Chapter 26: The Temperature of Despair.
The giant screens looming over the stadium displayed the face-off. On the left, Shoto Todoroki, half of his body wreathed in roaring, chaotic flames. On the right, Kuzan Aokiji, his black eyes were focused this time..
The crowd was in a frenzy. The heat radiating from the ring was palpable even in the upper decks.
"What's wrong?" Todoroki asked, his voice distorted by the roar of his own fire. He noticed the slight change in Aokiji's expression—a narrowing of the eyes, a tightening of the jaw. "That's the first time I've seen that look on your face. Are you nervous?"
Aokiji offered a thin, dry smile. "Is that what it looks like to you?"
"It doesn't matter anyway!" Todoroki shouted. "I'm ending this!"
Todoroki didn't wait. He thrust his left hand forward.
Fffrrrrr.
A torrent of fire surged toward Aokiji. It was a wall of destruction.
Aokiji didn't try to block it with an ice wall. He knew it would melt. Instead, his lower body suddenly dissolved. His legs turned into a swirling mist of cold air and ice shards. He dropped low, moving not like a human, but like a serpent of frost. He slid sideways, skimming across the floor with impossible fluidity, dodging the main column of fire by inches.
Todoroki's brows lowered as he thought, One of his hidden moves? He's gotten faster…
The fire already spilling from his left hand twisted as he redirected it, sending the blazing stream snaking after Aokiji, who glided across the ground like a serpent made of frost. His lithering was creating a tiny path of ice, but Todoroki's fire was immediately melting it.
He was fast. He circled to Todoroki's blind spot, the ice reforming into legs as he lunged, his hand glowing with cold, aiming for Todoroki's exposed back.
"Ice A—"
"Too slow!" Todoroki roared.
He didn't turn around. He simply clenched his left fist and expelled an omni-directional blast of heat from his entire body.
FOOOM!
The explosion of fire caught Aokiji mid-motion.
"Gah!"
For the first time in the tournament, Aokiji was thrown back by brute force. He flew three meters through the air, landing hard on his back.
He sat up slowly. There was a smear of soot on his cheek and his UA uniform a little bit burned.
"A DIRECT HIT!" Present Mic screamed, clutching his head. "KUZAN TOOK THE HEAT!"
The crowd roared, sensing blood.
In the VIP section, Sayuri Kuzan clenched her hand on her chest, her eyes were worried about her brother. Beside her, Soichiro Kuzan tapped his finger against his arm, his face twisted in deep annoyance. "Get up," he hissed under his breath.
In the ring, Todoroki didn't let up. He stomped his right foot, creating a pillar of ice that elevated him ten meters into the air. He stood on top of it, looking down at the prone Aokiji..
"So you have time to sit there?!"
Todoroki began to hurl fireballs. They weren't precise, but they were volatile, exploding on impact.
Aokiji rolled backward, dodging one, then another. He regained his footing and swung his arm.
"Ice Partisan!"
Four jagged spears of ice shot upward, aiming for Todoroki on his perch.
Todoroki laughed. It was a manic sound, fueled by adrenaline. "Useless!"
He swiped his hand. A wave of fire intercepted the spears. The ice didn't just break; it hissed and evaporated into steam instantly. The difference in elemental power seemed absolute.
"Are you this weak against fire?!" Todoroki taunted. "Is this the limit of the Kuzan clan?!"
Aokiji gritted his teeth. He crossed his arms over his head.
"Ice Capsule!"
A thick dome of ice formed around him, shielding him from the rain of fire.
But Todoroki was relentless. He jumped from his pillar, wreathed in flame, and landed on top of the dome with a massive fiery punch.
CRASH.
The dome shattered. The force of the explosion blew Aokiji backward again. He fell near the corner lines of the arena. He was lying on his stomach, coughing as smoke filled his lungs.
On the giant screen, Todoroki's face was shown in close-up. He looked handsome, powerful as fire burning on his left cheek, and utterly dominant.
Outside the stadium, a massive crowd had gathered around the public viewing screens mounted on the arena's facade.
Mt. Lady, Giantess Hero, was on security duty. She looked up at the screen, shielding her eyes from the sun. Beside her were Kamui Woods and Death Arms.
"Whoa," Mt. Lady whistled. "Look at that power. And he's kinda cute, too. That scar gives him a bad-boy vibe."
"Focus on the crowd control," Kamui Woods scolded, though he was also staring at the screen. "But you're right. That is undeniably the blood of the Number Two Hero. The raw output is staggering."
"He's overwhelming the ice kid," Death Arms noted. "Fire beats ice. It's basic typing."
Inside the stadium, near the front railing, Endeavor was gripping the metal bar so hard it was beginning to warp.
