Central Plaza
Shigaraki's hand touched Asui's face.
Five fingers made contact with her skin.
Asui's eyes widened in terror, waiting for the decay to begin, for her body to crumble into ash—
But nothing happened.
Shigaraki blinked, pulling his hand back to stare at it in confusion. "What...?"
Then his visible eye widened with understanding, and he looked back toward where Nomu had Aizawa pinned.
"Erasure Head," Shigaraki said, something like respect entering his manic voice. "You're really cool, you know that? Even pinned down, beaten, you're still using your quirk to protect them."
Aizawa's eyes were glowing red, tears of blood streaming down his battered face. But his gaze was locked on Shigaraki with absolute determination.
"I won't let you touch them," he said.
"Well," Shigaraki said, his tone shifting to disappointed. "That's inconvenient. Nomu—knock him out already."
The creature's fist came down one final time.
CRACK
Aizawa's head hit the concrete, and his eyes finally closed, his quirk deactivating as consciousness fled.
"There we go," Shigaraki said cheerfully, turning back to the students. "Now where were we—"
"LET GO OF HER!"
Midoriya was already moving, green lightning crackling across his entire body. His mind had gone blank with desperate fury—his teacher was down, Asui was in danger, and his body was moving before his brain could catch up.
'One For All—100%!'
His fist pulled back, power unlike anything he'd ever channeled before flowing through his arm. If he landed this hit, it would obliterate Shigaraki. It would also obliterate his arm, but he didn't care.
I have to save her!
His punch flew forward with devastating speed.
Dust and debris exploded outward from the impact, obscuring everything in a cloud of pulverized concrete.
"That could have killed me," Shigaraki's voice drifted through the dust, sounding more amused than afraid.
When the dust cleared, Midoriya's eyes widened in horror.
Nomu stood between him and Shigaraki, one massive hand having caught Midoriya's fist mid-strike. The creature hadn't even moved from its position. Hadn't been pushed back. Hadn't even flinched.
"What..." Midoriya's voice was barely a whisper. "That was 100%... and it didn't even... move..."
Nomu's other hand began to rise, fingers curling into a fist aimed at Midoriya's unprotected body.
"MIDORIYA-CHAN!" Asui's tongue shot out, wrapping around Midoriya's torso, trying to yank him back—
But she wouldn't be fast enough.
Ice erupted between them.
Not a wall. Not a barrier. A massive glacial formation that rose thirty feet in an instant, separating Nomu and Shigaraki from the students with overwhelming force.
Tsubaki had finally moved, his hands extended, his armor coils glowing with intensity that made the air shimmer with cold.
Nomu's response was immediate and devastating.
One punch.
CRASH
The ice—thick enough to stop a truck, reinforced and dense—shattered like glass. The shockwave of its destruction blew outward, sending Tsubaki, Midoriya, and Asui tumbling backward across the plaza.
They rolled to a stop near where Aizawa lay unconscious, the force of their landing driving the breath from their lungs.
Tsubaki pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, staring at the destroyed ice formation with something he'd never felt before in combat.
Fear.
Real, genuine fear.
'It broke my ice with one punch,' his mind processed with cold clarity.'I put everything and it destroyed it like it was nothing.'
His eyes tracked the threats. Nomu—a creature that could destroy his strongest ice with casual ease. Shigaraki—whose quirk could decay anything he touched, turning flesh and bone to dust with five fingers. Kurogiri—the warp villain who could change the entire battlefield at will. And scattered around the plaza, a handful of villains who hadn't been knocked out by Aizawa, waiting like vultures.
'We can't win this.'The realization should have been paralyzing. But then he heard it—a low groan of pain from behind him.
Aizawa was still alive. Barely conscious, battered beyond recognition, but alive.
He fought dozens of villains to protect us. Put his life on the line without hesitation. And now he's down, helpless, because he used the last of his strength to save Asui.
'I can't let that be for nothing.'
