BANG!
The ice beside Yuta fractured like glass under a hammer. Chunks the size of fists and plates broke away, each one etched with a faint glowing kanji that hadn't been there a second ago.
"Scatter, Senbonzakura."
He uttered with dramatic flair.
A hush rippled through the crowd.
Todoroki's eyes widened just slightly.
'That strength—?'
Yuta swung his am.
Ice shards descended towards Todoroki like a cluster bombardment.
'Trying to blindside me. Clever move.'
Todoroki reacted instantly. Ice blasted forward with a shift of his right leg, to intercept the coming projectiles.
This wasn't just an attack. It was to force him to block, obscuring his vision in the process.
In a fight against someone faster than you, taking eyes off the target would be a fatal mistake.
'Nice try. It won't be that easy to ..'
Yuta's hand shifted. Both attacks had reached the point of collision when,
FWIP!
The descending shards suddenly split into two perfect curves. Bypassing Todoroki's defensive wall with a preternatural arc, before course correcting through the air like heat seekers.
"What the—?!"
In the stands, Midoriya stood up so abruptly his notebook fell. "He changed the trajectory!"
"INCOMING!" Present Mic screamed.
Cornered by the arcing projectiles, Todoroki stomped his right foot.
Ice erupted around him, and the barricade surrounding him thickened into a massive, jagged bunker.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
The shards slammed into the fortress with the force of mortar shells, but failed to break through.
'Dammit!'
With his view obstructed, Todoroki didn't wait.
Sensing the moment, Yuta activated Body Flicker. To the audience, he simply ceased to exist atop the glacier.
"THERE HE GOES AGAIN."
Yuta emerged from the speed vacuum, appearing directly in front of Todoroki's barricade.
BANG!
The entire thing exploded.
'Huh?' Yuta quickly stopped as waves of ice rushed towards him, spreading Indiscriminately in all directions.
'This again ..'
His eyes bled into a crimson red. Time slowed. The chaos of the explosion became a frozen map of geometric vectors. With a strained tilt of his head, he let a jagged chunk of ice graze his cheek, missing by a fraction of a millimeter. Then leaped backwards as the rushing ice engulfed his last spot.
"TODOROKI UNLEASHES ANOTHER MASSIVE BLAST. YUTA'S ON THE RETREAT."
'No shit.'
The moment his legs touched the floor Yuta disappeared.
Todoroki didn't wait to see if the blast hit. He propelled himself backward on a slide of frost, creating distance he knew he desperately needed.
'Dammit!' The muscles on his right side trembled slightly from the cold. A feeling he chose to ignore. 'That was too close.'
Just like Iida, he was once again caught off guard. 'To think he can control long range projectile ... What exactly is his quirk?'
He skidded to a stop, his eyes darting frantically across the arena. The ring was empty. Then, he looked up.
There he was, falling from the sky.
'What's up with his eyes—?!'
Todoroki thrust his arm upward.
WHAM!
A massive ice pillar punched toward the sky.
'This is Todoroki's chance.' Midoriya swallowed. 'In the air with no leverage, there's no way he can ..'
Seeing the incoming attack, Yuta twisted mid-air, spine bending with inhuman fluidity. 'That's gonna hurt!' The pillar rushed past him by centimeters as he flipped—
—and swung his arm downward.
'Shit!'
Todoroki launched an emergency burst of ice from his legs, skidding sideways across the arena just as Yuta's chakra-reinforced fist struck the frozen earth.
BOOOOM!!!
The ground shattered on impact.
Todoroki's pupils shrank.
'Now's my chance.'
He retaliated instantly—
FWOOOOSH!
A wide wave of ice barreled toward Yuta—
'Missed.' Yuta thought with annoyance. Watching the approaching attack in slow motion, a wave of chakra spread from his hands onto the cracked debris beneath it.
Kanji symbols flickered across every ice and rock his chakra touched.
"Catch!"
He flicked his wrist.
The shards shot forward in a devastating spread, not just blocking but destroying Todoroki's weakened attack.
'Ugh.'Todoroki slammed his palms into the ice beneath him, forcing up a thick pillar shield.
The barrage hammered into it, cracking its surface like spiderweb glass.
However
BANG
The Ice shield shattered as Yuta closed the distance with body flicker and smashed right through.
The shield bore the brunt of it, Todoroki's arms took the rest.
The attack sent Todoroki skidding backward across the slippery surface, his heels carving deep grooves into the ice.
