For several seconds after the call ended, Iida didn't move.
The stadium continued around him as though nothing had happened. Thousands of spectators talked over one another, Cementoss repaired the last fractures left behind by Bakugo and Kirishima, and Present Mic filled the break with excited commentary about the semifinals.
None of it reached him.
Iida stared at the dark screen of his phone.
Midoriya had been watching him since the moment his expression changed.
"Iida?"
Uraraka stood from her seat. "What's wrong?"
Iida's fingers tightened around the phone.
"My brother..."
His voice barely sounded like him.
Midoriya's stomach dropped. "Ingenium?"
Iida nodded once. "My mother said he was attacked while working in Hosu. He's been taken to the hospital."
The conversation around them died instantly.
Ashido's smile disappeared. Kirishima stopped rubbing at his bandaged arms. Even Bakugo, several seats away, glanced over.
Uraraka took a step closer. "Do they know what happened?"
"No. Not completely."
Iida looked toward the tunnel.
"I need to go."
No one argued.
He turned, took two steps, and stopped.
The tournament board hung above the stadium.
SEMIFINAL
IIDA TENYA
VS
BAKUGO KATSUKI
Iida stared at his own name.
Ten minutes ago, seeing it there had filled him with pride.
He had imagined calling Tensei afterward.
'I reached the final.'
Maybe even something better.
'I won.'
His brother would laugh. Tell him he was proud. Probably remind him that one tournament didn't make a hero.
Something normal.
Iida's jaw tightened.
Midoriya stepped beside him.
"Go."
Iida looked over.
"You don't need to think about the tournament right now."
Uraraka nodded. "We'll explain everything. Just go see your brother."
Iida swallowed.
For a moment, it looked like he wanted to argue. Habit demanded that he finish what he started, fulfill his responsibility, respect the competition.
Then his mother's shaking voice returned to him.
Iida bowed deeply.
"Thank you."
He straightened and hurried toward the exit.
...
Aizawa received the explanation without hesitation.
"Family emergency. He's withdrawing."
Present Mic glanced down from the commentary booth.
"So that means Bakugo..."
"Advances."
Present Mic's expression softened. "Rough way to get there."
Midnight stepped onto the repaired arena and raised her microphone.
"Due to an urgent family matter, Iida Tenya has withdrawn from the remainder of the Sports Festival."
A confused murmur spread through the audience.
"Therefore, Bakugo Katsuki will advance automatically to the championship match."
Bakugo sat silently for a moment.
His eyes remained fixed on Iida's name as it disappeared from the bracket.
Kirishima glanced toward him, already expecting a reaction.
Bakugo clicked his tongue.
"Tch."
That was it.
He leaned back and folded his arms.
Kirishima raised an eyebrow. "That's surprisingly calm."
Bakugo's glare shifted toward him.
"His brother got attacked, shitty hair. What do you want me to do about it?"
Kirishima blinked.
Bakugo looked back toward the bracket.
Two names filled the screen.
FUSHIGURO MEGUMI
TODOROKI SHOTO
"Whatever."
His eyes narrowed.
"One of those two better make it worth it."
...
Iida moved quickly through the stadium corridors.
Students and staff stepped aside when they saw him coming, but he barely noticed any of them.
'Tensei was attacked.'
'He's alive.'
'We're at the hospital.'
Alive.
His mother had repeated that part.
Alive.
Iida tried holding onto the word.
It wasn't enough.
Not with the way she'd sounded.
He reached the stadium exit and slowed for the first time.
The distant roar of the crowd followed him through the concrete halls.
His Sports Festival was over.
He had reached the semifinals.
His brother might never have seen any of it.
Iida lowered his head.
Then he kept moving.
...
Across the contestant section, Todoroki had watched Iida leave too.
His gaze met Fushiguro's briefly.
Neither said anything.
There was no words left to say.
Then Present Mic's voice rose again.
