….
Shoto didn't hesitate.
Ice erupted from his right side in massive, jagged spears, shooting forward with lethal intent.
Before the frost could even settle, a torrent of fire followed from his left; it was simultaneous assault using both elements together.
Yaoyorozu, momentarily startled by the sheer ferocity of his opening move, scrambled into motion. She quickly began creating a metal staff from her quirk, preparing to provide support.
But Dabi's response wasn't what either of them expected.
Instead of meeting Shoto's direct assault with a counter-surge, a lance of sapphire flame shot past Todoroki, aimed directly at Yaoyorozu.
His move only had one goal; to eliminate the support player before she could become a factor.
Shoto saw it instantly.
He pivoted mid-charge, a massive glacier of ice erupting between the blue flames and his partner, while his own fire redirected to vaporize the residual heat before it could reach her.
At that moment, the realization hit Momo.
When Shoto had said he would hold Dabi's attention while she came up with a plan to neutralize him, he hadn't been being modest.
He was fully aware that he couldn't beat Dabi alone; perhaps not even with her help in a straightforward clash.
But he was willing to throw himself into the fight with everything just to buy her the seconds she needed to think.
He was putting his complete faith in her tactical ability. Her eyes shone with determination as understanding struck.
Her eyes sharpened with a new, fierce clarity. She fell back immediately, shielding herself and beginning to construct a series of specialized components as her mind began to tear the environment apart, looking for the win.
Shoto, meanwhile, threw himself back at the circle with a renewed aggression.
….
The fight escalated rapidly, but there was something different about this clash; it lacked the normal feel of a student-teacher exercise.
Todoroki was fighting with a frantic, uncharacteristic edge.
…and he is using methods that didn't suit his normally reserved personality at all.
He was digging deep, pulling at every thread of connection he had to the man in the center of that circle.
"Remember this scar on my face, Toya?" Shoto's voice carried an edge Momo had never heard before as he launched another combination attack, ice from the ground, fire from above, trying to create overlapping threat vectors. "Our mother gave me this when I was five. She poured boiling water on me because she couldn't stand to see Endeavor's face in mine anymore."
He created another ice barrier, using it as cover to reposition.
"You know what that's like, don't you?" Shoto shouted over the roar of the blue flames. "Being broken and scared by the very people who were supposed to be our shelter. We're the same, aren't we?"
Even a kid could guess that Shoto's provocation was a tactic. It was something he had clearly gleaned from watching Bakugo, though he lacked the blonde's natural, explosive vitriol.
…guess, desperate times called for desperate measures.
Dabi deflected the ice with a wall of blue flame, his expression never changing. "Cute. Trying to use psychology against me now? Did Bakugo teach you that, or did you come up with it yourself?"
There was no way Dabi would accept that Shoto learnt that from him…
And while Bakugo used aggressive language in fights, it wasn't tactical but simply part of who he was, loud and unfiltered rather than calculated.
To prove the point, Dabi launched a needle-thin flame toward a gap in Shoto's stance, forcing the younger boy to twist into a desperate defensive block rather than pressing the advantage.
The calm dismissal had the opposite effect of what Shoto intended. Instead of throwing Dabi off balance, it riled Shoto up.
His attacks became more aggressive, the control he'd worked so hard to gain beginning to fray at the edges.
Ice and fire poured from him in greater volumes, the temperature fluctuations making the air shimmer and crack with thermal stress.
But Dabi handled it all with almost casual ease, even with his movement restricted to a three-meter radius
"Your fire control is sloppy there… See how it disperses? You're wasting heat on empty air instead of concentrating it where it matters."
Shoto gritted his teeth, pulling his flames into a tighter, more tighter column.
"Better. Still not enough temperature, though." Dabi critiqued, parrying the blast with a backhand of sapphire heat. "Endeavor would eat these sparklers for a midnight snack. You need at least another three hundred degrees before you're a real threat."
Ice spears came next, and Dabi melted them with a gesture.
Every time Yaoyorozu attempted to flank or launch a creative opening, Dabi would snap a precision blast her way.
It was never enough to seriously harm her, just enough to force her back, to remind her he was tracking every move on the battlefield despite his focus on Shoto.
Minutes passed…
Shoto was giving everything he had, pushing both sides of his quirk to their limits in ways he had never sustained before.
Fire and ice in constant rotation, sometimes simultaneous, creating massive temperature swings that would hospitalize most opponents from thermal shock alone.
But Shoto didn't let up.
He promised Yaoyorozu that he would create a distraction, and he intends to hold it.
From the sidelines, Momo watched the exchange; all her previous attempts had been distractions, probing attacks to test responses while she observed and analyzed.
Finally, Momo landed on the real win condition.
The fire circle was the key, and not Dabi himself, and the rules stated that if Dabi left the circle, he lost.
But what if there was no circle to leave? If the flames were extinguished, the boundary ceased to exist.
Technically, he would be outside his circle even while standing in the same spot.
It was a gamble on the technicality of the rules, but it was the only path through his overwhelming defense.
The problem was execution.
Dabi's blue flames weren't ordinary fire, they could burn at temperatures approaching 2,000°C.
She doubted his flames actually reached that extreme, but they were clearly hot enough that conventional suppressants would fail before making contact.
Water would flash into steam before it even crossed the perimeter; standard foam would simply become more fuel.
And worse: Dabi would notice any attack on the flames immediately.
His control over his quirk was absolute, he would know the instant his fire was threatened and could simply reignite it faster than any suppression could take effect.
