Chapter 51: Round 1

~Shoto Todoroki | 3rd Person~

The fanfare of the crowd blared in Shoto's ears as he stepped onto the stage and so did his opponent, no, enemy. Hakari looked unbothered with his hands in his pockets as Shoto glared at him.

While the excitement of the crowd was at its peak, Present Mic's voice broke through.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the second round of this tournament! And we are starting it off with the two top contenders!!! Hakari Kotaro versus Todoroki Shoto!!!"

Shoto glanced at his father watching him from the stands, his arms crossed in an expectant fashion coupled with his everpresent displeased frown made him scowl as he pressed his foot down on the ground and felt his control over his ice with his gaze firmly on Hakari who still seemed unbothered.

He would prove that he didn't need his power.

"I'll finish this quick."

Todoroki stomped his foot on the ground and sent a wave of ice massive careening towards Hakari without any fanfare, just aiming to finish him off as fast as possible while Hakari closed his eyes and sighed despite the wave of ice coming his way.

"Such a boring man."

When he opened his eyes, they glowed with a golden hue alongside his body being enveloped in a glowing aura as he raised his hand and blue flames covered it in a bright blue and white glow.

Boom!

The stadium shook like a missile had been dropped as the wave of ice was shattered by a bellowing stream of frostflare amplified by Offensive Form when Hakari raised his hand out and sent a wave of freezing flames in retaliation.

As the freezing mist covering the arena cleared Todoroki held a frown that was mirrored by Hakari's own.

"A contest of ice power at this scale!? What the hell are they feeding these kids!?!?" The commentary fell on deaf ears as Shoto glared at Hakari who met his gaze with a glare of his own before being the first to speak up.

"Alright, since you are so insistent on being stupid I'll match you." Hakari stretched while shaking his head, clearly not taking this seriously to Shoto's chagrin. Making Shoto raise an eyebrow as he prepared to send another wave to catch him off guard but his next words threw him off balance.

"I will only use half of my available ability slots to fight you. It's only fair no?"

Todoroki glared at Hakari with a murderous glint in his eyes and gritted his teeth, charging up his ice.

"Don't mock me-!"

But before he could finish his words Hakari's body transformed, his teeth and fingers sharpening and a scaly tail growing on his lower back alongside the skin around his jaw cracking. And then he seemingly vanished, only leaving behind a cracked floor.

Crash!

"Grhh!"

It was only thanks to his great instincts that Shoto was able to raise a wall of ice in front of him just in time but it was not enough as Hakari appeared in front of him with extreme speed and shattered the wall and hit Shoto behind it with extreme speed and power. Thanks to the worst of the blow being absorbed already and his conditioning Shoto was able to guard himself with his arms and take the blow.

Following it up Hakari stomped his foot on the ground, cracking the stadium underneath his feet and punching while at the same time, Shoto conjured an iceberg to hit Hakari with. The two forces clashed, and the icy mass shattered but Hakari's punch was negated, but the following icebergy Shoto sent was immediately cut into 6 pieces without resistance by Hakari's claws before he appeared before Shoto and kicked his side, not towards the edge for a ring out but toward the middle before he managed to stop himself with an iceberg and clutched his side, feeling his bruised ribs with a scowl.

"It should be pretty clear-" Hakari stomped on the ground and shattered the ice that suddenly covered it, trying to freeze his feet onto the ground. "-That you can't stand against me without your quirk, so why are you being so stubborn about using it?"

"I don't need to use my fire to win! I'll surpass everyone without it!" Todoroki sent an even stronger avalanche of ice but Hakari jumped above and perched on top of it while looking down on him.

"But it's quite obvious that you can't, why are you so goddamn stubborn about not using your quirk anyway? I'm getting kinda tired of asking." Hakari's nonchalant tone grated his nerves.

"Why do you care so much...!? Why does it matter to you? Did my father buy you off? Is that it?"

Todorki glared at Hakari who changed his expression to one of annoyance.

"Bitch please, as if I would take the deal of that shit-ass. I have no intention of involving myself in whatever fucked up family problems you guys have." Shoto's eyes widened.

"I am doing this because it pisses me off." Hakari met Shoto's stare with his own indignant one as he hopped down from the icy mass and down to his level.

"Everyone in this class is giving their all, because they want to become heroes who help people. Hell, I'm doing the best I can despite who I have been. But you aren't." Shoto stood silent.

"You are here, spitting on the face of everyone who is trying their best. Simply because you can't handle the shadow of your father. And it pisses me the fuck off." He clenched his fists hard enough to draw blood and bit his lip as Hakari kept speaking.

