Kage (Vigilante Deku AU)

Nineteen: Power

- Summary: In which Todoroki has an epiphany -

"You were great, Mei!"

The pink haired girl looked kinda disappointing, but Izuku wasn't too worried about it. She would bounce back in no time. They were currently in between matches, and the green haired boy had gone to find Mei after his talk with Uraraka. It had felt- weird, to say the least, to talk to Ochako as himself and not as Kage, but it had been refreshing. Speaking of talking to students...

"I'll catch you in a bit, ok? I need to talk to someone."

Mei nodded, smiling, as Izuku stared walking after the figure he had seen: a boy with red and white hair. "I'll save you a seat."

Izuku caught up with Todoroki in an empty hallway. He called out to the boy, tapping him on the shoulder. Todoroki turned to face him, looking slightly confused. 

"Do I know you?"

Izuku swallowed. Had he said that to be polite, or did some part of the fire and ice boy recognize him as Kage? He spoke anyway.

"Um, no, sorry, I just wanted to ask you something."

When Todoroki didn't say anything, Izuku continued. 

"Why do you only use half of your power?"

Todoroki looked taken aback, as if he hadn't been expecting the question. And he probably hadn't. It wasn't every day that a stranger walked up to you and asked you why you were holding back. 

"Why do you care?"

The coldness in Todoroki's voice could have frozen water without the need of his ice quirk, but Izuku kept talking.

"I'm sorry if this seems rude, but it's kind of selfish of you. You have this amazing quirk, and you're holding back. You're only using your ice side. I mean, if I had your quirk, I would be using both sides as much as I can, no matter what bad memories are associated with it."

Todoroki frowned at Izuku, but the green haired boy didn't budge. Finally, after a long moment of them staring at each other, Todoroki spoke softly, each of his words sharp enough to cut stone.

"You know nothing about me. What gives you the right to try to tell me what to do with my power?"

Izuku sighed. He had been expecting this.

"I know a lot about you, actually. I know about what happened to your mother, and I know how terrible your father is. I know that you think that somehow, only using your mother's quirk is helping you rebel against your father, but all it's doing is holding you back from your full potential. You could be the strongest hero in the world if you would just put your bad blood with your father behind you. It's your power, not his." (A/N HE SAID THE THING!) 

Todoroki froze, looking like he had been hit in the face with a bag of rocks. Then he turned a strode away with nothing but a curt, "Thank you."

Izuku nodded. He had done all he could. Now he would just have to see if his words did any good. 

"Thanks for saving me a seat! But is it really ok for me to sit in the students section?"

Mei smiled at him. It seemed that she had gotten over her sadness, which was good. She patted the empty seat next to her. "You're fine, don't worry. Now let's watch this match! It's gonna be interesting!"

Sighing, Izuku sat down and gazed out into the arena. Present Mic was announcing who was going, and Izuku wasn't surprised to hear the names Bakugo and Todoroki. This was going to be an interesting match indeed.

As the fight went on, Izuku got more and more frustrated. Had his words not done anything after all? Then he noticed Todoroki's hesitation. Maybe he just needed a bit of a push. Izuku took a deep breath and yelled as loud as he could.

.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.

"IT'S YOUR POWER, NOT HIS!"

The words were ignored by the crowd, but Todoroki heard them. And so did Bakugo. 

The blond paused in his attack, scanning the crowd for the person who had spoken. Why did that voice sound so familiar? It couldn't be him... could it?

The words didn't mean anything to Bakugo, but Todoroki seemed to change. In a split second, his face deadpanned and the arena started to heat up. Bakugo stared at him in shock as his left side started to burn. Flames licked up the side of his arm, melting the ice that he had shot at Bakugo. Then he charged. 

It wasn't really a competition after that.

The winners were announced. Todoroki in first, Bakugo in second, and Iida and Tokoyami in third. Iida seemed to have left, though Bakugo didn't know why. He felt like he should be mad about second place. At any other point in his life, second place would have gotten a good acre of land blown up. But Bakugo was too busy thinking about the voice who had yelled at Todoroki. Could it have been him? Could Deku really be here? 

Whatever the case, the facts were right in front of him. Todoroki had won, and someone who sounded suspiciously like Izuku Midoriya had helped.

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(A/N) So, hey, um, this is another short one, but I wanted to make the Todo encounter it's own thing, so here's that. Oh, also, THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH FOR 1K READS OH MY GOD YOU GUYS SERIOUSLY THANK YOU! This story has been really good for my mental health, and I'm really glad to see others enjoying it too.

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Since I'm still on vacation, I can't make any promises on a chapter tomorrow, but we'll see! Girls, gays, theys, I bid you adieu and good day.

;)