Adjusts glasses and settles into my comfy Stitch onesie
"Woah! You guys hit 1500 powerstones already??" I nearly spilled my tea all over my manuscript pages. "I had to double-check the numbers because I couldn't believe it!"
Pulling my knees up to my chest in my computer chair, I spun around once, letting the excitement bubble through me. The hood of my onesie flopped over my eyes, and I pushed it back, grinning at the screen.
"Damn, I guess it's time for the bonus chapter, huh? A promise is a promise after all!" I reached for one of the many pens stuck in my messy bun, twirling it between my fingers as I considered the story so far. "And wow... has it really been 42 chapters since the beginning of this arc? Jeez, I write too much..."
Though to be fair, you guys keep encouraging me with all your amazing support!
I glanced at the towering stack of notebooks beside my desk, each filled with plot points, character developments, and little doodles in the margins. The latest one had a sketch of Camie teasing Momo about the upcoming tournament matches.
"You know, sometimes I worry that I'm getting too caught up in all the little details and character moments. But then I read your comments about catching the subtle hints I've dropped, or theories about where certain plot threads are going, and it just..." I hugged my knees tighter, smiling. "It makes all those late nights worth it, you know?"
My eyes drifted to the calendar on my wall, covered in sticky notes and red ink marking upload dates. "Though I probably should work on being more concise. Lycoris keeps telling me 'Wisteria, not everything needs to be a novel-length arc!'" I mimicked his stern tone before giggling.
"But how can I help it when these characters just keep doing things?" I waved my hands animatedly, nearly losing my pen in the process.
Catching it at the last second, I turned back to my computer with renewed determination. "Anyway! You wonderful readers have earned this bonus chapter, and I'm excited to share it with you. Though I should probably warn you..." I leaned closer to the screen, lowering my voice conspiratorially. "Things are about to get interesting."
Very interesting indeed...
======
Damn it, she's so much stronger now.
The thought raced through my mind as Hitomi balanced her quirk for the first time. Flames danced along her left arm while ice crystals formed on her right. Steam rose where the two elements met, creating a misty aura around her that made her look almost mythical.
This was Hitomi Todoroki as she was meant to be—complete, balanced, powerful. The scar on her face seemed to glow in the light of her own flames, no longer a mark of shame but a badge of courage.
Then she attacked.
A wave of ice shot toward me, but unlike her previous assaults, this one carried precision and control I hadn't seen before. As I leapt to avoid it, a fireball roared through the space where I'd been about to land.
I tucked into a roll, the heat singing my hair as I barely escaped. She'd predicted my dodge.
"INCREDIBLE!" Present Mic's voice boomed through the stadium. "TODOROKI IS USING BOTH SIDES OF HER QUIRK! THE ICE QUEEN HAS BECOME THE MISTRESS OF FIRE AND ICE!"
The crowd erupted, their collective voice a physical force that shook the concrete beneath my feet. I steadied myself, keeping my eyes locked on Hitomi. She moved differently now—fluid, confident, her eyes sharp and focused. The hesitation was gone.
I grinned. "Now we're talking."
A column of ice erupted beneath my feet. I jumped, but a wall of flame rose to meet me. The heat forced me to twist midair, compromising my landing. My ankle twisted slightly as I came down hard on the concrete.
"MIDORIYA IS ON THE DEFENSIVE NOW, FOLKS! TODOROKI HAS COMPLETELY TURNED THIS MATCH AROUND!"
She pressed her advantage, sending alternating waves of fire and ice in rapid succession. The contrast between scorching heat and biting cold made it difficult to adjust. My lungs burned from the rapid temperature changes, sweat freezing on my skin one moment, evaporating the next.
"YES, HITOMI!" A booming voice cut through the crowd's roar. "THAT'S IT! EMBRACE YOUR POWER! MY LEGACY!"