"Midoriya. Asui." Tsubaki's voice cut through their shock, cold and commanding. "Take Aizawa-sensei and run. Now."
"What?!" Midoriya's head snapped toward him. "We can't just—"
"I'm not asking." Tsubaki stood slowly, his eyes never leaving Nomu. "I'm telling you. Get him out of here. That's an order from your class president."
"Ribbit... Todoroki-san, you can't fight them alone!" Asui's voice was desperate. "That thing is—"
"I know what it is," Tsubaki interrupted, his hands beginning to glow. "That's why you need to leave. I'll buy you time."
"But—" Midoriya started.
"I'll catch up to you." he said with a slight smile "NOW GO!" Tsubaki's voice cracked like a whip. "Or Aizawa-sensei's sacrifice means nothing!"
The finality in his tone made them move. Midoriya and Asui grabbed Aizawa's arms, pulling the unconscious hero between them, and began retreating toward the entrance where the other students waited with the gravely injured Thirteen.
Shigaraki watched them go with amusement, scratching at his neck. "How touching. The brave little hero staying behind to die for his friends. This is just like a video game! The dramatic sacrifice scene!" He giggled, the sound high-pitched and wrong. "Do you really think you can fight us all alone?"
Tsubaki knew the answer. His mind had already calculated the odds and it was screaming that this was impossible. That survival chance was near zero. That he was about to die.
'Hoping to fight them is just a dream,' Tsubaki thought, staring at Nomu. 'This thing was designed to kill All Might. The Symbol of Peace himself. And I think I can hold it off?'
'This is true power. Real power.'he thought.
But even as despair threatened to overwhelm him, something else burned in his chest. A stubborn refusal to accept defeat. A determination that had been forged through years of being ignored, dismissed, overlooked.
"You're not brave," Shigaraki said, his voice taking on a lecturing tone, like a teacher explaining something obvious to a slow student. "You're stupid. Do you really think you can be the hero here? Look at you—you're trembling. You know you can't win. Nomu hasn't even gotten serious yet. He's just been toying with you."
Kurogiri's polite voice added, "Your efforts are meaningless, young man. That creature was designed to surpass All Might himself. What hope does a first-year student have?"
Tsubaki didn't respond. His mind was racing, processing, trying to find some angle, some strategy that could let him survive even a few more seconds.
'I can't beat it. Can't even slow it down. Every attack I throw, it will destroy without effort.
I'm going to die here.'
Shigaraki gestured lazily. "Nomu. Stop playing. Kill him."
The creature moved.
And Tsubaki's body moved on pure instinct.
At the Entrance
"NO!" Multiple students shouted as Nomu launched forward with unreal speed.
"Someone has to help him!" Sato's voice was shrill with panic.
"We can't!" Shoji grabbed Sato's shoulder. "That thing would kill us in seconds!"
Midoriya and Asui had just reached the group, carefully lowering Aizawa beside Thirteen. Both pro heroes were unconscious, their injuries severe.
"We have to do something!" Uraraka's hands were clenched into fists. "We can't just watch him die!"
Midoriya's eyes were locked on the battle, his mind screaming at him to move, to help, to do something. His classmate was about to die protecting them, and he was just standing here—
'I need to go. I need to help him. Even if I can't win, even if we both die, I can't just—'
He took a step forward.
"Midoriya-chan, no!" Asui grabbed his arm, her large eyes filled with tears. "You'll die!"
"She's right!" Uraraka added desperately. "That thing—you saw what it did! Your quirk didn't even hurt it!"
'Their right 100% of one for all didn't even faze it. Even if I wanted to help I'd just get in his way.' He thought
Central Plaza
Tsubaki created a wall of ice.
Nomu punched through it.
He created spikes to slow its advance.
Nomu crashed through them like they were cobwebs.
He created a barrier, then another, then another—
Each one shattered within seconds.
'It's not working. Nothing's working. I'm just delaying the inevitable.' Tsubaki couldn't see a way to win.
