. The small flickers of flame that he couldn't dodge burned through his shirt and made his skin scream in pain, warning him not to get any closer to the fire source.