Endeavor stood at the edge of the stands, flames erupting from his face and shoulders. His eyes burned with satisfaction as he watched his daughter finally use the fire he'd bred her to wield.
"SHUT THE HELL UP, NUMBER TWO!" I shouted at him, my voice carrying across the arena. "THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOU!"
A fireball the size of a beach ball whistled past my ear, close enough that I felt my eyebrow singe. I spun to face Hitomi, whose heterochromatic eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Focus only on me, Izuku," she warned, another flame dancing between her fingers. "I'm your opponent."
She was right. I'd let myself get distracted, and in a fight of this caliber, that was dangerous. I centered myself, drawing a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
Time to use Strong Style.
I lowered my stance, feeling my weight distribute evenly across the balls of my feet. The familiar sense of calm washed over me as I slipped into the mindset Bang had drilled into me. My body loosened, muscles relaxing into the state of ready fluidity that characterized Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist.
But I needed more.
"WHAT'S THIS? MIDORIYA'S STANCE HAS CHANGED COMPLETELY!"
Hitomi sent another combination attack—ice along the ground, fire through the air. Instead of dodging, I flowed around them. My body moved like water around rocks, finding the path of least resistance.
I closed the distance, entering her guard before she could establish another ranged attack. Her eyes widened slightly—she hadn't expected me to get this close this quickly.
"You're not the only one with surprises," I said, my voice low enough that only she could hear.
We exchanged blows at close range, her quirk against my technique. Each time she tried to create distance, I stayed with her, moving inside her attacks rather than away from them. When she sent ice along the ground, I used it as a sliding path to close in again. When she unleashed fire, I twisted past them.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I DON'T BELIEVE WHAT I'M SEEING! MIDORIYA IS DANCING THROUGH TODOROKI'S ATTACKS LIKE THEY'RE MOVING IN SLOW MOTION!"
The fight took on a strange intimacy. We moved almost like dance partners, each responding to the other's movements with split-second precision. I felt the heat of her flames against my skin, the chill of her ice in my lungs. She felt the wind of my strikes passing her face, the pressure of my footwork forcing her to adjust her stance.
For each attack she launched, I had a counter. For each defense I mounted, she found an opening. We learned each other's rhythms in real time, adapting, evolving, pushing each other to new heights.
"Your form is good," I said during a momentary lull as we circled each other. "But you're still thinking of fire and ice as separate attacks."
She frowned, then sent a massive ice rampart toward me. I leapt over it, only to meet a wall of flame on the other side. I twisted through a narrow gap, landing in a crouch.
"They're not separate," I continued. "They're two halves of the same whole. Like your footwork and your quirk activation. They should flow together."
"Stop coaching me during our match," she snapped, though I caught the slightest quirk of her lips.
I smiled back. "Force of habit."
She combined her elements for the next attack—ice spikes wrapped in flame, a deadly beautiful creation that spiraled toward me from multiple angles.
Impressive. She's adapting already.
I used Blitz—my modified Flash Step—to slip between two of the flaming ice projectiles. The heat scorched my uniform while the ice shards cut shallow gashes across my arms. I ignored the pain, focusing instead on closing the distance again.
"THESE TWO FIRST-YEARS ARE PUTTING ON A SHOW LIKE NOTHING I'VE EVER SEEN! ERASERHEAD, WHAT ARE WE WITNESSING HERE?"
"Two students pushing each other beyond their limits," Aizawa's dry voice replied. "Midoriya's martial technique is countering Todoroki's raw power, forcing her to innovate. Todoroki's dual-quirk assault is pressuring Midoriya's stamina, forcing him to increase his efficiency."
He wasn't wrong. I could feel my muscles burning from the constant movement, the rapid temperature changes taking their toll.
Hitomi wasn't faring much better. Her breathing had become labored, sweat beading on her forehead despite her temperature regulation. Using both sides of her quirk simultaneously after years of suppressing her fire was straining her in ways she hadn't prepared for.