"WE'RE ALL WISHING IIDA AND HIS FAMILY THE BEST, BUT WE'VE STILL GOT ONE SEMIFINAL LEFT TO SETTLE!"
The massive screen shifted.
FUSHIGURO MEGUMI
VS
TODOROKI SHOTO
The stadium erupted.
The reaction rolled through the stands like thunder.
Professional heroes leaned forward. Students stood. Conversations that had followed both boys throughout the Festival suddenly became louder because the argument was finally about to be settled.
First in the obstacle race.
Two leaders of the strongest cavalry teams.
Two of the most dominant combatants in the tournament.
Two students who could reshape an entire battlefield around themselves.
Fushiguro stood.
Todoroki rose almost simultaneously.
Across the aisle, Bakugo noticed.
His stare sharpened.
Neither Fushiguro nor Todoroki looked at him.
They started toward opposite tunnels.
...
Endeavor leaned forward.
His eyes had not left Shoto since the Midoriya match.
That fight still irritated him.
Shoto had nearly lost.
Worse, he had nearly lost while refusing the very thing that would have prevented his body from reaching its limit.
For one instant, fire had appeared.
One instant.
Then Shoto had extinguished it.
Endeavor's fingers tightened against the armrest.
Ridiculous.
Years of training.
Years spent developing a body capable of balancing both extremes.
Years of preparation built specifically so that Shoto would never suffer the limitations of either side alone.
And the boy insisted on throwing half of it away.
His eyes shifted toward Fushiguro entering the opposite side of the stadium.
Fushiguro had forced Shoto further than almost anyone during the cavalry battle.
Perhaps this time...
Endeavor's gaze hardened.
'Use it.'
...
In another private box, Zen'in Jinya was grinning.
"That boy belongs with the Zen'in."
Zen'in Naobito finally glanced at him, expression unreadable. "You're getting ahead of yourself."
Jinya didn't look away from the arena. "Am I? He's just like his father."
Jin'ichi stiffened slightly at that.
Jinya continued, voice calm but certain. "He thrives in battle. He grows in the face of adversity. You can see it every time he's pushed; he doesn't break, he evolves."
Naobito took a slow sip. "And your point?"
"My point is simple." Jinya's grin sharpened. "He should come to the clan."
That made Jin'ichi's eyes narrow. "He's a U.A. student."
"For now." Jinya finally leaned back, as if that detail was irrelevant. "He'll be under my supervision during his internship. That's more than enough time."
Naobito's gaze flicked toward him. "You're assuming a lot of authority."
Jinya's tone didn't change. "I'm assuming responsibility."
Jin'ichi's arms tightened across his chest. "And what exactly do you intend to do with him?"
Jinya's eyes stayed on the arena, but his answer came immediately.
"Mold him."
A pause.
"Into the next clan head."
The air in the box shifted.
Jinya's smile didn't fade.
"There's still time. Enough time to correct what was lost with Toji."
At that name, Jin'ichi's expression darkened.
"And enough time," Jinya added lightly, "to make sure he doesn't turn into another disappointment."
That word landed heavier than the rest.
Naobito's eyes narrowed slightly.
Jinya finally glanced toward Jin'ichi.
"Unlike Toji."
A beat.
"And unlike you."
Jin'ichi went still.
For the first time, something like unease flickered across his face.
Not anger.
Fear.
Because it wasn't just ambition in Jinya's voice.
It was intent.
And Jin'ichi understood, suddenly and clearly, that if Jinya got his hands on Megumi, there would be no version of events where the boy remained untouched.
He looked back toward the arena tunnel where Fushiguro had disappeared.
Toji had made his choice.
He had kept Megumi away from the Zen'in.
It hadn't been enough.
Jin'ichi exhaled slowly.
...
Todoroki stepped onto the arena.
The repaired concrete stretched ahead of him.
His body had recovered enough to continue.
Enough.
That was the word Recovery Girl had used.
