God of Heroics: Comicman!

The arena was charged and cheering.

The bracket on the big screen told the story. Quarterfinals. First match.

Fukidashi Manga vs Todoroki Shoto.

The current contestant who’s most favored to win the sports festival versus the son of the Number Two Hero. The boy who'd one-shotted Sero with a glacier versus the boy who'd caught a confession with his bare hands and still won.

Present Mic let the tension build. He let the crowd stew in it for ten full seconds before he opened his mouth.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE QUARTERFINALS BEGIN! AND WE'RE STARTING WITH A MATCH THAT HAS THE ENTIRE AUDIENCE ON THE EDGE OF THEIR SEATS!"

The east tunnel darkened. Then lit up.

"FROM CLASS 1-B! THE MAN WHO PLACED FIRST IN THE ENTRANCE EXAM, WHO HELD THE TEN MILLION POINT HEADBAND FOR THE ENTIRE CAVALRY BATTLE, AND WHO HAS YET TO SHOW A SINGLE SIGN OF SLOWING DOWN! FUKIDASHI! MANGA!"

Manga walked out.

The crowd noise swelled. He waved toward the audience with both hands. He'd stretched, hydrated, and rested during the break between rounds. His throat was fresh. He'd barely used his quirk all day.

He stepped onto the stage and walked to his mark.

"AND FROM CLASS 1-A! THE BOY WHO GOT INTO U.A. THROUGH OFFICIAL RECOMMENDATION! THE SON OF THE NUMBER TWO HERO, ENDEAVOR! THE ONE WHO FROZE THE ENTIRE ARENA IN A SINGLE BREATH! TODOROKI! SHOTO!"

Todoroki walked out of the west tunnel.

He was composed. White and red hair split perfectly down the center. Heterochromatic eyes, grey on the right, turquoise on the left, both fixed forward. His expression gave nothing away about how he was feeling.

The crowd cheered for him too. Louder, maybe. He was Endeavor's son. He was Class 1-A. He was the favorite in any room he entered.

They faced each other across the ring. Ten meters of flat concrete.

Manga looked at him before giving a friendly wave.

Todoroki nodded.

Endeavor watched from the stands. His arms were crossed. His flames flickered at his shoulders. His eyes were locked on his son with an intensity that made the people sitting near him uncomfortable.

In the 1-B section, Tokage had her feet on the rail looking forward to the fight. Kendo sat next to her. Monoma was leaned forward, elbows on his knees. Tetsutetsu was still wearing the bandage from his fight with Kirishima.

"Manga's got this, easy peasy." Tetsutetsu said.

"I never seen him push himself in a real fight." Kendo said.

"Right, right!"

"I wonder if Todoroki can push him."

"I doubt it." Tokage grinned. Her green eyes hadn't left the arena.

"START!!!"

Todoroki moved first.

His right foot stamped the concrete and ice erupted from the point of contact in a tidal wave. It was the same attack he'd used against Sero, the same attack that had ended that fight in a single breath, a wall of frozen spikes climbing over itself to reach the sky, spreading across the arena floor like a white flood, consuming everything in its path.

It was fast. It was massive. 

And it was completely, absolutely, breathtakingly useless.

"Mera-mera."

The word left Manga's mouth in a low, steady voice, and fire bloomed across his body like a second skin. It started at his chest and spread outward, racing down his arms, up his neck, across the surface of his speech bubble, coating every inch of him in flickering orange and red. The flames didn't burn his PE uniform. They didn't char his skin. They wrapped around him like living armor, fed by the onomatopoeia that was clutched in his hand, the sound effect for flames flickering and blazing.

The ice wave hit him and melted on contact, the leading edge of Todoroki's glacier dissolving into water the instant it touched the fire that surrounded Manga's body. The water sizzled and evaporated, rising in a curtain of steam that obscured the stage for a full second before the wind carried it away.

When the steam cleared, Manga was standing a few steps back, the water managing to slightly push him after being melted.

The arena lost its mind.

"THE ICE DIDN'T WORK!" Present Mic screamed. "FUKIDASHI IS ON FIRE! LITERALLY ON FIRE! AND TODOROKI'S SIGNATURE ATTACK JUST EVAPORATED!"

Todoroki's eyes narrowed.

He tried again. A second wave, bigger, from both hands this time, ice climbing the air in jagged pillars that arced overhead and crashed down toward Manga from above.

Manga didn't dodge. He raised one hand and spoke.

"Bou-bou."

Roaring wildfire. The onomatopoeia erupted from his mouth like a dragon’s breath, a column of fire that hit the falling ice pillars and ate them alive. The ice shattered and melted simultaneously, fragments turning to water turning to steam in a chain reaction that filled the sky above the arena with a white cloud.