Yet neither of us slowed down.
The concrete platform had become a patchwork of elemental destruction. Jagged ice formations jutted from scorched craters. Steam rose from melting barriers. The air itself seemed to waver between extremes, making it hard to see clearly across the battlefield.
We'd moved beyond the realm of a simple sports festival match. This was something more primal, more significant. A battle of wills as much as quirks and techniques.
"THE TEMPERATURE IN THE STADIUM IS FLUCTUATING WILDLY! FOLKS IN THE FRONT ROWS ARE EXPERIENCING BOTH HEAT WAVES AND COLD SNAPS! THESE TWO AREN'T JUST FIGHTING EACH OTHER—THEY'RE CHANGING THE ENVIRONMENT ITSELF!"
"CONTESTANTS!" Cementoss's voice cut through the roar of battle. "You need to scale back! This is becoming dangerous!"
Neither of us heard him—or if we did, neither chose to acknowledge the warning.
"CEMENTOSS IS MOVING TO INTERVENE, BUT THESE TWO AREN'T SLOWING DOWN!"
I could see concrete barriers beginning to rise at the edges of the platform—Cementoss attempting to contain our battle before it endangered the spectators. But his caution only added urgency to our exchange. Both of us knew the match might be stopped at any moment.
"One last attack," I said, meeting Hitomi's heterochromatic gaze across the battlefield. "All or nothing."
She nodded, understanding passing between us without further words.
We moved simultaneously. Hitomi combining her ice and fire into a massive elemental blast that seemed to draw power from the very air around her. I channeled everything I had into Strong Style, feeling the technique evolve in response to the challenge before me.
"BOTH CONTESTANTS ARE GOING ALL OUT! THIS COULD BE THE FINAL CLASH!"
I executed a perfect Tri-State Smash, moving through Hitomi's defenses with precision honed through countless hours of training. My body twisted and flowed like water finding its path downhill, each movement setting up the next in a continuous chain of action.
At the same time, Hitomi unleashed her ultimate attack—a swirling vortex of fire and ice that seemed to defy the natural order. The two elements didn't cancel each other out but rather enhanced each other, creating something greater than the sum of its parts.
We met in the center of the platform, my technique against her quirk, skill against raw power. For a split second, time seemed to slow.
Then our attacks connected.
The resulting explosion rocked the entire stadium. A blinding flash of light, a deafening boom that drowned out even Present Mic's amplified voice. The concrete beneath our feet cracked and shattered. A massive cloud of dust and steam engulfed the platform, obscuring everything from view.
The force of the blast sent me flying backward. I twisted midair, trying to control my landing, but the impact had been too great. My back slammed against her ice wall.
Thank god for that.
For several seconds, silence reigned. The dust cloud hung thick over the battlefield, visibility reduced to zero. I could taste blood in my mouth, feel the sting of burns across my chest and arms. My shirt had been completely blown away, leaving my torso exposed to the elements. Ice crystals clung to my skin in some places, while other areas throbbed with the heat of fresh burns.
Slowly, the dust began to settle.
I stood at the very edge of the platform, balanced precariously between in-bounds and elimination. My body ached from the punishment it had taken, but I remained standing.
Across, through the thinning haze, I spotted Hitomi. She lay face-down, her body half on the platform, half beyond the boundary line. Her uniform top had been shredded by the explosion, leaving her back exposed. Ice crystals and angry red marks covered her skin in a patchwork of elemental damage.
She stirred slightly, pushing herself up on trembling arms.
"TODOROKI IS OUT OF BOUNDS!" Midnight's voice cut through the stunned silence of the stadium. "MIDORIYA ADVANCES TO THE NEXT ROUND!"
The crowd erupted, their cheers nearly as deafening as the explosion had been. Present Mic's voice rose above the din, recounting the final moments of the battle in excited tones that bordered on hysteria. But I tuned it all out, my attention fixed solely on Hitomi.