She could repair damage.
Fatigue was different.
The Midoriya fight remained in his muscles.
Todoroki flexed his right hand.
Then looked at his left.
Still.
Across the arena, Fushiguro emerged from the opposite tunnel.
The crowd grew louder.
Present Mic was practically shaking his booth.
"THIS IS IT! ONE OF THE BIGGEST MATCHUPS OF THE DAY! TWO FIRST-YEARS WHO'VE BEEN TAKING OVER ENTIRE EVENTS SINCE THIS FESTIVAL STARTED!"
Fushiguro stopped at his mark.
"ON ONE SIDE, THE MAN WHO'S FROZEN EVERYTHING THAT'S GOTTEN IN HIS WAY, TODOROKI SHOTO!"
The Todoroki section of the stadium erupted.
"AND ACROSS FROM HIM, THE FIRST-YEAR REPRESENTATIVE, TOP SCORER IN THE ENTRANCE EXAM, FIRST IN THE OBSTACLE RACE, AND NUMBER ONE IN THE CAVALRY BATTLE, FUSHIGURO MEGUMI!"
Midnight stepped between them, and the noise slowly settled.
"Are you actually going to fight me properly, or are you still planning on holding back like you did in the cavalry battle?" Fushiguro said.
Todoroki's jaw tightened. "I didn't need to go all out then."
"You will now."
"That sounds like a threat."
"It's a fact. You almost lost to Midoriya. Are you planning to fight me the same way you fought him?"
Todoroki's gaze sharpened. "Shut up."
"Just know that if you do, you'll lose."
Midnight looked between and dropped her hand. "Begin!"
Todoroki moved first, ice exploding across the arena in a colossal sheet that swallowed the ground between them almost instantly.
"TODOROKI OPENS HUGE AGAIN!"
No impact came. His eyes narrowed. A shadow shifted behind one of his own frozen ridges, and Fushiguro rose from it already moving, straight across the ice at him instead of away, closing the distance before Todoroki had finished registering the attack had missed. He threw the first punch himself.
Todoroki blocked it, boots skidding backward from the force, and threw an ice wave point-blank to buy himself room, a wall rising fast enough that it should have put real distance between them.
Fushiguro didn't dodge it. He dropped into the shadow the wall itself cast the instant it rose and came up directly behind Todoroki before the ice had even finished settling.
"FUSHIGURO'S NOT RUNNING! HE'S USING THE ICE AGAINST HIM!"
Todoroki spun, too slow, a fist catching his shoulder before he'd fully turned. He answered with another wave, wider this time, meant to put real space between them, and Fushiguro was already gone again, into the new shadow that wave threw the second it existed, reappearing inches off his back. Todoroki's jaw tightened. Every piece of ice he threw to create range just handed Fushiguro a fresh doorway to close it again.
'He's not avoiding the ice,' Todoroki thought, the shape of the whole match shifting in his head. 'He's using it.'
Another wave. Another shadow. Fushiguro reappeared at his flank this time, catching him with an elbow before he could fully turn to meet it. Todoroki tried backing off instead of attacking, throwing nothing at all for a moment, and Fushiguro simply closed the gap on foot instead, forcing him to raise ice defensively rather than offensively, which only handed him another shadow to vanish into a second later.
There wasn't a version of this where the ice bought Todoroki actual space. Every large attack he threw created exactly the kind of surface Fushiguro's quirk fed on, and the bigger the attack, the bigger the shadow, and the bigger the shadow, the less it mattered how far away Todoroki thought he'd put between them.
Up in the booth, Present Mic shot halfway out of his seat. "WAIT A SECOND! IS TODOROKI'S OWN ICE WORKING AGAINST HIM RIGHT NOW?!"
"That's the read," Aizawa said. "Every long-range attack he throws just gives Fushiguro somewhere new to appear from. He can't out-range someone who's using the range itself to close distance."