'He broke through that much mass with one hit?!'
Todoroki gasped, cold air searing his lungs.
Yuta didn't let up. Ignoring the pain of a repeated body flicker, he lunged through the ice dust created by the shattered shield.
He covered the distance between them in the blink of an eye.
Todoroki's pupils constricted.
The rime on his skin had reached a critical thickness; making his right side too sluggish to respond. His joints were seizing from the cold.
In that fraction of a second, the instinct to survive overrode every vow Shoto Todoroki had made to himself.
VROOOM.
A roar like a jet engine ignited the center of the arena.
"STAY BACK!"
For the second time since the festival began, a violent surge of orange and red heat exploded from Todoroki.
'He used his left side!'
Class 1A thought collectively.
The sudden expansion of air created a pressure wave that slammed into Yuta mid-strike.
BOOM!
The collision of chakra-reinforced force and white-hot ignition turned the stadium into a steamer. Mist erupted as the glacier crown partially melted and shattered simultaneously.
The shockwave sent both figures flying toward opposite ends of the arena.
Yuta skidded, digging his fingers into the concrete to stop himself, the heat singing his uniform.
Todoroki landed hard, sliding on the slush.
The arena went silent.
Steam drifted through the broken landscape, leaving the scorched ground visible for the first time since the blast.
Thud!
Todoroki fell on one knee, releasing light pants. On his right right side, the traces of ice evaporated rapidly.
"Ugh." He looked at his left hand, heat radiating off the skin and aggressively pushing back the frostbite.
"DAMMIT!" His fists clenched tightly. 'I did it again…'
In the stands, the silence was broken by a sudden, jarring sound. Endeavor, the Number Two Hero, stood upright. His own flames flared in a maniacal surge as his face twisted into a grin that looked less like pride and more like a predator who had finally seen its prey cornered.
'YES!' he thought, the word vibrating through his entire being. 'Finally, you accept it!'
All around the arena, the crowd erupted—
"HE USED HIS LEFT SIDE!"
"That was fire, right?! Todoroki has fire?!"
"I thought he only used ice—!"
"Is this… is this the power of Endeavor's son?!"
The scene was broadcasted throughout the country. The eruption of heat replayed on the stadium screens from four different angles at once.
Class 1-A reacted in a chaotic chorus:
"This is insane!"
"He actually forced him to use it!" Sero uttered.
"Hard to believe. He's only used his left side one throughout the entire festival. And it was against the same person."
Mo's face was solemn. "Todoroki said he'd never use his left side in the Cavalry battle. To think he'd be forced to go against it."
"Are you kidding? This guy's shown so many abilities that I can't tell what's his actual quirk."
Kaminari leaned forward like a fan watching a blockbuster.
"Bro's built differently, I'm telling you—"
Jiro slapped his arm.
"Now is not the time to be impressed!"
Midoriya's notebook remained forgotten on the floor.
'Todoroki used fire again… because of Yuta. That means… Yuta pushed him past his mental threshold. That's… that's not something even I managed.'
His gaze turned to Bakugo who was watching the match intently.
"Just how strong is .. ?"
"W-WE HAVE A—A MAJOR DEVELOPMENT!! TODOROKI SHOTO HAS— I REPEAT— HAS ACTIVATED HIS LEFT SIDE! HIS FLAME SIDE! THE ARENA TEMPERATURE JUST SPIKED BY TWENTY DEGREES! I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT I AM SEEING RIGHT NOW!"
Present Mic announced.
Aizawa, half wrapped in his capture cloth, stared with a very slight narrowing of his eyes.
'So he dragged that kid past his mental barrier. Without provoking him.'
He exhaled.
'This match is getting dangerously high-level.'
In the VIP staff seats—
All Might's face turned grim.
"That level of power… neither of them are playing around. And young Akutami—still moving after that blow…"
His brows drew together.
'He's sturdier than I expected.'
The teachers murmured among themselves.
".. Quite the power display."
"Yeah. With this kind of quirk, how the hell did he end up in general studies?"
"Beats me. Own choice maybe?"
"This match is turning into .pre than a tournament bout. If he hadn't used his left, Todoroki would have probably lost."
"Match's not over yet though."
Back on the field—
Todoroki staggered upright, flames still burning.
'I did it again…'
He panted hard.
His chest heaved.
'I promised myself I wouldn't rely on that side…'
He swallowed, a bitter knot tightening in his throat.
"SHOTO!"
___
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