She had managed to get to her knees, her back still to me. As the dust cleared further, I realized that the explosion had destroyed more than just the back of her uniform. The entirety of her top was gone, leaving her completely exposed from the waist up.
The crowd hadn't noticed yet—most of their view still obscured by lingering dust and steam. But it would clear completely within seconds.
I made my decision instantly.
Ignoring the protest of my battered muscles, I dashed toward her. She looked up as I approached, confusion evident in her mismatched eyes. Before she could speak, I scooped her into my arms, one hand supporting her back, the other beneath her knees.
"Hold on," I murmured.
Then I activated Flash Step.
The world blurred around us as I covered the distance to the exit tunnel in a single bound. My muscles screamed in protest, but I pushed through, activating the technique twice more in rapid succession.
We reached the shadowed tunnel just as the last of the dust cleared from the arena. My legs finally gave out, and I slid down the wall, Hitomi still cradled in my arms. She ended up sitting across my lap, her chest pressed against my chest, both of us breathing hard from exertion and the aftermath of battle.
For a while, neither of us spoke. The roar of the crowd seemed distant now, muffled by the concrete walls of the tunnel. Our ragged breathing echoed in the enclosed space, filling each other's ears.
"Why did you do that?" Hitomi finally asked, her voice soft.
I swallowed, suddenly acutely aware of our position—her bare skin against mine, both of us half-clothed and covered in the evidence of our battle.
"Your uniform," I explained, keeping my eyes fixed firmly on the opposite wall. "The explosion destroyed it. The whole stadium would have seen."
She pulled away and glanced down at herself, a faint gasp escaping her lips as she realized her state of undress. A deep blush spread across her cheeks, but she made no move to leave my lap. Perhaps she was too exhausted, or perhaps she understood that my body was currently the only thing preserving her modesty.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
I nodded, still not looking directly at her. "No problem."
Another silence fell between us, this one more comfortable than the last. Our breathing gradually slowed, synchronizing. The chill of her right breast balanced the lingering heat of her left, creating a strange equilibrium against my own damaged skin.
"That was some fight," I said eventually.
She made a sound that might have been a laugh. "Yes, it was."
Hitomi was quiet for a moment before speaking again. "It felt... right," she finally said. "Using both sides together. Like finding a missing piece of myself."
I smiled, though she couldn't see it from her position. "That's exactly what it looked like from where I was standing."
"I still lost," she pointed out, a hint of frustration in her voice.
"Barely." I shifted slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position against the wall. "That wall of yours saved my ass from going out of bounds. If you'd used your fire from the beginning..."
She sighed. "Perhaps. But then I might not have learned what I needed to learn."
That struck me as profoundly true. Sometimes the greatest victories came disguised as defeats. Hitomi had lost the match but found something far more valuable.
"I should thank you," she said after another pause.
"For what?"
"For pushing me. For seeing what I couldn't see." Her voice grew softer. "For caring enough to say the hard truth."
I felt a tightness in my chest that had nothing to do with my injuries. "That's what friends do, right?"
"Friends," she repeated, as if testing the word. "Is that what we are?"
"I'd like to think so."
She nodded, her head moving to lay on my shoulder. "I think I would too."
From somewhere in the distance, we heard footsteps approaching—probably medical staff coming to check on us. Hitomi tensed slightly in my arms getting closer.
"Recovery Girl will be here soon," I said. "She'll have something for you to wear."
"Right." She made no move to get up.
Neither did I.
For just a few more moments, we stayed like that—two battered warriors finding brief sanctuary in the aftermath of battle.
"Midoriya," she whispered into my ear, just before the footsteps reached us.
"Yeah?"
"Next time, I won't lose."
I smiled, recognizing the promise for what it was—not a threat but an affirmation. A commitment to continue growing, to keep pushing her limits, to embrace all of who she was meant to be.
"I'll be looking forward to it," I replied.