Fushiguro emerged from the narrow dark between two frozen formations, already annoyed by how quickly the field was closing up around him. Todoroki attacked instantly, a thick wall surging toward him, and Fushiguro brought his hands together, Totality bursting from the ground and slamming into the ice from the side.
CRACK.
It shattered, and Fushiguro moved through the gap with it. The dog charged again, and this time Todoroki's second wall held long enough to fracture it back, ice thickening over the cracks almost as fast as they formed. Fushiguro changed signs. Nue erupted overhead, wings spreading, electricity crackling down its length, and Todoroki barely got a sheet of ice under his own feet in time to slide clear before it struck.
Fushiguro emerged from the shadow cast beneath its wings and threw a punch before Todoroki had fully registered him. Todoroki blocked it, feet skidding backward from the force, and Fushiguro followed with a low kick that never landed, Todoroki freezing the ground under his own supporting foot and forcing Fushiguro to abandon the strike and drop back into shadow instead.
"You're relying on that too much," Todoroki said, turning.
Fushiguro's head appeared behind him. "No. I'm using it because you haven't stopped it." His fist caught Todoroki's forearm as ice surged between them, and he jumped clear before a Toad tongue snapped around his waist and yanked him out of range entirely.
"Fire would fix that," Fushiguro added, from somewhere behind another wall.
Todoroki sent another sheet sweeping the field, and it cost him again immediately, Fushiguro rising behind a frozen wall and vanishing straight back into the fresh shadow it cast before Todoroki could even follow through on the attack.
"Disappointing," Fushiguro said, appearing at his flank before he'd even fully turned. "Bakugo would be a better fight than this right now."
"You're losing to yourself, you're not even fighting me."
Todoroki's jaw tightened, and he answered with the biggest wave he'd thrown all match, more than the moment actually called for, proving the point before Fushiguro had even finished making it. He was already gone into the shadow it handed him, reappearing close enough to feel the cold still radiating off Todoroki's shoulder.
Todoroki twisted just enough to take the hit on his shoulder instead of his jaw, and it still staggered him half a step into his own ice. He caught himself against the ridge of it, breathing hard, whatever anger had driven the last exchange cooling fast into something more useful. He'd walked right into that. Fushiguro hadn't needed a trick to close the gap that time. He'd only needed Todoroki careless enough to throw something big, and big was the easiest thing in the world to bait out of him once his temper got involved.
Todoroki felt the mistake almost as soon as he'd made it, the shape of it obvious in hindsight, another door handed over for free. He didn't throw anything that large again.
The pace climbed further from there. Fushiguro answered with Totality, and Todoroki caught it with small, tight spikes rather than another broad sheet, denying it the room to build any real momentum. Nue descended and got turned away by a narrow angled shard instead of a direct hit. Toad's tongue got clipped short by a burst of thin ice before Fushiguro could pull it back.
Every exchange fed Todoroki more information. Every answer came a little faster and a little smaller than the last. Fushiguro could feel the pressure building underneath all of it. Tokoyami had forced him to solve one overwhelming defender. Todoroki was forcing him to solve a problem that kept shrinking on purpose, less ground to work with, fewer doorways handed to him for free, every attack precise enough now that it barely gave him anything back at all.
Fushiguro looked across the arena. Ice covered nearly everything now, choking off the open ground and turning the battlefield into Todoroki's territory. Worse, Todoroki had started using smaller, faster bursts of ice against the shikigami themselves, striking before they could properly establish an attack and forcing Fushiguro to dismiss them before they were completely frozen.
Totality, Nue, and Toad could still create openings, but openings weren't enough anymore. He needed something that could survive Todoroki's smaller attacks and tear through the ice already covering the arena.
'I need more destructive power.'
His eyes dropped to his shadow, where Great Serpent waited.
Well's Abyss had already proven the constructs weren't as fixed as he'd once assumed.
Fushiguro narrowed his eyes.
