The training grounds had grown eerily quiet.
Todoroki's boots crunched against loose gravel as he cut through a side street of Ground Beta, heading toward the underground park building where his team had hidden their "bomb."
'Just as I initially figured ... Unreliable.'
In their group of three, one had only managed to eliminate two opponents so far, while the other had blundered into capture almost immediately. Regardless of the situation of the first, both outcomes had proved Todoroki's point.
Having teammates only slowed him down.
He adjusted the strap of his support gear and descended a flight of cracked concrete steps. The underground structure was up ahead—surprisingly lit by flickering emergency lamps
Todoroki's brows furrowed. 'Is ... something wrong with the power supply?'
For some reason, something felt .. off to him. His breath fogged faintly in the chill he naturally carried.
Just then,
His instincts twitched. He halted.
A whisper of motion cut across the edge of his vision.
"…Hn."
Without hesitation, his right foot slammed against the concrete. A jagged wall of ice erupted in front of him, thick as a fortress shield. The next second, metal projectiles slammed into the crystalline structure—knives, crowbars, what sounded like a chain.
The impacts rang out like a violent symphony.
"Well, would you look at that," a gravelly voice called out from behind the ice. "Kid's got reflexes."
"Real sharp for a U.A. brat," another added with a sneer. "Shame it won't help him."
The third spat on the ground. "And here I thought we'd get to scare him a little before he noticed."
There were more than a dozen by his count. Male and female, all dressed in sinister outfits while carrying equally sinister vibes.
Todoroki's expression didn't change. His eyes, one blue and one gray, cut through them like shards of glass.
"One look and I doubt you're participants of our training," he said, his voice flat and controlled. His eyes narrowed as he studied their positions. "So I'll ask—who are you and what are you doing here?"
Harsh laughter echoed off the surrounding buildings.
"Listen to this kid," one of them wheezed. "Talking like he's in charge."
"Must think we're scared of some teenage wannabe hero."
A different voice, rougher than the others, cut through the mockery. "We ain't here to chat, pretty boy. Boss wants U.A. brats brought in alive—but he didn't say they had to be in perfect condition."
Todoroki's expression didn't change. "Fine then. Don't talk."
The temperature dropped.
Ice exploded outward from his position like a tidal wave, racing along the ground, up the walls, across every surface in a fifty-meter radius. The villains' taunts cut off into strangled yelps as the crystalline surge engulfed them, freezing them solid from the waist down in seconds.
"What the—can't move—!"
"My legs!"
"This kid's insane!"
Todoroki walked forward, his boots crunching against the frost-covered pavement. He stopped just outside arm's reach of the nearest frozen villain, close enough that his breath misted in the frigid air between them.
"I'll ask once more," he said, his voice carrying the kind of cold that had nothing to do with his quirk. "Who sent you, and why are you here?"
The man he was addressing—a scarred brute with metal teeth—glared back with undisguised hatred. "Go to hell, you little—"
"I should mention," Todoroki interrupted, "that prolonged exposure to ice at this temperature tends to cause permanent nerve damage. Frostbite sets in within minutes. I can't guarantee your limbs won't need amputation if you're encased like this much longer."
The villain's defiance wavered, his eyes darting down to where ice had climbed halfway up his torso. Todoroki stepped closer. "The heroes will arrive eventually to arrest you. The question is whether you'll still have feeling in your extremities when they do."
"So ... Should we try this again?"
Silence stretched between them, broken only by the sound of ice creaking as it continued to thicken.
Finally, the scarred man's resolve cracked. "League of Villains," he spat. "We're here for All Might. Boss has a plan—something about students as bait."
"Where?"
"Central square. Among the high rise buildings .. That's the best I can describe it." The words came out in a rush now, fear overriding loyalty. "But you're too late, kid. It's already started."
Todoroki absorbed this information with the same expressionless calm he'd maintained throughout the encounter. Then, without another word, he turned and began walking away.
"Hey! Aren't you gonna—what about us?!"
"The ice will melt," Todoroki called back without turning. "Eventually."
---
## Northwest District - Team C
"Keep moving!" Shoji shouted, his multiple arms creating a barrier as more projectiles whistled through the air. "Don't let them surround us!"
The alley had become a warzone. Team C—already eliminated from the exercise and supposedly heading to the monitoring room for debriefing—found themselves trapped in a three-way intersection with nowhere to run. Villains pressed in from every direction, a mix of thugs and criminals whose quirks ranged from dangerous to downright terrifying.
Mina dodged a blast of what looked like liquid fire, her acid eating through the ground where she'd been standing a second before. "This is so not how I pictured my first week at U.A.!"
"Complain later!" Kaminari yelled back, electricity arcing between his fingers as he tried to keep a group of villains at bay. "Fight now!"
But they were outnumbered three to one, and unlike their classmates, none of them had the raw power needed to shift the odds dramatically. Kaminari's quirk was powerful but indiscriminate—use it at full strength and he'd hit his teammates along with the villains. Mina's acid was effective but required close range. Aoyama's laser was precise but limited by his belt's charge.
They were losing ground fast.
"Behind you!" Aoyama's warning came just in time for Mineta to duck under a villain's reaching grasp—some kind of stretching quirk that extended the man's arms like rubber tentacles.
But ducking put Mineta off-balance, and another villain—this one with stone-hard skin—lunged forward to capitalize on the opening.
"Got you now, you little—"
The villain's words cut off as something massive slammed into him from the side, sending him flying into a brick wall with bone-crushing force.
A shadow fell across the alley, and suddenly the oppressive weight of despair lifted from Team C's shoulders.
"Fear not, young heroes!"
All Might stood at the mouth of the alley, his cape billowing despite the lack of wind, that trademark grin blazing across his face even as his eyes remained deadly serious.
