Chapter 54:

As soon as the match concluded for Toga and Kendo, with the match going in Toga's favor, Shoto began making his way out of the stands and towards the waiting area.

Upon reaching his destination, after congratulating his classmate who ran by him on his way there, a rather pressing thought dawned upon him.

Endeavor would be expecting him to go to the waiting room and would go there to give one of his 'pep-talks' to the heterochromatic teen.

Said motivational 'pep-talks' typically included everything he did wrong, EVER, and how the teen should be more like his silver-medal-holding self. Naturally, he wouldn't word it like that; Endeavor hates viewing the reality of the situation, mainly due to it representing him in a bad light.

It was rather ironic how the 'guiding torch' of justice, could only be viewed in a bad light when you get to know him. It was something that the Todoroki family found some morbid comedy in; and a frequent conversation piece at the rather awkward dinner table.

So, instead of entering the waiting room, he headed straight for the tunnel. The teen didn't want to risk any chance, no matter how small it may be, of his father turning up.

When he reached the concrete tunnel, he froze the entrance shut. He knew it wouldn't stop his father; but he hoped it would be enough to at least slow him down, and maybe turn into water and extinguish his horrific-looking flaming facial hair.

The memory of when one of Sakuya's maids 'accidentally' used the fire extinguisher on his father- just calling him that mentally was enough to make his face cringe- was a treasured one he cherished dearly.

He even sent a gift basket, using Endeavor's credit card to do it, to the maid in question. Thankfully, Endeavor didn't notice the few thousand yen missing. Otherwise, he would have probably been forced to train for even longer hours than he already had been.

God, his childhood was complete garbage.

Pushing that trauma to the back of his mind, where it belongs, he began thinking of his opponent, Yui Kodai.

He had seen just how powerful her quirk could be during her 5-minute stint in the tower earlier. If he was correct, she could alter the sizes of things she touches, including herself. He could only assume that it was the effect of a quirk awakening or quirk marriage.

His best bet would be to push his body to its absolute limit and try to flash freeze the inevitable titan. His flames wouldn't do much to her, apart from burning her clothes off. The females in the class, specifically Momo, made sure to stress that he shouldn't use fire attacks on her due to that very reason.

He could only agree with them, it wasn't as if he could argue with them on the point while bringing up valid points anyway. He was, as Sakuya would call him, socially inept. Well, she wouldn't be so kind with the wording, but the point stands.

Thinking over the game plan, and trying to add more detail than just 'Freeze her', he began brainstorming ideas on how he could improve. He tried to recall just how fast her expansion rate is, so he could roughly estimate where would need to aim.

He wanted to try a brand new super move that he managed to work on with Sakuya throughout the past few months. His awakened quirk, now known as temperature manipulation, was far more deadly and had more than he thought.

He was no longer limited to what side of his body he wanted to use a certain temperature on, and only kept doing so out of habit.

Then again, the only thing the teen previously did was launch icebergs that could take out the titanic at everything that so much as moved.

He was forced to watch a lot of something that Sakuya called anime. He had no idea such a thing existed, mainly due to being deprived of it during his childhood. It held a plethora of ideas, and moves he could use in future fights.

But one thing- or rather person -that really interested him was a person called Esdeath. She pushed the limits of her ice manipulation to the point it could freeze time, and cover an entire continent in a thick snowstorm.

What made him feel excited was that she had made a mecha out of ice. He wanted to find out what was deadlier, man or machine. It would at least give the audience a show, while simultaneously annoying Endeavor by not using any fire attacks; it was a win-win scenario.

The heterochromatic teen also didn't need to worry about him potentially freezing to death inside of the mecha anymore, because his quirk now maintains his body temperature constantly.

It would be the perfect test for him, and let the results of his journey through the 'Bootcamp' torture ground shine through. The fine control of his ice will be tested, how condensed he could make his ice would be tested, and how creative he could be with his mecha would be tested as well.

He wanted to pass with flying colors, not for Sakuya, but himself.

One thing the teen couldn't understand recently was why Bakugo didn't take Sakuya up on her offer for training.

It was a wonderful thing, if you could look past all of the humiliation one would face during the Bootcamp, and Bakugo would have come out with a better understanding of his quirk than "sparky sweat make boom boom" due to it.

One man's loss is another man's gain, and Shoto definitely gained a lot from the explosive teen's indecision to take Sakuya up on the training.

Sakuya was a lazy person, and didn't like helping others unless she deemed it fun or somewhat beneficial to herself, so the teen doubts that Bakugo will be given a chance like this again.

The explosion quirk user had missed his chance to improve, and his pride had ended up causing his chances at winning this tournament, which were already abysmal as is, to grow even smaller.

The candy cane held no delusion towards who would be the victor between their inevitable matchup. Inasa could, and most likely will, completely destroy him in a fight, with one hand behind his back, and a blindfold on.

Shoto was confident Inasa would win, even with such handicaps.

All Inasa would need to do is fly into the air, and unleash a blast of wind at whatever direction the inevitable shouting would come from; effectively knocking Bakugo onto his ass with every attempt until Inasa manages to line it up perfectly so he lands outside of the arena.