'Then make it stronger.'
His hands came together.
Todoroki noticed him stop. "What?"
Fushiguro brought his hands together, shadow spreading outward beneath his feet. "Great Serpent."
The arena itself seemed to move. A huge white head rose out of the ground, and Todoroki recognized it immediately, right up until the head kept rising well past where it should have stopped, the neck thickening, more and more pouring out of Fushiguro's shadow until the crowd's noise dropped into stunned silence. Great Serpent towered over the whole arena, its body winding above Todoroki's frozen terrain, its shadow swallowing entire sections of the field beneath it.
Present Mic, for once, had absolutely nothing.
His mouth opened.
Closed.
Then opened again.
"What the HELL is that?!"
The stadium detonated. Fushiguro's breathing changed immediately.
The strain hitting his concentration harder than he'd expected.
The serpent's tail swung across the arena. Todoroki threw up the biggest wall he could manage, and the impact tore straight through it anyway.
BOOOOM.
Fragments scattered across the field. Todoroki slid backward as Great Serpent coiled around one of the remaining ice glaciers and tightened.
CRACK.
The whole structure came down.
Great Serpent lunged. Todoroki slid beneath its jaws, the impact cratering the concrete where he'd been standing, and thrust his right hand forward, ice surging around its lower body.
The serpent twisted violently, its tail smashing through the frozen section before Todoroki could finish locking it down. He created a ramp and slid up it instead, and the serpent coiled around the structure rather than breaking it, using the ice itself as an anchor to swing its head around from the side. Todoroki dropped beneath the jaws just in time, the crowd already on its feet.
He pushed higher to escape it, and Nue was already waiting overhead. 'Trap,' he thought, twisting as electricity flashed, the bolt still catching his shoulder hard enough to spasm his arm and drop his landing badly. Fushiguro emerged from Great Serpent's shadow before he'd recovered, one punch catching his guard and a second slipping through to his ribs.
Todoroki staggered. Fushiguro grabbed his uniform, and ice formed between them a half second too late, Fushiguro already gone before it could close. Todoroki spun, and Great Serpent was already coming, his left already having been thrown forward to build the thickest wall he could manage in the time he had left.
The serpent hit it anyway. Cracks tore through the ice before it finally gave, the serpent's head slamming into him and sending him flying, hard enough that he hit the arena, bounced once, and rolled. The stadium screamed through all of it.
Fushiguro dismissed the serpent, its enormous form collapsing back into shadow, and the sudden absence left the arena feeling strangely empty. He swayed on his feet, breathing hard, ribs aching, hands trembling from holding the oversized construct together as long as he had.
Across the field, Todoroki pushed himself upright, a bruise darkening his cheek, his shoulder still twitching from the earlier shock. Both of them just stared at each other for a moment.
Fushiguro saw the frost first, returned around Todoroki's right side, not nearly as bad as it had gotten against Midoriya, but there. "You're doing it again."
"Don't."
"Your efficiency has improved." Fushiguro wiped blood off his eyebrow. "But your body still can't handle a long lasting fight. At this rate I'll win the battle of endurance."
"Shut up." Todoroki attacked, and Fushiguro dropped into shadow, emerging behind the wreckage of an ice wall.
"You almost lost to Midoriya because of it..."
"I said shut up!" A heavy wave tore across the arena. Fushiguro cleared it with Nue and dismissed the bird before Todoroki could catch it, dropping behind another structure.
Todoroki turned. Fushiguro's voice came from the other side. "You told me why."
He went still for half a second. Fushiguro stepped into view. "You told me what he did to you. What he did to your family. What happened to your mother."
"Don't talk about her." The answer came low, sharp.
"I'm not." Fushiguro's expression didn't change. "I'm talking about you." He stepped forward. "You hate him. Fine." His eyes narrowed. "I would too. But you hate him so much you've built your whole way of fighting around him."
Todoroki's fingers tightened. "I won't use his power."
