Determined

Chapter 6 ~ Hope Maintained

Izuku stood in the small room, having thawed the ice under him and vibrating particles near his body to keep him warm.

The room was only slightly larger than a walk-in closet, meaning that Kacchan wouldn't be able to work up a sweat running around to attack him.

It'd been five minutes since the simulation started, and the boy was getting concerned at the quietness.

"Todoroki!" Izuku yelled loudly into the com, hoping Kachhan was close enough to the room to hear him. "Have you found the room yet?"

"No," he responded calmly yet in a somewhat baffled tone. "I keep seeing rooms with floating objects but neither the bomb nor Uraraka are present in any of them."

The gears in the green haired boy's mind began to spin. Why would she have done that? As a lure? A trap? Todoroki hadn't been attacked by anything yet though.

"Wait are any of the objects large?"

"No they're all just small props that wouldn't do any damage if they fell on me."

A decoy then, Izuku decided. Uraraka knows her combat ability isn't strong enough to singlehandedly fight Todoroki, so she must've decided to extend the time it took for Todoroki to find her by putting distractions during the prep time to make him check every room.

"Okay Todoroki, which floors have you covered so far?"

"Well not including the first two floors we went through to find you a suitable room, I've covered level three, four, and five. This building has nine floors right?"

"Right. Uraraka is trying to slow you down. I need you to only check a couple of rooms from the following floo~"

"FOUND YOU DEKU!"

Izuku jumped at Kacchan's burst through the door and dodged his charge, cursing as he realised he lost his element of surprise. He had to find another way to get the capture tape then, which shouldn't be too difficult in close quarters.

The smaller boy swiftly opened his back pocket and dip his hands in the jug of water before forcing the particles apart, creating a smokescreen of steam.

The steam quickly filled up the small room, preventing both boys from seeing each other. He pulled out the capture tape in hopes of a lucky grab in the dark but was blown back by an explosion that dispersed the steam

"YOU THINK A STUPID TRICK THAT I TAUGHT YOU CAN DO ANYTHING AGAINST ME DEKU? DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!"

"I'm not underestimating you!" Izuku dodged another swipe at him, hobbling slightly from the impact of his spine against the frost bitten wall. He didn't think Kacchan would risk using his quirk with such power in such a small room. But Izuku also scolded himself for using steam as a buffer. It only thawed the ice and warmed his childhood friend up.

"YES YOU ARE YOU PIECE OF SHIT! YOU KNOW YOU COULD EASILY PUT ME DOWN BUT YOU'RE TOO AFRAID OF YOUR POWER TO DO SO!"

Izuku froze for a split second at that, giving Katsuki enough time to shove him into the wall, one hand at his throat; the other aimed at his face.

"I'm leaving your hands free, fucker. Take those stupid finger gloves off and use your damn QUIRK!"

The pressure on his throat was increasing, leaving him gasping for air. Izuku didn't understand Kacchan's sudden obsession with him using the full extent of his quirk. Katsuki knew Izuku would never use it on a human, especially his friend. So why? Why was his friend leaving his hands open to hurt him?

Dark spots began to swim in the boy's vision, the red eyes glaring at him being all he could see now.

Izuku grinned weakly at the enraged boy, pulling his hand out of the water in his back pocket and grabbing Kacchan's free hand, encasing it in the cool liquid that nullifies firepower. In his surprise, Katsuki loosened his grip, allowing just enough air for the Izuku to gain the strength to wrench the blond's other hand off his neck and form water around it too. He brought out a leg to kick behind the other's knees, making him collapse so that he could straddle him.