What inspired this confidence in the heterochromatic teen? He and Inasa had frequent matches in one of the free quirk training facilities that UA owns. So, he was pretty knowledgeable in regards to just how skilled his rival was.

He couldn't reminisce on his hard-fought battles any longer as his name was called out; judging by the rapidly melting ice behind him, it was just in time.

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Yui Kodai was a girl of many talents.

Sadly, expressing herself was not one of these talents.

No matter what happened, her facial expressions would remain stoic, and tone of voice monotone. She hated that she couldn't express herself like her friends could, and confided in Sakuya about it in secret a lot.

Sakuya was, after all, the only person who noticed her blight.

Her face was always a perfect mask, even when she didn't want it to be. It hampered her ability to socialize a lot, and she was all the more thankful that an extrovert like Sakuya wanted to be friends with her all those years ago.

The only 'tell' that she would have in regards to her emotions are her eyes, a rare flush of her cheeks, and a tiny upward quirk of her lips whenever Sakuya would give her head pats. Only the most observant of people would ever notice those tell-tale signs anyway, so they were useless in front of her classmates.

Other than those rare occasions, though? Not much happens in regards to her expressions.

However, right now? The stoic girl was very thankful that her face was perpetually stuck, it helped hide her nervousness. It made her classmates praise her for not being openly scared, or worried about her opponent.

She, obviously, wanted to just break down and cry out of frustration at the situation that she now found herself in. The stoic girl had a chance at victory, only for the random matchups to fuck her over on the first match.

If it were anyone else, apart from Momo and her ridiculous technology, she was certain that she had a very real chance at winning this tournament, or at least make it to the finals. That is, however, only if Shoto Todoroki was taken out by one of the other competitors before he could get to her.

There was not much she could do in the face of being frozen solid or having massive ice spears pierce her flesh if her opponent was a little more gore-focused.

She could try and shrink the ice, which would only end up condensing it even further; making it harder to break and even more dangerous in the long run. So, that was a no-go!

And, god forbid he uses his fire!

In short, she was panicking on levels that she had never done before.

As her name was called out, she swallowed her nerves, steeled her resolve, and began walking down the tunnel, not looking forward to this match at all.

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(Shoto POV)

[[On one side of the field we have Shoto Todoroki!! Don't be tricked by his cool demeanor, he is packing a real fiery punch!!

Versus!!

She's the silent princess of class 1-B, Yui Kodai!!]]

Midnight, after hearing the cue, asked,

"Are the both of you ready?"

"Yes," I replied, already cooling the temperature of the air around me.

"Hn!" I saw Yui nod in response.

[[3,2,1, It's time to RUMBLE!!]]

I connected my hands to the floor and sent a massive tidal wave of ice at her, trying to stall for time as I began to build my mech suit.

I compressed, and compressed the ice around me, and formed it into the various parts.

'This is more tedious than I thought!' I thought with gritted teeth.

[[What an opening move from Shoto!! Just how will Yui respond to this?!]]

Happily noting that she hadn't reacted yet, I poured as much power as I could into making the mech suit before she could do so in the first place. Gradually, I managed to have it successfully form, and I got to work trying to control it.

It was just in time too, Yui enlarged her size and broke free from the ice.

[[WHAT'S THIS?! Shoto is in a mech suit made of ice!]]

'At least it looks as cool as I thought it would judging by Mic-sensei's reaction. It would have been so awkward to have gone through all of that effort only for it to look like a clunky piece of junk.'

Seeing a giant fist coming at me; I created some ice cleats and dug them deep into the concrete stage so I wouldn't be launched. I made the mech raise its arm in retaliation, and punch back whilst enlarging its fist through adding more ice.

A hearty boom echoed around the stadium, and dust kicked up as soon as the two large fists collided. Taking advantage of her touching the ice, I tried to freeze her over quickly, or at least take her arm out of commission.

Watching the fist retreat, as soon as the ice made it's way past the wrist joint, I retracted the cleats, and went on the offensive.

[[It's a clash of the titan's, folks!!]]

I launched the mech into the air with a jump, hoping to land a direct hit on Yui's diaphragm to wind her and, in turn, stagger her.

She saw through that immediately, and rapidly began shrinking to dodge the blow. When she landed; I saw her elargening again, supposedly to punch me while I was 'vulnerable'.

I shot out a large amount of ice spears from the side of the mech, hoping to just freeze her mid transformation. I pumped as much energy as I could into the attack, in hopes that I could outmatch her growth.

It was a tense few seconds, not only for me, but for the entire stadium. It was a battle of how fast I could freeze her, and how fast she could enlarge herself. I grit my teeth, and went for one last big push.

And… I did it.

I won in the end.

[[Due to his opponent being incapacitated, Shoto Todoroki wins!!]]

I saw the huge ice sculpture in front of me, and could only hope that Sakuya would revert her condition before she could get frostbite. Luckily for me, that was exactly what happened.

I wanted to stay, and thank her for a good match, but I could see my father making his way towards the tunnel with a deep scowl on his face. And, I didn't want any part of that. So, I hurried back to the class seats where he wouldn't be able to do anything to me without causing a scandal.