Chapter 52 - Fighting Fire with Fire, but one of them has Ice

Shoji stood before the battle trial building entrance and sighed helplessly. Bakugou just jumped in when he heard a noise upstairs before they could discuss their strategy. Bakugou was noticeably upset after they watched Izuku's match, but no one knew why.

Most of the class had guessed that the two had beef but they hadn't had the chance to ask why, or rather they didn't want to since Bakugou isn't exactly the approachable type.

Shoji ran in, following Bakugou's footsteps while hoping for him to not meet anyone yet. He soon caught up to Bakugou and felt the chill temperature. He saw him crouched down, touching the icy surface of the floor. 

"Todoroki-kun sure is a monster," Shoji said. They were only at the third out of the sixth floor and he had frozen the top three in a matter of seconds. He stomped on a nearby ice and destroyed it with ease, feeling relieved that it wasn't durable. 

"Do you want to take Todoroki or Ojiro?" Shoji asked.

"You take the tail guy, don't hold me back," Bakugou said and cleared a path for them. After seeing what Izuku is capable of in full power, Bakugou felt defeated. He couldn't see a way to win had he been in Izuku's position. 

It didn't matter that Izuku underestimated his opponent, what mattered was only the extent of what he could do. At his current form, Bakugou isn't confident he could match Izuku. Ha hadn't even made Izuku sweat, yet two randoms had turned his target's forehead crimson.

'Then I'll just work even harder to stomp on the twerp!' Bakugou thought, gritting his teeth. He walked up to the highest floor with Shoji one step behind. Their vigilance was at the max and as Bakugou saw a glimpse of ice rushing towards him, a grin appeared on his face.

Before the ice could reach him, Bakugou blasted it to pieces and headed towards its source, Todoroki, who remained unwavering even after seeing Bakugou's maniacal face. 

Todoroki waved his right hand once more, sending another surge of ice towards Bakugou who evaded with ease. His speed isn't anything to scoff at, closing their few meters distance in a matter of seconds.

Shoji saw Bakugou already in a heated battle against Todoroki, their quirks negating each other before either could reach their target. He saw Ojiro jumping up from the side and using his tail as an anchor, targeting Bakugou. 

It was a decent idea, seeing that Bakugou was too hyper-focused on the target in front of him to pay attention to his aerial view, but Shoji had other plans. He jumped in between them and grabbed his tail, overpowering the force of Ojiro's tail and slamming him away to the nearby wall.

Ojiro didn't panic and used the force to somersault midair, preventing any damage from occurring before jumping back into battle.

Todoroki saw Ojiro clashing with Shoji, who had his back against him, behind Bakugou. He dodges further back from the explosion and sends a wave of ice towards Shoji's left side.

Bakugou saw this wave of ice, passing by his field of view, and veins started to manifest in his eyes. 'This fucker…' He thought and opened both chambers of his grenade hands. 

The sweat produced within his palms flowed towards his equipment, and as he aimed at his targets, two rays of explosion occurred. One shattered Todoroki's wave before it reached Shoji and the other, reached Todoroki and blasted him away.

Bakugou didn't feel any joy in getting the first hit on the villain, instead, only anger. Anger at the obvious underestimation he received and it fueled him. As if a match was thrown onto a stack of firewood, Bakugou's explosion burned brighter than the cooling fire lit by Todoroki's left hand.

"Finally using your microwave? You fucking prick," Bakugou shouted and rushed in. Two explosions acted as propulsion, boosting his speed and allowing his fist to reach Todoroki before he could send out a wave of ice. Todoroki blocked the punch with his arms, they were covered in ice but Bakugou's explosion melted them before they had a chance to protect him.

Feeling a force he had never experienced before, Todoroki's mind was shaken as his head was pummeled by an unrelenting force. A hit wasn't enough to put out his anger, a barrage wasn't either, only a burned face could quell his fire.