"SHOTO!" Endeavor roared, ignoring the strange looks from the civilians around him. He was smiling—a terrifying, wide grin that showed too many teeth. "YES! BURN HIM! SHOW THEM ALL! YOU ARE MY MASTERPIECE!"
In the shadowy back row of the VIP box, All Might sat in his skeletal form. His blue eyes drifted three seats over to Soichiro Kuzan. The businessman sat in silence, watching his son get beaten, his expression unreadable but radiating a cold disappointment.
In the Class 1-A stands, the mood was grim.
"He can't win," Mineta whispered, shaking. "Todoroki has the high ground, the range, and the element. It's over."
"Kuzan looks tired," Tsuyu observed. "Regenerating from that much heat must be exhausting."
Most of the class watched with bated breath. In different waiting rooms, Bakugo and Iida watched the monitors in silence, their eyes analyzing every frame.
In the ring, Todoroki stood ten meters away from the cornered Aokiji. He was panting slightly, smoke curling from his left side.
"This isn't the scenario I wanted," Todoroki admitted, his voice carrying over the silence of the arena. "I wanted to reject my father's power. But... I admit it. I can't defeat you with just half of me. To beat a monster like you, I have to use everything."
Aokiji slowly pushed himself up. He placed a hand on his knee, then he looked down at the ground beneath him—a slushy mess of melted ice, water, and cracked cement.
"Goodbye, Kuzan," Todoroki said.
He pulled his left arm back. The flames shifted between orange and red.
"FIRE FIST WAVE!"
He thrust his palm forward. A massive, concentrated beam of fire, hot enough to melt his opponent, roared toward the corner where Aokiji stood. It was a finishing move. There was no way to dodge.
Aokiji didn't try to dodge.
He let out a long breath.
In the intense heat of the arena, the air suddenly sparkled. Tiny, glittering diamond dust appeared around Aokiji.
"FREEZE."
He didn't shout. He simply spoke the word.
He thrust his right hand directly into the oncoming torrent of fire.
What happened next defied the laws of physics.
The fire didn't melt him. The fire didn't explode.
The fire stopped.
Starting from Aokiji's fingertips, the roaring flames turned solid. The fire transformed into a jagged, intricate sculpture of red and orange crystal. The freeze traveled up the stream of fire faster than the speed of heat, racing back toward the source.
Todoroki's eyes widened in horror.
Snap. Crackle.
The freeze reached him. His left arm, still extended, was instantly encased in ice. The flames that were emanating from his shoulder solidified into beautiful, terrifying spikes of frozen plasma.
Then, with a sound like wind chimes, the frozen fire shattered.
CRASH!
It didn't turn to water. It turned to millions of tiny, sparkling particles of diamond dust that floated in the air, glittering under the sun.
The fire was gone.
Todoroki stood there, his left arm encased in a heavy gauntlet of frost, staring at the empty air where his ultimate attack used to be.
"WH-WHAT WAS THAT?!" Present Mic screamed, standing up on his desk. "DID YOU SEE THAT?! THE FIRE... IT FROZE?! IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!"
The crowd was stunned into silence.
"He froze... fire?" Uraraka whispered, tugging on Midoriya's sleeve. "Deku-kun, can ice do that?"
Midoriya was frozen, his mouth open. "I... I don't know. Theoretically, if you lower the temperature fast enough to stop molecular movement entirely... you could freeze plasma. But the energy required... it's god-like."
"That violates thermodynamics," Momo murmured, clenching her hand on her chest. "He stopped the energy itself."
In the ring, Aokiji lowered his hand. He dug his pinky finger into his ear, wiggling it casually.
"What's the matter, Shoto?" Aokiji asked, his voice echoing in the silent stadium. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
Todoroki stared at his frozen arm. He gritted his teeth.
Impossible.
He flared his internal heat. Steam hissed as he forcibly melted the ice off his arm. He glared at Aokiji, sweat dripping down his face.
"You..." Todoroki panted. "Were you holding back this whole time?"
Aokiji began to walk forward.
Step.
Where his shoe touched the wet concrete, the water didn't just freeze; it turned white instantly.
Step.
Frost began to crawl up Aokiji's legs. A visible aura of cold air, blue and heavy, began to emanate from his shoulders.
"No," Aokiji said calmly. "I'm not like you, Shoto. I don't hold back out of spite."
He stopped five meters away. The air temperature in the stadium dropped another ten degrees. People in the stands shivered.
"It's just that..." Aokiji looked at his hand, which was now completely covered in ice. "I can adjust the intensity of my cold. Until now, I was just cooling things down."
He looked up, his black eyes locking onto Todoroki's turquoise one.
"Now... shall we finish this?"
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