Wait… thought Haru, still going up, watching the stadium shrink below him. Then, he slowed… slowed some more… stopped. At the exact moment he reached the peak of the arc Todoroki had sent him on, with no velocity left to hurt him on impact, he teleported down to the ground in sequence, five meters at a time. It took him fifteen warps to reach the ground, in lightning succession. When he landed, it was like he'd fallen no more than a few feet. He bent his knees lightly and hit a palm against the ground. When he looked back up at Todoroki, now gaping in shock from the other end of the ring, he smiled with determination.
Midnight and Cementoss relaxed, and the crowd went nuts. "A GENIUS MOVE AND A GREAT USE OF PHYSICS! DID YOU TEACH HIM THAT?"
"Not that I'm aware of," said Aizawa.
Shoto was tired. He was exhausted, actually. And his whole body was in pain. His face was hot with forming bruises. His right side was starting to feel numb. And Namikaze's whole body was now glowing yellow, as if he'd somehow passed the point where overuse of his Quirk would weaken him, and he was even stronger on the other side.
The decision somehow felt much simpler this time. Shoto ignited his flames.
"OH! TODOROKI LETS THE FIRE SHOW ONCE AGAIN! HAS NAMIKAZE SHOWN HIS WORTH AS AN OPPONENT?"
Endeavour's smile grew larger, and so did Namikaze's. Shoto's expression remained grim, even though the warmth of the fire was spreading through him, healing him.
"Try and touch me now," he said.
Namikaze shrugged. "Okay."
He repeated his charge from before. Todoroki sent out another ice pillar. He warped to the left to dodge it. Then there was a spurt of fire coming in, and he warped to the right. Another jump brought him in close range, but as he swiped a punch, Todoroki sidestepped him, and fired fire right into his face. Coughing, Haru warped backwards, feeling the sting of the heat and the smoke, filling his head with a dangerous lightness.
Todoroki suddenly took off on a right-foot slide, attempting to encircle Haru with a banked wall of ice. Haru tried to turn towards him to counterattack, but Todoroki shot fire inward into the circle, and Haru was forced to escape, skirting the closing ice wall by the skin of his teeth. Was his hair smoking?
Thinking on the fly, he flexed the yellow energy through his arms and yanked off parts off the ice wall, warping them over Todoroki's head in rapid succession. The other boy dodged one by sliding out of the way on more ice, dodged another, and attacked the last one with fire, causing a burst of steam and boiling water to spray out.
Haru flashed backwards to avoid that, but still caught some glancing droplets that stung against his face. Owww…
"NAMIKAZE TRIES THE DROPPING TACTIC AGAIN, TO NO AVAIL! OH? WHAT'S TODOROKI DOING?"
Fine, Shoto thought, grimacing angrily, spraying fire all over the platform, aiming at any and all remaining ice. I'll get rid of all your solids. And then there will be fire. Just fire.
Bursts of steam and small floods of hot water were erupting everywhere. Shoto watched as Namikaze frantically warped into the air to avoid them, sitting atop a piece of rapidly melting ice. He can't teleport liquid either.
Shoto sprayed more fire, turning slowly in a circle and enveloping the place. The water had all but evaporated away. Namikaze was standing clear on the platform again, but his uniform was once again tattered and singed. His blue eyes darted around frantically, as the flickering firelight danced in their reflection.
Shoto had turned the fighting ring into a hellscape.
"OOH! THERE'S FLAMES EVERYWHERE! WHAT WILL Namikaze DO?"
"Cementoss!" Midnight shouted frantically.
The cement hero got up out of his chair, ready to form up walls between the two boys.
All Might leaned forward in his seat. Don't. Don't interrupt… like Midoriya and Bakugo before them, they must finish this business on their own.
Endeavor was chuckling as he watched the fire envelop the platform, giddy. Finally.
Haru warped side-to-side in a zigzag, trying to confuse Todoroki, but the boy somehow seemed ready for everything he threw at him, and it was harder to maneuver with all the fire everywhere. This is what I asked for, I suppose. Another dodge, another shot of fire. Haru felt his arm get hit, and then his shoulder. His clothes were singed and torn. Very well then, a straight on attack it is! He charged forward, and Todoroki sent a swipe of fire out to the left, anticipating Haru to warp that way, but he stayed on his current course, putting both hands onto Todoroki's torso and shoving hard.
Shoto's eyes widened as he realised that his opponent wasn't warping, and was instead pushing him back.
He's going to push me out of bounds oh no oh no no I can't…
Shoto remembered what he did with Dark Shadow, and dug his right heel into the ground, sending up an ice wall behind himself at the edge of the ring. The two boys slammed into it, and then Shoto stepped to the side, making Namikaze give chase. He put up another ice wall, this time in front of him, and he heard Namikaze smack against it. The warp user tried to go around, and then Shoto reached out with his left and blew up the ice wall.
The crowd gasped again as the wall burst into steam and boiling water, raining down on both of them. Shoto was mostly unaffected, but most of the torrent was angled toward Namikaze, and the boy had no resistance.
Haru felt blinding pain, more than he'd ever felt before. "AAAAAARGH!" he shrieked, clutching at his face, stumbling backwards. Somewhere behind him, Midnight was getting ready to call the match. The crowd was stirring up a storm. A girl was screaming. No, he thought. No! I made a promise! Not just to this idiot that just scalded me, but to… but to MINA!
The blinding red and white seemed to swirl and fade, darkening, until all was yellow. Nothing but yellow.
"AAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Haru went to his knees, and threw out both his hands.
As Shoto watched the warper crumble to the ground, the first thing he thought was Recovery Girl would heal him, and then, I just did the same thing that my mother did to me, and then, oh my God. What have I done?
Shoto suddenly saw a yellow glow appear around himself, and then he felt a tugging, an unnatural force, almost lifting him off his feet.
Time and space turned inside out.
He blinked, and then he was falling flat onto the ground… just outside the boundary line.
Namikaze had just teleported him out of the ring.
The entire crowd went silent. Midnight's mouth fell open.
"… Todoroki is out of bounds!" she announced. "The winner of the match… and the first year U.A. Sports Festival… is Haru Namikaze!"
Haru lowered his hands, and the golden light surrounding his body flickered out. Tattered and scalded and burnt, he collapsed forward onto the ground, unconscious.
He never heard the cheers.