"I'm NOT going to use my fires for battle. I'm gonna reach the top without giving my father an inch of satisfaction!"
"What, so you're gonna half-ass it instead?" Izuku said, real anger beginning to boil in him.
...
-Wait, what are you doing?-
Izuku ignored the voice in his head as he continued.
"Everyone else here is putting everything they have into winning this tournament. Ojiro gave up on his chance because he didn't earn his spot in the final through his own efforts, Mei put aside her hatred of me, just to reach the finals, fucking Katsuki knocked himself out, putting in everything he had, just to try and win!"
A large part of the anger that flowed through his mind at that moment was due to the adrenaline Venom was pumping through him. But even without it, this was something that galled Izuku anyway. The idea that Todoroki wasn't giving this his all.
"Everyone of us is giving it our all! And yet here you are, thinking you can win, even when holding back half of your power! It's an insult! To me, to this tournament, to EVERYONE! SO COME ON TODOROKI! STOP HALF ASSING THIS AND COME AT ME! WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE G-"
At that his speech was suddenly halted as the black mass around his head expanded outwards forming Venom's head above his shoulder, facing him, as a black line formed across his mouth shutting him up.
"What the fuck are you doing Izuku!"
Izuku startled, shocked from the gag, then his hands went up and ripped it apart, the liquid splattering around his mouth.
"I'm trying to get Todoroki to-"
"Have you lost your fucking marbles!!! He's got FIRE IZUKU!!!"
Izuku was about to reply, the anger and adrenaline pumping through his veins, only for a sound to interrupt both of them, both of them turning their head back towards Shoto, just in time for a mass of ice utterly and completely encase them.
Not encase them like Todoroki had done with Sero in Todoroki's previous round.
Instead, the ice-encased Izuku and Venom completely in the center of a massive block of ice.
Izuku was utterly and completely immobilized, oxygen cut off. He panicked. Then he began to move. He put everything he had, every muscle in his arms to just move, force them apart.
He could feel the crack of the ice, as the block began to break. Then in one burst, it broke apart, huge pieces of ice sent flying.
As his arms got free, he slammed his hands down on the ice below, freeing his lower body as the ice broke apart.
Then he staggered out of the frozen block.
He had to jump to dodge another wave of ice sent his way but compared to the previous attacks, this one was downright sluggish.
Todoroki had put a lot more energy than he should have in the previous last-ditch attack while Izuku was distracted.
Now, the boy was flat out shaking and had obvious troubles not just falling over and hugging himself trying to keep warm. And yet, he didn't make so much as a single speck of fire. He could so easily banish the frost, yet he forced himself not to.
"Todoroki, y-"
His arm shot upwards, completely unprompted, and a line slammed straight into Shoto's chest. Then it wrenched sideways, sending the weak and limp Shoto over the edge.
Silence followed for a moment.
Then…
"Todoroki Shoto is out of bounds. Midoriya Izuku is the winner." Midnight announced.
All around, cheers from the tribunes. But Izuku couldn't focus on any of them. He felt… Annoyed. Angry. At the end result of winning against someone who wasn't taking the match seriously. Against Todoroki for holding back in the first place, and at Venom, for cutting him off as he tried to make Shoto fight with his all.
He could feel that Venom was also brimming with anger.
At him specifically.
---
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!"
After winning, Izuku had gone over to the nearest toilets to get some privacy for what he could tell was coming.
"What is wrong with me? Why did you cut me off like that?"
"BECAUSE YOU WERE TRYING TO MAKE HIM SUMMON FUCKING FIRE AND FLAMES!!!"
"I was trying to get him to take this match seriously! To take this entire tournament seriously!"
"Who the hell cares about how seriously he was taking this thing! The POINT of this tournament is to WIN, not to get our enemies to work out their issues to become more effective fighters!"
Venom's face was right up in front of Izuku, shouting at him, with his long rows of teeth at full display as he shouted at Izuku with that voice that sounded so much like his own, yet so different.
"What is the point of winning this, if the rest of the tournament isn't taking this seriously? We'd just be playing games!"
"WE ARE PLAYING GAMES HERE IZUKU! This is a fucking SPORTS TOURNAMENT, not a REAL fight! But even if it wasn't, this sort of shit is the kind of stuff that would get you KILLED in a real battle!"
Izuku did not back down. Maybe it was the supernaturally strong adrenaline that was still pumping through his veins, or maybe it was that this did genuinely matter to him. Whatever it was, he refused to yield on the point to the symbiote.
The two of them were interrupted, however, when the door opened. Both his and Venom's heads snapped around towards it as Ibara from 1-B walked in, wearing a calm, but annoyed expression.
"What do you want?" Venom snapped at her.
Ibara, seemingly not intimidated by the alien, merely raised an eyebrow as she replied, her voice calm.
"It is not my place to get between a man and the quirk which God has blessed him with. However, I must ask you to vacate these premises. This facility is for those of the female gender, and you are not one such. Thus I must ask you to leave immediately, lest I can only assume you are a perverted man who cares not for the privacy of Women, like the sinful, perverted dwarf of your class.
Izuku blinked. Then he did a double-take, as he took in her words, and the anger suddenly became replaced with shame and embarrassment. He nodded, and walked past her, out the door, took a look, and saw that indeed this was a female bathroom.
He had been so pissed he hadn't even noticed.
As he walked down the corridor, he began to calm down, the adrenaline reaching it's end. He was still angry at Venom, but as he thought back, the sheer volume of it seemed… Disproportionate.
It wasn't like Venom didn't have a reason for doing what he had, by cutting the fight short.
But in the moment, he had just felt… Rage. Complete and total rage.
...
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