"For I am here!"
The remaining villains took one look at the Symbol of Peace and immediately tried to scatter. It didn't work. All Might moved like lightning contained in human form, each punch and kick precisely calibrated to incapacitate without killing. Within thirty seconds, the alley was littered with groaning criminals, all of them very much alive but very much defeated.
"Everyone alright?" All Might asked, his tone shifting to something warmer as he knelt to check on Mineta, who was still trembling from his near-miss.
"All Might!" Mina practically sobbed with relief. "We thought—when the villains showed up—we didn't know what—"
"Easy there, young Ashido." All Might's presence seemed to calm them all, like a lighthouse cutting through a storm. "You did well to survive this long. These weren't ordinary criminals."
Kaminari stepped forward, his usual cocky demeanor replaced by genuine concern. "All Might, what's happening? The comms went dead, then these guys showed up talking about some 'League of Villains' and—"
"The situation is under control," All Might assured them, though his jaw remained tight. "Villains have infiltrated Ground Beta, but it's an isolated incident. The main campus remains secure."
"But how did they get past U.A.'s security?" Shoji asked, ever analytical even in crisis. "The barriers, the sensors—"
"Questions for later," All Might cut him off gently. "Right now, I need to know—have any of you seen young Todoroki?"
The students exchanged glances.
"Not since he eliminated us," Aoyama admitted. "He was heading toward the objective zone."
Kaminari touched his headgear. "I can try calling the main campus, let them know what's happening here—" He tapped it several times, his frown deepening. "No signal at all."
"If villains have infiltrated Ground Beta," Mineta said, his voice still shaky, "is the main campus in danger too?"
All Might shook his head firmly. "Unlikely. U.A.'s main defenses are far more robust than a training ground's. This appears to be a targeted strike." His eyes grew distant for a moment. "The question is what they're after."
As he said it, All Might had a sinking feeling he already knew the answer. However, that didn't matter now. With villains in ground beta, the other students were in danger.
Hopefully, young Takumi and Midoriya's team could hold on longer for a few seconds longer. For now, Team B needed to be found first. Meanwhile, Todoroki strode towards the central square in the East district. Leaving a trail of iced villains in his wake.
The attack on U.A in his view was doomed to fail even without his involvement. Simply because the villains he had fought on his way here were amateurs.
Forget about getting All Might, these guys probably wouldn't last against one of the staff Pro's. Whoever hired these guys to attack U.A, was dumb and probably wouldn't be much stronger.
'Let's get this over with.'
Destruction soon came into view. Charred rubble with black scorch marks all over most buildings. The feral blond's doing no doubt.
Todoroki stepped into the open cautiously, eyes narrowed.
At the far end, seated on a toppled bench as though none of this chaos mattered, was a pale young man with a hand draped lazily across his face, absorbed in reading a paperback book. His blue-white hair fell across his face in unkempt strands, and he scratched absently at his neck with one hand while turning pages with the other.
Standing behind him, motionless as a statue, was something that barely qualified as human anymore. Jet-black skin stretched over impossible musculature, a bird-like beak where a mouth should be, and an exposed brain that pulsed with unnatural rhythm.
Todoroki stopped at the top of the escalator, his heterochromatic eyes taking in the scene with cold analysis. Neither figure had noticed him yet—or if they had, they didn't consider him worth acknowledging.
"So you're the ones behind this," Todoroki said, his voice carrying across the empty space.
The pale young man—not too much older than Todoroki himself—looked up from his book with mild irritation, red eyes focusing on the U.A. student like he was nothing more than an annoying interruption.
"You're not the brat I'm looking for," Shigaraki said, his tone bored. He glanced back down at his book. "Go away."
The ground beneath Todoroki frosted over instantly. His hand lifted, ice coalescing. "You'll do."
A glacier surged forward, jagged spears racing toward the bench.
CRASH.
One massive hand swept up, and Todoroki's ice shattered like glass against its palm. A hulking silhouette loomed, muscles rippling, brain exposed under translucent skin. Nomu stepped forward, blank eyes fixed directly on Todoroki.
Todoroki's eyes widened slightly. That attack should have been difficult to stop for a high-level pro hero whose quirk wasn't destructive. But this thing had destroyed it without apparent effort.
'How could that ...'
"I'm irritated," Shigaraki said, finally looking up from his book again. His red eyes held a kind of petulant annoyance, like a child whose game had been interrupted. "Nomu. Get rid of this one."
Todoroki didn't wait.
Instantly sending another barrage of ice at a much greater scale than before. His instincts screamed to end it all in one attack before the opponent made another move.
The effect was minimal. As although he had struck first, the creature moved with impossible speed, crossing thirty meters in a single bound and throwing a punch before the ice barrage crossed any significant distance.
Everything blew apart.
The punch went through the reinforced ice like tissue paper, the shockwave blasting everything backwards, and him alongside it all.
Todoroki's back slammed against a half-toppled streetlight, the metal groaning before it snapped under the force. The impact rattled his bones, pain flaring across his ribs as his breath left him in a sharp gasp. Copper filled his mouth—blood. He spat red into the frost at his feet and forced his trembling legs to obey, pushing himself upright.
'That… that wasn't normal strength. Not even close.'
He barely had time to register the thought. A rush of displaced air—like a cannonball tearing through the atmosphere—screamed past his ear. His instincts screamed louder.
He turned—too slow.
The Nomu was already there. One second away, then half, then none at all. The monster loomed behind him, fist cocked back and descending with the weight of an avalanche.
Todoroki's eyes went wide. His body froze, not from his quirk but sheer realization. He couldn't raise a wall, couldn't dodge. His knees bent instinctively, crouching as the shadow of death fell across him.
BOOM!
___
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