"I don't care about what sob story you have behind you or what vendetta you have in your heart. This is not about your dad trying to buy me out, this is about you refusing to do your best. And it pisses me off."

"Shut up!" A sharp iceberg cut through where Hakari was standing but he easily dodged it and chopped it in half before kicking him away as Shoto grit his teeth hard enough to bleed while forcing himself back up with his stiffened limbs.

Scared of your father's shadow.

"It's a shame really, you could have been a great hero." Hakari walked slowly, prepared to land the finishing blow as Shoto was forced to recall his mother's words.

'You can still be a hero.' His mother's words echoed in his head but he still grit his teeth and glared indignantly.

He felt his body get even colder as he channelled his ice. His limbs felt stiff.

"I don't care. I can become a hero even without using his quirk! I won't give him the satisfaction!" Hakari tilted his head as he dodged another wave of ice.

"So, it's not your fire but your father's quirk now? Is this what this is about? Spiting your father?" Hakari scowled and glared at Shoto as he breathed heavily conjuring another spike from the ground to hit Hakari that he easily kicked apart.

"You think this shit is a game? Look at this bastard, do you even want to become a hero!? Are you here just to show your father up? You wouldn't use your powers to someone who needed help? What? Because you want to be a petulant baby who insults the meaning of a hero?"

Shoto clenched his fists, this time Hakari's words genuinely hurt. Because despite it all he-

"I do want to be a hero. But I refuse to become with his help-"

"Shut up."

Hakari cut him off, this time, his voice was colder than he had ever heard from hiö, it felt like Hakari would genuinely rush forward and rip his head off if he said anything more.

"Do you know why this really pisses me off?"

Hakari tore the sleeve off his uniform to reveal a very scarred arm, but the most distinctive scar was one that was the large one that wrapped around the entire circumference of his arm.

"I try my best, every day I do, because I have to, to be a hero despite what I am, I have to do everything I can. I got my arm torn off trying to save everyone against the Nomu, the only reason I still have it was because I had regeneration. Yet here you are, blessed with such a powerful quirk yet you refuse to use it and claim that you will become a better hero than me."

Shoto clenched his jaw and his eyes widened in shock as Hakari glared at him with a downright murderous gaze.

"You claim that you will be better than me while you put in such a half-assed effort while I spend my days risking my life, being broken in half and training? You will surpass me with that bullshit you are spouting? You can fuck right off."

Hakari held his fist out in front of him with a challenging look in his eyes as they drilled into Shoto's own.

"So, if you are going to say that you want to be a hero, prove it to me. Use your damn flames and face me with everything you've got! If not, then throw yourself out of the damn ring and quit the school while you are ahead!"

Shoto hung his head down and clenched his fists.

He wanted to be a hero like the ones he saw on TV with his mother, one of the brief respites he had back in his childhood.

But he couldn't, not with his flames.

"I want to become a hero with my own merits, not with his-" He was cut off again.

"His his his, who? I am not seeing anyone here but you! It's your goddamn quirk, isn't it!? So stop screwing around and just use it and show me you are willing to be a hero!"

Shoto's eyes widened as far as they could as he remembered the words of his mother that he had slowly forgotten over the ages with his bitterness blocking out the rest of her words.

'It's okay for you to become a hero Shoto. You don't have to be a prisoner of your blood. You are your own person, it's okay for you to be who you want to be.'

He felt his body heat up as his breath got caught in his throat.

Embers flickered in his vision as Hakari's frown lightened.

'It's... alright for me to use it. ...Right?'

Roar!

A great inferno enveloped the entire arena as all the ice melted away while Hakari smiled and turned Defensive Form and looked at Shoto who was covered in flames that melted away the chill rooted in his body. He looked at Hakari, not with the anger and bitterness that plagued his sight before but now with renewed determination.

"I... will be a hero!"

Hakari grinned wholeheartedly as he stopped holding back too, an exoskeleton armour covering his body getting reinforced by Defensive form while his body was covered in his freezing flames.

"Now that's the spirit."

Another inferno flared up, this one blue that covered the other half of the arena as they both stared at each other with excitement boiling in their eyes.

"Now, show me a good time Shoto!"

It was time to fight for real.

A/N: Part 1 of the Todoroki fight and I hope I delivered, the first part was mostly about ideals rather than an actual fight as it's nigh impossible for a cryokinetic to defeat Hakari. This chapter should show how much Hakari has developed as a person since the start.

He started off the fight just following a script to get a reaction out of Todorki but as it went on he realized what he personally felt about it outside of everything else. Anyway, did you guys like how I did this fight and Shoto's awakening? I wrote it mainly from his perspective to really emphasize it too. I hope I did a good job. What did you guys think? I'd love to know.

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