"See?" Shigaraki's voice was gleeful.
"Useless! All your efforts, all your ice, all your fancy tricks—USELESS! Nomu doesn't even need to dodge because he can regenerate! You can't hurt him! You can't stop him! You're just a stupid kid playing hero!"
Tsubaki was breathing hard now, frost spreading across his right side as the cost of his quirk mounted. Each massive ice formation was taking more out of him, the cold seeping deeper into his bones.
'He's right. I can't win. Can't even survive. This is beyond me. Beyond anything I've trained for.I'm going to die, and there's nothing I can do about it.'
Nomu's fist came through his latest ice wall, close enough that Tsubaki felt the wind of its passage.
'This is it. This is where I fall. Where I prove that everything he said was right.'
And then something inside Tsubaki broke.
Not his will. Not his determination.
But the chains he'd placed on himself. The constant need for control, for precision, for proving himself.
'I'm going to die anyway,' he thought, and there was almost liberation in the certainty.
'So why am I still holding back? Why am I still worried about the cost because control doesn't matter if I'm dead.'
A quiet sound slipped from Tsubaki's throat.
"…Hah."
It was barely a laugh—more breath than voice. His shoulders didn't move.
Shigaraki's scratching stopped. "What...?"
"…Hah… hah…"
The sound repeated, slightly louder this time. Something in his eyes shifted—not rage, not joy, but a sharp, lucid clarity. The pressure he'd been holding back finally found a crack.
"…Hahaha…"
Tsubaki was grinning. Despite the frost covering his body. Despite the exhaustion. Despite the certainty of death looming before him.
"Hahaha—!"
He exhaled hard, head tilting just enough to let the sound loose.
"HAHAHAHAHA—!"
The laugh rang out fully now—clear, sharp, unrestrained. Was it hysterical. No. It was the laugh of someone who had finished calculating the risks… and chosen to stop caring about the cost.
When it finally faded, Tsubaki lowered his head, breath steady once more.
"…I see," he murmured.
There was no panic in his voice.
Only resolve.He was grinning like a man possessed.
"You know what?" Tsubaki's voice was rough but carried across the plaza. "You're right. The odds are impossible. I can't win. I'm going to die."
His hands raised, trembling but ready.
"But I've heard all this before."
Landslide Zone
Yaoyorozu couldn't see the battle, but she could hear it. The constant sound of ice shattering. The shockwaves that sent waves of freezing air through the entire facility, making her shiver.
"That's Todoroki-san," she whispered, her hands clasped together. "He's still fighting."
Another shockwave. Another blast of arctic air.
"Please be okay," she pleaded to no one. "Please..."
Shoto stood perfectly still, his eyes fixed on the distant plaza even though he couldn't see the details. But he could hear the destruction. Feel the temperature fluctuations. Sense the sheer scale of the battle through the shockwaves that rattled the ground.
And despite everything—despite the tension between them, despite the years of being kept apart, despite not even truly knowing his brother—
Shoto felt uneasy. He unconsciously clenched his fist.
"Tsubaki..." His voice was barely audible. "What are you doing?"
Central Plaza
"Heard all what before?" Shigaraki demanded, his amusement giving way to irritation.
"That I'm not good enough," Tsubaki said, his grin widening. "That the odds are against me. That I'm just a failure pretending to be something I'm not. That I'm a fool for fighting the odds."
His eyes burned with something beyond determination—something wild and unrestrained. "The odds have always been stacked against me from the very start. Today is no different and just always I'll defy the odds." His grin was wild and unrestrained
Shigaraki started to scratch his neck "That smile that look in your eyes it really pisses me off..."
"Nomu end this brat." he said
Nomu lunged again.
And this time, Tsubaki didn't think. Didn't calculate. Didn't plan.He just moved. He let instinct dictate his movements.
His hands came up and ice erupted—but not in predetermined patterns. Not in carefully calculated formations. The ice was responding to his will rather than his conscious direction.