The heat hit the stands. People in the front rows flinched. The temperature around the stage had jumped ten degrees in five seconds.

Todoroki stepped back. His right side was already showing signs of overuse, frost creeping up his arm, his fingers stiffening. He'd burned through a massive amount of ice in two attacks and had nothing to show for it.

Manga started walking toward him.

The fire cloak rippled around him with every step, leaving scorch marks on the concrete where his feet landed. The flames trailed behind him like a cape. His bubble was calm. The flame emoji hadn't changed.

Todoroki threw another ice wall. Manga walked through it. The fire ate it before it could fully form, vines of flame reaching through the ice like fingers through wet paper.

Another wall. Another step through.

Another.

Another.

"He's just walking through everything!" Present Mic's voice cracked. "Every wall Todoroki puts up, Fukidashi just burns through like it's nothing! THIS IS INSANE!"

"Todoroki's in trouble," Aizawa said. "His right side is reaching its limit. The frost buildup is spreading past his arm to his torso. If he keeps producing ice at this rate, his body temperature will drop to dangerous levels."

In the crowd, Endeavor's flames wanted to burn. His fists were clenched on the armrests of his seat.

Use it, he thought. Use your left side, Shoto.

Todoroki didn't.

He tried something different instead. He slammed both palms to the ground and created a wall, not in front of Manga, but beneath himself, a pillar of ice that launched him into the air above the arena. If he couldn't stop the fire head-on, he'd attack from above, from a distance, from an angle the flames couldn't reach.

He hung in the air for a split second, arms spread, ice forming between his fingers.

Manga looked up at him.

"Bou-bou."

The second roaring wildfire was bigger than the first. It left Manga's mouth and climbed the air in a spiraling column of flame that chased Todoroki upward, eating the ice pillar he'd launched from, devouring the air around him, closing in like a fist.

Todoroki's ice met the fire in midair and lost.

The heat hit him, a blast of hot air that burned his lungs when he inhaled and scorched the skin of his right arm where the frost was already compromising his natural resistance. He fell. His ice pillar was gone, melted beneath him. He created a slide of ice to catch himself and slid back to the arena floor, landing in a crouch, breathing hard.

His right side was frosted from fingertip to shoulder. His breathing was visible, each exhale a cloud of cold mist that the surrounding heat devoured instantly. He was shivering.

Manga was ten meters away. Still walking. Still burning.

"You know," Manga said, his voice carrying through the crackle of flames. "I've been looking forward to this fight all day."

Todoroki created an ice shield in front of himself. It started melting immediately.

"You froze that whole arena against Sero and I thought, wow, that's going to be fun to deal with."

The shield was half gone. Water pooled at Todoroki's feet.

"But this isn't fun, bro."

The shield collapsed. Steam rushed outward. Manga stood five meters away, fire licking the air around him, the heat bending light between them.

"You're fighting with one hand. Against me." A frowning emoji appeared in his bubble. He was disappointed. "Why?"

Todoroki didn't answer.

"Bou-bou."

Manga raised both hands.

Fire poured from his palms and spread across the arena floor in a wave that wasn't aimed at Todoroki. It was aimed at everything. The concrete turned orange. The air turned visible. A dome of heat began forming over the stage as the roaring wildfire onomatopoeia fed on itself, the kanji growing, multiplying, the sound of an inferno that had no fuel and no limit except Manga's voice.

The arena was becoming an oven.

Todoroki backed toward the edge of the ring. The ice he created beneath his feet melted in seconds, leaving him standing in warm water on hot concrete. The frost on his right arm was the only thing keeping his body temperature stable, and even that was failing as the ambient heat climbed.

He couldn't breathe without it hurting.

He couldn't see through the heat shimmer.

He couldn't create ice fast enough to matter.

Manga walked toward him through the fire. A silhouette inside an inferno. He raised one hand and the flames coiled around his arm, condensing, brightening.

This was it.

Todoroki's body moved.

His left side ignited.

It wasn't a decision. There was no thought behind it, no resolve, no acceptance. His body registered a threat that exceeded its tolerance, and every cell on his left side did what they were designed to do. Fire erupted from his arm, his shoulder, the left half of his face, a blast of orange and red that pushed back the surrounding heat for a single, stunning second.

The crowd gasped. Endeavor shot to his feet and roared. “SHOTO!!! Have you finally accepted yourself?! That’s it! That’s great! It all starts from here for you! With my blood, you will surpass me and fulfil my desire!”

Todoroki didn’t have the time to give his father any attention.

Todoroki's fire met Manga's fire in the air between them and for one moment the arena was nothing but flame, a collision of two infernos that sent heat washing over the stands hard enough to make the front rows shield their faces.

Then Todoroki realized what he'd done.

