Midoriya had just survived Tiger's punch, without getting thrown back this time, when he sensed the heat.
Looking up, in the distance, he saw a hissing blue fire.
Midoriya instantly frowned as Todoroki had already talked about how he wanted to drop the temperature of his ice, without freezing himself, in as little time as possible.
Everyone had understood the reason behind Todoroki's obsession, especially the Class 1-A students.
No one wanted to experience the same events from the I-Island again.
At that time, given the nature of the attack, Todoroki must have felt that he had failed to help everyone. So, it made sense that he was working on his cold side specifically before it became an issue later, affecting his Hero work.
That's exactly why the blue fire puzzled Midoriya.
It meant that instead of ice, Todoroki was pushing his hot side.
Midoriya still remembered how reserved Todoroki had been when it came to using his left side due to his father, Endeavor. Todoroki had come out of his self-imposed beliefs, making peace with his fire self to be a better Hero. Still, to completely abandon the week-long strategy, pushing his fire to this drastic temperature…
Deku hoped Todoroki wouldn't end up hurting himself.
The good thing was that Luke was with him…
Midoriya's eyes suddenly went wide.
Suddenly, he remembered Luke's words from days ago, when they had been talking about Todoroki.
Todoroki's Quirk is Half-Hot, Half-Cold, Luke had remarked. The only way to step forward is to use both of them…
No way… Midoriya's face lost all color as he involuntarily activated Full Cowl… beyond 15%. No way…
With a BOOM, Deku shot forward, raising a storm in his wake.
"AIZAWA-SENSEI!" Midoriya's shout sent a chill running down all spines. "TODOROKI!!"
…
Todoroki… burned.
He had pushed the flames so high that they had gone blue.
Even if he stopped using his Quirk now, it would take some time for them to vanish. If he didn't use his cold side to cool his body, then he wouldn't just get burns. His entire left side would be pulverized.
But he had already made up his mind.
Luke might not have meant this path, but this was the shortest one.
If he wanted to make this Training Camp count, if he wanted to make sure that he hadn't wasted not only his, but also Luke's time, then he must… forget about limits.
Plus Ultra might not work here.
He needed to go even beyond that!
Todoroki's entire face scrunched up as his left side burned, pain making him go insane.
With a bang, ice advanced from his right side to the left, hoping to quash the flames before they could disappear naturally.
It wasn't enough…
It wasn't enough…
Todoroki's heart thumped as he faced death, realizing… it wasn't enough.
After getting hit by Delay hundreds of times now, he had already realized that once struck by it, even Luke had no control over it. Not unless he used a different Quirk.
Which meant that, even if Luke realized he had lost control of the situation, he would still end up dying at the end.
Todoroki felt his mind going blank as he came to that conclusion.
Even death felt cold now… crawling to his mind… like a sheet of blackness.
Blood flooded Todoroki's eyes as they shot open. No. No. He… cannot afford to die!
"HAAAAAAAAA!" Shoto Todoroki screamed, the Delay making the sound come out like a row rumble.
As the blood on his left side boiled, something snapped within Todoroki's mind — like knots unraveling themselves.
With a HISS, the crawling ice took a bluish color, instantly advancing toward the fire.
And the moment that blue ice met blue fire, a CLAP resounded, all the ice exploding into a storm of shards.
Time paused.
Midoriya, who had appeared a few dozen meters away, looked at the scene, aghast. Behind him was an even paler-faced Aizawa, the end of his hair already rising.
Even Luke, despite having Danger Intuition and Decryption, didn't see it coming.
No matter how agile he was, against the enlarging ice shards in his eyes, he would never be fast enough.
Yet, his body still moved, his hand reaching in front of Nyx, who was on his shoulder, ignoring another ice shard that was going straight for his stomach…
Just as that ice shard was about to rip a hole in Luke's stomach, though, a hand came out of nowhere and pushed him aside.
Time resumed.
The CLAP became a BOOM, deafening ears.
Todoroki's eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell.
Luke was sent flying in the other direction, shards of ice blurring past him.
And, where he had been standing, stood Aina, bleeding from the mouth… a finger-sized shard of ice plunged deep into her stomach.
"AINA!" Luke shouted.
Forgetting everything, a muffled boom rang out as he shot toward her, catching her fall.
For a moment, all Beyonder abilities and all Quirks seemed to disappear from his mind, getting erased by the sight of Aina's blood.
Yet, Decryption still worked, letting him latch onto a part of his cold reasoning.
With one smooth motion, he pulled the ice shard out, making the blood spurt like water from a broken pipe.
In any other case, this would have been a disaster.
However, Luke… was a Magician.
Putting his hand over the gaping wound on Aina's stomach, he swiped, taking it to her leg.
With a bloody squelch, the flesh on her leg split up, and a faint crack echoed, her bone breaking underneath.
Facing two back-to-back hideous injuries, Aina's vision blackened, and she passed out, her hands tightly latched onto Luke's arms.
Panting and looking at Aina's face, Luke suddenly realized that his hands were shaking.
Not only him, but even Nyx's heart was booming out of her chest, her claws drawing blood from his shoulder.
Then, just as the scientist within him took control now that Aina was out of danger, bringing calm, Luke found himself covered in shadows.
"… What…" Midoriya looked at Luke wide-eyed.
Aizawa's eyes glowed red, his hair standing upright. "… was that?!"
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