A spear shot out, slowing Nomu down then multiple pillars rose beneath its feet, disrupting its balance for a fraction of a second. He used the ice beneath his feet to skate around the Nomu and launch ice spears at it. He would freeze the Nomu's legs to nullify it's speed combined with his now chaotic movements the Nomu had a harder time.
"What is he..." Kurogiri's voice held genuine surprise. "His fighting style just changed."
Shigaraki's scratching intensified. "He's moving differently! More... chaotic!"
Tsubaki wasn't trying to stop Nomu anymore. He was dancing with it. Reading its movements on pure instinct and responding with ice that moved like an extension of his body rather than just a weapon.
A memory flashed through Tsubaki's mind—people dismissing his quirk as simple. "It's just ice. Not as versatile as other quirks."
His father comparing him unfavorably to Shoto. "Your brother's flames make his quirk superior. More options. More power."
But that's not true.
Another spear of ice shot out, this one curving mid-formation to catch Nomu from an unexpected angle.
'People say we have the same quirk. That I just have half of what Shoto has.'
A forest of ice pillars erupted from the ground, each one positioned to force Nomu to break through in a specific sequence that Tsubaki was already anticipating.
'But that's wrong. I have control of ice that Shoto can only wish for.'
Nomu crashed through the pillars, but Tsubaki was already creating more—not just creating them, but controlling them. Moving them. Shaping them mid-formation to respond to Nomu's actions in real-time.
'I have the FULL quirk not half and half. Pure ice. Undiluted. Absolute. My ice isn't limited to one side. And thanks to this fight I've realised that it's not only my control that's better but so is my output I have yet to reach my limit. And I'm going to show everyone what that means.'
At the Entrance
"What's happening?" Sato asked, confusion evident in his voice. "He's ice—it's moving differently now!"
Midoriya's eyes widened as he watched, his analytical mind processing the change. "He's not just creating ice anymore. He's controlling it. Moving it after it's formed. Shaping it in real-time. That's—that's incredible!"
"Ribbit... but Nomu is still breaking through," Asui observed, her voice tight with worry.
"But it's different," Midoriya insisted, his voice rising with excitement despite the dire situation. "Before, Todoroki-san was using calculated attacks. Predetermined formations. But now—now his level of control using ice is on another level. The ice is moving with him, responding to the battle in real-time! He's evolving mid-fight!"
Shoji's eyes were wide. "In the face of certain death... he's breaking through his own limitations."
Central Plaza
"This is impossible!" Shigaraki's voice rose to a screech. "You're just a student! You're supposed to be broken! Losing! Not—not—"
"Getting stronger?" Tsubaki's grin was manic now, his eyes burning with something beyond reason. "Sorry to disappoint."
But even as he spoke, he could feel it. The cost. The inevitable price of pushing his quirk this far, this fast, this intensely.
Frost covered his entire right side now. His movements were getting slower despite his evolved technique. His vision was starting to blur at the edges. His heart rate was dangerously low.
'I'm running out of time. My body can't sustain this much longer.'
But he didn't stop. Couldn't stop.
Not while his classmates were watching. Not while Aizawa-sensei had sacrificed everything to protect them. Not while he still had breath in his lungs and ice in his veins.
Nomu's fist came down in a devastating overhead strike.
Tsubaki created a pillar beneath himself, using it to launch backward while simultaneously creating an angled barrier to redirect the force of the impact.
The shockwave was tremendous. The air pressure alone sent the remaining conscious villains flying backward, unable to withstand the force. Only Kurogiri—whose misty form absorbed the impact—and Shigaraki—hiding behind his companion—remained standing.
But the redirected force still caught Tsubaki. Even with his ice wall between them, even with his defensive positioning, the sheer power was too much.
He was blown backward, his body tumbling across the concrete plaza. He hit the ground hard, rolled several times, and finally came to a stop near the edge of the central area.