His eyes went wide. The fire on his left side sputtered. Died. He pulled it back like it was a mistake, and the flames retreated beneath his skin and vanished.

The wall of his own fire that had been holding Manga back disappeared with it.

The opening was visible.

Manga closed the distance in two steps. His fire-cloaked body crossed the gap before Todoroki could even process that his own defenses were gone, and a fist, wrapped in flame, connected with Todoroki's stomach.

The air left Todoroki's lungs. He doubled over. Manga hit him again. A left hook to the ribs. A straight right to the shoulder that spun him sideways.

Todoroki tried to create ice. A weak, thin layer that formed on his right hand and shattered when Manga's next punch went through it.

"Why are you even here if you're not giving it your all, dude?"

Another punch. Todoroki stumbled back.

"You're doing yourself and everyone else a real disservice."

A knee to the midsection. Todoroki coughed.

"Do you think you can reach the top by half-assing it?"

Manga grabbed Todoroki's PE uniform by the collar and pulled him upright. The fire cloak had dimmed around his fists. Todoroki's hands came up, instinctive, grabbing at Manga's wrist, but he had no grappling experience, no close-quarters training, nothing in his arsenal for what happened when someone stronger than him had their hands on him and wouldn't let go.

"What a joke," Manga said. His voice was quiet and the frowning emoji in his bubble had been replaced by something rarer. Frustration. "And not a funny one."

He shifted his grip. Both hands on Todoroki's waist.

Todoroki's eyes went wide. He tried to freeze Manga's body. The fire cloak melted the ice before it could form. He tried to push away. Manga's muscular arms didn't budge.

Manga lifted him.

It happened fast. One moment Todoroki was on his feet, the next he was upside down, hoisted above Manga's head like he weighed nothing, the arena spinning in his vision, the crowd noise crashing over him in a wave he couldn't process.

Manga arced backward.

The suplex drove Todoroki into the concrete with a sound that made the front rows flinch. The stage cracked. A spiderweb of fractures radiated outward from the point of impact. Dust and concrete chips flew. The fire cloak flared on impact, a burst of orange light that silhouetted both of them for a split second.

Todoroki hit the ground shoulders-first. The impact rattled through his spine, his ribs, his skull. His vision whited out. His hands went slack. The frost on his right arm shattered and fell away in frozen chips.

Manga rolled to his feet.

Todoroki didn't.

He lay on his back in the crater of cracked concrete, his PE uniform singed, his heterochromatic eyes unfocused, staring at a sky that was still hazy with steam and heat shimmer. His chest rose and fell. He was conscious, barely, but his body wasn't responding to the signals his brain was sending.

The arena was silent for three full seconds.

Then Midnight's voice.

"Todoroki is unable to continue! Fukidashi wins!"

The eruption that followed shook the stadium walls.

Class 1-B screamed.

Tokage was grinning so hard her sharp teeth caught the light.

"That's my boyfriend!" she shouted.

In the stands, Endeavor sat back down. His flames were still burning bright despite his son’s loss. Even if it had not been enough to give him the win, that was simply because he was untrained. His stubbornness led to his loss today. And hopefully, due to this loss, he would finally come around to honing and mastering his quirk like he always should have. Perhaps, he would have to thank that boy, for finally waking his stubborn son up.

On the stage, Manga crushed his fire-related onomatopoeias. The mera-mera dissolved, the kanji crumbling into embers that drifted upward and disappeared.

He looked down at Todoroki.

The boy was being escorted off the ring. Recovery Girl was on her way. He was breathing. He'd be fine.

But the look on his face before the suplex, the look of someone who had everything and chose to use half of it, stuck with Manga.

He didn't understand it. He couldn't. To Manga, holding back was the same as lying. You walked onto a stage in front of the country and told them you were going to give it your all, and then you didn't? You fought with one arm tucked behind your back for some reason?

He'd never know Todoroki's reasons. He didn't need to. That was Todoroki's business.

But it meant the fight hadn't been what it could have been. And that, more than anything, left him unsatisfied.

He turned and walked toward the exit tunnel.

Present Mic found his voice. "FUKIDASHI MANGA ADVANCES TO THE SEMI-FINALS! AND HE DID IT WITHOUT BREAKING A SWEAT! THAT FIRE CLOAK, THE SHEER HEAT, THE, DID HE JUST SUPLEX TODOROKI?! DID THAT ACTUALLY HAPPEN?!"

"Fukidashi identified Todoroki's weakness immediately. He's a long-range fighter with no close-combat training. The fire neutralized his ice, removing his only offensive tool. From there, Fukidashi closed the distance and ended it physically." Aizawa confirmed.

"THE YOUNG MAN WHO CLAIMS HE WILL SURPASS THE DIVINE CONTINUES TO LOOK LIKE HE MIGHT ACTUALLY DO IT!"

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