The finals bracket narrowed. Rei advanced through sheer tactical adaptation—defeating Iida by nullifying his engines, Uraraka by grounding her before she could float, even Bakugo by redirecting his explosions back at him until he overheated.
But in the semifinals, she faced Todoroki Shoto.
He found her before the match. The hallway outside the waiting rooms, cold and empty.
"You're dating Midoriya," he said. Not a question.
"We're... figuring it out." Rei studied him—half his face burned, half frozen, both expressions empty. "Why?"
"He's going to win this tournament," Todoroki said. "Whether against you or me. He's... determined. In ways I don't understand."
"So?"
"So I need to know if you'll fight me at full strength." Ice crackled around his left side. "Or if you'll throw the match to save yourself for him."
Rei felt anger rise—cold and controlled, but anger. "I don't throw matches."
"No? You slowed in the obstacle race. You helped him in the cavalry battle. You've been protecting him since you arrived."
"And he's been protecting me," Rei snapped. "That's what partners do. That's what friends do. Not everything is about winning, Todoroki."
His eye twitched. "My father taught me that winning is the only thing that matters. That strength is the only virtue."
"Your father is wrong."
The ice exploded. Rei nullified it automatically, felt the kinetic energy of freezing flood into her—cold, so cold , the absence of motion.
"Fight me," Todoroki demanded. "Prove that your way is stronger."
The match was brutal.
Todoroki didn't hold back. Ice flooded the arena, fire melted it to steam, and Rei danced between extremes, redirecting thermal energy until her Quirk screamed with the strain. She was at 80% capacity, then 90%, storing heat and cold in equal measure, a walking paradox.
"You're impressive," Todoroki admitted, fire wreathing his right side. "But you have a limit. I don't."
He was right. Rei's body couldn't handle the temperature extremes she was storing. Her costume was freezing on one side, burning on the other. Her skin blistered and cracked.
Discharge , she thought. I need to discharge.
But into what? The crowd? The stadium? She'd kill someone.
Todoroki raised his hand, fire gathering. "Yield."
"Never."
"Then burn."
The fire came. Rei did the only thing she could—she redirected it, not outward, but inward , into her stored cold, creating a thermal explosion that launched her into the air, above the arena, above the fight.
She hung there, suspended, looking down at Todoroki looking up at her.
"You're right," she called down. "I have a limit. But so do you."
She released everything.
Not as fire or ice. As pressure . The rapid temperature change created a shockwave, air expanding and contracting simultaneously, a kinetic bomb that slammed Todoroki into the ground, unconscious, protected from the worst by ice he'd instinctively raised.
Rei fell.
She had no energy left. No strength. Her Quirk was empty, her body broken, her vision tunneling.
She felt arms catch her. Green lightning, familiar warmth.
"You idiot," Midoriya whispered, holding her. "You beautiful, reckless idiot."
"Did I win?" she mumbled.
"Technical knockout. You're in the finals." He was crying, she realized. "Don't ever do that again. I thought—I thought—"
"Catch me," she breathed. "Always catch me."
"Always," he promised.