"That's the point." Ice cracked louder underfoot. "Every time you refuse it, you're thinking about him. Every time you get cold and decide you'd rather lose than use the other side, you're thinking about him."
"Shut up."
"Every time somebody mentions it..." Fushiguro remembered the tiny flame during Midoriya's match, then Endeavor's voice, then nothing at all. "...you look at him."
Todoroki's expression twisted. "My father isn't controlling anything."
"Then why does it feel like he does?"
Silence. Todoroki just stared at him. Fushiguro's breathing stayed heavy, but his voice didn't move at all. "You told me you were going to become number one without using that side because you wanted to reject him."
"Yeah."
"So your whole plan is still about him." Fushiguro stepped closer. "You win, it's about him. You lose, it's about him. You freeze yourself half to death in front of the whole country." He stopped. "Still about him."
For a moment the stadium disappeared entirely. Todoroki could hear nothing except his own breathing, and Fushiguro.
"You said you wanted to beat me." Fushiguro stood across from him. "Then beat me." His shadow shifted. "Not him."
Something in Todoroki's expression broke. Not completely. Enough. Heat stirred in his left hand, and he looked down at it, the same orange flicker from the Midoriya fight sitting across his fingertips.
His breath caught. From the stands, Endeavor shot to his feet. "SHOTO!"
Todoroki flinched. The flame weakened. Fushiguro saw it happen. "Hey." Todoroki looked over. Fushiguro pointed at himself. "I'm here. I'm the one trying to knock you out of this ring." The flame steadied. "So look at me and stop screwing around."
...
Something in Todoroki's expression broke.
Not completely.
Enough.
Heat stirred in his left hand.
Todoroki looked down as a small flame appeared across his fingertips, the same orange flicker that had surfaced against Midoriya.
Then the memories came.
"Stand up! If you're downed by something like this, forget beating All Might, you won't even be able to take the small fry villains--"
"Please, stop! He's only five!"
"He's already five! Get out of my way!"
Endeavor struck Rei aside.
"Mom!"
Todoroki's jaw tightened.
'Shut up.'
Another memory followed.
"I don't wanna, Mom... I... I... I don't want to be like Dad... I don't want to become someone who bullies you, Mom!"
Rei looked down at him.
"But you want to be a hero, don't you? It's okay for you to be one. As long as you have a future you feel strongly about."
Then his father's hand was on his shoulder again, pulling him away while his siblings played nearby.
"Don't look at that, Shoto. They're from a different world than you."
The memories kept coming.
His mother's trembling voice over the phone.
"Mom, I'm going crazy... I can't take it anymore. Every day, the children seem to become more and more like him... Shoto's... That child's left side sometimes looks very unsightly to me... I can't raise him anymore... I feel like I shouldn't..."
A kettle.
Steam.
His mother turning.
"M... Mom?"
Boiling water struck his face.
Todoroki's breath caught.
Then his father's voice.
"Good grief, this is an important time, too..."
"Where's Mom?"
"Oh, she injured you, so I put her in a hospital."
"It's your fault. You're the one who made Mom..."
Present and memory blurred together.
'I will reject my old man's power...'
That conviction had carried him for years.
Then another voice surfaced.
All Might, smiling from a television screen.
"Yes, that's right! Children inherit Quirks from their parents. But the really important thing is not that connection, but recognizing your own flesh and blood--recognizing yourself. That's what I mean when I say: 'I am here!' You see?"
Todoroki's eyes widened.
'Before I knew it, I had forgotten...'
Rei smiled at him from somewhere years away.
"You don't have to be a prisoner of your blood. It's okay for you to become who you want to be."
"Then beat me. Not him."
Todoroki looked across the arena.
Fushiguro stood there.
Bruised. Breathing hard. Waiting.
The person Todoroki was actually fighting.
His left hand clenched.
Fire exploded.
WHOOOOOM.
...
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