Unless…
Unless the suppression happened so fast he couldn't react. All at once, across the entire circle simultaneously, with enough force and the right chemical composition to overwhelm even his temperature advantage.
Momo's mind raced through chemical formulas, material compositions, and deployment mechanisms.
I need something that can withstand the initial heat long enough to deliver its payload… something that activates on contact with the flame instead of relying on gradual application, and triggers an endothermic reaction strong enough to drop the temperature below the combustion threshold in an instant.
From her body, she began creating components, not a single device, which would be too obvious and easy for Dabi to counter.
Instead, she began producing small, palm-sized canisters disguised as defensive items. She placed them carefully around the battlefield as she moved through his warning shots.
Each canister contained a two-stage compound: an aerosol delivery system wrapped in heat-resistant ceramic casing. Its insides are filled with a modified halon-replacement agent combined with liquid nitrogen under pressure.
When triggered, the casing would shatter from internal pressure, releasing the suppressant in an instantaneous expanding cloud that would simultaneously displace oxygen and create a flash-freeze effect.
One canister wouldn't be enough and Dabi would just reignite.
But twelve canisters, positioned in a ring around his flame circle, all triggered simultaneously?
That might work, for exactly the two seconds needed before he recovered and re-established the boundary.
….
"Todoroki!" Momo shouted. "It's about time I proved you right when you decided to put your trust in me! So when I give the signal, create the largest ice wall you can directly in front of him! Block his view of me completely!"
Shoto, breathing hard from continuous assault, didn't question.
Just nodded once.
Momo continued her movements, as she placed the final canisters while Shoto kept Dabi's attention focused forward.
The components were small enough and numerous enough that they blended with the general debris of combat, chunks of ice, scorch marks, discarded creation attempts.
Dabi was saying something, probably another harsh criticism of Shoto's technique, but Momo wasn't listening anymore.
Instead was counting and calculating the timing.
Almost there. Just need the right moment when he's fully committed to blocking Todoroki's attack…
Shoto launched his most overwhelming assault yet. He unleashed a gargantuan, dual-element spiral; a towering vortex of frost and flame that roared toward the circle.
It was a technique that had nearly broken him during training, requiring every scrap of his remaining stamina to keep the elements from collapsing into a chaotic mess.
Dabi's response was immediate: blue flames erupting to meet the attack head-on, his full attention on the massive threat bearing down on him.
"NOW!" Momo screamed.
Trusting blindly, Shoto slammed his right hand down, creating a massive ice wall directly between himself and Dabi; blocking the fire user's line of sight for one critical second.
Yaoyorozu triggered all twelve canisters simultaneously via a remote detonator she had created.
The effect was instantaneous and terrifyingly silent.
The heat-resistant casings shattered in perfect synchronization. The pressurized liquid nitrogen and modified halon agent erupted in an expanding, supersonic ring.
The reaction was violently endothermic as the chemicals tore the thermal energy out of the air with such force that the surrounding temperature plummeted hundreds of degrees in a blink.
Dabi's blue flames didn't sputter or fight.
They just went out at once.
The sudden absence of heat was shocking after minutes of oppressive temperature and the ground where the flames had burned was flash-frozen, covered in a thin layer of frost from the liquid nitrogen.
Momo was already moving, sprinting for the gate the millisecond the suppressant cleared. Shoto, catching the rhythm instantly, followed on her heels without a second of hesitation.
For exactly 1.3 seconds, Dabi stood in the center of the void, his eyes wide with a rare, genuine spark of surprise.
Chemical suppression with endothermic flash-freeze? he recognized instantly. Deployed simultaneously across the entire perimeter to prevent gradual reignition. Actually really fucking smart.
"Nice try." Dabi said. Even through the grit of his voice, there was an unmistakable note of approval.
Blue flames erupted beneath his feet again, spreading outward in a new circle.
"Rules say I lose if I leave my circle." Dabi clarified, voice carrying across the frozen ground. "Never said I couldn't make a new circle once the old one was gone, and I never left the original position, so technically I never broke the boundary condition."
Dabi was literally spouting nonsense at this point.
Momo skidded to a halt, her boots sparking against the ice. Her heart sank as her mind raced to process the logic.
"That's–"
"Legal?" Dabi finished. "Yeah. Welcome to hero work where villains don't fight fair either. Now, you have got fifteen minutes left and you just used your best trick. What's plan B?"
Behind Momo, Shoto was already in motion, fire and ice building again for another push.
Dabi watched them, something sharp and unspoken settling behind his eyes; pride he had never voiced, never would.
Momo steadied herself, the hesitation gone as she recalibrated.
Then Dabi exhaled a quiet laugh. "Nah… I am kidding. I lost."
The blue flames vanished instantly.
"Well played, Yaoyorozu." he added, brushing ash from his jacket. "The circle's gone… I am out of bounds, so this one's yours."
His gaze shifted briefly to Shoto.
"You both win."
He stepped aside, motioning toward the exit. "Go on before I change my mind and call a technical on you for taking too long after winning."
As they moved past, Momo caught his voice, low enough that it barely carried.
"You did well too, Shoto."
Dabi already had his phone out again, posture looser now, like something had settled.
Shoto kept walking, shoulders tight, hands still faintly trembling, whether from exertion or something unresolved, even he wasn't sure.
Behind them, Dabi's voice drifted on the wind.
"Yeah, bunny, I am back... they passed. Yeah... I am proud too."
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
Author Note:
Visit Patreon to instantly access +1 chapter for free, available for Free Members as well. For additional content please do support me and gain access to +12 more chapters.
-->[email protected]/WrightBrothers