Everything hurt. His body screamed in protest as he tried to move. The frostbite had spread so far that even twitching his fingers sent lances of agony through his nerves.
'I can't move. My body won't respond. This is it.'
But even as his rational mind accepted defeat, something else—something stubborn and stupid and absolutely determined—refused to give up.
His hands pressed against the concrete.
His arms shook with effort.
Slowly, agonizingly, he began to push himself up.
At the Entrance
"He's standing up," Sato whispered, his voice filled with awe and horror. "He's actually standing up."
"That's impossible," Shoji breathed. "His body should be shut down. He should be unconscious from hypothermia alone."
"He's not human," Sato said, but there was no mockery in his voice. Only wonder. "He can't be. No one could—"
Midoriya felt despair looking at Tsubaki. His classmate—his friend—was literally killing himself to protect them, and here Midoriya stood, powerless to help.
'I have to do something. I can't just watch him die. I can't—'
His legs started moving before his brain could override them.
"MIDORIYA, NO!" Asui screamed, trying to grab him.
"STOP!" Uraraka lunged for his arm.
But Midoriya was already running, green lightning beginning to crackle around his legs as he desperately tried to reach his classmate before—
Central Plaza
Tsubaki had made it to his knees. Every movement was agony. Every breath felt like inhaling shards of glass. Blood dripped from his nose, his ears, evidence of internal damage from the extreme cold.
But he was moving.His hands raised again, trembling violently, trying to form ice.
Only small crystals appeared. Fragments. Nothing that could stop Nomu. Nothing that could even slow it down.
But he tried anyway.
"What... are you?" Shigaraki's voice had lost its manic edge, replaced with genuine confusion. "You should be dead. You are dead. You're a corpse that just won't fall down. What's driving you? What could possibly—"
"I haven't..." Tsubaki's voice was barely audible, each word an effort. "...proven anything yet..."
He tried to stand. His legs wouldn't cooperate.
"I haven't... shown them... that I exist..."
His vision was fading. Darkness creeping in from the edges.
"I haven't... achieved... my goal..."
Nomu began moving forward, its heavy footsteps like a countdown to execution.
Tsubaki's hands pressed against the ground again. Through sheer force of will, he began to push himself up one more time.
'Just stand. Just stand and face it. Don't die on your knees. Die on your feet like—' before he could finish that thought
The entrance exploded.
Not from an attack. Not from destruction.
But from sheer, overwhelming presence.
A figure burst into the USJ at speeds that defied physics, the shockwave of his arrival rattling the entire facility. His iconic hair was slightly disheveled from the speed of his journey. The students couldn't help but feel happy as if everything was okay now.
Because he was here...
And his face—the face that was always smiling, always confident, always radiating hope was absolutely furious.
All Might's eyes swept the scene in microseconds. His unconscious colleagues. His terrified students. And one boy, frozen half to death, bleeding, barely able to stand, having given everything to protect his classmates.
The Symbol of Peace moved.
One moment he was at the entrance. The next, he was beside Tsubaki, catching the falling student with one arm while his other hand shot out to intercept Nomu's descending fist.
The impact created a shockwave that cracked the plaza floor and sent dust billowing outward.
But Nomu's fist stopped. Completely.
All Might was like a immovable as a mountain.
"Young Todoroki," All Might's voice was gentle despite his expression, meant only for the student in his arms. "You did well. You protected them all. Now rest."
Tsubaki's vision was almost completely dark now. But he could hear it—the voice of the number one hero. The Symbol of Peace himself.
'He came,' Tsubaki thought distantly. 'He really came... for us...'
And then everything went black.
All Might carefully set the unconscious student down, ensuring he was away from the combat zone. Then he straightened, his eyes locking onto Shigaraki and Nomu.
When he spoke, his voice wasn't the booming, confident tone his students knew. It was cold. Measured. Dangerous.
"You hurt my students. You terrorized children. You nearly killed my colleagues."
"You will pay for what you've done today."
To Be Continued...