On the other side, Shoji and Ojiro were trading fists. Shoji had the upper hand, literally and figuratively, on every end as his strength and amount of fists far outweighed Ojiro's. Ojiro's saving grace was his unusual tail-fighting style, allowing him to get a hit or two, albeit, most of them were ineffective.

Two fists were blocked but two more came crashing onto his belly. Ojiro took the punch to create an opening for his tail to sweep beneath his crotch and crash onto Shoji's chin. Shoji blocked them with his two other hands with difficulty, creating a jumbled mess between extra limbs. His body might be strong, but Ojiro's tail strength isn't something he wanted to take head-on.

"Oi oi, isn't Bakugou going too crazy over there," Ojiro said, seeing Bakugou's reigning fists on Todoroki who was struggling on the ground. He kept creating ice walls between each of Bakugou's punches but they melted just as fast as they were created.

Ojiro's weakened strength made Shoji tone his own down as well to look behind him. "Bakugou!" He shouted as he made his way over to the pair. 

Ojiro followed behind, wanting to break them up before something major happened. They knew All Might would've stopped him if he went too far but Todoroki being pummeled down in front of them isn't something they could bear seeing.

However, before the pair reached their destination, a chill ran through their spine as they saw Todoroki grab Bakugou's punches with his fiery fist. They were happy seeing Todoroki still have a fight left in him but worried that this would escalate even further.

Bakugou and Todoroki flinched as their fist made contact. Bakugou sent out another punch that connected to Todoroki's burnt cheek, but Todoroki gritted the pain away and used the opportunity to grab onto Bakugou's feet to freeze his whole body.

Bakugou saw the ice encroaching from his feet onto his whole body and prepped a blast to melt the incoming ice away, his foot was frozen, but it didn't deter his will to beat the shit out of him.

"GHRAA!" Todoroki's cheek turned bright red, and feeling the familiar pain on his face, Todoroki's mind fumbled into madness.

Before he could feel the ice freezing his thigh, a flaming fist reached and burned his torso, leaving an explosive mark beneath his chest. The flames spread deeper into Bakugou's body, freeing his frozen foot at the expense of his body's scorching pain.

Bakugou had some resistance towards fire, but it was too much. He redirected the explosion he prepared to push his palm on Todoroki's chest, blasting his body away from the flames. Todoroki wasn't fazed by the explosion, instead, he stood his ground and showed a death glare towards Bakugou.

"I've never used my shitty flames before...But since you've asked for it, I'll make sure to burn all of you down," Todoroki said, his face red with rage. He couldn't believe the disgusting memory he'd buried so deeply had resurfaced, and his mind wouldn't stop racing unless he beat the shit out of the guy in front of him.

Todoroki cooled his body down using his ice, preventing any burns from impeding his movements, and readied his body for round two. His right cheek might be burned and bruised, but it was nothing compared to Bakugou's injuries.

"...ugh," Bakugou released a pained sigh. The flames burnt the tips of his blonde hair away, but the wide mark on his chest was a bigger problem. He felt scorching burns coursing through his body, it felt like the first time he was burnt by his own quirk.

The thought of losing to anyone but Izuku never occurred in his mind. U.A. might be prestigious, but his goal was to earn the top hero title from All Might, not succumb to the power of a half toaster half refrigerator.

And yet, the reality was in front of him. He was struggling. More so than that, he was losing.

His body was collapsing, pain in every movement, but the idea of losing his first fight felt even worse. Forget Izuku and All Might; if he can't even defeat the opponent in front of him, he might not have what it takes to climb to the top.

"Haa…" Bakugou released another sigh and so with it, gone were his menial thoughts. There was only one objective and one objective only, to win. The pain in his muscles couldn't stop his arms from moving into position. Mini explosions ran through his palms, raring to destroy whatever he wished to crush.

"You're fucking dead, toaster-boy,"

(a/n: Yo, give me stones. Also, didn't plan on writing this fight, but oh well, we're speeding up Todoroki's flame using time, but instead of using inspiring speech, we reactivating his trauma :))